If I be it is it seems in that I am all rationall spirit and have had the luck to misse of the sensitive the beast Page 77. line 3. If this be true then there be two hearing and seeing souls in a man This is my second Quere I ask'd if there be To this you answer Ha ha he A very profound answer This is no laughing matter my friend Have I not already shew'd you some difficulties this asserting two sensitive Spirits in a man is laden with Answer them Phil. I should gladly heare thee use thy tongue as well as see thee shew thy teeth by laughing For that slender faint reason that follows thy loud laughing viz. The objects are different and the senses are different that is taken a way already For the sting of my Argument is not this that there would be two sensitive souls of the same nature in the body of a man but that there should be two sensitive souls at all And indeed considering that the superiour soul contains the faculties of the inferiour it is altogether needlesse And that is a very sober truth Entia non sunt multiplicanda sine necessitate Which is to the same sense with that so often repeated in Aristotle and Theophrastus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God and Nature do nothing in vain And the right organization of parts and due temperature of the body and proportion of animal spirits this is all the glasse the Soul of man wants in this life to see by or receive species from But his glasse hath no more sense it self then an urinall or looking-glasse hath Where are you now Phil. with your Ha ha he Line 10. I could Mastix teach thee an higher truth Yes truly Magicus you are best of all at those truths which dwell the highest You love to soar aloft out of the ken of sense and reason that you may securely Raunt it there in words of a strange sound and no signification But though thou fliest up so high like a Crow that hath both his eyes bor'd out yet I have thee in a string and can pluck thee down for all thy fluttering Thou sayest that a Soul may understand all things sine conversione ad Phantasmata this I suppose thou wouldst say to contradict Aristotle but I do not suspect thee of so much learning as to have read him He tells us in his book De Anima 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that there is no understanding without Phantasmes Yon say that we may understand all things without them What think you of Individualls Magicus of which it is controverted amongst the Platonists whether there be any Idea's of them or no. But being you are so confident an assertor let 's heare how stout a prover you are of your assertions Know you this you have spoken by Sense Reason or divine Revelation By this string I have pluck'd this blind Crow down I have him as tame in my hand as a Titmouse look how he pants and gapes and shews the white tip of his tongue but sayes nothing Go thy wayes Phil. for a pure Philosophick Thraso Observation 41. Three quarters of a year hast thou spent c. O Magicus Magicus thou art youthfull and vain-glorious and tellest thy Tutour that this hasty cookery thou entertainest him with was dispatch'd and dress'd up some ten daies after the Presse was deliver'd of my Observations How many ten dayes doest thou mean by thy some ten dayes Thou wouldst have thy Tutour to stroke thee on the head for a quick-parted lad I perceive Eugenius But hadst thou not better have staid longer and writ better sense more reason and with lesse rayling But I poore slow beast how long dost thoâ— think I was viewing and observing that other excellent piece of thine I confesse Magicus because thou forcest me to play the fool as well as thy self I was almost three quarters of a Moneth about it and how much more is that then some ten dayes though but twice told over and I will not be so curiously vain-glorious as to tell thee how great a share of this time was daily taken from me by necessary imployments This is to answer thy folly with folly But I thank God that I glory in nothing but that I feel my self an Instrument in the hand of God to work the good of Men. The greatest strength of a man is weaknesse and the power of Reason while we are in this state depends so much of the organs of the body that its force is very uncertain and fickle Is not the whole consistency of the body of Man as a crudled cloud or coagulated vapour and his Personality a walking shadow and dark imposture All flesh is grasse and the glory thereof as the flower of the field but the word of the Lord endureth for ever Verily the people are as grasse Observation 42. Have at you my friends the Independents The Independents indeed may be thy friends Magicus but I dare say thou art not in a capacitie to be theirs as having not yet wit and morality enough to be a friend unto thy self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A bad man cannot be friendly disposed towards himself as having nothing in himself amiable and friendly Aristot. Eth. ad Nicom lib. 9. cap. 4. Observation 43. Mastix You denied formerly the Scripture was intended for Philosophie But you contending that it was how fondly do you preferre Agrippa before Moses and Christ. This you would have called blasphemy but I have learned no such hard language Observation 44. For the naturall Queres I put to thee here concerning the nature of Light the Rainbow the Flux and Reflux of the Sea and the Load-stone I tell thee thou wilt never be able to answer sense to them unlesse thou turn Cartesian and explain them out of that Philosophy But in the Generall I mean That the heats which the Soul takes from personall admiration make her neither wise nor just nor good but onely disturbe the spirits and disadvantage Reason Observation 45. Page 81. line 2. Mastix would gladly put those asunder whom God hath put together You mean then that a Protestant and Christian are termini convertibiles What a rare Independent is Magicus he is an Independent of the Church of England which is as good sense as if he should say he is a Protestant of the Church of Rome Truly Magicus I think thou art an Independent in nothing but in thy Reasons and speeches for in them indeed there is no dependency at all They are Arena sine â—alce and hang together like thum-ropes of sand But before I be merry with thee and I fore-see I shall be when I come to thy verses hear this sober Aphorisme from me If that those things which are confessedly true in Christianity were closely kept to by men it would so fill and satisfie their souls with an inward glorious light and spirituall joy that all those things that are with destroying zeal and unchristian bitternesse prosecuted
or a Miracle is most justly deemed to proceed from no supernaturall assistance but from some Hypochondriacall distemper 62. Moreover for these Rapturous and Enthusiasticall affections even in them that are truely good and pious it cannot be denied but that the fuell of them is usually naturall oâ—â—â—ntracted Melancholy which any man may perceive that is religious unlesse his Soul and Body be blended together and there be a confusion of all as it is in mistaken Enthusiasts that impute that to God which is proper to Nature But Melancholy usually disposes and the mind perfects the action through the power of the Spirit And a wise and holy man knows how to make use of his opportunity according to that Monition of the Apostle If a man be sad let him pray if cheerfull let him sing Psalmes 63. But there is also a peculiar advantage in Melancholy for divine speculations and yet the mysteries that result from thence are no more to be suspected of proving meer fancies because they may occasionally spring from such a constitution then Mathematicall Truths are who ow their birth to a Mathematicall complexion Which is as truly a complexion as the Religious complexion is and yet no sober man will deny the truth of her Theorems And as it would be a fond and improper thing to affirm that such a complexion teaches a man Mathematicks so it would also be to affirm that Melancholy is the onely mother of Religion 64. But most certain it is and observation will make it good That the souls of men while they are in these mortall bodies are as so many Prisoners immured in severall prisons with their fingle loop-holes looking into severall quarters and therefore are able to pronounce no further then their proper prospect will give them leave So the severall Complexions of mens bodies dispose or invite them to an easie and happy discovery of some things when yet notwithstanding if you conferre with them concerning other some that lie not within their prospect or the limits of their naturall Genius they will be enfâ—â—â—ed either to acknowledge their ignorance or if they will take upon them to judge which is the more frequent they will abundantly discover their errour and mistake Which sometimes seems so grosse and invincible that a man may justly suspect that they want not onely the patience but even the power of contemplating of some objects as being not able to frame any conception of what they are required to think of and such are the duller sort of Atheists that rank the notion of a Spirit and consequently of a God in the list of Inconsistencies and ridiculous Non-sense Wherein though they seek to reproach Religion they seem to me mainly to shame themselves their Atheisme being very easie to be paralleld with Enthusiasme in this regard For as some Enthusiasts being found plainly mad in some one thing have approved themselves sober enough in the rest so these Atheists though they show a tolerable wit and acutenesse in other matters yet approve themselves sufficiently slow and heavy in this FINIS OBSERVATIONS UPON Anthroposophia Theomagica And Anima Magica Abscondita By ALAZONOMASTIX PHILALETHES Psalm They reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man and are at their wits end LONDON Printed by I. Flesher 1655. To Eugenius Philalethes the Author of Anthroposophia Theomagica and Anima Magica Abscondita SIR THE Great deserved fame that followed this noble work of yours the due recompense of all eminent performances engaged me to peruse the same with much eagerness of mind and yet with no lesse attention I being one of those that professe themselves much more willing to learn then able to teach And that you may see some specimen of the fruits of your labour and my proficiency I thought fit to present you with these few Observations Which considering the barrennesse of the Matrix as you Chymists love to call it in which they were conceived may be termed rather many then few And that imputed to the alone virtue or Magicall Multiplication or Theomagical fecundity of your Divine Writings not at all to the sterility of my disfurnished Braine Which now notwithstanding having gathered both warmth and moisture from the heat and luxuriancy of your youthfull fansie findes it selfe after a manner transformed into your own complexion and translated into the same temper with your selfe In so much that although I cannot with the height of a protestation in the presence of my glorious God as your selfe has gallantly done in pag. 50. lin 17. of Anthropos Theomag affirme that the affection and zeale to the truth of my Creatour has forced mee to write yet I dare professe in the word of an honest man that nothing but an inplacable enmity to immorality and foolery has moved me at this time to set Pen to Paper And I confesse my indignation is kindled the more having so long observed that this disease is growne even Epidemicall in our Nation viz. to desire to be filled with high-swolne words of Vanity rather then to feed on sober Truth and to heate and warme our selves rather by preposterous and fortuitous imaginations then to move cautiously in the light of a purified minde and improved Reason Wherefore I being heightned with the same Zeale of discountenancing of Vanitie and conceitednesse that your selfe is of promoting the Truth you will permit to me the same freedome in the prosecution thereof For as we are growne neare akin in temper and complexion so we ought mutually to allow each other in our Actings alike according to our common Temper and Nature and the accustomed Liberty of the Philalethean Family In confidence whereof till wee meete againe in the next Page I take leave and subscribe my selfe A Chip of the same Block Alazonomastix Philalethes Observations upon Anthroposophia Theomagica and Anima Magica Abscondita SECT I. Eugenius taxed of vain glory Three main ways he atempts to approve himself an extraordinary knowing man to the world His affectation of seeming a Magician discovered in his so highly magnifying Agrippa in the dress of his Title-page and his submissive address to the Rosie-brotherhood His indiscreet exprobration of ignorance to the Aristoteleans for not knowing the very essence or substance of the Soule His uncivil calling Aristotle an Ape and ignorant taxation of his School concerning the frame of the world The disproportionable Delineation of Eugenius his World-Animal and his unjust railing against Aristotles writings which he uncivilly tearms his Vomit ANd now brother Philalethes that we are so well met let us begin to act according to the freenesse of our tempers and play the Tom Tell-troths And you indeed have done your part already My course is next Which must be spent in the Observations I told you of upon those profound Treatises of yours Anthroposophia Theomagica and Anima Magica Abscondita And my first and general Observation is this That the genius of my brother Eugenies magical Discourse is such that Magus-like
and positive Exposition of all the passages Why man that is more assuredly then your self can do For you are so weak and supine in many things that are intelligible that I am confident you are worse in that which you have made lesse intelligible For as Socrates reading an obscure Authour when he found all things he understood very good did charitably conclude what he understood not was much better so I finding in this obscure Treatise of yours many things very ill I also in charity will think you had the wit to conceal those things which are the worst or which will serve the turn that you understand them not your self But have an itching desire that some Reader skilfuller then your self should tell you whether you have wrote sense or non-sense Like the Countrey Clown that desired his young Master to teach him to write and being asked how he would be able to read his own writing being as yet never acquainted so much as with the christ-crosse-row made answer he would get some body else to read it for him And so you Philalethes though you can read your own writing yet you desire to get some body else to understand it for you or to interpret to you what you have writ Your second request is not much unlike the former and too big a business for your self to doe and therefore you beg it of another Your third request is to have your book handled after your own maner and method Which is as ridiculous as if you should request your enemy to smite softly or to strike after such a fashion at such a part as you will appoint him Can it be reasonable for you to expect from an Aristotelean for you must think it would be they of all men that would flie about your ears first when you have used their Master Aristotle as they would not to be used of them as you wouldâ— But notwithstanding Philalethes you see I have bin fair with you and though provoked I shall continue the same candour in my Observations on your following peece But before I pass I must take notice of your two admonitions to the ingenuous Reader for I suppose you mean me Philalethes The first is that I would not despise your endevours because of your yeers for they are but few Why man who knew that but your selfe if you could have kept your own counsell Your name is not at your book much less your age But indeed many things are so well managed of you that if you had not told us so we might have shrewdly suspected you have scarcely reached the yeers of discretion But you are so mightily taken with your own performance that to increase admiration and for the bringing in a phrase or sentence out of Proclus you could not with-hold from telling us that you are but a young man and so we easily believe it But the more saucy Boy you to be so bold with Reverend Master Aristotle that grandeval Patriarch in points of Philosophy For the second admonition it is little more then a noise or clatter of words or if you will a meer rattle for a boy to play with And so I leave it in your hand to passe away the time till I meet you againe in your Anima Magica Abscondita Upon the Preface to the READER NOw God defend what will become of me In good faith Philalethes I doe not know what may become of you in time But for the present me thinks you are become a fool in a play or a Jack-pudding at the dancing on the Ropes a thing wholly set in a posture to make the people laugh Phy Phy Philalethes Doe these humorous and Mimical schemes of speech become so profound a Theomagician as your self would seem to be Do's this ridiculous levity become a man of your profession You doe not a little disparage your self by these boyish humors my good Philalethes For mine own part I am neither so light-headed noâ— light-footed as to dance the Morisco with you measure to measure through this whole toy of yours to the Reader I shall dispatch what I have to say at once Your main drift here is to prove Agrippa's Dogs no Divels and their Master no Papist and consequently your selfe no unlawful Magician or Conjurer And truly if the assembly of Divines be no more suspicious of you then my self I am abundantly satisfied that you are rather a giddy fantastick then an able Conjurer so that without any offence to me you may take Wierus his office if you will and for want of imployment lead about Agrippa's beagles in a string In the mean time I shall busie my selfe almost to as little purpose in the perusal of your Anima Magica Abscondita Upon Anima Magica Abscondita SECT I. 1. Eugenius his maimed citation of Aristotles definition of Nature 2. His illogical exception against him for using of a general Notion in this definition and a difference expressing onely what Nature does not what she is 3. His ridiculous exception against Magirus his definition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or forma Quae absolvit expolit informat rem naturalem ut per eam una ab altera distinguatur 4. His barbarous translation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Consummatio or Finitatio and a repetition of his former cavil 5. He exhorts the Peripateticks to change their Abstractions into Extractions that they may discerne the substantial formes themselves in the inward closet of Matter 6. Tells us that the motions of the heavens are from an internal Principle and that Intelligences are fabulous 7. Reproaches the Scriblers concerning Matâ—er and Forme as writing nothing to their own credit or profit of the Reader 8. Informes us that the Anima mundi retained in the Matter and missing a vent organizeth bodies 9. His misapplication of that Hemistichium of Virgil Auraï simplicis ignem The passive spirit the inmost vestment of the soul applying to Generation and that the vital liquour or aethereal water attracts the passive spirit 10. His chain of Descent whereby the soule is caught in the Matter 11. His declaring of the foregoing mystery makes him suspect that he has too publikely prostituted the secrets of Nature Observation 1. ANd here Philalethes in the very threshold you begin to worrey the poor Perepateticks more fiercely then any English mastive and bark and scold into the air that is in general more cursedly and bitterly then any Butter-quean but at last in the first line of the second page you begin to take to task some particular Documents of Aristotles viz. The description of Nature of Form and of the Soul Whereby we shall understand of what great judgement and perspicacity you are in other points of Philosophy And first of the Definition of Nature which you say is defined Principium motus quietis A little thing serves your turn Anthroposophus is this the entire Definition of Nature in Aristotle But what you unskilfully take no notice of I willingly
above all Magick What then was the Impulsive of writing against your book I have told you already but you are loth to beâ—ieve me Mere emnity to immorality and foolery But if it were any thing that might respect my self it was onely this That you so carelesly and confidently adventuring upon the Platonick way with so much tainted heat and distemper that to my better composed spirit you seemed not a little disturbed in your fancie and your bloud to be too hot to be sufficiently rectified by your brain I thought it safe for me to keep those Books I wrote out of a spirit of sobernesse from reprochfull mistake For you pretending the same way that I seem to be in as in your bold and disadvantagious asserting The soul to pre-exist and to come into the bodie open-ey'd as it were that is full fraught with divine notions and making such out-ragiously distorted delineaments of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Stoicks call it the enlivened Universe with sundry other passages of like grossnesse I was afraid that men judging that this affectation of Platonisme in you might well proceed from some intemperies of bloud and spirit and that there no body else besides us two dealing with these kinds of notions they might yoke me with so disordered a companion as your self Reasoning thus with themselves Vaughan of Iesus in Oxenford holds the pre-existencie of the Soul and other Platonick Paradoxes and we see what a pickle he is in What think you of More of Christ's that writ the Platonicall Poems Nay what think you of Platonisme it self Surely it is all but the fruit of juvenile distemper and intoxicating heat But I say it is the most noble and effectuall Engine to fetch up a mans mind to true virtue and holinesse next to the Bible that is extant in the world And that this may not suffer I have suffered my self to observe upon you what I have observed my young Eugenius This is true my Friend to use your own phrase SECT II. Mastix provoked by the unworthy surmises of Eugenius gives the world a tast of that Spirit that actuated him when he wrote his Poems Eugenius his abuse of Des-Cartes the greatest personall Impulsive to Mastix to write his Observations The Divine accomplishments of the Soul farre beyond all naturall knowledge What is true Deiformitie A vehement Invective against the Deified rout of Ranters and Libertines Mastix magnifies the dominion of his own minde over the passions of the body preferring it before the Empire of the world and all the power of Magick that Eugenius so bankers after ANd now that the World may know that I have not wrote like some bestrid Pythonick or hackneyed Enthusiastick let them look and read under what light I sat and sung that divine Song of the Soul But yet my Muse still take an higher flight Sing of Platonick Faith in the first Good That Faith that doth our souls to God unite So strongly tightly that the rapid stood Of this swift flux of things nor with foul mud Can stain nor strike us off from th' Vnity Wherein we stedfast stand unshak'd unmov'd Engrafted by a deep Vitalitie The prop and stay of things is Gods Benignity Al 's is the rule of His Oeconomie No other cause the creature brought to light But the first Goods pregnant fecundity He to himself is perfect-full delight He wanteth nought With his own beams bedight He glory has enough O blasphemy That envy gives to God or sowre despight Harsh hearts that feign in God a Tyranny Vnder pretense to encrease his soveraign Majesty When nothing can to Gods own self accrew Who 's infinitely happy sure the end Of His Creation simply was to shew His flowing goodnesse which He doth outsend Not for himself for nought can Him amend But to his Creature doth his good impart This infinite Good through all the world doth wâ—nd To fill with Heavenly blisse each willing heart So the free Sun doth light and liven every part This is the measure of Gods providence The Key of knowledge the first fair Idee The eye of Truth the spring of living Sense Whence sprout Gods secrets the sweet mystery Of lasting life eternall Charity c. And elsewhere in my Poems When I my self from mine own self do quit And each thing else then all-spreaden love To the vast Vniverse my soul doth fit Makes me half equall to all-seeing Iove My mighty wings high stretch'd then clapping light I brush the stars and make them shine more bright Then all the works of God with close embrace I dearly hug in my enlarged arms All the hid pathes of heavenly love I trace And boldly listen to his secret charms Then clearly view I where true light doth rise And where eternall Night low-pressed lies c. This Philalethes is that lamp of God in the light whereof my Reason and Fancie have wrought thus many years This is that true Chymicall fire that has purged my soul and purified it and has crystallized it into a bright Throne and shining Habitation of the divine Majesty This free light is that which having held my soul in it self for a time taught me in a very sensible manner â—hat vast difference betwixt the truth and freedome of the Spirit and anxious impostures of this dark Personalïty and earthly bondage of the body This is my Oracle my Counsellour my faithfull Instructer and Guide my Life my Strength my Glory my Joy my communicated God This is that heavenly flame and bright Sun of Righteousnesse that puts out the light and quenches the heat of all worldly imaginations and desires whatsoever All the power and knowledge in Nature that is all the feats and miraculous performances done by Witches Magicians or Devils they be but toyes and tricks and are no solid satisfaction of the soul at all yea though we had that power upon lawfull terms if compared with this And as for divine knowledge there is none truly so called without it He that is come hither God hath taken him to his own familiar friend and though he speak to others aloof off in outward Religions and Parables yet he leads this man by the hand teaching him intelligible documents upon all the objects of his Providence speaks to him plainly in his own language sweetly insinuates himself and possesses all his faculties Understanding Reason and Memory This is the Darling of God and a Prince amongst men farre above the dispensation of either Miracle or Prophesie For him the deep searchers and anxious soliciters of Nature drudge and toyl contenting themselves with the pitifull wages of vain glory or a little wealth Poor Giboonites that how wood and draw water for the Temple This is the Temple of God this is the Son of God whom he hath made heir of all things the right Emanuel the holy mysterie of the living members of Christ Hallelujah From this Principle which I have here expressed have all those Poems I have wrote
which is the holy place or temple of God Observation 30. Tecum habita I will not urge that Precept too strictly upon thy self because I wish thee a better companion Observation 31. For thy ho sounds like the noise of a Sâ—w-gelder As much as the celestiall orbs or labyrinth rumble like a wheel-barrow This is but the crowing of thine own brain to the tune of the Sow-gelders horn SECT VIII The useless mysterie of the Souls being an Hermaphrodite Of the uncleannesse of Aristotle That the shame of lust is an argument that something better then the condition of this mortall body belongs to the Soul That the Soul of man is not propagated as light from light That though she perceive nothing but her own energie yet the distinction of the inward and outward sense is not without its use That Eugenius asserts that blinde men do see in their sleep That there is but one Sentient spirit in a man which is the Rationall soul her self Of understanding without Phantasmes Mastix takes notice of Eugenius his vain boasting of his quick parts That a bad man cannot be so much as a friend to himself The great satisfaction of the plain Truths of Christianitie above the Zeal and intricacie of sects Eugenius his injudicious Poetry wherein intending to praise the Vniversity of Oxford he plainly abuses it That comparison implies not alwayes a Positive That Mastix affects not to confute every thing but what he can plainly show to be false Observation 32. HEre in answer to my objection thou tellest me that Ruac and Nephesh the parts whereof the Soul of man consists differ as male and female All the mysterie then is to make mans soul an Hermaphrodite Thou shouldst have told us here what operations were proper to Ruach what to Nephesh whether vegetation belong to the oneâ— reason and sense to the other or whether in this the divine life were seated in that the animal and fleshly reason and the like But the subtiltie of thy wit reacheth no further then the discrimination of sexes and the grossely pointing out of Male and Female Page 69. line 9. For your Sodomite Patron Aristotle allows of it in his Politicks More wretched beast he if it be so but I do not remember any such passage in his Politicks and yet have read them through but long since and it is sufficient for me if I remember the best things in Authours I read I can willingly let go the worst But what thou sayest of Aristotle is not unlikely for he is tax'd for this unnaturall practise in Diogenes Laertius with one Hermias a foul friend of his in the praise of whom notwithstanding he hath wrote a very fair and elegant Hymne which begins thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To this sense Virtue that putst humane race Vpon so hard toyl and pains Lifes fairest prize Thy lovely face Bright Virgin the brave Greek constrains To undergo with an unwearied mind Long wasting labours and in high desire To throng through many deaths to find Thee that dost fire Mans soul with hopes of such immortall fruit No gold can sute Nor love of Parents equalize Nor slumbers sweet that softly seize the eyes So easie a thing is it for bad men to speak good words It is recorded by the same authour out of Aristippus that the same Philosopher was also so much taken with the conversation of Hermias's whore that in lieu of that pleasure he reap'd by her he did the same ceremonies and holy rites to her that the Athenians were wont to do to their goddesse Ceres Eleusinia From whence it seems that his soul did consist of two parts Male and Female he having to do with both So that he is more like to prove thy Patrone then mine Philalethes for I have to do with neither Page 69. line 10. But I am tickled say you Yes I say you are so tickled and do so tickle it up in your style with expressions fetched from the Gynaeceum that you are ridiculous in it and I thought good to shew you to be such as you are But for mine own part I am moved neither one way nor another with any such things but think good to affix here this sober consideration That there being generally in Men and Women that are not either Heroically good or stupidly and beastly naught a kind of shame and aversation in the very naming of these things that it is a signe that the Soul of man doth in its own judgement find it self here in this condition of the body as I may so speak in a wrong box and hath a kind of presage and conscience that better and more noble things belong unto it else why should it be troubled at its own proclivity to that which is the height and flower of the pleasure of the body as they that are given to this folly do professe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To this sense What life what sweet without the golden tie Of Venus dead to this streight let me die But that there is a naturall shame of these acts and the propension to them that story of Typhon in Diodorus Siculus is no obscure argument For when he had murdered his brother Osiris that he might more sacramentally bind to him for his future help and security his twenty foure Accomplices in this act he hew'd the body of his brother into so many pieces but was fain to fling the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Pudendum into the river they every one being unwilling to take that for their share So much aversation is there naturally from these obscenities that even those that are otherwise execrably wicked have some sense of it But I do not speak this as if Marriage it self were a sinne as well as whoredome and adultery for questionlesse it is permitted to the soul in this case shee 's in But if she be not monstrous and degenerate she cannot but be mindfull that she is made for something farre better Observation 33. To this observation thou answerest like a man with reason and generosity and with a well beseeming wit how unlike to thy self art thou here Anthroposophos Observation 34. I perceive by thy answer to this observation thou art not at all ocquaitted with Ramus what ere thou art with the Schoolmen bnt I passe over this and come to what is of more moment Page 71. line 19. This is one of your three designes Yes it is one of those three designs I tax'd you for in the beginning of my Observations And here I make it good out of your own text Anthroposophia pag. 33. line 1. These are your words And now Reader Arrige aures come on without prejudice and I will tell thee that which never hitherto hath
there was something more then ordinary in it is this that whereas I was really asleep yet I did plainly find in my self a power of waking my self if I would which seems almost impossible for one that is asleep But out of the great desire that I had to see the vision cleared up I forbore the waking of my self so long as I could and endured the great torture the shrill sound of the Trumpet put me to but at last it growing intolerable I was fain to awake my self out of this dream That a man should be in such intolerable torture may also seem to some to be beyond the causality of a dream But to me it does not at all who upon the reading of Aristotle's Mechanicks where he speaks of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the power of removing timber thereby fell into a dream of moving a great piece of timber by this ordinary engine that caused a pain unspeakable For every time I pressed down the Lever with my body I was in as great a torment as if my bowells had been torn out so that groaning very pitteously my Chamberfellow called to me thereby ridding me of my dream and pain at once And in my apprehension that other circumstance of finding it in my own power to awake my self if I would is not much unlike their case that are troubled with the Ephialtes that perceive themselves in some sort asleep and endeavour to waken themselves as well as they can That which seems most unanswerable to my self is what it is impossible to propound to another as being unexpressable and that is that admirable Temper and frame of spirit I found my self in upon my waking which if it were in my power to relate would seem to most men incredible so that for this passage sake I should be prone to suspect something more then naturall in what preceded it did I not consider that sometimes there may be of it self such a Tenour and Disposition of body that may either suggest or imitate what is most holy and divine So uncertain a guide shall we have of whatsoever offers it self to us and would inform us of any thing that cannot be made good out of Reason or Scripture And I know nothing worth the taking notice of in all Divinity that is not determinable by these two 24. But for those Dreams or night-Visions that do not ptetend to instruct us in any generall Speculation or Theoreticall Mysterie but concern the management of our affairs and particular negotiations humane prudence being so lubricous a principle when we are once really at a plunge I think it not at all unwarrantable in a matter not unjust to follow such intimations as these if they be offered there being therein more of self-resignation and a fuller relyance upon that Providence which by such uncertain becks and nods as they must needs seem to strangers doth notwithstanding hereby sometimes most clearly and certainly communicate her mind and purpose to her own favourites to their singular advantage and stupendious successe 25. Sir you will pardon my garrulitie as you may be enduced to term it from Theophrastus his example who makes the telling of a mans dreams a character of that vice But the best is it must be then to a stranger which will I hope excuse me that have told mine to an intimate friend and I might further justifie my self from the practice of Cardan that published severall of his to all the world which I think are of as little consequence as these of mine 26. I have now answered to the chief Exceptions made against any particular passage of my Reply What you say of some that they much marvell at the whole designe in generall that I do so zealously and industriously oppose Enthusiasme they not seeing that it is worth the while so to do Certainly this censure must come from such men as are either tainted with this disease themselves or else such strangers to it that they have not so much as observed the mischievous workings thereof But for my own part I being so throughly perswaded in my judgement of the truth and solidity of Christian religion and that it is maintainable by Reason against all cavills and sophistries whatsoever let the Adversary oppose as fiercely and cunningly as he can and obseruing likewise that the whole businesse of Enthusiasts is to decry Reason as an impure and carnall thing I could not but look upon Enthusiasme as the onely Sleight and most effectuall Engine seem it to others as despicable as it will to unhinge Christiandome dethrone Christ and annull that great and precious Mysterie of Christianity in which the Wisedome and Goodnesse of God does more clearly shine forth then in any Dispensation of his Providence that he ever set a foot as yet in the world And what is to come must be but the accomplishment of this Period Wherefore it seemed to me very unjust and ignoble not to endeavour to the utmost by any means possible and lawfull to hinder the progresse of so dangerous an evil and to provide so well for the honour of that Religion I was born under and do professe that it should not be basfled or dashed out of countenance by that which is neither Religion solid Reason nor any thing else laudable but merely a bold and wilde Distemper of a Melancholy spirit 27. To what some particularly except against the Merriment of my Reply I have said enough elsewhere and therefore will onely adde this That if that false Gravity which is nothing else but a sower kinde of pride take the chair of censure Mirth appealing thence to any indifferent Judge will need no Pleader but if she stand in competition with that sedatenesse and benigne sadnesse of spirit wherein dwells true Gravity indeed she will then deserve none For assuredly this temper is beyond all comparison better then that merry Complexion For whereas Mirth and Levity do often betray the Soul so that she is surprised by what is foolish and vain this Stayednesse and Gravity does not onely guard her from what is evil but restrains her from what is triviall and makes her spend her pains upon no enterprise but what is worthy so noble a nature as her own which is no Pride but true Magnanimity and Generosity of Spirit Besides such as are of a light Genius that is alwayes so pleasant and well contented even to a redoundancy of toyishnesse and sport it is a signe that their desires are shallow in that they are so easily and continuedly satisfied and therefore in a present incapacity of valuing the representations of more weighty objects Whence it is that the profoundest most concerning Mysteries of Philosophy and Religion are never infused into such slight flue vessels But the grave and sad minde that seldome ruminates on small matters whose carriage being calme and quiet to the world yet is full of workings within and strong breathings after the noblest Acquisitions does not fail in the conclusion to enjoy her contentment secretly and apart from others being fully compensated for her patience with all that wisdome and holinesse that the Spirit of God bestows on them that have long waited for him 28. And in this I conceive Melancholy men have their speciall advantage that Complexion making their desires vast and vehement and their resentments very deep and vivid and therefore very fit for the highest communications their desires joy and thankfulnesse bearing a more answerable proportion to the weighty matters they receive Hence it is they are more frequently blest with a greater share of illumination and extraordinary sanctification then others if there be no Let by reason of some flaw in Nature or some default in themselves For then instead of proving better then others they may prove farre worse that Complexion exposing them to errours and mistakes proportionable to the greatnesse of their spirits and vastnesse of their desires and so makes them often degenerate from the state of men that seem'd to the World extraordinarily holy and illuminate into meer Mock-prophets and ridiculous Enthusiasts afterwards Ranters Atheists and what not Sir I have now answered to all the intimations in your Letter saving what is generally intimated or rather fully expressed in them all which is your faithfulnesse and unfained friendship which cannot be answered by words but by an earnest endeavour of really approving as well as professing my self Your affectionate friend to serve you M. Errata Insigniora sic corrige Pag. 15. l. 4. for live sense reade lively sense p. 25. l. 33. comoâ—ion r. commotion p. 29. l. 14. his spirit r. their spirit p. 100. l. 2. And this r. And his p. 107. l. 6. slea r. flea p. 176. l. ult then all-spreaden r. then an all-spreaden p. 269. l. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 273. l. 17. immortall r. immorall p. 276. l. 28. Religions r. Religious p. 280. l. 21. Divine r. the Divine p. 280. l. ult reacheth r. hath reached to p. 282. l. 16. Lights r. Light p. 286. l. 13. it discovered reade discovered it p. 296. l. 29. reade And I. p. 299. l. 32. r. ex Diis p. 302. l. 31. r. pag. 185. In the Epistle pag. 1. l. 24. r. How strangely p. 2. l. 4. r. into this
somewhat by way of Preface concerning the nature of that Disease partly because it may be the better discerned of what good use the Authour's pains are against this distemper of Fantastrie and Enthusiasme and partly because by a more punctuall discovery of this distemper the distemper it self or at least the ill influence of it upon the credulous inconsiderate may be prevented For where the naturall causes of things are laid open there that stupid reverence and admiration which surprises the ignorant will assuredly cease Which is a thing of no lesse consequence then the preserving of that honest and rationall way of the education of youth in liberall Arts and Sciences and upholding of Christian Religion it self from being supplanted and overturned from the very foundations by the dazeling and glorious plausibilities of bold Enthusiasts who speaking great swelling words of vanity bear down the weak and unskilfull multitude into such a belief of Supernaturall graces and inspirations in their admired Prophet that they will not stâ—ck to listen to him though he dictate to them what is contrary not onely to solid Reason and the judgement of the most learned and pious in all ages but even to the undoubted Oracles of the holy Scriptures themselves Wherefore for the detecting of this mysterious Imposture we shall briefly and yet I hope plainly enough set out the Nature Causes Kinds and Cure of this mischievous Disease 2. The Etymologie and varietie of the significations of this word Enthusiasme I leave to Criticks and Grammarians but what we mean by it here you shall fully understand after we have defined what Inspiration is For Enthusiasme is nothing else but a misconceit of being inspired Now to be inspired is to be moved in an extraordinary manner by the power or Spirit of God to act speak or think what is holy just and true From hence it will be easily understood what Enthusiasme is viz. A full but false perswasion in a man that he is inspired 3. We shall now enquire into the Causes of this Distemperâ— how it comes to passe that a man should be thus befooled in his own conceit And truly unlesse we should offer lesse satisfaction then the thing is capable of we must not onely treat here of Melancholy but of the Faculties of the Soul of man whereby it may the better be understood how she may become obnoxious to such disturbances of Melancholy in which she has quite lost her own judgement and freedome and can neither keep out nor distinguish betwixt her own fancies and reall truths 4. We are therefore to take notice of the severall Degrees and Natures of the faculties of the Soul the lowest whereof she exercises without so much as any perception of what she does and these operations are fatall and naturall to her so long as she is in the body and a man differs in them little from a Plant which therefore you may call the Vegetative or Plantall faculties of the Soul The lowest of those Faculties of whose present operations we have any perception are the outward Senses which upon the pertingencie of the Object to the Sensitive Organ cannot fail to act that is the Soul cannot fail to be affected thereby nor is it in her power to suspend her perception or at least very hardly in her power From whence it is plain that the Soul is of that nature that she sometimes may awake fatally and necessarily into Phantasmes and Perceptions without any will or consent of her own Which is found true also in Imagination though that Facultie be freer then the former For what are Dreams but the Imaginations and perceptions of one asleep which notwithstanding steal upon the Soul or rise out of her without any consent of hers as is most manifest in such as torment us and put us to extreme pain till we awake out of them And the like obreptions or unavoydable importunities of Thoughts which offer or force themselves upon the mind may be observed even in the day time according to the nature or strength of the complexion of our Bodies though how the Body doth engage the mind in Thoughts or Imaginations is most manifest in Sleep For according as Choler Sanguine Phlegme or Melancholy are predominant will the Scene of our dreams be and that without any check or curb of dubitation concerning the truth and existence of the things that then appear Of which we can conceive no other reason then this That the inmost seat of Sense is very fully and vigourously affected as it is by objects in the day of whose reall existence the ordinary assurance is that they so strongly strike or affect our sensitive Facultie which resides not in the externall Organs no more then the Artificers skill in his instruments but in some more inward Recesses of the brain and therefore the true and reall seat of Sense being affected in our sleep as well as when we are awake 't is the lesse marvell the Soul conceits her dreams while she is a dreaming to be no dreams but reall transactions 5. Now that the inward sense is so vigoroufly affected in these dreams proceeds as I conceive from hence because the Brains Animall spirits or what ever the Soul works upon within in her imaginative operations are not considerably moved altered or agitated from any externall motion but keep intirely and fully that figuration or modification which the Soul necessarily naturally moulds them into in our sleep so that the opinion of the truth of what is represented to us in our dreams is from hence that Imagination then that is the inward figuration of our brain or spirits into this or that representation is far stronger then any motion or agitation from without which to them that are awake dimmes and obscures their inward imagination as the light of the Sun doth the light of a candle in a room and yet in this case also according to Aristotle Fancy is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kind of sense though weak But if it were so strong as to bear it self against all the occursions and impulses of outward objects so as not to be broken but to keep it self entire and in equall splendour and vigour with what is represented from without and this not arbitrariously but necessarily and unavoydably as has been already intimated the Party thus affected would not fail to take his own imagination for a reall object of sense as it fell out in one that Cartesius mentions and there are several other examples of that kind that had his arm cut off who being hoodwinkt complained of a pain in this and the other finger when he had lost his whole arm And a further instance may be in mad or Melancholy men who have confidently affirmed that they have met with the Devil or conversed with Angels when it has been nothing but an encounter with their own fancie 6. Wherefore it is the enormous strength of Imagination which is yet the Soul's weaknesse or unweildinesse
a sufficient pledge of this truth if we set before our eyes those that have the most highly pretended to the Spirit and that have had the greatest power to delude the people For that that pride and tumour of minde whereby they are so confidently carried out to professe as well as to conceive so highly of themselves that no lesse Title must serve their turns then that of God the holy-Ghost or Paraclet the Messias the last and chiefest Prophet the Iudge of the quick and the dead and the like that all this comes from Melancholy is manifest by a lower kind of working of that complexion For to begin with the first of these Impostours Simon Magus who gave out that he was God the father he prov'd himself to be but a wretched lecherous man by that inseparable companion of his Helena whom he called Selene and affirmed to be one of the Divine powers when she was no better then a lewd Strumpet There was also one Menander a Samaritan that vaunted himself to be the Saviour of the world a maintainer of the same licentious and impure opinions with Simon Montanus professed himself to be the Spirit of God but that it was the spirit of Melancholy that besotted him his two drabs Prisca and Maximilla evidently enough declare who are said to leave their own husbands to follow him We might adde a third one Quintilla a woman of no better fame and an intimate acquaintance of the other two from whence the Montanists were also called Quintillians Manes also held himself to be the true Paraclet but lest a sect behind him indoctrinated in all licentious and filthy principles Mahomet more successefull then any the last and chiefest Prophet that ever came into the world if you will believe him that he was Melancholy his Epilepticall fits are one argument and his permission of plurality of wives and concubines his lascivious descriptions of the joyes of heaven or Paradise another But I must confesse I do much doubt whether he took himself to be a Prophet or no for he seems to me rather a pleasant witty companion and shreud Politician then a meer Enthusiast and so wise as not to venture his credit or success upon meer conceits of his own but he builds upon the weightiest principles of the Religion of Jews and Christians such as That God is the Creatour and Governor of the world That there are Angells and Spirits That the Soule of man is immortall and that there is a Judgement and an everlasting reward to come after the natural death of the body So that indeed Mahometisme seems but an abuse of certain principles of the doctrine of Moses and Christ to a political design and therefore in it selfe far to be preferred before the vain and idle Enthusiasmes of Dâvid George who yet was so highly conceited of his own light that he hoped to put Mahomet's nose out of joynt giving out of himselfe that he was the last and chiefest prophet when as lef◠to the intoxication of his own Melancholy and Sanguine he held neither heaven nor hell neither reward nor punishment after this life neither Devil nor Angell nor the immortalitie of the Soul but though born a Christian yet he did Mahomitise in this that he also did indulge plurality of wives It should seem that so dark and fulsome a dash of Blood there was mixed with his Melancholy that though the one made him a pretended Prophet yet the other would not suffer him to entertain the least presage of any thing beyond this mortal life He also that is said to insist in his steps and talks so magnificently of himself as if he was come to judge both the quick and the dead by an injudicious distorting and forcing of such plain substantial passages of Scripture as assure us of the existence of Angels and Spirits and of a life to come bears his condemnation in himselfe and proclaims to all the world that he is rather a Priest of Venus or a meer Sydereal Preacher out of the sweetness and powerfulness of his own natural Complexion then a true Prophet of God or a friend of the mystical Bride-groom Christ Iesus to whose very person as to her Lord and Soveraigne the Church his spouse doth owe all reverential love and honour But such bloated and high swoln Enthusiasts that are so big in the conceit of their own inward worth have little either sense or beliefe of this duty but fancy themselves either equal or superiour to Christ Whom notwithstanding God has declared supreme head over men and Angels And yet they would disthrone him and set up themselves though they can show no Title but an unsound kind of popular Eloquence a Rapsodie of sleight and soft words rowling and streaming Tautologies which if they at any time bear any true sense with them it is but what every ordinary Christian knew before But what they oft insinuate by the by is a bominably false as sure as Christianity it self is true Yet such fopperies as these seem fine things to the heedless and pusillanimous but surely Christ will raise such a discerning spirit in his Church that by Evidence and conviction of Reason not by force or external power such Mock-prophets and false Messiasses as these will be discountenanced and hissed off of the stage nor will there be a man that knows himselfe to be a Christian that will receive them 22 We have I think by a sufficient Induction discovered the condition and causes of this mysterious mockery of Enthusiastical love in the highest workings of it and shown how it is but in effect a natural complexion as very often Religious zeal in general is discovered to be As is also observable from the tumultuous Anabaptists in Germany For amongst other things that they contended for this was not the least to wit a freedome to have many wives So that it should seem that for the most part this religious heat in men as it arises meerly from nature is like Aurum fulminans which though it flie upward somewhat the greatest force when it is fired is found to go downward This made that religious sect of the Beguardi conceit that it was a sin to kiss a woman but none at all to lie with her The same furnisht Carpocrates and Apelles `two busie sectaries in their time the one with his Marcellina the other with his Philumena to spend their lust upon 23. But enough of this Neerest to this Enthusiastical affection of Love is that of Ioy and Triumph of Spirit that Enthusiasts are several times actuated withall to their own great admiration But we have already intimated the neer affinity betwixt Melancholy and Wine which cheers the heart of God and Man as is said in the Parable And assuredly Melancholy that lies at first smoaring in the heart and blood when heat has overcome it it consisting of such solid particles which then are put upon motion and agitation is more strong and vigorous then any thing
of God and a supernatural manifestation of the Divinity which must needs raise that passion of Veneration and most powerful Devotion which consists of Love Fear and Joy which single passions have been able to kill men or cast them into a trance how can they then if they be well followed by imagination and desire in the Enthusiast of a neerer union with this inward Light fail to cast him into Tremblings Convulsions Apoplexies Extasies and what not Melancholy being so easily changeable into these symtomes And it is very probable that this may be the condition of some of those they call Quakers But for St. Austins African Presbyter who was named Restitutus who by a lamenting voice or mournful tone would be cast into such an Extasie he is found alone in that and is hardly imitable it arising from some proper peculiar constitution of his own That Cardan and Facius his Father could cast themselves when they would into an Extasie I can as easily believe as that the Laplanders could and doe in my own judgment refer them both to one cause which Sennertus notes that Cardan somewhere does intimate concerning his Father that he had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I conceive also to be the case of the worser sort of Quakers But this kind of Enthusiasme I doe not so much aim at as that which is Natural As for those Visions that Enthusiasts see wakeing we have already referred their causes to that strength of Imagination in a Melancholy Spirit 30. And for that fervour of minde whereby they are carried out so confidently to foretell things to come that there is nothing supernatural in it may be evidenced in that either some probable grounds that ordinary prudence may discover might move them to think this or that the vehemency of their own Melancholy adding that confidence to their presage as if God himself had set it upon his Spirit or else in that they most frequently presage false and therefore when they foretell true it is justly imputed to chance As a man that dreams a nights it is a hard case if in so many years dreams he light not on some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they are called such as are plainly and directly true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they that shoot oft may some times hit the mark as Plutarch speaks but t is more by luck then good skil 31. And yet notwithstanding humbly conceive that there may be such a presage in the spirit of a man that is to act in things of very high concernment to himselfe or to the publick as may be a sure guide to him especially if he continue sincerely devout and pious For it is not at all improbable but such as act in very publick affairs in which Providence has a more special hand that these agents driving on her design may have a more special assistance and animation from her Of which as others have not the sense so neither can they imagine the manner of it And this is the case I thinke wherein that of Syracides may be verified That a mans own heart will tell him more then seven watchmen on an high Tower But this is Enthusiasme in the better sense and therefore not so proper for our discourse who speak not of that which is true but of that which is a mistake the Causes whereof we having so fully laid down we will now consider the Kindes of it bur briefly and onely so far forth as suits with our present purpose and design Wherefore setting aside all accuracie we shall content our selves to distribute it from the condition of the Persons in which it resides into Political and Philosophical For Enthusiasme most-what works according to the natural Genius of the party it doth surprise 32. Wherefore those whose temper carries them most to Political affaires who love rule and honour and have a strong sense of civil rights Melancholy heating them makes them sometimes fancy themselves great Princes at least by divine assignment deliverers of the people sent from God such as were in likelyhood the false Messiasses that deceived the people of the Jews as Theudas and that AEgyptian Impostor also Barcocab Ionathas Dositheus and several others who it's likely it being the common fame amongst the Jews that the Messias the deliverer was about that time to come according to the heat and forwardness of their own Melancholy conceited themselves to be him Which is the easier to believe there being several instances in History of those that have fancyed themselves Monarchs Popes and Emperours when as yet they have been but Foot-boys Grooms and Serving-men Whether there might not be as much of Villany as Melancholy in some of these false Messiasses if it be suspected it will be hard to take off the suspicion But there was a German in whom we may more safely instance not many yeers ago here in England that stiled himselfe a Warrior of God David the second who in deep compassion of the sufferings of his Countrey would very fain have got some few forces here in England to carry over with which he was confident he could have silenced the enemy and setled all Germany in peace The man seemed to be a very religious man and a great hater of Tyranny and oppression and very well in his wits to other things onely he was troubled with this infirmity that he fancyed himfelfe that David the Prophets foretell of who should be that peaceable Prince and great Deliverer of the Jews He published a short writing of his which I had the opportunity of seeing which was full of zeal and Scripture-eloquence I saw his person in London if he that showed me him was not mistaken He was a tal proper man of a good age but of a very pale wasted melancholy countenance Another also of later yeers I had the hap to meet withall whose discourse was not onely rational but pious and he seemed to have his wits very well about him nor could I discover the least intimation to the contrary onely he had this flaw that he conceited that he was by God appointed to be that fifth Monarch of which there is so much noise in this age which imagination had so possessed him that he would sometime have his servant to serve him all in plate and upon the knee as a very learned and religious friend of mine told me afterward 33. Wherefore I do not look upon this man as so sober as the former nor on either as comparable to that David that was born at Delph lived first in lower Germany with those of his sect after came to Basil Anno 1544. and there dyed 1556. and was digged up again 1559. Wherein his prophecy of himselfe was in an ill-favoured manner fulfilled who to uphold the fluctuating minds of his followers whom he would have perswaded that he was immortall told them at his death that he should rise again within three yeares presaging that of himself that he denied would
and real union wâ—th him that every fine thought or fancy that steals into their mind they may look upon as a pledge of the Divine savor and a siâ—gular illumination from God imitating in this the madness of Elionora Meliorina a Gentlewoman of Mantua who being fully perswaded she was married to a king would kneel down and talk with him as if he had been there present with his retinue and if she had by chance found a piece of glasse in a muck-hill light upon an oyster shell piece of tin or any such like thing that would glister in the Sun-shine she would say it was a jewel sent from her Lord and husband and upon this account fild her cabinet full of such trash In like manner those inspired Melancholists stuff their heads and writings with every flaring fancy that Melancholy suggests to them as if it were a precious Truth bestowed upon them by the holy Spirit and with a devotional reverence they entertain the unexpected Paroxysmes of their own natural distemper as if it were the power and presence of God himself in their Souls 43. This disease many of your Chymists and several Theosophists in my judgement seem very obnoxious to who dictate their own conceits and fancies so magisterially and imperiously as if they were indeed Authentick messengers from God Almighty But that they are but Counterfeits that is Enthusiasts no infallible illuminated men the gross fopperies they let drop in their writings will sufficiently demonstrate to all that are not smitten in some measure with the like Lunacy with themselves I shall instance in some few things concealing the names of the Authors because they are so sacred to some 44. Listen therefore attentively for I shall relate very great mysteries The vertues of the Planets doe not ascend but descend Experience teaches as much viz. That of Venus or Copper is not made Mars or Iron but of Mars is made Venus as being an inferior sphere So also Iupiter or Tinne is easily changed into Mercury or Quick-silver because Iupiter is the second from the firmament and Mercury the second from the Earth Saturn is the first from the heaven and Luna the first from the Earth Sol mixeth it self with all but is never bettered by his Inferiours Now know that there is a great agreement betwixt Saturn or Lead and Luna or Silver Iupiter and Mercury Mars and Venus because in the midst of these Sol is placed What can it be but the heaving of the Hypochondria that lifts up the mind to such high comparisons from a supposition so false and foolish But I have observed generally of Chymists and Theosophists as of severall other men more palpably mad that their thoughts are carryed much to Astrology it being a fancyfull study built upon very sleight grounds and indeed I do not question but a relique of the ancient superstition and Idolatry amongst the rude Heathens which either their own Melancholy or something worse instructed them in There are other pretty conceits in these Writers concerning those heavenly Bodies as That the Starres and Planets the Moon not excepted are of the same quality with precious stones that glister here on the earth and that though they act nothing yet they are of that nature as that the wandring Spirits of the air see in them as in a looking-glasse things to come and thereby are inabled to prophecy That the Starres are made of the Sun and yet that the Sun enlightens them That our eyes have their originall from the Starres and that that is the reason why we can see the Starres That our eyes work or act upon all they see as well as what they see acts on them That also is a very speciall mysterie for an inspired man to utter That there is onely Evening and Morning under the Sun That the Starres kindle heat in this world every where for generation and that the difference of Starres makes the difference of Creatures That were the heat of the Sun taken away he were one light with God That all is Gods self That a mans self is God if he live holily That God is nothing but an hearty Loving friendly Seeing good Smelling well Tâ—sting kindly Feeling amorous Kissing c. Nor the Spirit say I that inspires this mystery any thing but Melancholy and Sanguine That God the Father is of himself a dale of darknesse were it not for the light of his Sonne That God could not quell Lucifers rebellion because the battle was not betwixt God and a beast or God and a man but betwixt God and God Lucifer being so great a share of his own essence That Nature is the Body of God nay God the Father who is also the World and whatsoever is any way sensible or perceptible That the Starre-powers are Nature and the Starre-circle the mother of all things from which all is subsists and moves That the Waters of this world are mad which makes them rave and run up and down so as they do in the channels of the Earth That the blew Orb is the waters above the Firmament That there be two kinds of Fires the one cold and the other hot and that Death is a cold fire That Adam was an Hermaphrodite That the Fire would not burn nor there have been any darknesse but for Adams fall That it is a very suspicable matter that Saturn before the fall was where Mercury and Mercury where Saturn is That there are Three souls in a man Animall Angelicall and Divine and that after Death the Animal Soul is in the grave the Angelicall in Abrahams bosome and the Divine soul in Paradise That God has eyes eares nose and other corporeall parts That every thing has sense imagination and a fiduciall Knowledge of God in it Metals Meteors and Plants not excepted That this earth at last shall be calcined into Crystall That at the center of the earth is the Fire of hell which is caused and kindled by the Primum mobile and influences of the Starres That the Artick pole draws waters by the Axeltree which after they are entered in break forth again by the Axeltree of the Antartick That the Moon as well as the Starres are made of a lesse pure kind of fire mixed with air That the pure Blood in man answers to the Element of fire in the great world his heart to the Earth his Mouth to the Artick pole and the opposite Orifice to the Antartick pole That the proper seat of the Mind or Understanding is in the mouth of the Stomack or about the Splene That Earthquakes and Thunders are not from naturall causes but made by Angels or Devils That there were no Rain-bowes before Noahs flood That the Moon is of a conglaciated substance having a cold light of her own whereby the light of the Sun which she receives and casts on us becomes so cool 45. Hitherto our Collections have been promiscuous what follows is out of Paracelsus onely as for example That the variety of the
Prophecy and Inspiration We will adde also to these moderate exercise of Body and seasonable taking of the fresh aire a due and discreet use of Devotion whereby the Blood is ventilated and purged from dark oppressing vapors Which a temperate dyet if not fasting must also accompany or else the more hot and zealous our addresses are the more likely they are to bring mischief upon our own heads they raising the feculency of our intemperance into those more precious parts of the Body the Brains and animal Spirits and so intoxicating the mind with fury and wildnesse 53. By Humility I understand an entire Submission to the will of God in all things a Deadness to all self-excellency and preheminency before others a perfect Privation of all desire of singularity or attracting of the eyes of men upon a mans own person As little to relish a mans own praise or glory in the world as if he had never been born into it but to be wholly contented with this one thing that his will is a subduing to the will of God and that with thankfulnesse and reverence he doth receive what ever Divine Providence brings upon him be it sweet or sour with the hair or against it it is all one to him for what he cannot avoid it is the gift of God to the world in order to a greater good But here I must confesse That he that is thus affected as he seeks no knowledge to please himselfe so he cannot avoid being the most knowing man that is For he is surrounded with the beams of Divine wisdome as the low depressed Earth with the raies of the stars his deeply and profoundly humbled soul being as it were the Center of all heavenly illuminations as this little globe of the Earth is of those celestial influences I professe I stand amazed while I consider the ineffable advantages of a mind thus submitted to the Divine will how calm how comprehensive how quick and sensible she is how free how sagacious of how tender a touch and judgment she is in all things When as pride and strong desire ruffles the mind into uneven waves and boisterous fluctuations that the aeteranl light of Reason concerning either Nature or Life cannot imprint its perfect and distinct image or character there nor can so subtile and delicate motions and impressions be sensible to the understanding disturbed and agitated in so violent a storm That man therefore who has got this Humble frame of Spirit which is of so mighty concernment for acquiring all manner of wisdome as well Natural as Divine cannot possibly be so foolish as to be mistaken in that which is the genuine result of a contrary temper and such is that of Enthusiasme that puffs up men into an opinion that they have a more then ordinary influence from God that acts upon their Spirits and that he designes them by special appointment to be new Prophets◠new Law-givers new Davids new Messiasses and what not when it is nothing but the working of the Old man in them in a fanatical maner 54. By Reason I understand so setled and cautious a Composure of mind as will suspect every high flown and forward fancy that endevours to carry away the assent before deliberate examination she not enduring to be gulled by the vigour or garishnesse of the representation nor at all to be born down by the weight or strength of it but patiently to trie it by the known Faculties of the Soul which are either the Common notions that all men in their wits agree upon or the Evidence of outward Sense or else a cleer and distinct Deduction from these What ever is not agreable to these three is Fancy which testifies nothing of the Truth or Existence of any thing and therefore ought not nor cannot be assented to by any but mad men or fools And those that talk so loud of that higher Principle the Spirit with exclusion of these betray their own ignorance and while they would by their wilde Rhetorick disswade men from the use of their Rational faculties under pretence of expectation of an higher and more glorious Light do as madly in my mind as if a company of men travailing by night with links torches and lanthorns some furious Orator amongst them should by his wonderful strains of Eloquence so befool them into a misconceit of their present condition comparing of it with the sweet and cheerful splendor of the day that they should through impatience and indignation beat out their links and torches and break a pieces their lanthorns against the ground and so chuse rather to foot it in the dark with hazard of knocking their noses against the next Tree they meet and tumbling into the next ditch then to continue the use of those convenient lights that they had in their sober temper prepared for the safety of their journey But the Enthusiasts mistake is not onely in leaving his present guide before he has a better but in having a false notion of him he does expect For assuredly that Spirit of illumination which resides in the soules of the faithful is a Principle of the purest Reason that is communicable to the humane Nature And what this Spirit has he has from Christ as Christ himselfe witnesseth who is the eternal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the all-comprehending Wisdome and Reason of God wherein he sees through the natures and Ideas of all things with all their respects of Dependency and Independency Congruity and Incongruity or what ever habitude they have one to another with one continued glance at once And what ever of Intellectual light is communicated to us is derived from hence and is in us Particular Reason or Reason in Succession or by peece-meal Nor is there any thing the holy Spirit did ever suggest to any man but it was agreeable to if not demonstrable from what we call Reason And to be thus perswaded how powerful a Curb it will be upon the exorbitant impressions and motions of Melancholy and Enthusiasme I leave it to any man to judge 55. To these three notable and more generall Helps we might adde some particular Considerations whereby we may keep off this Enthusiastical pertinacity from our selves or discover it when it has taken hold upon others As for example If any man shall pretend to the discovery of a Truth by inspiration that is of no good use or consequence to the Church of God it is to me little less then a Demonstration that he is Fanatical If he heaps up Falshoods as well as Truths and pretends to be inspired in all it is to me an evidence he is inspired in none of those my steries he offers to the world 56. There are certain advantages also that Enthusiasts have which are to be taken notice of whereby they have imposed upon many as That they have spoken very raisedly and divinely which most certainly has happened to sundry persons a little before they have grown stark mad and that they may hit
of something extraordinary is no pledge of the truth of the rest For this unquiet and tumultuous spirit of melancholy shaking their whole bodily frame is like an Earth-quake to one in a dungeon which for a small moment makes the very walls gape and cleave and so lets in light for a while at those chinks but all closes up again suddenly and the prisoner is confined to his wonted darknesse This therefore was a Chance in nature not a gratious visit of the Spirit of God 57. Hereunto you may also joyn the luck of Prophecy be it sleeping or waking for such things have happened to mad men and fools and Aristotle offers at a pretty reason that may reach both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To which he also addes why Extaticall men foresee future things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All which intimates thus much That an alienation of mind and rest from our own motions fits us for a reception of impressions from something else and so by a quick sense and touch we may be advertised through a communication of motion from the Spirit of the world what is done at a distance or passe◠which turning off again make the Prediction false For every thing that offers to be does not come into actuall being Wherefore all these Presages are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but may be onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are the words of Aristotle but such as some skilful Platonist will most easily explain All that I aim at is this That Prophesie may arise from on this side of the pure and infallible Deity and it is our mistake that we think that what predictions fall out true are certainly foreknown by the Foreteller For the present conspiracy of causes that shoot into the vacant mind may corrupt and alter and be blown away like clouds that at first seem to assure the husbandman of a following rain 58. But there is yet a stronger allurement then Prophecy to draw on belief to the Enthusiast which is a semblance of doing some miracle as the curing some desperate disease as it happened very lately in this Nation For it is very credibly reported and I think cannot be denied That one by the stroaking of a mans arm that was dead and uselesse to him recovered it to life and strength When I heard of it and read some few pages of that miraculous Physicians writing my Judgement was that the cure was naturall but that his blood and spirits were boyled to that height that it would hazard his brain which proved true for he was stark mad not very long after There may be very well a healing and sanative Contagion as well as morbid and venemous And the Spirits of Melancholy men being more massy and ponderous when they are so highly refined and actuated by a more then ordinary heat and vigour of the body may prove a very powerfull Elixir Nature having outdone the usuall pretenses of Chymistrie in this case 59. Whatever credit the Enthusiast may conciliate to himself from his moving Eloquence his mysterious style and unexpected notions they are easily to be resolved into that principle of Melancholy above named the sense of which complexion is so deep and vigorous that it cannot fail to inable the Tongue to tell her story with a great deal of life and affection and the imagination is so extravagant that it is farre easier for her to ramble abroad and fetch in some odde skue conceit from a remote obscure corner then to think of what is nearer and more ordinarily intelligible But these things are so fully and plainly comprehended in those Generall causes of Enthusiasme we have already declared besides what we have particularly touched upon before that it will not be worth our labour to insist any longer upon them When we have satisfied a Scruple or two concerning what we have said of Melancholy and Enthusiasme I think we shall have omitted nothing materially pertinent to this present Speculation 60. And the first is How we can distinguish betwixt Religion and Melancholy we having attributed so notable effects thereunto The second is whether we have not reviled and vilified all Enthusiasme whatsoever and invited men to a cold Pharisaicall stupidity and acting merely according to an outward letter without an inward testimony of life The meaning of the first scruple must be restrain'd to such things as in their externals are laudable and approveable viz. whether such as they be out of a Divine or Naturall principle whether from God or Complexion For in those things that are at their very first view discerned to be culpable it is plain that they are not from God I answer therefore That there are three main discriminations betwixt the Spirit and the most Specious Complexion The first is That that Piety or Goodnesse which is from the Spirit of God is universall extirpating every vice and omitting nothing that is truely a divine virtue The second is A belief of those Holy Oracles comprehended in the Old and New Testament they being rightly interpreted and particularly of that Article That Iesus Christ even he that died on the crosse at Ierusalem betwixt two thieves is the Sonne of God and Soveraigne of men and Angels and that he in his own person shall come again to judge the quick and the dead The third and last is An universall Prudence whereby a man admits nor acts nothing but what is solidly rationall at the bottome and of which he can give a good account let the successe be what it will He that finds himself thus affected may be sure it is the Spirit of God not the power of Complexion or Nature that rules in him But this man to others if they be unbelieving and so rude and unprepared as not to be capable of Reason he is nothing to them unlesse he can do a miracle How vain then is the Enthusiast that is destitute of both But those ancient Records of miracles done in the behalf of Christianity are a sufficient Testimony of the truth of our Religion to those whose hearts are rightly fitted for it 61. To the Second scruple I answer That there has not one word all this time been spoken against that true and warrantable Enthusiasme of devout and holy souls who are so strangely transported in that vehement love they bear towards God and that unexpressible Joy and Peace they find in him For they are modest enough and sober in all this they witnessing no other thing to the world then what others may experience in themselves and what is plainly set down in the holy Scriptures That the kingdome of God is Righteousnesse and Peace and Joy in the Holy-Ghost But in none of these things do they pretend to equallize themselves to Christ whom God has exalted above men and Angels but do professe the efficacie of his Spirit in them to the praise and glory of God and the comfort and incouragement of their drooping Neighbour But what is above this without evident Reason
out at this corner and that corner and so gave it due order and disposition of parts But O thou man of mysteries tell me I pray thee how so so subtil a thing as this Anima is can be either barrel'd up or bottled up or tied up in a bag as a pig in a poke when as the first materiall rudiments of life be so lax and so fluid how can they possibly hopple or incarcerate so thin and agil a substance as a Soul so that the union betwixt them is of some other nature then what such grosse expressions can represent and more Theomagicall then our Theomagician himself is aware of Observation 9. Pag. 11. Here Anthroposophus tells us rare mysteries concerning the Soul that it is a thing stitched and cobled up of two parts viz. of aura tenuissima and lux simplicissima And for the gaining of credence to this patched conceit he abuses the authority of that excellent Platonist and Poet Virgilius Maro taking the fag end of three verses which all tend to one drift but nothing at all to his purpose AEneid 6. Donec longa dies perfecto temporis orbe Concretam exemit labem purumque reliquit AEthereum sensum atquo aurai simplicis ignem This is not spoken of the Soul it self but of the AEthereall Vehicle of the Soul and so is nothing to your purpose Mr. Philalethes You tell us also in this page in what shirts or sheets the Souls wrap themselves when they apply to generation as your phrase is as if you were Groom of their bed-chamber if not their Paâ—der You tell us also of a radicall vitall liquor that is of like proportion and complexion with the superiour interstellar waters which is as learnedly spoken as if you should compare the Sack at the Globe-Tavern with certain supernall Wine-bottles hung round Orions girdle Which no man were able to smell out unlesse his nose were as Atlantick as your rauming and reaching fancy And yet no man that has not lost his reason but will think this as grave a truth in Philosophie as your interstellar waters But Interstellar indeed is a prettie word and sounds well and it is pitie but there were some fine Philosophick notion or other dld belong to it But now Philalethes if I would tyrannize over you as you do over Aristotle for the manner of your declaring the nature of the Soul where you pretend to shew us the very naked essence of it and first principles whereof it doth consist you have laid your self more bare to my lash then you endeavoured to lay bare the Soul to our view for you do plainly insinuate to us That either the Soul is Light or else a thin Air or that it is like to them If onely like these bodies of Light and Air how pitifully do you set out the nature of the Soul when you tell us the principles of it onely in a dry metaphor Is not the nature of the Soul far better known from the proper operations thereof as Aristotle has defined it then from this fantasticall metaphoricall way But if you will say that the Soul is properly Light or Air then be they never so thin or never so simple unlesse you will again use a metaphor the Soul must be a Body And how any corporeall Substance thick or thin fluid or dry can be able to think to reason to fancy c. nay to form matter into such cunning and wise frames and contrivancies as are seen in the bodies of living Creatures no man of lesse ignorance and confidence then your self will dare to endeavour to explain or hold any way probable Observation 10. Pag. 12. In this page you are curiously imployed in making of a Chain of Light and Matter surely more subtill and more uselesse then that that held the Flea prisoner in the Mechanicks hand But this is to hold the Anima the passive Spirit and celestiall Water together Our Theomagician here grows as imperious as wrathfull Xerxes Will you also fetter the Hellespont Philalethes and binde the winde and waters in chains Buc let 's consider now the link of this miraculous chain of his Light Matter Anima of 3 of 1 portions Passive spirit of 2 of 2 portions Celestiall waters of 1 of 3 portions This is your chain Philalethes Now let 's see what Apish tricks you 'll play with this your chain The three portions of light must be brought down by the two the two if not indeed five the two and three being now joyn'd brought down by one and so the whole chain drops into the water But would any Ape in a chain if he could speak utter so much incredible and improbable stuff with so much munky and mysterious ceremony His very chain would check his both thoughts and tongue For is it not farre more reasonable that three links of a chain should sway down two and two or five one then that one should sway two or five or two three Or do we find when we fling up a clod of earth that the whole ball of the Earth leaps up after that clod or the clod rather returns back to the Earth the greater ever attracting the lesse if you will stand to magneticall Attraction But truly Philalethes I think you do not know what to stand to or how to stand at all you are so giddy and intoxicated with the steam and heat of your disturbed fancie and vain minde Observation 11. Pag. 13. Lin. 8. But me thinks Nature complains of a prostitution c. Did not I tell you so before that Philalethes was a pander and now he is convinced in his own conscience and confesses the crime and his eares ring with the clamours and complaints of Madam Nature whom he has so lewdly prostituted Sad Melancholist thou art affrighted into the confession of crimes that thou art not onely not guilty of but canst not be guilty of if thou wouldst Is there never a one of our Citie Divines at leasure to comfort him and compose him I tell thee Madam Nature is a far more chast and discreet Lady then to lie obnoxious to thy prostitutions These are nothing but some unchast dreams of thy prurient and polluted fancie I dare quit thee of this fact Philalethes I warrant thee Thou hast not laid Madam Nature so naked as thou supposest onely thou hast I am afraid dream'd uncleanly and so hast polluted so many sheets of paper with thy Nocturnall Conundrums which have neither life sense nor shape head nor foot that I can find in them SECT II. 12. That Spiders and other brute creatures have knowledge in them from the first Intellect 13. That the Seminall Forms of things are knowing and discerning Spirits 14. That the World is from God and all true wisdome which is to be found by experiments not in Aristotles writings 15. Because of the abuse of Logick he takes up the Letanâ—e of St. Augustine 16. His three Magicall Principles viz. The first created Unity the Binarius or
or on the Theorbo Observation 20. Pag. 28 29. In the former page you could not part till you had made God and Nature mysteriously kisse In this you metamorphize Mercury and Sulphur into two Virgins and make the Sun to have more Wives then ever Solomon had Concubines Every Star must have in it Vxor Solis But what will become of this rare conceit of yours if the Stars themselves prove Suns And men far more learned then your self are very inclinable to think so But now he has fancied so many Wives he falls presently upon copulation helter skelter and things done in private betwixt Males and Females c. Verily Anthroposophus if you had but the patience to consider your own Book seriously and examine what Philosophick truth you have all this while delivered since your contemning of Aristotle's definition of Nature Form and Soul you shall find in stead of his sober description from the proper operations and effects of things nothing but a dance of foolish and lascivious words almost every page being hung with Lawns and Tiffanies and such like Tapestry with black Shadowing hoods white Aprons and Peticoats and I know not what And this must be a sober and severe Tractate of Anima Abscondita As if the Soul were dressed in womans apparell the better to be concealed and to make an escape And to as much purpose is your heaps of liquorsome Metaphors of Kissing of Coition of ejection of Seed of Virgins of Wives of Love-whispers and of silent Embraces and your Magicians Sun and Moon those two Universall Peers Male and Female King and Queen Regents alwayes young and never old what is all this but a mere Morris-dance and May-game of words that signifie nothing but that you are young Anthroposophus and very sportfull and yet not so young but that you are marriageable and want a good wife that your sense may be as busie as your fancy about such things as those and so peradventure in due time the extravagancy of your heat being spent you may become more sober Observation 21. Pag. 30. Lin. 8. It is light onely that can be truly multiplyed But if you tell us not what this light is we are stil but in the dark I doe not mean whether Light be a Virgin or a Wife or whose Wife or what clothes she wears Tiffanies or Cobweblawns but in proper words what the virtue and nature of it is Whether Corpus or Spiritus Substance or Accident c. But Anthroposophus you doe not desire at all to be understood but please your self onely to rant it in words which can procure you nothing but the admiration of fools If you can indeed doe any thing more then another man or can by sound reason make good any more truth to the World then another man can then it is something if not it is a meer noise and buzze for children to listen after SECT III. 22. Certain notable Quotations of Eugenius his out of Scripture and other writers 23 He presages what ill acceptance his high mysteries will have with the School-Divines 24. He acknowledges the Scriptures obscure and mystical 25. Some Philosophers that have attain'd to the Ternarius could not for all that obtain the perfect Medicine there being but six Atuhors he ever met with that understood that mystery fully 26. That this Medicine transformes the body into a glorified state and that the material parts are never seen more The divine Spirit swallowing them into Invisibility 27. He complains how ready the world will be to boy him out of countenance for his presumption in so high mysteries especialy the reverend Doctors who he says sustain their gravity on these two crutches pretended Sanctity and a Beard 28. He advises us not to tamper with this Theomagical Medicine rashly 29. Adding a monition out of the Poet. 30. That the Spirit whereby a man becomes magically wise a lawful worker of miracles is the Christian Philosophers stone and the white stone 31. He entreats the Reader not to mistake him as if he had as yet attain'd to this stone because God is no debtor of his 32. He only affirmes himself to be an Indicatour of it to others as a Mercury to a traveller on the way 33. And that if you could show him one good Christian capable of the secret he would show him an infallible way to come by it Observation 22. Pag. 31. FRom this 31 page to the 41 you have indeed set down the most couragious and triumphant testimonies and of the highest and most concerning truth that belongs to the soul of man the attainment whereof is as much beyond the Philosophers stone as a Diamond is beyond a peble stone But the way to this mystery lies in a very few words which is a peremptory persistent unraveling releasing of the Soul by the power of God from all touch and sense of sin and corruption Which every man by how much the more he makes it his sincere aim by so much the more wise and discreet he will appear and will be most able to judge what is sound and what is flatuous But to deal plainly with you my Philalethes I have just cause to suspect that there is more wind then truth as yet in your writings And that it is neither from reason nor from experience that yon seem to turn your face this way but high things and fiery and sonorous expressions of them in Authors being sutable to your Youthfulnesse and Poetical phansie you swagger and take on presently as if because you have the same measure of heat you were of the same fraternity with the highest Theomagicians in the World Like as in the story where the Apples Horsdung were caryed down together in the same stream the Fragments of Horsdung cryed out Nos poma natamus Pardon the homelyness of the comparison But you that have flung so much dirt upon Aristotle and the two famous Universities it is not so unjust if you be a little pelted with dung your self Observation 23. Pag. 42. Lin. 12. I know some illiterate School-Divines c. He cannot be content to say any thing that he thinks is magnificently spoken but he must needs trample upon some or other by way of triumph and ostentation one while clubbing of Aristotle another while so pricking the Schoolmen and provoking the Orthodoxe Divines that he conceits they will all run upon him at once as the Iews upon the young Martyr St. Steven and stone him for his strange mysteries of his Theomagick stone Truly Anthroposophus there are some good things fall from you in your own style and many cited out of considerable Authors but you do so soil and bemar all with your juvenile immoralities and Phantastries that you lose as much in the one a you get in the other Observation 24. Pag. 44. Lin. 4. The Scripture is obscure and mystical c. And therefore say I Philalethes a very uncertain foundation to build a Philosophy on but
neither to be felt nor understood But if they sacred be because not sense To Bedlam Sirs the best Divines come thence Your new-found Lights may like a falling Starre Seem heavenly Lamps when they but Gellies are An high swoln Wombs bid fair but time grown nigh The promisâ—d birth proves but a Tympanie Should Superstition what it most doth fly Seek to take shelter in Philosophy And Sacred Writ sole image of sure Truth Be pull'd by th'nose by every idle youth And made to bend as seeming to incline To all the fooleries hee 'l call Divine Find out the Word in Scripture all is found Swarms of Conceits buzze up from this one ground As if the Cobler all his trade would show From mention made of Gibeon's clouted shooe Or Bakers their whole Art at large would read From the short record of the mouldy Bread Is this the spirit thus confus'dly mad Antipodal to him the Chaos had Fell boistrous blast â— that with one Magick puff Turns the Schools Glory to a Farthing snuffâ— And 'gainst that ancient Sage the World adores Like to a Lapland whirlewind loudly roares Yet from thy travels in the search of things Ridiculous Swain what shallow stuff thou bring'st What cloaths they wear Vails Tiff'nies dost relate Thou art Philosophies Tom Coriat Else brave Des Cartes whom fools cannot admire Had nere been sindg'd by thy wild Whimzie fire Poor Galen's Antichristâ— though one Purge of his Might so unmagick thee as make thee wise Physick cures phrenzie knows inspired wit Oâ—t proves a meer Hypochondriack fit Agrippa's Cur sure kennels in thy weamb Thou yelpest so and barkest in a dream Or if awake thou dost on him so fawn And bite all else that hence his Dog th' art known But I will spare the lash t' was my friends task Who rescuing Truth engag'd put on this mask Thus do's some careful Prince disguised goe To keep his Subjects from the intended blow Nor could his lofty soul so low descend But to uncheat the World a noble end And now the night is gone we plainly find 'T was not a Light but rotten Wood that shin'd We owe this day my dearest friend to thee All eyes but Night-birds now th' Imposture see I. F. FINIS THE SECOND LASH OF Alazonomastix Conteining a Solid and Serious REPLY to a very uncivill Answer to certain OBSERVATIONSUpon Anthroposophia Theomagica And Anima Magica Abscondita Proverb He that reproves a scorner gets to himself a blot Ecclesiastic Be not proud in the device of thine own mind lest thy soul rend thee as a Bull. LONDON Printed by I. Flesher 1655. To his singularly accomplish'd friend Mr. Iohn Finch SIR I Know that your modesty cannot but be much amazed at this unexpected Dedication But the causes once discovered admiration will cease Eugenius as children use to do who fallen into the dirt by their own folly commonly make a lamentable complaint to their Father or Mother against them that help them up as if they had flung them down has told a hideous story to his Tutour as if I had soyl'd him and dirtied him when as I onely reminded him that he lay in the dirt which in this case is all one as to help him out of it Wherefore that I might hold up the humour every way of opposing my Adversary as I must for fashion-sake call him he making his false and grievous Accusation to his Tutour I thought fit to direct this my true and pleasant Reply to you my Pupil But if I should say that this is so much as the least part of what moved me to this act I confesse I should dissemble For to say nothing of the Noblenesse of your Descent which is held ordinarily a sufficient ground for such a respect as this it is indeed the Sweetness and Candour of your nature your great Civility and Pleasantnesse of Conversation your miraculous Proficiencie in the choicest parts of Philosophy your egregious Perspicacity and kindly Wit your generous Freedome of spirit and true Noblenesse of mind whom the surly countenance of sad Superstition cannot aw but the lovely face of Virtue and radiant Beauty of Divine Knowlodge do most potently command to approve and prosecute what is really best that has extorted this Testimony of love and respect from Your affectionate friend to serve you ALAZ PHILALETHES To his learned Friend Alazonomastix Philalethes Upon his Reply DEar friend as oft as I with care peruse This strange Reply of thine I cannot chuse But wonder at thy rare Complexion Where Wit Mirth Iudgement thus conspire in one Where Inspirations which make others mad Unto thy Reason grace and credit add And Passion that like dungeon dark do's blind Proves the free fiery chariot of thy mind Go surly Stoick with deep furrowed brow Natures rude Pruner that wilt not allow What 's right and good Here nought too much appears Unlesse on thy shorn head thine own large ears Since Mastix merry rage all now believe Passion 's an arm of man no hanging sleeve Brave generous Choler whose quick motions pierce Swift like the lightning through the Universe And in their hasty course as on they fare Do clense mens souls of vice as that the Air. Noble Contention which like brushing winds That sweep both Land and Sea doth purge our minds It is thy free and ever-active fire That rooseth men from snorting in the mire And roos'd thy aw makes them to tread the stage In a due Order and right Equipage Thy hiss more dreadfull is then wounding sting Of serpents teeth that certain death do bring And conscious souls start at thy laughter loud As at a Thunder-clap broke from a cloud When Jove some flash of world rebuking wit Le ts flie and faultlesse Gods all laugh at it For so ridiculous vice in ugly guize Is made the sport and pastime of the wise But when fond men themselves to their own face Have their foul shapes reflected the disgrace And conscience of deformity so stings Their gauled minds and fretted entrayls wrings That even grown wild with pain in vain they tire Themselves to shake off this close searching fire That sticks like burning pitch and makes them wood As Hercules wrapt in the Centaurs blood This is thy fate Eugenius Thy odde look Reflected to thy self from Mastix book Has so amaz'd thee with the sudden glance That all thy wits be struck into a trance But Grief and Vengeance thou dost so revive As if to them alone thou wert alive And onely takest care with language foul To soil his person that would clense thy soul. Thus the free chearfull Sun with his bright rayes Shines upon dunghils fens and foul high wayes While they return nought back for his pure beams But thick unwholsome mysts and stinking steams But yet at length near his Meridian height Dispells the Morning-fogs by fuller light Go on brave Mastix then those noysome fumes Thy first appearance rais'd sure this consumes Johannnes Philomastix To the Reader Reader IF thou hast
as a pipe of Tobacco should be multiplied into so very much superficies above what it had before go to those that beat out leaf gold and understand there how the superficies of the same body may be to wonder increased And beside I could demonstrate to thee that a body whose basis thou shouldst imagine at the center of the Earth and top as farre above the starry Heaven as it is from thence to the Earth without any condensation used thereunto is but equal to a body that will he within the boll of a Tobacco-pipe Where art thou now thou miserable Philosophaster But to the next Analogie The aire is the outward refreshing spirit where this vast Creaure breaths Two things I here object to shew the ineptnesse and incongruity of this comparison The one is taken from the office of respiration which is to refresh by way of refrigerating or cooling Is not the main end of the lungs to cool the bloud before it enter into the left ventricle of the heart But thou art so Magical thou knowst none of these sober and usefull mysteries of Nature All that thou answerest to this is That we are refresh'd by heat as well as by coolnesse Why then is that generall sufficient to make up your analogie or similitude This is as well fancied as it is reasoned when men conclude affirmatively in the second figure There are laws in fancy too Philalethes and I shall shew thee anon how ridiculous thou hast made thy self by transgressing them If thou meanest by refresh'd to be cheared or restored onely and what ever do's this must be ground enough to fancy a respiration then thou breathest in thy cawdle when thou eatest it and hast spoyled that conceit of his that said he never would drink sack whilst he breathed for if sack do in any sense refresh and comfort a man it seems he breaths while he drinks I tell thee in the Homologi termini of similitudes there ought to be something in some sort peculiar and restrained or else it is flat ridiculous and non-sense The other objection was taken from the situation of this aire that is to he the matter of Respiration in this great Animal What a wild difference is there in this The aire that an ordinary Animal breaths in is external the aire of this World-Animal internall so that it is rather wind in the guts then aire for the lungs and therefore we may well adde the Colick to the Anasarca Is the wind-Colick an outward refreshing spirit or an inward griping pain Being thou hast no guts in thy brains I suspect thy brains have slipt down into thy guts whither thy tongue should follow to be able to speak sense Answer now like an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O thou man of Magick He answers and the point and sting of all the sense of his answer is in the tail of it pag. 29. lin 11. and it is their outward refreshing spirit He means the Earths and the Waters O feeble sting O foolish answer This onely reaches so farre as to save the Earth alive from my jugulating objection The globe of Earth and Water indeed may be still an Animal for all that objection But thou saidst the whole World was an Animal What is the whole world an Animal because the Earth is one O bundle of simples to return thee thine own parcell of ware again for it belongs not to me this is as well argued as if thou shouldest say That a cheese is an Animal because there is one living mite in it But that this Earth neither is a breathing Animal is plain enough For what respiration what attraction and reddition of aire is there in it There may be indeed something answering to sweating and perspiration nothing to respiration my good Philalethes But to shew thee thy folly I will follow thy liberty and impudently pronounce that a pair of bellows is an Animal Why is it not It has a nose to breathe through that 's plain the two handles are the two eares the leather the lungs and that which is the most seemly analogie of all the two holes in the back-side are the two eyes as like the eyes in the fore-side of a Crab as ever thou seest any thing in thy life Look thee Phil. are they not You 'll say The analogie of the nose is indeed as plain as the nose on a mans face But how can the handles be eares when they stand one behind another whereas the eares of Animals stand one on one side and the other on the other side of the head And then how can the leather be lungs they being the very outside of its body Or those two holes eyes They have neither the situation as being placed behind nor office of eyes Answer me all these objections O Mastix I can fully answer them O Magicus This is an Animal drawn out according to thine own skill and principles The leather sayst thou must be no lungs because it is without Why then the aire must be no aire for thy World-Animal to breath because it is within And if thou canst dispense with within and without much more mayst thou with before and behind or behind and on the sides So the eares and lungs of this Animal hold good against thee still Now to preserve my monsters eyes against this Harpy that would scratch them out They are no eyes say you because they have not the situation of eyes But I told thee before thou makest nothing of situation But they have not the office of eyes Why They can see as much as the eyes of thy World-Animal for ought thou knowest I but this Bellows-Animal breaths at these eyes And have not I shewed thee thy World-Animal breaths in his guts But I will make it plain to thee that those two holes are eyes For they are two as the two eyes are and transmit the thin air through them as the eyes do the pure light So that they agree gainly well in the generall As your Respiration in the World-Animal in refreshing though by heat when in others it is by cold Fie on thee for a Zoographicall Bungler These Bellows thou seest is not my Animal but thine and the learned shall no longer call that instrument by that vulgar name of a pair of Bellows but Tom Vaughans Animal So famous shalt thou grow for thy conceited foolery The interstellar skies are his vitall ethereall waters Here I object O Eugenius that there is an over-proportionated plenty of those waters in thy World-Animal and that thus thou hast distended the skin of thy Animal God knows how many millions of miles off from the flesh O prodigious Anasarca But what dost thou answer here viz. That I say that the body which we see betwixt the starres namely the interstellar waters is excessive in proportion No I do not say so but that they are too excessive in proportion to be the fluid parts of a World-Animal But however as if I had said so he
light that seeks nothing for it self as it self but doth tenderly and cordially endeavour the good of All and rejoyceth in the good of All and will assuredly meet them that keep close to what they plainly in their consciences are convinced is the leading to it And I say that sober Morality conscienciously kept to is like the morning light reflected from the higher clouds and a certain Prodrome of the Sunne of Righteousnesse it self But when he is risen above the Horizon the same virtues then stream immediately from his visible body and they are the very members of Christ according to the Spirit And he that is come hither is a pillar in the Temple of God for ever and ever for he teacheth the Second Covenant whic he can in no more likelihood break then lay violent hands on himself to the taking away of his naturall life Nay that will be farre more easie then this for a man may kill himself in a trice but he cannot extinguish this Divine life without long and miserable torture If this be to be a Puritane Eugenius I am a Puritane But I must tell thee that by how much more a man precisely takes this way the more Independent he will prove And the pure simplicity of the life of God revealed in Iesus Christ will shine with so amiable a lustre in his inward mind that all the most valuable Opinions that are controverted amongst Churches and Sects will seem no more comely then a Fools coat compared with the uniform Splendour of the Sunne But if thou meanest by either Puritane or Independent one in the second Dispensation I should dissemble in the presence of Heaven if I should not say I am above them as I am above all Sects whatsoever as Sects For I am a true and free Christian and what I write and speak is for the Interest of Christ and in the behalf of the life of the Lamb which is contemned And his Interest is the Interest of the sonnes of men for he hath no Interest but their good and welfare But because they will not have him to rule the Nations of the world by a Divine Nemesis are given up into the hands of Wolves Foxes and Lions The earth is full of darknesse and cruell habitations Wherefore Eugenius thou doest very unskilfully in endeavouring to tumble me off from the Independents to cast me amongst the Puritanes as thou callest them For it is not in thy power to cast me so low as any Sect whatsoever God hath placed me in a Dispensation above them and wilt thou throw me down No Eugenius I shine upon them both as the Sunne in the Firmament who doth not wink on one side or withdraw his Rayes but looks openly upon all imparting warmth and light Thou hast encountred with a Colosse indeed though thou callest me so but in sport and scorn farre bigger then that stradling Statue at Rhodes and that reacheth far higher And yet no Statue neither but one that will speak what nothing but Ignorance and Hypocrisie can deny Wherefore with my feet wading amidst the Sects of the earth and with my head stooping down out of the Clouds I will venture to trie the world with this sober question Tell me therefore O all ye Nations People and Kindreds of the earth what is the reason that the world is such a stage of misery to the Sonnes of Men Is it not from hence That that which should be their great Guidance their Religion and highest Lights of their minds is but Heat and squabbling about subtile uncertain points and foolish affectation of high mysteries while the uncontroverted sober truths of Virtue and Piety are neglected and the simplicity of the life of God despised as a most contemptible thing And I had no sooner uttered these words in my mind but me thought I heard an Answer from all the Quarters of the World from East West North and South like the noise of many waters or the voice of Thunder saying Amen Halelujah This is true Nor is this any vain Enthusiasme Philalethes but the triumph of the Divine Light in my Rationall Spirit striking out to my exteriour faculties my Imagination and Sense For my head was so filled with the noise that it felt to me as bound and straitened as being not able to contain it and coldnesse and trembling seised upon my flesh But you will say All this is but a triviall Truth that you are so zealous and triumphant in But verily Eugenius is it not better to be zealous about those things that are plainly true then those that are either uncertain or false 'T is true what I have said to thy soaring minde may seem contemptible But if thou once hadst the sight of that Principle from whence it came thou wouldest be suddenly ashamed of that patched clothing of thy soul stitch'd up of so many unfutable and heedlesse sigurations of thy unpurged fancy and wouldst endeavour to put on that simple uniform light And now Eugenius that I find my self in an advantagious temper to conuerse with thee come a little nearer me or rather I will come a little nearer to thee Hitherto I have play'd the part of a personated Enemy with thee give me leave now to do the office of an open Friend I perceive there is in you as you have made it manifest to all the world an eager desire after Knowledge and as insatiable thirst after Fame both which are to be reputed farre above that dull and earthy pronenesse of the mind of some men whose thoughts are bent upon little else but the Bed and the Board But I tell thee that this desire of thine being kindled so high in thy melancholy complexion there arise these three inconveniences from this inordinate heat First Thy spirits are so agitated that thou canst not soberly and cautiously consider the Objects of thy mind to see what is truly consequent what not and so thy reason goes much to wrack Secondly Thy melancholy being so highly heated it makes thee think confidently thou hast a Phantasme or Idea of a thing belonging to this or that word when thou hast not which is a kind of inward Phrensie and answers to the seeing of outward apparitions when there is nothing before the sight Thus art thou defeated in thy designe of knowledge in divine and naturall things by this distemper But thirdly The same untamed Heat causeth Boldnesse Confidence and Pride And hence ariseth thy Imprudence For I tell thee Eugenius there is no such imprudent thing in the world as Pride Wot'st thou not what the humour of all men is how they think themselves no inconsiderable things in the world You know the story in Herodotus how when the Greeks had overcome the Persians and after it was debated amongst them to whom the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 belonged who should have the honour of being reputed most valiant in that service every one did acknowledge that next to himself Themistocles did best Wherefore it is plain
Christ. Those that reprehend this passage they seem to me to be very reprehensible themselves as having fallen into two errours The one is that they think it so enormous and extravagant an expression of men being called Gods when as very sober and holy writers have made use of the phrase being warranted thereunto as they conceive from Scripture it self which expresly bestows upon us the title of sonnes of God John 1. Filios Dei fieri hâ—e Deos say they Nam quis nisi Deus potest esse filius Dei Isa. Cafaub and the same Authour out of the Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Augustine speaks very roundly to the same purpose Templum Dei aedificaxi ex iis quos facit non factus Deus and Athanasius ad Adelphium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ became man that he might make us Gods But what this Deification is he doth distinctly and judiciously set down thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To be made God sayes he is to be united with the Deitie by the partaking of the Spirit of God And for my own part I understand nothing else by Deification which is so often repeated in that excellent Manual Theologia Germanica in which though there be much of Melancholy yet I think there is more true and savory Divinity then in thousands of other writings that make a greater noise in the world The other errour my Reprehenders are reprehensible in is in that they look upon me here as countenancing such phrases as these when it is plain I check the users of them for their affectation of such high language especially they having abused it not onely to an unmannerly usurpation of an equall estate or paritie with Christ but to a wilde presumption that there is no other God but such as themselves are Which abominable opinion of theirs presenting it self then so fully to my mind carried me forth in that zeal and vehemencie you see and therefore may be a sufficient excuse for so large an excursion I keeping my self still so well within compasse as not to let go my main designe which was against Phantastrie and Enthusiasme And do here plainly show that it may well lead a man at length to down right Ranting and Atheisme 11. Pag. 183. l. 11. Lord of the foure Elements and Emperour of the World It is in my apprehension but an extravagant censure of those that say these expressions are so extravagant If these words were to be literally understood I confesse it were the voice rather of a Mad man then of one in his right senses but they being to be understood morally they are not onely sober in themselves but contain in them a consideration very proper and effectuall for the making others sober also I mean such as by their naturall complexion being hurried on too fast after high things are liable to grow mad with excessive desire of being in some great place of honour and rule amongst men or else of being admired for some strange Magicall power over Nature and externall Elements we reminding them hereby that there is a more noble Empire and more usefull Magick to be fought after then what so pleases their mistaken fancies in endeavouring after which they shall neither forfeit their Bodies to the soveraigne Power they ought to obey nor yet their Souls to the Devil nor squander away the use of their wits and reason upon meer lying deceits and vanities Besides this inward command ouer a mans self which the wisest have alwayes accounted the highest piece of wisdome and power has ever been by all good men compared with and preferred before scepters and kingdomes so that I do but speak in the common Dialect of all those that have professed themselves to have had that right esteem of Wisdome and Virtue which it deserves The Philosophers are very loud in their expressions concerning this matter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Laert. Zen. And Horace following their steps or rather outgoing them writes thus Ad summam sapiens uno minor est Iove Dives Liber honoratus pulcher rex denique regum Nay they are not onely content to set out the dignity of their Wise man as they call him by the title of a King but will not allow any to be truely so called besides him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Demâ—philus addes that he is the onely priest also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christianity joynes both Titles together the Scripture teaching us that all true Christians are both Kings and Priests So sober and warrantable are those Metaphors taken from politicall dignities But is it not a piece of Pride to speak of a mans self in such high terms I answer is it not a piece of basenesse for a man to be ashamed to professe himself a Christian and his high esteem he has of that calling especially he being so fairly invited thereunto partly to wipe off the foul calumnies of his Adversary who would make the world believe I wrote against him out of envy the poorest and most sneaking of all passions and utterly contrary to all magnanimity and true gallantry of Spirit and partly to recommend to all generous Souls the love of Christianity and Virtue under the notion of a very Royall and magnificent State and condition which I do in most parts of this present Section and so to win over if it were possible my Antagonist himself from the vain affectation of Magick to a more sacred and more truly glorious power over his own Nature Pag. 183. l. 24. I still the raging of the Sea c. Impera ventis tempestatibus dic mari quiesce Aquiloni ne flaveris c. is the very allegorie that that devout Soul Thomas à Kempis uses in his devotions lib. 3. cap. 23. See also my Morall Cabbalâ— and the Defence thereof and it will warrant to a syllable every thing that I have wrote in this Section of this kind 12. Pag. 115. l. 7. And impregnation of my understanding from the most High c. Here you say they demand of me if I take my self to be inspired Yes in such sort as other well meaning Christians are that take a speciall care of venting any thing but what they can or at least think they can give a sufficient reason for I suppose that every one that is wise it is the gift of God to him And Elihu is right in this though much out in his censure of Iob I said dayes should speak and multitude of yeares should teach wisdome But there is a spirit in a man and the inspiration of the Almighty gives them understanding The Apostle also bids that if any one lack wisdome that he ask it of God wherefore if any one find any measure of wisdome in himself or at least think he does he is to give him the glory of it but whether Wisdome thus obtained of God be Inspiration or no I leave to those to dispute that love to bring all things into a form of controversie 13. Pag.