devest it selfe of this externall coagulation for all coagulation is a kinde of death and waterishnesse of life and would never more associate therewith nor revest it selfe by reason of its contumacy were it not that the soveraigne Master and Lord Adonai by his providence for the propagation of things as long as hee shall please to maintaine in beeing this faire worke of his hands constraine these two Earth and Water to agree in a sort together by its Angell or Minister that rules in the Aire Man moreover hath towards himselfe frank and free will in his full power and disposition The appetite of sinne shall be under thee and thou shalt have domination over it Gen. 4. But if hee be adheering to the earth Gen. 4.7 that is to say to carnall desires and concupiscences whereunto he is most inclinable he shall do nothing but evill And if to the spirit designed by water all that hee doth shall goe well The River of God is filled with waters And in the 44. of Isaiah I will powre out water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground I will powre out my Spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thine off-spring So that as long as the water doth suffer and remaine united with the earth the good Spirit resteth with man by which wee are admonished by the wise man Prov. 5.15 to drinke waters out of our Cisterne rivers out of our own Wel. But when the earth by its rebellious and repugnant drought rejecteth water there resteth nothing therein but its hard and refractary obstination till that by meanes of the aire the spirit that joines and unites them together which are holy inspirations it bee newly remoistned and watered By meanes whereof when wee have this good spirit of salutary water whereof it is written in the 15 of Ecclesiasticus Thou shalt give him the water of wisdome to drinke wee must take heed of casting it away and to make our selves all dry earth and sandy which is not satisfied with water and therefore produceth nothing But all this is more clearly expressed in the Gospell where by the meanes of this fructifying water our Saviour which is a Fountaine that is never dry the holy Spirit commeth to put into our hearts that which moistneth the hardnesse of the earth watereth it and dresseth it to produce the ripe fruits of good and charitable works The water which I will give you saith he Joh. 4.14 shall be a Fountaine of living water springing up into eternall life Of this water the Prophets have clearely spoken as David in the 36. Psal For with thee there is a Fountaine of life and in thy light wee shall see light Psal 36.6 See how he joines water with light which is fire so that this digression seemes to bee lesse impertinent and in the 12. of Esay 3. You shall draw water with joy out of the wels of salvation More Jerem. 2. They have forsaken me that am the Fountaine of living water and have digged to themselves Cisternes broken Cisternes that will hold no water In this of Zohar as above are comprised the principall secrets and actions of Fire and of its contrary the Patient which is Water for the acts of Actives are in the disposition of the Patient said the Philosopher for the effects cannot better be discerned then where they act Fire then hath three proprieties but in this respect wee must argue the thing more deeply As then all that which is are divided into 3 called Worlds or Heavens it must not be thought strange if wee repeate the same more then once for from thence proceed all the secret sciences that is to say the elementary here below subject to perpetuall alteration and vicissitude of life and of death the Celestiall aloft above the Circle of the Moone incorruptible in respect of it selfe as well for its purity and uniformity of substance as for its continuall and equall motion nothing therein praedominating the one or the other which two constitute the Sensible world There is afterward the Intelligible abstracted from all corporeity and matter which the Apostle cals the third World where hee was ravished this said hee whether in the body or out of the body God knowes 2 Cor. 12.3 for not onely the World and the Heaven are put one for the other but yet the Heaven for Man The heavens declare the glory of God according to which most part of the Fathers interpret it and Man reciprocally for Heaven As Origen sets it forth upon the 25 Treatise of Saint Matthew Mans heart is properly called Heaven and the Throne not already of the Glory of God as is the Temple but of God properly For the Temple of the glory of God is that wherein as in a Glasse wee see our selves by Aenigma But Heaven that is above the Temple of God where his Throne is is to see him wholly as it were face to face which hee hath almost transcribed word for word out of the booke Abahir to Zohar and other ancient Caballists whereof he consisteth for the most part Moreover some say that the Heavens are sometimes put for God himselfe as in the 32 of Deut. Heare O Heaven the words I speak and in the 8 chapter of the 1 of Kings according to the Hebrew verity in the prayer of King Solomon at the dedicâ—tion of the Temple Heare O Heaven In this third Heaven or World whereof the Apostle spake although God bee every where yet the seate of his Divinity is there more especially established then elsewhere with his separated Intelligences that assist him to execute his commands Blesse the Lord yee Angels mighty in power doing that which he ordaineth hearing the voice of his words wherefore Theologians called it the Angelicall world without all place and time which Plato in his Phaed. said that no mortall men ever yet had sufficiently celebrated it according to its excellency and dignity being all of light who from thence stretched out her selfe and derives it so as out of an in exhaustible Fountaine to all sorts of Creatures even according as the ancient Phaenician Theologie carryed which the Emperour Julian Parabates alledged in his prayer to the Sunne That Corporeal Light proceeded from an Incorporeal Nature The Celestial world participates of darkenesse and of light whence proceed all the faculties and powers that it brings it And the elementary all of darknesse designed for the reason of its instability by water The Intelligible by Fire because of its purity and light and the Celestial by the Aire where fire and water come to joine the Earth by this reckoning should remaine for Hell as in truth this earthly habitation is nothing but a true Hel But by Heaven Moses understood the Intelligible World and by earth the Sensible attributing the two higher elevated Elements Aire and Fire to Heaven because they alwayes tend upwards and Water and Earth which for their gravity tend downward but all that by him was
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 Zâ—diack 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 suâ—eriours 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 Aegypt 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 aequippollent 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 in accessible 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 aethereall 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 Aethereall Region is perceived and known by our senses Moreover God which was from all aeternity 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 ot perfectly separate Two of them are fixed namely Earth nd Fire as being dry and solid the other two volatil 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
spirituall and intelligible for the invisible things of God from the Creation of the World are clearely seene being understood â—by the things that are made even his eternall power and Godhead For the world with the Creatures being there they are a portraict of God for the Creator is understood by the Creature saith Saint Augustine for God hath made two things to his image and resemblance according to Tresmegistus the world therein to rejoice and please our selves with the infinite brave pieces of worke and Man wherein hee set his most singular delight and pleasure which Moses hath tacitely expressed in Gen. 1. 2. where when there was question of creating the world Heaven Earth Vegetables Minerals Animals Sunne Moone Starres and all the rest hee did no more but command by his word for hee said and they were done hee commanded and they were created But in Mans formation hee insisted much further therein then in all the rest saith he Let us make man after our Image and Similitude hee created him male and female and formed him dust of the earth afterward breathed in his face the spirit of life and hee was made a living soule In which are touched 4 or 5 particularities So Cyrill observes it After the same manner then as the Image of God is the world so the image of the world is man therein there is such a relation of God with his creatures that they cannot bee well comprehended but reciprocally one by the other for all the Sensible nature as Zohar hath it in regard of the intelligible is as that of the Moone towards the Sunne who thereinto reverberates its light or as the light of a Lampe or torch which parteth the flame fastned to the weik which is therein nourished by a grosse matter viscous adustible without which this splendor and light could not communicate it selfe to our sight nor our sight comprehend it And likewise the glory and essence of God which the Hebrewes call Sequinah could not appeare but in the matter of this Sensible world which is an image or patterne thereof And it is that which God said to Moses Exod. 33. You shall not see my face you shall see my binder parts The face of God is his true Essence in the intelligible world which no man ever saw except the Messihe I did set the Lord alwayes before mee Psal 16.8 And his posteriour parts are his effects in the Sensible world The soule likewise cannot bee discerned and knowne but by the functions it exerciseth in the body whilst it is annexed thereunto By which Plato was moved to thinke that soules could not consist without bodies no more then fire without water So that after long revolutions of times they should come againe to incorporate themselves here below whereunto adheres that in the 6 of Virgils Aeneads All these when they have turned for many yeares God cals them to the floud of Lethe by great troopes Beiâ—g forgetfull that they must review the upper convexe And begin againe to bee willing to returne into bodies But this savours a little of new-birth and Pythagorean changings of soules into bodies in which Origen was likewise out of the way as may be seene in his booke of Princes and in Saint Jeromes Epistle to Avitus But more sincerely Porphyrius although in the rest an impious adversary a Calumniator of Christianisme that for the perfect beatitude of soules they must shunne and fly all bodies So that when the soule shall bee repurged from all corporal affections and when it shall returne to its Creator in its first simplicity it hath no great desire to fall againe into the hands and calamities of this age when the option should be left unto it free From the Intelligible world then it runnes downe into the Celestial and from thence to the Elementary all that which the spirit of man can attaine from the knowledge of the admirable effects of Nature which Art intimates in what shee can whence by the revelation of these rare secrets by the action of fire the most part is magnified the glory and magnificence of him who is the first motor and author thereof for mans understanding according to Hermes is as a Glasse where we come to shave off and to abate the cleare and luminous rayes of the Divinity represented to our senses by the Sunne above and the fire his correspondent here below which inflame the soule with an ardent desire of the knowledge and veneration of his Creatour and by consequent of his love for men love nothing but what they know So each of these three worlds which have their particular sciences hath also its fire and its salt apart both which do informe us namely of Moses his fire in the heaven And the Salt for its firme consistence and solidity to the earth What is this Salt aske one of your Chymicall Philosophers a scorched and burned earth and congealed water by the heat of fire potentially enclosed therein Moreover Fire is the operatour here below in the workes of Art as the Sunne and Celestiall Fire is in them of that nature and in the intelligible the holy Spirit by the Hebrewes called Binah or Intelligence which the Scripture designes ordinarily by fire and this spirituall fire or igneal spirit with the Chomah the verbe where the Sapience attributes to the Sonne Wisdome the Artist of all things taught mee are the fathers operators By the word of the Lord were the heavens firmed and all their beauty by the spirit of his mouth from whence that maxime of the Peripateticks differs not much Every worke of Nature is a worke of Intelligence Behold the three fires whereof we pretend to speake of which there is none more common amongst us then the elementary here below grosse composed and materiall that is to say alwayes fastned to matter nor on the the other part lesse known That which is of him from whence he came and whither hee goes reducing in an instant all to nothing assoone as his nourishment failes him without which he cannot consist a moment but goes as hee comes being all in the least of his parts So that he can in lesse then nothing multiply to infinity and in lesse then nothing empty it selfe for one little waxe light will at pleasure enkindle the greatest fires we can imagine without any losse or diminution of its substance Though they take a thousand yet nothing perisheth And in the third of Saint James Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth yea one onely small sparkle of fire would press in the twinckling of an eye all the immense hollow of the Universe if it were filled with Gun-powder or Napthe and presently after will vanish away So that of all bodies there is nothing that doth approach nearer to the soule then fire said Plotin And Aristotle in his fourth booke of Metaphysickes sets downe that â—ven to his time the most part of Philosophers had not well knowne fire nor yet Aire to bee perceivable
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 Aegyptians 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 prâ—c eds 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 Cancasus where a Vulter dayly eate up his entrails which did grow againe in course Autor de roolle p 61. in course in order one after aâ—othâ—r 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 thingt lookes downe unto the earth It gave man a face to looke up and see the heavens To erect his countenance unto the Stars 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 Aegyptians 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 Aegyptians the commodâ—ty 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 tbings tacitely and by chance require Lightning brought fire on earth to mortalls First thence all heate of flame was given The Greekes attribute it to Phoroneus and put it that it was neare to Argos That fire being fallen from heaven there-about it was afterward there kept within the Temple of Apollo which if by chance it came to extinguish they lighted it againe anew by the Sunnebeames as also they did at Rome that of the Vestals And in Persia their sacred fire which they carried ordinarily where the King marcht in person singularly reverencing it for their respect to the Sunne which they adored above all other Deities for they esteemed it here below their Image They caryed it I say in great pompe and solemnity on a magnificent Chariot drawne by four great Coursers and followed by 365 young Ministers for as much as there are so many dayes in the yeare which describe the Sunne by its course clad with yellow guilded the colour conformable to the Sunne and fire singing hymnes to their praise And there was amongst them no crime more capitall and irremissible then to cast any dead carkasse or other uncleannesse therein or to blow it with your breath for feare to infect it but they did it to give it aire for in all this they hazzarded no lesse then life as to quench it otherwise in water So that if any one had perpetrated any grievous forfeit to obtaine grace and pardon therein the best expedient then was as Plutarch puts in his first Treatise of the first cold to put himselfe in running water with fire
in the hand threatning to quench it in the water if they did not grant his request but after hee had obtained it hee was not left unpunished for his offence but for the impiety that hee had forethought to commit And from thence it became a common proverbe mentioned in Suidas I am a Persian borne of Persian parents what a strange Persian yea Sir for us to pollute fire it is sharper then cruel death But all this which may bee said of fire and by the meanes thereof hath not yet been revealed nor knowne by men Is there any thing more admirable then Gunpowder so easy to make and consisting of so few ingredients and so common Sulphur Saltpeter and coale which seeme to have been mystically designed by the Aegyptians by the three Celestial powers whence they alledge Thunder Lightning Tempests to be conducted and governed Jupiter Vesta and Vulcan By Vulcan Sulphur by Jupiter Saltpeter full of aire and winde as Raymund Lullius puts it who well knew it and its nature and its effects if he would have discovered them and by Vesta Coale as well for the Terrestreity that is in it as for that it is incorruptible being able to keepe it many thousands of yeares within the ground without alteration or spoiling which was the cause that they made a place and stage for it in the foundation of the Temple of Diana at Ephesiu Saltpeter is appropriated to the Aire because it is as of a meane disposition of nature betwixt Sea water and the Fire or Sulphur whereof it participates for that it is so inflamable and saltish on the other side resolving it selfe into moisture and water as the Salts do from whence it hath bitternesse and acuity and as the inclosed and retained aire within the clouds doth breake and lighten by the impetuosity of Thunder the same doth Saltpeter But this will come to better purpose hereafter in Salts Moreover hee that can make powder composed of certaine proportions of Sulphur and Saltpeter and in stead of Coale with the Terrestrial scurf of Antimony which must be separated by frequent and reiterated ablutions of lukewarme water may come to an artificiall fire not to bee disdained of a powder that will give a small report 't is true that it is not so impetuous and full of force as the common In regard of the invention of Gunpowder the relations of China do cary that by their ancient Chronicles it is found out that they have had the use of it more then 1500 yeares as also of printing Roger Bacon 1500 years the famous English Philosopher who writ above 300 yeares agoe in his booke of the admirable power of Nature and Art sets downe that with a certaine composition imitating lightning and thunder Gideon was wont to feare his Enemies with And yet that it is not formally as it is written in the 7 of Judges yet it is said neverthelesse more then sixscore yeares before the divulgation of Gun-powder see his word furthermore there may bee made perpetuall lights and bathes burning without end for we have knowne many things that are not burned but purified but besides these there are other stupendious things of Nature and Art for sounds may be made in the aire like thunders and of greater horror then such as are made by nature And a little matter adapted to the quantity of a thumb makes a horrible sound and shewes a vehement coruscation and this may bee done many wayes by which every City and Army may bee destroyed after the manner of Gideons Artifice who with broken pitchers and lamps fire breaking out with ineffable fragor destroyed the Midianitish Army with only 300 men These may be Granadoes and fire pots And to be short nothing could better agree on all points to Gun-powder but these good men foreseeing the ruine that such things might bring made too great conscience to reveale it To the purpose of perpetuall fires by meanes of most long durance Hermolaus Barbarus in his notes upon Pliny relates that in his time there was an old Sepulchre opened in the Territory of Padoua and therein found a little Coffer where there was a Lampe yet burning although that according to the inscription it must have beene more then 500 yeares since it was lighted 500 So that by this reckoning it should not bee altogether impossible to make fires that will not be put out for wee see the same in many sorts of that which men call Grec whereof Aristotle as it is reported heretofore composed a Treatise which could not bee quenched with water chiefly Sea water by reason of the fatty and unctuous Salt mingled therewith but they grow worser and waxe more fiery But what hurt were there to stay thereon a little since likewise it is a question of Fire Of Acornes steeped in wine afterward dryed and put in a mill so long till the liquor come forth which afterwards accompanied with other oyles besmeared upon quicke chalâ— Pumice stone spectacle glasse and Alum calcined together with Soap and other the like things that hold their adustible impurities in the bottome of a vessel whilest that the oile by distillation mounts cleare neat and purified and lesse inflamable but this requireth a sufficient good fire for the matches corresponding thereto make them of cotten yearne besmeared within the Lee then bath them in the oile or liquor of Tartar Saltpetring them over Alum plumed intermingled with pitch rozin finely bruised and beaten or of Colophon These fires of so long duration would seeme to us a thing fabulous if wee were not ascertained by authentique Authors of that so famous a Lampe hung in a certaine Temple of Venus where there burned without ceasing the Stone called Asbestus which being once set on fire never goes out But some will say that that is also a fable I will leave others to decide it and I will tell you what befell mee seeking nothing lesse then that to meet with a substance conducted thereunto by graduall artifices of fire which being bound fast within a Viall of glasse and sealed with Hermes his Seale that no aire could any way enter in might be kept 1000 yeares after the manner of speech in the bottome of the Sea and opening it at the termination of so long a season or when you shall please you shall therein finde a suddaine fire which when it sents the aire will light matches We reade in the second booke of the Maccabees chap. 1. vers 20. that at the transmigration of Babylon the Levites having hid their sacred fire in the bottome of a well or pit 70 yeares after they found there a thicke water and whitish who assoone as ever the Sunbeames gave thereon tooke fire These two Deities aforesaid Pallas and Vesta one and the other chaste Virgins as is also Fire represent unto us the two fires of the Sensible world that is to say Pallas the Celestiall and Vesta the Elementary here below the which notwithstanding it bee more
The Persians and Vestalls fire at Rome reverenced as well by the one as by the other as very holy was very carefully entertained Touching the Persian Strabo in his 15. Book writeth that the Magi had a custome to conserve it under ashes before which they went every day to make their prayers and devotions which is not without some mystery The ashes denoting the sensible world and the body of man which it represents being nothing else but ashes and the fire therein inclosed and covered the sparkle of life wherewith it is animated and vivified These ashes furthermore must be of some gummy trees Coals kept in Junipeâ— for tâ—â— space of a yea to make it of longer durance namely of Juniper wherein I heretofore have kept living coals more than a year heaping up bed upon bed within the ashes being all lock't fast within a little barrell that no air may enter and this is that which is meant in the 120. Psalm 4. ver with Juniper coals according to the Hebrew in place of uncomfortable With these burning coals the Persians came to light the luminaries of their Temples when they came to be extinguished But the Vestals in case their fire should extinguish as it sometimes happened it was not lawfull for them to light it again but must draw it from the Sun beams And did not only attend that it should quench of it selfe or by some casuall accident but they renewed it yearly the first day of March from that of heaven as Ovidius observes tertio Fastorum Adde that new fire was made in the secret house and the renewed fire took force Which Macrobius also toucheth in his second of Saturnals 12. chap. The first day of March the Vestals lighted a new fire on the Altar of the Goddesse that by the renewing of the year they should renew in themselves their care of keeping it from going out Saint Augustine in his third Book of the City of God 18 ch In what reputation saith he this sacred fire was at Rome men may know by this that when the City was a fire the grand Pontifex Metellus for fear that this strange fire should not mingle with the other put himselfe in danger to be consumed by the flames to make it retire So that there is nothing more conformable to the tenth of Leviticus That if these poor blind people which took the Symbols and Mysteries of Religion but superficially and from the bark as do also the Jewes from whom they borrowed all their important Traditions had known that which was covered and prefigured thereunder what accompt is there to beleeve that they made thereof Some do alledge that this sacred fire of the Vestals was illuminated by means of fusil bruising two pieces of wood one against another or in piercing them with a borrier as Festus would have it and Simplicius upon the third Book of Heaven according to Aristotle Plinie in the 16. Book 4. chap. Men rub two woods one against another from whence fire is forced which is received in by a bait made of dryed leaves and put in powder or in the match of the touchwood of a tree But there is nothing which doth better conduce thereunto then Ivy beaten or bruised with Laurell the same is of late more practised by the Savages of the West Indies as Gonzale d'Ovidiedo in his natural History of those quarters lib. 6. cap. 5. binding saith he two dry sticks hard one against another and putting betwixt their juncture the point of a rod well rounded which they rub thick and thin betwixt the hands so long till the fire by rubbing and the rarefaction of the air that followes them may lighten them Of this new relightning to shew us that we must renew and be borne again to a better and more praisable life not farre different from the Ceremonies of the Christian Church when on the Eves of Easter and Whitsontide at the Benediction of Springs and Fountains they make a new great wax Taper wherewith all the other luminaries are set on fire Touching Moses fire it was first sent from Heaven and lasâ—ed to the construction of Solomons Temple which was again renewed from Heaven and maintained to King Mamasses his time when the Jewes were carryed captives into Babylon which the Levites kept in the bottome of a Well where it was found again at their return 70 years after in the form of a gluish and white water as hath been said heretofore Pausanias to the Corinthians sets down that in the dayes of Antigonus son of Dâ—metrius there appeared a fountain of warm water near to the City of Mathana but from the beginning it appeared not in water but in great flames of Fire which were resolved into hot and salt water Saint Ambrose yet discoursing upon this water of the Levites in the third of his offices sets down that this doth sufficiently demonstrate that this was a perpetual fire which could not be taken from another place to shew that they must not acknowledge any other God or other religion and ceremonies then those that were established by the inspiration of the holy Spirit designed by fire for we may see what the children of Aaron Nadab and Abihu found in the 10 of Leviticus being willing to take upon them to offer strange fire unto God Then all false doctrine idolatry heresie and impiety may be called strange fire that devours the soul as a feaver doth the body with the life that maintains it there where this true fire sent from Heaven is that of the holy Spirit which salteth our hearts and consciences that is to say preserves them from corruption according whereunto the Prophet Jeremie spake in his 20. chapter when he had received it Then it was made as a burning fire in my heart and shut up in my bones and I was weary in forbearing and could not stay That the Holy Spirit should not be only light but very fire Esay doth manifest chap. 10.17 And the light of Israel shall be for a fire and his holy one for a flame For even so as the burnings which are a potentiall fire composed of igneal and burning saâ—ts work not upon a dead part insensible and deprived of Natures heat so the holy Spirit doth not exercise its actions upon cold languishing hearts that make no account of its ticklings and invitations but shew themselves contumacious and refractary just so as the heat of the Sun and of the fire but more and more hardens earth and clay in stead of softning it and melts it as they do wax butter and grease For the acts of Actives are in the disposition of the Patient where we see fire does divers effects in disagreeable subjects but not wholly contrary and directly opposite as when it blacks a coal and white chalk where its vertue is imprinted but all to the contrary for fire by custome is extinguished by water it is it that in this respect inflames and renewes that which was imprinted and hidden
stones for as gold excelleth silver and trees stones it is the same in the metallique order brasse is more pretious then iron But all tends to denote that the heavenly mysticall Jerusalem which is the Church triumphant so much more excellent then the Jewish Synagogue which was but a figure thereof And certainely hee that would looke more narrowly thereinto the Prophets never spake any thing improperly even to the least trade or mechanick arts for in their ravishments they saw things in their reall being within the Zapheret or supercelestiall Sunne which is a clear shining looking-glasse a living source of all Idea's as Idea's are of formes This is furthermore well to be observed for the regard of metals which they associate commonly iron and copper for their affinity will iron make a covenant with iron from the North and brasse for iron is easily changed into copper by means of vitrioll by putting them bed upon bed in a descensory with a strong fire of bellowes so long till the iron grow liquid and melt into copper having first moistned them with a little vineger wherein there should be dissolved sal niter or salt peter sal alcali and salt of tartar with verdigrease Otherwise put of vitriol in powder and distill the water in a cornue that which shall remaine calcined in the bottome impost it with its water and therein quench the glowing gads of iron or filings of iron you shall find them by little and little reduced into copper Otherwise yet dissolve vitrioll in common water evaporate the water and calcine the congelation that shall rest in the bottome dissolve that in the like water and it will become green evaporate a part thereof and put the rest in a cave for a night and you shall see greene flakes Make them red in the fire after dissolve them three or four times with distilled vinegar drying them every time and the flakes will become red dissolve them againe in the same vinegar and therein quench the gads or other iron work as above said In briefe that by the means of vitriol iron is conveâ—ted into copper as we may see in penknifes steeped in inke made of copper as or vitriol These flakes here are an entry to a higher work and of more things for Chirurgery and Medicine But all these practises you may say are long and troublesome and rather chargeable then gainfull and profitable Also our intention here is not to stretch to gaine this booke is not to get brend but to penetrate into the secrets of nature from thence to mount and elevate his spirit to spirituall things whereto sensible do serve as a stair or as Jacobs ladder and there are no rarer considerations and observances then in fire and metallique transmutations Copper on the other side is changed into steele if it bee true that some Rabbines quote upon that passage lately alledged out of the 15. of Jeremiah 12. Iron and Brass the Prophet say they calleth Iron mixed with Brasse Steel which sheweth for we must disdain nothing of theirs that Damake Steel was composed of Iron and Copper that is to say of Iron halfe covered in Copper and softned to restrengthen it the more by means of lead Whereupon make what Abuhali sets downe in a Book of the nature of things Make a little long trench within a barre of iron and cast thereinto melted lead then make it evaporate with a strong fire as of a coupelle Put againe therein new lead four or five times and the iron will grow soft which you may afte wards make hard againe quenching it in forge water to make lancets and other subtill cutting irons yea that shall cut other iron without splinters or gapping And indeed we have found by experience that to temper well a harnesse against the shot of harquebuse we first sweeten it with oils and gums with wax and the like incerative things and after we harden them by frequent extinctions in waters that make it fast againe John the Grammarian expounding this place of Hesiod they wrought in brasse for iron was not yet knowne was forced to relate the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the people Chalybs in Scythia who saith he first found out the use of iron and steel the Poet Lucretius in his 5. booke imitates Hesiod in this kinde Antient arms were hands and nails Stones and fragments of tree boughes And flames and fires were first knowne Afterwards the force of Iron and Brasse But the use of Brasse before Iron Steel furthermore is made of the most pure and subtiliate iron for that it participates lesse of the earthinesse then iron The artifice of it is sufficiently knowne and is common in forges But to come to that of Damas you must first resweeten it of its too much bitter tartnesse and after it is reduced into filings to make it red in a cruset and quench it many times with oil of Olives where there hath often times been quenched molten lead suddenly covering the vessell for fear lest the oil take flame There are yet other secret observations which our intention is not to reveal all it is enough to have attained to the maxims Now for that there is such an affinity between iron and copper that they may easily be converted one into the other the same may likewise be done with lead and tinne by means of Sal Armonaick and of certaine incerative powders of Borax Salt peter salt of Tartar Salalchali and other the like which are called Atinears Panthee in his Voarchadumie oil of glasse Quicksilver also is changed into lead or tinne according as it is congealed to an imperceptible vapour either of the one or of the other in this manner Melt lead or tinne in a cruset then let them a little cool so long that they may be taken but yet hot or with a staffe of a torch or the like make a trench therein wherein you shall put quicksilver which will be suddainly congealed but bruiseable into powder Reiterate that two or three times and make it afterwards boil in the juice of Mercuriale and will convert it selfe into metall according to the odour of that it was congealed there is losse therein and that not a little but yet at least we may thereby see a possibility of transmutations of metals In this respect furthermore of lead and tinne there presents a very fair consideration very uneasie to comprehend and doth merit that the cause thereof should bee sought after We see by experience that these two metals each apart are very soft and of a tender fusion yet bâ—ing mingled they grow hard and become firm and solid touching which see what Avâ—erroes sets downe in his Book of Vapours That which doth consolide and strengthen tinne is lead and reciprocally lead tinne for the glewish viscosity which binds their partieâ— must consist of moisture and drynesse this being done there is no conglutination of tinne with tinne therefore lead is mingled therewith which is more moist and
forced to avow that by the only way of ratiocination you cannot draw truth therefrom As Aristotle discourseth thereupon well at large in the 4. of the Metaphysicks Ptolomie also that we must not ground and rule our conceptions for regard of corporall things above spirituall for they are farre distant each from other and there is much disparity and disproportion between them But yet lesse between intelligible above sensible although they serve us herein as a ladder following that which the Apostle saith That the invisible things of God are seen by the Creation of the world by things made also his eternall power and divinity We must therefore run back to this spiritual light which holdeth the highest soveraign place in the knowledge of the understanding So that light is more properly of things spiritual then corporal and more certain and true are the invisible then the visible for as much as God only is a true light in his essence from whence he derives into our spirit all the knowledg wherewith it can be illustrated as the potentiall light of our eye is from the brightness of the Sun or of something artificial traversing the transparence of the air the place of which eye the soul holds in spiritualty as the divine Intelligence maketh that of the Sun which is a representation and image thereof By reason whereof so long as our understanding shall leave it felfe to be cleansed by the fire of Divine love he will ever keep its living and luminous brightnesse But if it suffer it selfe foolishly to go after exterior light it shall be also obscured and extinguished with the interiour which domineers over it even as a small candle or wax taper with the twinckling beames of a cleare shining Summer Sunne Sith then this sensible light saiâ—h Saint Thomas upon the 36. of Job by the absolute Omnipotency of God who disposeth it as he pleaseth it is sometimes hid to mortals sometimes communicated from whence we may gather that there is another light more perfect and excellent namely the spiritual which God reserves for a recompence of good works following that which Job sets downe God covereth the light in his hands and ordaineth it that it should returne againe and manifest it self He sheweth it to those he loveth that they may well mount unto it Whereto that of Zoroastres word for word was conformable You must mount up to the true light and to the bright bâ—ams of your father from whom the soul was sent you revested with much intellect Behold the relations of these Sunnes the sensible and intelligible and of the two lights that proceed therefrom For as that of the Sunne obtains the first place in corporall things saith Saint Augustine in his book of freewill and that by means thereof the inferiour communicate with the superiour the same doth the light of the spirituall Sun in regard of intelligibles There are also things that have heat and no light as that of Animals of quick chalk besprinkled with water horse and pigeon dung which Galen writes he hath seen to wax a fire of it selfe heapes of oats and other graines except Barly new wines which boil the lees in the vintage heaps of Olives Apples and Peares which is a kind of putrefaction whence also there is engendred some strange heat as we see in Apostemaes and in flesh which begins to bee corrupted and on the contrary wee see others that have light and no heat as worms that glister in the night and of little flies that fly in the dark in summer time of shels and scales of fish in rotten wood in stones and in the eyes of ravenous beasts Suidas speaking of the visible and invisible this said he cannot wel be expressed in words it is as little flyes which flye in the summer which by displaying their wings fly into the eyes with small sparkling fires the worms also that shine in the night the shels and scales of some fishes and other the like which cannot be perceived in the light but very well in the darke for the fire which so shineth from them in the dark is not a colour whose property is to make it seene at the brightnesse of the Sunne or other light because that the air being transparent and deprived of all colours the sight might very easily pierce it and passe through to apprehend them But there are four differences of visible things some cannot see but by day the others on the contrary but by night others by day and night and others that have no place in darknesse Colours are not seen but by day not by night Of things called resplendent some by day others by night others by day and night for there are some that are illustrious and cleare others darke and heavy and others betwixt both others that have luâ—tre and splendor dark and waterish and are not seene but by night as the foresaid flyes worms fish scales rotten wood and the like for in the day time their splendor is surmounted by another more powerfull which defaceth it as also there are more stars so that the darker the night is the clearer they shine Those betwixt both as the Moon and some Stars by day and by night as the morning and the evening Stars called by the Greeks Phosphor by the Latines Lucifer this is Venus Starre Fire also which pierceth the air more then it may and illustrates it to demonstrate the colours that are therein for the rest it is content to make it see without bringing into action the transparence that is in the air as we may see in the darke where wee see fire a great way off but not by the colours that are betwixt them By day it shines also but not act against the air for that it is suffocated and extinguished by a stronger light The clearnesse of the Moone likewise for that shee is not very dark shee is seen in the day time but better in the night Suidas runs through all this But to the purpose of lights without heat I have read of nothing more admirable and strange then that which Gonzalo de Oviedo in the 15. Book 8. chap. of his Naturall History of the Indies alledgeth of a certain little flying animal of the bignesse of an Hanneton very frequent in the Isle of Spaine and in other Islands thereabouts having two wings above strong and hard and two below them two others more thinne and fine The little beast called Cocuye hath shining eyes as lighted candles so that wheresoever he passes he illuminates the air and gives it such a brightnesse that a man may see him a great way off and in a chamber as dark as it may be even at midnight men may read and write by the light that comes from them So that if a man binde two or three together this would give more light then a Lanthorne or a Torch in the field and amidst the Woods in the night as darke as may bee they make themselves to be seen
more then a mile This clearnesse consists not onely in the eyes but also in their flanks when they open their wings They are accustomed to serve themselves with them as we do with a Lamp or other light to sup at night and to do the affairs of the house But when he comes to determine and dye its light extinguisheth also The Indians had a custome to make a post of them to strike feare in seeing them by night for that it seemed that they had a visage being rub'd therewith as if it were all fire Plinie in his 21. Book chap. 11. speaketh of a shining herb in the night called Nyctegretes or Nyctilops for that we may see it shine a farre off but he alledgeth many things by heare-say as not having seen them But to returne to the Suns light which is therein more perfect then in any other thing sensible with heat for it is the true heavenly fire as Speusippus said which describeth all that appertaines to the nourishment of this great man the Universe as the Elementary doth the viands of the animal man And as the heart in animals is the principall soul of life the same is the Sunne in the heart of the world and the primordiall spring of all light therein which he departs to the Stars as doth Jesus Christ to our souls And no more nor lesse then the Sunne and the Moon said Origen upon Genesis illightens our bodies likewise our consciences and thoughts are from this splendour of the Father if wee be not blinde and that this proceeds not by our faults Now if we be not all equally illuminated no more then the Stars are by the Sunne which differ in brightnesse one from the other but according to our capacity and carriage and as more or lesse we lift up the eyes of our contemplation to receive this light Returne you towards me and I will returne towards you for he is a God at hand and not a God a farre off That which we can have of intelligence saith Zohar by our naturall ratiocination is as if our spirit were lightned by the Moone but the Divine relation holds place of the Sunne whence the light chaseth away and banisheth the Princes of Darknesse where their greatest force and vigour raignes The Sunne is risen they shall be placed in their chambers sayes the 104 Psalme speaking of Devils and wicked Spirits under the name of savage and revenous Beasts For as Zohar puts it these tenebrions are stronger and more gallant in the darke so the good Angels that assist and favour us receive great reinforcement from the light not onely from the Divine but from the Celestiall and solar by which the Divine and Supreame shining brightnesse imparts her vertue to the heavens and by them communicates it to all that is under the sphere of the Moone within the elementary world Wherefore not without cause about dead bodies till they bee put in the grave they imploy lights to drive farre off this ancient Serpent Zamael to whom for malediction it is said thou shalt â—at earth all the dayes of thy life for our Bodies being deprived thereof are no more but dust and earth So that fire is a great aid and comfort to us not onely during our life but yet after our death against these wicked dark powers which gnaw in obscurity as these night birds and savage beasts which dare not appeare in the day fearing the light of the Sunne how much more then that of good spirits their adversaries which receive it from the divine resplendence for the same as is the Sunne towards it the fire is in regard of the Sunne who serves us amongst other things to make us see this so great accomplished work of the universe built by the Soveraigne Creator of so excellent Artifice and that which his light doth manifest unto us in this sensible world it is nothing for this regard for the true being doth consist of things intellectual stript of all corporeity and matter the Sunne it selfe the rarest master-piece of all others could not see it selfe but by its proper light which is presently accompanied with a heat vivifying all things for there is a double propriety one to shine and clarifie the other to warme yea to burne the subjacent matters which illuminates the whitenesse and waxeth blacke with the Sunnes heat The Sunne hath coloured mee Cant. 1. Whereupon Origen notes that there where there is no sinne nor matter of sinne there is scorching or burning following the 121 Psalm The Sun shall not burne thee by day nor the Moon by night for the Sunne illuminates good men but it burnes up sinners who hating light for the evill they have done for in many places of Scripture you shall finde that the Sunne and the Fire whereof it speake they are not those that wee see but the spirituall The spirituall Sunne saith Saint Augustine doth not rise but upon holy persons following that which is spoken of the perverse in the 5. of Wisdome The light of Justice is not risen upon us nor the Sunne of Intelligence is not come to illighten us As for its heat it must rather be kept for witnesse of Holy Scripture there is no man can hide him from the heat thereof not to frivolous imaginations and subtilities of those that maintaine it to be neither hot nor cold grounding themselves upon this argument All heat in long continuance although that it remaine alwayes in the same estate and degree doth notwithstanding augment it selfe so that it would bee intolerable If then the Sunne be so hot as it seems after five or six thousand years since when it was first created it would follow that there would come a conflagration under the torrid Zâ—ne from whence he stirs not who from thence was extended to all the rest of the earth there where we see the contrary for the whole is alwayes in the same estate And afterwards for that the sunne is many times greater then the globe of the Sea and the Earth and its Sphere so farre esloigned from it that it hath no proportion with it it should follow that it was as hot in one time and place as in another With semblable deductions against which it is easie to contradict but this would turne us aside too farre from our principall Subject Anaxagoras also said that it was a grosse enflamed stone or a plate of burning fire Anaximander a wheel full of fire 25. times greater then all the earth Xenophanes an heap of little fires The Stoicks an inflamed body proceeding from the Sea wherein they have shewed the affinity of fire and salt together Plato a body of much fire and thus one after one fashion one after another but all tending to make it of the nature of fire Moreover it is a thing too admirable of its greatnesse so immense whereupon the spirit of man hath fair Galleries to walke in pursuit of the high fetched meditations of Gods mervails for as Chrysostome said well
nor sweetnesse But what shall we say of the Dolphin that saved Arion and of many others alledged by Plutarch in his treaty What animalls are the wisest those on land or those in the water of fishes likewise wherewith the Indians are served as with a chained Grayhound But it is very smal to take fish never letting go what he hath once fastned on Truely a Brach nor couching spaniell cannot bee more spirituall or docible then this fish at least if it be true what is related to have often times been seen by the eye in the thirteenth booke of Gonzalo d'Ovidiedo of his naturall history of the Indies Chap 10. And of Peter Martyr of another sort of fish called Manati which being taken at Sea very little and from thence put into a standing lake became tame and privately would come and take bread from mens hands and would not faile to come a good way off when hee was called leaving himselfe to be handled at their pleasure and carried them upon his back as on a bridge crosse the lake from one side to the other But fresh water fishes are they more docile then those of the Sea The Aegyptian Preists above all others abhorred the Sea calling it the finall end the death and destruction of all things because the water thereof killeth all Animalls that drink thereof and is as the sepulcher of all rivers that goe lose themselves and die therein and the earth is the same for all bodies from whence none are spewed out To this purpose Chiia in the Zohar deploring the death of Rabbi Simeon author thereof after he had cast himselfe on the earth and embraced him used such a language O earth earth dust dust how hard and unpitifull art thou For whatsoever is most desireable to the sight thou makest old and deformed thou breakest in peices the shining Columnes of the world How doest thou quench the cleare resplendent lights which received theirs from the eternall living spring wherewith the whole world was illustrated The Princes and Potentates given to the people to governe them and to administer Justice unto them by which they are maintained and subsist waxe old and end in thee and thou remainest alwayes persistent in thy selfe not being able to satisfie or satiate thy selfe with so many bodyes that returne thither so that the world is therein confounded and lost and afterwards renewes it self of a suddaine But for the regard of the Sea the Aegyptian Priests had it in such detestation that they could not endure to see the very Mariners nor the Islanders as people which on all parts were cut off from humane commerce And the Britains separated from the world by an element which they say is the fifth so austere outrageous and unpittiable and for that cause they abstained from salt because that among other things it provoked to lasciviousnesse The occasion also for which they so much rejected the Sea was something mysticall and allegoricall because it doth not wash spots or uncleannesse So that Homer made and not without reason that Nausicaa Alcinous daughter washed her linnen and clothes in a fountaine of fresh water on the Sea shore for the truth is that Sea-water doth not wash That which Aristotle as Plutarch puts it in the first of the Symposiaques 9. question referre to the pickle wherewith the Sea-water is alwayes filled so that there being nothing empty therein it could receive no filthinesse And lee is it not the same yea more full of salt yea more unctuous and fat then that of the sea so that according to Aristotles testimony men put sea-water in their lamps to make them shine clearer and cast upon the flame it becomes lighted in which there may be also mystery contained concerning fire and salt and their affinity together Join hereunto that wee may see that salt is an enemy to all filthinesse and uncleannesse and will not thereto adjoin or associate no more then fire which will nothing but pure things said good Raimund Lullius Yet to the aforesaid purpose Plutarch in his naturall causes sets down that the sea-water doth neither nourish nor feed trees or plants because being grosse and heavy it cannot mount into their stalks which thicknesse and grosnesse is seen for that carryeth greater burthens then the fresh water and this comes from the salt therein dissolved and it is earthly and consequently more uneasy to sinke Moreover trees being according to the opinion of Plato Democritus Anaxagoras and others a terrestriall Animall it cannot give it nourishment for bitter doth not nourish but sweet only But what shall wee say of so many fishes that are procreated and nourished in the sea of herbs also and of trees Francisco de Oviedo lib. 2. ch 5. sets down that in the first discoverie of Christopher Columbus they found as of great green and yellow medowes in the main sea more then two hundred leagues from land of certain herbes called Salgazzi which go floting on the top of the waters as the winds carry them from one side to another In the relation of Francis Vlloa he sets down that the root of the herbs whereof he gives the description and figure do not sink more then 12 or 15 fadome in the water yellow yet as wax But wee sufficiently see trees and bushes growing along the sea-shore and even in the very sea yet Plutarch insisteth that those that grow along the shore of the Red-sea are there procreated nourished with the slime which the flouds carry thither and fall therein which he might have spoken more properly of the greater sea otherwise called Pontus Euxinus And Plinie lib. 18. cha 22. that the herbs which grow within the water are nourished with rains but it would follow that if so they should procreate in all other places where it rains indifferently Aristotle with better reason refers it to the grosse and unctuous saltnesse which is therewith mingled Salt being fat and unctuous which is the cause that salt water doth not so easily quench fire as fresh water But this saltnesse is equall throughout all the sea Plinie himself lib. 19. ch 11. specifies Certain herbes which salt waters do much profit These are secrets of Nature to which mans discourse can hardly arrive For herbs by a providence thereof may well suck and draw from salt water a fresh or sweet substance wherewith they are procreated and nourished as the fishes But this is not our principall drift we have here endeavoured to shew that Salt is not unfruitfull but the cause of fertility provoking venereall appetite whence Venus is said to be begotten of the sea if men give salt unto animalls to heat them the more and make them eat salt as Plutarch puts it in his 3. queston of Naturall causes And wee see by experience that in ships laden with salt rats and mice are sooner engendred then in others this which must so much the more cry down salt in regard of holy things from whence all mutability and lubricity must be bannished but salt is in the number of things that are applyed to the good and to the bad part Of the good we have heretofore alledged many places Of the bad for the sterility Gen. 14.5 All shall assemble themselves in the wild valley which is now the sea of salt And in the 19. chap. 26. as also in the 10. of Wisdome v. 7. of Lots wife who for her incredulity and disobeying the Angels voice she was turned into a pillar of salt And Judges 9.45 the habitations of Rebells and Traitors were razed and sowed with salt And in the 2 of Zephaniah v. 9. Moab shall be as Sodome a desolation of nettles and thistles and heaps of salt But we see upon the ebbing and flowing of the salt pits in the Marshes of Zaiâ—tonge where they empty the durt which are as salt as the sea itself where it produceth the best wheat that possibly can be and in great quantity and very excellent wines also But there is another consideration in that as in Marle and in the dry places of Ardonne where they burne the cuttings of trees of 7 or 8 years as also quick chalk which supplies the place of dung in their grounds for those ashes would produce nothing of themselves no more then Marle or salt but they are the cause of production because they warm and fatten the land There is yet another reason that Plutarch alledgeth That throughout where there is Salt nothing can grow thick or be close together which constipation would hinder herbs to thrust out Moreover many medicaments and remedies do come from salt whereupon I will not here lose time on that which Plinie Dioscorides and others have set down and treated of cursorily and in hast with closed eyes one after another not having made proof thereof add to this it is so triviall and beaten as nothing more but will touch here in passing the Countrey an experiment whereof I have seen very admirable effects in burning feavers and unquietnesse where they could not take rest It is a frontall made in this manner Take the yolk of a fresh Eg and as much grosse salt beat them together in shape of an ointment which you shall apply to your forehead between two folded linnen clothes It doth not coole the brain nor cause such accidents as conserve of Roses do Oxyrhodinon likewise and brings much more comfort FINIS