THE SEARCH OF CAUSES.  
CONTAINING A theophysical Investigation of the Possibility of Transmutatorie Alchemy.  
By Timothy Willis, Apprentice in Physic.  
LONDON Printed by JOHN LEGATT. 1616.   

To the Reader.  
THE cause of this Press, is rather compulsory, then voluntary: Indeed an extorted will, proceeding first from my facility in copies, and thereby from too much liberty in some: who of amanuensed transcripts (peradventure not perfect) gave me just suspicion of an ignorant exposing. Which to prevent, I have sent to the world's view this whatsoever, being occasioned by discourse and arguments at a supper between divers learned Gentlemen some years past. Myself am so little ambitious thereof, that I shall think it well if it scape without tax, specially virulent: having entertained no thought of reply to gainsayers. An incky Duel about natural opinables, should proceed like faults escaped in the printing.  
Mend and say nothing.   

The search of Causes, containing a theophysical Investigation of the possibility of Transmutatorie Alchemy.  

CAP. 1.  
THE knowledge of truth revealed unto the first friends of God, and by succession from them continued unto us their children, is more perfect than the wisdom of any Philosophy. Philosophers seek for, and require reason and necessary causes in all things. But we are taught and assured, that the beginning was without any such cause as they seek after, or we can comprehend. For nothing is more true, then that all things were made by an infinite power of an incomprehensible Creator, in that beginning of which we have no perfect knowledge. And because we are taught that so perfect a cause can do nothing not answerable to itself, we must believe that all his works be most perfect in absolute order of Number, Weight, and Measure: created, made, and preserved, in and under an unchangeable law of created Nature, answerable to the archety pall and chief exemplary cause of their being and preservation. Wherefore to understand so much, as our imperfection may comprehend, it is necessary that we consider the degrees of this excellent wisdom to and in his Creatures, whereby all things are, and continue: And how the essential causes depend and abide inviolably the same, unto the last determination of all time and times.   

CAP. 2.  
BEfore this creation there was nothing of this natural world, either in actual existence, or potentiallie: Neither Form, Matter; Spirit, Body; Substance, Accident; Time, Place; Order, Confusion; Positive, Privative; Absolute, Relative; Abstract, Concrete; Agent, Patient; Negation, or Affirmation: But one only the Ineffable and Incomprehensible jah; divine Essence, Eternal, without beginning or end, whose name then was, and in his abstract Essence ever shall be, I Am. And since the Creation as he is God the Creator and preserver, etc. Emanuel, God with us, which Us is man, containing in him somewhat by proportion from the Son of God and man, and from Angels, to the insensible Centre of the earth.   

CAP. 3.  
THe difference or distance between Being and absolute not being, is infinite: And therefore cannot be mediate, or filled, but by an infinite Power: But there is nothing infinite in Power, saving only the uncreated Power without beginning or ending. Of whose counsels we may not require cause or reason, because they exceed reason, and cannot by us be comprehended. This power because it is infinite, is always the same without change. Wherefore it is simply without respect or relation Good and Goodness: from which all created Good and Goodness cometh, and on it dependeth. And this created Good and Goodness to itself and every particular creature is respective and relative. The first absolute Power infinite, and infinitely Good, with his will eternally decreed a creation: and with his infinite action and spirit effected the same: Infinite in the Creator, though determined and finite in the Creature, Ad modum Recipientis. So we find in this workmanship of the Almighty three causes, which are a rule, intellectual and ideal law, in and to the creature: Power, Will, Spirit, being three coessential in one God, and three distinct in the Creature concerning his operations, though one in the universality of their subject, much more in the cause whereon they depend. For what Creature soever shall do any thing, must have Power to effect, Will to work, and instruments of action; which is Spirit, giving motion: and this is common to all creatures, under what degree of substance soever they be particularizied. For the Philosopher's power merely passive, concerneth only a supposition of natural disposition and appetite to a process, A non Ente tali ad ens tale. But except they will imagine it to be with privation of action in the patible or passive subject (which is absurd) they must needs grant this power to effect.   

CAP. 4.  
IN the history of the Creation we find thus. In the beginning God made heaven and earth, etc. as there followeth. Where note, that the word Deep, Abyssus, or Chaos, was that which is here called heaven and earth, being yet one confused heap or mass, undivided, without form, & void, overuailed with universal darkness; which darkness was not the privation of light, because no created or relative light had then been. 
2. Esdras, 6.39.  But without any voice the darkness was on every side with silence. From this matter, Time and Place only beginneth the search of reason, understanding, and created wisdom, unto which all Philosophy in the highest Metaphysics must be reduced. For no reason can be given, or investigation made of that which was not: And not any thing ever was, but in some time and place: which have no use but only to measure and contain. But before this beginning their neither was measure nor thing measured; Conteiner nor thing contained: And therefore no time, no place: But both had being and beginning in and with this creation, being themselves creatures, and concluded under the law of Nature: which here in this Reshith with them took beginning. I am not ignorant, that a late writer laboureth much about Principium increatum. In which he would have this dark and silent mother, the common womb, this Chaos of possibilities, this all changeable unformed to be and receive beginning; or more explicately to be with it Coaevall. But that is too Chaldaicall, and implieth an eternity and infinite forebeing of Matter, Time, and Place: which agreeth not with the infinite contradiction and contradictory predications of Deus, and Non Deus. And there is nothing definible, demonstrable, or consequent out of any principle of natural wisdom, which this beginning of Matter, Time, and Place do not as certainly aver, as the supposed eternity of them. Besides that it is more orthodoxal: Except his phrase and sentence can bear construction of that Word which was in and from the beginning; by which all things were made: And receive the construction of Saint Paulssermon to the Athenians. Now therefore let us see what rivers run from this sea, Conducts from this wellhead: and what principles of Philosophy we are necessarily tied unto by this most certain and true beginning of nature and natural causes. No doubt whatsoever is elsewhere necessarily or probably delivered, is either directly taken from hence, Or else is but a shadow of this substance, and a derivation of this light.   

CAP. 5.  
Every work and action of God, expressed or implied in his Creation, hath as a necessary cause produced some created effect, and established it under the law of Nature, with time still to continue. By his Power in the beginning he created that void and unformed Chaos, which because it was void & unformed, had power and ability alike to every thing or form. And because nature, that is the Creature, is the Image of the Creator, as being Relative to him; There is in it a natural will and appetite unto perfection, which is the natural Good and Goodness of every creature, which is manifested by distinction, in instruments, parts, etc. That the heavens may declare the glory of God, and all his works magnify his holy name. The third cause in the creature was yet wanting; that is, spirit, the formal cause of motion, in every Creature: which likewise answered his proper cause, distinct from the other, as is said in their effects relatively, but not in their universal subject, nor in the Prototypal being, whose Image they are: Three in One, and One in Three, or rather Trinity Coessential in Unity, and Unity in Trinity. The spirit of God moved upon the waters. The spirit moving upon the waters created in them spiritualness and natural motion, in such proportion as might most absolutely answer the excellency of the Creator's disposition, and harmony in the innumerable variety of all his particular creatures: and be a most sure ground to inform the contemplation of reason by exact dependence of effects upon their causes. The whole Chaos contained two parts, Water and Earth. In this there is diversity of position, above and beneath. The Water was above the Earth, & therefore lighter and more capable of activity; The Earth was under the waters, and therefore heavier & naturally more passable. The spirit moved upon the surface of the waters, which then thereby became more spiritual, active, & stirring: & from thence the other waters in that deep received their dower in the like virtues in proportion, even to those that were contiguall to the earth. The Earth in itself hath no power of spirit or motion, but mediately by the Waters: and that likewise in exact and graduated proportion, sufficient for the agreeing diversity of all bodies. This spiritualness or natural spirit being but potentially in the waters, could not in natural course (which God had now established) be acted but by a mean. The Spirit was moved, Motion breeds heat, Heat causeth rarefaction, or subtlety: & subtlety is the perfection of spirit in every kind: And of all spiritual things light is most subtle, 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 form, by this appeared the universal matter of all bodies, informed with light, the most universal of all forms. And as in the darkness nature travailed with the burden of this wonderful birth in her womb, and as it were sat hatching her eggs, so now in this light she was delivered of her first borne: and after disclosed her other chickens, form and well shaped, out of the shell of darkness. And here the waters were endowed with Spirit, Motion, Heat, and Light, as is aforesaid: which light was not actually in the inferior waters (as night's Mantle proveth:) But showing the nearness of water unto light by transparence, the easy reception of light, their easy rarefaction by the work of heat, the child of Spirit, do give good testimony of lights materiality. But this is not so proper to the universal light, of which we speak, by which the superior waters be continually illumined and illustred, without any shadow of the night of our less general time; yet it may serve in near similitude to illustrate. The next distinct Creature named the Expansion, Firmament, or Heaven (which a certain Wiseman calleth the heavenly Air) had in the very instant of his calling and creation an office appointed most general: To divide the waters above from the waters below. And here is no mention made of Air and Fire, but of Motion and Light, which are never without heat, the most proper passion or form of that which we commonly call Fire: Also of the upper Waters and their rarefaction, which agreeth with the Air of common Philosophy in the efficient and subject. But whether those names be proper or no, concerneth not this place: and I have elsewhere paradoxally handled. Of the substance & composition of heaven many heads have brought forth many horns: and arming their reasons with fantastical imaginations, have pushed at each other so long till they be all galled. It is sufficient for us to consider their use and office: that is, to divide the waters above from the waters below; and how being composed of the common Chaos, water and earth, more pure than things beneath them, less pure than things above them, they be solid, fixed, permanent, and as it were of an immortal substance, patible only by fire. 
job 37.18.  And therefore it is said, the heavens are strong and as a molten glass. For when the Spirit getteth the upper hand in a pure and clean body, and that body afterwards of the Spirit in the second conjunction, not by incrassation of the spirit but by subtilation of the body, the whole compound becometh quintessential: then all is permanent, and, as you would say, fixed spiritually. Then there is no natural 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 heaven above, the other a confused mass of earth and water, the corporalitie of all sublunary bodies. But that opinion seemeth to draw a tail after it of many absurdities & inconveniences: & that golden chain of Participation of Symbols, which linketh heaven and earth together, cannot abide two material principles of one creature. Neither can such duality subsist with that Talmudique mystery of light shining out of darkness, which is figuratively verbum Dei in nobis. Then there is no natural alteration nor corruption, but mens sana in corpore sano, a pure spirit in a perfect body. Next after the firmament and this division 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; darkness and light above, beneath; and divider, or mean between extremes, Water, Earth, Sea, Land; wet, dry, Motion, Rest, etc. Then in order followed, In the earth Vegetables, In heaven stars and their offices, In the water's Fish and Fowl: In the earth again sensibles, commonly called Brutes, or Irrationals: Lastly Man with appointment of meat for himself and all sensibles, except fishes.   

CAP. 6.  
IN the beginning the Waters contained all; were contained of none, but teemed in darkness. The heavens were of old; And the earth that was of the water, by the Word of God. Wherhfore the world that then was, perished by water. The heavens and earth which now are, be kept in store by the same Word unto 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 leaving in an immortal body, that which is pure, clean, and perfectible. In which triumph of the spirit all shall burn saving the perfect seed of them that scaped in the waters.  
For nothing that is unclean cometh to the last and second perfection of the fire, not having been washed and depured in the first of water. But how the earth was of water, whether by separation of the lower waters when the dry land appeared, or by subsidence of the heavier part of the Chaos in the rarefaction caused by the spirit moving, is a matter of great and necessary consequence: doubtless it was by both, as we see in depuring of liquors and Chemical extractions. And so the second world is of the dividing of fire, as in spagirical mysteries we may plainly see. This is true in that we seek after: which is more easy to understand if we consider that hea●e the form, or essentially inseparable from the form of fire, was made by the spirits moving upon the waters, and that the life and fuel of fire is aer. The waters as being most spiritual had the first ornament of distinction and form in all degrees: first light (which some think to comprehend Angels) and therefore fire. But that thought hath many great adversaries, and may imply matter of strong heresy, as though they had been Coadjutors, or agents in the following days of creation. Therefore they do best which understand the creation of Angels to be in the sixth day, in which man himself also was created: besides many other sound reasons. Then heaven followed the divider and mediator of the waters above from them beneath: next vegetables, etc. 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 heaven, had all their furniture of light, with the whole host of heaven, of innumerable stars and their offices. And lastly Angels a little before man. For though it be not defined when Angels were created; yet their residence being in heaven, and their Individualitie immortal, it cannot be doubted, that they were before and near the perfectest form 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 original light shall not perish nor suffer by fire, as all other things shall, even the heavens themselves. The heavens and earth which are kept by the same word in store, and reserved unto fire, etc. 
2. Pet. 3. Psa. 102.25  Thou hast laid the foundations of the earth, the heavens are the work of thine hands, they shall perish but thou shalt endure: Even they all shall wax old as doth a garment, as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed, 
2. Pet. 3.12. Eccl. 17.31.  etc. The heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the Elements shall melt with heat, etc. What is more clear than the Sun? yet it shall fail; Yea the heavens and stars though insensible be far more excellent than the sensible creatures of the earth, and inferior waters: Not concerning their form, but concerning their composition, perfect mixture, and pure matter of corporalitie: All which cause their permanent individualitie. Such is the substance of our question. The stars are unclean in his sight: How much more man even the Son of man, 
job 15.15.  which is but a worm? etc. The heavens are not clean in his sight, how much more Man? For man is of the earth. And heaven is the congregation of waters: In which they become fixed & permanent, which cannot be without the action of their spirit of light and fire. For though every one have their part of all four: Yet we find the earth and air patible, and as it were Nurses or rather Seminaries, and very wombs of corruption, diseases, and death: From which (not speaking of them in their regenerated bodies,) no sacrament either divine or natural is taken: And in, from, and by which all things both macrocosmical and microcosmical have their morbifical exhalations. But the other two, water, and fire, be the cleansers and natural renewers of all; which as they decay not in themselves, so do they preserve. For the fishes were not brought into the Ark, but were preserved in their own proper Element. And by the way we may observe one notable doctrine. That the more pure, clean, and subtle any thing is in the materiality of his primitive nature, the more irrevocable is the ruin and destruction, if it suffer violence above or beyond that number, weight, and measure in which it was created. So we see the fall of Angels eternally judged, and vitrified substance be irreducible. And this in natural things & natural causes is also true. But to proceed: after in the creation of sensible creatures the waters were first served with fish & souls, which are attributed and appropriated unto the waters, because air cometh by rarefaction of waters, and is extended under the hollow of heaven. Lastly was Man, being the Epitome and Abridgement of the whole Creation; and therefore rightly called Microcosmus, a little world: for whose use and service all other things were created: For the good or bad use whereof, he shall account to his and their Creator God Almighty. The order of proceeding herein, we see to be from the most simple and universal, to the most compound and special or particular. So sensibles are more compounded then vegetables, Man more than other sensibles; minerals less than vegetables: and all concerning their materiality, of the first Chaos, partakers of the essential corporality, which contained all in darkness.   

CAP. 7.  
IN this Chronicle of the creation, there is very excellently taught the condition of all Creatures, their composition, and state of their natural life. There are two corporal or bodied Elements, Earth and Water; of which all things under heaven are materially compounded: The spirit of life in every thing is his natural heat, joined therewith by the means of the air (which is here called the rarefied waters,) first created by the motion of the spirit, and made able to multiply itself in any fit and prepared subject. This heat is chief in the light, which was first brought out of the Chaos, and dwelleth in the rarefied waters, as in their proper subject. So the whole composition consisteth of four; two patiented and material respectively, inferior water and earth: two agent and formal respectively, superior water and heat, or light: which if we call air and fire in the compound, it shall be indifferent, for it matters not what names or words be used, so the thing be understood. These four Elements or parts of composition must be considered two ways; particularly, and generally. Considered particularly they ever concur to the composition of things corruptible: but generally, of things incorruptible. To which purpose let us consider; that there is a general light, made before the heavens: of and with which the Elements, and every elementary compound doth communicate more or less: and thereby hath in it some spark of incorruptibility, and possibility to attain it, according to the primitive natural predestination of his first creation; which also it might, and should enjoy, were it adapted to fit digestion, and fermentation of itself: where all the Elements should never cease from their circular labour until by equal proportion and temper that subject could no more be altered; of which there is some near example in Gold and precious stones.  
There is also a general Heaven, not made to distinguish times and seasons, but to divide, and to be as it were a Landmark between the Waters, (the interpretations of the Hebrew Maim, and the Comments of the Aerial Expansion may have their truth, not opposing this divisor:) which general heaven giveth general influence from the Waters above, by means of the general light, into the inferior Elements and elementary compounds, and also spiritual fixation: continuing and preserving the cause of their incorruptibility, being an active Spirit of life, able to work by digestion and fermentation as aforesaid.  
There is also a general and universal Time, and that of divers degrees. When the Chaos was created, Time was created with it. And as the matter of all things, being then in this Chaos, is incorruptible in itself, though diversly passable in his indefiniteness to all forms: so is that time with it created, in itself abstractively understood, undivided, though communicated unto Elements and Compounds, and measuring in them no other thing then the incorruptibility of their matter. Besides this, there is another general Time, measuring the general and incorruptible matter, which slept in unrevealed darkness. And as the first measureth in the Elements and elemental bodies the incorruptibility of the matter, so this measureth in them the same of their forms, to the preservation of one general form in one general matter of natural transcendence. The third general Time began with the Firmament; which time measureth the third order of natural Being from the Chaos; and the second order of distinction from the general light. That is the division of waters, and therefore it is in the first degree of composition, alterable by generation and corruption: for in it the four elements were perfected of all natural sublunary things. This time is the first of all, unto which our speculation reacheth, concerning the natural estate of things corruptible and generable: for the other two come nearer the last dissolution, when all things shall stand adorned in one light, or fall confused in one darkness. And these universal and incorruptible causes, Matter and Form, are really according to their natures in the elements and every compound; and either shall with them in their present estate continue unto the last possibility of their predestination, or alter them that they may so continue; or else being severed from them return to their proper place, under the commensuration of their proper time, till all things be restored in the incorruptible regeneration of an immortal spring. So is their particular matter and form separable, corruptible in respect of the composition; and measured by particular times, in which generations and corruptions do happen of all things thereunto subject. The particular light began with the Stars, and that of so many different effects, as there be varieties in their motion, receptions of light, irradiations, and whatsoever else in true Astronomy can be said of them. This is the particular beginning of time and times, and the proper measure of all specifications and particularities: Yet some would have the measure of specifications to be in the time of the unstarred heavens, and of particularities as is here said. It is no inconvenience to agree with them, both have their speculations, but agree in the issue of particularities. If it be objected, that this being true, vegetables be incorruptible, because they were created before this light, and time of the Stars; I say, it followeth not. For they are made of earth and inferior waters, earth being predominant, which imply matter and form separable, and by consequent corruptibility of the compound, not withstanding the concourse of the other two elements aforesaid. They were given for food to man, and all other animals (except Fishes) which were made after the Stars; and therefore do communicate in nature with them. And though they were made before the light and time of generations and corruptions, yet they were not then absolutely perfect. For neither had they then increased their species with succession of individuals, nor attained their last end in which all perfection is consummate: that is, to be meat for man and beasts, made in the light and times of generations. But therein we may note, that all things made before this time, being generable and corruptible, be in their generations hermaphroditical: and therein differ from the other more multitudinary and angulare. And from this place a good cabalist may gather something of the immortality of the flesh, and by consequent of resurrection: because their food is of that which in the first creation concerning time and light, is incorruptible; amongst which there is a tree of life. What then shall we say of meat and medicine made of that, which in creation precedes these, in his particular body is durable with the heavens, less compounded and angulare than any vegetable. But to return: moreover the earth and all things therein received the curse, and became hereunto subject by Adam's fall, and cannot without sweat and labour eat their bread, that is, enjoy the predestination of the spirit of life which is in them. But if they were helped and cherished by some matter like and connatural to that spirit of life, which they have of the universal light, and the upper waters measured by the universal time of the unstarred heaven; no doubt they might endure far beyond that time they now do, if peradventure not to the world's end: which in their present estate is impossible for many causes, and by reason hereditary corruption hath taken so great and deep root; as one (though to another end) saith; 
Damnosa quid non imminuit Dies?  
Aetes' Parentum, peior avis tulit  
Nos nequiores, mox daturos  
Progeniem vitiosiorem.   
Wherein the whole world, and every part thereof, have their part, both in quantity diminished, life shortened, natural virtues decayed, and generally in minority of all things that belong to their natural being or well being: and shall not be restored, until the general restoration of the universe. Say unto a woman which travaileth, 
2. Efdras. 5.52.  wherefore are not they whom thou hast now brought forth like those that were before thee, but less of stature? And she will answer thee, some were born in the flower of youth, others were borne in the time of age, when the womb failed: Consider now that ye are less of stature than those that were before you, and so are they that come after you less than they: as the Creatures which now begin to be old, and have passed over the strength of youth.   

CAP. 8.  
OF these two kinds of essential causes, general and particular, corruptible and incorruptible, all sublunary things consist and have their being and existence in matter and form, body and spirit. And are in possibility to such end, as naturally follow these beginnings, corruptible or incorruptible, transumtable or permanent. And nature naturally proceeding, ever intendeth the greatest natural perfection in all her works, and the preservation thereof. But because in the excellent ornament and beauty of God's glorious workmanship (consisting of innumerable variety of several species and perticularities in nature) all participate not alike, of the incorruptible causes, nor be alike tempered by the digestion of their compounding Elements, many things of necessity are of shorter continuance than other, more subject to change and corruption. This change & corruption, being properly the death of every particular body, cometh not by utter destruction or annihilation of any essential part, but is only a disorganizing of the spirits tenement, and a separating of these said parts, each returning to his place under the measure of general time. Neither do any of them so perish, but that their mortal immortality, under the said commensuration continuing unto the world's end, is manifest. For those things, which in their individual bodies have not this immortality (as we see the heavens, gold, & precious stones to have) are preserved here by succession, as it were of immortal seed. For all men came out of Adam's loins: And his substance by propagation continueth to the last end of all natural things. In contemplation whereof the Greek Philosophers affirm, that in all seeds there is something wonderful, proportionable to the Element of Stars. But if we consider the regeneration of this body in his digested, purified Elements, though it be above the compass of common reason, and seem miraculous; yet no doubt we may therein contemplate, and most notably discern the complement of Nature in the immortality of every particular, which before was shadowed in succession. Nothing can proceed infinitely in change; therefore there must be some end or period of particular times, wherein changes happen. The whole memory of Nature, being the Image of God, cannot be blotted out and destroyed. Therefore after the determination of number, to avoid infinity, there shall be an immortality of particular things: Not by the ruin of Nature, but by the full acted accomplishment of the whole possibility, and satisfying the appetite of all causes. If it be demanded whether this shall also be in other sensibles, vegetables, and minerals, the answer requires modesty, for it is not made certain unto us; Et praestat dubitare de occultis, quàm litigare de incertis. For myself I rather think of the Negative. My reason is: The whole university and frame of the creation is the Image of God: And this whatsoever is epitomized in Man, containing most exactly the whole harmony and discord, order and confusion of all causes and effects, according as he standeth or falleth to God his master. And so is the true and real storehouse of all God's works, and his most perfect Image: the Image of his glory if he stand, of his wrath and judgement if he fall. Alt hangs were blessed for his sake & use: the same were cursed for his sin and abusing the creatures contrary to commandment: he shall account to God as his Steward for all; and in him they shall be perfected to immortality, not distinctly in their present shapes, but as having in him that they are. For after the regeneration man hath no more use of them, either necessary or ornamental. And so the cause of their natural and distinct being ceaseth. So the whole creature is immortal, that is, the general causes of matter and form, of which all things were in an elemental body perfectly tried, digested, depured, & inseparably united, and as it were fixed in the highest perfection, which is man.. In whom all natural bodies of which wespeake, concur and rest, as all rivers run into the sea making one deep. And if the exposition of Dionysius Carthusianus be not received, peradventure this may agree with the meaning of S. Paul in the 8. Cham to the Romans, from the 19 verse to the 24. To this purpose we may further consider, how God in all his works ever abhorred multitude tending to division, making all things conspire in unity of most accomplished perfection. In the creation of the second day it is not said, And God saw that it was good. Not that the Creatures of that day wanted his blessing, but to teach us the danger of division, which beginning in the first defection from unity, endeth in confusion: and is never restored but by returning again from the tumult of multiplied duality, and conspiring in the united goodness of all good things, to receive the undivided blessing of rest and quietness in the mystical Septenarie. So God saw all that he had made, and lo it was very good. It is not said, he saw them and every of them, and they were good. Duo, two, as the number of division had no blessing, but in 6. being unitively tripled, according to the first universal causes, it was joined to the number of all, as one of, in, and with them, without division for them; and so rested in the perfection of unity, sanctifying the creature in 7. And as all things natural are of three universal causes, so on that root is squared the last preparation of them, which is Man: receiving perfection in 10. by which, 9 returneth into unity, the first and last perfection of all perfections. For 6. and 9 be the numbers of preparation and motion. 7. and 10. the numbers of rest and perfection in nature.   

CAP. 9  
NOW let us inquire whither it be possible in nature to produce such a compounded substance, tempered of the Elements, in which, after exact digestion, the predominancy of the spiritual causes shall be manifested in true figure of regeneration. So that the appetite of this matter being fully satisfied, it shall be capable of no greater natural perfection, nor subject to change in itself: but, like the superior waters, mix itself with the spirit of life in every natural thing, & work in it restoration & preservation in such measure, as the natural predestination of that thing wherewith it is joined is able to receive: and so be Genus generum, and forma formarum, most universal to all elementate compounds. I say a natural perfection and natural change, meaning so great and high degree, as the possibility of this world, hasting in speedy flux to an end, can suffer and bear. For I know that when the pure heavens, and perfect elements do burn, melt, and shall be purged with the powerful fire in the last complement of Nature, that then also all things of or under them consisting, shall much more suffer the same. Such things therefore as we speak of be commonly divided into animals, vegetables, and minerals: understanding each largely to comprehend all the particular Species of their own kind, also all errors whether by abundance or defect of matter, strength and weakness of causes, etc. amongst these we also comprehend lithophytes, transplanted from a vegetable root to a mineral body, and zoophytes, which for the most part have in nearest agreement an animal body, and a mineral house. For a ground and principle herein we assume that which with common consent is received in every sect of Philosophy: Nature not hindered in her actions doth produce that wherein she laboureth, in the greatest perfection that may be. This we see to be true in all individual things, in the specification of their births, in their proper and natural matrices: as also in unnatural issues from unproper and unnatural matrices: and in Monsters of superfluity, defect, etc.  
In all which nature frameth something as near to the specifical perfection of the seed sown, as the matrice, matter, causes, and adaptation thereof will suffer: Also in equivocal generations, & things animated by fermentation, putrefaction, etc. And this also in Vegetables, as in graffing; where a Crabstock feedeth a Pippin. In transplantation, as of wheat into Rye, etc. In culture, both of degeneration and exaltation, as in garden fruits, double flowers, etc. Likewise in minerals, as is sufficiently declared by good Authors, and daily experienced by such as use judgement in searching, digging, and use of Mines. Also in spagyrical maturation of unripe Mines, and of unperfect minerals by cohobating imbibition of fit mineral waters, etc. The second serving to this point, is no less evident and common. Every effect is the effect of some cause, and therefore answerable unto it. And of this followeth a third. There is no real cause actually being, without his effect in actus all existence: Else should nature labour in vain, and consume herself about nothing with less profit, than a mountain calling a Midwife to be delivered of a Mouse. This being granted, let us remember what is before proved of the difference of causes, General and Particucular, not taking away the subalternate dependence of all, for the whole being of subjects with their inherent virtues and applications, as they now are to themselves and others. By particular I mean not individual, but that which is put under or beneath the universality of Nature's indefiniteness, by being appropriated to any inferior or subalternate kind of specification. General causes working in themselves produce general effects, but received in particular subjects work according to every particular kind, in Animals, Vegetables, and Minerals. This bar or repulsion from generality cometh by specification; and specification from the concourse of particular causes, hindering nature from her general work. The matter is indifferent to all; because it is general, and more incorruptible: and desiring a form most natural to itself, must needs be best satisfied with generality. Take away the particular specificating causes, and this general effect must needs follow: as the light of the Sun is altered according to the colour of any Glass wherethrough it passeth, which glass being taken away, it appeareth in that general brightness which is proper to itself. If therefore it be possible to continue in nature the action of the general causes not hindered by subalternation of particularity, unto the last digestive fermentation of this matter, no doubt there will be produced an effect general, a real existing substance, indefinite, indeterminate, to all specificated substances: being spirit of natural life in all perfection to every one in his kind, of which it shall be received as aforesaid. As the honour and authority of a King, continuing in his own absolute power undiminished, giveth honour and authority to all kind of his subjects to every one according to his place, degree, and office. And to his subjects is as it were Genus generum, and Forma formarum: so matter being in itself indifferent to all, and informed in the first light of Nature, with the most universal form of simplicity, in composition naturally desireth the most general form which is possible for any elementate compound to have. Yet notwithstanding is specificated according to the subalternate causes working therein. As we may say, a King in his officers is coarct into a Chancellor, a Treasurer, an Admiral, judge, justice, Constable, etc.   

CAP. 10.  
THe possibility of this general unspecificated substance appeareth: and more, a very necessity thereof, lest Nature should work in vain, having the concourse of all necessary causes not corrupted. Let us therefore search further, how and of what this may be done, in any sublunary matter compounded of the elements, animal, vegetable, mineral, largely taken as aforesaid. First let us consider the state of innocency, in which all things were absolutely perfect, each in his own kind: so that the measure of the general causes in them was not hindered from their actions by any seed of corruption or clog of grossness, but free in their own liberty to work and produce effects answerable to their proportion in every body. For all bodies in their natural being are not alike perdurable, but graduated with more or less, as the concourse of particular causes and agents is more or less in them. And those, whose composition is most simple and least remote from the Elements by subalternation, are of all others lest subject to corruption in their specificated natural bodies: as minerals. But to return where we left; this primitive and genethliacal perfection by Adam's fall was impaired and overueiled, as it were in a shadow of death: so that those things which God saw to be good, were now infected with the fruit and juice of that tree in which the knowledge of evil grew: and being poisoned by Adam's taste, were with him cursed. Neither was there any way left for him to enjoy their goodness severed from evil, but by labour and travail. Cursed is the earth for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread, until thou return to earth. This sweat and travel to eat bread is not tied to the table of meals, nor to ploughing and sowing, but is general to the fruition of every natural thing in his use of virtue and goodness. Was not the water made sweet with wood, 
Ecclus. 38.  that men might know the virtue thereof? The virtue of this wood and all other things was known to Adam, but lost in the heirs of the slothful, married unto the beauty of the Daughters of men, either refusing, or not rightly understanding the sweat of eating bread. Man became rebellious and disobedient unto God; so other creatures to man. Man is restored to God by the suffering of one most perfect; so natural things under the ordinance of God, unto man by one most exactly purified, digested & regenerated natural compound. And (not defining) I think it no error to say, 
●●m. 8.  that as every creature is subject to vanity, and groaneth with us, and at last shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption unto the glorious liberty of the sons of God: so also there may be naturally, before that consummation of all things, some proof of this restored incorruptibility, 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 etc. 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 every natural thing shall have after it is returned into earth; in the second purifying of examination by fire: As our Hermes saith of the world's wonder, Vis eius est integra, si versa fuerit in terram. The perfection of the earthly paradise decayed 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, every creature: And therefore in him shall this restoring from groaning and travailing, and delivery from the bondage of corruption be ultimatè, in consummation perfected; As before in the eight chapter. Where heat is multiplied, It is indifferent to congeal earth and melt wax, to rarefy water into air, or incinerate Combustible matter. Clay in the potter's hand, and wood in the gravers, are in the workman's power to form at his pleasure, Indifferent to all shapes: So is the efficient cause in the mind of the Artist. But after one form induced there is no place for any other without destroiing the first. So Nature (though not abridged, and so short tied as mechanism) before the specifical perfection of any thing, is free to any thing. For things perfected have attained the last determinate end of their possibility, and therein natural motion tending to generation doth cease: But the seeds and spermatical substances have not attained any end or perfection, neither be out of thelatitude of indetermination, & indefiniteness; and therefore are in the power of the predominant causes to produce such effects, as answer them: which be most universal, most general, such as before are spoken of and declared. This in any form merely artificial cannot be; because the matter in which art worketh hath no internal cause active, neither power nor appetite natural to the effects of art, but lieth there like a peripatetic privation: and all resteth in the brain and hand of the Workman, external and foreign to the matter. It may be objected, and commonly is, That of any seed or spermaticall matter nothing can naturally be produced or bred; but a body of that kind or species, of which the seed is: and that therefore God in the several blessings of his several creatures commanded every one to increase and multiply in his own kind. But herein we condemn the shallowness of understanding, and besotted reason, which regarding only things at hand, and the first face, look no further. Generally any seed groweth to a perfection of life, being received in any near matrice of his own next Genus: though this thing so produced be not specifical to any kind, either of male or female. And this is of the natural power of causes subalternately general. But this is against the end of specifical nature, ever intending the preservation of the species, and so the generation of things like in specie, that may have the like power of propagation in their own kind, which is not only according to the natural law, but also according to the commandment. So for preservation of families the jews had a commandment in what Tribe and stock to marry; Yet, if they married contrary to that commandment, there were children borne. So for chastity and preservation of families, adultery is forbidden; Yet there be whole generations of adulterous mixture, according to the natural gift, though with breach of the moral law. The seed of man received into his proper matrice can naturally produce nothing but man; except in certain causes of superfetation, unequality, etc. Yet these be called unnatural errors, etc. and so they be, being compared to the final intent. But being in the matrice of some other Animal there is form a Monster, no man. Partus exparte sequitur ventrem. So in all other Animals, else we should be more full of Asses, & want Mules. Hence cometh the proverb, Africasemper aliquid apportat novi. The like we see in Vegetables, both in grafts & seeds: 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 seed and spermaticall substances, so it is most certain that the hand of man may join them together in any other matrice then that by which they are specificated: or, if they be hermaphroditical, plant them in like sort in any other matrice: And being so joined or planted, nature will fall to work, and never cease until she have brought the matter to the last perfection possible for those causes to induce, be it more or less excellent, than the species of the seed. Instance of this is not so easily given in minerals: because their spermaticall matter is not so familiar amongst us. Yet a man painful in search, diligent in observing, judicious in reading, industrious in practice, may satisfy himself therein. Excellent things be farthest from sense, and therefore more difficult. In the creation there is no mention made of Minerals: But they be afterwards named for the riches of some of the countries divided by the rivers flowing out of Eden. And in the whole Scriptures very little is taught of their original, and that very darkly.  
This is the chief sweat and labour wherein man eateth his natural bread. It is somewhere said, Out of much earth is turned a little gold. But if we can find out their material element, it will be no hard matter to know their next seedy substance. All things that are of the earth shall turn to earth again, 
Ecles. 40. ●●.  and they that are of the waters shall return into the sea. In job it is briefly touched, yet more plainly than elsewhere in one continued place. The dead things are form under the waters, 
Job. 26.5.  or near unto them. This showeth truly the material element of the purest minerals. 
〈◊〉 8.1.  And again, The silver hath his vein, and the gold his place where they take it. Iron is taken out of the dust, and brass is molten out of the stone. God putteth an end to darkness, and he trieth the perfection of all things. He setteth a bound of darkness and of the shadow of death. The flood breaketh out against the inhabitant, and the waters forgotten of the foot, being higher than man, are gone away. The stones thereof are a place of sapphires, and the dust of it is gold. There is a path which no fowl hath known, neither hath the Kites eyeseene: the lions whelps have not walked it, neither the Lions passed thereby. He putteth his hands upon the rocks, and his eye seethe every precious thing. He bindeth the floods, that they do not overflow, and the thing that is hid bringeth to light. But where is wisdom found, and where is understanding? etc. Not profaning the divine application and sense of this place, consider as a chemical natural Philosopher in these verses, what is meant by dead things, waters, vein, place, darkness, shadow of death, flood, inhabitant, bread, fire turned up, dust, unknown path, Kites eye, Lion's whelp, Lion, Rocks, Mountains, and then you may boast that you know the beginnings, spermaticall substance and true generation of metals. And for your better help in this search take with you one thing out of Paracelsus, & believe it as an article of your natural creed. Heat is life, and cold is cause of death. The effect of heat and life is openness of the body and fluidnes; congelation and immobility is of cold and death. Whatsoever tinckteth into a white colour, hath the nature of life and the property of light, and power causing life; on the other side, whatsoever tinkteth into blackness, or maketh black, communicateth in nature with death, and hath the nature of darkness, and power to kill. The coagulation and fixation of this corruption is the earth with his coldness. The house is ever dead, but that which dwelleth therein liveth. But to proceed in our intent: we seek not to make or have produced, by nature single, or helped by the hand of her servant art, any such irregular monster as is contrary to any law or commandment in the assertion of unity, or against the natural and shamefaced chastity of natural specifications, as by the issue shall appear. We search a substance of natural equality of justice, exalted in Hermaphroditical fruitfulness of itself, above the three forenamed kinds, that it may be to every of them generally applicable, and with their individuals be made specifical to all, and each; wherein we offer no unhallowed violence to any thing. And therefore we say, As it is not perpetually necessary that the thing produced must ever answer the kind of that whose seed it was, but may be and often is traduced particularly as is said: So also is it as infallibly true, that of a spermaticall matter may be made naturally, a transcendent universal and general substance, Genus generum and Forma formarum, of such property, virtue, and efficacy as hath been spoken of. And this resteth for us further to prove.   

CAP. 11.  
IN every of the three kinds, whereof we speak, Animals, Vegetables, and Minerals, this thing must be sought. But we must resolve of the nearest. It is easier for nature to make air of water, then of earth. And the carver chooseth not the whole trunk to make his images, but a piece of timber fit and ready squared, where there is no superfluity, but that which fills up the hollowness, which he is to engrave: No defect but of the form, which he must make, etc. In each of these three kinds there be considerable, The whole entire or integral perfected individualles, Their parts, Their unprofitable excrements, their spermes and spermaticall substance. Against all which Nature in this work doth wholly except, saving only sperm or spermaticall substance. The whole body is concluded under 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 parts; In excrements many have either been mired, or drowned altogether, with what success themselves best know, with what reason other men can judge, though never taught by ill savoured experience. The elemental proportion of every thing is known only to Nature, not to man. We must neither part nor join, but continue the application of Nature's instruments, until all the Elements appear to our sight clean, in or under one Element. For than hath Nature in that one Element weighed and measured all the Elements, whereby their specifical Nature is wholly changed from that which it first was into a general substance. If the foundation of this building be laid upon offals and excrements, which have no use but for the draft, and cannot be handled without offence of nature, nor spoken of without a Preface of reverence; surely we are enclosed in an ill favoured strait. That which is unfit for nourishment of others, unwholesome to the body wherein it is contained, intended of Nature to no other use, but that which it hath already attained, excrementitious not only to the body from whence by excretion it is cast, but even in itself in temperament and digestion, shall such a scorn of all things be the chief flower in Nature's Garland, or bear the key of her treasury? What though such a matter be full of strong spirits, able to poison a man, or choke a dog? that urgeth nothing; for we hope to be beholders of great wonders without perfumes, or need of much water to wash. Nature loves cleanliness; because God hath made nothing profitable for man, to the attaining whereof he shall be compelled to any dishonest or unseemly thing. It importeth not what constructions be made in this behalf from the shadows of good Writers, nor what Orator this opinion hath: he teacheth nothing but the old repentance of young men. Believe him not though he have five hundred on his side. So for us there is nothing left but the seminal matter, in some of the three kinds. For the more simple the composition of any thing is, the nearer it is to the first causes, and communicateth more abundantly with the general beginnings of all things; because subalternate causes, authors of specification, be fewer. But the sperm or seed of every thing, Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, is more simple in composition, and tied with fewer subalternate causes of specification, than the body or perfect individual, whose seed it is. And therefore every seed is nearer the first causes, and communicateth more abundantly with the general beginning, etc. And of such a substance Nature may make that general compound we seek after. But for better declaration hereof, the differences of matrices or wombs are necessary to be understood. And the manners of the seeds growing and increasing in every of them, so much as concerneth this present purpose: whereof I have more amply written in the Possible Perfection of Miscibles, and in the Possibility of Natural Transmutations.   

CAP. 12.  
ANimals have apparently male and female distinct in several bodies (understand them of perfection, and for the most part of univocal generation) And therefore distinct or several spermes: which being mixed in their proper matrice, grow up to perfection in their own kind, as God hath appointed. The seed only is prolifical and matter of birth: The matrice is but the place, or, as you would say, the house and Tenement ordained for the nourishing and breeding thereof, unto such a particular end. And because every perfect thing in this kind is far greater than the seed of which it came, the matrice must have amongst other faculties, this one especially, To nourish. In men, quadrupedes, & ravenous fishes in the seas, Whales, Swordfish, Whirlpools, Thornpooles, Sharks, Porkpisces, Dogfish, and some Amphibials, as Seals, Sea-calues, Sea-horses, etc.) they be all nourished within the body of the mother or female, where they be conceived, though not all alike. In Men and Quadrupedes, there be certain conducts & veins in the Matrice for that purpose. And this nourishment is of that which the mother or female parent receiveth & digesteth: and for want thereof, the birth seldom cometh to perfection, or at least is unnaturally wretched; so likewise in some Amphibials. In the Fishes whereof we speak it is not so. For their young, being never above two at one birth, have growing from the midst of their navel, (or that which to them is in stead of a navel) a white pipe or vein like a navel string, broad at the bottom, full of a thick milky substance, whereof it may be thought they be nourished until they be spawned; other Fishes and Fowls be (concerning this) in another difference: For Fishes, either they first breed their Eggs, and keep them continually in their bodies, till they be delivered of a young perfect Fish; as Thornebackes, and such other cartilagineous or gristly fishes: or they breed Eggs, and after lay them in a hole made upon the land in a sandy ground, which be there hatched with the help of heat of the Sun and Sand: from whence they creep directly to the Sea; such be Torteises and their kinds: Or they keep their Eggs about them in the rough places under their bellies, and about their feet, as Lobsters, Shrimps, Prawns, Crafish, which after be perfected in shells. As Lobsters be first Welkes, and in that shell by degrees perfected into their kind, & Crabs sometimes in Oysters. But whether this be Catholic and of Canonical perpetuity, I think no man hath been in all places so general a Mermaid, or constant Vrinator as to affirm. Or lastly they breed within themselves unperfect Eggs, which after they cast into some scooring or spawning place, whither the male followeth, and sheddeth his sperm upon these Eggs; so they increase, grow great, and breed young fishes: such be all kind of fishes not before spoken of. And where some exclude Torteses and their kinds from the generation of fishes, it is not material whether truly or not, for it is all one to our end, which here only search the difference of matrices, and of the seeds growing to specifical perfection. And within these differences be all kinds of serpents. Now for fowls (we except only to us known the featherlesse night-bird) the Bat or Reremouse, which layeth no eggs, but breedeth and giveth suck as other mice do, their breed and specifical increase is by eggs: The male proiecteth his sperm into the matrice of the female, whose office is not to bring forth a perfect bird, but an egg; which egg supplieth the office of a matrice. For it hath in itself both seeds, masculine and feminine, by the natural appetite of the Coition of the male and female, before the prolifical egg be form: Also sufficient matter of nourishment, until the bird be hatched. In which egg the natural and vital heat of the maleseede is sensible to the tip of a man's tongue on the outside of the shell, as they know which steal Hawks eggs out of the eyrie. In Vegebles every Herb and Plant is Hermaphroditical, being both male and female itself, concerning propagation. Their natural propagation is of two sorts, by seed, and by slip: for graffs increase in the same kind, & for the same reasons that slips do. The seed is from one & the self same plant, made, ripened, and cast off: it receiveth no help of any other, containing seminarily both fexes in one body, and being put into fit ground in seasonable air & time, it riseth up and groweth into a new plant or herb like to that from which it came. The coats or skins wherein it is closed, differ not in use much from the skins about the egg: the earth supplieth the wants which the seed hath in itself to increase specifically, that is, heat & nourishment. For without heat there is no attraction, without attraction no nourishment. And because it is necessary that the seed increase in quantity & greatness before it become a plant, attraction of nourishment is necessary for every seed: which by the other natural faculties is altered and specificated into the substance of the plant. The like manner of growing and increasing is in slips and graffs.  
Though Terminus à quo, the point from whence they proceed, is not so remote from composition, nor so near to simplicity as in seeds; which also is one reason why the increase in slips and graffs is quicker than in feeds. For their attractive virtue and assimilation of the nourishment is stronger, etc. In these two kinds of Animales and Vegetables (for so much as concerneth the present purpose) we find the first difference of Matrices to be of two sorts; Inseparable, separable. Then again of two sorts, The specifical body of the seed prepareth nourishment for the increase, or that nourishment is drawn out of another body. The third difference is also of two sorts, The heat moving to generation is either proper to the particular female body whose seed it is, or indifferent to others. There is also a fourth difference, The nourishment attracted in the immediate matrice either is specifically prepared for the seed, or is not, but common to all the next genus: As the moisture mineral of earth to plants. In the seed there is also a difference. The individual at his first birth is greater than the seed and spermaticall matter was, or not greater: for that which is properly called Semen prolificum, the seed powerful to generation is not the whole body of the spermaticall matter, but as it were the centre thereof: As in eggs may easily in some nearness be shown to the eye, and hereupon lieth the demonstration of hereditary diseases, and many other strange things in Nature, bred of this spermaticall superfluity. The sum of these two kinds briefly is this.  
1 Those things which have male and female distinct in several bodies, having a natural appetite each to other, cannot increase or multiply their own kind without local motion and actual copulation: whereby both seeds, may be joined. Such be Men, Quadrupedes, Fowls, Serpents, Fishes, etc.  
2 Those things which being brought forth, be greater in quantity then the feed or spermaticall matter of which they came, must have their seed received into such a matrice from whence they may draw sufficient nourishment, as in men, quadrupedes, some fish, plants.  
3 Those things which cannot have nourishment fitly prepared for them to attract, but within the body into whose matrice they are received; may never be separated from thence until the time of perfection, and their delivery; as in men, beasts, ravenous fishes aforesaid, the Bat only amongst those that fly.  
4 Those seeds which may by nature be enclosed in a convenient matrice with apt & sufficient matter for nourishment, until the perfection of the birth, may be separated from the body of the female, having received the masculine seed in a separable matrice, and may be ripened either by the heat of the same body, or of any other natural or artificial, being like and equally temperate, as in Eggs of Fowls, and some Aquatiles.  
5 Those things which being enclosed in a natural separable matrice, have not there 〈◊〉 sufficient matter for nourishment, must be sowed or planted in another matrice, which shall supply this defect; as in plants, etc. But herein is something further to be considered more particularly in the Animal kind, specially between Man and Quadrupedes on the one side, & Birds or Fowls on the other. The Eglantine hath a hard shell without, a thin skin or membrane within that, and another more thin & subtle about the yelk, covering and exactly winding about the true prolifical seeds of male and female in the spermaticall matter; whereby though the outward shell were taken away, yet the outward air cannot immediately touch the true seed, neither the aetherious spirit presently vanish. And before age or moisture have resolved the very sperm itself within the egg, whether of both together, or of the solitary females egg, it never putrefieth. And for the same reason the egg with both spermes resisteth putrefaction longer than the sole female. And, as is said of those skins defending the sperm within the Eglantine, nature in like sort hath ordained in man, a womb, secondines, etc. not unlike the defence of the brain in the skull, and 2. meanings, or membranes, called Dura matter & Pia matter: it being the most spermaticall substance in all the body. But in men & quadrupedes, though it were possible to receive their seed into another matrice, or separable conteiner, and to administer heat thereunto convenient (as may be done in eggs) yet because that seed and spermaticall matter hath not within itself sufficient matter of nourishment, but is compelled to attract from the daily nourishment of the mother: and though this be supposed possible to be supplied, yet the nourishment must be first digested and specificated, for that seed by the proper and natural mother; therefore it were altogether impossible that any natural birth should be had thereof. And moreover this kind of seed hath nothing to defend it from the immediate touch of the outward air, nor to preserve the vital archaeical spirit in the seed, that it present lie vanish not, and leave the body like a common excrement unprofitable. Else had Nature without cause made the conjunction of those seeds so close, and in a matrice so unseparable from the female body. Which shows the vanity of the Authors of the bathing conceptions; and destroys their magnetical power of the matrices attraction. All these Paracelsus understood very well, as in many places he hath showed. Wherefore they do him the more wrong, and have been little exercised in contemplation of generalities, that traduce his Homunculus or Dwarf, to any unseemly or wicked practice. Now resteth the third kind of our division, that is Minerals: which differeth mainly from Animals, and agreeth very little with Vegetables. Their seed is hermaphroditical, and that into which the specifical form of minerality in every kind is immediately brought. By immediately I mean, as in the seed of man: we say the form of man is immediately brought; That is, man is the last form which Nature intendeth in that seed, and the only specifical form of which that seed is naturally capable. In this kind there is to be observed specially the difference between it and the other two. For in plants with the first perfection of the Species out of the seed, which is in the first germination of the green leaf from the root, the Species is perfect but the individual body is yet weak, tender, and unperfect, for the specifical uses of his kind. So in Animals, the species is perfected with the first reception of the specifical form: more notably in common acception, in parturition, or enixation: But the individual body requireth time to grow up to the fullness of his natural faculties and functions, especially of the most natural, which is to multiply in his own kind. In Minerals it is not so; for as soon as they be perfected in their individualitie under any Species of that kind, they be in the same instant as powerful in all dower of their natural virtues, to all uses whatsoever, as if they had been existently perfected 10000 ages. And of them, those that be multiplicable, be in the same instant as powerful as any other. For the whole body in the homogeneal matter is all seed: and is not increased by attraction, but by apposition, etc. And generally the nearer any thing cometh, in the natural composition of his specifical individualitie, to the simplicity of the Elements, the sooner after the first perfection it is in the full vigour, for the use of all virtues, endowments, and faculties of his species; and contrary. Which is one reason that some animals be generative sooner than others: and a good paradoxal ground for the difference of sensible souls, and the degrees of their more or less propinquity to reason & intellect. The consideration of this difference is very profitable in the whole Chemical Academy. For in those things, which being compounded are most homogeneal, and stand in the first or nearest approximation to the simplicity of the first symbolizing bodies, the whole substance in his open body, is totally or very near, all seed, regenerable into a body generable and generative. The mystery of which school if any be curious to understand, let them read good Philosophers. For certainly more than one have dealt liberally herein. And in reading let them diligently observe and collect, whether such seed in Metals and other Minerals be pure, or mingled with spermaticall superfluity, as is said of the other two kinds. 2. Next whether it be to be gotten only in the earth before the metal perfected, or lie hid also in the complete body, and may be found by art in dissolution, and regress from composition to simplicity. 3. And if so, then whether it be some particular substance by decision, or any other means natural or artificial to be separated from it, or else only a power in itself intensively to receive exaltation, and thereby enabled to give out of this exuberance unto others the perfection of his first specifical degree. 4. Whether this seminary subject be alike pure and homogeneal in the total and separated substances of every metalline body. These things being thus delivered and understood; that which remaineth in the necessary demonstration of this general substance will be plain without any difficulty.   

CAP. 13.  
THe instruments of nature in breeding & procreation are the effects of Spirit, In number three: Motion, Heat, Light. And that which we most look after is Heat, which never is nor can be in any natural subject without the other 2. nor any of them without the rest. Vbi motus talis, ibi calor talis, & lux talis: Vbi calortalis, ibi motus talis, & lux talis: Vbi lux talis, ibi calor talis, & motus talis. Heat is of two sorts: In ward, or natural, of the seed or substance; the second outward or instrumental of the matrice, and body wherein the matrice is, or of that which is in stead thereof. By this outward instrumental heat the inward natural heat is stirred to activity, and from the sleepy power or bability (which only it had) brought unto, and continued in actual working until the effect be perfected. Therefore outward instrumental heat must be so fitted, that it serve only to this exciting of the inward natural heat, in most exact degree and proportion. This may be familiarly exemplified in eggs; which often are ripened, and out of them birds hatched by divers manners of heat; Not only by incubation and sitting of the same hen, or any other of the same species whose eggs they were, but of some other fowl, and also by any other like heat: be it of sand, ashes, etc. being continued in equal adaptation. That which is spoken of the heat of man's body, as under his armpits or any other part, is senslessee for the uncertainty of temper, with variety, satiety, want of meat, and drink, and sleep, and passions altars the heat both subiectively and in degree, almost every moment. Besides the sweattie perspiration passeth the shell, and causeth putrefaction. Nature hath given us the first experiments of this reason: as in the Amphibials before spoken of: 
job 39.17.  and in the Ostrich, which leaveth her eggs in the earth and maketh them hot in the dust, & forgetteth that the foot might scatter them, or that the wild beasts might break them: he showeth himself cruel unto his young ones, as they were not his, and is without fear, as if he travailed in vain, etc. Too much heat roasteth, whereby the spirit of life in the seed is destroyed, and the substance is as it were vitrificat. Too little heat makes no perfect mixture of the agents & patients; & produceth no reciprocal action & passion, whereby the work begun proceedeth not, but the matter rots, & the spirits decay. A discontinued heat breaketh off nature's work, so that the natural heat beginning to work in the seed to propagation, dieth in itself, & can never be restored again, because the spirit of life in the same seed also dieth: And so the matter being of easy mixture and composition putrefieth, without life or power of life, to an unprofitable end. But it is not so in the things of stronger mixture & composition being nearer to the simplicity of the first materialities of bodies compounded. And therefore not so easily subject to destractive putrefaction. Because their very corporal compounding parts be symbolizing near the degree of the prime symbolizing bodies, not altered out of the circle & latitude of the species digested or concocted; except there be addition of something extraneall in the mixture. For then the whole compound concerning specification yieldeth to the predominance of the virtual predominant in the mixture: Yet still is preserved within the denomination & general essence of the next immediate genus of that species; not exceeding that circle or latitude, except it be directed to our known period of universality. The matrice being open or not perfectly closed, the spirit of life with his heat and light of life, flieth away unto the Catholic fountain of all natural spirits, Heat and Light: and so leaveth the matter dead: as in Mines of metals, if there be any vent or passage by which the mineral spirit may vapour out or fly, that never cometh to perfection, experimental objections be made against this, but none grounded on reason, A radice mineralitatis metallicae. An open stomach never digesteth well. But herein is a difference observable between Animals, Vegetables and Minerals. For in Animals the seeds and spermes do utterly perish, nay even the form Embryos by the openness of the matrice; and the form chickens in the egg either by discontinuing the heat, or a little crack in the shell.  
Of Vegetables we see seeds lying on the face of the earth on stones and walls to shoot their roots, stalks, burgeons and leaves, which die afterwards for want of nourishment, after they have spent in corporal augment that natural humidity and nutritive substance which the seed in his separable matrice contained. But in Minerals we find, that though some part of the matter exhale and fly through the openness of the matrice, yet that which remaineth may be brought afterwards to his full specifical perfection if the matrice be closed again. And this is a good and observable ground to investigate the true seed of all metals, the manner of ripening them, their generation, regeneration, and exuberation: Also to confirm the doctrine of homogeneitie of that which is most perfect in the metalline predicament: also of the symbolizing of the corporal metalline Elements before spoken of. Being understood it is a key opening the door of many mystical vestries in Hermes temple. And so we see, that it is impossible for any thing to attain natural perfection more than it hath, without natural motion, such as nature useth in generation & augmentation: Therefore in all times and in all matters the cautions here delivered must be carefully observed. That the seed may be brought to such motion and enabled to receive the benefit of such natural exaltation. The reasons & causes why every thing is particularized in his birth are two. The first, because it is kept and bred up in a matrice where it is fed and nourished with nourishment by a specificated body, which in things not hermaphroditical we may prove true by monsters begotten between male and female specifically differing. The second, because the feed and spermaticall matter is so straightly enclosed in the matrice, that the elements cannot be enlarged to any unbridled circular motion by which only is acquired that last excellent perfection of which we speak. One probable argument of this is, that minerals be more general and powerful in effect then either Vegetables, Animals, or any other superterraneals: And the heavens more than they. For the Elements so communicate in their symbolical qualities, that they never cease ro work each on other. The earth striving to overcome and transmute the water, and to bring the fire in accord therewith; likewise the air, with the water and fire, water with earth and air, fire with air and earth, And finally all with all to make one, &c: and if it happen the combat of Elements: to be in a matter, having the properties of life before spoken of (though it live in a dead house,) and that in a matrice or receptacle, where they cannot be dispersed, nor the spirits fly out, Their Ambition of victory and transmutation must needs end at last and determine in some natural compounded body which shall not be specificated to any kind, Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral. But that in application it may be above them all, such as this generality of matter must needs produce. For where the matter is the most simple & pure mixture of Elements, indefinite, indeterminate, and this matter continued in natural motion, without dispersing the elements or spirits, without any addition of other matter, It is impossible that the action of the active and passion of the passive should ever cease, so long as the causes continue, that is any inequality in the formalities of these elements. By which means there must needs be produced a body of most exact and absolute temper, wherein no element is predominant: such is the ninth temperament of which Galen speaketh, and of late writers is called the temperament of justice: which they deny not to be at some time really in some Man; but allow it not to continue any time, because of the momentany alteration, which that body suffereth, by reason of the triangular specification. If therefore they will grant this in such a market of meats and salads, as man is, why may we not boldly require it much more in such a body as we speak of? which having gotten his perfection in the fire by the natural triumph of all elements in a quintessential body, must needs hold this exact temperament and the dowers thereof inviolably against all elemental forces. For if this exact measure of digestion be complete in a substance not yet restrained from the latitude and indifferency between general and specifical; the cause of such momentany alteration is taken away: especially if in the choice of the root; the number of the angles be answerable. And then it must needs be reduced unto, and rest in an homogeneal substance of most perfect natural unity: more permanent in being, and victorious over all elements, than any mineral, even gold itself, remaining in his metalleitie. In which work the thing produced exceeds not in quantity, the first spermaticall substance, because there is no attraction of nourishment: But the moist is food to the dry, the cold to the hot, the dry to the moist, and hot to the cold. So they change and are changed, until they be all in equal strength and proportion geometrically anatised, inseparably united in one body. And before the matter comes to this point it is never properly said to be one, or unity. For as a true unity suffereth no division, either in descending into fractions, or ascending to warring duality; so this substance being more transcendent than any natural substance of Aristotle's predicament, and having no heterogeneal parts of different composition, mixture, and temper, neither any notion of such difference, is and must needs be the most perfect absolute unity of all natural sublunare compounds. The like whereof nature alone and of herself could never produce, being hindered by the foresaid causes of specifical definitions; but requireth the band of God's image, and then is able of herself to effect that, which before she could not adapt. For man being so much above nature by how much he is more than others illumined and formally essensificated of a divine intellect, doth in many things help nature to proceed naturally farther by many degrees, than she could without that help, and so in the excellence of nature either exceedeth, or greatly enricheth nature in the production of natural effects. But whether nature alone hath produced and left enclosed in any natural body this mystical transcendent, and real existing predicament, it is a great question. Doubtless she hath in a certain number, and masked under a definition of determinate uses in the philosophy of generations. But she hath not, neither ever shall per se, without the help of our science and art, act and produce it in the number which we admire; nor unmasked in the glorious triumph over Animals, Vegetables, and Minerals, being in a high freedom of generality, indifferent to all, Genus generum and Forma formarum naturalium. And so we may truly say, that this matter whereof we speak (at which so many good Archers have bend their bows) is a natural thing brought forth in his unueiled glory by the help of art; yet is it, neither natural nor artificial, but hath a nature and essence, exceeding common capacity: And to know in what form or body this strange son of the elements shall arise, and in what attire he shall be presented to the world at his first nativity, we must consider the spherical scale or ladder of natural things: wherein we shall find an admirable beauty and proportion.  
The last of which sphere being Man, a reasonable Creature, standeth in place and nature next unto spirits: and they both next under God transcendent above the sphere of Creatures. Between these two we find things in descent less noble than spirits, more noble and perfect then Man, concerning his elemental dowry, and durability of his body. In ascent less noble than Man, concerning that form whereby he is called Man, and a fellow servant with spirits, more noble than the spirits concerning their immediate application to natural things for perfection. These be the heavens with all their parts and distinctions: the Elements, Mineral, Plantall, Animal: whereby it plainly appeareth that those things whose use is most general to the perfection before spoken, of elemental natural bodies, are farthest from the simplicity of spirits: But those things which be farthest from the simplicity of spirits, have in their natural being least show and appearance of the effects of spirit. And where the effects of spirit in thenaturall body be most apparent, that body is in the sphere removed by most differences and specifications from the Elements. So is Plantall farther than Mineral, and Animal than Plantal: and in the Animal kind, though human agree with the rest, as having the natural life in blood, yet it goeth one degree further by that spark of divine irradiation, by which it is essentially form with an immortal substance; which though diversly traducible and passive by the natural part of the common Genus in the Organs whereof it worketh, yet either in real or contemplative sequestration comprehendeth Notions of all divine and immortal things, and so verily findeth itself in the rank of immortal essences, and spiritual lives. This thing therefore we speak of, being the regeneration of Elements in every elementary body, and made with rest and peace purchased with the war of his own unmingled, undispersed, undefiled Elements, must needs be the mean or centre of this sphere, the first compound under heaven having no proper name of his own to us known: yet necessarily appearing in that shape which the elements in their first composition, not restrained by the specificating causes aforesaid must needs produce. That is Minerale fluidum: this is Aqua viscosa, Aquae permanens, and the Philosophers Mercury, sought of many, found of few. The passage of all natural causes of this birth, Raymond lully well understood in the first Book of his Testament, being of Theory, in the figure proceeding from Elements to Metals, and from Metals to Elements, by eight letters: A.B.C.D. E.F.G.H. which we have therefore here set down; wherein we give but this one note, that it is a matter of deep understanding, how G. and H. be immediate, that is, Sulphur Aqueum and Metalla, for it containeth a great practic mystery.  
This heptagonall is in all natural generations truly circular.  
The scale of degrees and differences in descent and ascent, of which we speak, here followeth.  

Scala Magica naturalis.  
Deus  Potestas Voluntas Spiritus Synthesis Materia 1 1 Animal Analysis Angeli 2  Rationale Coelum divisor 3 2 Animalia. Caelum stellatum 4 3 Plantae Elementa 5 4 Minerae Minerae 6 5 Elementa Plantae 7 6 Coelum stellatum Animalia 8 7 Coelum divisor Animal 9 8 Angeli Rationale.  9 Materia.   

CAP. 14.  
FOr our better understanding herein, let us consider the History of the Creation, That there be two waters; superior, inferior; Two earths, Eden, and the rest without and about it: Two waterings, Cohobation by the mist ascending out of the earth without attraction; Another by rain attracted out of the earth and lower globe by heat; Two Cultures or Manuring, natural without the help of man, and artificial by the help of man.. The waters being spiritualized, and having received motion, light and heat, were parted into superior, and inferior. The inferior as connatural to the superior, and of the same womb communicate with them (though in less measure) in this rich birthright.  
The inferior waters being coupled in marriage with their natural and equal Spouse the earth, enriched her with fruitfulness, as a mean by God appointed in the Law of Nature by him created and established. And of all the earth that Sanctuary of God's Image and glory, the Garden Eden had the pre-eminence. This chosen earth was made fruitful by water of mist or vapour, ascending out of itself, and again descending upon it. This mist the earth did yield of her natural air and portion of spirit, and heat conceived in the universal coupling, as it were engendering with the Waters in the first darkness. The second watering, by rain, God caused to begin after the Stars, and Man were created. It cometh naturally by attraction of the Sun and other Stars, and the violence of winds from the earth, particularized in such sort as of the Stars, etc. before is said. And because the heat of the sun is not always alike in any place of the earth, no not in the same anniversary day, hour, nor season; neither the sun, etc. alike near, and aspected at all times to the same place; neither matter vaporous ever in like quantity, quality, and readiness to be attracted: beside the particularities of other Astronomical and Physical observations; therefore the rain is not always in the same measure, time, and season. Hence come unseasonable times in the four quarters, too hot, or too cold, too wet, or too dry, and so in complexion, with impurities of the first mixture mineral, new diseases; and much trouble. But where the earth is watered by vapour or mist begotten in darkness, ascending from itself, and again descending, no such mischances happen. But Nature rejoicing and well pleased with herself, earth and water is made fruitful unto perfection. And then the two Cultures or Manuring are both necessary, and cannot fail of a good blessing: but from Elements simple, become Elements elementate in the first mixture simply quintessential, impregnate with ethereal nourishing, not burning fire: whereof resulteth this Catholic unity, general in application to all things, which we seek for and so much admire, and shall rejoice to have found. These two Cultures are, the one natural by Cohobation; the other artificial by man, attending only the select earth or Garden to dress and keep it, not having swallowed the fruit of duality, the apple of evil: nor being driven, or selfe-straying out of this Garden into other ground, where not such mist or vapour doth arise; and which is watered with the rain of the time of generations and corruptions. This is that ladder in Nature of Angels ascending and descending between heaven and earth. This is the hoop of pure gold, round, endless, and bottomless, and inscribed according to the truth and true resemblance, Imago spei, the natural wedding ring of these two great parents of natural things. This is the continual springtide of never vading greenness in the Emerald, the wealth of Hermes his Smaragdine Table, True without leasing, most true, The strong strength of all (natural) strength, because it will overcome every subtle, and pierce every solid thing, etc.  
Cuius vis est Integra, si versa fuerit in terram.  
FINIS.