Natural Knowledge and the Patriarchs

I think it is now sufficiently proved that Adam received his metaphysics from above. Our next task, perhaps rather difficult, is to give probable, if not demonstrative, reasons that these did not come alone, but brought their physics with them. I know Scripture is not explicit on this point, and the sects will drag their conclusion of condemnation out of that silence. For my part, I ask for their patience rather than their murmur of approval. Although against the precept, I have attended for many years to

their philosophy. If they spend a few hours upon my discourse of seeds, it may cost them some justice, but none of their favours. But to come to the matter in hand: I consider it most necessary to distinguish among arts, since I have not yet seen an author fully consider their difference. The art I mean is truly natural in subject, method and effect. None of the publicly professed arts, permitted to Truth’s disadvantage, is qualified in this way. They are merely tricks and trifles of hand or brain, without firm foundations in Nature. In my opinion Solomon numbers these among his vanities when he says that God made humanity upright, but humanity sought out many inventions. We have a short catalogue of these inventions in Genesis, where Moses separates the corn from the chaff, God’s works from human whims. Thus we read that Jabal was the father of those dwelling in tents, his brother Jubal the father of everyone handling harp and organ, and Tubal-cain an instructor of every craftsman in brass and iron. I need not tell you what evils followed this brass-and-iron Cyclops. If you do not know the fortunes of former times, study the actions of your own: you live in an age that

can teach you. Truly it is worth observing that these arts and their tools did not proceed from Seth’s descendants, in whose line our Saviour stands. As we shall show, they undoubtedly possessed better knowledge. They proceeded instead from Cain’s seed: a murderer by his act, and, through its circumstances, a murderer of his brother.

To be brief, no vanity equals the vanity of sciences: I mean those inventions, and those who profess them, which produce nothing true and natural, only effects that are false or corrupt and violent in their ends. But trampling ruins is no conquest. Cornelius Agrippa has already laid these braggarts in the dust, so handsomely that they have never since enjoyed general esteem. Give me, then, an art that is a complete, entire map of creation; that can lead me directly to knowledge of the true God; through which I can discover the universal invisible essences subordinate to him; an art in no way subject to evil, through which I can attain all Nature’s secrets and mysteries. This is the art in which Adam’s and the patriarchs’ physics consisted. I undertake to demonstrate from Scripture and their descendants’ practice that it was revealed to him.

I am certain this truth will seem difficult,

if not incredible, to most people, who prejudge God’s providence in this matter. They will not allow him to instruct us in natural things, only in supernatural matters concerning our souls and their salvation. As for our bodies, he must not provide for their necessities by teaching us true medicine and revealing the laws of his creation. Though he made Nature, he may not tutor us in natural sciences. Certainly not: Aristotle and his syllogism can do it much better. This opinion differs in nothing from the Epicurean view: [New translation of the Latin:] “God strolls about the pivots of heaven, untouched by any concern for mortals.” [Vaughan’s English:] God takes the air in I know not what walks and quarters of heaven, but gives no thought to us mortals under his feet. This is a most remarkable impiety, making God, as Tertullian said long ago, [New translation of the Latin:] “an idle, unoccupied nobody in human affairs.” [Vaughan’s English:] an idle, unprofitable nobody in this world, having nothing to do with our affairs insofar as they are natural and human. Surely these people fear that his mercy would diminish his majesty. They allow him to deal only with our immortal parts, not with the corruptible bodies that most need his assistance: those are base subjects he has handed over to Galen and the apothecaries.

Not so, my friend. He created medicine and brings it out of the earth, although the Galenist does not know it. He pities our afflictions: he is the good Samaritan who does not pass us by in our misery but pours oil and wine into our wounds. I know this very well and shall prove it from his own mouth. Did he not instruct Noah to build an ark and pitch it inside and out, to save life at a time when he himself had resolved to destroy it? At a time when the world knew no mechanical arts except a little husbandry and a few tricks of Tubal-cain and his brothers? Yet even those inventions proceeded from the light he planted in humanity: an essence perpetually busy, ambitious to perform wonders, yet seldom producing anything of its own except what is fanciful and monstrous. Did he not put his Spirit in Bezalel son of Uri and Oholiab son of Ahisamach? Did he not teach them to devise skilful works: to work in gold, silver and brass, to cut and set stones, to carve timber, and to practise every kind of craftsmanship? But to come closer to our purpose: did he not instruct Moses in the composition of the oil and perfume? Did he not teach him the symptoms of leprosy and its

cure? Did he not prescribe a plaster of figs for Hezekiah and, to use your own term, an eye medicine for Tobit? Did not Jesus Christ himself, in the days of his flesh, work most of his miracles upon our bodies, although his great cure concerned our souls? Is he not the same today as yesterday? Was he not the same from the beginning? Did he care for our bodies then and neglect them now? Seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high, has he become less good because more glorious? God forbid: thinking so would be a sin in the superlative. Let us take him, then, as our precedent. As Saint Paul says, he is not one unable to feel our infirmities. He looks to our present condition as well as our future one, as sensitive to our weakness as he is careful of our immortality. When on earth he made the blind see with that earth’s dust, and made wine from mere water. These were the visible elements of his medicine—or, if the term does not offend you, his magic. But shall I show you his library, and in it his threefold philosophy? Observe first, and judge afterwards. “Have salt in yourselves”; again, “You are the salt of the earth”; and in a third place, “Salt is good.”

This is his mineral doctrine. Would you know his vegetable doctrine? It is contained in two little books: a mustard seed and a lily. Finally he has his animal magic, truly a sealed scroll; I do not know who may open it. “He needed no one to bear witness concerning humanity, for he knew what was in humanity.” “What of all this blasphemy?” says some ill-tempered sophist. Look: I shall instruct you. First, have salt in yourself. It will season your infected soul and preserve your brains, putrefied with Aristotle’s dirt. Second, learn what the salt of the earth is, to which the disciples are compared, through orderly, sound contemplation. Third, rise to experience and know, through legitimate natural practice, in what sense salt is most good. Fourth, examine the lilies by fire and the water of fire, so that you may see their miraculous invisible treasures and discover how that saying of Truth is verified: Solomon in all his royalty was not clothed like one of them. If you wish to attempt a higher magic, you may, once you are seasoned; but I do not intend to lead you to it here. You can never perfectly attain animal and vegetable mysteries without knowing the first mineral secret: the salt of the earth, which is salt and no salt, and its preparation