hid in thy earthen vessell and may thereout be digged John 14.17.20 Thou seest not God in thy selfe whom the world seeth not neither can receive though he be more in us then we are in our selves inasmuch as the Spirit of God dwelleth in the midst of our hearts And to speak truly we can learn more in the whole course of our life then that Divine lesson that God hath set us KNOW THY SELFE 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore Agryppa holily and learnedly reasoning about the right way that leadeth to true Wisdome and Eternall Happinesse The first knowledge of God is to know what man is August saith it is for a man to know Himselfe according to the Oracle of Apollo written over the doors of his Temple at Delphos Because man hath the true and Reall possession of all things and Natures in himselfe as also the speciall and perfect Image even of the Creator of all things He that knoweth himselfe knows God for God will dwell no where but in man in whom he is most plaine to be seen We see God from within Therefore the knowledge of all things and natures and of the Creator himselfe wherein alone true Wisdome and Blessednesse consisteth must take its rise from the knowledge of a mans selfe So that Man when he doth rightly understand himself may in himselfe as in a kind of Deified glasse behold and understand all things In which respect David saith Psal 139.14 I am fearfully and wonderfully made marvellous are thy works On the contrary He that knoweth not himselfe cannot have any true intrinsecall and essentiall knowledge of things but like a bruit beast what he knows without him shall remaine without him For there is no knowledge whether infused from the Heaven or attained to by labour of industry and earthly diligence that will abide in the soule for ever but is subject to forgetfulnesse and will vanish but that onely which is inwardly received by Essentiall knowledge in the secret understanding which Essential intrinsecall knowledge is not from flesh and blood nor from the multitude of Books and reading nor from the abundants of Experience and old age Dionys lib. Divinors Nominum nor in the inticings of mans Word or wisdome and warangling of reason but the mind of man is perfected and compleated by a passive reception of Divine things not by study and paines but by patience and submission The whole businesse stands in knowledge because we are of every thing and doe carry about every thing in us even as God himselfe our Father The Son doth equally posesse all things with his Father Joh. 4. 17. Therefore all Naturall and Spirituall good things were and are in man at first but as by sin that Divine Character was darkned in us so sin being satisfied for done away that Character shines out againe more and more The Notion of all things is created together with us and in us and in the very middle of the Spirit by all things hid we are onely to awake out of our slumbring and snorting who through sin have fallen asleep in the gifts that God hath bestowed upon us so that we can neither see or perceive and believe that these good things are at present in us The Understanding of man is capable of the highest learning and attainments or according to Plato it is full of all Sciences before it be joyned to the body which being oppressed by the body lyeth hid as fire rak'd up in ashes but being rouz'd and stirred up from the said humours it shineth forth and discovereth those riches which before lay hid in their Treasures Unlesse all the Treasures of Heavenly and Earthly wisdome were in us before surely Christ would never have commanded us to seek nor should we ever find any thing if God had not given and laid up something in us When we therefore know our selves aright according to both kinds of Light God is known when the Light of Nature iâ— well understood Apoc. 3.20 1 according to the Spirit and Nature then by Gods help we enter into the gate that is opened in us and we open to God who stands and knocks at the door of our heart living according to the will of God we have all things necessary as well for wisdome as for life both for present and ever hereafter From this diligent contemplation knowledge of a mans self the true knowledge also of God doth immediately arise for neither can be absolute compleat without the other from the consideration of himselfe a Man may attaine to a good and great measure of the knowledge of him who IS all men being indeed bound to know according to the measure of their capacity Dionysius saith that we cannot know God from his own Nature but from that most orderly disposing of all the Creatures proceeding from himselfe which creatures hold forth as it were images and similitudes of his Divine Presidents or Examples Man that doth not know God is not known of God and he that forsakes and rejecteth the knowledge of God is rejected of God He that knoweth not God is inexcusable He that doth acknowledge God but not serve and worship him iâ— accuâ—sed The more we know God the more we love him and stedfastly belive in him He that believes God by loving of him doth cleave to God he that doth cleave to God is one Spirit with him To be ignorant of God is the Rise or Spring of all diseases the root of wickedness by which all vices are increased and grow ripe As on the contrary the perfect righteousnesse true wisdome and chiefe happinesse of Man is to know his Principle God the Creator of all things and to love him in all purity and uprightnesse To which purpose our Saviour saith truly John 17.3 This is life eternall to know the Father the true God and JESVS CHRIST viz. That the Believer should acknowledge and worship the Trinity which knowledge onely giveth eternall life for he that liveth the life of Christ is born the Son of God he that is born the Son of God must of necessity have the Father he that hath the Father is sealed with the holy Spirit He that knoweth the Son knoweth the Father also for they are but one thing The knowledge of God is Blessednesse and eternall life for he that knoweth God in Christ is made the habitation and Temple of God and so is Deified for he is the Son of God born out of God And as by the knowledge of the visible world we come to the knowledge of the invisible Workman so from Christ visible or the life of Christ we learn to know the Father for he is the way to the Father And as none can come to the Son unlesse he hear and learn from the Father so none can rightly know the frame of the world but he that is taught of God Hence it is plaine that what the Heathen wrote concerning Nature is for
whom they proceeded He is the Centre in that all things flow from him and because the Essence of all things pierceth also through all things God the Centre and Circle of all things He is the Circle because like an all-capacious Tabernacle he concludeth and comprehendeth all things Within God are all things and at the worlds end nothing shall be without him either of what was before or what hath been since the Creation what was either before it was brought forth or since it was brought forth So is Man Thus Man in imitation of his Creator is the Centre of the Creatures and the Circle of them all It was Gods pleasure that all things which he made should honour him by Man For all things in the world doe not onely look to him as their Guide and Governour for whom also they were all created but likewise on him all the Sphaeres bestow their beams operations reflections and influences and on him all the Creatures poure their vertues and effects as upon a middle Point and Retinacle or that by which they are stayed and supported As the Earth is a Receptive body of all seeds so also is Man Man is said to be the Circle in that he containeth all things in himselfe and with himselfe leadeth back all things that gushed out of that Summum Bonum or chiefest good unto the fountaine of Eternity from which they did originally spring and flow The world was the first figure or image of God Man is the image of the World the Animall or living creature is the image of Man the Zoophite or sensible hearb is the image of the Animall the Plant is the image of the Zoophite Mettalls are the image of the Plant stones represent the likenesse and images of Mettalls The great world is in every thing one with the little world as the child with its parent the prudent Ancients wilsely called Man a Microcosm or little World which few now a dayes understand that the great visible World was made Man As the great world is bipartite consisting of two parts visible and invisible so also the little world man is twofold visible in respect of his Body invisible in respect of his Spirit There are two Spirits in Man The first Spirit is from the Limbus or greater world the second from the word Fiat one a syderiall Spirit from the Firmament the other from the breath of life which is the Intellectuall Soul inspired from God and the mouth of the most High Man hath three parts a mortall Body with a Syderiall Spirit and an immortall Soule which is the cottage of the Image of God or of the holy Spirit in Man There is a two fâ—ld wisdom in Man Angelicall according to which he is to live and Animall which is not to be regarded Regeneration overcometh a bad birth If a man live sensually by his own proper and proud Will according to flesh and blood onely he is but a Brute or Beast and is known whether according to those Epithites in Scripture he be a Dog Fox Wolfe Sheep Sow or generation of Vipers of which I shall discourse more at large in my Treatise of Signatures and therefore shall forbear to speak more thereof at this time If he live Rationally then he is a Man The invisible or immortall body of Man from the breath of God is not subject to Stars or Astronomers and hath dominion over the living Creatures in his body But if he live according to the God-like Spirit upon the Tree of Life observing the property of the Image of God if I say he live according to the Talent and Treasure laid up in his Earthen Vessell and committed to him then hath he dominion over the Stars and all things else Man comprehends and carryeth all things about in himselfe whereof he is made that beareth he in himselfe He was made of the world he beareth the world about in him and is borne of the world Againe as the first matter which was a kind of ineffigiate confused Essence which Phylosophers call the Chaos and Hylen or Mother of the world was the seed of the great world so the great world is the seed of Adam or Man As the world was hid in the invisible Waters upon the Abysse or great deep Water is the Matrix of the world upon which the Spirit of God moved Gen. 1. The Earth plung'd or swam up out of the Water 2 Pet. 3.5 so Man Adam lay hid in the world The first matter was made a world and the great World was made Man As a Tree groweth from the seed the seed is the beginning of the Tree and the seed also is the end of the Tree for in every graine or seed of the Tree there lies hid another Tree So the First Matter which Paracelsus calleth the Limbus whose Earth was the WORD of the Lord was the seed of all things that were to be created As a Câ—rver and Potter out of word and clay can make a hundred severall shapes at pleasure so God extracted every creature out of the first matter and Man was the last of all as the perfect seed which againe is able out of himselfe to beget another Man like himself And though Man be not a seed as other seed is yet hath he power to cast seed out of himselfe whereby is begotten another Man like himselfe As Adam or Man carryeth the world and every creature in himselfe and is preserved by the world so every one that is borne of him bears about him that which he did viz. the whole world and is born and preserved by it as Adam was Man isâ— that Earth or field which hath all seeds in it self As the Son is not lesser then his Father so Man is not lesser then the World all men are but one man of flesh blood and spirit Therefore the knowledge of Man is to be taken from both Lights as the Son cannot be known from himselfe alone but from his Father Man hath two Fathers an Eternall whose Image he beareth and a Mortall one which is the whole world with all the creatures that is that Limus Terrae that slime of the earth or hidden Secret thing None can know the image unlesse he first know him whose image he is Hermes calleth Man an earthly God Gen. 2.7 and the most precious Esse or Being of all creatures which all Phylosophers Physitians Astronomers and Divines are to consider and diligently inquire into In the lesser world Man there is no member or part that doth not answer to some Element some Planet some Intelligence or other and to some measure and number in the Archetype or first pattern Man hath a visible body from the Elements as a fit garment and sutable cottage for the Soul From the Heaven or Firmament he hath an invisible Syderiall The perfection and dignity of Man Aetheriall and Astrall Body or chariot and vehicle of the Soule wherein the
ariseth from whence come raine mire snow dew thunder haile which though they were Nothing before production yet being produced out of invisible things they become great bodies Whence we may observe that all things in the first Creation were produced out of the DIVINE NOTHING or invisible Cabalisticall Poynt into something which God did in a moment for his works cannot be delayed by time All things proceeded out of the invisible Darknesse and were called out to the visible Light by the WORD speaking and the Spirit cherishing Now whereas Man had his Sydereall body from the Astra's of the Firmament and the whole Imagination of Man dependeth on the Astra's of the Firmament yea is the same and abideth one with them it must needs be that the Firmament also hath an Imagination but without Reason as Man the off-spring of the world hath with Reason One man striketh and hurteth another and that with Reason a nettle and fire burne and hurt without Reason Moreover whereas Man is the Quintessence of the greater world it follows that Man may not onely imitate Heaven but rule it also at his beck and reigne over it at his pleasure All things naturally obey the Soule and must of necessity move and work toward that which the soule earnestly desireth and all vertues and operations of Naturall things obey it when it is carried with a vehement desire it makes all the powers of the world serve us when by holinesse we draw vertue from him who is the true Archetype and when we ascend to him then every Creature must and will obey us and the whole Host of Heaven follow us By Faith we may do good or evillus God permitteth By the help of Imagination all Magicall operations and all wonderfull things are done through the Naturall inborn Faith by which we are at peace with the very Spirits themselves The Imagination worketh in Man like the Sun for as the bodily Sun worketh without an instrument upon the subject burning it to coals and ashes so the incorporeall cogitation of Man worketh on the subject by the spirit onely as with a visible instrument what the visible body doth that also doth the invisible body This 〈◊〉 the Gaâ—ae 〈…〉 Art as the sydereall Man doth hurt unto another The Imagination of Man is the Loadstone that attracteth above a 1000 miles off yea in its Exaltation it draweth unto it whatsoever it wilout of the Elements But the ImaginatioÌ„ is no efficacious unles first it attract the thing conceived by the attractive force of the imagination that it may beget the Architect of the Imagination as a native spirit out of it selfe afterward the Imagination being as it were with child maketh impression which though it be not tangible yet it is corporeall like the wind Magick or Faith transplanting minds hath power over all Spirits and Ascendants Hence the true Magician or wise Man can attract the operation of the Astra's stones mettalls c. into the Imagination to make them excercise the same force and power with the Astra's as for example by a burning Glasse the beams of the Sun are derived unto us with its heat The Imagination can produce whatever we see with our eyes in the greater world Thus by Imagination and true Gabalia all hearbs all growing things all mettalls may be produced This part of Magick is called Gabalisticall and is supported with three Pillars First with TRUE PRAYERS made in Spirit and Truth when God and the Created Spirit are united in the Holy of Holyes when God is prayed unto in the internall Spirit not with noyse of words but in a sacred silence without opening the mouth and groaning Secondly by NATURALL FAITH or in-born Wisdome which God the Father equally communicated to all men in the Creation as to his own proper flock and common patrimony Thirdly by a strongly exalted IMAGINATION how great and how wonderfull the strength or force thereof is the Light of Nature doth manifestly shew Gen. 30.37 c. as well in Jacobs Rods mentioned by Moses as in pregnant women who imprint the mark of that which they long for upon the child as hath been said The Imagination or Fantasie of Man is like the Load stone in its Nature attracting the Fantasie of other men as we see in those that gape and yawn A vehement Imagination doth not onely cause a transmutation of ones own body but sometimes also of anothers by way of imitation to wit by a certaine kind of Vertue which the similitude of the Thing hath unto that Thing that is to be changed which is moved by a vehement Imagination as appeareth in astonishment or swouning in crashing or creaking of teeth in grating one piece of Iron against another c. whereby the teeth are set on edge in like manner yawning provoketh yawning Many by their melancholly Imagination and diffidence have exposed themselves to the temptation of the uncleane Spirit and sometimes have been overcome by it True Faith is the cure of a false Imagination Many fall sick and recover againe by the Faith of Imagination Many also by their intent Imagination without distrust of their weaknesse by a constant and most firme Faith toward God by a mind lifted up most high by infallible hope constant and most ardent prayers have so prevailed that on a sudden they have become the Temples of the living God The Sum of all is that we worship God devoutly in honesty and holinesse as the more secret Theosophers or wise-hearted to God well know for by the ardent and devout intention of him that prayeth with Fear and Trembling the Understanding or Mind flaming with a Religious love is joyned to the separated Intelligences For internall Prayer proceeding with abundance of affection from a Godly mind and continued with a fervent desire uniteth the mind with God and learneth and knoweth all things of God Few men think what the Mind can doe that is disposed by true faith and more few by far there are who know how to exercise the same by a supernaturall influence which doth rule and governe the body The purified Mind like a river entereth into the very inmost secrets of things beyond all shadowes though there be many who know this disposition yet by reason of worldly cares and thoughtfulnesse wherewith they are overwhelmed they can doe nothing that favoureth of true Wisdome But thus much of these things Such like contemplations as these which are of greatest Antiquity will seem harsh and crabbed to the rude and vulgar sort of men for few read them and fewer understand them and they require a larger narration then can be made of them at this time To returne therefore to our purpose It is of greatest concernment that all Chymists should bewell acquaintedwith this true Fundamentall of the occult Phylosophycal Physick because of the Harmonicall concord and conspiration between the superiour and inferiour things of the greater and lesser world in clearing which Foundation
Intellectuall Soul and earthy Body like two Extreams are knit glued and confederate together and in this third mean which partaketh of the other two they are coupled and united into one intire man Thus God and Man cannot be united but by a Mean even our Saviour who partaketh of two Natures the Caelestiall and Terrestriall the Divine Humane Paracelsus saith that the soul or breâ—tâ— of life is infused by God into the Elementary body through the Astra's as a Medium Through this Medium this middle Aetheriall little body the Intellectuall Soule by the command of God who is the Centre of the great world and by the imploying of his Intelligences or Spirits to that end is first poured and descendeth into the middle poynt of the Heart which is the Centre of the little world and from thence is spread into all the parts and members of his body as soon as it joyneth its vehicle to the naturall heat by which heat it joyneth to the Spirit begotten from the heart by the spirit it drencheth it selfe into the blood by the blood it cleaveth to all the members to all which it hath an equall nearnesse And because the said Aethereall body participateth of Heaven therefore it holds and keeps the same course with that of the Firmament whose operations it draweth to it selfe by a peculiar magnetick vertue just as the visible body doth the efficacy of the Elements and so remaineth one thing with the visible and invisible world John 10.30 as the Son with his Father as rednesse with wine as whitenesse with Snow The whole Firmament is in us with the Planets and Stars As heat pierceth an Iron Furnace and as the Sun doth glasse so doth the Stars with all their properties pierce into Man so that of the syderiall spirit of the Firmament we may learn all Naturall things The MIND Man hath an Intellectuall and immortal Soul Zach. 12.1 Gen. 2.7 Es 42.5 Wisd 2.23 or Spirit by the inbreathing of God created with the four foresaid inhabitants of the Elements which the bruit beasts have not after the Image of God and the Divine Triunity with the similitude also of Unity 1 John 2.27 Chap. 4.14 Acts 17.28 that so in all things he might be one with his Heavenly Father who is in us by his Spirit from which we learn sacred Divinity and all heavenly and earthly secrets without errour yea in him we are and live and are moved As God is One in Essence Trine or Three in persons so Man is One in Person Trine or Three in distinct Essence that is composed Triune of a Terrene Body an Aethereall Spirit of the Heavens and a living vivifying Soule which God breathed into him and is the house of God This the holy Scripture witnesseth Luke 1.47 1 Thes 5.23 Gen. 2.7 See the Amphiâ—halce of Rhunrad worthy of perpetuall memory Paul the greatest Phylosopher and Divine shewes three parts of Man Spirit Soule and Body There are two Souls or two Spirits in Man Mortall from the first matter which is the life of the body and Immortall from God The Spirit is the Life of the Soule the Spirit and Soule are the life of the body John 14. even the wonderfull Agreement between the Creator and the Creature in whom the great Creator would shew himselfe to be Unitrine or Triune One in Three or Three in One As also the unanimous consent of all that truly professed Phylosophy from the Light of Nature If happily there should be any that deny these three parts yet they must acknowledge that Man was created è Limo Terrae out of the clay or dust of the Earth by the word FIAT and that he received an eternall Spirit or breath of life from the mouth of God which is that Linum Caelorum or slime of the Heavens from the Lord. The Limus Terrae or dust of the Earth is two-fold visible and invisible He hath his Body or cottage from the Earth and Water but the life that dwells therein is from the Aire and Firmament of Fire which life is the Syderiall Spirit and is properly the Man not flesh and blood As the Syderiall Spirit is the life of the Body so the Spirit of the Lord is the life of the Intellectuall Soule And as the Sydereall Spirit dwells in the Body and works therein day and night for this invisible is himselfe the Firmament God created Man to be his Tabernacle as well in this as in the world to come and hath all things in him so the Spirit of the Lord the WORD of God the eternall man dwells in the Soule the house is the habitation of the Soule the Soule is the habitation and cottage of God Therefore when Man the most perfect compleatnèsse of all Gods works the most compleat figure of the world and expresse image of God in whom he rested from creating as having nothing before him more honorable to be created all the wisdome and power of the Creator being shut up and perfected in him as the supream artifice in that he containeth all things in himself that are in God when I say he was on the sixt day made up of all things the last of the Creatures and image not onely of the eternall God but also of the great world because with it he comprehendeth and containeth all things in himselfe it followeth that there are three worlds or Heavens in Man and that he is born about of three Worlds or rather is all the world and a most sure and undoubted Pattern of the whole Universe Exemplumque Dei quisque est in imagine parvâ Manilus That which is Naturated savoureth of the Nature of that which did Naturate it God dwelleth in the Soul as in the Heaven of Man And therefore some have called him the Fourth World in whom are found all those things that are in the other three for which cause also he may be called by the name of every Creature He hath a Spirit or Mind from God for what else is the Spirit of Man which God breathed into him but God himselfe dwelling in us The invisible Body or true Internall Man consisting of Reason and an Astrall Spirit agreeth with the Angells and is their fellow And if he be a true Magician he is not inferiour to the Angells in all Magicall operation and is Lord and Possessor of all things His mortall Phisicall Body he hath from the frame of the world and all things created therein for all Externall things are nothing else but the Body of Man So that he partaketh of a threefold world of the Archetype or God-like world in God of the Intellible or Angellicall of the sensible Elementall or corporall world and hath a symbolicall operation and conversation with them all The Mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the chaâ—ret driver or Stern-man of the Soul or Rationall Spirit like the eternall God concludeth all Beings Times and Places 1. He communicateth with
with the Firmament of the Astra's as hath been often said like rednesse with wine whitenesse with snow or the lustre of the Sun with the Aire The other part therefore of Man or this sydereall body is called the Genius of man because it proceedeth from the Firmament it is called Penates because it is in our power and born with us the shadow of the visible body Lar domesticus the good or bad houshould or private Angell the Umbratile or shadowy Man the familiar Homuncle or little Man of the Sophies or wise men the Daemon or Genius of Man Paracelsus his internall Adech i. e. that which first inwardly formeth in our mind what we afterward outwardly fashion with our hands the Spectrum ghost or fantasie the Light of Nature the presaging or Propheticall Euestrum that foretelleth any thing by signes in Man It is also called ahe imagination which incloseth all the Astra's and is indeed all the Astra's or Starrs and holdeth the same course Nature and power with heaven Now the Astra's or Stars by which I do not meane the seaven visible coales of Heaven which are but the bodyes of the Astra's but I meane the invisible and insensible body of all things or Astrall Spirit they are nothing else but the verue or powers of the Angells The Angells which live only upon the vision of God are the created wisdome of God Hence it is that he that knowes God he knows the Astra's also He that knowes the Astra's cannot but knowe the world and consequently man the off-spring of the world The eating of the apple produceth this body the sydereall seed into force vigour Astrum Vulcanus and Archaeus are the same thing but one Spirit yet without Reason divers as are the divers formes of severall things The Astra's form bring forth all bodily things out of themselves and multiply themselves together with those bodily things that are brought forth the seeds of any graine or Wheat is the Astrum viz. the invisible body which being cast into the Earth it produceth a visible body and begetteth many other Astra's out of it selfe So is it in other growing and living things But the Astrum is nothing else but the insensible invisible body or living Spirit yet without Reason in things that grow but with reason in living things as in man and is divers according to the forme of divers things Bodyes are nothing else but the Excrement of the Astra's which are brought forth into a bodily Being by their operation This every Astrum can doe of it selfe as by imagination to bring forth of it selfe another Astrum in a body forming it by operation There is no body without an Astrum The Astralick Spirit is every growing thing standeth in need of a corporeall habitation The inner Man is Heaven it selfe or all the Astras Read in Picus how Trimethius put upon himselfe the various Evestra's of the three-fold world one after another transformed himselfe into several shapes and thus by reall Magick he shewed to that great Picus the hidden virtue or power of Man who was created after the image of God We are transformed into that which we most intently gaze and meditate upon The understanding of Man is assimulated to all things The impression of the Imagination from fear terrour griefe is the â—ife of sicknesse and death The Astra's send the plague into us through our skin as the Sun doth his beams thhrough the glasse as there is no Astrum without a visible body And whereas the imagination of Man is not one but all the Astra's it is as true that it produceth not onely one but many operations and although the Imagination be incorporeall and invisible yet being joyned to a heightned the Gate of Wonders the spring and originall of all Magicall operations and hath power to beget and bring forth visible bodies without detriment or diminution of the Astrall and sydereall Spirit and can work any wonderfull operations whatsoever present or absent above the reach of humane Reason The Light of Nature makes bodily things visible but Eternall things are to be seen onely by Faith The child in the mothers womb is strangely marked by the impression of the imagination without any bodily touch What we doe visiby by the body that doe we by Faith after the manner of Spirits Thus the Imagination breedeth the Plague and such like Firmamentall diseases it brings sicknesse and health The Pestilence which comes by fear trouble and terrour riseth by the imagination of the Spirit of the lesser world or of the Sydereall and Animall Spirit which is the mechanick Astrall Spirit in Man as we see in women with childe who give marks and tokens to the young in their womb by the same sydereall Spirit This sydereall Spirit which is born of the Astra's together with Man and therefore remains united to the Astra's is the Load stone and hath a magnetick nature in man As the Earthy Load stone in its body is a spirit and draweth to it selfe so also the body and spirit in Man doe draw unto him by a visible body this is the Load stone of the Microcosm The sydereall body and spirit attract unto them the force of the Astra's as we see in those that are Lunatick in whom the agreement properties and affinities of such magnetick vertues with the Spirit and sydereall body of Man hath with the Astra's are made manifest This fourth kind of Naturall Magick called Gamahaea doth all things invisibly and spiritually by the help of Art which Nature is able to doe visibly and corporally without such help The House is as it were dead but the Inhabitant to wit the Spirit of perpetuall motion of invisible Nature or the magnetick spark of the Soule of the world liveth and worketh effectually All Animall wisdome Wisdome is the begâ—nning of Inchantment the Astra's do those things which Humane wisdom desireth In respect of the Elementatary body it is a Spirit and performeth all spirituall operations Heaven knoweth all things most certainly all actions and events of Men are pictured in the Astra's every living Creature hath its Ascendant signe in Heaven so hath also the Brutâ—sh Man Every Body is proceeded of an invisible incomprehensible subsisting Spirit The 〈◊〉 is a three fold NIHIL or Nothing a Divine Privative and Negative NOTHING the Oâ—gan of the Lâ—ght of Nature or of the Astra's The whole Heaven is nothing else but the Imagination It breedeth the Plague and and Fevers in Mâ—n any bodily instrument workmanship Arts Sciences and the knowledge of all things lie hid in the Astra's of the Firmament There is nothing so hidden in the world which is not praefigured in the Astra's yea all the Astra's of the Firmament which are the Tincture of the speculation of our mind can of their own in-bred or naturall force by imagining produce bodily and visible things out of that which doth not appear as in a clear Heaven a great cloud suddenly
these corrupt and perilous times when Honour and basenesse Vertue and vice Truth and lyes are equally esteemed by the malicious world Besides almost all men have a burning desire after making Gold There are four Pillars of Physick Phylosophy Alchymistry Astronomy and the Physicall vertue or medicine but regard not the due preparation of their Medicines the onely cause thereof is their not knowing the Metaphysicks of Paracelsus the true Phylosophy and not first reading diligently those large Books which Theophrastus directeth unto in his Labyrinth of Physitians before they set upon the preparations separations and resolution of Naturall things I observe also that most Chymists betake themselves to Court and are turned from the truth by the glitter of Court-service deceived by vaine Courtly flattery that they either neglect those great works of God or rather are made incapable for such stupendious miracles of God as for many years I have taken notice that many have begun well but deluded with these toyes have made an ill end By which means this Divine Spagyrie the most wonderfull and approved Art though for many ages suspected of greatest uncertainty and most abominable deceit hath been very much disparaged by the ruder sort which oft befalls the best things and cast aside as contemptible with other deeper sciences even by those who intend the same businesse undervaluing it as not fit to get a living by it What is said of or spoken against abuse imposture and wicked arts is not that for which things otherwise good may or ought to be condemned For what is that thing which will not turne to Mans hurt or ruine if it be abused so that the bettter the thing is the more destructive is the abuse of it But who dares to oppose himselfe to the Athenian Thrasos who will have Light to be Darkenesse and Darkenesse to be Light They have almost all the whole filthy world standing in defence of their most vaine Vanities For the world seeketh not the Truth but its own Honour And therefore God giveth us up to a reprobate sence to hate and envy one another and that we our selves should be the cause of the imminent destruction of our own Kingdome O fountaine of Truth and Wisedome consider our condition and the hearts of those who with holy desires and ardent prayers strive night and day against this imminent and approaching change But the mow High will also in his own time put an end to these things and that of his goodnesse and mercy ere it be long I hope that God would stirr up the minds of some which may bring to light the Truth that is in sciences and Faculties for as yet the Invention of Arts hath not attained the utmost end that they may root out the Tares of sciences and confute the delusions and errours of the schoolmen not with words but deeds not Syllogistically but Really and indeed For when that which is perfect is come the time of Revocation and Regeneration drawing nigh every imperfect thing will of necessity come to nought For where Titles Degrees and glistering Names make men proud their is no humility no life of Christ no holy Spirit as appeareth too manifestly in most who suffer the Old man to be ruled by the Sydereall Spirit Now then the Lord enlighten all the lovers of Truth with his Holy Spirit and graciously deliver them from the chaines of Utter Darknesse and incessant janglings of Putatitious and conceited Schollers CHAP. IV. How and with what Vertue Physick worketh upon Mans body and cureth his Diseases THat which Physitians commonly dispute and contend for In lib. de flatibus is Whether according to Hippocrates his Maxim that Contraryes are to be cured with CONTRARYES or Like with LIKE according to Paracelsus Note that these Maxims may be both received in the Anatomy of Nature though they seem thwart one the other Thus many attaine not the Mind of Phylosophers which to them seems to be at variance because they cannot understand how to reconcile them by a seasonable and sutable interpretation For Physick is nothing else but an opposition of those things that are desired to wit a refreshing of the strength and Balsom and a removing of superfluityes or impurities that cause diseases Paracelsus therefore doth not find fault with Hippocrates for saying that hunger is to to be cured with meat thirst with drink fulnesse with evacuation inanition with reflection labour with rest idlenesse with labour and generally that Contraries cure Contraryes But he is poynt blanck against Galen who applyed that Contrariety of Hippocrates chiefly to those bare and naked qualityes which Hippocrates utterly disclaimed for he by an unhappy mistake referred the first and principall Idaea's of Cures to Refrigerations Calefactions Humectations Exsiccations with their companions The onely and alone NATURES of Physicall medicines as hath been said or those Hippocraticall vertues are they which doe the cures the Physitian is but the minister or servant And this very selfe same Nature which is our Life and Balsom or balsomicall Mummy that preserveth the body from all corruption by means of the Saline moysture that is of the inferiour Balsom springing up in the inferiour from the superiour I say this very Nature of ours which sometimes worketh wonders when the Physitians to their great disgrace and shame of their Profession could doe no good but have left their Patient to their Prognisticks is its own proper Physitian in Mans body who asketh nothing of the outward Physitian but Instauration or as t is commonly called fortification applyed to the diseased part by a most pure medicine when the like Nature is not at hand And thus the Medicinall Balsom like a coadjutour or privy counsellour assisteth the Vitall or Radicall and Naturall Balsom because of the simpathy and common agreement between them Thus it recovereth the Naturall decayed strength Nature cureth with like things which being restored it is of it selfe able as an inward and unknown Antidote to chase all its enemies out of its Monarchy by the onely power of the Vitall facultyes To go about to cure a disease with contrary qualities is to raise and stir up intrinsick commotions to the utter overthrow of Nature which is to much weakned and wasted already by intestine quarrells Besides Contraryes will not willingly entertertaine each other And if they close not one with the other nor work one upon another nor suffer any thing from each other then where there is no true action and passion there can follow no true Naturall effect Wherefore medicines should not be contrary to the grieved part but very agreeable to it and have the same Externall Nature because of the Harmony between the great and little world as the place affected hath the Inward that the Internall Nature which stands in need of it may both be strengthned and succoured by the superabundance of that Externall Nature Man is therefore called a Microcosm or little world because the whole world
sickle into another mans harvest Divinity should dweâ—l in Physick as the Soule in the body they blush not also to wrangle against his Divinity which they have neither seen nor read nor by reason of their blockishnesse can they understand inasmuch as he onely is able to judge of Truth who is inspired with Divine Wisdome in which his Divine writings he hath successelesly endeavoured to make known to the ingratefull gratefull and unworthy world that invincible united Fundamentall of Theologicall and Phylosophicall Truth and perfect Piety Numen Lumen Divine Power and Light these two make a perfect Man When the Light of Nature is well known God or the Divine power of Grace is well known also By meditating or contemplating we know by knowing we are delighted by delighting we adhere by adhearing we possesse by possessing we injoy the Truth which is the food of our soules Read Div. Dionys and Pic Miâ—anâ—d Cant. 1 8 taken out of the Book of Grace and Nature that is that our mind should be raised up to God and our eyes lifted up to look after the Truth and to a desire of future Blessednesse through the Regeneration Without Phylosophy it is impossible to be absolutely godly nor shall any man be ever able compleatly and Christianly to Phylosophize in either Light who is not truely godly The two Lights are well known within which are all thing without which is nothing and no perfect knowledge of any thing The Light of Grace begetteth a true Theologer yet not without Phylosophy The Light of Nature which is the Treasury of God confirmed in the Scriptures maketh a true Phylosopher yet not without Theoligie which is the Foundation of true Wisdome The works of God are bipactite Philosophy comprehendeth the works or way of Nature Theologie onely knoweth the works and way of Christ In these two wayes we are to walk and spend our short time that we may die in Peace and Joy Hence it is plaine that every true Theologer is a Phylosopher and every true Phylosopher is a Theologer After Paracelsus others attempted this study following the same strait and compendious tract most holy godly men of blessed and honourable memory and most sound both in innocence and learning such as Paulus Brawn of Norimberge Valentinus Weigelius and Petrus Winzius men educated and inlightned not in the sensuall school of fools nor in the rationall school of Schollers but in the third school of perfect Men that Mentall or Intellectuall school of Pentecost in which the Prophets and Apostles and all truly learned men walking in the Life and steps of Christ have been taught and learned without labour and toyle these gave themselves wholly thereunto as the manuscripts of their ingenuity and engraven monuments which they have left behind are no lesse then divine witnesses thereof unto eternity and by the favour nf the most High will in their time come to Light unlesse the indignity and ingratitude of the world keep them back that so according to the good pleasure of the Divine Will the minds of those that read them who yet are with-held in this hell of the body under the yoak of misery may by the assistance of divine Grace after a serious knowledge and lamentatation of our Fall through frequent and daily contemplation of Heavenly things and the annihilation abnegation immolation and mortification of themselves by Christ casting all shadows behind them and turning inward unto themselves into the Temple of the heart that so I say they might by a daily practice of Piety fetch out that huge Talent and Treasury which is hid and shut up within themselvs least like miserable mortall men who know not themselves and consequently nothing else lazily neglecting God within themselves and in their blindnesse and ignorance going backward after the steps of his flocks The more we seek after things without us the more we forget and loose our selves what will it profit us to hunt through all things and neglect our selves 1 John 2.20 27. Psal 98. Hab. 2.20 Psal 58.84 85. Phil. 3. Zech. 2.13 1 Cor. 3.9 God is to be waited for with a quiet mind when the sences are laid asleep who bestoweth his benediction where in he findeth his own vessells Christ is to be found in the Temple of the Heart should in vaine seek those things without them by many books mortall masters long journeys with great and constant paines study and wearinesse which yet inwardly they might possesse abundantly within themselves if they were indeed dead to themselves even to the whole Animall Man who is nothing but EARTH and were supprest by the Sabbath and oblivion of Temporall things and entred into themselves with David Psal 40 1. patiently waiting for God our master who dwelleth in his holy Temple in the Abysse of the heart or inward parts of our Soule Psal 5.7 speaking in us by his spirit and that they should not hinder him who is willing and desirous to inlighten our mind and to work all our works in us which is the utmost happinesse and Blessednesse of Man and the very determinate and appointed End of the Cabala or secret wisdome But alasse for griefe unhappy foolish and miserable men had rather abide in themselves to their greatest damage and detriment of their right then to be happy and wise in God with God and alway in the presence of God The heart of a Regenerate man is Gods Eden or Garden of Pleasure wherein he dwelleth For God made the World and Man that he might dwell in them as in his own proper house or Temple though now he is not discerned by reason of the Dark Point of the Quaternary but at the end of this world which is to be Renewed by the Ternary of Man Apoc. 21.23 the Regeneration according to Soul Spirit and Body the New Jerusalem wherein the Unitrine Essence of God and the Holy and most Holy Trinity inseperably dwell will sparkle and glitter out with a radiant fiery colour like a Rubie or Carbuncle thorow the clear spotlesse beautifull body O thrice happy is he and more in whom as in a Bodily Angel God himselfe is the Man in the Temple of whose incontanimate mind God is the Ghest where Mans Left hand knoweth not what Gods Right hand doth Unto this God the one and onely scope and end of all mens eyes should look The Creature is juâ—ily oblidged to obey the Creator that our will may be one with God Gen. 6.3 The Fall of Man and our great evill is to depart from Unity to Alterity I never go abroad among men but I come home lesse a man then when I went forth Seneca casting aside all impediments in the way there being nothing in this world but Vanity of Vanities all is vanity but to love God and cleave to him by serving him alone and so to be united to the true Being by an humble subjection least through disobedience a proud will and selfe-love neglecting the
Nature and property of our Image casting off God we should slide into our selves or the Creatures as claiming to our selves the property both of them and of our selves and so inevitably fall back into that vaine wicked or our own Nothing If the Soule run back within it selfe and be converted into the Mind it draweth near to God seeth all things and hath no need of outward teaching like the Angells who-learn hear and see all things from within But when the Soule turneth into sence it is carried far off from God and departeth from God the impure forsaketh the pure The Academicall spirit cannot not understand this Mystery for Holy and Devout Humility alone the most noble of all vertues is capable of Illumination O what pains doe they take to become sools who once drown themselves in Humane wisdome But since this Truth cannot be comprehended except our Understanding be kindled by the Word of the Lord and our Reason receive the Divine Light through the Mind nor may I in this unfit place openly speak more of these Mysteries I returne againe to that Physitian Paracelsus from the digression unto which I had occasion to step aside It had been more becoming our Physitians to have extolld and huggd those great gifts of God in him and rather have loved the man for his most ingenious art then to hate him for some kind of behaviour and using such words which every one doth not understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 facilius quam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 t is easier to carp at him then to imitate him The age wherein he wrote may excuse the harshnesse of his language the malicious ingratitude of men may be the cause of the bewayled obscurity of his Commentators the unusuall custome of Phylosophers plead for the strange novelties of names for the Phylosophers have ever driven from their hives of most sacred Sciences those sluggish and lazy Drones who are good for nothing but to devoure other mens industry for as Plato saith Artes ut lateant sua perque Aenigmata crescunt Arts wrapt in Riddles safe doe lye Their fruitfull'st soyle is Secrecy A man may live any where Lawes and Liberties are alowed in every Dominion But let any man look into himselfe and consider if he had that which Theophrastus knew whether he would tell it to every man in so doing he would break the Oath of Hippocrates who would not instruct every one in the Art of Physick A Secret indeed is to be concealed it belongs onely to God to reveale it if it be disclosed commonly it exposeth to death or prison or reproach or at least to continuall fear and voluntary exilement from our friends into a far country for safety unlesse we will brand our reputation with a perpetuall blur of lying and deceit to conceale the same Lully Arnold Zachary of Paris and others are witnesses hereof besides many examples of latter ages The true Hermetick Phylosophers took an Oath that they would follow the footsteps of their fathers and masters and not by any teinerity defile the virginity of Nature which hath been preserved from the begining of the world yet have they bequeathed their secrets to their sworn disciples who are engag'd by perpetuall faith and gratitude and made worthy of such their precepts by Nature or Education Without paines-taking none is fit to injoy that Art which yet are with much sweat to be searched out Men of shallow judgement are ready to think if Paracelsus speak any thing against those that follow the rule of their Experience or inveigh against Empericks who have no skill at all that he approveth of no sort of Physitians but that he would professe himselfe to be the sole and onely Physitian in all the world whereas he only condemns the common rable of Physitians who are altogether ignorant both of Theory Practice Nor truely are they to be accounted Physitians who Verbally and Syllogistically onely make a great flourish of Physick but doe no cures at all a true figne of a foolish ambition boasting that they have the Method of Physick a sort of men swoln with contempt and pride and born to crush the truth of the Physicall Art Some of them are so incensed against that Theophrastus because he might and maine set himselfe against those proud and impenitent fellows that they had rather let their Patients perish then make use of his prescriptions Many also for that cause dispise his medicines least if they commonly use them and their wonderfull effect appear it would be some blemish to their repute and therefore the better they are the more doe they undervalue them And though the Censurers of Theophrastus those fallacious Medodists who linger out the cure and lengthen the disease by their compendium falsly charge the genuine Chymists that they have lost the right method that 's as much as nothing for t is plaine to those that have their understanding inlightned that Paracelsus observed onely that method that was agreeable to Reason and Experience Nor should we be so addicted to any mans Authority as not to prefer the Truth before it for without the Truth all Authority is pernicious and all wise men will sleight it as of no value without that we are not so much to regard by whom as what it is that is spoken no man should be so wedded to another mans judgement as altogether to be deprived of his own True Method consisteth in the knowledg of the Disease and the Cure of it viz what food in reason with convenient Medicines driveth away sickness and procureth health Therefore Wimpeneus learnedly sheweth that greatest and most grievous Diseases now a dayes are in three respects cured by the Paracelsians First Because the Diseases are more perfectly known for heretofore when all were reduc'd to the four humours those that sprang from Tartar cleaving to any part could not be cured because it cannot be referred to any of those four humours And since we are here fallen upon Tartar I will speak a little more of it Every member hath its own proper digestion seperation emunctory excrement in it selfe The first digestion of the stomack is not digestion but apparation for the digestions of the particular members The first Ens or Being toward life from whence the body hath it's nourishment food ariseth out of the last matter of the Meat by the Archaeus or digestion of the Stomack it 's separation and generation of separation 'T is reduc'd unto Sulphur Mercury and Salt as is plain in the three chief Emunctories the superfluity of Salt is separated by the Urine that of Sulphure is divided and purged through the Entrals Mercury or the moisture of that which nourisheth if there be too much of it passeth through the pores by sweat Whatsoever we eat and drink hath in it a mucilagenous clayish and sandy Tartar hurtful to our Health Nature taketh nothing but that which is pure the Stomack which is the instrument
pry into that other also of Nature treating of those Secrets which respect our bodily health not passing by without taking notice of those choise treasures of Nature wherein the most High hath laid up medicines for our greatest and worst diseases But least by any unhappy mistake they should die and be buried in the dead shadows of meer outsides The happines of this present life consisteth in the knowledge of Nature therefore next to eternall things in temporalls the chiefest thing is to find out the secrets of Nature or the externall Galenicall qualities they have built a stately Structure and a Temple as a most honourable monument to their old age and Nature Out of which next to the more clear knowledge of the Creator unto which they have attained as well by the sedulous search and admiration of the works of God as by their laborious examination and Phylosophicall sequestration of the Creatures or Naturall things they have obtained also this excellent fruit of their labours watchings time and experiences One shall not repent of such a Phisitian who hath the true knowledg of earthly things Vid Agrip lib. 6. Epist c. viz. That when they shall be sent for to the sick where not many words to dispute but much skill to cure availeth most they may come as well experienced Phisitians not pretending now to study that disease which they intend to patch up with some outward flattering plaister to wit making a great shew of much adoe with a multitude of frivolous services and sugured words to cloak their simplicity sneaking away and giving the slip to the disease World 〈◊〉 Phisitians 〈◊〉 nothing out for prosie and praise whereas the end of Phisick is not to scrape up money but to discover the secrets of Nature and the love of the Phisitian to the sick discouraging the Patient with the difficulty of the first and chiefest performances as the common sort of proud conceited Phisitians use to doe insinuating into the richer sort for base gaine but altogether slighting others of meaner fortune Moreover such is the basenesse and malice of some of this ribble rabble that with swelling words they vilifie slight condemn and every where forbid as poisonous those Phisicall Secrets and inventions of Chymists which they call Collier-like-Phisitians notwithstanding they have a secret and subtle desire to learne those things which they hope to use with success and profit yet they in the mean time challenge to themselves the due praises of the true Author robbing the Inventers of the Art and their Benefactours of their deserved honour by a mendacious and inverted theft that they might more handsomely and with greater oftentation use those medicines which they have got with such craft To these A pule jan Bravadoes whether they put on the Lyons or the Foxes skin admission to the Bath of Diana is not to be granted because Pythagoras forbids to put our victualls into a close stool nor should we bestow our choicest herbs on such as rudely rush into the Chymists garden seeing brambles and thistles will serve their turne But since the calumnies and reproaches of leud and ignorant men are in the opinion of the wise not to be regarded by heroike spirits The boyling pot doth â—ot â—ear the siege of flies and the flye never falls into the seething pot the more humane and civill inclinations also of some make me expect better things the unjust hatred of Truth being laid aside and violent Censures abated wherewith some have endeavoured to make such gifts of God suspected and hated by poor and rich I would not that good men who are innocent should any otherwise have tryall of the losse then as it is due to base ingratitude noâ— would I for the unworthinesse of some shut these doors against those that seek after the true and Ancient Phisick who are seriously considering and daily hammering out the Ancient knowledge thereof seasonably forsaking their errours and without envy or evill speaking give place to Paracelsus according to his desert in practice and preparations Now because the abundance of accusations is often troublesome and suspected of the Judge yet because of the worlds wickednesse where iniquity aboundeth and the charity of many waxeth cold which ought to be more fervent in Christians toward their brethren these things here mentioned in this place and in these times may not be at all judged superfluous or beside the matter in hand neither will this Discourse offend any holy and Learned Phisitian which I intend onely against those proud envious ignorant vassalls who oppose the Chymicall verity against conscience to the reproach of God and Nature and to the hinderance of the Common good But before I come to describe the Remedies I suppose it will not be altogether lost labour if first by the assistance of the great God I handle some things in this Admonitary Preface which with greatest intention of mind and most diligent scruting are to be explained by a Philosophicall Phisitian Viz. What that Phisick is which cureth mens diseases and few Phisitians know it Whereunto is added a perfect Philosophicall Description of the little World Man almost forgotten and unknown Where that True Phisick lyeth hid and may be found That it is to be fetcht out and prepared truly by fire With what vertue and after what manner that Phisick worketh on mans body and expelleth his diseases What manner of Phisitian that Phisick doth require for its Minister Of the universall and chiefe Medicine or Phisick of the most Ancient Philosophers commended of many possessed yea seen or believed of very few Some thing in defence of the published Truth as an Epilogue or Conclusion CHAP. I. Of the True Physick THE true Physick whereof by the Devine assistance I intend here to treat is the mear gift of the most high God it is not to be sought for or learned from the Heathens but from God alone See Paracels his Labyrinth of Physitians the Ancient of days the Father of Lights who cannot erre the One onely Governour of the supream Universe Wisdome therefore is not to be got from the Creatures but from God who being the first inventer of all Secrets alone knoweth with what properties he hath indued every creature Therefore no mortall Master or dead letter can ever teach it so well as he who is the perfect Artist of all things even the most high Creatour and glorious God from whom it floweth unto us as heat from the Sun beams which produceth all kind of flowers and herbs for what hath Man which he hath not received from above The Master teacheth that Scholler in vaine whose Nativity is not disposed to that Art by the Sears All learn of the first by retrogression or going backward and this first of God who gave him knowledge in his Creation A Physitian should be born out of the Light of Grace and Nature of the inward and invisible Man the internall Angell the Light of Nature which like
a sound Doctour teacheth and instructeth men as the Holy Spirit taught the Apostles in fiery tongues It is perfected and brought to light by practice not established by Humane but by the institution of God and Nature for it is not founded upon any Humane figments but upon Nature upon which God hath written with his own sacred finger in sublunary things but especially in perfect Mettalls God therefore is the true Foundation thereof Physick is a favour given of God whereof University books are not the Foundation but the invisible mercy of God and his speciall gift so are those things also which are written that depend upon the true foundation and experience This Physicall essence in Phisick is called Gold Physick is written in the book of Nature 1 in Heaven and Earth and may there be read found out by Chyromancy and phisiognomy through the miraculous illumination of God Wherefore Physick is nothing else but the created and incarnate Mercy of our Heavenly Father bestowed upon poor afflicted Mortalls that the sick Patient might sensibly perceive and have experience of the bountifull love mercifulnesse and assistance of his Creator towards him in his afflictions that so God may be glorified in all his wonderfull works Now this Medicine as naturall Mummy and kernell of Nature is contained in the vitall Sulphur as in the treasure of Nature and is founded in the Balsam of Vegetables Mineralls and Animalls from which every action in Nature hath its beginning By its onely power all diseases are cured if as shall be shewed anon it be rightly prepared and separated from all impurity and in a due order conveniently administred by a Godly skilfull Phisitian to the poor weak decayed Nature of Man The Foundation of this Physick is according to the agreement of the lesser World Man with the greater and externall world as we are sufficiently instructed by Astronomy and Philosophy which explaine those two Globes the superiour and inferiour Philosophy teatheth the force and properties of Earth and Wate as Astronomy doth of the Firmament and Aire Phylosophy and Astronomy make up an internall and perfect Phylosopher not onely in the great World but also in the lesser And therefore it is necessary to accommodate the disposition of the great World as of a parent to the little World as to the Son and duly compare the Anotomy of the World with the Anotomy of Man The outward World is a speculative Anotomy wherein we may see as in a glasse the lesser World Man for so much of his wonderfull and excellent fabrick and creation as is necessary for a Physitian to know cannot be understood from the man himselfe For they agree not in outward form or corporall substance What the Light of Nature is but in all their powers and vertues as is the great world so is the lesser in essence and internall form they are altogether one and the same thing Without the knowledge of Light of Nature or the great world no Physitian can have an exact knowledge of diseases in Man the outward form at least differenceth the World and Man This is most evident from the Light of Nature which is nothing else but a divine Analogy of this visible world with the body of man For whatsoever lyeth hid and unseen in Man is made manifest in the visible Anotomy of the whole Universe for the Microcosmicall Nature in Man is invisible and incomprehensible The great World is a speculation and glasse of the little World Man Therefore in the visible and comprehensible Anotomy of the great World all things are manifest as in their Parent Heaven and Earth are Man's Parents out of which Man last of all was created He that knowes the parents Man is the End of Phylosophy and Astronomy and can Anotomize them hath attained the true knowledge of their child Man the most perfect creature in all his properties because all things of the whole Universe meet in him as in the Centre and the Anotomy of him in his Nature is the Anotomy of the whole world The externall world is the figure of Man and Man is an hidden world because visible things in him are invisible and when they are made visible then they are diseases not health as truly as he is the little world and not the great one And this is the true knowledge that Man may Microcosmically be known visibly and invisibly or magically The knowledge of every sound and perfect Physitian proceedeth from the true and full Anotomy both of the great and little world unto which he may safely trust as to a most sure Anchor Considering then the originall of all diseases it will appear that the Nature as well of the Macrocosme as the Microcosme is its own medicine disease and Physitian A Physitian must spring out of Nature for in him and of him and from him is nothing but all of Nature onely Nature not man maketh a Physitian And because the Matter of Man is the Extract of the four Elements it is requisite that he have in himselfe a familiarity with all the Elements and their fruits inasmuch as without them he cannot live For what man can be without Aire Earth Water or Fire or their effects God created the Elements for their fruits sake that they might sustaine and preserve Man with food and Physick The knowledge of the 4 Elements doe shew every disease in man and its cure Therefore all the externall Elements represent unto us the whole Man which being known Man also is understood for they are alike and are the very Microcosm and in the foure Elements there is but one Anatomy essence and matter all the differenc being onely in the Form The knowledge of Physick in the outward world is to be fetched from the Limbovn and depends upon the knowledg of Man Thus in all things there is Fire Aire Earthy Water Againe there is Water Caelestiall Earth Likewise Terrene Fiery Airy Water Lastly Airy Fre Airy Water Airy Earth There are also four kinds of Mercury and four sorts of Mettalls a fourfold Snow four sorts of Ametheists and precious stones There are Foure of every thing one in the Firmament or Heavenly Element Every Element perfecteth its power and operation in all the four Elements another in the Aire a third in the Water a fourth in the Earth So there is a fourfold Man For God is far more wonderfull in his invisible works then in his visible Paracelsus faith that to avoyd an Emptiness in all the four Elements he created living creatures inanimate that is to say without an Intellectuall Soule which should be the four kind of Inhabitants of the Elements who differ from Men created after the Image of God in understanding wisdome arts operations and habitations To the Water there belong Nimphs Undens Melosyns whose Monsters or bastards are the Syrens that swim upon the water To the Earth doe belong Gnoms Lemurs Sylphs Montans Zonnets whose Monsters are the