so compact but every Sophister concludes it is no Simple but shee is so much One that no man believes she is more Shee yeelds to nothing but Love for her End is Generation and that was never yet perform'd by Violence Hee that knows how to wanton and toy with her the same shall receive all her Treasures First shee shedds at her Nipples a thick heavy water but white as any snow The Philosophers call it Virgin-milk Secondly she gives him Bloud from her very heart it is a quick heavenly fire some impioperly call it their sulphur Thirdly and lastly shee presents him with a secret Chrystall of more worth and lustie than the white Rock and all her Rosials This is shee and these are her Favours Catch her if you can To this Character and Discoverie of my owne I shall adde some more Descriptions as I find her â—imm'd and drest by her other Lovers Some few but such as knew her very well have written that shee is not onely One and Tirce but withall Foure and Five and this Truth is Essentiall The Titles they have bestowed upon her are divers They call her their Catholic Magnesia and the Sperme of the World out of which all Naturall things are generated Her Birth say they is Singular and not without a miracle her Complexion heavenly and different from her Parents Her Body also in some sense is Incorruptible and the Common Elements cannot destroy it neither will shee mix with them Essentially In the outward shape or figure shee resembles a stone and yet is no stone for they call her their white Gum and Water of their Sea water of Life most pure and most blessed water and yet they minde not water of the Clouds or rain-Rain-water nor water of the Wel nor Dew but a certain thick permanent saltish water a water that is drie and wetts not the hand a viscous slimie water generated out of the saltish fatnesse of the Earth They call her also their twofold Mercurie and Azoth begotten by the Influences of two Globes Coelestiall and Terrestriall Moreover they affirme her to bee of that Nature that no fire can destroy her which of all other Descriptions is most true for shee is fire her self having in her a portion of the universall fire of Nature and a secret Coelestiall spirit which spirit is animated and quickened by God himself wherefore also they call her their most blessed stone Lastly they say shee is a middle nature between thick and thin neither altogether Earthy nor altogether Firie but a mean aereall substance to bee found every where and every time of the year This is enough but that I may speak something my self in plain Termes I say shee is a very salt but extreme soft and somewhat thin and fluid not so hard not so thick as common extracted Salts for shee is none of them nor any kind of Salt whatsoever that man can make Shee is a sperme that Nature her self drawes out of the Elements without the help of Art man may find it where Nature leaves it it is not of his office to make the sperme nor to extract it it is already made and wants nothing but a Matrix and heat convenient for Generation Now should you consider with your selves where Nature leaves the seed and yet many are so dull they know not how to work when they are told what they must doe Wee see in Animal Generations the sperme parts not from both the Parents for it remaines with the Female where it is perfected In the great world though all the Elements contribute to the Composure of the sperme yet the sperme parts not from all the Elements but remaines with the Earth or with the Water though more immediatly with the one than with the other Let not your Thoughts feed now on the Phlegmatic indigested Vomits of Aristotle look on the green youthfull and flowrie Bosome of the Earth Consider what a vast Universall Receptacle this Element is The Starrs and Plarets over-look her and though they may not descend hither themselves they shed down their golden Locks like so many Bracolets and Tokens of their Love The Sun is perpetually busie brings his Fire round about her as if he would sublime something from her bosom and rob her of some secret inclosed Jewell Is there any thing lost since the Creation Would'st thou know his very bed and his pillow It is Earth How many Cities dost thou think have perished by the Sword how many by Earth-quakes and how many by the Deluge Thou doest perhaps desire to know where they are at this present believe it they have one common Sepulcher what was once their Mother is now their Tombe All things return to that place from whence they came and that very place is Earth If thou hast but leasure run over the Alphabet of Nature examine every Letter I mean every particular Creature in her Booke What becomes of her Grasse her Corne her Herbs her Flowers True it is both Man and beast doe use them but this onely by the way for they rest not till they come to Earth again In this Element they had their first and in this will they have their last station Think if other Vanities will give thee leave on all those Generations that went before thee and anticipate all those that shall come after thee Where are those Beauties the Times past have produced and what will become of those that shall appear in future Ages They will all to the same ' Dust they have one Common house and there is no Familie so numerous as that of the Grave Doe but look on the Daily sports of Nature her Clouds and mists the Scaeue and Pageantrie of the Aire Even these Momentary Things retreat to the Closet of the Earth If the Sun makes her drie shee can drink as fast what gets up in Cloudes comes down in Water the Earth swallows up ail and like that Philosophicall Dragon eats her own Tayle The wise Poets saw this and in their mysticall language call'd the Earth Saturne telling us withall shee did feed on her own Children Verily there is more Truth in their stately Verse than in Aristotle's dull Prose for hee was a blinde beast and Malice made him so But to proceed a little further with you I wish you to concoct what you reade to dwell a little upon Earth not to fly up presently and admire the Meteors of your own Braines The Earth you know in the Winter time is a dull dark dead Thing a contemptible frozen phlegmatick Lump But towards the Spring and Fomentation of the Sun what rare Pearles are there in this Dung-hill what glorious Colours and tinctures doth she discover a pure eternall green overspreads her and this attended with innumerable other Beauties Roses red and white golden Lilies Azure Violets the Bleeding Hyacinths with their severall coelestiall odours and Spices If you will be advised by me Learn from whence the Earth hath these invisible Treasures This Annuall
Dreame which his own Sorcerers and Wizards could not interpret but Joseph alone expounded it Verily it cannot be denyed but some Branches of this Art though extremely corrupted were dispers'd among all Nations by Tradition from the first man and this appeares by more Testimonies than one For in the Land of Canaan before ever Israel possest it Debir which Athniel the son of Kenaz conquered was an Universitie at least had in it a famous Librarie wherefore the Jewes call'd it Kiriath-Sepharim I might speak in this place of the Universalitie of Religion for never yet was there a people but had some confused Notion of a Deitie though accompanied with Lamentable Ceremonies and Super stitions Besides the Religious of all Nations have alwaies praetended to Powers Extraordinarie even to the performance of Miracles and the healing of all Diseases and this by some secret meanes not known to the common Man and verily if wee examine all Religions whether false or true wee shall not find one but it praetends to something that is Mysticall Certainly if men be not resolved against Reason they must grant these Obliquities in matters of Faith proceeded from the Corruption of some Principles received as we see that Heretics are but so many false Interpreters but not withstanding in those very Errors there remained some Marks and Imitations of the first Truth Hence comes it to passe that all parties agree in the Action but not in the Object For Example Israel did Sacrifise and the Heathen did Sacrifise but the One to God the other to his Idol Neither were they onely Conformable in some Rites and Solemnities of Divinitie but the Heathens also had some Hints left of the Secret Learning and Philosophie of the Patriarchs as wee may see in their false Magic which consisted for the most part in Astrologicall Observations Images Charmes and Characters But it is my Designe to keep in the Rode not to follow these Deviations and misfortunes of the Art which notwithstanding want not the weight of Argument the Existence of Things being proved as well by their Miscariage as by their Successe To proceed then I say that during the Pilgrimage of the Patriarchs this Knowledge was delivered by tradition from the Father to his Child and indeed it could be no otherwise for what was Israel in those Dayes but a privat Familie Notwithstanding when God appointed them their Possession and that this private house was multiplied to a Nation then these secrets remained with the Elders of the Tribes as they did formerly with the Father of the Familie These Elders no doubt were the Moysaicall Septuagint who made up the Sanhedrim God having Selected some from the rest to be the stewards and Dispensers of his Mysteries Now that Moses was acquainted with all the abstruse Operations and Principles of Nature is a Truth I suppose which no man will resist That the Sanhedrim also participated of the same Instruction and Knowledge with him is plain out of Scripture where wee read That God took of the spirit that was in Moses and gave it to the Seventy But lest any Man should deny that which wee take for granted namely the Philosophie of Moses I shall demonstrate out of his own Books both by reason as also by his practice that hee was a Natural Magician First of all then it is most absurd and therefore improbable that hee should write of the Creation who was no way skill'd in the Secrets of God and Nature both which must of necessitie be known before wee should undertake to write of the Creation But Moses did write of it Ergo Now I desire to know what hee hath written Truth or a Lie if Truth how dare you denie his Knowledge if a Lie which God forbid why will you believe him You will tell mee perhaps he hath done it onely in general Termes and I could tell you that Aristotle hath done no otherwise but think you in good earnest that hee knew no more than what hee did write There is nothing you can say in this point but wee can disprove it for in Genesis he hath discovered many particulars and especially those Secrets which have most Relation to this Art For Instance hee hath Discovered the Minera of Man or that Substance out of which Man and all his fellow-Creatures were made This is the first matter of the Philosophers stone Moses calls it sometimes Water sometimes Earth for in a certain place I read thus And God said Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving Creature that hath life and Fowle that may fly above the Earth in the open Firmament But elsewhere wee read otherwise And out of the Ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every fowle of the Aire In this later Text hee tels us that God made every fowle of the Ayre out of the Ground but in the former it is written hee made them out of the Water Certainly Aristotle and his Organ can never reconcile these two places but a little skill in Magic will mak them kisse and be friends without a Philtre This substance then is both Earth and Water yet neither of them in their Common Complexions but it is a thick water and a subtil Earth In plain termes it is a slimie spermatic viscous Masse impraegnated with all powers Coelestiall and terrestriall The Philosophers call it Water and no Water Earth and no Earth and why may not Moses speak as they doe or why may not they write as Moses did This is the true Damascen Earth out of which God made man you then that would be Chimists seem not to be wiser than God but use that subiect in your Art which God himself makes use of in Nature He is the best workman and knowes what matter is most fit for his work hee that will imitate him in the Effect must first imitate him in the Subject Talk not then of Flint-stones and Antimonie they are the Poets Pin-dust and Egshells Seek this Earth this Water But this is not all that Moses hath written to this purpose I could cite many more Magicall and mysticall places but in so doing I should be too open wherefore I must forbeare I shall now speak of his Practice and truly this is it which no Distinction nor any other Logicall Quibble can wave nothing but Experience can refell this Argument and thus it runs And Moses took the Calf which they had made and burnt it in the fire and grinded it to powder and strewed it vpon the water and made the Children of Israel drink of it Certainly here was a strange kind of Spice and an Art as strange as the Spice it self This Calf was pure gold the Israelites having contributed their Eare-rings to the Fabric Now would I gladly know by what meanes so solid and heavie a Body as Gold may bee brought to such a light powder that it may bee sprinkl'd on the face of the water and afterwards drunk up I am sure
here was Aurum potabile and Moses could never have brought the Calf to this passe had he not plowed with our Heyfer But of this enough if any man think hee did it by common fire let him also doe the like and when he hath performed hee may sell his powder to the Apothecaries If I should insist in this place on the Moysaicall Ceremoniall Law with its severall Reverend shadows and their Significations I might lose my self in a Wilderness of Mysteries both Divine and Naturall For verily that whole System is but one vast Skreen or a certain Majestic Umbrage drawne over two Worlds Visible and Invisible But these are things of a higher speculation than the Scope of our present Discourse will admit of I onely informe the Reader that the Law hath both a shell and a Kernell it is the Letter speaks but the spirit in erprets To this agrees Gregorie Nazianzen who makes a twofold Law {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} one literal another spirituall And elsewhere hee mentions {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the hidden and the manifest part of the Law the manifest part saith he being appointed {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} for many men and such whose thoughts were fixed here below but the hidden {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} for few onely whose Mindes aspired upwards to heavenly Things Now that the Law being given might benefit the people in both parts spiritual and literal therefore did the Law-giver institute the Sanhedrim a Councell of Seventy Elders upon whom hee had poured his Spirit that they might discerne as Esdras did the Deep Things of the Night in plain Termes the hidden things of his Law From these Elders the Cabala I believe had its Originall for they imparted their Knowledge by word of Mouth to their Successors and hence it came to passe that the Science it self was styl'd Cabala that is a Reception This continued so long as Israel held together but when their Frame began to discompose and the Dilapidations of that House proved desperat then Esdras a Prophet Incomparable notwithstanding the brand of Apocrypha writ that Law in Tables of Box which God himself had sometimes written in Tables of stone As for the more secret and mysterious part thereof it was written at the same time in Seventy Secret Bookes according to the Number of the Elders in whose hearts it had been sometimes written And this was the very first time the Spirit married the Letter for these Sacraments were not trusted formerly to Corruptible Volumes but to the aeternall Tables of the Soul But it may bee there is a blind Generation who will believe nothing but what they see at hand and therefore will deny that Esdras compos'd any such Bookes To these Owles though an unaequal Match I shall oppose the Honour of Picus who himself affirmes that in his time hee met with the Secret Bookes of Esdras and bought them with a great Price Nor was this all for Eugenius Bishop of Rome order'd their Translation but hee dying the Translators also fell asleep It is true indeed something may be objected to mee in this place concerning the Cabala An Art which I no way approve of neither doe I condemne it as our Adversaries condemne Magic before I understand it for I have spent some yeares in the S̄earch and Contemplation thereof But why then should I propose that for a Truth to others which I accompt for an Error my self To this I answer that I condemne not the true Cabala but the Inventions of some dispersed wandring Rabbies whose braines had more of Distraction than their fortunes of this thirteenth Tribe I understand the Satyrist when hee promiseth so largely Qualiacunque voles Judaei Somnia vendunt These I say have produc'd a certain up-start bastard Cabala which consists altogether in Alphabeticall knacks ends alwayes in the Letter where it begins and the Vanities of it are grown Voluminous As for the more Ancient and Physicall Traditions of the Cabala I embrace them for so many Sacred Truths but verily those Truths were unknown to most of those Rabbins whom I have seen even to Rambam himself I mean Rabbi Moses AEgyptius whom the Jewes have so magnified with their famous Hyperbole A Mose ad Mosen non surrexit sicut Moses But to deale ingenuously with my Readers I say the Cabala I admit of consists of two parts {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Name and Thing The former part is meerly Typicall in reference to the later Serving only as the shadow to the substance I will give you some instances The Literal Cabala which is but a Veile cast over the Secrets of the Physicall hath Three Principles commonly styl'd Tres Matres or the Three Mothers In the Masculine Complexion the Jewes call them {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Emes in the Foeminine {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Asam and they are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} aleph {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} mem {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} schin Now I will shew you how the Physical Cabala expounds the Literall Tres Matres {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Emes saith the great Abraham or as some think Rabbi Akiba id est Aer Aqua I gnis Aqua Quieta I gnis sibilans Aer spiritus medius That is the Three Mothers Emes or Aleph Mem and Schin are Aire Water and Fire a still Water mark that a hissing Fire and Aire the middle Spirit Again sayth the same Rabbi Tres Matres {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Emes in Mundo Aer Aqua Ignis Coeli ex Igne Creati sunt Terra ex Aquá Aer egressus est ex spiritu qui stat medius The Three Mother Emes in this world are Ayre Water and Fire The Heavens were made of the Fire The Earth was made of the Water mark well this Cabalism and the Ayre proceeded from a middle spirit Now when the Cabalist speaks of the Generation of the Three Mothers he brings in Ten secret Principles which I think ten men have not understood since the Sanhedrim such Non-sence doe I find in most Authors when they undertake to discourse of them The first Principle is a Spirit which sits in Retrocessu suo fontano in his primitive Incomprehensible Retreats like Water in its Subterraneous Chanel before it springs The Second Principle is the Voice of that first Spirit this breaks forth like a Well-spring where the Water flowes out of the Earth and is discovered to the eye They call it Spiritus ex Spiritu The third Principle is Spiritus ex Spiritibus a Spirit which proceeds both from the first Spirit and from his Voice The Fourth Principle is Aqua de Spiritu a Certain Water
stone which is a Body aereal and volatil cold and moyst watrie and adustive and in it is Heat and Drought Coldnesse and Moysture one virtue inwardly the other outwardly Belus the Philosopher in that famous and most Classic Synod of Arisleus inverts the order to conceale the practice but if rightly understood he speaks to the purpose Excelsum sayth hee est hoc apud Philosophos magnos Lapidem non esse lapidem apud I diotas vile Incredibile Quis enim credet Lapidem Aquam Aquam Lapidem fieri cum nihil sit diver sius Attamen revera it a est Lapis enim est haec ipsaper manens Aqua dum Aqua est lapis non est Amongst all great Philosophers it is Magisterial that our stone is no stone but amongst Ignorants it is ridiculous and incredible For who will believe that water can be made a stone and a stone water nothing being more different than these two And yet in very truth it is so For this very permanent water is the stone but whiles it is water it is no stone But in this sense the Ancient Hermes abounds and almost disvocers too much Scitote Filii Sapientum quod priscorum Philosophorum aquae est Divisio quae dividit ipsam in Alia quatuor Know saith hee you that are the Children of the wise the Separation of the ancient Philosophers was performed upon water which Separation divides the water into other foure Substances There is extant a very learned Author who hath written something to this purpose and that more openly than any whom we have formerly cited Sicuti Mundus Originem debet Aquae cui Spiritus Domini incubabat rebus tà m Coelestibus quà m Terrestribus omnibus indè prodeuntibus ita Limbus hic emergit ex Aquâ non vnlgari neque ex Rore Coelesti aut ex aere Condensato in Cavernis Terrae vel in Recipiente ipso non ex Abysso Maris fontibus puteis fluminibusvè hausto sed ex Aquâ quadam perpessâ omnibus obviâ paucissimis cognitâ Quae in se habet quaecunque ad totius operis Complementum sunt necessaria omni amoto Extrinsico As the world saith hee was generated out of that Water upon which the Spirit of God did move all things proceeding thence both Coelestiall and Terrestriall So this Chaos is generated out of a certain Water that is not common not out of Dew nor Ayre condensed in the Caverns of the Earth or Artificially in the Receiver not out of water drawn out of the Sea Fountains Pitts or Rivers but out of a certain tortured water that hath suffered some Alteration obvious it is to All but known to very few This water hath all in it that is necessarie to the perfection of the work without any Extrinsecal Addition I could produce a Thousand Authors more but that were tedious I shall conclude with one of the Rosie Brothers whose Testimonie is AEquivalent to the Best of These but his Instruction far more Excellent His Discourse of the first Matter is somewhat large and to avoyd prolixitie I shall forbeare the Latin but I will give thee his Sense in punctuall plaine English I am a Goddesse saith hee speaking in the person of Nature for Beauty and Extraction famous born out of our own proper Sea which compasseth the whole Earth and is ever restlesse Out of my Breasts I poure forth Milk and Bloud Boyle these two till they are turned into Silver and Gold O most excellent Subject out of which all things in this world are generated though at the first sight thou art Poyson adorn'd with the name of the flying Eagle Thou art the first Matter the seed of Divine Benediction in whose Body there is Heat and Rain which notwithstanding are hidden from the wicked because of thy Habit and virgin vestures which is scatter'd over all the world Thy Parents are the Sun and Moone in Thee there is Water and Wine Gold also and Silver upon Earth that mortall man may rejoyce After this manner God sends us his Blessing and Wisdome with Raine and the Beams of the Sun to the eternall Glory of his Name But consider ô Man what Things God bestows upon thee by this means Torture the Eagle till shee weeps and the Lion bee weakened and bleed to death The Bloud of this Lion incorporated with the Teares of the Eagle is the Treasure of the Earth These Creatures use to devoure and kill one another but notwithstanding their love is mutuall and they put on the Proprietie and Nature of a Salamander which if it remains in the fire without any detriment it cures all the Diseases of Men Beasts and Metals After that the Ancient Philosophers had perfectly understood this Subject they diligently sought in this Mysterie for the Center of the Middlemost Tree in the Terrestrial Paradyse entring in by Five litigious Gates The first Gate was the Knowledge of the true Matter and here arose the first and that a most bitter Conflict The second was the Praeparation by which this matter was to bee praepared that they might obtain the Embers of the Eagle and the Bloud of the Lyon At this Gate there is a most sharp fight for it produceth water and bloud and a Spirituall bright Body The Third Gate is the Fire which conduceth to the Maturitie of the Medicine The Fourth Gate is that of Multiplication and Augmentation in which Proportions and Weights are Necessarie The fifth and last Gate is Projection But most glorious full rich and high is hee who attains to the fourth Gate for hee hath got an Universall Medicine for all Diseases This is that great Character of the Book of Nature out of which her whole Alphabet doth arise The fifth gate serves onely for Metals This Mysterie existing from the Foundation of the World and the Creation of Adam is of all others the most ancient a knowledge which God Almighty by his Word breathed into Nature a miraculous power the blessed fire of Life the Transparent Carbuncle and red Gold of the Wise men and the Divine Benediction of this life But this mysterie because of the Malice and wickednesse of men is given onely to few notwithstanding it lives and moves every day in the sight of the whole world as it appears by the following parable I am a poysonous Dragon present every where and to bee had for nothing My water and my fire dissolve and Compound out of my body thou shalt draw the Green and the Red Lyon but if thou doest not exactly know mee thou wilt with my Fire destroy thy five Senses A most pernieious quick poyson comes out of my Nostrils which hath been the Destruction of many Separate therefore the Thick from the Thin artificially unlesse thou dost delight in extreme Povertie I give thee faculties both Male and Female and the Powers both of Heaven and Earth The Mysteries of my Art are to bee performed magnanimously and with great Courage if thou
know it wee will teach you something not Common The Body of the Serpent tells you it is a fierie Substance for a Serpent is full of heat and fire which made the Egyptians esteem him Divine This appears by his quick motion without feet or finns much like that of the Pulse for his impetuous hot spirit shootes him on like a Squib There is also another Analogie for the Serpent renewes his youth so strong is his natural heat and casts off his old skin Truely the Matter is a very Serpent for shee renews her self a thousand wayes and is nèver a perpetuall Tenant to the same Forme The wings tell you this Subject or Chaos is Volatile and in the outward Complexion Arrie and Waterie But to teach you the most Secret Resemblance of this Hieroglyphic The Chaos is a certain Creeping Substance for it moves like a Serpent sine pedibus and truly Moses calls it not Water but Serpitura Aquae The Creeping of Water or a water that creepes Lastly the Knott on the Tayle Tells you this matter is of a most strong Composition and that the Elements are fast bound in it all which the Philophers know to be true by Experience As for the Assinitie of Inferiors with Superiors and their private Active Love which consists in certain Secret Mixtures of Heaven with the Matter their Opinion stands thus In the Vital fire of all Things here below The Sun say they is King In their Secret Water the Moon is Queen In their pure Aire the five lesser Planets rule and in their Central Hypostaticall Earth the fixed starrs For these Inferiors according to their Doctrine are Provinces or Thrones of those Superiors where they sit Regent and Paramont To speak plainly Heaven it self was originally extracted from Inferiors yet not so intirely but some portion of the Heavenly Natures remained still below and are the very same in Essence and Substance with the separated starrs and skies Heaven here below differs not from that above but in her Captivitie and that above differs not from this below but in her Libertie The one is imprisoned in the Matter the other is freed from the grossness and impurities of it but they are both of one and theÌ„same Nature so that they easily unite and hence it is that the Superior descends to the Inferior to visit and comfort her in this sickly infâ—ctious Habitation I could speak much more but I am in haste and though I were at leisure you cannot in Reason expect I should tell you all I will therefore decline these generall Principles to tell you something that makes for the AEgyptian Practice and proves them Philosophers adepted The first Monument I reade of to this purpose is that of Synesius a very learned intelligent man Hee found in the Temple of Memphis {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Bookes of stone and in those hard leaves these Difficult Instructions {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} That is One Nature delights in another One Nature overcomes another One Nature over-rules another These short lessons but of no small Consequence are fathered on the great Hostanes The Sâ—cond Monument is that admirable and most Magicall one mentioned by Barachias Abenesi the Arabian This also was a stone erected neere Memphis and on it this profound Scripture {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} That is Heaven Above Heaven Beneath Starres Above Starres Beneath All that is Above is also Beneath Understand this and bee Happy Under this were figur'd certain apposit Hieroglyphics and for a Close to all this Dedicatorie Subscription I find it onely in the Coptic Character but our Founts wanting that Letter I must give it you in the Greeke {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Isias the High Priest erected this to the Resident Gods in AEgypt And now though I formerly suspended the Authoritie of Irismegistus I might like the Italian produce his weapons Sfodrato but I love no Velitations and Truth is so brave it needs no Feather Quod est Superiùs sayd Hermes est sicut id quod est Inferiùs quod est Inferiùs est sicut id quod est superiùs This is his Mysterie and 't is great The Benefit that attends the Purchase is no losse habebis Gloriam totius Mundi All the Pomp and Splendor of the World shall bee Thine To this Language the Dialect of I sias doth so Echo these two like Euphorbus and Pythagoras might passe for Ono Coelum sursùm sayd he Coelum deorsum Astra sursùm Astra Deorsùm Omne quod sursùm omne id deorsum And then follows a reward for the Intelligent Haec cape faelicitare understand this and thou art fortunate Thou hast made thy self very happy This is enough to prove that Magic sometimes flourished in Egypt and no doubt but they received the Truth of it from the Hebrewes who lived amongst them to the terme of four hundred and thirtie years This is plain for their own Native Learning was meere Sorcerie and Witcheraft and this appears by the Testimonie of Moses who tells us their Magicians produc'd their Miracles by Inohantments And why I beseech you should this Instruction seem impossible For Joseph being married to Asenath daughter of Potipherah Priest of On some of the AEgyptian Priests and those likely of his own alliance might for that very Relation receive a better Doctrine from him But this is not all 〈…〉 d say of this Nation and their Secret 〈…〉 ing if I were dispos'd to bee their Mercurie There is not any I believe who praetend to Antiquitie or Philosophie but have seen that famous Monument which Paul the Third bestow'd on his Cardinal Petrus Bombus and was ever since called the Bembixe Table No doubt but the Hieroglyphics therein contained were they all reduced into Letters would make a Volume as ample as Mysterious But 't is not my Designe to comment on Mcmphis that were to make Brick and look out the straw withall AEgypt having no compleat Table but the World over which her Monuments are Scatter'd This place then was the Pitcher to the Fountain for they received their Mysteries immediatly from the Hebrewes but their Doctrine like their Nilus swelling above its private Chanel did at last over-run the Universe Jamblicus the Divine in that excellent Discourse of his de Mysterus tells us that Pythagoras and Plato had all their learning ex Columnis Mercurii out of the Pillars or Hieroglyphicall Monuments of Trisinegistus But the Ancient orpheus in his Poem de Verbo Sacro where hee speakes of God hath these words Nemo IlluÌ„ nisi Chaldao de Sanguine Quiddam Progenitus vidit None saith he hath ever seen God but a certaine Man descended of the Chaldaean Bloud Now this was Moses of whom it
wouldest have mee overcome the Violence of the Fire in which Attempt many have lost both their Labour and their Substance I am the Egg of Nature known onely to the Wise such as are pious and modest who make of mee a little world Ordain'd I was by the All-mighty God for men but though many desire mee I am given onely to few that they may relieve the poore with my Treasures and not set their mindes on Gold that perisheth I am call'd of the Philosophers Mercurie my husband is Gold Philosophicall I am the old Dragon that is present every where on the face of the Earth I am Father and Mother Youthfull and Ancient weak and yet most strong Life and Death Visible and Invisible Hard and Soft Descending to the Earth and Ascending to the Heavens most high and most low light and heavy In mee the Order of Nature is oftentimes inverted in Colour Number Weight and Measure I have in mee the light of Nature I am dark and bright I spring from the Earth and I come out of Heaven I am well known and yet a meer Nothing all Colours shine in mee and all Metals by the Beams of the Sun I am the Carbuncle of the Sun a most noble clarified Earth by which thou mayest turne Copper Iron Tin and Lead into most pure Gold Now Gentlemen you may see which way the Philosophers move they commend their Secret water and I admire the Teares of Hyanthe There is something in the Fansie besides Poetrie for my Mistris is very Philosophicall and in her Love a pure Platonio But now I think upon 't how many Rivals shall I procure by this Discourse Every Reader will fall to and some fine Thing may break her heart with Non-sense This Love indeed were meer Luck but for my part I dare trust her and â—est any man should mistake her for some things formerly named I will tell you truly what shee is She is not any known water whatsoever but a Secret Spormatic Moysture or rather the Venus that yeelds that moysture Therefore doe not you Imagine that shee is any crude phlegmatic thin water or shee is a fatt thick heavie slimie humiditie But lest you should think I am grown jealous and would not trust you with my Mistris Arnoldus de villanova shall speak for me hear him Ampliùs tibi dico quod nullo modo invenire potuimus nec similiter invenire potuerunt Philosophi aliquam rem perseverantem in igne nisi solam unctuosam Humiditatem Aqueam humiditatem videmus de facili evapor are Arida remanet ideo separantur quia non sunt Naturales Si autem eas humiditates consydereremus quae difficulter separantur ab his quae sunt Naturales non invenimus aliquas nisi unctuosas viscosas I tell thee further saith hee that wee could not possibly find neither could the Philosophers find before us any thing that would persist in the fire but onely the Unctnous Humiditie A waterie HUmiditie we see will easily vapour away and the Earth remains behind and the parts are therefore separated because their Composition is not natural But if wee consider those humidities which are hardly separated from those parts which are naturall to them wee find not any such but the unctuous viscous Humidities It will be expected perhaps by some Flint and Antimonie-Doctors who make their Philosophicall Contrition with a Hammer that I should discover this Thing out-right and not suffer this strange Bird-lime to hold their pride by the Plumes To these I say it is water of Silver which some have called water of the Moon but 't is Mercurie of the Sun and partly of Saturn for it is extracted from these three metalls and without them it can never bee made Now they may unriddle and tell me what it is for it is Truth if they can understand it To the Ingenuous and modest Reader I have something else to replie and I believe it will sufficiently excuse mee Raimund Lullie a man who had been in the Center of Nature and without all Question understood a great part of the Divine Will gives me a most terrible Charge not to prostitute these Principles Juro Tibi saith hee supra animam meam quod si ea reveles damnatus es Nam a Deo omne procedit bonum ei soli debetur Quare servabis Secretum tenebis illud quod ei debetur revelandum affirmabis quam per rectam proprietatem subtrahis quae eius honori debentur Quiae si revelares brevibus verbis illud quod longinquo tempore formavit in die magni Judicii condemnareris tanquam qui perpetrator existens contra Majestatem die laesam nec tibi remitteretur Casus Laesae Majestatis Talium enim Revelatio ad Deum non ad Alterum spectat That is I swear to thee upon my soule that thou art damn'd if thou shouldest reveale these Things For every good thing proceeds from God and to him onely it is due Wherefore thou shalt reserve and keep that Secret which God onely should reveale and thou shalt affirme thou doest justly keep back those things whose Revelation belongs to his honour For if thou shouldest reveale that in a few words which God hath been forming a long time thou shouldest be condemned in the great day of Judgement as a Traytor to the Majestie of God neither should thy Treason bee forgiven Thee For the Revelation of such Things belong to God and not to Man So sayd the wise Raymond Now for my part I have alwayes honoured the Magicians their Philosophie being both rational and Majestic dwelling not upon Notions but Effects and those such as confirme both the Wisdome and the power of the Creator When I was a meer Errant in their Books and understood them not I did believe them Time rewarded my Faith and payd my Credulitie with Knowledge In the Interim I suffer'd many bitter Calumnies and this by some envious Adversaries who had nothing of a Scholar but their Gownes and a little Language for Vent to their Non-sense But these could not remove mee with a Spartan patience I concocted my Injuries and found at last that Nature was Magicall not Peripateticall I have no Reason then to distrust them in Spirituall Things whom I have found so orthodox and faithfull even in Naturall Mysteries I doe believe Raymund and in order to that Faith I provide for my Salvation I will not discover that I may not be condemn'd But if this will not satisfie Thee who ever thou art let me whisper thee a word in the ear and afterwards doe thou proclaime it on the housetopps Doest thou know from whom and how that Sperme or Seâ—â— which men for want of a better name call the first matter proceeded A certain Illuminaâ—ce and in his daies a member of that Societie which some painted Buzzards use to laugh at writes thus Deus optimus Maximus ex Nikilo aliquid creavit illud Aliquid
the Death of the Compound Hence they wisely gathered that to minister Vegetables Animals or Minerals for Physic was a meer madness for even these also had their own Impurities and Diseases and required some Medicine to cleanse them Upon this Adviso they resolved God without all Question being their Guide to practise on the Chaos it self they opened it purified it united what they had formerly separated and fed it with a twofold Fire Thick and Thin till they brought it to the immortal Extreme and made it a spirituall heavenly Body This was their Physic this was their Magic In this performance they saw the Image of that face which Zoroaster calls Triadis Vultus ante Essentiam c. They perfectly knew the Secundea which contains all things in her naturally as God contains all things in himself spiritually They saw that the Life of all things here below was a Thick Fire or fire imprisoned and incorporated in a certaine incombustible Aereall moysture They found moreover that this fire was originally derived from Heaven and in this sense Heaven is styl'd in the Oracles Ignis Ignis Derivatio Ignis Penu In a word they saw with their Eyes that Nature was Male and Female Ignis ruber super Dorsum Ignis Candidi as the Cabalists expresse it A certain Fire of a most deep red Colour working on a most white heavy salacious Water which Water also is Fire inwardly but outwardly very cold By this practice it was manifested unto them that God himself was Fire according to that of Eximidius in Turba Omnium rerum Initium esse Naturam quandam eamque perpetuam infinitam omnia foventem Coquentemque The Beginning of all things sayth he is a Certain Nature and that eternall and infinite cherishing and heating all Things The truth is Life which is nothing else but Light and heat proceeded originally from God and did apply to the Chaos which is elegantly call'd by Zoroaster Fons fontium fontium cunctorum Matrix continens cuncta The Fountain of fountains and of all fountains The Matrix containing all Things Wee see by Experience that all Individuals live not onely by their own heat but they are preserved by the outward universal heat which is the life of the great world Even so truly the great world it self lives not altogether by that heat which God hath inclosed in the parts thereof but it is praeserved by the circumfused influent heat of the Deitie For above the Heavens God is manifested like an infinite burning world of Light and Fire so that hee overlooks all that he hath made and the whole Fabric stands in his heat and Light as a man stands here on Earth in the Sun-shine I say then that the God of Nature employes himself in a perpetuall Coction and this not onely to generate but to preserve that which hath been generated for his spirit and heat coagulat that which is Thin rarifie that which is too grosse quicken the dead parts and cherish the cold There is indeed one operation of heat whose method is vitall and far more mysterious than the rest they that have use for it must studie it I have for my part spoken all that I intend to speak and though my Book may prove fruitless to many because not understood yet some few may be of that Spirit as to comprehend it Amplae mentis ampla flamma sayd the great Chaldaean But because I will not leave thee without some Satisfaction I advise thee to take the Moone of the firmament which is a middle nature and place her so that every part of her may be in two Elements at one and the same time these Elements also must equally attend her Body not one further off not one neerer than the other In the regulating of these two there is a twofold Geometrie to be observed Natural and Aâ—tâ—ficial But I may speak no more The true Furnace is a little simple shell thou mayst easily carry it in one of thy hands The Glasse is one and no more but some Philosophers have used two and so mayst thou As for the work it self it is no way troublesome a Lady may reade the Arcadia and at the same time attend this Philosophie without disturbing her fansie For my part I think women are fitter for it than men for in such things they are more neat and patient being used to a small Chimistrie of Sack-possets and other finicall sugar-sops Concerning the Effects of this Medicine I shall not speak any thing at this time hee that desires to know them let him reade the Revelation of Paracelsus a Discourse altogether incomparable and in very truth miraculous And here without any partialitie I shall give my Judgement of honest Hohenheim I find in the rest of his workes and especially where hee falls on the stone a great many false Processes but his Doctrine of it in Generall is very sound The truth is hee had some Pride to the Justice of his Spleen and in many places hee hath err'd of purpose not caring what Bones hee threw before the Schoole-men for hee was a Pylot of Guadalcana and sayl'd sometimes in his Rio de la recriation But I had almost forgot to tell thee that which is all in all and it is the greatest Difficultie in all the Art namely the fire It is a close ayrie circular bright fire the Philosophers call it their Sun and the glasse must stand in the shade It makes not the matter to vapour no not so much as to sweat it digests onely with a still piercing vitall heat It is continuall and therefore at last alters the Chaos and corrupts it The Proportion and Regiment of it is very Scrupulous but the best rule to know it by is that of the Synod facite ne Easianus volet ante Insequentem Let not the Bird fly before the Fowler make it sit whiles you give fire and then you are sure of your Prey For a Cloze I must tell thee the Philosophers call'd this Fire their Balneum but it is Balneum Naturae a Naturall Bath not an Artificiall one for it is not any kind of Water but a certain subtill temperate moysture which compasseth the Glasse and feeds their Sun or Fire In a word without this Bath nothing in the world is generated Now that thou mayst the better understand what Degree of fire is requisit for the work consider the Generation of Man or any other Creature whatsoever It is not Kitchin fire nor feaver that works upon the Sperm in the Womb but a most temperate moyst natural heat which proceeds from the very life of the Mother It is just so here Our Matter is a most delicate Substance and tender like the Animal sperme for it is almost a living thing nay in very truth it hath some small portion of life for Nature doth produce some Animals out of it For this very reason the least violence destroyes it and prevents all generation for if it be over-heated but for