Dedication to Dr Trigge, to the reader, commendatory verses, and the prologue

To the worthily respected, and his much honoured Friend, Doctor Trigge, Doctor in PHYSICK; Robert Turner wisheth health and happiness.

Honoured Sir,

THe successful experience and large practice which you have had in the Operations of Nature, (I mean in the practical part of Physick) hath invited me to present this piece of that most renowned Physitian Paracelsus to your Patronage; which I have endeavoured to bring into a garbe suitable, as neer as I can, to our English fashion; though perhaps it's not so finely accoutred, and dressed A la mode, as to suit with every critical or captious Fancy: But as this Author in his time was too learned and sincere in the method of his practice, to suit with general Sophistry of the wilfully ignorant Conclave of Physitians; so I doubt not, but you have met with some Invectives amongst our common Collegians, who ground the greatest reason of their Recipes from a Galen's or a Pliny's Probatum: But as this famous Author made Reason and Experience his greatest Guide, so I am assured you do; and therefore valued not the Calumnies, Oppositions, and Obtrectations of his Adversaries. Sir, this little Treatise presents you with the rare secrets of Alchymy, and the miraculous Cures of Diseases by Sigils and Lamens, made in their proper seasons, and attributed to the nature of Celestial Bodies; which to many Ignorants seems impossible, and is by them vilified because not understood: I therefore make bold to crave your protection, which may sufficiently arm it against all Opposites. And be pleased to pardon my boldness herein, and admit of this my labour into your Patronage; that your favourable acceptance hereof may be a future encouragement to

August 20. 1655. Yours to Command, R. Turner.

To the READER.

Courteous Reader,

IN this last Iron age, ignorance hath so much prevailed, that many have, and yet do plead for it, and strive to uphold it, crying down all Arts, and endeavouring to hood-wink knowledge; so that nothing but the feces and dreggs of Art seems to remain: so that they seem but shadows, if compared with that pristine learning of the Ancients. What golden Legends formerly flourished among the Hebrews, and Aegyptians, and are now even almost all lost in Oblivion? But because Babels confusion is one great reason of the decay of Sciences, which are not in every Mother-tongue understood, and the disposition of most people of our times is to breed their children up bett[…]ed then taught, their conditions are rather to pou[…] into the earth, Unde effodiuntur opes irritamenta malorum; then to look Heavenwards with that O sublime wherewith they were created which the Poet tells of, […] Ovid me[…].

Os homini sublime dedit […]lumque vider[…] jussit, &c.

Whereas all beasts look down with Groveling eye,
To man God gave looks mixt with […],
And will'd him with bold face to view the Sky.

And therefore I present the ingenious Reader with a part of the Workes of the renowned Paracelsus of the secrets of Alchymy, Occult Philosophy, and the wonderfull operation of the Celestial bodyes, in curing diseases by sigils and characters, made and applyed in fit elected times and seasons, and under their proper constellations, as the Author hath directed. I must expect the sottish Malignant censures of Zoylus and Momus, and such fools: but the Author himself in his Prologue in the ensuing discourse, sufficiently cleares all objections, and therefore I shall save that labour; onely I would have such men not be so wilfully ignorant, as altogether to forget, that the Heavens declare the glory of God, and the Firmament sheweth his handy-worke. Indeed Mechanicks and Empiricks do abuse all Arts: One Mountebank railes in verse against Astrology, and impudently calls the professors thereof cheaters, (Sed seipsum intueri oportet) and gives this to be his onely reason, that a fools bolt is soon shot; and that he endeavoured to vil[…]fie that Art, because he was altogether ignorant of it himself, and would gladly learn it; but he knew not how nor which way to begin: another (and too many such render the Art vile) Poetizes upon the Art of Astrologie, and pretends to cure all diseases and know all things by it, and indeed knows nothing: such are a great Scandal to the excellency of such Sciences: Sed non loquor stultis. This translation is rendered rather Grammatically then Sententially, according to the Authors own phrase: shortly expect (Deo volente) the other parts hereof, and some comments on this and them, together with the famous art of Steganography, Authore Tritemio, to speak our own Language; and perhaps the Occult Philosophy of Agrippa digested into a plainer method: this should have been now inlarged, but presens Status noster is the reason, and the excuse the same as Ovid's: Nubila sunt subitis tempora nostra malis.

It is the General opinion of most ignorant people, to count all things that are above their Vulgar apprehensions, to be diabolicall, and meerly brought to pass by the works of the Devil: and under that notion they conclude all the secret and Magnetick operations of nature, and thereby rob God the creator of all things, of that glory that is due unto him onely, and attribute the same to the Devil the enemy to God and all the world: I shall therefore here take occasion to tell such people (because their Priests, that should teach them knowledge, either cannot or else will not) what the Devil is. As in the Microcosmus or little world Man, the Soul is the best part, and the excrements the worst; so in the great world, as the Universal creating spirit is the best part, so is the Devil the excrement of that Universal Spirit, and the abject and Caput mortuum of the world; and the poorest and most wretched of all created beings: And that worketh a great Antipathy between him and us, and the blessed holy Angels, who are our Governors and Protectors, and continual guardians, and are continually employed about us, according to their orders and ministeries appointed them by the most High: although the Devil alwayes endeavoureth to imitate and counterfeit the good Angels, and thereby deceiveth many whose wickedness and malice suits with his nature, and at which the good Angel being grieved, leaves them; and many times for the wickedness of some Person or Family, the good Angel curses such a person and family, or house; then the wicked Spirit haunts such houses, affrighting the people with many fearful apparitions; neither can that house be quiet, nor any such person; neither shall any of the Generation of any such family prosper untill that curse be expiated, and the angry Angel appeased; as this Author will tell you, and woful experience daily shews: how frequently, and familiarly did those blessed Angels visibly communicate with the holy men and Magicians of old! though now such is the wickedness of our age, that they have almost quite forsaken us: although they are alwayes present about us, though invisible, administring to us according to the orders given unto them from the second Hierarchy, who receive the same from the first Hierarchy, who always attend before the Throne of the divine Majesty, offering up the prayers of the Saints, &c. If any one account this superstition, I hope I shall never be of the Number of those who for fear of being superstitious, have reformed themselves and hunted Religion till they have lost the sent of it, into meer Atheism and profaness. But lest I should digresse Ultra Crepidam, and make a gate bigger then the City, I will here conclude my self, Esse idem qui sum,

A Studio Divinae Contemplationis, August, 1655. Robertus Turner.

In Commendation of his Friend's Translation.

THrice-welcome Paracelsus, most renown'd
Hermetick and Philosopher by fire,
Now in an English garb thou comest crown'd,
What need we for our Chymistry soar higher?
Since thou reveal'st with thy Prophetick Pen,
All's needful to be known by th' Sons of Men.
And thou, my noble Friend, who thus hast drest
Him in our English Fashion, dost deserve,
With Laurel to be crowned with the rest
Of those who dayly do Urania serve.
Let wry-mouthed Cynicks, prate, preach, foam, and fret,
Hermes true Sons will not thy love forget.
Fare ever well, so ever wishes he
Who is more yours, then he can seem to be.

W. F. Astrophilus.

An Encomium upon his Friend the Translator's elaborate pains.

FLy Galen hence, Hippocrates be gone;
I will preserve my choice: this is that One,
Whose true Elixir doth preserve the frame
Of Man's frail Nature, vivifies the same;
By heavenly constellated Medicine,
Which vulgars count but Dross, I count Divine.
Let Zoil's and Momus 's intoxicated brains
Dispraise the Author's works; Translator's pains
I'll foster, cherish with undaunted part
This true sublime Spagyrick noble Art.
Proceed then, Friend, make all speak English: why
Should we be barr'd our Native Liberty?

W. Ryves, Philomedicus.

The Prologue.

HAving first invocated the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour, we will enterprize this Work; wherein we shall not only teach how to change any inferiour Metal into better, as Iron into Copper, this into Silver, and that into Gold, &c. but also to help all infirmities, whose cure to the opinionated and presumptuous Physitians, doth seem impossible: But that which is greater, to preserve, and keep mortal men to a long, sound, and perfect Age. This ART was by our Lord God the Supream Creator, ingraven as it were in a book in the body of Metals, from the beginning of the Creation, that we might diligently learn from them. Therefore when any man desireth throughly and perfectly to learn this Art from its true foundation, it will be necessary that he learn the same from the Master thereof, to wit, from God, who hath created all things, and onely knoweth what Nature and Propriety he himself hath placed in every Creature. Wherefore he is able to teach every one certainly and perfectly: and from him we may learn absolutely, as he hath spoken, saying, Of me ye shall learn all things: for there is nothing found in Heaven nor in Earth so secret, whose properties he perceiveth not, and most exactly knoweth and seeth, who hath created all things. We will therefore take him to be our Master, Operator, and Leader into this most true Art. We will therefore imitate him alone, and through him learn and attain to the knowledge of that Nature, which he himself with his own finger hath engraven and inscribed in the bodies of these Metals. Hereby it will come to pass, that the most high Lord God shall bless all the Creatures unto us, and shall sanctifie all our Wayes; so that in this Work we may be able to bring our Beginning to its desired End, and the Consequence thereof to produce exceeding great Joy and Love in our Hearts.

But if any one shall follow his own onely Opinion, he will not onely greatly deceive himself; but also all others who cleave and adhere thereunto; and shall bring them unto loss. For mankinde is certainly born in ignorance, so that he can neither know nor understand any thing of himself; but onely that which he receiveth from God, and understandeth from Nature. He which learneth nothing from these, is like the Heathen Masters and Philosophers, who follow the Subtilties and Crafts of their own Inventions and Opinions, such as are Aristotle, Hippocrates, Avicenna, Gallen, &c. who grounded all their ARTS upon their own Opinions onely. And if at any time they learned any thing from Nature, they destroyed it again with their own Phantasies, Dreams, or Inventions, before they came to the end thereof; so that by them and their Followers there is nothing perfect at all to be found.

This therefore hath moved and induced us hereunto, to write a peculiar book of Alchymy, founded not upon men, but upon Nature it self, and upon those Vertues and Powers, which GOD with his own Finger hath impressed in Metals. Of this impression Mercurius Trismegistus was an Imitator, who is not undeservedly called the Father of all Wise-men, and of all those that followed this ART with love, and with earnest desire; and that man demonstrateth and teacheth, that God alone is the onely author, cause and Original of all creatures in this ART. But he doth not attribute the power and virtue of God, to the creatures or visible things, as the said heathen, and such-like did. Now seeing all ART ought to be learned from the Trinity; that is, from God the Father, from God the Son of God, our Saviour Jesus Christ, and from God the holy Ghost, three distinct persons, but one God: We will therefore divide this our Alchymistical worke into three parts, or Treatises: in the first whereof, we will lay down what the ART containeth in it self; And what is the propriety and nature of every Metal: Secondly, by what means a man may worke and bring the like powers and strength of Metals to effect. And thirdly, what Tinctures are to be produced from the Sun and Moone.