bodies appear to be dead yet shall the naturall Magician know that in his flesh and bones there abideth admirable spirits which operate no less wonders yea and far greater then those of the Load-stone And therefore I would have each self-conceited person that are so apt to envy against the Mysteries of God in nature to learn more discretion and experience before they so vain-gloriously do judge the strange and marvellous effects of man's royall nature and pronounce so boldly without hesitation or sticking that there are no spirits in any amputated members or portion in man no nor in the dead carcass as Casman and Foster aver Nay that the Devill himself can not conferre any into them or it For I would have both them and other temerarious and bold Judges to know that as the Load-stone though appearing a dead mass is observed to suck and draw Centrally unto it with a lively appetite the beams and body of the Load-stone and that all and every member divided from the Load stone will do the like in its proportion Even so I can prove it and confirm it by an ocular demonstration that by a right application of the fleshy parts of a dead man's carcass unto a live man if the application be long it will make the live man faint and feeble the which nevertheless a while after the materiall or corporall Magneticall Mummy be removed will receive again his wonted strength Moreover lest this relation may seem to Mr. Foster and the rest of his Cabalisticall Sect a figment or Chimerious fancy forasmuch as he may alleadge that the application of the thing may work in the live man's imagination and cause him to perswade himself that he is faint and that without any true ground and that there can be no externall effect to prove it I answer That it will suck or draw forth of the live man the spirituall Mummy in a visible manner For by the coldness of the part the spirituall Mummy so extracted will condense it self on the superficies of the corporall Magnet even as aire into a cloud or a cloud into Manna so that it may be gathered and converted into a very pretious and wholsome Panacaea or generall medicine if the party out of which it is extracted be sound and of a wholsome complexion as contrariwise it may prove as corrupt and Antipatheticall a medicine where the body out of which it is drawn is infected with any venomous or contagious disease namely French Pox Plague Leprosie and such like as shall be more at large expressed in the next book Now the reason of this act and operation in the dead man's Magnetick parts is that as when the body was alive it was animated by light and enjoyed all the properties of light to wit it was hot active moveable dilative and in conclusion of an Aequinoctiall or Southern condition so that naturall fire being extinguished it indueth the properties of darkness for it is mortified by cold and is congealed potentiall fix or immobil contractive and in fine of the rigid zone's and frozen Pole's nature So that whereas before whilst it lived it did emit his beams from the Center to the Circumference and did enjoy the blessings of God's vivifying and positive Emanation now it indueth the condition of his contracting privative and mortifying Emanation And yet I would not that wisemen should think that because the lively body is turned into a dead carcass therefore it is void of all spirits of life being that Scriptures confirm that the incorruptible spirit is in all things and consequently as well in those that are dead as in those that are alive For this incorruptible spirit according unto the variety of his property in the four winds is sometime in motion from the center of the thing in which it is unto the circumference for so he vivifyeth and causeth the creature to act and live by a southern or aequinoctiall faculty so I say it operateth from the center of the celestiall sun to the animation of inferiour creatures namely by evocation of their incorruptible spirits which were repelled by the winter or Boreal cold into their center from their center unto their circumference as it appeareth by such vegetables which seem for that reason as it were dead all the winter season because the spirit of life leaves and forsakes the circumference of the plant and betaketh it self unto the center to retire from the assaults of cold which is its opposite as far as it can But when it perceiveth its fountain of light to approach and to send them forth succours they begin by little and little to spring again from their center unto their circumference and being united unto the externall beams which are come unto their aide they expel dark privation and congealing cold from out their tabernacles and do proceed to operate and act unto vegetation and multiplication as also we see in the corn which is buried in the earth Even so I say and no otherwise the Load-stone's Martiall nature being originally by a Saturnine spirit contracted into his center is exagitated and stirred up and with like joy doth suck unto it the formall beams of the Iron from whose Martiall sulphureous spirit they did originally spring And even so also the spirits of the dead body being by mortifying cold driven from the circumference unto the center and resting there at repose without any action maketh the body and every part thereof fixt and unmovable but when they are applyed unto the lively circumference of their species or kind they spring forthwith and in their watery spirits towards the circumference as if they were almost famished in the center and rejoyce to meet with their like in the live man which doth as it were dilate it self and issue forth of the pores in a streaming manner for their assistance and they being partly congealed in the center of the dead member do with a greedy appetite suck them in with the spirituall Mummy which is their vehicle towards their centrall abiding to endue it with life as it was before and to recreate it with their presence but the unctuous spirituall Mummy being full of bright spirits resting upon the superficies of the live man inspissated with the cold and mortifying contact of the dead flesh or part of the carcase is forthwith congealed and may be reserved for a private use But can we I pray you better confirm this than with the contractive restrictive or congelative vertue of the fumous excrescence issuing from the salt contained in the dead mans bones for by applying it I mean the Uznea or masse which groweth on the dead mans bones unto the irruptions of blood or haemorrhoigy in a living man the warm blood as it were moved by an antipatheticall affection returneth back again and is denyed passage by the congealing and binding operation of these northern effected excrescences But leaving these conclusions touching the dead mans magnet and its vertues for a while what will
and their spirits namely the blood transported the Oyntment and the Body of the wounded 4 Problem The Load-stone and the veine of Iron are all one and have all one matrix and are found in one Mine as twins yea and the robust Magnet hath Iron in it And therefore the Iron which is extracted from them both hath all the Magneticall virtues as well in the vein as being made by separation but more weakly except it be excited by the Load-stone and added unto it by capping For so it will be stronger in his Magneticall power than the Load-stone it self Application In like manner the blood in the wounded person and that which is transplanted to be purified and comforted in the Oyntment came out of one and the same vein and have all one matrix and therefore that extracted blood hath in it all the Magneticall virtues but more weakly and more in puissance than in act except it be excited by the Southern fountain of blood and capped with the Balsamick nature of the unguent For being so prepared namely incited and addressed it will have his own Northern power and that Balsamick and attractive virtue of the Uznea is so powerfull in his Northern Saturnine condition that it suddenly sealeth up and arresteth by congelation the Southern blood that floweth even as the Northern wind converteth the aire into fix and immobil snow or hail 5 Problem The Load stone and the Iron among all other bodies that are known unto us are more near in nature and condition unto the earth for they have in them a substance that is most genuine and homogeniall and approaching unto the earth And therefore these three do agree in nature together Application By this it appeareth what near reference there is between the body of Man which we compare rightly unto the Earth and the blood which issueth out of the veins of the Earth referred to the Load stone and the Ointment indued with a bloody spirit and which was extracted out of blood For the fat and the Uznea and Mummy were of blood For Scriptures tell us that the Soul of the flesh and consequently of the fat and bones is in the blood Whereby we may see that though these three do differ in bodily Substance yet they agree in the homogeniety of spirit And therfore it is no marvel though there is a continuity between the spirit of the bodily blood and that transplanted neither also ought we much to wonder at the naturall commerce which is between the bloody spirits and the Oyntment that so sudden a union should be made between them and that it should forthwith become a Magnet adopted onely in his Balsamick and sanative operation for the wound being that it is guided and directed by these bloody spirits which are transplanted in it and after animation did convert the beams of his nature unto his like being as near in spirit and property unto the wounded man's blood as is a piece of Iron or Load-stone which is broken from off the whole which accordeth in every respect with the spirit of his Father from whence it sprung So also we see that though the Macrocosmicall aire doth seem to vaâ—y in nature according to his position for the Northern aire is cold the Southern or aequinoctiall is hot yet it is but one spirit howsoever it is divided into this oâ— that cloud And again the internall or formal Spirit which animateth diversly the four winds is but one and the same indivisible spirit as the Prophet Ezekiel telleth us In like manner it is but one and the same identity of spirit which acteth in the wound the conveyed blood and the Oyntment being all three as it were but one blood as the Apostle taught the Athenians that all men came of one blood and consequently of one spirit in the blood I prove it also by this Problem 6. Problem Attraction is made in the primary bodies and these are nearest unto one another and of a mutuall consent among themselves by reason of their identity in condition And for this reason the Load-stone draweth the Load-stone and Iron draweth Iron and earth of them all draweth earth and again each of them draweth another Application Hence therefore is gathered a reason why blood draweth blood and one body his like and the Oyntment being animated by one and the same nature doth attract his like unto him And therefore Paracelsus saith justly Quodlibet corpus cui Mummia viva in alio homine propinatur illicò fit magnes Every body that drinketh or takeeth inwardly the lively Mummy of another man is forthwith made a Magnet And therefore we may say justly seeing experience hath made it manifest that every Microcosmical Oyntment that hath imbibed or comprehended the spiritual Mummy of another man's blood is forthwith made a Magnet and by the incitation of the Mummial spirit which it containeth doth greedily thirst and covet after his like And for that reason draweth and allureth it unto it thereby to impart as well unto it as it doth communicate his vivifying property unto his attractor I could say much more to prove the reason of the strong attraction of this Oyntment after it is animated with the live man's spirits but I shall be too redious and again I shall touch it in the consequence and for that reason I will leave this member to proceed to the seventh The seventh Member of the Proposition with the Proofs Seventhly that the Agent which causeth the Alien or strange body much more that which is of his consanguinity to be come Magnetick and affectionate or concupiscible and that by a kind of proximity in nature is the bloody spirit transplanted into the animal unguent or vegetable plant of which I have spoken before the which spirit also is the director or guider unto the unctuous Magnet to operate magnetically upon the subject and his spirit from whence it was derived the which spirit if it be strong and potent it worketh potently if debil or weak it operateth but weakly Certain Problematicall Demonstrations to confirm the Member of the foresaid Proposition This Member for the better explication of our purpose we must divide into three Articles or Particles whereof the first shall prove That the transplanted spirit maketh the unguent into the which it is committed a Magnet unto the wounded person The Second That it is the onely guider and director of the oyntments force and conductor of his balsamick faculty unto the wounded spirit And the last shall demonstrate how a weak and impotent spirit operateth but weakly of it self and yet by the assistance of a sounder and stronger nature it is refreshed and becommeth strong again Demonstrations confirming the contents of this Members first Article Touching the first Article of this Member which maketh the transplanted spirit the cause that the oyntment is magneticall we prove it thus 1 Problem Experience hath taught us and Baptista Porta confirmeth so much that if a weak
iis mala muâ—â—â— angustiae God for saketh the wicked and hideth his face from such as are impious thaâ— evill and necessiâ—y may encumber them But the speciall causes of life death and resurrection are expressed in these words of the Prophet David before mentioned O Lord how glorious are thy works in wisdom thou hast made them all the earth is full of thy riches so is the wide sea and innumerable creeping things therein Thou givâ—st unto them and they gather it thou openest thine hand and they are filled with good things but if thou hide thy face they are troubled if thou takest away their breath they die and return unto dust Again if thou sendest out thy Spirit they are re-created and revive and thou renewest the face of the earth c. Psa. 104.20 Lo here the essentiall reason and centrall manner of Generation and Corruption is exactly described and set forth by the Psalmise namely that by the presence and benigne action of the incorruptible Spirit of the Lord life is continued and contrariwise by the absence or departing or by taking of it away from the creature it dieth and corrupteth for so long as the incorruptible Spirit of the Lord acteth and worketh in the creature it is not possible it should die or corrupt but when it departeth death and corruption must needs follow also when it abideth in the body but resteth from his action or as it were withdraweth his active beams from the circumference unto the center which the Prophet tearmeth The hiding of God's face then is the creature troubled which is as much to say as it is sick but if it be totally taken away then the creature is forced for want of it to expire and die To conclude if it return and shineth forth again unto the creature then it reviveth again as it did unto Lazarâ—s and unto the Widow's child which the Prophet raised Whereby it is apparent how death is nothing else but the absence of the essentiall form and consequently it is made evident that the vivificating form is immediately from God and not that imaginary one which the Peripateticks have groped after and I prove it evidently out of these places though the precedent Text doth expresse it plainly enough Non permanebit saith the Lord Spiritus meus in homine in aeternum quia caro est eruntque Dies ejus centum viginti annorum My Spirit shall not remain perpetually in man because he is flesh and his daies shall be a hundred years and twenty Whereby is argued that it is the Spirit of God which maketh man to live and that by the absence thereof death must needs ensue But because the curious will scarce approve of this translation of Jerom saying that the nature of the Hebrew Text is otherwise taken I will maintain and confirm it by the like and of the same condition in Job Si Deus apponens ad hominem animam suam Spiritum aut flatum ejus ad se reciperet vel traheret deficeret expiraret omnis care simul homo in cinerem râ—verteretur If God setting his minde upon man should receive or draw unto himself his spirit or breath of lifâ— all flesh would fail and die and man also together with him would return unto ashes So that we see it is the Spirit of God which giveth life not onely unto man but also to every other creature And that it is meant by the reall vivifying Spirit of God which giveth life unto man expresly we have it confirmed thus by Job in another place Spiritus Dei saith Job fecit me inspiratio Omnipotentis vivificavit me The Spirit of God made me and the inspiration of the Almighty hath vivified me or given me life And therefore it followeth that if the presence of this Spirit doth cause generation life and preservation of necessity the absence of it must cause corruption death and destruction for when the Spirit of the Lord is removed from the bodily masse of the creature it leaveth it deformed and as it were another chaos or terra inanis vacua being that it is destitute of the Spirit of life which did make it to act and exist in its specifick nature And forasmuch as this incorruptible Spirit doth preserve the corporeall masse from corruption by his incorruptible vertue and power it followeth therefore that when the Spirit is departed or absolutely contracted in it self without any externall act the masse must of necessity forthwith die and return unto a privative nothing Now the difference between the resurrection from death or rather deadly sleep unto a temporall life for the words of Christ were touching Lazarus that he was not dead but slept and that which is an eternall life is this for as there is nothing that hindereth death more than the presence of the incorruptible Spirit so also is there nothing which hindereth the perpetuity of living more then a corruptible body or a body subject unto death or corruption and therefore that body must die that it may put off corruption and endue incorruption namely by purification and separation of the corruptible additaments which is effected by a loosning of the tie of the alterable elements and a freeing of the spirituall part of the corporall composition from its long captivity that it may become pure and clean which being done then by the union of the incorruptible Spirit with it all will be made spirituall so that according unto the doctrine of St. Paul That which is sowed will not be quickened except it die And that which thou sowest is not the body that shall be but God giveth it a body at his pleasure And therefore as the body is sown in corruption so it riseth in incorruption as it is sown a naturall or elementary body so it is raised a heavenly and spirituall body So that the body must die that it may put off corruption that is the corruptible portion of the impure element that it being made spirituall may abide with the Spirit of life for evermore For this reason he affirmeth that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God because in their elementary nature they are subject unto corruption and therefore cannot inherit the land of incorruption but it is the pure spirit of the blood and flesh which rise after they have deposed their grosse tabernacle unto incorruption being animated by the incorruptible Spirit of the Lord which onely causeth a temporall life in the naturall or compacted elementary masse and an eternall one unto the spirituall and refined body which is contrary in condition unto the naturall body as the Apostle doth justifie for by purification it is changed from an elementary body unto a heavenly and spirituall one Do we not see after the same example how the very grain of wheat is so exalted in vertue after it hath endured corruption and hath been freed from the grosse elementary tie that it
would mount and soar upward towards the heaven were it not that the spirit so set at liberty is detained by the elementary stuffe which hinders it in its ascent and yet neverthelesse it is so dignified after its corruption that its vertue is augmented by many degrees as it appeareth in the abundant multiplication which its dilated spirit doth produce through the abundance of that incorruptible spirit which it endueth As touching the other resurrection which is unto a temporall life it is by reason that the body is not corrupted neither is there a loosning of elementary ligaments by dissolution whereby the spirituall body may be purified and clean separated from and have no commerce with the elementary dreggs which do issue out of the lower waters so that the occult spirituall body cannot be at liberty to embrace the spirit of life with eternall tyes Of this kind of resurrection was that which Christ effected on the widow's son which was carried to be buried when he said Young man I say to thee Arise and he that was dead sat up Also he caused resurrection in the like manner to the dead daughter of one of the Rulers of the Synagogues crying and saying Maid arise and her spirit came again and she rose up straight-way Unto such a temporall life also Lazarus was raised up Again by the prayer of Elijah the widow's son was raised again for the Text saith that at the voice of Elijah the soul of the child came into him again and he revived Whereby we ought to note two things first that these bodies were not wholly corrupted I mean the Elements of the composition were not devided by resolution and therefore though the Spirit returned into them yet it brought their bodies but to a temporall life And although it might be alledged that Christ's body was not corrupted and yet it had Resurrection from death unto eternall life I answer that the Text saith that he would not suffer his Holy one to see corruption and by that reason he had Resurrection the third day after he died being that his body was without sin and therefore void of corruption But I leave this mysticall doctrine to the research of the learned Theosophists Secondly we are to note that it is the presence of the vivifying Spirit of God which causeth Generation and Resurrection from the death And again it is the absence thereof which induceth death and corruption For the Scriptures say that it was the soul of the child which came again into the child to make it alive again And the other Text saith her spirit came again and she revived And therefore Job said in the place above mentioned If God should draw his Spirit or Spiracle of life from the creature all flesh would expire And David If thou takest away their breath they die If thou sendest forth thy Spirit they revive or are re-created Now if we shall compare this our principle of Generation and Corruption with that of the Peripateticks we shall find as great a confusion in the one as there is a plain explication of the other for they define Generation to be mutatio materiae à forma substantiali pristina in aliam formam substantialem A change or mutation of matter from its wonted substantiall form into another form Also they will have Corruption to be mutatio amissio formae substantialis quae prius inerat materiae sed nunc non inest eidem The mutation or loss of a substantiall form which was first in the matter but now hath forsaken it Thus you see how they nominate a substantiall form but what it is and how it commeth into the body to cause Generation or after what manner it departeth from it again to cause death and corruption they relate not and therefore we have ignotum per ignotius when in verity it is the Spirit of God which informeth and vivifieth all things causing by its presence as well Generation which Aristotle observed and Resurrection which he never knew or could discern by his worldly Philosophy as corruption privation and death by its absence So that in this change or passage of the creature from one estate unto another we shall find that as it was made and all things else out of one dark and deformed potentiall principle by the shining forth of actuall Light which informed and by information created all things of Nothing making them to live and exist so also by the absence of that all-informing Light each thing becommeth dark dead and destitute of their essentiall form untill a new Light do manifest it self after a manner which doth alienate the watery Subject from the form and shape it had at the first So the body or carkasse of a dead man is in the state of a deformed chaos in regard it hath lost its wonted human substantiall form or act no otherwise then if the Lord did take away his Spirit from the world all things would return again to Nothing or a deformed chaos or dark abysse as it was at first But when the effectuall act of a new form doth break forth out of the dead carcasse causing the whole Mass thereof to become verminous or full of worms then may we say that the Corruption of the one is the Generation of the other which evermore holdeth good when the Elementary stuff is still present So that Privation is the mean between them both and as it were a vacuity a Nihâ—l or non entity between two formalities But I will demonstrate the mystery of Generation and Corruption after this Manner Now therefore that the progression or ranks of the worlds Creation and his simple Members is shewed you which consisteth of four ranks in which estate the world must as I said indure till it be refined with fire I will make my progression from these simple members of the world's existence and proceed unto the order of degrees in composition which have their beginning and foundation from them namely from the first degree or rank in Generation or Composition unto the Complement thereof And as between the beginning of mixtion and the perfection thereof there must intercede a medium or mean which must be imperfectè mixtum or an imperfect mixtion so betwixt a simple Element and a perfect body an imperfect composition must needs intercede namely such a one as is that of a Meteorologick nature As for example in the generation of a man the beginning which is founded on the catholick watery Element and taketh his place in the first rank is Sperm for it is a watery or fluid Substance but little altered and as in the water the whole Fabrick of the world and seeds of all things was complicitly conteined and yet nothing did appear externally but water So in the seed or Sperm though nothing do appear in the first degree explicitly but Sperm yet the whole man namely the bones flesh blood sinews and such like are complicitly conteined and will
in its simple and separated estate Damascene seemeth to define it thus Anima est subâ—tantia spiritualis a divinis fontibus emanaâ—s simplex indissolubilis immoâ—â—alâ—s libeâ—a incorporea indivisibilis quantitate figura pondere colore carens The sâ—â—l is a spirituall sâ—bstance flowing from the divine fountains simple indâ—ssolvable immortall free incorporealâ— indivisible wanting quantity figure waight and colour Unto this also Bernard seemeth to consent And Augustin defineth it thus Est mens divâ—na omnia intelligens omnibusque se assimilans It is a divine Spirit that understandeth all things and doth câ—nform it self unto the shape or lâ—kenesâ— of all things And for this reason certain Philosophers say that it is made after the likeness of the Spirit of Wisdome which is known to be the Image of God For it beareth the likeness of every thing in it self Wherefore it is defined by them to be the similitude of all things And verily it hath in it self this power to apprehend and find out all things Again it is like unto all things being that it is one in all There are some of the â—â—viner sort of Mysticall Philosophers that seem to conclude mans soul more fully in this definition Anima est lux quaedam divina ad imaginem Verbi causae causarum primi exemplaris creata sâ—bstantia Dei sigilioque figurata cuâ—us character est verbum aeâ—â—num The soul is a certain divine Light created after the Image of the Word the caâ—se of causâ—s and the first exemplaâ— or image c. Another defines it thus Est res incorporea omni decore adornata Sanctae Trinitati â—ssimiâ—ata 〈◊〉 nae gloriae coaquata It is an incorporeall thing whâ—ch is adorned with all virtue likned to or resembâ—â—ng the Holy Trinity and coâ—equated unto eternall glory Some do describe it thus Est Spiritus intellectualis semper vivens semper in mâ—tâ— sâ—cundum sui operis efficâ—â—m variis nuncupatur nominibus Dicitur vita dum vegetat spiritus dum contemplatur sensus dum sentit animus dum sapit mens dum intelligit ratio dum dâ—scernit mem ria dum recordatur dum vuli voluntas at isla omnia non sunt nâ—si una essentia seâ— proprietate diversa It is an intellectuall Spirit alwaies living alwaies in motion and in respect of its divers operations in the body it hath divers appellations assigned unto it For it is called life in regard of its vâ— vificative and vegetative property It is called a Spirit as it is conversant about contemplation and is a spirituall substance and breatheth in the body it is called sense as it is imploied about the Act of sensation it is termed Animus when it operateth in Knowledg and Wisdome and it is named Mens in regard of its Divine Understanding and Memory as it doth remember again as it is affected to will any thing it is called Voluntas and all these names decipher but onely one Anima or Soul in essence but divers and sundry properties or faculties c. And these later descriptions are assigned unto this vivifying Spirit as it is conversant with the body Now if we shall duly examine all these delineations of the essence and properties of this Anima as well in her freedom from the body as when it is included in it we shall find it not to vary one jot from the tenor of my precedent assertion For first we shall observe it to be in its essentiall virtue the off-spring of the eternall emanation which came immediatly from God for the inacting of all things and then that it hath for its substantiall Vehicle the thin subtile created spirit of the world which maketh it alteritatem or a composition of two namely of the bright emanation from the eternall Fountain and therefore in the foresaid definitions it is tearmed in regard of this its interior in the first a Spirituall Substance flowing from the divine Fountain in the second mens divina in the third the Image of similitude of the divine Wisdome in the fourth a divine Light after the Image of the Word the substance of God whose character is the Word in the fifth the similitude of the Holy Trinity coaequated unto the divine Glory Secondly it participates of the mundane spirit and therefore it is by the sixth and seventh tearmed in regard of its substance a spirit that breatheth in the body and it is the Vehicle of the formall act which is in truth the divine mentall beam being considered in it self as the substantiall and materiall spirit in its simple nature it is that which participateth with the created spirit of the world The union of these two is called anima so that anima includeth mentem and spiritum or the divine and created nature in one which filleth all and animateth and vivifieth all things according to the assertion of such Gentile and Ethnick Philosophers as I have cited before which I will prove no way to dissent or vary from the testimony of the holy Text. And to make this the plainer I will compare them in order And first I will begin my relation with the Cabalists great Angell whom they call Mitaitron which by interpretation is Donum Dei the Gift of God which as they say is the catholick intellectuall Agent from the which all peculiar forms do descend The Apostle saith that the Lord doth vivifie all things And Solomon saith that the Spirit of Wisdom is the tree of life and the fountaiâ— or beginning of life and if this Spirit be the fountain of life then the Son of Syrach effudit Deus illam supra omnia opera sua supra omnem carnem secundum datum suum God poured it out upon all his works and upon all flesh in his measure And this was that catholick angelicall Spirit which God sent out as a Spirituall Messenger from himself and out of himself in the form of an emanation to move upon the waters and to inform and vivify them and give life and being not onely to the great world but also to every particular thereof and the emanation was this Word of God by whom all things were made and vivified forasmuch as in it was life I mean that Christ which filleth all things who is all in all as the Apostle saith who in the beginning made the earth and the heavens were the work of his hands and after his creation of all things he doth as St. Paul telleth us portare omnia verbo virtutis suae bear up suffer and sustain all things by the vivifying virtue of this Word Which also David confirmeth in this Verbo Domini firmati sunt coeli Spiritu ab ore ejus omnis virtus eorum By the Word of the Lord the heavens were framed and setled and by the breath of his mouth all the virtues thereof namely the life preservation and being The Apostle therefore seemeth to conclude thus Deus non aliquo indigens
the root and originall foundation or point from the which all Antipathy and Sympathy do spring namely the first from the privative property or its Nolunty the second from its positive or Volunty I told you next that from this one root or Unity in essence a two-sold branch or member did spring forth expressing typically and explicitly the effects and conditions of these two contrary properties or dispositions which were contained complicitely in the Ideall root namely darkness which is the privative fruit of his Nolunty and light the true character or badge of his Volunty And then I proved unto you that these two were the beginnings of all things Lo here the two Principles of Antipathy and Sympathy extracted out of one root Thirdly I demonstrated unto you that by the separation of the pure from the impure from the dark Chaos which act was effected by the spagerick vertue of the bright emanation or word of the eternall Unity the humid or watry nature of the world was created that is to say essentially informed by the lively presence of the said all-informing Spirit so that through that union of two contrary natures in one namely the informing essence or naturating nature and the informed substance or the nature naturated the spirit of the world was animated and afterwards by the wisest Philosophers termed the Anima mundi which is that angelicall composition of two called therefore by the Sages Alteritas as God in his simple nature is called Identitas Now the passive portion of which alterity was made is said to be the humid created nature oâ— naturated matter of the world whose active essence is the ever-living emanation from eternity which as the Apostle teacheth us doth vivifie all things and filleth all things and is all in all The union of these two maketh the catholick soul of the world called in respect of the simple creating and vivifying emanation Mens in regard onely of the spirit informed Spiritus and as these two are united in one Anima Lo here the third degree of the sympatheticall and antipatheticall progression from the simple root of eternity namely the created matter or spirit in the soul of the world being the child or off-spring of darknesse or the dark Chaos which is therefore naturally prone unto the negative or privative effects of darknesse and consequently apt in its own condition to receive any discordant and antipatheticall impression which the angelicall spirits of darknesse shall imprint upon it For as the sacred light which animates the humid spirit of the world and consequently the whole masse of the waters whereof the heaven and the earth was made as St. Peter doth justifie is the most movable agill and active of all things so on the contrary party the matter that is informed and therefore the created body and spirit is most degenerate from it in that it is no way enclined of its own nature unto motion or life For the Philosophers words are Materia est per se ad motum inefficax ab ipsa anima seu luce degenerans Wherefore of its selfe it endueth its mother Chaos or Hyles her condition and is enclined to rest immobility darknesse cold spissitude and congelation For this cause therefore it suffereth the impressions and characters of both oppositions to wit sometimes it enclineth unto darknesse and then it groweth spisse opak cold immobil thick and ponderous and tendeth in that his property downwards to the cold center or the seat of darknesse which is its mother and then it is in rebellion and opposition with light motion and heat and so it is antipatheticall unto the actions of light and life as we see the airy spirit of the world which is clear light diaphan thin movable and soaring upward by the operating power of the descending light becommeth by the Northern cold congealed opak spisse and immobil or fixed into snow hail ice frost and such like So that by this antipatheticall accession of the cold characters of the dark abysse it is discordant from the loving union and symphoniacall accesse which it had unto the region of light Contrariwise the bright form of the soul which is the essence of that eternall emanation doth give the matter or spirit of the soul's life action motion hear tenuity and diaphanity and that more or lesse according as it hath power and dominion over it And we must note that the more the spirit approacheth unto the nature of light the firmer are the bonds of its sympatheticall accords For as sympathy doth consist of things of a like nature so the nearer the spirit approacheth unto form the greater is the sympathy and accord the surer the tie and the more virtuous the effect for the more that the created spirit is illuminated the lesse it remembers that naturall inclination and love that it had unto its dark originall insomuch that by such an extream purified exaltation it becommeth as it were deified And therefore Plato's opinion is that if the middle spirit which is between the mentall beam and the dark bodily substance doth more adhere unto the divine or mentall beam than the dark body then it will become a good Demon or Angel but if it respect the body more than the divine beam it will descend unto the nature of a Cacodemon or spirit of darknesse Also by Scripture we are taught that by adhering unto this divine light namely unto Christ we shall be transformed into the same image to wit if we forsake this dark world and the lusts of the obscure body or flesh But to return unto the soul of the great world If the airy spirit be given over unto the power of darknesse it becommeth bodily and turnes into the same image namely frost snow hail c. but if the hot effect or the formall act of light prevail a degree over the stupid cold of darknesse it leaveth his opake quality and becommeth diaphan and returneth from an earthly fixt and obscure nature unto a clear transparent and fluxible substance and by another degree of the divine act it is made more subtle more dilated more invisible and pure and it is called Aire by a third it is purified unto fire by a fourth unto aether when it loseth all the appetite of mutation and forgetteth the privative stock from whence it came by a fifth it becommeth angelicall or emperiall and so it is exalted more and more in dignity according as it is more and more obedient unto the actions of the eternall and catholick influence of form which shineth forth from the fountain of infinity For we must understand that the whole inclination of the eternall emanation is to reduce this child of darknesse unto eternall light unity and life as contrariwise the endeavours of the potentiall darknesse which is the stamp of Gods Nolunty or privative nature are clean contrary So that all the end of the creating light 's action is to unite all by the symphoniacall band of love and
though not so subtilly and spiritually as the Elementary or airy Northern Mummy doth from the lively or Southern natured man I could tell you of many vegetables which have a Magnetick property to suck and draw unto them being applied unto the soles of the feet or pulses of the wrists or armes for divers Aguish distempers But that I should in so doing prove perchance too tedious unto you and therefore I will proceed unto the second degree of the Magneticall virtue in the Mummy which is to draw or suck unto it his like not by contact or touch onely but ad distans and that by a spirituall attraction in the aire and at an unknown longitude as shall better appeare in these Chapters following CHAP. III. How by relation of Naturall things unto one another they do after that a corporall contact or touch is maâ—e betwixt them operate wonderfully and that by a Magneticall concent or Spirituall continuity both after a contact or touch is made in the curing of maladies or wasting his like by a mutuall operation at an unknown distance I Will proceed as I began from a generall proposition unto diversities of experiences the which afterwards I will prove feisible and possible by divers Demonstrative relations The Proposition It is possible that two Mummyes of opposite condition that is to say the one being of a deadly Boreall condition and the other of a lively and Southern or aequinoctiall property may after a corporall contact made betwixt them operate from one to another a far distance by a spirituall relation which is continued between them as well antipathetically as sympathetically Experiment to confirm the same An Italian Lord by an accident had his nose cut off and by the counsel of his Physician made a wound in one of his slaves armes and clapped his mutâ—lated nose unto it and so continued it untill a perfect union was made betwixt the flesh of the slave and his Master Afterwards a gobbit of the slaves flesh which cleaved to the nose was cut out and formed into the shape of a nose The servant's wound was healed up and for his painfull service during this exploit was manumitted or freed and with store of money in his purse went unto Naples which was above a hundred miles from the place where his Master remained whose adopted flesh on his nose prospered and did nourish from the veins so long as the man which was made free did live It came to pass that the manumitted person did die at Naples and thereupon immediatly the adopted flesh unto the Master's nose did decay and begun to gangrenate insomuch that if he had not cuâ— it off it would have marred all the rest and killed him This relation is known to be so true and certain that to this day it is famous over all Italy and in every man's mouth of that Country and testified by some German Writers and maintained as well by some Scotch as English men which have been in that Country By this History therefore we may seâ— that so long as the two bodies which made contact were of one disposition namely Southern or aequinoctiall they though being in body far remote from one another did operate spiritually and were present in spirit that is they did concur together with the aspect of their sympatheticall beams and the flesh was spiritually vivified from the slave 's lively fountain even as the grain of Wheat hath 〈◊〉 nourishment and viviâ—ieth by the application of the Sun's beams unto it but when the Southern or aequinoctiall or lively property of the bondman's spirit was changed into a deadly Northern and cold disposition then the vivifying spirit did â—â—ase to apply any more unto the adopted flesh and in liew of it the deadly Northern spirit did suck or draw away that which the Southern had bestowed upon it no otherwise then the Northern Frost in the world killeth and draweth out the life of the grain or seed or plant or herb by his contractive and Boreall property And for this cause the Gangrene which is a Northern diseaâ—e did take the borrowed portion of flesh on the nose Here therefore we see how the same spirit altered from a Southern or aequinoctiall unto a Northern condition operateth by a contrary and unnaturall and depriving means and that secretly and a far off I. A Corollary Demonstration taken from the Macrocosmâ— We see in the Wether-glass of which I spoke before that between the bolts-head and the place of the water to wit in the whole pipe of the Mattras there is an invisible airy spirit which though it be not seen of it self yet doth it operate visibly in effect Foâ— if the externall aire be very hot then it dilateth the aire included in the bolts-head whereby the water at the other end is observed to sinck down though no ocular Agent may be found but by intellectuall eies we may discern that it is done through the virtue and lively Emanation of Sulphurous Light in the aire by the secret emission of whose beams the aire is rareâ—â—ed and by rarefaction beateth the water downward and contrariwise by Northern cold the water is lift up through the contraction of the emitted Spirits So that we may discern how lively Emanations and consequently acting and vivifying spirits are sent forth from the lively and Microcosmicall fountain unto the creatures which are apt to animate and vivify but if the fountain become cold and icie in liew of a Southern acting addition of life it induceth a moâ—tifying and privative substraction and that as you may perceive in the Wether-glass by a spirituall concurrence or rather an invisible and insensible continuity which is between both extreams as you may easily see it demonstrated in the Wether-glass II. A Demonstration derived from the Load-stone's property If we shall take an ovall Load-stone namely and shall divide it in the middle namely in the aequinoctial about B C and then shal expose the part A B into his little vessel to flote on the water and also put the oâ—her half C D in another little boat or vessel in the same water we shall find that these two halves B C being of one aequinoctiall nature will desire to be joyned again together and to be reduced into the same continuity it was before and for that reason the spirit which is continued between them though the body be divided being invisibly united unto both divided portions doth direct them both and by an actuall emanation out of each of them attract suck and agglutinate as it were each of them in their naturall position as they were before Application By this therefore the continuation of spirits betwixt the flesh of the forementioned captive at Naples and that which the master borrowed remaining elsewhere is evidently argued and confirmed And though it may be alleaged that the Load-stone doth not draw without his orbe yet I say that though men do guess at the sensible attraction of weights yet can they
a receptacle for the Angelicall Spirits and blessed Souls as it hath its position betwixt both the extream worlds namely that of Eternity and the other of Temporality for it hath an immediate relation or commerce with them both For first it receiveth its immediate light life or formall existence from Eternity and then it poureth it out or communicateth it with the temporall or inferiour mansion to create and vivify it with the creatures thereof insomuch that as the formall act of the temporall world is Angelicall so the vivifying soul or spirit of the aeviall is divine or eternall Wherefore it followeth that the nature and property of Angells is neither to be excluded from the Subject of Theology forasmuch as they participate with the Divine Light or bright presence of Eternity neither can they be exempted from the body of Philosophy being that the Angelicall light is the soul and life of the Temporal nature and consequently the true Philosopher must acknowledg his essentiall science or Philosophicall grounds to proceed radically from the Eternall God by his aeviall or Angelicall Spirits into his temporall creatures I mean the Stars Winds Elements Meteors and perfect mixed bodies and therefore in respect that the Philosophicall Subject is animated by Angelicall influences it must needs pierce with a mentall regard into the eternall Light which doth centrally vivifie both the aeviall and temporall creatures beyond the which there is nothing to be found or imagined This therefore is the perfect tri-partite measure of that Ladder which Jacob dreamed of when he laid his head upon the stone which in its longitude latitude and profundity contained the images or characters of these three worlds and for that reason it was termed by the Patriarch himself Domus Dei The tabernacle of God Whereupon as that stone had his externall and internall so in his divine dream he observed Angells to ascend by it namely from earth which is the Creator's soot-stool unto the Eternall world where his Throne is by the aeviall mansion and also to descend again by the same degrees Thus may the sacred Philosopher with the Prophet not onely perceive by a more externall spirituall vision Rotam in Rota or the aeviall essence in the temporall beeing but also by a most internall or mentall aspect he may contemplate Rotam in medio Rotarum to wit a centrall mover and Eternall Spirit in the aeviall by the which the temporall or corporeall creature is immediatly vivified and agitated whereby we may boldly infer with the Scriptures that God is essentially one and all And therefore I may lawfully conclude with these axioms of the divine Theo-Philosophists which appertain as well unto the formal act in the Creature which is the true life of Philosophy as the essentiall virtue of Divinity that God operateth all in all He vivifieth all things He filleth all things His incorruptible Spirit is in all things By the Word all things were made In the Word was life and that life was the light of men He giveth life and inspiration and all things In him we live move and have our beeing He is the Father of all who is above all and through all and in all of us From him by him and in him are all things He sent his Spirit and created all things He giveth breath unto the people and spirit unto the creatures that tread on the earth O Lord how manifold are thy works in Wisdom thou hast made them all the earth is full of thy riches c. If thou hidest thy face the creatures are troubled if thou takest a way their breath they die if thou sendest forth thy Spirit they are re-created or revived By him were all things created which are in heaven and which are in earth things visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominations or Principalities or Powers all things were created by him and for him and he is before all things and in him all things consist Note here how the Apostle doth livelily set forth in these words the foresaid three worlds Again Christ is all and in all things He sustaineth all things by the word of his Virtue In him are all the treasures of Wisom hid God by his Wisdom giveth or proportioneth a weight unto the aire and hangeth the waters or clouds in measure and maketh a decree for the rain and ordereth a way for the lightnings of the Thunders He speaketh in Thunder and answereth Job out of a Whirl-wind He by his Word giveth Snow like wool and scattereth the hoary Frost like ashes he casteth forth his Ice like morsels who can resist against his cold He sendeth out his Word and melteth them so soon as he sendeth forth his breath the waters do flow again By his breath the Frost is engendered and the breadth of the waters is made narrow I could produce an infinity of other places out of Scriptures to manifest the universall acts and virtuous operations which are effected in the Elementary creatures by that most essentiall and eternall Wisdom which is the main ground and true Corner-stone whereon the purest Mosaicall Philosophy doth rely but I esteem it needless being that they are copiously expressed already by me in this my Philosophicall Discourse and therefore I imagine that these which are already produced will be sufficient to content and satisfy all such as are unpartially judicious unto whose better wisdom and favourable constructions I recommend these mine indeavours and finally both them and my self unto God's blessed protection Your Friend Robert Fludd MOSAICALL PHILOSOPHY The First Book Section 1. The Argument of the First Book THis first Book sheweth that whereas the minds of worldly men are at this very day erected and soared up even unto the highest pitch of infidelity insomuch as they require and demand after signes and ocular demonstrations as the Jewes did For it is said The Greeks hunt after wisdom the Jewes demand for signes c. or else they will in no case be drawn to believe our Author did esteem it the greatest means of conquest in this Herculean-combat which is to be effected betwixt the two deadly enemies and strong champions Truth and Falshood that is to say the wisdom of God and that of the World if he could find out some vulgar and well known Experiment or practicall Insâ—rument which might serve our celestiall Champion Truth instead of an Herculean-Club to tame and exanimate that foul monster Infidelity who standeth so stifly in the maintenance and defence of his Lord and Master I mean the Prince of darknesse and errour his privileges being that such persons as will not be conducted and directed unto the center of Veritie by reall practise and ocular demonstration may rightly be adjudged more irregular and extravagant from the square and polished rules of reason than the brute beast who warned by experience which in that respect may rightly be esteemed for the mistresse of fools doth make his
was pure light but the world did not know it And Solomon Sapientia Deus fundavit coelos stabilivit terram in prudentia By wisdom God made the heavens and by his prudency he laid the foundations of the earth In conclusion the whole harmony of holy Writ which is too long for me punctually in this place to rehearse doth testifie thus much that all things of what nature or condition soever were made disposed and effected in by and through this divine vertue or emanation which is God himself forasmuch as it is the divine act whose root is the word Ex ipso saith St. Paul per ipsum in ipso sunt omnia Of him by him and in him are all things But because some of the learned of this world may reply that though it is true that God by his divine Spirit or Word did create all things yet it followeth not that he doth act immediately and exist essentially in every thing But after that this eternall Spirit of wisdom had bestowed on each creature a peculiar vertue in its creation then the creature can act of it self by a free-will which is absolutely and distinguished and divided from the immediate act of God I answer that by our founded rules in Divinity the true essence of the Deitie is individuall and therefore God doth impart no essentiall act or vertue unto any creature which can be discontinued or seperated from Himself And for this reason Christ who is the eternall spirit of wisdome is said to fill all I marry will our learned say that is vertually but not substantially or essentially I would fain know laying all such school distinctions apart of which St. Paul biddeth Timothy to beware if the vertue of God be not his essence or whether the one can be divided from the other If they reply and say that this vertue of God is no essence but an accident Verily they must needs erre in saying so being that it is most certainly known unto the very Jewes and Gentiles themselves that God hath not any accidents in him seeing that he is absolutely essentiall and reall of himself for where his divine act is there is also his vertue and where his vertue is there is he truly said to be essentiall for else the word or divine act which doth vivifie and quicken every creature should seem to be but an Accident and that divided from the divine essence which how absurd it is the immortality and root of it doth argue For David in his forsaid text sayeth spiritu ab ore ejus omnis virtus eorum from the spirit of his mouth doth issue every vertue of the heavens I imagine that there is no man of an upright sense that will esteem this vertue to be an Accident which being so then must it needs be essentiall and consequently in God and of God and therefore not divisible from his spirit But what needs more words when Scriptures do confirme this every where St. Paul sayeth in the text before mentioned Quoniam in ipso condâ—ta sunt universa in coelis et in terra tam visibilia quam invisibilia omnia in ipso et per ipsum creata sunt et omnia in ipso constant Because all things in heaven and earth are made in him as well visible as invisible all things are created in him and by him all consist in him Ergo nothing without him Again St. John saith In verbo erat vita Life was in the Word And therefore the creature is annexed unto him by a continuated tye of one and the self-same spirit of life which is in the creature without the which it cannot exist one minute And for this cause the Psalmist saith O Lord how manifold are thy works in wisdom thou hast made them all The earth is full of thy riches so is the wide sea and the innumerable creeping things therein both great and small Thou givest unto them and they gather it thou openest thine hand and they are filled with good things but if thou hide thy face they are troubled if thou takest away their breath they die and return unto dust Again if thou sendest out thy Spirit they are re-created and revive and thou renewest the face of the earth Whereby we see that it is the immediate act of the Spirit of wisdom that worketh these things by which God is said to vivifie all things and that by him we breathe and live and have our being And not onely we but also all other flesh whatsoever as it appeareth by the foresaid Text as also by this testimony of Job Si Deus apponens ad hominem animum suum spiritum seu flatum ejus ad se reciperet deficeret exspiraret omnis caro simul homo in câ—nerem reverteretur If God setting his heart or mind upon man should receive or draw unto himself his spirit or breath of life all flesh would die together and man would return unto dust And the Prophet Deus dat flatum populo qui est super terram spiritum calcantibus eam God giveth breath unto the people which is on the earth and a spirit unto the creatures which tread on it Now I beseech you How is it possible that this spirit of life should be present with and in all things and therefore essentially in every thing and yet it should cease to act immediately that is in persona sua when it is the most swift and mobil ' in his active nature and agility of all things as the wise man telleth us That he is present in all things it is apparent because all things do act and live in him and by him for St. Paul's Text before mentioned saith Omnia in ipso constant All consist in him And again Ipse operatur omnia in omnibus He worketh all in all And St. Peter The heavens and the earth which were of water exist by the word And Solomon Incorruptibilis Dei spiritus inest omni rei The incorruptible Spirit of God is in all things And again Spiritus disciplinae sanctus implet orbem terrarum The spirit of wisdom filleth the earth And the Prophet David Whither shall I go from thy Spirit or whither shall I flee from thy presence If I ascend into heaven thou art there if I lie down in hell thou art there Let me take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea yet thither shall thine hand lead me and thy right hand hold me If I say yet the darknesse shall hide me even the night shall be light about me yea the darknesse hideth not from thee but the night shineth as the day the darknesse and night are both alike Therefore it is his reall Spirit that filleth all things and not any accidentall vertue as is falsly imagined by some And the Prophet Isaias Coelum est sedes mea terra scabellum pedum meorum saith the Lord The heavens
In this respect also the Prophet Baruch hath it Stellae dederunt lumen in custodiis suis laetatae sunt ad jussum Dei The stars gave light in their watches and dâ—d rejoice at the Commandement of God Hereupon it came to pass that when this Spirit did fight for Josuah he made the Sun stand still at his pleasure He turned the Sun from light unto darkness at the passion of Christ By it the stars in troops were stirred up to fight in their order by theâ—r influences against Sisera So that it is easy to discern that as the heavens and stars were first framed and animated by this Spirit to serve as Organs to administer unto the natural Fabrick of this world so also beyond the common course of the macrocosmicall nature they may by the self-same Spirit that commandeth them and acteth in them as the soul doth within the body operate what when and how it lists and be diverted from the usual order to effect his will as well by altering the motion of his body as action of his light and influentiall Spirit Again touching the fixt stars Job speaketh thus in the person of this Spirit Canst thou restrain the sweet influences of the Pleiades or loose the bands of Orion Canst thou bring forth Mazaroth in their time Canst thou guide Arcturus with his Sons Knowest thou the course of the heavens or canst thou set the rule thereof upon the Earth c. As who should say that no man is able to know the courses of the stars or to discern the powers or vertue of their influences save only this divine Spirit and that man unto whom it shall reveal the true Art and rules of Astronomy or Astrology And therefore Salomon doth glory in that he knew the course of the year and dispositions of the stars and the change of the Solstices by wisdome Per Sapientiam saith he novi Solstitiorum mutationes anni cursum dispositiones stellarum c. If therefore the Astronomer wanteth this true Astrologicall foundation all will be faulty and fabulous as by the vulgar Astronomy which is for the most part erronious and uncertain it appeareth I proceed now downwards unto the Meteorologicall region to see how this Omnipotent Spirit worketh in the catholick sublunary Element for the producing of Meteors in divers shapes and natures As for the Act of this Eternal Actor or Operator in the ayre water and earth for the production of Meteors it is most evidently expressed in plain terms by holy Writ Saith Job Deus sapientia sua aptat pondus aëri appendit aquas in mensura facit pluviae statuta viam fulgetro tonitruum God by his Wisdome doth adapt a waight or pondero sity unto the ayre and hangeth up the waters in measure and giveth bounds or maketh a Law for the rain and prepareth a way for the lighting 's of the Thunders In which words he sheweth that this one Spirit of Wisdome in whom is the power as well of contraction or condensation as of dilatation or ratifaction can at his pleasure make the aire more thick and ponderous by condensation and so reduce it into a cloud or by rarifying it into a more thin and subtile consistence render it in the form of lightning and evermore the aire so altered receiveth his shape or figure from the Alterer according to the will of him who ordaineth all things And thus the clouds the lightenings the thunder the comets the frost hayl snow and ice are created daily by this operating Spirit But we have all this confirmed and acknowledged by many places of Scriptures Sapientiâ Dei eruperunt abyssi nubes rore concrescunt saith Salomon By the Wisdome of God the Abysse was broke open and the clouds were turned into dew or raine Again Ego sapientia sicut nebula texi omnem terram I Wisdome like a mist did cover the whose earth saith the son of Syrach in the person of this Spirit And again Ego in altissimis habitavi Thronus meus est columna nubis I saith Wisdome did dwell in the highest places and my throne was a pillar of clouds Deus nubes effecit sapientia saith Job God made the clouds by his Wisdome This Spirit maketh the clouds to asscend it causeth the lightnings with the raâ—n and it bringeth forth the wind out of his Treasury saith David And again Verbo suo quam celerrimè excurrente sermone suo in terra emisso edit Deus nivem sicut lanam pruinam sicut cineres dispergit coram frigore ejus quis consistat God by his Word passing most swiftly and by his Voice being sent out upon the Earth doth bring forth snow like wool and spreadeth abroad the frost like ashes Who is able to consist before his cold There are many thousands of other places which I can produce out of the book of Verity to prove that all Meteorology is founded on this Spirit But because I will speak of this point more at large in my last Book of this present Treatise where I do express the true History of the Meteors and open the errors and falsities of the Aristotelian Meteorology I will only conclude with this confession of the wisest Philosopher Salomon Novi saith he virtutes elementorum varietates temporum sive tempestatum ventorum seu spirituum vires nam omnium artifex me docuit sapientia I know the power of the Elements and the varieties of times and tempests and strength of the winds for Wisdome the work-mistress of all things taught them me Whereby it is evident that shee who was the maker of the Meteors and was by Consequence the most skilfull and best acquainted with their natures did instruct him in them I will now speak a word or two of Physick Concerning the excellent Art of Phyâ—â—ck or Medecine the Wiseman saith A Deo est omnis medela From God cometh every kind of healing or curing which being so it is certaine that the only Actor in healing and curing is immediatly from this all-working Spirit and therefore the Kingly Prophet hath it He sendeth his Word and healeth them and delivereth them from their graves And Salomon But the teeth of the venemous dragons could not overcome thy children for thy Word came to help them and healed them even thy Word O Lord which healeth all things for thou hast the power of life and death c. Mark well Even thy Word saith the Text which healeth all things Now this divine Word is the root and fountain of this eternal Spirit of Wisdome and therefore the Basis or foundation of healing is in him and consequently from him all the mystery of healing doth proceed which also agreeth with this of the Apostle There are divers gifts but one and the same Spirit there are divers operations but God is the same which worketh all in all but unto
one is given by the Spirit the word of Wisdome and unto an other the gift of healing Now that this Omnipotent and all-operating Spirit is that Wisdom which giveth life and health to every creature it is made manifest by many places of the book of Verity saith the Wiseman Sapientia custodiet salutem Wisdome will preserve health In Sapientiae dextra est longitudo dierum In the right-hand of wisdome is the length of daies Est lignum vitae omnibus qui apprehenderunt eam Shee is the tree of Life unto all them which can possessâ— her where it is meant as well of body as of soul as it did appear by those cures which Christ and the Apostles did effect by the means of this Spirit upon the earth Sapientiam qui invenerit inveniet vitam hauriet salutem à Dâ—mino He that hath found wisdome shall find life and shall draw or attract health from the Lord. And in another place Ipsa hos qui se observant a doloribus liberavit wisdome preserved such from dolours as observed her And again Sapientia sanati sunt quicunque placuerint tibi ô Domine à principio They were healed O Lord whosoever have pleased thee from the beginning Yea verily each prudent Reader ought seriously to understand that there is not an animal vegetable or minerall but hath and receiveth immediatly his curative act from this Spirit And therefore the foresaid Son Syrach saith Altissimus de terra creavit medecinam vir prudens non abhorrebit illam The most high hath created medicine of the earth and the Wâ—se man will not despise it whereby we may discern first that the trees herbs roots and mineralls being of springs of the earth were ordained by God to be the means of curing and healing of men and then that the gift or act which is imparted unto them is from this Spirit of wisdome forasmuch as it is said to be in all things and to operate all in all in them though after a divers manner as the Apostle doth affirme confirming in this the Wisemans saying before recited Verbum tuum sanans omnia Thy word which healeth all things And therefore he inferred Non herba nec maâ—egmaâ—e sed verbo tuo sanante omnia not by herb or plaister but by thy word which healeth all things If the Word therefore heal all things then nothing can cure but the Word or the spirit of wisdome whose Fountain is the Word as is proved before But seeing this incorruptible Spirit of God is in all things and since it is the most active and movable thing in this world and since by his purity he penetrateth through all and acteth in all What should hinder me or any good Christian else to say that he acteth all in all in and by this word of himself and by himself and that immediatly and therefore not any Creature of it self or by it self as the Peripatetick doctrine doth most erroniously and to the seducing of true Christian hearts from their Creatour publish unto the World alluring them thereby to derogate from God who is all in all by arrogating abâ—olute authority unto the Creature in making and ordaining so many essentiall distinct subalternate agents which must forsooth operate per se as the Sun the Stars the winds the Elements and the compounded creatures as well imperfectly as perfectly mixed Verily in so doing they make the world believe that the Organ doth act per se essentially and not this hidden and centrall word or incorruptible Spirit existing in every thing which is the fountaine or foundation of the true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or wisdome and the main mark or Summum bonum which the true Philosopher or Lover of wisdome doth ayme at Therefore doth Salomon the Prophets and Christ with his sanctified followers exhort all men to be Amatores verae Sapientiae Lovers of this wisedome in whom is all Act as well intellectuall condescending unto the sublimation of mans knowledg as more materiall namely operating to vivification vegetation and multiplication But of this more at large in another place I will return unto my purpose and conclude this brief discourse upon the true Physick with Salomons confession who sayeth Per sapientiam novi na turas animalium was bestiarum differentias virgultorum virtutesradicum imò quae sunt occulta et manifesta mihi patefecit omnium artifex Sapientia By wisdome I knew the natures of living creatures the raging conditions of Beasts the dâ—fferences of plants and the vertues of roots yea all the mysteries of creatures as well occult as manifest were revealed unto me by wisdome which is the worker of all things Whereby he argueth that wisdome even that heavenly Spirit which did bestow on herbs animals and minerals their virtues as well hidden and secret as apparent and evident even that eternall Word which is all in all and operateth or acteth all in all and therefore can only teach and instruct by an externall revelation what he internally doth and by what vertue he operateth in each creature and although Ethnick Philosophers and Physitians have by practicall effects or sensuall observations and demonstrations à posteriori found out the occult properties in plants as for example of the Piony to cure the falling-sickness of Herniaria to respect the rupture of Tussilago to be proper for the Lungs of Euphragia to be good for the eie-sight of Thecilea and Viscus quercinus to prevaile against the falling-sickness c. In animals of the Toad to stanch blood of the Alsaeus hoof and also the Frog to cure the falling-sickness of the Scorpion chiefly to cure the bitings of the Scorpion c. yet because they are ignorant of the centrall grounds of Sympathy and Antipathy which consisteth in the Volunty or Nolunty of one and the same Spirit they can give no other reason for such hidden things but only that they are ab occulta proprietate of a hidden property And in fine can say no more but that they are talia quia talia and so we receive from these learned Doctours nothing else but Ignotum per ignotius A thing unknown by a more unknown To conclude it is certain that Salomon learn'd so much of the nature of Planets and other creatures by the discovery of this Spirit that it was said of him that he was instructed by this his Schoolmistriss in the vertues of all vegetables beginning even from the lowly Hysop and so mounting unto the lofty Cedars of Libanus Having then in few words expressed unto you the power of this Spirit in her documents of Physick or Medicine and proved that shee is the Basis or ground of every sanative property in the world I will shew you in the next rank her act and vertue in the essentiall Musick Touching the harmony of this world and how every sublunary element and superlunary sphear are disposed by an essentiall kind of symphoniacall
the Originall or primary womb from whence the waters were extracted which were the materiall stuff whereof all things were framed was this dark and deformed Abysse or Chaos and therefore had the beginning of their formall being from the Father of all-informing and vivifying light and essence But that we may directly shew unto you the egregious theft of the foresaid Philosophers from Moses his Principles That Principle which Moses termed darknesse the darke Abysse or potentiall Principle Aristotle doth call his Materia prima or first matter which he averreth to be something in puissance or potentially only because it is not as yet reduced into act Again he seemeth to term it privation but falsly being that no position did precede it On the other side Plato calleth it Hyle which is esteemed to be nothing forasmuch as it is invisible and without form Also he compareth it to a dark body in respect of the soul and spirit As for Hermes he intitleth it by the name of umbra horrenda or fearfull shadow Pythagoras maketh it his Symbolicall Unity From in this its estate it hath relation unto nothing else but it self which is mere Unity and consequently it acquireth not so much as the name of a Father because it doth not by an emanation respect or attempt the production of a Son Hippocrates will have it named a deformed Chaos or an universally troubled mass without form or shape Again as touching the first inacted passive Principle or the primary passive matter out of which all things were carved That which Moses called waters Aristotle doth intitle by the name of Second matter forasmuch as it was begotten and derived out of the bowels of the first-matter or Chaos or dark abysse which also Plato termeth the Spirit and Hermes the humid nature Hippocrates with Anaximenes the vast and universall aire of this world Pythagoras pointeth at it Symbolically by the number of duality which is the mark of imperfection for it argueth thereby the imperfect estate of matter being destitute of the formall character of Unity which maketh three and therefore the ternary number is esteemed amongst the wisest Philosophers for the root of all perfect numbers To conclude that vivifying and animating Principle which Moses called light proceeding from the Spirit of the Lord Aristotle maketh his formall beginning Plato the act or soul of the world Pythagoras delineates it by the number of three and Hippocrates calleth it that immortall heat the which when all things were troubled in the beginning by contention did sore up unto that upper region which the Ancients do call the Aether or Heaven Is not this therefore a notable kind of Robbery amongst the choisest Ethnick Philophers thus fasly to ascribe and attribute the Principles and Doctrine unto themselves which were revealed by God's Spirit unto the wise Prophet Moses and that of pupose to make themselves great and eminent not only in the eies of the Gentiles but also by subtill allurements or false and fading suggestions laid on those foundations to distract Christian men from the Truth And yet as for Plato and Hermes I must excuse them being that they do both of them acknowledg in express terms with Moses that the matter or substance wherof the heavens and the earth were made was a humid nature and the internall form or act which did dispose of it into diversity of figures or forms was the divine Word as you may find most plainly expressed in Plato's works and in the Pimander of Hermes or Mercurius Trismegistus But amongst all the rest Aristotle hath sored highest upon the wings of his own conceited imaginations and built the structure of his worldly wisdome upon the typicall form of the Mosaicall grounds thinking thereby to assume and purchase unto himself in the regard of this world the name of an absolutely wiseman though in the conclusion he appeareth far otherwise in the eyes of God for as much as he doth assigne particular essentiall actions which appertain really unto God unto the creatures with more obstinacy then the rest affirming that they operate essentially of and by themselves when in Verity it is only God that operateth all and in all and that immediatly as the Apostle Paul doth intimate unto us And this is the reason that they give not unto God the only Creator the glory of every action in this world as they ought to do but rather to a created nature and unto Angels and Stars and Elements and compounded creatures which were made and are still sustained and maintained by the all-creating Spirit or word of the Almighty And this is the originall occasion of the multiplicity of Idolatry which hath and doth hitherto raigne in this world namely of the worshipping of the Sun Moon and starres of sacrifices offered unto Idols or false Gods and deceiving Devils of the Veneration of Isis and Osiris of the adoration of Saturne Jupiter Mars Venus and Mercury of the immolations or offerings unto Caelum Vesta Ceres Proserpina Vulcan Pluto and Neptune with many other errours and absurdities whereby ignorant men are rather seduced from the knowledg of the true God than any way induced unto the understanding of him rightly And this very same Doctrine relying on the invention of man hath been the occasion that the world hath erred concerning the divine Word and through blindness have not perceived the operations and properties of the holy Spirit in the creatures yea verily it hath been the occasion why some of our Christian Philosophers themselves have neglected the research of Gods Actions in his creatures as well visible as invisible they are I say so wedded unto the Aristotelian Philosophy that they do voluntarily avert their eies from the true and certain Science of the Meteorologicall Science revealed by the Scriptures which are the fountains of Wisdome to follow the uncertain and scarce-probable doctrine of their Ethnick-Master touching that admirable subject And this is the reason that they will not acknowledg any true Meteorologicall Philosophy to be taught by the Spirit of Wisdome in the said holy Book but only matters belonging to the health and salvation of man when indeed it is most evident that whole pages or leaves as well of the books of Moses Job Psalms and the Prophets as many places of the New Testament are full of that subject All which is expressed in the book of the true Wisdome that thereby we may admire the wonderous works which the Creator hath from the beginning effected and daily doth produce in this lower world to witness his eternall power in his creatures But leaving all allaterall discourses I will proceed now unto our main Subject which concerneth the true Mosaicall Principles with their effect CHAP. II. What were the Mosaicall Principles or beginnings in generall How they were produced and extracted out of Nothing Then what is meant by that word Nothing And lastly the first Principle which is the dark Abysse or Chaos without form is particulaerly described THe
ociosaque ad nihil respiciens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Nihil dicitur in quo statu Aleph tenebrosum dictitatur When the divine sapience was retracted in the abysse of darknesse resting still and quiet and respecting nothing it was esteemed as nothing and in that eâ—tate it was called dark Aleph In this contracted or rather sequestred or private estate therefore of the divine unity it operateth according unto this its negative pâ—operty or condition by his essentiall agent Cold which is proved therefore not to be an accident as the vain doctrine of the Peripateticks would perswade us being it is apparent unto each wise-man that no accidentall qualities are in or can be from God being that the divine Nature is meerly a simple essentiall and formall purity existing in himself and of himself and therefore he being but one essence is able to produce out of himself what essentiall property he pleaseth And for this reason the divine wisdom is said to be spiritus unicus multiplex one simple spirit in essence but manifold in respect of his essentiall properties Now that this essentiall property or nature of Cold is the formall instrument or instrumentall vertue whereby God doth operate in his hidden and potentiall estate for the resistance of heat and action or motion and for the deformity and destroying of that which he in his patent nature did effect by his Heat or active property it is made evident by effect for what the spirit of wisdom in its patent nature did operate by its hot spirit or blast from the south or easterly winde namely in subtiliating and raâ—ifying of the waters into thin aire making that which was gross subtle and making that which was opake and dark diaphan and invisible the self-same spirit again enduing his latent and cold property doth deform and undo For in blowing or breathing from the North the same thin and ratified aire is made thick dense and visible which was through raâ—ifaction made invisible and that which by dissipating of parts was made transparent light and diaphan is now by the Northern properties contractive vertue reduced into an opake or dark substance and no way perspicuous That which was active movable and lively by an addition of heat is now become stupid still and deadly by the invasion of cold That which was light and of no sensible weight is framed into an heavy and ponderous body or consistence as we see when the aire by the northern blast is turned into snow hail ice frost c. Now that it is but one and the same spirit in essence which bloweth from the four winds the Prophet Ezekiel doth testifie when he said Veni spiritus à quatuor veniis insuffla interfectos istos Come O Spirit from the four winds and breathe upon these slain persons c. Whereby he argueth that it is but one spirit though it endueth at his pleasure a four-fold property And now to confirm all this which is said to be true do but mark the words of the royall Psalmist Jehovah emittit nives sicut lanam pruinam sicut cineres dispergit deâ—icit gelu tanquam frusta coram frigore ejus quis conâ—istat Emittens verbum liquefacit ista simul ac efflat ventum suum effluunt aquae God sendeth forth the snow as wooll and scattereth the frost like ashes casteth out the ice like as gobbits who is able to withstand his cold He sending forth his word liquefieth all these northern effects So soon as he bloweth or breatheth forth his wind the waters do flow again that is the snow frost and ice do melt and are turned into water Out of which words we may observe many notable things namely first that God in his hidden or latent property doth by his essentiall action of cold contract unto the center those things which were before dilated towards the circumference Secondly that the property of cold is attributed or ascribed unto God in his northern action and therefore it is said Who is able to resist his cold For which reason it is evident that it is an essentiall vertue in the divine puissance Thirdly That it must be the act of unity in his dark hidden and privative property both because it darkeneth things that are diaphan transparent and light and then because it depriveth of life and motion that which did act move and live through essentiall heat And lastly because it is an utter enemy unto the action of heat which at tendeth on the revealed emanating and vivifying divinity Fourthly that the effects of cold are undone by the act of the revealed nature of God which is the word for the Text saith He sendeth out his word and resolveth or melteth all these namely the snow frost and ice Fifthly that all this is effected by one and the same spirit in essence but of divers and opposite conditions to perform the will of the Father which sendeth it forth Again that the cold property of the winde is the essentiall depriving vertue or stupifying and contracting act of God it appeareth by this of Job Deus fortis edit glacâ—em flatu suo flante Deo concrescit gelu The strong God bringeth forth the ice by his breath God blowing the ice is ingendered I conclude therefore that cold is the essentiall act of the divine puissance or eternall sapience shrowding it self in its mantle of darkness and therefore doth manifest the divine volunty in that estate of his by the effects namely in that it draweth from the circumference unto the center and therefore is the occasion of congregating of things as well hetero-as homo-geniall and by consequence the onely essentiall agent or efficient cause of inspissation contraction constriction fixation immobility ponderosity rest obteneration or darkness of mortification privation stupefaction and such like In the contrary divine property namely in this spirit's patent manifest and positive nature or as he is termed light Aleph wherein he moveth or sendeth out his emanation from the center towards the circumference and revealing himself upon the dark face of the Abysse maketh the invisible non Ens or potentiall Nihil to appeare in Act being first animated by his bright presence in the form of waters He is said by the Wiseman to be omnibus mobilibus mobilior ubique penetrans seu attingens propter munditiam ejus The most agile and movable of all movable things piercing through all things by reason of his purity So that as the other privative or Northern property did produce rest and vacancy from operation by attraction or contraction from the circumference unto the center so in this his positive or Southern and Orient property by dilating himself or sending out his active beam brightness or emanation from the center towards the circumference he doth beget and procreate motion being accompanied by the essentiall Act of Heat or calidity which operateth continually upon the effects of cold in resisting dissolving and
of those waters which are under the Firmament of which division Moses maketh mention and therefore every particular thereof doth correspond unto the whole and consequently the aire included in the glass of the Instrument is of the same nature as is that of the whole Catholick Aire and therefore by reason of their continuity as the excluded whole fareth so also doth the included part Again as the Spirit which walked upon the waters did animate vivify inform and dilate them giving them motion So also by his absence or by hiding its act or contracting its emanating beames into it self the waters are also contracted condensed and darkned as it appeareth by the Northern wind 's property which proceedeth from the privative or contractive action of this Spirit But as the waters do by their existence fill the vaulted cavity of the world So also doth the all-informing Spirit fill every corner of them insomuch as being it operateth all in all but in a diversity of property and therefore it is termed multiformis Sapientia so sometimes it operateth in its privative property in these lower waters as is already told you namely when it bloweth from the North and West and sometimes in his positive nature as when it breatheth from the South or East In the first by his cold action he contracteth from the circumference unto the center as is said by the last namely by his hot property he dilateth from the center to the circumference Seing then that it is water that is the Catholick passive out of the which as being the common Subject of all things the shape of the whole world and every thing therein was and is carved out and fashioned as St. Peter telleth us and that the eternall creating and all-inacting Spirit of the Lord is the universall actoâ— which moveth all in all in the waters as Moses doth intimate unto us and that in and by an infinity of Organs as Angels Sun Moon Starrs Winds fire c. as in many places of Scripture we find it it must needs follow that he is the agent as well in the contraction and dilatation generally without the Glasse as particularly within the Glasse Wherefore as the Sun the hot winds the fire or naturall heat of mans body have their dilative property from his emanating and inacting vertue and do alter by it the cold aire the winds and water from his privative disposition So it followeth that as well the dilatation of the aire in the Glasse as contraction is the immediate act of this Spirit 's positive or privative property for when this Spirit bloweth from the North or West the aire is contracted more or lesse into a narrower room within the Glasse and that is proved thus namely because the water is drawn up higher into the neck of the Glasse lest a corporall vacuity should be admitted in nature And again it is most apparent that the aire in the Glasse is by so much the more contracted by how much the Northern cold hath dominion in the outward aire because it is gathered into a more strait place oâ— passage then it was before the water was elevated up On the other side if the hot winds or Summer Sun do inflame the externall aire then the included aire will also dilate it self and in its dilation require a larger space That the aire is so dilated by heat it is plainly demonstrated in that the water is struck down by so many degrees lower than it was Again if one put his hand on the top of the ball of the Glasse the water will sinke for the aire will forthwith be dilated Now that the spirit of life which giveth this heat unto Man or Beast is from this eternall Spirit which as the Apostle saith doth vivifie all things Scriptures do in many places above and hereafter mentioned confirm Again the Prophet calleth this one Spirit from the four winds to breathe into the dead carcases that they might live again Thus you see it evidently confirmed by an ocular demonstration that cold doth contract inspissate and make gross the included aire which is argued by the drawing up of the water and straitning the aire And again that heat doth dilate and dissipate by the enlargement of the aire in hot weather or by laying of the hand on the bolts head which is made evident by the beating down of the waters Note I beseech you ye that will not be over-partiall on the Peripateticks behalfes the two notable errours of the Aristotelians whereof the first is manifested in that they hold for a Maxim that calidum doth congregare homogenea heat doth congregate and gather together things of one nature Now you see it here ocularly demonstrated that heat doth operate the contrary for it dissipateth and disperseth the aire which is of homogeneall parts and therefore it doth not congregate it But it is cold that doth congregate compact and gather homogeneall things together as well as heterogeneall For you see in our Instrument that it contracts and gathers together the aire yea and water in a straiter and narrower place And therefore their assertion also is not â—ound when they say that frigidum doth onely congregare heterogenea The other of their palpable errours is also described by this ocular experiment for whereas they say that the Sun starrs and Fire yea and all heat whatsoever doth attract and draw unto it the vapours and humidity of the earth waters c. we find the contrary by this our experimentall Glass for in onely laying the warm hand upon the Glass the aire dilates it self immediately and is so far from being attracted by the heat that contrariwise it flyeth away from the hand And that this is so it appeareth by the striking down or precipitation of the water as is said Thus have we sufficiently mentioned in this present Book the estate of the first and second Principles of all things and that but in brief tearms because my purpose is to touch them with a more large and copious style in the first Book of my Sympatheticall and Antipatheticall History I will now proceed unto the next Book wherein I purpose to handle the mystery of Rarefaction and Condensation with the manner of the variety in the heavenly Fabrick and the rotation of one catholick sublunary Element into a four-fold nature or existence And in the last place I will conclude with the radicall efficient cause of Creation Generation Corruption and Resurrection The fourth BOOK The Argument of this Book Herein is expressed the universall mystery of Rarefaction and Condensation where also it is proved that by them the World was made the Heavens established in due order and the catholick Element altered and changed after a quadruple manner and condition CHAP. I. Herein first the common or catholick subject of Condensation and Rarefaction is once again recited or repeated as also the two essentiall opposite properties or vertues which are derived from the eternall Principle in his privative
and positive nature are proved to be the immediate causes of both those alterations in the generall Element of Waters I Have made it as I imagine most plain and evident unto your understandings as well by the testimony of the antique Philosophy and infallible wisdom of holy Writ as by ocular demonstration that the common or universall matter and subject of all things was the Waters which were inacted and created by the bright Spirit of the Lord before all things Which being so and for that all Condensation and Rarefaction do regard a subject or materiall substance wherein it should be performed or effected it followeth therefore that the onely matter which doth endure or suffer the act of either of them must be water or a humid and moist nature being it is the onely substantiall stuff which filleth all the vast cavity of the world and consequently the materiall existence of which both Heaven and Earth and all things therein are framed and were originally shaped out This is therefore that main subject of Condensation and Rarefaction by the means whereof all things in this world are made to differ from one another and are disposed and ordered by God according to weight number and measure in their proper rancks and places that is they are placed in a higher or lower region according unto that dignity which the catholick or eternall Actor hath bestowed upon them in their creation The common matter therefore of incrassation and subtiliation being thus made manifest we are to finde out the universall actor or operator in this work And I did signifie unto you before that it was the sacred emanation of that divine splendour which did operate from all beginnings and doth at this present operate and shall hereafter work all that which hereafter shall be effected in the heavens above and the earth beneath which assertion of mine accordeth well with this axiom of the Apostle oftentimes and that not without a just occasion repeated by me Deus operatur omnia in omnibus God worketh all in all And David In sapientia omnia fecisti Thou hast made all things in thy wisdom And Solomon Sapientia operatur omnia Wisdom worketh all things And the Apostle in another place Christus portat omnia verbo virtutis suae Christ beareth all things by the word of his vertue And St. Peter The heavens were of old and the earth of waters and by waters consisting by the word Again St. Paul saith that Christ is in all and filleth all And in another place Christus omnia est in omnibus Christ is all and in all Now this holy spirit of wisdom is said to be omnibus mobilibus mobilior more swift and movable than any movable thing And therefore he must needs act all in all according unto his will and pleasure Again when he is pleased to withdraw his actuall beams within himself he seems to rest and the act of the creature doth cease and then death doth ensue namely cessation from the activity of life Now being he is the most agil and moovable of all things the vertue of heat doth evermore accompany the motions of his light yea and are essentially united unto the actor even as we see in the Sun which Sydrach the wise-man compareth with Divinity saying that the body is likened unto the Father the the beams or emanation unto the Sun and the active heat which issueth from them both unto the Spirit that the beam is continuate unto the body of the Sun as the emanation from the divine fountain is one individuall essence with the fountain of eternall light and the virtue issuing from the Sun and his beams is in like manner unseparable in essence from the other two even as we find that the holy Spirit which is emitted from Father and Son is one in essence with them both For this reason therefore the divine Philosopher Hermes saith Mens ab essentia Dei nequaquam divisa sed illi potius eo modo connexa quo solis corpori lumen The mentall beam is not at all divided from the essence of God but rather joyned and knit unto him after the same manner that the light is continuated unto the Sun Whereupon it is evident that the vertue of heat is essentiall unto light as the act of motion is never absent from the emanating brightnesse I conclude therefore that Rarefaction is nothing else but the dilating of water by heat which was first contracted by cold and Condensation on the other side is a contraction or sucking and drawing together of those watry parts which were dilated or dispersed by heat So that the subject of both these actions is water and the fountain as well of the privative as positive agent is the Nolunty or Volunty that is to say the negative or affirmative will of that one eternall Unity who is that all-informing and operating Spirit which acteth and accomplisheth his pleasure in all and over all by his divers organs as well angelicall as celestiall and elementary which according unto their diversity in disposition are moved by this internall act to operate in this world the will of the Creator both positively and privatively as shall be told you in the Chapter following CHAP. II. How this Divine spirit or Ruach Elohim being but one in Essence worketh both by his Angelicall and Astrall organs in this sublunary world after a four-fold manner THe Eternall spirit of wisdome who is the initiall principle of all things and in whom and by whom as the Apostle teacheth us the Angels Thrones potestates and dominations were Created doth operate by his Angelicall Organs of a contrary fortitude in the Catholick Element of the lower waters both the effect of Condensation and that of Rarefaction And to verifie this out of the holy Bible's testimony we read first that this one spirit is the arch Lord and Prince of the 4. winds or else the Prophet by the commandement of God would not have said Come O spirit from the 4. winds and make these dead Carcasses to live againe Now that this one spirit worketh in and by spirituall and Angelicall Organs in the execution which is effected by the property of the 4. winds it is proved out of the Apocalyps where we find these words I saw 4. Angels stand on the 4. Corners of the Earth holding the 4. winds of the Earth that they should not blow on the Earth neither on the Sea c. By which it is evident that these Angelicall Presidents over the 4. winds were the Ministers and Organs by and in the which the spirits or blasts of the winds were emitted or retained according unto the will of that eternall spirit which guideth them when and where he list But we find by daily observation that the essentiall vertue in the Northern spirit is cold and therefore contractive or attractive from the circumference unto the centre and by consequence a causer of congelation and condensation By
of holy conversation the title of Sainct which is attributed unto him doth confirm and argue Besides all this that he had by many degrees a deeper insight into the mystery of the Bible and a profounder reach into the nature of the divine wisdom then any Interpretour of the Bible which ever was and much more then those of later daies John Reucline in his third Book of the Cabalistcall Art seemeth to verify in these words Cum Hieronymias librum Jetzira multum saepe nocturna versaret manu atque diurna venisse ad eum filia vocis dicitur qua juberet illum tribus annis volumini eidem insudare c. Quo facto se ab ipso Deo virtutes potestates Alphabetorum et Elementariarum commutationum asserebat reperisse Nam dispositionem conjugationis de libro creationis ante noverat Inde ad posteros Alphabeticaria haec cabula id est receptio transmigravit per quam Arcana divinorum maxima panduntur When Jerom had often turned over the Book of Jetzira or of the Creation with a nocturnall and diurnall hand It is reported that the daughter of the voice came unto him which commanded him to take paines in the said Volume for three years space which when he had effected he said that he was taught by God the vertues and powers of the Alphabets and Elementary commutations For he had known the disposition of the conjugation out of the book of Creation before And hereupon did this Alphabetary caball or reception spring by the which he did bewray or disclose the great mystery of divine things c. Which if he meant of this Jerom as by many of the learned it is imagined you will not deny but he was deeply seen in the profound and arcane meaning of the Scriptures and therefore he was a man who should not lightly be so deceived or deluded in his Interpretation Again no man can deny but that the Pope and whole Christian Clergy did assist him in this business with all the antique books or manuscripts which might direct him into the true way or sense of interpretation so that he wanted not the consent of antique Authority but could discern between the true and corrupt Text in his interpretation and therefore that we may neither accuse the later interpreters for their exposition nor derogate from St. Jerom's labours which deserve an everlasting monument we must rather impute the errour unto the corruption or alteration of the Hebrew Text being that the whole harmony of the Scriptures and main subject of the Psalm in which it is recited do tend and incline rather unto the construction of St. Jerom as I will particularly prove and expresse unto you by these Arguments following Whereof the first is taken from the main Subject of the Chapter wherein these words Posuit tabernaculum suum in sole are mentioned as also from other Testimonies of holy Scriptures Next from the mysticall and cabalisticall exposition of the Hebrew word of the Sun Then from the resolution of the ancient Theologians with other circumstances belonging unto them Fourthly from an Astonomicall observation and the dignity and excellency of the solar creature Fifthly from an Arithmeticall consideration Sixtly from the point and circle in Geometry Seventhly from the consonant of the greatest perfection in Musick or harmony Eighthly from a Physicall or naturall regard And lastly by the asseverations of the wisest and divinest Philosophers which accord exactly with the Symphony of Scriptures Of each of those therefore in their order As for the first Argument it is evident that the main Subject of this Psalm doth touch the revelation of Divinity or God in his celestiall creatures and therefore it must as well be in this Psalm intended that the divine Spirit doth plentifully and that essentially inhabit this illustrious palace of the heavenly Sun as there it is related that the heavens are full of his presence But the same Psalm beginneth thus The heavens declare the glory of God and the Firmament the works of his hands c. Where he expresseth that the glory of the Creator which is in the creature doth reveal the Creator in the creature but where the glory is present the essence is not absent And thereupon it followeth justly that this Creator which hath filled the Sun of Heaven with his glory and beauteous influence of essentiall vertue and light hath revealed himself unto all the world out of his Sunny tabernacle egregiously and perspicuously as by the Physicall and naturall effects it shall be declared hereafter in the eighth rank Again the Son of Syrach confirms this more plainly where he saith Sol illuminans per omnia respexit gloria Domini plenum est opus ejus The Sun shining forth looketh over all and it is a work that is full of the glory of the Lord that is to say of essentiall Divinity not that it is included in it but that also it is exclusively in and over all no otherwise then the Spirit of mans blood is said to have his principall tabernacle in the Heart and yet is in all and every part of the Spirit and body Again it appeareth by these words that the Eternall Spirit of Wisdome did elect the celestiall Sun as a pure vessell or Subject to operate and act in for the vivification and animation of every creature And therefore she in her own person saith Ex ore Altissimi prodii primogenita in coelis feci ut oriretur lumen indeficiens I came out of the mouth of the Almighty being the first bâ—gotten I made or caused a never-fading light to rise in the heavens Whereby this catholick Agent doth shew that the Sun doth move in and by it The great Lord saith the text in another place made the Sun and by his Commandements he causeth it to run hastily c. As if he had said by the Divine Word the Sun did move But this will be better proved hereafter Touching the second which dependeth on the cabalisticall enucleation of the Hebrew word for the Latin word Sol or the Sun in English is written thus in Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where we have two 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Shins which the Cabalists do make the Symbolicall character of fire and light and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mem in the middle which importeth a watry corpulency for Mem is the SYmbolicall expression of the waters as if we should say that the humid nature of the heavens being contracted in their center is illuminated with a double proportion of the divine emanation streaming down or flowing from the Sephiroth or Cabalisticall numeration called Tiphereth or pulchritude and beauty Whereby it is argued that this heavenly mass is made a Tabernacle for the Spirituall Sun or beauteous and divine Spirit of Light not that it includeth it as is said before but as the Scriptures say that the holy Spirit was in the carnall Christ abundantly and yet it was
not denied for all that to fill the earth and heavens Concerning the third The Theologians do affirm that the Light which was expansed over all the heavens and did operate in place of the Sun for the first three daies space was at the fourth day congregated into the body of the Sun But this Light which was so dispersed was the immediate act of that Eternall Spirit which was carried on the waters and therefore that Light which is in the Sun doth participate with divinity as shall be more evidently expressed in the eighth and last Argument By the fourth which is proved out of the Celestiall or Astronomicall dignity which the Sun representeth it is most evident that it comprehendeth in his mansion divinity being that by how much the more perfection any thing hath in it self and excelleth the rest in glory by so much the more it approacheth unto divinity For as much as Hermes doth rightly tell us not disagreeing in that from our Saviour Christ his doctrine that Bonum and perfectum is onely God Now the Macrocosmicall Sun's dignity and perfection is easily to be discerned in that this Royall Phoebus doth sit in his chariot even in the center or middle of the heavens glittering with his golden hair as the sole visible Emperour holding the royall Scepter and government of the world in whom all the vertue of the celestiall bodies do consist as Jamblicus and many other learned personages have confirmed And Proclus averreth that all the powers of the starrs are congregated and collected into one at the aspect of the Sun the which are afterward disseminated by the fiery spiracle of the said Sun upon the Earth Doth not the Wiseman also by reason of the glory of this heavenly vessell or organ compare the brightness of the in-created Spirit or fiery emanation of divinity with it by reason of his excellency in brightness And again is it not proved before by the Son of Syrach that the Fabrick of the Sun is full of the glory of the Lord But I will say more unto this point in the eighth and last Argument The fifth sheweth how by an Arithmeticall regard Divinity must needs dwell in the Sun namely as it is onely one unity from which all the multitude of the starrs in heaven do derive and draw their formall essence no otherwise than from the Arithmeticall unity all numbers whatsoever are produced for the number two hath but the form of one and the same unity twice conceived and then one unity more maketh three and so in infinitum In the very like manner as one candle lighteth another and a third and so proceedeth in infinitum Even so this one heavenly Candle informeth with light and beauty all the starry candles in heaven and yet it reserveth still without any detriment his wonted unity in perfection power and glory By the sixt Argument which is Geometricall in regard that the Sun is a most bright circular body it must needs be that it hath a centrall point unto his circumference in the which all his illuminating power doth consist being that the circumference is nothing else but a semi-diametrall dilatation of a punctuall and essentiall vertue from the center unto the circumference And this is the meaning of that Axiom in Philosophy In medio consistit virtus veritas Now if that wonderfull beauty and clear brightnesse which is in the Sun were not extended from the center it would not proceed à principio interno and then it must like as the Moon doth require some other externall corporall illuminator but that is proved to be otherwise being that there is not any body found in the world that is equall in brightnesse unto it And this is an argument that it hath a centrall divinity or divine vertue in it which like unto the soul in the center of the creature vivifieth or acteth from the center unto the circumference thereof and so making the superficies of the body a fiery and bright coloratum causeth it according unto the infinity of its centrall agent to extend his beamy emanation to all the limits of the vast world Hence is it that God is said to be the center of all whose circumference is no where that is to say in and over all and beyond or without all Neither let it seem strange unto any that I say the in-created light is visible in regard of his tabernacle which it endueth being that Scriptures do testifie that he is a consuming fire And again that the spirit of wisdom excelleth the sun and starrs in brightnesse And again it is said He is attired with light as with a vestment To conclude he is fons pater luminis and therefore there can be no light either visible or invisible in this world which is not from it Doth not St. Paul seem to aver that all visible things were first from things that were not visible whereby is argued that all visible light was first from the invisible whose fountain is God the which invisible light is continued in essence unto his like in the creatures as shall be shewed anone The seventh is confirmed by an observation in Musick namely that the divine Spirit hath elected the Sun for his tabernacle to wit by reason of his position in heaven For if we consider that God as he is said to exist in himself is reputed by Scripture to be seated in the heaven of heavens and in another place in the highest heavens and yet he respecteth and looketh down unto the earth In that regard we may compare him si sacra cum mundanis componere fas sit unto an unison in Harmony for if a string of a musicall Instrument be struck open it soundeth a unity from the bridge of the Instrument unto the nut or head So we imagine that a chord may be extended from the worlds circumference or highest heavens unto the center or earth Again if we presse the chord of the Instrument just in the middle then each half chord being struck will sound in a diapason unto the whole and will prove the center or perfection unto each end of the chord which will then point out as it were the circumference Now the consonant diapason is the most perfect accord of all others and therefore noteth that the middle betwixt the light or heaven and the earth is the seat of the greatest perfection which doth correspond unto the unison as 1 doth to 2 which is in proportione dupla in a double proportion It followeth therefore and by effect it appeareth that the Sun is placed in this centrall seat which correspondeth unto the whole as 2 doth unto 1. because it is the opinion of all Astronomers that the Sun is placed in the middle or center of the heaven Now how this perfect accord was mystically shaped out of the divine and radicall unity or unison which said Fiat and it was done I beseech you observe Unity said Fiat and so this unison caused
gunpowders force raised in the aire to a certain height moving neither lower nor higher then the form all vigor affordeth it vertue and there remaineth untill the force of the corruptible and wasting fire be spent and then it falleth down againe But the Light of the star carrieth and raiseth up the spirituall body according unto the proportion of the mounting Light which soreth as high as its power and the ponderosity of the body will permit and so it hangeth perpetually at a certain distance from the center because the fire is of an eternall and incorruptible nature and will not fade as that artificiall fire of the squib doth Now as all the illuminating vigors and animating forces or flames that are imparted unto the universall waters was bestowed on them by that bâ—ight catholick Spirit or emanation which was sent forth by God to be carried on the waters which as Scripture doth averre is brighter then the Sun or Starrs So there is none of all those Lights which are separated or divided in essence from that glorious and glittering Spirit whose beams were dispersed over all the waters in the abysse in giving of them life and being For this reason therefore because each Light had a diversity in proportion of formall brightness and measure of corpulency it is that one celestiall body doth vary in his manner of vertue motion and influence from another but because the extracted quintessence or purer materiall essence of all the Chaos with the purity of Light that issued from the creating Spirit were united into an Angelicall alterity both of those natures in the figure of one masse sored up out of the dark abysse into the heaven's center where they challenged the Royall Phoebaean Throne and that Sphaericall masse is to this hour termed the Sun of Heaven which as from the created Fountain of Light enflameth and formally enlightneth all the rest of the Starrs in the heavens above and the Element and elementated creatures below So that after the universall contracted Light was effected the fourth day of the Creation it was ordained to be that capitall Organ of life and vegetation in the starry world which did send and showre down his influences and fiery spiracles of life conservation vegetation and multiplication upon the sublunary earth and waters Thus therefore in few words you have the reason of that Condensation and Rarefaction whereby both the invisible heavenly Substance and visible celestiall bodies were made And it seemeth not to disagree from the opinions of the learned Theologians Basil and Damascene touching the causes of the divine Spirit 's action in Condensation and Rarefaction before the apparition of the Sun in the heavens Forasmuch as they will have the daie's Rarefaction or cleare heaven to be occasioned by an emission of Light ordained by the divine will or act of this Omnipotent Spirit But they think that the night's Condensation and the opake or condensed bodie in the heavens are effected by a contraction of Light which was also caused by the sacred Spirit 's volunty Thus therefore we see out of the confession of certain of the prime Fathers of the Church what was the cause of the cold condensing Night and the hot rarifying Day before the Spirit was congregated into the Tabernacle or quintessentiall substance of the Sun which was extracted by the Spageâ—ick or separative action of the divine Spirit out of the huge deformed waters of the abysse And therefore this also must be the reason of Condensation and Rarefaction unto this day For as the Spirit in the Sun being far from us and as it were contracting his beames in regard of us unto himself or absenting himself from our Hemisphere so that the cold waters do incline unto the nature of their mother Chaos by reason whereof the night and darkness are long and the light and day but short and faint in heat So also in that season the common sublunary Element is subject to Condensation and Incrâ—ssation and therefore is constrained or contracted into the consistence of Frosts Snows Hail Ice and Cold showers c. Again when it is neare unto us it dilateth it self and by his heat and presence the cold waters become hot and the daies are augmented and fortified or made strong in heat and then the common sublunary Element is apt for dilatation and subtiliation being easy to be inflamed and set on fire with Lightnings coruscations and such like But I leave the history of the Condensation and Subtiliation of the aethereall Spirit to descend unto the like acts or conditions in the sublunary Element CHAP. V. How the lower waters or catholick sublunary element were distinguished ordered and shaped out into sundry distinct sphears which are called particular Elements and that by the foresaid all-working Spirit or dâ—vine Word SInce that it is most certainly proved already that the universall substance of the world's machin was made but of one onely thing namely of a matter that was produced out of the potentiall bowells of the dark chaos or abyss by the spagerick vertue of the divine Word the which matter Moses tearmed Waters and Hermes the humid nature of the which in generall as both Moses and St. Peter aver the heavens and the earth were made of old it must needs follow that out of this catholick masse of waters the universall sublunary element was derived which is commonly termed by the name of Aer as all that humid substance in the celestiall orbe is called Aether Now this generall element is by the breath of the divine Spirit Râ—ach Elohim altered and changed from one shape unto another for that which is the visible waters was made first of the aire which is an invisible water as again the visible water by condensation is made earth And this is proved first by the words of St. Paul who saith Per fidem agnovimus quod semper ita actum sit cum mundo per Verbum ut ex iis quae videri non poterant fierent ea quae possunt videri We know by faith that it hath been ever acted with the world by the word that those things which can be seen were effected or made of those things which could not be seen And again Solomon saith that the world was made of a matter that was not seen But besides these proofs we are taught by chymicall experience that earth is nothing else but coagulated water nor visible water any thing else but invisible air reduced by condensation to a visibility nor fire any thing else but ratified aire And in conclusion all the sublunary waters were in the beginning but an invisible humid or watry spirit which we call by a common name Aire and consequently the catholick sublunary element was in its originall nothing else but one aire being that heaven was made before the seas or the earth as Moses teacheth us And therefore by faith we must believe according unto St. Paul's doctrine that all
calore simul intra terram The holy Scriptures do not agree with the Naturalists concerning the Originall of Rivers and Fountains which Ecclesiastes 1. saith to flow by divers channels or passages out of the Sea and to flow again unto their Fountains saying All rivers enter into the Sea and the Sea is not the greater they return again unto the place from whence they came c. Whereby it is plain that he must accuse his Master of false doctrine or else he must condemn Solomon in his Judgment For if the one be contradictory unto the other it ought of all wise-men to be chased away or expelled from Christian mens remembrance Now it were a foolish thing for any religious person to say that the divinely-wise Solomon lied to save the reputation of the Ethnick of diabolically wise Aristotle But if they would yet will I teach them in the next Chapter by an evident ocular demonstration that Solomon's assertion is most true and that of Aristotle's most erroneous and fantasticall I conclude therefore that I gather out of the aforesaid places of the Bible that this following Definition doth best agree with the nature of a Fountain A Fountain is a continuated Flux of water issuing from the Sea as from his beginning and flowing into bowells of the earth and after that from the bowells of the earth as from the mean by which it passeth unto the upper or higher Superficies of it by vertue of the divine act in the mundan Spirit as well positive or dilative as privative and contractive for the benefit and sustenance both of man and beast In which definition plain water without any alteration of his shape is expressed for the materiall cause and is said to have its beginning from the Sea from whence it moveth unto the Mountain's tops The efficient cause of this work we find to be the act of the Divine Word in a double property as shall be more at large demonstrated in the next Chapter And hereupon Solomon said Sapientia erat apuâ— IEHOVAM in principio viae suae cuncta componens quaâ—do roborabat fontes abyssi ponebat mari statum Wisdome was with IEHOVAH in the beginning of his waies as a composer of all things when he did establish the Fountains of the abysse and set the Sea within his limits or bounds And lastly The finall cause is to give drink and food unto both man and beast as we may gather out of the forementioned Text of the royall Prophet We come now unto the demonstration CHAP. IX Wherein Solomon's assertion touching the Fountains and Rivers is maintained partly by an ocular demonstration and partly by true Philosophicall reasons which are founded thereon I Did advertise you Learned Reader in my precedent discourse that Gods Spirit doth operate annually in the common Element of the Sublunary world by a double vertue whereof the one is dilative which is effected in his positive and manifest property namely in his light active and warm disposition the principall Treasury and store-house whereof he hath made the Sun Forasmuch as his bright emanating Spirit of Wisdome did elect that pure vessell for his Tabernacle The other is contractive which is effected in his privative and secret condition namely in his dark fixing and cooling disposition whose principall treasury is about the poles Forasmuch as it being contrary in effect with the first is seated in the farthest quarters or points of the world from the Sun So that as the vivifying Spirit which is seated in the Sun doth by his presence operate onely by dilatation in the common sublunary Element in banishing of the Northern cold and undoing the actions thereof by the way of Rarefaction In like manner by the absence of the Sun the spirits of the Polar property doth take possession of that portion of the Element and undoeth by the way of congelation all the subtill actions of the Spirituall and active solar vertue As for example all that in the winter time among the nations of the Southern world that is to say beyond the line the Sun being then in the Northern Hemisphere causing by his vertuous Spirit our Summer season the Antartick pole's cold property doth effect namely in thickning the aire raising the Fountains or Springs and multiplying the waters producing the Snows Frost Ice and Hail mortifying the herbs fruits and plants and such like the Sun at his next visitation of those quarters which will be in our Northern winter by the vetue of that dilating and vivifying Spirit from the Fountain and Father of Light which aboundeth in it will undo converting the thick aire to thin striking down the Fountains more towards the bowels of the Earth which were raised in the winter dissolving the Snow Frost ice and hail and of fix and opake bodies making them movable and transparent waters reviving the spirit of the trees plants and herbs which were almost livelesse through congelation and renewing their mourning bodies with new green garments blossoms and flowers and lastly with wholsome fruit To conâ—lude there is nothing that the polar cold prevaileth over in the one hemisphear but the solar heat operateth contrarily by the same pâ—oportion in the oppoâ—ite region of the world for else the world must endure an augmentation or a diminution in its substance that is sometimes it would be bigger and sometimes lesser But as Sâ—lomon averred that the seas for all the comming in of rivers are never the greater so also though fountains rise in one part of the world and sinke in another and although also the aire by attenuation made by the active spirit of the Lord moveth from the warm or summer hemisphear unto the cold and winter hemisphear yet is the world no bigger or lesser in its existency for all that What therefore the winter properly doth operate in one hemisphear of the world the summer-hemisphear must needs act in the same proportion in the contrary for if beyond the Line are made great raines in their winter we must needs have great drought in the summer on this side the Line When it is hottest with us it will be coldest with them if it prove temperate with us it will be so with them as the Sun being in the Aequinoctiall maketh daies and nights equally long and the season temperate to both hemispheares These things therefore being considered maturely in the first place I proceed unto my practicall conclusion and my naturall observation thereupon is that the aire included in the Weather-glasse is made Hybernall or of the nature of winter by the dominion of cold for as soon as the head of it feeleth the externall cold the contained aire will immediately shrinck up and contract it self into a little space and consequently the aire is made more dense and thick and that this is so it appeareth by the mounting or attracting up of the water for there is such a naturall tye betwixt the one and the other that if the one contracteth it self in a
of unitie's Nolunty and sometimes affecting and imitating the action and property of light which floweth from the eternall and all-acting fountain of unity And this is the vertuous effect of the sacred Volunty For it seemed unto the Author that by reason that the whole world was composed of these two contrary properties namely of formall light and the humid dark matter it must needs follow that the catholick soul or generall vivifying spirit thereof and consequently every particular essence or formall existence which is derived from that catholick soul no otherwise than beams from the Sun must be obnoxious subject unto opposite passions and alterations From hence therefore springeth that originall love or hatred which is known to be between the good Angels and the evill Spirits from hence do issue all those assiduall mutations and alterations which happen in the aetheriall sublunary heavens namely by reason of the cross variety of the starry influence From hence proceed those oppositions and contrary effects which are expired or breathed forth from the winds From hence are derived the discord and concord of the Elements with the diversity of natures in the meteorologicall Impressions From hence do flow the multiplicity of affections the opposition of dispositions the passion of spirits and in a word the sympathy and antipathy which is observed to be between all creatures as well simple as compound be they animal vegetable or mineral The Author therefore concludeth upon these grounds that it is but just and reasonable to consent unto the opinions of the two notable and famous Philosophers Heraclitus and Empedocles touching this point whereof the first hath exposed it as an infallible Maxim Quod omnia fiant per litem amicitiam That all things are made and composed of strife and friendship that is to say Of hatred and love The last hath pronounced it for an oracle of truth Quod ex quatuor elementis ex amicitia lite composita sit anima That the soul is composed of four elements and of peace or concord and contention or discord signifying thereby that contrary disposition which is between the watry spirit and the bright mentall beam in regard of their originall For by litem or strife he argueth as well the spirituall contention as the corporall in respect of that contrary puissance and hability which is between the formall light and dark matter both in regard of the body in the act of corruption when the soul would part from it and in the antipatheticall or irascible passion in respect of the soul in which the spirit laboureth and suffereth unnaturally In these opinions of the fore-said Philosophers they seem not to vary from that of the son of Syrach speaking thus Gemina sunt omnia quorum alterum est contrarium alteri nec quicquam factum est quod mancum sit All things are of a double nature the one of them contrary to the other and yet there is nothing made which is defective CHAP. I. In this Chapter it is demonstrated that God is that pure and catholick Unity the which includeth and comprehendeth in it self all multiplicity AS there is no man be he never so highly exalted in the sphear of Mathematicall perfection or profoundly dived into the mysticall bowells of the abstrusest Arithmetick that can with the quick eye-sight of his ripest understanding observe or discry any thing either by order or antiquity to challenge justly unto its self a place or ranâ—k before Unity and for this reason the wisest Philosophers do ingenuously confesse that it is the onely principle or root of all number and multitude so also ought each person of judgment to acknowledge that this radicall Identity as it is considered in its pure and absolute nature and condition cannot be limited by any quantitative dimension nor yet included or comprehended by any member nor divided into distinct portions nor yet defined by any substantiall quiddity or entity And hereupon it hath been judiciously concluded by wise men that Unity is the most antique and radicall principle of all others forasmuch as it comprehendeth in it self all substances quantities and qualities no otherwise than the Geometricall prick or point being considered in its naked simplicity is observed to be indivisible and scarcely to be perceived yea verily and as it were nothing to be determined and yet nevertheless the prick or point is evidently known to be the infallible beginning not onely of every Geometricall line but also of all other continuated Mathematicall dimensions whatsoever seeing that it comprehendeth all magnitudes and is not comprehended of any These two principles of all dimensions whatsoever since that they in order rank and antiquity do precede and excell all others did the expert Mathematicians invent after the typicall imitation or image of the most internall centrall and abstruse point of Divinity or divinest and brightest Unity remaining in that very estate in which it stood before the creation of the world namely when it reserved it self within it self and remained occult and hidden from all potentiall creatures which it was pleased afterward by the revealing of it self or emission of its vivifying light to inact and make manifest for its abode in its simple and absolute nature of unity without having any respect or consideration to things which it would create So that in this manner of this Unitie's being and existence it could not be esteemed for God forasmuch as hitherto it had not produced any creature by the which it might be adored or acknowledged for God neither could it rightly be stiled or termed a Father For it did not appear to have thought on any Son or issue either Archetypicall and ideall or typicall and mundane neither could it be reputed for the Summum bonum or higheâ—t goodness being that the defoâ—med matter or dark Chaos or rather Hyle did not as yet taste of that his bright and all-inacting blessing which was concealed and hidden in its potentiall darkness and obscurity which was therefore void of all form neither could it be intitled fair forasmuch as it did not hitherto impart his beauty for the decoration or inacting of any creature noâ— could it rightly be said to be eternity being that in this manner of his occultation within its self it seemed unto humane capacity not to exist at all and consequently not to have any reference or commerce with either eternity or aeviality or temporality moreover it could not assume or challenge unto it self the name of principle because it had no relation as yet unto any thing that did spring or issue from any beginning To conclude the nature of this simple Monadicall existence was before all created so occult and obsâ—ure unto mortalls apprehension in its order and antiquity so unknown yea and so inscrutable and incomprehensible in its essence that it could not any way be conâ—luded to be either substance or quantity or quality but rather was conceived to be a certain transcendent entity or
time when these secrets shall be discovered which will come to pass when the seventh Seal shall be opened for then that high mystery which is the finall cause why and for what end Gods Providence will by these two opposits reveal it self and clean extinguish all enmity out of the world shall be discovered As touching nevertheless the end of this dissonancy the Apostle saith that it will be when the Son hath delivered the Kingdom unto God the Father and when he hath evacuated every Principality and Potentate and Virtue he must raign untill he hath made his enemies his foot-stool and the last enemy that shall be destroyed is Death So that as two contrarieties or discords proceeded from one Unity or unison namely Light and Darkness from one Divine Essence So also these two dissonant branches or confusion of Unities will at the last be reduced or return again into one harmonious Unity in which there will be found no dissonancy namely when these words of the Revelation are accomplished Ecce omnia nova facio vetera enim transurunt Behold I make all things new for the old heaven and earth have passed away But leaving this allaterall discourse we will proceed directly in our Sympatheticall and Antipatheticall Argument or inquiâ—ition into the which that we may penetrate with the greater celerity and facility and dive the deeper into the research of their actions it will be fit that we should describe in the first place the manner how the world doth live by the participation of these two namely of the Light and Darkness and that I will expresse unto you in few words what the Ancient Philosophers have determined about the soul of the world and lastly I will shew that their Opinions do not erre or vary much from the Testimony of the sacred Bible CHAP. IV. Wherein it is evidently proved as well by the ancienâ— Ethnick Philosophers as by the authority of Holy Scriptures that there is a soul of the world Herein also is expressed what this catholick Soul is and whereof it is composed or made I Purpose in the first rank of my discourse touching the soul of the world to expresse what the opinions as well of the ancient Cabalists and mysticall Rabbi's as Ethnick Philosophers are concerning this Subject so much condemned by some self-conceited and little skillfull persons in so profound a mystery and so highly prised and esteemed by others who have with the Lyncean eye-sight of their understanding dived and penetrated into the secret bowells of Nature with due reverence contemplated her Centrall and eternall Agent And afterwards my meaning is to set down the concordance which is observed betwixt them and Holy-Writ The Cabalist's tenent is that the great Angell whom they term Mitattron which by interpretation is Donum Dei the gift of God is that very same catholick Spirit which doth animate the whole world and thereupon Rabbi Moses doth averre it to be Intellectus a ens or the generall intellectuall agent from which all particular forms do flow And they say that from this universall angelicall Spirit all singular vertues as well animall as vitall and naturall do proceed which also they call Angells whereof there are an infinite number in respect of our capacity And the Philosopher Democritus Orpheus with divers of the Pythagoreans do not much differ from this opinion of these Rabbi's but in variety of name onely for they imagine that all things are full of gods and therefore they offered divine Honours Praiers and Sacrifices unto them in the creatures and did worship each of them with a divers fashion of ceremony But they had evermore that regard unto JEHOVA the eternall Unity and Father of all things that they referred all these gods unto one Jupiter This point nevertheless being ill understood by the ignorant was an especiall cause of Idolatry being that hereupon the simple fell unto the worshipping of the creature in stead of the Divinity which was in the creature And for this reason Solomon Vani sunt homines omnes naturà in quibus est ignorantia Dei qui ex iis quae spectantur bonis eum qui est intellig ere non potuerunt neque ex operibus consideratis ipsum opificem agnoverunt All men are naturally vain in whom is the want of the knowledg of God and cannot conceive him that truly is by such good creatures as they sensibly do discern nor yet have scanned and discovered the Workman by the consideration of his works In like manner the Platonists did call the generall vertue which did engender and preserve all things the Animam mundi or the soul of the world And to this their opinions the Arabick Astrologians do seem to adhere forasmuch as they did maintain that every particular thing in the world hath his distinct and peculiar soul from this vivifying Spirit To this opinion also Mercurius Trismegistus Theophrastus Avicenna Algazel and as well all the Stoicks and Peripateticks do seem wholly to consent or agree Again Zoroaster and Heraclitus the Ephesian conclude that the soul of the world is that catholick invisible fire of which and by the action whereof all things are generated and brought forth from puissance unto act Virgil that excellent Latine Poet calleth it that mentall Spirit which is infused through every joint and member of the world whereby the whole Mass of it namely the heaven and the earth or spirit and body are after an abstruse manner agitated and moved His words are these Spiritus intus alit totamque infusa per arâ—us Mens agitat molem c. A Spirit saith he doth nourish within and being infused over all the joints or members of the world it doth move the whole substance of the same Marcus Manâ—ius as also Boetius and Augurel being later Poets are of Virgil's opinion For Manlius saith Hoc opus immensi constructum corpore mundi Vis animae divina regit The divine power of the â—oul doth govern this work which is erected in the body of the vast world And Boetius Tu triplicis mediam naturae cuncta moventem Connectis animam Thou dost frame or tye together a mean soul of a triple nature which movâ—th all things And Augurel saith Nonnulli quicquid diffunditur undique coeli Aëraque terras lati marmoris aequor Intus agi referunt animà quà vivere mundi Cuncta putant ipsumque hà e mundum ducere vitam Ast animae quoniam nil non est corporis expers Mundus at mundi partes quoque corpore constant Spiritus hic intermedius fit quem neque corpus Aut animum dicunt sed eum qui solus utroque Participans in idem simul haec exâ—rema redâ—cat Some say that whatsoever filleth the Heaven the Aire the Earth and wide Seas is stirred up by a soul through the vertue whereof all things in the world do live and also that the world it self doth exist by it But because
there is not any bodily substance that is viod of a soul and that the world and every part thereof doth consist of a body therefore there is an intermediate spirit betwixt this soul and body which they neither call a soul or a body but a mean substance participating of them both to reduce both extreams together into one The wiser sort of Alchymists do make the Soul a certain infinite nature or power in all things which doth procreate like things of their like for this nature doth engender all things yea and multiplieth and nourisheth or sustaineth them and they also style it the Ligament or bond of the elements since by it they are fastned together with the Symphoniacal accords of peaceable harmony although of themselves that is in regard of their matter they are dissonant Also it is termed the true virtue that mingleth and proportionateth every thing in this sublunary world allotting unto each specifick creature a convenient and well agreeing form that thereby one thing might be distinguished and made to vary from another and in conclusion the mysticall Rabbies do averre that this occult fire is that Spirit of the Lord or fiery love which when it moved upon the waters did impart unto them a certain harmonious and hidden fiery vertue without whose lovely assistance and favorable heat nothing could be generated of them or multiplied in them Thus you may discern the manifold opinions as well of Christian as Heathen Philosophers touching this Anima mundi or soul of the world which will appear to vary little or nothing at all from the tenent of Holy Scripture in sense but in words onely Neither are these their opinions so hainous or abominable as some more superstitiously zealous than truly understanding Christians of this our Age will make them if they will scan the matter wisely and with moderation for then they shall really perceive that it doth concurre with the Bible of Truth And to confirm what I now say my purpose is in the first place to expresse unto each learned and well minded Reader the harmony of the Scriptures touching this point and then I will compare every one of the foresaid opinions with the sense and grounds of the said harmony that each wise man may thereby the better conjecture and guesse at the truth of the business before he shall rashly enter into the censuring of that deep and profound mystery which concerneth the Divine action in naturall effects I told you in my precedent discourse that the Eternall Unity which is the God of gods and Beginning of beginnings did cause by a double property in one essence two divers principles to issue out of himself whereof the one was potentiall and no way as yet inacted by the brightnesse of his emanation and in that respect is termed Darkness privation Nolunty opposit to Light and a friend unto death and rest The other was actuall and nothing else but a pure catholick form and brightness which is tearmed Light Position Volunty and in nature opposit to Darknesse and a friend unto life and action or motion And then I signified unto you that by the bright appearance of Eternity or the Eternall Spirit of Wisdom which I termed with the Scriptures the radiant emanation or effluxion from the Almighty which is all one with him in essence the deformed waters were inacted and made manifest out of this dark Principle or Chaos that is reduced from Potentia Divina or the Divine Puissance without form in which they abode into Actum Divinum the Divine Act and because all the humid and passive catholick nature of which both the heavens and the earth were framed did issue from this Mass of watery matter which the Poets call Pana or the second birth of Chaos we must imagine it to be that spirituall matter of the world which was made fertill and multiplicable by reason of that hidden active and formall Light or invisible fire which this increated emanation imparted unto it immediatly before the creation of the heavens and the earth Whereupon the holy Text hath it Spiritus Domini serebatur super aquas The Spirit of the Lord moved or was carried upon the waters And as St. Aâ—gustin addeth to it igneum illis vigorem impâ—râ—ieâ—s Bestowâ—ng upon thâ—m a fiery vigor or formall and actâ—ve vertue Now as we see that Man which is called the little-world is composed of soul and body whereof the soul is his heaven or spirituall part or as we may say the superiour and higher waters and the body with the humours thereof as it were the lower waters is the earth and gâ—osser humouâ—s and each of these two are informed united and vivified by the Spirit of life which God inspired into it even so we may observe that the heaven or spirituall humid nature of the great world is animated by the eternall emanation or spirit of the supernaturall wisdom of God to give life and figure unto the world And forasmuâ—h as it is eaâ—ie to discern that the macro cosmicall heavens are of two sorts namely composed of upper spirituall waters which are called Aeâ—her or heavenly and of the lower spirituall waters which are called Aer or elementary no otherwise than in the lesser world or man the receptacle of the heavenly spirit is known to be Aer so that Physitians distinguish by reason of this difference between the vitall or aetheriall spirits and the naturall or elementary body So we ought to consider that this materiall humid spirit of the heavens in both worlds which are the subtlety of the waters are in themselves dead but in respect of the super-celestiall emanation into them which informeth and vivifieth them they live move and are thinner or thicker according unto that more or less formall grace which the all-informing Spirit doth allot them for the more the sacred Spirit of life doth abound or really act in this or that region of the universall aire the more that sphear is thin subtle active worthy and noble Doth not Scripture seem to verifie that Deus sapientia sua aptet pondus aeri appendat aquas in mensura fecerit terram in fortitudine sua preparaverit orbem in sapientia sua prudentia sua extenderit coelos appenderit aquilonem super inane suspenderit terram super nihilum In coelorum structura cum Deus stabiliret fundâ—menta terrae ipsa aderat cuncta componens And again Wisdom saith Ex ore altissimi prodii primogenita ante omnem creaturam in initio ante seculum creata sum usque ad futurum seculum non desinam habitatione sancta coram ipsum ministravi In coelis â—eci ut oriretur lumeninde ficiens sicut nebula texâ— omnem terram In altissimis habitavi thronus meus in columna nubis coeli gyrum circuivi sola profundum abyssi penetravi in fluctibus maris ambulavi in omni terra sâ—eti Feci Arcturum Orionem converti in
and consequently there would be neither variety of action neither any contraction or dilatation of systole and diastole in things and therefore no action or passion in the soul for without a passive nature there can be no action and also without an active nature there can be no passion Now matter which proceedeth from water is the subject of all passion as here mother Chaos was the female or passive unto the action of Demogorgon or God Also act or form which proceedeth from light is the subject of all action as its father Eternity or the bright emanation of the spirit of wisdom from the fountain of light was the male or agent From hence therefore it is an easie thing to gather first what the soul of the world is and therefore of what parts it doth consist for we must consider that as every creature hath his interior and exterior so also we must exquisitely search after an internall and an externall in the soul being it is a creature and again that it is a creature it is most certain because it is not Identity but Alterity for if it were Identity it would be the divine unity or essence and consequently it would not be created Now that it is Alteritas it is plain because it is compounded of two after the consistence of Angells forasmuch as his internall is a vivifying flame issuing or proceeding from the eternall emanation of life and his externall is an aeviall spirit which is created inacted and animated by this eternall emanation from God And forasmuch as the nature of that most essentiall and never-dying fire is said to be all and in every part of the world and therefore Scriptures say Christus adimplet omnia Christ filleth all things Christus est omnia in omnibus Christ is all and in all Dei Spiritus est in coelo in inferno in extremis maris in nocte in tenebris c. The Spirit of God is in heaven in hell in the extreamest parts of the seas in the night and in darkness Sapientiam effudit Deus super omnia opera sua God hath powred out the spirit of wisdom upon all his works Spiritus Dei incorruptibilis inest omni rei The incorruptible Spirit of God is in every â—hing Coelum est ei sedes terra autem scabellum pedum ejus The heaven is his seat and the earth is his footstool Spiritus sapientiae implet orbem The spirit of wisdom filleth all the world c. Forasmuch I say as it is in every particle of this humid spirit the which by his presence is now full of dignity that before was vile and deformed it is certain that it maketh this catholick spirit to live And therefore this angelicall spirit thus composed of alterity or of two is called Anima mundi because it is that catholick or generall spirit divinely animated from the beginning which doth vivifie afterwards each particular creature of the world proceeding from the generality to the speciality and from the speciality unto the individuality So that the mighty question so often revolved by the Peripatetick Philosophers and so slenderly by them resolved may hereby be fully determined and enucleated if it please the wise and impartiall Reader rightly to consider things as indeed they do stand for by this it is easie to express and distinguish mentem divinam or the divine emanation from anima or the soul and again the anima from spiritus or the spirit being that it is evident that the mentall radication is the eternall and formall emanation which is given or sent out by the Creator in her positive property to create the world and consequently the earthly body and heavenly spirit thereof of nothing or non-actuall existence The spirit is that inward created spirit of the world or subtle substance of the waters or humid nature simply considered in its self which is animated and illuminated by that Archetypicall emanation and the soul or anima is that union which is made between this humid created spirit and the increated formall emanation which doth inform or create So that by this we may discern first what the forma informans or natura naturans is then what the forma informata or the natura naturata is The forma formans or natura naturans is God or the divine emanation which created all things the forma informata or natura naturata is the created light or the spirit informed or illuminated by the presence of the bright increased Spirit and the increated Spirit clothed with or enduing that created spirit is said to be vestitus or amictus lumine quasi vestimento cloathed with light that is with an illuminated spirit as with a garment We shall find also in Exodus that in the same Chapter the spirituall creature in which the divine Spirit acteth and resideth is tearmed an Angell in regard of his externall spirit in composition but again in the same Chapter it is tearmed JEHOVA in regard of the eternall form that acteth in it Also the Angell is said to go before the Israelites in a pillar of clowd by day and a pillar of fire by night And again it is said in the same history that JEHOVA went before them in the said order And the wise man said Fuit sapientia iis tegumentum interdiu lux stellaris noctu Wisdom was a cover to them in the day time and a starry-light in the night And the reason of all this is expressed elsewhere thus Noli exacerbare eum quia non feret defectionem vestram quoniam nomen meum est in eo Do not anger this my angel for he will not endure your defections because my name is in him c. Where by his name he signifieth his word which is God as if he had said I do essentially animate him and I am within him c. That the soul of the world or Mens divina in mundo simply taken is the divine mentall emanation absolutely in it self being distinguished from the created spirit this Text in Scriptures doth warrant Animam Spiritum dividit discernit sermo Dei vivus The Word of God doth devide the soul and the spirit c. Where by the word is ment the mentall beam by the Spirit the humid nature that existeth by the presence of the mentall beam which God by his Word can withdraw unto himself or emit according unto his will and pleasure Whereupon David said Deo recipiente Spiritum suum à creatuâ—is eâ—spi aâ—t â—miâ— erte spiritum recreantur bono God receiving or withdrawing his Spirit from 〈…〉 they exspire but sending out his Spirit they are recreated with life and goodness Aâ—d â—ow I will prove all this out of such definitions or descriptions which as well the Faâ—heâ—s of the Church as the Philosophers both Christian and Gentile have made upon the soul in generall both as it hath a relation unto a body and also as it is
dat vitam inspirationem omnia God needing not the assistance of any giveth life and breath and all things unto every creature But each Philosopher cannot but acknowledg that Anima is nothing else but that which doth animate or vivifie a body or spirit why then should not the catholick divine Spirit which filleth all and operateth all and in all be tearmed the fountain of the worlds life by which it liveth moveth and hath its being and consequently the essentiall life and Centrall or mental soul of the world moving the created humid spirit thereof no otherwise then the spirit which God breathed into Adam did move and operate in and by the Organ of the created aire What shall the eternall and vivifying Spirit of Wisdome which is said to fill all and to be in every thing which hath the nature of the universall catholick and first created Angell For Ecclesiasticus hath it prior omnium creata est Sapientia Wisdom was created before all things shall it being that it is as it were the catholick soul of the world or life of all things forasmuch as it is the emanation of the brightnesse of the Omnipotent and the splendor of the eternall Light and the pure mirror of the Majesty of God and the Image of his goodnesse being one simple subtil permanent in it self and the most piercing or movable of all things All which are the properties assigned by St. Dionys unto an Angell and by the learned Fathers before mentioned unto a separated soul shall it I say be in all things and fill the heavenly spirit of each world I mean of the great world and the little one called Man and shall it not operate and act the vivifying and multiplying effect of his nature but be idle and vacant in the creature Did God send forth his operative Spirit to be still and not to act Yea verily the Father operates in it by his Voâ—unty and he effecteth the Volunty of his Father in the creatuâ—es spirit which it possesseth animateth and guideth which way it pleaseth And for this reason Judith saith Deo serviat omnis creatura quia dixisti facta sunt misisti spiritum tuum creatae sunt So that the great world may say and confesse as well as man that it was made after the Image of the Archetype or God and that in him it liveth moveth and existeth According to that of the Apostle unto man which is the little world Thus you see that the Cabalist's Mitatiron or Donum Dei whom they make the catholick intellectuall Agent is nothing else but that universall Spirit of Wisdome which God sent out from this Throne or as the Text hath it even out of his own mouth as the greatest gift and token of his benignity unto each world and the members thereof to reduce them from deformity and non-existence into act and formall being and to endue them with lively feature and to tender life and being unto them explicitly which before was but complicitly included and comprehended in the dark and gloomy shadow of death I mean out of the deformed Chaos into a beautifull shape out of deadly sleep and dark rest into a lively action and motion out of obscurity into Light And this therefore was tearmed rightly in the eies of wise men Mitattron or Donum Dei catholicum which reduceth the universall Nothing into an universall Something But that I may the better expresse unto you by a Philosophicall Demonstration the Angelicall nature of this supream intelligence called Mitattron and consequently of the soul of the world I would have you in the first place to know the true manner how the Philosophers do demonstrate the harmony of the world and his spirit The Platonick's Heptachord the which he did invent and adapt for the demonstrating of the soul of the world did consist of seven strings or proportions partly even and partly odd namely 1 2 3 4 8 9.27 The which proportions although Porphyrie and Proclus have drawn forth in one line nevertheless it appeareth unto me that Adrastus and Calcidius have more fitly expressed and adapted it unto the sides of a Pyramis or Triangle in this manner In the summity or top whereof namely where both lines meet in one point the figure of 1. is expressed with Unity because it participates both on the side with the materiall existence and on the other it hath a commerce with the formal emanation it is apparent that this point or Unity from whence both these different lines or streames do issue in the fountain as well of matter as form and therefore it is as well Synesius's as other Theosophers opinion not disagreeing in this point from Holy Scripture That Deus sit omne quod est quippe à quo per quem in quo sunt omnia Quod sit mas faemina vel ut Mercurius Trismegistus ait utriusquae sexûs faecundâ—ssimus quod sit potentia actus quod sit forma quod sit materia Imo vere nihil est quod ipse non existit God say they is every thing that existeth being that from him by him and in him are all things He is male and female as Synesius saith or as Mercurius Trismegistus will have it He is most abundant in each sex He is puissance and act and finally he is form and he is matter And verily they conclude that there is nothing which he is not All which seem not to differ from Holy Testimony which is that God is all and in all and above all and that in him are all things and in his Spirit and Word all things consist c. The six other figures which do correspond unto one another from the materiall side unto the formall namely the even numbers that regard directly the odd namely the materiall number 2. regards the formall 3 the 4. the 9 and the 8. the 27. do most lively expresse the generall kinds of all creatures with their harmony And in the first place it deciphereth the Symphoniacall Degrees of the Soul of the world as shall be told hereafter For first after the example of the Archetype from 1. issued 2. which is termed by the Pythagoreans the confusion of Unities and therfore it is the radicall or incipient imperfect number which is in respect of his confusedness and imperfection in the same relation unto Unity from whence it sprung as the bright eternall Unity is unto the dark Chaos which is rudis indi gestaque moles a rude or confused and indigested heap And it is rightly tearmed Imperfect because that the eternall emanation which is all perfection had not as yet made it perfect and for this reason also the watery matter that issued out of it is of it self imperfect no otherwise then the number of 2. is esteemed in regard of that of 3. because all perfection consisteth of 3. tearmes namely a beginning a middle and an end So that if you take one of the
sent out from the Fountain of life to inact and vivify all things Which increated Spirit of life is indivisible in essence and therefore as it doth actually from his immense fountain of life send down or breathe forth the influences of life after the manner of an infinity of beams from one Sun unto an infinite sort of creatures to inform them and make them live So are those beams of life thus sent out no less continuated and indivisible from that fountain or spiritual and indivisible Son of life then the visible beams can be divided from the visible Sun Neither was it sufficient for Adam to have indued a Microcosmicall body namely a masse of earth for his materiall had not this exalted formall essence sent by God into the world as not divided from divinity added a lively force and activity by breathing his Spirit of life into him And therefore Hermes spake not amiss when he said that the world was the Image of God and man the image of the world being that as God created and vivifyed the watery Spirit of the world by adding unto it his creating Spirit of life so that Spirit of life which is all one in essence with the Father being sent into the world and filling the Spirit of the world doth vivify multiply and preserve not onely man but also every other animal vegetable and minerall that is in the world This being therefore in the first place to be considered I proceed thus The variety of the Species upon the earth did radically proceed from the very act of creation when the word Fiat was spoken and immediatly the will of the speaker was accomplished by his Son which by the way of emanation was sent into the world to do the will of his Father And there are some that will not shrink to say that all the Species or kinds of creatures were expressed in and by the 22. Hebrew letters not those externall ones which are vulgarly painted out with Ink or Art which are but shadows but the fiery formall and bright spirituall letters which were ingraven on the face or superficies of the dark hyles by the fiery word of the eternall Speaker in the beginning and therefore they are tearmed originally Elementa quasi Hylementa or Elements as engraven in the forehead of the dark abysse or Hyle and by reason of the essence of that divine Word which received the mystery of the Typicall creation and did trace it out after the Archetypicall patern and delineated it in characters of formall fire the language which was framed out of it was called Lingua Sancta a language I say much spoken of by the learned Rabbies of our age but little known or understood by them and yet of an infinite importance for the true enucleation as well of sacred Mysteries as of all true Cabalisticall abstrusities But to proceed According to the tenor of the divine Word and his formall characters the effects whereof passed unalterable into the world each species or kind was framed and again every individuall of each kind was made divers and distinct from others as well in shape and proportion as condition and and property Now as I said that this Spirit of the Lord did effect the will of his Father in creating every thing thus differently being in it self but one and the same essence So also did it and doth still continue and keep every one of these Species or kinds by multiplication or generation in their successive estates and preserveth every individuall during the time of his being as well by an elementary as aethereall kind of nutriment which according to his spirituality doth descend as it were from heaven to nourish the spirits of each individuall according unto his kind For you must understand that as the catholick soul of the world is generall unto all So is the aire made the chest or closet of his golden treasury or spiritual food which while it swimmeth occultly like a golden vapour showred down from heaven in the aire filling and replenishing all So whilst it is yet in the open aire it is as apt to sustain and multiply the life of a serpent a sheep a fish or a foul an oake a herb or such like as of a man For so soon as the magnetick power or virtue of the creature which causeth every minute a refection from this heavanly Nectar hath drawn in a portion of this catholick Spirit or nature it leaveth his catholick or generall nature and worketh specifically that is to say according unto the individuall nature of that kind which receiveth it that is to say it converteth it self being in a dog into his nature in a whale into his nature in a man into his in an oake or myrtill into his in wheat into the proper nature of wheat and so in all other kinds and consequently it is the cause that every creatures spirit is nourished and sustained it it self For this was the Creator's Ordinance that by what spirit the creature was first created in his kind by the same it should be maintained preserved and multiplied Hence it was that the Philosopher breaketh forth into this speech Est in aere occulius vitae cibus The hidden aliment of life is in the aire Whereby he means that quint essentiall food which we receive from the generall Spirit of life in the world which by the appointment of God hangeth ready and in every part of the aire to strive for the spirituall food of life unto every elementary creature the main virtue whereof consisteth in the eternall vivifying Word and Spirit of all things and therefore the Text saith Deus dat vitam inspirationem omnia God giveth life and inspiration and all things And again Visitatio tua conservat spiritum meum Thy visitation doth preserve my spirit Vita adest benevolentiâ IEHOVAE Life is present by the benevolence of IEHOVA Vitae fons penes Deum est The fountain of life is with God Vitae prolongatio benignitas ejus The prolonging of life is the benignity of God Quem visitavit Deus salute sua fruetur bono Whom God doth visit with his salutiserous nature he shall be partaker of goodnesse Deo dante creaturis colligunt aperiente manum suam saâ—iantur bono abscondente faciem suam conturbantur recipiente spiritum corrum exspirant emittente spiritum suum recreantur God giving unto the creatures food they receive it when he openeth his hand they are filled with all goodnesse If he hide away his face or abstain from giving them their daily spirituall bread they are troubled and wiâ—l be sick if he take away from them their spirit they exspire and die but if he send forth again his Spirit they are recreated and refreshed again We are taught also by Christ in our Pater-noster to pray for our daily bread and it is called there Panem super-substantialem the super-substantiall bread as Jerom interpreteth it And our Saviour meaning of
in the animals it is easie to know how blood in the animals body is transmuted from a white chylous substance into a rubicund and ruddy blood By reason of his vegetation and multiplication in substance it is an easie matter to guesse the manner of augmentation and vegetation and also of the quantitative multiplication by way of generation of the animal For verily I have observed so worthy an experiment in this vegetative salt in the Wheat of which the blood of man by eating of bread is full that we need not to make any doubt but that it is the onely substance of vegetation as well in the animall as vegetable For on a day when I had cast away the faeces or superfluous part of the substauce out of which I did draw the salt liquor into a large Pipkin and covered it with a thin plate of iron within three weeks or a months space I found it to have struck up out of the pot quite through the plate of iron and to make above a thousand blades like an iron-coloured saffron to grow up out of the superficies of it which argueth the admirable vegetative property that it hath in it But letting this suffice to expresse the occult puissance of this secret fire of God in nature in all vegetables mineralls and other animals I will now convert the file of my speech onely unto that wondrous act and operation which this admirable Spirit effecteth in the little world or man The spirit of life was by God so inspired into man that he was made a living creature no otherwise then when Elohim Ruach was breathed on the waters they were animated and vivified and became a great world which the Platonists for that reason called Magnum animal A great living creature But as the world was made after the image of God before man was made and afterwards man by the same Spirit in the world was framed by the Word after the pattern of that Spirit of life and the substance of the waters which were in the great world Therefore we must conceive that man hath the vivifying means of his sustentation preservation and multiplication by generation from the soul of the world and his elements Wherefore Hermes doth not unadvisedly expresse the descent and ingression of the worlds vivifying spirit into man after this manner A er est in corpore anima in aere mâ—ns in anâ—ma in mente verbum Verbum verò est eorum pater The aire is in the body the soul or life is in the aire the mentall Spirit is in the soul the Word is in the mentall Spirit and the Word is the Father of them all And he concludeth in that place Quod Verbum sit imago Dei mens verbi anima mentis aer animae corpus aëris That the Word is the Image of God the mental beam the image of the word the vitall Soul the image of the mental beam the aire of the vitall Soul and the body of the aire Whereby we may discern the admirabletie which every portion of each dignity in the great world hath unto other in the composition of the little world and therefore it is made evident that the purest portion of elementary matter is aire the purest sublimity of the aire is the vitall form in which is the mentall beam and in it is the Word which is God and we must observe that by mentem or the mentall Spirit is meant the vivifying Spirit of Wisdom which filleth all things whose fountain as Ecclesiasticus doth teach us is the Word of God as if I with Hermes should say the bright and eternall Spirit of life in the quintessentiall Spirit maketh the Soul the Soul in the aire is conducted into the body where it operateth the effects of vivification and internall multiplication of the Species and therefore he saith in another place Anima hominis in hunc vehitur modum Mens in ratione ratio in anima anima in spiritu spiritus in corpore Spiritus per venas arteriasque sanguinemque diffusus animal undique ciet The Soul of man is carried into his body after this manner The mental beam is the reasonable spirit the reasonable spirit is in the Soul or ethereall spirit the Soul or ethereall spirit is in the airy spirit and the airy spirit is in the body which moveth through the veins and arteries and being dispersed over all the blood doth agitate and move the body on every side We must therefore imagine that the aire which is drawn into our heart by inspiration is full of that divine treasure of life the which residing in the heart of man sucketh and draweth his life into it by a magnetick force and virtue For nature coveteth and rejoyceth at the presence of its like as is said And again that the heart is the precious store-house of the active treasure of life we may collect out of this speech of Solomon Cor tuum custodi supra onâ—nem observationem quia ab eo procedunt actiones vitae Gard with the best diligence and keep charily thy heart seeing that from it proceed all the actions of life The nature and instruments by which the Spirit attracteth magnetically and expelleth after attraction that of the humid vehicle of aire which is inutil and superfluous in this Being that without the sparks of life and generation which swimme in the aire no creature amongst the which we esteem Man to be the chiefest can live scarsly a moment of time it is most necessary that they should be drawn and sucked in by the creature every minute for without this necessary act with the salutary effect thereof the animal will forthwith be suffocated or strangled for by the deprivation of the aire the soul will soon cease his vivifying operation forasmuch as it is nothing else but a portion of eternall light in the soul of the world which is composed as I proved before of the divine emanating virtue and the subtil humid nature of the world whereof the first affordeth the Calidum innatum or natural heat of life and the last the humidum radicale or radical moisture unto the creatures existence and therefore by the inspiration of aire this double virtue is every moment renewed and refreshed in the creature This Spirit therefore the Animal and by consequence man inspireth or sucketh into the left chamber ventricle or region of the heart by the contraction of the straight fibres of the heart when the transverse and oblique fibres will be relaxed whereby the heart will be dilated or opened and this action is called of the Physitians Diastole In the time thereof or interval of this motion the heart doth draw into his left vessell by the Arteria venosa or veiny artery out of the lungs whither it first was conveyed by inspiration through the aspera arteria or weesell-pipe a portion of the airy store-house of nature with his vitall treasury contained in it being as is
said ordained by God for vivification and spiritual and seminal generation's cause that is to say for the nutrition of the vital and internal generative Spirits no otherwise then the liver is accustomed to suck and draw the chylous juice of the gross nutriment for the engendring and fosâ—ering of the naturall spirits which are ordained for vegetation or encreasing of the bodily parts Again after that nature hath received and drawn-in into her well-adorned and subtilly adapted still-house or laboratory I mean the heart this aereal Spirit with his concealed or occult treasure she beginneth in it to anatomise and sift or search the bowels of of this attracted aire and separating the celestiall nature or true vitall treasure of the invisible fire of life from the grosser and most inutil portion of the aire it reserveth onely the purest which is nothing but a subtile volatile salt adapted to serve as a vehicle for the divine fire of life or true vivifying Spirit in the aethereal and quintessentiall nature and then as for the selected Spirits of life she encloseth them in her large arteriall store-house called Aorta or Arteria magna the great Artery sending immediatly the more superfluous fuligions and inutil part of the aire back again the way it came by exspiration And this expulsive action is effected by the contraction of the transverse fibres of the heart and the relaxation of the straight for by this means the heart is also contracted or compressed which action of motion is called by Physitians Systole And we must understand that for the better preservation of this golden treasure of life within his arterial treasure house God in nature hath so ordered that there is a triple valve or gate like three half-moons to close it in and to keep it securely for the bodies necessity lest it should fly away by the passage it came in and therefore this three-leaved gate is fashioned after such a manner that it doth open within and is closed without so that what gets into the great Artery cannot return back again as in like manner at the mouth of the venal artery there is a double gate compacted of two valves and they do open without and shut within so that fresh aire may easily enter but the treasure included after the expulsion of the fuliginous vehicle or superfluous aire may be retained Now will I 'm few words expresse unto you the action of this heavenly Spirit After it is thus included in the arteriall trunk it is certain that it doth dilate it self through the branches or divided channells thereof over all the body For by those branches called Charotides a refined portion of it doth ascend unto the brain by those smal conduicts I say the super-celestiall part of this Chymicall extraction forasmuch as it is in dignity the most super-excellent of all the fountain of life doth challenge unto his seat and possession the noblest and loftiest region of this micro-cosmicall palace and as it were his Emperiall heaven for hither soareth the mentall beam in his rationall vehicle electing this place for its chief tabernacle or coelum coelorum yet so that the beames of his power are reflected unto every branch of his divided Arterial cabinet For this reason therefore all Physitians as well Ethnick as Christian have concluded that the voluntary humane action hath his seat in the brain being the region of the animal virtue or faculty whereas the other two actions of man namely the vitall in the heart and naturall in the liver seem to be subject unto this being that they are actiones involuntariae unvoluntary actions and this is the reason that the Brain is the seat of reason and understanding Then in the second rank that portion of the introducted Spirit which in the forge of man's nature is framed out and found fit for the action of life is convayed into those branches of the great Artery which are called Cervicales Humerariae and those which assigne life unto the region of the Chest or breast where it doth indue and take on it that impression of spirituall vivacity which belongeth unto those parts as also the Coronariae do assume unto them the internal or ideal shape of spirits belonging unto the heart and so forward touching the other Arteriall branches and their contained heavenly treasure So that this invisible spirit lurking and as it were swimming in the thin substance of the airy spirit doth not onely expanse and dilate it self to the vivifying of each member in the body but also by a contraction of it self into a spermatick cloud the which happeneth in the act of copulation through a certain magnetick virtue animated by divine love this spirit is miraculously convayed into two preparing arteriall spermatick vessells from every member but especially from the three principalls and there this celestiall Spirit full of divine fire after the Image of the radicall Archetype in whom all things were first spiritually and ideally delineated before they were in the regard of man even as the Prophet David did glory in that he had wholly received the image of the Temple described by the hand of God which afterward was put in act containeth the invisible of that humane body which shortly was to be inacted and really to be delineated and brought forth unto man's sight that is to say it did ideally possesse the shape of the inward or spiritual man as also the image of the externall or corporall man being compacted of the four Elements proceedeth from the visible sperm which issued from the two venall spermatick vessells But that this is so we have it plainly as I imagine confirmed by these words of Holy-Writ Tu possides renes meos ex quo obtegebar in utero matris meae non celata est vis mea tibi ex quo factus sum in abdito artificiosè confectus velut in imis partibus terrae Massam meam vident oculi tui in libro tuo omnia membra mea sunt scripta ex quibus diebus for mabantur cum nullum ex iis extaret Thou dost possesse my reines from the time that I was covered in my mothers womb My strength is not hid unto thee from the time that I was made and was artificially shaped as it were in the lower parts of the earth Thine eyes do behold the masse whereof I was made and all my members were described and delineated in the dayes that they were shaped or informed when none of them did visibly exist And to this purpose it is said else-where Spiritus Dei fecit me spiraculum omnipotentis vivificavit me The Spirit of the Lord made me and the breath of the Omnipotent did vivifie me That is First he reduced me into a mass of seed and afterwards did make it alive by his breathing into it And the wise-man Ut ignoras quae sit via spiritus quomodo ossa pinganturin ventre praegnantis sic nescis opera Die quia est fabricator
omnium As thou knowest not which is the way that the spirit moveth and how the bones are shaped and made in the mothers womb so art thou ignorant in the works of the Lord who hath made and framed all things c. Whereby it is manifest that the Spirit of God operateth in the sperm as wel before the emission of the seed into the womb as afterwards This also is plainly expressed by these words of Job Nonne sicut lac fudisti me tanquam caseum coagulasti me cuâ—e carne induâ—sti me ossibus nervis compegisti me cum vita benignitatem exercuâ—stiergame at visitatio tua praeservavit spiritum meum at ista recondisti in animo tuo Novi haec apud te esse Didst thou not poure me out like milk and didst thou not curdle me like a cheese Thou didst indue me with skin and flesh and compacted or joyned me together with bones and sinews Thou didst exercise thy benignity towards me in giving me life and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit And yet hast thou kept this secret in thy heart I know well that this is so with thee In all which this difficult point appeareth to be fully deciphered and opened as well touching the act of generation as in regard of the foresaid mystery in the preservation and continuation of the life of the Infant as well in his mothers womb as after the birth thereof For in this member Sicut lac fudisti me he seemeth to argue that the spermatick masse was well disposed and composed by the spirit of life of the which a man was afterward explicitely delineated and framed Then goeth he forwards to the second degree in generation Tanquam caseum coagulastime by which it appeareth that the divine Spirit did thicken the seed into a more solid substance like cheese according unto that other saying of Job Memento quaeso quod sicut argillam fecisti me c. Remember that thou maiest me as clay c. Then he proceedeth thus Cute carne induisti me ossibusque nervis compegisti me c. And now in this degree he commeth after the coagulation of the spermatick masse unto the complement of the particular human parts or members of the which the externall man is made in the womb as the spirituall image of the son was in the arteriall seed of the father before it was cast into the womb By all which it appeareth that the divine Spirit did operate all this outward man in his own person and then to the vivification of that externall man so shaped out of the elementary seed he proceedeth thus Cum vita benignitatem exercuisti erga me shewing by this that the corporall work being effected and made fit to lodge so noble and emperial a guest as is the divine mentall beam namely of the builder of it riding in a mundane vehicle the lordly guest doth immediately possesse it and make it live and move and feel according unto that of the Apostle In him we live move and have our beeing To conclude after that Adam was by God shaped out of a lump of earth he breathed into it the spiracle of life and that masse was made a living creature agreeing with the forementioned place of Job saying The Spirit of the Lord made me and the breath of the Almighty did vivifie me that is the Spirit of God made both the externall and internall Neither was that spiracle of life destitute of understanding that is to say without the reall beam of eternity for it is said else-where In homine est spiritus sed in spiratio Omnipotentis facit eum intelligere In man is a spirit but it is the inspiration of the Almighty which maketh him to understand And for this reason also is man-rightly said in Scripture to be framed after the image of God Was not the excellent artifice of this eternal Spirit wel expressed by Ezekiel after it came from the four winds and breathed upon the slain Eccâ— saith the Lord unto the dead bones ego intromittam in vos spiritum ut vivatis dabo super vos nervos succrescere faciam supra vos carnes extendam in vos cutem dabo vobis spiritum vivetis Et dixit propheta ex manâ—aâ—o Dei A quatuor ventis veni spiritus insuffla super interfectos istos ut reviviscant ingressus est in eos spiritus revixerunt Behold I will put into you a spirit and you shall live and I will put on you sinewes and I will make slesh to grow on you and I will cover and extend on you a skin and I will give you a spirit and you shall live And the prophet said according as God commanded him Come O spirit from the four winds and breath upon these slain persons that they may live again And the spirit entred into them and hey lived again c. By the which file of speech we may gather first That it was the divine vertue which fashioned out the externall man before it had a living spirit and then afterward that the spirit of life was breathed into the externall man from the catholick spirit of life in the great world for he said Come O spirit from the four winds And again that the world hath a catholick spirit by which it liveth for the four winds had their breath and life from this one spirit by the which the universall sublunary element seemeth to live and is changed from one complexion unto another and doth most lively operate diversity of effects in the compound creatures of this lower region of the world for experience doth teach us that the common aire is of an earthly nature when the North winds bloweth and of a cholerick when the East wind hath dominion c. Now touching the manner of the shaping out of the specifick individuall it may be demanded why this catholick vivifying spirit of the world being but one doth bring forth every fruit or birth according unto his kinde and not all one I told you before that each specifick creature was radically created in his kinde distinct and different from one another according to the will of the Creator and was by the same spirit maintained and multiplyed evermore reserving the shape of the species or kinds which was allotted him in his creation and it should seem that God appointed as it were a certain secret mold to fashion out the potentiall creature before it came to act And for the better understanding hereof we must know that there are four spermatick preparing vessells namely two and two on a side whereof the one is a venall vessell and it issueth out of the vena cava and from hence commeth the bodily sperm made of the refined subject of the four elements of the body and is therefore the principle or root of the Infants externall or body and it is visible and is called Sperma And the other is an
Philosohers in generall conclude that Inferiora à superioribus reguntur that Mundus inferior sit corporibus superioribus contiguus Inferior things aâ—e governed and directed by the superior and the inferior world is contiguous unto the superior bodies And Ptolomy Vultus hujus saeculi subjecti sâ—nt vultibus coeli The effigiesses or shapes of this world are subject unto the images of heaven And Aristotle Est mundus iste supernis lationibus fere continuus ut inde vis ejus universa regatur This world is almost continuall with the supernall lations that thereby his universall power may be governed And Hippocrates De coelestibus autem rebus sublimibus mihi nihil dâ—cendum videtur nisi quatenus homines animaliaque caetera quae in terris degunt gignuntur nataque sunt principia originem inde habere demonstrabo quod anima de coelo est quod dolere languere mori denique quicquid boni malive est in homine de coelo proficiscitur Touching celestiall and Divine matters it seemeth to me that there is nothing to be said save onely that I will demonstrate that men and beasts which live upon the earth and are begotten and born have their beginning and Originall from thence and that the Soul is from heaven and to be dolorous to languish and to die And finally whatsoever is good or bad in man doth proceed from above And for this cause Haly saith Medicus qui Astronomiam ignorat est tanquaem caecus viam baculo examinans huc atque illuc miserabiliter cespitans pro qualibet boni malive-apparentia The Physitian which is ignorant in Astronomy is like a blind man which examineth and searcheth out his way with a staffe miserably reeling this way and that way according to every appearance of good or evil But to come nearer the point Cichus Eschulamus saith That every one of the twelve Signes receiveth his particular and speciall name from the nature or property of some beast because the nature of the one doth seem to symbolize with that of the other And Moses Arabicus saith That every animated thing hath a peculiar star which sendeth down his influence to defend and preserve his like upon earth and that by the divine will and command As for example The Stars which are in Aries govern and send down their influence upon the terrestriall Ram and on sheep and the celestiall Scorpion upon the terrestriall one And Reuclin saith Non est tibi ulla planta aut herba inferiùs cui non est stella in firmamento quae non percutiat eam There is not a herb or plant here below which hath not a star in the firmament to beat on it by his influence To conclude you may discern by this the Astronomers and Philosophers intention namely to take the visible bodies action for that angelicall spirit or vertue which ruleth and vivifieth all things that are beneath and breatheth forth influences out of the starry organs and not the starry sphear as the worldly Ethnicks did imagine who went no deeper into the mysteries of God and his nature than their corporall eyes and ocular experience did guide them But they which have dived more profoundly into these secrets have evidently discerned a more hidden principle in these occult influences Hereupon Hermes saith Dii in astrorum ideis cum signis ecrum conspiciebantur dinumeratae sunt stellae secundum eos qui inhabitant illas Deos The gods were discerned in the idea's of the stars with their signes and the stars are numbered according unto those gods which do inhabit them Where by the gods he meaneth the variety of angelicall emanations which proceed from one unity or he may take the Arch-angels which are the conductors of those severall emanations for gods at which the Apostle doth rightly except when he saith Dii quidem sunt qui dicuntur in coelo in terra nobis tamen unus Deus Pater ex quo omnia unus Dominus Jesus Christus per quem omnia There are such creatures as are called gods in heaven and in earth but unto us there is but one God the Father from whom are all things and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things As if he had said God the Father or the radicall Unity is the fountain from whence all things spring and his catholick emanation the immediate act by which all vertues actions and vivifications are diversly effected according unto his will which sent it out both in heaven and earth So that it is not the Angel but God in the Angel Wherefore Picus Mirandulanuâ— Ad coelum non est referendum si quid à nobis sit quod nostras vires videtur excedere sed potiùs vel ad angelosvel ad Deum If there be any thing from us that exceedeth our power it is not to be referred unto the heavens but rather either to the Angells or to God For this reason therefore Rabbi Moses Angeli non movent semper orbes coelestes eodem modo quo fit ut non semper eodem modo fiant mutationes horum inferiorum maximam namque vim atque potestatem angelica exercet conditio in res corporeas quapropter intellectus agens à quo influunt formae nominatur Angelus appellatur praefectus universitati ut dixerunt Sapientes nostri vocaturque Mitattron a quo quidem gubernantur omnes Virtutes singulares quae pariter Angeli dicuntur quorum est multitudo quoad nos infinita sed quo ad Creatorem determinata finita The Angels do not alwaies move the celestiall orbes after one manner And thereupon it commeth to passe that the mutations of inferiour things are not made after one fashion for the Angelicall condition hath a great force and power over corporall things and therefore the intellectuall agent from which the forms of things do issue or stream forth is tearmed that Angel which is the President of all the world as our wise men have testified and it is called Mitattron of whom all singular vertues are governed the which are likewise called Angels of which kind there is an infinite multitude in regard of us though unto the Creator they are limited and finite And Rabbi Bresitts doth seem to confirm thus much in these words Creator quotidie creat coetum Angelorum quos alii vocant For mas quod sint substantiae formales quibus tota sphaera generabilium corruptibilium absque numero plena est The Creator doth daily create a company of Angels which other men do call Formes because they are formall substances of the which kinde the whole sphear of generable and corruptible things are replenished without number Now by this Intellectus agens or Mitattron forasmuch as it is the President over the whole world which I said before to be that Anima mundi of the Platonists which did animate every particular thing by sending out of an
as is said though of two opposite conditions in which also it worketh after many diversities of degrees and therefore Solomon tearmeth it simplex or unicus simple or one in regard of his divine nature and multiplex in respect that it worketh and operateth after a manifold manner for as it worketh about the poles of the axle-tree by attracting and sucking unto it by cold and drought so about the Aequinoctiall and that more and more approching from the poles towards the Aequinoctiall it varieth in ten thousand proportions more or less in dilatation by reason of the manifold degrees of heat which this centrall Sun of life imparteth unto the aire And this is not onely manifested in the foresaid Weather-glass forasmuch as we find that by how much the more the heavenly Sun with his divine centrall agent approacheth unto us by so much the more the externall aire being dilated by his heat doth also dilate the aire contained in the neck of the mattras or bolts-head and driveth down the water that is it repelleth back the cold of winter which came in by showers of rain sent from the south unto his proper pole So that we see as the nature of the cold pole is to draw or suck unto it by condensation which is effected by contraction or made by a Saturnine faculty so the nature of the hot Aequinoctiall and his adjacent parts is to expell his opposite by dilatation which is effected by a subtiliating heat And this is the reason as is already demonstrated that the Aequinoctiall of the Load-stone detesteth to be joyned unto the pole as on the contrary side the pole abhorreth reciprocally the Aequinoctiall Also this is the reason that in the pole of the said stone there is so great power of attraction and that it sucketh the iron unto it ad angulos rectos that is after a perpendicular manner and then the nearer the needle or piece of steel or iron-wier approacheth unto the Aequinoctiall of the stone the more will his obliquity in coition or conjunction be with the stone So that when it commeth directly unto the Aequinoctiall it will lose all angular contact and lie flat as it were on its belly as you may see by this true observation following But because these demonstrations may seem unto the vulgar somewhat intricate as being ignorant of the centrall sun of the earth which the Philosophers call Archaeum naturae or The master-workman of nature As also it will be difficult for them to conceive what an axiltree of the earth may be and what his poles And again the right use of the Load-stone or practise in the Weather-glass is unknown unto many a man I will proceed unto a kind of proof and explication of this matter which is familiar unto each person of what degree soever It cannot be gainsaid but that Man and all other creatures as well vegetable as animal are composed of a living soul which is internall and a body being his externall The self-same also we ought to judge of the earth for it hath an inward spirit whereby it operateth diversly And again as there is no animal nor vegetable that can exist without the aire forasmuch as by it each thing liveth and existeth by inspiration for by that means they suck in the celestiall influence so also the aiery element doth feed the inward spirit of the earth and conveyeth from above all the heavenly influences into her body and maketh her the mother of all mineralls and vegetables I told you before that all inferiour things with their operations are the types or similitudes of things above and that God did animate the Angels the Angels did inform the stars and the starry demons or olympick spirits send down influences unto the winds and the winds do inform the catholick element of the aire four-foldly that is to say according unto the nature of the four winds which four-fold information doth give or assigne a name unto the four elements And although in the catholick aire there is but one onely substance in essence yet it varieth in nature after a four-fold condition according unto the will and property of that one Spirit which onely is the efficient actor or agent in this metamorphosis or Protean transmutation from one nature or form unto another although he useth as well angelicall as starry organs and is said to ride upon the cherubins and to glide upon the wings of the winds For this reason therefore the Prophet saies Come O spirit from the four winds and breathe upon these slain bodies that they may live He said not Come O spirits but Come O spirit whereby he argued that it is but one Spirit which bloweth essentially from the four winds and consequently that this one spirit in essence is but onely one thing though four-fold in regard of his property and that as in this archetypicall spirit the whole world was ideally divided into poles and portions distinguished by spirituall circles so also in all the regions of the world he observeth constantly the self-same character of position namely in the starry world as in the airy and in the airy as in the water and earth For in the heavens the northern pole is pointed at and marked out with the starry character which is found in the Tail of the great Bear in the aire it is manifested in that very point from whence Boreas or the north-wind bloweth which doth exactly correspond unto the pole-star Again that the earth observeth the very same order in the direction of her pole is confirmed by the conversion of the Load-stone and Iron unto the north-star Thus you see that it is one onely spirit in essence that worketh all in all I proceed therefore thus to my demonstration which is so familiar to each person that not any one who is in his senses can deny it for I am sure no man can be ignorant that when the north-wind bloweth the aire is of nature cold and dry and therefore is converted into the condition and consistence of earth namely from a clear transparent light subtle dissolved and dilated consistence of aire into a troubled opake or dark gross ponderous and contracted substance for experience doth teach us that it is transmuted into snow hail frost and ice that is from an aery spirit unto an earthly and solâ—d body from an invisible and mobile estate unto a visible and fixt disposition And in conclusion the whole aire is changed into a spirituall and corporall earth and this transmutation it hath from that cold dry and attractive form which it borrowed from the northern wind or septentrionall property of the divine spirit which ordereth all things and altereth them from one form unto another by the breath of his nostrills as Scriptures allegoriously speak or by those windy emissions or angelicall emanations which it sendeth from the four corners of the earth So that by his breath from the north he exerciseth that property in the lower world by the
which allureth and draweth down magnetickly beams from above and holdeth them fast to multiply its own nature even like the fowler that maketh use of a captived bird to allure others of the same kind unto his netts But as for the female mineral nature because the body of it is more compacted and not corruptible it sucketh unto it for the self-same reason namely by the attractive virtue of his stiptick and attractive salt the essentiall beams of Iron as from a star of his own nature to solace and redeem his spirits and consequently with the spirit it sucketh also the masculine body forasmuch as the one cannot be well devided from the other and when it hath them it retaineth them partly for a consolation and corroboration and partly for a multiplication of his essence And therefore those Philosophers are deceived which averre that the Load-stone doth not secretly feed upon the formall spirits of Iron because though its force was preserved by immersing or burying of it in a bag of filings or scales of Iron yet because neither the Load-stone was augmented nor the Iron diminished in waight they conclude that it doth not nourish But they ought to know that the formall beams in the aire doth adde no more waight unto it then the light of a candle doth to the glass or water in which it shineth and yet it nourisheth formally that is it multiplieth in formall essence though not in materiall substance or quantity To conclude as the externall cold causeth the formall heat in the aire to contract it self in flying and retiring it self from the circumference unto the Center to eschew the assaults of his adversary so also the externall cold doth compact it into a more solid space by an antiperistaticall reverberation and contraction caused by the Northern cold's penetration But in the Load-stone the spirit is Saturnine and doth not otherwise suck in his like by the assistance also of a Saturnine body animated by the drouth of a Martial nature which also is by some ascribed unto the North But moreover it affecteth his like in the Iron and therefore by a sympatheticall desire is the more animated unto that business of Attraction And it should appear besides all this that there is an attractive property also in the body of the Iron which sucketh unto it the spirits of the Loadstone no otherwise than the male or Mars doth in his nature covet and affect Venus but because the female by reason of her coldness doth most affect and desire the company of the male the spirituall beams of her affection doth with the most fervency desire and covet and therefore draw and alluâ—e the beams of the male which is of a hotter and for that reason of a more perfect nature unto her and this is observed in the Iron which I take for the male for though it of it self without the Load-stones assistance doth convert his poles by a naturall inclination unto the poles of the world yet we observe that it is more slowly and with the lesser appetite and therefore more formall than materiall I collect therefore upon that which is already said that two like things which are of the nature of the Aequinoctiall and temperate Zone do affect and embrace one another by a sympatheticall emission of beams from the center unto the circumference and such is the love of those creatures which live by the property of a positive emanation as are animals which are of a hot disposition be they dry or moist and therefore they do not sensibly draw one spirit unto another but work by the union which is made by a conjunction or concurrency together of lights after an emission of their formall beams And these have a reference unto the spirits property which issueth from the east and south winds whose natures are to dilate from the center and therefore not to contract from the circumference Contrariwise two like natures which embrace the property of the Poles and cold Zones do affect and hug one another by contraction namely by sucking and drawing of each nature from the circumference unto their center even as we see one Load-stone divided in the middle will draw and suck another unto it self till both parts of it be fitly joyned together in the very place or equinoctiall of their division and after this fashion also is that attractive affection made which is between the iron and the Loadstone which are creatures subject unto Saturn Vâ—rgo and the Pole-star From these Physicall and Astronomicall assertions of ours the Chimycall contemplation varieth not much for if in that kind of speculation we do observe the nature of the Load-stone we shall find it not to spring from any naturall but rather from a monstrous birth or generation forasmuch as it is noted to proceed from unequall and unlike parents as the Mule doth for if we observe well the manner of its composition we shall finde that his mother or passive corporeall masse is a common stony and earthly Mercury and that his father or active form is a metallick or sulphureous Martiall spirit And in conclusion we shall perceive that their mixtion is effected in this manner The Mercuriall liquor of a stony earthly or Saturnine nature being as yet in its first matter or shell as it were and being a near neighbour unto the Mercury of Mars for these two natures are most commonly found near and in company one of another did hereupon and for this cause acquire unto it self a light transmutation and so do appear to be joyned together by a streight contiguous and almost continued union so that the composition doth obtain a mean existence between the nature of a Martiall mettle and a Saturnine stone and may well be tearmed a Mercury metamorphosed by halves or a kind of a Hermophroditicall Saturnine Mercury into the which when the Sulphureous Martiall spirits as the metallick form do enter it receiveth those Martiall spirits and conserveth them in its womb as their proper passive and mother and by that means the mass is coagulated into a stony body Now since every spirit and consequently this of the Load-stone desireth to be nourished by that which is nearest and likest unto his own nature the which nature or spirit is onely found in Iron it happeneth for this reason that the inward martiall spirit of the Load-stone doth draw the body of Iron unto it and after an occult manner doth seem to suck his nourishment out of it I conceive therefore that the fixt salt in the Iron or Load-stone is partly of a hot and dry Martiall nature and consequently of a fiery earthly condition and partly of a cold and dry stiptick and Saturnine faculty which also it receiveth from its earth and therefore there concurreth two testimonies of strange attraction in the Load-stone And because Venus is said to be the female friend and companion unto Mars she doth add a strong concupiscible desire unto the attraction and bridleth the irascible
he operateth on the left hand yet shall I not see him he will cover the right quarter of the world and yet shall I not behold him So that what Pagnâ—nâ— maketh the orient angle of the world Tremellius maketh the face or fore-part of the world and so-forth Whence it appeareth and that as I think without further controversy that the direct disposition of man according unto the situation of the great world is when his face is disposed unto the orient or east angle of the earth And for this reason are the two eyes of man disposed in the frontispice of his fabrick as also of all other creatures that they might after a long nocturnall darknesse behold with delight the orientall Sun that by the presence thereof they might adore the Creator thereof in whose power it is by his golden aspect to banish the presence of the gloomy night and consequently to salute it as being the visible type of the eternall Sun 's invisible beauty who also as Scriptures hath taught us will appear at the last day from that easterly point to renovate and purifie by fire the corrupt world If followeth therefore that mans right hand or right part must respect the south as his left hand the north All which are by so much the more apparent by how much they agree and concord with Philosophicall reason For the Liver being on the right side of man doth most conveniently sympathise with the southern nature being that it engendereth by its vertue warm aery blood and sendeth it forth by the channells of the veins every where over the microcosmicall earth to make it to vegetate even as the southern wind produceth tepid or madid showers to water the microcosmicall earth that thereby the plants and heâ—bage which groweth on it may encrease and multiply by vegetation The left side or left hand is rightly compared unto the worlds Boreal quarter or the Arctick pâ—le for as in that angle the aire water or earth is cold and dry apt to congelation of a contractive and stiptick or restrictive nature so also we find that the spleen which lyeth in the left part of mans body is the receptacle of melancholy or congealed cold black sowre and earthly humours and as the northern blasts of the macroâ—osmicall or great world do obscure and mask or eclipse oft-times the fair sun-shine of the east and by that means do procure an obscure darknesse over all the hemisphear even so in the little world the flatuous fumes sent forth from this northern splene contracteth the heart and instead of wholsome and bright passionâ— namely of joy mirth and gladness which the beauteous sun-shine of life procureth unto man it bringeth forth dark passions as are sadness fear dispair and such like yea and causeth the heart to suffer the effects of syncopes and palpitations Thus therefore you see the two opposite poles of the little world to concur in effect and that in all respects with that of the great world counting the southern pole from the Aequinoctiall For if we divide the Load-stone in the middle that part in the Aequinoctiall which is next the north-pole will serve and stand in place of the South Pole and if again that half be divided in the Tropick of Cancer the division about the Tropick of Cancer will be his South Pole But to look more internally yet into the little world we find that it consisteth on that spirituall Corner-stone by which the world was made and the earth sustained and consequently in which the world and every point thereof was ideally delineated from the beginning before it was made after the manner of the earth which is said to be full of the Spirit of Wisdom Hereupon it is termed the Temple of God the body and members of Christ and the habitacle of the Holy Spirit as is said before For this cause therefore we must think that there are secret Poles circles and starrs assigned unto man as well spirituall as corporall no otherwise then there is unto the earth and every Magneticall portion thereof So that in man is the properties of the Macrocosmicall winds and consequently in it may passions be bred and produced which are as well Antipatheticall as Sympatheticall Now verily if in the second place we shall duly observe the nature of the Load-stone we shall not a little admire at the rare and singular properties thereof yea truly we shall find it almost to passe man's reason and understanding that a hard mineral stone unmoveable and stupid should neverthelesse be possessor of such spirits which are able insensibly to display and transmit their occult faculties and virtues quite through or a travers the hardest stones the most solid and closest grained wood the thick and intranspirable plates of mettal yea the impenetrable glass it self and other such compacted stuffe which have not any sensible Spiracle or porosity and that it should work on it self and on Iron and that it should behold the Pole Arctick at so long a distance as there cannot be a greater in our regard namely from the earth unto the highest heavens or the eighth Shpere the which is almost incommensurable I mean unto the Pole-star I dare boldly say that all the Schoole of the Peripateticks who made profession to give a reason of all things and to be ignorant of nothing that toucheth the most occult and intimate secrets of nature would find themselves much troubled and puzzeled and as it were inclosed in a confused Labyrinth of phantasticall imaginations and Chimerian surmises before they could discusse and unvaile this misty business or unrip the fardill of so profound a riddle that is to say ere they could hit the mark or attain unto the wished end of this inquirie which is onely pointed at and demonstrated by the finger of a far truer and diviner Philosophy whose main Subject of all actions and power is the spirituall Corner-stone Jesus Christ in whom is the plenitude of Divinity as St. Paul teacheth us Is it not wonderfull that this spirit can pass like that celestiall one in Man where the aire is not able to penetrate Is it not an evident Argument that it is of an aethereall race which is able to operate these effects quite through such solid bodies Wherefore let not Plutarch make his brags as he hath done where he striveth to undo this intricate Gordian knot or tye reputing it a shame and defect in such learned men as have medled herein and have not dived into the depth thereof being that at last he himself sheweth palpably herein his error after he had made so strict an inquisition For he concludeth that the insensible emanations or emissions or effluxions which issue out of the Load-stone and produce his attractive effects are gross and flatuous whereas if he had a little better considered the businesse he would have found that the subtilest and most rarified aire is not able to find any porosity or spiracle to breathe through thick
compacted boards or smoothed and polished stones or plates of silver and gold much less can any passage be admitted unto gross and flatuous spirits to breathe or expire through But to return again unto the straight line of our History CHAP. IV. Of a double attractive disposition in Man and how the one agreeth with the nature of the Load-stone and the other is different from it Herein also the Reason why the dead carcass of a Man is indued with a Magnetick power or attractive nature is discovered AS in the dimension of the Load-stone there is observed to be a multiplicity in kinds or manners of attraction for the attraction of it is otherwise effected at his Poles namely perpendicularly than it is on the Aequinoctial which is flatling so also there is a great difference between the attraction which is made in man For the Spleen being of the property of the North Pole sucketh unto it by the Ramus Splenicus his like namely Melancholly or terrestriall juices directly by a Saturnine virtue and the Gall attracteth by a Martiall Sulphureous or fiery terrestriety choller unto it and the Liver by a Southern or Aequinoctial dilatation disperseth the blood which it hath rubified by veiny channells through the whole Microcosmicall earth But first it attracteth by his porous Organs the like unto it from the guts All which manner of attraction it would never effect were it not by the incitation of naturall heat which though in it self it rather dissipateth by dilatation then attracteth by contraction yet it inciteth and animateth certain corporeall instruments ordained by nature for attraction's cause namely to draw and suck by contraction and to dilate again by relaxing or dilating of themselves And for this reason is the Heart the Stomack the Intestines or Guts the Veins c. made or compacted of fibers direct for attraction transverse for retention and oblique for expulsion Again the attraction of the aire by the Aspera Arteria and nostrills could not be effected but by the aid of the Pulmones or Lungs the which would not move or work but by the animation of a dilating and vivifying heat so that in this case all attraction of externall aire which is made by the Pores into the fleshy parts and by the Lungs into the Heart and by the nostrils into the brain proceedeth from the dilatated action of heat and is effected by instruments and that properly by the lungs and heart Even as we see that the Syringe or Squirt being pulled out attracteth or draweth aire but being thrust in it emitteth or expelleth it again and yet both these opposit actions in one Organ or instrument proceed from one dilated humane spirit which acteth We must understand therefore as I have expressed before that man is composed of Matter which is his Patient and Form which is his Agent and as matter did first proceed of the watery Subject which did issue out of the dark Chaos and therefore is of it self inclinable unto a Northern and privative disposition namely to rest cold mortification and immobility so it is this Matter that maketh contraction as well in the heart and consequently in the Pulse's motion as in the other parts of the body that is to say the naturall inclination of Matter in man is apt to contract spirits from the Circumference unto the Center when contrariwise Form being derived from Light is busie in dilatation and therefore in animation and exagitation of Matter which would otherwise be sopified and as it were mortified by her mother's Northern cold And this is the reason of Systole and Diastole in the hearts motion which commeth of that action and passion or operation and resistence which is made between the Light heat or Aequinoctial form and the dark and cold or polar matter in man's composition whereby it is apparent that as the great world is said to be composed ex lite et amâ—citia of hatred and friendship so also the little world is rightly averred to be compacted of contraries namely of the children of Light and Darknesse Now in this therefore a live-man's attractive power differeth from that of the Load-stone because the Load-stone is not so appearing lively as man is but may in some sort be esteemed dead because it is divided from his ferruginous vein in the earth and again he attracteth not by any dilatation made of a vivifying heat through any organicall Substance or assistance but by an earthly and Centrall contracting disposition And for that reason his greatest power of attraction consisteth in the Pole The live man's attraction proceedeth therefore from a dilatation of lively heat from the Center unto the circumference which causeth materiall instruments ordained as well for attraction as retention or expulsion to effect their office and yet sometimes it operateth chiefly to contraction that is in motion from the circumfereâ—ne unto the Center when it receiveth by the permission of God the beams of a privative Emanation as when the heart is contracted whereupon bad passions as sadness melancholy dispair envy fear and such like do follow as we have told you before Sometimes the naturall heat reflecteth for the Senses repose and rest his beams inwardly as in the action of sleep which is a type of death and darkness but contrariwise it dilateth its self from the Center unto the circumference when it will have the animal spirits to watch and operate in their functions By this therefore we may imagine that the Load-stone's attractive nature is from the circumference unto the Center being as it were to man's externall view half dead and by that manner of attraction it draweth unto it his like namely spirits out of the Iron or steel which by reason of its refination and homogeniety in nature as being cleared from all his stony Mercury which was heterogenious unto it we may compare unto a live man which is replenished with lively emanating or dilating spirits For I would have every man to know that there is not a creature on the earth which hath not his Astrological or starry influence which though we cannot discern it doth shine forth and maketh his aspect unto the like of his kind namely unto such creatures as are of condition with the starrs of heaven from whence the creature's influence doth descend But if the two creatures be dissonant in nature then the one doth Antipathetically divert or reflect his beams from the other The Iron therefore like a vivified mass meeting with the Load-stone doth easily emit his beams of love unto the Load-stone who doth as greedily suck or draw them by means of his inward earthly Martial Spirits even unto her Center and by the attraction of the Iron 's formall beams draweth with it all the Iron body that possesseth the starry or Martial influence In like manner a strong Magnet is as it were a female unto a weaker No otherwise is it with a live man and the dead carcass of another For though that many
you say and there may be a microcosmicall Magnes or Load-stone which may be selected and gathered out of the living man without any detriment or prejudice unto his life whose vertues both in regard of its monstrous and unnaturall generation being composed of unlike parents and being compacted of two substances different in kinde as the Mule is namely of an earthly Mercury and cholerick sulphureous human spirits as also in his manner of attraction of the spirituall Mummy out of the living man yea and what is far more admirable by the transplantation of it either to the animal or vegetable kinds it worketh after a strange fashion either sympathetically or antipathetically I know that these newes will streight way be esteemed by some who are apter to judge amiss than rightly to scan to be diabolicall And why Marry because they passe the sphear of their capacities And yet I know this to be true and know them which have put it in execution not without the wonderment of many yea I know this Microcosmicall Magnet and the use thereof the which when it is tryed by wise-men and well pondered by them will appear as naturall as the effects thereof will seem strange and the reason abstruse But if that which I have said before be well understood and seriously pondered the cause hereof will not seem so hidden as that it should exceed the limits of nature Of this kind of magneticall action as well sympatheticall as antipatheticall I purpose by Gods grace to discourse more at large in the third or last Book of this Treatise or History CHAP. V. In this Chapter is expressed the secret cause why and manner how as well the Microcosmicall as Macrocosmicall Load-stone doth operate ad distans and thâ—â— unto an unknown dimension or unlimited intervall MR. Foster hath sufficiently expressed the shallowness of his Philosophy where he averreth That because the light of the Sun and Stars cannot penetrate the thick clowds and opake bodies Ergo the formall essence of a man is not able to pierce and penetrate directly in his course without being stopped or hindred by Castles Hills Woods and such like But had he been a little more profoundly seen or immersed in the bowels of true Philosophy he would have known that the Etheriall sperm or Astralicall influences are of a far subtiler condition than is the vehicle of visible light Yea verily they are so thin so mobile so penetrating and so lively that they are able and also do continually penetrate and that without any manifest obstacle or resistance even unto the center or inward bosom of the earth where they generate mettals of sundry kinds according unto the condition of the influence as the antient Philosophers do justifie The subtlety therefore of this spirit Plotinus according unto Plato's minde doth fully expresse in these words Tanta est Aetheris tenuitas ut omnia corpora penetret universi tam supera quam infera cum ipsis conjunctus aut implicitus ea major a minime reddat quia spiritus iste interior cuncta opera eorum mole minima nullum prorsus augmentum recipiente alit atque conservat The tenuity of the Aether is such that it doth penetrate all the bodies of the world as well above in heaven as below on earth and this heavenly substance being joyned and mixed with them it maketh them not a jot the bigger for all that because this inward spirit doth nourish and preserve all bodies without adding any thing unto their weight or encreasing of their substance And by reason of this heavenly natures purity or subtlety the heaven or coelum is called by the wiser Philosophers and mysticall Poets the Husband unto the earth which they tearm Vesta yea and the very stars of heaven among the which the Copernicans ranck the earth are likened unto his wife being that they are extracted out of the aetheriall substance no otherwise than Eve was out of the side of Adam for they are defined to be the thickest portions of their orbs by reason whereof they are accounted as the members of heaven and consequently there is nothing so thin subtle and piercing as is that spirit from whence by condensation they are derived This is the cause that the true Alchymists do tell such wonders of their Coelum which they call their Quintessence arguing that by reason of its purity and subtlety it is able to penetrate all things And the Philosophers say that it is their nature which they define to be Vis quaedam rebus infinita omnia permeans entia cunctas generans res easque augens alensque ex similibus similia procreans A certain infinite power in things which penetrateth and passeth through all things ingendring every thing and augmenting and nourishing them and procreating like things of their like And verily if you will be pleased to consider really what I have spoken before you will remember how I told you that the angelicall vertue proceeded from the archetypicall emanations and are the types of the divine Idea Again that the aetheriall spirit was filled with the angelicall influences which had their essentiall root from God So that in verity it is not the starry light which penetrateth so deeply or operateth so universally but that eternall centrall spirit with which his divine and unresistable essence penetrateth all things both in heaven above and in the earth and waters beneath And all this the mysticall Philosophers seemed to verifie though darkly when they called Saturn which was the father also of Jupiter or the head of the catholick emanation the father of Coelum or Heaven arguing thereby that in the emission of the spirit of wisdom he produced created or informed the heavens according to that of Job Coelum ornasti Spiritu tuo Thou didst adorn the heavens by thy Spirit And David Verbo Domini fimati sunt coeli Spiritu ab ore ejus omnis virtus eorum By the word of the Lord the heavens were made and by his Spirit each vertue thereof And St. Peter Coeli erant prius terra ex aquis per aquas existentes verbo Dei The heavens were first and the earth of water and by the waters existing by the word of God It is certain therefore that the whole essentiall act of the aetheriall spirit is the divine emanation or the bright incorruptible Spirit of the Lord and therefore of necessity that spirit which is worthy to be the immediate vehicle of so unresistible and emanating influence must be conformable to it in purity and subtility which is the informer who is said by the wise Solomon to be Omni re mobilior subtilior attingere ubique propter suam munditiam innovare omnia implere orbem terrarum To be the most active and moveable and subtill of all things and to penetrate and pass everywhere by reason of his purity in essence and to renew and refresh all things and to fill the
spirits forcibly because vis unita est fortior But when the Iron is planted at a further distance namely in C the greatest portion of the basis of the spirituall triangular-emission passeth by the Iron without any streight encounter and so his effect or vertue is made too weak to draw so ponderous a thing at so far a distance But because his celestiall star doth meet and embrace his emissions and doth fortifie them therefore it is evident that the pole-star doth act in the Load-stone to stir up and animate his like vigour in it and the Load-stone being so vivified doth correspond unto the action of the star penetrating by all one sympatheticall and symphoniacall consent even to the center of his fountain which is easily effected being they are all of one essence Do we not perceive this by an externall apprehension to be true when we observe the northern pole of the Load-stone in a kind of naturall duty to regard and behold with a stedfast constancy the pole-star which is so far off from the body of the Load-stone though near and conjoyned in the beamy affection of one essentiall spirit That this is so we may perceive by the needle touched Do we not gather by Astronomicall practise that the distance of these two bodies I mean the celestiall star and the terrestriall stone is so great as there cannot be esteemed a greater extension in our regard namely seeing that the space is between the starry heaven or eighth sphear in which the pole-star is and the earth And yet we find them to concur and meet in aspect and to operate and sympathize with each other What! and must this abstruse spirits action be limited by any phantasticall and imaginary sphear of activity figured out by persons little skilled and too too superficiall in the occult treasure and arcane or centrall actions of God in nature In like manner there must needs be a sympatheticall concurrence of occult beamy light betwixt the Iron and the Load-stone because they have both centrall stars or beamy influences of one nature and from one and the same fountaine whose occult emanations pass God knoweth at how far a distance although the effects do accidentally appear unto our sense no more than the celestiall influences which descend from heaven upon the Minerals Vegetables and Animals Nevertheless if we will believe the relations of History we are told by Serapio O aus Magnus and the Moors that as well in the Indies as towards the northern pole there are Rocks of this Stone which suck and draw ships unto them at a far distance and pull the iron nailes out of them which is a cause as they say that they fasten together the plancks and boards of their boats and ships with wooden pins And again what shall we say unto the opinion of Fracastoâ—ius a learned Physitian and a well grounded Philosopher who blusheth not after a tedious enquiry made by him in the Load-stones secret disposition to conclude that the reason why the Load-stone directeth his pole unto the north is because that in that angle of the terrestriall world there are mountaines of Load-stone which do draw Iron unto it Verily it is a great distance that this magnetick Rock is able to operate upon the Iron if that were true namely from the Aequinoctiall unto the frozen point of the North-pole for unto the Aequinoctiall line the Mariners make use of the Needle to find out what altitude they are in And although some do think this strange yet for all that many learned men seen as well in Geography and composing of Sea-Maps as delineating the description of the world do firmly adhere unto this opinion Whereby we see that wise and learned men do confirm that the limited sphear of activity ascribed unto the Load-stone by the Peripatetick Philosophers and Christian School-men of his sect is vain and frivolous But to come and ascend from the Minerall unto the Vegetable and Animal Kingdoms we observe that there is an admirable relation between the fixed stars and the planets and by the same reason also between plant and plant yea and between the plant and the mineral and between the animal and the plant As for example Touching thâ— sympatheticall relation we find in the first place that the beams of the herb and flower Heliotropium and that of Succory do sympathetically meet and joyne themselves and embrace lovingly the beams and influences of the Sun for they are observed to turn and winde about even in the most clowdy day at the diurnall motion of him And contrariwise in the night time by reason of his absence they contract their flowers as being enemies unto the dark and cold night as Mizaldus affirmeth Also the Oynion as Plutarch doth testifie waxeth green and groweth when the Moon decreaseth and again it withereth when she encreaseth There is also a great sympatheticall reference between the Crab and Oyster and the Moon for when the Moon encreaseth they encrease in their succe or juice again when she decreaseth they also do decrease in their substance Moreover touching the eradiation of one plant unto another it is noted that the Rue otherwise tearmed Herbâ—gâ—ace doth entertain with exceeding great friendship the Fig-tree insomuch that it never groweth or prospereth better than under that tree and that there is a notable sympathy betwixt their natures it is evident because they smell and taste much alike Also if the Myrtle be planted near the Pomgranat-tree it maketh him more fertill and fruitfull and it self more odoriferous and each of them rejoyce at one anothers presence and society and indeed both of them agree in a nature being cold dry and astringent Moreover to express the exceeding sympatheticall relation which is between the Vegetable nature and the Mineral let us but mark diligently the occult property of the Hazel-tree For if at certain times there be forked twigs cut from it and each twig of the forked branch be held in each hand so that the forked place where they joyne stand directly upward and as it were perpendicularly And with this kind of posture of the stick the party that holdeth it pass over a mountain that hath in its bowells some riâ—h minerall or mettalline veine when as the man walketh right over the place of the mine the perpendicular twist will forcibly and that whether the bearer will or no bow downward towards the earth but if there be no mine or veine it will not move That this is true my self can witness and more than a thousand which have seen the effect and will justifie thus much for even among us certain Germaines performed the like fear in the Silver-mines at Wales and in Germany it is a thing commonly exercsied in those mountains of Saxony and Hungary where there are mines of Silver and Gold Besides lest my assertion should be of little faith among the incredulous I would have them know that George Agricola and Munster do avow
is evident that the beams of his affection did in the absence of his Master not forsake his Master's beams which guided him unto the unknown place so directly that he found him out Is it not also a wonderfull Sympatheticall Emanation that the Pigeon called the Carrier doth make unto the place or dove-coat wherein he was bred and fostered Which for that reason it doth so dearely affect and love that though he be conveied 500 miles from his noursery in an enclosed basket yet he will fly directly back again with a letter about his neck Which is an evident Argument that it is justly and straightly guided by the emitted beam of his affection which is contiued after a spirituall manner with the place it doth most delight in What shall we say in two persons whereof the one doth love and affect without all reason and therefore prosecureth with the beam of his affection his beloved though she or he altogether either abhorring or neglecting and not corresponding with the like beams of affection doth not reciprocally embrace but rather refuse and avert the beams of his or her Love But where two do joyntly affect by a Sympatheticall Union there the action will spiritually be furthered at a far greater distance as when two starrs of heaven send out their beams semidiametrally and concur in one harmonious point of affections Nay verily as we behold being taught by experience that there will be a great Antipathy between the slain bodie 's contracted spirit and the murtherer insomuch that the lively spirit of the dead being contracted after death by cold into its Center doth through an angry Antipatheticall passion move again from the Center unto the Circumference as it were to resist the deadly enemy and doth cause the congealed blood to flow and move as if it would meet with and assault afresh the murtherer's emitted spirit So we must surely confess that where one spirit concurreth in Sympathy with another of the like nature the power must be the greater and the action performed at a larger distance as is evidently expressed in the abstruse operation which is in the Magnetick cure effected between the weapon or ointment and the wounded person of which I have spoken so much in that hot encounter which hath been between Mr. Foster and my self in the Book where I was provoked to squeeze his Sponge and farther do purpose in this present Treatise to enlarge my self a little better touching that point by way of a comparison made between the Magneticall virtue in Man and that of the Load-stone The Argument of Mr. Foster consisteth upon the impossibility of that operating virtue at so large a distance as is propounded by some to be effected by the Ointment or rather of the lively blood's Emanation and emitting forth of his exciting spirituall beames or influences unto the dead or congealed blood which impossibility if it were true indeed in the Animal kingdom which is the most dilative and less bound with bodily bonds I wonder that it should not be far more impossible and unfezible in the mineral bodies by reason of the firm and close solidity of them which are therefore apter to retain their influentiall beams then the bodies which are made lax and porous Besides all this the Animal body is hot and fiery and consequently the readier to dilate and send forth his virtue the further but the minerall is cold and therefore the less active and powerfull in sending forth his beams And yet for all this experience teacheth us that the Loadstone looketh towards the North-star sendeth forth his spirituall aspect unto it as also the star doth at the like distance send out his beams unto his Northern minerall mark at an unmeasurable distance as is said before which being so why should not I beseech you the Animall star derived from his celestiall Fountain send out also his beams unto the frozen and chill blood in his unctuous earth I mean the Weapon-salve or unto the blood 's invisible spirit sucked into the Iron by his attractive Sulphureous nature For experience teacheth us that though no corporall blood be found on the Iron yet if the place of the weapon that wounded the person be anointed it cureth by a like Sympatheticall aspect For country-Chirurgions have made tryall when they durst not search the wound with the Probe and found by experience namely by putting the weapon into the fire that the part of the sword or weapon will discover it self which wounded the party being that it will change colour from the rest whereby they perceive how deep the wound is by the observation of that part of the weapon which did penetrate And therefore this is an evident argument of the ingression of the bloody spirits into the wounding instrument and consequently it argueth that there are essentiall spirits which emanate or issue forth of the blood quite forsaking the body whereby also it is expressed against Mr. Foster that if the grosser spirits of the blood are able to pierce the close-grained steel it s finer and more subtil spirits are able to penetrate without any resistance all other things in manner of an influence But wee 'l approach a little nearer to our purpose and will remove ouâ— argument from the minerall demonstration unto the vegetable that thereby we may express like by like in our animal subject I will therefore insist upon the Grain of Wheat which being dead and putrified in the earth is suscitated by the beamy influences of the Sun For like doth draw his like by a magnetick power and like rejoyceth in his like and like is suscitated and revived and quickened or evoked from his rest or center by his evoking and alluring or embracing like and by this means the beamy spark or atom of sunny influence in the grain being idle and doing nothing in the center thereof is stirred up by his externall like to act and operate his own delivery out of the elementall mire or the slimy band of the elementary compound And therefore as it was before contracted from the externall cold into the center it is now by the presence of fresh solary irradiation from above exsuscitated as is were from death unto life and so by the assistance of those celestiall beams it passeth beyond the limits of the corrupted grain and soareth above the earth and seeketh by all means to ascend unto his native region from whence it descended but being cumbered in his ascent by the sublunary substance of the importunate elements which enclose it on every side it is beset with the volatil salt of the aire and insteed of mounting into his desired place it is contented to multiply in his kind and to have companions namely other graines procreated like it self In like manner the microcosmical Sun of life raigning as Scriptures do teach us in the blood doth emanate and send out his spirituall beams which are inseparable by continuity joyned unto and continued with the spirit of the congealed
blood which is sucked into the iron or other weapon and retained in it for so pure worthy and subtle is the spirit of man's life that every creature doth by a naturall instinct affect to participate with it yea the very devills are said to affect a dwelling place in mans body by reason of the excellent temper thereof Neither would I have any man to scorn this saying of mine for there is a concupiscible passion even in the very stones and minerals themselves as in the Load-stone and Iron it is made manifest and the spirit of the Iron though it be minerall is of the same condition in his catholick nature that all other spirits are And therefore marvell not though I say that the universall spirit affecteth the animal being that for the same reason there hath been noted to be both a sympatheticall and antipatheticall condition between as well the mineral and vegetable and the mineral and animal as between the animal and vegetable But I will produce unto you a probable demonstration There was an Earl of whom in my Book intituled The squeesing of Parson Foster's Spunge I made mention that had his Gardiner cruelly wounded in his hand with a syth as he was mowing of grass the wound bled shrewdly and could not be stenched They went up unto his Lord and signified so much unto him and implored his assistance and desired to have some of his weapon-salve He commanded that forth-with the syth should be knocked off from his wooden handle and conveyed unto him The wounded fellow hearing so much took a hammer himself and holding it with one hand he struck hard upon the weapon or syth with the other and immediately a wondrous thing to tell and yet far from any suspition of diabolicall art the blood stenched and he bled not one drop after it as if the mineral spirit which retained that of the animal were terrified and as it were in awe of the animal spirit that struck it and thereby lost all the faculty of attraction or that the spirits included in it which did consent in harmony with the spirits of the bleeding man had rejoyced in a kind of revenge which was taken on the weapon For know that there is a sympatheticall and antipatheticall irradiation as well between the animal and the minerall as between the animal and animal or mineral and mineral But mark I pray you a second notable observation touching this point Sir Bevis Thelwell told me that for triall upon a Wheelers ax that had wounded him grievously on his leg after it was anointed and wrapped up the wounded person that could not sleep for pain in five nights before did sleep immediately after the oyntment and was at rest which when Sir Bevis Thelwell espied he would needs make triall of a thing which he had heard confirmed by many He opened the anointed Ax and scraped off the oyntment at one corner of it and forthwith he was advertised that the party complained of a grievous pain which he felt just about that part of the wound where the ax was bare by scraping whereupon also he anointed that protion over again and suddainly the party felt ease The same experiment was made and found true by the said Lord Captain Stiles and Sir Nicholas Gilbourn I can also say upon mine own knowledge that in the Church-yard on Bred-street-hill a widow-Gentlewoman having a box of this oyntment cured many of the Tooth-ake by pricking the pained tooth with a sharp stick till it bled and putting that stick into her box of oyntment Among the rest one of her neighbours a contentious woman having the tooth-ake made means unto her for her cure or to have ease Her teeth were pricked and the stick put into the oyntment and she grew well But within three or four daies after she fell out with the Gentlewomans maid and gave her Mistress but bad language all which the maid did certifie her Mistress of The Gentlewoman being merrily disposed said She would make her repent it and went unto the box and took away the stick belonging to this woman out of the pot and put it into a bason of cold water and immediately the woman had such pain as she was forced to sue to the Gentlewoman and she receiving another stick which had pricked her teeth anew it gave her immediate ease Which accidents when I had well contemplated I thought with my self that the included spirit had his chiefest comfort from the oyntment by keeping them warm and that if the oyntment was removed the cold aire which is an enemy to the activity of the bloody spirits was potent over it and did congeal them and so by consent of the beamy influence of life emitted from the wound unto the included spirits and continuated ever unto them as inseparable for it was one and the same spirit according unto Ezekiel's testimony in two severall properties that blowed from the north-wind and the south what distemper befalleth the included and congealed spirits in the weapon happeneth by effect of remission of evoked beams and as it were by a report unto the wound of the patient Again we must consider that the separated blood hath in it each respect of the Microcosm no otherwise than a portion of a whole Loadstone being divided from the whole hath in it all the proportions of the World namely the Poles Aequinoctial and so forth as well as the whole in it so that the Idea of the wounded member is in the spirits of the emitted blood and maketh his relation to every part thereof no otherwise than the poles of a piece of the Loadstone do unto the whole As also there is the like occult attraction and emission of beams between the little blood emitted and the whole bulk of blood retained in the veines as is between the small amputated Load-stone and the whole I conclude therefore that as the congealed bloody spirits in the weapon or amputated blood do by vertue of the homogeniall heat and unctuosity of the salve or oyntment ripen and exspire out by little and little unto his fountain no otherwise than the spark in the grain of corn being kept and preserved in the earthly matrix from the cold crude aire doth aspire upward to the heavenly Sun so also by little and little doth the wound heal and mend in the wounded creature And thus much for the manner of action between the wound and weapon-salve Now a word or two touching the intervall or longitude of distance between the wound and the oyntment The distance betwixt the Pole star and the Load-stone is unknown and yet the one doth operate in the other by sending out their reciprocall beams upward and downward therefore here can no certain limited sphear of activity be assigned unto their action The Sun and the spirit in the grain of wheat do operate in like manner by a continuation of one and the same nature Lo here is the limited sphear of activity also
effecteth For when it vegetateth or causeth to grow and multiply it is called life when it contemplateth it is termed a spirit it is called sense when it is conversant about the function which belongeth unto the externall sense it is termed the mind when it is versed about wisdom it is called Mens or the mentall beam when it understandeth it is termed reason when it discerneth between good or bad it is called memory when it remembreth it is styled Volunty when it willeth and yet all these are but onely one soul divers properties I say but one onely essence So that it is the same essentiall act which causeth life and contemplation which maketh sense and intellect which effecteth memory and reason and to conclude that willeth or nilleth Which being thus Is it not a sinfull thing in ignorant persons to make the occult actions of this abstruce spirit by which they live move understand discern between good and evill remember see feel hear touch and â—ast the effects of the devill and consequently to rob their bright soul of her honour instead of giving her thanks for her assistance by ascribing her arcane operations most irreligiously and falsly unto the devill And why I pray Why because they cannot dive into the depth of her activity by whom they themselves do live move and have their being Yea and to limit her activity with bounds according unto their pleasure who though they know not so much have their life and volunty from her which limiteth them according as she pleaseth who is infinite in her being for so much as she is a portion not divided from that Divine Emanation which is infinite in his extention It is evident therefore that this vivifying Spirit can send forth its action unto any mark in the world from any specifick nature but especially from the Microcosmicall creature and the rather if the mark be of the same specifick condition and the vehicle of the spirit namely the effused blood measuring first the distance between the wound and the Ointment Moreover we shall find this confirmed by other of her operations effected in the same Microcosmicall Mine from whence it emitteth its beams at an unlimited distance As for example It is found by experience and that by naturall means without any suspition of Cacomagicall devices or superstitious artifices that if a persons urine that hath the Yellow Jaundis be conveied at the distance of a hundred miles as by an honourable Person of no small rank and entire in Religion I am informed who hath often times made the tryall hereof unto a place where a composition shall be made of the urine and ashes of a certain tree commonly known and had in this Kingdom with certaine blades of Saffron as hath been told you in my Book entitled The Squeezing of Parson Foster's Sponge it often-times cureth that disease when the best of Physicall experiments have failed and this Medicine misseth seldom where the disease is curable And now I will relate a true story which befell this last yeare 1630 upon a Chirurgion's wife who dwelled not far from the Tower of London She fell desperately sick of the Yellow Jaundis and had sick gripings and shouâ—ings withall about her Stomack my self after many others was called unto her but prevailed but little by our Physicall means over the disease wherefore she hearing me tell of the many cures which this Noble Earl I spake of did perform in having the Parties water she sent her man unto me with her water to request me to make some means unto the Noble Man for her The fellow was sent by me with a letter four miles into the country and when he came unto the house he found two that were there to give thanks for their recovery For by that means they were cured The urine was received for my sake and the fellow sent away But mark the consequence so soon as the fellow was parted with the urine the sick woman was tatled unto by demure Gossips and told that it was done by witch-craft and the devill and therefore dangerous for her soul which made her rage and cry-out upon witch-craft and was much discontented which when I heard I came no more unto her esteeming her ungratefull and sent suddenly to the Earl to request him to undo the business and break the clods which he sent me word he would do but told me it was to late For said he it will work the effect howsoever Indeed the woman mended immediatly after it and no doubt did ascribe the cure unto some other inefficacious Physicall trash applied per chance unto her by some Mountebank All this I spake to my knowledg and I am not ignorant of the manner of the cure For it pleased the Noble Personage to impart unto me the manner yea and the Ladies his daughters have cured many of this disease aswell rich as poore who have made some means unto them for this cure And this worthy Lord did assure me that he had cured at an hundred mile's distance I cannot chose but make you acquainted with another cure which he effected upon a noble Lady that was my patient She had extreamly the Jaundis and though I did in some sort remove them for a while yet it returned again I then requested the Noble Knight her husband to send her water unto the foresaid Honourable Personage and promised him to write my letter by him All was done as I counselled and the Countess her self took it into her care to dispose of the water and the rather because the Lady that was sick was of a Noble Parentage Somewhat i wrought with the disease but not to our purpose Whereupon I did visite this Noble Man and told him of the small success that his Medicine had He willed me to send her water once more and told me that a Lady was with him in the foresaid noble patients behalf the day before I sent again her water and from that time forward she mended apaâ—e and was perfectly cured There are a hundred who can justifie this to be true Neither can it be alledged that it might be done by some medicine used in â—he mean time To â—ut off this objection she was prohibited for all that season to take any medicine but bare food onely Now the reason of this cure is no otherwise effected then that of the weapon-salve for the spirit of the blood in the infected person hath a continuated relation unto his salt yea and its habitation is in the aereall salt of the blood which being a subtle earth in the center whereof is the spirit contracted and being partly dispersed in the urine which is the whey of the blood it sucketh and draweth unto it his like from the infected body whereby it being as it were resuscitated and newly revived it emitteth new beams to meet comfort and correct the infected beams emitted out of the sick body And again the infecting spirit of the iâ—teâ—itious humour is by vertue
of the salt in the ashes and saffron conquered and tamâ—â—d so that as it dieth the insulting humour and his venomous spirit decayeth and fadeth by little and little in his strength till it be finally quite extinguished Whereby it is evident that by one and the same medicine the spirit in the urin's salt and that in the sick-man's blood are both sympathetically refreshed and purified and the flame of the evill infecting spirit of the disease as well as in the urine as sick body is antipathetically quenched and annihilated In this respect therefore we compare the composition of urine ashes and saffron in this cure unto the weapon-salve in the consolidating of wounds and the urine carried from the sick unto the mass so compounded unto the blood or spirit on and in the weapon and the exsuscitating of the congealed spirit in the salt of the urine unto the revivifying and exagitating of the spirit in the dead blood or sucked up by the poâ—y substance of the weapon so that we see here all one consent For as the dead blood came from the lively fountain of blood so the urine was the whey or serous substance of the same well-spring not left destitute of the bloody spirits What shall we say unto the admirable effects in the transplantation of the bloody spirits in man into other animals or vegetables Veâ—ily it is a thing well known unto such as are well seen in the mysteries of naturall microâ—osâ—iâ—all and macroâ—osâ—icall Magick that the spirituall Mummy whose seâ—t is in the microcosmicall blood may be suâ—ked or drawn out of mans â—ody by a Magneâ— extracted out of the same subject and transplanted into a beast tree oâ— herb so that the disease also of the sick man may be conveyed from the sick person into them by means of this microcosmicall Magnes the practise whereof shall be expressed more at large in the next Book Also Johannes Râ—melius Pharamundâ—s doth profess that he hath cured divers of the Gout by cutting off the haires of the feet and thighes and paring off the nailes and thrusting of them into a hole which he bored unto the very pith of an Oke and closing or ramming up the hoâ—e again with a peg or pin made of the same tree and afterward daubing it up and covering it over with cow-dung Then saith he if the Gowte come not again within the space of three months the Oke will be sufficient to draw magnetically unto it the disease but if the Gowt come again within three months space it noteth the insufficiency of the Okes magneticall vertue Wherefore then he proceedeth after this manner He boreth a hole in another Oke as before and keepeth those pieces which in the boring came out of the Oke and bruiseth them and quilts or stitcheth them up in a bag and applyeth them to the member grieved and this he doth just three daies before the new Moon Then in the very hour of the new Moon he taketh away the bag and taketh out the bruised wood and putteth it into the hole of the tree and rammeth it in with a peg or pin of the same Oke And if for all this the Gowt shall be perceived within three three months after then he cutteth off the hair and nails of the feet and tyeth them unto the back of a Crab-fish and casteth it into the running water and the gowty person will be cured This Doctor of Physick doth professe in a certain Book of his set forth by him in the German Tongue that he hath cured many by the first experiment and many other by the first and second one after another and lastly many desperate ones by the first second and third And he saith that this manner of cure is commonly found certain in those Gowts which happen of a sulphureous cause but in those Gowts which rise from a Mercuriall and salt nature it often faileth And therefore leaving this magnetick manner of cure he betaketh himself unto a more externall kind of remedy I have also in my Squeezing of Mr. Foster's Spunge related unto you the strange sympathy which is betwixt the Vegetable called Rosa-solis and the matrix of a woman and how it being laid in Plantain water it closeth it self and if a part of that water be drunk by a woman that is in Travell and the herb in the water be removed into another house yet at that very instant that the woman is upon delivery the flower or herb will by little and little open it self even as the matrix of the woman doth An evident argument that those beams which issue from these two do sympathize with one another To conclude it is most evident that seeing the spirituall Astralicall vertues in each inferiour creature do descend from celestiall stars and are of one continued nature with them as the Sun-beams which are here below are not divided or separated from their fountain of light it followeth that they emit their beamy influences unto one another even as the two stars do in heaven from whence they are animated so that if the two stars in heaven be friends they both do sympathize in the occurrences of their emanations with one another but if they be enemies to one another in heaven they will in their applications of beams antipathize and decline from one another And as touching the distance which they observe in their mutuall action with one another we must imagine it to extend it self so far as their beams are able to apply to one another And I would have such men as are onely conversant about sensâ—ble affairs know that the action of these creatures by aspect unto one another do operate occultly though the effect doth nor alwaies manifest it self unto ouâ— sense but withall they ought to conceive that the nearer in naturall affinity the stars in heaven and consequently the things beneath which are subject unto those spirits are unto one another the more efficacious will the sympathising effects prove by reason that then their beams will meet directly that is without any swerving or declination CHAP. VI. That the devill doth make use of naturall things to operate his stratagems amongst men without the which he can effect nothing truly but onely prestigiously or by delusion And whether those Naturall things are therefore Cacomagicall and to be eschewed of Mankind because their secret effects do sometimes conform themselves unto the voluâ—ty of the devill WE read in many places in Scripture that the devill maketh use of Gods creatures to bring to pass his secret devices and stratagems against mankind as for example Satan to impoverish and ruinate the fortune of patient Job did make use of the winds and did call as the Text saith the fire of God from heaven to consume his cattle God forbid that we should esteem for this reason these creatures of God to be cacomagicall and diabolicall because God made them act to accomplish the will of the devill He made him also a Prince of the
aire insomuch as he hath power to stir up tempests in the seas and storms in the elementary heavens and therefore the aire by some is called The Synagogue of Satan What! must we therefore abhor the aire and winds because the devill doth at sometimes act by and in them his mischievous feats when as the aire is cleared and purified from all corruption as Aristotle saith rightly by agitation of the winds for if it were not excited and moved by the winds it would putrifie as the standing waters doth Again if we should fly from and loath the aire how should we live when the airy spirit is the spirituall seed of our life We read also in Scriptures that God causeth the Sun indifferently to rise upon the good and bad and that the Sun and Moon do harm or hurt some as again they are comfortable and propitious unto others and therefore David saith The Sun shall not harm thee by day nor the moon by night The Moon which is termed by the Poets Hâ—ccate is the goddess of witches for unto her did the famous Enchantress Medaea make her orisons for the furthering of her purposes and yet the aire the water and the earth are seasoned with her humid or madid vertues and the plants yea and animals do acknowledge her the Patroness of vegetation the maketh the seas to swell and again by another kind of her position or aspect the seas are abated in their pride and humours are more scanty in every living or vegetating thing Yea we finde that all the malignant watry spirits are subject unto her influences and that Satan also taketh his advantage on the diverse positions of her or conjunctions and applications with other as well fixt as erratik starrs to work his feats for he is an old beaten Souldier in Astrology and knoweth the effects of every situation of the heavens and therefore can take the advantage of their strongest influences upon animal vegetable or minerall creatures which are subject unto them he knoweth the due times when they are poured down upon them and is expert in their virtues which are then onely of greatest efficacy and force when the powerfull point of their proper constellation striketh upon them and stirreth up their Centrall spirits to shew forth the uttermost of their occult or arcane natures and conditions and then at the very instant he collecteth the herb or stone or maketh use of the Animal's members or teacheth such as are Sorcerers to do it without knowing the mystery of the constellation 's concurrence or application at that time of the collection with the naturall creatures so collected So that when they attempt to make use of the same Simples at another time they find them weak and of none effect because the spirits of every herb animal or minerall are weakest when the starre which is their nursing celestiall mother hath least power or dominion in heaven All which the true Astrologicall Philosopher knoweth right well by experience to be true For gathering of a Simple at the point when the constellation as well fixt as erratick which hath the essentiall dominion over it is in his greatest dignity and power in heaven he findeth an admirable efficacy in it as well in his occult as evident property when contrariwise if it be collected at a season wherein the heavenly Patron is weak and feeble they will appear as it were faint and almost dead in their power Whereby it is most apparent that it is the naturall creature 's which by their own essentiall natures work even as well those sympatheticall as antipatheticall effects which the devill doth make use of to perform his devices even as the Physitian Philosopher or naturall Magitian doth to effect their own ends What shall we say then what that whosoever shall use or operate by the same creatures be they animals vegetabls or minerals are Cacomagicians and their work diabolicall because the devill at some times maketh use of their subtil and abstruse action to build himself a name amongst fools Is it not God that worketh such effects in these his creatures Did he not by his Word bestow such virtues on them in their Creation and continued it in their sucession by generation Why then is it not as possible unto Man who is framed after God's Image to know the true time of the collection of these creatures with the uses and virtues thereof as well as the devill What because forsooth he since the fall Adam is blinded with ignorance and cannot see or distinguish light from dakness That Adam knew the virtues of the starrs and of every particular earthly creature subject unto every one of these starrs we partly gather out of Scripture For else could he not have assigned a proper name unto each of them agreeing to his nature But if the sucession of Adam is blind and cannot distinguish of colours and therfore is ignorant also in these hidden treasures of God How I pray you came the devill to have so deep an insight in them being that he fell for his rebellion farre deeper than Man and is clogged with a darker vayl than he and therefore is called the Prince of darkness Oh you reply the devill is a spirit without body and therefore is able to discern the hidden things of God in nature sooner and beter then Man who is a gross bodily creature And again Man dieth every Age but the devill by reason of his long continuance is of great experience I answer That though Man die and continueth not long and though he be obscured in his understanding by reason of his Fore-fathers fall and though he be clad or indued with a dark and combersom body yet hath he the revelation of the Truth and a discovery of the abstruce mysteries of Naturall things first from God bequeathed and left unto him by succession that is by a Cabalisticall tradition even from our Fore-father Adam and by the revelation of God's Wisdom or the good Spirit which he hath bestowed upon the Elect For by it as Solomon himself doth restifie he came to know the disposition of the Earth the virtue of the Elements the beginning end and middle of times the change of manners the division of times the course of the year the disposition of the staâ—rs the natures of living creatures the condition of beasts the force of the winds the differences of Plants the virtues of roots yea saith he and I discovered all hidden and abstruce things For Wisdom who is the worker of all things taught it me c. And again it is said that he knew and was instructed in the mysteries of all Plants even from the lowly Hysop unto the lofty Cedar of Libanon Was it then a diabolicall action in Solomon to look after and to practise upon the abstruce natures of Plants and Animals and to find out by his skill in Astrology the proper starrs which are their true Patrons and charitable Mothers in heaven and to make
that lives not far off from Aâ—x in Prâ—vence is fresh yet in every mouth of that place that with the like philtre did infect the whole City with so desperate a plague that it did destroy moâ—t of the people theâ—eof onely they were preserved and cured when this Hermit pleased who for that cause was styled by thâ— name of Holy Hermit for as he pâ—ysoned the hammers of each of the dores so that whosoever knocked with them was foâ—thwith infected he that poysoned had his counter-poyson to cure This devillish peâ—son was at the last discovered and burnt alive as he well deserved By the like stratagem a little before my comming into Provâ—nce the plague was brought into Tu in in Piamont by certain lewd persons who suffered for it their flesh being torn from them by hot fiery pincers Also lately by the strewing of a venoâ—ous powder the plague was multiplyed in Millan the conspirators disâ—overed and executed And thus by these wicked inventions the internall spirits of men were infected and the externall aire polluted Neither can this to the true Naturalist apppear strange since it is proved by experience that a wholsome aire is oftentimes converted by a venomous blast of the southern winde â—nto a corrupted and contagious disposition and the aire that was pure and unpolluted is now by the pestiferous breath of a plaguy person or the infectiâ—â— carbuncle or both inquinated and made venomous and that aire so corrupted will also corrupt his next aery neighbour which was â—ound and healthfull before Let us but observe how the infected spirit of the plaguy person or one possessed with the small Pox or Measels Ptisick or Ophthalmy or blear eyes doth infect the spirit of a sound man at a good distance and the Leprosy Epilepsy French-Pox by an immediate contact and we shall find how that which was created wholsom and salutary in man is become contaminating and venomous by disorder What therefore shall I say must we conclude that we must abandon our own nature because it may be made infectious and deadly unto us Nay must we therefore esteem human nature to be therefore abhominable and abhorred of man because the witches and sorcerers do by the devills doctrine and instructions make use of mans flesh hair nailes excrements blood yea and of both his spirituall and corporall Mummy to bâ—ing their wicked purposes and inchantments to pass That this is so we find it as well maintained by History as daily practise observed amongst the witches for Apuleius who for his magicall relations was censured by some to be a witch telleth how his sweet-heart â—otis was by her mistress being a notorious witch sent into a Barbers shop secretly for mens hair to employ it about her witchcraft Also he sheweth that it was a thing so frequent in those daies by reason of the abundance of sorceresses which abode in Thessaâ—y to have watch-men with store of lights to attend upon the dead corses or corps immediately after their death to hinder and prevent the witches which used to come in secretly by night in the form of Weasels and such like shapes to steal away some part of the carcase to serve their turns about their wicked art Moreover it is a common thing amongst them and the Necromancers to frequent the Church-yards and to visit the graves of such as are dead either for some part of them or else for a piece of their winding-sheet or of the coffin wherein they were buried by reason of the spirituall Mummy which sticketh unto them to effect their ceremonies and naughty devices It hath been confessed by a witch that destroyed a Noblemans children of this Land that she could have no power over one of them till she had recovered an old glove that it wore and afterward she had power over it the reason was because of the relation which the spirituall Mummy of the child that entered by sweat into the glove had with that of the body no otherwise than that spirit upon the weapon hath unto the spirit of the wounded body so that as that fareth either in hot or cold distempers so also it fared with the spirit in the wound as it appeared when the ax or weapon was uncovered by chance the wound would be dolorous and distempered with cold and when of purpose part of the oyntment was pared off from the weapon that part of the wound which corresponded unto it would ake and be troubled so also the witches applying their naughty venom unto the Mummy in the glove shooe or other part of the worn-shirt smock sock or such like do produce their venomous effect afar off We read also in cacomagicall books in what esteem the members of young children were among enchanters and especially their skin of which after many diabolicall and necromanticall consecrations they create their virgin parchment on which they write the names of god of the angels they invoke and the character of the planet or star unto which they do belong Must therefore the magnetick effect of mans nature or spirituall Mummy with his like be esteemed damnâ—ble and diabolicall because the mystery thereof is by the devill revealed unto witches and the secret pâ—operty thereof converted unto an evill sense and unchristian-like use Must aire be refused and banished from man because it may be by bad means corrupted and so be made to kil or is fire to be excluded as condemnable for that it being ill applyed proveth now destructive which being rightly applyed doth cherish and comfort If by contaminating or changing our spirituall Mummy into a contagious and venomous disposition we infect another as one plaguy person poysoneth anoâ—her ad distans and one house on fire setteth fire unto another though it be not contiguous or touching must therefore the use of the aire and fire be condemned and banished from mans use Or must Gods fire from heaven be abhorred because Satan made use of it in a destructive sense and for the ruine of Job's possession Shall I say the occult property of the spirituall Mummy and the admirable efficacy of mans spirit in wholsome and salutary uses be therefore eschewed and abhorred because by infection it may be converted to a poysonsome disposition Shall a good sword which is ordained for the defence and safeguard of its master bâ—â—herefore broke and cast away because a bad man killeth another with it A good thing being ill applyed may do harm The influence and light of the heavenly Sun in the which is the spiracle of life being ill received doth sometime breed unnaturall effects yea the devill himself maketh use of it to serve his use at severall seasons and yet neither it nor his vertues can for all that be esteemed diabolicall In like manner if we descend from the animal sphear unto the vegetable and mineral we find that the notorious Enchantress Medaea made speciall use in her enchantments as also the same is related of other sorcerers and witches of herbs
containd under discordant Principles shall be again reduced unto one and the same radicall beginning But as yet we are subjected under contrary Principles for the whole world and the members thereof are composed yet of strife and concord of enmity and friendship of darknesse and light of evil and good and therefore under the protection of this Divine Wisdom which governeth all things and striveth to have the victory over confusion and dissention in this world that a generall peace and union may be made And therefore that all things may return and live in him who is onely Love the creature hath power to make a sympatheticall accord with his like and to repell by an irascible or antipatheticall property his contrary Now therefore since that this Spirit is all in all and therefore in every Specifick it consequently followeth that it attracteth sympathetically that which is conservative or of a like nature and condition in the animal vegetable or minerall kingdom and expelleth antipathetically from it that which is harmfull odious and detestable or of a contrary disposition unto it And thus much touching a brief of my precedent sympatheticall and antipatheticall Theory mentioned in my precedent discourse I will now enter boldly into the Practick of them both that thereby you may be the easlier induced to believe that such things as are spoke of before Theorically are feazible and easy to be brought to practice and that onely naturally without any Cacomagicall act or Diabolicall assistance as many temerarious and rash-headed fools of this world have scandalously blazed abroad not onely in their vain and windy Words but also by their inconsiderate Writings I will proceed therefore unto my purpose and divide this present Book into two severall members Whereof the first shall handle such sympatheticall effects and the second such antipatheticall events as are Magnetically produced in the animal vegetable and minerall kingdoms The first Member of this Book intreating of the admirable effects in Sympathy which are brought to pass by the Magneticall Attraction of like unto like CHAP. I. Herein is expressed how by comparing the Mineral Load-stone and his attractive Virtues with those of the Animal and Vegetable we may find out and bring to a demonstrable light the wonderfull effects that do lurk in them both SInce it is a thing most worthy of observation among wisemen that there is nothing in the celestiall Orbe which hath not his like in the terrestriall So verily there is nothing in the minerall kingdom which hath not his like in the vegetable and again the likness of the vegetable Sphere is found in the animal I mean in love and hatred in attraction and expulsion in union and divorce But because in the mineral kingdom there is found nothing in all the world so neare in virtue unto the action and life of the animal as is the Magnet or Load-stone Since that it affecteth sensibly his ferruginous like it seemeth to wooe and lust after it and attracteth it eagerly and lasty uniteth it self unto it after a marvellous manner even as the the female and male do in the animal kingdom For this reason every like particle in the animal or vegetable kingdom that worketh after the same manner are justly tearmed Magneticall Hereupon the well experimented Doctor Paracelsus when he writeth of the mysticall Mummies as well corporal as spirituall and of the attractive means or manner to extract them as well out of the living as dead bodie He for the better instruction of his Schollers and such as he termeth filios Artis the children of Art expresseth examples drawn from the Load-stone and the Iron For by it he doth sufficiently declare the manner of extracting the said Mummy and consequently doth open after his fashion what the Microcosmicall or Animal Magnet is by means whereof it is extracted out of the body namely that it is a corporall or substantiall thing as he seemeth to justify in these words Spiritualis Mummia non operatur nisi per corporalia media The spirituall Mummy worketh not but by corporall means Where he intimateth by corporall means those secret Magneticall bodies which suck it forth of the living animal and make it to operate as well at home by an immediate contract as abroad namely in or at an unlimitted distance that is to say by a naturall and convenient transplantation He therefore who is wise and profound in these mysteries of Nature and unto whom the Sympatheticall Concordance abstruce properties nature virtues and originall of the Load-stone and the Iron is well known will know that their example may fitly be applied unto man For by it he may easily discern the Microcosmicall Magnets and understand the manner of their extraction of the spirituall Mummy out of man and withall conceive the proper end and usage thereof That thetefore these things may be the better dilated and enucleated unto the well-wishing Reader I think it fit in the first place to touch a little the same string of one symphoniacall Concordance that doth concern the nature and Originall of the Load-stone and the Iron which we have more fully mentioned in the precedent Book of this our discourse that thereby we may with the greater facility gather what the Microcosmicall Magnets are As I told you before in the third Chapter of the second Book of this Treatise that it was evident that the Load-stone otherwise called the Calamite or minerall Magnes proceedeth not of any naturall beginning but rather of a monstrous birth and originall forasmuâ—h as it seemeth after the manner of a Mule to be procreated of unequall and unlike genitors or parents being that his mother or corporeal and passive mass appeareth evidently to be a common Saturnine stony Mercuriall substance and his father or active form a mettallick or sulphureous Martiall spirit Now after what manner the mixtion of these two are made I beseech you to observe in a word When the Saturnine Mercuriall liquor of the stony nature was as yet in his first matter near unto the Mercury of Mars for these two are most commonly found together namely the Magneticall nature and the Iron mine for this reason to wit because of their near alliance and propinquity in exidence there was required but a light and easie transmutation to unite them into one body and therefore it seemeth to enjoy a middle nature between a metall and a stone And it may well be called a half transmuted Saturnine Mercury into the which when â—he spirit of the Martiall sulphur as a metallick form hath entred it receiveth it as his passive mother and conserveth it within it self and is coagulated into a stony body whiâ—h is called the Calamite Magnet or Loadstone Now since every spirit doth pâ—inâ—ipally affect and covet to be nourished with that which is nearest â—nd likest unto his nature the which nature and spirit is found to be onely in Iron and therefore they are observed to proceed from one Mine or the same terrene
matrix yea that out of the Magnet body the perfectest Iron or Steel is extracted it ariseth from the consideration that the Martiall and Saturnine spirit of the Load-stone sucketh and attracteth from his center the body of Iron unto it drawing forth of it his formall beams as it were his spirituall food but because the iron-Iron-body will not forsake so easily his inward spirit it followeth and is suâ—ked unto it And again the Iron finding the like spirits in the Load-stone doth covet as fast to be possessor of them by an equall coition or desire and so a conjunction or union is made no otherwise between them than between man and wife But because the Loadstone is fuller of the Saturnine stony Mercury than the Iron which is purified from it by fire and consequently more near unto the property of the male therefore it sucketh not the Load-stone so greedily unto it as the Load-stone doth the Iron For it is an old confirmed axiom That Matter doth desire and long after Form and as eagerly doth draw and allure it as the female doth the male But that the Iron is in lieu of the male it appeareth in the strength that it addeth unto the Load-stone for if the Load-stones pole be capped with steel it doth so far animate it beyond his own proper nature that it causeth it to draw unto it a far greater proportion of Iron then otherwise it was able This therefore being rightly considered we may with the greater facility collect what that microâ—osmicall Load-stone should be that is able to extract the microcosmicall spirit without any dammage or debilitation of the body If therefore we would attempt to effect this excellent exploit we must do it by such a corporall Magnet as shall be taken out of the Microcosm or Man whose production and generation must in every respect accord and agree with that of the macrocosmical or terrene mineral Loadstone which is mentioned before the which I purpose onely by circumloâ—uâ—ion and not in plain tearms to expresse unto you that thereby so great a secret as this key to unlock the balsamick cabinet of mans Mummiall nature may be hidden from the unworthy and yet sufficiently made manifest unto the worthy and religious Philosopher by evident circumstances for if that such hidden mysteries in nature were vulgarly discovered there would be no difference had between a wise man and a fool And therefore Solomon did teaeh us Quod sit sapientis celare rem It is the part of a wise man to hide the thing And the wise Philosophers in their Writings did so considerately express the secret of nature that they might hide it from the ignorant and uncapable vulgar and yet speak plainly to such as are the children of art and sons of true learning But this is not all for I would have you to understand that the property of the magnetick microcosmicall work is so universall that it sheweth the way as well to infect the Mummiall spirits of man with a venomous and pernicious antipatheticall nature as to extract it in its wholsome and sympatheticall condition whereby it may be employed in good and salutary usages And for that reason namely because evill-minded persons as well witches and sorcerers whom the devill hath instructed in the abuse of this excellent mystery as also wicked minded-men I mean incarnate devills may do great mischief in the world by the publick revelation thereof for most men are proner unto mischief than inclined to do goodness I think it to be the wisest part not to name the internall microcosmicall Magnet openly but onely to express it in more generall tearms I would have therefore each wise man to understand that the magnetick nature as well antipatheticall as sympatheticall of all things consisteth onely in the sulphureous vertue of the vitall spirits which by reason of their incarceration are apt to attract their like unto them by contracting of it self from the circumference unto the center Even so the animal vegetable and mineral salt which is the immediate receptacle of this sulphureous spirit that by reason of its pure Saturnine Mercurial earth sucketh and draweth by the act of the included spirits their like from the circumference whereby they vegetate and multiply both in their airy volatill salt which by a Saturnine or northern condition is like snow or frost condensed and in their aetheriall or celestiall fire And again the sulphureous spirit flyeth back or reflecteth his beams into its centrall salt after it did emanate unto the circumference of the body by northern accidents namely by externall cold as it appeareth by the fiery or heavenly seeds included in the aire that is retained within the Weather-glass which when the north-wind bloweth is contracted by reason that the expansed spirits of the celestiall sulphure or the heavenly fire which is in it flying from his cold opposite betaketh it self unto the center of the aire compassing as it were it self with a clowd or making it a house to resist the northern blasts inclemency For as hereafter I will shew you in my magnetick demonstration that the sulphureous Aequator is an enemy to the cold Mercurial poles Also in mans body when a northern or stupid fear possesseth it the sulphureous spirits contract themselves and leave the externall aspect pale blewish and wan and in so doing contract the internall spirits of the body unto the center but this motion is antipatheticall and caused by unnaturall passion Again those sulphureous included spirits being at liberty they dilate and expanse themselves into the open aire as having no evident magnet to attract or contract them into a narrower room To conclude therefore the microcosmicall Magnet must issue and be ingendred from the microcosmicall sulphureous spirits in his proper salt which is his form from a more strange Mercury which by his vicinity and propinquity is most familiar with it and as it were akin unto it by adoption and this is his passive matter Wherefore of these two microcosmicall portions I mean the formall and materiall our secret Magnes is framed by the which the spirituall Mummy is extracted out of the living man by means whereof admirable cures and pernicious harms may be effected as well ad distans or afar off as near at hand or by an immediate contact or administration Moreover the same internall Magnet or attractive salt in man in whose interior the sulphureous vivifying spirit doth dwell and of whose condition and root our foresaid microcosmicall Magnet is will perform the self same salutary effects and many other rare experimentall conclusions if it be conveyed into the blood by transplantation from the alive person by an effluxion or in the nails and hair separated from him to another subject There is also another microcosmicall Magnet which is taken from the dead man by the means whereof the spirituall Mummy may be drawn out of the living man and applyed for mans health as well by an immediate administration as by
transplanting of it into a vegetable plant herb or tree as in the progress of this Book shall be more amply declared But because the order of these things in our demonstration à posteriori or by progression from the effect unto the originall cause of these things will be most convenient for the common and vulgar capacity I will begin to ascend in this mine explication from grosser elements unto more subtle intricate and abstruce things as if by proportionate degrees I should mount from the earth into heaven I purpose therefore first to express and demonstrate unto you those things magnetically which are onely wrought by the corporall contact of two severall bodies of the same naturall condition But before I will begin with the Mummy which is taken out of mans dead body I think it in the first place most necessary to entreat of the dead carcase his mystery that we may proceed the more methodically in our intent CHAP. II. That there are four sorts of corporall Mummy whereof one onely is usefull and necessary for salutary purposes In this Chapter also is set down an experiment with certain ocular Demonstrations confirming the magneticall or a tractive vertue of the Basamick spirits which are in the usefull Mummy SUch as have profoundly considered and deeply respected as well the externall as internall nature of man have perceived that the microcosmicall Mummy is of two conditions namely corporall or spirituall of the first I purpose to speak in this present Chapter the second shall be handled hereafter and that at large Touching the corporall Mummy it is either naturally sympatheticall or unnaturally antipatheticall We find therefore by experience that the naturall Mummy is onely medicinable and salutiferous after his due preparation which is effected chiefly by his own magnetick property the rest are apter to breed diseases and to infect such persons as are in health than to afford them any salutary relief or consolation for as according unto the nature of the four elements there are four kinds of corporall and substantiall Mummyes so also are they distinguished according unto those elements whose natures they have endued of the which three of these are corruptible and inducers of death and sickness namely the earthly the watery and the fiery and onely that which is airy is util to mans life and amicable unto his nature Concerning those three kinds of Mummy which breed corruption the reason why they prove corruptible is this We must hold it first for a generall axiom in Philosophy Quod corruptum corrumpentis naturam in se induit That the thing corrupted doth endue the nature of the thing corrupting As for example If the dead carcase of a man be corrupted in the earth it is changed and passeth into the nature of the earth and becommeth inutil for mans health and indeed rather destructive then constructive or wholsome Again if the corruption be made in the water then the corrupted flesh or dead body will acquire or endue a waterish and masseluginous disposition which also will prove very incommodious or unprofitable for the conservation of the vitall spirits And lastly by the inordinate violence of fire the spirits in the Mummiall body will be consumed wasted or expired Now the reason why these said corporall Mummie's in those estates are inconvenient for the conservation of health is Because the foresaid three do so destroy and corrupt the body of them that they make and constrain his earth his water and his fire to return unto their first matter so that whereas the earth and the water are ordained to be the receptaâ—les of two vivifying elements namely of fire and aire which onely can be conserved in a body that is incorrupted it must of necessity follow that in the three foresaid Mummies those vivifying spirits must needs vanish and fly away for want of a naturall body which is now become corrupted and destroyed and therefore unnaturall Seeing therefore nothing is required in the true Mummy more then that which is apt and proper for the conservation of life yea for life it self which is the aire which is banished and expelled from the three forsaid Mummies therefore nothing can be extracted out of them but sickness death and destruction and consequently antipatheticall effects so that if a sound murthered oâ— strangled body do rot under the earth or in the water it is not fit or proper for the wholsome use of mans body The very self-same regard is to be had unto such bodies as die through infirmityes and diseases and although they are not visibly corrupted by the three foresaid externall elements yet nevertheless it happeneth so that a certain invisible corruptible influence and impression is made or caused from the externall elements into the internall From hence therefore proceedeth that intestine war in mans body whereby the elements do kill and corrupt one another but after a divers fashion namely otherwise in one body than in another according as one element or elementall alteration is said to have dominion or rule over the other And this is the reason that such variety of diseases do haunt mans body as for example The Dropsie commeth of the strong impression of water the Hectick or burning Feavor of fiery insultations and the Leprosie of the dominion of earth c. And therefore also where any such elementary corruption happeneth unto the body there the wholsome spirit of the corporall Mummy with his habitacle or dwelling mansion is utterly overthrown and the spirit is forced to depart and consequently contrary Mummiall spirits do dominere and are ready to operate antipathetically as shall be expressed in the second member of this Book But if the sound body that is not haveing any infirmity be killed onely by and in the Element of aire that is to say through strangling or by hanging then there will be found no impression of the foresaid Elements in the corporall Mass of mans carcass And for that reason it will remain incorrupted and will not suffer any Elementall resolution so long as it is conserved in the aire If therefore the body or tabernacle of the spirits and vital Balsom remaineth entire then that aereall vitall Balsom is not compelled to depart from his lodging so long as the body is not resolved by nature or art But if it be resolved then it will forsake the body as the soul doth as also the animal astral spirit which did reconcile the one with the other But the vitall vegetable and Balsamick spirit remaineth in the incorrupted body It followeth therefore that this airy kind of Microcosmicall Mummy is most proper for the conservation of vitall spirits in the living man being extracted prepared and rightly after preparation to be applied I will therefore come briefly unto our Magneticall Experiences touching this Mummiall Subject The Proposition If this salutary kind of airy Mummy with his vehicle or Magneticall instrument be taken or chosen or selected rightly it will indue by reason of the
absence of actuall life and the dominion of cold the condition of the Northern pole and consequently by that reason those airy included spirits which were whilst the body was living of an hot aequinoctiall nature and therefore more dilative from the Center of the Circumference than attractive are now by death made to act from the Circumference to the Center if they be excited by their like spirits which are aequinoctiall and lively and then they become attractive of the aequinoctiall Mummy namely by contracting themselves into the Center and consequently this airy microcosmicall Mummy must be indued with the Magneticall property of the Northern pole and therefore by a contactuall application of it to his like the living man it will suck and attract greedily his like nature and having drawn it in will retain it So that it may by a due preparation be made sympatheticall and reduced into a singular medicine for mans health and conservation Or it may be so contaminated and made antipatheticall with the impure and infectious Mummy of the infirm living creature that it may free the infirm by extracting out the poyson which did infect it and infect a wholsome and sound body unto the which it shall be given inwardly An Experiment upon this I collected a portion of this Northern Mummy namely of the flesh of a man strangled in the aire in which the spritual Mummy was Centrally contracted by cold and I applied it typically unto the part of my body which was nearest unto it in naturall position I found it in the contact passing cold and as it were ice and Northern After it had remained on a certain time I found that in the exciting of his frozen and Northernly contracted spirits by the aequinoctiall heat of my body they drew off my Mummiall and vivifying spirits greedily and at some times and as it were by fits I felt them in their Magnetick operation sensibly and after a kind of dolorous fashion to tug and pull some adjacent parts close about it in conclusion after a certain time I took it off and found it much altered in smell and view by reason of the quantity of my spirits which they attracted unto them both which Mummiall spirits so Magnetically congregated together I extracted and prepared after my manner for the use of mine own body But because my assertion will perchance be of little credit I will prove the feisibility of it and probability of every particle or member hereof by many and sundry examples or Demonstrations I. Demonstration or Proof made by a Relation unto the Microcosmicall nature To prove and demonstrate that the airy spirit of the Microcosme is apt to take any polar impression as well as the aire of the Macrocosm and by consequence is more Magneticall or attractive in his Northern or cold property than in his aequinoctiall or Southern habit Look considerately upon the aire included in the Wether-glass which served as a catholick demonstration unto my precedent Philosophy and you shall see that when the aequinoctiall namely the Eastern and Southern winds do blow in the aire the particular included aire and therefore the universall Element of air excluded is less Magnetick or attractive than when the Northern winds do blow The proof is made evident because that when those winds do blow the externall aire and therefore the internall is more apt to be dilated by reason of the Emanation of the Sulphureous or celestiall spirits which are included in each airy spirit from the Center unto the Circumference making thereby a certain expulsion or rather expansion of airy parts by ratifying of the body of it And therefore it is observed in the Instrument not to draw the water higher then the figure 1. but to repell it down lower Contrariwise when the North winds blow the dilated and mobil aire is by attraction or condensation contracted into immobil snow that is to say into an earthly condition So that we see that the aire in this estate is admirably contractive as it is expressed to the life in the demonstrative Instrument or Wether-glass For the included spirit attracteth the ponderous water upward and contracteth it self out of a large room or place into a narrow Angle or space as it appeareth when the Northern Snow and Frosts have had long dominion in the Macrocosmicall world by a Northern breath at which time we shall find the water against his nature to be sucked up unto the upper figure 7. The reason whereof I have shewed you before namely because the occult Sulphurous nature or spirit which is the Sun of light and the actor in life being carried in his airy vehicle flieth from the persecuting cold which is his adversary and armeth it self about in the Center with a condensed aire to hinder or break the universall assault of cold which is the impe of darknesse and therefore hath his seat at the pole which is furthest off from the presence of the Sun In like manner the dead and cold Mummial spirits being for this reason Centrally contracted and as it were mortified and congealed by application of it to the lively Spirits as the cold Northern aire or spirit unto the aequinoctiall or Southern Sun then reviving and incited by the living man's contactuall or contiguous presence do greedily draw them in as imploring their aid against their cold adversary and having the possession of them seemeth better satisfied I will prove this to be so by this demonstrative Example taken from the Load-stone II. Demonstration That the dead spirits in a body will not attract unto them dead spirits nor that lively spirits in a body will not suck unto them Magnetically lively spirits but very moderatly it is argued by the operation of the Load-stone in this manner Problem 1. The Southern pole of one Load-stone doth with a certain hatred flie from and eschew the Southern pole of another and will by no means be joyned together in friendship but avoideth by a naturall antipathy the contact of one another But if the Northern pole of the one be applied unto the Southern pole of the other they will sticke and cleave together by a strong attraction As for Example Take a Load-stone with his distinct poles namely his Australl and Boreall pole being marked out put it into a little vessell or boat to flote in a basin or cestern or tub of water in such a manner that the two poles thereof be disposed unto the plain of the Horizon then hold in your hand another Load-stone whose poles are well known unto you So that the South-pole of that in your hand be directed to the North of that which floteth the two not being far from one another and you shall find that the boat will follow your hand whither soever it moveth and will not leave untill it cleaveth unto it But if contrariwise you shall offer or apply the North-pole of that in your hand unto the North-pole of that in the boat or the south-pole of
the one unto the south pole of the other you shal perceive that the one Stone wil by his aspect drive away the other the little Bark will forthwith turn from it as if the Helm thereof were moved another way Application Even so the northern natur'd Mummy will not at all or but weakly operate on his like nor the southern or hot lively flesh on his like but contrary poles will act and by a magnetick vertue will be united unto one another by the attractive faculty of the northern or cold dead mans flesh or blood which coveteth by a secret instinct the hot nature of the Aequinoctiall south III. Demonstration Touching the fortification and augmentation of spirits in the dead and impotent or northern Mummy by the contact of the southern or lively Mummy or flesh it is magnetically maintained to be possible and probable by this problematicall Demonstration which proveth that the northern Magnet or airy Mummy is exalted in his power by the southern Problem 2. The stronger Magnet or Load-stone and the bigger in quantity doth augment the force of the lesser as also of Iron by putting the lesser Magnet upon the pole of the greater so that the northern pole will become stronger in his attraction As for example A piece of Iron being put on the pole of the lesser Stone in that position it will hold it up perpendicularly on the north point A. which on the pole B. will no way be effected In like manner the northern Mummy by the conjunction of it unto the southern nature is exalted in strength and sucketh new spirits and vigour unto it by drawing power from the stronger and so leaving the stronger weaker which is better proved by this third Problem Problem 3. If two Magnets armed by two Iron steely teeth a piece be set before you the one being strong the other weak or much less whose axis or diameter between the teeth are equall and of a like length then set the teeth of these together that come from contrary poles and parts and the stronger will apprehend and lift up the weaker and the weaker being united and incorporated with the stronger by the vertue that it receiveth from the stronger will lift up from the ground and retain the stronger and greater very firmly although he be much heavier than the weight the small Stone doth ordinarily lift up Application Even so the weaker or northern Mummy being lesser in quantity will gather force and multiply spirits by his faculty of attraction from the stronger and bigger mass of the southern or lively Mummy Lastly that by the application of this dead northern or congealed Mummy unto the lively southern or aequinoctiall Mummy the most evident and strangest attraction proceedeth from the northern Mummy it is manifested by this example in the Load-stone Problem 4. There is a magneticall attraction from the aequator of the Load-stone but far different from that of the northern pole both in violence and in manner of attraction for the aequinoctiall attraction is more naturally mild as if it were a mean betwixt the two poles and yet in substance all is but one earth though various in formall execution As for example The erection of a piece of Iron will be the less perpendicular and the attraction will be the weaker by how much the nearer it approcheth from the pole unto the aâ—quinoctiall Again all that have written the magneticall History do ascribe the greatest force of attraction unto the northern pole of the Magnet as shall also hereafter be declared and proved more at large I will conclude with a demonstration taken from the like Mummy of beasts and it is this The fourth demonstration which is Animal It is a common thing and vulgarly in use to take a piece of raw beef and apply it unto the nape of the neck to draw away rheumes or defluxions out of the eyes And I was informed by one of credit and learning that when a simple fellow that was troubled with sore and watering eyes was counselled to apply raw beef behind in his neck to draw back and divert the humour he mistaking the business applyed the raw cold beef upon both his eyes and it was his bad chance that it attracted so strongly that instead of drawing out the rheum it pulled forth his eye-holes Also a worthy Gentlewoman of mine acquaintance had as she telleth me raw beef applyed unto her neck for to divert the rheum from her eyes but she confessed that it drew so strongly unto it that she felt her eyes as it were sucked or drawn into her head and will not be perswaded to this day but that her eyes are deeper in her head than they were Whereby it is argued that by far greater reason the experiment above mentioned is in every respect demonstrated to be true being the Magnet of it is composed of subtle aire Mummiall spirits coagulated by an internall and centrall vertue in the magneticall mass Another relative Animal Demonstration A Noble-man of Bohemia named Burgravius did use for his Gowt this medicine He took a piece of Beef and did moisten it a little with wine and laid it on the place affected renewing the same medicine every six hours space and it drew forth a great deal of filthy and sordid matter And if afterward the same flesh be given to be eaten of dogs it will infect them with the same Gowty disease as it did the man and this was tryed upon a couple of that Lord's dogs as Hans Tanker the Minister of the Lord Hofman did relate it from the said Burgravius his own mouth and also he himself saw it effected on a dog If this grosse mass of magneticall stuffe in its simple nature could draw so strongly unto it much more should our faith be grounded on a more spirituall and airy animal Mummy or mummiall Magnet which I know but am not disposed at this time neither do I think it fit in this place openly to reveal or to express either its manner of preparation or diversity in usage because by the abuse thereof wicked and naughty-minded persons may do as much harm thereby in inducing of diseases as the honest Physitian may do good in expelling or curing of them A third of Mr. Cotton 's Dog A fourth relative animal-Demonstration It is esteemed to be an excellent magneticall cure in the plague when the sore or carbuncle doth appear to take a dry'd Toad macerated in vinegar and afterward to apply it to the infected place of the body for it is reported to suck or draw the venom to it strongly This hath been often tryed and it may be proved by reason that the Toad is magnetically attractive and stiptick partly because of her cold venom and Boreall dull and heavy or melancholly disposition and then forasmuch as it is observed to stench blood So that this gross and terrestriall venomous Magnet performeth his office in attracting from the Botch or Carbuncle his like
not limit the penetrating action which is between magnetick bodies as I have proved in my precedent Book and will hereafter demonstrate it more at large A Progression in the foresaid Magneticall Demonstration But contrariwise if we shall attempt to apply the Aequinoctiall or Southern place of the division in the Load-stone C unto the pole A in their barks thus the one will fly from the other and be contrary unto the other for in so doing nature will be perverted and the form of the Stone disturbed Therefore this flight from one another or hatred between them ariseth from the evill position or application of natures discording in their genuine order which stir up an intestine war hatred or antipathy between the parts and cause a contrariety or distortion of spirits Application By which it appeareth that the aequinoctiall spirit of the late-living captive being turned northern or Boreal will in no wise accord with the southern nature of the yet-living adopted or borrowed flesh which is possessed by the Master as it did before but proveth antipatheticall and destructive unto it that is it warreth with a contrary property against it being that now it as fast with-draweth the beams of his spirits from the circumference unto the center namely from the flesh lent unto the Master as whilst it lived it did send them after an aequinoctiall manner forth from the center unto the circumference namely from the live fountain in the captive unto the like in the Master III. Demonstration taken from the Load-stone It is evident also that the Needle touched with the Load-stone will aspect the Load-stone at any position whilst the Load-stone is strong and lively but when the Load-stone is dead or that he have lost his vertue by the fire the property of the Needle will also dye A second Experiment confirming the foresaid Proposition Against the time that I was to read my publick Anatomy in the College I had as our custom is a certain body of one that was hanged to be anatomized at my house privately at which time I was sollicited by Mr. Kellet the Apothecary to permit a Gentlewoman who had a Scirrhous tumor in her belly to be touched and stroked with the dead man's hand because experience had taught it to be very efficacious for the abolishing of the like horrid protuberation in others as they averred The Gentlewoman with her husband and brother came unto my house and as they desired things were effected Within a while after the Apothecary with the Gentlewomans husband came to give me thanks for that courtesie assuring me that it had done his wife good and taken away the tumorous swelling Now this doth shew how the contact of this northern Mummy in the dead mans hand did cause the southerly growing and vegetating tumour which did more and more send out its beams from the center to the circumference to decrease and diminish and caused it to rot and moulder away by the centrall continuation or union of the northern spirit in the dead with that which did vegetate unnaturally in the living and that at a far distance A third Experiment to expresse the self-same effect It is evident and often approved by common people that if Warts be rubbed with a piece of fresh beef and the said beef be conveyed into a field and buried under the earth that as the beef wasteth and rotteth in the earth so will the warts languish and pine away In like manner it hath been oft observed that if a piece of bacon be rubbed on warts and afterwards be nailed on a post against the Sun as the bacon doth waste and diminish so also will the warts fade and waste away Also a dead bodies hand touching warts they will dye Whereby is evidently proved that as things are sympathetically maintained in their being that is to say in their increase or vegetation so also by an antipatheticall aspect or spirituall continuity between two remote natures after a corporall contact is made between them whereof the one is Boreall the other Southern or Aequinoctiall the one which touched will cause it to fade and vanish after the nature of the toucher So that as the northern property is an enemy unto life and southern heat so by his contact it causeth unnaturally-growing things to fade away by a like property in changing the vegetating nature of the thing touched into his decreasing contracting and mortifying nature The experimentall Glass doth teach us that the action of cold is quite contrary unto that of heat in one and the same spirit And Scripture tells us if we will not stand unto experience that the self-same word in his southern property doth undo and destroy the snow and ice which it did make in his northern condition CHAP. IV. How certain excrementitious parts taken from the inform member of the Animal and transplanted into a vegetable or growing tree hath a spirituall relation or continuity with the spirit of the sick and impotent member and consequently of the sick creature I will for the better method's cause express in the frontispice of this Chapter a Proposition as I have done in the precedent The Proposition THe magneticall force of the spirituall Mummy doth dwell and act even in the excrementitious or superfluous excrescences of any member of mans body after that they are separated from it and transplanted into some convenient magneticall vegetable or plant so that by a secret emanation from them or application unto the beam of the member from whence they were cut or derived and consequently by a continued spirituall relation which is had between them and the body or mâ—mber from whence they were extracted they are able by the magneticall plants assistance whose vegetable nature they borrow and indue to operate vegetatively upon the same defective dolorous decayed limbe or member at an unlimited distance The first Experimentall History My Mathematicall Master excellent for his knowledg in the art of Ingeniery remaining with the Cardinall St. George at Rome did assure me that if any one had a withered or consumed member as a dried arm leg or foot or such like which Physitians call An Aâ—rcphy of the limbs and if he did cut from that member be it foot or arme the nails hair and scrapings of the skin and shall pierce a Willow tree with an anger or wimble unto the pith and after that shall thrust in those pared nails cut hair c. into the hole and stop the hole close with a peg or pin made of the same wood observing withall that this action must be effected when the Moon is increasing and the good Planets in such multiplying Signs as is Gemini and Saturn who is a great drier be depressed the limbe so wasted shall by little and little re-vegetate again even as the Tree in which the excrements are closed shall daily increase grow and flourish Also he did aver unto me that I should find the self-same effect if I did put those excrements
into a hole made in the root of a Hazel-tree and close up again the hole with the bark of the same Tree and afterward cover it with earth assuring me that it hath been tried that as the Tree groweth so will the member prosper But above all he wished me to observe the due order of the heaven and such secret and proper constellations as he hath instructed me in for without them the cure or amendment will be the lesse effectuall II. Another Magneticall Experiment to confirm the precedent Johannes Rhumelius Pharamondus cureth the Gowt by the very self-same manner of transplantaion in this manner He cutteth off the hair from the feet legs and thighs and also he pareth off the nails of the feet Then he maketh a hole in an Oke even unto the very Center or pith of the body and pulleth into it the hair and the nails and afterward he stoppeth up the hole with a peg or pin framed out of the same Tree and lastly he daubeth it without with cow-dung This Author saith that by this Magneticall experiment onely he hath cured many But if it chance saith he that the Gowt shall for all this return again within the space of three months then it is an Argument that the Oke is insufficient to draw Magnetically and then he proceedeth thus namely he boreth another like hole in a second Oke and after this he taketh the peeces of the Oke which fall out in the boring of the hole and bruiseth them and sticheth them in a little bag and applieh it unto the dolorous or infected member And this he doth three daies before the New-Moon Then in that very hour that the New-Moon is in he removeth the bag from the part affected and thrusteth it into the hole of the same Tree and stoppeth it with a pin of the same wood as before And he affirmeth that by this second practice when the first hath failed he hath cur'd many But if it happen for all this that the pain doth return within three other moneths then he cutteth of the hair and pareth the nails the second time and tieth them upon the back of a Crab or Crab-fish and so casteth it into the running waters and the sick will be cured He concludeth there that he hath cured many by the first many others by the first and second and many by the first second and third Experiments A third Experiment tried by the same Author The same Author doth verifie that by this very manner of transplantation he hath cured many of the Rupture or Hernia and his practice is after this manner He taketh a new laid Egge piping hot as they say and he rubbeth the Gowty place with it often but gently then he taketh away the bark of a good big tree and with a great auger he boreth a hole so big as that the Egge might easily enter into it then doth he lay on again the bark as before stopping well the hole thereof with it and anointing or daubing it with tree wax or caement All which businesses must be effected in due order and time And he telleth us that when the barks of the tree do grow together then also will the Hernia and rupture also close up But if it happen that the Hernia be not cured within one moneth then bore a hole in an Oke and take the pieces that fall from the hole bruise them and stick them in a small bag and apply it to the grief as is said about three daies before the new Moon and then about the hour of the new Moon put it into the hole and do in all things as is told you before He telleth many other observations as well touching the time namely if the Hernia's first increase were in the Moon 's increase or decrease which for brevity sake I here omit Lastly if the Hernia be not for all this so dered or glued up then he boareth a hole in the Oke and puts in the nail and hair of the Patient's hands and feet as also the hair of his privy parts stopping it as is before said For he affirmeth that when the hole will be grown up the Hernia will be also closed There also he sheweth the reason that he is forced to use more or less of these operations in his cure according unto the nature of the Hernia namely to the incipient Hernia one operation will serve to the inveterate more will be required And he saith that in this cure is chiefly to be obserued the time the measure of the tree and the depth or profundity of the hole Another Experiment by him Also he saith that if we take the nailes of the feet and hands of an Hydropick person and transplant them on the Crey-fish of the river and bind them unto the back of her and cast her into the river it will cure the Dropsy Whereby you may plainly observe by approved experience that the marrow and strengh of the foresaid Proposition is in every respect confirmed and again if we do but burn the nails and hair and scrapings of the skin and take by an alimbeck without a bottom the fume of it we shall find a kind of Balsamick oyle to issue from them which is very attractive drying and agglutinating of wounds And therefore it appeareth that there is a Balsamick virtue in these kind of Excrescences though unto the ignorant they appeare but of little value But this Magnetick virtue of these Excrementitious parts may in some sort be also demonstrated by the property of the Minerall Load-stone As for Example IV. A Magneticall Demonstration We may rightly compare the mass of these superfluous Excrescences unto a lesser Load-stone capped with steel For when it is transplanted into the Plant it becommeth of a greater force of attraction For as the Iron being added unto the pole of the Load-stone though it be but weak yet it doth fortifie it and maketh it able to attract a far greater weight for the Iron giveth it strength In like manner if Magnetick Excrescences be grafted in the body of the Magneticall Tree then that Tree will suck and draw his like namely the spirit of defective limbs more strongly unto it making them to become vegetative and to increase and grow which before did pine and wither For the spirit sucked and continued by dilatation from the member unto the vegetative nature of the Tree doth indue the like nature and doth by a continuity animate the fading spirits in the member to increase and vegetate or prosper in his growth Now to prove this Magneticall relation I will produce certain Problems touching the nature of the Load-stone 1. Problem There is a strong Union in a Load-stone armed with steel and heavier weight may be by it taken up than if it be not armed Application The reason is because vis unita est fortior for the Iron addeth force unto a Load-stone that is weak as is confirmed by this Problem 2 Problem If there
be a thin plate of Steel or Iron held or fastned unto the neather pole of the Load stone between the Load-stone and the weight then the Magnet will lift up double and sometimes decuple or ten times so much again And from this practice came the capping or arming of the Adamant with Steel or Iron after divers manners Application By the like correlation If that the animal Magnet be armed with the vegetable power it will more forcibly attract unto it spirits from the greater animal Magnet or rather the animal Iron Also this Problem following is worthily to be noted 3. Problem Every Body unto the which the lively Mummy of another man is administred or drunk up doth forthwith become a Magnet and will be armed to attract his like Application And therefore the lively Mummy of the decaying member being in part included in the nailes and hair thereof and afterward conveyed into the vegetable body that vegetable body which receiveth them is made forthwith magneticall and draweth to it the spirits of the member and doth impart unto them of his vegetable power And also the magnetick Mummy in the hair and nails though of themselves they are but weak yet are they made more strong and forcible by being planted in a stronger magnetick vegetable so that the one doth fortifie and enable the other This is demonstrated by this Problem 4 Problem A weak Magnet being rubbed at one of the poles of a stronger will be bettered by it in his vigour and vertue Demonstration Also set a Magnet of small force that can be perceived upon a Load-stone of a good strength and vigour especially upon the poles and he will shew a vigour as if he were as strong as the stronger Stone is whereunto he is united Application So by the like reason we may transplant the superfluous excrescences in which there appeareth but a small signe of any magnetick vertue upon a stronger vegetable Magnet or magneticall plant and especially in his pith or axil-tree and he will shew forth a magnetick vigour equall unto that of the plant which appeareth in this namely because it doth direct by his beams the vegetable power unto the decayed member Now that the reference between the tree and the member is caused by a spirituall continuity it is made plain by this magneticall Problem 5 Problem If a long Iron be conjoyned unto the pole of the Load-stone and unto the end of this another be laid and at the end of that a third and so forward the Adamant will by vertue of his beamy emanating spirit hold them all or most of them according unto the vigour thereof all touching one another and cleaving together like a linked chain Application Whereby it is evident that as the spirit of the Load-stone is continuate and by his continuity is apt to fasten and joyn bodies in a union from his center unto his spirituall circumference even so by the emanation from the double Magnet united in one from their center unto the weak line or member there is caused and ingendred a continuall succession of vegetation in it by degrees Now that two Magnets uniting their forces in one do emit a more vigorous emanation and are endued with a greater magneticall force it is proved in the second Problem of the third Demonstration of the second Chapter before mentioned CHAP. VI. Herein is proved that vegetables contain in themselves magneticall spirits by means whereof they do sensibly attract as well from the Animal as Vegetable and Mineral kingdom And it is first expressed by two Propositions and maintained by divers experimentall Demonstrations The first Proposition THere is a magneticall vertue as well in the vegetable as in the animal and mineral which doth operate and act attractively both on his like in the vegetable and also in the animal and mineral The first experimental Demonstration The experience hereof is manifold and by that which hath been related in the precedent Chapter that the magneticall relation or union which is made between the vegetable and the animal is sufficiently expressed and shall be more at large enucleated hereafter Again if one that hath an Ague do take the herb called Iberis namely a handfull thereof and put it into either of his shoes and walketh upon it untill he wax very hot he will find that it will draw a great deal of waterish matter downward and cure the ague But saith my Master that taught me it is not to be cast in the way that man or beast doth pass for the animal that treadeth on it will be infected and be aguish This Christopher Schufzen a German did affirm that he had tryed this and found it to be true 2 Experience Joannes Carfmanus delivereth it for a truth that warts are taken away out of the hands and other places by taking of strawes and cutting the knots in them and he prepareth in that manner two for every wart and the strawes must be of a fingers length which being thus prepared you must put two sections of the knots in this fashion X upon every wart so that the nodes do touch directly the warts and they must strongly be pressed down and this must be done unto every wart with a double straw as is already said Then take those strawes and dig a hole under a spout or gutter and cover it with a stone and you shall find saith he that as the strawes do rot so also will the warts consume away 3. Experimentall Demonstration Mr. Balthazar Wagner saith that he hath often tryed this magneticall cure in the inflammation and redness of the eyes most true he taketh the root of the common Mallow when the Sun is in the middle of Virgo and applyeth it backward unto the nuke or nape of the neck binding it fast thereunto averring that it will attract and draw unto it with efficacy all the cause of the redness 4. Experimentall Demonstration As there is a kind of Load-stone called Evax which Pliny doth affirm to have a Magneticall power to attract flesh unto it So also in another place he telleth us that there is another kind of Magnetick Stone called Saâ—da which hath a property to draw wood unto it so strongly that they cannot be separated from one another except the wood be cut off from it But leaving these things as uncredible I will relate unto you that mutuall love and sympatheticall affection which to my knowledg hath been found between the Vegetable and the Minerall 5. Experimentall Demonstration There are divers men which do work in the Mines in Germany of which a couple were imployed about the Silver-Mines in Wales who do use to gather at a due season a forked rod of the Hazel-tree and holding in either hand one of the two twigs in such manner that the part where the fork beginneth to be perpendicular c. there is so great a sympathy between this vegetable and the Mine if it be rich that the
left in the open cold aire then will it happen that the wound will also be distempered and vexed with cold Certain Problematicall Demonstrations to prove the foresaid Proposition to be true in every point and consequently to manifest this manner of Magical cure to be effected Naturally and therefore not Cacomagically The particulars of the foresaid Proposition are easily proved and maintained by such ocular demonstrations as may be produced from the vertuous operation of the minerall Load-stone unto the which we may rightly compare all magneticall bodies with their actions because they have their denominations from the mineral magnet and therefore this weapon-salve is tearmed by some men Unâ—uentum magnetâ—cum and the cure is also called Magneticall I proceed therefore in my purpose after this fashion to prove the Proposition punctually and therefore I divide it into members or portions The first member of those Propositions with certain experimentall Conclusions from the Load-stone to confirm it First therefore we gather by the said precedent Proposition that two magneticall bodies of a like nature may spiritually meet and conjoyne together by a like naturall inclination And that the weapon wounding or other materiall penetrating doth imbibe the spirits and is made magneticall 1 Problematicall Demonstration taken from the Load-stone Take two Loadstones and place them in small wooden vessells or boats of cork or wood and set them upon a basin or tub or cistern of water so that each of the Magnets may aspect one another within the visible orb of his vertue you shal perceive them sensibly to move and as it were to incite each other to mutual embracement so that at the contrary poles unto one another they will meet and unite themselves which is an argument that dissevered spirits of an identity of nature do sympathetically operate and act one upon the other at a distance 2 Demonstration from the same In the like manner if we shall place a piece of Iron in one little boat and a Load-stone in another you will find that the Iron will hasten with the like celerity unto the Load-stone being also in his small barck for you shall perceive that each of them will be carried unto the other and will the one stick and adhere unto the other in the mid-way and after that the desire of each of them is accomplished that is after coition and union they will stand still and rest in their consents 3 Demonstration 1 Problem One vein of Iron being rightly disposed will draw unto it another if the vein be rich and of the colour of Iron As for example put one peece of the vein in his little cup or small boat or bark as is said before of the Load-stone and hold in your hand another piece of the same Mine somewhat near the other and you shall find the other in his bark to move unto it but nothing so swiftly as will the Iron unto the Loadstone 2 Problem You shall find it also for a most true experiment that if Iron be taken nakedly of it self that is not being excited by the Load-stone or any thing else it will draw another Iron unto it though not so swiftly as the Load stone that is vigorous A tryall is made thus Make a piece of cork round and as big as a hazel-nut and pierce it through the center with a reasonable big piece of wier till the middle of the iron be in the center of the corck put it into a quiet water to swim in and apply it unto its other end very near but so that it toucheth it not the end of another piece of wier and you shall see that the piece you hold in your hand shall draw the other in the cork so that as you move the one the other shall slowly follow And this must be effected by the application of such of their ends as shall agree in their pole The Demonstration is this Application By these examples therefore it is made evident how the two spirits of like disposition or rather of one identity of nature are apt and prone by a naturall inclination to covet and embrace their like and that at a distance or space between each body and consequently that it is not the bodies that acteth For they are divided and distant from one another but the formall spirits which by an astrall emanation do sympathetically and lovingly first aspect one another and then by an equall attraction do as it were kiss and hug together And therefore it cannot seem strange or impossible unto wise men that the bloody spirits in the oyntment and those in the wounded person should at a far distance meet and apply together by a sympatheticall aspect being that they are but one continued and indivisible quintessentiall spirit though altered in elementary property even as the northern aire is by the north wind made to differ from the south though all is but one essentiall and indivisible aire Touching the last branch of this Member it argueth that spirits may be nay are imbibed by the weapon that woundeth which by this axiom of Paracelsus maketh the place of the weapon which woundeth a magnet or magneticall The Problem is this 3. Problem Every Body after that it hath imbibed the Mummy which issueth from man is forthwith made a Magnet unto him And this is proved Magnetically by this Problem 4. Problem Iron incited or touched by the Load-stone at the Pole doth draw unto him the like of the Load-stone that toucheth it Application Now that the vitall spirits of the wounded animal do penetrate in the very moment of the stroak into the weapon and that the weapon doth greedily suck them in it is proved by this following observation Some Country Chirurgions not daring to search some deep wounds with a Probe do use to take the weapon that made the wound be it sword dagger knife and such like and put it into the fire and though before you saw no difference in the colour of the weapon yet after it cometh out of the fire you shall see the place of it that wounded altered in colour from the other by reason of such spirits as it did imbibe This is commonly found true by experience Another proof to maintain this is that if a Viper or Adder be cut with a sword or knife in peeces the venomous odious and irascible spirit of the Serpent will penetrate into the substance of the steel which is confirmed by this namely because that if a man be afterward wounded by this weapon that did cut and divide the Adder or Viper it will so invenome the wound that it will be made incurable except an Antidote made of Adder or Viper be applied So also the Scorpion being bruised and applied unto the wound that is made by the Scorpion will cure it as also an Oyle made of the same The second member of the Proposition with the proofs Secondly that if a Magneticall body be it animal vegetable or
minerall be divided into parts the spirituall nature of these parts do alwaies tend unto Unity although these parts be divided far from one another which is an Argument that they are no continued thing in spirits and therefore one part doth directly co-operate and send out actuall beams of sympatheticall identity unto another though the bodily divided parts be absent or distant in space from one another A Demonstration to confirm this This is sufficiently proved by the ocular Demonstrations recited for the confirmation of the first member but more especially by the second Demonstration of the eighth Chapter of this present Book where I have shewed you that if a long Load-stone be divided in the middle between the two Poles that is to say about the aequinoctial line and each of these divided parts be put to flote in his small vessell or bark on the still water The influentiall spirit which is one in essence and continued between them doth desire and covet to unite the divided minerall bodies whose limbs are by a wound or Solution of continuity separated and to reduce them into the naturall estate they were in at the first and for that cause B and C whereof the one is Meridionall namely B and the other Septentrionall to wit C which were at the first continuated parts but now divided are by that unseparable Spirit which giveth life unto both the parts reunited sucked and drawn together and reduced unto the estate of their pristine continuity that is of two stones they are made one so that the portion of spirit in C draweth and attracteth the bodily B unto it and the proportion of spirit in B sucketh and inticeth C unto it For we must note that the unity of spirit doth evermore desire and effect the unity of the body in which it dwelleth for the quintessentiall or formall spirit delighteth not in the variable disposition of the airy spirit and therefore coveteth to inhabit the close specificall house or pallace which it did possesse immediatly after his discent from his celestiall starry parents This is the reason that one specifick spirit is most easy yea and rejoyceth to communicate with his like but especially one and the same spirit must needs act with and never be absent from the other and therfore when the frozen Northern and as it were congealed nature is incited and stirred up by the aequinoctiall or Southern property if it be rightly adopted and the Southern Iron 's property is touched with the Magneticall North-pole of the other they will effect attraction the better and to this purpose speaketh this Problem Problem If Magneticall bodies be divided or any part broken off from the whole each part so broken off will have his North and South And therefore each particle of Iron or of the Load stone being divided from the whole will have a Northern property and a Southern which doth manifestly confirm unto wise men's capacities that the spirit of every Specifick yea of every individuall hath a Northern and a Southern condition and consequently an attractive and dilative property and not only the spirit of the whole but also of every particular of it if it may be spoken being that the formall spirit is in all and in every part Application Yee may therefore perceive by this how possible and fezible it is that the spirit in the dead blood or weapon being transferred and as it were transplanted at a far distance in the Ointment as having a Balsome not differing from the animall nature but especially in respect of the vegetable Salt of the Uzneas in the which altogether lurke spirits which by the present application of the Southern lively and warm spirits in the wounded man guided unto it by the spirits transported or transplanted bood doth re-vivify and co-operate with the same spirit not onely in the stanching of the flowing blood but also in the healing and consolidating of the wound as shall be shewed you more amply hereafter The third Member of the Proposition is confiâ—med by these proofs Thirdly that it is not the animal's externall blood but the internall in the externall which being separated from his fountain and transplanted on another unctuous stock doth operate Magnetically from the stock on which it is planted unto the fountain or spring from whence it floweth And it is maintained thus A Demonstration to confirm this first Problem It is not any corporeall thing which floweth from the Load-stone or which penetrateth into Iron or that is poured or extracted out of the Iron being awaked by the Load-stone's power but one Load-stone disposeth another by an originall or primary Form and the Load-stone doth revoke and disposeth the Iron which is familiar unto his nature together with it self unto a formed vigour for which reason the Iron runs unto the Load-stone and doth greedily conform it self unto it each forces or vigours symphoniacally provoking Application Therefore it is a formall spirit or subtle celestiall influence which doth operate mutually from the wounded body unto the transported or transplanted blood and not the body or the blood or the aire or the oyntment in which the transported blood or bloody spirits are contained so that the excited spirits in the oyntment do apply their regard unto the beams of the exciter the north spiracle unto the southern and so a union is made between the spirits of the oyntment with the adopted blood and those of the wounded body And as we see that by the concourse in the macrocosmicall aire of the north-wind and the south both spirits are united into one form and are magnetically with their airy vehicle contracted into a clowd which containeth in it a formall fire or lightning and a watry body So the two emanations do cause a contracted aery spirit in the place of their concourse or application which doth in his contraction attract the balsamick spirit which the oyntment doth send forth even as we see in the Weather-glass that the contracted aire sucketh up with it the masse of the water and yet the aire so contracted is not for all that visible But this is further confirmed by this Problem 2 Problem Iron is allured and drawn onely by the immateriall act of form that is to say by an incorporeall proceeding the which doth act and is conceived in the iron subject as in a continuate homogeneall body And this is the reason that Iron is moved and drawn unto the Load-stone without being impedited or hindred by the interposition of dense and well-compacted bodies between them And again Iron draweth to it the Load-stone it self and the concourse unto unity is moved by a mutuall consent and vigour the which concourse is vulgarly termed Attraction Application Here we see that reference which is between the Magnet and the Mine out of which that spirit which doth animate the Magnet is drawn As for example In the forementioned Chapter the spirit of the microcosmicall Mummy is in the excrementitious
excrescence transported unto the Plant and so the plant animated by that spirit becommeth a magnet which directeth his vegetating spirit to apply unto the spirit or beam of the weak member c. I come now to the proof of the fourth Member The fourth Member of the Proposition is demonstratively proved thus Fourthly that there is a spirituall penetration made from one body unto another before any magneticall operation can be effected Demonstration This member is sufficiently confirmed by that which is already said in the other members and yet it is more plainly expressed by this Problem Problem The Load-stone doth guide and direct magneticall things the which do conceive vigour and force from it not onely in their extremities but also in their interiours and very marrow As for example A piece of Iron so soon as it is touched or attainted with the very breath of the Load-stone it is excited magnetically at the end at which it is touched or regarded and that very power which it received by that touch passeth quite through from the end touched unto the other not onely superficially but also centrally and as I may say at the very marrow Application It appeareth evidently by this that as the formall beams of one Load-stone doth penetrate unto the very center of the other and the other again reciprocally into the very center of it so also the spirit of the wounded man doth penetrate partly by emission from it self and partly by attraction of his like in the oyntment into the bowels of the oyntment unto the spirits of his own kind that are hid in it and reciprocally the oyntment being made a magnet by the imbibing of the Mummial spirits of the blood applyeth his attractive beams unto those which are emitted from the wound being directed therein by the spirit of the dead blood in the unguent as shall be shewed hereafter more at large The fifth Member of the Proposition with the Proofs Fifthly that the magneticall act and operation of celestiall astralicall or starry and influentiall spirits are not to be limited nor yet to be impedited or hindred in their motion if we look into the mystery of this business with intellectuall eyes We must distinguish this Member for your better understanding into two severall articles or branches whereof the first must shew that the extension of the emanations made from two astralicall or starry spirits are not to be limited by mans understanding howsoever by an externall effect it may at random be guessed at These one shall prove that such influentiall starry beams or quintessentiall emissions as are sent forth from the Load-stone unto the Iron or from one Load-stone unto his like in nature and consequently from all other magneticall bodies oâ— like condition in essence cannot be hindered by the interposition of any solid or well-compacted bodies as some Fool losophers rather than Philosophers have â—emerariously averred in their writings Touching the first which includeth the imaginary termination or bounding of beamy or formall extensions or emanations from magneticall bodies within a setled or known limited sphear of activity the impossibility thereof howsoever our Peripatetick Philosophers have feigned the contrary is argued by these following problematicall Demonstrations Certain Problematicall Demonstrations confirming the contents of this Members first Article 1. Problem The vigour in heavenly bodies whereby they move themselves doth argue a soul in them and for that reason they are esteemed by the wisest Philosophers to be endued and animated with a divine act or spirit by means whereof they move which being so the extension of application of their beams must also prove uncertain and therefore without limit being that their spirits after the emanation made do concur sometimes in the aire sometimes in the water and sometimes without resistance they pierce even unto the center of the earth to operate upon the mineral Kingdom bestowing on the earthly subjects that are under them of that very formall act and vertue whereby they operate in their acute penetration And therefore these inferiour creatures of a like nature are able to send forth and extend their astralaicall or beamy vertues as far and to apply their beams at as an unterminable distance as their stars in heaven are observed to do 2 Problem It is rightly then said that the Load-stone doth move the Load-stone and doth both dispose of one another by their primary form which it receiveth from his starry fountain And therefore it was not any absurdity in the wise man Thales Milesius nor yet any madness in Scaliger to assigne a soul unto the Magnet seeing that by it it is centrally incited directed and carried or moved circularly As for example Example If two Magnets be put one against the other in their small barkes upon the water they will not presently concur together but first they do mutually conforme themselves unto one another or else the lesser doth obey the greater moving it self after a circular fashion and when at the last they are disposed according unto their naturall position they run or concurr together The like effect also will appeare between the Magnet and the Iron and the Iron and the Iron as shall be expressed hereafter An Addition Whereby although it may be replied that this Act of the Load-stone with the Load-stone or it with the Iron doth by effect seem to be limited within a certain dimension and therefore what I say proveth not much as yet for the unbounded dimension of the Magneticall bodie 's emanation I answer That the sensible act which is between the Load-stone and Load-stone doth not argue that because the two ponderous bodies have their motion but at such a distance therefore their spirits can extend themselves or apply their beams no further For it is one thing to operate sensibly by a violent attraction of a heavy mass and another thing for one Form onely to embrace and concur in a naturall rejoycing sympathy with another And this alteration is verified even of such as are well practised in the Load-stone's property by this following Problem 3. Problem The Orbe of the internall or spirituall Magneticall virtue doth extend it self at a larger distance than the Orbe of any sensible or externall or visible motion can warrant For the thing that is Magneticall is effected in the extremity of it a far off although it doth not move by a locall motion But if the Load-stone be applied nearer unto it then will also the whole Magnetick mass move corporally unto it Whereby is acknowledged that the virtuous extention of the Magnet is farre beyond the limits of the Orbe of visible Magneticall motion But I will prove it by degrees more evidently namely that the starry influentiall virtue in the Magnet extendeth it self beyond the limits of any sensible capacity 4. Problem The needle touched Magnetically will aspect the North-pole even from the aequinoctiall point which is an Argument of the unlimited extention of the Load-stones
virtue As for example Let there be a long Load-stone prepared and directly in the middle upon the aequinoctial B where the Axis runneth plant an incited needle and it will look directly unto the North-pole A. Also if within the Orbe you place another incited needle without the Stone in C it will also look directly upon the said Pole whereby we may discern the long distance which is between the aspect of the Magnet and that of the incited body namely 90 Degrees Again each part or fragment that is divided from the Magnet be it animal vegetable or minerall hath therefore the self-same dimension because it is as well indued with his polar virtues as the whole And this is sufficiently testified by this Problem 5. Problem If Magneticall subjects be divided or any piece be broken off from it by any means every part so broken off from the whole will have an end as well Septentrional as Meridional as well as the whole had As for example If a smaller part or piece be taken out of a greater Load-stone it will be indued wich the same life and vigor which the whole Magnet had no otherwise then the child will touching his life wholly correspond with the Father in life parts and it will be as it were a new creature and will have his poles and aequinoctial as well as the whole Stone had Also if an Iron-rod as is that of the Curtain be hung up and have his position North and South without being touched for being to god North and South it will indue those properties namely the polar virtues and move in the aire being hung up by a thread or put into a boat on the water unto the North and South If I say a small piece of the rod be broke off from the North part it will have his North and South-pole as well as the whole rod of Iron from the which it was broken Whereby it is apparent that if every portion or fragment of the Load-stone or Iron have his pole as well as the whole then the spirit which is within hath his relation or application with the Northern pole-star of the great world and doth also behold the Southern Virtue with his South-pole for except there were the Scintil of the Anima mundi which is in it and operateth in it according unto the small proportion of it no otherwise then it doth in the great world it could not aspect each Pole as it is observed by experience to do and consequently as the actions of the Anima mundi are so catholick that they cannot be limited so are the spirituall quintessentiall or astralicall Emanations I prove it further thus 6. Problem If you take an Iron rod made of good Iron and hang it up in the aire on a thread as if it were touched with a Load-stone c. The Experience is this Take a straight piece of Iron or steel of six foot long and a finger thick hang it up in a close chamber into the which there cometh no wind and therefore this experiment ought to be tried when the aire is calm and the day not windy and must hang on a silken thread which is not twisted but woven and the Iron must hang directly equilibrous or in an equall ballance and you shall discern it slowly to move and by little and little to attain with his extremities or ends of the points of North and South no otherwise then the needl's do in the Dialls which are touched with the Load-stone Moreover we shall find that the Load-stone or any thing else that is touched or excited by the Load-stone will direct their aspect being planted in small boats on the needle on his vertical unto the North-pole The Conclusion Wherefore it is made manifest that the extention of the Load-stone's spirituall or formall Emanation as also that of other Magneticall bodies is not to be limited being that they do act and apply their beams unto the very state of the Pole-star and the Pole-star by his like emitted influences doth operate reciprocally and apply unto or aspect the Load-stone and so make a continuated Spirituall union betwixt them being that we ocularly discern that both it and the Iron doth diligently and with a manifest Sympathy aspect and actually move unto the said star And then after this is well considered let us but think and ponder the distance which is between the Pole-star and the Magnet namely betwixt the eighth Sphere and the earth and he will perceive it to be in a manner infinite and incommensurable and consequently the emitted beams of the Load-stone cannot by any phantasticall Sphere of sensible and sensuall Philosophers be comprehended or limited But if the act of the Pole-star on the Magnet be denied And Fracastorius his opinion with that of many other learned men be received namely that the Load-stone the Iron and the needle touched do tend unto the North-pole by reason of the attraction of certain Rocks of Load-stone which are in the Hyperboreal mountains if this opinion I say were admitted to be true yet may we see by it that the act of the Magnet and the actuall respect which the Magneticall body beareth unto it is not to be limited being that so they will be observed to co-operate from the aequinoctiall unto the Northern Hyperborean Rocks But this opinion hath been proved false by us in another place and shall hereafter be demonstrated by us to be so We will now come to our Application touching this first Article Application The first and second Problem teacheth us that there is such a celestiall or astralicall subtle spirit in all magneticall bodies of the earth as is in the heavenly ones and consequently that the beams of each of them may penetrate as far though they be not discerned by sense as the beams of each star By this therefore we may be assured that mans heavenly spirit being of a more pure and subtle a stuff than is that of the Load-stone may send forth the astralicall beams of his vertue not onely to the mark that the Load-stone aimeth at but also unto the highest throne of divinity Again hereby it is argued that the spirit in the transplanted blood is able to operate at any distance on the wound and the beamy spirit of the wound again to co-operate and have a continuated union and respect unto one another The third instructeth us that though the oyntment and blood in it do not appear mobil or movable at a far distance yet they may co-operate and be conjoyned with the spirit of the wounded at an unknown proportion of space By the fourth and fifth we learn that the extension of the northern bloods aspect unto the southern may be so far as the aequinoctiall is from the pole namely 90 degrees But I say that as the northern and southern emanation of the soul of the world filleth all the cavity of the world so also by it and in it may this act of
that soul in man extend it self far beyond the capacity of flesh and blood and therefore is onely intellectually to be understood By the fifth that each particle of mans blood or spirituall Mummy being divided from the whole hath all the parts or proportions in it ideally described that the whole hath and therefore doth operate as well with a northern as southern aspect and consequently draweth down from the heavens a like property as occasion is given For so this one Spirit is said to come from the four winds and yet it is but one spirit in essence though four-fold in property for it was by the vertue of it that the dead mentioned by the Prophet did rise again And therefore so far as the north wind or south winds extension may be so far is this spirit in man able to send forth his spirituall beam I will come now unto the proof of the second Touching the second Article which sheweth the acute penetration of this spirit and that it is effected without any impediment contrary unto some ignorant persons opinion who think that castles stones woods hills and such like may hinder the penetration of this subtle and all-penetrating spirit The proof is made by these problematicall demonstrations Demonstrations confirming this Member's second Article 1 Problem Neither fire nor water nor earth can hinder the ingressive action or piercing vertue of the Load-stone upon the Iron being it is proved by experience that it sucketh and draweth it unto him quite through them as for example If a candle or flame of fire be interposed between the Load-stone and a small piece of wyer you shall find the piece of Iron will leap quite through the flame unto the Load-stone In like manner the Needle on his turn-pin will for all the interposition of a flame turn unto the Load-stone and that with the same celerity that it would do in the open aire So that you may see by this experiment that the coition of these magneticall bodies are not hindred by fire Also if water or earth be interposed between them it will do the like There is another Problem which expresseth the unresistable penetrative vertue of this more effectually in these terms 2 Problem Iron is allured onely by an immateriall act or an incorporeall process which doth operate and is conceived in an Iron subject as in a continuated homogeniall body and therefore it hath no need of large or wide passages And for this reason the Iron is moved and drawn by the Load-stone it self and again the Iron doth draw the Load-stone it self and a concourse or a meeting together in a unity is made by their beams although that thiâ—k bodies be interposed as sticklers between them So that you see that the putting or applying of thiâ—k subâ—tances between the Iron and the Load-stone cannot hinder the coition of spirits which is a token that the influentiall or formall spirit cannot be impedited in hiâ—â—otion And therefore â—his subtle spirit whiâ—h hath his beginning from the soul of the world is said by the wisest Philosopher Omnia permeare entia â—o pass or travers all things But yet more plainly 3 Problem The Load-stone without any frication or rubbing or being exsiccated by heat or perfused with moysture in the aire in the water doth provoke and allure unto it magneticall subjects and also solid as well-compacted bodies as thick boards or tables of stone or grosse plates of mettle as silver gold or brass being put between And Ridley saith That although such substances as be not magneticall be placed between the Needle and the Load-stone yet they cannot hinder the orbe and proceeding of the magnetick vigour As for example If a Load-stone should be placed in a box of wood stone tinne silver or brass yet the Loadstone will extend his magneticall orbe Application I conclude therefore by this typicall expression that the emissions of mans vitall spirits are so subtle and so piercing that no interposed bodies are able to hinder it in its motion to his pretended mark nor yet the magneticall blood in the oyntment being excited can be hindred in his concouâ—â—e oâ— union with the same southern â—r vivifying spirit and that especially because the formall spirits of the one is continued and homogeneal unto the other I proceed now unto the sixt Member of the foresaid Proposition The sixt Member of the Proposition with the Proofs Sixtly that after a Body be it Animal Vegetable or Mineral is made by a transplantation of another bodies spirits magneticall or a magnet unto that other body it doth by attracting of its beloved's spirits unto it impart unto them of that vertue and property which appertaineth unto it self insomuâ—h that as the lover doth participate with the nature of the beloved so also the beloved doth partake and share with the lover's condition especially if they be homogeneall in kind and reciprocall in affection Certain Problematicall Demonstrations to confirm this member of the fore-said Proposition 1 Problem Quodlibet corpus cui Mummia viva in alio homine propinatur illicò fit magnes Every body to whom the lively Mummy from a man is given or administred is forthwith made a Magnet Application This Problem is animal and not mineral but it inferreth that by the transplanting of mans bloody spirits into the oyntment the oyntment is forthwith become magneticall and attractive even as before I told you that the hair and nails being planted or grafted on the Oke make it forthwith by communicating of the spirits of the one with the spirits of the other attractive and magnetick 2 Problema Magneticum The Load-stone hath nothing neither can do any thing which the Iron being excited cannot do and that not onely by contact but at a reasonable distance Application Neither can the live man's spirit perform any action that the dead blood transplanted in the Salve by the Magneticall assistance of the Salve cannot perform yea verily it goeth yet further for it inspireth into the wound a Sanative influence 3. Problem Iron being touched doth recreate another Iron and instructeth it unto Magneticall motions so that it draweth unto it a third As for example The Load-stone being applied unto A it draweth unto it the piece of wier B and also after B it draweth C and after C it draweth D. Application The Iron B is compared unto the spirits that are first animated by the lively spirits in man and that animates the Oyntment's spirits which are of a Microcosmicall nature by reason of Uzneas volatil salt which is the receptacle of such vegetating and vivifying Spirits as give life unto man save onely they are of a Northern property and as it were dead These spirits in Oyntment are referred unto C which work and operate being so excited in D which importeth the emitted spirits of the wounded man so that we see that it is but one and the same continuated Spirit which putteth into action the three severall Subjects
be with the weapon conveyed unto his oyntment which keepeth it from the cold aire and serveth the spirituall Mummie's turn to preserve it as the filings of Steel doth the formall spirit of the Load-stone 2. Problem Baptista Porta did take a Load-stone and kept it in the filings of Steel a good while and afterwards he found it more vigorous and efficacious in his attractive vertue Also Paracelsus by heating a Load-stone and imbibing it with the oyl of Iron did increase the vigour of it by many degrees as is said before Application In like manner if the spirituall Mummy in the transported blood be but weak or faint yet if it be kept a while in the animal salve it will become vigorous insomuch that it will also animate the whole salve 3 Problem Set a Magnet of no force or strength that can easily be perceived upon a Load-stone of good strength and vigour especially upon the poles and he will shew a vigour as if he were as strong as the Load-stone is whereunto he is united but after he is taken away he will be as weak as before unless it be often done Application So also if the spirits transported with the blood be planted on a found and balsamick unguent it will gather strength but if the unguent be either wiped or pared or melted off from the weapon it will immediately lose his force And again if it be freshly annointed and covered warm it will be forth-with recreated again as is said before Moreover this is also confirmed by this Problem mentioned before 4 Problem If a weak Magnet be rubbed at his poles with a stronger Load-stone he will be bettered by it in his vigour and vertue if not augmented therein 5. Problem A stronger and bigger Load-stone doth augment the force of a lesser if it be put on the pole of the greater Magnet for then will the north pole of it be the more vigorous Application The strong blood and spirit in the wounded man by aspect maketh the weak blood and spirit which is transplanted in the oyntment to operate magnetically and to apply and direct the spirit of the unguent unto it strongly which it would not do without the union which it hath with its fountain which is more lively agil and robust The eighth Member of the Proposition with his Proofs The eighth Member of this Proposition is that in all magneticall operations there must be a reciprocall application or aspect made between the lover and the beloved as between the matter or feminine which coveteth and the form or male which is coveted and by a likeness or continuation of formall spirits like is united unto his like which acteth in the matter So the Boreall spirit with his unctuous materiall body coveteth and allureth effectually the formall and aequinoctiall beams or emanating spirit of the wound and directeth the unctuous Magnet to bring to pass the effect of his concupiscence which is easily effected being that there is a continuation between their spirits But to our Proofs Certain Problematicall Demonstrations to confirm this Problem 1 Problem The magneticall coition is an act of the Load-stone and the Iron not of one but of both like man and wife Application As the woman that is colder and of a more northern nature doth covet the man which is of a hotter and southern disposition so also by a sympatheticall likeness in either's spirit they meet and unite their seeds of affection In the very like manner the cold spirit in the congealed blood coveteth the hot spirits of the lively and active blood and after each of them are met they unite natures and procreate a third as a child which partaketh of them both 2 Problem The first vertue of the primary form in the Iron was at the first distinct but is now confused by the fusion or melting of his body when the magneticall or iron-vein was examined and yet nevertheless after that a whole and strong Load-stone is applyed unto it returneth again unto his former act for his form being disposed and ordered with the magnet they both do conjoyne together sociable forces consenting magnetically and mutually unto unity in all motions and are adjoyned together without any corporeall contact and consequently are made all one Application The self-same is the reason of Contraries and therefore the self-same may be said touching the extremity of cold which is in the Problem reported of the extremity of heat We say therefore That the blood which whilst it was in his naturall vein was distinct in his action is now by pouring it out into the cold aire made confused and void of any manifest formall action but when by the assistance of the oyntment it is stirred up and applyed again unto the spirituall emanation of the strong blood it is rectifyed again and doth conjoyne his nature with the adopted power it hath from the oyntment and so a union of both natures is made whereby the wound 's spirit doth participate with the balsamick nature of the Mummy Again in the true nature of the said Problem without any conversion of proposition the bloody spirit in the â—nguent became confused through overmuch heat as it appeareth by Mr. James Viret his experiment in holding the Lancet by the fire after it had wounded and was annointed 3 Problem Two Load stones being disposed into severed Boats and placed on the superficies of the water if they be sufficiently placed within the orbs of their vertues they will with mutuall affection prepare themselves for a meeting and at the last embrace or adhere unto one another Also if an Iron be fitted in one Bark and a Load-stone in another the Iron will hasten in the very same manner unto the Load-stone and also the Load-stone being in his Bark will move unto the Iron insomuch that either of them are carried from their places in such a manner that at the last they are joyned together and so do rest as being well satisfied and contented in their loves The like also will be effected if two wiers excited by the Load-stone be put through like corks and placed on the water to swim for you shall see them make love to one another and moving by little and little they will sensibly meet and with their ends strike and touch one another Application In like manner the Northern or congealed blood or bloody transported Mummy by the conduct of his unctuous vehicle which is also by his presence made Magnetick doth covet the Southern union of the living and moving bloody spirits of the wounded as Matter doth Form or the female doth the male and because the spirit is continuated betwixt them both as the aire is continuated betwixt the North-pole and the South aequinoctial in the great world though each extremity be of different natures namely the one cold and dry congelative attractive and immobil the other hot and moist dissolutive discussive and mobil or agill therefore they easily
do concur and meet with a sympathetical embracing 4. Problem The naturall union of Magneticall Spirits is when the condition is made by contrary parts as by the pole North or South Application So the Northern blood or the spirits in the transported blood that are congealed and have assumed a Northern property will easily concur with spirits of a Southern or aequinoctial nature namely with the spirits of the lively fountain from whence they come being that like doth naturally covet his like especially when it is compassed about by the cold and crude aire and so constrained to contract it self with its airy vehicle from his cold adversary for spirits that are derived from the aequinoctial do eschew by a naturall instinct even as the airy nature doth the chill disposition of the earth and therefore being fled or contracted into the Center it draws unto it the lively beams of the Southern blood This is the reason in the Macrocosm that when the North-wind bloweth strongly and the South wind not so strongly the aire is often times condensed into a cloud by the contraction of the fiery formal and aequinoctial or astrall beams in the aire so condensed which by reason of the outward cold do fly from the air's Circumference unto the Center Insomuch that for this reason often times it is seen that it breaketh out into Lightnings and Coruscations This contraction also in the included aire when the externall aire is cold is easily discerned in effect by the Wether-glass namely when the water is drawn up and the included aire contracted or coarcted into a narrow room The ninth Member of the Proposition with his Proofs The ninth member of the Proposition is that the strong attractive faculties of every Magnet is of a Northern condition or Boreal property and consequently hath his chief attractive faculty from the pole-star And therefore after the manner of the Load-stone it draweth from the Circumference unto the Center Again all things coveted or beloved forasmuch as they are formal do participare of the aequinoctiall faculty which emitteth beams by dilatation from the Center and therefore their union by application maketh a mixtion of temper which is between the Northern-pole and the aequinoctial that is partly attractive and partly dilative as is mans vitall spirit which acteth in Systole and Diastole or contraction and dilatation even such is the Act of Magneticall coition Certain Problematical Demonstrations to confirm this Member First I will prove unto you demonstratively and that by a relation made unto the Load-stone that the most vigorous Magneticall attraction is from the North-pole and consequently that by the blood's induing of a Northern and congelative faculty it must needs become most attractive and contractive of his like as we see that the movable and thin expansed aire becometh thick Snow when the North wind doth blow or ice or frost or hail 1. Problem The North-pole is alwaies the most vigorous and strong pole to all Magneticall purposes if he have the quantiry the South hath Application Therefore the bloody spirit induing the natute of the North is most efficacious to operate upon the Southern nature Magnetically or attractively 2 Problem The Loadstone draweth the Iron more strongly from the North-pole than any point else of the said Stone Application This confirmeth the fore-said Problem To conclude the Magneticall attraction of the Northern blood is the cause of planting the light of more spirits in the unctuous Magnet whereby it is made stronger in his operation 3. Problem The Loadstone hath his points that is to say his true poles in the which do abide his greatest virtue And for this cause it doth not attract the Iron with equal force from every part and also the Magneticall Subject doth not move or flow unto every part of the Magnet 4 Problem The parts that are nearest the North-pole are the strongest in attraction and the parts that are remote are observed to be the weaker and more infirm in their drawing virtue Demonstration Now that the greatest attractive virtue is from the North I demonstrate it many waies And first If we shall hang up a long piece of Iron by a threed as is said before the Northen part of the world will attract unto it the end of it So that it will stand directly North and South Secondly if a wier of four or five inches in length be thrust through a cork and touched by the Load-stone and the cork be put into the water the Northern-Star will suck the end of the Iron unto it Thirdly if a long Iron be forged North and South and so be laid to cool in the same situation it will be animated and indued with the virtue of the Pole and move in the aire being hung up by a threed or put into a boat on the water and it will be drawn by the North and have as it were a coition with the North-star Fourthly if a long piece of clay newly burnt doth cool North and South it will then receive a Magneticall power from the earth and pole Fiftly set two Load-stones with their poles of one denomination namely the North-pole or South-pole of each at each end of a piece of clay while it cooleth and both ends will be of one nature Sixtly put a piece of clay of a long form into the fire and afterwards let it cool North and South and it will receive a polar virtue After that burn it again in the fire and let that end which cooled first North cool now South and it will be changed into the nature of the South and the other into the nature of the North. Application By the first therefore of these Problems and experiments it is apparent that the fountain of vigorous attraction is from the pole because that the property of Northern cold is to attract and therefore the bloody Spirit induing the nature of the North becommeth Magneticall as well as that of clay or Iron I will come now therefore to demonstrate the effect that this Northern spirit and the Southern do make by their mutuall concourse and union as we see that the Northern and Southern-pole by their intermediate concourse do produce an aequinoctial nature which is vernall and temperate that is to say hot and moist as is the living blood So that a Media natura or mean nature which participates of both extreams is produced between the confluence of their aspect or application which receiveth from the one and communicateth with the other My magneticall proofs are these 5 Problem Two magneticall bodies being joyned together at their poles those two poles that touch together have the nature of the Aequator or equinoctiall and will not excite or hold a needle thus touching Application The northern or contracted bloody spirit joyning by application with the southern equinoctiall or lively or dilated one will endue by this conjunction an equinoctiall nature which will have relation unto each
extremity namely by receiving from the oyntments spirits and giving or imparting them sympathetically unto the wound The tenth Member of the Proposition with his Proofs The tenth Member of the Proposition is that by a lively southern spirit a portion of his like being made by effusion of it into the open and cold air weak drooping northern or congealed may after transplantation be revived quickened and corroborated and so by returning again unto his southern or equinoctiall nature may by a sympatheticall union be made all one homogeneall nature with the lively bloody spirit conferring along with it by little and little the nature of the plant or animal mass in which he is grafted and so may cause each extream nature to participate with the symptoms of one another be they good and salutary or bad and dolorous Certain Problematicall Demonstrations to confirm this Member 1 Problem If a Magnet of no force or strength that can easily be discerned be set on the pole of a Load-stone that is strong he will shew a vigour as if he were as strong as the Load-stone is whereunto he is united but after he is taken away he will be as weak as before unless it be often done Application The Southern blood penetrating through the unctuous Magnet doth animate it and by animation doth revive it and as well preserving the transplanted spirit from the externall aire 's inclemency as calefacting or heating of it by his attracted southern nature it doth revive again the dead spirits of the fainting blood so transported even as we see the spirits in the dead grain of Wheat buried in the earth is by the earth animated with the Sun-beams being revived as it were from death to life But if that a part of the oyntment be taken away from the place of the weapon where the blood doth stick or the bloody spirits did penetrate then will the revived spirits faint again and the wound will be dolorous as it was before the blood was buried in the oyntment even as also if the earth be removed from the vigorous spirits in the dead grain they will fade and the plant will not grow and multiply But if the oyntment animated as before be re-applyed the wound will prosper and heal without pain no otherwise also then if the earth that was removed from the revived spirit in the grain be re-applyed unto it suddainly it will prosper again 2 Problem If a weak Magnet be rubbed at one of his poles with a stronger Magnet it wil be bettered by it in vigour and vertue if not augmented therein Application This typicall proof doth confirm also exactly the same member namely the lively spirits will vigorate fainting-ones 3 Problem The Magnet will lose some of his attractive vertue and will as it were languish with old age if it be long exposed unto the open aire and be not put again and reserved or buried in the filings of Iron Application So also mans blood effused out of his Mine and exposed into the open air doth languish and becommeth weak if it be not preserved in the weapon-salve which is of his nature 4 Problem One Iron being touched doth recreate another and instruct it unto magneticall motions Application So the Mummiall unguent animated by the emitted beams of the lively blood doth recreate incite and corroborate the spirits in the transported blood The eleventh Member of this Proposition with his Proofs The eleventh Member is That the alteration of the aire doth operate equally upon either extream which is an evident argument of a continued unity in spirit between the transplanted blood in the oyntment and the wound so that what passion the distempered or unclement aire operateth in the one is felt by the other no otherwise than if a thread be tyed at both ends of a Gallem the one end being touched the other end doth sympathize or act likewise by consent which is an evident argument that the aire is the medium or vehicle in which the spirituall influence doth pass and that the said formall celestiall or influentiall spirit which is carried in it doth by an immediate contact communicate with the distempers of its airy vehicle and by consequence it is by that means changed by turns and by portions into a northern or southern disposition And therefore by the externall air 's cold it sucketh spirits from the wound and leaveth it distempered and dolorous it being by that kind of attraction deprived of some naturall heat So that sympathy is turned into antipathy as it appeareth when the oyntment is taken off from the wounding place of the weapon either totally or in part as is said before Certain Problematicall Demonstrations to confirm this Member 1 Problem In the Weather-glass so often mentioned before you shall find between the bolts-head or mattras above and the water below a continued aire in the neck of the glass and you must imagine that such included aire is not without his sulphureous spirits which by dilatation of themselves do also dilate the airy vehicle they are in and with the dilated vehicle the water is stricken down and by contraction of themselves the airy vehicle is also contracted and the water is sucked up And yet we see that the aire which is between both extreams is all one continued aire from the one extream unto the other and therefore much more the occult and celestiall sulphureous spirit which dwelleth and acteth within it and is as the soul in a body in toto in qualibet parte and that indivisibly or not separated into parts And because this included acting spirit being but one in number is derived from the soul of the world Look as the generall worketh in the great world namely from the north or from the south even so also doth this member of the generall operate in his included aire For if the catholick spirit of the world acteth or breatheth from the north and bringeth forth in the air congealative and contractive effects then the centrall spirit in the glass doth operate likewise after the same manner for it contracteth his vehicle and sucketh up the water But if the world's catholick spirit bloweth from the south then is the aire before contracted now again dilated and then also will the included formall spirits in the glass operate after the same fashion and dissipate or extend out their airy vehicle in a larger proportion or manner as by ocular observation you may discern in the said Instrument 2 Problem The north wind blowing in the great world continueth the essence of his blast from north to south but the nearer that it approacheth the equinoctiall line the more weak is his effect in contraction and congelation agreeing in this with the Magnet or Load-stone whose parts the nearer they are unto the pole the more potent are they in their operative or attractive power and the farther they are off the more infirm and debil they are But this emanating spirit from
the north to the equinoctiall is one and the same spirit in essence although in property it varieth in his parts Likewise the south wind having dominion doth send out from the equinoctiall unto the north his blast without any discontinuance of his essence and yet the nearer it approcheth unto the north the weaker is his force in dilatation and dissolution and yet the spirit is one and the same in essence with that of the north for it is but one anima mundi or vivifying spirit of the world which the Platonist esteem to have his dwelling in the Sun And David saith He put his tabernacle in the Sun And therefore the winds are called by some Titanei filiI the sons of Titan or the Sun And the Prophet argueth aswell the Unity as the Omnipotency of this vivifying Spirit where he saith Veni Spiritus a quatuor ventis insuffla interfectos istos ut reviviscant Come Spirit from the four winds and breathe upon these slain persons that they may live Where he argueth that it is but one essentiall Spirit which as Solomon saith filleth the world and is in every thing of the world but after a manifold property The conclusive Application We conclude therefore that the spirit in the wounded man's blood not exhausted and that in the blood exhausted is all one spirit in essence howsoever it vary in property and therefore being continuate and indivisible in essence it is no marvell though it acteth from one extreame unto another diversly namely Magnetically and attractively from the Oyntment for there by reason of its absence from the Southern or lively blood in the body it indueth a Northern nature and sucketh or attracteth his like being emanated in the aire and the Southern-pole or aequinoctial point by dilatation sendeth out his spirit to be attracted and so there is made a communication betwixt the Balsamick nature and the wounded the self-same spirit operating diversly And I will express unto you a notable example in the great world When the Sun is beyond the aequinoctial Southward which happeneth in the winter then is the Northern nature most powerfull in attraction congelation and inspissation on this side the aequinoctial As contrariwise the Southern nature is most vigorous and efficacious in dilatation dissolution and subtiliation and yet you shall plainly discern how one and the same Spirit in the world doth operate from the one extream unto the other For when the Sun in the South doth dilate the aire and the waters there which the precedent winter had thickened and incrassated by attraction of cold and by dilatation doth dissipate it then that aire and water so dissipated requireth a larger place and flieth from the aspect of the Sun Northward And again the Northern propertie of the same spirit being now in the winter time most potent doth by attraction suck and direct Magnetically those spirits which are chased from the South and the nearer it draweth them unto the pole the more suddenly it condenseth them into clouds which by reason of the Sulphureous nature which it bringeth from the Summer or aequinoctial do immediatly dissolve themselves into rains And this is the reason that the Southern winds are so rife among us in the winter and consequently that we have so much rain in that season So that we may see how the double property of one and the same spirit doth operate at one and the same time about the effecting of one and the same thing in one and the same catholick aire of the world as I have told you before in my foregoing Discourse As also in the ascending or descending of fountains in each Hemisphere the like is effected All which is most lively demonstrated and performed in the Weather-glass as I have expressed before Whereby it is confirmed that being the Microcosmicall spirit is all one in condition with the Macrocosmicall It followeth thâ—t though the body of it be divided yet the spirit remains indivisible and can dilate and contract it self at any extention as is proved by the properties of the two contrary winds whose spirit is continued from both extremities and by the small pieces in the Load-stone which have their compleat poles as well as the whole Also by this a man way see that this spirit's operation is not to be limited by any of the Peripateticks imaginary Sphere of activity and consequently that it may work at any distance being directed and guided by a right and homogeniall Magnet that is to say agreeing at the least-wise in speciality if not in individuality or both as the blood of the wounded which is transplanted and that in the body both which are identity in nature and also as is the Uznea and Mummy in the Oyntment which is of the same Specifick though not of the Individuall You see therefore Learned Reader how plainly this business or the fore-said Proposition hath been demonstrated as well by the Load-stone as the naturall practise in the great world and in practise of the Weather-glass which I term my Demonstrative Instrument But because there are some strange accidents which happen in this cure by chance and unlooked for a reason whereof could never hitheto be expressed I will speak a word or two of them in a second Proposition and so I will end this Chapter The second Proposition It hath been observed in the cure of wounds by the Weapon-salve that if there happen in the time of the cure any issue of blood from some other part of the wounded man as bleeding at the nose pissing of blood or by some other wound or else if he have to do with any menstruous woman in the mean time the force of the Ointment will be diverted and the efficacy of it will stand but in little stead and the reason that I can give is because the Southern bloody spirit which raigning in the veins did emit and direct his beams unto the Oyntment was easily attracted and imbibed by the Oyntment but when that spirit is diverted and turned another way and is attracted by a contrary Magneticall Subject then will a divorce as it were be made by the second Magnet betwixt the emanating Spirit and the attractive in the Oyntment And I will maintain and demonstrate this to be true by this Magneticall experiment A Problem to confirm the Proposition out of Gilb. lib. 2. de Mag cap. 31. Two Load-stones or Irons excited rightly cohaering by the comming of another fresher and stronger Load-stone or Iron excited do make an abort and the new commer will easily drive away the other with a contrary face and will command him and so the endeavour or the desire of the other two which were first joyned will end Application Thus you see how fitly these two do concur namely the fore-recited animal act with these of the mineral I end this Chapter with this Assertion Spirits that have their subtiliation and action from natural heat do act livelily so long as they abide within
are arguments of the resistance and expulsive faculty of contagious antipathy suddenly appear and this is effected sometimes by the sound spirits conquest and sometimes by the vain attempt thereof 1. A Problematicall Demonstration derived from the Load-stone When a small piece of Iron is put into a small Boat with materialls of another loading to float upon the water and a Load-stone be placed in another vessell on the same water near one another the coition which will be made betwixt these two magneticall bodies will be depraved weak and unnaturall because the Magnet affecteth and draweth unto it most strongly his like or best-beloved when she is not laded or mixed with materialls of a contrary nature and consequently not agreeing in sympathy with it An Application To conclude A Mummy which hath an antipatheticall infection joyned unto it and applieth in conjunction unto a sound or strong and wholsome Mummy is like as if a portion of the stone called Theamides which is antipatheticall unto that of the Magnet foâ— it â—â—pelleth Iron or the Magnet it self as the Magnet doth attract them unto it were joyned in a little bark unto the Magnet or a piece of Iron also placed in it and that bark or boat so burthened were applyed unto a stronger Magnet in another bark in a bason of water the strong Magnet or Load-stone would partly attract his like namely the Magnet or Iron and partly resist and expell his enemy and so by reason of his attraction his expulsion would be the flower Therefore also the magneticall Philosophers hold this for a Maxim 2 Problem The coition or union betwixt two magneticall bodies is more quick and nimble than the flight or divorce from one another for experience teacheth that magneticall bodies are more sluggishly repelled then they are allured or drawn unto one another and the reason is because there is some antipatheticall invasion which causeth that hatred and maketh that irascible resistance between the homogeneall spirit of the Mummy and the heterogeniall poyson or infection in it for we ought to consider that magnetick bodies do covet sympatheticall union 5 Proposition Two Mummies of divers bodies whereof the one is sound and the other infected though in their first coition they seem to agree by reason of that homogeniall respect which is between them being in their purity but of one and the same essence yet for that the one is infected and for that cause hath endued a heterogeniall disposition contrary unto the essence of them both for that reason I say the second Mummy endeavoureth to be divorced from them both And this is proved thus by this problematicall Demonstration drawn out of the Load-stone's property 3 Problem If you shall set two small wiers on the poles of a Load-stone these wiers will be observed to adhere at the lower ends together upon the point of the pole but at their tops they will be at discord and averse unto one another at their upper ends so that they will be observed to make a fork as if one end did eschew and fly from the company and society of the other THE CONCLUSION I Could judicious Reader have made a whole Volume of experimentall Propositions with their problematicall proofs touching the infinite abyss of Symâ—heticall and Antipatheticall effects in the three Kingdoms namely Animal â—â—getable and Mineral both mutually between each species or kind as from the â—â—dividualls of one kind unto another But it is not my intention to express my â—ore bold and setled opinions touching the true Philosophy and his appendixes 〈◊〉 a larger English phrase considering the roughness and harshnesse of my pen 〈◊〉 reason of my defect and the insufficiency in the polished nature thereof Again know that filed words and phrases are but superficiall flashes and flying shaâ—owes of a wealthy and rich subject the which as they are Proteus-like changable â—nto an infinity of colours so also are mens fancies and judgments as variable beâ—ng the Proverb is So many men so many minds I do imagine and my minde giveth â—â—e that although I be never so curious in my inditing or laborious in the phrase â—f mine expression yet will my best endeavours appear faulty in the curious eyeâ—â—ght of some men though perchance acceptable enough unto others I esteem it â—ufficient therefore that I dare be hardy and bold in the fundamentall subject of the essentiall Philosophy being that it hath Truth it self to maintain and defend it without any adornation made by the gilded tresses of superficiall speeches or verball explication and therefore as veritas non quaerit angulos so also she needeth not the expression of eloquent words and refined sentences or phrases to illustrate it and make it more perspicuous in the eyes of wise and learned men being that it is not unknown unto them that she doth conquer all for she is the bright splendour or emanation which springeth from the omnipotent and eternall fountain she enlighteneth all she acteth essentially in all and over all and revealeth her self in effect to all and therefore she is so manifest in all her works that she needeth not any golden-tongued Oratour nor smooth and methodicall Rhetorician or lip-learned Philosopher to do her honour in the expression of her excellency and recording the perfection of her graces revealed unto all the world though the unworthy worldlings will not acknowledge or receive her with reverence as they ought to do but rather hide her perpetually by their best endeavours with the vail of obscure ignorance and thereby do not desist to persecute and crucifie daily that spirituall Christ which is the onely verity true wisdom corner-stone and essentiall subject of the true Philosophy whose Name be blessed for ever and ever who onely hath made the heavens and the earth and every thing therein and sustaineth and preserveth them by the vivification of his Spirit which operateth all in all and reigneth in power and glory with the Father for ever and ever Who will defend his servants from the oppression of evill-minded men and stand as a shield of defence to preserve the proclaimer of his truth from the Serpentine tongues of malitious back-biters and the venomous carpings of the Cynicall and Satyricall Momus It is he that saith unto the adorer of his truth Ego dabo vobis os sapientiam cui non poterant resistere contradicere omnes adversarii vestri And therefore I will say as the Prophet David did In alarum tuarum umbra canam I will sing the truth under the shadow of thy wings O Lord in thee do I put my trust keep and preserve me from mine enemies for thy mercie 's sake AMEN FINIS Wisd. 13.1 Rom. 1.20 Gen. 28.12 Ezek. 1.16 1 Cor. 12.11 1 Tim. 6.13 Ephes. 4.10 Wisd. 12.1 Joh. 1. Acts 17.25 Ephes. 4.6 Rom. 11.36 Judith 16.17 Isa. 42.5 Psal. 104.25 Colos. 1.16 Colos. 3.11 Heb. 1.3 Colos. 2.3 Job 28.25 Psal. 17 18. Job 38.1 Psal. 147.4 Job 37.10 1 Cor. 1.22