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
Cui vel nulla dedit nec dabit ulla Parem Great glorious Pen-Man whom I should not name Left I might Seem to measure Thee by Fame Natures Apostle and her Choice High Priest Her Mysticall and bright Evangelist How am I rapt when I contemplate Thee And winde my self above All that I see The Spirits of thy Lines infuse a Fire Like the Worlds Soul which makes me thus aspire I am unbodi'd by thy Books and Thee And in thy Papers finde my Exstasie Or if I please but to descend a strain Thy Elements do skreen my Soul again I can undresse my Self by thy bright Glasse And then resume th' Inclosure as I was Now I am Earth and now a Star and then A Spirit now a Star and Earth agen Or if I will but ramasle all that be In the least moment I ingrosse all Three I span the Heav'n and Earth and things above And which is more joyn Natures with their Iove He Crowns my Soul with Fire and there doth shine But like the Rain-bow in a Cloud of mine Yet there 's a Law by which I discompose The Ashes and the Fire it self disclose But in his Emrald still He doth appear They are but Grave-clothes which he scatters here Who sees this Fire without his Mask his Eye must needs be swallow'd by the Light and die These are the Mysteries for which I wept Glorious Agrippa where thy Language slept where thy dark Texture made me wander far Whiles through that pathles Night I trac'd the star But I have found those Mysteries for which Thy Book was more then thrice-pil'd o're with Pitch Now a new East beyond the stars I see where breaks the Day of thy Divinitie Heav'n states a Commerce here with Man had He but gratefull Hands to take and Eyes to see Hence you fond School-men that high trueths deride And with no Arguments but Noyse and Pride You that damn all but what your Selves invent And yet finde nothing by Experiment Your Fate is written by an unseen Hand But his Three Books with the Three Worlds shall stand Thus far Reader I have handl'd the Composure and Royalty of Man I shall now speake something of his Dissolution and close up my Discourse as he doth his Life with Death Death is Recessus vitae in Absconditum not the Annihilation of any one Particle but a Retreat of hidden Natures to the same State they were in before they were Manifested This is occasioned by the Disproportion and inequality of the Matter For when the Harmony is broken by the Excesse of any one Principle the vitall Twist without a timely Reduction of the first Vnity Disbands and unravells In this Recesse the severall Ingredients of Man returne to those severall Elements from whence they came at first in their Accesse to a Compound For to thinke that God creates any thing ex nihilo in the worke of Generation is a pure Metaphysicall Whymsey Thus the Earthly parts as we see by experience returne to the Earth the Coelestiall to a Superiour heavenly Limbus and the Spirit to God that gave it Neither should any wonder that I affirme the Spirit of the living God to be in Man when God himselfe doth acknowledge it for his own My spirit saith he shall not alwaies be sheathed for so the Hebrew signifies in man for that he also is flesh yet his dayes shall be an hundred and twenty yeares Besides the breathing of it into Adam proves it proceeded from God and therefore the Spirit of God Thus Christ breathed on his Apostles and they received the Holy Ghost In Ezechiel the Spirit comes from the Foure Winds and Breathes upon the Slaine that they might live Now this Spirit was the Spirit of Life the same with that Breath of Life which was breathed into the First Man and he became a Living Soule but without doubt the Breath or Spirit of Life is the Spirit of God Neither is this Spirit in Man alone but in all the Great World though after an other manner For God breathes continually and passeth through all things like an Aire that refresheth wherefore also he is called of Pythagor as {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Animatio universorum Hence it is that God in Scripture hath severall names according to those severall Offices he performes in the Preservation of his Creature Quin etiam saith the Areopagite in mentibus ipsum inesse dicunt atque in Animis in corporibus in Caelo esse atque in Terra ac simul in seipso Eundem in Mundo esse circa mundum supra mundum supra Caelum superiorem Essentia Solem Stellam Ignem Aquam Spiritum Rorem Nebulam Ipsum Lapidem Petram Omnia esse quae sunt nihil eorum quae sunt And most certaine it is because of his secret passage and Penetration through all that other simile in Dionysius was given him Adam etiam saith he quod omnium vilissimum esse magis absurdum videtur Ipsum sibi vermis speciem adhibere ab ijs Qui in rebus Divinis multum diuque ver sati sunt esse traditum Now this Figurative kind of speech with its variety of Appellations is not only proper to Holy Writt but the AEgyptians also as Plutarch tells me call'd Isis or the more secret part of Nature Myrionymos and certainely that the same thing should have a Thousand Names is no newes to such as have studied the Philosophers Stone But to returne thither whence we have digressed I told you the severall Principles of Man in his Dissolution part as sometimes Friends doe severall wayes Earth to earth as our Liturgie hath it and Heaven to Heaven according to that of Lucretius Cedit item reâ—â—â— de Terrâ quod fuit ante In Terram quod missum est ex AEtheris Oris Id rursum Coeli sulgentia Templa receptant But more expresly the Divine Virgil speaking of his Bees His Quidam signis atque baec Exempla secuti Esse Apibus partem Divinae Mentis Haustus AEthereos dixere Deum namque ire per Omnes Terrasque Tractusque Maris Coelumque profundum Hinc Pecudes Armenta Viros Genus omne Ferarum Quemque sibi tenues Nascentem arcessere Vitas Scilicet huc reddi deindè ac resolut a referri Omnia nec Morti este locum Sed Viva volare Syderis in Numerum atque alto Succedere Coelo This Vanish or ascent of the inward Ethereall Principles doth not presently follow their separation For that part of man which Paracelsus calls Homo Sydereus and more appositly Brutum hominis but Agrippa Idolum and Virgil AEthereum sensum atq Aurai Simplicis Ignë This Part I say which is the Astral Man hovers sometimes about the Dormitories of the Dead and that because of the Magnetism or Sympathie which is between him and the Radical vital moysture In this Idolum is the seat of the Imagination and it retaines
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