Spirit by Separation of the Principles wherein the Life is Imprisoned may see the Impresse of it Experimentally in the outward naturall vestiments But lest you should think this my Invention and no Practicall Trueth I will give you another Mans testimony Quid quaeso dicerent biâ—tanti Philosophi saith one is Plantam quasi Momentonasci in vitreo vase viderent cum suis ad Viuum Coloribus rursum interixe renasci idque quoties quando luheret Credo Daemonium Arte Magica inclusum dicerent illudere sensibus humanis They are the words of Doctor Marci in his Defensio Idearum Operatricium But you are to be admonished there is a twofold Idea Divine and Naturall The Naturall is a fiery invisible created Spirit and properly a meer Inclosure or vestiment of the true One Hence the Platonicks called it Nimbus Numinis Descendentis Zoroaster and some other Philosophers think it is Anima Mundi but by their leave they are mistaken there is a wide difference betwixt Anima and Spiritus But the Idea I speak of here is the true primitive exemplar one and a pure Influence of the Almighty This Idea before the Coagulation of the seminall principles to a grosse outward Fabrick which is the End of Generation impresseth in the Vitall Ethereall Principles a Modell or Pattern after which the Body is to be framed and this is the first inward production or Draught of the Creature This is it which the Divine Spirit intimates to us in that Scripture where he saith That God Created every plant of the field before it was in the ground and every herb of the field before it grew But notwithstanding this presence of the Idea in the Matter yet the Creation was not performed Extramittendo aliquid de Essentiâ Ideae for it is God that Comprehends his Creature and not the Creature God Thus farre have I handl'd this primitive supernaturall part of the Creation I must confesse it is but short in respect of that which may be spoken but I am confident it is more then formerly hath been discovered Some Authors having not searched so deeply into the Centre of Nature others not willing to publish such Spiritual mysteries I am now come to the gross work or mechanicks of the Spirit namely the separation of severall substances from the same Masse but in the first place I shal examine that Lymbus or Huddle of Matter wherein all things were so strangely contained It is the opinion of some men and those learned That this sluggish empty Rudement of the Creature was noe created thing I must confesse the Point is obscure as the thing it selfe and to state it with Sobriety except a man were illuminated with the same Light that this Chaos was at first is altogether impossible For how can wee judge of a Nature differrent from our owne whose Species also was so remote from any thing now existent that it is impossible for Fancy to apprehend much more for Reason to define it If it be created I conceive it the Effect of the Divine imagination acting beyond it selfe in Contemplation of that which was to come and producing this Passive darkenesse for a Subject to worke upon in the Circumference Trismegistus having first exprest his Vision of Light describes the Matter in its primitive state thus Et paulo post saith he Tenebrae deor sum ferebantur partim trepidandae ac tristes effectae tortuosae terminatae ut maginarer me vidisse commutatas Tenebras in humidam quandam Naturam ultra quam dici potest agitatam velut ab igne fumum evomere ac sonum aliquem edere inenunciabilem lugubrem Certainly these Tenebrae he speakes of or Fuliginous spawne of Nature were the first created Matter for that Water we read of in Genesis was a Product or secondary Substance Here also he seemes to agree further with the Mosaicall Tradition For this Fumus which ascended after the Transmutation can be nothing else but that Darknesse which was upon the Face of the Deepe But to expresse the particular Mode or way of the Creation you are to understand that in the Matter there was a horrible confused Qualme or stupifying spirit of Moysture Cold and Darknesse In the opposite Principle of Light there was Heate and the Effect of it Siccitie For these two are noe Elementall qualities as the Galenists and my Peripateticks suppose But they are if I may say so the Hands of the divine Spirit by which He did worke upon the Matter applying every Agent to his proper Patient These two are Active and Masculine Those of Moysture and Cold are Passive and Faeminine Now assoone as the holy Ghost and the Word for it was not the one nor the other but both Mens opifex una cum Verbo as Trismegistus hath it I omit that Speech Let us make man which effectually prooves their Union in the Worke had applyed themselves to the Matter there was extracted from the Bosome of it a thinne Spiritualt Caelestiall substance which receiving a Tincture of Heat and Light proceeding from the Divine Treasuries became a pure sincere innoxious Fire Of this the Bodyes of Angells consist as also the Empyraeall Heaven where Intellectuall Essences have their Residence This was primum Matrimonium Dei Naturae the First and best of Compositions This Extract being thus soiled above and separated from the Masse retaind in it a vast portion of Light and made the first Day without a Sun But the Splendour of the Word expelling the Darkenes downwards it became more setl'd and compact towards the Centre and made a Horrible thick Night Thus God as the Hebrew hath it was betweene the Light and the Darknesse for the Spirit remained still on the Face of the Inferior portion to extract more from it In the second separation was educed Aer agilis as Trismegistus calls it a Spirit not so refined as the former but vitall and in the next degree to it This was extracted in such abundance that it fill'd all the space from the Masse to the Empyraeall heaven under which it was condens'd to a water but of a different constitution from the Elementall and this is the Body of the Inter-stellar skie But my Peripatericks following the Principles of Aristotle and Ptolomie have imagin'd so many wheeles there with their smal diminutive Epicycles that they have turn'd that regular Fabrick to a rumbling Confused Labyrinth The Inferior portion of this second Extract from the Moon to the Earth remained Air still partly to divide the inferior and superior waters but chiefly for the Respiration and Nourishment of the Creatures This is that which is properly called the Firmament as it is plain out of Esdras On the Second Day thou diddst create the Spirit of the Firmament for it is Ligamentum totius Naturae and in the outward Geometricall Composure it answers to Natura media for it is spread through all Things hinders Vacuity and keeps all
Tympanie of Termes It is better then a Fight in Quixot to observe what Duels and Digladiations they have about Him one will make him speak Sense another Non-sense and a third both Aquinas palps him gently Scotus makes him winch and he is taught like an Ape to shew severall tricks If we look on his adversaries the least amongst them hath foyld him but Telesius knock'd him in the head and Campanella hath quite discomposed him But as that bald haunter of the circus had his scull so steel'd with use it shiver'd all the tyles were thrown at it so this Aristotle thrives by scuffles and the world cryes him up when trueth cryes him down The Peripatetickes look on God as they do on Carpenters who build with stone and Timber without any infusion of life But the world which is Gods building is full of Spirit quick and living This Spirit is the cause of multiplication of severall perpetuall productions of minerals vegetables and creatures ingendred by putrefaction All which are manifest infallible Arguments of life Besides the Texture of the universe clearly discovers its animation The arth which is the visible natural Basis of it represents the gross carnal parts The Element of Water answers to the Bloud for in it the pulse of the Great World beates this most men call the Flux and Reflux but they know not the true Cause of it The air is the outward refreshing Spirit where this vast creature breathes though invisibly yet not all together insensibly The Interstellar skies are his vital aethereall waters and the stars his animal sensuall fire Thou wilt tell me perhaps This is new Philosophy and that of Aristotle is old It is indeed but in the same sense as Religion is at Rome It is not the primitive Trueth of the Creation not the Ancient reall Theosophie of the Hebrews and Egyptians but a certain preternaturall upstart a Vomit of Aristotle which his followers with so much diligence lick up and swallow I present thee not here with any Clamorous opposition of their Patrone but a positive Expresse of principles as I finde them in Nature I may say of Them as Moses said of the Fiat These are the Generations of the Heavens and of the Earth in the Day that the Lord God made the Heavens and the Earth They are things extra Intellectum sensible practicall Trueths not meer Vagaries and Rambles of the Braine I would not have thee look on my Indeavours as a designe of Captivity Intend not the Conquest but the exercise of thy Reason not that thou shouldest swear Allegeance to my Dictats but compare my Conclusions with Nature and examine their Correspondency Be pleased to consider that Obstinacy inslaves the Soule and clips the wings which God gave her for flight and Discovery If thou wilt not quit thy Aristotle let not any prejudice hinder thy further search Great is their Number who perhaps had attain'd to perfection had they not already thought themselves perfect This is my Advice but how wellcome to Thee I know not If thou wilt kick and fling I shall say with the Cardinall Etiam Asinus meus recalcitrat for I value no Mans Censure It is an Age wherein truth is neer a Miscarriage and it is enough for me that I have appeared thus far for it in a Day of Necessity E. S. ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA WHEN I found out this Trueth That Man in his Originall was a Branch planted in God and that there was a continuall Influxe from the Stock to the Sion I was much troubl'd at his Corruptions and wonder'd his Fruits were not correspondent to his Roote But when I was told he had tasted of an other Tree my admiration was quickly off it being my chiefe care to reduce him to his first Simplicitie and separate his Mixtures of Good and Evill But his Fall had so bruised him in his best part that his Soule had no knowledge left to study him a Cure his Punishment presently followed his Trespasse Velata sunt omnia intravitq oblivio mater ignorantiae This Lethe remained not in his body but passing together with his Nature made his Posterity her Channell Imperfection 's an easy inheritance but Vertue seldome finds any Heires Man had at the first and so have all Souls before their Intrance into the body an Explicite methodicall knowledge but they are no sooner Vessel'd but that Liberty is lost and nothing remaines but a Vast confused Notion of the Creature Thus had I only left a Capacity without Power and a Will to doe that which was far enough above me In this perplexity I studied severall Arts and ramel'd over all those Inventions which the folly of man call'd Sciences But these endeavours sorting not to my purpose I quitted this Booke-businesse and thought it a better course to study Nature then Opinion Hereupon I considered with my selfe that man was not the Primitive immediate worke of God but the World out of which he was made And to regulate my studies in point of Methode I judg'd it convenient to examine his Principles first and not him But the World in generall being too large for Inquisition I resolv'd to take Part for the Whole and to give a guesse at the Frame by Proportion To perfect this my Essay I tooke to task the Fruits of one Spring Here I observed a great many Vegetables fresh and beautious in their Time but when I looked back on their Original they were no such things as Vegetables This Observation I apply'd to the World and gained by it this Inference That the World in the beginning was no such thing as it is but some other seed or matter out of which that Fabrick which I now behold did arise But resting not here I drove my Conclusion further I conceav'd those seeds whereof Vegetables did spring must be something else at first then Seeds as having some praeexistent matter wherof they were made but what that matter should be I could not guesse Here was I forc'd to leave off Speculation and come up to Experience Whiles I sought the World I went beyond it and I was now in Quest of a Substance which without Art I could not see Nature wrapps this most strangly in her very bosome neither doth she expose it to any thing but her own Vitall Caelestiall Breath But in respect that God Almighty is the onely proper immediate Agent which actuates this matter as well in the work of Generation as formerly in his Creation it will not be amisse to speak something of Him that we may know the Cause by his Creatures and the Creatures by their Cause My God my Life whose Essence man Is no way fit to Know or Scan But should aproach thy Court a Guest In Thoughts more low then his Request When I consider how I stray Methinks 't is Pride in mee to Pray How dare I speake to Heaven nor feare In all my Sinns to court thy Eare But as I looke on Moles that Lurke
ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA Or A Discourse of the Nature of Man and his state after death Grounded on his Creator's ProtoChimistry and verifi'd by a practicall Examination of Principles in the Great World By Eugenius Philalethes Dan Many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased Zoroaster in Oracul Audi Ignis Vocem LONDON Printed by T. W For H. Blunden at the Castle in Corn-hill 1650. Illustrissimis vere Renatis Fratribus R. C. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Eclesiae in tumultuoso hoc Saeculo Apostolis Pacificis Salutem â Centro Saluris QUum in summum Altare summo tanrum Pontifici Jus sit audens nimis hoc Libum nec sine sacrilegio Vobis obtrudi videatur habet pietas suos Cancellos Qui accedit injussus Adaciae non Obsequii reus est Allusit Istis olim Poetarum illa gigantomachia quae Coelum etiam expugnare moliebatur Nec desunt hac nostra AEtate fatui quidam palustres Igniculi qui Stellas se somniant soli a latere creduntur Absit Engenio fastus iste Climax ambitionis Hoc est imponere Pelion Ossae Ego Fratres Nobilissimi in Sacrarii vestibulo nec ad Aram Ear hoc meum Sed in Limine modestius expono Vellem si mihi in Censum accedissent Talia vobis offerre Quae saecula Posterique possint Arpinis quoque comparare Chartis Sed non est quod desperem Prodeant forsan in Novissimis Qui faculam hanc meam praferent vel Solibus tusculanis At que hac quidem ratione Marci Tullii Collega sum quod in eandem Immortatem tendit noster Consulatus Peragravi Ego Quod Apes factitant non illo Quintiliani in Area venenata Floscuculos Coelestes libaturus Qui suavia sua ex Aromatum Montibus attraxerunt Si quid mihi Mellisicii est Ego vobis Favum hunc alveare Solent tamen Rosae in aliquorum sinu sordescere sordescet forsan hic noster Manipulus quoniam meae Messis est Fateor Errata Eugenii sunt Caetera Veritatis Sed quorsum hoc Veritati Testimonium Vobis etiam astantibus Quibus in propatulo est triplex illud Spiritus Aquae sanguinis Martyrium Supervacanea est haec non auxiliaris Vocula Qui silet ad Coelum sapit Accipite ergo F. Illustrissimi Quadrantem hunc meum non Qualem Vobis offerre Debui sed Qualem potui Mens mihi pro Munere est Hoc etiam praefari voluit paupertas Nolite Rem ipsam expendere sed Obsequium Oxonii 48. Oratoris Vestri E. P. Errata Pa. li Read Second part Pa. li Read 2 18 rambl'd 3 10 whereon 9 29 Demoniū 4 29 Finihaebi◠12 3 paulo post 21 5 Iodims 29 26 this fire 40 17 ad dextra◠64 13 I carve 48 20 per misto◠The Author to the Reader I Look on this life as the Progresse of an Essence Royall The Soul but quits her court to see the countrey Heaven hath in it a Scaene of Earth and had she bin contented with Ideas she had not travelled beyond the Map But excellent patterns commend their Mimes Nature that was so fair in the type could not be a slut in the Annglyph This makes her ramble hither to examine the Medall by the Flask but whiles she scanns their Symmetrie she formes it Thus her descent speaks her Original God in love with his own beauty frames a Glasse to view it by reflection but the frailety of the matter excluding Eternity the composure was subject to dissolution Ignorance gave this release the Name of Death but properly it is the Soules Birth and a Charter that makes for her Liberty she hath severall wayes to break up house but her best is without a disease This is her mysticall walk an Exit only to return When she takes air at this door it is without prejudice to her tenement The Magicians tell me Anima unius Entis egreditur aliud ingreditur Some have examin'd this and state it an Expence of Influences as if the Soul exercised her Royalty at the eye or had some blinde Jurisdiction in the pores But this is to measure Magicall Positions by the slight superficial strictures of the common Philosophy It is an age of Intellectuall slaveries If they meet any thing extraordinary they prune it commonly with distinctions or dawb it with false Glosses till it looks like the Traditions of Aristotle His followers are so confident of his principles they seek not to understand what others speak but to make others speak what they understand It is in Nature as it is in Religion we are still hammering of old elements but seek not the America that lyes beyond them The Apostle tells us of leaving the first principles of the Doctrine of Christ and going on to perfection Not laying again the foundation of Repentance from dead works and of faith towards God of the Doctrine of Baptism and laying on of Hands of Resurrection and the eternall Judgement Then he speaks of Illumination of Tasting of the Heavenly gift of being partakers of the Holy Ghost of Tasting of the good word of God and tho powers of the world to come Now if I should question any Sect for there is no Communion in Christendom whither these later Intimations drive They can but return me to the first Rudiments or produce some emptie pretence of spirit Our Naturall Philosophers are much of a Cast with those that step into the prerogative of Prophets and Antedate events in configurations and motions This is a consequence of as much reason as if I saw the Suede exercising and would finde his Designes in his postures Friar Bacon walk'd in Oxford between two steeples but he that would have discovered his Thoughts by his steps had been more his Fool then his Fellow The Peripateticks when they define the Soul or some Inferior Principle describe it onely by outward circumstances which every childe can do but they state nothing Essentially Thus they dwel altogether in the Face their Indeavours are meer Titillations their Acquaintance with Nature is not at the heart Notwithstanding I acknowledge the Schoolmen ingenious They conceive their Principles irregular and prescribe rules for Method though they want Matter Their Philosophie is like a Church that is all discipline and no Doctrine For bate me their prolegomena their form of Arguing their Reciting of Different Opinions with severall other digressions and the substance of these Tostati will scarce amount to a Mercury Besides their Aristotle is a Poet in text his principles are but Fancies and they stand more on our Concessions then his Bottom Hence it is that his followers notwithstanding the Assistance of so many Ages can fetch nothing out of him but Notions And these indeed they use as He sayeth Lycophron did his Epithets Non ist Condimentis sed ut Cibis Their Compositions are a meer
the parts of nature in a firm invincible union This is Cribrum Naturae as one wittily calls it a thing appointed for most secret and mysterious offices but we shall speake further of it when we come to handle the Elements particularly Nothing now remained but the Two inferior principles as we commonly cal them Earth and water The Earth was an impure Sulphureous subsidence or Caput mortuum of the Creation The water also was Phlegmatick crude and raco not so vitall as the former Extractions But the Divine Spirit to make his work perfect moving also upon These imparted to them Life and Heate and made them fit for future Productions The Earth was so overcast and Mantl'd with the Water that no part thereof was to be seen But that it might be the more immediatly exposed to the Coelestiall Influences which are the Cause of Vegetation the Spirit orders a Retreat of the Waters breaks up for them his decreed place and sets them Bars and Doors The Light as yet was not confined but reteining his vast Flux and primitive liberty equally possest the whole Creature On the Fourth Day it was collected to a Sun and taught to know his Fountain The darknesse whence proceed the Corruptions and consequently the death of the Creature was imprisoned in the Centre but breaks out still when the Day gives it Leave and like a baffl'd Gyant thrusts his head out of doors in the Absence of his Adversary Thus Nature is a Lady whose face is beauteous but not without a Black-bag Howsoever when it shall please God more perfectly to refine his Creatures this Tincture shall be expelled quite beyond them and then it will be an Outward darknesse from which Good Lord deliver us Thus have I given you a Cursorie and short Expresse of the Creation in generall I shall now descend to a more particular Examination of Nature and especially her Inferior Elementall parts through which Man passeth daily and from which he cannot be separated I was about to desist in this place to prevent all future Acclamations for when a Peripatetick findes here but Three nay but two genuine Elements Earth and Water for the Air is something more will he not cry out I have committed Sacrilege against Nature and stole the fire from her Altar This is Noise indeed but till They take Coach in a Cloud and discover that Idol they prefer next to the Moon I am resolved to continue in my Heresie I am not onely of Opinion but I am sure there is no such principle in Nature The Fire which she useth is Horizon Corporeorum Incorporeorum Nexus utrinsque Mundi Sigillum Spiritus sancti It is no Chymaera Commentitious Quirck like that of the School-men I shall therefore Request my Friends the Peripateticks to return their fourth Element to Aristole that he may present it to Alexander the Great as the first part of a new world for there is no such Thing in the Old To proceed then The Earth as you were told before being the Subsidence or Remaines of that Primitive Masse which God formed out of Darknesse must needs be a faeculent impure Body for the Extractions which the Divine Spirit made were pure oleous aethereall substances but the Crude phlegmatick indigested humors settled like Lees towards the Centre The Earth is spungie porous and magneticall of Composition loose the better to take in the severall Influences of Heat Rains and Dewes for the Nurture and Conservation of her Products In her is the Principall Residence of that Matrix which attracts and receives the sperm from the Masculine part of the world she is Natures AEtna here Vulcan doth exercise himself not that limping Poeticall one which halted after his Fall but a pure Coelestiall plastick Fire we have Astonomy here under our feet the stars are resident with us and abundance of Jewels and Pantauras she is the Nurse and Receptacle of all Things for the Superior Natures ingulph themselves into her what she receives this Age she discovers to the next and like a faithfull Treasurer conceales no part of her Accounts Her proper Congeneall Quality is Cold I am now to speak of the Water This is the first Element we read of in Scripture the most Ancient of Principles and the Mother of all Things amongst visibles without the meditation of this the Earth can receive no blessing at all for Moysture is the proper Causâ— of Mixture and Fusion The water hath severall Complexions according to the severall parts of the Creature Here below and in the Circumference of all things it is volatil crude and raco For this very Cause Nature makes it no part of her provision but she rectifies it first exhaling it up with her Heat and then condensing it to Rains and Dews in which State she makes use of it for Nourishment Some where it is Interior vitall and Coelestiall exposed to the Breath of the first Agent and stirred with Spirituall aeternaell Windes In this Condition it is Natures Wanton Foemina Satacissima as One calls it This is that Psyche of Apuleius and the Fire of Nature is her Cupid He that hath seen Them both in the same Bed will confesse that love rules All But to speak something of our Common Elemental water It is not altogether Contemptible there are hidden Treasures in it but so inchanted we can not see them for all the Chest is transparent Spiritus Aquae Invisibilis congelatus melior est quam Terra Universa saith the noble and learned Sendivow I doe not advice the Reader to take this Phlegm to task as if he could Extract a Venus from the Sea but I wish him to study water that he may know the Fire I have now handled the Two Elements and more I cannot finde I know the Peripateticks pretend to four and with the help of their Masters Quintessence to a fift Principle I shall at leysure diminish their stock but the thing to be now spoken of is Air This is no Element but a Certain miraculous Hermaphrodit the Caement of two worlds and a Medley of Extremes It is natures Common Place her Index where you may finde all that ever she did or intends to do This is the worlds Panegrick The Excursions of both Globes meet here and I may call it the Rendezvouz In this are innumerable Magicall Forms of Men and Beasts Fish and Fowle Trees Herbs and all Creeping Things This is Mare Rerum invisibilium for all the Conceptions in sinu superioris Naturae wrap themselves in this Tiffany before they imbark in the shell It retaines the species of all Things whatsoever and is the Immediate Receptacle of Spirits after Dissolution whence they passe to a Superior Limbus I should amaze the Reader if I did relate the severall offices of this Body but it is the Magicians Backdoor and none but Friends come in at it I shall speak nothing more onely This I would have you know The Air is Corpus vitae spiritus
sence Sacramentall It is a visible signe of our invisible Vnion to Christ which S. Paul calls a Great mystery and if the thing signified be so Reverend the signature is no ex tempore contemptible Agend But of this elsewhere When God had thus finished his last and most excellent Creature he appointed his Residence in Eden made him his Vice-Roy and gave him a full jurisdiction over all his Works That as the whole man consisted of Body and Spirit so the Inferiour Earthly Creatures might be subject to the one and the superiour intellectuall Essences might minister to the other But this Royalty continued not long for presently upon his preferment there was a Faction in the Heavenly Court and the Angels scorning to attend this piece of Clay contrived how to supplant him The first in this plot was Lucifer Montanus tells me his name was Hilel He casts about to Nullifie that which God had Inacted that so at once he might overreach him and his Creature This Pollicy he imparts to some others of the Hierarchy and strengthens himself with Conspirators But there is no Counsel against God The mischief is no sooner hatched but he and his Confederates are expell'd from Light to Darknesse and thus Rebellion is as the sinne of Witchcraft a Witch is it Rebel in Physicks and a Rebell is a Witch in Polliticks The one acts against Nature the other against Order the Rule of it But both are in League with the divel as the first Father of discord and sorcerie Satan being thus ejected as the condition of Reprobates is became more hardned in his Resolutions and to bring his malice about arrives by permission at Eden Here he makes Woman his Instrument to tempt Man and overthrowes him by the same Meanes that God made for an help to him Adam having thus transgrest the Commandement was exposed to the Lash and in him his Posterity But here lyes the Knot How can we possibly learn his Disease if we know not the immediate Efficicent of it If I question our Divines what the Forbidden Fruit was I may be long enough without an answer Search all the School-men from Ramus to Peter Hispan and they have no Logick in the point What shall we do in this case To speak any thing contrary to the sling of Aristotle though perhaps we hit the mark is to expose our selves to the common Hue But in respect I prefer a private Trueth to a publick Errour I will proceed And now Reader Arrige Aures come on without prejudice and I will tell thee that which never hitherto hath been discovered That which I now write must needs appeare very strange and Incredible to the common man whose knowledg sticks in the Barke of Allegories and Mysticall speeches never apprehending that which is signified by them unto us This I say must needs sound strange with such as understand the Scriptures in the Litterall plaine sence considering not the scope and Intention of the Divine spirit by whom they were first penned and delivered Howsoever Origen being Vnus de multis and in the judgement of many wise men the most learned of the Fathers durst never trust himselfe in this point But alwaies in those Scriptures where his Reason could not satisfie concluded a Mystery Certainly if it be once granted as some stick not to affirm that the Tree of knowledge was a Vegetable and Eden a Garden it may be very well inferred that the tree of life being described in eodem Genere as the School-men expresse it was a Vegetable also But how derogatory this is to the power of God to the Merits and Passion of Jesus Christ whose Gift eternall life is let any indifferent Christian judge Here then we have a certain intrance into Paradise where we may search out this tree of knowledge and happily learn what it is For seeing it must be granted that by the tree if life is figured the Divine Spirit for it is the Spirit that quickeneth and shall one Day translate us from Corruption to Incorruption it will be no indiscreet Inference on the Contrary that by the tree of knowledge is signified some sensuall Nature repugnant to the Spirituall wherein our worldly sinfull Affections as lust anger and the rest have their seat and predominate I will now digresse a while but not much from the purpose whereby it may appear unto the Reader that the letter is no sufficient Expositor of Scripture and that there is a great deal of difference between the sound and the sense of the Text Dionysius the Areopagit in his Epistle to Titus gives him this Caveat Et hoc praeterea Operae pretium est cognoscere Duplicem esse Theologorum Traditionem Arcanam Alteram ac mysticam Alteram vero manifestaem notiorem And in his Book of the Eclesiasticall Hierarchie written to Timotheus he affirms that in the primitive Apostolicall times wherein he also lived the mysteries of Divinity were delivered partim scriptis partim non scriptis Institutionibus Some things he confesseth were written in the Theologicall Books and such are the Common Doctrinals of the Church now in which notwithstanding as Saint Peter saith there are many things hard to be understood Some things again Ex Animo in Animum medio quidem intercurrente verbo corporali sed quod Carnis penitus excederat sensum Sine literis transfusa sunt And certainly this Orall Tradition was the Cause that in the subsequent Ages of the Church all the mysteries of Divinity were lost Nay this very day there is not one amongst all our School-Doctors or late Ex-Temporaries that knows what is represented unto us by the outward Element of Water in Baptism True indeed They tell us it betokens the washing away of sin which we grant them but this is not the full signification for which it was ordained It hath been the Common errour of all times to mistake signum for signatum the shell for the Kernell yet to prevent this it was that Dionysius wrot his book of the Caelestiall Hierarchie and especially his Theologia significativa of which there is such frequent mention made in his works Verely our Saviour Himself who is blessed for evermore did sometimes speak in parables and commanded further that Pearles should not be cast forth unto swine for it is not given to all men to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven Supposing then as it is most true that amongst other mysticall speeches contained in Scripture this of the Garden of Eden and the Trees in it is one I shall proceede to the Exposition of it in some measure concealing the particulars notwithstanding Man in the beginning I mean the substantiall inward Man both in and after his Creation for some short time was a pure intellectual Essence free from all fleshly sensuall Affections In this state the Anima or sensitive Nature did not prevail over the spiritual as it doth now in us For the superior Mentall part of Man was
stir'd up the Animal sinfull Nature The sum of all is this Man as long as he continued in his union to God knew the Good onely that is the Things that were of God but assoon as he stretched forth his hand and did Eat of the forbidden fruit that is the Anima media or Spirit of the greater world presently upon his disobedience and transgression of the Commandment his Vnion to the Divine Nature was dissolved and his Spirit being united to the Spirit of the world he knew the Evil onely that is the things that were of the world True it is he knew the Good and the Evil but the Evil in a far greater measure then the Good Some sparks of Grace were left and though the perfection of Innocence was lost upon his Fall from the Divine Light yet Conscience remained still with him partly to direct partly to punish Thus you see that this Anima Media or middle Spirit is figured by the Tree of knowledge but he that knows why the Tree of Life is sayd to be in the middest of the Garden and to grow out of the Ground will more fully understand that which we have spoken We see moreover that the Faculties ascribed to the Tree of Knowledge are to be found onely in Middle Nature First it is said to be a Tree to be desired to make one wise but it was Fleshly sensuall Wisdom the Wisdom of this world and not of God Secondly it is sayd to be good for Food and pleasant to the Eyes So is the Middle Nature also For it is the onely Medicine to repair the Decayes of the Natural Man and to continue our Bodies in their primitive strength and Integrity Lastly that I may speak something for my self This is no new unheard of fansie as the understanding Reader may gather out of Trismegistus Nay I am verily of opinion that the Egyptians received this knowledge from the Hebrews who lived a long time amongst them as it appears out of Scripture and that they delivered it over to the Graecians This is plain out of Iamblichus in his Book de Mysteriis where he hath these words Contemplabilis in se Intellectus Homo erat quondam Deorum Contemplationi conjunctus deinde vero alteram ingressus est Animam circa humanam Formae Speciem contemperatam atq propterea in ipso Necessitaetis Fatique Vinculo est alligatus And what els I beseech you is signified unto us in that poeticall Table of Prometheus That he should steal a certain fire from Heaven for which Trespasse afterwards God punished the World with a great many Diseases and Mortality But some body may reply Seeing that God made all Things very Good as it appears in his Review of the Creatures on the sixth day how could it be a sin in Adam to eat that which in it self was good Verily the sin was not grounded in the Nature of that which he did eate but it was the Inference of the Commandment in as much as he was forbidden to eate it And this is that which Saint Paul tells us That he had not known sin had it not been for the law And again in another place The strength of sin is the law But presently upon the Disobedience of the first Man and his Transgression of the Commandement the creature was made subject to Vanity For the curse followed and the impure seedes were joyned with the pure and they reigne to this hour in our bodies and not in us alone but in every other Naturall Thing Hence it is we reade in scripture That the Heavens themselves are not clean in his sight And to this alludes the Apostle in that speech of his to the Colossians That it pleased the Father to reconcile all things to himself by Christ whether they be things in Earth or Things in Heaven And here you are to observe that Cornelius Agrippa mistook the act of Generation for Original sin which indeed was the Effect of it and this is the onely point wherein he hath miscarried I have now done onely a word more concerning the Situation of Paradise and the rather because of the diversity of Opinions concerning that solace and the Absurdity of them Saint Paul in his second Epistle to th Coriâ—thians discovers it in these words I knew a Man in Christ above fourteen years ago whether in the Body or out of the Body I cannot tell God knoweth such an One caught up to the Third Heaven And I knew such a Man whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell God knoweth how that he was caught up into Paradise Here you see that Paradise and the third Heaven are convertible Terms so that the one discovers the other Much more I could have sayd concerning the Tree of knowledge being in it self a large and very mysticall subject but for my part I rest contented with my own particular apprehension and desire not to inlarge it any further Neither had I committed this much to paper but out of my love to the trueth and that I would not have these thoughts altogether to perish You see now if you be not durissimae Cervicis Homines how man fell and by Consequence you may guesse by what means he is to rise He must be united to the Divine light from whence by disobedience he was separated A Flash or Tincture of this must come or he can no more discern things spiritually then he can distinguish Colours naturally without the light of the Sun This light descends and is united to him by the same Meanes as his Soul was at first I speak not here of the Symbolicall exteriour Descent from the Prototypicall-planets to the Created spheres and thence in Noctem Corporis but I speak of that most secret and silent Laps of the Spirit per Formarum naturalium Seriem and this is a mystery not easily apprehended It is a Cabalisticall maxime Nulla res spiritualis descondens inferius operatur sine Indumento Consider well of it with your selves and take heed you wander not in the Circumference The Soul of Man whiles she is in the Body is like a Candle shut up in a darkLanthorn or a Fire that is almost stifl'd for want of Aire Spirits say the Platonicks when they are in sua patriâ are like the Inhabitants of green Fields who live perpetually amongst Flowers in a Spicie oderous Aire but here below in Sphaerâ Generationis They mourn because of darknesse and solitude like people lock'd up in a Pest-house Hinc metuunt cupiuntque dolent c. This is it makes the Soul subject to so many Passions to such a Proteus of humors Now she flourishes now she withers now a smile now a tear And when she hath play'd out her stock then comes a Repetition of the same fancies till at last she cries out with Seneca Quousque eadem This is occasioned by her vast and infinite Capacity which is satisfied with nothing but God from whom at
after Death an Impresse of those passions and Affections to which it was subject in the Body This makes Hun haunt those Places where the whole Man hath been most Conversant and imitate the actions and gestures of Life This Magnetism is excellently confirmed by that memorable accident at Paris which Doctor Flud proves to be true by the testimonies of great and learned Men Agrippa also speaking of the apparitions of the Dead hath these words Sed Ipse Ego quae meis Oculis vidi manibus tetigi hoc loci referre nolo nè me ob Rerum stupendam Admirationem de Mendacio ab Incredulis argui contingat But this Scaene exceedes not the Circuit of One year for when the Body begins fully to corrupt the Spirit returnes to his Originall Element These Apparitions have made a great noise in the world not without some Benefit to the Pope But I shall reserve all for my great work where I shall more fully handle these mysteries I am now to speak of Man as he is subject to a Supernatural Judgement And to be short my Sentiment is this I conceive there are besides the Empyraeall Heaven two inferior Mansions or Receptacles of Spirits The One is that which Our Saviour calls {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and this is it whence there is no Redemption {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} unde Animae nunquam egrediuntur as the Divine Plato hath it The Other I suppose is somewhat answerable to the Elysian Fields some delicate pleasant Region the Suburbs of Heaven as it were Those Seven mighty Mountaines whereupon there grow Roses and Lilies or the Outgoings of Paradise in Esdras Such was that Place where the Oracle told Amelius the soul of Plotinus was Ubi Amicitia est ubi Cupido visu mollis Purae plenus Laetitiae sempiternis Rivis Ambrosus irrigatus à Deo undè sunt Amorū Retinacula Dulcis Spiritus Tranquillus AEther Aurei Generis magni Jovis Stellatus supposeth there is a Successive graduall ascent of the Soul according to the process of Expiation and he makes her Inter-Residence in the Moon But let it be where it will my Opinion is That this middlemost mansion is appointed for such Soules whose whole man hath not perfectly repent in this world But notwithstanding they are de Salvandorum numero and reserved in this place to a further Repentance in the spirit for those Offences they committed in the Flesh I do not here maintain that I gnis Fatuus of Purgatory or any such painted imaginary Tophet but that which I speak of if I am not much mistaken I have a strong Scripture for It is that of Saint Peter where he speaks of Christ being put to Death in the Flesh but Quickened by the spirit By which also he went and preached unto the spirits that were in Prison which sometimes were disobedient when once the long-suffering of God waited in the Dayes of Noah while the Ark was a preparing wherein Few that is eight Souls were saved by Water These spirits were the souls of those who perished in the Floud and were reserved in this place till Christ should come and preach Repentance unto them I know Scaliger thinks to evade this Construction with his Qui Tunc That they were then alive namely before the Floud when they were preached unto But I shall overthrow this single Non-sense with Three solid Reasons drawn out of the Body of the Text First it is not sayd that the spirit it self precisely preached unto them but He who went thither by the Spirit namely Christ in the Hypostaticall union of his Soul and Godhead which union was not before the Floud when these Dead did live Secondly it is written that he preached unto spirits not to Men to those which were in Prison not to those which were in vivis {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which is quite contary to Scaliger and this Exposition the Apostle confirms in another place {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Dead were preached to not the living Thirdly the Apostle sayes These spirits were but sometimes disobedient and withall tells us when namely in the Dayes of Noah whence I gather they were not disobedient at this time of preaching and this is plain out of the subsequent Chapter For this Cause sayth the Apostle was the Gospell preached also to them that are dead that they might be judged according to men in the flesh but live according to God in the Spirit Now this Judgement in the Flesh was grounded on their Disobedience in the Dayes of Noah for which also they were drowned but Salvation according to God in the Spirit proceeded from their Repentance at the preaching of Christ which was after death I do not impose this on the Reader as if I sate in the infallible Chaire but I am confident the Text of it self will speak no other sense As for the Doctrine it is no way hurtfull but in my Opinion as it detracts not from the Mercy of God so it addes much to the Comfort of Man I shall now speake a word more concerning my self and another concerning the Common Philosophy and then I have done It will be question'd perhaps what I am and especially what my Religion is Take this short answer I am neither Papist nor Sectary but a true resolute Protestant in the best sense of the Church of England For Philosophy as it now stands it is altogether imperfect and withall false A meer Apothecaries Drug a mixture of inconsistent Contrary Principles which no way agree with the Harmony and Method of Nature In a word the whole Encyclopaedia as they call it bateing the Demonstrative Mathematicall part is built on meer Imagination without the least Light of Experience I wish therefore all the true sons of my famous Oxford Mother to looke beyond Aristotle and not confine their Intellect to the narrow and cloudy Horizon of his Text for he is as short of Nature as the Grammarians are of Steganography I expect not their Thanks for this my Advice or Discovery but verily the Time will come when this Trueth shall be more perfectly manifested and especially that great and glorious mystery whereof there is little spoken in this Book Solus Rex Messias Verbum Patris Caro factum Arcanum hoc revelavit Aliqua Temporis plenitudine apertius manifestaturus It is Cornelius Agrippa's owne prediction and I am confident it shall find Patrons inough when nothing remaines here of me but Memory My sweetest Jesus 't was thy Voice If I Be lifted up I le draw all to the skie Yet I am here I 'm stifl'd in this Clay Shut up from Thee and the fresh East of Day I know thy Hands not short but I 'm unfit A foule unclean Thing to take hold of it I am all Dirt Nor can I hope to please Unles in mercy thou lov'st a Disease Diseases may be Cur'd But who 'l
In blind Intrenchments and there worke Their owne darke Prisons to repaire Heaving the Earth to take in Aire So view my fetterd Soule that must Struggle with this her Load of Dust Meet her Addresse and add one Ray To this mew'd Parcell of thy Day She would though here imprson'd see Through all her Dirt thy Throne and Thee Lord guide her out of this sad Night And say once more Let there be Light It is Gods own positive truth In the Beginning That is In that dead silence In that horrible empty Darknes when as yet nothing was fashioned then saith the lord did I consider those things and they all were made through me alone and through non other By me also shall they be ended and by none other That Meditation forerunns every Solemne Worke is a thing so well knowne to man that he needs no further Demonstration of it then his owne Practice That there is also in God something Analogicall to it from whence Man derived this Customary Notion of his As it is most agreeable to Reason so withall is it very sutable to Providence Dij saith I amblicus concipiunt in se totum opus antequam parturiunt And the Spirit here to Esdras Then did I consider these things He consider'd them first and made them afterwards God in his AEternall Idea foresaw That whereof as yet there was no Materiall Copy The goodnes and Beauty of the one mov'd him to create the other and truly the Image of this Prototype being imbosom'd in the Second made Him so much in love with his Creature that when Sin had defac'd it He restor'd it by the suffering of that Patterne by which at first it was made Dyonisius the Areopagite who liv'd in the Primitive Times and received the Mysteries of Divinity immediately from the Apostles stiles God the Father sometimes Arcanum Divinitatis somtimes Occultum illud Super substantiale and elsewhere he compares him to a Roote whose Flowers are the Second and Third Person This is true For God the Father is the Basis or supernaturall Foundation of his Creatures God the Son is the Patterne in whose expresse Image they were made And God the Holy Ghost is Spiritus Opifea or the Agent who fram'd the creature in a just symmetrie to his Type This Consideration or type God hath since used in the performance of inferiour works Thus in the Institution of his Temple he commands Moses to the Mount where the Divine Spirit shews him the Idea of the future Fabrick And let them make me a Sanctuary that I may dwell amongst them according to all that I shew thee after the patterne of the Tabernacle the pattern of all the Instruments thereof even so shall you make it Thus the Divine mind doth instruct us porrigendo Ideas quadam extensione fui extra se and sometimes more particularly in dreames To Nebuchadnezzar he presents a Tree strong and high reaching to the Heavens and the sight thereof to the ends of the Earth To Pharaoh he shews seven Ears of Corne To Joseph he appears in sheafes and then resembles the Sun Moon and Stars To conclude he may expresse himselfe by what he will for in him are innumerable eternall Prototypes and he is the true Fountaine and Treasure of Forms But that we may come at last to the scope proposed God the Father is the Metaphysicall supercelestiall Sun The second Person is the light and the Third is Amor igneus or a Divine heate proceeding from Both Now without the presence of this Heate there is no Reception of the Light and by Consequence no Influx from the Father of Lights For this Amor is the Medium which unites the Lover to that which is beloved probably t is the Platonicks Daemon magnus Qui conâ—ungit nos spirituum praefecturis I could speak much more of the Offices of this Loving spirit but these are Magnalia Dei Naturae and require not our Discusse so much as our reverence Here also I might speak of that supernaturall Generation whereof Trismegistus Monas gignit Monaden in se suum reflectit Ardorem But I leave this to the Almighty God as his own Essentiall Centrall mystery It is my onely Intention in this place to handle Exterior Actions or the Processe of the Trinity from the Center to the Circumference And that I may the better do it you are to understand that God before his work of Creation was wrapp'd up and contracted in himself In this state the Egyptians stile him Monas solitaria and the Cabalists Aleph tenebrosum But when the decreed Instant of Creation came then appeared Aleph Lucidum and the first Emanation was that of the holy Ghost into the bosom of the matter Thus we read that Darknesse was upon the face of the deep and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters Here you are to observe that notwithstanding this processe of the third person yet was there no Light but darknesse on the face of the deep Illumination properly being the Office of the second wherefore God also when the matter was prepared by Love for Light gives out his Fiat Lux which was no Creation as most think but an Emanation of the Word in whom was life and that life is the light of Men This is that light whereof Saint John speaks that it shines in the darknesse and the darknesse comprehended it not But lest I seem to be singular in this point I will give you more evidence Pimandras informing Trismegistus in the work of the Creation tells him the self-same thing Lumen illud Ego sum Mens Deus Tuus antiquior quam natura humida quae ex umbra effulsit And Georgius Venetus in his Book de Harmonia mundi Omne quod vivit propter inclusum calorem vivit Indè colligitur Caloris naturam vim habere in se vitalem in Mundo passim diffusam imo omnia ex Igne facta esse testatur Zoroastres dum ait Omnia sub I gne uno genita sunt I gne quippe illo quem Deus Igneae essentiae Habitator ut Plato ait messe jussit materiae Coeli Terrae jam creatae rudi informi ut vitam praestaret formam Hinc illis product is statim subintulit Opifex sit Lux pro quo Mendosae Traductio habet Fiat lux Non enim facta est Lux sed Rebus adhuc obscuris communicata insita ut in suis Formis Clarae splendentes furent But to proceed No sooner had the Divine Light pierced the Bosom of the Matter but the Idea or Pattern of the whole Material World appeared in those primitive waters like an Image in a Glasse by this Pattern it was that the Holy Ghost fram'd and modelled the Universal Structure This Mystery or appearance of the Idea is excellently manifested in the Magicall Analysis of Bodies For he that knows how to imitate the Proto-Chymistrie of the