The first part.

YTHAGORAS who of all Pagans was undoubtedly, by common consent and approbation, held to have made more profound search, and with less incertainty penetrated into the secrets as well of Divinity, as of Nature, having quaffed full draughts from the living source of Mosaicall Traditions, amid’st his darke sentences, where, according to the Letter, he touched one thing, and mystically understood and comprised another; (wherein he imitates the Ægyptians and Chaldæans, or rather, the Hebrewes, from whence all theirs proceeded) he here sets downe these two: Not to speake of God without Light; and to apply Salt in all his Sacrifices and Offerings; which he borrowed word for word from Moses, as we shall hereafter declare. For our intention is here to Treat of Fire and of Salt.

And that upon the 9. of Saint Marke, ver. 49. Every man shall be salted with Fire, and every Sacrifice shall be salted with Salt. Wherein foure things come to be specified, Man, and Sacrifice, Fire, and Salt; which yet are reduced to two, comprehending under them, the other two; Man and Sacrifice, Fire and Salt; in respect of the conformitie they beare each to other.

In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth; this said Moses on the entrance upon Genesis. Whereupon the Jew Aristobulus, and some Ethniques willing to shew that Pythagoras and Plato had read Moses bookes, and from thence drawne the greatest part of their most secret Philosophy, alledged that which Moses should have said, that the heaven and the earth were first created; Plato in his Timæus, after, Timæus Locrien said that God first assembled Fire and Earth, to build an universe thereof; (we will shew it more sensibly of Zohar in the Weik of a Candle lighted, for all consists of light, being the first of all Creatures.) These Philosophers presupposing that the World consisted (as indeed it doth) of the foure Elements, which are as well in heaven, and yet higher, as in the earth, and lower, but in a diverse manner.

The two highest, Aire and Fire, being comprised under the name of Heaven and of the Æthereall Region: for the word ἄιθηρ, comes from the verbe ἄιθω to shine, and to enflame, the two proprieties of these Elements. And under the word Earth, the two lower, Earth and Water, incorporated into one Globe. But although Moses set Heaven before Earth; (and observe here that in all Genesis he toucheth at nothing but things sensible, but not of intelligible things; which is a point apart) for concerning this, there is no good agreement between Jewes and Christians; Saint Chrysostome in his first Homily. Observe a little with what dignity the Divine Nature comes to shine in his manner of proceeding to the creation of things; For God contrary to Artists in building his Edifice, stretched out first the heavens round about, afterwards planted the earth below.

Hee wrought first at the head, and afterwards came to the foundation. But it is the Hebrewes custome, that when they speake most of a thing, they ordinarily put the last in order, which they pretend to touch first: And the same is here practised, where Heaven is alledged before Earth, which he comes to discry immediately after.

In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth, and the Earth was without Forme and void; Saint Matthew useth the same, upon the entrance to his Gospell, The Booke of the Generation of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham, Abraham begat Isaac, &c. For it is well knowne, that Abraham was a long time before David: Otherwise it seemes, that Moses would particularly demonstrate, that the Earth was made before the Heaven, by the Creation of man, that is, the Image and pourtrait of the great World, for that in the second of Genesis, God formed man of the slime of the earth, (that is to say,) his body which it represents; and afterwards breathed in his face the spirit, or breath of life: that carrieth him backe to heaven; whereunto suits that which is written in the 1 to the Cor. 15. The first man from the earth is earthly, and the second man from heaven is heavenly: the first man Adam was made a living soule; and the last Adam, a quickning spirit. Whereto the Generation of the Creature relates, who six weeks after the Conception, is nothing but a masse of informed flesh, till the soule that is infused from above, doth vivifie it.

Moreover the foure Elements (whereof all is made) consists of foure qualities, Hot and Drie, Cold and Moist; two of them are bound up in each of them: Earth, that is to say, Cold and Dry, the Water, Cold and Moist; the Aire, Moist and Hot; the Fire, Hot and Dry: whence it comes to joine with the earth; for the Elements are circular, as Hermes would have it; each being engirded with two others, with whom it agreeth in one of their qualities; which is thereunto appropriate: as Earth betwixt Fire and Water, participates with the Fire in drynesse, and with Water in coldnesse; and so of the rest.

Man then which is the Image of the great World, and therefrom is called the Microcosme, or little World, as the World which is made after the resemblance of his Archetype, is called the great man; being composed of foure Elements, shall have also its heaven and its earth: The soule, and understanding, are its heaven, the body and sensuality, its earth: So that to know the heaven and earth of man, is to have true and entire knowledge of all the Universe, and of the Nature of things.

From the knowledge of the sensible World, we come to that of the Creator, and the Intelligible world; by the Creature, the Creator is understood, saith Saint Augustine. Fire then gives motion to the body, Aire feeling, Water nourishment, and Earth subsistence. Moreover heaven designes the intelligible world, the earth the sensible: Each of them is subdivided into two, (in every case I speake not but after Zohar and the ancient Rabbins.) The intelligible into Paradise and Hell; and the sensible, to the Celestiall and Elementary world: Upon this passage Origen makes a faire discourse at the entry on Genesis, that God first made the heaven or the intelligible world, following that which is spoken in the 66. of Esay, Heaven is my seat and Earth my footstoole; Or rather it is God in whom the world dwelleth, and not the world which is Gods habitation: For in him Act. 17. 28.we live, move, and have our beeing; for the true seat and habitation of God, is his proper essence: and before the Creation of the World, as Rabbi Eliezer sets downe, in his Chapters, there was nothing but the essence of God, and his name, which are but one thing: Then after the heaven, or the intelligible world, Origen pursues, God made the Firmament, that is to say, this sensible world; for every body hath I know not what firmnesse and solidity, and all solidity is corporal; and as that which God proposed to make, consisteth of Body and of Spirit, for this cause it is written, that God first made the Heaven, that is to say, all spirituall substance, upon which, as upon a certaine throne, hee reposeth himselfe. The Firmament for our regard is the body, which Zohar calleth the Temple, and the Apostle also, Yee are Gods Temple, 1 Cor. 3. 17. And the Heaven, which is spirituall, is our soule, and the inner man; the Firmament is the externall, that neither seeth, nor knoweth God but sensibly. So that man is double, an animall, and spirituall body, the one Internall, Spirituall, Invisible; that which Saint Marke in this place designeth for man; the other Externall, Corporall, Animal, which he denotes by the Sacrifice which comprehendeth not the things that are of the Spirit of God, but the Spirituall discerneth all; So that the exteriour man is an animal compared to brute beasts, whereout they tooke their offerings for Sacrifices: He is compared to foolish Beasts, and is made like them; for a man hath no more then a Beast: we must understand the Carnall, and Animall, that consists of this visible body, that dyeth as well as Beasts, are corrupt and returne to Earth: Whence Plato said very well, that which is seene of man, is not man properly. And the first of Alcibiades, yet more distinctly, that Man is I know not what else, then his body, namely his soule, as it followes afterwards. That which Cicero borrowed out of Scipio’s dreame; But understand it thus, that thou art not mortall, but this body; thou art not that, which this forme declares, but every mans minde is himselfe, not that figure which may be demonstrated by the finger: And the Philosopher Anaxarchus while the Tyrant Nicocreon of Cyprus, caused him to be brayed in a great Marble Morter, cried out with a loud voice, Stampe hard, bruise the barke of Anaxarchus, for it is not him that thou stampest.

But will it be permitted for me here, to bring something of Metubales? All that is, is either Invisible, or Visible; Intellectuall, or Sensible; Agent, and Patient; Forme, and Matter; Spirit, and Body; the Interiour and the Exteriour man; Fire, and Water; that which seeth, and that which is seen.

But that which seeth is much more excellent and more worthy then that which is seen, and there is nothing that seeth, but the invisible, where that which is seene, is as a blind thing; therefore Water is a proper and serviceable subject, over whom the Fire or Spirit may out-stretch his action.

Also he hath elevated it for his habitation and residence; for by introducing it, he elevates it on high in the nature of Aire contiguous unto it: which invisible Spirit (of the Lord was carryed on the waters, or rather did sit over the waters) did see the visible, moved the immoveable, for water hath no motion of it selfe; there is none but Aire, and Fire, that have, and speake by the Organs of one that is dumb; for as when by our winde and breath, filling a pipe or flute, we make it sound though never so mute.

This Body and Spirit, water and fire, are designed unto us by Cain and Abel, the first Creatures of all others engendred of the seed of man and woman, and by their Sacrifices, whence those of Cain issuing from the fruits of the earth, were by consequent corporall, dead, and inanimate, and together destitute of faith, which dependeth of the Spirit, and are by Fire dissolved into a waterish vapour, so that to go to finde it in its sphere and habitation, for the newes, we are to suffer thereunder. Pour le nouveau. But those of Abel were spirituall, animate, full of life, that resides in the bloud; full of piety and devotion. This also Aben Ezra, and the author of the Handfull of Myrrh, call a fire descending from one above to regather them: which happened not to those of Cain, which a strange fire devoured; and from thence was declared the exteriour man, sensuall, animall, that must bee salted with Salt; But Abel the interiour, spirituall, salted with Fire; which is double, the materiall and essentiall, the actuall and potentiall, as it is in burnings. All what is sensible, and visible, is purged by the actuall, and the invisible, and intelligible, by the spiritual and potentiall. Saint Ambrose, on the Treatise of Isaac and of the Soule. What is man, the soule of him, or the flesh, or the assembly of those two? for the clothing is one thing, and the thing clothed another. Indeed there are two men (I leave the Messihe apart) Adam was made and formed of God; in respect of the body, of ashes, and of earth, but afterwards inspired in him the Spirit of Life; if he had kept himselfe from misprision, he was like unto Angels, made participant of eternall beatitude, but his transgression dispossessed him. The other man is he, which comes successively to be borne of man and woman, who by his originall offence is made subject to death, to paines, travails, and diseases, therefore must hee returne from whence he came. But touching the soule that came from God, it remains in its free will: if it will adhere to God, it is capable to bee admitted into the ranke of his children, Joh. 1. 13. who are borne not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Such was Adam before his first transgression.

The soule then, which is the inner man, spirit, and the very true man which liveth properly, for the body hath no life of it selfe, nor motion; and is nothing else but as it were the barke and clothing of the inner man, according to Zohar, alledging that out of the 10 of Job 11. Thou hast clothed me with skinne and flesh; whereunto that in the 6. of S. Matthew seemeth to agree, where to shew us how much the soule ought to bee in greater recommendation then the body, as more worthy and 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 Ædifice 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 its 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 Æthereall 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 Æthereall 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 it shall shake off these filthinesses and impurities, and shall passe aloft to heaven and adhere to God, which it could not doe, but being pure and neat; nor effect this, but by fire. Zohar speakes to the same purpose, when the Elements destroy themselves, an æthereall body succeeds in their place which doth recloath them; or to speak better, the æthereall body which was reclad with them, devests it selfe; and this is represented to us in the 5 of Esther, where it is said, that on the third day shee tooke off her clothes that shee was wont to weare, and put on her royall apparell to appeare before the King; which signifies the holy Spirit, and Esther the reasonable soule, whose vestments are the garments of the kingdome of Heaven; of which he that Daniel 3. chap. was said to be like to the Son of God, that crowns the just, and adornes them with royall apparell, to bring them into the presence of the King of Kings, to the Paradise of pleasure, clensed with aire from above, which the holy Spirit breathed into it. Origen in his second Homily upon the 36 Psalme. It is the manner of holy Scripture to introduce two sorts of men, that is to say, the interiour and the exteriour, each of which, hath need as much as concernes him, of apparell, as well as nourishment; the external corporal man, maintaines himselfe with meats corruptible, proper and familiar to himselfe, having ever need of Salt, besides their own connaturall; but there is also meat for the inward, whereof it is said in the 8 of Deuteronomy, Man doth not live by bread onely, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. And for matter of drinke, the Apostle in the 1 Cor. 10. Our fathers did eat the same spirituall meat, and did drinke the same spirituall drinke; for they did drinke of that spirituall rocke that followed them, and that rocke was Christ. Who speaking of this drinke in the 4. of Saint John, saith, that hee is the fountaine of living water, and who so drinketh of the water that he shall give them, shall never thirst. There are also two rayments in regard of the inner man. If he be a sinner, it is said Psalme 109. He hath put on malediction as a garment, which must be to him as his apparell, wherewith he is covered, and as a girdle wherewith he is girt. And on the contrary the Apostle Col. 3. Lie not one to another, having cast off the old man with his deeds, and put on the new, but be clothed with mercy, benignity, humility, and meeknesse of Spirit.

These are the vestments which Zohar said were the good works and the nuptiall accoustrements of the soule, which cannot bee washed or cleansed but by Fire, Every mans work shall bee made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every mans worke of what sort it is, 1 Cor. 3. 13. wherein they shall persist without impaire, or consumption, but shall be purified when the soule shall therewith be clothed; from this uncleane scumme, wherein there may remaine some spots that the fire goes on to purge, consuming and defacing them. But what is this fire? It is it which is said in the 4 and 9 of Deuteronomy, our God is a consuming fire: which as Irenæus interprets, was to strike feare and terror into the Israelites; and this afterwards in the 12 to the Hebrewes, 28, 29. Let us serve God acceptably with feare and reverence, for our God is a consuming fire. For they had sufficiently understood that the world once perished by the universall deluge, and that it may not incurre the like accident, but suffer its last extermination by fire. Adde that in the 33. of the Mosaicall Law, it is called The Law of fire, which is in the right hand of the Almighty, because of its austerity and rigour, all filled with menaces, with feares, with horrors; as much as the Christian is, with sweetnesse and mercy: in his right hand, there is a fiery Law: which the Chaldean Paraphrase interpreteth, for that it was given on Mount Horeb, through the middest of fire; according as it is said in the 4 to the purpose touching this feare. The Lord speake unto me saying, Assemble the people there below, that they may heare my words, and learne to feare me: Then came you neare to the foote that burned even to heaven, and the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of fire. And Exodus 3. the burning bush wherein God appeared unto Moses, and was not consumed. Of this consuming fire, further speaketh Zohar thus in conformity to that received Maxime in naturall Philosophy, that a great flame doth devoure and quench a lesse: as wee may sensibly perceive by a lighted Torch, which is extinguished by the Sunbeams, and by a kettle set neare a great fire that sucks and drawes all out to it selfe: Hee saith then upon this Text of the 35. of Exod. You shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the Sabbath: To which purpose, said Rabbi Simeon, was that ordained? and why was it not lawfull to kindle a fire on the seventh day? because that when men kindle fire, it goeth ever upwards according to its naturall, and moving above every thing, following that of the 7. of Sapience, where it is compared to fire. In Wisdome is the spirit of understanding, holy, one only, manifold, subtill, lively, cleare, undefiled, plaine, moveable above every thing, and overtops all by reason of its purity. The Fire hath two properties, to be moving, and pure, not participating of any uncleannesse; and all motion, is a kinde of action and operation, forbidden expresly on the Sabbath day. Fire then mounting aloft, caries with it the impurities designed in the 10. of Leviticus by strange fire, which is there devoured by that which proceeds from the presence of the Lord. And should bee as much, as thereby to draw from it selfe a judgement of his offences that must not be renewed in the sanctification of the Sabbath, for feare that the fire of Gods wrath do not devour and consume that of our iniquities, and us at once, if this our fire be not first purged by a stronger fire, that consumeth and devoureth the lesser and more feeble: Zohar runs through all that, and upon the passage of the foresaid fourth of Deut. Thy God is a consuming fire; he speakes further,

There is a double fire, the one stronger, that devoures the other. He that will know it, let him contemplate the flame that parteth and mounteth from a kindled Fire, or from a Lampe or Torch; for it mounteth not, except it be incorporated to some visible substance, and united with the aire, whereupon it feedeth. But in the flame that mounteth there are two lights, the one white, which shineth and illightneth, having its root somewhat blew; the other red, fastned to the wood, or to the weik that it burneth. That which is white, mounteth directly upwards, and underneath the red remaineth firme, and departs not from the matter, administring wherewith to flame and shine to the other; but they come upon the point to joine and unite together, the one burning, the other burned, till they bee converted into that which predominates and playes the master, namely the white, alwayes the same without variation and change, as the other doth; which now growes blacke, after becomes red, yellow, peach colour, sky colour, azure reinforced above and below, above with a white flame, below with the blacknesse of the matter, which furnisheth it wherewithall to burne, and at the last is therewith consumed. For this azure, red, and yellow flame, the more grosse and materiall it is, endeavours alwayes to exterminate and destroy that which nourished and maintained it: as sinnes do the conscience which harbours them, to the end to make them the perdition and ruine of all that which adheres to it here below, so long, till at the last it remaines extinct; there where the light annexed thereunto, is not eternally extinguished but goes freely upward, and returnes to its proper place of abode, or residence; having accomplished its action below, without changing its brightnesse into any other colour then white. In the like case is it of a tree, whose roots are fastned within the earth, from whence it takes its nourishment, as the weik takes his from the tallow, waxe, or oyle, which makes it burne.

The branch that drawes its juice or sap, by the root, is the same as the weik, where the fire is maintained by the liquor which it drawes unto it, and the white flame, are the branches and boughes, clad with leaves, the flowers and fruits, whereunto tends the finall end of a tree, are the white flame when all comes to bee reduced: wherefore Moses said that thy God is a consuming fire, as it is true; for the fire consumes and devoures all that which is under it, and upon which it exerciseth its action. And therefore very proper in the Hebrew text Elohenu, thy God, and not Anonenu, thy Lord, because the Prophet was in this superiour white light, which neither devoureth, nor can be devoured. And the Israelites were the blew lights, who endeavour to lift up themselves, and unite to him under the law: for the ordinary of this blew light, inclining rather to blacknesse, then to whitenesse; it is true that is constituted as in the midst, and to ruine and destroy all that it layes hold on, and whereunto it adheres.

But if sinners submit thereunto, then the white light shall bee called Adonenu, our Lord, and not Elohenu, our God, for that it domineers and devours it. And it is this blew flame designed by the little and last ה He of the sacred venerable foure lettered Jehovah, which assembles and unites with the three first והי Jehu the white light, which shineth in a most cleare simplicity Trin-one, having under it the blackish, ruddy, & azure colour of the little ה He, which is the humane nature consisting of the four Elements, for that it is sometimes represented by 4 ד, the fourth letter of the Alphabet, and which marketh the number of 4. You will say I have brought you here a prolixe place of Zohar, I do avow it, but it must have a more ample explication, for there are great mysteries covered thereunder. This Rabbi superlative to all others, endeavouring in his profound and abstracted meditations which transcend all to elevate our spirits by the similitude of a light, to the knowledge of spirituall things, which differs not from our principall purpose, which is fire and its effects.

Of this white light, and of its collaterals; other Rabbins speake, as Kamban, Gerundensis; That by the Caballe it appears unto us, that the Scripture was an obscure and darke fire, upon the backe of white fire, and marvailously resplendent.

It is the fire (say they) of the holy Spirit, consuming our iniquities, denoted by the red inflamed ardor, and the blew and azure flame, which is the strange fire, as Saint Ambrose very well expounds it in his fourth Epistle to Simplician.

Strange fire, is all the ardor of slippery concupiscence, of avarice, hatred, rancour, and envy; And of this fire no man is purged nor expiated, but well burned, which if men offer in the presence of the Lord, celestiall fire will devour, as it did Nadab and Abihu; and therefore, he that will purge his sinne, he must cast off from him this strange fire, and let him expiate therefrom; whereof it is said in the 6 of Esay 6. One of the Seraphims flew to me having a live coale in his hand, which he had taken with the Tongs from off the Altar, and touched my lips, saying, Lo this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sinne purged. Having said a little before, that all the house was filled with smoake, which is as an excrement and vapour of fire, bee it before it be lighted, or inflamed, or after it be mortified, and extinct; from whence it comes to procreate soot, then which, there is nothing more troublesome and hurtfull to the eies, having carryed away with it a parcell of adustible corruption; which administred to the fire its nourishment and food. This may bee seen in the distillation of soote, where there appeares a notable quantity of inflamable oyle, which causeth it yet to burne; and of this burning there will arise a smoake, which will againe be concreted into a burning smoake, as aforesaid, but not so much.

These are the remnants of sinne, whereof remained some staines printed in the soule, untill at the last, by a successive repurgation of fire, it be reduced to a point of compleat purity; whereof it is spoken in the 4. of the Canticles, Thou art faire my welbeloved, there is no blemish in thee; which the white flame notifies, which is the highest degree of burning. Those also well know it that maintaine a fire, for when a Fornace begins to bee hot, it waxeth blacke, then enforcing the fire, it becomes red, and at last it waxeth white when it is in the supreame and high degree of heat, where it persisteth in whitenesse more and more. Such are the actions of fire, but there are great mysteries thereunder, ever to declare further the advantage and præcellency, that the white colour hath above the red, as to the Christian faith, designed by white water, Apoc. 4, & 6. & 15. 2. (In the middle of the Throne there was a Sea of Glasse, like unto Crystall,) far above the Judaicall faith, red, heat with rigour, and severity, designed by a pillar of fire, that in the night season conducted the Israelites through the Wildernesse, and the white cloud by day, Exod. 13. 21. In the secret Hebrew Theology, the red alwayes notes Gheburah, Austerity; and the white Ghedulah, or Mercy; Eliah was transported, and by force carried into heaven, in a fiery Chariot, drawne with the like horses. But in the transfiguration of our Saviour, Mat. 17. 2. His vestments became white as snow; and Apoc. 3. 6. The Elect are ever clothed in white; and in the 6. 11. speaking of the martyred Saints for the faith of their Redeemer, there was given unto every one of them white robes; Having set down a little before, that the Angell which had gotten the victory, and the Crowne, was mounted on a white horse, (as in the 19, and 20. the Throne of God is dressed with white) and hee that was mounted on the red horse, had a great bloudy sword in his hand, that one might massacre another. But yet more expresly in the first of Isaiah, Although your sins were as red as fine Scarlet, they should be as white as Snow. And further, though they were as red as crimson, they will become as white as wooll.

But some may say here are many things, which by little and little do turne us from our principall aime, and are as it were extravagant dresses. But not altogether, yet as to mount some sharpe precipice, wee must turne about to goe at more ease, to shunne cliffes and precipices: So are wee sometimes to make some small by-courses and digressions to facilitate our Theame. Rivers that goe turning are more commodious for Navigation, then those that runne impetuously one way downe.

There shall bee nothing at last (God willing) unprofitable, nor from the purpose. Then all this red and white, is but Fire and Water, the pillar of fire by night, and the white cloud by day; into which, as the Apostle saith, the people of the Jewes were baptized; and in this cloud the divine Wisdome established his Throne; that of the Law of Moses, this of grace; Fire and Salt. Zohar speaking of Moses his two first Tables, broken for the Idolatry of the Golden Calfe, with two pillars, the one of fire, representing naturall heate, by which all things are vivified; the other is water, that is radical moisture, which maintaineth life, (from which, that is not much different in the 15. of the Apoc. where it is said, that he saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire,) which radicall moisture was perverted and changed in the deluge by the universall inundation, so that it was not since so vigorous as before: but shall at last bee brought to extermination on all sides, at the end of time by a finall conflagration. The first mutation shall meet with some mercy, the race of mankinde being at that time not wholly extinct, but the remainder was saved with Noah, and his in the Arke: but the second, shall have none, but all shall perish by the extreame rigour of fire: To the purpose of these two substances, the Assyrians and other people of the East adored Fire, as that which represented to them naturall heat, and the Ægyptians with all those on the South of Nilus, which is radicall moisture which goes to render it selfe into a Sea impregned with salt, to preserve it in the end from corruption: Now for this effect, all humours of animall bodies, bloud, spittle, urine, and the rest, are salted, without which, all would corrupt each other, in an instant: Behold the difference that there is in holy writ, that apply the meditations of things sensible to Sacramentall mysteries; and of ratiocinations of blinde Paganisme, who not turning it but above the barke, penetrate no further, then that which the uncertain and doubtful sense may make them comprehend, without passing further to the relation of divine things; where at last al must refer to spiritualty: resembling therein properly to the Ostrich, who beates sufficiently with the wing as if shee would mount to heaven, but yet her feet for all that, do not forsake the earth.

The Phœnician Theologie, admitted but of one Element, Fire, which is the principall and chief of all, the productor, and destroyer of all things: which doth not much disagree from that in the 118. Psal. is the fiery word by which times were formed. Heraclitus also puts fire, for the first substance that informed all, and from whence they drew all things from power into action, as well superiour, as inferiour, celestiall and terrestriall: For hot and cold, moist and dry, are not substances, but qualities and accidents; from whence naturall Philosophers forged four Elements, whereas according to verity there is but one; which according to the vestments that it receives from the accidentall qualitie, takes divers appellations. If from the heat, it is from the Aire; from moisture, Water; from drynesse, Earth; which three are but one fire, but reclothed with divers and different habits. Even as Fire extending it selfe in all, and through all; so all things come to render unto it, as to the center. So that it may be rightly called an infinite and indetermined vigour of nature, or rather the vivification thereof, for without it nothing could be comprehended, seen, or obtained, above or below; that which illightens is celestiall, that which concocts and digests Aereall, and that which burnes, is terrestriall; which cannot subsist without some grosse matter coming from the Earth, which he reduceth in the end to it selfe; as we may see in things burned, converted to ashes, from whence after the extraction of Salt, rests nothing but pure earth. Salt being a potentiall fire, and waterish, that is to say, terrestriall water, impregned with fire; from whence all sorts of mineralls, come to production, for they are of the nature of Water. The experiment may bee seene in strong Waters, all composed of minerall Salts, Alums, Saltpeters, which burne as Fire: which produceth hot and dry exhalations agitated with winds, easie to take flame, also of flints, of Iron, and of Wood, and of scraped bones, especially those of a Lion, as saith Pliny: whence we may gather that there is potentiall fire in all.

Not without cause then did Pythagoras, after Moses, ordaine not to speake of God, or divine things, without fire: for of all things sensible, there is nothing that symbolizeth, or more corresponds with Divinity then Fire: Aristotle writing to Alexander related unto him, that hee had learned of the Brachmans, that there was a fift Element or Essence, which is fire, wherein the Divinity resides: because it is the noblest, and purest of all the Elements; and that which purgeth all things according to Zoroastes: Plutarch alledgeth that this Divinity is a spirit of a certaine intellectuall fire, that hath no forme, but transformes to it selfe all that it toucheth, and transmutes it selfe into all, as Proteus the Genius of Ægypt was wont to say,

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.

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:

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. Auror de roolle p. 61, in course, in order one after another.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.