pretious our Saviour saith Take no care then how to cloth your body is not your body better then raiment and by consequent the soule more then the body since the body is but as it were the vestment of the soule which is subject to perish and to use all shall wax old as doth a garment And the Apostle in the 1 to the Corinthians The old man falleth away but the inner man is renewed dayly for it washeth it selfe according to Zohar by the fire as doth a Salamander and the outward man by water with Soaps and Lees that consist of Salts Of which two manners of repurging it is thus said in the 31. of Numb v. 23. All that which shall support the fire shall be purged thereby and that which cannot beare it shall be sanctified by the water of Purification which was a figure of that which the Fore-runner spake in the 3. of Matthew It is true that I baptize you with water unto repentance but he that comes after mee shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with Fire But behold how Zohar speakes more particularly If it bee so Adam what is he it is nought but skin and flesh and bones and nerves he must not passe so But to speak truth man is nothing else but the immortall soule that is in him and the skinne flesh bloud bones and nerves are the vestments wherein it is wrapped as a little creature newly borne within the beds and linnen of its Cradle These are but the utensils and instruments allotted to womens children not to man or Adam for when this Adam so made was elevated out of this world he is devested of those instruments wherewith he had beene clothed and accommodated This is the skinne wherewith the Son of man is envelopped with flesh bones and nerves and this consisteth in the secret mystery of Sapience according to that which Moses taught in the Curtains or Vails of the Tabernacle which are the inward vestment and the Tabernacle the outward To this purpose the Apostle in the fifth of the 2 to the Corinthians saith We know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have an Aedifice not built with mans hand but eternally permanent in the high Heavens For in this we groane earnestly desiring to bee clothed upon with our house which is from heaven if so be that being clothed wee shall not bee found naked So Adam in respect of his body is a representation of the sensible world where his skinne corresponds with the Firmament extending heaven like a Curtaine For as the heaven covereth and enveloppeth all things so doth the skin every man in which are introduced and fastned its starres and signes that is to say the draughts and lineaments in the hands the forehead and visage in which wise men know and reveale and makes them discerne the inclination of its naturall imprinted in the inward And he that doth conjecture from thence is as he to whom heaven being covered with Clouds cannot perceive the constellations that are there or otherwise darkened from his sight And although the sagest and most expert in these things can finde out something therein denoted by the draughts and lineaments of the palme of the hand and fingers or within them for by the outside it is case a part and shew nothing but the nailes which are not a little secret and mystery because by death they are obfuscate but have a shining lustre while they live in the haire eyes nose and lips and all the rest of his person For as God hath made the Sunne Moone and Stars thereby to declare to the great World not only the day night and seasons but the change of times and many signes that must appeare in the earth So hath he manifested in the little world Man certaine draughts and lineaments holding place of lights and starres whereby men may attaine to the knowledge of very great secrets not common nor knowne of all Hence is it that the Intelligences of the superiour world do distill and breath as it were by some channels their influences whereby the effects come to struggle and accomplish their effects here below as of things drawn with a rude and strong bow will plant themselves within a Butt where they rest themselves But to retake the discourse of this double man and the vestment of him the Apostle in the 1 Cor. 15. saith That there are bodies Celestial and bodies Terrestrial yet there is a glory both of the one and of the other There is a naturall or animall body and there is a body spirituall he will raise up the spirituall body incorruptible To this relates the Fire to the corruptible Salt From these vestments furthermore the occasion presents it selfe to a larger extension the better to declare who must be seasoned with Fire and who with Salt which is here expressed by the offering to whom the exteriour doth correspond according to the Apostle Rom. 12. I pray you brethren by the mercy of God that you offer up your bodies a living Sacrifice holy and acceptable unto him which is your reasonable service which it could not make it selfe the habitation of the Holy Ghost if it were not pure neat and incontaminate Know you not that your Body is the Temple of the holy Spirit which is in you which in Scripture is commonly designed by fire with which wee must be salted inwardly that is to say preserved from corruption and from what corruption from sinne that putrifies our soules Origen in his 7. book against Celsus speaking of its vestments sets downe that being of it selfe incorporeall and invisible in what corporall place soever it findes it selfe it must have a body convenable to the nature of the place where it resides As then when it is in this Elementary world it must have also an elementary body which it takes when it is incorporated in the belly of a woman to grow there and there to live this base life with the body that it hath taken to the limited terme which expired it devests it selfe of this corruptible vestment although necessary in the earth from whence it came following that which God said to Adam in the third of Genesis Thou art dust and shalt returne to dust to be revested with an incorruptible whose perpetuall abode is in Heaven For this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortall must put on immortality And so the soul putting off its first Terrestriall vestment takes another more excellent above in the Aethereall Region which is of the nature of Fire hitherto Origen to which nothing could be found more conformable then that which Pythagoras puts towards the end of his golden verses Thus forsaking this mortall body thou passest into the free Aethereall Aire you shall become an immortall God incorruptible and no more subject to death as if he would say that after this materiall corruptible body shall put off the Terrestriall and impure vestment the perfect portion of
in the chalk whence a fair meditation is presented that as fire is the symboll of life water that is its contrary and extinguisheth it must be of consequence the symboll of death water naturally tending downwards and fire upwards wherein consisteth life Strabo to this purpose in his 15. Book speaking of the Brachmans sets down that which we call death to be renewing of life and that this temporall is but a conception as it were and a carriage which comes about the end of its term to bring forth to death to passe from thence to eternall life Which Seneca imitates in the 103 Epistle The day that we fear so much as the last of our life is a renascence of an eternall day let us then chearfully leave behind that which serves for nothing but a tedious charge Why do we so much turn our backs as if we had not been before this first frail body in which we remain included and hid we struggle and temporize therein to the best of our power and not without cause for we have been forced out by a endeavour of our mother in bearing us and we weep and lament when we arrive to this which we think to be the last day but to complaine cry and weep are they not marks and tokens of one that is to be borne And a little more Christian-like although a little before I will lay down this body where I have found it and clothed it and will render my self above to the immortall Gods although I am not without them at this present but whilest I am detained here within this grievous masse of earth in the low abode of mortality my sensuality will fight and combat against this other better and longer life Now as we have been for nine or ten months shut up within our mothers belly not to prepare therein for it selfe but at last to come to this place whither we ought to be sent when we should be perfectly accomplished and made fit to breath and remain openly out of this closet where we were formed In like manner during the space that we have run through from our infancy to old age we dye to go whither another originall attends us and a new state of things All this doth in nothing derogate from the Traditions of our Church who celebrated for the nativity of Martyrs the day of their death and martyrdom To conclude then that which was heretofore said of fire and of the four worlds that of the Intâ—lligible is all luminâ—us of the Celestiall shining and hot by reason of its motion of the Elementary here below shining hot and burning and of Hell nothing but burning So these three proprieties of fire to light to warm and to burn though the effects be divers and strange and the operations almost infinite only of the elementary to begin with that which is nearest to our senses Rabbi Elchana greatly honoured amongst the Hebrewes sets forth that out of the 10. fingers of the hand being addressed and conducted by the understanding may proceed more different sorts of works then there are stars in Heaven the most part whereof come from the action of fire on which almost all labouring instruments do depend Fire principally served the first men who had nothing but it for all working instruments In regard of its motion we may sufficiently see that there is nothing more glistring and moving then the fire which is the very cause of all motion Take away heat there will be no motion saith the Chymicall Philosopher Alphidius and this motion is accompaâ—ied with depuâ—ation for fire will have none but pure things according to Raymond Lullius For it is not only the pure substance of all others but it purgeth mundifieth and cleanseth all that upon which it can have Action of that which therein may be corruptible The Lord will wash away the filth of the children of Israel by the spirit of burning Esay 4.4 wherefore the Greeks call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Purging So that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 purifying was not made but by fire as the solemn annuall feast of Candlemasse witnesseth And in all the Eastern Churches when they would say the Evangel they burn great Tapers as we do upon the day of Purification and that for token of joy and rejoicing whereof fire is a symbole and according to that we make two fires upon the feast of Saint John Baptist conformable to that in the first of Luk. 14. Many shall rejoyce at his birth and fires of joy in some happy successes of victories at the birth of Kings children and the like occasions of alacrity We have alledged heretofore out of the 31. of Numbers 23 that which is said of fire and water the two purifying Elements whereby in our baptisms we are accustomed to put a little piece of wax light or match which they make the Creature to hold when they hold it over the font the Church being thereby regulated by the pillar of fire which garded the Israelites and the cloud baptismall water by day whereunto sutes that of Saint John in the 3. of Matthew That in respect of himselfe he baptized with Water unto repentance but he that commeth after shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with Fire to the remission of sinnes for fire is a mark of the Holy Spirit by which grace is conferred and descended upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost in the form of fiery tongues Act. 2.3 The Stoicks although too superstitious therein made great account of this Element which they said was I know not what living thing the most wise Fabricator of the whole universe and of all that which is contained therein to which purpose as I alledged before out of the 7. of Wisdome 24. that Wisdome the Artist of all things taught me that it is more moving then motion for she passeth through all things by her purenesse Wherein two properties of fire are attributed to Wisdome Motion and Purity And in summe esteemed it to be a God according to which Saint Augustine in his 8. Book of the City of God 5. chapter sets down Zohar according to his high elevated contemplations alledging upon Exodus this passage of the 7. of Daniel 9. The Throne of the ancient of dayes was flames of fire and a River of fire running lightly issued from his face his vestment white as snow saith that within this shining river of fire were washed the vestments of the souls that mounted on high and repurged themselves there from the old scum of the Serpent without consuming it selfe which did but clear it self from the old filth that it had theâ—e gathered And this is very properly said because we see by experience that greases are not cleansed but by other grease which carries one the other as doth Soap and Lees which consists all of grosse and unctuous salts for if those were not they would not bite upon unctuosity and fatnesse witnesse simple water
devest it selfe of this externall coagulation for all coagulation is a kinde of death and waterishnesse of life and would never more associate therewith nor revest it selfe by reason of its contumacy were it not that the soveraigne Master and Lord Adonai by his providence for the propagation of things as long as hee shall please to maintaine in beeing this faire worke of his hands constraine these two Earth and Water to agree in a sort together by its Angell or Minister that rules in the Aire Man moreover hath towards himselfe frank and free will in his full power and disposition The appetite of sinne shall be under thee and thou shalt have domination over it Gen. 4. But if hee be adheering to the earth Gen. 4.7 that is to say to carnall desires and concupiscences whereunto he is most inclinable he shall do nothing but evill And if to the spirit designed by water all that hee doth shall goe well The River of God is filled with waters And in the 44. of Isaiah I will powre out water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground I will powre out my Spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thine off-spring So that as long as the water doth suffer and remaine united with the earth the good Spirit resteth with man by which wee are admonished by the wise man Prov. 5.15 to drinke waters out of our Cisterne rivers out of our own Wel. But when the earth by its rebellious and repugnant drought rejecteth water there resteth nothing therein but its hard and refractary obstination till that by meanes of the aire the spirit that joines and unites them together which are holy inspirations it bee newly remoistned and watered By meanes whereof when wee have this good spirit of salutary water whereof it is written in the 15 of Ecclesiasticus Thou shalt give him the water of wisdome to drinke wee must take heed of casting it away and to make our selves all dry earth and sandy which is not satisfied with water and therefore produceth nothing But all this is more clearly expressed in the Gospell where by the meanes of this fructifying water our Saviour which is a Fountaine that is never dry the holy Spirit commeth to put into our hearts that which moistneth the hardnesse of the earth watereth it and dresseth it to produce the ripe fruits of good and charitable works The water which I will give you saith he Joh. 4.14 shall be a Fountaine of living water springing up into eternall life Of this water the Prophets have clearely spoken as David in the 36. Psal For with thee there is a Fountaine of life and in thy light wee shall see light Psal 36.6 See how he joines water with light which is fire so that this digression seemes to bee lesse impertinent and in the 12. of Esay 3. You shall draw water with joy out of the wels of salvation More Jerem. 2. They have forsaken me that am the Fountaine of living water and have digged to themselves Cisternes broken Cisternes that will hold no water In this of Zohar as above are comprised the principall secrets and actions of Fire and of its contrary the Patient which is Water for the acts of Actives are in the disposition of the Patient said the Philosopher for the effects cannot better be discerned then where they act Fire then hath three proprieties but in this respect wee must argue the thing more deeply As then all that which is are divided into 3 called Worlds or Heavens it must not be thought strange if wee repeate the same more then once for from thence proceed all the secret sciences that is to say the elementary here below subject to perpetuall alteration and vicissitude of life and of death the Celestiall aloft above the Circle of the Moone incorruptible in respect of it selfe as well for its purity and uniformity of substance as for its continuall and equall motion nothing therein praedominating the one or the other which two constitute the Sensible world There is afterward the Intelligible abstracted from all corporeity and matter which the Apostle cals the third World where hee was ravished this said hee whether in the body or out of the body God knowes 2 Cor. 12.3 for not onely the World and the Heaven are put one for the other but yet the Heaven for Man The heavens declare the glory of God according to which most part of the Fathers interpret it and Man reciprocally for Heaven As Origen sets it forth upon the 25 Treatise of Saint Matthew Mans heart is properly called Heaven and the Throne not already of the Glory of God as is the Temple but of God properly For the Temple of the glory of God is that wherein as in a Glasse wee see our selves by Aenigma But Heaven that is above the Temple of God where his Throne is is to see him wholly as it were face to face which hee hath almost transcribed word for word out of the booke Abahir to Zohar and other ancient Caballists whereof he consisteth for the most part Moreover some say that the Heavens are sometimes put for God himselfe as in the 32 of Deut. Heare O Heaven the words I speak and in the 8 chapter of the 1 of Kings according to the Hebrew verity in the prayer of King Solomon at the dedicâ—tion of the Temple Heare O Heaven In this third Heaven or World whereof the Apostle spake although God bee every where yet the seate of his Divinity is there more especially established then elsewhere with his separated Intelligences that assist him to execute his commands Blesse the Lord yee Angels mighty in power doing that which he ordaineth hearing the voice of his words wherefore Theologians called it the Angelicall world without all place and time which Plato in his Phaed. said that no mortall men ever yet had sufficiently celebrated it according to its excellency and dignity being all of light who from thence stretched out her selfe and derives it so as out of an in exhaustible Fountaine to all sorts of Creatures even according as the ancient Phaenician Theologie carryed which the Emperour Julian Parabates alledged in his prayer to the Sunne That Corporeal Light proceeded from an Incorporeal Nature The Celestial world participates of darkenesse and of light whence proceed all the faculties and powers that it brings it And the elementary all of darknesse designed for the reason of its instability by water The Intelligible by Fire because of its purity and light and the Celestial by the Aire where fire and water come to joine the Earth by this reckoning should remaine for Hell as in truth this earthly habitation is nothing but a true Hel But by Heaven Moses understood the Intelligible World and by earth the Sensible attributing the two higher elevated Elements Aire and Fire to Heaven because they alwayes tend upwards and Water and Earth which for their gravity tend downward but all that by him was
spirituall and intelligible for the invisible things of God from the Creation of the World are clearely seene being understood â—by the things that are made even his eternall power and Godhead For the world with the Creatures being there they are a portraict of God for the Creator is understood by the Creature saith Saint Augustine for God hath made two things to his image and resemblance according to Tresmegistus the world therein to rejoice and please our selves with the infinite brave pieces of worke and Man wherein hee set his most singular delight and pleasure which Moses hath tacitely expressed in Gen. 1. 2. where when there was question of creating the world Heaven Earth Vegetables Minerals Animals Sunne Moone Starres and all the rest hee did no more but command by his word for hee said and they were done hee commanded and they were created But in Mans formation hee insisted much further therein then in all the rest saith he Let us make man after our Image and Similitude hee created him male and female and formed him dust of the earth afterward breathed in his face the spirit of life and hee was made a living soule In which are touched 4 or 5 particularities So Cyrill observes it After the same manner then as the Image of God is the world so the image of the world is man therein there is such a relation of God with his creatures that they cannot bee well comprehended but reciprocally one by the other for all the Sensible nature as Zohar hath it in regard of the intelligible is as that of the Moone towards the Sunne who thereinto reverberates its light or as the light of a Lampe or torch which parteth the flame fastned to the weik which is therein nourished by a grosse matter viscous adustible without which this splendor and light could not communicate it selfe to our sight nor our sight comprehend it And likewise the glory and essence of God which the Hebrewes call Sequinah could not appeare but in the matter of this Sensible world which is an image or patterne thereof And it is that which God said to Moses Exod. 33. You shall not see my face you shall see my binder parts The face of God is his true Essence in the intelligible world which no man ever saw except the Messihe I did set the Lord alwayes before mee Psal 16.8 And his posteriour parts are his effects in the Sensible world The soule likewise cannot bee discerned and knowne but by the functions it exerciseth in the body whilst it is annexed thereunto By which Plato was moved to thinke that soules could not consist without bodies no more then fire without water So that after long revolutions of times they should come againe to incorporate themselves here below whereunto adheres that in the 6 of Virgils Aeneads All these when they have turned for many yeares God cals them to the floud of Lethe by great troopes Beiâ—g forgetfull that they must review the upper convexe And begin againe to bee willing to returne into bodies But this savours a little of new-birth and Pythagorean changings of soules into bodies in which Origen was likewise out of the way as may be seene in his booke of Princes and in Saint Jeromes Epistle to Avitus But more sincerely Porphyrius although in the rest an impious adversary a Calumniator of Christianisme that for the perfect beatitude of soules they must shunne and fly all bodies So that when the soule shall bee repurged from all corporal affections and when it shall returne to its Creator in its first simplicity it hath no great desire to fall againe into the hands and calamities of this age when the option should be left unto it free From the Intelligible world then it runnes downe into the Celestial and from thence to the Elementary all that which the spirit of man can attaine from the knowledge of the admirable effects of Nature which Art intimates in what shee can whence by the revelation of these rare secrets by the action of fire the most part is magnified the glory and magnificence of him who is the first motor and author thereof for mans understanding according to Hermes is as a Glasse where we come to shave off and to abate the cleare and luminous rayes of the Divinity represented to our senses by the Sunne above and the fire his correspondent here below which inflame the soule with an ardent desire of the knowledge and veneration of his Creatour and by consequent of his love for men love nothing but what they know So each of these three worlds which have their particular sciences hath also its fire and its salt apart both which do informe us namely of Moses his fire in the heaven And the Salt for its firme consistence and solidity to the earth What is this Salt aske one of your Chymicall Philosophers a scorched and burned earth and congealed water by the heat of fire potentially enclosed therein Moreover Fire is the operatour here below in the workes of Art as the Sunne and Celestiall Fire is in them of that nature and in the intelligible the holy Spirit by the Hebrewes called Binah or Intelligence which the Scripture designes ordinarily by fire and this spirituall fire or igneal spirit with the Chomah the verbe where the Sapience attributes to the Sonne Wisdome the Artist of all things taught mee are the fathers operators By the word of the Lord were the heavens firmed and all their beauty by the spirit of his mouth from whence that maxime of the Peripateticks differs not much Every worke of Nature is a worke of Intelligence Behold the three fires whereof we pretend to speake of which there is none more common amongst us then the elementary here below grosse composed and materiall that is to say alwayes fastned to matter nor on the the other part lesse known That which is of him from whence he came and whither hee goes reducing in an instant all to nothing assoone as his nourishment failes him without which he cannot consist a moment but goes as hee comes being all in the least of his parts So that he can in lesse then nothing multiply to infinity and in lesse then nothing empty it selfe for one little waxe light will at pleasure enkindle the greatest fires we can imagine without any losse or diminution of its substance Though they take a thousand yet nothing perisheth And in the third of Saint James Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth yea one onely small sparkle of fire would press in the twinckling of an eye all the immense hollow of the Universe if it were filled with Gun-powder or Napthe and presently after will vanish away So that of all bodies there is nothing that doth approach nearer to the soule then fire said Plotin And Aristotle in his fourth booke of Metaphysickes sets downe that â—ven to his time the most part of Philosophers had not well knowne fire nor yet Aire to bee perceivable
travelled to obtaine that which others had better cheap and also to that which we reserve for our discourse of Gold and Glasse where we will declare that which shall here be left imperfect not having attained but by the end of the lip wherefore we will take but that which is necessary to clear what the Prophets have thereupon touched in their parables and similitudes In the first place of the two perfect gold silver on which they have most insisted on the good part for the imperfect tinne copper and iron they have ordinarily applyed to the worst part for vices and depravations contumacies and durities and lead for vexations and molestations Gold for true beliefe faith piety and religion and in sum all that which concernes the honour and service of God Silver for good and charitable works of mercy due in respect of our neighbour So that these two metals represent the two tables of the Decalogue And it would not be farre from the purpose to make a trimming of the Altar The first of gold containing four precepts in four azure letters which signifieth heaven and the other of silver in green letters signifying the earth Origen in the 2. Homil. upon this text of the first of Canticles We will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver triumpheth to allegorize the shape of gold this saith he holds the figure of the invisible and incorporeall nature and this for that it is of a substance so homogeneall and subtill that nothing can extend it selfe more fine and silver represents the vertue of the Verb following that which the Lord said in the 2. of Hosea I have given you gold and silver and you have therewith made Idols to Baal But we make the Holy Scripture Idols of gold and silver when we turne the sense thereof to some perverted interpretation or that we wâ—uld Pindarize it by elegances as if vertue consisted on the vaine flowers of Rhetoricke for in doing this we open our mouth as if we would swallow and suck in heaven whilst our tongue licketh the earth like as if the Prophet should say I have given you sense and reason whereby you ought to acknowledge me for your God and reverence me but you have turned them aside and therewith have made Idols By sense are understood the internall cogitations which represents them and by Reason which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word for it signifies the one and the other as silver denotes Psal 12.6 the words of the Lord are pure words as silver proved in the fire when they say or hold that silver tryed in the fire is the tongue of the just are not my words as fire But Cherubins are said to be gold because they interpret them for the pleâ—itude of divine Science And the Tabernacle of the alliance is of Gold also because it carries the type and iâ— age of the law of nature where consisted the gold of science so that Gold is referred to the concâ—ption and thought and silver to the word according to which the wise man alludeth in the 25. of the Proâ—erbe As Golden apples with silver nets so is he that speakâ— words in a fit seaâ—on Hitherto Origen But will we hear what Zohar sets down from whence Origen hath fished out the greatest part of his rare and profound meditations and allegories and to the purpose of those apples of gold enchased within the nets of silver The gold from above is the gold sagur inclosed or folded up that from below is more exeposed to our senses nothing should better agree to the Mâ—ssihe which is the true pure gold of Evihah mentioned Gen. 2. hee which is reinclosed within silver namely his divinity and reshut up with the humanity Zohar pursues it In the Tabernacle there were mingled gold and silver to assemble the divine mystery above in one subject where soveraigne perfection was found But the Cherubims were all of gold shewing their Angelicall nature which doth not participate of any corporeity without any silver or copper mingled therewith Gold within silver expresseth mercy by which the whole universe was built the world was built in mercy upon which Gods Throne is established His Royall seat shall be prepared in mercy But the rigour of judgement is designed by copper which approacheth to the colour of bloud without the effusion whereof also there is no remission And therefore it was ordained that Moses should erect a Serpent in the Wildernesse to heale those who were bitten by the vermine and cast thâ—ir eyes upon it Then gold silver and copper are the three metals that go together the Chasma'l or the electrum of Ezechiel And there is a faire meditation upon the 3 colours which are these white of silver that represents water is mercy manifested by the particle Jah assigned to the Father which the Apostle cals the father of mercies 1 Cor. 1.3 Copper that in rednesse imitates fire is the rigour and the severity of justice which the Aegyptians call Din attributed to the Holy Spirit against which if any blaspheme hee shall neither be pardoned in this world here nor in the other The third in the middle of two is the citrinity of the gold composed of white and red as we may see in saffron bloud vermillion and other the like tempered with water which is white for from thence is procreated a golden yellow for Citrinity saith Gebâ—r is nothing else but a determinate proportion of white and red And this guilded citrinity is attributed to the Sonne who participates of Mercy and Justice in pursuance of that spoken in the 16. of Eccl. 11. because mercy and wrath are with him But latten or copper which in its exteriour hath some resemblance with gold but within all impure and corrupt denoting hypocrisie which under a masque of pious zeale and religion hatcheth its wicked desires and detestable ambitions impieties erroneous opinions lusts animosities revenges and other unjust and perverse intentions The whitenesse of the silver on the one side of which this lett on participates for it is but at 16 Carats being pallied by the rednesse of copper that causeth it citrinity But this rednesse is but cruelty and malice which corrupteth gentle sincerity If your sinnes were as red as scarlet or vermillion they shall bee as white as snow Esay 1.16 In regard of lead it is put for vexations and molestations wherewith God doth visit us by means whereof hee bringeth us unto repentance for as lead burneth and exterminateth all the imperfections of metall which Boetius the Arabian calleth water of Sulphur so tribulation divesteth us here below from many spots which wee thereby have contracted so that St. Ambrose calleth it Heavens Key following that which is written Act. 14.22 Through many temptations we must enter into the Kingdome of Heaven The Apostle Rom. 5.3 and 4. c. useth a very fine gradation Trihulations begets patience tpatience experience and experience hope and hope maketh not ashamed because the love
I and he will Bâ—ptize you with the holy Spirit and with fire Of which fire we may see in the 16. of Wisdome 17. for it is woâ—derfull that in the water that quencheth all things fire should be most powerfull That which made St. Auguistine himself say that in the Sacrament of Baptism which they exercise and Catechise they first came to fire and after to the Baptism of water where the same comes to the temptations of this age where in the anguish which oppresseth us the fire first presents it self but when the fear therein is out it is to bee feared that a wind of vain glory proceeding from temporall felicity dissolve it not into rain which will come to quench the fire of heat and Charity which affliction hath taken within our Souls To this purpose from fire to baptismall water designed by the aforesaid passage wee have passed through water and fire this bâ—ats upon the 31. of Numb of clensing by fire and bâ— water according as the things may suffer for visible baptism is made by visible water and wherein the water consists in parts which is nothing else but congealed water by the acuity of fire thrust thereinto with which salt every Sacrifice must bee salted that is to say the externall man and the invisible baptism of the internall spirituall man is wrought by the Grace of the holy Spirit represented by fire which of it self is invisible and unperceivable except it bee attached to some matter as the soul is in the body This fire there burneth in us mortall sins and the water washeth away Veniall and Originall But some wil demand What is that fire from whence comes it that so purifies our souls and warms them in the Love of God and illightens them with his knowledge for wee love nothing but what wee know and wee cannot know God nor see his light but by his light In thy light wee shall see light that is to say by his word and parol who hath vouchsafed to revest us with our flesh Thy word is a fiery word and thy servant loveth it It this fire then which our Saviour saith hee was come to send into the earth and what will I if it bee already kindled For as Prometheus brought fire here below which hee had lighted in one of the wheels of the Suns Chariot The word hath rendred lightened in the Mercavah Chariot or throne of God which is all of fire as also in the 17. of Dan. vers 9. Origen in his 13. Homil. upon the 25. of Exodus Jacinth Purple double Scarlet and Silk sets down that these four represented the four Elements Silk or Linnen the Earth from whence it came Purple Water because extracted from bloud with the shell or cockle of the sea Jacinth in Hebrew Techeleh the Air for it is without heavenly blew and Scarlet fire by reason of its red enflamed colour But wherefore is it there said that Moses redoubled the fire and not one of the rest Because that fire hath a double propriety the one to shine and to bee bright and the other to burn wee must understand corruptible things for upon the incorruptible wee must look upon for this regard to refine them and amend more and more Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us by the way and while hee opened to us the Scriptures Luke 24.32 said the Pilgrims of Emaus And this is it wherefore it is commanded in the Law to offer double Scarlet to adorn the Tabernacle But how can this bee Aske Origen a Doctor instructing people in the Church of God designed by the Tabernacle if hee did but cry after the vices blasphem and reprove them without bringing instruction and consolation to the people explaining to them the Scriptures and the obscure sense therein concealed wherein consisteth the internall Doctrin and the mysticall understanding hee well offers Scarlet but simple and not double because that this fire doth not but burn and not lighten But on the other side if they doe but clear and interpret Scripture without reprehension of vice and sin and to shew requisite severity to a declarer of the Word of God wee offer as it were simple Scarlet for this fire there doth not but illuminate doth not enflame persons to repentance of their misdoings correction and amendment of life whereunto cooperates the Grace of the Holy Spirit which is domestique fire with which wee must salt our souls to preserve them from corruption for there is nothing that doth more symbolize to the nature of the soul then fire because it is that of al things sensible which approacheth more to spirituality as well for its continuall and light motion which soars alwayes upwards as for its light which Plotin saith must properly be attributed to the intelligible world heat to the Celestiall and burning to the Elementary And for as much as it participates more of light then any of the other Elements that likewise acquires unto it a precellency above the rest for the Earth being a body wholly without motion dark and duskish is by consequent lesse in dignity as the settlement and lees of all others Water because it is clearer is more worthy and the Air yet more But fire is that which surpasseth all therefore it is lodged in a higher place and nearer to the Region of the air It is that which Vincent no despicable Author was pleased to say in his Philosophicall Mirror 2. Book 33. chap. Every thing for as much as it participates more of light so much the more it approacheth nearer to the Divine Essence which is perfect light by which God began the Creation of the Universe or the first thing that hee ordained to bee made was light and to shew us that wee must alwayes walk in light and not in darknesse And on the contrary how much more the Elements are distant from light by so much they approach to their dissemblance and deformity which is a token of corruption For as much as the parties of the composed Elements are homogeneall and homomaternall or like one to another so much lesse are they corruptible and separable as wee may see in gold the most proportionate substance of all and which approacheth nearest to fire that which moved Pindarus from the beginning of his first Olympian to join these three water fire and gold together water is best gold and shining fire c. Doe wee not see that at every end of a field almost that the Earth doth change nature and quality and that there are infinite sorts of them Not so many of Water Air is most like unto it self but if there bee any changes or alteration therein it is by accident as if some maladies should fall thereupon which doe more readily adhere thereunto because of its rarity of substance then to any others Fire is altogether exempt therefrom being alwayes one and in its al like to his parts which are like to themselves except the matter
the Separator Salt-peter Vitriol or Allum Ice and this dissolves Silver Copper Quicksilver and Iron in part La Regalle which is no other thing then the prec ding rectified upon Salarmoniac or common Salt dissolved partly with Iron Lead Tinne and intameable Gold with all sorts of fire It is true that strong waters doe not destroy metals that they returne not to their first forme and nature but drawes them to water and a melting liquor This was certainly a good Artificiall industry in mans spirit to excogitate so short a way to separate Gold and Silver melted together and so uniformedly mixed that an ounce of Gold melted with an hundred markes of Silver each part thereof will equally attract his portion as wee may see by the refiners practise which to prove that which it holds of Gold of Silver a confused masse of divers metals will take but 30. grains to make their essay in the Coupelle and from thence will judge that the same proportion that you shall finde in this small volume shall bee also in the whole masse all that which may bee therein of impure imperfect metall goes away partly in smoake and is partly consumed by fire and partly sticks like Birdlime within the Coupelle nothing remaining above it but what is fine namely Silver and Gold which is there inclosed with which they separate strong waters called on the occasion the divider which dissolves Silver into water and Gold falls to the bottome as sand the water afterwards evaporated the Silver retires it selfe But here it would be too much to speake of the effects of strong waters one of the principall and short instruments of Alchymie and the Art of fire and Salt infinite fine allegories which thereby may be appropriated upon Holy Writ Yet these two fires may be compared namely the strange fire to Leaven to the Sea water which is salt and to Vinegar a corrupted Wine and other sorts of Leavens Fires against nature And the Celestiall to the Altar to pure and unleavened Past to sweet water fit to drinke to Aqua vitae without Vinegar representing the state of innocence in our first fathers before their transgression and the simplicitie of their knowledge infused into them by the Creator But when they were once tempted afterwards with ambition to know more then they should they would by humane discourse become more subtill and sage in tasting the fruit of knowledge of good and evill their Past without Leaven began to swell to bee proud with the Leaven themselves introduced which perverted and spoyled it appropriating it to corporall and sensible things for the bread which wee eate is leavened but that which wee use in the Church must not be so and not without cause for unleavened bread will bee kept six moneths without molding or corrupting that leavened bread will not keep so many weekes It is therefore that the Apostle said a little Leaven corrupts the whole Masse Because that one propriety of the Leaven is to convert into their corruption all that is adjoyning of their nature as Vinegar doth Wine and Leaven pure Past also Rennet which is in the number of Leavens And when they have no Leaven they make some corrupting the Past with Vinegar Lees of Beere Egges and like substances who by their corruption acquire to themselves the propertie of strange fire which is able to convert into its nature that where it can bite as wee may see in a Feaver against naturall heate so that hee turnes it selfe into all things and all into it selfe according to Heraclitus who set it downe for the Principall yet after Zoroastres who thought all things were begotten of Fire after it was extinguished for being living it begets nothing no more doth Salt nor the Sea which Homer calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unfruitfull which doth nothing but consume and destroy An immense and wicked portion of things saith Pliny and wherein it is doubtfull whether it consume or bring forth more things Leaven then is a strange fire and is indeed caustique or burning for applyed to naked flesh it engenders therein little cloches which shewes its fierynesse also it doth not so without Salt called for this reason in Latine fermentum Leaven which increaseth by being warme and in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Leaven from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to boile The Chymicks call it the interior fire fire within the vessell for wee see by experience that bread if the Past be not leavened what boyling soever you give it shall never be but of a hard and uneasy digestion greatly oppressing the stomach if the Leaven which they joyne thereunto make it boyle within whence then it comes that Moses so knowing a man and so illustrated with the Divine Spirit so rejecteth a thing so profitable and necessary and banisheth so expresly the Leaven of the Sacrifices which is so great an aide and succour in our principall aliment Bread You shall burne no Leaven nor Honey in the Lords Sacrifice Levit. 2.11 And Exod. 12.15 hee condemneth to death those who in the dayes of unleavened bread should eate leavened bread or should have ever so little in his house Is it not because Idolaters use Leaven but hee doth not forbid it in all and throughout all for in the 23. of Levit. 17. he commands them to offer two leaven loaves Moreover Idolaters imploy also in their Sacrifices Salt and Incense and many other things that are not forbidden It must then bee that some mystery lies hidden hereunder Origen in his 5. Homil. upon Levit. interpreteth Leaven for arrogance that wee conceive of a vaine worldly doctrine which blowes us up as leaven doth Past and makes us proud thinking that wee know more then wee doe So that wee quit the expresse and direct Word of God to retaine our selves within our phantastique traditions as our Saviour reproacheth it to the Pharisees Mark 7. Truely Esay prophecied very well of you Hypocrites when hee saith This people honoreth me with their lips but their heart is farre from me howbeit in vaine doe they worship me teaching for Doctrines the Commandements of men Mark 7.6 7. And therefore admonisheth us to beware of this Leaven And upon Numbers it is not to beleeve said the said Origen that God would punish with death those who during the solennitie of unleavened bread had eaten leavened bread or that had leaven found in their houses but by leaven is understood malignitie envie rancor concupiscence and the like vices that inflame our soules and make them boile with wicked and pernicious desires corrupting altering and perverting all that which might bee good following what the Apostle said a little Leaven corrupts the whole masse Therefore we may not undervalue any little sinne for after the manner of Leaven it will very soone produce others undervalue not saith St. Augustine the machinations and ambushes of a few men for as a sparkle of fire is a small thing and which can hardly bee discerned if
the Doctrine of the Hetrurians It is not beleeveable that Moses so deare and and welbeloved of God and so illustrated with his inspirations whence proceeded all the documents that he left and so hot a persecutor of Idolatries and Ethnique superstitions that hee would borrow any thing from them But more likely that the Devils instigations who makes himselfe alwayes as his Creators ape to make himselfe to idolize was willing to divert those sacred mysteries to their abusive impieties according to which Josephus against Appion and Saint Jerome against Vigilantius doe very well sute so that as in the Judaicall Law they used no Sacrifices and oblations in Paganisme but they used Salt as Pliny witnesseth in 31. Book 7. Chap. Especially in holy things the authoritie of Salt is understood when none were made without a Salt Mill. Plato to Timaeus when in the medly and commixtion of the elements the composed is destitute of much water and of the more subtill parts of the earth water resting therein comes to bee halfe congealed saltnesse is there brought in which hardens it the more and so there is procreated a body of Salt communicated to the use of our life for as much toucheth the body and senses accommodated by the same meanes according to the tenor of the Law on that which depends the service of God as being sacred and agreeable to God wherefrom hee called it a body beloved of God for which Homer called it Divine whereof Plutarque in his 5. Booke of his Symposiaques 10. question renders many reasons and among others for that it symbolizeth with the soule that is of Divine nature and as long as it resides in the body keepes it from putrefaction as Salt doth dead flesh where it is brought in in stead of a soule that keepeth it from corruption whence some of the Stoicks would say that Hogs flesh of it selfe was dead and that a soule which was sowed therein in a manner of salt to conserve it longer exempt from putrefaction to which a soule was given for Salt Our Theologians say that the ceremony of putting Salt into water when they hallow it came from that which Elisha did 2 Kings 2.22 23. to sweeten the waters of Jericho by casting Salt upon the Spring And that notes the people which is designed by water many waters are many Nations were sanctified must teach us by the Word of God what Salt signifies with the bitternesse and repentance that men should have for offending God as water also doth the confession as well of faith as of sinnes Of the commixtion of these two salt and water proceeds a double fruit to separate from ill doing and convert to good workes And for that repentance for sinne ought to precede auricular confession which repentance is denoted by the bitternesse of salt they blesse it also before water It is also taken for wisedome You are the salt of the earth and have salt in your selves And because that in all their ancient Sacrifices they used salt from thence it came that in Baptisme they put salt in the mouth of the Creature before it is baptized with water for that it cannot yet actually have the mystery of salt applyed for the present On fire then and on salt depend great and secret mysteries comprized under two principal colours red and white for as Zohar hath it all things are white and red but there is a great space betwixt the one and the other God dieth our sinnes which are red for concupiscence comes from the blood and from the sensualitie of the flesh besprinkled with blood and we doe die his whitenesse in red or rigour of Justice by the fire which inflameth our carnall desires and purchaseth their judgement which is throughout where there is fire if it bee not mortified with saving water And when the perverse doe prevaile in the world as ordinarily they doe rednesse and judgement extend themselves therein and all whitenesse covers it self which is rather changed into rednesse then rednesse into whitenesse which if it have domination all on the contrary growes resplendent therewith To these two colours also the ancient and the Evangelicall Law the rigour of justice and mercy the pillar of fire in the nights darkenesse and the white cloud by day wine and bread blood and fat which were not lawfull to eate You shall not eate flesh with the blood Gen. 9.4 And in Levit. 3.16 17. All the fat is the Lords it shall bee a perpetuall Statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings that yee eate neither fat nor blood where it is yet more particularly repeated in the 17. and 14. where the reason is rendred for that the soule that is to say the life of the flesh is in the blood which mystically represents that of Messiah wherein consisted eternall life so that it was not lawfull to use any other before his comming Of the same fat was reserved for God as well that which the Hebrewes call cheleb that covereth the inwards and is separated from the flesh as the other called schumen which is thereunto annexed but metaphorically the fat is taken for the most exquisite substance as in Numb 18. the tenths the best of the fruits are called the fat of them which manner of speech wee also life when wee say make the portion to be very fat of any thing that there is And in the 81. Psal 16. Hee fed them with the fat of Wheate It may bee also that Moses well knowing that these two substances blood and fat are of ill tast and nourishment and quickly corrupted out of their vessells hee forebad them the use thereof Or if wee would enter into a certaine mystery for that the vitall spirits consist in the blood which are of a fiery nature and that fat is very susceptible of flame and proper to make lights which are a representation of the soule But Oile is also for Lamps which was not forbidden to bee eaten and wee doe not see that in Divine service wee use Tallow Candles yet these two fire and salt doe signifie Wine and Milke I have drunke Wine with my Milke Cant. 5.1 By Wine is designed the tree of knowledge of good and evill namely vaine curiosities of worldly things and by Milke that of life whereof Adam was deprived being desirous to tast of that other which was humane prudence Before Adam had transgressed said Zohar hee was made participant of the sapience of superiour light being not yet separated from the tree of life but when hee would distract himselfe after the knowledge of base things this curiositie ceased not till hee had wholly cast off life to incorporate himselfe to death Jacob and Esau the two principall Potentates on earth which are descended therefrom Item the Rose and the Lilly whose water extracted mounts by the fires heat that elevates it and becomes white although the Roses bee red as is the fume exhaled from blood and fat which they burne to God to send it
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