little Mastigia Observation 23. Here I have you fast Philalethes for all your wrigling For if our vitall and animal spirits which are as much a part of us as any other part of our body is be fed and nourished by the Aire then the Aire is an Element of our body But here he would fain save himself by saying that the Aire is rather a Compound then an Element but let any man judge how much more it is compounded then the Earth and then Water which nourisheth by drinking as well as the Aire can do by breathing Observation 24. Page 59. line 1. How can darknesse be called a Masse c. No it cannot Nor a thin vaporous matter neither Thy blindnesse cannot distinguish Abstracts from Concrets Thy soul sits in the dark Philalethes and nibbles on words as a mouse in a hole on cheese â—arings But to slight thy injudicious cavil at Masse and to fall to the Matter I charged thee here to have spoke such stuff as implies a Contradiction Thou saidest that this Masse be it black or white dark or bright that 's nothing to the Controversie here did contain in a farre less compass all that was after extracted I say this implies a Contradiction But you answer this is nothing but Rarefaction and Condensation according to the common notion of the Schools I but that Notion it self implies a Contradiction for in Rarefaction and Condensation there is the generation or deperdition of no new Matter but all matter hath impenetrable dimensions Therefore if that large expansion of the heavens lay within the compass of the Mass that matter occupyed the same space that the masse did and so dimensions lay in dimensions and thus that which is impenetrable was penetrated which is a contradiction What thou alledgest of the rarefaction of water into clouds or vapours is nothing to the purpose For these clouds and vapours are not one continued substance but are the particles of the water put upon motion and playing at some distance one from another but do really take up no more place then before Observation 26. To say nothing at thy fond cavil at words in the former Observationâ— and thy false accusation that I called thee dog for I would not dishonour Diogenesâ—o â—o much as to call thee so and leaving it to the censure of the world how plain and reall thy principles are I am come now to my 26 Observation on the 23 page of thy Anthroposophia where thou tellest us That there is a threefold Earth viz. Elementary Celestiall Spirituall Now let us see what an excellent layer of the fundamentalls of Science thou wilâ— prove thy self And here he begins to divide before he defines Thou shouldest fiâ—st have told us what Earth is in generall before thou divide it This is like a creature with a cloven foot and never a head But when thou didst venture to define these Members where was thy Logick Ought not every definition nay ought not every Precept of Art to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but I will not vex thy head with these severities The Magnet is the second member the object of this 26 Observation Here you say I condemn this Magnet but I do not offer to confute it But I answer I have as substantially confuted it as merrily but thou dost not take notice of it I have intimated that this precept of art is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nay that it is plainly false For it affirms that which hath no discovery by reason or experience viz. That there is a certain earth which you call the Magnet that will draw all things to it at what distance so ever Quodcunque ostendis mihi sic incredulus odi So farre am I from approving thy Magnet O Magicus Nor do the pages thou here citest of which I give a favourable censure prove any such thing Let the Reader peruse them and judge Indeed certain operations of the Soul are highly and Hyperbolically there set out by thee but the Magnet came dropping in at the latter end of the story I gave no allowance to that I will not have my soul so ill taught as to attract metall out of mens purses at any distance whatsoever Page 64. line 12. Didst thou ever hear or know that I was a pick-pocket If I had had the least suspicion of thee that thou werâ— so I would not have called thee so for it had been an unmercifull jest But if thou wert as full of candour and urbanity as I deem thee clear of that crime thou wouldst not have interpreted it malice but mirth For such jests as these are not uncivill nor abusive to the person when the materiality of them are plainly and confessedly incompatible to the party on whom they are â—ast Observation 27. Page 65. line 14. Prethee why a Galileo's tube were there more Galileo's then one Certainly Phil. thou dost not look through a Galileo's glasse but through a multiplying glasse that seest in my English more Galileos then one Go thy wayes for the oddest correctour of English that ever I met with in all my dayes Observation 28. Page 67. line 1. For I fear God The devils also believe and tremble But do'st thou love God my Philalethes If thou didst thou wouldst love thy brother also But shall I tell thee truly what I fear Truly I fear that thou hast no such precious medicine to publish which thou makest so nice of and that thou dost onely make Religion a cover for thine ignorance But let me tell thee this sober truth That Temperance will prevent more diseases by farre then thy medicine is like to cure and Christian Love would relieve more by many thousands then thy Philosophers stone that should convert baser mettals into gold There is gold enough in the world and all necessaries else for outward happiness but the generations of men make themselves miserable by neglecting the inward This is palpably true and it would astonish a man to see how they run madding after the noise of every pompous difficulty and how stupid and sottish they are to those things which God has more universally put in their power and which would if they made use of them redound to their more generall and effectuall good Observation 29. So doth S. Iohn prophesie too But Magicus is too wise to understand him S. Iohn tells us of a new Heaven and of a new Earth Here Magicus having recourse to his Chymistrie in the height of his imagination prefigures to himself not onely Crystalline Heavens but also a Vitrifide Earth But I consulting with Scripture and with the simplicity of mine own plain Spirit think of a new Heaven and a new Earth wherein righteousnessâ— He 's for an Eden with flowry walks and pleasant trees I am for a Paradise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where Virtue Wisdome and good Order meet As the Chaldeâ— Oracles describe it He is for a pure clear place I place my happinesse in a clear and pure mind
For he knows not whether the Chaos be created or uncreated How much wiser are you now then Aristotle Mr. Eugenius that made the world Eternal If you can admit this by the rule of proportion you might swallow the greatest Gudgeon in Aristotle without kecking or straining Observation 9. Pag. 12. Lin. 11. Fuliginous spawn of Nature A rare expression This Magicician has turned Nature into a Fish by his Art Surely such dreams float in his swimmering Brains as in the Prophets who tells us so Authentick stories of his delicious Albebut Observation 10. Lin. 12. The created Matter Before the Matter was in an hazard of not being created but of being of it self eternal Certainly Eugenius you abound with leasure that can thus create and uncreate doe and undoe because the day is long enough Observation 11. Lin. 21. A horrible confused qualm c. Here Nature like a child-bearing woman has a qualm comes over her stomach and Eugenius like a man-midwife stands by very officiously to see what will become of it Let her alone Eugenius it is but a qualm some cold raw rhewme Margret will escape welâ— enough Especially if her two Handmaids Heat and Siccity which you mention do but help with their Aquavitae bottles What a rare mode or way of Creation has Eugenius set out Certainly it cannot but satisfie any unreasonable man if there be any men without reason and I begin to suspect there is for Eugenius his sake such as feed as savourly on the pure milk of fansie as the Philosophers Asse on Sow-thistles SECT III. 12. He asserts that there was a vast portion of light in the Extract from the Chaos which surrounded the whole earth 13. He compares Ptolemees Heavens to a rumbling confused Labyrinth 14. He calls the Firmament Cribrum Naturae 15. Affirmes that the light before the fourth day equally possest the whole creation 16. That the Night peeps out like a baffled Giant when the Sun is down 17. That the shadow of the Earth is Natures black bagg 18. He prays to be delivered from the dark Tincture which at last by the Protochymist shall be expeld beyond the Creation 19. He allows onely two Elements Earth and Water â—0 He speakes of Water and Fire which is Apuleius his Psyche and Cupid of their bedding together 21. Cites an obscure Aphorisme out of Sendivow 22. Affirmes that the Air is the Magicians baâ—k doore 23. And our animal Oyl the fuell of the vital and sensual fire in us Observation 12. Pag. 13. THis page is spent in extracting from the Chaosâ— a thin spiritual celestial substance to make the Caelum Empyreum of and the Body of Angels and by the by to be in stead of a Sun for the first day But then in the second Extraction was extracted the agill air filling all betwixt the Masse and the Coelum Empyreum But here I have so hedged you in Mr. Anthroposophus that you will hardly extricate your self in this question The Empyreal substance encompassing allâ— how could there be Morning aud Evening till the fourth day for the mass was alike illuminated round about at once And for your interstellar water you do but fancy it implyed in Moses text can never prove that he drives at any thing higher in the letter thereof than those hanging bottles of water the clouds Observation 13. Pag. 14. Lin. 12. A rumbling confused Labyrinth 'T is only Erratum Typographicum I suppose you mean a rumbling Wheel-barrow in allusion to your Wheel-work and Epicycles aforementioned But why small diminutive Epicycles Eugenius you are so profound a Magician that you are no Astronomer at all The bignesse of them is as strong a presumption against them as any thing they are too big to be true Observation 14. Lin. 26. This is Cribrum Naturae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I warrant you The very sive that Iupiter himself pisses through as Aristophanes sports it in his Comedies Observation 15. Pag. 15. Lin. 20. Equally possest the whole Creature Therefore again I ask thee O Eugenius how could there be Evening and Morning the light being all over equally dispersed Observation 16. Lin. 29. Like a baffled Gyant Poetical Eugenius Is this to â—ay the sober and sound principles of Truth and Philosophy Observation 17. Pag. 16. Lin. 1. A Black Bag. I tell thee Eugenius Thy phansie is snapt in this female Black-bag as an unwary Retiarius in a Net Do's Madam Nature wear her Black-bag in her middle parts for the Earth is the Center of the World or on her head as other matrons doe That Philalethes may seem a great and profound Student indeed he will not take notice whether a black-bag be furniture for Ladies heads or their haunches Well! let him injoy the glory of his affected rusticity and ignorance Observation 18. Lin. 5. Good Lord deliver us How the man is frighted into devotion by the smut and griminesse of his own imagination Observation 19. Lin. 15. Earth and water c. Concurrunt element a ut Materia ergo duo sufficiunt says Cardan â—Tis no new-sprung truth if true Mr. Eugenius But seeing that AEthereal vigour and celestial heat with the substance thereof For coelum pervadit omnia is in all things and the air excluded from few or no living Creatures if we would severely tug with you Mr. Anthroposophus you will endanger the taking of the foil Observation 20. Pag. 18. Lin. 22. Both in the same bed Why did you ever sneak in Eugenius and take them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the very act 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Lawyers speak This is but poeticall pomp in prose And Ovid Philosophizes better in verse where speaking of heat and moisture he expresses himself apertly and significantly Quippe ubi temperiem sumpsere humorque calorque Concipiunt ab his generantur cuncta duobus Observation 21. Lin. 27. Spiritus aquae invisibilis congelatus melior est quà m terra Vniversa Now as you are Philalethes tell me truly if you understand any determinate and usefull sense of this saying If you do why do you not explain it if you do not for ought you know it may be onely a charm to fox fishes And I pray you Philalethes make triall of the experiment Observation 22. Pag. 19. Lin. 29. It is the Magicians Back-doore Here I cannot but take notice at the great affectation of Philalethes to appear to be deeply seen in Magick But I suppose if he were well searched he would be found no Witch nor all his Back-door of air worth the winde of an ordinary mans back-doore Observation 23. Pag. 20. Lin. 2. The air is our Animal oil the fuell of the vitall Now Eugenius you are so good natured as to give Aristotle one of his two elements again that you wrested from him If this be our animall oil and fuell of the vitall it is plain our animall and vitall spirits are from the air and that the air is one element amongst the rest And your moist
mistakes concerning the Epicycles of Ptolemie That Aire is an Element of our body That the vulgar notion of Rarefaction and Condensation implies a contradiction Of Eugenius his Magnet That Temperance and Charity is of more consequence to man-kinde then his Philosophers stone His misapplication of S. Johns Prophecie for the proving of a Vitrification of the Earth Observation 13. HEre I called the Ptolemaick Systeme a rumbling confused Labyrinth So you did Philalethes and I perceive you will do so again But prethee tell me dost thou mean the Heavens rumble and so understandest or rather hearest the rumbling harmony of the Sphears or dost thou mean the Labyrinâ—h rumbles I tell thee Philalethâ—s a wheel-barrow may be said to rumble for to rumble is to make an ill-favour'd ungratefull noise but no body will say the heavens or a labyrinth doth rumble but such as are no Englishmen as you say somewhere you are not and so do not understand the language Pag. 53. A confused wheel-barrow is a bull Is a wheel-barrow a bull what a bull is that But confused I added not confused to wheel-barrow that 's thy doing thou authour of confusionâ— Line 18. The Epicycles in respect of their orbâ—â—re but as a Mite inâ—â— cheese Do yoâ— say so Mr. Lilly No. Do you say so Mr. Booker No. Look thee now Phil. how thy confident ignorance hath abused those two learned Artists as thou callest them They are ashamed to utter such loud nonsense And now they have denied it darest thou venture to say it Anthroposophus Tell me then how little and diminutive those Epicycles will prove in respect of their orbs that have their diameters equall to the diameter of the orbit of the earth or which is all one of the sun Thou wilt answer me with the Cyclops in Erasmus Istiusmodi subtilitates non capio I do not believe thou understandest the Question though it be plainly propounded and so I shall expect no answer But come thy wayes hither again Phil. thou shalt not scape thus I will not let thee go till I have called thee to an account for thy great bull of Basan as thou wouldst call it Thou sayest That the Epicycles of Ptolomy though they are too bigge to be true yet that they are very diminutive things in respect of their orbs that sustain them as little and diminutive as mites in a cheese in respect of the cheese To speak the most favourably of this assertion of thine that may be it is sublime Astronomicall Nonsense And if we could find any Nonsense sublunary to parallel it it would be some such stuff as this Although the cannon bullets in the tower be as bigge as mount Athos yet they are so little that they will not fill the compasse of a walnut This is a bundle of falsities and so is that That is Both the parts of these compound Axioms are false and the composition it self also illegitimate These are Discrete Axioms Eugenius and both the parts ought to be true but they are both false here And there ought also especially these notes Quamvis and tamen being in them to be onely a Discretion of parts but here is an implacable Opposition things put together that imply a contradiction In the latter of these Axioms it is manifest but I will shew you it is so also in that former of yours For first the Epicyoles of Ptolemy are not too bigge to be true For they do not suppose them bigger then will be contained within the thicknesse of their own orbs And you your self say that they are but as mites in a cheese in respect of their orbs So that it is plain according to what you your self grant as well as according to the Hypothesis of Ptolemy that they are not too bigge to be true But secondly I say they are not as little as Mites in respect of the cheese they are in For the semi-diameter of Saturns Epicycle is to the semi-diameter of hâ—s Eccentrick at least as 1 to 10. and the semi-diameter of Iupiters Epicycle to the semi-diameter of his Eccentrick more then as 1 to 6. but Mars his as 2 to 3 or thereabout and the semidiameter of the Epicycle of Venus to the semidiameter of her eccentrick more then as 2 to 3 by a good deal And is it not plain hence Eugenius that thy mite in a cheese must swell up at least to the bignesse of a Mouse in a cheese though thy cheese were almost as little as a trundle bed wheel or a box of Marmalade and what a vast difference is there betwixt a Mite and a Mouse but thy ignorance emboldens thee to speak any thing But now in the last place the putting these two falsities together is contradiction as well as they are severally false For it is evident that if the Epicycles be too bigge to be true they cannot be so little as Mites in a cheese in respect of their orbs For then would they be easily contain'd within the crassities or thicknesse of their orbs But their not being able to be contained within the Crassities of their orbs that 's the thing that must make them too bigge to be true And questionlesse if we will joyn the Epicycle with its right office which is to bring down the Planet to its lowest Perigee then the Epicycles of the planets will be too bigge to be true For there will be of them that are half as big again as their Deferents nay five times if not ten times as big And of these Epicycles I said and Ptolemies ought to have been such unlesse they did desert their office that they were too bigge to be true But thou pronouncest concerning these things thou knowst not what and therefore art easily tost up and down like a shittle cock thou knowst not whither How do I blow thee about as the dust or the down of thistles ut plumas avium pappósque volantes Observation 16. Thou Moore à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As much as à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou art so drunk and intoxicated with thine own bloud as Aristotle saith of all young men that they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that thou seest double two O's in my name for one Observation 19. See what I answer at observation the 23. Observation 20. Phy Phy some rose-water Who speaks like a Puritan now Phil but why some rose water hast thou devoured an Orenge like an apple pulp and pill and all and so made thy mouth bitter O thou man of Wales But it is to wash hur mouth from bawdry Why wilt thou be so bold then as to name the Lawyers phrase rem in re Or hast thou a purpose to call all the Lawyers bawdy Gentlemen by craft I tell thee Phil. To the pure all things are pure but thy venerious fancy which I rebuked in this passage thou exceptedst against doth soyl and corrupt what is chast and pure Observation 21. I do Mastix I do Why doest thou not then explain it thou
and real union wâ—th him that every fine thought or fancy that steals into their mind they may look upon as a pledge of the Divine savor and a siâ—gular illumination from God imitating in this the madness of Elionora Meliorina a Gentlewoman of Mantua who being fully perswaded she was married to a king would kneel down and talk with him as if he had been there present with his retinue and if she had by chance found a piece of glasse in a muck-hill light upon an oyster shell piece of tin or any such like thing that would glister in the Sun-shine she would say it was a jewel sent from her Lord and husband and upon this account fild her cabinet full of such trash In like manner those inspired Melancholists stuff their heads and writings with every flaring fancy that Melancholy suggests to them as if it were a precious Truth bestowed upon them by the holy Spirit and with a devotional reverence they entertain the unexpected Paroxysmes of their own natural distemper as if it were the power and presence of God himself in their Souls 43. This disease many of your Chymists and several Theosophists in my judgement seem very obnoxious to who dictate their own conceits and fancies so magisterially and imperiously as if they were indeed Authentick messengers from God Almighty But that they are but Counterfeits that is Enthusiasts no infallible illuminated men the gross fopperies they let drop in their writings will sufficiently demonstrate to all that are not smitten in some measure with the like Lunacy with themselves I shall instance in some few things concealing the names of the Authors because they are so sacred to some 44. Listen therefore attentively for I shall relate very great mysteries The vertues of the Planets doe not ascend but descend Experience teaches as much viz. That of Venus or Copper is not made Mars or Iron but of Mars is made Venus as being an inferior sphere So also Iupiter or Tinne is easily changed into Mercury or Quick-silver because Iupiter is the second from the firmament and Mercury the second from the Earth Saturn is the first from the heaven and Luna the first from the Earth Sol mixeth it self with all but is never bettered by his Inferiours Now know that there is a great agreement betwixt Saturn or Lead and Luna or Silver Iupiter and Mercury Mars and Venus because in the midst of these Sol is placed What can it be but the heaving of the Hypochondria that lifts up the mind to such high comparisons from a supposition so false and foolish But I have observed generally of Chymists and Theosophists as of severall other men more palpably mad that their thoughts are carryed much to Astrology it being a fancyfull study built upon very sleight grounds and indeed I do not question but a relique of the ancient superstition and Idolatry amongst the rude Heathens which either their own Melancholy or something worse instructed them in There are other pretty conceits in these Writers concerning those heavenly Bodies as That the Starres and Planets the Moon not excepted are of the same quality with precious stones that glister here on the earth and that though they act nothing yet they are of that nature as that the wandring Spirits of the air see in them as in a looking-glasse things to come and thereby are inabled to prophecy That the Starres are made of the Sun and yet that the Sun enlightens them That our eyes have their originall from the Starres and that that is the reason why we can see the Starres That our eyes work or act upon all they see as well as what they see acts on them That also is a very speciall mysterie for an inspired man to utter That there is onely Evening and Morning under the Sun That the Starres kindle heat in this world every where for generation and that the difference of Starres makes the difference of Creatures That were the heat of the Sun taken away he were one light with God That all is Gods self That a mans self is God if he live holily That God is nothing but an hearty Loving friendly Seeing good Smelling well Tâ—sting kindly Feeling amorous Kissing c. Nor the Spirit say I that inspires this mystery any thing but Melancholy and Sanguine That God the Father is of himself a dale of darknesse were it not for the light of his Sonne That God could not quell Lucifers rebellion because the battle was not betwixt God and a beast or God and a man but betwixt God and God Lucifer being so great a share of his own essence That Nature is the Body of God nay God the Father who is also the World and whatsoever is any way sensible or perceptible That the Starre-powers are Nature and the Starre-circle the mother of all things from which all is subsists and moves That the Waters of this world are mad which makes them rave and run up and down so as they do in the channels of the Earth That the blew Orb is the waters above the Firmament That there be two kinds of Fires the one cold and the other hot and that Death is a cold fire That Adam was an Hermaphrodite That the Fire would not burn nor there have been any darknesse but for Adams fall That it is a very suspicable matter that Saturn before the fall was where Mercury and Mercury where Saturn is That there are Three souls in a man Animall Angelicall and Divine and that after Death the Animal Soul is in the grave the Angelicall in Abrahams bosome and the Divine soul in Paradise That God has eyes eares nose and other corporeall parts That every thing has sense imagination and a fiduciall Knowledge of God in it Metals Meteors and Plants not excepted That this earth at last shall be calcined into Crystall That at the center of the earth is the Fire of hell which is caused and kindled by the Primum mobile and influences of the Starres That the Artick pole draws waters by the Axeltree which after they are entered in break forth again by the Axeltree of the Antartick That the Moon as well as the Starres are made of a lesse pure kind of fire mixed with air That the pure Blood in man answers to the Element of fire in the great world his heart to the Earth his Mouth to the Artick pole and the opposite Orifice to the Antartick pole That the proper seat of the Mind or Understanding is in the mouth of the Stomack or about the Splene That Earthquakes and Thunders are not from naturall causes but made by Angels or Devils That there were no Rain-bowes before Noahs flood That the Moon is of a conglaciated substance having a cold light of her own whereby the light of the Sun which she receives and casts on us becomes so cool 45. Hitherto our Collections have been promiscuous what follows is out of Paracelsus onely as for example That the variety of the
parts of water among themselves But their grand fault is that they do not say the World is Animate But is not yours far greater Anthroposophus that gives so ridiculous unproportionable account of that Tenet The whole World is an Animal say you whose flesh is the earth whose bloud is the water the air the outward refreshing spirit in which it breathâ— the interstellar skies his vitall waters the Stars his sensitive fire But are not you a meer Animal your self to say so For it is as irrationall and incredible as if you should tell us a tale of a Beast whose bloud and flesh put together bears not so great a proportion to the rest of the more fluid parts of the Animal suppose his vitall and animal spirits as a mite in a cheese to the whole globe of the earth And beside this how shall this water which you call bloud be refreshed by the air that is warmer then it And then those waters which you place in the outmost parts towards his dappled or spotted skin the coelum stellatum what over-pâ—oportionated plenty of them is there there In so much that this creature you make a diseased Animall from its first birth and ever labouring with an Anasarca Lastly how unproperly is the air said to be the outward refreshing spirit of this Animal when it is ever in the very midst of it And how rashly is the Flux and Reflux of the Sea assimilated to the pulse when the pulse is from the heart not the brain but the flux and reflux of the Sea from the Moon not the Sun which they that be more discreetly phantasticall then your self do call Cor Mundi Wherefore Anthroposophus your phansies to sober men will seem as vain and puerile as those of idle children that imagine the fortuitous postures of spaul and snivell on plaster-walls to bear the form of mens or dogs faces or of Lyons and what not And yet see the supine stupidity and senslesnesse of this mans judgement that he triumphs so in this figment of his as so rare and excellent a truth that Aristotles Philosophy must be groundlesse superstition and Popery in respect of it this the primevall truth of the creation when as it is a thousand times more froth then His is vomit My friend Anthroposophus is this to appear for the truth as you professe in a day of necessity Certainly she 'll be well holpe at a dead lift if she find no better champions then your self Verily Philalethes if you be no better in your Book then in your Preface to the Reader you have abused Moses his Text beyond measure For your Principles will have neither heaven nor earth in them head nor foot reason nor sense They will be things extra intellectum and extra sensum meer vagrant imaginations seated in your own subsultorious skip-jack phansie onely But what they are we shall now begin to examine according to the number of pages Anthroposophia Theomagica SECT II. 1. Mastix makes himself merry with Eugenius his rash assertion that all Souls at their entrance into the body have an explicite knowledge of things 22. And that after a whole Springs experience he had found out those two known principles of Aristotle Matter and Privation His absurd hope of seeing Substances 3. The vanity of Devotion without purification of the mind That Aristotle agrees with Moses in acknowledging the World to be framed by a knowing Principle 4. Life alwayes accompanied with a naturall warmth 5. Eugenius his fond mistake as if either the Divine Light or Ideas could be kept out any space of time from shining in the opakest matter 6. The little fruit of that rarity of Doctour Marci in making the figure of a Plant suddenly rise up in a glasse 7. Eugenius his naturall Idea which he affirms to be a subtile invisible fire no Idea at all 8. His vain boasting of himself as if he were more knowing amd communicative then any that has wrote before him 9. His tearming the Darknesse or the first Matter the fuliginous spawn of Nature 10. His inconstancy in creating and uncreating this Matter 11. The horrible confused Qualme he fancies in the moist Matter at the creation of the world Heat and Siceitie the two active qualities in the Principle of Light assisting by their Mid-wifry Observation 1. Pag. 2. l. 11. So have all souls before their entrance c. But hear you me Mr. Anthroposophus are you in good earnest that all Souls before their entrance into the body have an explicite methodicall knowledge and would you venture to lose your wit so much by imprisoning your self in so dark a dungeon as to be able to write no better sense in your Preface to the Reader But I 'll excuse him it may be he was riding before his entrance into the body on some Theomagicall jade or other that stumbled and flung him into a mysticall quagmire against his will where he was so soused and doused and bedaubed and dirtyed face and eyes and all that he could never since the midwife raked him out all wet and dropping like a drown'd mouse once see clearly what was sense and what non-sense to this very day Wherefore we will set the saddle on the right Horse and his Theomagick Nag shall bear the blame of the miscarriage Observation 2. Pag. 3. Lin. 3. I took to task the fruits of one Spring c. Here Anthroposophus is turned Herbalist for one whole Spring damned to the grasse and fields like Nebuchadnezzar when he went on all four among the Beasts But see how slow this Snail amongst the herbs is in finding out the truth when he confesses it was the work of one whole Spring to find out That the Earth or seeds of flowers are nothing like the flowers There 's not any old Garden-weeder in all London but without a pair of spectacles will discover that in four minutes which he has been a full fourth part of a year about But certainly he intends a great deal of pomp and ceremony that will not take up such a Conclusion as this viz. That things that are produced in Nature are out of something in Nature which is not like the things produced but upon the full experience and meditation of one entire Spring And now after this whole Springs meditation and experience he is forced to turn about to him whom he so disdainfully flies and confesse two of the three principles of the Aristotelean Physicks viz. Matâ—er and Privation that homo is ex non homine arbor ex non arbore c. But this Matter he sayes and it is the wisest word he has spoken yet he knows not what it is But presently blots his credit again with a new piece of folly intimating he will finde it out by experience Which is as good sense as if he should say he would see it when his eyes are out For it is alike easie to see visibles without eyes as to see invisibles with eyes But he
represents the grosse carnall parts The element of the water answers to the bloud for in it the pulse of the great world beats this most men call the flux and reflux but they know not the true cause of it The air is the outward refreshing spirit where this vast creature breathes though invisibly yet not insensibly The interstellar skies are his vitall ethereall waters and the starres his animal sensuall fire Now to passe my censure on this rare Zoographicall piece I tell thee if thy brains were so confusedly scattered as thy fancy is here thou wert a dead man Philalethes all the Chymistrie in the world could not recover thee Thou art so unitive a soul Phil. and such a clicker at the slightest shadows of similitude that thou wouldst not stick to match chalk and cheese together I perceive and mussiâ—ate a marriage betwixt an Apple and an Oyster Even those proverbiall dissimilitudes have something of similitude in them will you then take them for similes that haâ—e so monstrous a disproportion and dissimilitude But you are such a Sophister that you can make any thing good Let 's try â—he Earth must represent the flesh because they noth be grosse so is chalk and cheese or an Apple and an Oyster But what think you of the Moon is not that as much green cheese as the Earth is flesh what think you of Venus of Mercury and the rest of the Planets which they that know any thing in Nature know to be as much flesh as the Earth is that is to be dark and opake as well as she What! is this flesh of the world then torn apieces and thrown about scattered here and there like the disjoynted limbs of dragg'd Hippolytus Go to Phil. where are you now with your fine knacks and similitudes But to the next Analogie The element of water answers to the bloud Why For in it is the pulse of the great world But didst thou ever feel the pulse of the Moon And yet is not there water too thou little sleepy heedlesse Endymion The bloud is restagnant there I warrant you and hath no pulse So that the man with the thornâ— on his back lives in a very unwholesome region But to keep to our own station here upon Earth Dost thou know what thou sayest when thou venturest to name that monosyllable Pulse dost thou know the causes and the laws of it Tell me my little Philosophaster where is there in the earth or out of the earth in this World-Animalâ—of â—of thine that which will answer to the heart and the systole and diastole thereof to make this pulse And besides this there is wanting rarefaction and universall diffusion of the stroke at once These are in the pulse of a true Animal but are not to be found in the Flux of the sea For it is not in all places at once nor is the water rarefied where it is Now my pretty Parabolist what is there left to make your similitude good for a pulse in your great Animal more then when you spill your pottage or shog a milk-bowl But believe it Eugenius thou wilt never make sense of this Flux and Reflux till thou calm thy fancy so much as to be able to read Des-Cartes But to tell us it is thus from an inward form more Aristotelico is to tell us no more then that it is the nature of the Beast or to make Latine words by adding onely the termination bus as hosibus and shoosibus as Sir Kenhelm Digby hath with wit and judgement applied the comparison in like case But now to put the bloud flesh and bones together of your World-Animal I say they bear not so great a proportion to the more fluid parts viz. the vitall and animal spirits thereof as a mite in a cheese to the whole globe of the Earth So that if thou hadst any fancy or judgement in thee thy similitude would appear to thine own self outragiously ugly and disproportionable and above all measure ridiculous Nor do not think to shuffle it off by demanding If there be so little earth to tell thee where it is wanting For I onely say that if the world be an Animal there will be much bloud and flesh wanting Philalethes for so great a Beast Nor do not you think to blind my eyes with your own Tobacco smoke I take none my self Eugenius For to that over ordinary experiment I answer two things First that as you took upon the parts of the body of a true Animal in the same extension that they now actually are not how they may be altered by rarefaction so you are also look upon the parts of your World-Animal as they are de facto extended not how they may be by rarefaction And thus your Argument from Tobacco will vanish into smoke But if you will change the present condition of any lesser Animal by burning it and turing many of the grosse parts into more thin and fluid you destroy the ground of your comparison betwixt the World Animal and it for you take away the flesh of your lesser Animal thus burnt And besides the proportion betwixt the vapour or thinner parts extension to the remaining ashes is not yet so big as of the thin parts of the World-Animal in respect of its solid parts by many thousand and thousand millions Nay I shall speak within compasse if I say as I said before that there is a greater disproportion then betwixt the globe of the Earth and a mite in a cheese This is plainly true to any that understands common sense For the Earth in respect of the World is but as an indivisible point Adde to all this that if you will rarefie the Tobacco or Hercules body by fire I will take the same advantage and say that the water and many parts of the earth may be also rarefied by fire and then reckon onely upon the remaining ashes of this globe and what is turned into vapour must be added to the more fluid parts of the World-Animal to increase that over-proportion So that thou hast answered most wretchedly and pitifully every way poor Anthroposophus But besides In the second place When any thing is burnt as for example your Tobacco I say it takes up then no more room then it did before Because Rarefaction and Condensation is made per modum spongiae as a sponge is distended by the coming in and contracted again by the going out of the water it had imbib'd But the Aristotelicâ—ll wayâ— which is yours O profound Magicus that hast the luck to pick out the best of that Philosophy implies I say grosse contradictions which thou câ—nst not but understand if thou canst distinguish corporeall from incorporeall Beings Thy way of Rarefaction and Condensation O Eugenius must needs imply pâ—netration of dimensions or something as incongruous as every lad in our Universities at a year or two standing at least is able to demonstrate to thee But if thou thinkest it hard that so little a body
That following this Rule we shall find the Extent of the World to be bounded no higher then the clouds or thereabout So that the Firmament viz the Air for the Hebrews have no word for the Air distinct from Heaven or Firmament Moses making no distinction may be an adequate barre betwixt the lower and upper waters Which it was requisite for Moses to mention vulgar observation discovering that waters came down from above viz. showers of Rain and they could not possibly conceive that unlesse there were waters above that any water should descend thence And this was it that gave occasion to Moses of mentioning those two waters the one above the other beneath the firmament But to return to the first point to be proved That Scripture speaks according to the outward appearance of things to sense and vulgar conceit of men This I say is a confessed truth with the most learned of the Hebrews Amongst whom it is a rule for the understanding of many and many places of Scripture Loquitur Lex secundùm linguam filiorum hominum that is That the Law speaks according to the language of the sonnes of men as Moses AEgyptius can tell you And it will be worth our labour now to instance in some passages Gen. 19. v. 23. The sunne was risen upon the Earth when Lot entred into Zoar. Which implies that it was before under the Earth Which is true onely according to sense and vulgar fancy Deuteronom 30. v. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Implies that the earth is bounded at certain places as if there were truly an Hercules Pillar or Non plus ultrá As it is manifest to them that understand but the naturall signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For those words plainly import the Earth bounded by the blue Heavens and the Heavens bounded by the Horizon of the Earth they touching one another mutually Which is true onely to sense and in appearance as any man that is not a meer Idiot will confesse Ecclesiastic cap. 27. v. 12. The discourse of a godly man is alwayes with wisdome but a fool changeth as the moon That 's to be understood according to sense and appearance For if a fool changeth no more then the Moon doth really he is a wise and excellently accomplished man Semper idem though to the sight of the vulgar different For at least an Hemisphear of the Moon is alwayes enlightned and even then most when she least appears to us Hitherto may be referr'd also that 2. Chron. 4. 2. Also he made a molten Sea of ten Cubits from brim â—o brim round in compasse and five Cubits the height thereof and a line of thirty Cubits did compasse it round about A thing plainly impossible that the Diameter should be ten Cubits and the Circumference but thirty But it pleaseth the Spirit of God here to speak according to the common use and opinion of Men and not according to the subtilty of Archimedes his demonstration Again Psalme 19. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the Sunne which as a bridegroom cometh out of his chamber and rejoyceth as a strong man to runne his race This as Mr. Iohn Calvin observes is spoken according to the rude apprehension of the Vulgar whom David should in vain have endeavoured to teach the mysteries of Astronomy Haec ratio est saith he cur dicat tentorium ei paratum esse deinde egredi ipsum ab una coeli extremitate transire celeriter ad partem oppositam Neque enim argutè inter Philosophos de integro solis circuitu disputat sed rudissimis quibusque se accommodans intra ocularem experientiam se continet ideoque dimidiam cursûs partem quae sub Hemisphario nostro non cernitur subticet i. e. This is the reason to wit the rudenesse of the vulgar why the Psalmist saith there is a tent prepared for the Sunne and then that he goes from one end of the heaven and passes swiftly to the other For he doth not here subtily dispute amongst the Philosophers of the intire circuit of the Sunne but accommodating himself to the capacity of every ignorant man contains himself within ocular experience and therefore saith nothing of the other part of the course of the sun which is not to be seen as being under our Hemisphear Thus M. Calvin I 'le adde but one instance more Ioshua 10. v. 12. Sunne stand thou still upon Gibeon and thou Moon in the valley of Ajalon Where it is manifest that Ioshua speaks not according to the Astronomicall truth of the thing but according to sense and appearance For suppose the Sunne placed and the Moon at the best advantage you can so that they leave not their naturall course they were so farre farre from being one over Ajalon and the other over Gibeon that they were in very truth many hundreds of miles distant from them And if the Sun and Moon were on the other side of the Equatour the distance might amount to thousands I might adjoyn to these proofs the suffrages of many Fathers and Modern Divines as Chrysostome Ambrose Augustine Bernard Aquinas c. But 't is already manifest enough that the Scripture speaks not according to the exact curiosity of truth describing things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the very nature and essence of them but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to theâ—r appearance in sense and the vulgar opinion of men Nor doth it therefore follow that such expressions are false because they are according to the appearance of things to sense and obvious fancy for there is also a Truth of Appearance And thus having made good the first part of my promise I proceed to the second which was to shew That the Extent of the world is to be bounded no higher then the clouds or there abouts that it may thence appear that the upper waters mentioned in Moses are the same with those Aquae in coelo stantes mentioned by Pliny lib. 31. his words are these Quid esse mirabilius potest aquis in coelo stantibus and these waters can be nothing else but that contain'd in the clouds which descends in rain and so the whole Creation will be contain'd within the compasse of the Aire which the Hebrews call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ibi aquae because it is sedes nubium the place of clouds and rain And that the world is extended no higher then thus according to Scripture it is apparent First because the clouds are made the place of Gods abode whence we are to suppose them plac'd with the highest There he lives and runnes and rides and walks He came walking upon the wings of the wind in the 104. Psalm Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters who maketh the clouds his chariot and walketh on the wings of the wind Laieth the beams of his chambers in the waters to wit the upper waters
silent Fire that passes through all things must be a principle of all things and may be well attempered heat to your forenamed oil So that Aristotle and you that before seemed as disagreeing as fire and water now in a love-fit again embrace as close as your Apulejus his Psyche and Cupid But why will you be thus humorous Mr. Eugenius and be thus off and on to the trouble of others and your self SECT IV. 24. Eugenius having finished his generall exposition of the World Mastix gives an account of it shows the contradiction in it discovers the vanity of drawing the letter of the Scripture to a rigid Philosophicall meaning 25. Eugenius his ill manner of laying down the Fundamentalls of Sciences 26. His celestiall Earth Magnet or Jacobs Ladder 27. His little Suns and Moones in every Compound of Nature that are Mimulae majoris animalis and wantonly imitate the two great Luminaries of the World 28. His aenigmaticall Receit of the Medicine or Philosophers stone 29. His fixing of the Earth into a pure Diaphanous Substance 30. His praetension of explaining the Nature of Man 31. His censure of all that know not the earth Adam was made out of which is the Philosophicall Medicine as Quacks and Pis-pot Doctours 32. His two portions the Soul consists of Ruach and Nephesh 33. And how the Angels scorning to â—tâ—end Adam according as they were commanded contrived to supplant him Observation 24. Pag. 21. l. 9 PErformed an exposition of the World An excellent performance Which if a man takeâ— a narrow view of he will finde to amount to no more then this That God made a dark Masse of Matter out of which he extracted Chymist-like first an Empyreall body â—hen an Aereall c. Which is a very lank satisfaction to the noble reason of man Nay Anthroposophus I believe you have spoke such stuff that will amount to little better then a contradiction â—o free reason For you make as if the Masse did contain in a far lâ—sse compasse above all measure all that was after extracted Wherefore there was for these are all bâ—dies either a penetration of dimensions then or else a vacuum now the ascending particles of the Masse lie some distance one from another Besides I observe that in you that I do in all others that fantastically and superstitiously force Philosophy out of the sacred Writ which is intended certainly for better purposes For as Ovid in his Metamorphoses after a long pursuit of a Fabulous story at last descends to something in Nature and common use as that of Daphne turned into a Lawrell which tree is in Nature and according to the accustomary conceit of the Heathens was holy to Apollo so these running a Wild-Goose chase of Melancholy imaginations and fancies think it evidence enough for what they have said to have the thing but named in some Text of Scripture Nay even those that are so confident they are inspired and live of nothing but the free breathings of the Divine Spirit if you observe them it is with them as with the Lark that is so high in the air that we may better hear her then see her as if she were an inhabitant of that Region onely and had no allyance to the Earth yet at last you shall see her come down and piâ—k on the ground as other birds So these pretended inspired men though they flie high and seem to feed of nothing but free truth as they draw it from Gods own breathing yet they took their ground first from the Text though they ran a deal of fancyfull division upon it and if a man watch them he shall finde them â—all flat upon the Text again and be but as other Mortals are for all their free praetensions and extraordinary assistances But let us leave these Theosophists as they love to be called to themselves and trace on the steps of our Anthro posophus Observation 25. Pag. 22. He exhorts us in the foregoing page to be curious diligent in this subsequent part of his discourse as being now about to deliver the Fundamentals of Science But Anthroposophus you are so deeply Magicall that you have conjured your self down below the wit of an ordinary man The Fundamentals of Science should be certain plain reall and perspicuous to reason not muddy and imaginary as all your discourse is from this to your 28 page For in this present page the former setting aside your superstitious affectation of Trinities Triplicities which teach a man nothing but that you are a very fantasticall and bold man and lift at that which is too heavy for you you do nothing but scold very cholerickly at the Colliers and Kitchen-maids and like a dog return again to the Vomit I mean that vomit you cast a while ago on Aristotle Is that so elegant an expression that you must use it twice in so little a space where is your manners Anthroposophus Observation 26. Pag. 23. Lin. 14. and 24. The Magnet the Mystery of Union Not one of ten thousand knows the substance or the use of this Nature Yet you tell it us in this page that it will attract all things Physicall or Metaphysicall at what distance soever But you are a man of ten thousand Anthroposophus and have the Mystery questionlesse of this Magnet Whence I conclude you King or Prince of the Gypsies as being able at the farthest distance to attract metall out of mens purses But take heed that you be not discovered lest this Iacobs Ladder raise you up with your fellow Pick-pockets to Heaven in a string Observation 27. Pag. 24. This page is filled with like Gypsie gibberish as also the 25th yet he pretends to lend us a little light from the Sun and Moon Which he calls the great Luminaries and Conservatours of the great World in generall How great Anthroposophus do you think would the Moon appear if your Magick could remove you but as far as Saturn from her will she not appear as little as nothing Besides if Eugenius ever tooted through a Galileo's Tube he might discover four Moons about Iupiter which will all prove competitours with our Moon for the Conservatour-ship of the Universe But though Eugenius admits of but one great broad-faced Sun and Moon yet he acknowledgeth many Mimulae or Monky-faced Suns and Moons which must be the Conservatriculae of the many Microcosmes in the great World Certainly Anthroposophus the speculum of your understanding is cracked and every fragment gives a severall reflexion and hence is this innumerable multitude of these little diminutive Suns and Moons But having passed through much canting language at the bottome of the page we at last stumble on the Philosophers Stone which he intends I suppose to fling at Aristotle and brain the Stagirite at one throw Observation 28. Lin. ult A true Receipt of the Medicine R. Limi coelestis partes c. Come out Tom-Fool from behinde the hangings that peaks out with your Devils head and horns
which are the clouds The Almighties lodgings therefore according to the letter are placed in the clouds Thereabout also is his field for exercise and warre Deut. 33. 26. There is none like to the God of Ieshurun who rideth upon the Heavens for thy help in his excellency on the skie that is upon the upper clouds as Buxtorf interprets it and indeed what can 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifie above but clouds for below it signifies pulvis tenuissimus small dust and the clouds are as it were the dust of heaven Vatablus also interprets that place of Gods riding on the clouds And this agrees well with that of Nahum chap. 1. v. 3. The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and the clouds are the dust of his feet Here he is running as swift as a whirlwind and raiseth a dust of clouds about him You shall find him riding again Psalme 68. 4. and that in triumph but yet but on the clouds sutably to that in Deut. Sing unto God sing praises unto his Name extoll him that rideth upon the heavens by his name IAH and rejoyce before Him That rideth upon the Heavens the Hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I would be bold with Aben Ezraes leave to translate that rideth upon the clouds For clouds cause darknesse and the root from whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies obtenebrari obscurari But for the ground of this Rabbies interpretation to wit Vpon the heavens it is taken out of the 33. verse of the 68. Psalme To him that rideth upon the heaven of heavens of old But if we read on there we shall find that those heavens of heavens in all probability reach no higher then the clouds For let 's read the whole verse together To him that rideth upon the heaven of heavens that were of old Lo he doth send out his voice and that a mighty voice what 's that but thunder and whence is thunder but out of the clouds and where then doth God ride but on the clouds The following verse makes all plain Ascribe ye strength unto God His excellency is over Israel and his strength is in the clouds which doth notably confirm that the Extent of the Heavens according to the letter of Moses and David too are but about the height of the clouds For here the heaven of heavens is the seat of thunder and Gods strength and power is said to be in the clouds Nor doth this expression of this height to wit the heaven of heavens of old imply any distance higher For sith all the Firmament from the lower to the upper waters is called Heaven it is not a whit unreasonable that the highest part of this Heaven or Firmament be called the Heaven of Heavens And this is my first argument that the heaven or firmaments Extent is but from the Sea to the Clouds because God is seaâ—ed no higher in the outward phrase of Scripture My second argument is taken from the adjoyning the heavens with the clouds exegetically one with another for the setting out of that which is exceeding high as high as we can expresse And this the Psalmist doth often Psalme 36. 5. Thy mercy O Lord is in the Heavens and thy faithfulnesse reacheth unto the Cloudâ— And Psalme 57.10 For thy mercy is great unto the Heavens and thy truth unto the Clouds And Psalme 108. 4. For thy mercy is great above the Heavens and thy truth reacheth above the Clouds Where heaven and clouds set off one and the same height that which is exceeding high the mercie and truth of God My last argument is from the Psalmists placing the Sunne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the clouds or in the cloudy heaven For the word must so signifie as I did above prove both from Testimony and might also from the Etymon of the word For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies comminuere contundere to beat to dust and what are clouds but the dust of heaven as I may so speak Psalme 89. v. 36 37. His seed shall endure for ever and his throne as the Sunne before me It shall be established for ever as the Moon and as the faithfull witnesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in heaven that is in the sky the place where the clouds are The drawing down therefore of the Sun that faithfull witnesse in heaven so low as the clouds implies that the letter of the Scripture takes no notice of any considerable part of the firmament above the clouds it terminating its expressions alwayes at that Extent And this sutes very well with Moses his calling the Sun and the Moon the great lights and making nothing as it were of the starres as is manifest out of the 16 verse of the first of Genesis And God made two great lights the greater light to rule the day and the lesse to rule the night He made the stars also But they come as cast into the bargain as not so considerable when as indeed a Starre of the first magnitude is according to the calculation of the Astronomers twenty thousand times bigger then the earth and the earth five and fourty times bigger then the Moon so that one starre of the first magnitude will prove about nine hundred thousand times bigger then the Moon Which notwithstanding according to the letter of Moses is one of the two great lights the sole Empresse of the night But here the letter of Moses is very consistent with it self For sith that the Extent of heaven is not acknowledged any higher then the clouds or thereabout wherein as I shewed you the Sun is and consequently the Moon aud it will not be more harsh to mak the stars stoop so low too nay they must indeed of necessity all of them be so low they having no where else to be higher according to the usuall phrase of Scripture the appearances of the starres will then to our sight sufficiently set out their proportions one to another and the Sun and the Moon according to this Hypothesis will prove the two great lights and the starres but scatter'd sky-pebbles Wherefore from all this harmony and correspondency of things I think I may safely conclude that the Extent of the Firmament according to Moses is but the distance from the sea to the clouds or thereabouts as well as it is to our sight which cannot discern any intervall of altitudes betwixt the clouds and the Moon the Moon and the Sunne and lastly betwixt the Sunne and the fixed Starres Which interpretation I am confident any man will admit of that can bring down the tumour of his Philosophick fancy unto a vulgar consistency and fit compliance with the sweetnesse and simplicity of Moses his style And thus Philalethes have I proved that there is no room for thy interstellar waters within the compasse of Moses his Creation unlesse they run into one and mingle with the rain or clouds SECT VII Eugenius his ignorance in the English tongue His grosse