whose lipps the Truth did breathe and knew no other Oracle Coelestium vires dum in se existunt à Datore Luminum per sanctas Intelligentias Coelos influuntur quousque ad Lunam pervenerint earum Influentia bona est tanquam in primo gradu deinde autem quando in Subjecto viliori suscipitur ipsa etiam vilescit That is The Heavenly powers or spirituall Essences whiles they are in themselves or before they are united to the Matter and are shower'd down from the Father of Lights thorough the holy Intelligences and the Heavens untill they come to the Moone Their Influence is good as in the first degree But when it is received in a corrupt Subject the Influence also is corrupted Thus He. Now the A stronomers pretend to a strange familiaritie with the starrs the Natural Philosophers talk as much and truly an Ignorant man might well think they had been in heaven and conversed like Lucians Menippus with Jove himself But in good Earnest these Men are no more Eagles than Sancho their fansies are like his flights in the Blanket and every way as short of the Skies Ask them but where the Influences are received and how bid them by faire Experience prove they are present in the Elements and you have undone them if you will trust the foure Corners of a Figure or the three Legs of a Syllogism you may this is all their Evidence Well fare the Magicians then whose Art can demonstrate these Things and put the very Influences in our hands Let it be thy studie to know their Region of Light and to enter into the Treasures thereof for then thou mayst converse with Spirits and understand the Nature of invisible Things Then will appear unto thee the Universal Subject and the two minerall Spermes White and Red of which I must speak somewhat before I make an end In the Pythagoricall Synod which consisted of Threescore and Ten Philosophers all Masters of the Art it is thus written I gnis Spissum in Aera cadit Aeris vero Spissum quod ex igne Spisso congregatur in Aquam incidit Aquae quoque Spissum quod ex I gnis Aeris Spisso coadunatur in Terrâ quiescit Ita istorum Trium spissuudo in Terrâ guiescit inque eâ conjuncta sunt Ipsa ergo Terra omnibus caeteris Elementis spissior est uti Palam apparet videre est That is The Thicknesse or Sperm of the Fire falls into the Ayre The Thickness or Spermatic part of the Ayre and in it the Sperm of the Fire falls into the Water The Thickness or spermatic Substance of the Water and in it the two Spermes of Fire and Ayre fall into the Earth and there they rest and are conjoyned Therefore the Earth it self is thicker than the other Elements as it openly appears and to the eye is manifest Remember now what I have told thee formerly concerning the Earth what a generall Hospitall it is how it receives all things not onely Beasts and Vegetables but proud and glorious Man when Death hath ruin'd him his courser parts stay here and know no other Home This Earth to Earth is just the Doctrine of the Magi Metalls say they and all things may bee reduc'd into that whereof they were made They speak the very Truth it is God's own Principle and he first taught it Ad. m. Dust thou art and to Dust shalt thou return But lest any man should be Deceived by us I think it just to informe you there are two reductions One is Violent and Destructive reducing Bodies to their Extremes and properly it is Death or the Calcination of the common Chimist The other is Vital and Generative resolving Bodies into their Sperm or middle Substance out of which Nature made them for Nature makes not Bodies immediatly of the Elements but of a Sperm which shee drawes out of the Elements I shall explain my self to you by Example An Egg is the Sperm or middle Substance out of which a Chick is ingendred and the moysture of it is viscous and slimie a water and no water for such a Sperme ought to bee Suppose Dr. Coale I mean some Broyler had a minde to generat something out of this Egg Questionlesse he would first distill it and that with a fire able to roast the Hen that layd it then would hee calcine the Caput mortuum and finally produce his Nothing Here you are to observe that Bodies are nothing els but Sperm coagulated and he that Destroyes the Body by consequence destroyes the Sperm Now to reduce Bodies into Elements of earth and water as wee have instanc'd in the Egg is to reduce them into Extremes beyond their Sperm for Elements are not the Sperm but the Sperm is a Compound made of the Elements and containing in it self all that is requisit to the frame of the Body Wherefore be well advis'd before you distill and Quarter any particular Bodies for having once separated their Elements you may never generat unless you can make a Sperm of those Elements but that is impossible for man to doe it is the Power of God and Nature Labour then you that would be accounted wise to find out our Mercurie so shall you reduce things to their mean spermaticall Chaos but avoyd the broyling Destruction This Doctrine will spare you the vain Task of Distillations if you will but remember this Truth That Spâ—rmes are not made by Separation but by Composition of Elements and to bring a Body into Sperm is not to distill it but to reduce the whole into one thick water keeping all the parts thereof in their first naturall union But that I may return at last to my former Citation of the Synod All those Influences of the Elements being united in one Mass make our Sperm or our Earth which is Earth and no Earth Take it if thou doest know it and divide the Essences thereof not by violence but by naturall putrefaction such as may occasion a genuine Dissolution of the Compound Here thou shalt find a miraculous white Water an Influence of the Moone which is the Mother of our Chaos It rules in two Elements Earth and Water After this appears the Sperm or influx of the Sun which is the father of it It is a quick Coelestiall fire incorporated in a thin oleous Aereall Moysture It is incombustible for it is fire it self and feeds upon fire and the longer it stayes in the fire the more glorious it growes These are the two mineral Spermes Masculine and Foeminine if thou doest place them both on their Chrystalline Basis thou hast the Philosopher's flying Fire-drake which at the first sight of the Sun breathes such a poyson that nothing can stand before him I know not what to tell thee more unlesse in the Vogue of some Authors I should give thee a flegmatic Description of the whole process and that I can dispatch in two words It is nothing els but
a continual Coction the Volatil Essences ascending and descending till at last they are fix'd according to that excellent Prosopopaeia of the stone Non ego continuò morior dum spiritus exit Nam redit assiduè quamvis soepe recedat Et mihi nunc magna est Animae nunc nulla fa cultas Plus ego sustinui quam Corpus debuit unum Tres Animas habui quas omnes intus habebam Discessere duae sed Tertia poenè secuta est I am not dead although my spirit 's gon For it returns and is both off and on Now I have life enough now I have non I suffer'd more than one could justly doe Three soules I had and all my own but Two Are fled the Third had almost left mee too {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} I have written what I have written And now give me leave to look about mee Is there no Powder-Plott or practice What 's become of Aristotel and Galen Where is the Scribe and Pharisee the Disputers of this world If they suffer all this and believe it too I shall think the General Conversion is come about and I may sing Jam redit Virgo redeunt Saturnia Regna But come what will come I have once more spoken for the Truth and shall for Conclusion speak this much Again I have elsewhere call'd this Subject Limus coelestis and the middle Nature The Philosophers call it the Venerable Nature but amongst all the Praetenders I have not yet found one that could tell me why Hear me then that whensoever thou doest attempt this work it may be with reverence not like some proud ignorant Doctor but with lesse Confidence more Care This Chaos hath in it the foure Elements which of themselves are contrarie Natures but the wisdome of God hath so placed them that their very order reconciles them For Example Ayre and Earth are Adversaries for one is hot and moyst the other cold and drie Now to reconcile these two God placed the Water between them which is a middle Nature or of a mean Complexion between both Extremes For she is cold and moyst and as shee is cold shee partakes of the Nature of the Earth which is cold and drie but as shee is moyst she partakes in the Nature of the Ayre which is hot and moyst Hence it is that Ayre and Earth which are Contraries in Themselves agree and imbrace one another in the water as in a middle Nature which is proportionate to them both and tempers their Extremities But verely this Salvo makes not up the Breach for though the water reconciles two Elements like a friendly Third yet shee her self fights with a Fourth namely with the Fire For the Tire is hot and drie but the water is cold and moyst which are clear Contraries To prevent the Distempers of these two God placed the Ayre between them which is a Substance hot and moyst and as it is hot it agrees with the fire which is hot and drie but as it is moyst it agrees with the water which is cold and moyst so that by mediation of the Ayre the other two Extremes namely fire and water are made friends and reconciled Thus you see as I told you at first that Contrarie Elements are united by that Order and Textare wherein the Wise God hath placed them You must now give me leave to tell you that this Agreement or friendship is but parâ—il a very weak love cold and skiâ—tish for whereas these Principles agree in one qualitie they differ in two as your selves may easily compute Much need therefore have they of a more strong and able Mediator to confirme and preserve their weak Unitie for upon it depends the very aternitie and Incorruption of the Creature This blessed Caement and Balsam is the Spirit of the living God which some ignorant Scriblers have call'd a Quintessence for this very Spirit is in the Chaos and to speak plainly the fire is his Thrrne for in the Fire he is Sèated as wee have sufficiently told you elsewhere This was the Reason why the Magi call'd the first Matter their Venerable Nature and their blessed stone and in good earnest what think you is it not so This blessed Spirit fortifies and perfects that weak Disposition which the Elements already have to Union and Peace for God works with Nature not against her and brings them at last to a beauteous specificall Fabric Now iÌ„f you will aske me where is the Soul or as the Schoole-men abuse hwer the Form all this while what doth shee doe To this I answer that shee is as all Instrumentals ought to be subject and obedient to the will of God expecting the persection of her Body for it is God that unites her to the Body and the body to her Soule and Body are the work of God the one as well as the other the Soul is not the Artificer of her house for that which can make a Body can also repayre it and hinder death but the Soule cannot doe this it is the Power and Wisdome of God In a word to say that the Soule form'd the Body because shee is in the Body is to say that the Jowell made the Cabinet because the Jewell is in the Cabinet or that the Sun made the world because the Sun is in the world and cherisheth every part thereof Learn therefore to distinguish between Agents and their Instruments for if you attribute that to the Creature which belongs to the Creator you bring your sleves in Danger of hell-fire for God is a jealous God and will not give his glorie to Another I advise my Doctors therefore both Divines and Physicians not to bee too rash in their Censures nor so Magisterial in their Discourse as I have known some Professors of Physic to be who would correct and undervalue the rest of their Brethren when in Truth they Themselves were most shamefully ignorant It is not ten or twelve years Experience in Druggs and Sopps can acquaint a man with the Mysteries of God's Creation Take this and make a world Take I know not what and make a Pill or Clyster are different Recepts Wee should therefore consult with our Judgements before wee venture our Tongues and never speake but when wee are sure wee understand I knew a Gentleman who meeting with a Philosopher Adept and receiving so much Courtesie as to be admitted to Discourse attended his first Instructions passing well But when this Magician quitted my friends known Roade and began to touch and drive round the great Wheele of Nature presently my Gentleman takes up the Cudgells and urging all the Authorities which in his vain judgement made for him opprest this noble Philosopher with a most clamorous insipid Ribaldrie A goodly sight it was and worthy our Imitation to see with what an admirable Patience the other received him But this Errant concluded at last That Lead or Quick-silver must be the Subject and that Nature work'd
here was Aurum potabile and Moses could never have brought the Calf to this passe had he not plowed with our Heyfer But of this enough if any man think hee did it by common fire let him also doe the like and when he hath performed hee may sell his powder to the Apothecaries If I should insist in this place on the Moysaicall Ceremoniall Law with its severall Reverend shadows and their Significations I might lose my self in a Wilderness of Mysteries both Divine and Naturall For verily that whole System is but one vast Skreen or a certain Majestic Umbrage drawne over two Worlds Visible and Invisible But these are things of a higher speculation than the Scope of our present Discourse will admit of I onely informe the Reader that the Law hath both a shell and a Kernell it is the Letter speaks but the spirit in erprets To this agrees Gregorie Nazianzen who makes a twofold Law {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} one literal another spirituall And elsewhere hee mentions {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the hidden and the manifest part of the Law the manifest part saith he being appointed {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} for many men and such whose thoughts were fixed here below but the hidden {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} for few onely whose Mindes aspired upwards to heavenly Things Now that the Law being given might benefit the people in both parts spiritual and literal therefore did the Law-giver institute the Sanhedrim a Councell of Seventy Elders upon whom hee had poured his Spirit that they might discerne as Esdras did the Deep Things of the Night in plain Termes the hidden things of his Law From these Elders the Cabala I believe had its Originall for they imparted their Knowledge by word of Mouth to their Successors and hence it came to passe that the Science it self was styl'd Cabala that is a Reception This continued so long as Israel held together but when their Frame began to discompose and the Dilapidations of that House proved desperat then Esdras a Prophet Incomparable notwithstanding the brand of Apocrypha writ that Law in Tables of Box which God himself had sometimes written in Tables of stone As for the more secret and mysterious part thereof it was written at the same time in Seventy Secret Bookes according to the Number of the Elders in whose hearts it had been sometimes written And this was the very first time the Spirit married the Letter for these Sacraments were not trusted formerly to Corruptible Volumes but to the aeternall Tables of the Soul But it may bee there is a blind Generation who will believe nothing but what they see at hand and therefore will deny that Esdras compos'd any such Bookes To these Owles though an unaequal Match I shall oppose the Honour of Picus who himself affirmes that in his time hee met with the Secret Bookes of Esdras and bought them with a great Price Nor was this all for Eugenius Bishop of Rome order'd their Translation but hee dying the Translators also fell asleep It is true indeed something may be objected to mee in this place concerning the Cabala An Art which I no way approve of neither doe I condemne it as our Adversaries condemne Magic before I understand it for I have spent some yeares in the S̄earch and Contemplation thereof But why then should I propose that for a Truth to others which I accompt for an Error my self To this I answer that I condemne not the true Cabala but the Inventions of some dispersed wandring Rabbies whose braines had more of Distraction than their fortunes of this thirteenth Tribe I understand the Satyrist when hee promiseth so largely Qualiacunque voles Judaei Somnia vendunt These I say have produc'd a certain up-start bastard Cabala which consists altogether in Alphabeticall knacks ends alwayes in the Letter where it begins and the Vanities of it are grown Voluminous As for the more Ancient and Physicall Traditions of the Cabala I embrace them for so many Sacred Truths but verily those Truths were unknown to most of those Rabbins whom I have seen even to Rambam himself I mean Rabbi Moses AEgyptius whom the Jewes have so magnified with their famous Hyperbole A Mose ad Mosen non surrexit sicut Moses But to deale ingenuously with my Readers I say the Cabala I admit of consists of two parts {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Name and Thing The former part is meerly Typicall in reference to the later Serving only as the shadow to the substance I will give you some instances The Literal Cabala which is but a Veile cast over the Secrets of the Physicall hath Three Principles commonly styl'd Tres Matres or the Three Mothers In the Masculine Complexion the Jewes call them {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Emes in the Foeminine {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Asam and they are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} aleph {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} mem {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} schin Now I will shew you how the Physical Cabala expounds the Literall Tres Matres {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Emes saith the great Abraham or as some think Rabbi Akiba id est Aer Aqua I gnis Aqua Quieta I gnis sibilans Aer spiritus medius That is the Three Mothers Emes or Aleph Mem and Schin are Aire Water and Fire a still Water mark that a hissing Fire and Aire the middle Spirit Again sayth the same Rabbi Tres Matres {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Emes in Mundo Aer Aqua Ignis Coeli ex Igne Creati sunt Terra ex Aquá Aer egressus est ex spiritu qui stat medius The Three Mother Emes in this world are Ayre Water and Fire The Heavens were made of the Fire The Earth was made of the Water mark well this Cabalism and the Ayre proceeded from a middle spirit Now when the Cabalist speaks of the Generation of the Three Mothers he brings in Ten secret Principles which I think ten men have not understood since the Sanhedrim such Non-sence doe I find in most Authors when they undertake to discourse of them The first Principle is a Spirit which sits in Retrocessu suo fontano in his primitive Incomprehensible Retreats like Water in its Subterraneous Chanel before it springs The Second Principle is the Voice of that first Spirit this breaks forth like a Well-spring where the Water flowes out of the Earth and is discovered to the eye They call it Spiritus ex Spiritu The third Principle is Spiritus ex Spiritibus a Spirit which proceeds both from the first Spirit and from his Voice The Fourth Principle is Aqua de Spiritu a Certain Water
some few minutes the white and red Sulphurs will never essentially unite and coagulat On the Contrary if it takes cold but for half an hour the work being once well begun it will never sort to any good purpose I speak out of my own Experience for I have as they phrase it given my self a Box on the Eare and that twice or thrice out of a certain confident Negligence Expecting that which I knew well enough could never bee Nature moves not by the Theorie of men but by their practice and surely Wit and Reason can performe no Miracles unlesse the hands supplie them Bee sure then to know this fire in the first place and accordingly bee sure to make use of it But for thy better Securitie I will describe it to thee once more It is a drie vaporous humid fire it goes round about the Glasse and is both equall and Continuall It is restlesse and some have call'd it the white philosophicall Coale It is in it self naturall but the praeparation of it is Artificiall it is a heat of the Dead wherefore some call it their unnatural Necromantic fire It is no part of the Matter neither is it taken out of it but it is an external fire and serves onely to stirr up and strengthen the inward oppressed fire of the Chaos But let us hear Nature her self for thus shee speaks in the Serious Romance of Mehung Post putrefactionem sit ipsa Generatio idque per internum incomburibilem Calorem ad Argenti vivi frigiditatem calefaciendam quod tantum equidem patitur ut tandem cum sulphure suo uniatur Omne illud uno in Vase complexum est I gnis aer Aqua videlicet quae in Terreno suo vase accipio eademque uno in Alembico relinquo tum coquo dissolvo sublimo absque Malleo forcipe vel lima sine Carbonibus vapore Igne aut Mariae-Balneo Sophistarum Alembicis Coelestem namque meum ignem habeo qui Elementalem prout Materia idoneam decentemque formam habere desyderat excitat That is After Putrefaction succeeds Generation and that because of the inward incombustible Sulphur that heats or thickens the Coldness and Crudities of the Quicksilver which suffers so much thereby that at last it is united to the Sulphur and made one Body therewith All this namely Fire Ayre and Water is contained in one Vessell in their earthly Vessel that is in their grosse Body or Composition I take them and then I leave them in one Alembic where I concoct dissolve and sublime them without the help of Hammer Tongs or File without Coales Smoake Fire or Bath or the Alembics of the Sophisters For I have my heavenly fire which excites or stirs up the Elementall one according as the matter desires a becomming agreeable forme Now Nature every where is one and the same wherefore shee reades the same lesson to Madathan who thinking in his Ignorance to make the stone without dissolution receives from her this Check An tu nunc Cochleas vel Cancros cum Test is devorare niteris An non priùs à vetussissimo Planetarum Coquo maturari praeparari illos oportet Doest thou think sayes hee to eat Oysters shells and all ought they not first to bee opened and prepar'd by the most Ancient Cooke of the Planets With these agrees the excellent Flammel who speaking of the Solar and Lunar Mercurie and the Plantation of the one in the other hath these words Sumantur itaque noctu interdiuque assiduè supra ignem in Alembico foveantur Non autem ignis Carbonarius vel è ligno confectus sed clarus pellucidusque ignis sit non secus ac Sol ipse qui nunquam plus justo calidus ardensque sed omni tempore ejusdem caloris esse debet Take them therefore sayth hee and cherish them over a fire in thy Alembic But it must not be a fire of Coales nor of any wood but a bright shining fire like the Sun it self whose heat must never be excessive but alwayes of one and the same Degree This is enough and too much for the Secret in it self is not great but the Consequences of it are so which made the Philosophers hide it Thus Reader thou hast the outward Agent most fully and faithfully described It is in Truth a very simple mysterie and if I should tell it openly ridiculous Howsoever by this and not without it did the Magicians unlock the Chaos and certainly it is no newes that an Iron-key should open a Treasurie of Gold In this Universall Subject they found the Natures of all particulars and this is signified to us by that Maxim Qui Proteam non novit adeat Pana This Pan is their Chaos or Mercurie which expounds Proteus namely the Particular Creatures commonly call'd Individualls For Pan transformes himself into a Proteus that is into all varieties of Species into Animals Vegetables and Minerals for out of the Universall Nature or first matter all these are made and Pan hath their Propriâ—ties in himself Hence it is that Mercurie is call'd the Interpreter or Expositor of Inferiors and Superiors under which Notion the Ancient Orpheus invokes him {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Hear me ô Mercurie thou messenger of Jove and son of Maia the Expositor of all Things Now for the Birth of this Mercurie and the Place of it I find but few Philosophers that mention it Zoroaster points at it and that very obscurely where he speaks of his Jynges or the Idea's in these words Multae quidem hae scandunt lucidos Mundos Insilentes Quarum Summitates sunt Tres. Subjectum est Ipsis Principale pratum This Pratum or Meadow of the Idea's a place well known to the Philosophers Flammel calls it their Garden and the Mountain of the seven Metals see his Summarie where hee describes it most learnedly for hee was instructed by a Jew is a certain secret but Universall Region one calls it Regio Lucis the Region of Light but to the Cabalist it is Nox Corporis a Terme extremely apposit and significant It is in few words the Rendezvous of all Spirits for in this place the Idea's when they descend from the Bright world to the Dark one are incorporated For thy Better Intelligence thou must know that Spirits whiles they move in Heaven which is the Fire-world contract no impurities at all according to that of Stellatus Omne quod est supra Lunam aeternumque bonumque Esse scias nec triste aliquid Coelestia tangit All sayth hee that is above the Moon is eternall and good and there is no Corruption of Heavenly Things On the contrary when Spirits descend to the Elementall Matrix and reside in her Kingdom they are blurr'd with the Original Leprosie of the Matter for here the Curse raves and rules but in Heaven it is not Praedominant To put an end to this point let us hear the admirable Agrippa state it This is hee between
as well as Opinion And Philoponus expounding these words of his a Non solùm scientiam sed Principium Scientiae esse aliquod duimus Quo Terminos cognoscimus hath this excellent and Christian observation {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Taking indeca saith hee the mind to bee the Principle or first Cause of Knowledge not our own but that of God which is above us but taking the Termes to be Intellectual and Divine Formes Thus according to Aristotle if you trust the Commem the Divine mind is the first Cause of Knowledge for if this Mind once unfolds himself and sheds his light upon us wee shall apprehend the Intellectuall Formes or Types of all things that are within him These Formes hee very properly calls {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} because they terminat or end all Things For by them the Creature is defined and hath his Individuation or to speak with Scotus his Haecceitie by which he is This and not That This now is the Demonstration we should look after namely the Expansion or opening of the Divine Mind not a Syllogism that runns perhaps on all Foure If once wee be admitted to this Communion of Light wee shall be able with the Apostle to give a Reason for our Faith but never without it Now you are to understand that God unfolds not himself nisi magno Coelo priùs patefacto unlesse the Heaven of Man bee first unfolded Amovete ergo velamen Intellectus vestri Cast of the veile that is before your faces and you shall bee no more blind God is not God a far off but God at hand Behold saith he I stand at the Doore and knock Open your selves then for it is written If any man opens I will come in and Sup with Him This is the inward Mysticall not the outward Typicall Supper and this is the Spirituall Baptism with Fire not that Elemental one with water Truely I am much comforted when I consider two Things First that Magic did afford the first Professors of Christianity whose Knowledge and Devotion brought them from the East to Jerusalem Secondly that this Art should suffer as Religion doth and for the very same Reason The main Motives which have occasion'd the present Rents and Divisions of the Church are the Ceremonies and Types used in it For without Controversie the Apostles instituted and left behind them certaine Elements or Signes as Water Oile Salt and Lights by which they signisied unto us some great and reverend Mysteries But our Reformers mistaking these things for superstitious turn'd them all out of Doores But verily it was ill done for if the shadow of Saint Peter healed shall not these shadowes of Christ doe much more The Papist on the contrary knowing not the signification of these Types did place a certain Inhaerent holiness in them so fell into a very dangerous Idolatrie I omit many Things which he invented of his own as Images Holy Lambes and Reliques adding these dead Bones to the Primitive and beauteous Bodie of the Church Now to draw up the Paralell The Magicians they also instituted certain Signes as the Clavis to their Art and these were the same with the former Namely Water Oile Salt and Light by which they tacitly discovered unto us their Three Principles and the Light of Nature which fills and actuats all Things The common Man perusing their Books but not their Sense took Candles Common Water Oile and Salt and began to Consecrat and exorcise them to make up his damnable and Devilish Magic The Magicians had a Maxim amongst themselves Quod nulla vox operatur in Magiâ nisi prius Dei voce formetur That no word is efficacious in Magic unless it be first animated with the word of God Hence in their Books there was frequent mention made of Verbum and Sermo which the Common Man interpreting to his own Fansie invented his Charmes and Vocabula by which he promised to do wonders The Magicians in their writings did talk much of Triangles and Circles by which they intimated unto us their more secret Triplicitie with the Rotation of Nature from the Beginning of her Week to her Sabaoth By this Circle also or Rotation they affirmed that Spirits might be bound meaning that the Soul might be united to the Body Presently upon this the Common Man fansied his Triangles and characters with many strange Cobwebs or Figures and a Circle to Conjure in but knowing not what Spirit that was which the Magicians did bind he laboured and studied to bind the Devill Now if thou wilt question mee who these Magicians were I must tell thee They were Kings they were Priests they were Prophets Men that were acquainted with the Substantial Spiritual Mysteries of Religion and did deal or dispense the outward Typicall part of it to the People Here then wee may see how Magic came to be out of Request For the Lawyers and Common Divines who knew not these Secrets perusing the Ceremonial Superstitious Trash of some Scriblers who praetended to Magic praescribed against the Art it self as Impious and Antichristian so that it was a Capital sin to professe it and the Punishment no lesse than Death In the Interim those few who were Masters of the Science observing the first Monitories of it buried all in a deep Silence But God having suffered his Truth to be obscured for a great time did at last stirr up som resolute and active spirits who putting the Pen to paper expell'd this Cloud and in some measure discover'd the Light The Leaders of this brave Body were Cornelius Agrippa Libanius Gallus the Philosopher Johannes Tritemius Georgius Venetus Johannes Reuclin called in the Greek Capnion with severall others in their severall Dayes And after all These as an Vsher to the Traine and one borne out of due time Eugenius Philalethes Seeing then I have publickly undertaken a Province which I might have governed privatly with much more Content and Advantage I think it not enough to have discover'd the Abuses and misfortunes this Science hath suffered unless I indeavour withall to demonstrate the Antiquitie of it For certainly it is with Arts as it is with Men their Age and Continuance are good Arguments of their strength and Integritie Most apposit then was that Check of the AEgyptian to Solon O Solon Solon Vos Graeci semper pueriestis nullam habentes antiquam Opinionem nullam Disciplinam tempore canam You Graecians said hee are ever childish having no Ancient opinion no Discipline of any long standing But as I confesse my self no Antiquarie so I wish some Seldon would stand in this Breach and make it up with those Fragments which are so neer Dust that Time may put them in his Glass I know for my own part it is an Enterprise I cannot sufficiently performe but since my hand is already in the Bag I will draw out those few Pebbles I have and thus I sting them at the Mark This Art or rather
not teach them to devise cunning Workes to work in Gold in Silver in Brasse in Cutting of stones in setting of them in Carving of Timber and in all manner of Workmanship But to come neerer to our purpose did hee not informe Moses in the Composition of the Oile and the Perfume Did hee not teach him the Symptoms of the Leprosie and the Cure thereof Did he not praescribe a Plaster of Figs for Hezekiah and to use your owne Term an Ophthalmic for Tobit Did not Jesus Christ himself in the Dayes of his Flesh work most of his Miracles on our bodies though his great Cure was that of our Soules Is hee not the same then to day as yesterday Nay was hee not the same then from the Beginning Did he care for our Bodies then and doth he neglect them now or being seated on the right hand of the Majestic on high is hee become lass good because more glorious God forbid to think so were a sin in Superlatives Let us then take him for our Praesident for he is not saith St. Paul such an one which cannot bee touched with the feeling of our Infirmities but hee is indeed one that looks to our present estate aswell as to our future and is as sensible of our Insirmitie as hee is Carefull of our Immortaletie When hee was on Earth with the Dust of that Earth hee made the Blind to see and of meer Water he made Wine These were the visible Elements of his Physic or rather so the Notion doth not offend you of his Magic But shall I shew you his Librarie and in that his Three-fold Philosophie Observe then first and censure afterwards Have Salt in your selves and again you are the salt of the Earth and in a third place salt is good This is his mineral Doctrine will you know his Vegetable It is in two little Books a Mustard-seed and a Lillis Lastly he hath his Animal Magic and truly that 's a Scrowle Seal'd up I know not who may open it Hee needed not that any should beare witnesse of man for he knew what was in man And what of all this Blasphemie sayes some splenetic Sophister Behold I will instruct thee First of all have Salt in thy self for it will season thy soule that is infected and praeserve thy Braines that are putrified with the Dirt of Aristotle In the second place learn what the Salt of the Earth is to which the Disciples are compared and that by a regular solid speculation Thirdly come up to Experience and by a Physicall legitimat practice know in what sense Salt is most good Fourthly examine the Lilies by Fire and the Water of Fire that thou mayst see their miraculous invisible Treasures and wherein that speech of Truth is verified That Salomon in all his Royaltie was not cloathed like one of them If thou wilt attempt a higher Magic thou mayst being first seasoned but in this place it is not my designe to lead Thee to it Animal and Vegetable Mysteries thou canst never perfectly obtain without the Knowledge of the first mineral secret namely the Salt of the Earth which is Salt and no Salt and the Praeparation thereof This Discourse I confesse is somewhat remote from that I first intended namely that Philosophie was revealed to Adam as well as Divinitie but some Pates are Blocks in their own wayes and as I told you formerly will not believe that God dispenseth with any Naturall secrets This made mee produce these few Instances out of Scripture as Praeparatives to the Proposition it self and if hee be any thing ingenious to the Reader His Compliance to my Principles I expect not nay I am so far from it hee may suspend his Charitie Let him bee as rigid as Justice can make him for I wish not to praevaile in any thing but the Truth and in the Name of Truth thus I begin You have been told formerly that Cain and Abel were instructed in Matters of Sacrifice by their father Adam but Cain having murthered his brother Abel his Priesthood descended to Seth and this is confirm'd by those Faculties which attended his Posteritie for Enoch Lamech and Noah were all of them Prophets It troubles you perhaps that I attribute a Priesthood to Abel but I have besides his own practice Christs Testimonie for it who accounts the Bloud of Abel amongst that of the persecuted Prophets and Wisemen Now to conclude that these men had no Knowledge in Philosophie because the Seripture doth not mention any use they made of it is an Argument that denies something but proves nothing To shew the vanitie of this Inference I will give you an Example out of Moses himself Wee know very well there are no Prophecies of Abraham extant neither doe wee read anywhere that ever hee did Prophesie but notwithstanding he was a Prophet For God reproving Abimelech King of Gerar who had taken Sarah from him supposing she had been his Sister hath these words Now therefore restore the Man his Wife for hee is a Prophet and hee shall pray for thee and thou shalt live Hence wee may learn that the holy Ghost doth not alwayes mention the secret perfections of the Soul in the public Character of the Person Truly I should not be so impudent as to expect your assent to this Doctrine if the Scriptures were silent in every Text if I did not find there some infallible steps of Magic such as may lead me without a Lanthorn to the Archives of the Art it self I know the Troup and Tumult of other Affaires are both the Many and the Maine in the Historie of Moses But in the whole Current I meet with some Acts which may not be numbred amongst the fortunes of the Patriarchs but are performances extraordinarie and speak their Causes not Common I have ever admir'd that Discipline of Eliezer the steward of Abraham who when he prayed at the Well in Mesopotamia could make his Camels also kneele I must not believe there was any Hocas in this or that the spirit of Banks may be the spirit of Prayer Jacob makes a Covenant with Laban that all the spotted and brown Cattell in his Flocks should be assigned to him for his wages The Bargain is no sooner made but he finds an Art to Multiplie his own Colours and sends his Father-in-law almost a Woolgathering And Jacob took him Rods of green Poplar and of the Hasel Chesnut-tree pilled white strakes in them and made the white appear which was in the rods And hee set the rods which he had pilled before the Flocks in the Gutters in the watering troughs when the flocks came to drink that they should conceive when they came to drink And the Flocks conceived before the Rods and brought forth Cattel ring straked speckled and spotted As for that which the Scripture tells us elsewhere namely that Jacob saw in a dream and behold the Rams that leaped on the Cattell were ringstraked speckled and grisled
Dreame which his own Sorcerers and Wizards could not interpret but Joseph alone expounded it Verily it cannot be denyed but some Branches of this Art though extremely corrupted were dispers'd among all Nations by Tradition from the first man and this appeares by more Testimonies than one For in the Land of Canaan before ever Israel possest it Debir which Athniel the son of Kenaz conquered was an Universitie at least had in it a famous Librarie wherefore the Jewes call'd it Kiriath-Sepharim I might speak in this place of the Universalitie of Religion for never yet was there a people but had some confused Notion of a Deitie though accompanied with Lamentable Ceremonies and Super stitions Besides the Religious of all Nations have alwaies praetended to Powers Extraordinarie even to the performance of Miracles and the healing of all Diseases and this by some secret meanes not known to the common Man and verily if wee examine all Religions whether false or true wee shall not find one but it praetends to something that is Mysticall Certainly if men be not resolved against Reason they must grant these Obliquities in matters of Faith proceeded from the Corruption of some Principles received as we see that Heretics are but so many false Interpreters but not withstanding in those very Errors there remained some Marks and Imitations of the first Truth Hence comes it to passe that all parties agree in the Action but not in the Object For Example Israel did Sacrifise and the Heathen did Sacrifise but the One to God the other to his Idol Neither were they onely Conformable in some Rites and Solemnities of Divinitie but the Heathens also had some Hints left of the Secret Learning and Philosophie of the Patriarchs as wee may see in their false Magic which consisted for the most part in Astrologicall Observations Images Charmes and Characters But it is my Designe to keep in the Rode not to follow these Deviations and misfortunes of the Art which notwithstanding want not the weight of Argument the Existence of Things being proved as well by their Miscariage as by their Successe To proceed then I say that during the Pilgrimage of the Patriarchs this Knowledge was delivered by tradition from the Father to his Child and indeed it could be no otherwise for what was Israel in those Dayes but a privat Familie Notwithstanding when God appointed them their Possession and that this private house was multiplied to a Nation then these secrets remained with the Elders of the Tribes as they did formerly with the Father of the Familie These Elders no doubt were the Moysaicall Septuagint who made up the Sanhedrim God having Selected some from the rest to be the stewards and Dispensers of his Mysteries Now that Moses was acquainted with all the abstruse Operations and Principles of Nature is a Truth I suppose which no man will resist That the Sanhedrim also participated of the same Instruction and Knowledge with him is plain out of Scripture where wee read That God took of the spirit that was in Moses and gave it to the Seventy But lest any Man should deny that which wee take for granted namely the Philosophie of Moses I shall demonstrate out of his own Books both by reason as also by his practice that hee was a Natural Magician First of all then it is most absurd and therefore improbable that hee should write of the Creation who was no way skill'd in the Secrets of God and Nature both which must of necessitie be known before wee should undertake to write of the Creation But Moses did write of it Ergo Now I desire to know what hee hath written Truth or a Lie if Truth how dare you denie his Knowledge if a Lie which God forbid why will you believe him You will tell mee perhaps he hath done it onely in general Termes and I could tell you that Aristotle hath done no otherwise but think you in good earnest that hee knew no more than what hee did write There is nothing you can say in this point but wee can disprove it for in Genesis he hath discovered many particulars and especially those Secrets which have most Relation to this Art For Instance hee hath Discovered the Minera of Man or that Substance out of which Man and all his fellow-Creatures were made This is the first matter of the Philosophers stone Moses calls it sometimes Water sometimes Earth for in a certain place I read thus And God said Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving Creature that hath life and Fowle that may fly above the Earth in the open Firmament But elsewhere wee read otherwise And out of the Ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every fowle of the Aire In this later Text hee tels us that God made every fowle of the Ayre out of the Ground but in the former it is written hee made them out of the Water Certainly Aristotle and his Organ can never reconcile these two places but a little skill in Magic will mak them kisse and be friends without a Philtre This substance then is both Earth and Water yet neither of them in their Common Complexions but it is a thick water and a subtil Earth In plain termes it is a slimie spermatic viscous Masse impraegnated with all powers Coelestiall and terrestriall The Philosophers call it Water and no Water Earth and no Earth and why may not Moses speak as they doe or why may not they write as Moses did This is the true Damascen Earth out of which God made man you then that would be Chimists seem not to be wiser than God but use that subiect in your Art which God himself makes use of in Nature He is the best workman and knowes what matter is most fit for his work hee that will imitate him in the Effect must first imitate him in the Subject Talk not then of Flint-stones and Antimonie they are the Poets Pin-dust and Egshells Seek this Earth this Water But this is not all that Moses hath written to this purpose I could cite many more Magicall and mysticall places but in so doing I should be too open wherefore I must forbeare I shall now speak of his Practice and truly this is it which no Distinction nor any other Logicall Quibble can wave nothing but Experience can refell this Argument and thus it runs And Moses took the Calf which they had made and burnt it in the fire and grinded it to powder and strewed it vpon the water and made the Children of Israel drink of it Certainly here was a strange kind of Spice and an Art as strange as the Spice it self This Calf was pure gold the Israelites having contributed their Eare-rings to the Fabric Now would I gladly know by what meanes so solid and heavie a Body as Gold may bee brought to such a light powder that it may bee sprinkl'd on the face of the water and afterwards drunk up I am sure
which proceeded from the Third Spirit and out of that Water went Aire and Fire But God forbid that I should speak any more of them publickly it is enough that wee Know the Original of the Creature and to whom wee ought to ascribe it The Cabalist when hee would tell us what God did with the Three Mothers useth no other phrase than this Ponderavit Aleph cum omnibus omnia cum Aleph sic de Singulis He weighed saith he Aleph with All and All with Aleph and so he did with the other Mothers This is very plain if you consider the various mixtures of the Elements and their Secret Proportions And so much for the Physicall part of the Cabala I will now shew you the Metaphysicall It is strange to Consider what Unitie of Spirit and Doctrine there is amongst all the Children of Wisdom This proves infallibly that there is an Universall Schoole-master who is Present with all Flesh and whose Principles are ever Uniforme namely the Spirit of God The Cabalists agree with all the world of Magicians That Man in spirituall Mysteries is both Agent and Patient This is plain For Jacobs Ladder is the greatest Mysterie in the Cabala Here wee find two Extreams Jacob is one at the Foot of the Ladder and God is the other who stands above it immittens saith the Jew Formas Influxus in Jacob sive Subjectum Hominem shedding some secret Influx of Spirit upon Jacob who in this place Typifies Man in general The Rounds or steps in the Ladder signifie the middle Natures by which Jacob is united to God Inferiors united to Superiors As for the Angels of whom it is sayd that they ascended Descended by the Ladder their Motion proves they were not of the superior Hierarchie but some other secret Essences for they Ascended first and Descended afterwards but if they had been from above they had Descended first which is Contrarie to the Text And here Reader I would have thee studie Now to return to Jacob it is written of him that he was asleep but this is a Mysticall Speech for it signifies Death namely that Death which the Cabalist calls Mors Osculi or the Death of the Kiss of which I must not speake one Syllable To bee short they agree with us in Arcano Theologiae That no word is efficacious in Magic unlesse it be first quickened by the Word of God This appears out of their Semhamaphores for they hold not the names of Angls effectuall unlesse some name of God as {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} be united to them then say they in the power and vertue of those names they may worke An Example hereof wee have in all Extracted names as Vehu-Iah Elem-Iah Jeli-El Sita-El Now this Practice in the Letter was a most subtil Adumbration of the Conjunction of the Substantiall Word or Spirit with the Water See that you understand me rightly for I meane with the Elements and so much for the Truth To Conclude I would have the Reader observe that the false Grammaticall Cabala consists onely in Râ—â—â—â—â—tions of the Alphabet and a Metathesis of Letters in the Text by which means the Scripture hath suffered many Racks and Excoriations As for the true Cabala it useth the Letter onely for Artifice whereby to obscure and hide her Pâ—â—â—â—sicall Secrets as the Egyptians heretofore did use their Hieroglyphics In this Sense the Primitive Professors of this Art had a literal Cabala as it appeares by that wonderfull and most ancient Inscription in the Rock in Mount Horeb. It conteines a Prophecie of the Virgin Mother and her Son Christ Jesus ingraven in Hieroglyphic fram'd by Combination of the Hebrew letters but by whom God onely knows it may be by Moses or Eliâ—ah This is most certain it is to be seen there this day and wee have for it the Testimonies of Thomas Obecinus a most learned Franciscan and Petrus a Valle a Gentleman who travailed both of them into those parts Now that the learning of the Jewes I mean their Cabala was Chimicall and ended in true Physicall performances cannot be better proved than by the Booke of Abraham the Jew wherein hee layd down the Secrets of this Art in Indifferent plaine Termes and Figures and that for the Benefit of his unhappy Country-men when by the wrath of God they were scattered over all the World This Book was accidentally found by Nicholas Flammel a French-man and with the help of it hee attained at last to that miraculous Medicine which Men call the Philosophers stone But let us hear the Monsieur himself describe it There fell into my hands saith he for the Summ of two Florens a gilded Book very old and large It was not of Paper nor Parchment as other books bee but it was made of delicate rindes as it seemed to mee of Tender young Trees The Cover of it was of Brasse well bound all ingraven with Letters or strange figures and for my part I think they might well bee Greek Characters or some such ancient language Sure I am I could not read them and I know well they were not Notes nor Letters of the Latine nor of the Gaule for of them I understood a little As for that which was within it the Bark leaves were ingraven and with admirable diligence written with a point of Jron in faire and neat Latin letters coloured It contained thrice Seven leaves for so were the leaves counted at the top and alwayes every Seventh leafe was without any writing but instead thereof upon the first seventh leaf there was painted a Virgin and Serpents swallowing her up In the Second Seventh a Crosse where a Serpent was Crucified and in the last Seventh there were painted Deserts or Wildernesses in the middest whereof ran many faire Fountains from whence there issued forth a Number of Serpents which ran up and down here and there Upon the first of the Leaves was written in great Capitall letters of gold ABRAHAM THE JEW PRINCE PRIEST LEVIT ASTROLOGER AND PHILOSOPHER TO THE NATION OF THE JEWES BY THE WRATH OF GOD DISPERSED AMONG THE GAULES SENDETH HEALTH After this it was filled with great Execrations and Curses with this word Maranatha which was often repeated there against every person that should cast his eyes upon it if hee were not Sacrificer or Scribe Hee that sold me this Booke knew not what it was worth no more than I when I bought it I believe it had been stolne or taken by violence from the miserable Jewes or found hid in some part of the Ancient place of their Habitation Within the Booke in the Second leafe hee comforted his Nation counselling them to fly Vices and above all Idolatrie attending with sweet patience the Comming of the Messiah who should vanquish all the Kings of the Earth and should reigne with his people in glorie aeternally Without doubt this had been some wise and understanding Man In the third
know it wee will teach you something not Common The Body of the Serpent tells you it is a fierie Substance for a Serpent is full of heat and fire which made the Egyptians esteem him Divine This appears by his quick motion without feet or finns much like that of the Pulse for his impetuous hot spirit shootes him on like a Squib There is also another Analogie for the Serpent renewes his youth so strong is his natural heat and casts off his old skin Truely the Matter is a very Serpent for shee renews her self a thousand wayes and is nèver a perpetuall Tenant to the same Forme The wings tell you this Subject or Chaos is Volatile and in the outward Complexion Arrie and Waterie But to teach you the most Secret Resemblance of this Hieroglyphic The Chaos is a certain Creeping Substance for it moves like a Serpent sine pedibus and truly Moses calls it not Water but Serpitura Aquae The Creeping of Water or a water that creepes Lastly the Knott on the Tayle Tells you this matter is of a most strong Composition and that the Elements are fast bound in it all which the Philophers know to be true by Experience As for the Assinitie of Inferiors with Superiors and their private Active Love which consists in certain Secret Mixtures of Heaven with the Matter their Opinion stands thus In the Vital fire of all Things here below The Sun say they is King In their Secret Water the Moon is Queen In their pure Aire the five lesser Planets rule and in their Central Hypostaticall Earth the fixed starrs For these Inferiors according to their Doctrine are Provinces or Thrones of those Superiors where they sit Regent and Paramont To speak plainly Heaven it self was originally extracted from Inferiors yet not so intirely but some portion of the Heavenly Natures remained still below and are the very same in Essence and Substance with the separated starrs and skies Heaven here below differs not from that above but in her Captivitie and that above differs not from this below but in her Libertie The one is imprisoned in the Matter the other is freed from the grossness and impurities of it but they are both of one and theÌ„same Nature so that they easily unite and hence it is that the Superior descends to the Inferior to visit and comfort her in this sickly infâ—ctious Habitation I could speak much more but I am in haste and though I were at leisure you cannot in Reason expect I should tell you all I will therefore decline these generall Principles to tell you something that makes for the AEgyptian Practice and proves them Philosophers adepted The first Monument I reade of to this purpose is that of Synesius a very learned intelligent man Hee found in the Temple of Memphis {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Bookes of stone and in those hard leaves these Difficult Instructions {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} That is One Nature delights in another One Nature overcomes another One Nature over-rules another These short lessons but of no small Consequence are fathered on the great Hostanes The Sâ—cond Monument is that admirable and most Magicall one mentioned by Barachias Abenesi the Arabian This also was a stone erected neere Memphis and on it this profound Scripture {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} That is Heaven Above Heaven Beneath Starres Above Starres Beneath All that is Above is also Beneath Understand this and bee Happy Under this were figur'd certain apposit Hieroglyphics and for a Close to all this Dedicatorie Subscription I find it onely in the Coptic Character but our Founts wanting that Letter I must give it you in the Greeke {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Isias the High Priest erected this to the Resident Gods in AEgypt And now though I formerly suspended the Authoritie of Irismegistus I might like the Italian produce his weapons Sfodrato but I love no Velitations and Truth is so brave it needs no Feather Quod est Superiùs sayd Hermes est sicut id quod est Inferiùs quod est Inferiùs est sicut id quod est superiùs This is his Mysterie and 't is great The Benefit that attends the Purchase is no losse habebis Gloriam totius Mundi All the Pomp and Splendor of the World shall bee Thine To this Language the Dialect of I sias doth so Echo these two like Euphorbus and Pythagoras might passe for Ono Coelum sursùm sayd he Coelum deorsum Astra sursùm Astra Deorsùm Omne quod sursùm omne id deorsum And then follows a reward for the Intelligent Haec cape faelicitare understand this and thou art fortunate Thou hast made thy self very happy This is enough to prove that Magic sometimes flourished in Egypt and no doubt but they received the Truth of it from the Hebrewes who lived amongst them to the terme of four hundred and thirtie years This is plain for their own Native Learning was meere Sorcerie and Witcheraft and this appears by the Testimonie of Moses who tells us their Magicians produc'd their Miracles by Inohantments And why I beseech you should this Instruction seem impossible For Joseph being married to Asenath daughter of Potipherah Priest of On some of the AEgyptian Priests and those likely of his own alliance might for that very Relation receive a better Doctrine from him But this is not all 〈…〉 d say of this Nation and their Secret 〈…〉 ing if I were dispos'd to bee their Mercurie There is not any I believe who praetend to Antiquitie or Philosophie but have seen that famous Monument which Paul the Third bestow'd on his Cardinal Petrus Bombus and was ever since called the Bembixe Table No doubt but the Hieroglyphics therein contained were they all reduced into Letters would make a Volume as ample as Mysterious But 't is not my Designe to comment on Mcmphis that were to make Brick and look out the straw withall AEgypt having no compleat Table but the World over which her Monuments are Scatter'd This place then was the Pitcher to the Fountain for they received their Mysteries immediatly from the Hebrewes but their Doctrine like their Nilus swelling above its private Chanel did at last over-run the Universe Jamblicus the Divine in that excellent Discourse of his de Mysterus tells us that Pythagoras and Plato had all their learning ex Columnis Mercurii out of the Pillars or Hieroglyphicall Monuments of Trisinegistus But the Ancient orpheus in his Poem de Verbo Sacro where hee speakes of God hath these words Nemo IlluÌ„ nisi Chaldao de Sanguine Quiddam Progenitus vidit None saith he hath ever seen God but a certaine Man descended of the Chaldaean Bloud Now this was Moses of whom it
Flora which appears not without the Complements of the Sun Behold I will tell you as plainly as I may There are in the world two Extremes Matter and Spirit one of these I can assure you is earth The Influences of the spirit animate and quicken the matter and in the Material Extreme the seed of the spirit is to be found In middle Natures as Fire Aire and Water this Seed stayes not for they are but Dispenseros or Media which convey it from one extreme to the other from the Spirit to the Matter that is to the Earth But stay my friend this Intelligence hath somewhat stirr'd you and now you come on so furiously as if you would rifle the Cabinet Give me leave to put you back I mind not this Common faeculent impure Earth that falls not within my Discourse but as it makes for your Manuduction That which I speak of is a Mysterie it is Coelum Terrae and Terra Coeli not this dirt and dust but a most Secret Coelestiall Invisible Earth Raymund Lullie in his Compendium of Alchimie calls the Principles of Art Magic Spiritus fugitivos in Aere condensatos in forma Monstrorum Diversorum Animalium etiam Hominum qui vadunt sicut Nubes modo hùc modo illùc Certain fugitive spirits condensed in the Ayre in the shape of Divers Monsters Beasta and Men which move like Cloudes hither and thither As for the Sense of our Spaniard I refer it to his Readers let them make the most of it This is true As the Ayre and all the Volatile Substances in it are restlesse even so it is with the first Matter The eye of Man never saw her twice under one and the same shape but as Cloudes driven by the winde are forced to this and that figure but cannot possibly retain one constant forme so is shee persecuted by the fire of Nature for this fire and this water are like two Lovers they no sooner meet but presently they play and toy and this Game will not over till some new Babee is generated I have oftentimes admired their subtil perpetual Motion for at all Times and in all places these two are busie which occasioned that Notable sentence of Trismegistus That Action was the Life of God But most excellent and Magisterial is that Oracle of Marcus Antoninus who in his Discourse to himself speaks indeed things worthy of himself {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The Nature saith he of the Universe delights not in any Thing so much as to alter all Things and then to make the like again This is her Tick Tack shee playes one Game to begin another The matter is placed before her like a peece of Wax and shee shapes it to all formes and figures Now shee makes a Bird now a Beast now a Flowre then a Frog and shee is pleas'd with her own Magicall performances as men are with their own fansies Hence shee is call'd of Orpheus {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Mother that makes many Things and ordaines strange shapes or figures Neither doth shee as some sinfull Parents doe who having their pleasure care not for their Child shee loves them still after shee hath made them hath an eye over them all and provides even for her Sparrowes IT is strange to consider that shee workes as well privatly as publicly not onely in Gardens where Ladyes may smell her perfumes but in remote Solitudes and Deserts The Truth is shee seeks not to please others so much as her self wherefore many of her works and those the Choysest never come to Light Wee see little Children who are newly come from under her hand will be dabling in ' Dirt and Water and other idle sports affected by none but Themselves The Reason is they are not as yet Captivated which makes them seek their own pleasures But when they come to Age then Love or Profit makes them square their Actions according to other mens Desires Some Cockney claps his Revenues on his backe but his Galantrie is spoil'd if his Mistris doth not observe it Another fights but his Victory is lost if it be not Printed it is the world must heare of his Valour Now Nature is a free spirit that seeks no Applause shee observes none more than her self but is pleased with her own Magic as Philosophers are with their Secret Philosophie Hence it is that wee find her busie not onely in the Potts of the Balconies but in Wildernesses and ruinous places where no eyes observe her but the Starrs and Planets In a word wheresoever the fire of nature finds the Virgin Mercurie there hath he found his Love and there will they both fall to their Husbandrie a pleasure not subject to Surfets for it still Presents new Varieties It is reported of Marc Antonie a famous but unfortunate Romane how he sent his Agent over the world to Copie all the handsome faces that amongst so many excellent features hee might select for himself the most pleasing peece Truly Nature is much of this straine for shee hath infinite beauteous patternes in her self and all these shee would gladly see beyond her self which shee cannot doe without the matter for that is her Glasse This makes her generate perpetually and imprint her conceptions in the matter communicating life to it and figuring it according to her Imagination By this Practice shee placeth her Fansie or Idea beyond her self or as the Peripatetics say extra Intellectum beyond the divine Mind namely in the Matter but the Idea's being innumerable and withall different the pleasures of the Agent are maintain'd by their Varietie or to speak more properly by his own fruitfulnesse for amongst all the Beauties the world affords there are not two that are altogether the same Much might bee spoken in this place concerning Beautio what it is from whence it came and how it may be defaced not onely in the outward figure but in the inward Idea and lost for ever in both worlds But these pretty shuttles I am no way acquainted with I have no Mistris but Nature wherefore I shall leave the fine Ladies to fine Lads and speak of my simple AElia Laelia It was scarce Day when all alone I saw Hyanthe and her Throne In fresh green Damascs she was drest And o're a Saphir Globe did rest This slipperie Sphaere when I did see Fortune I thought it had been Thee But when I saw shee did present A Majestie more Permanent I thought my Cares not lost if I Should finish my Discoverie Sleepie shee look'd to my first sight As if shee had Watch'd all the Night And underneath her hand was spread The White Supporter of her head But at my Second studied View I could perceive a silent Dew Steale down her Cheeks lest it should Stayne Those Cheeks where onely Smiles should reigne The Tears stream'd down for haste and all In Chaines of liquid Pearle did fall Faire Sorrows and more
dear than Joyes Which are but emptie Ayres and Noyse Your Drops present a richer Prize For they are Something like her Eyes Pretty white Foole why hast thou been Sulli'd with Teares and not with Sin 'T is true thy Teares like Polish'd Skies Are the Bright Rosials of thy Eyes But such strange Fates doe them attend As if thy Woes would never end From Drops to Sighes they turn and then Those sighes return to Drops agen But whiles the Silver Torrent seeks Those Flowr's that watch it in thy Cheeks The White and Red Hyanthe weares Turn to Rose-water all her Teares Have you beheld a Flame that springs From Incense when sweet curled Rings Of smoke attend her last weak Fires And Shee all in Perfumes expires So dy'd Hyanthe Here said shee Let not this Vial part from Thee It holds my Heart though now 't is Spill'd And into Waters all distill'd 'T is constant still Trust not false Smiles Who smiles and weeps not shee beguiles Nay trust not Teares false are the few Those Teares are Many that are True Trust Mee and take the better Choyce Who hath my Teares can want no Joyes I know some Sophisters of the Heptarchie I mean those whose Learning is all Noyse in which Sense even Py-annets and Paraquitoes are Philosophicall will conclude this all Bayt and Poetrie that wee are Pleasing not Positive and cheat even the Readers Discretion To prevent such impotent Calumnies and to spend a little more of our secret Light upon the well-disposed Student I shall in this place produce the Testimonies of some able Philosophers concerning the first Matter it self as it is naturally found before any alteration by Art and here verily the Reader may discover the Mark it is most easily done if he will but eye the Flights of my Verse or follow the more grave pace of their Prose The first I shall cite is Arnoldus de Villâ novâ an absolute perfect Master of the Art hee describes the Philosophicall Chaos in these plain termes Lapis est non lapis Spiritus Anima Corpus Quem si dissolvis dissolvitur si coagules coagulatur si volare facis volat Est enim Volat ilis ulbus ut lacryma oculi postea efficitur citrinus salsus pilis carens quem nemo suâ linguâ tangere potest Ecce ipsum jam suâ demonstravi descriptione non tamen nominavi Modo volo ipsum nominare dico quod si dixeris eum Aquam esse verum dicis si dixeris eum Aquam non esse mentiris Ne igitur decipiaris pluribus descriptionibus operationibus unum enim quid est cui nihil alieni infertur It is saith hee a stone and no stone Spirit Soule and Bodie which if thou dissolvest it will bee dissolved and if thou doest coagulat it it will be coagulated and if thou doest make it fly it will fly for it is Volatil or flying and cleare as a teare afterwards it is made citrine then saltish but without shoots or Chrystals and no man may touch it with his Tongue Behold I have described it truly to thee but I have not named it Now I will name it and I say that if thou sayest it is Water thou doest say the Truth and if thou sayest it is not water thou doest lie Bee not therefore deceived with manifold Descriptions and Operations for it is but one Thing to which nothing Extraneous may be added Thus Arnoldus and he borrowed this from the Turba Let us now heare his Disciple Raymund Lullie who speaking very enviously and obscurely of Seven Metallic Principles describes the Third wherein foure of the seven are included in these words Tertium saith hee est Aqua clara Composita illa est res Argento vivo magis propingua quae quidem reperitur supra Terram currens fluens Et istud argentum vivum in omni Corpore Elementato à materia aeris est proprie generatum ideo ipsius humidit as est valde ponderosa That is The third Principle is a Cleare Compounded water and it is the next substance in Complexion to Quick-Silver it is found running and flowing upon the Earth This Quick-silver is generated in every Compound out of the Substance of the Aire and therefore the moysture of it is extreme heavy To these I will adde Albertus Magnus whose Suffrage in this kind of Learning is like the Stylanx to Gold for hee had thoroughly search'd it and knew very well what part of it would abide the Test. Mercurius Sapientum saith hee est Elementum Aqueum frigidum humidum Aqua permanens spiritus Corporis vapor unctuosus Aqua Benedicta Aqua virtuosa Aqua Sapientum Acetum Philosophorum Aqua Mineralis Ros coelestis gratiae Lac Virginis Mercurius Corporalis aliis infinitis Nominibus in Philosophorum libris nominatur quae quidem Nomina quamvis varia sunt sempor tamen unam eandem rem significant utpote Solum Mercurium sapientum Ex ipso solo elicitur omnis virtus Artis Alckimiae suo modo Tinctura alba rubea In plain English thus The Mercurie of the Wisemen is a waterie Element Cold and moyst This is their Permanent water the spirit of the Bodie the anctuous vapour the Blessed water the virtuous water the water of the Wisemen the Philosophers Vinacre the Mineral Water the Dâ—w of heavenly Grace the Virgins Milk the Bodily Mercurie and with other numberlesse names is it named in the Bookes of the Philosophers which names truly though they are divers notwithstanding alwayes signifie one and the same thing namely the Mercurie of the Wisemen Out of this Mercurie alone all the Virtue of the Art is extracted and according to its Nature the Tincture both Red and White To this agrees R 〈…〉 the Persian Sperma Lapidis saith hee est frigidum humidum in Manifesto in Occulto calidum siccum The Sperme or first matter of the stone is outwardly cold and moyst but inwardly Hot and Drie All which is confirmed by Rhodian another Instructor it seemes of Kanid King of Persia his words are these Sperma est album liquidum postea rubeum Sperma istud est lapis fugitivus est Aereum Volatile est frigidum humidum caliâ—um siccum The Sperm saith hee is white and Liquid afterwards red This Sperm is the flying stone and it is aereal and volatil cold and moyst hot and drie To these subscribes the Author of that excellent Tract intituled Liber trium Verborum Hic est Liber saith hee Trium verborum Liber Lapidis preciosi qui est Corpus aereum volatile frigidum humidum aquosum adustivum in eo est Calidit as siccitas frigiditas humiditas alia virtus in occulto alia in Manifesto This is the Book of Three words meaning thereby Three Principles The Book of the pretious
the Death of the Compound Hence they wisely gathered that to minister Vegetables Animals or Minerals for Physic was a meer madness for even these also had their own Impurities and Diseases and required some Medicine to cleanse them Upon this Adviso they resolved God without all Question being their Guide to practise on the Chaos it self they opened it purified it united what they had formerly separated and fed it with a twofold Fire Thick and Thin till they brought it to the immortal Extreme and made it a spirituall heavenly Body This was their Physic this was their Magic In this performance they saw the Image of that face which Zoroaster calls Triadis Vultus ante Essentiam c. They perfectly knew the Secundea which contains all things in her naturally as God contains all things in himself spiritually They saw that the Life of all things here below was a Thick Fire or fire imprisoned and incorporated in a certaine incombustible Aereall moysture They found moreover that this fire was originally derived from Heaven and in this sense Heaven is styl'd in the Oracles Ignis Ignis Derivatio Ignis Penu In a word they saw with their Eyes that Nature was Male and Female Ignis ruber super Dorsum Ignis Candidi as the Cabalists expresse it A certain Fire of a most deep red Colour working on a most white heavy salacious Water which Water also is Fire inwardly but outwardly very cold By this practice it was manifested unto them that God himself was Fire according to that of Eximidius in Turba Omnium rerum Initium esse Naturam quandam eamque perpetuam infinitam omnia foventem Coquentemque The Beginning of all things sayth he is a Certain Nature and that eternall and infinite cherishing and heating all Things The truth is Life which is nothing else but Light and heat proceeded originally from God and did apply to the Chaos which is elegantly call'd by Zoroaster Fons fontium fontium cunctorum Matrix continens cuncta The Fountain of fountains and of all fountains The Matrix containing all Things Wee see by Experience that all Individuals live not onely by their own heat but they are preserved by the outward universal heat which is the life of the great world Even so truly the great world it self lives not altogether by that heat which God hath inclosed in the parts thereof but it is praeserved by the circumfused influent heat of the Deitie For above the Heavens God is manifested like an infinite burning world of Light and Fire so that hee overlooks all that he hath made and the whole Fabric stands in his heat and Light as a man stands here on Earth in the Sun-shine I say then that the God of Nature employes himself in a perpetuall Coction and this not onely to generate but to preserve that which hath been generated for his spirit and heat coagulat that which is Thin rarifie that which is too grosse quicken the dead parts and cherish the cold There is indeed one operation of heat whose method is vitall and far more mysterious than the rest they that have use for it must studie it I have for my part spoken all that I intend to speak and though my Book may prove fruitless to many because not understood yet some few may be of that Spirit as to comprehend it Amplae mentis ampla flamma sayd the great Chaldaean But because I will not leave thee without some Satisfaction I advise thee to take the Moone of the firmament which is a middle nature and place her so that every part of her may be in two Elements at one and the same time these Elements also must equally attend her Body not one further off not one neerer than the other In the regulating of these two there is a twofold Geometrie to be observed Natural and Aâ—tâ—ficial But I may speak no more The true Furnace is a little simple shell thou mayst easily carry it in one of thy hands The Glasse is one and no more but some Philosophers have used two and so mayst thou As for the work it self it is no way troublesome a Lady may reade the Arcadia and at the same time attend this Philosophie without disturbing her fansie For my part I think women are fitter for it than men for in such things they are more neat and patient being used to a small Chimistrie of Sack-possets and other finicall sugar-sops Concerning the Effects of this Medicine I shall not speak any thing at this time hee that desires to know them let him reade the Revelation of Paracelsus a Discourse altogether incomparable and in very truth miraculous And here without any partialitie I shall give my Judgement of honest Hohenheim I find in the rest of his workes and especially where hee falls on the stone a great many false Processes but his Doctrine of it in Generall is very sound The truth is hee had some Pride to the Justice of his Spleen and in many places hee hath err'd of purpose not caring what Bones hee threw before the Schoole-men for hee was a Pylot of Guadalcana and sayl'd sometimes in his Rio de la recriation But I had almost forgot to tell thee that which is all in all and it is the greatest Difficultie in all the Art namely the fire It is a close ayrie circular bright fire the Philosophers call it their Sun and the glasse must stand in the shade It makes not the matter to vapour no not so much as to sweat it digests onely with a still piercing vitall heat It is continuall and therefore at last alters the Chaos and corrupts it The Proportion and Regiment of it is very Scrupulous but the best rule to know it by is that of the Synod facite ne Easianus volet ante Insequentem Let not the Bird fly before the Fowler make it sit whiles you give fire and then you are sure of your Prey For a Cloze I must tell thee the Philosophers call'd this Fire their Balneum but it is Balneum Naturae a Naturall Bath not an Artificiall one for it is not any kind of Water but a certain subtill temperate moysture which compasseth the Glasse and feeds their Sun or Fire In a word without this Bath nothing in the world is generated Now that thou mayst the better understand what Degree of fire is requisit for the work consider the Generation of Man or any other Creature whatsoever It is not Kitchin fire nor feaver that works upon the Sperm in the Womb but a most temperate moyst natural heat which proceeds from the very life of the Mother It is just so here Our Matter is a most delicate Substance and tender like the Animal sperme for it is almost a living thing nay in very truth it hath some small portion of life for Nature doth produce some Animals out of it For this very reason the least violence destroyes it and prevents all generation for if it be over-heated but for