MAGIA ADAMICA: OR The antiquity of Magic, AND The Descent thereof from Adam downwards, proved.  
Whereunto is added a perfect, and full discovery of the true Coelum Terrae, or the Magician's Heavenly Chaos, and first Matter of all Things.  
By Eugenius Philalethes.  {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Epict. in Enchirid. 
LONDON, Printed by T. W. for H. B LUNDEN, at the Castle in Cornhill, 1650.   

To my Learned, and much Respected friend, Mr. MATHEW HARBERT.  
SIR,  
I Know you are not Great, there's a better title, you are Good. I might have fixed this Piece to a Pinnacle, made the Dedication high: but to what purpose? Greatness is a Thing I cannot admire in others, because I desire it not in my self. It is a proud folly, a painted ceremonious rant. There is nothing necessary in it, for most men live without it, and I may not apply to that, which my Reason declines, as well as my Fortune. The Truth is, I know no use of Hog hens and Titulados, if they are in an humour to give, I am no Beggar to receive. I look not any thing Sir, but what the Learned are enriched withal, Judgement, and candour. You are a true friend to Both, and to my third self. This Discourse I shuffled up for your spare-hours, for it was born in a Vacation, when I did not so much labour, as play. I was indeed necessitated to some Levity, for my adversary proved so impotent, I might not draw out all my forces, because I knew not where to employ them. You have here a simple Bedlam corrected, and whipped for his mad Tricks. A certain Master of Arts of Cambridge, & a Poet in the Loll & Trot of Spencer. It is supposed he is in Love with his fairy-queen, & this hath made him a very Elf in philosophy. He is indeed a scurvy, flabby, snotty-snowted thing. He is troubled with a certain Splenetic looseness, & hath such squirts of the Mouth, his Readers cannot distinguish his Breath from his Breech. He is a new kind of Pythonist, speaks no man knows what, & his Bulls have much of his Belly. But I have studied a Cure answerable to his Disease, I have been somewhat Corrosive, and in defiance to the old Phrase, I have washed a Moor clean. I have put his Hog-noddle in pickle, & here I present him to the world, a Dish of soused nonsense. This is my Subject Sir, & now I must tell you, my Address to yourself hath something of Duty in it. I had no sooner left milk for Meat, but my first Learning came from you. be pleased to accept this small Acknowledgement from  
Some ten days after the press was delivered of my Adversarie's MAURO. MANGO.  
Your pupil, & servant E. P. From Heliopolis 1650.   

TO The most Excellently accomplished, my best of Friends, Mr. THOMAS HENSHAW.  
SIR,  
IT was the Quaere of Solomon, and it argued the supremacy of 
Eccle. 2. 3.  his wisdom, What was best for Man to do all the days of his vanity under the Sun? If I wish myself so Wise, as to know this great affair of Life, it is because you are fit to manage it. I will not advise you to pleasures, to build Houses, and plant Vine-yards: to enlarge your private Possessions, or to multiply your Gold and Silver. These are old Errors, like Vitriol to the stone; So many false Receipts which Solomon hath tried before you, And behold all was vanity, and 
Cap. 2. ver. 11.  vexation of Spirit. I have sometimes seen Actions as various, as they were great, and my own sullen Fate hath forced me to several Courses of life, but I find not one hitherto, which ends not in surfeits, or satiety. Let us fancy a man as fortunate as this world can make him; What doth he do but move from Bed to board, and provide for the Circumstances of those two Scenes? To day he eats and drinks, than sleeps, that he may do the like to morrow. A great happiness! to live by cloying Repetitions, and such as have more of Necessity, than of a free pleasure. This is Idem per Idem, and what is held for absurdity in Reason, can not by the same reason be the true perfection of Life. I deny not but temporal blessings conduce to a temporal Life, and by Consequence are pleasing to the Body, but if we consider the soul, she is all this while upon the wing, like that Dove sent out of the Ark, seeking a place to rest: she is busied in a restless Inquisition, and though her Thoughts, for want of true Knowledge, differ not from Desires, yet they sufficiently prove she hath not found her Satisfaction. show me then but a practice wherein my soul shall rest without any further Disquisition, for this is it, which Solomon calls Vexation of Spirit, and you show me, What is Best for Man to do under the Sun. Surely, Sir, this is not the philosopher's stone, neither will I undertake to define it, but give me leave to speak to you in the Language of Zoroaster: Quaere Tu Animae Canalem.  
I have a better Confidence in your Opinion of me, than to tell you, I love you: and for my present Boldness, you must thank yourself, you taught me this familiarity. I here trouble you with a short Discourse, the Brokage and weak Remembrances of my former, and more entire studies; It is no laboured piece, and indeed no fit Present, but I beg your Acceptance as of a Caveat, that you may see, what unprofitable Affections you have Purchased. I propose it not for your Instruction, Nature hath already admitted you to her school, and I would make you my Judge, not my pupil. If therefore amongst your serious and more dear Retirements, you can allow this Trifle but some few Minutes, and think them not lost, you will Perfect my Ambition. You will place me Sir, at my full Height, and though it were like that of Statius, amongst Gods and Stars, I shall quickly find the Earth again, and with the least opportunity present myself  
Sir, Your most humble Servant, E. P.   

On the Author's Vindication, and reply to the scurvy, scribbling, scolding Alazonomastix  

'T was well he did assault thee, or thy Foe  
Could not have hit to thy Advantage so.  
what he styles Ignorance, is Depth in Sense;  
He thinks there is no skill, but Common fence.  
Had Bacon lived in this unknowing Age,  
And seen Experience laughed at on the Stage,  
What Tempests would have risen in his blood  
To side an Art, which Nature hath made Good?   

Dost think that Knowledge comes to thee Innate,  
As Preaching on a sudden to thy Pate?  
No sure; thou art a simpler Brother; fie!  
I must alarum thee with Hue and Cry.  
What art? from Whence? a Presbyterian sure,  
An Academic rat, holy and pure.  
But for thy soul (and Plato tells thee so)  
Thou hast spoiled that, and plastered Plato too.  
Just like I. T. thy Poet, who doth lend  
Thee fancies in Cleveland from end to end,  
And not one right applied; you do mistake  
The Stagyrit's philosophy, and make  
His Logic magical, what is unknown  
Is Conjuration, frothy, and high-flown.  
If Arguments arise, you straight grow hoarse,  
Thou knowst not what belongs to Topic Course.  
Shall thou and I to Disputation come  
Practic or theory, for the Totall sum?  
What? is't not lawful for my (learned) friend  
T'improve his Reason to his greatest end?  
Or shall we envy him, 'cause he hath more  
Of Nature's favours set upon his Score?  
Tell me in earnest dost thou think 'tis fit  
To believe all that Aristotle writ?  
Though he was blinded, yet Experience can  
Sever the Clouds, and make a Clearer man.  
If Digbie once but view thy railing Ueine,  
he'll think thou'rt Atoms, not yet formed to brain;  
Then to the Pot thou go'st: Oh there's the loss!  
There's no Elixir in Thee, thou'rt all dross.  
Then sing another Song, thou that controls  
Our Metempsychosis of Bodi'ed souls:  
Yet Platonist thou art, but canst not tell  
Where these mysterious spirits have their Cell.  
Thus Ambrose flung dark Persius on the ground,  
A blind Contempt! because he was profound.  
Look nearer man, canst not distinguish yet  
Betwixt the highest, and the lowest wit.  
When Cynthia to the watery Tethis hies  
We know not there what Treasures she espies,  
What Margarits in crystal streams; she sends  
Only to us her Influence, and lends  
A kind, large Light. But thou poor, trapped Rattoon!  
Like Scythian Dogs, dost bark against the Moon.  
Great, rare Eugenius! do not thou delay  
Thy Course, because his Dirt lies in thy way.  
Stain thy white skin for once, and be thou not  
surprised like ermines, by the daubing Plot.  
Mount to thy full Meridian, let thy Star  
Create a Rubric to our Calendar,  
And we will offer Anthems to thy shrine  
So long as Date can give a Name to Time.   
P. B. A. M. Oxoniens.   

To the Reader.  
Welfare the Dodechedron! I have examined the nativity of this Book by a Cast of Constellated Bones, and Deuz Ace tells me this Parable. Truth (Said the witty Aleman) was commanded into Exile, and the Lady Lie was seated in her Throne. To perform the Tenor of this Sentence, Truth went from amongst Men, but she went all alone, poor and naked. She had not travailed very far, when standing on a high mountain, she perceived a great Train to pass by: In the midst of it was a Chariot attended with Kings, Princes and Governors, and in that a stately Donna, who like some Queen regent, commanded the rest of the Company. Poor Truth, she stood still whiles this pompous Squadron past by, but when the Chariot came over against her, the Lady Lie who was there seated, took notice of her, and causing her Pageants to stay, commanded her to come nearer. Here she was scornfully examined, whence she came? whither she would go? and what about? To these Questions she answered as the custom of Truth is, very simply and plainly: Whereupon the Lady Lie commands her to wait upon her, and that in the rear, and tail of all her Troop, for that was the known place of Truth. Thanks then not to the stars, but to the Configurations of the Dice! they have acquainted me with my future fortunes, and what praeferment my Book is like to attain to. I am for my part contented, though the Consideration of this dirty rear be very nauseous, and able to spoil a stronger stomach than mine. It hath been said of old, Non est Planta veritatis super terram, truth is an herb, that grows not here below: and can I expect that these few seeds, which I scatter thus in the storm and tempest, should thrive to their full ears, and Harvest? But Reader, let it not trouble thee to see the Truth come thus behind, it may be there is more of a Chase in it, than of Attendance, and her Condition not altogether so bad, as her Station. If thou art one of those, who draw up to the Chariot, pause here a little in the rear, and before thou dost address thyself to Aristotel and his Lady Lie, think not thy Courtship lost, if thou dost kiss the lips of poor Truth. It is not my Intention to jest with thee, in what I shall write, wherefore read thou with a good Faith, what I will tell thee with a good Conscience. God, when he first made Man, planted in him a spirit of that capacity, that he might know All, adding thereto a most fervent Desire to know, lest that capacity should be useless. This Truth is evident in the posterity of Man: For little Children before ever they can speak, will stare upon any thing, that is strange to them; they will cry, and are restless till they get it into their hands, that they may feel it, and look upon it, that is to say, that they may know what it is in some Degree, and according to their capacity. Now some ignorant Nurse will think they do all this, out of a desire to play with what they see, but they themselves tell us the contrary; For when they are past Infants, and begin to make use of Language, if any New thing appears, they will not desire to play with it, but they will ask you, what it is? for they desire to know; and this is plain out of their Actions; for if you put any Rattle into their hands, they will view it, and study it for some short Time, and when they can know no more, than they will play with it. It is well known, that if you hold a candle near to a little Child, he will (if you prevent him not) put his finger into the flame, for he desires to know what it is, that shines so bright; but there is some thing more than all this, for even these Infants desire to improve their Knowledge. Thus when they look upon any thing, if the sight informs them not sufficiently, they will, if they can, get it into their hands, that they may feel it: but if the touch also doth not satisfy, they will put it into their mouths to taste it, as if they would examine Things by more senses than one. Now this Desire to know is born with them, and it is the Besi, and most mysterious part of their Nature. It is to be observed, that when men come to their full Age, and are serious in their Disquisitions, they are ashamed to err, because it is the propriety of their Nature, to Know. Thus we see that a Philosopher being taken at a fault in his Discourse, will blush, as if he had committed something unworthy of himself, and truly the very Sense of this Disgrace prevails so far with some, they had rather persist in their Error, and defend it against the Truth, than acknowledge their Infirmities; in which respect I make no Question but many Peripatetics are perversely ignorant. It may be they will scarcely hear, what I speak, or if they hear, they will not understand: howsoever I advise them not wilfully to prevent, and hinder that glorious end and perfection, for which the very Author, and Father of Nature created them. It is a terrible thing to praefer Aristotel to AEelohim, and condemn the Truth of God, to justify the Opinions of Man. Now for my part I dare not be so irreligious, as to think God so vain, and improvident in his works, that he should plant in Man a Desire to know, and yet deny him Knowledge itself. This in plain terms were to give me Eyes, and afterwards shut me up in Darkness, lest I should see with those eyes. This earnest Longing, and busy Inquisition wherein Men tire themselves to attain to the Truth, made a certain Master of Truth speak in this fashion. Ergo liquidò apparet in hac Mundi structurâ, quam cernimus, aliquam triumphare Veritatem; quae toties rationem nostram commovet, agitat, implicat, explicat; toties inquietam, toties insomnem miris modis sollicitat, non fortuitis, aut aliunde adventitiis, sed suis & propiis, & originariis Naturae Illicibus; quae omnia cum non fiunt frustra, utique contingit, ut Veritatem Eorum quae sunt, aliquo tandem opportuno tempore amplexemur. It is clear therefore (saith he) that in this Fabric of the world, which we behold, there is some Truth that rules; which Truth so often stirs up, puzzles, and helps our Reason; so often solicits her when she is restless, so often when she is watchful, and this by strange means, not casual and adventitious, but by genuine provocations and pleasures of nature; All which Motions being not to no purpose, it falls out at last that in some good time we attain to the true Knowledge of those things that are. But because I would not have you build your philosophy on corals and whistles, which are the Objects of little Children, of whom we have spoken formerly, I will speak some what of those Elements, in whose Contemplation a Man ought to employ himself, and this Discourse may serve as a Preface to our whole philosophy. Man according to Trismegistus hath but two Elements in his power, namely Earth and Water: To which Doctrine I add this, and I have it from a Greater than Hermes, That God hath made Man absolute Lord of the first Matter, and from the first matter, and the Dispensation thereof, all the fortunes of man both good and bad do proceed. According to the Rule, and Measure of this Substance all the world are rich or poor, and he that knows it truly, and withal the true use thereof, he can make his fortunes constant, but he that knows it not, though his Estate be never so great, stands on a slippery Foundation. Look about thee then, and consider how thou art compassed with infinite Treasures, and miracles, but thou art so blind, thou dost not see them: nay, thou art so mad, thou dost think there is no use to be made of them, for thou dost believe that Knowledge is a mere peripatetical Chatt, and that the Fruits of it are not Works, but words. If this were true, I would never advise thee to spend one Minute of thy life upon Learning, I would first be one of those should ruin all Libraries and universities in the world, which God forbid, any good Christian should desire. Look up then to Heaven, and when thou seest the celestial fires move in their swift and glorious Circles, think also there are here below some cold Natures, which they overlook, and about which they move incessantly to heat, and concoct them. Consider again, that the Middle spirit, I mean the air, is interposed as a refrigeratory, to temper and qualify that Heat, which otherwise might be too violent. If thou dost descend lower, and fix thy Thoughts where thy feet are, that thy wings may be like those of Mercury, at thy heels; thou wilt find the Earth surrounded with the Water, and that Water heated, and stirred by the Sun and his stars, abstracts from the Earth the pure, subtle, saltish parts, by which means the water is thickened, and coagulated as with a Rennet: out of these two Nature generates all things. Gold and Silver, pearls and Diamonds are nothing else but water, and salt of the Earth concocted. Behold! I have in a few words discovered unto thee the whole system of Nature, and her Royal highway of Generation. It is thy Duty now to improve the Truth, and in my book thou mayst, if thou art wise, find thy Advantages. The four Elements are the Objects, and implicitly the Subjects of Man, but the Earth is invisible. I know the common Man will stare at this, and judge me not very sober, when I affirm the Earth, which of all substances is most gross and palpable, to be invisible. But on my soul it is so, and which is more, the Eye of Man never saw the Earth, nor can it be seen without Art. To make this Element visible, is the greatest secret in Magic, for it is a miraculous Nature, and of all others the most holy, according to that Computation of Trismegistus, Coelum, AEther, Aer, & sacratissima Terra. As for this feculent, gross Body upon which we walk, it is a Compost, and no Earth, but it hath Earth in it, and even that also is not our magical Earth. In a word all the Elements are visible but one, namely the Earth, and when thou hast attained to so much perfection, as to know why God hath placed the Earth in Obscondito, thou hast an Excellent Figure whereby to know God himself, and how he is visible, how invisible. Hermes affirmeth, that in the Beginning the Earth was a Quakemire, or quivering kind of Jelly, it being nothing else but water congealed by the Incubation, and heat of the Divine spirit; Cum adhuc (Saith he) Terra tremula esset, Lucente sole compacta est. When as yet the Earth was a Quivering, shaking substance, the Sun afterwards shining upon it, did compact it, or make it Solid. The same Author introduceth God, speaking to the Earth, and impregnating her with all sorts of seeds in these words; Cumque manus aquè validas implesset rebus, quae in Naturâ, Ambienteque erant, & pugnos validè constringens; Sume (inquit) o Sacra Terra, quae Genitrix omnium es futura, nè ullâ re egena videaris; & manus, quales oportet Deum habere, expandens, demisit Omnia ad rerum Constitutionem necessaria. When God (saith he) had filled his powerful hands with those things which are in Nature, and in that which compasseth Nature, then shutting them close again, he said; Receive from me O holy Earth! that art ordained to be the Mother of all, lest thou shouldst want any thing; when presently opening such hands as it becomes a God to have, he poured down All that was Necessary to the Constitution of things. Now the meaning of it is this; The Holy Spirit moving upon the Chaos, which Action some Divines compare to the Incubation of a Hen upon her Eggs, did together with his Heat communicate other manifold Influences to the Matter; For as we know the Sun doth not only dispense heat, but some other secret Influx; so did God also in the Creation, and from him the Sun and all the stars received what they have, for God himself is a supernatural Sun, or fire, according to that Oracle of Zoroaster, 
Factor, Qui per se operans fabrefecit Mundum,  
Quaedam ignis Moles erat altera.   
He did therefore hatch the Matter, and bring out the secret Essences, as a Chick is brought out of the shell, whence that other Position of the same Zoroaster, Omnia sub uno Igne genita esse.  
Neither did he only generat 'em then, but he also preserves them now, with a perpetual Efflux of heat and spirit; Hence he is styled in the Oracles, 
Pater Hominumque Deûmque  
Affatim animans Ignem, Lucem, AEthera, Mundos.   
This is Advertisement enough: And now Reader, I must tell thee, I have met with some late Attempts on my two former Discourses, but truth is Proof, and I am so far from being overcome, that I am nowhere understood. When I first eyed the libel, and its address to Philalethes, I judged the Author serious, and that his Design was not to abuse me, but to inform himself. This Conceit quickly vanished, for perusing his forepart, his ears shot out of his skin, and presented him a perfect ass. His Observations are one continued {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and the Oyster-Whores read the same philosophy every day. 'Tis a Scurril, senseless Piece, and as he well styles himself, a Chip of a blockhead.  
His qualities indeed are transcendent abroad, but they are peers at home: his Malice is equal to his Ignorance. I laughed to see the fool's disease: A flux of Gale, which made him still at the Chops, whiles another held the press for him like Porphyry's basin to Aristotle's Well. There is something in him prodigious: his Excrements run the wrong way, for his mouth stools, and he is so far from man, that he is the Aggravation to a Beast. These are his parts, and for his person, I turn him over to the Dog-whippers, that he may be well lashed, a posteriori, and bear the Errata of his front imprinted in his rear. I cannot yet find a fitter punishment: For since his Head could learn nothing but nonsense, by sequel of parts, his tail should be taught some sense.  
This is all, at this time, and for my present Discourse, I wish it the common fortune of Truth and honesty, to deserve well, and hear ill. As for Applause, I fish not so much in the air, as to catch it. It is a kind of popularity, which makes me scorn it, for I defy the noise of the Rout, because they observe not the Truth, but the success of it. I do therefore commit this piece to the world, without any protection but its own worth, and the AEstimat of that soul that understands it. For the Rest, as I cannot force, so I will not beg their Approbation. I would not be great by Imposts, nor rich by briefs. They may be what they will, and I shall be what I am.  
Eugen. Phila.   

Magia Adamica: Or, The antiquity of Magic, &c.  

Coelum Terrae, &c.  
THat I should profess Magic in this Discourse, and justify the Professors of it withal, is impiety with Many, but Religion with me. It is a Conscience I have learned from Authors greater than myself, and Scriptures greater than Both. Magic is nothing else but the Wisdom of the Creator revealed and planted in the Creature. It is a Name (as Agrippa saith) ipsi Evangelio non ingratum, not distasteful to the very Gospel itself. Magicians were the first Attendants our Saviour met withal in this world, and the only Philosophers, who acknowledged Him in the Flesh before that he himself discovered it. I find God Conversant with Them, as he was formerly with the Patriarchs; He directs Them in their Travails with a Star, as he did the I sraelites with a Pillar of Fire; he informs Them of future Dangers in their Dreams, that having first seen his Son, they might in the next place see his Salvation. This makes me believe They were Filii Prophetarum, as well as Filii Artis; Men that were acquainted with the very same Mysteries, by which the Prophets acted before them. To reconcile this Science, and the Masters of it to the world, is an Attempt more plausible, than possible, the prejudice being so great, that neither Reason, nor authority can balance it. If I were to persuade a Jew to my Principles, I could do it with two words {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Hachamim, or Wisemen have spoken it. Give him but the authority of his Fathers, and presently he submits to the seal. Verily our Primitive Galilaeans (I mean those Christians whose Lamps burnt near the cross, and Funer all) were most Compendious in their Initiations. A Proselyt in those days was confirmed with a simple {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Believe, and no more. Nay, the solemnity of this short Induction was such, that Julian made it the Topic to his apostasy; {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} you have (Said he) nothing more than your Crede, to establish your Religion. Such was the simplicity of those first Times, dum calebat cruor Christi, whiles his wounds were as yet in their Eyes, and his blood warm at their Hearts. But Alas! those holy Drops are frozen, our Salvation is translated from the cross to the Rack, and dismembered in the Inquisition-house of Aristotle. be not angry O Peripatetic! for what else shall I call thy schools, where by several Sects and Factions Scripture is so seriously murdered Pro & Con! A spleen first bred, and afterwards promoted by Disputes, whose damnable Divisions and Distinctions have minced one truth into a Thousand heretical whimsies. But the Breach is not considered: divinity still is but Chaff, if it be not sifted by the Engine, if it acts not by the Demonstrative Hobby-horse. Thus zeal poisoned with Logic breathes out Contentious Calentures, and Faith quitting her wings and Perspective, leans on the Reed of a Sytlogism. Certainly I cannot yet conceive, how Reason may judge those Principles, Quorum Veritas pendet à solâ Revelantis authoritate, whose certainty wholly depends on God, and by Consequence is indemonstrable without the Spirit of God. But if I should grant that, which I will ever deny: Verily, a True Faith consists not in Reason, but in Love; for I receive my Principles, and believe Them being received Solo erga Revelantem amore; only out of my Affection to Him that reveals them.  
Thus our Saviour would have the Jews to believe Him first for his own sake, and when that failed for His works sake; But some Divines believe only for Aristotle's sake, if Logic renders the Tenet probable, than it is Creed, if not 'tis Alcoran. Nevertheless Aristotle himself, who was first Pedlar to this ware, and may for sophistry take place of Ignatius in his own Conclave, hath left us this Concession: {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} That Reason is subject to Error, as well as Opinion. And Philoponus expounding these words of his, 
a That is, We say not only Science, but the Principle also of Science to be something whereby we understand the terms.  Non solùm scientiam, sed & Principium Scientiae esse aliquod duimus, Quo Terminos cognoscimus, hath this excellent and Christian observation. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Taking indeca (saith he) the mind, to be the Principle, or first Cause of Knowledge, not our own, but that of God, which is above us: but taking the terms to be Intellectual, and Divine forms. Thus according to Aristotle (if you trust the Commem) the Divine mind is the first Cause of Knowledge: for if this Mind once unfolds himself, and sheds his light upon us, we shall apprehend the intellectual forms, or Types of all things that are within him. These forms he very properly calls {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} because they terminat, or end all Things: For by them the Creature is defined, and hath his Individuation, or to speak with Scotus, his haecceity, by which he is This, and not That. This now is the Demonstration we should look after, namely the Expansion, or opening of the Divine Mind, not a Syllogism, that runs perhaps on all four. If once we be admitted to this Communion of Light, we shall be able with the Apostle to give a Reason for our Faith, but never without it. Now you are to understand that God unfolds not himself, nisi magno Coelo priùs patefacto, unless the Heaven of Man be first unfolded. Amovete ergo velamen Intellectus 
C. Agrip.  vestri, Cast of the veil that is before your faces, and you shall be no more blind. God is not God a far off, but God at hand. Behold (saith he) I stand at the door, and knock: Open yourselves then, for it is written, If any man opens, I will come in, and Sup with Him. This is the inward mystical, not the outward typical Supper, and this is the spiritual Baptism with Fire, not that Elemental one with water. truly I am much comforted, when I consider two Things; First, that Magic did afford the first Professors of Christianity, whose Knowledge and Devotion brought them from the East to Jerusalem. Secondly, that this Art should suffer as Religion doth, and for the very same Reason. The main Motives, which have occasioned the present Rents, and Divisions of the Church, are the Ceremonies and Types used in it. For without controversy the Apostles instituted, and left behind them certain Elements or signs, as Water, oil, Salt and Lights, by which they signisied unto us some great, and reverend Mysteries. But our Reformers mistaking these things for superstitious, turned them all out of Doores. But verily it was ill done: for if the shadow of Saint Peter healed, shall not these shadows of Christ do much more? The Papist on the contrary knowing not the signification of these Types, did place a certain Inhaerent holiness in them, & so fell into a very dangerous idolatry. I omit many Things which he invented of his own, as Images, Holy lambs, and relics, adding these dead Bones to the Primitive, and beauteous body of the Church. Now to draw up the parallel: The Magicians, they also instituted certain signs, as the Clavis to their Art, and these were the same with the former, Namely Water, oil, Salt and Light, by which they tacitly discovered unto us their Three Principles, and the Light of Nature, which fills and actuates all Things. The common Man perusing their Books, but not their Sense, took Candles, Common Water, oil, and Salt, and began to Consecrat, and exorcise them, to make up his damnable and Devilish Magic. The Magicians had a Maxim amongst themselves, Quod nulla vox operatur in Magiâ, nisi prius Dei voce formetur, That no word is efficacious in Magic, unless it be first animated with the word of God. Hence in their Books there was frequent mention made of Verbum, and Sermo, which the Common Man interpreting to his own fancy, invented his charms, and Vocabula, by which he promised to do wonders. The Magicians in their writings did talk much of Triangles and Circles, by which they intimated unto us their more secret triplicity, with the Rotation of Nature from the Beginning of her Week, to her Sabaoth. By this Circle also, or Rotation they affirmed that Spirits might be bound, meaning that the Soul might be united to the Body. Presently upon this the Common Man fancied his Triangles and characters, with many strange Cobwebs or Figures, and a Circle to Conjure in; but knowing not what Spirit that was, which the Magicians did bind, he laboured, and studied to bind the devil. Now if thou wilt question me, who these Magicians were? I must tell thee, They were Kings, they were Priests, they were Prophets: Men that were acquainted with the Substantial, Spiritual Mysteries of Religion, and did deal, or dispense the outward typical part of it to the People. Here than we may see how Magic came to be out of Request; For the Lawyers and Common Divines, who knew not these Secrets, perusing the Ceremonial, Superstitious Trash of some scribblers, who pretended to Magic, prescribed against the Art itself as Impious, and Antichristian, so that it was a Capital sin to profess it, and the Punishment no less than Death. In the Interim those few who were Masters of the Science, observing the first Monitories of it, buried all in a deep Silence. But God having suffered his Truth to be obscured for a great time, did at last stir up some resolute, and active spirits, who putting the Pen to paper, expelled this Cloud, and in some measure discovered the Light. The Leaders of this brave Body, were Cornelius Agrippa, Libanius Gallus, the Philosopher, Johannes Tritemius, Georgius Venetus, Johannes Reuclin, called in the Greek Capnion, with several others in their several days. And after all These as an usher to the train, and one borne out of due time, Eugenius Philalethes.  
Seeing then I have publicly undertaken a Province, which I might have governed privately with much more Content and Advantage, I think it not enough to have discovered the Abuses and misfortunes this Science hath suffered, unless I endeavour withal to demonstrate the antiquity of it. For certainly it is with Arts, as it is with Men their Age and Continuance are good Arguments of their strength, and integrity. Most apposite then was that Check of the Egyptian to Solon: O Solon, Solon! Vos Graeci semper pueriestis, nullam habentes antiquam Opinionem, nullam Disciplinam tempore canam; You Grecians (said he) are ever childish, having no Ancient opinion, no Discipline of any long standing. But as I confess myself no antiquary, so I wish some Seldon would stand in this Breach, and make it up with those Fragments, which are so near Dust, that Time may put them in his Glass. I know for my own part, it is an Enterprise I cannot sufficiently perform, but since my hand is already in the Bag, I will draw out those few Pebbles I have, and thus I sting them at the Mark.  
This Art, or rather this mystery is to be considered several ways, and that because of its several Subjects. The Primitive, Original Existence of it is in God himself: for it is nothing else but the practice, or operation of the Divine Spirit working in the matter, uniting Principles into Compounds, and resolving those Compounds into their Principles. In this Sense we seek not the Antiquity of it, for it is eternal, being a Notion of the Divine wisdom, and Existent before all Time, or the Creation of it. Secondly, we are to Consider it in a Derivative Sense, as it was imparted, and communicated to Man, and this properly was no Birth, or Beginning, but a discovery, or Revelation of the Art. From this Time of its Revelation, we are to measure the Antiquity of it, where it shall be our Task to demonstrat upon what Motives God did reveal it, as also to whom, and when.  
The Eye discovers not beyond that stage, wherein it is Conversant, but the ear receives the Sound a great way off. To give an experieuced testimony of Actions more Ancient than ourselves, is a thing impossible for us, unless we could look into that Glass, where all Occurrences may be seen, Past, Present, and to Come. I must therefore build my Discourse on the Traditions of those Men, to whom the Word, both Written and mystical was entrusted, and these were the Jews in general, but more particularly their Cabalists. It is not my Intention to rest on these Rabbins as Fundamentals, but I will justify their Assertions out of Scripture, and entertain my Reader with proofs, both Divine and human. Finally, I will pass out of Judaea into Egypt and Graece, where again I shall meet with these Mysteries, and prove that this Science did stream (as the chemists say, their Salt-Fountain doth) out of jury, and watered the whole Earth.  
It is the constant Opinion of the Hebrews, That before the Fall of Adam there was a more plentiful and large Communion between Heaven and Earth, God and the Elements, than there is now in our Days. But upon the Transgression of the first Man. Malcuth (say the Cabalists) was cut off from the Ilan, so that a Breach was made between both Worlds, and their channel of Influences discontinued. Now Malcuth is the Invisible archetypal moon, by which our visible celestial moon is governed, and impregnated: And truly it may be that upon this retreat of the Divine Light from Infe riors, those Spots and darkness, which we now see, succeeded in the Body of this Planet, and not in her alone, but about the Sun also, as it hath been discovered by the Telescope. Thus (say They) God to punish the Sin of Adam withdrew himself from the Creatures, so that they were not feasted with the same measure of Influences as formerly. For the archetypal moon which is placed in the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Haschamaim, to receive, and convey down the Influx of the six superior Invisible Planets, was (as the Jews affirm) either separated from the Ilan, or her Broasts were so sealed up that she could not dispense her Milk to Inferiors in that happy and Primitive Abundance. But because I would not dwell long on this point, let us hear the Cabalist himself state it in a clear, and apposite phrase. Initio 
Porta Lucis.  Creationis Mundi Divina Cohabitatio erat descendens in Inferiora, & cum esset Divina Cohabitatio inferiùs, reperti sunt Coeli & Terra uniti, & erant Fontes, & Canales activi in perfectione, & trahebantur à Superiore ad Inferius, & inveniebatur Deus complens supernè & Infernè. Venit Adam primus, & peccavit, & diruti sunt Descensus, & confracti sunt Canales, & desiit Aquae-ductus, & cessavit Divina Cohabitatio, & divisa est Societas.  
That is: In the Beginning of the Creation of the world God did descend, and cohabitat with Things here below, and when the Divine Habitation was here below, the Heavens and the Earth were found to be united, and the Vital Springs and channels were in their perfection, and did flow from the Superior to the Inferior World, and God was found to fill all Things both Above, and Beneath. Adam the first Man came, and sinned, whereupon the Descents from above were restrained, and their channels were broken, and the watercourse was no more, and the Divine Cohabitation ceased, and the society was divided. Thus far my Rabbi; Now because I have promised Scripture to my Cabalism, I will submit the Tradition. to Moses, and truly that Rabbi also is of my side, for thus I read in Genesis. And to Adam he said, 
Cap. 3. v. 17.  Because thou hast eaten of the Tree, whereof I commanded I he saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: Cursed is the Ground for thy sake, in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy Life, Thornes and Thistles shall it bring forth unto Thee, and Thou shalt eat the Herb of the Field. In the sweat of thy face shalt Thou eat Bread, until thou return unto the Ground, for out of it wast thou taken, for Dust Thou art, and to Dust shalt thou return. This is the Curse, and Adam was so sensible of it, that he acquainted his posterity with it. For Lamech prophesying of his Son Noah, hath these words. This same shall comfort us, concerning our 
Cap. 5. v. 29.  work, and toil of our Hands, because of the Ground, which the Lord hath cursed. And this indeed was accomplished in some sense after the flood, as the same Scripture tells us. And 
Cap. 8. v. 25.  the Lord said in his Heart, I will not again curse the Ground any more for man's sake. Here now we are to consider two Things: First, The Curse itself, and next the Latitude of it. To manifest the Nature of the Curse, and what it was, you must know, that Good essentially is Light, and evil is darkness. The evil properly is a Corruption that immediately takes place upon the removal of that which is Good. Thus God having removed his Candlestick and Light from the Elements, presently the darkness and Cold of the Matter praevailed, so that the Earth was nearer her first deformity, and by Consequence less fruitful and vital. Heaven and Hell, that is Light and darkness, are the two Extremes which consummate Good and evil. But there are some mean Blessings which are but, in ordine, or disposing to Heaven, which is their last perfection, and such were these Blessings, which God recalled upon the Transgression of the first Man. Again there are some evils, which are but ‛ Degrees conducing to their last extremity, or Hell, and such was this Curse or evil, which succeeded the Transgression. Thus our Saviour under these Notions of Blessed and Cursed comprehends the Inhabitants of Light and darkness: Come you Blessed, and go you Cursed. In a word then, The Curse was Nothing else but an Act repealed, or a Restraint of those Blessings which God of his mere goodness, had formerly communicated to his Creatures: And thus I conceive there is a very fair and full harmony between Moses and the Cabalists. But to omit their Depositions, though great and high, we are not to seek in this point for the testimony of an Angel. For the Tutor of Esdras, amongst his other Mysterious Instructions, hath also this Doctrine. 
Cap. 7. V. 11, 12, 13.  When Adam transgressed my Statutes, then was that decreed, which now is done. Then were the Entrances of this World made Narrow, full of sorrow, and travel: They are but few and evil, full of perils, and very painful. But the Entrances of the Elder World, were wide and sure, and brought forth Immortal Fruit. Thus much for the Curse itself: Now for the Latitude of it, It is true that it was intended chiefly for Man, who was the only Cause of it, but Extended to the Elements in Order to him, and for his sake. For if God had excluded him from Eden, and Continued the Earth in her Primitive Glories, he had but turned him out of one Paradise into Another, wherefore he fits the Dungeon to the Slave, and sends a Corruptible Man into a Corruptible World. But in Truth it was not Man, nor the Earth alone that suffered in this Curse, but all other Creatures also; For saith God to the Serpent, Thou art Cursed above all cattle, and above every Beast of the Field, so that cattle and Beasts also were cursed in some measure, but this Serpent above Them all. To this also agrees the Apostle in his Epistle to the 
Cap. 8. v. 20.  Romans, where he hath these words. For the Creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by Reason of him, who hath subjected the same in hope. Because the Creature itself also, shall be delivered from the Bondage of Corruption, into the Glorious Liberty of the Children of God. Here by the Creature he understands not Man, but the inferior species, which he distinguisheth from the Children of God, though he allows them both the same Liberty. But this is more plain out of the subsequent Texts, where he makes a clear Difference between Man, and the whole Creation. For we know (saith he) that the whole Creation groaneth, and travaileth together in pain until now. And not only They, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the Adoption, to wit, the Redemption of our Body. Here we see the first Fruits of the spirit, referred to Man, and why not some second subordinat fruits of it to the Creatures in General? for as they were cursed in the Fall of Man, for Man's sake, so it seems in his Restitution they shall be also blessed for his sake. But of this enough. Let us now sum up and consider the several inconveniences our first Parent was Subject to, for they will be of some use with us hereafter. First of all, he was ejected from the presence of God, and exposed to the Malice and Tentations of the devil. He was altered from Good to Bad, from Incorruptible to Corruptible: In the Day (saith the Scripture) Thou eatest thereof, Thou shalt die the Death. He was excluded from a glorious paradise, and confined to a base world, whose sickly infected Elements conspiring with his own Nature, did assist and hasten that Death, which already began to reign in his Body. Heaven did mourn over him, The Earth, and all her Generations about him. He looked upon himself as a Felon, and a murderer, being guilty of that Curse and Corruption, which succeeded in the world because of his fall, as we have sufficiently proved out of the Mosaical and cabalistical Traditions. He was Ignorant, and therefore hopeless of Life eternal, and for this Temporal present Life, he was not acquainted with the Provisions of it. The Elements of husbandry were not as yet known, there was neither House nor Plow, nor any of those manual Arts, which make up a worldly providence. He was exposed to the Violence of Rains and Winds, Frosts and Snows, and in a word deprived of all Comforts Spiritual, and Natural. What should I say more? He was a mere stranger in this World, could not distinguish Medicines from poisons, neither was he skilled in the ordinary preparations of meat and Drink. He had no Victuals ready to his hands, but the crude unseasoned Herbage of the Earth, so that he must either starve, or feed as Nebuchadnezar did, with the Beasts of the Field. He heard indeed sometimes of a Tree of Life in Eden, but the Vegetables of this world for aught he knew might be so many Trees of Death. I conclude therefore that he had some Instructor to initiat him in the ways of Life, and to show him the intricate and narrow paths of that wilderness. For without question his outward Miseries, and his inward despair were Motives whereupon God did reveal a certain Art unto Him, by which he might relieve his present Necessities, and embrace a firm Hope of a future and glorious Restitution. For God having ordained a second eternal Adam, did by some mysterious Experience manifest the possibility of his coming to the First, Who being now full of despair, and overcharged with the Guilt of his own sin was a very fit Patient for so Divine and merciful a Physician. But omitting our own Reasons, which we might produce to this purpose, let us repair to the Cabalists, who indeed are very high in the Point, and thus they deliver themselves. God (say they) having made fast the doors of his paradise, and turned out Adam, sometimes the Dearest of his Creatures, did notwithstanding the Present Punishment, retain his former Affection towards him still. For God is said to love his Creatures not that there is any thing lovely in Them without their Creator, but in that he desires their perfection: That is to say he would have them Conformable to himself, and fit to receive his Image or Similitude, which is a spiritual Impress of his Beauty. Now to restore this Similitude in Adam was impossible unless God should reassume that to himself which was now fallen from him. So transcendent, and almost incredible a mercy had God treasured up in his secret Will, being resolved to unite the Nature of Man to his Own, and so vindicat him from Death, by taking him into the deity, which is the true Fountain and centre of Life. This Will (say the Cabalists) was first revealed to the Angels, and that by God himself in these words; Ecce Adam sicut unus 
Gen. cap. 3. ver. 22.  ex Nobis: Behold an Adam like one of us, knowing Good and evil! This speech they call Orationem occultissimam à Creatore Mundi cum beatis Angelis in suae Divinitatis Penetralibus habitam; A most secret Conference which God had with the blessed Angels in the Inner-Chambers of Heaven. Now that the same Scripture should speak one thing in the Letter, and another in the mystery, is not strange to me, how difficult soever it may seem to another. For verily this Text may not concern the first Adam, who knowing evil by Committing it, could not be like God in respect of that Knowledge, which made him sinful, and altogether unlike him. For God (if I may so express it) knows the evil only speculatively, in as much as nothing can escape his Knowledge, and therefore is not guilty of evil: For as Tritemius hath well observed, Scientia Mali non est Malum, sed usus; The knowledge of evil is not evil, but the practice of it. It remains then, that this Speech concerned the Second Adam, Christ Jesus, who knew the evil, but did not commit it, and therefore was like one of us, that is like One of the trinity, knowing Good and evil, and yet no way guilty of the evil. This primitive and Compendious gospel was no sooner imparted to the Angels, but they became Ministers of it, the Law (as St. Paul saith) being ordained in their hands, till Christ should take it into his own and their Administration to Man took Beginning with this Oracle. Thus (say the Cabalists) Raziel the Angel was presently dispatched to communicate the Intelligence to Adam, and to acquaint him with the Mysteries of both world, eternal, and temporal. For as he could not obtain the Blessings of the eternal World, unless by a true faith he apprehended the Three eternal Principles of it, so neither could he fully enjoy the benefits of this temporal World, unless he truly understood the Three Visible substances whereof it consists. For there are Three above, and Three beneath, Three (as St. John saith) in Heaven, and Three on Earth; The Inferior bear witness of the Superior, and are their only proper Receptacles. They are Signatures and Created Books, where we may read the Mysteries of the supernatural trinity. But to proceed in our former Discourse: The Cabalists do not only attribute a Guardian to Adam, but to every one of the Patriarchs, allowing Them their precedents and Tutors both to assist and instruct Them in their wearisome and worldly Peregrinations. A Doctrine in my Opinion not more Religious than Necessary, how Prodigious soever it may seem to some fantastic, insipid Theologicians. For Certainly it is impossible for us to find out Mysteries of ourselves, we must either have the Spirit of God, or the Instruction of his Ministers, whereher they be Men or Angels. And thus we see out of the Traditions and Doctrine of the Jews, how their Cabala, and our Magic came first into the world. I shall now examine the Scriptures, and consult with them: where (if I am not much mistaken) I shall find some Consequences, which must needs depend on these Principles, and thus I apply myself to the Task.  
The first Harvest I read of, was that of Cain, and the first Flocks, those of Abel. A shepherd's life in those Early days was no difficult Profession, it being an employment of more Care, than Art, but how the Earth was ploughed up before the sound of Tubal's Hammers, is a piece of husbandry unknown in these days. Howsoever it was a Labour performed, and not without Retribution. Cain hath his Sheaves, as well as Abel his Lambs: both of them receive, and both acknowledge the Benefit. I find established in these Two a certain Priesthood, they attend both to the Altar, and the first blood was shed by Sacrifice the Second by murder.  
Now so dull am I, and so short of syllogisms, those strange Pumps, and Hydragogues, which lave the Truthex Puteo, like Water, that all my Reason cannot make these Men Levites without Revelation. For I desire to know how came they first to sacrifice, and by whom were they initiated? If you will say, by Adam: The Question indeed is deferred, but not satisfied For I would know further In what school was Adam instructed? Now that it was impossible for him to invent these shadows and Sacraments of himself, I will undertake to Demonstrate and that by invincible Reason, which no adversary shall dare to contradict.  
It is most certain that the Hope and Expectation of Man in Matters of Sacrifices, consist in the Thing signisied, and not in the sign itself. For the Material Corruptible shadow is not the Object of Faith but the Spiritual, eternal Prototype, which answers to it, and makes the dead figure Effectual. The Sacrifices of the Old Testament, and the Elements of the New, can be no way acceptable with God, but inafmuch as they have a Relation to Christ Jesus, who is the great, perfect Sacrifice offered up once for all. It is plain than that Sacrifices were first instituted upon supernatural grounds, for in Nature there is no reason to be found, why God should be pleased with the Death of his Creatures. Nay the very Contrary is written in that Book, for Death both Natural and Violent proceeds not from the pleasure, but from the displeasure of the Creator. I know the learned Alkind builds the efficacy of Sacrifices on a sympathy of parts with the great world; for there is in every Animal a portion of the star-fire; which fire upon the Dissolution of the Compound is united to the General fire from whence it first came, and produceth a sense, or Motion in the Limbus to which it is united. This indeed is true, but that Motion causeth no Joy there, and by Consequence no Reward to the Sacrificer: for I shall make it to appear elsewhere that the Astral Mother doth mourn, and not rejoice at the Death of her Children. Now if we look back on these two first Sacrificers, we shall find Abel and his Oblation accepted, which could not be, had he not offerred it up as a Symbol, or Figure of his Saviour. To drive home my Argument then, I say, that this knowledge of the Type, in whom all offerings were acceptable, could not be obtained by any human industry, but by sole Revelation. For the Passion of Christ Jesus was an Ordinance wrapped up in the secret will of God, and he that would know it, must of necessity be of his council. Hence it is called in Scripture the Hidden mystery, for the Truth and Certainty of it, was not to be received from any, but only from him, who had both the Will, and the Power to ordain it. But if you will tell me (like the Author of the Praedicables) that men sacrificed at first by the Instinct of Nature, and without any Respect 
Porphyr. de Sacrif.  to the Type, I shall indeed thank you for my mirth, whensoever you give me so just a Reason to laugh. It remains then a most firm infallible Foundation that Adam was first instructed concerning the Passion, and in order to that, he was taught further, to sacrifice, and offer up the bloods of Beasts as Types and Prodroms of the blood of Christ Jesus, the Altars of the Law being but steps to the Cross of the gospel. Now if it be objected that several Nations have sacrificed, who did not know God at all, much less the Son of God, who is the Prototype and perfection of all Oblations: To this I answer, that the custom of Sacrificing was communicated to Heathens by Tradition from the first Man: who having instructed his own Children, they also delivered it to their posterity, so that this Vizard of Religion remained, thought the Substance and true Doctrine of it was lost. And thus in my Opinion it sufficiently appears, that the first men did sacrifice, not by Nature as Prophrrius that enemy of our Religion would have it, but some by Revelation, others by custom and Tradition. But now I think upon it, I have Scripture to confirm me concerning this Primitive Revelation, for Solomon numbering those several Blessings which the Divine wisdom imparted to the Ancient Fathers, amongst the rest specifies her Indulgence to Adam. She praeserved (saith he) the first formed Father of the world, that was created alone, and brought him out of his Fall. Here I find Adam in some measure restored, and how could that be, but by discovering unto him the Great Restorative Christ Jesus, the second Adam in whom he was to believe? for without Faith he could not have been brought out of his Fall, and without Christ revealed, and preached unto him, he could have no Faith, for he knew not what to believe. It remains then that he was instructed, for as in these last days we are taught by the Son of God, and his Apostles; so in those first times they were taught by the Spirit of God and his ministering Angels. These were their Tutors, for of them they heard the Word, and verily we are told that faith comes by hearing.  
It is now (as I think) sufficiently proved, that Adam had his Metaphysics from Above: our next Service (and perhaps somewhat difficult) is, to give some probable. if not Demonstrative reasons, that they came not alone but had their Physics also to attend them. I know the Scriptures are not positive in this point, and hence the Sects will lug their Consequence of Reprobation. Truly for my part. I desire not 
Coloss. 2. 8.  their Hum but their patience: I have though against the precept for many years attended their philosophy, and if they spend a few hours on my spermalogy it may cost them some part 
Act. 17. 18  of their Justice, but none of their Favours. But that we may come to the thing in hand; I hold it very necessary to distinguish Arts, for I have not yet seen any Author, who hath fully considered their difference. The Art I speak of, is truly physical in Subject, Method, and Effect But as for Arts publicly professed, and to the Disadvantage of Truth allowed, not one of them is so qualified: for they are mere Knacks and babbles of the Hand, or brain, having no firm Fundamentals in Nature. These in my opinion Salomon numbers amongst his Vanities, when he speaks in a certain 
Ecclesiast. 7. 29.  place, That God had made man upright, but he had sought out many Inventions. Of these Inventions we have a short Catalogue in Genesis, where Moses separates the Corn from the Chaff, the Works of God, from the whimsies of Man. Thus we read that Jabal was the 
Gen. 4. 20.  Father of such as dwell in Tents, his brother Jubal the father of all such as handle the Harp and Organ, and Tubal-Cain an instructor of every Artificer in brass and Iron. What mischiefs have succeeded this brass-and-iron Cyclops, I need not tell you: if you know not the fates of former Times, you may study the Actions of your own, you live in an Age that can instruct you. Verily, it is worth our observation that these Arts, and their tools, proceeded not from the Posterity of Seth, in whose Line our Saviour stands, for as we shall make it appear hereafter questionless they had a better knowledge; But they proceeded from the Seed of Cain, who in Action was a murderer, and in the Circumstance of it a fratricide.  
To be short, there is no Vanity to the vanity of Sciences, I mean those Inventions, and their Professors, which produce nothing true and Natural, but Effects either false, or in their Ends corrupt and Violent. But 'tis no Conquest to tread on ruins, Cornelius Agrippa, hath already 
De vanit. Scient.  laid these rodomontadoes in the Dirt, and that so handsomely, they were never since of a general Reputation. Give me an Art then, that is a perfect entire Map of the Creation, that can lead me directly to the Knowledge of the true God, by which I can discover those Universal invisible Essences which are subordinat to him; An Art that is no way subject to evil, and by which I can attain to all the Secrets and Mysteries in Nature. This is the Art wherein the Physics of Adam, and the Patriarchs consisted, and that this Art was revealed to him, I will undertake to demonstrat by Scriptures, and the Practice of his posterity.  
This Truth, I am certain, will seem difficult, if not incredible to most men, the Providence of God being praejudiced in this point, for they will not allow him to instruct us in natural things, but only in Supernaturals, such as may concern our Souls, and their Salvation. As for our Bodies he must not prescribe for their Necessities, by teaching us the true Physic, and discovering the laws of his Creation; for though he made Nature, yet he may not tutor us in Natural Sciences: by no means, Aristotle and his Syllogism can do it much better. Certainly this Opinion is nothing different from that of the Epicure, Deum ad Coeli Cardines obambulare, & nullâ tangi Mortalium curâ, That God takes the air I know not in what walks and Quarters of his Heaven, but thinks not of us Mortals, who are here under his feet. Questionless, a most eminent impiety, to make God as Jertullian said of old, Otiosum, 
Apolog. advers.  & inexercitum Neminem in rebus Humanis, An idle, unprofitable nobody in this 
Gent. Cap. 24.  World, having nothing to do with our Afaires, as they are Natural, and human. Sure these Men are afraid lest his Mercy should diminish his majesty, they suffer him to trade only with our immortal parts, not with Corruptible bodies that have most need of his Assistance, they are base Subjects, which he hath turned over to Galen, and the Apothecaries. Not so my friend: he hath created Physic, and brings it out of the Earth, but the Galenist knows it not; he it is, that pities our afflictions, he is the good Samaritane that doth not pass by us in our miseries, but pours oil and Wine into our wounds; This I know very well and I will prove it out of his own Mouth. Did not he instruct Noah to build an Ark, to pitch it within and without, and this to save life in a Time, when he himself was resolved to destroy it? In a time when the world was acquainted with no Mechanics, but a little husbandry, and a few Knacks of Tubal-Cain, and his brethren? But even those Inventions also proceeded from that light which he planted in man: an Essence perpetually busy, and whose Ambition it is to perform wonders, yet he seldom produceth any thing of his own, but what is fantastic, and monstrous. Did he not put his spirit in Bezaleel the son of 
Exod. 31.  Uri, and in Aholiab the son of Ahisamach? Did he not teach them to devise cunning works, to work in Gold, in Silver, in brass, in Cutting of stones, in setting of them, in Carving of Timber, and in all manner of Workmanship? But to come nearer to our purpose: did he not inform Moses in the Composition of the oil, and the Perfume? Did he not teach him the Symptoms of the leprosy, and the Cure thereof? Did he not prescribe a Plaster of Figs for Hezekiah, and to use your own Term; an Ophthalmic for Tobit? Did not Jesus Christ himself in the days of his Flesh, work most of his Miracles on our bodies, though his great Cure was that of our souls? Is he not the same then to day as yesterday? Nay was he not the same then from the Beginning? Did he care for our Bodies then, and doth he neglect them now? or being seated on the right hand of the Majestic on high, is he become lass good, because more glorious? God forbid to think so were a sin in Superlatives. Let us then take him for our president, for he 
Hebr. 4. 15.  is not (saith St. Paul) such an one which cannot be touched with the feeling of our Infirmities, but he is indeed one that looks to our present estate as well as to our future and is as sensible of our infirmity. as he is careful of our v. When he was on Earth, with the Dust of that Earth he made the Blind to 
John 9  see, and of mere Water he made Wine. These were the visible Elements of his Physic, or rather (so the Notion doth not offend you) of his Magic. But shall I show you his library, and in that his threefold philosophy? Observe then first, and censure afterwards. Have Salt in yourselves, and again, you are the salt of the Earth, and in a third place, salt is good. This is his mineral Doctrine, will you know his Vegetable? It is in two little Books, a mustardseed, and a Lillis. Lastly, he hath his Animal Magic, and truly that's a scroll sealed up, I know not who may open it. he needed 
Joh. cap. 2 v. 25.  not that any should bear witness of man, for he knew what was in man. And what of all this blasphemy says some splenetic Sophister? Behold I will instruct thee. First of all have Salt in thyself, for it will season thy soul that is infected, and preserve thy brains that are putrified with the Dirt of Aristotle. In the second place learn what the Salt of the Earth is, to which the Disciples are compared, and that by a regular, solid speculation. Thirdly come up to Experience, and by a physical legitimat practice know in what sense Salt is most good. Fourthly, examine the Lilies by Fire, and the Water of Fire, that thou mayst see their miraculous invisible Treasures, and wherein that speech of Truth is verified, That Solomon in all his royalty was not clothed like one of them. If thou wilt attempt a higher Magic, thou mayst being first seasoned. but in this place it is not my design to lead Thee to it. Animal and Vegetable Mysteries thou canst never perfectly obtain without the Knowledge of the first mineral secret, namely the Salt of the Earth, which is Salt and no Salt, and the Praeparation thereof. This Discourse I confess, is somewhat remote from that I first intended, namely that philosophy was revealed to Adam, as well as divinity, but some Pates are Blocks in their own ways, and as I told you formerly, will not believe that God dispenseth with any natural secrets; This made me produce these few Instances out of Scripture, as Praeparatives to the Proposition itself, and if he be any thing ingenious, to the Reader. His Compliance to my Principles I expect not, nay I am so far from it, he may suspend his charity. Let him be as rigid as Justice can make him, for I wish not to praevaile in any thing but the Truth, and in the Name of Truth, thus I begin.  
You have been told formerly, that Cain and Abel were instructed in Matters of Sacrifice by their father Adam, but Cain having murdered his brother Abel, his Priesthood descended to Seth, and this is confirmed by those Faculties which attended his posterity, for Enoch, Lamech, and Noah, were (all of them) Prophets. It troubles you perhaps that I attribute a Priesthood to Abel but I have besides his own practice, Christ's testimony for it, who accounts 
Luke cap. 11. ver. 15 & Math. 23. 35.  the blood of Abel amongst that of the persecuted Prophets and Wisemen. Now to conclude that these men had no Knowledge in philosophy, because the scripture doth not mention any use they made of it, is an Argument that denies something, but proves nothing. To show the vanity of this Inference, I will give you an Example out of Moses himself. We know very well there are no Prophecies of Abraham extant, neither do we read anywhere, that ever he did prophesy, but notwithstanding he was a Prophet. For God reproving Abimelech King of Gerar, who had taken Sarah from him supposing she had been his Sister, hath these words; Now therefore restore 
Genel. 20. 7.  the Man his Wife, for he is a Prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live. Hence we may learn, that the holy Ghost doth not always mention the secret perfections of the Soul, in the public Character of the Person. Truly I should not be so impudent, as to expect your assent to this Doctrine, if the Scriptures were silent in every Text, if I did not find there some infallible steps of Magic, such as may lead me without a lantern to the Archives of the Art itself. I know the Troup, and Tumult of other affairs are both the Many, and the main in the history of Moses. But in the whole Current, I meet with some Acts which may not be numbered amongst the fortunes of the Patriarchs, but are performances extraordinary, and speak their Causes not Common. I have ever admired that Discipline of Eliezer the steward of Abraham, who when 
Genes. 24. 11 12.  he prayed at the Well in Mesopotamia, could make his Camels also kneel. I must not believe there was any Hocas in this, or that the spirit of Banks, may be the spirit of Prayer. Jacob makes a Covenant with Laban, that all the spotted and brown cattle in his Flocks should be assigned to him for his wages. The Bargain is no sooner made, but he finds an Art to multiply his own Colours, and sends his Father-in-law almost a Woolgathering. And Jacob took him Rods of green Poplar, and of the hazel, 
Gen. 30. 37.  & chestnut-tree, & peeled white strikes in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods; And he set the rods, which he had peeled, before the Flocks in the Gutters, in the watering troughs when the flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink: And the Flocks conceived before the Rods, and brought forth cattle ring streaked, speckled and spotted. As for that which the Scripture tells us elsewhere, namely that Jacob saw in a dream, and behold 
Cap. 31. v. 10.  the Rams that leaped on the cattle were ringstraked speckled, and grisled, This doth no way impair our Assertion, or prove this generation miraculous, and supernatural: For no man, I believe is so mad as to think those Appearances, or Ramms of the dream, did leap, and supply the natural males of the Flock: God using this Apparition only to signify the Truth of that Art Jacob acted by, and to tell him that his hopes were effected. But I shall not insist long on any particular, and therefore I will passed from this Dream to another. Joseph being seventeen years old, an Age of some Discretion, propounds a Vision to his Father, not loosely and to no purpose, as we tell one another of our dreams, but expecting, I believe, an Interpretation, as knowing that his Father had the skill to expound it. The wise Patriarch being not ignorant of the Secrets of the two Luminaries, attributes Males to the Sun, and Females to the Moon, than allows a third Signification to the minor stars, and lastly answers his son with a Question: What is this Dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I, and thy Mother, and thy Brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee, to the Earth?  
Now, I think no man will deny but the Interpretation of Dreams belongs to Magic. and hath been ever sought after as a piece of secret Learning. True it is, when the Interpreter receives his knowledge immediately from God, as Daniel did, than it falls not within the Limits of a natural Science; but I speak of a physical Exposition as this was, which depends on certain abstruse Similitudes, for he that knows the analogy of parts to parts in this great body, which we call the World, may know what every sign signifies, and by Consequence may prove a good Interpreter of dreams. As for Jacob's first practice, which we have formerly mentioned, namely the Propagation of his speckled Flocks, it is an effect so purely magical that our most obstinate Adversaries dare not Question it. I could cite one place more, which refers to this Patriarch, and points at the Fundamentals of Magic, but being annexed to this discourse, it would discover too much, I shall therefore leave it to the Search of those, who are Considerable Proficients, if not Masters in the Art. The sum of all is this: Man of himself could not attain to true Knowledge it was God in mere mercy did instruct him. To confirm this, I shall desire the Reader to Consider his own Experience. We have in these our days many magical Books extant, wherein the Art is discovered both truly, and plainly. We have also an infinite Number of Men, who study those books, but after the endeavours of a long life not one in Ten Thousand understands them. Now if we with all these Advantages cannot attain to the Secrets of Nature, shall we think those first fathers did, who had none of our Libraries to assist them, nor any learned man upon Earth to instruct them? Could they do that without means, which we cannot do with means, and those too very considerable? The peripatetics perhaps will tell me their Syllogism is the Engine that can perform all this. Let 'em then in Barbara or Baroco demonstrate the first matter of the Philosopher's stone. But they will tell me there is no such thing. Behold I tell them again, and assure them too on my Salvation, there is, but in Truth their Logic will never find it out. It is clear then, that God at first instructed Adam from him his Children received it, and by their Tradition it descended to the Patriarchs, every Father bequeathing these Secrets to his Child, as his best and most lasting legacy. I have now attended 
Gen. 32. 28.  Jacob, the Israel of God, both in his Pilgrimage at Padan-aram, and in his typical Inheritance, the Earnest of the Land of Canaan. But two removals perfect not the wanderings of a Patriarch; God calls him from the Habitation of his Fathers to the Prison of his posterity, and provides him a plac of Freedom in the house of Bondage. I must follow him where his Fortune leads, from I saac's Hebron, to the Goshen of Phaaroh then back again to the Cave and Dust of Machpelah. As for his sons and their train, who attended his Motion thither, I find not any Particular Remembrance of them only Moses tells me of a general 
Exod. 1. ver. 6.  Exit: Joseph died, and all his brethren and all that Generation. I must now then to prove the Continuance and Succission of this Art address my self to the Court, where I shall find the Son of Levi newly translated from his Ark, and Bulrushes. Yet, there is something may be said of Joseph, and verily it proves how Common Magic was in those days, and the effects of it no news to the Sons of Jacob; for having conveyed his Cup into the Sack of Benjamin, and by that policy detained his Brethren, he asks them: What Deed is this 
Cap. 44. ver. 15.  that you have done? Knew ye not that such a man as I can certainly divine?  
In this Speech he makes his Brethren no strangers to the performances of Art, but rather makes their familiarity therewith an Argument against them: Knew you not? but the following words are very effectual, and tell us what qualified persons the ancient Magi were. They were indeed (as he speaks of himself) such as Joseph was, Princes, and Rulers of the People, not beggarly Gypsies, and Mountebanks, as our Doctors are now. It was the Ambition of the Great in those days to be Good, and as these Secrets proceeded from God, so were they also entertained by the Gods, I mean by Kings: For saith the Scripture, I have said ye are God's: a name Communicated to them, because they had the power to do wonders, for in this Magical sense the true God speaks to Moses: See, I have made thee a God to Phaaroh, and 
Exod. cap. 7. uc. 1.  thy Brother Aaron shall be thy Prophet. And verily this true Knowledge. and this Title that belongs to it, did that false Serpent praetend to our first Parents; Eritis sicut Dii, You 
Genes. cap. 3. vers. 5.  shall be as God's knowing good and evil. But 'tis not this subtle Dragon, but Bonus ille Serpeats, that good, Crucified Serpent, that can give us both this Knowledge, and this Title: 
John 1. 3.  for by him all things were made, and without him not any thing was made, that is made; If he made them then, he can teach us also how they were made. I must now refer myself to Moses who at his first Acquaintance with God, saw many Transmutations: One in his own Flesh, another of the Rod in his hand, with a third promised, and afterwards performed upon Water. It is written of him, that he was skilled in all the learning of the Egyptians: but for my part I do much question what kind of learning that was, the Scripture assuring me, and 
Exod. 7. 11. 22.  that by the Pen of Moses, their Wonders were effected by enchantments. This is certain, their Learning was Ancient, for I find Magicians in Egypt, four hundred and thirty years and upwards, before Jamnes and Jambres. This is Confirmed by Phaaroh's dream, which his own Sorcerers, and Wizards could not interpret, 
Gen. Cap. 9 ver. 41.  but Joseph alone expounded it. Verily it cannot be denied, but some Branches of this Art, though extremely corrupted, were dispersed among all Nations by Tradition from the first man, and this appears by more Testimonies than one. For in the Land of Canaan, before ever Israel possessed it, Debir, which Athniel the son of Kenaz conquered, was an university, at least had in it a famous library, wherefore the Jews called it Kiriath-Sepharim. I might speak in this place of the universality of Religion: for never yet was there a people, but had some confused Notion of a deity, though accompanied with Lamentable Ceremonies, and Super stitions. Besides, the Religious of all Nations have always pretended to Powers extraordinary, even to the performance of Miracles, and the healing of all Diseases, and this by some secret means, not known to the common Man: and verily if we examine all Religions, whether false, or true, we shall not find one, but it praetends to something, that is mystical. 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 pass, that all parties agree in the Action, but not in the Object. For Example: Israel did sacrifice, and the Heathen did sacrifice, but the One to God, the other to his Idol; Neither were they only Conformable in some Rites, and Solemnities of divinity, but the Heathens also had some Hints left of the Secret Learning, and philosophy of the Patriarchs, as we may see in their false Magic, which consisted for the most part in astrological Observations, Images, charms, and Characters. But it is my design to keep in the road, 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 miscarriage, as by their success. 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 days, but a private family? Notwithstanding when God appointed them their Possession, and that this private house was multiplied to a Nation, than these secrets remained with the Elders of the Tribes, as they did formerly with the Father of the family. These Elders, no doubt, were the mosaical 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 we read, That God took of the spirit that 
Numb. cap. 11. ver. 25.  was in Moses, and gave it to the Seventy.  
But lest any Man should deny that, which we take for granted. namely the philosophy of Moses, I shall demonstrate out of his own Books, both by reason, as also by his practice, that he was a Natural Magician.  
First of all than it is most absurd, and therefore improbable, that he should write of the Creation, who was no way skilled in the Secrets of God and Nature, both which must of necessity be known before we should undertake to write of the Creation. But Moses did write of it, Ergo. Now I desire to know what he hath written, Truth or a Lie; if Truth, how dare you deny his Knowledge? if a Lie (which God forbid) why will you believe him? You will tell me perhaps he hath done it only in general terms: and I could tell you that Aristotle hath done no otherwise: but think you in good earnest that he knew no more, than what he did write? There is nothing you can say in this point, but we can disprove it, for in Genesis he hath discovered many particulars, and especially those Secrets which have most Relation to this Art. For Instance; he 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 philosopher's stone: Moses calls it sometimes Water, sometimes Earth; for in a certain place I read. thus; And God said, Let the waters bring 
Gen. cap. 1. ver. 20.  forth abundantly the moving. Creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the Earth in the open Firmament. But elsewhere we read otherwise: And out of the Ground 
Cap. 2. ver. 19  the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air. In this later Text he tells us that God made every fowl of the air out of the Ground, but in the former it is written, he made them out of the Water. Certainly Aristotle and his Organ can never reconcile these two places, but a little skill in Magic will make them kiss, and be friends without a Philtre. This substance than is both Earth and Water, yet neither of them in their Common Complexions, but it is a thick water, and a subtle Earth. In plain terms it is a slimy, spermatic, viscous mass, impregnated with all powers celestial, and terrestrial. The Philosophers call it Water and no Water, Earth and no Earth: and why may not Moses speak as they do? 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 chemists, seem not to be wiser than God, but use that subject in your Art. which God himself makes use of in Nature. He is the best workman, and knows what matter is most fit for his work, he that will imitate him in the Effect, must first imitate him in the Subject. Talk not then of Flint-stones and antimony, they are the poet's 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 magical and mystical places, but in so doing I should be too open. wherefore I must forbear. I shall now speak of his Practice, and truly this is it which no Distinction, nor any other logical Quibble can wave, nothing but Experience can refel this Argument, and thus it runs. And Moses took the Calf which they had made, and burned it in the fire, and grinded it to powder, and strewed it upon 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 itself. This Calf was pure gold, the Israelites having contributed their earrings to the Fabric. Now would I gladly know by what means so solid and heavy a Body as Gold, may be brought to such a light powder, that it may be sprinkled 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 pass had he not ploughed with our heifer. But of this enough: if any man think he did it by common fire, let him also do the like, and when he hath performed, he may sell his powder to the Apothecaries. If I should insist in this place on the mosaical ceremonial Law with its several Reverend shadows and their Significations; I might lose myself in a Wilderness of Mysteries both Divine and natural; For verily that whole System is but one vast screen, or a certain Majestic Umbrage drawn 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 only inform the Reader that the Law hath both a shell, and a kernel, it is the Letter speaks, but the spirit in: erprets. To this agrees Gregory 
De statu Episcop.  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 spiritual. And elsewhere he 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 only, whose minds aspired upwards to heavenly Things. Now that the Law being given, might benefit the people in both parts, spiritual and literal, therefore did the lawgiver institute the Sanhedrim, a council of Seventy Elders, upon whom he had poured his Spirit, that they might discern (as Esdras did) the Deep Things of the Night, in plain terms, the hidden things of his Law. From these Elders the Cabala (I believe) had its original: for they imparted their Knowledge by word of Mouth to their Successors, and hence it came to pass, that the Science itself, was styled 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 desperate, than 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 books, 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 eternal Tables of the Soul. But it may be there is a blind Generation, who will believe nothing but what they see at hand, and therefore will deny that Esdras composed any such books; To these owls (though an unaequal Match) I shall oppose the Honour of Picus, who himself affirms, that in his time he met with the Secret books of Esdras, and bought them with a great Price; Nor was this all, for Eugenius Bishop of Rome ordered their Translation, but he dying, the Translators also fell asleep. It is true indeed, something may be objected to me in this place concerning the Cabala, An Art which I no way approve of, neither do I condemn it as our Adversaries condemn Magic, before I understand it; for I have spent some years in the search, and Contemplation thereof. But why then should I propose that for a Truth to others, which I account for an Error myself? To this I answer, that I condemn not the true Cabala, but the Inventions of some dispersed wandering rabbis, whose brains had more of Distraction, than their fortunes; of this thirteenth Tribe I understand the satirist, when he promiseth so largely.  
Qualiacunque voles, Judaei Somnia vendunt. These I say have produced a certain upstart, bastard Cabala, which consists altogether in alphabetical knacks. ends always in the Letter where it begins, and the Vanities of it are grown Voluminous. As for the more Ancient, and physical 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 Jews have so magnified with their famous Hyperbole: A Mose ad Mosen non surrexit sicut Moses.  
But to deal 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 merely typical 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 veil cast over the Secrets of the physical, hath Three Principles, commonly styled Tres Matres, or the Three Mothers: In the Masculine Complexion the Jews call them {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Emes, in the feminine {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 show you how the Physical Cabala expounds the literal. 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 air, Water, and Fire; a still Water, (mark that) a hissing Fire, and air the middle Spirit. Again saith 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, air, Water and Fire. The Heavens were made of the Fire, The Earth was made of the Water, (mark well this Cabalism) and the air 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 nonsense do 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 channel, before it springs. The Second Principle is the Voice of that first Spirit, this breaks forth like a wellspring, where the Water flows 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 which proceeded from the Third Spirit, and out of that Water went air and Fire. But God forbid that I should speak any more of them publicly, it is enough that we Know the Original of the Creature, and to whom we ought to ascribe it. The Cabalist when he would tell us what God did with the Three Mothers, useth no other phrase than this, Ponderavit Aleph cum omnibus, & omnia cum Aleph, & sic de Singulis, He weighed (saith he) Aleph with All, and All with Aleph, and so he did with the other Mothers. This is very plain, if you consider the various mixtures of the Elements, and their Secret Proportions. And so much for the physical part of the Cabala, I will now show you the metaphysical. It is strange to Consider what unity of Spirit, and Doctrine, there is amongst all the Children of Wisdom. This proves infallibly that there is an universal schoolmaster, who is Present with all Flesh, and whose Principles are ever uniform, namely the Spirit of God. The Cabalists agree with all the world of Magicians, That Man in spiritual Mysteries is both Agent and Patient. This is plain: For Jacob's Ladder is the greatest mystery in the Cabala. Here we find two extremes: Jacob is one, at the Foot of the Ladder, and God is the other, who stands above it, immittens (saith the Jew) Formas, & Influxus in Jacob, sive Subjectum Hominem, shedding some secret Influx of Spirit upon Jacob, who in this place Typifies Man in general. The Rounds, or steps in the Ladder signify the middle Natures, by which Jacob is united to God, Inferiors united to Superiors. As for the Angels of whom it is said, that they ascended & Descended by the Ladder, their Motion proves they were not of the superior hierarchy, but some other secret Essences, for they Ascended first, and Descended afterwards: but if they had been from above, they had Descended first, which is contrary to the Text. And here Reader, I would have thee study. Now to return to Jacob, it is written of him, that he was asleep, but this is a mystical Speech, for it signifies Death, namely that Death which the Cabalist calls Mors Osculi, or the Death of the Kiss, of which I must not speak one Syllable. To be short, they agree with us in Arcano Theologiae: That no word is efficacious in Magic, unless it be first quickened by the Word of God. This appears out of their Semhamaphores; for they hold not the names of angles effectual, unless some name of God, as {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} be united to them then (say they) in the power and virtue of those names they may work. An Example hereof we have in all Extracted names, as Vehu-Iah, Elem-Iah, Jeli-El, Sita-El. Now this Practice in the Letter was a most subtle Adumbration of the Conjunction of the substantial Word or Spirit with the Water; See that you understand me rightly, for I mean with the Elements and so much for the Truth. To Conclude, I would have the Reader observe, that the false grammatical Cabala consists only in Rotations of the Alphabet, and a Metathesis of Letters in the Text, by which means the Scripture hath suffered many Racks, and Excoriations. As for the true Cabala, it useth the Letter only for Artifice, whereby to obscure, and hide her Physical Secrets, as the Egyptians heretofore did use their Hieroglyphics. In this Sense the Primitive Professors of this Art, had a literal Cabala. as it appears by that wonderful, and most ancient Inscription in the Rock in Mount Horeb. It contains a prophecy of the Virgin Mother, and her Son Christ Jesus. engraven in Hieroglyphic framed by Combination of the Hebrew letters, but by whom God only knows, it may be by Moses or Elijah. This is most certain, it is to be seen there this day. and we have for it the Testimonies of Thomas Obecinus, a most learned Franciscan, and Petrus a Valle, a Gentleman, who travailed both of them into those parts. Now that the learning of the Jews, I mean their Cabala, was chemical, and ended in true physical performances, cannot be better proved than by the book of Abraham the Jew, wherein he laid down the Secrets of this Art in Indifferent plain terms and Figures, and that for the Benefit of his unhappy countrymen, when by the wrath of God they were scattered over all the World. This Book was accidentally found by Nicholas Flammel a Frenchman, and with the help of it he attained at last to that miraculous Medicine, which Men call the philosopher's stone. But let us hear the Monsieur himself describe it.  
There fell into my hands (saith he) for the sum of two florins, a gilded Book, very old, and large; It was not of Paper, nor Parchment, as other books be, but it was made of delicate rinds (as it seemed to me) of Tender young Trees: The Cover of it was of brass, well bound, all engraven with Letters, or strange figures, and for my part, I think they might well be Greek Characters, or some such ancient language. Sure I am, I could not read them, and I know well they were not Notes, nor Letters of the Latin, nor of the Gaul, for of them I understood a little. As for that which was within it, the Bark leaves were engraven, and with admirable diligence written, with a point of iron in fair and neat Latin letters coloured. It contained thrice Seven leaves for so were the leaves counted at the top and always every Seventh leaf was without any writing, but instead thereof upon the first seventh leaf there was painted a Virgin, and Serpents swallowing her up; In the Second Seventh a cross where a Serpent was Crucified; and in the last Seventh there were painted Deserts, or Wildernesses, in the midst whereof ran many fair Fountains from whence there issued forth a Number of Serpents, which ran up and down here and there. Upon the first of the Leaves was written in great capital letters of gold ABRAHAM THE JEW, PRINCE PRIEST LEVIT, ginger, AND PHILOSOPHER, TO THE NATION OF THE Jews, BY THE WRATH OF GOD DISPERSED AMONG THE Gauls SENDETH HEALTH.  
After this it was filled with great Execrations, and Curses (with this word Maranatha, which was often repeated there) against every person that should cast his eyes upon it, if he were not Sacrificer or Scribe. He that sold me this book, knew not what it was worth, no more than I, when I bought it. I believe it had been stolen or taken by violence from the miserable Jews, or found hid in some part of the Ancient place of their Habitation. Within the book, in the Second leaf he comforted his Nation, counselling them to fly Vices, and above all idolatry, attending with sweet patience the coming of the Messiah, who should vanquish all the Kings of the Earth, and should reign with his people in glory eternally. Without doubt this had been some wise, and understanding Man. In the third leaf, and in all the other writings that followed to help his Captive Nation to pay their Tributes to the Roman Emperors, and to do other things, which I will not speak of, he taught them in Common words the Transmutation of metals; he painted the Vessels by the sides and he informed them of the Colours, and of all the rest, except the first Agent of the which he spoke not a word but only (as he said) in the fourth and fifth leaves he had iutirely painted it, and figured it with very great Cunning and Workmanship: for though it was well, and Intelligibly figured and painted yet no man could ever have been able to understand it, without being well skilled in their Cabala, which goeth by Tradition and without having well studied their books. The Fourth and fifth leaf therefore was without any writing all full of fair Figures enlightened or as it were enlightened, for the work was very exquisite. First he painted a young man, with wings at his ankles having in his hand a Caducean Rod writhe about with two Serpents, wherewith he struck upon a Helmet which covered his head; he seemed to my small judgement to be Mercury the Pagan Gad. Against him there came running, and flying with open wings, a great old man, who upon his head had an hourglass fastened, and in his hands a hook or scythe like Death, with the which in terrible and furicus manner, he would have cut off the feet of Mercury. On the other side of the fourth leaf, he painted a fair Flower on the top of a very high mountain, which was sore shaken with the North wind; it had the Root blew the Flowers white and red, the leaves shining like fine Gold; And round about it the Dragons and Grisfons of the North made their nests. On the Fifth leaf shear was a fair Rose tree flowered in the midst of a Sweet Garden, climbing up against a hollow oak, at the foot whereof boiled a fountain of most white water, which ran headlong down into the Depths, notwithstanding it passed first among the hands of infinite people, who digged in the Earth, seeking for it; but because they were blind, none of them knew it, except here and there One, which considered the weight. On the last side of the fife leaf, was painted a King, with a great falchion, who caused to be killed in his presence by some soldiers a great Multitude of little Infants, whose Mothers wept at the Feet of the merciless soldiers. The blood of these Infants was afterwards gathered up by other soldiers, and put in a great vessel, whereto the Sun and the moon came to bathe themselves. And thus you see that which was in the first five leaves; I will not represent unto you that which was writien in good and Intelligible Latin in all the other written leaves, for God would punish me because I should commit a greater wickedness than he, who (as it is said) wished that all the men of than world had but one head, that he might cut it off at one Blow. Thus far Nicholas Flammel.  
I could now pass from Moses to Christ, from the Old Testament to the New: not that I would interpret there, but request the Sense or the Illuminated. I desire to know what my Saviour means by the Key of Knowledge, which 
Luc. cap. 11. ver. 52  the Lawyers (as he tells me and them too) had taken away. Questionless it cannot signify the Law itself, for that was not taken away being read in the Synagogue every Sabaoth. But to let go this: I am certain, and I could prove it all along from his Birth to his Passion, that the Doctrine of Christ Jesus is not only agreeable to the Laws of Nature, but is verified and established thereby. When I speak of the Laws of Nature, I mind not her Excessive irregular Appetites and Inclinations, to which she hath been subject since her Corruption, for even Galen looked on those obliquities as Diseases, but studied Nature herself, as their Cure. We know by experience that too much of any thing weakens, and destroys our Nature, but if we live Temperately, and according to Law, we are well, because our Course of life accords with Nature. Hence Diet is a prime Rule in Physic, far better indeed than the Pharmacopaea, for those sluttish Recepts do but oppress the stomach, being no fit fuel for a celestial fire. Believe it then, these excessive bestial Appetites proceeded from our Fall, for Nature of her self is no lavish insatiable Glut, but a most nice delicate essence. This appears by those fits, and pangs she is subject to whensoever she is overcharged. In common, customary Excesses there is not any, but knows this Truth by Experience, indeed in spiritual sins, the Body is not immediately troubled, but the Conscience is terrified, and surely the body cannot be very well, when the soul itself is sick. We see then that Corruption, and sin do not so much agree with us, as they do disturb us, for in what sense can our Enemies be our friends, or those things that destroy Nature, be agreeable to Nature? How then shall we judge of the Gospel? Shall we say that the preservation of Man is contrary to Man, and that the Doctrine of Life agrees not with Life itself? God forbid: The Laws of the Resurrection are founded upon those of the Creation, and those of Regeneration upon those of Generation, for in all these God works upon one, and the same Matter, by one and the same spirit. Now that it is so, I mean that there is a harmony between Nature and the Gospel, I will prove out of the Sinic Monument of Kim Cim priest of Judaea. In the year of Redemption 1625. there was digged up in a Village of China called Sanxuen, a square stone, being near Ten measures of an hand-breadth long, five broad, In the uppermost part of this stone was figured a cross, and underneath it an Inscription in Sinic Characters, being the Title to the Monument, which I find thus rendered in the Latin. Lapis in Laudem & memoriam aeternam Legis Lucis, & veritatis portatae de Judaea, & in China promulgatae, Erectus.  
That is: A stone erected to the praise, and eternal Remembrance of the Law of Light, and Truth, brought out of Judaea, and published in China. After this followed the body of the Monument, being a Relation, how the Gospel of Christ Jesus was brought by one Puen out of Judaea, and afterwards by the assistance of God planted in China. This happened in the year of our Lord six hundred, and thirty six. Kim Cim, the Author of this history, in the very beginning of it, speaks mysteriously of the Creation; Then he mentions three hundred sixty five sorts of Sectaries, who succeeded one another, all of them striving who should get most proselytes. Some of their vain Opinions he recites, which indeed are very suitable with the Rudiments, and Vagari's of the Heathen Philosophers. Lastly he describes the professors of Christianity, with their Habit of Life, and the excellency of their Law. Difficile (saith he) est ei Nomen Congruum reperire, cum ejus effectus sit Illuminare, & omnia Claritate perfundere; unde Necessarium fuit eam appellare; Kim ki ao, h. e. Legem claram & magnam. That is: It is a hard matter to find a fit name for their Law, seeing the effect of it is to illuminat, and fill all with Knowledge; It was necessary therefore to call it Kim ki ao, that is, the great Law of Light. To be short, Puen was admitted to the Court by Tai cum veu huamti King of China, here his Doctrine was thoroughly searched, examined, and sifted by the King himself, who having found it most true and solid, caused it to be proclaimed through his Dominions. Now upon what this Doctrine was founded, and what aestimat the King had both of it, and its professor, we may easily gather from the words of his Proclamation. First then, where he mentions Puen, he calls him Magnae virtutis Hominem, a man of great virtue or power; it seems he did something more than prate and preach, could confirm his Doctrine, as the Apostles did theirs, not with words only, but with works. Secondly the Proclamation speaking of his Doctrine, runs thus, Cujus intentum docendi nos a Fundamentis examinantes, invenimus Doctrinam ejus admodum excellentem, & sine strepitu exteriori, fundatam principaliter in Creatione Mundi: That is, The Drift of whose teaching we have examined from the very Fundamentals, we find his Doctrine very excellent, without any worldly noise, and principally grounded on the Creation of the world. And again in the same place, Doctrina ejus non est multorum verborum, nec supersicie tenus suam fundat Veritatem: His Doctrine is but of few words, not full of noise and notions, neither doth he build his Truth on superficial probabilities. Thus we see, the Incarnation, and Birth of Christ Jesus (which to the Common Philosopher are fables and Impossibilities, but in the book of Nature plain evident Truths) were proved, and demonstrated by the Primitive Apostles and Teachers out of the Creation of the world. But instead of such Teachers, we have in These our days two Epidemical Goblins, a schoolman, and a Saint forsooth. The one swells with a Syllogistial pride, the other wears a broad face of Revelation. The first cannot tell me why grass is Green: The second with all his Devotion knows not A. BC. yet praetends he to that infinite Spirit which knows all in all; and truly of them Both, this last is the worst. Surely the devil hath been very busy, to put out the Candle, for had all written Truths been extant, this false learning and hypocrisy could never have praevailed. Kim Cim mentions seven and Twenty Books which Christ Jesus left on Earth to further the Conversion of the world. It may be we have not one of them: for though the Books of the new Testament are just so many, yet being all written, at least some of them a long Time after Christ, they may not well pass for those Scriptures which this Author attributes to our Saviour, even at the time of his Ascension. What should I speak of Those many Books cited in the old Testament, but nowhere to be found, which if they were now extant, no doubt but they would prove so many reverend, Invincible patrons of Magic. But Ink and paper will perish, for the hand of Man hath made nothing eternal: The Truth only is Incorruptible, and when the Letter fails, she shifts that Body, and lives in the spirit.  
I have not without some labour, now traced this Science from the very Fall of Man to the Day of his Redepmtion; Along and solitary Pilgrimage, the paths being unfrequented because of the Briars, and scruples of antiquity, and in some places overgrown with the poppy of Oblivion. I will not deny but in the shades and ivy of this wilderness, there are some Birds of Night, owls and Bats, of a different Feather from our Phoenix; I mean some Conjurers, whose dark indirect Affection to the Name of Magic, made them invent Traditions more prodigious than their Practices. These I have purposely avoided lest they should Wormwood my stream, and I seduce the Reader through all these Groves and Solitudes to the Waters of Marah. The next Stage I must move to, is that whence I came out at first with the Israelites, namely Egypt; here if books fail me, the stones will cry out; Magic having been so enthroned in this place, it seems she would be buried here also: So many Monuments did she hide in this Earth, which have been since digged up; and serve now to prove that she was sometimes above Ground. To begin then, I will first speak of the Egyptian theology, that you may see how far they have advanced, having no Leader, but the Light of Nature. Trismegistus is so Orthodox and plain in the mystery of the trinity, the Scripture itself exceeds him not; but he being a particular Author, and one perhaps that knew more than those of his order in general, I shall at this time dispense with his authority. Their Catholic Doctrine, and wherein I find them all to agree, is This. Emepht's, whereby they express their Supreme God, and verily they mind the true One, signifies properly an Intelligence, or Spirit converting all things into himself, and himself into all Things. This is very sound divinity and philosophy, if it be rightly understood. Now (say they) Emepht's produced an Egg out of his mouth, which Tradition Kircher expounds imperfectly, and withal Erroneously. In the Production of this Egg was manifested another deity, which they call Phtha, and out of some other Natures and Substances enclosed in the Egg, this Phtha formed all Things. But to deal a little more openly, we will describe unto you their Hieroglyphic, wherein they have very handsomely, but obscurely discovered most of their Mysteries. First of all then, they draw a Circle, in the Circle a Serpent, not folded, but Diameter-wise, and at length; her head resembles that of a hawk, the tail is tied in a Small Knot, and a little below the head her wings are Volant. The Cirele points at Emepht's, or God the Father being Infinite, without Beginning, without End. Moreover it comprehends, or contains in itself the Second deity Phtha, and the Egg, or Chaos, out of which all Things were made. The hawk in the Egyptian Symbols signifies Light, and Spirit; his head annexed here to the Serpent represents Phtha, or the Second Person, who is the first Light, as we have told you in our Anthroposophia. he is said to form all Things out of the Egg, because in him, as it were in a glass, are certain Types or Images, namely the Distinct Conceptions of the paternal deity, according to which by Cooperation of the Spirit, namely the Holy Ghost, the Creatures are formed. The inferior part of this Figure signifies the Matter or Chaos, which they call the Egg of Emepht's. That you may the better know it, we will teach you something not Common. The Body of the Serpent tells you it is a fiery 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 fins, much like that of the Pulse, for his impetuous hot spirit shoots him on like a Squib. There is also another analogy, for the Serpent renews his youth so strong is his natural heat, and casts off his old skin. truly the Matter is a very Serpent, for she renews herself a thousand ways, and is nèver a perpetual Tenant to the same form. The wings tell you this Subject or Chaos is Volatile, and in the outward Complexion Arrie, and watery. 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 creeps. Lastly, the Knott on the tail, 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 assinity 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 air the five lesser Planets rule; and in their Central, hypostatical Earth, the fixed stars. For these Inferiors according to their Doctrine, are Provinces, or Thrones of those Superiors, where they sit Regent, and Paramont. To speak plainly, Heaven itself was originally extracted from Inferiors, yet not so entirely, but some portion of the Heavenly Natures remained still below, and are the very same in Essence and Substance with the separated stars and skies. Heaven here below differs not from that above but in her captivity, and that above differs not from this below but in her liberty. 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 themsame 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 infectious 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 general Principles to tell you something that makes for the Egyptian Practice, and proves them Philosophers adepted. The first Monument I read of to this purpose, is that of Synesius, a very learned intelligent man. He found in the Temple of Memphis {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} books of stone, and in those hard leaves these Difficult Instructions.  

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That is, One Nature delights in another; One Nature overcomes another; One Nature overrules another. These short lessons. but of no small Consequence. are fathered on the great Hostanes. The Second Monument is that admirable, and most magical one mentioned by Barachias Abenesi the Arabian. This also was a stone erected near Memphis, and on it this profound Scripture.  

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That is, 
Heaven Above, Heaven Beneath;  
Stars Above, stars Beneath;  
All that is Above, is also Beneath;  
Understand this, and be Happy.   
Under this were figured certain apposite Hieroglyphics, and for a Close to all, this dedicatory Subscription (I find it only in the Coptic Character, but our Founts wanting that Letter, I must give it you in the Greek.) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Isias the High Priest erected this, to the Resident Gods in Egypt.  
And now, though I formerly suspended the authority 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 (Said Hermes) est sicut id quod est Inferiùs, & quod est Inferiùs, est sicut id quod est superiùs. This is his mystery, and 'tis great: The Benefit that attends the Purchase, is no loss: habebis Gloriam totius Mundi, All the Pomp, and splendour of the World shall be Thine. To this Language, the Dialect of I sias doth so Echo, these two, like Euphorbus and Pythagoras, might pass for Ono. 
Coelum sursùm, (said 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 thyself 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 Hebrews, who lived amongst them to the term of four hundred and thirty years. This is plain; for their own Native Learning was mere sorcery and Witcheraft, and this appears by the testimony of Moses, who tells us their Magicians produced 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 Egyptian 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 disposed to be their Mercury. There is not any I believe who praetend to antiquity or philosophy, but have seen that famous Monument, which Paul the Third bestowed 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 'tis not my design to comment on Mcmphis, that were to make Brick, and look out the straw withal, Egypt having no complete Table but the World, over which her Monuments are scattered. This place than was the Pitcher to the Fountain, for they received their Mysteries immediately from the Hebrews, but their Doctrine, like their Nilus, swelling above its private channel, did at last overrun 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 hieroglyphical Monuments of Trisinegistus. But the Ancient orpheus in his Poem de Verbo Sacro. where he speaks of God, hath these words. 
Nemo Illun, nisi Chaldao de Sanguine Quiddam Progenitus vidit.   
None (saith he) hath ever seen God, but a certain Man descended of the Chaldaean blood. Now this was Moses, of whom it is written, That he spoke with God face to face, as one Man speaks with another. After This he gives us a short Character or Description of the deity, not in the recess, and Abstract, but in reference to the Incubation of his spirit upon Nature. Lastly he acquaints us with the original of his Doctrine, from whence it first came, and verily he derives it from the wellhead. 
Priscorum nos haec docuerunt Omnia Vates,  
Quae Binis Tabulis Deus olim tradidit Illis.   
The Priests (saith he) (or Prophets) of the Ancient Fathers taught us all These things, which God delivered to them heretofore in two Tables. Thanks be to that God, who made a Heathen speak so plainly. I need not tell you to whom these Tables were delivered, Cavallero De epistola can inform you. I cited this place, that it might appear, though the philosophy of Greece came generally out of Egypt, yet some Grecians have been disciplined by the Jews, and this is proved by no contemptible Testimonies. Aristobulus, who lived in the days of the Machabies, and was himself a Jew, writes to Ptolemy Philometor King of Egypt, and affirms that the Pentateuch, or five Books of Moses, were translated into Greek before the Time of Alexander the Great, and that they came to the hands of Pythagoras and Plato. Indeed Numenius the Pythagorean calls Plato, Mosen Atticâ linguâ loquentem, Moses speaking in the Greek Dialect; by which he minded not a similitude of style, but a conformity of principles. There is a story of Clearchus the Peripatetic in his first de somno, how true I know not, but the Substance of it is this. He brings in his Master Aristotle relating, how he met with a very reverend and learned Jew, with whom he had much Discourse about Things Natural and Divine, but his special Confession is, That he was much rectified by him in his Opinion of the deity. This perhaps night be, but certainly it was after he writ the Organon, and his other lame Discourses, that move by the Logical Crutch. Now if you will ask me, what Greek did ever profess any magical Principles? To this I answer, that if you bate Aristotle and his Ushers, who are borne like the Insecta, ex putredine, out of their Master's Corruptions; Greece yielded not a Philosopher, who was not in some Positions, magical. If any man will challenge my Demonstration herein, I do now promise him my performance. To give you some particular Instances, Hippocrates was altogether chemical, and this I could prove out of his own Mouth, but at this Time his works are not by me. Democritus who lived in the same Age with him, writ his {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that is, physical and mystical Things, in plain English, natural Secrets. To this mystical piece Synesius added the Light of his Comments, and dedicated them to Dioscorus Priest of Serapis. Of this Democritus Seneca reports in his Epistles, That he knew a secret Coction of pebbles, by which be turned them into Emeralds. Theophrastus, a most ancient Greek Author in his Book de lapidibus mentions another mineral work of his own, wherein he had written something of Metals. True indeed, that Discourse of his is lost, but notwithstanding his opinion is upon Record, namely that he referred the original of metals to water. This is confirmed by his own words, ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) as I find them cited by Picus in his Book De auro. But that the Art of Transmutation was in Request in. his days, and no late Invention or Imposture, as some think, appears by the Attempts and practice of that Age out of the same Theophrastus; For he mentions one Callias an Atheman, who endeavouring to make gold, brought his Materials into Cinnabar. It were an endless labour for me to recite all the Particulars, that Greece can afford in order to my present design, I will Therefore close up all in this short summary. There is no wisdom in Nature, but what proceeded from God, for he made Nature, he first found out, and afterwards ordained the very ways, and method how to corrupt, and how to generate. This his own wisdom and Knowledge, he communicated in some Measure to the first Man, from him his Children received it, and they taught it their posterity; but the Jews having the spiritual Birthright, This mystery was their Inheritance, and they possessed it entirely, being the anointed Nation, upon whom God had poured forth his spirit. By Tradition of the Jews, The Egyptians came to be instructed, From the Egyptians these secrets descended to the Grecians, and from the Grecians (as we all know) the Romans received their Learning, and amongst other common Arts, this magical mysterious one; This is confirmed by some proper, genuine Effects and Monuments thereof, namely that flexible malleable glass, produced in the days of Tiberius, and the miraculous Olybian Lamp. But these Times wherein I am now, and those through which I have past, are like some Tempestuous Day, they have more clouds, than Light. I will therefore enter Christendom, and here I shall find the Art in her infancy: True indeed, The Cradle is but in some private hands, few know where, and many believe there is no such Thing. The schoolmen are high in point of noise, and condemn all, but what Themselves profess: It is Aristotet's Almodena, they expose his Errors to the sale, and this continues for a long time. But every Thing (as the Spaniard saith) hath its Quando; Many years are past over, and now the Child begins to lisp, and peeps abroad in the fustian of Arnold, and Lullie. I need not tell you how he hath thrived since, do but look upon his train, for at this Day who praetends not to Magic, and that so magisterially, as if the Regalos of the Art were in his powers? I know not any Refragans, except some sickly Galenists, whose pale tallow faces speak more Disease, than Physic. These indeed complain their Lives are too short, philosophy too tedious, and so fill their Mouths with Ars longa, Vita brevis. This is true (saith the Spanish Picaro) for they cure either late, or never, which makes their Art long: but they kill quickly, which makes life short, and so the Riddle is expounded.  
I have now, Reader, performed my promise, and according to my Posse proved the antiquity of Magic. I am not so much a fool as to expect a general subscription to my endeavours, every man's Placet is not the same with mine; but Jacta est Alea, I have done this much, and he that will overthrow it, must know in the first place, it is his Task to do more. There is one point, I can justly bind an adversary too, That he shall not oppose Man to God, Heathen Romances to Divine Scriptures: He that would foil me, must use such weapons as I do, for I have not fed my Readers with straw, neither will I be confuted with stubble. In the next place it is my design to speak something of the Art itself, and this I shall do in rational terms, a form different from the Ancients, for I will not stuff my Discourse like a Wilderness with Lions and Dragons. To Common Philosophers that fault is very proper, which Quintilian observed in some Orators: Operum fastigia spectantur, latent fundamenta; The spires of their Babel are in the Clouds, its Fundamentals nowhere, they talk indeed of fine Things, but tell us not upon what grounds. To avoid these Flights, I shall in this my Olla (for I care not much what I shall call it) observe this Composition. First, I shall speak of that One only Thing, which is the Subject of this Art, and the Mother of all Things. Secondly, I will discourse of that most admirable, and more than natural Medicine, which is generated out of this one Thing. Lastly, though with some disorder. I will discover the means how, and by which this Art works upon the Subject; but these being the keys which lead to the very Estrado of Nature. where she sits in full solemnity, and receives the Visits of the Philosophers, I must scatter them in several parts of the Discourse. This is all, and here thou must not consider how long, or short I shall be, but how full the discovery: and truly it shall be such, and so much, that Thou canst not in modesty expect more. Now than you that would be what the Ancient Physicians were, Manus Deorum salutares, not Quacks and Salvos of the Pipkin; you that would perform what you publicly profess, and make your Callings honest and Conscionable, attend to the Truth without spleen. Remember that prejudice is no Religion, and by Consequence hath no Reward. If this Art were damnable, you might safely study it notwithstanding for you have a precept to prove all Things, but to hold fast that which is Good. It is your Duty not to be wanting to your selves, and for my part, that I may be wanting to noae, thus I begin.  
Said the Cabalist, Domus Sanctuarii, quae est hìc inferiùs; disponitur Secundum Domum Sanctuarii, quae est Superiùs, The Building of the sanctuary, which is here below, is framed according to that of the sanctuary, which is above. Here we have two worlds Visible and Invisible, and two universal Natures Visible and Invisible out of which both those Worlds proceeded. The Passive universal Nature, was made in the Image of the Active universal one, and the conformity of Both Worlds, or Sanctuaries, consist in the original conformity of their Principles. There are many Platonics, (and this last century hath afforded them some apish Disciples) who discourse very boldly of the Similitudes of Inferiors and Superiors, but if we throughly search their Trash, it is a pack of small Conspiracies; namely of the Heliotrope and the Sun, Iron and the loadstone, the Wound and the Weapon. It is excellent sport to hear how they crow being roosted on these pitiful Particulars, as if they knew the Universal Magnet, which binds this great Frame, and moves all the Members of it to a mutual Compassion, This is an humour much like that of Don Quixote, who knew Dulcinea, but never saw her. Those students then, who would be better instructed, must first know. There is an universal Agent, who when he was disposed to Create, had no other pattern or Exemplar whereby to frame and mould his Creatures, but himself, but having infinite inward ideas, or Conceptions in himself as he conceived so he created, that is to say, he created an outward form answerable to the inward Conception, or figure of his Mind. In the second place they ought to know, there is an universal Patient, and this Passive Nature was created by the universal Agent. This general Patient, is the immediate Catholic Character of God himself in his unity, and trinity. In plain terms, it is that Substance which we commonly call the first Matter. But verily it is to no purpose to know this Notion, Matter, unless we know the Thing itself, to which the Notion relates; we must see it, handle it, and by experimental ocular Demonstrations know the very Central Invisible Essences, and proprieties of it. But of these things hear the most excellent Capnion, who informs his Jew, and his Epicure of two Catholic Natures Material and Spiritual: Alteram (saith he) quae videri oculis, & attingi manu possit, propè ad omne Momentum alterabilem. Detur enim venia (ut ait Madaurensis) Novitati Verborum, rerum obscuritatibus inservienti. Haec ipsa cum eadem & una persistere nequeat, nihilominus à tali Virtute animi hospitio suscipitur, pro modo rectiùs quo est, quam quo non est, qualis in veritate res est, id est, mutabilis. Alteram autem substantiarum Naturam incorruptam, immutabilem, constantem, eandemque ac sempèr Existentem. The English of it speaks thus One Nature is such, it may be seen with the eyes, and felt with the hands, and it is subject to Alteration almost in every Moment. You must Pardon (as Apuleius saith) this strange Expression, because it makes for the obscurity of the Thing. This very Nature, since she may not continue one, and the same, is notwithstanding apprehended of the mind under her such Qualification, more rightly as she is, than as she is not, namely as the Thing itself is in Truth, that is to say, Changeable. The other Nature, or Principle of Substances, is incorruptible, immutable, constant, One and the same for ever, and always existent Thus he. Now this Changeable Nature whereof he speaks is the first Visible, Tangible Substance that ever God made; it is white in Appearance, and ‛ Paracelsus gives you the Reason why: Omnia (saith he) in Dei Manu alba sunt, is ea tingit, ut vult: All things when they first proceed from God, are white, but he colours them afterwards, according to his pleasure. An Example we have in this very matter, which the Philosophers call sometimes their red Magnesia, sometimes their white, by which Descriptions they have deceived many men; for in the first praeparation the Chaos is blood-red, because the Central Sulphur is stirred up, and discovered by the philosophical Fire. In the Second it is exceeding white and transparent like the Heavens. It is in Truth somewhat like Common Quicksilver, but of a celestial transcendent brightness, for there is nothing upon Earth like it. This fine substance is the Child of the Elements, and it is a most pure, sweet Virgin; for nothing as yet hath been generated out of her: but if at any time she breeds, it is by the fire of Nature, for that is her husband. she is no Animal, no Vegetable, no Mineral, neither is she extracted out of Animals, Vegetables, or Minerals, but she is preaexistent to them all, for she is the Mother of them. Yet one thing I must say, she is not much short of Life, for she is almost Animal. Her Composition is miraculous and different from all other Compounds whatsoever. Gold is not so compact, but every Sophister concludes it is no Simple; but she is so much One, that no man believes she is more. She yields to nothing but Love, for her End is Generation, and that was never yet performed by Violence. he that knows how to wanton, and toy with her. the same shall receive all her Treasures. First, she shedds at her Nipples a thick heavy water, but white as any snow; The Philosophers call it Virgin-milk. Secondly, she gives him blood from her very heart; it is a quick heavenly fire, some impioperly call it their sulphur. Thirdly and lastly she presents him with a secret crystal, of more worth and lusty than the white Rock, and all her Rosials. This is she, and these are her Favours: Catch her, if you can.  
To this Character and discovery of my own. I shall add some more Descriptions, as I find her limmed and dressed by her other Lovers. Some few (but such as knew her very well) have written that she is not only One and Tirce, but withal four and Five, and this Truth is essential. The Titles they have bestowed upon her, are divers. They call her their Catholic Magnesia. and the sperm of the World. out of which all natural 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 she mix with them Essentially. In the outward shape, or figure, she 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 mind not water of the Clouds, or Rain-water. nor water of the welford, nor Dew: but a certain thick permanent, saltish water, a water that is dry, and wetts not the hand, a viscous, slimy water generated out of the saltish fatness of the Earth. They call her also their twofold Mercury, and Azoth begotten by the Influences of two Globes, celestial, and terrestrial. Moreover, they affirm her to be of that Nature, that no fire can destroy her, which of all other Descriptions is most true, for she is fire herself, having in her a portion of the universal fire of Nature, and a secret celestial spirit, which spirit is animated, and quickened by God himself, wherefore also they call her their most blessed stone. Lastly, they say she is a middle nature between thick and thin, neither altogether Earthy, nor altogether fiery, but a mean aereal substance to be found everywhere, and every time of the year.  
This is enough: but that I may speak something myself in plain terms, I say she is a very salt, but extreme soft, and somewhat thin and fluid, not so hard, not so thick as common extracted Salts, for she is none of them, nor any kind of Salt whatsoever that man can make. She is a sperm that Nature herself draws 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 sperm, nor to extract it, it is already made, and wants nothing but a Matrix, and heat convenient for Generation. Now should you consider with yourselves where Nature leaves the seed, and yet many are so dull, they know not how to work, when they are told what they must do. We see in Animal Generations, the sperm parts not from both the Parents, for it remains with the Female, where it is perfected. In the great world though all the Elements contribute to the Composure of the sperm, yet the sperm parts not from all the Elements, but remains with the Earth, or with the Water, though more immediately with the one, than with the other. Let not your Thoughts feed now on the Phlegmatic, indigested Vomits of Aristotle, look on the green youthful, and flowery bosom of the Earth; Consider what a vast universal Receptacle this Element is. The stars and Plarets overlook 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 busy, brings his Fire round about her, as if he would sublime something from her bosom, and rob her of some secret, enclosed jewel. Is there any thing lost since the Creation? Wouldst 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 earthquakes? and how many by the Deluge? Thou dost perhaps desire to know where they are at this present: believe it they have one common sepulchre, what was once their Mother, is now their tomb; All things return to that place from whence they came, and that very place is Earth. If thou hast but leisure, run over the Alphabet of Nature, examine every Letter, I mean every particular Creature, in her book. What becomes of her grass, her corn, her Herbs, her Flowers? True it is, both Man and beast do use them, but this only 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 family so numerous, as that of the Grave. do but look on the Daily sports of Nature, her Clouds and mists, the scaeve, and pageantry of the air, Even these Momentary Things retreat to the Closet of the Earth. If the Sun makes her dry, she can drink as fast, what gets up in clouds, comes down in Water, the Earth swallows up ail, and like that philosophical Dragon eats her own tail. The wise Poets saw this, and in their mystical language called the Earth Saturn, telling us withal, she did feed on her own Children. Verily there is more Truth in their stately Verse, than in Aristotle's dull Prose, for he was a blind beast, and Malice made him so. But to proceed a little further with you, I wish you to concoct what you read, to dwell a little upon Earth, not to fly up presently, and admire the Meteors of your own brains. The Earth you know in the Winter time is a dull, dark, dead Thing. a contemptible frozen phlegmatic Lump. But towards the Spring, and Fomentation. of the Sun, what rare pearls are there in this dunghill? what glorious Colours, and tinctures doth she discover? a pure eternal green overspreads her, and this attended with innumerable other Beauties; Roses red and white, golden Lilies, Azure Violets, the Bleeding Hyacinths, with their several celestial odours, and Spices. If you will be advised by me, Learn from whence the Earth hath these invisible Treasures. This annual Flora, which appears not without the compliments of the Sun. Behold I will tell you as plainly as I may. There are in the world two Extremes, Matter and Spirit: one of these I can assure you is earth. The Influences of the spirit animate and quicken the matter, and in the Material Extreme the seed of the spirit is to be found. In middle Natures, as Fire, air, and Water, this Seed stays not, for they are but Dispenseros, or Media, which convey it from one extreme to the other, from the Spirit to the Matter, that is to the Earth. But stay my friend, this Intelligence hath somewhat stirred you. and now you come on so furiously, as if you would rifle the Cabinet. Give me leave to put you back. I mind not this Common, feculent, impure Earth, that falls not within my Discourse, but as it makes for your Manuduction. That which I speak of is a mystery, it is Coelum Terrae, and Terra Coeli, not this dirt, and dust, but a most Secret, celestial, Invisible Earth.  
Raymund Lullie in his Compendium of alchemy, calls the Principles of Art Magic, Spiritus fugitivos in Aere condensatos, in forma Monstrorum Diversorum, & Animalium, etiam Hominum, qui vadunt sicut Nubes, modo hùc, modo illùc, Certain fugitive spirits condensed in the air. in the shape of Divers Monsters. Beasta and Men, which move like clouds hither and thither. As for the Sense of our Spaniard, I refer it to his Readers, let them make the most of it.  
This is true; As the air, and all the Volatile Substances in it, are restless, even so it is with the first Matter. The eye of Man never saw her twice under one and the same shape but as clouds driven by the wind are forced to this, and that figure, but cannot possibly retain one constant form, so is she persecuted by the fire of Nature; for this fire, and this water are like two Lovers, they no sooner meet, but presently they play and toy, and this Game will not over till some new Babee is generated. I have oftentimes admired their subtle perpetual Motion, for at all Times, and in all places these two are busy, which occasioned that Notable sentence of Trismegistus, That Action was the Life of God. But most excellent, and Magisterial is that Oracle of Marcus Antoninus, who in his Discourse to himself, speaks indeed things worthy of himself, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The Nature (saith he) of the Universe delights not in any Thing so much, as to alter all Things, and then to make the like again. This is her Tick Tack, she plays one Game, to begin another. The matter is placed before her like a piece of Wax, and she shapes it to all forms, and figures. Now she makes a Bird, now a Beast, now a flower, than a Frog and she is pleased with her own magical performances, as men are with their own fancies. Hence she is called of Orpheus, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Mother that makes many Things, and ordains strange shapes, or figures. Neither doth she, as some sinful Parents do, who having their pleasure, care not for their Child; she loves them still after she hath made them, hath an eye over them all, and provides even for her sparrows. IT is strange to consider that she works as well privately as publicly, not only in Gardens where Ladies may smell her perfumes, but in remote Solitudes and Deserts. The Truth is, she seeks not to please others so much as herself, wherefore many of her works, and those the choicest, never come to Light. we see little Children, who are newly come from under her hand, will be dabbling in ‛ Dirt and Water, and other idle sports affected by none but Themselves. The Reason is, they are not as yet Captivated, which makes them seek their own pleasures; But when they come to Age, than Love or Profit makes them square their Actions according to other men's Desires. Some Cockney claps his Revenues on his back, but his galantry is spoiled, if his Mistress doth not observe it. Another fights, but his Victory is lost, if it be not Printed, it is the world must hear of his Valour. Now Nature is a free spirit, that seeks no Applause, she observes none more than herself, but is pleased with her own Magic, as Philosophers are with their Secret philosophy. Hence it is that we find her busy, not only in the Potts of the Balconies, but in Wildernesses, and ruinous places, where no eyes observe her, but the stars and Planets. In a word, wheresoever the fire of nature finds the Virgin Mercury, there hath he found his Love, and there will they both fall to their husbandry, a pleasure not subject to surfeits, for it still Presents new Varieties. It is reported of Marc Antony, a famous, but unfortunate Roman, how he sent his Agent over the world to copy all the handsome faces, that amongst so many excellent features, he might select for himself the most pleasing piece. Truly Nature is much of this strain, for she hath infinite beauteous patterns in herself, and all these she would gladly see beyond herself, which she cannot do without the matter, for that is her glass. This makes her generate perpetually, and imprint her conceptions in the matter, communicating life to it, and figuring it according to her Imagination. By this Practice she placeth her fancy, or Idea, beyond herself, or as the Peripatetics say, extra Intellectum, beyond the divine Mind, namely in the Matter; but the ideas being innumerable, and withal different, the pleasures of the Agent are maintained by their variety, or to speak more properly by his own fruitfulness, for amongst all the Beauties the world affords, there are not two, that are altogether the same. Much might be spoken in this place concerning Beautio, what it is, from whence it came, and how it may be defaced, not only in the outward figure, but in the inward Idea, and lost for ever in both worlds. But these pretty shuttles I am no way acquainted with, I have no Mistress but Nature, wherefore I shall leave the fine Ladies to fine Lads, and speak of my simple AElia Laelia.  

It was scarce Day, when all alone  
I saw Hyanthe and her Throne.  
In fresh, green Damascs she was dressed,  
And o'er a Saphir Globe did rest.  
This slippery sphere when I did see,  
Fortune, I thought it had been Thee.  
But when I saw she did present  
A majesty more Permanent,  
I thought my Cares not lost, if I  
Should finish my discovery.   

sleepy she looked to my first sight,  
As if she had watched all the Night,  
And underneath, her hand was spread,  
The White Supporter of her head.  
But at my Second, studied View,  
I could perceive a silent Dew  
Steal down her Cheeks; lest it should stain  
Those Cheeks where only Smiles should reign.  
The Tears streamed down for haste, and all  
In chains of liquid pearl did fall.  
Fair Sorrows; and more dear than joys,  
Which are but empty airs and noise,  
Your Drops present a richer Prize,  
For they are Something like her Eyes.   

Pretty, white fool! why hast thou been  
Sullied with tears, and not with Sin?  
'Tis true: thy tears, like polished Skies,  
Are the Bright Rosials of thy Eyes,  
But such strange Fates do them attend,  
As if thy Woes would never end.  
From Drops to sighs they turn, and then  
Those sighs return to Drops again:  
But whiles the Silver Torrent seeks  
Those flowers that watch it in thy Cheeks,  
The White and Red Hyanthe wears,  
Turn to Rose-water all her tears.   

Have you beheld a Flame, that springs  
From Incense, when sweet, curled, Rings  
Of smoke attend her last, weak Fires,  
And she all in Perfumes expires?  
So died Hyanthe. Here (said she)  
Let not this Vial part from Thee.  
It holds my Heart, though now 'tis spilled,  
And into Waters all distilled.  
'Tis constant still: Trust not false Smiles,  
Who smiles, and weeps not she beguiles.  
Nay trust not tears: false are the few,  
Those tears are Many, that are True.  
Trust me, and take the better choice,  
Who hath my tears, can want no joys.   
I know some Sophisters of the heptarchy, I mean those, whose Learning is all noise, in which Sense even Py-annets, and paraqueetoes are philosophical, will conclude this, all bait and poetry, that we are Pleasing not Positive, and cheat even the Readers Discretion. To prevent such impotent Calumnies, and to spend a little more of our secret Light upon the well-disposed Student, I shall in this place produce the Testimonies of some able Philosophers concerning the first Matter itself, as it is naturally found, before any alteration by Art; and here verily the Reader may discover the Mark, it is most easily done, if he will but eye the Flights of my Verse, or follow the more grave pace of their Prose. The first I shall cite is Arnoldus de Villâ nouâ, an absolute perfect Master of the Art, he describes the philosophical Chaos, in these plain terms. Lapis est, & non lapis, Spiritus, Anima, & Corpus; Quem si dissolvis, dissolvitur, & si coagules, coagulatur, & si volare facis, volat; Est enim Volat ilis, ulbus ut lacryma oculi: postea efficitur citrinus, salsus, pilis carens: quem nemo suâ linguâ tangere potest. Ecce ipsum jam suâ demonstravi descriptione, non tamen nominavi. Modo volo ipsum nominare, & dico, quod si dixeris eum Aquam esse, verum dicis; & si dixeris eum Aquam non esse, mentiris. Ne igitur decipiaris pluribus descriptionibus, & operationibus, unum enim quid est, cui nihil alieni infertur. It is (saith he) a stone and no stone Spirit, soul, and body; which if thou dissolvest, it will be dissolved, and if thou dost coagulate it, it will be coagulated, and if thou dost make it fly, it will fly; for it is volatile, or flying, and clear as a tear; afterwards it is made citrine then saltish, but without shoots. or crystals, and no man may touch it with his Tongue. Behold I have described it truly to thee, but I have not named it. Now I will name it, and I say, that if thou sayest it is Water, thou dost say the Truth, and if thou sayest it is not water, thou dost lie. be not therefore deceived with manifold Descriptions and Operations, for it is but one Thing, to which nothing Extraneous may be added. Thus Arnoldus; and he borrowed this from the Turba. Let us now hear his Disciple Raymund Lullie, who speaking very enviously and obscurely of Seven Metallic Principles, describes the Third wherein four of the seven are included in these words; Tertium (saith he) est Aqua clara Composita, & illa est res Argento vivo magis propingua, quae quidem reperitur supra Terram currens & fluens. Et istud argentum vivum in omni Corpore Elementato à materia aeris est proprie generatum, & ideo ipsius humidit as est valde ponderosa. That is: The third Principle, is a clear Compounded water, and it is the next substance in Complexion to quicksilver, it is found running, and flowing upon the Earth. This quicksilver is generated in every Compound out of the Substance of the air, and therefore the moisture of it is extreme heavy. To these I will add Albertus Magnus, whose Suffrage in this kind of Learning is like the Stylanx to Gold, for he had thoroughly searched it, and knew very well what part of it would abide the Test. Mercurius Sapientum (saith he) est Elementum Aqueum frigidum, & humidum, Aqua permanens, spiritus Corporis, vapour unctuosus, Aqua Benedicta, Aqua virtuosa, Aqua Sapientum, Acetum Philosophorum, Aqua Mineralis, Ros coelestis gratiae, Lac Virginis, Mercurius Corporalis, & aliis infinitis Nominibus in Philosophorum libris nominatur, quae quidem Nomina quamvis varia sunt, sempor tamen unam & eandem rem significant, utpote Solum Mercurium sapientum. Ex ipso solo elicitur omnis virtus Artis Alckimiae, & suo modo Tinctura alba & rubea. In plain English thus; The Mercury of the Wisemen is a watery Element, Cold and moist. This is their Permanent water, the spirit of the body, the anctuous vapour, the Blessed water, the virtuous water, the water of the Wisemen, the Philosophers Vinacre, the Mineral Water the Dew of heavenly Grace the virgin's Milk. the Bodily Mercury and with other numberless names is it named in the books of the Philosophers, which names truly though they are divers notwithstanding always signify one and the same thing, namely the Mercury of the Wisemen. Out of this Mercury alone all the Virtue of the Art is extracted and according to its Nature the Tincture both Red and White. To this agrees Rachaidibi the Persian; Sperma Lapidis (saith he) est frigidum & humidum in Manifesto, & in Occulto calidum & siccum. The sperm, or first matter of the stone is outwardly cold and moist but inwardly Hot and dry. All which is confirmed by Rhodian, another Instructor (it seems) of Kanid King of Persia; his words are these; Sperma est album & liquidum, postea rubeum. Sperma istud est lapis fugitivus & est Aereum & Volatile, & est frigidum & humidum, & calidum & siccum. The Sperm (saith he) is white and Liquid, afterwards red. This Sperm is the flying stone, and it is aerial, and volatile, cold and moist, hot and dry. To these subscribes the Author of that excellent Tract entitled Liber trium Verborum. Hic est Liber (saith he) Trium verborum, Liber Lapidis preciosi, qui est Corpus aereum & volatile, frigidum & humidum, aquosum & adustivum, & in eo est Calidit as & siccitas, frigiditas & humiditas, alia virtus in occulto, alia in Manifesto. This is the Book of Three words, meaning thereby Three Principles, The Book of the Pretious stone, which is a Body aerial and volatile cold and moist, watery and adustive, and in it is Heat and Drought, coldness and moisture, one virtue inwardly, the other outwardly. Belus the Philosopher in that famous and most Classic Synod of Arisleus, inverts the order, to conceal the practice, but if rightly understood, he speaks to the purpose. Excelsum (Saith he) 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 he) 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 four 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 tàm Coelestibus, quàm Terrestribus omnibus indè prodeuntibus; ita Limbus hic emergit ex Aquâ non unlgari, neque ex roar Coelesti, aut ex aere Condensato in Cavernis Terrae, vel in Recipiente ipso, non ex Abysso Maris, fontibus, puteis, fluminibusuè 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 he) was generated out of that Water, upon which the Spirit of God did move, all things proceeding thence, both celestial and terrestrial So this Chaos is generated out of a certain Water that is not common, not out of Dew, nor air 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 necessary to the perfection of the work, without any extrinsical Addition. I could produce a Thousand Authors more, but that were tedious; I shall conclude with one of the rosy Brothers, whose testimony is equivalent to the Best of These but his Instruction far more Excellent. His Discourse of the first Matter is somewhat large, and to avoid prolixity, I shall forbear the Latin, but I will give thee his Sense in punctual plain English.  
I am a goddess (saith he, 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 restless. Out of my Breasts I pour forth Milk and blood; boil 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 poison, adorned 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 scattered over all the world. Thy Parents are the Sun and moon, in Thee there is Water and Wine, Gold also and Silver upon Earth, that mortal man may rejoice. After this manner God sends us his Blessing and wisdom with rain, and the Beams of the Sun, to the eternal Glory of his Name. But consider o Man, what Things God bestows upon thee by this means. Torture the Eagle till she weeps, and the Lion be weakened, and bleed to death. The blood of this Lion incorporated with the tears of the Eagle, is the Treasure of the Earth. These Creatures use to devour and kill one another, but notwithstanding their love is mutual, and they put on the propriety, 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 mystery for the centre of the Middlemost Tree in the Terrestrial paradise, entering 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 be praepared, that they might obtain the Embers of the Eagle, and the blood of the lion. At this Gate there is a most sharp fight, for it produceth water and blood, and a spiritual bright Body. The Third Gate is the Fire, which conduceth to the maturity of the Medicine. The Fourth Gate is that of Multiplication and Augmentation in which Proportions and Weights are necessary. The fifth and last Gate is Projection. But most glorious, full rich, and high is he who attains to the fourth Gate, for he hath got an universal 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 only for Metals. This mystery 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 mystery, because of the Malice and wickedness of men, is given only 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 poisonous Dragon, present everywhere, and to be had for nothing. My water and my fire dissolve and Compound; out of my body thou shalt draw the Green, and the Red lion: but if thou dost not exactly know me, thou wilt with my Fire destroy thy five Senses. A most pernieious quick poison comes out of my Nostrils, which hath been the Destruction of many. Separate therefore the Thick from the Thin artificially, unless thou dost delight in extreme poverty. I give thee faculties both Male and Female and the Powers both of Heaven and Earth. The Mysteries of my Art are to be performed magnanimously, and with great Courage, if thou wouldest have me 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 only to the Wise, such as are pious and modest, who make of me a little world. Ordained I was by the almighty God for men, but (though many desire me) I am given only to few that they may relieve the poor with my Treasures, and not set their minds on Gold that perisheth. I am called of the Philosophers Mercury: my husband is Gold (Philosophical.) I am the old Dragon that is present everywhere on the face of the Earth; I am Father and Mother; youthful 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 me the Order of Nature is oftentimes inverted, in Colour, Number, Weight and Measure. I have in me 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 mere Nothing, all Colours shine in me, 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 turn 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 tears of Hyanthe. There is something in the fancy besides poetry, for my Mistress is very philosophical, 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 nonsense. This Love indeed were mere Luck, but for my part I dare trust her, and lest any man should mistake her for some things formerly named, I will tell you truly what she is; She is not any known water whatsoever, but a Secret Spermatic moisture, or rather the Venus that yields that moisture. Therefore do not you Imagine that she is any crude, phlegmatic, thin water, or she is a fat, thick, heavy, slimy humidity; But lest you should think I am grown jealous, and would not trust you with my Mistress, 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 he) that we could not possibly find, neither could the Philosophers find before us, any thing that would persist in the fire, but only the Unctnous humidity. A watery humidity, 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 we consider those humidities, which are hardly separated from those parts which are natural to them, we find not any such but the unctuous, viscous Humidities. It will be expected perhaps by some Flint, and Antimonie-Doctors, who make their philosophical Contrition with a Hammer, that I should discover this Thing outright and not suffer this strange birdlime 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 'tis Mercury of the Sun, and partly of Saturn, for it is extracted from these three metals, and without them it can never be 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 reply, and I believe it will sufficiently excuse me. Raimund Lullie, a man who had been in the centre 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 he) supra animam meam, 
Theor. cap. 6.  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 soul, that thou art damned, if thou shouldest reveal these Things. For every good thing proceeds from God and to him only it is due. Wherefore thou shalt reserve, and keep that Secret, which God only should reveal, and thou shalt affirm thou dost justly keep back those things, whose Revelation belongs to his honour. For if thou shouldest reveal 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 traitor to the majesty of God, neither should thy Treason be forgiven Thee. For the Revelation of such Things belong to God, and not to Man. So said the wise Raymond.  
Now for my part I have always honoured the Magicians, their philosophy being both rational, and Majestic, dwelling not upon Notions, but Effects, and those such as confirm both the wisdom and the power of the Creator. When I was a mere Errant in their Books, and understood them not, I did believe them. Time rewarded my Faith, and paid my credulity with Knowledge. In the Interim I suffered many bitter Calumnies, and this by some envious Adversaries, who had nothing of a Scholar, but their gowns, and a little Language for Vent to their nonsense. But these could not remove me, with a Spartan patience I concocted my Injuries, and found at last that Nature was magical, not peripatetical. I have no Reason then to distrust them in spiritual Things, whom I have found so orthodox and faithful even in natural Mysteries. I do believe Raymund, and in order to that Faith, I provide for my Salvation. I will not discover, that I may not be condemned. But if this will not satisfy Thee, who ever thou art let me whisper thee a word in the ear, and afterwards do thou proclaim it on the housetopps. Dost thou know from whom, and how that sperm or Seed which men for want of a better name call the first matter, proceeded? A certain myself and in his days a member of that society, which some painted Buzzards use to laugh at, writes thus; Deus optimus Maximus ex Nikilo aliquid creavit, illud Aliquid vero fiebat unum aliquod, in Quo Omnia. Creaturae Coelestes & I errestres. God 
See Jacob Behmen in his most excellent and prosound Discourse of the Three Principles.  (Saith he) incomparable good and Great, out of nothing created something, but that Something was made one Thing, in which all Things were contained Creatures both Coelesliall and terrestrial. This first Something was a certain kind of Cloud, or darkness, which was condensed into water. and this water is that One Thing in which all Things were contained. But my Question is, what was that Nothing, out of which the first Cloudy Chaos, or Something was made? Canst thou tell me? It may be thou dost think it is a mere Nothing. It is indeed Nihil quò ad Nos. Nothing that we perfectly know. It is Nothing as Dionysius saith, Nihil eorum quae sunt, & Nihil eorum quae non sunt. It is nothing that was created, or of those things that are: and nothing of that which thou dost call nothing that is of those Things that are not, in thy empty destructive sense. But by your leave, it is the True Thing, of whom we can affirm nothing: it is that transcendent Essence, whose theology is Negative, and was 
See dyonies. Ar. Th. Neg.  known to the Primitive Church, but is lost in These our days. This is that Nothing of Cornelius Agrippa, and in this nothing, when he was tired with human Things, I mean human Sciences, he did at last rest: Nihil Scire, (Said he) est vita felilcissima, to know Nothing is the happiest Life; true indeed, for to know this Nothing, is Life eternal. learn then to understand that magical Axiom, Ex Invisibili factum est Visibile, for all Visibles came out of the Invisible God, for he is the wellspring from whence all things flow, and the Creation was a certain stupendious metaphysical Birth, or delivery. This fine Virginwater, or Chaos, was the second Nature from God himself, and if I may say so, the Child of the Blessed trinity. What Doctor then is he, whose hands are fit to touch that Subject, upon which God himself when he works, lays his own Spirit, for verily so we read, The Spirit of 
Gen. c. 1.  God moved upon the face of the water? And can it be expected then, that I should prostitute this mystery to all hands whatsoever, that I should proclaim it, and cry it, as they cry Oysters? Verily these Considerations, with some other which I will not for all the world put to Papyr have made me almost displease my dearest friends, to whom notwithstanding I owe a better Satisfaction. Had it been my fortune barely to know this Matter, as most men do, I had perhaps been less careful of it, but I have been instructed in all the Secret Circumstances thereof, which few upon Earth understand. I speak not for any Ostentation, but I speak a Truth which my Conscience knows very well. Let me then Reader, request thy Patience, for I shall leave this discovery to God, who if it be his blessed will can call unto Thee, and say: Here it is, and thus I work it. I had not spoken all this in my own Defence, had I not been assaulted (as it were) in this very point, and told to my face I was bound to discover all that I knew, for this Age looks for dreams and Revelations, as the train to their invisible righteousness. I have now sufficiently discoursed of the Matter, and if it be not thy fortune to find it by what is here written, yet thou canst not be deceived by what I have said, for I have purposely a voided all those terms, which might make thee mistake any Common Salts, Stones, or Minerals for it. I advise thee withal to beware of all Vegetables, and Animals: avoid them, and every part of them whatsoever. I speak this because some ignorant, Sluttish Broylers, are of Opinion, that man's Bioud is the True Subject. But Alas! is man's blood in the Bowels of the Earth, that Metals should be generated out of it? or was the world, and all that is therein, made of man's blood, as of their first Matter? Surely no such Thing. The first Matter was existent before Man, and all other Creatures whatsoever, for she is the Mother of them all; They were made of the first Matter, and not the first Matter of them. Take heed then, Let not any man deceive thee. It is totally impossible to reduce any particular to the first Matter, or to a Sperm, without our Mercury, and being so reduced, it is not universal, but the Particular Sperm of its own Species, and works not any Effects but what are agreeable to the Nature of that Species, for God hath sealed it with a particular Idea.  
Let them alone than who practice upon man's blood in their chemical stoves, and Athanors, or as Sendivow hath it, in Fornaculis mirabilibus; they will deplore their Error at last, and sit without Sackcloth, in the Ashes of their Compositions.  
But I have done I will now speak something of Generation, and the ways of it, that the Process of the Philosophers upon this Matter, may be the better understood. You must know that Nature hath two Extremes, and between 
Anima Magica.  them a Middle Substance, which elsewhere we have called the Middle Nature. Example enough we have in the Creation. The first Extreme was that Cloud or Darkness whereof we have spoken formerly; some call it the Remote Matter, and the Invisible Chaos, but very improperly, for it was not invisible. This is the Jewish Ensoph outwardly, and it is the same with that Orphic Night; 
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O Night! thou black nurse of the golden stars.   
Out of this Darkness all things that are in this world came as out of their Fountain or Matrix: hence that Position of all famous Poets and Philosophers, Omniaex Nocte Prodiisse. The middle Substance is the Water, into which that Night or Darkness was condensed, and the Creatures framed out of the Water make up the other Extreme. But the Magicians when they speak strictly. will not allow of this last Extreme, because Nature doth not stay here, wherefore their philosophy runs thus; Man (say they) in his natural state, is in the mean Creation, from which he must recede to one of woe Extremes; either to Corruption, as commonly all men do for they die, and moulder away in their graves: or else to a spiritual, glorified Condition, like Enooh and Elijah, who were translated, and this (say they) is a true Extreme, for after it there is no Alteration. Now the Magicians reasoning with themselves, why the mean Creation should be subject to Corruption, concluded the Cause and Original of this disease to be in the Chaos itself, for even that was corrupted, and cursed upon the Fall of Man. But examining Things further, they found that Nature in her Generations did only concoct the Chaos with a gentle heat, she did not separate the parts, and purify each of them by itself, but the purities and impurities of the sperm remained together in all her Productions, and this Domestic enemy prevailing at last, occasioned the Death of the Compound. Hence they wisely gathered, that to minister Vegetables, Animals, or Minerals for Physic, was a mere 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 itself, 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 spiritual 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 certain incombustible aereal moisture. They found moreover that this fire was originally derived from Heaven, and in this sense Heaven is styled 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 express 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 (Saith he) is a Certain Nature, and that eternal, 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 called by Zoroaster, Fons fontium, & fontium cunctorum, Matrix continens cuncta. The Fountain of fountains, and of all fountains The Matrix containing all Things. We see by Experience that all Individuals live not only 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 itself lives not altogether by that heat which God hath enclosed in the parts thereof, but it is praeserved by the circumfused influent heat of the deity; For above the Heavens God is manifested like an infinite burning world of Light and Fire, so that he 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 sunshine. I say then that the God of Nature employs himself in a perpetual Coction, and this not only to generate, but to preserve that which hath been generated: for his spirit and heat coagulate that which is Thin, rarify that which is too gross, quicken the dead parts, and cherish the cold. There is indeed one operation of heat, whose method is vital, and far more mysterious than the rest, they that have use for it, must study 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, said the great Chaldaean. But because I will not leave thee without some Satisfaction, I advise thee to take the moon 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 nearer than the other. In the regulating of these two, there is a twofold geometry to be observed, Natural, and Artificial. 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 glass is one, and no more, but some Philosophers have used two, and so mayst thou. As for the work itself. it is no way troublesome a Lady may read the Arcadia, and at the same time attend this philosophy without disturbing her fancy. 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 chemistry of Sack-possets, and other finical sugar-sops. Concerning the Effects of this Medicine, I shall not speak any thing at this time, he that desires to know them, let him read the Revelation of Paracelsus, a Discourse altogether incomparable, and in very truth miraculous. And here without any partiality, I shall give my Judgement of honest Hohenheim. I find in the rest of his works, and especially where he falls on the stone, a great many false Processes, but his Doctrine of it in general is very sound. The truth is, he had some Pride to the Justice of his Spleen, and in many places he hath erred of purpose, not caring what Bones he threw before the schoolmen; for he was a pilot of Guadalcana, and sailed 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 difficulty in all the Art, namely the fire. It is a close, airy, circular, bright fire; the Philosophers call it their Sun, and the glass must stand in the shade. It makes not the matter to vapour, no not so much as to sweat, it digests only with a still, piercing, vital heat. It is continual, and therefore at last altars 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 close, I must tell thee, the Philosophers called this Fire their Balneum, but it is Balneum Naturae. a natural Bath, not an artificial one, for it is not any kind of Water, but a certain subtle temperate moisture which compasseth the glass, 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 requisite for the work, consider the Generation of Man, or any other Creature whatsoever. It is not kitchen fire, nor fever that works upon the Sperm in the Womb but a most temperate, moist, 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 sperm, 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 destroys it, and prevents all generation, for if it be overheated but for some few minutes, the white, and red Sulphurs will never essentially unite, and coagulate. On the Contrary, if it takes cold but for half an hour, the work being once well begun, it will never sort to any good purpose. I speak out of my own Experience, for I have (as they phrase it) given myself a Box on the ear, and that twice or thrice, out of a certain confident Negligence, Expecting that, which I knew well enough, could never be. Nature moves not by the theory of men, but by their practice, and surely Wit and Reason can perform no Miracles, unless the hands supply them. Be sure then to know this fire in the first place, and accordingly be sure to make use of it. But for thy better security, I will describe it to thee once more. It is a dry, vaporous humid fire; it goes round about the glass, and is both equal and continual. It is restless, and some have called it the white philosophical coal. It is in itself natural, but the praeparation of it is artificial, it is a heat of the Dead wherefore some call it their unnatural, Necromantic fire. It is no part of the Matter, neither is it taken out of it, but it is an external fire, and serves only to stir up, and strengthen the inward oppressed fire of the Chaos. But let us hear Nature herself, for thus she speaks in the Serious Romance of Mehung. Post putrefactionem sit ipsa Generatio, idque per internum incomburibilem Calorem ad Argenti vivi frigiditatem calefaciendam, quod tantum equidem patitur, ut tandem cum sulphur suo uniatur. Omne illud uno in Vase complexum est, I gnis, aer, & Aqua videlicet, quae in Terreno suo vase accipio, eademque uno in Alembico relinquo; & tum coquo, dissolvo, & sublimo, absque Malleo, forcipe, vel lima, sine Carbonibus, vapore, Igne aut Mariae-Balneo, & Sophistarum Alembicis: Coelestem namque meum ignem habeo, qui Elementalem, prout Materia idoneam decentemque formam habere desyderat, excitat. That is: After Putrefaction succeeds Generation, and that because of the inward incombustible Sulphur, that heats, or thickens the Coldness, and Crudities of the Quicksilver which suffers so much thereby, that at last it is united to the Sulphur, and made one Body therewith. All this namely (Fire, air, and Water) is contained in one vessel; in their earthly Vessel that is in their gross Body, or Composition I take them and then I leave them in one Alembic, where I concoct, dissolve, and sublime them without the help of Hammer, tongues, or File; without coals, smoke, Fire, or Bath, or the Alembics of the Sophisters. For I have my heavenly fire, which excites, or stirs up the elemental one, according as the matter desires a becoming, agreeable form. Now Nature everywhere is one and the same, wherefore she reads the same lesson to Madathan, who thinking in his Ignorance to make the stone without dissolution, receives from her this Check. An tu nunc Cochleas, vel Cancros cum Test is devorare niteris? An non priùs à vetussissimo Planetarum Coquo maturari, & praeparari illos oportet? dost thou think (Says he) to eat Oysters shells and all? aught they not first to be opened, and prepared by the most Ancient cook of the Planets? With these agrees the excellent Flammel, who speaking of the Solar, and Lunar Mercury, and the Plantation of the one in the other, hath these words. Sumantur itaque, & noctu, interdiuque assiduè supra ignem in Alembico foveantur. Non autem ignis Carbonarius, vel è ligno confectus sed clarus pellucidusque ignis sit, non secus ac Sol ipse, qui nunquam plus justo calidus ardensque sed omni tempore ejusdem caloris esse debet. Take them therefore (Saith he) and cherish them over a fire in thy Alembic: But it must not be a fire of coals, nor of any wood, but a bright shining fire, like the Sun itself, whose heat must never be excessive but always of one and the same Degree. This is enough, and too much, for the Secret in itself is not great, but the Consequences of it are so, which made the Philosophers hide it. Thus Reader thou hast the outward Agent most fully and faithfully described. It is in Truth a very simple mystery, and if I should tell it openly, ridiculous. Howsoever by this, and not without it, did the Magicians unlock the Chaos, and certainly it is no news that an Iron-key should open a treasury of Gold. In this universal Subject they found the Natures of all particulars, and this is signified to us by that Maxim: Qui Proteam non novit, adeat Pana. This Pan is their Chaos, or Mercury, which expounds Proteus. namely the Particular Creatures, commonly called inidividuals, For Pan transforms himself into a Proteus, that is, into all varieties of Species, into Animals, Vegetables, and Minerals; for out of the universal Nature, or first matter, all these are made, and Pan hath their Proprieties in himself. Hence it is that Mercury is called the Interpreter, or Expositor of Inferiors and Superiors, under which Notion the Ancient Orpheus invokes him. 
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Hear me o Mercury, thou messenger of Jove, and son of Maia, the Expositor of all Things.   
Now for the Birth of this Mercury, and the Place of it, I find but few Philosophers that mention it. Zoroaster points at it, and that very obscurely, where he speaks of his Jynges or the i in these words;  
Multae quidem hae scandunt lucidos Mundos,  
Insilentes: Quarum Summitates sunt Tres.  
Subjectum est Ipsis Principale pratum.  
This Pratum, or Meadow of the ideas, a place well known to the Philosophers, (Flammel calls it their Garden, and the Mountain of the seven Metals, see his summary, where he describes it most learnedly for he was instructed by a Jew) is a certain secret, but universal Region: one calls it Regio Lucis, the Region of Light, but to the Cabalist it is Nox Corporis, a term extremely apposite, and significant. It is in few words the Rendezvous of all Spirits, for in this place the i when they descend from the Bright world to the Dark one, are incorporated. For thy Better Intelligence thou must know that Spirits whiles they move in Heaven, which is the Fire-world, contract no impurities at all, according to that of Stellatus; 
Omne quod est supra Lunam, aeternumque bonumque  
Esse scias, nec triste aliquid Coelestia tangit.   
All (Saith he) that is above the Moon, is eternal and good, and there is no Corruption of Heavenly Things. On the contrary, when Spirits descend to the elemental Matrix, and reside in her Kingdom, they are blurred with the Original leprosy of the Matter, for here the Curse raves and rules, but in Heaven it is not predominant. To put an end to this point, let us hear the admirable Agrippa state it; This is he, between whose lips the Truth did breathe, and knew no other Oracle. Coelestium 
Occult. phil.  vires, dum in se existunt, & à Datore Luminum per sanctas Intelligentias, & Coelos influuntur, quousque ad Lunam pervenerint: earum Influentia bona est, tanquam in primo gradu; deinde autem quando in Subjecto viliori suscipitur, ipsa etiam vilescit. That is; The Heavenly powers, or spiritual Essences whiles they are in themselves, or before they are united to the Matter, and are showered down from the Father of Lights through the holy Intelligences and the Heavens, until they come to the moon: Their Influence is good, as in the first degree; But when it is received in a corrupt Subject, the Influence also is corrupted. Thus he Now the A stronomers pretend to a strange familiarity with the stars, the Natural Philosophers talk as much: and truly an Ignorant man might well think they had been in heaven, and conversed, like Lucian's Menippus, with Jove himself. But in good Earnest these Men are no more Eagles than Sancho, their fancies are like his flights in the Blanket, and every way as short of the Skies. Ask them but where the Influences are received, and how; bid them by fair Experience prove they are present in the Elements, and you have undone them; if you will trust the four Corners of a Figure, or the three Legs of a Syllogism, you may; this is all their Evidence. Well fare the Magicians then, whose Art can demonstrate these Things, and put the very Influences in our hands. Let it be thy study to know their Region of Light, and to enter into the Treasures thereof, for than thou mayst converse with Spirits, and understand the Nature of invisible Things. Then will appear unto thee the Universal Subject, and the two mineral sperms, White, and Red, of which I must speak somewhat, before I make an end.  
In the pythagorical Synod, which consisted of Threescore and Ten Philosophers, all Masters of the Art, it is thus written. I gnis Spissum in Aera cadit; Aeris vero Spissum, & quod ex igne Spisso congregatur, in Aquam incidit; Aquae quoque Spissum, & quod ex I gnis & Aeris Spisso coadunatur, in Terrâ quiescit. Ita istorum Trium spissuudo in Terrâ guiescit, inque eâ conjuncta sunt. Ipsa ergo Terra omnibus caeteris Elementis spissior est, uti Palam apparet, & videre est. That is, The thickness, or Sperm of the Fire falls into the air; The Thickness or Spermatic part of the air. and in it the Sperm of the Fire, falls into the Water; The Thickness or spermatic Substance of the Water, and in it the two sperms of Fire and air fall into the Earth, and there they rest, and are conjoined. Therefore the Earth itself is thicker than the other Elements as it openly appears, and to the eye is manifest. Remember now what I have told thee formerly concerning the Earth; what a general hospital it is, how it receives all things, not only Beasts and Vegetables, but proud and glorious Man: when Death hath ruined him, his courser parts stay here, and know no other Home. This Earth to Earth, is just the Doctrine of the Magi; metals (say they) and all things may be reduced into that whereof they were made. They speak the very Truth, it is God's own Principle, and he first taught it Ad. m. Dust 
Gen. c. 3. ver. 19  thou art, and to Dust shalt thou return. But lest any man should be Deceived by us, I think it just to inform you, there are two reductions; One is Violent and Destructive, reducing Bodies to their Extremes, and properly it is Death, or the Calcination of the common chemist. The other is Vital, and Generative, resolving Bodies into their Sperm, or middle Substance out of which Nature made them, for Nature makes not Bodies immediately of the Elements but of a Sperm, which she draws out of the Elements. I shall explain myself to you by Example. An Egg is the Sperm, or middle Substance out of which a Chick is engendered, and the moisture of it is viscous, and slimy, a water and no water, for such a sperm ought to be. Suppose Dr. Coale, I mean some broiler, had a mind to generat something out of this Egg: questionless he would first distil it, and that with a fire able to roast the Hen that laid it, then would he calcine the Caput mortuum, and finally produce his Nothing. Here you are to observe that Bodies are nothing else but Sperm coagulated, and he that destroys the Body, by consequence destroys the Sperm. Now to reduce Bodies into Elements of earth and water, as we have instanced in the Egg, is to reduce them into Extremes beyond their Sperm, for Elements are not the Sperm, but the Sperm is a Compound made of the Elements, and containing in itself all that is requisite to the frame of the Body. Wherefore be well advised before you distil, and Quarter any particular Bodies, for having once separated their Elements, you may never generat, unless you can make a Sperm of those Elements, but that is impossible for man to do, it is the Power of God, and Nature. Labour than you that would be accounted wise, to find out our Mercury, so shall you reduce things to their mean spermatical Chaos, but avoid the broiling Destruction. This Doctrine will spare you the vain Task of Distillations, if you will but remember this Truth: That Sperms are not made by Separation but by Composition of Elements, and to bring a Body into Sperm, is not to distil it, but to reduce the whole into one thick water, keeping all the parts thereof in their first natural union. But that I may return at last to my former Citation of the Synod All those Influences of the Elements being united in one Mass, make our Sperm or our Earth, which is Earth and no Earth. Take it if thou dost know it, and divide the Essences thereof, not by violence, but by natural putrefaction, such as may occasion a genuine Dissolution of the Compound. Here thou shalt find a miraculous white Water, an Influence of the moon, which is the Mother of our Chaos; It rules in two Elements Earth and Water. After this appears the Sperm or influx of the Sun, which is the father of it. It is a quick, celestial fire, incorporated in a thin, oleous, aereal moisture. It is incombustible, for it is fire itself, and feeds upon fire, and the longer it stays in the fire, the more glorious it grows. These are the two mineral sperms Masculine. and feminine: if thou dost place them both on their crystalline Basis, thou hast the Philosopher's flying Fire-drake, which at the first sight of the Sun breathes such a poison, that nothing can stand before him. I know not what to tell thee more, unless in the Vogue of some Authors, I should give thee a phlegmatic Description of the whole process and that I can dispatch in two words. It is nothing else but a continual Coction the volatile Essences ascending and descending till at last they are fixed, according to that excellent Prosopopaeia of the stone.  

Non ego continuò morior, dum spiritus exit,  
Nam redit assiduè, quamvis & soepe recedat,  
Et mihi nunc magna est Animae, nunc nulla fa  
(cultas.   

Plus ego sustinui, quam Corpus debuit unum;  
Tres Animas habui, quas omnes intus habebam,  
Discessere duae, sed Tertia poenè secuta est.   

I am not dead, although my spirit's gone,  
For it returns, and is both off, and on,  
Now I have life enough, now I have non.   

I suffered more, than one could justly do;  
Three souls I had, and all my own but Two  
Are fled: the Third had almost left me too.   
{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} I have written, what I 
Joh. 19 22  have written- And now give me leave to look about me. Is there no powder-plot, or practice? What's become of Aristotel, and Galen? Where is the Scribe and Pharisee, the Disputers of this world? If they suffer all this, and believe it too, I shall think the General Conversion is come about, and I may sing, 
Jam redit & Virgo, redeunt Saturnia Regna.   
But come what will come, I have once more spoken for the Truth, and shall for Conclusion speak this much Again. I have elsewhere called this Subject, Lincus coelestis, and the middle Nature: The Philosophers call it the Venerable Nature, but amongst all the Praetenders I have not yet found one, that could tell me why. Hear me then, that whensoever thou dost attempt this work, it may be with reverence, not like some proud, ignorant Doctor but with less Confidence & more Care. This Chaos hath in it the four Elements, which of themselves are contrary Natures, but the wisdom of God hath so placed them that their very order reconciles them. For Example, air and Earth are Adversaries, for one is hot and moist, the other cold and dry. Now to reconcile these two, God placed the Water between them, which is a middle Nature, or of a mean Complexion between both Extremes. For she is cold and moist, and as she is cold, she partakes of the Nature of the Earth, which is cold and dry, but as she is moist, she partakes in the Nature of the air, which is hot and moist. Hence it is, that air and Earth which are Contraries in Themselves, agree and embrace one another in the water, as in a middle Nature which is proportionate to them both, and tempers their Extremities. But verily this Salvo makes not up the Breach, for though the water reconciles two Elements like a friendly Third, yet she herself fights with a Fourth, namely with the Fire: For the Tire is hot and dry, but the water is cold and moist, which are clear Contraries. To prevent the Distempers of these two, God placed the air between them, which is a Substance hot and moist; and as it is hot, it agrees with the fire, which is hot and dry; but as it is moist, it agrees with the water, which is cold and moist; so that by mediation of the air, the other two Extremes, namely fire and water are made friends, and reconciled. Thus you see, as I told you at first, that contrary Elements are united by that Order and Textare wherein the Wise God hath placed them. You must now give me leave to tell you that this Agreement or friendship is but partil, a very weak love, cold and skittish: for whereas these Principles agree in one quality, they differ in two, as yourselves may easily compute. Much need therefore have they of a more strong and able Mediator to confirm and preserve their weak unity, for upon it depends the very aternity, and Incorruption of the Creature. This blessed cement, and Balsam, is the Spirit of the living God, which some ignorant scribblers have called a Quintessence, for this very Spirit is in the Chaos, and to speak plainly, the fire is his Thrrne, for in the Fire he is Sèated, as we have sufficiently told you elsewhere. This was the Reason, why 
Anthroposoph.  the Magi called the first Matter their Venerable Nature, and their blessed stone, and in good earnest what think you, is it not so? This blessed Spirit fortifies, and perfects that weak Disposition which the Elements already have to Union and Peace, (for God works with Nature, not against her,) and brings them at last to a beauteous specifical Fabric. Now inf you will ask me, where is the Soul, or as the schoolmen abuse hwer the Form, all this while? what doth she do? To this I answer, that she is, as all Instrumentals ought to be, subject and obedient to the will of God, expecting the persection of her Body: for it is God that unites her to the Body, and the body to her. soul and Body are the work of God, the one as well as the other: the Soul is not the Artificer of her house, for that which can make a Body, can also repair it, and hinder death; but the soul cannot do this, it is the Power, and wisdom of God. In a word, to say that the soul formed the Body, because she is in the Body, is to say that the Jowell made the Cabinet, because the jewel is in the Cabinet, or that the Sun made the world, because the Sun is in the world, and cherisheth every part thereof. Learn therefore to distinguish between Agents and their Instruments, for if you attribute that to the Creature, which belongs to the Creator, you bring your sleves in Danger of hellfire, for God is a jealous God, and will not give his glory to Another. I advise my Doctors therefore, both Divines and Physicians, not to be too rash in their Censures, nor so Magisterial in their Discourse, as I have known some Professors of Physic to be: who would correct and undervalue the rest of their Brethren, when in Truth they Themselves were most shamefully ignorant. It is not ten, or twelve years' Experience in drugs and sops can acquaint a man with the Mysteries of God's Creation. Take this, and make a world: Take I know not what, and make a Pill or Clyster, are different Recepts. we should therefore consult with our Judgements, before we venture our Tongues, and never speak, but when we are sure we understand. I knew a Gentleman, who meeting with a Philosopher Adept, and receiving so much courtesy as to be admitted to Discourse, attended his first Instructions passing well. But when this Magician quitted my friends known road, and began to touch, and drive round the great wheel of Nature, presently my Gentleman takes up the cudgels, and urging all the Authorities, which in his vain judgement made for him, oppressed this noble Philosopher with a most clamorous, insipid ribaldry. A goodly sight it was, and worthy our Imitation, to see with what an admirable Patience the other received him. But this Errant concluded at last, That Lead or quicksilver must be the Subject, and that Nature worked upon one of both. To this the Adeptus replied, Sir, it may be so at this time, but if hereafter I find Nature in those old Elements, where I have sometimes seen her very busy, I shall at our next meeting confute your Opinion. This was all he said, and it was something more than he did. Their next meeting was referred to the Greek Calends, for he could never be seen afterwards, notwithstanding a thousand solicitations. Such Talkative babbling people as this Gentleman was, who run to every Doctor for his Opinion, and follow like a spaniel every Bird they spring, are not fit to receive these Secrets, they must be serious, silent men, faithful to the Art, and most faithful to their Teachers. We should always remember that Dotrine of Zeno: Nature (said he) gave us one Tongue, but two ears, that we might hear much, and speak little. Let not any man therefore be ready to vomit forth his own shame and ignorance: Let him first examine his knowledge, and especially his practice, lest upon the Experience of a few violent Knacks, he presume to judge Nature in her very Sobrieties. To make an end; If thou dost know the first Matter, know also for certain, thou hast discovered the sanctuary of Nature; There is nothing between thee and her Treasures, but the door: that indeed must be opened. Now if thy Desire leads thee on to the Practice, consider well with thyself what manner of man thou art, and what it is that thou wouldst do, for it is no small matter. Thou hast resolved with thyself to be a Cooperator with the Spirit of the living God, and to minister to him in his work of generation. Have a Care therefore that thou dost not hinder his work: for if thy heat exceeds the natural Proportion, thou hast stirred the wrath of the moist Natures, and they will stand up against the Central fire, and the Central fire against them, and there will be a terrible Division in the Chaos: but the sweet Spirit of Peace, the true eternal Quintessence will depart from the Elements, leaving both them and Thee to Confusion; neither will he apply himself to that Matter, as long as it is in thy violent, destroying hands. Take heed therefore, lest thou turn Partner with the devil, for it is the Devil's design from the Beginning of the world, to set Nature at Variance with herself, that he may totally corrupt, and destroy her. Nè tu augeas fatum, do not thou further his designs. I make no question but many men will laugh at this, but on my soul I speak nothing But what I have known by very good Experience, therefore believe me. For my own part it was ever my desire to bury these Things in silence, or to paint them out in shadows, but I have spoken thus clearly, and openly, out of the Affection I bear to some, who have deserved much more at my hands. True it is, I intended sometimes to expose a greater work to the world, which I promised in my Anthroposophia, but I have been since acquainted with that World, and I found it base, and unworthy: wherefore I shall keep in my first happy Solitudes, for noise is Nothing to me, I seek not any man's Applause. If it be the will of my God to call me forth, and that it may make for the Honour of his Name, in that respect I may write again, for I fear not the Judgement of Man, but in the interim here shall be and End.  
FINIS.    


ANd now my Book, let it not stop thy Flight,  
That thy just Author, is not Lord, or Knight.  
I can desine myself: and have the Art  
Still to present one face, and still one Heart.  
But for nine years some Great ones cannot see  
What they have been, nor know they what to be.  
What though I have no Rattles to my name,  
Dost hold a simple honesty no Fame?  
Or art thou such a stranger to the Times,  
Thou canst not know my Fortunes from my Crimes.  
go forth, and fear not: some will gladly be  
Thy learned friends, whom I did never see.  
Nor shouldst thou fear thy welcome: thy small  
Cannot undo'em, though they pay Excise. (Price  
Thy Bulk's not great: it will not much distress  
Their empty Pockets, but their Studies less.  
thou'rt no Galeon, as Books of burden be,  
Which can not ride but in a library.  
thou'rt a fine Thing and little: it may Chance  
Ladies will buy thee for a new Romance.  
Oh how I'll envy Thee! when thou art spread  
In the bright sunshine of their Eyes, and read  
With Breath of Amber, Lips of Rose, that lend  
Perfumes unto thy Leaves, shall never spend:  
When from their white hands they shall let thee fall  
Into their bosoms, which I may not call  
Aught of Misfortune, Thou dost drop to rest  
In a more pleasing place, and art more blessed.  
There in some silken, soft Fold thou shalt lie  
Hid like their Love, or thy own mystery.  
Nor shouldst thou grieve thy Language is not fine,  
For it is not my Best, though it be Thine.  
I could have voyeed thee forth in such a dress,  
The Spring had been a Slut to thy express;  
Such as might file the rude, unpolished Age,  
And fix the Readers soul to every Page:  
But I have used a course, and homely strain,  
Because it suits with Truth, which should be plain.  
Last, my dear Book, if any look on Thee  
As on Three Suns, or some great prodigy,  
And swear to a full point, I do deride  
All other Sects, to publish my own pride;  
Tell such they lie, and since they love not Thee,  
Bid them go learn some High-shoe heresy.  
Nature is not so simple, but she can  
Procure a solid Reverence from man;  
Nor is my Pen so lightly plumed that I  
Should serve Ambition with her majesty.  
'Tis Truth makes me come forth, & having writ  
This her short scene, I would not stifle it:  
For I have called it child, and i had rather  
See't torn by them, than strangled by the Father.   
Soli Deo Gloria.  
Amen.   

Faults escaped in Magia Adamica, Page 70. line 4. for {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} read {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. p. 106. l. 23. for or, r. for. p. 126. l. 26. for doctrine, r. dictrine.  
Faults escaped in the Man-Mouse. PAge 15. line 2. for fires, read fires. p. 49. l. 24. f. the, r. that. p. 82. l. 23. f. he, r. she.