beginning of nature and naturall causes No doubt whatsoeuer is elsewhere necessarily or probably deliuered is either directly taken from hence Or else is but a shadow of this substance and a deriuation of this light CAP. 5. EVerie worke and action of God expressed or implied in his Creation hath as a necessary cause produced some created effect and established it vnder the law of Nature with time still to continue By his Power in the beginning he created that voide and vnformed Chaos which because it was void vnformed had power and hability alike to euerie thing or forme And because nature that is the Creature is the Image of the Creator as being Relatiue to him There is in it a naturall will and appetite vnto perfection which is the naturall Good and Goodnesse of euery creature which is manifested by distinction in instruments parts c. That the heauens may declare the glory of God and all his works magnifie his holy name The third cause in the creature was yet wanting that is spirit the formall cause of motion in euery Creature which likewise answered his proper cause distinct from the other as is said in their effects relatiuely but not in their vniuersall subiect nor in the Prototypal being whose Image they are Three in One and One in Three or rather Trinity Coessentiall in Vnity and Vnity in Trinity The spirit of God moued vpon the waters The spirit mouing vpon the waters created in them spiritualnesse and naturall motion in such proportion as might most absolutely answer the excellency of the Creators disposition and harmony in the innumerable variety of all his particular creatures and be a most sure ground to informe the contemplation of reason by exact dependence of effects vpon their causes The whole Chaos conteined two parts Water and Earth In this there is diuersity of positiō aboue and beneath The Water was aboue the Earth therfore lighter and more capable of actiuity The Earth was vnder the waters and therfore heauier naturally more passible The spirit mooued vpon the surface of the waters which then thereby became more spirituall actiue stirring from thence the other waters in that deepe receiued their dower in the like vertues in proportion euen to those that were contiguall to the earth The Earth in it selfe hath no power of spirit or motion but mediatly by the Waters and that likewise in exact and graduated proportion sufficient for the agreeing diuersity of al bodies This spiritualnes or naturall spirit being but potentially in the waters could not in naturall course which God had now established be acted but by a meane The Spirit was moued Motion breeds heat Heate causeth rarefaction or subtilty subtilty is the perfection of spirit in euerie kind And of all spirituall things light is most subtile which therefore was the first Creature actually distinguished in and out of the confused Chaos And that which before was the confused power of all things void and without forme by this appeared the vniuersall matter of all bodies informed with light the most vniuersall of all formes And as in the darkenesse nature trauailed with the burthen of this wonderfull birth in her wombe and as it were sate hatching her egges so now in this light shee was deliuered of her first borne and after disclosed her other chickens formed and well shaped out of the shell of darkenesse And here the waters were endowed with Spirit Motion Heat and Light as is aforesaid which light was not actually in the inferiour waters as nights Mantle prooueth But shewing the neerenesse of water vnto light by transparence the easie reception of light their easie rarefaction by the worke of heate the child of Spirit doe giue good testimony of lights materiality But this is not so proper to the vniuersall light of which we speake by which the superiour waters bee continually illumined and illustred without any shadow of the night of our lesse generall time yet it may serue in neere similitude to illustrate The next distinct Creature named the Expansion Firmament or Heauen which a certaine Wiseman calleth the heauenly Ayre had in the very instant of his calling and creation an office appointed most generall To diuide the waters aboue from the waters below And heere is no mention made of Ayre and Fire but of Motion and Light which are neuer without heate the most proper passion or forme of that which wee commonlie call Fire Also of the vpper Waters and their rarefaction which agreeth with the Ayre of common Philosophie in the efficient and subiect But whether those names be proper or no concerneth not this place and I haue elsewhere paradoxally handled Of the substance composition of heauen many heads haue brought forth many hornes and arming their reasons with fantasticall imaginations haue pushed at each other so long till they be all galled It is sufficient for vs to consider their vse and office that is to deuide the waters aboue from the waters below and how being composed of the common Chaos water and earth more pure then things beneath them lesse pure then things aboue them they be solid fixed permanent and as it were of an immortall substance patible onely by fire Iob 37.18 And therefore it is said the heauens are strong and as a molten glasse For when the Spirit getteth the vpper hand in a pure and cleane body and that bodie afterwards of the Spirit in the second coniunction not by incrassation of the spirit but by subtilation of the body the whole compound becommeth quintessentiall then all is permanent and as you would say fixed spiritually Then there is no naturall alteration nor corruption I know that some writers make two distinct materialities or materias primas first matters in this beginning of creation one containing the water of heauen aboue the other a confused masse of earth and water the corporalitie of all sublunarie bodies But that opinion seemeth to draw a tayle after it of many absurdities incōueniences that goldē chaine of Participation of Symboles which linketh heauen and earth together cannot abide two materiall principles of one creature Neither can such duality subsist with that Talmudique mysterie of light shining out of darkenes which is figuratiuely verbū Dei in nobis Then there is no naturall alteration nor corruption but mens sana in corpore sano a pure spirit in a perfect bodie Next after the firmament and this diuision of waters followed the separation or parting of the waters beneath the firmament from the earth whereby sea and land were made In all this relation and respect are manifest darkenesse and light aboue beneath and diuider or meane betweene extreames Water Earth Sea Land wet dry Motion Rest c. Then in order followed In the earth Vegetables In heauen starres and their offices In the waters Fish and Foule In the earth againe sensibles commonly called Brutes or Irrationals Lastly Man with appointment of meate for himselfe
and all sensibles except fishes CAP. 6. IN the beginning the Waters conteined all were conteined of none but teemed in darkenesse The heauens were of olde And the earth that was of the water by the Word of God VVherefore the world that then was perished by water The heauens and earth which now are bee kept in store by the same Word vnto fire The first matter of all things is water and therefore the first cleansing is by and with water The last perfection of all things is spirit and the last cleansing is by fire which is the violence of the spirit consuming all matter imperfectible and leauing in an immortall bodie that which is pure cleane and perfectible In which triumph of the spirit all shall burne sauing the perfect seede of them that scaped in the waters For nothing that is vncleane commeth to the last and second perfection of the fire not hauing beene washed and depured in the first of water But how the earth was of water whether by separation of the lower waters when the drie land appeared or by subsidence of the heauier part of the Chaos in the rarefaction caused by the spirit moouing is a matter of great and necessarie consequence doubtlesse it was by both as wee see in depuring of liquors and Chymicall extractions And so the second world is of the diuiding of fire as in spagiricall mysteries wee may plainelie see This is true in that we seeke after which is more easie to vnderstand if we consider that heaâ—e the forme or essentially inseparable from the forme of fire was made by the spirits mouing vpon the waters and that the life and fewell of fire is aer The waters as being most spiritual had the first ornament of distinction and forme in all degrees first light which some thinke to comprehend Angels and therefore fire But that thought hath many great aduersaries and may imply matter of strong heresye as though they had beene Coadiutors or agents in the following dayes of creation Therefore they doe best which vnderstand the creation of Angels to be in the sixt day in which man himselfe also was created besides many other sound reasons Then heauen followed the diuider and mediator of the waters aboue froÌ„ theÌ„ beneath next vegetables c. as before where note that before any sensible creature was created in the water or earth the better part that is the superior waters and the heauen had all their furniture of light with the whole hoast of heauen of innumerable starres and their offices And lastlie Angels a little before man For though it bee not defined when Angels were created yet their residence beeing in heauen and their Indiuidualitie immortall it cannot bee doubted that they were before and neere the perfectest forme of the ruling creature And the light of Angels in origination must differ infinitely from the inaccessible light of God And as they could not suffer by water so they that continued in their originall light shall not perish nor suffer by fire as all other things shall euen the heauens themselues The heauens and earth which are kept by the same word in store and reserued vnto fire c. 2. Pet. 3. Psa 102.25 Thou hast layed the foundations of the earth the heauens are the worke of thine hands they shall perish but thou shalt endure Euen they all shall waxe olde as doth a garment as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall bee changed 2. Pet. 3.12 Eccl. 17.31 c. The heauens beeing on fire shall bee dissolued and the Elements shall melt with heate c. VVhat is more cleere then the Sunne yet it shall faile Yea the heauens and starres though insensible bee farre more excellent then the sensible creatures of the earth and inferiour waters Not concerning their forme but concerning their composition perfect mixture and pure matter of corporalitie All which cause their permanent indiuidualitie Such is the substance of our question The starres are vncleane in his sight How much more man euen the Sonne of man Iob 15.15 which is but a worme c. The heauens are not cleane in his sight how much more Man For man is of the earth And heauen is the congregation of waters In which they become fixed permanent which cannot bee without the action of their spirit of light and fire For though euerie one haue their part of all foure Yet wee finde the earth and ayre patible and as it were Nurses or rather Seminaries and very wombes of corruption diseases and death From which not speaking of them in their regenerated bodies no sacrament either diuine or naturall is taken And in from and by which all things both macrocosmicall and microcosmicall haue their Morbificall exhalations But the other two water and fire bee the cleansers and naturall renewers of all which as they decay not in themselues so doe they preserue For the fishes were not brought into the Arke but were preserued in their own proper Element And by the way we may obserue one notable doctrine That the more pure cleane and subtile any thing is in the materialitie of his primitiue nature the more irreuocable is the ruine and destruction if it suffer violence aboue or beyond that number waight and measure in which it was created So wee see the fall of Angels eternally iudged and vitrified substance bee irreducible And this in naturall things naturall causes is also true But to proceede after in the creation of sensible creatures the waters were first serued with fish soules which are attributed and appropriated vnto the waters because ayre commeth by rarefaction of waters and is extended vnder the hollow of heauen Lastly was Man being the Epitome and Abridgement of the whole Creation and therfore rightly called Microcosmus a little world for whose vse and seruice all other things were created For the good or bad vse whereof he shall account to his and their Creator God Almighty The order of proceeding heerein we see to be from the most simple and vniuersall to the most compound and speciall or particular So sensibles are more compounded then vegetables Man more then other sensibles minerals lesse then vegetables and all concerning their materiality of the first Chaos partakers of the essentiall corporality which conteined all in darknesse CAP. 7. IN this Chronicle of the creation there is very excellently taught the condition of all Creatures their composition and state of their naturall life There are two corporal or bodied Elements Earth and Water of which all things vnder heauen are materially compounded The spirit of life in euery thing is his naturall heate ioyned therewith by the meanes of the ayre which is here called the rarefied waters first created by the motion of the spirit and made able to multiply it selfe in any fit and prepared subiect This heate is chiefly in the light which was first brought out of the Chaos and dwelleth in the rarefied waters as in their proper
men might know the vertue thereof The vertue of this wood and all other things was knowne to Adam but lost in the heires of the slothfull married vnto the beauty of the Daughters of men either refusing or not rightly vnderstanding the sweate of eating bread Man became rebellious and disobedient vnto God so other creatures to man Man is restored to God by the suffering of one most perfect so naturall things vnder the ordinance of God vnto man by one most exactly purified digested regenerated naturall compound And not defining I thinke it no error to say â—â—m 8. that as euery creature is subiect to vanitie and groneth with vs and at last shall be deliuered from the bondage of corruption vnto the glorious libertie of the sonnes of God so also there may be naturally before that consummation of all things some proofe of this restored incorruptibilitie really existing in a complete elementate Compound as is before said in the 9. chapter Of this matter and substance speaketh Roger Bacon It is possible to nature and art helping nature to prepare Corpus aequalis complexionis in quo omnia elementa sunt aequalia adaequata quo-ad virtutes Necesse etiam est quòd sit possibilitas huius corporis quoniam corpora in resurrectione non possunt habere incorruptionem immortalitatem nisi per hoc corpus c. and in another place Et hoc est corpus aequale ex quo componentur corpora post resurrectionem And this is the rest from sweat and labour that euery naturall thing shall haue after it is returned into earth in the second purifying of examination by fire As our Hermes saith of the worlds wonder Vis eius est integra si versa fuerit in terram The perfection of the earthly paradise decaied not but the way thereof was precluded whither nature cannot enter but by passing the fiery sword Man in the Scripture is called Omnis creatura euery creature And therefore in him shall this restoring from groning and trauailing and deliuerie from the bondage of corruption bee vltimatè in consummation perfected As before in the eight chapter VVhere heate is multiplied It is indifferent to congeale earth and melt waxe to rarifie water into ayre or incinerate Combustible mater Clay in the potters hand and wood in the grauers are in the workemans power to forme at his pleasure Indifferent to all shapes So is the efficient cause in the minde of the Artist But after one forme induced there is no place for any other without destroiing the first So Nature though not abridged and so short tyed as mechanisme before the specificall perfection of any thing is free to any thing For things perfected haue attained the last determinate end of their possibility and therein naturall motion tending to generation doth cease But the seedes and spermatical substances haue not attained any end or perfection neither be out of thelatitude of indetermination indefinitenesse and therfore are in the power of the predominant causes to produce such effects as answere them which be most vniuersall most generall such as before are spoken of and declared This in any forme meerely artificiall cannot be because the matter in which art worketh hath no internall cause actiue neither power nor appetite naturall to the effects of art but lyeth there like a peripatetick priuation and all resteth in the braine and hand of the Workman externall and forreine to the matter It may be obiected and commonly is That of any seede or spermaticall matter nothing can naturally bee produced or bred but a body of that kind or species of which the seed is and that therefore God in the seuerall blessings of his seuerall creatures commaunded euery one to increase and multiply in his owne kinde But heerein we condemne the shallownes of vnderstanding and besotted reason which regarding onely things at hand and the first face looke no further Generally any seed groweth to a perfection of life being receiued in any neere matrice of his own next Genus though this thing so produced be not specificall to any kind either of male or female And this is of the naturall power of causes subalternately generall But this is against the end of specificall nature euer intending the preseruation of the species and so the generation of things like in specie that may haue the like power of propagation in their owne kind which is not onely according to the naturall law but also according to the commaundement So for preseruation of families the Iewes had a commaundement in what Tribe and stocke to marrie Yet if they married contrarie to that commandement there were children borne So for chastitie and preseruation of families adulterie is forbidden Yet there be whole generations of adulterous mixture according to the naturall gift though with breach of the morall law The seede of man receiued into his proper matrice can naturally produce nothing but man except in certaine causes of superfetation vnequalitie c. Yet these bee called vnnaturall errours c. and so they bee beeing compared to the finall intent But beeing in the matrice of some other Animall there is formed a Monster no man Partus exparte sequitur ventrem So in all other Animals else we should bee more full of Asses want Mules Hence commeth the prouerb Africasemper aliquid apportat noui The like we see in Vegetables both in grafts seedes which for the most part are in the hands of the husbandman and gardener to alter at their pleasure For as it is true that nature doth produce seede and spermaticall substances so it is most certaine that the hand of man may ioyne them together in any other matrice then that by which they are specificated or if they be hermaphroditicall plant them in like sort in any other matrice And beeing so ioyned or planted nature will fall to worke and neuer cease vntill shee haue brought the matter to the last perfection possible for those causes to induce bee it more or lesse excellent then the species of the seede Instance of this is not so easily giuen in minerals because their spermaticall matter is not so familiar amongst vs. Yet a man painefull in search diligent in obseruing iudicious in reading industrious in practise may satisfie himselfe therein Excellent things bee farthest from sense and therefore more difficult In the creation there is no mention made of Minerals But they bee afterwards named for the riches of some of the countries diuided by the riuers flowing out of Eden And in the whole Scriptures verie little is taught of their originall and that verie darkely This is the chiefe sweate and labour wherein man eateth his naturall bread It is somwhere said Out of much earth is turned a little gold But if wee can finde out their material element it will be no hard matter to know their next seedie substance All things that are of the earth shall turne to earth againe Ecles 40. â—â— and
they that are of the waters shall returne into the sea In Iob it is briefly toucht yet more plainly then elswhere in one continued place The dead things are formed vnder the waters Job 26.5 or neere vnto them This sheweth truely the materiall element of the purest minerals 〈◊〉 8.1 And againe The siluer hath his veine and the gold his place where they take it Iron is taken out of the dust and brasse is moulten out of the stone God putteth an end to darknesse and hee trieth the perfection of all things He setteth a bound of darkenesse and of the shadow of death The floud breaketh out against the inhabitant and the waters forgotten of the foote being higher then man are gone away The stones thereof are a place of saphires and the dust of it is gold There is a path which no fowle hath knowne neither hath the Kytes eyeseene the Lyons whelpes haue not walked it neither the Lions passed thereby Hee putteth his handes vpon the rockes and his eye seeth euerie precious thing He bindeth the flouds that they doe not ouerflow and the thing that is hid bringeth to light But where is wisedome found and where is vnderstanding c. Not prophaning the diuine application and sense of this place consider as a chimicall natural Philosopher in these verses what is ment by dead things waters veine place darknesse shaddow of death floud inhabitant bread fire turned vp dust vnknowne path Kites eye Lions whelpe Lyon Rockes Mountaines and then you may boast that you know the beginnings spermaticall substance and true generation of mettals And for your better helpe in this search take with you one thing out of Paracelsus beleeue it as an article of your naturall creede Heate is life and cold is cause of death The effect of heate and life is opennesse of the body and fluidnes congelation and immobilitie is of cold and death Whatsoeuer tinckteth into a white colour hath the nature of life and the property of light and power causing life on the other side whatsoeuer tinkteth into blacknesse or maketh blacke communicateth in nature with death and hath the nature of darkenesse and power to kill The coagulation and fixation of this corruption is the earth with his coldnes The house is euer dead but that which dwelleth therein liueth But to proceede in our intent wee seeke not to make or haue produced by nature single or helped by the hand of her seruant art any such irregular monster as is contrarie to any law or commandement in the assertion of vnitie or against the naturall and shamefaced chastitie of naturall specifications as by the issue shall appeare We search a substance of naturall equalitie of Iustice exalted in Hermaphroditicall fruitfulnesse of it selfe aboue the three forenamed kindes that it may bee to euery of them generally applicable and with their indiuiduals be made specificall to all and each wherein wee offer no vnhallowed violence to any thing And therefore wee say As it is not perpetually necessarie that the thing produced must euer answer the kinde of that whose seede it was but may be and often is traduced particularly as is said So also is it as infalliblie true that of a spermaticall matter may bee made naturally a transcendent vniuersall and generall substance Genus generum and Forma formarum of such propertie vertue and efficacie as hath beene spoken of And this resteth for vs further to prooue CAP. 11. IN euery of the three kinds whereof wee speake Animals Vegetables and Minerals this thing must bee sought But we must resolue of the neerest It is easier for nature to make aire of water then of earth And the caruer chooseth not the whole truncke to make his images but a peece of timber fit and readie squared where there is no superfluitie but that which filles vp the hollownesse which hee is to engraue No defect but of the forme which hee must make c. In each of these three kindes there bee considerable The whole entire or integrall perfected indiuidualles Their partes Their vnprofitable excrements their spermes and spermaticall substance Against all which Nature in this work doth wholly except sauing onely sperme or spermaticall substance The whole body is concluded vnder all the confluence of specification and Nature hath therein done all that she intended and so motion ceaseth as before said in the next precedent Chapter The like reason is of partes In excrements many haue either beene mired or drowned altogether with what successe themselues best know with what reason other men can iudge though neuer taught by ill sauoured experience The elementall proportion of euery thing is knowne onely to Nature not to man Wee must neither part nor ioyne but continue the application of Natures instruments vntill all the Elements appeare to our sight cleane in or vnder one Element For then hath Nature in that one Element weighed and measured all the Elements whereby their specificall Nature is wholly changed from that which it first was into a generall substance If the foundation of this building bee laide vpon offals and excrements which haue no vse but for the draft and cannot bee handled without offence of nature nor spokē of without a Preface of reuerēce surely we are inclosed in an il fauored straight That which is vnfit for norishment of others vnwholsom to the body wherein it is conteined intended of Nature to no other vse but that which it hath already attained excrementitious not onely to the body from whence by excretion it is cast but euen in it selfe in temperament and digestion shall such a scorne of all things bee the cheefe flower in Natures Garland or beare the key of her treasury What though such a matter bee full of strong spirits able to poyson a man or choak a dogge that vrgeth nothing for we hope to bee beholders of great wonders without perfumes or need of much water to wash Nature loues cleanlinesse because God hath made nothing profitable for man to the attaining whereof he shal be compelled to any dishonest or vnseemely thing It importeth not what constructions bee made in this behalfe from the shadowes of good Writers nor what Orator this opinion hath he teacheth nothing but the old repentance of yong men Beleeue him not though he haue fiue hundred on his side So for vs there is nothing left but the seminall matter in some of the three kindes For the more simple the composition of any thing is the neerer it is to the first causes and communicateth more aboundantly with the generall beginnings of all things because subalternate causes authors of specificatiō be fewer But the sperme or seede of euery thing Animal Vegetable Mineral is more simple in composition and tyed with fewer subalternate causes of specification then the body or perfect indiuiduall whose seed it is And therefore euery seede is neerer the first causes and communicateth more abundantly with the generall beginning c. And of such a