Spirit by Separation of the Principles wherein the Life is Imprisoned may see the Impresse of it Experimentally in the outward naturall vestiments But lest you should think this my Invention and no Practicall Trueth I will give you another Mans testimony Quid quaeso dicerent biâ—tanti Philosophi saith one is Plantam quasi Momentonasci in vitreo vase viderent cum suis ad Viuum Coloribus rursum interixe renasci idque quoties quando luheret Credo Daemonium Arte Magica inclusum dicerent illudere sensibus humanis They are the words of Doctor Marci in his Defensio Idearum Operatricium But you are to be admonished there is a twofold Idea Divine and Naturall The Naturall is a fiery invisible created Spirit and properly a meer Inclosure or vestiment of the true One Hence the Platonicks called it Nimbus Numinis Descendentis Zoroaster and some other Philosophers think it is Anima Mundi but by their leave they are mistaken there is a wide difference betwixt Anima and Spiritus But the Idea I speak of here is the true primitive exemplar one and a pure Influence of the Almighty This Idea before the Coagulation of the seminall principles to a grosse outward Fabrick which is the End of Generation impresseth in the Vitall Ethereall Principles a Modell or Pattern after which the Body is to be framed and this is the first inward production or Draught of the Creature This is it which the Divine Spirit intimates to us in that Scripture where he saith That God Created every plant of the field before it was in the ground and every herb of the field before it grew But notwithstanding this presence of the Idea in the Matter yet the Creation was not performed Extramittendo aliquid de Essentiâ Ideae for it is God that Comprehends his Creature and not the Creature God Thus farre have I handl'd this primitive supernaturall part of the Creation I must confesse it is but short in respect of that which may be spoken but I am confident it is more then formerly hath been discovered Some Authors having not searched so deeply into the Centre of Nature others not willing to publish such Spiritual mysteries I am now come to the gross work or mechanicks of the Spirit namely the separation of severall substances from the same Masse but in the first place I shal examine that Lymbus or Huddle of Matter wherein all things were so strangely contained It is the opinion of some men and those learned That this sluggish empty Rudement of the Creature was noe created thing I must confesse the Point is obscure as the thing it selfe and to state it with Sobriety except a man were illuminated with the same Light that this Chaos was at first is altogether impossible For how can wee judge of a Nature differrent from our owne whose Species also was so remote from any thing now existent that it is impossible for Fancy to apprehend much more for Reason to define it If it be created I conceive it the Effect of the Divine imagination acting beyond it selfe in Contemplation of that which was to come and producing this Passive darkenesse for a Subject to worke upon in the Circumference Trismegistus having first exprest his Vision of Light describes the Matter in its primitive state thus Et paulo post saith he Tenebrae deor sum ferebantur partim trepidandae ac tristes effectae tortuosae terminatae ut maginarer me vidisse commutatas Tenebras in humidam quandam Naturam ultra quam dici potest agitatam velut ab igne fumum evomere ac sonum aliquem edere inenunciabilem lugubrem Certainly these Tenebrae he speakes of or Fuliginous spawne of Nature were the first created Matter for that Water we read of in Genesis was a Product or secondary Substance Here also he seemes to agree further with the Mosaicall Tradition For this Fumus which ascended after the Transmutation can be nothing else but that Darknesse which was upon the Face of the Deepe But to expresse the particular Mode or way of the Creation you are to understand that in the Matter there was a horrible confused Qualme or stupifying spirit of Moysture Cold and Darknesse In the opposite Principle of Light there was Heate and the Effect of it Siccitie For these two are noe Elementall qualities as the Galenists and my Peripateticks suppose But they are if I may say so the Hands of the divine Spirit by which He did worke upon the Matter applying every Agent to his proper Patient These two are Active and Masculine Those of Moysture and Cold are Passive and Faeminine Now assoone as the holy Ghost and the Word for it was not the one nor the other but both Mens opifex una cum Verbo as Trismegistus hath it I omit that Speech Let us make man which effectually prooves their Union in the Worke had applyed themselves to the Matter there was extracted from the Bosome of it a thinne Spiritualt Caelestiall substance which receiving a Tincture of Heat and Light proceeding from the Divine Treasuries became a pure sincere innoxious Fire Of this the Bodyes of Angells consist as also the Empyraeall Heaven where Intellectuall Essences have their Residence This was primum Matrimonium Dei Naturae the First and best of Compositions This Extract being thus soiled above and separated from the Masse retaind in it a vast portion of Light and made the first Day without a Sun But the Splendour of the Word expelling the Darkenes downwards it became more setl'd and compact towards the Centre and made a Horrible thick Night Thus God as the Hebrew hath it was betweene the Light and the Darknesse for the Spirit remained still on the Face of the Inferior portion to extract more from it In the second separation was educed Aer agilis as Trismegistus calls it a Spirit not so refined as the former but vitall and in the next degree to it This was extracted in such abundance that it fill'd all the space from the Masse to the Empyraeall heaven under which it was condens'd to a water but of a different constitution from the Elementall and this is the Body of the Inter-stellar skie But my Peripatericks following the Principles of Aristotle and Ptolomie have imagin'd so many wheeles there with their smal diminutive Epicycles that they have turn'd that regular Fabrick to a rumbling Confused Labyrinth The Inferior portion of this second Extract from the Moon to the Earth remained Air still partly to divide the inferior and superior waters but chiefly for the Respiration and Nourishment of the Creatures This is that which is properly called the Firmament as it is plain out of Esdras On the Second Day thou diddst create the Spirit of the Firmament for it is Ligamentum totius Naturae and in the outward Geometricall Composure it answers to Natura media for it is spread through all Things hinders Vacuity and keeps all
the parts of nature in a firm invincible union This is Cribrum Naturae as one wittily calls it a thing appointed for most secret and mysterious offices but we shall speake further of it when we come to handle the Elements particularly Nothing now remained but the Two inferior principles as we commonly cal them Earth and water The Earth was an impure Sulphureous subsidence or Caput mortuum of the Creation The water also was Phlegmatick crude and raco not so vitall as the former Extractions But the Divine Spirit to make his work perfect moving also upon These imparted to them Life and Heate and made them fit for future Productions The Earth was so overcast and Mantl'd with the Water that no part thereof was to be seen But that it might be the more immediatly exposed to the Coelestiall Influences which are the Cause of Vegetation the Spirit orders a Retreat of the Waters breaks up for them his decreed place and sets them Bars and Doors The Light as yet was not confined but reteining his vast Flux and primitive liberty equally possest the whole Creature On the Fourth Day it was collected to a Sun and taught to know his Fountain The darknesse whence proceed the Corruptions and consequently the death of the Creature was imprisoned in the Centre but breaks out still when the Day gives it Leave and like a baffl'd Gyant thrusts his head out of doors in the Absence of his Adversary Thus Nature is a Lady whose face is beauteous but not without a Black-bag Howsoever when it shall please God more perfectly to refine his Creatures this Tincture shall be expelled quite beyond them and then it will be an Outward darknesse from which Good Lord deliver us Thus have I given you a Cursorie and short Expresse of the Creation in generall I shall now descend to a more particular Examination of Nature and especially her Inferior Elementall parts through which Man passeth daily and from which he cannot be separated I was about to desist in this place to prevent all future Acclamations for when a Peripatetick findes here but Three nay but two genuine Elements Earth and Water for the Air is something more will he not cry out I have committed Sacrilege against Nature and stole the fire from her Altar This is Noise indeed but till They take Coach in a Cloud and discover that Idol they prefer next to the Moon I am resolved to continue in my Heresie I am not onely of Opinion but I am sure there is no such principle in Nature The Fire which she useth is Horizon Corporeorum Incorporeorum Nexus utrinsque Mundi Sigillum Spiritus sancti It is no Chymaera Commentitious Quirck like that of the School-men I shall therefore Request my Friends the Peripateticks to return their fourth Element to Aristole that he may present it to Alexander the Great as the first part of a new world for there is no such Thing in the Old To proceed then The Earth as you were told before being the Subsidence or Remaines of that Primitive Masse which God formed out of Darknesse must needs be a faeculent impure Body for the Extractions which the Divine Spirit made were pure oleous aethereall substances but the Crude phlegmatick indigested humors settled like Lees towards the Centre The Earth is spungie porous and magneticall of Composition loose the better to take in the severall Influences of Heat Rains and Dewes for the Nurture and Conservation of her Products In her is the Principall Residence of that Matrix which attracts and receives the sperm from the Masculine part of the world she is Natures AEtna here Vulcan doth exercise himself not that limping Poeticall one which halted after his Fall but a pure Coelestiall plastick Fire we have Astonomy here under our feet the stars are resident with us and abundance of Jewels and Pantauras she is the Nurse and Receptacle of all Things for the Superior Natures ingulph themselves into her what she receives this Age she discovers to the next and like a faithfull Treasurer conceales no part of her Accounts Her proper Congeneall Quality is Cold I am now to speak of the Water This is the first Element we read of in Scripture the most Ancient of Principles and the Mother of all Things amongst visibles without the meditation of this the Earth can receive no blessing at all for Moysture is the proper Causâ— of Mixture and Fusion The water hath severall Complexions according to the severall parts of the Creature Here below and in the Circumference of all things it is volatil crude and raco For this very Cause Nature makes it no part of her provision but she rectifies it first exhaling it up with her Heat and then condensing it to Rains and Dews in which State she makes use of it for Nourishment Some where it is Interior vitall and Coelestiall exposed to the Breath of the first Agent and stirred with Spirituall aeternaell Windes In this Condition it is Natures Wanton Foemina Satacissima as One calls it This is that Psyche of Apuleius and the Fire of Nature is her Cupid He that hath seen Them both in the same Bed will confesse that love rules All But to speak something of our Common Elemental water It is not altogether Contemptible there are hidden Treasures in it but so inchanted we can not see them for all the Chest is transparent Spiritus Aquae Invisibilis congelatus melior est quam Terra Universa saith the noble and learned Sendivow I doe not advice the Reader to take this Phlegm to task as if he could Extract a Venus from the Sea but I wish him to study water that he may know the Fire I have now handled the Two Elements and more I cannot finde I know the Peripateticks pretend to four and with the help of their Masters Quintessence to a fift Principle I shall at leysure diminish their stock but the thing to be now spoken of is Air This is no Element but a Certain miraculous Hermaphrodit the Caement of two worlds and a Medley of Extremes It is natures Common Place her Index where you may finde all that ever she did or intends to do This is the worlds Panegrick The Excursions of both Globes meet here and I may call it the Rendezvouz In this are innumerable Magicall Forms of Men and Beasts Fish and Fowle Trees Herbs and all Creeping Things This is Mare Rerum invisibilium for all the Conceptions in sinu superioris Naturae wrap themselves in this Tiffany before they imbark in the shell It retaines the species of all Things whatsoever and is the Immediate Receptacle of Spirits after Dissolution whence they passe to a Superior Limbus I should amaze the Reader if I did relate the severall offices of this Body but it is the Magicians Backdoor and none but Friends come in at it I shall speak nothing more onely This I would have you know The Air is Corpus vitae spiritus
Tympanie of Termes It is better then a Fight in Quixot to observe what Duels and Digladiations they have about Him one will make him speak Sense another Non-sense and a third both Aquinas palps him gently Scotus makes him winch and he is taught like an Ape to shew severall tricks If we look on his adversaries the least amongst them hath foyld him but Telesius knock'd him in the head and Campanella hath quite discomposed him But as that bald haunter of the circus had his scull so steel'd with use it shiver'd all the tyles were thrown at it so this Aristotle thrives by scuffles and the world cryes him up when trueth cryes him down The Peripatetickes look on God as they do on Carpenters who build with stone and Timber without any infusion of life But the world which is Gods building is full of Spirit quick and living This Spirit is the cause of multiplication of severall perpetuall productions of minerals vegetables and creatures ingendred by putrefaction All which are manifest infallible Arguments of life Besides the Texture of the universe clearly discovers its animation The arth which is the visible natural Basis of it represents the gross carnal parts The Element of Water answers to the Bloud for in it the pulse of the Great World beates 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 all together insensibly The Interstellar skies are his vital aethereall waters and the stars his animal sensuall fire Thou wilt tell me perhaps This is new Philosophy and that of Aristotle is old It is indeed but in the same sense as Religion is at Rome It is not the primitive Trueth of the Creation not the Ancient reall Theosophie of the Hebrews and Egyptians but a certain preternaturall upstart a Vomit of Aristotle which his followers with so much diligence lick up and swallow I present thee not here with any Clamorous opposition of their Patrone but a positive Expresse of principles as I finde them in Nature I may say of Them as Moses said of the Fiat These are the Generations of the Heavens and of the Earth in the Day that the Lord God made the Heavens and the Earth They are things extra Intellectum sensible practicall Trueths not meer Vagaries and Rambles of the Braine I would not have thee look on my Indeavours as a designe of Captivity Intend not the Conquest but the exercise of thy Reason not that thou shouldest swear Allegeance to my Dictats but compare my Conclusions with Nature and examine their Correspondency Be pleased to consider that Obstinacy inslaves the Soule and clips the wings which God gave her for flight and Discovery If thou wilt not quit thy Aristotle let not any prejudice hinder thy further search Great is their Number who perhaps had attain'd to perfection had they not already thought themselves perfect This is my Advice but how wellcome to Thee I know not If thou wilt kick and fling I shall say with the Cardinall Etiam Asinus meus recalcitrat for I value no Mans Censure It is an Age wherein truth is neer a Miscarriage and it is enough for me that I have appeared thus far for it in a Day of Necessity E. S. ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA WHEN I found out this Trueth That Man in his Originall was a Branch planted in God and that there was a continuall Influxe from the Stock to the Sion I was much troubl'd at his Corruptions and wonder'd his Fruits were not correspondent to his Roote But when I was told he had tasted of an other Tree my admiration was quickly off it being my chiefe care to reduce him to his first Simplicitie and separate his Mixtures of Good and Evill But his Fall had so bruised him in his best part that his Soule had no knowledge left to study him a Cure his Punishment presently followed his Trespasse Velata sunt omnia intravitq oblivio mater ignorantiae This Lethe remained not in his body but passing together with his Nature made his Posterity her Channell Imperfection 's an easy inheritance but Vertue seldome finds any Heires Man had at the first and so have all Souls before their Intrance into the body an Explicite methodicall knowledge but they are no sooner Vessel'd but that Liberty is lost and nothing remaines but a Vast confused Notion of the Creature Thus had I only left a Capacity without Power and a Will to doe that which was far enough above me In this perplexity I studied severall Arts and ramel'd over all those Inventions which the folly of man call'd Sciences But these endeavours sorting not to my purpose I quitted this Booke-businesse and thought it a better course to study Nature then Opinion Hereupon I considered with my selfe that man was not the Primitive immediate worke of God but the World out of which he was made And to regulate my studies in point of Methode I judg'd it convenient to examine his Principles first and not him But the World in generall being too large for Inquisition I resolv'd to take Part for the Whole and to give a guesse at the Frame by Proportion To perfect this my Essay I tooke to task the Fruits of one Spring Here I observed a great many Vegetables fresh and beautious in their Time but when I looked back on their Original they were no such things as Vegetables This Observation I apply'd to the World and gained by it this Inference That the World in the beginning was no such thing as it is but some other seed or matter out of which that Fabrick which I now behold did arise But resting not here I drove my Conclusion further I conceav'd those seeds whereof Vegetables did spring must be something else at first then Seeds as having some praeexistent matter wherof they were made but what that matter should be I could not guesse Here was I forc'd to leave off Speculation and come up to Experience Whiles I sought the World I went beyond it and I was now in Quest of a Substance which without Art I could not see Nature wrapps this most strangly in her very bosome neither doth she expose it to any thing but her own Vitall Caelestiall Breath But in respect that God Almighty is the onely proper immediate Agent which actuates this matter as well in the work of Generation as formerly in his Creation it will not be amisse to speak something of Him that we may know the Cause by his Creatures and the Creatures by their Cause My God my Life whose Essence man Is no way fit to Know or Scan But should aproach thy Court a Guest In Thoughts more low then his Request When I consider how I stray Methinks 't is Pride in mee to Pray How dare I speake to Heaven nor feare In all my Sinns to court thy Eare But as I looke on Moles that Lurke
first she descended It is miraculous to consider how she struggles with her Chaines when Man is in Extremity how she falsisies with Fortune what pomp what pleasure what a Paradise doth she propose to her self she spans Kingdoms in a Thought and injoyes all that inwardly which she misseth outwardly In her are patterns and Notions of all things in the world If she but fancies her self in the midst of the Sea presently she is there and hears the rushing of the Billowes she makes an Invisible voyage from one place to another and presents to her self things absent as if they were present The dead live to her there is no grave can hide them from her thoughts Now she is here in dirt and mire and in a trice above the Moon Celsior exurgir pluviis auditque ruentes Sub pedibus Nimbos caeca Tonitrua calcat But this is Nothing If she were once out of the Body she could act all that which she imagin'd in momento saith Agrippa quicquid eupit assequeretur In this state she can movere Humores majoris Animalis make general Commotions in the Two sphaeres of Aire and water and alter the Complexions of Times Neither is this a Fable but the unanimous Tenent of the Arabians with the two princes Avicebron and Avicen She hath then an absolute power in miraculous and more then naturall Transmutations She can in an Instant transfer her own vessell from one place to another She can per unionem cum virtute universali infuse and communicate her thoughts to the Absent be the distance never so great Neither is there any thing under the Sun but she may know it and remaining onely in one place she can acquaint her self with the Actions of all places whatsoever I omit to speak of her Magnet wherewith she can attract all things as well Spirituall as naturall Finally Nullum opus est in totâ Naturae serieatam arduum tam excellens tam denique miraculosum quod Anima humana Divinitatis suae Originem consecute Quam vocant Magi Animam stantem non Cadentem propriis viribus absque omni Externo Adminiculo non queat efficere But who is he inter tot millia Philosophantium that knows her Nature substantially and the genuine specificall use thereof This is Abraham's secretum magnum maxime mirable occultissimum sex Annulis sigillatum ex eis exeunt Ignis Aqua Acr Quae dividuntur in Mares Foeminas We should therefore pray continually That God would open our Eyes whereby we might see to imploy that Talent which he hath bestowed upon us but lyes buried now in the ground and doth not fructifie at all He it is to whom we must be united Contactu Essentiali and then we shall know all things revelatâ facie per claram in Divino Lumine Visionem This Influx from Him is the true proper Efficient of our Regeneration that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} of Saint John the seed of God which remaines in us If this be once obtained we need not serve under Aristotle or Galen nor trouble our selves with foolish Vtrums and Ergos for his Unction will instruct us in all things But indeed the Doctrine of the Schoolmen which in a manner makes God and Nature Contraries hath so weakened our Confidence towards Heaven that we look upon all Receptions from thence as Impossibilities But if things were well weighed and this Cloud of Tradition remov'd we should quickly finde that God is more ready to give then we are to receive For He made Man as it were for his Play-fellow that he might survey and examin his works The inferior Creatures he made not for themselves but his own Glory which glory he could not receive from any thing so perfectly as from Man who having in him the Spirit of discretion might judge of the Beauty of the Creature and consequently praise the Creatour Wherefore also God gave him the the use of all his works and in Paradise how familiar is He or rather how doth he play with Adam Out of the Ground sayth the Scripture the Lord God formed every Beast of the Field and every fowl of the air and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them and whatsoever Adam called every living Creature that was the Name thereof These were the Books which God ordained for Adam and for us his Posterity not the Quintessence of Aristotle nor the Temperament of Galen the Anti-Christ But this is irritare Crabones Now will the Peripateticks brand me with their Contra Principia and the School-Divines with a Tradatur satanae I know I shall be hated of most for my paines and perhaps scoff'd at like Pythagoras in Lucian Quis emet Eugenium Quis super Hominem esse vult Quis scire Vniversi Harmoniam reviviscere denuò But because according to their own Master {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and that an Affirmative of this Nature cannot fall to the Ground with a Christian I will come to my Oath I do therefore protest before my glorious God I have not written this out of malice but out of zeal and Affectito the Trueth of my Creatour Let them take heed then least whiles they contemn mysteries they violate the Majesty of God in his Creatures and trample the Bloud of the Covenant under Foot But shall I not be counted a Conjurer seeing I follow the Principles of Cornelius Agrippa that grand Archimagus as the Anti-Christian Jesuits call Him He indeed is my Author and next to God I owe all that I have unto Him why should I be asham'd to confesse it He was Reader By Extraction Noble By Religion a Protestant as it appeares out of his own writings besides the late but malicious Testimony of Fromondus a learned Papist For his Course of Life a Man famous in his Person both for Actions of war and peace A Favorit to the greatest Princes of his Time and the just wonder of all learned men Lastly He was One that carried himself above the Miseries he was born to and made fortune know Man might be her Master This is answer enough to a few Sophisters and in defiance to all Calumnies thus I salute his Memory Henricus Cornelius Agrippae ab Nettesheim Armatae Militiae Eques Auratus Max. Caesaris à Conciliis Archivis Indiciarius Utriusque Juris Medicinae Doctor Pinge Duos Angues Hic est Agrippa Supernis Demissae Fax ab Ignibus Caeli magnum Instar nec in ullo Sydere fulsit Natura plenior Deo O si Sacratus tanto Spiramine Lychnus Lustrarot Aureus Solum Sed nimis offensae sancta imignatio Flammae AEona Caelitûm subit Quid Dominae inspersum lector mirabere fucum Nec cernis quam sit Foemina falsa Venus Sanctam oculis salvere umbâ—am faciemqueâ—ubeto Totus in magnum dirige Cornelium Illius ut dicas te haesisse in Vultibus AEtas