I have ever admir'd that Discipline of Eliezer the steward of Abraham, who when [Marginal note: Genes. 24. 11 12.] he prayed at the Well in Mesopotamia, could make his Camels also kneele. I must not believe there was any Hocas in this, or that the spirit of Banks, may be the spirit of Prayer. Jacob makes a Covenant with Laban, that all the spotted and brown Cattell in his Flocks should be assigned to him for his wages. The Bargain is no sooner made, but he finds an Art to Multiplie his own Colours, and sends his Father-in-law almost a Woolgathering. And Jacob took him Rods of green Poplar, and of the Hasel, [Marginal note: Gen. 30. 37.] & Chesnut-tree, & pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods; And hee set the rods, which he had pilled, before the Flocks in the Gutters, in the watering troughs 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 Cattel ring straked, speckled and spotted. As for that which the Scripture tells us elsewhere, namely that Jacob saw in a dream, and behold [Marginal note: Cap. 31. v. 10.] the Rams that leaped on the Cattell were ringstraked speckled, and grisled, This doth no way impaire our Assertion, or prove this generation miraculous, and supernatural: For no man, I believe is so mad as to think those Appearances, or Ramms of the dream, did leap, and

supplie the natural males of the Flock: God using this Apparition onely to signifie 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 paste from this Dream to another. Joseph being seventeen years old, an Age of some Discretion, propounds a Vision to his Father, not loosly and to no purpose, as wee tell one another of our dreams, but expecting, I believe, 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 allowes a third Signification to the minor starrs, and lastly answers his sonne with a Question: What is this Dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I, and thy Mother, and thy Brethren indeed come to bow down our selves 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 immediatly from God, as Daniel did, then it falls not within the Limits of a Naturall Science; but I speak of a Physicall Exposition as this was, which depends on certain abstruse Similitudes, for hee

that knowes the Analogie of parts to parts in this great body, which wee call the World, may know what every Signe signifies, and by Consequence may prove a good Interpreter of dreames. As for Jacob's first practice, which wee have formerly mention'd, namely the Propagation of his speckled Flocks, it is an effect so purely Magicall that our most obstinat Adversaries dare not Question it. I could cite one place more, which referrs to this Patriarch, and points at the Fundamentals of Magic, but being annex'd 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 summ of all is this: Man of himself could not attain to true Knowledge it was God in meer mercie did instruct him. To confirm this, I shall desire the Reader to Consider his own Experience. Wee have in these our dayes many Magicall Books extant, wherein the Art is discovered both truly, and plainly. Wee have also an infinite Number of Men, who studie those books, but after the Indeavours of a long life not one in Ten Thousand understands them. Now if wee 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 doe that without means, which wee cannot doe with means, and those too very considerable? The Peripaterties perhaps will tell me their Syllogism is the Engine that can perform all this. Let 'em then in Barbara or Baroco demonstrate the first matter of the Philosopher's stone. But they will tell mee there is no 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 Legacie. I have now attended [Marginal note: Gen. 32. 28.] Jacob, the Israel of God, both in his Pilgrimage at Padan-aram, and in his Typicall Inheritance, the Earnest of the Land of Canaan. But two Removalls perfect not the wandrings of a Patriarch; God calls him from the Habitation of his Fathers to the Prison of his Posteritie, and provides him a plac of Freedom in the house of Bondage. I must follow him where his Fortune leads, from I saac's Hebron, to the Goshen of Phaaroh then back again to the Cave and Dust of Machpelah. As for his sons and their Traine, who attended his Motion thither, I find not any Particular Remembrance

of them onely Moses tells me of a generall [Marginal note: Exod. 1. ver. 6.] Exit: Joseph died, and all his brethren and all that Generation. I must now then to prove the Continuance and Succission of this Art addresse my self to the Court, where I shall find the Son of Levi newly translated from his Ark, and Bulrushes. Yet, there is somthing may be sayd of Joseph, and verily it proves how Common Magic was in those dayes, and the effects of it no newes to the Sons of Jacob; for having conveyed his Cup into the Sack of Benjamin, and by that policie detain'd his Brethren, hee asks them: What Deed is this [Marginal note: Cap. 44. ver. 15.] that you have done? Knew yee not that such a man as I 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: Knew you not? but the following words are very effectuall, and tell us what qualified persons the ancient Magi were. They were indeed (as hee speaks of himself) such as Joseph was, Princes, and Rulers of the People, not beggarly Gypsies, and Mountebanks, as our Doctors are now. It was the Ambition of the Great in those Dayes to bee 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 yee are

Gods: a name Communicated to them, because they had the power to doe wonders, for in this Magical sense the true God speaks to Moses: See, I have made thee a God to Phaaroh, and [Marginal note: Exod. cap. 7. vc. 1.] thy Brother Aaron shall bee thy Prophet. And verily this true Knowledge. and this Title that belongs to it, did that false Serpent praetend to our first Parents; Eritis sicut Dii, You [Marginal note: Genes. cap. 3. vers. 5.] shall be as Gods knowing good and evill. But 'tis not this subtill Dragon, but Bonus ille Serpeats, that good, Crucified Serpent, that can give us both this Knowledge, and this Title: [Marginal note: John 1. 3.] for by him all things were made, and without him not any thing was made, that is made; If hee made them then, hee can teach us also how they were made. I must now refer my self 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 skill'd in all the learning of the Egyptians: but for my part I doe much question what kind of learning that was, the Scripture assuring mee, and [Marginal note: Exod. 7. 11. 22.] that by the Pen of Moses, their Wonders were effected by Inchantments. This is certain, their Learning was Ancient, for I find Magicians in AEgypt, four hundred and thirty years and upwards, before Jamnes and Jambres. This is

Confirmed by Phaaroh's Dreame, which his own Sorcerers, and Wizards could not interpret, [Marginal note: Gen. Cap. 9. ver. 41.] but Joseph alone expounded it. Verily it cannot be denyed, but some Branches of this Art, though extremely corrupted, were dispers'd among all Nations by Tradition from the first man, and this appeares by more Testimonies than one. For in the Land of Canaan, before ever Israel possest it, Debir, which Athniel the son of Kenaz conquered, was an Universitie, at least had in it a famous Librarie, wherefore the Jewes call'd it Kiriath-Sepharim. I might speak in this place of the Universalitie of Religion: for never yet was there a people, but had some confused Notion of a Deitie, though accompanied with Lamentable Ceremonies, and Super stitions. Besides, the Religious of all Nations have alwaies praetended to Powers Extraordinarie, even to the performance of Miracles, and the healing of all Diseases, and this by some secret meanes, not known to the common Man: and verily if wee examine all Religions, whether false, or true, wee shall not find one, but it praetends to something, that is Mysticall. 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 not withstanding in those very Errors there remained some Marks and Imitations of the first Truth. Hence comes it to passe, that all parties agree in the Action, but not in the Object. For Example: Israel did Sacrifise, and the Heathen did Sacrifise, but the One to God, the other to his Idol; Neither were they onely Conformable in some Rites, and Solemnities of Divinitie, but the Heathens also had some Hints left of the Secret Learning, and Philosophie of the Patriarchs, as wee may see in their false Magic, which consisted for the most part in Astrologicall Observations, Images, Charmes, and Characters. But it is my Designe to keep in the Rode, not to follow these Deviations, and misfortunes of the Art, which notwithstanding want not the weight of Argument, the Existence of Things being proved as well by their Miscariage, as by their Successe. 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 Dayes, but a privat Familie? 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 Familie. These Elders, no doubt, were the Moysaicall 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 wee read, That God took of the spirit that [Marginal note: Numb. cap. 11. ver. 25.] was in Moses, and gave it to the Seventy.