But lest any Man should deny that, which wee take for granted. namely the Philosophie of Moses, I shall demonstrate out of his own Books, both by reason, as also by his practice, that hee was a Natural Magician.

First of all then it is most absurd, and therefore improbable, that hee should write of the Creation, who was no way skill'd in the Secrets of God and Nature, both which must of necessitie be known before wee should undertake to write of the Creation. But Moses did write of it, Ergo. Now I desire to know what hee hath written, Truth or a Lie; if Truth, how dare you denie his Knowledge? if a Lie (which God forbid) why will you believe him? You will tell mee perhaps he hath done it onely in general Termes: and I could tell you that Aristotle

hath done no otherwise: but think you in good earnest that hee knew no more, than what hee did write? There is nothing you can say in this point, but wee can disprove it, for in Genesis he hath discovered many particulars, and especially those Secrets which have most Relation to this Art. For Instance; hee hath Discovered the Minera of Man, or that Substance out of which Man, and all his fellow-Creatures were made. This is the first matter of the Philosophers stone: Moses calls it sometimes Water, sometimes Earth; for in a certain place I read. thus; And God said, Let the waters bring [Marginal note: Gen. cap. 1. ver. 20.] forth abundantly the moving. Creature that hath life, and Fowle that may fly above the Earth in the open Firmament. But elsewhere wee read otherwise: And out of the Ground [Marginal note: Cap. 2. ver. 19.] the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowle of the Aire. In this later Text hee tels us that God made every fowle of the Ayre out of the Ground, but in the former it is written, hee made them out of the Water. Certainly Aristotle and his Organ can never reconcile these two places, but a little skill in Magic will mak them kisse, 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 subtil Earth. In plain termes it is a

slimie, spermatic, viscous Masse, impraegnated with all powers Coelestiall, and terrestriall. The Philosophers call it Water and no Water, Earth and no Earth: and why may not Moses speak as they doe? or why may not they write, as Moses did? This is the true Damascen Earth, out of which God made man: you then that would be Chimists, seem not to be wiser than God, but use that subiect in your Art. which God himself makes use of in Nature. He is the best workman, and knowes what matter is most fit for his work, hee that will imitate him in the Effect, must first imitate him in the Subject. Talk not then of Flint-stones and Antimonie, they are the Poets Pin-dust, and Egshells; Seek this Earth, this Water. But this is not all that Moses hath written to this purpose, I could cite many more Magicall and mysticall places, but in so doing I should be too open. wherefore I must forbeare. I shall now speak of his Practice, and truly this is it which no Distinction, nor any other Logicall Quibble can wave, nothing but Experience can refell this Argument, and thus it runs. And Moses took the Calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and grinded it to powder, and strewed it vpon 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 it self. This Calf was pure gold, the Israelites having contributed their Eare-rings to the Fabric. Now would I gladly know by what meanes so solid and heavie a Body as Gold, may bee brought to such a light powder, that it may bee sprinkl'd 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 passe had he not plowed with our Heyfer. But of this enough: if any man think hee did it by common fire, let him also doe the like, and when he hath performed, hee may sell his powder to the Apothecaries. If I should insist in this place on the Moysaicall Ceremoniall Law with its severall Reverend shadows and their Significations; I might lose my self in a Wilderness of Mysteries both Divine and Naturall; For verily that whole System is but one vast Skreen, or a certain Majestic Umbrage drawne 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 onely informe the Reader that the Law hath both a shell, and a Kernell, it is the Letter speaks, but the spirit interprets. To this agrees Gregorie [Marginal note: De statu Episcop.] Nazianzen, who makes a twofold Law, τοῦ γράμματος, and τοῦ πνεύματος: one literal, another spirituall. And elsewhere hee mentions,

τὸ φαινόμενον τοῦ νόμου, καὶ τὸ κρυπτόμενον, the hidden, and the manifest part of the Law; the manifest part (saith he) being appointed, τοῖς πολλοῖς καὶ κάτω κειμένοις, for many men, and such whose thoughts were fixed here below but the hidden, τοῖς ὀλίγοις καὶ ἄνω φερομένοις, for few onely, whose Mindes aspired upwards to heavenly Things. Now that the Law being given, might benefit the people in both parts, spiritual and literal, therefore did the Law-giver institute the Sanhedrim, a Councell of Seventy Elders, upon whom hee had poured his Spirit, that they might discerne (as Esdras did) the Deep Things of the Night, in plain Termes, the hidden things of his Law. From these Elders the Cabala (I believe) had its Originall: for they imparted their Knowledge by word of Mouth to their Successors, and hence it came to passe, that the Science it self, was styl'd Cabala, 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 desperat, then Esdras a Prophet Incomparable (notwithstanding the brand of Apocrypha) writ that Law in Tables of Box, which God himself had sometimes written in Tables of stone. As for the more secret, and mysterious part thereof, it was written at the same time in Seventy Secret Bookes, according to the Number of the Elders,

in whose hearts it had been sometimes 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 aeternall Tables of the Soul. But it may bee there is a blind Generation, who will believe nothing but what they see at hand, and therefore will deny that Esdras compos'd any such Bookes; To these Owles (though an unaequal Match) I shall oppose the Honour of Picus, who himself affirmes, that in his time hee met with the Secret Bookes of Esdras, and bought them with a great Price; Nor was this all, for Eugenius Bishop of Rome order'd their Translation, but hee dying, the Translators also fell asleep. It is true indeed, something may be objected to mee in this place concerning the Cabala, An Art which I no way approve of, neither doe I condemne it as our Adversaries condemne Magic, before I understand it; for I have spent some yeares in the Search, and Contemplation thereof. But why then should I propose that for a Truth to others, which I accompt for an Error my self? To this I answer, that I condemne not the true Cabala, but the Inventions of some dispersed wandring Rabbies, whose braines had more of Distraction, than their fortunes; of this thirteenth Tribe I understand the Satyrist,

when hee promiseth so largely.

Qualiacun que voles, Judaei Somnia vendunt. These I say have produc'd a certain up-start, bastard Cabala, which consists altogether in Alphabeticall knacks. ends alwayes in the Letter where it begins, and the Vanities of it are grown Voluminous. As for the more Ancient, and Physicall Traditions of the Cabala, 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 AEgyptius, whom the Jewes have so magnified with their famous Hyperbole: A Mose ad Mosen non surrexit sicut Moses.

But to deale ingenuously with my Readers, I say the Cabala I admit of consists of two parts, τοῦ λεγομένου and τοῦ ὄντος the Name, and Thing. The former part is meerly Typicall in reference to the later, Serving only as the shadow to the substance. I will give you some instances. The Literal Cabala, which is but a Veile cast over the Secrets of the Physicall, hath Three Principles, commonly styl'd Tres Matres, or the Three Mothers: In the Masculine Complexion the Jewes call them אמש Emes, in the Foeminine אשם Asam, and they are א aleph, מ mem, ש schin. Now I will shew you how the Physical Cabala expounds the

Literall. Tres Matres אמש Emes (saith the great Abraham, or as some think Rabbi Akiba) id est, Aer, Aqua, & I gnis; Aqua Quieta, I gnis sibilans, Aer spiritus medius. That is, the Three Mothers Emes, or Aleph, Mem and Schin, are Aire, Water, and Fire; a still Water, (mark that) a hissing Fire, and Aire the middle Spirit. Again sayth the same Rabbi, Tres Matres אמש Emes in Mundo, Aer, Aqua, & Ignis. Coeli ex Igne Creati sunt, Terra ex Aquá, Aer egressus est ex spiritu, qui stat medius. The Three Mother Emes in this world are, Ayre, Water and Fire. The Heavens were made of the Fire, The Earth was made of the Water, (mark well this Cabalism) and the Ayre proceeded from a middle spirit. Now when the Cabalist speaks of the Generation of the Three Mothers, he brings in Ten secret Principles, which I think ten men have not understood since the Sanhedrim, such Nonsence doe I find in most Authors, when they undertake to discourse of them. The first Principle is a Spirit, which sits in Retrocessu suo fontano, in his primitive, Incomprehensible Retreats, like Water in its Subterraneous Chanel, before it springs. The Second Principle is the Voice of that first Spirit, this breaks forth like a Well-spring, where the Water flowes out of the Earth, and is discovered to the eye, They call