Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	word_n	world_n	writing_n	173	3	8.6777	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A20901	The practise of chymicall, and hermeticall physicke, for the preseruation of health. Written in Latin by Iosephus Quersitanus, Doctor of Phisicke. And translated into English, by Thomas Timme, minister; Ad veritatem hermeticae medicinae ex Hippocratis responsio. English	Du Chesne, Joseph, ca. 1544-1609.; Tymme, Thomas, d. 1620.	1605 (1605)	STC 7276; ESTC S109967	142,547	211

and Omnipotent Plato in his Timaeo giueth testimonie when hée speaketh thus When the sempiternall GOD had created this Vniuersal hee put into it certaine seedes of reason brought in the beginning Life that he might beget with the world the procreating force Wherein our explication which I brought before concerning the Soule of the worlde is confirmed Which also agreeth with that which the Prophet Moses hath written and which King Dauid hath in his Psalme in these wordes By the worde of the Lorde were the Heauens made and all the vertue of them by the spirit of his mouth By which vertue of the quickning spirit that great Trimegistus more conuersant and exercised in Moses writings then all other Philosophers vttered these diuine wordes in his second booke which is called Asclepias All spirit saith he in the world is acted and gouerned by the spirit The spirit telleth all things the worlde nourisheth bodies the spirit giueth them soule By the spirit all things in the world are ministred are made to growe and increase And after that he saith againe All things haue neede of this spirit For it carryeth all things and it quickneth nourisheth all things according to the dignitie of eache thing in it selfe Life and the spirit is brought forth out of the holy fountaine By which diuine words it appeareth plainely that this eternal and quickening spirit is infused and put into all things so that it is not obserued to deduce and deriue the actions forces and powers also all naturall things from the spirits as from the causes CHAP. III. HAuing spoken sufficiently of the first and second beginning that is to say of God vniuersal Nature God the first cause vsing that generall Nature as his handmaid it resteth that somewhat be spoken of nature natured that is to say of that which is particular To make an apt and conuenient definition whereof let vs knowe that it is no other thing than euery naturall body consisting of forme and matter For of these two causes and not onely of the causes but also of the parts of the whole compound all nature that is to say euery naturall body consisteth For the Peripateticks do thinke that whatsoeuer is the beginning of generation ought to be called nature by a certaine peculiar right And Aristotle saith that the same from whence any thing is made at the first and whereof it hath the first motion mutation is the very beginning I say the beginning from whence the essence of all natural things ariseth The which nature Aristotle in another place defineth to be the beginning substantiall and the cause of motion and of the rest thereof in the which it is at the first and not by Accidents the explication of which definition he hath comprehended in eight bookes And Aristotle doth rightly call Nature the cause and the beginning of internall motion For those things which are made by Nature and are therefore called naturall haue a certaine beginning of motion whereby they are moued of their owne accord not by force Whereby plainly appeareth the difference betweene those things which are naturall and which are endued with an effectuall spirit and with power to worke by it selfe and those things which are made by Arte which haue no force nor power of doing but are dead and deuoided of all sense and motion By these things it appeareth that things natural are called properly naturall existences or beings and such as haue nature And they are saide to haue nature which possesse in themselues the beginning of their motion and of their rest the which beginning of motion of euery thing is either the forme or the matter wherof we haue spoken Forme which is wholly spiritual hath all her motion likewise spiritual So the soule is of this same nature in a liuing creature the motions and sences plainely celestiall spirituall and a light beginning Whereas the Matter is terrestriall ponderous and corporal the other beginning of naturall motion By whose waight and grossenesse the body tendeth downeward so as this kind of motion procéedeth not from the soule or spirituall forme but from the corporall matter which is terrestriall and heauy by his owne nature Hereof it commeth that the name of nature is giuen as well to Matter as to Forme but more aptly and conueniently to Forme because Forme doth manifestly giue to a thing his being actually whereas Matter alone cannot performe that For not euery liuing creature hath sense and motion from that body which is solid terrestriall and ponderous but onely from the spiritual forme that is to say the soule mouing the body and informing it with the vitall vertues As for example A horse is in act and in truth a horse when he neither moueth leapeth nor runneth but these motions which are spiritual are the effects operations of the soule or forme whereas otherwise the body hauing nothing but the lineaments and visible forme whereby it séemeth a horse is meere terrestriall heauie and deade Howbeit neither the soule alone of the horse can bée saide to bée a horse except it be coupled with the body For both being ioyned and coupled together make a horse Knowe therefore that the Forme is far more noble and excellent then the Matter and that Nature as touching her effects and operations is of that power that it generateth and giueth being to all things it putteth matter on the formes it beautifieth and suffereth nothing to bee corrupted but preserueth all things in their estate Th●se her vertues faculties and powers she very apparantly sheweth when as she worketh and causeth all sorts of beings out of the 〈◊〉 and out of the seedes and beginning of all things Salt Sulphur and Mercurie and informeth with great variety of impressions of the vitall spirits colours and taste and with the properties of such kinde of powers and faculties that it giueth to euery thing so much as concerneth the office and dignity thereof in all sufficiencie The which building and 〈◊〉 of things so apt●● and conueniently formed in order in number and measure wee may w●ll call diuine not terrestriall and corporall 〈…〉 same be naturall according to the power which God hath giuen vnto Nature And yet wée must not thinke that God hath so forsaken the frame of this wor●d that he sitteth idle as hauing giuen such admirable and potent ●ffects to nature onely according to the opinion of An●xagoras Protagoras and many other Athe●●●i all Philosophers which acknowledge no other God but Name as also did the Epicures 〈◊〉 it they be to be accused and condemned for so wicked an opinion then do they deserue no small reprehension which denie nature her partes and offices in working For the offices pecu●●ar both of her first and second cause are to be attributed to either according to 〈…〉 Neither are these places of Scripture any thing repugnant 〈◊〉 is God which worketh all in all And againe in him wee liue moue and haue our beeing For

tradition and are deliuered as it were from hand to hand and euery one adorneth his arte with new inuentions according as he excelleth others in dexteritie of wit And albeit it may be said that it is an easie matter to adde to that which is inuented yet both the Inuentors and also the augmentors are to be thankfully imbraced CHAP. II. THere are thrée principall things mixed in euery Naturall bodie to wit Salte Sulphur and Mercurie These are the beginnings of all Naturall things But he from whom all things haue their beginning is GOD vppon whome all things do depende hée himselfe subsisting by himselfe and taking the Originall of his Essence from no other and is therfore the first and efficient cause of all things From his first beginning procéedeth Nature as the second beginning made by GOD himselfe through the power of his worde This Nature next vnder God ought to be religiously estéemed thought of enquired and searched for The knowledge hereof is very necessary and wil be no lesse profitable the searche and raunsacking thereof will be swéete and pleasing The profite which commeth hereby appeareth in this that the knowledge of all things which consist thereof and wherof they borrow thei● name and are called Naturall things procéedeth herehence whether they bée subiect to our sences or aboue our sences Hereupon great Philosophers both Christians and Ethnicks haue bene mooued to make the signification of the name of Nature to sitte and serue almost all things Insomuch that Aristotle himselfe in that diuision which he maketh of Nature diuiding the same into the first and second Nature and speaking of the first he calleth it Naturam naturantem Naturing nature by which he meaneth God So in like manner Zeno a Prince of Stoikes openlie taught that Nature was no other thing then God Therefore the first Naturing nature is God but the seconde which properly is said to be Nature is subdiuided into vniuersall and particular The Vniuersall is that ordinarie power of God diffused throughout the whole worlde whereof it is sayd that Nature doth suffer this or that or doth this or that as Augustine teacheth in his booke De ciuitate Dei and Lactantius and among heathen wryters Pliny and Seneca This vniuersall Nature is also taken for the diuine vertue which God hath put and implanted in all creatures by the benefite whereof certaine notes of the Diuinitie are to be discerned in them Hereuppon some olde Fathers were woont to say All things are full of Goddes as did Heraclitus among others Some others take this vniuersal nature for a certaine influence and vertue whereby the Starres do worke in these inferior things or else for an acting vertue in an vniuersall cause that is to say in a bodie Celestiall Furthermore that is vniuersall Nature wherof Plato speaketh when he saith Nature is a certaine force and strength infused throughout all things the moderator and nourisher of all things and by it selfe the beginning of motion and of rest in them The which Nature Hermes Trimegistus almost in the same words saith to be a certaine force risen from the first cause diffused throughout all bodies by it selfe the beginning of motion and rest in them This force the Pythagoreans called God And therefore Virgil a great follower of the Pythagorean disciplne wrote thus saying The spirit nourisheth inwardly c. And the Platonicks called the same the Soule of the worlde But yet the Platonicks haue not defined shewed in what maner by what means this Soule of the world doth moderate and order all these interior things and doth stirre vp in the generation of things neither can they yet determine But the more witty and learned sort of Philosophers holde affirme that this world which comprehendeth in the circumference and compasse therof the fowre Elements the first beginnings of nature is a certaine great bodie whose partes are so knitte together among themselues euen as in one bodie of a liuing Creature all the members doe agrée that there is no one part of the parties of that great body which is not inlyned quickened and susteined by the benefite of that vniuersall soule which they haue called the soule of the worlde affirming also that if the bodyes of liuing creatures doe deriue life and beeing from the soule which is in them the same is much more done and effected in the farre more noble and more excellent body of the whole world by the meanes of the more potent and farre more excellent soule with the which this body of the vniuersall world is indued and by which it subsisteth For it all the parts of the world haue life as manifestly appearing it hath then must it needes follow that wholely it liueth for that the parts drawe and deriue their life from the whole from the which they being separated cannot but perish and die And héereupon they inferre that the Heauen compassing all things is that Soule which nourisheth and susteineth all things Also further they affirme that all the formes virtues and faculties of things by which all things are neurished susteined and haue their being doe come from the worlds Soule And as the body and soule are gathered and ioyned together in one through the benefite of the Spirits bond for that it is partaker of both Natures so the soule and body of the world are knit together by the meanes of the Aethereall Spirits going betwéene ioyning each part of the whole into one subsistence And yet hereof we must not conclude as did Aphrodisaeus and Philoponas which were Platonists that the worlde is a most huge liuing creature indued with sense and vnderstanding wise and happie the which is a most absurde and false opinion But the Platonists by the soule of the world gaue vs rather to vnderstand a certaine spirit which cherisheth quickeneth conserueth and susteineth all things as it were a certaine spirit of that Elohym or great God which mooued vpon the waters which Plato might remember as one not ignorant of Moses and thereupon frame his soule of the worlde Whereupon also it must needes come to passe that all these inferior things otherwise transitorie and infirme should soone come to destruction without they were conserued and continued in theyr being by that diuine power perpetually maintaining and suspecting them the which being disseuered a great confusion perturbation of the whole worlde arise therof Which ruine and destruction God of his great goodnes would preuent creating that vniuersall Nature which should defende all this great worke and kéepe it safe and sounde by his vertue and moderation and that by the yearely and continual rotation and reuolution of the right Heauen and by the Influences and vertues of the Starres Planets and Celestiall powers all things might be well gouerned and might constantly remaine and abide in full fastnes of theyr estate vntill the predestinated time of theyr dissolution To this Aethereall spirit or rather Diuine power euery effectuall

gold to it selfe with the which it is mingled and vnited into one body in such wise that it swalloweth vp gold whereas all other metalls except siluer do floate aloft and wil not sinke into the same Consider therefore saith Arnold that thing onely which cleaueth to Mercury and to the perfect bodies and thou hast the full knowledge And when he hath thus discribed the deuouring Lyon he addeth these words Because our stone is like to the accidentall quicksiluer which carrieth gold before it and ouercommeth it and is the very same which can kill and make aliue And know further that our coagulated quicksiluer is the father of all the minerals of that our magistery is both body spirit c. The same thrée chiefe beginnings doe offer themselues vnto vs in other semi mineralls as in Arsenick orpinent and such other like which albeit in their whole substance they bee contrary to our nature and spirits yet by nature they haue that spiritual promptnes and flying swiftnesse that by their subtiltie they easily conuey and mingle and mingle themselues with our spirits whether they be inwardly taken or outwardly applyed and doe worke venemous and mortal effects and that by reason of the Arsenical Mercury poinson ful or arsenical Sulphur and arsenicall Salt Gems also and precious stones haue in them the vertues and qualities of those thrée beginnings by reason of whose fier and brightnesse the pure Mercury in them doth shine cleauing firmly to his fixed Salt and also to the Sulphur of the same nature whereby the whole substance of a contrary kind being seperated there ariseth and is made a most pure stone of contrinance like vnto gold Of this sort is the most firme and constant Diamond to whom that good old Saturne hath giuen the leaden colour of his more pure Mercury together with the fixed and constant spirits of his more pure Sulphur and hath so confirmed coniealed and compacted it in all stability with his christalline salt that of all other stones it is the most solyd and hardest by reason of the most firme vnion of the thrée principal beginnings and their coherence which by no art of seperation can be disioyned and sundered into the solution of his spiritual beginnings And this is the cause that the ancient Physitians had no vse thereof in medicine because it could not be dissolued into his first matter And it is not to be thought that those auncient Physitians refrained the vse thereof for that they déemed it to be venemous by nature as some falsely imagin which being homogenial and of a 〈◊〉 simple nature it is wholely celestial and therefore most pure and for that cause nothing venemous but the poyson and daunger commeth here hence that being onely broken and beaten and in no sort apt to preperation taken so into the stomack and remaining there by reason of his soliditie and hardnesse inconcocted by coutinuance of time and by little and little it doth fret and teare the laps of the stomack and so the intralls being ●●oriated death by a lingering consumption ensueth It belongeth to golde with his Sulphur to giue a red tineture to Carbuncles and Rubines neither doth the difference of their colours come of any other cause then this that their Mercuries and Chrystallyne salts are not defeked and clensed alike the which clensing the more perfect or imperfect it is the colour appeareth accordingly either better or worse And albeit Siluer be outwardly white yet within it hath the colour of Azure and blewe by which shée giueth her tincture to Saphyrs Copper hauing outwardly a shew of rednes hath a gréene colour within as the Viridgreese that is made thereof doth testifie by which it giueth greennesse vnto the Emerand Iron red within as his Saffron yeallow colour doth plainly shew and yet nothing like the colour which gold hath within it giueth colour to the Iacint Tinne albeit it is earthie yet being partaker of the celestial nature it giueth vnto Agates diuers and sundry colours From gold and from other mettals as also from precious stones their colours may be taken away by Cementation and Reuerberation by their proper menstrues which things are well knowen to Chymists and fire workmen The which colours and sulphurs so extracted are very fit for the affects of the braine The colour of gold serueth for the affects of the heart The colour of tinne for the lunges The colour of Mercury The colour of lead for the splene The colour of Iron for the rednesse The colour of Copper for the priuie parts The heauenly menstruéese to dispoyle mettalls of their colours and sulphures naturall is this namely the deaw which falleth in the moneth of May and his sugar Manna out of the which two mixed together digested and distilled according to Arte there wil come forth a general dissoluer most fit to dispoyle stones and mettals of their colours Yea of onely Sugar or of hony by it selfe may be made a dissoluer of mettals Now if these thrée beginnings Salt Sulphur and Mercurie are to be found in the Heauen in the Ayer and in the Waters as is al ready shewed who wil make any doubt but that by a farre greater reason they are to be found in the earth and to be made no lesse apparant séeing the earth of al other elements is the most fruitfull and plentiful The Mercurial spirits sh●we themselues in the le●ues and fruites The Sulphurus in the flowers séedes and kirnels The salts in the wood barke and rootes and yet so that eache one of those thrée partes of the trée or plant seuerally by themselues albeit to one is giuen the mercurial spirit to another that of Sulphur and to the third that of Salt yet euery one apart may as yet be resolued into those thrée beginnings without the which they cannot consist how simple so euer they be For whatsoeuer it bée that hath being within the whole compasse and course of nature doe consist and are profited by these thrée beginnings And whereas some are said to be mercurial some Sulphurus and some Salt it is therefore because the Mercurials doe conteine more Mercurie the Sulphurus more Sulphur and the Saltish more Salt in them than the others For some whole trées are to be séene more sulphurus and roseny than other some as the Pine and Firre-trées which are alwayes gréene in the coldest mountaines because they abound with their Sulphurus beginning being the principal vital instrumēt of their growing For there are some other plants as the Lawrel and the Trées of Oranges Citrons and Lemons which continue long gréene and yet are subiect to colde because their Sulphure is not so easily dispersed as is the Sulphur of the firre trées which are roseny and are therefore thrice of a more fixed and constant life furnished against the iniuries of times Furthermore al Spice-trées and al fragrant and odoriferous hearts are Sulphurus And as there are sundry sortes of trées of this kinde so are

and comfort the same So the Salt of Guaiacine is by a speciall propertie solutiue as the mercurie thereof by his tartnesse doth testifie and the oyle or Sulphur thereof hath a purging force Out of the which thrée beginnings if the first two spirituall and more simple that is to say Mercury and Sulphur be extracted and according to arte and the fixed which is salt be also extracted and seperated and be after that brought into one bodie which the Arabians call Elixir it will be ioyntly together a medicine prouoking sweate altering concocting and purging Which tryple motion and operation commeth from one and the same essence of thrée vnited in one giuing most assured helpe in stéed of quicke-siluer against the veneril sicknesse or French disease The salt of Tartar is of the same kinde that they be which sharply do vite the tongue being also oily and sulphurus yea it is more sharpe than any other neuertheles if it be mingled with the spirit or sharpe oile of vitriole it can so moderate and correct his sharpenesse and byting spirit that of them both there may be made Ielly and thereof a swéete most pleasing delicate sirup which auayleth much against the gnawing and heate of the stomach and to ease al paines of the collicke All such Mercuries Sulphur and Saltes of Vegetables doe grow and arise from the mercurial and sulphurus spirits of the earth and from metallick substances but they are farre better swéeter and of more noble condition than their parents from whence they take their original There wil be no ende of writing if particularly should bée prosecuted the difference of all beginnings and their properties and faculties which the sea and the earth doth procreate That which is already declared may suffice to stirre vp the mo●e noble wits to search out the Mysteries of nature and to follow the study of such excellent Philosophy Thus it is made manifest that these thrée biginnings are in Heauen in the Elements as in Ayre Water and in Earth and in bodies elementated as wel of Minerals as of Vegetables And now it resteth that it be shewed how the same be in Animals CHAP. XIIII Wherein is shewed that those three first beginnings are to be found in all liuing Creatures FIrst we wil beginne with Fowles whose first beginning is at the Egge For in Egges there are more plaine testimonies of the nature of Birdes than in any other thing The white declareth the ethereal Mercurie wherein is the séed and the etherial spirit the author of generation hauing in the prolifying power whereof chiefly the Bird is begotten For this cause it is marueilous that so many and so great dissoluing and attenuating vertues and faculties doe lye hid in the white of an Egge as in the ethereal Mercurie The yeolke of the Egge the nourishment of the Bird is the true Sulphur But the thinne skinne and the shell doe not onely conteyne a certaine portion of Salt but also their whole substance is salt and the same the most fixed and constant of al other salts of nature so as the same being brought vnto blacknesse and freed from his combustible sulphur but calcination it will indure and abide all force of fyer which is a propertie belonging to the most fixed salts and a token of their assured and most constant fixion This salt daily prepared is very fit to dissolue and breake the Stone and to auoyd it As these thrée principles are in the Egge so they passe into the bird For Mercury is in the blood and flesh Sulphur in the fat and salt is in the ligaments sinewes bones more in solid parts And the same beginnings are more subtil and aierie in birds than in fishes and terrestrials As for example the Sulphur or oily substance of birds is alwayes of more thinne parts th●● that of fishes or of beastes The same may be sayd of Fishes which albeit they be procreated and nourished in the cold water yet doe they not want their hote and burning fatnesse apt to burne And that they haue in them Mercury and Salt no man well aduised will denie All terrestriall liuing creatures doe consist in like sort of these thrée beginnings but in a more noble degrée of perfection than in vegetable things they doe appeare in them For the vegetable things which the beastes doe féede vpon being more crude are con●●cted in them and are turned into their substance wherby they are made more perfect and of greater efficacie In Vegetables there were onely those Vegetatiues which in beastes beside the vegetation which they retaine they become also sensatiue and therefore of more noble and better nature The Sulphur appeareth in them by their grease tallow and by their vnctuous oily marrow and fatnesse apt to burne Their Salts are represented by their bones and more solid and hard parts euen as their Mercuries doe appeare in their blood and in their other humors and vaporous substances All which those singular partes are not therefore called Mercurie Sulphurs and Salts because they consist of animal Mercurie of animal Sulphur and of Animal Salt without the coniunction of the beginnings But in Mercurals Mercurie in Sulphurus Sulphur in the Saltish salt doth rule and dominéere Out of the which thrée beginnings of beasts oyles diuers liquours and salts apt for mans vse both to nourish and also to heale and cure may by Chymicall art be extracted CHAP. XV. Concerning Man and the liuely Anathomie of all his parts and humours with the vertues and properties of his three beginnings NOw it remaineth that we séeke out and search in man those things in whom they shall be found to be so much the more subtill and perfect by how much he excelleth all other creatures in subtiltie and excellency For in him as in a little world are contained these thrée beginnings as diuers and manifold as in the great world but more spirituous and farre better For Phol●sophers cal man the compendiment or abridgement of the greater world And Gregory Nazianzene in the beginning of his booke concerning the making of man saith that God therfore made man after all other things that he might expresse in man as in a small table all that he had made before at large For as the vniuersal frame of this world is diuided into these thrée parts namely intellectual and elementarie the meane betwéene which is the celestial which doth couple the other two not onely most diuers but also cleane contrary that is to say that supreme intellectual wholy formal and spiritual and the elementary material and corporeat so in man the like triple world is to be considered as it is distributed into thrée parts notwithstanding most straightly knit together and vnited that is to say the Head the Brest and the Belly beneath The which lower belly comprehēdeth those parts which are appointed for generations and nourishment which is correspondent to the lower elementarie world The middle part which is the brest where the heart