earth the sensible Each of them is subdivided into two in every case I speake not but after Zohar and the ancient Rabbins The intelligible into Paradise and Hell and the sensible to the Celestiall and Elementary world Upon this passage Origen makes a faire discourse at the entry on Genesis that God first made the heaven or the intelligible world following that which is spoken in the 66. of Esay Heaven is my seat and Earth my footstoole Or rather it is God in whom the world dwelleth and not the world which is Gods habitation For in him we live Act. 17.28 move and have our being for the true seat and habitation of God is his proper essence and before the Creation of the World as Rabbi Eliezer sets downe in his Chapteâ—s there was nothing but the essence of God and his name which are but one thing Then after the heaven or the intelligible world Origen pursues God made the Firmament that is to say this sensible world for every body hath I know not what firmnesse and solidity and all solidity is corporal and as that which God proposed to make consisteth of Body and of Spirit for this cause it is written that God first made the Heaven that is to say all spirituall substance upon which as upon a certaine throne hee reposeth himselfe The Firmament for our regard is the body which Zohar calleth the Temple and the Apostle also Yee are Gods Temple 1 Cor. 3.17 And the Heaven which is spirituall is our soule and the inner man the Firmament is the externall that neither seeth nor knoweth God but sensibly So that man is double an animall and spirituall body the one Internall Spirituall Invisible that which Saint Marke in this place designeth for man the other Externall Corporall Animal which he denotes by the Sacrifice which comprehendeth not the things that are of the Spirit of God but the Spirituall discerneth all So that the exteriour man is an animal compared to brute beasts whereout they tooke their offerings for Sacrifices He is compared to foolish Beasts and is made like them for a man hath no more then a Beast we must understand the Carnall and Animall that consists of this visible body that dyeth as well as Beasts are corrupt and returne to Earth Whence Plato said very well that which is seene of man is not man properly And in the first of Alcibiades yet more distinctly that Man is I know not what else then his body namely his soule as it followes afterwards That which Cicero borrowed out of Scipio's dreame But understand it thus that thou art not mortall but this body thou art not that which this forme declares but every mans minde is himselfe not that figure which may be demonstrated by the finger And the Philosopher Anaxarchus while the Tyrant Nicocreon of Cyprus caused him to be brayed in a great Marble Morter cried out with a loud voice Stampe hard bruise the barke of Anaxarchus for it is not him that thou stampest But will it be permitted for me here to bring something of Metubales All that is is either Invisible or Visible Intellectuall or Sensible Agent and Patient Forme and Matter Spirit and Body the Interiour and the Exteriour man Fire and Water that which seeth and that which is seen But that which seeth is much more excellent and more worthy then that which is seen and there is nothing that seeth but the invisible where that which is seene is as a blind thing therefore Water is a proper and serviceable subject over whom the Fire or Spirit may out-stretch his action Also he hath elevated it for his habitation and residence for by introducing it he elevates it on high in the nature of Aire contiguous unto it which invisible Spirit of the Lord was carryed on the waters or rather did sit over tâ—e waters did see the visible moved the immoveable for water hath no motion of it selfe there is none but Aire and Fire that have and speake by the Organs of one that is dumb for as when by our winde and breath filling a pipe or flute we make it sound though never so mute This Body and Spirit water and fire are designed unto us by Cain and Abel the first Creatures of all others engendred of the seed of man and woman and by their Sacrifices whence those of Cain issuing from the fruits of the earth were by consequent corporall dead and inanimate and together destitute of faith which dependeth of the Spirit and are by Fire dissolved into a waterish vapour Pour le nouveau so that to go to finde it in its sphere and habitation for the newes we are to suffer thereunder But those of Abel were spirituall animate full of life that resides in the bloud full of piety and devotion This also Aben Ezra and the author of the Handfull of Myrrh call a fire descending from one above to regather them which happened not to those of Cain which a strange fire devoured and from thence was declared the exteriour man sensuall animall that must bee salted with Salt But Abel the interiour spirituall salted with Fire which is double the materiall and essentiall the actuall and potentiall as it is in burnings All what is sensible and visible is purged by the actuall and the invisible and intelligible by the spiritual and potentiall Saint Ambrose on the Treatise of Isaac and of the Soule What is man the soule of him or the flesh or the assembly of those two for the clothing is one thing and the thing clothed another Indeed there are two men I leave the Messibe apart Adam was made and formed of God in respect of the body of ashes and of earth but afterwards inspired in him the Spirit of Life if he had kept himselfe from misprision he was like unto Angels made participant of eternall beatitude but his transgression dispossessed him The other man is he which comes successively to be borne of man and woman who by his originall offence is made subject to death to paines travails and diseases therefore must hee returne from whence he came But touching the soule that came from God it remains in its free will if it will adhere to God it is capable to bee admitted into the ranke of his children who are borne not of blood nor of the will of the flesh Joh. 1.13 nor of the will of man but of God Such was Adam before his first transgression The soule then which is the inner man spirit and the very true man which liveth properly for the body hath no life of it selfe nor motion and is nothing else but as it were the barke and clothing of the inner man according to Zohar alledging that out of the 10 of Job 11. Thou hast clothed me with skinne and flesh whereunto that in the 6. of S. Matthew seemeth to agree where to shew us how much the soule ought to bee in greater recommendation then the body as more worthy and
the Doctrine of the Hetrurians It is not beleeveable that Moses so deare and and welbeloved of God and so illustrated with his inspirations whence proceeded all the documents that he left and so hot a persecutor of Idolatries and Ethnique superstitions that hee would borrow any thing from them But more likely that the Devils instigations who makes himselfe alwayes as his Creators ape to make himselfe to idolize was willing to divert those sacred mysteries to their abusive impieties according to which Josephus against Appion and Saint Jerome against Vigilantius doe very well sute so that as in the Judaicall Law they used no Sacrifices and oblations in Paganisme but they used Salt as Pliny witnesseth in 31. Book 7. Chap. Especially in holy things the authoritie of Salt is understood when none were made without a Salt Mill. Plato to Timaeus when in the medly and commixtion of the elements the composed is destitute of much water and of the more subtill parts of the earth water resting therein comes to bee halfe congealed saltnesse is there brought in which hardens it the more and so there is procreated a body of Salt communicated to the use of our life for as much toucheth the body and senses accommodated by the same meanes according to the tenor of the Law on that which depends the service of God as being sacred and agreeable to God wherefrom hee called it a body beloved of God for which Homer called it Divine whereof Plutarque in his 5. Booke of his Symposiaques 10. question renders many reasons and among others for that it symbolizeth with the soule that is of Divine nature and as long as it resides in the body keepes it from putrefaction as Salt doth dead flesh where it is brought in in stead of a soule that keepeth it from corruption whence some of the Stoicks would say that Hogs flesh of it selfe was dead and that a soule which was sowed therein in a manner of salt to conserve it longer exempt from putrefaction to which a soule was given for Salt Our Theologians say that the ceremony of putting Salt into water when they hallow it came from that which Elisha did 2 Kings 2.22 23. to sweeten the waters of Jericho by casting Salt upon the Spring And that notes the people which is designed by water many waters are many Nations were sanctified must teach us by the Word of God what Salt signifies with the bitternesse and repentance that men should have for offending God as water also doth the confession as well of faith as of sinnes Of the commixtion of these two salt and water proceeds a double fruit to separate from ill doing and convert to good workes And for that repentance for sinne ought to precede auricular confession which repentance is denoted by the bitternesse of salt they blesse it also before water It is also taken for wisedome You are the salt of the earth and have salt in your selves And because that in all their ancient Sacrifices they used salt from thence it came that in Baptisme they put salt in the mouth of the Creature before it is baptized with water for that it cannot yet actually have the mystery of salt applyed for the present On fire then and on salt depend great and secret mysteries comprized under two principal colours red and white for as Zohar hath it all things are white and red but there is a great space betwixt the one and the other God dieth our sinnes which are red for concupiscence comes from the blood and from the sensualitie of the flesh besprinkled with blood and we doe die his whitenesse in red or rigour of Justice by the fire which inflameth our carnall desires and purchaseth their judgement which is throughout where there is fire if it bee not mortified with saving water And when the perverse doe prevaile in the world as ordinarily they doe rednesse and judgement extend themselves therein and all whitenesse covers it self which is rather changed into rednesse then rednesse into whitenesse which if it have domination all on the contrary growes resplendent therewith To these two colours also the ancient and the Evangelicall Law the rigour of justice and mercy the pillar of fire in the nights darkenesse and the white cloud by day wine and bread blood and fat which were not lawfull to eate You shall not eate flesh with the blood Gen. 9.4 And in Levit. 3.16 17. All the fat is the Lords it shall bee a perpetuall Statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings that yee eate neither fat nor blood where it is yet more particularly repeated in the 17. and 14. where the reason is rendred for that the soule that is to say the life of the flesh is in the blood which mystically represents that of Messiah wherein consisted eternall life so that it was not lawfull to use any other before his comming Of the same fat was reserved for God as well that which the Hebrewes call cheleb that covereth the inwards and is separated from the flesh as the other called schumen which is thereunto annexed but metaphorically the fat is taken for the most exquisite substance as in Numb 18. the tenths the best of the fruits are called the fat of them which manner of speech wee also life when wee say make the portion to be very fat of any thing that there is And in the 81. Psal 16. Hee fed them with the fat of Wheate It may bee also that Moses well knowing that these two substances blood and fat are of ill tast and nourishment and quickly corrupted out of their vessells hee forebad them the use thereof Or if wee would enter into a certaine mystery for that the vitall spirits consist in the blood which are of a fiery nature and that fat is very susceptible of flame and proper to make lights which are a representation of the soule But Oile is also for Lamps which was not forbidden to bee eaten and wee doe not see that in Divine service wee use Tallow Candles yet these two fire and salt doe signifie Wine and Milke I have drunke Wine with my Milke Cant. 5.1 By Wine is designed the tree of knowledge of good and evill namely vaine curiosities of worldly things and by Milke that of life whereof Adam was deprived being desirous to tast of that other which was humane prudence Before Adam had transgressed said Zohar hee was made participant of the sapience of superiour light being not yet separated from the tree of life but when hee would distract himselfe after the knowledge of base things this curiositie ceased not till hee had wholly cast off life to incorporate himselfe to death Jacob and Esau the two principall Potentates on earth which are descended therefrom Item the Rose and the Lilly whose water extracted mounts by the fires heat that elevates it and becomes white although the Roses bee red as is the fume exhaled from blood and fat which they burne to God to send it
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
resolutions and resisting one the other chiefly afterward from all liquid humidity unctuous but inconsumptible It is moreover the first originall as well of mineralls as of stones and pretious stones yea of all other mineralls Likewise of vegetables and of Animalls whose blood and urinall humour and all other substance is salted to preserve it from putrefaction and in generall from all mixed and composed Elements which is herein verified that they resolve themselves into it so that it is as the other life of all things and without it saith the Philosopher Morien nature can no wayes work nor can any other thing be ingendred according to Raimund Lullus in his testament Whereunto all chymicall Philosophers doe adhere that nothing hath been created here below in the Elementary part better nor more pretious then salt There is salt then in every thing and nothing can subsist but for the salt which is therein mixed which ties the parts together as a chain otherwise they would all go into small powder and give them nourishment for there are two substances in salt the one viscous gluish and unctuous of the nature of air which is sweet and indeed there is nothing that nourisheth but what is sweet the bitter and the salt do not The other is a dust sharp pricking and biting of the nature of fire which is laxative For all salts are laxative and nothing doth loose the body that participates not of the nature of salt Mark then wherefore is it that those that drink salt water die speedily of dysenteries the salt which is mingled therewith causing a gnawing in the bowels for there is nothing corrosive but salt or of the nature of salt fiery of it self saith Plinie lib. 31. ch 9. and yet enemy of actuall fire for it leaps up and down it danceth to and fro and crackles corroding also all to which it is fastened and drying it although it be the strongest and most permanent humidity of all others and it is a moisture saith Geber that above all other moistures expects an encounter with fire So wee see in metals which are nothing else but congealed and baked salts by a long and successive decoction within the earths entralls where their humidity is abundantly fixt by the temperate air it meets withall there And these salts do participate of sulphur and quicksilver which joined together make a third name Metalline salt which hath the same fashion and resolution as common salt which is taken for a symbole of equity and justice as also are metals but for another consideration For melt Gold Silver Copper and other metals together they wil all mingle equally So that if upon a hundred parts of silver yea two hundred you melt one of gold the least part of this silver in what regard soever you will take it from the totall masse shall in respect of it self take its just and equall portion of gold and no more nor lesse wherefore they are taken for distributive justice But salt is for that throughout where it attacheth flesh fish vegetables it keeps them from corruption and conserves them in their entire and makes them durable for many ages Fire on the contrary is an evill host for it stealeth and destroyeth all that lodgeth near it never ceasing till it hath converted all into ashes whence salt was extracted that was before therein contained So that these two fire salt accord and convene together and also with the ferments in this that they convert all that whereupon they can exercise their action Plutarch in his book and 4 question of Symposiaques extolling salt sets down that all flesh and fish that was eat is a dead thing and proceeds from a dead body but when the faculty of salt comes to be introduced it is a soul that revivifies and gives them grace and savor And in the 5 book 10. quest renders a reason why Homer calls salt divine he puts that salt is as a temperament and fortification of the viands within the body and that it gives it an agreement with the appetite But it is rather for the vertue that it hath to preserve dead bodies from putrefaction which is as to resist death that which appertains to Divinity Thou shalt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption not permitting that what is deprived of life should perish so suddenly in all kinds but as the soul that divine part within us keeps the body alive a soul is given to hogs for their safety this Plinie sets down after the Stoicks So salt also takes into its safeguard dead flesh to keep it from putrefaction whence the fire of lightning is reputed for divine because those that have been touched therewith remain a great while without corruption as salt doth on its part which hath this property and vertue which sheweth the great affinity and agreement which they have together Wherefore Evenus was wont to say that fire was the best sauce in the world and the very same is also attributed to salt All which things here above do confirme the occasion for which Moses and after him Pythagoras made so great esteem of salt to cover under his Allegorie that which they would give to understand by it that our souls and consciences signified by man in St. Mark namely the internall man and our body for the sacrifice ought to be offered up unto God pure and not soiled with corruption That you offer up your bodies a living sacrifice holy pleasing vnto God c. Therein was there it may be another reason that moved Moses to exalt salt so much that according as Rabbi Moses the Aegyptian discourseth at large in his third book of his More 47 ch where he renders a particular reason for the most part of Mosaical ceremomonies his principall aim was to overthrow all Idolatries even rhose of the Aegyptians where they had a greater vogue then in any other part He seeing that their Priests so greatly detested salt that they would not use it in any sort for that of the sea from whence it proceeded in the bitternesse whereof the sweet substance of Nilus went to lose and salt it self which they held to be for the radicall moisture from whence all things here below do sprout and nourish themselves in despite of them and contrary to their traditions he would thereof make a form of alliance paction from God with the Jewish people that all their oblations should be accompanied with sait And in the 2 of Paralip 13.5 chap. It is said that God gave to David and his children the Kingdom of Israel by a Covenant of Salt that is to say most firm and indissoluble for that salt hinders corruption And therefore the Saviour chose his Apostles to be as the salt of men that is to say to deliver the pure and incorruptible doctrine of the Gospel and to confirm them firm persistent faith as wel by words as deeds The Caballists penetrating further into the mysteries inclosed therewithin meditate certain
their destruction wherefore of necessity that which is pure and incorruptible must be separated from its contrary the corruptible and impure which cannot be done but by fire the separator and purificator But the three liquid Elements Water Aire and Fire are as inseparable one from the other for if the Aire were distracted from the fire the fire which hath therefrom one of its principall maintainments and food would suddenly extinguish and if the water were separated from the Aire all would bee in a flame That if the Aire should be quite drawne from the water for as much as by its legerity it holds it somewhat suspended all would be drowned Likewise if Fire should be separated from the Water all would bee reduced into a deluge For three Elements neverthelesse may well bee disjoined from the Earth but not wholly there must remaine some part to give consistence to the Body and render it tangible by the meanes of a most subtill and thinne portion thereof which they will elevate with them out of this gross thickness that remaines below as wee may sensibly see in glass which by an industrious Artifice of fire is depured of the darknesse that was in the ashes to passe from thence to a transparent clearnesse which is of the nature of Fire and indissoluble Salt accompanied with a firme and solid thicknesse having neither transpiration nor pores But wherefore should wee not hereto file all in one traine those so excellent Meditations of Zohar sith all depends on the same purpose God formed Adam of the slime of the earth or according to the Hebrew God formed man dust of the earth which word of forming belongeth properly to Potters who fashion of earth all that they thinke good And touching the dust this is but to abate our pride with which wee may bee swolne when wee consider the vile and corruptible matter whereof wee are made in respect of our bodies which is nothing else but mire and dirt Consider then three things saith Zohar and thou shalt not fall into transgression Remember from whence thou art come of such filthy and foule stuffe and whither thou must at last returne to dust wormes and rottennesse and before whom thou art to render an account and reason of all thy actions and comportments who is the soveraigne Judge the King of all who leaves no transgression unpunished nor good worke irrecompensed Adam then and all his posterity were formed of the dust of the earth which had before beene moistned with the fountaine or vapour which was highly elevated by the Sunnebeams to water and to soften the earth For the Earth being of it selfe cold and dry is altogether sterill and fruitlesse if it be not impregned with moisture and heat whence proceed fecundity So that Adam was composed of Earth and Water mingled together These two elements betoken a double faculty in him and double formation the one of the body in regard of this age the other of the soule in another world Water shewes the celestiall Meditation whereto our spirit may exalt it selfe and the earth of it selfe immoveable and that can never budge from below nor willingly mingle with the other three volatil elements by reason of its extreame drynesse so that it doth but grow hard by the action of fire and makes it selfe more contrary and untractable by the spirit of contradiction hard and refractory from the flesh against the spirit so that shee should reject the water which men thought to put therein if it were not by meanes of the subtill Aire interposing and mingling therewith and penetrating into the smallest parts which being suckt within the water forces the earth to feed on it to inclose it in her selfe as if shee would detaine it prisoner and by that meanes remaines great as the female by a male for every superiour thing in order and degree holds the place of male to that which is inferiour and subject thereunto Now if the Aire absent it selfe which associates and unites them together as being suppeditated and banished which is moist and hot from the extreame drynesse and coldnesse of the earth it will force it with all its power to reject the water and so reduce it selfe to its first drynesse which we may perceive in Sand which will never receive water except it be quickly separated Even so the earth is alwaies rebellious and contumacious of it selfe to bee mollified be it by water by aire by fire and after this manner there was a spirit of contradiction and disobedience introduced into Adam by reason of the earth whereof he was formed as his Companion and himselfe do shew when by the suggestion of the Serpent the most terrestriall animall of all others they so easily contradicted that extreame prohibition which was given them of not tasting the fruit of the knowledge of good and evill for the punishment whereof it was said to the Serpent thou shallt eat earth all the dayes of thy life which Isaiah resumes in 65. chap. Dust is thy bread And to Adam that the earth should produce nothing but thornes briars and thistles by means whereof if he would live he must cultivate it with the sweat of his browes till he returne to that from whence he was drawne for being dust hee must returne to dust But water which notifies Divine speculations disirous to mingle and unite with all things to whom it gave beginning and made them grow and multiply is as the carriage or vestment of the spirit following that which was said in the beginning of the Creation that the Spirit of God was stretched over the waters or as the Hebrew word Marachephet caries it hovering over them fomenting and vivifying them as a Henne doth her Chickens with a connaturall heat for this word Elobim imports I know not what of heate and fire By Water then the docill spirit obedient to the invitations of the intellect insinuated it selfe into Adam and by Earth the refractory and opiniaster that spurneth against the pricke for as the earth was the most ignoble Element of all others water rejecteth it and disdaineth it and could agree with it but as to a lee and excrement but if the pure and neat spirit remaines within the water where it made choice of its residence for from the three natures of earth water at least never joines with the two that is to say sand for its extreame drynesse that causeth a discontinuation of parts and the dirt to be fatty and unctuous there is not any thing else Argilla but slime only with which some food and mingling which may bee thereof made the water at last lets it reside below and it swimmes over as being of a contrary nature the one altogether immoveable solid and compact the other fluent removing and gliding as bloud through the veines wherein the spirits reside who can easily bee elevated to bee of a fiery quality alwayes soring upward So that the water which notifies the interiour spirit endeavours to
devest it selfe of this externall coagulation for all coagulation is a kinde of death and waterishnesse of life and would never more associate therewith nor revest it selfe by reason of its contumacy were it not that the soveraigne Master and Lord Adonai by his providence for the propagation of things as long as hee shall please to maintaine in beeing this faire worke of his hands constraine these two Earth and Water to agree in a sort together by its Angell or Minister that rules in the Aire Man moreover hath towards himselfe frank and free will in his full power and disposition The appetite of sinne shall be under thee and thou shalt have domination over it Gen. 4. But if hee be adheering to the earth 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