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
Tympanie of Termes It is better then a Fight in Quixot to observe what Duels and Digladiations they have about Him one will make him speak Sense another Non-sense and a third both Aquinas palps him gently Scotus makes him winch and he is taught like an Ape to shew severall tricks If we look on his adversaries the least amongst them hath foyld him but Telesius knock'd him in the head and Campanella hath quite discomposed him But as that bald haunter of the circus had his scull so steel'd with use it shiver'd all the tyles were thrown at it so this Aristotle thrives by scuffles and the world cryes him up when trueth cryes him down The Peripatetickes look on God as they do on Carpenters who build with stone and Timber without any infusion of life But the world which is Gods building is full of Spirit quick and living This Spirit is the cause of multiplication of severall perpetuall productions of minerals vegetables and creatures ingendred by putrefaction All which are manifest infallible Arguments of life Besides the Texture of the universe clearly discovers its animation The arth which is the visible natural Basis of it represents the gross carnal parts The Element of Water answers to the Bloud for in it the pulse of the Great World beates this most men call the Flux and Reflux but they know not the true Cause of it The air is the outward refreshing Spirit where this vast creature breathes though invisibly yet not all together insensibly The Interstellar skies are his vital aethereall waters and the stars his animal sensuall fire Thou wilt tell me perhaps This is new Philosophy and that of Aristotle is old It is indeed but in the same sense as Religion is at Rome It is not the primitive Trueth of the Creation not the Ancient reall Theosophie of the Hebrews and Egyptians but a certain preternaturall upstart a Vomit of Aristotle which his followers with so much diligence lick up and swallow I present thee not here with any Clamorous opposition of their Patrone but a positive Expresse of principles as I finde them in Nature I may say of Them as Moses said of the Fiat These are the Generations of the Heavens and of the Earth in the Day that the Lord God made the Heavens and the Earth They are things extra Intellectum sensible practicall Trueths not meer Vagaries and Rambles of the Braine I would not have thee look on my Indeavours as a designe of Captivity Intend not the Conquest but the exercise of thy Reason not that thou shouldest swear Allegeance to my Dictats but compare my Conclusions with Nature and examine their Correspondency Be pleased to consider that Obstinacy inslaves the Soule and clips the wings which God gave her for flight and Discovery If thou wilt not quit thy Aristotle let not any prejudice hinder thy further search Great is their Number who perhaps had attain'd to perfection had they not already thought themselves perfect This is my Advice but how wellcome to Thee I know not If thou wilt kick and fling I shall say with the Cardinall Etiam Asinus meus recalcitrat for I value no Mans Censure It is an Age wherein truth is neer a Miscarriage and it is enough for me that I have appeared thus far for it in a Day of Necessity E. S. ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA WHEN I found out this Trueth That Man in his Originall was a Branch planted in God and that there was a continuall Influxe from the Stock to the Sion I was much troubl'd at his Corruptions and wonder'd his Fruits were not correspondent to his Roote But when I was told he had tasted of an other Tree my admiration was quickly off it being my chiefe care to reduce him to his first Simplicitie and separate his Mixtures of Good and Evill But his Fall had so bruised him in his best part that his Soule had no knowledge left to study him a Cure his Punishment presently followed his Trespasse Velata sunt omnia intravitq oblivio mater ignorantiae This Lethe remained not in his body but passing together with his Nature made his Posterity her Channell Imperfection 's an easy inheritance but Vertue seldome finds any Heires Man had at the first and so have all Souls before their Intrance into the body an Explicite methodicall knowledge but they are no sooner Vessel'd but that Liberty is lost and nothing remaines but a Vast confused Notion of the Creature Thus had I only left a Capacity without Power and a Will to doe that which was far enough above me In this perplexity I studied severall Arts and ramel'd over all those Inventions which the folly of man call'd Sciences But these endeavours sorting not to my purpose I quitted this Booke-businesse and thought it a better course to study Nature then Opinion Hereupon I considered with my selfe that man was not the Primitive immediate worke of God but the World out of which he was made And to regulate my studies in point of Methode I judg'd it convenient to examine his Principles first and not him But the World in generall being too large for Inquisition I resolv'd to take Part for the Whole and to give a guesse at the Frame by Proportion To perfect this my Essay I tooke to task the Fruits of one Spring Here I observed a great many Vegetables fresh and beautious in their Time but when I looked back on their Original they were no such things as Vegetables This Observation I apply'd to the World and gained by it this Inference That the World in the beginning was no such thing as it is but some other seed or matter out of which that Fabrick which I now behold did arise But resting not here I drove my Conclusion further I conceav'd those seeds whereof Vegetables did spring must be something else at first then Seeds as having some praeexistent matter wherof they were made but what that matter should be I could not guesse Here was I forc'd to leave off Speculation and come up to Experience Whiles I sought the World I went beyond it and I was now in Quest of a Substance which without Art I could not see Nature wrapps this most strangly in her very bosome neither doth she expose it to any thing but her own Vitall Caelestiall Breath But in respect that God Almighty is the onely proper immediate Agent which actuates this matter as well in the work of Generation as formerly in his Creation it will not be amisse to speak something of Him that we may know the Cause by his Creatures and the Creatures by their Cause My God my Life whose Essence man Is no way fit to Know or Scan But should aproach thy Court a Guest In Thoughts more low then his Request When I consider how I stray Methinks 't is Pride in mee to Pray How dare I speake to Heaven nor feare In all my Sinns to court thy Eare But as I looke on Moles that Lurke
the parts of nature in a firm invincible union This is Cribrum Naturae as one wittily calls it a thing appointed for most secret and mysterious offices but we shall speake further of it when we come to handle the Elements particularly Nothing now remained but the Two inferior principles as we commonly cal them Earth and water The Earth was an impure Sulphureous subsidence or Caput mortuum of the Creation The water also was Phlegmatick crude and raco not so vitall as the former Extractions But the Divine Spirit to make his work perfect moving also upon These imparted to them Life and Heate and made them fit for future Productions The Earth was so overcast and Mantl'd with the Water that no part thereof was to be seen But that it might be the more immediatly exposed to the Coelestiall Influences which are the Cause of Vegetation the Spirit orders a Retreat of the Waters breaks up for them his decreed place and sets them Bars and Doors The Light as yet was not confined but reteining his vast Flux and primitive liberty equally possest the whole Creature On the Fourth Day it was collected to a Sun and taught to know his Fountain The darknesse whence proceed the Corruptions and consequently the death of the Creature was imprisoned in the Centre but breaks out still when the Day gives it Leave and like a baffl'd Gyant thrusts his head out of doors in the Absence of his Adversary Thus Nature is a Lady whose face is beauteous but not without a Black-bag Howsoever when it shall please God more perfectly to refine his Creatures this Tincture shall be expelled quite beyond them and then it will be an Outward darknesse from which Good Lord deliver us Thus have I given you a Cursorie and short Expresse of the Creation in generall I shall now descend to a more particular Examination of Nature and especially her Inferior Elementall parts through which Man passeth daily and from which he cannot be separated I was about to desist in this place to prevent all future Acclamations for when a Peripatetick findes here but Three nay but two genuine Elements Earth and Water for the Air is something more will he not cry out I have committed Sacrilege against Nature and stole the fire from her Altar This is Noise indeed but till They take Coach in a Cloud and discover that Idol they prefer next to the Moon I am resolved to continue in my Heresie I am not onely of Opinion but I am sure there is no such principle in Nature The Fire which she useth is Horizon Corporeorum Incorporeorum Nexus utrinsque Mundi Sigillum Spiritus sancti It is no Chymaera Commentitious Quirck like that of the School-men I shall therefore Request my Friends the Peripateticks to return their fourth Element to Aristole that he may present it to Alexander the Great as the first part of a new world for there is no such Thing in the Old To proceed then The Earth as you were told before being the Subsidence or Remaines of that Primitive Masse which God formed out of Darknesse must needs be a faeculent impure Body for the Extractions which the Divine Spirit made were pure oleous aethereall substances but the Crude phlegmatick indigested humors settled like Lees towards the Centre The Earth is spungie porous and magneticall of Composition loose the better to take in the severall Influences of Heat Rains and Dewes for the Nurture and Conservation of her Products In her is the Principall Residence of that Matrix which attracts and receives the sperm from the Masculine part of the world she is Natures AEtna here Vulcan doth exercise himself not that limping Poeticall one which halted after his Fall but a pure Coelestiall plastick Fire we have Astonomy here under our feet the stars are resident with us and abundance of Jewels and Pantauras she is the Nurse and Receptacle of all Things for the Superior Natures ingulph themselves into her what she receives this Age she discovers to the next and like a faithfull Treasurer conceales no part of her Accounts Her proper Congeneall Quality is Cold I am now to speak of the Water This is the first Element we read of in Scripture the most Ancient of Principles and the Mother of all Things amongst visibles without the meditation of this the Earth can receive no blessing at all for Moysture is the proper Causâ— of Mixture and Fusion The water hath severall Complexions according to the severall parts of the Creature Here below and in the Circumference of all things it is volatil crude and raco For this very Cause Nature makes it no part of her provision but she rectifies it first exhaling it up with her Heat and then condensing it to Rains and Dews in which State she makes use of it for Nourishment Some where it is Interior vitall and Coelestiall exposed to the Breath of the first Agent and stirred with Spirituall aeternaell Windes In this Condition it is Natures Wanton Foemina Satacissima as One calls it This is that Psyche of Apuleius and the Fire of Nature is her Cupid He that hath seen Them both in the same Bed will confesse that love rules All But to speak something of our Common Elemental water It is not altogether Contemptible there are hidden Treasures in it but so inchanted we can not see them for all the Chest is transparent Spiritus Aquae Invisibilis congelatus melior est quam Terra Universa saith the noble and learned Sendivow I doe not advice the Reader to take this Phlegm to task as if he could Extract a Venus from the Sea but I wish him to study water that he may know the Fire I have now handled the Two Elements and more I cannot finde I know the Peripateticks pretend to four and with the help of their Masters Quintessence to a fift Principle I shall at leysure diminish their stock but the thing to be now spoken of is Air This is no Element but a Certain miraculous Hermaphrodit the Caement of two worlds and a Medley of Extremes It is natures Common Place her Index where you may finde all that ever she did or intends to do This is the worlds Panegrick The Excursions of both Globes meet here and I may call it the Rendezvouz In this are innumerable Magicall Forms of Men and Beasts Fish and Fowle Trees Herbs and all Creeping Things This is Mare Rerum invisibilium for all the Conceptions in sinu superioris Naturae wrap themselves in this Tiffany before they imbark in the shell It retaines the species of all Things whatsoever and is the Immediate Receptacle of Spirits after Dissolution whence they passe to a Superior Limbus I should amaze the Reader if I did relate the severall offices of this Body but it is the Magicians Backdoor and none but Friends come in at it I shall speak nothing more onely This I would have you know The Air is Corpus vitae spiritus
sence Sacramentall It is a visible signe of our invisible Vnion to Christ which S. Paul calls a Great mystery and if the thing signified be so Reverend the signature is no ex tempore contemptible Agend But of this elsewhere When God had thus finished his last and most excellent Creature he appointed his Residence in Eden made him his Vice-Roy and gave him a full jurisdiction over all his Works That as the whole man consisted of Body and Spirit so the Inferiour Earthly Creatures might be subject to the one and the superiour intellectuall Essences might minister to the other But this Royalty continued not long for presently upon his preferment there was a Faction in the Heavenly Court and the Angels scorning to attend this piece of Clay contrived how to supplant him The first in this plot was Lucifer Montanus tells me his name was Hilel He casts about to Nullifie that which God had Inacted that so at once he might overreach him and his Creature This Pollicy he imparts to some others of the Hierarchy and strengthens himself with Conspirators But there is no Counsel against God The mischief is no sooner hatched but he and his Confederates are expell'd from Light to Darknesse and thus Rebellion is as the sinne of Witchcraft a Witch is it Rebel in Physicks and a Rebell is a Witch in Polliticks The one acts against Nature the other against Order the Rule of it But both are in League with the divel as the first Father of discord and sorcerie Satan being thus ejected as the condition of Reprobates is became more hardned in his Resolutions and to bring his malice about arrives by permission at Eden Here he makes Woman his Instrument to tempt Man and overthrowes him by the same Meanes that God made for an help to him Adam having thus transgrest the Commandement was exposed to the Lash and in him his Posterity But here lyes the Knot How can we possibly learn his Disease if we know not the immediate Efficicent of it If I question our Divines what the Forbidden Fruit was I may be long enough without an answer Search all the School-men from Ramus to Peter Hispan and they have no Logick in the point What shall we do in this case To speak any thing contrary to the sling of Aristotle though perhaps we hit the mark is to expose our selves to the common Hue But in respect I prefer a private Trueth to a publick Errour I will proceed And now Reader Arrige Aures come on without prejudice and I will tell thee that which never hitherto hath been discovered That which I now write must needs appeare very strange and Incredible to the common man whose knowledg sticks in the Barke of Allegories and Mysticall speeches never apprehending that which is signified by them unto us This I say must needs sound strange with such as understand the Scriptures in the Litterall plaine sence considering not the scope and Intention of the Divine spirit by whom they were first penned and delivered Howsoever Origen being Vnus de multis and in the judgement of many wise men the most learned of the Fathers durst never trust himselfe in this point But alwaies in those Scriptures where his Reason could not satisfie concluded a Mystery Certainly if it be once granted as some stick not to affirm that the Tree of knowledge was a Vegetable and Eden a Garden it may be very well inferred that the tree of life being described in eodem Genere as the School-men expresse it was a Vegetable also But how derogatory this is to the power of God to the Merits and Passion of Jesus Christ whose Gift eternall life is let any indifferent Christian judge Here then we have a certain intrance into Paradise where we may search out this tree of knowledge and happily learn what it is For seeing it must be granted that by the tree if life is figured the Divine Spirit for it is the Spirit that quickeneth and shall one Day translate us from Corruption to Incorruption it will be no indiscreet Inference on the Contrary that by the tree of knowledge is signified some sensuall Nature repugnant to the Spirituall wherein our worldly sinfull Affections as lust anger and the rest have their seat and predominate I will now digresse a while but not much from the purpose whereby it may appear unto the Reader that the letter is no sufficient Expositor of Scripture and that there is a great deal of difference between the sound and the sense of the Text Dionysius the Areopagit in his Epistle to Titus gives him this Caveat Et hoc praeterea Operae pretium est cognoscere Duplicem esse Theologorum Traditionem Arcanam Alteram ac mysticam Alteram vero manifestaem notiorem And in his Book of the Eclesiasticall Hierarchie written to Timotheus he affirms that in the primitive Apostolicall times wherein he also lived the mysteries of Divinity were delivered partim scriptis partim non scriptis Institutionibus Some things he confesseth were written in the Theologicall Books and such are the Common Doctrinals of the Church now in which notwithstanding as Saint Peter saith there are many things hard to be understood Some things again Ex Animo in Animum medio quidem intercurrente verbo corporali sed quod Carnis penitus excederat sensum Sine literis transfusa sunt And certainly this Orall Tradition was the Cause that in the subsequent Ages of the Church all the mysteries of Divinity were lost Nay this very day there is not one amongst all our School-Doctors or late Ex-Temporaries that knows what is represented unto us by the outward Element of Water in Baptism True indeed They tell us it betokens the washing away of sin which we grant them but this is not the full signification for which it was ordained It hath been the Common errour of all times to mistake signum for signatum the shell for the Kernell yet to prevent this it was that Dionysius wrot his book of the Caelestiall Hierarchie and especially his Theologia significativa of which there is such frequent mention made in his works Verely our Saviour Himself who is blessed for evermore did sometimes speak in parables and commanded further that Pearles should not be cast forth unto swine for it is not given to all men to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven Supposing then as it is most true that amongst other mysticall speeches contained in Scripture this of the Garden of Eden and the Trees in it is one I shall proceede to the Exposition of it in some measure concealing the particulars notwithstanding Man in the beginning I mean the substantiall inward Man both in and after his Creation for some short time was a pure intellectual Essence free from all fleshly sensuall Affections In this state the Anima or sensitive Nature did not prevail over the spiritual as it doth now in us For the superior Mentall part of Man was
united to God per Contactum Essentialem and the Divine light being received in and conveyed to the inferiour portions of the Soul did mortifie all carnall desires insomuch that in Adam the sensitive Faculties were scarce at all imployed the spirituall prevailing over them in him as they do over the Spirituall now in us Hence we read in Scripture that during the state of Innocence he did not know that he was naked but no sooner eats he of the tree of knowledge but he saw his nakednesse and was ashamed of it Wherefore also he hides himself amongst the Trees of the Garden and when God calls to him he replies I heard thy voice in the Garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid my self But God knowing his former state answers him with a Question Who told thee that Thou wast naked Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee thou shouldest not eat Here we see a Twofold state of Man his first and best in the spiritual substantiall union of his Intellectuall parts to God and the Mortification of his aethereall sensitive Nature wherein the fleshly sinfull Affections had their Residence His second or his Fall in the eating of the forbidden fruit which did cast asleep his Intellectuall Faculties but did stir up and exalt the Sensuall For sayth the Serpent God doth know that in the Day you eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as Gods knowing Good and Evill And when the woman saw that the Tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise Shee took of the Fruit thereof and did eat and gave also unto her husband with her and he did eat And the Eyes of them both were opened and they knew that they were naked Thus we see the sensuall faculties revived in our first Parents and brought de potentia in actum as the School-men speak by vertue of this forbidden Fruit Neither did this Eating suppresse the Intellectuall powers in Adam onely but in all his Generations after him for the Influence of this Fruit past together with his Nature into his posterity We are all born like Moses with a Veil over the Face This is it which hinders the prospect of that Intellectuall shining Light which God hath placed in us And to tell you a Trueth that concernes all Mankinde the greatest Mystery both in Divinity and Philosophie is How to remove it It will not be amisse to speake something in this place of the Nature and Constitution of Man to make that more plaine which already hath been spoken As the great World consists of Three parts the Elementall the Coelestiall and the Spirituall above all which God himselfe is seated in that Infinite inaccessible Light which streames from his own Nature Even so man hath in him his Earthly Elemental parts together with the Coelestiall Angelical natures in the Center of all which moves and shines the Divine Spirit The sensuall Coelestiall aethereall part of Man is that whereby we do move see feel taste and smell and have a Commerce with all materiall Objects whatsoever It is the same in us as in Beasts and it is derived from Heaven where it is predominant to all the inferiour Earthly Creatures In plain Terms it is part of Anima Mundi commonly called Anima media because the Influences of the Divine Nature are conveyed thorough it to the more material parts of the Creature with which of themselves they have no proportion By meanes of this Anima Media or the aethereal Nature Man is made subject to the Influence of Stars and is partly dispos'd of by the Coelestial harmony For this middle spirit middle I mean between both Extreames and not that which actually unites the whole together aswell that which is in the outward Heaven as that which is in Man is of a fruitfull insinuating nature and carried with a strong desire to multiply it self so that the Coelestiall Form stirs up and excites the Elementall For this Spirit is in Man in Beasts in Vegetables in Minerals and in every thing it is the mediate Cause of Composition and Multiplication Neither should any wonder that I affirm this spirit to be in Minerals because the Operations of it are not discerned there For shall we conclude therefore that there is no inward Agent that actuats and specifies those passive indefinite Principles whereof they are Compounded Tell me not now of blind Peripateticall Formes and Qualities A Form is that which Aristotle could not define substantially nor any of his followers after Him and therefore they are not competent Judges of it But I beseech you are not the faculties of this Spirit supprest in Man also when the Organs are Corrupted as it appeareth in those that are blind But notwithstanding the Eye onely is destroyed and not the Visible power for that remaines as it is plain in their dreams Now this vision is performed by a reflection of the Visuall Radii in their inward proper Cell For Nature imployes her gifts only where she findes a Conveniencie and fit disposition of Organs which being not in Minerals we may not expect so clear an Expression of the naturall powers in them Notwithstanding in the Flowers of severall vegetables which in some sort represent the Eyes there is a more Subtile acute perception of heat and cold and other Coelestiall Influences then in any other part This is manifest in those Herbs which open at the Rising and shut towards the Sun-set which motion is caused by the spirit being sensible of the Approach and departure of the Sun For indeed the Flowers are as it were the spring of the Spirit where it breaks forth and streames as it appears by the Odours that are more Coelestiall and Comfortable there Again this is more evident in the Plantanimals as the Vegetable Lamb the Arbor Casta and severall others But this will not sink with any but such as have seen this Spirit separated from his Elements where I leave it for this time Next to this Sensuall Nature of Man is the Angelicall or rationall Spirit This Spirit adheres somtimes to the Mens or superior portion of the Soul and then it is filled with the Divine light but most commonly it descends into the aethereal inferior portion which Saint Paul calls Homo animalis where it is altered by the Coelestial influences and diversly distracted with the irregular Affections and passions of the sensuall Nature Lastly above the Rationall Spirit is the Mens or Intelligentia abscondita commonly called Intellectus illustratus and of Moses spiraculum Vitarum This is that Spirit which God himself breathed into Man and by which Man is united again to God Now as the Divine light flowing into the Mens did assimilate and convert the inferiour portions of the soul to God so on the Contrary the Tree of Knowledge did obscure and darken the superiour portions but awak'd and
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