in his knowledge Whereupon Pope Innâ—cent the 3. in a Sermon upon the Holy Spirit sets down that hee was sent to the Disciples in shape of fire to mâ—ke them shine by wisdome and to warm them by charity that which regulates and forms life and wisdom forms doctrine and as this fire hath life and heat by which it purifieth and cleanseth so the Holy Ghost by its light illuminates the spirit of man by wisdome and repurgeth it by its ardent charity This is the fire with which the inner man should be salted for to salt bake and burn doe communicate their appellations and significations by their consemblable proprieties and effects because that Salt boils in the tastes by reason of its acrimony and fire the sense when it burnes and a thing salted is half boiled as is before said as well to make it of more easie digestion as to conserve it longer which are the proprieties and effects of fire But to mount from fire here below to the Celestiall which is the Sunne the eye and heart of the sensible world and the visible Image of the invisible God Saint Denis cals it an all-apparent and cleare Statue of God and Iamblichus the Image of Divine intelligence the father of life the Image and portraict of the Prince and Soveraigne Dominator of all the universe the light of the one and the other world the Celestiall and Elementary But may we not here alledge at once this brave authority of Plutarch on the interpretation of the word El where after he had turned it and returned it about a pot by many discourses which at last concluding nothing vanished away in smoak he concludes that this word as indeed it is would say nothing else but thou art which hath been drawn from the two first letters of the holy four lettered word JEHOVAH transposed the one before the other in the Greek E.L. which sheweth that they have all drunke of this Caballine or Mosaicall fountaine And at last come to say We worship God in his essence by our thoughts and reverence the Sun which is its Image for the vertue which it hath given it to produce things here below only representing by its splendor which he communicates to all I know not what appearance or rather shadow of beatitude and mercy so much as it is possible for a visible Nature to represent an Intelligible and a moving to that which is immoveable and stable We see the Sunne as wel as fire but not so neare to be able so exactly to marke it we shall very well conjecture in our spirit of that which we may well apprehend by sight that this must be the most admirable peece of worke of all visible Creatures For although it appears unto us little bigger then a dish or platter in regard of the great distance betwixt us and it so that I tremble to conceive it after the very demonstrations Mathematicall which are certaine and infallible yet it is many times greater then the Globe of the Earth and Water joined together which containeth more then 6000 miles about an apparent witnesse of the wisdome and greatnesse of its Architect Of which Ecclesiasticus in the 43. chapter makes this fine Epiphonema Who is he that can ever satisfie himself to contemplate the glory of the Creator the Firmament in its height which comprehends all things under it so pure and cleare and the forme of this vast and immense hollow of Heaven so faire and admirable to the sight Is not this an apparent vision of his glorious and triumphant Majesty The Sunne at his rising shewing the light of the day an admirable vessell arrived in the middle of his dayly Carreer it burns and rosteth the earth and who is it that can subsist before its extreame heat It burneth thrice double the mountains more then the fiery furnaces the pottery which they put to scum off exhaling from it selfe flaming vapors and a splendor which darkens the most strong assured sight Surely the Lord which hath made and formed it of nothing so fair so great and admirable may well say it to be greater then his owne worke and which hasteth it so speedily as to measure this incomprehensible space in 24 hours With the surplus of this discourse which refers it selfe and is as a Paraphrase upon the 19. Psal where in few termes there are touched three principall points of the Sunne Its beauty compared to a spouse comming out of his bed chamber and he as a Bâ—idegroome comming out of his chamber his force and impetuosity as a Giant to runne his course nor is there any thing that can hide himselfe from the heat thereof And its extream celerity his going forth is from the end of the Heaven and his circuit to the ends of it So that as Saint Augustine in his third Sermon upon Advent there are three things in the Sunne its course its splendor and its heat the heat dries the splendor illuminates and its course runs through the universe And as in man which is the little world the heart is the chiefe seat of life first living and last dying So the Sunne in the great man which is the World is the spring the light and heat which vivifieth all things which imparteth to the Starres and to the Moone the light by which they shine even as Christ which is the Sunne of Righteousnesse and the light of our Souls which without it would remaine buryed in a blinde obscurity He that followes me shall not walke in darknesse but shall have the light of life which conserves it self for the good and extinguisheth it selfe against the wicked witnesse Job 18. The light of the wicked shall be put out Where light is such that sometimes the evill Angels transform themselves to deceive us for in as little as we can blow it backe behinde us it growes dead and dissipates But the true and right light doth illighten us without variation as well in the knowledge of God in this which dependeth on our Salvation as of things sensible and naturall whereunto the clearnesse of the Sunne and of Fire and their effects do guide us more then any other thing to apprehend some sparkle of this soveraigne Wisdome wherewith God built this great All by his Word For every science to which we may attaine by our ratiocination and discourse proceeds from the knowledge of sensible things for there is nothing in the intellect but was first in the sense but incertaine and variable to be in continuall variation and vicissitude So that the knowledge that comes from the light of Nature is very weake and full of doubts and incertitudes if it bee not illustrated by Divine Revelation which makes us see all as it is in its true and reall essence as the light of the Sunne doth all things corporall So that the most part of heathen Philosophers after they have alembeck't their spirit to the perquisition of naturall causes they finde themselves so confounded that they are
to which it doth adhere makes it vary And this it is in which it comes nearest to the Celestiall nature which is all Uniform in it self and so well regulated that it hath nothing unlike which maketh that the fire is repurgative above the rest of his fellow Elements to clear them and put in evidence In the 12. of St. Luke our Saviour warneth his Disciples to have their Lampes burning in their hands that their light might come to shine amongst men that their good workes may bee seen to glorifie their Father which is in heaven for hee that doth ill hates the light which Job saith is worse to Malefactors then the shadow of death It is the same also that Moses would secretly infer in the 3. of Gen. where hee makes God to walk at noon which is the clearest light of the day And the Apostle in the 1. of Tim. 6.16 saith that he dwells in light in accessible without which all would be confusedly folded up in hideous darknesse Let us then take heed that the light which hee hath pleased to put into our soul be not obfuscate and converted into black obscurity and that on this solid foundation which hee hath granted us of his knowledge wee build not hay wood and chaffe all things of themselves obscure and dark in lieu of gold silver pretious stones so clear shining and bright Let us hear again that which Zohar divinely discourseth of about fire and light upon the Text of the 4. of Levit. Thy Lord God is a consuming fire That there is one fire which devoures another being the stronger as wee may see in some burning firebrand or torch that which proceeds therefrom is of two sorts the one blew attached to a black match which retaineth it self there nourishing it self from corruption The other flame proceeding from the red inflamed Match is white and the blew is white in the highest as to return to the first originall this Homer was not ignorant of when in the 6. of his Odysses hee attributed to the Olympus a pure and bright splendor Nothing should better represent unto us the four worlds namely the white which is supercelestial the blew celestiall the match fired the Elementary and the burning darknesse Hell which abundantly shews us the body Rednes the vitall spirit resident in the bloud the blew the soul the white the intellect and the divine character imprinted in the soul and as the blew light doth quickly change into yellow quickly into white the soul also can doe the same according as it shall incline it self to good or to evill or whether shee follows the provocations of the flesh or the invitations and exhortations of the intellect following that which is written in the 4. Gen. 7. If thou doe well shalt thou not bee accepted and if thou dost not well sin lieth at the dore And unto thee shall bee his desire and thou shalt rule over him The white flame is alwayes the same without variation or change as doth the blew So the fire in this respect is fourfold Black in the lower part of its weik where the flame that is fastened to it is blew Red in the top of the weik and the flame white This which relates also to the four Elements black materiall to the Earth Blew more spirituall to the air Red to fire and white to water For heaven is composed of fire and water which is above the heavens Let the waters that are above the heavens praise the Lord. Yet neverthelesse all this is but fire as Moses the son of Maynon declares very well in the second Book of his Mor. chap. 31. where he saith that under the name of Earth are comprised the four Elements and by darknesse was understood the first fire for it is said in the of Deut. You have heard his words out of the midst of fire and then he adds of a sodain You have heard his voice out of darknesse This fire moreover was called the first fire because that is not it which is shining and clear but it is only so transparent to the sight as is the Air and could not comprehend it self therewith for if it were shining wee should in the night see all the air shine as fire And for that the darknesse which was first named denoted fire namely that whereof it is said that darknesse was upon the face of the Abysse because the fire was under the three Elements comprised under this word Abyssus There are other darknesses which follow after then when the separation of things was made and the Darknesses he called Night All this the foresaid Rabbin put out To which that would touch which the Alcoran carries in Azoare 65. I will send you a clear and beautifull fire All this which adheres then to the low black part is therwith consumed destroyed and holdeth place of death after which cometh true life the blue flame likewise if it therein degenerate and lets it predominate but the white doth not endeavor but to uncover it self here below to transport it self upwards and not suffer it self to bee over mastered by others And doth not devoure nor destroy nor is not thereby devoured nor his clear shining splendor altered as are those of the others By reason whereof wee must adhere and let our selves be salted with this white fire and bee illuminated with this fair white light that never varies following that which is said in the 4. of Deut. You which adhere to the Lord your God you are all living also as at this day But if our blew light the soul adhere to the black and to the red which are our sensualities and concupiscences the strange fire will force it selfe into us and will devoure and consume us This knowledge of the Elements and of their colours doth not insist only in composed bodies here below but thereby wee may mount as by Jacobs Ladder the height of this celestiall world where the Elements are also yet of another sort more simple and depured and from thence to passe beyond into the intelligible world where they are in their true essence for all consists in the four Elements Sons of wisdome understand saith Hermes in his Tract of 7. chapters not only corporally but also spiritually the science of the four Elements whose secret apparition is in no wise signified except they bee first compounded because of the Elements there is nothing made without their composition and Regiment Will we dive more deeply into the secrets of this Caball This Composition and Regiment of the Elements is no other thing then the Sacrosanct four-lettered ineffable Jehovah which comprehends all that which is was and shall bee where the little and finall ה notes the body and matter or other the like where the Fire cleaveth or fasteneth unto The ך vau or cloud copulative which assembles the two ה the intelligible and the sensible are the spirits that join the Soul with the Body the red inflammation of the coal or weik
of the aqua vitae Yet we see by experience in Germany and other cold Regions where aqua vitae is in good esteem as well for the quantity which they take it doth not for that make men drunke as wine would do in such a quantity as that wherewith it should be quenched and putting a little Salt in very strong wine it will make men drunk sooner then to drinke it pure I have often made tryall that often joyning together aqua vitae to that which men had drawne this mingling could not cause drunkennesse any more because the parts once separated of the compounded elements and then reconjoined take another nature then it had at the first Cerâ—tes it is a great support and comfort that aqua vitae hath for a weak stomach either through age or other accident although men thinke that it burnes and offends the noble parts for though it be inflamable it is not â—herefore burning He that would see the great vertues thereof let him read the Quintessâ—nces of Raimund Lullius Rupescissa Vlstadius his heaven of Philosophers for wee will not stay here as on a thing too triviall and beaten They call it the quintessence for the conformity it hath with the celestiall nature because that as the heaven which is as another Air but more subtill then the Elementary contains the Stars whence it receives divers impressions and effects that it doth infuse and communicate unto us here below the same Aqua vitae doth easily impregn it self with the qualities and specificall vertues which are therein put to infusion To this proposition of heaven and Stars and of their different impressions wee will not here passe over a fine dispute which here presents it self The Earl Pica de Mirandula truly a prodigious spirit accompanied with great Literature in his 3. Book against Judiciall Astrologâ— 25. chap. transported with too hot a curiosity to impugn this Art Will we saith he prove that the vertue of all the Stars is but even one Let us suppose this Maxime That the nature of heaven cannot more openly and sucinctly expresse then by saying heaven to be a unity of all bodies for there is nothing in all the universe that doth not depend upon this certain one as from his primitive course with many other premises wherewith hee would conclude that of the propriety and vertue of each Star indifferently depends the facultie and vertue of all the composed Elements without having there other difference between them if peradventure this was not in greatnesse as it is apparently seen nor can men say that one presides more particularly to one thing here below then to another for every Star presides to all so that if all were â—oined and united together in one onely body this should be as if infinite flames and fires should come to assemble to make but one which would be stronger then true but not of diverse propriety and nature which doth not change it self into homogeneall and homomaternall substances by a coacervation nor which comes to produce other effects then it did being separated as one may see in water and a great torch in respect of a little waxe light which will light infinite others as well as the torch though more powerfull to heat boil and burn as being in a greater volume But it is a very hard thing to overthrow an opinion already received of long durance chiefly if it bee supported with authority of holy Scripture which must bee to us as a touchstone by it to verifie our ratiocinations for the most part uncertain and erroneous if they bee not conducted by divine inspiration Is is written in the 147. Psal 5. He knoweth all the Stars and calleth them all by their names That if they have all different and particular names wherefore should it serve but to distinguish them in their effects proprieties qualities and vertues for the name of things imports the same Follow that which is said in the 2. of Gen. as Adam named every thing such was its true and proper name which Plato in his Cratylus saith is not onely the type and representation of things but their Essence And in this case there is a fair consideration to bee marked that God left to Adam the nomination of terrestriall things but reserved to himselfe that of Celestiall as hee expresseth in the 115. Psal 16. The Heaven of Heavens are the Lords but the Earth hath he given to the children of men which is as much to say according to Rabbi the Aegyptian in the 2. Book of his More or director 25. Cha. That the Creator knoweth himself alone the certain verity of the heavens what is their form substance and their motions but upon that under heaven he hath given power to man to know for Earth is properly mans world where hee produceth and the place of his conversation as long as hee liveth as fire and light attached to matter there where the causes upon which we might found our demonstrations concerning heaven are out of our knowledge being so far remote from us And in this case the Heaven of Heavens are the Lords there may be a double exposition according to the punctuation and reading That Heaven belongs to the Lord of Heaven and so the Hebrewes take it but who doubts but that the Earth also belongs to him as well as the Heaven The Earth is the Lords and the fulnesse thereof and in the 23. of Jer. Doe not I fill the Heaven and the Earth And the Heaven of Heavens is reserved for God and the Earth is left to the children of men which is a manner of speech usuall in the holy Scripture For if the Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens cannot comprehend thee saith Solomon to God for the Hâ—brewes metaphorically call Heaven things that are far distant from our sight and we also after their imitation as when wee speak of a Kite Heron or Gerfalcon when they fly so high that wee can hardly discern them that they goe to loose themselves in Heaven so that all which is here under the sphere of the Moon and generally all that is above us they call it Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens the Aethereall Region from the Moon to the Firmament as well the Firmament it self or the Empyrean Heaven But farther that the Stars should bee all of one nature propriety and effect to see them so like besides their greatnesse and clearnesse it follows not that the same appears of the same sort as of fire yet wee commonly call them fires and celestiall lights It is as if the seeds of trees and plants whereof there are infinite should all mixe together and the first buds also that they cast which differ as nothing but to the measure whereunto they grow their differences doe manifest them The Hebrewes hold that there is not so little and poor a herb on the Earth nor any other thing of the three kinds of the composed Mineralls Vegetables or animals that hath not above its
pretious our Saviour saith Take no care then how to cloth your body is not your body better then raiment and by consequent the soule more then the body since the body is but as it were the vestment of the soule which is subject to perish and to use all shall wax old as doth a garment And the Apostle in the 1 to the Corinthians The old man falleth away but the inner man is renewed dayly for it washeth it selfe according to Zohar by the fire as doth a Salamander and the outward man by water with Soaps and Lees that consist of Salts Of which two manners of repurging it is thus said in the 31. of Numb v. 23. All that which shall support the fire shall be purged thereby and that which cannot beare it shall be sanctified by the water of Purification which was a figure of that which the Fore-runner spake in the 3. of Matthew It is true that I baptize you with water unto repentance but he that comes after mee shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with Fire But behold how Zohar speakes more particularly If it bee so Adam what is he it is nought but skin and flesh and bones and nerves he must not passe so But to speak truth man is nothing else but the immortall soule that is in him and the skinne flesh bloud bones and nerves are the vestments wherein it is wrapped as a little creature newly borne within the beds and linnen of its Cradle These are but the utensils and instruments allotted to womens children not to man or Adam for when this Adam so made was elevated out of this world he is devested of those instruments wherewith he had beene clothed and accommodated This is the skinne wherewith the Son of man is envelopped with flesh bones and nerves and this consisteth in the secret mystery of Sapience according to that which Moses taught in the Curtains or Vails of the Tabernacle which are the inward vestment and the Tabernacle the outward To this purpose the Apostle in the fifth of the 2 to the Corinthians saith We know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have an Aedifice not built with mans hand but eternally permanent in the high Heavens For in this we groane earnestly desiring to bee clothed upon with our house which is from heaven if so be that being clothed wee shall not bee found naked So Adam in respect of his body is a representation of the sensible world where his skinne corresponds with the Firmament extending heaven like a Curtaine For as the heaven covereth and enveloppeth all things so doth the skin every man in which are introduced and fastned its starres and signes that is to say the draughts and lineaments in the hands the forehead and visage in which wise men know and reveale and makes them discerne the inclination of its naturall imprinted in the inward And he that doth conjecture from thence is as he to whom heaven being covered with Clouds cannot perceive the constellations that are there or otherwise darkened from his sight And although the sagest and most expert in these things can finde out something therein denoted by the draughts and lineaments of the palme of the hand and fingers or within them for by the outside it is case a part and shew nothing but the nailes which are not a little secret and mystery because by death they are obfuscate but have a shining lustre while they live in the haire eyes nose and lips and all the rest of his person For as God hath made the Sunne Moone and Stars thereby to declare to the great World not only the day night and seasons but the change of times and many signes that must appeare in the earth So hath he manifested in the little world Man certaine draughts and lineaments holding place of lights and starres whereby men may attaine to the knowledge of very great secrets not common nor knowne of all Hence is it that the Intelligences of the superiour world do distill and breath as it were by some channels their influences whereby the effects come to struggle and accomplish their effects here below as of things drawn with a rude and strong bow will plant themselves within a Butt where they rest themselves But to retake the discourse of this double man and the vestment of him the Apostle in the 1 Cor. 15. saith That there are bodies Celestial and bodies Terrestrial yet there is a glory both of the one and of the other There is a naturall or animall body and there is a body spirituall he will raise up the spirituall body incorruptible To this relates the Fire to the corruptible Salt From these vestments furthermore the occasion presents it selfe to a larger extension the better to declare who must be seasoned with Fire and who with Salt which is here expressed by the offering to whom the exteriour doth correspond according to the Apostle Rom. 12. I pray you brethren by the mercy of God that you offer up your bodies a living Sacrifice holy and acceptable unto him which is your reasonable service which it could not make it selfe the habitation of the Holy Ghost if it were not pure neat and incontaminate Know you not that your Body is the Temple of the holy Spirit which is in you which in Scripture is commonly designed by fire with which wee must be salted inwardly that is to say preserved from corruption and from what corruption from sinne that putrifies our soules Origen in his 7. book against Celsus speaking of its vestments sets downe that being of it selfe incorporeall and invisible in what corporall place soever it findes it selfe it must have a body convenable to the nature of the place where it resides As then when it is in this Elementary world it must have also an elementary body which it takes when it is incorporated in the belly of a woman to grow there and there to live this base life with the body that it hath taken to the limited terme which expired it devests it selfe of this corruptible vestment although necessary in the earth from whence it came following that which God said to Adam in the third of Genesis Thou art dust and shalt returne to dust to be revested with an incorruptible whose perpetuall abode is in Heaven For this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortall must put on immortality And so the soul putting off its first Terrestriall vestment takes another more excellent above in the Aethereall Region which is of the nature of Fire hitherto Origen to which nothing could be found more conformable then that which Pythagoras puts towards the end of his golden verses Thus forsaking this mortall body thou passest into the free Aethereall Aire you shall become an immortall God incorruptible and no more subject to death as if he would say that after this materiall corruptible body shall put off the Terrestriall and impure vestment the perfect portion of
addressing himselfe to God there is no resemblance nor any image interiour or exteriour but further thou hast created heaven and earth and produced out of those the Sunne and the Moon the Starres and the Signes of the Zâ—diack and in earth Trees and Herbs delights in Gardens with Beasts Birds and Fishes and at last Men that from thence things above might bee knowne And of the suâ—eriours the inferiours together so that the one and the other may bee governed Plutarch alledgeth in his Treatise of Osiris that in the City of Sais in Aegypt there was such an inscription in the Temple of Minerva borne out of Jupiters braine which is nothing else but the sapience of the Father I am that which was which is and which shall bee and as yet there is none amongst mortall men that hath yet discovered my vaile for Divinity is so wrapped in darkness that you cannot see day through it I see him not for hee is darkened with an over dark cloud said Orpheus and in the 17 Psal which made darkenesse his hiding place Further in the 4 of Deut. You came to the foot of a mountaine that burned even to heaven and therein was darkness thick clouds and obscurity for in regard of God towards us light and darknesse are but one thing as is his darknesse such is his light And in the 16 of Isaiah Make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noone day The very same as well the affirmative as the negative by which that which is aequippollent unto darknesse we may better apprehend something of the Divine Essence but not by the affirmative that relates unto light as Rabbi Moses doth excellently well dispute it in his 57. chapter of his first booke of More For the Divine light is insupportable above all to all his Creatures even to the most perfect following that which the Apostle sets downe in the 1 of Tim. 6. God dwels in light in accessible that no man can see So that it is to us in stead of darknesse as the brightnesse of the Sun is to Moulds Owles and other night birds which darknesses are the revestments and as the borders and cloisters of the light for represent to your selves some Lanthorne placed on the top of a mountaine all round about it as from the Center to the Circumference it shall spread its light equally as farre as it can extend it so that at the last darknesse will terminate it for darknesse is nothing else but the absence and privation of light Even the very same the exteriour man carnall animall is the coverture yea darknesse of the interiour spirituall after the manner or fashion of some Lanthorne of wood or stone and other darke matter which keeps that the light there shut in could not shew forth its light the Lanthorne symbolizing to the body and the light within to the soule But if the body bee subtiliated to an aethereall nature from thence it comes to passe as if the Lanthorne were of some cleare Crystall or of transparent horne for then the soule and its functions do shine there about openly without obstacle Sith then to the one of these two namely to the inner man is attributed fire that answers to the soule and salt to the outward man which is the body as the sacrifice or man animall is the revestment of the spirituall designed by the Man and by Fire The vestment of this Fire will bee Salt in which fire is potentially shut in for all Salts are of the nature of fire as being thereof begotten Geber saith that salt is made of every thing that is burned and by consequent participant of its proprieties which are to purge dry hinder corruption and unboile as wee may see in all salted things which are as it were halfe boiled and are kept longer uncorrupt then raw also in potentiall burning irons which burne and are nothing else but Salt Will it bee lawfull for us here to bring one entire passage of Rhases in a book of the Secret Triplicity for it is not common to all and wee will strongly insist on this number by reason of the three Fires and three Salts whereof wee pretend to Treat So that there is a Mystery in this number of 3 that must not bee forgotten for that it represents the operation whereof Fire is the Operator for 1 2 3 makes 6. the 6 dayes wherein God in the Creation of the world perfected all his workes and rested the seventh day There are saith Rhases three natures the first whereof cannot bee knowne nor apprehended but by a deepe elevated Meditation This is that all-good God Almighty Author and the first Cause of all things The other is neither visible nor tangible although men should bee all contrary that is to say heaven in its rarity The third is the Elementary World comprehending all that which is under the Aethereall Region is perceived and known by our senses Moreover God which was from all aeternity and with whom before the Creation of the world there was nothing but his proper name knowne to himselfe and his Sapience that which hee created on the first day was the water wherein hee mingled earth then came hee to procreate after that which had a beeing here below And in these two Elements thicke and grosse perceptible to our senses are comprehended the two other more subtill and rare Aire and Fire These four bodies being if we must call them bodies bound together with such a minglement that they could ot perfectly separate Two of them are fixed namely Earth nd Fire as being dry and solid the other two volatil Water and Aire which are moist and liquid so that each Element is agreeable to the other two wherewith is bounded and enclosed and by the same meanes containes two in it selfe the one corruptible the other not the which participates of the Divine nature and therefore there are two sorts of Waters the one pure simple and elementary and the other common which we use in Lakes Wels Springs and Rivers raines and other impressions of the Aire There is likewise a grosse Earth filthy and infected and a Virgin Earth crystalline cleare and shining contained and shut up in the Center of all the composed Elementaries where it remaines revested and covered with many foldings one upon another So that it is not easie to arrive there but by a cautelous and well graduated preparation by fire There is also a fire which is maintained almost of it selfe and as it were of nothing so small is the nourishment that it needeth whence it comes to bee more cleare and lucent and another obscure darke and burning and consuming all that to which it is fixed and it selfe at last And Aire on the other side pure and cleane with another corruptible full of legerity for of all the Elements there is none more easie to be corrupted then the aire all which substances so contrary and repugnant mingled with elementary bodies are the cause of
their destruction wherefore of necessity that which is pure and incorruptible must be separated from its contrary the corruptible and impure which cannot be done but by fire the separator and purificator But the three liquid Elements Water Aire and Fire are as inseparable one from the other for if the Aire were distracted from the fire the fire which hath therefrom one of its principall maintainments and food would suddenly extinguish and if the water were separated from the Aire all would bee in a flame That if the Aire should be quite drawne from the water for as much as by its legerity it holds it somewhat suspended all would be drowned Likewise if Fire should be separated from the Water all would bee reduced into a deluge For three Elements neverthelesse may well bee disjoined from the Earth but not wholly there must remaine some part to give consistence to the Body and render it tangible by the meanes of a most subtill and thinne portion thereof which they will elevate with them out of this gross thickness that remaines below as wee may sensibly see in glass which by an industrious Artifice of fire is depured of the darknesse that was in the ashes to passe from thence to a transparent clearnesse which is of the nature of Fire and indissoluble Salt accompanied with a firme and solid thicknesse having neither transpiration nor pores But wherefore should wee not hereto file all in one traine those so excellent Meditations of Zohar sith all depends on the same purpose God formed Adam of the slime of the earth or according to the Hebrew God formed man dust of the earth which word of forming belongeth properly to Potters who fashion of earth all that they thinke good And touching the dust this is but to abate our pride with which wee may bee swolne when wee consider the vile and corruptible matter whereof wee are made in respect of our bodies which is nothing else but mire and dirt Consider then three things saith Zohar and thou shalt not fall into transgression Remember from whence thou art come of such filthy and foule stuffe and whither thou must at last returne to dust wormes and rottennesse and before whom thou art to render an account and reason of all thy actions and comportments who is the soveraigne Judge the King of all who leaves no transgression unpunished nor good worke irrecompensed Adam then and all his posterity were formed of the dust of the earth which had before beene moistned with the fountaine or vapour which was highly elevated by the Sunnebeams to water and to soften the earth For the Earth being of it selfe cold and dry is altogether sterill and fruitlesse if it be not impregned with moisture and heat whence proceed fecundity So that Adam was composed of Earth and Water mingled together These two elements betoken a double faculty in him and double formation the one of the body in regard of this age the other of the soule in another world Water shewes the celestiall Meditation whereto our spirit may exalt it selfe and the earth of it selfe immoveable and that can never budge from below nor willingly mingle with the other three volatil elements by reason of its extreame drynesse so that it doth but grow hard by the action of fire and makes it selfe more contrary and untractable by the spirit of contradiction hard and refractory from the flesh against the spirit so that shee should reject the water which men thought to put therein if it were not by meanes of the subtill Aire interposing and mingling therewith and penetrating into the smallest parts which being suckt within the water forces the earth to feed on it to inclose it in her selfe as if shee would detaine it prisoner and by that meanes remaines great as the female by a male for every superiour thing in order and degree holds the place of male to that which is inferiour and subject thereunto Now if the Aire absent it selfe which associates and unites them together as being suppeditated and banished which is moist and hot from the extreame drynesse and coldnesse of the earth it will force it with all its power to reject the water and so reduce it selfe to its first drynesse which we may perceive in Sand which will never receive water except it be quickly separated Even so the earth is alwaies rebellious and contumacious of it selfe to bee mollified be it by water by aire by fire and after this manner there was a spirit of contradiction and disobedience introduced into Adam by reason of the earth whereof he was formed as his Companion and himselfe do shew when by the suggestion of the Serpent the most terrestriall animall of all others they so easily contradicted that extreame prohibition which was given them of not tasting the fruit of the knowledge of good and evill for the punishment whereof it was said to the Serpent thou shallt eat earth all the dayes of thy life which Isaiah resumes in 65. chap. Dust is thy bread And to Adam that the earth should produce nothing but thornes briars and thistles by means whereof if he would live he must cultivate it with the sweat of his browes till he returne to that from whence he was drawne for being dust hee must returne to dust But water which notifies Divine speculations disirous to mingle and unite with all things to whom it gave beginning and made them grow and multiply is as the carriage or vestment of the spirit following that which was said in the beginning of the Creation that the Spirit of God was stretched over the waters or as the Hebrew word Marachephet caries it hovering over them fomenting and vivifying them as a Henne doth her Chickens with a connaturall heat for this word Elobim imports I know not what of heate and fire By Water then the docill spirit obedient to the invitations of the intellect insinuated it selfe into Adam and by Earth the refractory and opiniaster that spurneth against the pricke for as the earth was the most ignoble Element of all others water rejecteth it and disdaineth it and could agree with it but as to a lee and excrement but if the pure and neat spirit remaines within the water where it made choice of its residence for from the three natures of earth water at least never joines with the two that is to say sand for its extreame drynesse that causeth a discontinuation of parts and the dirt to be fatty and unctuous there is not any thing else Argilla but slime only with which some food and mingling which may bee thereof made the water at last lets it reside below and it swimmes over as being of a contrary nature the one altogether immoveable solid and compact the other fluent removing and gliding as bloud through the veines wherein the spirits reside who can easily bee elevated to bee of a fiery quality alwayes soring upward So that the water which notifies the interiour spirit endeavours to
all these two liquors shall passe through the Recipient and when nothing else shall arise increase your fire with faggot stickes well dryed or other like continuing it for 8 or 10 houres so long that the earths which shall rest in the bottome bee well calcined but for that they are in small quantity put to more Soote and continue it as aforesaid untill you have earth enough which you shall take out of the Alembic which you shall put into a little earthen pot of Parris not smoothed or in a little hollow pot The water and oile which you shall have distilled may be easily separated by a glasse fonnell where the water will swimme above the oile This done you shall rectify your water by Balneum Mariae by redistilling of it two or three times for oile doth not mount by this degree of fire but by Sand keepe them asunder upon the earths that shall be calcined within the said pot or cruset put their water thereon a little warme stirring it with a spit so long till the Salt which shall therein bee revealed by the fires action do totally dissolve it selfe into this Water withdraw it by distillation and the Salt shall bee left you in the bottome of the nature of Salarmoniac so that by pressing it it will elevate it selfe But of this more plainely hereafter in its owne place when we shall speake of Salt Of Earthes wee need not take much care for wee must seeke for the best in the Ashes as also fixed Salt So by the meanes of Water extracted out of ashes we will here a little passe from Soote a little better to declare the subject of Earthes In this Element the more grosse and materiall of all which wee call Earth we must consider three substances the Hebrewes also have better distinguished them then we by giving them 3 names Erehs Adamah and Jabassah Erehs is properly durt or mud Jabassah sand and Adamah clay wash of the common earth with water and powre it suddainly into another vessell with the slime that it hath gathered reiterate it so long that there remaine no more in the bottome but Sand in the Scripture called Arida And his hands laid the foundation of the earth Psal 94. where he properly useth the word of laying a foundation because that Sand is the subsistence and retention of the earth where it is mingled with slime by a certaine providence of nature to strengthen it against the moisture of water as wee see in Morter where wee adjoine sand with chalke for feare lest it melt and dissolve into moisture It serves also to give it counterpoise for that Sand is very heavy A stone is heavy and sand burdensome or weighty Prov. 27. But the slime is lighter wherein minerals vegetables animals are procreated as wee see by experience by putting pure slime to the Erthree for in lesse then three weekes you will finde therein small stones herbs wormes and snailes and other little beasts producted therefrom Of the nourishment remaining that these individuals shall bee as that of Sand deprived of all humidity accordng to what wee see in Earths which having beene too much cultivated and sowed without bettering of them are reduced from being fertill as formerly they were and become sandy and sterill for Sand produceth nothing as wee see in Deserts and Sea coasts whence comes this proverbe You plough the Sands for a vaine and unprofitable labour for of the two qualities whereof each Element participates there is one that is more proper to it and the other appropriated Drynesse is the proper quality of the Earth for that cold is more proper to Water wherefore is it that the Earth as aforesaid is called in Hebrew Jabassah and in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dry land and God called the earth dry land Slime is more waterish for of the grosseness of the water earth was made saith Hermes as wee may see in snow in hail in raine or with water so condensed there is much slime mingled of which as aforesaid every thing here in the earth below is produced Man himselfe according to his body was formed of this slime and from thence it followeth that all the fertility of the earth comes from Water God created all the buddes of the earth before they grew and all the herbes of the field before they brought forth seed for the Lord God had not yet made it to raine upon the earth but a mist went up therefrom that watered the whole face thereof Or as the Chaldaick Paraphrast turneth it Onkelos in stead of source and fountaine vapour and clouds which are engendred from the vapours that the Sunne elevates here below to the height in the middle Region of the Aire from thence to water the earth But neither the slime nor the sand nor the clay on the other side are not each by it selfe nor reduced together are this virgin and pure earth that is shut up in the Center of all the composed Elements that is to say in the bottome of them for that produceth nothing because it is incorruptible and that which cannot corrupt cannot produce any thing that should be subject to corruption as we see in Fire Salt and Sand which are of the nature of Glasse all substances not onely incorruptible for their respect but which preserves from corruption that wherewith they are mingled witnesse herbs fruits flesh fish and other the like which being salted or buried in Sand are thereby kept the longer And in Mummies of those that remaine choked and buried in the Sands passing the Deserts which are preserved whole many suits of yeares even as well nay better then if they had been enbalmed So that this earth is formed of two incorruptible substances Salt and Sand by meanes of the water whch is thereupon congealed as wee see in this faire Crystalline Glasse made of Salt of glasse wort amongst which they mingle sand to retaine it otherwise in the great sharpnesse of fire that it must indure to worke therewith it would all vanish into smoake wee depure and refine it afterwards in cleare Crystalline joining thereunto perigort or sinople made of Lead Their are some that carry their Sand with them as Foulgere Charme or Foutean firebrakes charme or beech and some others But this comes better to our discourse of Gold and Glasse and some others upon the 28. of Iob where speaking of Sapience hee saith that nothing can compare with it nor Gold it self nor Glasse This Earth then so excellent and incorruptible is not this vile and grosse Element that we trample on and cultivate to draw there hence our nutritune and sustentation but that whereof it is spoken in the 21. of the Revel clâ—ar and transparent I saw a new Heavnn and a new Earth and the holy City was of pure Gold like unto pure Glasse and the streets thereof were of shining and resplendent Gold See how hee doth liken more then once Gold and Glasse which is produced by the
depurations of Fire for that is the last action thereof having therein no power but to refine and depure as he doth Gold Which the Sun produceth in long millions of years To the imitation of that the speculative understandings are forced by means of fire to extract out of the corruption of these inferior elements and their compounds and incorruptible substance which was to them a modell and pattern of that whereto the whole universe should at last bee reduced from hence we here draw from Soot a representation and image of the works of nature upon vapours and exhalations whence Meteors are formed and impressions from the middle Region of the Air Water holding place of the waterish and oil of the fiery and inflamable which oil is altogether impure to bee adustible and unprofitable to the procreation of this Virgin Earth called by some the Philosophers Stone which so many ignorant avaricious men have sought for but could not find because they sought it with blind eyes darkened with a sordid desire of unlawfull gain to make themselves on a sudain richer then another Midas who at last got nought but the ears of an Asse and did not cherish it to praise and admire God in his admirable workes following that which is said in the 37. of Job consider the wondrous works of God for we cannot doe a greater pleasure to a workman then to mark attentively to admire and magnifie his works nor a greater reproch then to scorn and slight them And of such the Apostle in the 4. to the Ephes speaketh thus They have their thoughts obscured with darknesse being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them in respect of the blindnesse of their heart Take then this Oil so extracted from Soot and repasse it three or four times upon Sand for it is one of those that lasteth very long And after the extraction of the Water and Oil and the Calcination of the earths that shall remain in the bottome of the vessell cast your water thereon and put the matter to putrifie ten or twelve dayes in dung then draw back the water by distillation calcining at the end thereof the Earths seven or eight houres by the fires flame Put again the water upon the Earths putrified distilled and calcined reiterating as abovesaid For by means of water and fire the Earths will be calcined untill they have drunk up and retained all their water or the greatest part which will be done at the six or seventh reiteration This done give it the fire of sublimation and it will elevate it self a pure earth clear and Crystalline fastened in the Center The water hath great proprieties and vertues but this Earth hath yet more whereof I will endeavour to speak more at large There may be also Salt extracted by the dissolutions of its water and glasse of the Earths that shall remain after the elevation of the said Virgin Earth For every private thing by its proper humidity doth perform nothing but vitrificatory fusion saith Geber And there are here three two volatiles water and oil and the third fix'd and permanent which is congealed namely Salt which beyond all other moistures expects the conflict of fire saith the said Geber For there is nothing more moist and more unctuous then Salt nor that better endures fire Also all metals are nought else but fusible salts whereunto they are easily resolved common Salt melteth also after it hath been recalcined and dissolved three or foure times whereof wee will speake more plainly in its place I have here a little extended my self upon Soot as upon a Subject where rare secâ—ets appear remarkable the same upon charcole made of stone and of that vitrification of sky colour that remains of Iron whereof wee see great heaps in furnaces and forges and being so dry yet there may be water and oil drawn therefrom wee will yet say the same concerning Soot Fire burning wood or other adustible matter chaseth away the waterish humidity therein contained and feeds it selfe with oil or aereall substance The terrestriall part which are the ashes remaining in the bottom calcined where the Salt resides which thereby being separated by the washings and dissolutions of the water the remainder is nought but slime which is drawn away by frequent ablutions and the Sand remains at the last proper to be vitrified observe in respect of one of the excrements of fire which is not contented therewith but by its impetuosity and heat tending naturally upwards carries on high with violence a part of the subtiliated substances Let us adapt this to the Coupelles â—oupelles pag. 6. â—he little â—hen pot â—herein goldâ—miths melt â—nd fine their â—etals Wee see that part of the lead from thence goes away in smoak as in the fire whence Soot is procreated a part thereof is burned namely its sulphurous part and part grows tough within the coupelles almost in the manner of Glasse or varnish Of the two first volatils there is no account to be made thereof for they goe and disperse themselves But bray the Coupelles where this vitrification is as it were baked wash them well with warm water to depure them from their grosnesse and uncleannesse then put them into a descensory with a strong expression of a bellows fire with the Salt of Tartar and Salnitre and there will fall down through a Metalline which being recoupled with new lead you will find more fine without comparison then at first and ever from that time forward more and more by reiteration as abovesaid So that hee that would take the patience to boil the lead on a regulated and continuall fire that should not exceed its fusion that is to say that the lead should therein remain alwayes melted and no more putting thereto a small portion of quicksilver or sublimate to keepe it from Calcination and to reduce it to powder at the end of a certain time you shall find that Lamwell hath not spoken frivolously to say that the six grain is contained in power with lead that is to say gold and silver would multiply and increase themselves as the fruit upon a tree doth But to return to these oils of long durance whereof he might make a large volume that would run through not all but a part Let him draw from the Tartar of wine of which the best comes from Mompellier even that which adheres unto the Tun. One which is very important Tartar is one of the subjects Coupta ruer pag. 87. where those who practise in the fire do find so many blows to cast Take of this Tartar beaten into small powder and put it in a leaded earthen pot with clear fountain water upon a Trevet or furnace making it boil easily and scum the villanies and filthinesse off with a feather the silver Crusts that shall afterwatds arise gather them with a head of Glasse where these grosse moules destang of mudd so long till they rise no more renewing
upon this passage of the 11. of Ezâ—kiel who dilateth and insisteth hard upon this metaphor and similitude The house of Israel is to me become drosse all they are brasse and tin and iron in the midst of the furnace and they are the drosse of silver and therefore saith the Lord I wil gather you in the midst of Ierusalem as a masse of silver brasse tin and iron and of lead into the midst of the furnace to blow the fire upon them to melt them So I will gather them in mine anger and in my fury yea I will gather them and blow upon them in the fire of my wrath and they shall be melted in the midst thereof As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace so shall they be melted in the midst thereof and they shall know that I the Lord have poured my fury upon them Saint Gregory interprets this for the Jews who in their strong adversities would not leave to go out of the way of their vices and depravations and would receive no correction but made themselves worse Malachy 3.3 useth the same form of speech The Lord shall fit to melt and purge silver hee shall purifie the Sonnes of Levi and purge them as gold and silver and they shall offer to the Lord an offering of righteousnesse See how hee there resembleth very well Gold to Faith and Religion and Silver to works for iâ— the one and not the other be not very clean in vain would we present them unto God And all this must bee perfected by fire according â—o which the Psalmist speaketh Thou hâ—st proved my heart and hast visited me in the night thou hast examined mee by fire and there is no iniquity found in mee Psal 17.3 for as St. Chrysostome saith fire according to the will of God doth divers operations It did not burn the three children in the furnace yet burned those that were without and as the Sea gave way to the Israelites to passe on dry foot and drowned Pharaoh and all his that pursued them There is a fiâ—e saith St. Ambrose upon the 39. Psal vers 3. which with its Ardor devoureth the transgression and blotteth out the sin But wee most not understand it materiall fire here below for there is nothing common here with spirituality but by way of analogy and correspondence there being a very great disproportion betwixt intelligible and sensible things as in Jer. 20.9 And there was a burning fire in my bones In sum that the holy Scripture is stuffed with these manner of speeches drawn from fire and metals As in Hag. 2.8 The silver is mine and the gold is mine saith the Lord of Hosts Gold silver and all metals yea generally all things whatsoever although they may bee said to bee of God as St. Jerome said very well forasmuch as he created them and gave them being subsistance and maintenance The earth is the Lord and the fulnesse thereof notwithstanding this gold and silver which God alleadgeth here more particularly to bee his must bee understood mystically By silver interpret the law of the mouth Tbe words of the Lord are pure words as silver tried in a furnace of earth purified seven times And by Gold saith Zohar the written Law where there are many brave meditations to be considered for there iâ— not a form of a letter point nor accent but importeth some mystery as it is particularly specified in Ghinab Egoz in the garden of drowning of Rabbi Joseph Castigliaâ— On the other side silver is applyed to the old Testament gold to the New Origen confronts Faith to Gold and the confession and preaching thereof to silver That there to the conceptions of the thought and this here to the word and enuntiation made by month which expresseth it and puts it out The tongue of the just is chosen silver Of which two metalâ— namely of right Faith and purity of conscience and of verball confession the Temple and Church of God in Christianism and the glory of him was greater then the Jewish Law which was but a dark shadow thâ—reeof So that gold designs the heart that corresponds to the Sun and to fire and silver words with Salt wherewith they must be seasoned The word is near unto thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart that thou maist doe it which the Apostle appropriating If thou confesse the Lord Iesus with thy mouth and dost beleeve in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved for wee beleeve with the heart to Iustification and confesse with the mouth to have Salvation It is gold and silver which hee would that wee should build on his foundation the gold of Havilah that groweth within the terrestriall Paradise with the Carbuncle and the Emrauld which the Psalmist in the 67. Psalm calleth the Greens of Gold Behold here the depurements that fire operates where it passeth and chiefly upon metals which are of a most strong and persisting composition as any other Elementary substance therefore wee have therein a little insisted because that the Prophets have therein founded the greatest part of their Allegories where wee must note that they have commonly put the imperfect lead tin iron and copper in the bad part and sometimes gold also as in Jer. 51.7 Babylon is a golden Cup and in the 2. of Dan. 32. speaking of Nebuchadnezar Thou art the Golden head more in the 31. of Eccles there are many chances in gold Zohar calls it Satans dung following the Text of the 37. of Job Gold comes from the North for the North is alwayes taken by the Cabalists in the evill part because the Sun never passeth thereby and it relates to midnight where the hurtfull powers are in their great reputation and vigour as on the contrary Noon in good part Wee must not then understand that Job would say that gold came from the Northern parts for it grows not there by reason of their continuall colds but in some certain place where it procreates this is more ordinarily towards the North against which the Sun as against a But darts its beams being to the Meridion all part as likewise all good wines And to this purpose Franciscus Oviedus in his 16. Book Chap. 1. of his generall historie of the Indies speaking of the Isle of Borichen puts this Borichen otherwise called St. Johns Island is very rich in gold and men draw it in great quantity even on the Northern side as in the opposite part towards the South it is very fruitfull of victualls the same also is found even in Spain it self Gold then is sometimes taken in the worser part as in the golden Calf which the Israelites melted in Moses his absence from whence one of their Rabbins said there had never befallen them any calamity and misery but there was an ounce of that Idol mingled therewith Silver because of its whitenesse denotes Mercy is alwayes in the good part and first in esteem before gold as it is Hag. the
more then a mile This clearnesse consists not onely in the eyes but also in their flanks when they open their wings They are accustomed to serve themselves with them as we do with a Lamp or other light to sup at night and to do the affairs of the house But when he comes to determine and dye its light extinguisheth also The Indians had a custome to make a post of them to strike feare in seeing them by night for that it seemed that they had a visage being rub'd therewith as if it were all fire Plinie in his 21. Book chap. 11. speaketh of a shining herb in the night called Nyctegretes or Nyctilops for that we may see it shine a farre off but he alledgeth many things by heare-say as not having seen them But to returne to the Suns light which is therein more perfect then in any other thing sensible with heat for it is the true heavenly fire as Speusippus said which describeth all that appertaines to the nourishment of this great man the Universe as the Elementary doth the viands of the animal man And as the heart in animals is the principall soul of life the same is the Sunne in the heart of the world and the primordiall spring of all light therein which he departs to the Stars as doth Jesus Christ to our souls And no more nor lesse then the Sunne and the Moon said Origen upon Genesis illightens our bodies likewise our consciences and thoughts are from this splendour of the Father if wee be not blinde and that this proceeds not by our faults Now if we be not all equally illuminated no more then the Stars are by the Sunne which differ in brightnesse one from the other but according to our capacity and carriage and as more or lesse we lift up the eyes of our contemplation to receive this light Returne you towards me and I will returne towards you for he is a God at hand and not a God a farre off That which we can have of intelligence saith Zohar by our naturall ratiocination is as if our spirit were lightned by the Moone but the Divine relation holds place of the Sunne whence the light chaseth away and banisheth the Princes of Darknesse where their greatest force and vigour raignes The Sunne is risen they shall be placed in their chambers sayes the 104 Psalme speaking of Devils and wicked Spirits under the name of savage and revenous Beasts For as Zohar puts it these tenebrions are stronger and more gallant in the darke so the good Angels that assist and favour us receive great reinforcement from the light not onely from the Divine but from the Celestiall and solar by which the Divine and Supreame shining brightnesse imparts her vertue to the heavens and by them communicates it to all that is under the sphere of the Moone within the elementary world Wherefore not without cause about dead bodies till they bee put in the grave they imploy lights to drive farre off this ancient Serpent Zamael to whom for malediction it is said thou shalt â—at earth all the dayes of thy life for our Bodies being deprived thereof are no more but dust and earth So that fire is a great aid and comfort to us not onely during our life but yet after our death against these wicked dark powers which gnaw in obscurity as these night birds and savage beasts which dare not appeare in the day fearing the light of the Sunne how much more then that of good spirits their adversaries which receive it from the divine resplendence for the same as is the Sunne towards it the fire is in regard of the Sunne who serves us amongst other things to make us see this so great accomplished work of the universe built by the Soveraigne Creator of so excellent Artifice and that which his light doth manifest unto us in this sensible world it is nothing for this regard for the true being doth consist of things intellectual stript of all corporeity and matter the Sunne it selfe the rarest master-piece of all others could not see it selfe but by its proper light which is presently accompanied with a heat vivifying all things for there is a double propriety one to shine and clarifie the other to warme yea to burne the subjacent matters which illuminates the whitenesse and waxeth blacke with the Sunnes heat The Sunne hath coloured mee Cant. 1. Whereupon Origen notes that there where there is no sinne nor matter of sinne there is scorching or burning following the 121 Psalm The Sun shall not burne thee by day nor the Moon by night for the Sunne illuminates good men but it burnes up sinners who hating light for the evill they have done for in many places of Scripture you shall finde that the Sunne and the Fire whereof it speake they are not those that wee see but the spirituall The spirituall Sunne saith Saint Augustine doth not rise but upon holy persons following that which is spoken of the perverse in the 5. of Wisdome The light of Justice is not risen upon us nor the Sunne of Intelligence is not come to illighten us As for its heat it must rather be kept for witnesse of Holy Scripture there is no man can hide him from the heat thereof not to frivolous imaginations and subtilities of those that maintaine it to be neither hot nor cold grounding themselves upon this argument All heat in long continuance although that it remaine alwayes in the same estate and degree doth notwithstanding augment it selfe so that it would bee intolerable If then the Sunne be so hot as it seems after five or six thousand years since when it was first created it would follow that there would come a conflagration under the torrid Zâ—ne from whence he stirs not who from thence was extended to all the rest of the earth there where we see the contrary for the whole is alwayes in the same estate And afterwards for that the sunne is many times greater then the globe of the Sea and the Earth and its Sphere so farre esloigned from it that it hath no proportion with it it should follow that it was as hot in one time and place as in another With semblable deductions against which it is easie to contradict but this would turne us aside too farre from our principall Subject Anaxagoras also said that it was a grosse enflamed stone or a plate of burning fire Anaximander a wheel full of fire 25. times greater then all the earth Xenophanes an heap of little fires The Stoicks an inflamed body proceeding from the Sea wherein they have shewed the affinity of fire and salt together Plato a body of much fire and thus one after one fashion one after another but all tending to make it of the nature of fire Moreover it is a thing too admirable of its greatnesse so immense whereupon the spirit of man hath fair Galleries to walke in pursuit of the high fetched meditations of Gods mervails for as Chrysostome said well
procreated before it But in this respect there presents a very rare mystery and worthy of observation that the compleat perfection of things fals out alwaies on the fourth day as of the light The Sunne and Moone were made the fourth day waters on the second day produced nought but fishes the fifth which is the fourth after and al animals the sixth with man for whom the fruits of the earth were made the third Which sheweth us that the 4 number so much celebrated by Pythagoras denoteth the perfection that resides in ten resulting from the four first numbers 1 2 3 4 make â—en So Plato was willing to informe his Timaeus where he treats of the procreation of things by these words one two three but where is the fourth Zohar upon this particle of the 14. of Leviticus you shall keepe my Sabbaths See saith Rabbi Eliezer what is the mystery here contained In six dayes was the world created in each of those is manifested the worke that was made therein and God gave it his particular vertue after he had finished it but on the fourth he attributed one more expresse for those of the third preceding being secret and hidden came not in evidence except that the fourth day happened their faculties would reveal themselves for water air and fire the three superiour elements remained as suspended and the workmanship of them did not appeare till the fourth day manifested them and then appeared all that was made on each But if you will alledge that this was the third day that then God said Let the earth sprout and produce the green herb producing seed and the fruit trees bearing fruit after his kinde which hath his seed in it selfe upon the earth and it was so yet this notwithstanding that this happened on the third day he suffered not to be annexed with the fourth without any separation the which fourth comes to meet with the Sabbath which is the fourth day the fourth and is by it selfe the perfect fourth where there appeared all the works of the six preceeding dayes and it is the fourth foot of the Merchavah O the divine throne whereon God sate for his repose all the six dayes Thus discourseth Zohar We must not here passe over another mystery which these two luminaries have each three names the Sunne is called Chomah wisdome Scemesch heat and Cheres drynesse Plato in Timaeus All moisture that the celerity of fire raised and that which remained arid and dry wee call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 potters earth That of Maor Luminary is common to the one and to the other The Moone is called Malchut reigne or kingdome Jareha which the Greek call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for that she perfects her course in a month and lebenab white for as the Sun representeth Jesus Christ the Moon denotes the Church which is all fair without any blemish following that which is written in the 6. of Canticles 10. Who is she that looketh forth as the morning fair as the Moone clear as the Sun Of this light of the Sunne of Righteousnesse whereof it is said in the fourth of Malachy But unto you that do feare my name the Sunne of Justice shall arise 4. 2. Where the Moone the Church is illustrated on a perpetuall day without darknesse according to Esay 60. v. 20. The Lord shall be thine everlasting light who hath planted his Tabernaele or Church within the fair clear shining Sunne that illuminates every man that comes into the world no more nor lesse then the starres which are innumerable and the least as big as the whole earth receive all their light from the visible sunne Of whom shall it not here bee lawfull to relate something of his praises of the Song that Orpheus made unto it Hear mâ—e most blessed Sunne Worlds heart and eie Heavenly brightnesse shining Living mens pleasing aspect Begetting Aurora in thy right hand And the night on thy left Thou governest the four seasons Who dance in a round At the found of thy golden harpe Thou runnest through this great vault Vpon thy shining Chariot Drawn with thy Coursers That respire heat and life Ardent unpolluted measurer Of times that shewes thy selfe to all A Soveraigne aid to each Keeping faith eye of Justice Brightnesse of shining light Behold that which we here thought to runne through concerning these three fires as for the three salts which relate thereunto we will speak thereof hereafter namely the Terrestriall and Elementary the Heavenly and Solary and the Intelligible that of the Divine Essence denoting the Father from whence proceeds the light which is the Sunne and these two the heat of the Holy Spirit which kindles our hearts with the love and knowledge of God and with charitable love to our neighbour The same in heaven the light of the Sunne expands it selfe to illighten all the starres and here below to the production and vivification of all that which is there begotten and maintained And in the Elementary world fire doth clear us warm us and boil our viands and lends us all other commodities and usages As for fire in the 66. of Esay 15 16. which the Evangelist cites here whose fire shall not extinguish and whose worme dieth not It is without doubt destinated to the punishment of reprobates which shall never be quenched nor the worme that stingeth the conscience shall never dye To keep that this worm that is engendred of corruption may not procreate we must salt it with discretion and prudence that it may do nothing which may offend and scandalize his neighbour according as the Evangelist specifies it Hee that shall scandalize one of these little ones that beleeve in mee And as for banishing and chasing away strange fire that devours our soul as a burning feaver doth vitall heat this must be done by the mediating intervention of divine fire which is much more puissant then any other Let us heare that which to this purpose Saint Ambrose alledgeth in the 3. chap. of his Offices Saint John baptized Jesus Christ with the Holy Ghost and with fire which is the type and image of the Holy Ghost who after his ascension must descend for the remission of sinnes so enflaming as a fire doth the soul and heart of the faithfull according as Jeremie saith in 20. 9. after he had received the Holy Ghost and it was as a burning fire in my heart shut up in my bones What is the meaning then of that in the Maccabees that the fire was become water and this water excites the fire but that the spirituall grace burneth by the fire and by the water it doth purifie and cleanse our sinnes for sinne washeth and burneth according to which the Apostle saith fire will prove what each mans works shall bee for it must necessarily be that this examination should bee perfected in all those that desire to returne into Paradise It was not without cause nor idlely set downe in the 3. of Genesis that after Adam and Eve were
correspondent Star that assists it and from which it receives its maintenance and conservation But how can that agree will some say to the contrary because it seems to derogate and contradict that which in expresse terms is set down in the 1. of Gen. where it is written that in the third day the Earth of her self brought forth herbs and trees containing in them their seeds according to their kinds neverthelesse the Sun nor the Moon nor the Stars were created till the day after the fourth by which is designed its effect and function Let there bee lights made in the firmament of the heaven namely the Sun the Moon and the Stars to separate the night from the day and let them bee for signes and seasons for dayes and years without attributing any thing of their assistance upon trees and plants and other elementary things But to return to the particulars of Aqua vitae there will be no hurt here to touch upon this experiment thereof made very gentile and rare leaving others that are more common Aqua vitae hath this particular that it dissolves not sugar nor joines not with it as doth its flegm and common water vinegar and other liquors but by artifice it self of two it makes a thrice sweet liquor very proper against the fluxes of Catarrhs and salt rheumes that molest the stomach and throat and is thereunto very good and comfortable Lay in steep a day or two Cinnamon grossely beaten and take off the infusion very neat take fine sugar within a pottage dish that hath ears brought into fine small powder and so perfume it mingle it with a small portion of Sugar roset Poure thereon this Aqua vitae and make them a litâ—le warm upon ashes then put fire thereto with a lighted paper stirring all well with a little spit of clean wood so long untill the Aqua vitae burn no more there will remain a liquor most agreeable to the taste and mervailously comfortable you may add theâ—eto liquor of pearls Coral and other the like which dissolve easily in the juice of Citron or distilled vinegar which makes it sweet to stream out upon it a quantity of common water or the phlegm of Aqua vitae and not by calcining it as Paracelsus and his followers do with Salt-Peter which is manifest poyson so that things are done in vain by more that may be done by fewer so that it bee justly done Further every one sufficiently knowes how to draw Aqua vitae filling two parts of the Alimbeck with Glasse or Beuvois Earth with good old wine and distilling it with an easie fire through a Bath in a Caldron full of water with chaffe Continue the distillation untill you see long veines and sprouts appear in the Chappe and in the Recipient For it is Aqua vitae which mounts first and the phlegm comes after in grosse drops as tears which is a token that there is no more Aqua vitae Men may refine it passing again another time But I should not bee of an opinion that to take it into the body it should bee more then once And it is a strange thing that by its own subtilty for it will mount through five or six doubles of paper brovillas without wetting it I have seen them cast a full glasse thereof in the air and not one drop to fall to the earth It is of soveraign force against all burnings and chiefly that of small shot with which shee hinders as was said before the Estiomenes and Gangreenes An inflamation arising from purecholer in the skin exulcerating it with pain which sheweth sufficiently the purity of its fire which may by good right be called Celestiall See here that which Raimund Lullius sets down of his proprieties and vertues Wee must not understand saith he that neither quintessence nor any other thing here below can render us immortall It is ordained for all men once to die nor can we prolong our dayes beyond and above the prefixed time for that is reserved to God Mans daies are short and the numher of his moneths are with thâ—â—â— thou hast appointed his limits which hee cannot passe there where on the contrary they may well bee accidentally shortned Aqua vitae then nor all other sorts of quintessences and restoratives cannot prolong our life for one minute of an hower yet they may conserve and maintain it to the last but preserving it from putrefaction which is it that shortens it most But to defend putrefaction by corruptible things that cannot bee we must therefore find out some incorruptible substance proper and familiar to our nature which conserves and maintains the radicall heat as oil doth the light of a Lampe Such is the aqua vitae drawn from wine the most comfortable and connaturall substance of all others provided it be not abused with excesse Plutarch in the 3. Book the 8. question of his Symposiaques compares wine to fire and our body to clay If you give fire he sets it down there which is of a mediocrity to the clay and earth to the Potter he will consolidate it in the pots bricks tiles and other the like works but if it be excessive hee resolves it and makes it melt and run Moreover Aqua vitae preserves strongly from their corruption as wee may see by things vegetable and Animall which men put there to mingle which by this means conserves them in their entire length It comforts and maintains a man in vigor of youth which it restoreth from day to day it rejoyceth and strengtheneth the vitall spirits it digests crudities taken fasting and reduceth the equality the excessive superfluities and the defaults which may bee in our bodies causing divers effects according to the disposition of the subject where shee applies her selfe as doth the Sunnes heat which melts wax and hardens durt and fire doth the same And there is that celestiall spirit residing in Aqua vitae so susceptible of all qualities proprieties and vertues that she can make her hot empregning it with hot things cold with cold things and so of the rest being shee is naturall conformably to our soule inclinable to good and evill for although it consists of the foure Elements they are therein so proportioned that the one doth not domineer over the other Wherefore they call it Heaven whereto wee apply such starres as wee will namely of the simple Elements of which she conceives the proprieties and the effects herein we may compare celestiall fire to the Altar But strong waters which dissipate and ruine all are this strange fire and so Alchymists call them and fire against nature externall fire and other the like exterminatives Certes if the effects of Cannon Powder be so admirable consisting of so few species and ingredients which may be well called the true infernall fire the devourer of mankind The action of strong waters is no lesse which burne all being compounded onely of two or three substances that which wee commonly call