Lesser-Key-Of-Solomon

PART V: THE NOTORY ART OF SOLOMON
20I
heed, that on these dayes you abstain from all sin, as drunkenness, gluttony,
especially swearing, before you proceed thereunto, that your knowledge
therein may be the more deer and perfect.
Wherefore Solomon saith, When I was to pronounce these Orations,
I feared lest I should offend God; and I appointed unto my self a time
wherein to begin them; that living chastly, I might appear the more
innocent.
These are the Prooemiums [preliminaries]ofthese Orations, that I might
lay down in order every thing whereof thou maist doubt, without any other
definition. And before thou begin to try any of these subtile works, it is
good to fast two or three dayes; that it may be divinely revealed, whether
thy desires be good or evil.
These are the precepts appointed before every operation; but if thou
doubt of any beginning, either of the three first Chapters, or of the four
subsequent Arts, that thou maist have the effect of perfect knowledge; if
thou consider and pronounce the Orations, as they are above described,
although thou overpass somthing ignorantly; thou maist be reconciled by
the spiritual virtue of the subsequent Orations.
The Angel said of these Orations to Solomon: See the holiness ofthese
Orations; and if thou hast transgrest any therein presumptuously or ignorantly,
say reverently and wisely these Orations, of which the great Angel
saith: This is a great sacrament of God, which the Lord sendeth to thee by
my hand; at the veneration ofwhich sacrament, when King Solomon offered
with great patience before the Lord upon the Altar, he saw the book covered
with fine linen, and in this book were written 10 Orations, and upon
every Oration the sign ofgolden Seal: and he heard in his Spirit, These are
they which the Lord hath figured, and are far excluded from the hearts of
the unfaithful.
Therefore Solomon trembled lest he should offend the Lord, and kept
them, saying it was wickedness to reveal them to unbelievers: but he that
would learn any great or spiritual thing in any Art or necessary Science, if
he cannot have a higher work, he may say these Orations at what time
soever he will; the three first, for the three first liberal Arts; a several Oration
for every several Art, or generally all the three for the three Arts are to
be said; and in like manner the four subsequent Orations, for four other
liberal Arts. And if thou wouldst have the whole body ofArt, without any
definition of time, thou maist pronounce these Orations before the several
Arts, and before the Orations and Notes of these Arts, as often as thou
wilt, fully, manifestly and secretly; but beware that thou live chastly and
soberly in the pronounciation thereof.