heir comming. His
bookes yet remainyng, hereof, are good profe: And the noble Earle of
_Mirandula_, (besides that,) a sufficient witnesse: that _Ioachim, in
his prophesies, proceded by no other way, then by Numbers Formall_. And
this Earle hym selfe, in Rome,

[Ano. 1488.]

* set vp 900. Conclusions, in all kinde of Sciences, openly to be
disputed of: and among the rest, in his Conclusions _Mathematicall_, (in
the eleuenth Conclusion) hath in Latin, this English sentence. _By
Numbers, a way is had, to the searchyng out, and vnderstandyng of euery
thyng, hable to be knowen. For the verifying of which Conclusion,
I promise to aunswere to the 74. Questions, vnder written, by the way of
Numbers_. Which Conclusions, I omit here to rehearse: aswell auoidyng
superfluous prolixitie: as, bycause _Ioannes Picus, workes_, are
commonly had. But, in any case, I would wish that those Conclusions were
red diligently, and perceiued of such, as are earnest Obseruers and
Considerers of the constant law of numbers: which is planted in thyngs
Naturall and Supernaturall: and is prescribed to all Creatures,
inuiolably to be kept. For, so, besides many other thinges, in those
Conclusions to be marked, it would apeare, how sincerely, & within my
boundes, I disclose the wonderfull mysteries, by numbers, to be atteyned
vnto.

Of my former wordes, easy it is to be gathered, that _Number_ hath a
treble state: One, in the Creator: an other in euery Creature (in
respect of his complete constitution:) and the third, in Spirituall and
Angelicall Myndes, and in the Soule of man. In the first and third
state, _Number_, is termed _Number Numbryng_. But in all Creatures,
otherwise, _Number_, is termed _Number Numbred_. And in our Soule,
Number beareth such a swaye, and hath such an affinitie therwith: that
some of the old _Philosophers_ taught, _Mans Soule, to be a Number
mouyng it selfe_. And in dede, in vs, though it be a very Accident: yet
such an Accident it is, that before all Creatures it had perfect beyng,
in the Creator, Sempiternally. _Number Numbryng_ therfore, is the
discretion discerning, and distincting of thinges. But in God the
Creator, This discretion, in the beginnyng, produced orderly and
distinctly all thinges. For his _Numbryng_, then, was his Creatyng of
all thinges. And his Continuall _Numbryng_, of all thinges, is the
Conseruation of them in being: And, where and when he will lacke an
_Vnit_: there and then, that particula