Mosaicall Principles are very plain and evident unto all such as do wisely contemplate and observe the words of the most excellent Philosopher Moses in his first Chapter of Genesis For before there is made any mention of that Spagiricall separation which by the Word of God or divine Spirit Elohim was effected in the six daies work of the Creation mentioned and expressed there It is said that darknesse was upon the face of the Abysse and that Terra erat inanis vacua the Earth was without shape and form Where it appeares that the Heavens and the Earth were not as yet inacted or informed but were one deformed rude and indigested masse and consequently all were complicitly comprehended in one dark Abysse but explicitly they were as yet nothing as for example we see that a great tree with his body branches bark leaves and fruit is complicitly comprehended in a grain or kernell but explicitly it is no such thing but only somewhat in imaginatione St. Augustin compareth this Nothing unto Speech which whilst it is in the mind of the speaker is as nothing unto him that it is spoken unto that is to say somewhat in puissance and nothing in essence but when it is uttered or spoken then is that which was before complicitly in animo loquentis now explicitly apprehended by the hearer Plato compareth it in this estate of its Nullity unto a vision in a dreame which when a man awaketh proveth nothing saving a mere imagination But because this speech to wit God created all things of nothing hath pusled the minds of many understanding persons being it could not be perceived really what should be intended by this word Nihil I purpose in few words to discourse upon it and to expresse mine opinion what is meant thereby Saith the Prince of Peripateticks Ex Nihilo nihil fit A learned Sentence and infallible axiom of so learned a Personage if the sense of the word were alwaies to be construed one and the same way But I say being founded on good grounds that if there be any who either upon presumption or through ignorance are of an opinion that in these words God created all things Ex nihilo Of nothing this word Nihilum or nothing ought not to be taken or interpreted for Nihilum negativum or such a negative nothing which falleth not under the capacity or understanding of mans reason or intellect Such a kind of Nihilum or Nothing was never meant or taken for the first-matter of the Creation For it appeareth as well by the infallible sense of holy Scriptures as the sacred Light in nature that the first essence and matter of all things was from all eternity in God and with God one and the same thing and this we prove out of Scriptures after this manner Saith Moses In Principio creavit Deus coelum terram In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth In which speech this word Principium is not to be taken for a negative nothing For the Scripture telleth us in plain terms that ex ipso per ipsum in ipso sunt omnia Of him by him and in him are all things And therefore if all things proceed from God the Creatour who is the highest of Entities it followeth that it proceedeth not from a negative nothing And again Scriptures say Omnipotens Domâ—ne manus tua creavit orbem teâ—rarum saith St. Jerom or mundum according unto Tremellius ex mateteria invisa as St. Jerom interpreteth it but Tremellius hath it Ex materia informi Almighty Lord thine hand hath created the earth or world of an invisible or informed matter And therefore if of an invisible matter or substance without shape it followeth that it is not of a negative or absolute Nothing Also the Scriptures say in another place Fide intelligimus aptata esse secula verbo Dei ut ex invisibilibus visibilia fierent We understand by faith that the world was so made or adapted by the word of God that of invisible things such things as are visible were made and consequently not of an absolute or negative Nothing Moreover if God had not produced and created all things essentially out of himself but of a vain negative nothing then creation would not appertain unto God neither could it rightly be referred unto him that is to say if all things were not essentially of him nor did take their beginning from him then verily it must needs follow that all were not made by him but would have their existence from Nothing neither would they consist in him but in Nothing But it is evident that the case is otherwise for the Creation is the work of God and not the work and subject of Nothing he is the entity of all entities the life of all the living the beginning of all beginnings and the fountain of all waters of which heaven and earth were framed To conclude nothing ever came into being or had its existence from any other but onely from him and by him neither can any thing exist but onely in him And therefore we may conclude that God did beget produce make and create nothing but that which was eternally in himself which also the Apostle seemeth to verifie in these words In Christo sunt omnia condita sive visibilia sive invisibilia ipse ante omnes omnia in ipso constant angeli throni potestates dominationes per eum in eo sunt creata qui est principium In Christ are all things made and created He is before all and all as well visible as invisible consist in him The angels thrones potestates dominations were by him and in him created who is the beginning But because this is more fully discussed in the first Book of my sympatheticall and antipatheticall History I will say no more of it in this place but proceed directly unto my purpose As therefore darknesse is rightly termed potentia divina so also is light called actus divinus which the Cabalists express by Alephtenebrosum and lucidum as else-where it is declared And therefore the Scriptures aver in another place that God is omnia in omnibus God is all in all And again Christus est omnia in omnibus Christ is all in all c. I say therefore that the very same which is meant by Moses his dark abysse and terra inanis Job tearmeth umbra lethalis because it is void of form and life and for that cause he saith also Aquilonem extendit Deus supra inane vacuum suspendit terram supra nihilum God spread or extended the north upon the void or inanity and did hang the earth upon nothing Whereby also it appeareth that it was not the negative Nihil but a matter that was in potentia ad actum in the way to be inactuated being destitute neverthelesse as yet both of any form or act But Forma dat nomen esse Form doth give
the Sun hath his seat or place in heaven Alass what child knoweth not this by an ocular direction without any such precept of the Prophet And what is this pertinent unto the Text going before The heavens declare the glory of God c. Why should he mention the Sun immediatly afterward What To tell us that the Sun was in heaven A thing known unto every man No but that the heaven's beauty was derived from that glorious Spirit of God which had chiefly his abiding or dwelling in the sunny Tabernacle that thereby blind worldly men might discern that it was God in that beauteous creature and not the creature which sent down so affluently those vertuous influences and lights which were effused out of the vessell of the Sun being that by the mistaking of that knowledg so many of Gods creatures which he framed out after his own Image have been seduced into errour and allured ignorantly to adore the Sun and other Starrs for Gods Which in verity are nothing of themselves Spiritu suo ornavit coelos saith Job He doth not say Sole but Spiritu suo which made the Sun its Tabernacle And now to our last Argument wherein I will shew you how by the assertion of certain wise Philosophers that exposition of Jerom seemeth to be confirmed Saith one unto whose opinion also St. Austin doth adhere Quaelibet res tantum sibi Dei vindicat quantum capax est luminis Every thing doth challenge unto it self so much of divinity as it is capable of Light But the Sun is the brightest creature in the world Ergo it possesseth abundantly the Spirit of divinity Many Philosophers therefore consent in this not erring from the tenent of Scriptures namely that In lumine numen in numine lumen In Light is divinity and in divinity is Light And Plato Ne loquaris de Deo sine Lumine Speak not of God without Light Doth not Scriptures confirm all this in saying that God is Light and that vestitur seu â—miâ—tuâ— est Lumine quasi vestimento He is clothed with Light as with a garment Yea verily he is said to be a consuming fire I conclude therefore that Jerom hath translated that place according unto the true sense and consequently we may gather the reason of Rarefaction and Condensation from the presence or absence of the the Sun and confess after the due examination of the case that the onely Agent of these two operations in the waters or catholick Element is the Eternall Spirit 's presence action and emanation or his absence and rest And this is easily demonstrated by our experimentall glass for the nearer the Sun is unto us and the deeper we are in Summer the more will the aire in the glass be dilated which is manifested therefore because that in summer-time the water is beaten down and precipitated lowest Again the further the Sun is from us and the deeper we are in winter the more is the aire condensed in the glass and that is made evident by the elevation or exaltation of water in the neck of the mattrass or glass Neither do we say that the whole reason of Condensation and Rarefaction doth proceed from the Spirit in the Sun onely being that the same Spirit is as well present in this Elementary region as aethereall and hath the power and life of the winds in his rule by which both in the winter and summer he exalteth or depresseth the waters in the glass and consequently causeth Condensation and Rarefaction of the aire as well included in the Instrument as excluded and by that means causeth a diuturnall change in the generall Sublunary Waters or catholick Element of aire after a four-fold nature from one condition unto another Which mutation or alteration of the inferiour humid nature out of one form into an other is commonly called Elements as shall be expressed hereafter But first we will come unto the Fabrick of the heavens and shew how they were framed out by Condensation and Rarefaction Effected by this one Eternall Ruach Elohim or Spirit of God CHAP. IV. After what manner this Eternall Spirit or Ruach Elohim did frame out the Heavens and shaped or made the Starrs thereof by his Act of Condensation and Rarefaction IT is the Apostle Peter's assertion that the Heavens and the Earth were of the Wateâ— and by the Waters by the Word of God So that the Word we see is the Agent as wâ—ll in the Condensation of the invisible waters into waters that are visible and then of these visible waters into a visible earth Thus was the world in generall distinguished into thicker and thinner regions by that divine Spirit Ruach Elohim which was carried on the waters And this is well argued by Hermes in these words Distinctis libratisque rebus quae igneo Spiritu vehebantur emicuit coelum septem in circulos Things being distinguished and ballanced the which were sustained by a fiery Spirit the heaven did shine forth into seven circles Where he signifieth that it was a fiery Spirit and a little before he calleth it Splendorem Sanctum the holy Splendor which sustained and bore up every circle or Sphere of the heavens in his due place And hereupon the Wiseman Omnia mensura numeroque pondere disposuisti seu temperâsti Thou hast disposed all things in measure and number and weight that is to say in a distinct measure and proportion in ponderosity and levity and in a due and convenient number namely into seven distinct Spheres and an infinity of condensed bodies For although all the heavens be composed of aire and fire and therfore it is called Aether quasigneus aer yet by the rule of St. Paul who teacheth us that things visible were first of things invisible we are instructed that both the visible bodies in heaven and also all visible lights were first of invisible waters and invisible formall Light which hath its root in God the bright eternall Unity of all created numbers and therefore as Aristotle saith that Stellae are densiores partes sui orbis So I say that as the Substance of the heavens is invisible by reason of its rarity in like manner are the starrs visible by reason of their density For it was Condensation that caused visibility and Rarefafaction which is the occasion of invisibility And yet for all this it is not concluded with Aristotle that the starrs are the denser parts of their orbs but rather Lights which were included in the spirit of the dark shadow of the abysse which spirit in separating of Light from Darkness sored upward by vertue of the included Light and so according unto the proportion of that eternall formall fire which it retaineth unto this day as his corner-stone it is sustained and elevated in its proper place no otherwise then we see that the artificiall squib according unto the proportion of its artificiall and fading fire with the ponderosity of its body is during the time of the
for the words following importeth so much which are Appendit aquas seu nubes in mensura He hangeth or ballanceth the waters or clowds by measure or attenuateth it into lightnings as the words following do witnesse So that he seemeth to aver that the invisible aire is altered according to weight and measure into the bodies or substances of the visible clowds which afterwards are resolved into rain and fiery lightnings which by compression do appear Again that it is neither the earth nor waters from which the existence or substance of a clowd is made but onely the aire we plainly do gather out of these words in Deuteronomy Aperiet tibi IEHOVA the saurum suum optimum â—oelos dando pluviam terrae tuae suo tempore IEHOVA will open his best treasury the heavens giving rain unto thy earth in due season Out of which words observe first that by the heavens is meant the Aire for in the aire the clowds are procreated and again the aire is called heaven in many places of Scripture as volatilia coeli the fouls or birds of heaven And therefore this is the sacrarium divinum the divine treasury or treasure-house out of the which God at his pleasure produceth and fashioneth the clowds Secondly that the aire is called his best treasury and therefore it is out of it that not onely he doth extract his meteorologicall creatures but also that wise-men do enquire after their mysticall summum bonum and Christian Philosophers that are well grounded the character of the divine wisdom Again it is said in another place Propterea aperti sunt thesauri evolarunt nubes nebulae sicut aves Therefore his treasuries are opened and the clowds did fly out like birds But this is made yet more evident by these plain words of Job Subitò aer condensabitur in nubes ventus transiens fugabit eas The aire will suddenly be condensed or thickned into clowds and the moving winde will drive them before it By which words it is apparent that the aire is the subject out of the which the clowds are compacted and framed and that the heavens are the onely treasury out of the which they are collected and therefore neither the earth nor the water as Aristotle would have it which if it were true indeed mark what an absurd impossibility must follow For then whereas the Sun doth attenuate the aire in the summer-season it would contrary unto reason condense it by the continuall raising of vapours and then a greater absurdity would follow on the neck of this to destroy Aristotles tenent touching the generation of the clowds for then we should have more clowds and rain in the summer than winter being that there are made more vapours at that season by the Suns heat and emptying of ponds and rivers then in the winter which experience proveth false And lastly it is neither the heat of the Sun nor Stars but the eternall Spirit of JEHOVA whose dominion is over the angelicall winds by which he moveth and operateth all these alterations in the air and by the aire as shall be told you hereafter And therefore it was said By his wisdom he giveth weight unto the aire and hangeth the clowds in measure and assigneth rules unto the rain and proportioneth a way or passage unto the lightnings and thunders c. But I come unto the second Doubt To the resolution of the second doubt I say that there is another manner of reason for the incrassation and condensation of an invisible vapour or the aire into a cloud than that which Aristotle and his followers have assigned and set down for whereas he saith that this feat is performed by the contractive cold of the middle region of the aire it may be wondered at why this effect is not wrought as well at other times as when the winds do blow from their certain quarters of the earth for when the southerly winds have dominion then do we see clouds to multiply and the rain to poure down in the greatest abundance I would fain know of these Peripateticks why the vapours should be raised so thick just at that time when the wind bloweth from the south to make a greater abundance of clowds in the aire then at another season namely when they have no dominion Or why should the cold of the middle region of the aire be apter to coagulate or curdle vapours at that time than at other times being that the warm clouds or dense aire which is driven from the Aequinoctiall do moderate the middle region's cold through which they glide by reason of their hot temper Verily I know that they are ignorant what to answer touching this point and therefore I will presse them no further But I will tell you of an experiment of mine own whereby I was induced unto the truth concerning the generation of the mists and clouds When in my travells I went or journeyed from Venice unto Augusta or Ausburg in Germany as I travelled between the high mountains and rocks of the Alps upon a certain day when the heavens were passing clear and without any cloud to be seen in the Horizon the Sun also as in these times it must needs being passing bright I espied on the top of a steepy mountain on the which the Sun-beams did strongly beat a certain fogg or mist by little and little to arise and ever it thickned more and more untill it grew from a sleight vapour unto a mist and from a foggy mist at the last unto a thick cloud and all this while the aire was every where clear except only on that side the hill from the top unto the bottom which we beheld It made me a little to marvell and therefore alighting from our Coach I took some grasse and flung it into the aire to try which way the wind did blow and I found it to be full upon or against that eminent hlll which was advanced towards the heavens above his fellows Whereupon I did streight-way gather that the degrees of progression from a vapour unto a mist and from a mist unto a fogg and so forward unto the consistence of a clowd was by compression of the common aire which was chased before the winde by little and little against the lofty rock or mountain which hindering of it in its passage or flight was the cause that the consequent-aire was added unto the precedent and so by adding and compressing of parts of the aire unto other parts a perfect clowd onely conformable unto that part of the mountain was made which forthwith when it became ponderous and apt to endure the reflexion of the Sun did resolve it self for four miles space on this side the rock into rain all the rest of the aire remaining still clear and without any clowd Whereby I did forthwith conceive that clowds were not ingendered after the manner described by the Peripateticks that is by the vapours rising out of the earth and waters but by
doth proceed from one eternall Essence as from the root of al things IT is most certain that as there are an infinity of creatures of divers natures in the universall machin So also every one of them was variously first created and then generated and maintained after generation even untill the day of their corruption by sundry celestiall influences or many thousand of varieties of beams descending from above And therefore the wisest amongst the Cabalisticall Rabbies affirm Quod non sit ulla planta aut herba inferiùs cui non sit stella in firmamento quae percutiat eam dicat ei Cresce That there is not any plant or herb here beneath which hath not a Star in the firmament to beat on it with his influence and as it were to say unto it Increase or muliply Neither do the Scriptures appear to be repugnant unto this their opinion as hereafter shall plainly in his convenient place be expressed But because the radicall indication of this matter requireth a more profound speculation it will be most necessary for the Reader 's better edification or instruction to make a diligent inquisition after the depth of this Mystery namely first to discover how all Creation was effected by the sending forth of the beams of God's eternall Light and whether that Emanation be of one or divers and manifold in property I told you and prooved manifestly before that all things were in the beginning created by one eternall Spirit of Wisdom which was sent forth from the infinite Fountain of Light in the shape of an emanation eradiation or effluxion to inform and inact all things explicitly which before were contained complicitly in the divine puissance of that everlasting Unity which in it self is all in all I prooved it by these expresse places in Scripture Solomon calleth this holy Spirit of discipline the vapour of God's Virtue and the sincere emanation and effluxion of his brightness and the splendor or beams of his Divine Light and the mirrour without all spot of his goodness And St. John saith that in the Word is the life of all things and that this Spirit was Light in which was no darkness and that by it all things were made and without it nothing was made And the son of Syrach That it came forth of the mouth of the Most High And Solomon That it was with IEHOVA in the beginning of all his waies in the creation and was that holy Spirit whereby be composed or made all things in the Creation and therefore it is apparent that it was by the emanation or sending forth of the catholick or universall beam of divine Light that all particular things were diversly framed shaped and animated and that by a many of streamings forth of more particular beames of light proceeding by multiplication from the root unto the trunck or body namely from the Unity fountain or head unto the generall emanation which may rightly be compared unto the body of a tree forasmuch as from it all boughs twigs leaves and fruit do spring and as in this progression the trunck of the tree doth immediatly issue from the root and yet is continued with the root which is the beginning so the divine emanation in like manner proceedeth directly from Ensoph or the fountain or root of infinity by the way of emanation not divided or separated from his eternall Originall and by reason of this his emanation the Spirit is said to be the first created before all things as the trunck before the boughs twigs leaves or fruit So that in respect of his essentiall existence he is eternall but in regard of his emanation into the world he is said to be aeviall that is to have a beginning without end and therefore becometh the head and Prince of all the aeviall world I mean the Angelicall creaâ—ures We proceed therefore in the progression and multiplication of this universall emanation thus From the trunck of the tree issueth the generall speciall and individuall branches whereof the most strongest after the trunck are all armes of the body the next boughs then twigs and lastly the leavs c. To this we compare in our Angelicall or aeviall world the divers stations of the Angels assigned unto them according unto their dignity and riches in the divine influences which they receive from the root or fountain of Light by the mediation of their body Christ Jesus And for this reason it is said that He is the Image of the invâ—sible God the first begotten of all creatures for in hâ—m are maâ—e all things both in heaven and earth as well visible as invisible whether they are Thrones or Dominations or Potestates all by him and in him are made and he is before all and all consist in him So that all Angells do no otherwise proceed immediately from him and are continuate with him than the branches of a Tree proceed from the body thereof but as we see that the greater armes of the Tree are neerer in distance unto the trunck and therefore are more substantiall and strong and beautifull than the rest so are these Angels of the Emperiall or supercelestiall heaven nearer to the body to wit the eveâ—lasting stream of light and therefore more rich and abundant in divine light and that by degrees and order according as they are nearer the face of the divine essentiall inâ—â—uence that bestoweth that most excellent light and glory on them to deck and adorn them with so perfect a formall beauty and existence And as we see that each main arme of the tree hath a dimension in longitude in the which as it depaâ—teth from the body of the tree it waxeth lesser and lesser so each of the nine Orders of Angels are of a lesse proportion of light than other and their preheminence in light is ever more diminished by little as it is remote from the body that giveth it that light and life Then as we see the lesser boughes which by a subdivision do proceed from those armes of the tree do immediately spring out of them but have a place diâ—â—inguished from them although they are continued and no way disjoynted or seperated fâ—om them either in substance or essence So also the Olympick or Aetheriall Angells have their lights and souls poured out from the Emperiall diversly and that according unto severall measures and againâ— they send forth their beams or bâ—ight effluâ—nces from the starry Orbes which they possesse and illuminate unto the elementary spirits which have dominion over the winds with their legionâ— which we compare unto the many twigs which spring out of the said boughes for as the twigs are small in substance in regard of the bough and yet are continuate unto the bough and have all one naturall life so those Angels are not so illuminated as the Olympick Spirits as also the Olympick Spirits are not so bright and affluent in divine riches as those angelical Intelligences which approach the
worship him show I unto you c. Note by the way that he argueth by this speech that they knew not the true grounds of Philosophy being ignorant of the true God which is the fountain of the essentiall wisdom Then he proceedeth thus God that made the world and all things therein seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth dwelleth not in Temples made with hands neither is worshipped with mens hands as though he needed any thing seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things c I would have you to mark the excellency of the true wise man namely how he speaketh unto the mundan Philosophers of Athens the divine wisdom and therefore the solid and essentiall Philosophy for he expresseth in the foresaid Text that the Spirit of God or Christ which is God dwelleth not in artificiall Temples but maketh every naturall thing his Sanctuary and above all creatures and by super-excellency he pointeth at Man as you shall see hereafter And therefore he affirmeth that the same divine spirit of wisdom giveth to every creature for his words are He giveth to all life breath and all things and therefore if to all things then there is not any thing that is naturated by it but liveth and breatheth or hath his existence from and in this wisdom the which is therefore rightly tearmed the Corner-stone forasmuch as on him all creatures rely and exist And therefore it is he onely who is that light of the world in whom is that life which doth vivifie all things as in another place the Apostle doth teach us and who is all and in all as we have it in another place where also it is said that in him is all things and he in every thing as well visible as invisible And in conclusion He filleth all things and worketh all and in all Doth not Solomon seem to assent unto all this where he saith that Gods Spirit is in all things Then the said Apostle proceedeth thus And he made of one blood all mankind to dwell on the face of the earth and hath assigned the seasons which were ordained before and the bounds of their habitations that they should seek the Lord if so be they might have groped after him and found him though doubtlesse he be not far from every one of us for in him we live we move and have our being For we are also his generation c. Lo here the infinite and admirable vertue of this divine Corner-stone which is Jesus Christ who is the essentiall subject and ground work of the true philosophy I meane that sacred wisdome which is so extolled and magnified by the old and new Testament And therefore the same Apostle said rightly in the foresaid place In Christo sunt omnes The sauri scientiaeet sapientiae absconditi In Christ are all the Treasures of Knowledge and Sapience hidden whereby in the first place it is made evident that there is no true philosophy which hath not this spirituall foundation namely Christ Jesus in whom is the plenitude of all divinity corporally and who is the head as well of the Angelicall nature as of all inferiour things else of what soever condition all which being so we may see how farre the Greekish philosophy doth differ from the truth and therefore me thinks it should not be so seriously followed being that the Scriptures have delineated unto us a more compleat and perfect path way unto wisdome Againe it appeareth evidently that the Greekish philosophers and consequently that kind of humane or mundane wisdome whereon it is built or established is-terrene animal and diabolical because it contradicteth the true wisdome or philosophy and therefore it is proved to be false as shall more at large be expressed unto you in the chapters following CHAP. II. Wherein the originall or beginning of the true wisdom and consequently of the essentiall Philosophy is opened and then the nature and power of it is really described WE purpose now in in the first place to search out the originall fountain of the true wisdom and therefore of the essentiall Philosophy And then in the second rank I will expresse the definition of it after that I will shew you that it is the foundation not onely of the true externall Philosophy with the sciences which depend thereon but also the discoverer of all mysteries and hidden secrets yea and the onely revealer of things as well past as those which are to come Concerning the originall or beginning of this sacred wisdom I will prove by the consent and harmony of the whole Bible that it is in God the Father of light and therefore it must be clean contrary in nature unto the wisdom of this world which is terrene and animal as the Apostle hath it Sapientâ—ae daetor inventor Deus est The giver and inventor of wisdom is God as the Prophets do intimate unto us Sapientia fortitudo Domini sint saith Daniel Sapience and fortitude be the Lord's Sapientia in antiquis est in multo tempore prudentia saith Job Wisdom is of antiquity and prudency of a long standing Again Sapientiam dat Dominus ex ore ejus prudentia scientia saith Solomon The Lord giveth wisdom prudency and science issue from his mouth And again Sapientiam possidet Deus in principio viarum suarum antequam quicquam faceret à principio ab aeterno ordinata est concepta erat cum nondum erant abyssi God did possesse wisdom in the beginning of his waies before he made any thing from the beginning even from eternity was she ordained she was conceived when there was no abysse Sapientia à Deo profecta est prior omnium creata saith the son of Syrach Wisdom came from God and was the first created of all things And again Ex ore Altissimi prodivi primogenita ante omnem creaturam saith she in her own person I came or issued out from the mouth of the most High being born before any creature Sapientia caelitus mittatur de sanctis coelis ut mecum sit mecum laboret saith Solomon in another place Let wisdom be sent from thy holy heavens to assist me and to labour with me And againe he expresseth the time of her election the manner of her exaltation and way to seperate her truth from falsehood in these few words which are golden ones Sapientiam dei ab initio nativitatis investigabo ponam in lucem nec praeteribo veritatem I will find out the wisdome of God even from the beginning of her nativity and I will put her into light neither will I passe over or omit the truth By all these places and many more which I could produce it is made manifest that this excellent spirit of which we intend to treat in this place is the true wisdome and withall it must needs follow that the philosophy which dependeth on it is the
gunpowders force raised in the aire to a certain height moving neither lower nor higher then the form all vigor affordeth it vertue and there remaineth untill the force of the corruptible and wasting fire be spent and then it falleth down againe But the Light of the star carrieth and raiseth up the spirituall body according unto the proportion of the mounting Light which soreth as high as its power and the ponderosity of the body will permit and so it hangeth perpetually at a certain distance from the center because the fire is of an eternall and incorruptible nature and will not fade as that artificiall fire of the squib doth Now as all the illuminating vigors and animating forces or flames that are imparted unto the universall waters was bestowed on them by that bâ—ight catholick Spirit or emanation which was sent forth by God to be carried on the waters which as Scripture doth averre is brighter then the Sun or Starrs So there is none of all those Lights which are separated or divided in essence from that glorious and glittering Spirit whose beams were dispersed over all the waters in the abysse in giving of them life and being For this reason therefore because each Light had a diversity in proportion of formall brightness and measure of corpulency it is that one celestiall body doth vary in his manner of vertue motion and influence from another but because the extracted quintessence or purer materiall essence of all the Chaos with the purity of Light that issued from the creating Spirit were united into an Angelicall alterity both of those natures in the figure of one masse sored up out of the dark abysse into the heaven's center where they challenged the Royall Phoebaean Throne and that Sphaericall masse is to this hour termed the Sun of Heaven which as from the created Fountain of Light enflameth and formally enlightneth all the rest of the Starrs in the heavens above and the Element and elementated creatures below So that after the universall contracted Light was effected the fourth day of the Creation it was ordained to be that capitall Organ of life and vegetation in the starry world which did send and showre down his influences and fiery spiracles of life conservation vegetation and multiplication upon the sublunary earth and waters Thus therefore in few words you have the reason of that Condensation and Rarefaction whereby both the invisible heavenly Substance and visible celestiall bodies were made And it seemeth not to disagree from the opinions of the learned Theologians Basil and Damascene touching the causes of the divine Spirit 's action in Condensation and Rarefaction before the apparition of the Sun in the heavens Forasmuch as they will have the daie's Rarefaction or cleare heaven to be occasioned by an emission of Light ordained by the divine will or act of this Omnipotent Spirit But they think that the night's Condensation and the opake or condensed bodie in the heavens are effected by a contraction of Light which was also caused by the sacred Spirit 's volunty Thus therefore we see out of the confession of certain of the prime Fathers of the Church what was the cause of the cold condensing Night and the hot rarifying Day before the Spirit was congregated into the Tabernacle or quintessentiall substance of the Sun which was extracted by the Spageâ—ick or separative action of the divine Spirit out of the huge deformed waters of the abysse And therefore this also must be the reason of Condensation and Rarefaction unto this day For as the Spirit in the Sun being far from us and as it were contracting his beames in regard of us unto himself or absenting himself from our Hemisphere so that the cold waters do incline unto the nature of their mother Chaos by reason whereof the night and darkness are long and the light and day but short and faint in heat So also in that season the common sublunary Element is subject to Condensation and Incrâ—ssation and therefore is constrained or contracted into the consistence of Frosts Snows Hail Ice and Cold showers c. Again when it is neare unto us it dilateth it self and by his heat and presence the cold waters become hot and the daies are augmented and fortified or made strong in heat and then the common sublunary Element is apt for dilatation and subtiliation being easy to be inflamed and set on fire with Lightnings coruscations and such like But I leave the history of the Condensation and Subtiliation of the aethereall Spirit to descend unto the like acts or conditions in the sublunary Element CHAP. V. How the lower waters or catholick sublunary element were distinguished ordered and shaped out into sundry distinct sphears which are called particular Elements and that by the foresaid all-working Spirit or dâ—vine Word SInce that it is most certainly proved already that the universall substance of the world's machin was made but of one onely thing namely of a matter that was produced out of the potentiall bowells of the dark chaos or abyss by the spagerick vertue of the divine Word the which matter Moses tearmed Waters and Hermes the humid nature of the which in generall as both Moses and St. Peter aver the heavens and the earth were made of old it must needs follow that out of this catholick masse of waters the universall sublunary element was derived which is commonly termed by the name of Aer as all that humid substance in the celestiall orbe is called Aether Now this generall element is by the breath of the divine Spirit Râ—ach Elohim altered and changed from one shape unto another for that which is the visible waters was made first of the aire which is an invisible water as again the visible water by condensation is made earth And this is proved first by the words of St. Paul who saith Per fidem agnovimus quod semper ita actum sit cum mundo per Verbum ut ex iis quae videri non poterant fierent ea quae possunt videri We know by faith that it hath been ever acted with the world by the word that those things which can be seen were effected or made of those things which could not be seen And again Solomon saith that the world was made of a matter that was not seen But besides these proofs we are taught by chymicall experience that earth is nothing else but coagulated water nor visible water any thing else but invisible air reduced by condensation to a visibility nor fire any thing else but ratified aire And in conclusion all the sublunary waters were in the beginning but an invisible humid or watry spirit which we call by a common name Aire and consequently the catholick sublunary element was in its originall nothing else but one aire being that heaven was made before the seas or the earth as Moses teacheth us And therefore by faith we must believe according unto St. Paul's doctrine that all
nostrills the waters were gathered together thou dâ—dst blow with thy winde and the sea covered them And Job Glaciem edit Deus vento suo flante Deo concrescit gelu God doth bring forth the ice with his breath when he doth blow the frost and ice ice is ingendered Deus facit pondus vento God giveth proportion unto the aire or winde And the Prophet David Qui facit angelos ventos minâ—stros suos ignem urenâ—em Who maketh his angels winds and his ministers flames of fire And hereupon such learned personages and Doctors as are profoundly seen and dived into the mysteries of the true nature do averre that the externall of the Angels is aire or the subtle humid nature of the world and that their internall or formall portion is a hidden divine fire And for this cause St. Denis doth tearm the Angels Algamatha that is to say clear Mirrours or looking-Glasses which do receive the splendour or light of God and do represent his image And therefore the Prophet in the place above mentioned doth describe both the hidden and invisible winde and that which is fiery and doth manifestly appear in the form of lightning to be an angelicall spirit animated by the divine fire or bright emanation from God All which being rightly considered we must either confesse that the Spirit of the nostrills or mouth of IEHOVA is a hot and dry exhalation subject unto preternaturall passions and arising out of the earth which would appear too profanely uttered out of a Christian's mouth or that this member of the Peripateticall definition is most false and erroneous But this shall be discovered more plainly in my enquiry and laying open of the other members The second member of this definition doth intimate unto us that the place wherein that exhalation which is the materiall cause of the winde is ingendred and from the which it is derived is the earth but the place or seat unto the which it tendeth saith it is the middle region of the aire and the medium and space in which that moveth as well upward and downward as laterally is the lower region of the aire In the which assertion of this Ethnick Philosopher I will make plain and prove evidently that there will be found divers grosse errours and palpable absurdities But that we may the better effect our enquiry and hunt after the truth of the businesse that is to say for the exacter examinations cause it will be necessary for us to divide this member or clause into three parts in the first whereof we ought seriously to consider whether the matter of the winds be extracted out of the earth or no. In the second if that substance do onely soar up and make his way unto the concave superficies of the middle region of the aire onely In the third whether the place in which the wind moveth be onely the lower region of the aire To the former question or doubt we say That either the sacred Bible which is the fountain of truth is false or this particle of the second member must be most erroneous for saith St. John Spiritus ubi vult spirat vocem ejus audis sed nescis unde veniat aut quò vadat The wind or spirit bloweth where it will and thou hearest his voice but thou knowest not from whence it commeth or whither it goeth Which being rightly pondered by wise-men they must conclude that either Aristotle saw further into the mysteries of God and nature than the Evangelist who was a true and sincere Christian Philosopher and Theosopher and then St. John must be proved a lyar in his doctrine which were a great impiety in any Christian to imagine or else the assertion of Aristotle must clearly be found false and in all things contradictory unto the truth Aristotle saith that the matter of the winde doth move from the earth and ascendeth into the middle region of the aire and from thence is repelled downward But St. John saith that the winde moveth not constrainedly that is to say by coaction nor any accidentall compulsion but voluntarily and according unto its own pleasure and appetite for his words are Spiritus spirat ubi vult It bloweth where it will and that although the voice and noise of it be familiar unto the ears yet neverthelesse it is not known from whence it commeth or whither it will This doctrine of the Evangelist which so mainly differeth from that of Aristotle is maintained out of divers places of holy Writ for the royall Psalmist with the Prophet Jeremy saith Depromit ventos è the sauris suis He draweth forth the winds out of his treasuries But the Scriptures prove that the earth is not the seat or place of Gods treasure where it speaketh thus Aperiet tibi IEHOVAH thesaurum suum optimum coelos dando pluviam terrae suo tempore IEHOVA will open unto thee his best treasure the heavens giving rain unto the earth in his due time He doth not say the earth but the heavens so that between these two there is a great difference as between night and day Wherefore it is evident that the heaven or catholick element of air is the secret cabinet of these meteorologica Dei magnalia or meteorologick wonders Hereupon it is said in another place Januas coelorum aperuit pluens Manna c. He opened the gates of heaven raining down Manna Again it is so hard a thing for a mortall man that is not illuminated with the spirit of wisdom to find out or discover this arcane treasury of God that JEHOVAH himself speaketh unto Job though he were a just man and one that feated God much more he pointeth at the wise-man or Philosopher of this world who never was acquainted with the divine Word in this manner Pervenisti nè in the sauros nivis et in the sauros grandinis inspectionem habes Camest thou ever into the treasury of the snow or hast thou any insight into the treasury of the hail Arguing that without his Spirit had shewed or revealed his treasury it was impossible to know it And for this cause Solomon saith Corpus infectum corruptione aggravat animam vix conjicimus ea quae in terra sunt quae autem in coelis sunt quis investigavit nisi tu dederis sapientiam The body which is subject unto corruption doth aggravate and depress the soul and we scarcely conjecture or guesse at those things which are upon the earth Who hath found out or discovered the things which are in heaven unlesse thou give and bestow upon him wisdom Now Soâ—omon confesseth that he knew the force of the elements and power of the winds and consequently of their reall originall or beginning for Sapientia saith he omnium artifex me docuit Wisdom the worker of all things taught him Now Aristotles false Philosophy and his Ethnick and worldly wisdom sheweth that he never attained unto the wisdom which
words Quis hominum cognoscit consilium Dei nam ratiocinationes mortalium sunt timidae instabiles cogitationes eorum Infestum enim corruptioni corpus aggravat animam deprimit terrena habitatio mentem plenam curis multis vix conjicimus ea quae in terra sunt quae autem in coelis sunt quis investigavit consilium tuum quis noverit nisi tu dederis sapientiam miseris sanctum Spiritum tuum è locis altissimis sie enim correctae sunt eorum quae in terris sunt semitae itaque sapientiâ fuerint salvati What man doth know the counsell of God for the reasonings of mortall men are doubtfull and unstable are their cogitations For the body being subject unto corruption doth aggravate the soul and an earthly habitation doth depresse the mind which is full of cares And we do scarcely guesse at the things which are upon the earth who is then able to find out the things which are in heaven Or who can know thy counsell unlesse thou shalt give wisdom and send thy holy Spirit from above for by that means were the waies of such men as were upon the earth corrected and amended and therefore were they saved or preserved by wisdom c. Out of which golden words I gather first That the heathen men were ignorant in the mysteries and abstruse operations of God because they wanted the true spirit of wisdom which God revealeth unto his Elect by the vertuous infusion and influxion of his holy Spirit Next that for this reason the subject of true Philosophy is not to be found in Aristotle's works but in the Book of truth and wisdom forasmuch as it is a copy of the revealed Word Thirdly that it is a great folly for Christians to seek for the truth where it is not to be found I mean in the works of the pagan Philosophers and that is made manifest forasmuch as it contradicteth altogether the verity of Scriptures and therefore it is pronounced by St. James to be terrene animal and diabolicall Verbum saepienti CHAP. XIII A conclusion of this work including an admonition unto all good Christians to beware of the Ethnick Philosophy and to stick and cleave fast unto that which is taught us by the Scriptures and that for reasons herein set down LEt it now be lawfull for me in the concluding of this Section O ye Europaeans who seem so seriously and zealously to spend your daies in the Christian Religion to turn the sharp edge of my pen and the rougher file of my speech unto you who being too too much seduced by the fals doctrin of Aristotle do think and imagine the meteors but especially lightning and thunder to be a common natural thing of little or no estimation at all as being onely produced of nature by reason of a hot distemper of the air I would request you as a true Christian ought unto his brethren to observe well and attend with diligence this admonition which I will for a Farewell bestow upon you beseeching you not to scorn or reject my precedent assertion whith hath told and sufficiently proved unto you that the lightnings and thunders yea and all other meteors are the immediate works of Gods hand being that by this endeavour of mine you may not onely bring a comfort and consolation unto your soules when you hear the terrible voice of the Lord and make you to call to mind your passed sins and iniquities and to pray him heartily to pardon you and not to call your offences unto an account in his anger but also give the honour and glory unto him who thundering from above worketh marvellously I would have you therefore to know that the worldly wise-men of this our Christian world who are as it were pages or followers of the Ethnick Philosophers have hitherto blindly or after the manner of lunatick persons erred in their imaginations forasmuch as they being instructed in the blind wisdom of this world by their Ethnick tutors and doctors will not be brought to believe that God doth work immediately all things in heaven and in earth onely by his word but mediately namely by other necessary natural or supernatural means as essential efficient causes when as the holy Text doth in plain terms instruct us that it is one the self-same essence which doth act and operate all in all by his word using each creature onely as his organ or instrument wherein and by the which he moveth and worketh his will Is not this their tenet or assertion I beseech you altogether opposite and contradictory unto the divine authority which saith Though there be that are called gods whether in heaven or in earth as there be many gods and many lords yet unto us there is but one God which is that Father of whom are all things and we in him and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him But every man hath not that knowledge c Out of which words we may gather that though we worldlings attribute this or that work unto angels or stars or winds or a created nature according unto the doctrine of the Ethnick wisdom yet such true Christian Philosophers as St. Paul was dâ—d acknowledge but one God of whom proceed all actions in this world and one Word by which onely and not by any creature in the world each thing is immediately effected in this world All which although unto reall Christians it seemeth verity and truth yet unto the Philosophers and wise men of this world this kind of doctrine issuing from the heavenly wisdom is rejected and derided And why Forsooth because as the Text doth teach us every man hath not this knowledge and the reason is because they respect more the wisdom of this world which is terrene and animal and as St. Paul saith meer foolishness before God then that which is from above namely from the Father of light Et sic evanuerunt in imaginationibus suis And so they did vanish in their imaginations I heartily wish you therefore which are brought up and made familiar in the holy Bible and nourished spiritually and guided by the law of our Lord Jesus Christ to conceive seriously and perpetually to revolve with your selves that God created the first consistence of things namely the humid and fluid waters by his word and they remain in the word and by the word in the self-same humid or moist estate as they did even unto this very day Also he framed out of this catholick water the heaven and the earth by his word as St. Peter saith Again he did produce by his said word the light in heaven the Sun the Moon the Starrs the day the night and all other creatures and did ordain them to serve for divers Organs by the which he might variously act or operate his volunty as well in heaven above as in the earth and waters beneath All which do move and work in and by the Word
there is not any bodily substance that is viod of a soul and that the world and every part thereof doth consist of a body therefore there is an intermediate spirit betwixt this soul and body which they neither call a soul or a body but a mean substance participating of them both to reduce both extreams together into one The wiser sort of Alchymists do make the Soul a certain infinite nature or power in all things which doth procreate like things of their like for this nature doth engender all things yea and multiplieth and nourisheth or sustaineth them and they also style it the Ligament or bond of the elements since by it they are fastned together with the Symphoniacal accords of peaceable harmony although of themselves that is in regard of their matter they are dissonant Also it is termed the true virtue that mingleth and proportionateth every thing in this sublunary world allotting unto each specifick creature a convenient and well agreeing form that thereby one thing might be distinguished and made to vary from another and in conclusion the mysticall Rabbies do averre that this occult fire is that Spirit of the Lord or fiery love which when it moved upon the waters did impart unto them a certain harmonious and hidden fiery vertue without whose lovely assistance and favorable heat nothing could be generated of them or multiplied in them Thus you may discern the manifold opinions as well of Christian as Heathen Philosophers touching this Anima mundi or soul of the world which will appear to vary little or nothing at all from the tenent of Holy Scripture in sense but in words onely Neither are these their opinions so hainous or abominable as some more superstitiously zealous than truly understanding Christians of this our Age will make them if they will scan the matter wisely and with moderation for then they shall really perceive that it doth concurre with the Bible of Truth And to confirm what I now say my purpose is in the first place to expresse unto each learned and well minded Reader the harmony of the Scriptures touching this point and then I will compare every one of the foresaid opinions with the sense and grounds of the said harmony that each wise man may thereby the better conjecture and guesse at the truth of the business before he shall rashly enter into the censuring of that deep and profound mystery which concerneth the Divine action in naturall effects I told you in my precedent discourse that the Eternall Unity which is the God of gods and Beginning of beginnings did cause by a double property in one essence two divers principles to issue out of himself whereof the one was potentiall and no way as yet inacted by the brightnesse of his emanation and in that respect is termed Darkness privation Nolunty opposit to Light and a friend unto death and rest The other was actuall and nothing else but a pure catholick form and brightness which is tearmed Light Position Volunty and in nature opposit to Darknesse and a friend unto life and action or motion And then I signified unto you that by the bright appearance of Eternity or the Eternall Spirit of Wisdom which I termed with the Scriptures the radiant emanation or effluxion from the Almighty which is all one with him in essence the deformed waters were inacted and made manifest out of this dark Principle or Chaos that is reduced from Potentia Divina or the Divine Puissance without form in which they abode into Actum Divinum the Divine Act and because all the humid and passive catholick nature of which both the heavens and the earth were framed did issue from this Mass of watery matter which the Poets call Pana or the second birth of Chaos we must imagine it to be that spirituall matter of the world which was made fertill and multiplicable by reason of that hidden active and formall Light or invisible fire which this increated emanation imparted unto it immediatly before the creation of the heavens and the earth Whereupon the holy Text hath it Spiritus Domini serebatur super aquas The Spirit of the Lord moved or was carried upon the waters And as St. Aâ—gustin addeth to it igneum illis vigorem impâ—râ—ieâ—s Bestowâ—ng upon thâ—m a fiery vigor or formall and actâ—ve vertue Now as we see that Man which is called the little-world is composed of soul and body whereof the soul is his heaven or spirituall part or as we may say the superiour and higher waters and the body with the humours thereof as it were the lower waters is the earth and gâ—osser humouâ—s and each of these two are informed united and vivified by the Spirit of life which God inspired into it even so we may observe that the heaven or spirituall humid nature of the great world is animated by the eternall emanation or spirit of the supernaturall wisdom of God to give life and figure unto the world And forasmuâ—h as it is eaâ—ie to discern that the macro cosmicall heavens are of two sorts namely composed of upper spirituall waters which are called Aeâ—her or heavenly and of the lower spirituall waters which are called Aer or elementary no otherwise than in the lesser world or man the receptacle of the heavenly spirit is known to be Aer so that Physitians distinguish by reason of this difference between the vitall or aetheriall spirits and the naturall or elementary body So we ought to consider that this materiall humid spirit of the heavens in both worlds which are the subtlety of the waters are in themselves dead but in respect of the super-celestiall emanation into them which informeth and vivifieth them they live move and are thinner or thicker according unto that more or less formall grace which the all-informing Spirit doth allot them for the more the sacred Spirit of life doth abound or really act in this or that region of the universall aire the more that sphear is thin subtle active worthy and noble Doth not Scripture seem to verifie that Deus sapientia sua aptet pondus aeri appendat aquas in mensura fecerit terram in fortitudine sua preparaverit orbem in sapientia sua prudentia sua extenderit coelos appenderit aquilonem super inane suspenderit terram super nihilum In coelorum structura cum Deus stabiliret fundâ—menta terrae ipsa aderat cuncta componens And again Wisdom saith Ex ore altissimi prodii primogenita ante omnem creaturam in initio ante seculum creata sum usque ad futurum seculum non desinam habitatione sancta coram ipsum ministravi In coelis â—eci ut oriretur lumeninde ficiens sicut nebula texâ— omnem terram In altissimis habitavi thronus meus in columna nubis coeli gyrum circuivi sola profundum abyssi penetravi in fluctibus maris ambulavi in omni terra sâ—eti Feci Arcturum Orionem converti in
excellently-bright throne of Eternity All this in effect we may collect from the Fathers of the Church for St. Dionys. saith That an Angell is the image of God and the shining forth of his hidden light a mirrour pure and most bright without spot without wemm and withâ—ut defiling And for this cause he calleth the Angels Algamatha that is mâ—st clear Mirrâ—rs receâ—ving the light of God arguing theâ—eby that they are the images of the catholick Emanation from whence they spring For Scriptures say that the Spirit of wisdom is the brighâ—nesse of the eternall light a glasse or mâ—rroâ— of the maâ—esty of God wâ—thout â—pot and the image of his Goodnesse And Bartholâ—mâ—w saith That an Angell taketh his hidden light from God by influence and sendeth it forth unto those Angells whiâ—h are of a lower order or condition And Austin and Damascens say that Angeâ—ls are intellectuall lights receiving their light from the first light Again Baâ—tholâ—mâ—w saith that they are called Gold by reason of the beams which they send forth Also they are called Fiery Rivers by reason of the bright influences which they receive and send forth to those of a lower region Also St. Dennis saith that the higher Ordeâ—s receive most plentiously the light of God which afterward they impart by influence unto such Spirits as are lower And this Law is observed in the Oâ—der of Angels namely that some be the first and some the second and some the last For this cause therefore the SERAPHINS are Angels so called because they are said to burn and be set on fire by reason of their immediate presence befâ—re the face of God But letting all these testimonies passe we are instructed by many places of Scripture that Angels are bright â—â—ning lights that they are above in the third heaven attending on the Throne that there are seven which are Presidents in heaven as there are seven Candlesticks which import the seven Planets and that there is one great Angeâ— that is head or master over them all which held the seven stars in his hand And that there are four Angels which have dominion over the four winds who have power to hurt the earth and the seas And that they are commanded and over-ruled by one great Angel who beareth the soveraâ—gn seal of preservation And that there is a Prince of daâ—knesse who is that great opposite spirit which hath dominion in the aire And that there are as well deadly as hurtfull Principalities Potestates and Governours in this world which are adverse unto Gods creatures as good Angels or Angels of light which are friends unto them To conclude the multiplicable fruit or seeds we compare unto the stars of heaven and the leaves unto the creatures below which have their natures and mutations from those internall or spirituall organicall agents So that we may see that Eternity giveth life unto eviality and eviality unto tempâ—rality And as we see that in the eternall world the First Person addeth a beeing unto the Second and the Third proceedeth from them both so the aeviall or Emperiall Angells poure down the influences of life into the Olympicall or heavenly ones and the Olympicall or starry spirits do send them down on the Elementary In the same manner the Emperiall Spirits are the soul or life unto the Starry or Aetheriall heaven which animateth by his influences the Elementary and the earth is animated by them all Thus therefore we see that God operateth by his divine organs variously all in all which being well understood in the first place we may boldly conclude that also all the peculiar angelicall lights do proceed from one and the self-same catholick Emanation aâ—d consequently we find that the diversity and opposition of their natures proceed from the multiplicity of properties which is in that generall emanation proceeding from the throne oâ— God or Unity before all beginnings And this is the reason that this eternall creating Spirit of wisdom is tearmed by Solomon Unicus multâ—plex One and manifold One I say in regard of his essence and manifold in regard of the multiplicity of its properties by which it worketh variously and sometimes by opposition in the world But all this is excellently expressed by the learned Cabalisticall Rabbies in the description of their Numericall or Sephiroticall Tree You must therefore understand that as the mysticall Theologians did observe but ten speciall names or attributes which were ascribed unto God in the Hebrew Bible a proprietate so they did perceive that each of these did import a diverse operation to be effected so that the Hebrewes did call upon this or that Name of God mentioned in the holy Text according unto the nature of the severall necessity they had of Gods assistance And though they collected by the word of God that as the Divinity or Godhead is but one internall immutable essence and therefore hath but one onely essentiall title to be expressed by namely Tetragrammaton or Jehova which is his unseparable name forasmuch as it is appropriated unto him onely for it includeth as Rabbi Moses the Aegyptian hath it and argueth by a pure signification the substance of the Creator without any respect or participation that it hath unto the creature yet neverthelesse they found that the other names ascribed unto him in Scripture do note or signify God as he participateth with his creatures or as he hath relation unto things that are created and consequently are known by the effect of his works As touching his essentiall name it was had amongst the Hebrewes or Jewes in that high esteem and reverence that it was never uttered but in the Sanctuary and that by such Priests as were consecrated and made holy onely unto the Lord and then it was pronounced in that Benediction which the High Priest uttered in the day of fasting For this reason that name was had in that honourable regard that it was never rashly spoken or uttered because as the said Rabbi Moses saith denotat Deum esse fuisse super omnem essentiam quatenus antequam ullares esset existeret Iâ— importeth that God is and was above any essence forasmuch as he did exist before that any thing was existent in the world And this was that pretious Name of God which Moses was so desirous of him to hear and know when he received from him this answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hoc est nomen meum in aeternum IEHOVA is my everlasting name Which name is so pure and simple that it cannot be articulated or compounded or truly expressed by mans voice As for the other denominations appropriated unto God they do not expresse him according unto his Essence but onely in respect of his works as is said namely as he appeareth all in all and existeth in all things We must understand therefore for our better instruction that seeing the Divine Nature is and operateth in all created things as also without them for he is the
you say and there may be a microcosmicall Magnes or Load-stone which may be selected and gathered out of the living man without any detriment or prejudice unto his life whose vertues both in regard of its monstrous and unnaturall generation being composed of unlike parents and being compacted of two substances different in kinde as the Mule is namely of an earthly Mercury and cholerick sulphureous human spirits as also in his manner of attraction of the spirituall Mummy out of the living man yea and what is far more admirable by the transplantation of it either to the animal or vegetable kinds it worketh after a strange fashion either sympathetically or antipathetically I know that these newes will streight way be esteemed by some who are apter to judge amiss than rightly to scan to be diabolicall And why Marry because they passe the sphear of their capacities And yet I know this to be true and know them which have put it in execution not without the wonderment of many yea I know this Microcosmicall Magnet and the use thereof the which when it is tryed by wise-men and well pondered by them will appear as naturall as the effects thereof will seem strange and the reason abstruse But if that which I have said before be well understood and seriously pondered the cause hereof will not seem so hidden as that it should exceed the limits of nature Of this kind of magneticall action as well sympatheticall as antipatheticall I purpose by Gods grace to discourse more at large in the third or last Book of this Treatise or History CHAP. V. In this Chapter is expressed the secret cause why and manner how as well the Microcosmicall as Macrocosmicall Load-stone doth operate ad distans and thâ—â— unto an unknown dimension or unlimited intervall MR. Foster hath sufficiently expressed the shallowness of his Philosophy where he averreth That because the light of the Sun and Stars cannot penetrate the thick clowds and opake bodies Ergo the formall essence of a man is not able to pierce and penetrate directly in his course without being stopped or hindred by Castles Hills Woods and such like But had he been a little more profoundly seen or immersed in the bowels of true Philosophy he would have known that the Etheriall sperm or Astralicall influences are of a far subtiler condition than is the vehicle of visible light Yea verily they are so thin so mobile so penetrating and so lively that they are able and also do continually penetrate and that without any manifest obstacle or resistance even unto the center or inward bosom of the earth where they generate mettals of sundry kinds according unto the condition of the influence as the antient Philosophers do justifie The subtlety therefore of this spirit Plotinus according unto Plato's minde doth fully expresse in these words Tanta est Aetheris tenuitas ut omnia corpora penetret universi tam supera quam infera cum ipsis conjunctus aut implicitus ea major a minime reddat quia spiritus iste interior cuncta opera eorum mole minima nullum prorsus augmentum recipiente alit atque conservat The tenuity of the Aether is such that it doth penetrate all the bodies of the world as well above in heaven as below on earth and this heavenly substance being joyned and mixed with them it maketh them not a jot the bigger for all that because this inward spirit doth nourish and preserve all bodies without adding any thing unto their weight or encreasing of their substance And by reason of this heavenly natures purity or subtlety the heaven or coelum is called by the wiser Philosophers and mysticall Poets the Husband unto the earth which they tearm Vesta yea and the very stars of heaven among the which the Copernicans ranck the earth are likened unto his wife being that they are extracted out of the aetheriall substance no otherwise than Eve was out of the side of Adam for they are defined to be the thickest portions of their orbs by reason whereof they are accounted as the members of heaven and consequently there is nothing so thin subtle and piercing as is that spirit from whence by condensation they are derived This is the cause that the true Alchymists do tell such wonders of their Coelum which they call their Quintessence arguing that by reason of its purity and subtlety it is able to penetrate all things And the Philosophers say that it is their nature which they define to be Vis quaedam rebus infinita omnia permeans entia cunctas generans res easque augens alensque ex similibus similia procreans A certain infinite power in things which penetrateth and passeth through all things ingendring every thing and augmenting and nourishing them and procreating like things of their like And verily if you will be pleased to consider really what I have spoken before you will remember how I told you that the angelicall vertue proceeded from the archetypicall emanations and are the types of the divine Idea Again that the aetheriall spirit was filled with the angelicall influences which had their essentiall root from God So that in verity it is not the starry light which penetrateth so deeply or operateth so universally but that eternall centrall spirit with which his divine and unresistable essence penetrateth all things both in heaven above and in the earth and waters beneath And all this the mysticall Philosophers seemed to verifie though darkly when they called Saturn which was the father also of Jupiter or the head of the catholick emanation the father of Coelum or Heaven arguing thereby that in the emission of the spirit of wisdom he produced created or informed the heavens according to that of Job Coelum ornasti Spiritu tuo Thou didst adorn the heavens by thy Spirit And David Verbo Domini fimati sunt coeli Spiritu ab ore ejus omnis virtus eorum By the word of the Lord the heavens were made and by his Spirit each vertue thereof And St. Peter Coeli erant prius terra ex aquis per aquas existentes verbo Dei The heavens were first and the earth of water and by the waters existing by the word of God It is certain therefore that the whole essentiall act of the aetheriall spirit is the divine emanation or the bright incorruptible Spirit of the Lord and therefore of necessity that spirit which is worthy to be the immediate vehicle of so unresistible and emanating influence must be conformable to it in purity and subtility which is the informer who is said by the wise Solomon to be Omni re mobilior subtilior attingere ubique propter suam munditiam innovare omnia implere orbem terrarum To be the most active and moveable and subtill of all things and to penetrate and pass everywhere by reason of his purity in essence and to renew and refresh all things and to fill the
which words each Christian may discern how adverse the divine Philosopher Paul is unto the imaginary vertue and immediate act of either the Peripatetick's Daemons and Intelligences or of the starry bodies and influences or of the qualiâ—ies of his four Elements or of the Winds and other Meteors mentioned by their Master Aristotle And although they appear in outward shew that they act or work of themselves in this world yet our true Philosopher Paul teacheth us that by his Philosophy whose basis or ground is the true wisdom Jesus Christ he can discern no other Agent but one primary of whom are all things and the other secundary by whom are all things both which he acknowledgeth to be but one in essence for the one being an emanation out of the other doth onely and of himself operate all in all This is the perfect tenent of the essentiall Philosophy And therefore whatsoever the mundan and Ethnick Philosophy doth tell and by insinuating subtlety perswade us unto which is apparently contrary unto the true Philosophy we ought not in any case to believe And unto this the said divine Philosopher seemeth to consent in these words Though an angel from heaven doth preach unto you otherwise then that whâ—ch we have preached unto you let him be accursed If any man preach otherwise then that ye have received let him be accursed And therefore seeing that the Aristotelian learning is contradictory in diverse main points unto the positions of the essentiall wisdom or philosophy a true Christian ought not in the main points to believe it seeing that as St. James hath it the grounds and tenour of it are opposite unto the holy Bible which is the onely cabinet of truth and therefore is pronounced by him to be terrene animal and diabolicall Hereupon St. Paul writeth unto his schollar Timothy in this style Timothy keep that which is committed unto thee and avoid profane and vain bablings and oppositions of sciences falsly so called which while some professe they have erred concerning the faith In which words he seemeth to forewarn his Disciples that they be not entangled with the sophisticall allurements of the woâ—ldly Philosophy which contradicteth the truth and is not pacifick but troublesome and full of vain disputes and opposition pronouncing such kind of Philosophy to be not truly but falsly called a science as also all those sciences which depend on it And moreover insinuates unto his disciples that such Christians as profess it with too too vehement a devotion and confidence have by the meanes of it been subtilly induced into errors concerning the faith which is grounded upon the Anchor-hold of this invisible wisdome which is the spirituall Christ Jesus Again in this sense he giveth this Caveat before specified unto his Colossian disciples Beware that no man do deceive you by Philosophy and vaine fallacy according unto their adition of men according unto the Elements of this world and not according to Christ c. Whereby he admonisheth us Christians to eschew the false philosophy of the Ethnicks and to stick firmly unto the rules and doctrine of the true wisdome and therefore he saith in the same Text In Christo ambulate radicati et aedificati in ipso c. walk yee firmly rooted in Christ c. whereby he intendeth that Christ is the only corner-stone and ground work of the true Philosophy being that all creatures yea and the whole world is founded on it and consequently that the foundation of Paganish philosophy is sandy and of no validity whereupon the Apostle saith Fundamentum aliud nemo potest ponere praeter id quod positum est quod est Christus Jesus No man can lay any other true foundation but that which is laid which is Jesus Christ. Now that this is clean contrary unto the false grounds of the Ethnicks the said Apostle seemeth to intimate in these words Hoc dico ut non ambuletis sicut et gentes ambulant in vanitate sensus sui tenebris obscuratum habentes intellectum alienati in vita Dei per ignorantiam quae est in illis propter caecitatem cordis eorum c. I say this that you should not walk as the gentiles do in the vanity of their senses having their understandings obscured with darkness being alienated from the life of God by ignorance which is in them by reason of their blindnesse of heart I must now come to particularize upon the erroneous and false doctrine of the Peripatetick or Aristotelian philosophy that thereby I may the better lay it open unto the world by comparing the vanity thereof with the goodnesse and perfection of the divine and sacred Sophia or wisdome CHAP. V. Here the erroneous doctrine of the Gentiles Philosophy is set down being proved for certaine reasons herein expressed to be founded upon the wisdome of this world and not upon that which descendeth from God NOw me thinks I heare some sharp-witted Aristotelian reply and say How can he prove that the peripatetick Philosophy is not descended from above And why should not the foundation thereof be the true wisdome which came from God But before I come to the answering of this objection I beseech thee gentle Reader give me liberty first to apologize a little for my self Be thou therefore pleas'd in the first place to understand from my just and upright spirit that I acknowledge and confess this Prince of the Peripatetick Philosophy to be a personage of a profound speculation and that he had as deep an insight into the light of nature as any of the common ranck of Philosophers in his time Yea verily he had so sharp an ingeny and so subtill and refined a spirit that he not only allured by his worldly craft and humane invention the Gentilish Greeks whereupon he was termed by them Cacodaemon or a deceitfull spirit or seducing from the truth but also Christians themselves of every sect even unto this present Insomuch that they are so wedded unto his worldly wisdome that they admire each new proficient in Philosophy of their Universities to maintaine his actions and not to decline from his doctrine As for my self though I may be rancked in that number yet now I have collected my spirits and have by Gods grace attained unto that light of holy Scriptures whereby I am made able to distinguish and discerne their essentiall collours from this praestigious one of Pagans I must say with Cicero that Quaedam promissa sunt servanda nimirùm licita and on the other side Quaedam promissa non sunt servanda nempe quae sunt illicita Lawfull promises are to be observed but such as are unconscionable are to be violated Now God forbid good Christians should imagine that any oath which is made to derogate from the verity of the holy Bible should be perpetually confirmed for that were to rebell against the truth Wherefore my essentiall Motto in this my old age notwithstanding any alleageance which I have by
this kind of Angelicall vertue the divine spirit doth work his privative effects and acts of Inspissation and fixation in the sublunary Element causing terrestriall and earthly effects But contrariwise we find that by and in the Southerne and Easterly Angelicall spirits the all-Creating and operating power doth cause Rarefaction and Subtiliation in the said inferiour waters through their essentiall action which is heat And for this cause the said hot winds do undoe by rarefaction all that which the cold Northern winds did effect by congelation Hence therefore it commeth that of this potent Angell who is said by the wise Cabalists to be the President and Governour of the Celestiall Sun which some terme Michael quasi Quis sicut Deus of whom we will speak hereafter also touching his Angelicall organs in the 4. Corners of the earth by which he useth to do his will it is sayed The sonne of man will send out his Angels from the four winds of heaven and moreover we shall find in the place before mentioned that this imperiall Angell did rise from the Easterly angle of the world and did command the foresaid fowr Angels which had dominion over the four winds as vassals unto his will For the Text hath it And I saw another Angell come up from the East and cryed with a loud voice unto the 4. Angels unto whom power was given c. Hurt not the earth neither the seas nor the trees till I have sealed c. Whereby it is apparent that the 4. Governours of the winds are subject unto that great Angell who is the powerfull and potent Intelligence which moveth and ruleth not only the Sun but sustaineth all things by vertue of this word and this Almighty Angell is esteemed by some to be the same mentioned in the first Chapter of the Apocal. Who said I am Alpha and Omega Now that the Sun by vertue of this omnipotent Spirit whose immediate angelicall organ or instrument the Angell Michael is doth govern the airy spirit both of the lower and upper world the wise Solomon doth seem to acknowledge where he saith Sol lustrans cuncta in circuitu pergit spiritus The sun illustrating all things the aire or spirit moveth about For this reason also the Philosophers have called the winds Titanei filii the sons of Titan or of the celestiall Sun It appeareth therefore that the increated spirit which supereminently moveth in the angelicall creature Michael and therefore El or Deus fortis is annexed unto it is that self-same Princely Spirit specified by the Prophet Ezekiel as is already proved who dwelleth in the great Angel who rising up from the East commanded the 4. governours of the winds with their legions whereby it is manifest that they have all their act and power from it and are ordained to be employed onely at his will either to effect privation or position and consequently to produce condensation or rarefaction in the world at his pleasure namely position and information by his light and heat and privation or deformation by his dark and cold property And hereupon the kingly Prophet speaketh thus Angeli Dei validissimi robore efficientes verbum ejus auscultantes voci ejus ministri ejus facientes placitum The strong Angels of God which do execute his word and hearken unto his voice are his mâ—nisters to perform his will And again Qui facis angelos tuos ventos et ministros tuos ignem urentem Who makest thy angels winds or spirits for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ruach signifieth Ventus Spiritus Flatus and thy ministers flames of fire Whereby it is evident that the eternall Breath is that which animateth the Angels the Angels give life and vigour first unto the stars and then unto the winds the winds first informe the elements or rather alter the catholick sublunary element into divers natures which are tearmed Elements and then by the mixtion of divers windy forms in that one element they do produce meteorologicall compositions of divers natures according unto the diversity of the windy forms which alter it But that I may the more pertinently discourse upon these businesses and withall discusse many difficulties and scruples which have not a little troubled the Philosophers and Theosophers of our age touching the principle tabernacle of this all-acting and creating Spirit in the world Before I passe any further in this my story of Condensation and Rarefaction I will expresse mine opinion touching that point at large because the enucleation of it will be very pertinent and necessary for the opening of this main businesse forasmuch as in it not onely the world's creation but also the emperiall government of the worlds Spirit and the formall manner of production of Meteors doth consist CHAP. III. What the cavills of this our age hath been touching the seat of the all-creating and universall inacting Spirit in this world And herein also it is proved that Jerom's translation upon this Text of David Posuit tabernaculum suum in sole God put his tabernacle in the sun is according unto the true sense of Scriptures And lastly the reason of the errour in our latter Translations is herein according unto the Author's capacity expressed I Confesse there hath been a great controversie whether Jerom or Tremellius or Pagnâ—ne and some others have erred in their translation of the fore-mentioned Hebrew Text for Jerom being of greater antiquity howsoever he found the nature of the Hebrew which he translated interpreteth the first verse of the nineteenth Psalm of David Posuit Deus tabernaculum suum in sole God hath put his tabernacle in the sun Pagnine making use of the same Text but perchance corrupted and altered from the Originall copy and therefore construeth the Hebrew thus In coelis posuit Soli tabernaculum He made for the Sun a tabernacle in the heavens And Tremellius expounds it Soli disposuit tentorium in iis He made the heavens a pavillion for the Sun Verily if we consider all things rightly we must imagine that either the Text must be altered and corrupted from that Originall copy which St. Jerom had or else the reverend Jerom's worth must of necessity be called into question for so grosse a mistaking Touching the petson surely the whole Christian Church in his days would not have made election of a man of mean skill in the Hebrew language to undergo a task of such importancy being for the main good of the whole Christian Church as was the translation of the Bible out of Hebrew into Latin It would not I say have relied upon a man of small cunning either in the Hebrew language or mysteries of divinity to judge of the likelyhood or coherence of the Scripture's Harmony and therefore the ability of the person unto whose charge so great a business was committed and consequently the fruits of his labours could no way be undervalued being compared unto either Pagnine or Tremellius Again that he was held for a person
a divine emanation which made 2. and had the self-same regard unto unity as the diapason or perfection hath unto an unison Now this bright emanation by the which all things were created and framed in true harmony elected in this world the perfect seat of its royall regard unto all creatures in the point of diapason which is ever in the middle of the unison and therefore in the center of the heavens But it appeareth unto the eyes that the Sun is ranked in the middle of the seven Planets and again it appeareth by the divine glory which shineth from it that it is a seat of divine perfection and therefore the Platonists have imagined that the Solar orbe or sphear is the seat of their anima mundi or soul of the world Now as this royall and most consonant Diapason doth comprehend in his capacity the other two inferior accords in Musick namely Diapente and Diatessaron for of these two united is the Diapason composed it is likely that the whole harmony of the heavens and consequently of the world are put in practise in this created organ the actor or player whereon is the eternall Spirit which soundeth out every minute from this his glorious Instrument straines of life vivification multiplication pacification or preservation unto the creatures for this is the office of the eternall Christ in this world I mean the divine Word in the which as the Evangelist John testifieth is life But of this in the next Eightly it is proved by a physicall or naturall regard For we observe and not we onely but the beasts themselves nay the very herbs and vegetable plants of the earth do feel and as it were confesse that the Sun is the chiefest treasury of vivification and multiplication in this world Whereupon it is apparent that when the Sun approacheth near us the herbs and trees which seemed as dead before do now revive put on their green coats and flourish with their blossoms and flowers But contrariwise when it departs on the other side of the Aequinoctiall they put off their flowers and green apparell and begin to mourn as it were for his departure But saith St. Paul Deus vivificat omnia God doth vivifie all things And therefore if the Sun by his presence bringeth unto the world the vertue of vivification it is apparent that it hath this gift from the Spirit of God which is the Spirit of life and being abundantly poured on it by God into this heavenly vessell it doth effect these vivifying acts in the world no otherwise than the same spirit being affluently infused on Christ Moses Elijah and other Saints upon earth did effect wonders upon the earth in healing reviving from death c. Doth not the sacred Text also aver that Sapientiam Deus effudit supra omnia opera sua secundum datum suum God hath poured out his spirit upon all his works more or lesse Why then should any man make any scruple or question touching the Spirit 's habitation in the Sun in abundance This therefore is the chiefe subject of this Psalme of David to expresse that the glory of God doth palpably appear out of the creatures of heaven yea out of every creature the eternall Spirit doth shine or expresse his glory more or lesse and is according to the gift which is given unto him to be discerned out of it And thereupon Job saith Coelos ornavit Deus Spiritu suo God hath adorned or beautified the heavens with his Spirit By which words it is manifest that it is the essentiall spirit of God which giveth by the abundance of his presence the lustre and glory unto the Sunne which for that reason is termed and that not erroneously by the Platonists who therein have imitated the divine Poet Orpheus Oculus mundi because that in and by it as in a certain clear and smooth looking glasse or mirrour all things are seen and discovered And again the philosopher Heraclitus Si solem è mundo sustuleris quid est nostrum Corpusculum s◠desit anima Nulla ibi contractatur vena pulsatilis sentiendum nullum inest judiciuns Nullus in eo vitalis halitus aut respiratio If thou takest away the Sonne out of the world what is our little body if the soul be wanting There is no beating veine or pulse to be discerned in it there is no judgment to be perceived in it there is neither breath nor respiration in it For this reason also it is termed Co◠caeli the heart of heaven because that as in the heart doth exist the lively fountaine of blood which doth water and humect the other members of the body So also it appeareth by effect that the vertue vegetation and conservation of all things both inferiour and superiour doth issue and spring from the Sun forasmuch as it imparteth and inspireth by his light life and heat unto inferiour things and bestoweth formall light unto the superiour Now this light is a certain simple act which converteth unto it self all things by a vivificall or lively heat which penetrateth all things and conducteth their vertues over all and withall disperseth and expelleth away all darknesse and obscurity Whereby it is apparent that if the life in generall be in the word as St. John saith and if this catholick spirit of life vivifieth all things as St. Paul and Judith affirm and if the spirit of wisdom be brighter than the sun and a simple and pure spirit which is more movable and active than all things and therefore operateth all in all and if it penetrateth all things by reason of his purity as Solomon saith and all these properties are found in the solar vertue What should disswade man from thinking that the Hebrew Text was not rightly understood of Jerom when he interpreted it Posuit tabernaculum suum in sole He put his tabernacle in the sun Verily this was necessary for man to understand being that unto this very hour there are but few that will acknowledge that the Spirit of God doth immediately operate and work in his organ the Sun and by the Sun but being rather seduced by the Ethnick learning they will admit many subalternate agents or efficient causes per se that is of themselves distinguished from the essentiall act of God which is the reason of Idolatry and worshipping of the creature for the Creator and neglect or ignorance of the Creator in the creature For although it be said by Solomon Quod solem praevenire oportet ad benedictionem Dei We ought to prevent the sun-rising to give thanks unto thee And again we read that when we pray we should conver our faces unto the east or rising sun Yet ought we to imagine that he teacheth this doctrine for the Creator's cause which dwelleth in that bright tabernacle and not for the tabernacle's or creature's sake For it was into this errour that the Aegyptians fell who adoring this illuminated creature in lieu of the Illuminator
is proved true For when the the wood and Coal is consumed we shall find that their terrestriall Corpulency or bodily masse is almost resolved by fire and heat into watry smoke and fumish ayre But the Philosophicall axiom is that every thing is resolved into his first matter or principle therefore it is apparent that both the water and aery smoke which make up the Earthly bulk of a great Oake or mountaine of pit-Coal was first of the invisible Ayre Again if these were not so the brimstone Stones and dust which authority of the Bible and common experience teacheth to descend from heaven being that they fall in one place or another daily would increase the Earth more and more But leaving these speculative proofs I will descend unto such ocular demonstrations as I have learned out of mine Experimentall glasse The Demonstration We find that from the lower region of the Calender or Weather-glasse unto the summity or top of the head there is nothing but a portion of the common invisible element namely the Aire within it But we shall find even in this little modell of aire strange mutations or alterations effected by vertue of the four winds which blow in the open element for when the hot Easterly wind doth blow it dilateth and extendeth it self all along the neck of the Glasse and beateth down the water unto the lowest degree by reason of its extension so that it approacheth unto the nature of fire for fire is said to be nothing else but aire extreamly dilated though indeed it is the abundant presence of the bright form which dilateth it so but if the South-wind bloweth then it will not be so extreamly dilated but it will endue the mean nature of aire and therefore it will draw up the water by certain degrees But if it happen that the westerly wind have the sole domininion in the sublunary element then will the aire in the Glasse grow thicker and for that reason it draweth or attracteth the water higher For cold hath a great power in the said air whose nature is to condense and thicken Lastly if the cold northern winds do govern or dispose of this universall sublunary element then will the included aire be contracted or coarcted into a very strait room which is argued in this namely because the colder the winde is the higher will the water be elevated in the Glasse and therefore it is made manifest that by how much the more the aire is contracted by so much the more it is thickened and consequently it must be made ponderous considering the proportion of place in which it is for all the aire which weighed thus much in half a yard of Place doth weigh at the least even so much in 2 inches of Space after Contraction Thus you see that in verity there is radically but one catholick sublunary Element though by the angelicall spirit that bloweth from the four corners of the heavens it is four-foldly informed and altered which made the Antients to imagine in their phantasies four distinct elements of an equall birth and beeing from all beginnings But you see apparently by this that is said that this position of the Peripateticks and other sects is false though that it hath gotten an universall name and dominion in this world among men as well of learning as of the ignorant who ground their sayings on the doctrine of the learned of this world who are corrupted and seduced from the truth by the Ethnick discipline I will now expresse unto you in the last place of this book how all generation and corruption in this world is made and that the lowest profundity or terminus ad quem the motion of corruption tendeth is but unto the simple element of nature and then beginneth a new generation from that principle being four-foldly altered according unto the nature of the four winds and therefore when the dead carcasses should live again the Prophet said Come from the four winds O Spirit and blow on these dead bones that is inform and vivifie their Spirit with thy breath for bones were made after a hard Northern and fixt manner the humours after their proportion the Westerly and Southerly property namely flegm and blood and lastly the Spirit of life came from that all-vivifying fire which Hermes calleth Splendorem Sanctum The holy Splendor To conclude I will demonstrate the mystery of the worlds Creation by way of an Arithmeticall progression after this manner Here we have the progression in the worlds Creation where 1. signifieth the Unity which was before all things which whilst it was in it self and did not shine forth conteined its inacting property within its potential Nolunty or Darkness and therefore was esteemed as nothing in regard of mans weak capacity although that in it self it is all in all Then the rank 2. sheweth the actuall emanation of the in-created Light out of the potentiall Unity at the presence whereof the humid nature did appeare out of the dark abysse 1. 0. in the shape of waters so that the light and waters as active and passive are ranked next after Unity thus 0. Light 0. Water 2. then by the fiery Spirit of eternall love and union those two opposit natures are joyned together into the nature of heaven by a spirituall union or composition the which is termed by the Platonicks the soul of the world which the Philosophers have styled by the name of Quinta essentia the quintessence For we must understand that as the 4. Elements were made after the Heavens so also are the Heavens said to animate the Elements no otherwise then the soul doth the body So that this degree of Progression in the Creation standeth thus 0. Light 0. Aire 0. Water 3. The last scale in the Progression of the worlds Creation is thus 0. Fire 0. Aire 0. Water 0. Earth which importeth the four-fold alteration of the catholick Element by the four Winds which was and is effected by the Word the third day of the Creation and this was nothing else but the generall sublunary or lower waters This therefore was the estate of the world in the Creation and in this very state doth continue hitherto and will do till it be refined by the fiery Tryall All this the wise Hermes hath according unto the Tenor of Moses described unto us exactly in these words Erat umbra infinita in abysso aqua insuper spiritus tenuis intellectualis per divinam potentiam in chaos inerant floruit autem splendor sanctus qui sub arena humidanatur a elementa deduxit cumque indistincta fuissent levia postmodum in excelsam regionem provolarunt gravia sub arena humida resederunt distinctis libratisque rebus quae igneo Spiritu vehebantur emicuit coelum septem in circulos c. An infinite shadow or darkness was in the abysse moreover water and a subtil intellectuall spirit was by the divine puissance in the Chaos And a holy brightness or splendor did
narrower place namely the aire then the water will immediately mount up with it and to it because it is contiguous unto the aire By this therefore it is apparent that the contracting and attracting vertue of the northern spirit or rather divine puissance which is made manifest in cold doth first attract contract and condense the dilated aire and then the aire so contracted by the northern spirit doth draw or attract the water from beneath upwards and that without altering of that water which was beneath in any thing from that which is above so that in conclusion it is but one and the self-same water Lo here therefore it is by this demonstration proved feazible and possible that water may be sucked and drawn from the caverns of the earth which is fostered and maintained by the sea even unto the top of the high mountains and that by a naturall means or operation without any necessity of altering the form of the water into vapour as Aristotle doth vainly surmize and that contrary unto his axiom Frustra fit per plura quod fieri potest per pauciora That is vainly done by many which may be effected by a fewer Contrariwise we see and observe in the Weather-glasse that if the dilative vertue of the present Sun or hot winds doth heat the head of the Weather-glasse or inflame the outward aire then the aire within the glasse will also dilate it self and by its dilatation will strike down or precipitate the water that the aire contracted by cold had sucked or drawn up and again the visible sinking of the water doth point at and prove the invisible dilatation of the air CHAP. X. That the actions of contraction and dilatation and consequently of attraction and expulsion of aire in the Weather-glasse with the effects of the elevation and depression of the water which are caused thereby are most conveniently applyed unto the aire and water in the world WE must consider as I have said before that the catholick air and water in the world filleth the whole vaulty cavity thereof no otherwise then the air in the Weather-glasse filleth the hollowness thereof so that the fountains of all the world issuing from one sea do seem to penetrate into the bowells of the earth and fill the generall veines thereof being sucked and drawn up unto them by that self-same reason by the which the water is exalted into the uppermost part of the neck of the glasse and by this reason there is an evident relation between the fountaines of the northern hemisphear and those of the southern forasmuch as it is expressed before that the southerly aire which is on that side the Aequinoctiall line is continued in his homogeneall nature with that on this side the line So that the flying dilated aire passeth from the south and is condensed into clowds in the north Wherefore it is apparent that the matter which feedeth the fountains in the north are more or lesse continuated unto those of the south as the waters that are raised up into the highest degree of the glasse are continued with them in the lower all which is fed and maintained with the pot of water which we compare unto the sea In which figure EFG is the northern hemisphear where the Sun is absent and therefore winter inhabiteth there and cold hath his dominion EHG is the southern hemisphear where the Sun is present and therefore summer dwelleth there and heat hath dominion EG is the Aequinoctiall line which is as it were the barr that divideth the northern region from the southern A and B is the hollow vein in the earth which continueth from the northern region to the southern that there might be a relation between or continuation in some measure of the northern and southern waters as well as of the northern and southern aire of heaven for being the wide sea D. which stretcheth from north to south is the head from whence all springs and rivers do originally arise I see no reason that it should seem strange to any man that I say the northern fountains have relation by a continuity of substance unto the southern and therefore the southern unto the northern Wherefore I conclude that when the catholick northern aire of the hemisphear EFG is cold it sucketh or contracteth unto it the aire in the vein of the earth A the which aire being contracted elevateth of the water out of the wide sea D as is evidently demonstrated by the Weather-glasse for when the cold externall aire hath contracted by congelation the aire in the head and neck of the glasse which head and neck I compare unto the veine in the earth for the vein of the earth is close and expireth no way then the water is drawn up by the contraction of the aire out of the vast water in the pot or basin which I compare unto the sea On the other side in the summer or southern hemisphear EHG where the Sun is present the catholick aire is subtiliated or rarified and dilating of the aire about the fountain and in the cavity of the vein beateth down and abaseth the water in the southern mouth of the vein in the earth B towards C so that oftimes in the summer the springs are found either dried altogether or at the least-wise much depressed Now therefore I say that by reason of the depression of the waters in the summerly south by way of subtiliation of the aire and exhausting or drawing them up in the winterly north by the cold the water is the apter to be raised in the cold north Again the elevation of the waters in the north which were the summer before depressed is effected by the empty aire 's contraction which possesseth the place in the summer time in the vein of earth where the water was as we see in the Weather-glasse and by the dilation of the aire in the south the water is easily there hid in the earth So that it appeareth that it is partly driven and pressed down in the south by heat and consequently with the greater ease drawn up at the north and partly elevated in the north by the cold winter as if a chord were put into a hole of a great piece of timber downward at one end and did ascend upward at the other thus The self-same will happen but in contrary order when the Sun and consequently summer is in the northern hemisphear EFG for then the springs will be there depressed and in the southerly parts exalted The seas draining or soaking into the bowells of the earth D being the commune medium or cistern of both extreams as well to receive the water pressed down and distributing upward of that superfluity unto the surging increasing or winter fountaines Thus therefore do you see evidently how Solomon's saying is proved true All rivers run into the sea and the sea is not the greater they return into the place from whence they came that they may run or flow again But
lively expressed thus Ascendit fumus in ira ejus ignis à facie ejus exarsit carbones accensi sunt abeo c. Prae fulgore in conspectu ejus nubes transierunt grando carbones ignis intonuit de coelo Dominus altissimus dedit vocem suam A smoak did ascend in his anger and fire did flame out from his face coales of fire were kindled by him c. By the Lightning in his sight the clowds did move hail and coales of fire the Lord did thunder from heaven the most High did utter forth his voice By the which speech it appeareth evidently that it is onely God which doth essentially effect all these things and although we say in our common phrase of speech that the Lightnings do cause the Thunder or in speaking more mystically that the Angells inflame the aire by their fiery presence yet in verity it is God in his fiery Angells or flaming Ministers as also in the thick clowds and watry spirits who produceth all these things to accomplish his will and pleasure And therefore the Apostle Deus operatur omnia in omnibus God operateth all in all And elsewhere Deus omnium Pater à quo omnia God is the Father of all from whom are all things And again Ex eo per eum in eo sunt omnia Of him by him and in him are all things But all this in our Meteorologicall business is more plainly expressed in the precedent words continued thus at large in another place Ascendit fumus de naribus IEHOVAE ignis de ore ejus vâ—ravit carbones sâ—ccensi sunt ab eo inclinavit coelos descendit caligo sub pedibus ejus ascendit super Cherubin volavit seu lapsus est super alas venti posuit tenebras in ciâ—cuâ—tu suo latibulum cribrans aquas de nubibus coelorum prae fulgore in conspectu ejus nubes succensi sunt carbones ignis volabant tonabat de coelo Dominus excelsus dabat vocem suam misit sagittas suas disparuit eos fulgur Smoak ascended out of the nostrils of IEHOVA and fire flew out of his mouth coles of fire were kindled from him and he inclined or bowed down the heavens and did descend and darkness was under his feet and he mounted upon a Cherubin and flew or glided upon the wings of the wind made darkness round about him his hiding place sifting forth rain from the clowds of heaven The clowds were kindled at the brightness of his face coles of fire did flie the Lord did thunder from heaven and the most high did utter forth his voice he sent forth his arrows and the Lightning did disperse them By all which it is made evident that there is no essentiall efficient cause which is naturall but onely God in nature and beyond nature operateth all in all For in the precedent description it is not said that the clowds or winds sent out coruscations or that fire came from the Sun or other heavenly bodies but smoke went out of the nostrills of JEHOVA and fire out of his mouth neither that vapours and Exhalations did gather clowds in the middle region of the aire but JEHOVA bowed down the heavens or aire and collected them at his pleasure neither the coldnesse of the middle region did accumulate them into a dark mass or heap by condensation But JEHOVA collected and gathered together by his privative and condensing property that dark chaos or confused abysse neither was it any Angelicall efficient but JEHOVA mounting upon the Cherubin did animate it to move according to his pleasure Nor was it the winds that moved of themselves but the spirituall Cherubin being first animated by JEHOVA did excite the winds to move neither was that exceeding darknesse made for a secret Tabernacle unto JEHOVA meerly by the act of the Angelicall wind But JEHOVA moving on the Cherubin incited the Cherubin to cause the winds to collect and gather together the clowds neither was it the resolutive faculty of the Sun that melted the clowds into rain but JEHOVA that did sift or cribrate forth water or rain out of them neither was it the collision or dashing together of the clowds or antiperistasis which was between the hot exhalation and the coldness of the place which caused the actuall Lightnings or inflammation of the clowds but the brightnesse and inexplicable light of his presence did set the clowds on fire neither was it the contentious strivings which was made between the fire and water in the cleaving of the clowd which maketh the fearfull sound from heaven but it was JEHOVA that did thunder from heaven it was the most high I say that did utter his voice from heaven and sent forth his Lightning as arrows to destroy the wicked Which being so what have we Christians to do to look after any naturall efficient cause with the acute eies of Aristotle which forsooth must act and operate per se of themselves without any consideration when by the precedent Text it appeareth that St. Paul was no liar when he said that God operateth all in all And as for that Peripateticall distinction of causa principalis and secundaria or subalterna you see here that it is utterly disannulled by the Text before mentioned For the onely efficient cause as well in the first second third and fourth Organ or Instrument was God For it was he that inspired the Cherubin it was he in and upon the Cherubin which did animate the winds it was he in and upon the Cherubin by the winds that gathered the clowds together it was he that in and upon the Cherubin by the winds did sift out water and rain out of the clowds and did set them on fire by sending forth Lightnings from his Throne And in conclusion though he use many Organs yet the essentiall act which operateth in and by them all doth issue forth from one simple and sincere identity which comprehendeth no otherwise all things in himself then unity in Arithmetick is assuredly reckoned for the father of multitude Thus we see that the foresaid young-man was lost by his too too much presuming on the vain and prestigious doctrine of his Peripateticall Master For whereas he taught unto the honest Christians which were his Companions the false doctrine of his Ethnick Master in their greatest need namely when the angry hand of the Almighty was in the heavens ready to menace them if they called not out for grace from him who spake out of the clowds in time and did wish them to abolish all feare making them believe that the Lightnings were contingent things in nature and made as it were by hap-hazard and not indued with sense or reason as being framed and shaped out yea and informed by externall and superficiall Principles he with his companions should have remembred that saying so often repeated by the Wiseman Timor Domini est principium Sapientiae The feare of the
Lord is the beginning of Wisdom If then both he and they had acknowledged that it was God that spoke in Thunder being environed about with his potent Angells they would then not have been so careless but have prayed unto him hartily have utterly forgotten this absolute acting-nature of Aristotle considering that God is the onely Naturating Nature of Natures I could tell you of many other wonderfull stories to my knowledg but I will onely insist upon these two About some five or six yeares since there was one Piper's daughter of Colebrook who being a gleaning of Corn after the harvest was carryed in the company of her mother and another young woman newly married unto a Glover in Colebrook who had been my servant and also there was another daughter of the said goodwife Piper The tempest approached when they were in the field the elder daughter who had been by their report very disobedient unto her Parents and would fearfully curse her mother oft-times seeing the Lightning to flash about her cried out Fy upon these Lightnings I cannot indure them I will go home and when she was wished by the company to call on God shee would not but they hastned unto an high Oke which stood not far from a Park-pale against the body whereof she placed her back and laughing she said she feared not now For said she I am as safe as in my mother's parlor The new married wife that had been my maid leaned her elbow upon her knee being also sat down and the sister sat a little nearer the Park-pale the mother stood under another tree hard by and in a dry ditch under the Oke another wench did shelter her self But â—o for all their imaginary safety they could not fly the wrath of God For the Lightning fell on the very top of that Oke and the bolt plowed or made a furrow all along down the Oke continually without intermission and came directly upon the eldest daughter that thought her selfe so sure and struck her stark dead and took away for a time the use of the new married wive's arme that leaned on her knee that was slain the wench in the ditch was struck in an amazement as if she were dead the sister that sat more near the pale saw a globe of fire as it did descend the tree and found her self so hot as if she had been in a furnace but had no other harm the mother under the next tree having her foot set out towards the tree where her daughter sat was struck lame on that foot the new married wife was struck in such sort that in a kind of distraction she ran up the lane crying out still as she ran Lord open thy holy heavens Lord open thy holy heavens At last they were all convayed with the dead maid in a cart from the Village unto the Town of Colebrook where the rest did recover within a few daies I saw the place immediatly upon this and spoke unto the new married wife that was my servant and had all these things confirmed unto me at her own house where also her husband did relate unto me a wondrous case befell him in the interim For being very carefull of his new married wife he perceiving the Tempest did put on his new cloak and took his old under his arm and so went out into the tempest to meet his wife and as he went through a field great flakes of fire passed by him whose fore-parts were blont their hinder-parts shaped like fire-drakes and on the suddain as if it were by a great gust of wind they blow off his hat from his head which when he followed and stooped to reach up he found a piece of his new cloke which he wore so artificially cut out and in so neat a Triangular form that he did admire at it and there he shewed me the place of his cloak out of which it was cut which was so neatly done as if it had after an exact geometrical triangular form been cut out by a pair of sheeâ—s The second story is this In the great sickness time I came out of Waâ—es and remaining for a while with my noble friend the Lord Bishop of Worcester at Haâ—tlebury-Castle there I was advertised of a strange mischance which happened by lightening and thunder about five weeks before my comming thither some three or four miles from the Castle I would needs go see the place and in the company of my worthy friends Mr. Finch and Sr. Thomas Thornborow I took a view of the place which was under a tall and well-spread Elme upon a little hill where it was related by the inhabitants which dwelled close by it that two yeomens sons of good wealth passed along with a load of hay drawn with four oxen and two horses which one of their fathers servants did drive The tempest of thunder overtaking them he drew up the hill and placed his load and cattle under the Elme and himself stooped under his load of hay and the two youths got upon a bench or seat of â—urf made round about the tree at last there came a fearfull stroke of thunder at which the husband-man who stooped under the cart said Good Lord what a crack was that At which words the boyes laught out aloud and mocking of him said A crack But immediately a noise was heard on the upper boughes of the tree and a solid matter all on fire came down directly between the boyes and struck the hair of one of them into the tree and set the other so on fire that the man under the cart with others were forced to run down the hill to fetch water to quench it and when it was quenched his skin was as hard as rosted pork Thus they payed full dearly for their scoffs and contempt of Gods judgments when as indeed they ought to have prayed God to have preserved them from the ministers of his wrath It is a dangerous thing to sport with and laugh at the Saints There is the thunderer from above who hath messengers able to revenge his cause if he but nod unto them in the twinckling of an eye I know that some Peripatetiâ—k will reply that it is but metaphorically meant when Scriptures say that God speaketh in thunder and not really to be understood as it is spoken which if it were true then is the plainest phrase in Scripture to be so also understood namely clowds snow hail c. so that either it was a reall speech or not reall and if not reall it would rather draw me to errour than truth But Scripture is full of this kinde of speech and therefore the whole harmony of holy Writ doth take and construe it for reall Again others do acknowledge the speech to be reall but say they where God speaketh in thunder that act is miraculous and not naturall To which I answer with the mouth of the patient Job saying Pro irrigatione fatigat Deus densam nubem dispergit lucem nubis
Lightnings into rain and bringeth the wind out of his Treasury Or in this manner Thunder is the multitude of the sound of waters or the voice of the clowds being effected by the coruscations and Lightnings of the Almighty Or thus Thunder is a sound of the multitude of waters being troubled fearing and bâ—aying at the bright aspect or presence of JEHOVA In which description the materiall Organ of the voice is the clowds or waters being as it were afraid and troubled at the emission of the Lightnings whereupon they give a loud voice or sound by reason of that penetrative power which the bright and shining or fiery presence of JEHOVAH who is the worker of wonders doth effect Whereupon the royall David as is said prae fulgore in conspectu ejus nubes transierunt grando carbones ignis intonuit de coelo Dominus At the brightnesse of his presence the clowds did move or pass their way hail and coales of fire the Lord did thunder from heaven And again Viderunt te aquae Deus timuâ—runt turbatae sunt abyssi multitudo sonitus aquarum vocem dedeâ—unt nubes vix tonitrui tui in rota The waters have seen thee O God and were afraid and the abysse was troubled a multitude of the sound of the waters the clouds ecchoed forth a voice the noise of the thunders wheeled about c. Also the formall cause is explicated in that it was made by a great noise and Lightnings The efficient cause seemeth to be the Lightnings from God or rather the fiery aspect of God animating the Lightnings and directing them unto a determinated mark So that it appeareth that the Lightnings are as it were the Instruments of God in his Wrath no otherwise then a sword is the instrument of the man that striketh when we say that it is this or that man which did strike and not the sword And for this cause I say with the Apostle that as it is onely God who is the sole Actour in things So also is he the Father of the Thunders who sendeth out his Lightnings as arrows from his throne Lastly I say that the finall cause expressed in them is to accomplish the divine will of the Creator To conclude it may be defined thus Thunder is the voice speech or eloquence of the Almighty or a sound going out of the mouth of JEHOVA which is directed under the whole heavens with light dispersed over the face of the earth after the which there followeth a loud noise or rumbling or God thundereth with the voice of his excellency the which when it is heard is not found Audite saith Job cum tremore vocem seu loquelam vel eloq â—um abore ejus egrediens quod sub â—oto-coelo dirigit lucem super terminos vel oraâ— terrae Post eum rugit sonitus tonat voce excellentiae suae non investigatur cum audita fuerit vox ejus Hear with trembling he directeth the voice speech or eloquence proceeding from his mouth under the whole heavens and his light over the ends of the earth After him roareth a sound he thundereth with the voice of his excellency the which when it is heard is not found To conclude it is most apparent by this which is already said that the opinion of the Peripateticks as well Christian as Ethnick is most inconsiderate and erroneous in averring that the lightnings are hot and dry exhalations extracted out of the earth and elevated on high even unto the middle region of the aire by the attractive vertue of the Sun and that they being included into a clowd and kindled partly by the collision or knocking together of other clowds and partly by the coldness of the place do by the eruption of their flames cause the thunders I would have every wise Christian to observe duely by what hath already been said whether the mystery of a tempest and whirl-wind do consist and stand upon a thing of so small moment and poor esteem as Aristotle would make us believe or if it arise not out of a far more profound and inscrutable abysse or profundity seeing that the lightnings are reported by truth it self to be such fiery lights of God as issue or proceed from his throne and the thunders are justly termed the voice word and eloquence of JEHOVA And for this reason JEHOVA reprehending the boldness of these kind of worldly Philosophers which presume so far to censure his inscrutable actions or to dive into the depth of his mysteries touching the essentiall causes of these meteors without the warrant and assistance of Gods Spirit and falsly to make the world believe that his hidden and abstruse secrets are effected after their vain imaginations which vanish in the conclusion and become as nothing because indeed they are grounded on nothing else but foolish and self-conceited phantasies and vanities seemeth to utter unto them these speeches Auribus percipite considerate mirabilia Dei fortis Nosti cum disponat Deus de illis cum splendeat lux nubis suae Nosti-ne de libramentis densae nubis mirabilia Dei perfecti scientiis Quaenam est via qua in partes dissilit lux Cujus utero egressa est glacies Aut pruinam coeli quis genuit Quanam via itur ubi habitat lux tenebrarum ubi est locus Perceive with your ears and consider the marvellous works of the strong God Dost thou know when God disposeth of them when the light of his clowd doth shine forth Dost thou understand the marvails of God who is perfect in sciences touching the ballancing and pondering of the thick clowds Which is the way in which the lightnings do skip forth being divided into parts Out of whose womb doth the ice proceed or who hath begotten the frost of heaven Which is the way that directeth oâ— leadeth unto the habitation of lâ—ght and which is the seat of darknesse This saith JEHOVA I say the strong God in checking of the vain-glorious wise-men of this world for their presumption and especially he pointeth at the bold Peripateticks who presumptuously profess that they of themselves without the teaching of the true wisdom do know all these things And yet the wisest amongst men speaketh thus Animadverti totum opus Dei non posse hominem ass qui illud opus quod sit sub sole quam laboriose homo quaerat non tamen assecutum esse quinetiam si cogitet sapientissimus cognoscere non tamen posse assâ—qui I observed every work of God that man is not able to attain unto that work which is under the sun how laboriously soever he seeketh Yea verily if the wisest man thinketh to know it he will not be able to attain unto it By which words Solomon pointeth at the insufficiency of man in himself that is to say without the conduct of the spirit of wisdom to attain unto the knowledge of Gods mysteries which also he doth seem to intimate in these
according unto these multiplications in form the more will the creatures be exalted in excellency You see now how far and by what proportions as well spirituall as materiall the Platonick harmony of the world extends it self and may observe that where this harmonious proportion between form and matter is not there must needs be as well spirituall as corporall dissention or discord and consequently antipathy We see also that the root of life is fixed in the angelicall composition which is of simple light pure spiritual matter so that the eternal sapience or essential soul is the act of the Angels the aevial angelicall spirit is the act or essential life of the starrs or heavenly influence and the starry influence is the soul and life of the winds the spirituall emanation from the winds do fourfoldly inform the catholick sublunary element or lower waters the element doth animate the meteorologicall impressions and of these are the compound creatures compacted which draw from the divine fountain of them all being one spirit in essence but multiform in regard of the variety of organs by which it worketh variously in the world So that it appeareth that God animated immediately the Emperiall heaven or the intellectuall spirit which is the seat of Angells and this we compare to the root the emperiall heaven animates the stars or aetheâ—iall region which we refer to the square and the starry heaven is as it were the male or multiplyer and vivifier of the elementary region and his creatures which we compare unto the cube Verily not onely the abstruse Cabalists but also the profoundest Philosophers have made an everlasting memory of this perfect and formall root or ternary number with his triple dimension I mean not that which is taken for a mercatory number or such an one as the vulgar Arithmeticians do use in their Algorism but as it is a spirituall and essentiall character of numeration proceeding from a certain circular revolution and square and cubick multiplication And therefore the Learned have founded on this subject their formall and mysticall Arithmetâ—ck and Geometry which are not exercised about common and vulgar subjects but wholly employed about the profound meditations of the true Cabâ—le naturall Magick and essentiall Alchimy which because the ignorant vulgar people do rashly condemn under those titles are otherwise tearmed by the mysticall with the name of the science Elementary Celestiall and Supermundane as well because it entreateth of separated Intelligences and substances as some do style them as also because it is the worthiest of all others to be understood as being conversant about the knowledge of the Creator for the greatest perfection in which man may most glory is to artain unto the true knowledge of God which also the Prophet doth testifie in these words Let not the wise glory in his wisdom noâ— the strong man in his strength nor the rich man in his riches but let him that will glory vaunt and glory in that he knoweth and understandeth me And verily these are the three mysticall sciences which are by wise men appropriated unto the knowledge of the three worlds I mean the Intelligible the Celestiall and Elementary represented according unto the Cabalists by these three Letters of the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Adam Also the three parts of man termed the little world to wit the Intellect the Soul and Body which is subject to alteration and corruption as also the elementary part Upon this foundation also the Rabbi Zoar said That there are three things which correspond unto one another in this ternary dimension forasmuch as they are framed or formed after the pattern of the Archetype and radicall Idea namely the Tabernacle of God which Moses erected the Temple of Solomon and mans Body according unto the three manner of numbers which were applyed unto them namely the vocall or operative which is the extract of the measure unto the elementary world the formall which is extract from the vocall unto the celestiall and the rationall or divine which is extracted out of the formall unto the intellectuall I will make all this plain by the reall description of the Tabernacle This Tabernacle did symbolize with the three worlds in his parts for the former of them was uncovered and was exposed unto the winde rain hail snow and all other impressions which are ingendered in the sublunary world with perpetuall alterations and changes and unto this part the common sort of people as also the beasts in an assiduall vicissitude of life and death did resort by reason of the continuall sacrifices which were slain and offered in this place And therefore this region importing the cube of matter is rightly referred unto the elementary world which is composed of the grosser waters as of a substance fluid and unstable and for this reason it is properly called the world of darkness wherefore the Evangelist in one place styleth the devill the Prince of darknesse and in another place the Prince of this world This region also hath his relation unto the body of man The second part of the Tabernacle which was burnished over with gold and illuminated with a Candlestick of seven lights doth decypher out the starry heaven and his seven erratick lights of Planets and this heaven as it is in the middle betwixt two extreams namely between the bright fountain of the formall or emperiall heaven and the obscure and dark abysse of matter or elementary world so also it doth participate of the two extreams namely of water and fire And for this reason the heaven is called of the Hebrewes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aâ—â—amaiim of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 esch fire and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 maym water in Greek Aether quasi igneus aer But the warry body or matter of it is therefore incorruptible because her appetite is so fulfilled by the affluence of the formall nectar from above that it desireth not any alteration and touching her activity and motion it hath it from that eternall emanation which is said by Solomon to be the most movabâ—e of all things and in verity it is the first catholick mover who is said to be the President of the primum mobile at whose act all the inferiour intelligences do move about their rouling and twinckling fires no otherwise than at the motion of a centrall wheel many externall wheels do move and have their life Thus we may see first why this region of the world is tearmed Heaven or sphear of equality namely by reason of his mixtion in equall proportions of form and matter also why it is called the sphear of the soul of the world by reason that it is composed of the pure spirit of the waters which is female and passive and the bright fire or act of eternity for the mentall divinity doth by and through this humid nature which is his vehicle act and shew forth his vivifying and emanating property in and by this spirituall organ and
upon them but are preserved by assiâ—ual succession of their beamy influence and consequently all things that are so made by the celestiall influxion is the type or image of those celestiall spirits whose beams did make them wherefore it must needs follow by Alkindus his rule that if they are the types or images of the celestiall shapes which did fashion them they must in like manner emit their beams though invisibly no otherwise then the starrs do from which they draw the influence of their beeing For we must know as I proved in my Radicall Inquisition that the essentiall beams descending from God to the Angels and from the Angels unto the Starrs and from the Starrs unto the creatures are continuall because indivisible For there is no formed Virtue issuing from God that can be separated from its Fountain which being so it must needs follow that they shine forth out of the body in which they are unto other lights which are sent out from other creatures no otherwise then one star of heaven doth behold another in this or that aspect Wherefore mark me well what I now say I told you that each star in heaven hath his friend and he â—hath his enemy I told you that the reason of this opposition as well among the Angells as starrs of heaven was the diversity of the Volunty of God which was the cause of such opposite Attributes as are by the Hebrew Text which the Cabalisticall Rabbies do approve of expressed and avouched I proceed therefore thus and say That if in the heavenly harmony it happeneth that there is a potent aspect or streaming forth of beams which concurreth with the irradiation of the aethereall or starry Lord of life of the thing generated or produced being animal vegetable or minarell And that if by Emanation the star so partaking with the Lord of Life be an utter enimy unto the Lord of Life then will the spirit of that creature so generated or made be subject to discordant passions as fear anger sadness and suspition and that especially when the enemy unto the Lord of Life being more potent in the celestiall Scheme or Horoscop doth apply unto the Lord of Life being any way debilitated by an evill aspect So that this way happeneth a kind of insensible antipatheticall perturbation unto the spirit of the thing so generated or produced Also if the thing produced or generated do begin his nativity when the enemy was most potent in heaven then when his proper Lord and he be joyned with the first Lord in any bad aspect if at that time that creature be brought into the presence of that other creature which was first mentioned there must needs be an antipatheticall distast in the spirit of the first because the Genius of the last is timorous and affraid of the Genius of the first which is his enemy being more powerfull and therefore the two earthly subjects of these different starrs being present and emitting the beams of their nature those beams must of necessity work antipathetically with one another and the strongest must prevail no otherwise than the two starrs of heaven which made the mixtion of beams were enemies But you must note and observe that though the stronger beams be antipatheticall unto the weaker it followeth not that the weaker beams be antipatheticall unto the stronger being alwaies that the stronger passion is in the weaker as the action remaineth in the stronger But if the Subject of a star in heaven be brought in on earth unto the subject of his enemy in heaven if there was not in the nativity any aspect between them they operate not antipathetically with their beams being present and yet their natures or beams will be by so much the more inclined to actuall opposition if at the time of their meeting the enemies aspect on one another with an evill aspect in heaven As for example If that Jupiter be Lord of the nativity or production of the thing and Mars do aspect him in a quadrat or opposit aspect and this creature suppose it be a Man doth meet with a Cat the Lord of whose nativity is Mars most powerfull in heaven aspecting Jupiter with a malevolent irradiation then will the sight of this Cat be unpleasant unto that Man But the truth is that there may be some fixt star which is the assigned originall or protector of the cat or animal of what nature soever which may be antipatheticall unto the fixt star with the Planet in it that have dominion over the cat But contrariwise if the beams of two Planets or signs or more do meet or concurre in one and the same generation or production of a thing where the star which hath most dominion is Lord of the thing be it animal or vegetable or mineral and these Planets are friends to one another then if any other Subject present it self which is fashioned by the beams of the other Planet these two Subjects emitting their beams upon the earth will love each other and sympathetically agree with one another and so much the greater will their Sympathy be unto one another by how much they accord unto one another in nature property and benevolence of aspect in the instant of their nativities or beginnings As for example If Jupiter be Lord of a man's nativity and aspect Venus and Venus him in a Sextil or Trine aspect and again Venus is the most powerfull in the nativity of a cat or dog and hath a relation by his beams unto Jupiter in a good aspect then I say that there will be a reciprocall affection in Sympathy betwixt both creatures Also if the like friendship be made in heaven at the bringing forth of any vegetable the man or beast will be well pleased at the presence view and tast of that vegetable and if he eate of it it will well agree with his nature And all this is to be understood in things which from their Creation were not ordained quite opposit and antipatheticall unto the creature as are vermin and such like the which nevertheless are made by these concordant irradiations of heaven more amiable and less harmfull yea and more convenient for the use of mans or beasts bodies Also there is since the fall of Adam enmity set between the Serpent and Man and yet by the like confluence in heaven some affect Serpents or Snakes some by the concurrence of contrary beams do loth and fly from them with an exceeding detestation and do abhorre them beyond all measure But to return again unto the root of this business the evident cause of Sympathy and Antipathy of things proceedeth from the radical Mystery of the opposite Attributes or properties in God which have the originall of their Emanation from the secret and hidden Volunty of Eternity as I have told you here before And yet these Astrologians have such reasons from their starry experiences that they all take their Originall of Sympathy or Antipathy from them And hereupon did the
Philosohers in generall conclude that Inferiora à superioribus reguntur that Mundus inferior sit corporibus superioribus contiguus Inferior things aâ—e governed and directed by the superior and the inferior world is contiguous unto the superior bodies And Ptolomy Vultus hujus saeculi subjecti sâ—nt vultibus coeli The effigiesses or shapes of this world are subject unto the images of heaven And Aristotle Est mundus iste supernis lationibus fere continuus ut inde vis ejus universa regatur This world is almost continuall with the supernall lations that thereby his universall power may be governed And Hippocrates De coelestibus autem rebus sublimibus mihi nihil dâ—cendum videtur nisi quatenus homines animaliaque caetera quae in terris degunt gignuntur nataque sunt principia originem inde habere demonstrabo quod anima de coelo est quod dolere languere mori denique quicquid boni malive est in homine de coelo proficiscitur Touching celestiall and Divine matters it seemeth to me that there is nothing to be said save onely that I will demonstrate that men and beasts which live upon the earth and are begotten and born have their beginning and Originall from thence and that the Soul is from heaven and to be dolorous to languish and to die And finally whatsoever is good or bad in man doth proceed from above And for this cause Haly saith Medicus qui Astronomiam ignorat est tanquaem caecus viam baculo examinans huc atque illuc miserabiliter cespitans pro qualibet boni malive-apparentia The Physitian which is ignorant in Astronomy is like a blind man which examineth and searcheth out his way with a staffe miserably reeling this way and that way according to every appearance of good or evil But to come nearer the point Cichus Eschulamus saith That every one of the twelve Signes receiveth his particular and speciall name from the nature or property of some beast because the nature of the one doth seem to symbolize with that of the other And Moses Arabicus saith That every animated thing hath a peculiar star which sendeth down his influence to defend and preserve his like upon earth and that by the divine will and command As for example The Stars which are in Aries govern and send down their influence upon the terrestriall Ram and on sheep and the celestiall Scorpion upon the terrestriall one And Reuclin saith Non est tibi ulla planta aut herba inferiùs cui non est stella in firmamento quae non percutiat eam There is not a herb or plant here below which hath not a star in the firmament to beat on it by his influence To conclude you may discern by this the Astronomers and Philosophers intention namely to take the visible bodies action for that angelicall spirit or vertue which ruleth and vivifieth all things that are beneath and breatheth forth influences out of the starry organs and not the starry sphear as the worldly Ethnicks did imagine who went no deeper into the mysteries of God and his nature than their corporall eyes and ocular experience did guide them But they which have dived more profoundly into these secrets have evidently discerned a more hidden principle in these occult influences Hereupon Hermes saith Dii in astrorum ideis cum signis ecrum conspiciebantur dinumeratae sunt stellae secundum eos qui inhabitant illas Deos The gods were discerned in the idea's of the stars with their signes and the stars are numbered according unto those gods which do inhabit them Where by the gods he meaneth the variety of angelicall emanations which proceed from one unity or he may take the Arch-angels which are the conductors of those severall emanations for gods at which the Apostle doth rightly except when he saith Dii quidem sunt qui dicuntur in coelo in terra nobis tamen unus Deus Pater ex quo omnia unus Dominus Jesus Christus per quem omnia There are such creatures as are called gods in heaven and in earth but unto us there is but one God the Father from whom are all things and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things As if he had said God the Father or the radicall Unity is the fountain from whence all things spring and his catholick emanation the immediate act by which all vertues actions and vivifications are diversly effected according unto his will which sent it out both in heaven and earth So that it is not the Angel but God in the Angel Wherefore Picus Mirandulanuâ— Ad coelum non est referendum si quid à nobis sit quod nostras vires videtur excedere sed potiùs vel ad angelosvel ad Deum If there be any thing from us that exceedeth our power it is not to be referred unto the heavens but rather either to the Angells or to God For this reason therefore Rabbi Moses Angeli non movent semper orbes coelestes eodem modo quo fit ut non semper eodem modo fiant mutationes horum inferiorum maximam namque vim atque potestatem angelica exercet conditio in res corporeas quapropter intellectus agens à quo influunt formae nominatur Angelus appellatur praefectus universitati ut dixerunt Sapientes nostri vocaturque Mitattron a quo quidem gubernantur omnes Virtutes singulares quae pariter Angeli dicuntur quorum est multitudo quoad nos infinita sed quo ad Creatorem determinata finita The Angels do not alwaies move the celestiall orbes after one manner And thereupon it commeth to passe that the mutations of inferiour things are not made after one fashion for the Angelicall condition hath a great force and power over corporall things and therefore the intellectuall agent from which the forms of things do issue or stream forth is tearmed that Angel which is the President of all the world as our wise men have testified and it is called Mitattron of whom all singular vertues are governed the which are likewise called Angels of which kind there is an infinite multitude in regard of us though unto the Creator they are limited and finite And Rabbi Bresitts doth seem to confirm thus much in these words Creator quotidie creat coetum Angelorum quos alii vocant For mas quod sint substantiae formales quibus tota sphaera generabilium corruptibilium absque numero plena est The Creator doth daily create a company of Angels which other men do call Formes because they are formall substances of the which kinde the whole sphear of generable and corruptible things are replenished without number Now by this Intellectus agens or Mitattron forasmuch as it is the President over the whole world which I said before to be that Anima mundi of the Platonists which did animate every particular thing by sending out of an
unity and consequently of sympathy namely by making the catholick child of darknesse like it self and therefore to make two to compassionate each other But contrariwise that of darknesse is evermore enclined to make duality of unity and to breed discord by violating the bands of concord and so to procreate a new antipathy and hatred thereby to destroy the fruits of love So that the spirit which light hath redeemed out of the dark Chaos is the intermediate subject betwixt both the extreams that is to say between light and darkness and therefore is the passive subject ordained by the Creator to endure the impressions of each opposite extream whereupon it becommeth sometimes the subject of sympathy namely when it is obedient unto union and light and sometimes of antipathy to wit when it rebelleth against that light Thus do we see the true subject of all passion in the soul of the world and this was the onely reason why the Philosopher Heraclitus avowed with such confidence That all things were composed of strife and friendship and Empedocles That the soul was made of amity and enmity I will now therefore expresse unto you that concordant order which that eternall love who shined out from the Father of light and love hath put and placed in each region of this world to distinguish the two different natures from one another by placing between them an intermediate subject which doth agree with each extream And first I will speak of the orders in the universall spirit of the world and lastly of every particular vivified and inacted spirit as well in the intellectuall or emperiall as vitall or aetheriall and naturall or elementary heaven and that in order We must place the two opposite principles in this world in the two extreams of the semidiameter thereof and first we imagine the seat of the God of light or of the divine act to consist in the convexity of the higher and purer Orbe of the Angells or Emperiall Heaven I speak unto the vulgars understanding that is in the circumference of the vawted world and then we deem the throne of darknesse or the divine puissance to be in the center thereof as the furthest place from its opposite in nature which is light Here you may see the two principles of concord and discord of love and hatred and consequently of sympathy and antipathy of the effects whereof all the Scripture and each member of Philosophy is full The catholick matter which was originally extracted out of darkness namely the waters which was made the materiall substance of which the heavens and the earth were framed by the divine word doth occupy all that space which the world containeth was by the celestiall Alâ—himy or spagerick vertue of the divine illuminating emanation divided according unto the contrary and discordant natures of the said two principles into the upper waters and the lower waters whereof the first or higher waters were good and obedient unto the bright Divinity and were converted into a fiery nature being thereupon tearmed the Emperiall nature for their obedience unto the bright emanation were full of intellectual fire and angelicall light And therefore this portion of the waters was ordained for the seat of the good Angells The lower waters contrariwise as being fecall gross impure and therefore more rebellious unto light and obedient by participation unto darknesse were placed next unto their dark beginning namely the earth and did possess all that space between the starry heaven and the earth which is called Elementary and for this cause is subject to all changes of generation and corruption And this was ordained to be the seat of Satan and his angels which is for that cause called the Prince of this world the Prince of the aire and his prime subjects are called Principalities Potentates and Governours of this world Lo here the two extreams in the created nature from the upper whereof a generall sympathy and love or a Symphoniacall consent of things is made and effected in this world by the other namely the lower an universall Antipatheticall jar is by turns effected and intruded into the Symphoniacall accord of things in the lower world namely when the severe Attributes of God do rain down into the starry world influences of a contrary nature which afterward by their emissions unto the lower world give liberty and power unto the bad Angells to work their destructive and Antipatheticall effects on certain creatures thereof As for example the attribute ELOHIM doth send down into the starre or Planet of Saturn the fruits of his chill and frozen effects whereby the spirits of that Sphere are corroborated the which again do pour down their Boreall or Northern nature unto the spirits which are their Substitutes in the Elementary world to wit those which have power to harm by the Northern winds Hereupon Archangelus Cabalista Hoc nomen EL quod nos Deum habemus interpretatu omnia fovet omnibus succurrit summa pietate clementia id quod est illi proprium ideo illi gratia attribuitur At per ipsum nomen ELOHIM veniunt severa punitiones strages Angeli ei inservientes dicuntur BEN-ELOHIM i. e. filii ELOHIM ELOHIM ergo terrorem significat pavorem Hinc locus Aquilonaris ei assignatur à quo procedit omne malum This name or attribute EL which is by interpretation God doth foster or nourish all things and assisteth every creature by his piety and clemency which is appropriated unto him But by the name or Attribute ELOHIM come severe punishments and Straâ—agems and the Angells which are his Ministers to effect his will are called BEN-ELOHIM that is to say the sons of ELOHIM ELOHIM therefore signifieth terror and fear And for this cause the Northern quarter of the world from whence cometh all evill is assigned unto this property c. By this therefore we may discern how the spirits which are dispensatours as well of salutary as malevolent and destructive influences are in the mass of the lower Elementary waters whereby man and the other creatures of God may be either preserved or destroyed To conclude that middle spirit in the world called the Firmament which divideth both the extreamly-differing waters from one another and is that intermediate spirit of the world which doth equally participate and behold each extreme is the Centrall mansion of that eternall Spirit which emitteth his beams from his stately Solar or sunny palace even unto the Center of darkness and extendeth his emanation even unto the seat of Light which is his root for his brightness is emitted from the attribute ELOAH by the beautifull or glorious port or gate TIPHERETH which importeth grace beauty and pulchritude by the Angelicall order of the Virtues into that purified pallace of the Sun So that by his emanating presence he penetrateth every where and filleth all things by his presence and vivifieth all things by his Virtue and is the Father of life
after an Astrologicall manner seemeth to aver so much in these words Si alâ—cu datum esset totam conditionem coelestis harmoniae comprehendere mundum elementorum cum suis singulis contentis in quocunque loco quocunque tempore plene cognosceret tanquam causatum per causas si etâ—am aliquam rem hujus mundi in tota sua conditione cognosceret coelestis harmoniae conditio ipsum non lateret sed etiam causam tanquam per effectum suum comprehenderet omnis enâ—mâ—res quanâ—umcunque modica in mundo elementorum agens totius coelestis harmoniae est effectus Whosoever doth comprehend the whole condition of the celestiall harmony he may fully know the whole elementary world with every content of the same in every place and at all times as the effect by the cause Also if he understand any thing of this world in his totall nature and condition the celestiall disposition and condition will not be hidden from him but will be discovered unto him as the cause is by the effect For every thing in this world how little soever it be that acteth is the effect of the whole harmony of the heaven By which words Alkindus being deeply seen in the mystery of nature seemeth to aver that as there is a descent from unity unto multitude so all that multitude is in that unity as also that unity filleth all the multitude so is 1 in 2 and 2 in 3 and 3 in 4 and 4 in 5 c. and yet that unity which is the beginning is the end and all in all So light enforms the angelicall creature the angelicall the starry creature the starry creature the elements and the elements the compound creature Wherefore open the compound creature and look upon the elements divide the Elements and you shall find the starry and quintessentiall nature open these and you shall conceive the subtill alterity of the Angelicall spirit in which is the Divine act or immediate beam from God In this work therefore there concurreth in the separation of the first a sensible aspect in the other we must behold with intellectuall eies So that you may observe how all is in every thing and every thing in all Hereupon it was also that Hermes said speaking mystically and not after the common sense Qui fornacem cum vase nostro construit novum mundum conflat He which maketh our furnace with the glass to it he maketh a new world But what needs more words when we find all this confirmed by demonstration For we know that the Load-stone is but a part of the Earth and yet it hath all his Circles and both his Poles yea and that very nature in all respects between each Pole and Circle that the whole Earth hath and thereupon it is termed Terrella or a little Earth and so may the whole earth be tearmed parvus mundus being it containeth the Poles circles and astrall yea and Elementall natures of the great world no otherwise then the great world doth in all those respects represent the Archetype which is carved out intellectually in the all-working Spirit of Wisdom or sacred Emanation yea and we go yet deeper into our diminutives For if a piece of Iron rod which naturally aspecteth the North and South be brok off that small piece will have also as exactly his North and South Pole and consequently his circles as the whole rod and nevertheless the rod keepeth still his North and South point as before The like in the Load-stone will happen as experience shall hereafter make it appeare more plainly That we may come a little nearer to the explication of this Mystery ye must understand that this eternall catholick Emanation is the essentiall and spirituall rock out of which first the great world in generall and then all particular things therein were carved or framed by generalities first according unto the Ten generall Emanations and their properties which the Ethnicks in some sort referred unto their Ten generall Predicaments and this again had their specialities or subalternate degrees of many ranks and orders of dignities all which were at last made apparent by the infinity of individualls which they did in their kinds produce according unto those divers beams of the multiplicite Will or Volunty of God which this eternall Emanation poured out into them All which particular beams more or lesse being not divided in essence from the universall Emanation or the Spirit of Wisdome which made all things are the spirituall Corner-stone on which every creature as well particular as universall doth formally or essentially consist and this Corner-stone is that internall essence in every thing which as it giveth life so also it is all and over all the things that it inacteth with life and therefore also the soul whose Center this Corner-stone is is said to be in all and every part I will leave to speak of its action in other creatures and will onely insist on our main Subject in hand which is the earth and her off-spring or progenie amongst the which the feminine Load-stone and his ferruginous mass are chiefly reckoned Divine Philosophy teacheth us that the Globe of the Earth is sustained by this Corner-stone and consequently hath her manifold Virtues from it Ubinam eras saith JEHOVAH quando fundebam terram quis disposuit mensuras ejus aut quis extendit super eam lineam Super quo bases ejus defixae sunt Aut quis jecit lapidem ejus Angularem Where wast thou when I laid the foundation of the earth Who disposed of the measures thereof and who did extend over it a line upon what basis or foundation was it sustained or who laid the corner-stone thereof In the Weather-glass which I have described in my precedent Philosophicall discourse you may discerne two points corresponding unto the two Poles namely the mattras head above resembling the Northern Pole and the water below compared to the Southern Pole the aire interposed betwixt them unto the spatious heaven or sublunary spirit which is betwixt these two Poles the middle of which in the figure 1. the Aequinoctiall doth â—ut as being in the mid-way betwixt the two Poles We find evermore that when the aire included in the top of the Mattras or bolts-head is cold namely when the northern blasts are sent forth it will be contracted and consequently will suck or draw up the water and thereupon we are taught the reason of the attractive nature not onely in the northern or septentrionall winds but also in the Load-stone and all other things which by contraction of the aire do draw and suck unto them namely that they have that property from the power of Gods Spirit which by his angelicall organs doth blow from the north By this also it is made evident why one Pole doth suck and attract from the other in the Load stone namely by the continuity of the spirituall axle-tree which is made and animated by one corner-stone or essentiall and centrall spirit
earth with his presence This therefore was it that made some even of our Christian Philosophers to break forth into these speeches Deus est Natura Natura Deus God is Nature and Nature is God Whereby they ment that the naturating or radicall informing nature was the eternall emanation which made and informed the humid nature of the world which for that reason was called Natura naturata or the Nature which was made naturall namely by the presence of the Naturating nature or Spirit of the Lord which moved upon the waters and imparted unto them of his fiery informing Vigor or Essence as we may find partly by Sacred Testimony and partly by the confirmation of St. Austin We must therefore after a due consideration of this which is said infer that if the influence be compleatly animated by the incorruptible Spirit of the Lord then must it be indued with the properties of that Spirit or Divine Nature and consequently it must be the most subtill quick movable and penetrating of all spirits and in that respect will be able to pass through all solid bodies without resistance and also to ingender augment and nourish all things and being incorporated or specificated it procreateth like individualities of their like and again it hath in regard of our capacity an infinite extension and therefore cannot be limited All which I purpose by experience or ocular demonstration to demonstrate in this manner We find in practice that the Load-stone by virtue of his subtill spirit which doth internally animate it is made so potent through it in his attractive virtue that it is able without resistance to display and transmit the beams of his active virtue quite atravers the hardest stones the most solid and finest grained wood through thick plates copper tin silver or gold yea and to penetrate quite through the impenetrable glass it self and other such like compacted stuff which have no sensible porosity or spiracle which is an evident Argument that this spirit is of a far more peircing and subtill nature than the sublunary aire forasmuch as it is denied passage through the slightest paper-skin or bladder In the like manner man's inward or celestiall spirit which is the vehicle of this vivifying beam is so subtil in it self that nothing is able to resist it when the inward mentall beam doth aime at any mark how far or how inaccessible soever it may be esteemed in the fleshly mans conceit For being this celestiall or aethereall spirit in man is made after the pattern of the Divine Image which it beareth it must also resemble it in its actions Now the subtilty of the Divine act in man's spirit is expressed by Hermes in these words Quicunque hac Dei Naturà fulti sunt intelligentià suâ cunctà complectuntur quae in terra sunt in mari siquid est praeter ea supra coelum atque adeo scipsos erigunt ut ipsum quoque bonum intueantur Who soever do rely on this Divine Nature may comprehend by their understanding all thingâ— whâ—ch are upon the earth and in the seas yea and besides all this any thing that is in heaven above and also they may elevate themselves in such a manner that they may behold the face of goodnesse it self c. Whereby he signifieth the all-sufficient act of penetration which is in the mentall beam by whose unresistable action the celestiall influence doth penetrate and operate without any intermediate resistance in and through all things By which it is evident that as every inferior specifick creature is indued with this essentiall spirit and doth consist and is as it were founded and edificated on it as on an essential Corner-stone or Foundation so the emission of his beams is not to be limited by any setled Sphere of activity as the unadvised and more sensuall then intellectuall Philosophers have defined it to be being that it is Vis in rebus infinita An infinite virtue or nature in things and therefore not finite or determinable For look how far it shineth or emitteth his active spirit out of the Center of the celestiall star even so far is this Centrall terrestriall bright Spirit able to make his Semidâ—ameter of extension So that as the heavenly starr's beamy influence doth penetrate downward unto the Center of the earth even after the very like manner doth each terrestriall star peirce unto the Center of the celestiall star from whence it was derived and the more rich and exalted is the starry form in the creature the nearer it approacheth unto the nature of the most exalted star in heaven and maketh his extension the more forcible Now as we see that every Astrall influence in the creature doth by a naturall inclination and that Sympathetically aspect the star or celestiall Fountain from which it did spring and likewise that star in heaven by a paternall respect doth send down his influences to feed and nourish his like filiall fire or form in the creature here below and both of them by a mutuall relation do rejoyce together at the spirituall presence of each other whereupon it is said Naturá natura laetatur naturam continet O natura coelestis veritatis naturas Dei nutu multiplicans Nature is rejoyced in nature and containeth nature O celestiall nature which by the Will of God doth mulâ—ply natures so likewise each kind or species which is indued with all one influence doth because of his likness to another send forth by a sympatheticall consent beams of one nature making an harmonious Symphony in the concourse of their beams by which they do agree in union of love And for this reason the axiom of the Philosophers before mentioned runneth in this strain Natura ex similibus similia procreare solet Nature doth use to procreate like of like And this is the cause why each specifick Form doth rejoyce in its like and is ready to produce his kind and doth not use to passe the limits of his kind as for example A Man's nature produceth a Man a Horse a Horse a fenel-seed fenel a bean a bean wheat produceth wheat c. And also the nature of each thing so created is most amiable unto the nature of his like and sendeth forth the amiable and Sympatheticall beams of his affection to concurre with the like beams which are emitted from his like so that both of them do easily consent and rejoyce at each other and by contraction of beams they indeavour to cause a union For this reason therefore the Load-stone rejoyceth at the aspect of its like for if one Load-stone meeteth with another each will aspect the other by their Saturnine Sulphureous spirits and embrace each other For by their applications they will Centrally suck and draw the one to the other with a Sympatheticall imbracing Also because that the Iron is subject unto the self-same constellation and hath his Centrall star in all points correspondent unto the Load-stone for which essentiall consanguinity
spirits forcibly because vis unita est fortior But when the Iron is planted at a further distance namely in C the greatest portion of the basis of the spirituall triangular-emission passeth by the Iron without any streight encounter and so his effect or vertue is made too weak to draw so ponderous a thing at so far a distance But because his celestiall star doth meet and embrace his emissions and doth fortifie them therefore it is evident that the pole-star doth act in the Load-stone to stir up and animate his like vigour in it and the Load-stone being so vivified doth correspond unto the action of the star penetrating by all one sympatheticall and symphoniacall consent even to the center of his fountain which is easily effected being they are all of one essence Do we not perceive this by an externall apprehension to be true when we observe the northern pole of the Load-stone in a kind of naturall duty to regard and behold with a stedfast constancy the pole-star which is so far off from the body of the Load-stone though near and conjoyned in the beamy affection of one essentiall spirit That this is so we may perceive by the needle touched Do we not gather by Astronomicall practise that the distance of these two bodies I mean the celestiall star and the terrestriall stone is so great as there cannot be esteemed a greater extension in our regard namely seeing that the space is between the starry heaven or eighth sphear in which the pole-star is and the earth And yet we find them to concur and meet in aspect and to operate and sympathize with each other What! and must this abstruse spirits action be limited by any phantasticall and imaginary sphear of activity figured out by persons little skilled and too too superficiall in the occult treasure and arcane or centrall actions of God in nature In like manner there must needs be a sympatheticall concurrence of occult beamy light betwixt the Iron and the Load-stone because they have both centrall stars or beamy influences of one nature and from one and the same fountaine whose occult emanations pass God knoweth at how far a distance although the effects do accidentally appear unto our sense no more than the celestiall influences which descend from heaven upon the Minerals Vegetables and Animals Nevertheless if we will believe the relations of History we are told by Serapio O aus Magnus and the Moors that as well in the Indies as towards the northern pole there are Rocks of this Stone which suck and draw ships unto them at a far distance and pull the iron nailes out of them which is a cause as they say that they fasten together the plancks and boards of their boats and ships with wooden pins And again what shall we say unto the opinion of Fracastoâ—ius a learned Physitian and a well grounded Philosopher who blusheth not after a tedious enquiry made by him in the Load-stones secret disposition to conclude that the reason why the Load-stone directeth his pole unto the north is because that in that angle of the terrestriall world there are mountaines of Load-stone which do draw Iron unto it Verily it is a great distance that this magnetick Rock is able to operate upon the Iron if that were true namely from the Aequinoctiall unto the frozen point of the North-pole for unto the Aequinoctiall line the Mariners make use of the Needle to find out what altitude they are in And although some do think this strange yet for all that many learned men seen as well in Geography and composing of Sea-Maps as delineating the description of the world do firmly adhere unto this opinion Whereby we see that wise and learned men do confirm that the limited sphear of activity ascribed unto the Load-stone by the Peripatetick Philosophers and Christian School-men of his sect is vain and frivolous But to come and ascend from the Minerall unto the Vegetable and Animal Kingdoms we observe that there is an admirable relation between the fixed stars and the planets and by the same reason also between plant and plant yea and between the plant and the mineral and between the animal and the plant As for example Touching thâ— sympatheticall relation we find in the first place that the beams of the herb and flower Heliotropium and that of Succory do sympathetically meet and joyne themselves and embrace lovingly the beams and influences of the Sun for they are observed to turn and winde about even in the most clowdy day at the diurnall motion of him And contrariwise in the night time by reason of his absence they contract their flowers as being enemies unto the dark and cold night as Mizaldus affirmeth Also the Oynion as Plutarch doth testifie waxeth green and groweth when the Moon decreaseth and again it withereth when she encreaseth There is also a great sympatheticall reference between the Crab and Oyster and the Moon for when the Moon encreaseth they encrease in their succe or juice again when she decreaseth they also do decrease in their substance Moreover touching the eradiation of one plant unto another it is noted that the Rue otherwise tearmed Herbâ—gâ—ace doth entertain with exceeding great friendship the Fig-tree insomuch that it never groweth or prospereth better than under that tree and that there is a notable sympathy betwixt their natures it is evident because they smell and taste much alike Also if the Myrtle be planted near the Pomgranat-tree it maketh him more fertill and fruitfull and it self more odoriferous and each of them rejoyce at one anothers presence and society and indeed both of them agree in a nature being cold dry and astringent Moreover to express the exceeding sympatheticall relation which is between the Vegetable nature and the Mineral let us but mark diligently the occult property of the Hazel-tree For if at certain times there be forked twigs cut from it and each twig of the forked branch be held in each hand so that the forked place where they joyne stand directly upward and as it were perpendicularly And with this kind of posture of the stick the party that holdeth it pass over a mountain that hath in its bowells some riâ—h minerall or mettalline veine when as the man walketh right over the place of the mine the perpendicular twist will forcibly and that whether the bearer will or no bow downward towards the earth but if there be no mine or veine it will not move That this is true my self can witness and more than a thousand which have seen the effect and will justifie thus much for even among us certain Germaines performed the like fear in the Silver-mines at Wales and in Germany it is a thing commonly exercsied in those mountains of Saxony and Hungary where there are mines of Silver and Gold Besides lest my assertion should be of little faith among the incredulous I would have them know that George Agricola and Munster do avow
iis mala muâ—â—â— angustiae God for saketh the wicked and hideth his face from such as are impious thaâ— evill and necessiâ—y may encumber them But the speciall causes of life death and resurrection are expressed in these words of the Prophet David before mentioned O Lord how glorious are thy works in wisdom thou hast made them all the earth is full of thy riches so is the wide sea and innumerable creeping things therein Thou givâ—st unto them and they gather it thou openest thine hand and they are filled with good things but if thou hide thy face they are troubled if thou takest away their breath they die and return unto dust Again if thou sendest out thy Spirit they are re-created and revive and thou renewest the face of the earth c. Psa. 104.20 Lo here the essentiall reason and centrall manner of Generation and Corruption is exactly described and set forth by the Psalmise namely that by the presence and benigne action of the incorruptible Spirit of the Lord life is continued and contrariwise by the absence or departing or by taking of it away from the creature it dieth and corrupteth for so long as the incorruptible Spirit of the Lord acteth and worketh in the creature it is not possible it should die or corrupt but when it departeth death and corruption must needs follow also when it abideth in the body but resteth from his action or as it were withdraweth his active beams from the circumference unto the center which the Prophet tearmeth The hiding of God's face then is the creature troubled which is as much to say as it is sick but if it be totally taken away then the creature is forced for want of it to expire and die To conclude if it return and shineth forth again unto the creature then it reviveth again as it did unto Lazarâ—s and unto the Widow's child which the Prophet raised Whereby it is apparent how death is nothing else but the absence of the essentiall form and consequently it is made evident that the vivificating form is immediately from God and not that imaginary one which the Peripateticks have groped after and I prove it evidently out of these places though the precedent Text doth expresse it plainly enough Non permanebit saith the Lord Spiritus meus in homine in aeternum quia caro est eruntque Dies ejus centum viginti annorum My Spirit shall not remain perpetually in man because he is flesh and his daies shall be a hundred years and twenty Whereby is argued that it is the Spirit of God which maketh man to live and that by the absence thereof death must needs ensue But because the curious will scarce approve of this translation of Jerom saying that the nature of the Hebrew Text is otherwise taken I will maintain and confirm it by the like and of the same condition in Job Si Deus apponens ad hominem animam suam Spiritum aut flatum ejus ad se reciperet vel traheret deficeret expiraret omnis care simul homo in cinerem râ—verteretur If God setting his minde upon man should receive or draw unto himself his spirit or breath of lifâ— all flesh would fail and die and man also together with him would return unto ashes So that we see it is the Spirit of God which giveth life not onely unto man but also to every other creature And that it is meant by the reall vivifying Spirit of God which giveth life unto man expresly we have it confirmed thus by Job in another place Spiritus Dei saith Job fecit me inspiratio Omnipotentis vivificavit me The Spirit of God made me and the inspiration of the Almighty hath vivified me or given me life And therefore it followeth that if the presence of this Spirit doth cause generation life and preservation of necessity the absence of it must cause corruption death and destruction for when the Spirit of the Lord is removed from the bodily masse of the creature it leaveth it deformed and as it were another chaos or terra inanis vacua being that it is destitute of the Spirit of life which did make it to act and exist in its specifick nature And forasmuch as this incorruptible Spirit doth preserve the corporeall masse from corruption by his incorruptible vertue and power it followeth therefore that when the Spirit is departed or absolutely contracted in it self without any externall act the masse must of necessity forthwith die and return unto a privative nothing Now the difference between the resurrection from death or rather deadly sleep unto a temporall life for the words of Christ were touching Lazarus that he was not dead but slept and that which is an eternall life is this for as there is nothing that hindereth death more than the presence of the incorruptible Spirit so also is there nothing which hindereth the perpetuity of living more then a corruptible body or a body subject unto death or corruption and therefore that body must die that it may put off corruption and endue incorruption namely by purification and separation of the corruptible additaments which is effected by a loosning of the tie of the alterable elements and a freeing of the spirituall part of the corporall composition from its long captivity that it may become pure and clean which being done then by the union of the incorruptible Spirit with it all will be made spirituall so that according unto the doctrine of St. Paul That which is sowed will not be quickened except it die And that which thou sowest is not the body that shall be but God giveth it a body at his pleasure And therefore as the body is sown in corruption so it riseth in incorruption as it is sown a naturall or elementary body so it is raised a heavenly and spirituall body So that the body must die that it may put off corruption that is the corruptible portion of the impure element that it being made spirituall may abide with the Spirit of life for evermore For this reason he affirmeth that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God because in their elementary nature they are subject unto corruption and therefore cannot inherit the land of incorruption but it is the pure spirit of the blood and flesh which rise after they have deposed their grosse tabernacle unto incorruption being animated by the incorruptible Spirit of the Lord which onely causeth a temporall life in the naturall or compacted elementary masse and an eternall one unto the spirituall and refined body which is contrary in condition unto the naturall body as the Apostle doth justifie for by purification it is changed from an elementary body unto a heavenly and spirituall one Do we not see after the same example how the very grain of wheat is so exalted in vertue after it hath endured corruption and hath been freed from the grosse elementary tie that it
would mount and soar upward towards the heaven were it not that the spirit so set at liberty is detained by the elementary stuffe which hinders it in its ascent and yet neverthelesse it is so dignified after its corruption that its vertue is augmented by many degrees as it appeareth in the abundant multiplication which its dilated spirit doth produce through the abundance of that incorruptible spirit which it endueth As touching the other resurrection which is unto a temporall life it is by reason that the body is not corrupted neither is there a loosning of elementary ligaments by dissolution whereby the spirituall body may be purified and clean separated from and have no commerce with the elementary dreggs which do issue out of the lower waters so that the occult spirituall body cannot be at liberty to embrace the spirit of life with eternall tyes Of this kind of resurrection was that which Christ effected on the widow's son which was carried to be buried when he said Young man I say to thee Arise and he that was dead sat up Also he caused resurrection in the like manner to the dead daughter of one of the Rulers of the Synagogues crying and saying Maid arise and her spirit came again and she rose up straight-way Unto such a temporall life also Lazarus was raised up Again by the prayer of Elijah the widow's son was raised again for the Text saith that at the voice of Elijah the soul of the child came into him again and he revived Whereby we ought to note two things first that these bodies were not wholly corrupted I mean the Elements of the composition were not devided by resolution and therefore though the Spirit returned into them yet it brought their bodies but to a temporall life And although it might be alledged that Christ's body was not corrupted and yet it had Resurrection from death unto eternall life I answer that the Text saith that he would not suffer his Holy one to see corruption and by that reason he had Resurrection the third day after he died being that his body was without sin and therefore void of corruption But I leave this mysticall doctrine to the research of the learned Theosophists Secondly we are to note that it is the presence of the vivifying Spirit of God which causeth Generation and Resurrection from the death And again it is the absence thereof which induceth death and corruption For the Scriptures say that it was the soul of the child which came again into the child to make it alive again And the other Text saith her spirit came again and she revived And therefore Job said in the place above mentioned If God should draw his Spirit or Spiracle of life from the creature all flesh would expire And David If thou takest away their breath they die If thou sendest forth thy Spirit they revive or are re-created Now if we shall compare this our principle of Generation and Corruption with that of the Peripateticks we shall find as great a confusion in the one as there is a plain explication of the other for they define Generation to be mutatio materiae à forma substantiali pristina in aliam formam substantialem A change or mutation of matter from its wonted substantiall form into another form Also they will have Corruption to be mutatio amissio formae substantialis quae prius inerat materiae sed nunc non inest eidem The mutation or loss of a substantiall form which was first in the matter but now hath forsaken it Thus you see how they nominate a substantiall form but what it is and how it commeth into the body to cause Generation or after what manner it departeth from it again to cause death and corruption they relate not and therefore we have ignotum per ignotius when in verity it is the Spirit of God which informeth and vivifieth all things causing by its presence as well Generation which Aristotle observed and Resurrection which he never knew or could discern by his worldly Philosophy as corruption privation and death by its absence So that in this change or passage of the creature from one estate unto another we shall find that as it was made and all things else out of one dark and deformed potentiall principle by the shining forth of actuall Light which informed and by information created all things of Nothing making them to live and exist so also by the absence of that all-informing Light each thing becommeth dark dead and destitute of their essentiall form untill a new Light do manifest it self after a manner which doth alienate the watery Subject from the form and shape it had at the first So the body or carkasse of a dead man is in the state of a deformed chaos in regard it hath lost its wonted human substantiall form or act no otherwise then if the Lord did take away his Spirit from the world all things would return again to Nothing or a deformed chaos or dark abysse as it was at first But when the effectuall act of a new form doth break forth out of the dead carcasse causing the whole Mass thereof to become verminous or full of worms then may we say that the Corruption of the one is the Generation of the other which evermore holdeth good when the Elementary stuff is still present So that Privation is the mean between them both and as it were a vacuity a Nihâ—l or non entity between two formalities But I will demonstrate the mystery of Generation and Corruption after this Manner Now therefore that the progression or ranks of the worlds Creation and his simple Members is shewed you which consisteth of four ranks in which estate the world must as I said indure till it be refined with fire I will make my progression from these simple members of the world's existence and proceed unto the order of degrees in composition which have their beginning and foundation from them namely from the first degree or rank in Generation or Composition unto the Complement thereof And as between the beginning of mixtion and the perfection thereof there must intercede a medium or mean which must be imperfectè mixtum or an imperfect mixtion so betwixt a simple Element and a perfect body an imperfect composition must needs intercede namely such a one as is that of a Meteorologick nature As for example in the generation of a man the beginning which is founded on the catholick watery Element and taketh his place in the first rank is Sperm for it is a watery or fluid Substance but little altered and as in the water the whole Fabrick of the world and seeds of all things was complicitly conteined and yet nothing did appear externally but water So in the seed or Sperm though nothing do appear in the first degree explicitly but Sperm yet the whole man namely the bones flesh blood sinews and such like are complicitly conteined and will
of his nature is tearmed by the Hebrews Mulchut that is Regnum or Imperium And this numeration importeth severity and servility unto the creatures through Gods anger and wrath and his influxion is directly into the Elementary world By which collections and observations of the wisest Rabbies we find that in these Ten generall properties of God signified by the ten attributes unto the Divine Essence all things in the world be they esteemed good or evill or positive and primitive or concordant and aimeable or discordant or odious or in a word either occultly or manifestly opposit or else concurring in nature or quality unto an other do originally descend from this fountâ—â—â— of Unity which though it be one in essence is nevertheless manifold in property and that property is therefore divers and altering according to the multiplicity of Volunty in the Father or fountain that sent it out according unto whose mind all things as well concordant as disagreeing are ordained both in heaven and in earth and that by a multiplicity of speciall emanations of different qualities from that eternall generall catholick effluxion and every of those specifick emanations do branch themselves again into an infinity of individuals even as ten may be multiplied in infinitum So that every one of those specifick properties do shine forth from the Star in heaven as well fix as erratick which is their receptacle or store-house unto an infinity of earthly and watery creatures which are generated or do grow upon the earth and under the earth according unto the influences of those Planets and fixed Starrs over creatures be they animal vegetable or minerall And the reason why the Divinity created or sent forth one specifick eradiation so contrary unto another was as well for the preservation as destruction of the creatures For as the last effect of each of these contrary emanations or radious eâ—fluences is the Creation or generation and preservation of creatures of their own nature and condition So also are they to be applyed either for the preservation or restauration of the decaying creatures namely when we apply any venomouse simple either animal vegetable or minerall to expell a dangerous disease or to poyson a nature which is sound as in the animal kingdom is the venomouse Viver Scorpion Toad Spider or blistering Cantharides and in the vegetable Kingdom the Somniferous and stupifying Poppy or Opium the searching and inflaming or burning Flammula and Euphorbium the fretting Scamony the vomiting Groundsell Dâ—ffodâ—ll Assera Bacca Bears-foot Titimall and the venomouse Aconite In the minerall ranck the corroding Asnick the quick peircing and infecting Quick-silver and Subâ—imary the destroying Resalgar the vomiting Antimony and such like which have all as well the property to take away dangerous diseases as to bring them For in some cases they take away dolorous maladies and in other some they bring them quickly and hasten on destruction upon the creature So that all things in some cases both wound and destroy and in othersome they heal and cure yet unto him that sent them the beams and irradiations of their form from some of his particular properties they appeared all good being they were ordained not onely to heal in his benignity but also to destroy in his severity and to conclude to effect his will one way or another even as it pleaseth him who onely worketh essentially all in all And therefore Solomon saith Could any thing exist which thou wouldest not have to be So that all is good unto God although unto wicked men which suffer them they may appear bad Oper a Domini universa saith the Wiseman bona valde All the works of God are very good Bona bonis crea a sunt ab iâ—itio sic nequissimis bona mala Good things were created originally for good men but to evill men they were in effect good and evill There are Spirits created for vengeance and in their fury they execute their torments in the time appointed they poure out their virtue and effect his furie that made them namely water hail the teeth of beasts as of the Scorpion and Serpent c. All these rejoyce to execute his Commandements upon the Earth c. Even for this cause therefore namely for the secret opposition of natures in the world originally proceeding from the streams of those variable properties which radically do spring from that one incomprehensible Fountain Love and Hatred and consequently Sympathy and Antipathy were created to justle and as it were shoulder one another in this world as well generally under the titles of Light and Dark as particularly in that friendship and hatred which is observed and testified in Scriptures to be first between the very Angells themselves then amongst the Starrs which receive these opposit natures from the Angells and thirdly amongst the winds and Elements which have their spirit of contention from the Starrs and lastly amongst those compound creatures which are composed of those Elements by the active spirits of the winds But because amongst all other opposite qualities in the world this Sympathy and Antipathy are most occult and hidden For whereas we can produce the reason of contrariety of Elements from their manifest qualities namely cold heat moisture or drought in and for this occult opposition we find not distinctly any such elementary ground we will dive so farre as our steril capacity will give us leave into the bowells of this Mystery CHAP. III. Here it is demonstrated that the occult action as well of Sympathy as Antipathy in creatures proceedeth from Angelicall irradiâ—tions or shinings forth that is by the emission or ejaculation of their secret beams the one against the other out of such creatures as are created or generated under their Dominions SUch as are well seen in the Mysticall Theology affirm that Angells are all of one kind in respect of their own creation though the one is more or less illuminated according to the importance of the office whereunto they are called or the Creator's will and mind is to employ them For we must consider that the Angels are the immediate organs by which and through which the Eternity effecteth his will and pronounceth his word Fiat after that his will is decreed in himself For that very reason David saith Angeli Dei validissimi robore efficientes verbum ejus a scultantes voci ejus ministri ejus facientes pâ—acitum ejâ—s The angells of God are most strong in power and do or effect his word and lâ—sâ—en unto his voice they are his minâ—sters to perform his will aâ—d leasure So that it is evident that nothing is effected in the world be it in heaven or in earth but it is performed by one of these organicall spirits And therefore Reucâ—â—ne saith That all bodies as well celestiall as terrene have by the ordinance of God allotted them certain spirituall directors and rulers of their vertues and presidents of their operations namely as well they which
are reasonable namely Man as unreasonable to wit the Stars of heaven and earthly creatures both animals vegetables and minerals And therefore Archangelus the Cabalist maketh many degrees in the offices of Angels For some saith he do stand before the divine tribunall of God still praising him some administer unto him and unto us also some have the custody of the watches of the night of which CHRIST maketh mention If he came in the second or thâ—â—d watch of the nâ—ght c. Some have the government of the four quarters of the year and these are Presidents over the four stations of the Sun others are ordained rulers over the seven Planets and some do dispose of the influences and vertues of the fixed Stars and twelve Signes of which St. Joâ—â— doth seem to make mention saying That in the twelve gates that is the twelve Signes which as Plato saith are the ports of heaven are the twelve Angels Some are tuâ—elar Angels and are ordained for the creatures safeguard some have the custody of beasts others of plants others of pretious stones and mineralls All these the secret Theologians and wisemen do affirm averring withall that God worketh all in this inferiouâ— world by the administration of Angells And therefore St. Paul saith That all are administring spiâ—â—ts sent to effect that office Thus far Archangelus And again Reuclin argueth That the influxion of angelicall beams from the stars must be divers and of sundry natures because that the Angells do not by their voluntary action move the celestiall Orbe alwaies after one manner though by reason of the violent motion it doth move daily by a diurnall motion from East to West But what needs many words when the progression of the foresaid Cabalisticall work doth open and discover all the myâ—ticall operation and variety of action in the Angells For if once the ten names of God which produce ten divers emanations of different conditions which are sent by the ten foresaid numerations or sephiroticall ports or channells do breed contrary effects both in heaven above and in earth beneath it followeth by the foresaid testimony of the Prophet David that there must be so many angelicall vehicles to conduct them into the lower world as there are Cabalisticall ports and channells and consequently as many diversities of the divine properties proceeding from the variety of his will as also varieties of vehicles to conduct them For I would have each judicious Reader to conceive that the Hebrew Doctors did judge of the nature and property of each Name or attribute ascribed unto God in holy Writ by that self-same effect which it produced after the uttering or expressing of it therein no otherwise than the Philosopher useth to judge of the nature and property of the complexion by the aspect of the Physiognomy or as by the signes whiâ—h he beholdeth in the heavens he determineth of their effects to wit of rain winds thunder c. namely because such presages in the heavens do use to bring forth such and such effects Now as I have proved before if it be the divine influence of light which animateth and informeth each angelicall spirit it must needs follow that every one of these angelicall conductions or vehicles of these influences must have also a divers property because the formall influences which do animate these intelligences which carry them are different and therefore they will be naturally prone and enclined to operate the will of the Creator according unto the nature of emanation or beams of that property which it receiveth from his proper port As concerning therefore those angelicall receptacles or organs which are ordained to receive the divers kinds of divine influences or irradiations I purpose briefly to expresse them in the first place for the better understanding of the Reader with the channell they do belong unto and then the order of Angels which doth first receive them After this I will set down the celestiall Orbes or Stars into the which as unto their particular store-houses they are conveyed And lastly I will speak somewhat of the effects that these influences which are conveyed down from their starry treasury into the elementary world do effect both in the aire seas or water and earth Touching therefore the Names or attributes of God as also their emanations or streaming forth of beams with their peculiar properties I have in few words written them in the precedent Chapter as for the rest I would have the Reader to know that those ten severall divine emissions of ten severall lights out of so many Sephiroticall or Cabalisticall spouts or channells into the vast cavity of the world to accomplish the will of the Creator have their particular angelicall waggoners or conductors for in this the best Theosophers agree that as the upper Order of the Angels do receive their light and bright emanations immediately from God so do they emit them and manifest them unto the inferiour Orders and for this reason they are called Mirrours because they receive their light from the face of God or his eternall catholick emanation which as I have proved before is the head and fountain of all these Angelicall lights And again as the secret Theologians have by their serious observation of the holy Bible espied ten distinct properties as also ten divers cognominations or Names of God appropriated unto them so they perceived that there was a singular Angel appointed to receive each of these emissions of beams endued with the self-same property or condition as the lights which they receive do possesse forasmuch as these Spirits do live and are animated by them being that as the externall of the Angell is a spirituall aire so the internall of it is the formall irradiation or emanation which is according unto Gods will emitted into it And this is a generall note amongst all the secret Theologians unto whom Bartholomaeus and St. Dennis do adhere touching this point that no Angell can intermeddle with anothers businesse or take upon him the work that belongeth unto another except it be such inferiour Angels as are destinated to serve under their Arch-angels in the same function or property as shall be said more at large We must therefore understand that the office of the great and catholick Angell Mitattron was so universall that it was employed first about the information of the whole world and the division of light from darknesse as also for the vivifying of the watry spirit of the world and the diurnall rouling about of the heavens And therefore it is said and not without a good cause That it was the divine and generall Emanation that is the eternall Sapience which for this reason is said to be created before all things by whom afterward all things were made or created And for this reason it is said That this Angel doth contain in it all the angelicall perfection no otherwise than the universall beams of the Sun are comprehended in the body of the Sun Wherefore we