Sacred and Truly Christian Philosophy, or Cosmic Meteorology

PREFACE.

with their own imaginations. From this it happened that they attributed the efficacy of such great miracles and the glory of their effects not to God, the sole Creator, but to created Nature and the elements, which were brought forth and produced from the womb of that same Nature. From here came the origin of Idolatry; namely, the veneration of the Sun and Moon, the cult of Osiris and Isis, the worship of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercury, the sacrifices to the Sky, Ceres, Vesta, Proserpina, Vulcan, Pluto, and Neptune, and infinite other errors by which ignorant men are persuaded to wander away and depart from the contemplation of the true GOD JEHOVAH, rather than approaching a perfect knowledge of their Creator. The cause of this error, however, was an ignorance of the operation and property of the Divine Word and the Holy Spirit, and a neglect of the Holy Bible—the fountain and origin of all science and wisdom. But the Sacred Scriptures contain the secrets of the most holy Philosophy, revealed to us Christians, through which the miracles of the Word are manifested to us by the mediation of worldly Nature: just as it is explained in those writings: This Word was in the beginning (John 1) with God, and in God, and was God himself, and it was the light of the world, in which was life, and through this Word all things were made, and without it, nothing was made. original: "Hoc verbum fuisse in principio (Ioan. 1.) cum Deo, & in Deo & ipsum Deum, & quod fuerit mundi lux, in quo erat vita, & quod ab hoc verbo omnia sint facta, & sine eo nihil." Therefore, through true knowledge of the Word, we understand the nature of the Speaker Referring to God the Father as the "Speaker" who utters the "Word" (Christ)., since the Son has a relationship to the Father. When these two are known, the Spirit of holy discipline immediately follows, as the revelation proceeding from both. Therefore, he who does not know the Word of GOD knows nothing, since by the Word, God made all things (Wisdom 9:1) original: "quoniam verbo Deus fecit omnia Sap. 9. 1."; and he who does not understand it cannot understand the truth, because Christ is the only truth, the true GOD, and eternal life—or, as the Apostle intends in 1 Corinthians 1, the power and wisdom of GOD. From this it follows that those who do not know Him cannot centrally To know something "centrally" in alchemical thought means to know its inner essence or divine core, rather than just its outward appearance. know the things created by Him, nor their essences. From Him, in Him, and through Him are all things (as the Apostle says); to whom be praise and honor.

How great, then, is the madness in us Christians to venerate those pagan authors of philosophy and Medicine as if they were deities? To read their writings with such diligence and confidence, to hold their inventions and arts in such immense esteem, and to defend their opinions in public Schools with such obstinacy? Indeed, to cite their authorities so stably and firmly in our writings and disputes, as if they had been poured out and distilled onto the earth divinely from the heavens and immediately from GOD himself? For the sacred scriptures testify that Christ is the only truth, and every truth of things is from Him—the power and wisdom of GOD teaching all things. Who, then, of all the Philosophers, can demonstrate the nature or a natural thing by primary reasoning, if he is ignorant of the true and primary cause of things? Are we not also taught that there is no truth of science outside of the true gift of the Holy Spirit, seeing as He is the only Teacher of true doctrine and science? This can be gathered from many places in the sacred writings (Exodus 28:3; Exodus 31:2; and 35:30). Hence, that Royal Psalmist says in Psalm 119:99 with exultation: I have been made more intelligent than all my Teachers, because the testimonies of GOD are my meditation. original: "Omnibus Doctoribus meis intelligentior sum factus, quoniam testimonia DEI mea meditatio sunt." What then of that Aristotelian "Nature"? Surely it is either vain, or an attempt to explain the unknown by something even more unknown, since Aristotle himself was ignorant of the Cupid In Fludd's philosophy, "Cupid" or "Eros" represents the animating Spirit of Love and Desire that holds the universe together—a Christianized version of a Neoplatonic concept., who is the true and shining spirit of all wisdom, the light of the world, the glory of the truly wise, the life of creatures, the mind of souls, and the prince of reason, governing in the very center of natural things. Aristotle, Plato, Pythagoras, and Hippocrates undoubtedly perceived a great light in nature from afar, as they were instructed by the Ethiopians, Egyptians, Hebrews, and certain peoples of Armenia and the Arabs after long and tedious travels; but they then changed the names of the three principles of Moses and falsely attributed them to themselves. For what Moses called Darkness (or the potential principle), Aristotle called Prime Matter, Plato called Deformed Hyle (or the invisible and unformed species), Pythagoras called Unity, and Hippocrates called Deformed Chaos (or the disturbed universal mass). What Moses designated as Waters, Aristotle called Secondary Matter, Plato called Spirit, and Pythagoras called the Dyad original: "Diadem" – likely a Latinization of the Greek "Dyas," referring to the Pythagorean number two or duality.; Hippocrates, along with Anaximenes, called it the vast and universal air of the world. So also Light, the third principle of Moses,