Chapter II: Part 2

_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.

[Sidenote: _Argilla._]

[Sidenote: Gen. 4. 7.]

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: 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: _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.

[Sidenote: Psal. 36. 6.]

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._ 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.

[Sidenote: _Cornue._]

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; 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_.

All these when they have turned for many yeares,
God cals them to the floud of Lethe, by great troopes,
Being 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_:

[Sidenote: Auror _de roolle_ p 61, in course, in order one after another.]

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 even to his time the most part of Philosophers had not well knowne fire, nor yet Aire to bee perceivable to our sight and feeling. But men may say the same, that neither _Aristotle_, nor other Grecians of his time knew so well the fire and its effects, at least wise not so exactly as did (so long while after) the _Arabians_, by _Alchymie_, on which all the knowledge of fire dependeth. The _Ægyptians_ said, that it was a ravishing and insatiable Animal, that devoures that which taketh birth and increase, and at last it selfe; after it is therewith well fedde and gorged: when there is no more to feed or nourish it; for that having heat and motion, he cannot passe from food and aire to breath therein; if for want hereof, it remaines at last extinct, with that wherewith it was fed: All things proper to animate substances, and which have life, for life is ever accompanied with heat and motion, which proceeds from heate, rather then heate from motion; although they be reciprocalls, for one cannot be without the other. But _Suidas_ thereupon formed such a contradiction, that not onely animals, but all that which take nourishment and encrease, tend to a certaine butt, whither being come, it stayes without passing any further, where neither nourishment nor increase of fire are limited nor determined; for the more is administred, so much the more it would have, and grow every day greater: for neither the one nor the other can be limited, as do these animals. Then by consequent it must not be put in their ranke; So that the motion of fire should rather be called generation, then nourishment or growth; for there is but that one element, that nourisheth and increaseth it. In the others, that which superabounds therein is by apposition, as if you would joine water to water, or earth to earth; you shall never do the same to fire, to thinke to make it greater by joining thereunto other fire, but by the apposition of matter, upon which it may bite and exercise its action, as wood and other like things, which perforce must turne into its nature, and so it augments it selfe. The Poeticall fictions relate that _Prometheus_ went into Heaven to steale it to accommodate mortals; for which he was so grievously punished by the Gods, as to remaine 30. yeares bound to a Rocke in Mount _Caucasus_, where a Vulter dayly eate up his entrails which did grow againe in course. But it is to bee beleeved that the Gods that are so watchfull, and so affectionate towards mankinde, would not deny this so necessary a portion of Nature, without which the condition of their life were worse then that of beasts, as well for the boyling of their meats, as to warme them, and dry them, and infinite other necessary commodities. Besides of that which soares alwayes upwards, being of one celestial original, whither he aspires to returne, it seemes that this belongs properly to man.

_Sith other things lookes downe unto the earth
It gave man a face, to looke up, and see the heavens,
To erect his countenance unto the Stars._

[Sidenote: διάλυσις]

Almost all other animals do shun the fire, whence _Lactantius_ to shew that man was a divine Animal, alledgeth for one of his most pregnant reasons, that hee onely amongst others used fire. And _Vitruvius_ in his second booke, sets downe that the first acquaintances of men, were contracted by comming to meete, to warme themselves at common fires: So that the cause why God sent fire downe to men must bee, that by the meanes thereof, they are come to penetrate into the profound and hidden secrets of Nature: whereof they could not well discover, & know the manner of proceeding, for that shee workes so rarely: but by his counterfoote, which the Greeks call διάλυσις the resolution and separation of the Elementary parts, which are made by fire; whereof proceeds the execution almost of all Artifices, that the spirit of man hath invented; So that if the first had no other instrument, and toole, then the fire, as we may lately see by the discoveries of the _West Indies_; _Homer_ in the Song of _Vulcan_ sets downe that hee assisted with _Minerva_, taught men their Arts and brave Workmanship; having formerly beene accustomed to dwel in Caves and hollow Rockes, after the fashion of wilde beasts; willing to inferre by _Minerva_ the Goddesse of Arts, and Sciences, _the understanding and industry, and by the fire, Vulcan, that puts them in execution; wherefore the Ægyptians were accustomed to marry these two Deities together, willing thereby to declare nothing else but that from the understanding proceeds the invention of all Arts and Sciences, which fire afterwards effected, and brought from power to action_; for the Agent in all this world is nothing else but fire and heat, saith _Johannicius_, and _Homer_,

_Whom Vulcan and Minerva knew_.

Which was the cause (as may bee seen in _Philostratus_ by the birth of _Minerva_) that shee forsooke the _Rhodians_, for that they sacrificed unto her without fire, to goe to the _Athenians_. Moreover _Vulcan_, according to _Diadorus_, was a man, _who from an accident by a clap of Lightning, whereby a Tree was set on fire, first revealed to the Ægyptians the commodity and use of Fire: for being therewithall overcome, all joyfull of his light and heate; he thereunto added other matter to keepe it, whilest hee went to seeke the people, who afterward for this, deified him_. Whereto _Lucretius_ agrees,

_Do not in these things tacitely and by chance require,
Lightning brought fire on earth to mortalls
First: thence all heate of flame was given_.

[Sidenote: 1500 years.]

[Sidenote: 500]