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
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
A DISCOVRSE OF FIRE and SALT DISCOVERING Many secret Mysteries AS WELL PHILOSOPHICALL AS THEOLOGICALL London Printed by Richard Cotes 1649. To his worthy friend Captaine Thomas Falconbridge SIR J Have been informed of your zeal and forwardnesse in advancing Learning and Truth two commendable vertues for a man of your merit and profession And meeting with a subject composed by a French Authour I present the Translation to your favourable acceptance It is of forraign birth though swadled up in an English habit It hath done much good abroad and I am confident it will do the like here if supported with your approbation It had not seen the Presse here had I not been assured of the candor and integrity of the Authour I repose confidence of acceptation because the Translator hath been of your long acquaintance and was lately sensible of your propensity and assistance when he came in your way If this may find grace with you you will engage him to make further inquisition into this most sacred and secret mystery and to rest SIR Your most affectionate friend EDVVARD STEPHENS AN EXCELLENT TREATISE OF FIRE and SALT Composed by the Lord Blaise of VIGENERE The first part PYTHAGORAS who of all Pagans was undoubtedly by common consent and approbation held to have made more profound search and with less incertainty penetrated into the secrets as well of Divinity as of Nature having quaffed full draughts from the living source of Mosaicall Traditions amid'st his darke sentences where accordlng to the Letter he touched one thing and mystically understood and comprised another wherein he imitates the Aegyptians and Chaldaeans or rather the Hebrewes from whence all theirs proceeded he here sets downe these two Not to speake of God without Light and to apply Salt in all his Sacrifices and Offerings which he borrowed word for word from Moses as we shall hereafter declare For our intention is here to Treat of Fire and of Salt And that upon the 9. of Saint Marke ver 49. Every man shall be salted with Fire and every Sacrifice shall be salted with Salt Wherein foure things come to be specified Man and Sacrifice Fire and Salt which yet are reduced to two comprehending under them the other two Man and Sacrifice Fire and Salt in respect of the conformitie they beare each to other In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth this said Moses on the entrance upon Genesis Whereupon the Jew Aristobulus and some Ethniques willing to shew that Pythagoras and Plato had read Moses bookes and from thence drawne the greatest part of their most secret Philosophy alledged that which Moses should have said that the heaven and the earth were first created Plato in his Timaeus after Timaeus Locrien said that God first assembled Fire and Earth to build an universe thereof we will shew it more sensibly of Zohar in the Weik of a Candle lighted for all consists of light being the first of all Creatures These Philosophers presupposing that the World consisted as indeed it doth of the foure Elements which are as well in heaven and yet higher as in the earth and lower but in a diverse manner The two highest Aire and Fire being comprised under the name of Heaven and of the Aethereall Region for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes from the verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shine and to enflame the two proprieties of these Elements And under the word Earth the two lower Earth and Water incorporated into one Globe But although Moses set Heaven before Earth and observe here that in all Genesis he toucheth at nothing but things sensible but not of intelligible things which is a point apart for concerning this there is no good agreement between Jewes and Christians Saint Chrysostome in his first Homily Observe a little with what dignity the Divine Nature comes to shine in his manner of proceeding to the creation of things For God contrary to Artists in building his Edifice stretched out first the heavens round about afterwards planted the earth below Hee wrought first at the head and afterwards came to the foundation But it is the Hebrewes custome that when they speake most of a thing they ordinarily put the last in order which they pretend to touch first And the same is here practised where Heaven is alledged before Earth which he comes to discry immediately after In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth and the Earth was without Forme and void Saint Matthew useth the same upon the entrance to his Gospell The Booke of the Generation of Jesus Christ the son of David the son of Abraham Abraham begat Isaac c. For it is well knowne that Abraham was a long time before David Otherwise it seemes that Moses would particularly demonstrate that the Earth was made before the Heaven by the Creation of man that is the Image and pourtrait of the great World for that in the second of Genesis God formed man of the slime of the earth that is to say his body which it represents and afterwards breathed in his face the spirit or breath of life that carrieth him backe to heaven whereunto suits that which is written in the 1 to the Cor. 15. The first man from the earth is earthly and the second man from heaven is heavenly the first man Adam was made a living soule and the last Adam a quickning spirit Whereto the Generation of the Creature relates who six weeks after the Conception is nothing but a masse of informed flesh till the soule that is infused from above doth vivifie it Moreover the foure Elements whereof all is made consists of foure qualities Hot and Drie Cold and Moist two of them are bound up in each of them Earth that is to say Cold and Dry the Water Cold and Moist the Aire Moist and Hot the Fire Hot and Dry whence it comes to joine with the earth for the Elements are circular as Hermes would have it each being engirded with two others with whom it agreeth in one of their qualities which is thereunto appropriate as Earth betwixt Fire and Water participates with the Fire in drynesse and with Water in coldnesse and so of the rest Man then which is the Image of the great World and therefrom is called the Microcosme or little World as the World which is made after the resemblance of his Archetype is called the great man being composed of foure Elements shall have also its heaven and its earth The soule and understanding are its heaven the body and sensuality its earth So that to know the heaven and earth of man is to have true and entire knowledge of all the Universe and of the Nature of things From the knowledge of the sensible World we come to that of the Creator and the Intelligible world by the Creature the Creator is understood saith Saint Augustine Fire then gives motion to the body Aire feeling Water nourishment and Earth subsistence Moreover heaven designes the intelligible world the
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
with the azure flame doe signifie the soul and the Jod is the white unchangeable and permanent flame of the intellect where all at length comes to terminate which whitenesse is the seat of the true spirituall hidden light which is not seen nor known but by it self for indeed our nature to take it in it self is but a dark substance right resembling the Moon which hath no light but what it receives from the Sun which she is apt to receive as our soul is that of the intellectuall light And there is not a creature whatsoever which is of it self a substantiall light but only a participation of the only true light which shineth in all and through all plainly and sensibly It is the Chasmall of Ezechiel according to Zohar whence proceeds fire or light assembled of two which are yet but one thing the white light namely which mounteth and cleareth that which no mortall eye could suffer that of which is written in 46. Psal Light is risen to the just and gladnesse to the upright in heart which corresponds to the intelligible world and the inward man The other is a twinckling and flaming light of a red fiery colour joined and united to a coal or a weik signifying the sensible world and the outward corporall man The soul is placed in the middle namely the blew light part whereof is fastened to the weik and part to the white flame quickly adhering to one and quickly to another whence according as shee applies it self it comes to bee either burned or illuminated following that which Origen sets down upon the 14. of Jer. That God is a red burning fire consuming and destroying as concerning sinners and to holy and just persons a white rejoycing and vivifying light Jamblicus that doth not soar so high as Zohar being not assisted but by the light and instinct of nature said very well but afterwards the Phaenician Theologie that al which we can perceive of goodnesse and contentment in this sensible world comes from the light which is imparted to us from the Sun and Stars illustrated with it And as the Sun imparts his light to the Moon to the Stars and to the Heavens so God communicates his to the intelligible world the lively Fountain of all others to his blessed Intelligences So that all what our souls can have of good of joy of beatitude be it whilest they are annexed to the bodies or separated therefrom comes from this primordiall light which shineth in them by reflexion as the Sun beams in a basin a concave looking glasse or in water or twhart a looking glass according as St. Denys sets it down in his 4. chapter of divine names which proceeding from the Soveraign good carries therewith the same appellation And Rabbi Eliezer in his chapters sets down that the heavens were created with the light of the Creators vestment grounding himself upon the Psalmist 204.2 Clad with light as with a vestment and the Earth with snow which was under the throne of his glory All Rabinique Allegories may men say but where doe the great mysteries consist from which St. Denys doth not straddle far in the place alledged for even as this fair great and clear shining Sun that hath in it self such a manifest representation and image of Soveraign good extends it light throughout the Univers and doth communicate it to all that are capable to receive it So that there is nothing which doth not participate of his light and vivifying heat there is nothing that can hide it self from the heat thereof In the same manner this Eternall supercelestiall light illustrates vivifies and perfects all that which hath being and banisheth darknesses and all softning hoarinesse that may bee brought thereinto lightning our souls with a desire alwayes to participate more and more of this light for when she comes to prove it by little and little and by degrees that helps it and conducts to the joy and fruition of a Soveraign good which is the light of the Soul namely the Intellect that clears it to be able to apprehend the living spring from whence it came for light is not seen but by her self the most worthy and excellent property of fire with which it hath this in particular and proper that shee makes her self to see as it doth and by her means manifesteth all that which our sight may apprehend Yet there is nothing harder to comprehend then that which is either of the one or of the other for in shewing us and revealing us all it is then when shee hides her self most from us even to blinde us and to reduce our brightnesse into darknesse As is his darknesse so is his light Wee must then not speak of God without light because he is the crue light because O Lord thou art my Lantern which doth enlighten us by thy word Thy word is a Lantern to my feet the splendor of the Father and the living fountain of life as holy St. Augustine after St. John In him was life and the life was the light of men and light shined in darknesse and the darknesse comprehended it not So that from this light wee have double commodity the one that life by which wee live the other the light by which wee see that which enlightens us The spirituall man the true man enjoyes the one and the other the Carnall man life onely for touching the rest hee is in darknesse because they have been rebells to light saith Job because they have not her wayes Even as if one should inclose a toâ—ch within a Lantern of cut-stone or the like obscure and dark matter where its light would remain as quenched and buried without ability to extend it self abroad for the obstacle that hinders it And if we want light saith St. Ambrose there would bee no more comelinesse beâ—uty or pleasure in our house for it is it which makes all seem agreeable which he borrowed from Homer according to what was attributed in Suidas who through an unseasonable time of cold and rain having been received into an Inne where they made him a fire hee sodainly made verses containing in substance that children were the ornament and Crown of the Father Towers of walls horses of the fields ships of the Sea Magistrates of the places of the Assembly where they administred justice to the people and a fair burning and lighted fire the comelinesse and rejoicing of an house which renders it so much the more honorable To see a burning fire in an old hâ—use Some attribute them to Hesiod Trismegistus amongst the rest cals light the father of all who hath procreated man like unto iâ— participant of light and of life depending thereon and life was the light of men The Father is as the Sun in his Essence from whence comes splendor and heat which three are not separated one from another but remain united together â—lthough they are distinct in this fire then our souls are warmed in the Love and fear of God and lightened
on high as a vapour to imply saith the same Zohar that wee must offer him nothing but what is cleane and candid for rednesse represents sinne and punishment that followes it and the white sinceritie with mercy and the finall recompence that doth accompany it What is it saith Zohar which is designed by the red Roses and the white Lillies It is the odour of the oblation proceeding from red blood and from fat which is white which God reserveth for his owne portion which fatnesse relates to the sacrifice or animall man who is nourished with this fat as the vitall spirits with blood wherefore it is said when we fast to extenuate and macerate the pricks of the flesh and concupiscence that we offer unto God fatnesse who will have from his Creature the soul which is fire and bloud and the body namely fat wherewith it is nourished but the one and the other incontaminate pure and neat without corruption as if they were to passe through the fire and salted Therefore he would that they should be burned to him that they may ascend in a white fume and an odour of suavity before him for fume is more spiritual then matter which the fire by subtiliation raiseth it after the manner of Incense And indeed all this world here is but an odour that mounts unto God sometimes good and agreeable sometimes wicked and hurtfull The forme of the thing which consisteth in its colour and figure remains incorporeall in the matter where the eye goes to apprehend it and associates with it The tast also remains attached to it as the spittle moistens it and communicates it to the tast But odor or smell separates them and comes from farre by an unperceivable vapor to the sense of the nose and braine Wherefore the Scripture doth particularize in the rose and in the lillies the Red and White whose smell doth not vanish And yet though the roses be red yet the water of them distilled and the fume if you burne them are white as those of incense whereof it is spoken in Psal 41.2 Let my prayer he directed as incense in thy sight by prayers are understood not only prayers but all our desires thoughts and comportmens and thereupon Rabbi Eliezer sonne of Rabbi Simeon the author of Zohar making his prayer doth thus paraphrase This is well knowne and manifest before thee O Lord my God God of our prayers that I have offered unto thee my fat and my blood I have offered them in an odor of Suavity with firme faith and beleefe macerating chastising the sensuality of my flesh That it will please thee then Lord that the odor of my prayer proceeding from my mouth may be presently addressed before thy face as an odor of a burnt offering which they burne unto thee upon the altar of propitiation and that thou wilt accept it as agreeable He said that because that after the comming of our Saviour the destruction of the second Temple by the Romans the Jewish sacrifices were converted into prayers the bloudy sacrifices signified by the red roses and colour of bloud and those without bloud as the minchad other the like of meal by the white lillies following that which was said Cant. Chap. 5. 6. My beloved is white and ruddy he feedeth among the lillies Under these four colours furthermore which signifie the four Elements Black the Earth White the Water Blew the Air and Red the fire are comprised the greatest secrets mysteries Otherwise reading in ch 10. of 35 book Plinie that Apelles had painted Alexander holding lightning in his hand fingers seemed to hang out and lightning to be without the Table but reading they remembred that all those consisted of four colours I cannot well specifie what those four colours were which must be principall in nature till I had learned out of Zohar to consider them in the light where that is to be noted that there are two fastned to the week namely black noting the Earth and red proceeding there from fire and two to the flame Blew in the root over against the black and white on the top opposite to red But let us see how this doth well suit with Chymicall Theorie which constitutes of these four Elements two solid and fix'd which prepare themselves together the earth and the fire which adhere to the week and the other two liquid volatills and flitting water and air white and blew as is the flame which is liquid and in perpetuall motion And we must not think it strange that the air the blew should be lower then the water or the white flame which is aloft because the aereall party which is the oil and fat separate more hardly and more difficultly from the composed then doth the water more opposite to fire But let us look more mystically thereinto which the Zohar hath more abundantly run through The red light as well in earth as in heaven is that which destroyes all dissipates all for it is the bark of the tree of death as we may see in a lamp candle and other light whose root is in the earth namely this corruptible and corrupting blacknesse which watereth the week the branches and the boughes are the flames blew and white The week with its blacknesse and rednesse is the Elementary world and the flame the Celestiall The red colour commands all that is under it and devoureth it And if you say that it domineers also in heaven not as in the inferiour world wee may answer And although there be vertues and powers above that are destructive and dissipate all base subjacent things All these superiors are anchored in this red light and not the inferiors for they are thick grosse and obscure and this red light which is contiguous to that above gnawes and devours them and there ia nothing in the low world which shall not be destroyed It penetrates and enters into stones it pierceth them and hollowes them that waters may passe over them and drowns all in the depths and hollowes of the earth where they divide themselves of the one side and on the other till they come to resemble anew in their Abyssus passing crosse the darknesses that are confounded with them which is the cause that waters rise and fall they mount when they come from the sea under earth to their sources to glide anew above the earth downwards returning to the place from which they parted So that the waters darknesse and light mingling themselves pellmell there is made within another Chaos which nature comes to unmingle the heat namely which is therein inclosed by Ordinance of the Soveraign Dispensator that commands it And there make lights which men cannot see because they are dark Every channell to be brief mounts upwards with his voices whence Abyssus are shaken and cry to their companion One depth calleth to another in the voice of their Catarracts And who is it that cries Open thee with thy waters and I will enter into thee
These are all mysteries uneasy to comprehend which intend nothing but to demonstrate the affinity and connexion of the sensible with the intelligible world and of the Elementary with the Celestiall for as it is said in another case the Universall firmament called the firmament of heaven containeth things superiour and inferiour although after divers manners This is wel seen in a torch where blacknesse that is the Earth is the ground of three elements and colours the red being but an inflammation and heat joined to the blacknesse without any flame or light as are the blew and white which proceed from one very root all tend a going to unite with the white flame that is above and more highly elevated then others Yet it is not therefore so pure and quit of all filthinesse but that it procreates soot with black and infected fume whereof it must be depured by fire till it hath perfected the consumption of its corruption and made it a perfect whitenesse which from that time forwards never alters And this is that which we said before that fire leaves two sorts of excrements not sufficiently depured for the first proof Ashes below whence by the same fire is extracted an incorruptible substance of salt and of glasse at the last which the Zohar was not ignorant of when he said upon Exod. of the lees of any confected a shes salt and glasse is drawn But now for that it was not so said it is a thing sufficiently common and manifest to those that deal with fire which Cinerall excrement comes from the adustion and burning of coals but the foot which is more spirituall for that mounts and elevates higher is born of the flame which hath no leasure or power to perfect its mundification so that the pure and impure mount together And assuredly nothing can better agree with our souls after their separation from the body which carries away with them the imapurities which they have attracted from it during their residence here below which they must repass by fire be perfected by white throughout Every man shal be salted with fire and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt The weik and ashes representing man the exterior animal and his body and the two flames blew and white the blew the Celestiall and Ethereall body and the white souls stript of all Corporeity which in good men shall be burnt with fire that burns alwaies upon the altar and salted with salt from the Covenant the promises namely of his Messiah into which the Prince of this world hath but seen as it hath done in the posterity of Adam which is al filled with ashes whereof it was first built with the soot of originall sin whereunto he fastned by his disobedience prevarication So that we are the night where Moses began to reckon the day for that we are according to the flesh before the Messiah who being come after is the enlightned day of this clear sun of Justice which the Cabballists say is the representation of Jehovah whose sheath as they call it is Adonei from whence God must be drawn out for it is hee that mundifies the righteous and burneth the wicked with dark and obscure fire To which that also beateth which is said of the Thrones Animalls there shall descend a Lion enflamed that shall devour the oblations There are Angells committed upon every member that sinneth of whom they constitute themselves the bringers on for every man that commits any offence he suddainly delegates to himself an accuser which will be no more favourable to him then he must be but will lend him a fire from above to burn that member that shall have trespassed But Jehovah interveneâ— from above who with his water of mercy quencheth this fire after the party Delinquent shall have his spots purged away And there is but he alone that is the angel of peace that make the souls reconcilation with God to whom she comes by the intercession of this sacred name there is no other name all that the Zohar sets down whâ—ch is as Christian-like spoken by a Rabbin which was never baptized That premised for a ground work of what we shall say hereafter St. Marks Greek text carries it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every sacrifice shall be seasoned with salt where the Latin version which the Church holdeth for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sacrifice as in truth this Greek word signifies all sorts of sacrifices hostia's victima's and ceremonies But Porphyrius in his second book of sacrifices doth particularize it to herbs that men offered to the Gods for from the beginning they did not present them this he spake of Incense Myrrhe Benjamin Storax Aloes Labdanum and other the like odoriferous gums but only certain green herbs as certain first fruits of seeds that the earth produced and trees were procreated from the Earth before Animalls and the earth was clothed with herbs before it produced trees By reason whereof the gathering certain pieds of herbs all entire with their leaves and rootes and seeds they burned them and sacrificed the odour and fume that proceeded therefrom to the Immortall Gods and of this exhalation they cast which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suffitus perfumed whence comes the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 victima sacrifice Therefore they do not refer them properly to bloody sacrifices for the Romans for more then 800 years since by Numaes Ordinance had no Images of Gods nor other sacrifices then dough with salt which were from thence called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say without blood Hitherto Porphyrie It hath been said heretofore that there was nothing more common nor lesse well known then fire And as much we may say of salt wherefore it is that Moses made so great account of it as to apply it to all sacrifices Calling it the perpetual Covenant that God made with his people of which alliance by the Hebrews called Berith they found three or four marks in the Scripture The bow of heaven Gen. 9.9 Gen. 17.2 Circumcision to Abraham and the universall paction Numb 18.19 Further yet the Paction of the Law received in Horeb Deut. 5.2 3. The Lord our God made a Covenant with us in Horeb which hath been time out of mind in singular and venerable recommendation towards all sorts of people you bless your tables by putting on of saltsellers saith Arnobius to the Gentiles But Titus Livius in his 26. that they may have a saltseller a dish or platter for Gods cause And Fabricius that thrice valiant Roman Captain had never gold nor silver but a little drinking cup whose foot was of horn to make his offerings to the Gods saltseller to serve for sacrifices forbiddding as Plinie hath it in his 33. book 12. ch to have other Silvery then those two It was furthermore a marke and symbole of Amity as was salt Wherefore the first thing that they served strangers comming to them was Salt to note a firmity
it shall shake off these filthinesses and impurities and shall passe aloft to heaven and adhere to God which it could not doe but being pure and neat nor effect this but by fire Zohar speakes to the same purpose when the Elements destroy themselves an aethereall body succeeds in their place which doth recloath them or to speak better the aethereall body which was reclad with them devests it selfe and this is represented to us in the 5 of Esther where it is said that on the third day shee tooke off her clothes that shee was wont to weare and put on her royall apparell to appeare before the King which signifies the holy Spirit and Esther the reasonable soule whose vestments are the garments of the kingdome of Heaven of which he that Daniel 3. chap. was said to be like to the Son of God that crowns the just and adornes them with royall apparell to bring them into the presence of the King of Kings to the Paradise of pleasure clensed with aire from above which the holy Spirit breathed into it Origen in his second Homily upon the 36 Psalme It is the manner of holy Scripture to introduce two sorts of men that is to say the interiour and the exteriour each of which hath need as much as concernes him of apparell as well as nourishment the external corporal man maintaines himselfe with meats corruptible proper and familiar to himselfe having ever need of Salt besides their own connaturall but there is also meat for the inward whereof it is said in the 8 of Deuteronomy Man doth not live by bread onely but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God And for matter of drinke the Apostle in the 1 Cor. 10. Our fathers did eat the same spirituall meat and did drinke the same spirituall drinke for they did drinke of that spirituall rocke that followed them and that rocke was Christ Who speaking of this drinke in the 4. of Saint John saith that hee is the fountaine of living water and who so drinketh of the water that he shall give them shall never thirst There are also two rayments in regard of the inner man If he be a sinner it is said Psalme 109. He hath put on malediction as a garment which must be to him as his apparell wherewith he is covered and as a girdle wherewith he is girt And on the contrary the Apostle Col. 3. Lie not one to another having cast off the old man with his deeds and put on the new but be clothed with mercy benignity humility and meeknesse of Spirit These are the vestments which Zohar said were the good works and the nuptiall accoustrements of the soule which cannot bee washed or cleansed but by Fire Every mans worke shall bee made manifest for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every mans worke of what sort it is 1 Cor. 3.13 wherein they shall persist without impaire or consumption but shall be purified when the soule shall therewith be clothed from this uncleane scumme wherein there may remaine some spots that the fire goes on to purge consuming and defacing them But what it this fire It is it which is said in the 4 and 9 of Deuteronomy our God is a consuming fire which as Irenaeus interprets was to strike feare and terror into the Israelites and this afterwards in the 12 to the Hebrewes 28 29. Let us serve God acceptably with feare and reverence for our God is a consuming fire For they had sufficiently understood that the world once perished by the universall deluge and that it may not incurre the like accident but suffer its last extermination by fire Adde that in the 33. of the Mosaicall Law it is called The Law of fire which is in the right hand of the Almighty because of its austerity and rigour all filled with menaces with feares with horrors as much as the Christian is with sweetnesse and mercy in his right hand there is a fiery Law which the Chaldean Paraphrase interpreteth for that it was given on Mount Horeb through the middest of fire according as it is said in the 4. to the purpose touching this feare The Lord speake unto me saying Assemble the people there below that they may heare my words and learne to feare me Then came you neare to the foote that burned even to heaven and the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of fire And Exodus 3. the burning bush wherein God appeared unto Moses and was not consumed Of this consuming fire further speaketh Zohar thus in conformity to that received Maxime in naturall Philosophy that a great flame doth devoure and quench a lesse as wee may sensibly perceive by a lighted Torch which is extinguished by the Sunbeams and by a kettle set neare a great fire that sucks and drawes all out to it selfe Hee saith then upon this Text of the 35. of Exod. You shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the Sabbath To which purpose said Rabbi Simeon was that ordained and why was it not lawfull to kindle a fire on the seventh day because that when men kindle fire it goeth ever upwards according to its naturall and moving above every thing following that of the 7. of Sapience where it is compared to fire In Wisdome is the spirit of understanding holy one only manifold subtill lively cleare undefiled plaine moveable above every thing and overtops all by reason of its purity The Fire hath two properties to be moving and pure not participating of any uncleannesse and all motion is a kinde of action and operation forbidden expresly on the Sabbath day Fire then mounting aloft caries with it the impurities designed in the 10. of Leviticus by strange fire which is there devoured by that which proceeds from the presence of the Lord. And should bee as much as thereby to draw from it selfe a judgement of his offences that must not be renewed in the sanctification of the Sabbath for feare that the fire of Gods wrath do not devour and consume that of our iniquities and us at once if this our fire be not first purged by a stronger fire that consumeth and devoureth the lesser and more feeble Zohar runs through all that and upon the passage of the foresaid fourth of Deut. Thy God is a consuming fire he speakes further There is a double fire the one stronger that devoures the other He that will know it let him contemplate the flame that parteth and mounteth from a kindled Fire or from a Lampe or Torch for it mounteth not except it be incorporated to some visible substance and united with the aire whereupon it feedeth But in the flame that mounteth there are two lights the one white which shineth and illightneth having its root somewhat blew the other red fastned to the wood or to the weik that it burneth That which is white mounteth directly upwards and underneath the red remaineth firme and departs not from
the matter administring wherewith to flame and shine to the other but they come upon the point to joine and unite together the one burning the other burned till they bee converted into that which predominates and playes the master namely the white alwayes the same without variation and change as the other doth which now growes blacke after becomes red yellow peach colour sky colour azure reinforced above and below above with a white flame below with the blacknesse of the matter which furnisheth it where withall to burne and at the last is therewith consumed For this azure red and yellow flame the more grosse and materiall it is endeavours alwayes to exterminate and destroy that which nourished and maintained it as sinnes do the conscience which harbours them to the end to make them the perdition and ruine of all that which adheres to it here below so long till at the last it remaines extinct there where the light annexed thereunto is not eternally extinguished but goes freely upward and returnes to its proper place of abode or residence having accomplished its action below without changing its brightnesse into any other colour then white In the like case is it of a tree whose roots are fastned within the earth from whence it takes it nourishment as the weik takes his from the tallow waxe or oyle which makes it burne The branch that drawes its juice or sap by the root is the same as the weik where the fire is maintained by the liquor which it drawes unto it and the white flame are the branches and boughes clad with leaves the flowers and fruits whereunto tends the finall end of a tree are the white flame when all comes to bee reduced wherefore Moses said that thy God is a consuming fire as it is true for the fire consumes and devoures all that which is under it and upon which it exerciseth its action And therefore very proper in the Hebrew text Elohenu thy God and not Anonenu thy Lord because the Prophet wâ—s in this superiour white light which neither devoureth nor can be devoured And the Israelites were the blew lights who endeavour to lift up themselves and unite to him under the law for the ordinary of this blew light inclining rather to blacknesse then to whitenesse it is true that is constituted as in the midst and to ruine and destroy all that it layes hold on and whereunto it adheres But if sinners submit thereunto then the white light shall bee called Admenu our Lord and not Elohenu our God for that it domineers and devours it And it is this blew flame designed by the little and last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He of the sacred venerable foure lettered Jehovah which assembles and unites with the three first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jehu the white light which shineth in a most cleare simplicity Trin-one having under it the blackish ruddy azure colour of the little 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He which is the humane nature consisting of the four Elements for that it is sometimes represented by 4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fourth letter of the Alphabet and which marketh the number of 4. You will say I have brought you here a prolixe place of Zohar I do avow it but it must have a more ample explication for there are great mysteries covered thereunder This Rabbi superlative to all others endeavouring in his profound and abstracted meditations which transcend all to elevate our spirits by the similitude of a light to the knowledge of spirituall things which differs not from our principall purpose which is fire and its effects Of this white light and of its collaterals other Rabbins speake as Kamban Gerundensis That by the Caballe it appears unto us that the Scripture was an obscure and darke fire upon the backe of white fire and marvailously resplendent It is the fire say they of the holy Spirit consuming our iniquities denoted by the red inflamed ardor and the blew and azure flame which is the strange fire as Saint Ambrose very well expounds it in his fourth Epistle to Simplician Strange fire is all the ardor of slippery concupiscence of avarice hatred rancour and envy And of this fire no man is purged nor expiated but well burned which if men offer in the presence of the Lord celestiall fire will devour as it did Nadab and Abibu and therefore he that will purge his sinne he must cast off from him this strange fire and let him expiate therefrom whereof it is said in the 6 of Esay 6. One of the Seraphims flew to me hauing a live coale in his hand which he had taken with the Tongs from off the Altar and touched my lips saying Lo this hath touched thy lips and thine iniquity is saken away and thy sinne purged Having said a little before that all the house was filled with smoake which is as an excrement and vapour of fire bee it before it be lighted or inflamed or after it be mortified and extinct from whence it comes to procreate soot then which there is nothing more troublesome and hurtfull to the eies having carryed away with it a parcell of a dustible corruption which administred to the fire its nourishment and food This may bee seen in the distillation of soote where there appeares a notable quantity of inflamable oyle which causeth it yet to burne and of this burning there will arise a smoake which will againe be concreted into a burning smoake as a foresaid but not so much These are the remnants of sinne whereof remained some staines printed in the soule untill at the last by a successive repurgation of fire it be reduced to a point of compleat purity whereof it is spoken in the 4. of the Canticles Thou art faire my welbeloved there is no blemish in thee which the white flame notifies which is the highest degree of burning Those also well know it that maintaine a fire for when a Fornace begins to bee hot it waxeth blacke then enforcing the fire it becomes red and at last it waxeth white when it is in the supreame and high degree of heat where it persisteth in whitenesse more and more Such are the actions of fire but there are great mysteries thereunder ever to declare further the advantage and praecellency that the white colour hath above the red as to the Christian faith designed by white water Apoc. 4 6. 15.2 In the middle of the Throne there was a Sea of Glasse like unto Crystall far above the Judaicall faith red heat with rigour and severity designed by a pillar of fire that in the night season conducted the Israelites through the Wildernesse and the white cloud by day Exod. 13.21 In the secret Hebrew Theology the red alwayes notes Gheburah Austerity and the white Ghedulah or Mercy Eliah was transported and by force carried into heaven in a fiery Chariot drawne with the like horses But in the transfiguration of our Saviour Mat. 17.2 His vestments became
meanes their Globe from this time forward would remaine darke as a Lampe whereby light which before gave it light should bee quenched for lacke of nourishment or other accident This light or luminous fire is in the Starres as the bloud is in animals or juice in vegetables whereto Homer seemes willing to grant in the 5. of his Iliads where he puts that for as much as the Gods do not live by bread and wine as mortalls but by Ambrosia and Nectar so they have no bloud but in lieu thereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a substance which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as it were a subtill saltish waterishnesse hindering corruption in animals and all other composed Elements but wee must here a little better cleare this for the great affinity that the Sunne and Fire have together Wee must then understand that the Sunne arising by its attraction elevates the spirits of the earth which are of two natures a moist vapour including and a dry vapour included are together exalted saith the Philosopher in the 5. of his Meteors the one hot and moist as is the Aire and Water potentially this which is properly called Vapour the other hot and dry of the nature and power of fire called Exhalation The first resolves into water as raines snowes hailes mists fogges and other such moist impressions as are formed of this vapour in the middle Region of the Aire for being grosse and heavy they cannot mount higher but afterwards being thickned and congealed by the cold that resides there they fall backe here below more materiall then those which were not mounted from thence and at last all do resolve into water The second called Exhalation is subdivided into three kindes the first more viscous grosse and heavy is that whereof your fires are formed which are called Castor and Pollux otherwise Saint Herme the foole fires and the like which cannot mount higher then the low Region of the Aire the second is a little lighter more subtill and depured penetrating even to the middle Region where thunders and lightnings are formed the wandring starres barres of fire cheurons and other such inflamations P. 75. The third is yet more dry and light and more free from unctâ—osity almost of the nature of that Quintessence which we observe in Aqua vitae soveraignly depured therefore it may mount not onely to the highest Region of the Aire and that of Fire contiguous but escape yet whole and safe higher then the Heaven with which for its greatest subtilty and depuration which it hath gotten in this long way it hath a great conformity For being come to the Globe of the Sun it is there perfected to concoct and to digest into a pure and cleare light for the nourishment as well of it selfe as of other starres the same that Pliny toucheth in the 8 and 9 chapters of his second booke So that the Starres receive all their light and nourishment from the Sunne after that it hath been there concocted and fitted and not by the forme of reflexion as from its raies which would lessen themselves either in water or in a looking Glassse for all that which participates of fire hath need of nourishment This is done as in the Animall where the most pure bloud comes from the Liver to empty it selfe through the Arteries into the heart which conducts it to its last perfection for the nourishment of Spirits But this must be understood if these Exhalations and vapours finde issue atwhart the pores and spongiosities of the Earth Tuffe p. 76. a kind of white Sand or soft and brittle Stone to evaporate upwards But if peradventure it meet with Tuffe or Sand or the like lets and hindrances which do contradict them or let them they stay there and wax thicke for procreation of minerals that is to say a hot and a dry exhalation in the nature of Brimstone and a moist vapour in the nature of Quicksilver not vulgar but a substance yet spirituall and full of fume from the assembling of which two in a subtill vapour they come to procreate in themselves afterwards by a long continuance of time metals and meane minerals according to the purity or impurity of their coagulated substances and the temperature defect or excesse of the heat that recocts them in the entrails of the earth Without going from my intention of the foresaid exhalations I thought fit to touch a little upon an experiment whereunto I arrived by my industry which I thinke will not be disagreeable Take good old Wine and put therein a certaine quantity of Salnitre and Camphire in a Platter upon a fire pan within a Closet well firmed that aire cannot enter and make it evaporate therein and that there be no more covering then the thicknesse of the backe of a knife to give it so much aire as it must have to make it burne This being done shut well your little window that nothing may vapour out after you have withdrawne the dish or platter from thence to 10. 20. or 30. yeares provided that the aire do not enter and that the winde blow not in bringing in thither a lighted waxe candle you shall see infinite little fires capring as lightnings in the great heate of Summer which are not accompanied with thunders and lightnings nor with stormes windes and raines having nothing but an inflamation of Aire by reason of Saltpeter and Sulphur which are elevated from the Earth Before wee passe from our intention of vapours and exhalations that no man doubts but do proceed from heat introduced within the earth by the continuall motion of the heaven round about and of the Celestial bodies whence light is accompanied with some heat that it darts thereinto Let us come to the experiments next approaching to our sensible knowledge wee see that the fire leaves two sorts of excrements the one grossers namely Ashes remaining in the bottome of its adustion that containeth Salt and Glasse and the two fixed and solid Elements Fire and Earth The other more light and subtill which the fume carries upwards that is the Soote wherein are contained the two volatill and liquid Elements called by the Chymists Mercury and Sulphur and by the Naturalists Vapour and Exhalation By Mercury is designed Water or Vapour and by Sulphur Oile and Exhalation Of Salt and of Earths therein there are found a very small quantity yet sufficient thereby to perceive how the four Elements are found out in the resolution of all the composed Elementaries Take then the Soote of Chimney but of that which shall mount highest in a very long Chimney pipe and in the very top where it must bee most subtill thereof fill a great Cornue or an Alembic two parts of three then apply thereunto a great recipient which you wrap about with linnen wet with fresh water Give fire by small quantities the water and the oil will distill together although the water ought in order to issue out first After that
The Persians and Vestalls fire at Rome reverenced as well by the one as by the other as very holy was very carefully entertained Touching the Persian Strabo in his 15. Book writeth that the Magi had a custome to conserve it under ashes before which they went every day to make their prayers and devotions which is not without some mystery The ashes denoting the sensible world and the body of man which it represents being nothing else but ashes and the fire therein inclosed and covered the sparkle of life wherewith it is animated and vivified These ashes furthermore must be of some gummy trees Coals kept in Junipeâ— for tâ—â— space of a yea to make it of longer durance namely of Juniper wherein I heretofore have kept living coals more than a year heaping up bed upon bed within the ashes being all lock't fast within a little barrell that no air may enter and this is that which is meant in the 120. Psalm 4. ver with Juniper coals according to the Hebrew in place of uncomfortable With these burning coals the Persians came to light the luminaries of their Temples when they came to be extinguished But the Vestals in case their fire should extinguish as it sometimes happened it was not lawfull for them to light it again but must draw it from the Sun beams And did not only attend that it should quench of it selfe or by some casuall accident but they renewed it yearly the first day of March from that of heaven as Ovidius observes tertio Fastorum Adde that new fire was made in the secret house and the renewed fire took force Which Macrobius also toucheth in his second of Saturnals 12. chap. The first day of March the Vestals lighted a new fire on the Altar of the Goddesse that by the renewing of the year they should renew in themselves their care of keeping it from going out Saint Augustine in his third Book of the City of God 18 ch In what reputation saith he this sacred fire was at Rome men may know by this that when the City was a fire the grand Pontifex Metellus for fear that this strange fire should not mingle with the other put himselfe in danger to be consumed by the flames to make it retire So that there is nothing more conformable to the tenth of Leviticus That if these poor blind people which took the Symbols and Mysteries of Religion but superficially and from the bark as do also the Jewes from whom they borrowed all their important Traditions had known that which was covered and prefigured thereunder what accompt is there to beleeve that they made thereof Some do alledge that this sacred fire of the Vestals was illuminated by means of fusil bruising two pieces of wood one against another or in piercing them with a borrier as Festus would have it and Simplicius upon the third Book of Heaven according to Aristotle Plinie in the 16. Book 4. chap. Men rub two woods one against another from whence fire is forced which is received in by a bait made of dryed leaves and put in powder or in the match of the touchwood of a tree But there is nothing which doth better conduce thereunto then Ivy beaten or bruised with Laurell the same is of late more practised by the Savages of the West Indies as Gonzale d'Ovidiedo in his natural History of those quarters lib. 6. cap. 5. binding saith he two dry sticks hard one against another and putting betwixt their juncture the point of a rod well rounded which they rub thick and thin betwixt the hands so long till the fire by rubbing and the rarefaction of the air that followes them may lighten them Of this new relightning to shew us that we must renew and be borne again to a better and more praisable life not farre different from the Ceremonies of the Christian Church when on the Eves of Easter and Whitsontide at the Benediction of Springs and Fountains they make a new great wax Taper wherewith all the other luminaries are set on fire Touching Moses fire it was first sent from Heaven and lasâ—ed to the construction of Solomons Temple which was again renewed from Heaven and maintained to King Mamasses his time when the Jewes were carryed captives into Babylon which the Levites kept in the bottome of a Well where it was found again at their return 70 years after in the form of a gluish and white water as hath been said heretofore Pausanias to the Corinthians sets down that in the dayes of Antigonus son of Dâ—metrius there appeared a fountain of warm water near to the City of Mathana but from the beginning it appeared not in water but in great flames of Fire which were resolved into hot and salt water Saint Ambrose yet discoursing upon this water of the Levites in the third of his offices sets down that this doth sufficiently demonstrate that this was a perpetual fire which could not be taken from another place to shew that they must not acknowledge any other God or other religion and ceremonies then those that were established by the inspiration of the holy Spirit designed by fire for we may see what the children of Aaron Nadab and Abihu found in the 10 of Leviticus being willing to take upon them to offer strange fire unto God Then all false doctrine idolatry heresie and impiety may be called strange fire that devours the soul as a feaver doth the body with the life that maintains it there where this true fire sent from Heaven is that of the holy Spirit which salteth our hearts and consciences that is to say preserves them from corruption according whereunto the Prophet Jeremie spake in his 20. chapter when he had received it Then it was made as a burning fire in my heart and shut up in my bones and I was weary in forbearing and could not stay That the Holy Spirit should not be only light but very fire Esay doth manifest chap. 10.17 And the light of Israel shall be for a fire and his holy one for a flame For even so as the burnings which are a potentiall fire composed of igneal and burning saâ—ts work not upon a dead part insensible and deprived of Natures heat so the holy Spirit doth not exercise its actions upon cold languishing hearts that make no account of its ticklings and invitations but shew themselves contumacious and refractary just so as the heat of the Sun and of the fire but more and more hardens earth and clay in stead of softning it and melts it as they do wax butter and grease For the acts of Actives are in the disposition of the Patient where we see fire does divers effects in disagreeable subjects but not wholly contrary and directly opposite as when it blacks a coal and white chalk where its vertue is imprinted but all to the contrary for fire by custome is extinguished by water it is it that in this respect inflames and renewes that which was imprinted and hidden
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
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
upon Genesis we must from the contemplation of the creatures ascend and come to the Creatour So that those then are very ignorant and void of understanding who cannot from the Creatures attain to the knowledge of the Creator Those that dwell in the extremities of the West where it goes as it were to bed in the waters of the Ocean see it at his rising of the same grandeur as those of Catai where it riseth which sheweth the smallnesse and disproportion of the earth in comparison thereof That if the Moone which is farre inferior in greatnesse thereunto sheweth it selfe almost equall it is by reason of the great distance from the one and the other for by so much as things are at a distance by so much the more they lessen themselves to our sight and this is sufficiently verified by the rules of perspective Surely these are two chiefe Masterworks that of these two great luminaries which are not of small ornament and commodity for the life of man as Saint Chrysostome puts it upon the 135. Psalme but it doth contribute much thereto yea almost all in regard of that which concernes the body for besides the light wherewith they enlighten us by day and by night they distinguish times and seasons help us to make voyages as well by Sea as Land they ripen fruits without which our corporall life could not be maintained with other infinite usages which proceed from them The Sunne is put for the whole Heaven for that it is the greater part thereof and for fire and Heaven is the seat and vessell of incorruptible and unalterable bodies The Moone president of moisture represents water and earth and salt composed thereof for there is nothing wherein moisture is more permanent nor which is more moist then salt whereof the Sea for the most part doth consist and there is nothing where the Moone doth more distinctly make her motions to appeare then in the Sea as we perceive in the ebbing and flowing thereof and in the braines and marrows of Animals so that for good cause she is called the Regent of the waters and of phlegmatick and waterish moisture which although it seem to be dead and inanimate in respect of fire which is living she is permanent chiefly in salt which hath an inexterminable humidity and is that which keepeth the Sea from drying up for without Salt it had been long agone drawn out and dryed up there where the fire lives not in it but in another for in that it is a materiall Element it hath no place proper to it Of these two namely the heat of the Sun and moisture of the Moone in which consisteth the life of all things and without which nothing would grow increase nor be maintained not fire it selfe which cannot subsist without air which is double one participating of the heat of fire ascending from the water out of the bowels of moist nature a sincere and light fire forthwith flying out seeks things aloft saith Trismegistus And the other as water descending from fire so long till it come to congeal For so there is one moist water which tends upwards to rarifie it selfe in the aire and another cold comming downe to thicken it selfe in the nature of Earth untill at last it comes to terminate in red fire which is in gold for gold is the last substance of all And Aire is the mediating conciliator betwixt the moisture of passable water that constitutes matter and the fires heat on which the Agent and form doth depend Earth is as the matrix where fire by the means of air and fire introducing its action excites and thrusts out which is thereby engendred to its determined end The other five Planets and the fixed starres come in but collaterally as assistants and coadjutors of the effects of the two luminaries where all their influxions are reduced as do the rivers of the Sea and from the earth reciprocally comes back their norriture so that heaven and fire are as the male the agent and water and earth as the female patient but under heaven the air is comprized And as mans seed inclosed and lâ—pped within the matrix is nourished fomented and entertained with corrupt bloud by the help of naturall heat so fiâ—e by the means of air and water is maintained in the earth for the production of things which engender thereof So the Heaven Sunne Fire and Air march together and the earth under which are comprised in the Elements below water and dry land on their side It is Moses Heaven and Earth and Hermes his high and low which relate one to the other that which is above is as that which is below and on the contrary to perpetuate the miracles of one thing as he saith in his Table of Esmeraulds Zohar the intellâ—gible and sensible World by the contemplation whereof we come to the contemplation of spirituall things which thâ— Apostle before him had touchâ—d in the fiâ—st to the Romanes The invisible things of him from the creation of the Word are made knowne in those things which are scene for all that is here below in the earth is of the same manner as in heaven above for God the Creator made all things annexed one to another which Homer was not ignorant of by his golden chaine to bind together this inferiour and superiour World and that they adhere one to the other that his glory may stretch through all above and below And in imitation thereof man the image of the great world and the measure of every thing was thereof made and formed of things low and high And God took dust and thereof formed Adam and breathed into him the breath of life the very light that shineth in the sensible world depends upon this superiour light that is hid from us from whence proceed all faculties and vertues which from thence are expressed to our knowledge for there is nothing here below that doth not depend from that above by a particular power committed unto it to govern and excite it to all its appetites and motions so that all is bound together We hold well for the remainder that all we have from light in the sensible world comes from the Sun for that of the Moon and of the Stars although inumerable is a very small thing yet it proceeds from the Sun and that of fire is but artificiall to give us light for default of the Sunne But how shall it square with that to be willing to attribute the primitive source of light and chiefly that of the producing and vivifying to the sunne for that we see in the beginning of Genesis that the first thing that was made was the light on the first day and the Sunne not till the fourth vegetables being produc't from the former This was say the Rabbins thereto most wisely advised by Moses as all his other writings proceeding from divine inspiration to take away from men all occasion to Idolize this luminary when we see that light was
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
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
it meet with food and nourishment it will in a short time set on fire great Townes and Cities Forrests and whole Countries Leaven is the same for how little soever you put in your Past or Dough it will alter it in short space and convert it to its owne nature Perverse Doctrine is of the very same which gaineth Countries by little and little as a Canker doth in the whole body And in his third Book against Parmenian to glorifie himselfe not in his sinnâ—s but in those of others as the Pharisee said Luk. 18.11 I give thee thanks O Lord God that I am not as other men are Extortioners Vnjust Adulterers c. I fast twice in the weeke c. comparing his owne innocence to the defaults of others this is but a little leaven but to boast himself in iniquities and trespasses is a great one Furthermore Leaven is taken in good part as well as in bad part in holy Writ which relates to the two fires The first hath been touched heretofore for pride and naughtinesse that corrupts the soule Touching the good in the 7. of Levit. 12 13. there are loaves of leavened bread which they offer for peace offerings with oblation of thanksgiving and in the 23. 17. of every family two loaves of the first eares of wheat at Pentecost and in St. Matthew and the 23 of St. Luke Jesus Christ compared the Kingdome of God to leaven that a woman had put into three measures of dough till it was all leavened for there it is taken for the fervent zeale of ardent faith and it is the fire wherewith we must be salted for as the fire boyles our meats and the salt seasons them also leaven is the cause that the past bakes the better and prepares thereby to make more wholesome and of lighter digestion more savoury and of better tast In which case leaven relates to the Evangelicall Law as Saint Augustine saith and old leaven to the Mosaicall which the Jewes tooke by the barke and by the hairs By reason whereof the Apostle admonisheth us to cast it farre from us that is to say all superstition and malice Cast off the old leaven that you may be a new lump as ye are unleavened for even Christ our Passeover is sacrificed for you Therefore let us keep the Feast not with old leaven neither with the leaven of malice and wickednesse but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth which leaven is without doubt this strange fire that devoures and consumes us within that is to say our soul to swallow us up and make us goe downe living into Hell And the Fire of the Altar the celestiall fire of charity faith hope it is that which we must desire of God to kindle in our hearts and to season our thoughts and our desires that no corruption be begotten there as it doth here below in things corruptible and corporall the prompt Minister and executor of that which the divine goodnesse will please to give of comforts and commodities in this temporall life What obligations then do wee owe thee thou excellent portion of Nature without which we should live in so great misery thou doest lighten in darknesse thou dost make us rejoyce in obscurity bringing us another day Thou doest chase away from about us hurtfull powers feares and nocturnall illusions thou doest warm us being cold thou doest redry us being wet thou bakest our viands thou art the soveraigne Artizan of all arts and manufactures which have been revealed unto us to serve as a rampard against our naturall Imbecillities that make us in regard of our bodies the feeble and infirm animall of all others All this by reason of thy Divine beneficence thou doest communicate to all mortals And thou O cleare luminous Sunne the visible image of the invisible God the light whereof doth rebate it selfe in thee as within a fair manifold multiplying glasse rendring thy selfe overflowing with all sorts of happinesses which afterwards thou communicatest to all thy sensible Creatures being so fair and so desireable a liberall benefactor thou arisest most resplendent with luminous beams which thou doest spread abroad into all parts of the world and by the vertue of thy spirit and breath by thy vivifying vigour thou governest and maintainest this little All. Thou the illustrious Torch of Heaven thou the light of all things cause and secondary Author of all that groweth here below which by the faculty and power which the Soveraigne dispensator of all goodnesse hath given thee obligeth all nature to thy selfe which with an unwearied course doest dayly run through the foure corners of the Universe Thy beauty thy light thou doest lend unto our senses by thy unknowne and imperceptible Divinity and impartest it with a liberall largesse without any vaile or covverture that come to enterpose betwixt them to the Church thy deare spouse to break open to us here below the effects illightning by the same meane of thy inextinguible and inexhaustible Torch all the celestiall fires Looke upon us then with a benigne and favourable eye and by the excellent beauty which shewes it selfe in thee elevate our understanding to the contemplation of this other more great that no mortall eie can behold nor spirit apprehend but by a profound and pious thought for as much as it will please him to gratifie it But thou Soveraigne Father of this intellectual fire and light what can wee bring thee here but devout supplications and prayers that it will please thee to burne with the fire of thy Holy Spirit the wills and courages of us thy most humble Creatures that wee may serve thee with a chast body and to agree with thee by a pure and neat conscience to the honour and glory of thy holy name and salvation of our soules through our Lord Jesus Christ thy deare Sonne who liveth and raigneth with thee God coeternall for ever and ever AMEN The second Part of the Lord BLAISE his Treatise touching FIRE and SALT EVery man shall be salted with Fire and every Sacrifice shall be salted with Salt Mark 9.49 Wee have already spoken of Fire Salt remaineth of which there is no lesse to say But it is strange that the Ceremonies of Paganisme should be found in this respect and many other in Mosaicall Traditions Fire shall alwayes burne on the Altar Lev. 6.12 13 The Priest shall burne wood thereon every morning c. And in the 2.13 Thou shalt season with salt all the Oblations of thy Sacrifices and thou shalt not forget to put the salt of Gods Covenant under them with all thy Offerings thou shalt offer Salt which Salt Numb 18.19 is called the everlasting Covenant before God to Aaron and his sonnes And Pythagoras in his Symboles ordaines not to speak of God without light and to apply Salt in all Sacrifices and Oblations And not onely Pythagoras but also Numa which most part of men hold to have been 100 years before Pythagoras instituted the same according to
grosse and materiall then that above tends neverthelesse alwayes upward as if it endeavoured to unmingle it selfe from a corruptible substance where it remaineth fixed to returne free and exempt from all these hinderances to its first Original from whence it came as an imprisoned soule There is in them fiery vigor and celestiall Origin In seeds as much as our harmelesse bodies stay them And our terrene joints dull them and our dying members The other on the contrary though more subtill and essential rusheth out here below toward the earth as if these two aspired incessantly to encounter each other and to face each other in the fashion of two Pyramides whereof that above should have its basis planted in the Zodiack where the Sunne perfects his annuall course through the 12 Signs from the point of which Pyramis comes to cast here below all that which is here procreated and hath being according to the Astologers of Aegypt that there is nothing produced in the earth and in the water which was not first sowed in heaven which is there as a labourer to cultivate it and by his heate impregned here below with the efficacy of his influences conducts the whole to its compleat perfection and maturity which Aristotle also confirmes in his bookes of Beginning and Ending But the fire here below on the contrary at the basis of his Pyramis fastned to the earth making one of six faces of the Cube whereof the Pythagoreans give him the forme and figure because of its forme and invariable stability and from the point of this Pyramis the subtill vapours mount upwards which serve as nourishment to the Sun and to all the rest of the Celestiall bodies according as Phurnutus writeth after others Men attribute saith hee inextinguished fire unto Vesta peradventure for that the power of fire that is in the world takes it nourishment from thence and that from thence the Sunne is maintained and consisteth This is that also that Hermes would inferre in his Table of Emerandes That which is below is as that which is above and contrarywise to perpetrate miracles of one thing And Rabbi Joseph the sonne of Carnitol in his ports of Justice the foundation of all the inferior aedifices is placed above and their heap or top here below as a Tree inverted So that a man is but as a spirituall tree planted in the Paradise of delights which is the earth of the living by the roots of his haires following that which is written in the Canticles 7. The haire of thy head like purple the King is bound in the Galleries These two fires then the high and the low who do know themselves and so one another have beene no lesse unknowne to the Poets for Homer in the 18 of his Iliads having placed Vulcans forge in the eighth starry heaven where he is accompanied with his Artisans endowed with singular prudence and who know two sorts of workes which were taught them by the immortall Gods wherein they labour in his presence Virgill in his 8 of the Aeneads hath suffered him to set his shop here below in the earth in an Island called Vulcanian Vulcans house and by name Vulcans earth To shew that there is fire in the one and the other Region the Celestial and Elementary but diversly Men make moreover four sorts of fire that of the intelligible world which is all light the Celestiall participates of heate and light the Elementary of light heate and ardour And the infernall opposite to the intelligible with ardor and burning without light we see Lanthornes upon Mountaines that burne on the inside and other like called Vulcans And it is a thing very admirable as one of the Rabbins quoteth that Sulphur Pitch that are so ready and easy to take fire and continue so little in their combustion being exposed to the aire restrained neverthelesse within the Earths intrails it seemes they there renew themselves and multiply by their owne consumption although their heat and burning bee there much more violent without comparison then here above According as wee may see in Mountaines that burn for so many continued ages and hot Bathes This seemes to emancipate from the common order of Nature by a secret disposition of Divine providence who will have them continue so till the scurf and impurity of this inferiour world be exterminate with this infected stinking and corruptible odor and to banish it from hence and send it backe to hell for the punishment and torment of the damned whereof it is written in Psal 11.6 Vpon the wicked hee shall raine snares fire and brimstone and an horrible tempest this shall bee the portion of their Cup. This fire there which is blacke obscure thicke and dark the more devouring and burning it is resembles that of some great coales of stone which conceive a most strong ignition whereof it is spoken in the 20 of Job 26. A fire shall devour them which is not kindled And more particularly in the 4 of Baruch 26. Fire shall come upon them from the everlasting to continue many dayes and Devils shall a long time dwell there There where the Celestial fire is all clear and shining as a lamp whose flame should bee nourished with water of Life mingled with a certaine composition of Camphire Salnitre and other inflamative matters So that these combustible substances whereof there are infinite varieties may endure very long but it is true that it will bee but a gentle and weak flame And of the like but more subtill without comparison the Celestiall bodies are nourished and fed that need but little nourishment as approaching from spirituality I can tell you being at any other time brought to make the fashion of a shining Sunne in the darke P. 73. Lamp it was a fire of a Lampe so glittering that a whole great Hall might bee therewith rather dazled then lightened for this did more effect then two or three dozen of great Torches and yet in 24 houres used no more oile then I gave it with matches corresponding thereunto which held no more then a nut shell for this was a Lampe of Glasse plunged or dipped within a Globe of Crystall as great as a bead filled with vinegar distilled three or foure times for there is nothing more transparent nor more splendent Sea water is also good thereto and much better then fresh water how pure soever it may bee It is the Salt mingled among that gives it this luminous brightnesse But to returne to our discourse some have thought that sith the Starres receive nourishment they should also vanish in certaine periods of time and others come in their stead which were no other thing then a separation of their clearnesse and light with their Globe of substance more grosse and materiall by which they come to dissipate themselves and to vanish within the heaven as vitall spirits within the aire whilest they are absented from some animated body and leave it void of life So that by this