[I. D. * Herein, I would gladly shake of, the earthly name, of Geometrie.]
_Megethologicall_ Contemplations: wherby, to trayne our Imaginations and Myndes, by litle and litle, to forsake and abandon, the grosse and corruptible Obiectes, of our vtward senses: and to apprehend, by sure doctrine demonstratiue, Things Mathematicall. And by them, readily to be holpen and conducted to conceiue, discourse, and conclude of things Intellectual, Spirituall, æternall, and such as concerne our Blisse euerlasting: which, otherwise (without Speciall priuiledge of Illumination, or Reuelation frõ 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 groũd 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