hid in thy earthen vessell and may thereout be digged John 14.17.20 Thou seest not God in thy selfe whom the world seeth not neither can receive though he be more in us then we are in our selves inasmuch as the Spirit of God dwelleth in the midst of our hearts And to speak truly we can learn more in the whole course of our life then that Divine lesson that God hath set us KNOW THY SELFE 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore Agryppa holily and learnedly reasoning about the right way that leadeth to true Wisdome and Eternall Happinesse The first knowledge of God is to know what man is August saith it is for a man to know Himselfe according to the Oracle of Apollo written over the doors of his Temple at Delphos Because man hath the true and Reall possession of all things and Natures in himselfe as also the speciall and perfect Image even of the Creator of all things He that knoweth himselfe knows God for God will dwell no where but in man in whom he is most plaine to be seen We see God from within Therefore the knowledge of all things and natures and of the Creator himselfe wherein alone true Wisdome and Blessednesse consisteth must take its rise from the knowledge of a mans selfe So that Man when he doth rightly understand himself may in himselfe as in a kind of Deified glasse behold and understand all things In which respect David saith Psal 139.14 I am fearfully and wonderfully made marvellous are thy works On the contrary He that knoweth not himselfe cannot have any true intrinsecall and essentiall knowledge of things but like a bruit beast what he knows without him shall remaine without him For there is no knowledge whether infused from the Heaven or attained to by labour of industry and earthly diligence that will abide in the soule for ever but is subject to forgetfulnesse and will vanish but that onely which is inwardly received by Essentiall knowledge in the secret understanding which Essential intrinsecall knowledge is not from flesh and blood nor from the multitude of Books and reading nor from the abundants of Experience and old age Dionys lib. Divinors Nominum nor in the inticings of mans Word or wisdome and warangling of reason but the mind of man is perfected and compleated by a passive reception of Divine things not by study and paines but by patience and submission The whole businesse stands in knowledge because we are of every thing and doe carry about every thing in us even as God himselfe our Father The Son doth equally posesse all things with his Father Joh. 4. 17. Therefore all Naturall and Spirituall good things were and are in man at first but as by sin that Divine Character was darkned in us so sin being satisfied for done away that Character shines out againe more and more The Notion of all things is created together with us and in us and in the very middle of the Spirit by all things hid we are onely to awake out of our slumbring and snorting who through sin have fallen asleep in the gifts that God hath bestowed upon us so that we can neither see or perceive and believe that these good things are at present in us The Understanding of man is capable of the highest learning and attainments or according to Plato it is full of all Sciences before it be joyned to the body which being oppressed by the body lyeth hid as fire rak'd up in ashes but being rouz'd and stirred up from the said humours it shineth forth and discovereth those riches which before lay hid in their Treasures Unlesse all the Treasures of Heavenly and Earthly wisdome were in us before surely Christ would never have commanded us to seek nor should we ever find any thing if God had not given and laid up something in us When we therefore know our selves aright according to both kinds of Light God is known when the Light of Nature iâ— well understood Apoc. 3.20 1 according to the Spirit and Nature then by Gods help we enter into the gate that is opened in us and we open to God who stands and knocks at the door of our heart living according to the will of God we have all things necessary as well for wisdome as for life both for present and ever hereafter From this diligent contemplation knowledge of a mans self the true knowledge also of God doth immediately arise for neither can be absolute compleat without the other from the consideration of himselfe a Man may attaine to a good and great measure of the knowledge of him who IS all men being indeed bound to know according to the measure of their capacity Dionysius saith that we cannot know God from his own Nature but from that most orderly disposing of all the Creatures proceeding from himselfe which creatures hold forth as it were images and similitudes of his Divine Presidents or Examples Man that doth not know God is not known of God and he that forsakes and rejecteth the knowledge of God is rejected of God He that knoweth not God is inexcusable He that doth acknowledge God but not serve and worship him iâ— accuâ—sed The more we know God the more we love him and stedfastly belive in him He that believes God by loving of him doth cleave to God he that doth cleave to God is one Spirit with him To be ignorant of God is the Rise or Spring of all diseases the root of wickedness by which all vices are increased and grow ripe As on the contrary the perfect righteousnesse true wisdome and chiefe happinesse of Man is to know his Principle God the Creator of all things and to love him in all purity and uprightnesse To which purpose our Saviour saith truly John 17.3 This is life eternall to know the Father the true God and JESVS CHRIST viz. That the Believer should acknowledge and worship the Trinity which knowledge onely giveth eternall life for he that liveth the life of Christ is born the Son of God he that is born the Son of God must of necessity have the Father he that hath the Father is sealed with the holy Spirit He that knoweth the Son knoweth the Father also for they are but one thing The knowledge of God is Blessednesse and eternall life for he that knoweth God in Christ is made the habitation and Temple of God and so is Deified for he is the Son of God born out of God And as by the knowledge of the visible world we come to the knowledge of the invisible Workman so from Christ visible or the life of Christ we learn to know the Father for he is the way to the Father And as none can come to the Son unlesse he hear and learn from the Father so none can rightly know the frame of the world but he that is taught of God Hence it is plaine that what the Heathen wrote concerning Nature is for
the most part false because their Phylosophy and other abilities were polluted and corrupt In vaine therefore it is to seek knowledge from them who have spent all their life in looking after it and have wasted all their time and study to no purpose not finding out any truth though many of them were seduced by ignorance rather then malice the Light of Truth not yet risen to them nor the Light of Nature as yet kindled by the holy Spirit Divinity is the Fountaine of Naturall and Supernaturall knowledge All true Phylosophy should be grounded on the Scriptures and so return into God that so the Regenerate Christians might reap and receive the full increase of that seed which among the Gentiles was choaked for want of the Sun like that among the thorns No Art can be perfected without Regeneration Christians should not be ruled by Heathen Phylosophy True Phylosophy must be grounded on Christ the corner stone We ought therefore to be most wary that we suffer not the Philosophicall errours of the Heathen to beare down or dominiere over the rules of Christian Phylosophy Christians onely in whom the Truth is planted who have their seed from God by the means of Regeneration which the Heathen have not doe truly know to use or teach Phylosophy without mistake or errour and how to manage aright all other faculties Believers shall be taught of God when the Holy Spirit is powred forth To be short the knowledge of God is the Treasury of the whole world wherein all things are laid up so that without this knowledge no man can come to eternall life For Faith Hope and Love follow knowledge Adhaesion or cleaving to followeth Love Union follows Adhaesion in Union is Blessednesse and Wisdome This Regeneration that holy man Hermes and others of clean hearts and godly lives before the Word was incarnate being enlightned by the holy Spirit though they concealed it among other Secrets they knew it better then many of us who call our selves Christians and had rather seem to know God then love him O great miracle 1 John 4. Wâ—sd 1. John 17. Man whose mind by Christ is united to God possesseth the true wisdome of all things and the most absolute knowledge of all Secrets Furthermore he that knoweth himselfe doth know all things Fundamentally in himselfe and being set between Time and Eternity above him he sees God eternall his Creator The soul is the off-spring and image of God Apoc. 22. after whose image and likenesse he was with other Angells created by an unsearchable love besides or about him he knows the immortall Angells his fellows and companions from whom he differeth onely in body and the Judgement to come Under him he sees the visible World whereof he is a pattern and all the Creatures with whom he hath a likenesse even his parent of whom he was born as to the externall and mortall body Man who is a true Proteus of a fickle wavering disposition received a flexible mind from Nature Eccl. 15.14 that being set in the midst of the Paradice of this world by the assistance of Divine Grace raising himselfe upward he might be regenerated into a quiet Angell or the Forger of his fortune winding and creeping downward degenerate into a restlesse Bruite But the free Râ—asonable Creature neglecting the fatherly admonition and his due obedience Gen 2. turning from the mean to the extreame himselfe dispising his Creator He that seeks to himself that which is anothers unâ—voydably â—uâ—â— himseâ—fe into two â—nconveniences i. e. theft and robbery of himselfe and death The Fâ—â—l waâ— aâ—swering from Uâ—iâ—y to Alteâ—iâ—y learned by experience what his own proper Evill and Nothing was to his voluntary damage and perdition like a Thief and Robber And thus abusing the bounty of his most indulgent Father he made choise of death rather then of life and like Lucifer not content with his lot ambitiously desiring higher things he set himselfe in opposition against God at last by an unexpected change was cast out of the Garden of pleasures into this dolefull and darksome valley of Misery and Ignorance The first man was left in the hand of his own counsell Eccl. 15.14 and of his own accord turned from the strait path into the crooked way of Misery greedily desired the possession of good and evill to his own destruction as Herms and Moses sufficieâ—tly demonstrate God created man that the number and losse of the rebellious Angells might be made up in the kingdome of Heavâ—n Man the bond or buckle of the world the last wonderfull and honourable living creature was upon the sixt day after all other things drawn or taken è limo terrae out of the slime of the Earth or visible frame of the whole consisting of Heaven or Heavenly Sphaeres and the Earth viz. out of the most thin or pure substance of the whole frame of the world concentred into one body fashioned by the great Spacyrus into a bodily shape made to supply the place of the fallen Angells Man was formed of the most excellent Compound and purest Extract of the whole Word out of the Center of all Circles Therefore Nazianzen speaking of the workmanship of Man saith God made Man last that in him as in a short and briefe way he might set out or expresse all that before he had made at large viz. all the members or parts of the whole world As an Oration is made up of letters and sillables so the Microcosm or Limus Terrae Man is compacted of all bodies and created things The great God eternal and Creator of all things took the Quintessence out of all things created and thereof fashioned and composed Man as the Prince and End of all these and congratulated him as his Son holding or possessing the honourable place of the high Divinity on Earth In respect of the Body or corruptible Nature he bears the Image of the great sensible and temporall World In respect of his soul or immor-Nature he bears the Image of the Archetype or originall copy and patterne of the world that is of the immortall Wisdome of God himselfe So that all the properties of Animalls Vegetables and Mineralls entred into him and withalla living Soul inspired into him God is all things of himselfe Man is made all things of God and was therefore created last that by him the compleatnesse and perfection of all the Creatures might be signified Man is the tye bond knot joynt Psal 8. Thou hast put all things under his â—eer Paraceâ—s excepteth the Spirits and inhabitant of the â—â—ur Elements packet or bundle of all the Creatures All things created were disposed of to him and they respect and honour him as Gods steward set over the Orchard or Garden of this world God is the Center and Circle of all things that he brought out of himselfe for all the works of the Divine goodnesse are circular and perfect sphaerically wheeled about to him from
the way in the places of the paths at the entry of the city at the coming in of the doors with plaine words of righteousnesse without frowardnesse or perversnesse unto us men the Sons of men c. Doth not Christ Jesus stand all the day long in the broad way to stop and turne men from destruction calling and crying unto them Turn yee Turn yee why will yee die yee children of Adam but they with a stiffe neck like their Fathers doe alway resist the Holy Ghost Is any part of the Creation destitute of the glorious presence and power of Christ Psal 19.6 can any thing be hid from the heat and light of this Sun of Righteousnesse Rom. 10.18 Is there any place where the Evangelicall Trump hath not sounded why then doe we close our eyes and stop our eares against the glad tydings and ministry of our salvation What care and cost and charges are many men at to purchase their own vexation at how dear a rate doe they buy their misery who accumulate to themselves Teachers after their own lusts 2 Tim. 4.3 who yet after a multitude of Academicall expences are not able to guesse aright at earthly things Wisd 9.16 or find out that which is hard at hand With what care and industry then ought we to pursue the knowledge of things above which are more noble to be had at a cheaper price and because of a better guide with more ease and safety we need not ascend or descend or send to Athens for it the things that doe not appear are present in the things that are seen T is not incredulous or rediculous that a true Chymist so much now in derision should find light in darknesse darknesse in light bitter in sweet sweet in bitter good in evill evill in good body in spirit and spirits in bodies and by a Spagyrick extraction separate each to its proper use and end distinctly drawing out the great Mysteries of Godlinesse and Iniquity In the high way and open streets the common Roade concourse condition and conversation of men doth Wisdome stand and call to them Turn yee Turn ye why will ye die Christ the great Angell of God standeth as an Adversary like the Angell in the way of Balaam Num. 22.22 to withstand men in all their wayes of iniquity excesse and vanity the madnesse of the false Prophets in us is rebuked by the voyce of Man that Son of man speaking in the dumb Asse of insensible and irrationall creatures Pet. 2.16 Thus the Wisdome of God standeth in the drunkard 's way to turn him from wine Eph. 5.18 wherein is excesse that he may be filled with the Spirit It would have the Covetous man to covet earnestly the best things 1 Cor. 12.31 it perswades the lascivious wanton to abandon his uncleanesse and entertaine the modest kisses and chast embraces of the celestiall Bridegroom Cant. 1.2.16 2.6 it bids the Thiefe steal no more Ephes 4.28 nor consent to thievery Psal 50.18 but labour with his hands the things that are honest Rev. 16.15 watching for the coming of that good thiefe it forbids the Tyrant the hypocriticall ambitious perjur'd self-seeking Tyrant to oppresse and do mischiefe Psal 52.1 but rather to take the Kingdome of Heaven by force and violence Mat. 11.12 it exhorts the treacherous undermining by-ended souldier to put no man in fear Luke 3.14 nor accuse any man falsly not to make the pretence of Religion or Civill Right a stalking horse to proud and imperious designes and ends but to fight the good fight of Faith 1 Tim. 6.12 Jude 3. 2 Cor. 10.4 and earnestly contend for it not with carnall weapons but spirituall It stands in all the Creation to poynt out the Creator Mal. 4.2 in the Sun to shew us the true Light in the springing Fountains Psal 36.9 to tell us of the Well of Life in the Rocks to shew us our refuge in the trees of the field Psal 18.2 Isa 26.4 Ps 92.12 13. 1.3 to put us in mind of the planted of the Lord and the Tree of Paradise and of what the Crosse was made in the seasons of the year at Fall and Spring to preach the Death and Resurrection of Christ the mortification of our vile and quickning of our pure body in the Clouds and Raine to open to us the Mediatorship and Intercession of our blessed Lord who took upon him the dark nature of the earthy Adam John 1.14 Col. 1.19 2.9 which dark cloud the likenesse of sinfull flesh Rom. 8.3 was full of grace and truth the fulnesse of the Godhead when the Heavens are as iron and the earth as brasse Lev. 26.19 when wrath is over us and judgement under us when we see nothing but vengeance and indignation above or below Gen. 9.12 13. then this faederall Cloud elevated to the middle aire John 3.14 12.32 as the true Mediator between God and man 1 Tim. 2.5 doth rend the vaile of his flesh Mat. 27.51 Heb. 10.20 and showreth down the Gracious raine and heavenly dew of Divine love through the eternall Spirit upon the parched soul to cool and quench the fierce anger of the Almighty Nubes est vapor humidus crassus à Sole ad medium acrum elevatus c. Arist 1 Met. c. 9. and cause the heart to bud forth and grow in the grace faith knowledge love and obedience of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ reconciling all things in Heaven and Earth throughout the Passion of his Crosse Col. 1.20 Thus every part of the Creation doth its part to publish the great mysteries of mans Salvation Rom. 1.20 else how should the Gentiles be left without excuse Let all the Works of God praise him in all places of his Dominion Psal 103.22 145.10 O earth earth earth hear the word of the Lord. Isa 28.22 Be not mockers least your bonds be made strong blesse magnifie extoll and praise the Lord in all the works of his hands Enter into his Gates with thanksgiving Psal 100.4 into his Courts with praise be thankefull unto him blesse his Name Psal 92.13 flourish ye in the Courts of the House of our God Let your knowledge love obedience and thanksgiving spring forth and increase abundantly by these outward and visible things Rom. 1.21 Rev. 11.2 which the unbelieving Gentiles like bruite beasts tread and trample under their feet set God alway before yee preserve the faith of his Omnipresence so shall yee never be moved Psal 16.8 draw something of him out of every thing which he hath made O rare Art that can rarifie the condense and mixt bodies of earthly things into a sublimate Purity of Divine knowledge and use Heretofore when Kings Princes and Potentates studyed their neighbours Good more then their own Greatness the Hermetick Philosophy was more Venerable and he that listed himselfe a
whom they proceeded He is the Centre in that all things flow from him and because the Essence of all things pierceth also through all things God the Centre and Circle of all things He is the Circle because like an all-capacious Tabernacle he concludeth and comprehendeth all things Within God are all things and at the worlds end nothing shall be without him either of what was before or what hath been since the Creation what was either before it was brought forth or since it was brought forth So is Man Thus Man in imitation of his Creator is the Centre of the Creatures and the Circle of them all It was Gods pleasure that all things which he made should honour him by Man For all things in the world doe not onely look to him as their Guide and Governour for whom also they were all created but likewise on him all the Sphaeres bestow their beams operations reflections and influences and on him all the Creatures poure their vertues and effects as upon a middle Point and Retinacle or that by which they are stayed and supported As the Earth is a Receptive body of all seeds so also is Man Man is said to be the Circle in that he containeth all things in himselfe and with himselfe leadeth back all things that gushed out of that Summum Bonum or chiefest good unto the fountaine of Eternity from which they did originally spring and flow The world was the first figure or image of God Man is the image of the World the Animall or living creature is the image of Man the Zoophite or sensible hearb is the image of the Animall the Plant is the image of the Zoophite Mettalls are the image of the Plant stones represent the likenesse and images of Mettalls The great world is in every thing one with the little world as the child with its parent the prudent Ancients wilsely called Man a Microcosm or little World which few now a dayes understand that the great visible World was made Man As the great world is bipartite consisting of two parts visible and invisible so also the little world man is twofold visible in respect of his Body invisible in respect of his Spirit There are two Spirits in Man The first Spirit is from the Limbus or greater world the second from the word Fiat one a syderiall Spirit from the Firmament the other from the breath of life which is the Intellectuall Soul inspired from God and the mouth of the most High Man hath three parts a mortall Body with a Syderiall Spirit and an immortall Soule which is the cottage of the Image of God or of the holy Spirit in Man There is a two fâ—ld wisdom in Man Angelicall according to which he is to live and Animall which is not to be regarded Regeneration overcometh a bad birth If a man live sensually by his own proper and proud Will according to flesh and blood onely he is but a Brute or Beast and is known whether according to those Epithites in Scripture he be a Dog Fox Wolfe Sheep Sow or generation of Vipers of which I shall discourse more at large in my Treatise of Signatures and therefore shall forbear to speak more thereof at this time If he live Rationally then he is a Man The invisible or immortall body of Man from the breath of God is not subject to Stars or Astronomers and hath dominion over the living Creatures in his body But if he live according to the God-like Spirit upon the Tree of Life observing the property of the Image of God if I say he live according to the Talent and Treasure laid up in his Earthen Vessell and committed to him then hath he dominion over the Stars and all things else Man comprehends and carryeth all things about in himselfe whereof he is made that beareth he in himselfe He was made of the world he beareth the world about in him and is borne of the world Againe as the first matter which was a kind of ineffigiate confused Essence which Phylosophers call the Chaos and Hylen or Mother of the world was the seed of the great world so the great world is the seed of Adam or Man As the world was hid in the invisible Waters upon the Abysse or great deep Water is the Matrix of the world upon which the Spirit of God moved Gen. 1. The Earth plung'd or swam up out of the Water 2 Pet. 3.5 so Man Adam lay hid in the world The first matter was made a world and the great World was made Man As a Tree groweth from the seed the seed is the beginning of the Tree and the seed also is the end of the Tree for in every graine or seed of the Tree there lies hid another Tree So the First Matter which Paracelsus calleth the Limbus whose Earth was the WORD of the Lord was the seed of all things that were to be created As a Câ—rver and Potter out of word and clay can make a hundred severall shapes at pleasure so God extracted every creature out of the first matter and Man was the last of all as the perfect seed which againe is able out of himselfe to beget another Man like himself And though Man be not a seed as other seed is yet hath he power to cast seed out of himselfe whereby is begotten another Man like himselfe As Adam or Man carryeth the world and every creature in himselfe and is preserved by the world so every one that is borne of him bears about him that which he did viz. the whole world and is born and preserved by it as Adam was Man isâ— that Earth or field which hath all seeds in it self As the Son is not lesser then his Father so Man is not lesser then the World all men are but one man of flesh blood and spirit Therefore the knowledge of Man is to be taken from both Lights as the Son cannot be known from himselfe alone but from his Father Man hath two Fathers an Eternall whose Image he beareth and a Mortall one which is the whole world with all the creatures that is that Limus Terrae that slime of the earth or hidden Secret thing None can know the image unlesse he first know him whose image he is Hermes calleth Man an earthly God Gen. 2.7 and the most precious Esse or Being of all creatures which all Phylosophers Physitians Astronomers and Divines are to consider and diligently inquire into In the lesser world Man there is no member or part that doth not answer to some Element some Planet some Intelligence or other and to some measure and number in the Archetype or first pattern Man hath a visible body from the Elements as a fit garment and sutable cottage for the Soul From the Heaven or Firmament he hath an invisible Syderiall The perfection and dignity of Man Aetheriall and Astrall Body or chariot and vehicle of the Soule wherein the
Intellectuall Soul and earthy Body like two Extreams are knit glued and confederate together and in this third mean which partaketh of the other two they are coupled and united into one intire man Thus God and Man cannot be united but by a Mean even our Saviour who partaketh of two Natures the Caelestiall and Terrestriall the Divine Humane Paracelsus saith that the soul or breâ—tâ— of life is infused by God into the Elementary body through the Astra's as a Medium Through this Medium this middle Aetheriall little body the Intellectuall Soule by the command of God who is the Centre of the great world and by the imploying of his Intelligences or Spirits to that end is first poured and descendeth into the middle poynt of the Heart which is the Centre of the little world and from thence is spread into all the parts and members of his body as soon as it joyneth its vehicle to the naturall heat by which heat it joyneth to the Spirit begotten from the heart by the spirit it drencheth it selfe into the blood by the blood it cleaveth to all the members to all which it hath an equall nearnesse And because the said Aethereall body participateth of Heaven therefore it holds and keeps the same course with that of the Firmament whose operations it draweth to it selfe by a peculiar magnetick vertue just as the visible body doth the efficacy of the Elements and so remaineth one thing with the visible and invisible world John 10.30 as the Son with his Father as rednesse with wine as whitenesse with Snow The whole Firmament is in us with the Planets and Stars As heat pierceth an Iron Furnace and as the Sun doth glasse so doth the Stars with all their properties pierce into Man so that of the syderiall spirit of the Firmament we may learn all Naturall things The MIND Man hath an Intellectuall and immortal Soul Zach. 12.1 Gen. 2.7 Es 42.5 Wisd 2.23 or Spirit by the inbreathing of God created with the four foresaid inhabitants of the Elements which the bruit beasts have not after the Image of God and the Divine Triunity with the similitude also of Unity 1 John 2.27 Chap. 4.14 Acts 17.28 that so in all things he might be one with his Heavenly Father who is in us by his Spirit from which we learn sacred Divinity and all heavenly and earthly secrets without errour yea in him we are and live and are moved As God is One in Essence Trine or Three in persons so Man is One in Person Trine or Three in distinct Essence that is composed Triune of a Terrene Body an Aethereall Spirit of the Heavens and a living vivifying Soule which God breathed into him and is the house of God This the holy Scripture witnesseth Luke 1.47 1 Thes 5.23 Gen. 2.7 See the Amphiâ—halce of Rhunrad worthy of perpetuall memory Paul the greatest Phylosopher and Divine shewes three parts of Man Spirit Soule and Body There are two Souls or two Spirits in Man Mortall from the first matter which is the life of the body and Immortall from God The Spirit is the Life of the Soule the Spirit and Soule are the life of the body John 14. even the wonderfull Agreement between the Creator and the Creature in whom the great Creator would shew himselfe to be Unitrine or Triune One in Three or Three in One As also the unanimous consent of all that truly professed Phylosophy from the Light of Nature If happily there should be any that deny these three parts yet they must acknowledge that Man was created è Limo Terrae out of the clay or dust of the Earth by the word FIAT and that he received an eternall Spirit or breath of life from the mouth of God which is that Linum Caelorum or slime of the Heavens from the Lord. The Limus Terrae or dust of the Earth is two-fold visible and invisible He hath his Body or cottage from the Earth and Water but the life that dwells therein is from the Aire and Firmament of Fire which life is the Syderiall Spirit and is properly the Man not flesh and blood As the Syderiall Spirit is the life of the Body so the Spirit of the Lord is the life of the Intellectuall Soule And as the Sydereall Spirit dwells in the Body and works therein day and night for this invisible is himselfe the Firmament God created Man to be his Tabernacle as well in this as in the world to come and hath all things in him so the Spirit of the Lord the WORD of God the eternall man dwells in the Soule the house is the habitation of the Soule the Soule is the habitation and cottage of God Therefore when Man the most perfect compleatnèsse of all Gods works the most compleat figure of the world and expresse image of God in whom he rested from creating as having nothing before him more honorable to be created all the wisdome and power of the Creator being shut up and perfected in him as the supream artifice in that he containeth all things in himself that are in God when I say he was on the sixt day made up of all things the last of the Creatures and image not onely of the eternall God but also of the great world because with it he comprehendeth and containeth all things in himselfe it followeth that there are three worlds or Heavens in Man and that he is born about of three Worlds or rather is all the world and a most sure and undoubted Pattern of the whole Universe Exemplumque Dei quisque est in imagine parvâ Manilus That which is Naturated savoureth of the Nature of that which did Naturate it God dwelleth in the Soul as in the Heaven of Man And therefore some have called him the Fourth World in whom are found all those things that are in the other three for which cause also he may be called by the name of every Creature He hath a Spirit or Mind from God for what else is the Spirit of Man which God breathed into him but God himselfe dwelling in us The invisible Body or true Internall Man consisting of Reason and an Astrall Spirit agreeth with the Angells and is their fellow And if he be a true Magician he is not inferiour to the Angells in all Magicall operation and is Lord and Possessor of all things His mortall Phisicall Body he hath from the frame of the world and all things created therein for all Externall things are nothing else but the Body of Man So that he partaketh of a threefold world of the Archetype or God-like world in God of the Intellible or Angellicall of the sensible Elementall or corporall world and hath a symbolicall operation and conversation with them all The Mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the chaâ—ret driver or Stern-man of the Soul or Rationall Spirit like the eternall God concludeth all Beings Times and Places 1. He communicateth with
with the Firmament of the Astra's as hath been often said like rednesse with wine whitenesse with snow or the lustre of the Sun with the Aire The other part therefore of Man or this sydereall body is called the Genius of man because it proceedeth from the Firmament it is called Penates because it is in our power and born with us the shadow of the visible body Lar domesticus the good or bad houshould or private Angell the Umbratile or shadowy Man the familiar Homuncle or little Man of the Sophies or wise men the Daemon or Genius of Man Paracelsus his internall Adech i. e. that which first inwardly formeth in our mind what we afterward outwardly fashion with our hands the Spectrum ghost or fantasie the Light of Nature the presaging or Propheticall Euestrum that foretelleth any thing by signes in Man It is also called ahe imagination which incloseth all the Astra's and is indeed all the Astra's or Starrs and holdeth the same course Nature and power with heaven Now the Astra's or Stars by which I do not meane the seaven visible coales of Heaven which are but the bodyes of the Astra's but I meane the invisible and insensible body of all things or Astrall Spirit they are nothing else but the verue or powers of the Angells The Angells which live only upon the vision of God are the created wisdome of God Hence it is that he that knowes God he knows the Astra's also He that knowes the Astra's cannot but knowe the world and consequently man the off-spring of the world The eating of the apple produceth this body the sydereall seed into force vigour Astrum Vulcanus and Archaeus are the same thing but one Spirit yet without Reason divers as are the divers formes of severall things The Astra's form bring forth all bodily things out of themselves and multiply themselves together with those bodily things that are brought forth the seeds of any graine or Wheat is the Astrum viz. the invisible body which being cast into the Earth it produceth a visible body and begetteth many other Astra's out of it selfe So is it in other growing and living things But the Astrum is nothing else but the insensible invisible body or living Spirit yet without Reason in things that grow but with reason in living things as in man and is divers according to the forme of divers things Bodyes are nothing else but the Excrement of the Astra's which are brought forth into a bodily Being by their operation This every Astrum can doe of it selfe as by imagination to bring forth of it selfe another Astrum in a body forming it by operation There is no body without an Astrum The Astralick Spirit is every growing thing standeth in need of a corporeall habitation The inner Man is Heaven it selfe or all the Astras Read in Picus how Trimethius put upon himselfe the various Evestra's of the three-fold world one after another transformed himselfe into several shapes and thus by reall Magick he shewed to that great Picus the hidden virtue or power of Man who was created after the image of God We are transformed into that which we most intently gaze and meditate upon The understanding of Man is assimulated to all things The impression of the Imagination from fear terrour griefe is the â—ife of sicknesse and death The Astra's send the plague into us through our skin as the Sun doth his beams thhrough the glasse as there is no Astrum without a visible body And whereas the imagination of Man is not one but all the Astra's it is as true that it produceth not onely one but many operations and although the Imagination be incorporeall and invisible yet being joyned to a heightned the Gate of Wonders the spring and originall of all Magicall operations and hath power to beget and bring forth visible bodies without detriment or diminution of the Astrall and sydereall Spirit and can work any wonderfull operations whatsoever present or absent above the reach of humane Reason The Light of Nature makes bodily things visible but Eternall things are to be seen onely by Faith The child in the mothers womb is strangely marked by the impression of the imagination without any bodily touch What we doe visiby by the body that doe we by Faith after the manner of Spirits Thus the Imagination breedeth the Plague and such like Firmamentall diseases it brings sicknesse and health The Pestilence which comes by fear trouble and terrour riseth by the imagination of the Spirit of the lesser world or of the Sydereall and Animall Spirit which is the mechanick Astrall Spirit in Man as we see in women with childe who give marks and tokens to the young in their womb by the same sydereall Spirit This sydereall Spirit which is born of the Astra's together with Man and therefore remains united to the Astra's is the Load stone and hath a magnetick nature in man As the Earthy Load stone in its body is a spirit and draweth to it selfe so also the body and spirit in Man doe draw unto him by a visible body this is the Load stone of the Microcosm The sydereall body and spirit attract unto them the force of the Astra's as we see in those that are Lunatick in whom the agreement properties and affinities of such magnetick vertues with the Spirit and sydereall body of Man hath with the Astra's are made manifest This fourth kind of Naturall Magick called Gamahaea doth all things invisibly and spiritually by the help of Art which Nature is able to doe visibly and corporally without such help The House is as it were dead but the Inhabitant to wit the Spirit of perpetuall motion of invisible Nature or the magnetick spark of the Soule of the world liveth and worketh effectually All Animall wisdome Wisdome is the begâ—nning of Inchantment the Astra's do those things which Humane wisdom desireth In respect of the Elementatary body it is a Spirit and performeth all spirituall operations Heaven knoweth all things most certainly all actions and events of Men are pictured in the Astra's every living Creature hath its Ascendant signe in Heaven so hath also the Brutâ—sh Man Every Body is proceeded of an invisible incomprehensible subsisting Spirit The 〈◊〉 is a three fold NIHIL or Nothing a Divine Privative and Negative NOTHING the Oâ—gan of the Lâ—ght of Nature or of the Astra's The whole Heaven is nothing else but the Imagination It breedeth the Plague and and Fevers in Mâ—n any bodily instrument workmanship Arts Sciences and the knowledge of all things lie hid in the Astra's of the Firmament There is nothing so hidden in the world which is not praefigured in the Astra's yea all the Astra's of the Firmament which are the Tincture of the speculation of our mind can of their own in-bred or naturall force by imagining produce bodily and visible things out of that which doth not appear as in a clear Heaven a great cloud suddenly
and it is madnesse to affirme more TEXT 17. What Predestâ—nation is When all creatures thus returne their predestinations then there will be a mystery Predestinanion is the last matter which will be without an Element and without a present essenceâ— but the things that shall then abide will be more temperate and uncorrupt This must not be understood of the spirit but of nature with this evidence that something eternall cometh in the room of that which is mortall Things mortall leave behind them that which is immortall For if insensible plant perish its place is supplyed by that which is eternal Nor is there any one frail or mortall thing in all the world which doth not substitute something that is eternall in its place Nothing is empty or vaine no corruptible thing was created without a succession of that which is eternall When all creatures come to an end then those things that are eternall shall meet and come together not only as nourishments but rather to the office or chiefe rule of nature both in the mortall and eternall Thus the eternall is a sign or token of the dissolution of nature and not the beginning or principle of things created it is in all things which no nature is destitute of And though the Fatalls also as the Melosines and Nymphs shall leave the eternall behind them yet wee shall say nothing of their corruptions at this time There is a fourfold putrefaction of the creatures As there are four worlds so we must know that there is a manifold putrefaction There is an earthy there is an airy there is a fiery and a watry putrefaction Every thing and what was created with it together with the eternall that remaineth is brought and turned to destruction Yet those four putrefactions shall bring back their eternall into one similitude with renown and glory not with its works but with its essence A solitary habitation is a kind of eternity but abounding in many seperations or distinctions TEXT 18. We are come now to speak of the EVESTRUM What the Ever is which according to its essence is either mortall or immortall The Evester is a thing like a shadow on the wall The shadow riseth and waxeth greater as the body doth and continueth with it even unto its last matter The Evestrum takes its beginging at the first generation of every Things animate and inanimate sensible and insensible and whatsoever casteth a shadow all of them have their Evester TRARAMES is the shadow of an invisible essence Trarames is the Evester of invisible things It springeth up with the reason and imagination of intelligent and bruite creatures To discourse rightly or Philosophically of the Evestrum and Trarames requireth the highest wisdome The Evester maketh to Prophesie Trarames giveth sharpnesse of wit To fore-tell what shall befall a man beast tree c. is by the shadowy Evester but the reason why it should be so is from the Trarame The difference of Evesters Some Evesters have a beginning some have not Such as have a beginning may be dissolved with the surviving eternall That which is without beginning hath power in the understanding to whet or provoke that which hath a begining towards the Traramium The mortall Evester knoweth the eternall This knowledge is the mother of a Prophet The ground of every understanding is extracted and cull'd out of the Evester as it were by the light of nature A Prophet therefore doth Evestrate that is he doth Prophesie from the Evester But if a spirit Prophesie it doth so without the light of nature And therefore may deceive us being full of guile doubtful as well as prove certain and true Thus Trarames also would be divided in the shadow of reason TEXT 19. Again when all things shall be dissolv'd then Evester and Trarames too shall come to an end yet not without some reliques of eternity The Evester is no otherwise but as it were the eternal of the firmament in the four worlds The Firmament is fourfold There is a fourfold Firmament divided into four perfect essences according to the four worlds every world perfectly respecting its own creature being just such another thing as it selfe is one creature out of the firmament in the earth one in the water aire fire The firmament that is in the Evester is dispersed those be not Stars which we see they are the firmaments of the Nymphs which are not Stars nor have any use of Stars but have their peculiar and proper firmament as the Fates they have a fiery one every one hath an heaven earth mansion habitation firmament Stars Planets and other such like which are not in the least one like anonother As water and fire substance and that which cannot be felt visible and invisible are to each other so are those things In these the Evester is divided in the fatalls and its shadow stayeth behind the essence after the dissolution and the Evester when the fire is out cleaveth to the fiery man as another to the watry A great number of Evesters and so to the earthy This Evester is that which deceiveth and maketh the world mad cunningly covering it selfe from one world to another shewing visions flashes signes forms and shapes Hence ariseth the Evester of comets the Evester of impressions the Evester of miracles The Evester Prophesieth and shadoweth But these three Evesters are Prophesying Evesters or shady Everters The high and noble mind is with the Prophetick and Umbratick Evesters TEXT 20. The Prophetick Evester is first necessary to be known For the great Turban What the great Turban is which presageth all things that are in the four worlds is of the same kind of essence Whatsoever shall fall out monstrously or happen contrary to nature or contrary to life and common expectation is known by the Prophetick Evester which overshadoweth it selfe and is taken out of the great Turban A Prophet must of necessity know the great Turban It is united to reason and hard to be found out The excellency and height of it But t is possible for man to know the great turban even to its utmost resolution From this it was that all the Prophets spake For in it are all the signes of the world Out of it are all Evesters begotten by it the comets those prodigious Stars which are besides the usuall course of heaven are shadowed All impressions have their originall from the Turban not from the Firmament or Stars When any strange and uncouth thing is at hand there are fore-runners and harbingers sent forth by whom the evill that shall befall a people is presag'd to them And those presagings are not from nature but from the Propheticall Evester All pestilences all wars all seditions have their presages from the turban He that knoweth the Evester is a Prophet and can tell things to come The most high over all doth not discourse with mortalls nor doth he
send his Angells to them from his throne and dwelling place to declare such things but those things are fore-known and understood from the great Turban The great Turban worshipped as God which many Pagans and Jewes darkened in the true sence and understanding have worshipped as a God TEXT 21. What the Umbrate Evester signifieth Sith that the shadowed Evester beginneth and springeth up with every creature we must know that the fortune and life of that thing where the Evester is may be prognosticated by it For example When a child is born at the same time the Evester is born with him continually manifest in him that it presageth from the cradle to the very hour of death and can shew what will become of that infant So when one is ready to die death seizeth not on him till the Evester hath first past sentence either by blow bruise or fall or some such other kind of example by which if a man perceive the Evester he may see a signe of his approaching death The Evester is united to the eternall The Evester abideth in the world after death For a mans Evester remaineth in the earth after his death and hinteth in its kind whether the man be in blisse or misery Nor ought we to say that it is the spirit or soul of a man as simple people speak or that it is the dead man that walketh But it is the dead mans Evester which departeth not hence till the last minute when all things shall come together This Evester worketh strange things The Saints wrought miracles by their Evester Holy men wrought miracles by their Evester onely As the Sun by his shining gives forth his heat nature and essence so is it with the divining and Propheticall Evesters in us to which we should give credit These rule and moderate sleep fond dreams prefigurations of things to come the natures of things reason concupiscences and thoughts TEXT 22. Whereas things to come may thus be known before in the Elements by that wherein the Evesters dwell some Evesters will be in the water some in looking glasses some in crystalls some in polished muskles some will be known by the commotions of waters some by songs and by the mind For all these can as I speak Evestrate The mysterious Evester of God The most great and blessed God hath a mysteriall Evester in which his essence and property is beheld Every good and every inlightned thing is known by the mysterious Evester On the contrary What the Evester of the damned is the damned hath his Evester in the world by which the evill is known and all whatsoever violateth and breaketh the law of nature Although those two may Evestrate yet doe they nothing belong to our life For we shall not know our selves but by our own Evester All creatures have Evesters Every thing hath an Evester all which likewise are Prophets either reasonable or unreasonable sensible or insensible The Evester is a spirit What an Evester is which teacheth Astronomy Not that it is learned by nativities and prognostications from the Stars but its esse as I may so say is from the Evesters its Ens or being is in these as an image in a glass or as á shade in water or the earth As growing things are increased and diminished just so it is with the Stars Not that their course is such of their own nature and that moyst and cold rise out of the earth but onely because the essence of the earth is such It is shadowed in heaven but by parts yet as an Evester but not as a power TEXT 23. Such kind of Evesters also will be corrupted yet shall they not perish without something eternall Nor shall the Evesters themselves be so much regarded for they shall fully and wholly dwell with or in those things to whom they belong Hence let every man now advise with himselfe that above all things he admonish and learn to know himselfe The infinite number of Evesters The nature and number of the Evesters is infinite These lead men about in their sleep fore-shew good and evill search out the thoughts perform work and do business without bodily motion So wonderfull a thing is the Evester A commendation of the Evester the mother of all things in the Prophets Astronomers and Physitians If the understanding come not from the Evester there can be no knowledge of nature As theft poynteth to the gallowes and the clouds to rain and urine to the disease so the Evester sheweth all things without exception The Sibylls and Prophets spake by the Evester From it the Sybills and Prophets spake but as it were drowsily and dreamingly After this manner are the Evesters in the four worlds one being alwayes a presage to another communicateth an image and a miracle which by there disolution and regeneration will be much more to be admired Nor shall we forbeare to say that the Evester is an Eternall relict the support of religions and the operation of the Celestialls Nothing but felicity blessednesse the cheifest good and the last judgment move and stir us up to seek and search more narrowly and exactly after the difference between those two things or Evesters that is between the true and false which is to be considered and known not spiritually but naturally THE Third Book TEXT 1. Nothing is without a body EVery thing that hath a Being must nf necessity have a body The manner and reason thereof is that we may know it is like a smoakie spirit that hath neither substance nor bodie nor can be felt And though it be neither of these yet both bodyes and substances may proceed out of it Thus may we conceive of fuming Arsnicke that after the generation of a body there is no more of the fume of the spirit to be seen no more then if all were turned into a body Which yet is not so for it still remaineth most subtle in that place of generation And so both the visible invisible are brought forth together by seperation After this way and manner all things are propagated How al things are imbodied Wood hath still a surviving spirit from which it is seperated So have stones and all things else none excepted For their Essence still remaineth just as it was seperated from them What man is how made Man likewise is nothing but a relique and the remainder of smoak seperated But yet note that he was a kind of spirit before Of this drosse was man made and is a thing most subtill in spirit Yea he is that very spirit that is A twofold eternall a discovery or sign of a twofold Eternall one of Caleruthum the other of Meritorium Caleruthum what it is Caleruth is a note or discovery in the first Eternall This seeketh or desireth the other that is God The cause therof is naturall Like