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 matter administring wherewith to flame and shine to the other but they come upon the point to joine and unite together the one burning the other burned till they bee converted into that which predominates and playes the master namely the white alwayes the same without variation and change as the other doth which now growes blacke after becomes red yellow peach colour sky colour azure reinforced above and below above with a white flame below with the blacknesse of the matter which furnisheth it where withall to burne and at the last is therewith consumed For this azure red and yellow flame the more grosse and materiall it is endeavours alwayes to exterminate and destroy that which nourished and maintained it as sinnes do the conscience which harbours them to the end to make them the perdition and ruine of all that which adheres to it here below so long till at the last it remaines extinct there where the light annexed thereunto is not eternally extinguished but goes freely upward and returnes to its proper place of abode or residence having accomplished its action below without changing its brightnesse into any other colour then white In the like case is it of a tree whose roots are fastned within the earth from whence it takes it nourishment as the weik takes his from the tallow waxe or oyle which makes it burne The branch that drawes its juice or sap by the root is the same as the weik where the fire is maintained by the liquor which it drawes unto it and the white flame are the branches and boughes clad with leaves the flowers and fruits whereunto tends the finall end of a tree are the white flame when all comes to bee reduced wherefore Moses said that thy God is a consuming fire as it is true for the fire consumes and devoures all that which is under it and upon which it exerciseth its action And therefore very proper in the Hebrew text Elohenu thy God and not Anonenu thy Lord because the Prophet wâ—s in this superiour white light which neither devoureth nor can be devoured And the Israelites were the blew lights who endeavour to lift up themselves and unite to him under the law for the ordinary of this blew light inclining rather to blacknesse then to whitenesse it is true that is constituted as in the midst and to ruine and destroy all that it layes hold on and whereunto it adheres But if sinners submit thereunto then the white light shall bee called Admenu our Lord and not Elohenu our God for that it domineers and devours it And it is this blew flame designed by the little and last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He of the sacred venerable foure lettered Jehovah which assembles and unites with the three first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jehu the white light which shineth in a most cleare simplicity Trin-one having under it the blackish ruddy azure colour of the little 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He which is the humane nature consisting of the four Elements for that it is sometimes represented by 4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fourth letter of the Alphabet and which marketh the number of 4. You will say I have brought you here a prolixe place of Zohar I do avow it but it must have a more ample explication for there are great mysteries covered thereunder This Rabbi superlative to all others endeavouring in his profound and abstracted meditations which transcend all to elevate our spirits by the similitude of a light to the knowledge of spirituall things which differs not from our principall purpose which is fire and its effects Of this white light and of its collaterals other Rabbins speake as Kamban Gerundensis That by the Caballe it appears unto us that the Scripture was an obscure and darke fire upon the backe of white fire and marvailously resplendent It is the fire say they of the holy Spirit consuming our iniquities denoted by the red inflamed ardor and the blew and azure flame which is the strange fire as Saint Ambrose very well expounds it in his fourth Epistle to Simplician Strange fire is all the ardor of slippery concupiscence of avarice hatred rancour and envy And of this fire no man is purged nor expiated but well burned which if men offer in the presence of the Lord celestiall fire will devour as it did Nadab and Abibu and therefore he that will purge his sinne he must cast off from him this strange fire and let him expiate therefrom whereof it is said in the 6 of Esay 6. One of the Seraphims flew to me hauing a live coale in his hand which he had taken with the Tongs from off the Altar and touched my lips saying Lo this hath touched thy lips and thine iniquity is saken away and thy sinne purged Having said a little before that all the house was filled with smoake which is as an excrement and vapour of fire bee it before it be lighted or inflamed or after it be mortified and extinct from whence it comes to procreate soot then which there is nothing more troublesome and hurtfull to the eies having carryed away with it a parcell of a dustible corruption which administred to the fire its nourishment and food This may bee seen in the distillation of soote where there appeares a notable quantity of inflamable oyle which causeth it yet to burne and of this burning there will arise a smoake which will againe be concreted into a burning smoake as a foresaid but not so much These are the remnants of sinne whereof remained some staines printed in the soule untill at the last by a successive repurgation of fire it be reduced to a point of compleat purity whereof it is spoken in the 4. of the Canticles Thou art faire my welbeloved there is no blemish in thee which the white flame notifies which is the highest degree of burning Those also well know it that maintaine a fire for when a Fornace begins to bee hot it waxeth blacke then enforcing the fire it becomes red and at last it waxeth white when it is in the supreame and high degree of heat where it persisteth in whitenesse more and more Such are the actions of fire but there are great mysteries thereunder ever to declare further the advantage and praecellency that the white colour hath above the red as to the Christian faith designed by white water Apoc. 4 6. 15.2 In the middle of the Throne there was a Sea of Glasse like unto Crystall far above the Judaicall faith red heat with rigour and severity designed by a pillar of fire that in the night season conducted the Israelites through the Wildernesse and the white cloud by day Exod. 13.21 In the secret Hebrew Theology the red alwayes notes Gheburah Austerity and the white Ghedulah or Mercy Eliah was transported and by force carried into heaven in a fiery Chariot drawne with the like horses But in the transfiguration of our Saviour Mat. 17.2 His vestments became
spirituall and intelligible for the invisible things of God from the Creation of the World are clearely seene being understood â—by the things that are made even his eternall power and Godhead For the world with the Creatures being there they are a portraict of God for the Creator is understood by the Creature saith Saint Augustine for God hath made two things to his image and resemblance according to Tresmegistus the world therein to rejoice and please our selves with the infinite brave pieces of worke and Man wherein hee set his most singular delight and pleasure which Moses hath tacitely expressed in Gen. 1. 2. where when there was question of creating the world Heaven Earth Vegetables Minerals Animals Sunne Moone Starres and all the rest hee did no more but command by his word for hee said and they were done hee commanded and they were created But in Mans formation hee insisted much further therein then in all the rest saith he Let us make man after our Image and Similitude hee created him male and female and formed him dust of the earth afterward breathed in his face the spirit of life and hee was made a living soule In which are touched 4 or 5 particularities So Cyrill observes it After the same manner then as the Image of God is the world so the image of the world is man therein there is such a relation of God with his creatures that they cannot bee well comprehended but reciprocally one by the other for all the Sensible nature as Zohar hath it in regard of the intelligible is as that of the Moone towards the Sunne who thereinto reverberates its light or as the light of a Lampe or torch which parteth the flame fastned to the weik which is therein nourished by a grosse matter viscous adustible without which this splendor and light could not communicate it selfe to our sight nor our sight comprehend it And likewise the glory and essence of God which the Hebrewes call Sequinah could not appeare but in the matter of this Sensible world which is an image or patterne thereof And it is that which God said to Moses Exod. 33. You shall not see my face you shall see my binder parts The face of God is his true Essence in the intelligible world which no man ever saw except the Messihe I did set the Lord alwayes before mee Psal 16.8 And his posteriour parts are his effects in the Sensible world The soule likewise cannot bee discerned and knowne but by the functions it exerciseth in the body whilst it is annexed thereunto By which Plato was moved to thinke that soules could not consist without bodies no more then fire without water So that after long revolutions of times they should come againe to incorporate themselves here below whereunto adheres that in the 6 of Virgils Aeneads All these when they have turned for many yeares God cals them to the floud of Lethe by great troopes Beiâ—g forgetfull that they must review the upper convexe And begin againe to bee willing to returne into bodies But this savours a little of new-birth and Pythagorean changings of soules into bodies in which Origen was likewise out of the way as may be seene in his booke of Princes and in Saint Jeromes Epistle to Avitus But more sincerely Porphyrius although in the rest an impious adversary a Calumniator of Christianisme that for the perfect beatitude of soules they must shunne and fly all bodies So that when the soule shall bee repurged from all corporal affections and when it shall returne to its Creator in its first simplicity it hath no great desire to fall againe into the hands and calamities of this age when the option should be left unto it free From the Intelligible world then it runnes downe into the Celestial and from thence to the Elementary all that which the spirit of man can attaine from the knowledge of the admirable effects of Nature which Art intimates in what shee can whence by the revelation of these rare secrets by the action of fire the most part is magnified the glory and magnificence of him who is the first motor and author thereof for mans understanding according to Hermes is as a Glasse where we come to shave off and to abate the cleare and luminous rayes of the Divinity represented to our senses by the Sunne above and the fire his correspondent here below which inflame the soule with an ardent desire of the knowledge and veneration of his Creatour and by consequent of his love for men love nothing but what they know So each of these three worlds which have their particular sciences hath also its fire and its salt apart both which do informe us namely of Moses his fire in the heaven And the Salt for its firme consistence and solidity to the earth What is this Salt aske one of your Chymicall Philosophers a scorched and burned earth and congealed water by the heat of fire potentially enclosed therein Moreover Fire is the operatour here below in the workes of Art as the Sunne and Celestiall Fire is in them of that nature and in the intelligible the holy Spirit by the Hebrewes called Binah or Intelligence which the Scripture designes ordinarily by fire and this spirituall fire or igneal spirit with the Chomah the verbe where the Sapience attributes to the Sonne Wisdome the Artist of all things taught mee are the fathers operators By the word of the Lord were the heavens firmed and all their beauty by the spirit of his mouth from whence that maxime of the Peripateticks differs not much Every worke of Nature is a worke of Intelligence Behold the three fires whereof we pretend to speake of which there is none more common amongst us then the elementary here below grosse composed and materiall that is to say alwayes fastned to matter nor on the the other part lesse known That which is of him from whence he came and whither hee goes reducing in an instant all to nothing assoone as his nourishment failes him without which he cannot consist a moment but goes as hee comes being all in the least of his parts So that he can in lesse then nothing multiply to infinity and in lesse then nothing empty it selfe for one little waxe light will at pleasure enkindle the greatest fires we can imagine without any losse or diminution of its substance Though they take a thousand yet nothing perisheth And in the third of Saint James Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth yea one onely small sparkle of fire would press in the twinckling of an eye all the immense hollow of the Universe if it were filled with Gun-powder or Napthe and presently after will vanish away So that of all bodies there is nothing that doth approach nearer to the soule then fire said Plotin And Aristotle in his fourth booke of Metaphysickes sets downe that â—ven to his time the most part of Philosophers had not well knowne fire nor yet Aire to bee perceivable
stones for as gold excelleth silver and trees stones it is the same in the metallique order brasse is more pretious then iron But all tends to denote that the heavenly mysticall Jerusalem which is the Church triumphant so much more excellent then the Jewish Synagogue which was but a figure thereof And certainely hee that would looke more narrowly thereinto the Prophets never spake any thing improperly even to the least trade or mechanick arts for in their ravishments they saw things in their reall being within the Zapheret or supercelestiall Sunne which is a clear shining looking-glasse a living source of all Idea's as Idea's are of formes This is furthermore well to be observed for the regard of metals which they associate commonly iron and copper for their affinity will iron make a covenant with iron from the North and brasse for iron is easily changed into copper by means of vitrioll by putting them bed upon bed in a descensory with a strong fire of bellowes so long till the iron grow liquid and melt into copper having first moistned them with a little vineger wherein there should be dissolved sal niter or salt peter sal alcali and salt of tartar with verdigrease Otherwise put of vitriol in powder and distill the water in a cornue that which shall remaine calcined in the bottome impost it with its water and therein quench the glowing gads of iron or filings of iron you shall find them by little and little reduced into copper Otherwise yet dissolve vitrioll in common water evaporate the water and calcine the congelation that shall rest in the bottome dissolve that in the like water and it will become green evaporate a part thereof and put the rest in a cave for a night and you shall see greene flakes Make them red in the fire after dissolve them three or four times with distilled vinegar drying them every time and the flakes will become red dissolve them againe in the same vinegar and therein quench the gads or other iron work as above said In briefe that by the means of vitriol iron is conveâ—ted into copper as we may see in penknifes steeped in inke made of copper as or vitriol These flakes here are an entry to a higher work and of more things for Chirurgery and Medicine But all these practises you may say are long and troublesome and rather chargeable then gainfull and profitable Also our intention here is not to stretch to gaine this booke is not to get brend but to penetrate into the secrets of nature from thence to mount and elevate his spirit to spirituall things whereto sensible do serve as a stair or as Jacobs ladder and there are no rarer considerations and observances then in fire and metallique transmutations Copper on the other side is changed into steele if it bee true that some Rabbines quote upon that passage lately alledged out of the 15. of Jeremiah 12. Iron and Brass the Prophet say they calleth Iron mixed with Brasse Steel which sheweth for we must disdain nothing of theirs that Damake Steel was composed of Iron and Copper that is to say of Iron halfe covered in Copper and softned to restrengthen it the more by means of lead Whereupon make what Abuhali sets downe in a Book of the nature of things Make a little long trench within a barre of iron and cast thereinto melted lead then make it evaporate with a strong fire as of a coupelle Put againe therein new lead four or five times and the iron will grow soft which you may afte wards make hard againe quenching it in forge water to make lancets and other subtill cutting irons yea that shall cut other iron without splinters or gapping And indeed we have found by experience that to temper well a harnesse against the shot of harquebuse we first sweeten it with oils and gums with wax and the like incerative things and after we harden them by frequent extinctions in waters that make it fast againe John the Grammarian expounding this place of Hesiod they wrought in brasse for iron was not yet knowne was forced to relate the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the people Chalybs in Scythia who saith he first found out the use of iron and steel the Poet Lucretius in his 5. booke imitates Hesiod in this kinde Antient arms were hands and nails Stones and fragments of tree boughes And flames and fires were first knowne Afterwards the force of Iron and Brasse But the use of Brasse before Iron Steel furthermore is made of the most pure and subtiliate iron for that it participates lesse of the earthinesse then iron The artifice of it is sufficiently knowne and is common in forges But to come to that of Damas you must first resweeten it of its too much bitter tartnesse and after it is reduced into filings to make it red in a cruset and quench it many times with oil of Olives where there hath often times been quenched molten lead suddenly covering the vessell for fear lest the oil take flame There are yet other secret observations which our intention is not to reveal all it is enough to have attained to the maxims Now for that there is such an affinity between iron and copper that they may easily be converted one into the other the same may likewise be done with lead and tinne by means of Sal Armonaick and of certaine incerative powders of Borax Salt peter salt of Tartar Salalchali and other the like which are called Atinears Panthee in his Voarchadumie oil of glasse Quicksilver also is changed into lead or tinne according as it is congealed to an imperceptible vapour either of the one or of the other in this manner Melt lead or tinne in a cruset then let them a little cool so long that they may be taken but yet hot or with a staffe of a torch or the like make a trench therein wherein you shall put quicksilver which will be suddainly congealed but bruiseable into powder Reiterate that two or three times and make it afterwards boil in the juice of Mercuriale and will convert it selfe into metall according to the odour of that it was congealed there is losse therein and that not a little but yet at least we may thereby see a possibility of transmutations of metals In this respect furthermore of lead and tinne there presents a very fair consideration very uneasie to comprehend and doth merit that the cause thereof should bee sought after We see by experience that these two metals each apart are very soft and of a tender fusion yet bâ—ing mingled they grow hard and become firm and solid touching which see what Avâ—erroes sets downe in his Book of Vapours That which doth consolide and strengthen tinne is lead and reciprocally lead tinne for the glewish viscosity which binds their partieâ— must consist of moisture and drynesse this being done there is no conglutination of tinne with tinne therefore lead is mingled therewith which is more moist and
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
with the azure flame doe signifie the soul and the Jod is the white unchangeable and permanent flame of the intellect where all at length comes to terminate which whitenesse is the seat of the true spirituall hidden light which is not seen nor known but by it self for indeed our nature to take it in it self is but a dark substance right resembling the Moon which hath no light but what it receives from the Sun which she is apt to receive as our soul is that of the intellectuall light And there is not a creature whatsoever which is of it self a substantiall light but only a participation of the only true light which shineth in all and through all plainly and sensibly It is the Chasmall of Ezechiel according to Zohar whence proceeds fire or light assembled of two which are yet but one thing the white light namely which mounteth and cleareth that which no mortall eye could suffer that of which is written in 46. Psal Light is risen to the just and gladnesse to the upright in heart which corresponds to the intelligible world and the inward man The other is a twinckling and flaming light of a red fiery colour joined and united to a coal or a weik signifying the sensible world and the outward corporall man The soul is placed in the middle namely the blew light part whereof is fastened to the weik and part to the white flame quickly adhering to one and quickly to another whence according as shee applies it self it comes to bee either burned or illuminated following that which Origen sets down upon the 14. of Jer. That God is a red burning fire consuming and destroying as concerning sinners and to holy and just persons a white rejoycing and vivifying light Jamblicus that doth not soar so high as Zohar being not assisted but by the light and instinct of nature said very well but afterwards the Phaenician Theologie that al which we can perceive of goodnesse and contentment in this sensible world comes from the light which is imparted to us from the Sun and Stars illustrated with it And as the Sun imparts his light to the Moon to the Stars and to the Heavens so God communicates his to the intelligible world the lively Fountain of all others to his blessed Intelligences So that all what our souls can have of good of joy of beatitude be it whilest they are annexed to the bodies or separated therefrom comes from this primordiall light which shineth in them by reflexion as the Sun beams in a basin a concave looking glasse or in water or twhart a looking glass according as St. Denys sets it down in his 4. chapter of divine names which proceeding from the Soveraign good carries therewith the same appellation And Rabbi Eliezer in his chapters sets down that the heavens were created with the light of the Creators vestment grounding himself upon the Psalmist 204.2 Clad with light as with a vestment and the Earth with snow which was under the throne of his glory All Rabinique Allegories may men say but where doe the great mysteries consist from which St. Denys doth not straddle far in the place alledged for even as this fair great and clear shining Sun that hath in it self such a manifest representation and image of Soveraign good extends it light throughout the Univers and doth communicate it to all that are capable to receive it So that there is nothing which doth not participate of his light and vivifying heat there is nothing that can hide it self from the heat thereof In the same manner this Eternall supercelestiall light illustrates vivifies and perfects all that which hath being and banisheth darknesses and all softning hoarinesse that may bee brought thereinto lightning our souls with a desire alwayes to participate more and more of this light for when she comes to prove it by little and little and by degrees that helps it and conducts to the joy and fruition of a Soveraign good which is the light of the Soul namely the Intellect that clears it to be able to apprehend the living spring from whence it came for light is not seen but by her self the most worthy and excellent property of fire with which it hath this in particular and proper that shee makes her self to see as it doth and by her means manifesteth all that which our sight may apprehend Yet there is nothing harder to comprehend then that which is either of the one or of the other for in shewing us and revealing us all it is then when shee hides her self most from us even to blinde us and to reduce our brightnesse into darknesse As is his darknesse so is his light Wee must then not speak of God without light because he is the crue light because O Lord thou art my Lantern which doth enlighten us by thy word Thy word is a Lantern to my feet the splendor of the Father and the living fountain of life as holy St. Augustine after St. John In him was life and the life was the light of men and light shined in darknesse and the darknesse comprehended it not So that from this light wee have double commodity the one that life by which wee live the other the light by which wee see that which enlightens us The spirituall man the true man enjoyes the one and the other the Carnall man life onely for touching the rest hee is in darknesse because they have been rebells to light saith Job because they have not her wayes Even as if one should inclose a toâ—ch within a Lantern of cut-stone or the like obscure and dark matter where its light would remain as quenched and buried without ability to extend it self abroad for the obstacle that hinders it And if we want light saith St. Ambrose there would bee no more comelinesse beâ—uty or pleasure in our house for it is it which makes all seem agreeable which he borrowed from Homer according to what was attributed in Suidas who through an unseasonable time of cold and rain having been received into an Inne where they made him a fire hee sodainly made verses containing in substance that children were the ornament and Crown of the Father Towers of walls horses of the fields ships of the Sea Magistrates of the places of the Assembly where they administred justice to the people and a fair burning and lighted fire the comelinesse and rejoicing of an house which renders it so much the more honorable To see a burning fire in an old hâ—use Some attribute them to Hesiod Trismegistus amongst the rest cals light the father of all who hath procreated man like unto iâ— participant of light and of life depending thereon and life was the light of men The Father is as the Sun in his Essence from whence comes splendor and heat which three are not separated one from another but remain united together â—lthough they are distinct in this fire then our souls are warmed in the Love and fear of God and lightened