dge of
Illumination, or Reuelation from heauen) No mortall mans wyt (naturally)
is hable to reach vnto, or to Compasse. And, veryly, by my small Talent
(from aboue) I am hable to proue and testifie, that the litterall Text,
and order of our diuine Law, Oracles, and Mysteries, require more skill
in Numbers, and Magnitudes: then (commonly) the expositors haue vttered:
but rather onely (at the most) so warned: & shewed their own want
therin. (To name any, is nedeles: and to note the places, is, here, no
place: But if I be duely asked, my answere is ready.) And without the
litterall, Grammaticall, Mathematicall or Naturall verities of such
places, by good and certaine Arte, perceiued, no Spirituall sense
(propre to those places, by Absolute _Theologie_) will thereon depend.

[->]

"No man, therfore, can doute, but toward the atteyning of knowledge
incomparable, and Heauenly Wisedome: Mathematicall Speculations, both of
Numbers and Magnitudes: are meanes, aydes, and guides: ready, certaine,
and necessary." From henceforth, in this my Preface, will I frame my
talke, to _Plato_ his fugitiue Scholers: or, rather, to such, who well
can, (and also wil,) vse their vtward senses, to the glory of God, the
benefite of their Countrey, and their owne secret contentation, or
honest preferment, on this earthly Scaffold. To them, I will orderly
recite, describe & declare a great Number of Artes, from our two
Mathematicall fountaines, deriued into the fieldes of _Nature_. Wherby,
such Sedes, and Rotes, as lye depe hyd in the ground of _Nature_, are
refreshed, quickened, and prouoked to grow, shote vp, floure, and giue
frute, infinite, and incredible. And these Artes, shalbe such, as vpon
Magnitudes properties do depende, more, then vpon Number. And by good
reason we may call them Artes, and Artes Mathematicall Deriuatiue: for
(at this tyme) I Define

[An Arte.]

+An Arte, to be a Methodicall complete Doctrine, hauing abundancy of
sufficient, and peculier matter to deale with, by the allowance of the
Metaphisicall Philosopher: the knowledge whereof, to humaine state is
necessarye.+ And that I account,

[Art Mathematicall Deriuatiue.]

+An Art Mathematicall deriuatiue, which by Mathematicall demonstratiue
Method, in Numbers, or Magnitudes, ordreth and confirmeth his doctrine,
as much & as perfectly, as the matter subiect will admit.+ And for that,
I entend to vse the name and propertie of a

[A Mechanitien.]

_Mech