Magia Adamica

by Thomas Vaughan (Eugenius Philalethes)

Magia Adamica, or The Antiquity of Magic, was written by Thomas Vaughan (1621–1666) under his pseudonym Eugenius Philalethes and published in 1650. It is the third of his mystical-philosophical treatises, following Anthroposophia Theomagica and Anima Magica Abscondita, all written in the same remarkable year.

The work is a bold defence of natural magic — the practice of understanding and working with the hidden principles of creation — which Vaughan traces from Adam through the patriarchs, Moses, the Kabalists, the Egyptians, and the Greek philosophers to the Rosicrucian adepts of his own day. Vaughan argues that God revealed the secrets of nature to the first man after the Fall, that this knowledge was transmitted through the line of Seth to the prophets and elders, and that its corruption — not its practice — is what made magic disreputable.

Thomas Vaughan was the twin brother of the metaphysical poet Henry Vaughan. A Welsh clergyman ejected from his living during the Civil War, he devoted himself to alchemy, Hermetic philosophy, and the defence of the Rosicrucian Brotherhood. He died in 1666 while conducting a mercury experiment in his laboratory.

This text is reproduced from the 1919 collected edition edited by Arthur Edward Waite (The Works of Thomas Vaughan, Theosophical Publishing House), scanned and digitized by the University of Toronto. Waite's extensive scholarly footnotes have been removed; Vaughan's original Latin quotations and references are preserved.

To Mr Thomas Henshaw

SIR: It was the Quaere of Solomon, and it argued the supremacy of his wisdom: " What was best for man to do all the days of his vanity under the sun ? " If I wish myself so wise as to know this great affair of life it is because you are fit to manage it. I will not advise you to pleasures, to build houses and plant vineyards, to enlarge your private possessions or to multiply your gold and silver. These are old errors, like vitriol to the Stone — so many false receipts which Solomon hath tried before you, "and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit." I have sometimes seen actions as various as they were great, and my own sullen fate hath forced me to several courses of life; but I find not one hitherto which ends not in surfeits or satiety. Let us fancy a man as fortunate as this world can make him: what doth he do but move from bed to board and provide for the circumstances of those two scenes ? To-day he eats and drinks, then sleeps, that he may do the like to-morrow. A great happiness, to live by cloying repetitions and such as have more of necessity than of a free pleasure. This is idem per idem and what is held for absurdity in reason cannot by the same reason be the true perfection of life. I deny not but temporal blessings conduce to a temporal life, and by consequence are pleasing to the body; but if we consider the soul she is all this while upon the wing — like that dove sent out of the ark, seeking a place to rest. She is busied in a restless inquisition, and though her thoughts — for want of true knowledge — differ not from desires, yet they sufficiently prove she hath not found her satisfaction. Shew me then but a practice wherein my soul shall rest without any further disquisition, for this is it which Solomon calls vexation of spirit, and you shew me"what is best for man to do under the sun." Surely, Sir, this is not the Philosopher's Stone, neither will I undertake to define it; but give me leave to speak to you in the language of Zoroaster: " Seek thou the channel of the soul." I have a better confidence in your opinion of me than to tell you I love you; and for my present boldness you must thank yourself: you taught me this familiarity. I here trouble you with a short discourse, the brokage and weak remembrance of my former and more entire studies. It is no laboured piece and indeed no fit present; but I beg your acceptance as of a caveat, that you may see what unprofitable affections you have purchased. I propose it not for your instruction. Nature hath already admitted you to her school and I would make you my judge, not my pupil. If therefore among your serious and more dear retirements you can allow this trifle but some few minutes, and think them not lost, you will perfect my ambition. You will place me, Sir, at my full height, and though it were like that of Statius — amongst Gods and stars — I shall quickly find the earth again, and with the least opportunity present myself,

Sir,

Your most humble Servant,

EUGENIUS PHILALETHES.

To the Reader

WELL fare the Dodecahedron: I have examined the nativity of this book by a cast of constellated bones, and Deux-Ace tells me this parable. Truth — said the witty Ale-man— was commanded into exile, and the Lady Lie was seated on her throne. To perform the tenour of this sentence, Truth went from among men — but she went all alone, poor and naked. She had not travelled very far when, standing on a high mountain, she perceived a great train to pass by. In the midst of it was a chariot attended with kings, princes and governors, and in that a stately Donna who — like some Queen-Regent — commanded the rest of the company. Poor Truth, she stood still whiles this pompous squadron passed by; but when the chariot came over against her the Lady Lie, who was there seated, took notice of her and, causing her pageants to stay, commanded her to come nearer. Here she was scornfully examined — whence she came, whither she would go and what about ? To these questions she answered — as the custom of Truth is — very simply and plainly; whereupon the Lady Lie commands her to wait upon her, and that in the rear and tail of all her troop, for that was the known place of Truth.

Thanks then, not to the stars but to the configurations of the dice: they have acquainted me with my future fortunes and what preferment my book is likely to attain to. I am for my part contented, though the consideration of this dirty rear be very nauseous and able to spoil a stronger stomach than mine. It has been said of old: " Truth is an herb that grows not here below"; and can I expect that these few seeds which I scatter thus in the storm and tempest should thrive to their full ears and harvest ? But, Reader, let it not trouble thee to see the Truth come thus behind: it may be that there is more of a chase in it than of attendance, and her condition is not altogether so bad as her station. If thou art one of those who draw up to the chariot, pause here a little in the rear, and before thou dost address thyself to Aristotle and his Lady Lie, think not thy courtship lost if thou dost kiss the lips of poor Truth. It is not my intention to jest with thee in what I shall write, wherefore read thou with a good faith what I will tell thee with a good conscience.

God, when He first made man, planted in him a spirit of that capacity that he might know all, adding thereto a most fervent desire to know, lest that capacity should be useless. This truth is evident in the posterity of man; for little children, before ever they can speak, will stare upon anything that is strange to them. They will cry and are restless till they get it into their hands, that they may feel it and look upon it — that is to say, that they may know what it is, in some degree and according to the measure of their capacity. Now, some ignorant nurse will think they do all this out of a desire to play with what they see, but they themselves tell us the contrary; for when they are past infants and begin to make use of language, if any new thing appears, they will not desire to play with it but they will ask you what it is. For they desire to know, and this is plain out of their actions; for if you put any rattle into their hands, they will view it and study it for some short time, and when they can know no more then they will play with it. It is well known that if you hold a candle near to a little child he will — if you prevent him not — put his finger into the flame, for he desires to know what it is that shines so bright. But there is something more than all this, for even these infants desire to improve their knowledge. Thus, when they look upon anything, if the sight informs them not sufficiently, they will — if they can — get it into their hands that they may feel it. But if the touch also doth not satisfy, they will put it into their mouths to taste it, as if they would examine things by more senses than one. Now this desire to know is born with them, and it is the best and most mysterious part of their nature.

It is to be observed that when men come to their full age and are serious in their dispositions they are ashamed to err, because it is the propriety of their nature to know. Thus we see that a philosopher being taken at a fault in his discourse will blush, as if he had committed something unworthy of himself; and truly the very sense of this disgrace prevails so far with some they had rather persist in their error and defend it against the truth than acknowledge their infirmities — in which respect I make no question but many Peripatetics are perversely ignorant. It may be that they will scarcely hear what I speak, or if they hear they will not understand. Howsoever I advise them not wilfully to prevent and hinder that glorious end and perfection for which the very Author and Father of Nature created them. It is a terrible thing to prefer Aristotle to Elohim and condemn the truth of God to justify the opinions of man. Now, for my part, I dare not be so irreligious as to think God so vain, and improvident in His works, that He should plant in man a desire to know and yet deny him knowledge itself. This in plain terms were to give me eyes and afterwards shut me up in darkness, lest I should see with those eyes.

This earnest longing and busy inquisition wherein men tire themselves to attain the truth made a certain master of truth speak in this fashion. " It is clear therefore" saith he — "that in this fabric of the world, which we behold, there is some truth that rules, which truth so often stirs up, puzzles and helps our reason, so often solicits her when she is restless, so often when she is watchful, and this by strange means — not casual and adventitious, but by genuine provocations and pleasures of Nature — all which motions being not to no purpose it falls out at last that in some good time we attain to the true knowledge of those things that are." But because I would not have you build your philosophy on corals and whistles, which are the objects of little children, of whom we have spoken formerly, I will speak somewhat of those elements in whose contemplation a man ought to employ himself, and this discourse may serve as a preface to our whole philosophy. Man — according to Trismegistus — hath but two elements in his power, namely, earth and water; I to which doctrine I add this, and I have it from a greater than Hermes: That God hath made man absolute lord of the First Matter; and from the First Matter, and the dispensation thereof, all the fortunes of man — both good and bad — do proceed. According to the rule and measure of this substance all the world are rich or poor, and he that knows it truly, and withal the true use thereof, he can make his fortunes constant; but he that knows it not — though his estate be never so great — stands on a slippery foundation. Look about thee then and consider how thou art compassed with infinite treasures and miracles; but thou art so blind thou dost not see them. Nay, thou art so mad thou dost think there is no use to be made of them, for thou dost believe that knowledge is a mere peripatetical chat and that the fruits of it are not works but words. If this were true, I would never advise thee to spend one minute of thy life upon learning. I would first be one of those should ruin all libraries and universities in the world, which God forbid any good Christian should desire.

Look up then to heaven, and when thou seest the celestial fires move in their swift and glorious circles, think also there are here below some cold natures which they overlook and about which they move incessantly, to heat and concoct them. Consider again that the middle spirit — I mean the air — is interposed as a refrigeratory, to temper and qualify that heat which otherwise might be too violent. If thou dost descend lower and fix thy thoughts where thy feet are, that thy wings may be — like those of Mercury — at thy heels, thou wilt find the earth surrounded with the water, and that water, heated and stirred by the sun and his stars, abstracts from the earth the pure, subtle, saltish parts, by which means the water is thickened and coagulated — as with a rennet. Out of these two Nature generates all things. Gold and silver, pearls and diamonds are nothing else but water and salt of the earth concocted.

Behold, I have in a few words discovered unto thee the whole system of Nature and her royal highway of generation. It is thy duty now to improve the truth, and in my book thou mayst — if thou art wise — find thy advantages. The four elements are the objects and implicitly the subjects of man; but the earth is invisible. I know the common man will stare at this and judge me not very sober when I affirm the earth — which of all substances is most gross and palpable — to be invisible. But on my soul it is so and — which is more — the eye of man never saw the earth, nor can it be seen without Art. To make this element visible is the greatest secret in Magic, for it is a miraculous nature and of all others the most holy, according to that computation of Trismegistus: "the heaven, the ether, the air and the most sacred earth." As for this feculent, gross body upon which we walk, it is a compost and no earth; but it hath earth in it, and even that earth is not our magical earth. In a word, all the elements are visible but one, and when thou hast Attained to so much perfection as to know why God hath placed the earth in abscondito thou hast an excellent figure whereby to know God Himself and how He is visible, how invisible. Hermes affirmeth that in the beginning the earth was a quagmire or quivering kind of jelly, it being nothing else but water congealed by the incubation and heat of the Divine Spirit. " When as yet the earth was a quivering, shaking substance, the Sun afterwards shining upon it did compact it or make it solid." The same author introduceth God speaking to the earth, and impregnating her with all sorts of seeds, in these words: " When God"— saith he—"had filled His powerful hands with those things which are in Nature, then shutting them close again, He said: Receive from me, O holy earth, that art ordained to be mother of all, lest thou shouldst want anything. When presently opening such hands as it becomes a God to have, He poured down all that was necessary to the constitution of things."

Now, the meaning of it is this: the Holy Spirit, moving upon the chaos — which action some divines compare to the incubation of a hen upon her eggs, did together with his heat communicate other manifold influences to the matter. For as we know the sun doth not only dispense heat but some other secret influx, so did God also in the creation, and from Him the sun and all the stars received what they have, for God Himself is a supernatural sun or fire, according to that oracle of Zoroaster: " That Architect Who built up the cosmos by His unaided power was Himself another orb of fire." He did therefore hatch the matter and bring out the secret essences, as a chick is brought out of the shell, whence that other position of the same Zoroaster: " By one single fire is generated all that is." Neither did He only generate them but He also preserves them now, with perpetual efflux of heat and spirit. Hence He is styled in the Oracles" Father of men and gods, animating abundantly the fire, the light, the ether and the worlds."

This is advertisement enough. And now, Reader, I must tell thee I have met with some late attempts on my two former discourses; but truth is proof, and I am so far from being overcome that I am nowhere understood. When I first eyed the libel and its address to Philalethes, I judged the author serious and that his design was not to abuse me but to inform himself. This conceit quickly vanished, for — perusing his forepart — his ears shot out of his skin and presented him a perfect ass. His observations are one continued ass's skin and the oysterwhores read the same philosophy every day. 'Tis a scurril, senseless piece, and — as he well styles himself — a chip of a block-head. His qualities indeed are transcendent abroad but they are peers at home. His malice is equal to his ignorance. I laughed to see the fool's disease — a flux of gale which made him still at the chops whiles another held the press for him, like Porphyry's basin to Aristotle's well. There is something in him prodigious. His excrements run the wrong way, for his mouth stools, and he is so far from man that he is the aggravation to a beast. These are his parts, and for his person I turn him over to the dog-whippers, that he may be well lashed and bear the errata of his front imprinted in his rear. I cannot yet find a fitter punishment, for since his head could learn nothing but nonsense — by sequel of parts — his tail should be taught some sense.

This is all at this time; and for my present discourse I wish it the common fortune of truth and honesty — to deserve well and hear ill. As for applause, I fish not so much in the air as to catch it. It is a kind of popularity which makes me scorn it, for I defy the noise of the rout, because they observe not the truth but the success of it. I do therefore commit this piece to the world without any protection but its own worth and the estimate of that soul that understands it. For the rest, as I cannot force so I will not beg their approbation. I would not be great by imposts nor rich by briefs. They may be what they will, and I shall be what am.

EUGENIUS PHILALETHES.

Magia Adamica

THAT I should profess magic in this discourse and justify the professors of it withal is impiety with many but religion, with me. It is a conscience that I have learned from authors greater than myself and scriptures greater than both. Magic is nothing but the wisdom of the Creator revealed and planted in the creature. It is a name — as Agrippa saith — "not distasteful to the very Gospel itself.*' Magicians were the first attendants our Saviour met withal in this world, and the only philosophers who acknowledged Him in the flesh before that He Himself discovered it. I find God conversant with them, as He was formerly with the patriarchs. He directs them in their travels with a star, as He did the Israelites with a pillar of fire. He informs them of future dangers in their dreams, that having first seen His Son they might in the next place see His salvation. This makes me believe they were" Sons of the prophets"as well as" Sons of Art"s — men that were acquainted with the very same mysteries by which the prophets acted before them. To reconcile this science and the Masters of it to the world is an attempt more plausible than possible, the prejudice being so great that neither reason nor authority can balance it. If I were to persuade a Jew to my principles I would do it with two words — DDin VIBN =, "the Hachamim or Wise Men have spoken it." Give him but the authority of his fathers and presently he submits to the seal. Verily, our primitive Galileans — I mean those Christians whose lamps burnt near the cross and funeral — were most compendious in their initiations. A proselyte in those days was confirmed with a simple" Believe," and no more. Nay, the solemnity of this short induction was such that Julian made it the topic of his apostasy. " You have" — said he — "nothing more than your Crede"to establish your religion. Such was the simplicity of those first times, "whilst as yet the blood of Christ ran fresh,"whiles His wounds were as yet in their eyes and His blood warm at their hearts. But alas those holy drops are frozen; our salvation is translated from the cross to the rack and dismembered in the inquisition-house of Aristotle. Be not angry, O Peripatetic, for what else shall I call thy schools, where by several sects and factions Scripture is so seriously murdered pro et con. A spleen first bred and afterwards promoted by disputes, whose damnable divisions and distinctions have minced one truth into a thousand heretical whimsies. But the breach is not considered; divinity still is but chaff, if it be not sifted by the engine, if it acts not by the demonstrative hobby-horse. Thus zeal, poisoned with logic, breathes out contentious calentures, and faith, quitting her wings and perspective, leans on the reed of a syllogism. Certainly I cannot yet conceive how reason may judge those principles"whose certainty wholly depends on God" * and, by consequence, is undemonstrable without the Spirit of God. But if I should grant that, which I will ever deny: Verily, a true faith consists not in reason but in love, for I receive my principles, and believe them being received, only out of my affection to Him that reveals them.

Thus our Saviour would have the Jews to believe Him be intellectual and Divine forms." Thus, according to Aristotle — if you trust the comment — the Divine Mind is the First Cause of knowledge. For if this Mind once unfolds Himself and sheds His light upon us we shall apprehend the intellectual forms or types of all things t"hat are within Him. These forms he very properly calls ooou? = Terms, because they terminate or end all things, for by them the creature is defined and hath his individuation, or — to speak with Scotus — his"self ness,"by which he is this and not that. This now is the demonstration we should look after — namely, the expansion or opening of the Divine Mind — not a syllogism that runs perhaps on all fours. If once we be admitted to this Communion of Light we shall be able, with the apostle, to give a reason for our faith, but never without it. Now you are to understand that God unfolds not Himself"unless the heaven of man be first unfolded." " Cast off the veil oiov 8<f|a «at that is before your faces,"and you shall be no more blind. God is not God afar off but God at hand. " Behold"— saith He—" I stand at the door and knock." Open yourselves then, for it is written: " If any man opens, I will come in and sup with him." This is the inward mystical, not the outward, typical supper; and this is the spiritual baptism with fire, not that elemental one with water.

Truly I am much comforted when I consider two things: first, what magic did afford the first professors of Christianity, whose knowledge and devotion brought them from the East to Jerusalem; secondly, that this Art should suffer as religion doth, and for the very same reason. The main motives which have occasioned the present rents and divisions of the Church are the ceremonies and types used in it. For — without controversy —the apostles instituted and left behind them certain elements or signs — as Water, Oil, Salt and Lights — by which they figured unto us some great and reverent mysteries. But our reformers, mistaking these things for superstitions, turned them all out of doors. But verily it was ill done; for if the shadow of St Peter healed shall not these shadows of Christ do much more ? The papist, on the contrary, knowing not the signification of these types, did place a certain inherent holiness in them and so fell into a very dangerous idolatory. I omit many things which he invented of his own, as images, holy lambs and relics, adding these dead bones to the primitive and beauteous body of the Church. Now to draw up the parallel: the magicians, they also instituted certain signs as the key to their Art, and these were the same with the former, namely, Water, Oil, Salt and Light, by which they tacitly discovered unto us their three principles and the light of Nature — which fills and actuates all things. The common man, perusing their books but not their sense, took candles, common water, oil and salt, and began to consecrate and exorcise them, to make up his damnable and devilish magic.

The magicians had a maxim among themselves"that no word is efficacious in magic unless it be first animated with the Word of God." Hence in their books there was frequent mention made of Verbum and Sermo, which the common man interpreting to his own fancy invented his charms and Vocabula by which he promised to do wonders. The magicians in their writings did talk much of triangles and circles, by which they intimated unto us their more secret triplicity, with the rotation of Nature from the beginning of her week to her Sabaoth. By this circle also or rotation they affirmed that spirits might be bound, meaning that the soul might be united to the body. Presently upon this the common man fancied his triangles and characters, with many strange cobwebs or figures and a circle to conjure in; but knowing not what spirit that was which the magicians did bind he laboured and studied to bind the devil. Now if thou wilt question me who these magicians were, I must tell thee they were kings, they were priests, they were prophets, men that were acquainted with the substantial, spiritual mysteries of religion and did deal or dispense the outward, typical part of it to the people. Here then we may see how magic came to be out of request: for the lawyers and common divines who knew not these secrets, perusing the ceremonial, superstitious trash of some scribblers who pretended to magic, prescribed against the art itself as impious and antichristian, so that it was a capital sin to profess it and the punishment no less than death. In the interim those few who were masters of the science — observing the first monitories of it — buried all in a deep silence. But God, having suffered His truth to be obscured for a great time, did at last stir up some resolute and active spirits who — putting the pen to paper — expelled this cloud and in some measure discovered the light. The leaders of this brave body were Cornelius Agrippa, Libanius Gallus, the philosopher Johannes Trithemius, Georgius Venetus, Johannes Reuchlin — called in the Greek Capnion —with several others in their several days. And after all these, as an usher to the train, Eugenius Philalethes.

Seeing then I have publicly undertaken a province which I might have governed privately with much more content and advantage, I think it not enough to have discovered the abuses and misfortunes this science hath suffered unless I endeavour withal to demonstrate the antiquity of it. For certainly it is with arts as with men: their age and continuance are good arguments of their strength and integrity. Most apposite then was that check of the Egyptian to Solon: " You Grecians" — said he — "are ever childish, having no ancient opinion, no discipline of any long standing." But as I confess myself no antiquary, so I wish some Selden would stand in this breach and make it up with those fragments which are so near dust that time may put them in his glass. I know for my own part it is an enterprise I cannot sufficiently perform; but since my hand is already in the bag I will draw out those few pebbles I have; and thus I fling them at the mark.

This art or rather this mystery is to be considered several ways, and that because of its several subjects. The primitive, original existence of it is in God Himself; for it is nothing else but the practice or operation of the Divine Spirit working in the matter, uniting principles into compounds and resolving those compounds into their principles. In this sense we seek not the antiquity of it, for it is eternal, being a notion of the Divine Wisdom and existent before all time or the creation of it. Secondly, we are to consider it in a derivative sense, as it was imparted and communicated to man, and this properly was no birth or beginning but a discovery or revelation of the art. From this time of its revelation we are to measure the antiquity of it, where it shall be our task to demonstrate upon what motives God did reveal it, as also to whom and when.

The eye discovers not beyond that stage wherein it is conversant, but the ear receives the sound a great way off. To give an experienced testimony of actions more ancient than ourselves is a thing impossible for us, unless we could look into that glass where all occurrences may be seen — past, present and to come. I must therefore build my discourse on the traditions of those men to whom the word — both written and mystical — was entrusted; and these were the Jews in general, but more particularly their Kabalists. It is not my intention to rest on these Rabbins as fundamentals, but I will justify their assertions out of Scripture and entertain my reader with proofs both Divine and human. Finally, I will pass out of Judea into Egypt and Greece, where again I shall meet with these mysteries and prove that this science did stream — as the chemists say their Salt-

Fountain doth — out of Jewry and watered the whole earth.

It is the constant opinion of the Hebrews that before the Fall of Adam there was a more plentiful and large communion between heaven and earth, God and the elements, than there is now in our days. But upon the transgression of the first man, Malkuth — say the Kabalists —was cut off from the Ilan so that a breach was made between both worlds and their channel of influence discontinued. Now Malkuth is the invisible Archetypal Moon, by which our visible celestial moon is governed and impregnated. And truly it may be that upon this retreat of the Divine Light from inferiors those spots and darkness which we now see succeeded in the body of this planet, and not in her alone but about the sun also, as it hath been discovered by the telescope. Thus — say they — God, to punish the sin of Adam, withdrew Himself from the creatures, so that they were not feasted with the same measure of influences as formerly. For the Archetypal Moon, which is placed in the DQiDn = Hashamaim to receive and convey down the influx of the six superior, invisible planets, was — as the Jews affirm — either separated from the Ilan or her breasts were so sealed up that she could not dispense her milk to inferiors in that happy and primitive abundance. But because I would not dwell long on this point let us hear the Kabalist himself state it in a clear and apposite phrase. " In the beginning of the creation of the world God did descend and cohabitate with things here below. And when the Divine habitation was here below, the heavens and the earth were found to be united, and the vital springs and channels were in their perfection, and did flow from the superior to the inferior world; and God was found to fill all things, both above and beneath. Adam the first man came and sinned, whereupon the descents from above were restrained and their channels were broken; and the watercourse was no more; and the Divine Cohabitation ceased, and the society was divided."

Thus for my Rabbi. Now because I have promised Scripture to my Kabalism, I will submit the tradition to Moses, and truly that Rabbi also is of my"side, for this I read in Genesis. " And unto Adam he said, Because thou... hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake: in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." This is the curse, and Adam was so sensible of it that he acquainted his posterity with it. For Lamech, prophesying of his son Noah, hath these words: " This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath

Magid Adamica cursed." And this indeed was accomplished in some sense after the Flood, as the same Scripture tells us. " And the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake." Here now we are to consider two things — first the curse itself and next the latitude of it. To manifest the nature of the curse and what it was you must know that God essentially is light and evil is darkness. The evil properly is a corruption that immediately takes place upon the removal of that which is good. Thus God having removed His candlestick and light from the elements, presently the darkness and cold of the matter prevailed, so that the earth was nearer her first deformity and by consequence less fruitful and vital. Heaven and hell, that is, light and darkness, are the two extremes which consummate good and evil. But there are some mean blessings which are but in ordine or disposing to heaven, which is their last perfection; and such were these blessings which God recalled upon the trangression of the first man. Again there are some evils which are but degrees conducing to their last extremity, or hell; and such was this curse or evil which succeeded the transgression. Thus our Saviour under these notions of blessed or cursed comprehends the inhabitants of light and darkness: " Come, ye blessed"and" Depart from me, ye cursed." In a word then, the curse was nothing else but an act repeated or a restraint of those blessings which God of His mere goodness had formerly communicated to His creatures. And thus I conceive there is a very fair and full harmony between Moses and the Kabalists. But to omit their depositions, though great and high, we are not to seek in this point for the testimony of an angel. For the tutor of Esdras, amongst his other mysterious instructions, hath also this doctrine: " When Adam transgressed my statutes then was decreed that now is done. Then were the entrances of this world made narrow, full of sorrow and travail: they are but few and evil, full of perils, and very painful. For the entrances of the elder world were wide and sure, and brought immortal fruit."

Thus much for the curse itself: now for the latitude of it. It is true that it was intended chiefly for man, who was the only cause of it, but extended to the elements, in order to him and for his sake. For if God had excluded him from Eden and continued the earth in her primitive glories He had but turned him out of one paradise into another; wherefore he fits the dungeon to the slave and sends a corruptible man into a corruptible world. But in truth it was not man nor the earth alone that suffered in this curse but all other creatures also. For saith God to the serpent: " Thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field,"so that cattle and beasts also were cursed in some measure, but this serpent above them all. To this also agrees the apostle in his Epistle to the Romans, where he hath these words: " For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who hath subjected the same in hope. Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God." Here by the creature he understands not man but the inferior species, which he distinguisheth from the children of God, though he allows them both the same liberty. But this is more plain out of the subsequent texts, where he makes a clear difference between man and the whole creation. " For we know" — saith he — "that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." Here we see the first fruits of the Spirit referred to man; and why not some second, subordinate fruits of it to the creatures in general ? For as they were cursed in the Fall of man, for man's sake, so it seems in his restitution they shall be also blessed for his sake. But of this enough.

Let us now sum up and consider the several inconveniences our first parent was subject to, for they will be of some use with us hereafter. First of all he was ejected from the presence of God and exposed to the malice and temptations of the devil. He was altered from good to bad,- from incorruptible to corruptible. " In the day" — saith the Scripture — "that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." He was excluded from a glorious Paradise and confined to a base world, whose sickly, infected elements, conspiring with his own nature, did assist and hasten that death which already began to reign in his body. Heaven did mourn over him, the earth and all her generations about him. He looked upon himself as a felon and a murderer, being guilty of that curse and corruption which succeeded in the world because of his Fall, as we have sufficiently proved out of the Mosaical and Kabalistical traditions. He was ignorant and therefore hopeless of life eternal, and for this temporal, present life he was not acquainted with the provisions of it. The elements of husbandry were not as yet known; there was neither house nor plough, nor any of those manual arts which make up a worldly providence. He was exposed to.the violence of rains and winds, frosts and snows, and in a word deprived of all comforts — spiritual and natural. What should I say more ? He was a mere stranger in this world, could not distinguish medicines from poisons, neither was he skilled in the ordinary preparations of meat and drink. He had no victuals ready to his hands but the crude, unseasoned herbage of the earth, so that he must either starve or feed as Nebuchadnezzar did, with the beasts of the field. He heard indeed sometimes of a Tree of Life in Eden, but the vegetables of this world — for aught he knew — might be so many Trees of Death. I conclude therefore that he had some instructor to initiate him in the ways of life and to shew him the intricate and narrow path of that wilderness. For without question his outward miseries and his inward despair were motives whereupon God did reveal a certain art unto him, by which he might relieve his present necessities and embrace a firm hope of a future and glorious restitution. For God having ordained a second, eternal Adam did by some mysterious experience manifest the possibility of His coming to the first, who being now full of despair and overcharged with the guilt of his own sin was a very fit patient for so Divine and Merciful a Physician. But omitting our own reasons — which we might produce to this purpose — let us repair to the Kabalists, who indeed are very high in the point: and thus they deliver themselves.

God — say they — having made fast the doors of His Paradise and turned out Adam, sometime the dearest of

His creatures, did — notwithstanding the present punishment— retain His former affection towards him still. For God is said to love His creatures, not that there is anything lovely in them without their Creator but in that He desires their perfection. That is to say, He would have them conformable to Himself and fit to receive His image or similitude, which is, a spiritual impress of His beauty. Now, to restore this similitude in Adam was impossible unless God should reassume that to Himself which was now fallen from Him. So transcendent and almost incredible a mercy had God treasured i up in His secret will, being resolved to unite the nature 1 of man to His own and so vindicate him from death by i taking him into the Deity, which is the true fountain I arrd centre of life. This will — say the Kabalists — was first revealed to the angels, and that by God Himself, in these words: " Behold an Adam like one of us, knowing good and evil." This speech they call"a most secret conference which God had with the blessed angels in the Inner Chambers of Heaven." Now, that the same Scripture should speak one thing in the letter and another in the mystery is not strange to me, how difficult soever it may seem to another. For verily this text may not concern the first Adam, who knowing evil by committing it could not be like God in respect of that knowledge, which made him sinful and altogether unlike Him. For God — if I may so express it — knows the evil only speculatively,* inasmuch as nothing can escape His knowledge, and therefore is not guilty of evil: for — as Trithemius hath well observed — "the knowledge of evil is not evil, but the practice of it."l. It remains then that this speech concerned the Second Adam, Christ Jesus, Who knew the evil but did not commit it and therefore was"like one of us,"that is, like one of the Trinity, knowing good and evil and yet no way guilty of the evil. This primitive and compendious gospel was no sooner imparted to the angels but they became ministers of it, the Law — as St Paul saith — being ordained in their hands till Christ should take it into His own; and their administration to man took beginning with this oracle.

The Supernatural Trinity. But to proceed in our former discourse: the Kabalists do not only attribute a guardian to Adam but to every one of the patriarchs, allowing them their presidents and tutors, both to assist and instruct them in their wearisome and worldly peregrinations — a doctrine, in my opinion not more religious than necessary, how prodigious soever it may seem to some fantastic, insipid theologicians-. For certainly it is impossible for us to find out mysteries of ourselves: we must either have the Spirit of God or the instruction of His ministers, ! whether they be men or angels. And thus we see out of the traditions and doctrines of the Jews how their iKabalah and our magic came first into the world. I shall now examine the Scriptures and consult with them, where —if I am not much mistaken — I shall find some consequences which must needs depend on these principles: and thus I apply myself to the task.

The first harvest I read of was that of Cain and the first flocks those of Abel. A shepherd's life in those early days iwas no difficult profession, it being an employment of more care than art. But how the earth was ploughed up before the sound of Tubal's hammers is a piece of husbandry junknown to these days. However, it was a labour performed, and not without retribution. Cain hath his sheaves as well as Abel his lambs: both of them receive and both acknowledge the benefit. I find established in these two a certain priesthood: they attend both to the altar; and the first blood was shed by sacrifice, the second by murder.

Now, so dull am I and so short of syllogisms— those strange pumps and hydragogues which lave the truth eX'puteo,]ike water — that all my reason cannot make these men levites without revelation. For I desire to know how came they first to sacrifice and by whom were they initiated ? If you will say by Adam the question is deferred but not satisfied. For I would know further: in what school was Adam instructed ? Now, that it was impossible for him to invent these shadows and sacraments of himself I will undertake to demonstrate, and that by invincible reason which no adversary shall dare to contradict.

It is most certain that the hope and expectation of man in matters of sacrifices consist in the thing signified and not in the sign itself. For the material, corruptible shadow is not the object of faith but the spiritual, eternal prototype which answers to it and makes the dead sign effectual. The sacrifices of the Old Testament and the elements of the New can be no way acceptable with God but inasmuch as they have a relation to Christ Jesus, Who is the great, perfect sacrifice offered up once for all. It is plain then that sacrifices were first instituted upon supernatural grounds, for in Nature there is no reason to be found why God should be pleased with the death of His creatures. Nay, the very contrary is written in that Book, for death — both natural and violent — proceeds not from the pleasure but from the displeasure of the Creator. I know the learned Alkind l builds the efficiency of sacrifices on a sympathy of parts with the great world; for there is in every animal a portion of the star-fire, which fire — upon the dissolution of the compound — is united to the general fire from whence it first came and produceth a sense or motion in the limbus to which it is united. This indeed is true, but that motion causeth no joy there and by consequence no reward to the sacrifice; for I shall make it to appear elsewhere that the Astral Mother doth mourn and not rejoice at the death of her children. Now if we look back on these two first sacrifices, we shall find Abel and his oblation accepted, which could not be, had he not offered it up as a symbol or figure of his Saviour. To drive home my argument then, I say that this knowledge of the type in whom all offerings were acceptable could not be obtained by any human industry but by sole revelation. Forthe Passion of Christ Jesus was an ordinance wrapped up in the secret will of God, and he that would know it must of necessity be of His council. Hence it is called in Scripture the Hidden Mystery, for the truth and certainty of it was not to be received from any but only from Him Who had both the will and the power to ordain it. But if you will tell me — like the author of the Predicables — that men sacrificed at first by the instinct of Nature — and without any respect to the. type — I shall indeed thank you for my mirth whensoever you give me"so just a reason to laugh.

It remains then a most firm, infallible foundation that Adam was first instructed concerning the Passion, and in order to that he was taught further to sacrifice and offer up the blood of beasts as types and prodromes of the blood of Christ Jesus — the altars of the Law being but steps to the cross of the Gospel. Now, if it be objected that several nations have sacrificed who did not know God at all, much less the Son of God, Who is the prototype and perfection of all oblations: to this I answer that the custom of sacrificing was communicated to heathens by tradition from the first man, who having instructed his own children they also delivered it to their posterity, so that this vizard of religion remained, though the substance and true doctrine of it was lost. And thus in my opinion it sufficiently appears that the first man did sacrifice not by Nature — as Porphyrius, that enemy of our religion, would have it — but some by revelation, others by custom and tradition. But — now I think upon it — I have Scripture to confirm me concerning this primitive revelation, for Solomon numbering those several blessings which the Divine Wisdom imparted to the ancient fathers, amongst the rest, specifies her indulgence to Adam: l" She preserved" — saith he — "the first formed father of the world, that was created alone, and brought him out of his Fall." Here I find Adam in some measure restored, and how could that be but by discovering unto him the Great Restorative Christ Jesus, the Second Adam in Whom he was to believe ? For without faith he could not have been brought out of his Fall, and without Christ revealed and preached unto him he could have no faith, for he knew not what to believe. It remains then that he was instructed, for as in these last days we are taught by the Son of God and His apostles, so in those first times they were taught by the Spirit of God and His ministering angels. These were their tutors, for of them they heard the Word; and verily we are told that faith comes by hearing.

It is now — as I think — sufficiently proved that Adam had his metaphysics from above. Our next service — and perhaps somewhat difficult — is to give some probable if not demonstrative reasons that they came not alone but had their physics also to attend them. I know the Scriptures are not positive in this point, and hence the sects will lug their consequence of reprobation. Truly, for my part, I desire not their ruin 2 but their patience. I have — though against the precept3 — for many years attended their philosophy; and if they spend a few hours on my spermalogy it may cost them some part of their justice but none of their favours. But that we may come to the thing in hand: I hold it very necessary to distinguish arts, for I have not yet seen any author who hath fully considered their difference. The Art I speak of is truly physical in subject, method and effect. But as for arts publicly professed and to the disadvantage of truth allowed, not one of them is so qualified, for they are mere knacks and baubles of the hand or brain, naving no firm fundamentals in Nature. These, in my opinion, Solomon numbers amongst his vanities, when he speaks in a certain place"that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions." Of these inventions we have a short catalogue in Genesis, where Moses separates the corn from the chaff, the works of God from the whimsies of man. Thus we read that Jabal was the father of such as dwell in tents, his brother Jubal the father of all such as handle the harp and organ, and Tubal Cain an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron. What mischiefs have succeeded this brass and iron Cyclops I need not tell you. If you know not the fates of former times you may study your own; you live in an age that can instruct you. Verily.it rs worth our observation that these arts and their tools proceeded not from the posterity of Seth, in which line our Saviour stands, for — as we shall make it appear hereafter — questionless they had a better knowledge; but they proceeded from fc the seed of Cain, who in action was a murderer and in the circumstance of it a fratricide.

To be short there is no vanity [like] 5 to the vanity of sciences, I mean those inventions and their professors which produce nothing true and natural but effects either false or in their ends corrupt and violent. But it is no conquest to tread on ruins: Cornelius Agrippa hath already laid these rodomontades in the dirt and that so handsomely they were never since of a general reputation. Give me an art then that is a perfect, entire map of the creation, that can lead me directly to the knowledge of the true God, by which I can discover those universal, invisible essences which are subordinate to Him — an Art that is no way subject to evil and by which I can attain to all the secrets and mysteries in Nature. This is the Art wherein the physics of Adam and the patriarchs consisted, and that this Art was revealed to him I will undertake to demonstrate by Scriptures and the practice of his posterity.

This truth, I am certain, will seem difficult — if not incredible — to most men, the providence of God being prejudiced in this point, for they will not allow Him to instruct us in natural things but only in supernaturals, such as may concern our souls and their salvation. As for our bodies, He must not prescribe for their necessities by teaching us the true physic and discovering the laws of His creation; for though He made Nature yet He may not tutor us in natural sciences. By no means: Aristotle and his syllogism can do it much better. Certainly this opinion is nothing different from that of the epicure — that" God takes the air, I know not in what walks and quarters of His heaven, but thinks not of us mortals who are here under His feet." Questionless, a most eminent impiety, to make God — as Tertullian said of old — "an idle, unprofitable nobody in this world, having nothing to do with our affairs, as they are natural and human." Sure these men are afraid lest His mercy should diminish His majesty: they suffer Him to trade only with our immortal parts, not with corruptible bodies that have most need of His assistance. They are base subjects which He hath turned over to Galen and the apothecaries.

Not so, my friend: He hath created physic and brings it out of the earth; but the Galenist knows it not. He it is that pities our afflictions; He is the good Samaritan that doth not pass by us inour miseries, but pours oil and wine into our wounds. This I know very well, and I will prove it out of His own mouth. Did not He instruct Noah to build an ark, to pitch it within and without, and this to save life in a time when He Himself was resolved to destroy it — in a time when the world was acquainted with no mechanics but a little husbandry and a few knacks of Tubal Cain and his brethren ? But even those inventions also proceeded from that light which He planted in man, an essence perpetually busy and whose ambition it is to perform wonders. Yet he seldom produceth anything of his own but what is fantastic and monstrous. Did He not put His Spirit in Bezaleel, the son of Uri and in Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach ? Did He not teach them to devise cunning works, to work in gold, in silver, in brass, in cutting of stones, in setting of them, in carving of timber and in all manner of workmanship ? But to come nearer to our purpose: did He not inform Moses in the composition of the oil and the perfume ? Did He not teach him the symptoms of the leprosy and the cure thereof ? Did He not prescribe a plaster of figs for Hezekiah and — to use your own term

— an ophthalmic for Tobit ? Did not Jesus Christ Himself, in the days of His flesh, work most of His miracles on our bodies, though His great cure was that of our souls ? Is He not the same then, to-day as yesterday ? Nay, was He not the same from the beginning ? Did He care for our bodies then and doth He neglect them now? Or, being seated on the right hand of the Majesty on high, is He less good because more glorious ? God forbid — to think so were a sin in superlatives. Let us then take Him for our President, for He is not — saith St Paul — such an one"which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities";Vbut He is indeed one that looks to our present estate as well as to our future and is as sensible of our infirmity as He is careful of our immortality. When He was on earth with the dust of that earth He made the blind to see, and of mere water He made wine. These were the visible elements of His physic, or rather — so the notion doth not offend you — of His magic. But shall I shew you His library and in that His threefold philosophy ? Observe then first and censure afterwards. " Have salt in yourselves"; and again: " Ye are the salt of the earth"; and in a third place: " Salt is good." This is His mineral doctrine: will you know His vegetable ? It is in two little books — a mustard-seed and a lily. Lastly He hath His animal magic, and truly that is a scroll sealed up: I know not who may open it. He"needed not that any should testify of man: for He knew what was in man." And what of all this blasphemy ? says some splenetic sophister. Behold, I will1 instruct thee. First of all, haye salt in thyself, for it will season thy soul that is infected and preserve thy brains that are putrefied with the dirt of Aristotle. In the second place, learn what the salt of the earth is to which the disciples are compared — and that by a regular, solid speculation. Thirdly, come up to experience, and by a physical, legitimate practice know in what sense"salt is most good." Fourthly, examine the lilies by fire and the water of fire, that thou mayst see their miraculous, invisible treasures and wherein that speech of truth is verified — "that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." If thou wilt attempt a higher magic thou mayst, being first seasoned; but in this place it is not my design to lead thee to it. Animal and vegetable mysteries thou canst never perfectly obtain without the knowledge of the first mineral secret, namely, the salt of the earth — which is salt and no salt — and the preparation thereof. This discourse, I confess, is somewhat remote from that I first intended, namely, that philosophy was revealed to Adam as well as divinity; but some pates are blocks in their own ways and — as I told you formerly — will not believe that God dispenseth with any natural secrets. This made me produce these few instances out of Scripture as preparatives to the proposition itself and — if he be anything ingenious — to the reader. His compliance to my principles I expect not; nay, I am so far from it he may suspend his charity. Let him be as rigid as justice can make him, for I wish not to prevail in anything but the truth; and in the name of truth thus I begin.

You have been told formerly that Cain and Abel were instructed in matters.of sacrifice by their father Adam but Cain having murdered his brother Abel his priesthood descended to Seth, and this is confirmed by those faculties which attended his posterity: for Enoch, Lamech"and Noah were all of them prophets. It troubles you perhaps that I attribute a priesthood to Abel, but I have — besides his own practice — Christ's testimony for it, Who accounts the blood of Abel amongst that of the persecuted prophets and wise men. Now, to conclude that these men had no knowledge in philosophy because the Scripture doth not mention any use they made of it is an argument that denies something and proves nothing. To shew the vanity of this inference, I will give you an example out of Moses himself. We know very well there are no prophecies of Abraham extant, neither do we read anywhere that ever he did prophesy; but notwithstanding he was a prophet. For God reproving Abimelech King of Gerar, who had taken Sarah from him3 — supposing she had been his sister — hath these words: " Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live." Hence we may learn that the Holy Ghost doth not always mention the secret perfections of the soul in the public character of the person. Truly I should not be so impudent as to expect your assent to this doctrine if the Scriptures were silent in every text, if I did not find there some infallible steps of magic, such as may lead me without a lantern to the Archives of the Art itself. I know the troop and tumult of other affairs are both the many and the main in the history of Moses. But in the whole current I meet with some acts which may not be numbered amongst the fortunes of the patriarchs but are performances extraordinary and speak their causes not common.

I have ever admired that discipline of Eliezer the steward of Abraham who when he prayed at the well in Mesopotamia could make his camels also kneel.. I must not believe there was any hocus in this or that the spirit of Banks 2 may be the spirit of prayer. Jacob makes a covenant with Laban that all the spotted and brown cattle in his flocks should be assigned to him for his wages. The bargain is no sooner made 'but he finds an art to multiply his own colours and sends his father-in-law almost a woolgathering. " And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chesnut-tree; and pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods. And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks in the gutters in the wateringtroughs when the flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink. And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle ringstraked, speckled and spotted." As for that which the Scripture tells us elsewhere, namely, that Jacob"saw in a dream, and, behold the rams which leaped upon the cattle were ringstraked, speckled and grisled": * this doth no way impair our assertion or prove this generation miraculous and supernatural. For no man, I believe, is so mad as to think those appearances or rams of the dream did leap and supply the natural males of the flock — God using this apparition only to signify the truth of that art Jacob acted by and to tell him that his hopes were effected. But I shall not insist long on any particular, and therefore I will pass from this dream to another. Joseph being seventeen years old — an age of some discretion — propounds a vision to his father, not loosely and to no purpose, as we tell one another of our dreams, but expecting — Ibelieve — an interpretation, as knowing that his father had the skill to expound it. The wise patriarch, being not ignorant of the secrets of the two luminaries, attributes males to the sun and females to the moon, then allows a third signification to the minor stars, and lastly answers his son with a question: " What is this dream that thou hast dreamed ? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth ? "

Now, I think no man will deny but the interpretation of dreams belongs to magic and hath been ever sought after as a piece of secret learning. True it is when the interpreter receives his knowledge immediately from God, as Daniel did, then it falls not within the limits of a natural science; but I speak of a physical exposition, as this was, which depends on certain abstruse similitudes; for he that knows the analogy of parts to parts in this great body which we call the world may know what every sign signifies and by consequence may prove a good interpreter of dreams. As for Jacob's first practice, which we have formerly mentioned, namely, the propagation of his speckled flocks, it is an effect so purely magical that our most obstinate adversaries dare not question it. I could cite one place more which refers to this patriarch and points at the fundamentals of magic; but being annexed to this discourse it would discover too much. I shall therefore leave it to the search of those who are considerable proficients, if not masters in the art. The sum of all is this: man of himself could not attain to true knowledge; it was God in mere mercy did instruct him. To confirm this, I shall desire the reader to consider his own experience. We have in these days many magical books extant, wherein the Art is discovered — both truly and plainly. We have also an infinite number of men who study those books, but after the endeavours of a long life not one in ten thousand understands them. Now, if we — with all these advantages — cannot attain to the secrets of Nature, shall we think those first fathers did, who had none of our libraries to assist them, nor any learned man upon earth to instruct them ? Could they do that without means which we cannot do with means, and those too very considerable ? The Peripatetics perhaps will tell me their syllogism is the engine that can perform all this. Let them then in barbaro or baroco demonstrate the First Matter of the Philosopher's Stone. But they will tell me there isno such thing. Behold, I tell them again — and assure them too on my salvation — there is; but in truth their logic will never find it out.

It is clear then that God at first instructed Adam; from him his children received it; and by their tradition it descended to the patriarchs, every father bequeathing these secrets to his child as his best and most lasting legacy. I have now attended Jacob, the Israel of God, both in his pilgrimage at Padan-aram and in his typical inheritance, the earnest of the Land of Canaan. But two removals perfect not the wanderings of a patriarch. God calls him from the habitation of his fathers to the prison of his posterity and provides, him a place of freedom in the house of bondage. I must follow him where his fortune leads, from Isaac's Hebron to the Goshen of Pharaoh, then back again to the cave and dust of Machpelah. As for his sons and their train, who attended his motion thither, I find not any particular remembrance of them, only Moses tells me of a general exit: " Joseph died and all his brethren, and all that"generation." I must now then — to prove the continuance and succession of this Art — address myself to the court, where I shall find the son of Levi newly translated from his ark and bulrushes. Yet there is something may be said of Joseph, and verily it proves how common magic was in those days and the effects of it no news to the sons of Jacob; for having conveyed his cup into the sack of Benjamin—- and by that policy detained his brethren — he asks them: " What deed is this that ye have done ? Wot ye not that such a man as I am can certainly divine?"

In this speech he makes his brethren no strangers to the performances of Art but rather makes their familiarity therewith an argument against them: " Wot ye not ? " But the following words are very effectual and tell us,what qualified persons the ancient Magi were. They were indeed — as he speaks of himself — such as Joseph was, princes and rulers of the people, not beggarly gipsies and mountebanks, as our doctors are now. It was the ambition of the great in those days to be good, and as these secrets proceeded from God, so were they also entertained by the gods — I mean, by kings. For saith the Scripture: " I have said ye are gods" — a name communicated to them because they had the power to do wonders, for in this magical sense the true God speaks to Moses: " See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet."! And verily this true knowledge and this title that belongs to it did that false serpent pretend to our first.parents: " Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." But 'tis not this subtle dragon but that good crucified serpent5 that can give us both this knowledge and this title: for"all things were made, by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made." If He made them then He can teach us also how. they were made.

I must now refer myself to Moses, who at his first acquaintance with God saw many transmutations — one in his own flesh, another of the rod in his hand, with a third promised and afterwards performed upon water. It is written of him that he was skilled in all the learning of the Egyptians; but for my part I do much question what kind of learning that was, the Scripture assuring me — and that by the pen of Moses — their wonders were effected by enchantments. This is certain: their learning was ancient, for I find magicians in Egypt four hundred and thirty years and upwards before Jamnes and Jambres. This is confirmed by Pharaoh's dream, which his own sorcerers and wizards could not interpret, but Joseph alone expounded it. Verily it cannot be denied but some branches of this art, though extremely corrupted, were dispersed among all nations by tradition from the first man, and this appears by more testimonies than one. For in the land of Canaan, before ever Israel possessed it, Debir — which Athniel the son of Kenaz conquered — was an university, at least had in it a famous library, wherefore the Jews called it Kiriath-Sepharim. I might speak in this place of the universality of religion, for never yet was there a people but had some confused notion of a Deity, though accompanied with lamentable ceremonies and superstitions. Besides, the religions of all nations have always pretended to powers extraordinary, even to the performance of miracles and the healing of all diseases, and this by some secret means, not known to the common man. And verily if we examine all religions, whether false or true, we shall not find one but it pretends to something that is mystical. Certainly if men be not resolved against reason, they must grant these obliquities in matters of faith proceeded from the corruption of some principles received — as we see that heretics are but so many false interpreters. But notwithstanding in those very errors there remained some marks and imitations of the first truth. Hence it comes to pass that all parties agree in the action but not in the object. For example, Israel did sacrifice and the heathen did sacrifice, but the one to God, the other to his idol. Neither were they only conformable in some rites and solemnities of divinity, but the heathens also had some hints left of the secret learning and philosophy of the patriarchs, as we may see in their false magic, which consisted for the most part in astrological observations, images, charms and characters.

But it is my design to keep in the road, not to follow these deviations and misfortunes of the Art, which notwithstanding want not the weight of argument — the existence of things being as well proved by their miscarriage as by their success. To proceed then, I say that during the pilgrimage of the patriarchs this knowledge was delivered by tradition from the father to his child; and indeed it could be no otherwise, for what was Israel in those days but a private family ? Notwithstanding, when God appointed them their possession, and that this private house was multiplied to a nation, then these secrets remained with the elders of the tribes, as they did formerly with the father of the family. These elders no doubt were the Mosaical septuagint who made up the Sanhedrim, God having selected some from the rest to be the stewards and dispensers of His mysteries. Now, that Moses was acquainted with all the abstruse operations and principles of Nature is a truth, I suppose, which no man will resist. That the Sanhedrim also participated of the same instruction and knowledge with him is plain out of Scripture, where we read that God"took of the spirit"that was in Moses"and gave it unto the seventy elders."

But lest any man should deny that which we take for granted — namely, the philosophy of Moses — I shall demonstrate out of his own books, both by reason as also by his practice, that he was a natural magician. First of all then, it is most absurd and therefore improbable that he should write of the creation who was no way skilled in the secrets of God and Nature, both which must of necessity be known before we should undertake to write of the creation. But Moses did write of it: ergo. Now I desire to know what he hath written — truth or a lie. If truth, how dare you deny his knowledge ? If a lie — which God forbid — why will you believe him ? You will tell me perhaps he hath done it only in general terms; and I can tell you that Aristotle hath done no otherwise. But think you in good earnest that he knew no more than what he did write ? There is nothing you can say in this point but we can disprove it, for in Genesis he hath discovered many particulars, and especially those secrets which have most relation to this Art. For instance, he hath discovered the minera of man, or that substance out of which man and all his fellowcreatures were made. This is the First Matter of the Philosopher's Stone. Moses calls it sometimes water, sometimes earth; for in a certain place I read thus: " And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven." But elsewhere we read otherwise: " But out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air." In this later text he tells us that God made every fowl of the air out of the ground, but in the rormer it is written He made them out of the water.

Certainly Aristotle and his organ can never reconcile these two places, but a little skill in magic will make them kiss and be friends without a philtre. This substance then is both earth and water, yet neither of them in their common complexions. But it is a thick water and a subtle earth. In plain terms it is a slimy, spermatic, viscous mass, impregnated with all powers, celestial and terrestrial. The philosophers call it water and no water, earth and no earth. And why may not Moses speak as they do ? Or why may not they write as Moses did ? This is the true Damascene earth, out of which God made man. You then that would be chemists, seem not to be wiser than God but use that subject in your Art which God Himself makes use of in Nature. He is the best workman and knows what matter is most fit for His work. He that will imitate Him in the effect must first imitate Him in the subject. Talk not then of flintstones and antimony: they are the poet's pin-dust and egg-shells. Seek this earth and this water.

But this is not all that Moses hath written to this purpose: I could cite many more magical and mystical places; but in so doing I should be too open — wherefore I must forbear. I shall now speak of his practice, and truly this is it which no distinction, nor any other logical quibble can waive. Nothing but experience can repel this argument; and thus it runs. And Moses"took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it." Certainly here was a strange kind of spice and an art as strange as the spice. This calf was pure gold, the Israelites having contributed their earrings to the fabric. Now would I gladly know by what means so solid and heavy a body as gold may be brought to such a light powder that it may be sprinkled on the face of the water and afterwards drunk up. I am sure here was aurum potabile? and Moses could never have brought the calf to this pass had he not ploughed with our heifer. But of this enough: if any man think he did it by common fire let him also do the like, and when he hath performed he may sell his powder to the apothecaries.

If I should insist in this place on the Mosaical Ceremonial Law, with its several reverend shadows and their significations, I might lose myself in a wilderness of mysteries, both Divine and natural. For verily that whole system is but one vast screen, or a certain mighty umbrage drawn over two worlds, visible and invisible. But these are things of a higher speculation than the scope of our present discourse will admit of. I only inform the reader that the Law hath both a shell and a kernel: it is the letter speaks but the spirit interprets. To this agrees Gregory Nazienzcn, who makes a twofold Law, rov -yjoa/xyuaTo? and rov xi/euyuaro? — one literal, another spiritual. And elsewhere he mentions TO <£a<- vofjievov rov v6/u.ov, KOLL TO KpuTTTo/uievov, the hidden and the manifest part of the Law, the manifest part — saith he — being appointed TO?? TroXAof? KCU Kara juevovan — for many men and such whose thoughts were fixed here below — but the hidden TO?? 'oX/yot? KOI ra avco fypovova-i — for few only whose minds aspired upwards to heavenly things. Now that the Law, being given, might benefit the people in both parts, spiritual and literal, therefore did the Lawgiver institute the Sanhedrim, a council of seventy elders, upon whom he had poured his spirit, that they might discern — as Esdras did — the deep things of the night l — in plain terms, the hidden things of his Law. From these elders the Kabalah — I believe — had its original, for they imparted their knowledge by word of mouth to their successors, and hence it came to pass that the science itself was styled Kabalah — that is, a reception. This continued so long as Israel held together, but when their frame began to discompose and the dilapidations of that house proved desperate, then Esdras, a prophet incomparable — notwithstanding the brand of Apocrypha — writ that law in tables of box which God Himself had sometime written in tables of stone. As for the more secret and mysterious part thereof, it was written at the same time in seventy secret books, according to the number of elders in whose hearts it had been some time written.

And this was the very first time the spirit married the letter; for these sacraments were not trusted formerly to corruptible volumes but to the Eternal Tables of the Soul. But it may be there is a blind generation who will believe nothing but what they see at hand and therefore will deny that Esdras composed any such books. To these owls — though an unequal match — I shall oppose the honour of Picus, who himself affirms that in his time he met with the Secret Books of Esdras and bought them with a great price. Nor was this all, for Eugenius, Bishop of Rome, ordered their translation; but he dying the translators also fell asleep. It is true indeed something may be objected to me in this place concerning the Kabalah — an art which I in no way approve of, neither do I condemn it, as our adversaries condemn magic, before I understand it. For I have spent some years in the search and contemplation thereof. But why then should I propose that for a truth to others which I account for an error myself ? To this I answer that I condemn not the true Kabalah but the inventions of some dispersed wandering rabbis, whose brains had more of distraction than their fortunes. Of this thirteenth tribe I understand the satirist when he promiseth so largely:

Wnat dreams soe'er thou wilt the Jews do sell.

These, I say, have produced a certain upstart, bastard Kabalah, which consists altogether in certain alphabetical knacks, ends always in the letter where it begins, and the varieties of it are grown voluminous. As for the more ancient and physical traditions of the Kabalah, I embrace them for so many sacred truths; but verily those truths were unknown to most of those rabbins whom I have seen, even to Rambam himself — I mean Rabbi Moses yEgyptius, whom the Jews have so magnified with their famous hyperbole: " From Moses unto Moses there hath not arisen one like unto Moses."

But to deal ingenuously with my readers, I say the

Kabalah I admit of consists of two parts — the name and thing. The former part is merely typical in reference to the latter, serving only as the shadow to the substance. I will give you some instances. The literal Kabalah — which is but a veil cast over the secrets of the physical — hath Three Principles, commonly styled Tres Matres, or the Three Mothers. In the masculine complexion the Jews call them IDDN = Ernes, in the feminine DQ?N = Asam, and they are N tAleph, o Mem, m Shin. Now I will shew you how the physical Kabalah expounds the literal. Saith the great Abraham, or as some think Rabbi Akiba: " The three Mothers, Ernes, or Aleph, Mem and Shin, are Air, Water and Fire: a still Water" — mark that — "a hissing Fire, and Air the middle spirit." Again saith the same Rabbi: " The Three Mothers, Ernes, in this world are Air, Water and Fire. The heavens were made of the Fire, the earth was made of the Water" — mark well this Kabalism — "and the Air proceeded from a middle spirit." Now, when the Kabalist speaks of the generation of the Three Mothers he brings in ten Secret Principles which — I think — ten men have not understood since the Sanhearim, such nonsense do I find in most authors when they undertake to discourse of them. The First Principle is a Spirit which sits in his primitive incomprehensible retreat, like water in its subterraneous channel before it springs. The Second Principle is the

Voice of that first Spirit. This breaks forth like a wellspring where the water flows out of the earth and is discovered to the eye. They call it" Spirit from Spirit." The Third Principle is a Spirit which proceeds both from the first Spirit and from his voice. The Fourth Principle is a certain Water which proceeds from the Third Spirit, and out of that Water goeth forth Air and Fire. But God forbid that I should speak any more of them publicly: it is enough that we know the original of the creature and to Whom we ought to ascribe it.

The Kabalist when he would tell us what God did with the Three Mothers useth no other phrase than this: " He weighed" — saith he — " Aleph with all and all with Aleph, and so He did with the other Mothers." This is very plain, if you consider the various mixtures of the elements and their secret proportions. And so much for the physical part of the Kabalah: I will now shew you the metaphysical. It is strange to consider what unity of spirit and doctrine there is amongst all the Children of Wisdom. This proves infallibly that there is an universal Schoolmaster, Who is present with all flesh and Whose principles are ever uniform — namely, the Spirit of God. The Kabalists agree with all the world of magicians that man in spiritual mysteries is both agent and patient. This is plain; for Jacob's Ladder is the greatest mystery in the Kabalah. Here we find two extremes: Jacob is one at the foot of the Ladder and God is the other Who stands above it, shedding some secret influx of spirit upon Jacob, who in this place typifies man in general. The rounds or steps in the Ladder signify the middle natures by which Jacob is united to God, inferiors united to superiors. As for the angels of whom it is said that they ascended and descended by the Ladder, their motion proves they were not of the superior hierarchy but some other secret essences, for they ascended first and descended afterwards; but if they had been from above they had descended first —which is contrary to the text. And here, Reader, I would have thee study. Now to return to Jacob, it is written of him that he was asleep, but this is a mystical speech, for it signifies death — namely, that death which the Kabalist calls Mors Oscu/iy or the Death of the Kiss, of which I must not speak one syllable. To be short, they agree with us over the Secret of Theology, that no word is efficacious in magic unless it be first quickened by the Word of God. This appears out of their Shemhamphorash for they hold not the names of angels effectual unless some Name of God — as rr = YAH or h& = EL — be united to them. Then — say they — in the power and virtue of those Names they may work. An example hereof we have in all extracted names, as Vehu-Iah Elem-Iah, Jell-El Sita-EL Now, this practice in the letter was a most subtle adumbration of the conjunction of the Substantial Word or Spirit with the Water. See that you understand me rightly, for I mean with the elements: and so much for the truth.

To conclude, I would have the reader observe that the false, grammatical Kabalah consists only in rotations of the alphabet and a metathesis of letters in the text, by which means the Scripture hath suffered many racks and excoriations. As for the true Kabalah it useth the letter only for artifice, whereby to obscure and hide her physical secrets — as the Egyptians heretofore did use their hieroglyphics. In this sense the primitive professors of this art had a literal Kabalah, as it appears by that wonderful and most ancient inscription in the rock in Mount Horeb. It contains a prophecy of the Virgin Mother and her Son Christ Jesus, engraven in hieroglyphics, framed by combination of the Hebrew letters, but by whom God only knows: it may be by Moses or Elijah. This is most certain: it is to be seen there this day, and we have for it the testimonies of Thomas Obecinus, a most learned Franciscan, and Petrus a Valle, a gentleman, who travelled — both of them — into those parts.

Now, that the learning of the Jews — I mean their Kabalah — was chemical and ended in true physical performances cannot be better proved than by the BOOK OF ABRAHAM THE JEW, wherein he laid down the secrets of this Art in indifferent plain terms and figures, and that 'for the benefit of his unhappy countrymen, when — by the wrath of God — they were scattered over all the world. This book was accidentally found by Nicholas

Flamel, a Frenchman, and with the help of it he attained at last to that miraculous medicine which men call the Philosopher's Stone. But let us hear the Monsieur himself describe it. " There fell into my hands" — saith he — "for the sum of two florins a gilded book, very old and large. It was not of paper nor parchment, as other books be, but it was made of delicate rinds — as it seemed to me — of tender young trees. The cover of it was of brass, well bound, all engraven with letters or strange figures; and for my part I think they might well be Greek characters, or some such ancient language. Sure I am I could not read them, and I know well they were not notes nor letters of the Latin, nor of the Gaul, for of them I understood a little. As for that which was within it, the bark-leaves were engraven and with admirable diligence written with a point of iron in fair and neat Latin letters, coloured. It contained thrice seven leaves, for so were the leaves counted at the top, and always every seventh leaf was without any writing; but instead thereof in the first seventh leaf there was painted a Virgin and serpents swallowing her up; in the second seventh a cross, where a serpent was crucified; and in the last seventh there were painted deserts or wildernesses, in the midst whereof ran many fair fountains, from whence there issued forth a number of serpents, which ran up and down, here and there. Upon the first of the leaves was written in great capital letters of gold: Abraham the Jew, Prince, Priest, Levite, Astrologer and Philosopher to the nation of the Jews, by the wrath of God dispersed among the Gauls, sendeth Health.

Repeated there — against every person that should cast his eyes upon it, if he were not sacrificer or scribe. He that sold me this book knew not what it was worth, no more than I when I bought it. I believe it had been stolen or taken by violence from the miserable Jews, or found hid in some part of the ancient place of their habitation. Within the book, in the second leaf, he comforted his nation, counselling them to fly vices and above all idolatry, attending with sweet patience the coming of the Messiah, Who should vanquish all the people of the earth and should reign with His people in glory eternally. Without doubt this had been some wise and understanding man. In the third leaf and in all the other writings that followed — to help his captive nation to pay their tributes to the Roman Emperors, and to do other things which I will not speak of — he taught them in common words the transmutation of metals. He painted the vessels by the sides and he informed them of the colours and of all the rest, except the first agent, of which he spake not a word, but only — as he said — in the fourth and fifth leaves he had figured it with very great cunning and workmanship. For though it was well and intelligibly figured and painted, yet no man could ever have been able to understand it without being well skilled in their Kabalah — which goeth by tradition — and without having well studied their books. The fourth and fifth leaf therefore was without any writing, all full of fair figures enlightened, for the work was very exquisite. First he painted a young man with wings at his ankles, having in his hand a caducean rod, writhen about with two serpents, wherewith he struck upon a helmet which covered his head. He seemed to my small judgment to be Mercury, the pagan god. Against him there came running and flying with open wings a great old man, who upon his head had an hour-glass fastened and in his hands a hook or scythe, like death, with the which — in terrible and furious manner — he would have cut off the feet of Mercury. On the other side of the fourth leaf he painted a fair flower on the top of a very high mountain, which was sore shaken with the North wind. It had the root blue, the flowers white and red, the leaves shining like fine gold. And round about it the dragons and griffins of the North made their nests.

" On the fifth leaf there was a fair rose-tree flowered in the midst of a sweet garden, climbing up against a hollow oak, at the foot whereof boiled a fountain of most white water, which ran headlong down into the depths. Notwithstanding it passed first among the hands of infinite people who digged in the earth, seeking for it; but — because they were blind — none of them knew it, except here and there one which considered the weight. On the last side of the fifth leaf was painted a King with a great falchion, who caused to be killed in his presence by some soldiers a great multitude of little infants, whose mothers wept at the feet of the merciless soldiers. The blood of these infants was afterwards gathered up by other soldiers and put in a great vessel, whereto the Sun and Moon came to bathe themselves. And thus you see that which was in the first five leaves. I will not represent unto you that which was written in good and intelligible Latin in all the other written leaves, for God would punish me, because I should commit a greater wickedness than he who — as it is said — wished that all the men of the world had but one head that he might cut it off at one blow."

I could now pass from Moses to Christ, from the Old Testament to the New — not that I would interpret these but request the sense of the illuminated. I desire to know what my Saviour means by the Key of Knowledge which the lawyers — as He tells me and them too — had taken away. Questionless it cannot signify the Law itself, for that was not taken away, being read in the Synagogue every Sabbath. But to let go this: I am certain, and I could prove it all along from His birth to His passion, that the doctrine of Christ Jesus is not only agreeable to the laws of Nature but is verified and established thereby. When I speak of the laws of Nature, mind not her excessive, irregular appetites and inclinations, to which she hath been subject since her corruption — for even Galen looked on those obliquities as diseases, but studied Nature herself as their cure. We know by experience that too much of anything weakens and destroys our nature; but if we live temperately and according to law we are well, because our course of life accords with Nature. Hence diet is a prime rule in physic, far better indeed than the pharmacopoeia; for those sluttish receipts do but oppress the stomach, being no fit fuel for a celestial fire. Believe it then, these excessive, bestial appetites proceeded from our Fall, for Nature of herself is no lavish, insatiable glut but a most nice, delicate essence. This appears by those fits and pangs she is subject to whensoever she is overcharged. In common, customary excesses there is not any but knows this truth by experience. Indeed in spiritual sins the body is not immediately troubled but the conscience is terrified, and surely the body cannot be very well when the soul itself is sick. We see then that corruption and sin do not so much agree with us as they do disturb us, for in what sense can our enemies be our friends or those things that destroy Nature be agreeable to Nature ? How then shall we judge of the Gospel ? Shall we say that the preservation of man is contrary to man and that the doctrine of life agrees not with life itself ? God forbid. The laws of the resurrection are founded upon those of the creation and those of regeneration upon those of generation; for in all these God works upon one and the same matter by one and the same Spirit. Now that it is so — I mean that there is a harmony between Nature and the Gospel — I will prove out of the Sinic Monument of Kim Cim, priest of Judea. In the year of redemption 1625 there was digged up in a village of China called Sanxuen a square stone, being near ten measures of an hand-breadth long and five broad. In the uppermost part of this stone was figured a cross and underneath it an inscription in Sinic characters, being the title to the monument, which I find thus rendered in the Latin:

LAPIS IN LAUDEM ET MEMORIAM JETERNAM

LEGIS LUCIS ET VERITATIS PORTAT-flE

DE JUDEA ET IN CHINA

PROMULGATE

ERECTUS.

That is: " A stone erected to the praise and eternal remembrance of the Law of Light and Truth, brought out of Judea and published in China." After this followed the body of the monument, being a relation how the Gospel of Christ Jesus was brought by one Olo Puen out of Judea and afterwards — by the assistance of God — planted in China. This happened in the year of our Lord 636. Kim Cim, the author of this history, in the very beginning of it, speaks mysteriously of the creation. Then h*e mentions three hundred and sixty five sorts of sectaries who succeeded one another, all of them striving who should get most proselytes. Some of their vague opinions he recites, which indeed are very suitable with the rudiments and vagaries of the heathen philosophers. Lastly, he describes the professors of Christianity, with their habits of life and the excellency of their law. " It is a hard matter" — saith he — "to find a fit name for their Law, seeing the effect of it is to illuminate and fill all with knowledge. It was necessary therefore to call it Kim ki ao — that is, the Great Law of Light." To be short Olo Puen was admitted to the Court by Tat Cum Ven Huamti, King of China. Here his doctrine was thoroughly searched, examined and sifted by the King himself, who — having found it to be true and solid — caused it to be proclaimed throughout his dominions. Now, upon what this doctrine was founded, and what estimate the King had both of it and it's professor, we may easily gather from the words of his proclamation. First then, where he mentions Olo Puen he calls him"a man of great virtue or power." It seems he did something more than prate and preach, could confirm his doctrine — as the apostles did theirs — not with words only but with works. Secondly, the proclamation — speaking of his doctrine — runs thus: " The drift of whose teachings we have examined from the very fundamentals: we find his doctrine very excellent, without any worldly noise and principally grounded on the creation of the world." And again in the same place: " His doctrine is but of few words, not full of noise and notions, neither doth he build his truth on superficial probabilities." B

Thus we see the Incarnation and Birth of Christ Jesus — which to the common philosopher are fables and impossibilities but in the book of Nature plain, evident ' Difficile est ei nomen congruum reperire, cum ejus effectus sit illuminare et omnia claritate p erf under e ', unde necessarium fuit earn appellare: Kim ki ao — hoc cst, Legem claram et magnam.

Truths — were proved and demonstrated by the primitive apostles and teachers out of the creation of the world. But instead of such teachers we have in these our days two epidemical goblins — a schoolman and a saint forsooth. The one swells with a syllogistical pride, the other wears a broad face of revelation. The first cannot tell me why grass is green, the second with all his devotion knows not ABC, yet pretends he to that infinite spirit which knows all in all. And truly of them both this last is the worst. Surely the devil hath been very busy to put out the candle, for had all written truths been extant this false learning and hypocrisy could never have prevailed. Kim Cim mentions seven and twenty books which Christ Jesus left on earth to further the conversion of the world. It may be we have not one of them, for though the books of the New Testament are just so many, yet being all written — at least some of them — a long time after Christ they may not well pass for those Scriptures which this author attributes to our Saviour, even at the time of His Ascension. What should I speak of those many books cited in the Old Testament but nowhere to be found, which if they were now extant no doubt but they would prove so many reverend, invincible patrons of magic ? But ink and paper will perish, for the hand of man hath made nothing eternal. The truth only is incorruptible, and where the letter fails she shifts that body and lives in the spirit.

I have, not without some labour, now traced this science from the very Fall of man to the day of his redemption, a long and solitary pilgrimage, the paths being unfrequented because of the briars and scruples of antiquity, and in some places overgrown with the poppy of oblivion. I will not deny but in the shades and ivy of this wilderness there are some birds of night, owls and bats, of a different feather from our phenix: I mean some conjurers whose dark, indirect affection to the name of magic made them invent traditions more prodigious than their practices. These I have purposely avoided, lest they should wormwood my stream and I seduce the reader through all these groves and solitudes to the Waters of Marah. The next stage I must move to is that whence I came out at first with the Israelites, namely, Egypt. Here — if books fail me — the stones will cry out. Magic having been so enthroned in this place it seems she would be buried here also. So many monuments did she hide in this earth which have been since digged up and serve now to prove that she was sometime above ground. To begin then, I will first speak of the Egyptian theology, that you may see how far they have advanced, having no leader but the light of Nature. Trismegistus is so orthodox and plain in the Mystery of the Trinity the Scripture itself exceeds him not; but he being a particular author, and one perhaps that knew more than his order in general, I shall at this time dispense with his authority. Their catholic doctrine, and wherein I find them all to agree is this. Emepht? whereby they express their Supreme God — and verily they mind the true One — signifies properly an Intelligence or Spirit converting all things into Himself and Himself into all things. This is very sound Divinity and philosophy, if it be rightly understood. Now — say they — Emepht produced an egg out of his mouth, which tradition Kircher expounds imperfectly, and withal erroneously. In the production of this egg was manifested another Deity, which they call Pthay and out of some other natures and substances enclosed in the egg this Ptha formed all things. But to deal a little more openly, we will describe unto you their hieroglyphic, wherein they have very handsomely but obscurely discovered most of their mysteries. First of all then, they draw a circle, in the circle a serpent — not folded but diameterwise and at length. Her head resembles that of a hawk, the tail is tied in a small knot, and a little below the head her wings are volant. The circle points at Emepht, or God the Father, being infinite — without beginning, without end. Moreover, it comprehends or contains in itself the second Deity Ptha and the egg or chaos out of which all things were made.

The hawk in the Egyptian symbols signifies light and spirit; his head annexed here to the serpent represents Ptha or the Second Person, who is the First Light — as we have told you in our Anthroposophia. He is said to form all things out of the egg, because in Him — as it were, in a glass — are certain types or images, namely, the distinct conceptions of the Paternal Deity, according to which — by co-operation of the Spirit, namely, the Holy

I 80

Ghost — the creatures are formed. The inferior part of this figure signifies the matter or chaos, which they call the egg of Emepht. That you may better know it we will teach you something not common. The body of the serpent tells you it is a fiery substance, for a serpent is full of heat and fire, which made the Egyptians esteem him divine. This appears by his quick motion, without feet or fins, much like that of the pulse, for his impetuous hot spirit shoots him on like a squib. There is also another analogy, for the serpent renews his youth — so strong is his natural heat — and casts off his old skin. Truly the Matter is a very serpent, for she renews herself a thousand ways and is never a perpetual tenant to the same form. The wings tell you this subject or chaos is volatile, and in the outward complexion airy and watery. But to teach you the most secret resemblance of this hieroglyphic, the chaos is a certain creeping substance, i for it moves like a serpent sine pedibus and truly Moses; calls it not water but serpitura aqua — the creeping of water, or a water that creeps. Lastly, the knot on the tail tells you this matter is of a most strong composition and that the elements are fast bound in it, all which the philosophers know to be true by experience.

As for the affinities of inferiors with superiors and their private, active love — which consists in certain mixtures of heaven with the matter — their opinion stands thus. In the vital fire of all things here below the sun — say they — is king. In their secret water the moon is queen. In their pure air the five lesser planets rule and in their central, hypostatical earth the fixed stars. For these inferiors — according to their doctrine — are provinces or thrones of those superiors where they sit regent and paramount. To speak plainly, heaven itself was originally extracted from inferiors, yet not so entirely but some portion of the heavenly natures remained here below and are the very same in essence and substance with the separated stars and skies. Heaven here below differs not from that above but in her capacity and that above differs not from this below but in her liberty. The one is imprisoned in the matter, the other is freed from the grossness and impurities of it; but they are both of one and the same nature, so that they easily unite and hence it is that the superior descends to the inferior, to visit and comfort her in this sickly, infectious habitation. I could speak much more but I am in haste, and though I were at leisure you cannot in reason expect should tell you all. I will therefore decline these gener principles to tell you something that makes for the Egyptian practice and proves them philosophers adepted The first monument I read of to this purpose is that of Synesius — a very learned, intelligent man. He found ir the Temple of Memphis Trerpwas /3i/3ovs, "books of stone,' and in those hard leaves these difficult instructions:

H' Averts rfjv v<rw vi/ca H' <£v<ris rrjv

That is: " One nature delights in another; one nature overcomes another; one nature over-rules another." These short lessons, but of no small consequence, are fathered on the great Ostanes. The second monument is that admirable and most magical one mentioned by Barachias Abenesi, the Arabian. This also was a stone erected near Memphis, and on it this profound scripture:

OYPANOS ANΩ, OYPANOS KATΩ, AΣTPA ANΩ, AΣTPA KATΩ, ΠAN TO ANΩ, ΠAN TOYTO KATΩ, TAYTA ΛABE, KAI EYTYXE.

That is:

Heaven above, heaven beneath, Stars above, stars beneath, All that is above is also beneath: Understand this, and be happy.

Under this were figured certain apposite hieroglyphics, and — for a close to all — this dedicatory subscription: l ΣYNXPONOIΣ TOIΣ EN AIΓYΠTΩ ΘEOIΣ IΣIAΣ APXIEPEΣΣ ANEΘHKE = « Isias the High Priest erected this to the resident gods in Egypt."

And now though I formerly suspended the authority of Trismegistus I might, like the Italian, produce his weapons sfodrato; but I love no velitations, and truth is so brave it needs no feather. " That which is above" — said Hermes — "is even as that which is below, and that which is below is even as that which is above." This is his mystery, and 'tis great. The benefit which attends the purpose is no less: " All the pomp and splendour of the world shall be thine." To this language the dialect of Isias doth so echo, these two — like Euphorbus and Pythagoras — might pass for one: " Heaven above" — said he — "heaven below; stars above, stars below: whatsoever is above, that is also below." And then follows a reward for the intelligent: " Understand this and thou art fortunate." Thou hast made thyself very happy.

This is enough to prove that magic sometime flourished in Egypt, and no doubt but they received the truth of

• Quod est superius est sicut id quod est inferius, et quod est inferius est sicut id quod est superius.

It from the Hebrews, who lived amongst them to the term of four hundred and thirty years. This is plain, for their own native learning was mere sorcery and witchcraft, and this appears by the testimony of Moses, who tells us their magicians produced their miracles by enchantments. And why, I beseech you, should this instruction seem impossible ? For Joseph being married to Asenath, daughter of Potipherah Priest of On, some of the Egyptian priests — and those likely of his own alliance — might, for that very relation, receive a better doctrine from him. But this is not all I could say of this nation and their secret learning, if I were disposed to be their Mercury. There is not any, I believe, who pretend to antiquity or philosophy but have seen that famous monument which Paul III bestowed on his Cardinal Petrus Bembus and was ever since called the Bembine Table. No doubt but the Hieroglyphics therein contained — were they all reduced into letters — would make a volume as ample as mysterious. But 'tis not my design to comment on Memphis: that were to make brick and look out the straw withal, Egypt having no complete table but the world, over which her monuments are scattered. This place then was the pitcher to the fountain, for they received their mysteries immediately from the Hebrews; but their doctrine, like their Nilus, swelling above its private channel, did at last overrun the universe. lamblichus the divine, in that excellent discourse of his DC Mysteriis, tells us that Pythagoras and Plato had all their learning"out of the pillars or hieroglyphical monuments of Trismegistus." But the ancient Orpheus, in his poem De Verbo Sacro — where he speaks of God — hath these words: " None" — saith he — "hath ever seen God but a certain man descended from the Chaldean race." Now this was Moses, of whom it is written that he spake with God face to face, as one man speaks with another. After this he gives us a short character or description of the Deity, not in the recess and abstract but in reference to the incubation of His Spirit upon Nature. Lastly, he acquaints us with the original of his doctrine — from whence it first came — and verily he derives it from the well-head. " The priests" — saith he — "or prophets of the ancient fathers taught us all these things, which God delivered to them heretofore in two tables." Thanks be to that God Who made a heathen speak so plainly. I need not tell you to whom these tables were delivered. Cavallero d' Epistola can inform you. I cited this place that it might appear though the philosophy of Greece came generally out of Egypt yet some Grecians have been disciplined by the Jews, and this is proved by no contemptible testimonies.

Aristobulus, who lived in the days of the Maccabees and was himself a Jew, writes to Ptolemy Philometor, King of Egypt, and affirms that the Pentateuch or five books of Moses were translated into Greek before the time of Alexander the Great and that they came to the hands of Pythagoras and Plato. Indeed Numenius the Pythagorean calls Plato" Moses speaking in the Greek dialect,"by which he minded not a similitude of style but a conformity of principles. There is a story of Clearchus the Peripatetic in his book De Somno, how true I know not but the substance of it is this. He brings in his master Aristotle, relating how he met with a very reverend and learned Jew, with whom he had much discourse about things natural and Divine; but his special confession is that he was much rectified by him in his opinion of the Deity. This perhaps might be, but certainly it was after he writ the Organon and his other lame discourses that move by the logical crutch. Now, if you will ask me: What Greek did ever profess any magical principles ? To this I answer that if you bate Aristotle and his ushers, who are born like the pismires ex putredine, out of their master's corruptions, Greece yielded not a philosopher who was not in some positions magical. If any man will challenge my demonstration herein I do now promise him my performance. To give you some particular instances, Hippocrates was altogether chemical, and this I could prove out of his own mouth, but at this time his works are not by me. Democritus, who lived in the same age with him, writ his (pva-iKa KCU /Liva-riKa — that is PHYSICAL AND MYSTICAL THINGS, in plain English, Natural Secrets. To this mystical piece Synesius added the light of his comments and dedicated them to Dioscorus, Priest of Serapis. Of this Democritus Seneca reports in his Epistles that he knew a secret coction of pebbles by which he turned them into emeralds. Theophrastus, a most ancient Greek author, in his book De Lapidibus, mentions another mineral work of his own, wherein he had written something of metals. True indeed that discourse of his is lost, but notwithstanding his opinion is on record, namely, that he referred the original of metals to water. This is confirmed by his own words, as I find them cited by Picus in his book De Auro: " It is by the conversion of water that silver and gold are produced. " But that the art of transmutation was in request in his days and no late invention or imposture, as some think, appears by the attempts and practice of that age, out of the same Theophrastus. For he mentions one Callias, an Athenian, who endeavouring to make gold brought his materials into cinnabar.

It were an endless labour for me to recite all the particulars that Greece can afford in order to my present design. I will therefore close up all in this short summary. There is no wisdom in Nature but what proceeded from God, for He made Nature. He first found out and afterwards ordained the very ways and method how to corrupt and how to generate. This His own wisdom and knowledge He communicated in some measure to the first man. From him his children received it, and they taught it their posterity; but the Jews having the spiritual birthright this mystery was their inheritance and they possessed it entirely, being the anointed nation upon whom God had poured forth His spirit. By tradition of the Jews the Egyptians came to be instructed; from the Egyptians these secrets descended to the Grecians; and from the Grecians — as we all know — the Romans received their learning and, amongst other common arts, this magical, mysterious one. This is confirmed by some proper, genuine effects and monuments thereof, namely, that flexible malleable glass produced in the days of Tiberius and the miraculous Olybian Lamp. But these times wherein I am now and those through which I have passed are like some tempestuous day: they have more clouds than light. I will therefore enter Christendom, and here I shall find the Art in her infancy. True indeed the cradle is but in some private hands, few know where, and many believe there is no such thing. The schoolmen are high in point of noise and condemn all but what themselves profess. It is Aristotle's Almodena: they expose his errors to the sale, and this continues for a long time. But everything — as the Spaniard saith — hath its quando. Many years are passed over, and now the child begins to lisp and peep abroad in the fustian of Arnold and Lully. I need not tell you how he hath thrived since. Do but look upon his train; for at this day who pretends not to magic, and that so magisterially, as if the regalos of the Art were in his powers ? I know not any refragrans except some sickly Galenists whose pale, tallow faces speak more disease than physic. These indeed complain their lives are too short, philosophy too tedious, and so fill their mouths with Ars longa vita brevis. This is true — saith the Spanish Picaro — for they cure either late or never, which makes their art long; but they kill quickly, which makes life short: and so the riddle is expounded.

Colophon

Thomas Vaughan (Eugenius Philalethes), Magia Adamica, or The Antiquity of Magic, 1650. Reproduced from The Works of Thomas Vaughan, edited by Arthur Edward Waite (London: Theosophical Publishing House, 1919). Waite's scholarly footnotes removed; Vaughan's original text preserved with light regularization of OCR damage.

Source scan: University of Toronto, archive.org (identifier: worksofthomasvau00vauguoft). OCR confidence approximately 92%. Systematic errors corrected: "1" for "I" throughout, page-boundary character damage, running headers, page numbers, ~160 Waite footnote blocks removed.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

Other works by Thomas Vaughan in the archive: Anthroposophia Theomagica (1650) · Anima Magica Abscondita (1650) · Coelum Terrae (1650) · Lumen de Lumine (1651) · Aula Lucis (1652) · Euphrates (1655).

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