Book 1. TAe Temple tj/Wifdome. 143

of heaffirmes to be made, in the fame manner that others are. In Cxlo^ Apologet, Ed Lug, Bat, An, \6\j. (Taith he Jinferti &impre(fi hujufntodi Char uteres, qui H6n atiter epc fiellarum ordtnibus cofjflantur^ quam linea Geometric £^ & Liter £Vulgares^ expmciis', Superficies y ex lineis ; & corpus^ exfuperficiebus i at length conclu- ding, that who Co is able to read thefe Charafters, fhall know not only what ever is to come, but aifo all the Secrets of Philofophy. F0L62, guibushujuf" modi lingua^ & Scripture ArcamfiharaBerumque abdi^ toYumcognitio a Deo concejfa eji, his etiam datum erit^ veras rerum naturaSy mutationes, aleraticnes, & proprie* tatesfiderunty ontnefq-j alias operationes & execntiones^ ocu^ lis qua ft illuminatis legere^ & legendo intdligere.
But of all the Moderns, who have fpokeii of thefe Celeftial Charafters, Tojlell is the only man, who feemeth to have had thegreateftknowledgin them 5 as may appear,out of the greateft part of his Books , among which, that which he hath written upon the Jethfira^ gives us an Account of what himfelfe had experience of. Si dixeroy me in Ccelo vldijfe^ in ipfis Lingu£ SanBa Charaderibus^ ab Efra primum publich expofitis ea omnia qu£ ftmt in rerum natura confiituta j ut vidiynon explicite^fed implicite j vix ullus mihi crididerit : tamen te(iis dTus^ & Chriftus ejus^ quia non mentior. Now that which makes me believe, that this learned man had fome grounds of this his Confident aflii- rance of having fuch knowledg in the Temple of VVifdome, is, that befide the experience which pof- iibly he might have had ; he had often alfo travailed in the Eaftsrn parts *, where he had no doubt feen the Books of the ^r^^'i^^i, which are all full of this kind of Secret learning. And John Leo, in his Hifto- ry of 4/ric^, affirmeth, that, in Marocca^ there is nothing more common: and the firft Book which
he
144 xAe Temple tf/ Wifdome. Book I.
he makes mention oF, is a Book written by Elhoniy sin Arabian, the Title whereof is, ELlTMABE- MOKAMITH : which Book fcarceiy treateth of any- thing elfe ; and it teacheth particularly, how to def- cribeall the Coiiftellations in A rabick Letters, and topifture theniElegamly within little Tables^fuch as the Arabians Hermitcs do alwaies carry about them, and have them ready for their life, in apply- ing them to the Rules of their Zairagla^ or Divina- tion. And this confirms that which I (hall brin^ hereafter, concerning the Mahometans fearchihg at- c^rno other Figures in the Heavens, then in their own Charafters, reading therein what ever is to happen, in a very ftrange, and unufual manner. Whence the fore-mentioned TofteU^ upon the fame Book of the Creation^ faith : Vecretl itaquefunt demum delineati^ fuifque figurU adumbrati igne divim in aquii Cceii fcilicet expreffo fandi Charaderes^ & tanta virtute in CcelisexpreJJi, utpffit etiam Veritas futurorum haberi : cujus fcienti£ adhuc vefUgium in ^Vlarocho, et muhii alijs Ifmaelitarum civitatibus ; lecH jint apud eos admodkm depravat£, & adult er at £ figure Sand£. I havefome- times thought, that this Author put forth this Book of hisPe Configuratione SigHornm Ccelejiiunt^ as a P re- parative only, to make way for the b ning of this Dof^rinc, among thz Europeans, For having (hewed, that all the Scars, inftead of rcpre- fenting the Images of living Creatures, do no more but only make up certain fqiiare Figures -, ic would have been no hard matter afterwards, to haveper- fvi^aded men, thatthefe Figures were nothing, but Hebrew Letters, the figure whereof comes very near to that of a Square. For if he (hould have gone to work ocherwife, and fhould have cndeaA^oured to have put thefe Celeftial Letters upon the world,
withot;^c