because the feede and spermaticall matter is so straightly enclosed in the matrice that the elements cannot bee enlarged to any vnbridled circulare motion by which onely is acquired that last excellent perfection of which wee speake One probable argument of this is that minerals bee more generall and powerfull in effect then either Vegetables Animals or any other superterraneals And the heauens more then they For the Elements so communicate in their symbolicall qualities that they neuer cease ro worke each on other The earth striuing to ouercome and transmute the water and to bring the fire in accord therewith likewise the ayre with the water and fire water with earth and aire fire with aire and earth And finally all with all to make one c and if it happen the combate of Elements to be in a matter hauing the properties of life before spoken of though it liue in a dead house and that in a matrice or receptacle where they cannot be dispersed nor the spirits flie out Their Ambition of victorie and transmutation must needs end at last and determine in some naturall compounded bodie which shall not be specificated to any kinde Animall Vegetable or Minerall But that in application it may be aboue them all such as this generalitie of matter must needs produce For where the matter is the most simple pure mixture of Elemēts indefinite indeterminate and this matter continued in naturall motion without dispersing the elements or spirits without any adition of other matter It is impossible that the action of the actiue and passion of the passiue should euer cease so long as the causes continue that is any inequalitie in the formalities of these elements By which meanes there must needs be produced a bodie of most exact and absolute temper wherein no element is predominant such is the ninth temperament of which Galen speaketh and of late writers is called the temperament of iustice which they denie not to be at some time really in some Man but allow it not to continue any time because of the momentany alteration which that bodie suffereth by reason of the triangular specification If therefore they will grant this in such a market of meates and sallets as man is why may wee not boldly require it much more in such a bodie as we speake of which hauing gotten his perfection in the fire by the naturall triumph of all elements in a quintessentiall bodie must needs hold this exact temperament and the dowers thereof inuiolably against all elementall forces For if this exact measure of digestion bee compleate in a substance not yet restrained from the latitude and indifferencie betweene generall and specificall the cause of such momentany alteration is taken away especially if in the choise of the roote the number of the angles bee answerable And then it must needs bee reduced vnto and rest in an homogeneall substance of most perfect naturall vnity more permanent in being and victorious ouer all elements then any minerall euen gold it selfe remaining in his metalleitie In which worke the thing produced exceedes not in quantie the first spermaticall substance because there is no attraction of nourishment But the moist is foode to the drie the cold to the hot the dry to the moist and hot to the cold So they change and are changed vntill they bee all in equall strength and proportion geometrically anatised inseparably vnited in one body And before the matter comes to this point it is neuer properly said to be one or vnitie For as a true vnitie suffereth no diuision either in descending into fractions or ascending to warring dualitie so this substance beeing more transcendent then any naturall substance of Aristotles predicament and hauing no heterogeneall parts of different composition mixture and temper neither any notion of such difference is and must needs be the most perfect absolute vnitie of all naturall sublunare compounds The like whereof nature alone and of her selfe could neuer produce being hindred by the foresaid causes of specificall definitions but requireth the band of Gods image and then is able of her selfe to effect that which before shee could not adapt For man being so much aboue nature by how much hee is more then others illumined and formally essensificated of a diuine intellect doth in many things helpe nature to proceede naturally farther by many degrees then shee could without that helpe and so in the excellence of nature either exceedeth or greatly inricheth nature in the production of naturall effects But whether nature alone hath produced and left inclosed in any naturall bodie this mysticall transcendent and reall existing predicament it is a great question Doubtlesse shee hath in a certaine number and masked vnder a definition of determinate vses in the philosophie of generations But she hath not neither euer shall per se without the help of our science and art act and produce it in the number which we admire nor vnmasked in the glorious triumph ouer Animals Vegetables and Minerals beeing in a high freedome of generalitie indifferent to all Genus generum and Forma formarum naturalium And so we may truly say that this matter whereof wee speake at which so many good Archers haue bent their bowes is a naturall thing brought forth in his vnueiled glorie by the helpe of art yet is it neither naturall nor artificiall but hath a nature and essence exceeding common capacitie And to know in what forme or bodie this strange sonne of the elements shall arise and in what attire hee shall be presented to the world at his first natiuitie wee must consider the sphericall scale or ladder of naturall things wherein wee shall finde an admirable beautie and proportion The last of which sphere being Man a reasonable Creature standeth in place and nature next vnto spirits and they both next vnder God transcendēt aboue the sphere of Creatures Betweene these two we finde things in descent lesse noble then spirits more noble and perfect then Man concerning his elementall dowry and durability of his body In ascent lesse noble then Man concerning that forme whereby hee is called Man and a fellow seruant with spirits more noble then the spirits concerning their immediate application to natural things for perfection These bee the heauens with all their parts and distinctions the Elements Minerall Plantall Animall whereby it plainly appeareth that those things whose vse is most generall to the perfection before spoken of elementall naturall bodies are farthest from the simplicity of spirits But those things which be farthest from the simplicity of spirits haue in their naturall being least shew and apparence of the effects of spirit And where the effects of spirit in thenaturall body be most apparant that body is in the sphere remoued by most differences and specifications from the Elements So is Plantall farther then Minerall and Animal then Plantal and in the Animal kind though humane agree with the rest as hauing the natural life in blood yet it goeth
subiect So the whole composition consisteth of foure two patient and materiall respectiuely inferior water and earth two agent and formall respectiuely superior water and heate or light which if we call ayre and fire in the compound it shall be indifferent for it matters not what names or words be vsed so the thing be vnderstood These foure Elements or parts of composition must be considered two waies particularly and generally Considered particularly they euer concurre to the composition of things corruptible but generally of things incorruptible To which purpose let vs consider that there is a generall light made before the heauens of and with which the Elements and euery elementary compound doth communicate more or lesse and thereby hath in it some sparke of incorruptibility and possibility to attaine it according to the primitiue natural predestination of his first creation which also it might and should enioy were it adapted to fit digestion and fermentation of it selfe where all the Elements should neuer cease from their circular labour vntill by equall proportion and temper that subiect could no more be altered of which there is some neere example in Gold and pretious stones There is also a generall Heauen not made to distinguish times and seasons but to diuide and to bee as it were a Land-marke betweene the Waters the interpretations of the Hebrew Maim and the Comments of the Aerial Expansion may haue their truth not opposing this diuisor which generall heauen giueth generall influence from the Waters aboue by meanes of the generall light into the inferiour Elements and elementarie compounds and also spirituall fixation continuing and preseruing the cause of their incorruptibilitie beeing an actiue Spirit of life able to worke by digestion and fermentation as aforesaid There is also a generall and vniuersall Time and that of diuers degrees When the Chaos was created Time was created with it And as the matter of all things being then in this Chaos is incorruptible in it selfe though diuerslie passible in his indefinitenesse to all formes so is that time with it created in it selfe abstractiuely vnderstood vndiuided though communicated vnto Elements and Compounds and measuring in them no other thing then the incorruptibility of their matter Besides this there is another generall Time measuring the generall and incorruptible matter which slept in vnreuealed darknesse And as the first measureth in the Elements and elemental bodies the incorruptibility of the matter so this measureth in them the same of their formes to the preseruation of one generall forme in one generall matter of naturall transcendence The third generall Time began with the Firmament which time measureth the third order of naturall Being from the Chaos and the second order of distinction from the generall light That is the diuision of waters and therefore it is in the first degree of composition alterable by generation and corruption for in it the foure elements were perfected of all naturall sublunary things This time is the first of all vnto which our speculation reacheth concerning the naturall estate of things corruptible and generable for the other two come neerer the last dissolution when al things shal stand adorned in one light or fall confused in one darknesse And these vniuersall and incorruptible causes Matter and Forme are really according to their natures in the elements and euery compound and either shall with them in their present estate continue vnto the last possibility of their predestination or alter them that they may so continue or else being seuered from them returne to their proper place vnder the commensuration of their proper time till all things be restored in the incorruptible regeneration of an immortall spring So is their particular matter and forme separable corruptible in respect of the composition and measured by particular times in which generations and corruptions do happen of all things thereunto subiect The particular light began with the Starres and that of so many different effects as there be varieties in their motion receptions of light irradiations and whatsoeuer else in true Astronomy can bee said of them This is the particular beginning of time and times and the proper measure of all specifications and particularities Yet some would haue the measure of specifications to be in the time of the vnstarred heauens and of particularities as is here said It is no inconuenience to agree with them both haue their speculations but agree in the issue of particularities If it be obiected that this being true vegetables be incorruptible because they were created before this light and time of the Stars I say it followeth not For they are made of earth and inferiour waters earth being predominant which imply matter and forme separable and by consequent corruptibility of the cōpound not withstanding the concours of the other two elements aforesaid They were giuen for food to man and all other animals except Fishes which were made after the Stars and therefore doe communicate in nature with them And though they were made before the light and time of generations and corruptions yet they were not then absolutely perfect For neither had they then increased their species with succession of indiuiduals nor attained their last end in which al perfection is consummate that is to be meate for man and beasts made in the light and times of generations But therein we may note that all things made before this time being generable and corruptible be in their generations hermaphroditicall and therein differ from the other more multitudinary and angulare And from this place a good cabalist may gather something of the immortalitie of the flesh and by consequent of resurrection because their foode is of that which in the first creation concerning time and light is incorruptible amongst which there is a tree of life What then shall we say of meate and medicine made of that which in creation preceeds these in his particular bodie is durable with the heauens lesse compounded and angulare then any vegetable But to returne moreouer the earth and all things therein receiued the curse and became hereunto subiect by Adams fall and cannot without sweate and labour eate their bread that is enioy the predestination of the spirit of life which is in them But if they were helped and cherished by some matter like and connaturall to that spirit of life which they haue of the vniuersall light and the vpper waters measured by the vniuersall time of the vnstarred heauen noe doubt they might endure farre beyond that time they now doe if peraduenture not to the worlds ende which in their present estate is impossible for many causes and by reason hereditarie corruption hath taken so great and deepe roote as one though to another end saith Damnosa quid non imminuit Dies Aetas Parentum peior auis tulit Nos nequiores mox daturos Progeniem vitiosiorem Wherein the whole world and euerie part thereof haue their part both in quantity diminished life shortned naturall vertues
beginning of nature and naturall causes No doubt whatsoeuer is elsewhere necessarily or probably deliuered is either directly taken from hence Or else is but a shadow of this substance and a deriuation of this light CAP. 5. EVerie worke and action of God expressed or implied in his Creation hath as a necessary cause produced some created effect and established it vnder the law of Nature with time still to continue By his Power in the beginning he created that voide and vnformed Chaos which because it was void vnformed had power and hability alike to euerie thing or forme And because nature that is the Creature is the Image of the Creator as being Relatiue to him There is in it a naturall will and appetite vnto perfection which is the naturall Good and Goodnesse of euery creature which is manifested by distinction in instruments parts c. That the heauens may declare the glory of God and all his works magnifie his holy name The third cause in the creature was yet wanting that is spirit the formall cause of motion in euery Creature which likewise answered his proper cause distinct from the other as is said in their effects relatiuely but not in their vniuersall subiect nor in the Prototypal being whose Image they are Three in One and One in Three or rather Trinity Coessentiall in Vnity and Vnity in Trinity The spirit of God moued vpon the waters The spirit mouing vpon the waters created in them spiritualnesse and naturall motion in such proportion as might most absolutely answer the excellency of the Creators disposition and harmony in the innumerable variety of all his particular creatures and be a most sure ground to informe the contemplation of reason by exact dependence of effects vpon their causes The whole Chaos conteined two parts Water and Earth In this there is diuersity of positiō aboue and beneath The Water was aboue the Earth therfore lighter and more capable of actiuity The Earth was vnder the waters and therfore heauier naturally more passible The spirit mooued vpon the surface of the waters which then thereby became more spirituall actiue stirring from thence the other waters in that deepe receiued their dower in the like vertues in proportion euen to those that were contiguall to the earth The Earth in it selfe hath no power of spirit or motion but mediatly by the Waters and that likewise in exact and graduated proportion sufficient for the agreeing diuersity of al bodies This spiritualnes or naturall spirit being but potentially in the waters could not in naturall course which God had now established be acted but by a meane The Spirit was moued Motion breeds heat Heate causeth rarefaction or subtilty subtilty is the perfection of spirit in euerie kind And of all spirituall things light is most subtile which therefore was the first Creature actually distinguished in and out of the confused Chaos And that which before was the confused power of all things void and without forme by this appeared the vniuersall matter of all bodies informed with light the most vniuersall of all formes And as in the darkenesse nature trauailed with the burthen of this wonderfull birth in her wombe and as it were sate hatching her egges so now in this light shee was deliuered of her first borne and after disclosed her other chickens formed and well shaped out of the shell of darkenesse And here the waters were endowed with Spirit Motion Heat and Light as is aforesaid which light was not actually in the inferiour waters as nights Mantle prooueth But shewing the neerenesse of water vnto light by transparence the easie reception of light their easie rarefaction by the worke of heate the child of Spirit doe giue good testimony of lights materiality But this is not so proper to the vniuersall light of which we speake by which the superiour waters bee continually illumined and illustred without any shadow of the night of our lesse generall time yet it may serue in neere similitude to illustrate The next distinct Creature named the Expansion Firmament or Heauen which a certaine Wiseman calleth the heauenly Ayre had in the very instant of his calling and creation an office appointed most generall To diuide the waters aboue from the waters below And heere is no mention made of Ayre and Fire but of Motion and Light which are neuer without heate the most proper passion or forme of that which wee commonlie call Fire Also of the vpper Waters and their rarefaction which agreeth with the Ayre of common Philosophie in the efficient and subiect But whether those names be proper or no concerneth not this place and I haue elsewhere paradoxally handled Of the substance composition of heauen many heads haue brought forth many hornes and arming their reasons with fantasticall imaginations haue pushed at each other so long till they be all galled It is sufficient for vs to consider their vse and office that is to deuide the waters aboue from the waters below and how being composed of the common Chaos water and earth more pure then things beneath them lesse pure then things aboue them they be solid fixed permanent and as it were of an immortall substance patible onely by fire Iob 37.18 And therefore it is said the heauens are strong and as a molten glasse For when the Spirit getteth the vpper hand in a pure and cleane body and that bodie afterwards of the Spirit in the second coniunction not by incrassation of the spirit but by subtilation of the body the whole compound becommeth quintessentiall then all is permanent and as you would say fixed spiritually Then there is no naturall alteration nor corruption I know that some writers make two distinct materialities or materias primas first matters in this beginning of creation one containing the water of heauen aboue the other a confused masse of earth and water the corporalitie of all sublunarie bodies But that opinion seemeth to draw a tayle after it of many absurdities incōueniences that goldē chaine of Participation of Symboles which linketh heauen and earth together cannot abide two materiall principles of one creature Neither can such duality subsist with that Talmudique mysterie of light shining out of darkenes which is figuratiuely verbū Dei in nobis Then there is no naturall alteration nor corruption but mens sana in corpore sano a pure spirit in a perfect bodie Next after the firmament and this diuision of waters followed the separation or parting of the waters beneath the firmament from the earth whereby sea and land were made In all this relation and respect are manifest darkenesse and light aboue beneath and diuider or meane betweene extreames Water Earth Sea Land wet dry Motion Rest c. Then in order followed In the earth Vegetables In heauen starres and their offices In the waters Fish and Foule In the earth againe sensibles commonly called Brutes or Irrationals Lastly Man with appointment of meate for himselfe
and all sensibles except fishes CAP. 6. IN the beginning the Waters conteined all were conteined of none but teemed in darkenesse The heauens were of olde And the earth that was of the water by the Word of God VVherefore the world that then was perished by water The heauens and earth which now are bee kept in store by the same Word vnto fire The first matter of all things is water and therefore the first cleansing is by and with water The last perfection of all things is spirit and the last cleansing is by fire which is the violence of the spirit consuming all matter imperfectible and leauing in an immortall bodie that which is pure cleane and perfectible In which triumph of the spirit all shall burne sauing the perfect seede of them that scaped in the waters For nothing that is vncleane commeth to the last and second perfection of the fire not hauing beene washed and depured in the first of water But how the earth was of water whether by separation of the lower waters when the drie land appeared or by subsidence of the heauier part of the Chaos in the rarefaction caused by the spirit moouing is a matter of great and necessarie consequence doubtlesse it was by both as wee see in depuring of liquors and Chymicall extractions And so the second world is of the diuiding of fire as in spagiricall mysteries wee may plainelie see This is true in that we seeke after which is more easie to vnderstand if we consider that heaâ—e the forme or essentially inseparable from the forme of fire was made by the spirits mouing vpon the waters and that the life and fewell of fire is aer The waters as being most spiritual had the first ornament of distinction and forme in all degrees first light which some thinke to comprehend Angels and therefore fire But that thought hath many great aduersaries and may imply matter of strong heresye as though they had beene Coadiutors or agents in the following dayes of creation Therefore they doe best which vnderstand the creation of Angels to be in the sixt day in which man himselfe also was created besides many other sound reasons Then heauen followed the diuider and mediator of the waters aboue froÌ„ theÌ„ beneath next vegetables c. as before where note that before any sensible creature was created in the water or earth the better part that is the superior waters and the heauen had all their furniture of light with the whole hoast of heauen of innumerable starres and their offices And lastlie Angels a little before man For though it bee not defined when Angels were created yet their residence beeing in heauen and their Indiuidualitie immortall it cannot bee doubted that they were before and neere the perfectest forme of the ruling creature And the light of Angels in origination must differ infinitely from the inaccessible light of God And as they could not suffer by water so they that continued in their originall light shall not perish nor suffer by fire as all other things shall euen the heauens themselues The heauens and earth which are kept by the same word in store and reserued vnto fire c. 2. Pet. 3. Psa 102.25 Thou hast layed the foundations of the earth the heauens are the worke of thine hands they shall perish but thou shalt endure Euen they all shall waxe olde as doth a garment as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall bee changed 2. Pet. 3.12 Eccl. 17.31 c. The heauens beeing on fire shall bee dissolued and the Elements shall melt with heate c. VVhat is more cleere then the Sunne yet it shall faile Yea the heauens and starres though insensible bee farre more excellent then the sensible creatures of the earth and inferiour waters Not concerning their forme but concerning their composition perfect mixture and pure matter of corporalitie All which cause their permanent indiuidualitie Such is the substance of our question The starres are vncleane in his sight How much more man euen the Sonne of man Iob 15.15 which is but a worme c. The heauens are not cleane in his sight how much more Man For man is of the earth And heauen is the congregation of waters In which they become fixed permanent which cannot bee without the action of their spirit of light and fire For though euerie one haue their part of all foure Yet wee finde the earth and ayre patible and as it were Nurses or rather Seminaries and very wombes of corruption diseases and death From which not speaking of them in their regenerated bodies no sacrament either diuine or naturall is taken And in from and by which all things both macrocosmicall and microcosmicall haue their Morbificall exhalations But the other two water and fire bee the cleansers and naturall renewers of all which as they decay not in themselues so doe they preserue For the fishes were not brought into the Arke but were preserued in their own proper Element And by the way we may obserue one notable doctrine That the more pure cleane and subtile any thing is in the materialitie of his primitiue nature the more irreuocable is the ruine and destruction if it suffer violence aboue or beyond that number waight and measure in which it was created So wee see the fall of Angels eternally iudged and vitrified substance bee irreducible And this in naturall things naturall causes is also true But to proceede after in the creation of sensible creatures the waters were first serued with fish soules which are attributed and appropriated vnto the waters because ayre commeth by rarefaction of waters and is extended vnder the hollow of heauen Lastly was Man being the Epitome and Abridgement of the whole Creation and therfore rightly called Microcosmus a little world for whose vse and seruice all other things were created For the good or bad vse whereof he shall account to his and their Creator God Almighty The order of proceeding heerein we see to be from the most simple and vniuersall to the most compound and speciall or particular So sensibles are more compounded then vegetables Man more then other sensibles minerals lesse then vegetables and all concerning their materiality of the first Chaos partakers of the essentiall corporality which conteined all in darknesse CAP. 7. IN this Chronicle of the creation there is very excellently taught the condition of all Creatures their composition and state of their naturall life There are two corporal or bodied Elements Earth and Water of which all things vnder heauen are materially compounded The spirit of life in euery thing is his naturall heate ioyned therewith by the meanes of the ayre which is here called the rarefied waters first created by the motion of the spirit and made able to multiply it selfe in any fit and prepared subiect This heate is chiefly in the light which was first brought out of the Chaos and dwelleth in the rarefied waters as in their proper