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
it shall shake off these filthinesses and impurities and shall passe aloft to heaven and adhere to God which it could not doe but being pure and neat nor effect this but by fire Zohar speakes to the same purpose when the Elements destroy themselves an aethereall body succeeds in their place which doth recloath them or to speak better the aethereall body which was reclad with them devests it selfe and this is represented to us in the 5 of Esther where it is said that on the third day shee tooke off her clothes that shee was wont to weare and put on her royall apparell to appeare before the King which signifies the holy Spirit and Esther the reasonable soule whose vestments are the garments of the kingdome of Heaven of which he that Daniel 3. chap. was said to be like to the Son of God that crowns the just and adornes them with royall apparell to bring them into the presence of the King of Kings to the Paradise of pleasure clensed with aire from above which the holy Spirit breathed into it Origen in his second Homily upon the 36 Psalme It is the manner of holy Scripture to introduce two sorts of men that is to say the interiour and the exteriour each of which hath need as much as concernes him of apparell as well as nourishment the external corporal man maintaines himselfe with meats corruptible proper and familiar to himselfe having ever need of Salt besides their own connaturall but there is also meat for the inward whereof it is said in the 8 of Deuteronomy Man doth not live by bread onely but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God And for matter of drinke the Apostle in the 1 Cor. 10. Our fathers did eat the same spirituall meat and did drinke the same spirituall drinke for they did drinke of that spirituall rocke that followed them and that rocke was Christ Who speaking of this drinke in the 4. of Saint John saith that hee is the fountaine of living water and who so drinketh of the water that he shall give them shall never thirst There are also two rayments in regard of the inner man If he be a sinner it is said Psalme 109. He hath put on malediction as a garment which must be to him as his apparell wherewith he is covered and as a girdle wherewith he is girt And on the contrary the Apostle Col. 3. Lie not one to another having cast off the old man with his deeds and put on the new but be clothed with mercy benignity humility and meeknesse of Spirit These are the vestments which Zohar said were the good works and the nuptiall accoustrements of the soule which cannot bee washed or cleansed but by Fire Every mans worke shall bee made manifest for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every mans worke of what sort it is 1 Cor. 3.13 wherein they shall persist without impaire or consumption but shall be purified when the soule shall therewith be clothed from this uncleane scumme wherein there may remaine some spots that the fire goes on to purge consuming and defacing them But what it this fire It is it which is said in the 4 and 9 of Deuteronomy our God is a consuming fire which as Irenaeus interprets was to strike feare and terror into the Israelites and this afterwards in the 12 to the Hebrewes 28 29. Let us serve God acceptably with feare and reverence for our God is a consuming fire For they had sufficiently understood that the world once perished by the universall deluge and that it may not incurre the like accident but suffer its last extermination by fire Adde that in the 33. of the Mosaicall Law it is called The Law of fire which is in the right hand of the Almighty because of its austerity and rigour all filled with menaces with feares with horrors as much as the Christian is with sweetnesse and mercy in his right hand there is a fiery Law which the Chaldean Paraphrase interpreteth for that it was given on Mount Horeb through the middest of fire according as it is said in the 4. to the purpose touching this feare The Lord speake unto me saying Assemble the people there below that they may heare my words and learne to feare me Then came you neare to the foote that burned even to heaven and the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of fire And Exodus 3. the burning bush wherein God appeared unto Moses and was not consumed Of this consuming fire further speaketh Zohar thus in conformity to that received Maxime in naturall Philosophy that a great flame doth devoure and quench a lesse as wee may sensibly perceive by a lighted Torch which is extinguished by the Sunbeams and by a kettle set neare a great fire that sucks and drawes all out to it selfe Hee saith then upon this Text of the 35. of Exod. You shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the Sabbath To which purpose said Rabbi Simeon was that ordained and why was it not lawfull to kindle a fire on the seventh day because that when men kindle fire it goeth ever upwards according to its naturall and moving above every thing following that of the 7. of Sapience where it is compared to fire In Wisdome is the spirit of understanding holy one only manifold subtill lively cleare undefiled plaine moveable above every thing and overtops all by reason of its purity The Fire hath two properties to be moving and pure not participating of any uncleannesse and all motion is a kinde of action and operation forbidden expresly on the Sabbath day Fire then mounting aloft caries with it the impurities designed in the 10. of Leviticus by strange fire which is there devoured by that which proceeds from the presence of the Lord. And should bee as much as thereby to draw from it selfe a judgement of his offences that must not be renewed in the sanctification of the Sabbath for feare that the fire of Gods wrath do not devour and consume that of our iniquities and us at once if this our fire be not first purged by a stronger fire that consumeth and devoureth the lesser and more feeble Zohar runs through all that and upon the passage of the foresaid fourth of Deut. Thy God is a consuming fire he speakes further There is a double fire the one stronger that devoures the other He that will know it let him contemplate the flame that parteth and mounteth from a kindled Fire or from a Lampe or Torch for it mounteth not except it be incorporated to some visible substance and united with the aire whereupon it feedeth But in the flame that mounteth there are two lights the one white which shineth and illightneth having its root somewhat blew the other red fastned to the wood or to the weik that it burneth That which is white mounteth directly upwards and underneath the red remaineth firme and departs not from
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
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
2. Mine is the silver and mine is the gold The Onorocrites also hold that to dream of gold presageth some near affliction because it agreeth in colour with gall and the pain in the ears two subsistences extreamly bitter and bitternesse signifies trouble anguish and grief as Pearls doe tears for their resemblance But silver expresseth joy and merriment And therefore saith the same Zohar Gold is attributed to Gabriel and Silver to Michael which in order is his superior Brasse to Vriel because it represents him in colour of fire faith to Vr of the Caldees Gold saith he and fire march together and copper with them where was built the little Altar without where the bloud of the Sacrifices was spilt and that within was of gold Exod. 38. and 39. Silver is the primary light of the day and Jacob. And gold that of the night and Esau or Edom red Silver represents milk and gold wine alluding to craft and subtilty where it is said in the 2. Eccles I thought to draw my flesh with Wine to give myself unto Wisedome But to return to our principall purpose fire amongst other its properties and effects is very purging and also in flesh and other corruptible substances Salt consumes the greatest part of their corrupting humors fire also doth the same and analogically spiritual fire which is nothing but the charitable ardor of the Holy Spirit that inflames us with Faith Charity Hope Shakes off the impurities of our souls as it is Esa 1.25 I will purely purge away thy drosse and take away all thy tin for this place here in the 10. of the same Prophet vers 17. And the light of Israel shall be for a fire and his holy one for a flame sheweth sufficiently that the Holy Spirit is not only light but fire and flame which salteth and repurgeth our consciences from corruption vices and iniquities The Sun also which is a visible Image of the invisible Divinity as for light fo for its vivifying heat wherewith all sensible things are maintained as the intelligible by the super câ—lestial Sun works the same effect in case of purification as fire As we may see by experience as the places where the Sun-beams come not are ever musty and mouldy and to purifie them wee open windowes to admit light into them and there make great fires which is very proper in the time of the Plague for it chaseth away ill air as light doth darknesse Also evill spirits who have more reputation in the dark from plague walking in darknesse the Hebrews call this Divell ravaging by night Deber and from his violence and Meridian Divell that of the day Ketch the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is in the fire saith Pliny a certain faculty and medicinall vertue against the Plague Who for the absence and hiding of the Sun comes to form it self wherein wee find by lightning it here and there may bring great comfort and succour in many kinds As Empedocles and Hippocrates doe elsewhere sufficiently demonstrate There was also a Physitian at Athens that got much reputation by causing them to kindle many fires during the Plague time So that the true Plague of the soul being iniquities and offences which poison it its theriac or counter-poyson cannot bee better found then in the fire of contrition that the Holy Spirit kindles therein My heart was hot within mee while I was musing the fire burned Psal 39.3 There is also a fire of Tribulation which was spoken of before that consumes our vanities and unruly concupiscences and makes us retun to God whereupon one of the ancient Fathers said it was a happy tribulation that forceth to repentance And St. Gregory the evils that presse us here doe compell us the sooner to come to God And that for our greater good that God doth thus burn us by the fire of tribuation that which was said by the Psalmist 26.3 Prove me O Lord and examine mee try my reins and my heart And in the 13. of Zach. vers 9. I will bring the third part through the fire and I will refine them as silver is refined and I will try them as Gold is tried For fire hath a double property as hath been said the one to separate the pure from the impure and the other to perfect that which remains of the pure Take away rust from silver and it will go forth a most pure vessell But the propriety of these significations is better kept in the Hebrew then in any other tongue Where the verb Szaraph is joined and attributed unto silver which signifies to melt and to refine and to Gold Baban to prove The one denotes Gods in Elect an holy purity of conscience by silver the other by gold a perfection of constancy which wee cannot know better then by proof and from thence comes dignity and eternall glory the one and the other acquired by the fire of Examination and of probation for as saith St. Chrysostome that which fire is towards gold and silver the same is tribulation in our soules from which fire cleanseth the impurities and uncleannesse and makes them neat shining following that which is said in the 17. of Prov. As silver is tried by fire in the furnace so God proveth the hearts of his Creatures and in the 27. of Eccles ver 5. The furnace tryeth the Potters vessell and tentation of tribulation trieth good men There are many saith one of the Fathers who whilest they are red in the fire of adversity make themselves flexible and malleable but departing therefrom they harden themselves again as before making themselves unfit for conversion or amendment Origen in his 5. Homilie upon the 3. Chap. of Jesus Nave they that draw near unto me draw near unto fire If you bee saith hee there Gold or silver the nearer you come to the fire the more you will become resplendant but if you build with wood straw or chaffe upon the foundation of Faith and come near the fire you shall be consumed very happy then are those that drawing near the fire are therewith lightned and not burnt According as it is written in the 3. of Mal. The Lord will sanctifie thee in burning fire St. Augustine upon a verse of the 45. Psalm Wee have passed through water and fire Fire burneth saith hee and water corrupteth When adversity comes upon us it is as it were fire unto us and worldly prosperities on the contrary are as water The earthen vessell that is well hardened in the fire fears neither water nor fire Let us then study to amend our selves by the fire of tribulation by bearing it patiently for if the pottery be not firmly strengthened by fire the water of temporall vanity will soften it and mingle it as durt And therefore wee must passe through the fire to come to the water of Mercy and Grace whereof St. John speaketh in the 3. of S. Mat. I Baptize you with water unto repentance but hee that comes after mee is stronger then
to which it doth adhere makes it vary And this it is in which it comes nearest to the Celestiall nature which is all Uniform in it self and so well regulated that it hath nothing unlike which maketh that the fire is repurgative above the rest of his fellow Elements to clear them and put in evidence In the 12. of St. Luke our Saviour warneth his Disciples to have their Lampes burning in their hands that their light might come to shine amongst men that their good workes may bee seen to glorifie their Father which is in heaven for hee that doth ill hates the light which Job saith is worse to Malefactors then the shadow of death It is the same also that Moses would secretly infer in the 3. of Gen. where hee makes God to walk at noon which is the clearest light of the day And the Apostle in the 1. of Tim. 6.16 saith that he dwells in light in accessible without which all would be confusedly folded up in hideous darknesse Let us then take heed that the light which hee hath pleased to put into our soul be not obfuscate and converted into black obscurity and that on this solid foundation which hee hath granted us of his knowledge wee build not hay wood and chaffe all things of themselves obscure and dark in lieu of gold silver pretious stones so clear shining and bright Let us hear again that which Zohar divinely discourseth of about fire and light upon the Text of the 4. of Levit. Thy Lord God is a consuming fire That there is one fire which devoures another being the stronger as wee may see in some burning firebrand or torch that which proceeds therefrom is of two sorts the one blew attached to a black match which retaineth it self there nourishing it self from corruption The other flame proceeding from the red inflamed Match is white and the blew is white in the highest as to return to the first originall this Homer was not ignorant of when in the 6. of his Odysses hee attributed to the Olympus a pure and bright splendor Nothing should better represent unto us the four worlds namely the white which is supercelestial the blew celestiall the match fired the Elementary and the burning darknesse Hell which abundantly shews us the body Rednes the vitall spirit resident in the bloud the blew the soul the white the intellect and the divine character imprinted in the soul and as the blew light doth quickly change into yellow quickly into white the soul also can doe the same according as it shall incline it self to good or to evill or whether shee follows the provocations of the flesh or the invitations and exhortations of the intellect following that which is written in the 4. Gen. 7. If thou doe well shalt thou not bee accepted and if thou dost not well sin lieth at the dore And unto thee shall bee his desire and thou shalt rule over him The white flame is alwayes the same without variation or change as doth the blew So the fire in this respect is fourfold Black in the lower part of its weik where the flame that is fastened to it is blew Red in the top of the weik and the flame white This which relates also to the four Elements black materiall to the Earth Blew more spirituall to the air Red to fire and white to water For heaven is composed of fire and water which is above the heavens Let the waters that are above the heavens praise the Lord. Yet neverthelesse all this is but fire as Moses the son of Maynon declares very well in the second Book of his Mor. chap. 31. where he saith that under the name of Earth are comprised the four Elements and by darknesse was understood the first fire for it is said in the of Deut. You have heard his words out of the midst of fire and then he adds of a sodain You have heard his voice out of darknesse This fire moreover was called the first fire because that is not it which is shining and clear but it is only so transparent to the sight as is the Air and could not comprehend it self therewith for if it were shining wee should in the night see all the air shine as fire And for that the darknesse which was first named denoted fire namely that whereof it is said that darknesse was upon the face of the Abysse because the fire was under the three Elements comprised under this word Abyssus There are other darknesses which follow after then when the separation of things was made and the Darknesses he called Night All this the foresaid Rabbin put out To which that would touch which the Alcoran carries in Azoare 65. I will send you a clear and beautifull fire All this which adheres then to the low black part is therwith consumed destroyed and holdeth place of death after which cometh true life the blue flame likewise if it therein degenerate and lets it predominate but the white doth not endeavor but to uncover it self here below to transport it self upwards and not suffer it self to bee over mastered by others And doth not devoure nor destroy nor is not thereby devoured nor his clear shining splendor altered as are those of the others By reason whereof wee must adhere and let our selves be salted with this white fire and bee illuminated with this fair white light that never varies following that which is said in the 4. of Deut. You which adhere to the Lord your God you are all living also as at this day But if our blew light the soul adhere to the black and to the red which are our sensualities and concupiscences the strange fire will force it selfe into us and will devoure and consume us This knowledge of the Elements and of their colours doth not insist only in composed bodies here below but thereby wee may mount as by Jacobs Ladder the height of this celestiall world where the Elements are also yet of another sort more simple and depured and from thence to passe beyond into the intelligible world where they are in their true essence for all consists in the four Elements Sons of wisdome understand saith Hermes in his Tract of 7. chapters not only corporally but also spiritually the science of the four Elements whose secret apparition is in no wise signified except they bee first compounded because of the Elements there is nothing made without their composition and Regiment Will we dive more deeply into the secrets of this Caball This Composition and Regiment of the Elements is no other thing then the Sacrosanct four-lettered ineffable Jehovah which comprehends all that which is was and shall bee where the little and finall ה notes the body and matter or other the like where the Fire cleaveth or fasteneth unto The ך vau or cloud copulative which assembles the two ה the intelligible and the sensible are the spirits that join the Soul with the Body the red inflammation of the coal or weik
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
correspondent Star that assists it and from which it receives its maintenance and conservation But how can that agree will some say to the contrary because it seems to derogate and contradict that which in expresse terms is set down in the 1. of Gen. where it is written that in the third day the Earth of her self brought forth herbs and trees containing in them their seeds according to their kinds neverthelesse the Sun nor the Moon nor the Stars were created till the day after the fourth by which is designed its effect and function Let there bee lights made in the firmament of the heaven namely the Sun the Moon and the Stars to separate the night from the day and let them bee for signes and seasons for dayes and years without attributing any thing of their assistance upon trees and plants and other elementary things But to return to the particulars of Aqua vitae there will be no hurt here to touch upon this experiment thereof made very gentile and rare leaving others that are more common Aqua vitae hath this particular that it dissolves not sugar nor joines not with it as doth its flegm and common water vinegar and other liquors but by artifice it self of two it makes a thrice sweet liquor very proper against the fluxes of Catarrhs and salt rheumes that molest the stomach and throat and is thereunto very good and comfortable Lay in steep a day or two Cinnamon grossely beaten and take off the infusion very neat take fine sugar within a pottage dish that hath ears brought into fine small powder and so perfume it mingle it with a small portion of Sugar roset Poure thereon this Aqua vitae and make them a litâ—le warm upon ashes then put fire thereto with a lighted paper stirring all well with a little spit of clean wood so long untill the Aqua vitae burn no more there will remain a liquor most agreeable to the taste and mervailously comfortable you may add theâ—eto liquor of pearls Coral and other the like which dissolve easily in the juice of Citron or distilled vinegar which makes it sweet to stream out upon it a quantity of common water or the phlegm of Aqua vitae and not by calcining it as Paracelsus and his followers do with Salt-Peter which is manifest poyson so that things are done in vain by more that may be done by fewer so that it bee justly done Further every one sufficiently knowes how to draw Aqua vitae filling two parts of the Alimbeck with Glasse or Beuvois Earth with good old wine and distilling it with an easie fire through a Bath in a Caldron full of water with chaffe Continue the distillation untill you see long veines and sprouts appear in the Chappe and in the Recipient For it is Aqua vitae which mounts first and the phlegm comes after in grosse drops as tears which is a token that there is no more Aqua vitae Men may refine it passing again another time But I should not bee of an opinion that to take it into the body it should bee more then once And it is a strange thing that by its own subtilty for it will mount through five or six doubles of paper brovillas without wetting it I have seen them cast a full glasse thereof in the air and not one drop to fall to the earth It is of soveraign force against all burnings and chiefly that of small shot with which shee hinders as was said before the Estiomenes and Gangreenes An inflamation arising from purecholer in the skin exulcerating it with pain which sheweth sufficiently the purity of its fire which may by good right be called Celestiall See here that which Raimund Lullius sets down of his proprieties and vertues Wee must not understand saith he that neither quintessence nor any other thing here below can render us immortall It is ordained for all men once to die nor can we prolong our dayes beyond and above the prefixed time for that is reserved to God Mans daies are short and the numher of his moneths are with thâ—â—â— thou hast appointed his limits which hee cannot passe there where on the contrary they may well bee accidentally shortned Aqua vitae then nor all other sorts of quintessences and restoratives cannot prolong our life for one minute of an hower yet they may conserve and maintain it to the last but preserving it from putrefaction which is it that shortens it most But to defend putrefaction by corruptible things that cannot bee we must therefore find out some incorruptible substance proper and familiar to our nature which conserves and maintains the radicall heat as oil doth the light of a Lampe Such is the aqua vitae drawn from wine the most comfortable and connaturall substance of all others provided it be not abused with excesse Plutarch in the 3. Book the 8. question of his Symposiaques compares wine to fire and our body to clay If you give fire he sets it down there which is of a mediocrity to the clay and earth to the Potter he will consolidate it in the pots bricks tiles and other the like works but if it be excessive hee resolves it and makes it melt and run Moreover Aqua vitae preserves strongly from their corruption as wee may see by things vegetable and Animall which men put there to mingle which by this means conserves them in their entire length It comforts and maintains a man in vigor of youth which it restoreth from day to day it rejoyceth and strengtheneth the vitall spirits it digests crudities taken fasting and reduceth the equality the excessive superfluities and the defaults which may bee in our bodies causing divers effects according to the disposition of the subject where shee applies her selfe as doth the Sunnes heat which melts wax and hardens durt and fire doth the same And there is that celestiall spirit residing in Aqua vitae so susceptible of all qualities proprieties and vertues that she can make her hot empregning it with hot things cold with cold things and so of the rest being shee is naturall conformably to our soule inclinable to good and evill for although it consists of the foure Elements they are therein so proportioned that the one doth not domineer over the other Wherefore they call it Heaven whereto wee apply such starres as wee will namely of the simple Elements of which she conceives the proprieties and the effects herein we may compare celestiall fire to the Altar But strong waters which dissipate and ruine all are this strange fire and so Alchymists call them and fire against nature externall fire and other the like exterminatives Certes if the effects of Cannon Powder be so admirable consisting of so few species and ingredients which may be well called the true infernall fire the devourer of mankind The action of strong waters is no lesse which burne all being compounded onely of two or three substances that which wee commonly call