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
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
the center be known and not the circumference being the circumference of all things is nothing else but what it pleaseth the center to make it And for this reason this divine spirit is termed rightly of the wise Philosopher Hermes The center of every thing whose circumference is no where but yet it comprehendeth all circumferences that are We may therefore collect out of the foresaid speech of Solomon that wisdom discovered unto him First all the abstruse mysteries which do concern the making of the world as she did unto Moses Secondly the nature and power of the Elements with the hidden act and miraculous generation of the Meteors framed out of an elementary stuffe and of their wondrous properties Thirdly the reason and manner how the winds are produced with the Astronomicall division of the year the scituation of the starrs in heaven and their Astrologicall natures Fourthly the necessaries belonging unto the art of Physick for he saith that wisdom taught him the nature of all living creatures the conditions of beasts the differences of plants and the faculties of roots c. Fifthly the secrets of all things occult and therefore of the Angels yea and of God himself by consequence and in this is the mystery of Theology comprehended But I wil prove this progression more particularly beginning with Theology Touching Theology which is derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deus or God and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is sermo or speech quasi sermo de Deo the speech or teaching of God Solomon saith that Spiritus sapientiae transsert se ipsum in animas sanctas amicos Dei prophetas constituit Neminem enim diligit Deus nisi eum qui cum sapientia habitat The spirit of wisdom doth transfer it self into holy mens spirits and maketh them friends of God and prophets For God loveth no man that dwelâ—eth not with wisdom And again Sapientiam suis emittit Deus è sanctis coeâ—is à throno inquam gloriae suae mittit illam homini ut praesens versetur secum in labore ut cognoscat quid gratum sit apud ipsum illa enim novit omnia Gâ—d sendeth wisdom out of his holy heavens from the throne I say of his glory doth he send her unto man that it may be conversant and present with him in his labour that he may know what is acceptable unto him for she understandeth all things And in another place Except God had given wisdom and had sent his holy Spirit from the highest places what man could have known the counsell of God After this manner were the waies of such as lived on the earth corrected and men were taught the things which were pleasing unto God For this reason therefore Wisdom saith Ego illuminabo omnes sperantes in Domino I will illuminate all that trust in the Lord. Ego sum liber vitae testamentum altâ—ssimi agnitio veritatis I am the book of life the testament of the most high and the acknowledgment of the truth And Solomon Sapientiae concupiscentia conducit ad regnum perpetuum The desire of wisdom doth conduct unto the eternall Kingdom And again Sapientia doctrix est disciplinae Dei electrix operum illius Wisdom is the misiress of the discipline of God and she that maketh choice of his works And in another place he saith Per sapientiam habebo immortalitatem I shall obtain immortality by wisdom It would be tedious to reckon up the confirmation of the Theologicall doctrine which is declared and made manifest by this Spirit for verily it was this very Spirit in the fleshly Christ and his Apostles which made their corporall or bodily organs I mean their tongues to speak and their hands and pens to indite all that Theologicall wisdom and doctrine which the new Testment hath registred And it was this Spirit that spake in the old Testament by the mouths of the Patriarks and Prophets the essentiall marrow of Divinity and therefore let us look back upon them as being the literall fountain of Theology under whose typicall or graphicall instruction the hidden spirit doth lurk and may by the mysticall Theology easily be extracted I will proceed unto the next which belongeth unto the Aeviall world In ipso saith the forementioned place of St. Paul condita sunt universa in coelis sive Throni sive Dominationes sive principatus sive potestates In him are all things in heaven made whether they be Thrones Dominations or Principalities or Potestates And again elsewhere In Christo inhabitat omnis plenitudo divinitatis corporaliter qui est caput omnis Principatus Potestatis In Christ doth inhabit all the plenitude of the divinity coâ—porally who is the head of all Principalities and Potestates and in another place Châ—istus constituitur ad dextram Dei in coelestibus supra omnem Principatum Potestatem Virtutem Dominationem c. Christ is placed at the right hand of God in heaven above all Principality Potestates Virtues and Dominations c. By which places and many other authorities out of holy Writ which for brevity sake we omit at this time it is proved that there is no secret mystery comprehended among the Society of Angels either touching their creation essence properties or denominations but will be lively expressed by this superexcellent Spirit which only is able to disclose all in all because he is all in all and that in every thing I descend unto the next Step which is Astronomy Touching the essential nature of Astronomy it seemeth to consist on the Basis or Foundation of this eternal Spirit and therefore the wise son of Syrach said Sapientia in coelis fecit ut oriretur lumen indeficiens Wisdome made a never-failing light to arise in the heavens And it should appear according unto this Kingly Prophet's phrase that this Spirit did put his Tabernacle in the Sun howsoever some men are pleased by the corruption of the Text to interpret that place in another sense and that little to the purpose for the said Spirit speaking in her own person saith Ego sapientia gyrum coeli circuivi sola I wisdome did compass about the heavens alone that is in her sunny-Tabernacle and again David saith God in his wisdome doth number and count the stars and calleth them by their names whose wisdome is innumerable Whereby it is apparent that if in his wisdome or by this Spirit the stars were numbred and had their proper names it followeth that their vertues courses and properties must be best known unto him who hath created ordained and doth maintain them in the estate they are in For David affirmeth that every vertue of heaven doth proceed from the Spirit of the Lord and Esdras Stellae fundatae sunt in Verbo Dei qui novit numerum stellarum The stars have their foundation in the Word of God who knoweth the number of them
of the north and so by their mutuall action a middle nature of a westerly condition will be produced namely water which is between aire and earth as the western position is betwixt the south and north But the southern blast of its own nature is hot and moist as is the disposition of the catholick element of aire or else the word being sent from that quaâ—ter would not have melted and undone the cold and drie effects of the north as is said Again that the breath of the Lord which commeth out of the South affecteth the catholick element of aire diversly but spiritually this Text of Abakkuk doth testifie God comming from the south his glory covered the heavens and the pestilence went before his face c. whereby he argueth the invisible effects namely the corruption and infection of the aire which this divine Spirit in his displeasure breatheth forth from the southern quarter of the world But when he worketh or operateth in his windy organs of the East then they imprint upon the generall element a fiery character and dilateth his substance into the nature and disposition of the fire and then may it passe under the title of the Element of fire as we have it confirmed out of many places of the holy Text Praecepit Dominus saith Jerom vento calido urenti or as Tremellius hath it Paravit Eurum silentem ut percuteret sol caput Jonae adeò ut aestuaret petiit animae suae ut moreretur The Lord commanded a hot and burning wind or a still easterly wind to go out that the sun might strike upon Jonas his head that he might be enflamed with heat insomuch as he did desire in his heart to die And again Ventus urens seu Eurus desiccabit fructus ejus rami ejus erant marcore contracti A burning or Easterly wind shall dry up his fruits and his boughs shall be consumed and wasted And again Ventus Eurus aduret spicas And JEHOVAH saith in his anger Percussi vos in vento urenti in aurigine multitudinem hortorum vestrorum Misi in vos pestem pro ratione Aegypti I have struck you with a burning winde and have blasted the multitude of your gardens I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of that of Aegypt Again Postquam veniente Euro vento IEHOV Ae à deserto ascendente exaruerit scaturigo ejus siccatus fuerit fons ejus After that by Eurus the wind of IEHOVAH comming and arising out of the desert his spring and fountain was dryed up And Haggaj Percussi vos vento urente grandine omniae opera manuum vestrarum I have struck you with a burning winde with hail even all the works of your hands c. Whereby it appeareth that at the blast of these easterly winds the aire or catholick element becommeth burning and fiery so that it heateth and enflameth the bodies of the creatures On the other side the occidentall winds are found by experience to be opposite in nature and condition unto these for they convert the hot aire or generall element into cold and naturall visible water being that they are the procurers of cold raines So that we may see by this that the formall act in each Angell of the four corners of the earth of which the Apocalyps doth make mention hath an essentiall vertue imparted unto it from God according unto his volunty at the instant of the Angels information and therefore in that very property doth the angelicall creature act in the common element or lower waters in the which the creating Spirit properly was when he made it so that the common element is daily informed anew and altered by the formall or essentiall act of the angelicall winde which bloweth with dominion insomuch as if the easterly angelicall wind informeth it then it becommeth a fiery element for it heateth and drieth by super-excellency If a southerly it is changed into that element's nature which is called aire and if a westerly spirit hath dominion it is converted into the temper and proportion of water Lastly the Northern blast transmuteth it unto the consistence and disposition of earth By this therefore that maine doubt which hath so long troubled the Peripateticks and hammered in their brains and yet hath never been rightly resolved by them unto this day may easily be undone and taken away namely to find out the essentiall form of the Elements For by this true Philosophy we find it to be an Angelicall Spiracle or essentiall blast of wind infused by the Spirit of God diversly into the aiery or spirituall vessell to alter and change according unto his will the humid passive nature out of one condition into an other Moreover the Catholick air being diversly so animated bringeth forth and informeth a new after the condition of his variety of animations a multiplicity and multiformity of Meteors As for example the Easterly element brings forth children like it self As are the fiery and light Meteors namely Coruscations Lightnings Comets and such like according unto the nature of such Seminary influences as shall descend from heaven at that instant The Southerly Vapours Clouds Lightning with Thunders The Westerly Cold raines and as it were Snowy resolutions The Northenly Frost Snow Ice Hail But I know that this wil be objected against me What then will you make of the Earth and Seas Are not these distinct Elements which have been from the beginning I answer that if they listen unto St Peters doctrine he teacheth that the Earth was of waters and therefore the waters were before the Earth and again the heavens were made before the Earth as Moses sheweth and therefore the Earth appeareth to be the Foeces or the grosser part of the lower waters and the visible water the grosser part of the Ayre For doth not the Apostle Paul tell us in the Text before mentioned that things visible were first of things invisibâ—e The change therefore of all things visible or invisible are effected by the Condensing or contracting faculty and property in the all-acting spirit And the reducing of them againe from a visible estate unto an invisible is caused by the Rarifying or dilating act of the self same Spirit in essence but differing in property And therefore as air was changed into water and water into Earth by the degrees of Cold so also is Earth changed insensibly into water and water into Ayre by the severall degrees of heat for if this were not how is it possible that so many waters falling from the Clouds should not more and more augment the Seas and diminish the Ayre or why should so much Earthen Coals and whole mountaines of wood that are burnt not make the earth lesse in Consistence if there were not an hourly supply and transmutation of Ayre into water and from water into Earth which though this divine nature doth effect secretly and insensibly yet by effect it
is proved true For when the the wood and Coal is consumed we shall find that their terrestriall Corpulency or bodily masse is almost resolved by fire and heat into watry smoke and fumish ayre But the Philosophicall axiom is that every thing is resolved into his first matter or principle therefore it is apparent that both the water and aery smoke which make up the Earthly bulk of a great Oake or mountaine of pit-Coal was first of the invisible Ayre Again if these were not so the brimstone Stones and dust which authority of the Bible and common experience teacheth to descend from heaven being that they fall in one place or another daily would increase the Earth more and more But leaving these speculative proofs I will descend unto such ocular demonstrations as I have learned out of mine Experimentall glasse The Demonstration We find that from the lower region of the Calender or Weather-glasse unto the summity or top of the head there is nothing but a portion of the common invisible element namely the Aire within it But we shall find even in this little modell of aire strange mutations or alterations effected by vertue of the four winds which blow in the open element for when the hot Easterly wind doth blow it dilateth and extendeth it self all along the neck of the Glasse and beateth down the water unto the lowest degree by reason of its extension so that it approacheth unto the nature of fire for fire is said to be nothing else but aire extreamly dilated though indeed it is the abundant presence of the bright form which dilateth it so but if the South-wind bloweth then it will not be so extreamly dilated but it will endue the mean nature of aire and therefore it will draw up the water by certain degrees But if it happen that the westerly wind have the sole domininion in the sublunary element then will the aire in the Glasse grow thicker and for that reason it draweth or attracteth the water higher For cold hath a great power in the said air whose nature is to condense and thicken Lastly if the cold northern winds do govern or dispose of this universall sublunary element then will the included aire be contracted or coarcted into a very strait room which is argued in this namely because the colder the winde is the higher will the water be elevated in the Glasse and therefore it is made manifest that by how much the more the aire is contracted by so much the more it is thickened and consequently it must be made ponderous considering the proportion of place in which it is for all the aire which weighed thus much in half a yard of Place doth weigh at the least even so much in 2 inches of Space after Contraction Thus you see that in verity there is radically but one catholick sublunary Element though by the angelicall spirit that bloweth from the four corners of the heavens it is four-foldly informed and altered which made the Antients to imagine in their phantasies four distinct elements of an equall birth and beeing from all beginnings But you see apparently by this that is said that this position of the Peripateticks and other sects is false though that it hath gotten an universall name and dominion in this world among men as well of learning as of the ignorant who ground their sayings on the doctrine of the learned of this world who are corrupted and seduced from the truth by the Ethnick discipline I will now expresse unto you in the last place of this book how all generation and corruption in this world is made and that the lowest profundity or terminus ad quem the motion of corruption tendeth is but unto the simple element of nature and then beginneth a new generation from that principle being four-foldly altered according unto the nature of the four winds and therefore when the dead carcasses should live again the Prophet said Come from the four winds O Spirit and blow on these dead bones that is inform and vivifie their Spirit with thy breath for bones were made after a hard Northern and fixt manner the humours after their proportion the Westerly and Southerly property namely flegm and blood and lastly the Spirit of life came from that all-vivifying fire which Hermes calleth Splendorem Sanctum The holy Splendor To conclude I will demonstrate the mystery of the worlds Creation by way of an Arithmeticall progression after this manner Here we have the progression in the worlds Creation where 1. signifieth the Unity which was before all things which whilst it was in it self and did not shine forth conteined its inacting property within its potential Nolunty or Darkness and therefore was esteemed as nothing in regard of mans weak capacity although that in it self it is all in all Then the rank 2. sheweth the actuall emanation of the in-created Light out of the potentiall Unity at the presence whereof the humid nature did appeare out of the dark abysse 1. 0. in the shape of waters so that the light and waters as active and passive are ranked next after Unity thus 0. Light 0. Water 2. then by the fiery Spirit of eternall love and union those two opposit natures are joyned together into the nature of heaven by a spirituall union or composition the which is termed by the Platonicks the soul of the world which the Philosophers have styled by the name of Quinta essentia the quintessence For we must understand that as the 4. Elements were made after the Heavens so also are the Heavens said to animate the Elements no otherwise then the soul doth the body So that this degree of Progression in the Creation standeth thus 0. Light 0. Aire 0. Water 3. The last scale in the Progression of the worlds Creation is thus 0. Fire 0. Aire 0. Water 0. Earth which importeth the four-fold alteration of the catholick Element by the four Winds which was and is effected by the Word the third day of the Creation and this was nothing else but the generall sublunary or lower waters This therefore was the estate of the world in the Creation and in this very state doth continue hitherto and will do till it be refined by the fiery Tryall All this the wise Hermes hath according unto the Tenor of Moses described unto us exactly in these words Erat umbra infinita in abysso aqua insuper spiritus tenuis intellectualis per divinam potentiam in chaos inerant floruit autem splendor sanctus qui sub arena humidanatur a elementa deduxit cumque indistincta fuissent levia postmodum in excelsam regionem provolarunt gravia sub arena humida resederunt distinctis libratisque rebus quae igneo Spiritu vehebantur emicuit coelum septem in circulos c. An infinite shadow or darkness was in the abysse moreover water and a subtil intellectuall spirit was by the divine puissance in the Chaos And a holy brightness or splendor did
flourish the which did reduce the Elements under the heaven and humid nature and as they were undistinguished afterward that portion which was light did fly and sore up unto the highest region the weightier part did reside and take its place under the moist heaven These things being thus distinguished and ballanced which were susteined by a fiery spirit the heavens did shine forth in seaven circles c. This I say is the manner of the world's Fabrick as also of the rotation of one Elementary nature into another caused partly by the absence or presence of the Spirit riding in his chariot or Tabernacle which is the Sun Hence therefore proceedeth that alteration by Condensation or Rarefaction which is observed annually in the world but especially by the four windy Organs or Angelicall instruments of this aeriall region and is effected assidually by changes all the year long as is justified by the weather-glasse's observation And we must with diligence-observe that these members of the worlds Fabrick do endure with incorruptibility alwaies and shall never alter untill the last PEREAT But the creatures which are compounded of this generall Element and are diversly altered or informed shall pass or begin their generation from the simple Elementary estate which is in four quasi à Termino à quo unto the complement of generation or compleat composition namely 8. tanquam ad Terminum ad quem And again the corruption or resolution of that generated compound shall have its Terminum à quo or beginning from the degree of compleat composition 8. and his Terminus ad quem that is the complement of resolution shall be in the common or catholick Element which is aire four-foldly altered in his simple nature as shall appeare in this which followeth CHAP. VI. The true Mystery of Generation and Corruption also a touch of Re-generation or Resurrection is afer the doctrine of holy Scripture herein Expressed AS we have plainly though in few words expressed unto you a dark privative Principle namely that which seemed before all beginnings to be without form and therefore mortifieth and depriveth of life and is as it were out of all existence in regard of our capacity by reason that the active vivifying light doth not shine forth but is hidden in the center So also have we manifested unto you another Spirituall Principle which is Light now shining forth of Darkness and this is that only which informeth vivifieth and animateth all things with life I told you that all was but one essentiall Unity For the three Divine Person was but one and the same in essence and therefore that Light was unto him as Darkness and consequently that he was the beginning of all beginnings that is to say he is as well the principle of Privation and Corruption as of Position and Generation whereof the one is the Act unto life namely the in-created Light and the other is the passive of life or death and that is the waters forasmuch as they were derived out of Darkness and therefore by reason of their Darkness they participate in their passion as well of the privative as of the positive principle and for that reason the Actor in both extreames is God which is Unity who by the withdrawing of his vivifying Spirit from the creature causeth death and privation and consequently leaveth nothing in it but the characters of corruption and ruine Contrariwise by continuing his incorruptible Spirit in the creature it remaineth by the presence thereof without corruption Also after that God doth withdraw his Spirit from the creature then the creature dieth if he sendeth again his Spirit of life into the creature it reviveth and riseth again This was the reason in one sense of the Resurrection of our Saviour who for that cause was termed Primaevus resurrectionis à mortuis The first that risse again from death unto eternall life And in another sense it was the cause that Elias raised from the dead the child of the widdow and that the bones of Elizeus caused the murthered Amalikite to rise again as also that Christ caused Lazarus to revive when he was dead as shall be shewed hereafter I will therefore express unto you out of Scriptures first that God to whom the act of privation is as familiar as that of position if we only consider the watery or passive composition forasmuch as it participateth of both extreames is the only Actor as well unto death and corruption as to life and generation And then secondly I will briefly prove unto you the manner how the self-same Unity in essence operateth thus contrarily in the watry or bodily Subject of all things Touching the first Scriptures say It is God that woundeth and striketh and it is he that cureth And again they say in the Person of God I kill and I make alive again In another place Thou hast power of life and death in thine hand Thou bringest unto the grave and reducest back again And the Son of Syrath Vita Mors bonum malum à Deo sunt Life and death good and evilâ— a e from God Now for the second namely to shew how the Lord operateth by one and the same Spirit to life death and resurrection we may easily gather it if we will consider with our selves that it was the all-inaâ—ting Spirit of wisdom which first did inform the world with life and being and did give life unto each creature and doth preserve it from death and corruption so long as it abideth and operateth vivifyingly in the said creatures And therefore it is said Deo serviat omnis creatura quia dâ—xisti jaâ—â—ae sunt mâ—â—sti spiritum creatae sunt Let every creature serve God for thou spakest and they were made thou didst send thy Spirit and they were created Again Deus non aâ—quo indigens that â—mnibus viâ—am inspirationem omnia God not wanting the aid of any giveth or bestoweth on al creatures life and inspiration or breath and all things In another place Deus dat flatum populo qâ—i est super terram spiritum calcanâ—bus eam And it was for this reason that the Psalmist saith Vita adest benevolenti IEHOVAE Life is present through the benignity of God Vitae restaurator est IEHOVA God is the restorer of life Vitae meae fontes omnes à Deo All the fountaines of my life are from God Vitae proâ—ongatâ—o est benignitas IEHOVAE The prolonging of lifâ—â—s through the benignity of IEHOVA Whereupon it is apparent that the presence of the vivifying Spirit of God is the cause of life multiplication and preservation And therefore Job said Viâ—tatio tua conservaâ— spiritum meum â—hy visitation pâ—â—serveth my spirit As contrariwise the absence of the same spirit lesse or more is the occasion of sicknesse death destruction or corruption And therefore it is said Deâ—s malos reliâ—quit abscondit faciem suam ab impiis ut obveniant
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
by degrees appear out explicitly namely in the sixt rank for it will be altered from humour to solidity with a certain distinction of the three principall Members in the seventh to an Embrionall shape and in the eighth which will make up a cube unto the materiall root 2. or the Square 4. which is characterized in the catholick Element by the impressions of the four winds into a perfect creature In like manner in the great world we see that the simple Element namely the generall aire appeareth externally plain simplicity and an invisible Nothing explicitly and yet it containeth complicitly a clowd water or rain Fire or Lightning and a ponderous stone with Salt and such like which by degrees do explicitly appear through the vertue of the four Winds So that a vapour possesseth the first rank the cloud the sixt the Lightning and clowd the seventh and the earthly Stone argueth an exact rotation of all the foure ventous forms into one mixtion which represents the eighth's place in Composition or Generation But when the man cometh to Corruption then his parts proceed in resolution backwards namely from 8. to 7. from 7. to 6. and from 6. to 5. untill it return unto the point of the simple Spermatick Element from whence it began and there it beginneth a new Generation in another form For the all-acting nature is never idle So also the Stone is resolved into water and water into a vaporous clowd and the clowd into aire from whenâ—e it came which is the simple catholick Element which admitteth no farther or proâ—ounder resolution by corruption Now the onely Operator in both these works is the Spirit of God for in Generation it shineth forth of the catholick Elements center or SpermS internall unto perfection and persevereth in his action till a perfect man be produced which Job confirmeth thus Nonne sicut Lac fudistime sicut caseum coagâ—â—asti me cute carne texisti me ossibusque nervis induisti me cum vita benignitatem exercuisti erga me Et visitatio tua conservavit spiritum meum Didst thou not poâ—â—e me forth like milk and like cheese didst crudle me Didst thou not cover me with skâ—n aâ—â— flesh Thou didst indue me with bones and sinews thou didest shew forth unto me thy benignity in my life and thy visitation doth preserve my spirit Contrariwise when the Spirit of God with-draweth his beames from the circumference of Generation and Composition unto the center of simplicity he leaveth to visite the Spirit of the creature and so it must fade ad decayingly return unto the principle from whence it came and from thence again if the same spirit is pleased to shine forth a new Generation beginneth where the Corruption or Resolution ended The Demonstration is such The Simple Square of the world's Composition where 2. that is to say Light and Water is the root The progression from the said Elementary Square unto the cube of Composition The root of Generation which is from the 4. Elements or the catholick Element four-foldly altered Where the four elements remain in their simplicity as they were created complicitely in one watry nature or rather catholick element called Aire which is the root from whence generation ariseth unto the period of perfect composition by four degrees or steps of alteration namely from the 4 to the 8. and whither tendeth retrogradely corruption namely from 8 to 4. CHAP. VII That God contrary unto Aristotle's assertion with the opinion of divers other Ethnick Philosophers doth not operate of necessity for the creation and continuation of his creatures but of his proper will and benigne inclination WE tearm that properly Necessary that can be no otherwise again we esteem that as well voluntary as fortuit or happening by chance which may be otherwise Now there hath risen and sprung up a great dispute among the Ethnick Philosophers whether God operateth in this world voluntarily or of necessity or as it were by compulsion the greater part therefore of them are flatly of an opinion that God acteth in this world as well in the generation and conservation of things as corruption of them by necessity and not by any voluntary motion whereby it must follow that he was enforced to do or effect what he doth from all eternity by some other nature which was either coeternall with him or pre-existent or else that he was excited or pushed forward against his will to effect this or that by some creature which he did make All which how erroneous and extravagant it is from the rules and center of truth I will in few words expresse unto you For first of all What I beseech you is of greater antiquity than God being that he was before any thing What is in Geometry before or in measure lesse then a point or which among all the numbers of Arithmetick is of so antient a standing as is the unity Wherefore it must needs follow that God is free and voluntary in his actions being that he was of himself and did exist without any respect had unto any other either precedent or coeternall principle from all beginning and therefore was sufficient in himself and of himself to work and operate by himself from all eternity But the principall reasons of the foresaid Ethnick opinion are two-fold first because God doth act and operate by his proper essence and not by any acquired vertue then forasmuch as the effects in the world seem to be necessary and hereupon they conclude that they cannot come or proceed from any contingent that is to say fortuit or voluntary occasion of another Unto the first me-thinks they seem to argue against themselves for as he acteth by his proper essence or substance it is evident that he is moved of his own accord and consequently not by any externall compulsion or internall necessity Moreover in the latitude of unity there can be no compulsion or coaction because that Unity cannot suffer Again it is not possible that he should be urged to work by any externall or alien efficient cause because that he remaining primarily fixed and stedfast in himself and of himself worketh as the originall fountain of all things by himself emitting his formall and vivifying beams of life at his pleasure and with-drawing them again when and where he pleaseth Unto the second I say that necessary effects do no way include any necessity in the first efficient cause because that secundary causes which Plato and other wise-men called Hand-maids or She-slaves do act at the command and inciting of him which is the unity of all multitude and therefore all in all or by a necessary order so that a necessity in worldly created things dependeth upon the volunty and command of him who made them the which order he accomplisheth and finisheth at his pleasure And therefore we find this written by the wise-man Ignem mitescit nè combureret modò ignem ille facit ardere inter aquas c. He
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
heaven and earth were made of water and by water by the Word as Sacred Philosophy teacheth us then they would have known also that the common substantiall Subject of them all was but one created watery spirit also that this spirits four-fold information was effected by one increating formall essence or Divine Word acting and informing that universall Element by a four-fold emanation so that the will of one creating Spirit effected by and working in four Angells of an opposit nature maketh disposeth or changeth every day this one spirituall watery Subject into this or that Element according unto the Will of the Creator All which is evidently demonstrated by the wether-glass For the aire therein inclosed doth by contraction or dilatation convert it self into the form of any of the Elements and is altered therein according as the nature of the Macrocosmicall blast or wind that bloweth Now whereas it may be objectively demanded From whence then came the earth and waters that are resident perpetually here beneath I answer That they are the effects which the winds by the Will of God or ELOHIM RUACH did originally produce and these were framed first out of the aire namely by thickning it by one degree into water and ingrossing it by another into solid and fixt earth as it appeared by the third daies Creation where it was said that Aridum apparuerit ex aquis Dry-land did appear out of the waters But the Divine Philosopher St. Paul doth confirm all this where he affirmeth that we ought to believe by Faith that those things which are visible were first of things invisible and unseen And again if that the two lower bodies did not resolve themselves by little and little though insensibly into aire it would not be possible that the earth or the water could hold that abundance of Water Stones Brimstone caused of Lightnings and such like which falleth from the aire and yet we see that neither the aire nor water nor earth are at any time found bigger then their naturall accustomed proportions By this therefore I have sufficiently expressed unto you the attractive and contractive property of the Northern Pole in the aire which inferreth thus much that as the Northern blasts are enemies unto life because they contract from the circumference to the Center which is contrary unto the act of man's life therefore all things that are reduced into a chill cold and Northern property be they airy watery or earthy they draw strongly unto them as it is proved by the weather-glass For the included aire being animated by the effects of a strong and obstinate Northern wind sucketh and draweth the waters on high namely from the Aequinoctiall point of the glass unto the Center of the North Pole which is assigned by the head of the mattras and also by the same reason congealed spirits in any earthly substance do suck or draw from the exteriour to the interior as we observe that Bole Armoniack sucketh moysture unto it and also all other earth when it is throughly dry and that in his own naturall condition namely because it being of the quality of the North it sucketh and draweth strongly a watery moysture but this is by reason of his drought the attraction therefore in the Load-stone is otherwise For it having the essentiall nature of its mother Earth and the virtue of the North in his Pole draweth the masculine Sulphureous spirits out of Iron greedily and that with a feminine appetite by reason of the propinquity and likeness of one nature unto another The like regard also hath the Pole star unto the Load-stone as the Load-stone hath unto the Iron which is his like For Natura Natura suá gaudet laetatur Nature is glad and rejoyceth in her like nature as Empedocles doth truly testifie But both the Iron and the Load-stone are of one myne one vein and one nature seeing that both of them are of an earthly and boreall disposition and therefore the Load-stone and his formall included spirits being more encombred with superfluities then the refined Iron doth as it were either for their assistance namely to be delivered from that incombrance draw unto them their like out of the purified Iron or Steel by a wonderfull appetite and in this action suck unto it the Iron who as unwilling to leave its formall spirit doth follow by a naturall continuity the motion of its formall beams or else for comfort and consolation yea and formal refection's cause no otherwise then the cold materiall female doth the more formall male to be refreshed by the masculine seed or sulphureous Form which they both received from that generall Agent 's ideal Northern nature that sustaineth and animateth the earth I will prove it by a similitude but in a vegetable substance We observe that the grain of wheat not participating with the nature of the earth that is so long as it is above ground and not sown attracteth not his like from heaven but when it is committed unto the earth and the earth by corruption hath unloosed his bands his spirits suck down from above the Sun-beams and celestiall influences of his fixt constellation and erratick Planet in quantity that thereby it may be delivered and rise again by the celestiall beams of his own nature that descend from heaven and principally from the Sun so that like being added to his like becommeth the stronger in ascention For experience teacheth us that the celestiall included form or vitall beam creepeth out of the earth upwards tending by all his appetite unto its ethereal native home from whence it came but because the Element of fire is contiguous unto the aethereal spirit therefore it will not permit these aethereall or sunny-beams to ascend without it and because the aire is a near-cleaving and continued neighbour unto the fire therefore it will not permit the fire to ascend without his presence and again the water challengeth the self-same priviledge namely to ascend with the aire and lastly the earth will not let the water move upwards without her company as being next of her race and therefore will have the self-same prerogative with the other three But because the earth is ponderous and cannot ascend she holdeth it fast below and will not permit the spirit to sore higher and so those beamy spirits which seemed to descend for the freedom of their brethren are by these Elementary ties or rather the four-fold disposition of one Element detained and made to hover and hang in the aire where insteed of flying upwards to heaven they do multiply into many graines And I have noted by mine own experience namely by anatomising of corn with the fiery knife of distillation that the female in corn which sucketh down the celestiall influences of the like nature is a pure volatil Salt of a refined or aereall terrestrial condition but rich in celelestiall fire and therefore made volatil and airy by the union of both extreames so that it is this female
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
election of their due times and seasons in gathering of them being that the Divine Wisdom that made them operates in them and by them taught him this skill because the devill also is by his acute observation made partaker of their knowledg and doth make use also of all these things to serve his own turn What because I say he hath this knowledg to elect every Simple in his force and season by observation of that reference which is between the starrs and them Therefore must not Man be partaker of their natural virtues or be made cunning in the skill of collecting them but by the aide and revelation of the devill When in flat terms the Scriptures say that God made them all for the use of Man must they be esteemed diabolicall in all that use them and therefore be forbidden because the devill doth sometimes serve his turn with them As who should say that God should create any thing onely for the devil's use and not to serve man in each necessity and that according unto his free will being that it is said that He gave man power and made him Lord over all his creatures What if the animal or vegetable or mineral Simple do in some cases harme and prove venomous yet in other respects it proveth salutary There is no wind so bad but bloweth unto some men good The Colloquintida Scamony Euphorbium Cucumer asininus Titimall Beaâ—s-foot Flammula Garlick and such like in the vegetable kingdom prove in some respects venomous and yet may be applied after a salutary condition unto the body of Man Also Arsenick Orpiment Antimony Quick-silver and such like in the minerall Sphere do kill being malevolously and without correction applied The Toad the Viper or Adder the Spider the Scorpion the Canâ—harides and such like in the animal region are deadly poyson unto man kind and yet they may be so prepared that they may prove wholsome medicines unto him and become counter-poysons But besides all this as there is nothing in the world that worketh more effectually by Sympathy and according unto nature than one wholsome and sound nature doth with another So verily is there nothing that operateth more Antipathetically and contrary to nature or destructively than the corruption of an empoysoned or infected spirit doth with a wholsome spirit of his like Species And the reason is because it coveteth and desireth by an earnest communication of his beams to receive as it were help and succor in its distress from the sound spirits unto the irradiations whereof it applieth it self for relief as we see in the time of contagion the spirit arising or emanating from the infected person applieth his infected beams greedily unto the emanating spirit of his wholsome like and so by a continuation of one unto the other the fiery venome of the one impoysoneth and co-inquinateth the salutary nature of the other and that onely with his specifick like For commonly the Plague familiar unto Men doth not stick or cleave unto the spirit of beasts namely unto that of Sheep and such other As in like manner the Murren in beasts infecteth not Man's spirit but the like specifick nature is evermore aprest to embrace and apply his beams unto his like For this cause therefore it is evident that as our of a wholsome Man there may be had a spirituall Mummy which is wondrous healthfull and salutiferous unto mankind inâ—omuch that for his universall respects it may be esteemed as a Panacaea or catholick medicine to preserve health So also there may be attracted out of Man after a strange manner of corruption of his spirituall Mummy a venome than the which there cannot be found a more pernicious or malignant one to mankind in the world For this reason therefore a certain Jew as I was by a Merchant that came newly from Fess in Barbary unto Lâ—â—orn credibly informed after he had beheld an English Marriner in the ship who had a red head and faining himself to be much taken with the love of him wrought so with him that for 300 Pound he agreed to sell himself unto him for his slave thinking in time to come to give his Jewish Master the slip and run away Within a while after the ship being ready to return and the Marriners going to take their leave of their captive fellow they resorted unto the Jew's house who after they had demanded for their fellow led them into a back Court where they found the red-headed captive his back being broke and a gagge in his mouth and chops and throat swollen which as he said was caused by the stinging of Vipers which were forced into his mouth and so hung up and exposed unto the hot Sun with a silver bason under his mouth to receive that which dropped from his mouth of which as he related unto me the Jew made a kind of poyson so deadly that it did surely kill where it touched affirming that he sold it at an excessive rate The like was effected as I was told by the Pope's Apothecary dwelling in Avinion and since it hath been confirmed by others that came from Rome by a certain Cardinal who immediatly after he had got his red-headed Mistris with child and nourishing her with all the delightfull dainties that might be till she was delivered did in a secret Court in his Pallace bury her armes and all unto the paps and so let loose unto her two hungry Asps or as a German heard it related two deformed Todes the which making immediately unto her dugs sucked and in sucking bit her and impoysoned her dugs and when the Todes were full that milk became as he said so venomous and deadly that it infected any one that touched it it was so subtle and piercing And besides as the former story goeth the woman was taken up and after her back was broken was hanged her legs upward against the Sun to receive that venomous liquor which distilled from it into a silver vessell wherewith he intended to have poysoned that Cardinall which stood as a block in his way between the Popedom and him But all was discovered and he according to his merit did endure the fiery triall for it And the reason why the red headed man or woman is elected most fit for this purpose is because they are subject by their nativity unto the influences of the Sun and therefore are the more capable of and obnoxious to corruption wherefore their spirituall Mummy being contaminated by the animal poyson is after his fermentation and putrefaction made admirably subtle and exceeding malitious And although the sympatheticall desire be in the specifick Mummy to be joyned with his like yet by reason it is infected and intoxicated by that antipatheticall spirit of the invenomed beast which hath got the mastery over it it cannot embrace his like sympathetically but it infecteth it also by his antipatheticall additament and so the accidentall venome converteth them both into his nature That there was a certain Hermit
ignarus And therefore I will conceal the rest of his occult properties and their sympatheticall effects from such Criticks and lock it up in the treasury of truth Onely in a word I say that by it the Dropsie Pleurisie Gout Vertigo Epilepsie French-Pox Palsey Cancer Fistula foul Ulcers Tumors wounds Herniaes Fractions of Members superfluity and suppression of Menstrues in women as also sterility in them Feavors Hecticks Athrophy or wasting of members and such like may by this naturall magicall means be cured and that at distance and without any immediate contact And to conclude Paracelsus affirmeth that this magneticall kind of cure which is effected by naturall Magick doth excell in vertue all other Physicall secrets which may be extracted or separated either out of Herbs or Roots or Minerals I will now come to the second Part or Member of this Book which speaketh of the antipatheticall effects of this Mummiall experiment The Second Part or Member of this Book which handleth the practice of Antipathy CHAP. I. In this Chapter the Author expresseth how by the self-same internall spirit in the creature as wel Antipatheticall as Sympatheticall effects may be produced Herein is also set down the reason why a spirit that is infected and corrupted with a poyson some condâ—tion is most venomous and contagious unto his kind AS it is certain that like doth naturally affect his like for Nature doth rejoyce at the presence of his nature and nature doth correct and corroborate his nature if it be sound and full of vivifying and wholsome spirits So also nature if it be poysoned and infected by a venomous nature will by uniting it self unto a sound and wholsome nature quickly corrupt and inquinate it and so by such a kind of abortive and depraved union antipathy is placed insteed of sympathy Now how this is possible in nature I will in few words relate unto you As nature doth magnetically effect and allure unto it her like so if that like which it â—ucketh unto it be inquinated with corruption the said attracting spirit be it never so sound will quickly taste of the bitter with the sweet namely of the poyson and so will also be corrupt equally with that spirit which is homogeneall unto it in which the infection dwelleth being forced unawares to entertain strife dissention and antipathy into his tabernacle unawares even as we see a sound spirit in the Animal which thirsting after his like spirituall celestiall food which hovereth occultly in the aire to be refreshed by it doth unawares draw in an enemy with it namely a pestilent and corrupt fume whereby it is oppressed and inflamed with a putredinous fire so that it was not the appetite or desire of the sound spirit to draw in that poyson unto it but the spirit like it self that was poysoned And again each spirit which is incumbered with any antipatheticall and unnaturall accident desireth to shake off contentious antipathy and to re-assume that peacefull sympathy which it enjoyed before but finding it self unable it is apt to cleave and adhere unto good and sound spirits for its relief being that vis unita fortior and if more sound spirits of his like were joyned unto it then might it the easilier conquer and expell his antipatheticall adversary So also we see that one blear-ey'd person by darting his infectious beams for relief at a reasonable distance becommeth a flame which setteth on fire the sound spirit unto the which it applieth for spirituall poysons are like secret flames of malignant fire Wherefore as spirits are by union joyned together and multiplyed like oyle added unto oyle so doth the infectious flame increase and feed equally upon them both For as the sound spirit desireth the society of his like to comfort it and the corrupted spirit so desired doth also covet the sound spirit to assist it against his enemy So corruption is sucked in by them both and antipathy is forced to roust among them and forsaketh them not untill it hath penetrated and gnawed into even their bowells and poysoned their very entralls And we must note that there is no poysoned spirit that doth sooner take hold of a spirit then such as is specifick and of a homogeneal nature For that is the reason that one Mans spirit being infected with the Plague doth so multiply it in his kind chiefly as also the Murren doth chiefly rage in the spirits of Sheep and medles not with the spirits of Men. Do we not commonly see that a like nature being altered by putrefaction is most deadly unto his like So worms avoided out of the body and dried to pouder do by inward administration kill the worms Spitle that is avoided from the Pulmoniack cureth after preparation the Pâ—isick The Spleen of a Man prepared is an enemy unto the swelling and vegetable Spleen The stone of the Kidney or Bladder by calcination cureth and dissolveth the Stone The touch of a dead man's hand cureth the schirrous tumors The Scorpion being bruised or his body macerated in oyle cureth the wounds of the Scorpion and the oyle of the Viper as also the trochises of his flesh the bitings of the Adder or Viper dead and congealed blood and the salt excrescence out of man's bones is antipatheticall unto the flowing blood In conclusion there is nothing that is more powerfull to check or correct an impediment in a spirit then by applying of the same Specifick spirit being altered from his nature by a contrariety So also there is nothing that infecteth a sound nature sooner than a nature homogeneal unto it self which hath indued corruption and that is the reason that the infirm and corrupted Mummy of one man is so apt to putrify and corrupt that of another as we may not onely discern by these words of Paracelsus Corrupta Mummia corpus etiam sanum quod attingit cum quo unitur corrumpit ea autem sani corporis corruptio est corporis alterus ex quo Mummia sumpta est valetudo sanitas The corrupted Mummy doth also corrupt the sound body that it layeth hold of and is united unto and the corruption of the sound body is the health of the other body out of which the corrupt Mummy was extracted As for example If a man be Leprous and I extract by the Microcosmicall Magnet the Mummy out of him and give it to a sound man it will reduce the Leprous person unto his health again but it will filthily infect the sound man that took it with the same disease as shall be told you hereafter more at large But before we come unto the bulk of this business it will be most fit that I make an Apologeticall transgression lest some persons of more envy and indiscretion than profundity in the true naturall Magia may unworthily accuse me of Cacomagy and that onely because they are altogether ignorant in the mysteries of those lawfull Acts in nature which were taught unto Solomon and revealed unto the wise men of this