Charity, healing and divine wisdom · Lexicon

From the book

Centrum Naturae Concentratum

Attributed to Ali Puli · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordCharity frames the use of knowledge: praise of God and aid to the poor sick are paired purposes. Wisdom is right knowledge of the one divine truth; art is working out its image and character.
In the bookThe J. J. F. discourse hopes for disclosure to true lovers of the art. The anonymous excerpts unite light of nature with faith and describe the ideal practitioner through theology, astronomy and medicine; the Sebastian story gives compassion and gratitude particular speaking voices.
In this edition“Magic”, “Cabala” and “philosophy” retain the excerpt’s linked disciplines. Faithful translation of universal healing claims is not modern endorsement.
A place to readPhilosophical Discourse · Passage 18–Philosophical Discourse · Passage 19, where cures through nature’s light and faith lead into the distinction between knowing the truth and working out its image.

Meaning

The title Love of One’s Neighbour, Flowing from the Oil of Divine Mercy makes charitable care part of the framing of knowledge. In the J. J. F. discourse, the intended beneficiaries are true lovers of the art and the poor sick; praise of God and help for the sick are joined purposes. The anonymous excerpts distinguish wisdom as right knowledge of truth from art as working out its image and character. Their truth is expressly God, so these are theological definitions rather than secular professional labels.

The distinction turns on verbs as much as on nouns. To know the truth rightly is wisdom; to work out its image and character is art (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 19). The two are joined in an ideal human vocation, but one is not simply a synonym for the other. Likewise neighbour-love names the orientation of the knowledge towards another person’s good, not a claim that every possessor of secret knowledge behaves benevolently.

Use in the book

The opening J. J. F. discourse ends one account with a wish: that the matter become known to true lovers of the art, “to praise God’s honour and help the poor sick” (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 3). Disclosure is desired for specified recipients and uses. This sits beside the collection’s guarded transmission of secrets rather than abolishing it. The later Hermetic judgement warns that a person who fails to understand may destroy both self and others (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 10). Benevolent purpose does not, within these texts, make understanding unnecessary or risk impossible.

The attack on Galenic physicians belongs to the same speaker’s contrast between costly, allegedly ineffective learning and divinely enabled natural knowledge (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 3–Philosophical Discourse · Passage 4). It establishes how he presents the value of his own claims. It is not impartial evidence that rival medicine was useless, and it does not validate the remedies he advertises.

The anonymous excerpts begin another account of healing. They place the light of nature beside cure through faith, invoking the apostles: as all diseases may be helped through nature’s light, so complete restoration may occur through faith (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 18). The parallel does not simply replace religious healing with chemical knowledge. It offers two related terms within the excerpt’s theological view of restoration.

The next paragraph grounds wisdom in one truth in time and eternity, identified as God himself. Art works out that truth’s image and character. The human being becomes a theologian through magic understood as holy light or spirit, an astronomer through Cabala as holy fire and blood, and a physician through philosophy as holy salt, oil or water (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 19). These are not three unrelated jobs in a modern division of labour. Their harmony makes the differentiated witnesses one: the ideal practitioner joins knowing and working within a shared divine truth.

The Sebastian Siebenfreund anecdote gives charitable and religious language a scene rather than a definition. Encountering the Scot’s suffering, the narrator reports tears. Sebastian joins the claimed treatment to prayer; the recovering man thanks God and praises the physician (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 22–Philosophical Discourse · Passage 23). Each utterance has its own speaker. “The physician is more divine than human” belongs to the grateful patient, not to an independent conclusion by the collection’s editor.

The story does not end with that grateful scene. Secrecy, requests for possession, accusations of plotting and subsequent violence follow it (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 24–Philosophical Discourse · Passage 27). Compassion and asserted efficacy coexist with those later events. Reading the healing as uncomplicated proof that possession of the secret is universally benevolent would remove the narrative’s own complications, as well as mistaking a reported cure for modern evidence of efficacy.

Places to read

Philosophical Discourse · Passage 3German“GOttes Ehr zu preisen und den armen Krancken zu helffen” The discourse states religious praise and aid to the sick as its paired purposes.
Philosophical Discourse · Passage 10German“si hoc non intelligis, teipsum & alios perdes” The judgement warns that misunderstanding can destroy oneself and others.
Philosophical Discourse · Passage 11German“Amor Proximi” The source heading names neighbour-love.
Philosophical Discourse · Passage 18German“per curam fidelium durchn Glauben” The excerpt places cure through faith beside nature’s light.
Philosophical Discourse · Passage 19German“die rechte einige Weißheit” Wisdom is defined in relation to the one divine truth.
Philosophical Discourse · Passage 19German“Also sind 3 Eins und Eins 3” The differentiated offices are made witnesses in harmony.
Philosophical Discourse · Passage 22German“daß uns die Augen übergingen” The narrator’s tears establish the encounter’s compassionate framing.
Philosophical Discourse · Passage 23German“Der Medicus ist mehr Göttlich als Menschlich” This praise is spoken by the patient inside the story.

Translation in this edition

In Philosophical Discourse · Passage 19, right knowledge and working are distinguished by recht erkennen and ausarbeiten. The English correspondingly distinguishes knowing the truth from working out its image and character. “Magic”, “Cabala” and “philosophy” reproduce the linked disciplines named in that sentence; replacing them with modern academic categories would obscure the particular harmony the passage constructs.

“Astronomer” belongs here to cosmic and elemental relations, not a guarantee of present-day disciplinary equivalence. In Philosophical Discourse · Passage 18, the phrase per curam fidelium durchn Glauben is rendered through cure of the faithful by faith, preserving the explicit connection to belief and the apostles. Its universal language remains the excerpt’s claim. The same rule applies to the patient’s praise in Philosophical Discourse · Passage 23: accurate translation preserves a character’s gratitude without turning it into the lexicon’s judgement of a physician or treatment.

Printed forms

Attested forms: Amor Proximi (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 11 — 1682 p. 58); Oel göttlicher Barmhertzigkeit (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 11 — 1682 p. 58); GOttes Ehr (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 3 — 1682 pp. 50–51); armen Krancken (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 3 — 1682 pp. 50–51); veris Amatoribus (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 3 — 1682 pp. 50–51); Licht der Natur (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 18 — 1682 p. 60); curam fidelium (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 18 — 1682 p. 60); Glauben (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 18 — 1682 p. 60); Warheit (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 19 — 1682 pp. 60–61); Weißheit (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 19 — 1682 pp. 60–61); Kunst (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 19 — 1682 pp. 60–61); Harmonie (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 19 — 1682 pp. 60–61); Theologus (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 19 — 1682 pp. 60–61); Astronomus (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 19 — 1682 pp. 60–61); Medicus (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 19 — 1682 pp. 60–61); Magia (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 19 — 1682 pp. 60–61); Cabala (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 19 — 1682 pp. 60–61); Philosophia (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 19 — 1682 pp. 60–61). Their local senses and relationships are explained above; inflected forms and historical signs are retained.