a septenary gradation For we have understood that whatsoever there is besides God it is either an Element or a Vapour or a Concrete or a Plant or an Anâ—â—all or a Man or an Angell and that the whole multitude of creatures is ranked into these seven Classes or great Tribes In every of which there is some eminent virtue flowing from the essence of the Creatour yet every latter including the former For In Elements Being is eminent Vapours Motion Concretes Figure or Quality Plants Life Living creatures Sense Men Reason Angels Understanding See the house which Wisdome hath built her having hewn out her seven pillars Prov. 9. 1. See the seven Stairs which the King of Heaven hath placed in the entry of his inner house Ezek. 40. 22. The six first degrees are of visible creatures the seventh of invisible Angels After the same manner as there were nine dayes wherein God wrought and rested the seventh six Planets in heaven of inferiour light the seventh of extraordinary brightnesse the Sun six baser metals on earth The seventh exceeding all in perfection gold c. And as Salomons Throne had six inferiour steps to every of which there were six inferiour Leoncels adjoyned after all in the seventh place stood the Throne and by it two Lions 1 King 10. 19 20. So the King of eternity when he built him a visible throne of glory erected six visible degrees of corporeous creatures to every of which he added their Leoncels that is their virtues and their powers and last of all about the throne on high he placed the strongest of the creatures the Angels mighty in power Psal. 103. 19 20. But now what mean the seven planets in heaven what mean the seven continents on earth the seven kinds of meteors seven kinds of metalls seven kinds of stones c the seven combinations of tangible qualities the seven differences of taste the seven vitall members in man the seven tones in musick and other things which we meet with throughout all nature yea and in the Scripture the number of seven is every where very much celebrated and sacred For what do the seven dayes of the week point at what are the seven weeks betwixt the Passeover and Pentecost what the seventh year of rest what the seven times seventh of Jubilee what do all these portend I say but that it is the expresse Image of that God whose seven eyes passe through the whole earth Zach. 4. 10. and whose seven spirits are before his Throne Apoc. 1. 4. yea who doth himselfe make a mysticall eighth with every degree of his creatures For in him all things live aud move and have their being which live and move and have a being Acts 17. 28. and he worketh all in all 1 Cor. 12. 6. and all these are as it were him himselfe Eccles. 43. 27. and yet none of them is he himselfe Job 12. 9. 10. but because all these have some effigies of the divine essence and operate that which they operate by virtue thereof hence it is that he being above all without all and beneath all is the true mysticall eighth of all Of whom that Syracides may conclude our meditation though we say much we shall not yet attain thereto The sum of the doctrine is that he is all For what ability have we to praise him For he is greater then all his works The Lord is terrible and very great marvellous is his power Extol the Lord in praise as much as you can For yet he wil be greater then all praise Eecl 43. 30. c. Therefore let every spirit praise the Lord Hallelujah Psal. 150. And thou my soul praise the Lord Psal. 103. 1. Holy holy holy Lord of Hosts Heaven and earth are full of his glory Isai. 6. 3 Hallelujah A Short APPENDIX TO PHYSICKS Touching the Diseases of the Body Mind and Soul and their generall Remedies I. A Disease is the corruption of an Entity in some part thereof and a disposition of it to totall perishing that is death Therefore both the Body Mind and Soul hath its diseases II The diseases of the body are various scarce to be numbred and oft-times mâ—â—t A disease added to a disease is called a ymptome of a disease III A disease of the body is either by solution of that which is continued or by distemper of humours IV Solution of that which is continued is either by a rupture or a wound A rupture is prevented by bewaring falls and violent motion A wound is avoided by shunning of those things which can cleave cut prick rent tear or bruise or hurt anyway and both are to be cured by the Chirurgion N. W. The cure of a Wound is desperate if any vitall member be hurt as the heart the brain the liver the entrals c. For then the vitall actions are hindred and soon after cease 2 If any member be quite lost it cannot be set on again because the spirit hath not wherewithall to passe into the part that is severed V The distempers of the humours and the diseases that come from thence always proceed from some of these 6 causes namely either from 1 Crudity 2 Inflation 3 Distillation 4 Obstruction 5 Putrefaction 6 Inflammation VI Crudity in the body is nutriment not sufficiently concocted namely either Chyle or bloud which comes I from the quality of meat and drink when they are taken too raw flegmatick unwholesome which the concoctive faculty cannot well subdue 2 from the quantity when more meat and drink is put in then it is able to alter and assimilate unto the body For hence undigested and not assimilated humours burthen the body like strangers and not pertaining thereunto 3 For want of exercise when the naturall heat is not stirred up nor strengthened to perform its office lustily in the concoction of meats From such like crudities diverse inconveniences follow For 1 if the crudity be in the stomack it causes loathing of food for so long as the first food is not digested there can be no appetite to any other Again children have an appetite to eat earth chalk coales c. according as the crudities are turned into the likenesse of any matter For like desireth like 2 If there be a viscous crudity adhering in the ventricle or in the guts being warmed it takes spirit and is turned into wormes which gnawing the bowels stir up evill vapours by their motion whence also come phartasies very hurtfull to the head Lastly ctudity under the skin in the bloud and flesh begets palenesse and when it is collected and putrified scabs ulcers c. Crudity is prevented by a temperate diet as to Food Sleep and daily exercises and cured 1 by violent expurgation 2 by strong exercises 3 by the use of tart meats and drinks 4 by comforting the stomack with such things as heat both within and without VII Inflation is much and grosse vapour exhaling from the crudities that are gathered together and stretching the members And
matter cherishes and rules it and produces every creature introducing into every one it s own form but being that this work-master had need of fire to soften and to prepare the matter variously for various uses God produced it For V God said let there be light and there was light ver 3. this is described as the third principle of the World meerly active whereby the matter was made visible and divisible into forms the light I say perfecting all things which are and are made in the World therefore it is added VI And God saw the light that it was good ver 4 that is he saw that all things would now proceed in order for that light being produced in a great masse began presently to display its threefold virtue of illuminating moving it selfe and heating and by turning about the World to heat and rarifie the matter and so to divide it for hence followed first of all from the brightnesse of that light the difference of nights and days VII He divided the light from darkness and called the light day and the darknesse he called night and the evening and morning were the first day ver â— that is that light when it had turn'd it self round compassed the World with that motion made day and night The second effect of light was from heat namely that which way soever it pass'd it rarified and purified the matter but it condensed it on both sides upward and downward whence came the division of the Elements this Moses expresses in these words VIII And God said let there be a Firmament that it may divide betwixt the waâ—er above and the waters below ver 6. God said that is he ordained how it should be let there be a Firmament that is let that light stretch forth the matter and let the thicker part of the matter melting and flying from the light thereof make waters on this side and on that above as they are the term of the visible World but below as they are a matter apt to produce other creatures under which the earth as thick dregs came together that was done the second day XI Therefore God said let the waters be gathered together under heaven into one place and let the dry land appear and it was so and God called the dry land earth and the gathering together of the waters he called seas and he saw that it was good ver 9 10. and so on the third day there came the foure greatest bodies of the World out of the matter already produced Aether that is the Firmament or Heaven Aire Water and Earth all as yet void of lesser creatures therefore said God X Let the earth bud forth the green herb and trees bearing seed or fruit every one according to his kinde ver 11. this was done the same third day when as now the heat of Coelestiall light having wrought more effectually began to beget fat vapours on the earth whereinto that living spirit of the World insinuating it self began to cause plants to grow up in various formes according as it pleased the Creator this is the truest original and manner of generation of plants hitherto that they are form'd by the spirit with the help of heat but as the heavens did not always equally effuse the same heat but according to the various form of the World one while more midly another while more strongly the fourth day God disposed that same light of heaven otherwise then hitherto it had been namely forming from that one great masse thereof divers lucid Globes greater and lesser which being called stars he placed here and there in the Firmament higher and lower with an unequall motion to distinguish the times and this Moses describes v. 14 15 c. thus XI And God said let there be light made in the Firmament of heaven that they may divide the day and the night and may be for signes and for seasons and for days and for years that they may shine in the Firmament and enlighten the earth therefore God made two great lights and the starres c. This done then after all the face of the World began to appear beautifull and the heat of heaven more temperate began to temper the matter of inferiour things together after a new manner so that the spirit of life now began to form more perfect creatures namely moving plants which we call animals of which Moses thus XII God said also let the waters bring forth creeping things having a soul of life and flying things upon the earth c. v. 20. the waters were first commanded to produce living creatures because it is a softer Element then earth first reptiles as earth-wormes and other worms c. because they are as it were the rudiment of nature also swiming things and flying things that is fishes and birds animals of a more light compaction that was done on the fift day with a most goodly spectacle to the Angels but on the sixth day God commanded earthly animals to come forth namely of a more solid structure which was presently done when the spirit of the World distributed it self variously through the matter of the clay for thus Moses XIII God said let the earth produce creatures having life according to their kind beasts and serpents and beasts of the field and it was sâ— v. 24. so now the heaven of heavens had for inhabitants the Angels the visible heaven the starres the air birds the water fishes the earth beasts there was yet a ruler wanting for these inferiour things namely a rationall creature or an Angel visibly clothed for whose sake those visible things were produced Therefore at the last when God was to produce him he is said by Moses to have taken counsel in these words XIV Then God said let us make man after our own image and likenesse who may rule over the fishes of the sea and the fouls of the air and beasts and all the earth c. Therefore he created man out of the dust of the earth and breathed in his face the breath of life c. v. 26. and cap. 2. v. 7. so man was made like to the other living creatures by a contemperation of matter spirit and light and to God and the Angels through the inspiration of the mind a most exquisite summarie of the world and thus the structure of the Universe ought to proceed so as to begin with the most simple creature and end in that which is most compound but both of them rationall that it might appear that God created these onely for himself but all the intermediate for these Lastly that all things are from God and for God flow out from him and reflow to him But that all these things might continue in their essence as they were disposed by the wisdome of God he put into every thing a virtue which they call Nature to conserve themselves in their effence yea to multiply whence the continuation of the creatures unto this very day and
Wil◠and Conscience For by diligent attention it begets understanding of things by imagination or judging choise that is to will or nill by remembrance conscience XIII The understanding is a faculty of the reasonable soule gathering things unknown out of things known and out of things uncertain compared together drawing things certain by reasoning XIV To reason is to enquire the reasons and causes why any thing is or is not by thinking thereon For the mind or reason doth from the experiments of the senses gathered together first form to it selfe certain generall notions as when it seeth that the fire scorcheth all things it formes to it selfe this rule as it were All fire burneth c. Such kind of experimentall notions they call principles from which the understanding as occasion is offered frames discourse For example if gold melt with fire then it is hot also and burns when it is melted Whence follows this conclusion therefore if the Workman pour gold into his hand he is burnt therewith See here is understanding and that of a thing never seen to which a bruite cannot attain For they do not reason but stay simply upon experiments As if a dog be beaten with a staffe he runs away afterward at the sight of a staffe because his late suffering comes into his memory but that he should reason for example a staffe is hard and pain was caused me with a staffe therefore every hard thing struck against the body causeth pain this he cannot do therefore intelligere to understand is inter legere that is amongst many things to chuse and determine what is truly and what is not XV When ratiocination doth cohere with it selfe every way it begets verity if it gape any where errour XVI Promptnesse of reasoning is called Ingenuity solidity Judgement defect Dulnesse For he is Ingenious who perceives and discourseth readily he Judicious that with a certain naturall celerity giveth heed whether the reasoning cohere sufficiently every way He is dull that hath neither of them The two first are from the temperature of bloud and melancholy the last comes from abundance of flegme For melancholy understand not grosse and full of dregs but pure tempered with much bloud giveth a nimble wit but moistned with lesse a piercing and constant judgement which is made plaine by this similitude A glasse receiving and rendring shapes excellently is compounded of three exceedings exceeding hardnesse exceeding smoothnesse exceeding blacknesse for the smoothnesse receives shapes hardnesse reteins them the blacknesse underneath clears them Hence the best sort of glasses are of steel those of silver worse and of glasse better by reason of their greater smoothnesse and hardnesse under which some black thing is put or cast that it may adhere immediately For instance lead If it could be iron or steel it is certain that the images would be the brighter for blackness So the animall spirits receiving agility from pure bloud strength and constancy from Melancholy make men ingenious and when the prevailing melancholy clarifies the imagination Judicious too much flegme overflowing both makes men stupid Yellow choler conferreth nothing but mobility to the affections whence it is not without cause called the whetstone of wits XVII The understanding begins with universals but ends in singulars We have observed the same touching the senses upon the eighth Aphorisme For there is a like reason for both in as much as the intellect considering any object first knows that it is something and afterwards enquires by discoursing what it is and how it differs from other things and that alwayes more and more subtilely For universals are confused singulars distinct Therefore the understanding of God is most perfect because he knowes all singularities by most speciall differences Therefore he alone truly knoweth all things But a man by how many the more particulars he knows and sees how they depend upon their generals by so much the wiser he is Therefore Aristotle said not rightly That sense is of singulars but understanding of universals XVIII The will is a faculty of the reasonable soul inclining it to good fore-known and turning it away from evill fore-seen For the soule works that whereunto the will enclines and the will enclines whither the understanding leads it It follows this for its guides every where and erres not unlesse it erre As when a Christian chuseth drunkennesse rather then sobriety though he be taught otherwise he doth it because the intellect deceived by the sense judgeth it better to please the palate then to be tormented with thirst though perverse Therefore we must have a speciall care least the intellect should erre or be carried away with the inferiour appetite It appears also from thence that if all men understood alike they would also will and nill alike but the diversity of wils argues a diversity of understanding XIX If the will prudently follow things that are truly good and prudently avoid things that are truly bad it begets virtue if it do the contrary vice For virtue is nothing else but a prudent and constant and ardent shunning of evill and embracing of good vice on the contrary is nothing but a neglecting of good and embracing of evill XX The conscience of man is an intellectuall memory of those things which reason dictates either to be done or avoided and what the will hath done or not done according to this rule and what God hath denounced to those that doe them or doe them not Therefore the function of it in the soule is three-fold to warn testifie and judge of all things that are done or to be done See by the Wisdome of God an inward Monitor Witnesse and Judge and always standing by given to man woe be to him that neglects this Monitor contemnes this Witnesse throwes off the reverence of this Judge XXI It appears out of that which hath been said that man is well termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little world Because 1 He is compounded of the same that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the great World is matter spirit light 2 He resembles the universe in the site of his members for as that is divided into three parts the Elementary the Coelestiall and the Supercoelestiall so a man hath three ventres or bellies the lowest which serves for nutrition the middle-most or the breast wherein is the work-house of life and the fountain of heat the highest or the head in which the animall spirits and in them reason the image of God inhabits 3 There is an analogy betwixt the parts of the world and the parts of the body For example Flesh represents the Earth Bones the Stones Bloud and other humours Waters Vapours of which the body is full the air the vitall spirit the Heaven and Stars the Haires Plants but the seven Planets are the seven vitall Members in our body for the Heart is in the place of the Sun the Brain of the Moon the Spleen of Saturn the Liver of Jupiter the Bag of Gall Mars
those bitter and salt waters of the sea namely because they come by distillation to the spring head For they say that the sea water being distilled that is resolved first into vapours then into drops in an Alembick looseth its saltnesse by the same reason then the deep under ground evaporating salt waters sendeth them fresh out of fountains neverthelesse And what need words For clouds gathered of the vapours of the sea send down fresh showers Sâ— how excellently the truth of things agree with it selfe still LIV Medicinall waters are made of the various tinctures of the metals and juices of the earth from which they receive the virtue 〈◊〉 healing and savour For example hot waters or baths aâ— made of bitumen burning within Therefore they exhale sulphur manifestly bâ—â— sharpish waters relish of iron coper vitrioâ—allom c. of which earthly concretes it wilâ— be now time to speak Of earthly concretes which are called Minerals LV Minerals are earthly concretes begotten of subterrane vapours as clods concret juicesî metals and stones These are called minerals from the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if you shonld say from the earth They call them also Fossiles because they are digged that all these are begotten of subterrane vapours and subterrane fire appears by the example of our body wherein bloud choler flegme melanlancholy urine spittle fat flesh veins nerves membranes gristles bone c. yea the stone and gravell are made of the vapours of food concocted and digested as shal be seen hereafter Now as these parts of ours are formed within the body by the heat included so minerals are generated in the bowels of the earth not elsewhere For the earth with its most deep passages and veins winding every way where infinite vapours are generated and perpetually distilled in a thousand fashions is that great work-house of God wherein for the space of so many ages such things are wrought as neither art can imitate nor wit well find out LVI Clods are digged earths infected only with fatnesse or some colour and apt to be soaked as 1 Clay 2 Marle 3 Chalk 4 Red earth 5 Paintings or painters colours as lake vermilion oker azure or blew verdigrease 6 Fullers earth in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 7 Medicinall earth as sealed earth Lemnian Armenian Samian c. These colours seem to be nothing else but the soot of the subterrane fumes variously distilled and those earths nothing else but a various mixture of liquors distilled also variously and brought to such or such a quality LVII Concrete juices are fossiles indued with a savour or some sharp virtue apt to be dissolved or kindled as sulphur niter salt allome vitriol arsenick which painters call orpiment antimonie or stibium such like N. Those juices seem to be nothing else but the cream of subterrane liquors variously distilled LVIII Metals are watery fossiles apt to be melted cast and hammered as gold silver brasse or copper iron tin lead quick-silver N. 1. That they are progenerated of fire this is enough to testifie that they are oft times taken hot out of the veines so that the touch will not endure them For in winter when all herbs are white with frost those which grow over the veins admit of no frost because of the hot exhalation within hindering concretion so also trees by the blewnesse of their leaves shew the veines of metals 2 Now that metals are made of vapours this is an argument that they are wont also to be procreated in the very clouds For examples are not unknown even in our age of bodies of brasse or iron of no small weight falling from heaven 3 That metals are made of watery vapours their liquabilitie shews now they are coagulated by virtue of salt Therefore the drosse of iron is salt and bitter 4 Quicksilver alone is alwayes liquid never consistent as a perpetuall witnesse of the watery nature of metals Other metals swim upon it because it hath the most compacted substance of all gold only excepted which therefore it receives only into it selfe 5 Whether metals differ in their species or only in degree of purity and hardnesse and in heat we leave now in suspense LIX Stones are earthly fossiles hardly compacted apt only to be broken in pieces That stones are earth coagulated with water and fire bricks and pots teach us for here art imitates nature Yet the severall formes of stones shew that they are not earth simply concrete but a masse concrete of divers most grosse earthly vapours with a various temperature of humours LX Stones are either vulgar or precious LXI A vulgar stone is earth most hardly compacted the principall kinds of which are seven The gravell stone the milstone the pumice-stone the flint to which I refer the Smiris wherewith glasse is cut and iron polished the whetstone and the touch stone or Lapis lydius the marble and the loadstone N. Every kind have their differences again 2 A great stone is called saxum or a rock a little one gravell and sand 3 Most mountains are stony and yield metals because the subterrane fire on the third day of the creation swelling the earth here made it self many channels and passages breathing through which it doth variously exhale melt mix and boile the matter which is not done so copiously under plains LXII Pretious stones are are called gems because they are the gums of stones sweating in the bowels of the earth Hence comes their clearnesse and brightnesse that is to say from their most thinâ— and accurate straining even more then in the gums of trees for wood hath looseâ— pores then stones LXIII All gems are transparent and pellucid but some onely transparant as these three the Diamond the Chrystall the Beryllâ— Others coloured with all and thoseâ— according to the diversity of their colours of sveâ—â— sorts 1 Bright and burning the Carbuncle the Chalcedon the Chrysolite 2 Yellow the Jacinth and Topaze 3 Green the Emerald and the Turquois 4 Red or purple the Rubie and the Granate but the Carnelous and the Onyx are more pale 5 Skie-coloured the Saphir and the Amethyst 6 Black the Morion 7 Changeable as the Jasper the Agat the Chrysoprase N. 1. That Chrystall is never found unlesse it be Hexagonall which is the miracle of nature And that it is growes in arched cels under ground dry and closed where the wind enters not for some years hath been experienced at Kings Itradeck in Bohemia Anno 1618. For elegant chrystals were found hanging from the stones of the arches like Isicles of an exact Hexagonall forme but in the silver mines of Catteberge there are found far more Of other gems we have nothing to say in particular N. 2. Stones that are wont to grow in some living creatures are usually reckoned amongst precious stones as the pearl in sea shell fishes the Bezoar the Chelidonius the Alectorius the Bufonites c. also Corall and Amber But these two are to be
referred rather to the following chapter LXIV The virtue which is in minerals is called their naturall spirit of which there are so many formes as there are species of minerals For there is one spirit of salt another of vitrioll loadstone and iron c. which distillers know how to extract CHAP. IX Of Plants THus much of Concretes here follow Plants which beside their figure have life 1 A plant is a vitall concrete growing out of the earth as a tree and an herb Some concretes stars meteors minerals want life and lie or tarry where they were concrete but plants endued with an inward vigour break out of the earth and spread themselves in plano whence also they were called plants II Plants are generated both to be an ornament to the earth and to yield nourishment medicine and other uses to living creatures For what a sad face the earth would have if it were not cloathed every year with those diverse coloured tapistries of herbs we have sufficient experience in Winter and whence should living creatures have food medicines and pleasures if we were destitute of the roots leaves seeds and fruits of plants not to speak of the commodity of shade and of the infinite uses of wood III The essentiall parts of a plant are the root the trunk or stalk and the branches or leaves N. W. The Elements vapours concrete things consisted only of similar parts for every part and particle of water earth vapour a cloud iron c. is called and is water earth vapour a cloud iron c. But more perfect bodies of plants and living creatures do consist of dissimular parts that is members every one of which hath both its office and its name differing from the rest For example In a plant the root is the part sticking in the ground and sucking in the juice of the earth the truk or stalks attracting the juice concocting it and sending it to the upper parts the boughes and branches are twigs distributing the juice yet better concocted to make seed and fruit the leaves are the coverings of the fruits and boughes IV The Spirit of a plant is called a vegetable or vitall spirit which puts forth its virtue three manner of wayes in nutrition augmentation and generation For here that universall spirit the spirit of life begins more manifestly to put forth its virtue preparing a portion of matter so softly to its turn that it may have it tractable to perform the offices of life and is therefore called vitall in plants namely because of its more manifest tokens and effects of life They call it also the vegetative soul V Nutrition is an inbred virtue in a plant whereby sucking in juice fit for it changeth it into its own substance For because the encompassing air dries up every body and the heat included in a living body doth also feed upon the inward moisture it were impossible that a plant should not presently fade away unlesse new matter and vigour were continually supplyed with fresh nourishment to make up that which is lost and to this end every plant hath a body either hollow or else pithy and porous that the nourishing vapour may passe through and irrigate all the parts yea whatsoever is in a plant even the very haire or downe is hollow and porous Therefore in a man the head is eased when the haire is cut because the fuliginous vapours of the braine or the superfluities under the skin do the more easily evaporate For the same cause every plant rests upon its root that sucking the moisture of the earth through the strings thereof it may be nourished therefore it perisheth when it is pluckt up the humour then or fat juice of the earth is a fit nourishment for plants not dry earth because it cannot passe through the strings and pores of a plant nor water alone because it cannot be concrete into a solid body Therefore the moisture of the earth which is a mixture of Mercury sulphur and salt nourisheth plants VI Augmentation is a virtue of a plant whereby it increaseth also by nourishing it self which we call by a common terme growing It is pleasant to contemplate what it is to grow and how it is done Now it is easily found out by the doctrine of motions already delivered For first when the spirit included in the seed begins to diffuse it self and to swell by reason of the heat that is raised the thin shell of the seed must of necessity break by the motion of cession and because every body is moved towards a greater company of its connaturals that vapour comming forth when the seed is warmed tends towards heaven but because the matter of the seed is fat and glutinous the vapour being infolded therein carries it upwards with it and brings it forth out of the earth and this is the originall of the stump and boughs now because that the outside of the plant hindereth the vapours ascending there is a strife and heat is raised whereby the superficies of the small body is by little and little mollified that it may yield and rise up and this is done every day when the Sun is hot but the tender parts which grow up are condensed and made solid with the cold of the night by which successions of day and night the plants take increase all spring and summer long Now look how much moisture is every day elevated upward by the stump so much again succeeds it by the motion of continuitie least there should be a vacuum but because every body loves an aquilibrium and plants own their center in the joynt of the stump and root it comes to passe by the motion of libration that as much as the boughs spread themselves upwards so much the roots spread downwards or side-wayes Now there is a question why when a leafe or a bough is pluckt off yea when the stock is cut asunder the spirit doth not exhalâ— but containes it self und growes stills Answer 1 Because the spirit hath its proper seat fixed in the root which it doth not forsake though a passage be open through a wound received nay more fearing discontinuity it gathers and conglobates it self when it perceives an opening and danger of dissipation 2 Because the wound is presently overspread with the moisture of the plant which being hardened with the outward cold covers the wound as it were with a crust and prohibits a total expiration VII Generation is a virtue of a plant whereby it gathers together and conglobates its spirit into a certain place of it and makes a seed or kernell from which the like plant may afterwards grow The spirit of the plant foreseeing as it were that it shall not always have matter at command which it may vegetate turns but a part of it self into the nourishment of the plant and gathers together the rest into a certain place usually in the tops of plants and makes a seed or kernell Now the seed kernell or graine is nothing
the Reins Venus the Lungs Mercury c. Lastly certain creatures shew forth their virtues in certaine parts of the body For example some herbs cure the Lungs some the Liver c. which shews a certain analogy of the Microcosme to the Macrocosme though not well known to us XXII Also Man is not absurdly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the all because 1 He hath his body from the Elements his spirit from Heaven his mind from God and so in himselfe alone he represents the visible and the invisible world 2 Man is all because he is apt to be all that is either most excellent or very base For if he give himselfe to earthly things he becomes brutish and falls back again to nothing if to heavenly things he is in a manner deified and gets above all creatures CHAP. XII Of Angels WE joyn the treatise concerning Angels with the Physicks because they also are a part of the created World and in the scale of creatures next to man by whose nature the nature of Angels is the easier to be explained Therefore we will conclude it in some few Aphorismes I There are Angels Divine testimonies and apparitions testifiè that and also a three-fold reason 1 Vapours concretes plants living creatures are mixt of water and spirit Now there is matter without spirit the pure Element therefore there is spirit also without matter 2 As the matter of the world is divided into four kinds the four Elements so we see already the spirit of the world to be distinguished into the naturall vitall animall and mentall spirit Now the lowest degree is to be found alone as in concretes Therefore the highest may be found alone to wit in the Angels 3 Every creature is compounded of Entitie and Nihility For they were nothing before the creation but now they are something because the Cretour hath bestowed on them of his Entitie more or lesse by degrees By how much the more entitie any thing hath so much the further it is from nihility and on the contrary Seeing then then that there is the first degree from nihility that is a Chaos the rudiment of an Entitie without doubt there is the last also which comes nearest to a pure Entitie But man is not such because having matter admixt he partakes much of nihility Therefore of necessity there is a creature with which materiality being taken away all other perfections remain And that is an Angell II An Angell is an incorporeall man An Angell may be called a man in the same sense that man himselfe is called an animall and an animall a plant and a plant a concrete c. as we have set down in their definitions that is by reason of the forme of the precedent included with a new perfection only super-added For a man is a rationall creature made after the Image of God immortall so is an Angel but for more perfections sake free from a body Therefore an Angel is nothing but a man without a body A man is nothing but an Angel clothed with a body But that Angels are incorporous appears 1 Because although they be present they are not discerned neither by the sight or any other sense 2 Because they assume to themselves earthly watery aery fiery or mixt bodies as need requires and put them off again which they could not do if they had bodies of their own as we have Yet ordinarily they appear in an humane forme by reason of the likenesse of their natures as we have said III Angels were created before all visible things That was shewed in the Apendix of the first Chapter you may see it again if need be And Moses words are clear In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth and the earth was void See the earth was in that first production emptie and void Therefore heaven was not void then it was filled with its host the Angels IV The Angels were created out of the Spirit of the world As Moses seems to comprehend the production of Angels under the name of Heaven so also the universall Spirit For he â—oth not say that this was created with the earth but he pronounceth abruptly after the creation of the earth that the Spirit of God moved it selfe upon the waters intimating thus much that it was in being before We conclude therefore that the Angels were formed out of that Spirit so that part of that spirit was left in the invisible heaven and shaped into meer spirituall substances Angels and part sent down into the materiall world below After the same manner as the fire was afterward partly left in the Skie and fashioned into shining Globes and partly sunk into the bowels of the earth for the working of minerals and other uses That which follows makes this opinion probable if not demonstrable 1 Principles should not be multiplied without cause Seeing therefore that the Scripture doth not say that they were created out of nothing nor yet names any other principle why should we not be satisfied with those principles that Moses hath set down 2 Angels govern the bodies which they assume like as our spirit inhabiting the matter doth Therefore they are like to it 3 There is in Angels a sense of things as well as in our spirits For they see hear touch c. though they themselves be invisible and intangible Also they have a sense of pleasure and griefe for as much as joyes are said to be prepared for the Angels and fire for the divells into which wicked men are also to be cast Although therefore they perceive without Organs yet we must needs hold that they are not unlike to our spirit which perceiveth by organs V The Angels were created perfect That is finished in the same moment so that nothing is added to their essence by adventitious encrease For being that they are immateriall they are also free from the law of materiality that is when a thing tends to perfection to be condensed fixed to encrease and so to be augmented and become solid by certain accessions VI Angels are not begotten Men Animals and Plants are generated because the spirit included in the matter diffuseth it selfe with the matter and essayes to make new Entities But an Angel being that it is without matter and its essence cannot be dissipated hath not whether to transfuse it selfe Hence Christ saith that in Heaven we shall be as the Angels without generation or desire of generation Mat. 22. 30. VII Angels die not The spirit of Animals and of Plants perisheth because when the matter that is its chariot is dissipated it also is dissipated But an Angell having his essence compacted by it selfe without matter cannot be dissipated and therefore endures VIII The number of Angels is in a manner infinite See Job 25. v. 2 3. yet Daniel names thousands of thousands and myriads of myriads Dan. 7. 10. as also John Apoc. 5. 11. IX The habitation of the Angels is the Heaven of Heavens Mat. 18. v.