To the READER.

IN this last Iron age, ignorance hath so much pre∣vailed, that many have, and yet do plead for it, and strive to uphold it, crying down all Arts, and endea∣vouring to hood-wink knowledge; so that nothing but the feces and dreggs of Art seems to remain: so that they seem but shadows, if compared with that pristine learning of the Ancients. What golden Legends formerly flourished among the Hebrews, and Aegyp∣tians, and are now even almost all lost in Oblivion? But because Babels confusion is one great reason of the decay of Sciences, which are not in every Mother-tongue understood, and the disposition of most people of our times is to breed their children up bett•… •…ed then taught, their conditions are rather to pou• into the earth, Unde effodiuntur opes irritamenta ma∣lorum; then to look Heavenwards with that O sub∣lime wherewith they were created which the Poet tells of, 〈◊〉 Ovid me•.

Os homini sublime dedit •…lumque vider• jus∣sit, &c.

Page  [unnumbered]And therefore I present the ingenious Reader with a part of the Workes of the renowned Paracel∣sus of the secrets of Alchymy, Occult Philosophy, and the wonderfull operation of the Celestial bodyes, in curing diseases by sigils and characters, made and ap∣plyed in fit elected times and seasons, and under their proper constellations, as the Author hath directed. I must expect the sottish Malignant censures of Zoy∣lus and Momus, and such fools: but the Author him∣self in his Prologue in the ensuing discourse, sufficient∣ly cleares all objections, and therefore I shall save that labour; onely I would have such men not be so wilful∣ly ignorant, as altogether to forget, that the Heavens declare the glory of God, and the Firmament sheweth his handy-worke. Indeed Mechanicks and Empi∣ricks do abuse all Arts: One Mountebank railes in verse against Astrology, and impudently calls the professors thereof cheaters, (Sed seipsum intueri o∣portet) and gives this to be his onely reason, that a fools bolt is soon shot; and that he endeavoured to vil•fie that Art, because he was altogether ignorant of it himself, and would gladly learn it; but he knew not how nor which way to begin: another (and too many such render the Art vile) Poetizes upon the Art of Astrologie, and pretends to cure all diseases and know all things by it, and indeed knows nothing: such are a great Scandal to the excellency of such Sciences: Sed non loquor stultis. This translation is rendered rather Grammatically then Sententially, according to the Authors own phrase: shortly expect (Deo volente) the other parts hereof, and some com∣ments on this and them, together with the famous art of Steganography, Authore Tritemio, to speak our Page  [unnumbered] own Language; and perhaps the Occult Philosophy of Agrippa digested into a plainer method: this should have been now inlarged, but presens Status noster is the reason, and the excuse the same as Ovid's:

It is the General opinion of most ignorant people, to count all things that are above their Vulgar appre∣hensions, to be diabolicall, and meerly brought to pass by the works of the Devil: and under that notion they conclude all the secret and Magnetick operations of nature, and thereby rob God the creator of all things, of that glory that is due unto him onely, and attribute the same to the Devil the enemy to God and all the world: I shall therefore here take occasion to tell such people (because their Priests, that should teach them knowledge, either cannot or else will not) what the De∣vil is. As in the Microcosmus or little world Man, the Soul is the best part, and the excrements the worst; so in the great world, as the Universal creating spirit is the best part, so is the Devil the excrement of that Universal Spirit, and the abject and Caput mortuum of the world; and the poorest and most wretched of all created beings: And that worketh a great Antipathy between him and us, and the blessed holy Angels, who are our Governors and Protectors, and continual guardians, and are continually employed about us, ac∣cording to their orders and ministeries appointed them by the most High: although the Devil alwayes endeavoureth to imitate and counterfeit the good An∣gels, and thereby deceiveth many whose wickedness and malice suits with his nature, and at which the good Angel being grieved, leaves them; and many times for the wickedness of some Person or Family, the Page  [unnumbered] good Angel curses such a person and family, or house; then the wicked Spirit haunts such houses, affright∣ing the people with many fearful apparitions; neither can that house be quiet, nor any such person; neither shall any of the Generation of any such family prosper untill that curse be expiated, and the angry Angel ap∣peased; as this Author will tell you, and woful ex∣perience daily shews: how frequently, and familiar∣ly did those blessed Angels visibly communicate with the holy men and Magicians of old! though now such is the wickedness of our age, that they have almost quite forsaken us: although they are alwayes present about us, though invisible, administring to us accord∣ing to the orders given unto them from the second Hierarchy, who receive the same from the first Hie∣rarchy, who always attend before the Throne of the divine Majesty, offering up the prayers of the Saints, &c. If any one account this superstition, I hope I shall never be of the Number of those who for fear of being superstitious, have reformed themselves and hunted Religion till they have lost the sent of it, into meer Atheism and profaness. But lest I should di∣gresse Ultra Crepidam, and make a gate bigger then the City, I will here conclude my self, Esse idem qui sum,