PREFACE.

It is in my mind—and I trust it should seem adverse or injurious to no one—if I, a Professor of Medicine, in imitation of my Theo-Philosophical and Medical Patron, namely the divine Saint Luke St. Luke was traditionally identified as a physician; the author uses him as a model for combining healing with spiritual wisdom, should make use of the testimony of Holy Scripture along with the most efficacious rudiments of that eternal Wisdom (inasmuch as it is that unique foundation or Cornerstone, upon which every creature is founded) to uphold the true and essential philosophy of Moses. If it were the office of Jacob’s Ladder that, by its mediation, both Souls and Angels might ascend from earth into heaven, and likewise descend from heaven to earth, and this by steps corresponding to both Elementary and celestial nature; or (as the Poet speaks mystically) if the Chain of Nature The "Golden Chain of Homer" or Catena Aurea, a common Renaissance concept linking all levels of existence from God down to inanimate matter has its upper ring fastened to the foot of Jove’s chair in Heaven, just as its lowest ring is bound to the earth: how is it possible for us earthly creatures—or rather divine images dwelling in tabernacles of clay—to ascend from the confused chaos of the creature (as if from its exterior) toward the splendid Essence of the Creator hiding in its center, to seek out and investigate the mysteries of an opposing wisdom, unless we first look into the earth itself, its circumference or habitation, with Lyncean eyes? Lyncean: sharp-sighted, referring to Lynceus the Argonaut who could see through solid objects And then afterwards, by descending deeper step by step, we may gradually reach at last the central seat of divinity or the truly Cornerstone, upon which every creature is founded and established; for he is the Word without whom nothing exists—that is, the incorruptible Spirit of God, which is in every thing, or that supreme Divinity which gives life to all things, and causes all things to be and to exist. It is, finally, that Form of forms, which is the Being of Beings, and All in All.

If, therefore, God made all creatures in and through his eternal Word, gave them life, and has preserved each of them in its own species even unto this day, who (I pray), however skilled among the Philosophers, can unfold the mysteries of the Creator in the Creature, or discern with mental judgment the Creator in the creature without the documents of the Holy Scriptures and the guidance of the Holy Spirit? Shall we, by imitating the Agarenes Descendants of Hagar; often used biblically to represent those outside the covenant or those seeking wisdom in the wrong places and those who were in Teman, leave behind the fountain of all Wisdom to seek true Wisdom where it is not to be found? And yet, nevertheless, far be it from anyone to interpret my intention or mind in this work sinisterly, or rashly think that I contend to either violate or attack the laws and statutes of sacred Theology established and ordained by the Ancient Fathers of the Church.

But I would have him know that, just as one and the same text in Holy Scripture is accustomed to claim for itself a double sense—namely, an internal or Spiritual one, and an external or literal one—and yet each of these is true, even though they seem in some respect to be separated and discrepant from one another (not otherwise than how, under the name and person of one and the same man, we understand a twin nature, namely the Spiritual Soul and the material body); so also, besides that mystical interpretation which the text of the Scriptures contains, it can outwardly express and delineate such created realities which primarily pertain to the true subject of the most Essential Philosophy.

Furthermore, it must be diligently considered that the subject and the Method of treating and proceeding in both professions—namely, Theology and true Philosophy—differ from each other in a certain way. For the former, namely Theology, indicates the sincere and naked nature of the divine Essence directly—that is, by a demonstration a priori a priori: reasoning from cause to effect, or from the universal to the particular—not otherwise than how, to prove the existence of a Circle, we begin the inquiry from the formal Center, or middle point, and so gradually descend to the circumference through the degrees of the radius. This latter, namely Philosophy, proceeds in its inquiry by a contrary action and method; for it ascends from the circumference of the creature or the created organ (as if by an external demonstration a posteriori a posteriori: reasoning from observed effects back to their causes) toward its central essence, so that by this industry we may investigate that radical internal Spirit which acts and works within it.