Fundamenta chymica: or, A sure guide into the high and rare mysteries of alchymie; L.C. Philmedico Chymicus.

CHAP. 2. That the World, because it lives, hath a Spirit, a Soul and a Body.

THe Body of the World lies open to our senses, but its Spirit lies hid; and in the Spirit its Soul, which cannot be united to its Body, but by the mediation of its Spirit: for the Body is gross, and the Soul subtil, far removed from all corporal qualities. For the unition then of these two, we must finde some third participating of both Na∣tures, which must be as it were a cor∣poreal Spirit, because the extreams cannot be conjoyned without an inter∣venient Ligament that hath affinity with both. The Heaven we see is high, the Earth low; the one pure, the other corrupt: How then shall we exalt this impure corruption, and conjoyn it with that active purity, without a mean? God

we know is infinitely pure, and clean: Man exreamly impure, and defiled with ••ns. Now these could never have been ••onjoyned and reconciled, but by the mediation of Christ Jesus, God-Man, ••hat true attractive Glue of both Na∣••ures. In like manner, this Spirit cor∣••oreal, or Body spiritual we speak of, 〈◊〉〈◊〉 the active Glue of Body and Soul: which Soul sits in the Spirit of the World, ••s a spark from and of God's infinite ••ntelligence: for these effective eleva∣••ions, renovations, mutations, variations, ••nd multiplications of forms, must ne∣••essarily arise from intelligence, and ••ot from matter which participates of ••o reason; and therefore cannot cause ••ch formations and specifications. The World then is nourished by this Spirit, ••nd agitated by this Soul, which is infus'd ••nto it by mediation of this Spirit: which Virgil, following divine Plato's Doctrine, expresses elegantly, Lib. 6. Aeneid.

Principio Caelum ac Terras compos{que} liquentes, Lucentem{que} Globum Lunae, Titania{que} Astra; Spiritus intus alit, totam{que} infusa per Artus Mens agitat molem & magno se corpore miscet.

The nourishment of th' earth, mountains, and skar•• Of th'heaven, of planets, & of glistring stars▪ We attribute to th' Spirit; but to th' Soul, That these do move & stir without controul

To which Augurellus also attests in his first Book, saying,

Ast Animae quoniam nil non est corporis expers Mundus at & mundi partes quo{que} corpore constan Spiritus haec inter medius fit, quem ne{que} corpus Aut Animam dicas, sed eum qui solus utro{que} Participans in idem simul haec extrema reducat Hic igitur Maria ac Terras, at{que} Aera & Ignem Vivere{que} augeri{que} at{que} in se cuncta referre Semper Aves, semper Stirpes, Animantia semper Gignere, perpetuam{que} sequi per secula prolem, &c

But since a Soul is incorporeal, And all the parts o' th' world we meet witha•• Are bodies; these two cannot be combin'd Without a mean betwixt Body and Mind Which is a Spirit: wherewith the raging seas Fire, air, & earth; all plants & fruitful tree With animals, are acted; so that they Do generate their like, and live for aye, &c