Powers under the first Cause For God the chief Cause and Original of all Vertues affords the Seal of the Idea's to the Intelligences his Ministers who like faithful Executors do seal every thing committed to them with the Ideal Vertue by the Heavens and Stars as it were Instruments in the mean time disposing the matter to receive those forms which reside in the divine Majesty as Plato saith to be carryed down by the Stars and the Giver of Forms distributeth them by the Ministry of Intelligences which he hath appointed over his works Governors and Keepers unto whom this ability is entrusted in things committed to them That every vertue of Stones Herbs Minerals and all the rest might be from the Intelligences governing therefore the form and vertue proceeds first from the Idea's and after from the Intelligences governing and ruling and next from the Aspects of the Stars disposing and further from the disposed Compliances of the Elements answering to the Influences of the Heavens by which the Elements themselves are disposed They have then such operations in these inferior things by the express forms but in the Heavens by the vertues disposing in the Intelligences by means mediating in the Architype by the Idea's and exemplary forms All which is necessary to meet in the effects of every thing in the execution of the vertue Then it must needs be that there is wonderful operation in every Herb and Stone but greater in the Stars beyond which every thing gets much to it self by the Intelligence governing but chiefly from the highest cause to which all things being mutually finished do correspond consonant by its harmonial consent as it were with Hymns praising together the highest workman By the true knowledg of what hath been spoken many and great things may be done by the coupling and joyning of the Powers and Vertues of the Superiors with their Patients the Inferiors agreeing and corresponding therewith This is truly Magick and a thing much to be honored and esteemed This is the most high and worthiest Science in the World lawful in all the parts of it free from all evil encumbrances and diabolical practices voyd of Superstition a great means to attain the highest knowledg of that infinite Wisdom and Power who hath created all things in order and form and who ruleth in and over all things by his Ministring Powers whom he hath set over all things in their several orders for the distribution of his Power and Vertue as the first Original of all Power and Vertue to all things according to the fore-decree of the first Cause with a respect had to the matter receiving and this Power and Vertue hath a stedfast cause not by chance or accident but effectual and potent and not failing doing nothing in vain nor fruitless by it those Powers existing in the nature of all things are moved the which Powers are the operations of the Idea's under the chief Cause which do not err but by the impurity and inequality of the matter for celestial Influences may be hindered by the confusion and unfitness of the matter receiving whence the Platonicks had that Proverb That Celestial Vertues were infused according to the desert of the matter Wherefore in those things in the which these Celestial Powers and Virtues are less drowned and incumbered in the matter receiving have more powerful operations and produce more admirable effects when those things are fitly collected prepared and duly applyed to their Patient the which application stirs up that secret and hid virtue of the Agent and produceth the like quality in the thing annexed As for instance Salt the secret virtue of which lieth hid in it self until that there is annexed to it a reciprocal matter which moves and stirs up that virtue so that it is infused into the matter joyned to it the which matter according to the quality of its receivingness is also able to infuse the like property into other things joyned to it So also the Load-stone doth infuse its secret virtue into Iron approaching near to it and doth so fasten the virtue to the Iron that it is able also to draw Iron to it self answerable to that power of Attraction that it hath received from the Load-stone and this arises from that reciprocal property which is in the matter affected the which is wrought upon and moved by the secret virtue of the Agent applyed This also we find to be produced upon the Inferiors by the virtue and influence of the Superiors for the Celestial Powers do work the like in Terrestials for we see that the Moon doth attract the vast body of the waters so that they answer in their ebbings and flowings those diversity of Points that she cuts in the Heavens in her Diurnal Motion So likewise the Heliotropium that sober Herb who corresponds with the motion of the Sun by a secret virtue which doth declare that there is something of the Sun and Moons virtue infused by the which they are wrought to such obedience Doth not the Marigold and many other flowers open their blossoms at the Suns rising as if they did rejoyce at his approach and fold themselves in as if they mourned for his departure All which is from that secret Agreement and Correspondency of their virtues For my own part I am perswaded that all things that are under the Luner Globe in this inferior world subject to generation and corruption they are also in the Celestial world but in a certain celestial manner so also in the Intellectual world but of a far more perfect and better stamp and lastly most perfect in the Architype And in this order every thing below doth answer to its Superior and by it to the highest according to its proper kind and doth receive virtue from them from the Heavens indeed that Celestial Force which some call the Middle Nature or the spirit of the world and from the Intellectual world that spiritual living Vapour being every transcendent virtue qualifying and lastly from the Architype by these means between according to its degree the original force of all Perfection Hence every thing may be fitly reduced from these Inferiors to the Stars from them to the Intelligences of the same and from thence to the Architype out of the order of which all Magick and secret Philosophy doth flow for dayly some natural thing is drawn by Art and dayly some divine thing is drawn by Nature which when some of the learned Egyptians did behold they called Nature it self a Magician that is to say the Magical Force it self in the Attraction of the like by the like and of things agreeing by things that agree and the Greeks called such Attractions by the mutual Agreement of Superior with Inferior between themselves Sympathy As for instance We know that in the Elâ—ments Water agrees with Earth in Coldness Water with Ayr in Moistness Ayr with Fire in Heat Fire with the Heavens in the Materia So Mettals agree with Plants in their
in them it is first conceived and so carried down by their Influence upon those Bodies that have a secret virtue of correspondency and a reciprocal property of embracing those Influences from whence I conceive that that part of Astrology hath its Ground which we call Horary Questions for it is found by large experience that when any person is moved really in his mind to any particular Act and is carried out to propose a question to an Artist that then the Heavens and those superior Bodies do contain a true and real description of the Act and its event answerable to that operation or moving of the inferior mind of the person for whatsoever is acted in and by man is at first conceived in the Heavens and so far a good experient Artist is not deceived but when there is no such moving in the Superiors then there is no perfect moving or operation upon or in the mind of a person but imperfect and such as it is doth sometimes produce a slight desire or will in the person to know something but what he knows not and in this respect the Heavens give no demonstration of the event which in many young Artists hath been the cause I fear of those many false Judgments which arise from a want of a true knowledg and understanding of the minds of the Superiors which Ignorance hath caused them to speak their own thoughts for the sence of the Heavens as if they had all the superior Bodies with their several Intelligences in the bridle of their Pocket gain but they ought to know that those Divine Powers are not ordained to serve men to such base ends whose fond presumption is as great as Phaetons folly who to declare himself of the linage of Heaven produced his own overthrow and others ruines If you be the true sons of Art undertake no such impossibilities as to rule the Heavenly Powers with the reins of your own fancies I speak this to those young Students who are I am afraid not well acquainted with the natural Motion of the Orbs much less with those excellent Powers that are Rulers of them under the first Cause And not only of them alone but of the Terrestial world in their due order for a certain limit of time appointed by the Wisdom of that chiâ—f Good who made all things in form and order and doth by his Power given forth to those his Celestial Ministers govern it in the like form and order to the shewing forth of his Majesty Glory Power and infinite Wisdom and every Age from the beginning is found by observation to have had some kind of respect in their actions to the nature of the Angel or Spirit then Ruling suitable to the capacity of those then governed and if I mistake not we in this present Age are under the Rule of Raphael which is the cause according to the determination of the first Cause of those abundant Sects Opinions Heresies Fancies of the brain Disputes Contentions Subtilty Falshood Vnstability cunning and witty Policy and the like of all which the former Ages knew not the like This is a great Mystery to most and a thing not perfect to any I mean the true knowledg of this Angelical Rule the which our Reasons are not able to ascend up unto but hath been found out by observation of some in former Ages and the experience of some of late learned in the most occult Powers of Nature And a Mystery not inferior to this is that secret virtue and admirable signification that is manifestly known by long experience to be in those twelve Divisions of the Heavens called the twelve Mansions or Houses of Heaven and have relation to all things appertaining to the life quality and condition of every one in what relation soever he may or can be the which secret virtue in the Heavens is hid from the eyes of our Reason though the virtue power and signification of them are dayly found by experience which is no strange thing that our Reason should not fathom the depth thereof to find the Cause and Ground For we see the manifestation of the virtue of the Loadstone in a visible attraction of Iron to it self but know not the secret Cause thereof And such virtues the Philosophers called hidden Qualities because the Causes of them are hid so that mans understanding cannot find them out no ways but long observation and experience hath found out many things of the like Nature which Search and Reason could not attain As for instance We see that in the stomack the meat that we eat is digested by heat which we truly know so it is transâ—ormed by a secret virtue which we know not but not by heat for then why not at the fire as well as in the stomack but that of a certain it is transform-into a due nourishment of the Body by what virtue we are not able to find So also it is reported that the Eastridg concocts cold and most hard Iron and digests it into a due nourishment of its body whose stomack as it is reported is not hurt with hot Iron So the Echenes stops the ship and the Salamander abides the fire without hurt and the Amber draws all things to it except Basil these are the works of hidden Virtues which we admire and are amazed at as unknown to us in respect of their Causes but our experience doth find the visible working and the effects of those secret and occult properties I hope gentle Reader by this that this excellent Art of Astrology is no such thing as the world thinks it to be nor as that ridiculous Pamphlet terms it thou seest it clear from the jealousie of a Diabolical Agent in it there is no workings by a combination with the power of the dark world but to be wholy celestial and divine And although some men have abused it to base ends by the instigation of the Devil and hath bewitched some fancies and and led them to Idolatry as a Doctrine of Religion and corrupted the word Astrology by giving a divine Power to the Stars which they have not that is an independing Power of themselves and so have been esteemed as gods and not as Instruments set up by the first Cause all which I contemn but the abuse of the thing takes not away the Art considering that the Heavenly Bodies have and do exercise their virtues upon the Inferiors For it is vulgarly known to those who have but the smallest knowledg of the Celestial Bodies That the Sun and Star of Mars doth dry the Moon doth moisten and govern the Tydes of the Sea that Jupiter and Mercury doth produce winds and Saturn dark and obscure weather and that the stars do differ in magnitude and to all the stars God hath given their proper names which had they hot influences and virtues different they need not And as it is Lawful in all the parts of it as I have spoken before So also it is most Ancient and was practised
Magick Astrology VINDICATED From those False Aspersions and Calumnies which the Ignorance of some hath cast upon them In which is contained true Definitions of the said Arts and the Justification of their Practise proved by the Authority of Scripture and the Experience of Ancient and Modern Authors With Observations from several remarkable Conjunctions and Apparitions As those Three Suns that appeared before the Kings Death c. Impartially communicated for the Publique Good By HARDICK WARREN A Well-wisher to the most secret Occult Arts and Learning LONDON Printed J. M. for N. Brook at the Angel in Cornhill 1651. To the Author Mr H. W. WHen Reason Fancy Wit and Grace In tender years take each their place These make the man all these I see Coneur in this thy Book and thee Dear Friend I 'le vow thy Book I must call Not Sublunary but Celestial For sure th' Intelligences mov'd thy Brain And were the Primum Mobile of thy strain Thy Star a glorious Sun and gives more light Then can b' obscur'd by foulest Envies spight And for thy Book the praise it gets of mine Is only this it 's excellent good and thine By W. A. COme Carping Momus spend thy spleen in vain Pour out thy Envy like the Ocean main And see if thou canst crown the Hystery Of this small Piece with its Divinity And Natures purest Workings which I own With the first Cause all which is clearly shown In this same Book all which appears to me In the pure Art of Magick and Astrologie So it shall have my serious approbation I have the Book but it my admiration By J. R. To the Reader Courteous Reader THou art in this following Treatise though but small informed with the substantial Grounds of those almost infinite Arts to wit of Magick and Astrology both which by reason of a fatal deprivation of these latter times and the most of men have fallen under the most detestable Notions that it were possible to brand them withall the which did arise by reason of those many wicked and abominable Practises of some men whose whole Soul hath been let forth to its Liberty to converse with the Reprobate Powers of Darkness whose Diabolical Practises have been by them shrouded under the Name of Magick and Astrology when as indeed they have not in the least measure been acquainted with the true knowledg either of the Creator or of those most glorious results of his wisdom and power in those many excellent Creatures which are the Images of his Glory and in the which more then the most of men are acquainted with he takes pleasure to be conversant for his delight is in the inhabitable parts of the Earth and his chief Recreation if I may so speak without offence amongst the poor degenerate Sons of men whose love is such that he hath in a most condescending way wrapped himself about with the whole Creation that none might be ignorant of his Excellency and in this way many of those Hermitick Spirits who renounced the vain beauty of the meanest of the Appearances of the World came to have those most excellent and admirable Manifestations which produce admiration in me when I consider that we who profess our selves to know and to converse with our God in a more immediate way yet come short of some of those holy Souls who were ignorant of all but this indwelling of the first Cause in the creature But I must expect and that from those that are not a little learned in their own Opinion and no lesse knowing in the Mysteries of God in their conceits to be all to be Devil'd for my labour in this work but to such I say that their gross Ignorance shall be punished with Tantalus torment and their Sisypus Robberies of us the Commonalty under their specious pretence of a divine Right with an endless toyl Reader these are the Arts and especially that of Magick which as to our English Nation hath worn the Ring of Gyges and walked invisible but now thou hearest it speaking in thy own Dialect not tyed in a Gardian knot of impossibilities but may be experimented by thee if thy secret Genus can but soar so high but sure I am with polluted hands and a fond conceit of thy self in respect of thy knowledg thou art not able to do any thing in it there is more divine correspondency required then thou art aware of or may be then thou art capable to receive Thou must not expect with a swinish affection to draw celestial Virtues with thy earthly gruntlings no if thou canst attain a divine Rapture and bring thy Soul and its Attendants from that dark Dungeon of Earth and loosened from those cursed Fetters of sin thou art the man which art fit to receive power from those blessed Intelligences and mayst do wonders in thy generation I have in the Magical part of this Treatise followed the method of that most admirable Agrippa whose learned Works I do profess I honor above all the Books in the world except the Sacred Writ What I have writ is not agreeable to those fond and foolish Doctrines of many old doting women who that they might be thought to have a divine Power that as Apuleius saith they can throw down the Heavens lift up the Earth harden Fountains wash away Mountains raise up infernal Spirits command Ghosts cast down the Gods extinguish the Stars and enlighten even Hell it self whereof many I confess are as well of a falacious opinion as superstitious diligence and pernicious and deadly endeavor for when that they cannot appear in publique under the practise of a wicked and Diabolical Art yet they are so audacious as to presume to think that they are capable to cloke themselves under the honorable Name of Magick the which hath caused amongst the most of men an inveterate hate to the very name which is exceeding good and commendable I wish that those who are but slenderly acquainted in the Principals thereof may not bring a dishonor upon it by their boasting of abilities to produce Wonders and are not able to operate any thing but what is common to every Nature it is such a Mystery that it is found out and attained but by a very few but grosly abused almost of all Therefore I commend this small Treatise only to the true Sons of Minerva who are alone able to judg of it and whose Censure I only value if any imperfection be in it let this take off the blot of my dishonor to wit my tender years which indeed are not many and the shortness of time that I have been conversant in the Study of this worthy Mystery and not only so but my being unacquainted with the way of publique Writing it being the first that ever I attempted to publish not being born to such an end but for a private Contemplation for which end I composed it but by reason of the exceeding importunity of a loving Friend and a Well-wisher with my self
by a wise man to the bringing forth of such or such effects as are wonderful to those that know not their Causes And this is that which hath layn under terms of Ignominy to this day Ignorance producing Admiration and Admiration Suspicion and then an undeserved Censure past upon the work or action terming it to be Diabolical and so attributing the secret workings which the divine Wisdom hath placed in the secret bosom of Nature to a Diabolical Power and Property when it is nothing else but a mutual application of Natural Vertues Agent and Suffering reciprocally And those that were conversant in this excellent Science in former times were otherwise thought of then now they are For as Pencer truly observeth that the Magi were the chief Ministers of the Persian Religion as the Levites were amongst Gods people and they were given to the studies of true Philosophy neither could any be Kings of the Persians who had not been first exercised in the mysteries and knowledg of the Magi. And this lawful Magick which I do here speak of was commended by Origen that learned man who doth most ingenuously declare That it doth appertain to the practick part of Natural Philosophy teaching to work admirable things by the mutual application of Natural Vertues And Jerom in his Commentaries upon Daniel useth these words But common custom saith he taketh Magicians for Witches who are otherwise reputed in their own Nation for they are the Philosophers of the Chaldeans yea Kings and Princes of that Nation do all that they do according to the knowledg of that Art whence at the Nativity of the Lord our Saviour they first of all understood his Birth and coming unto Bethlehem did worship the Childe the Star from above shewing him unto them So it is clear that there is a great deal of difference between the Doctrine of a Magician truly and the abuse of the word But if you will beleeve the Author of that Pamphlet he will tell you that he is a Magician in these our days who having entered a combination with the Prince of Darkness useth his help in any matter but the Art of Magick is of the wisdom of Nature But as for other Arts which have assumed the Title of Magick they were invented by the subtilty and falshood of the Devil and in this there is none other Doctrine then the use of certain Ceremonies by an evil and wicked faith in the other none evil but the investigation of those admirable Vertues and occult Properties which that infinite Wisdom hath bestowed and given to his Creatures and how fitly to apply those things that are to work to those things that are to suffer And those men that were studious in this Art were called the Magi which Peter Martyr saith the Ancients understood to be good and wise men And as Ficinus saith O thou fearful one why doubtest thou to use the name of Magus a name gracious in the Gospel which doth not signifie a Witch or a Conjurer but a wise man and a Priest And what hath brought so much slander upon this excellent knowledg but base and idle Ignorance which indeed is the mother of Admiration But give me leave to go yet further This Art doth not onely enable us in the true knowledg of those secret Vertues which are wrapped up in the bosom of Nature but it may in some measure bring us to the true knowledg of the Divinity of Christ and to use Mirandula's words For by understanding saith he the utmost activity of Natural Agents we are assisted to know the Divinity of Christ for otherwise the terms and limits of Natural Power and Vertue not rightly understood we must needs doubt whether those very works which Christ did may not be done by natural means and therefore I say not heretically nor superstitiously but most truly and catholiquely that by such Magick we are furthered in knowing the Divinity of Christ And seeing the Jews and other the Enemies of Christian Religion do impudently and impiously object that those Miracles which Christ wrought were not above Nature but by the exquisite knowledg thereof performed and as that learned Doctor Staughton saith in a small Treatise of his that the Jews have a blasphemous Fable that our Saviour found out the right pronunciation of the Name of God the Tetragrammaton and that wrought all his Miracles But Mirandula a man for his years fuller of the knowledg of Nature then any of these latter times might with Reason avow that the utmost limits of Natures works being known that the works which Christ did which no man could do do manifestly declare of themselves that they were wrought by a Hand which held Nature herein but as a pensil and by a Power infinitely Supreme and Divine But on the contrary there may be many wonderful effects brought to pass by the Magical operation of Natural Vertues such as may produce no small admiration in those that understand not the secret workings and products of those vertues for it is undoubtedly true that all Secondary Causes do necessarily work and necessarily produce their proper effects by vertue of that Connexion that they have with the first Cause and correspondency that they have to those divine Patterns and eternal Idea's whence every thing hath its determinate place in the Architype whence it lives and draws it original and the vertue of all things as of Stones Herbs Metals living Creatures and all which are from God are placed who although he works by the Intelligences and Heavens upon these inferior things yet sometimes those Media's being let alone or their Ministry suspended the first Cause doth then work of it self which works are then called Miracles For whereas by the command and order of the first Cause the secondary Causes which Plato and others calls servants do necessarily work and necessarily produce their proper effects yet sometimes according to the pleasure of the first Cause their Ministry is either suspended or finished that they wholly cease from that necessary command and order and these are the greatest Miracles of God So the Sun at the request of Josuah stood still for the space of a whole day So at the desire of Ezekias it went back ten hours So the fire in the Chaldean furnace did not consume the three Children So when that our Saviour Christ did suffer at a full Moon the Sun was eclipsed But if the Ministry of these secondary Causes be not suspended or finished then they shew forth their proper powers and vertues in their several effects according to that order in the which the Wisdom of the first Cause ordained them What the Secondary Causes are NOw if it be demanded what these Secondary Causes are I answer They are all those Ministring Powers which God the first Cause hath set up under himself for the regulating and governing of these inferior things for there is not any thing to be found which is not governed and ruled by these Ministring