A Ternary of Paradoxes OF THE Magnetick Cure of Wounds.

Nativity of Tartar in Wine.

Image of God in Man.

[illustration]
Lumen de lumine
In •…ermino Concursus
The second Impression, more reformed, and en∣larged with some Marginal Additions.

A TERNARY OF PARADOXES. The

Magnetick Cure of Wounds.
Nativity of Tartar in Wine.
Image of God in Man.

Written originally by Joh. Bapt. Van Helmont, and Translated, Illustrated, and Ampliated BY WALTER CHARLETON, Doctor in Physick, and Physician to the late King.

Suspecta apud plures hujusmodi Sanationis Facilitas, atque ce∣leritas permanebit adhuc dudum; vulgi enim labile & otiosum in∣genium, in arduis ac insolitis, ad judicia ejusdem semper tenoris promptum, ob facilitatem, ideóque flaccidum est. Diabolicae enim fraudi tantam restitutionum benignitatem libentiùs consecrat, quàm Divinae bonitati, humanae naturae conditori, Amatori, Salvatori, pauperúmque patri.

Butler.

LONDON, Printed by James Flesher for William Lee, dwellingin Fleetstreet, at the sign of the Turks 〈…〉

To the truly Noble, by the right of Blood, Virtue and Learning, VVILLIAM Viscount Brouncker of Lyons, Baron Brouncker of Newcastle, &c.

My very good Lord,


AMong other Disparagements of this life, collected and sum'd up in my frequent retirements and con∣centrations of my Minde, my Thoughts have, more then once, glanced on the exceeding vanity of that Heroick disease, incident to the best tempered Souls, the insatiate Appetite of posthume Glory. And though I must not but confess, this originary Feaver ele∣mented in the innate Ardor and Scintillations of those Sparks of Divinity, which now lie raked up in the Mass or Chaos, of our eclipsed Nature; and that by the light of these secret Flashes, may be discovered the Im∣mortality of that Semideity, or noble Essence, for a while immured in walls of Clay: yet when I make re∣flections on the unconcernment, and happy insensility of the Soul, once fled home, to an indissoluble Union with




the Soul of Beatitude; as to the trifling affairs of the swarm of Mortals, here below, and that all Relations to the visible and perishable World, are lost in utter ob∣livion, at the instant of her Transition to the invisible, intellectual, and immaterial: I cannot but smile at the Delusion of this Ambition, of having our Memories survive our Ashes, and listing our Names in the Legend of Fame, by the ingravements of memorable and worthy Actions, as seeming to be no more, then a provident Fraud of impaired Nature, whereby man is handsomly deluded into the attempting Actions of such difficulty or danger, as if presented without the speci∣ous disguise of Honor, must appear absolutely de∣structive, at least to the Tranquillity and sober Fruiti∣on of our selves, if not also to our Conformity unto that Catholique Maxime, deeply impressed upon the radical Principles of our Essence, Philautie or Self-conserva∣tion. For what individual Knowledg can w•… have of Caesar? Or what intelligence can he hold with the spi∣rits of those, who sacrifice the most of Veneration to his Memory? Or did the incense of humane Honor ascend so high, a•… to approach the Mansion of the Souls of He∣röes, devested of Mortality; which can no more be grant∣ed, then that a man on our Hemisphere, should be sensible of the wagging of a straw in the Antipodes: yet what could the Access of that Nothing contribute to that




state of Blessedness, whose measure is immensity, wherein to imagine either Defect, Satiety, or Mutati∣on, would be a Conceit savoring too much of Sensuality, and of bloody advantage to the absurd Metaphysicks of the Alcoran? And how much more noble a plea, to the immarcescible Laurel, shall that modest head obtain, which, in all Anxieties and Difficulties of Virtue, drew encouragement onely from the simple and naked loveliness of Virtue; then that fond ambitious one, whose suffer∣ings were caused by no better a Flame, then the Ignis Fatuus of Applause, and desires knew no other at∣tractive, but Vain glory.

This Meditation, my dear Lord, as it could never stifle the irradiations of my Genius, or render me less sensible of the incitements of Virtue, to enterprise some∣thing, that might be grateful in the nostrils of Posterity, when my Dust shall be offensive: so hath it wrought my resolutions to that Stoical temper, that while I fix one eye of Reason on that domestick Security, and internal Serenity, which necessarily redounds from the severe practice of Goodness, in this life; and the other of Faith on that infinite Compensation, ordained to reward our pious endevours, in the next: I can comfortably ac∣quiesce in the secret discharge of my duty to God and the World, at least in the sincerity of intention: and though I should arrive at such unexpected Felicity, as




to be an instrument, or accessory, either in the discovery of some Magnale in Knowledg, or in the Contribution of some Benefit, conductive to the repair of the Common breaches of Humanity; yet I dare confidently hope, I should have no ear open to the invasion of Popular Euges, nor admit any dream of happiness, in the esti∣mation of succeeding Ages.

Now, though the too acute Severity of some, may here be furnished with latitude enough, either to charge this my Theory of Aversation from Praise, on my being conscious of such Fragility, Lapses and Imper∣fections of my Pen, as might conclude, that the best part of my Judgment lies in the politick Conceal∣ment of my Name; or deny me qualified with abili∣ties of reducing it into Practice: yet I have this Com∣fort left to take Sanctuary in, that I may (without ingaging your Lordship, into the Patronage of a fals∣hood) appeal unto your judicious integrity, for deter∣mination, whether my Scepticity, even in such Noti∣ons, as my self hath, to the most precise, anatomical subdivision of each subject, and abstracted perpension of each minute particle thereof (not much below the accurate Method, invented by the Stoicks *, and late∣ly revived into use by the most ingenious Mons. Des Cartes*) examined and transmitted to the World, for indubitate and irrefragable Truths; be not evidence




strong enough to make good, that I prefer the mani∣festation of any one single Verity, to all other sinister interests, in this Vale of Error, and therefore should embrace and assimilate the decisive Contradiction of riper heads, with joy equall to that of benighted Ma∣riners, at the eruption of their faithfull Pilot, the North starre, as the Soveraign Remedy to my former Wandrings. To the other branch of the praesupposed Scandall, may justly be opposed your Lordships pri∣vacie, to my obstinate reluctancy, against the Ad∣visoes of my Honoured Friends, urging mee to a pub∣lick Appropriation and Avowance of some papers, not long since, dispersed through Europe, without the pro∣tection either of Author, or Dedication: as also my denyall of Light, to some Philosophicall Enquiries, whose Conception, Formation, and Maturity (though of inconsiderable value, in the account of more perfect Learning) cost mee the profusion of so much Time and Oyle, as if summed up by the Algebra of Candor, might well have purchased the Charitable Forgivenesse, if not the friendly Approbation of the Reader.

And in the serene darknesse of this Latency, I had still remained invisible to the effascinating Opticks of Envy, and celebrated a constant Jubilee of immunity from the virulent blasts of Detraction; had I not




been intempestively drawn upon the Stage, by the supe∣rior violence of two invincible Magnets: whose potent Alliciency I could provide against by the opposition of no strength, but such as either a dangerous Rudeness, or indiscreet Morosity must have afforded. The first, the inexorable Commands of your Lordship and other Persons, of so much Honor, as Nobility in Birth, Knowledg, and Fortune can contribute; which led me from the more direct Path of other Contemplations more per∣pendicular to my Profession, into this wanton digression, and upon the penalty of the deprivation of that, which I have good reason to value much above my life, the place I held in your and their favourable Regard, charged me with the managery of this small Province, for the space of two moneths onely. And had I withdrawn my Obe∣dience from such absolute Soveraignty, as, I must ac∣knowledg, your Lordships and their more learned Spirits deservedly hold over mine: Doubtless I had inevitably faln upon that so much to be abhorred rock, refractary Incivility, and run my self to an eternal loss of those Stars, whose conserving influence, and vigorous warmth, are so necessary to the Vitality and Growth of my Stu∣dies. Whereas now, in this election, I have adven∣tured onely to bear up against the impetuous torrent of Censure. The other Attractive, the too early Dif∣fusion of these sheets, and the immature admittance




of a multitude to the acquaintance of them, and the weak hand that Copied them; insomuch, that the con∣cealment of the Translator, carried the face of an im∣possibility, without the joynt concealment of the Trans∣lation: It being (by an error of Necessity, the Confor∣mity to the unresistible importunity of those Orbes, to whose motion, mine is, and must be, subordinate) transmitted to a Community, beyond the power of Re∣vocation.

Thus much I was concerned to speak, as to the Precaution of Scandal, deductive out of my Apo∣stasie, from my Resolution of Self-concealment, and the publick avowance of my self for the Father: It remains onely, that I endevour a Palliation of this bold lapse of my judgment, in stooping your Lordship to so low a Patronage, as to be God-father, to this a∣dopted Childe.

I ever looked upon Dedications, with the same aspect of neglect, and presumption of inutility, that I beheld Prologues in the Front of Comedies; having upon the unhappy Experience of most Poets erected this unrefutable Maxime, That a good Play may commend a bad Prologue; but the best Prologue never expiate the Errors, or peece up the defects of a bad Play; and upon a mature Audit of all the benefits, which the most Elegant, and Judicious Pens have acquired by this




imaginary Refuge, in the Sanctuary of great Names, or great Judgements, found that the totall result amounts to no more, but a delusive hope of security from the Contagious emissions of that Uni∣versall Basilisk Detraction; whose venome, in a proud confidence of Victory, laughs at the most vigo∣rous energie of any the most sacred Antidote, and from the infection whereof, he onely can bee saved, that dares encounter it with Contempt.

Again, my faith hath long swam smoothly downe the current of the Popular opinion, that Translati∣ons praesent the lise of their Text, at as great disad∣vantage of Dissimilitude, as the backside of Hang∣ings exhibit the story interwoven: and are at best, but slender Adumbrations, or pale Counterfeits of those more lively Images, drawne with more strength of Art, in the Primitive Phansy of their Protoplast. Nor could I ever be alienated by the Phrensie of Nar∣cissus, into such a fond dotage of Partiality, as to ex∣pect a better Fortune should belong to the lines, copied by my unaequall Pencil, then what I have observed to have accrewed to others upon more laudable Transcrip∣tions. This I would not have rashly extended by any, to an imputation of occult Blasphemy, against the Ve∣nerable▪ Majesty of our Mother Tongue; out of which, I am ready to assert, may be spun as fine and




fit a garment, for the most spruce Conceptions of the Minde to appeare in publick in, as out of any other in the World: especially, since the Carmina∣tion or refinement of it, by the skill and sweat of those two Heroicall Wits, the Lord St. Alban, and the now flourishing Dr. Browne; out of whose incomparable Writings may be selected a Volume of such full and significant Expressions, as if uprightly fathomed by the utmost Extent of the sublimest Thought, may well serve to stagger that Partiall Axiome of some Schoolemen, that the Latin is the most sympho∣niacall and Concordant Language of the Rati∣onall Soule.

These Diminutions as well of the Epidemick custome of Dedications, as of Translations in generall, and of my owne in particular, I have praemised with designe, to manifest my owne exceeding Audacity, in conse∣crating so contemptible an oblation, as this transcriptive Landskip of Magnetisme, to the Altar of so much sober Learning; as whoever hath the happy honour of admission to your closet lectures (the onely priviledge I can be proud of, and be forgiven) or but with a discreet eare to taste your publick Discourses in earnest, must allow your Lordship to be Master of.

Having thus deves•…ed my self of all other praetences, I direct my addresse to th•…e Plea of those two Cardinall



Motives, upon the swindg or rapt of whose violence, this my bold Error may seem naturally to depend. The first, (and in troth, the Prime) is your Lordships known Candor and humility; which acquired by a long and habitual Exercise of Virtue, endows you with an in∣evitable propensity, to forgive the Poverty of his offer∣ing, whose Wealth is onely Zeal The other, your Animadversion and careful influence bestowed upon each sheet of this Work, successively, before the Ink could be fully dry: Insomuch, that the Justice of some might safely escape the imputation of Rigor, should it determine the Book to be properly your Lordships by a neerer right, then that of Dedication. This duly con∣sidered, I dare put my self upon the tryal of Aequani∣mity; whether an Alienation of what is rightly yours, to more then a moity; or an equitable Resig∣nation of the same, to your peculiar use, can best stand with the Justice of his Duty, who endevours, by all possible observances, to make good the title of

Your Lordships most humble and faithful Servant,
W. CHARLETON.

PROLEGOMENA.

To the Candid and Ingenuous READER.

The Summary.

1. TRuth and the Rational Soul are Twins.
2. The Souls Beatitude consisteth in her re-union to Truth.
3. Three Guides conducting Man to Truth.
4. Their several wayes of direction.
5. The Final Cause of their Manuduction.
6. The Cognition of natural objects, difficult to the exactest Reason.
7. The Application of all this, by way of apology.
8. The Hoti of Magnetical Remedies examined.
9. An example▪ 〈◊〉 facto.
10. A second instance, considerable.
11. The Capi∣tal objection against Magnetism Vulnerary, that the cu•…e •…s wrought by the sole power of nature, and not by any concur∣rent faculty of the remote Remedy, answered.
12. The first branch of the Solution.
13. Upon every Solution of Conti∣nuity, there is impressed an exotick Miasm▪ or putrefactive acidity.
14. This alien impression, the sole remora to redin∣tegration.
15. The extinction of the same, the onely means to assist Nature.
16. All Acidity subject to the power of an Alchahal.
17. The ground of Traumatical Potions.
18. Vitriol referred to Alchahal Salts, and Vulnerary.
19. The Pedegree of Helmont'e Drif.
20. Vitriol san•…tive at distance▪
21. Am Astral quality genial to some sublunaries.
22. Vitriol to be allowed the like Prerogative.
23. The second branch of the Solution.
24. The effect of Hoplochrisme not univocall; but variable, according to the superiour virtue of any third nature associated.
25. A second Objection, Quòd Agens Naturale, ut agat, debet esse applicatum & approximare ad Patiens, re∣futed.
26. A Consideration of the infinite extent of Divisibi∣lity.
27. Every Unctuous body emitteth consimilar effluviums.
28. Sympathy, longimanus.
29. An example of the vast ex∣tent of Sympathy.
30. A second.
31. A third.
32. The result of all, in a Comparative speculation of the extensive power of Magneticall Remedies.
33. The manner of the Armary Un∣guents operation, upon a wound at indeterminate distance, explained in briefe.
34. Acidity, the first degree of Corruption.
35. Tartar made in Wine, by the fixative power of a Saline Spirit, resident in the Lees.
36. Vineger caused by an exhausti∣on: not by a Congelation of the spirits of Wine.
37. Helmonts Paradox, that reason is not essentiall to the Humane Soule, maintained by eight Arguments.

WEll did the Primitive Graecian give the name 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 unto Truth: whose Consanguinity, nay Consubstantiality of Essence with the Humane Soule which * the Divine Philosophy of Moses* hath defined to be the Breath of God, doth exactly make out that Etymology. For so uncessant a Magnetisme, or congenerous Love doth the Soule hold unto Truth,* that she can know no reall or permanent satisfaction, in the fruition of any other object; but, like the Aguish magnetified Needle, reels to and fro, in a Phrensie of inquietude, distracted twixt various Ap∣paritions, untill shee lye parallel unto the Center,




or Vnity thereof: and having once fixed in that happy * position, she is, by an eternal union, identified or assi∣milated unto that twin of her self; and in that mysteri∣ous penetration of homogeneal Forms, meets her Bea∣titude, which can never know any Defect, of Satiety, Alterity of Desires, or Remission of Intensity. Now, though the opacity of Original Sin hath so benighted the primitive Clarity of the Intellect, that it deplorably wanders in the infinite seductions of Error, and cannot recover that direct path, which leads to the Heaven of Verity, without the manuduction of Divine Light, in this Wilderness of Sorrow; and though the Opticks of Flesh and Blood are too dim to endure to gaze upon the naked and entire Glories of Truth; yet hath the ex∣ceeding Mercy of the Fountain of Light, furnished us with three faithful Guides, whose Conduct if we pre∣cisely follow, we may be reduced to that advantage of Knowledg, as will afford us a Pisgah Sight, or crepus∣culous prospect of her reflexive Beauties, now, and an assurance of being blessedly engulphed in the Abyss of her Pleasures, in the future. Those three Lines, per∣petually deradiating from the Center of Truth (the eter∣nal * Principle of all Essences, and Soul of all Causalities) are Religion, Reason, and Sense: all terminated in our Nature. The first leadeth us by the invisible Clue of *Faith, on towards the implicit and certain Apprehen∣sion of objects above the reach of the other two. The second bringeth us about, through the Circumambages and complex Labyrinth of Discourse; and from the remote dependencies of Effects upon their particular Causes, ushereth us along by a subalternate Series, or Gradation unto the Science of their ultimate Approxi∣mation and Individuality. The last by a shorter Cut, or




blunter method of Preception, directeth to the imme∣diate and actual Knowledg of the Existence and exteri∣or or manifest Qualities of Entities; but leaveth the second to a laborious exploration of their abstruser Forms, or essential Quiddities: the repeated Acts of which apprehensive Power, informed by sensation, make up that body of Knowledg, called Experience. All which Pilots mutually conspire to steer our Mindes, per∣pendicularly * toward our satisfaction of the main end of our Creation: the reverential and fiduciary Contem∣plation of the Mercy, Wisdom, and Bounty of the Supream Essence. But so deeply immersed in Sensuality, are all the wretched Sons of Adam, that few can ascend so many degrees toward the height of their primitive Ca∣pacity, as with equal and constant paces to pursue the guidance of these genial Impressions. For if some may usurp the license of Concession, that the habit of Cog∣nition by Faith doth smoothly result from the Idea's of religious Notions, either insensibly instilled into our in∣fancy, and naturallized by custom▪ or enthusiastically acquired, that is by the infusion of Light Supernatural, without much labor and difficulty precedent: yet none, that ever felt the weight of Ignorance, and endevoured to struggle from the oppression of it, through the An∣xieties of study, will adventure on an assertion of such temerity, as that the satisfactory and certain Compre∣hension of most Natural Objects, is easie and familiar to our Reason. Since the subtilest speculation will evict, * that every the smallest piece of the Hexameron Fabrick▪ carrieth in the narrow round of its single Ens, Abstrusi∣ty sufficient to empuzle the scrutiny of the most daring and Eagle-eyed Philosophy.

And if Truth be the most desiderable Good, and yet




the most difficult to obtain; as on the one side, I have reason to applaud my vow, of unravelling my short thread of life, in the constant and eager search of this in∣estimable treasure; so have I also opportunity to hope, from all heads of Candor and Discretion, to receive a Charitable Consideration and Forgiveness of my frail mistakes and deviations, on the other; especially in my attempts of exploring the Causes, and manner of some operations of Nature, whose occult Efficiencies seem rather proposed to exercise, and perplex, then satisfie our desires of Comprehension. Among which knotty pieces, every intelligent man will readily account the Theory of Magnetism, or more plainly, the secret power of Natural Actives, working on analogous and determ∣nate * Passives, by invisible Emanations, or an Influential Energy, transmissive to remote distance; and more par∣ticularly, the Argument of Helmont, in this discourse. Concerning which subject, I shall, in some part, recede from my first intentions of Neutrality, to conform to the incitements, and pacifie the importunity of some Friends, in the concise and extemporary delivery of my own Conceptions: though I stand fully convinced, as well of the vast disparity 'twixt the nerves of my Wit, and the considerable gravity of this Theme; as of the impendent danger of various censures, arising from the irreconcileable discord of Opinion in some, and the ran∣cor or livid Prevarication of others, to both which Hy∣draes, I must become exposed.

Having premised this preparatory Apology: I shall henceforward chain my extravagant Pen, to the sole indagation of this admirable (though secret, and there∣fore vulgarly despised) Verity; and allow it no wider range then what the modest rules of a Preface will ad∣mit.




Wherefore I come directly to the examination of the Hoti, or matter of Fact.

That Wounds have been frequently cured with more * expedition, and less torment, then usually follow upon the use and daily renovation of Topical vulneraries; by the Confermentation of the Mumy, in the blood efflux∣ed, and still retaining to Vitality, with the Balsamical Faculty of the Magnetical remedies: I must firmly be∣leeve, until my Scepticity may be allowed to be so in∣solent, as to affront the evidence of my own sense, and question the verity of some Relations, whose Authors are persons of such confessed integrity, that their single Attestations oblige my faith, equal with the strongest demonstration. Among many other Experiments, made by my self, I shall select and relate onely one: and that most ample and pertinent.

Upon an ardent dispute, with a Doctor of Theo∣logy, * reverend for his Piety and Learning, concerning the Legitimate use of the Sympathetick Powder; that I might at one stab destroy his inveterate Presumption, that the Capital Energy of that Magnetical Remedy, adored for the sanation of wounds at distance, did pro∣ceed rather from the Sophistical Activity of that Im∣postor, who gave the first incurable wound unto huma∣nity, derived by the mediation of an implicit Compact, then from any native and genuine endowment of the Vitriol: I prevailed with him, to enterprize an Experi∣ment of the efficacy thereof after this manner. Having furnished him, both with the Powder, and a cloth distained with the blood of a Gentleman, freshly wound∣ed, and not yet dressed by any Chirurgeon: I also di∣rected him in the Application. At the performance whereof, he made solemn profession, that he did utterly




disavow all Confederacy, immediate or secondary, with Satan, all expectance of his concurrence, and coeffi∣ciency, and all confidence in the cooperation of intense Imagination: as also, that he adventured on this tryal, onely for information of his judgment, whether it lie in the destiny of Natural Agents, to transmit their Virtue unto, and execute the Commission of their spe∣cifical Proprieties upon objects at distance. However, within few hours, the Patient (wholly ignorant of the means used) found his blood retired to its wonted rivu∣lets, and the lips of his large wound perfectly Conso∣lidated. Upon which admirable success, the Divine, having also haply met with a cure for the nicety of his Conscience, from a prevaricate Adversary, became a fervent Proselyte, to our Doctrine of Magnetism: soon after writing his Palinodia, in these words; Indubitanter credo, Causas Naturales, quanquam nobisignotas, operari in praefata sympathetica sanatione.

This justification was extorted from a professed Ene∣my:* a second remarkable Example, I have received from the mouth of a professed Friend, to the specula∣tion of vulnerary Magnetism; which is right worthy of recital, as well in regard of the Experimentator, as of the rare effect ensuing. Sir K. Digby (a noble Person, who hath built up his Reason to so transcendent a height of Knowledg, as may seem not much beneath the state of man in innocence) immediately before his late exile, was pleased to tell me▪ that not many yeers past, Mr. James Howel (who planted the Vocal Forest) interceding betwixt two Brothers of the sword, received a dange∣rous wound through the Arm: By the violent pain whereof, and other grievous Accidents concomitant, he was suddenly dejected into extream Debility and




Danger. That in this forlorn plight, despairing to finde ease or benefit, by the fruitless continuance of Chirur∣gery, and fearing the speedy invasion of a Grangraen; he consulted Sir K. D. who having procured a Garter cruentate, wherewith the hurt was first bound up, in∣spersed thereon, without the privacy of Master Howel, a convenient quantity of Roman Vitriol. That the Powder no sooner touched upon the blood, in the Gar∣ter, then the Patient cryed out, that he felt an intolera∣ble shooting, and penetrative torment, in his Arm: which soon vanished, upon the remove of all Emplasters and other Topical Applications, enjoyned by Sir K. D. That thenceforward, for three days, all former symp∣tomes departed, the part recovered its pristine lively Colour, and manifest Incarnation and Consolidation en∣sued: but then Sir K. D. to compleat his Experiment, dipt the Garter in a sawcer of Vineger, and placed it upon glowing coals; soon whereupon the Patient re∣lapsed into an extream Agony, and all former evils instantly recurred. And finally, that having obtained this plenary satisfaction, of the sympathy maintained betwixt the blood extravenated, and that yet con∣served in the veins; as also of the Soveraign Balsamick Faculty of the Vitriol: he took again the Garter out from the Vineger, gently dryed it, and freshly dressed it with the Powder; whereupon the Sanation proceed∣ed with such admirable success, that within few days, there remained onely a handsom Cicatrice, to witness there was once a wound.

Other Cures, so neer allied to Miracle, as the former, and no less conspicuous, have been wrought, with the same Magnetical Balsam, by Sir Gilbert 〈◊〉, upon upon many wounded in the Kings Army; chiefly in the




Western Expedition: of which few Gent. Attendant on His Majesty, in that march, can be ignorant.

So substantial and authentick are these Relations, and so frequently others also of the same kinde are ob∣truded upon vulgar observation; that I shall think re∣quisite, to supersede the enrolment of any other evi∣dence conductive to the illustration of the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, when I shall have fel'd that Goliah, which I espie coming from the Army of the Philistins, to the opinion of the In∣fluential*operation of Magnetical Remedies, to bid defi∣ance to my self, or any other Champion thereof: that is, the mighty Objection, that the Consolidation of Wounds, is the sole and entire Work of Nature, per∣formed by the proper Balsam of the blood, flowing to the part wounded; and that therefore we may seem grosly deluded in our election of the Cause, erroneously adscribing the whole Arm of the Energy, to that un∣concerned Principle, which indeed hath not so much as a finger in the business. Against this Gyant, I shall send onely two smooth stones: and those taken out of the scrip, or single stock of my own Reason.

The first seems to be of weight: and so requires the * Care of more then one minute, to fit it in the sling of my Discourse. I conceive (with submission to the re∣prehension of riper Philosophy) that immediately upon the Solution of unity, in any part, the ambient Aer, of * its own primigenious constitution, intensely Cold, and by Accident also repleted with the various Evaporati∣ons, or Aporrhoea's of mixt bodies, especially such as are then suffering the Act of Putrefaction, violently invadeth the part; and thereupon impresseth an exotick miasm, or noxious Diathesis: which disposing the blood, successively arriving at the wound, to Putrefacti∣on,


by the intervention of Fermentation, caused by some gradual Acidity (for proved it may be, that the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 of Corruption, must be Acidum Extraneum, succeeding upon a desertion of vital Heat) introduced, maketh the same wholly unfit for the Nutrition, and destructive to the Incarnation, or reunion of the sides of the orifice. Against this Hostile Acidum, Nature instantly ariseth in Arms, sends a large supply of Arte∣rial Blood (Vital spirits I understand none at least in a disjunctive acception) and doubleth both the strength and number of her Pulses; insomuch that most times, the overcharged part suffereth an increase of Pain and Intumescence, from the distension of its vessels, mem∣branes and intermusculary Capacities: but finding her self too weak to expel so subtle and potent an enemy, encamped within her borders, though she cannot pre∣serve the blood from submission to the tyranny of this Putrefactive Acidity, in some degree, and so not trans∣mute it into a laudable Cement, to soder up the dis∣union; yet she so far hindreth (especially in green wounds) the dilatation of Corruption, that she subdues the revolted blood into the form of a white Purulent Effluxion, which is therefore to be accounted an in∣fallible signal, that Nature is not yet evirate, but holds out bravely, and if relieved in time, will be an happy Conqueress. This Exotick Acidity, by the forementi∣oned means impressed upon the sides of the Wound, I * apprehend to be the sole Impediment, that defeateth the design of Nature, in the Redintegration of the Unity of any part, infringed by external violence: and that * by the rule of Consequence, the onely way of Assistance to Nature in this exigence, is the destruction, or Ex∣tinction of that Alien Impression; the Factor of Putre∣faction,


by the specifical Counterviolence of some su∣perior Antagonist. Now Pyrotechnical Philosophy, * and the Mechanick Experiments of Chymistry, have sufficiently instructed us: that every Acidum is, at first encounter, subdued by any Alchahal, or Lixivial Salt; as is autoptically demonstrable, in the sudden Trans∣formation of the Spirit of Vitriol into Alumen, by the inspersion of Mercury dulcified. The same effect may be also exemplified in the Acid Spirit of Sulphur, which for ever loseth its native Acidity, and in a moment de∣generateth into an aluminous sweetness, at the Con∣junction of the Salt of Tartar, resolved into an oyl by Deliquium. For which reason also (as Helmont hath profoundly observed *) our Traumatick or vulnerary Potions, which as well in regard of the Balsamical Plants,* as of the stony Concretion found in the stomacks of Creafish, entering their Composition, acquire upon de∣coction, a Lixivial Tincture, or Alchahal; are most laudable, because in truth most smartly operative, Medi∣caments, in all wide Perforations or Incisions of the body: as hath been found true, by the unquestionable testimony of Experience *, and sounds consonant to Reason. Since by reason of their Lixivial Salt, which doubtless passeth the several Concoctions, viribus haud multum castratis, they stand è diametro, opposed to the Putrefactive Acidity, the Capital Remora that impedeth the Consolidation of all Wounds and Ulcers. And * whether Roman vitriol may not be justly referred to the Classis of Saline juices Concreted, or Alchahal Salts, since it must be a parergy here to dispute it, I shall with industry leave, as well to the experiment of its easie Eliquation upon the access of any Humidity, as to the decision of the most knowing Mineralogists*.




Who also have unanimously esteemed it, as the Sacra Anohora, or Panchreston, for the cure of Cheironian Ulcers, and inveterate Wounds: though the Cardinal efficacy▪ and manner of its operation, may well be thought to have continued in darkness, until of late the light of Helmonts Furnace had the honor of its reveal∣ment. And I am bold to conjecture, that upon this * single hint, of the incomparable Balsamical or Mu•…l Vi•…t•…e of Vitriol, Helmont first founded the invention of his admired Drif, or universal Medicine; whose master Ingredients are Sal Marinus, Vitriolum Veneris, and 〈◊〉*〈◊〉 by the omnipotent Odor, or radial activity whereof, he rashly imagined, that all irregularities, ex∣orbitances, and excandescence of the humane Archius, or Vital Spirit, may be rectified, reclaimed, and calmed, and that in a moment.

Having thus brought within the reach of verismill∣ty; that, in many wounds, all the vigor of Nature can∣not suffice to the ejection of that forein Acor, that hath once made an encroachment upon her tender confines; and that upon the first charge, the usurper must sur∣render, at the access of a Lixivial Traumatick Salt▪ It remaineth onely that we bring it quite home to our in∣tended scope, and make a short enquiry, Whether the * Sanative Faculty of Vitriol, may not be conceded so long•…manous and extensive, as to produce the same effect, at distance. And this we must do with exceeding brevity: in this respect, that this speculation doth more properly belong to our disquisition of the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or Causalities of Hoplochrism. I am bound to believe, that in the infinite Magazine of Nature are to be found vari∣ous * Agents, no•… obliged to the dull conditions of an immediate Corporeal Contact; but richly endowed with




an Influential or Radial activity▪ (so have I taken the liberty to Christen it, in reference to the Cognition and n•…er Analogy, betwixt the manner of the Stars trans∣mitting their Influence, by invisible Deradiations; and the imperceptible Emissions streaming, in a semi-imma∣terial thread of Atomes *〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 bodies▪ qualified with this kinde of Astral Faculty; which ar∣riving at a determinate object, though 〈◊〉 at indeter∣minable distance, nimbly operate upon it, to the full satisfaction of the particular end, preordained in the primitive Intellect of the Creato•…▪) 〈◊〉 conceive also, that Vitriol hath a very just title to the prenogative of being listed in the Inventory of these Astral Natures▪ and that when the powder thereof is applied to the blood, effused out of a wound, the Balsamical Faculty of it is not confined to a meer Topical Operation▪ but being conducted by the Manial 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of the blood, which undoubtedly, by a Congenerous Magnetism, holdeth a certain sympathy with that Fountain, from whence it was derived, (as is to •…a•…ety of satisfaction demonstrated by Hilmont)〈◊〉 a stream of subti•…ted Atomes, extendeth to the individual Wound, and there operateth to the Deletion or ext•…r∣pation of the Acid Impression, against which •…carrieth a Seminal Antipathy▪ If this be thus 〈◊〉 I may be sooner destitute of leasure▪ then substantial Arguments▪ 〈◊〉〈◊〉* force▪ that it was either Ignorance, or Prevacation, that first contrived this detractive objection▪ 〈◊〉 the dignity of Hoplochristical Remedies▪ as also, that Nature (though according to the great Apho•… of 〈◊〉〈◊〉▪ Naturae▪ sunt Medicatrices, I allow her to be the prime and proxime Causatrix of all Sa∣nation; and all Medicaments no more but Auxiliatory,




or Adjuvant, by the modification of excessive preter∣natural Qualities, and remove of Impediments) is not al∣ways able to play the Chiron to her self, but in this Case, owes much of the honor of her safety and conquest, to the assistant power, and amicable coefficiency of the Vi∣triol. The same also I desire should be understood, of the Magnetical manner of operation proper to the Armary U•…guent, though I apprehend the Ingredients of that Magnale, to work rather by a Confermentation of Analo∣gous Mumies united. If I have not thrown this Peble home, nor directly to the mark: •…was because I had neither time to take full aym, nor elbow room to ex∣tend their sinews of Reason so far, as my self desired.

The other, I am confident, will hit our Enemy in the forehead. If the Effect of Hoplochrism be not constant * and •…vocal, but doth ordinarily confess an Alterity or Variation from Good to Evil, conform to the friend∣ship or enmity of any Third Natural Agent associated, at the Arbitrary Election of the Experimentator, that is, if from the Counter-activity of intemperate Heat, Actual or Potential, of any venenate o•… deleterious Quality, corrosive and septical Medicament, putre∣factive Acidity, &c. consubstantially applied unto, and confermentate with the Mumy of the blood, and mag∣netically * sympathetick Remedy, there immediately arise 〈◊〉Reincrudescence of the Wound, and a Recidivation or return of all oppressive symptomes dependent: then is it established, beyond the question of any the most Pyrrhonian Incredulity, that the Sanation of Wounds; at distance, is not rightly adscriptive to the single power of Nature, converting the blood successively distilling from its intersected Condu•…ts, into a genial Balsam; but more properly attributary to the confede∣rate




virtue of the Vnguent or Powder, idiosyncratical∣ly opposed to the essential hostility of that Acid Vul∣ture, which ravenously devours the Ca•…bium, or ro∣rid destillament ordained for the Vegetation and Reuni∣tion of the wounded part. But the Hypothesis is uncon∣troulable upon the evidence of Sir K. D. his Experi∣ment, in tossing the life of Master Howel, from hazard to safety, from safety to hazard, and back to durable safety again, at pleasure: therefore is the Inference also sound and justifiable. For the propense submission of Nature, to the fury of a deleterious influence, trans∣mitted from a remote Enemy, by the mediation or con∣voy of the Mumial Effluviums, shot from the extra∣venated blood back to its vital fountain; doth implicite∣ly manifest her emolument and relief received, by the same invisible transvection▪ from the grateful and con∣generous deradiations, or individuated Magnetism of a remote Friend. Since Contraries ever imply the neces∣sary existence each of other.

Another Block there is, at which not onely the herd * of Fools, but even the greatest Clerks use to stumble, in their quest of this Secret. Requisite it is (say they) that every Natural Agent be immediately applied to its determinate Patient; otherwise, its specifical Acti∣vity, though neer so potent and expedite, must be lost in a fruitless expence, and unsatisfaction of its particular end; but the Sympathetical Remedy is not topically ap∣proximated to the Wound; therefore must it be, either no Natural Remedy, or a vain and inefficacious one, at best. But this Argument, though at first appearance plausible, weigheth not one grain in the ballance of more exact Reason, against our theory, and may be easily blown out of the way, by this distinctive Answer.




If it be understood, that every Natural Agent ought immediately, immediatione suppositi, to touch the Pati∣ent, upon which its virtue is proximely to be discharged, but remo•…ely, by th•… mediation of otherbodies interja∣cent, by which the Power of the Active is communi∣cated to the distant Passive: w•… willingly grant the truth of the Major, to be solid and undeniable, in regard, i•… suffic•…h to the support of our Magnetism, that the Active touch upon the Passive o•… Object proper and re∣mote, immediatione virtutis. And therefore we cannot but smile at the weakness and incongruity of the Minor; because the Sympathe•…k. Remedy ought immediately▪ immediatione suppositi, to touch that subject, upon which its virtue is first received: but not the part affected, on which the virtue is secondarily and ultimately received and terminated, by the interposition of accommodate instruments, whether bodies situate at convehi•… inter∣vals, or continuate by succession of parts. For thus, by the same extension of a medium, do we warm our hands at the fire▪ and the S•… transmits his vigorous influence and heat, to our 〈◊〉 Globe▪ And in this degree of (affinity, are Sympathetical Medicaments allied unto •…∣lesti •…nfluences▪ insomuch, that not onely the A•…, but vast Rocks of Adamant, Walls, and any the most com∣pacted and opace bodies are subjects qualified to admit and convoy this Magnetical Virtue, to its peculiar ob∣ject, no less then any the most potent Astral Trans∣mission. Vpon which ground, if any stick at the vast and unlimitted extension of that Sphear of Activity, assigned by the immense Bounty of Nature, •…nto Sym∣pathetical R•…dies; and yet can 〈◊〉 conc•… an •…∣finite O•… of 〈◊〉 unto •…elestial Influxes: he hath very great cause, either to lament his Ignorance of those, or




repent his Credulity of these. And I profess, that if my rude •…ar may have the liberty to judg, Principium Acti∣onis Sympathetica, est Facultas influentiis affinis, 〈◊〉 per irradiationem in objectum sibi appropriatum: sounds as like an Axiom of constant truth, as Idem Accidens non mig•… de subjecto in subjectum.

Hitherto hath my imployment been to clear the Pro∣spect, by the necessary remove of such Doubts, as seem∣ed very much to obscure the resplendent lustre of Mag∣netism, and render the Excellencies of Sympathetical Remedies imperceptible; especially to those purblinde Moles, whose imperfect opticks could never endure to •…y into the mysteries of the Intellectual and Spiritual World, but think the debt of their Creation fully dis∣charged, in a slight and superficial speculation of the Material, and never were admitted to a neerer privacy with Nature, then to have touched the 〈◊〉 of her up∣per garment. And my now task should be, to endevour an ample presentment of the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or Causes of Ho∣plochristical Sanation. But of this I can here hold forth no more, then a thin, blew Landskip▪ or Abridgment: chiefly in respect the more learned pencils of Bapt▪ Por∣ta, Severinus, Hortmannus, Kircherus, Cabeus, Rob. de Fluctibus, (that Torrent of Sympathetical Knowledg) and the choisest flower in our Garden Sir K. Digby, have already enriched the World, with ample and ele∣gant descriptions of the manner, how Sympathetically Magnetick Agents transmit their Spiritual Energy, unto determinate Patients, at vast and indeterminate distance; and secondarily, because in my precedent De∣clarement of the Magnetical operation of Vitriol, I unavoidably fell upon a plain (though narrow) delinea∣tion of the same subject.



Consider we, first the interminable, and almost in∣finite *Extent of Divisibili•…y: that is, with the razor of most acute thought, redivide the subdivisions of an Atome, and distinctly perpend, how large a round of spiritual Aporrhoeaes, or Evaporations may be made and maintained by a very small Body, actually subtiliated, and emitting a continued steam of most subtle effluvi∣ums. Let us remember also, that by a general consent * of all the Secretaries of Nature, and the undeniable testimony of trivial Experience, every mixt Body, of an unctuous Composition, doth uncessantly vent, or expire a circumferential steam of invisible Atomes, homogeneous and consimilar, that is of the same iden∣tical nature with it self; and for that reason, efficaciously operative to the same Finality: which minute subtilia∣tions, wafted on the wings of a convenient medium, interposed betwixt the accommodate Object and the body exhalant, and so arriving at an analogous Patient, do immediately discharge their Activity thereupon, and by degrees of mutation subdue the same to a Con∣formity•…* or Qualification requisite•… to the Causation of that particular effect, originally enjoyned to the Seminal Entity of the Agent. Then let us stretch our Intel∣lectuals, to fathome, how immensly long the arm of sympathy must be conceded, by all that shall observe, how the Contagion of the Small Pox and Plague* is frequently darted from one Brother or Sister to an∣other, at the distance of many hundred leagues, by invisible emissions, or Pestilential Atomes; without all




excuse of intelligence or mutual Commerce by inter∣venient messengers: as also of Fear and Imagination. How a Tagliacotian Nose, enfeoffed with a Commu∣nity * of Vitality and Vegetation, by right of Transplan∣tation, upon the face of a Gentleman at Bruxels, hath grown cadaverous, and dropt off, at the instant of that Porters death, in Bononia, out of whose arm it was first exected. And finally (that we may supersede the * rehearsal of other Naturally magical examples) how carefully good Huswives avoid the boyling over of their Milk; lest the Atomes thereof subtiliated by the intense heat of Fire, and roving abroad hand in hand with the Igneous Atomes, should be attracted by the Cows Udder (for the source or Fountain of every effu∣sion, acteth a magnetical part, and draweth to it self the subdivisions of that same effusion, situate within the Orb of its Alliciency) and so an Inflammation be caused, by the apposition of the Atomes of Fire con∣comitant. And when we shall have thus cast about, * summed up our reflections, and discreetly accommo∣dated the like effects, daily occurring to the Compara∣tive perpension of Magnetical Vulneraries: we shall naturally fall upon, and set up our rest in this Conclusi∣on: That the sanation of Wounds, by remote means appli∣ed to the Weapon, or cloth imbued with the blood, is no Diabolical, nor prestigious, but a meer ordinary effect of Natural Causes, operating by Magnetism. For very Fa∣miliar must it be made unto us, that the blood effused from a wound, doth constantly (until the last act of putrefaction) hold an influential commerce with and af∣finity * unto its proper Fountain, yet enjoying a more perfect state of Vitality, in its native Conservatory, the Veins; and in that relation, doth continually send




forth subtle streams, or invisible Emissaries of Mumial Atomes, toward that Fountain, or grand Source, as Ambassadors, to intimate the faithful Correspondence and Amity yet maintained: that these Magnetical Nuntii, being joyned in commission and confermentate with the Balsamical Emanations of the Sympathetick Vnguent or Powder▪ do carry them home to the wound: And lastly, that the Exotick and destructive Acidity, impressed upon the sides of the Wound, and defeating the attempts of Nature towards the redintegration and accretion of the Continuity infringed, may be subdued and eradicated by the Medicinal Faculty of the Atomes, deradiated from the Vnguent, and conducted along to the wound in the arms of the Mumial Atomes. Since we are of opinion, that no man, who hath but Philosophy enough to examine the Natural endow∣ments of each single Ingredient of the Composition, as also of the third Quality resulting from their Com∣mixture of Confermentation: will deny, that the Ar∣mary Vnguent, is impregnated with a sanative Faculty; but such as may be too violent and intense, if the Vnguent were applied in body, without the requisite allay and refraction of previous Attenuation.

Thus (judicious Reader) have you seen me, in very few minutes, run over my main course of the Reasons of Hoplochrism; wherein, since I may not come so neer to the guilt of Arrogancy, as confidently to say, I have won; I freely submit to your equitable Arbitration for censure, whether I have not contended fairly, at least, for the Garland of Truth, and far outstript those my two hotspurred Adversaries, Ignorance and •…resumption. But yet must I become a further exercise of your Patience, by holding you to the trouble of going along with me,




over two other very 〈◊〉 Stages▪ which I am obliged to measure, in order to my plenary discharge of a rash promise, which the clamorous importunity of some friends prevail'd upon my too flexile genius to enter into▪

The first is, to scan over the second Paradox, con∣cerning the Nativity of Tartar in Wine▪ Here, I profess, I highly admire the sagacity of Helmonts wit, in so ex∣actly tracing this obscure Entity, back to its first single constitutive Principles, hunting through all those gra∣dual mutations, which he distinctly scented, as well in the Conglaciation of Wines, in cold Climats, as their Fermentation, in hot, immediately upon their being brought home from the Press. Nor can it be gainsaid, by any, that the Spirit of Wine, in avoidance of its ir∣reconcilable Antagonist, Cold, retreating to the Center of its liquor, doth leave the Cortex, or outward round, open to the invasion of Acidity; which being the first * degree of Corruption (for if we boyl any Flesh, that hath been but newly seized on by Putrefaction, the broth thereof will have a manifest sowreness) and want∣ing an object, whereon to sate its Appetite of Corrosion and Dissolution, doth instantly dive to the bottom, and there operate upon the dregs, or residence of Ter∣renity, subsiding upon a precedent Diacrisis, or seque∣stration of Heterogeneities: and so doth, by a second ebullition, cause them to reascend to the Convexities of the Liquor. But whether, the Acid Spirit, being coagulated in the very act of Dissolution, according to that Chymick Axiome, Omnis Spiritus dissolvens, eadem actione, qua corpora dissolvit, coagulatur, be the immediate Cause of the Concretion or Coagmentati∣on of the dissolved and fluctuating Faeces: I confess, I am yet unsatisfied. The ground of my haesitancy, in




this particular, is that upon a strict and laborious explo∣ration of the Causes of Coagulation, conductive to Lapidescence or Petrification, in my Dissertation De Lithiasi, of stones in the Microcosm, I found; that the onely Gorgon, or Lapidifactory Principle, to which all Concreted substances ow their Coagulation, and upon the destruction of which, they return to their primitive Incontinuity and Volatility, is a Saline Fixative Spirit, as I have in that discourse sufficiently proved: and therefore I should rather derive the pedigree of Tartar after this manner. When the Acid Spirit, immersed in an excessive quantity of Terrenity, becomes evirate, * languid, and insufficient to the volatilization of the more gross, ponderous, and fixt parts of the Faeces; it is wholly overcome by the predominant power of the Saline Gorgon, ambuscadoed in the terrestrial Resi∣dence: and so immediately upon this conquest, all the Terrestrial Atomes are fixed, coagmentated, and ferru∣minated into a solid Concretion; which is the Tartar ad∣hering to the sides of Wine Casks.

Here also doth my constant Fidelity to Truth, make * me to observe; that if Vineger be made of Wine, whose spirits are all Exhausted, by the destructive embraces of Heat, surrounding the vessel, and so insensibly ex∣tracting all radical vigor and essential vitality from the mass of liquor, propter〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, to be united to a con∣similar substance; as seemeth most consonant to Ex∣perience; then doubtless, that great Privy Counsellor to Nature, Sennertus*, hath deserved the refuge of that Proverb, Bernhardus non videt omnia, in his mis∣take, That Vineger should be made of Wine, wherein the spirits are fixed or congelated, by reason of an op∣pressive quantity of Fixative Salt, arising from the im∣maturity,




austerity and defective Fermentation of the Must, and not out of Wine, whose spirits are separated by Exhaustion; and by consequence, must have mis∣carried in his design of drawing Spirit of Wine out of Vineger, which project he mentioned both in his Chy∣mical Operations, and in his incomparable Tract, De Consensu Chymicorum cum Galenicis.

My last unwilling task, is the delivery of my suffrage, upon that inscrutable Paradox, asserted by Helmont in his Discourse of The Image of God in Man, as the main point he drives at in all that Meditation; namely, that Reason is no radical, primitive, essential part of the Human soul, but a caduce, spurious Faculty, accidentally Adveni∣ent upon the Degradation of our Nature, by eating the poysonous Fruit of the forbidden Tree; and by conse∣quence, separable from the soul, at the instant of her e∣mancipation from her prison of Clay, and wholly useless to her in her state of restitution to the Clarity of Abstracted and Intuitive Intellection.

To this opinion (I blush not to profess) I have for∣merly leaned, as well by reason of a propensity there∣unto kindled in me by a short passage in S. Augustine*, as by finding, in my solitary speculations, a readiness in my beleif to submit to the conviction of these ensu∣ing Arguments. (1.) The Soul layeth hold on her hopes of future Beatitude, with her right hand of Faith, which is a firm and unalterable Apprehension of ob∣jects, * to which her left hand of Reason can never be ex∣tended: yea, so far short doth our most advanced and illuminated Reason come of the true Cognition of the essence of Omnipotence, Infinity, Eternity, &c. that, in every step of our journey towards the true Elizium, we must quit the dark Lanthorn of Reason, and wholly




throw our selves upon the implicit conduct of Faith. For a deplorable truth it is, that the unconstant, vari∣able, and seductive imposture of Reason, hath been the onely unhappy cause, to which Religion doth ow all those wide, irreconcileable and numerous rents and schisms, in the seamless and indivisible Coat of Faith, made by men of the greatest Logick, and even such, whose intenser flames of Devotion had rendred their mindes the whitest and most purified from the lees of Temporal interest: every Faction alleadging a rational induction, or ground for its peculiar Def•…ection, from the unity of Truth; Reason having, in their judgments, erected the rotten and fragil reed of meer Futation, in the room of the sound and inflexible Pillar of certain and fiduciary Cognition. (2.) The Minde of man, squa∣red by the rule of Faith, stands ascertained, that the * form or essence of Verity, is unical, single, and devoid of all Alterity; and that the Intellect, in its abstracted simplicity, apprehendeth onely the unity of verity: but Reason is unavoidably obnoxious to the delusion of Multiplicity, and distraction of Alterity, and there∣fore unfit to steer the Will, in the act of Election. Quippe quae (as Helmont, most significantly) facilè per linguas, nunc ad unum, nunc verò ad alterum extremorum, nuta∣bunda flecteretur, rationésque ubique inveniret, fingeret, substerneret, juxta placita desideriorum. (3.) The Minde, having once fathomed the extent of her wings, in Me∣taphysical * speculations, becomes assured, that after her delivery from the Dungeon of Flesh and Blood, she shall have all her knowledg full, entire, abstracted, in one single act; not successive, not extorted by the ob∣lique violence of premises, not erroneous, controver∣tible, or dubious: that she shall no longer groan under




the perplexity of framing Demonstrations, by wr•…sting, deducing, inferring, concluding one proposition from another; whether in order to her act of Conception or Notification. (4.) Where precedeth no Discourse, no * Composition, nor Connexion of Premises; there, doubtless, can succeed no Conclusion, Consecution, or Reason: but the Science of the Premises, is always more certain, then the Science of the Conclusion (since the certitude of the Inference, is extracted out of, and doth necessarily depend upon the Certitude of the proposition conceded) and that Science is radically seated in the Intellect, without the concurrence of Reason, because we finde it elder then the Demonstra∣tion. And questionless, this were a fair ground for any able pen to contend upon; that Reason doth not gene∣rate, in the Understanding, any more, then a Caligi∣nous or Spurious Cognition, which we may call a spe∣cious Putation: as also, that the indubitate Science of the Verity of Essences, of the simplicity of things abstracted, and of first Propositions, or leading noti∣ons in Syllogisms, doth not flow from the polluted and tempestuous stream of Reason; but, indeed, from a more divine, serene, luminous Fountain, the Intellect, which I may, with Solomon, adventure thus to describe: It is The breath of the power of God, and a pure influence flowing from the Glory of the Almighty, the brightness of the everlasting Light, the unspotted Mirror of the Power of God, and the Image of his Goodness, and being but one, she can do all things, and remaining in her self she maketh all things new, &c. (5.) Let any Probleme in Philo∣sophy * be propounded to ten, or twenty (the number is of no concernment) the most sage Oedipuse's in the World, and a reason demanded from each apart: and




I dare promise, you shall observe, the variety of opi∣nions will stand in aequilibrio with the number of Per∣sons; every single head being deluded by the im∣posture of specious Reason, and so contumaciously ad∣hering to its particular Apprehension, that the most modest of them all will be ready to swear, that his Solution hath touched the white and Centre of Truth; when, peradventure, not one among them hath ever shot neer it. Such a Chameleon is our Reason; and so variously delusive. (6.) Truth is impressed onely up∣on * the Intellect, in regard, the verity understood, is nothing else but the adequation of the Intellect to the object; or more plainly, the Intellects putting on the Form of the thing comprehended (for the Intellect knoweth objects in the reality of their distinct Essence, and is therefore interchangeably certified of the Nature of things, by the things, themselves: Since the Esse of things is, of it self, ever true, and their Essence and the Essence of Truth; are homogeneal and identical) and therefore the Intellect, which is in a manner carried forth to a Conjunction with the abstract Forms of ob∣jects, is always directly true. Now since the Imagina∣tion, or its laborious Faculty, Reason, is a certain ob∣lique and circulatory way of intelligence, wyerdrawn through the devious meanders, and complex paths of Discourse; but not by the immediate Metamorphosis of adequation, or Protean shifting of its own Form, into the Form of the thing apprehended: therefore is the way of Cognition by Reason, Fallacious and Non∣scientifical. (7.) Whatever soundeth but analogous or * affine, that doth Reason positively judg, consonant and homogeneous to Verity: when yet Reason and Truth are infinitely Disparate, as to the roots of their Essences.




For Verity is, Ens reale, verum: But Reason is, Ens mentale, problematicum, and onely plausible, or appa∣rent; and hence do our Metaphysicians account of En•… rationis, no more then Non-ens, as deriving its geni∣ture from no more substantial a Father, then Imagina∣tion, and its production, from the wanton and incon∣stant womb of Putation. (8.) Many wise men, great * Scholars, and extreamly tender, in the point of their Allegeance to the Church, have thought it no dishonor to their Creation, nor Diminution of the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or transcendent dignity of Humane Nature, to opinion, that the Faculty of Discourse, though in a greater de∣gree of obscurity, may be attributed to brute Animals. I presume, this hard saying will, by the unisone vote of the multitude, be soon condemned to relish more of the Philosopher, then the Christian, and so be exploded for Contagious and Ethnical. But that indifferent Ear, that shall have so much patience, as to hear St. Jerome relate his story of the *Faune, or semi-humane Monster, that having vocally acknowledged the true God, em∣braced the Christian belief, received the symbols of the same, and earnestly desired the mediatory Prayers of Anthony, the Anachoret, conversed a long time with him, in the Wilderness: shall observe the Arith∣metick of Bees*, in computing their Hives morn and even, having no other method of directing themselves each to his proper home, but the number of their par∣ticular Common-wealth, which when they miss, upon a transposition of them, they stray and are lost in their mistake of entering another Hive; And finally shall to




these evidences, annex the serious Lecture of that elo∣quent Legat Hieron. Rorarius, in his two Books, Quòd animalia Bruta ratione utantur meliùs homine, and other Writers on the same Argument; will, I doubt not, arise fully satisfied, that a well tempered Enquiry, Whether the Power of Ratiocination, be not in common to some Beasts, as well as to man, though Imperfectiori modo, cannot misbecome, though not the Pulpit, yet the Study of the most rigid Divine.

These, I say, were the Temptations that first drew me into a belief, that the Power of Ratiocination seemed too low and trivial an Endowment, to make out the Imperial Prerogative, of mans being created in the Image of God; though at the same time, I could not but make a strong reflexion upon my own Frailties, and there inform my self, that I wanted not cause to despair, of ever being so happy, in this life, as to be∣come enabled, by study, to husband my share of Rea∣son, to the best use, and utmost improvement of its capacity. But my second thoughts are more wary, and hold it a part of Prudence, to suspend my posi∣tive assent unto this nice Particular; as well in re∣spect, this dispute would better beseem the Metaphy∣sical Speculations of the School Divine, then the gross and corporeal disquisition of a young Physician: as also, that I have observed Sculls of the largest capa∣city, most subject to Scepticity; especially, in Noti∣ons relating to the Condition of the Soul, when strug∣led from the eclipse of Flesh. To which may be added, that absolutely to determine pro or con, on this debate; though it may manifest the fineness and subtilty of his wit, who can handsomly set Reason against her self, and wound her at heart with arrows stoln out of her own




quiver; yet must it be, a bold usurpation of the privi∣ledg of Death, to whose decision properly doubts of this kinde belong; that being the universal Moderator, that will sate our Curiosities, and in a moment, deter∣mine all our Controversies.

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Arist.
W. CHARLETON.

London, the 2. of November. 1649.


In Elegantissimam Triadem Tractatuum Philosophicorum Doctis. Van-Helmont de Magnetismo, Tartaro, & Anima; AD. GUALTERO CHARLETON Clarissimo Chimiatro Londin. Anglico Idiomate cum notis donatorum: Hoc, in amicitiae tesseram, apud Belgas discessurus, Epigramma Operi suo praefigendum reliquit: P. de Cardonnel.
DOcta Trias! Magnum Sophiae quae condis elixir,
Quod puto Termagnum vel latuisse Senem:
Eia avibus prodi laetis; Te fama secundet
Prospera, suffragiis intemerata suis.
Digna Trias Cedro; Phoebi Lauróque perenni,
Digna vel invitos conciliare Sophos:
Aonidum munus sacrum, doctaeque Minervae,
Cui nil posse addi Fama putabat iners:
Addere Suada Novos, ô Charletone, Lepores
Ausa tamen Calami est Dexteritásque tui.
Alter dicêris meritò nunc omnibus *Hermes;
Et tua jam summis proxima Laurus erit:
Quáque Theophrastum evexit Germania laude,
Helmonti in *Batavis gloria quanta fuit:
Tàm debere Tibi Britones se jure fatentur,
Vtiliora illis qui Monumenta paras.
V. KAL. VIIBRIS. AERAE CHRIST. MDCXLIX.


Alexandri Rossaei Epigramma In Politam hanc Translationem Anglicam Triuim D. Helmontii Tractatuum, A Domino Gualt. Charletono, M. D. Clarissimo emissam.
QUae nêque Phillyrides, nec noverat ipse Melampus,
Jasidésve senex:
Nec qui Paeoniis castum revocavit ad aur as
Artibus Hippolytum:
Nec qui inter Danaos Doctor Podalirius olim
Artis Apollineae
Noverat; haec nobis Sermone Helmontius Heros
Tradidit Ausonio.
Quamvis illi omnes potuêre expellere morbos
Arte Machaonia:
Non tamen hi rerum causas novêre latentes,
Quas docet iste Liber,
Quem puro Sermone & vocibus edidit Anglis
Charleton Jatricus.
Herculeas rerum vires, animámque reclusit
Splendidiore face:
Et velut Alcides, reseravit Tartara nobis;
Non Acheronta tamen.
Hic Phoebo est charus, sed longè charior esset
Si Peripateticus.
ALEX. ROSSE.


To the Learned Dr. Charleton, on his elegant Translation of some most select pieces of Helmont, accompanied with his excellent Notes, candid Animadversions, and opportune Enlargement.
HElmont, though dead, is now reviv'd. Your Pen,
Like Aesons Bath, instill's fresh youth agen,
Into his pale and elemental Clay. His Tomb,
By your fair Midwifery, becom's a Womb:
From whose now re-impregnate sperm, He
Buds forth into a second Infancy.
Your Sheets new swath him (Sir) where he appears
More vigorous in this youth, then in his years.
We're now convinc'd, that Sympathies combine
At distance; that dispersed Mumies twine:
That Nature, on one string, like coupled Beads,
Her Rosary of twisted Causes threads.
Since what of those he first asserted true,
Gathers new strength, and Argument from you.
Those active Flames, which thaw'd your Brain, do thence
Espouse his widowed Earth, with Heat and Sense.
Those Spirits, which that publike Mint o'th' Blood,
The Liver, back retails to th'purple Flood,
Still through their azure Limbecks, and entrust
New Sap, and Verdure to his wither'd Dust.
Sure, when the Soul of Helmont shook away
The Frippery, and Luggage of her Clay,
She seem'd to steal into your Brest; and there
To fix herself, as in her second Sphere.
Yet lest two inmate Souls, both so immense,
They cannot be unactive, chain'd in Sense,

Or close immur'd in walls of Flesh, should rent
Uncircumscrib'd, the brittle Tenement:
They virtually diffuse themselves, and come
Into this Book, by an Effluvium.
Within whose Pages, they'l joynt Tenants dwell,
As in some nere to be demolisht Cell.
And when the Wardrobe of your Dust shall be
Dispers'd themselves into more Dust then ye;
This to your Names (from Times impressions safe)
Shall stand at once, both Urn and Epitaph.
Thom. Philipot.


OF THE MAGNETICK CURE OF WOUNDS. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

The Summary.
1. FAscination, Sympathy, and Magnetisme differ. 2. The Sym∣pathetick Unguent one, the Magnetick another. 3. Mumie what. 4. Philosophy immediately subject to the reprehen∣sion of reason onely. 5. The difference of Law and Philosophy. 6. From an ignorance of the Cause, Magnetism ascribed to the Devill. 7. Who the interpreters of Nature. 8. Why Chymicks only fit to unri∣dle the mysterious oracles of Nature. 9. He is tacitely guilty of pride, who from an ignorance of the cause, beleeves a Naturall effect to be Diabolicall. 10. Who are the Devils Flatterers. 11. Magnetisme no new invention. 12. The Armary Unguent. 13. The intention, scope, ingredients, and manner of the application of the Unguent, good. 14. The Unguent, why not unlawfull. 15. Nor superstitious. 16. Superstition, what. 17. Why the manner of the Unguents o∣peration, unknown to the Censor, concludes nothing against it. 18. Magnetisme what. 19. Some effects of the Loadstone. 20. The Magneticall cure of (otherwise) incurable diseases, perfect. 21. Milk burned, dryes up the breasts. 22. Vitrioll destroyed by Magnetism. 23. Mumie operates from Italy, as far as Bruxels. 24. The Carline Thistle, in the shadow, attracteth wonderfully. 25. The same nu∣mericall disease may change subjects. 26. From Magnetism flowers follow the Sun. 27. Mumiall Philtres, how they may be magneti∣call. 28. The secret mystery of the blood is the Chymist's Load∣stone. 29. Herbs, how, and why magneticall. 30. Asarabacca and Elder, magneticall. 31. An implicit compact, the refuge of the ignorant. 32. Sympathy praesupposeth sense. 33. The Mumie of a dead brother, long since impressed upon a chaire, yet magneticall. 34. A Saphire, in magnetisme, rivals the Unguent. 35. A Saphire, by the touch of one Carbuncle, cures many others. 36. Why the grand Praelates of the Church wear caerule rings. 37. Man hath a magnetick virtue. 38. A Zenexton, or Amulet, against the Plague. 39. Necessary it is, that one and the same Accident passe from sub∣ject to subject. 40. Magnetisme a coelistiall quality. 41. A thiefe or murderer, and an honest man, or woman, yeeld the same mosse. 42. Whence, and what the seed of the mosse. 43. The fruit of the aër. 44. The mosse, a production of fire. 45. In the mosse also is the back of the magnet, the scope being changed. 46. God, in miracles, follows the course of Nature. 47. God, by reliques, ap∣proves the Magnetisme of the Unguent. 48. Supernaturall Magne∣tisme warranteth naturall. 49. A lock of the mosse, worn in the forehead, is defence against a sword: but of the stole of Saint Hubert, against the biting of a mad dog. 50. A lock neatly inserted into the forehead, is a praeservative, during life, from the biting of a mad dog.




51. Pepper degenerateth into Ivy. 52. How we are to judge of per∣sons. 53. Paracelsus the Monarch of Secrets. 54. Every thing hath its peculiar heaven. 56. Whence every naturall inclination. 57. Whence diseases are astrall in man, and portend foule weather. 51. Whence diseased men have a foreknowledge of tempests. 59. What causeth the flux and reflux of the Sea. 60. Whence the winds are stirred up. 61. The heavens doe not cause, but onely denounce future events. 62. Every seminall Entity, hath its own peculiar fir∣mament, and the virtue of its influence. 63. The Vine, not the stars, troubleth the Wine. 64. Antimony observes an influence. 65. The Loadstone directeth it selfe, but is not attracted, to the pole. 66. Glasse, magneticall. 67. Rosin, magneticall. 68. The power of Garlick over a Loadstone: and why the same over Mercu∣ry. 69. The power operative on a distant object, is naturall even in sublunaries: and magneticall. 70. Every Creature lives, suo modo: by the peculiar information of his own essentiall forme. 71. What the Unguent can attract from the wound, at distance. 72. Every Satanicall effect is imperfect. 73. Why Satan cannot co∣operate with our Unguent. 74. What may be called, the will, and phansie of the flesh, and of the outward man. 75. A twofold Ecsta∣sy. 76. The ecstatique virtue of the blood. 77. Corruption edu∣ceth that dormant virtue into action. 78. The essences of things not subject to Corruption. 79. The designe of Spagyricall putrefaction. 80. The Cause of Magnetisme in the Unguent. 81. The heart at∣tracted by treasure, magnetically. 82. The originall of Necromancy. 83. What man is, in the notion of Animal: and what in the notion of the Image of God. 84. How an Eagle is invited by the magnetism of a Carcase. 85. How the blood, in the Unguent, is allected to its treasure: and why Eagles flock together to a Carcase, magnetically. 86. Sensation Animal, and Sensation Naturall, different. 87. The effects of Witches, impious. 88. The power of the Witch, is Natu∣rall: and what that power is. 89. Where in Man, the magicall pow∣er is seated. 90. Whether man hath a dominion paramount, over all other Creatures 91. Why a man is indowed with a power of acting, per nutum. 92. The magicall faculty of man, what. 93. This magi∣call activity lyes ambuscadoed in man, severall wayes. 94. The in∣ward man, the same with the outward fundamentally: but materially diverse. 95. What is the Vitall spirit: its science and endowment. 96. In a Carcase, extinct by a voluntary death, there is no inhaerent spirit. 97. The division of spirits according to the doctrine of Phy∣sicians. 98. The Soule operates in the body, onely per nutum, ma∣gically. 99. In the body, the Soule operateth onely by a drowsie, so•…olent beck, or restrained intuition: but out of the body, by a nimble, and vehement. The knowledge of the Apple, eclipseth the




knowledge magicall. 100. The beginning of the Cabal, drawn from dreams, divinely infused. 101. The defect of understanding in the outward man. 102. How far the power of atan extends in Witches. 103. What are the true and proper works of Satan. 104. Sin took away the endowments of Grace, and obscured those of Nature. 105. The end of the pious exercises of Catholikes. 106. The grand effect of the Cabal. 107. Two subjects of all things. 108. Man hath a power of acting, as well by spirit, as body. 109. What kind of ray, or effluvium, is transmitted from a witch, to a bruite. 110. How a Witch may be discovered. 111. How the spirit of a Witch may be captived, and bound fast in the heart of a horse. 112. The intention depraves a good work. 113. The Virtue seminall, is Naturally Ma∣gicall. 114. The cause of the Cruentation of a murdered Carcase, in the praesence of the homicide. 115. Why the Plague a frequent concomitant of seidges. 116. Works of mercy, to be done upon the distressed, though only in order to the avoydance of the Plague. 117. Plagues arising from revenge, and exsecrations of men dying under op∣pression, most fatall. 118. Why the carcases of malefactors were to be removed from the gibbet. 119. Why excrements can be no authors of a Plague. 120. Why the blood of a bull is venemous. 121. Why the fat of a bulis made an ingredient into the Sympathetick unguent▪ name∣ly, that it may be made an Armary Unguent. 122. Why Satan cannot concur to the Unguent. 123. The basis of Magick. 124. When vani∣ties and impostures are reputed for magick. 125. A good magick in holy Writ. 126. What may be called true magick. 127. The cause of the idolatry of Witches. 128. The Excitators of magick. 129. Satan excites it imperfectly. 130. Whence beasts are also magicall. 131. The dominion of Spirits fostereth contention and love. 132. Man, why a microcosm. 133. The mind generateth reall Entities. 134. That reall Entity of an ambiguous, or midle nature, betwixt a body and a spirit. 135. The descension of the Soul, causeth a conformative Will. 136. The cause of the fertility of seeds. 137. Why lust doth in a manner, alienate us from our mind. 138. A Father, by the spirit of his seed, doth generate extra se beyond the limits of his own body, in a subject sud∣dainly removed to distance. 139. What spirit that is, which is the Pa∣tron of Magnetism. 140. The will doth transmit a spirit to the object. Unlesse the will did produce some reality, the Devill could have no knowledge of it and unlesse it sent this produced reality forth from it self, toward the object, the devil being absent, could never be provok'd thereby. Where therefore the treasure is, thither doth the heart of man tend. 141. Magnetisme done by sensation. 142. There is a plu∣rality of sensations in one single subject. 143. From the superiour phansy commanding it. 144. Why glasse-makers use the powder of




Loadstone. 145. The Phansy of Attrahents changed. 146. Inanimate creatures, endowed with Phansy. 147. Why some things eaten, intro∣duce madness. 148. Why a mad dog biting a man, causeth madnesse. 149. The sting of the Tarantula causeth an alienation of the mind from reason. 150. Why beasts defend not themselves against the biting of a mad dog. 15•…. The sympathy betwixt objects removed at distance each from other, is done by the mediation of an Universall Spirit, which governing the Sun, and other coelestiall orbs, is endued with exquisite sense. 152. The imagination, in Creatures enriched with an Elective Faculty, is various, arbitrary, and unconfined: but in others, of the same determinate identity alwayes. 153. The first degree of power magicall, dwelleth in the formes of the three grand Principles, viz. Sal, Sulphur, and Mercury. 154. The se∣cond is by the Phansies of the Forms of the Mixtum, or integrall Composition: which being destroyed, the Principles yet remaine. 155. The third ariseth from the Phansy of the Soule. 156. What beasts are endowed with magicall power, and can act beyond the circumference of themselves, per nutum onely. 157. The fourth degree of power magicall, is from the excited intellect of man. 158. The word Magick, is analogous, and appliable to many things, in a third relation. 159. Every magicall power, stands in need of, and is improved by Excitation. 160. What may be said a subject capable of Magnetism. 161. How Magnetism differs from other Formall Pro∣prieties. 162. The superfluous humours & Excrements of the body, have also their Phansy. 163. Why Holy Writ doth give the attribute of life, rather to the blood then to any other humor in the body. 164. The seed inhaeriteth the Phansy of the Father, by traduction: Whence Nobility hath its originall. 165. The skins of the Wolfe and sheep retain a Phantastique enmity, of their former life. 166. What the Phansy of the blood, freshly added to the Unguent, can doe. The manner of the Magnetisme in the Unguent. 167. The difference be∣twixt a magneticall cure done by the Unguent, and that done by a rotten egg. 168. The grand mystery of humane Imagination, the foundation of Naturall Magick. 169. The Intellect impresseth the Entity, it selfe created, upon the externall object: and there it really perseveres. 170. How to make powerfull pentacles or magicall Characters. 171. The Phansy, by a naile, as by a medium, holds captive the spirit of the Witch. 172. If Satan can move a body, without any corporeall extremity: why cannot the inward man doe the same? and why not rather the spirit of the Witch? 173. The virtue of the Unguent, not from the imagination of its Compounder: but from diverse simples married into one Composition. 174. The Author makes profession of his Faith.

Page 1
IN the eighth year of this age, there came to my hands an Oration declamatory, made at Mar∣purge of the Catti, wherein Rodulphus Gocle∣nius (to whom the publick profession of Phi∣losophy was lately committed) paying his first fruits to the University, endevours to make good, that the cure of wounds, by the Sympathetick, and Armarie Unguent, first invented by Paracelsus, is meerly natural. Which Oration I wholly read, and sighed, that the history of natural things had faln under the protection of so weak a Patron. The Author, nevertheless, highly pleased him∣self with that argument of writing, and with a continued barrenness of probation, in the year 1613. published the same work, with some enlargement. Not long since, I also met with a succinct anatome of the fore-mentioned Book, compiled by a certain Divine, savoring more of a fine-witted Censure, then a solid Disputation. Whereupon my judgment, what ever it were, was much desired; at least, in that relation, that the thing invented by Paracelsus, neerly concerned him, and my self, his disciple. I shall therefore declare, what I conceive of the Physician Goclenius, and what of the Divine, the Censor. The Physician in the first place, proposes, and with ostentation promises to prove, the magnetical cure of wounds to be pure∣ly natural; but I found the undertaker insufficient, to per∣form so weighty a task; in regard he no where, or at best but


Page 2

very slenderly, makes good the title, or his own large pro∣mises. Collecting, hence and thence from divers Authors, many rhapsodies or gleanings, by which he conceives he hath, to ample satisfaction, proved, that in the inventory of created natures, there are certain formal or essential vertues, which men term Sympathy and Antipathy; and also that from the concession of these, the Magnetical Cure is meerly natural. Many things, I say, borrowed from the Egyptians, Chaldeans, Persians, Conjurers, and Impostors, he hath amassed together into this one discourse, that thereby he might evidence and confirm that Magnetism, which notwithstanding, himself was wholly ignorant of. With design, partly, that by a delightful entertainment of those mindes that are eager in the quest of novelties, he might seduce them from a direct progression to the mark; and partly to raise them to an admiration of the Author, who seemed to have read, and ransacked not onely vulgar, but also all other more rare and antique writers.

For which consideration, the Physician does very absurdly confound Sympathy (which erroneously, and under various notions he very often introduces) with Magnetism; and from that concludes this to be natural: For I have observed this Vulnerary Unguent to cure, not onely men, but horses also; with which our Nature holds not so neer an affinity (unless we grant our selves to be Asses) that from thence the Sympa∣thetick Unguent should deserve to be accounted common to horses, as well as to us.

With the same absurd indistinction, he also confounds Sym∣pathy with Fascination and Ligation, and both with Magne∣tism; namely, with great anxiety and travel of minde, he crouds together upon the Stage, in one Scene, without any distinction, all secret, and more abstruse effects what ever; that being de∣stitute of reasons, he might thereby support his own Magne∣tism. I will by an example difference Fascination from Sym∣pathy, and both from Magnetism. A Dog holds an Antipathy* (for Sympathy and Antipathy are both daughters of the same Mother) with a Hen; for he preys upon her, and she flies from him; but when she hath newly hatched her Chickens, and excluded them from the protection of their shells, she boldly


Page 3

assaults, and puts to flight a dog; though of himself very courageous; to wit, the soul of the Hen, by fascination, chaining up the soul of the dog; the former Antipathy, dis∣parity of weapons for guard, and great ods of strength afford∣ing no hinderance to the action: But in this, Magnetism is no where to be found.

Moreover, what other instances the Physician inserts, con∣cerning Impresses, Characters, Gamaheu, or Magical Images, Ceremonies, and such like, for the most part, vain observances, are but random shots, wholly impertinent to the present scope, and rather stagger the doctrine of Magnetism, by rendring it suspected, then support or advance it. But of these positively to determine any thing, is a task not sutable to my wit.

Goclenius furthermore wanders from truth, and indeed with no less temerity then ignorance; fondly dreaming from the pre∣script of Paracelsus, that the weapon, wherewith the wound was inflicted, if rolled up in the weapon salve, did work the cure on the wound. For in vain is the weapon, or point of the sword anointed with the Armary Unguent, prescribed by him, unless it be distained with blood, and that blood be first dried upon the sword. For to Paracelsus, the Sympathetick Unguent* is one thing, in respect of the blood effluxed out of the wound; and that Unguent, wherewith arms, which have re∣ceived no tincture of blood, are to be emplastrated, clearly an∣other; and for this reason, he Christens the former, the Mag∣netick, and Sympathetick, the latter, the Armary Magnetick Unguent: Which therefore (and to good purpose) receives into its confection, besides the ingredients essential to the for∣mer, Honey, and Bulls fat.

In fine, Goclenius, to humor his own genius, hath altered the prescription of Paracelsus; affirming, that the Usnea, or moss, is to be selected onely from the skulls of such, as have been hanged. Of which his own, and grosly erroneous inven∣tion enquiring a reason, he blushes not foolishly to imagine, that in strangulation the Vital spirits violently retreat into the skull, and there constantly shroud themselves for some time, until the moss shall, under the open canopy of the Air, grow up, and periwig the Cranium. Paracelsus hath expresly taught


Page 4

the contrary, and by multiplied experience we are confirmed, that Usnea gathered from the skulls of such, who have been broken on the wheel, is in virtue no whit inferior to that of men strangled with a halter. For truly from Animals there is not drawn the Quint Essence (in regard the principal, and pa∣ramont * essence perisheth together with the influent spirit, and life) but onely the virtue mumial, that is, the originary, im∣plantate, and confermentate spirit, safely remaining, and in an obscure vitality surviving, in bodies extinct by violence.

What other things Goclenius hath delivered, of remedies to repair a ruinous memory, as we cannot but declare them, in no relation, congruent to the scope intended; so also we nothing doubt to prove them meer pageants and impertinent flourishes.

Betwixt our Divine and Physician, there is at all no dispute de facto, about the verity of the fact; for both unanimously concede the cure to be wrought upon the wounded person: The contention lies onely in this, that the Physician asserts this Magnetical Cure to be purely Natural, but the Divine will needs have it Satanical, and that from a compact of the first inventor. Of which censure, in his Anatome of our Physicians discourse, he alledges no positive reason; conceiving it suffi∣ciently satisfactory, if he, on the score of his own solitary judgment, abolish it, though he subjoyn no grounds for the abolition; that is, acquiescing onely in this, that he hath re∣moved the feeble and invalid arguments of the Assertor; which, in sober truth, is a matter of no diligence, no learning, and of no authority to erect or establish beleif. For what a∣vails it, to the procurement of faith, from no stronger evi∣dence, then the futility of specious reasons, urged by some ignorant head, to give a definite judgment on the thing it self? and to declare it impious, if himself hath not so much as in a dream thought upon any one petty reason, for the support of his sentence? What if I, being a Laick, should with course and untrimmed arguments, commend Presbytery, and another re∣ject my reasons as unworthy and insufficient, will the order of Priesthood it self be therefore rejected? Of what concern∣ment, I pray, is the ignorance, or temerity of any one to


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realities themselves? In the Court of Truth, Philosophy sub∣mits*not it self to naked and single censures, unless there also concur a considerable gravity of the Censors, fortified with firm and convincible reasons.

Wherefore I, who have undertaken, in opposition to our Divine, to make good, that the Magnetick Cure of wounds, is the single, and ordinary effect of Nature; in the first place, think Goclenius worthy to be excused, if without success he hath sweat in the indagation of the grand and approximate Cause of this rare effect. What wonder, when our Divine makes publick confession, that himself is utterly ignorant of that cause, and onely for that reason refers it to Satan, as to the Author and master-wheel in this abstruse motion: For such is the infirmity of our delapsed nature, that we are destitute of the knowledg of the most, and most excellent things. And there∣fore, to palliate this defect of our understanding, we, though not without some tacite reluctancy within, obliquely wrest many effects, whose efficients are beyond the ken of our blear∣eyed reason, to the sanctuary of ignorance, and refer them to the Catalogue of Occult Qualities. For who, among Divines, ever had a plenary and demonstrative knowledg of the true and proper cause of Risibility, or any other Formal propriety: For example, of the heat of fire. Dost not thou fall upon that Fallacy, Petitio Principii, an absurd begging of the question, if thou answer, that extreme heat belongs to fire, because it is of the essence of fire? In truth, the Essences of Forms, in regard they are unknown to us, à priori, from their Causalities; there∣fore also is the original, or pedigree of Formal proprieties, wholly abstruse, jejune, and undiscovered; and where we per∣ceive any Formal passion subjoyned, the minde, as if tired with vain scrutiny, soon ceaseth from the disquisition of it, and re∣poseth it self, sitting down contented with the empty notion, and bare name of Occult proprieties. Go to, I beseech thee, does the Anatomist, our Censor, happily know the reason why a Dog swings his tayl when he rejoyces, but a Lyon when he is angry; and a Cat, when pleased, advances hers in an erect posture? What therefore, when himself cannot give a reason for the motion of a tayl, will he so much wonder, that Gocle∣nius
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hath given an improper and insolid reason of Magnetism? and from the refutation of that, presume that he hath more then sufficiently demonstrated that sanation of wounds to be Satanical, which is the genuine effect of Magnetism? Far from us be so great temerity of censure.

Come on then; why dost thou call that cure Dibolical?* Insooth, thou oughtest to have annexed the reason of thy cen∣sure, unless thou expectest it should be denied by others, with the same facility, wherewith thou affirmest it to be diabolical. Lawyers require onely the affirmative confirmed; but Philoso∣phers both parts, that the ignorance or protervity of the No∣gant party, may not appear greater then that of the Affirmant. Dost thou happily maintain the Cure to be Diabolical, because it cannot be clearly understood (by thee) that there is any natural reason for it? I will not beleeve, that from thy own infirmity, thou mayst deliver so idle and stupid a sentence of the vertue of it. For thou well knowest, that the imbecillity of our understanding, in not comprehending the more abstruse and retired causes of things, is not to be ascribed to any defect in their nature, but in our own hoodwinkt intellectual•….

Proceed therefore; whence hast thou assurance, that God, in his primitive intention, hath not directed this vertue Mag∣netical to the benefit of the wounded? Shew us your Com∣mission; hath God elected you the Secretary of his Councel? Certainly, however you may waver in your belief, you shall in conclusion finde, that amongst you Divines, the Magnetick * cure can be accounted Diabolical for no other reason then that the shallowness of your judgment cannot comprehend, nor your Function admit it to be natural. What wonder, that no Divine hath ever scented these subtilities? for after the Priest* and the Levite had both passed on to Jericho, there succeeded a Samaritan, a Lay man, who deprived the Priests of all right of disquisition into the secret causes of things. Whereupon Nature from thenceforth summoned not Divines to be the In∣terpreters* of her nicer operations, but adopted Physicians onely to be her darlings, and none but such, who instructed by Py∣rotechny, examine the proprieties of things, by sequestring the impediments or clogs of vertues ambuscadoed in their grosser


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materials, such are their crudity, venenosities, and impurities; that is those bryars and thorns every where, from the first Malediction, inoculated into the creatures in their spring or virgin estate. For since Dame Nature (the Proto-Chymist) her self doth every day sublime, calcine, ferment, dissolve, coagulate, fix, &c. Certainly we also, the onely faithful inter∣preters of Natures Oracles, do by the same helps and advan∣tages draw forth the Essential qualities of things from the dark prison of their materials, and bring them to the Meridian light of reason.

But the Divine, that he may be able to discern what is pre∣stigious, from what is natural; it is requisite, that he first bor∣row the definition from us, lest the Cobler shamefully adven∣ture beyond his Last: Let the Divine enquire onely concern∣ing God, but the Naturalist concerning Nature.

Assuredly the goodness of the Creator was largely diffused on all the works of his hands, who created all things for the * use and benefit of ingrateful man: neither admitted any of our Divines as an Assessor in his Councel, how many, and how excellent vertues he should endow his Creatures withal. In the interim, I am wholly unsatisfied how he can be excused from the sin of Pride, who because he comprehends not the natural cause, as measuring all the immense works of God by the narrow extent of his own head, does therefore audaciously deny, that God hath bestowed any such vertue on the Crea∣ture; as if man, a vile worm, had fathom'd the power of God, and were privy to the designes of his Councel. He esti∣mates the mindes of all men by his own, who thinks that can∣not be done which he cannot understand.

To me, seriously, it appears a wonder in no respect that God hath, besides a body perfectly resembling the Loadstone, be∣stowed upon his Creatures a noble vertue also, which our rea∣son can explicate by no other term then that of Magnetism. Ought it not to suffice, to the indubitate concession of Mag∣netism, that onely one single example (I shall hereafter bring in others, numerous and apposite) be introduced, of the natural efficiency of that stone, according to the model or pattern whereof, even other endowments, variously distributed


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amongst the creatures, may be clearly understood? What, because the thing is new, paradoxical, and above the reach of your understanding, must it therefore be Satanical also? Far be it from us to conceive so unworthily of the Divine Majesty of the Creator; nor indeed ought we thus to court or gratifie the Devil, by transferring this honor upon him; for what can * ever affect him with a more full delight, then that the glory of good works be ascribed to him, as if he had been the grand Author of them?

That material nature does uncessantly by its secret Magne∣tism, suck down forms from the brests of the superior Orbs, * and greedily thirst after the favor and benign influence of the celestial Luminaries, you willingly concede; and moreover, that the stars in exchange attract some tribute from inferior bodies, so that there is a free commerce, and reciprocal return from each to other, and one harmonious concord, and conspi∣racy of all parts with the whole universe: And thus Magne∣tism, in regard it is vigorous and pregnant in every thing, hath nothing new in it but the name, nor is it paradoxical, but to those who deride all things, and refer to the dominion of Satan, whatsoever falls not within the narrow circle of their own understanding. In good truth, this kinde of wisdom is never to be found by him that seeks it with derision.

But I beseech you, what of Superstition hath the Armary Unguent? whether because it is compounded of the moss,*blood, mumy, and fat of man? Alas! the Physician uses these inoffensively, and to this purpose the Apothecary is licensed to sell them. Or perchance, because the manner of using and applying the Medicine is new to you, unaccustomed to the vulgar, but admirable to both; must the effect therefore be Satanical? Sub due your passion, and calm your rage, ere long you shall be more fully satisfied.

For the manner of its application, contains in it nothing of evil. First, the intention is good and pious, and directed one∣ly * to a good and charitable end; namely, the healing of our sick, languishing neighbor, without pain, without danger, and without the consumption of his purse: And do you call this diabolical? In fine, the remedies themselves are all meer natural
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means, to which we shall in the progress of our dispute, by convincing arguments demonstrate, that this generous faculty was peculiarly given by God himself. Our wishes are that your self had, by so firm evidence, ratified your negative posi∣tion, viz. that God, the supreme Good, did not, in the Creation, confer upon the ingredients of the Unguent, any such natural vertue, and mumial Magnetism.

This Magnetical remedy can, on no side, be laid open to the * encroachment of suspect; since, both in the confection and use, it hath no superstitious rites performed, it requires no mysterious words, no characters, or impresses, no prestigious ceremo•…ies, or vain observances conjoyned: It presupposes no planetary hours, or punctilioes of constellations, it pro∣phanes not sacred things; and what is more, it forestals not * the imagination, requires not a confidence, or implicit faith, nay not so much as bare leave or consent from the wounded party; all which are ever annexed to superstitious cures.

For we account that properly to be Superstition, when men * relie upon the single power of an implicit faith, or imaginati∣on, or both concurring, above any particular vertue, which of it self is not sufficient, or by the primitive intention of the Creator, not destined to the production of that particular effect. By which it is clearly manifest, that our Magnetick cure hath none the smallest tincture of Superstition. Do thou therefore, O Divine! great with a sarcasm, with design at least to detect and deride the Devil, make an experiment of the Unguent, that so thou mayest destroy and totally abolish that implicit compact with him; nevertheless thou shalt, vo∣lent or nolent, without either direction from, or obedience to thy will, finde the same effect result from thy application of it, that usually does upon ours; which does not at all succeed upon the conjunction of superstitious causes.

Whoever reputes the Magnetical Sanation of Wounds to * be Diabolical, not because it is performed by unlawful means, or directed to an unwarrantable end; but because in the manner of its operation, it progresses in a path, which his reason cannot trace: He also convicted by the same argument, shall either give the quidditative and peculiarly express causes


Page 10

of all those admirable effects of the Loadstone, which in the sequel of my discourse I am to mention; or confess, that those * rare operations of the Loadstone, are the impostures and the legerdemain of Satan; or shall compulsively concede with us, (which indeed will be the safer way) that in nature there is a Magnetism, that is, a certain hidden property, by this ap∣pellation, in reference to the conspicuous and confest prero∣gative of that stone, distinguisht from all other abstruse, and to common heads unknown, qualities.

A Loadstone placed upon a thin small Trencher of wood, floating on water, does instantly in one determinate point au∣stralize,* and in the other septentrionate. That extreme, which by its verticity regards the Southern Pole, when by touch it hath impregnated a piece of steel or iron, will immediately steer it to the North; and the other extreme which looks up∣on the Northern Pole, having invigorated a needle of steel, will incline it to the South. By its Septentrional point, which is its belly, it attracts iron or steel to it; and by its Australe end, which is its back, it thrusts iron or steel from it. The Aqui∣lonary side, by friction of the point of a Compass needle, posi∣tionally from the right hand to the left, endows it with a ver∣tical or polary faculty, whereby it is directed to the South: But if the friction be ordered in a quite contrary position, from the left hand to the right, the direction of the point of the needle will also be contrary, and neer to the North. Thus also the Australe side of the Loadstone, according to the variety of locality, or position in friction, varies the polarity. Nay, what carrieth a neerer face of miracle, if a Loadstone by its affriction hath invigorated and excited a piece of iron, with a magnetical activity, that is, a power to attract another piece of iron; the same new made Magnetical iron, if inverted upside down, and in that Antipodean position, a second time, rub'd upon the Loadstone, will, in the same moment, be devested of its magnetical infusion, and clean forget its lately acquired power of attraction. All which various and admirable effects of the Loadstone, thou mayest, if thy judgment relish them, finde made good by multiplied observations, by William Guil∣bert, not many yeers past, a Physician in London, in his Book


Page 11
De Magnete: Of which subject no man ever writ more judi∣ciously or experimentally; and by whose industry, the variati∣on of the Compass may be restored. The needle, which now points directly upon the North, coming under the Equinoctial Line, staggers to and fro, hovers from Pole to Pole, and in a trembling unconstancy fixes on neither: But once brought over the Meridian, nimbly wheels about, and fixedly applies it self to the South. I shall annex this Medical vertue of it: the back of the Loadstone, as it repulseth iron, so also it retrudeth the gut, by reason of too wide an expansion of the process of the Peritonaeum, prolapsed into the Scrotum, cureth the Entero∣cele or intestine rupture, and likewise all Catarrhes or destil∣ments, that have a private affinity, or analogy with the nature of iron. The iron-attracting faculty, if in a composition, married to the mumy of a woman, then the back of the Load∣stone applied to her thigh, on the inside, and the belly of an∣other imposed upon her loyns, about the lowest spondil of the back, will safely prevent an abortion threatned; but on the contrary, the belly of one Loadstone applied to her thigh, and the back of another to her back, will both wonderfully facili∣tate her travail, and expedite her delivery. All which various operations of the Loadstone, our Anatomist is obliged to il∣lustrate, by reasons, drawn ae priori, from the fountain of their distinct and determinate efficiencies, and expound to us the subtile manner of the progress of each cause, in the producti∣on of each several effect: otherwise, I shall by a parile argu∣ment of ignorance, conclude, that these in like manner, are also meer illusions of Satan, and no effects of Nature.

I shall now infer some certain examples of another Magne∣tism, cousin-german to the former; that so with our judgment better informed we may at length come to the positive reason, and clear refutation of all the objections of our adversaries. What can I do more? I my self will contrive reasons for you, which you have not at all urged. You may argue thus; Every effect either immediately proceeds from God, the sole Opera∣tor, and so is a miracle; or from Satan, and so is prodigious; or from natural and ordinary causes, and so is meerly natural; but Magnetism is neither a miracle, nor a natural effect; and


Page 12

therefore Satanical. I answer; Though I might, with great facility, declare this enumeration delivered, to be invalid, in regard the inward man hath a power of activity, by none of the forementioned ways, (which, in the pursuit of our debate, we shall largely, and to ample satisfaction, treat of) yet how∣ever we now with a dry foot, pass by the assumption, making it our chief task to deny and subvert the inference, namely in that part, whereby it is asserted, that the effect is not natural. For, by the rules of orderly and artificial disputation, that was first to be made good, that we might not fall foul upon that elench, Petitio principii, a precarious concession of that Thesis, which is yet questionable and undetermined; but in this point, our Censor hath yet been, and ever will be defective, to affirm the effect not to be natural; unless he thought, that a bare affirmation is equivalent to a confirmation, and that to have sub∣stituted his single authority in the room of reason, was evi∣dence strong enough to silence doubt, and procure credence. For there are many effects natural, which yet do not ordinarily happen; namely, such as are rarely incident. Wherefore to gratifie our Anatomist, I shall all along the tract of this exer∣cise, not onely maintain the affirmative part, but also perspi∣cuously commonstrate it by reasons, and ratifie it by examples. For so the mighty argument, even now urged, will fall by its own weight.

There is a Book, imprinted at Franekera, in the year 1611. * by Uldericus Dominicus Balck, of the Lamp of life. In which you shall finde, out of Paracelsus, the true Magnetical cure of most diseases, as of the Dropsie, Gout, Jaundies, &c. by inclu∣ding the warm blood of the Patient in the shell and white of an Egg, which exposed to a gentle heat, and mixt with a bait of flesh, you shall give, together with the blood, to a hungry dog, or swine, and the disease shall instantly pass from you in∣to the dog, and utterly leave you; no otherwise then the Leprosie of Naaman did, by the exsecration of the Prophet, transmigrate into Gehazi. What, do you account this also Diabolical, thus to have restored our languishing neighbor, by the Magnetism onely of the mumial blood? however, he is perfectly and undoubtedly recovered. ¶

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A woman weaning her childe, to the end her brests may the * sooner dry up, strokes her milk into a fire of glowing coals, and thereupon her paps suddenly grow flaccid, and the foun∣tain of her milk, is stopped. What, doth the devil suck and drain them?

Hath any one with his excrements defiled the threshold of thy door, and thou intendest to prohibit that nastiness for the future, do but lay a red-hot iron upon the excrement, and the immodest sloven shall, in a very short space, grow scabby on his buttocks; the fire torrifying the excrement, and by dorsal Magnetism driving the acrimony of the burning, into his impudent anus. Perchance, you will object, that this action is Satanical, in regard the end of it is revenge, and the laesion of the party, which offended us; but assuredly, the abuse of such powers depends on the liberty of mans will, and yet the use is no whit the less natural.

Make a small table of Bismuthum*, and on the one ex∣treme, * place a piece of Amber, on the other, a piece of green Vitriol; the Vitriol will in a moment lose both its colour and acidity. Both which are familiarly observable in the prepara∣tion of Amber.

This one experiment, of all others, cannot but be free from * all suspect of imposture, and illusion of the Devil. A certain inhabitant of Bruxels, in a combat had his nose mowed off, addressed himself to Tagliacozzus*, a famous Chirurgeon, living at Bononia, that he might procure a new one; and when he feared the incision of his own arm, he hired a Porter to admit it, out of whose arm, having first given the reward agreed upon, at length he dig'd a new nose. About thirteen moneths after his return to his own Countrey, on a sudden the ingrafted nose grew cold, putrified, and within few days, dropt off. To those of his friends, that were curious in the exploration of the cause of this unexpected misfortune, it was discovered, that the Porter expired, neer about the same punctilio of time, wherein the nose grew frigid and cadave∣rous. There are at Bruxels yet surviving, some of good re∣pute, that were eye-witnesses of these occurrences. Is not this Magnetism of manifest affinity with mumy, whereby the


Page 14

nose, enjoying, by title and right of inoculation, a commu∣nity of life, sense and vegetation, for so many moneths, on a sudden mortified on the other side of the Alpes? I pray, what is there in this of Superstition? what of attent and ex∣alted Imagination?

The root of the Carline Thistle (which is the White Cha∣maeleon*of D•…oscorides) pluckt up when full of juice and vigor, and contemporate with Humane Mumy, does, as it were by an operative ferment, exhaust all the natural strength and courage of a man, on whose shadow thou treadest, and in∣fuse it into thee. But you may account this praestigious, be∣cause Paradoxical; as if the same identical Leprosie were not traduced from Naaman to Gehazi; and the same numerical Jaundies transplanted from the patient to a dog. For a disease * is not under the Predicament of Quality; but all the Pre∣dicaments are found in every particular disease. Since indeed, it may be lawful to accommodate names to things, but not things to names.

The Heliotropian or Solisequous Flowers are wheeled about * after the Sun, by a certain Magnetism; not for his heat, whose comfort they may long after; for in a cloudy and cold day they imitate the rhythme of the Sun; nor for his light, are they the Lacqueis of the Sun; for in the dark night, when they have deserted him, they face about from the West, to the East. You will not account this Diabolical, in regard you have another subterfuge at hand; namely the harmony of superior bodies, with inferior, and a faculty at∣tractive, purely celestial, and no way communicable to sub∣lunaries. As though the Microcosm, unworthy this heavenly prerogative, could in his blood and moss observe, and cor∣respond to no revolution of the Planets.

I might here, with pertinence, discourse of Philters, or amorous Medicines, which require a Mumial Confermentati∣on, * that the affection and desire of the minde may be forcibly drawn, and rapt on to one determinate object. But on a sober consult with thought, it seems more advised, to supersede that theme, when I shall first have mentioned this one obser∣vation; I know an Herb, commonly obvious, which if it be


Page 15

rubbed, and cherished in thy hand, until it wax warm, you may hold fast the hand of another person, until that also grow warm, and he shall continually burn with an ardent love, and fixt dilection of thy person, for many days toge∣ther. I held in my hand, first bathed in the steam of this love∣procuring plant the foot of a Dog, for some few minutes: The Dog, wholly renouncing his old Mistress, instantly fol∣lowed me, and courted me so hotly, that in the night he la∣mentably howled at my Chamber door, that I should open and admit him. There are some now living in Bruxels, who are witnesses to me, and can attest the truth of this fact. For the heat of a mans hand warming and resolving the plant, I say not a bare, simple and solitary heat, but excited and im∣pregnate with a certain effluvium, or emanation of spirits natural, doth peculiarly determine and individuate the ver∣tue of the plant to himself; and by this ferment communi∣cated to a second person, doth by Magnetism allect the spirit of that person, and subdue him to love.

I omit the cures of many diseases, which the Arcanum, the * mystery of humane blood, doth Magnetically perform: For unless the blood, yea the very sanies or purulent effluxions from Wounds and Ulcers, the Urine, and that subtle effluvi∣um, which by insensible transpiration evaporates through the pores of the skin, did continually exhaust, and carry with them some part of the vital spirit; and unless these had also some participation of vitality, and conspiracy with the whole body, after their remove from the whole concretum: Un∣doubtedly the life of man could not be so short. For indeed this is the cause of our intestine calamity, and that principle of death we carry about us, ambuscadoed in the very princi∣ples of life.

The Herbs Arsemart or Water Pepper, Cumfry, Chirur∣geons Sophia or Flixweed, Adders tongue, and many other * of the Vulnerary tribe, have this peculiar endowment; that if, when cold they are steept in water (for an Oke felled, when the North wind blows, will grow verminous and rot∣ten, if not instantly sunk under water) and then applied to a Wound or Ulcer, until they grow warm, and after buried in a


Page 16

muddy uliginous Earth; when they begin to putrifie, they then operate upon, and draw from the Patient, whatever is evil, superfluous, and hurtful to him. And this the Herbs per∣form, not while they grow in the earth, nor so long as they remain in their primitive and pristine form (for necessary it is that the grain be mortified, that it may bring forth fruit) but in the putrefaction of their Corporeities, for the Essential vir∣tues being then as it were released from the prison and impedi∣ments of the corporeal matter, do put forth and freely execute that Magnetism, which otherwise had lain dormant and en∣chained, and according to the contagion and impression re∣ceived from the wounded or ulcerated part, powerfully suck out much of the remaining evil, though seated deeply and at great distance in the body.

If any one in gathering the leaves of Asarabecca, shall * pluck them upward, they will perform their operation re∣spectively, and purge any third person, that is wholly ignorant of that positional traction, by vomit onely; but if in gathering they be wrested downward, they then will purge onely by stool. Here at least can be no suspect of superstition; for what need I here to mention any thing of Imagination; when your selves concede, that by the power of imagination nothing can be acted upon a third object, especially where that third object is utterly ignorant of the position, which the decerpent used? Will you again take hold of the sacred anchor of ignorance, * and accuse this secret of an implicite Compact with Satan? But herein lurks no vain observance; chiefly when the de∣cerptor shall have, the assument being wholly inscious of the position, pluckt off the leaves, either upward or downward. Doubtless, besides Asarum and the extremities or clusters of Elder, no other Cathartick Medicines are enriched with this propriety; for they, in what position soever collected from the plant, do ever operate univocally: that is, either constant∣ly upwards, or constantly downwards, according to the desti∣nation of their gifts. But in Asarum, in the integral plant, there sensibly appears a Magnetical propriety; and so it doth variously endow its leaves, according to the sense of their de∣cerption. That not onely plants, but also almost all created *
Page 17

Entities, have a certain adumbration of sense, or obscure sen∣sibility, they largely declare as well by Sympathy, as Antipa∣thy (which presuppose, and cannot consist without sense) maintained amongst themselves; which satisfactorily to mani∣fest, shall be the subject of some succeeding lines.

A second Fit of the Gout surprized a Noble Matron, of my * acquaintance, after the first paroxysm had gone off, and left her; and thenceforward the Gout, by an unwonted recidi∣vation, and periodical recourse, infested her without remissi∣on, for many moneths together. But she not apprehending whence so violent and unexpected a return of the disease had happened to her; at length she rising from her bed, as often as the fury of the fit, by intervals, somewhat remitted, re∣posed her self in a Chair, wherein a brother of hers, many years past, and in another City, cruelly tortured with the Gout, was wont to sit, she instantly found that from thence the disease did awake, and afresh invade her. This effect like∣wise is, on no pretence whatever, to be ascribed to Imagina∣tion or doubt; since both these were much yonger then the effect. But if it hapned that any third person subject to the Gout sate in the same Chair, to him there succeeded not any reincrudation of the disease. For which reason, the mumy of her dead brother deservedly rendred the Chair suspected of contagion; which penetrating through all her cloaths, did to the sister onely, and not to any other podagrical person, excite those frequent refluxes and paroxysms, which otherwise had slept, and not invaded her. The cause truly was the Magnetism of the brothers mumy, infected with a prodagrical miasm or tincture, effluxed from him, and impressed upon the Chair, determinately operating on the uterine mumy of the sister; and that a long tract of time after his funeral. I beseech you, what can you discover in this of any implicite Compact, with our grand adversary Satan?

A Saphire enobled with a deep coerule tincture, if it be ap∣plied to, and a small time rub'd upon a Carbuncle, whereby * the Plague pathognomonically discovers it self, and after a while be removed, the absent Jewel then ceaseth not Magne∣tically to allect and extract all the pestilential virulency, and


Page 18

contagious poyson from the infected party; provided that this be done, before the Patient hath suffered too great a prosternation of spirits, and decay of strength. Physicians therefore use (which to us much advances the reputation of Magnetism) gently and slowly to draw a circle with a Saphire, round about a pestilential tumor: To this end, lest the venome exhaling, should in that part, where it insensibly evaporates, exspatiate and dilate it self to a wider range, and so in that circumferential expansion infect some noble part adjacent. For in that place where the virulency exhales, magnetically attracted from the infected body as it were through a trunck, or conduit-pipe, all the round or circle instantly grows black, and at length torrified into an Eschar falls of: the heart, in the interim, being preserved from the fatal contagion. Nor is there any postern door left open to evasion, by objecting, that we are to conceive the poyson attracted to the Carbuncle, in the same moment, when the round was drawn about the place, or at least then critically conquer'd by the internal champion of life, the heart; and not to attribute it to any Magnetism of the Saphire removed at distance. But however, the sick will give in their testimony, that they did not perceive any relief in the instant of the Saphires touch; but a good while after: The poyson indeed, gradually, by little and little, departing from the body, by the Magnetical attraction. Yea, the place it self will afford a more certain and satisfactory e∣vidence on the behalf of Magnetism; for it grows not black and torrid in the minute of, or by the affriction of the Sa∣phire; but many minutes after, being immediately combust by the pestiferous, that is Arsenical, vapor, in that one path, and no other, expiring from the Centrals. For where the ve∣nome does continually exhale, the venemous radii being con∣gregated and bound up into one Gone or pyramidal point, there it is of necessity that the part suffer extreme violence, grow black, and be torrified; which effects, as they are per∣formed in successive motions of time, so also they inform us, that the virulency does successively breathe forth, in obedience to the Magnetical alliciency of the absent Gem.

Your reply perchance will be, that every Agent doth require


Page 19

a certain, and limited duration of its impression: that the Saphire did not benefit the Patient in the present, but left be∣hinde it an impression, which was by degrees to subdue the remainder of the Plague; but not that the Saphire did attract any thing at all, after its remove from the Carbuncle. Here you shall observe, that every Agent of Nature does act in an instant in the first moment of congression, unless there be some obstacle or remora of disobedience in the Patient; but in the body infected there can be no impediment from re∣luctancy, or stop of reaction, since it longs for a relief with all expedition, and in expectation of it, uncessantly pants and labors in all veins of the body.

It would be clear another thing, if the Saphire were first to suffer preparation, concoction, or alteration, that so from the concretion there might be educed the imprisoned Agent, which should afterwards diffuse and spread it self through all parts of the body. But when the Saphire conserves its native integrity, and continues undissolved and incorrupt, it requires onely a certain determinate time for this, that it may, by the touch and mediation of the mumy, associate and unite its own influential ray to the pestilential vapor, and so captive it, that afterwards being withdrawn, it may forcibly command it from the heart. To this association and marriage, I say, that there be a convenient alligation of the virtue Saphirical to, and as it were a Conglomeration with the venome, there is required a determinate measure of time (grant the eighth part of an hour) wherein the Compass line may be drawn about the pestilential Bubo. For if there were onely some bare, single impression of the Saphire, which constantly adhering to the place after the touch, should by little and little conquer and eradicate the venome, within the precincts of the body; and no Magnetical alliciency of the absent stone: There could no reason be found out, why that particular place of the circle, should be benegroed and torrified, nor why the virulent ex∣halation should not range in a larger circumference then the cicumdate line. What is more, if many Carbuncles freshly shew themselves in divers places at once; yet that onely Car∣buncle,* which was circumscribed with the Saphire, undergoes


Page 20

combustion and denigration, all the other sinking down again, and vanishing insensibly. And therefore, I beseech you, what impression attractive can the Saphire leave behinde it, after its remove, if not a Magnetical one? Principally, when the Attractum doth imply an inseparable relation to the Attra∣hent; and so transpositively.

Yea, if the Saphire should from its self transmit any virtue into the sick body, after twice or thrice using, it would inevita∣bly be subject to diminution and decay of power, (for so the hoof of the Elk, by often use of it, to suspend and resist the invasion of Epileptick paroxysms, by degrees becomes evirate and despoiled of all activity) that faculty, which is imprest upon the Carbuncle, being exhaust and spent; which mani∣festly in the Saphire falls not out alike; for so much the more excellent and efficacious a Saphire is esteemed, by how much the more frequently it has suckt out the venome of the pesti∣lence. It may be you'l answer, that the Saphire does generate a new third quality in the Patient, by reason whereof it begins to attract and drain the poyson, that way onely; and that al∣though the Saphire be then removed, yet that nature never∣theless, once encouraged and invited into action, ceases not to persevere in the expulsion, and maintains that Crisis, through that passage onely, where the poyson first began to be expell'd. First, we enquire, whether the Saphire does attract by a first, manifest quality (imagine heat) or by a formal magnetical pro∣priety? But this Magnetical essential faculty requires not any previous generation, or result, of a new quality, within the body; but onely the conjunction of its virtue attractive, to the pestilential aer, so that it may perform its office of at∣traction. From whence the inference is; that the attraction is performed by the absent Saphire. This assumption holds clearly good, because every natural Attrahent does attract adse, to it self; for to this end onely does it attract. For which reason, a new third quality, generated in the body, would rather attract the virulent exhalation concentrically and inwards, and could by no means be invited outwards, by an excentrical attraction.

Our second enquiry is; whether the Saphire may not have generated, and emitted a virtue from it self, and imprest that


Page 21

virtue on the skin onely? For neither can this stand; since then, it would not be necessary, that a circle should be drawn about the Carbuncle, with the Saphire; but it would be suffi∣cient, that any other more remote and commodious part of the skin be toucht; which, by the suffrage of experience, is ab∣solutely false. Our third query is, whether the Saphire haply can unlock and expand the pores of the skin? and whether Nature, on the single stock of its power, could not have made use of its own expulsive faculty, without the attraction of the Saphire? If we say, not; then the Saphire cannot be allowed to attract, but onely to have assisted and corroborated the expulsive faculty. But this opinion is soon subverted by the effect; in that no place suffers combustion, either without or beyond the round; and also because the other Carbuncles, be∣ginning to bud forth, do at the same time sink away and vanish, though never toucht by the Saphire. Since indeed, if onely the expulsive faculty were corroborated, that would expel the venemous fumes every way round, and could not be restrained to any one certain and elect place.

Fourthly, Nature had already, before the admotion and affriction of the Saphire, giving sufficient testimony of its own valor and ability, in expelling the Carbuncle singly and of its own accord. Whence also it appears a gross falsity, that Nature once excited and rouzed up to expulsion, by the saphi∣rical infusion, does afterward persevere in, and stoutly main∣tain that critical motion; since observation assures us, that frequently the Saphire is but slowly applied, and comes too late, to assist the beginning of the expulsion. For which con∣siderations, notwithstanding any thing you shall be able to oppose, it is of absolute necessity, that the pestilential venome is magnetically attracted by the absent Saphire.

Will you therefore, that the natural magnetism of the Ar∣mary Unguent be more plainly and amply discovered unto you? or will you disparage and calumniate the noble allici∣ency of the Saphire; and also write to the Calumniator? you will (I suppose) judg it to have much more of reason and solid truth to comply with our faith; that as death, wounds, diseases, slaughters crept in, and made encroachments on


Page 22

humane nature, by means of the Devil, from whom nothing proceeds but mischief: So also that every good gift comes down from the Father of lights. It being a position universally assented unto by all men: That that must be good, which nei∣ther the subject, nor the object, nor the means, nor the end proposed, can accuse and convict of evil.

Hence was it, that the antient Prelates of the Church were * wont heretofore to wear rings enricht with a Saphire; the use and excellent virtue of that precious stone being, for the major part, hardly understood among them. For to whomsoever the charge of souls is committed, to them also of equity, and duty, it belongs to visit and be assistant to the infected with the plague; the dark mist of ignorance, in our days, obnubilating and eclipsing the knowledg of the most excellent pieces of Nature; in whose room have succeeded, an affected spruce∣ness of language, a vain-glorious trimness of the windy and dead letter, and a confident, presument garrulity. Which may be the subject of our serious sorrow, but more of our wonder; that all mechanique Arts do daily receive advancement, and ascend by the degrees of new discoveries, neerer towards their perfection; but the study of Philosophy onely stands ever per∣plext and discouraged with unjust censures, and now is in its Apogaeo, or retrogradation. I have dwelt the longer upon this subject, the Saphire, in respect it contains a case, in all points alike, and wholly quadrant to that of the Armary Unguent.

In this particular, therefore, Man also hath his magnes, or domestick power of alliciency; whereby, in time of the plague, * he draws in, through the invisible pores of the skin, the pesti∣lential Atomes exhaling from the infected. For Nature, which at all other times is wont to admit nothing but wholsome and alimentary juice and with great diligence and exactness to sequester that juice, from the inalimentary and excrementiti∣ous parts of it; at this time, yeelding and wholly submitting to its magnes, greedily sucks in the pestiferous aer, and invites death into the inmost closet of life. Ediametro contrary to this intestine magnes, Providence has furnisht us with another peculiar, antagonistical magnes (this we insert, that our dis∣pute may not become barren and fruitless, in any one part of


Page 23

it, namely the Saphire, or a translucid piece of Amber; which rubbed to calefaction upon the seven planetary pulses, (those on the jugular Arteries, on the handwrists, neer the instep, and on the throne of the heart) and hung about the neck in∣stead of a Periapt or Amulet, are too hard for the humane magnes, conquer and destroy his attraction, and by that supe∣riority of attraction, become the most certain Amulets and Counterpoysons to the fatal contagion of this plague: Other∣wise, if there precede not a requisite confriction of the Pulses, they are altogether invalid, and of no efficacy. For those things, which in their primitive constitution were a Saphire and Am∣ber, having from the affriction changed their family, first lose their originary appellations, and are afterwards called a Ze∣nexton,* or preservatory Amulet against the pestilence.

Will any man, think you, account these effects Diabolical; and attribute them to a covenant made with Satan?

It is sufficient, that we have introduced a few, but select, satisfactory, and pertinent examples, whose case holds a per∣fect analogy, and even proportion with that of the Armary Unguent; we shall now seasonably turn our selves to your Arguments.

You argue Goclenius of ignorance of the doctrine of A∣ristotle, in that he insinuates that the same numerical Accident can pass from one subject to another (my wish is, you had been as able at probation, as you are at refutation) namely, that this also is an assertion of huge pertinacity, to conceive, that a Cicatrice or scar in a dead body is not identically the same, it was in the man yesterday living. For in vain do we honor, and pay an humble and fiducial veneration unto the *reliques of Saints; if nothing but that simple, impossible matter, which the disciples of Aristotle dream of, can remain, and not some accidents constantly continue in the corrupted body, which were heretofore in the living. Behold! whither a paganical error may precipitate those, who improvidently carp at others. I say, to imagine that to be absolutely im∣possible, which is absolutely necessary, is the part of the most absurd and grossest ignorance: For example, that light, from the body of the Sun even down to the earth, in a more swift


Page 24

motion then the twinkling of an eye, through all the smallest Atomes of the air, does produce new species, and those species produce another stock and supply of species of light. This properly is to be blinde in Sunshine; for if we had not diffused upon us the identical light and vigorous influence of the Sun, but onely the thousand, of thousands of millions, species of light and virtue solary; no sublunary could have growth or vegetation, nor could ever any fire be kindled by the refraction and union of its beams. For the species of species of light, since in reality of essence they are no more light, then the spe∣cies of colours are really colours, they can never be of activity strong enough to produce fire. For my part, seriously I cherish and applaud my self for that ignorance of Aristotles doctrine, of which Goclenius is accused as rude and illiterate. Doth not the needle of the Mariners compass, through a firm glass, closely sealed up with melted soder (in which there can be no pore or crany discovered) steer it self to the Artick pole? and is it not attracted to a piece of iron placed within the orb of attraction, the pole during that seduction, wholly neglected? Wherefore the same numerical Accident, streaming in one con∣tinued radius from the Loadstone into the aer, passes through the glass, and perhaps goes as far, as to touch the pole it self. And Magnetism likewise is a Celestial quality, of neer affinity * to the sidereal influences; neither is it confin'd to any deter∣minate distance of place; as neither is the Magnetical Un∣guent, of which our dispute.

You smile, because Goclenius chooses for an ingredient into the Unguent, that moss onely, which is gathered off the scull * of a man of three letters*.

Nor in this truly is there any ground for your conjecture, that in the herb there lies a snake in ambush, any vain touch of superstition couch't. For if a Jesuite, put to death by strangulation, or any other kinde of martyrdom, be left sub dio, in an obedient position to receive the influence of the stars; yet his head will yeeld the same crop of Moss, equivalent in use, and equally ripe, with the head of a Thief: since the Se∣minality of the moss drops down from Heaven upon Mount Calvary. For sometimes there distils a frothy dew, which is


Page 25

called Aurora; and after that, a more tenacious Viscid Muci∣lage descends, which is called Sperma siderum, the seminal e∣mission of the stars; sometimes the Heavens have shower'd down clouds of Frogs, Spiders, Locusts, and other such in∣sects, which in their descent became solid, tangible, and vital * substances: in other mountainous places the prodigious clouds have rained milk and also blood; frequently also there is found lying upon stones and bones a white bituminous mat∣ter, sweat from the celestial orbs, which turns into moss. This candid substance, in some places, where it petrifies and is * changed into stone, induces a crustaceous surface, or parget upon stones; in other places it degenerates into a moss.

To this Classis of Meteors we are also to refer, the Dew,*Manna, Throni, Thereniabin, Nostoch, Nebulgea, Laudanum*, and other such aëreal productions. Though these partake more largely of the substance of aër; while, in the interim, the ori∣ginary principles of the moss, growing upon sculls, are of a higher and more noble pedigree, the seminary excretions of the stars; and are called by Hermetical Philosophers the flowers or fruits of the Celestial Orbs. By these the prudent have at∣tempted and atchieved many notable designes; and indeed, they being enriched with the favor and continual influence of the Heavens, want not the ground and foundation of excellent and generous faculties. The moss therefore of a scull, since it hath received its seminality from the celestial orbs, but its Ma∣trix, conception, and increment from the mumial and medul∣lary substance of the scull of man; it is no miracle, that it hath obtained excellent Astral, and Magnetical virtues, far transcending the common lot of Vegetables; although herbs* also, in the capacity of herbs, have their peculiar Magnetisms: I will insert an observation of my own; A certain Souldier of a noble extraction, wore a little lock of the moss of a mans scull, finely enclosed betwixt the skin and flesh of his head; who in friendship interceding betwixt two brothers, that were fighting a mortal duel, unfortunately received so violent a blow with a sword on his head, that he immediately fell to the earth. With which blow his hat, and hair were cut through, as with an incision knife, even to the skin; but he escaped


Page 26

without the smallest wound, or penetration of the skin. I need not anticipate, your selves may without much difficulty guess, to what cause the guard of the skin may be justly ascri∣bed. It hath not been the custome of my genius, to perplex and rack my minde, with uncertain conjectures; since indeed lightning, of far greater violence then a sword, if it ever touch a Bay tree, does yet never discharge it self upon a Sea Calf, or Horse, whose snafle is anointed with the fat of a Sea Calf, nor ever falls upon that stable, whose dore posts are emplastered with the same fat. The experience is trivial and frequent. But I pass lightly over this scene, and resigne it to others; so soon as I shall have mentioned one other example, like the former. In Arduenna* Saint Hubert is worshiped with solemn and publick veneration, whither all people bitten by any mad dog speedily address themselves (as elsewhere others flock to the shrines of Saint Domirus and Bellinus:) there the Flamen or Priest burles a small lock of wool, from the stole or upper garment of the Saint, which is artificially inclosed within the skin of the forehead of the patient, bitten by a mad dog; and from thenceforth for ever he can be no more wounded or smitten, by any mad, or wilde beasts whatever; for the sa∣cred magick of the lock is the shield, that secures from the violence of enraged teeth, and renders the wearer invulnera∣ble. * Your answer will be, that this extraordinary effect is done by an immediate miracle of God, cooperating with sacred reliques. Well, grant it be a miracle; yet that God in the pro∣duction of miracles, does, for the most part, walk hand in hand with Nature, and in a manner oblige himself to an ob∣servance of, and conformity with her customs and rules, these Patients of Saint Hubert do plainly evidence by their lock of wooll. For that uncircumscribed Omnipotence, whose power is


Page 27

limited by no law but that of his will, who can do all things by the single efficiency of a Fiat, does sometimes make use also of natural means.

Thus let the sweat in the Sudary, or Stove of Saint Paul, be also a Magnetical Unguent; but the sweat of the sick persons, or the insensible effluvium exhaling from them, be the blood of the wounded, sprinkled upon a piece of wood, and put into the box of Unguent; immediately all harm and evil depend∣ing on the wound, is from all parts of the body attracted magnetically. And this effect is by so much the more power∣fully * wrought, by how much more efficacy the supernatural magnes is endowed withal. For in both, truly, there is the same reason, and the same manner of the causes operation; the difference lies onely in this, that in the material world, the effect succeeds upon a requisite conjunction and co-efficiency of corporal means, the blood and the Unguent; but in the supernatural, by a holy magnetism, arising from the sacred re∣liques of the Friends of God, which in this relation, undoubt∣edly deserve our venerable esteem. That these miracle-pro∣ducing *reliques might in the manner of their operations, by a neerer similitude approach to the nature of the Magnetical Unguent, God, the soul of mercy, moved with compassion to∣wards our frail and calamitous estate, hath in some of them called up a fountain of oyl, perpetually pouring forth streams of Balsam: To this end, that every where relieved and sup∣ported by magnetical remedies we might for certain be assured, that the Magnetical cure of wounds is received from God, and both in the supernatural and natural world doth proceed in an equal order of causes, in an equal pace and manner of operations, and by the conduct of the same Director and Guide. Hence is it, that fresh and new reliques work more, and more noble miracles when they are carried about, or applied to the Patient by the touch; because it is of unexcusable necessity▪ that the magnes be first rub'd, touch't, and stir'd, if we will have it to attract.

I return to thee, O Usnea! the noble issue of celestial seed: * for whoso hath enjoyed a convalescence from the Hydrophobia, by the lock of wooll, and other pious rites observed, is not


Page 28

onely himself for ever after protected from a rabid dog; but, what is far more noble, he can grant to any other person bit∣ten by a mad dog, a supersedeas to prorogue the time of the Venoms energy, for many moneths, until the Patient can, with convenience, take a journey to the shrine of St. Hubert; the poyson in the mean time charmed into an inactivity, and * the fermentation of the humors suspended. Nature hath also granted another magnetical magnale, cozen german to the former. The Zinzilla (which is an excrement of the Dia∣phragma or Midriff, degenerating into an inflammation and Apostem) when once it hath like a Zone*, environed the chest of the Patient, becomes fatally destructive; but it is safely and with great celerity cured, if the place be outwardly, though but slenderly, anointed with the blood of another, who has once recovered from the same disease. For he who hath once recovered from that disease, hath not onely ob∣tained a pure, balsamical blood, whereby, for the future, he is rendered secure and free from any recidivation of the same evil; but also infallibly cures the same affection in his neigh∣bor, and by the cutany external contact of his own blood, by the mysterious power of Magnetism, transplants that bal∣sam, and conserving quality into the blood of another.

You may object; if the Magnetism, or grand magnetical arcanum, lie onely in the Usnea; then all other ingredients of the composition are fruitless, vain, and unnecessary. Physici∣ans soon salve this doubt, by replying; that some of the in∣gredients are efficients paramont, and principal; others of inferior virtue and subordinate; some are conjoyned as impe∣diments, to obtund and refract the violence of contrary in∣tense qualities; others as spurs, to excite the dormant; and others to advance and promote the weaker and less active Magnetism, to a higher and more noble entelechy. And that these reasons support the necessity of a multiplicity of simples, in the confection of the unguent. On this consideration, as it was a flat impertinency to argue, that if the usnea, chiefly com∣prehend the magnetism, then is man, to no purpose, exentera∣ted to furnish the Unguent with some other ingredients; so also would it be a direct absurdity to plead, that if the usnea,
Page 29

on the single stock of its own endowment, be not enriched with sufficient magnetism; nor the fat, nor the blood, &c. therefore will not that magnetism, which we attribute to the unguent, also be found in the whole composition; since single ingredients cannot impart that virtue to a composition, which they formerly did not contain in their primitive constitutions and simple natures. I must ever now and then be compelled to act your part, and contrive arguments and cavillations for you, against my self. But however, it had been your duty, formerly to have been instructed from vulgar and rustick ex∣periments, that in a compound medicine there doth frequently emerge and result a new third quality, which was never before, in*the least measure, couched in the single essences of the ingredients. For example, it would become you to have observed, that neither Vitriol nor Galls are sejunctively black; but married in the composition of Ink, they immediately beget a perfect deep black.

You may again object; if the Usnea hath acquired its magnetism from the mumial virtue of the bones, and the se∣minal influence of celestial orbs: then, of consequence, may the same be gathered, not onely from sculls, but from all * other bones of the sceleton. But this illation is also ridicu∣lous; for Nature her self confesseth a subjection and con∣formity to the condition of the soyl; and for that reason, Pepper new gathered transplanted into Italian ground, dege∣nerates into Ivy: Hellebore set in the Tridentine* fields, quite looseth its purging faculty; and Poppies with us are wholly devoid of any deleterious or deadly quality, however our Countrey be ten times colder then Thebes* it self. Therefore the usnea varies in its efficacy, according to the various soyl, or matrix of bones, wherein it is conceived and nourished. For if lightniug melt money, the purse remaining untouched, and of ten companions sitting close together, choose one out of the middle, and strike him into ashes; and this happen not casually, or by chance, but by the permission of that Providence, which will not have so much as one leaf drop uncommanded from the tree; and by whose onely power, all virtues are founded and established; it can seem no


Page 30

wonder also, that one distinct magnetical seminality of usnea be, from the celestial sphears, distilled upon the scull; and a second seminality, of another peculiar classis, upon the other bones of the Sceleton. Onely the bone of the head is of ex∣cellent use against the Epilepsie; but so are not any of the other bones. Then, to conclude, all the brain is consumed and dissolved in the scull, by the continual irroration and im∣bibing of which precious liquor (I mean that of the brain) the scull acquires such virtues, which we have discovered to be wanting to the other bones

I have sufficiently known the customes of contradicents. For when they have nothing more of moment to alleage against the thing disputed of, they become the more contumelious, break forth into reproaches, and fall foul upon the person of him, that is their adversary in opinion. Wherefore it may be, some or other will exclaim, that Magnetism is some new fan∣gle, invented onely by Paracelsus; but that he was a lewd, dissolute, and ignorant fellow. And again, if there had been any such excellent virtue in nature, it could not have remain∣ed in darkness, and undiscovered to so many ages, and its revealment have been suspended till the advent of Para∣celsus.

As concerning the reproaches, and scurrilous subsannations of many, shower'd down upon the head of a man, that was the Ornament of Germany: I answer, that they are empty, vain, and below a sober thought, and do no more, then ren∣der the assertor of them more indign and contemptible then before; as one that earnestly endevours to condemn, not onely the living, but the dead also. For there is no reason why I an unequal Orator, who have undertaken the Encomium of no man, should fall upon the praise of him for those things, which his own monuments hold forth to the world, concerning his learning, wisdom, and divinely infused endow∣ments; but I come directly to ballance the invective arguments themselves. This Objection therefore is barren of any thing but pride, since it insolently dares to assume the condemnation, not onely of the living and dead, but even of God himself; namely, that he ought not to have infused the knowledg of


Page 31

so divine a secret into Paracelsus, but some other person (some Jesuite perhaps;) nor to have manifested so great a consonan∣cy and harmony of Nature, in the days of Paracelsus, but much earlier, in the infancy of the world. But I beseech you, why came Ignatius Loyola so late, and in the evening of the world, to be the founder and establisher of a Society, so useful and profitable to the whole world? Why did he not spring up, and appear many ages sooner? Alas! wretched man, whither doest thou hurry thy self by presumption? Is not God the free and unconstrained giver of his own benefit? and doth not he delight himself in an undeserved donation of it? Himself has vouchsafed to bequeath us a touch-stone, * by which we may give infallible judgment of the persons of men; namely, that we shall know them by their works. But what the works of Paracelsus were, and how much greater then all expectation of Nature, and the mordacity of male∣volent tongues, his own Epitaph, by the most illustrious, and most reverend Prelate, the Bishop * of Saltzburg, appensed to that well deserved Monument of his, doth in despite of envy, sufficiently declare.

Page 32
THE Epitaph of PARACELSVS: Engraven in stone, at Saltzburg, in the Hospital of Saint Sebastian, on the erect Wall of the Temple.
COnditur hic Philippus Theophrastus*, insig∣nis Medicinae Doctor, qui dira illa vulnera, Lepram, Podagram, Hydropisim, aliaque insanabilia cor∣poris Contagia, mirifica arte, sustulit; ac bona sua in pauperes distribuenda, collocandaque honoravit*. Anno 1541. die 24 Sep∣tembris, vitam cum morte mutavit. HEre entombed is Phil∣lipus Theophrastus, a famous Doctor of Physick, who by his wonder-working Art took away those mortal wounds, the Leprosie, Gout, Hydropsie, and other in∣curable contagions of the body; and ordained his goods to be distributed and given to the poor. In the yeer 1541. on the 24 day of September, he made an exchange of life for death.
Paracelsus, therefore, is so far from having deserved ill, in * that he hath revealed Magnetism, unknown to Antiquity; and in the room of that study of Natural wisdom, which with great barrenness is taught abroad in publick Schools, intro∣duced another more solid and real one, which by the Analysis and Synthesis, the diacritical resolution of heterogeneal, and syncritical conjunction of homogeneal bodies, is made pro∣bable, and brought home to a familiarity with our sense, and yeelds a more wealthy harvest of knowledg; that thence he hath rather, by a just title, won the denomination of the Monarch of secrets, from all his predecessors; unless with


Page 33

those that malign him, we, as ignorant Judges, discommend all his good actions, and disparage those benefits, he accumu∣lated upon pious uses. I am thus a man, (i. e.) this is the pre∣rogative of my humanity; all things appear cheap and light in the ballance of my reason, that pretend to a dominion over my belief, by no stronger title, then that of Custom onely. Since there is nothing, that enshrowds our mindes in a greater mist of error and seduction, then that we are conformed to Custom, out of an easie and ungenerous credulity, submitting our assent to rumor, and the dreams of the multitude. We are therefore gallantly to attempt the emancipation of our faith from the tyranny and pedantism of popular tradition, to pursue the liberty of our intellectuals, and to enjoy, not enslave the ha∣bilities of our judgment.

You may again plead, that in Sublunaries there is no influ∣ential virtue, that can be paralleld to the impressions of Su∣perlunaries; but if you shall stumble at this stone, you will at the same instant fall upon the reprehension of all those learned men, who have taken the direct path to Philosophy; since they have rightly observed to us, that in inferior bodies there is an inference or tribute delivered down from superior, and reciprocally an analogy or resemblance of inferior in celestial bodies. Do not Herbs, Animals, and diseased men foreknow and presage the future mutations of times and seasons? Are we not to expect so much the harder Winter, by how much the deeper cave or lodging the Frog hath scra∣ped in the earth, to harbor himself in the succeeding Winter? For from this ground proceed the Meteorical Auguries; not indeed, that those prophesies of weather arise from the too early and yet future motion of the stars; in regard, it would then follow, that that motion must cause this presagous sensa∣tion, long before its own contingency.

Far be it from a sober head to dream so palpable an absur∣dity, For the firmament does onely denounce future events; but has no hand in their Causation. But indeed, every single created nature contains its peculiar heaven within the sphear of its * own dimensions, and holds within it self the rotation or re∣volution of that heaven, dependent on its seminal Entity, in


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whose spirit (which comprehends the Caelature or Idea of the whose, in landskip) there is comprised its own peculiar heaven, and moreover its own ascendents. Nor is there, why you should conceive, that we by this doctrine, stagger and demolish the Fabrick of Astrology; but rather that we elucidate, and render it more bright to the prospect of our understanding; since truly every single seminal ens contains its own heaven, and by that relation holds a Syzygia, or conjunctive interest of the other sidereal heavens. But the motion of the universal heavens, in regard it is the most known and most common, does govern, and according to the rule of it self direct the particular heavens (suffer me to borrow that name, since I want another more proper and convenient) of single inferior Creatures. This properly is the cause of every natural incli∣nation; and when the single creature, by the perswasion and seduction of its own domestick heaven, becomes exorbitant from the motion of the universal heaven, as the most common rule, immediately there succeed irregularity, acrasie, confusi∣on and defects. For a sheep without a guide, looses himself * in the devious paths of error. And from this conspiracy and conjugation of the motion of the universal, with that of eve∣ry * particular heaven, is it, that diseased men carry an Alma∣nack * in their bones, presage foul weather, and the future mu∣tations * of seasons; but not those that are sound. For if the * Sea did flow and re-flow by the direction of the Celestial, that is the pyromantical, or fiery Moon onely, and not of its own hydromantical, or watry Moon; and if the windes were stirred up by the command of the Celestial Mercury onely, and not of their own Chaomantical star; truly there could be no Provinciala winds in any quarter of the earth, but (since there is but one single Mercury, and one single Moon in the whole Arch of heaven) the same wind would constant∣ly blow alike through all the world; and the Sea would in all places flow, if not at the same time, yet in the same rhythme, or interval of tides, which our modern Navigation disproves. It is enough therefore, that we have here, by way of digression, made it appear, that in every single seminal en∣tity there is comprehended a virtue celestial, & enormanticalb,


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which doth yet excite it self, and is regulated by the orderly motion of the celestial orbs, distilling an impression upon it; so long as it will not be accounted refractory and exorbitant. And that the Firmament also doth not cause future accidents, unless by a remote interest, and that too but by first qualities * onely, as it were acting the part of a Cook; but otherwise doth signifie and loudly proclaim the handy works of God. But that every particular Creature doth in its seminal Entity,* possess a particular firmament; by the mediation of which, superior bodies symboliz•…, and hold a reciprocal correspon∣dence with inferior, obliged thereto by the law of friendship and philanty or desire of self-conservation. From all which we may now at least collect, that there is a Magnetism, and powers influential, every where implantate in, and proper to natural bodies; which powers who so excludes from the scene of Sublunaries, does seek to shelter himself in a rotten San∣ctuary.

You will further urge, that we are to come yet neerer to the main point, nor is it yet placed above doubt, that in Sublu∣naries there is a quality that holds a parity to the impression of Superlunaries, and such a one truly, which can transmit it self to an object removed at large distance; which notwith∣standing is presupposed in the Armary Unguent; and so that Magnetism is indeed a virtue celestial, but yet in no degree of emulation, to be ascribed to Sublunaries, much less to the counterfeit weapon-salvo. But what else, in the main, is this (I beseech you) then to deny Magnetism, without or besides Magnetism? For if, in an universal notion, we call every in∣fluence of sublunaries reciprocally transmitted from each to other, a Magnetism; and if in defect of a more proper and distinctive Etym•…n, or adaequate denominative, we christon that occult coaptation and requisite connexion of Active and Passive, whereby an absent Agent does operate upon an ab∣sent Patient, by influence, by an invisible emanation and enter∣course of virtues, whether it be done by attraction or impul∣sion, a Magnetism: Seriously, whoever denies the influential power of Sublunaries mutually transmitted and entertained each by other, to be performed by Magnetism; and requires


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an instance to be given him to the contrary; in sober truth he requires a flat absurdity, a Magnetism (forsooth) without Magnetism, and knows not well, what he would deny, or what demand.

Since in earnest I have held forth examples of the Fact, in Sublunaries, and brought upon the stage very many and very apposite instances, as that of the insititious or engrafted Nose, of the Saphire, of Arsmarte, Asarum, and most other Herbs. But you deny (I sufficiently know, because you know it not) either that those effects, mentioned in the list of examples, do not at all succeed upon the coaptation and marriage of such and such causes; or else you will affirm those effects to be caused by the sole power of the Devil. And that it is not agreeable to the custom of Naturalists, to argue from bare Authorities; but that it becomes us Defendants, to come up, with those that strive against us to handy-blows, namely to experience. Do you make tryal therefore, and call any of the recited examples to the touchstone of experiment, that so you prove us guilty of falshood; if you cannot, then at least come over to our side and believe them. For it is an action of insolent petulancy for any, therefore to deny the contingence of that fact, which is every where so trivial and frequent, that it can hardly escape the observation of any, because (forsooth) himself never found, nor indeed ever endevoured to finde it good upon experiment; and of a far more unpar∣donable insolence, to ascribe that effect to the Devil, which in most pieces of the Creation is purely consonant to Nature, as shall hereafter be made good; and that too, for one single fault, because (in faith) the secret manner of its production from the confederacy and co-efficiency of natural causes, can by no means sink into the head of our Censor. A Censor, who presumes, that by the subtilty of his own vast intellectu∣als, and the study of Aristotles Physicks, he hath exactly sur∣veyed the great round of Nature, fathomed the Moon, and to a hair taken the just dimensions of all pieces of the Uni∣verse. A Censor, I say, who though upon a severe scrutiny he can discover nothing of superstition, and nothing of un∣conformity to any divine or humane laws in the Unguent;〈1 page missing〉〈1 page missing〉
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doth yet, onely because the manner of its application to the weapon seems paradoxical to him, highly cry it down as un∣lawful, condemn and detest it as impious, and accuse it to con∣tain some strange and horrid interest of the Devil. But what in the manner of its application (I beseech you) do you stum∣ble at? Verily because the sword, or splinter of the weapon distained with the blood, is emplastered over with the mumi∣al and Magnetical unguent; because the blood once extra∣venated, or effluxed out of its proper conservatory, the veins, looseth its interest of vitality, and can observe no concordance with that blood, which is yet conserved and cherished in the veins; and because he doth not believe, that the action of the unguent can be extended to an object at large distance re∣moved. But return to your self, good Sir, for ere long you shall both understand; and firmly believe it, unless your per∣tinacity render you uncapable of instruction. For we will make it our business now, for your information, to call the action of Magnetism to the bar, and by the evidence of Me∣ridian truths, convince the ignorance and stupidity of its ad∣versaries.

For I will now shew, that there is, without that Classis of things and herbs, which you have undeservedly suspected, a mutual influence and commerce of some certain pieces of Nature, by effluvium or emanation of spirits; and that this concordance is observed between objects at very great distance removed each from other. The Vine, when it is in the flower,* perturbs and causes a kinde of sickness (for so Vintners term it) in the Wine. You will excuse that this conturbation is not caused by any violence or impression of the Stars; when we solidly prove the contrary. For if the Stars did immediately occasion the germination and efflorescence of the Vine, and also the turbulency and sickly fermentation of Wines in their Vessels; it would of necessity be, that both those effects should happen every yeer, in one determinate, appointed, and definite moment; which observation concludes to be false. For sometimes the Vine emits her flowers, and the Wine is troubled before the solstice, and in the same Country, not un∣til another yeer, long after; but the Sun and all the Chorus


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of fixed Stars constantly, onely some few minutes of difference allowed, return to the same point of heaven, once every year; therefore would the Vine flower, and Wines suffer a contur∣bation always at one and the same set time. But if you seek an evasion, and shall rejoyn, that other Planets, beside the Sun, which possess not annually, about the solstice, one constant and equal position or situation in heaven, are the causers of this languor in Wines; onely in this relation, that the motion of the superior Orbs is most common, as to which all subor∣dinate and particular heavens are to conform, all Vines would for the plurality of them flower in the same yeer, in all places at once; which is false upon the testimony of experience. For as there is a Nature Astral conferred upon, and implan∣tate in the ground, so also the same particular Nature is in∣serted into the Vine; which particular Nature doth per se, by its own domestick power (no otherwise then the Earth hath, from the fructifying benediction of the Creator, re∣ceived a power of germinating per se) produce the flower, fruit, and seed, and conform and dispose it self to the rhythme of the most general motion of the Celestial Orbs. Men posi∣tively affirm further, that Wines are never perturbed in those Regions, in which no Vines grow; wherefore the flower of the Vine, and not the motion of the Celestial Spheres, doth perturb Wines, and that many hundreds of miles from thence; but truly, so much the more powerfully, by how much the neerer the Wines are to the Vine, that produced them.

I gratefully applaud those studies, that contribute towards the advancement of the Common-wealth of learning; and * highly honor him, who discovered, that vulgar Antimony, in its preparation, doth, though in an obscure manner, con∣form it self to an influence.

I expect no more, but to have the same measure returned to me, which I deliver to others; when I shall to plenary sa∣tisfaction make good, that there is a certain influential power ordinary and familiar to sublunaries, which knows no con∣finement or restraint to any local distance; and in order to the more vigorous and substantial support of Magnetism *
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declare, that the Loadstone doth of its own accord, by the swinge of a native inherent verticity or polary directive fa∣culty, steer it self to the Pole, but is by no means attracted by the Pole. For one Loadstone in a lateral variation defects to three, another to six, seven, and eleven degrees from the Pole; but none (for what I could ever discover) doth in a direct line lie parallel to the Axis of heaven, and punctually point upon the Pole. Therefore if the Loadstone were at∣tracted by the Pole, it must receive that convulsive influence, either from the Pole it self, or from some other Star adjacent to the Pole; but not from the Pole it self, in respect every Attrahent does attract towards it self by a direct, and not by an oblique line: wherefore if the Loadstone were attracted by the Pole, it would in a just level point upon the Pole; and so the result is, that Loadstones (at least according to what solid and multiplied observations have taught me) suffer no attractive force, or vertical invitement from the North-star, nor from any other neighboring Star. For since the whole Asterism of Charls his Wain knows no Sabbath, but is ever wheel'd about by a perpetual circumrotation; if it did at all attract, it would occasion a perpetual inquietude, and uncessant revolution of the Loadstone, by reducing it one while many degrees towards the East, and another while as many degrees towards the West, and every twenty four hours sometimes elevate it towards the Zenith, and anon depress it towards the Nadir; which experience positively contradicts: Wherefore the Loadstone ows its polarity to a natural inherent faoulty, flowing from its own seminal Entity, and not to any forain alliciency, or attractive influx transmitted from the North-star. But that otherwise the Loadstone may, by its own instinct, be elevated towards the Zenith, we have upon ocular demonstration found it true, by a certain Instrument invented by Guilielme Guilbert (the glory of which excellent * invention Lodovicus Fonseca hath lately endevoured •…o ravish and arrogate to himself, in the presence of his Catholique Majesty) which, by the spontaneous elevation of the Load∣stone in a brass Ring suspended by a thred or small wier, shews not onely the latitude, but also the altitude of the Pole, in all places of the Earth.

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Laboring your reason to finde out a way of evasion you will thus contend for the prerogative of the Pole; that the Pole doth indeed attract the Loadstone, but according to the various and certain material disposition of several Loadstones, it doth allect them not in a right line towards it self (for such is the condition and will of the Attrahent) but to some other place situate in vicinity. The substance of which is; the Pole truly invites the Loadstone to it self in a direct line, but the Loadstone becomes refractary, and comes not in a direct line, by reason of some unknown impediment, (which you term a certain peculiar disposition of it) existent in the Load∣stone, which is superior in power to, and vigorously resists that traction of the Pole; although the influential alliciency of the Star, at the distance of so many thousand miles, arrive at the body of the Loadstone entire, and without the least de∣cay or diminution of vigor. You perceive, how much truth you have granted to your subterfuge? and how, though by compulsion, you affirm that in the Loadstone there dwells a certain (you call it certain, which indeed to you is purely ima∣ginary, and to all men else wholly uncertain) motive disposi∣tion, besides, and superior to the attraction of the Pole; which yet at the same time, you peremptorily deny the Loadstone to possess? which in the ballance of reason carries this weight: the Loadstone is endued with a domestick Pilot, a directive faculty, which guides it to some determinate place, but is not at all attracted by the Pole.

Driven from this starting hole, you flie for refuge to some other Celestial Attrahent; seated in vicinity to the Pole; by replying, that the Loadstone is attracted, and doth not direct it self, by any internal polary virtue; attracted not by any one particular and determinate Star, or point of Heaven, but by a certain Circle or Zone, at a neer distance, environing the Pole. I answer, That this evasion is far fetched, for this imaginary Circle must be extended to the latitude of eight degrees at least; namely, from three to eleven degrees▪ for I have observed some Loadstones to fufill that large variation. Wherefore if there were a power of attraction equally in∣herent in all parts of this Circle, one and the same Loadstone
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would continually vary, and in the same hour deflect, now to three, and anon to eight or eleven degrees from the Pole, or Central Star; which is a falshood manifested upon frequent experiment. Therefore, to help out this Chimera, there must be conceived many lesser Orbites or rounds one within an∣other, in a Circle of so great latitude; every one of which subalternate Zones must select and attract its particular Load∣stone. Which being conceded, you inevitably fall again into the same pitfal; namely, that the Loadstone contains within it self a certain disposition or elective power, whereby it should conform to the traction of one round, rather then of an∣other; and by consequence, when you have stretched your absurd conceptions to the highest pin of phansie, there will be nevertheless a motive virtue, or native verticity in the Load∣stone.

Yet we have not a clear prospect into the nature of this abstrusity. If the Pole did attract the Loadstone, the attracti∣on must depend either upon the elemental and material tem∣per, or upon the specifical form of the Loadstone; but a Glass;* wherein the Magistery of Loadstone hath been prepared, though never so much washed, and cleansed by often rubbing, doth acquire a polarity, and for ever after conform it self positionally to the two Cardinal points of Heaven; by reason of an impression, by invisible aporrhoeas or emission of mag∣netical atomes, without any corporeal remains, communica∣ted to •…he Glass. Steel also once excited and invigorated by the contact of the Loadstone, how often soever rinsed and polished, doth yet inherit the Magnetical infusion, and point out the Pole. Which two distinct bodies, since they neither have a parity of temper, or homogeneity of forms betwixt themselves; nor hold any proportionate analogy of temper, or identity of form, with the Loadstone: carry with them evi∣dence clear enough to satisfie a rational belief, that the Pole can attract the Loadstone for neither of those two ends; namely, affinity of temperament, or cognation of essence. You may rejoyn, that immediately upon affriction, there succeeds a participation of the substance of the Loadstone in the poro∣sities, or atomical incontiguities of the steel, or spondils of the


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glass. A miserable excuse! for the rosin of the Fir tree, is of * it self, by an internal Gorgon, coagulated into the hardness and solidity of a stone, which having undergone this petrification or lapidescence, doth allect iron to it self, no otherwise then the Loadstone. Here your dream of the corporeal participati∣on of the Loadstone vanisheth.

The Loadstone onely by the affriction of, Garlick amits its * verticity, and neglects the Pole, conserving to it self, in the * mean time, its peculiar form, material constitution, and all other dependent proprieties. The reason, because Garlick is the Loadstones proper Opium, and by it that spiritual sensa∣tion in the Magnet is consopited and laid asleep; which sen∣sation, we have in our precedent discourse, manifested to be the sole and cardinal cause of the act of all formal proprieties. Verily, that alliciency of the Pole must be extreme weak and of inconsiderable energy, which passing through so many and so immense orbs of heaven, and striking through great and firm buildings, and thick walls, cannot yet be of power suffi∣cient to pierce the thin juice of Garlick, or the fume of Mer∣cury: the material radix, or temperamental foundation, and also the specifical form of the stone, remaining unimpaired and inviolate.

A Magnet swimming freely upon a calm water, in a small boat of cork, hoiseth sail, and gives one broad side to the North, and the other to the South. Therefore if this positio∣nal conversion were occasioned immediately by the solicitati∣on of the Pole, onely the Northern side of the Stone would be constantly courted and drawn by the North Pole; which is apparently false upon the test of experiment. For if a Magnet hath impregnated and magnetified a gad of iron with its North side, it doth not, according to the law of its own propriety, dispose and incline that iron to the North, but to the South, although the atomical powder or dust of the stone adhere to the iron; but on the contrary, if it hath ex∣cited and spirited iron with its South side, then it converts that iron to the North. Again, the Magnet with that part, where∣by


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it formerly applied it self to the North, on t'th•…r side the Equinoctial line tackes about, and faceth the South.

Yet further let us purs•…e this Argument. A Magnet float∣ing in a skif or shallop of Cork, on a quiet pond, if the Bo∣real quarter of it be violently ravished from its own beloved position, and turned about to the South; immediately, as if wheeld about by some counter-violence, it readdresseth to its old mistress the North. For which reason, if the Magnet were by an influential line from the Pole, drawn back again to the Pole, and this return did not proceed immediately from the spontaneous direction of the stone; of necessity, by that convulsion of the Pole, the whole skif would be towed and haled to the North bank of the Pond, which never happens; for both the Magnet, and its Shallop, by the acquisite directi∣on of the Septrentrional side, stand still upon the water and remain unmoved. There is therefore inherent in the Magnet an influential virtue, which being not obliged to the propin∣quity or contiguous admotion of its object, is, after the nobler manner of celestial influences, freely and without in∣terruption or languor transmitted so far as to the Pole it self; since there is a spontaneous eradiation, or emission of atomical radii from the body of the Magnet to the Pole. And thus, when there hath been found and presented to the view of reason, onely one influential virtue in sublunaries (conced it * in the Loadstone) diradiating, and in one continued thread of atomes arriving at an object seated at remote distance, which cannot upon any pretence be ascribed to Satan; it will also be sufficiently demonstrated, that there may be many other influential proprieties equivalent to this of the Magnet, wholly and purely natural, as in the forecited examples, and the Armary Unguent.

Now since the Magnet or Iron excited by the Magnet, do by instinct of their own pilot, and the spontaneous direction of themselves convert to the Pole; there must of necessity be conceded some certain▪ Quality eradiated and extended from the body of the Magnet to the Pole; which, in regard we assuredly know it to be done without any Corporeal efflu∣vium,
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we denominate a spiritual quality; in this particular dissenting from our Divine, who places a Spirit in irrecon∣cilable difference to all corporeal nature, as an essence wholly preternatural. But Physicians oppose a Spirit against the more gross compage, or more material and less rarified substance of a hody. And in this distinctive notion we say, that the light of the Sun, the influx of celestial bodies, the narcotical ejaculation of the Torpedo, the fatal optick emission of the Basilisk, &c. are qualities purely and wholly spiritual; why, because they are darted at and strike upon an object at great distance, not by the communion or association of substantial evaporation; but are, as by a medium of imperceptible light, deradiated and shot from their Subject to a fit and determinate object.

These things thus conceded and made indubitate by argu∣ments of reason and experiment, it is sufficiently manifest, that our Divine, when yet he understood not Goclenius, hath nevertheless carped at him, and indeed many times when he deserved it not. (1) Because Goclenius placed a spiritual qua∣lity in so course a lodging, as a corporeal unguent. (2) That he affirmed the influential alliciency of a magnetick body to be derived to its appropriate object, through a medium or vehicle, as light is deradiated from the globe of the Sun. (3) That such spiritual qualities are, by the mediation of a certain sensation of the universal or mundane spirit (the grand and sole causant of all sympathy) transmitted to a remote and determinate object. This Archeus or universal Spirit our Di∣vine interprets to be some Cacodaemon, some cursed genius, but by no law, that I understand, except that of his own licenti∣ous judgment; since in real verity, it is a more pure and vital breath of Heaven, a Spirit which comprehends and cherishes within it self the Sun, and all the herd of lesser Stars, a minde or intelligence which diffused through all the limbs or parts of this great Animal, the World, doth inform and regulate the whole; and so by a certain commerce, communion, and conspiracy of otherwise-discordant parts, and an harmonious marriage of the distinct virtues of single essences, doth order and govern the vast engine of the Universe, according to the


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unanimous consent of all, who have read and commented on the true History of Nature. To example, the Solissequous*flowers sensibly observe the travel of the Sun: and the Sea conforms to either Lunestice, and swells her obsequious tides high in the full, but shrinks them low again in the Wane of the Moon. In sum; all Creatures by their life, (let us, the master-piece, and abridgment of all, do homage to the Majesty of that King, to whom all things live) essence, existence and sensation visibly attest the majesty, liberality, and presence of the great Creator. For which consideration, our Divine is deservedly to be checked, in that he hath, with insufferable audacity, thrown rebukes at our Physician, whom yet he understood not, writing in a philosophical stile. For such a piece of difficulty was it to observe a mean in all things.

You enquire of us what can be attracted from the body of the wounded party? and how any attraction can be per∣formed by the absent Unguent? But in troth I might, with∣out injury to the modest rules of disputation, return, that when your self shall fully resolve us, for what reason the Loadstone doth attract iron, and convert it self to the Pole; then shall I also satisfie you, how and by what means Mumy can, by the mediate efficiency of Mumy, work a cure upon another Mumy, which it hath touched upon: but in regard we have substituted our selves to relieve the insufficiency of Goclenius in this particular abstrusity, we shall, in the sequence of our discourse, by a didactical or scientifical Analogism* demonstrate unto you, by what means the Magnetical at∣traction of the Unguent is performed, if at least I shall to satisfaction inform you, what can be by the Vnguent attracted from the Wound. We are to observe therefore, that in a Wound, there succeeds not onely a bare solution of continuity, or disunion of the part; but also that there is an exotick or forain quality, whereby the lips of the Wound being enraged and provoked to a certain excandescence, by and by grow tu∣mid and apostemate, yea, the whole body from thence be∣comes afflicted with Fevers, and a grievous syndrome or con∣curse of dangerous symptomes: for thus an Eg, whose shell *
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is but slenderly crackt, soon putrefies and turns adle, when otherwise it might have been a long time conserved. Now this extraneous and peregrine quality the Armary Vnguent im∣mediately sucks out of the Wound, whereupon the lips of the Wound, being at length oppressed and impeded by no Accident, are delivered from all pain and sickly aestuation of spirits, and suddenly hasten to accretion, incarnation, and con∣solidation. Nature her self is the sole Chiron, that by the Soveraign balsam of the vital blood doth reunite the severed parts, and soder up the incontiguity: the Physician is onely her servant to be assistant to her in the remove of those im∣pediments, which otherwise might oppose and infringe the power of her action: nor does the Medicine deserve the at∣tribute of Sarcotical, or by its own virtue regenerate flesh in a Wound, but then to full satisfaction of our hopes executes the commission of its faculty, when it hath removed those accidental remoraes that did retard and hinder the operation of Nature: all which impediments the Armary Vnguent, up∣on its own single stock of power, doth securely and effectual∣ly take off and banish.

Your rejoynder will be, that the Armary Unguent, in pro∣bability of reason, ought not to exhaust the forementioned quality, rather then the natural vigor of the body, and strength of the veins: and that the blood, since it continues uncorrupt in the Unguent, ought to procure health, and not any indisposition, to the wounded party: according to the example of the Carline Thistle above mentioned. I respond, that there is a plurality and variety of Magnetisms: for some attract Iron, some Straws, some Lead, others Flesh, the purulent effluxion of Wounds, &c. and the Magnetick en∣dowment of some consists onely in this that they can onely extract the pestilential Atomes from the centrals of an in∣fected body, &c. Yea, if you shall annex the sanation in our Unguent to your own Argument, your own weapon will wound you.

For from thence, that the genuine effect of the Unguent is to cure perfectly, speedily without pain, without cost, dan∣ger, and decay of strength: Hence, I say, it results a manifest


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truth, that the Magnetical virtue of the Unguent is simply natural, and proceeds from God, and not from Satan. The reason thus; if Satan did cooperate to this Cure (according to your assertion) the chr•…•…ould of necessity be imperfect, attended with great amission of strength, an universal languor and enervation of the body, manifest hazard of life, a diffi∣cil, and at best a tedious convalescence, an alienation of the * minde, a laesion of some more noble faculty, and success of some notable misfortune. All which events as they are ever annexed to Diabolical cures: so are they never observed to follow upon a cure wrought by our Unguent. Our appeal lies to Experience, for so many as ever received a cure by the Unguent will freely give in their testimony on our side. Now Satan is no Oracle that delivers truths, no Counsellor to good, unless with design to insinuate his delusions the smooth∣er, and cannot but betray himself by this, that he never long continues in the truth, he so speciously pretended: for always, when he has been an instrument of any good, con∣stant to the hostility of his nature, he in the close tempers his favor with a larger allay of evil. And introth the same method would he according to the custom of his malicious friendship, have observed in the Unguent had he been in∣teressed as an Author or Fautor, either as Principall or Ac∣cessory: at least this remedy would then have failed and be∣come * evirate, when the wounded patient is rescued from the jaws of death, and reprieved from the Gates of Hell, who otherwise, tainted with the mortal contagion of sin, would by reason of his dangerous wound have poured forth his soul together with his blood; unless perchance you seek to evade by saying, that Satan in that Crisis, that punctilio of danger, suffered a change of his cruelty into compassion, de∣vested himself of his essential and inveterate enmity, and put on the good Samaritan, nay, fell not onely to commiserate, but even dress the wounds of humanity; and that he hath ac∣quired some interest, some jurisdiction over the wounded patient, himself leaves doubtful and open to dispute, in that he preserves him by the Magnetical Unguent, whom he had rather should perish. It may be that Satan is in your esteem


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now held a strict and punctual observer of his word and bargain, and no longer a turncoate, fraudulent dissembler and perjured impostor. Besides, we positively deny, that your supposition can carry weight in the ballance of truth, that the blood once extravenated continues uncorrupt, and conserves its interest of vitality; but rather that it is deprived of all community, and participation of life, and immediately undergoes some degree of corruption; but that it obtains onely a Mumial vitality. To this purpose conduces the cor∣rupted, and yet magnetical blood in an Eg. Wherefore I pass by the absurdity of your objection, since it hath been so bold as to wrest the Magnet of the Unguent to another intention, then that which the wise bounty of God, in the primitive decree of his counsel, ordained it unto.

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The Positive Reasons of Magnetism more neerly brought home to our knowledg, by Metaphysical and Magical principles.
OPportunity now invites us to discover the grand and ap∣proximate cause of Magnetism in the Vnguent: First, by the consent of mystical Divines, we divide man into the ex∣ternal, and internal man, assigning to each distinct part the powers of a certain minde, or informative principle; for in this disjunctive acception, there is a will competent to flesh*and blood, which properly is neither the will of man, nor the will of God; and our heavenly Father reveals some things to the inward man, and some things are revealed by flesh and blood, that is, the outward man, in the single and abstracted relation of Animal. For how can the adoration of idols, envy, and other such branches arising from the root of Cor∣cupiscence, be justly listed amongst the works of the flesh (since they consist onely in the imagination) if to the flesh also there did not peculiarly belong an Imaginative faculty, and an elective will?

Again, that there are miraculous Ecstasies competent to the inward man, is a tenet true beyond the dispute or haesita∣tion of a Sceptick. And that there are also Ecstasies in the outward man, is unquestionable by the most impudent infide∣lity: Yea Martin Delrio, an Elder of the Society of Jesu, in his Magical Disquisitions brings in a certain youth, in the City Insulis, rapt with so intense and violent cogitation, and ardent desire to see his mother, that as if transported by an high *Ecstasie, he saw her many leagues distant, and returning again to himself perfectly remembred all things his fancy met with in this more-then-Pisgah Vision, and reported many signes to attest his real and presential visit of his mother.

Many such examples occur to our quotidian observance, which in conformity to our purpose of brevity we with in∣dustry omit. But that this desire did arise from the outward


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man, namely, from flesh and blood, is most certain; for otherwise the soul once disliged and enfranchised from the body, can never, unless by miracle, be again reunited to it. Therefore in the blood there dwells a certain Ecstatical power,* which, if at any time it shall be excited by an earnest and ardent desire, is able to transport and on the immaterial wings of fancy waft the spirit of the outward man to some deter∣minate object though at vast distance removed; but this Ec∣statical faculty lies dormant in the outward man, as in potentia, in hability; nor is it deduced into act, unless first rouzed and excited by the imagination accensed and exalted by fervent de∣sire, or some other art equivalent to affection.

Moreover, when the blood has undergone some gradual * corruption, then and not till then are all the powers of it, which before lay lock't up in potentia, and slept in an unactive hability, awakened and called forth to action, without any praevious excitation of the imagination: For by corruption of the grain, the seminal virtue, otherwise drowsie, torpent and steril, springs forth into the act of fertility. For since the *essences of things, and their principles of vitality know no obedience to the tyranny of corruption, by the dissolution of the inferior harmony, the separation of their corporal Hete∣rogeneities, they awake into a vigorous activity, and freely execute the commission of their faculties. And from hence is * it, that every occult propriety, the compage of their bodies be∣ing, by certain praevious digestions (which we call putrefactions) once dissolved, as it were emancipated from the bondage of corporeity, comes forth free, expedite, and ready for action. Wherefore when the Wound, by the ingression of the offen∣sive aër, hath admitted an adverse and extraneous quality,* from whence the blood immediately aestuates and ferments in the lips of the Wound, and otherwise is converted into a purulent matter; it happens that the blood in the Wound freshly made, doth, by reason of this exotick quality, suffer some degree of putrefaction (which blood then received upon the weapon, is emplastered with the Magnetick Unguent) by the mediation of which gradual putrefaction, the Ecstatick power of the blood, formerly latent in potentia, is drawn into


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act, which because it holds a commerce and secret friendship with that body, from whence it was effluxed, by relation of its hidden ecstasie; hence is it that this blood constantly carries an individual respect and determinate amity to the other blood yet running in the veins of the same body. For then is it, I say, that the Magnet sets it self a work in the Unguent; and by the concurrence and mediation of the Ecstatick power (for so I christen this quality, in defect of a more convenient Epithite) sucks out the noxious tincture from the lips of the Wound, and at length by the mumial, balsamical and at∣tractive virtue acquired in the Unguent, the Magnetism is consummate, and the Cure perfected.

Lo now you have the true and positive reason of the Natu∣ral * Magnetism in the Unguent, deduced from Natural Magick; to which the Soul of Reason, and Light of Truth is pleased to assent, in that sentence, Where the treasure is, there the heart is also: For if the treasure be in Heaven, then the heart, that is, the spirit of the internal man is fixed upon God, who is the true Paradise, who onely is the life of eternal life. But if the treasure be laid up in transitory and fading things: then also is the heart and spirit of the outward man chained to things that must perish and confess their dust. Nor is there cause why you should infer any mystical signification, or second in∣tention by understanding not the spirit, but the cogitation and * naked desire, for the heart: for that would sound frivolous and absurd, that where-ever a man should place his treasure, in his cogitation, there also would his cogitation be placed; and Truth it self interprets this present Text literally, and without enfolding any mystery or deuteroscopy; and by an example annexed manifestly shews the real and local presence of the Eagles with the Carcase. And in this signification also the spirit of the internal man is said to be locally in the Kingdom of God (which is very God himself) within us: and the heart or spirit of the external man locally dwells about its treasure. What wonder, that the astral spirits * of fleshly minded men should, long after their funerals, appear wandring about such places, as their treasures are hidden in? by which apparitions the whole Nectromancy
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* of the Antients emancipated itself. I say therefore, that the external man is singly an Animal governed by the reason and will of the blood: but in the interim, not barely an Animal, but also the image of God. Let Logicians therefore hence ob∣serve, how defectively and improperly they use to define man from his power of ratiocination. But of this subject more largely elsewhere *.

For which consideration, I shall in this place opportunely insert the Magnetism of Eagles to Carcases newly slain: for Fowls of the aër are not endowed with so much acuteness of the sense of smelling, that by the nostril they can receive an invitation in Italy, to come and feast on dead bodies in Afri∣ca. For neither can an Odor be diffused to so vast a circum∣ferential distance, since both the great latitude of the Sea interposed must of necessity hinder, and the elemental pro∣priety of the Odor, subject to diminution and impairment in so long a tract of aër, forbid so huge an expansion of the Atomes streaming from the odorible Body; nor is there any ground whereon to build your conception, that birds can by their sight discover carcases at so large distance, especially when they lie Southward, behinde some high Mountain. But what need is there for us, by the tedious force of words, to inculcate the Magnetism of Fowl; since God himself, the Alpha and Omega of Philosophy, hath in express terms decreed the process of intercourse or commerce betwixt the heart and its treasure, to be the same with that betwixt Eagles and their prey of dead bodies: and so on the contrary, interchange∣ably? For if Eagles were carried on to their prey the Car∣cases, by the same incitement of appetite, whereby all Qua∣druped*Animals are goaded on to their pastures, assuredly he would have said in a word, that Animals are directed and congregated to their food by the same motive, that the heart of a man sallies forth and invades its treasure. Which would contain a most gross falsity: for the heart of man progresseth not to its treasure, with design to devour it, and sate it self therewith, as Animals are by the swinge of appetite rapt on to their food. And therefore the comparison betwixt the heart of man and the Eagle holds not good in the final cause


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or attractive, for which they tend to desire of fruition: but in the manner and processe of tendency, namely that they are e∣qually invited, allected, & carried on by Magnetism really and locally to their determinate objects. Wherfore the spirit and * will of the bloud effused out of the wound adhering to the weapon, and together with it embalmed in the Vnguent, in∣stantly tend and egresse towards their peculiar treasure, the residue of bloud yet running in its proper conservatory, the veines, and enjoying a community of life with the inward man. But the Pen of Divinity in a peculiar Elogy writes that the Eagle is allured to the Carcases of the slaine: because he receives his summons and invitation from the originary, im∣planted, and mumiall spirit of the carcase; but not from a∣ny odour exhaling from the body under the arrest of putrefa∣ction. For this Animal, in assimilation appropriates to him∣selfe onely this mumiall Spirit: and hence is it in Sacred Writ said of the Eagle, My youth shall be renewed like an Ea∣gle. In regard the renovation of its youth proceeds not from the bare eating the flesh of a carcase, but from an Elixir or essentiall extract of the spirit balsamicall; exquisitely depu∣rated and refined by a certaine singular digestion, or conco∣ctive faculty proper only to this Fowle: for otherwise Dogs, Ravens and Pies, would also receive an equall benefit of reju∣venescence; which experience assures us to be false.

You will say, we have travelled far indeed to fetch home a reason to support and illustrate our Magnetisme. But what will you infer hereupon? if you confesse that what seems far remote from the capacity of your intelligence, must also to you seem far fetched; truly the book of Genesis teacheth us, that the Soule of every living creature dwels in the bloud of it, as in its proper mansion. For in the bloud there inhabite certaine noble and vital powers, which, as if they were en∣dowed with animation, cry loud to heaven for revenge, yea from the hands of Judges here below, demand vindictive ju∣stice to be done upon the homicide: which since they cannot be denyed to be naturall Citizens of the blood, I see no reason, why any man should reject the magnetism of the bloud, and unjustly reckon its rare & admirable effects among the ridicu∣lous


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acts of satan. I wil say this further, that men which walk in their sleep, do by the conduct of no other Motor or guide, then that of the Spirit of the Bloud, that is of the outward man, walk up and downe, clime wals and praecipices, and performe many other actions difficult and impossible to men awake: I say, by a magicall virtue naturall to the outward man. That Saint Ambrose was visibly present at the exsequies of Saint Martin, though corporally at home in his owne Chamber ma∣ny Leagues distant. Yet he was visibly present at the celebra∣tion of his holy brothers funerall, in the visible spirit of the exteriour man, and no otherwise: for when many holy Fathers of the Church have seen the transaction of many secret and distant things, this hath been performed without the circum∣scription of time and place, in that ecstasy which is only of the internall man, by the superiour powers of the soule, collected and twisted into unity, and by an intellectuall vision, but not by a visible presence. For otherwise the soule is never divorced from the body, unless in earnest once and ever, and then is not capable of a reunion until the resurrection: which reconnexi∣on notwithstanding is otherwise familiar and naturall to the spirit of the outward man, divorced pro tempore in some ecstasy.

In so great a Paradox it can hardly suffice to erect a firme * building of belief upon one single pillar of reason: wherefore we conceive it our duty, to frame a second basis for the more substantiall supportment of our doctrine of Magnetisme, and to advance to the explanation of that mysterious cause, by which this Magneticall alliciency is performed also betwixt bodies devoid of animation, not by any Animall, but a cer∣taine Naturall sensasion. Which that we may more seriously enterprise, and solidly performe, we are obliged by way of praeparation to praemise an enquiry, what Satan can of his own power contribute to, and by what meanes he can coope∣perate in the meerly nefarious and impious actions of Witches and Conjurators: for from hence will it clearly appear, to what particular and just cause, whether Naturall or Diabo∣licall, every effect arising from abstruse originals, ought pro∣perly to be ascribed. And finally, what kinde of spirituall power that is, which tends to and arrives at an object remo∣ved


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at large distance: or what is the action, passion, and velitation or reactive encounter betwixt Naturall Spirits: or wherein consists the superiority and praerogative of man, above other inferiour Creatures: and by consequence, why our Unguent compounded of human Mumies, should also cure the wounds of horses. I shall explain the matter by an ex∣ample.

Let us therefore grant a witch, who can vigorously torment * an absent man by an image of wax, by imprecation, incantati∣on, or onely by some praevious touch (for in this place we have nothing to doe with Veneficious Witches, properly called Sorcerers, in regard they execute their malice, and destroy onely by poyson, which every common Seplasiarie and petty Apothecary can imitate) that this action is Diabolicall, no man will doubt. However it pleaseth us to distinguish, how much Satan, and how much the Witch can contribute to this mischiefe.

The first Supposition.
First, you shall take notice that Satan is the sworne and irreconcileable enemy of mankinde, and so accounted by all, unlesse any please to esteem him a friend: and therefore that he doth most readily, without any the least haesitancy or neg∣ligence, attempt and procure what mischief soever lies within the reach of his malice or power against us.

The second supposition.
Next you shall observe, that although he be a mortall ad∣versary to Witches also, in so much as 'tis essentiall to him to maintain a most destructive hostility against all the Sons of Adam: yet in respect they are his confest slaves, and sworn Subjects of his own black Kingdome, he never, unlesse against his will, and by compulsion, detects them, never betrays them into the hands of the Magistrate, nor exposes them to the scorne and reproches of other persons; and that for three reasons. (1) Since he is the Grand-father of pride, he very well knowes, that by the detection of his favorites there is much detracted from his reputation, authority and dominion. (2) Since he is an insatiate Nimrod, an implacable persecutor


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of soules, he is not ignorant, that by the punishment and flames, which justice inflicts upon his Zanies, many other men, else willing and prompt to list themselves in his regiment, and fall under his jurisdiction, are discouraged, deterred, and quite averted. (3) Because he often observes many a Witch, whom with an obtorsion or wresting round of her neck, and secret stopping of her breath he could heartily wish to destroy, converted by her punishment, to become an Apo∣state from him, and repenting at sight of the flames, and by this meanes snatched out of his clutches.

From the former of our propositions I conclude, that Satan, if he were able singly by his own power to destroy man, whom the guilt of mortall sinne hath made obnoxious to the tyranny of death, would upon no motive whatever be induced to suspend and procrastinate the execution or his destructive malice: but he doth not, therefore he cannot destroy him. But yet the Witch doth very frequently murder man; and hence also it is clear, that the Witch hath a power to destroy him, no otherwise then an assassine hath a power, at the liberty of his own will, to cut the throat of him that is fallen into his hands: and therefore in this detestable action there is a certain power peculiarly belonging to the Witch, which de∣pends not upon Satan; and by consequence Satan is not the principall efficient and grand executor of the homicide; for otherwise, if he were the prime executor, he could in no re∣spect stand in need of the Witch for a Coadjutrix and Assistant; but would ere this time, by his own single power, have cut off and swept into the grave the greatest part of mankinde. Most miserable and deplorable indeed were the condition of the posterity of Adam, which should lie in subjection to so horrid a tyranny, and stand obnoxious to the fate of his ar∣bitrary cruelty: but we have the Almighty Preserver of men, more faithfull in his mercies towards us then to subject the workes of his own hands to the arbitrary dominion of Satan. Therefore in this impious act there is a certaine power clearly*peculiar, and naturall to the Witch, which proceeds not from Satan.

Moreover, what the nature, extent, and quality of this Ma∣gicall
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(yet naturall) power of the Witch may be, we must ex∣actly explore and gravely consider. It is manifest in the first place, that it is not any Corporeall strength of the masculine sex; for there concurres not any forcible attraction of the members of the body, and Witches are for the most part old, feeble and impotent women: Wherefore of necessity to the production of this notable mischiefe there must concurre some other power, of farre more vigour and activity then the strength of the body, and yet purely naturall to man. This power therefore must be ambuscadoed in that part, wherein * we most nearly resemble the Image of God. And although all pieces of the hexameron Creation doe in some relation or other repraesent that most sacred and venerable image of the Creator: yet in regard man doth most elegantly, most properly and most exactly reflect that shadow of Divinity, therefore doth the image of God shine more transcendent in man, and as Lord Paramount beare rule and exercise dominion over the repraesentative Divinity of all other Creatures. For haply by * this praerogative all created Sublunaries are made subordinate to his royaltie, and prostituted at the feet of his Soveraign will. Wherefore if God execute his will, and produce reall effects per nutum, intuitively, and by the single efficacy of his * word: then man also to make good his title of being the true mirrour or repraesentative of the Deity, ought to enjoy a power of doing some actions per nutum. For neither is that new, paradoxicall or troublesome to our faith, nor peculiar onely to God himself: since Satan, the most vile and abject of all Creatures, can also move solid and ponderous bodies from place to place at pleasure, onely per nutum: for he hath no corporeall organs, no extremities, wherewith to touch, locally move, or assume any new body to himself. No lesse there∣fore * ought this priviledge to belong to the inward man, in his spirituall capacity; if we allow him to beare the image of God, and that no idle and unactive one. If we name this faculty magicall, and this appellation sound harsh, and terrible in the eares of your ignorance, I shall not quarrel with you, if you please to denominate it a spirituall vigour or energie of the inward man: for wee are not at all sollicitous about names, but


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ever with as direct an eye of reason as I can, I look upon the reality of the thing it self. This magicall power therefore na∣turally resides in the inward man: whether by this title you * understand the soule or vitall spirit of man, is now indifferent to us: since the inward man doth hold a certain correspon∣dence with the outward in all things, which commerciall in∣flux, * thriving and as it were glowing with a fervour of acti∣vity in a peculiar manner, is an appropriate disposition and proportionate propriety. On which ground it is necessary, that this active faculty be disseminated and diffused through the whole compositum of man: but indeed in the soule, more intense and vigorous, and in flesh and blood, far more remisse and languid.

The Vitall Spirit in the throne of flesh and blood, that is the * outward man, sits Viceroy to the Soule, and acts by her com∣mission: and is the same plastick spirit, which in the seed com∣prehends, contrives, and models the whole figure of man, that Magnificent structure, limms out all the lineaments and accurate adumbration of the parts, and understands the prae∣destinate ends of all its designes and undertakings: which as * Praesident and guardian accompanies the infant from the first moment of its conception, to the last of its dissolution: and which although together with the life it bid adieu to the body, yet some little remaines, as if strongly united unto and con∣fermentated with the corporeall masse, for a while sojourn in a Carcase extinct by violence. But out of a dead body, whose lamp of life languished and went out of its owne accord, both the implantate and influent spirit depart hand in hand together. For which reason Physicians distinguish this spirit into the originary, implantate and inhaerent, or Mumiall, and the in∣fluent* or acquisite vanishing together with the former life: and afterwards they againe dichotomize or subdivide the in∣fluxive spirit into the naturall, vitall and animall: but we in this notion bind them all up together in this one terme, the vitall spirit, or inward man. The Soule therefore, by essence wholly spirituall, could by no meanes, move, inform, and * actuate the vitall spirit (which truely carries something of corporeity and bulk) much lesse excite and give locomotion to


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flesh and bloud; unlesse some naturall, yet magicall and spiri∣tuall, power inhaerent in the soule, did streame down from the soule, as from the first motor, upon the spirit, and so descend to the body. I beseech you by what way could the corporeall Spirit obey and execute the command of the Soul, unlesse it first receive commission and ability from her to move the Spi∣rit, and afterwards the body? But against this Magicall Mo∣trix you will instantly object, that indeed there is such a na∣turall power, but her wings are clipt, she is restrained and confined within the walls of her owne tabernacle, the body, so that she cannot extend her authority and influence beyond the circumference of it; and therefore although we give her the proud name of Magicall, yet we cannot escape the guilt of wresting and abusively applying that Epithite, since the true, genuine, and superstitious Magicall power desumes not her basis from the Soule; in regard the Soule her self is devoyd of all ability to move, alter, or excite any the least thing at all, without her own orbe of activity, the body. I answer, that this Vigour and naturall Magick of the Soule, which acts extra se, beyond the dimensions of her selfe, by virtue of the image of God, doth now lye raked up and obscured in man, and being impoverished in its force of excitation, is grown un∣active, somnolent and stupid, ever since the praevarication of Adam (all which particulars we shall hereafter, in conveni∣ent place and order commonstrate) which power, however it be charmed into a lethargick inactivity by the opium of ori∣ginall sin, and drunk with the narcoticall fumes of concupi∣scence, within us: yet it retaines force sufficient to performe all its requisite offices in the body. This science therefore and Magicall power in man, acting only per nutum, intuitively, * grew dormant and evirate, from that minute the Science (or rather nescience) of the Aple was drunk in: and while this malignant Counter-science of the forbidden fruit (that is, of flesh and bloud, of the outward man, and darknesse) growes up and flourishes, the more noble Magical power withers, is ploughed up and buryed in the rubbish of sensuality. But in regard ever now and then the science of the aple is suspended and chained up in the leaden fetters of sleep: hence it is also,


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that sometimes our dreams are propheticall, and that often God himself vouchsafeth to make a neerer approach and fa∣miliar visit to the sons of men, in dreams or abstracted visions of the night: for when the interior magick of the Soule stands unmolested and free from any disturbance of the Science of the interdicted fruit, then and onely then doth the intelligence keep holy-day, enjoy an halcyon Calme, and freely diffuse its selfe through all its royaltie: for thus doth it, when it de∣mergeth it self into the inferiour and subordinate faculties, safely conduct and lead along those that walk in their sleep, o∣ver such horrid praecipices, where the strongest brained man awake durst not adventure to clime.

Whereupon the senior Rabbies of the Jews affirme, that the Cabal* was originally conceived in sleep: namely when * the science of the Aple was wholly consopited. The intel∣lectuall act of the Soule is ever clear, enjoys a constant Ju∣bile of calme serenity, and continues in some sort perpe∣tuall; but so long as the principall Agent hath not transmitted its power so farre as the limits of Sense, this kinde of action is not diffused through the whole man. For we who are wholly imployed and taken up with the ex∣ercise of our sensitive Facultie together with our Carnall in∣telligence, are perpetually (oh misery worthy a deluge of teares! distracted and impetuously hurryed away from the use and benefit of our more coelestial & Magical science, and held captives rather in the crepusculous and owle-light of congniti∣on, then in the Meridian of truth. Nor do we the inhabitants of Aegyptian darknesse understand our own intellection, untill there succeed a certaine mutuall traduction of the severall fa∣culties, a successive delivery of the image of the object from each to other, and untill as it were certain angles of actions, propagated by divers agents, concurre and become complica∣ted about the Medium.*

Now Saran excites this Magicall power (otherwise dor∣mant, and impeded by the Science of the outward man) in his * vassals: and the same awaked into activity serves them in stead of a sword, or instrument of revenge in the hand of a potent adversary, that is the Witch. Nor doth Satan adfer any thing


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at all to the perpetration of the murder, more then the bare excitation of the somnolent power, and a consent of the Will, which in Witches is for the most part subject to his compulsi∣on: for which two contributions, the damned miscreant, as if the whole energy of the act were soly attributary to him∣selfe requires by compact, a constant homage, a firme and irrevocable oppignoration, and devout adoration at least, and frequently a surrender of the very soule into his possession. When intruth this power was freely conferred upon us by God, our Architect, and is no more then purely naturall to * man. For those praestigious acts and impostures, the effasci∣nation by the optick emission of the eyes, the false disguises of Witches in borrowed shapes, and other delusions of this kind, are onely derived from the legerdemain of Satan, and his proper acts. And for this reason all the operations of this Montinbanco, this Hocus-pocus, are meerly ridiculous pageant delusions and counterfeit apparitions, by the praesentment of formes that delude the sense; because the God of mercies permits him not to enjoy any greater range of power, but holds this mischievous Leviathan by a hook in his nostrils: but on the other side, the Witch doth by the magick of her own naturall faculty perform reall and impious effects. Since that by sin,* not the endowments of Nature, but of Grace, were oblitera∣ted in Adam, no man disputes: and that these gifts of Nature, although they were not totally cancelled and lost, yet re∣mained eclipsed and as it were envelloped in the obscurity of a midnight sleep. For as man from that unhappy moment, wherein he forfeited his primitive Soveraignty, became inevi∣tably obnoxious to the same fate of mortality together with his fellow creatures: so also were all his heroick and imperial faculties withdrawn behind a cloud, and so oppressed with the opacity of fleshly lusts, that ever since they stand in need of excitement and eduction from that Cimmerian umbrage. And to the procuring and advance of this excitation, abstracted *Contemplations, fervent and uncessant Prayers, taedious vigils, macerating Fasts and other acts of mortification, are strong and praevalent conducements; that by these spirituall anti∣dotes the Lethargie of flesh and blood being subdued, men


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may obtain this faculty renewed into its primitive agility, and in a calme requiem of spirit offer up their addresses to that pure Essence, which requires to be worshiped no other way, then in purity of spirit, that is, in the zealous abysse of the Soule, the profundity of the inward man.

To this purpose also mainely conduceth the practice of the Cabal, which may restore to the Soule this her naturall and * magicall praerogative, and rowze it up from the slumber and inchantment of Carnality.

I will explain my self yet farther, like a Mathematician, by Examples, and assume the very operations of Witches: which although of themselves they are full of impiety and horrid mischiefe; yet they grow upon the same root indifferently disposed to the production of good or evill fruite, namely up∣on this Magicall facultie. For it proclaimes not the majesty of Free-will, or the tractate of it, if we from thence collect argument concerning a thiefe, an assassine, a whoremonger, an apostate, or Witch. Grant therefore that a Witch kill a horse, in a stable removed at good distance: there is some certain naturall power derived from the spirit of the Witch, and not from Satan, which can oppresse, strangle, and perish the vitall spirit of the horse. Grant that there be two subjects* of diseases and death, and that one of these is the body where∣in every disease takes up its quarters: and because all Entities discharge their activities on this, as the most passive and flexible, men have conjectured, that the other spirituall do∣minion was derived immediately from Satan: but the other is the impalpable and invisible Spirit, which is constituted in a capacity of suffering every disease, perse, in its own solitary nature. The Spirit once invaded by any forreign hostility, and subdued to the obedience of passion, the body also cannot but submit to compassion and deuteropathy; since every action is terminated in the body (for the mind after once it is adliged to the body, alwaies flowes downward, as when the Palate is misaffected with paine, the tongue alwaies tends thither, on the designe of relieving it) but on the contrary, the body may often be assaulted and entered by the force of a disease, and yet the spirit remain exempted from sympathy. For there is a


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classis of diseases onely materiall, which arise singly from a materiall tincture. So various and numerous are the occasi∣ons of death, that, when we have taken the just dimensions of our frailties, we shall finde no ground left us, to erect any structure of pride upon. The act therefore of the praevious touch of the Witch is purely naturall: although the excita∣tion of this magicall virtue depend upon the auxiliary con∣currence of Satan, in as near an interest, as if the Witch had cut the throat of the horse with a sword, which Satan had put into her hands. This act of the Witch is naturall and *corporeall: as the other praecedent act is naturall and sprituall. For indeed man doth naturally consist no lesse of a spirit, then a body: nor is there reason, why one act should be accounted more naturall then the other; or why the body, the courser part of man, should be allowed a power of action, but the spirit, the more noble and coelestiall part, (in its relation of being the Image of God) accounted idle, unoperative, and altogether devoid of any activity peculiar to it self: yea the Vitall spirits, in most exact propriety of language, are the im∣mediate actors of sensation, motion, memory, &c. but the body, and dead carkasse cannot, in any respect whatever, owne those faculties: wherefore every action stands more relatively and properly regardant to its Agent, then to the body, which at best is no more then the transitory lodging of the Agent.

And thus it is evidenced, that there passeth a spirituall ra∣dius,* or gleame of magicall virtue, from the Witch, to the man or horse appointed for destruction, according to that Axi∣ome: That no action can be done, without a due approximation of the Agent to the Patient, and a reciprocal unition or marriage of the virtues of each, whether the admotion or approximation be corporeall or spirituall: which by an example ready provided to our hand we can both prove and illustrate.

For if the heart (which is the presence-chamber of the vi∣tall spirit) of a horse slain by a witch, taken out of the yet warme and reaking carcase, be empaled upon an arrow, and * roasted upon a broach, or carbonadoed, immediately the vitall spirit of the witch, without the intervention of any other medium, and anon the whole witch (since not the body,
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but onely the spirit is capable of sensation) becomes tormen∣ted with the unsufferable pains and cruelty of the fire; which truly could by no meanes happen, unlesse there praeceded a conjunction or reciprocall intercourse of the spirit of the Witch, with the spirit of the horse. For the horse after strangulation retaines a certain mumiall virtue (so I call it, whenever the virtue of the vitall nectar, or blood, is con∣fermentate with the flesh) which is the originary, implantate spirit, such as is never found resident in bodies, that are ex∣tinct by voluntary deaths in any chronique disease, or other ataxy, irregularity, or disruption of the inferiour harmony, that is the temperament of the body: to which the spirit of the Witch is associated, as joynt commissioner. In the reak∣ing and yet panting heart therefore, the spirit of the Witch, before it shall, by the dissolution of the praecedent conspiracie, or divorce of the united spirits by putrefaction, have returned backe into her bosome, is imprisoned and held captive, and the retreat of it praevented by the arrow transfixed, and by the torrefaction of both spirits together: and hence comes it * to passe, that the witch is afflicted and throwne into a horrid agony in her sensative spirit. This effect admits a change, or * double construction, from the intention of the experiment. For if revenge be the motive or incitement to the experimen∣tator, then is the effect unwarrantable and inconsistent with the charitable rules of Christianity: but if an honest and conscientious designe, to compell the Witch to detect her self, to betray her to the justice of the Magistrate, to procure security to our neighbour and our selves by the remove of so impious, blasphemous, and nocuous a vassall of Satan, that the greater glory to God, and peace and benevolence to men, may redound from the discovery; then undoubtedly the effect cannot be disallowed or condemned by the most rigid, precise, or puritanicall judgement. We are not to conceive, that all the spirit of the Witch sallyed forth, and transmigra∣ted into the heart of the Horse (for so the Witch her selfe had perished, falne into an eternall swoune) but that there is a certaine univocall participation, or identicall traduction of the spirit and vitall light of the Witch: in an equall analogie


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to the Plastique spirit, or sole delineator and architect of the most curious and magnificent fabrick of man, which in every distinct emission of the geniture or seed is covertly ambusca∣doed and propagated, sufficient to the procreation of a nume∣rous issue, the originary spirit of the father yet remaining unimpaired, and conserving its individuall integrity. For in sooth that participation and inheritance of the vitall light* is magical, and a rich and fruitfull communication of the specificall essence, by the fertill virtue of that benediction, delivered by the Protoplast of all seminall formes, Let all Ani∣malls and Vegetalls bring forth seed, and hence is it that one individuall seed produceth ten myriads of other seeds aequi∣valent, and as many seminall spirits comprehending the whole specificall essence, by the same mysterious way of traduction, whereby one Tapor is lighted by the flame of another. But what the proper nature of this Magneticall spirit, and what the Magicall entity begotten in the wombe of phansie may be, I shall more largely declare in the processe of our discourse: For it becomes me to retreat from my digression, and now to progresse in that path, which directly leads to our intended scope.

Nor is there any pretence of reason, why any should con∣jecture, that this reaction, or rebound of magicall power upon the heart of the Witch, is only imaginary and a chimaera of licentious phanfie, or a plainly superstitious and damnable imposture and delusion of Satan; since by this token the witch is infallibly detected, and volent nolent compelled to ap∣pear in publick, which in one of our praecedent suppositions we have sufficiently demonstrated to be è diametro, opposed to the intention of Satan: for the effect holds constantly good, and never failes to succeed upon experiment, as having its funda∣mentall causalities laid in reason and the spirituall nature of the inward man, but not at all built upon superstitious sup∣porters. Hath not many a murdered carcase, by the operati∣on of the same magneticall spirit, suffered a fresh cruentation upon the Coroners inquest, in the presence of the Homicide, and very often directed the Magistrate to a just and infallible judgement of the crime, although the blood, before that mi∣nute,


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stood congealed and frozen in its cold rivulets? The reason of this life in death, this plea of the grave and loud language of silent corruption, which hath empuzled the * anxious disquisitions of many subtile heads, we conceive to be thus: in a man dying of a wound, the inferiour virtues, which are mumiall, (for these are not subject to the restrint of our will, and operate not in conformity to the di•… ates of rea∣son) have deeply impressed upon themselves a certaine Chara∣cter of revenge: and hence is it, that at the approach of the assassine, the bloud whose fountaine death had sealed up, be∣gins a tumultuation and ebullition in the veines, and violently gusheth forth, being, as in a furious fit of anger, enraged and agitated by the image or impresse of revenge con∣ceived against the murderer, at the instant of the soules immature, and compulsive exile from the body. For indeed * the bloud after death retaines a peculiar sense of the murderer being present, and enjoyes a certaine, though obscure, kind of revenge: because it hath its peculiar phansie: and for this rea∣son, not Abel himselfe, but his innocent bloud cries loud in the eares of divine justice for revenge.

This also is the cause, why the Plague is so frequent a con∣comitant to seidges, and why the beleaguered see the revenge of their dead acted upon their enemies by the surviving Ma∣gick of their friends bloud: for the magicall spirit of the in∣ward man, in the heat of the encounters & sallyes, hath con∣ceived a character and impression of revenge, and sometimes the defendants, especially th common Souldier, being by want and other extreame miseries reduced to desperation, and man and wife, conjoyned as well in death as life, falling into the cold armes of the grave, bequeath heavie imprecations and maledictions to the surviving Officers, who engaged them in the calamity, and might, had their charity been but halfe so weighty as their wealth, have relieved their famine: by * which earnest curse, there are more strong and durable im∣pressions engraven on the sidereall-spirit of the dying man (chiefly of a great bellyed woman) which survive the funerall of the body. This posthume spirit (call it Ghost if you please) immediately after death taking a vagabond progresse in the


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lower region of the ayre, applies it selfe to the contrivement of such spirituall means of revenge and ruine, as lye within the sphear of its activity, and having once designed the way, most readily advances to execution. And Plagues of this o∣riginall are most fatall, aswell in the universality of contagion,* as destruction, sparing no sex, age, or constitution, but impar∣tially blasting all, as if immediately shot from the quiver of incensed Divinity. But our pen is tender, and feares to di∣vulge the mysterious cause, why such spirituall plagues scorne to obey the empty and frustaneous help of corporeal remedies: for to reveale the reciprocall connexion of mumies, & the con∣cordance of their interchangeable and cooperating faculties, might prove unsafe and offensive to vulgar heads, in regard of the whole Nectromancy of the Antients was originally founded on this basis. For the same reason also God in the Le∣vitical*Law severely prohibited the suspension of the bodies of Malefactors upon the Gibbet, expresly commanding their remove before the Sun went downe upon them. You will answer, that Camp-plagues are generated from the odious and * unwholsome nastinesse of the Souldier, and from the unbu∣ried excrements of men, and entrails of beasts, polluting the ayre with putrid and malignant vapours: but to this errone∣ous opinion we oppose the example of Coriars, Tanners, and such who imploy their industry in the sordid manufacture of glew, made of skins dissolved by putrefaction, for all these are observed for the most part (so farre are they from being obnoxious to the infection of the Plague) to enjoy the bles∣sings of health and longavity; so conspicuous and admirable is the finger of Divinity in the spirit of the Microcosmé.

Doe you desire to be informed, why the blood of a Bull* is toxicall and poysonous, but that of an Oxe, though brother to the Bull, safe and harmelesse? the reason thus, the Bull at the time of slaughter is full of secret reluctancy and vindi∣ctive murmurs, and firmly impresseth upon his owne blood a character and potent signature of revenge. But if it chance, that an Oxe brought to the slaughter, fall not at one stroke of the Axe, but grow enraged and furious, and continue long in that violent madnesse: then he leaves a depraved and un∣wholsome


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tincture on his flesh, unlesse he be first recalmed and pacified by darknesse and famine. A Bull therefore dyes with a higher flame of revenge about him, then any other Animall whatever: and for that transcendent excandescence, his fat (but by no meanes his blood, lest the humane blood in * the unguent be subdued and overawed by this exotique tin∣cture of the Bulls blood) is an ingredient wholly necessary to the composition of the Armary unguent, where the weapons, which made the wound, are not besprinkled with the blood of the Patient.

For if we expect a perfect cure from the dressing of the weapon, truely the mosse and other its fellow ingredients will prove insufficient to worke a cure, when the weapon is not distained with blood effused from the wound: Since there is required a more violent and efficacious, namely, a taurine, impression, and an aëreall communication of florid honey.* And thus have wee, to the satisfaction of the most incredulous and prejudicate, made it out, that the admirable efficacy of the Unguent ought to be imputed, not to any auxiliary con∣currence of Satan (who could performe the cure without the use of honey and Bulls blood) but to the communion of Naturall qualities, by the energy of the posthume Character of Revenge, remaining firmly impressed upon the blood and concreted fat.

Our Adversaries will whisper, and secretly exult, that the power of our Magnetical Unguent could have hardly been supported, but by Analogical Arguments drawn from the abstruse operations of Witches, from the impostures of Satan, and the spiritual magick of the invisible world, which is a science onely imaginary, of no solid concernment or weight in the ballance of reason, and a dangerous, if not damnable, error. Nevertheless, not any sinister obliquity or perversion of truth, nor any indirect design in us, by specious similitudes to impose upon the weaker credulities of the illiterate: but the gross ignorance of others, and the deplorable condition of humane fragility, which by the propensity of our vitiated nature more readily inclines to evil, more nimbly apprehends evil, and is more familiarly instructed by evil, then good,




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hath compulsively directed our pen to observe this method in the explanation and probation of our thesis. However, what we have represented in this scene concerning Satan, and his familiar Zany the Witch, affords no encouragement or ground for others to hope a perfect conformity or resem∣blance of the power of our Unguent with that of Witches; for neither the spiritual faculty of the Vnguent, nor the ecsta∣tique phansie of the blood, are excited by the manuduction or impulsion of Satan. The mark we shot at was, that there is inhabitant in the Soul a certain Magical Virtue, infused by the primitive bounty of her Creator, naturally proper and of right belonging to her by that just title, that Man is the image and noble effigies of the Deity; and that this virtue is qualified with a celestial activity, and semidivine prerogative of operation, that is, a power of acting per nutum, intuitive∣ly, spiritually, and at vast distance, and that too with much more vigor and efficacy, then by any corporeal helps and assistance. The reason briefly and plainly thus; the soul is the diviner particle, and more noble moity of man, far over∣weighing the body both in dignity of essence and extraction: therefore also is the activity competent to it spiritual, Magical, and of superlative validity. That the Soul by the dictates of this Virtue, which hath suffered a consopition and abate∣ment of its primitive agility by the counter-magick of the forbidden Apple in Paradise, doth regulate, manage, and move onely her own peculiar body: but the same being ex∣suscitated and awakened again into action, she extends her dominion beyond the narrow limits of her earthly cloyster to an object at distance, and becomes so longimanous as to operate onely per nutum, by intuition conveyed through convenient mediums: for upon this point is founded the whole basis of Natural Magick, but in no respect upon the * brittle and sandy foundation of Benedictions, Ceremonies, and vain superstitions; for these vain and impious obser∣vances * were all introduced by him, who hath ever made it his study, to conspurcate and defile the best things with the sophistication of his tares. And in this sense we have not * trembled at the name of Magick, but with the Scripture


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understood it in the best interpretation: and yet we have al∣lowed it, to be indifferently imployed to a good or evil end, namely by the lawful use or abuse of this power. And so * under this term we comprehend the highest ingenite cogniti∣on of natural things, and the most vigorous power of action, equally natural to us with Adam, not wholly extin∣guished nor obliterated by original sin, but onely obscured and as it were consopited, and therefore wanting experge∣faction and excitement. And therefore we declare, that Magnetism is not exercised by Satan: but by that which hath * no dependance upon Satan: and consequently that this power, which is peculiarly connatural to us, hath been a∣busively fathered upon Satan, as if he were the sole patron and promoter of it: that this Magical Faculty lieth dormant in us, charmed into a somnolent inactivity by the opiate of the primitive sin, and therefore stands in need of an Exci∣tator* to promote it into action: Whether this Excitator be the Holy Spirit by illumination, as the Church commemo∣rates to have happened in the Eastern Magi, and frequently * happens in many devout persons even in our days: or Satan, for some previous oppignoration and compact with Witches; in whom this excitation is wrought as by a Coma*vigil, or Catoche*, and is therefore imperfect in regard of the manner, evil in regard of the end, obscure in regard of the means, and nefarious in regard of the Author: nor doth the versi∣pellous or Protean impostor endure that the Witch should know this power to be her own natural endowment, on pur∣pose to hold her the more strictly obliged to himself, and


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lest the exercise of so noble a faculty, once excited, should be employed to any other atchieveme, but what is impious and destructive to mankinde; and so he keeps the reins in his own hand, nor can the Witch know how at her own pleasure to excite this dormant Magick, who hath wholly prostituted the freedom of her Spirit to the will of another tyrant. That man of himself, without the auxiliary concurrence of any forrein Causality, can where and when he please, by the practise of the Cabalistique Art, awaken and excite this grand Virtue into action: and such who have attained to this reno∣vation of their impaired nature, are honored with the title of Adepti, Obtainers, or Acquirers, the select vessels of God, whose wills stand in humble and full conformity to the dictates and advisoes of the Holy Ghost.

That this Magical Virtue is also naturally inherent in * the outward man, namely in flesh and blood; but yet in a far less measure, and of a more feeble energy: yea, not onely in the outward man, but even in Brutes, in some proportion and of inferior vigor (for so the Book of Moses hath positively observed unto us, that the soul of every beast is lodged in its blood, and therefore he deservedly forbids it to be listed in the bill of humane fare) and perchance in all other created natures; since every single entity contains, within the nar∣row tablet of its own nature, an adumbration or landskip of the whole Universe; and on this hint the Antients have left it on record unto us, that there is a God, that is an universal Entity, in all things. That this Magick of the outward man, no less then that of the inward man, doth want excitation: nor doth Satan excite any other Magick in his base miscreant vassals, then that of the outward man; for in the interior closet of the Soul is seated the Kingdom of God, to which no Creature hath access. We have further demonstrated, that there is a mutual connexion between spiritual Agents, and * that spirits as they combat, which we have shewn in the ex∣ample of the Witch, so also they hold a friendly and amica∣ble correspondence each with other, which we prove by the testimony of Magnetical experiments, and proper arguments, for the fascination and ligation of souls, as in the amours of


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David and Jonathan, &c. Finally, we have stretched the sinews of our reason to manifest, that man enjoyes a dominion paramount over all other corporeal Creatures, and that by his own natural Magick he can countermand the Magical vir∣tues of all other sublunaries: which royal prerogative and predomination some others have erroneously and abusively transferred upon the power of charms and incantations. By which Hierarchy we have to satiety of satisfaction, made it manifest, that all those admirable and abstruse effects are wrought, which the rustical and too corporeal Philosophy of others hath ascribed to the dominion of Satan.

That those who are ignorant of most things we have de∣livered, should yet remain dubious and unsatisfied in many things, is necessarily certain: wherefore we have determined to make a summary rehearsal of all: chiefly that so what we have spoken in the former part of our dispute, concerning the duello or conflict of spirits, and the reciprocal amity or mutual conspiration of their united virtues, may receive the clearer explanation. It is a task worthy our sweat and oyl, to discover and handsomely define the arms, militia, and en∣counters of spirits, and their Commonwealth: in order where∣unto we are with great sobriety of judgment, and acute∣ness of reason, to perpend the example of a pregnant or great bellied woman, who when she hath intently and with vio∣lence of desire fixed her minde upon a Cherry, immediately there is impressed upon the fruit of her womb the model, or pourtract of the Cherry, in that part, whereon the ingravi∣dated woman laid her hand. Nor doth there remain onely a bare and idle figure of a Cherry, and a spot or maculation of the skin▪ but a certain real production, which buds; blossomes, and ripens in its due season, at the same time with other trees, the signatures of colour and figure passing gradu∣al changes till it come to maturity. High and sacred, in good troth, is the power of the microcosmical spirit, which with∣out any arboreal trunck produceth a true Cherry: that is flesh, by the sole seminality and conception of Phansie, qua∣lified with all the proprieties and virtue of a real Cherry. Hence we understand two necessary consequences. The first
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that the seminal spirits, and in some latitude of acception the * very essences of all creatures do lie ambuscadoed in our na∣ture: and are onely educed and hatched into realities by the microcosmicratical Phansie.

The other, that the Soul in the conception of thought * doth generate a certain idea of the thing conceived in the minde: which as it before lay concealed and raked up, as fire in flint; so by the concitation of Phansie it doth produce a certain real idea or exact pourtraict, and an essential deter∣mination, in every part responding to the quiddity of the Cherry, which cannot be a meer quality, but something like a *substance, of an ambiguous essence between the body and the spirit, that is the Soul. This production is so far spiritual, that it is not wholly exempted from a corporeal condition; since the actions of the soul are terminated in the body, and the other inferior faculties subservient to her: nor yet so far corporeal, that it may be circumscribed by dimensions, which is onely proper to a seminal Entity, as we have for∣merly related. This ideal Entity therefore when it falls from the invisible and intellectual world of the microcosm, it then puts on corporeity, and then first becomes subject to be cir∣cumscribed by the determinate dimensions of Locality and Numeration. The proper object of the intellect is an abstract∣ed, naked and pure essence, subsisting of itself; and not an Accident, by the consent of Practical, that is Mystical Di∣vines. This Protheus, the intellect, doth thus as it were cloath and apparel this conceived essence with Corporeity. But in re∣gard every operation of the soul, whether external or inter∣nal, hath its fieri in its own proper image: therefore can not the intellect discern and know, the Will like and select, and the Memory recollect and recogitate, unless by images▪ and this same image of the object the intellect doth cloath in corporeity: and because the Soul is the simple Form of the body, which readily converts and applies her self to every member, therefore cannot the intellect entertain and harbor two images at one and the same time, but successively first one and then another. And thus the Soul wholly descends upon the intellect, and the yet-tender and embryon image*
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newly conceived and impressed, and afterwards forms the cognition of the peculiar essence into a persistent and durable image, or ideal Entity. The minde being once polluted by the leprous miasm, or contagious tincture of sin, soon be∣came obnoxious to the wrath of God; and because this was at once deturpated and depraved, being devested of the Nobi∣lity of its primitive condition; therefore Death found an en∣trance upon our nature, not by the original decree of the Creator, but by the degeneration of man delapsed into filthi∣ness and impurity, and ungenerously degrading himself, by reason of this ideal entity now arrayed with comparative corporeity; which corruption and turpitude, with deplorable fertility springing up in every the most venial peccadillo, we must extenuate and mortifie by showers of poenitential tears in this world, or too late bewail in the next. This entity there∣fore, while it remains in the forge of the intellect, is but lightly and slenderly characterized, nor doth any where, but in a pregnant woman, receive a more firm consistence, which in the masculine sex it never obtains but by the Will; more familiarly thus, the Agent Intellect always procreateth an ideal Entity, or semi-substantial pourtraict of the essence of an object; but cloaths it not with corporeity, unless by the immediate action of the Will, great-bellied women onely excepted. Sin therefore, whether we allow it to be a reality, or non-reality, at least a consent and propensity to evil, can never be committed without the real production of this kinde of Entity, and the assumption and indution of it. And this * truly hath ever been the Cause of the foecundity of seeds: for the Phansie, excited by the orgasmus or heat of lust, produceth a slender reality or ideal entity, which when the soul hath clothed with corporeity (for the action of the minde, while it remains immured in walls of flesh, always tends downward and outward) it instantly diffuseth this new ideal entity into the liquor of the seed, which without this impregnation had still continued barren and devoid of any Plastique power: which action is performed as it were by an aliena∣tion of the minde, the will being ravished, by the true Magick * of the outward man, into a kinde of short ecstasie, in which


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there happens a communication or bequest of a certaine Mentall light to the entity descending into the body or masse of seed.

Whensoever therefore the Cogitation draws the sense and will into consent; so often is there hatched and incorporated a filthy, spurious ideall entity: by which production the will is said to be confirmed: and this ideall entity with all expedition rangeth through the body, whithersoever it is sent on an er∣rant by the will: and by this meanes the will now moves the arme, now the foote, anon the tongue, and so all other parts.

Againe when this entity is disseminated upon the Uitall Spirit, on a designe of love, reliefe, or harme to any object, then it wants no more then a slight and easie excitement from the auxiliary hand of God, of the Cabalistique Art, or of Satan; that so the portion of the spirit, which is impraegna∣ted with the ideall entity, may sally abroad and atcheive the enterprise enjoined it by the will. Thus every male projects * his seed at distance from the dimensions of his body: which seminall emission carries along with it that foecundity, which it drew from the infused entity, and executes its procreative commission beyond the trunck of the individuall protoplast. Undoubtedly bodies scarce make up a moity of the world: but Spirits possesse a full mediety, and indeed the major part of the world. And therefore in this whole Context, I call Spirits the Patrons of Magnetisme: not those that are sent * downe from heaven doe we mean, much lesse those that a∣scend from the horrid Abysse below; but such only which have their originall, and existence in man himselfe: for as fire is, by excussion, kindled from flint, so also from the Will of man, by a kinde of secret scintillation, something of the vitall influent spirit is desumed, and that something assumes an ideall entity, as its ultimate forme and complement. Which perfection once obtained the Spirit, which before was purer and more refined * then the aethereall aër, becomes subtilitated like light, and assumes an ambiguous or midle nature between Corporeall substances and incorporeall. But it is sent ambassador whither∣soever the Will directs it, or thither at least, whither the innate


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infallible science of spirits doth command it, according to the intentions and scopes of the taskes to be performed: the ideall entity therefore, being now ready prepared for its journey, be∣comes a light (understand it in some latitude of sense) and shifting off corporeity, confesseth no restraint or circumscri∣ptive laws of places, times, or dimensions. And this refined and exalted semisubstance is neither the Devill, nor any effect, nor any conspiration of his: but a certain spirituall action of the in∣ward man, plainly and purely naturall and haereditary to us. This mysterious wisdome who ever entertaineth with that so∣lemnity of judgement and praeparation of nature and unprae∣judicate thought, which becomes the gravity of a mind greedy of magnalities, shall easily understand, that the materiall world is on all sides governed, regulated, and coerced by the im∣materiall and invisible: and that all corporeal created natures are placed at the footstoole of man, as being subordinate to the re∣gality of his will. And this very thing truely is the Cause, why even the mumie, the fat, the mosse, and the humane blood, namely the Phansy naturally existing in them, in the Unguent, should domineer over the blood of a Dogge, of a Horse, &c. shed upon a piece of wood, and buried in a pot of the Un∣guent.

Yet we have not said enough concerning the Magnetisme of the Unguent: We shall therefore now pursue a hint, which * we started in our praecedent lines. That the Magnetisme of the Loadstone and other inanimate Creatures is performed by a certain Naturall sensation, the immediate Authrix of all sym∣pathy, is a truth unquestionable. For if the Loadstone direct it selfe to the Pole, it must have a certain knowledge, lest it be∣come * subject to deviation and error in its direction: and how, I beseech you, can it have that requisite knowledge, if it be not sensible of its owne locall position? In like manner if it convert to iron placed at great distance, and neglect the Pole, of necessity it must first know the situation of the iron. Wher∣fore the single Magnet is endowed with various senses, and also with imagination: nor will it be enough, that it be provi∣ded of sensation, unlesse we also adde the provokement and goads of occult friendship and Philauty or selfe-love; and so


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that the Loadstone is endowed with a certaine Naturall phansy, by the power of whose impression all Magnetismes in the whole Catalogue of Creatures are performed. For * by one phansy it is directed to iron, and by another to the Pole; for then is its virtue diffused onely through a small space of the aër to the object near at hand: but that Phansy is changed, when it praevents an abortion, restraines the im∣petuous flux of Catarrhes, or hinders the falling downe of the intestine in a rupture: and by a third phansy, different from both the former, doth the Loadstone attract any thing of glasse melted by fire: for any the smallest fragment of a Loadstone injected into a good quantity of glasse, while it is in decoction, of green or yellow turns it into perfect white. For albeit the Loadstone it selfe be of a deep (though some∣thing * shadowed) sanguine tincture, and be wholly destroied and consumed by the fire that dissolves the glasse: yet not∣withstanding while it retaines any relict of its vital essence, it exhausteth the tincted liquor even from the candent glasse, and devoureth the tincture of it: and thus we discerne, that the attraction of the Loadstone is not determined onely to iron; but also extends to that aerial part, which otherwise could not, without great difficulty, be divorced from the body of the glasse: and to this purpose is it commonly used by Glasse-makers. The phansy of Amber delights to allect * strawes, chaffe, and other festucous bodies, by an attracti∣on, we confesse, obscure and weake enough, yet sufficiently manifest and strong to attest an Electricity, or attractive signature: for married to the mumie of our bodies, it appears superiour to the humane Magnet, draws counter to it, and by that interest entitleth it selfe to the dignity of a Zenexton, or preservatory Amulet against contagion. But Amber mixed with Gummes, its imagination being then transplanted, attract∣eth the Venome and bullets out of wounds: for the pleasure and desire of attraction is varied on either side, that is accor∣ding to the various contemperation and allay of the humane mumie, and of the Gummes. But alas! What wonder can it be (unlesse amongst those, who being ignorant of all things, *
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foolishly admire all things (that inanimate creatures should be inriched with an imaginative faculty? when that infinite Essence, who is all life, and the very Soule of Uitality, hath created all things in perfection, and so praevented all expectati∣on of deficiency and inutility in the least peice of his handy∣worke: nor can the subtilest Curiosity finde out any one peice in the innumerable list of Creatures, wherein the reflex of his Divinity is not conspicuous: for the spirit of the Lord fill's the whole earth; yea this expression, that he comprehends all things, carries the emphaticall and significant force of the word. Doe we not beleive that there was a large stock of malignant science ambuscadoed into the forbidden fruit? and that our un∣happy Protoplasts, together with the aple, swallowed downe that science, and received it into the very entralls and profun∣dity of their nature? and doth not this science praesuppose a phansy peculiar to it? For thus some simples induce an Amen∣ty or short alienation of the reason, others cause a constant madnesse, or Maniacal fury: not by a distraction of the brain, or a dissipation of the Animall spirits (for then the strength and vigour of the maniacall persons would of necessi∣ty suffer impairement and decay, which never happens, but rather on the contrary they become much stronger and almost invincible) but indeed, by the exotick and distractive *phansy of those peculiar simples introduced, which over∣masters our phansy, and subdues it to full obedience, some∣times only pro tempore, as in periodicall deliriums, phrensies &c. and sometimes for ever, as in Lunaticks and Maniacks or Bedlams.

Doth not the rabies or madnesse of Dogges by this meanes * transmigrate into men? the Maniacall phansy of the Fury beeing transplanted into the slaver or salivous froth of the doggs tongue, which soone conquers and triumphs over the blood of any Animal, into which it hath insinu∣ated it selfe, through any the most slender puncture of of the skin? for then the primitive and genuine Phansy of all the blood in the wounded body surrenders up its inferiour power, becomes subordinate, and compul∣sively


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assumes the *Hydrophobical phansie of the Exotick Tincture: from whence, in excess of time, comes a Binsical Death, (i. e.) from the sole disease and ex∣orbitancy of the minde, the Magical virtue of the Dog being excited and exalted above the non∣excited, but somnolent Phansie of the Animal. By the same myste∣rious traduction, in all respects, is the Phansie of the Tarantula im∣pressed upon man, by a slender thrust of his sting, and the wound∣ed suffering an immediate alienati∣on of their reason, fall into a vio∣lent fit of dancing, and capering high levoltoes: onely the poyson of the Tarantula differs from that of the mad dog in this par∣ticular, * that this operateth by a magical power excited, and so by magick truly, and without the favor of a metaphor, so called; but that acteth by a magical power non-excited and somnolent, as the same difference is undeniably manifest in Monkshood, Aconite, &c. deleterious plants, which are speedy * and inevitably destructive, in very small quantity: in regard, no Animal endevours to secure or defend it self against the biting of a mad dog, since the magical power of his excited phansie being diffused, is binding and obligatury, against which neither the teeth, nor horns of any beast can make the least prevalent resistance; which cannot be affirmed of the Venome of the Tarantula.

In the outward man therefore, as also in all his fellow Ani∣mals, the Magical power is latitant, and as it were consopited; nor is it capable of excitation onely in man, (though we con∣fess, with greater facility, and to higher atchievements) but even in many other Animals, consorted with man at the Crea∣tion. Again, it sufficeth not, that the Spirit of one individu∣al maintain and observe this law of concord and monomachy*
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or duello with the Spirit of another individual: but more∣over there dwells a certain universal or mundan spirit in the whole world, (i. e.) in all things within Trismegistus Circle, which we Christen the Magnum magnale, which exsisteth the universal Pander of all sympathy and dyspathy, the invisible Mercury or common Intelligencer, and the Promotor of all natural actions; and by whose mediation or convoy the Mag∣netism is, as by the most convenient vehicle, transported and wafted to an object at vast distance. This is made good by an autoptical demonstration; for if upon the miniking of a tuned Lute you place a slender straw, hanging with a doubtful extremity (i. e.) equilibrated in the aër, and at con∣venient distance in the same room strike the minikin of an∣other Lute, when there succeeds a consonance in the eighth note, you shall see the straw to tremble; but when the notes concord in an unison, then the minikin of the untouched Lute, impatient of delay, will quaver, caper for joy, echo the same aër, and by a nimble subsultation throw off the offensive straw. What, will you impute this effect to Satan, and make him the Fidler? Now you shall never observe the straw to re∣bound from the string, though all the strings of the other Lute be unanimously, strongly, and neer at hand plaid up∣on; for it is not the bare and simple tone that compels the untouched string to quaver; for then every tone would cause the same effect; but it is onely the universal spirit, the Common Mercury, inhabiting in the middle of the universe, and being the faithful executor and adjutor of all natural actions, transports, promotes and causes the Sympathy.

But why tremble we at the name of Magick? since the whole action is Magical; nor hath any natural Agent a * power of activity, which is not emergent from the phansie of its peculiar form, and that magically too. But in regard this phansie in bodies devoid of voluntary election is onely of a de∣terminate and limited identity: therefore have some vulgar heads erroneously and dully imputed the effects of such re∣strained bodies, not to the phansie of them, but a Natural propriety; out of an ignorance of Causes substituting the


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effect in the room of the Cause. When indeed every Agent doth operate on its proper object, by a praesensation or distin∣ctive foreknowledg of it, whereby it is directed not to dis∣charge its activity rashly and at random, but onely on its own peculiar object. For the diffusion or emission of activity necessarily succeeds the sensation of the object; and the effect results from an excitement of the phansie, by transmitting of the ideal entity, and conjoyning it with the radius or gleam of the passive entity. And this, in our dialect, hath ever been the Magical action of natural bodies; yet in most accom∣modate language and just propriety of denomination, this Magical and phantastique activity belongs principally (if not solely) to Creatures ennobled with a power of election. I shall muster up the Creatures, and guide our disquisition * through every Classis of them. All formal proprieties flowing from the forms of the three universal principles, Sal, Sul∣phur, and Mercury, or the salt, Unctuous fat, and liquor, whereof every body is composed, and into which it is, by corruption of the corporeal harmony, again resolved; and the Mercury or liquor is so often diverse and differently qua∣lified, as there are different species of compound bodies, which same variety of impregnation we are to conceive also of the other two, Sal and Sulphur: All specifical proprieties, I say, are derivatory from the phansies of these forms, which in regard they are very corporeal, and deeply immersed in the bosome of Elements, therefore are they called Formal and occult proprieties, out of a gross ignorance of the forms, which in another (and introth more Philosophical) accepta∣tion are Magical effects produced by the phansie of the said forms: but (we confess) less noble, and more corporeal, yet abundantly satisfactory to those ends, which, by the pri∣mitive destiny of their Creation, they regard. To this series * belongs the subductive virtue of Cathartick or Purgative, the somniferous faculty of Hypnotick or dormitive medicaments, &c.

Besides these there are other nobler Proprieties, taking their original from the phansie of the forms of the whole Composi∣tum: and these are diffused through and inherent in the


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whole Compositum, by reason of the Form of it; such are the Magnetism of the Loadstone, the virtue of Tinctures, and all specifical and appropriate Medicaments; which are occasioned by reason either of the whole homogeneous neixture, or the particular form of some integral part, but not of any single or divided principle: such as these are naturally inhe∣rent in the trunck, leaves, root, and fruit of plants, and not in any one of the three principles diacritically separated from the compage or conjuncture. Thus also Antimony, while it remains in its primitive form, and native integrity, is en∣riched with noble and excellent qualities, which it could ne∣ver aspire unto in its solitary and divided principles. But these are also closely enshrowded in Corporeity; and there∣fore the natural magick lies covertly ambuscadoed and ob∣scure in them, and hath been thought wholly attributary to Nature, by an unjust and unadvised distinction of Nature from Magick, opposing the former è diametro to the latter, when in sober verity they are both one and same, though commonly received under distinct appellations. Thus the leaf of a rose hath a distinct virtue, which the stem, or yellow iust in the middle of the rose hath not: and that virtue ariseth not to the leaf from the three Grand principles united, or any one of them paramont in the conjuncture; but immediate∣ly resulteth from its Vital Form, which, when it is destroyed, amitteth its primitive, and acquireth other secondary virtues; as in example, a grain of Corn in its primitive vitality nourish∣eth, but when degraded from that first life, it fructifies. Third∣ly, there is another Magical power proceeding from the phan∣sie*of the life of the integral compositum: and this is implanted in bruites and the exterior man; which being spiritual, is more absolute in soveraignty then the former, but yet not ad∣vanced to the zenith or highest pitch of energy, though some∣times by much excitation, and a strong phansie introduced by a real entity, it ascend to a very great height of activity, and by a neer emulation rival the true Magick of the inward man. Again, the Soul of every Bruite enjoyeth a power of * creating a real entity, and of transmitting the same, by the mandate of the Will, to an object at very large distance: of


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this sort of magical bruites, are the Basilisk, a dog, many fishes described by Olaus Magnus, &c. such also is the virtue inhabitant in the blood of many Animals: and hence doth Holy Writ deliver expresly, that the Soul so journs in the blood though extravenated, though decocted on the fire, yea, and (for ought can be alleaged to the contrary) though totally altered by corruption. Finally, there is also a Magical*virtue as it were abstracted from the body, which is wrought by the excitement of the interior power of the soul: and from this arise most potent procreations, most noble impressions, and effects of supreme vigor and efficacy. For (introth) Na∣ture* in most of her operations playes the Magician, and acts by the energy of her own phansie; and since this activity is by so much the more potent, by how much the more spiritual; therefore is the term or appellative of Magick exactly analo∣gous and concordant.

Of all which gradually different species of magical virtue,* there is hardly any one that stands not in need of excitation. For that of the lowest Classis requires excitement and educti∣on, by some previous warmth, or gently fomenting heat, by which there is educed a certain vapor, or spiritual effluvi∣um, by reason whereof the phansie restrained in a profound sleep, and drowsie inactivity, is awakened into action, and then begins a mediatory encounter between the corporeal spirits, which is of Magnetism, excited by a precedent touch. But that of the highest Classis, such as belongs to bruits and men, receives excitement from an intellectual conception; and that of the inward man is not at all excited, unless by the Holy spirit, and by his excellent gift, the Cabal; but that of the outward man, by strong imagination, by assiduous and in∣tense speculation, yea, and in Witches by Satan. But the ma∣gick of the extravenated blood (wherein the soul hath taken up her quarters) which lies lurking onely in potentia, is excited and invited into act, either by a more strong imagination ex∣alted, conceive it of the magician making use of the blood as a medium, and fixing his newly accensed entity thereon; or conceive it by the ascendent phansie of the Armary unguent, the excitatrix of the proprieties latent in the blood; or by a


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previous destination of the blood to corruption whereby the Elements are disposed to separation, and the Essences (which know no corruption) and the Essential phansies, which lay obscured in the potentia of the proprieties, sally forth into action.

The phansie therefore of any subject whatever hath ob∣tained * a strong and vigorous appetite to the spirit of its pecu∣liar object, in order to the locomotion, attraction, expulsion, or repulsion of it: now in this, and no where else, we ac∣knowledge Magnetism, as the natural magical endowment of that subject, conferred upon, and firmly implanted in it, by the wise bounty of God.

There is therefore a certain formal propriety segregated * and manifestly distinct from the Sympathetique and abstruse qualities, in this particular relation: that the phansie, which is the motrix of those qualities, doth not directly tend to the Locomotion, but onely the Alteration of the object. And thus, though we grant, that every Magnetism be either Sympathetical, or Antipathetical; yet notwithstanding the inversion will fail, that every sympathy must be Magne∣tical.

But we retire from our digression to the grand mark our intentions level at. By this time (I conceive) it is clearly un∣derstood, that there resideth a phansie and magical appetite, not onely in the blood, but even in the superfluous humors, meats, and excrements; since the various and numerous progeny of diseases affordeth convictive manifestoes of it. For pregnant women labor with an absurd and ridiculous appetite to strange and unusual meats, and Cachectical Vir∣gins, * by a natural oestrum or libidinous fury of the exorbi∣tant womb, do with extraordinary celerity (though not with∣out great inamoenity and paleness) digest what ever they long for: but indeed, not from reason of similitude of sub∣stance, nor from any consanguinity of humane nature requiring that particular meat, their irregular appetite so ravenously covets; but seduced by the exotique phansie of the vitious humors, accumulated in the vessels of the womb, and restagnated or belched up into the stomach, which


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over-mastering the true and natural appetite, goadeth them to this absurdity; by the expulsion of which noxious im∣purities, we have frequently cured such perversions and absurd appetites; or else we have mitigated and composed them, by permitting the irregular and frantick phansie of such humors to sate it self by fruition. In the blood therefore there inhabiteth a peculiar phansie, which in regard it is of more * vigorous energy therein, then in other things, therefore doth Divine History, in a singular and emphatique Elogy, call the blood (though strongly decocted, and ready cooked for the table) the Mansion of the soul. And in regard this phansie of * the blood is capable of traduction, and may be devolved to posterity; for this reason is it, that the manners, gestures, conditions, and genius of the Grandfather are revived and be∣come resplendent in his issue, long after the resolution of him into dust. Nobility took its first rise from well-deserving Virtue. hence most nobility be without just merit, suspected to be encreased by the continued and successive propagation of the family, unless the heroick inclinations and virtues of gallant ancestors, obscured by mortality, might, with proba∣bility of hope, be expected to finde a resurrection, and shine again in their •…late posterity. Again, doth not the enmity* conceived betwixt the Woolf and sheep remain firmly impressed upon their pelts? Wherefore the phansie of an Animal, per∣vicaciously surviving death, is impressed not onely upon the blood: but also whoever sleeps under the coverture of a blanket made of the skin of a Gulo or Glutten (a beast of in∣credible, because insatiate, voracity, very common in Swedland) is forced continually to dream of feasting, hunger, voracity and the ensnaring of wilde beasts, according to the natural condition of that animal, while it was living: and thus, onely by an external coverlet. the phansie of the beast, which during life so journed in the skin, is devolved and traduced unto a man, that sleeps beneath it. And thus also, by the ministery of the Phansie of the blood comes it to pass, that the blood extra∣venated, being received upon the sword or weapon, is intro∣duced into the Magnetick Unguent. For then the phansie of * the blood; before unactive and somnolent, being by the vir∣tue


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of the magnetical unguent excited, and there finding the balsamical and medical virtue of the unguent▪ earnestly covets the newly-induced quality to be communicated to it self throughout, and from thence, by spiritual magnetism, to exhaust and drain out all the forein quality, that had invaded the wound: which when it cannot sufficiently perform upon the single stock of its own strength, it implores the aid of the most of the blood, fat, and mumy, which by coalition dege∣nerate into such balsam, that by no other means, but its own phansie, becomes medical, magnetical, and also attractive of all the forein quality out of the body, whose fresh blood, a∣bounding with spirits, is applied unto it, whether it be the blood of a man, or any other Animated Creature. The phansie therefore is reducible and ecstatical from part of the blood freshly and immediately after the effusion brought unto the unguent: but the magnetical attraction, begun in the blood, is perfected by the medical virtue of the unguent. But the un∣guent doth not attract the evil and depraved tincture or in∣quinament of the wound, unto it self, and so put on as much contagion, as was enclosed in Pandoraes box: but onely works a salutiferous alteration on the spirit of the newly effused and freshly applied blood, makes it medical, balsamical, and rouzeth up its dormant virtue: whence there results to it a certain medical and magnetical virtue, which makes a speedy return to the body, from which the blood issued forth, with full commission and power to cure its cousin german, the spi∣rit of the blood yet flowing in its proper conduits, throughout the whole man. For it sucks out of the wounded party, the exotick and dolorous impression, diminisheth it by a medical power, exileth it; which medical virtue, being the puissant conqueress of the evil, is partly excited in the blood, and partly ingenerated in the same by the unguent, that is by the spirit of the unguent, upon the magick of its phansie (i. e.) its created endowment, thus exercising imperial power, and efficacious soveraignty, over the spirit of the blood. In another case, the blood enclosed in an egge shell, putrefying with all its vigor about it, and so as it were redeemed from the bondoge of cor∣poreity, and the spirit delivered from all impediments, by *
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previous putrefaction, becomes attractive, by the mediation of the mumy of a dog, and really transfers that disease, which was before seated in the phansie and astrality of the ex∣crementitious impurities in the patient, into the dog that devours it; for no other reason, but this, that the magnetism cannot be advanced to perfection of operation, without the intercession of the balsam of the unguent. We have ob∣served, if it happen that the wounded party hath received many wounds at once, that it sufficeth to have the blood effused out of any one of the wounds; and that by the single application of that blood, all the other wounds are cured together: because that blood observes a correspondence and sympathetical concordance with the spirit of the whole man, and from the same educeth the offensive extraneous quality, communicated not onely to the lips of the wound, but also to the whole body; for from one wound there ordinarily is kindled an universal fever throughout the whole body of man.

Hitherto have I suspended the revealment of a grand my∣stery; * namely, to bring it home to the hand of reason, that in man there sits enthroned a noble energy, whereby he is en∣dowed with a capacity to act extra se, without and beyond the narrow territories of himself, onely per nutum, by his single beck, and by the natural magick of his phansie, and to transmit a subtil and invisible virtue, a certain influence, that doth afterward subsist and persevere per se, and operate upon an object removed at very large distance: by the discovery of which sole mystery, all that we have hitherto treated, con∣cerning the ideal entity, conveyed in the arms of a spiritual emanation, and sallying abroad to execute the mandates of the will, concerning the magnetism of all Creatures, proceed∣ing as well from humane phansie, as from the native and pe∣culiar phansie of every thing, and also concerning the magical superiority of man over all other sublunary bodies, will receive illustration, and shine bright in the eye of our understanding. Tis a meridian truth, too clear to be eclipsed by controversie, that of steel there may be made a needle, which invigorated * by the confriction of a loadstone, doth point out the pole to


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Seamen: but in vain is the steel hammered into a needle, and placed at free range in the navigatory Compass, to level at the north Star, unless there hath preceded a fit and requisite affriction of the loadstone. Which assertions since they sound loud enough to pierce the ears of the deafest incredulity, it remains convenient, that we frame and qualifie a Mariners needle, solo nutu, onely by the magnetism of our phansie, and magick of intuition. On the anvil therefore, whereon the steel is hammered into a figure of a needle, let the north point be chalked out, and that in a strait line: then stand you, when you play the Vulcan, with your back to the north, that so when the steel is beating under the hammer, you may draw it out into a needle towards your self and the north: I say therefore, that such a needle, thus positionally and intu∣itively framed, will acquire a vigorous polarity, and punctually observe the north Star, without any forein impregnation or magnetical infusion, and indeed without any variation, to which the ordinary needles invigorated by the loadstone are subject, which carries with it a very great mystery. Moreover that needle, which is made upon the foresaid line, by chance, and without the knowledg or intention of the Fabricator, con∣tinues bare steel, devoid of all verticity, and directs not to the pole. Hence is it a natural Consequence, that the imagination of the Fabricator, in the very moment of the needles nativity, when the glowing heat of the fire is somewhat abated, and the steel but obscurely red, doth impress this magnetical faculty into the steel needle, as a convenient and appropriate subject. Not that the celestial orbs do, in that punctilio of time, in∣fuse the verticity; for then it would descend and be impressed upon the steel, without the intention, consent or observance of the smith; which cannot satisfie experience: for if the Stars did transmit their influence at some certain hour, and in some determinate position, then might the Characteristical and sigillary science of the celestial orbs be allowed to put on triumphant wreaths, which we pass by.

But that Constellation which descends upon the steel (and * it may be upon every magical image and seal) is derived from the Microcosmical Heaven, that is, from our own


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Olympus: vain and unsuccessful therefore have been those Magical seals and pentacles, which were not framed and con∣figurated by the magician in an high ecstasie and exaltation of his phansie: for all inferior Entities and Phansies are com∣pelled to do homage to the transcendent magick of ours, by which prerogative Sapiens dominabitur astris, a wiseman shall regulate and countermand the influence of the Stars, to the dominion of whose sceptre the Parent of Nature hath subject∣ed whatever is contained in the vast Amphitheatre of Heaven. What we have here alleaged concerning the phansie impres∣sing a verticity upon the steel, as we have learned from the authentick testimony of many judicious pens, and from our own frequent experience: so may it be confirmed ten thou∣sand times to the observation of any whose curiosity shall en∣cline him to the easie trouble of the experiment. Thus the leaves of Asarum, and the tops of Elder, submit and conform unto the phansie of the decerptor, who impresseth upon the plant, and the plant upon the leaves a magnetical virtue, which in operation shall justly respond to the position of the hand that gathered them: when otherwise, the leaf being decocted (as the needle heat again in the fire) and given in a potion, the virtue of the phansie impressed upon it would of necessity perish, if the Magnetism were not cherished and maintained from the integral plant. That the blood of any Animal decocted and ready cooked for the trencher, doth yet contain the soul of that Animal, is true: but that virtue doth not depend upon the impression of humane and forein phansie, but ariseth immediately from the proper endowment of its own phansie. By the same reason also doth a dart thrust through the heart of a horse, killed by the execrable magick * of a witch, binde up and hold captive the vital spirit of that witch, and twisteth it together with the mumial spirit of the horse, that so both may be torrified together, and by that tor∣ment, as by a sharp goad, the witch may be driven to betray her self: and that at length, by the justice of the magistrate, the base miscreant, detestable to God, and pernicious to man, may be eternally exiled from the conversation of mortals, and cut off, according to the Law of God. For if the operation be


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determined to any external object, the magical soul doth never attempt it without a convenient medium: and for this reason she makes use of the dart or nail transfixed through the heart.

Now this position, that man is endowed with a power of acting, per nutum, or moving any object at remote distance, being proved by convictive evidence: it is also sufficiently con∣firmed, by the same natural example, that this transcendent energy was conferred upon him by the wise indulgence of his Creator; and therefore, by the Charter of his Nature, doth justly belong unto him. Their conjecture hath ever had a * strong hautgoust of absurdity, who have hitherto conceived, that Satan hath moved, altered, and transported any thing, and really applied Actives to Passives in locomotion, onely per nutum; while they have taken for granted, that the Devil was the first and grand Motor in the forementioned motions, that by those corporeal extremities requisite to contaction, he could violently snatch away, transmit, or any way move, at least an aëreal body (which they fondly imagine) though destitute of a soul. Absurd, I say, is it to believe, that Satan since his exile from the presence (I mean, the merciful influence) of Divinity, and fall from the glory of his own essence, doth still retain a magical dignity, whereby he can really act upon any natural subject, and produce what effect soever he please, onely by intuition, because in the primitive excellence of his once Angelical nature, he received such an endowment: but that the same prerogative was taken from, and ever since denied unto man, and given to the Devil, the most vile and despicable of Creatures: and that if there be any such real effects performed by man, they are to be ascribed to a servile compact with the devil. Open the eyes of your reason: for Satan hath hitherto proudly triumphed in your so great and so dangerous ignorance, with so high content, as if you had made his altars smoke with the grateful incense of glory and dignity, and devested your self of your own native prerogative, pulled out your own eyes, and offered them in sacrifice to him.

We have said, that every magical virtue doth lie dormant,
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and want excitation: which holds perpetually true, if the object, upon which the energy is discharged, be not neerly disposed and qualified to admit it, if the phansie of it doth not promptly conform unto the impression of the Agent, or also if the Patient be equal in strength, or superior to the Agent. But on the contrary, where the object is conveniently, proxim∣ly, and obediently qualified to entertain the magical influx, as steel is to receive the magnetical infusion of a loadstone: or plainly weak, and conscious to it self (as are the homicide, adulterer, theif, and witch) there the patient, without much excitation, the sole phansie of the outward man being deduced into action and adliged to any convenient medium, at the first assault surrenders its self, and obeys the Magnetism. I say, the magician ever makes use of a medium: for thus, unless a pregnant woman hath extended her hand to her own thigh, forehead, or buttocks, the infant in her womb shall never be stigmatized in his thigh, forehead, or buttocks. Thus do the words or forms of Sacraments ever operate: because ex opere operato, from the work performed. But why exorcisms do not alway succeed in their operations; the defect is not in God, but onely because the unexalted and dully-excited minde of the Exoreist doth blunt the edg of the Charm, and render the words invalid and ineffectual. For which reason, no man can be a happy and perfect Exoreist, but he, who hath learned the art to excite the Magick of his own phansie; or by practise can do it ecstatically, without that know∣ledg.

It may be you'l say, that our Armary unguent acquires no other magnetical virtue, then that which redounds to it from the phansie of him that compounds it: you are mistaken. How∣ever, should we allow you that error for truth, your cause could receive no support or advantage thereby; since then you would implicitely confess the effect not to be ascribed to Satan. So the Unguent would not be magnetical from any innate and natural phansie peculiar to it self, but from an external adventitious inspiration, namely the phansie of the Compounder, impressed upon it: since there can be no neerer medium of the foresaid Magnetism, then humane blood with


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humane blood; truly, the blood alone, as the most propor∣tionate and predisposed subject would suffice to the composi∣tion of the Unguent, and all the other simples ingredient into the confection, would be frustraneous and unnecessary, espe∣cially the blood of a Bull and hony, where the cure is to be per∣formed by applying the salve to weapons not distained with the blood of the Patient, which is manifestly false by experi∣ment. Finally, the Magnetism of the Unguent would then be general; in respect the Confectioner may, by the wilde and * universal range of his Phansie, intend to make the impression, uncertain, undeterminate, and extensive to the wounds, not onely of man, but of all beasts whatever. What if the Com∣pounders phansie were not fixed upon a dog; must the Unguent therefore have no virtue to cure the wound of a dog? Away with such idiotism, such ridiculous dotage. What hath Bole Armeniake, what Line seed oyl, what Hony, and in fine what hath the blood of a Bull, of peculiar disposition, or de∣terminate respect to the wound of a horse, or man; that up∣on them onely, as upon the most proper medium, and not upon any other things, the Phansie of the Confectioner should be impressed? and yet if these were secluded the Composition, the Unguent would be barren and devoid of all power and vulnerary efficacy. The Natural phansie therefore of the Un∣guent is the sole and grand cause of the Magnetism, and the im∣mediate and proper cause of the Cure: but not the imagination of the Component.

Behold! you have our (understand true, Christian) Philo∣sophy; not the frantick sophisms, or idle dreams of Eth∣nicks. Be cautious, I beseech you, that you bring not me into censure, who have been your self more forward and rash in censuring others. I am yours, and a Roman Catholick: who have cordially and firmly determined in my self, to * mediate or write nothing, that may be contrary to the Word of God, or the fundamental Articles of the Church. I well understand the constellation of my own genius, and know my self born, not to allow or foment contentious debates, not to write Comments on, or defensive Apologies for the pens of other men; wherefore, what I knew, I desired, with


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a freedom becoming a Philosopher, to communicate to the world.

I shall annex onely this one clause: Whoever attributeth to the Devil an effect arising from Natural Causes, so created by God, and so conferred upon the Creatures: he doth alie∣nate the honor due to the Creator, and ignominiously (others might say blasphemously) apply it unto Satan: which (un∣der your favor) if you shall strictly call under the test of your Anatome, you will finde to be express idolatry. My earnest prayer to the fountain of all Clemency, our God and Father of Mercies, is now, and ever shall be, that he would be pleased to look, with the eye of compassion and forgiveness, upon those errors and lapses of our understanding, which from our native, not stubborn, ignorance, and humane fragility we have contracted.

Amen.
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THere are three that bear record in Heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one: (And anon speaking of the Huma∣nity of Christ) there are three which bear record in Earth, the Blood, the Spirit, and the Water, and these three are one. To us therefore, who have the like Hu∣manity, it is no wonder, that we contain Blood and a Spirit of the like unity: and that the action of the Blood is meerly Spiritual. Yea for this reason, in Genesis it is not called by the name of Blood: but dignified with the appellation of a Red Spirit.

Withdraw therefore, whoever thou art, from thy incredulous pertinacy, and ingenuously acknowledg an∣other Spirit in the blood, besides the Devil: unless thou wilt dare to oppose thy mis-informed Faith to the Book of Truth.

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The Translators Supplement.
NEmo hûc Geometriae expers ingrediatur, was the Motto which the semi-christian Philosopher, Plato, caused to be engraven on the porch of his Academy *: im∣plying not onely the exact measure of lines, but also the Geometry of a mans self, the dimensions and just extent of the passions and affections of the minde, to be the previ∣ous qualification necessary to any, that should hope to benefit by his Lectures. And Nemo hûc Philosophiae expers ingrediatur, shall be our inscription in the front of this Translation; un∣derstanding by Philosophy, the ample knowledg not onely of the Elemental and visible World, but also of the Intellectual and Spiritual; not onely of the more plain and obvious tracts, wherein Nature progresseth to the production of ordinary effects; but even those obscure and unfrequented paths she walks in, when she advanceth to Abstrusities and more mysterious Magnalities; together with that acquired Candor of judgment, and habitual Equanimity, which as well emancipateth the understanding from the pedantick tyranny of subscription to all that's read, if but disguised in the specious dress of probability, and ushered in by Antique Authority; as it inclineth the reason to a sober assent, and modest conformity to such Assertions, which carry the face of judicious Enquiries, and serious majesty of Truth, though they be presented at disadvantage, under a cloud of Novelties, or Paradoxes. Nor can we fear that this our device, or impress, will be suspected of impertinency, by any that shall do so much right to their own judgments, as to conced, that a Reader thus qualified, must be the onely he, that can survey, understand, censure, and enrich his head with the subtler speculations, and profound Dihoties of our more then ingenious Helmont; while it is of confessed necessity, that the gross ignorance of some must obscure, and the prevarica∣tion of others pervert the prospect of these splendid (though


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Heterodoxical) Notions, and Natural (though spiritual, or magical) Causalities, which his finer pen hath drawn, in landskip, upon this tablet, The Magnetically-Natural cure of Wounds.

Now though the pensive Consideration of the incapacity (some would have said, Barbarity) of the numerous multi∣tude, on one side, and of the deplorable inflexibility of the leading part of learning, more then a moity of Schollers be∣ing swallowed up in a deluge of Presumption and Prejudice, on the other, might in some measure excuse our despair of finding many heads of this soveraign temper, wherein suffi∣ciency in knowledg ought to have received the just allay of Candor, and non-adherence to Antiquity; yet may we not in∣cur the odious premunire of singularity so far, as not confidently to hope, that our worthy Author will fall into the hands of some, whose unbyassed intellectuals will smoothly run him over, and gather so full satisfaction from many of his Experiments, that Gratitude her self will prompt them to confess the sacrifice of Honor deservedly due unto his memory.

And upon this evidence of Hope, we are bold to promise our self supportment for our resolutions of not attempting either any Comment on, or Defence of those Metaphysical (understand onely Ideal and abstracted) conceptions, and novel Hints, rich aspersed upon these sheets; such as that of a Phansie, or Natural sensation, by the Charter of their Creation, properly pertinent unto, and inseparably inherent in all mixt bodies, though devoid of Animation, and power of voluntary election; and this not onely single and of deter∣minate identity, but multiplex and various according to the diverse predisposition and capacity of the object, whereon they discharge their activity; that of the magical preroga∣tive of man, or that transcendent endowment, whereby he is empowered to act per nutum, by the sole virtue of Thought or Spiritual intuition, upon an object removed at vast distance, by means of an ideal entity, formed in the womb of more attentive Imagination, and transmitted by the Will; that of the fatal Consopition of this Hierarchy, or semi-divine Faculty of


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the soul, by the Opiate or Counter-magick of the Forbidden Fruit; and the resuscitation or excitement of the same, by the onfranchisement of the inward man from the eclipse and oppréssion of Corporeity, in Enthusiasms, Ràptures, and Ec∣statical Contemplations, &c. Since the known poverty of our Reason could not but throw infinite disparagement on the wealthy harvest of his; nor the access of our plenary assent, or vindication, confer any thing at all of estimation to fulfil the Authority of his Name, or determine the establishment of his Positions for solid and unrefutable Truths. Wherefore in conformity to the advisoes of some riper heads, to whose friendly decision we humbly submitted our hesitancy in this point, together with the concurrent vote of our own thir∣teenth thought, we have stood resolved, neither to dim the lustre of our Authors sense, by the interposition of our Boe∣otian *interpretation, or melancholick enlargement; nor make our pen guilty of so uncivil encroachments on the liberties of the comprehensive Reader, as to preoccupy his head, with the abortive results of our shallower scrutintes, or prevent his more ocular disquisitions and maturor anim adversions; but so far to assist younger capacities, as to endevour the ex∣planation of some unfrequent idiomes, and uncouth terms, which the Author seems to have borrowed from the Caba∣listique Vocabulary of Paracellus; annexing onely, for satis∣faction of the more illiterate, the more select, and less superstitious Forms, or Prescripts of the Magnetick Armary Vnguent.

In the mean time, in order to our avoidance of scandal, as we cannot smother our wishes, that the ardor of debate with his opponents, Father Roberts, the Jesuite, and Goclenius, the Physician, and the eager quest of reasons to make good his theory of Magnetism against future Assailants, had not sedu∣ced his gravity to stumble upon some few Examples, whose constant verity Experiment may have just cause to question, or sober Philosophy, at first sight, smilingly refer to super∣stition: so we cannot but sigh at the apprehension of our own want of abilities to sustain so considerable and weighty a task as the due perpension and mature disquisition of some


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abstruse notions, which the conciser pen of our Author hath onely hinted, per transennam, and so proposed to the more deliberate discovery of some worthy Enlarger. For (to omit others of less value) upon that one cardinal pin of Magnetism, or the Magical virtue of Naturals, it seemeth to us, that the whole speculation of those three grand Arcanaes, whose ob∣scure and yet inscrutable Causalities have captived the great∣est Wits, in all ages, in a labyrinth of perplexed and uncer∣tain Enquiries. (1) The Original and cognation of Forms; (2) The causes of Sympathy and Dyspathy, or of idiosyncri∣tical Friendship and Enmity or aversation; (3) And the so universally magnified Power of Imagination, necessarily de∣pend. To the clear and satisfactory solution of which Pro∣blems, whoever is ordained, by the exceeding benignity of his Constellation, will perform a work of highest benefit, and unparalleled merit to the Common-wealth of Learning, will advance his memory to so high a pitch of Honor, that 'twill be accounted humility in him to look so low as Caesar, and shall have our free Vote, that his statue cannot be uncivil, or ambitious, if it take the right hand of Aristotles in the Vati∣can. But alas! this must be a work of Time, Pyrotechny, and many heads cooperating. And therefore the wide and almost irreparable encroachments, which the late deluge of Bar∣barism hath made upon the studies of our own ingenious Nation, and ominously threatned to most Seminaries of Arts and Sciences in Europe: together with the general contempt of severe Philosophy, amongst those, whose wealthy For∣tunes might sustain the charge of Experiments and forein Explorations requisite to the laudable atchievement of so magisterial a piece of knowledg, may probably encourage our fears, that it may be late ere posterity be blessed with its revealment, nay, perhaps not until the whole material World be ready to confess the Chymistry of the last day.

Having hitherto seduced the minde of our Reader, into a short prospect of those few pieces, which our devout Zeal to the advancement of the knowledg of Natures choisest Magnalities hath inflamed us to desire in a larger draught;


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and presented him the slender summary of what our Supple∣ment intendeth: a longer digression cannot but tacitely scan∣dal the weight of our Theam, and rudely disoblige attention. Wherefore, we return to the direct discharge of our under∣takings: the interpretation of some Fanatique words, which in the opinion of Grammar know no signification, because no Etymology, nor can the greatest Philologer deduce from any original higher then the Babel of Paracelsus; and the supply of the Antiquity, and Forms of the Magnetical Vn∣guent.

Bismuthum, in the dialect of Hermetical Mineralogists,* admits of a double signification. For some accept it for a simple, and list it in the inventory of Marchasites or Fire stones, taking it to be no other, then that which the Noble Geber called Magnesia, and the shops Black Lead: * others intend by it a compound made by the hand of Art, and that of two sorts: The first, when upon melted Tin, the Chymist affuseth Mercury, and makes thereof a fragil substance and snow-white mass; * the other a mixture of Silver and Mer∣cury, which submitteth to the first assault of fire, as easily as wax, and is of exceeding whiteness, which we conceive to be the true Magnesia Philosophorum. But we had rather incline to the autoptical testimony of the judicious Doctor Jordan,* who renders Bismuthum to be in English, Tinglass, or the steril Marchasite of Lead. Now Marchasites are the immature materials of metals, and vary according to each several and distinct species of metals: * and hence doubtless Paracelsus took occasion, in the separation of Elements from Marchasites, to compare the golden Marchasite to Gold, the silver one to silver, Talck to Tin, Bismuthum to Lead, Zincum to Copper, Cadmia to Iron, Stibium to Mercury, &c. Consule Paracelsum in tertio Archidox.

Throni, or Tronos and Tronossa, in the wild Language, or * rather Canting, of Paracelsus, implies a rorid Meteor, or Ce∣lestial dew, being a species of Manna, in sweetness, density, tenacity, and whiteness, far transcending all other: genera∣ted by the Mercury of the midle region; infusing its astral seminality into the fertil matrix of the Aër; and wholly


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separated and refined from all Sulphur and Salt This delicate extract of the Stars is in good plenty found, if we regard the time of its distillation, in the spring and entrance of harvest, when the Sun begins to leave the torrid Negro, and make his more temperate courtship to the starry Virgin: if the place, in most Eastern Countries, upon the leaves of Trees and Herbs.

Thereniaben, or Tereniabin, meaneth the same, which the more regular and orthographical pen of Aristotle hath pro∣perly * named 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, mel aereum, vel roscidum; an oleaginous kinde of wild hony, not confected by the Chymistry of Bees, but distilling from the Retort of the inferior Aër, upon Mea∣dows, Campaniaes, Trees, and Herbs. This delicate collation the civility of the Planets entertaineth us with, in the moneths of June, July, and August, as if they intended the refresh∣ment of the laborious swain, exhausted by the heat of Summer and sweat of Harvest. The Antients called it Threr, if we may credit the traduction of Dornaeus, in his comment upon the distracted meteorology of Paracelsus.

Nostoch understandeth the nocturnal Pollution of some plethorical and wanton Star, or rather excrement blown from * the nostrils of some rheumatick planet, falling upon spacious plains, fields and sheep pastures, of an obscure red or brown tawny, in consistence like a gelly, and so trembling if touch∣ed: which the philosophy of the clouted shooe affirms to be the ruines of a Star fallen. Some there are, saith Dornaeus,* who by Nostoch intend Wax: but by the favor of a meta∣phor.

Nebulgea we English a Salt, or Nitrous exudation and de∣stillament * from the clouds; by the deliquium of the colder aër resolved into an unctuous liquor, and descending upon solid and stony bodies; which suffering induration, by the exhalement of its aqueous parts, assumes solidity, and by the interest of exact similitude and cognation, doth more then pretend unto the dignity of celestial Nitre.

Laudanum, if the same that all the Druggists of Europe* call Ladanum, is the Woodfeer, or liquid spumous exudation of the shrub Cistus, or Ledon, growing in great plenty in




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the Island Cyprus, which the Natives, (unless the syth of time hath lighted upon that custom, since the days of Dio∣scorides)* use every Spring to gather from off the long shaggy hairs of the thighs and beards of Goats, feeding among and brushing themselves against the stalks and leaves of the plant, and after due clarification and percolation thereof, to conserve in convenient pots: But if, in the ac∣count of Helmont, a kinde of aëreal meteor, or production arising from the coition and conspiracy of some seminary celestial influx with fit and proportionate matter, the fat evaporations of Plants; we confess that after a tedious search of Paracelsus, Severinus, Dorneus, and other•… his inter∣preters, we cannot receive positive satisfaction concerning its name, nature, manner of generation, or specifical dif∣ference, but must acquie•…ce in a contented ignorance of what it is.

We dare not countenance error, or stifle our own habilities of disquisition, so far, as not to take notice of the incogi∣tancy, or partiality of our Helmont, in ascribing the honor of the invention of Hoplocrism, or the Cure of Wounds by unction of the weapon, to his Master Paracelsus: When we stand confirmed, upon evidence of substantial and convictive Arguments, that this secret is much younger then Paracelsus, as bearing no date of its revealment beyond those yeers, wherein he had long confessed his dust, and experimentally confuted his own arrogant Treatise of the art of spinning out the thread of Mans life to a length equal with the clue of Time, and making our vital Oyl of the same durable and invincible temper, with that which maintaineth the flames of Eternal Lamps*. For first, upon strict (and introth tedious) lecture of all the leaves of the extant Works of Paracelsus, we cannot meet with any the least mention of it: nor indeed the grave Libavius before us, as he solemnly pro∣fesseth, in Apocalypseos Hermeticae, parte priore, & cap. ultim. And to those, who have appealed to posthume Manuscripts, and gloried in their inheritance of some Papers bequeathed to the secret custody of Opporinus, his Amanuensis; we must with smiles rejoyn, that a sober and well ordered belief can


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as soon swallow down the monstrous figment of the Book of Adam,* which the impious credulity of Magicians doth confidently deliver to be given, by the Archangel Rhaziel, unto him, immediately upon his exile from Paradise, and contrition for his sin, and from Adam devolved to Seth, from him to Enoch, from him to Noah, thence to Sem, afterwards to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Levi, Caath, Amram, Moses▪ Joshua, and so down to the Prophets and holy Seers successively; whereby they were in a moment illuminated, the veil of sin withdrawn from the eye of their reason, and all those moun∣tains of fleshly lust, which hindered the prospect of the in∣tellect, l•…lled, so that they beheld Nature face to face, and freely gazed upon all her beautiful parts, in the nakedness of their Essences, and Forms devested of all corporeity. A∣gain, though an Argument drawn from the printed sheets of Paracelsus be of no considerable validity, in regard he is so ridiculously subject to self-contradiction, through all his works, that a witty Adversary might easily beat him out of the Schools with his own weapons; yet it may be lawful for us, from the masterpeice of his pen, his tract of Chirurgery, to collect some proof, that he was wholly a stranger to the doctrine or practise of Hoplochrism. For in that discourse, reducing all the several kindes of Vulnerary remedies to a constant method, he is positive, that there is no other Curati∣on of a wound, but what is performed, either by means of the Natural Balsam, or by the apposition of Brassidella upon the green wound, or by Magorreo; the first of which is Natural and the same that all rational Physicians allow, the second Brassidellical, so denominated from the Herb Adderstongue, or Ophioglossum, which he was pleased to nickname Brassidella, the third Magical, for Magorreo, in the interpretation of Dornaeus, is Medicamentum Magicum: and who can finde amongst these differences any room for the intrusion of the Sympathetical Armary Unguent? Lastly, if the exceeding Candor of any, willing to palliate this lapse of our Helmont, recur to Authority, and transfer the guilt upon Baptista Porta (from whom, in probability, this erroneous tradition was derived down to our Century) who fathers the invention


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upon Paracelsus, in these words: Unguentum Armarium, Graecis〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉dictum, olim à Paracelso Maximiliano Cae∣sari datum, & abeodem expertum, maximéque carum ab eo ha∣bitum, quamdiu vixit, ujus aulae nobilis mihi communicavit: We shall modestly ret•…n, that so incredulous and indepen∣dent a pen, as was Helmonts, (whose genius scorned sapere •…x alieno commentario, and seems constellated rather to confute, then subscribe) could hardly be so incircumspect, as not to discover the gross mistake of Porta, in the point of Chrono∣logy. For what he affirms of Paracelsus his communicating the prescript and use of the Unguent, to Maximilian, Em∣peror of the Romans, is easily confuted as well from the An∣nals of Salteburg, as the History of Paracelsus life, written by the learned and faithful hand of Melchior Adamus*, from both which posterity may receive ample satisfaction, that Paracelsus was fast luted in his grave, and resolved in terram damnatam, in the reign of Charls the fifth, about the year of Christs Incarnation, 1541. Now Maximilian was made Caesar, after the death of Ferdinand his brother, in the yeer, 1565. Wherefore to reconcile Porta's story to his computation of time, we must conced a possibility of re∣gression ab inferis, and allow Paracelsus, as in his life time to have descended to the Abyss below, out of curiosity to dis∣pute with Avicen•…, and returned victor over the pale Philo∣sopher; so also after his death, full twenty four yeers, to have ascended to the Court of Maximilian, and presented him the form of the Sympathetical Unguent. Nor can the assertion of Crollius (who drank as deep of the spitle of Paracelsus, as his predecessor Porta) that this secret was first imparted to the King of Bohemia, be made good: Since Maximilian obtained not the Scepter of that Kingdom, un∣til the yeer, 1562. as we are instructed by the almost omni∣scient Libavius, whose pen hath been large upon this subject, in Apocalyps. Hermeticae part. prior. cap. ultim.

But whoever was the true Father of this modern producti∣on, should he obtain a parol from the grave, and return again to converse with men, we may with reason doubt that he would hardly now know the Minerva of his own brain;


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but would borrow that exclamation of Hercules returned from his Avernal expedition, Unde tam foedo obsiti paedore nati? quae clades domum gravat? so much hath the squalid disease of Reformation disfigured it, and varied that originary come∣liness, which was restrained to a determinate number of select ingredients, into as many uncouth dresses, as the licentious Phansie of every Commentator thought fit to present it in, every second hand adding, abstracting, or altering what sim∣ples it pleased. For in Libavius his contest with Crollius and Severinus, about the Dihoti of Hoplochrism, we sinde no fewer then thirteen several and different Forms of the Mag∣netick Unguent enumerated; and in the private studies of many Noblemen (who have thought their Cabinets infinitely enriched with this Jewel, and valued it equal with that pre∣cious tri•…le, the Countess of Kents Powder) we have seen many other dissenting from the original in all, but the title. So that while some have usurped the liberty to multiply the simples, and run through the whole series of Vulnerary remedies: others have contracted the whole Magnetical Energy into one single mineral; as may be exampled in the so much magnified Sympathetick powder, that wears the name of Sir Gilbert Tal∣bot, which we assuredly know to be nothing but Roman Vitriol calcined with Promethean * Fire. In this we are tender not to have the sincerity of our thoughts exposed to the danger of misapprehension. Wherefore to provide against mistake, we profess in the ears of the world, that we have not, in this our dislike of innovating the receipt, tacitely been injurious to the just freedom of any judicious pen, in making sober enquiries, profitable enlargements, and modest corrections of any piece delivered down from the hand of more antient Learning; for the happy industry of our Forefathers hath not precluded, but opened the door of Exploration, and our sight must needs be confessed weaker, if standing upon their shoulders we see not farther: nor confined the Magne∣tical Virtue to that just number and quantity of Simples, found in the primitive composition of the Unguent; for we cannot be destitute of valid reasons to assure us, that the fame admirable effect might arise from many other Vulnerary


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medicaments, as well in the operation of their single Essen∣tial Forms, as of the neutral Quality resulting from their conjunction into one compound Salv•…: but onely insinuated our wishes, that every sick Phansie might not be tolerated to exercise an arbitrary power of innovation over such well composed Medicines, which by the constancy of their effects sufficiently assert the maturity of their first contrivers know∣ledg, and manifest their own perfection; as also that the Adversaries to the Doctrine of Magnetism had wanted that advantage and encouragement of contradiction, which the unnecessary variety of prescripts of the Armary Unguent hath unadvisedly given them. But our proper business is to furnish the Reader less acquainted with the Books of Physi∣cians, with the faithful Copies of the most ancient, authen∣tick, and rational descriptions of the Sympathetick Unguent: with industry omitting those, which seem to offend the no∣strils of more precise Philosophy with the ingtateful smell of Superstition.

The Prototype or Original of the Unguent, vulgarly im∣puted * to Paracelsus; but in probability contrived long after his death, by the hand of Barthol. Corrichterus*, Physician to Maximilian the second, in whose Court it was first divulg∣ed and practised, is thus drawn.

Of the Moss grown on a humane skull two ounces: Mumy half an ounce: Humane fat depurated two ounces: Oyl of Line seed twelve drachmes: Oyl of Roses, and Bole Armeniack, ana one ounce. Mix them, and by frequent agitation incorporate them into an Unguent. Into which a splinter of wood, or the weapon stained with the patients blood, is to be immersed: the wound, during the time of its sanation, being defended from the injury of aër, bound closely up with clean swathes, and mundi∣fied with the urine of the patient. But to the efficacious confection of the Armary Unguent, to cure a wound by unction of the instru∣ment of the harm, though not distained with the blood, we are to admix to the former, of Virgin Honey (we should rather choose the best Mel Atticum, or Honey of Athens, for its excellence worthily esteemed by the Antients) two ounces: the fat of a Bull


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one drachme. And this we conceive to be the same, which our Helmont intended: as the observation of every diligent Reader cannot but collect.

Baptista Porta, in Magiae Natural. l. 8. c. 12. compoundeth it, of the Moss of an unburied Cranium: the fat of man, * each two ounces: Mumy, Humane blood each half an ounce: Oyl of Line seed, and Turpentine, each one ounce: Bole Armen, as much. Incorporate all these, in a clean Marble Morter, into an Unguent: whose use and effect exactly cor∣respond to the former.

The most magnified (because, indeed, most difficult and ce∣remonious) method of compounding the Unguent, described by Oswaldus Crollius, in Basilica Chymica, together with a Panegyrick of its excellencies, runs thus:

℞ Of the Fat of a wild Boar, and a Bear (the elder the Beasts, the more efficacious their fat) ana four ounces. When these Fats*have been, for the space of half an hour, decocted in good red wine, they are to be effused into pure, clean, cold water, and the floating unctuous substance to be skimmed off with a convenient instru∣ment, but the ponderous residence in the bottom to be ejected, as excrementitious and useless. This done, ℞ of the fairest Earth∣worms, frequently purified in white Wine, two sextaries*: Let them be torrified in a well vernished earthen pipkin, in an Oven close luted, provided they burn not, and then be finely pulverated: Of this powder ℞ one ounce: the brain of a wilde Boar exsiccated: red odoriferous Sanders: Mumy: the Bloodstone; ana one ounce. Finally, ℞ of the mossy periwig of the skull of a man, de∣stroyed by violent death, sheared off in the increase of the Moon, and her existence in a propitious house of Heaven, of Venus, if possible, but on no condition of those two malevolent Planets, Mars and Saturn, the quantity of two Nutmegs. To all these decently pulverized and searced conjoyn the foresaid Fat, and confuse them, according to the art of the Apothecary, into an in∣comparable Vnguent, to be conserved with extraordinary dili∣gence in a Glass or Gallipot, closely sealed up, and if it grow dry, with long keeping, to be remollied and humectated with


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Virgin Honey. All this is to be performed while the Sun is quar∣tered in Libra.

Somewhat different from all these is the Composition of Oswaldus Gabelchoverus, recorded in Practica Germanica:* which contains of the Fat of a Septennial Boar, and Bear, each, one pound: afterwards melted in boyling red Wine, and affused into cold water, for the better depuration and collection of them: of the powder of a Bloodstone, half an ounce: of red aromatical Sanders, six drachmes: of Earth∣worms prepared with wine, two drachmes: of Usnea, a great quantity: Married all together into an Unguent, by an artifi∣cial hand. The use is the same with the former of Crollius.

No less variation, as well in the number, as quantity of the * ingredients, may we observe in that famous description, which Pancratius Gallus, chief Physician to the Duke of Saxony, in great privacy, communicated to Libavius: it being confected of the Fat of a Male Bear, and wilde Boar, in the quantity of two ounces apiece; boyled and clarified in red Wine: of red Saunders, Bloodstone prepared, each two drachmes: of Earth∣worms cleansed in Wine, one ounce: of Usnea two drachmes: of the dried and powdered roots of the greater Consound, or major Cumfry, and Colcothar, each half an ounce: Com∣mix them exactly, with a silver spatule, into an Unguent.

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The Translator's Landskip, Or Abstract of HELMONTS Theory of Magnetism.
I'M satisfi'd, that Sympathies combine
At distance: that dispersed Mumies twine.
That our Souls act per nutum; when awake
From that Enchantment, the first sin did make:
And that this native Magick of the mind,
Is the sole Devil and Witch; if once refin'd
By Ecstasie. That Reason's but the Brat
Of Sensuality; and is lost with that.
That none can chain up Astral Energy,
Or circumscribe Radial Activity:
And Magnetism extends its arm as far,
And potent, as the most triumphant Star.
That Earth hath Heaven in't. That Atomes may,
At vast remove, their Virtual Forms display.
Th•…Heat and Cold are languid Agents, when
Seminal Tinctures (though obscure to men)
Are brought in play; for these, like Angels, cure
Onely by th' touch invisible, procure
Natural Miracles, and eas'ly in an hower,
Cicatrize Wounds, that scorn Chirurgeons power.


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That nice Divines, who scruple at this Art,
Commit implicite Sacriledg; and impart
Gods honor unto Satan: while wise Zeal
Call's it safe Natural Magick thus to heal.
All this I now assent to; but invite
Each wiser head, to make me's Proselyte.
My Mercury is not fixt: my Virgin Faith
Scorns to submit to what an Author saith,
Barely because he said it. To enquire,
To doubt, is to advance our Judgment higher.
For I've been told, That Knowledg most doth lie
Enshrin'd in Sceptical Neutralitie.
W. C.


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THE Nativity of TARTAR in WINE.
The Summary.
1. AFishing for Whales. 2. The spirit of Wine, depressed by cold, retires to the center of its vessel. 3. How Vineger dif∣fers from Wine. 4. Wine in the superficies of a vessel, why less gene∣rous. 5. The Concretion of Tartar in Hogsheads. 6. How it affixes it self to the sides of a vessel. 7. It is coagulated in fixing. 8. The premises are made good. 9. The error of a Chymick Axiome. 10. The reason of Wine coagulated in Tartar, holds no analogy to that of Excrements coagulated in the Microcosm. 11. The difference betwixt Tartar, and the Stone concreted in the body of Man. 12. Tar∣tar not altogether, or truly, the excrements of Wine. 13. A grand error of Paracelsus. 14. Tartar of Wine totally differs from any coagulated recrement in diseases. 15. A second lapse of Paracelsus. 16. Why Tartar is not incrustated on the Lees, in the bottom of a vessel. 17. Wines distinguisht by their Tartar. 18. Tartar neither Wine, nor the dregs of Wine. 19. Why an Alcale, or Lixival Salt, extracted from Wine, or Tartar, does dissolve Tartar. 20. The dregs of Wine, in some part the material of Tartar. 21. How ill the re∣semblance holds 'twixt Tartar, and coagulations in the Microcosm. 22. Tartar to be referred to coagulated Salts, not to Stones, or excrements.

BEfore I attempt the explosion of that necessity, which Paracelsus vainly imagined to himself, of the constitution of Tartar in all aliment, for the discovery of the causes of most chronick diseases; and that the folly of that fiction may be more clearly demonstrated, I have thought good, to premise an Enquiry into the original of Tartar in Wine: Since from thence (according to the new belief of vulgarity) most diseases derive their Causes, and borrow their Appellations.

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The Cantabi (now Biscons) natives of a Province in Spain,* before their conversation with the Hollander, in a voyage for the fishing of Whales, being on the coasts of Groenland (which Modern Travellers conceive lost) among the vast Quicksands, called Atalayae, surprised by intense cold, had their decocted Wines, of themselves generous and excellent, frozen to Ice. Instructed by this exigent, they beat off their hoops from their vessels, and exposed, to the open aër, the naked conglaciated Wines; with design, that the residue of Liquor might be totally frozen: This accordingly succeed∣ing, they boared the Ice, and at the Centre of it found a clear, transparent Liquor, of the colour of an Amethyst, be∣ing the pure spirit of Wine, a fiery and vital essence, un∣capable of conglaciation. This discovery taught them under∣standing; for they drank the Ice, melted at the fire, restoring to it a small quantity of this essential vital Nectar. The story is introduced for this end, that hence it may be observed, That the spirit of Wine, by a natural tendency, flies from cold, as from his proper enemy; and gently withdraws itself, from its former mansion, into the Centre of the Wine. But on the con∣trary, Wines are therefore exposed to the heat of the Sun, that they may grow Acide, and the spirit exhaling, leaves be∣hinde it a flat, cadaverous substance, devoid of spirit and life, which is Vineger. But since it is far more noble and useful, that the spirit of Wine should retreat into the Centre, then perish by exhalation, therefore hath necessity, for the con∣servation of Wines, hinted the invention of cold, deep Cellers. The Austrian Wines still operating on themselves by an uncessant, tumultuous heat of Fermentation, are, for the most part, gross and viscid. For which reason, the Cellers at Vienna are ordinarily digged to no less then a•…undred foot in depth. The Spanish Wines also, would suffer the same restless ebullition, and conflict betwixt their Hetero∣geneities, were they not prevented by the admixture of a Lime, which the Spaniard calls Hiesco, at the very instant of their flowing from the Wine Press. Whence results it a clear and unquestionable truth, that the spirit of Wine, in cold * Cellers, retreating from its adversary, cold, returns to the


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heart of the Liquor, as to a safe refuge, and there conceals it self. Wine, therefore, in the cortex, or outward circum∣ference of it self, is less generous, as having fewer spirits, then in the middle, or inmost retiring room. Hence it is a * necessary consequent, that as, by reason of the exhalation of spirits, Wines set in the Sun, grow acide, and phlegmatick; so also, proportionably, the exterior Cortex of Wine in a cold Celler, must be more acide, then the Centrals. And thus, when the musts of Wines are freshly brought in from * the Press, lodged in Store-houses, and have suffered Fermen∣tation, the spirit by and by flying from cold, concentres it self; and therefore the superficies of Wine, having already entred some degree of Acidity, immediately begins to ope∣rate on the dregs, floating on the yet troubled and unclarified mass of Liquor. For an absolute impossibility it is, that there can be any the least Acidity; which having once met with a proportionate object, does not immediately begin to operate on it. This really is the Law, and unavoidable necessity of Na∣turals. By example. Vineger, how flat and weak soever, having once touched upon the stone concreted in the head of a Creafish, vulgarly (but erroneously) called Crabs eye, can by no means contain it self, but must immediately act, to the dissolution of it, and resolve it into a clear, diaphanous Liquor. The Acidity of Wine, having once sated it self on the dregs, and spent much of its activity, by degrees, inclines * it self to coagulation. But coagulate it cannot, without a conspiracy with, and assistance from the Fracid Odor of the vessel, impregnate with a spirit, or power of Fermentation; whereby it may, in some measure, admit of putrefaction. And for this onely reason, is the Coagulation made at the sides of the vessel, to which it affixes it self; according to that familiar Chymick Axiome: Omnis spiritus dissolvens, eddem actione quâ corpora dissolvit, coagulatur: Every dissol∣vent spirit is it self coagulated, in the same action, wherein it dissolves other concreted bodies. The more acide Wine, there∣fore, in the extremities of it self, dissolves the dregs; and * at the same instant, the acide dissolvent spirit is coagulated, together with the newly dissolved faeces, and soon applies it


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self to the neerest side, or concave of the vessel. And this, lest both (the dissolvent and dissolved) might not be hindred from coagulating; but on one side, at least, they might not be invironed by Liquor: And thus, by this progress and succession of natural motions, there is affixed a new pro∣duction * of Coagulation, Tartar. Observe also, that before the compleat act of Coagulation, there is no existent Coagu∣latum; and therefore the acide spirit in the verge of the mass of Wine, having newly dissolved the dregs, in a moment, before the act of coagulation finisht, seazes on the vessel, and by a Cement, or glue, native and proper to it self, there fixes, and constantly adheres. Otherwise depressed by gravity, it would immediately sink to the bottom. And this new Entity, thus coagulated, is the Tartar of Wine; of which our Discourse.

That these are sober, solid truths, we have clear and demon∣strable * evidence from Vineger it self. For Wine insolated to a calefaction of the vessel, may produce Tartar; but Vineger never. And yet Wine and Vineger are one and the same matter, differing onely in those qualifications, heat and cold; in the former, indeed, with Tartar, in the latter with∣out it.

From the premisses, there breaks forth a considerable truth; that our forementioned Axiome, by Chymicks concluded of * eternal verity, grosly fails in that it makes the dissolution of any concreted body, to be done in the instant of time, and numerical action, with the coagulation of the spirit dissol∣vent. For if there intervened not, in some short interval of time, a diversity, and succession of motions, the Coagulation could not soder it self to the circumambient planks of the vessel, as is there affused by liquefaction; but would of ne∣cessity, if it were coagulated at the instant of dissolution, sink down to the lowest region, in the form of a simple coagula∣tion, and not cement it self to the walls of the hogshead. But on the other side, in the bottom, the peculiar region of the Lees, there is never found any Tartar. Here also accurs to our serious consideration, a second and more weighty verity: * that the Analogy, or resemblance, which the vulgarity of


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Physicians conceives, betwixt the Tartar in Wine, and those preter-natural Coagulations in the body of man, is erroneous, vain, and altogether impertinent; and therefore the name, history, manner and end of Coagulation of Tartar in Wine, are foolishly and unfitly accommodated to the causes of diseases. All which I shall demonstrate to ample satisfaction, when I come to discover that grand and popular delusion of the Existence of Tartar in our meat and drink. Allowing to Wine onely a fertility of Tartar. For that we acknowledg to be no Alien, no son of an exotick mother, from the concur∣rence of forein principles, intruded into Wine, having its production contrary to, or besides the ordinary and simple nature of Wines: neither owing its original to the adjuncts of the primitive Malediction delivered in Paradise, by divine providence, for the expiation of those Crimes committed by man, in the heat and distraction of Wine. Again, neither is the Tartar of Wine ever coagulated by any originary activity, or power of coagulation, proper to its own nature (though Paracelsus dreamt so:) but then undergoes Coagmentation, when the circumferential Acidity of the Wine, hath newly exhausted much of its Energy, and wasted it self, by a pro∣fuse operation on the dregs. That is, the Active being swal∣lowed * up in the embraces of the Passive: the Acide spirit im∣bibed, and subdued to obedience, by the freshly dissolved Faeces; then, and not till then, contrives and sets about the act of Coagulation, not with design or power to make a real, true stone, but a counterfeit, such as afterwards may be again dissolved in hot water, as an Acide salt in liquor, which for that reason, the vulgar call Cremor Tartari. All which do very ill correspond with those preter-natural Coagulations in the bodies of men: and yet they are, in a drunken fiction of Paracelsus, by an imaginary analogy of essence and identity with Tartar, in all meat and drink, grosly obtruded on the faith of vulgar Physicians, wholly over-run by that epidemick, lazy, evil, subscription. Here also we are fallen on a third Magnale or Violentum. That Tartar is not an excrement of*Wine, unless on one part, which is the dregs dissolved: which truly Paracelsus was not ignorant of, who does very


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frequently extol the Medicinal faculties of Tartar, far above those of Wine it self, as inheriting many more and nobler en∣dowments. Wherefore he very absurdly refers Tartar of Wine, by an identity of essence, and formation, to the same * Classis of Entities, with those solid Concretions in diseased bodies; which yet, in many other places, himself concludes to be a meer excrement, yea, the sorrowful fruit of that curse of the Earth, pronounced by God, in Paradise, Bryers and thorns shalt thou bring forth, and calls, Ens Cacedonium, in puro saphyrico ente rerum. The Tartar of Wine therefore, and that which is erected in the Schools, for the material cause, and foundation of most Chronick diseases, if any such were in reality of Entity, can keep no concord in their Original Forms, even according to the doctrine of Paracelsus himself, if we accept the former, as a preternatural production, di∣rected, by the destiny of its being, to the generating diseases, as to its proper end. And thus also, hath he most impertinent∣ly, and at best, but by the favor of a Metaphor, reduced the * causes of diseases to Tartar: Since they no way agree, either in their matter, efficient, manner, or cause of Coagulation, in the term of the Coagulatum, Object, or Originals. For nei∣ther gravel, nor the stone is capable of dissolution in boiling water; as the Tartar of Wine is. This usurpation therefore, of name and propriety, is wholly metaphorical, rash, and fri∣volous; and an assertion tacitely injurious to divine wisdom and providence, by polluting the purity of all sublunary crea∣tures, * with the bold imputation of a Curse, as if in the to∣tality of their natures, they were nothing but Compositions, amassed out of the seeds of Tartar. And to so high a pitch of impudence hath this error flown, that men dare imagine Tartar in the very marrow of Animals; which yet they allow incoagulable, nor did ever Paracelsus finde any where, but in his own wilde imagination. And so the result of all is, that he falls upon a manifest contradiction, making Tartar to be no Tartar, that is uncapable of Coagulation: so that, not onely every coagulable and solid body, but also every liquid substance, that is every created nature, subject to the influence of the lower orbs, would be nothing but Tartar, by




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divine Vengeance, destined to the punishment of the first sin. No sooner hath the Must suffered Fermentation, parted with its former sweetness, and assumed the perfection and digni∣ties of Wine, but the whole Mass of Terrenity, the Lees, falls to the bottom of the vessel; and then begins the new made Acidity of the Wine, in the circumference, to execute its power dissolutive, on the earthly residence in the bot∣tome.

For the more essential portion of the Wine, the spiritual Nectar, by a gentle and gradual concentration, crowding in∣to the middle, forsakes the protection of the superficial round of the Liquor: This done, and the extremity of the Wine thus destitute of Vitality and radical heat, soon grows acide, and not meeting with any fit object neer it, whereon to dis∣charge its activity, but onely the dregs in the lowest region of the Wine, immediately assaults them, and by degrees dissolves them: And thus the Acidity is both confirmed and inlarged.

But since every Acidum, by reason of its corroding Energy, doth operate in a perpetual Ebullition: hence is it, that that Acidity, which had dived to the bottom, when it hath opera∣ted on the Lees, doth reascend from thence, and fix it self in a higher mansion, the circumstance of the vessel. And for this * cause, is the generation of Tartar done, by successive, gradual, and slow motions. For the same reason also cannot Tartar be concreted and affixed to the bottom; hindered by that in∣quietude, and tumultuation of perpetual Ebullition. Hence is it, that rich and generous Wines, being not easily subject to * this destitution of spirits, unless on an assault of intense cold, do not soon grow acide, nor yeeld any considerable quantity of Tartar.

But old Rhenish Wines easily pall, grow sick, and loose their grateful and vigorous taste; in regard their activity of eagerness is, for the most part, devoured by their Lees; and yet they continue wholsom and friendly to the stomach, in that their spirits are not exhausted to an equal proportion of their dregs and acidity. But red French Wines, unless nourisht by their Lees, (which for this effect, Vintners call, the


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Mother, or Nurse of Claret) dissolve their own Tincture, continually preying on it by their subtilty and eagerness. And this is the cause, why Claret Wines, if not very rich, and ex∣cellently vigorous, at the age of two yeers grow pale and dis∣coloured. For the Tincture of Wines, is a substance fami∣liarly subject to separation. But strong, generous, and spiri∣tual red Wines, in that they more slowly grow acide, hold good to the age of many yeers. On the contrary, small White Wines, if not sequestred from their Lees, in short time, grow flat and cadaverous. For their Lees drawn off, their Acidity wanting a proportionate matter, to imploy its corro∣sive faculty upon, the Wine continues good, sprightful, firm, and in its primitive integrity. From these experiments, we * naturally collect, That Tartar, in the acception of its entire nature, is no longer either Wine, or the dregs of Wine; but a Neutral, or third Nature, resulting from the conjunction, and coëfficiency of both. That this is thus, is demonstrable from the Mechanick experiment, that a greater quantity of Tartar may be dissolved in ten ounces of Rain water, then in two hundred of Wine, though never so much stirred in boyling. The reason belongs to the Acidity of Wine to which the Tar∣tar ows its Coagulation.

To conclude; six ounces of the salt of Tartar, will dis∣solve seven ounces of crude Tartar; because the Lixivium, or * Lee of that Salt imbibes and sucks up the Acidity of Tartar. That Tartar consists of the Lees of Wine, and not Wine one∣ly, we need no other eviction, but that experiment of Printers, * who indifferently use Tartar or the Lees of Wine, for the Master ingredient in their Composition of Ink: the same effect arising from either, on good reason, preventing the election of either, and confessing a plain consanguinity, if not an identity of the Causes. Again, in distillation, they both belch up one and the same Acide Odor, and yeeld one and the same Oyl. Onely Tartar is not dissolved in cold water: because the •…aeulent and earthy substance of the dregs does so closly environ and shroud the Salt, that the cold water is not of force sufficient, to transfix that counterscarfe, or penetrate the atomical parts of the Concretion, and by consequence, not to dissolve it.

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Now since Tartar hath its originary principles and nativi∣ty, * no where but in Wines, grown lightly Acide, by a de∣sertion of spirits, flying from circumstant cold, to the Centrals of the Liquor: Hence let the so much illuminated (that is infatuated) Disciples of Paracelsus be instructed, how ill the speculation of Tartar does quadrate, even with those diseases, for whose sake chiefly it was first invented and embraced. For plain it is, the stone concreted in the body of man, can never be dissolved in boyling water; as Tartar commonly is. For which consideration, Tartar is more justly to be listed in * the number of Salts, or Juices coagulated by Salt, then of Stones: è diametro, contrary to the doctrine of Paracelsus.


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The Image of GOD; OR, Helmont's Vision of the Soul, Englished.
The Summary.
1. THe fear of God, the beginning: and Charity, the end of Wis∣dom. 2. Man made in the Image of God. 3. Three sorts of Atheists. 4. A wish of the Author. 5. The intellection of the minde, intellectual. 6. The intimate integrity of the minde suffereth from caduce faculties, without the passion of extinction. 7. The action of the minde scarce perceptible in us. 8. Atheists of the first Classis de∣ride the image of God, in man. 9. Atheists of the second Classis, have lately sprung up. 10. The Atheistical ignorance of such is manifested. 11. A variety of vital Lights. 12. How the minde dif∣fers from Angels. 13. An intellectual vision of the Authors. 14. All optation vain, without God. 15. The misery of the Author. 16. A vision of the soul, separate from the body. 17. That the minde hath a figure. 18. The minde an immortal substance, representing the figure of God. 19. A vulgar error, concerning the Image of God. 20. The error of such, who conceive the Image of God to be seated in the ternary of faculties. 21. The doctrine of Taulerus opposed. 22. The Image of God never yet discovered, nor positively descri∣bed, because incomprehensible. 23. The minde subject to damna∣tion, onely by accident. 24. After death, is no more Memory, or Reminiscence. 25. The will was superadded to the minde, acci∣dentally, after its Creation. 26. In Heaven, the Will is useless and frustraneous. 27. In Heaven the Will appears no power, or Faculty: but a substantial and intellectual essence. 28. If the Minde be the Image of God, this was anciently known to Plato. 29. The definition of the Minde. 30. Reason not the Image of God. 31. The Authors opinion. 32. These two Quiddities lie obscured in the soul, by reason of the corruption of our nature. 33. The love of the soul is excited onely by an Ecstasie; nor otherwise in these calami∣ties of Nature. 34. A precision of the Intellect. 35. An Objection solved. 36. That triplicity, or ternary of diverse Faculties in the


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Minde, is expressed also in every systeme, or composition of the world. 37. A more noble and exact similitude, then that of a Tri∣nity of Faculties, requisite to make out the Image of God in man. 38. The description of the Minde, rehearsed. 39. How the Minde may survey it self. 40. The original of the Imagination, constitu∣tive. 41. The Minde understandeth far otherwise. 42. The prero∣gative of the Minde. 43. An explication of living love. 44. The discrepancies of intellections in Mortals. 45. Why that amorous desire, or divine Love, cannot cease in Heaven. 46. The description of that desire. 47. How sin may be harbored in the desire of the Minde. 48. The love of the Minde is a substance, even in men, that have not yet confessed their dust. 49. How great a cloud of dark∣ness is drawn over the primitive splendor of the Intellect, from the corruption of Nature, by the original sin. 50. The Image of God, defaced and demolished in the sons of perdition.

WIsdom begins at the Fear of God; and the Fear of God begins at the meditation of death, and eternal life. But the end of Wisdom many conceive, with * the Stoicks, to be the knowledg of a mans self; but I account the ultimate end of wisdom, and the Crown of the whole course of our life, Charity, which alone will faithfully accompany us, when all other things shall have de∣serted us. And although self-cognition, in our opinion, be onely a medium to the fear of God; yet from that, must our Tractate concerning long life, assume its beginning; in this relation, that the cognition of life presupposeth the cognition of the Soul, since the life and soul (which we have more then once intimated) are Synonymaes. Tis of Faith, that man was created, of nothing, after the Image of God, into a * living Creature; and that his minde shall never perish; while, in the mean time, the Souls of Bruits suffer annihilation, so soon as they cease to live. The weighty reasons of which difference I have declared, in my discourse of the Original of Forms. But hitherto is it not manifested, beyond dispute, wherein that similitude of Man with God, our Archtype, or prime exemplar, doth consist. For in the Soul alone, many determine this majestick Pourtraicture. I shall deliver what I conceive; yet under an humble protestation and subjection


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to the censure of the Church. Thus it is. The Original of Forms being, in some degree of comprehension, already known; it is just we make a grand enquiry concerning the Minde of Man. But, seriously, no cognition is more weighty then that, whereby the soul comprehends her self: Yea, and hardly is any more profitable; in this interest, that Faith doth establish her foundation upon the unperishable, and in∣delible substance of the Soul. I have found, indeed, many demonstrations, concerning this verity, divulged in Books: but none at all propter quid, touching the Cardinal Quiddity, in relation to Atheists, denying one single, and from all Eter∣nity constant, Deity. Plato, insooth, hath decreed three or∣ders of Atheists. (1.) A first, which beleeveth no gods at all. (2.) A second, which indeed doth admit of gods; but such as * are incurious of our condition here below, and idle contemn∣ers of the trifling affairs of Mortals. (3.) A third, which although it beleeve, that there are gods, and such as are both knowing and observant of the smallest occurences in the World; yet imagineth them so exceeding merciful, that they are flexile, by the finger of the weakest prayer. And this kinde is most frequent among Christians, and even such, who pro∣fess themselves the most perfect in our days: and on this presumption, they dare any thing, and beleeve Religion to be no more but an engine of mature policy, to coerce the peo∣ple, with the terror of Laws, the obligation of Faith, and the penalty of Hell. For these impose heavy burthens on the shoulders of others, which themselves touch not with one of their fingers; drain the purses of their disciples, prostitute Heaven for money to dying men, and continually intrude themselves into secular affairs, in regard they opinion, that Religion cannot subsist without State-policy. My highest wish should be, that they had once, though but in a moment, tasted what it is to understand intellectually; that so they might perceive sensibly, as it were by the touch, the immortality of * the Minde. I confess, I have not invented rules or a method, whereby I might be able to illustrate the intellect of another man. I protest therefore justly, that such who ever study, making disquisitions concerning truth, but can never attain


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the knowledg of it, in respect, being puffed up with Learn∣ing, they have no Charity, do foster secret Atheism. But this one mystery I have learned, That the minde doth not at * all understand by the mediation of the Phansie, nor by figures and images; unless the miserable, and afflicting discourse of Reason be annexed; but when the Soul comprehends her own nature, Reason falls off from her, and the image of her self fails her, by which she might represent her self to her self: therefore the Soul can, by no means, apprehend her self by the discourse of Reason, nor by Images. For after that I had known, that the verity of an Essence, and the verity of the Intellect were one and the same: I certainly knew that the intellect was a certain immortal Entity, far removed from all frail and perishable things. The Soul, indeed, is not per∣ceived; yet we firmly beleeve her to dwell within us, not to be idle, not to be weary, nor afflicted with diseases. Therefore sleep, madness, and ebriety, are not symptomes of the immortal*soul suffering exorbitancy; but the attendants of life and onely passions of the sensitive Faculty; since bruits also fre∣quently endure the same passions. For just it is that the im∣mortal Being owe these disturbances to her adligement to ca∣duce and mortal things. For as the minde inhabiteth within us, and yet is not perceived by us: So neither are her con∣tinual and uninterrupted operations subject to sensation; because if they were sensible, verily they could not have been spiritual and meerly abstracted. And although it appear to us, that we understand nothing by the total sequestration and abstraction of discourses from all things corporeal, which can fall under the comprehension of our sense, minde, and intel∣lect; and that in the very beginnings of our Contemplations: yet really, the Soul doth, all that while, act by her own in∣sensible way, and by an efficacy wholly spiritual: which I thus understood. The penitentiary very often doth not sensi∣bly perceive the effects of his contrition, and with groans de∣ploreth * that his insensility: yet being asked whether he would willingly commit a sin, would perchance answer, that he had much rather die. Insensible therefore is the operation of the soul in penitence and confession, being the supernatural


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effect of Faith: because the intellectual actions are derived from a higher principle, and are clients of a more noble and indesinent Magistracy. And on this ground Mystical Divines lay their Doctrine, That the soul doth more effectually ope∣rate, and in her operations more benefit her self, in faith alone, without discourse and cogitation; then he who pray∣eth in a multitude of words, and by tedious discourses ex∣citeth compunction in himself. But happy he, who hath ob∣tained that excellent endowment, to perceive these insensile operations of the soul, and by secret emanation to reflect them upon the operations and powers of the sensitive Soul; since such frequently leave their impresses upon the whole after life, and excite the memory, in faith operating together with grace, for the future.

The Libertines of Christianity, and Atheists of the first *Classis deride this Article of our Creed, as if the Image of God, in us were onely imaginary, and it a meer traditional fiction that man was fashioned after the similitude of the Deity. But other Atheists of the second and third sort beleeve, not onely that we are created in the Image of God; but feign also that in our nature there is an identity with the essence of the im∣mense, * uncreated Divinity; and that man doth differ from God in substance no otherwise, then a part doth from the whole, or that which had beginning from that which is non∣principiate; but not at all in point of Essence, or internal propriety. Which besides the Blasphemy, doth comprehend very many and gross absurdities. Since whatever once began is in that very notion a Creature; and it doth tacitely involve * an imperfection in God, to be able to create extra se, without the limits of his own nature, any thing in substance equal to himself: Since truly from Philosophy it is evident beyond doubt, that all the parts of an infinite are infinite, of necessity. The Creature therefore cannot be in substance more infinite, then it hath been in duration equal to its eternal principle: and much less is the Soul of man a part of the Divine substance, or essentially like unto it; which in power, magnitude, dura∣tion, glory, wisdom, &c. in her self, and of her self, is a meer nothing. If therefore she was not made out of God,


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much less out of her self; but out of nothing. Infinitely therefore do they wander from truth, who beleeve a quiddity of the Divine Image implanted in the Soul, by an identity of substance: when they are distinguished each from other by infinite disparity; yea, the soul would at length, of her own accord, be again resolved into that nothing, from whence she began, unless she were constantly conserved in being, by the Divine goodness. Seriously, the damned souls might wish to be resolved into their primitive nothing, which the Divine Justice doth conserve in Being. The Soul, indeed, from the minute of her creation forwards to the future, hath an eternal permanence; not from her own essence, but from her native eternity, freely conferred upon her by the bounty, and con∣stantly conserved by the providence of her Maker.

Suffice it therefore, that the Soul be a spiritual and vital substance; and a luminous Creature. And since there are many * kindes and species of vital lights, this light of the minde dif∣fers from all other vital lights, in this, that it is a spiritual and immortal substance; but all other vital lights are not sub∣stances Formal, though they be Forms substantial; and there∣fore, by the Chymistry of Death, they are reduced into their ancient nothing, no otherwise then is the flame of a Tapor extinct. But the Minde differs from Angels; in respect it is framed in the similitude and representative figure of the eter∣nal*God, for the soul hath that light and luminous substance from the gift of her Creation, since she her self is that vital light: but an Angel is not that substantial light, nor hath he any light genial and inherent to his essence, but is onely a mirror of the increated light; and so in this particular falls short of the excellence and perfection of the Divine Image. Otherwise an Angel, since he is an incorporeal spirit, were he luminous from the right of his own essence, would express the Image of God more perfectly then man. Moreover, what∣ever God doth bestow more love upon, that is more noble: but he hath loved man, much more then the Angels; for not to the redemption of the Angelical nature did he assume the figure of a Cacodaemon, as the thrice glorious Lamb of God, the Saviour of the world, assumed the nature of a Servant.
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Nor can this Doctrine be staggered by the opposition of that, The meanest in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater then John the Baptist: For the Son of Man is not inferior, in dignity of essence, to the Angels, though he was pleased to become a little lower then the Angels; for in the calamitous condition of his life, he was made a little lower then the Angels, as also was John the Baptist. And for this reason, an Angel is con∣stantly called a ministring Spirit: but is no where read a friend of God, the Son of the Father, the delight of the Son of Man, or the Temple of the Holy Spirit, wherein the thrice glorious Trinity takes up his Mansion. For that is the maje∣stick prerogative of the Divine Image, which the Light Eter∣nal doth impress upon every man that comes into this world.

In the year 1610, after a long weariness of contemplation, * that I might acquire some gradual knowledg of my own minde, since I was then of opinion, that self-cognition was the complement of wisdom, faln by chance into a calm sleep, and rapt beyond the limits of reason, I seemed to be in a Hall sufficiently obscure. On my left hand was a table, and on it a fair large Vial, wherein was a small quantity of Liquor: and a voice from that Liquor spake unto me: Wilt thou Honor and Riches? At this unwonted voice, I became surprized with extream amazement. I walked up and down, seriously con∣sidering with my self, what this should design. By and by, on my right hand, appeared a chink in the wall, through which a light invaded my eyes with unwonted splendor: which made me wholly forgetful of the Liquor, voice, and former counsel. Then pensively returning to the Vial, I took it away with me; and attempted to taste the Liquor, but with tedious labor I opened the Vial, and assaulted with extream horror I awakened. But my ancient intense desire of knowing the nature of my soul, in which I had panted uncessantly for thirteen whole yeers together, constantly remained with me. At length, amidst the anxious afflictions of various for∣tunes, when yet I hoped a Sabbath of tranquillity from the se∣curity of an innocent life transacted, in a vision I had the sight of my soul. It was a transcendent light, in the figure of a man,


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whose whole was homogeneous, actively discerning, a substance spiritual, Crystalline, and lucent by its own native splendor. But enshrined it was in a second nubilous part, as the husk or ex∣terior cortex of it self, which whether it did emit any splen∣dor from it self, I could hardly distinguish, by reason of the superlative fulgor of the Crystalline spirit inshrowded within it. Yet this I could easily discern, that there was no sexual impress, but onely in the cortex or shrine. But the mark of the Crystal was light ineffable, so reflexed, that the Crystal Image it self became incomprehensible: and that not by nega∣tion or privation (since these are terms onely accommodate to our imbecillity) otherwise then this, that it presented a ma∣jestick Ens, which cannot be expressed by words; yet so fine∣ly, that you could not have comprehended the quiddity of the thing beheld. And then was it revealed unto me, that this light was the same, which I had a glimpse of twenty three yeers before. And these things I saw by an intellectual vision; in my minde; for had the eye of my body once beheld this resplendent excessive object, it would for ever after have ceased from vision, and consta•…ly have celebrated a blinde mans holy day. And thus my dream discovered unto me, that the beauty of the humane Soul doth far transcend all conception of thought. At that instant I comprehended thus much, that my long desire of seeing my soul was vain and fruitless; and thereupon I did acquiesce. For however beautiful the Cry∣stalline*spirit did appear; yet my soul retained nothing of perfection from that vision, as at other times she was wont to do after an intellectual vision. And so I came to be instructed, that my minde, in this somnial vision, had as it were acted the part of a third person; nor was the discovery sufficiently satisfactory to compensate so earnest and insatiate a desire of exploration.

But as to the Image of God impressed upon the Soul; accord∣ing to my slender capacity, I confess, I could never conceive * any thing, whether a body, or spirit, whether in my phansie, or the most pure, and abstracted speculation of my intellect, which in the same act of meditation, did not represent some certain figure, under which it stood objected to my concep∣tions.


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For whether I apprehended it by imagining an Idea probably correspondent to its essence, or whether by concei∣ving that the intellect did transmute it self into the object un∣derstood; still it occurred unto my thought invested in some figure. For although I could familiarly understand the minde under the notion of an incorporeal and immortal substance: yet could I not, while I meditated upon the individual exi∣stence of it, consider the same devoid of all figure; yea, nor so, truly, but it would respond to the figure of a man. Since when ever the soul being sequestred doth see another Soul,*Angel, or Cacodaemon, requisite it must be, that she perfectly know, that these are presented to her, to the end she may distinguish a Soul from an Angel, and the Soul of Peter from the Soul of Judas. Which distinction cannot be made by the sense of tasting, smelling, hearing, touching; but onely by the proper vision of the Soul; which vision necessarily impli∣eth an alterity or difference of figure. Since an Angel is so far restrained to locality, that at once he cannot possess two different places: in that also there is included as well a figu∣ral, as a local circumscription. Thence I considered the minde of man figurated after this manner.

The body of man, accepted under that distinct notion, * cannot give to itself the figure of a man; and therefore hath need of an external Sculptor or Delineator, which should be secretly ambuscadoed in the material mass of the seed, and descend upon it from above. Yet this, in so much as it is of a material condition, and far below the fineness of a spiritual nature, cannot derive the plastick or conformative virtue no more from it self, then from the gross mass of the body: necessary it is therefore, that there be some precedent or elder principle, which must be wholly and purely immaterial, yet real, and operative, to which may be justly attributed the power of figuration or delineation, by a sigillary impression upon the Archeus, or Regent Spirit of the Seed. The Soul of the Genitor, therefore, when it descends to visit and relieve the inferior faculties, and makes a progress to survey the Seed, in a paroxysm of carnality, doth upon the mass of seed, en∣grave and adumbrate the impress and figure of it self, (which;


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in sober truth, is the onely cause of the foecundity of seeds) and thence is that comely and magnificent structure of the Infant. Otherwise if the Soul were not figurated, but the figure of the body did arise spontaneously: a father maimed in any one member could not beget a son but maimed in the same member; in regard the body of the Generant hath lost its primitive integrity, and is become imperfect, at least in the implantate spirit of that member. If therefore the figure be impressed upon the seed; undoubtedly it must receive that image or model from some other more vital and elder principle, alien to it self. But if the soul impress that figure upon the seed, she will not counterfeit an exotick, or strange image; but accurately pourtray the similitude of her self. For by this means also Beasts, by the souls modelling of her own picture, constantly maintain their species. And although the minde of man, if we relate to its original, far transcend the Laws of Nature; yet by the same method or way, whereby it first entred the portal of Nature, was incorporated and as∣sociated to her, it is constrained to progress in traduction, and is constantly adliged to the observance of her rules and pre∣scriptions; in this respect, That the progress and end of vital generations is always univocal.

Nor otherwise could it want many and gross absurdities, that so excellent an operation, as is the generation of man, should be performed without the consent and cooperation of the Soul. Which if it be thus, it is also of inevitable necessi∣ty, that the foecundity be given to the seed by the Soul, by the communication of its figure, and other vital determina∣tions requisite to specification. Which verily doth not come to pass otherwise, then by the sigillation or engravement of the Soul upon the seed, whereby the matter of the seed doth obtain a requisite maturity and adumbrated figure: that at length it may acquire from the Creator the formal light of life, or soul of its species, whose similitude is expressed in the figure.

Moreover, we apprehend it as matter of Faith, that our soul is a spiritual substance, that shall never know annihilati∣on: * the fabrication of which substance out of nothing be∣longeth


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to the Almighty God alone. Who since he hath vouchsafed to adopt onely the soul of man to the Image of himself: it appears also a genuine consequence, that the im∣mense and ineffable God is also of humane figure; and that by an argument drawn à posteriori, if arguments be of any vali∣dity in this incomprehensible subject. Since the body is like wax, whereupon the impression of the image of the Soul is imprinted: but the Soul hath her image and essential per∣fection from him, whose stamp or similitude she wears. But on consideration that the body of man doth frequently be∣come * subject to mutilation and monstrosity; hence have most Divines conceived that the glorious Image of the Deity is wholly consistent in the Rational Faculty: not at all consider∣ing, that the representative Divinity of man doth in a more perfect and proxime relation consist in the Soul, and so in the Body formed after the exemplary character of the Soul; nor perpending, that the Rational Faculty is but Handmaid and subservient to the Intellect, no part at all of its essence, nor adliged to it by the inseparability of union, or identity: which we have to satisfaction demonstrated in our Treatise, of the Venation of Sciences. Now if any error be in the confirma∣tion of the body, in the womb of the Conceptrix: that error is not adscriptive to any imperfection of the Image of God; but to the incapacity of the material principles, and other ex∣ternal causes, invading the Plastick virtue of the seed, and perverting its exact delineation of the parts. But the more Learned number of Christians doth hold it of Faith, that the Soul doth proximly express the Image of the Trin-une God, in the univocal simplicity of her substance, and the Trinity of her Faculties, namely, the Intellect, Will, and Memory. Which analogy ever sounded, in the ears of my reason, so ridiculous * and empty as an old wives dream; and improper to make good the proxime, singular, and excellent reflex of the God∣head in the Soul: since the term, Image, doth include a simi∣litude of Essence and Figure, and not onely a bare parity of numbers. Again, if the Soul, in her substance, represent the thrice sacred Deity; but the Intellect, Will, and Memory re∣flect the Trinity of Persons: necessary it is that these three


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faculties are not proprieties, or accidents of the Soul; but the very univocal substance of the minde; or else, that the pour∣tracture doth ill quadrate and respond to the Prototype, or prime exemplar, whose image it is beleeved to be. I consider∣ed moreover, that not onely the minde of man, but even the whole man was framed after the Image of God; and that it was a bloody absurdity to compare the persons of the Trinity to the Memory, or Will: since no person of the most Holy Godhead, can in any latitude of resemblance, represent the Will, nor the Will the Person, none the Memory, or the Me∣mory none; as also that no one, separated from the other two, can hold any analogy to the Intellect. And then, that the three faculties of the Soul are ever accepted under the notion of Accidents: but, insooth, Accidents fall short of expres∣sing the Image, in any neerer relation, then the naked Ternary of Qualifications, heaped together upon the substance of the Soul. In which sense, the Soul doth express the Image of God far less, then any the smallest piece of wood: which by retro∣grade Analysis or resolution of it self into its primitive En∣tities, holdeth forth, Sal, Sulphure, and Mercury: and not onely (as the Minde in the forementioned similitude, credited by the vulgar) three diverse proprieties, or a naked Ternary of accidents. For every Wood hath three several substances, comprised under the unity of the concretion, distinct in the supposed Essences of their principles; but concurring in the composition of the whole, they make onely the single sub∣stance of Wood.

Taulerus hath divided the Soul, not into three faculties, but two distinct parts, viz. the inferior or outward, which by * peculiarity of appellation he denominates the Soul; and the Superior or inward, which he entitleth the profundity of the Soul, or Spirit; in which he affirmeth the Image of God to be comprehended, since therein is seated the King∣dom of Heaven, and therefore the Devil can obtain no ac∣cess unto it. And to each of these parts he hath assigned several acts and proprieties mutually distinct each from other. But alas! this holy man expungeth that simple homogeneity of the Soul, wherein she ought principally to express the


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similitude of the Deity: or at least hath hitherto denied the Image of God to be propagated and diffused through, not onely the whole man, but even through the whole Soul. Verily, the ears of my Faith are not easily open to this Doctrine of the Duality of the immortal Soul; nor the alterity of those two parts: especially when in her essence, the Soul ought to resemble the Image of the most simple Divine Nature. I should much rather assent, that the minde of man doth carry the resemblance of the most immense Godhead, in the most simple unity, and indivisible Homogeneity of spirit, under the symbol of immortality, of indissolution, and identity, beyond all connexion or alterity. Wherefore my assertion is, that the glo∣rious *Image of God is neither separate, nor separable from the Soul; but the very minde is the very Image of God, fully so intimate to the Soul, as the Soul is to her self, that is, the Image of God is the Soul of the Souls essence: and for that reason, that no sober head can conceive or express any the least analogy essential betwixt the supream increated Ens, and the soul of man; since the nature of Divinity is wholly incomprehen∣sible, and the most subtile thought can never finde any cha∣racter of identity and unity with God, impressed upon the minde, whereon the similitude should be founded. Sufficient it is, that the minde is a spirit, dearly beloved of God, homo∣geneous, simple, immortal, created after the Image of the immense Deity, a single Ens, to which death can adde, and from which Death can detract nothing that is proper and ge∣nial unto it in the essence of its simplicity. And in regard the * Soul, in the primitive constitution and destination of its es∣sence, is participant of beatitude: therefore is damnation su∣pervenient to it by accident, besides the originary decree of Creation, by reason of a succeeding defection.

This Semideity, the Soul, thus nobly enriched with science, * when once enfranchized from her prison, the body, doth then for ever suspend all use of memory, and no longer makes use of the tedious induction of Reminiscence, intuition of place, or duration; but being single, in that homogeneal simplicity comprehendeth all things. For which reason, should any Memory remain to the Soul, after her flight from Earth, it


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would of necessity be not onely frustraneous and useless, but burdensom: when it must eclipse her transcendent actual in∣tellection. And from Reminiscence must arise the same incon∣venience; since that can never be invited into act, but by the circumambages and complex discourse of Reason; and there∣fore it possesseth no room in Eternity; where in the full pro∣spect of verity, without being subject to declination, defati∣gation or defect, the soul standeth exalted far above the neces∣sity of Recognition. The inference is, that the Soul must be constituted in beatitude (understand, in her primitive destina∣tion) without the conjunction of the forementioned Ternary of Faculties; and so in that analogy cannot resemble the Image of the incomprehensible Deity, for the sole representa∣tion whereof she was created. Yea, upon a more intimate scrutiny, I do not finde the Memory to be any singular and distinct power of the Soul: but onely the bare manner of recognition. For such, who have shallow memories, to relieve this infirmity do, by the help of the imagination (Vicegerent to the intellect) contrive for themselves an artificial memory, and that far more retentive then otherwise their natural me∣mory could have been.

Moreover, the Will also taketh an eternal farewel of the Soul in death: why, because it is not essential, but acci∣dentally *advenient to the Soul. Since God, so soon as he had finished his Creation of man, constituted him in the absolute power of his own Free Will; which in sober truth, accord∣ing to my apprehension, doth plainly import, that the Will is not, by any peculiar manner, essential to the Soul, from the first of her Creation: but onely annexed to her, by way of concession, or trust, as a talent to the hand of a servant; to this end, that man might have free power to choose what path best liked him, to unravel his life in. Otherwise I deny not, but in the whole scene of things, there can be no one more pernicious then a free and unregulated will, as being that onely, which introduceth all variance and discord betwixt God and man. This faculty, therefore, must be for ever exiled from the beatitude of Eternity: for the liberty of willing being taken away, the will it self doth also of necessity perish;


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and of what use can the power of Volition be, when there is no longer remaining any occasion to will? And on this basis the Schoolmen found their doctrine, that in Heaven the will is confirmed, or rather wholly evacuated by death: that is, the beatified Souls in Paradise, have no power to will, nor will to will, but what is conform to the will of the highest; and those who are compleat in Charity and Glory, retain no power of willing any thing which is not of Charity. The Will there∣fore expires, when the liberty of Volition is dissolved; and by sequel, the Will can be no essential, but temporary and caduce power of the Soul; since it cannot be of use or ad∣vantage to that Soul, which in the consummation of beati∣tude and highest fruition, hath suffered an utter evacuation of desire and hope: when it can no more be deduced into act, but must be a bare optation, which cannot be admitted in the * state of bliss, where is a full satiety and abundant possession of all desiderable good. Sufficient let it be for us; by the power of Volition in this life, to thesaurize, or make provision for the life to come.

Now after this transitory power of Volition is abolished, * in the next life there springeth up, and manifesteth it self, a substantial Will, in no respect an alien to the intellect and essence of the minde; and therefore having a being absolute∣ly distinct from the accidental and variable Will. For as the Imagination is aliened in Phrensies, distracted in perturbations of the Animal Faculty, and eternally suspended at the disunion of the Soul and body: even so is the power of Free Will for ever abrogated by death. And thus I came to beleeve, that the Image of God in man is seated in the spiritual substance of the Soul; and not in the ternary of its Faculties. In a word, the Analogy stands thus. God is an Ens increate, single, incomprehensible, eternal, infinite, omnipotent, good, a supersub∣stantial Light and Spirit. But the Soul is a Creature, single, indivisible, dependent, immortal, simple, and from the date of her creation eternal, a substance spiritual and lucid. Finally, in God* there can be no accidents: but all and every one of his Attri∣butes are the very indistinct and most simple essence of the Divine Spirit: which Plato his Parmenides in some measure


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understood. And so the Soul, since she is the representative of God, doth also admit no accident in her nature: but her whole substance must be a simple light, and the very intellect. For as smoak ascending from flame, is in figure and matter the same thing with flame: even so the Soul is the naked, pure, and simple intellect, and the luminous shadow of the increated light. So that as the eye doth behold nothing more truly, and more * neerly then the Sun, and all other objects by the Sun: even so the beatified Soul understandeth nothing more neerly then that light, by whose eradiation she is illuminated, and upon which she doth totally and immediately depend. And as the eye of our body cannot endure to gaze upon the excessive lustre of the Sun: so cannot the Soul by intellection com∣prehend the glorious Essence of God, much less while, in this vale of ignorance, she stands obliged to the obscure mediati∣on of her transitory Faculties. Otherwise the intellect, eman∣cipated from the thraldom of flesh, doth by the act of intel∣lection acquire the figure of the object understood; in so much as it transformeth it self, by commigration, to that unity of Light, which penetrateth, and by penetrating invigorateth it with beatitude. And thus the Soul doth principally and primarily contemplate the immense Nature of God, in the act of intellection; and for this end was she created the true and real representative of the Divine Essence.

They who opinion the Image of God to be seated in the rational faculty of man, depend upon this Argument. The *Law is the Image of God; but this Law is engraven upon our Souls, by Reason: therefore, is the Soul the Image of God, as she is onely rational. But such consider not, that according to the intent of this Sophism, the Soul, indeed, would contain the Image of God; but yet the Soul her self would be the Law it self essentially. Which absurdity is too palpable to escape the observation of any, who shall but perpend, how much the Law and the Soul differ in the suppositionality of Essence: and that the constitution and engravement of the Law succeeded the Creation of the Soul. Verily, I abhor me∣taphorical locutions in serious and abstruse subjects. As if these words, God created man in his own likeness, would


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naturally bear this onely interpretation, that God gave man the use of reason: and that such who enter this scene of mor∣tality, with native idiotism, or a durable infatuation of rea∣son, about them, have forfeited their plea to this grand prero∣gative of mankinde, the Image of the immense Deity. Again, to impute the Image of God to Reason, is to prophane and blaspheme the Sacred Majesty of God, as I have amply de∣clared in my discourse of the Venation of Sciences: When there is no adequation of reason to God, no comparison be∣twixt a transitory and uncertain faculty, and an eternal omni∣scient substance. But omitting the opinions of other men, I shall presume the liberty to declare my own.

The Intellect hath a Will coequal, and substantially united to itself; not such as may be accounted a power or accident:* but the very light intellectual, a substance spiritual, an essence spiritual and indivisible, onely distinguished from the intellect by suppositionality, not reality of essence. Beside these, I finde also in the Soul a third native propriety, which in defect of a more proper appellation, I name Love, or constant Desire; not of acquisition, possession, or fruition: but of Complacency: which is equally essential to the Soul with the other two, the Intellect, and the intellectual Will, and equally simple in unity of substance. Which Ternary of proprieties meet in the sin∣gle and indivisible substance of the Soul, and make one perfect unity. But this Love is no act of the will singly; but pro∣ceedeth from the intellect and substantial will together, as a distinct and glorious act: for even in this life, we may love those things, which our understanding concludeth not to be amiable, and which our will adviseth us not to love: and fre∣quently we love objects, that transcend the comprehension of the understanding, and will, as in an Ecstasie both the intellect, and will are suspended, and consopited, during the abstraction of the minde, for so long have they resigned their scepter to Love. Nor is this Love a passion: but an Essence dominant, and an Act glorificant. The Will therefore, and Love, of this * place, hold no community at all with the sensual and transi∣tory will of man, or of flesh and blood: in regard they are essential titles, by which (in our great poverty of words) we


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endevour to demonstrate, wherein the minde of man doth represent the Image of God: forasmuch as the intellect en∣franchised from the body doth intuitively understand, intend, and from the abyss of the minde, love God, in one entire and never-discontinued act of love, or desire of complacency, ac∣cording to the simplicity of her substance. But so long as we sojourn in walls of flesh, we come not so neer beatitude, as once to use our substantial and purely Intellectual intellect; but most of our obscure cognition of any Entity is derived from the information of Phansie, which, as Viceroy, usurpeth the throne of the intellect. For (as before) in an ecstatical rapture, the intellect, will, and memory keep holiday, and are as it were lost in a somnolent inactivity; the ardent act of Love onely remaining vigorous and operative: yet so distinct from the three former, that it cannot subsist without the in∣tellect, and substantial will; since, when the Soul is totally homogeneous in her substance, she would plainly lose that her absolute simplicity, if any one of the three could subsist without essential dependance on the other. Love therefore, while the other two proprieties continue bound up in an Ec∣statical slumber, doth as it were ascend to the superficies: or rather, in terms of neerer similitude, the other two are as it were imbibed and overwhelmed in Love. While we sojourn in the Tents of Kedar, in this vale of misery, Love is elder then Desire; because it is a passion of the Amatory Faculty, which proceedeth from that suppositionality of the Soul (which is true love indeed) and representeth the idea or resemblance of the corporeal Faculty: and hence is it, that all the affections are, by invincible propensity, rapt on to irregularity and con∣fusion. But in the Citizens of New Jerusalem, this Love knows no priority, or distinction from Desire: neither is it a Faculty, nor Habit, nor Act of willing, nor subsisteth with∣out the Intellect.

And thus the Intellect is a formal Light, and the very sub∣stance of the Soul, whose Cognition is perfect by intuition, with∣out*the help of eyes, which discerneth, willeth, and desireth, in the unity of it self, whatever it comprehendeth within it self, and judgeth by volition. Nor doth it then any longer remember by


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a repetition of the species, or in age of the object once known; nor is it any more induced to the cognition of an Essence, by circumstances: but then becometh the onely and exact cog∣nition of all intelligible objects, and the intuitive aspect, with∣in it self. Yet so, that it knows one object more presentially then another, while the Intellect reflecteth it self upon the objects understood, in the distinct Unity of Verity: even as it frequently happens in the artifical Memory, where that re∣cordative memory is no distinct act from the inductive judg∣ment of the intellect. And will this not be more genial and proper to the minde, when once delivered from the tedious, turbulent, and complex way of understanding by the imagi∣nation? Nor can the stability of these our assertions be shaken by this objection, that frequently in exorbitances of * the Brain, the Memory doth perish, and yet the Judgment con∣tinue firm and sound; and on the contrary, the Judgment doth suffer impairment and desolation, and yet the Memory con∣serve its integrity and tenor, as many Drunkards perfectly remember all passages as well before, as in and after their Wine: in regard these are Heterogeneal Faculties of the sensitive Soul, seated in distinct provinces of the body, and subject to intension and remission according to the exact and irregular temperament of the Organs. And to inanimate Creatures also, according to our observation, there undenia∣bly * belongeth a kinde of imperfect and obscure cognition of their particular objects: as also a blinde sense and dull affecti∣on of the most convenient and adaequate; which Creatures have, for this determinate election of their determinate ob∣jects, lately acquired the name of Sympathetical: and this dark perception of the most accommodate objects, serveth them in stead of the sense of Vision, and faculty of reason. Besides this, there is also implanted in these inanimate sympa∣thetical Creatures a certain Virtue, or Vital endowment, of infallible valor, and energy; as to those ends ordained by the Creator. There is also a third power conferred upon Crea∣tures of this qualification, resulting from the conspiracy, and coefficiency of the two former: which sitteth as a silent Counsellor, and dispenseth commands to them, either to ad∣vance


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towards the amiable and •…eneficial, or retreat from the offensive and harmful object. In which the most blear-ey'd reason cannot but behold a certain natural sensation, or affecti∣on of determinate objects: yea, and what is more, a dislike and aversation. Which Climax, or threefold degree of non∣intellectual cognition, is more manifest in the most stupid sorts of Insects, as also in Fools and Mad men; who are no sub∣jects to the prudent scepter of the Intellect, but subordinate to the doller advisoes of sense, and conform to the provoca∣tions of onely visual light. And yet in these there is moreover a second power, or act of their virtues specifical and functions vital: for the onely exercise whereof they were ordained. And thirdly, there is comprehended in them a far more con∣spicuous act of Address or Application, and Aversation or Avoidance: which ariseth from the instinct of their Forms. All which natural proprieties do yet more powerfully declare themselves in sensitive Creatures: for to these belongeth a certain sensitive Imagination, with a gradual discourse of ob∣scure reason, which supplieth their defect of an Intellect, and is more or less resplendent and conspicuous in every single species: so that sagacity, voluntary election, and memory in such fall under the apprehension of a comparative intellect: their objects being yet changed, according to the variety of matter, propense to variations, distinctions, and singularities. Moreover, in such there is an emanative or effluxive power collaterally annexed to their virtues; whereby their Souls are more or less propense to the exercises of their element, be∣nign, and wholsom, or wilde and destructive endowments, or qualities essential. And finally, they are enriched with a native desire of complacency, of abhorrence or dislike, and of concupi∣scence, immediately ensuing upon their consideration of the good or evil of the object: which power or propensity is so firmly counited to the sensitive soul, that it seems almost im∣possible to observation, that any man should at once see two strange persons together, and not instantly become more affected to one then the other. And these things, which are sufficiently operative even in meerly Corporeal and inanimate natures, of confessed efficacy in sensitive, and in both admit


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of more or less acuteness, according to the obedient or re∣fractary predisposition of the recipient: cannot but be, for the same reason, of more clarified and sublime energy in man.

Finally, it is not the sense of our thoughts, that the Image of God in man should fall under such gross disparagement, as * to be considered as dependent on any Ternary of Faculties; which naturally belongeth also to other inferior natures in this scene of the world. Because the dignity of the Image of the most glorious Jehovah is not, in any the largest latitude of Analogy, participated by any other Creature whatever: since the Divine Image is peculiarly radicated in the humane Soul, and equally proper to it with its very essence: but all other proprieties of the Soul are not of the essence of the Minde; but productions and subsequent acts. Nor can it stand with the Majesty of the Divine Image, to be desumed from so poor an original as qualities; for the proprieties and excellencies of all other created forms concur, and are as it were colli∣quated or melted together into the essence of the Soul, by virtue of the Divine Image. But if these be accounted as at∣tributes and productions: that must be charged upon the mise∣rable manner, and customary abuse of understanding, ac∣cording to the capacity of the Vulgar. For in equitable truth, * the minde is one single act, pure, simple, formal, homogeneous, and indivisible; in which the Image of God doth subsist proximely and essentially. So that in this Image, all faculties do not onely lay aside the nature of Attributes: but also col∣lect and binde up their suppositionalities into an unity in∣distinct. Why, because the Soul is a certain substantial light within her self; or a substance so lucid, that in suppositiona∣lity of essence, it cannot be distinguished from the very light: and her intellect is so the light of the Minde, that the very Minde is the meer lucid intellect. And in this self-light the * Minde, once uncaptived from the opacity of flesh and blood, doth wholly and intimately survey it self, and understand its own nature: and therefore hath no need either of brain or heart; in which material Organs, the substance of the Minde doth seem to stoop unto the assumption of the progeny or stock of proprieties; that is, the Soul is diffused or emissively


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expansed into several transitory Faculties. To speak more plain∣ly; in the body, when the Intellect is abstracted in speculati∣on, it makes use of corporeal Organs, to which it is obliged: and assumes a certain Virtue qualitative, called Imagination; which from the conjunction or society of the power phanta∣stical, and concurrent splendor of the intellect, suffering some * degradation in the Organs, springeth up, by a certain com∣bination, into the forementioned qualitative Faculty. And hence comes it to pass, that this Faculty groweth weary by long and intense Imagination, seemeth wholly vanquished by difficult, knotty, and abstruse meditation, and frequently sub∣mits to dementation or madness: nay, as the observation of Physicians telleth us, with one nights pensive study, and anxi∣ety of thought, the hair of young heads hath put on the silver Livery of old age. But the minde, once emancipated from the pedantism of flesh and blood, is never weary with continued intellection. Moreover, the Imagination in this life is not onely subject to lassation: but from the magazine of it self hath not any intellective species, which it hath not drawn in from sensible objects. And therefore the Intellective Faculty, which concurreth and cooperateth with the phan∣tastical function of the Sensitive Soul, followeth the consti∣tution or temperamental disposition of the Organ, and arbi∣trary dictates of the Sensitive Life: no otherwise then in Naturals the effect followeth the weaker part of their Causes. But the Soul, whatsoever is requisite for Cognition, Com∣memoration, or Volition, either for one single act, or many, * hath wholly from it self, and borroweth it from no other forein Causality concurrent. For the good substantial Will of a Soul advanced to beatitude, ariseth not from the object understood: but from the radical goodness of her own For∣mal love, which is, indeed, no proper passion of the soul, no habit, no propension, nor any quality; but a substantial act of goodness, by which the blessed Soul is substantially, uni∣vocally, and homogeneally, not qualitatively good. And this prerogative it enjoyeth, because it is the Typical Image of Di∣vinity.* But bodies, of their own accord, perpetually fall into the attributes of forms, heterogeneity, vicissitudes, and at


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length into dissolution. Therefore Love or Desire of the Minde, is no function of the Appetitive faculty: but is a part * of the substantial Minde, or rather the very Minde it self, flowing from the Intellect and Will. Which three are, by the hand of the Creator, married indissolubly into an eternal unity, in the purest and most absolute identity and simplicity of substance. Yet in Mortals they are separate and distinct, as well in respect of the necessity of Organs, and disparity of functions; as the collateral society and conjunctive operation of the Sensitive Soul: Since now we frequently desire those things, which the Intellect judgeth not desiderable, and the *Will would wish never to enjoy. But necessary it is that such things, whose operations are different, should be also different in the root of their Beings, by a manner of distinction, where∣by each single nature is separated from others: in the Minde truly by a Suppositionality relative: in the Sensitive Soul, ac∣cording to the corporeal and qualitative nature. And there∣fore that amorous desire of the Minde, is the radical essence * of the Soul, consubstantial and coaevous to it. So though in Heaven be a satiety and perpetual fruition of all desiderable good: yet doth not this desire of the Soul therefore cease, which is a constant study of Complacency: nor doth it more infer a passion into the Minde, then Charity it self; since Love and Charity are in the Soul radically one and the same thing. Otherwise should this desire cease, and the ardor of Love suffer extinction, either a satiety or insensility of fruition would instantly spring up; which cannot consist with a state of full beatitude, and would infer discord upon the calm and con∣stant harmony of a Soul once admitted into the Chorus of Saints triumphant. And thus this Desire is the incendiary that doth both kindle and maintain the flames of interminable de∣lectation, * and joyes insatiate and inextinguishible; in which consideration the Soul wears the resemblance of the Holy Ghost the Comforter. Now manifest it is, that in the Minde, the Intellect, Will, and Love are substantially counited: but in the sensitive Soul, their operations are distinguished, ac∣cording to the determinate alterity of Faculties and their Organs; when we understanding many objects, we do not


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desire, and desire many we hardly understand, and such in∣deed as our will, if let to the swinge of its own native pro∣pensity, would decline the enjoyment of; as in example, we will what we desire not, when we willingly submit to the * stroke of the Executioner: and desire what our will abhors, when we call for the dismembring sawe of the Chirurgeon, and gladly embrace the horror of amputation. Whence it comes to pass, that sometimes the Will giveth laws to the desire; and on the contrary, frequently the desire usurpeth the scepter and commands the Will: So that these two Lords mutually vanquish and succeed each the other, by vicissitudes. Which Civil War must so long continue in these our walls of flesh, as the sensitive Soul draweth and engageth the Intellect, and the body draweth and engageth the sensitive Soul, into a multiplex and various ataxy or irregularity of division. And from this intestine Duello arise those absurd desires of objects impossible to be obtained, and wishes of things in the present tense, which the unalterable Grammar of Time hath made in the preterperfect, and excepted from ever being declined in the future.

But this Desire, enshrined in the substance of the Soul, must be of the essence of the Minde: Otherwise he could not commit a sin, who looked upon a woman to lust after her, before the plenary consent of the Will. Our desires therefore are elemented and coyned in the mint of mortal and caduce faculties; which seated in the Sensitive Soul, rival the opera∣tions of the immortal and rational: whose objects are many times rejected by the Will as inconvenient and ungrateful. As to the manner also, the desire, in this life, operateth one way, and the Will another: and in the narrow circle of a day, sometimes the desire precedeth the Will, and anon again the Will getteth the start of the Desire, and one subdueth the other successively, that the victor may restrain and coerce something distinct from it self: and this wholly in the transi∣tory faculties; because each ariseth from the concupiscence of the Sensitive Soul. But in the glorious denizens of Paradise, * this excellent Love, or amorous Desire, feeleth a resurrection and brighter ascension, as being the luminous substance of


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the Soul: for there is nothing desired, which is not also the full object of the Will: and that is collected into an unity, as well in regard of the act, as of the substance: although Volition and Optation seem two diverse branches expansed from one root; which far transcendeth the manner and method of intellection in those, who have not yet confessed their dust.

Lastly, in man is situate the Kingdom of God, that is the very Deity it self, by whose perpetual splendor all things are collected into the unity of verity. The Image of God therefore is primarily in the minde of man, whose very essence is no other then the very Image of God. Which Image falleth not under the comprehension of the most subtile thought, nor can be expressed by any the most significant words, in this vale of ignorance: in regard it is the mirror of the incomprehensible Divinity; and hence also is it, that the soul while immured in this cloyster of flesh, cannot reach the knowledg of her own nature, but must remain a stranger to it self.

But in the Cortex or shrine of the Minde, the sensitive and vital Form, this Image of Divinity is visible by reflexion, as * being relucent in the Faculties: yet suffering a great allay of splendor from the opacity of the body; because obumbrated by the cloud of brutal generation, and infected with morta∣lity and pollution by the inquination of our nature faln from its primitive purity: by reason whereof the body hath not received the Image, but at second hand borrowed onely the Figure of the Deity. But alas! the miserable Minde, de∣volved into outward darkness, as it hath divorced it self from * an unity with the Light uncreate, and infringed the originary energy of this Image of Divinity: so also hath it lost the primitive light of that Image, by the bold appropriation of it as justly proper to it self by the title of merit; so that ever since the fall it can understand, will, or love no object besides it self, and in order to it self. For the damned shall arise from the dead unchanged: because their bodies, in the resurrecti∣on, shall receive their determinations from their souls, which since they appear with all their depraved affections, reflected onely on themselves, after a corporeal manner; they shall not, in the resurrection, represent the Image of God, being


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as it were suffocated within them, unless in that corporeal similitude derived from Adam, the Protoplast, by the means of generation; that is, they shall have no more of the Image of God, then what is weakly and darkly reflected in the figure of the body. Lastly, the Soul (understand onely such, as is excluded the New Jerusalem) being once faln, by the horrid Cataract of death, upon the privation of those assistant Fa∣culties, the Imagination, Memory, and Will; doth for ever after understand, will, and love all objects, by a blinde ap∣prehension, addicted onely to it self. For it knoweth its own immortality, becometh sensible of its damnation, and with secret murmurs complaineth of it, as an act of high injustice done upon it. Because all the bent and scope of its love is one∣ly to defend its excuses for sins, secretly to recriminate upon the hand of Justice, by palliating the guilt of Crimes, as if committed in the days of ignorance and innocence, with great fragility of nature, many crafty wiles and treacherous invitements of our three Adversaries, the World, Flesh, and Devil, and the defect of Grace sufficient to encounter such forcible temptations: and that an eternal punishment (as far beyond all patience to endure, as all flux of time to end) can∣not according to the laws of Justice be due for a momentany transgression. And at this it burneth with blasphemous rage and furious hatred against God: chiefly because it is too well ascertained, that the judgment can never be reversed by any replea of error, nor the arrest taken off by any reprieve, till the impossible period of eternity; all hopes of evading the uncessant scourge of Gods wrath being for ever cut off in despair. Thus the impossibility either of evasion or cessation being as long lived as Eternity, the Caitiff soul, plunged in a deluge of desperation that shall never know an ebbe, from the first minute of her disunion from the body, passeth into an abyss of horror; where shall be no piety, no compassion, no consolation, no relaxation, and no redemption or revoca∣tion. To which sad truth we may adde, that since the intellect doth naturally transform it self into the idea of the object understood (which the ancient Ethnick Philosophers well knew, and elegantly blended under the parabolical fiction of


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Proteus) that is, into the full similitude of those cursed Devils and Spirits created for revenge, that are ever objected unto it: Hence is the Soul contiually possessed with an high hatred of God, and his blessed Army of Saints and Angels; together with desperation, malediction, damnation, and the vindictive tortures of those infernal executioners. O may the Mercy of Omnipotence, upon the sole motive of his own infinite goodness and clemency, vouchsafe to break those snares laid in all the paths of our life, to precipitate us into this misery, that must finde neither remedy, release, nor end.

Amen.
FINIS.