Читать книгу A Discovrse of Fire and Salt - Blaise de Vigenère - Страница 5

Omnia transformat sese in miracula rerum.

And according to Zoroastes all things were engendred of this fire. It is the light which dwelleth (this saith Porphyrius) in an Æthereal fire, for the elementary dissipates all: But more authentically, Saint Denis, in the 15. of the Celestiall Hierarchy. Fire, forasmuch as its essence is void of all forme, as well in colour, as in figure, hath beene found the most proper to represent Divinity to our senses, forasmuch as they can conceive and apprehend of the nature and divine Essence. The very Scripture in many places, call 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. Pag. 29. Encyclides ab ἐγκυκγόω round. Zohar makes these revestments double, 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. Eph. 4. 22, 24. 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, fæminine; 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 Creator, 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 sith it is a question, about cleansing the vestment which is of a fiery nature, it must likewise be, that it be done by 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 vitæ wherein Vitriol hath beene calcined, from whence Chirurgeons have not found a more soveraigne remedy to take away the fire of a musket shot, to heale inflammations and gangrenes; and yet there are two fires joined together. But that which during this life must repurge our soules, is that whereof Saint Augustine in the 29. Sermon speakes thus out of the Apostles words, for there is another afterwards: Kindle in your selves a sparkle of good and charitable dilection, blow it, and kindle it, for when it shall grow to a great flame, that will consume the hay, wood, and chaffe of all your carnall concupiscences, but the matter wherewith this fire must bee continued, are prayers, and good workes, which must alwayes burne on your altar, for it is it whereof our Saviour said, I am come to put fire in the earth, and what will I if it bee already kindled? Luke 12. 49. There are further two fires: one on the bad part, to wit, of carnall concupisence; the other of the good, which is charity, which consumes all the bad, leaving nothing but good, which exalts it selfe in a fume of a sweet odour; for the heart of every one, is as an altar, either of God or of the adversary: and therefore hee that is illuminated with the torch of charity, which must more and more bee increased by good works, that it may nourish in it selfe the ardour that our Saviour will vouchsafe to kindle, whereby that is accomplished, which the Apostle saith in the 5 to the Ephes. That Jesus Christ hath appropriated to himselfe a Church, not having spot or wrinckle, holy, and pure, without blemish. For that which the Church is in generall, and common towards God, the conscience of every one of us, is in particular the same, when it is sincerely prepared, as it is requisite; and that upon the foundation thereof, men build Gold, Silver, pretious stones; that is to say, a firme faith, and beleefe, accompanied with good works, without which faith is dead and buried; all upon the model and pattern of the heavenly Jerusalem designed in the 21 of the Apoc. which is the type of the Church; as is also the reasonable soule, where it must burne alwaies with fire upon the Altar, and after the imitation of the wise and prudent virgins, we may have our lamps ready, well lighted, and garnished with what is needfull to maintaine light, attending the Bridegrome: as our Saviour commanded it in Saint Luke 12.

Zohar furthermore makes this repurgation of the soule to bee double, which is not farre disagreeing from our beleefe. One is whilest the soule is yet in the body, hee cals that according to the mysticall manner of speaking, the conjunction of the Moon with the Sunne, then, when in regard of us here below it is not illuminated; for as long as the soule is annexed within the body, it enjoyes very little of its owne light, being all darkened thereby, as if it were imprisoned in some darke obscure prison. And this repurgation doth consist in repentance of its misdoings, satisfaction for them, and conversion to a better life; in fastings, almes, prayers, and other such penitences, which may be exercised in this world. The other is, after the separation of soul and body, which is made in the purgative fire; which neither Jewes, Mahometans, or Ethnicks, ever called in doubt.

But when with supreame light life leaves us, yet all evill from miserable men, nor yet all corporeall plagues do passe away, and the punishment of old evils do weigh us, some are exposed to vaine windes; to others under a vast gulfe their infected wickednesse is washed off, or burnt with fire.

Where there are set forth three repurgative Elements, Aire, Water, and Fire; But wee must not understand (saith Saint Augustine, on his third Sermon upon such as are diseased) that by this transitory fire grievous and mortall offences, and capitall sins are purged, if they have not beene repented of in this temporall life; or to blot out the expiation on the other side, where the rest is perfected in the fire, as man-slayers, adulterers, false witnesses, concussions, violences, rapines, injustices, infidelitie, erroneous obstinations, and the like; which are directly opposite to Gods Divine precepts and commandements: but the smaller faults onely, which they call veniall sinnes, as eating and drinking to excesse, vaine words, foolish desires, and depraved concupiscences, not brought to effect: not to exercise the works of mercy, whither common charity, and commiseration cals us, and such other frailties: of which if we repent not, in this world, fire shall repurge us in another, and more sharply. To this purpose the Hebrewes make a triple distinction of sins, Chataoth are those that wee mistake against our selves, without hurting any other, but our selves, gourmandizings, inconstancies, lazines, idlenesse, anger, spite. The Avonoth, are addressed to our neighbour, which do not blot out and pardon, but by meanes of reparation: and the Peschaim the transgressions, prævarications, and impieties, directly addressed against God: They draw this first out of the 34 of Exodus 7. pardoning iniquitie, rebellion, and offences; more in the 106 Psal. 6. We have sinned, wee have committed iniquity, wee have done foolishly; and in the 9 of Dan. Chatanu, Veavinu, Vehirsannu; there are sinnes saith Zohar, imprinted above, others below, and others both in the one and in the other; above, against God; below, against our neighbour; and in the one, and in the other against our selves, bodies and goods, as well our neighbours as our owne; noting that below, the soule; that above, made after the image and semblance of God. If they bee blotted out below, they are so above. Jesus Christ after his resurrection breathed on his Disciples, and said unto them, Receive the holy Ghost; To whom soever you pardon sinnes, they shall bee pardoned; and whose sinnes soever yee retaine, they are retained. Joh, 20. 23. that which you shall binde on earth shall be bound in heaven.

But to returne to the recloathing, and to say something thereof, the superiour is alwaies clad with the inferiour, the intelligible world, with the celestiall, which is but as it were a shadow thereof, and the celestiall with the elementary: and notwithstanding it would seeme cleane contrary by the figure of Hypallage as in the 18. Psal. God hath put his Tabernacle in the Sunne, which is to say, hee hath put the Sunne in his Tabernacle, which is, heaven; for God doth not reside in this World, but rather the World in God, who comprehends all, for in him wee live, wee move, and have our beeing. Also the intelligible world should be clothed with the celestiall, and the celestiall with the elementary. But this to shew that we cannot well comprehend heaven, being so remote from us; but by that which is expounded to the knowledge of our senses here below, nor of the separated Intelligences, but by the sensible. There was nothing (said the Philosopher) in the intellect, that was not first in the sense. And the Apostle in the first to the Romanes, that the invisible things of God, are seene in the Creation of the world, by those that were made. This all conformably unto Zohar, In thee (said he; in the prayer of Elias addressing himselfe to God) there is no resemblance, nor any image interiour, or exteriour; but further, thou hast created heaven and earth, and produced out of those the Sunne, and the Moon, the Starres and the Signes of the Zodiack; and in earth Trees, and Herbs, delights in Gardens, with Beasts, Birds, and Fishes, and at last Men; that from thence things above might bee knowne. And of the superiours, the inferiours together, so that the one and the other may bee governed: Plutarch alledgeth in his Treatise of Osiris, that in the City of Sais in Ægypt, there was such an inscription in the Temple of Minerva, borne out of Jupiters braine, which is nothing else but the sapience of the Father.

I am that which was, which is, and which shall bee, and as yet there is none amongst mortall men, that hath yet discovered my vaile: for Divinity is so wrapped in darkness, that you cannot see day through it. I see him not, for hee is darkened with an over dark cloud, said Orpheus: and in the 17 Psal. which made darkenesse his hiding place. Further in the 4 of Deut. You came to the foot of a mountaine that burned, even to heaven, and therein was darkness, thick clouds, and obscurity: for in regard of God towards us, light and darknesse, are but one thing: as is his darknesse, such is his light: And in the 16 of Isaiah, Make thy shadow as the night, in the midst of the noone day. The very same, as well the affirmative, as the negative; by which, that which is æquippollent unto darknesse, we may better apprehend something of the Divine Essence, but not by the affirmative, that relates unto light, as Rabbi Moses doth excellently well dispute it in his 57. chapter of his first booke of More: For the Divine light, is insupportable above all to all his Creatures, even to the most perfect, following that which the Apostle sets downe in the 1 of Tim. 6. God dwels in light inaccessible, that no man can see: So that it is to us in stead of darknesse, as the brightnesse of the Sun is to Moulds, Owles, and other night birds: which darknesses are the revestments, and as the borders and cloisters of the light; for represent to your selves some Lanthorne placed on the top of a mountaine: all round about it as from the Center to the Circumference, it shall spread its light equally, as farre as it can extend it: so that at the last darknesse will terminate it, for darknesse is nothing else, but the absence and privation of light: Even the very same, the exteriour man, carnall, animall, is the coverture; yea darknesse of the interiour spirituall: after the manner or fashion of some Lanthorne of wood, or stone, and other darke matter, which keeps that the light there shut in, could not shew forth its light, the Lanthorne symbolizing to the body, and the light within to the soule. But if the body bee subtiliated to an æthereall nature, from thence it comes to passe, as if the Lanthorne were of some cleare Crystall, or of transparent horne: for then the soule and its functions, do shine there about openly without obstacle. Sith then, to the one of these two, namely to the inner man, is attributed fire, that answers to the soule, and salt to the outward man, which is the body: as the sacrifice or man animall is the revestment of the spirituall designed by the Man, and by Fire: The vestment of this Fire will bee Salt, in which, fire is potentially shut in; for all Salts are of the nature of fire, as being thereof begotten. Geber saith, that salt is made of every thing that is burned, and by consequent, participant of its proprieties, which are to purge, dry, hinder corruption, and unboile; as wee may see in all salted things which are as it were halfe boiled, and are kept longer uncorrupt then raw, also in potentiall burning irons which burne, and are nothing else but Salt.

Will it bee lawfull for us here to bring one entire passage of Rhases in a book of the Secret Triplicity? for it is not common to all, and wee will strongly insist on this number by reason of the three Fires and three Salts, whereof wee pretend to Treat. So that there is a Mystery in this number of 3 that must not bee forgotten, for that it represents the operation, whereof Fire is the Operator; for 1, 2, 3, makes 6, the 6 dayes wherein God in the Creation of the world perfected all his workes, and rested the seventh day.

There are (saith Rhases) three natures, the first whereof cannot bee knowne nor apprehended, but by a deepe elevated Meditation: This is, that all-good God Almighty, Author, and the first Cause of all things. The other is neither visible, nor tangible, although men should bee all contrary; that is to say heaven in its rarity. The third is the Elementary World, comprehending all that which is under the Æthereall Region, is perceived and known by our senses. Moreover God which was from all æternity, and with whom before the Creation of the world, there was nothing but his proper name knowne to himselfe, and his Sapience; that which hee created on the first day, was the water wherein hee mingled earth, then came hee to procreate after, that which had a beeing here below. And in these two Elements, thicke and grosse, perceptible to our senses, are comprehended the two other, more subtill and rare, Aire, and Fire. These four bodies being, (if we must call them bodies) bound together with such a minglement, that they could not perfectly separate. Two of them are fixed, namely, Earth and Fire, as being dry and solid; the other two volatile, Water, and Aire, which are moist and liquid: so that each Element is agreeable to the other, two wherewith is bounded and enclosed, and by the same meanes, containes two in it selfe, the one corruptible, the other not, the which participates of the Divine nature: and therefore there are two sorts of Waters, the one pure, simple, and elementary; and the other common, which we use in Lakes, Wels, Springs, and Rivers, raines and other impressions of the Aire. There is likewise a grosse Earth, filthy and infected; and a Virgin Earth, crystalline, cleare, and shining, contained and shut up in the Center of all the composed Elementaries; where it remaines revested, and covered with many foldings one upon another. So that it is not easie to arrive there, but by a cautelous and well graduated preparation by fire. There is also a fire which is maintained almost of it selfe, and as it were of nothing, so small is the nourishment that it needeth; whence it comes to bee more cleare and lucent, and another obscure, darke, and burning, and consuming all that to which it is fixed, and it selfe at last. And Aire on the other side pure and cleane, with another corruptible full of legerity, for of all the Elements, there is none more easie to be corrupted then the aire; all which substances so contrary and repugnant, mingled with elementary bodies are the cause of their destruction: wherefore of necessity that which is pure and incorruptible, must be separated from its contrary, the corruptible and impure, which cannot be done but by fire, the separator and purificator. But the three liquid Elements, Water, Aire, and Fire, are as inseparable one from the other, for if the Aire were distracted from the fire, the fire which hath therefrom one of its principall maintainments and food, would suddenly extinguish, and if the water were separated from the Aire, all would bee in a flame. That if the Aire should be quite drawne from the water, for as much as by its legerity, it holds it somewhat suspended, all would be drowned. Likewise if Fire should be separated from the Water, all would bee reduced into a deluge. For three Elements neverthelesse may well bee disjoined from the Earth, but not wholly, there must remaine some part to give consistence to the Body: and render it tangible, by the meanes of a most subtill and thinne portion thereof, which they will elevate with them, out of this gross thickness that remaines below, as wee may sensibly see in glass, which by an industrious Artifice of fire, is depured of the darknesse that was in the ashes, to passe from thence to a transparent clearnesse, which is of the nature of Fire and indissoluble Salt, accompanied with a firme and solid thicknesse, having neither transpiration nor pores.

But wherefore should wee not hereto file all in one traine, those so excellent Meditations of Zohar, sith all depends on the same purpose? God formed Adam of the slime of the earth, or according to the Hebrew, God formed man dust of the earth; which word of forming belongeth properly to Potters, who fashion of earth all that they thinke good. And touching the dust, this is but to abate our pride, with which wee may bee swolne, when wee consider the vile and corruptible matter, whereof wee are made, in respect of our bodies, which is nothing else but mire and dirt. Consider then three things (saith Zohar) and thou shalt not fall into transgression. Remember from whence thou art come, of such filthy and foule stuffe, and whither thou must at last returne, to dust, wormes, and rottennesse; and before whom thou art to render an account, and reason of all thy actions, and comportments; who is the soveraigne Judge, the King of all, who leaves no transgression unpunished, nor good worke irrecompensed. Adam then and all his posterity were formed of the dust of the earth, which had before beene moistned with the fountaine or vapour, which was highly elevated by the Sunnebeams to water and to soften the earth: For the Earth being of it selfe cold, and dry, is altogether sterill and fruitlesse, if it be not impregned with moisture and heat, whence proceed fecundity. So that Adam was composed of Earth and Water mingled together: These two elements betoken a double faculty in him, and double formation, the one of the body, in regard of this age; the other of the soule, in another world. Water shewes the celestiall Meditation whereto our spirit may exalt it selfe; and the earth of it selfe immoveable, and that can never budge from below, nor willingly mingle with the other three volatil elements, by reason of its extreame drynesse, so that it doth but grow hard by the action of fire, and makes it selfe more contrary and untractable by the spirit of contradiction hard and refractory from the flesh, against the spirit, so that shee should reject the water which men thought to put therein, if it were not by meanes of the subtill Aire, interposing and mingling therewith, and penetrating into the smallest parts: which being suckt within the water, forces the earth to feed on it, to inclose it in her selfe, as if shee would detaine it prisoner, and by that meanes remaines great; as the female by a male; for every superiour thing in order and degree, holds the place of male, to that which is inferiour and subject thereunto.

Now if the Aire absent it selfe, which associates and unites them together, as being suppeditated and banished, which is moist and hot, from the extreame drynesse and coldnesse of the earth, it will force it with all its power to reject the water, and so reduce it selfe to its first drynesse; which we may perceive in Sand, which will never receive water, except it be quickly separated. Even so the earth is alwaies rebellious and contumacious of it selfe to bee mollified, be it by water, by aire, by fire; and after this manner there was a spirit of contradiction and disobedience introduced into Adam, by reason of the earth, whereof he was formed: as his Companion and himselfe do shew, when by the suggestion of the Serpent, the most terrestriall animall of all others, they so easily contradicted that extreame prohibition which was given them of not tasting the fruit of the knowledge of good and evill: for the punishment whereof, it was said to the Serpent, thou shallt eat earth all the dayes of thy life: which Isaiah resumes in 65. chap. Dust is thy bread: And to Adam, that the earth should produce nothing but thornes, briars, and thistles, by means whereof, if he would live, he must cultivate it with the sweat of his browes, till 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 Elohim 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: Argilla. and the dirt to be fatty and unctuous: there is not any thing else, 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 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: Gen. 4. 7. 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, (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 offspring. 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. Psal. 36. 6. For with thee there is a Fountaine of life, and in thy light wee shall see light. 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 prædominating 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 ourselves by Ænigma. 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 dedication 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 Phæd. 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 inexhaustible Fountaine, to all sorts of Creatures, even according as the ancient Phœnician 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 Hell: 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 yet more mystically shadowed, as Zohar sheweth it, by the admirable construction of his Tabernacle, then which, there is nothing more spirituall. Gold, Silver, and pretious Stones, representing the Sensible world, and Bezaleel, that was the Conductor of the worke, the Intelligible, and the Workman filled with a Divine Spirit, with Sapience, Intelligence, Knowledge, and all the most accomplisht learning, as almost every word carries it, woven with Bezel, the shadow, and El God.

The prophane Poets have divided the Sensible World into 3, for they never tooke much paines to penetrate into the Intelligible: And assigned the superiour part thereof, from the circle of the Moone upward, to Jupiter, the low Terrestriall to Pluto, and the middlemost, which is from the Earth to the Moone, to Neptune: which the Platonists call the Generative Vertue, because of the humidity, impregned with Salt, which provoketh much to generation, according as the word Salacitas designes it, as Plutarch puts it in the 4 Question of Naturall Causes, and in his Treaty of Osiris: wherefore the said Poets attribute more fecundity to the said Neptune, then to all the other Gods.

Each of these 3 worlds furthermore, hath particularly its science, which is double; the one common and triviall, the other mysticall and secret. The Intelligible world to our Theologie, and the Caballe the Celestial to Astrologie and Magie; and the elementary, to the Physiologie and Alchymie, which revealeth by the resolutions, and separations of Fire, all the more hidden, and darke secrets of natures, in three kindes of the composed: for no man can know the composition of a thing that is ignorant of its destruction, saith Geber. But these three divine sciences have beene by the depravation of ignorant and evill spirits turned aside to a crying downe, that men durst scarcely speak thereof, but must presently incurre the bruite of being an Atheist, Witch, or a false money-coyner. We say then, after Empedocles and Anaxagoras; All this our reason disputes by a Journey of composition and resolution, going this way and that way, up and downe. That all the Elementary science consisteth in the mixtion and separation of the Elements, which is perfected by fire, to which Alchymy turnes all: As Avicen declareth very openly in his Treaty of l’Almahad, or Division of Sciences. And Hermes in that of his 7 chapters, Understand yee sonnes of the wise, the Science of the four Elements, whose secret apparition is no where signified, except they bee divided and compounded, because out of the Elements nothing is made profitable without such a Regiment; for where Nature ends her operations, there Art begins. Take such a composed Elementary, what you will, herbe, wood, or other the like, upon which, fire may exercise its action, and put it in an Alembic or Cornue. Cornue; first let them separate the water, and afterwards the oyle, if the fire bee moderate, if more pressed and reinforced, both together: but the oyle will swimme above the water, which may easily bee separated by a fonnel of Glasse. This water is called Mercury, which of it selfe is pure and cleane; and oyle, the sulphur, adustible and infect, that corrupts every compounded thing: In the bottome of the vessel will rest the Ashes, of which by a forme of lee, with water the Salt will bee extracted, and after you have withdrawn the water with Balneum Mariæ, as men call it: for the oily unctuosities do not mount by this degree of fire, no more doth the Salt, but much lesse; and the indissoluble Earths stript of all their humidities proper to vitrifie: for saith Geber, every private thing by its owne humidity doth performe none but a vitrificatory fusion. So there are two volatill Elements, namely the liquid, Water and Aire, which is Oyle, for all liquid substances naturally shunne the fire, which elevates the one, and burnes the other. But not those two which are dry and solid; which are Salt, wherein is contained Fire, and pure Earth, which is Glasse: over whom the fire hath no power but to melt and refine them. See there the four Elements redoubled, as Hermes cals them, and Raymund Lullius the great Elements; for as every Element consists of two qualities, these great Elements redoubled, Mercury, Sulphur, Salt, and Glasse, participate of the two simple Elements, (to say better) of all four; according to the more, or the lesse, of the one, or of the other; Mercury holding more of the Aire, to which it is attributed; Oyle or Sulphur, of the Aire; Salt, of Fire; and Glasse, of the Earth, who findes it selfe pure and cleane in the Center of all the composed Elementaries, and is the last to reveale it selfe exempt from others. Of this sort by the Artifice and operation of Fire, and of its effects, we depure all infections and filth, even to reduce them to a purity of incorruptible substance from this time forward; by the separation of their inflamable, and terrestriall impurities; for (saith Geber) the whole intention of the Operator, is versed in this, that the grosser parts being cast away, the worke may bee perfected with the lighter; which is to mount from the corruptions here below, to a purity of the Celestial world, where the Elements are more pure and essential, fire there predominating which is the chief of all others. Hitherto touching Alchymie, and wherein shee is versed.

Magick for the Celestial world, was in times past, a holy and venerable Science, which Plato in his Charmis cals the true Medicine of the soule; and in the first, Alcibiades puts it, that it was wont to shew the Elders of the great Kings of Persia, to teach them to reverence God, to forme their temporall domination according to the patterne of the order and policy of the Universe. But it is nothing else properly (as Orpheus saith) but a forme of marriage of the starry heaven with the earth, whither hee darts his influences, by which shee impregnes comming from the Intelligences who assist therein; and an application of agent vertues upon the passive, and that without the cooperation of Dæmons the most part, evill, false, and deceptive, yet some more then others; with which it is thought that the three wise Kings, Magi, that came so farre to adore Jesus Christ, were willing to have some acquaintance and commerce.

The third is that which men call Caballe, or reception, because men left it there verbally, and by mouth from hand to hand, from one to another. It is divided into two, the one of Beresith, that is to say, of the Creation, that consisteth in the Sensible world, where Moses staid, without speaking of the Intelligible, or of separated substances. The other is of Mercavah, or of the Throne of God, which Ezekiel principally treats of, whose vision is almost all of fire. So much is this Element throughout the whole holy Scripture appropriated to Divinity, as one of the most perfect and neare symboles and markes in things sensible; by meanes whereof wee are so elevated, that by Jacobs Ladder, or Homers golden Chaine, we come to the knowledge of things spirituall and intelligible; for the invisible things of God from the Creation of the World, are clearely seene, being understood 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 hinder 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 Æneads.