Chemical-Philosophical Treatise on Natural and Supernatural Things

with which the Magi from the East were instructed, who judged by divine inspiration and lawful art, indeed from that which the ancients before us obtained and which the Egyptians and Arabs possessed, who, before the invention of writing, noted and observed things through signs, characters, and others of that kind. Nor is the use of these expiations forbidden, which we read in scripture that Christ Himself employed: And taking the children, He blessed them by laying His hands upon them. But whatever in these things is contrary to GOD and His word is deservedly to be repudiated and not permitted, because it is certain that it is done not by GOD but by the Devil himself. But supernatural things that are not adverse to GOD or His word are referred to Magic, which is without the detriment of the soul.

Regarding visions, which frequently happen to men of GOD, they also deservedly claim a place for themselves among things alien to nature. For whatever a man must attain in his mind by speculating is supernatural; conversely, that which a man can touch, see, and grasp is natural.

The third order of natural and supernatural things consists in Medicine, in the virtue of any thing, which Medicine of any thing must first be elicited from a speculable, comprehensible, and natural body and promoted into a more amended, spiritual, and supernatural operation, so that the spirit, which was infused and granted to the body at the beginning for living, may be freed and penetrate to operate. It is like spiritual nature and fire, to which its vents are left for burning, and there is nothing to impede it that could suffocate, extinguish, and interrupt the burning life. Otherwise, if the separation of soul and spirit from the body is neglected, no virtual and convenient operation, as necessity would require, can follow. For whatever is comprehensible to the sight and is inseparable and corporeal exists as natural and corporeal. But as soon as the separation is made, with life departing from the body, the thing attains its full operation. And with the natural body separated, the spiritual nature is freed to penetrate and is turned into a spiritual and supernatural medicine. And briefly, all palpable things, none excepted, are natural, but they must be raised into a supernatural state if we are to destine them for Medicine. For the supernatural alone includes the living virtue of operating, while the natural possesses a dead and sensible form. For when Adam was created, he was lifeless and endowed with no life of any virtue, but as soon as the life-giving spirit approached, he displayed his living virtue and faculty with supernatural admiration, and thus in any thing, the natural and the supernatural are as one coupled thing and bound in its own dwelling, so that its perfection may remain for each. For all created things in this universe are in some way supernatural, as far as animated and spiritual things are concerned, but some are natural and supernatural, which concerns the elements as well as the firmament, and likewise minerals, vegetables, and animals, which is known from generation, when the soul goes out from the body and leaves its empty dwelling.

Furthermore, you will now observe that the macrocosm and microcosm were fashioned, formed, and created from the prima materia first matter through omnipotence in the beginning,