of unitie's Nolunty and sometimes affecting and imitating the action and property of light which floweth from the eternall and all-acting fountain of unity And this is the vertuous effect of the sacred Volunty For it seemed unto the Author that by reason that the whole world was composed of these two contrary properties namely of formall light and the humid dark matter it must needs follow that the catholick soul or generall vivifying spirit thereof and consequently every particular essence or formall existence which is derived from that catholick soul no otherwise than beams from the Sun must be obnoxious subject unto opposite passions and alterations From hence therefore springeth that originall love or hatred which is known to be between the good Angels and the evill Spirits from hence do issue all those assiduall mutations and alterations which happen in the aetheriall sublunary heavens namely by reason of the cross variety of the starry influence From hence proceed those oppositions and contrary effects which are expired or breathed forth from the winds From hence are derived the discord and concord of the Elements with the diversity of natures in the meteorologicall Impressions From hence do flow the multiplicity of affections the opposition of dispositions the passion of spirits and in a word the sympathy and antipathy which is observed to be between all creatures as well simple as compound be they animal vegetable or mineral The Author therefore concludeth upon these grounds that it is but just and reasonable to consent unto the opinions of the two notable and famous Philosophers Heraclitus and Empedocles touching this point whereof the first hath exposed it as an infallible Maxim Quod omnia fiant per litem amicitiam That all things are made and composed of strife and friendship that is to say Of hatred and love The last hath pronounced it for an oracle of truth Quod ex quatuor elementis ex amicitia lite composita sit anima That the soul is composed of four elements and of peace or concord and contention or discord signifying thereby that contrary disposition which is between the watry spirit and the bright mentall beam in regard of their originall For by litem or strife he argueth as well the spirituall contention as the corporall in respect of that contrary puissance and hability which is between the formall light and dark matter both in regard of the body in the act of corruption when the soul would part from it and in the antipatheticall or irascible passion in respect of the soul in which the spirit laboureth and suffereth unnaturally In these opinions of the fore-said Philosophers they seem not to vary from that of the son of Syrach speaking thus Gemina sunt omnia quorum alterum est contrarium alteri nec quicquam factum est quod mancum sit All things are of a double nature the one of them contrary to the other and yet there is nothing made which is defective CHAP. I. In this Chapter it is demonstrated that God is that pure and catholick Unity the which includeth and comprehendeth in it self all multiplicity AS there is no man be he never so highly exalted in the sphear of Mathematicall perfection or profoundly dived into the mysticall bowells of the abstrusest Arithmetick that can with the quick eye-sight of his ripest understanding observe or discry any thing either by order or antiquity to challenge justly unto its self a place or ranâ—k before Unity and for this reason the wisest Philosophers do ingenuously confesse that it is the onely principle or root of all number and multitude so also ought each person of judgment to acknowledge that this radicall Identity as it is considered in its pure and absolute nature and condition cannot be limited by any quantitative dimension nor yet included or comprehended by any member nor divided into distinct portions nor yet defined by any substantiall quiddity or entity And hereupon it hath been judiciously concluded by wise men that Unity is the most antique and radicall principle of all others forasmuch as it comprehendeth in it self all substances quantities and qualities no otherwise than the Geometricall prick or point being considered in its naked simplicity is observed to be indivisible and scarcely to be perceived yea verily and as it were nothing to be determined and yet nevertheless the prick or point is evidently known to be the infallible beginning not onely of every Geometricall line but also of all other continuated Mathematicall dimensions whatsoever seeing that it comprehendeth all magnitudes and is not comprehended of any These two principles of all dimensions whatsoever since that they in order rank and antiquity do precede and excell all others did the expert Mathematicians invent after the typicall imitation or image of the most internall centrall and abstruse point of Divinity or divinest and brightest Unity remaining in that very estate in which it stood before the creation of the world namely when it reserved it self within it self and remained occult and hidden from all potentiall creatures which it was pleased afterward by the revealing of it self or emission of its vivifying light to inact and make manifest for its abode in its simple and absolute nature of unity without having any respect or consideration to things which it would create So that in this manner of this Unitie's being and existence it could not be esteemed for God forasmuch as hitherto it had not produced any creature by the which it might be adored or acknowledged for God neither could it rightly be stiled or termed a Father For it did not appear to have thought on any Son or issue either Archetypicall and ideall or typicall and mundane neither could it be reputed for the Summum bonum or higheâ—t goodness being that the defoâ—med matter or dark Chaos or rather Hyle did not as yet taste of that his bright and all-inacting blessing which was concealed and hidden in its potentiall darkness and obscurity which was therefore void of all form neither could it be intitled fair forasmuch as it did not hitherto impart his beauty for the decoration or inacting of any creature noâ— could it rightly be said to be eternity being that in this manner of his occultation within its self it seemed unto humane capacity not to exist at all and consequently not to have any reference or commerce with either eternity or aeviality or temporality moreover it could not assume or challenge unto it self the name of principle because it had no relation as yet unto any thing that did spring or issue from any beginning To conclude the nature of this simple Monadicall existence was before all created so occult and obsâ—ure unto mortalls apprehension in its order and antiquity so unknown yea and so inscrutable and incomprehensible in its essence that it could not any way be conâ—luded to be either substance or quantity or quality but rather was conceived to be a certain transcendent entity or
them lines others sorts on which the virtue of things do depend They erre not much in this saying onely in appearing to divide the Godhead into diversities of gods but they seem to excuse themselves of that error in saying that all those gods had relation unto one Jupiter and so by that word relation they preserve the continuity and indivisibility in the Soul They agree therefore with Scriptures in that their meaning is that this divine essence is in all things For as Scriptures acknowledg that the catholick Spirit of Wisdome is one simple Spirit and yet it is tearmed by Solomon multiplex or manifold in respect of his multiplicity of action or property in creatures which it animateth for it is said to fill the universe And the incorruptible Spirit of God to be in all things and to give life and motion unto all forasmuch as it is omni re mobilior more movabâ—e and sprightfull then any thing and being but one thing it is able to do all things it being permanent in it felf and therefore doth animate all being that it is in all and every where For this reason also the Poets say Omnia Jovis plena that all are full of Jupiter That is to say the essentiall beams of this Eternall Jupiter or JEHOVA are in every particular place of the world making things to live and exist by a different property And for this reason they conclude that omnia diis plena as is said all things are full of gods I come unto the third The Platonists and all those Philosophers which partake with them differ in nothing from Orpheus Democritus and the rest saving that those call that the Soul of the world which the other tearm Jupiter and the Gods which possesse all things they nominate peculiar souls or mentall beames which depend and have a continuated relation unto the Anima mundi as the incorruptible Spirit of the Lord that filleth each particuler is not discontinued from that humid fountain which filleth the universe It is evident therefore by this which is already said that all the subsequent opinions of the Philosophers touching the Anima mundâ— may be fully confirmed and maintained by the self same reasons and therefore I will say no more touching this point at this instant I conclude therefore thus that seeing the Soul of the world hath for his internall act the bright emanation of the eternall Unity and the subtile catholick created Spirit for its humid Vehicle or materiall Organ which is its externall in which and by which it operareth in all and over all We must acknowledg that there is a kind of contrariety in the very catholick Soul for else would not action and passion be in the created Soul which is so called because it is made of alterity that is of two namely of a creared passive which is an off-spring of the dark Chaos and therefore apt to move unto darknesse by a naturall inclination and of an increated active which seeketh to Deify this Spirit if it do adhere or incline unto it and to exalt its light Hence cometh it that by reason of this Spirit 's divers inclination there are good or bad passions ingendred not onely in the heavens and earth of the great world and their creatures as well celestiall and elementary as animall vegetable and minerall but also in the little world which is man as shall be expressed in the first Chapter of the next Book But first I deem it most fit to open unto you the true mystery how the peculiar Soul of the little world and then how all other Souls as well animal vegetable and mineral do proceed and spring from and afterwards are preserved and multiplied by this catholick Soul of the world which is a doubt not fully decided by the best Philosophers even unto this very day And therefore ought this discourse of ours not to be slighted or lightly regarded even of the learnedest of this our Age. CHAP. V. How all particular Souls are said to spring forth or proceed and then afterwards to have their preservation and multiplication from this generall Anima mundi or Soul of the world and first to begin with that of the moâ—â— noble which is of the little world or Man HErmes called also for another reason Mercurius Trismegistus said rightly that the world was made after the similitude or Type of God and therefore as the one is tearmed Archetypus so also the other is said to be Typus For this reason therefore in another place he saith Scio mundum à Deo atque in Deo hominem vero a mundo in mundo consistere principium autem comprehensioque omnium Deus I know saith he that the world is from God and in God and that man is of the world and in the world But God is the beginning and the comprehension of all things And again he speaketh thus else where in a generality Deus est Cosmi Pater cosmus vero eorum quae in Cosmo cosmus quidem Dei filius jure Cosmus appellatus est quia omnia veritate generationis exornat necnon indesinenti vitae operatione perpetua necessitatis celeritate elementorum commistione ordine genitorum Cosmus quaecunque ab ipsa origine suscepit à Deo perpetuò servat God is the Father of the world the world is the father of them that are in the world and the world is the off-spring of God and it is rightly called Cosmus because it adorneth with verity every kind of generation and also with a never ceasing operation of life and a perpetuall celerity of necessity in the commixtion of the Elements which by order are brought forth c. In all this he varieth not from Scriptures For that in the beginning God is said to have made the world of a matter without a form and to have adorned his humid nature or the heavens with his vivifying Spirit which filleth and operateth all in all as I have told you before and that from the breath of the self-same Spirit of life all the creatures of the world are animated and from the substantiall Elements in the world they receive their matter So that as God by the pouring forth of his bright vivifying and all-acting Spirit did make the humid and passive nature of the world to operate and that so animated Spirit which is mixed secundum totum in qualibet ejus parte in all and every part with his increated Animatour is rightly called the Soul of all the Universe So we ought to make no question at all but that every particular Soul in this vaulted machin of the world doth depend and is procreated preserved and multiplied from that catholick Soul because it is an axiom infallible among Philosophers that the whole doth comprehend each part and again each particular hath his existence and being from the whole But the world's catholick materiall Spirit is inacted and preserved by the catholick Eternall Spirit
out of order and in a destructive war with one another were it not for the presence of this Lord of misrule Thus as you see will Dyscracy and Antipathy reigne by their turnes in the neather region of the world when the tye of the elements are loose Thus will friendship be quickly changed into hatred when JEHOVA is pleased to send forth his altering winds and to corroborate and animate by his influence from above the ministers of his wrath here below against the sublunary creature Now come I to prove that all sympatheticall and antipatheticall effects do proceed from the secret and occult actions of the ministring spirits of this world That there is a mighty difference amongst the Angels no man of wisdom can deny for though all Angels were at the first united unto the divine Unity yet by reason of the rebellion and ambition of Lucifer that knot of union was broke and then the waters were divided from the waters that the good Angels might be separated and distinguished from the bad by the interposition of the firmament as a Diaphragma or middle bar between each of their habitations So that the dark Angels were enclosed in the lower or dark fecall and dreggy waters and the light Angels were lodged in the higher waters which were illuminated and dignified by a super-celestiall light and glory Thus you may see that the very Angells of heaven forasmuch as they are created of aire or the humid spirit of the world which is their externall and the bright emanation from Unity which is their internall are subject by reason of their materiall subâ—tance which participates of both extreams unto affections or passions as well sympatheticall as antipatheticall and consequently they aâ—e able by reason of their contrary pâ—operties to produce both sympatheticall and antipatheticall accidents in the spirits of the elementary creatures As for examples sake we will compare the catholick sympathy and antipathy which is in the soul of the great world unto that peculiar soul or spirit which is in man being that every particular was framed out of the universall We ought therefore to understand that the whole essenâ—e of the soul or spirit of man though it be invisible extendeth and manifesteth it self by her vertues and faculties for by her irascibility it contemneth and hateth and by her concupiscibility it doth covet and desire and by her rationability she distinguisheth and discerneth between them both And verily the whole effect of the souls essence consisteth in these three powers whereof the first is compared to the action of the lower waters which is apt to jar and disagree and is the region of Lâ—tigâ—um or the Prince of darkness The second is referred unto the nature of the firmament which is the region of life and salutary love and the last unto the angelicall and intellectuall heaven which doth discern between things that belong unto the lower heavens or regions of the world Whereupon it appeareth that from her rationall property every sense belonging unto the soul of man doth proceed as from the other two every affection motion or passion of the minde doth arise and spring Now there are known to be four affections of the soul whereof two do proceed from her concupiscible power namely Joy and Hope for at that which we love we rejoyce and are glad or we hope for and expect that which shall rejoyce us or make us glad and the two other issue from her irascible faculty or vertue namely Grief or Dolour and Fear for now we grieve at that which we hate or we fear that which would make us grieve or be dolorously affected And verily we shall after a due inquisition find that these four affections of the Microcosmicall soul are not onely the beginnings and common matter or subject of all morall vices or vertues but also the originalls of Metaphysicall or occult and Physicall or elementary and apparent sympathy and antipathy as well in the little as in the great world and every creature thereof For I would not have you ignorant that being the soul in man is derived from the vivifying emanation dwelling in the words spirituall vehicle it must follow that that soul in the great world must needs have in it the faculties which the little worlds soul hath for Quod facit tale est magis tale But these faculties in the soul of man were derived from the great world and the eternal soul that vivified it Wherefore it followeth that there is a rationability a concupiscibility and an irascibility in the soul of the great world though not made manifest unto us First because that it hath attributes of irascibility and displeasure for from his Attribute ELOHIM Gibbor he sendeth down by the port Geburah the fiery beams of his displeasure by his Archangell Samael into the globe or sphear of Mars who is for that cause President of the irascible faculty of the greater world wherefore his influences do cause wrath and angry effects in the aire and earth as thunder lightnings comets and other wrangling accidents which as Scriptures tell us are the arguments of Gods wrath and vengeance also war famine and pestilence and augmenteth the angry nature and spirit of men and beasts And again Gods Attribute IEHOVA Sabaoth poureth down the beams of concupiscibility by the Arch-angell Anael upon the globe of Venus according to Philosophers and Astronomers who for that reason being moved thereto by experience and observation have made this star the president and rectrix of the concupiscible faculty As the Attribute EL doth pour out the beams of reason justice and religion yea and naturall vegetation and life into the sphear of Jupiter But principally this naturall faculty is rained into the soul of the world by the Attribute IAH through his port Sapientia or Wisdom The second reason is because the great world hath an intellectuall or rationall heaven and a concupiscible property manifested in every creature and an irascible which is apparent also by reason of hatred and horrour which appeareth between one thing and another Also that there is an irascible quality in the elements that deadly hatred which is betwixt the fire and water and the aire and earth doth manifest That also there is a love and concupiscence between things it is evident because one nature rejoyceth in his like and therefore by a naturall inclination every thing doth move and convert it self unto his like by all possibility but especially it is most inclinable unto it self So we see that fire doth naturally affect and move unto fire water unto water and earth unto earth But above all the vivifying spirit of every living thing which is celestiall and therefore exceedeth the place of the elements doth with fervency affect and thirst after his like and is rejoyced at the presence and concurrency thereof And for this cause this passion of what creature soever will be the more truly sympatheticall and the sympathy between things will be so much the
a receptacle for the Angelicall Spirits and blessed Souls as it hath its position betwixt both the extream worlds namely that of Eternity and the other of Temporality for it hath an immediate relation or commerce with them both For first it receiveth its immediate light life or formall existence from Eternity and then it poureth it out or communicateth it with the temporall or inferiour mansion to create and vivify it with the creatures thereof insomuch that as the formall act of the temporall world is Angelicall so the vivifying soul or spirit of the aeviall is divine or eternall Wherefore it followeth that the nature and property of Angells is neither to be excluded from the Subject of Theology forasmuch as they participate with the Divine Light or bright presence of Eternity neither can they be exempted from the body of Philosophy being that the Angelicall light is the soul and life of the Temporal nature and consequently the true Philosopher must acknowledg his essentiall science or Philosophicall grounds to proceed radically from the Eternall God by his aeviall or Angelicall Spirits into his temporall creatures I mean the Stars Winds Elements Meteors and perfect mixed bodies and therefore in respect that the Philosophicall Subject is animated by Angelicall influences it must needs pierce with a mentall regard into the eternall Light which doth centrally vivifie both the aeviall and temporall creatures beyond the which there is nothing to be found or imagined This therefore is the perfect tri-partite measure of that Ladder which Jacob dreamed of when he laid his head upon the stone which in its longitude latitude and profundity contained the images or characters of these three worlds and for that reason it was termed by the Patriarch himself Domus Dei The tabernacle of God Whereupon as that stone had his externall and internall so in his divine dream he observed Angells to ascend by it namely from earth which is the Creator's soot-stool unto the Eternall world where his Throne is by the aeviall mansion and also to descend again by the same degrees Thus may the sacred Philosopher with the Prophet not onely perceive by a more externall spirituall vision Rotam in Rota or the aeviall essence in the temporall beeing but also by a most internall or mentall aspect he may contemplate Rotam in medio Rotarum to wit a centrall mover and Eternall Spirit in the aeviall by the which the temporall or corporeall creature is immediatly vivified and agitated whereby we may boldly infer with the Scriptures that God is essentially one and all And therefore I may lawfully conclude with these axioms of the divine Theo-Philosophists which appertain as well unto the formal act in the Creature which is the true life of Philosophy as the essentiall virtue of Divinity that God operateth all in all He vivifieth all things He filleth all things His incorruptible Spirit is in all things By the Word all things were made In the Word was life and that life was the light of men He giveth life and inspiration and all things In him we live move and have our beeing He is the Father of all who is above all and through all and in all of us From him by him and in him are all things He sent his Spirit and created all things He giveth breath unto the people and spirit unto the creatures that tread on the earth O Lord how manifold are thy works in Wisdom thou hast made them all the earth is full of thy riches c. If thou hidest thy face the creatures are troubled if thou takest a way their breath they die if thou sendest forth thy Spirit they are re-created or revived By him were all things created which are in heaven and which are in earth things visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominations or Principalities or Powers all things were created by him and for him and he is before all things and in him all things consist Note here how the Apostle doth livelily set forth in these words the foresaid three worlds Again Christ is all and in all things He sustaineth all things by the word of his Virtue In him are all the treasures of Wisom hid God by his Wisdom giveth or proportioneth a weight unto the aire and hangeth the waters or clouds in measure and maketh a decree for the rain and ordereth a way for the lightnings of the Thunders He speaketh in Thunder and answereth Job out of a Whirl-wind He by his Word giveth Snow like wool and scattereth the hoary Frost like ashes he casteth forth his Ice like morsels who can resist against his cold He sendeth out his Word and melteth them so soon as he sendeth forth his breath the waters do flow again By his breath the Frost is engendered and the breadth of the waters is made narrow I could produce an infinity of other places out of Scriptures to manifest the universall acts and virtuous operations which are effected in the Elementary creatures by that most essentiall and eternall Wisdom which is the main ground and true Corner-stone whereon the purest Mosaicall Philosophy doth rely but I esteem it needless being that they are copiously expressed already by me in this my Philosophicall Discourse and therefore I imagine that these which are already produced will be sufficient to content and satisfy all such as are unpartially judicious unto whose better wisdom and favourable constructions I recommend these mine indeavours and finally both them and my self unto God's blessed protection Your Friend Robert Fludd MOSAICALL PHILOSOPHY The First Book Section 1. The Argument of the First Book THis first Book sheweth that whereas the minds of worldly men are at this very day erected and soared up even unto the highest pitch of infidelity insomuch as they require and demand after signes and ocular demonstrations as the Jewes did For it is said The Greeks hunt after wisdom the Jewes demand for signes c. or else they will in no case be drawn to believe our Author did esteem it the greatest means of conquest in this Herculean-combat which is to be effected betwixt the two deadly enemies and strong champions Truth and Falshood that is to say the wisdom of God and that of the World if he could find out some vulgar and well known Experiment or practicall Insâ—rument which might serve our celestiall Champion Truth instead of an Herculean-Club to tame and exanimate that foul monster Infidelity who standeth so stifly in the maintenance and defence of his Lord and Master I mean the Prince of darknesse and errour his privileges being that such persons as will not be conducted and directed unto the center of Veritie by reall practise and ocular demonstration may rightly be adjudged more irregular and extravagant from the square and polished rules of reason than the brute beast who warned by experience which in that respect may rightly be esteemed for the mistresse of fools doth make his
and proportionate measure in cold and heat Yea verily and I averre boldly that the whole World or worldly Round is as well and compleatly stuffed or filled with spirit or aire as is this our artificiall vessell or experimentall Machin which if it should not be it would consequently follow that vacuity would be admitted into the nature of things the which would be but an absurd thing in a Philosopher to credit Wherefore we may boldly conclude that the spirit is in the like quantity weight and proportion in the concavity of this instrument considering his magnitude as it is in the great or little world But experience teacheth us that the self same nature be it hot or cold which useth to reigne and have dominion every quarter of the year in the cosmicall or worldly spirit doth produce the self same effects in rarifaction and condensation of the aire included in our artificiall vessell as it useth to procreate in the aire of the world all which is fully demonstrated before For by how much the more the state of the aire doth abound in heat or cold by so much will the water contained in the neck of the glasse be depressed by reason of the included aire 's subtilation And again by how much the more the inclemency of cold doth vegetate and abound in the air by so many degrees higher will the water be exalted And this is the reason as it is already told you that by the observation of this Weather-glasse the temper of the aire in the great world is so exactly discovered unto us And therefore by this it is evident that the foresaid doubt or scruple is abolished and taken away I would in this regard have each discreet Reader to understand that when he beholdeth this Instrument's nature he contemplateth the action as it were of a little world and that it hath after the manner of the great world his Northern and his Southern Hemisphear plainly to be discerned in it the which two are divided exactly by an Aequinoctiall line in effect which cutteth the Degree signed with the character 1. Also it hath his two Tropicks with their Poles onely we take the Southern Pole and Hemisphear to be hot in regard of us because the breath which commeth from it is from the Sun which in our respect is Southernly disposed and therefore we term that Pole the Summer-Pole or Hemisphear and the other the winter-Pole or Hemisphear And we have demonstrated that the degree in the neck of the Glasse 1. doth correspond exactly unto the place of the Aequator because that if the Northern or Winter Tropick be imagined to be the Basis of one Triangle whose Cone shall end in the centre of the Northern Tropick then it must follow that where the intersection is made by these two imaginary Triangles the Aequator must of necessity passe As for example Vide Med. Cathol 26. And we tearm the place of the Aequinoctiall the Sphear of equality because when as the Sun is in Aries or Libra which are the vernall and autumnall intersection of the Aequinoctiall the daies and nights are equall so also the temper of each Hemisphear in heat and cold is naturally observed to tend unto a mediocrity or equality Even such also will the temper of the micro-cosmicall aire or catholick spirituall element be unto the earth when the water in the Glasse is drawn up half way I have sufficiently described unto you as well the fabrick as the nature of this Instrument and therefore since I have prepared it to serve me for ocular demonstration instead of an Herculean Club in this combate which I undergoe against our insulting Peripatetick Adversary and that I am provided of sufficient naturall reasons instead of a trusty armour and that this armour is well tempered and made as it were musket-proof at the least by Authority drawn out of the whole Harmony of the sacred Bible Why should I fear the number of mine enemies when it is Tâ—uâ—h's owne cause which I undergo If God be with me I care not who is against me being that verity which conquereth all things will I am well assured fight for me and defend me though but onely one against a multitude Why should I expect any favour from them in telling the truth and condemning their errours since that they do Satyrically censure and deride my honest endeavours when I hold my peace and say nothing unto them It is an easier matter for malitious carpers and back-biters like temerarious and rash Cynicks to find fault with a thing than with moderate and judicious spirits to judge amend and correct it with equity In the first namely to condemn before the case is heard or understood it is an argument of envy cloked with wilfull ignorance In the latter namely to teach a man his errours a token of learned zeal and Christian charity The Second Book of this Treatise touching Philosophy in generall The Argument of this Second Book of the First Section THis second Book importeth That the Philosophy of the Ethnicks is false and erroneous both in regard it is founded upon the wisdom of this world which as St. Paul teacheth us is but meer foolishnesse in the eyes of God and then because it contradicteth the truth and consequently is not issuing from the Father of Light which is in Heaven but from the Prince of darknesse who reigneth beneath Wherefore this kind of wisdom or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is termed by the Apostle James Terrence animal and diabolicall And for this reason St. Paul that most excellent and sacred Philosopher or lover of wisdom doth warn us that we be not deceived by this kind of Philosophy which he tearmeth Vainfallacy built and framed out according unto the traditions of men and after the elements of this world and not having its foundation upon the true corner stone Jesus Christ in whom dwelleth all the plenitude of Divinity corporally BEfore we dive into the bottomlesse abysse of the essentiall Philosophy whose main foundation is the true wisdom the which is a thing so difficil to be put in execution that nothing but the swift and nimble-winged soul or spirit of man is able to bring to effect it will but concur with reason that we should in the first place consider and observe the Etymology of the name or word whose naked essence we hunt after that thereby we may in the second rank descend more securely and with a better understanding unto the definition or description thereof and so proceed with a surer confidence unto the division or differences of the main subject we have in hand to the intent we may directly point at the truth and distinguish it from falshood Seeing therefore that Philosophia or Philosophy is the main scope or businesse of this our Treatise it is meant commonly and understood in a generality for Sapientia or Wisdom but by a more proper and peculiar signification it is interpreted Amor or Amicus sapientiae
In this respect also the Prophet Baruch hath it Stellae dederunt lumen in custodiis suis laetatae sunt ad jussum Dei The stars gave light in their watches and dâ—d rejoice at the Commandement of God Hereupon it came to pass that when this Spirit did fight for Josuah he made the Sun stand still at his pleasure He turned the Sun from light unto darkness at the passion of Christ By it the stars in troops were stirred up to fight in their order by theâ—r influences against Sisera So that it is easy to discern that as the heavens and stars were first framed and animated by this Spirit to serve as Organs to administer unto the natural Fabrick of this world so also beyond the common course of the macrocosmicall nature they may by the self-same Spirit that commandeth them and acteth in them as the soul doth within the body operate what when and how it lists and be diverted from the usual order to effect his will as well by altering the motion of his body as action of his light and influentiall Spirit Again touching the fixt stars Job speaketh thus in the person of this Spirit Canst thou restrain the sweet influences of the Pleiades or loose the bands of Orion Canst thou bring forth Mazaroth in their time Canst thou guide Arcturus with his Sons Knowest thou the course of the heavens or canst thou set the rule thereof upon the Earth c. As who should say that no man is able to know the courses of the stars or to discern the powers or vertue of their influences save only this divine Spirit and that man unto whom it shall reveal the true Art and rules of Astronomy or Astrology And therefore Salomon doth glory in that he knew the course of the year and dispositions of the stars and the change of the Solstices by wisdome Per Sapientiam saith he novi Solstitiorum mutationes anni cursum dispositiones stellarum c. If therefore the Astronomer wanteth this true Astrologicall foundation all will be faulty and fabulous as by the vulgar Astronomy which is for the most part erronious and uncertain it appeareth I proceed now downwards unto the Meteorologicall region to see how this Omnipotent Spirit worketh in the catholick sublunary Element for the producing of Meteors in divers shapes and natures As for the Act of this Eternal Actor or Operator in the ayre water and earth for the production of Meteors it is most evidently expressed in plain terms by holy Writ Saith Job Deus sapientia sua aptat pondus aëri appendit aquas in mensura facit pluviae statuta viam fulgetro tonitruum God by his Wisdome doth adapt a waight or pondero sity unto the ayre and hangeth up the waters in measure and giveth bounds or maketh a Law for the rain and prepareth a way for the lighting 's of the Thunders In which words he sheweth that this one Spirit of Wisdome in whom is the power as well of contraction or condensation as of dilatation or ratifaction can at his pleasure make the aire more thick and ponderous by condensation and so reduce it into a cloud or by rarifying it into a more thin and subtile consistence render it in the form of lightning and evermore the aire so altered receiveth his shape or figure from the Alterer according to the will of him who ordaineth all things And thus the clouds the lightenings the thunder the comets the frost hayl snow and ice are created daily by this operating Spirit But we have all this confirmed and acknowledged by many places of Scriptures Sapientiâ Dei eruperunt abyssi nubes rore concrescunt saith Salomon By the Wisdome of God the Abysse was broke open and the clouds were turned into dew or raine Again Ego sapientia sicut nebula texi omnem terram I Wisdome like a mist did cover the whose earth saith the son of Syrach in the person of this Spirit And again Ego in altissimis habitavi Thronus meus est columna nubis I saith Wisdome did dwell in the highest places and my throne was a pillar of clouds Deus nubes effecit sapientia saith Job God made the clouds by his Wisdome This Spirit maketh the clouds to asscend it causeth the lightnings with the raâ—n and it bringeth forth the wind out of his Treasury saith David And again Verbo suo quam celerrimè excurrente sermone suo in terra emisso edit Deus nivem sicut lanam pruinam sicut cineres dispergit coram frigore ejus quis consistat God by his Word passing most swiftly and by his Voice being sent out upon the Earth doth bring forth snow like wool and spreadeth abroad the frost like ashes Who is able to consist before his cold There are many thousands of other places which I can produce out of the book of Verity to prove that all Meteorology is founded on this Spirit But because I will speak of this point more at large in my last Book of this present Treatise where I do express the true History of the Meteors and open the errors and falsities of the Aristotelian Meteorology I will only conclude with this confession of the wisest Philosopher Salomon Novi saith he virtutes elementorum varietates temporum sive tempestatum ventorum seu spirituum vires nam omnium artifex me docuit sapientia I know the power of the Elements and the varieties of times and tempests and strength of the winds for Wisdome the work-mistress of all things taught them me Whereby it is evident that shee who was the maker of the Meteors and was by Consequence the most skilfull and best acquainted with their natures did instruct him in them I will now speak a word or two of Physick Concerning the excellent Art of Phyâ—â—ck or Medecine the Wiseman saith A Deo est omnis medela From God cometh every kind of healing or curing which being so it is certaine that the only Actor in healing and curing is immediatly from this all-working Spirit and therefore the Kingly Prophet hath it He sendeth his Word and healeth them and delivereth them from their graves And Salomon But the teeth of the venemous dragons could not overcome thy children for thy Word came to help them and healed them even thy Word O Lord which healeth all things for thou hast the power of life and death c. Mark well Even thy Word saith the Text which healeth all things Now this divine Word is the root and fountain of this eternal Spirit of Wisdome and therefore the Basis or foundation of healing is in him and consequently from him all the mystery of healing doth proceed which also agreeth with this of the Apostle There are divers gifts but one and the same Spirit there are divers operations but God is the same which worketh all in all but unto
one is given by the Spirit the word of Wisdome and unto an other the gift of healing Now that this Omnipotent and all-operating Spirit is that Wisdom which giveth life and health to every creature it is made manifest by many places of the book of Verity saith the Wiseman Sapientia custodiet salutem Wisdome will preserve health In Sapientiae dextra est longitudo dierum In the right-hand of wisdome is the length of daies Est lignum vitae omnibus qui apprehenderunt eam Shee is the tree of Life unto all them which can possessâ— her where it is meant as well of body as of soul as it did appear by those cures which Christ and the Apostles did effect by the means of this Spirit upon the earth Sapientiam qui invenerit inveniet vitam hauriet salutem à Dâ—mino He that hath found wisdome shall find life and shall draw or attract health from the Lord. And in another place Ipsa hos qui se observant a doloribus liberavit wisdome preserved such from dolours as observed her And again Sapientia sanati sunt quicunque placuerint tibi ô Domine à principio They were healed O Lord whosoever have pleased thee from the beginning Yea verily each prudent Reader ought seriously to understand that there is not an animal vegetable or minerall but hath and receiveth immediatly his curative act from this Spirit And therefore the foresaid Son Syrach saith Altissimus de terra creavit medecinam vir prudens non abhorrebit illam The most high hath created medicine of the earth and the Wâ—se man will not despise it whereby we may discern first that the trees herbs roots and mineralls being of springs of the earth were ordained by God to be the means of curing and healing of men and then that the gift or act which is imparted unto them is from this Spirit of wisdome forasmuch as it is said to be in all things and to operate all in all in them though after a divers manner as the Apostle doth affirme confirming in this the Wisemans saying before recited Verbum tuum sanans omnia Thy word which healeth all things And therefore he inferred Non herba nec maâ—egmaâ—e sed verbo tuo sanante omnia not by herb or plaister but by thy word which healeth all things If the Word therefore heal all things then nothing can cure but the Word or the spirit of wisdome whose Fountain is the Word as is proved before But seeing this incorruptible Spirit of God is in all things and since it is the most active and movable thing in this world and since by his purity he penetrateth through all and acteth in all What should hinder me or any good Christian else to say that he acteth all in all in and by this word of himself and by himself and that immediatly and therefore not any Creature of it self or by it self as the Peripatetick doctrine doth most erroniously and to the seducing of true Christian hearts from their Creatour publish unto the World alluring them thereby to derogate from God who is all in all by arrogating abâ—olute authority unto the Creature in making and ordaining so many essentiall distinct subalternate agents which must forsooth operate per se as the Sun the Stars the winds the Elements and the compounded creatures as well imperfectly as perfectly mixed Verily in so doing they make the world believe that the Organ doth act per se essentially and not this hidden and centrall word or incorruptible Spirit existing in every thing which is the fountaine or foundation of the true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or wisdome and the main mark or Summum bonum which the true Philosopher or Lover of wisdome doth ayme at Therefore doth Salomon the Prophets and Christ with his sanctified followers exhort all men to be Amatores verae Sapientiae Lovers of this wisedome in whom is all Act as well intellectuall condescending unto the sublimation of mans knowledg as more materiall namely operating to vivification vegetation and multiplication But of this more at large in another place I will return unto my purpose and conclude this brief discourse upon the true Physick with Salomons confession who sayeth Per sapientiam novi na turas animalium was bestiarum differentias virgultorum virtutesradicum imò quae sunt occulta et manifesta mihi patefecit omnium artifex Sapientia By wisdome I knew the natures of living creatures the raging conditions of Beasts the dâ—fferences of plants and the vertues of roots yea all the mysteries of creatures as well occult as manifest were revealed unto me by wisdome which is the worker of all things Whereby he argueth that wisdome even that heavenly Spirit which did bestow on herbs animals and minerals their virtues as well hidden and secret as apparent and evident even that eternall Word which is all in all and operateth or acteth all in all and therefore can only teach and instruct by an externall revelation what he internally doth and by what vertue he operateth in each creature and although Ethnick Philosophers and Physitians have by practicall effects or sensuall observations and demonstrations à posteriori found out the occult properties in plants as for example of the Piony to cure the falling-sickness of Herniaria to respect the rupture of Tussilago to be proper for the Lungs of Euphragia to be good for the eie-sight of Thecilea and Viscus quercinus to prevaile against the falling-sickness c. In animals of the Toad to stanch blood of the Alsaeus hoof and also the Frog to cure the falling-sickness of the Scorpion chiefly to cure the bitings of the Scorpion c. yet because they are ignorant of the centrall grounds of Sympathy and Antipathy which consisteth in the Volunty or Nolunty of one and the same Spirit they can give no other reason for such hidden things but only that they are ab occulta proprietate of a hidden property And in fine can say no more but that they are talia quia talia and so we receive from these learned Doctours nothing else but Ignotum per ignotius A thing unknown by a more unknown To conclude it is certain that Salomon learn'd so much of the nature of Planets and other creatures by the discovery of this Spirit that it was said of him that he was instructed by this his Schoolmistriss in the vertues of all vegetables beginning even from the lowly Hysop and so mounting unto the lofty Cedars of Libanus Having then in few words expressed unto you the power of this Spirit in her documents of Physick or Medicine and proved that shee is the Basis or ground of every sanative property in the world I will shew you in the next rank her act and vertue in the essentiall Musick Touching the harmony of this world and how every sublunary element and superlunary sphear are disposed by an essentiall kind of symphoniacall
the Originall or primary womb from whence the waters were extracted which were the materiall stuff whereof all things were framed was this dark and deformed Abysse or Chaos and therefore had the beginning of their formall being from the Father of all-informing and vivifying light and essence But that we may directly shew unto you the egregious theft of the foresaid Philosophers from Moses his Principles That Principle which Moses termed darknesse the darke Abysse or potentiall Principle Aristotle doth call his Materia prima or first matter which he averreth to be something in puissance or potentially only because it is not as yet reduced into act Again he seemeth to term it privation but falsly being that no position did precede it On the other side Plato calleth it Hyle which is esteemed to be nothing forasmuch as it is invisible and without form Also he compareth it to a dark body in respect of the soul and spirit As for Hermes he intitleth it by the name of umbra horrenda or fearfull shadow Pythagoras maketh it his Symbolicall Unity From in this its estate it hath relation unto nothing else but it self which is mere Unity and consequently it acquireth not so much as the name of a Father because it doth not by an emanation respect or attempt the production of a Son Hippocrates will have it named a deformed Chaos or an universally troubled mass without form or shape Again as touching the first inacted passive Principle or the primary passive matter out of which all things were carved That which Moses called waters Aristotle doth intitle by the name of Second matter forasmuch as it was begotten and derived out of the bowels of the first-matter or Chaos or dark abysse which also Plato termeth the Spirit and Hermes the humid nature Hippocrates with Anaximenes the vast and universall aire of this world Pythagoras pointeth at it Symbolically by the number of duality which is the mark of imperfection for it argueth thereby the imperfect estate of matter being destitute of the formall character of Unity which maketh three and therefore the ternary number is esteemed amongst the wisest Philosophers for the root of all perfect numbers To conclude that vivifying and animating Principle which Moses called light proceeding from the Spirit of the Lord Aristotle maketh his formall beginning Plato the act or soul of the world Pythagoras delineates it by the number of three and Hippocrates calleth it that immortall heat the which when all things were troubled in the beginning by contention did sore up unto that upper region which the Ancients do call the Aether or Heaven Is not this therefore a notable kind of Robbery amongst the choisest Ethnick Philophers thus fasly to ascribe and attribute the Principles and Doctrine unto themselves which were revealed by God's Spirit unto the wise Prophet Moses and that of pupose to make themselves great and eminent not only in the eies of the Gentiles but also by subtill allurements or false and fading suggestions laid on those foundations to distract Christian men from the Truth And yet as for Plato and Hermes I must excuse them being that they do both of them acknowledg in express terms with Moses that the matter or substance wherof the heavens and the earth were made was a humid nature and the internall form or act which did dispose of it into diversity of figures or forms was the divine Word as you may find most plainly expressed in Plato's works and in the Pimander of Hermes or Mercurius Trismegistus But amongst all the rest Aristotle hath sored highest upon the wings of his own conceited imaginations and built the structure of his worldly wisdome upon the typicall form of the Mosaicall grounds thinking thereby to assume and purchase unto himself in the regard of this world the name of an absolutely wiseman though in the conclusion he appeareth far otherwise in the eyes of God for as much as he doth assigne particular essentiall actions which appertain really unto God unto the creatures with more obstinacy then the rest affirming that they operate essentially of and by themselves when in Verity it is only God that operateth all and in all and that immediatly as the Apostle Paul doth intimate unto us And this is the reason that they give not unto God the only Creator the glory of every action in this world as they ought to do but rather to a created nature and unto Angels and Stars and Elements and compounded creatures which were made and are still sustained and maintained by the all-creating Spirit or word of the Almighty And this is the originall occasion of the multiplicity of Idolatry which hath and doth hitherto raigne in this world namely of the worshipping of the Sun Moon and starres of sacrifices offered unto Idols or false Gods and deceiving Devils of the Veneration of Isis and Osiris of the adoration of Saturne Jupiter Mars Venus and Mercury of the immolations or offerings unto Caelum Vesta Ceres Proserpina Vulcan Pluto and Neptune with many other errours and absurdities whereby ignorant men are rather seduced from the knowledg of the true God than any way induced unto the understanding of him rightly And this very same Doctrine relying on the invention of man hath been the occasion that the world hath erred concerning the divine Word and through blindness have not perceived the operations and properties of the holy Spirit in the creatures yea verily it hath been the occasion why some of our Christian Philosophers themselves have neglected the research of Gods Actions in his creatures as well visible as invisible they are I say so wedded unto the Aristotelian Philosophy that they do voluntarily avert their eies from the true and certain Science of the Meteorologicall Science revealed by the Scriptures which are the fountains of Wisdome to follow the uncertain and scarce-probable doctrine of their Ethnick-Master touching that admirable subject And this is the reason that they will not acknowledg any true Meteorologicall Philosophy to be taught by the Spirit of Wisdome in the said holy Book but only matters belonging to the health and salvation of man when indeed it is most evident that whole pages or leaves as well of the books of Moses Job Psalms and the Prophets as many places of the New Testament are full of that subject All which is expressed in the book of the true Wisdome that thereby we may admire the wonderous works which the Creator hath from the beginning effected and daily doth produce in this lower world to witness his eternall power in his creatures But leaving all allaterall discourses I will proceed now unto our main Subject which concerneth the true Mosaicall Principles with their effect CHAP. II. What were the Mosaicall Principles or beginnings in generall How they were produced and extracted out of Nothing Then what is meant by that word Nothing And lastly the first Principle which is the dark Abysse or Chaos without form is particulaerly described THe
would mount and soar upward towards the heaven were it not that the spirit so set at liberty is detained by the elementary stuffe which hinders it in its ascent and yet neverthelesse it is so dignified after its corruption that its vertue is augmented by many degrees as it appeareth in the abundant multiplication which its dilated spirit doth produce through the abundance of that incorruptible spirit which it endueth As touching the other resurrection which is unto a temporall life it is by reason that the body is not corrupted neither is there a loosning of elementary ligaments by dissolution whereby the spirituall body may be purified and clean separated from and have no commerce with the elementary dreggs which do issue out of the lower waters so that the occult spirituall body cannot be at liberty to embrace the spirit of life with eternall tyes Of this kind of resurrection was that which Christ effected on the widow's son which was carried to be buried when he said Young man I say to thee Arise and he that was dead sat up Also he caused resurrection in the like manner to the dead daughter of one of the Rulers of the Synagogues crying and saying Maid arise and her spirit came again and she rose up straight-way Unto such a temporall life also Lazarus was raised up Again by the prayer of Elijah the widow's son was raised again for the Text saith that at the voice of Elijah the soul of the child came into him again and he revived Whereby we ought to note two things first that these bodies were not wholly corrupted I mean the Elements of the composition were not devided by resolution and therefore though the Spirit returned into them yet it brought their bodies but to a temporall life And although it might be alledged that Christ's body was not corrupted and yet it had Resurrection from death unto eternall life I answer that the Text saith that he would not suffer his Holy one to see corruption and by that reason he had Resurrection the third day after he died being that his body was without sin and therefore void of corruption But I leave this mysticall doctrine to the research of the learned Theosophists Secondly we are to note that it is the presence of the vivifying Spirit of God which causeth Generation and Resurrection from the death And again it is the absence thereof which induceth death and corruption For the Scriptures say that it was the soul of the child which came again into the child to make it alive again And the other Text saith her spirit came again and she revived And therefore Job said in the place above mentioned If God should draw his Spirit or Spiracle of life from the creature all flesh would expire And David If thou takest away their breath they die If thou sendest forth thy Spirit they revive or are re-created Now if we shall compare this our principle of Generation and Corruption with that of the Peripateticks we shall find as great a confusion in the one as there is a plain explication of the other for they define Generation to be mutatio materiae à forma substantiali pristina in aliam formam substantialem A change or mutation of matter from its wonted substantiall form into another form Also they will have Corruption to be mutatio amissio formae substantialis quae prius inerat materiae sed nunc non inest eidem The mutation or loss of a substantiall form which was first in the matter but now hath forsaken it Thus you see how they nominate a substantiall form but what it is and how it commeth into the body to cause Generation or after what manner it departeth from it again to cause death and corruption they relate not and therefore we have ignotum per ignotius when in verity it is the Spirit of God which informeth and vivifieth all things causing by its presence as well Generation which Aristotle observed and Resurrection which he never knew or could discern by his worldly Philosophy as corruption privation and death by its absence So that in this change or passage of the creature from one estate unto another we shall find that as it was made and all things else out of one dark and deformed potentiall principle by the shining forth of actuall Light which informed and by information created all things of Nothing making them to live and exist so also by the absence of that all-informing Light each thing becommeth dark dead and destitute of their essentiall form untill a new Light do manifest it self after a manner which doth alienate the watery Subject from the form and shape it had at the first So the body or carkasse of a dead man is in the state of a deformed chaos in regard it hath lost its wonted human substantiall form or act no otherwise then if the Lord did take away his Spirit from the world all things would return again to Nothing or a deformed chaos or dark abysse as it was at first But when the effectuall act of a new form doth break forth out of the dead carcasse causing the whole Mass thereof to become verminous or full of worms then may we say that the Corruption of the one is the Generation of the other which evermore holdeth good when the Elementary stuff is still present So that Privation is the mean between them both and as it were a vacuity a Nihâ—l or non entity between two formalities But I will demonstrate the mystery of Generation and Corruption after this Manner Now therefore that the progression or ranks of the worlds Creation and his simple Members is shewed you which consisteth of four ranks in which estate the world must as I said indure till it be refined with fire I will make my progression from these simple members of the world's existence and proceed unto the order of degrees in composition which have their beginning and foundation from them namely from the first degree or rank in Generation or Composition unto the Complement thereof And as between the beginning of mixtion and the perfection thereof there must intercede a medium or mean which must be imperfectè mixtum or an imperfect mixtion so betwixt a simple Element and a perfect body an imperfect composition must needs intercede namely such a one as is that of a Meteorologick nature As for example in the generation of a man the beginning which is founded on the catholick watery Element and taketh his place in the first rank is Sperm for it is a watery or fluid Substance but little altered and as in the water the whole Fabrick of the world and seeds of all things was complicitly conteined and yet nothing did appear externally but water So in the seed or Sperm though nothing do appear in the first degree explicitly but Sperm yet the whole man namely the bones flesh blood sinews and such like are complicitly conteined and will
endued with a various and divers condition or property insomuch as the one is hot and moist the other cold and dry the third hot and dry and the last cold and moist It were impossible that this difference and variety should happen if all winds were framed and fashioned onely after one fashion that is if they did move laterally by compulsion as Aristotle telleth the tale I come now unto the last clause or member of the Peripateticall definition which doth touch the finall end or reason of the production or creation of the winds His opinion is that his nature doth produce this manner of ventilation for the purging and purifying of the aire and for the preservation thereof But we are taught by experience that this is not true being that we with Galen and Hippocrates do discern that the southerly winds are contagious and pestiferous forasmuch as they render the aire thick and make it putrid and rotten by their malignant heat and lax humidity And this also we have confirmed by the sacred Text Ne timeto saith David à lue seu daemonio vast ante in meridie Fear not the pestilence oâ— corrupt daemon which commeth from the south And Habacuck Deo à meridio veniente praecessit vel ante-ivit eum pestis antrax ad pedes ipsius God comming from the south the pestilence went before him and at his feet went the boch or carbuncle Yea verily and all winds in a generality as also the other meteors of heaven are ordained by the Creator as well for a whip and scourge as to assist preserve and save the creature as by many places of Scripture we are certified and Job in expresse tearms hath taught us And therefore Aristotle hath erred in his judgment concerning the finall cause of the winds as well as in the rest We may justly hereupon conclude that this definition of our pagan Peripatetick whom we Christians do adore and follow with such devotion and reverence is altogether false and of no validity because the winds are creatures of a nature more essentially eminent and divine than either Aristotle or any of his factious sect did ever understand forasmuch as they are not things without internall lights and essences and do not consist onely of externall and adventitious motions that is to say are not made of fumes or exhalations arising by accident or chance out of the earth But as Zacharias doth teach us they are created and animated by an angelicall spirit and stand before the Lord of all the earth and are hid in the power or treasury of their Lord out of the which he calleth them at his pleasure to do and accomplish his will and pleasure upon the earth and upon the seas either ad vinâ—ictam seu punitionem to revenge and punish or else ad misericordiam benignitatem creaturis praebendam to shew unto the creatures his mercy and benignity CHAP. III. The true and essentiall definition of the wind is divers waies and that according unto the sense and assertion of the holy Scrâ—ptures expressed in this Chapter NOw me-thinks I hear some of the Peripateticall faction to murmur against me and reply If this definition of Aristotle be not good as by your proof it appeareth assigne us a better if you can Tell us therefore essentially what is the winde or how you define or describe it rightly by the warrant of holy Writ To this I answer that it may be effected many waies under one and the self-same essence And first of all we may describe it and that not impertinently after this manner The winde is an airy spirit of a mean consistence inspired and animated by the breath or inspiration of JEHOVA the which he draweth forth of his treasury to execute his will and pleasure either by the way of malediction and vengeance or of benediction and misericord Every particle of this definition is proved out of convenient places of holy Scriptures and first that his externall is aire of a mean consistence it is made manifest in that the words aire winde and spirit are expressed in many places of Scriptures by all one Hebrew word namely by Ruach Again that his internall or moving soul and centrall act is the divine Spirit or inspiration it is proved and confirmed by the places which are cited before A flatu narium tuarum saith Moses coacervatae sunt aquae flavisti vento tuo operuit eos mare By the breath of thy nostrills the waters were gathered in a heap thou didst blow with thy wind and the sea did cover them And again Glaciem Deus fortis edit flatu suo The mighty God bringeth forth ice with his breath c. as if they had said God inspired the aire with his Spirit So that there appeareth no difference between an angelicall creature and the aire so divinely inspired for the aire is said to be the externall or manifest of an Angell as well good as bad animated by God for the effecting of his will either to punish or to extend and shew forth his benigne mercy or clemency as his internall and occult portion is the immediate breath of God and therefore as I said before they are by St. Denis tearmed Algamatha that is to say clear mirrours or looking-glasses which receive the light of God Is it not in plain words expressed by David Quod angelos suos fecerit ventos that he made his angels winds where by his angels is meant the emissions from his throne and they being incorporated with the aire are tearmed angelicall natures Again JEHOVA said of the Angel that went before the Israelites to conduct them in the wildernesse Nolite exacerbare eum nam non feret defectiones vestras quoniam nomâ—n meum est in eo Do not anger him for he will not bear your errours because that my name is in him that is to say The bright impression of my word For the son of Syrach said that wisdom went before them in a pillar of cloud and was a light unto them in the night and a shadow or cloud in the day to keep them from the extream heat For this reason therefore the same Angell is called in many places of that book sometimes Jehovah in regard of his inward and increated essentiall act and sometimes Angelus in regard of his alterity or composition of two or as he was a creature and therefore as God is identity namely an absolute simple pure and increated essence so an Angell is by the wiser Rabbies tearmed Alteritas to wit as he is compacted of the uniform inspiration of God and the humid or aery nature of the world that is of a created spirit or a created aire which made the Psalmist say that which is above cited Qui facit angelos ventos ministros suos ignem urentem For in this saying he seemeth to include both the occult and manifest nature As concerning the next clause of this definition
reall and essentiall And therefore I may boldly conclude and speak unto you with other Christians in Moses his language saying Contestor hodie contra vos Coelum Terram me vitam mortem bonum malum benedictionem maledictionem praepossuisse tibi Quare elige vitam ut tu cum semine tuo vivas I call Heaven and Earth to record this day against you that I have set before you life and death good and evill benediction and malediction Therefore chuse life that you with your seed may live and increase in the knowledge and understanding of God being that in the true Wisdom consisteth all true Philosophy certain Science and compleat Discipline FINIS THE SECOND SECTION OF THIS TREATISE WHEREIN The reall History and fundamentall grounds of Sympathy or concupiscible Attraction and Coition and consequently of all Magneticall sorts of curing As also of Antipathy or odible expulsion and therefore of each malady or annoyance are proved by infallible reasons maintained by the assertions of the wisest Philosophers and Cabalists justified by the inviolable Testimonies of Holy Scriptures And lastly verified and confirmed by sundry Magneticall Experiments Gemina fecit Deus omnia quorum alterum contrarium est alteri nec quicquam factum est quod mancum est Syrach 42.25 Omnia duplicia unum contra unum non fecit quicquam deesse Eccles. 42. vers 25. LONDON Printed for Humphrey Moseley at the Prince's Armes in St. Paul's Church-yard 1659. The Second Section of this TREATISE The First Book The Argument of the First Book AFter that the Author had by diligent enquiry understood that all Sympathy and Antipathy did spring immediately from certain different passions of the Soul or vivifying Spirit whereof the one is Concupiscible and the other is Irascible and yet perceived them by effect to be in Creatures as well Vegetable and Minerall as Animal he was surprised with an especiall desire to find out the radicall occasion or beginning thereof And when he had well pondered and considered that eternall Unity which is the head and root of all things in its simple and absolute nature he could discern no such diversity in its essence seeing that it existeth for evermore but onely one and the same Identity For according unto holy Writ Sicut tenebrae ejus ita lux ejus As his darknesse so is his light Wherefore he gathered that a two-fold aeviall effect or principle clean opposite unto one another in condition and disposition must needs spring and arise from these two severall properties in that one entire essence namely Nolunty and Volunty whereof the first was expressed by darknesse and the other by light For when this mentall Eternity and infinite Light in whom in verity there is no darknesse wills not it reserveth it self within it self that is it reflecteth his beams into it self and so informeth nothing by his presence but leaveth the universall Abysse or Chaos which is said in this estate to dwell and exist in the divine puissance dark deformed quite void and destitute of its vivifying act or resplendent brightnesse and this his negative action is the perfect character of his Nolunty the generall effects whereof are darknesse and privation But when this abstruse unity doth send out the benigne and salutary brightnesse of its essence which is the expression of his Volunty or will into the deformed Chaos then deformity or darknesse and privation are forced to give place unto their opposite corrivalls Conformity or Light and Position which are the affirmative acts of life and essentiall existence By this object therefore of his contemplation he did gather that the act of Volunty and that of Nolunty were in one essentiall Unity which was all goodnesse and consequently that Nolunty in it is nothing else but its Volunty being that as it is one and all so also is its Volunty but one Identity in it and yet all and over all with it for thereby it acteth or worketh its pleasure both privativly and positivly as well in the heavenly vertuâ—s as the inhabitants of the earth And therefore darknesse and light are all one in this Archetypicall Unity because that all in it is good forasmuch as if is onely and absolutely good indeed in it self As for the contrary effects namely the deformed and privative darknesse of the rude chaos or undigested abysse and the informing act or positive emanation of light they indeed appear such unto the creatures and seem to produce unto this world an infinity of contrarieties which are esteemed by mortals to be either good or evill according as by effect they find them Howsoever it seemeth most apparent unto the Author that these two contrary effluxions or extensions proceeding in effect from one essentiall eternity were the principles of all things being that the dark Chaos did afford and produce out of her womb the waters which was the onely matter whereof the world and consequently the heavens and earth were made And the vivifying emanation or irraciation of the eternall light did bestow on it form shape vertue and motion All which when the Author had discovered and seriously pondered with himself his reason did clearly thereupon inform him that the world was compacted and framed of contrary stuffe for how is it possible but that opposite and discordant parents should bring forth children disagreeing in condition from their kind And yet such was the will of the Creator that these two dissonant accords should in the beginning and shaping forth of an Image like unto himself be united into one Unison or unity by the inviolable tye of his never-dying Spirit of love and concord that thereby the matter which is the substance of the dark waters might serve as a female unto the formall and masculine eradiation or illuminating spirit which issued from him and so make of that duality or confusion of unities a typicall Trinity in Unity figured after the similitude of the Archetype which being meerly spirituall was the eternall life and formall being of the world it self remaining without any beginning and for that cause the world being its image must also have a catholick life or soul by which it may act and live according unto the pattern from whence as well the form of its essence as the matter of its existence did flow and must for that reason be endued with the opposite properties of willing and nilling or Volunty and Nolunty and by consequence of amiable attraction or odible expulsion Hereupon therefore he did observe that both the internall and externall type or typicall world must needs be subject to contrary passions and alterations proceeding from the like properties namely being sometimes apt to incline unto the disposition of darknesse following therein by a naturall instinct the condition and inclination of matter or water which was the offspring of the dark Abysse or Chaos over which the divine puissance hath dominion and therefore in this condition it endueth the character
time when these secrets shall be discovered which will come to pass when the seventh Seal shall be opened for then that high mystery which is the finall cause why and for what end Gods Providence will by these two opposits reveal it self and clean extinguish all enmity out of the world shall be discovered As touching nevertheless the end of this dissonancy the Apostle saith that it will be when the Son hath delivered the Kingdom unto God the Father and when he hath evacuated every Principality and Potentate and Virtue he must raign untill he hath made his enemies his foot-stool and the last enemy that shall be destroyed is Death So that as two contrarieties or discords proceeded from one Unity or unison namely Light and Darkness from one Divine Essence So also these two dissonant branches or confusion of Unities will at the last be reduced or return again into one harmonious Unity in which there will be found no dissonancy namely when these words of the Revelation are accomplished Ecce omnia nova facio vetera enim transurunt Behold I make all things new for the old heaven and earth have passed away But leaving this allaterall discourse we will proceed directly in our Sympatheticall and Antipatheticall Argument or inquiâ—ition into the which that we may penetrate with the greater celerity and facility and dive the deeper into the research of their actions it will be fit that we should describe in the first place the manner how the world doth live by the participation of these two namely of the Light and Darkness and that I will expresse unto you in few words what the Ancient Philosophers have determined about the soul of the world and lastly I will shew that their Opinions do not erre or vary much from the Testimony of the sacred Bible CHAP. IV. Wherein it is evidently proved as well by the ancienâ— Ethnick Philosophers as by the authority of Holy Scriptures that there is a soul of the world Herein also is expressed what this catholick Soul is and whereof it is composed or made I Purpose in the first rank of my discourse touching the soul of the world to expresse what the opinions as well of the ancient Cabalists and mysticall Rabbi's as Ethnick Philosophers are concerning this Subject so much condemned by some self-conceited and little skillfull persons in so profound a mystery and so highly prised and esteemed by others who have with the Lyncean eye-sight of their understanding dived and penetrated into the secret bowells of Nature with due reverence contemplated her Centrall and eternall Agent And afterwards my meaning is to set down the concordance which is observed betwixt them and Holy-Writ The Cabalist's tenent is that the great Angell whom they term Mitattron which by interpretation is Donum Dei the gift of God is that very same catholick Spirit which doth animate the whole world and thereupon Rabbi Moses doth averre it to be Intellectus a ens or the generall intellectuall agent from which all particular forms do flow And they say that from this universall angelicall Spirit all singular vertues as well animall as vitall and naturall do proceed which also they call Angells whereof there are an infinite number in respect of our capacity And the Philosopher Democritus Orpheus with divers of the Pythagoreans do not much differ from this opinion of these Rabbi's but in variety of name onely for they imagine that all things are full of gods and therefore they offered divine Honours Praiers and Sacrifices unto them in the creatures and did worship each of them with a divers fashion of ceremony But they had evermore that regard unto JEHOVA the eternall Unity and Father of all things that they referred all these gods unto one Jupiter This point nevertheless being ill understood by the ignorant was an especiall cause of Idolatry being that hereupon the simple fell unto the worshipping of the creature in stead of the Divinity which was in the creature And for this reason Solomon Vani sunt homines omnes naturà in quibus est ignorantia Dei qui ex iis quae spectantur bonis eum qui est intellig ere non potuerunt neque ex operibus consideratis ipsum opificem agnoverunt All men are naturally vain in whom is the want of the knowledg of God and cannot conceive him that truly is by such good creatures as they sensibly do discern nor yet have scanned and discovered the Workman by the consideration of his works In like manner the Platonists did call the generall vertue which did engender and preserve all things the Animam mundi or the soul of the world And to this their opinions the Arabick Astrologians do seem to adhere forasmuch as they did maintain that every particular thing in the world hath his distinct and peculiar soul from this vivifying Spirit To this opinion also Mercurius Trismegistus Theophrastus Avicenna Algazel and as well all the Stoicks and Peripateticks do seem wholly to consent or agree Again Zoroaster and Heraclitus the Ephesian conclude that the soul of the world is that catholick invisible fire of which and by the action whereof all things are generated and brought forth from puissance unto act Virgil that excellent Latine Poet calleth it that mentall Spirit which is infused through every joint and member of the world whereby the whole Mass of it namely the heaven and the earth or spirit and body are after an abstruse manner agitated and moved His words are these Spiritus intus alit totamque infusa per arâ—us Mens agitat molem c. A Spirit saith he doth nourish within and being infused over all the joints or members of the world it doth move the whole substance of the same Marcus Manâ—ius as also Boetius and Augurel being later Poets are of Virgil's opinion For Manlius saith Hoc opus immensi constructum corpore mundi Vis animae divina regit The divine power of the â—oul doth govern this work which is erected in the body of the vast world And Boetius Tu triplicis mediam naturae cuncta moventem Connectis animam Thou dost frame or tye together a mean soul of a triple nature which movâ—th all things And Augurel saith Nonnulli quicquid diffunditur undique coeli Aëraque terras lati marmoris aequor Intus agi referunt animà quà vivere mundi Cuncta putant ipsumque hà e mundum ducere vitam Ast animae quoniam nil non est corporis expers Mundus at mundi partes quoque corpore constant Spiritus hic intermedius fit quem neque corpus Aut animum dicunt sed eum qui solus utroque Participans in idem simul haec exâ—rema redâ—cat Some say that whatsoever filleth the Heaven the Aire the Earth and wide Seas is stirred up by a soul through the vertue whereof all things in the world do live and also that the world it self doth exist by it But because
there is not any bodily substance that is viod of a soul and that the world and every part thereof doth consist of a body therefore there is an intermediate spirit betwixt this soul and body which they neither call a soul or a body but a mean substance participating of them both to reduce both extreams together into one The wiser sort of Alchymists do make the Soul a certain infinite nature or power in all things which doth procreate like things of their like for this nature doth engender all things yea and multiplieth and nourisheth or sustaineth them and they also style it the Ligament or bond of the elements since by it they are fastned together with the Symphoniacal accords of peaceable harmony although of themselves that is in regard of their matter they are dissonant Also it is termed the true virtue that mingleth and proportionateth every thing in this sublunary world allotting unto each specifick creature a convenient and well agreeing form that thereby one thing might be distinguished and made to vary from another and in conclusion the mysticall Rabbies do averre that this occult fire is that Spirit of the Lord or fiery love which when it moved upon the waters did impart unto them a certain harmonious and hidden fiery vertue without whose lovely assistance and favorable heat nothing could be generated of them or multiplied in them Thus you may discern the manifold opinions as well of Christian as Heathen Philosophers touching this Anima mundi or soul of the world which will appear to vary little or nothing at all from the tenent of Holy Scripture in sense but in words onely Neither are these their opinions so hainous or abominable as some more superstitiously zealous than truly understanding Christians of this our Age will make them if they will scan the matter wisely and with moderation for then they shall really perceive that it doth concurre with the Bible of Truth And to confirm what I now say my purpose is in the first place to expresse unto each learned and well minded Reader the harmony of the Scriptures touching this point and then I will compare every one of the foresaid opinions with the sense and grounds of the said harmony that each wise man may thereby the better conjecture and guesse at the truth of the business before he shall rashly enter into the censuring of that deep and profound mystery which concerneth the Divine action in naturall effects I told you in my precedent discourse that the Eternall Unity which is the God of gods and Beginning of beginnings did cause by a double property in one essence two divers principles to issue out of himself whereof the one was potentiall and no way as yet inacted by the brightnesse of his emanation and in that respect is termed Darkness privation Nolunty opposit to Light and a friend unto death and rest The other was actuall and nothing else but a pure catholick form and brightness which is tearmed Light Position Volunty and in nature opposit to Darknesse and a friend unto life and action or motion And then I signified unto you that by the bright appearance of Eternity or the Eternall Spirit of Wisdom which I termed with the Scriptures the radiant emanation or effluxion from the Almighty which is all one with him in essence the deformed waters were inacted and made manifest out of this dark Principle or Chaos that is reduced from Potentia Divina or the Divine Puissance without form in which they abode into Actum Divinum the Divine Act and because all the humid and passive catholick nature of which both the heavens and the earth were framed did issue from this Mass of watery matter which the Poets call Pana or the second birth of Chaos we must imagine it to be that spirituall matter of the world which was made fertill and multiplicable by reason of that hidden active and formall Light or invisible fire which this increated emanation imparted unto it immediatly before the creation of the heavens and the earth Whereupon the holy Text hath it Spiritus Domini serebatur super aquas The Spirit of the Lord moved or was carried upon the waters And as St. Aâ—gustin addeth to it igneum illis vigorem impâ—râ—ieâ—s Bestowâ—ng upon thâ—m a fiery vigor or formall and actâ—ve vertue Now as we see that Man which is called the little-world is composed of soul and body whereof the soul is his heaven or spirituall part or as we may say the superiour and higher waters and the body with the humours thereof as it were the lower waters is the earth and gâ—osser humouâ—s and each of these two are informed united and vivified by the Spirit of life which God inspired into it even so we may observe that the heaven or spirituall humid nature of the great world is animated by the eternall emanation or spirit of the supernaturall wisdom of God to give life and figure unto the world And forasmuâ—h as it is eaâ—ie to discern that the macro cosmicall heavens are of two sorts namely composed of upper spirituall waters which are called Aeâ—her or heavenly and of the lower spirituall waters which are called Aer or elementary no otherwise than in the lesser world or man the receptacle of the heavenly spirit is known to be Aer so that Physitians distinguish by reason of this difference between the vitall or aetheriall spirits and the naturall or elementary body So we ought to consider that this materiall humid spirit of the heavens in both worlds which are the subtlety of the waters are in themselves dead but in respect of the super-celestiall emanation into them which informeth and vivifieth them they live move and are thinner or thicker according unto that more or less formall grace which the all-informing Spirit doth allot them for the more the sacred Spirit of life doth abound or really act in this or that region of the universall aire the more that sphear is thin subtle active worthy and noble Doth not Scripture seem to verifie that Deus sapientia sua aptet pondus aeri appendat aquas in mensura fecerit terram in fortitudine sua preparaverit orbem in sapientia sua prudentia sua extenderit coelos appenderit aquilonem super inane suspenderit terram super nihilum In coelorum structura cum Deus stabiliret fundâ—menta terrae ipsa aderat cuncta componens And again Wisdom saith Ex ore altissimi prodii primogenita ante omnem creaturam in initio ante seculum creata sum usque ad futurum seculum non desinam habitatione sancta coram ipsum ministravi In coelis â—eci ut oriretur lumeninde ficiens sicut nebula texâ— omnem terram In altissimis habitavi thronus meus in columna nubis coeli gyrum circuivi sola profundum abyssi penetravi in fluctibus maris ambulavi in omni terra sâ—eti Feci Arcturum Orionem converti in
mane tenebras diem in noctem mutavi vocavi aquas maris effudi eas super terrae faciem Coelos den que mediante Spiritu meo ornavit Deus converti coelum in gyro in locum suum uno die omniaque numero pondâ—re meâ—sura disposuit temperavit God by his wisdom giveth proportion of weight unto the aire hangeth the waters in measure He made the earth in his strength prepared the world in his wisdome and extended the heavens by his prudency He hanged the North upon emptinesse and inâ—nity and ballanced the earth upon nothing For she was present at the building of the heavenâ— and it was â—he that did compasse and fashion out all things When God did establish the foundations of the earth she was present and composed all things And in another plaâ—e this Spirit of wisdom saith I came out of the mouth of the most high being first-born or brought forth before any creature I was created in the beginning before all ages neither shall my beeing cease in the latter age of the world and I do administer before him in his holy habitation I caused a never failing light to rise in the heavens and I covered the earth after the manner of a mist. I dwelled in the highest places and my throne was in a câ—owdy pillar I alone did compasse round about the heavens and did penetrate into the profundâ—â— of the abysse and I walked in the waves of the seas and I stood upon every earth I made the North or pole-star and Orion and I turned the darknesse into day and the day unto night I called the waters of the seas and poured them out upon the face of the earth I turned the heavens about unto his place in one daies space To conclude God adorned the heavens by my spirit and did proportionate and temper all things in number weight and measure c. By which testimonyes it is most apparent that all changes alterations actions ornaments of beauty motions numbers weights measures and consequently all diversities that are made in the generall homogeniall mass of the waters are effected by this vivifying emanation of the benigne and bright spirit of the eternall Unity whose root is the Word for in verity according unto St. Paul it is onely this Spirit that doth operate all in all And therefore I must needs conclude with the kingly Prophet and say Opera Dei mirabilia ampla sunt quae omnia fecisti in sapientia The works of God are marvellous and ample which thou hast effected in thy wisdom And again Verbo Domini firmati sunt coeli Spiritu oris ejus omnis virtus eorum By the word of the Lord the heavens were fashioned and fastned and by the Spirit of his mouth each vertue thereof Which words do seem to infer not onely the materiall substance of the world which is intimated by that word Heavens but also the inacting form that is the vivifying beginning of all things which hath no beginning and this is signified by the Word and his off-spring the Spirit from the which the waters first received their beeing and then of these catholick waters were the heavens the earth and elements made in number weight and measure that is to say were effected by a subdivision through the spagerick act of the self-same word or spirit And therefore St. Peter hath it Coeli erunt priùs terra de aquis per aquas consistentes verbo Dei The heavens and the earth were of old of waters and by waters consisting by the word of God As who should say after the Spirit of the Lord had issued out of the dark abyss for it is said Verbum erat in principio The Word was in the beginning and had given act and form and consequently a name unto the waters for it was said that the Spirit of the Lord was carried upon the waters the same Spirit did operate to reveal explicitely and particularly that which the Chaos did at the first contain in it self complicitely and confusedly and that in a generality wherefore when it had revealed the universall matter of all things which was water it did by little and little anatomise it and open the secret closets thereof to shew forth and make manifest that which from all eternity lay hid in it and was without form or beeing and therefore esteemed rightly for Nothing And first the substance of the world was made of it in generall as it appeareth by this Text Manus omnipotentis mundunt ex informi materia effecit The hand of the Omnipotent did make the world of a matter without form or shape And as St. Jerom interpreteth it Ex materia invisa Of an unseen or invisible thing Then that watry and humid substance was divided into the heaven and earth in distinguishing the waters from the waters by the same Spirit which is the ministring hand of the Almighty for the Text hath it In habitatione sancta coram ipso ministravi I did administer before him in the holy habitacle And again Sapientia apud ipsum fuit cuncta componens Wisdom was she that composed all things with God And this was the second daies work Then the lower waters were divided into elements namely earth water aire c. and that was the third daies separation as Moses doth methodically demonstrate All which Hermes expresseth thus as is said before Ex luminis voce verbum factum prodit verum hoc naturae humidae astans eam fovebat Ex humidae autem naturae visceribus sincerus ac levis ignis protenus evolans alta petit aer quoque levis spiritûs parens in mediam regionem inter aquam ignem sortiebatur terra verò aqua sic invicem commixta jacebant ut terrae facies obruta nusquam pateret The word which was made did issue out of the Light 's voice and this Word being present and assistant unto the humid nature did foster and preserve it Then the light fire proceeding out of the bowells of the humid nature soared or mounted aloft The thin air aâ—sâ— which is the father of the spirit did elect the middle region which is between the fire and the water for his abode The earth and water did lie so intermingled together that the face of the earth was no where overflowed or drowned by the waters Whereby it is evidently proved that this thin spirituall water or humid nature in it self is no more than mans spirit without the vivifying act of life for as in the soul of every creature that liveth there are two things chiefly to be required namely an Agent and a Patient so where the one of these are wanting there can be no created soul for if that the world's life was onely the essentiall breath of God without the vehicle of the created humid spirit which is the matter of heaven then that life would be simple identity and of one and the same property
and consequently there would be neither variety of action neither any contraction or dilatation of systole and diastole in things and therefore no action or passion in the soul for without a passive nature there can be no action and also without an active nature there can be no passion Now matter which proceedeth from water is the subject of all passion as here mother Chaos was the female or passive unto the action of Demogorgon or God Also act or form which proceedeth from light is the subject of all action as its father Eternity or the bright emanation of the spirit of wisdom from the fountain of light was the male or agent From hence therefore it is an easie thing to gather first what the soul of the world is and therefore of what parts it doth consist for we must consider that as every creature hath his interior and exterior so also we must exquisitely search after an internall and an externall in the soul being it is a creature and again that it is a creature it is most certain because it is not Identity but Alterity for if it were Identity it would be the divine unity or essence and consequently it would not be created Now that it is Alteritas it is plain because it is compounded of two after the consistence of Angells forasmuch as his internall is a vivifying flame issuing or proceeding from the eternall emanation of life and his externall is an aeviall spirit which is created inacted and animated by this eternall emanation from God And forasmuch as the nature of that most essentiall and never-dying fire is said to be all and in every part of the world and therefore Scriptures say Christus adimplet omnia Christ filleth all things Christus est omnia in omnibus Christ is all and in all Dei Spiritus est in coelo in inferno in extremis maris in nocte in tenebris c. The Spirit of God is in heaven in hell in the extreamest parts of the seas in the night and in darkness Sapientiam effudit Deus super omnia opera sua God hath powred out the spirit of wisdom upon all his works Spiritus Dei incorruptibilis inest omni rei The incorruptible Spirit of God is in every â—hing Coelum est ei sedes terra autem scabellum pedum ejus The heaven is his seat and the earth is his footstool Spiritus sapientiae implet orbem The spirit of wisdom filleth all the world c. Forasmuch I say as it is in every particle of this humid spirit the which by his presence is now full of dignity that before was vile and deformed it is certain that it maketh this catholick spirit to live And therefore this angelicall spirit thus composed of alterity or of two is called Anima mundi because it is that catholick or generall spirit divinely animated from the beginning which doth vivifie afterwards each particular creature of the world proceeding from the generality to the speciality and from the speciality unto the individuality So that the mighty question so often revolved by the Peripatetick Philosophers and so slenderly by them resolved may hereby be fully determined and enucleated if it please the wise and impartiall Reader rightly to consider things as indeed they do stand for by this it is easie to express and distinguish mentem divinam or the divine emanation from anima or the soul and again the anima from spiritus or the spirit being that it is evident that the mentall radication is the eternall and formall emanation which is given or sent out by the Creator in her positive property to create the world and consequently the earthly body and heavenly spirit thereof of nothing or non-actuall existence The spirit is that inward created spirit of the world or subtle substance of the waters or humid nature simply considered in its self which is animated and illuminated by that Archetypicall emanation and the soul or anima is that union which is made between this humid created spirit and the increated formall emanation which doth inform or create So that by this we may discern first what the forma informans or natura naturans is then what the forma informata or the natura naturata is The forma formans or natura naturans is God or the divine emanation which created all things the forma informata or natura naturata is the created light or the spirit informed or illuminated by the presence of the bright increased Spirit and the increated Spirit clothed with or enduing that created spirit is said to be vestitus or amictus lumine quasi vestimento cloathed with light that is with an illuminated spirit as with a garment We shall find also in Exodus that in the same Chapter the spirituall creature in which the divine Spirit acteth and resideth is tearmed an Angell in regard of his externall spirit in composition but again in the same Chapter it is tearmed JEHOVA in regard of the eternall form that acteth in it Also the Angell is said to go before the Israelites in a pillar of clowd by day and a pillar of fire by night And again it is said in the same history that JEHOVA went before them in the said order And the wise man said Fuit sapientia iis tegumentum interdiu lux stellaris noctu Wisdom was a cover to them in the day time and a starry-light in the night And the reason of all this is expressed elsewhere thus Noli exacerbare eum quia non feret defectionem vestram quoniam nomen meum est in eo Do not anger this my angel for he will not endure your defections because my name is in him c. Where by his name he signifieth his word which is God as if he had said I do essentially animate him and I am within him c. That the soul of the world or Mens divina in mundo simply taken is the divine mentall emanation absolutely in it self being distinguished from the created spirit this Text in Scriptures doth warrant Animam Spiritum dividit discernit sermo Dei vivus The Word of God doth devide the soul and the spirit c. Where by the word is ment the mentall beam by the Spirit the humid nature that existeth by the presence of the mentall beam which God by his Word can withdraw unto himself or emit according unto his will and pleasure Whereupon David said Deo recipiente Spiritum suum à creatuâ—is eâ—spi aâ—t â—miâ— erte spiritum recreantur bono God receiving or withdrawing his Spirit from 〈…〉 they exspire but sending out his Spirit they are recreated with life and goodness Aâ—d â—ow I will prove all this out of such definitions or descriptions which as well the Faâ—heâ—s of the Church as the Philosophers both Christian and Gentile have made upon the soul in generall both as it hath a relation unto a body and also as it is
in its simple and separated estate Damascene seemeth to define it thus Anima est subâ—tantia spiritualis a divinis fontibus emanaâ—s simplex indissolubilis immoâ—â—alâ—s libeâ—a incorporea indivisibilis quantitate figura pondere colore carens The sâ—â—l is a spirituall sâ—bstance flowing from the divine fountains simple indâ—ssolvable immortall free incorporealâ— indivisible wanting quantity figure waight and colour Unto this also Bernard seemeth to consent And Augustin defineth it thus Est mens divâ—na omnia intelligens omnibusque se assimilans It is a divine Spirit that understandeth all things and doth câ—nform it self unto the shape or lâ—kenesâ— of all things And for this reason certain Philosophers say that it is made after the likeness of the Spirit of Wisdome which is known to be the Image of God For it beareth the likeness of every thing in it self Wherefore it is defined by them to be the similitude of all things And verily it hath in it self this power to apprehend and find out all things Again it is like unto all things being that it is one in all There are some of the â—â—viner sort of Mysticall Philosophers that seem to conclude mans soul more fully in this definition Anima est lux quaedam divina ad imaginem Verbi causae causarum primi exemplaris creata sâ—bstantia Dei sigilioque figurata cuâ—us character est verbum aeâ—â—num The soul is a certain divine Light created after the Image of the Word the caâ—se of causâ—s and the first exemplaâ— or image c. Another defines it thus Est res incorporea omni decore adornata Sanctae Trinitati â—ssimiâ—ata 〈◊〉 nae gloriae coaquata It is an incorporeall thing whâ—ch is adorned with all virtue likned to or resembâ—â—ng the Holy Trinity and coâ—equated unto eternall glory Some do describe it thus Est Spiritus intellectualis semper vivens semper in mâ—tâ— sâ—cundum sui operis efficâ—â—m variis nuncupatur nominibus Dicitur vita dum vegetat spiritus dum contemplatur sensus dum sentit animus dum sapit mens dum intelligit ratio dum dâ—scernit mem ria dum recordatur dum vuli voluntas at isla omnia non sunt nâ—si una essentia seâ— proprietate diversa It is an intellectuall Spirit alwaies living alwaies in motion and in respect of its divers operations in the body it hath divers appellations assigned unto it For it is called life in regard of its vâ— vificative and vegetative property It is called a Spirit as it is conversant about contemplation and is a spirituall substance and breatheth in the body it is called sense as it is imploied about the Act of sensation it is termed Animus when it operateth in Knowledg and Wisdome and it is named Mens in regard of its Divine Understanding and Memory as it doth remember again as it is affected to will any thing it is called Voluntas and all these names decipher but onely one Anima or Soul in essence but divers and sundry properties or faculties c. And these later descriptions are assigned unto this vivifying Spirit as it is conversant with the body Now if we shall duly examine all these delineations of the essence and properties of this Anima as well in her freedom from the body as when it is included in it we shall find it not to vary one jot from the tenor of my precedent assertion For first we shall observe it to be in its essentiall virtue the off-spring of the eternall emanation which came immediatly from God for the inacting of all things and then that it hath for its substantiall Vehicle the thin subtile created spirit of the world which maketh it alteritatem or a composition of two namely of the bright emanation from the eternall Fountain and therefore in the foresaid definitions it is tearmed in regard of this its interior in the first a Spirituall Substance flowing from the divine Fountain in the second mens divina in the third the Image of similitude of the divine Wisdome in the fourth a divine Light after the Image of the Word the substance of God whose character is the Word in the fifth the similitude of the Holy Trinity coaequated unto the divine Glory Secondly it participates of the mundane spirit and therefore it is by the sixth and seventh tearmed in regard of its substance a spirit that breatheth in the body and it is the Vehicle of the formall act which is in truth the divine mentall beam being considered in it self as the substantiall and materiall spirit in its simple nature it is that which participateth with the created spirit of the world The union of these two is called anima so that anima includeth mentem and spiritum or the divine and created nature in one which filleth all and animateth and vivifieth all things according to the assertion of such Gentile and Ethnick Philosophers as I have cited before which I will prove no way to dissent or vary from the testimony of the holy Text. And to make this the plainer I will compare them in order And first I will begin my relation with the Cabalists great Angell whom they call Mitaitron which by interpretation is Donum Dei the Gift of God which as they say is the catholick intellectuall Agent from the which all peculiar forms do descend The Apostle saith that the Lord doth vivifie all things And Solomon saith that the Spirit of Wisdom is the tree of life and the fountaiâ— or beginning of life and if this Spirit be the fountain of life then the Son of Syrach effudit Deus illam supra omnia opera sua supra omnem carnem secundum datum suum God poured it out upon all his works and upon all flesh in his measure And this was that catholick angelicall Spirit which God sent out as a Spirituall Messenger from himself and out of himself in the form of an emanation to move upon the waters and to inform and vivify them and give life and being not onely to the great world but also to every particular thereof and the emanation was this Word of God by whom all things were made and vivified forasmuch as in it was life I mean that Christ which filleth all things who is all in all as the Apostle saith who in the beginning made the earth and the heavens were the work of his hands and after his creation of all things he doth as St. Paul telleth us portare omnia verbo virtutis suae bear up suffer and sustain all things by the vivifying virtue of this Word Which also David confirmeth in this Verbo Domini firmati sunt coeli Spiritu ab ore ejus omnis virtus eorum By the Word of the Lord the heavens were framed and setled and by the breath of his mouth all the virtues thereof namely the life preservation and being The Apostle therefore seemeth to conclude thus Deus non aliquo indigens
dat vitam inspirationem omnia God needing not the assistance of any giveth life and breath and all things unto every creature But each Philosopher cannot but acknowledg that Anima is nothing else but that which doth animate or vivifie a body or spirit why then should not the catholick divine Spirit which filleth all and operateth all and in all be tearmed the fountain of the worlds life by which it liveth moveth and hath its being and consequently the essentiall life and Centrall or mental soul of the world moving the created humid spirit thereof no otherwise then the spirit which God breathed into Adam did move and operate in and by the Organ of the created aire What shall the eternall and vivifying Spirit of Wisdome which is said to fill all and to be in every thing which hath the nature of the universall catholick and first created Angell For Ecclesiasticus hath it prior omnium creata est Sapientia Wisdom was created before all things shall it being that it is as it were the catholick soul of the world or life of all things forasmuch as it is the emanation of the brightnesse of the Omnipotent and the splendor of the eternall Light and the pure mirror of the Majesty of God and the Image of his goodnesse being one simple subtil permanent in it self and the most piercing or movable of all things All which are the properties assigned by St. Dionys unto an Angell and by the learned Fathers before mentioned unto a separated soul shall it I say be in all things and fill the heavenly spirit of each world I mean of the great world and the little one called Man and shall it not operate and act the vivifying and multiplying effect of his nature but be idle and vacant in the creature Did God send forth his operative Spirit to be still and not to act Yea verily the Father operates in it by his Voâ—unty and he effecteth the Volunty of his Father in the creatuâ—es spirit which it possesseth animateth and guideth which way it pleaseth And for this reason Judith saith Deo serviat omnis creatura quia dixisti facta sunt misisti spiritum tuum creatae sunt So that the great world may say and confesse as well as man that it was made after the Image of the Archetype or God and that in him it liveth moveth and existeth According to that of the Apostle unto man which is the little world Thus you see that the Cabalist's Mitatiron or Donum Dei whom they make the catholick intellectuall Agent is nothing else but that universall Spirit of Wisdome which God sent out from this Throne or as the Text hath it even out of his own mouth as the greatest gift and token of his benignity unto each world and the members thereof to reduce them from deformity and non-existence into act and formall being and to endue them with lively feature and to tender life and being unto them explicitly which before was but complicitly included and comprehended in the dark and gloomy shadow of death I mean out of the deformed Chaos into a beautifull shape out of deadly sleep and dark rest into a lively action and motion out of obscurity into Light And this therefore was tearmed rightly in the eies of wise men Mitattron or Donum Dei catholicum which reduceth the universall Nothing into an universall Something But that I may the better expresse unto you by a Philosophicall Demonstration the Angelicall nature of this supream intelligence called Mitattron and consequently of the soul of the world I would have you in the first place to know the true manner how the Philosophers do demonstrate the harmony of the world and his spirit The Platonick's Heptachord the which he did invent and adapt for the demonstrating of the soul of the world did consist of seven strings or proportions partly even and partly odd namely 1 2 3 4 8 9.27 The which proportions although Porphyrie and Proclus have drawn forth in one line nevertheless it appeareth unto me that Adrastus and Calcidius have more fitly expressed and adapted it unto the sides of a Pyramis or Triangle in this manner In the summity or top whereof namely where both lines meet in one point the figure of 1. is expressed with Unity because it participates both on the side with the materiall existence and on the other it hath a commerce with the formal emanation it is apparent that this point or Unity from whence both these different lines or streames do issue in the fountain as well of matter as form and therefore it is as well Synesius's as other Theosophers opinion not disagreeing in this point from Holy Scripture That Deus sit omne quod est quippe à quo per quem in quo sunt omnia Quod sit mas faemina vel ut Mercurius Trismegistus ait utriusquae sexûs faecundâ—ssimus quod sit potentia actus quod sit forma quod sit materia Imo vere nihil est quod ipse non existit God say they is every thing that existeth being that from him by him and in him are all things He is male and female as Synesius saith or as Mercurius Trismegistus will have it He is most abundant in each sex He is puissance and act and finally he is form and he is matter And verily they conclude that there is nothing which he is not All which seem not to differ from Holy Testimony which is that God is all and in all and above all and that in him are all things and in his Spirit and Word all things consist c. The six other figures which do correspond unto one another from the materiall side unto the formall namely the even numbers that regard directly the odd namely the materiall number 2. regards the formall 3 the 4. the 9 and the 8. the 27. do most lively expresse the generall kinds of all creatures with their harmony And in the first place it deciphereth the Symphoniacall Degrees of the Soul of the world as shall be told hereafter For first after the example of the Archetype from 1. issued 2. which is termed by the Pythagoreans the confusion of Unities and therfore it is the radicall or incipient imperfect number which is in respect of his confusedness and imperfection in the same relation unto Unity from whence it sprung as the bright eternall Unity is unto the dark Chaos which is rudis indi gestaque moles a rude or confused and indigested heap And it is rightly tearmed Imperfect because that the eternall emanation which is all perfection had not as yet made it perfect and for this reason also the watery matter that issued out of it is of it self imperfect no otherwise then the number of 2. is esteemed in regard of that of 3. because all perfection consisteth of 3. tearmes namely a beginning a middle and an end So that if you take one of the
Unities of 2. for the beginning and another for the middle then there wants an end If you put an Unity for the beginning and an other for the end then you have two extreams but no mean or middle and therefore it is this way also imperfect Or if you place one Unity for a mean and the other for an end here also you have imperfection because there wants a beginning In like manner if Unity had not emitted his actuall emanatiom as a bright Unity of life the 2. or deformed matter of the Chaos had stood in his duall confused or imperfect estate that is without the form or shape of any perfect thing I mean a plain Nihil or Aliquid in potentia non actu Something in puissance and not in act So that matter I say before it was informed by the Unity of Light which maketh the third Unity was Vacuum inane Vacuity and inanity because it wanted the presence of the informing Unity or actuall emanation to endue it with the title of goodnesse for after the bright emanation was made then vacuity was changed into plenitude puissance into act darkness into light and a deformed matter into well formed and vivified waters and in a word imperfection into perfection And thereupon it was said that God saw that it was good that is it was replenished with his virtuous Essence who was all good and onely goodnesse By this reason therefore namely by the addition of the formall Unity the manner of confusion and of imperfection which is the materiall duality that doth Symbolize with the Chaos which is the mother of matter perfection is brought into the world which by animating the purest and subtiler waters doth unite the mentall Light with the heavenly Spirit in an Angelicall essence which doth afterwards animate and inform all things And this formall Union is Symbolically expressed by the figure 3. which for this cause is termed the first number of perfection and the number of the Soul or the radicall number of form in the course of nature henceforth therefore it cometh that the Platonists and Pythagoreans do expresse matter which is imperfect in it self by eaven or imperfect numbers and according as in the Achetypicall world defigned by 1 2 3. in form of the sacred Trinity there appeareth to be three Ideall dimensions in one divine nature or eternall essence which present in their manner of progression a Root a Square and a Cube which import a supream soul a spirit and body of the world Ideally painted out in the Archetype and that these three seem to be raised out of one 1. or Unity for multiplying 1. by the root 1. doth produce 1. and its self which makes 2. or a simple Ideal square and multiplying it again by 1. there riseth but 2. and 1. which make 3. or a Cube which argueth the perfection of the Ideal world which was in God if we take the two radical compounded numbers for roots we shall produce after this pattern the created or exemplar world namely we shall find out three dimensions to wit longitude latitude and profundity of the matter by the inquiry or searching out of the Root Square and Cube of matter the root of matter therefore was 2. for though the supream unity had multiplied or dilated it self in 2. arguing its first-born issue yet because the holy Spirit of Illumination shined not forth all was dark quoad nos wherefore we must imagin that the multiplication of matter in the world is nothing but variety of penetration of formall light into the watery abysse or materiall multitude For the thicker matter is the nearer she appeareth unto her root 2. or the dark Chaos Again the thinner it is made by the opulency of the formall emanation's bright presence the nearer it appeareth unto the root of formall Unity This mystery I say being rightly understood all science even in the abstrusest Philosophy may easily be decyphered The root of matter therefore which is 2. imports the dark Chaos the root of form which is 3. imports that the root 2. or the dark waters is animated by the formall or bright emanation of Unity or 1. and so the first 2. was accomplished and the soul of the world created namely by the Angelicall emanation And thus was the Cabalists Mâ—tuâ—tron oâ— Anâ—ma mundi first produced which according unto their traditions is said to be the first creature that was created agreeing with that of Ecclesiasticus Prior omnium creata est Sap entia Dâ—us 〈…〉 Sancâ—o Wisdom was created before all things God created her in the Holy Spirit c. And in and by this Angelical creation all other Angels were also made and therefore it is said Christus est Imago Dei invisibilis Primogenitus emnis â—â—caâ—â—rae in quo edâ—ta sunt unâ—vâ— saâ— coelis in â—â—â—ra visibilia inviâ—â—bilia sive Thâ—â—ni sive Dominat ones sive Potestaâ—es omnia per ipsum in ipso â—mnia sunt ipse ante omnes omnia in ipso constant Christ is the Image of the invisible God being bâ—ough◠〈◊〉 before any creature in whom all things as well visible as invisible are maâ—e both in heaven and earth whether they be Thrones or Dominations or Potestats all are made by him and in him and he was before any thing and all consist in him Loe here is evidently described the true vivifying Spirit which not onely made all and is all that he made being that all are in him doing the will of his Father in all that he hath made whom the Hebrew Rabbies call Mitattroâ— or Donum Dei and the Prophet Magniconcilii Angelum the Angel of the great councell Et vocabitur nâ—mâ—n ejus saith the Prophet magni concilii Angeâ—us And his name shall be called The Angel of the great councel c. Thus by the multiplying of 3 in it self we have the created formall square which imports the nine Orders of the Angels which vary according to the multiplicity of properties by which the effluxion or emanation that is sent out from this infinite fountain of light doth operate diversly in the world according unto the will of the Father of lights which sent it forth And the formall square 9 being joyned with the materiall square 4 doth animate the heavens which by inspissation or multiplication are made corporall or cubicall so that all bodies are made of those thin substances by multiplying of each square in his root whereupon the cubicall form wil be 27 and that of matter 8 which argue every elementated or compound matter and as the more the matter is multiplied in it self the darker and thicker will it be so the more that light is multiplied in it the lighter thinner and more spirituall will the creature be Insomuch that the formall root and square and cube import the essence and souls of creatures as well super-celestiall as celestiall and elementall which are more or less dignified with form for
according unto these multiplications in form the more will the creatures be exalted in excellency You see now how far and by what proportions as well spirituall as materiall the Platonick harmony of the world extends it self and may observe that where this harmonious proportion between form and matter is not there must needs be as well spirituall as corporall dissention or discord and consequently antipathy We see also that the root of life is fixed in the angelicall composition which is of simple light pure spiritual matter so that the eternal sapience or essential soul is the act of the Angels the aevial angelicall spirit is the act or essential life of the starrs or heavenly influence and the starry influence is the soul and life of the winds the spirituall emanation from the winds do fourfoldly inform the catholick sublunary element or lower waters the element doth animate the meteorologicall impressions and of these are the compound creatures compacted which draw from the divine fountain of them all being one spirit in essence but multiform in regard of the variety of organs by which it worketh variously in the world So that it appeareth that God animated immediately the Emperiall heaven or the intellectuall spirit which is the seat of Angells and this we compare to the root the emperiall heaven animates the stars or aetheâ—iall region which we refer to the square and the starry heaven is as it were the male or multiplyer and vivifier of the elementary region and his creatures which we compare unto the cube Verily not onely the abstruse Cabalists but also the profoundest Philosophers have made an everlasting memory of this perfect and formall root or ternary number with his triple dimension I mean not that which is taken for a mercatory number or such an one as the vulgar Arithmeticians do use in their Algorism but as it is a spirituall and essentiall character of numeration proceeding from a certain circular revolution and square and cubick multiplication And therefore the Learned have founded on this subject their formall and mysticall Arithmetâ—ck and Geometry which are not exercised about common and vulgar subjects but wholly employed about the profound meditations of the true Cabâ—le naturall Magick and essentiall Alchimy which because the ignorant vulgar people do rashly condemn under those titles are otherwise tearmed by the mysticall with the name of the science Elementary Celestiall and Supermundane as well because it entreateth of separated Intelligences and substances as some do style them as also because it is the worthiest of all others to be understood as being conversant about the knowledge of the Creator for the greatest perfection in which man may most glory is to artain unto the true knowledge of God which also the Prophet doth testifie in these words Let not the wise glory in his wisdom noâ— the strong man in his strength nor the rich man in his riches but let him that will glory vaunt and glory in that he knoweth and understandeth me And verily these are the three mysticall sciences which are by wise men appropriated unto the knowledge of the three worlds I mean the Intelligible the Celestiall and Elementary represented according unto the Cabalists by these three Letters of the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Adam Also the three parts of man termed the little world to wit the Intellect the Soul and Body which is subject to alteration and corruption as also the elementary part Upon this foundation also the Rabbi Zoar said That there are three things which correspond unto one another in this ternary dimension forasmuch as they are framed or formed after the pattern of the Archetype and radicall Idea namely the Tabernacle of God which Moses erected the Temple of Solomon and mans Body according unto the three manner of numbers which were applyed unto them namely the vocall or operative which is the extract of the measure unto the elementary world the formall which is extract from the vocall unto the celestiall and the rationall or divine which is extracted out of the formall unto the intellectuall I will make all this plain by the reall description of the Tabernacle This Tabernacle did symbolize with the three worlds in his parts for the former of them was uncovered and was exposed unto the winde rain hail snow and all other impressions which are ingendered in the sublunary world with perpetuall alterations and changes and unto this part the common sort of people as also the beasts in an assiduall vicissitude of life and death did resort by reason of the continuall sacrifices which were slain and offered in this place And therefore this region importing the cube of matter is rightly referred unto the elementary world which is composed of the grosser waters as of a substance fluid and unstable and for this reason it is properly called the world of darkness wherefore the Evangelist in one place styleth the devill the Prince of darknesse and in another place the Prince of this world This region also hath his relation unto the body of man The second part of the Tabernacle which was burnished over with gold and illuminated with a Candlestick of seven lights doth decypher out the starry heaven and his seven erratick lights of Planets and this heaven as it is in the middle betwixt two extreams namely between the bright fountain of the formall or emperiall heaven and the obscure and dark abysse of matter or elementary world so also it doth participate of the two extreams namely of water and fire And for this reason the heaven is called of the Hebrewes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aâ—â—amaiim of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 esch fire and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 maym water in Greek Aether quasi igneus aer But the warry body or matter of it is therefore incorruptible because her appetite is so fulfilled by the affluence of the formall nectar from above that it desireth not any alteration and touching her activity and motion it hath it from that eternall emanation which is said by Solomon to be the most movabâ—e of all things and in verity it is the first catholick mover who is said to be the President of the primum mobile at whose act all the inferiour intelligences do move about their rouling and twinckling fires no otherwise than at the motion of a centrall wheel many externall wheels do move and have their life Thus we may see first why this region of the world is tearmed Heaven or sphear of equality namely by reason of his mixtion in equall proportions of form and matter also why it is called the sphear of the soul of the world by reason that it is composed of the pure spirit of the waters which is female and passive and the bright fire or act of eternity for the mentall divinity doth by and through this humid nature which is his vehicle act and shew forth his vivifying and emanating property in and by this spirituall organ and
therefore doth all life consist ex caliâ—o essentiali humido radicali of essentiall heat as the masculine or active and radicall moisture as the female or passive This region therefore is referred unto the vitall soul in man and hath relation unto the square as well of form as matter which is in the midst between the cube and the root The third part of the Tabernacle was the Sanctum sanctorum and doth represent the super-celestiall or intelligible soul or emperiall spirit forasmuch as his substance is almost light and fire and it is thought to be the seat of the Angells which are the ministers of their great Prince the Lord of light And this is argued by the presence of the two Cherubins or fiery Angells which with their wings do shadow the propitiatory This heaven hath his relation unto the intellect in man which the Hebrews call Nessaniah and the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latins Mens or the mentall beam which hath the dominion in mans soul. So that we may discern that in the great world the angelicall heaven being most formall and fiery is as it were the soul of the aetheriall heaven for by it and from it this region receiveth his life's motion and being as also by the like proportion the celestiall or aetheriall heaven is the soul or agent of the elementary region For by means of the Sun Moon and Starrs which dart down their beams and influences upon the earth as arrowes against a butt the earth and water and all things therein do act and live and generate and multiply so that the heavens are esteemed by all Philosophers to be the Male and the earth and other elements the Females between the which all generations are made in and upon the earth and in the sea for the earthly body cannot operate without a heavenly touch yea even man himself requireth for his generation the heavenly act and aid and therefore Aristotle concludeth that sol homo generat hominem the sun and man doth ingender a man Again all Philosophers in generall agree in this namely that superiora agunt in inferiora more maris in foeminam the superior bodies do operate upon the inferiors as the man upon the woman And the Maxim of all such Cabalists as are conversant in the mysticall Theology averr that omnes res inferiores sunt representativae superiorum sicut fit inferius sic agitur superius All inferiour things are representours or images of the superiours and such as the inferiours are such also are the superiours And in verity a notable person and well seen in this abstruce learning doth aver that the aeviall or angelicall heaven is framed after the pattern of the eternall and ideall world and the temporall elementary heaven or region is the image of the celestiall or aetheriall so that the images and the actions of the darker world have their ideall shapes in and from the lighter and starry world and the starry world's shapes and actions were first delineated in the intellectuall or angelicall one and they again proceed originally from the radicall pattern without beginning in the Archetype I conclude therefore that both Theology and the mysticall Philosophy do consent that God is well pleased with the holy ternary which is the first odd number in the Arithmeticall progression for we Christians honour a Trinity of Persons in one Deity and Aristotle saith That we are instructed by a naturall kind of instinct or habit to honour God after the number of three and he speaketh in this but reason being that in the ideall world there was three properties extracted out of one unity after whose example the reall world was afterward made so that the Trinity in Divinity was the root of all the worlds formall composition For by the root 3 the intellectuall or angelicall world was deciphered by the square 9 the celestiall world and by the cube 27 the elementary as by the Platonick learning we may gather But as for the Cabalisticall Rabbies they consider the quantitative proportions of this Ternary after another manner for as the cube of three consists of three 9 so they take these three 9 order them in this ternary position 999 which makes nine hundred ninety and nine So that after the rule of Algorism the first 9 towards the right hand is a simple digital number which because of its simplicity formality and essentiality is attributed by them unto the nine orders of Angells which belong unto the intelligible world The middle 9 importing so many Tens doth seem to partake one way of form or simplicity and on the other hand of matter and therefore they allot it unto the nine orbes or sphears of the starry heaven The third 9 which is the place of Hundreds importeth a deeper and more materiall composition belonging unto the elementary world all which do at the last terminate in Man who is as it were a passage after the figure of unity from them unto celestiall things and from thence unto intellectuall To conclude unity in whom the Philosophers Leucippe did place the soveraign good and happinesse being added unto the three novenaries will make a compleat thousand which is the cube often and the end of all numbers according to the Hebraick calculation Also the square of 3 which is 9 by addition of Aleph which is 1 produceth a Denary or the number of 10 beyond the which as Aristotle averreth no man hath ever found any number After the foresaid type therefore or image the antient Law did make a partition of the fruits and goods proceeding from the earth ordaining the centenary number as being more material and grosse unto the Laicks and proâ—ane persons the tenths it ordained allotted to the Church-men Priests or Levites but the unity or denary it reserved for Gods portion who as is proved before being all is nevertheless but one even as from the trunck of a Tree do issue many branches and from those branches again many sprigs and yet are all continuated and undevided from that one trunck from which they have their life and being or as from one body of the Sun an infinity of beams do spring not separated from the essence of that Sun But to return unto our purpose The said Cabalists have adapted and fitted the name of their great Angell which they take for the soul of the world unto this very triple ternary or formall proportion namely 999. arguing thereby his radicall his square and his cubicall extention or emission of his divine form unto the profundity of matter and consequently that he is Aâ—pha and Omega the vivifier of all and present in all and through all For the Letters of the name Mitattron sar hapanim which signifieth the Prince of Faces which is taken for the soul of the world after the calculation of the Hebrewes amount unto 999. and therefore this name with Letters befitting do import this number and yet neverthelesse with this
consideration that the etymology of the word by interpretation may import donum Dei or the gift of God for what greater gift could God impart unto his potentiall creatures and in generall unto the great world then his eternall Spirit of wisdom or his onely Begotten to make them of somewhat nothing and to take away all deformity and nullity from the water and to shape out of them a Heaven and an Earth and to figure out in them all the creatures thereof and to preserve them in existence essence and lively being This was therefore indeed the true catholick donum Dei or gift of God whose incorruptible nature is in all things and filleth all things and as it is the most movable of all things so it operateth all in all according to the will of him that sent him And therefore in regard of the office and as he was an emissive Spirit so was he not unworthily named by them the great or catholick Angell had not Scriptures in plain tearms seemed to intimate so much I could also demonstrate that the world and his soul or life was shaped after the image of the Archetype in this manner From 1 which was all light in whom is no darknesse did 2 issue which was quoad nos darknesse or the dark Chaos so called because unity did not as yet shine forth to inform them Betwixt these two extreams is 3 interposed as a peaceable or charitable unity between meer light and darknesse or the Spirit of divine love who resting in the midst between these two principles uniteth the divine formall fire with the humid materiall nature or spirit of darknesse making a union of two opposite natures so that both natures do remain in one sympatheticall concordance and therefore this formall ternary is called Ligamentum elementorum litem amicitiam concoâ—diae vinculis connectâ—ns The ligament of the elements tying together hatred and love with the bands of concord I expresse them thus Deus 1 Lux. Coelum 3 Sphaera aequalitatis Terra 2 Tenebrae This excellent harmony of the soul of the world is else-where most fitly expressed by me by two equall Piramidicall shapes whereof the one is formall the other materiall the basis of the formall is the immediate act of God or the infinite and onely bright Unity and it importeth the emanation of the creating and informing Spirit so that his Cone doth penetrate unto the very center of the dark earth or abysse And contrariwise the basis of the materiall or watry Pyramis is in the earth or center of darknesse and the Cone ascendeth unto the center of the basis of the formal Pyramis in this manner Now where the intersection is made between the two principal concurrences I have framed a piece of a circle which circle because the portions of the formall Pyramis and materiall are there equall we therefore with the Platonists do call Sphaeram aequalitatis or the Sphear of equality or as they in another respect tearm it the orbe or sphear of the soul of the world which is just in the midst of the starry heaven called for that reason Aether quasi igneus aer a fiery aire as who should say an equall portion of the spirit of the waters and of the formall fire descending from God or Unity as I have expressed before And therefore as we placed in the precedent demonstration the 3 in the center or middle of the line between the divine illuminating unity 1 and the dark Chaos or deformed duality 2 so in the world was the spirituall body of the visible Sun of this typicall world placed in which the invisible and increated Sun of the Archetypicall world did put his Tabernacle and for this cause it is rightly tearmed of the Platonists the sphear of the soul. And verily by effect we find that all vivification doth potently spring from the solar or Sunny influence and as for the excellent beauty of the creature as also in respect of the vivifying act thereof it is an evident argument that it aboundeth with the blessed sparks or vivifying beams of divinity Again that it is the bright organ by which he that vivifieth all things doth impart and pour forth the showre of his benignity or divine Nectar of life continuall experience teacheth even the meanest plowman Now that this most excellent and perfect concord of life doth remain principally in the midst of the line drawn from unity or the fountain of form to the earth or duality which is the fountain of matter I prove it thus by the accords of Musick The perfectest consonance in Musick is Diapason and of all the other symphoniacall accords it approacheth nearest unto the sacred Unity in Divinity for it is half unison and therefore it is rightly compared unto the blessed emanation of life which came from unity and for that reason it is rightly tearmed the Idea or image of a unison And as the unison like one essence in Divinity doth comprehend three Persons importing the three accords in the Archetypicall harmony So also the Diapason comprehendeth in it the two other accords besides it self namely Diapente and Dâ—atessaron Now that this most perfect consonant of Diapason is planted in the midst of a unison and doth as it were beget in it self two perfect chords or Diapasons which be contained within it self I prove it thus Take a Lute or Bandora and strike any of the strings open and then stop that same string exactly in the middle of it and each half will sound a Diapason unto that open unison so that the unison which is made by the striking of the whole string open will be divided into two Diapasons or most perfect consonants unto the whole which is an evident argument that the perfection of the Diapason is in the seat of the Sun and consequently that the formall and lively accord of all the world is no otherwise in that centrall or middle place then the heart which is the seat of life is in man And yet by the beams of the Sun this life of the world is made catholick and filleth all no otherwise than the vitall blood doth universally expanse it self in the Microcosm by the channells of the arteries But I fear I have followed this point too far to prove and maintain the soul of this world wherefore I leave it to come directly unto the point being that in my Mosaicall Philosophy to wit in the fourth book thereof I have fully proved and maintained that Translation of Jerom to be right namely Posuit tabernaculum suum in sole he put his tabernacle in the Sun I will proceed therefore unto the second opinion of the Philosophers The ancient Philosopher Democritus Orpheus with the Pythagoreans do judge that all things are full of gods and again all these gods they referre unto one Jupiter where by gods they â—ntend the divine virtues infused into things which Zoroaster called divinos illices Synesius the Bishop Symbolicas illecebras others tearm
in the animals it is easie to know how blood in the animals body is transmuted from a white chylous substance into a rubicund and ruddy blood By reason of his vegetation and multiplication in substance it is an easie matter to guesse the manner of augmentation and vegetation and also of the quantitative multiplication by way of generation of the animal For verily I have observed so worthy an experiment in this vegetative salt in the Wheat of which the blood of man by eating of bread is full that we need not to make any doubt but that it is the onely substance of vegetation as well in the animall as vegetable For on a day when I had cast away the faeces or superfluous part of the substauce out of which I did draw the salt liquor into a large Pipkin and covered it with a thin plate of iron within three weeks or a months space I found it to have struck up out of the pot quite through the plate of iron and to make above a thousand blades like an iron-coloured saffron to grow up out of the superficies of it which argueth the admirable vegetative property that it hath in it But letting this suffice to expresse the occult puissance of this secret fire of God in nature in all vegetables mineralls and other animals I will now convert the file of my speech onely unto that wondrous act and operation which this admirable Spirit effecteth in the little world or man The spirit of life was by God so inspired into man that he was made a living creature no otherwise then when Elohim Ruach was breathed on the waters they were animated and vivified and became a great world which the Platonists for that reason called Magnum animal A great living creature But as the world was made after the image of God before man was made and afterwards man by the same Spirit in the world was framed by the Word after the pattern of that Spirit of life and the substance of the waters which were in the great world Therefore we must conceive that man hath the vivifying means of his sustentation preservation and multiplication by generation from the soul of the world and his elements Wherefore Hermes doth not unadvisedly expresse the descent and ingression of the worlds vivifying spirit into man after this manner A er est in corpore anima in aere mâ—ns in anâ—ma in mente verbum Verbum verò est eorum pater The aire is in the body the soul or life is in the aire the mentall Spirit is in the soul the Word is in the mentall Spirit and the Word is the Father of them all And he concludeth in that place Quod Verbum sit imago Dei mens verbi anima mentis aer animae corpus aëris That the Word is the Image of God the mental beam the image of the word the vitall Soul the image of the mental beam the aire of the vitall Soul and the body of the aire Whereby we may discern the admirabletie which every portion of each dignity in the great world hath unto other in the composition of the little world and therefore it is made evident that the purest portion of elementary matter is aire the purest sublimity of the aire is the vitall form in which is the mentall beam and in it is the Word which is God and we must observe that by mentem or the mentall Spirit is meant the vivifying Spirit of Wisdom which filleth all things whose fountain as Ecclesiasticus doth teach us is the Word of God as if I with Hermes should say the bright and eternall Spirit of life in the quintessentiall Spirit maketh the Soul the Soul in the aire is conducted into the body where it operateth the effects of vivification and internall multiplication of the Species and therefore he saith in another place Anima hominis in hunc vehitur modum Mens in ratione ratio in anima anima in spiritu spiritus in corpore Spiritus per venas arteriasque sanguinemque diffusus animal undique ciet The Soul of man is carried into his body after this manner The mental beam is the reasonable spirit the reasonable spirit is in the Soul or ethereall spirit the Soul or ethereall spirit is in the airy spirit and the airy spirit is in the body which moveth through the veins and arteries and being dispersed over all the blood doth agitate and move the body on every side We must therefore imagine that the aire which is drawn into our heart by inspiration is full of that divine treasure of life the which residing in the heart of man sucketh and draweth his life into it by a magnetick force and virtue For nature coveteth and rejoyceth at the presence of its like as is said And again that the heart is the precious store-house of the active treasure of life we may collect out of this speech of Solomon Cor tuum custodi supra onâ—nem observationem quia ab eo procedunt actiones vitae Gard with the best diligence and keep charily thy heart seeing that from it proceed all the actions of life The nature and instruments by which the Spirit attracteth magnetically and expelleth after attraction that of the humid vehicle of aire which is inutil and superfluous in this Being that without the sparks of life and generation which swimme in the aire no creature amongst the which we esteem Man to be the chiefest can live scarsly a moment of time it is most necessary that they should be drawn and sucked in by the creature every minute for without this necessary act with the salutary effect thereof the animal will forthwith be suffocated or strangled for by the deprivation of the aire the soul will soon cease his vivifying operation forasmuch as it is nothing else but a portion of eternall light in the soul of the world which is composed as I proved before of the divine emanating virtue and the subtil humid nature of the world whereof the first affordeth the Calidum innatum or natural heat of life and the last the humidum radicale or radical moisture unto the creatures existence and therefore by the inspiration of aire this double virtue is every moment renewed and refreshed in the creature This Spirit therefore the Animal and by consequence man inspireth or sucketh into the left chamber ventricle or region of the heart by the contraction of the straight fibres of the heart when the transverse and oblique fibres will be relaxed whereby the heart will be dilated or opened and this action is called of the Physitians Diastole In the time thereof or interval of this motion the heart doth draw into his left vessell by the Arteria venosa or veiny artery out of the lungs whither it first was conveyed by inspiration through the aspera arteria or weesell-pipe a portion of the airy store-house of nature with his vitall treasury contained in it being as is
doth proceed from one eternall Essence as from the root of al things IT is most certain that as there are an infinity of creatures of divers natures in the universall machin So also every one of them was variously first created and then generated and maintained after generation even untill the day of their corruption by sundry celestiall influences or many thousand of varieties of beams descending from above And therefore the wisest amongst the Cabalisticall Rabbies affirm Quod non sit ulla planta aut herba inferiùs cui non sit stella in firmamento quae percutiat eam dicat ei Cresce That there is not any plant or herb here beneath which hath not a Star in the firmament to beat on it with his influence and as it were to say unto it Increase or muliply Neither do the Scriptures appear to be repugnant unto this their opinion as hereafter shall plainly in his convenient place be expressed But because the radicall indication of this matter requireth a more profound speculation it will be most necessary for the Reader 's better edification or instruction to make a diligent inquisition after the depth of this Mystery namely first to discover how all Creation was effected by the sending forth of the beams of God's eternall Light and whether that Emanation be of one or divers and manifold in property I told you and prooved manifestly before that all things were in the beginning created by one eternall Spirit of Wisdom which was sent forth from the infinite Fountain of Light in the shape of an emanation eradiation or effluxion to inform and inact all things explicitly which before were contained complicitly in the divine puissance of that everlasting Unity which in it self is all in all I prooved it by these expresse places in Scripture Solomon calleth this holy Spirit of discipline the vapour of God's Virtue and the sincere emanation and effluxion of his brightness and the splendor or beams of his Divine Light and the mirrour without all spot of his goodness And St. John saith that in the Word is the life of all things and that this Spirit was Light in which was no darkness and that by it all things were made and without it nothing was made And the son of Syrach That it came forth of the mouth of the Most High And Solomon That it was with IEHOVA in the beginning of all his waies in the creation and was that holy Spirit whereby be composed or made all things in the Creation and therefore it is apparent that it was by the emanation or sending forth of the catholick or universall beam of divine Light that all particular things were diversly framed shaped and animated and that by a many of streamings forth of more particular beames of light proceeding by multiplication from the root unto the trunck or body namely from the Unity fountain or head unto the generall emanation which may rightly be compared unto the body of a tree forasmuch as from it all boughs twigs leaves and fruit do spring and as in this progression the trunck of the tree doth immediatly issue from the root and yet is continued with the root which is the beginning so the divine emanation in like manner proceedeth directly from Ensoph or the fountain or root of infinity by the way of emanation not divided or separated from his eternall Originall and by reason of this his emanation the Spirit is said to be the first created before all things as the trunck before the boughs twigs leaves or fruit So that in respect of his essentiall existence he is eternall but in regard of his emanation into the world he is said to be aeviall that is to have a beginning without end and therefore becometh the head and Prince of all the aeviall world I mean the Angelicall creaâ—ures We proceed therefore in the progression and multiplication of this universall emanation thus From the trunck of the tree issueth the generall speciall and individuall branches whereof the most strongest after the trunck are all armes of the body the next boughs then twigs and lastly the leavs c. To this we compare in our Angelicall or aeviall world the divers stations of the Angels assigned unto them according unto their dignity and riches in the divine influences which they receive from the root or fountain of Light by the mediation of their body Christ Jesus And for this reason it is said that He is the Image of the invâ—sible God the first begotten of all creatures for in hâ—m are maâ—e all things both in heaven and earth as well visible as invisible whether they are Thrones or Dominations or Potestates all by him and in him are made and he is before all and all consist in him So that all Angells do no otherwise proceed immediately from him and are continuate with him than the branches of a Tree proceed from the body thereof but as we see that the greater armes of the Tree are neerer in distance unto the trunck and therefore are more substantiall and strong and beautifull than the rest so are these Angels of the Emperiall or supercelestiall heaven nearer to the body to wit the eveâ—lasting stream of light and therefore more rich and abundant in divine light and that by degrees and order according as they are nearer the face of the divine essentiall inâ—â—uence that bestoweth that most excellent light and glory on them to deck and adorn them with so perfect a formall beauty and existence And as we see that each main arme of the tree hath a dimension in longitude in the which as it depaâ—teth from the body of the tree it waxeth lesser and lesser so each of the nine Orders of Angels are of a lesse proportion of light than other and their preheminence in light is ever more diminished by little as it is remote from the body that giveth it that light and life Then as we see the lesser boughes which by a subdivision do proceed from those armes of the tree do immediately spring out of them but have a place diâ—â—inguished from them although they are continued and no way disjoynted or seperated fâ—om them either in substance or essence So also the Olympick or Aetheriall Angells have their lights and souls poured out from the Emperiall diversly and that according unto severall measures and againâ— they send forth their beams or bâ—ight effluâ—nces from the starry Orbes which they possesse and illuminate unto the elementary spirits which have dominion over the winds with their legionâ— which we compare unto the many twigs which spring out of the said boughes for as the twigs are small in substance in regard of the bough and yet are continuate unto the bough and have all one naturall life so those Angels are not so illuminated as the Olympick Spirits as also the Olympick Spirits are not so bright and affluent in divine riches as those angelical Intelligences which approach the
do with the Hebrew Rabbies justly apply the essence of the first emanation unto Mitattron which emanation is said to enter by the royall port or gate Cheter or Corona For know that this catholick Angell is said to be the first creature because it importeth the spirit of the world which did first receive the first-born son or the Emperiall emanation from the Attribute of God called EHIAH which is a name of eternity for that it containeth and doth respect the time past the time present and the time to come For this cause therefore doth this great Angel style it self Alpha and Omega the beginning and the end The first influence therefore which was of universall life and essence is received by the Angel Mitattron which is for this reason called Donum Dei after it was shouted down from the port Cheter into the highest order of the Angells called Seraphin which by reason of their propinquity unto the throne of God are said to burn or be set on fire with divine love And hereupon these have their excellent beauty and clearnesse by reason of this sacred influence which is so full of the loving benignity of the Father of light From thence this potent angelicall nature conducts the beams of this light into the convexity of the aetheriall heaven and there bestowes it as in a generall magazin or store-house which place it afterwards informs or vivifieth insomuch that by the admirable action and motion thereof it is called Primum mobile or that sphear which moveth first in the heavens and by his motion it turneth the naturall or temporall world round about from the East unto the West in twenty four houres The mover is this catholick Angel of the world full of this eternall emanation by which it animates the world Therefore also is Sapientia said to be omnium rerum priùs creata the first of all creatures and Fluxus virtutis Dei emanaâ—io claritatis ejus omni re mobilior penetrans ubique propter suam munditiam permanens in se omnia innovans It is an influence of the vertue of God and the shining forth of his brightnesse which is the most movable of all things penetrating all things by his purenesse and being one in essence reneweth all things that is it reviveth every thing By which it is plain that this catholick emanation is the soul of the world having endued or put on the universall angelicall spirit and therefore is called by the holy Text a Creature so that the catholick created spirit of the world is the Primum mobile for by this first-born emanation from God it is animated and moved as by the swiftest mover in the world and the mover is tearmed Primus motor both together or called Mundi anima which therefore is defined to be in respect of the created spirit thus animated Primum mobile spoâ—te per se mobile The first thing moved which is moved voluntarily and by it self And for this reason also the animal faculty in man which is sedes animae intellectulis is said to move voluntarily when the action â—f the vitall and naturall faculty compared unto the etheriall and elementary heaven do move unvoluntarily that is at the will of the first mover And this work is therefore assigned unto this sphear with the legions of intelligences that are derived from and created there by their catholick head which is the said grand Arch-angell as beams from one Sun partly to hinder the starry lights which were after created from burning the elementary world or working by their long continued impression too violent and unnaturall alterations as also to make a proportionable day and night unto the earth To conclude by this angelicall act the whole spirit of the world was generally inacted The divine emanation which issued from the second Sephiret or port called Hochma which is sent out by the Attribute IAH passeth into the order of the Cherubins which signifieth the plenitude of Science and abundance of the gifts of Wisdom and is received of the Arch-angel Zophiel which by the etymology of his name argueth pulchritude as being replenished with an infinity of particular beams of life But another calleth this keeper and conductor of these beams Ruziel who immediately doth direct them into the firmament or heaven of the fixt starrs and principally into the broad girdle of the starry heaven which is called the Zodiack arguing by the etymology of his name that the beams of this emanation do chiefly work and fashion out ideally the liniments of an infinity of particularities in the elementary world as shall be demonstrated hereafter The third effluxion which is made from the port Binah under the protection of the name ELOHIM descendeth immediately into the order of the Thrones arguing thereby Gods severe property full of â—udgment and is received by the Arch-angel Zabkiel or as others will have it of Kaspiel which is as much to say as Genius Cholerae magnae and this effluxion is conducted down into the next sphear below the firmament which it informeth according unto the naturall property of the divine influx and it procreateth the globe of Saturn which it replenisheth with spirits or inferiour intelligences called by the name of Saturnine Intelligences which send down these influences into the elementary world to produce effects according unto their nature as well in the aire and water as in and upon the earth The fourth emanation which is derived from the conduit-pipe of Chesed over which the word EL hath dominion is received of the angelicall order of Dominations which import power against evill spirits and the benefit of life and breath and then is committed unto the Arch-angel Zadkiel which is by interpretation Genius justitiae and this Angel according unto the nature of the influence which it carrieth is a friend unto the true Justice in the proportion of the elements and a friend unto the creature's life wherefore it conducteth the beams of this property into the next or be below Saturn which they make a dwelling place for an infinity of spirits that are created out of the same informing influence and therefore are of its property This Terra Angelica Olympi is tearmed the Star of Jupiter and these kinds of Olympick spirits are tearmed Jovial Intelligences which do poure forth the streams of their influence into the elementary regions and animateth the spirits of its nature which work effects appropriated unto the property of this influence The fifth eradiation or emission of divine beams is out of the Sephiroticall numeration or port called Geburah whose President is the divine Attribute ELOHIM GIBBOR and these beams are said to passe directly into the order of Potestats and the Arch-angell unto the which these beams are committed is called Samaâ—l or as others will Hamael and it is a Genius which importeth horrour and this Intelligence doth conduct the beams of its Emanation into the Sphere which is below that of Jupiter and informeth the spirits
thereof with the burning fire of this nature or property making the starry Globe of Mars their residence from whence they poure out their influences unto the Elementary spirits which are of that nature The next emission of divine beams is out of the gate or channell Tipherith over which the Divine Attribute ELOAH hath dominion and these are infused immediatly into the Angelicall order of the Virtues so called because the divine Virtue doth shine forth of it For as Isidorus saith The Angells of this order do receive illumination purgation and perfection from God And this order doth send them down by the Archangell Michael which signifieth Quis tanquam Deus into the next region below the Sphere of Mars and there these golden and vivifying beams do inform and animate such bright intelligences with their like property as do dwell-in and Illuminate the visible Sun in heaven and therefore are termed Solar spirits from whence this mighty Archangell which is called Câ—stos animarum the keeper or preserver of living souls doth order that they be hourly poured out into the Elementary region to vivify and refresh those spirits which are formed out after their own image and nature The seventh effluxion or irradiation is out of the Sephiroticall port of Netzeth over which the Attribute of God JEHOVA ZEBAOTH is Lord and they pass immediatly into the Angelicall order of Principalities And this influence is committed to the Archangell Anaol's custody who conducteth them down into the next Sphere below the Sun where it animates according unto his good property all such Olympick spirits which do inhabit the Globe and Sphere of Venus which are therefore tearmed Venerian Spirits from whence the like vigour and force is sent out unto the Creation of Elementary spirits of the nature of these formal influences which are radically sent down from the divine influence The next flux of divine beams issue from the spout or channell called HOD over which the Attribute Elohim Zebaoth is Preâ—ident and descendeth immediatly down unto the order of Archangells and from thence is conducted downward by the Archangell Raphael into the next Sphere below Venus and there it createth and continually vivifieth those Olympick spirits which possesse and adorn the Orbe or Globe of Mercury and are therefore termed Mercuriall spirits which send down such mutable and changeable influences to animate those Elementary spirits which were created first by this Attribute and therefore do Sympathise with the nature of such beams as are sent down from this Sephiroticall gate The ninth effluxion or irradiation springeth out from the eternall fountain by the bright port Jesod whose Rector or President is the Attribute Sadai and passeth down unto the order of Angels and is committed unto the custody and conveyance of the Archangell Gabriel who directeth it downward unto the lowest aethereal or starry Orbe where it animateth those spirits which inhabit the Globe of the Moon and are thereupon styled Lunary spirits from whence they rain down showers of these influences upon such spirits or demons in the Elementary world as have received their Creation from the influences of this Property in God The last effluxion or flowing and streaming forth of the Divine beams is effected by the channell or gate Malchut whose President is the divine Attribute Adonai and this descendeth immediatly according unto the Cabalists opinion into the order of the blessed Souls from whence they deem them to be conducted directly into the Elementary world By the continuity therefore of thse severall and opposite irradiations or emanations of beams from God unto the Imperiall Angells and from them unto the Olympick spirits and so continuated from these unto the Elementary spirituall shapes or demons we may gather thus much namely first that God doth onely operate essentially all in all in and over all next that according unto the variety of his Volunty he worketh diversly in this world and therefore we must know that his Volunty is manifold in property because that thinge are effected as well in heaven as in earth after a manifold operation wherefore if God operateth all and in all the diversity of his work must proceed from the multiplicity of his Volunty And for this reason Hermes saith Voluntas Dei summa est rerum perfectio quam necessitas sequitur necessitatem verò concom tatur effectus The Volunty of God is the highest perfection of things which necessity doth follow and the effect doth accompany the necessity So that what God doth will must be perfect and consequently the effect must follow of neâ—essity And therefore he concludeth that God accomplisheth at an instant of time both his will and the effect thereof But what he would not have that cannot be and therefore what existeth in rerum natura of what property soever it be it is effected according unto the will or Volunty of one of these Divine Attributes Neque saith he credibâ—le est Deo displic â—urum esse quod placuit cum futurum id placâ—turum mulio ante sciverit Neither is it credible that that should displease God which did please him bâ—ing that he did know long before both the thing that was to come and what should be pleasant unto him And therefore Solomon Could any thing exist which thou wouldâ—st not have to be Thirdly That according unto the variety of his divine Volunty things were created the one either Sympathising spiritually in affection with another or Antipathysing among themselves by reason of beams of a contrary disposition according unto the concordant or opposit nature of the Angelicall irradiation or shining out of the beams of one spirituall creature another which contrariety of conditions did proceed from the varieties of properties which is in the Volunty or will of one and the same radicall and eternall Essence Thus therefore were all creatures in the world as well spirituall as corporall composed and thus were they vivified and animated by beams the one either contrarie unto the other or else by reason of their concordance and likeness of nature rejoycing greatly when they meet together by irradiation of all one influence And we must know and understand that although each creature had his radicall information by these Emanations yet in their generations and multiplications they may vary from the condition of their created or generated Parents by the uniting together of two different irradiations at the hour of their birth So therefore cometh it to pass that a man both in shape and condition may be unlike unto his Parents a horse more fierce or sluggish then his sire a plant or fruit more lax waterish or unwholsome then the stock from whence the seed or sap came and consequently by the application of Angelicall beams of an opposite nature in the birth of a man it may happen that the radiation of a plant or flower or beast or such like thing may for ever Antipathise with this man which did aptly agree and Sympathise
we see that as well there are good beams or benigne spirits which by a secret and hidden Emanation do stream forth from the fountain of the winds namely those which are poured out by JEHOVA's benigne Attributes as are El by Jupiter Eloach by the Sun Sadai by Venus and then Michael Raphael Gabriel c. do by their Legions execute God's Will And there are bad and corrupt or privative emission of spirits of a contrary fortitude from the winds which have their Originall from Elohim Elohim Gibbor and Adonaia which make Saturn Mars and the Moon their store-house neither would I have any one to wonder that I should derive the multiplicity of the good and the bad properties which are effected by the winds from one Divine essence which imparteth his Will by the diversity of his lively properties unto the 4 Archangells since the Prophet saith Vem spiritus à quatuor ventis insuffla interfectos istos ut revivi scant Come O Spirit from the four winds and breathe on these slain persons that they may live again Here the Prophet acknowledgeth that it is but one essentiall vivifying Spirit that effecteth all this and consequently that the four opposite properties in the four Angells which are the Governors of the winds are the influences or essentiall beams of one and the same Spirit of life in essence By reason of these spirits of a contrary fortitude in the aire sometimes good and propitious events befall the creatures of this lower world namely when the good spirits raigne and wholsome winds do blow which happen when the benign starrs and Planets have dominion in heaven and consequently their influences below and again somtimes bad and dysastrous accidents armed with privative and destructive effects befall the creatures of this Elementary region by reason of severe emissions of beams from the winds which animate those evill spirits that in infinite multitudes do hover though invisible in the aire who are rejoyced and revived at the blasts which issue from the stations of their cruell Princes and are as it were summons and all-arms to stir and excite them unto wrath and to blow the coles of their sleeping malice All this we may gather from this speech extracted out of Joseph Castaliensis A terra usque ad firmamentum non est locus vacuus sed omne plenum formis ex illis purae ex illis capaces gratiae ac mâ—serationum sunt infernis multae effigies foedae noxiae tentatrices omnes commorantes volantes in aëâ—e Et non a terra usque in coelum locus vacuus quin totum sunt species ex iis ad pacem ex iis ad bellum ex iis ad bonum ex iis ad malum ex iis ad vitam ex iis ad mortem omne id in habitatione inferiori in qua nos sumus From the earth unto the firmament there is not a void place but all is full of forms Of the which some are pure and some are capable of grace and mercy and there are beneath many foul hurtfull and tempting shapes and of all these do abide and flie up and down in the aire And from the earth unto the heaven there is not one sparâ— place but all is full of forms whereof some are enclined to peace some to war some of them are given to goodness some to naughtiness and some of them are Agents to life and some unto death and all this chanceth in the lower habitation in the which we are c. Whereby he signifieth that the whole air is replenished as well with spirits of darknesse as with spirits of light And therefore there is a continuall conflict made here below betwixt these spirits of opposit conditions Whereof the one do attend upon their Prince of darknesse being alwaies ready to accomplish his behests and consequently are very familiar unto the humid nature or matter of the world which is the child of the dark Chaos and for that cause have naturally a great dominion and power over it which by reason of its inclination unto darkness is easy to be tempted and allured from the Society of formal Light And hereupon the materiall world the flesh and the Devill are joyned together as also Satan is termed by the Apostle the Prince of the aire which is the off-spring of the waters from whence the materiall substance of the world was taken The other do wait on the Prince of Light their Master who is the eternall Wisdom which springeth from the bright word of eternity And these two dignify the world with life and do employ their greatest care to animate vivify and preserve it with such salutary beams as they receive immediatly from the eternall Emanation or fiery Word in which is the essence of life and being By this means therefore namely from the opposition of these two spirits of a contrary fortitude all the passions in the spirit and consequently of the Soul yea and body as well of the great world and all the creatures therein as of the little world have their immediate beginning namely the good passions as are joy charity hope confidence misericord humanity in the little world which are caused by dilatation of the heart and concord appetite Sympathy desire or concupiscence delight audaâ—ity jucundity caused by dilatation from the Center unto the circumference and by consequence Anâ—ipathy in the great world And again the bad passions in the little world's spirit as are sadness hatred desperatness timidity anger furor and bashfulness which arise from the contraction of the heart and in the great world and his creatures as are stupidity or congelation discord hatred irascibility fear c. and in conclusion Antipathy which comes by contracting from the circumference unto the Center All which are certain passions either well affecting and reviving the vital spirits with comfort by dilatation of those spirits with the beams of a kind of joy and delight or else choaking or suffocating them with the gloomy fog of darkness by contracting of those spirits with the mist of grief or privative sadness CHAP. V. What Actions in the Spirit or Soul in generall do produce Sympathy and what Antipathy How Sympathy or Compassion proceedeth from a certain dilatation of spirits in two or more particulars or an emitting of their internall beams of life or essence positively and benignly from the Center unto the Circumference attempting thereby to make a concord or union betweâ—â—â—wo or more like or homogenial natures and contrariwise Antipathy by contracting the said beams from the Circumference unto the Center moveth after an opposite manner namely by division or discord that is quite contrary unto the beams of the other which are emitted I Have signified unto you first in my precedent discourse that two properties were Archetypically or Ideally and after a complicite manner comprehended in one radicall Unity or Essence namely the one effected by its Nolunty the other by its Volunty Lo here
the root and originall foundation or point from the which all Antipathy and Sympathy do spring namely the first from the privative property or its Nolunty the second from its positive or Volunty I told you next that from this one root or Unity in essence a two-sold branch or member did spring forth expressing typically and explicitly the effects and conditions of these two contrary properties or dispositions which were contained complicitely in the Ideall root namely darkness which is the privative fruit of his Nolunty and light the true character or badge of his Volunty And then I proved unto you that these two were the beginnings of all things Lo here the two Principles of Antipathy and Sympathy extracted out of one root Thirdly I demonstrated unto you that by the separation of the pure from the impure from the dark Chaos which act was effected by the spagerick vertue of the bright emanation or word of the eternall Unity the humid or watry nature of the world was created that is to say essentially informed by the lively presence of the said all-informing Spirit so that through that union of two contrary natures in one namely the informing essence or naturating nature and the informed substance or the nature naturated the spirit of the world was animated and afterwards by the wisest Philosophers termed the Anima mundi which is that angelicall composition of two called therefore by the Sages Alteritas as God in his simple nature is called Identitas Now the passive portion of which alterity was made is said to be the humid created nature oâ— naturated matter of the world whose active essence is the ever-living emanation from eternity which as the Apostle teacheth us doth vivifie all things and filleth all things and is all in all The union of these two maketh the catholick soul of the world called in respect of the simple creating and vivifying emanation Mens in regard onely of the spirit informed Spiritus and as these two are united in one Anima Lo here the third degree of the sympatheticall and antipatheticall progression from the simple root of eternity namely the created matter or spirit in the soul of the world being the child or off-spring of darknesse or the dark Chaos which is therefore naturally prone unto the negative or privative effects of darknesse and consequently apt in its own condition to receive any discordant and antipatheticall impression which the angelicall spirits of darknesse shall imprint upon it For as the sacred light which animates the humid spirit of the world and consequently the whole masse of the waters whereof the heaven and the earth was made as St. Peter doth justifie is the most movable agill and active of all things so on the contrary party the matter that is informed and therefore the created body and spirit is most degenerate from it in that it is no way enclined of its own nature unto motion or life For the Philosophers words are Materia est per se ad motum inefficax ab ipsa anima seu luce degenerans Wherefore of its selfe it endueth its mother Chaos or Hyles her condition and is enclined to rest immobility darknesse cold spissitude and congelation For this cause therefore it suffereth the impressions and characters of both oppositions to wit sometimes it enclineth unto darknesse and then it groweth spisse opak cold immobil thick and ponderous and tendeth in that his property downwards to the cold center or the seat of darknesse which is its mother and then it is in rebellion and opposition with light motion and heat and so it is antipatheticall unto the actions of light and life as we see the airy spirit of the world which is clear light diaphan thin movable and soaring upward by the operating power of the descending light becommeth by the Northern cold congealed opak spisse and immobil or fixed into snow hail ice frost and such like So that by this antipatheticall accession of the cold characters of the dark abysse it is discordant from the loving union and symphoniacall accesse which it had unto the region of light Contrariwise the bright form of the soul which is the essence of that eternall emanation doth give the matter or spirit of the soul's life action motion hear tenuity and diaphanity and that more or lesse according as it hath power and dominion over it And we must note that the more the spirit approacheth unto the nature of light the firmer are the bonds of its sympatheticall accords For as sympathy doth consist of things of a like nature so the nearer the spirit approacheth unto form the greater is the sympathy and accord the surer the tie and the more virtuous the effect for the more that the created spirit is illuminated the lesse it remembers that naturall inclination and love that it had unto its dark originall insomuch that by such an extream purified exaltation it becommeth as it were deified And therefore Plato's opinion is that if the middle spirit which is between the mentall beam and the dark bodily substance doth more adhere unto the divine or mentall beam than the dark body then it will become a good Demon or Angel but if it respect the body more than the divine beam it will descend unto the nature of a Cacodemon or spirit of darknesse Also by Scripture we are taught that by adhering unto this divine light namely unto Christ we shall be transformed into the same image to wit if we forsake this dark world and the lusts of the obscure body or flesh But to return unto the soul of the great world If the airy spirit be given over unto the power of darknesse it becommeth bodily and turnes into the same image namely frost snow hail c. but if the hot effect or the formall act of light prevail a degree over the stupid cold of darknesse it leaveth his opake quality and becommeth diaphan and returneth from an earthly fixt and obscure nature unto a clear transparent and fluxible substance and by another degree of the divine act it is made more subtle more dilated more invisible and pure and it is called Aire by a third it is purified unto fire by a fourth unto aether when it loseth all the appetite of mutation and forgetteth the privative stock from whence it came by a fifth it becommeth angelicall or emperiall and so it is exalted more and more in dignity according as it is more and more obedient unto the actions of the eternall and catholick influence of form which shineth forth from the fountain of infinity For we must understand that the whole inclination of the eternall emanation is to reduce this child of darknesse unto eternall light unity and life as contrariwise the endeavours of the potentiall darknesse which is the stamp of Gods Nolunty or privative nature are clean contrary So that all the end of the creating light 's action is to unite all by the symphoniacall band of love and
vegetation multiplication and preservation and hath made his seat in the Center of the heavens that by one most perfect Consonant namely a spirituall Diapason he might illuminate the Angels above and the stars round about him and that by a more material Diapason he might penetrate into the Center of the elementary world to communicate his perfection to each creature thereof that they might be beautified by his bright presence and vivified by the penetrating beams of his essence and consequently that the imps or spirits of darkness may be debilitated by the appearance of his Glory as if one chord were extended betwixt the Fountain of Light and the abysse of darkness which being struck made an unison but being pressed down and divided directly in the middle of it each part will render being struck a double diapason unto that unison importing a double perfection proceeding from the bright catholick Emanation whereof the one respecteth the adorning of the lower waters with life and virtue and the other maketh an accord of friendship among the higher Now as the body of the Sun and substance of the Aether is of a middle or mean spirituall matter or consistence of the waters it is evident that it also is subject to be altered by passion as well Antipatheticall as Sympatheticall For else it would not be the immediate receptacle of those opposit and contrary Emanations which descend from the differing Attributes But by effect we find the contrarâ— For some starrs are friends and Sympathise in nature with some creatures below Some again do hate one another deadly and consequently send down into this lower world contrary influences which move contrary passions or impressions in the vitall spirits or souls of certain Elementary creatures Again we find that the life of the Animal doth consist of opposit actions namely of Systole and Diastole that is of contraction by the property of matter and dilatation by the Act of the formall Light So that the nature of matter is to draw by contraction from the Circumference unto the Center but the condition of the formall essence is quite contrary unto it For it doth dilate or emit his beams from the Center to â—he Circumference Also the Philosophers testify that in sleep and rest the spirits are contracted from the Circumference to the Center after the manner of the dark Chaos or cold North wind which bringeth by that contraction the agill and volatil spirit or aire of the lower world to rest and fixation by condensation But contrariwise in wachfulness or waking they conclude that there is an emission or emanation of spirits from the Center unto the Circumferentce which is an Argument of two contrary effects of the firmaments vivifying operation in the souls or spirits of the creatures below and yet by reason of the equality of each action and passion they have a compound-disposition according and agreeing in the naturall operation of life which descendeth from above Thus therefore you see that even from the starry heaven there descendeth Sympathy and Antipathy As for the Elementary world it aboundeth manifestly with the effects of these two contrarieties and therefore lest there should follow any continuall unnaturall perturbation which may deprave this great formall workman of his expectation which was to put concord and peace in the machine whiâ—h he had ordered and framed he divided each region in this lower world that there might be interposed an indifferent friend between two extream enemies which he effected by weight number and measure So that unto the weightiest portion of the lower waters is imparted the least proportion of form that by its grossnesse and weight it might fall unto the Center and remain fixt in it and it was called earth then unto another portion he bestowed a double measure of Light to make it reside in a higher region and thereby the matter which was next the earth became more thin light and movable And therefore this augmentation of Light melted the frozen waters a little and did make them fluxible and transparent So that he partly by reason of the continuity of his matter with that of the earth and partly because of its cold nature it is a temperate friend of the earth and taketh his place next unto him So that it is not so cold as the earth nor so moist as the aire For it is not enough subtiliated till the bright Agent of the world bestoweth on the dark watery abysse above the water three portions of his Light So that it converted part of the gross lower waters into a thinner and more light shape than was the watery Element and it was the aire which by reason of the triple proportion of formall light was hotter and more dilated then was the water wherefore as the water was cold but not so cold as the earth and moist but not so moist as the aire So the aire is hot but not so hot as the fire and moister then the water By reason therefore of his moisture this portion of the catholick Element is friendly to the water on the one side and on the other side unto the fire because of his heat Lastly that in-created Spirit of life did yet multiply a part of those waters by an other or higher degree of subtility and purity So that it became the most subtil and highest portion of the generall Elements and is consequently hot and dry wherefore by reason of its drouth it agreeth on the one side with the earth which in circulation is next unto him and on the other side with the aire in respect of his heat but it is hotter then the aire and not so dry as the earth Lo here you see the effect of that Sympathy which the Peace and Love of God did put among the discordant enemies of this world For thereby the water as a friend to both the aire and earth becometh a stickler and mediator of peace between them The aire as a friend unto the two enemies fire and water is made an indifferent judge betwixt them both So that the one contrary is kept from strugling and tugging with the other by the super-celestiall and golden tie of peace Thus you see that this Spirituall Christ doth as the Apostle saith bear and sustain all things by the word of his Virtue And as Hermes said the humid nature by the assistance of the world is ordered and disposed harmoniously into Elements So that by this Virtue all Sympatheticall action was effected in the Sublunary world of which the Wiseman speaketh thus In se Elementa dum convertebantur sicut in organo qualita is sonus immutatur omnia suum locum custodiunt But when this harmonicall ranck and Symphoniacall proportion is violated then the enemies come together and rage against one another unto the disturbance of the whole Sublunary fabrick For aire and earth do struggle against one another as also the water doth cruelly invade the limits of the fire and all will be
as is said though of two opposite conditions in which also it worketh after many diversities of degrees and therefore Solomon tearmeth it simplex or unicus simple or one in regard of his divine nature and multiplex in respect that it worketh and operateth after a manifold manner for as it worketh about the poles of the axle-tree by attracting and sucking unto it by cold and drought so about the Aequinoctiall and that more and more approching from the poles towards the Aequinoctiall it varieth in ten thousand proportions more or less in dilatation by reason of the manifold degrees of heat which this centrall Sun of life imparteth unto the aire And this is not onely manifested in the foresaid Weather-glass forasmuch as we find that by how much the more the heavenly Sun with his divine centrall agent approacheth unto us by so much the more the externall aire being dilated by his heat doth also dilate the aire contained in the neck of the mattras or bolts-head and driveth down the water that is it repelleth back the cold of winter which came in by showers of rain sent from the south unto his proper pole So that we see as the nature of the cold pole is to draw or suck unto it by condensation which is effected by contraction or made by a Saturnine faculty so the nature of the hot Aequinoctiall and his adjacent parts is to expell his opposite by dilatation which is effected by a subtiliating heat And this is the reason as is already demonstrated that the Aequinoctiall of the Load-stone detesteth to be joyned unto the pole as on the contrary side the pole abhorreth reciprocally the Aequinoctiall Also this is the reason that in the pole of the said stone there is so great power of attraction and that it sucketh the iron unto it ad angulos rectos that is after a perpendicular manner and then the nearer the needle or piece of steel or iron-wier approacheth unto the Aequinoctiall of the stone the more will his obliquity in coition or conjunction be with the stone So that when it commeth directly unto the Aequinoctiall it will lose all angular contact and lie flat as it were on its belly as you may see by this true observation following But because these demonstrations may seem unto the vulgar somewhat intricate as being ignorant of the centrall sun of the earth which the Philosophers call Archaeum naturae or The master-workman of nature As also it will be difficult for them to conceive what an axiltree of the earth may be and what his poles And again the right use of the Load-stone or practise in the Weather-glass is unknown unto many a man I will proceed unto a kind of proof and explication of this matter which is familiar unto each person of what degree soever It cannot be gainsaid but that Man and all other creatures as well vegetable as animal are composed of a living soul which is internall and a body being his externall The self-same also we ought to judge of the earth for it hath an inward spirit whereby it operateth diversly And again as there is no animal nor vegetable that can exist without the aire forasmuch as by it each thing liveth and existeth by inspiration for by that means they suck in the celestiall influence so also the aiery element doth feed the inward spirit of the earth and conveyeth from above all the heavenly influences into her body and maketh her the mother of all mineralls and vegetables I told you before that all inferiour things with their operations are the types or similitudes of things above and that God did animate the Angels the Angels did inform the stars and the starry demons or olympick spirits send down influences unto the winds and the winds do inform the catholick element of the aire four-foldly that is to say according unto the nature of the four winds which four-fold information doth give or assigne a name unto the four elements And although in the catholick aire there is but one onely substance in essence yet it varieth in nature after a four-fold condition according unto the will and property of that one Spirit which onely is the efficient actor or agent in this metamorphosis or Protean transmutation from one nature or form unto another although he useth as well angelicall as starry organs and is said to ride upon the cherubins and to glide upon the wings of the winds For this reason therefore the Prophet saies Come O spirit from the four winds and breathe upon these slain bodies that they may live He said not Come O spirits but Come O spirit whereby he argued that it is but one Spirit which bloweth essentially from the four winds and consequently that this one spirit in essence is but onely one thing though four-fold in regard of his property and that as in this archetypicall spirit the whole world was ideally divided into poles and portions distinguished by spirituall circles so also in all the regions of the world he observeth constantly the self-same character of position namely in the starry world as in the airy and in the airy as in the water and earth For in the heavens the northern pole is pointed at and marked out with the starry character which is found in the Tail of the great Bear in the aire it is manifested in that very point from whence Boreas or the north-wind bloweth which doth exactly correspond unto the pole-star Again that the earth observeth the very same order in the direction of her pole is confirmed by the conversion of the Load-stone and Iron unto the north-star Thus you see that it is one onely spirit in essence that worketh all in all I proceed therefore thus to my demonstration which is so familiar to each person that not any one who is in his senses can deny it for I am sure no man can be ignorant that when the north-wind bloweth the aire is of nature cold and dry and therefore is converted into the condition and consistence of earth namely from a clear transparent light subtle dissolved and dilated consistence of aire into a troubled opake or dark gross ponderous and contracted substance for experience doth teach us that it is transmuted into snow hail frost and ice that is from an aery spirit unto an earthly and solâ—d body from an invisible and mobile estate unto a visible and fixt disposition And in conclusion the whole aire is changed into a spirituall and corporall earth and this transmutation it hath from that cold dry and attractive form which it borrowed from the northern wind or septentrionall property of the divine spirit which ordereth all things and altereth them from one form unto another by the breath of his nostrills as Scriptures allegoriously speak or by those windy emissions or angelicall emanations which it sendeth from the four corners of the earth So that by his breath from the north he exerciseth that property in the lower world by the
which allureth and draweth down magnetickly beams from above and holdeth them fast to multiply its own nature even like the fowler that maketh use of a captived bird to allure others of the same kind unto his netts But as for the female mineral nature because the body of it is more compacted and not corruptible it sucketh unto it for the self-same reason namely by the attractive virtue of his stiptick and attractive salt the essentiall beams of Iron as from a star of his own nature to solace and redeem his spirits and consequently with the spirit it sucketh also the masculine body forasmuch as the one cannot be well devided from the other and when it hath them it retaineth them partly for a consolation and corroboration and partly for a multiplication of his essence And therefore those Philosophers are deceived which averre that the Load-stone doth not secretly feed upon the formall spirits of Iron because though its force was preserved by immersing or burying of it in a bag of filings or scales of Iron yet because neither the Load-stone was augmented nor the Iron diminished in waight they conclude that it doth not nourish But they ought to know that the formall beams in the aire doth adde no more waight unto it then the light of a candle doth to the glass or water in which it shineth and yet it nourisheth formally that is it multiplieth in formall essence though not in materiall substance or quantity To conclude as the externall cold causeth the formall heat in the aire to contract it self in flying and retiring it self from the circumference unto the Center to eschew the assaults of his adversary so also the externall cold doth compact it into a more solid space by an antiperistaticall reverberation and contraction caused by the Northern cold's penetration But in the Load-stone the spirit is Saturnine and doth not otherwise suck in his like by the assistance also of a Saturnine body animated by the drouth of a Martial nature which also is by some ascribed unto the North But moreover it affecteth his like in the Iron and therefore by a sympatheticall desire is the more animated unto that business of Attraction And it should appear besides all this that there is an attractive property also in the body of the Iron which sucketh unto it the spirits of the Loadstone no otherwise than the male or Mars doth in his nature covet and affect Venus but because the female by reason of her coldness doth most affect and desire the company of the male the spirituall beams of her affection doth with the most fervency desire and covet and therefore draw and alluâ—e the beams of the male which is of a hotter and for that reason of a more perfect nature unto her and this is observed in the Iron which I take for the male for though it of it self without the Load-stones assistance doth convert his poles by a naturall inclination unto the poles of the world yet we observe that it is more slowly and with the lesser appetite and therefore more formall than materiall I collect therefore upon that which is already said that two like things which are of the nature of the Aequinoctiall and temperate Zone do affect and embrace one another by a sympatheticall emission of beams from the center unto the circumference and such is the love of those creatures which live by the property of a positive emanation as are animals which are of a hot disposition be they dry or moist and therefore they do not sensibly draw one spirit unto another but work by the union which is made by a conjunction or concurrency together of lights after an emission of their formall beams And these have a reference unto the spirits property which issueth from the east and south winds whose natures are to dilate from the center and therefore not to contract from the circumference Contrariwise two like natures which embrace the property of the Poles and cold Zones do affect and hug one another by contraction namely by sucking and drawing of each nature from the circumference unto their center even as we see one Load-stone divided in the middle will draw and suck another unto it self till both parts of it be fitly joyned together in the very place or equinoctiall of their division and after this fashion also is that attractive affection made which is between the iron and the Loadstone which are creatures subject unto Saturn Vâ—rgo and the Pole-star From these Physicall and Astronomicall assertions of ours the Chimycall contemplation varieth not much for if in that kind of speculation we do observe the nature of the Load-stone we shall find it not to spring from any naturall but rather from a monstrous birth or generation forasmuch as it is noted to proceed from unequall and unlike parents as the Mule doth for if we observe well the manner of its composition we shall finde that his mother or passive corporeall masse is a common stony and earthly Mercury and that his father or active form is a metallick or sulphureous Martiall spirit And in conclusion we shall perceive that their mixtion is effected in this manner The Mercuriall liquor of a stony earthly or Saturnine nature being as yet in its first matter or shell as it were and being a near neighbour unto the Mercury of Mars for these two natures are most commonly found near and in company one of another did hereupon and for this cause acquire unto it self a light transmutation and so do appear to be joyned together by a streight contiguous and almost continued union so that the composition doth obtain a mean existence between the nature of a Martiall mettle and a Saturnine stone and may well be tearmed a Mercury metamorphosed by halves or a kind of a Hermophroditicall Saturnine Mercury into the which when the Sulphureous Martiall spirits as the metallick form do enter it receiveth those Martiall spirits and conserveth them in its womb as their proper passive and mother and by that means the mass is coagulated into a stony body Now since every spirit and consequently this of the Load-stone desireth to be nourished by that which is nearest and likest unto his own nature the which nature or spirit is onely found in Iron it happeneth for this reason that the inward martiall spirit of the Load-stone doth draw the body of Iron unto it and after an occult manner doth seem to suck his nourishment out of it I conceive therefore that the fixt salt in the Iron or Load-stone is partly of a hot and dry Martiall nature and consequently of a fiery earthly condition and partly of a cold and dry stiptick and Saturnine faculty which also it receiveth from its earth and therefore there concurreth two testimonies of strange attraction in the Load-stone And because Venus is said to be the female friend and companion unto Mars she doth add a strong concupiscible desire unto the attraction and bridleth the irascible
abolished being no man can justly determine of the extension of the solar influence of whose nature the beam in the grain doth participate no otherwise than one small Load-stone cut out of a great one hath his parts or poles and circles in every respect corresponding with those of the great one Man hath a most subtle influence or vivifying spirit of life sent down and infused into him by divine inspiration in which is the property of the four winds as the Prophet Ezekiel telleth us and consequently the Idea of every nature but the essence of this spirit is indivisible and therefore the vivifying spirit sent from it into man hath all the properties of the spirit that infused it no otherwise than a lesser Load-stone cut out of the greater hath in every respect the property of the greater And consequently the spirit of the one is no more divided from the other â—han the Sun-beams can be divided from the Sun But the Spirit of the Lord filleth all things as Solomon hath it and maketh the dimension of his operation in man more or less according unto his will and therefore will admit no such phantasticall limited sphear of activity as the wisdom of mans invention I mean the subject of the pagans Philosophy which is folly before God would inferr For this reason therefore Hermes saith Anima mente Deoque plena intima mundi replet complectitur extima vitamque haec omnibus suggerit The soul or vitalâ— spirit being full of divinity filleth the world and embraceth externall things and this giveth life unto all things without it giveth life unto the great and perfect animal the world and breathing unto each thing that liveth within it And again elsewhere Naturá incorporeâ— nihil est capacius nihil velocius nihil validius aut potentius Sic iterum à te ipso incipiens meditare atque animae tuae praecipito quae citius quam praeciples evolabit Jubeto inquam ut transeat in Oceanum illa priusquam â—usseris ibi erit indenbi nunc est nequaquam discedens Jubeto iterum ut in coelrm volet nullis pennis egebit nihil ejus obstruet cursui non solis incendium non aetheris amp iâ—udo non vertigo coelorum non syderum antiquorum corpora quin penetrans omnia ad supernum usque corpus transcendat Quinetiam sivolueris Globos omnes transire coelâ—rum quodque supeâ—ius est investigare id quoque tibi licebit Adverte quanta sit animae â—uae potestas quantae celeritas There is nothing more capable than the incorporeall or spirituall nature nothing more swift and quick or nimble nothing more strong or powerfull Again Beginning thus with thy self do thou meditate and command thy soul what thou pleasest and it will flye sooner than thou commandest Command it I say that it pass into the Ocean sea and it will be there before thou bidst it Again command it that it flye into heaven and it will want no wings nothing will hinder her or stop her in her course no not the heat of the Sun nor the vast largeness of the heavenly or aethereall vault nor the wheeâ—ing about of the starry orbs nor yet the bodies of the other starrs but peircing all these it passeth quite through even unto the highest body Moreover and if thou wilt have her to pass â—ver the celestiall Globes and to search out whatsoever is above thou maist do it also Mark therefore how great the power of the Soul is and how swift and quick it is in its execution c. thus far the wise Hermes By both which places we may observe first that the Soul in generall and therefore in particular is full of Divinity and consequently that it is this Divine Essence that worketh in this soul all in all in the world and every member thereof as the Apostle saith and therfore the said Philosopher in the place before Anima mâ—nte Deoque pâ—ena c. Secondly that this Divinity in the catholick created spirit filleth all things in an Angelicall existence that is indueth the mantle of the vast worldâ—s spirit And this agreeth with Scripture which saith that Spiritus Dei implet omnia The Spirit of the Lord fâ—lleth all things Spiritus incorruptibilis inest omni rei The incorruptibe Spirit is in all things Deus vivificat omnia God vivifieth all things and consequently is the essentiall act and life of the world as I have proved fully in the first Book of this Treatise wherefore Hermes in another place saith thus Animae universâ— per omnem mundum ab una mundi totius anima profluunt tanquam dâ—stributae circumferentes The universal souls throughout the whole world do proceed as it were distributed concurrentâ— from one soul of the whole world which is all one with that which we have said before namely that all Souls in this world are certain beamy streams proceeding from that catholick Emanation which issued from the eternall Fountain of the illuminating act to some more copiously and to some more spâ—â—ingly and therefore Man â—s said to be in dignâ—ty little less then the Angells by reason of the large portion of Light bestowed upon him Spiritus Dei fecit me saith Job sed inspiratio Omnipotentis fecit me â—melâ—igere Thirdly That in the very twinckling of an eye it is able to penetrate quite through all things and that at what distance it pleaseth and consequently will not be limitted by any imaginary Sphere of activity But Mr. Foster and his complices will reply that the spirit which should operate in the blood and from the blâ—od to the Ointment is a naturall spirit and not this Divine Spirit This Objection maketh me to smile As who should say that this act of vivifying yea and of every other faculty belonging unto man's spirit doth not move from one and the same Divine Fountain when the Apostle saith In him we move we live and have our being Again it is said that in the blood is the soul or spirit of life And St. John saith In Verbo erat vita in the Word was life I will tell you therefore what a true Philosopher saith touching this point Anima saith he ad similitudinem totius sapientiae facta omnem in se gerit similitudinem est que spiritus intellectualis semper vivens semper in motu secundum suâ— operis officium variis nuncâ—paâ—ur nâ—mâ—nibus Dicitur vita dum vegetat spiritus dum contemplatur sensus dum senti animus dum sapit mens dum intelligit ratio dum discernit memoria dum recordatuâ— dum vult voluntas ista omnia non sunt nisi una anima proprietate diversa sed essentia unica The soul of Man framed after the similitude of all wisdom doth beare in it self the likness of all things and it is an intellectuall spirit ever living and ever in motion and it is termed by divers names and appellations according unto the office of the work which it
transplanting of it into a vegetable plant herb or tree as in the progress of this Book shall be more amply declared But because the order of these things in our demonstration à posteriori or by progression from the effect unto the originall cause of these things will be most convenient for the common and vulgar capacity I will begin to ascend in this mine explication from grosser elements unto more subtle intricate and abstruce things as if by proportionate degrees I should mount from the earth into heaven I purpose therefore first to express and demonstrate unto you those things magnetically which are onely wrought by the corporall contact of two severall bodies of the same naturall condition But before I will begin with the Mummy which is taken out of mans dead body I think it in the first place most necessary to entreat of the dead carcase his mystery that we may proceed the more methodically in our intent CHAP. II. That there are four sorts of corporall Mummy whereof one onely is usefull and necessary for salutary purposes In this Chapter also is set down an experiment with certain ocular Demonstrations confirming the magneticall or a tractive vertue of the Basamick spirits which are in the usefull Mummy SUch as have profoundly considered and deeply respected as well the externall as internall nature of man have perceived that the microcosmicall Mummy is of two conditions namely corporall or spirituall of the first I purpose to speak in this present Chapter the second shall be handled hereafter and that at large Touching the corporall Mummy it is either naturally sympatheticall or unnaturally antipatheticall We find therefore by experience that the naturall Mummy is onely medicinable and salutiferous after his due preparation which is effected chiefly by his own magnetick property the rest are apter to breed diseases and to infect such persons as are in health than to afford them any salutary relief or consolation for as according unto the nature of the four elements there are four kinds of corporall and substantiall Mummyes so also are they distinguished according unto those elements whose natures they have endued of the which three of these are corruptible and inducers of death and sickness namely the earthly the watery and the fiery and onely that which is airy is util to mans life and amicable unto his nature Concerning those three kinds of Mummy which breed corruption the reason why they prove corruptible is this We must hold it first for a generall axiom in Philosophy Quod corruptum corrumpentis naturam in se induit That the thing corrupted doth endue the nature of the thing corrupting As for example If the dead carcase of a man be corrupted in the earth it is changed and passeth into the nature of the earth and becommeth inutil for mans health and indeed rather destructive then constructive or wholsome Again if the corruption be made in the water then the corrupted flesh or dead body will acquire or endue a waterish and masseluginous disposition which also will prove very incommodious or unprofitable for the conservation of the vitall spirits And lastly by the inordinate violence of fire the spirits in the Mummiall body will be consumed wasted or expired Now the reason why these said corporall Mummie's in those estates are inconvenient for the conservation of health is Because the foresaid three do so destroy and corrupt the body of them that they make and constrain his earth his water and his fire to return unto their first matter so that whereas the earth and the water are ordained to be the receptaâ—les of two vivifying elements namely of fire and aire which onely can be conserved in a body that is incorrupted it must of necessity follow that in the three foresaid Mummies those vivifying spirits must needs vanish and fly away for want of a naturall body which is now become corrupted and destroyed and therefore unnaturall Seeing therefore nothing is required in the true Mummy more then that which is apt and proper for the conservation of life yea for life it self which is the aire which is banished and expelled from the three forsaid Mummies therefore nothing can be extracted out of them but sickness death and destruction and consequently antipatheticall effects so that if a sound murthered oâ— strangled body do rot under the earth or in the water it is not fit or proper for the wholsome use of mans body The very self-same regard is to be had unto such bodies as die through infirmityes and diseases and although they are not visibly corrupted by the three foresaid externall elements yet nevertheless it happeneth so that a certain invisible corruptible influence and impression is made or caused from the externall elements into the internall From hence therefore proceedeth that intestine war in mans body whereby the elements do kill and corrupt one another but after a divers fashion namely otherwise in one body than in another according as one element or elementall alteration is said to have dominion or rule over the other And this is the reason that such variety of diseases do haunt mans body as for example The Dropsie commeth of the strong impression of water the Hectick or burning Feavor of fiery insultations and the Leprosie of the dominion of earth c. And therefore also where any such elementary corruption happeneth unto the body there the wholsome spirit of the corporall Mummy with his habitacle or dwelling mansion is utterly overthrown and the spirit is forced to depart and consequently contrary Mummiall spirits do dominere and are ready to operate antipathetically as shall be expressed in the second member of this Book But if the sound body that is not haveing any infirmity be killed onely by and in the Element of aire that is to say through strangling or by hanging then there will be found no impression of the foresaid Elements in the corporall Mass of mans carcass And for that reason it will remain incorrupted and will not suffer any Elementall resolution so long as it is conserved in the aire If therefore the body or tabernacle of the spirits and vital Balsom remaineth entire then that aereall vitall Balsom is not compelled to depart from his lodging so long as the body is not resolved by nature or art But if it be resolved then it will forsake the body as the soul doth as also the animal astral spirit which did reconcile the one with the other But the vitall vegetable and Balsamick spirit remaineth in the incorrupted body It followeth therefore that this airy kind of Microcosmicall Mummy is most proper for the conservation of vitall spirits in the living man being extracted prepared and rightly after preparation to be applied I will therefore come briefly unto our Magneticall Experiences touching this Mummiall Subject The Proposition If this salutary kind of airy Mummy with his vehicle or Magneticall instrument be taken or chosen or selected rightly it will indue by reason of the
excrescence transported unto the Plant and so the plant animated by that spirit becommeth a magnet which directeth his vegetating spirit to apply unto the spirit or beam of the weak member c. I come now to the proof of the fourth Member The fourth Member of the Proposition is demonstratively proved thus Fourthly that there is a spirituall penetration made from one body unto another before any magneticall operation can be effected Demonstration This member is sufficiently confirmed by that which is already said in the other members and yet it is more plainly expressed by this Problem Problem The Load-stone doth guide and direct magneticall things the which do conceive vigour and force from it not onely in their extremities but also in their interiours and very marrow As for example A piece of Iron so soon as it is touched or attainted with the very breath of the Load-stone it is excited magnetically at the end at which it is touched or regarded and that very power which it received by that touch passeth quite through from the end touched unto the other not onely superficially but also centrally and as I may say at the very marrow Application It appeareth evidently by this that as the formall beams of one Load-stone doth penetrate unto the very center of the other and the other again reciprocally into the very center of it so also the spirit of the wounded man doth penetrate partly by emission from it self and partly by attraction of his like in the oyntment into the bowels of the oyntment unto the spirits of his own kind that are hid in it and reciprocally the oyntment being made a magnet by the imbibing of the Mummial spirits of the blood applyeth his attractive beams unto those which are emitted from the wound being directed therein by the spirit of the dead blood in the unguent as shall be shewed hereafter more at large The fifth Member of the Proposition with the Proofs Fifthly that the magneticall act and operation of celestiall astralicall or starry and influentiall spirits are not to be limited nor yet to be impedited or hindred in their motion if we look into the mystery of this business with intellectuall eyes We must distinguish this Member for your better understanding into two severall articles or branches whereof the first must shew that the extension of the emanations made from two astralicall or starry spirits are not to be limited by mans understanding howsoever by an externall effect it may at random be guessed at These one shall prove that such influentiall starry beams or quintessentiall emissions as are sent forth from the Load-stone unto the Iron or from one Load-stone unto his like in nature and consequently from all other magneticall bodies oâ— like condition in essence cannot be hindered by the interposition of any solid or well-compacted bodies as some Fool losophers rather than Philosophers have â—emerariously averred in their writings Touching the first which includeth the imaginary termination or bounding of beamy or formall extensions or emanations from magneticall bodies within a setled or known limited sphear of activity the impossibility thereof howsoever our Peripatetick Philosophers have feigned the contrary is argued by these following problematicall Demonstrations Certain Problematicall Demonstrations confirming the contents of this Members first Article 1. Problem The vigour in heavenly bodies whereby they move themselves doth argue a soul in them and for that reason they are esteemed by the wisest Philosophers to be endued and animated with a divine act or spirit by means whereof they move which being so the extension of application of their beams must also prove uncertain and therefore without limit being that their spirits after the emanation made do concur sometimes in the aire sometimes in the water and sometimes without resistance they pierce even unto the center of the earth to operate upon the mineral Kingdom bestowing on the earthly subjects that are under them of that very formall act and vertue whereby they operate in their acute penetration And therefore these inferiour creatures of a like nature are able to send forth and extend their astralaicall or beamy vertues as far and to apply their beams at as an unterminable distance as their stars in heaven are observed to do 2 Problem It is rightly then said that the Load-stone doth move the Load-stone and doth both dispose of one another by their primary form which it receiveth from his starry fountain And therefore it was not any absurdity in the wise man Thales Milesius nor yet any madness in Scaliger to assigne a soul unto the Magnet seeing that by it it is centrally incited directed and carried or moved circularly As for example Example If two Magnets be put one against the other in their small barkes upon the water they will not presently concur together but first they do mutually conforme themselves unto one another or else the lesser doth obey the greater moving it self after a circular fashion and when at the last they are disposed according unto their naturall position they run or concurr together The like effect also will appeare between the Magnet and the Iron and the Iron and the Iron as shall be expressed hereafter An Addition Whereby although it may be replied that this Act of the Load-stone with the Load-stone or it with the Iron doth by effect seem to be limited within a certain dimension and therefore what I say proveth not much as yet for the unbounded dimension of the Magneticall bodie 's emanation I answer That the sensible act which is between the Load-stone and Load-stone doth not argue that because the two ponderous bodies have their motion but at such a distance therefore their spirits can extend themselves or apply their beams no further For it is one thing to operate sensibly by a violent attraction of a heavy mass and another thing for one Form onely to embrace and concur in a naturall rejoycing sympathy with another And this alteration is verified even of such as are well practised in the Load-stone's property by this following Problem 3. Problem The Orbe of the internall or spirituall Magneticall virtue doth extend it self at a larger distance than the Orbe of any sensible or externall or visible motion can warrant For the thing that is Magneticall is effected in the extremity of it a far off although it doth not move by a locall motion But if the Load-stone be applied nearer unto it then will also the whole Magnetick mass move corporally unto it Whereby is acknowledged that the virtuous extention of the Magnet is farre beyond the limits of the Orbe of visible Magneticall motion But I will prove it by degrees more evidently namely that the starry influentiall virtue in the Magnet extendeth it self beyond the limits of any sensible capacity 4. Problem The needle touched Magnetically will aspect the North-pole even from the aequinoctiall point which is an Argument of the unlimited extention of the Load-stones
and their spirits namely the blood transported the Oyntment and the Body of the wounded 4 Problem The Load-stone and the veine of Iron are all one and have all one matrix and are found in one Mine as twins yea and the robust Magnet hath Iron in it And therefore the Iron which is extracted from them both hath all the Magneticall virtues as well in the vein as being made by separation but more weakly except it be excited by the Load-stone and added unto it by capping For so it will be stronger in his Magneticall power than the Load-stone it self Application In like manner the blood in the wounded person and that which is transplanted to be purified and comforted in the Oyntment came out of one and the same vein and have all one matrix and therefore that extracted blood hath in it all the Magneticall virtues but more weakly and more in puissance than in act except it be excited by the Southern fountain of blood and capped with the Balsamick nature of the unguent For being so prepared namely incited and addressed it will have his own Northern power and that Balsamick and attractive virtue of the Uznea is so powerfull in his Northern Saturnine condition that it suddenly sealeth up and arresteth by congelation the Southern blood that floweth even as the Northern wind converteth the aire into fix and immobil snow or hail 5 Problem The Load stone and the Iron among all other bodies that are known unto us are more near in nature and condition unto the earth for they have in them a substance that is most genuine and homogeniall and approaching unto the earth And therefore these three do agree in nature together Application By this it appeareth what near reference there is between the body of Man which we compare rightly unto the Earth and the blood which issueth out of the veins of the Earth referred to the Load stone and the Ointment indued with a bloody spirit and which was extracted out of blood For the fat and the Uznea and Mummy were of blood For Scriptures tell us that the Soul of the flesh and consequently of the fat and bones is in the blood Whereby we may see that though these three do differ in bodily Substance yet they agree in the homogeniety of spirit And therfore it is no marvel though there is a continuity between the spirit of the bodily blood and that transplanted neither also ought we much to wonder at the naturall commerce which is between the bloody spirits and the Oyntment that so sudden a union should be made between them and that it should forthwith become a Magnet adopted onely in his Balsamick and sanative operation for the wound being that it is guided and directed by these bloody spirits which are transplanted in it and after animation did convert the beams of his nature unto his like being as near in spirit and property unto the wounded man's blood as is a piece of Iron or Load-stone which is broken from off the whole which accordeth in every respect with the spirit of his Father from whence it sprung So also we see that though the Macrocosmicall aire doth seem to vaâ—y in nature according to his position for the Northern aire is cold the Southern or aequinoctiall is hot yet it is but one spirit howsoever it is divided into this oâ— that cloud And again the internall or formal Spirit which animateth diversly the four winds is but one and the same indivisible spirit as the Prophet Ezekiel telleth us In like manner it is but one and the same identity of spirit which acteth in the wound the conveyed blood and the Oyntment being all three as it were but one blood as the Apostle taught the Athenians that all men came of one blood and consequently of one spirit in the blood I prove it also by this Problem 6. Problem Attraction is made in the primary bodies and these are nearest unto one another and of a mutuall consent among themselves by reason of their identity in condition And for this reason the Load-stone draweth the Load-stone and Iron draweth Iron and earth of them all draweth earth and again each of them draweth another Application Hence therefore is gathered a reason why blood draweth blood and one body his like and the Oyntment being animated by one and the same nature doth attract his like unto him And therefore Paracelsus saith justly Quodlibet corpus cui Mummia viva in alio homine propinatur illicò fit magnes Every body that drinketh or takeeth inwardly the lively Mummy of another man is forthwith made a Magnet And therefore we may say justly seeing experience hath made it manifest that every Microcosmical Oyntment that hath imbibed or comprehended the spiritual Mummy of another man's blood is forthwith made a Magnet and by the incitation of the Mummial spirit which it containeth doth greedily thirst and covet after his like And for that reason draweth and allureth it unto it thereby to impart as well unto it as it doth communicate his vivifying property unto his attractor I could say much more to prove the reason of the strong attraction of this Oyntment after it is animated with the live man's spirits but I shall be too redious and again I shall touch it in the consequence and for that reason I will leave this member to proceed to the seventh The seventh Member of the Proposition with the Proofs Seventhly that the Agent which causeth the Alien or strange body much more that which is of his consanguinity to be come Magnetick and affectionate or concupiscible and that by a kind of proximity in nature is the bloody spirit transplanted into the animal unguent or vegetable plant of which I have spoken before the which spirit also is the director or guider unto the unctuous Magnet to operate magnetically upon the subject and his spirit from whence it was derived the which spirit if it be strong and potent it worketh potently if debil or weak it operateth but weakly Certain Problematicall Demonstrations to confirm the Member of the foresaid Proposition This Member for the better explication of our purpose we must divide into three Articles or Particles whereof the first shall prove That the transplanted spirit maketh the unguent into the which it is committed a Magnet unto the wounded person The Second That it is the onely guider and director of the oyntments force and conductor of his balsamick faculty unto the wounded spirit And the last shall demonstrate how a weak and impotent spirit operateth but weakly of it self and yet by the assistance of a sounder and stronger nature it is refreshed and becommeth strong again Demonstrations confirming the contents of this Members first Article Touching the first Article of this Member which maketh the transplanted spirit the cause that the oyntment is magneticall we prove it thus 1 Problem Experience hath taught us and Baptista Porta confirmeth so much that if a weak
So is the translated northern blood rightly compared unto the Load-stone and the Oyntment to the capping or arming with Iron For by uniting the frozen blood unto the Ointment the attractive power and Magnetical force is far the greater and is able to suck and draw strongly unto it the Southern spirit of lively blood in the wounded I prove this better by this Problem following 7. Problem If two Load-stones armed with two teeth a-piece be set before us the one being strong the other weak or much less whose Axis or Diameter betwixt the teeth is equall and of like length then set the teeth of these together that came from contrary Poles and parts and the stronger will apprehend and lift up the weaker and the weaker being united and incorporated with the stronger by the virtue that it receiveth from the stronger will lift up from the ground and retain the stronger and greater very firmly although he be much heavier then the weight which the small stone doth ordinarily lift up Application By this Minerall type we are taught by changing the measures of weights into proportions in vigor of spirit that the frozen evacuated and transported bloody spirits being capped and armed with the Oyntment whose nature is as near as the blood unto the spirits is made a Magnet so puissant that it is able to attract unto it self the bigger and stronger bloody nature by applying to it the lesser Magnet's Northern nature and as it were his Northern-pole unto the bigger Magnets Southern nature for by that means in the mineral kingdom a natural Union is made as is proved by this Problem 8. Problem There is a naturall Union and a violent and depraved Union and the naturall is when the coition is made by contrary Poles as by the North pole and the South Again that the strongest attraction is from the North-pole this Problem doth confirm 9. Problem The North-pole is the most strong and vigorous pole to all Magnetick intents and purposes if he have the quantity that the South hath Application Whereby it is evident that the Northern nature which is in the unctuous Magnet and his influentiall spirit is by far more attractive than the Southern or warm spirit neither can the Southern or aequinoctial draw unto it but as he participates of the Northern nature by a naturall concurrency unto his like and that is the reason that the naturall Union is said to be where a concurrency is made of opposite polar natures For from them is the strongest attraction made because that it is the nature onely of cold to contract as contrariwise heat doth dilate This polar force therefore is conclusively maintained by this Problem with the which I conclude this Article's proof 10. Problem The Load-stones that be capped take and apprehend at the Pole onely Application As who should say that the Northern or congelated Mummy capped or armed with the Ointment of his own nature and the Southern or lively Mummy capped with flesh do apply Magnetically unto one another at the Poles namely the lively Mummy at the Southern or aequinoctiall and the weak and frozen at the Northen and therefore the manifest attraction is from the unctuous Magnet and his imbibed Agent I now come unto the second Article or Particle of this Member Demonstrations confirming the Contents of the Member's second Article or Particle As concerning the second Article of this member which sheweth that the spirituall Mummy of the transplanted blood is the director and guider of the Oyntments Magneticall force or vigor unto the wound at what distance soever I demonstrate it by these problematicall assertions following 1. Problem The Load-stone doth guid and direct Magneticall things which do conceive vigor and force from it not onely in the extremities but also in their interior and veiny marrow As for example So soon as a piece of Iron is apprehended it is accited Magnetically into the end where it was touched and that very force so bestowed upon it penetrateth quite throughout even unto the other end or extremity not onely superficially but also centrally Application By this Example it is proved that the formall Mummy of the blood operateth in the very like manner with the Oyntment which is to it as the Iron is unto the Load-stone so that as the Load-stone by touching the Iron maketh it after the imbibition of his spirituall vigor a Magnet So also after the imbibition of this bloody spirituall Mummy the unguent becommeth a Magnet Forasmuch as it is throughly animated with a Magneticall vigor And doth by virtue of this Mummiall soul direct his beam and Balsamick force unto the fountain from whence that Mummiall spirit did arise I prove the direction to be true by these other Problems following 2. Problem One Load-stone doth dispose of the other one doth convert the other and reduceth it in his order and guideth and directeth it into his Concordances and when they are met and joyned together they do mutually adhere firmly unto one another The example is evident For if you take two Irom wiers of a length being excited at the ends by contrary Poles and thrust them through round corks as big as Hazel-nuts and put them to swim in the water you shall find that they will by little and little order themselves and the Northern spirituall contact of the one will first direct his axil-tree and after draw the South-pole unto it untill both meet one another in the manner of two Tilters or Hors-men with their speares The Demonstration Application The spirituall Mummy in the transplanted blood is one Load-stone which doth dispose the Oyntment in such a manner that it becometh a Magnet also and this Magnet is directed by the spirit of the Mummy into the concordances of the spirituall Mummy which breatheth forth of the living wounded man which iâ— attracteth and uniteth and partly participateth with his vivifying force and partly communicateth with him of his Balsamicall spirit which by reason of his continuity with the wound it doth easily though invisibly transfer unto the wound I proceed now unto the third Article or Particle of this Member Demonstrations confirming the Contents of this member's third and last Article or Particle As for the third and last Article of this Member which sheweth that a weak and impotent spirit operateth but weakly of it self but by the assistance of a stronger nature it is recreated and becommeth vigorous And lastly again it is also confirmed by many sufficient Problematicall conclusions which are produced from the Load stone's properties 1 Problem A Load-stone loseth his attractive vertue and doth as it were decay with age if it be long exposed unto the open aire and not kept and put into the filings or scales of Iron Application Also the life-blood so soon as it is effused out of his warm mineral veins and tasteth of the cold aire loseth his active vertue and becommeth dead and congealed except it
extremity namely by receiving from the oyntments spirits and giving or imparting them sympathetically unto the wound The tenth Member of the Proposition with his Proofs The tenth Member of the Proposition is that by a lively southern spirit a portion of his like being made by effusion of it into the open and cold air weak drooping northern or congealed may after transplantation be revived quickened and corroborated and so by returning again unto his southern or equinoctiall nature may by a sympatheticall union be made all one homogeneall nature with the lively bloody spirit conferring along with it by little and little the nature of the plant or animal mass in which he is grafted and so may cause each extream nature to participate with the symptoms of one another be they good and salutary or bad and dolorous Certain Problematicall Demonstrations to confirm this Member 1 Problem If a Magnet of no force or strength that can easily be discerned be set on the pole of a Load-stone that is strong he will shew a vigour as if he were as strong as the Load-stone is whereunto he is united but after he is taken away he will be as weak as before unless it be often done Application The Southern blood penetrating through the unctuous Magnet doth animate it and by animation doth revive it and as well preserving the transplanted spirit from the externall aire 's inclemency as calefacting or heating of it by his attracted southern nature it doth revive again the dead spirits of the fainting blood so transported even as we see the spirits in the dead grain of Wheat buried in the earth is by the earth animated with the Sun-beams being revived as it were from death to life But if that a part of the oyntment be taken away from the place of the weapon where the blood doth stick or the bloody spirits did penetrate then will the revived spirits faint again and the wound will be dolorous as it was before the blood was buried in the oyntment even as also if the earth be removed from the vigorous spirits in the dead grain they will fade and the plant will not grow and multiply But if the oyntment animated as before be re-applyed the wound will prosper and heal without pain no otherwise also then if the earth that was removed from the revived spirit in the grain be re-applyed unto it suddainly it will prosper again 2 Problem If a weak Magnet be rubbed at one of his poles with a stronger Magnet it wil be bettered by it in vigour and vertue if not augmented therein Application This typicall proof doth confirm also exactly the same member namely the lively spirits will vigorate fainting-ones 3 Problem The Magnet will lose some of his attractive vertue and will as it were languish with old age if it be long exposed unto the open aire and be not put again and reserved or buried in the filings of Iron Application So also mans blood effused out of his Mine and exposed into the open air doth languish and becommeth weak if it be not preserved in the weapon-salve which is of his nature 4 Problem One Iron being touched doth recreate another and instruct it unto magneticall motions Application So the Mummiall unguent animated by the emitted beams of the lively blood doth recreate incite and corroborate the spirits in the transported blood The eleventh Member of this Proposition with his Proofs The eleventh Member is That the alteration of the aire doth operate equally upon either extream which is an evident argument of a continued unity in spirit between the transplanted blood in the oyntment and the wound so that what passion the distempered or unclement aire operateth in the one is felt by the other no otherwise than if a thread be tyed at both ends of a Gallem the one end being touched the other end doth sympathize or act likewise by consent which is an evident argument that the aire is the medium or vehicle in which the spirituall influence doth pass and that the said formall celestiall or influentiall spirit which is carried in it doth by an immediate contact communicate with the distempers of its airy vehicle and by consequence it is by that means changed by turns and by portions into a northern or southern disposition And therefore by the externall air 's cold it sucketh spirits from the wound and leaveth it distempered and dolorous it being by that kind of attraction deprived of some naturall heat So that sympathy is turned into antipathy as it appeareth when the oyntment is taken off from the wounding place of the weapon either totally or in part as is said before Certain Problematicall Demonstrations to confirm this Member 1 Problem In the Weather-glass so often mentioned before you shall find between the bolts-head or mattras above and the water below a continued aire in the neck of the glass and you must imagine that such included aire is not without his sulphureous spirits which by dilatation of themselves do also dilate the airy vehicle they are in and with the dilated vehicle the water is stricken down and by contraction of themselves the airy vehicle is also contracted and the water is sucked up And yet we see that the aire which is between both extreams is all one continued aire from the one extream unto the other and therefore much more the occult and celestiall sulphureous spirit which dwelleth and acteth within it and is as the soul in a body in toto in qualibet parte and that indivisibly or not separated into parts And because this included acting spirit being but one in number is derived from the soul of the world Look as the generall worketh in the great world namely from the north or from the south even so also doth this member of the generall operate in his included aire For if the catholick spirit of the world acteth or breatheth from the north and bringeth forth in the air congealative and contractive effects then the centrall spirit in the glass doth operate likewise after the same manner for it contracteth his vehicle and sucketh up the water But if the world's catholick spirit bloweth from the south then is the aire before contracted now again dilated and then also will the included formall spirits in the glass operate after the same fashion and dissipate or extend out their airy vehicle in a larger proportion or manner as by ocular observation you may discern in the said Instrument 2 Problem The north wind blowing in the great world continueth the essence of his blast from north to south but the nearer that it approacheth the equinoctiall line the more weak is his effect in contraction and congelation agreeing in this with the Magnet or Load-stone whose parts the nearer they are unto the pole the more potent are they in their operative or attractive power and the farther they are off the more infirm and debil they are But this emanating spirit from