Were it not a precious thing that you could always live so, as if you had lived from the beginning of the world, and moreover as you should still live to the end therof. Were it not excellent, you dwell in one place, that neither the people which dwell beyond the River Ganges in the Indies could hide anything, nor those which live in Peru might be able to keep secret their counsels from thee.
Were it not a precious thing that you could so read in one only book, and withal by reading understand and remember all that, which in all other books (which heretofore have been, and are now and hereafter shall come out) hath been, is, and shall be learned, and found out of them.
How pleasant were it that you could so sing, that instead of stony rocks you could draw to thee pearls and precious stones, instead of wilde beasts, spirits, and instead of hellish Pluto, move the mighty Princes of the world.
O ye people, God’s counsel is far otherwise, who hath concluded now to increase and enlarge the number of our Fraternity, the which we with such joy have undertaken as we have heretofore obtained this great treasure without our merits, yea without any our hopes and thoughts, and purpose with the like fidelity to put the same in practice, that neither the compassion nor pity of our own children (which some of us in the Fraternity have) shall draw us from it, because we know that these unhoped for goods cannot be inherited, nor by chance be obtained.
If there be somebody now which on the other side will complain of our discretion, that we offer our Treasures so freely, and without any difference to all men, and do not rather regard and respect more the godly, learned, wise, or princely persons than the common people; those we do not contradict, seeing it is not a slight and easie matter; but without we signify so much, that our Arcana or Secrets will no ways be common, and generally made known. Although the Fama be set forth in five languages, and is manifested to every one, yet we do partly very well know that, the unlearned and gross wits will not receive nor regard the same; as also the worthiness of those who shall be accepted into our Fraternity are not esteemed and known of us by Man’s carefulness, but by the Rule of our Revelation and Manifestation. Wherefore if the unworthy cry and call a thousand times, or if they offer and present themselves to us a thousand times, yet God hath commanded our ears, that they should hear none of them: yea, God hath so compassed us about with his Clouds, that unto us his servants, no violence or force can be done or committed; wherefore we neither can be seen or known by any body, except he had the eyes of an Eagle. It hath been necessary the Fama should be set forth in every ones Mother Tongue, because those should not be defrauded of the knowledge thereof, whom (although they be unlearned) God hath not excluded from the happiness of this Fraternity, the which shall be divided and parted with certain degrees; as those which dwell in the city Damcar in Arabia, who have a far different politick order from the other Arabians. For there they do govern only wise men, who by the King’s permission make particular Laws; according unto which example, also the Government shall be instituted in Europe (whereof we have a description set down by our Christianly Father) when first is done and come to pass that which is to precede. And thenceforth our Trumpet shall publiquely sound with a loud sound, and great noise, when namely the same (which at this present is showed by few, and is secretly, as a thing to come, declared in Figures and Pictures) shall be free and publiquely proclaimed, and the whole world be filled withall. Even in such manner as heretofore, many godly people have secretly and altogether desperately pusht at the Pope’s Tyranny, which afterwards, with great earnest, and especial zeal in Germany, was thrown from his seat and trodden under foot, whose final fall is delayed, and kept for our times, when he also shall be scratched in pieces with nails, and an end be made of his Asses cry, by a new voyce: the which we know is already reasurably manifest and known to many learned men in Germany, as their writings and secret congratulations do sufficiently witness the same.
We could here relate and declare what all the time from the year of our Lord, 1378 (in which year our Christian Father was born) till now, hath happened, where we might rehearse what alterations he hath seen in the world these one hundred and six years of his life, which he hath left to our Brethren and us after his decease to peruse. But brevity, which we do observe, will not permit at this present to make rehearsal of it, till a more fit time; at this time it is enough for those which do not despise our declaration, having therefore briefly touched it, thereby to prepare the way for their acquaintance and friendship with us.
Yea, to whom it is permitted, that he may, and for his instruction use those great Letters and Characters which the Lord God hath written and imprinted in Heaven and Earth’s Edifice, through the alteration of Government, which hath been from time to time altered and renewed; the same is already (although as yet unknown to himself) ours: and as we know he will not despise our inviting and calling, so, none shall fear any deceit, for we promise and openly say, that no man’s uprightness and hopes shall deceive him, whosoever shall make himself known unto us under the Seal of Secrecy, and desire our Fraternity.
But to the false Hypocrites, and to those that seek other things than Wisdom, we say and witness by these presents publickly, we cannot be made known and be betrayed unto them, and much less they shall be able to hurt us any manner of way without the Will of God; but they shall certainly be partakers of all the punishment spoken of in our Fama; so their wicked counsels shall light upon themselves, and our Treasures shall remain untouched, until the Lion doth come, who will ask them for his use, and employ them for the Confirmation and Establishment of his kingdom. We ought therefore here to observe well, and make it known unto every one, that God hath certainly and most assuredly concluded to send and grant to the world before her end, which presently thereupon shall ensue, such a Truth, Light, Life, and Glory, as the first Adam had, which he lost in Paradise, after the which his successors were put, and driven with him to misery, wherefore there shall cease all servitude, falsehood, lyes, and darkness, which by little and little with the great World’s Revolution, was crept into all Arts, Works and Governments of Men, and have darkened the most part of them. For from thence are proceeded an innumerable sort of all manner of false opinions and heresies, that scarce the wisest of all was able to know whose Doctrine and Opinion he should follow and embrace, and could not well and easily be discerned, seeing on the one part they were detained, hindered, and brought into Errors through the respect of the Philosophers and learned men, and on the other part through true experience. All the which when it shall once be abolished and removed, and instead thereof a right and true Rule instituted, then there will remain thanks unto them which have taken pains therein, but the Work itself shall be attributed to the Blessedness of our Age.
As we now willingly confess, that many principal men by their Writings will be a great furtherance unto this Reformation which is to come; so we desire not to have this honour ascribed to us, as if such work were only commanded and imposed upon us; but we confess, and witness openly with the Lord Jesus Christ, that it shall first happen that the stones shall arise, and offer their service before there shall be any want of Executors and Accomplishers of God’s Counsel: yea, the Lord God hath already sent before certain Messengers, which should testifie his Will, to wit, some new Stars, which do appear and are seen in the Firmament in Serpentario and Cygno, which signifie and give themselves known to every one that they are powerful Signacula of great mighty matters. So then, the secret hid Writings and Characters are most necessary for all such things which are found out by men, although that great Book of Nature stand open to all men, yet there are but few that can read and understand the same. For as there is given to man two instruments to hear, likewise two to see, and two to smell, but only one to speak, and it were but vain to expect speech from the ears, or hearing from the eyes: so there hath been Ages or Times which have seen, there have also been Ages that have heard, smelt and tasted: now there remains that which in short time, honour shall be likewise given to the Tongue, and by the same, what before times hath been seen, heard, and smelt, now finally shall be spoken, and uttered forth, viz., when the World shall awake out of her heavy and drowsie sleep, and with an open heart, bare-head and bare-foot, shall merrily and joyfully meet the now arising Sun.
These Characters and Letters, as God hath here and there incorporated them in the holy Scripture and the Bible, so hath he imprinted them most apparently into the wonderful Creation of Heaven and Earth, yea, in all Beasts. So that like as the Mathematician or Astronomer can long before see and know the Eclipses which are to come, so we may verily foreknow and foresee the darkness of Obscurations of the Church, and how long they shall last, from the which characters or letters we have borrowed our Magick writing, and have found out, and made a new language for ourselves, in the which withall is expressed and declared the nature of all things, so that is no wonder that we are not so eloquent in other languages, the which we know that they are altogether disagreeing to the languages of our forefathers, Adam and Enoch, and were through the Babylonical Confusion wholly hidden.