PARACELSUS HIS Aurora Treasure OF THE PHILOSOPHERS As also The WATER-STONE OF The Wise Men Describing the matter of and manner how to attain the universal Tincture Faithfully Englished And Published by J. H. Oxon. LONDON Printed for Giles Calvert and are to be sold at the Black Spred Eagle at the West end of Pauls 1659. Reader THese three Pieces of Mysterious Learning need not any Apology nor ought of those flattering titles that many worthless Books are ushered in withal T is sufficient that two of them were written by the experienced Paracelsus and that the other viz. The Water-stone hath the testimony of that inlightned man Jacob Behmen in his 23. Epistle It is in truth a discourse so sober its title so modest and the plain-hartedness of the Author so evident that it will be but lost labour to commend that which is so really excellent And whereas the Genius of many an English-man tends after these noble employments and is destitute of those helps that many Authors extant in the Latine tongue might haply afford them I do therefore intend to publish these ensuing viz. The Rosary of the Philosophers The Mineral work of Isaac Holland Bernard Trevisan of Alchimy The last Testament The Experiments and several other Tracts of Raymund Lully Glaubers second and third part of the Mineral work Paracelsus his Archidoxis and Book of degrees All which except the two last-mentioned and they may shortly be ready are compleatly finished Some haply will be displeased with othersome will deride whatsoever they meet with of this subject such may please themselves and wallow in their frothy fancies but the ingenuous man will consider that to attain to the useful understanding of things of this nature there is required the labour of the body integrity of the mind and a patient perseverance in both these are the usual keyes that give admission to this despised Science Farewell Thy Friend I. H. The most material Errata's are to be corrected as followeth PAge 3. line 9. read with p. 21. l. 16. r. Trutae or Trouts p. 23. l. 18. r. Haematites p. 25. l. 17. r. revification l. 18. r. urine p. 34. l. 23. for their r. the p. 37. l. 26. set a full-point at time p. 42. l. 15. r. mysterie p. 47. l. 26. r. meets ib. r. Cahoick p. 55. l. 27. r. and it p. 57. l. 17. blot out or thus p. 60. l. 9. r. Balny l. 11. r. vive p. 62. l. 3. for below r. all over p. 69. l. 9. r. Cinnabre l. 15. r. cohobation p. 72. l. 17. r. all p. 75. l. 14. r. ounces p. 94. l. 14. r. 47. p. 107. l. 27. r. Aes p. 112. l. 18. r. cover p. 116. l. 24. r. so p. 174. l. 23. r. caring p. 184. l. 25. r. aāa p. 187. l. 9. blot out unto it self p. 195. l. 10. r. ears p. 210. l. 20. blot out be The Aurora of the Philosophers by Paracelsus CHAP. I. Of the Original of the Philosophick Stone ADAM was the first Inventor of Arts because he had the knowledge of all things as well after the fall as before the fall from thence he presaged the worlds destruction by water Hence also it came to pass that his Successors erected two tables of stone in the which they ingraved all Natural Arts and that in Hieroglyphical Characters that so their Successors might also know this presage that it might be heeded and provision or care made in time of danger Afterwards Noah found one of the tables in Armenia under the Mount Araroth when the deluge was over In which Table were described the courses of the superiour Firmament and of the inferiour Globe and also of the Planets then at length this Universal Notion of Knowledge was drawn into several particulars and lessened in its Vigor and Power in so much that by means of that separation One became an Astronomer another a Magus another a Cabalist and a fourth an Alchymist Abraham that most great Astrologer and Arithmetitian conveyed it out of the Countrey of Canaan into Aegypt whereupon the Egyptians arose to so great a head and dignity that the wisdom or science of the same thing was derived from them to other Nations and Countreys And for as much as the Patriarch Jacob painted as t were the sheep with various colours it was done by a part or member of Magick for in the Theology of the Chaldeans Hebrews Persians and Egyptians they proposed these arts as the highest Philosophy to be learned by their chiefest Nobles and Priests So it was in Moses his time wherein both the Priests and even the Physitians were chosen amongst the Magi they indeed viz. the Priests for the Examination or Judging of what related to soundness or health especially in the knowledge of the Leprosie Moses likewise was instructed in the Egyptian Schools at the Costs and Care of Pharaohs daughter so that he excelled in all their Wisdom or Learning So was it which Daniel he in his young dayes suckt in the Learning of the Chaldeans so that he became a Cabalist Witness his Divine foretellings and exponnding of those words Mene Mene Tekel Phares These words are to be understood by the Prophetick and Cabalistick Art The Tradition of this Cabalistical Art was very familiar with Moses and the Prophets and most of all in use The Prophet Elias foretold many things by his Cabalistical Numbers Even so the Antient wise men by this Natural and Mystical Art learned to know God rightly and abode and walked in his Laws and statutes very firmly It likewise is evident in the Book of Samuel that the Berelists did not follow the Devils part but became by Divine permission partakers of Visions and true Apparitions the which we shall treat more largely of in the book of Snpercelestials The gift thereof is granted by the Lord God to the Priests who walk in the divine precepts It was a custom amongst the Persians never to admit any one as King unless a Sophist or Wise man exalted both in reality and name and this is clear by the usual name of their Kings for they were called Sophists Such were those Wise men and Persian Magi that came from the East to seek out Christ Jesus and are called natural Priests Likewise the Egyptians having obtained this Magick and Philosophy from the Chaldeans and Persians would that their Priests should also learn the same wisdom wherein they became so fruitfull and succesfull that all the neighbouring Countreyes admired them This was the cause why Hermes was truly stiled Trismegistus because he was both a King a Priest and a Prophet a Magitian and a Sophist of Natural things such another also was Zoroastes CHAP. II. Wherein is declared that the Grecians drew a good part of this Learning from the Egyptians and how it came from them to us AFter that a Son of Noah possessed the third part of the world after the Flood this Art brake in violently as it were into Chalde and Persia and
will be but rashly and in vain attempted is to be above all other things well learned and known for if a man covets to arrive to the highest good then is it expedient that above all other things he first learns rightly to know God then himself Acts 17. for in him we live c. for the learning to know God and ones self that is to know what men we are from whence we have our original to what we were created and how near a kin we are to God is deservedly to be accounted and esteemed of as the highest wisdom without which 't will be most difficult yea impossible for us to attain to the aforesaid happiness But now as to how and where such a knowledge of that highest Celestial good is to be found known or learned Eccl. 24. I am every where c. you must know that it is and ought to be sought after even as the terrestrial Philosophick stone is the which stone is according to its description in one and in two which are to be everywhere found t is in one only and yet in two to this may it be compared the which is no other thing then the eternal Word of God and the holy divine Scriptures of the Old and New Testament as Isaiah 8. Yea to the Law c. in the which the right celestial fundamental Corner-stone is to be Only and Solely sought for and enquired after even as also God the Father at that Glorification made in Mount Tabor doth point with his finger as t were at this his own Word when he saith as in Mark 9 and Luke 9. This is my beloved Son hear him c. Likewise even Christ himself the very essential and eternal Word of God derives this to himself Psalm 119. In John 14. saying I am the way the truth and the life none cometh unto the Father but by me and therefore to the holy divine Scripture or infallible testimonie of the divine Word Isaiah 34. in Isaiah 8. 't is said To the Law and to the testimony And Christ himself that said Corner stone doth in John 5. partly also require it when he saith Search the Scriptures for ye think to have life therein and that is it which testifieth of me Therefore David also in Psal. 119. hath a long time afore confessed this same thing saying I delight O Lord in thy testimonies for they are my Counsellors Thy word O Lord is a Light to my feet I delight more in the way of thy testimonies then in any riches Again I consider thy waies and walk in thy testimonies See Genes 13. Psalm 45. Isaiah 9. 49. Jerem. 32. John 10. 14. Rom. 9. 1 Cor. 5. Moreover as to where and in what place of the holy Scripture Eccles. 24. from the beginning of the world c. the first matter of this heavenly stone or essence is founded and repaired or placed know that it is in many places to and again fundamentally and expresly demonstrated and set before your eyes but especially in Mich. 5. 't is written Whose going forth was from the beginning and from eternity This self same thing also the Corner-stone it self doth also testifie John 8. When the Jews askt him who he was he answered Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning And moreover he thus tells the Jews viz Verily verily I say unto you afore Abraham was I was By which testimonies it doth uncontroulably follow that he had no beginning but had his first Ens from all eternity and that it will so remain without end to all eternity And although that that knowledge consists nowhere but only in the word of God viz. in the Old and New Testament and may from it itself be gotten and obtained yet nevertheless I will declare to such an one as seeks there-after 2 Tim. 3. And whereas thou from thy childhood c. that he must herein use the highest diligence for whosoever doth at the beginning err in that knowledge or miss the right subject then is all the following labour that he bestows thereon vain and fruitless Therefore all those that seek after it ought rightly to prove or try themselves and here rightly to learn in the separation as it were of the word the true Golden apprehension thereof and well and rightly to open the eyes viz. of the mind and soul and accutely or diligently to behold and know it by the internal light 1 John 5. the which God at the beginning enkindled in nature and in our heart Now he that endeavours to obtain that by the externality and corporality only in a literal way without the internal eye and divine light such an one may as soone take Saul for Paul and thencefrom choose and draw in as it were to himself an erroneous way and sinister understanding instead of what is right for even as in this terrene stone according to the description thereof it so happens that t is hidden from many thousands of men So also doth it daily appear the more is the pitty and grief in the knowledge of this Celestial stone it being hidden to the greatest part of mankind the which is not to be imputed to the Word or Letter for as for that it is well and firmly founded but much rather to the eye that is false in man 't is to be imputed only and solely to that Even as also Christ himself in Luke 11. and 1 Cor. 3. saith The eye is the light of the body but if thine eye be evil then also thy whole body is obscure and dark and the Light in thee is made darkness Likewise in Chap. 17. He saith Behold the Kingdom of God is within you By which t is evidently apparent that the knowledge of the Light in man must first of all arise from within and not be brought in from without the which also the holy Scripture doth in many places bear testimony unto The which external object as we may so speak or Letter was written for our weakness sake by the internal Light of grace implanted in and granted unto us by God only for a testimony or witness Mat. 24. even as also the orall or uttered received or apprehended word is to be accounted and esteemed as a stirring up and as a mediate help and promotion thereunto For example Suppose that there is a white and a black table set before thee and it be demanded of thee which of those is white and which black Thou would hardly resolve my Question thus propounded to thee from the bare and mute objects of the said tables if thou hadst not the knowledge of those two divers colours in thee afore John 2. But this I have written unto you concerning those that seduce you for the knowledge thereof doth not arise from those tables which are dumb and dead but ariseth from thy innate understanding and daily exercised knowledge The objects do indeed as we have said afore move or quicken the senses set as 't were an
that if you would bring your work to its effectual power and make your tincture to perfect the other simple mettals then 't is expedient that you put to your first matter and unite therewith a certain other metallick highly dignified body of near affinity to the aforesaid Prima materia and such as is most acceptable and grateful thereunto and you must reduce them into one body Even so is it here in the Theological work of the divine nature of the Son of God if we should well enjoy it and be made partakers thereof 't was behoovful that as it were another mettalline body that is flesh and blood the humanity or the humane nature which also is amongst all the highest dignified creatures of God in the earth the one that is nearest akin is also the most acceptable and the most grateful and besides is created after his nature adjoyned and united it self therewith and consequently 't was fitting that both were reduced and united into a certain undissolvable body But even as t is chiefly to be noted and observed in the aforementioned Philosophical work as we then informed you that even as this common or vulgar body of gold is not in the least agreeable or convenient for that work but because of its imperfection and many other various defects that it is subject unto is unprofitable and is to be accounted of as a dead thing and that likewise for that same reason there must be produced such a body as is clear and pure and without mixture and such as was never falsified by any deceit but is free from all impurity and without defect and what was never as yet debilitated in its eternal Sulphur Even so much less can there be or ought there to be any universal humane nature such as is conceived in sin polluted with original transgression and is daily falsified and defiled with real sins and preternatural infirmities under which all men do generally lie accepted of imputed to and incorporated with the divine essence of the Son of God but only the unmixed pure and perfect humanity void of all sin for if the earthly Adam who was but a creature only was afore the fall without sin and was an holy and perfect man how much more then is that celestial Adam which the only begotten Son of God hath in himself And therefore the celestial eternal fundamental and Corner-stone Jesus Christ according to the description of the Philosophick is and ever will be according to both his natures of a most highly admirable birth and rise and consequently of an unsearchable nature and property According or in relation to his divinity he was from eternity of the alone divine essence of his celestial and eternal Father true God yea the Son of God whose out-going as the Scripture testifies thereof was from the beginning and eternal Mich. 5. Psal. 2. Mat. 16. Col. 1. But as in reference to his humanity he was born in the fulness of time without sin and fault Isa. 53. John 8. according as the Scripture testifies a true and a perfect man with a body and also a soul Mat. 26. so that now he is of an indissolvable personal and God-man essence that is a true God and true man in one only person indissoluble to all eternity and must and ought to be so acknowledged and worshipped as God Omnipotent But yet notwithstanding it could be wished that the eyes of the greater part of the imaginary learned men were better opend and their dark spectacles and their sophistical vizards that hang before them were removed and that at length they might yet once recover their lost sight Luke 10. But especially all the Aristotelians and the sophisticate blind-sighted purblind as 't were in divine works amongst whom there have been so many various and divers disputations even to this very day in divine things too too unchristianlike nor is there any end at all of the manifold distinctions divisions and permixtions concerning the highly venerable Article of the union of natures and community as 't were of Idioms in Christ so well founded in the holy Scriptures 2 Tim. 3. But now if they will not believe God or his divine Word they may yet notwithstanding by the conjunction made of the said Chymicall work as afore-mentioned and by the unition of the two waters viz. of ☿ and ☉ know the essence and be able to feel him as it were with their fingers But alas the highest Scholastick art of their Ethnick or heathenish philosophy so little or meanly founded in the holy Scripture or in Christian Theologie and their fundamentals and Aristotelian precepts of no value or moment about substance and accidents and many other more devices do not at all lead them to the attainment thereof little considering that Tertullian that old man hath not in vain written That these Philosophers are the Patriarchs or chief Fathers of the Hereticks But we conceive it no waies worth our while to discourse more largely of this thing And moreover even as in the Philosophick work that said composition the two essences being conjoyned now together must be placed over the fire and be putrified ground or broken and be well boiled in which putrefaction and boyling there do until it be rendred more then perfect in the mean while manifold and various acts or scenes fall in between and divers colours do shew themselves about which you may find more written in the description of the terrene work Even so this God-man and man-God person Jesus Christ so appointed by God his heavenly Father in this world was cast into the firie furnace of tribulation and was therein well boyled as 't were that is he was encompassed with various troubles reproaches the Cross and tribulation and was changed and transmuted as 't were into various shapes that is he suffered hunger Mat. 4. then presently upon his receiving of baptism and after his devoting himself to the ministry of the preaching the holy divine Word he was by the impulse of the holy Spirit in the desart and there tempted by Satan and must there necessarily undergo with him a triple combate for a testimony and witness to all bought and purchased Christians as having entred upon Christianity and professing the faith of Christ are tempted by the Devil and are by various temptations again sollicited and enticed to a falling off from Christ. Likewise he was wearie in John 4. also he cryed and wept lamentably Luke 19. 41. also he trembled and was sore amazed Mark 14. he combated with death and sweated a sweat of blood was likewise taken and was bound Mat. 26. was smitten on the face by the high Priests servant was mocked derided spit on whipt crowned with thorns condemned to death and then fastned to the Cross which himself carried Joh. 19. betwixt two thieves had Gall and Vinegar given him to drink Psalm 69. and cryed out with a loud voice and commended his Spirit into the hands of God his Father expired
them is separated and is wholly cast away as the drossy fece of the Mettals Thus then may a transmutation be made with the imperfect Mettals and with unsound or faulty precious Stones and Crystal may be also so tinged therewith that it may be well compared with the most noble and most precious Stones and moreover there are many other things that may be done thereby which are not at all to be revealed to the wicked world But yet the aforementioned Philosophers and all such true Christians as at this day are endued and gifted by the most great and blessed God with this Art and Science did accompt of those and such like other most excellent things of that kind as the meanest and least excellency in this Magistry for verily those things in comparison of the most excellent knowledge of things Celestial and being compared I say therewithall was wholly accompted as a thing of nought and disesteemed For verily know of a truth that he to whom the most High hath graciously vouchsafed to bestow this Gift doth esteem of all the money and riches in this earth in comparison of the Celestial good no better then of the dirt in the Streets for his heart and all his desire tends to this only viz. that he may behold in a heavenly manner and may also in reality enjoy that in life eternal which he hath seen here figured out as 't were in an earthly manner only according to the testimony also of that wisest of Kings King Solomon in his Book of Wisdom chap. 5. where he saith I esteemed wisdom at a greater price then Kingdoms and principalities it was dearer to me then riches all gold in respect of her is as sand and silver as dirt before her Such therefore as seek after this Art for no other end but for temporal honour pleasure and the sake of riches are to be reckoned of as more foolish then Fools for verily they will never attain it notwithstanding all their great costs labour and trouble and their miserably tormenting their hearts minde and all their cogitations On which account the Philosophers esteemed of temporal riches for the most base abuse of them not that in themselves they be evil for in Gen. 2. they are highly commended by Moses and likewise in many other places of Scripture as a precious thing and a great gift of God very disdainfully and as destructive because it is such a thing as instead of leading men to God doth rather cast a remora and hindrance upon men from arriving to a right and true good and doth convert likewise all that which is â—ight in this world into a perverse confusion even as that most famous Marcellus Palingenius Stellatus in his Poem which he hath called the Zodiack of life hath under the Sign of â™ elegantly described it and curiously pointed out detestable Covetousness to whom we shall at present refer the wel-minded Reader Out of which it may be seen and collected how viz. That most excellent man as truly hath this Art as is to be perceived and understood in his Zodiack of Nature doth esteem of those temporal goods of gold and silver as a thing of nought and as a thing contemptible in respect of vertue And therefore they all preferred Wisdom and the knowledge of heavenly things far before the earthy and fading things as we advised afore and had in all their life time and consequently in all their Actions an eye to the event and end alone that they might be able or fit to reap therefrom an immortal name and perpetual praise the which even that most wise Solomon doth also teach in the sixteenth chapter of his Proverbs ver 16. saying Entertain or accept wisdom for it is better then gold and understanding is more precious then silver And also in Chap. 22. he saith A good name and a good report is more precious then great riches and the Art or knowledge is better then gold or silver So also Syrach's Son that Wise man in his 24. chapter doth exhort men saying See that thou retainest a good name for its continuance is more certain then a thousand treasures of gold For these and such other kind of vertues that flow forth from that Philosophy of the Stone the Philosophers could never sufficiently enough praise and celebrate that so oft named stone And therefore their whole care and study and all their Labour in their writings was for this end that that Art might be further enlarged wisdom embraced and the life rendred conformable thereunto But all their Writing is as to the unwise obscure dark and hard to be understood even as Solomon in his Proverbs from the beginning thereof even to ch 6. doth exceedingly complain of and bewail and doth to his utmost perswade men to the following of that Wisdom and in the 3. chap. of Ecclesiasticus he saith thus My Son be content with a low estate for better is it then all that which the world covets after By how much the greater thou art so much the more must thou humble thy self and then the Lord will bless thee for the most High God doth do even great things by the humble THE Fourth Part Psal. 78. and Matth. 13. 35. I will open my mouth in Parables and utter things hidden from the beginning of the world WHen the Omnipotent GOD was minded to reveal by his Divine voice any hard and singular thing to Mankinde of his wonderfull high and Celestial Mysteries it pleased him to do it for the most part Parabolically the which notable Parables in this earthly Life are daily obvious to our eyes and are as 't were painted out unto and set before us for examples sake when God in Genesis 3. intended to shew to Adam in Paradise after his Fall his punishment viz. Mortality and Corporal death it pleased him to signifie it in the following manner that whereas the earth hath not by it self any life at all and whereas he was taken and framed out of the earth therefore also must he be made like the earth again So in the 15. and 23. chapter of Genesis when God would discover to Abraham the encrease of his Seed and Family he bad him to behold the Stars in the Heaven the Sand in the Sea and the dust of the earth as a Type Such like various very pleasant and sweet Typical Prefigurations God commanded his Prophets to propose and demonstrate to his People Israel when he would denounce or declare any singular thing unto them This Christ himself likewise who is the mouth foundation of truth did do in his Testament and proposed all things in Parables that so his Doctrine might be the better understood as for example when he would hint unto us the highest happiness his Divine Word and Gospel then doth he use for a type the good and evil seed or tares which the enemy sowed in the ground likewise he useth typically the hidden treasure and pearl the grain of wheat the grain
that he should doubt of the Word of God and of his most merciful and gracious promise pretending that God was not his friend thus to suffer him to endure hunger so long in the desart But now if this temptation doth not worâ— with Christians then this enemy sets upon men with anothet temptation on the other side or extream and would have them to rely upon God for more then he hath promised them in his Word Deut 10. for so he endeavoured to perswade even Christ himself viz. that he should cast himself down Math. 4. from the highest top of the Temple for God will sufficiently protect and defend him But now if this will not do he will yeâ— shamelesly have a third temptation and this is by promising Riches viz. that for mony and temporal honours sake he should depart from God from his Divine Word and become an Idolator and fall down and worship himself viz. Sathan Thus feared he not boldly to wrestle with Christ himself and to drive him to a fall The which also the faithfull God and Father in Heaven Job 2. doth out of his peculiar Counsel and for certain causes sometimes permit such a thing to be done against his own people that so they may by this means grow and encrease in faith hope patience in a true and right invocation or prayer unto God and may by those rudiments or beginnings and exercisings of the Cross well prepare to themselves the way to the last conflict viz. of death which our old man must necessarily undergo and that they may by this means obtain an eternal victory against that enemy the which will come to pass if they first know all his tricks and most crafty snares and do then valiantly and stoutly accomplish that as by the divine grace meets with and opposeth him For whereas we are to fight and strive not with flesh and blood but with Principalities and Powers as Saint Paul speaks viz. with the chiefest of this world who rule in the darkness of this world and with the evil Spirits under heaven therefore we are not in the least able to resist them or their spiritual temptations by our own proper strength and power but here we must according to the example of Christ our Saviour and standard-bearer lay hold on spiritual weapons and with them and the Word of God as with the sword of the Spirit Ephes. 6. in or by Faith are those our spiritual enemies to be smitten and overcome And to this purpose 't will seem necessary for us to do as that Christian warriour Saint Paul the Apostle in Eph 6. commands to be done viz. We must betake our selves to the armoury or store-house of the holy Spirit and there 1 Tim. 6. take the iron breast-plate of God and put it on and our loins must be girt with truth and we must be clad with the breast-plate of righteousness and our feet must be shod or harnessed as ready prepared for the Gospel of peace and le ts take the sword of the Spirit the which as we said before is the Word of God But above all things let us take the shield of faith by which we shall be able to blot out and quench all the fiery darts of the devil for the faith in Jesus Christ is a most firm buckler the which the Devil can never perforate nor possibly wound the heart through it Moreover whereas the regiment of the fire also in the Philosophick work is to be heeded with the greatest diligence and must necessarily be administred and attended on in the coction or digestion of the matter without ceasing and even as we have afore briefly mentioned the Philosophical fire by which the whole business is chiefly to be perfected vâ—z what it properly is and how called viz. an essential a preternatural and a divine fire that lies hid in the compound and unto which must be afforded or administred an help and stirring up with the terrene material fire 1 Tim. 1. Even so likewise is the pure Word of God or which is the same the Spirit of God which is also compared with a fire Jerem. 23. and is so called hidden in us men forasmuch as it was indeed implanted in us by nature but by the corruption thereof was again blotted out and made dark Phil. 3. And therefore must there be an helping and succour exhibited after such a manner by as 't were a certain other external fire that is by a continual and daily use and exercise of Piety and Christian Vertues in the time of joy and sadness as also by a diligent consideration of the pure divine Word if at least we would have that internal light of grace that is granted unto us and the Spirit of God to operate and work in us and not be plainly extinguished Eccles. 10. and with this aid and assistance must it be continually blown up and incessantly quickned without wearisomness and desistency As for instance t is wont thus to be done in earthly things for if a workman strongly files Iron which in it self is cold it will by the continuance of that motion become hot So a Light or Lamp Col. 3. unless it be continually nourished with supply of oyl 't will at length fail and be extinguished Even thus it is with man as to his internal fire except it be daily and without wearisomness and tediousness exercised as we said above it doth by little and little decrease until at length he be deprived wholly thereof Upon which account the Word of God as we have often informed you and as an important necessity requires it is to be diligently heard well considered of and to be exercised without ceasing And what we have here spoken as to hearing thereof the which is not to be done only with the external and beastlike eyes but with the internal eyes of the mind 1 Tim 1. the same is to be understood of the sight after the same manner But that you may the better understand my meaning know that I speak of the right and pure Word of God and not of those humane glosses or expositions of either the Antients or Modern nor of the Pharisaical Ferment and Leaven of the Scribes Rom. 16. which with grief be it spoken is now adaies preferred before the divine Word or at leastwise though it be but as it were mouse-dung mixed with pepper is earnestly prest upon men to be heard and accounted of as the preaching of the word of God But I mean no such thing in the least Those kinds of trifles and such Sermons as fill the ears of men only I value not a rush nor do I here speak of such but I speak according as we have mentioned it in its proper place of the true and clarified Word of God Psalm 19. 119. that passed out of the mouth of God Deut. 8. Mat. 4. and is even yet to this day preached by the holy Spirit 1 Cor. 1. the which is not only as some do reproachfully
and sottishly speak thereof a meer empty sound but is Spirit and Life and the saving Power of God John 6. to all such as believe therein Concerning which hearing the Kingly Prophet David doth thus speak Psal. 64. I will hear what the Lord will speak in me Out of the which internal and divine hearing the Word of God as out of a certain spring or fountain a true vivifying faith which is efficacious by or through charity Gal. 5. doth take its original for as Paul saith Rom. 10. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God 2 Pet. 2. So therefore now if the Word of God be pure and clear then may the hearing be also pure and clear Luke 21. and so consequently that faith which as 't were flows out of that hearing will be pure and uncorrupted and is effectual by charity and shews it self as towards God in an humble obedience to his holy Precepts and Will and also in praying in praising and in giving of thanks and as towards ones neighbour in a well-minded loving exhibition or doing of divers good Works insomuch that Charity is not the least but as Paul saith the highest vertue of all others So likewise Christ himself in his long fare-well Sermon at his departure Ioh. 13. doth with much dilgence exhort unto that exercise of Charity and left behind at that time this lesson as a fare-well saying This is my Commaudement that ye love one another even as I also loved you for so shall all men know that ye are my Disciples Likewise in 1 Iohn 2. He that saith he knows God and yet doth not keep his Commandements is a lyar and there is no truth in him But he that keepeth his word in him verily the Charity or Love of God is perfect And besides in 1 Iohn 4. God is Charity or Love he that abides therein abides in God and God abides in him Col. 1. By all this 't is evident how that Charity is the true bond of Perfection by which we are incorporated into Christ himself So that he is in us and we in him 2 Iohn 3. he in his Father and his Father in him and this is his will The which Christ himself doth also testifie in that place aforementioned where he saith If any one keepeth my saying he it is that loves me and I will love him and 〈◊〉 will come unto him and make our abode with him Iohn 5. he saith If ye shall keep my Commandements ye abide in my love concerning the which Charity and how it relates to our neighbour 't is elegantly described in 1 Iohn 4. If any one saith Iohn doth say that he loveth God and yet hateth his Brother he is a lyar for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how shall he love God whom he hath not seen And this command have we from him that he who loveth God do love his brother also But as to the property of that Love what it is Saint Paul expresseth it in the following words 1 Cor. 13. Love saith he is long-suffering and kind envieth not vaunteth not it self neither is it puffed up nor is it weary of doing good to its neighbour T is therefore easie to be seen and understood that viz. there can be no true and right Love or Charity which doth not serve its neighbour with good and charitable works Col. 3. and yet indeed there are many of such as call themselves Christians that do rashly boast thereof Moreover t is evident that good works as are pleasing unto God do not precede faith but is as it is with fruits which follow or succeed the stock and tree the which if it be good doth also bring forth good fruits and for this cause works do not make faith but faith makes works good grateful and acceptable Ierem. 5. Upon this account therefore the which is the chiefest thing here we are justified by faith alone and obtain life eternal thereby If therefore now the regenerate man doth so Christianly and piously behave himself after the aforesaid manner in his life and in all his actions then also will he not in the least want his fruits Such a man now is like unto the composition in the terrene work he is placed by God in the fornace of tribulation and is so long pressed with straights of all kinds and with various calamities and troubles until he becomes dead to the old Adam and flesh Eph. 4. and be like a truly new man which according to God is created in a right and true justice and holiness and is again risen up as Saint Paul in Rom. 6. doth testifie where he saith We together with Christ are buried in death by baptism for even as Christ is risen from the dead so let us also walk in newnesse of life If this now be done and that a man doth daily cease to sin that so by this means sin may bear no more rule over him then doth the solution of the adjoyned body of gold as in the terrene work take its original in him and as we have afore said the putrefaction so that he becomes as 't were wholly dissolved ground destroyed and putrified after a spiritual manner the which solution and putrefaction notwithstanding is wont to be sooner done with one then another but however t is fit that it be done even in this temporal life That is such a man is so well digested boiled and mollified in the fire of tribulation 1 Pet. 4. that he even despairs of all his own power and strength and seeks for his comfort in the alone grace and mercy of God 2 Cor. 4. in the which fornace of the Cross and continual fire the man like the terrene body of the gold obtains the right black head of the Crow that is he is made altogether deformed and as to the world Wisdom 5 Iob 30. is only derided and mocked by it and that not only forty daies and nights or years but oftentimes also for his whole life time insomuch that he necessarily undergoes many a time more grief of heart then comfort and gladness and more sadness then joy in this life-time And here then by this his spiritual death his soul is wholly taken out and is as 't were carried up on high that is he is as yet with his body on the earth but with his Spirit and soul which lives no more now to the world but unto God nor takes delight in earthly things but placeth his highest comfort in spiritual things 2 Cor. 4. he tends upwards to an eternal Life and Countrey and doth so institute and order all his actions that they are not earthly but as far forth as may be done in this time or place are heavenly and now he lives no more according to the flesh but after the Spirit not in the unfruitful works of darkness but as in the day-light in the works that abide the tryal all being done in God The which separation of the