quod est Inferiùs, est sicut id quod est superiùs. This is his Mysterie, and 'tis great: The Benefit that attends the Purchase, is no lesse: habebis Gloriam totius Mundi, All the Pomp, and Splendor of the World shall bee Thine. To this Language, the Dialect of I sias doth so Echo, these two, like Euphorbus and Pythagoras, might passe for Ono.

Coelum sursùm, (sayd he) Coelum deorsum; Astra sursùm, Astra Deorsùm: Omne quod sursùm, omne id deorsum.

And then follows a reward for the Intelligent, Haec cape, & faelicitare, understand this, and thou art fortunate, Thou hast made thy self very happy. This is enough to prove that Magic sometimes flourished in Egypt, and no doubt but they received the Truth of it from the Hebrewes, who lived amongst them to the terme of four hundred and thirtie years. This is plain; for their own Native Learning was meere Sorcerie and Witcheraft, and this appears by the Testimonie of Moses, who tells us their Magicians produc'd their Miracles by Inohantments. And why I beseech you should this Instruction seem impossible? For Joseph being married to Asenath, daughter of Potipherah Priest of On, some of the AEgyptian Priests, and those likely of his own alliance,

might for that very Relation receive a better Doctrine from him. But this is not all I could say of this Nation, and their Secret Learning, if I were dispos'd to bee their Mercurie. There is not any I believe who praetend to Antiquitie or Philosophie, but have seen that famous Monument, which Paul the Third bestow'd on his Cardinal Petrus Bombus, and was ever since called the Bembixe Table. No doubt but the Hieroglyphics therein contained, were they all reduced into Letters, would make a Volume as ample, as Mysterious. But 'tis not my Designe to comment on Mcmphis, that were to make Brick, and look out the straw withall, AEgypt having no compleat Table but the World, over which her Monuments are Scatter'd. This place then was the Pitcher to the Fountain, for they received their Mysteries immediatly from the Hebrewes, but their Doctrine, like their Nilus, swelling above its private Chanel, did at last over-run the Universe. Jamblicus the Divine, in that excellent Discourse of his de Mysterus, tells us that Pythagoras and Plato had all their learning ex Columnis Mercurii out of the Pillars, or Hieroglyphicall Monuments of Trisinegistus. But the Ancient orpheus in his Poem de Verbo Sacro. where hee speakes of God, hath these words.

Nemo Illū, nisi Chaldao de Sanguine Quiddam Progenitus vidit.

None (saith he) hath ever seen God, but a certaine Man descended of the Chaldaean Bloud. Now this was Moses, of whom it is written, That he spake with God face to face, as one Man speaks with another. After This he gives us a short Character or Description of the Deitie, not in the Recesse, and Abstract, but in reference to the Incubation of his spirit upon Nature. Lastly he acquaints us with the Originall of his Doctrine, from whence it first came, and verily he derives it from the Wellhead.

Priscorum nos haec docuerunt Omnia Vates, Quae Binis Tabulis Deus olim tradidit Illis.

The Priests (saith he) (or Prophets) of the Ancient Fathers taught us all These things, which God delivered to them heretofore in two Tables. Thanks be to that God, who made a Heathen speak so plainly. I need not tell you to whom these Tables were delivered, Cavallero De epistola can informe you. I cited this place, that it might appeare, though the Philosophie of Greece came generally out of AEgypt, yet some Graecians have been disciplined by the Jews, and this is proved by

no contemptible Testimonies. Aristobulus, who lived in the Dayes of the Machabies, and was himself a Jew, writes to Ptolomie Philometor King of AEgypt, and affirmes that the Pentateuch, or five Books of Moses, were translated into Greek before the Time of Alexander the Great, and that they came to the hands of Pythagoras and Plato. Indeed Numenius the Pythagorean cals Plato, Mosen Atticâ linguâ loquentem, Moses speaking in the Greek Dialect; by which he minded not a similitude of style, but a Conformitie of principles. There is a storie of Clearchus the Peripatetic in his first de somno, how true I know not, but the Substance of it is this. He brings in his Master Aristotle relating, how he met with a very reverend and learned Jew, with whom he had much Discourse about Things Natural and Divine, but his special Confession is, That he was much rectified by him in his Opinion of the Deitie. This perhaps night be, but certainly it was after he writ the Organon, and his other lame Discourses, that move by the Logical Crutch. Now if you will aske me, what Greek did ever prosesse any Magicall Principles? To this I answer, that if you bate Aristotle and his Ushers, who are borne like the Insecta, ex putredine, out of their Masters Corruptions; Greece yeelded

not a Philosopher, who was not in some Positions, Magicall. If any man will challenge my Demonstration herein, I doe now promise him my performance. To give you some particular Instances, Hippocrates was altogether Chemicall, and this I could prove out of his owne Mouth, but at this Time his works are not by me. Democritus who lived in the same Age with him, writ his φυσικὰ καὶ μυστικά that is, Physicall and Mysticall Things, in plaine English, Naturall Secrets. To this mysticall peece Synesius added the Light of his Comments, and dedicated them to Dioscorus Priest of Serapis. Of this Democritus Seneca reports in his Epistles, That he knew a secret Coction of Pebles, by which be turned them into Emeralds. Theophrastus, a most ancient Greek Author in his Book de lapidibus mentions another mineral work of his own, wherein he had written something of Metals. True indeed, that Discourse of his is lost, but notwithstanding his opinion is upon Record, namely that he referred the Originall of metalls to water. This is confirm'd by his owne words, (ὕδατος μὲν τὰ μεταλλευόμενα κατάπερ ἄργυρος καὶ χρυσός) as I find them cited by Picus in his Book De auro. But that the Art of Transmutation was in Request in. his Dayes, and no late Invention or Imposture, as some think, appears by the Attempts and

practice of that Age out of the same Theophrastus; For he mentions one Callias an Atheman, who indeavouring to make gold, brought his Materials into Cinnabar. It were an endles labour for me to recite all the Particulars, that Greece can affoord in order to my present Designe, I will Therefore close up all in this short Summarie. There is no wisdome in Nature, but what proceeded from God, for he made Nature, he first found out, and afterwards ordained the very wayes, and method how to corrupt, and how to generate. This his own wisdome and Knowledge, he communicated in some Measure to the first Man, from him his Children received it, and they taught it their postcritie; but the Jewes having the spiritual Birthright, This Mysterie was their Inheritance, and they possest it intirely, being the Annointed Nation, vpon whom God had powred forth his spirit. By Tradition of the Jewes, The AEgyptians came to be instructed, From the AEgyptians these secrets descended to the Graecians, and from the Graecians (as we all know) the Romanes received their Learning, and amongst other common Arts, this Magicall mysterious one; This is confirm'd by some proper, genuine Effects and Monuments thereof, namely that flexible malleable Glasse, produced in the

dayes of Tiberius, and the miraculous Olybian Lamp. But these Times wherein I am now, and those thorough which I have past, are like some Tempestuous Day, they have more clouds, than Light. I will therefore enter Christendome, and here I shall find the Art in her Infancie: True indeed, The Cradle is but in some private hands, few know where, and many believe there is no such Thing. The Schoole-men are high in point of Noyse, and condemne all, but what Themselves professe: It is Aristotet's Almodena, they expose his Errors to the sale, and this continnes for a long time. But every Thing (as the Spaniard saith) hath its Quando; Many years are past over, and now the Child begins to lisp, and peeps abroad in the fustian of Arnold, and Lullie. I need not tell you how he hath thrived since, doe but look upon his Traine, for at this Day who praetends not to Magic, and that so magisterially, as if the Regalos of the Art were in his powers? I know not any Refragans, except some sickly Galenists, whose pale tallow faces speak more Disease, than Physic. These indeed complaine their Lives are too short, Philosophie too taedious, and so fill their Mouths with Ars longa, Vita brevis. This is true (saith the Spanish Picaro) for they cure either late, or never, which makes

their Art long: but they kill quickly, which makes life short, and so the Riddle is expounded.