ariseth from whence come raine mire snow dew thunder haile which though they were Nothing before production yet being produced out of invisible things they become great bodies Whence we may observe that all things in the first Creation were produced out of the DIVINE NOTHING or invisible Cabalisticall Poynt into something which God did in a moment for his works cannot be delayed by time All things proceeded out of the invisible Darknesse and were called out to the visible Light by the WORD speaking and the Spirit cherishing Now whereas Man had his Sydereall body from the Astra's of the Firmament and the whole Imagination of Man dependeth on the Astra's of the Firmament yea is the same and abideth one with them it must needs be that the Firmament also hath an Imagination but without Reason as Man the off-spring of the world hath with Reason One man striketh and hurteth another and that with Reason a nettle and fire burne and hurt without Reason Moreover whereas Man is the Quintessence of the greater world it follows that Man may not onely imitate Heaven but rule it also at his beck and reigne over it at his pleasure All things naturally obey the Soule and must of necessity move and work toward that which the soule earnestly desireth and all vertues and operations of Naturall things obey it when it is carried with a vehement desire it makes all the powers of the world serve us when by holinesse we draw vertue from him who is the true Archetype and when we ascend to him then every Creature must and will obey us and the whole Host of Heaven follow us By Faith we may do good or evillus God permitteth By the help of Imagination all Magicall operations and all wonderfull things are done through the Naturall inborn Faith by which we are at peace with the very Spirits themselves The Imagination worketh in Man like the Sun for as the bodily Sun worketh without an instrument upon the subject burning it to coals and ashes so the incorporeall cogitation of Man worketh on the subject by the spirit onely as with a visible instrument what the visible body doth that also doth the invisible body This 〈◊〉 the Gaâ—ae 〈…〉 Art as the sydereall Man doth hurt unto another The Imagination of Man is the Loadstone that attracteth above a 1000 miles off yea in its Exaltation it draweth unto it whatsoever it wilout of the Elements But the ImaginatioÌ„ is no efficacious unles first it attract the thing conceived by the attractive force of the imagination that it may beget the Architect of the Imagination as a native spirit out of it selfe afterward the Imagination being as it were with child maketh impression which though it be not tangible yet it is corporeall like the wind Magick or Faith transplanting minds hath power over all Spirits and Ascendants Hence the true Magician or wise Man can attract the operation of the Astra's stones mettalls c. into the Imagination to make them excercise the same force and power with the Astra's as for example by a burning Glasse the beams of the Sun are derived unto us with its heat The Imagination can produce whatever we see with our eyes in the greater world Thus by Imagination and true Gabalia all hearbs all growing things all mettalls may be produced This part of Magick is called Gabalisticall and is supported with three Pillars First with TRUE PRAYERS made in Spirit and Truth when God and the Created Spirit are united in the Holy of Holyes when God is prayed unto in the internall Spirit not with noyse of words but in a sacred silence without opening the mouth and groaning Secondly by NATURALL FAITH or in-born Wisdome which God the Father equally communicated to all men in the Creation as to his own proper flock and common patrimony Thirdly by a strongly exalted IMAGINATION how great and how wonderfull the strength or force thereof is the Light of Nature doth manifestly shew Gen. 30.37 c. as well in Jacobs Rods mentioned by Moses as in pregnant women who imprint the mark of that which they long for upon the child as hath been said The Imagination or Fantasie of Man is like the Load stone in its Nature attracting the Fantasie of other men as we see in those that gape and yawn A vehement Imagination doth not onely cause a transmutation of ones own body but sometimes also of anothers by way of imitation to wit by a certaine kind of Vertue which the similitude of the Thing hath unto that Thing that is to be changed which is moved by a vehement Imagination as appeareth in astonishment or swouning in crashing or creaking of teeth in grating one piece of Iron against another c. whereby the teeth are set on edge in like manner yawning provoketh yawning Many by their melancholly Imagination and diffidence have exposed themselves to the temptation of the uncleane Spirit and sometimes have been overcome by it True Faith is the cure of a false Imagination Many fall sick and recover againe by the Faith of Imagination Many also by their intent Imagination without distrust of their weaknesse by a constant and most firme Faith toward God by a mind lifted up most high by infallible hope constant and most ardent prayers have so prevailed that on a sudden they have become the Temples of the living God The Sum of all is that we worship God devoutly in honesty and holinesse as the more secret Theosophers or wise-hearted to God well know for by the ardent and devout intention of him that prayeth with Fear and Trembling the Understanding or Mind flaming with a Religious love is joyned to the separated Intelligences For internall Prayer proceeding with abundance of affection from a Godly mind and continued with a fervent desire uniteth the mind with God and learneth and knoweth all things of God Few men think what the Mind can doe that is disposed by true faith and more few by far there are who know how to exercise the same by a supernaturall influence which doth rule and governe the body The purified Mind like a river entereth into the very inmost secrets of things beyond all shadowes though there be many who know this disposition yet by reason of worldly cares and thoughtfulnesse wherewith they are overwhelmed they can doe nothing that favoureth of true Wisdome But thus much of these things Such like contemplations as these which are of greatest Antiquity will seem harsh and crabbed to the rude and vulgar sort of men for few read them and fewer understand them and they require a larger narration then can be made of them at this time To returne therefore to our purpose It is of greatest concernment that all Chymists should bewell acquaintedwith this true Fundamentall of the occult Phylosophycal Physick because of the Harmonicall concord and conspiration between the superiour and inferiour things of the greater and lesser world in clearing which Foundation
so hath he given to his Name to have life in it selfe and the Name also to the Letters Great things have been affected by True Magicians by whom I doe not mean Nicromancers or them of the Black Art those accurate searchers out of Nature by a Word written and Characters or Signes Such Names are the Divine Power framed at a certaine time according to the power of Heaven far from all superstition which ariseth onely from ignorance without any prophanation or scandall of the Divine Majesty or any wrong to Faith and Religion otherwise it were better for us alwayes to be sick then to be cured with the dishonour of God For Characters or constellated Names according to Agrippa have no force from the Figureors Pronunciation but by reason of the Vertue or Office which God or Nature hath ordained to such a Name or Character There is no vertue or power either in Heaven or Earth which descendeth not from God nor can it give or actually exercise any thing it hath but by his permission Medicines are visible bodies Words are invisible bodies whether the Hearb or Word healeth it is by God the Naturall Vertue thereof to wit Paracels saith that Characters are â—â—e Compounds and Syrups of Spirits by the Spirit of God made One with Nature by his Word FIAT Concerning Characteristicalll Cure which affecteth Naturall operations by words pronounced written carved and hanged about the neck by the caelestiall properties of the Stars through a marvellous Influence agreeing with our bodies if any desireth to be satisfied herein let him read Rog. Bacon of the wonderfull power of Art and Nature Physitians also have wrought great cures by the Created Word or the incarnate Mercy for all these things are done by the efficacy of the Triune and Divine Word onely which healeth and preserveth all things Luke 11.14 as we see in our Saviour miracles who when he restored the deafe and dumb to whom the Pills and Syrups of all the Shops in the world could doe no good he did it not by Nature but by himselfe he did it by One Word and he is that Word to wit the increated Mercy of God John 1.3 Not by bread alone Mat. 4.4 Grace exceedeth Nature and the thing signified excelleth the signe by which are all created things from which all simples flow which also with the Father dayly worketh all in all What vertue and operation soever there is in the Creatures as well in the great as in the little world all that for certaine is wrought of God incarnate in his explicit and manifest bond of one Spirit filling all things inseperably gathered into one which Spirit therefore is the only fulnes of the whole world Eccl. 24.8 9 10 11. and may well be called The Fulnesse Nothing is made out of God for in him all things live are moved and doe subsist This WORD of God the First begotten of every Creature is truly our Dayly Bread for which our Saviour commanded us to pray it is the supercaelestiall Mummy the supernaturall Balsome comforting poor Mortalls more then Mans own Mummy or naturall Balsom Without this benediction the staffe of bread is broken a God threatned his people by his Prophets It is of mere mercy and goodnesse not of justice that we have both the bread of nourishment and of healing The vertue in bread is the blessing of God yea God himselfe the Word in our Earthly food is the true Bread which is given to good and bad Man liveth not by bread alone but by that which is in Bread So that our Food and Life are not of the Earth but of God by his Word If the Word were not or of it selfe were not the onely Bread then the Earth would be our God but that may not be therefore is it not of the Earth but of God by his word This Word then is the true medicine that healeth all things but is not known to every one nor can every Scholler treat and write of it though plunged over head and eares in the dusty learning of School-Divinity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our friend Theophrastus Paracelsus a Disciple of the Mosaicall and Living Phylosophy hath written of the Secrets of Nature and the Wonders of God to wit of the WORD of God INCARNATE which may be found in the Creatures John 1.10 Heb. 11.3 Psal 107.20 and is the Physick and Staffe of our Life by this Word FIAT the seed of the whole world were Heaven and Earth created and this is that which is efficacious in all the Creatures and to which the Creatures are justly in subjection as to their own soule Whatsoever therefore the Physitian doth effect Naturally or by HEARBS working successively by the space of time The explication of a common saving 1 in Hearbs Stones and Words there are great vertues that the MAGUS the Wise man or Caelestiall Physitian performeth suddenly and much sooner by Characters and Stones with a most powerfull impression to wit the Gamahaea of Influentiall Wedlock to the Terrestiall signe by matrimoniall combination of the Superiors and Inferiors ASTRALLY For such is the mutuall tye and continuity of Nature that like a stretched cord all the Superiour vertue floweth through every inferiour thing even to the utmost dispersing its beams by a long and continued order and succession on the other hand the inferiour passe through all to their Superiours because the working Vertue is one and the participation of the species is diffused through all Divine Matrimony Hence is that wonderfull tye continuity influence and simpathy between inferiour superiour Naturall things many things may be done in Magick and Cabal by the intercession of the worlds marriage And the True Cabalist whom Paracelsus calls the Naturall Divine who is equall to the Prophets and whose mind being united and coaequant to God doth whatsoever he will for he willeth onely what God doth he doth above Nature DEALLY or like God accomplish complish in a moment by firme confidence and strong faith Every Creature feareth and reverenceth his Name that made it the very GATE of miracles in that Only Divine Name ISHUH in which all things are reckoned up and contained that is he doth performe it in the WONDERFULL WORD by the Mind Faith and Prayer to wit prayers made in Spirit and in Truth The New Birth is the Field of Caelestiall Physick which healeth with a word without Externall means that one operation is in respect of God as the Artificer and in respect of Man as the Instrument every creature is at the beck and command of their faith who are men innocent and taught in the Law of the Lord Read the books of the Kings 1 Kings 3.12 Wifd 7. who are heard in all things whatsoever they pray for witnesse Elias Elisha c. By prayer in Faith we obtaine all things I mean not a lazy sluggish prayer but a constant asking seeking knocking by faithfull Prayer we ascend in
grow Neverthelesse the fruits of those Astra's or Caelestiall Ayry Earthy Watry seeds doe indeavour and bend to one generall Good as Citizens of the same Anotmy and therefore doe mutually cherish and succour one another by a sweet felloship and vicissitude of actions Plato's Rings and Homers Chaines are nothing but a Divine Series and Order serving Providence a graduall and concatenate Sympathy of things This visible and invisible fellowship of Nature is that golden chaine so much commended this is the marriage of heaven and riches these are Plato's rings this is that dark and close Phylosophy so hard to be known in the most inward and secret parts of Natare for the gaining whereof Democritus Pythagoras Plato Apollonius c. have travelled to the Brachmans and Gymnosophists in the Indies and to Hermes his Pillars in Aegypt This was that which the most ancient Phylosophers studied which by the Light of Nature that singular inspiration of God they also obtained wherein the wonderfull and infinite power the incomprehensible Wisdome of our Creator so shineth that we canot sufficiently admire and extoll his inestimable goodnesse in the Creatures and the unutterable infinitnesse of his Mysteryes It is also to be considered that there are THREE Principles of all things which are found in every compound body For it is most certaine that those things into which every naturall body is resolved had their being from the beginning of their composition and also those parts of which they did consist No body compos'd by Nature can by any dissolving skill be parted into more or lesse then Three viz. Into Mercury or liquor Sulphur or Oyle and Salt every created thing is generated and preserved in these three For the Holy Triunity when it spake that Triune word FIAT created all things Triune as in a Spagiricall resolution is plainly to be seen i. e. A seperation of purity from impurity or truth from falshood By the word FIAT or Let there be God produced the first matter which is threefold in respect of the three Principles contained in the first and afterward these three Species are seperated into four divers bodies or Elements just as if a skillfull Artist should out of lead make red lead white lead Glasse and the Spirit of lead So the world with all created bodies in it is nothing else but a fume or smoak coagulated or curded together of the three substances Sulphur Salt Mercury which three are the matter out of which all bodily things are created The Spagyricks can make this plaine by visible experience and uncontroulable certainty In green wood also there are three kinds of moystures the first watry like fugitive Mercury or Quicksilver which preserveth the wood from burning Another very fat and oyly making it like brimstone to flame and burne these two are consumed by the fire The third viz. the Salt is unctuous very little thin and lasting and remains in the ashes Thus also the Earth as it is indued with that threefold substance of Salt Mercury and Sulphur is the cause of the materiall body of man The Salt by coagulation gives Solidity Colour and Tast to all bodies The Sulphur by a pleasant mixture tempereth the coagulation of the Salt and gives the Body Substance and Transmutation Mercury which like the Elixir giveth the vertues When the Salt or Mummy is spent things brâ—â—ed nothing but wormes Operations and Secrets by a diligent and constant supply of the vital and vegetative moysture doth cherish the two former which by frequent action continually grow dry and old making every mixture easily by a fluid and slippery substance These three Principles which are in all bodies are altogether distinct in use and properties by reason of the mixture of the vertue or operation although to sence they present but one simular substance of bodies Some Theophrastaeans who have more narrowly and exactly searched out the causes of hidden things doe add a Fourth The Spirit of God upon the face of the waters which they call the Spirit which though it may be got out of Mineralls and Vegetables yet in Animalls by reason of its subtility it is subjected unto nor can it be extracted or seperated by the skill of Art and therefore cannot be had thus Sulphur or brimstone may answer to Fire Salt to the earth Mercury to Water Spirit to Aire And seeing we have entred into a Discourse of the Elements we shall add a few things concerning them out of that short Treatise of Severinus The true and purely spirituall Elements are the keepers nurses places Mines wombs and receptacles of the whole Creation yea the very essence existence life and act of all Beings Places are not without Things but are filled with their properties which administer life and nourishment to the things that are in them to wit to the Seeds that they may produce out of themselves the things that were secretly treasured up in them These places are divided into two Globes viz. the superiour Fire or the Firmament and Aire much like the shell and white of an egge the inferiour Water and the Earth like the yolk of an egge In these four incorporeall empty voyd Natures the Creatour by vertue of the Word opening the united multitude Gen. 1. and of the Spirit moving upon the face of the Waters did plant the Light and Seminall causes of all things which he once filled by his heavenly Benediction and shall ever be supplyed by an incomprehensible Magick out of the Eternall Treasures of Divine Wisdome knitting the Principles of bodies together wherewith they might be covered as with a house or garment and which are to last as long as this worldly frame The Seeds and Astra's those bonds of things lay hid in the invisible Treasures of the Elements from the beginning of the Creation as in a great deep springing up in their appointed times joyning visible things to invisible the highest to the lowest by whose advantage the Elements conspire and agree and the whole sympathy of Nature is preserved by their help the World is governed indeavoring to imitate Eternity by a continuall addition of fresh supply The knowledge of the Elements cannot be attained unto without these Seeds because they declare or open the use and services of the Elements and as the seeds are to the Elements so the Principles of bodies are to them which Principles being the inseperable companions of the Seeds cleaves to them as intermingled by an indissoluble tye and are furnisht with incomprehensible variety of gifts for the service of Generations For the Seeds and Principles of Things receive strength of Generation and Multiplication from the authority of His Word whose command all things obey Hippocr in lib. de Antiqua medic But as the Seeds and Elements can hardly be seperated one from the other by the sharpest wit All things proceeds from their powers so neither can the Elements and Principles of bodies the lawes of Nature scarce ever
these corrupt and perilous times when Honour and basenesse Vertue and vice Truth and lyes are equally esteemed by the malicious world Besides almost all men have a burning desire after making Gold There are four Pillars of Physick Phylosophy Alchymistry Astronomy and the Physicall vertue or medicine but regard not the due preparation of their Medicines the onely cause thereof is their not knowing the Metaphysicks of Paracelsus the true Phylosophy and not first reading diligently those large Books which Theophrastus directeth unto in his Labyrinth of Physitians before they set upon the preparations separations and resolution of Naturall things I observe also that most Chymists betake themselves to Court and are turned from the truth by the glitter of Court-service deceived by vaine Courtly flattery that they either neglect those great works of God or rather are made incapable for such stupendious miracles of God as for many years I have taken notice that many have begun well but deluded with these toyes have made an ill end By which means this Divine Spagyrie the most wonderfull and approved Art though for many ages suspected of greatest uncertainty and most abominable deceit hath been very much disparaged by the ruder sort which oft befalls the best things and cast aside as contemptible with other deeper sciences even by those who intend the same businesse undervaluing it as not fit to get a living by it What is said of or spoken against abuse imposture and wicked arts is not that for which things otherwise good may or ought to be condemned For what is that thing which will not turne to Mans hurt or ruine if it be abused so that the bettter the thing is the more destructive is the abuse of it But who dares to oppose himselfe to the Athenian Thrasos who will have Light to be Darkenesse and Darkenesse to be Light They have almost all the whole filthy world standing in defence of their most vaine Vanities For the world seeketh not the Truth but its own Honour And therefore God giveth us up to a reprobate sence to hate and envy one another and that we our selves should be the cause of the imminent destruction of our own Kingdome O fountaine of Truth and Wisedome consider our condition and the hearts of those who with holy desires and ardent prayers strive night and day against this imminent and approaching change But the mow High will also in his own time put an end to these things and that of his goodnesse and mercy ere it be long I hope that God would stirr up the minds of some which may bring to light the Truth that is in sciences and Faculties for as yet the Invention of Arts hath not attained the utmost end that they may root out the Tares of sciences and confute the delusions and errours of the schoolmen not with words but deeds not Syllogistically but Really and indeed For when that which is perfect is come the time of Revocation and Regeneration drawing nigh every imperfect thing will of necessity come to nought For where Titles Degrees and glistering Names make men proud their is no humility no life of Christ no holy Spirit as appeareth too manifestly in most who suffer the Old man to be ruled by the Sydereall Spirit Now then the Lord enlighten all the lovers of Truth with his Holy Spirit and graciously deliver them from the chaines of Utter Darknesse and incessant janglings of Putatitious and conceited Schollers CHAP. IV. How and with what Vertue Physick worketh upon Mans body and cureth his Diseases THat which Physitians commonly dispute and contend for In lib. de flatibus is Whether according to Hippocrates his Maxim that Contraryes are to be cured with CONTRARYES or Like with LIKE according to Paracelsus Note that these Maxims may be both received in the Anatomy of Nature though they seem thwart one the other Thus many attaine not the Mind of Phylosophers which to them seems to be at variance because they cannot understand how to reconcile them by a seasonable and sutable interpretation For Physick is nothing else but an opposition of those things that are desired to wit a refreshing of the strength and Balsom and a removing of superfluityes or impurities that cause diseases Paracelsus therefore doth not find fault with Hippocrates for saying that hunger is to to be cured with meat thirst with drink fulnesse with evacuation inanition with reflection labour with rest idlenesse with labour and generally that Contraries cure Contraryes But he is poynt blanck against Galen who applyed that Contrariety of Hippocrates chiefly to those bare and naked qualityes which Hippocrates utterly disclaimed for he by an unhappy mistake referred the first and principall Idaea's of Cures to Refrigerations Calefactions Humectations Exsiccations with their companions The onely and alone NATURES of Physicall medicines as hath been said or those Hippocraticall vertues are they which doe the cures the Physitian is but the minister or servant And this very selfe same Nature which is our Life and Balsom or balsomicall Mummy that preserveth the body from all corruption by means of the Saline moysture that is of the inferiour Balsom springing up in the inferiour from the superiour I say this very Nature of ours which sometimes worketh wonders when the Physitians to their great disgrace and shame of their Profession could doe no good but have left their Patient to their Prognisticks is its own proper Physitian in Mans body who asketh nothing of the outward Physitian but Instauration or as t is commonly called fortification applyed to the diseased part by a most pure medicine when the like Nature is not at hand And thus the Medicinall Balsom like a coadjutour or privy counsellour assisteth the Vitall or Radicall and Naturall Balsom because of the simpathy and common agreement between them Thus it recovereth the Naturall decayed strength Nature cureth with like things which being restored it is of it selfe able as an inward and unknown Antidote to chase all its enemies out of its Monarchy by the onely power of the Vitall facultyes To go about to cure a disease with contrary qualities is to raise and stir up intrinsick commotions to the utter overthrow of Nature which is to much weakned and wasted already by intestine quarrells Besides Contraryes will not willingly entertertaine each other And if they close not one with the other nor work one upon another nor suffer any thing from each other then where there is no true action and passion there can follow no true Naturall effect Wherefore medicines should not be contrary to the grieved part but very agreeable to it and have the same Externall Nature because of the Harmony between the great and little world as the place affected hath the Inward that the Internall Nature which stands in need of it may both be strengthned and succoured by the superabundance of that Externall Nature Man is therefore called a Microcosm or little world because the whole world
Nature and property of our Image casting off God we should slide into our selves or the Creatures as claiming to our selves the property both of them and of our selves and so inevitably fall back into that vaine wicked or our own Nothing If the Soule run back within it selfe and be converted into the Mind it draweth near to God seeth all things and hath no need of outward teaching like the Angells who-learn hear and see all things from within But when the Soule turneth into sence it is carried far off from God and departeth from God the impure forsaketh the pure The Academicall spirit cannot not understand this Mystery for Holy and Devout Humility alone the most noble of all vertues is capable of Illumination O what pains doe they take to become sools who once drown themselves in Humane wisdome But since this Truth cannot be comprehended except our Understanding be kindled by the Word of the Lord and our Reason receive the Divine Light through the Mind nor may I in this unfit place openly speak more of these Mysteries I returne againe to that Physitian Paracelsus from the digression unto which I had occasion to step aside It had been more becoming our Physitians to have extolld and huggd those great gifts of God in him and rather have loved the man for his most ingenious art then to hate him for some kind of behaviour and using such words which every one doth not understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 facilius quam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 t is easier to carp at him then to imitate him The age wherein he wrote may excuse the harshnesse of his language the malicious ingratitude of men may be the cause of the bewayled obscurity of his Commentators the unusuall custome of Phylosophers plead for the strange novelties of names for the Phylosophers have ever driven from their hives of most sacred Sciences those sluggish and lazy Drones who are good for nothing but to devoure other mens industry for as Plato saith Artes ut lateant sua perque Aenigmata crescunt Arts wrapt in Riddles safe doe lye Their fruitfull'st soyle is Secrecy A man may live any where Lawes and Liberties are alowed in every Dominion But let any man look into himselfe and consider if he had that which Theophrastus knew whether he would tell it to every man in so doing he would break the Oath of Hippocrates who would not instruct every one in the Art of Physick A Secret indeed is to be concealed it belongs onely to God to reveale it if it be disclosed commonly it exposeth to death or prison or reproach or at least to continuall fear and voluntary exilement from our friends into a far country for safety unlesse we will brand our reputation with a perpetuall blur of lying and deceit to conceale the same Lully Arnold Zachary of Paris and others are witnesses hereof besides many examples of latter ages The true Hermetick Phylosophers took an Oath that they would follow the footsteps of their fathers and masters and not by any teinerity defile the virginity of Nature which hath been preserved from the begining of the world yet have they bequeathed their secrets to their sworn disciples who are engag'd by perpetuall faith and gratitude and made worthy of such their precepts by Nature or Education Without paines-taking none is fit to injoy that Art which yet are with much sweat to be searched out Men of shallow judgement are ready to think if Paracelsus speak any thing against those that follow the rule of their Experience or inveigh against Empericks who have no skill at all that he approveth of no sort of Physitians but that he would professe himselfe to be the sole and onely Physitian in all the world whereas he only condemns the common rable of Physitians who are altogether ignorant both of Theory Practice Nor truely are they to be accounted Physitians who Verbally and Syllogistically onely make a great flourish of Physick but doe no cures at all a true figne of a foolish ambition boasting that they have the Method of Physick a sort of men swoln with contempt and pride and born to crush the truth of the Physicall Art Some of them are so incensed against that Theophrastus because he might and maine set himselfe against those proud and impenitent fellows that they had rather let their Patients perish then make use of his prescriptions Many also for that cause dispise his medicines least if they commonly use them and their wonderfull effect appear it would be some blemish to their repute and therefore the better they are the more doe they undervalue them And though the Censurers of Theophrastus those fallacious Medodists who linger out the cure and lengthen the disease by their compendium falsly charge the genuine Chymists that they have lost the right method that 's as much as nothing for t is plaine to those that have their understanding inlightned that Paracelsus observed onely that method that was agreeable to Reason and Experience Nor should we be so addicted to any mans Authority as not to prefer the Truth before it for without the Truth all Authority is pernicious and all wise men will sleight it as of no value without that we are not so much to regard by whom as what it is that is spoken no man should be so wedded to another mans judgement as altogether to be deprived of his own True Method consisteth in the knowledg of the Disease and the Cure of it viz what food in reason with convenient Medicines driveth away sickness and procureth health Therefore Wimpeneus learnedly sheweth that greatest and most grievous Diseases now a dayes are in three respects cured by the Paracelsians First Because the Diseases are more perfectly known for heretofore when all were reduc'd to the four humours those that sprang from Tartar cleaving to any part could not be cured because it cannot be referred to any of those four humours And since we are here fallen upon Tartar I will speak a little more of it Every member hath its own proper digestion seperation emunctory excrement in it selfe The first digestion of the stomack is not digestion but apparation for the digestions of the particular members The first Ens or Being toward life from whence the body hath it's nourishment food ariseth out of the last matter of the Meat by the Archaeus or digestion of the Stomack it 's separation and generation of separation 'T is reduc'd unto Sulphur Mercury and Salt as is plain in the three chief Emunctories the superfluity of Salt is separated by the Urine that of Sulphure is divided and purged through the Entrals Mercury or the moisture of that which nourisheth if there be too much of it passeth through the pores by sweat Whatsoever we eat and drink hath in it a mucilagenous clayish and sandy Tartar hurtful to our Health Nature taketh nothing but that which is pure the Stomack which is the instrument
be cloven with hard wedges Therefore Paracelsus would have a steely medicine applied as proper for an iron disease for extream diseases call for extream remedies Thirdly Because now the Harmony between the great and little world is made so plaine and so well understood that it is easie to know among those choyse and most excellent of them what medicine is most familiar and friendly to this or that member as Silver Saphir Vitrioll Emeralds for the braine for the heart Gold Pearles Saffron for the lungs Brimstone c. Moreover Whereas Paracelsus offendeth Galen Galen did the same to others Hippocrates wrote many things which most Galenists reject at this day nor doe the stoutest of common vulgar Physitians agree among themselves How many things are controverted and contended for with undecided discord about particular diseases by those that differ in their most pugnacious opinions and that are ignorant Mechanick forgers of diseases As between Schekius and Fuchsius about the continent Cause of diseases You may find more jarring in opinions in Agryppa de vanit te Scientiaâ—â—m cap. de medicina Between Argenterius and Fernelius about Agues and Fevers Between Galen and Rondeletius concerning the Palsie Epilepsie and Stone Between Francaneianus Rondelatius and Fallopius about the French Pox. Between Altomarus and Fernelius concerning the Gout How many millions according to the disagreeing and jarring method of these men will still perish before the genuine cause of the said diseases be determined in the Commencement of Physitians their brawling disputations ended and the Colledge of Physitians be of one mind Here for brevity sake I willingly passe by the Herbarists who commonly squabble and raile at one another with endlesse jangling about the Wool of Plants tyring themselves with questions and frivilous names from a proud contentious spirit It were idle here to recount those infinite and endlesse contentions and wranglings Therefore I exhort and admonish all Students of Hippocraticall and Galenicall Physick in whom the Philosophicall veine is yet warme who are not bitterly bent against the preparations of medicines and know that what our industry hath found out should not shut the door against that of the Ancients as if all the strength of Nature were hatched in us onely I doe I say perswade them that they would forsake their Fathers faults and other mens errours and be warned of their ill resolved purpose that being instructed by prudence they may timely be converted from a known errour and that they would also spend some time in reading the works of this new Phylosopher and Physitian not superficially and prefunctorily but with greatest diligence and attention of mind For in this kind of study we are to imitate the experience and industry of the Bees who suck and gather their hony out of the most fragrant juice of the flowers segregating the best from the worst and drawing out onely that which is for their turne Wherefore I doe not so far perswade men that they should so adore every thing of Paracelsus inasmuch as he himselfe hath recanted something of his over hasty writings as if they were all Gospel-Oracles as we see many who even worship the conclusions and opinions of Hethen Authors but because the diligent and accurate reading of him may give us greater light and be no small advantage to us for the more intimate and right understanding of Hippocrates his works They are not to be praised who rashly condemn all that Paracelsus hath written when yet they have not read so much as his marginall notes or if they have yet truly they understand not fully the third part of them Here this ye Phylosopasters who throw away the kernell and pick up onely the husks of Phylosophers pray to God and seek to Books of Paper for the spirit that ye may understand the dead letter of Theophrastus and the Phylosophers His works which were Printed for the publick good by the incouragement and at the cost of that most Renowned and Reverend Ernestus Prince Elector of Coleine have given occasion to his adversaries to charge him with implicite and evident contradiction because to the unskilfull and unlearned he wrote in a Magicall stile not for the vulgar sort but for himselfe and the understanding children of Wisdome trained up in the School of Magick not for the Sophisticall Alchymists such as are bewitch'd with a greedy desire of Gold incensed with a righteous hatred against some most wretched wicked inhumane Physitians and Druggists of his time who often lay in wait to poyson him to the shortning of his life If he he had written more plainly â—hen those circumforanceous and vulgar Alchymists would have surpassed all other Physitians and prostituted the Art to the great wrong and injury of Nature He concealed his mysteries under vulgar and various names therefore we must not take the similitudes for the truth it selfe or that which is intended by them For there are few that understand the Physicall Secrets that is the hidden power of God or the Magicall WORDS in Paracelsus therefore they need and require a Delian swimmer a most acute and sharp wit a Magicall Understanding even that purified eye of the Mind which can pry into and search out their sentences and secret-mysteries By Magâ—ck every were I mean that which is True and lawfull not the infamous and prophane 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or wichcraft which is fit for none but Vulcan and deserveth to be burned which Men of a wretched wit studious of most obominable curiosity hunt and search after but the absolute perfection of the whole most noble Phylosophy the chiefest Wisdome of Gods works and the plenary knowledge of occult Nature which commonly worketh incredible wonders and doth things exceeding the usuall order of Nature by a fit application of Agents and Patients observing the consent and dissent of things The intelligent Readers will take notice that Paracelsus hath joyned the exercetation of either medicine together as well that of Physick as of Chyrurgie in imitation and after the example of Great Hippocrates For he assigned or set down a twofold Medicine Physicall or the knowledge of all diseases and Chyrurgicall or the curing of the same which like the Carpenters work cannot be done without hands Nor can either without the other safely consist or be exercised but with great hurt and danger of the sick Therefore it is necessary that every Surgeon should be a Physician and every Physitian a Chyrurgion that there may be a sound Bridgroom for a sound Bride The choice also of the Medicines must alway be considered and their preparations and compositions made by the Physitian himselfe and not carelesly left to others He is truly a genuine Physitian who can tell how not onely by Reason as mear Rationall Physitians doe but by their own hand to prepare the medicaments which they know to seperate and purge them from their poyson and dreggs to reduce them to their pure simplicity and not leave them to an