earth with his presence This therefore was it that made some even of our Christian Philosophers to break forth into these speeches Deus est Natura Natura Deus God is Nature and Nature is God Whereby they ment that the naturating or radicall informing nature was the eternall emanation which made and informed the humid nature of the world which for that reason was called Natura naturata or the Nature which was made naturall namely by the presence of the Naturating nature or Spirit of the Lord which moved upon the waters and imparted unto them of his fiery informing Vigor or Essence as we may find partly by Sacred Testimony and partly by the confirmation of St. Austin We must therefore after a due consideration of this which is said infer that if the influence be compleatly animated by the incorruptible Spirit of the Lord then must it be indued with the properties of that Spirit or Divine Nature and consequently it must be the most subtill quick movable and penetrating of all spirits and in that respect will be able to pass through all solid bodies without resistance and also to ingender augment and nourish all things and being incorporated or specificated it procreateth like individualities of their like and again it hath in regard of our capacity an infinite extension and therefore cannot be limited All which I purpose by experience or ocular demonstration to demonstrate in this manner We find in practice that the Load-stone by virtue of his subtill spirit which doth internally animate it is made so potent through it in his attractive virtue that it is able without resistance to display and transmit the beams of his active virtue quite atravers the hardest stones the most solid and finest grained wood through thick plates copper tin silver or gold yea and to penetrate quite through the impenetrable glass it self and other such like compacted stuff which have no sensible porosity or spiracle which is an evident Argument that this spirit is of a far more peircing and subtill nature than the sublunary aire forasmuch as it is denied passage through the slightest paper-skin or bladder In the like manner man's inward or celestiall spirit which is the vehicle of this vivifying beam is so subtil in it self that nothing is able to resist it when the inward mentall beam doth aime at any mark how far or how inaccessible soever it may be esteemed in the fleshly mans conceit For being this celestiall or aethereall spirit in man is made after the pattern of the Divine Image which it beareth it must also resemble it in its actions Now the subtilty of the Divine act in man's spirit is expressed by Hermes in these words Quicunque hac Dei Naturà fulti sunt intelligentià suâ cunctà complectuntur quae in terra sunt in mari siquid est praeter ea supra coelum atque adeo scipsos erigunt ut ipsum quoque bonum intueantur Who soever do rely on this Divine Nature may comprehend by their understanding all thingâ— whâ—ch are upon the earth and in the seas yea and besides all this any thing that is in heaven above and also they may elevate themselves in such a manner that they may behold the face of goodnesse it self c. Whereby he signifieth the all-sufficient act of penetration which is in the mentall beam by whose unresistable action the celestiall influence doth penetrate and operate without any intermediate resistance in and through all things By which it is evident that as every inferior specifick creature is indued with this essentiall spirit and doth consist and is as it were founded and edificated on it as on an essential Corner-stone or Foundation so the emission of his beams is not to be limited by any setled Sphere of activity as the unadvised and more sensuall then intellectuall Philosophers have defined it to be being that it is Vis in rebus infinita An infinite virtue or nature in things and therefore not finite or determinable For look how far it shineth or emitteth his active spirit out of the Center of the celestiall star even so far is this Centrall terrestriall bright Spirit able to make his Semidâ—ameter of extension So that as the heavenly starr's beamy influence doth penetrate downward unto the Center of the earth even after the very like manner doth each terrestriall star peirce unto the Center of the celestiall star from whence it was derived and the more rich and exalted is the starry form in the creature the nearer it approacheth unto the nature of the most exalted star in heaven and maketh his extension the more forcible Now as we see that every Astrall influence in the creature doth by a naturall inclination and that Sympathetically aspect the star or celestiall Fountain from which it did spring and likewise that star in heaven by a paternall respect doth send down his influences to feed and nourish his like filiall fire or form in the creature here below and both of them by a mutuall relation do rejoyce together at the spirituall presence of each other whereupon it is said Naturá natura laetatur naturam continet O natura coelestis veritatis naturas Dei nutu multiplicans Nature is rejoyced in nature and containeth nature O celestiall nature which by the Will of God doth mulâ—ply natures so likewise each kind or species which is indued with all one influence doth because of his likness to another send forth by a sympatheticall consent beams of one nature making an harmonious Symphony in the concourse of their beams by which they do agree in union of love And for this reason the axiom of the Philosophers before mentioned runneth in this strain Natura ex similibus similia procreare solet Nature doth use to procreate like of like And this is the cause why each specifick Form doth rejoyce in its like and is ready to produce his kind and doth not use to passe the limits of his kind as for example A Man's nature produceth a Man a Horse a Horse a fenel-seed fenel a bean a bean wheat produceth wheat c. And also the nature of each thing so created is most amiable unto the nature of his like and sendeth forth the amiable and Sympatheticall beams of his affection to concurre with the like beams which are emitted from his like so that both of them do easily consent and rejoyce at each other and by contraction of beams they indeavour to cause a union For this reason therefore the Load-stone rejoyceth at the aspect of its like for if one Load-stone meeteth with another each will aspect the other by their Saturnine Sulphureous spirits and embrace each other For by their applications they will Centrally suck and draw the one to the other with a Sympatheticall imbracing Also because that the Iron is subject unto the self-same constellation and hath his Centrall star in all points correspondent unto the Load-stone for which essentiall consanguinity
In this respect also the Prophet Baruch hath it Stellae dederunt lumen in custodiis suis laetatae sunt ad jussum Dei The stars gave light in their watches and dâ—d rejoice at the Commandement of God Hereupon it came to pass that when this Spirit did fight for Josuah he made the Sun stand still at his pleasure He turned the Sun from light unto darkness at the passion of Christ By it the stars in troops were stirred up to fight in their order by theâ—r influences against Sisera So that it is easy to discern that as the heavens and stars were first framed and animated by this Spirit to serve as Organs to administer unto the natural Fabrick of this world so also beyond the common course of the macrocosmicall nature they may by the self-same Spirit that commandeth them and acteth in them as the soul doth within the body operate what when and how it lists and be diverted from the usual order to effect his will as well by altering the motion of his body as action of his light and influentiall Spirit Again touching the fixt stars Job speaketh thus in the person of this Spirit Canst thou restrain the sweet influences of the Pleiades or loose the bands of Orion Canst thou bring forth Mazaroth in their time Canst thou guide Arcturus with his Sons Knowest thou the course of the heavens or canst thou set the rule thereof upon the Earth c. As who should say that no man is able to know the courses of the stars or to discern the powers or vertue of their influences save only this divine Spirit and that man unto whom it shall reveal the true Art and rules of Astronomy or Astrology And therefore Salomon doth glory in that he knew the course of the year and dispositions of the stars and the change of the Solstices by wisdome Per Sapientiam saith he novi Solstitiorum mutationes anni cursum dispositiones stellarum c. If therefore the Astronomer wanteth this true Astrologicall foundation all will be faulty and fabulous as by the vulgar Astronomy which is for the most part erronious and uncertain it appeareth I proceed now downwards unto the Meteorologicall region to see how this Omnipotent Spirit worketh in the catholick sublunary Element for the producing of Meteors in divers shapes and natures As for the Act of this Eternal Actor or Operator in the ayre water and earth for the production of Meteors it is most evidently expressed in plain terms by holy Writ Saith Job Deus sapientia sua aptat pondus aëri appendit aquas in mensura facit pluviae statuta viam fulgetro tonitruum God by his Wisdome doth adapt a waight or pondero sity unto the ayre and hangeth up the waters in measure and giveth bounds or maketh a Law for the rain and prepareth a way for the lighting 's of the Thunders In which words he sheweth that this one Spirit of Wisdome in whom is the power as well of contraction or condensation as of dilatation or ratifaction can at his pleasure make the aire more thick and ponderous by condensation and so reduce it into a cloud or by rarifying it into a more thin and subtile consistence render it in the form of lightning and evermore the aire so altered receiveth his shape or figure from the Alterer according to the will of him who ordaineth all things And thus the clouds the lightenings the thunder the comets the frost hayl snow and ice are created daily by this operating Spirit But we have all this confirmed and acknowledged by many places of Scriptures Sapientiâ Dei eruperunt abyssi nubes rore concrescunt saith Salomon By the Wisdome of God the Abysse was broke open and the clouds were turned into dew or raine Again Ego sapientia sicut nebula texi omnem terram I Wisdome like a mist did cover the whose earth saith the son of Syrach in the person of this Spirit And again Ego in altissimis habitavi Thronus meus est columna nubis I saith Wisdome did dwell in the highest places and my throne was a pillar of clouds Deus nubes effecit sapientia saith Job God made the clouds by his Wisdome This Spirit maketh the clouds to asscend it causeth the lightnings with the raâ—n and it bringeth forth the wind out of his Treasury saith David And again Verbo suo quam celerrimè excurrente sermone suo in terra emisso edit Deus nivem sicut lanam pruinam sicut cineres dispergit coram frigore ejus quis consistat God by his Word passing most swiftly and by his Voice being sent out upon the Earth doth bring forth snow like wool and spreadeth abroad the frost like ashes Who is able to consist before his cold There are many thousands of other places which I can produce out of the book of Verity to prove that all Meteorology is founded on this Spirit But because I will speak of this point more at large in my last Book of this present Treatise where I do express the true History of the Meteors and open the errors and falsities of the Aristotelian Meteorology I will only conclude with this confession of the wisest Philosopher Salomon Novi saith he virtutes elementorum varietates temporum sive tempestatum ventorum seu spirituum vires nam omnium artifex me docuit sapientia I know the power of the Elements and the varieties of times and tempests and strength of the winds for Wisdome the work-mistress of all things taught them me Whereby it is evident that shee who was the maker of the Meteors and was by Consequence the most skilfull and best acquainted with their natures did instruct him in them I will now speak a word or two of Physick Concerning the excellent Art of Phyâ—â—ck or Medecine the Wiseman saith A Deo est omnis medela From God cometh every kind of healing or curing which being so it is certaine that the only Actor in healing and curing is immediatly from this all-working Spirit and therefore the Kingly Prophet hath it He sendeth his Word and healeth them and delivereth them from their graves And Salomon But the teeth of the venemous dragons could not overcome thy children for thy Word came to help them and healed them even thy Word O Lord which healeth all things for thou hast the power of life and death c. Mark well Even thy Word saith the Text which healeth all things Now this divine Word is the root and fountain of this eternal Spirit of Wisdome and therefore the Basis or foundation of healing is in him and consequently from him all the mystery of healing doth proceed which also agreeth with this of the Apostle There are divers gifts but one and the same Spirit there are divers operations but God is the same which worketh all in all but unto
ociosaque ad nihil respiciens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Nihil dicitur in quo statu Aleph tenebrosum dictitatur When the divine sapience was retracted in the abysse of darknesse resting still and quiet and respecting nothing it was esteemed as nothing and in that eâ—tate it was called dark Aleph In this contracted or rather sequestred or private estate therefore of the divine unity it operateth according unto this its negative pâ—operty or condition by his essentiall agent Cold which is proved therefore not to be an accident as the vain doctrine of the Peripateticks would perswade us being it is apparent unto each wise-man that no accidentall qualities are in or can be from God being that the divine Nature is meerly a simple essentiall and formall purity existing in himself and of himself and therefore he being but one essence is able to produce out of himself what essentiall property he pleaseth And for this reason the divine wisdom is said to be spiritus unicus multiplex one simple spirit in essence but manifold in respect of his essentiall properties Now that this essentiall property or nature of Cold is the formall instrument or instrumentall vertue whereby God doth operate in his hidden and potentiall estate for the resistance of heat and action or motion and for the deformity and destroying of that which he in his patent nature did effect by his Heat or active property it is made evident by effect for what the spirit of wisdom in its patent nature did operate by its hot spirit or blast from the south or easterly winde namely in subtiliating and raâ—ifying of the waters into thin aire making that which was gross subtle and making that which was opake and dark diaphan and invisible the self-same spirit again enduing his latent and cold property doth deform and undo For in blowing or breathing from the North the same thin and ratified aire is made thick dense and visible which was through raâ—ifaction made invisible and that which by dissipating of parts was made transparent light and diaphan is now by the Northern properties contractive vertue reduced into an opake or dark substance and no way perspicuous That which was active movable and lively by an addition of heat is now become stupid still and deadly by the invasion of cold That which was light and of no sensible weight is framed into an heavy and ponderous body or consistence as we see when the aire by the northern blast is turned into snow hail ice frost c. Now that it is but one and the same spirit in essence which bloweth from the four winds the Prophet Ezekiel doth testifie when he said Veni spiritus à quatuor veniis insuffla interfectos istos Come O Spirit from the four winds and breathe upon these slain persons c. Whereby he argueth that it is but one spirit though it endueth at his pleasure a four-fold property And now to confirm all this which is said to be true do but mark the words of the royall Psalmist Jehovah emittit nives sicut lanam pruinam sicut cineres dispergit deâ—icit gelu tanquam frusta coram frigore ejus quis conâ—istat Emittens verbum liquefacit ista simul ac efflat ventum suum effluunt aquae God sendeth forth the snow as wooll and scattereth the frost like ashes casteth out the ice like as gobbits who is able to withstand his cold He sending forth his word liquefieth all these northern effects So soon as he bloweth or breatheth forth his wind the waters do flow again that is the snow frost and ice do melt and are turned into water Out of which words we may observe many notable things namely first that God in his hidden or latent property doth by his essentiall action of cold contract unto the center those things which were before dilated towards the circumference Secondly that the property of cold is attributed or ascribed unto God in his northern action and therefore it is said Who is able to resist his cold For which reason it is evident that it is an essentiall vertue in the divine puissance Thirdly That it must be the act of unity in his dark hidden and privative property both because it darkeneth things that are diaphan transparent and light and then because it depriveth of life and motion that which did act move and live through essentiall heat And lastly because it is an utter enemy unto the action of heat which at tendeth on the revealed emanating and vivifying divinity Fourthly that the effects of cold are undone by the act of the revealed nature of God which is the word for the Text saith He sendeth out his word and resolveth or melteth all these namely the snow frost and ice Fifthly that all this is effected by one and the same spirit in essence but of divers and opposite conditions to perform the will of the Father which sendeth it forth Again that the cold property of the winde is the essentiall depriving vertue or stupifying and contracting act of God it appeareth by this of Job Deus fortis edit glacâ—em flatu suo flante Deo concrescit gelu The strong God bringeth forth the ice by his breath God blowing the ice is ingendered I conclude therefore that cold is the essentiall act of the divine puissance or eternall sapience shrowding it self in its mantle of darkness and therefore doth manifest the divine volunty in that estate of his by the effects namely in that it draweth from the circumference unto the center and therefore is the occasion of congregating of things as well hetero-as homo-geniall and by consequence the onely essentiall agent or efficient cause of inspissation contraction constriction fixation immobility ponderosity rest obteneration or darkness of mortification privation stupefaction and such like In the contrary divine property namely in this spirit's patent manifest and positive nature or as he is termed light Aleph wherein he moveth or sendeth out his emanation from the center towards the circumference and revealing himself upon the dark face of the Abysse maketh the invisible non Ens or potentiall Nihil to appeare in Act being first animated by his bright presence in the form of waters He is said by the Wiseman to be omnibus mobilibus mobilior ubique penetrans seu attingens propter munditiam ejus The most agile and movable of all movable things piercing through all things by reason of his purity So that as the other privative or Northern property did produce rest and vacancy from operation by attraction or contraction from the circumference unto the center so in this his positive or Southern and Orient property by dilating himself or sending out his active beam brightness or emanation from the center towards the circumference he doth beget and procreate motion being accompanied by the essentiall Act of Heat or calidity which operateth continually upon the effects of cold in resisting dissolving and
plants relent liquifie and become animated and fluent the birds rejoyce and are quickened and the dull and senslesse aire is by little and little refreshed and taketh flight into the southern regions for reasons I will shew you in my demonstrative positions immediately following And yet for all the absence of the bright and inacting Spirit in the Sun it followeth but that one and the self-same Spirit which filleth all may alter his privative property when and where he list for we see oftentimes quite contrary unto the common constitution of the year that by it thunders and lightnings are effected in the midst and hardest of the winters and the winds which are most active namely the east and south blow beyond expectation all which is effected by him at his pleasure who operateth all in all how and by what means and where and when he list This therefore being well pondered I enter into the state of this my demonstration The demonstration or proof how the annuall winds are moved by the vivifying spirit which is in the Sun I have told you that the whole effect of the divine action in the humid nature of this inferiour world did consist in Congelation and Rarefaction and that the first was caused by the privative and northern act of Gods Spirit which doth operate by cold and the other by his positive operation which is guided by heat Now as these two have their dominion or depression by the presence or absence of the Sun so also is the universall aire more cold spisse opake and sluggish or stupid when the Sun is farthest off and again more hot subtle bright transparent agil and active when the Sun is nearest Mark therefore the properties of the aire included in the glazen vessell of the Calender-Instrument and remember that it is but one and the same Spirit in essence that worketh as well privativly as positivly for it was one and the same Spirit which was called by the Prophet from the north and south for the Text saith Veni spiritus à quatuor ventis c. wherefore this Spirit is it that governeth the universall sublunary aire as well privatively as positively And although this Spirit be most plentifully in the Sun yet it being neverthelesse every where is able at all times and in every place to expresse himself in both properties I come therefore unto the point or mark In the first Chapter of the first Book of this present Section I have most clearly demonstrated unto you that the aire included in the Weather-glasse hath in every respect a relation unto the aire or catholick element of the great world where also it is proved that the aeriall humid nature doth as exactly fill every place of the vaulted world where the earth or water are not lest any vacuity should be found in the cavity thereof no otherwise than the dilated aire in the head and neck of the Weather-glasse doth fill the cavity thereof and therefore as the aire included in the glasse doth work by dilatation at the presence of the Sun namely in the Summer-season when the externall aire is heaâ—ed so also and after the self-same manner will the aire of this northern hemisphear be dilated when the Sun is present yea and the nearer the Sun is and the more perpendicular his beams are the greater will the generall aire 's rarefaction be and consequently of that particular aire which is in the glasse On the other side when the Sun is absent from the Boreall hemisphear namely when it moveth beyond the Aequinoctiall then will the common aire in that hemisphear wax cold and be contracted and condensed and consequently the particular aire in the glasse will be contracted after the same proportion which may easily be measured or conceived by the degrees of ascent of the water in the glasse as the rarefaction may be collected by the descent thereof This therefore being well conceived or understood and that the cause of this rarefaction is the presence of this divine act in the sunny tabernacle and that the reason of the condensation is the absence or remotenesse of the said act or operating and emanating Spirit and consequently the presence of the divine puissance which is darknesse for as we said the absence of heat is the presence of cold which is the essentiall worker in the divine puissance and again the presence of heat is the absence of cold So also the absence of positive light conceiveth privative darknesse and the absence of privative darknesse imparteth the presence of positive light We may easily hereupon collect the reason of the annuall winds and perceive what their externall is and how that aire is animated by the vivifying Spirit which is sent out from the Sun Consider therefore that when the Sun is present with us the Summer is created by his presence the aire is calefacted by the bright beams of his Spirit and by calefaction is rarified and by reason of rarefaction of parts requireth a larger place for his existency As for example We put two pound of Vitreol into a Retort and fasten the nose thereof unto a huge Recipient or Receiver stopping the joynts fast that the spirits do no way expire We force out the Spirit from the Retort into the Receiver and we find it tried by experience that part of the Vitreol being dilated into spirits those spirits finding the ample Receiver not sufficient to contain them do violently break the Receiver into an infinity of pieces Whereby it is made plain that a thing which is condensed will occupy but a small place but when it is dilated it will require a very large continent for his existence All this is argued plainly by our experimentall Instrument for when the Sun is present the aire included is forthwith dilated more or lesse according unto the vigour of the solar spirits and winds that blow but when it is dilated it requireth by so much the more a larger place to be contained in by how much the more it is dilated or â—arified and that is proved thus namely because the water is thrust down by so many degrees lower by how many the aire excelleth in rarity So that it is evident that the onely reason why the water is precipitated more and more downwards is because being by degrees subtiliated it maketh it self a larger room to abide in Now that I have shewed you thus much mark that when the Sun commeth newly into an hemisphear where winter did reigne or had dominion and therefore the cold did incrass and thicken the aire as for example when it passeth from us into the southern hemisphear to convert the winter estate of that part into summer it doth forthwith begin to attenuate the aire of that part of the world and that aire so rarified being animated and as it were revived by the operating beams of the Suns bright spirit becommeth light-winged or feathered wherefore it flyeth away from the south and seeketh a larger place for
existence reserved onely in its self and consisting of it self not having any principle root or beginning to spring from and exist by but onely from and of it self in whose Divine Puissance as in a place without end or limits all things which are now explicitly apparent were then complicitly contained although in regard of our capacity they were esteemed nothing And for this cause such persons as were conversant in the Laws of the true Wisdome have inacted in their never dying Registers that this mysticall infinity when it was thus bewrapped in the gloomy clew or profound abysse of darknesse and remained as it were vacant or resting in its self without any action or as they say having regard or respect unto nothing was therefore termed in Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Nihil Non finis Non Ens and in plain English Nothing at all in our imagination because the tenuity and poverty of man's capacity and ingeny in the regard of Divine things is such that it is accustomed to judge and imagine that not to be or exist at all which appeareth not manifestly unto the sight For this reason therefore the wisest persons in the abstruse and hidden Caball have termed this originall Unity in his secret disposition Aleph tenebrosum or the obscure and dark Aleph the which Hebrew letter is received among the Jews and Cabalisticall Rabbi's for the figure of one in Arithmetick and by consequence it is Hieroglyphically taken for God as he is understood to be that absolute Monady or Unity which onely was in it self and did abide and rest in it self without any action of emanation which afterward he did use when he was pleased to operate in Creation and therefore the wise Philosopher Hermes not disagreeing in this from the Holy Scripture saith Monas ante mundi exordium sibi ipsi non aliis reluxit Unity or Identity dâ—d shine onely to it self and in it self and not to any thing else And in another place Erat umbra infinita in abysso agua insuper Spiritus tenuis intellectualis per divinam potentiam in Chaos inerant There was an infinite shadow upon the face of the abysse and moreover water and a thin intellectuall spirit were in the Chaos through the divine puissance And Moses to confirm this saying of that wise Philosopher Tâ—nebrae erant super faciem abyssi By this therefore may wise men discern and contemplate though a far off what the Potentia or puissance divâ—ne was before any creature did explicitly appeare out of darkness as also they may easily gather what is the true principle and foundation of Darkness namely the enclosing or retaining of the actuall beams or light of immortall life and being in this bright fundamentall unity in the which is no darkness so that the Originall darkness can be reputed for nothing else but the absence of the radicall Unitie's bright emanation which is the fountain of all action neither can that Divine vivifying and creating Light be present when the will of that simple and absolute essence in Unity is not minded to send forth unto deformity the treasure of its informing beams And hereupon it followeth of necessity that darkness was upon the face of the abysse and that the earth was void and without form before the Divine Essence did shine forth and that darkness was made the tabernacle of rest and repose because where the Divine act or sacred emanation is absent all things are onely potentiall and consequently without actuall verity being as it were stark dead and without life or motion and that the property of coldness and stupidity had dominion during that privative estate because that heat is ingendred by motion onely and motion hath its beginning from Light and all brightness doth flow from this Unity which is termed the Father and Fountain of all Light wherefore it followeth that if this Divine Essence retain it self in it self then the dark Chaos reserved onely in the Divine Puissance or Potentia Divina must be deprived of motion and that it is inclined to inspissation and condensation by reason of his congealing and cold property which doth thicken and make gross by contraction and that it is the fountain of all privation and an enemy unto the creatures life and being because it is contrary to act motion and heat which are the hand-maids of the Divine emanation and consequently it is the fountain of death deformity and non-entity To conclude as Light is the originall of life position act motion and in a word of the Volunty of God in his revealed Nature so also is this primordiall darkness the head and well-spring of death privation rest or vacancy and in brief of the Divine essence's Nolunty And hereupon the Scriptures do justify that when God doth send forth his salutiferous beams and manifest unto his creatures the light of his countenance they are refreshed with goodness and life when he in part doth hide his face and withdraweth his lively and vivifying beams from them they grow sick and their spirits are troubled but if he totally withdraw his aspect of life from them they do immediatly expire and breath their last Whereupon also Moses Deus malos relinquit abscondit faciem suam ab iis ut obveniant iis mala multa God forsaketh the wicked an â—hideth his face from them that much mischief may befall them And David Quousque abscondis vultum tuum a me Exhilara me vultu tuo visitatio tua conservat Spiritum meum How long wilt thou hide thy face from me make me glad with thy countenance thy visitation doth conserve my spirit c. Whereby it appeareth that this Divine Essence observeth as well after his creation of the world as before it both the action of his Nolunty and his Volunty in the first whereof he withdraweth or withholdeth that vertue of life from the creature which is the act of privation in the last he giveth life and preservation to it For by this his dilatative property he created the world and all things therein CHAP. II. Wherein it is proved that all things were complicitly and ideally in God and of God before they were made THus have I expressed and made manifest according unto the small validity of mine understanding the estate and being of this radicall and eternall Unity before any thing was by it created with the effects that it did produce in the potentiall and deformed Mass or materiall subject of all things which was complicitly or hiddenly detained and comprehended in that Omnipotent and incomprehensible point of Divine perfection in which increated condition it remained as Nothing quoad nos forasmuch as it was without form unto the which it appertaineth onely to give a name and essence and therefore in the estate of its non-actuall being wise men have termed it Potenâ—iam Divinam or the Divine Puissance To confirm and verify all this we find these
vegetation multiplication and preservation and hath made his seat in the Center of the heavens that by one most perfect Consonant namely a spirituall Diapason he might illuminate the Angels above and the stars round about him and that by a more material Diapason he might penetrate into the Center of the elementary world to communicate his perfection to each creature thereof that they might be beautified by his bright presence and vivified by the penetrating beams of his essence and consequently that the imps or spirits of darkness may be debilitated by the appearance of his Glory as if one chord were extended betwixt the Fountain of Light and the abysse of darkness which being struck made an unison but being pressed down and divided directly in the middle of it each part will render being struck a double diapason unto that unison importing a double perfection proceeding from the bright catholick Emanation whereof the one respecteth the adorning of the lower waters with life and virtue and the other maketh an accord of friendship among the higher Now as the body of the Sun and substance of the Aether is of a middle or mean spirituall matter or consistence of the waters it is evident that it also is subject to be altered by passion as well Antipatheticall as Sympatheticall For else it would not be the immediate receptacle of those opposit and contrary Emanations which descend from the differing Attributes But by effect we find the contrarâ— For some starrs are friends and Sympathise in nature with some creatures below Some again do hate one another deadly and consequently send down into this lower world contrary influences which move contrary passions or impressions in the vitall spirits or souls of certain Elementary creatures Again we find that the life of the Animal doth consist of opposit actions namely of Systole and Diastole that is of contraction by the property of matter and dilatation by the Act of the formall Light So that the nature of matter is to draw by contraction from the Circumference unto the Center but the condition of the formall essence is quite contrary unto it For it doth dilate or emit his beams from the Center to â—he Circumference Also the Philosophers testify that in sleep and rest the spirits are contracted from the Circumference to the Center after the manner of the dark Chaos or cold North wind which bringeth by that contraction the agill and volatil spirit or aire of the lower world to rest and fixation by condensation But contrariwise in wachfulness or waking they conclude that there is an emission or emanation of spirits from the Center unto the Circumferentce which is an Argument of two contrary effects of the firmaments vivifying operation in the souls or spirits of the creatures below and yet by reason of the equality of each action and passion they have a compound-disposition according and agreeing in the naturall operation of life which descendeth from above Thus therefore you see that even from the starry heaven there descendeth Sympathy and Antipathy As for the Elementary world it aboundeth manifestly with the effects of these two contrarieties and therefore lest there should follow any continuall unnaturall perturbation which may deprave this great formall workman of his expectation which was to put concord and peace in the machine whiâ—h he had ordered and framed he divided each region in this lower world that there might be interposed an indifferent friend between two extream enemies which he effected by weight number and measure So that unto the weightiest portion of the lower waters is imparted the least proportion of form that by its grossnesse and weight it might fall unto the Center and remain fixt in it and it was called earth then unto another portion he bestowed a double measure of Light to make it reside in a higher region and thereby the matter which was next the earth became more thin light and movable And therefore this augmentation of Light melted the frozen waters a little and did make them fluxible and transparent So that he partly by reason of the continuity of his matter with that of the earth and partly because of its cold nature it is a temperate friend of the earth and taketh his place next unto him So that it is not so cold as the earth nor so moist as the aire For it is not enough subtiliated till the bright Agent of the world bestoweth on the dark watery abysse above the water three portions of his Light So that it converted part of the gross lower waters into a thinner and more light shape than was the watery Element and it was the aire which by reason of the triple proportion of formall light was hotter and more dilated then was the water wherefore as the water was cold but not so cold as the earth and moist but not so moist as the aire So the aire is hot but not so hot as the fire and moister then the water By reason therefore of his moisture this portion of the catholick Element is friendly to the water on the one side and on the other side unto the fire because of his heat Lastly that in-created Spirit of life did yet multiply a part of those waters by an other or higher degree of subtility and purity So that it became the most subtil and highest portion of the generall Elements and is consequently hot and dry wherefore by reason of its drouth it agreeth on the one side with the earth which in circulation is next unto him and on the other side with the aire in respect of his heat but it is hotter then the aire and not so dry as the earth Lo here you see the effect of that Sympathy which the Peace and Love of God did put among the discordant enemies of this world For thereby the water as a friend to both the aire and earth becometh a stickler and mediator of peace between them The aire as a friend unto the two enemies fire and water is made an indifferent judge betwixt them both So that the one contrary is kept from strugling and tugging with the other by the super-celestiall and golden tie of peace Thus you see that this Spirituall Christ doth as the Apostle saith bear and sustain all things by the word of his Virtue And as Hermes said the humid nature by the assistance of the world is ordered and disposed harmoniously into Elements So that by this Virtue all Sympatheticall action was effected in the Sublunary world of which the Wiseman speaketh thus In se Elementa dum convertebantur sicut in organo qualita is sonus immutatur omnia suum locum custodiunt But when this harmonicall ranck and Symphoniacall proportion is violated then the enemies come together and rage against one another unto the disturbance of the whole Sublunary fabrick For aire and earth do struggle against one another as also the water doth cruelly invade the limits of the fire and all will be
which he draweth or attracteth from the circumference unto the center and so congealeth inspissateth and hardeneth soft spirits by contraction and coarctation of those parts which before were porous and dilated But some will perchance reply and say How is it likely that the emanation or emission of spirits from the port of Binah under the Attribute of ELOHIM or the streaming forth of the breath or blasts from Boreas and his two collateralls can harden by contraction or suck and draw in spirits from the circumference unto the center when their emissions are straight from the north southward and make no reflexion whereby any such motion à circumferentia ad centrum should be made I answer That this is effected after a wonderfull fashion and worthy to be pondered by the choisest wits We must consider therefore in the first place that the property of the Attribute ELOHIM was before all beginning ordained to indue the negative or contractive nature of the eternall Unity's Nolunty namely of darkness for when God will not shew the light of his countenance he reflecteth his light in himself that is he withdraweth it from the circumference to the center and leaveth onely darkness unto the creatures This property of God is antipatheticall unto such parts of the world as also unto all such creatures as have their life from a naturall heat which heat had its beginning from Gods benevolent emanation that is from the act of unity by an emission or dilatation from the center unto the circumference I mean from unity into multitude It followeth therefore that though the emission of winds from the north be streight yet their essentiall property proceeding immediately from Gods angelicall organ is contractive and attracting from the circumference unto the center seeing that it is an emission which by the divine Spirits emanation and action in the nature of ELOHIM is cold dry coagulative or congealing and apt to rest and is therefore antipatheticall and oppugnant unto the disposition of the air forasmuch as it is hot and moist and consequently is animated by the dilative action which the catholick spirit sendeth or breatheth out of the celestiall Sun and other vivifying stars as are Jupiter and Venus And for this cause it followeth that when the Boreall spirits are sent forth into the aire it must needs succeed that at the antipatheticall contract of these cold spirits the naturall heat or life of the aire flyeth or with-draweth it self from its circumference unto its center and so partly by that contractive motion in it self caused per antiperistasin or by reason of the antipatheticall occurrence or meeting of his contrary and partly by mingling of a new terrestriall form it is congealed and falleth to the earth as if it were dead because unmovable in the form of snow hail frost and ice In like manner we see that the aery life in other creatures whose formall beeing consisteth of Gods dilating property is forced to fly from the circumference unto the center leaving the externall parts chil cold and apt to a deadly congelation or lethall repose which we observe not onely in animal creatures but also in vegetables seeing that their blood as I may tearm it or vitall suck is congealed by the winter and northern cold and is as it were liveless untill by the vivifying and dilative sorce of the ensuing Vernall or Springly and Australl vertue it is resolved and melted again and the severe tye or icy knot of the northern nature undone For this reason therefore you may discern that there is but one catholick element which is partly subject and obnoxious unto the privative and dark contracting and consequently attracting property of Gods Spirit and partly capable to endue his positive and light dilating disposition and that this common subject is the spirit or aire of the sublunary world which by lesse inspissation or contraction caused by the west winds is made water and by more compression and constriction caused by the northern and winter blasts becommeth snowy or icy earth And contrariwise by lesse dilatation and subtiliation is made aery or vaporous caused by the spring season and south wind and by a greater rarefaction and exaltation it is made fire by the dominion of such spirits as are sent out from the east and summers heat and both these main two-fold divided properties belong unto one and the same Spirit as is before related Verily this common demonstration can deceive no man being that the very unreasonable creatures are moved by a naturall inclination either to sympathize and rejoyce with the clemency and comfort of the one property or to fly from or eschew the severer assaults of the other which do antipathize with their nature But to our main business It is manifest by that which is already said that the northern breath is contractive attractive inspissative and apt to darkness immobility and rest and that the south-winde or rather the winde from the Aequinoctiall is contrary in nature unto it as being ready to undo all that the north winde did effect namely to dissolve the congealed aire which was made snow frost hail ice into water and water into aire to make transparent that which was dark and render thin that which was before thick And therefore between these properties there is no more sympathy then I have shewed you to be between the Load-stones Aequinoctiall and the Pole And again that both these opposite natures proceed and spring from one and the same divine and catholick spirit which operateth all in all every where and consequently as well in earth as in heaven this testimony of the true Philosophy doth manifestly confirm and import Deo emittente sermonem suum in terram quam celerrimè excurrit qui nives emittit sicut lanam pruâ—nam quasi cineres dispergit dejicit gelu tanquam frusta coram frigore ejus quis consistat Emittit verbum suum liquefacit ista simul ac efflat ventum suum effluunt aquae God sendeth forth his word it runneth forth most swiftly upon the earth who produceth snow like wool and spreadeth abroad the frost like ashes and casteth down the ice as it were pieces Who is able to resist against his cold He sendeth forth his word and melteth or dissolveth all these so soon as he breatheth forth his wind or Spirit the congealed waters begin to flow and move Whereby it appeareth that the Word or Spirit of God congealeth by one property and dissolveth by another and consequently as God is all one in essence so it is one and the same Spirit that effecteth these four-fold alterations in one catholick spirit of the world which are by the Ancients called distinct Elements because they cuold never as yet throughly determine what was the essentiall form of the Elements But if they had well considered the four Elements of the which they spake so much and as it should seem understood essentially but little or had they well conceived that
is evident that the beams of his affection did in the absence of his Master not forsake his Master's beams which guided him unto the unknown place so directly that he found him out Is it not also a wonderfull Sympatheticall Emanation that the Pigeon called the Carrier doth make unto the place or dove-coat wherein he was bred and fostered Which for that reason it doth so dearely affect and love that though he be conveied 500 miles from his noursery in an enclosed basket yet he will fly directly back again with a letter about his neck Which is an evident Argument that it is justly and straightly guided by the emitted beam of his affection which is contiued after a spirituall manner with the place it doth most delight in What shall we say in two persons whereof the one doth love and affect without all reason and therefore prosecureth with the beam of his affection his beloved though she or he altogether either abhorring or neglecting and not corresponding with the like beams of affection doth not reciprocally embrace but rather refuse and avert the beams of his or her Love But where two do joyntly affect by a Sympatheticall Union there the action will spiritually be furthered at a far greater distance as when two starrs of heaven send out their beams semidiametrally and concur in one harmonious point of affections Nay verily as we behold being taught by experience that there will be a great Antipathy between the slain bodie 's contracted spirit and the murtherer insomuch that the lively spirit of the dead being contracted after death by cold into its Center doth through an angry Antipatheticall passion move again from the Center unto the Circumference as it were to resist the deadly enemy and doth cause the congealed blood to flow and move as if it would meet with and assault afresh the murtherer's emitted spirit So we must surely confess that where one spirit concurreth in Sympathy with another of the like nature the power must be the greater and the action performed at a larger distance as is evidently expressed in the abstruse operation which is in the Magnetick cure effected between the weapon or ointment and the wounded person of which I have spoken so much in that hot encounter which hath been between Mr. Foster and my self in the Book where I was provoked to squeeze his Sponge and farther do purpose in this present Treatise to enlarge my self a little better touching that point by way of a comparison made between the Magneticall virtue in Man and that of the Load-stone The Argument of Mr. Foster consisteth upon the impossibility of that operating virtue at so large a distance as is propounded by some to be effected by the Ointment or rather of the lively blood's Emanation and emitting forth of his exciting spirituall beames or influences unto the dead or congealed blood which impossibility if it were true indeed in the Animal kingdom which is the most dilative and less bound with bodily bonds I wonder that it should not be far more impossible and unfezible in the mineral bodies by reason of the firm and close solidity of them which are therefore apter to retain their influentiall beams then the bodies which are made lax and porous Besides all this the Animal body is hot and fiery and consequently the readier to dilate and send forth his virtue the further but the minerall is cold and therefore the less active and powerfull in sending forth his beams And yet for all this experience teacheth us that the Loadstone looketh towards the North-star sendeth forth his spirituall aspect unto it as also the star doth at the like distance send out his beams unto his Northern minerall mark at an unmeasurable distance as is said before which being so why should not I beseech you the Animall star derived from his celestiall Fountain send out also his beams unto the frozen and chill blood in his unctuous earth I mean the Weapon-salve or unto the blood 's invisible spirit sucked into the Iron by his attractive Sulphureous nature For experience teacheth us that though no corporall blood be found on the Iron yet if the place of the weapon that wounded the person be anointed it cureth by a like Sympatheticall aspect For country-Chirurgions have made tryall when they durst not search the wound with the Probe and found by experience namely by putting the weapon into the fire that the part of the sword or weapon will discover it self which wounded the party being that it will change colour from the rest whereby they perceive how deep the wound is by the observation of that part of the weapon which did penetrate And therefore this is an evident argument of the ingression of the bloody spirits into the wounding instrument and consequently it argueth that there are essentiall spirits which emanate or issue forth of the blood quite forsaking the body whereby also it is expressed against Mr. Foster that if the grosser spirits of the blood are able to pierce the close-grained steel it s finer and more subtil spirits are able to penetrate without any resistance all other things in manner of an influence But wee 'l approach a little nearer to our purpose and will remove ouâ— argument from the minerall demonstration unto the vegetable that thereby we may express like by like in our animal subject I will therefore insist upon the Grain of Wheat which being dead and putrified in the earth is suscitated by the beamy influences of the Sun For like doth draw his like by a magnetick power and like rejoyceth in his like and like is suscitated and revived and quickened or evoked from his rest or center by his evoking and alluring or embracing like and by this means the beamy spark or atom of sunny influence in the grain being idle and doing nothing in the center thereof is stirred up by his externall like to act and operate his own delivery out of the elementall mire or the slimy band of the elementary compound And therefore as it was before contracted from the externall cold into the center it is now by the presence of fresh solary irradiation from above exsuscitated as is were from death unto life and so by the assistance of those celestiall beams it passeth beyond the limits of the corrupted grain and soareth above the earth and seeketh by all means to ascend unto his native region from whence it descended but being cumbered in his ascent by the sublunary substance of the importunate elements which enclose it on every side it is beset with the volatil salt of the aire and insteed of mounting into his desired place it is contented to multiply in his kind and to have companions namely other graines procreated like it self In like manner the microcosmical Sun of life raigning as Scriptures do teach us in the blood doth emanate and send out his spirituall beams which are inseparable by continuity joyned unto and continued with the spirit of the congealed
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
the north to the equinoctiall is one and the same spirit in essence although in property it varieth in his parts Likewise the south wind having dominion doth send out from the equinoctiall unto the north his blast without any discontinuance of his essence and yet the nearer it approcheth unto the north the weaker is his force in dilatation and dissolution and yet the spirit is one and the same in essence with that of the north for it is but one anima mundi or vivifying spirit of the world which the Platonist esteem to have his dwelling in the Sun And David saith He put his tabernacle in the Sun And therefore the winds are called by some Titanei filiI the sons of Titan or the Sun And the Prophet argueth aswell the Unity as the Omnipotency of this vivifying Spirit where he saith Veni Spiritus a quatuor ventis insuffla interfectos istos ut reviviscant Come Spirit from the four winds and breathe upon these slain persons that they may live Where he argueth that it is but one essentiall Spirit which as Solomon saith filleth the world and is in every thing of the world but after a manifold property The conclusive Application We conclude therefore that the spirit in the wounded man's blood not exhausted and that in the blood exhausted is all one spirit in essence howsoever it vary in property and therefore being continuate and indivisible in essence it is no marvell though it acteth from one extreame unto another diversly namely Magnetically and attractively from the Oyntment for there by reason of its absence from the Southern or lively blood in the body it indueth a Northern nature and sucketh or attracteth his like being emanated in the aire and the Southern-pole or aequinoctial point by dilatation sendeth out his spirit to be attracted and so there is made a communication betwixt the Balsamick nature and the wounded the self-same spirit operating diversly And I will express unto you a notable example in the great world When the Sun is beyond the aequinoctial Southward which happeneth in the winter then is the Northern nature most powerfull in attraction congelation and inspissation on this side the aequinoctial As contrariwise the Southern nature is most vigorous and efficacious in dilatation dissolution and subtiliation and yet you shall plainly discern how one and the same Spirit in the world doth operate from the one extream unto the other For when the Sun in the South doth dilate the aire and the waters there which the precedent winter had thickened and incrassated by attraction of cold and by dilatation doth dissipate it then that aire and water so dissipated requireth a larger place and flieth from the aspect of the Sun Northward And again the Northern propertie of the same spirit being now in the winter time most potent doth by attraction suck and direct Magnetically those spirits which are chased from the South and the nearer it draweth them unto the pole the more suddenly it condenseth them into clouds which by reason of the Sulphureous nature which it bringeth from the Summer or aequinoctial do immediatly dissolve themselves into rains And this is the reason that the Southern winds are so rife among us in the winter and consequently that we have so much rain in that season So that we may see how the double property of one and the same spirit doth operate at one and the same time about the effecting of one and the same thing in one and the same catholick aire of the world as I have told you before in my foregoing Discourse As also in the ascending or descending of fountains in each Hemisphere the like is effected All which is most lively demonstrated and performed in the Weather-glass as I have expressed before Whereby it is confirmed that being the Microcosmicall spirit is all one in condition with the Macrocosmicall It followeth thâ—t though the body of it be divided yet the spirit remains indivisible and can dilate and contract it self at any extention as is proved by the properties of the two contrary winds whose spirit is continued from both extremities and by the small pieces in the Load-stone which have their compleat poles as well as the whole Also by this a man way see that this spirit's operation is not to be limited by any of the Peripateticks imaginary Sphere of activity and consequently that it may work at any distance being directed and guided by a right and homogeniall Magnet that is to say agreeing at the least-wise in speciality if not in individuality or both as the blood of the wounded which is transplanted and that in the body both which are identity in nature and also as is the Uznea and Mummy in the Oyntment which is of the same Specifick though not of the Individuall You see therefore Learned Reader how plainly this business or the fore-said Proposition hath been demonstrated as well by the Load-stone as the naturall practise in the great world and in practise of the Weather-glass which I term my Demonstrative Instrument But because there are some strange accidents which happen in this cure by chance and unlooked for a reason whereof could never hitheto be expressed I will speak a word or two of them in a second Proposition and so I will end this Chapter The second Proposition It hath been observed in the cure of wounds by the Weapon-salve that if there happen in the time of the cure any issue of blood from some other part of the wounded man as bleeding at the nose pissing of blood or by some other wound or else if he have to do with any menstruous woman in the mean time the force of the Ointment will be diverted and the efficacy of it will stand but in little stead and the reason that I can give is because the Southern bloody spirit which raigning in the veins did emit and direct his beams unto the Oyntment was easily attracted and imbibed by the Oyntment but when that spirit is diverted and turned another way and is attracted by a contrary Magneticall Subject then will a divorce as it were be made by the second Magnet betwixt the emanating Spirit and the attractive in the Oyntment And I will maintain and demonstrate this to be true by this Magneticall experiment A Problem to confirm the Proposition out of Gilb. lib. 2. de Mag cap. 31. Two Load-stones or Irons excited rightly cohaering by the comming of another fresher and stronger Load-stone or Iron excited do make an abort and the new commer will easily drive away the other with a contrary face and will command him and so the endeavour or the desire of the other two which were first joyned will end Application Thus you see how fitly these two do concur namely the fore-recited animal act with these of the mineral I end this Chapter with this Assertion Spirits that have their subtiliation and action from natural heat do act livelily so long as they abide within
secret peculiar included spirit which worketh the feat and to make men to give credit to their tales they have dyed the common water in the vessell with Vardegrease or such like stuffe I must give you to understand that all their prattle is but deceit and that plain dealing is a jewell As for the accidentall part of this Machin being it is framed and composed in a diverse fashion I will not graphically delineate or draw it out unto your view being that the pictures will be chargeable and the matter being done will serve you but to little purpose CHAP. IV. Wherein are Expressed the sundry properties with the usage of this demonstrative Instrument I Divide as well the property as the use of this Instrument into two kinds whereof I call the one generall and I make the other more peculiar As for the generall property of it by the one it contracteth and condenseth namely when the included aire is animated by the externall cold and by the other it dilateth and rarifieth to wit if the included spirit be excited by any externall heat And therefore through his constrictive nature or action which is made evident by the contraction of the aire we may easily discern the universall reason of the inspissation and condensation of things that wâ—re thin And again by his dilatation we may scan or decipher the cause of rarifaction of such things as were thick For by the speculation we shall find that there is nothing in the whole Empire of Nature which can be rarified and made subtle except it be by the action of light or fire whether it be visible or invisible and the essentiall effect of that action is light And on the contrary part nothing can be condensed or inspissared where darknesse hath not dominion forasmuch as darknesse is the essentiall root of cold which is the immoderate act or in condensation The particular properties with the uses thereof are manifold for first The nature of it is to discover the temper of the externall aire or catholick element in heat and cold for the higher that the water doth climbe in the neck or pipe of the Matras it argueth that the firmer stronger is the dominion of cold in the aire so that by this means we may daily judge of the increase or decrease of cold in the aire and by consequence we may guesse at the proportion of heat in the sublunary spirit of the world by the descent of the water Ceâ—tain Experiments worthy of observaâ—ion and approved by many of this City touching this Experimentall Glasse If the water in the pipe of the glasse which before was highly mounted doth fall on the sodaine by some degrees it will be an undoubted signe that raine will immediately ensue If the water in the space of one night doth descend it is also a signe that raine will come not long after If the South or East wind do blow immediately after a North or Westerlie wind the water will fall by certaine degrees but if the North wind or cold Westerlie wind do blow after a Southerne or Easterlie wind then will the water be forth with exalted If the water doth attaine unto the figure 1. it argueth that the Ayre is in a moderation between heat and cold as when the Sunne is in the vernall Equinoctiall or as the naturall temper of the Spring useth to be But if the water mount higher then it argueth that the disposition of the Ayre is by so many degrees more of Northen or Boreall nature as the water is mounted towards the bolts head for you must conceive that the degrees from 1. unto the uppermost 7. are belonging unto the winter Hemisphere and therefore are the degrees which note the augmentation of cold So that if the water do mount up unto 2. in the Northern or higher part it is an argument that cold hath dominion over heat in the externall Ayre only by one degree If it mount unto the 3. of the same Hemisphere it doth foretell a slight frost but if it ascend unto 4. or 5. it pretendeth a hard and solid frost if it come unto 6. and 7. it argueth great ice but if it mount yet higher it sheweth that a hard Ice is likely to surprize and cover the whole river of Thames On the other side if the water descend from 1. unto 2. of the lower ranck of degrees which importeth the Summer or hot Hemisphere then it argueth heat hath gotten dominion over cold by one degree But if it descend unto 3. or 4. it importeth a greater distemper of the Ayre in heat if it descendeth unto 5. or 6. it demonstrateth the ayre to be exceeding hot but if the water be beaten downe unto the lower figure of 7. it sheweth that extreame and Sultry heat causing Coruscations and lightnings hath dominion in the Aire So that we may discerne how great a reference or relation there is between the externall ayre or universall sublunary Element and the Ayre included in the instrument But I will in better termes expresse the Consanguinity and Sympatheticall relation which is between the one and the other in this subsequent Chapter CHAP. V. Here it is proved evidently notwithstanding any objection which may be made to the contrary that not only this experimentall Organ hath a relation unto the great world but also the spirit included in this little modell doth resemble and imitate the action of that which is included in the great or macrocosmicall Machin BUt before I will proceed in any further comparison between the spirit contained in the small modell with the properties of the agents and patients in it and this of the great world I do think it to be necessary first to answer unto a certain doubt or objection that may be made the which unlesse it be resolved and taken away such a relation or comparison may appear unto the ignorant either improper or altogether impossible I know therefore that not a few will object and say that no convenient comparison can be made between this our small artificiall Machin and that naturall fabrick or organ of the world forasmuch as the spirit in our Glasse is every where inclosed and strictly included in his vessell and therefore may easily be incited by force to move according unto the regular figure or fashion of the glasse But the case is far otherwise in the spirit which is contained in the vast cavity of the world for in it the aire or spirit doth use at every impulsion to move freely this way and that way as we are instructed by daily experience in the blowing of the winds from each quarter of the world Unto this I answer That it is the self same reason of motion and relation from a thicker or denser nature unto a thinner and in like manner from a thinner or rarer unto a thicker or denser in a small subject that is in a greater so that the like respects be had and that by an equall weight
the center be known and not the circumference being the circumference of all things is nothing else but what it pleaseth the center to make it And for this reason this divine spirit is termed rightly of the wise Philosopher Hermes The center of every thing whose circumference is no where but yet it comprehendeth all circumferences that are We may therefore collect out of the foresaid speech of Solomon that wisdom discovered unto him First all the abstruse mysteries which do concern the making of the world as she did unto Moses Secondly the nature and power of the Elements with the hidden act and miraculous generation of the Meteors framed out of an elementary stuffe and of their wondrous properties Thirdly the reason and manner how the winds are produced with the Astronomicall division of the year the scituation of the starrs in heaven and their Astrologicall natures Fourthly the necessaries belonging unto the art of Physick for he saith that wisdom taught him the nature of all living creatures the conditions of beasts the differences of plants and the faculties of roots c. Fifthly the secrets of all things occult and therefore of the Angels yea and of God himself by consequence and in this is the mystery of Theology comprehended But I wil prove this progression more particularly beginning with Theology Touching Theology which is derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deus or God and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is sermo or speech quasi sermo de Deo the speech or teaching of God Solomon saith that Spiritus sapientiae transsert se ipsum in animas sanctas amicos Dei prophetas constituit Neminem enim diligit Deus nisi eum qui cum sapientia habitat The spirit of wisdom doth transfer it self into holy mens spirits and maketh them friends of God and prophets For God loveth no man that dwelâ—eth not with wisdom And again Sapientiam suis emittit Deus è sanctis coeâ—is à throno inquam gloriae suae mittit illam homini ut praesens versetur secum in labore ut cognoscat quid gratum sit apud ipsum illa enim novit omnia Gâ—d sendeth wisdom out of his holy heavens from the throne I say of his glory doth he send her unto man that it may be conversant and present with him in his labour that he may know what is acceptable unto him for she understandeth all things And in another place Except God had given wisdom and had sent his holy Spirit from the highest places what man could have known the counsell of God After this manner were the waies of such as lived on the earth corrected and men were taught the things which were pleasing unto God For this reason therefore Wisdom saith Ego illuminabo omnes sperantes in Domino I will illuminate all that trust in the Lord. Ego sum liber vitae testamentum altâ—ssimi agnitio veritatis I am the book of life the testament of the most high and the acknowledgment of the truth And Solomon Sapientiae concupiscentia conducit ad regnum perpetuum The desire of wisdom doth conduct unto the eternall Kingdom And again Sapientia doctrix est disciplinae Dei electrix operum illius Wisdom is the misiress of the discipline of God and she that maketh choice of his works And in another place he saith Per sapientiam habebo immortalitatem I shall obtain immortality by wisdom It would be tedious to reckon up the confirmation of the Theologicall doctrine which is declared and made manifest by this Spirit for verily it was this very Spirit in the fleshly Christ and his Apostles which made their corporall or bodily organs I mean their tongues to speak and their hands and pens to indite all that Theologicall wisdom and doctrine which the new Testment hath registred And it was this Spirit that spake in the old Testament by the mouths of the Patriarks and Prophets the essentiall marrow of Divinity and therefore let us look back upon them as being the literall fountain of Theology under whose typicall or graphicall instruction the hidden spirit doth lurk and may by the mysticall Theology easily be extracted I will proceed unto the next which belongeth unto the Aeviall world In ipso saith the forementioned place of St. Paul condita sunt universa in coelis sive Throni sive Dominationes sive principatus sive potestates In him are all things in heaven made whether they be Thrones Dominations or Principalities or Potestates And again elsewhere In Christo inhabitat omnis plenitudo divinitatis corporaliter qui est caput omnis Principatus Potestatis In Christ doth inhabit all the plenitude of the divinity coâ—porally who is the head of all Principalities and Potestates and in another place Châ—istus constituitur ad dextram Dei in coelestibus supra omnem Principatum Potestatem Virtutem Dominationem c. Christ is placed at the right hand of God in heaven above all Principality Potestates Virtues and Dominations c. By which places and many other authorities out of holy Writ which for brevity sake we omit at this time it is proved that there is no secret mystery comprehended among the Society of Angels either touching their creation essence properties or denominations but will be lively expressed by this superexcellent Spirit which only is able to disclose all in all because he is all in all and that in every thing I descend unto the next Step which is Astronomy Touching the essential nature of Astronomy it seemeth to consist on the Basis or Foundation of this eternal Spirit and therefore the wise son of Syrach said Sapientia in coelis fecit ut oriretur lumen indeficiens Wisdome made a never-failing light to arise in the heavens And it should appear according unto this Kingly Prophet's phrase that this Spirit did put his Tabernacle in the Sun howsoever some men are pleased by the corruption of the Text to interpret that place in another sense and that little to the purpose for the said Spirit speaking in her own person saith Ego sapientia gyrum coeli circuivi sola I wisdome did compass about the heavens alone that is in her sunny-Tabernacle and again David saith God in his wisdome doth number and count the stars and calleth them by their names whose wisdome is innumerable Whereby it is apparent that if in his wisdome or by this Spirit the stars were numbred and had their proper names it followeth that their vertues courses and properties must be best known unto him who hath created ordained and doth maintain them in the estate they are in For David affirmeth that every vertue of heaven doth proceed from the Spirit of the Lord and Esdras Stellae fundatae sunt in Verbo Dei qui novit numerum stellarum The stars have their foundation in the Word of God who knoweth the number of them
which words each Christian may discern how adverse the divine Philosopher Paul is unto the imaginary vertue and immediate act of either the Peripatetick's Daemons and Intelligences or of the starry bodies and influences or of the qualiâ—ies of his four Elements or of the Winds and other Meteors mentioned by their Master Aristotle And although they appear in outward shew that they act or work of themselves in this world yet our true Philosopher Paul teacheth us that by his Philosophy whose basis or ground is the true wisdom Jesus Christ he can discern no other Agent but one primary of whom are all things and the other secundary by whom are all things both which he acknowledgeth to be but one in essence for the one being an emanation out of the other doth onely and of himself operate all in all This is the perfect tenent of the essentiall Philosophy And therefore whatsoever the mundan and Ethnick Philosophy doth tell and by insinuating subtlety perswade us unto which is apparently contrary unto the true Philosophy we ought not in any case to believe And unto this the said divine Philosopher seemeth to consent in these words Though an angel from heaven doth preach unto you otherwise then that whâ—ch we have preached unto you let him be accursed If any man preach otherwise then that ye have received let him be accursed And therefore seeing that the Aristotelian learning is contradictory in diverse main points unto the positions of the essentiall wisdom or philosophy a true Christian ought not in the main points to believe it seeing that as St. James hath it the grounds and tenour of it are opposite unto the holy Bible which is the onely cabinet of truth and therefore is pronounced by him to be terrene animal and diabolicall Hereupon St. Paul writeth unto his schollar Timothy in this style Timothy keep that which is committed unto thee and avoid profane and vain bablings and oppositions of sciences falsly so called which while some professe they have erred concerning the faith In which words he seemeth to forewarn his Disciples that they be not entangled with the sophisticall allurements of the woâ—ldly Philosophy which contradicteth the truth and is not pacifick but troublesome and full of vain disputes and opposition pronouncing such kind of Philosophy to be not truly but falsly called a science as also all those sciences which depend on it And moreover insinuates unto his disciples that such Christians as profess it with too too vehement a devotion and confidence have by the meanes of it been subtilly induced into errors concerning the faith which is grounded upon the Anchor-hold of this invisible wisdome which is the spirituall Christ Jesus Again in this sense he giveth this Caveat before specified unto his Colossian disciples Beware that no man do deceive you by Philosophy and vaine fallacy according unto their adition of men according unto the Elements of this world and not according to Christ c. Whereby he admonisheth us Christians to eschew the false philosophy of the Ethnicks and to stick firmly unto the rules and doctrine of the true wisdome and therefore he saith in the same Text In Christo ambulate radicati et aedificati in ipso c. walk yee firmly rooted in Christ c. whereby he intendeth that Christ is the only corner-stone and ground work of the true Philosophy being that all creatures yea and the whole world is founded on it and consequently that the foundation of Paganish philosophy is sandy and of no validity whereupon the Apostle saith Fundamentum aliud nemo potest ponere praeter id quod positum est quod est Christus Jesus No man can lay any other true foundation but that which is laid which is Jesus Christ. Now that this is clean contrary unto the false grounds of the Ethnicks the said Apostle seemeth to intimate in these words Hoc dico ut non ambuletis sicut et gentes ambulant in vanitate sensus sui tenebris obscuratum habentes intellectum alienati in vita Dei per ignorantiam quae est in illis propter caecitatem cordis eorum c. I say this that you should not walk as the gentiles do in the vanity of their senses having their understandings obscured with darkness being alienated from the life of God by ignorance which is in them by reason of their blindnesse of heart I must now come to particularize upon the erroneous and false doctrine of the Peripatetick or Aristotelian philosophy that thereby I may the better lay it open unto the world by comparing the vanity thereof with the goodnesse and perfection of the divine and sacred Sophia or wisdome CHAP. V. Here the erroneous doctrine of the Gentiles Philosophy is set down being proved for certaine reasons herein expressed to be founded upon the wisdome of this world and not upon that which descendeth from God NOw me thinks I heare some sharp-witted Aristotelian reply and say How can he prove that the peripatetick Philosophy is not descended from above And why should not the foundation thereof be the true wisdome which came from God But before I come to the answering of this objection I beseech thee gentle Reader give me liberty first to apologize a little for my self Be thou therefore pleas'd in the first place to understand from my just and upright spirit that I acknowledge and confess this Prince of the Peripatetick Philosophy to be a personage of a profound speculation and that he had as deep an insight into the light of nature as any of the common ranck of Philosophers in his time Yea verily he had so sharp an ingeny and so subtill and refined a spirit that he not only allured by his worldly craft and humane invention the Gentilish Greeks whereupon he was termed by them Cacodaemon or a deceitfull spirit or seducing from the truth but also Christians themselves of every sect even unto this present Insomuch that they are so wedded unto his worldly wisdome that they admire each new proficient in Philosophy of their Universities to maintaine his actions and not to decline from his doctrine As for my self though I may be rancked in that number yet now I have collected my spirits and have by Gods grace attained unto that light of holy Scriptures whereby I am made able to distinguish and discerne their essentiall collours from this praestigious one of Pagans I must say with Cicero that Quaedam promissa sunt servanda nimirùm licita and on the other side Quaedam promissa non sunt servanda nempe quae sunt illicita Lawfull promises are to be observed but such as are unconscionable are to be violated Now God forbid good Christians should imagine that any oath which is made to derogate from the verity of the holy Bible should be perpetually confirmed for that were to rebell against the truth Wherefore my essentiall Motto in this my old age notwithstanding any alleageance which I have by
the Originall or primary womb from whence the waters were extracted which were the materiall stuff whereof all things were framed was this dark and deformed Abysse or Chaos and therefore had the beginning of their formall being from the Father of all-informing and vivifying light and essence But that we may directly shew unto you the egregious theft of the foresaid Philosophers from Moses his Principles That Principle which Moses termed darknesse the darke Abysse or potentiall Principle Aristotle doth call his Materia prima or first matter which he averreth to be something in puissance or potentially only because it is not as yet reduced into act Again he seemeth to term it privation but falsly being that no position did precede it On the other side Plato calleth it Hyle which is esteemed to be nothing forasmuch as it is invisible and without form Also he compareth it to a dark body in respect of the soul and spirit As for Hermes he intitleth it by the name of umbra horrenda or fearfull shadow Pythagoras maketh it his Symbolicall Unity From in this its estate it hath relation unto nothing else but it self which is mere Unity and consequently it acquireth not so much as the name of a Father because it doth not by an emanation respect or attempt the production of a Son Hippocrates will have it named a deformed Chaos or an universally troubled mass without form or shape Again as touching the first inacted passive Principle or the primary passive matter out of which all things were carved That which Moses called waters Aristotle doth intitle by the name of Second matter forasmuch as it was begotten and derived out of the bowels of the first-matter or Chaos or dark abysse which also Plato termeth the Spirit and Hermes the humid nature Hippocrates with Anaximenes the vast and universall aire of this world Pythagoras pointeth at it Symbolically by the number of duality which is the mark of imperfection for it argueth thereby the imperfect estate of matter being destitute of the formall character of Unity which maketh three and therefore the ternary number is esteemed amongst the wisest Philosophers for the root of all perfect numbers To conclude that vivifying and animating Principle which Moses called light proceeding from the Spirit of the Lord Aristotle maketh his formall beginning Plato the act or soul of the world Pythagoras delineates it by the number of three and Hippocrates calleth it that immortall heat the which when all things were troubled in the beginning by contention did sore up unto that upper region which the Ancients do call the Aether or Heaven Is not this therefore a notable kind of Robbery amongst the choisest Ethnick Philophers thus fasly to ascribe and attribute the Principles and Doctrine unto themselves which were revealed by God's Spirit unto the wise Prophet Moses and that of pupose to make themselves great and eminent not only in the eies of the Gentiles but also by subtill allurements or false and fading suggestions laid on those foundations to distract Christian men from the Truth And yet as for Plato and Hermes I must excuse them being that they do both of them acknowledg in express terms with Moses that the matter or substance wherof the heavens and the earth were made was a humid nature and the internall form or act which did dispose of it into diversity of figures or forms was the divine Word as you may find most plainly expressed in Plato's works and in the Pimander of Hermes or Mercurius Trismegistus But amongst all the rest Aristotle hath sored highest upon the wings of his own conceited imaginations and built the structure of his worldly wisdome upon the typicall form of the Mosaicall grounds thinking thereby to assume and purchase unto himself in the regard of this world the name of an absolutely wiseman though in the conclusion he appeareth far otherwise in the eyes of God for as much as he doth assigne particular essentiall actions which appertain really unto God unto the creatures with more obstinacy then the rest affirming that they operate essentially of and by themselves when in Verity it is only God that operateth all and in all and that immediatly as the Apostle Paul doth intimate unto us And this is the reason that they give not unto God the only Creator the glory of every action in this world as they ought to do but rather to a created nature and unto Angels and Stars and Elements and compounded creatures which were made and are still sustained and maintained by the all-creating Spirit or word of the Almighty And this is the originall occasion of the multiplicity of Idolatry which hath and doth hitherto raigne in this world namely of the worshipping of the Sun Moon and starres of sacrifices offered unto Idols or false Gods and deceiving Devils of the Veneration of Isis and Osiris of the adoration of Saturne Jupiter Mars Venus and Mercury of the immolations or offerings unto Caelum Vesta Ceres Proserpina Vulcan Pluto and Neptune with many other errours and absurdities whereby ignorant men are rather seduced from the knowledg of the true God than any way induced unto the understanding of him rightly And this very same Doctrine relying on the invention of man hath been the occasion that the world hath erred concerning the divine Word and through blindness have not perceived the operations and properties of the holy Spirit in the creatures yea verily it hath been the occasion why some of our Christian Philosophers themselves have neglected the research of Gods Actions in his creatures as well visible as invisible they are I say so wedded unto the Aristotelian Philosophy that they do voluntarily avert their eies from the true and certain Science of the Meteorologicall Science revealed by the Scriptures which are the fountains of Wisdome to follow the uncertain and scarce-probable doctrine of their Ethnick-Master touching that admirable subject And this is the reason that they will not acknowledg any true Meteorologicall Philosophy to be taught by the Spirit of Wisdome in the said holy Book but only matters belonging to the health and salvation of man when indeed it is most evident that whole pages or leaves as well of the books of Moses Job Psalms and the Prophets as many places of the New Testament are full of that subject All which is expressed in the book of the true Wisdome that thereby we may admire the wonderous works which the Creator hath from the beginning effected and daily doth produce in this lower world to witness his eternall power in his creatures But leaving all allaterall discourses I will proceed now unto our main Subject which concerneth the true Mosaicall Principles with their effect CHAP. II. What were the Mosaicall Principles or beginnings in generall How they were produced and extracted out of Nothing Then what is meant by that word Nothing And lastly the first Principle which is the dark Abysse or Chaos without form is particulaerly described THe
this kind of Angelicall vertue the divine spirit doth work his privative effects and acts of Inspissation and fixation in the sublunary Element causing terrestriall and earthly effects But contrariwise we find that by and in the Southerne and Easterly Angelicall spirits the all-Creating and operating power doth cause Rarefaction and Subtiliation in the said inferiour waters through their essentiall action which is heat And for this cause the said hot winds do undoe by rarefaction all that which the cold Northern winds did effect by congelation Hence therefore it commeth that of this potent Angell who is said by the wise Cabalists to be the President and Governour of the Celestiall Sun which some terme Michael quasi Quis sicut Deus of whom we will speak hereafter also touching his Angelicall organs in the 4. Corners of the earth by which he useth to do his will it is sayed The sonne of man will send out his Angels from the four winds of heaven and moreover we shall find in the place before mentioned that this imperiall Angell did rise from the Easterly angle of the world and did command the foresaid fowr Angels which had dominion over the four winds as vassals unto his will For the Text hath it And I saw another Angell come up from the East and cryed with a loud voice unto the 4. Angels unto whom power was given c. Hurt not the earth neither the seas nor the trees till I have sealed c. Whereby it is apparent that the 4. Governours of the winds are subject unto that great Angell who is the powerfull and potent Intelligence which moveth and ruleth not only the Sun but sustaineth all things by vertue of this word and this Almighty Angell is esteemed by some to be the same mentioned in the first Chapter of the Apocal. Who said I am Alpha and Omega Now that the Sun by vertue of this omnipotent Spirit whose immediate angelicall organ or instrument the Angell Michael is doth govern the airy spirit both of the lower and upper world the wise Solomon doth seem to acknowledge where he saith Sol lustrans cuncta in circuitu pergit spiritus The sun illustrating all things the aire or spirit moveth about For this reason also the Philosophers have called the winds Titanei filii the sons of Titan or of the celestiall Sun It appeareth therefore that the increated spirit which supereminently moveth in the angelicall creature Michael and therefore El or Deus fortis is annexed unto it is that self-same Princely Spirit specified by the Prophet Ezekiel as is already proved who dwelleth in the great Angel who rising up from the East commanded the 4. governours of the winds with their legions whereby it is manifest that they have all their act and power from it and are ordained to be employed onely at his will either to effect privation or position and consequently to produce condensation or rarefaction in the world at his pleasure namely position and information by his light and heat and privation or deformation by his dark and cold property And hereupon the kingly Prophet speaketh thus Angeli Dei validissimi robore efficientes verbum ejus auscultantes voci ejus ministri ejus facientes placitum The strong Angels of God which do execute his word and hearken unto his voice are his mâ—nisters to perform his will And again Qui facis angelos tuos ventos et ministros tuos ignem urentem Who makest thy angels winds or spirits for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ruach signifieth Ventus Spiritus Flatus and thy ministers flames of fire Whereby it is evident that the eternall Breath is that which animateth the Angels the Angels give life and vigour first unto the stars and then unto the winds the winds first informe the elements or rather alter the catholick sublunary element into divers natures which are tearmed Elements and then by the mixtion of divers windy forms in that one element they do produce meteorologicall compositions of divers natures according unto the diversity of the windy forms which alter it But that I may the more pertinently discourse upon these businesses and withall discusse many difficulties and scruples which have not a little troubled the Philosophers and Theosophers of our age touching the principle tabernacle of this all-acting and creating Spirit in the world Before I passe any further in this my story of Condensation and Rarefaction I will expresse mine opinion touching that point at large because the enucleation of it will be very pertinent and necessary for the opening of this main businesse forasmuch as in it not onely the world's creation but also the emperiall government of the worlds Spirit and the formall manner of production of Meteors doth consist CHAP. III. What the cavills of this our age hath been touching the seat of the all-creating and universall inacting Spirit in this world And herein also it is proved that Jerom's translation upon this Text of David Posuit tabernaculum suum in sole God put his tabernacle in the sun is according unto the true sense of Scriptures And lastly the reason of the errour in our latter Translations is herein according unto the Author's capacity expressed I Confesse there hath been a great controversie whether Jerom or Tremellius or Pagnâ—ne and some others have erred in their translation of the fore-mentioned Hebrew Text for Jerom being of greater antiquity howsoever he found the nature of the Hebrew which he translated interpreteth the first verse of the nineteenth Psalm of David Posuit Deus tabernaculum suum in sole God hath put his tabernacle in the sun Pagnine making use of the same Text but perchance corrupted and altered from the Originall copy and therefore construeth the Hebrew thus In coelis posuit Soli tabernaculum He made for the Sun a tabernacle in the heavens And Tremellius expounds it Soli disposuit tentorium in iis He made the heavens a pavillion for the Sun Verily if we consider all things rightly we must imagine that either the Text must be altered and corrupted from that Originall copy which St. Jerom had or else the reverend Jerom's worth must of necessity be called into question for so grosse a mistaking Touching the petson surely the whole Christian Church in his days would not have made election of a man of mean skill in the Hebrew language to undergo a task of such importancy being for the main good of the whole Christian Church as was the translation of the Bible out of Hebrew into Latin It would not I say have relied upon a man of small cunning either in the Hebrew language or mysteries of divinity to judge of the likelyhood or coherence of the Scripture's Harmony and therefore the ability of the person unto whose charge so great a business was committed and consequently the fruits of his labours could no way be undervalued being compared unto either Pagnine or Tremellius Again that he was held for a person
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
visible things and therefore the seas and the earth were first made or produced out of things not visible that is to say aeriall or heavenly For it is one universall aire that filleth the vast cavity or vault of the world which by reason of its levity tenuity or invisibility is called Heaven as contrariwise the earth and seas are so termed because of their gravity density and visibility Since therefore it is evident that the catholick sublunary aire is the main materiall ground and substance of that which the world calleth elements and that it is altered and changed from one estate into another by the Word or divine Spirit Ruach Elohim I mean by the eternall wisdom let us consider with our selves how this potent Spirit doth effect in that one and the same homogeneall invisible thin water or aire such Protean trans-mutations whereby there is an evident rotation made in it out of one nature into another which are therefore tearmed distinct elements We must therefore consider in the first place that this was that vivifying Spirit which the Prophet called from the four winds saying Veni Spiritus a quatuor ventis insuffla interfectos istos ut reviviscant And therefore this one Spirit Ruach Elohim was the royall commander of the four winds and by consequence could contract the aire by his windy organs and again dilate it at his pleasure and therefore it was he and no other that doth animate the four winds and agitate the Angels that are his under-governours of them to alter and change the invisible aire into visible shapes when and how be listeth And first touching his generall act in ordering the aire into divers shapes it is said Deus ventos depromite thesauris And again Aer subito cogetur in nubes ventus transiens fugavit eos Sapientia aptat pondus aeri appendit aquas in mensura ligat densas nubes ut non findantur facit pluviae statuta viam fulgeâ—ro tonitruum God draweth the winds out of his treasury The air is thickned into clouds and the wind that passeth-by doth drive them By wisdom he giveth weight unto the aire hangeth or ballaenceth the waters in it by proportion and measure bindeth fast the thick clouds so that they cleave not giveth lawes unto the rain and maketh a way unto the lightnings of the thunders By which words we may conceive that the invisible aire is the main subject on which the all-operating Spirit of God worketh and bringeth forth the fore-named visible effects and that onely by Condensation or Rarefaction which is insinuated by giving weight unto the aire For by Condensation he converteth the invisible aire into visible clouds and then by a profounder degree of thickening those vaporous clouds are condensed into raine and the thicker and more unctuous part of the cloud is concreted into a hard stone or earth So that out of the invisible aire we see evidently by condensation produced three degrees of visible substance namely a vaporous aire a thick visible water which is rain and a dense and ponderous earth which is the stone called Lapis cerauneus or Thunder-bolt ingendred by the Spirit of God in that fight which is made in the conflict between the liquifying nature of the fire and congealing disposition of the cold water Again on the other side by rarefaction the aire is converted into fire namely into lightning and all these receive their severall forms and changes from the catholick nature of the invisible aire into those shapes in which after the alteration they abide So that you may by this perceive that all that which the antique Philosophers have termed Elements are nothing else but a four-fold changing and mutation of one and the same catholick element or humid nature unto the which according as they in their changes do appear various have divers and sundry names namely of fire water and earth imposed upon them Now the principal organs by the which and in the which this Spiâ—it moveth and acteth by a diversity of property in turning and changing this catholick aeriall subject into a four-fold nature that is to say out of one thing into another are the angelicall winds which he hath ordained to blow from the four quatrers or angles of the earth in a diverse property For as before I told you out of Solomon's doctrine that this wise spirit was one simple thing in essence but man fold in property or operation so doth he being but one Spirit for it is said Veni spiritus à quatuor venus act after a four-fold manner by his four-fold angelicall winds in the catholick element of aire for when he bloweth or breatheth from the North he contracteth the common element into an earthly body namely into frost snow hail and ice And therefore David saith Deo emittente sermonem suum in terram quà m celerrâ—mè excurrit verbum ejus qui edit nivem sicut lanam pruinam sicut cineres dispergit dejicit gelu suum tanquam frusta coram frigore eius quis consistat Emittens verbum suum liquefacit ista simulac efflat ventum sâ—um effluunt aquae God sending forth his word upon the earth it runneth swiftly who bringeth forth the snow like wool and disperseth the frost like ashes and casteth down his ice like lumps who is able to resist against his cold Sending forth his word he liquefieth or melteth all these so soon as he bloweth forth his wind the waters do flow forth c. Out of which speech we may gather first that it is but one word or Spirit of God which both by a northern contraction doth change the sublunary element into an earthly condition and hard and visible consistence namely when he bloweth from the North and therefore saith Ab Arcturo egreditur frigus flatu suo edit Deus fortis glaciem latitudinem aquarum coarctat From the North commeth the cold the mighty God doth bring forth ice by his breath and coarcteth or straightneth the latitude of the waters and also by a southern blast doth melt and undo those terrestriall effects which by his northern spirit it did produce and cause Secondly that the subject in which and on the which it did operate was the aire which it did metamorphose and change from a soft tender light volatil transparent thin and invisible substance into a hard rough heavy fix opake thick and visible masse Thirdly that the word there is taken for the essentiall spirit of the wind in generall and therefore it is used as well to contract the aire into snow ice or frost as to dilate it Again the Psalmist saith Angeli Dei faciunt verbum c. Again when he breatheth from the south then this generall element becommeth vaporous airy humid and hot and will easily by the concourse of the northern fortitude though in never so small a measure be changed into clouds for the southern blast is ever apt to undo the effects
iis mala muâ—â—â— angustiae God for saketh the wicked and hideth his face from such as are impious thaâ— evill and necessiâ—y may encumber them But the speciall causes of life death and resurrection are expressed in these words of the Prophet David before mentioned O Lord how glorious are thy works in wisdom thou hast made them all the earth is full of thy riches so is the wide sea and innumerable creeping things therein Thou givâ—st unto them and they gather it thou openest thine hand and they are filled with good things but if thou hide thy face they are troubled if thou takest away their breath they die and return unto dust Again if thou sendest out thy Spirit they are re-created and revive and thou renewest the face of the earth c. Psa. 104.20 Lo here the essentiall reason and centrall manner of Generation and Corruption is exactly described and set forth by the Psalmise namely that by the presence and benigne action of the incorruptible Spirit of the Lord life is continued and contrariwise by the absence or departing or by taking of it away from the creature it dieth and corrupteth for so long as the incorruptible Spirit of the Lord acteth and worketh in the creature it is not possible it should die or corrupt but when it departeth death and corruption must needs follow also when it abideth in the body but resteth from his action or as it were withdraweth his active beams from the circumference unto the center which the Prophet tearmeth The hiding of God's face then is the creature troubled which is as much to say as it is sick but if it be totally taken away then the creature is forced for want of it to expire and die To conclude if it return and shineth forth again unto the creature then it reviveth again as it did unto Lazarâ—s and unto the Widow's child which the Prophet raised Whereby it is apparent how death is nothing else but the absence of the essentiall form and consequently it is made evident that the vivificating form is immediately from God and not that imaginary one which the Peripateticks have groped after and I prove it evidently out of these places though the precedent Text doth expresse it plainly enough Non permanebit saith the Lord Spiritus meus in homine in aeternum quia caro est eruntque Dies ejus centum viginti annorum My Spirit shall not remain perpetually in man because he is flesh and his daies shall be a hundred years and twenty Whereby is argued that it is the Spirit of God which maketh man to live and that by the absence thereof death must needs ensue But because the curious will scarce approve of this translation of Jerom saying that the nature of the Hebrew Text is otherwise taken I will maintain and confirm it by the like and of the same condition in Job Si Deus apponens ad hominem animam suam Spiritum aut flatum ejus ad se reciperet vel traheret deficeret expiraret omnis care simul homo in cinerem râ—verteretur If God setting his minde upon man should receive or draw unto himself his spirit or breath of lifâ— all flesh would fail and die and man also together with him would return unto ashes So that we see it is the Spirit of God which giveth life not onely unto man but also to every other creature And that it is meant by the reall vivifying Spirit of God which giveth life unto man expresly we have it confirmed thus by Job in another place Spiritus Dei saith Job fecit me inspiratio Omnipotentis vivificavit me The Spirit of God made me and the inspiration of the Almighty hath vivified me or given me life And therefore it followeth that if the presence of this Spirit doth cause generation life and preservation of necessity the absence of it must cause corruption death and destruction for when the Spirit of the Lord is removed from the bodily masse of the creature it leaveth it deformed and as it were another chaos or terra inanis vacua being that it is destitute of the Spirit of life which did make it to act and exist in its specifick nature And forasmuch as this incorruptible Spirit doth preserve the corporeall masse from corruption by his incorruptible vertue and power it followeth therefore that when the Spirit is departed or absolutely contracted in it self without any externall act the masse must of necessity forthwith die and return unto a privative nothing Now the difference between the resurrection from death or rather deadly sleep unto a temporall life for the words of Christ were touching Lazarus that he was not dead but slept and that which is an eternall life is this for as there is nothing that hindereth death more than the presence of the incorruptible Spirit so also is there nothing which hindereth the perpetuity of living more then a corruptible body or a body subject unto death or corruption and therefore that body must die that it may put off corruption and endue incorruption namely by purification and separation of the corruptible additaments which is effected by a loosning of the tie of the alterable elements and a freeing of the spirituall part of the corporall composition from its long captivity that it may become pure and clean which being done then by the union of the incorruptible Spirit with it all will be made spirituall so that according unto the doctrine of St. Paul That which is sowed will not be quickened except it die And that which thou sowest is not the body that shall be but God giveth it a body at his pleasure And therefore as the body is sown in corruption so it riseth in incorruption as it is sown a naturall or elementary body so it is raised a heavenly and spirituall body So that the body must die that it may put off corruption that is the corruptible portion of the impure element that it being made spirituall may abide with the Spirit of life for evermore For this reason he affirmeth that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God because in their elementary nature they are subject unto corruption and therefore cannot inherit the land of incorruption but it is the pure spirit of the blood and flesh which rise after they have deposed their grosse tabernacle unto incorruption being animated by the incorruptible Spirit of the Lord which onely causeth a temporall life in the naturall or compacted elementary masse and an eternall one unto the spirituall and refined body which is contrary in condition unto the naturall body as the Apostle doth justifie for by purification it is changed from an elementary body unto a heavenly and spirituall one Do we not see after the same example how the very grain of wheat is so exalted in vertue after it hath endured corruption and hath been freed from the grosse elementary tie that it
by degrees appear out explicitly namely in the sixt rank for it will be altered from humour to solidity with a certain distinction of the three principall Members in the seventh to an Embrionall shape and in the eighth which will make up a cube unto the materiall root 2. or the Square 4. which is characterized in the catholick Element by the impressions of the four winds into a perfect creature In like manner in the great world we see that the simple Element namely the generall aire appeareth externally plain simplicity and an invisible Nothing explicitly and yet it containeth complicitly a clowd water or rain Fire or Lightning and a ponderous stone with Salt and such like which by degrees do explicitly appear through the vertue of the four Winds So that a vapour possesseth the first rank the cloud the sixt the Lightning and clowd the seventh and the earthly Stone argueth an exact rotation of all the foure ventous forms into one mixtion which represents the eighth's place in Composition or Generation But when the man cometh to Corruption then his parts proceed in resolution backwards namely from 8. to 7. from 7. to 6. and from 6. to 5. untill it return unto the point of the simple Spermatick Element from whence it began and there it beginneth a new Generation in another form For the all-acting nature is never idle So also the Stone is resolved into water and water into a vaporous clowd and the clowd into aire from whenâ—e it came which is the simple catholick Element which admitteth no farther or proâ—ounder resolution by corruption Now the onely Operator in both these works is the Spirit of God for in Generation it shineth forth of the catholick Elements center or SpermS internall unto perfection and persevereth in his action till a perfect man be produced which Job confirmeth thus Nonne sicut Lac fudistime sicut caseum coagâ—â—asti me cute carne texisti me ossibusque nervis induisti me cum vita benignitatem exercuisti erga me Et visitatio tua conservavit spiritum meum Didst thou not poâ—â—e me forth like milk and like cheese didst crudle me Didst thou not cover me with skâ—n aâ—â— flesh Thou didst indue me with bones and sinews thou didest shew forth unto me thy benignity in my life and thy visitation doth preserve my spirit Contrariwise when the Spirit of God with-draweth his beames from the circumference of Generation and Composition unto the center of simplicity he leaveth to visite the Spirit of the creature and so it must fade ad decayingly return unto the principle from whence it came and from thence again if the same spirit is pleased to shine forth a new Generation beginneth where the Corruption or Resolution ended The Demonstration is such The Simple Square of the world's Composition where 2. that is to say Light and Water is the root The progression from the said Elementary Square unto the cube of Composition The root of Generation which is from the 4. Elements or the catholick Element four-foldly altered Where the four elements remain in their simplicity as they were created complicitely in one watry nature or rather catholick element called Aire which is the root from whence generation ariseth unto the period of perfect composition by four degrees or steps of alteration namely from the 4 to the 8. and whither tendeth retrogradely corruption namely from 8 to 4. CHAP. VII That God contrary unto Aristotle's assertion with the opinion of divers other Ethnick Philosophers doth not operate of necessity for the creation and continuation of his creatures but of his proper will and benigne inclination WE tearm that properly Necessary that can be no otherwise again we esteem that as well voluntary as fortuit or happening by chance which may be otherwise Now there hath risen and sprung up a great dispute among the Ethnick Philosophers whether God operateth in this world voluntarily or of necessity or as it were by compulsion the greater part therefore of them are flatly of an opinion that God acteth in this world as well in the generation and conservation of things as corruption of them by necessity and not by any voluntary motion whereby it must follow that he was enforced to do or effect what he doth from all eternity by some other nature which was either coeternall with him or pre-existent or else that he was excited or pushed forward against his will to effect this or that by some creature which he did make All which how erroneous and extravagant it is from the rules and center of truth I will in few words expresse unto you For first of all What I beseech you is of greater antiquity than God being that he was before any thing What is in Geometry before or in measure lesse then a point or which among all the numbers of Arithmetick is of so antient a standing as is the unity Wherefore it must needs follow that God is free and voluntary in his actions being that he was of himself and did exist without any respect had unto any other either precedent or coeternall principle from all beginning and therefore was sufficient in himself and of himself to work and operate by himself from all eternity But the principall reasons of the foresaid Ethnick opinion are two-fold first because God doth act and operate by his proper essence and not by any acquired vertue then forasmuch as the effects in the world seem to be necessary and hereupon they conclude that they cannot come or proceed from any contingent that is to say fortuit or voluntary occasion of another Unto the first me-thinks they seem to argue against themselves for as he acteth by his proper essence or substance it is evident that he is moved of his own accord and consequently not by any externall compulsion or internall necessity Moreover in the latitude of unity there can be no compulsion or coaction because that Unity cannot suffer Again it is not possible that he should be urged to work by any externall or alien efficient cause because that he remaining primarily fixed and stedfast in himself and of himself worketh as the originall fountain of all things by himself emitting his formall and vivifying beams of life at his pleasure and with-drawing them again when and where he pleaseth Unto the second I say that necessary effects do no way include any necessity in the first efficient cause because that secundary causes which Plato and other wise-men called Hand-maids or She-slaves do act at the command and inciting of him which is the unity of all multitude and therefore all in all or by a necessary order so that a necessity in worldly created things dependeth upon the volunty and command of him who made them the which order he accomplisheth and finisheth at his pleasure And therefore we find this written by the wise-man Ignem mitescit nè combureret modò ignem ille facit ardere inter aquas c. He
matter they imagine to be drops of water which are caused by the concretion or condensation of that vapour Also they make their two efficient causes cold and heat for say they it is the office of cold to condense and congeal the included vapour into water and that it is the heat and cold together which maketh the water fluxible and moovable Let it therefore be lawfull for me judicious Reader to answer these Peripatetick Philosophers with an over-worn axiom of their own and consequently to fight with them at their own weapons Their axiom is Erustra fit per plura quod fieri potest per pauciora That is vainly done or effected by many which may be effected by lesse Now if that this originall work in the producing of fountains may be performed most conveniently by one and the self-same subject of water without the altering of it first into vapour by subtiliation and afterward by condensing again that subtle vapour into water Then I make no doubt but you will conclude with me that this Peripatetick definition is vain imaginary and sophisticall by their own rules But I will make it apparent hereafter by an ocular demonstration that it is possible by a course in nature onely that water without any alteration of his consistence may by the secret veines and close passages or conduits of the earth be drawn or sucked up out of the huge seas unto the top or summity of the mountains after by his soaking through the sands and pory substance of the earth it hath left his salt nature behind it which appearing evidently to every mans sense the vanity of Aristotles invention will soon be discovered unto wise men Besides all this the sterility of his reason or invention which would faign that these vapours cleaving unto the sides of the caverns or hollow places and that there forsooth they must be converted into drops of water which from thence must issue forth into rivers will be palpable and manifest if we consider that these drops so made are apter to circulate and readier to fall down again into the bowells of the earth from whence they came by those self-same vaulty passages or hollow veines through which they ascended than to issue forth of the ground allaterally because that every heavy thing is more prone to descend then to move sidelong And therefore it is likely that either all the waters so made or the greater part must needs return downward by the way it came or ascended in the form of vapour But omitting these reasons for a while we must see if the Text which is conteined in the Book of Verity do consent in this Opinion with Aristotle and his faction yea or no. We find in the first place that it is not an accidentall and imaginary heat or cold that acteth in this Meteor's Generation but God who operateth by his Angelicall Spirits and solar act in the accomplishment of this business And although that in his action as well privative as positive cold and heat do expresse themselves as his Ministers For the Text saith Coram frigore ejus quis consistat Who can stand against his cold Yet it is his catholick positive act which he extendeth out of his sunny Tabernacle and hotter winds and privative vertue which he manifesteth in the longinquity and absence of his bright Tabernacle from the region pointed at and the propinquity of the polar seat of the colder winds to alter annually the created Element And therefore it is God which by his Spirituall Organs as well in Heaven above as Earth and Water beneath that operateth all things and amongst the rest produceth the Fountains of which the rivers are made And consequently we ought to esteem it the Act of God's Spirit which filleth the earth as Solomon saith and operateth all the naturall effects therein Which also David doth testify in these words Qui emittis fontes per valles ut inter montes ambulent potum praebeant omnibus animantibus agri frangant onagri sitim suam Qui irrig at montes è caenaculis suis faciens ut germinet foenum adjumenti herbam ad hominis usum Who sendeth forth the fountains through the valleys that they may run between the mountains and give drink unto every living creature of the field that the Asse may quench his thirst and that they may water the mountains from their cells causing the grass to grow for the use of the Oxe and the herb for the benefit of man c. So that here we have the sole catholick Agent and therefore the Operator of fountains as is proved by this Text. Again here we have the finall cause set down for the which they were created and continued in succession by God namely to water the earth for the giving drink unto all cattell and living creatures and for the multiplying of grasse herbs trees and fruit for the use as well of man as beast But will our Peripateticks say we hear no news out of Scripture for the contradicting of our matter assigned for the composition or consistence of Fountains which we say to be a vapour and not water in its naturall substance Neverthelesse to qualify this their imagination and to make them behold the Truth without Spectacles I counsell them to give eare unto this assertion of Solomon Omnia flumina saith he intrant in mare mare non redundat ad locum unde exeunt revertuntur ut iterum fluant All rivers enter into the Sea and it is never the bigger they return unto the place from whence they came that they might flow again By the which Speech of the wise-man expressing the materiall cause of Fountains the foresaid definition of Aristotle is utterly othrown for this doth evidently prove that it is one and the self-same water and that in the plain form of water without any transmutation of it out of water into vapour and then from vapour into water again as he doth erroneously alledge which moveth from the Sea unto the Mountains and from the Mountains unto the Sea again Insomuch that for this onely errour some of his earnest disciples have become Apostates or renegado's unto his doctrine For Joannes Velcurius a learned man in the worldly Philosophy and one who hath sweat and taken great pains in the Aristotelian doctrine insomuch that he wrote a Comment on his Physicks when he cometh to speak of the Generation of Fountains he seemeth to confess and publish his Master's folly in these words Non conveniunt plane Sacrae Scripturae cum Physicis de ortu fluminum fontium quae ex mari per varios alveos meatusque fluere ac ad suos fontes refluere Eccles. 1. testatur dicens Omnia flumina intrant in mare mare non redundat aâ— locum unde exeunt flumina reveâ—tuntur ut iterum fluant Caeterum Physici dicunt materiam esse vaporem resolutum in aquam liquefactum à frigore et
calore simul intra terram The holy Scriptures do not agree with the Naturalists concerning the Originall of Rivers and Fountains which Ecclesiastes 1. saith to flow by divers channels or passages out of the Sea and to flow again unto their Fountains saying All rivers enter into the Sea and the Sea is not the greater they return again unto the place from whence they came c. Whereby it is plain that he must accuse his Master of false doctrine or else he must condemn Solomon in his Judgment For if the one be contradictory unto the other it ought of all wise-men to be chased away or expelled from Christian mens remembrance Now it were a foolish thing for any religious person to say that the divinely-wise Solomon lied to save the reputation of the Ethnick of diabolically wise Aristotle But if they would yet will I teach them in the next Chapter by an evident ocular demonstration that Solomon's assertion is most true and that of Aristotle's most erroneous and fantasticall I conclude therefore that I gather out of the aforesaid places of the Bible that this following Definition doth best agree with the nature of a Fountain A Fountain is a continuated Flux of water issuing from the Sea as from his beginning and flowing into bowells of the earth and after that from the bowells of the earth as from the mean by which it passeth unto the upper or higher Superficies of it by vertue of the divine act in the mundan Spirit as well positive or dilative as privative and contractive for the benefit and sustenance both of man and beast In which definition plain water without any alteration of his shape is expressed for the materiall cause and is said to have its beginning from the Sea from whence it moveth unto the Mountain's tops The efficient cause of this work we find to be the act of the Divine Word in a double property as shall be more at large demonstrated in the next Chapter And hereupon Solomon said Sapientia erat apuâ— IEHOVAM in principio viae suae cuncta componens quaâ—do roborabat fontes abyssi ponebat mari statum Wisdome was with IEHOVAH in the beginning of his waies as a composer of all things when he did establish the Fountains of the abysse and set the Sea within his limits or bounds And lastly The finall cause is to give drink and food unto both man and beast as we may gather out of the forementioned Text of the royall Prophet We come now unto the demonstration CHAP. IX Wherein Solomon's assertion touching the Fountains and Rivers is maintained partly by an ocular demonstration and partly by true Philosophicall reasons which are founded thereon I Did advertise you Learned Reader in my precedent discourse that Gods Spirit doth operate annually in the common Element of the Sublunary world by a double vertue whereof the one is dilative which is effected in his positive and manifest property namely in his light active and warm disposition the principall Treasury and store-house whereof he hath made the Sun Forasmuch as his bright emanating Spirit of Wisdome did elect that pure vessell for his Tabernacle The other is contractive which is effected in his privative and secret condition namely in his dark fixing and cooling disposition whose principall treasury is about the poles Forasmuch as it being contrary in effect with the first is seated in the farthest quarters or points of the world from the Sun So that as the vivifying Spirit which is seated in the Sun doth by his presence operate onely by dilatation in the common sublunary Element in banishing of the Northern cold and undoing the actions thereof by the way of Rarefaction In like manner by the absence of the Sun the spirits of the Polar property doth take possession of that portion of the Element and undoeth by the way of congelation all the subtill actions of the Spirituall and active solar vertue As for example all that in the winter time among the nations of the Southern world that is to say beyond the line the Sun being then in the Northern Hemisphere causing by his vertuous Spirit our Summer season the Antartick pole's cold property doth effect namely in thickning the aire raising the Fountains or Springs and multiplying the waters producing the Snows Frost Ice and Hail mortifying the herbs fruits and plants and such like the Sun at his next visitation of those quarters which will be in our Northern winter by the vetue of that dilating and vivifying Spirit from the Fountain and Father of Light which aboundeth in it will undo converting the thick aire to thin striking down the Fountains more towards the bowels of the Earth which were raised in the winter dissolving the Snow Frost ice and hail and of fix and opake bodies making them movable and transparent waters reviving the spirit of the trees plants and herbs which were almost livelesse through congelation and renewing their mourning bodies with new green garments blossoms and flowers and lastly with wholsome fruit To conâ—lude there is nothing that the polar cold prevaileth over in the one hemisphear but the solar heat operateth contrarily by the same pâ—oportion in the oppoâ—ite region of the world for else the world must endure an augmentation or a diminution in its substance that is sometimes it would be bigger and sometimes lesser But as Sâ—lomon averred that the seas for all the comming in of rivers are never the greater so also though fountains rise in one part of the world and sinke in another and although also the aire by attenuation made by the active spirit of the Lord moveth from the warm or summer hemisphear unto the cold and winter hemisphear yet is the world no bigger or lesser in its existency for all that What therefore the winter properly doth operate in one hemisphear of the world the summer-hemisphear must needs act in the same proportion in the contrary for if beyond the Line are made great raines in their winter we must needs have great drought in the summer on this side the Line When it is hottest with us it will be coldest with them if it prove temperate with us it will be so with them as the Sun being in the Aequinoctiall maketh daies and nights equally long and the season temperate to both hemispheares These things therefore being considered maturely in the first place I proceed unto my practicall conclusion and my naturall observation thereupon is that the aire included in the Weather-glasse is made Hybernall or of the nature of winter by the dominion of cold for as soon as the head of it feeleth the externall cold the contained aire will immediately shrinck up and contract it self into a little space and consequently the aire is made more dense and thick and that this is so it appeareth by the mounting or attracting up of the water for there is such a naturall tye betwixt the one and the other that if the one contracteth it self in a
Lightnings into rain and bringeth the wind out of his Treasury Or in this manner Thunder is the multitude of the sound of waters or the voice of the clowds being effected by the coruscations and Lightnings of the Almighty Or thus Thunder is a sound of the multitude of waters being troubled fearing and bâ—aying at the bright aspect or presence of JEHOVA In which description the materiall Organ of the voice is the clowds or waters being as it were afraid and troubled at the emission of the Lightnings whereupon they give a loud voice or sound by reason of that penetrative power which the bright and shining or fiery presence of JEHOVAH who is the worker of wonders doth effect Whereupon the royall David as is said prae fulgore in conspectu ejus nubes transierunt grando carbones ignis intonuit de coelo Dominus At the brightnesse of his presence the clowds did move or pass their way hail and coales of fire the Lord did thunder from heaven And again Viderunt te aquae Deus timuâ—runt turbatae sunt abyssi multitudo sonitus aquarum vocem dedeâ—unt nubes vix tonitrui tui in rota The waters have seen thee O God and were afraid and the abysse was troubled a multitude of the sound of the waters the clouds ecchoed forth a voice the noise of the thunders wheeled about c. Also the formall cause is explicated in that it was made by a great noise and Lightnings The efficient cause seemeth to be the Lightnings from God or rather the fiery aspect of God animating the Lightnings and directing them unto a determinated mark So that it appeareth that the Lightnings are as it were the Instruments of God in his Wrath no otherwise then a sword is the instrument of the man that striketh when we say that it is this or that man which did strike and not the sword And for this cause I say with the Apostle that as it is onely God who is the sole Actour in things So also is he the Father of the Thunders who sendeth out his Lightnings as arrows from his throne Lastly I say that the finall cause expressed in them is to accomplish the divine will of the Creator To conclude it may be defined thus Thunder is the voice speech or eloquence of the Almighty or a sound going out of the mouth of JEHOVA which is directed under the whole heavens with light dispersed over the face of the earth after the which there followeth a loud noise or rumbling or God thundereth with the voice of his excellency the which when it is heard is not found Audite saith Job cum tremore vocem seu loquelam vel eloq â—um abore ejus egrediens quod sub â—oto-coelo dirigit lucem super terminos vel oraâ— terrae Post eum rugit sonitus tonat voce excellentiae suae non investigatur cum audita fuerit vox ejus Hear with trembling he directeth the voice speech or eloquence proceeding from his mouth under the whole heavens and his light over the ends of the earth After him roareth a sound he thundereth with the voice of his excellency the which when it is heard is not found To conclude it is most apparent by this which is already said that the opinion of the Peripateticks as well Christian as Ethnick is most inconsiderate and erroneous in averring that the lightnings are hot and dry exhalations extracted out of the earth and elevated on high even unto the middle region of the aire by the attractive vertue of the Sun and that they being included into a clowd and kindled partly by the collision or knocking together of other clowds and partly by the coldness of the place do by the eruption of their flames cause the thunders I would have every wise Christian to observe duely by what hath already been said whether the mystery of a tempest and whirl-wind do consist and stand upon a thing of so small moment and poor esteem as Aristotle would make us believe or if it arise not out of a far more profound and inscrutable abysse or profundity seeing that the lightnings are reported by truth it self to be such fiery lights of God as issue or proceed from his throne and the thunders are justly termed the voice word and eloquence of JEHOVA And for this reason JEHOVA reprehending the boldness of these kind of worldly Philosophers which presume so far to censure his inscrutable actions or to dive into the depth of his mysteries touching the essentiall causes of these meteors without the warrant and assistance of Gods Spirit and falsly to make the world believe that his hidden and abstruse secrets are effected after their vain imaginations which vanish in the conclusion and become as nothing because indeed they are grounded on nothing else but foolish and self-conceited phantasies and vanities seemeth to utter unto them these speeches Auribus percipite considerate mirabilia Dei fortis Nosti cum disponat Deus de illis cum splendeat lux nubis suae Nosti-ne de libramentis densae nubis mirabilia Dei perfecti scientiis Quaenam est via qua in partes dissilit lux Cujus utero egressa est glacies Aut pruinam coeli quis genuit Quanam via itur ubi habitat lux tenebrarum ubi est locus Perceive with your ears and consider the marvellous works of the strong God Dost thou know when God disposeth of them when the light of his clowd doth shine forth Dost thou understand the marvails of God who is perfect in sciences touching the ballancing and pondering of the thick clowds Which is the way in which the lightnings do skip forth being divided into parts Out of whose womb doth the ice proceed or who hath begotten the frost of heaven Which is the way that directeth oâ— leadeth unto the habitation of lâ—ght and which is the seat of darknesse This saith JEHOVA I say the strong God in checking of the vain-glorious wise-men of this world for their presumption and especially he pointeth at the bold Peripateticks who presumptuously profess that they of themselves without the teaching of the true wisdom do know all these things And yet the wisest amongst men speaketh thus Animadverti totum opus Dei non posse hominem ass qui illud opus quod sit sub sole quam laboriose homo quaerat non tamen assecutum esse quinetiam si cogitet sapientissimus cognoscere non tamen posse assâ—qui I observed every work of God that man is not able to attain unto that work which is under the sun how laboriously soever he seeketh Yea verily if the wisest man thinketh to know it he will not be able to attain unto it By which words Solomon pointeth at the insufficiency of man in himself that is to say without the conduct of the spirit of wisdom to attain unto the knowledge of Gods mysteries which also he doth seem to intimate in these
words Quis hominum cognoscit consilium Dei nam ratiocinationes mortalium sunt timidae instabiles cogitationes eorum Infestum enim corruptioni corpus aggravat animam deprimit terrena habitatio mentem plenam curis multis vix conjicimus ea quae in terra sunt quae autem in coelis sunt quis investigavit consilium tuum quis noverit nisi tu dederis sapientiam miseris sanctum Spiritum tuum è locis altissimis sie enim correctae sunt eorum quae in terris sunt semitae itaque sapientiâ fuerint salvati What man doth know the counsell of God for the reasonings of mortall men are doubtfull and unstable are their cogitations For the body being subject unto corruption doth aggravate the soul and an earthly habitation doth depresse the mind which is full of cares And we do scarcely guesse at the things which are upon the earth who is then able to find out the things which are in heaven Or who can know thy counsell unlesse thou shalt give wisdom and send thy holy Spirit from above for by that means were the waies of such men as were upon the earth corrected and amended and therefore were they saved or preserved by wisdom c. Out of which golden words I gather first That the heathen men were ignorant in the mysteries and abstruse operations of God because they wanted the true spirit of wisdom which God revealeth unto his Elect by the vertuous infusion and influxion of his holy Spirit Next that for this reason the subject of true Philosophy is not to be found in Aristotle's works but in the Book of truth and wisdom forasmuch as it is a copy of the revealed Word Thirdly that it is a great folly for Christians to seek for the truth where it is not to be found I mean in the works of the pagan Philosophers and that is made manifest forasmuch as it contradicteth altogether the verity of Scriptures and therefore it is pronounced by St. James to be terrene animal and diabolicall Verbum saepienti CHAP. XIII A conclusion of this work including an admonition unto all good Christians to beware of the Ethnick Philosophy and to stick and cleave fast unto that which is taught us by the Scriptures and that for reasons herein set down LEt it now be lawfull for me in the concluding of this Section O ye Europaeans who seem so seriously and zealously to spend your daies in the Christian Religion to turn the sharp edge of my pen and the rougher file of my speech unto you who being too too much seduced by the fals doctrin of Aristotle do think and imagine the meteors but especially lightning and thunder to be a common natural thing of little or no estimation at all as being onely produced of nature by reason of a hot distemper of the air I would request you as a true Christian ought unto his brethren to observe well and attend with diligence this admonition which I will for a Farewell bestow upon you beseeching you not to scorn or reject my precedent assertion whith hath told and sufficiently proved unto you that the lightnings and thunders yea and all other meteors are the immediate works of Gods hand being that by this endeavour of mine you may not onely bring a comfort and consolation unto your soules when you hear the terrible voice of the Lord and make you to call to mind your passed sins and iniquities and to pray him heartily to pardon you and not to call your offences unto an account in his anger but also give the honour and glory unto him who thundering from above worketh marvellously I would have you therefore to know that the worldly wise-men of this our Christian world who are as it were pages or followers of the Ethnick Philosophers have hitherto blindly or after the manner of lunatick persons erred in their imaginations forasmuch as they being instructed in the blind wisdom of this world by their Ethnick tutors and doctors will not be brought to believe that God doth work immediately all things in heaven and in earth onely by his word but mediately namely by other necessary natural or supernatural means as essential efficient causes when as the holy Text doth in plain terms instruct us that it is one the self-same essence which doth act and operate all in all by his word using each creature onely as his organ or instrument wherein and by the which he moveth and worketh his will Is not this their tenet or assertion I beseech you altogether opposite and contradictory unto the divine authority which saith Though there be that are called gods whether in heaven or in earth as there be many gods and many lords yet unto us there is but one God which is that Father of whom are all things and we in him and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him But every man hath not that knowledge c Out of which words we may gather that though we worldlings attribute this or that work unto angels or stars or winds or a created nature according unto the doctrine of the Ethnick wisdom yet such true Christian Philosophers as St. Paul was dâ—d acknowledge but one God of whom proceed all actions in this world and one Word by which onely and not by any creature in the world each thing is immediately effected in this world All which although unto reall Christians it seemeth verity and truth yet unto the Philosophers and wise men of this world this kind of doctrine issuing from the heavenly wisdom is rejected and derided And why Forsooth because as the Text doth teach us every man hath not this knowledge and the reason is because they respect more the wisdom of this world which is terrene and animal and as St. Paul saith meer foolishness before God then that which is from above namely from the Father of light Et sic evanuerunt in imaginationibus suis And so they did vanish in their imaginations I heartily wish you therefore which are brought up and made familiar in the holy Bible and nourished spiritually and guided by the law of our Lord Jesus Christ to conceive seriously and perpetually to revolve with your selves that God created the first consistence of things namely the humid and fluid waters by his word and they remain in the word and by the word in the self-same humid or moist estate as they did even unto this very day Also he framed out of this catholick water the heaven and the earth by his word as St. Peter saith Again he did produce by his said word the light in heaven the Sun the Moon the Starrs the day the night and all other creatures and did ordain them to serve for divers Organs by the which he might variously act or operate his volunty as well in heaven above as in the earth and waters beneath All which do move and work in and by the Word
time when these secrets shall be discovered which will come to pass when the seventh Seal shall be opened for then that high mystery which is the finall cause why and for what end Gods Providence will by these two opposits reveal it self and clean extinguish all enmity out of the world shall be discovered As touching nevertheless the end of this dissonancy the Apostle saith that it will be when the Son hath delivered the Kingdom unto God the Father and when he hath evacuated every Principality and Potentate and Virtue he must raign untill he hath made his enemies his foot-stool and the last enemy that shall be destroyed is Death So that as two contrarieties or discords proceeded from one Unity or unison namely Light and Darkness from one Divine Essence So also these two dissonant branches or confusion of Unities will at the last be reduced or return again into one harmonious Unity in which there will be found no dissonancy namely when these words of the Revelation are accomplished Ecce omnia nova facio vetera enim transurunt Behold I make all things new for the old heaven and earth have passed away But leaving this allaterall discourse we will proceed directly in our Sympatheticall and Antipatheticall Argument or inquiâ—ition into the which that we may penetrate with the greater celerity and facility and dive the deeper into the research of their actions it will be fit that we should describe in the first place the manner how the world doth live by the participation of these two namely of the Light and Darkness and that I will expresse unto you in few words what the Ancient Philosophers have determined about the soul of the world and lastly I will shew that their Opinions do not erre or vary much from the Testimony of the sacred Bible CHAP. IV. Wherein it is evidently proved as well by the ancienâ— Ethnick Philosophers as by the authority of Holy Scriptures that there is a soul of the world Herein also is expressed what this catholick Soul is and whereof it is composed or made I Purpose in the first rank of my discourse touching the soul of the world to expresse what the opinions as well of the ancient Cabalists and mysticall Rabbi's as Ethnick Philosophers are concerning this Subject so much condemned by some self-conceited and little skillfull persons in so profound a mystery and so highly prised and esteemed by others who have with the Lyncean eye-sight of their understanding dived and penetrated into the secret bowells of Nature with due reverence contemplated her Centrall and eternall Agent And afterwards my meaning is to set down the concordance which is observed betwixt them and Holy-Writ The Cabalist's tenent is that the great Angell whom they term Mitattron which by interpretation is Donum Dei the gift of God is that very same catholick Spirit which doth animate the whole world and thereupon Rabbi Moses doth averre it to be Intellectus a ens or the generall intellectuall agent from which all particular forms do flow And they say that from this universall angelicall Spirit all singular vertues as well animall as vitall and naturall do proceed which also they call Angells whereof there are an infinite number in respect of our capacity And the Philosopher Democritus Orpheus with divers of the Pythagoreans do not much differ from this opinion of these Rabbi's but in variety of name onely for they imagine that all things are full of gods and therefore they offered divine Honours Praiers and Sacrifices unto them in the creatures and did worship each of them with a divers fashion of ceremony But they had evermore that regard unto JEHOVA the eternall Unity and Father of all things that they referred all these gods unto one Jupiter This point nevertheless being ill understood by the ignorant was an especiall cause of Idolatry being that hereupon the simple fell unto the worshipping of the creature in stead of the Divinity which was in the creature And for this reason Solomon Vani sunt homines omnes naturà in quibus est ignorantia Dei qui ex iis quae spectantur bonis eum qui est intellig ere non potuerunt neque ex operibus consideratis ipsum opificem agnoverunt All men are naturally vain in whom is the want of the knowledg of God and cannot conceive him that truly is by such good creatures as they sensibly do discern nor yet have scanned and discovered the Workman by the consideration of his works In like manner the Platonists did call the generall vertue which did engender and preserve all things the Animam mundi or the soul of the world And to this their opinions the Arabick Astrologians do seem to adhere forasmuch as they did maintain that every particular thing in the world hath his distinct and peculiar soul from this vivifying Spirit To this opinion also Mercurius Trismegistus Theophrastus Avicenna Algazel and as well all the Stoicks and Peripateticks do seem wholly to consent or agree Again Zoroaster and Heraclitus the Ephesian conclude that the soul of the world is that catholick invisible fire of which and by the action whereof all things are generated and brought forth from puissance unto act Virgil that excellent Latine Poet calleth it that mentall Spirit which is infused through every joint and member of the world whereby the whole Mass of it namely the heaven and the earth or spirit and body are after an abstruse manner agitated and moved His words are these Spiritus intus alit totamque infusa per arâ—us Mens agitat molem c. A Spirit saith he doth nourish within and being infused over all the joints or members of the world it doth move the whole substance of the same Marcus Manâ—ius as also Boetius and Augurel being later Poets are of Virgil's opinion For Manlius saith Hoc opus immensi constructum corpore mundi Vis animae divina regit The divine power of the â—oul doth govern this work which is erected in the body of the vast world And Boetius Tu triplicis mediam naturae cuncta moventem Connectis animam Thou dost frame or tye together a mean soul of a triple nature which movâ—th all things And Augurel saith Nonnulli quicquid diffunditur undique coeli Aëraque terras lati marmoris aequor Intus agi referunt animà quà vivere mundi Cuncta putant ipsumque hà e mundum ducere vitam Ast animae quoniam nil non est corporis expers Mundus at mundi partes quoque corpore constant Spiritus hic intermedius fit quem neque corpus Aut animum dicunt sed eum qui solus utroque Participans in idem simul haec exâ—rema redâ—cat Some say that whatsoever filleth the Heaven the Aire the Earth and wide Seas is stirred up by a soul through the vertue whereof all things in the world do live and also that the world it self doth exist by it But because
mane tenebras diem in noctem mutavi vocavi aquas maris effudi eas super terrae faciem Coelos den que mediante Spiritu meo ornavit Deus converti coelum in gyro in locum suum uno die omniaque numero pondâ—re meâ—sura disposuit temperavit God by his wisdom giveth proportion of weight unto the aire hangeth the waters in measure He made the earth in his strength prepared the world in his wisdome and extended the heavens by his prudency He hanged the North upon emptinesse and inâ—nity and ballanced the earth upon nothing For she was present at the building of the heavenâ— and it was â—he that did compasse and fashion out all things When God did establish the foundations of the earth she was present and composed all things And in another plaâ—e this Spirit of wisdom saith I came out of the mouth of the most high being first-born or brought forth before any creature I was created in the beginning before all ages neither shall my beeing cease in the latter age of the world and I do administer before him in his holy habitation I caused a never failing light to rise in the heavens and I covered the earth after the manner of a mist. I dwelled in the highest places and my throne was in a câ—owdy pillar I alone did compasse round about the heavens and did penetrate into the profundâ—â— of the abysse and I walked in the waves of the seas and I stood upon every earth I made the North or pole-star and Orion and I turned the darknesse into day and the day unto night I called the waters of the seas and poured them out upon the face of the earth I turned the heavens about unto his place in one daies space To conclude God adorned the heavens by my spirit and did proportionate and temper all things in number weight and measure c. By which testimonyes it is most apparent that all changes alterations actions ornaments of beauty motions numbers weights measures and consequently all diversities that are made in the generall homogeniall mass of the waters are effected by this vivifying emanation of the benigne and bright spirit of the eternall Unity whose root is the Word for in verity according unto St. Paul it is onely this Spirit that doth operate all in all And therefore I must needs conclude with the kingly Prophet and say Opera Dei mirabilia ampla sunt quae omnia fecisti in sapientia The works of God are marvellous and ample which thou hast effected in thy wisdom And again Verbo Domini firmati sunt coeli Spiritu oris ejus omnis virtus eorum By the word of the Lord the heavens were fashioned and fastned and by the Spirit of his mouth each vertue thereof Which words do seem to infer not onely the materiall substance of the world which is intimated by that word Heavens but also the inacting form that is the vivifying beginning of all things which hath no beginning and this is signified by the Word and his off-spring the Spirit from the which the waters first received their beeing and then of these catholick waters were the heavens the earth and elements made in number weight and measure that is to say were effected by a subdivision through the spagerick act of the self-same word or spirit And therefore St. Peter hath it Coeli erunt priùs terra de aquis per aquas consistentes verbo Dei The heavens and the earth were of old of waters and by waters consisting by the word of God As who should say after the Spirit of the Lord had issued out of the dark abyss for it is said Verbum erat in principio The Word was in the beginning and had given act and form and consequently a name unto the waters for it was said that the Spirit of the Lord was carried upon the waters the same Spirit did operate to reveal explicitely and particularly that which the Chaos did at the first contain in it self complicitely and confusedly and that in a generality wherefore when it had revealed the universall matter of all things which was water it did by little and little anatomise it and open the secret closets thereof to shew forth and make manifest that which from all eternity lay hid in it and was without form or beeing and therefore esteemed rightly for Nothing And first the substance of the world was made of it in generall as it appeareth by this Text Manus omnipotentis mundunt ex informi materia effecit The hand of the Omnipotent did make the world of a matter without form or shape And as St. Jerom interpreteth it Ex materia invisa Of an unseen or invisible thing Then that watry and humid substance was divided into the heaven and earth in distinguishing the waters from the waters by the same Spirit which is the ministring hand of the Almighty for the Text hath it In habitatione sancta coram ipso ministravi I did administer before him in the holy habitacle And again Sapientia apud ipsum fuit cuncta componens Wisdom was she that composed all things with God And this was the second daies work Then the lower waters were divided into elements namely earth water aire c. and that was the third daies separation as Moses doth methodically demonstrate All which Hermes expresseth thus as is said before Ex luminis voce verbum factum prodit verum hoc naturae humidae astans eam fovebat Ex humidae autem naturae visceribus sincerus ac levis ignis protenus evolans alta petit aer quoque levis spiritûs parens in mediam regionem inter aquam ignem sortiebatur terra verò aqua sic invicem commixta jacebant ut terrae facies obruta nusquam pateret The word which was made did issue out of the Light 's voice and this Word being present and assistant unto the humid nature did foster and preserve it Then the light fire proceeding out of the bowells of the humid nature soared or mounted aloft The thin air aâ—sâ— which is the father of the spirit did elect the middle region which is between the fire and the water for his abode The earth and water did lie so intermingled together that the face of the earth was no where overflowed or drowned by the waters Whereby it is evidently proved that this thin spirituall water or humid nature in it self is no more than mans spirit without the vivifying act of life for as in the soul of every creature that liveth there are two things chiefly to be required namely an Agent and a Patient so where the one of these are wanting there can be no created soul for if that the world's life was onely the essentiall breath of God without the vehicle of the created humid spirit which is the matter of heaven then that life would be simple identity and of one and the same property
them lines others sorts on which the virtue of things do depend They erre not much in this saying onely in appearing to divide the Godhead into diversities of gods but they seem to excuse themselves of that error in saying that all those gods had relation unto one Jupiter and so by that word relation they preserve the continuity and indivisibility in the Soul They agree therefore with Scriptures in that their meaning is that this divine essence is in all things For as Scriptures acknowledg that the catholick Spirit of Wisdome is one simple Spirit and yet it is tearmed by Solomon multiplex or manifold in respect of his multiplicity of action or property in creatures which it animateth for it is said to fill the universe And the incorruptible Spirit of God to be in all things and to give life and motion unto all forasmuch as it is omni re mobilior more movabâ—e and sprightfull then any thing and being but one thing it is able to do all things it being permanent in it felf and therefore doth animate all being that it is in all and every where For this reason also the Poets say Omnia Jovis plena that all are full of Jupiter That is to say the essentiall beams of this Eternall Jupiter or JEHOVA are in every particular place of the world making things to live and exist by a different property And for this reason they conclude that omnia diis plena as is said all things are full of gods I come unto the third The Platonists and all those Philosophers which partake with them differ in nothing from Orpheus Democritus and the rest saving that those call that the Soul of the world which the other tearm Jupiter and the Gods which possesse all things they nominate peculiar souls or mentall beames which depend and have a continuated relation unto the Anima mundi as the incorruptible Spirit of the Lord that filleth each particuler is not discontinued from that humid fountain which filleth the universe It is evident therefore by this which is already said that all the subsequent opinions of the Philosophers touching the Anima mundâ— may be fully confirmed and maintained by the self same reasons and therefore I will say no more touching this point at this instant I conclude therefore thus that seeing the Soul of the world hath for his internall act the bright emanation of the eternall Unity and the subtile catholick created Spirit for its humid Vehicle or materiall Organ which is its externall in which and by which it operareth in all and over all We must acknowledg that there is a kind of contrariety in the very catholick Soul for else would not action and passion be in the created Soul which is so called because it is made of alterity that is of two namely of a creared passive which is an off-spring of the dark Chaos and therefore apt to move unto darknesse by a naturall inclination and of an increated active which seeketh to Deify this Spirit if it do adhere or incline unto it and to exalt its light Hence cometh it that by reason of this Spirit 's divers inclination there are good or bad passions ingendred not onely in the heavens and earth of the great world and their creatures as well celestiall and elementary as animall vegetable and minerall but also in the little world which is man as shall be expressed in the first Chapter of the next Book But first I deem it most fit to open unto you the true mystery how the peculiar Soul of the little world and then how all other Souls as well animal vegetable and mineral do proceed and spring from and afterwards are preserved and multiplied by this catholick Soul of the world which is a doubt not fully decided by the best Philosophers even unto this very day And therefore ought this discourse of ours not to be slighted or lightly regarded even of the learnedest of this our Age. CHAP. V. How all particular Souls are said to spring forth or proceed and then afterwards to have their preservation and multiplication from this generall Anima mundi or Soul of the world and first to begin with that of the moâ—â— noble which is of the little world or Man HErmes called also for another reason Mercurius Trismegistus said rightly that the world was made after the similitude or Type of God and therefore as the one is tearmed Archetypus so also the other is said to be Typus For this reason therefore in another place he saith Scio mundum à Deo atque in Deo hominem vero a mundo in mundo consistere principium autem comprehensioque omnium Deus I know saith he that the world is from God and in God and that man is of the world and in the world But God is the beginning and the comprehension of all things And again he speaketh thus else where in a generality Deus est Cosmi Pater cosmus vero eorum quae in Cosmo cosmus quidem Dei filius jure Cosmus appellatus est quia omnia veritate generationis exornat necnon indesinenti vitae operatione perpetua necessitatis celeritate elementorum commistione ordine genitorum Cosmus quaecunque ab ipsa origine suscepit à Deo perpetuò servat God is the Father of the world the world is the father of them that are in the world and the world is the off-spring of God and it is rightly called Cosmus because it adorneth with verity every kind of generation and also with a never ceasing operation of life and a perpetuall celerity of necessity in the commixtion of the Elements which by order are brought forth c. In all this he varieth not from Scriptures For that in the beginning God is said to have made the world of a matter without a form and to have adorned his humid nature or the heavens with his vivifying Spirit which filleth and operateth all in all as I have told you before and that from the breath of the self-same Spirit of life all the creatures of the world are animated and from the substantiall Elements in the world they receive their matter So that as God by the pouring forth of his bright vivifying and all-acting Spirit did make the humid and passive nature of the world to operate and that so animated Spirit which is mixed secundum totum in qualibet ejus parte in all and every part with his increated Animatour is rightly called the Soul of all the Universe So we ought to make no question at all but that every particular Soul in this vaulted machin of the world doth depend and is procreated preserved and multiplied from that catholick Soul because it is an axiom infallible among Philosophers that the whole doth comprehend each part and again each particular hath his existence and being from the whole But the world's catholick materiall Spirit is inacted and preserved by the catholick Eternall Spirit
in the animals it is easie to know how blood in the animals body is transmuted from a white chylous substance into a rubicund and ruddy blood By reason of his vegetation and multiplication in substance it is an easie matter to guesse the manner of augmentation and vegetation and also of the quantitative multiplication by way of generation of the animal For verily I have observed so worthy an experiment in this vegetative salt in the Wheat of which the blood of man by eating of bread is full that we need not to make any doubt but that it is the onely substance of vegetation as well in the animall as vegetable For on a day when I had cast away the faeces or superfluous part of the substauce out of which I did draw the salt liquor into a large Pipkin and covered it with a thin plate of iron within three weeks or a months space I found it to have struck up out of the pot quite through the plate of iron and to make above a thousand blades like an iron-coloured saffron to grow up out of the superficies of it which argueth the admirable vegetative property that it hath in it But letting this suffice to expresse the occult puissance of this secret fire of God in nature in all vegetables mineralls and other animals I will now convert the file of my speech onely unto that wondrous act and operation which this admirable Spirit effecteth in the little world or man The spirit of life was by God so inspired into man that he was made a living creature no otherwise then when Elohim Ruach was breathed on the waters they were animated and vivified and became a great world which the Platonists for that reason called Magnum animal A great living creature But as the world was made after the image of God before man was made and afterwards man by the same Spirit in the world was framed by the Word after the pattern of that Spirit of life and the substance of the waters which were in the great world Therefore we must conceive that man hath the vivifying means of his sustentation preservation and multiplication by generation from the soul of the world and his elements Wherefore Hermes doth not unadvisedly expresse the descent and ingression of the worlds vivifying spirit into man after this manner A er est in corpore anima in aere mâ—ns in anâ—ma in mente verbum Verbum verò est eorum pater The aire is in the body the soul or life is in the aire the mentall Spirit is in the soul the Word is in the mentall Spirit and the Word is the Father of them all And he concludeth in that place Quod Verbum sit imago Dei mens verbi anima mentis aer animae corpus aëris That the Word is the Image of God the mental beam the image of the word the vitall Soul the image of the mental beam the aire of the vitall Soul and the body of the aire Whereby we may discern the admirabletie which every portion of each dignity in the great world hath unto other in the composition of the little world and therefore it is made evident that the purest portion of elementary matter is aire the purest sublimity of the aire is the vitall form in which is the mentall beam and in it is the Word which is God and we must observe that by mentem or the mentall Spirit is meant the vivifying Spirit of Wisdom which filleth all things whose fountain as Ecclesiasticus doth teach us is the Word of God as if I with Hermes should say the bright and eternall Spirit of life in the quintessentiall Spirit maketh the Soul the Soul in the aire is conducted into the body where it operateth the effects of vivification and internall multiplication of the Species and therefore he saith in another place Anima hominis in hunc vehitur modum Mens in ratione ratio in anima anima in spiritu spiritus in corpore Spiritus per venas arteriasque sanguinemque diffusus animal undique ciet The Soul of man is carried into his body after this manner The mental beam is the reasonable spirit the reasonable spirit is in the Soul or ethereall spirit the Soul or ethereall spirit is in the airy spirit and the airy spirit is in the body which moveth through the veins and arteries and being dispersed over all the blood doth agitate and move the body on every side We must therefore imagine that the aire which is drawn into our heart by inspiration is full of that divine treasure of life the which residing in the heart of man sucketh and draweth his life into it by a magnetick force and virtue For nature coveteth and rejoyceth at the presence of its like as is said And again that the heart is the precious store-house of the active treasure of life we may collect out of this speech of Solomon Cor tuum custodi supra onâ—nem observationem quia ab eo procedunt actiones vitae Gard with the best diligence and keep charily thy heart seeing that from it proceed all the actions of life The nature and instruments by which the Spirit attracteth magnetically and expelleth after attraction that of the humid vehicle of aire which is inutil and superfluous in this Being that without the sparks of life and generation which swimme in the aire no creature amongst the which we esteem Man to be the chiefest can live scarsly a moment of time it is most necessary that they should be drawn and sucked in by the creature every minute for without this necessary act with the salutary effect thereof the animal will forthwith be suffocated or strangled for by the deprivation of the aire the soul will soon cease his vivifying operation forasmuch as it is nothing else but a portion of eternall light in the soul of the world which is composed as I proved before of the divine emanating virtue and the subtil humid nature of the world whereof the first affordeth the Calidum innatum or natural heat of life and the last the humidum radicale or radical moisture unto the creatures existence and therefore by the inspiration of aire this double virtue is every moment renewed and refreshed in the creature This Spirit therefore the Animal and by consequence man inspireth or sucketh into the left chamber ventricle or region of the heart by the contraction of the straight fibres of the heart when the transverse and oblique fibres will be relaxed whereby the heart will be dilated or opened and this action is called of the Physitians Diastole In the time thereof or interval of this motion the heart doth draw into his left vessell by the Arteria venosa or veiny artery out of the lungs whither it first was conveyed by inspiration through the aspera arteria or weesell-pipe a portion of the airy store-house of nature with his vitall treasury contained in it being as is
said ordained by God for vivification and spiritual and seminal generation's cause that is to say for the nutrition of the vital and internal generative Spirits no otherwise then the liver is accustomed to suck and draw the chylous juice of the gross nutriment for the engendring and fosâ—ering of the naturall spirits which are ordained for vegetation or encreasing of the bodily parts Again after that nature hath received and drawn-in into her well-adorned and subtilly adapted still-house or laboratory I mean the heart this aereal Spirit with his concealed or occult treasure she beginneth in it to anatomise and sift or search the bowels of of this attracted aire and separating the celestiall nature or true vitall treasure of the invisible fire of life from the grosser and most inutil portion of the aire it reserveth onely the purest which is nothing but a subtile volatile salt adapted to serve as a vehicle for the divine fire of life or true vivifying Spirit in the aethereal and quintessentiall nature and then as for the selected Spirits of life she encloseth them in her large arteriall store-house called Aorta or Arteria magna the great Artery sending immediatly the more superfluous fuligions and inutil part of the aire back again the way it came by exspiration And this expulsive action is effected by the contraction of the transverse fibres of the heart and the relaxation of the straight for by this means the heart is also contracted or compressed which action of motion is called by Physitians Systole And we must understand that for the better preservation of this golden treasure of life within his arterial treasure house God in nature hath so ordered that there is a triple valve or gate like three half-moons to close it in and to keep it securely for the bodies necessity lest it should fly away by the passage it came in and therefore this three-leaved gate is fashioned after such a manner that it doth open within and is closed without so that what gets into the great Artery cannot return back again as in like manner at the mouth of the venal artery there is a double gate compacted of two valves and they do open without and shut within so that fresh aire may easily enter but the treasure included after the expulsion of the fuliginous vehicle or superfluous aire may be retained Now will I 'm few words expresse unto you the action of this heavenly Spirit After it is thus included in the arteriall trunk it is certain that it doth dilate it self through the branches or divided channells thereof over all the body For by those branches called Charotides a refined portion of it doth ascend unto the brain by those smal conduicts I say the super-celestiall part of this Chymicall extraction forasmuch as it is in dignity the most super-excellent of all the fountain of life doth challenge unto his seat and possession the noblest and loftiest region of this micro-cosmicall palace and as it were his Emperiall heaven for hither soareth the mentall beam in his rationall vehicle electing this place for its chief tabernacle or coelum coelorum yet so that the beames of his power are reflected unto every branch of his divided Arterial cabinet For this reason therefore all Physitians as well Ethnick as Christian have concluded that the voluntary humane action hath his seat in the brain being the region of the animal virtue or faculty whereas the other two actions of man namely the vitall in the heart and naturall in the liver seem to be subject unto this being that they are actiones involuntariae unvoluntary actions and this is the reason that the Brain is the seat of reason and understanding Then in the second rank that portion of the introducted Spirit which in the forge of man's nature is framed out and found fit for the action of life is convayed into those branches of the great Artery which are called Cervicales Humerariae and those which assigne life unto the region of the Chest or breast where it doth indue and take on it that impression of spirituall vivacity which belongeth unto those parts as also the Coronariae do assume unto them the internal or ideal shape of spirits belonging unto the heart and so forward touching the other Arteriall branches and their contained heavenly treasure So that this invisible spirit lurking and as it were swimming in the thin substance of the airy spirit doth not onely expanse and dilate it self to the vivifying of each member in the body but also by a contraction of it self into a spermatick cloud the which happeneth in the act of copulation through a certain magnetick virtue animated by divine love this spirit is miraculously convayed into two preparing arteriall spermatick vessells from every member but especially from the three principalls and there this celestiall Spirit full of divine fire after the Image of the radicall Archetype in whom all things were first spiritually and ideally delineated before they were in the regard of man even as the Prophet David did glory in that he had wholly received the image of the Temple described by the hand of God which afterward was put in act containeth the invisible of that humane body which shortly was to be inacted and really to be delineated and brought forth unto man's sight that is to say it did ideally possesse the shape of the inward or spiritual man as also the image of the externall or corporall man being compacted of the four Elements proceedeth from the visible sperm which issued from the two venall spermatick vessells But that this is so we have it plainly as I imagine confirmed by these words of Holy-Writ Tu possides renes meos ex quo obtegebar in utero matris meae non celata est vis mea tibi ex quo factus sum in abdito artificiosè confectus velut in imis partibus terrae Massam meam vident oculi tui in libro tuo omnia membra mea sunt scripta ex quibus diebus for mabantur cum nullum ex iis extaret Thou dost possesse my reines from the time that I was covered in my mothers womb My strength is not hid unto thee from the time that I was made and was artificially shaped as it were in the lower parts of the earth Thine eyes do behold the masse whereof I was made and all my members were described and delineated in the dayes that they were shaped or informed when none of them did visibly exist And to this purpose it is said else-where Spiritus Dei fecit me spiraculum omnipotentis vivificavit me The Spirit of the Lord made me and the breath of the Omnipotent did vivifie me That is First he reduced me into a mass of seed and afterwards did make it alive by his breathing into it And the wise-man Ut ignoras quae sit via spiritus quomodo ossa pinganturin ventre praegnantis sic nescis opera Die quia est fabricator
are reasonable namely Man as unreasonable to wit the Stars of heaven and earthly creatures both animals vegetables and minerals And therefore Archangelus the Cabalist maketh many degrees in the offices of Angels For some saith he do stand before the divine tribunall of God still praising him some administer unto him and unto us also some have the custody of the watches of the night of which CHRIST maketh mention If he came in the second or thâ—â—d watch of the nâ—ght c. Some have the government of the four quarters of the year and these are Presidents over the four stations of the Sun others are ordained rulers over the seven Planets and some do dispose of the influences and vertues of the fixed Stars and twelve Signes of which St. Joâ—â— doth seem to make mention saying That in the twelve gates that is the twelve Signes which as Plato saith are the ports of heaven are the twelve Angels Some are tuâ—elar Angels and are ordained for the creatures safeguard some have the custody of beasts others of plants others of pretious stones and mineralls All these the secret Theologians and wisemen do affirm averring withall that God worketh all in this inferiouâ— world by the administration of Angells And therefore St. Paul saith That all are administring spiâ—â—ts sent to effect that office Thus far Archangelus And again Reuclin argueth That the influxion of angelicall beams from the stars must be divers and of sundry natures because that the Angells do not by their voluntary action move the celestiall Orbe alwaies after one manner though by reason of the violent motion it doth move daily by a diurnall motion from East to West But what needs many words when the progression of the foresaid Cabalisticall work doth open and discover all the myâ—ticall operation and variety of action in the Angells For if once the ten names of God which produce ten divers emanations of different conditions which are sent by the ten foresaid numerations or sephiroticall ports or channells do breed contrary effects both in heaven above and in earth beneath it followeth by the foresaid testimony of the Prophet David that there must be so many angelicall vehicles to conduct them into the lower world as there are Cabalisticall ports and channells and consequently as many diversities of the divine properties proceeding from the variety of his will as also varieties of vehicles to conduct them For I would have each judicious Reader to conceive that the Hebrew Doctors did judge of the nature and property of each Name or attribute ascribed unto God in holy Writ by that self-same effect which it produced after the uttering or expressing of it therein no otherwise than the Philosopher useth to judge of the nature and property of the complexion by the aspect of the Physiognomy or as by the signes whiâ—h he beholdeth in the heavens he determineth of their effects to wit of rain winds thunder c. namely because such presages in the heavens do use to bring forth such and such effects Now as I have proved before if it be the divine influence of light which animateth and informeth each angelicall spirit it must needs follow that every one of these angelicall conductions or vehicles of these influences must have also a divers property because the formall influences which do animate these intelligences which carry them are different and therefore they will be naturally prone and enclined to operate the will of the Creator according unto the nature of emanation or beams of that property which it receiveth from his proper port As concerning therefore those angelicall receptacles or organs which are ordained to receive the divers kinds of divine influences or irradiations I purpose briefly to expresse them in the first place for the better understanding of the Reader with the channell they do belong unto and then the order of Angels which doth first receive them After this I will set down the celestiall Orbes or Stars into the which as unto their particular store-houses they are conveyed And lastly I will speak somewhat of the effects that these influences which are conveyed down from their starry treasury into the elementary world do effect both in the aire seas or water and earth Touching therefore the Names or attributes of God as also their emanations or streaming forth of beams with their peculiar properties I have in few words written them in the precedent Chapter as for the rest I would have the Reader to know that those ten severall divine emissions of ten severall lights out of so many Sephiroticall or Cabalisticall spouts or channells into the vast cavity of the world to accomplish the will of the Creator have their particular angelicall waggoners or conductors for in this the best Theosophers agree that as the upper Order of the Angels do receive their light and bright emanations immediately from God so do they emit them and manifest them unto the inferiour Orders and for this reason they are called Mirrours because they receive their light from the face of God or his eternall catholick emanation which as I have proved before is the head and fountain of all these Angelicall lights And again as the secret Theologians have by their serious observation of the holy Bible espied ten distinct properties as also ten divers cognominations or Names of God appropriated unto them so they perceived that there was a singular Angel appointed to receive each of these emissions of beams endued with the self-same property or condition as the lights which they receive do possesse forasmuch as these Spirits do live and are animated by them being that as the externall of the Angell is a spirituall aire so the internall of it is the formall irradiation or emanation which is according unto Gods will emitted into it And this is a generall note amongst all the secret Theologians unto whom Bartholomaeus and St. Dennis do adhere touching this point that no Angell can intermeddle with anothers businesse or take upon him the work that belongeth unto another except it be such inferiour Angels as are destinated to serve under their Arch-angels in the same function or property as shall be said more at large We must therefore understand that the office of the great and catholick Angell Mitattron was so universall that it was employed first about the information of the whole world and the division of light from darknesse as also for the vivifying of the watry spirit of the world and the diurnall rouling about of the heavens And therefore it is said and not without a good cause That it was the divine and generall Emanation that is the eternall Sapience which for this reason is said to be created before all things by whom afterward all things were made or created And for this reason it is said That this Angel doth contain in it all the angelicall perfection no otherwise than the universall beams of the Sun are comprehended in the body of the Sun Wherefore we
do with the Hebrew Rabbies justly apply the essence of the first emanation unto Mitattron which emanation is said to enter by the royall port or gate Cheter or Corona For know that this catholick Angell is said to be the first creature because it importeth the spirit of the world which did first receive the first-born son or the Emperiall emanation from the Attribute of God called EHIAH which is a name of eternity for that it containeth and doth respect the time past the time present and the time to come For this cause therefore doth this great Angel style it self Alpha and Omega the beginning and the end The first influence therefore which was of universall life and essence is received by the Angel Mitattron which is for this reason called Donum Dei after it was shouted down from the port Cheter into the highest order of the Angells called Seraphin which by reason of their propinquity unto the throne of God are said to burn or be set on fire with divine love And hereupon these have their excellent beauty and clearnesse by reason of this sacred influence which is so full of the loving benignity of the Father of light From thence this potent angelicall nature conducts the beams of this light into the convexity of the aetheriall heaven and there bestowes it as in a generall magazin or store-house which place it afterwards informs or vivifieth insomuch that by the admirable action and motion thereof it is called Primum mobile or that sphear which moveth first in the heavens and by his motion it turneth the naturall or temporall world round about from the East unto the West in twenty four houres The mover is this catholick Angel of the world full of this eternall emanation by which it animates the world Therefore also is Sapientia said to be omnium rerum priùs creata the first of all creatures and Fluxus virtutis Dei emanaâ—io claritatis ejus omni re mobilior penetrans ubique propter suam munditiam permanens in se omnia innovans It is an influence of the vertue of God and the shining forth of his brightnesse which is the most movable of all things penetrating all things by his purenesse and being one in essence reneweth all things that is it reviveth every thing By which it is plain that this catholick emanation is the soul of the world having endued or put on the universall angelicall spirit and therefore is called by the holy Text a Creature so that the catholick created spirit of the world is the Primum mobile for by this first-born emanation from God it is animated and moved as by the swiftest mover in the world and the mover is tearmed Primus motor both together or called Mundi anima which therefore is defined to be in respect of the created spirit thus animated Primum mobile spoâ—te per se mobile The first thing moved which is moved voluntarily and by it self And for this reason also the animal faculty in man which is sedes animae intellectulis is said to move voluntarily when the action â—f the vitall and naturall faculty compared unto the etheriall and elementary heaven do move unvoluntarily that is at the will of the first mover And this work is therefore assigned unto this sphear with the legions of intelligences that are derived from and created there by their catholick head which is the said grand Arch-angell as beams from one Sun partly to hinder the starry lights which were after created from burning the elementary world or working by their long continued impression too violent and unnaturall alterations as also to make a proportionable day and night unto the earth To conclude by this angelicall act the whole spirit of the world was generally inacted The divine emanation which issued from the second Sephiret or port called Hochma which is sent out by the Attribute IAH passeth into the order of the Cherubins which signifieth the plenitude of Science and abundance of the gifts of Wisdom and is received of the Arch-angel Zophiel which by the etymology of his name argueth pulchritude as being replenished with an infinity of particular beams of life But another calleth this keeper and conductor of these beams Ruziel who immediately doth direct them into the firmament or heaven of the fixt starrs and principally into the broad girdle of the starry heaven which is called the Zodiack arguing by the etymology of his name that the beams of this emanation do chiefly work and fashion out ideally the liniments of an infinity of particularities in the elementary world as shall be demonstrated hereafter The third effluxion which is made from the port Binah under the protection of the name ELOHIM descendeth immediately into the order of the Thrones arguing thereby Gods severe property full of â—udgment and is received by the Arch-angel Zabkiel or as others will have it of Kaspiel which is as much to say as Genius Cholerae magnae and this effluxion is conducted down into the next sphear below the firmament which it informeth according unto the naturall property of the divine influx and it procreateth the globe of Saturn which it replenisheth with spirits or inferiour intelligences called by the name of Saturnine Intelligences which send down these influences into the elementary world to produce effects according unto their nature as well in the aire and water as in and upon the earth The fourth emanation which is derived from the conduit-pipe of Chesed over which the word EL hath dominion is received of the angelicall order of Dominations which import power against evill spirits and the benefit of life and breath and then is committed unto the Arch-angel Zadkiel which is by interpretation Genius justitiae and this Angel according unto the nature of the influence which it carrieth is a friend unto the true Justice in the proportion of the elements and a friend unto the creature's life wherefore it conducteth the beams of this property into the next or be below Saturn which they make a dwelling place for an infinity of spirits that are created out of the same informing influence and therefore are of its property This Terra Angelica Olympi is tearmed the Star of Jupiter and these kinds of Olympick spirits are tearmed Jovial Intelligences which do poure forth the streams of their influence into the elementary regions and animateth the spirits of its nature which work effects appropriated unto the property of this influence The fifth eradiation or emission of divine beams is out of the Sephiroticall numeration or port called Geburah whose President is the divine Attribute ELOHIM GIBBOR and these beams are said to passe directly into the order of Potestats and the Arch-angell unto the which these beams are committed is called Samaâ—l or as others will Hamael and it is a Genius which importeth horrour and this Intelligence doth conduct the beams of its Emanation into the Sphere which is below that of Jupiter and informeth the spirits
we see that as well there are good beams or benigne spirits which by a secret and hidden Emanation do stream forth from the fountain of the winds namely those which are poured out by JEHOVA's benigne Attributes as are El by Jupiter Eloach by the Sun Sadai by Venus and then Michael Raphael Gabriel c. do by their Legions execute God's Will And there are bad and corrupt or privative emission of spirits of a contrary fortitude from the winds which have their Originall from Elohim Elohim Gibbor and Adonaia which make Saturn Mars and the Moon their store-house neither would I have any one to wonder that I should derive the multiplicity of the good and the bad properties which are effected by the winds from one Divine essence which imparteth his Will by the diversity of his lively properties unto the 4 Archangells since the Prophet saith Vem spiritus à quatuor ventis insuffla interfectos istos ut revivi scant Come O Spirit from the four winds and breathe on these slain persons that they may live again Here the Prophet acknowledgeth that it is but one essentiall vivifying Spirit that effecteth all this and consequently that the four opposite properties in the four Angells which are the Governors of the winds are the influences or essentiall beams of one and the same Spirit of life in essence By reason of these spirits of a contrary fortitude in the aire sometimes good and propitious events befall the creatures of this lower world namely when the good spirits raigne and wholsome winds do blow which happen when the benign starrs and Planets have dominion in heaven and consequently their influences below and again somtimes bad and dysastrous accidents armed with privative and destructive effects befall the creatures of this Elementary region by reason of severe emissions of beams from the winds which animate those evill spirits that in infinite multitudes do hover though invisible in the aire who are rejoyced and revived at the blasts which issue from the stations of their cruell Princes and are as it were summons and all-arms to stir and excite them unto wrath and to blow the coles of their sleeping malice All this we may gather from this speech extracted out of Joseph Castaliensis A terra usque ad firmamentum non est locus vacuus sed omne plenum formis ex illis purae ex illis capaces gratiae ac mâ—serationum sunt infernis multae effigies foedae noxiae tentatrices omnes commorantes volantes in aëâ—e Et non a terra usque in coelum locus vacuus quin totum sunt species ex iis ad pacem ex iis ad bellum ex iis ad bonum ex iis ad malum ex iis ad vitam ex iis ad mortem omne id in habitatione inferiori in qua nos sumus From the earth unto the firmament there is not a void place but all is full of forms Of the which some are pure and some are capable of grace and mercy and there are beneath many foul hurtfull and tempting shapes and of all these do abide and flie up and down in the aire And from the earth unto the heaven there is not one sparâ— place but all is full of forms whereof some are enclined to peace some to war some of them are given to goodness some to naughtiness and some of them are Agents to life and some unto death and all this chanceth in the lower habitation in the which we are c. Whereby he signifieth that the whole air is replenished as well with spirits of darknesse as with spirits of light And therefore there is a continuall conflict made here below betwixt these spirits of opposit conditions Whereof the one do attend upon their Prince of darknesse being alwaies ready to accomplish his behests and consequently are very familiar unto the humid nature or matter of the world which is the child of the dark Chaos and for that cause have naturally a great dominion and power over it which by reason of its inclination unto darkness is easy to be tempted and allured from the Society of formal Light And hereupon the materiall world the flesh and the Devill are joyned together as also Satan is termed by the Apostle the Prince of the aire which is the off-spring of the waters from whence the materiall substance of the world was taken The other do wait on the Prince of Light their Master who is the eternall Wisdom which springeth from the bright word of eternity And these two dignify the world with life and do employ their greatest care to animate vivify and preserve it with such salutary beams as they receive immediatly from the eternall Emanation or fiery Word in which is the essence of life and being By this means therefore namely from the opposition of these two spirits of a contrary fortitude all the passions in the spirit and consequently of the Soul yea and body as well of the great world and all the creatures therein as of the little world have their immediate beginning namely the good passions as are joy charity hope confidence misericord humanity in the little world which are caused by dilatation of the heart and concord appetite Sympathy desire or concupiscence delight audaâ—ity jucundity caused by dilatation from the Center unto the circumference and by consequence Anâ—ipathy in the great world And again the bad passions in the little world's spirit as are sadness hatred desperatness timidity anger furor and bashfulness which arise from the contraction of the heart and in the great world and his creatures as are stupidity or congelation discord hatred irascibility fear c. and in conclusion Antipathy which comes by contracting from the circumference unto the Center All which are certain passions either well affecting and reviving the vital spirits with comfort by dilatation of those spirits with the beams of a kind of joy and delight or else choaking or suffocating them with the gloomy fog of darkness by contracting of those spirits with the mist of grief or privative sadness CHAP. V. What Actions in the Spirit or Soul in generall do produce Sympathy and what Antipathy How Sympathy or Compassion proceedeth from a certain dilatation of spirits in two or more particulars or an emitting of their internall beams of life or essence positively and benignly from the Center unto the Circumference attempting thereby to make a concord or union betweâ—â—â—wo or more like or homogenial natures and contrariwise Antipathy by contracting the said beams from the Circumference unto the Center moveth after an opposite manner namely by division or discord that is quite contrary unto the beams of the other which are emitted I Have signified unto you first in my precedent discourse that two properties were Archetypically or Ideally and after a complicite manner comprehended in one radicall Unity or Essence namely the one effected by its Nolunty the other by its Volunty Lo here
the root and originall foundation or point from the which all Antipathy and Sympathy do spring namely the first from the privative property or its Nolunty the second from its positive or Volunty I told you next that from this one root or Unity in essence a two-sold branch or member did spring forth expressing typically and explicitly the effects and conditions of these two contrary properties or dispositions which were contained complicitely in the Ideall root namely darkness which is the privative fruit of his Nolunty and light the true character or badge of his Volunty And then I proved unto you that these two were the beginnings of all things Lo here the two Principles of Antipathy and Sympathy extracted out of one root Thirdly I demonstrated unto you that by the separation of the pure from the impure from the dark Chaos which act was effected by the spagerick vertue of the bright emanation or word of the eternall Unity the humid or watry nature of the world was created that is to say essentially informed by the lively presence of the said all-informing Spirit so that through that union of two contrary natures in one namely the informing essence or naturating nature and the informed substance or the nature naturated the spirit of the world was animated and afterwards by the wisest Philosophers termed the Anima mundi which is that angelicall composition of two called therefore by the Sages Alteritas as God in his simple nature is called Identitas Now the passive portion of which alterity was made is said to be the humid created nature oâ— naturated matter of the world whose active essence is the ever-living emanation from eternity which as the Apostle teacheth us doth vivifie all things and filleth all things and is all in all The union of these two maketh the catholick soul of the world called in respect of the simple creating and vivifying emanation Mens in regard onely of the spirit informed Spiritus and as these two are united in one Anima Lo here the third degree of the sympatheticall and antipatheticall progression from the simple root of eternity namely the created matter or spirit in the soul of the world being the child or off-spring of darknesse or the dark Chaos which is therefore naturally prone unto the negative or privative effects of darknesse and consequently apt in its own condition to receive any discordant and antipatheticall impression which the angelicall spirits of darknesse shall imprint upon it For as the sacred light which animates the humid spirit of the world and consequently the whole masse of the waters whereof the heaven and the earth was made as St. Peter doth justifie is the most movable agill and active of all things so on the contrary party the matter that is informed and therefore the created body and spirit is most degenerate from it in that it is no way enclined of its own nature unto motion or life For the Philosophers words are Materia est per se ad motum inefficax ab ipsa anima seu luce degenerans Wherefore of its selfe it endueth its mother Chaos or Hyles her condition and is enclined to rest immobility darknesse cold spissitude and congelation For this cause therefore it suffereth the impressions and characters of both oppositions to wit sometimes it enclineth unto darknesse and then it groweth spisse opak cold immobil thick and ponderous and tendeth in that his property downwards to the cold center or the seat of darknesse which is its mother and then it is in rebellion and opposition with light motion and heat and so it is antipatheticall unto the actions of light and life as we see the airy spirit of the world which is clear light diaphan thin movable and soaring upward by the operating power of the descending light becommeth by the Northern cold congealed opak spisse and immobil or fixed into snow hail ice frost and such like So that by this antipatheticall accession of the cold characters of the dark abysse it is discordant from the loving union and symphoniacall accesse which it had unto the region of light Contrariwise the bright form of the soul which is the essence of that eternall emanation doth give the matter or spirit of the soul's life action motion hear tenuity and diaphanity and that more or lesse according as it hath power and dominion over it And we must note that the more the spirit approacheth unto the nature of light the firmer are the bonds of its sympatheticall accords For as sympathy doth consist of things of a like nature so the nearer the spirit approacheth unto form the greater is the sympathy and accord the surer the tie and the more virtuous the effect for the more that the created spirit is illuminated the lesse it remembers that naturall inclination and love that it had unto its dark originall insomuch that by such an extream purified exaltation it becommeth as it were deified And therefore Plato's opinion is that if the middle spirit which is between the mentall beam and the dark bodily substance doth more adhere unto the divine or mentall beam than the dark body then it will become a good Demon or Angel but if it respect the body more than the divine beam it will descend unto the nature of a Cacodemon or spirit of darknesse Also by Scripture we are taught that by adhering unto this divine light namely unto Christ we shall be transformed into the same image to wit if we forsake this dark world and the lusts of the obscure body or flesh But to return unto the soul of the great world If the airy spirit be given over unto the power of darknesse it becommeth bodily and turnes into the same image namely frost snow hail c. but if the hot effect or the formall act of light prevail a degree over the stupid cold of darknesse it leaveth his opake quality and becommeth diaphan and returneth from an earthly fixt and obscure nature unto a clear transparent and fluxible substance and by another degree of the divine act it is made more subtle more dilated more invisible and pure and it is called Aire by a third it is purified unto fire by a fourth unto aether when it loseth all the appetite of mutation and forgetteth the privative stock from whence it came by a fifth it becommeth angelicall or emperiall and so it is exalted more and more in dignity according as it is more and more obedient unto the actions of the eternall and catholick influence of form which shineth forth from the fountain of infinity For we must understand that the whole inclination of the eternall emanation is to reduce this child of darknesse unto eternall light unity and life as contrariwise the endeavours of the potentiall darknesse which is the stamp of Gods Nolunty or privative nature are clean contrary So that all the end of the creating light 's action is to unite all by the symphoniacall band of love and
out of order and in a destructive war with one another were it not for the presence of this Lord of misrule Thus as you see will Dyscracy and Antipathy reigne by their turnes in the neather region of the world when the tye of the elements are loose Thus will friendship be quickly changed into hatred when JEHOVA is pleased to send forth his altering winds and to corroborate and animate by his influence from above the ministers of his wrath here below against the sublunary creature Now come I to prove that all sympatheticall and antipatheticall effects do proceed from the secret and occult actions of the ministring spirits of this world That there is a mighty difference amongst the Angels no man of wisdom can deny for though all Angels were at the first united unto the divine Unity yet by reason of the rebellion and ambition of Lucifer that knot of union was broke and then the waters were divided from the waters that the good Angels might be separated and distinguished from the bad by the interposition of the firmament as a Diaphragma or middle bar between each of their habitations So that the dark Angels were enclosed in the lower or dark fecall and dreggy waters and the light Angels were lodged in the higher waters which were illuminated and dignified by a super-celestiall light and glory Thus you may see that the very Angells of heaven forasmuch as they are created of aire or the humid spirit of the world which is their externall and the bright emanation from Unity which is their internall are subject by reason of their materiall subâ—tance which participates of both extreams unto affections or passions as well sympatheticall as antipatheticall and consequently they aâ—e able by reason of their contrary pâ—operties to produce both sympatheticall and antipatheticall accidents in the spirits of the elementary creatures As for examples sake we will compare the catholick sympathy and antipathy which is in the soul of the great world unto that peculiar soul or spirit which is in man being that every particular was framed out of the universall We ought therefore to understand that the whole essenâ—e of the soul or spirit of man though it be invisible extendeth and manifesteth it self by her vertues and faculties for by her irascibility it contemneth and hateth and by her concupiscibility it doth covet and desire and by her rationability she distinguisheth and discerneth between them both And verily the whole effect of the souls essence consisteth in these three powers whereof the first is compared to the action of the lower waters which is apt to jar and disagree and is the region of Lâ—tigâ—um or the Prince of darkness The second is referred unto the nature of the firmament which is the region of life and salutary love and the last unto the angelicall and intellectuall heaven which doth discern between things that belong unto the lower heavens or regions of the world Whereupon it appeareth that from her rationall property every sense belonging unto the soul of man doth proceed as from the other two every affection motion or passion of the minde doth arise and spring Now there are known to be four affections of the soul whereof two do proceed from her concupiscible power namely Joy and Hope for at that which we love we rejoyce and are glad or we hope for and expect that which shall rejoyce us or make us glad and the two other issue from her irascible faculty or vertue namely Grief or Dolour and Fear for now we grieve at that which we hate or we fear that which would make us grieve or be dolorously affected And verily we shall after a due inquisition find that these four affections of the Microcosmicall soul are not onely the beginnings and common matter or subject of all morall vices or vertues but also the originalls of Metaphysicall or occult and Physicall or elementary and apparent sympathy and antipathy as well in the little as in the great world and every creature thereof For I would not have you ignorant that being the soul in man is derived from the vivifying emanation dwelling in the words spirituall vehicle it must follow that that soul in the great world must needs have in it the faculties which the little worlds soul hath for Quod facit tale est magis tale But these faculties in the soul of man were derived from the great world and the eternal soul that vivified it Wherefore it followeth that there is a rationability a concupiscibility and an irascibility in the soul of the great world though not made manifest unto us First because that it hath attributes of irascibility and displeasure for from his Attribute ELOHIM Gibbor he sendeth down by the port Geburah the fiery beams of his displeasure by his Archangell Samael into the globe or sphear of Mars who is for that cause President of the irascible faculty of the greater world wherefore his influences do cause wrath and angry effects in the aire and earth as thunder lightnings comets and other wrangling accidents which as Scriptures tell us are the arguments of Gods wrath and vengeance also war famine and pestilence and augmenteth the angry nature and spirit of men and beasts And again Gods Attribute IEHOVA Sabaoth poureth down the beams of concupiscibility by the Arch-angell Anael upon the globe of Venus according to Philosophers and Astronomers who for that reason being moved thereto by experience and observation have made this star the president and rectrix of the concupiscible faculty As the Attribute EL doth pour out the beams of reason justice and religion yea and naturall vegetation and life into the sphear of Jupiter But principally this naturall faculty is rained into the soul of the world by the Attribute IAH through his port Sapientia or Wisdom The second reason is because the great world hath an intellectuall or rationall heaven and a concupiscible property manifested in every creature and an irascible which is apparent also by reason of hatred and horrour which appeareth between one thing and another Also that there is an irascible quality in the elements that deadly hatred which is betwixt the fire and water and the aire and earth doth manifest That also there is a love and concupiscence between things it is evident because one nature rejoyceth in his like and therefore by a naturall inclination every thing doth move and convert it self unto his like by all possibility but especially it is most inclinable unto it self So we see that fire doth naturally affect and move unto fire water unto water and earth unto earth But above all the vivifying spirit of every living thing which is celestiall and therefore exceedeth the place of the elements doth with fervency affect and thirst after his like and is rejoyced at the presence and concurrency thereof And for this cause this passion of what creature soever will be the more truly sympatheticall and the sympathy between things will be so much the
Light flieth from darkness and being delighted at the presence of more light and life avoideth and hateth the presence of his contrary namely of death and evill Hence therefore it cometh that the children of Light which are grafted unto this catholick illuminated spirit do flie as from a pestilence the children of darknesse and their works And the reason is because this humid created spirit finding now the pleasure volunty and felicity of its illuminated estate is affraid least the privative beams of darkness or the dismall Emanations of God's wrath should dimm their light and obscure the brightness of life that is to say lest they should turn their Sympathizing passions of joy and gladness into the Antipathizing storms of sadness and mourning by sucking or contracting the beauteous Emanations of joy love and gladness from the Circumference into the Center of the Spirit and so deprive it of that salutary and sprightfull irradiation of love and life by hiding of God's face which he did emit from the Center to the Circumference of the creature to recreate and rejoyce it According unto that of Moses God forsakes the wicked and hideth his face from them that much evill may befall them Or unto that of David God hiding his face from the wicked they are troubâ—ed receiving their spirit they expire That is vexation and privative passions befall them which may also be understood of the catholick Microcosmicall wordl's spirit as of the Microcosmicall and other creatures all which have their beeing from the Macrocosmicall Spirit For when the Divine nature which animateth the Sun of heaven was displeased at the Passion of our Saviour it did Centrally withdraw his beamâ—s from it and it lost its beauty and became dark against the common course of nature So that the pleasant Sympathy which it produced by its presence unto the creatures beneath and in the heavens above was quite changed into Antipathy for a while This therefore was a privative passion in the heart of the great world or as a man may say a Syncope or swooning of the world when ELOAH did abstain for that season to pour forth his influence of beauty by the port of TIPHERETH Also that palpable darkness which happened in Egypt was a privative passion caused by the hiding away of God's face or by the contracting the beams of light within himself Such privative passions also are menaced unto the Sun Moon and Starrs towards the latter end of the world For if the world was made by the sending forth of God's bright Emanation for by the Spirit of the Lord the heavens were adorned as Job telleth us it followeth that by taking it away all will return again unto darkness and plain nothing or deformity even as it was before But this producing of good and Sympatheticall passions by emitting of light from the Center to the Circumference and again the effects of Antipatheticall passions which do oppose the concord and Sympathy of life is excellently described and painted forth by the due examination of the vital action in man For as there are noted to be in generall two severall active Virtues in man's spirit whereof the one is voluntary which is the Prince over the other and commandeth and moveth the inferior actions even as the Divine Angell Mitattron doth in the Primum mobile of the great world which is referred unto the Volunty and moveth by it the celestiall orbs and Elementary world so in the Microcosmicall Fabrick the first mover is that Divine mentall beam which is the head of man's soul and the other kind is involuntary because it is commanded and ruleth after the will of the intellectuall or rationall beam no otherwise then all the lower Orbs are constrained to move after the will of the mover in the Primum mobile So the vitall action in man is one of those branches which is involuntary and no otherwise subject unto the Volunty of the mental beam then the starry heaven which is the seat of life forasmuch as the Sun which is the heart of the world hath his residence there is commanded by the Emperyall Spirit Now as we find that according unto the will of the Divine essence poured out into the heavens and consequently here below as well joyfull and compassionate effects do spring from the positive and dilative property of Unity to recreate and stir up volupty and pleasure in the creature as also trist and sad effluxions proceeding from the contractive Virtue whereby God hideth the face of his benignity from the creatures and thereupon as well concupiscible as odible or irascible passions are caused in the world Even so we find it manifested as well by experience as by the observation of the learnedest in Physick and Philosophy that the vitall action which is over-ruled according unto the mind of the superior Volunty either is opened or enlarged by the dilative property of the first movers will and thereby openeth the cabinet of the heart to produce in the vitall spirit those good passions which Sympathize with life and light namely gladness hope confidence love miserecord and affability or it is contracted and thereby gathereth together also the spirits in the heart whereby is engendred in the vitall spirit such bad privative passions as do antipathise with those good ones which rejoyce and comfort the life and these passions are termed Antipatheticall because they are wholly contrary unto the nature of those which are good of which number proceeding from the hearts contraction are sadness care dispaire fear hatred anger furor bashfullness and so forth So that as by the former the spirit by dilatation did look up unto the Fountain of Light and did rejoyce to see the volupties and pleasure thereof So by the later the spirit was forced by contraction to be deprived from the vision of light and to look pâ—onely downward into the abysse of darkness and to participate with the dark passions thereof And by this decifering and opening therefore of the two opposit passions in the little world we may easily collect the reason and manner of them in the great world being that as eadem sit ratio parcis totius so also the passions of the great world may easily be considered by those of the little world As for example The Load-stone is in comparison of its mother earth even as man is to the whole world wherefore Man is called the Son of the world by Heâ—mes as Cardanus Bap. Porta D. Gilbert and others have made the Load-stone the child or son of the earth We find I say in the Load-stone all the passions as well sympatheticall as antipatheticall which do affect his mother earth for it hath his Poles with the earth and it escheweth all in conformity with the earth it flyeth from that which is contrary unto its nature And again doth sympathise with that which is its like it hath its Aequinoctialls Colures Meridians and Tropiâ—ks as the earth hath and in conclusion it argueth not onely
by the Port of TIPHERETH which importeth beauty and brightnesse into the Sun who by dilatation doth clarifie and subtiliate the spirit of the world and expelleth darkness and this action doth proceed from the center to the circumference And contrariwise there are other emanations which pour out beams of attraction or contraction as doth ELOHIM by the port Binah or Prudentia into the globe of Saturn By this therefore the Spirit of God in his prudency did tie and hang the heavens as it were lincks in a chain of gold together and did bear up the elements in their places and sucked or contracted the grosser part of the waters from the circumference unto the center and there did confirm and fix them in a dark and gross manner So that the fountain of this attractive and contractive property is in the divine Attribute ELOHIM which for reasons that I have told you before is the head of the northern property namely of cold drought opacity congelation incrassation and rest which is caused in the center because it is the terminus ad quem the point unto the which the contraction or attraction is chiefly made beyond the which there can be no further penetration And for this reason the centrall vertue which is in the bowells of the earth doth draw and alluâ—e all weighty things unto this point which when they attain unto the center can passe no further for it is at that centrall butt that the property of ELOHIM doth aime and the Divinity which dwelleth in the earth's center is the divine essence under the name and property of ELOHIM the seat of whose immediate emanation is the angelicall order of Thrones which belongeth unto the earth or grosser waters his magazin or treasure-house in the starry heaven is the globe of Satuâ—n whose property for this reason is cold and dry astrictive contractive attractive and retentive for his beams contract unto the center and he is the Lord over the North-winds which are cold and dry contractive attractive sad and melancholy and it is the Planet which doth administer unto the Pole-star called by the Aegyptians Alruckaba forasmuch as it hath the nature and property of Saturn and Venus and therefore it is the principall helper and assistant in performing not onely the attractive effects of ELOHIM and for that reason doth endue the nature of Saturn which abounds in the Northern effects of ELOHIM but also it participates with the condition of Venus which is the Planet that commandeth the concupiscible faculty and for this reason it maketh a naturall coition namely it draweth with a voluptuous delight his like even as feminine matter is eagerly affected to draw or suck masculine form unto it This therefore is the reason that the earth doth attract unto it the formall shapes which descend down from above and burieth them within its womb with delight For heaven is affirmed by all true Philosophers and Cabalists to be the masculine and the earth the feminine Neither can I but consent with Lucas Gauricus the Astrologians opinion where he saith as is recited before That the star in the Tail of Ursamajor or the great Bear is President of the Load-stone as also that Saturn is the Planet which is allotted unto him and lastly that it hath an speciall relation unto the Constellation of Virgo and the rather because Virgo is that Signe of the Zodiack which possesseth the very self-same Longitude that the said star doth and for that it is of an earthly stiptick and attractive nature as also of the condition of Saturn and Venus All these reasons have been strong motives to perswade me that these are principall celestiall agents in the Northern disposition and property of this lower world and consequently in the attractive motion of the terrestriall northern Pole and every particular thereof I told you before that the eternall Unity everlastingly One in essence dividing or transforming it self by property into Trinity did shape out or describe ideally the archetypicall or internall world according unto whose example he did afterwards delineate or frame out the typicall or externall Wherefore it must follow that if the typicall or naturall world was framed after the idea in the intellectuall or mentall world then what parts or properties are made evident unto our capacity in this world were also the same in the archetype for Quod facit tale est magis tale There was no house that the Carpenter or Brick-layer builded but it was first delineated in the idea of his intellect and then drawn forth superficially in paper and so afterward put into a solid execution so also David confessed that he had the Temple which Solomon erected first drawn forth ideally by Gods finger Now when that God had in his divine counsell thus ordered and shaped out an ideal world in himself to put it in execution and as it were to make it to appear unto mans sense he emitted himself out of himself in the form of an eternall emanation called his Image which was his wisdom by which the generall world and every particular thereof was produced according unto the ideall pattern which was in it self This therefore being so and being that the divine essence can no way be divided howsoever it varieth in property it followeth that every particular beam which shineth out diversly from that catholick emanation to create differing things is one indivisible essence with the whole emanation and therefore he is said to fill all and to be all in all And that the incorruptible spirit is in all things and that he filleth the whole earth I proceed therefore thus If the created world have his shape his members and every particular property assigned unto it by that formall and vivifying world which is described and imprinted in this divine and all-sufficient and creating emanation then consequently all the members properties and natures in this world are graphically or curiously painted out in the supernaturall one it remaining nevertheless one and the same in essence And therefore as in him the catholick image of the outward world is contained so every beam or emanation that issueth from him but is not divided from him containeth the shape of the world And for this reason the wise Philosophers have said That each creature enjoyeth a proportion of the great world by which it is shaped and made in it self a little world as shall be demonstrated by the Load-stone more plainly hereafter And again man is called Omnis creatura as he doth participate of all so that his soul is said to be Ad imaginemtotius sapientiae facta omnium in se gerens similitudinem Made after the similitude of all wisdom bearing in it self the likeness of all things And therefore it is tearmed of another Omnium similitudo The likeness of all things And the reason is because it is one Unity Hereupon also it is reported to be a certain divine and individuall substance Alkindus in his Book de Radiis speaking
heaven and earth were made of water and by water by the Word as Sacred Philosophy teacheth us then they would have known also that the common substantiall Subject of them all was but one created watery spirit also that this spirits four-fold information was effected by one increating formall essence or Divine Word acting and informing that universall Element by a four-fold emanation so that the will of one creating Spirit effected by and working in four Angells of an opposit nature maketh disposeth or changeth every day this one spirituall watery Subject into this or that Element according unto the Will of the Creator All which is evidently demonstrated by the wether-glass For the aire therein inclosed doth by contraction or dilatation convert it self into the form of any of the Elements and is altered therein according as the nature of the Macrocosmicall blast or wind that bloweth Now whereas it may be objectively demanded From whence then came the earth and waters that are resident perpetually here beneath I answer That they are the effects which the winds by the Will of God or ELOHIM RUACH did originally produce and these were framed first out of the aire namely by thickning it by one degree into water and ingrossing it by another into solid and fixt earth as it appeared by the third daies Creation where it was said that Aridum apparuerit ex aquis Dry-land did appear out of the waters But the Divine Philosopher St. Paul doth confirm all this where he affirmeth that we ought to believe by Faith that those things which are visible were first of things invisible and unseen And again if that the two lower bodies did not resolve themselves by little and little though insensibly into aire it would not be possible that the earth or the water could hold that abundance of Water Stones Brimstone caused of Lightnings and such like which falleth from the aire and yet we see that neither the aire nor water nor earth are at any time found bigger then their naturall accustomed proportions By this therefore I have sufficiently expressed unto you the attractive and contractive property of the Northern Pole in the aire which inferreth thus much that as the Northern blasts are enemies unto life because they contract from the circumference to the Center which is contrary unto the act of man's life therefore all things that are reduced into a chill cold and Northern property be they airy watery or earthy they draw strongly unto them as it is proved by the weather-glass For the included aire being animated by the effects of a strong and obstinate Northern wind sucketh and draweth the waters on high namely from the Aequinoctiall point of the glass unto the Center of the North Pole which is assigned by the head of the mattras and also by the same reason congealed spirits in any earthly substance do suck or draw from the exteriour to the interior as we observe that Bole Armoniack sucketh moysture unto it and also all other earth when it is throughly dry and that in his own naturall condition namely because it being of the quality of the North it sucketh and draweth strongly a watery moysture but this is by reason of his drought the attraction therefore in the Load-stone is otherwise For it having the essentiall nature of its mother Earth and the virtue of the North in his Pole draweth the masculine Sulphureous spirits out of Iron greedily and that with a feminine appetite by reason of the propinquity and likeness of one nature unto another The like regard also hath the Pole star unto the Load-stone as the Load-stone hath unto the Iron which is his like For Natura Natura suá gaudet laetatur Nature is glad and rejoyceth in her like nature as Empedocles doth truly testifie But both the Iron and the Load-stone are of one myne one vein and one nature seeing that both of them are of an earthly and boreall disposition and therefore the Load-stone and his formall included spirits being more encombred with superfluities then the refined Iron doth as it were either for their assistance namely to be delivered from that incombrance draw unto them their like out of the purified Iron or Steel by a wonderfull appetite and in this action suck unto it the Iron who as unwilling to leave its formall spirit doth follow by a naturall continuity the motion of its formall beams or else for comfort and consolation yea and formal refection's cause no otherwise then the cold materiall female doth the more formall male to be refreshed by the masculine seed or sulphureous Form which they both received from that generall Agent 's ideal Northern nature that sustaineth and animateth the earth I will prove it by a similitude but in a vegetable substance We observe that the grain of wheat not participating with the nature of the earth that is so long as it is above ground and not sown attracteth not his like from heaven but when it is committed unto the earth and the earth by corruption hath unloosed his bands his spirits suck down from above the Sun-beams and celestiall influences of his fixt constellation and erratick Planet in quantity that thereby it may be delivered and rise again by the celestiall beams of his own nature that descend from heaven and principally from the Sun so that like being added to his like becommeth the stronger in ascention For experience teacheth us that the celestiall included form or vitall beam creepeth out of the earth upwards tending by all his appetite unto its ethereal native home from whence it came but because the Element of fire is contiguous unto the aethereal spirit therefore it will not permit these aethereall or sunny-beams to ascend without it and because the aire is a near-cleaving and continued neighbour unto the fire therefore it will not permit the fire to ascend without his presence and again the water challengeth the self-same priviledge namely to ascend with the aire and lastly the earth will not let the water move upwards without her company as being next of her race and therefore will have the self-same prerogative with the other three But because the earth is ponderous and cannot ascend she holdeth it fast below and will not permit the spirit to sore higher and so those beamy spirits which seemed to descend for the freedom of their brethren are by these Elementary ties or rather the four-fold disposition of one Element detained and made to hover and hang in the aire where insteed of flying upwards to heaven they do multiply into many graines And I have noted by mine own experience namely by anatomising of corn with the fiery knife of distillation that the female in corn which sucketh down the celestiall influences of the like nature is a pure volatil Salt of a refined or aereall terrestrial condition but rich in celelestiall fire and therefore made volatil and airy by the union of both extreames so that it is this female
bodies appear to be dead yet shall the naturall Magician know that in his flesh and bones there abideth admirable spirits which operate no less wonders yea and far greater then those of the Load-stone And therefore I would have each self-conceited person that are so apt to envy against the Mysteries of God in nature to learn more discretion and experience before they so vain-gloriously do judge the strange and marvellous effects of man's royall nature and pronounce so boldly without hesitation or sticking that there are no spirits in any amputated members or portion in man no nor in the dead carcass as Casman and Foster aver Nay that the Devill himself can not conferre any into them or it For I would have both them and other temerarious and bold Judges to know that as the Load-stone though appearing a dead mass is observed to suck and draw Centrally unto it with a lively appetite the beams and body of the Load-stone and that all and every member divided from the Load stone will do the like in its proportion Even so I can prove it and confirm it by an ocular demonstration that by a right application of the fleshy parts of a dead man's carcass unto a live man if the application be long it will make the live man faint and feeble the which nevertheless a while after the materiall or corporall Magneticall Mummy be removed will receive again his wonted strength Moreover lest this relation may seem to Mr. Foster and the rest of his Cabalisticall Sect a figment or Chimerious fancy forasmuch as he may alleadge that the application of the thing may work in the live man's imagination and cause him to perswade himself that he is faint and that without any true ground and that there can be no externall effect to prove it I answer That it will suck or draw forth of the live man the spirituall Mummy in a visible manner For by the coldness of the part the spirituall Mummy so extracted will condense it self on the superficies of the corporall Magnet even as aire into a cloud or a cloud into Manna so that it may be gathered and converted into a very pretious and wholsome Panacaea or generall medicine if the party out of which it is extracted be sound and of a wholsome complexion as contrariwise it may prove as corrupt and Antipatheticall a medicine where the body out of which it is drawn is infected with any venomous or contagious disease namely French Pox Plague Leprosie and such like as shall be more at large expressed in the next book Now the reason of this act and operation in the dead man's Magnetick parts is that as when the body was alive it was animated by light and enjoyed all the properties of light to wit it was hot active moveable dilative and in conclusion of an Aequinoctiall or Southern condition so that naturall fire being extinguished it indueth the properties of darkness for it is mortified by cold and is congealed potentiall fix or immobil contractive and in fine of the rigid zone's and frozen Pole's nature So that whereas before whilst it lived it did emit his beams from the Center to the Circumference and did enjoy the blessings of God's vivifying and positive Emanation now it indueth the condition of his contracting privative and mortifying Emanation And yet I would not that wisemen should think that because the lively body is turned into a dead carcass therefore it is void of all spirits of life being that Scriptures confirm that the incorruptible spirit is in all things and consequently as well in those that are dead as in those that are alive For this incorruptible spirit according unto the variety of his property in the four winds is sometime in motion from the center of the thing in which it is unto the circumference for so he vivifyeth and causeth the creature to act and live by a southern or aequinoctiall faculty so I say it operateth from the center of the celestiall sun to the animation of inferiour creatures namely by evocation of their incorruptible spirits which were repelled by the winter or Boreal cold into their center from their center unto their circumference as it appeareth by such vegetables which seem for that reason as it were dead all the winter season because the spirit of life leaves and forsakes the circumference of the plant and betaketh it self unto the center to retire from the assaults of cold which is its opposite as far as it can But when it perceiveth its fountain of light to approach and to send them forth succours they begin by little and little to spring again from their center unto their circumference and being united unto the externall beams which are come unto their aide they expel dark privation and congealing cold from out their tabernacles and do proceed to operate and act unto vegetation and multiplication as also we see in the corn which is buried in the earth Even so I say and no otherwise the Load-stone's Martiall nature being originally by a Saturnine spirit contracted into his center is exagitated and stirred up and with like joy doth suck unto it the formall beams of the Iron from whose Martiall sulphureous spirit they did originally spring And even so also the spirits of the dead body being by mortifying cold driven from the circumference unto the center and resting there at repose without any action maketh the body and every part thereof fixt and unmovable but when they are applyed unto the lively circumference of their species or kind they spring forthwith and in their watery spirits towards the circumference as if they were almost famished in the center and rejoyce to meet with their like in the live man which doth as it were dilate it self and issue forth of the pores in a streaming manner for their assistance and they being partly congealed in the center of the dead member do with a greedy appetite suck them in with the spirituall Mummy which is their vehicle towards their centrall abiding to endue it with life as it was before and to recreate it with their presence but the unctuous spirituall Mummy being full of bright spirits resting upon the superficies of the live man inspissated with the cold and mortifying contact of the dead flesh or part of the carcase is forthwith congealed and may be reserved for a private use But can we I pray you better confirm this than with the contractive restrictive or congelative vertue of the fumous excrescence issuing from the salt contained in the dead mans bones for by applying it I mean the Uznea or masse which groweth on the dead mans bones unto the irruptions of blood or haemorrhoigy in a living man the warm blood as it were moved by an antipatheticall affection returneth back again and is denyed passage by the congealing and binding operation of these northern effected excrescences But leaving these conclusions touching the dead mans magnet and its vertues for a while what will
you say and there may be a microcosmicall Magnes or Load-stone which may be selected and gathered out of the living man without any detriment or prejudice unto his life whose vertues both in regard of its monstrous and unnaturall generation being composed of unlike parents and being compacted of two substances different in kinde as the Mule is namely of an earthly Mercury and cholerick sulphureous human spirits as also in his manner of attraction of the spirituall Mummy out of the living man yea and what is far more admirable by the transplantation of it either to the animal or vegetable kinds it worketh after a strange fashion either sympathetically or antipathetically I know that these newes will streight way be esteemed by some who are apter to judge amiss than rightly to scan to be diabolicall And why Marry because they passe the sphear of their capacities And yet I know this to be true and know them which have put it in execution not without the wonderment of many yea I know this Microcosmicall Magnet and the use thereof the which when it is tryed by wise-men and well pondered by them will appear as naturall as the effects thereof will seem strange and the reason abstruse But if that which I have said before be well understood and seriously pondered the cause hereof will not seem so hidden as that it should exceed the limits of nature Of this kind of magneticall action as well sympatheticall as antipatheticall I purpose by Gods grace to discourse more at large in the third or last Book of this Treatise or History CHAP. V. In this Chapter is expressed the secret cause why and manner how as well the Microcosmicall as Macrocosmicall Load-stone doth operate ad distans and thâ—â— unto an unknown dimension or unlimited intervall MR. Foster hath sufficiently expressed the shallowness of his Philosophy where he averreth That because the light of the Sun and Stars cannot penetrate the thick clowds and opake bodies Ergo the formall essence of a man is not able to pierce and penetrate directly in his course without being stopped or hindred by Castles Hills Woods and such like But had he been a little more profoundly seen or immersed in the bowels of true Philosophy he would have known that the Etheriall sperm or Astralicall influences are of a far subtiler condition than is the vehicle of visible light Yea verily they are so thin so mobile so penetrating and so lively that they are able and also do continually penetrate and that without any manifest obstacle or resistance even unto the center or inward bosom of the earth where they generate mettals of sundry kinds according unto the condition of the influence as the antient Philosophers do justifie The subtlety therefore of this spirit Plotinus according unto Plato's minde doth fully expresse in these words Tanta est Aetheris tenuitas ut omnia corpora penetret universi tam supera quam infera cum ipsis conjunctus aut implicitus ea major a minime reddat quia spiritus iste interior cuncta opera eorum mole minima nullum prorsus augmentum recipiente alit atque conservat The tenuity of the Aether is such that it doth penetrate all the bodies of the world as well above in heaven as below on earth and this heavenly substance being joyned and mixed with them it maketh them not a jot the bigger for all that because this inward spirit doth nourish and preserve all bodies without adding any thing unto their weight or encreasing of their substance And by reason of this heavenly natures purity or subtlety the heaven or coelum is called by the wiser Philosophers and mysticall Poets the Husband unto the earth which they tearm Vesta yea and the very stars of heaven among the which the Copernicans ranck the earth are likened unto his wife being that they are extracted out of the aetheriall substance no otherwise than Eve was out of the side of Adam for they are defined to be the thickest portions of their orbs by reason whereof they are accounted as the members of heaven and consequently there is nothing so thin subtle and piercing as is that spirit from whence by condensation they are derived This is the cause that the true Alchymists do tell such wonders of their Coelum which they call their Quintessence arguing that by reason of its purity and subtlety it is able to penetrate all things And the Philosophers say that it is their nature which they define to be Vis quaedam rebus infinita omnia permeans entia cunctas generans res easque augens alensque ex similibus similia procreans A certain infinite power in things which penetrateth and passeth through all things ingendring every thing and augmenting and nourishing them and procreating like things of their like And verily if you will be pleased to consider really what I have spoken before you will remember how I told you that the angelicall vertue proceeded from the archetypicall emanations and are the types of the divine Idea Again that the aetheriall spirit was filled with the angelicall influences which had their essentiall root from God So that in verity it is not the starry light which penetrateth so deeply or operateth so universally but that eternall centrall spirit with which his divine and unresistable essence penetrateth all things both in heaven above and in the earth and waters beneath And all this the mysticall Philosophers seemed to verifie though darkly when they called Saturn which was the father also of Jupiter or the head of the catholick emanation the father of Coelum or Heaven arguing thereby that in the emission of the spirit of wisdom he produced created or informed the heavens according to that of Job Coelum ornasti Spiritu tuo Thou didst adorn the heavens by thy Spirit And David Verbo Domini fimati sunt coeli Spiritu ab ore ejus omnis virtus eorum By the word of the Lord the heavens were made and by his Spirit each vertue thereof And St. Peter Coeli erant prius terra ex aquis per aquas existentes verbo Dei The heavens were first and the earth of water and by the waters existing by the word of God It is certain therefore that the whole essentiall act of the aetheriall spirit is the divine emanation or the bright incorruptible Spirit of the Lord and therefore of necessity that spirit which is worthy to be the immediate vehicle of so unresistible and emanating influence must be conformable to it in purity and subtility which is the informer who is said by the wise Solomon to be Omni re mobilior subtilior attingere ubique propter suam munditiam innovare omnia implere orbem terrarum To be the most active and moveable and subtill of all things and to penetrate and pass everywhere by reason of his purity in essence and to renew and refresh all things and to fill the
spirits forcibly because vis unita est fortior But when the Iron is planted at a further distance namely in C the greatest portion of the basis of the spirituall triangular-emission passeth by the Iron without any streight encounter and so his effect or vertue is made too weak to draw so ponderous a thing at so far a distance But because his celestiall star doth meet and embrace his emissions and doth fortifie them therefore it is evident that the pole-star doth act in the Load-stone to stir up and animate his like vigour in it and the Load-stone being so vivified doth correspond unto the action of the star penetrating by all one sympatheticall and symphoniacall consent even to the center of his fountain which is easily effected being they are all of one essence Do we not perceive this by an externall apprehension to be true when we observe the northern pole of the Load-stone in a kind of naturall duty to regard and behold with a stedfast constancy the pole-star which is so far off from the body of the Load-stone though near and conjoyned in the beamy affection of one essentiall spirit That this is so we may perceive by the needle touched Do we not gather by Astronomicall practise that the distance of these two bodies I mean the celestiall star and the terrestriall stone is so great as there cannot be esteemed a greater extension in our regard namely seeing that the space is between the starry heaven or eighth sphear in which the pole-star is and the earth And yet we find them to concur and meet in aspect and to operate and sympathize with each other What! and must this abstruse spirits action be limited by any phantasticall and imaginary sphear of activity figured out by persons little skilled and too too superficiall in the occult treasure and arcane or centrall actions of God in nature In like manner there must needs be a sympatheticall concurrence of occult beamy light betwixt the Iron and the Load-stone because they have both centrall stars or beamy influences of one nature and from one and the same fountaine whose occult emanations pass God knoweth at how far a distance although the effects do accidentally appear unto our sense no more than the celestiall influences which descend from heaven upon the Minerals Vegetables and Animals Nevertheless if we will believe the relations of History we are told by Serapio O aus Magnus and the Moors that as well in the Indies as towards the northern pole there are Rocks of this Stone which suck and draw ships unto them at a far distance and pull the iron nailes out of them which is a cause as they say that they fasten together the plancks and boards of their boats and ships with wooden pins And again what shall we say unto the opinion of Fracastoâ—ius a learned Physitian and a well grounded Philosopher who blusheth not after a tedious enquiry made by him in the Load-stones secret disposition to conclude that the reason why the Load-stone directeth his pole unto the north is because that in that angle of the terrestriall world there are mountaines of Load-stone which do draw Iron unto it Verily it is a great distance that this magnetick Rock is able to operate upon the Iron if that were true namely from the Aequinoctiall unto the frozen point of the North-pole for unto the Aequinoctiall line the Mariners make use of the Needle to find out what altitude they are in And although some do think this strange yet for all that many learned men seen as well in Geography and composing of Sea-Maps as delineating the description of the world do firmly adhere unto this opinion Whereby we see that wise and learned men do confirm that the limited sphear of activity ascribed unto the Load-stone by the Peripatetick Philosophers and Christian School-men of his sect is vain and frivolous But to come and ascend from the Minerall unto the Vegetable and Animal Kingdoms we observe that there is an admirable relation between the fixed stars and the planets and by the same reason also between plant and plant yea and between the plant and the mineral and between the animal and the plant As for example Touching thâ— sympatheticall relation we find in the first place that the beams of the herb and flower Heliotropium and that of Succory do sympathetically meet and joyne themselves and embrace lovingly the beams and influences of the Sun for they are observed to turn and winde about even in the most clowdy day at the diurnall motion of him And contrariwise in the night time by reason of his absence they contract their flowers as being enemies unto the dark and cold night as Mizaldus affirmeth Also the Oynion as Plutarch doth testifie waxeth green and groweth when the Moon decreaseth and again it withereth when she encreaseth There is also a great sympatheticall reference between the Crab and Oyster and the Moon for when the Moon encreaseth they encrease in their succe or juice again when she decreaseth they also do decrease in their substance Moreover touching the eradiation of one plant unto another it is noted that the Rue otherwise tearmed Herbâ—gâ—ace doth entertain with exceeding great friendship the Fig-tree insomuch that it never groweth or prospereth better than under that tree and that there is a notable sympathy betwixt their natures it is evident because they smell and taste much alike Also if the Myrtle be planted near the Pomgranat-tree it maketh him more fertill and fruitfull and it self more odoriferous and each of them rejoyce at one anothers presence and society and indeed both of them agree in a nature being cold dry and astringent Moreover to express the exceeding sympatheticall relation which is between the Vegetable nature and the Mineral let us but mark diligently the occult property of the Hazel-tree For if at certain times there be forked twigs cut from it and each twig of the forked branch be held in each hand so that the forked place where they joyne stand directly upward and as it were perpendicularly And with this kind of posture of the stick the party that holdeth it pass over a mountain that hath in its bowells some riâ—h minerall or mettalline veine when as the man walketh right over the place of the mine the perpendicular twist will forcibly and that whether the bearer will or no bow downward towards the earth but if there be no mine or veine it will not move That this is true my self can witness and more than a thousand which have seen the effect and will justifie thus much for even among us certain Germaines performed the like fear in the Silver-mines at Wales and in Germany it is a thing commonly exercsied in those mountains of Saxony and Hungary where there are mines of Silver and Gold Besides lest my assertion should be of little faith among the incredulous I would have them know that George Agricola and Munster do avow
abolished being no man can justly determine of the extension of the solar influence of whose nature the beam in the grain doth participate no otherwise than one small Load-stone cut out of a great one hath his parts or poles and circles in every respect corresponding with those of the great one Man hath a most subtle influence or vivifying spirit of life sent down and infused into him by divine inspiration in which is the property of the four winds as the Prophet Ezekiel telleth us and consequently the Idea of every nature but the essence of this spirit is indivisible and therefore the vivifying spirit sent from it into man hath all the properties of the spirit that infused it no otherwise than a lesser Load-stone cut out of the greater hath in every respect the property of the greater And consequently the spirit of the one is no more divided from the other â—han the Sun-beams can be divided from the Sun But the Spirit of the Lord filleth all things as Solomon hath it and maketh the dimension of his operation in man more or less according unto his will and therefore will admit no such phantasticall limited sphear of activity as the wisdom of mans invention I mean the subject of the pagans Philosophy which is folly before God would inferr For this reason therefore Hermes saith Anima mente Deoque plena intima mundi replet complectitur extima vitamque haec omnibus suggerit The soul or vitalâ— spirit being full of divinity filleth the world and embraceth externall things and this giveth life unto all things without it giveth life unto the great and perfect animal the world and breathing unto each thing that liveth within it And again elsewhere Naturá incorporeâ— nihil est capacius nihil velocius nihil validius aut potentius Sic iterum à te ipso incipiens meditare atque animae tuae praecipito quae citius quam praeciples evolabit Jubeto inquam ut transeat in Oceanum illa priusquam â—usseris ibi erit indenbi nunc est nequaquam discedens Jubeto iterum ut in coelrm volet nullis pennis egebit nihil ejus obstruet cursui non solis incendium non aetheris amp iâ—udo non vertigo coelorum non syderum antiquorum corpora quin penetrans omnia ad supernum usque corpus transcendat Quinetiam sivolueris Globos omnes transire coelâ—rum quodque supeâ—ius est investigare id quoque tibi licebit Adverte quanta sit animae â—uae potestas quantae celeritas There is nothing more capable than the incorporeall or spirituall nature nothing more swift and quick or nimble nothing more strong or powerfull Again Beginning thus with thy self do thou meditate and command thy soul what thou pleasest and it will flye sooner than thou commandest Command it I say that it pass into the Ocean sea and it will be there before thou bidst it Again command it that it flye into heaven and it will want no wings nothing will hinder her or stop her in her course no not the heat of the Sun nor the vast largeness of the heavenly or aethereall vault nor the wheeâ—ing about of the starry orbs nor yet the bodies of the other starrs but peircing all these it passeth quite through even unto the highest body Moreover and if thou wilt have her to pass â—ver the celestiall Globes and to search out whatsoever is above thou maist do it also Mark therefore how great the power of the Soul is and how swift and quick it is in its execution c. thus far the wise Hermes By both which places we may observe first that the Soul in generall and therefore in particular is full of Divinity and consequently that it is this Divine Essence that worketh in this soul all in all in the world and every member thereof as the Apostle saith and therfore the said Philosopher in the place before Anima mâ—nte Deoque pâ—ena c. Secondly that this Divinity in the catholick created spirit filleth all things in an Angelicall existence that is indueth the mantle of the vast worldâ—s spirit And this agreeth with Scripture which saith that Spiritus Dei implet omnia The Spirit of the Lord fâ—lleth all things Spiritus incorruptibilis inest omni rei The incorruptibe Spirit is in all things Deus vivificat omnia God vivifieth all things and consequently is the essentiall act and life of the world as I have proved fully in the first Book of this Treatise wherefore Hermes in another place saith thus Animae universâ— per omnem mundum ab una mundi totius anima profluunt tanquam dâ—stributae circumferentes The universal souls throughout the whole world do proceed as it were distributed concurrentâ— from one soul of the whole world which is all one with that which we have said before namely that all Souls in this world are certain beamy streams proceeding from that catholick Emanation which issued from the eternall Fountain of the illuminating act to some more copiously and to some more spâ—â—ingly and therefore Man â—s said to be in dignâ—ty little less then the Angells by reason of the large portion of Light bestowed upon him Spiritus Dei fecit me saith Job sed inspiratio Omnipotentis fecit me â—melâ—igere Thirdly That in the very twinckling of an eye it is able to penetrate quite through all things and that at what distance it pleaseth and consequently will not be limitted by any imaginary Sphere of activity But Mr. Foster and his complices will reply that the spirit which should operate in the blood and from the blâ—od to the Ointment is a naturall spirit and not this Divine Spirit This Objection maketh me to smile As who should say that this act of vivifying yea and of every other faculty belonging unto man's spirit doth not move from one and the same Divine Fountain when the Apostle saith In him we move we live and have our being Again it is said that in the blood is the soul or spirit of life And St. John saith In Verbo erat vita in the Word was life I will tell you therefore what a true Philosopher saith touching this point Anima saith he ad similitudinem totius sapientiae facta omnem in se gerit similitudinem est que spiritus intellectualis semper vivens semper in motu secundum suâ— operis officium variis nuncâ—paâ—ur nâ—mâ—nibus Dicitur vita dum vegetat spiritus dum contemplatur sensus dum senti animus dum sapit mens dum intelligit ratio dum discernit memoria dum recordatuâ— dum vult voluntas ista omnia non sunt nisi una anima proprietate diversa sed essentia unica The soul of Man framed after the similitude of all wisdom doth beare in it self the likness of all things and it is an intellectuall spirit ever living and ever in motion and it is termed by divers names and appellations according unto the office of the work which it
effecteth For when it vegetateth or causeth to grow and multiply it is called life when it contemplateth it is termed a spirit it is called sense when it is conversant about the function which belongeth unto the externall sense it is termed the mind when it is versed about wisdom it is called Mens or the mentall beam when it understandeth it is termed reason when it discerneth between good or bad it is called memory when it remembreth it is styled Volunty when it willeth and yet all these are but onely one soul divers properties I say but one onely essence So that it is the same essentiall act which causeth life and contemplation which maketh sense and intellect which effecteth memory and reason and to conclude that willeth or nilleth Which being thus Is it not a sinfull thing in ignorant persons to make the occult actions of this abstruce spirit by which they live move understand discern between good and evill remember see feel hear touch and â—ast the effects of the devill and consequently to rob their bright soul of her honour instead of giving her thanks for her assistance by ascribing her arcane operations most irreligiously and falsly unto the devill And why I pray Why because they cannot dive into the depth of her activity by whom they themselves do live move and have their being Yea and to limit her activity with bounds according unto their pleasure who though they know not so much have their life and volunty from her which limiteth them according as she pleaseth who is infinite in her being for so much as she is a portion not divided from that Divine Emanation which is infinite in his extention It is evident therefore that this vivifying Spirit can send forth its action unto any mark in the world from any specifick nature but especially from the Microcosmicall creature and the rather if the mark be of the same specifick condition and the vehicle of the spirit namely the effused blood measuring first the distance between the wound and the Ointment Moreover we shall find this confirmed by other of her operations effected in the same Microcosmicall Mine from whence it emitteth its beams at an unlimited distance As for example It is found by experience and that by naturall means without any suspition of Cacomagicall devices or superstitious artifices that if a persons urine that hath the Yellow Jaundis be conveied at the distance of a hundred miles as by an honourable Person of no small rank and entire in Religion I am informed who hath often times made the tryall hereof unto a place where a composition shall be made of the urine and ashes of a certain tree commonly known and had in this Kingdom with certaine blades of Saffron as hath been told you in my Book entitled The Squeezing of Parson Foster's Sponge it often-times cureth that disease when the best of Physicall experiments have failed and this Medicine misseth seldom where the disease is curable And now I will relate a true story which befell this last yeare 1630 upon a Chirurgion's wife who dwelled not far from the Tower of London She fell desperately sick of the Yellow Jaundis and had sick gripings and shouâ—ings withall about her Stomack my self after many others was called unto her but prevailed but little by our Physicall means over the disease wherefore she hearing me tell of the many cures which this Noble Earl I spake of did perform in having the Parties water she sent her man unto me with her water to request me to make some means unto the Noble Man for her The fellow was sent by me with a letter four miles into the country and when he came unto the house he found two that were there to give thanks for their recovery For by that means they were cured The urine was received for my sake and the fellow sent away But mark the consequence so soon as the fellow was parted with the urine the sick woman was tatled unto by demure Gossips and told that it was done by witch-craft and the devill and therefore dangerous for her soul which made her rage and cry-out upon witch-craft and was much discontented which when I heard I came no more unto her esteeming her ungratefull and sent suddenly to the Earl to request him to undo the business and break the clods which he sent me word he would do but told me it was to late For said he it will work the effect howsoever Indeed the woman mended immediatly after it and no doubt did ascribe the cure unto some other inefficacious Physicall trash applied per chance unto her by some Mountebank All this I spake to my knowledg and I am not ignorant of the manner of the cure For it pleased the Noble Personage to impart unto me the manner yea and the Ladies his daughters have cured many of this disease aswell rich as poore who have made some means unto them for this cure And this worthy Lord did assure me that he had cured at an hundred mile's distance I cannot chose but make you acquainted with another cure which he effected upon a noble Lady that was my patient She had extreamly the Jaundis and though I did in some sort remove them for a while yet it returned again I then requested the Noble Knight her husband to send her water unto the foresaid Honourable Personage and promised him to write my letter by him All was done as I counselled and the Countess her self took it into her care to dispose of the water and the rather because the Lady that was sick was of a Noble Parentage Somewhat i wrought with the disease but not to our purpose Whereupon I did visite this Noble Man and told him of the small success that his Medicine had He willed me to send her water once more and told me that a Lady was with him in the foresaid noble patients behalf the day before I sent again her water and from that time forward she mended apaâ—e and was perfectly cured There are a hundred who can justifie this to be true Neither can it be alledged that it might be done by some medicine used in â—he mean time To â—ut off this objection she was prohibited for all that season to take any medicine but bare food onely Now the reason of this cure is no otherwise effected then that of the weapon-salve for the spirit of the blood in the infected person hath a continuated relation unto his salt yea and its habitation is in the aereall salt of the blood which being a subtle earth in the center whereof is the spirit contracted and being partly dispersed in the urine which is the whey of the blood it sucketh and draweth unto it his like from the infected body whereby it being as it were resuscitated and newly revived it emitteth new beams to meet comfort and correct the infected beams emitted out of the sick body And again the infecting spirit of the iâ—teâ—itious humour is by vertue
stones and mineralls without the help of which naturall things neither they nor their devill which revealed unto them their secret vertues could effect or accomplish their desires And for this purpose as Ovid telleth the story she searched the lofty tops of Ata to find out herbs for her purposes Many operate their feats by the vertuous property of stones which the devill doth deliver unto them though they themselves know neither the starry influence that giveth the force nor yet how they should be prepared for the operations of such strange effects As for example There was a witch in Scotland who at her arreignment did confess that by the property of a stone which was taken from her she could discover any thing namely if a thing were true it would sweat and if it were false it would not sweat and also it would reveal other things unto her by changing colours And again when they desired to see some conclusions from her she said that if they would let her have her stone she would shew them some But they fearing that she would escape by that means durst not let her have it but did burn her at the Queens Ferry in Scoâ—land Some are instructed by him to take a metal and to prepare it under his proper constellation and to grave on it the characters of the star and Angells belonging unto it at suâ—h a time as the star is most potent in heaven and well encountred by other Planets And then they find these plates to be of a strange effect in many Magical executions What And because the devill knoweth the virtue and properties of these naturall things and can instruct his minsters in the evill usage of them therefore doth it follow that Adam and Solomon and the wise Magitians of the East and many other good and godly persons do not know their virtues their times of collection and their manner of application in goodness yea and if they see a just cause in a contrary sense and that without the transgression of the bounds of naturall and lawfull Magick whose true subject is the Spirit of Wisdom which is the Basis or foundation of true Naturall Philosophy What make we of the means which Moses used when he by dispersing of ashes brought the botch over all Aegypt But some will say that this was supernaturally done Let them but look into the occult Secrets in the nature of other animals vegetables and mineralls and they shall find as great mysteries as these contained naturally in them all suspition of commerce with the devill being set apart Was the reverend Father Albertus Magnus a Cacomagician because he reciteth the abstruce occult and mysticall virtues of Animals Plants and Stones The like did Hermes Plato and many other profound Philosophers Or must these be the pupills of the devill because they know the times and houres of their collection and manner of preparation though they kept that secret unto themselves No verily for they had it from tradition namely from the mysticall and profound Philophers or naturall Wisemen such as Solomon Hermes and the wise men called Magi or naturall Magicians of the East which revealed them unto the worthy by succession from one Age unto another Was it not a wondrous propery in Gyges his ring that cold make him by the naturall property that it had to walk invisible And yet forsooth the blind buzards of our Age such I say as Mr. â—oster and his Complices are will have all these miraculous effects in the creatures to proceed from the devill and so deprive the Omnipotent Spirit of God and his Nature of their right when Solomon in plain terms confesseth that all the knowledg of the secret times of Election of the mysticall natures in the stars of the occult virtues and properties of Man Beasts Plants and Roots and all things else known or unknown proceed from the Spirit of God and therefore he concludeth in these words Omnium enim opifex me docuit Sapientia For wisdom the worker or maker of all things taught me In which words he inferreth first That the Spirit of Wisdom teacheth and discovereth unto man the abstruce mysteries of Naturall Philosophy which consisteth in the knowledg and discovery of naturall virtues as well above as beneath And secondly That it is the same Spirit that made those virtues in every specifick thing namely in the starrs above and in the animal vegetable and minerall kingdoms beneath Which being so what can the devill being but a reasonable creature as well as man do in the creating of these essentiall virtues by which he worketh his feats more then man Or why should we attribute that unto him which doth rightly belong unto the all-creating and acting Spirit in the internall creature If man please he may attribute the wickednesse of the action unto the devill which instigateth man to evill and teacheth him the means to effect his bad intent that verily doth of right belong unto the devill For he was created for a destroyer as the Prophet Isaias testifieth to us and to effect it he maketh use of God's naturall creatures for he used the fire of God from heaven to destroy Job's cattle and the corrupt aire to kill with the Plague or Pestilence the Israelites for David's sins Neither was it ever observed that he could do ought against man of himself saving onely in temptation but he operaâ—eth to destroy or make sick by such naturall antipathising means as God hath framed for a directer usage although also unto some of his veneficall schollers he is pleased to show and reveal a counter-poyson by which they may by a stronger sympatheticall operation drown or extinguish such antipatheticall effects as they have imposed upon man's externall spirit when they are moved either for fear of punishment or for gain or foâ— compassion to do it which is the reason that some witches can undo those afflicting maladies which they themselves or other witches have laid on persons but alwaies they must operate by a reall and manifest naturall Substance as are Powders Ointments Herbs and such like As for example Claudaea Fellea Joan Banno and Nicola Piscatrix with all their Society in Lorraine confessed the 9. of May 1581. that they had delivered unto them by the devill subtill powders of three natures the which were distinguished in colour For said they that of a black colour killeth being strewed on meat or rubbed on the body or sprinkled on the apparell and that of an ashen or reddish colour causeth diseases but the white Powder did cure those diseases And Odella Boncuriana being arraigned the 18. of January 1586. saith that it was the manner of the witches of his faction to strew a poysoned powder in the way where they should pass on whom they would work mischief And Francis Perine confessed the 4. of November 1588. that an herb was given her by the devill to be laid in the way that Riberianus who did beat her for stealing some
that all these are lies I reply That it was a learned Philosopher and famous Theologian that relateth them who no doubt would if he lived tell him That he should learn to understand the hours of elections the stars that have dominions on the earth and their times of exaltation or fortitude on the earth And lastly over what creatures in the three compound Kingdoms they have their proper influences For my part I know admirable secrets in man and beasts for the which the Peripatetick Philosophy can yield no reason as for example That the Pike or Jack-fishe's guts dried should mightily provoke urin the sucking of blood from a Mole whose nose is cut off for the same purpose will cure the falling-sickness and that after the taking of it it maketh the party exceeding sick as experience hath taught us by the cure of a Lady in Kent who was cured thereby Also that it being burnt unto powder it should by an occult nature expell the cholick That the heart and liver of the Frogs should be approved for the falling-sickness That a Snake's skin should accelerate and hasten a woman's delivery That the menstrues in a woman should cause a Leprosie That the Toad dried should stench blood as also the Spider being applyed unto the nostrills of him that bleedeth as I have often tried As for other occult miracles in stones mettles herbs and animals the true schollars unto Solomon I mean Hermes Plato Albertus Magnus Diascorides and such like are full and doubtlesse they would not prove so sottish and indiscreet to publish lies and to write things of impossibility averring them to be effected in their knowledge and so by that means lose that reputation which they have gained in the world by their wisdom But as concerning the practise of our main businesse which is touching the sympatheticall and antipatheticall respect that is between the different Mummy which is in mans body and the ocular demonstration thereof produced from the Loadstone I purpose in this next Book to shew and prove more unto you than any one hath done before me unto this present as I may imagine The Third BOOK Which toucheth many practicall Proofs and experimentall Conclusions to confirm the loving Microcosmicall Attraction or sympatheticall Coition and antipatheticall Expulsion or hatred by the magnetick and expulsive property of the Macrocosmicall Load-stone The Argument of this Book The Author's Proem unto this present Book wherein he briefly and in few words reciteth what is said before I Have related to you in my precedent discourse and made sufficient proof of it that the spirituall Christ the divine Word or eternall wisdom is the true basis or foundation of the essentiall Philosophy as is proved by the Apostle's testimony forasmuch as he is the sure and never-failing corner-stone on which every creature is builded and in whom it consisteth seeing that in it is life and that life is the essentiall light which vivifieth all things and consequently operateth all in all as the Scriptures do sufficiently testifie For if the Spirit of the Lord doth impart unto the creature life and inspiration and all things And if again that Spirit doth replenish the earth and be in every thing as Solomon confesseth then must we also acknowledge that this centrall Spirit of every specifick thing is that Divinity wherein the essentiall root of all magnetick sympatheticall attraction and antipatheticall expulsion in every kind consisteth For being it is the catholick love which imparteth it self unto every particular existence to give it action and motion to attract his like nature for a convenient nourishment assistance and consolation so also it maketh the organ in which it acteth to resist and expell all such emanations as either in order quality or essence do disagree and are opposite or harmfull to the specifick existence or conservation For this reason therefore it endueth the creature with a double affection namely with a concupiscible desire and an irascible hatred whereof the one doth rejoyce or sympathize with his like and therefore allureth or draweth it unto him to consolate and assist him in his beeing the other doth eschew and drive away by an antipatheticall and odious aspect that which may be harmfull and noysome unto it And this is the act of that all-creating and sustaining Wisdome which made each creature by a kind of successive preservation which it sucketh from his like in the world to be and exist and consequently hath given it an irascible faculty to defend it self from that which is contrary unto it Whereby we may see how this vivifying spirit doth moderate all things with an unpartiall hand insomuch that though it hath framed all things by opposition namely light and darknesse and therefore in mans regard both good and evill yet he ordained that each individuall should have the faculty to eschew with an irascible and antipatheticall disdain that which unto it is contrary either in order or nature or both untill the time be accomplished in which after he is exalted he shall expell all contrariety and discord out of this world by making a sympatheticall union amongst all things which also St. Paul doth argue in these words Cum evacuaverit omnem Principatum Potestatem Virtutem Oportet autem eum regnare donec ponat omnes inimicos sub pedibus suis novissima autem inimica destruetur Mors Omnia enim subjecit pedibus ejus Cum autem ei subjecta fuerint omnia tunc ipse filius subjectus erit illi qui subjecit sibi omnia ut sit Deus omnia in omnibus When he hath evacuated every Principality and Potestat and Virtue For he must raign untill he put all his enemies under his feet the last enemy death shall be destroyed For he shall subject all things under his feet And when all things are made subject unto him then also the Son shall be subject un-him who hath made all things subject unto him that God may be all in all Whereby it is evident that the catholick Magneticall virtue which resideth in God's eternall Spirit shall at the last be exalted after his glorious victory and draw all things unto him and all things shall be one in him and he in them and consequently all Discord and Hatred being banished and laid apart Love Peace and Vnity shall erect the perpetuall and never-dying Trophy of this hallowed Victory This universall Magnetick Virtue is acknowledged by the Spirit of Christ in these words Si exaltatus fuero à terra omnia traham ad meipsum If I shall be exalted from the earth I will draw or attract all things unto my self that is I will by mine attractive or conjoyning Vnite all things and as it were ingraft them into mine own Nature So that in the beginning all things came from one Unity as comprehending in it implicitly all things which are explicitly unfolded and comprehended under two contrary Principles So in the end all things
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
into a hole made in the root of a Hazel-tree and close up again the hole with the bark of the same Tree and afterward cover it with earth assuring me that it hath been tried that as the Tree groweth so will the member prosper But above all he wished me to observe the due order of the heaven and such secret and proper constellations as he hath instructed me in for without them the cure or amendment will be the lesse effectuall II. Another Magneticall Experiment to confirm the precedent Johannes Rhumelius Pharamondus cureth the Gowt by the very self-same manner of transplantaion in this manner He cutteth off the hair from the feet legs and thighs and also he pareth off the nails of the feet Then he maketh a hole in an Oke even unto the very Center or pith of the body and pulleth into it the hair and the nails and afterward he stoppeth up the hole with a peg or pin framed out of the same Tree and lastly he daubeth it without with cow-dung This Author saith that by this Magneticall experiment onely he hath cured many But if it chance saith he that the Gowt shall for all this return again within the space of three months then it is an Argument that the Oke is insufficient to draw Magnetically and then he proceedeth thus namely he boreth another like hole in a second Oke and after this he taketh the peeces of the Oke which fall out in the boring of the hole and bruiseth them and sticheth them in a little bag and applieh it unto the dolorous or infected member And this he doth three daies before the New-Moon Then in that very hour that the New-Moon is in he removeth the bag from the part affected and thrusteth it into the hole of the same Tree and stoppeth it with a pin of the same wood as before And he affirmeth that by this second practice when the first hath failed he hath cur'd many But if it happen for all this that the pain doth return within three other moneths then he cutteth of the hair and pareth the nails the second time and tieth them upon the back of a Crab or Crab-fish and so casteth it into the running waters and the sick will be cured He concludeth there that he hath cured many by the first many others by the first and second and many by the first second and third Experiments A third Experiment tried by the same Author The same Author doth verifie that by this very manner of transplantation he hath cured many of the Rupture or Hernia and his practice is after this manner He taketh a new laid Egge piping hot as they say and he rubbeth the Gowty place with it often but gently then he taketh away the bark of a good big tree and with a great auger he boreth a hole so big as that the Egge might easily enter into it then doth he lay on again the bark as before stopping well the hole thereof with it and anointing or daubing it with tree wax or caement All which businesses must be effected in due order and time And he telleth us that when the barks of the tree do grow together then also will the Hernia and rupture also close up But if it happen that the Hernia be not cured within one moneth then bore a hole in an Oke and take the pieces that fall from the hole bruise them and stick them in a small bag and apply it to the grief as is said about three daies before the new Moon and then about the hour of the new Moon put it into the hole and do in all things as is told you before He telleth many other observations as well touching the time namely if the Hernia's first increase were in the Moon 's increase or decrease which for brevity sake I here omit Lastly if the Hernia be not for all this so dered or glued up then he boareth a hole in the Oke and puts in the nail and hair of the Patient's hands and feet as also the hair of his privy parts stopping it as is before said For he affirmeth that when the hole will be grown up the Hernia will be also closed There also he sheweth the reason that he is forced to use more or less of these operations in his cure according unto the nature of the Hernia namely to the incipient Hernia one operation will serve to the inveterate more will be required And he saith that in this cure is chiefly to be obserued the time the measure of the tree and the depth or profundity of the hole Another Experiment by him Also he saith that if we take the nailes of the feet and hands of an Hydropick person and transplant them on the Crey-fish of the river and bind them unto the back of her and cast her into the river it will cure the Dropsy Whereby you may plainly observe by approved experience that the marrow and strengh of the foresaid Proposition is in every respect confirmed and again if we do but burn the nails and hair and scrapings of the skin and take by an alimbeck without a bottom the fume of it we shall find a kind of Balsamick oyle to issue from them which is very attractive drying and agglutinating of wounds And therefore it appeareth that there is a Balsamick virtue in these kind of Excrescences though unto the ignorant they appeare but of little value But this Magnetick virtue of these Excrementitious parts may in some sort be also demonstrated by the property of the Minerall Load-stone As for Example IV. A Magneticall Demonstration We may rightly compare the mass of these superfluous Excrescences unto a lesser Load-stone capped with steel For when it is transplanted into the Plant it becommeth of a greater force of attraction For as the Iron being added unto the pole of the Load-stone though it be but weak yet it doth fortifie it and maketh it able to attract a far greater weight for the Iron giveth it strength In like manner if Magnetick Excrescences be grafted in the body of the Magneticall Tree then that Tree will suck and draw his like namely the spirit of defective limbs more strongly unto it making them to become vegetative and to increase and grow which before did pine and wither For the spirit sucked and continued by dilatation from the member unto the vegetative nature of the Tree doth indue the like nature and doth by a continuity animate the fading spirits in the member to increase and vegetate or prosper in his growth Now to prove this Magneticall relation I will produce certain Problems touching the nature of the Load-stone 1. Problem There is a strong Union in a Load-stone armed with steel and heavier weight may be by it taken up than if it be not armed Application The reason is because vis unita est fortior for the Iron addeth force unto a Load-stone that is weak as is confirmed by this Problem 2 Problem If there
man that marcheth on the hill where the Mine is and holdeth this Hazel-rod in this posture shall presently perceive the top or perpendicular of the rod to incline violently downward when the man treadeth on a place where any Mine is which is an evident Argument of the Magneticall affection which is between the one and the other 6. Experiment A man that hath many boils in his body was counselled when other things would not cure him by an old woman to find out a bramble which groweth out of the earth at both ends or both ends rooted in the ground and this man was counselled to creep in his clothes under the bramble backwards three times and he was cured so his boils vanished by little and little in five or six daies Mr. Fuller 2. Proposition The singular order and sympathy or antipathy of the vegetable parts between themselves is described and typically set forth by a relation or respect had between it and the Load-stone whereby is argued that the vegetable and minerall and consequently the animal observe one sympatheticall or harmonicall proportion as well in their sympatheticall order as antipatheticall irregularity in their disorder A Problem for the confirmation of the foresaid Proposition In all Magneticall things be they vegetable or minerall and consequently animall evermore nature doth tend unto a convenient unity both in nature and position and contrariwise where their parts do not according unto the course of nature incline unto a conjunction there happeneth a disturbance and as it were a diversity between part and part Demonstration in the Minerall Magnet Take a long Load-stone or Minerall Magnet and let it be C D and let C be the North Pole B and D the South A Then divide this long Load-stone in the middle between the two poles where the aequator passeth namely in E F and E will be South or aequinoctiall unto the pole D and F unto the pole C. As therefore these parts of the Load-stone did respect one another in their entire disposition So also nature tendeth after their division to unite them again And therefore where the division is made the end E desireth and coveteth to cleave and adhere unto F. But E. will not be joyned or have any commerce with D nor yet F with C and then one must convert C unto D and they will well agree and be combinated together For D turneth to the South as before and C to the North. But E and F which should be parts naturally conjoyned and united in the Stone are in so doing mightily displaced so that they do not accord and unite together by a materiall union but they receive their motion and inclination from the form of the Stone So that the ends of this Stone whether they are disjoyned or united do Magnetically tend after one manner unto the poles of the earth both in its first entire and divided figure as in the second and the Magneticall concourse F E in the second figure into one body will be as perfect as that of C D even as it was engendered in his vein and F E as the flote in their boat Application unto the Vegetable This self-same conveniency and inconveniency of the Magneticall Form which is noted to be in the Minerall Magnet will also be observed in vegetables For take a wand or rod of a Willow Tree or any other Plant which groweth easily and let it be A B and A is the uppermost part of the rod and B the lower part next unto the root divide this rod in the middle D C I say then that if the end D be grafted again in the end C it will grow Also if B be grafted on A they will be consolidated together and sprout forth But if D be grafted upon A or C. upon B they will be at strife and consequently will never grow but one of them must needs dye by reason of the preposterous order and inconvenient position because that the vegetative force or vigor which proceedeth after one manner is now diverted and compelled or forced into contrary parts I will say no more touching this point but proceed unto the main burthen of these practicall Magneticall Conclusions with their infallible Demonstration CHAP. VI. How the feisiblity and possibility of the Magneticall manner of cure by the Weapon-salve is produced and demonstrated to be naturall The which that we may the better effect we will first set down our main Proposition touching this kind of cure and afterward elucidate and clearly demonstrate it by evident proofs derived especially from the virtue of the Load-stone The Proposition IF after the wound is made a portion of the wound 's externall blood with his inward spirits or of his internall spirits onely that have penetrated into the weapon or any other thing which hath searched the depth of the wound be conveyed from the wound at any reasonable but unlimited or unknown distance unto an Ointment whose composition is Balsamick and agreeing specifically with the nature of the creature so wounded and be in a decent and convenient manner adapted and as it were transplanted or grafted into it the oyntment so animated by those spirits will become forthwith magneticall and apply with a magneticall aspect or regard unto the bearny spirits which stream forth invisâ—â—bly from the wound being directed thereunto by those spirituall bloody spirits in the weapon or other thing which hath received or included them and the lively and southern beams streaming and flowing from the wound will with the northern attraction of the oyntment so magnetically animated concur and unite themselves with the northern and congealed or fixed bloody spirits contained in the oyntment and stir them to act southernly that is from the center to the circumference so that by this reciprocall action union or continuity the lively southern beams will act and revive the chill fixt or northern beams which do animate the oyntment with a magneticall vertue and quickned spirits of the oyntment animated by the spirits of them both and directed by the spirits which were first transplanted into it doth impart by the said union or continuity his balsamick and sanative vertue unto the spirits in the wound being first magnetically attracted and they afterwards by an unseperable harmony transfer it back again unto the wound And this is the reason of that sympatheticall and antipatheticall reference or respect which is by experience observed to be between the oyntment and the wound so that if the whole space of the weapon that made the wound be covered and annointed with the unguent and the unguent be well wrapped and kept warm the wound will find consolation and be at ease but if a part of the oynment be pared away or wiped off from the weapon it hath been often tryed that pain or dolour will immediately ensue and afflict the wound Moreover if the place anoynted be kept temperately warm the wound will also rest in temper but if it be uncovered and
virtue As for example Let there be a long Load-stone prepared and directly in the middle upon the aequinoctial B where the Axis runneth plant an incited needle and it will look directly unto the North-pole A. Also if within the Orbe you place another incited needle without the Stone in C it will also look directly upon the said Pole whereby we may discern the long distance which is between the aspect of the Magnet and that of the incited body namely 90 Degrees Again each part or fragment that is divided from the Magnet be it animal vegetable or minerall hath therefore the self-same dimension because it is as well indued with his polar virtues as the whole And this is sufficiently testified by this Problem 5. Problem If Magneticall subjects be divided or any piece be broken off from it by any means every part so broken off from the whole will have an end as well Septentrional as Meridional as well as the whole had As for example If a smaller part or piece be taken out of a greater Load-stone it will be indued wich the same life and vigor which the whole Magnet had no otherwise then the child will touching his life wholly correspond with the Father in life parts and it will be as it were a new creature and will have his poles and aequinoctial as well as the whole Stone had Also if an Iron-rod as is that of the Curtain be hung up and have his position North and South without being touched for being to god North and South it will indue those properties namely the polar virtues and move in the aire being hung up by a thread or put into a boat on the water unto the North and South If I say a small piece of the rod be broke off from the North part it will have his North and South-pole as well as the whole rod of Iron from the which it was broken Whereby it is apparent that if every portion or fragment of the Load-stone or Iron have his pole as well as the whole then the spirit which is within hath his relation or application with the Northern pole-star of the great world and doth also behold the Southern Virtue with his South-pole for except there were the Scintil of the Anima mundi which is in it and operateth in it according unto the small proportion of it no otherwise then it doth in the great world it could not aspect each Pole as it is observed by experience to do and consequently as the actions of the Anima mundi are so catholick that they cannot be limited so are the spirituall quintessentiall or astralicall Emanations I prove it further thus 6. Problem If you take an Iron rod made of good Iron and hang it up in the aire on a thread as if it were touched with a Load-stone c. The Experience is this Take a straight piece of Iron or steel of six foot long and a finger thick hang it up in a close chamber into the which there cometh no wind and therefore this experiment ought to be tried when the aire is calm and the day not windy and must hang on a silken thread which is not twisted but woven and the Iron must hang directly equilibrous or in an equall ballance and you shall discern it slowly to move and by little and little to attain with his extremities or ends of the points of North and South no otherwise then the needl's do in the Dialls which are touched with the Load-stone Moreover we shall find that the Load-stone or any thing else that is touched or excited by the Load-stone will direct their aspect being planted in small boats on the needle on his vertical unto the North-pole The Conclusion Wherefore it is made manifest that the extention of the Load-stone's spirituall or formall Emanation as also that of other Magneticall bodies is not to be limited being that they do act and apply their beams unto the very state of the Pole-star and the Pole-star by his like emitted influences doth operate reciprocally and apply unto or aspect the Load-stone and so make a continuated Spirituall union betwixt them being that we ocularly discern that both it and the Iron doth diligently and with a manifest Sympathy aspect and actually move unto the said star And then after this is well considered let us but think and ponder the distance which is between the Pole-star and the Magnet namely betwixt the eighth Sphere and the earth and he will perceive it to be in a manner infinite and incommensurable and consequently the emitted beams of the Load-stone cannot by any phantasticall Sphere of sensible and sensuall Philosophers be comprehended or limited But if the act of the Pole-star on the Magnet be denied And Fracastorius his opinion with that of many other learned men be received namely that the Load-stone the Iron and the needle touched do tend unto the North-pole by reason of the attraction of certain Rocks of Load-stone which are in the Hyperboreal mountains if this opinion I say were admitted to be true yet may we see by it that the act of the Magnet and the actuall respect which the Magneticall body beareth unto it is not to be limited being that so they will be observed to co-operate from the aequinoctiall unto the Northern Hyperborean Rocks But this opinion hath been proved false by us in another place and shall hereafter be demonstrated by us to be so We will now come to our Application touching this first Article Application The first and second Problem teacheth us that there is such a celestiall or astralicall subtle spirit in all magneticall bodies of the earth as is in the heavenly ones and consequently that the beams of each of them may penetrate as far though they be not discerned by sense as the beams of each star By this therefore we may be assured that mans heavenly spirit being of a more pure and subtle a stuff than is that of the Load-stone may send forth the astralicall beams of his vertue not onely to the mark that the Load-stone aimeth at but also unto the highest throne of divinity Again hereby it is argued that the spirit in the transplanted blood is able to operate at any distance on the wound and the beamy spirit of the wound again to co-operate and have a continuated union and respect unto one another The third instructeth us that though the oyntment and blood in it do not appear mobil or movable at a far distance yet they may co-operate and be conjoyned with the spirit of the wounded at an unknown proportion of space By the fourth and fifth we learn that the extension of the northern bloods aspect unto the southern may be so far as the aequinoctiall is from the pole namely 90 degrees But I say that as the northern and southern emanation of the soul of the world filleth all the cavity of the world so also by it and in it may this act of
So is the translated northern blood rightly compared unto the Load-stone and the Oyntment to the capping or arming with Iron For by uniting the frozen blood unto the Ointment the attractive power and Magnetical force is far the greater and is able to suck and draw strongly unto it the Southern spirit of lively blood in the wounded I prove this better by this Problem following 7. Problem If two Load-stones armed with two teeth a-piece be set before us the one being strong the other weak or much less whose Axis or Diameter betwixt the teeth is equall and of like length then set the teeth of these together that came from contrary Poles and parts and the stronger will apprehend and lift up the weaker and the weaker being united and incorporated with the stronger by the virtue that it receiveth from the stronger will lift up from the ground and retain the stronger and greater very firmly although he be much heavier then the weight which the small stone doth ordinarily lift up Application By this Minerall type we are taught by changing the measures of weights into proportions in vigor of spirit that the frozen evacuated and transported bloody spirits being capped and armed with the Oyntment whose nature is as near as the blood unto the spirits is made a Magnet so puissant that it is able to attract unto it self the bigger and stronger bloody nature by applying to it the lesser Magnet's Northern nature and as it were his Northern-pole unto the bigger Magnets Southern nature for by that means in the mineral kingdom a natural Union is made as is proved by this Problem 8. Problem There is a naturall Union and a violent and depraved Union and the naturall is when the coition is made by contrary Poles as by the North pole and the South Again that the strongest attraction is from the North-pole this Problem doth confirm 9. Problem The North-pole is the most strong and vigorous pole to all Magnetick intents and purposes if he have the quantity that the South hath Application Whereby it is evident that the Northern nature which is in the unctuous Magnet and his influentiall spirit is by far more attractive than the Southern or warm spirit neither can the Southern or aequinoctial draw unto it but as he participates of the Northern nature by a naturall concurrency unto his like and that is the reason that the naturall Union is said to be where a concurrency is made of opposite polar natures For from them is the strongest attraction made because that it is the nature onely of cold to contract as contrariwise heat doth dilate This polar force therefore is conclusively maintained by this Problem with the which I conclude this Article's proof 10. Problem The Load-stones that be capped take and apprehend at the Pole onely Application As who should say that the Northern or congelated Mummy capped or armed with the Ointment of his own nature and the Southern or lively Mummy capped with flesh do apply Magnetically unto one another at the Poles namely the lively Mummy at the Southern or aequinoctiall and the weak and frozen at the Northen and therefore the manifest attraction is from the unctuous Magnet and his imbibed Agent I now come unto the second Article or Particle of this Member Demonstrations confirming the Contents of the Member's second Article or Particle As concerning the second Article of this member which sheweth that the spirituall Mummy of the transplanted blood is the director and guider of the Oyntments Magneticall force or vigor unto the wound at what distance soever I demonstrate it by these problematicall assertions following 1. Problem The Load-stone doth guid and direct Magneticall things which do conceive vigor and force from it not onely in the extremities but also in their interior and veiny marrow As for example So soon as a piece of Iron is apprehended it is accited Magnetically into the end where it was touched and that very force so bestowed upon it penetrateth quite throughout even unto the other end or extremity not onely superficially but also centrally Application By this Example it is proved that the formall Mummy of the blood operateth in the very like manner with the Oyntment which is to it as the Iron is unto the Load-stone so that as the Load-stone by touching the Iron maketh it after the imbibition of his spirituall vigor a Magnet So also after the imbibition of this bloody spirituall Mummy the unguent becommeth a Magnet Forasmuch as it is throughly animated with a Magneticall vigor And doth by virtue of this Mummiall soul direct his beam and Balsamick force unto the fountain from whence that Mummiall spirit did arise I prove the direction to be true by these other Problems following 2. Problem One Load-stone doth dispose of the other one doth convert the other and reduceth it in his order and guideth and directeth it into his Concordances and when they are met and joyned together they do mutually adhere firmly unto one another The example is evident For if you take two Irom wiers of a length being excited at the ends by contrary Poles and thrust them through round corks as big as Hazel-nuts and put them to swim in the water you shall find that they will by little and little order themselves and the Northern spirituall contact of the one will first direct his axil-tree and after draw the South-pole unto it untill both meet one another in the manner of two Tilters or Hors-men with their speares The Demonstration Application The spirituall Mummy in the transplanted blood is one Load-stone which doth dispose the Oyntment in such a manner that it becometh a Magnet also and this Magnet is directed by the spirit of the Mummy into the concordances of the spirituall Mummy which breatheth forth of the living wounded man which iâ— attracteth and uniteth and partly participateth with his vivifying force and partly communicateth with him of his Balsamicall spirit which by reason of his continuity with the wound it doth easily though invisibly transfer unto the wound I proceed now unto the third Article or Particle of this Member Demonstrations confirming the Contents of this member's third and last Article or Particle As for the third and last Article of this Member which sheweth that a weak and impotent spirit operateth but weakly of it self but by the assistance of a stronger nature it is recreated and becommeth vigorous And lastly again it is also confirmed by many sufficient Problematicall conclusions which are produced from the Load stone's properties 1 Problem A Load-stone loseth his attractive vertue and doth as it were decay with age if it be long exposed unto the open aire and not kept and put into the filings or scales of Iron Application Also the life-blood so soon as it is effused out of his warm mineral veins and tasteth of the cold aire loseth his active vertue and becommeth dead and congealed except it
and consequently there would be neither variety of action neither any contraction or dilatation of systole and diastole in things and therefore no action or passion in the soul for without a passive nature there can be no action and also without an active nature there can be no passion Now matter which proceedeth from water is the subject of all passion as here mother Chaos was the female or passive unto the action of Demogorgon or God Also act or form which proceedeth from light is the subject of all action as its father Eternity or the bright emanation of the spirit of wisdom from the fountain of light was the male or agent From hence therefore it is an easie thing to gather first what the soul of the world is and therefore of what parts it doth consist for we must consider that as every creature hath his interior and exterior so also we must exquisitely search after an internall and an externall in the soul being it is a creature and again that it is a creature it is most certain because it is not Identity but Alterity for if it were Identity it would be the divine unity or essence and consequently it would not be created Now that it is Alteritas it is plain because it is compounded of two after the consistence of Angells forasmuch as his internall is a vivifying flame issuing or proceeding from the eternall emanation of life and his externall is an aeviall spirit which is created inacted and animated by this eternall emanation from God And forasmuch as the nature of that most essentiall and never-dying fire is said to be all and in every part of the world and therefore Scriptures say Christus adimplet omnia Christ filleth all things Christus est omnia in omnibus Christ is all and in all Dei Spiritus est in coelo in inferno in extremis maris in nocte in tenebris c. The Spirit of God is in heaven in hell in the extreamest parts of the seas in the night and in darkness Sapientiam effudit Deus super omnia opera sua God hath powred out the spirit of wisdom upon all his works Spiritus Dei incorruptibilis inest omni rei The incorruptible Spirit of God is in every â—hing Coelum est ei sedes terra autem scabellum pedum ejus The heaven is his seat and the earth is his footstool Spiritus sapientiae implet orbem The spirit of wisdom filleth all the world c. Forasmuch I say as it is in every particle of this humid spirit the which by his presence is now full of dignity that before was vile and deformed it is certain that it maketh this catholick spirit to live And therefore this angelicall spirit thus composed of alterity or of two is called Anima mundi because it is that catholick or generall spirit divinely animated from the beginning which doth vivifie afterwards each particular creature of the world proceeding from the generality to the speciality and from the speciality unto the individuality So that the mighty question so often revolved by the Peripatetick Philosophers and so slenderly by them resolved may hereby be fully determined and enucleated if it please the wise and impartiall Reader rightly to consider things as indeed they do stand for by this it is easie to express and distinguish mentem divinam or the divine emanation from anima or the soul and again the anima from spiritus or the spirit being that it is evident that the mentall radication is the eternall and formall emanation which is given or sent out by the Creator in her positive property to create the world and consequently the earthly body and heavenly spirit thereof of nothing or non-actuall existence The spirit is that inward created spirit of the world or subtle substance of the waters or humid nature simply considered in its self which is animated and illuminated by that Archetypicall emanation and the soul or anima is that union which is made between this humid created spirit and the increated formall emanation which doth inform or create So that by this we may discern first what the forma informans or natura naturans is then what the forma informata or the natura naturata is The forma formans or natura naturans is God or the divine emanation which created all things the forma informata or natura naturata is the created light or the spirit informed or illuminated by the presence of the bright increased Spirit and the increated Spirit clothed with or enduing that created spirit is said to be vestitus or amictus lumine quasi vestimento cloathed with light that is with an illuminated spirit as with a garment We shall find also in Exodus that in the same Chapter the spirituall creature in which the divine Spirit acteth and resideth is tearmed an Angell in regard of his externall spirit in composition but again in the same Chapter it is tearmed JEHOVA in regard of the eternall form that acteth in it Also the Angell is said to go before the Israelites in a pillar of clowd by day and a pillar of fire by night And again it is said in the same history that JEHOVA went before them in the said order And the wise man said Fuit sapientia iis tegumentum interdiu lux stellaris noctu Wisdom was a cover to them in the day time and a starry-light in the night And the reason of all this is expressed elsewhere thus Noli exacerbare eum quia non feret defectionem vestram quoniam nomen meum est in eo Do not anger this my angel for he will not endure your defections because my name is in him c. Where by his name he signifieth his word which is God as if he had said I do essentially animate him and I am within him c. That the soul of the world or Mens divina in mundo simply taken is the divine mentall emanation absolutely in it self being distinguished from the created spirit this Text in Scriptures doth warrant Animam Spiritum dividit discernit sermo Dei vivus The Word of God doth devide the soul and the spirit c. Where by the word is ment the mentall beam by the Spirit the humid nature that existeth by the presence of the mentall beam which God by his Word can withdraw unto himself or emit according unto his will and pleasure Whereupon David said Deo recipiente Spiritum suum à creatuâ—is eâ—spi aâ—t â—miâ— erte spiritum recreantur bono God receiving or withdrawing his Spirit from 〈…〉 they exspire but sending out his Spirit they are recreated with life and goodness Aâ—d â—ow I will prove all this out of such definitions or descriptions which as well the Faâ—heâ—s of the Church as the Philosophers both Christian and Gentile have made upon the soul in generall both as it hath a relation unto a body and also as it is
being too wary and listning overmuch unto the Proverb Noli alium sâ—perâ— Câ—imbe not too 〈◊〉 have their regard more pronely namely upon the earth and her effects onely and of this ranck is Fracastorius who searching after the reason and beginning of this attracting faculty doth imagine that the Hyperboreall mountaines which abound with rocks of this nature do draw these Iron-natured subâ—â—cts unto them And this his figment seemeth so plausible unto divers persons of learning that they follow it as well in their Astronomicall writings as Geographicall tables or descriptions of the world and Sea-cards or maps which if it were tâ—ue they would easily draw unto them all such Ships as pass in the Northern Seas Olaus Magnus and some other that follow his traditions say that the attâ—active force cometh from some northern Islands which abound in that Magnetick subject But leaving their fancy unto the empty wind I pâ—oceed unto others Lucretius Caâ—us a poet of the Epicurean Sect dreameth that the attraction of Iron is caused of an effluxion of atoms For saith he according unto the Epicures opinions as most subtill atoms do emanate and â—â—ow out from every thing even so do atoms â—lie out of the Iron as Magneticall seeds by a certain coition of it with the Load stone into the interposed place or space that is between them and that by the union or complication of both bodies the iron is drawn c. Unto this sense also do Aphrodiseus Joannes Costâ—us Plutarch yea and Thomas Aquinas incline when indeed they ought to know that no attraction is made by emission from the Center unto the Circumference that is by dilatation but rather by sucking in and contracting from the Circumference unto the Center and therefore the emission of atomicall seeds out of the Iron can be no reason of its Union with or moving to the stone But it must be the Load-stone that must draw the beams or spirits out of the Iron For it appeareth that the Iron doth not draw it self unto the Load-stone but is drawn unto it Thales and Anaxagoras think that the Load-stone hath life in it because it attracteth a substance like it self as lively creatures do Lucâ—etiuâ— and Orpheus think there is that Sympathy between the Magnet and the Iron which is between the male and female and in this they erre not much Averroes Scaliger and the Cardinal Cusanus would have Iron to move unto the Load-stone as unto his originall Mattix Galen thinketh that it draweth by his substantiall form And now I must come unto the opinion of my renowned Fellow or Collegue D. William Gilbert for his Magnetick skill and deep search as well contemplative as experimentall touching this Subject His mind is that this attractive virtue in the Load-stone doth spring from formall actions or originall and primary Virtues or vigours For he concludeth that the Magnetick force proceedeth from a particular or singular form differing from that formall and specifick cause in mixt bodies mentioned by the Peripateticks but saith he it is a certain form which is the proper entity and existence of the starry Globes and their homogeniall incorrupted parts which he calleth the Primarie radicall and astreall Form namely such a one as is in the Sun the Moon and other celestiall Stars And he averreth that after a like manner there is one in the earth which is that true Magneticall Puissance which is called the first act or vigor And this he saith is not derived from the whole heaven affirming that it is procreated by Sympathy through influence or occult qualities neither is it from any peculiar starre For it hath its Magneticall virtue from the earth c. This is my learned quondam Fellow-Collegue his opinion whose pains and industry in the research of this Subject's practicall conclusions as I cannot but commend and extol So on the contrary side reason will not permit me to consent unto this his speculative foundation or root of the Load-stone's virtue in all For who can believe that the earth it self much less the particulars thereof can have any Virtue radically from it self when it is evident that as well the earth as the heavens came radically out of the waters And therefore as the heaven was before the earth it must needs follow that the formall Virtue of the earth did totally descend from heaven and consequently the earth had no such property from it self But of this hereafter more at large Among the Ethnick Philosophers Plato and of the Christians Scaliger and Fernelius do think that the cause of this Attraction is Divine and from above but how and after what manner they express not And therefore though in a generality they have spoken the truth yet in these common words they seem to expresse they know not what In particular I will conclude with the last opinion which is the most idle and insufficient of all the rest and therefore is worthy to be made the last and most unworthy part namely the tayl or excrement of them Franciscus Rucus maketh a great doubt concerning the wonderfull property in the Load-stone and because forsooth the pitch of his capacity can attain no higher then unto Superficiall things and such as are subject unto sense therefore he judgeth all effects beyond his reach to be Cacomagicall and consequently he maketh a doubt whether the cause of these actions in the Load-stone be not an impostury or subtill slight of the Cacodemons or evill spirits And yet this man is more to be born withall then such as do boldly averre that the act and wonderfull effects of the Weapon Salve is cacomagicall For he speaketh not absolutely as they do who without any farther doubting do seem to attribute all hidden effects unto the Divell and so deprive God of his due but onely this man maketh a doubt whether it be so or no. CHAP. II. In this Chapter the Author's Opinion touching the originall intermediate and immediate Action or Virtue of the Load-stone is enucleated and set down at large I Am sure you do remember how in my precedent discourse I have demonstrated that God in a generality doth operate all and in all and then after what manner the self-same Unity in the Divine essence is manifested in its property according unto the multiplicity of his sacred Volunty which is therefore proved to be manifold because the particular effects of his actions which are not put in execution but by his Volunty are infinite in Variety And for this cause I shewed unto you that there are attributed unto one and the same sacred essence Ten severall denominations or Attributes whereof some send out emanations of dilatation and extension by the which the waters were expansed and spread abroad by subtiliation and shaped into bright clear and transparent heavens and of such kind of influences are those which are emitted and infused into the world by HOCHMA through JAH or by the Spirit of Wisdome and those which spring forth from ELOAH
he operateth on the left hand yet shall I not see him he will cover the right quarter of the world and yet shall I not behold him So that what Pagnâ—nâ— maketh the orient angle of the world Tremellius maketh the face or fore-part of the world and so-forth Whence it appeareth and that as I think without further controversy that the direct disposition of man according unto the situation of the great world is when his face is disposed unto the orient or east angle of the earth And for this reason are the two eyes of man disposed in the frontispice of his fabrick as also of all other creatures that they might after a long nocturnall darknesse behold with delight the orientall Sun that by the presence thereof they might adore the Creator thereof in whose power it is by his golden aspect to banish the presence of the gloomy night and consequently to salute it as being the visible type of the eternall Sun 's invisible beauty who also as Scriptures hath taught us will appear at the last day from that easterly point to renovate and purifie by fire the corrupt world If followeth therefore that mans right hand or right part must respect the south as his left hand the north All which are by so much the more apparent by how much they agree and concord with Philosophicall reason For the Liver being on the right side of man doth most conveniently sympathise with the southern nature being that it engendereth by its vertue warm aery blood and sendeth it forth by the channells of the veins every where over the microcosmicall earth to make it to vegetate even as the southern wind produceth tepid or madid showers to water the microcosmicall earth that thereby the plants and heâ—bage which groweth on it may encrease and multiply by vegetation The left side or left hand is rightly compared unto the worlds Boreal quarter or the Arctick pâ—le for as in that angle the aire water or earth is cold and dry apt to congelation of a contractive and stiptick or restrictive nature so also we find that the spleen which lyeth in the left part of mans body is the receptacle of melancholy or congealed cold black sowre and earthly humours and as the northern blasts of the macroâ—osmicall or great world do obscure and mask or eclipse oft-times the fair sun-shine of the east and by that means do procure an obscure darknesse over all the hemisphear even so in the little world the flatuous fumes sent forth from this northern splene contracteth the heart and instead of wholsome and bright passionâ— namely of joy mirth and gladness which the beauteous sun-shine of life procureth unto man it bringeth forth dark passions as are sadness fear dispair and such like yea and causeth the heart to suffer the effects of syncopes and palpitations Thus therefore you see the two opposite poles of the little world to concur in effect and that in all respects with that of the great world counting the southern pole from the Aequinoctiall For if we divide the Load-stone in the middle that part in the Aequinoctiall which is next the north-pole will serve and stand in place of the South Pole and if again that half be divided in the Tropick of Cancer the division about the Tropick of Cancer will be his South Pole But to look more internally yet into the little world we find that it consisteth on that spirituall Corner-stone by which the world was made and the earth sustained and consequently in which the world and every point thereof was ideally delineated from the beginning before it was made after the manner of the earth which is said to be full of the Spirit of Wisdom Hereupon it is termed the Temple of God the body and members of Christ and the habitacle of the Holy Spirit as is said before For this cause therefore we must think that there are secret Poles circles and starrs assigned unto man as well spirituall as corporall no otherwise then there is unto the earth and every Magneticall portion thereof So that in man is the properties of the Macrocosmicall winds and consequently in it may passions be bred and produced which are as well Antipatheticall as Sympatheticall Now verily if in the second place we shall duly observe the nature of the Load-stone we shall not a little admire at the rare and singular properties thereof yea truly we shall find it almost to passe man's reason and understanding that a hard mineral stone unmoveable and stupid should neverthelesse be possessor of such spirits which are able insensibly to display and transmit their occult faculties and virtues quite through or a travers the hardest stones the most solid and closest grained wood the thick and intranspirable plates of mettal yea the impenetrable glass it self and other such compacted stuffe which have not any sensible Spiracle or porosity and that it should work on it self and on Iron and that it should behold the Pole Arctick at so long a distance as there cannot be a greater in our regard namely from the earth unto the highest heavens or the eighth Shpere the which is almost incommensurable I mean unto the Pole-star I dare boldly say that all the Schoole of the Peripateticks who made profession to give a reason of all things and to be ignorant of nothing that toucheth the most occult and intimate secrets of nature would find themselves much troubled and puzzeled and as it were inclosed in a confused Labyrinth of phantasticall imaginations and Chimerian surmises before they could discusse and unvaile this misty business or unrip the fardill of so profound a riddle that is to say ere they could hit the mark or attain unto the wished end of this inquirie which is onely pointed at and demonstrated by the finger of a far truer and diviner Philosophy whose main Subject of all actions and power is the spirituall Corner-stone Jesus Christ in whom is the plenitude of Divinity as St. Paul teacheth us Is it not wonderfull that this spirit can pass like that celestiall one in Man where the aire is not able to penetrate Is it not an evident Argument that it is of an aethereall race which is able to operate these effects quite through such solid bodies Wherefore let not Plutarch make his brags as he hath done where he striveth to undo this intricate Gordian knot or tye reputing it a shame and defect in such learned men as have medled herein and have not dived into the depth thereof being that at last he himself sheweth palpably herein his error after he had made so strict an inquisition For he concludeth that the insensible emanations or emissions or effluxions which issue out of the Load-stone and produce his attractive effects are gross and flatuous whereas if he had a little better considered the businesse he would have found that the subtilest and most rarified aire is not able to find any porosity or spiracle to breathe through thick
compacted boards or smoothed and polished stones or plates of silver and gold much less can any passage be admitted unto gross and flatuous spirits to breathe or expire through But to return again unto the straight line of our History CHAP. IV. Of a double attractive disposition in Man and how the one agreeth with the nature of the Load-stone and the other is different from it Herein also the Reason why the dead carcass of a Man is indued with a Magnetick power or attractive nature is discovered AS in the dimension of the Load-stone there is observed to be a multiplicity in kinds or manners of attraction for the attraction of it is otherwise effected at his Poles namely perpendicularly than it is on the Aequinoctial which is flatling so also there is a great difference between the attraction which is made in man For the Spleen being of the property of the North Pole sucketh unto it by the Ramus Splenicus his like namely Melancholly or terrestriall juices directly by a Saturnine virtue and the Gall attracteth by a Martiall Sulphureous or fiery terrestriety choller unto it and the Liver by a Southern or Aequinoctial dilatation disperseth the blood which it hath rubified by veiny channells through the whole Microcosmicall earth But first it attracteth by his porous Organs the like unto it from the guts All which manner of attraction it would never effect were it not by the incitation of naturall heat which though in it self it rather dissipateth by dilatation then attracteth by contraction yet it inciteth and animateth certain corporeall instruments ordained by nature for attraction's cause namely to draw and suck by contraction and to dilate again by relaxing or dilating of themselves And for this reason is the Heart the Stomack the Intestines or Guts the Veins c. made or compacted of fibers direct for attraction transverse for retention and oblique for expulsion Again the attraction of the aire by the Aspera Arteria and nostrills could not be effected but by the aid of the Pulmones or Lungs the which would not move or work but by the animation of a dilating and vivifying heat so that in this case all attraction of externall aire which is made by the Pores into the fleshy parts and by the Lungs into the Heart and by the nostrils into the brain proceedeth from the dilatated action of heat and is effected by instruments and that properly by the lungs and heart Even as we see that the Syringe or Squirt being pulled out attracteth or draweth aire but being thrust in it emitteth or expelleth it again and yet both these opposit actions in one Organ or instrument proceed from one dilated humane spirit which acteth We must understand therefore as I have expressed before that man is composed of Matter which is his Patient and Form which is his Agent and as matter did first proceed of the watery Subject which did issue out of the dark Chaos and therefore is of it self inclinable unto a Northern and privative disposition namely to rest cold mortification and immobility so it is this Matter that maketh contraction as well in the heart and consequently in the Pulse's motion as in the other parts of the body that is to say the naturall inclination of Matter in man is apt to contract spirits from the Circumference unto the Center when contrariwise Form being derived from Light is busie in dilatation and therefore in animation and exagitation of Matter which would otherwise be sopified and as it were mortified by her mother's Northern cold And this is the reason of Systole and Diastole in the hearts motion which commeth of that action and passion or operation and resistence which is made between the Light heat or Aequinoctial form and the dark and cold or polar matter in man's composition whereby it is apparent that as the great world is said to be composed ex lite et amâ—citia of hatred and friendship so also the little world is rightly averred to be compacted of contraries namely of the children of Light and Darknesse Now in this therefore a live-man's attractive power differeth from that of the Load-stone because the Load-stone is not so appearing lively as man is but may in some sort be esteemed dead because it is divided from his ferruginous vein in the earth and again he attracteth not by any dilatation made of a vivifying heat through any organicall Substance or assistance but by an earthly and Centrall contracting disposition And for that reason his greatest power of attraction consisteth in the Pole The live man's attraction proceedeth therefore from a dilatation of lively heat from the Center unto the circumference which causeth materiall instruments ordained as well for attraction as retention or expulsion to effect their office and yet sometimes it operateth chiefly to contraction that is in motion from the circumfereâ—ne unto the Center when it receiveth by the permission of God the beams of a privative Emanation as when the heart is contracted whereupon bad passions as sadness melancholy dispair envy fear and such like do follow as we have told you before Sometimes the naturall heat reflecteth for the Senses repose and rest his beams inwardly as in the action of sleep which is a type of death and darkness but contrariwise it dilateth its self from the Center unto the circumference when it will have the animal spirits to watch and operate in their functions By this therefore we may imagine that the Load-stone's attractive nature is from the circumference unto the Center being as it were to man's externall view half dead and by that manner of attraction it draweth unto it his like namely spirits out of the Iron or steel which by reason of its refination and homogeniety in nature as being cleared from all his stony Mercury which was heterogenious unto it we may compare unto a live man which is replenished with lively emanating or dilating spirits For I would have every man to know that there is not a creature on the earth which hath not his Astrological or starry influence which though we cannot discern it doth shine forth and maketh his aspect unto the like of his kind namely unto such creatures as are of condition with the starrs of heaven from whence the creature's influence doth descend But if the two creatures be dissonant in nature then the one doth Antipathetically divert or reflect his beams from the other The Iron therefore like a vivified mass meeting with the Load-stone doth easily emit his beams of love unto the Load-stone who doth as greedily suck or draw them by means of his inward earthly Martial Spirits even unto her Center and by the attraction of the Iron 's formall beams draweth with it all the Iron body that possesseth the starry or Martial influence In like manner a strong Magnet is as it were a female unto a weaker No otherwise is it with a live man and the dead carcass of another For though that many