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
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
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
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
next to Paracelsus Petrus Severinus the Dane together with Pratensis that faithfull Achates deserveth to be numbred among the Ancient wise men having got perpetuall praise by discovering to the Children of Art and Truth this firme and unmovable Foundation with much solid and unshaken verity in his Idaea of Paracelsean Physick maugre the malice of all his adversaries who have been sufficiently confuted and for ever silenced by my honoured friend Joseph Quercetan Councellour and most worthy Physitian to the King of France by Th Bovius an Italian of Verona and Th Muffet an Englishman the best Hermetick Physitians of this age in their golden writings of Eternall memory CHAP. II. Where that True Physick is to be Found EVery thing that God created Good is extreamly perfect and incorruptible as the heaven but whatsoever is in these sublunary inferiour things hath a twofold Nature Wheat doth norgrow without a place nor can we have meale without bran neither is hony without a sting Such Secrets are regenerated without any complexion of qualities a perfect and an imperfect that is a fift Essence and the dreggs may be separated one from the other by fire Seing therefore the true medicine or Physick is wrapt up in rindes barks matrixes receptacles husks garment and cottages as Almonds and all kernells are covered with bark and rind for Nature doth not bring forth the kernell of the Chestnut with a shell and prickly husk it is of necessity that the same must be seperated from the impure Elements by the artificiall Anotomy of Chymists before we can come at the pure Medicine For the bonds are loosed by art and industry and the faculties of healing set at liberty Therefore in all orders of things that are cherished in the bosome of the Elements to wit in those three Families of Nature the Vegetable Animall and Minerall out of which are commonly had medicines enough to preserve the health and cure all bodily diseases there is contained that True and specifix Physick of materiall distempers which as hath been said doth not consist in the four outward naked superficiary and Relollaceous qualities as Theophrastus learnedly discourseth but it is a certaine specifix vertue concealed in the very Seeds naturally proceeding without art which the Creator that great Workmaster of all things in the beginning of all the Creation planted in every growing thing by vertue of that omnipotent Word whereby all things were brought out of darknesse into Light The faculties and vertue therefore wherewith mixt bodies are indued like the soule in mans body from the beginning of the Creation is not from without Heaven is the framer of the externall edifices not of the Secrets Wonders and mysteries that dwell in them nor infused into them by a momomentaneous position of the Stars nor made up of a fortuitous meeting of Atomes it proceedeth not from the body nor the mixture of the body or visible forme for then it could not be separated without the destruction and corruption of the body and forme as we see in Cinamon and Pepper whose virtues being extracted either by art or vanishing by age and long keeping For as all Naturall actions proceed from Spirits and spirituall Tinctures in which the mecanick sciences of the Three principles have their vigour so the actions of Cures proceed from the Spirits and vitall Tinctures of the spirits not from the bodies or dead Relloceous qualities And seeing it is granted by the Interpreters of Secret Nature that there is nothing in the whole Universe every particular whereof is not also in that Microcosm Man as hath been said yea and that the seeds of all things lye hid in him as of the Stars Meteors Mineralls Vegetables Animalls Spirits even of Daemoris in respect of the Spirit of Man upon diligent consideration of this Symmetricall concord and Physicall anagoge it hath been the part of True Physitians to enquire that if the internall Heart of the Microcosm or Man should be sick how they might borrow strengthning remedies from his Parent or the externall Heart of the Microcosm which is one like the other if not in outward yet in inward figure and forme which remedies are analogically represented All the whole inferiour Nature is divided into three principall parts i. e. Vegetable Animall and Minerall such as may many ways be got out of those three shops of Cures For God created an inexhaustible supply of medicines and distributed to every Country sufficient for it selfe Thus among Mineralls men may find Gold which cheareth up the Spirits when a man hath enough of it in his purse Antimony and the like which are produced out of the Element of Water as Gemms and precious stones in shells are generated of drops of water as also all bodies of Oysters Musles and shell fish which by a specifick and Harmonicall vertue serve to cure and comfort the heart c. Thus also among Mineralls there Magicall and Hieroglyphicall Characters which sage Antiquity hath without rashnesse or superstition attributed to them that doe sufficiently insinuate to Inlightned men and Magically disclose their hidden vertue to those more secret Phylosophers that are instructed therein Although the choycest things among them which are most exquifitely and laboriously prepared by Nature doe As he that hath much Gold may know nothing of its medicinall vertue by Natures just decree with-hold their benigne and vitall Element from those that possesse them And many there are who confound the Universall Lawes of Nature and yet thinks to partake of her Banquet in the end There is no question to be made but the Gold would discover most Divine actions if it were rightly refined and had its power reduced into act by a Naturall and due Resolution that it might exercise its vertues Art imitateth Nature and supplyeth its defects it correcteth chastiseth assisteth and promoteth yea it exceedeth Nature for there is but one way to Resolve and to compound things because Art and Nature like mother and daughter consent to each other but few men have this gift of God bestowed on them so as to make solid and massy Gold potable that it may be drunk Amongst Vegetables there is Saffron Rue Balme Scordium Celandine Mace Ocymum with six hundred of the like Amongst Animalls there is Hart's horn Unicorns horn the Bone in Staggs hearts c. All which being rightly prepared in due manner doe cure the diseases of the Heart not as I have said by their Externall superficiary qualities but by an Internall proper specifick harmonious similer virtue for all things whatsoever serve to our health are all contained in the Spirits which onely know how and where to find out the disease the earthy part is altogether dead husks and rinds beget nothing the Spirits onely in the bodies of things doe all The Formes in thee medicines or Astra's of the medicaments separated by Alchymie from their bodies are the true Directoryes not the body but the Astrum or hidden Heaven gives all
sustentation and multiplication of Individualâ—s The Spirit is the life and Balsom of all Naturall things therefore it ought to hold the first degree in the order of Physick and the Man that useth it with the moderation of other meat may live as long as the ancient Fathers From those two fountaines the SUN and MOON as Suchtenius learnedly discourseth springeth the Naturall and Vitall Spirit of the world which runneth thorow all Beings giving life and consistance to all things by which as a mediator every occult quality all vertue all life is propagated into the inferior bodies into hearbs mettalls stones animalls so that there can be nothing in all the world that may or can be without a spark of this Spirit The Life of Man is the Astral Balsom the Balsamick Impression the Celestiall and Invisible Fire the Aire shut up and the Tincturing Spirit of Salt This Celestiall Spirit which is one and the same with our Naturall spirit when its breathing in our body is not lesned or hindred by outward things is that Naturall Heat of ours whereby every thing is digested for the sustentation and multiplication of every particular It digesteth the nourishment that Man taketh and breeds good blood in all the members so long as the blood is pure it continueth and is the strong vitall pure and sound spirit of the Heart so that the whole body liveth orderly and well But if it be hindered by sicknesse that it cannot so well doe its office the nourishment is not well concocted and that breeds bad blood by which the vitall spirit of the Heart is weakned Whence comes Old age that house of oblivion at last followeth a full extinction consumption and dissipation of that spirit which is the Naturall Death that the consumption and dissiapation of the said spirit may be prevented as much as by Nature may be that spirit and Naturall Heat in Humane bodies so weakned and hindred must be increased and strengthned that it may be the better able to do its duty But seeing every agent when it begins to act doth not move toward any thing below it selfe but to that which is equall like and sutable to it Therefore this strengthning also must be by its like that is by that Celestiall Heat of the Sun and Moon and the other Planets or with those things in which the Virtue of the SUN and MOON is most potent and doth most abound or is lesse restrain'd by matter The Celestiall or that Spirit of the world and the Naturall Spirit of our body is one and the same Spirit and therefore the Heat of the Sun and Moon generated of the very stroke of the spirit is a â—bing more concoct and by consequence more perfect For these things work more quick and perfectly and doe more readily beget their like and what is more easie the spirit or that supernall Fire is got out of them by art to which the Heat that burneth not like the Elementall but that which maketh all things fruitfull and Light giving life to all things are proper But burning Heat consuming all things and darknesse making all things barren are proper to the Elementall and Inferior Fire That same Heat therefore is excluded as also with it all divers and contrary things such as are all the inferior Elements For this and all things else that include a Naturall composition in them so far as they are yet drowned in a thick grosse matter and as yet not separate from it are subject to corruption and transmutation But Medicines ought to be preserving and very durable and remote from corruption For whereas they should preserve the Human body from corruption they ought first to be of a long and lasting nature otherwise they would corrupt rather then preserve Besides t is but in vaine to think to preserve a corruptible body by a putrid and corruptible thing to cure the weak by a feeble thing to form a Thing by a thing subject to deformity Every corruptible weak and feeble thing added to its like augmenteth it One Like added to its like maketh it more Like and so that corruptibility is increased not diminished as we see some and truly too many Physitians of our time who labor in vaine to cure Men of their maladies by their grosse and corporall compositions of Medicines but a higher speculation is here required The vitall spirit in Man the Elemental is one spirit For whereas diseases are not corporall but spirituall and lurking in the spirits they also call for spirituall medicines They therefore that would preserve that vitall spirit which is the Radicall Moysture and Heat The Innate Heat and Radical Moysture of the Microcosm are sustained by the MacrocoMacrocosmicall Heat and Moysture of the Sun and Moon as being thatoâ—e the same Celestial and Naturall spirit of ours the innate Mummy and hath its seat in the midst of Mans heart as the sustentacle of all our life in young men and repaire it languishing in old men and as much as may be make them young againe and so bring Mans life into the greatest health they must seek after not the Elementall but that Celestiall Heat of the Sun and Moon that dwelleth in the more incorruptible substance that is to be found under the Globe of the Moon to make this like our heart or spirit which is done when it is prepared and made up into a medicine and most pleasant meat so that being taken by the mouth it may presently pierce and passe throughout the human body keep every thing incorrupt especially the flesh that is united to it nourish the power and spirit of life increase and restore digest every raw thing lop and prune all excesse of every quality make the Naturall moysture abound and strengthen inflame and augment the weak Naturall Heat or Fire This is the duty of a true Physitian and of the more sound Phylosopher The Tincture doth so cleanse the Balsom that our children in the tenth generation may see the effect of it living so long Paracels For thus he might preserve our body from corruption retard old age keep youth flourishing in its vigour to the very poynt of death and were it not for the wages of sin withstand death preserve our body in perpetuall health and defend it from destruction Paracelsus calleth it the Element of FIRE which like the Sun of the Terrene or inferiour Firmament may be the greatest Secret for the removing all diseases and refreshing the cold benummed members for that Essentiall Fire worketh in the body as the Flame and Nettle doth without the body Whose meaning was that of right he may here be vindicated from the unjust calumny wherewith he was branded where he treateth of the vertues of this perfect Fire of Life that the Balsom of Nature The Humors of life do nourish the spirit of life See Paracel in the sift Tome among his Physicall fragments sol 162. Cease therefore henceforth to blame
assume a bodily shape with airy words thoughts and deeds by a mixture with that which is earthy Neverthelesse such kind of miracles and consequences doe at last decay againe into the aire as Nymphs turn into water just as a man by rotting is consumed and turned to earth because he came from thence TEXT 20. And thus the procreations proceeded one out of another by the great separation From those procreations arose other generations which have their mysteries in those procreations not in like manner as the separation of the things aforesaid but as a mistake or abortion or excesse Whence thunder is Thunder comes from the proceations of the Firmament because that consisteth of the Element of fire Thunder is as it were the harvest of the Stars at that very instant of time when it was ready to work according to its nature Magicall tempests rise out of the aire and there end not as if the Element of aire begot them but rather the spirit of the aire The fire conceives some things bodily as the Earth doth the Gnomes Likewise ordure comes from men and beasts not from the earth Whence Lorind is Lorind riseth from the originall of water yet it is not of the water Many other things also proceed out of the store either through mistake or in due time Crooked men â—orms plague famine Deformed men wormes and many more such like generations proceed from the impressions The infection of countries the plague famine is from the fatall stormes Beetles cankers Dalni Beetles cankers dalnes breed in dung By Lorind is found out the Prophesie of that country What Lorind for esheweth which is a kind of presage or guessing at strange wonderfull and unheard of things to come TEXT 21. What the fourth separâ—tion is As we have seen a threefold separation made out of the mysterie into three sorts of formes it remaines now that we consider the fourth and last separation of all after which there shall be no more for then all the other shall perish and be no longer a mysterie After the fourth all things shall be reduced into their first principle and that onely remaine which was before the great mysterie and is eternall Which is not so to be understood as if I could be turned into any thing or as though any thing could be made of me after the last separation unlesse by death for I shall be brought to nothing as in respect of my beginning I came out of nothing How alâ—â—hings are reduc'd into their principle Now we must know how it comes to passe that all things are brought againe into their originall When they are turned into nothing then doe they consist in their first Being Frst of all then we must look after that which is the first of all And what that is that goeth iâ—to nothing is no lesse than a mysterie My soule in me was made of something therefore doth it not become nothing because it was formed of something But of nothing nothing is made nothing is generated A picture drawn on a table as it is a picture The difference between a man and an image was doubtless made of something But we were not so made of something as an image in the aire And why so but because we came out of the great not out of the procreated mysterie Therefore are we brought to n = * He means as to the body nothing If you wipe off a picture with a spunge so that nothing thereof remaine the table is as it was before Thus all creatures shall be reduced to their first state to wit to nothing That we may know wherefore all bodies must return into nothing it is because of that which is eternall in the bodies rationall The last matter is most wonderfull The last separation of this kind is the ultimate matter Then will there many procreations mixtures conversions alterations transmutations and such like things be done all which are past mans finding out TEXT 22. Againe by Philosophy it is manifest that whatever is for the succour and preservation of any frail mortall thing is therewith also equally mortall nor can that be joyn'd againe that is divided as milk once turned into curds becomes milk no more Milk once turned into curds is no more milk thus may we reason also that the great mysterie returneth not into that out of whâ—ch it came Whence we may conclude that all creatures are the picture of the highest mysterie The creatures are the pictures of the great Secret and so nothing else but as a painted colour is to the wall Such is our life under heaven that one thing as well as another may be destroyed and turn'd into nothing For as the table or frame of a picture may be destroyed and burnt so also may the great mysterie and we with it And as all the things of the creatures are wip'd away minished and do perish with the mystery as a forrest which the fire burns into a little heap of ashes out of which ashes but a little glasse is made and that glasse is brought into a small-beryll which beryll vanisheth into wind in like manner we also shall be consumed still passing from one thing into another til there be nothing of us left Such as the beginning such is the end of the creatures The Cypres grows from a small graine If the Cypres tree can spring out of a little graine surely it may be brought into as small a quantity as that little kernell was at first A grain and the beryll are alike As it begins in a grain A graine is the begining a beryâ—â— the and of things so it ends in a beryll Now when the separation is thus made and every thing reduc'd to its nature or first principle to wit into nothing then is there nothing within the skie but is endlesse and eternall For that by which it is for ever will there flourish much more largly than it did before the creation it having no frailty or mortality in it As no creature can consume glasse so neither can that eternall essence be brought to nothing by that which is eternall TEXT 23. The last separation being the dissolution of all creatures and one thing consuming and perishing after another thereby the time of all those things is known What mortal things are eternall When the creatures once were they had no utter ruine in them for a new seed still supplyeth the room of the old decayed thing Thus there is somewhat eternall not subject to ruine in the things that are mortall by renovation of another seed which thing the Philosopher knoweth not No seed doth admit or constitute that which is eternall Yet doth it admit putrefaction when that which is eternall is taken into the eternal Man is a companion of the eternall In this respect man onely among all the rest of the creatures hath that which is eternall in himselfe joyned with