earth the sensible Each of them is subdivided into two in every case I speake not but after Zohar and the ancient Rabbins The intelligible into Paradise and Hell and the sensible to the Celestiall and Elementary world Upon this passage Origen makes a faire discourse at the entry on Genesis that God first made the heaven or the intelligible world following that which is spoken in the 66. of Esay Heaven is my seat and Earth my footstoole Or rather it is God in whom the world dwelleth and not the world which is Gods habitation For in him we live Act. 17.28 move and have our being for the true seat and habitation of God is his proper essence and before the Creation of the World as Rabbi Eliezer sets downe in his Chapteâ—s there was nothing but the essence of God and his name which are but one thing Then after the heaven or the intelligible world Origen pursues God made the Firmament that is to say this sensible world for every body hath I know not what firmnesse and solidity and all solidity is corporal and as that which God proposed to make consisteth of Body and of Spirit for this cause it is written that God first made the Heaven that is to say all spirituall substance upon which as upon a certaine throne hee reposeth himselfe The Firmament for our regard is the body which Zohar calleth the Temple and the Apostle also Yee are Gods Temple 1 Cor. 3.17 And the Heaven which is spirituall is our soule and the inner man the Firmament is the externall that neither seeth nor knoweth God but sensibly So that man is double an animall and spirituall body the one Internall Spirituall Invisible that which Saint Marke in this place designeth for man the other Externall Corporall Animal which he denotes by the Sacrifice which comprehendeth not the things that are of the Spirit of God but the Spirituall discerneth all So that the exteriour man is an animal compared to brute beasts whereout they tooke their offerings for Sacrifices He is compared to foolish Beasts and is made like them for a man hath no more then a Beast we must understand the Carnall and Animall that consists of this visible body that dyeth as well as Beasts are corrupt and returne to Earth Whence Plato said very well that which is seene of man is not man properly And in the first of Alcibiades yet more distinctly that Man is I know not what else then his body namely his soule as it followes afterwards That which Cicero borrowed out of Scipio's dreame But understand it thus that thou art not mortall but this body thou art not that which this forme declares but every mans minde is himselfe not that figure which may be demonstrated by the finger And the Philosopher Anaxarchus while the Tyrant Nicocreon of Cyprus caused him to be brayed in a great Marble Morter cried out with a loud voice Stampe hard bruise the barke of Anaxarchus for it is not him that thou stampest But will it be permitted for me here to bring something of Metubales All that is is either Invisible or Visible Intellectuall or Sensible Agent and Patient Forme and Matter Spirit and Body the Interiour and the Exteriour man Fire and Water that which seeth and that which is seen But that which seeth is much more excellent and more worthy then that which is seen and there is nothing that seeth but the invisible where that which is seene is as a blind thing therefore Water is a proper and serviceable subject over whom the Fire or Spirit may out-stretch his action Also he hath elevated it for his habitation and residence for by introducing it he elevates it on high in the nature of Aire contiguous unto it which invisible Spirit of the Lord was carryed on the waters or rather did sit over tâ—e waters did see the visible moved the immoveable for water hath no motion of it selfe there is none but Aire and Fire that have and speake by the Organs of one that is dumb for as when by our winde and breath filling a pipe or flute we make it sound though never so mute This Body and Spirit water and fire are designed unto us by Cain and Abel the first Creatures of all others engendred of the seed of man and woman and by their Sacrifices whence those of Cain issuing from the fruits of the earth were by consequent corporall dead and inanimate and together destitute of faith which dependeth of the Spirit and are by Fire dissolved into a waterish vapour Pour le nouveau so that to go to finde it in its sphere and habitation for the newes we are to suffer thereunder But those of Abel were spirituall animate full of life that resides in the bloud full of piety and devotion This also Aben Ezra and the author of the Handfull of Myrrh call a fire descending from one above to regather them which happened not to those of Cain which a strange fire devoured and from thence was declared the exteriour man sensuall animall that must bee salted with Salt But Abel the interiour spirituall salted with Fire which is double the materiall and essentiall the actuall and potentiall as it is in burnings All what is sensible and visible is purged by the actuall and the invisible and intelligible by the spiritual and potentiall Saint Ambrose on the Treatise of Isaac and of the Soule What is man the soule of him or the flesh or the assembly of those two for the clothing is one thing and the thing clothed another Indeed there are two men I leave the Messibe apart Adam was made and formed of God in respect of the body of ashes and of earth but afterwards inspired in him the Spirit of Life if he had kept himselfe from misprision he was like unto Angels made participant of eternall beatitude but his transgression dispossessed him The other man is he which comes successively to be borne of man and woman who by his originall offence is made subject to death to paines travails and diseases therefore must hee returne from whence he came But touching the soule that came from God it remains in its free will if it will adhere to God it is capable to bee admitted into the ranke of his children who are borne not of blood nor of the will of the flesh Joh. 1.13 nor of the will of man but of God Such was Adam before his first transgression The soule then which is the inner man spirit and the very true man which liveth properly for the body hath no life of it selfe nor motion and is nothing else but as it were the barke and clothing of the inner man according to Zohar alledging that out of the 10 of Job 11. Thou hast clothed me with skinne and flesh whereunto that in the 6. of S. Matthew seemeth to agree where to shew us how much the soule ought to bee in greater recommendation then the body as more worthy and
God and Angels Fire and doth not onely propose unto us Chariots and wheeles of Fire but of igneall animals of burning brookes and rivers of coales and men all burned All these celestial bodies are but flaming lights and thrones and Seraphims all of fire there is so great affinity and agreement with Divinity for the fire that the feeling and smelling perceiveth is separated in respect of the substance from all others that may bee joined and mingled therewith except it bee of the matter to which it is incorporated to burne It shines it spreads it selfe from side to side and gathering it selfe to its selfe with its light it illustrates all that is neare it nor can it bee seene without the matter whereto it adheres and exerciseth its action no more then Divinity but by its effects nor arrest nor fasten nor mingle with any thing nor change so long as it liveth there where it handleth all things and draws them to its selfe and to its nature It renewes and rejoyceth all with vitall heat it illustrates and illuminates all tending alwaies upward with agility and incomparable speed It communicates his motion to all its light its heat without any diminution of its substance what portion soever it lends but ever remaines entire in it selfe It comes suddenly and returneth as fast without mans knowledge whence it comes or whither it goes with many other worthy considerations of this common fire which brings us to the knowledge of the divine fire whereof this materiall is but as a garment and coverture and Salt the coverture of Fire which is appeased in Salt and agreeth with its enemy Water as Earth in Saltpeter doth with its contra-opposite the Aire by reason of the water that is betweene them for Saltpeter participates of the nature of Brimstone and of Fire for that it burnes and of Salt for that it resolves into water For saith Heber it is the property of Salts and Alums to bee dissolved into water sith they were made thereof But of this more to the purpose hereafter in its place The meditations of the Covertures and revestments are of no small importance to mount from things sensible to things intelligible for they are all infolded one in another as an Encyclie or a spirall Moone Zohar makes these revestments double Pag. 29. Encyclides ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 round Eph. 4.22 24. the one mounting and devesting its selfe Put off the old man and put on the new for no spirituall thing descending downwards operates without a vestment Sit yee in Jerusalem till you be clad with power from above Luk. 24.49 And in this case the body envelopeth and reclotheth the spirit the spirit the soule the soul the intellect the intellect the Temple the Temple the Throne the Throne the Sechinah or the glory and presence of God which shineth in the Tabernacle In descending this glory is shut out from the Throne and from the Arke of the Covenant which is within the Tabernacle or Intellect the Tabernacle within the Temple which is our Soule Yee are the Temple of God the Temple is in Jerusalem our vital spirit Jerusalem in Palestine our body and Palestine in the midst of the earth whence our body is composed God then being a pure Spirit stript of al corporeity and matter for our soule being such for more reason must hee be so that made it to his image and resemblance hee cannot bee in this simple and absolute nakednesse comprehended nor apprehended by his Creatures but by certaine attributes which they give him which are as many vestments which the Caballists do particularize to ten Zephirots or numerations 3 in the intelligible world and 7 in the celestiall which come to terminate in the Moone or Malcut the last in descending and the first in mounting from the Elementary world upwards for it is a passage from here below to heaven So that the Pythagoreans call the Moone the Celestial earth and the heaven or terrestrial Star all the nature here below in the elementary world being in regard of the celestiall and the celestiall of the intelligible this Zohar called feminine passible as from the Moone towards the Sunne from whom so much as she absents her selfe till she comes to its opposition by so much she increaseth in light for our regard here below where on the contrarry in her conjunction that shee remaines all darkened the party upward is all illightned to shew us that the more that our understanding doth abate to things sensible so much the more doth he disjoine or sever them from the intelligible and contrariwise this was the cause that Adam was lodged in an earthly Paradise to have more leisure to contemplate on divine things when he thought to turne after sensible and temporall things willing to taste of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evill whereby hee departed from that of life to assubject himselfe to death he was banished from thence and put out To this very purpose Zohar doth yet adde that two vestments come from heaven to this temporall life The one formall white and resplendent masculine fatherly and agent for whatsoever is active takes place from forme of the male and from the father and this very thing comes to us from fire and from the clearnesse of the stars to illustrate our understanding The other is red maternall faeminine for the soule coming from the substance of heaven which is more rare then that of heavenly bodies That of the understanding is lodged in the braine and the other of the soule in the heart The intellect or understanding is that part of the reasonable soule made and formed after the image and semblance of its Creators and the soule in it the animal faculty called Nephesch the life namely that which resideth in the bloud and as the heaven containes the stars this contains the intellect which to us is for the rest common with brute beasts But the intellect or reasonable soule is proper and particular to men that which can merit or demerit therefore it needs repurgation and cleansing from the spots that it hath drawne and conceived from the flesh wherein it was plunged according to that in the 8. of Genesis 21. The thought and imagination of mans heart were inclined to evill from his youth And fith it is a question about cleansing the vestment which is of a fiery nature it must likewise be that it be done b◠meanes of fire for wee see by experience that one fire chaseth away another as it hath been said heretofore so that if a man bee burnt there is no readier remedy then to burne it againe in the same place enduring the heat of the fire as much as you can which drawes the inflammation to its selfe out of the party or else tempering it with Aqua vitae wherein Vitriol hath beene calcined from whence Chirurgeons have not found a more soveraigne remedy to take away the fire of a musket sho◠to
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
which doth nothing by reason of the contrarieties of their natures which do not suffer them to be able to joine and unite And where there is no mixtion there is also no alteration because that which doth not enter doth not change saith Gebeâ— So that Salts being in the nature of Fires have from them their proprieties and effects that is to say to purifie and cleanse all ordures and uncleanness For as Salt the same Zohar pursues it hinders putrefaction to which every corruptible thing is subject so the Fire of Gods love and of Gods knowledge which is illightned in the soul repurging it from all corporall coinquinations causeth that after it hath been duly purged and cleansed it remaines for ever in its purity for as much as fire devours and consumes the filthy scumme thereunto fastned cloathing it selfe with a new and pure fire which it could not otherwise do For if it were not so assisted with this pure fire the Cherubin which is committed to the keeping of the Gate of the City of Delices with a fiery sword to forbid the approach to the tree of Life would not permit it to enter therein from whence the curiosity of tasting of the knowledg of good and evill excluded our forefathers and us with them hereditarily Hitherto Zohar then which nothing could seem more conformable nor which carryed it selfe better to our subject Every man shall be salted with Fire and every Sacrifice with Salt For to salt in this regard to cleanse and purifie are but one thing as also to salt and to burn because of their consemblable effects Burne my reines and my heart where burning is put for repurging and cleansing according to the Hebrew and the Chaldee and in the 13 of Zachary 9. I will burn them as silver is burned To which sutes also that which the Apostle writ in the 1 Cor. 3.12 If any man build upon this foundation gold silver pretious stones or wood hay stubble Every mans work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every mans work of what sort it is If any mans work abide which he hath built thereupon he shall receive a reward If any mans work shall be burnt he shall suffer losse but he himself shall be saved yet so as by fire Saint Augustine citing this place throughout the whole scope of his works interpreteth it in the 21. of the City of God 26. chap. for the vanities which men have too narrowly embraced in this age which we shall not enjoy in another but they must be abolished and defaced by the repurgation of fire for that which he had not without provoking love he shall not lose without burning grief And at length shall be saved as by fire because nothing shall be able to remove it from this foundation upon which it shall be built S. Ambrose to the same purpose in his third Sermon upon the 118. Psal As good gold even the very Church when it is burnt receives not detriment but its lustre and resplendency encrease more and more The Persians esteemed that when they voluntarily burned themselves the soul remained thereby repurged from all iniquities misdoings which consumed by the flames as touching the body which had power to move the Indian Calanus and some others to come from thence for God would not that we should advance our dayes by one moment who at the time they receive him he washeth us and cleanseth us from all preceding faults Whereby some abusing themselves thereby attended to receive it as slowly as they could and others baptized themselves for those which were already deceased In Aethiopia one who had conspired against the proper person of their Neguz or Emperour by baptizing himself thereupon before he was imprisoned remained quit So the proprieties of fire are in the first place to shine and lighten and that is by it common to the Sunne but it is thereby much surmounted And afterwards to warm digest and bake which this luminary doth also primitively as we may see in that the Earth produceth but for that the naturall heat doth not bring them wholly for our use to the last and perfect degree of maturity fire for the most part supplyes its wants and defaults for the regard of the concocting of what we eat for we hardly thereby make our profit being raw there where it is baked in the fire it becomes of more facil digestion and lesse corruptible as having lesse of crudities afterwards the fire separates strange things and not alike and after having taken away the corrupting superfluities namely the waterish humidity which it dâ—iveth out and the oily unctuosity which it burns and consumes with the terrestrieties that remain at last it doth gather together in a new composure the pure homogenealities which composure then consisteth of soul body and spirit from now forwards inseparable and incorruptible which relates to the three worlds the soul to the intelligible the spirit to the celestiall and the body to the elementary but this is not a reasonable soul or sensitive nor a vitall spirit such as is in animals but substances equipollent unto them which may be seen in glass which is an image of the Philosophicall Stone Whereupon Raymond Lullius enquiring of the confection of the said Stone and how men may attain thereunto made answer hee that knoweth to make glasse because their manner of proceeding are alike and such ought that pretious substance to be which Hermolaus Barbarus in his Annotations upon Plinie and Appian in his disquisition of antiquities alledgeth to have been found in an old Sepulchre in the Territory of Padua not above a hundred years since having this Distique with two others For he shut in with great labour the digested Elements under this small vessel greatest Olybius The Roman Morienes to Calid King of Aegypt on his Treatise of Metallick transmutation Whosoever shall know well how to neatify and whiten the soul and make it mount on high and can well preserve its body and take therefrom all obscurity and blacknesse with the evill smell she may then replace it in its body and in the hour of their rejunction great marvels will appear yet Rhases in his Epistle So every soul doth reconjoin to its first body which in any other manner cannot be reunited to another and from thence forwards shall never separate for then the body shall be glorified and reduced to incorruption and to a subtilty and brightnesse unspeakable So that it will penetrate all solid things whatsoever they be bccause its nature shall be such as of a Spirit that which he borrowed out of Hermes it shall penetrate every subtill thing An admirable thing that these Chymicall Philosophers under the vaile and curtain of this Art treating wholly about things so materiall as are metals and that which depends thereon with their transmutations by fire have comprized the most high secrets of Intelligibles and even
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
their destruction wherefore of necessity that which is pure and incorruptible must be separated from its contrary the corruptible and impure which cannot be done but by fire the separator and purificator But the three liquid Elements Water Aire and Fire are as inseparable one from the other for if the Aire were distracted from the fire the fire which hath therefrom one of its principall maintainments and food would suddenly extinguish and if the water were separated from the Aire all would bee in a flame That if the Aire should be quite drawne from the water for as much as by its legerity it holds it somewhat suspended all would be drowned Likewise if Fire should be separated from the Water all would bee reduced into a deluge For three Elements neverthelesse may well bee disjoined from the Earth but not wholly there must remaine some part to give consistence to the Body and render it tangible by the meanes of a most subtill and thinne portion thereof which they will elevate with them out of this gross thickness that remaines below as wee may sensibly see in glass which by an industrious Artifice of fire is depured of the darknesse that was in the ashes to passe from thence to a transparent clearnesse which is of the nature of Fire and indissoluble Salt accompanied with a firme and solid thicknesse having neither transpiration nor pores But wherefore should wee not hereto file all in one traine those so excellent Meditations of Zohar sith all depends on the same purpose God formed Adam of the slime of the earth or according to the Hebrew God formed man dust of the earth which word of forming belongeth properly to Potters who fashion of earth all that they thinke good And touching the dust this is but to abate our pride with which wee may bee swolne when wee consider the vile and corruptible matter whereof wee are made in respect of our bodies which is nothing else but mire and dirt Consider then three things saith Zohar and thou shalt not fall into transgression Remember from whence thou art come of such filthy and foule stuffe and whither thou must at last returne to dust wormes and rottennesse and before whom thou art to render an account and reason of all thy actions and comportments who is the soveraigne Judge the King of all who leaves no transgression unpunished nor good worke irrecompensed Adam then and all his posterity were formed of the dust of the earth which had before beene moistned with the fountaine or vapour which was highly elevated by the Sunnebeams to water and to soften the earth For the Earth being of it selfe cold and dry is altogether sterill and fruitlesse if it be not impregned with moisture and heat whence proceed fecundity So that Adam was composed of Earth and Water mingled together These two elements betoken a double faculty in him and double formation the one of the body in regard of this age the other of the soule in another world Water shewes the celestiall Meditation whereto our spirit may exalt it selfe and the earth of it selfe immoveable and that can never budge from below nor willingly mingle with the other three volatil elements by reason of its extreame drynesse so that it doth but grow hard by the action of fire and makes it selfe more contrary and untractable by the spirit of contradiction hard and refractory from the flesh against the spirit so that shee should reject the water which men thought to put therein if it were not by meanes of the subtill Aire interposing and mingling therewith and penetrating into the smallest parts which being suckt within the water forces the earth to feed on it to inclose it in her selfe as if shee would detaine it prisoner and by that meanes remaines great as the female by a male for every superiour thing in order and degree holds the place of male to that which is inferiour and subject thereunto Now if the Aire absent it selfe which associates and unites them together as being suppeditated and banished which is moist and hot from the extreame drynesse and coldnesse of the earth it will force it with all its power to reject the water and so reduce it selfe to its first drynesse which we may perceive in Sand which will never receive water except it be quickly separated Even so the earth is alwaies rebellious and contumacious of it selfe to bee mollified be it by water by aire by fire and after this manner there was a spirit of contradiction and disobedience introduced into Adam by reason of the earth whereof he was formed as his Companion and himselfe do shew when by the suggestion of the Serpent the most terrestriall animall of all others they so easily contradicted that extreame prohibition which was given them of not tasting the fruit of the knowledge of good and evill for the punishment whereof it was said to the Serpent thou shallt eat earth all the dayes of thy life which Isaiah resumes in 65. chap. Dust is thy bread And to Adam that the earth should produce nothing but thornes briars and thistles by means whereof if he would live he must cultivate it with the sweat of his browes till he returne to that from whence he was drawne for being dust hee must returne to dust But water which notifies Divine speculations disirous to mingle and unite with all things to whom it gave beginning and made them grow and multiply is as the carriage or vestment of the spirit following that which was said in the beginning of the Creation that the Spirit of God was stretched over the waters or as the Hebrew word Marachephet caries it hovering over them fomenting and vivifying them as a Henne doth her Chickens with a connaturall heat for this word Elobim imports I know not what of heate and fire By Water then the docill spirit obedient to the invitations of the intellect insinuated it selfe into Adam and by Earth the refractory and opiniaster that spurneth against the pricke for as the earth was the most ignoble Element of all others water rejecteth it and disdaineth it and could agree with it but as to a lee and excrement but if the pure and neat spirit remaines within the water where it made choice of its residence for from the three natures of earth water at least never joines with the two that is to say sand for its extreame drynesse that causeth a discontinuation of parts and the dirt to be fatty and unctuous there is not any thing else Argilla but slime only with which some food and mingling which may bee thereof made the water at last lets it reside below and it swimmes over as being of a contrary nature the one altogether immoveable solid and compact the other fluent removing and gliding as bloud through the veines wherein the spirits reside who can easily bee elevated to bee of a fiery quality alwayes soring upward So that the water which notifies the interiour spirit endeavours to
2. Mine is the silver and mine is the gold The Onorocrites also hold that to dream of gold presageth some near affliction because it agreeth in colour with gall and the pain in the ears two subsistences extreamly bitter and bitternesse signifies trouble anguish and grief as Pearls doe tears for their resemblance But silver expresseth joy and merriment And therefore saith the same Zohar Gold is attributed to Gabriel and Silver to Michael which in order is his superior Brasse to Vriel because it represents him in colour of fire faith to Vr of the Caldees Gold saith he and fire march together and copper with them where was built the little Altar without where the bloud of the Sacrifices was spilt and that within was of gold Exod. 38. and 39. Silver is the primary light of the day and Jacob. And gold that of the night and Esau or Edom red Silver represents milk and gold wine alluding to craft and subtilty where it is said in the 2. Eccles I thought to draw my flesh with Wine to give myself unto Wisedome But to return to our principall purpose fire amongst other its properties and effects is very purging and also in flesh and other corruptible substances Salt consumes the greatest part of their corrupting humors fire also doth the same and analogically spiritual fire which is nothing but the charitable ardor of the Holy Spirit that inflames us with Faith Charity Hope Shakes off the impurities of our souls as it is Esa 1.25 I will purely purge away thy drosse and take away all thy tin for this place here in the 10. of the same Prophet vers 17. And the light of Israel shall be for a fire and his holy one for a flame sheweth sufficiently that the Holy Spirit is not only light but fire and flame which salteth and repurgeth our consciences from corruption vices and iniquities The Sun also which is a visible Image of the invisible Divinity as for light fo for its vivifying heat wherewith all sensible things are maintained as the intelligible by the super câ—lestial Sun works the same effect in case of purification as fire As we may see by experience as the places where the Sun-beams come not are ever musty and mouldy and to purifie them wee open windowes to admit light into them and there make great fires which is very proper in the time of the Plague for it chaseth away ill air as light doth darknesse Also evill spirits who have more reputation in the dark from plague walking in darknesse the Hebrews call this Divell ravaging by night Deber and from his violence and Meridian Divell that of the day Ketch the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is in the fire saith Pliny a certain faculty and medicinall vertue against the Plague Who for the absence and hiding of the Sun comes to form it self wherein wee find by lightning it here and there may bring great comfort and succour in many kinds As Empedocles and Hippocrates doe elsewhere sufficiently demonstrate There was also a Physitian at Athens that got much reputation by causing them to kindle many fires during the Plague time So that the true Plague of the soul being iniquities and offences which poison it its theriac or counter-poyson cannot bee better found then in the fire of contrition that the Holy Spirit kindles therein My heart was hot within mee while I was musing the fire burned Psal 39.3 There is also a fire of Tribulation which was spoken of before that consumes our vanities and unruly concupiscences and makes us retun to God whereupon one of the ancient Fathers said it was a happy tribulation that forceth to repentance And St. Gregory the evils that presse us here doe compell us the sooner to come to God And that for our greater good that God doth thus burn us by the fire of tribuation that which was said by the Psalmist 26.3 Prove me O Lord and examine mee try my reins and my heart And in the 13. of Zach. vers 9. I will bring the third part through the fire and I will refine them as silver is refined and I will try them as Gold is tried For fire hath a double property as hath been said the one to separate the pure from the impure and the other to perfect that which remains of the pure Take away rust from silver and it will go forth a most pure vessell But the propriety of these significations is better kept in the Hebrew then in any other tongue Where the verb Szaraph is joined and attributed unto silver which signifies to melt and to refine and to Gold Baban to prove The one denotes Gods in Elect an holy purity of conscience by silver the other by gold a perfection of constancy which wee cannot know better then by proof and from thence comes dignity and eternall glory the one and the other acquired by the fire of Examination and of probation for as saith St. Chrysostome that which fire is towards gold and silver the same is tribulation in our soules from which fire cleanseth the impurities and uncleannesse and makes them neat shining following that which is said in the 17. of Prov. As silver is tried by fire in the furnace so God proveth the hearts of his Creatures and in the 27. of Eccles ver 5. The furnace tryeth the Potters vessell and tentation of tribulation trieth good men There are many saith one of the Fathers who whilest they are red in the fire of adversity make themselves flexible and malleable but departing therefrom they harden themselves again as before making themselves unfit for conversion or amendment Origen in his 5. Homilie upon the 3. Chap. of Jesus Nave they that draw near unto me draw near unto fire If you bee saith hee there Gold or silver the nearer you come to the fire the more you will become resplendant but if you build with wood straw or chaffe upon the foundation of Faith and come near the fire you shall be consumed very happy then are those that drawing near the fire are therewith lightned and not burnt According as it is written in the 3. of Mal. The Lord will sanctifie thee in burning fire St. Augustine upon a verse of the 45. Psalm Wee have passed through water and fire Fire burneth saith hee and water corrupteth When adversity comes upon us it is as it were fire unto us and worldly prosperities on the contrary are as water The earthen vessell that is well hardened in the fire fears neither water nor fire Let us then study to amend our selves by the fire of tribulation by bearing it patiently for if the pottery be not firmly strengthened by fire the water of temporall vanity will soften it and mingle it as durt And therefore wee must passe through the fire to come to the water of Mercy and Grace whereof St. John speaketh in the 3. of S. Mat. I Baptize you with water unto repentance but hee that comes after mee is stronger then
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
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
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