The practise of chymicall, and hermeticall physicke, for the preseruation of health. Written in Latin by Iosephus Quersitanus, Doctor of Phisicke. And translated into English, by Thomas Timme, minister

CHAP. II.

THere are thrée principall things mixed in euery Naturall bodie: to wit, Salte, Sul∣phur, and Mercurie. These are the be∣ginnings of all Naturall things. But he, from whom all things haue their be∣ginning is GOD, vppon whome all things do depende, hée himselfe subsi∣sting by himselfe, and taking the Origi∣nall of his Essence from no other, and is therfore the first and efficient cause of all things.

From his first beginning, procéedeth Nature, as the se∣cond beginning, made by GOD himselfe through the po∣wer of his worde. This Nature, next vnder God, ought to be religiously estéemed, thought of, enquired, and searched for. The knowledge hereof is very necessary, and wil be no lesse profitable: the searche and raunsacking thereof will be swéete and pleasing. The profite which commeth hereby, appeareth in this, that the knowledge of all things which consist thereof, and wherof they borrow thei•• name and are called Naturall things, procéedeth herehence whether they bée subiect to our sences, or aboue our sences. Hereupon great Philosophers, both Christians and Ethnicks haue bene mooued to make the signification of the name of Nature, to sitte and serue almost all things. Insomuch that Aristotle himselfe, in that diuision which he maketh of Nature, diuiding the same into the first and second Nature, and speaking of the first, he calleth it Na∣turam naturantem. Naturing nature, by which he meaneth God. So in like manner Zeno, a Prince of Stoikes, o∣penlie taught, that Nature was no other thing then God. Therefore the first Naturing nature is God; but the seconde which properly is said to be Nature, is subdiuided into vniuer∣sall

and particular.* 1.1 The Vniuersall is that ordinarie power of God, diffused throughout the whole worlde, whereof it is sayd,* 1.2 that Nature doth suffer this or that, or doth this or that, as Augustine teacheth in his booke De ciuitate Dei:* 1.3 and Lac∣tantius: and among heathen wryters, Pliny and Seneca.

This vniuersall Nature, is also taken for the diuine vertue, which God hath put and implanted in all creatures: by the be∣nefite whereof, certaine notes of the Diuinitie, are to be dis∣cerned in them. Hereuppon some olde Fathers were woont to say, All things are full of Goddes, as did Heraclitus among others.* 1.4 Some others take this vniuersal nature, for a certaine influence and vertue, whereby the Starres do worke in these inferior things: or else for an acting vertue in an vniuersall cause,* 1.5 that is to say, in a bodie Celestiall.

Furthermore, that is vniuersall Nature, wherof Plato spea∣keth when he saith: Nature is a certaine force and strength in∣fused throughout all things, the moderator and nourisher of all things, and by it selfe the beginning of motion and of rest in them. The which Nature Hermes Trimegistus, almost in the same words saith, to be a certaine force risen from the first cause, diffused throughout all bodies by it selfe, the beginning of motion and rest in them.

This force the Pythagoreans called God. And therefore Virgil, a great follower of the Pythagorean disciplne, wrote thus, saying; The spirit nourisheth inwardly, &c. And the Platonicks called the same, the Soule of the worlde.

But yet the Platonicks haue not defined & shewed, in what maner, & by what means this Soule of the world, doth mode∣rate and order all these interior things, and doth stirre vp in the generation of things: neither can they yet determine.

But the more witty and learned sort of Philosophers, holde & affirme, that this world, which comprehendeth in the circum∣ference and compasse therof the fowre Elements, & the first be∣ginnings of nature, is a certaine great bodie, whose partes are so knitte together among themselues, (euen as in one bodie of a liuing Creature, all the members doe agrée) that there

is no one part of the parties, of that great body, which is not inlyned, quickened, and susteined, by the benefite of that vni∣uersall soule, which they haue called the soule of the worlde: affirming also, that if the bodyes of liuing creatures doe de∣riue life and beeing from the soule which is in them; the same is much more done and effected in the farre more noble and more excellent body of the whole world, by the meanes of the more potent and farre more excellent soule, with the which this body of the vniuersall world is indued, and by which it subsisteth. For it all the parts of the world haue life, (as manifestly appearing it hath) then must it needes follow, that wholely it liueth, for that the parts drawe and deriue their life from the whole, from the which they being separa∣ted, cannot but perish and die. And héereupon they inferre, that the Heauen compassing all things, is that Soule, which nourisheth and susteineth all things. Also, further they affirme, that all the formes, virtues, and faculties of things, by which all things are neurished, susteined, and haue their being doe come from the worlds Soule.

And as the body and soule are gathered and ioyned toge∣ther in one, through the benefite of the Spirits bond, for that it is partaker of both Natures: so the soule and body of the world are knit together by the meanes of the Aethereall Spi∣rits going betwéene, ioyning each part of the whole into one subsistence. And yet hereof we must not conclude as did A∣phrodisaeus and Philoponas, which were Platonists, that the worlde is a most huge liuing creature, indued with sense and vnderstanding, wise and happie: the which is a most absurde and false opinion. But the Platonists by the soule of the world, gaue vs rather to vnderstand a certaine spirit, which cherisheth, quickeneth, conserueth, and susteineth all things,* 1.6 as it were a certaine spirit of that Elohym, or great God, which mooued vpon the waters: which Plato might re∣member, as one not ignorant of Moses, and thereupon frame his soule of the worlde. Whereupon also it must needes come to passe, that all these inferior things, otherwise transitorie and infirme, should soone come to destruction, without they were

conserued and continued in theyr being by that diuine power, perpetually maintaining and suspecting them: the which be∣ing disseuered, a great confusion & perturbation of the whole worlde arise therof. Which ruine and destruction, God of his great goodnes would preuent, creating that vniuersall Na∣ture, which should defende all this great worke, and kéepe it safe and sounde, by his vertue and moderation: and that by the yearely and continual rotation and reuolution of the right Heauen, and by the Influences and vertues of the Starres, Planets, and Celestiall powers, all things might be well go∣uerned, and might constantly remaine and abide in full fast∣nes of theyr estate, vntill the predestinated time of theyr dis∣solution.

To this Aethereall spirit, or rather Diuine power, euery effectuall and Omnipotent, Plato in his Timaeo giueth te∣stimonie, when hée speaketh thus: When the sempiternall GOD had created this Vniuersal, hee put into it certaine seedes of reason, & brought in the beginning Life, that he might beget with the world the procreating force. Wherein our explication which I brought before concerning the Soule of the worlde is confirmed. Which also agreeth with that which the Prophet Moses hath written, and which King Da∣uid hath in his Psalme, in these wordes: By the worde of the Lorde were the Heauens made, and all the vertue of them by the spirit of his mouth. By which vertue of the quickning spirit, that great Trimegistus more conuersant and exercised in Moses writings, then all other Philosophers, vttered these diuine wordes in his second booke, which is called Asclepias: All spirit (saith he) in the world, is acted and go∣uerned by the spirit. The spirit telleth all things: the worlde nourisheth bodies, the spirit giueth them soule. By the spirit all things in the world are ministred, & are made to growe and increase. And after that he saith againe: All things haue neede of this spirit. For it carryeth all things, and it quickneth & nourisheth all things, according to the dignitie of eache thing in it selfe. Life and the spirit is

brought forth out of the holy fountaine. By which diuine words it appeareth plainely, that this eternal and quickening spirit is infused and put into all things: so that it is not obser∣ued to deduce and deriue the actions, forces, and powers: also all naturall things, from the spirits, as from the causes.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Lact. lib. de Ira Dei, cap. 10.
• * 1.2

  Plin. lib. 2. cap. 7.
• * 1.3

  Sen. lib. 4, de benet. cap. 7.
• * 1.4

  Thomas lib 9 super. 2. lib. de coelo.
• * 1.5

  Plato in Timaeo.
• * 1.6

  Gen. 1.