A DISCOURSE OF FIRE and SALT, DISCOVERING Many secret Mysteries, AS WELL PHILOSOPHICAL, AS THEOLOGICALL.  
London, Printed by Richard Cotes, 1649.   

To his worthy friend Captain Thomas Falconbridge.  
SIR,  
I Have been informed of your zeal and forwardness in advancing Learning and Truth, two commendable virtues, for a man of your merit and profession. And meeting with a subject composed by a French Author, I present the Translation to your favourable acceptance: It is of foreign birth, though swaddled up in an English habit: It hath done much good abroad, and I am confident it will do the like here, if supported with your approbation: It had not seen the Press here, had I not been assured of the candour and integrity of the Author. I repose confidence of acceptation, because the Translator hath been of your long acquaintance, and was lately sensible of your propensity and assistance, when he came in your way: If this may find grace with you, you will engage him to make further inquisition into this most sacred and secret mystery, and to rest,  
SIR, Your most affectionate friend EDWARD STEPHENS.   

AN EXCELLENT TREATISE OF FIRE and SALT. Composed by the Lord Blaise of VIGENERE.  

The first part.  
PYTHAGORAS who of all Pagans was undoubtedly, by common consent and approbation, held to have made more profound search, and with less incertainty penetrated into the secrets as well of Divinity, as of Nature, having quaffed full draughts from the living source of Mosaical Traditions, amidst his dark sentences, where, accordlng to the Letter, he touched one thing, and mystically understood and comprised another; (wherein he imitates the Egyptians and Chaldaeans, or rather, the Hebrews, from whence all theirs proceeded) he here sets down these two: Not to speak of God without Light; and to apply Salt in all his Sacrifices and Offerings; which he borrowed word for word from Moses, as we shall hereafter declare. For our intention is here to Treat of Fire and of Salt.  
And that upon the 9 of Saint Mark, ver. 49. Every man shall be salted with Fire, and every Sacrifice shall be salted with Salt. Wherein four things come to be specified, Man, and Sacrifice, Fire, and Salt; which yet are reduced to two, comprehending under them, the other two; Man and Sacrifice, Fire and Salt; in respect of the conformity they bear each to other.  
In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth; this said Moses on the entrance upon Genesis. Whereupon the Jew Aristobulus, and some Ethniques willing to show that Pythagoras and Plato had read Moses books, and from thence drawn the greatest part of their most secret Philosophy, alleged that which Moses should have said, that the heaven and the earth were first created; Plato in his Timaeus, after, Timaeus Locrien said that God first assembled Fire and Earth, to build an universe thereof; (we will show it more sensibly of Zohar in the Weik of a Candle lighted, for all consists of light, being the first of all Creatures.) These Philosophers presupposing that the World consisted (as indeed it doth) of the four Elements, which are as well in heaven, and yet higher, as in the earth, and lower, but in a divers manner.  
The two highest, Air and Fire, being comprised under the name of Heaven and of the Aethereal Region: for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes from the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shine, and to inflame, the two proprieties of these Elements. And under the word Earth, the two lower, Earth and Water, incorporated into one Globe. But although Moses set Heaven before Earth; (and observe here that in all Genesis he toucheth at nothing but things sensible, but not of intelligible things; which is a point apart) for concerning this, there is no good agreement between Jews and Christians; Saint chrysostom in his first Homily. Observe a little with what dignity the Divine Nature comes to shine in his manner of proceeding to the creation of things; For God contrary to Artists in building his Edifice, stretched out first the heavens round about, afterwards planted the earth below.  
He wrought first at the head, and afterwards came to the foundation. But it is the Hebrews custom, that when they speak most of a thing, they ordinarily put the last in order, which they pretend to touch first: And the same is here practised, where Heaven is alleged before Earth, which he comes to descry immediately after.  
In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth, and the Earth was without Form and void; Saint Matthew useth the same, upon the entrance to his Gospel, The Book of the Generation of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham, Abraham begat Isaac, etc. For it is well known, that Abraham was a long time before David: Otherwise it seems, that Moses would particularly demonstrate, that the Earth was made before the Heaven, by the Creation of man, that is, the Image and portrait of the great World, for that in the second of Genesis, God form man of the slime of the earth, (that is to say,) his body which it represents; and afterwards breathed in his face the spirit, or breath of life: that carrieth him bacl to heaven; whereunto suits that which is written in the 1 to the Cor. 15. The first man from the earth is earthly, and the second man from heaven is heavenly: the first man Adam was made a living soul; and the last Adam, a quickening spirit. Whereto the Generation of the Creature relates, who six weeks after the Conception, is nothing but a mass of informed flesh, till the soul that is infused from above, doth vivify it.  
Moreover the four Elements (whereof all is made) consists of four qualities, Hot and Dry, Cold and Moist; two of them are bound up in each of them: Earth, that is to say, Cold and Dry, the Water, Cold and Moist; the Air, Moist and Hot; the Fire, Hot and Dry: whence it comes to join with the earth; for the Elements are circular, as Hermes would have it; each being engirded with two others, with whom it agreeth in one of their qualities; which is thereunto appropriate: as Earth betwixt Fire and Water, participates with the Fire in dryness, and with Water in coldness; and so of the rest.  
Man then which is the Image of the great World, and therefrom is called the Microcosm, or little World, as the World which is made after the resemblance of his Archetype, is called the great man; being composed of four Elements, shall have also its heaven and its earth: The soul, and understanding, are its heaven, the body and sensuality, its earth: So that to know the heaven and earth of man, is to have true and entire knowledge of all the Universe, and of the Nature of things.  
From the knowledge of the sensible World, we come to that of the Creator, and the Intelligible world; by the Creature, the Creator is understood, saith Saint Augustine, Fire then gives motion to the body, Air feeling, Water nourishment, and Earth subsistence. Moreover heaven designs the intelligible world, the earth the sensible: Each of them is subdivided into two, (in every case I speak not but after Zohar and the ancient Rabbins.) The intelligible into Paradise and Hell; and the sensible, to the Celestial and Elementary world: Upon this passage Origen makes a fair 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 footstool; Or rather it is God in whom the world dwelleth, and not the world which is God's 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 down, in his Chapte●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 firmness 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 spiritual substance, upon which, as upon a certain throne, he reposeth himself. The Firmament for our regard is the body, which Zohar calleth the Temple, and the Apostle also, Ye are God's Temple, 1 Cor. 3.17. And the Heaven, which is spiritual, is our soul, and the inner man; the Firmament is the external, that neither seethe, nor knoweth God but sensibly. So that man is double, an animal, and spiritual body, the one Internal, Spiritual, Invisible; that which Saint Mark 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 Spiritual discerneth all; So that the exterior man is an animal compared to brute beasts, whereout they took their offerings for Sacrifices: He is compared to foolish Beasts, and is made like them; for a man hath no more than a Beast: we must understand the Carnal, and Animal, that consists of this visible body, that dyeth as well as Beasts, are corrupt and return to Earth: Whence Plato said very well, that which is seen of man, is not man properly. And in the first of Alcibiades, yet more distinctly, that Man is I know not what else, than his body, namely his soul, as it follows afterwards. That which Cicero borrowed out of Scipio's dream; But understand it thus, that thou art not mortal, but this body; thou art not that, which this form declares, but every man's mind is himself, 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, Stamp hard, bruise the bark 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; Intellectual, or Sensible; Agent, and Patient; Form, and Matter; Spirit, and Body; the Interior and the Exterior man; Fire, and Water; that which seethe, and that which is seen.  
But that which seethe is much more excellent and more worthy than that which is seen, and there is nothing that seethe, but the invisible, where that which is seen, is as a blind thing; therefore Water is a proper and serviceable subject, over whom the Fire or Spirit may outstretch 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 Air contiguous unto it: which invisible Spirit (of the Lord was carried on the waters, or rather did sit over t●e waters) did see the visible, moved the , for water hath no motion of itself; there is none but Air, and Fire, that have, and speak by the Organs of one that is dumb; for as when by our wind 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 engendered 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 corporal, 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 find it in its sphere and habitation, for the news, we are to suffer thereunder. But those of Abel were spiritual, animate, full of life, that resides in the blood; full of piety and devotion. This also Aben Ezra, and the author of the Handful 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 exterior man, sensual, animal, that must be salted with Salt; But Abel the interior, spiritual, salted with Fire; which is double, the material and essential, the actual and potential, as it is in burn. All what is sensible, and visible, is purged by the actual, and the invisible, and intelligible, by the spiritual and potential. Saint Ambrose, on the Treatise of Isaac and of the Soul. What is man, the soul 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 form 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 himself from misprision, he was like unto Angels, made participant of eternal beatitude, but his transgression dispossessed him. The other man is he, which comes successively to be borne of man and woman, who by his original offence is made subject to death, to pains, travails, and diseases, therefore must he return from whence he came. But touching the soul that came from God, it remains in its free will: if it will adhere to God, it is capable to be admitted into the rank 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 soul then, which is the inner man, spirit, and the very true man which liveth properly, for the body hath no life of itself, nor motion; and is nothing else but as it were the bark and clothing of the inner man, according to Zohar, alleging that out of the 10 of Job 11. Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh; whereunto that in the 6. of S. Matthew seemeth to agree, where to show us how much the soul ought to be in greater recommendation than the body, as more worthy and precious; our Saviour saith, Take no care then how to clothe your body, is not your body better than raiment? and by consequent, the soul more than the body, since the body is but as it were the vestment of the soul, which is subject to perish, and to use, (all shall wax old as doth a garment.) And the Apostle in the 1 to the Corinthians, The old man falleth away, but the inner man is renewed daily; for it washeth itself (according to Zohar) by the fire, as doth a Salamander, and the outward man by water, with Soaps and Lees that consist of Salts. Of which two manners of repurging, it is thus said in the 31. of Numb. v. 23. All that which shall support the fire, shall be purged thereby, and that which cannot bear it, shall be sanctified by the water of Purification; which was a figure of that which the Forerunner spoke in the 3. of Matthew, It is true that I baptise you with water unto repentance, but he that comes after me, shall baptise you with the Holy Ghost, and with Fire.  
But behold how Zohar speaks more particularly. If it be so, Adam what is he? it is nought but skin, and flesh, and bones, and nerves, he must not pass so. But to speak truth, man is nothing else, but the immortal soul that is in him; and the skin, flesh, blood, bones, and nerves, are the vestments wherein it is wrapped, as a little creature newly borne within the beds and linen of its Cradle: These are but the utensils, and instruments allotted to women's children, not to man or Adam; for when this Adam so made, was elevated out of this world, he is devested of those instruments, wherewith he had been clothed and accommodated. This is the skin wherewith the Son of man is envelopped with flesh, bones, and nerves; and this consisteth in the secret mystery of Sapience, according to that which Moses taught in the Curtains or Vails of the Tabernacle, which are the inward vestment, and the Tabernacle the outward: To this purpose, the Apostle in the fifth of the 2 to the Corinthians, saith, We know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved, we have an Edifice not built with man's hand, but eternally permanent in the high Heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon, with our house which is from heaven, if so be, that being clothed we shall not be found naked. So Adam in respect of his body, is a representation of the sensible world; where his skin corresponds with the Firmament, extending heaven like a Curtain. For as the heaven covereth and enveloppeth all things, so doth the skin every man; in which, are introduced and fastened its stars and signs, that is to say, the draughts and lineaments in the hands, the forehead, and visage, in which wise men know and reveal, and makes them discern the inclination of its natural, imprinted in the inward; And he that doth conjecture from thence, is as he, to whom heaven being covered with Clouds, cannot perceive the constellations that are there, or otherwise darkened from his sight. And although the sagest and most expert in these things can find out something therein denoted by the draughts and lineaments of the palm of the hand, and fingers, or within them; for by the outside, (it is case a part) and show nothing, but the nails which are not a little secret and mystery, because by death they are obfuscate, but have a shining lustre while they live, in the hair, eyes, nose, and lips, and all the rest of his person. For as God hath made the Sun, Moon, and Stars, thereby to declare to the great World, not only the day, night, and seasons▪ but the change of times, and many signs that must appear in the earth. So hath he manifested in the little world Man, certain draughts and lineaments, holding place of lights and stars, whereby men may attain to the knowledge of very great secrets, not common, nor known of all. Hence is it that the Intelligences of the superior world do distil and breath as it were, by some channels their influences, whereby the effects come to struggle and accomplish their effects here below, as of things drawn with a rude and strong bow, will plant themselves within a Butt, where they rest themselves.  
But to retake the discourse of this double man, and the vestment of him, the Apostle in the 1 Cor. 15. saith, That there are bodies Celestial, and bodies Terrestrial, yet there is a glory both of the one, and of the other. There is a natural, or animal body, and there is a body spiritual: he will raise up the spiritual body incorruptible; To this relates the Fire, to the corruptible Salt.  
From these vestments furthermore the occasion presents itself to a larger extension, the better to declare who must be seasoned with Fire, and who with Salt; which is here expressed by the offering, to whom the exterior doth correspond, according to the Apostle, Rom. 12. I pray you brethren, by the mercy of God, that you offer up your bodies a living Sacrifice, holy, and acceptable unto him, which is your reasonable service: which it could not make itself the habitation of the Holy Ghost, if it were not pure, neat, and incontaminate. Know you not that your Body is the Temple of the holy Spirit which is in you? which in Scripture is commonly designed by fire, with which we must be salted inwardly, that is to say, preserved from corruption; and from what corruption? from sin that putrifies our souls. Origen in his 7. book against Celsus speaking of its vestments, sets down, that being of itself incorporeal and invisible, in what corporal place soever it finds itself, it must have a body convenable to the nature of the place where it resides. As then when it is in this Elementary world, it must have also an elementary body, which it takes when it is incorporated in the belly of a woman, to grow there, and there to live this base life with the body, that it hath taken to the limited term; which expired, it devests itself of this corruptible vestment, although necessary in the earth from whence it came (following that which God said to Adam in the third of Genesis, Thou art dust, and shalt return to dust,) to be revested with an incorruptible, whose perpetual abode is in Heaven. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. And so the soul putting off its first Terrestrial vestment, takes another more excellent above in the Aethereal Region, which is of the nature of Fire: hitherto Origen, to which nothing could be found more conformable, then that which Pythagoras puts towards the end of his golden verses: Thus forsaking this mortal body, thou passest into the free Aethereal Air, you shall become an immortal God, incorruptible, and no more subject to death: as if he would say, that after this material corruptible body, shall put off the Terrestrial and impure vestment, the perfect portion of it shall shake off these filthinesses and impurities, and shall pass aloft to heaven and adhere to God, which it could not do, but being pure and neat; nor effect this, but by fire. Zohar speaks to the same purpose, when the Elements destroy themselves, an aethereal body succeeds in their place which doth recloath them; or to speak better, the aethereal body which was reclad with them, devests itself; and this is represented to us in the 5 of Esther, where it is said, that on the third day she took off her clothes that she was wont to wear, and put on her royal apparel to appear before the King; which signifies the holy Spirit, and Esther the reasonable soul, whose vestments are the garments of the kingdom of Heaven; of which he that Daniel 3. chap. was said to be like to the Son of God, that crowns the just, and adorns them with royal apparel, to bring them into the presence of the King of Kings, to the Paradise of pleasure, cleansed with air from above, which the holy Spirit breathed into it. Origen in his second Homily upon the 36 Psalm. It is the manner of holy Scripture to introduce two sorts of men, that is to say, the interior and the exterior, each of which, hath need as much as concerns him, of apparel, as well as nourishment; the external corporal man, maintains himself with meats corruptible, proper and familiar to himself, having ever need of Salt, besides their own connatural; but there is also meat for the inward, whereof it is said in the 8 of Deuteronomy, Man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. And for matter of drink, the Apostle in the 1 Cor. 10. Our fathers did eat the same spiritual meat, and did drink the same spiritual drink; for they did drink of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. Who speaking of this drink in the 4. of Saint John, saith, that he is the fountain of living water, and who so drinketh of the water that he shall give them, shall never thirst. There are also two raiments in regard of the inner man. If he be a sinner, it is said Psalm 109. He hath put on malediction as a garment, which must be to him as his apparel, 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 meekness of Spirit.  
These are the vestments which Zohar said were the good works and the nuptial accoutrements of the soul, which cannot be washed or cleansed but by Fire, Every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is, 1 Cor. 3.13. wherein they shall persist without impair, or consumption, but shall be purified when the soul shall therewith be clothed; from this unclean scum, wherein there may remain 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 fear and terror into the Israelites; and this afterwards in the 12 to the Hebrews, 28, 29. Let us serve God acceptably with fear and reverence, for our God is a consuming fire. For they had sufficiently understood that the world once perished by the universal deluge, and that it may not incur the like accident, but suffer its last extermination by fire. Add that in the 33. of the Mosaical 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 fears, with horrors; as much as the Christian is, with sweetness 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 midst of fire, according as it is said in the 4. to the purpose touching this fear. The Lord speak unto me saying, Assemble the people there below, that they may hear my words, and learn to fear me: Then came you near to the foot that burned even to heaven, and the Lord spoke 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 Maxim in natural Philosophy, that a great flame doth devour and quench a less: as we may sensibly perceive by a lighted Torch, which is extinguished by the Sunbeams, and by a kettle set near a great fire that sucks and draws all out to itself: He 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 lawful to kindle a fire on the seventh day? because that when men kindle fire, it goeth ever upwards according to its natural, and moving above every thing, following that of the 7. of Sapience, where it is compared to fire. In Wisdom is the spirit of understanding, holy, one only, manifold, subtle, lively, clear, undefiled, plain, movable 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 uncleanness; and all motion, is a kind of action and operation, forbidden expressly 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 be as much, as thereby to draw from itself a judgement of his offences that must not be renewed in the sanctification of the Sabbath, for fear that the fire of God's 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 speaks further,  
There is a double fire, the one stronger, that devours the other. He that will know it, let him contemplate the flame that parteth and mounteth from a kindled Fire, or from a Lamp or Torch; for it mounteth not, except it be incorporated to some visible substance, and united with the air, whereupon it feedeth. But in the flame that mounteth there are two lights, the one white, which shineth and illightneth, having its root somewhat blue; the other red, fastened to the wood, or to the weik that it burneth. That which is white, mounteth directly upwards, and underneath the red remaineth firm, and departs not from the matter, administering wherewith to flame and shine to the other; but they come upon the point to join and unite together, the one burning, the other burned, till they be converted into that which predominates and plays the master, namely the white, always the same without variation and change, as the other doth; which now grows black, after becomes red, yellow, peach colour, sky colour, azure reinforced above and below, above with a white flame, below with the blackness of the matter, which furnisheth it where withal to burn, and at the last is therewith consumed. For this azure, red, and yellow flame, the more gross and material it is, endeavours always to exterminate and destroy that which nourished and maintained it: as sins do the conscience which harbours them, to the end to make them the perdition and ruin of all that which adheres to it here below, so long, till at the last it remains extinct; there where the light annexed thereunto, is not eternally extinguished but goes freely upward, and returns to its proper place of abode, or residence; having accomplished its action below, without changing its brightness into any other colour then white. In the like case is it of a tree, whose roots are fastened within the earth, from whence it takes it nourishment, as the weik takes his from the tallow, wax, or oil, which makes it burn.  
The branch that draws its juice or sap, by the root, is the same as the weik, where the fire is maintained by the liquor which it draws unto it, and the white flame, are the branches and boughs, clad with leaves, the flowers and fruits, whereunto tends the final end of a tree, are the white flame when all comes to be reduced: wherefore Moses said that thy God is a consuming fire, as it is true; for the fire consumes and devours 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 w●s in this superior white light, which neither devoureth, nor can be devoured. And the Israelites were the blue lights, who endeavour to lift up themselves, and unite to him under the law: for the ordinary of this blue light, inclining rather to blackness, then to whiteness; it is true that is constituted as in the midst, and to ruin and destroy all that it lays hold on, and whereunto it adheres.  
But if sinners submit thereunto, than the white light shall be called Admenu, our Lord, and not Elohenu, our God, for that it domineers and devours it. And it is this blue flame designed by the little and last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He of the sacred venerable four lettered Jehovah, which assembles and unites with the three first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jehu the white light, which shineth in a most clear 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 prolix 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 spiritual things, which differs not from our principal purpose, which is fire and its effects.  
Of this white light, and of its collaterals: other Rabbins speak, as Kamban, Gerundensis; That by the Caballe it appears unto us, that the Scripture was an obscure and dark fire, upon the back of white fire, and marvailously resplendent.  
It is the fire (say they) of the holy Spirit, consuming our iniquities, denoted by the red inflamed ardour, and the blue 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 ardour 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, celestial fire will devour, as it did Nadab and Abibu; and therefore, he that will purge his sin, 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 having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the Tongues from off the Altar, and touched my lips, saying, Lo this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is saken away, and thy sin purged. Having said a little before, that all the house was filled with smoke, which is as an excrement and vapour of fire, be it before it be lighted, or inflamed, or after it be mortified, and extinct; from whence it comes to procreate soot, than which, there is nothing more troublesome and hurtful to the eyes, having carried away with it a parcel of a dustible corruption; which administered to the fire its nourishment and food This may be seen in the distillation of soot, where there appears a notable quantity of inflammable oil, which causeth it yet to burn; and of this burning there will arise a smoke, which will again be concreted into a burning smoke, as a foresaid, but not so much.  
These are the remnants of sin, whereof remained some stains printed in the soul, until at the last, by a successive repurgation of fire, it be reduced to a point of complete purity; whereof it is spoken in the 4. of the Canticles, Thou art fair my well-beloved, there is no blemish in thee; which the white flame notifies, which is the highest degree of burning. Those also well know it that maintain a fire, for when a Furnace gins to be hot, it waxeth black, then enforcing the fire, it becomes red, and at last it waxeth white when it is in the supreme and high degree of heat, where it persisteth in whiteness 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 Glass, like unto Crystal,) far above the Judaical faith, red, heat with rigour, and severity, designed by a pillar of fire, that in the night season conducted the Israelites through the Wilderness, and the white cloud by day, Exod. 13.21. In the secret Hebrew Theology, the red always notes Gheburah, Austerity; and the white Ghedulah, or Mercy; Eliah was transported, and by force carried into heaven, in a fiery Chariot, drawn with the like horses. But in the transfiguration of our Saviour, Mat. 17.2. His vestments became white as sn●w; and Apoc. 3.6. The Elect are ever clothed in white; and in the 6.11. speaking of the martyred Saints for the faith of their Redeemer, there was given unto every one of them white robes; Having set down a little before, that the Angel which had gotten the victory, and the Crown, was mounted on a white horse, (as in the 19, and 20. the Throne of God is dressed with white) and he that was mounted on the red horse, had a great bloody sword in his hand, that one might massacre another. But yet more expressly in the first of Isaiah, Although your sins were as red as fine Scarlet, they should be as white as Snow. And further, though they were as red as crimson, they will become as white as wool.  
But some may say here are many things, which by little and little do turn us from our principal aim, and are as it were extravagant dresses. But not altogether, yet as to mount some sharp precipice, we must turn about to go at more ease, to shun cliffs and precipices: So are we sometimes to make some small by-courses and digressions to facilitate our Theme. Rivers that go turning are more commodious for Navigation, than those that run impetuously one way down.  
There shall be nothing at last (God willing) unprofitable, nor from the purpose. Then all this red and white, is but Fire and Water, the pillar of fire by night, and the white cloud by day; into which, as the Apostle saith, the people of the Jews were baptised; and in this cloud the divine Wisdom established his Throne; that of the Law of Moses, this of grace; Fire and Salt. Zohar speaking of Moses his two first Tables, broken for the Idolatry of the Golden Calf, with two pillars, the one of fire, representing natural heat, by which all things are vivified; the other is water, that is radical moisture, which maintaineth life, (from which, that is not much different in the 15. of the Apoc. where it is said, that he saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire,) which radical moisture was perverted and changed in the deluge by the universal inundation, so that it was not since so vigorous as before: but shall at last be brought to extermination on all sides, at the end of time by a final conflagration. The first mutation shall meet with some mercy, the race of mankind being at that time not wholly extinct, but the remainder was saved with Noah, and his in the Ark: but the second shall have none, but all shall perish by the extreme rigour of fire: To the purpose of these two substances, the Assyrians and other people of the East adored Fire, as that which represented to them natural heat, and the Egyptians with all those on the South of Nilus, which is radical moisture which goes to render itself into a Sea impregned with salt, to preserve it in the end from corruption: Now for this effect, all humours of animal bodies, blood, spittle, urine, and the rest, are salted, without which, all would corrupt each other, in an instant: Behold the difference that there is in holy writ, that apply the meditations of things sensible to Sacramental mysteries; and of ratiocinations of blind Paganism, who not turning it but above the bark, penetrate no further, then that which the uncertain and doubtful sense may make them comprehend, without passing further to the relation of divine things; where at last all must refer to spiritualty: resembling therein properly to the Ostrich, who beats sufficiently with the wing as if she would mount to heaven, but yet her feet for all that, do not forsake the earth.  
The Phaenician Theology, admitted but of one Element, Fire; which is the principal and chief of all, the productor, and destroyer of all things: which doth not much disagree from that in the 118. Psal. is the fiery word by which times were form. Heraclitus also puts fire, for the first substance that informed all, and from whence they drew all things from power into action, as well superior, as inferior, celestial and terrestrial: For hot and cold, moist and dry, are not substances, but qualities and accidents; from whence natural Philosophers forged four Elements, whereas according to verity there is but one; which according to the vestments that it receives from the accidental quality, takes divers appellations. If from the heat, it is from the Air; from moisture, Water; from dryness, Earth; which three are but one fire, but reclothed with divers and different habits. Even as Fire extending itself in all, and through all; so all things come to render unto it, as to the centre. So that it may be rightly called an infinite and indetermined vigour of nature, or rather the vivification thereof, for without it nothing could be comprehended, seen, or obtained, above or below; that which illightens is celestial, that which concocts and digests aereal, and that which burns, is terrestrial; which cannot subsist without some gross matter coming from the Earth, which he reduceth in the end to itself; as we may see in things burned, converted to ashes, from whence after the extraction of Salt, rests nothing but pure earth. Salt being a potential fire, and waterish, that is to say, terrestrial water, impregned with fire; from whence all sorts of minerals, come to production, for they are of the nature of Water. The experiment may be seen in strong Waters, all composed of mineral Salts, Alums, Saltpeters, which burn as Fire: which produceth hot and dry exhalations agitated with winds, easy to take flame, also of flints, of Iron, and of Wood, and of scraped bones, especially those of a Lion, as saith Pliny: whence we may gather that there is potential fire in all.  
Not without cause then did Pythagoras, after Moses, ordain not to speak of God, or divine things, without fire: for of all things sensible, there is nothing that symbolizeth, or more corresponds with Divinity than Fire: Aristotle writing to Alexander related unto him, that he had learned of the brahmin's, that there was a fift Element or Essence, which is fire, wherein the Divinity resides: because it is the noblest, and purest of all the Elements; and that which purgeth all things according to Zoroaster: Plutarch allegeth that this Divinity is a spirit of a certain intellectual fire, that hath no form, but transforms to itself all that it toucheth, and transmutes itself into all, as Proteus' the Genius of Egypt was wont to say, Omnia transformat seize in miraecula rerum.  
And according to Zoroaster all things were engendered of this fire. It is the light which dwelleth (this saith Porphyrius) in an Aethereal fire, for the elementary dissipates all: But more authentically, Saint Denis, in the 15. of the Celestial Hierarchy. Fire, forasmuch as its essence is void of all form, as well in colour, as in figure, hath been found the most proper to represent Divinity to our senses, forasmuch as they can conceive and apprehend of the nature and divine Essence. The very Scripture in many places, call God and Angel's Fire, and doth not only propose unto us Chariots and wheels of Fire; but of igneall animals, of burning brooks and rivers, of coals and men all burned: All these celestial bodies are but flaming lights, and thrones, and Seraphims all of fire; there is so great affinity and agreement with Divinity: for the fire that the feeling and smelling perceiveth, is separated in respect of the substance from all others, that may be joined and mingled therewith, except it be of the matter, to which it is incorporated to burn. It shines, it spreads itself from side to side, and gathering itself to its self, with its light it illustrates all that is near it, nor can it be seen without the matter whereto it adheres, and exerciseth its action no more than Divinity, but by its effects; nor arrest, nor fasten, nor mingle with any thing, nor change so long as it liveth, there where it handleth all things, and draws them to its self, and to its nature. It renews and rejoiceth all with vital heat, it illustrates and illuminates all, tending always upward, with agility and incomparable speed. It communicates his motion to all, its light, its heat, without any diminution of its substance, what portion soever it lends, but ever remains entire in itself. It comes suddenly and returneth as fast, without man's knowledge whence it comes, or whither it goes: with many other worthy considerations of this common fire, which brings us to the knowledge of the divine fire; whereof this material, is but as a garment and coverture; and Salt the coverture of Fire, which is appeased in Salt, and agreeth with its enemy, Water; as Earth in Saltpetre doth with its contra-opposite the Air; by reason of the water that is between them, for Saltpetre participates of the nature of Brimstone, and of Fire, for that it burns; and of Salt, for that it resolves into water. For saith Heber, it is the property of Salts, and Alums, to be dissolved into water, sigh they were made thereof. But of this more to the purpose hereafter in its place.  
The meditations of the Covertures, and revestments are of no small importance, to mount from things sensible, to things intelligible, for they are all enfolded one in another, as an Encyclie or a spiral Moon. Zohar makes these revestments double, 
Pag. 29. Encyclides ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 round. Eph. 4.22, 24.  the one mounting and divesting its self, Put off the old man, and put on the new; for no spiritual thing descending downwards, operates without a vestment; Sat ye in Jerusalem till you be clad with power from above, Luk. 24.49. And in this case the body envelopeth and reclotheth the spirit, the spirit the soul, the soul the intellect, the intellect the Temple, the Temple the Throne, the Throne the Sechinah, or the glory and presence of God, which shineth in the Tabernacle. In descending, this glory is shut out from the Throne, and from the Ark of the Covenant, which is within the Tabernacle, or Intellect, the Tabernacle within the Temple, which is our Soul; Ye are the Temple of God the Temple is in Jerusalem, our vital spirit, Jerusalem, in Palestine, our body, and Palestine in the midst of the earth whence our body is composed.  
God then being a pure Spirit, stripped of all corporeity and matter, (for our soul being such, for more reason must he be so, that made it to his image and resemblance) he cannot be in this simple and absolute nakedness comprehended, nor apprehended by his Creatures, but by certain attributes which they give him▪ which are as many vestments, which the cabalists do particularise to ten Zephirots, or numerations; 3 in the intelligible world; and 7 in the celestial; which come to terminate in the Moon, or Malcut, the last in descending, and the first in mounting from the Elementary world upwards, for it is a passage from here below to heaven. So that the Pythagoreans call the Moon the Celestial earth; and the heaven or terrestrial Star, all the nature here below in the elementary world, being in regard of the celestial, and the celestial of the intelligible; this Zohar called feminine & passable, as from the Moon towards the Sun, from whom so much as she absents herself till she comes to its opposition, by so much she increaseth in light for our regard here below; where on the contrarry in her conjunction, that she remains all darkened, the party upward is all enlightened, to show us, that the more that our understanding doth abate to things sensible, so much the more doth he disjoin or sever them from the intelligible; and contrariwise, this was the cause that Adam was lodged in an earthly Paradise, to have more leisure to contemplate on divine things; when he thought to turn after sensible and temporal things, willing to taste of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, whereby he departed from that of life, to assubject himself to death, he was banished from thence and put out. To this very purpose Zohar doth yet add, that two vestments come from heaven to this temporal life; The one formal, white, and resplendent; masculine, fatherly, and agent; for whatsoever is active takes place from form, of the male and from the father, and this very thing comes to us from fire, and from the clearness of the stars to illustrate our understanding. The other is red, maternal, feminine; for the soul, coming from the substance of heaven, which is more rare than that of heavenly bodies. That of the understanding is lodged in the brain, and the other of the soul, in the heart. The intellect or understanding, is that part of the reasonable soul made and form after the image and semblance of its Creators and the soul in it, the animal faculty called Nephesch, the life, namely, that which resideth in the blood: and as the heaven contains the stars, this contains the intellect, which to us is for the rest common with brute beasts. But the intellect, or reasonable soul is proper and particular to men, that which can merit or demerit; therefore it needs repurgation and cleansing from the spots that it hath drawn and conceived from the flesh wherein it was plunged, according to that in the 8. of Genesis 21. The thought and imagination of man's heart, were inclined to evil from his youth. And sith it is a question, about cleansing the vestment which is of a fiery nature, it must likewise be, that it be done b● means of fire; for we see by experience, that one fire chaseth away another, as it hath been said heretofore, so that if a man be burnt, there is no readier remedy, then to burn it again in the same place; enduring the heat of the fire as much as you can: which draws the inflammation to its self, out of the party, or else tempering it with Aqua vitae wherein Vitriol hath been calcined, from whence Surgeons have not found a more sovereign remedy to take away the fire of a musket sho●, to heal inflammations and gangrenes; and yet there are two fires joined together. But ●h●at which during this life must repurge our souls, i● that whereof ●●int Augustine in the 29. Sermon speaks thus out of the Apostles words, for there is another afterwards: Kindle in your selves a sparkle of good and charitable dilection, blow it, and kindle it, for when it shall grow to a great flame, that will consume the hay, wood, and chaff of all your carnal concupiscences, but the matter wherewith this fire must be continued, are prayers, and good works, which must always burn on your altar, for it is it whereof our Saviour said, I am come to put fire in the earth, and what will I if in be already kindled Luke 12.49. There are further two fires: one on the bad part, to wit, of carnal concupiscence; the other of the good, which is charity, which consumes all the bad, leaving nothing but good, which exalts itself in a fume of a sweet odour; for the heart of every on, is as an altar, either of God or of the adversary: and therefore he that is illuminated with the torch of charity, which must more and more be increased by good works, that it may nourish in itself the ardour that our Saviour will vouchsafe to kindle, whereby that is accomplished, which the Apostle saith in the 5 to the Ephes. That Jesus Christ hath appropriated to himself a Church, not having spot or wrinkle, holy, and pure, without blemish. For that which the Church is in general, and common towards God, the conscience of every one of us, is in particular the same, when it is sincerely prepared, as it is requisite; and that upon the f●●ndation thereof, men build Gold, Silver, precious stones; that is to say, a firm faith, and belief, accompanied with good works, without which faith is dead and buried; all upon the model and pattern of the heavenly Jerusalem designed in the 21 of the Apoc. which is the type of the Church; as is also the reasonabl● soul, where it must burn always with fire upon the Altar, and after the imitation of the wise and prudent virgins, we may have our lamps ready, well lighted, and garnished with what is needful to maintain light, attending the Bridegroom: as our Saviour commanded is in Saint Luke 12.  
Zohar furthermore makes this repurgation of the soul to be double, which is not sa●r disagreeing from our belief. One is whilst the soul is y●● j●●ne body, ●ee calls that according to the mystical manner of ●●king, the conjunction of the Moon with the Sun then when inquired of ●● here below it is not illuminated; for as long as the soul is annexed within the body, it enjoys very little of its own light, being all darkened thereby, as if it were imprisoned in some dark obscure prison. And this repurgation doth consist in repentance of its misdoings, satisfaction for them, and conversion to a better life; in fastings, alms, prayers, and other such penitences, which may be exercised in this world. The other is, after the separation of soul and body, which is made in the purgative fire; which neither Jews, Mahometans, or Ethnics, ever called in doubt.  
But when with supreme light life leaves us, yet all evil from miserable men, nor yet all coporeall plagues do pass away, and the punishment of old evils do weigh us, some are exposed to vain winds; too others under a vast gulf their infected wickedness is washed off, or burnt with fire.  
Where there are set forth three repurgative Elements, Air, Water, and Fire; But we must not understand (saith Saint Augustine, on his third Sermon upon such as are diseased) that by this transitory fire grievous and mortal offences, and capital sins are purged, if they have not been repent of in this temporal life; or to blot out the expiation on the other side, where the rest is perfected in the fire, as man-slayers, adulterers, false witnesses, concussions, violences, rapines, injustices, infidelity, erroneous obstinations, and the like; which are directly opposite to God's Divine precepts and commandments: but the smaller faults only, which they call venial sins, as eating and drinking to excess, vain words, foolish desires, and depraved concupiscences, not brought to effect: not to exercise the works of mercy, whither common charity, and commiseration calls us, and such other frailties: of which if we repent not, in this world, fire shall repurge us in another, and more sharply. To this purpose the Hebrews make a triple distinction of sins, Chataoth are those that we mistake against ourselves, without hurting any other, but ourselves, gourmandizing, inconstancies, lazines, idleness, anger, spite. The Avonoth, are addressed to our neighbour, which do not blot out and pardon, but by means of reparation: and the Peschaim the transgressions, praevarications, and impieties, directly addressed against God: They draw this first out of the 34 of Exodus 7. pardoning iniquity, rebellion, and offences; more in the 106 Psal. 6. We have sinned, we have committed iniquity, we have done foolishly; and in the 9 of Dan. Chatanu, Veavinu, Vehirsannu; there are sins saith Zohar, imprinted above, others below, and others both in the one and in the other; above, against God; below, against our neighbour; and in the one, and in the other against ourselves, bodies and goods, as well our neighbours as our own; noting that below, the soul; that above, made after the image and semblance of God. If they be blotted out below, they are so above. Jesus Christ after his resurrection breathed on his Disciples, and said unto them, Receive the holy Ghost; To whom soever you pardon sins, they shall be pardoned; and whose sins soever ye retain, they are retained. Joh, 20.23. that which you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.  
But to return to the reclo●thing, and to say something thereof, the superior is always clad with the inferior, the intelligible world, with the celestial, which is but as it were a shadow thereof, and the celestial with the elementary: and notwithstanding it would seem clean contrary by the figure of Hypallage as in the 18. Psal. God hath put his Tabernacle in the Sun, which is to say, he hath put the Sun in his Tabernacle, which is, heaven; for God doth not reside in this World, but rather the World in God, who comprehends all, for in him we live, we move, and have our being. Also the intelligible world should be clothed with the celestial, and the celestial with the elementary. But this to show that we cannot well comprehend heaven, being so remote from us; but by that which is expounded to the knowledge of our senses here below, nor of the s parated Intelligences, but by the sensible. There was nothing (said the Philosopher) in the intellect, that was not first in the sensse. And the Apostle in the first to the Romans, that the invisible things of God, are seen in the Creation of the world, by those that were made. This all conformably unto Zohar, In thee (said he; in the prayer of Elias addressing himself to God) there is no resemblance, nor any image interior, or exterior; but further, thou hast created heaven and earth, and produced out of those the Sun, and the Moon, the Stars and the Signs of the Zodiac; and in earth Trees, and Herbs, delights in Gardens, with Beasts, Birds, and Fishes, and at last Men; that from thence things above might be known. And of the superiors, the inferiors together, so that the one and the other may be governed: Plutarch allegeth in his Treatise of Osiris, that in the City of Sais in Egypt, there was such an inscription in the Temple of Minerva, borne out of Jupiter's brain, which is nothing else but the sapience of the Father.  
I am that which was, which is, and which shall be, and as yet there is none amongst mortal men, that hath yet discovered my veil: for Divinity is so wrapped in darkness, that you cannot see day through it. I see him not, for he is darkened with an over dark cloud, said Orpheus: and in the 17 Psal. which made darkness his hiding place. Further in the 4 of Deut. You came to the foot of a mountain that burned, even to heaven, and therein was darkness, thick clouds, and obscurity: for in regard of God towards us, light and darkness, are but one thing: as is his darkness, such is his light: And in the 16 of Isaiah, Make thy shadow as the night, in the midst of the noon day. The very same, as well the affirmative, as the negative; by which, that which is aequippollent unto darkness, we may better apprehend something of the Divine Essence, but not by the affirmative, that relates unto light, as Rabbi Moses doth excellently well dispute it in his 57 chapter of his first book of More: For the Divine light, is insupportable above all to all his Creatures, even to the most perfect, following that which the Apostle sets down in the 1 of Tim. 6. God dwells in light in accessible, that no man can see: So that it is to us in stead of darkness, as the brightness of the Sun is to Moulds, Owls, and other night birds: which darknesses are the revestments, and as the borders and cloisters of the light; for represent to yourselves some Lantern placed on the top of a mountain: all round about it as from the Centre to the Circumference, it shall spread its light equally, as fare as it can extend it: so that at the last darkness will terminate it, for darkness is nothing else, but the absence and privation of light: Even the very same, the exterior man, carnal, animal, is the coverture; yea darkness of the interior spiritual: after the manner or fashion of some Lantern of wood, or stone, and other dark matter, which keeps that the light there shut in, could not show forth its light, the Lantern symbolising to the body, and the light within to the soul. But if the body be subtiliated to an aethereal nature, from thence it comes to pass, as if the Lantern were of some clear Crystal, or of transparent horn: for then the soul and its functions, do shine there about openly without obstacle. Sith then, to the one of these two, namely to the inner man, is attributed fire, that answers to the soul, and salt to the outward man, which is the body: as the sacrifice or man animal is the revestment of the spiritual designed by the Man, and by Fire: The vestment of this Fire will be Salt, in which, fire is potentially shut in; for all Salts are of the nature of fire, as being thereof begotten. Geber saith, that salt is made of every thing that is burned, and by consequent, participant of its proprieties, which are to purge, dry, hinder corruption, and unboile; as we may see in all salted things which are as it were half boiled, and are kept longer uncorrupt than raw, also in potential burning irons which burn, and are nothing else but Salt.  
Will it be lawful for us here to bring one entire passage of Rhases in a book of the Secret Triplicity? for it is not common to all, and we will strongly insist on this number by reason of the three Fires and three Salts, whereof we pretend to Treat. So that there is a Mystery in this number of 3 that must not be forgotten, for that it represents the operation, whereof Fire is the Operator; for 1, 2, 3, makes 6. the 6 days wherein God in the Creation of the world perfected all his works, and rested the seventh day.  
There are (saith Rhases) three natures, the first whereof cannot be known nor apprehended, but by a deep elevated Meditation: This is, that all-good God Almighty, Author, and the first Cause of all things; The other is neither visible, nor tangible, although men should be all contrary; that is to say, heaven in its rarity. The third is the Elementary World, comprehending all that which is under the Aethereal Region, is perceived and known by our senses. Moreover God which was from all eternity, and with whom before the Creation of the world, there was nothing but his proper name known to himself, and his Sapience; that which he created on the first day, was the water wherein he mingled earth, than came he to procreate after, that which had a being here below. And in these two Elements, thick and gross, perceptible to our senses, are comprehended the two other, more subtle and rare, Air, and Fire. These four bodies being, (if we must call them bodies) bond together with such a minglement, that they could ot perfectly separate. Two of them are fixed, namely, Earth and Fire, as being dry and solid; the other two volatile, Water, and Air, which are moist and liquid: so that each Element is agreeable to the other, two wherewith is bounded and enclosed, and by the same means, contains two in itself, the one corruptible, the other not, the which participates of the Divine nature: and therefore there are two sorts of Waters, the one pure, simple, and elementary; and the other common, which we use in Lakes, Wells, Springs, and Rivers, reins and other impressions of the Air. There is likewise a gross Earth, filthy and infected; and a Virgin Earth, crystalline, clear, and shining, contained and shut up in the Centre of all the composed Elementaries; where it remains revested, and covered with many foldings one upon another. So that it is not easy to arrive there, but by a cautelous and well graduated preparation by fire. There is also a fire which is maintained almost of itself, and as it were of nothing, so small is the nourishment that it needeth; whence it comes to be more clear and lucent, and another obscure, dark, and burning, and consuming all that to which it is fixed, and itself at last. And Air on the other side pure and clean, with another corruptible full of legerity, for of all the Elements, there is none more easy to be corrupted then the air; all which substances so contrary and repugnant, mingled with elementary bodies are the cause of 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 Air were distracted from the fire, the fire which hath therefrom one of its principal maintainments and food, would suddenly extinguish, and if the water were separated from the Air, all would be in a flame. That if the Air should be quite drawn 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 be reduced into a deluge. For three Elements nevertheless may well be disjoined from the Earth, but not wholly, there must remain some part to give consistence to the Body: and render it tangible, by the means of a most subtle and thin portion thereof, which they will elevate with them, out of this gross thickness that remains below, as we may sensibly see in glass, which by an industrious Artifice of fire, is depured of the darkness that was in the ashes, to pass from thence to a transparent clearness, which is of the nature of Fire and indissoluble Salt, accompanied with a firm and solid thickness, having neither transpiration nor pores.  
But wherefore should we not hereto file all in one train, those so excellent Meditations of Zohar, sigh all depends on the same purpose? God form Adam of the slime of the earth, or according to the Hebrew, God form man dust of the earth; which word of forming belongeth properly to Potters, who fashion of earth all that they think good. And touching the dust, this is but to abate our pride, with which we may be swollen, when we consider the vile and corruptible matter, whereof we 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 foul stuff, and whither thou must at last return, to dust, worms, and rottenness; and before whom thou art to render an account, and reason of all thy actions, and comportments; who is the sovereign Judge, the King of all, who leaves no transgression unpunished, nor good work irrecompensed. Adam then and all his posterity were form of the dust of the earth, which had before been moistened with the fountain or vapour, which was highly elevated by the Sunnebeams to water and to soften the earth: For the Earth being of itself cold, and dry, is altogether sterile and fruitless, 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 soul, in another world. Water shows the celestial Meditation whereto our spirit may exalt itself; and the earth of itself , and that can never budge from below, nor willingly mingle with the other three volatile elements, by reason of its extreme dryness, so that it doth but grow hard by the action of fire, and makes itself more contrary and untractable by the spirit of contradiction hard and refractory from the flesh, against the spirit, so that she should reject the water which men thought to put therein, if it were not by means of the subtle Air, interposing and mingling therewith, and penetrating into the smallest parts: which being sucked within the water, forces the earth to feed on it, to enclose it in herself, as if she would detain it prisoner, and by that means remains great; as the female by a male: for every superior thing in order and degree, holds the place of male, to that which is inferior and subject thereunto.  
Now if the Air absent itself, which associates and unites them together, as being suppeditated and banished, which is moist and hot, from the extreme dryness and coldness of the earth, it will force it with all its power to reject the water, and so reduce itself to its first dryness; which we may perceive in Sand, which will never receive water, except it be quickly separated. Even so the earth is always rebellious and contumacious of itself to be mollified, be it by water, by air, 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 form: as his Companion and himself do show, when by the suggestion of the Serpent, the most terrestrial animal of all others, they so easily contradicted that extreme prohibition which was given them of not tasting the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil: for the punishment whereof, it was said to the Serpent, thou shalt eat earth all the days of thy life: which Isaiah resumes in 65. chap. Dust is thy bread: And to Adam, that the earth should produce nothing but thorns, briers, and thistles, by means whereof, if he would live, he must cultivate it with the sweat of his brows, till he return to that from whence he was drawn, for being dust he must return 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, hover over them, fomenting and vivifying them, as a Hen doth her Chickens, with a connatural heat; for this word Elobim imports I know not what, of heat and fire. By Water then the docill spirit, obedient to the invitations of the intellect, insinuated itself into Adam; and by Earth the refractory, and opiniaster, that spurneth against the prick; 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 remains within the water, where it made choice of its residence; for from the three natures of earth, water at least never joins with the two, (that is to say) sand, for its extreme dryness 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 be thereof made, the water at last lets it reside below, and it swims over: as being of a contrary nature, the one altogether , solid, and compact; the other fluent, removing, and gliding as blood through the veins, wherein the spirits reside; who can easily be elevated to be of a fiery quality, always soaring upward: So that the water which notifies the interior spirit, endeavours to divest itself of this external coagulation; for all coagulation is a kind of death and waterishness of life; and would never more associate therewith, nor revest itself by reason of its contumacy; were it not that the sovereign Master, and Lord Adonai by his providence, for the propagation of things, (as long as he shall please to maintain in being, this fair work of his hands) constrain these two, Earth and Water, to agree in a sort together, by its Angel or Minister that rules in the Air. Man moreover hath towards himself frank and free will in his full power and disposition: The appetite of sin shall be under thee, and thou shalt have domination over it, Gen. 4. But if he be adheering to the earth, 
Gen. 4.7.  (that is to say) to carnal desires and concupiscences, whereunto he is most inclinable, he shall do nothing but evil. And if to the spirit, designed by water, all that he doth shall go well. The River of God is filled with waters. And in the 44. of Isaiah, I will pour out water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour out my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring. So that as long as the water doth suffer and remain united with the earth, the good Spirit resteth with man, by which we are admonished by the wise man, Prov. 5.15. to drink waters out of our Cistern, & 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 refractory obstination, till that by means of the air, the spirit that joins and unites them together (which are holy inspirations) it be newly remoistned and watered: By means whereof when we have this good spirit of salutary water, whereof it is written in the 15 of Ecclesiasticus, Thou shalt give him the water of wisdom to drink: we must take heed of casting it away, and to make ourselves all dry earth and sandy, which is not satisfied with water, and therefore produceth nothing.  
But all this is more clearly expressed in the Gospel, where by the means of this fructifying water, our Saviour which is a Fountain that is never dry, the holy Spirit cometh to put into our hearts that which moisteneth the hardness 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 Fountain of living water, springing up into eternal life. Of this water the Prophets have clearly spoken, as David in the 36. Psal. For with thee there is a Fountain of life, and in thy light we shall see light. 
Psal. 36.6.  See how he joins water with light, which is fire; so that this digression seems to be less impertinent; and in the 12. of Esay 3. You shall draw water with joy out of the wells of salvation. More Jerem. 2. They have forsaken me, that am the Fountain of living water, and have digged to themselves Cisterns, broken Cisterns that will hold no water.  
In this of Zohar (as above) are comprised the principal 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, we 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 we repeat the same more than once; for from thence proceed all the secret sciences,) that is to say, the elementary here below, subject to perpetual alteration, and vicissitude of life, and of death; the Celestial aloft, above the Circle of the Moon, incorruptible in respect of itself, as well for its purity, and uniformity of substance, as for its continual and equal 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 calls the third World, where he was ravished, this (said he) whether in the body or out of the body, God knows, 2 Cor. 12.3. for not only 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. Man's 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 Glass, we see ourselves 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 he hath almost transcribed word for word out of the book Abahir to Zohar, and other ancient cabalists, whereof he consisteth for the most part.  
Moreover some say that the Heavens are sometimes put for God himself, as in the 32 of Deut. Hear 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 dedication of the Temple; Hear O Heaven. In this third Heaven or World, whereof the Apostle spoke, although God be every where, yet the seat of his Divinity is there more especially established, then elsewhere, with his separated Intelligences that assist him to execute his commands. Bless the Lord ye Angels, mighty in power, doing that which he ordaineth, hearing the voice of his words: wherefore Theologians called it the Angelical world, without all place and time; which Plato in his Phaed. said that no mortal men ever yet had sufficiently celebrated it, according to its excellency and dignity, being all of light; who from thence stretched out herself, and derives it so, as out of an in exhaustible Fountain, to all sorts of Creatures, even according as the ancient Phaenician Theology carried which the Emperor Julian Parabates alleged in his prayer to the Sun. That Corporeal Light proceeded from an Incorporeal Nature. The Celestial world participates of darkness, and of light, whence proceed all the faculties and powers that it brings it. And the elementary all of darkness, designed for the reason of its instability by water. The Intelligible by Fire, because of its purity and light, and the Celestial by the Air, where fire and water come to join; the Earth by this reckoning, should remain for Hell; as in truth this earthly habitation is nothing but a true Hell: But by Heaven Moses understood the Intelligible World, and by earth the Sensible, attributing the two higher elevated Elements, Air and Fire, to Heaven, because they always tend upwards, and Water and Earth, which for their gravity tend downward: but all that, by him was yet more mystically shadowed, as Z●har showeth it, by the admirable construction of his Tabernacle, than which, there is nothing more spiritual. Gold, Silver, and precious Stones, representing the Sensible world, and Bezaleel, that was the Conductor of the work, the Intelligible, and the Workman filled with a Divine Spirit, with Sapience, Intelligence, Knowledge, and all the most accomplished learning, as almost every word carries it, woven with Bezel, the shadow, and El God.  
The profane Poets have divided the Sensible World into 3, for they never took much pains to penetrate into the Intelligible: And assigned the superior part thereof, from the circle of the Moon upward, to Jupiter, the low Terrestrial to Pluto, and the middlemost, which is from the Earth to the Moon, to Neptune: which the Platonists call the Generative Virtue, because of the humidity, impregned with Salt, which provoketh much to generation, according as the word Salacitas designs it, as Plutarch puts it in the 4 Question of Natural Causes, and in his Treaty of Osiris: wherefore the said Poets attribute more fecundity to the said Neptune, then to all the other Gods.  
Each of these 3 worlds furthermore, hath particularly its science, which is double; the one common and trivial, the other mystical and secret. The Intelligible world to our Theology, and the Caballe the Celestial to Astrology and Magie; and the elementary, to the physiology and Alchemy, which revealeth by the resolutions, and separations of Fire, all the more hidden, and dark secrets of natures, in three kinds of the composed: for no man can know the composition of a thing that is ignorant of its destruction, saith Geber. But these three divine sciences have been by the depravation of ignorant and evil spirits turned aside to a crying down, that men durst scarcely speak thereof, but must presently incur the bruit of being an Atheist, Witch, or a false money-coyner. We say then, after Empedocles and Anaxagoras; All this our reason disputes by a Journey of composition and resolution, going this way and that way, up and down. That all the Elementary science consisteth in the mixtion and separation of the Elements, which is perfected by fire, to which Alchemy turns all: As Avicen declareth very openly in his Treaty of l'Almahad, or Division of Sciences. And Hermes in that of his 7 chapters, Understand ye sons of the wise, the Science of the four Elements, whose secret apparition is not where signified, except they be divided and compounded, because out of the Elements nothing is made profitable without such a Regiment; for where Nature ends her operations, there Art gins. Take such a composed Elementary, what you will, herb, wood, or other the like, upon which, fire may exercise its action, and put it in an Alembic or Cornue; 
Cornue▪  first let them separate the water, and afterwards the oil, if the fire be moderate, if more pressed and reinforced, both together: but the oil will swim above the water, which may easily be separated by a fonnel of Glass. This water is called Mercury, which of itself is pure and clean; and oil, the sulphur, adustible and infect, that corrupts every compounded thing: In the bottom of the vessel will rest the Ashes, of which by a form of lee, with water the Salt will be extracted, and after you have withdrawn the water with Balneum Mariae, as men call it: for the oily unctuosities do not mount by this degree of fire, no more doth the Salt, but much less; and the indissoluble Earth's stripped of all their humidities proper to vitrify: for saith Geber, every private thing by its own humidity doth perform none but a vitrificatory fusion. So there are two volatill Elements, namely the liquid, Water and Aire, which is Oil, for all liquid substances naturally shun the fire, which elevates the one, and burns the other. But not those two which are dry and solid; which are Salt, wherein is contained Fire, and pure Earth, which is Glass: over whom the fire hath no power but to melt and refine them. See there the four Elements redoubled, as Hermes calls them, and Raymund Lullius the great Elements; for as every Element consists of two qualities, these great Elements redoubled, Mercury, Sulphur, Salt, and Glass, participate of the two simple Elements, (to say better) of all four; according to the more, or the less, of the one, or of the other; Mercury holding more of the Air, to which it is attributed; Oil or Sulphur, of the Air; Salt, of Fire; and Glass, of the Earth, who finds itself pure and clean in the Centre of all the composed Elementaries, and is the last to reveal itself exempt from others. Of this sort by the Artifice and operation of Fire, and of its effects, we depure all infections and filth, even to reduce them to a purity of incorruptible substance from this time forward; by the separation of their inflammable, and terrestrial impurities; for (saith Geber) the whole intention of the Operator, is versed in this that the grosser parts being cast away, the work may be perfected with the lighter; which is to mount from the corruptions here below, to a purity of the Celestial world, where the Elements are more pure and essential, fire there predominating which is the chief of all others. Hitherto touching Alchemy, and wherein she is versed.  
Magic for the Celestial world, was in times past, a holy and venerable Science, which Plato in his Charmis calls the true Medicine of the soul; and in the first, Alcibiades putteth it, that it was wont to show the Elders of the great Kings of Persia, to teach them to reverence God, to form their temporal domination according to the pattern of the order and policy of the Universe. But it is nothing else properly (as Orpheus saith) but a form of marriage of the starry heaven with the earth, whither he darts his influences, by which she impregnes coming from the Intelligences who assist therein; and an application of agent virtues upon the passive, and that without the cooperation of Daemons the most part, evil, false, and deceptive, yet some more than others; with which it is thought that the three wise Kings, Magi, that came so fare to adore Jesus Christ, were willing to have some acquaintance and commerce.  
The third is that which men call Caballe, or reception, because men left it there verbally, and by mouth from hand to hand, from one to another. It is divided into two, the one of Ber●sith, that is to say, of the Creation, that consisteth in the Sensible world, where Moses stayed, without speaking of the Intelligible, or of separated substances. The other is of Mercavah, or of the Throne of God, which Ezekiel principally treats of, whose vision is almost all of fire. So much is this Element throughout the whole holy Scripture appropriated to Divinity, as one of the most perfect and near symbols and marks in things sensible; by means whereof we are so elevated, that by jacob's Ladder, or Homer's golden Chain, we come to the knowledge of things spiritual and intelligible; for the invisible things of God from the Creation of the World, are clearly seen, being understood ●by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead. For the world with the Creatures being there, they are a portrait 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 ourselves with the infinite brave pieces of work; and Man, wherein he set his most singular delight and pleasure, which Moses hath tacitly expressed in Gen. 1. & 2. where when there was question of creating the world, Heaven, Earth, Vegetables, Minerals, Animals, Sun, Moon, Stars, and all the rest, he did no more but command by his word, for he said, and they were done; he commanded and they were created. But in Man's formation, he insisted much further therein then in all the rest, saith he; Let us make man after our Image and Similitude, he created him male and female, and form him dust of the earth, afterward breathed in his face the spirit of life, and he was made a living soul. 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 be 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 Moon, towards the Sun, who thereinto reverberates its light: or as the light of a Lamp or torch, which parteth the flame fastened to the weik, which is therein nourished by a gross matter, viscous, adustible, without which this splendour and light could not communicate itself to our sight, nor our sight comprehend it: And likewise the glory and essence of God, which the Hebrews call Sequinah, could not appear but in the matter of this Sensible world, which is an image or pattern 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 always before me, Psal. 16.8. And his posteriour parts are his effects in the Sensible world. The soul likewise cannot be discerned and known, but by the functions it exerciseth in the body whilst it is annexed thereunto: By which Plato was moved to think that souls could not consist without bodies, no more than fire without water. So that after long revolutions of times, they should come again to incorporate themselves here below: whereunto adheres that in the 6 of Virgil's Aeneads.  
All these when they have turned for many years,  
God calls them to the flood of Lethe, by great troops,  
Being forgetful that they must review the upper convexe,  
And begin again to be willing to return into bodies.  
But this savours a little of new-birth, and Pythagorean change of souls into bodies, in which Origen was likewise out of the way, as may be seen in his book 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 souls, they must: shun and fly all bodies. So that, when the soul shall be repurged from all corporal affections, and when it shall return to its Creator, in its first simplicity, it hath no great desire to fall again into the hands and calamities of this age, when the option should be left unto it free.  
From the Intelligible world then, it runs down into the Celestial, and from thence to the Elementary, all that which the spirit of man can attain from the knowledge of the admirable effects of Nature, which Art intimates, in what she 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 man's understanding according to Hermes, is as a Glass where we come to shave off, and to abate the clear and luminous rays of the Divinity, represented to our senses by the Sun above, and the fire his correspondent here below; which inflame the soul with an ardent desire of the knowledge and veneration of his Creator, 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 inform us namely of Moses his fire in the heaven. And the Salt for its firm consistence and solidity to the earth. What is this Salt? ask one of your Chemical Philosophers; a scorched and burned earth, and congealed water, by the heat of fire, potentially enclosed therein. Moreover Fire is the operator here below, in the works of Art, as the Sun and Celestial Fire is in them of that nature; and in the intelligible, the holy Spirit by the Hebrews called Binah, or Intelligence, which the Scripture designs ordinarily by fire, and this spiritual fire, or igneal spirit, with the Chomah the verb, where the Sapience attributes to the Son, Wisdom, the Artist of all things, taught me, are the father's operators. By the word of the Lord were the heavens firmed, and all their beauty by the spirit of his mouth; from whence that maxim of the Peripatetics differs not much, Every work of Nature is a work of Intelligence.  
Behold the three fires, whereof we pretend to speak, of which there is none more common amongst us then the elementary here below, gross, composed, and material; that is to say, always, fastened to matter; nor on the the other part less known. That which is of him, from whence he came, and whither he goes; reducing in an instant all to nothing: assoon as his nourishment fails him; without which he cannot consist a moment, but goes as he comes, being all in the least of his parts: So that he can in less than nothing, multiply to infinity, and in less than nothing empty itself: for one little wax light will at pleasure enkindle the greatest fires we can imagine, without any loss 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 only small sparkle of fire, would press in the twinkling of an eye, all the immense hollow of the Universe, if it were filled with Gunpowder or Napthe and presently after will vanish away. So that of all bodies, there is nothing that doth approach nearer to the soul than fire, said Plotin. And Aristotle in his fourth book of Metaphysics, sets down, that ●ven to his time the most part of Philosophers had not well known fire, nor yet Air to be perceivable to our sight and feeling. But men may say the same, that neither Aristotle, nor other Grecians of his time knew so well the fire and its effects, at least wise not so exactly as did (so long while after) the Arabians, by Alchemy, on which all the knowledge of fire dependeth, The Egyptians said, that it was a ravishing and insatiable Animal, that devours that which taketh birth and increase, and at last itself; after it is therewith well fed and gorged: when there is no more to feed or nourish it; for that having heat and motion, he cannot pass from food and air to breath therein; if for want hereof, it remains at last extinct, with that wherewith it was fed: All things proper to animate substances, and which have life, for life is ever accompanied with heat and motion, which proc eds from heat, rather than heat from motion; although they be reciprocalls, for one cannot be without the other. But Suidas thereupon form such a contradiction, that not only animals, but all that which take nourishment and increase, tend to a certain butt, whither being come, it stays without passing any further, where neither nourishment nor increase of fire are limited nor determined; for the more is administered, so much the more it would have, and grow every day greater: for neither the one nor the other can be limited, as do these animals. Then by consequent it must not be put in their rank; So that the motion of fire should rather be called generation, than nourishment or growth; for there is but that one element, that nourisheth and increaseth it. In the others, that which superabounds therein is by apposition, as if you would join water to water, or earth to earth; you shall never do the same to fire, to think to make it greater by joining thereunto other fire, but by the apposition of matter, upon which it may by't and exercise its action, as wood and other like things, which perforce must turn into its nature, and so it augments itself. The Poetical fictions relate that Prometheus went into Heaven to steal it to accommodate mortals; for which he was so grievously punished by the Gods, as to remain 30. years bound to a Rock in Mount Cancasus, where a Vulture daily eat up his entrails which did grow again in course. 
Author de roolle p 61. in course, in order one after another.  But it is to be believed that the Gods that are so watchful, and so affectionate towards mankind, would not deny this so necessary a portion of Nature, without which the condition of their life were worse than that of beasts, as well for the boiling of their meats, as to warm them, and dry them, and infinite other necessary commodities. Besides of that which soars always upwards, being of one celestial original, whither he aspires to return, it seems that this belongs properly to man.  
Sith other thingt looks down unto the earth  
It gave man a face, to look up, and see the heavens,  
To erect his countenance unto the Stars.  
Almost all other animals do shun the fire, whence Lactantius to show that man was a divine Animal, allegeth for one of his most pregnant reasons, that he only amongst others used fire. And Vitruvius in his second book, sets down that the first acquaintances of men, were contracted by coming to meet, to warm themselves at common fires: So that the cause why God sent fire down to men must be, that by the means thereof, they are come to penetrate into the profound and hidden secrets of Nature: whereof they could not well discover, & know the manner of proceeding, for that she works so rarely: but by his counterfoote, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the resolution and separation of the Elementary parts, which are made by fire; whereof proceeds the execution almost of all Artifices, that the spirit of man hath invented; So that if the first had no other instrument, and tool, than the fire, as we may lately see by the discoveries of the West Indies; Homer in the Song of Vulcan sets down that he assisted with Minerva, taught men their Arts and brave Workmanship; having formerly been accustomed to dwell in Caves and hollow Rocks, after the fashion of wild beasts; willing to infer by Minerva the Goddess of Arts, and Sciences, the understanding and industry, and by the fire, Vulcan, that puts them in execution; wherefore the Egyptians were accustomed to marry these two Deities together, willing thereby to declare nothing else but that from the understanding proceeds the invention of all Arts and Sciences, which fire afterwards effected, and brought from power to action; for the Agent in all this world is nothing else but fire and heat, saith Johannicius, and Homer, Whom Vulcan and Minerva knew. Which was the cause (as may be seen in Philostratus by the birth of Minerva) that she forsook the Rhodians, for that they sacrificed unto her without fire, to go to the Athenians. Moreover Vulcan, according to Diadorus, was a man, who from an accident by a clap of Lightning, whereby a Tree was set on fire, first revealed to the Egyptians the commodity and use of Fire: for being therewithal overcome, all joyful of his light and heat; he thereunto added other matter to keep it, whilst he went to seek the people, who afterward for this, deified him. Whereto Lucretius agrees, 
Do not in these things tacitly and by chance require,  
Lightning brought fire on earth to mortals  
First: thence all heat of flame was given.   
The Greeks' attribute it to Phoroneus, and put it, that it was near to Argos. That fire being fallen from heaven thereabout, it was afterward there kept within the Temple of Apollo; which if by chance it came to extinguish, they lighted it again anew by the Sunnebeameses; as also they did at Rome that of the Vestals. And in Persia their sacred fire which they carried ordinarily where the King marched in person singularly reverencing it, for their respect to the Sun, which they adored above all other Deities; for they esteemed it here below, their Image. They carried it (I say) in great pomp and solemnity on a magnificent Chariot drawn by four great Coursers, and followed by 365 young Ministers, for as much as there are so many days in the year, which describe the Sun by its course, clad with yellow guilded, the colour conformable to the Sun, and fire, singing hymns to their praise. And there was amongst them, no crime more capital and irremissible, then to cast any dead carcase or other uncleanness therein, or to blow it with your breath, for fear to infect it, but they did it to give it air, for in all this they hazarded no less than life; as to quench it otherwise in water: So that if any one had perpetrated any grievous forfeit, to obtain grace and pardon therein; the best expedient then was, as Plutarch puts in his first Treatise of the first cold, to put himself in running water with fire in the hand, threatening to quench it in the water if they did not grant his request; but after he had obtained it he was not left unpunished for his offence, but for the impiety that he had forethought to commit. And from thence it became a common proverb mentioned in Suidas: I am a Persian, borne of Persian parents; what a strange Persian? yea Sir, for us to pollute fire, it is sharper than cruel death. But all this which may be said of fire, and by the means thereof, hath not yet been revealed, nor known by men: Is there any thing more admirable than Gunpowder, so easy to make, and consisting of so few ingredients; and so common Sulphur, Saltpetre and coal? which seem to have been mystically designed by the Egyptians, by the three Celestial powers, whence they allege Thunder, Lightning, Tempests, to be conducted and governed, Jupiter, Vesta, and Vulcan. By Vulcan, Sulphur; by Jupiter, Saltpetre, full of air and wind, as Raymund Lullius puts it, who well knew it, and its nature, and its, effects if he would have discovered them; and by Vesta Coal; as well for the Terrestreity that is in it, as for that it is incorruptible, being able to keep it many thousands of years within the ground, without alteration or spoiling, which was the cause that they made a place and stage for it, in the foundation of the Temple of Diana at Ephesiu: Saltpetre is appropriated to the Air; because it is as of a mean disposition of nature, betwixt Sea water, and the Fire, or Sulphur, whereof it participates, for that it is so inflammable, and saltish, on the other side, resolving itself into moisture, and water, as the Salts do; from whence it hath bitterness and acuity; and as the enclosed and retained air, within the clouds, doth break and lighten by the impetuosity of Thunder, the same doth Saltpetre: But this will come to better purpose hereafter in Salts. Moreover he that can make powder composed of certain proportions of Sulphur and Saltpetre, and in stead of Coal, with the Terrestrial scurf of Antimony, which must be separated by frequent and reiterated ablutions of lukewarm water; may come to an artificial fire, not to be disdained; of a powder, that will give a small report; 'tis true that it is not so impetuous and full of force, as the common. In regard of the invention of Gunpowder, the relations of China do carry, that by their ancient Chronicles it is found out, that they have had the use of it more than 1500 years; as also of printing. Roger Bacon, 
1500 years.  the famous English Philosopher, who writ above 300 years ago, in his book of the admirable power of Nature and Art, sets down, that with a certain composition imitating lightning and thunder, Gideon was wont to fear his Enemies with. And yet that it is not formally as it is written in the 7 of Judges, yet it is said nevertheless more than sixscore years before the divulgation of Gunpowder; see his word: furthermore there may be made perpetual lights and baths, burning without end, for we have known many things that are not burned, but purified; but besides these, there are other stupendious things of Nature and Art; for sounds may be made in the air, like thunders, and of greater horror than such as are made by nature. And a little matter adapted to the quantity of a thumb, makes a horrible sound, and shows a vehement coruscation; and this may be done many ways, by which every City and Army may be destroyed; after the manner of gideon's Artifice, who with broken pitchers and lamps, fire breaking out with ineffable fragor, destroyed the Midianitish Army, with only 300 men. These may be Granades and fire pots. And to be short, nothing could better agree on all points to Gunpowder; but these good men foreseeing the ruin that such things might bring, made too great conscience to reveal it. To the purpose of perpetual fires, by means of most long durance; Hermolaus Barbarus in his notes upon Pliny, relates that in his time there was an old Sepulchre opened in the Territory of Padova, and therein found a little Coffer, where there was a Lamp yet burning, although that according to the inscription it must have been more than 500 years since it was lighted. 
500  So that by this reckoning, it should not be altogether impossible to make fires, that will not be put out; for we see the same in many sorts of that which men call Grec; whereof Aristotle as it is reported heretofore composed a Treatise, which could not be quenched with water, chief Sea water, by reason of the fatty and unctuous Salt mingled therewith, but they grow worse, and wax more fiery. But what hurt were there to stay thereon a little, since likewise it is a question of Fire: Of Acorns steeped in wine, afterward dried and put in a mill so long till the liquor come forth, which afterwards accompanied with other oils besmeared upon quick chal●, Pumice stone, spectacle glass, and Alum calcined together with Soap, and other the like things, that hold their adustible impurities in the bottom of a vessel, whilst that the oil by distillation mounts clear, neat, and purified, and less inflammable; but this requireth a sufficient good fire; for the matches corresponding thereto, make them of cotton yearn besmeared within the Lee: then bathe them in the oil, or liquor of Tartar, Saltpetring them over Alum plumed, intermingled with pitch, rozin finely bruised and beaten, or of Colophon. These fires of so long duration would seem to us a thing fabulous, if we were not ascertained by authentic Authors of that so famous a Lamp hung in a certain Temple of Venus, where there burned without ceasing the Stone called Asbestus, which being once set on fire, never goes out. But some will say that that is also a fable; I will leave others to decide it, and I will tell you what befell me, seeking nothing less than that, to meet with a substance, conducted thereunto, by gradual artifices of fire: which being bound fast within a Vial of glass and sealed with Hermes his Seal, that no air could any way enter in, might be kept 1000 years (after the manner of speech) in the bottom of the Sea: and opening it at the termination of so long a season, or when you shall please, you shall therein find a sudden fire, (which when it scents the air) will light matches. We read in the second book of the Maccabees, chap. 1. vers. 20. that at the transmigration of Babylon, the Levites having hid their sacred fire in the bottom of a well or pit, 70 years, after they found there a thick water and whitish, who assoon as ever the Sunbeams gave thereon, took fire.  
These two Deities aforesaid, Pallas and Vesta, one and the other, chaste Virgins, as is also Fire; represent unto us the two fires of the Sensible world; that is to say, Pallas, the Celestial; and Vesta, the Elementary here below, the which notwithstanding it be more gross and material, then that above, tends nevertheless always upward, as if it endeavoured to unmingle itself from a corruptible substance, where it remaineth fixed, to return free and exempt from all these hindrances to its first Original from whence it came, as an imprisoned soul, 
There is in them fiery vigour and celestial Origin,  
In seeds as much as our harmless bodies stay them,  
And our terrene joints dull them, and our dying members.   
The other on the contrary, though more subtle and essential rusheth out here below toward the earth, as if these two aspired incessantly to encounter each other, and to face each other, in the fashion of two Pyramids; whereof that above should have its basis planted in the Zodiac, where the Sun perfects his annual course through the 12 Signs: from the point of which Pyramid, comes to cast here below all that which is here procreated, and hath being, according to the Astologers of Egypt; that there is nothing produced in the earth, and in the water, which was not first sowed in heaven, which is there, as a labourer to cultivate it, and by his heat, impregned here below, with the efficacy of his influences, conducts the whole to its complete perfection and maturity, which Aristotle also confirms in his books of Beginning and Ending. But the fire here below on the contrary at the basis of his Pyramid, fastened to the earth, making one of six faces of the Cube, whereof the Pythagoreans give him the form and figure, because of its form, and invariable stability; and from the point of this Pyramid the subtle vapours mount upwards, which serve as nourishment to the Sun, and to all the rest of the Celestial bodies, according as Phurnutus writeth after others. Men attribute (saith he) inextinguished fire unto Vesta, peradventure for that the power of fire that is in the world, takes it nourishment from thence, and that from thence the Sun is maintained and consisteth. This is that also, that Hermes would infer in his Table of Emerandes: That which is below, is as that which is above, and contrariwise, to perpetrate miracles of one thing. And Rabbi Joseph the son of Carnitol in his ports of Justice, the foundation of all the inferior aedifices is placed above, and their heap or top here below as a Tree inverted. So that a man is but as a spiritual tree planted in the Paradise of delights, which is the earth of the living, by the roots of his hairs; following that which is written in the Canticles 7. The hair of thy head like purple, the King is bound in the Galleries.  
These two fires then, the high and the low, who do know themselves, and so one another, have been no less unknown to the Poets, for Homer in the 18 of his Iliads, having placed Vulcan's forge in the eighth starry heaven, where he is accompanied with his Artisans endowed with singular prudence, and who know two sorts of works, which were taught them by the immortal Gods, wherein they labour in his presence; Virgil in his 8 of the Aeneads hath suffered him to set his shop here below in the earth, in an Island called Vulcanian.  Vulcan's house, and by name, Vulcan's earth. 
To show that there is fire in the one, and the other Region, the Celestial, and Elementary; but diversely: Men make moreover four sorts of fire; that of the intelligible world, which is all light; the Celestial participates of heat and light; the Elementary of light, heat, and ardour; And the infernal opposite to the intelligible, with ardour and burning without light; we see Lanterns upon Mountains that burn on the inside, and other like called Vulcan's. And it is a thing very admirable, as one of the Rabbins quoteth, that Sulphur & Pitch that are so ready and easy to take fire, and continue so little in their combustion being exposed to the air, restrained nevertheless within the Earth's entrails, it seems they there renew themselves, and multiply by their own consumption, although their heat and burning be there much more violent without comparison, than here above. According as we may see in Mountains that burn for so many continued ages, and hot Baths. This seems to emancipate from the common order of Nature by a secret disposition of Divine providence, who will have them continue so; till the scurf and impurity of this inferior world be exterminate, with this infected stinking and corruptible odor; and to banish it from hence and send it bacl to hell for the punishment and torment of the damned; whereof it is written in Psal. 11.6. Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest, this shall be the portion of their Cup. This fire there, which is black, obscure, thick, and dark, the more devouring and burning it is, resembles that of some great coals of stone, which conceive a most strong ignition, whereof it is spoken in the 20 of Job 26. A fire shall devour them which is not kindled. And more particularly in the 4 of Baruch 26. Fire shall come upon them from the everlasting to continue many days, and Devils shall a long time dwell there.  
There where the Celestial fire is all clear and shining as a lamp, whose flame should be nourished with water of Life, mingled with a certain composition of Camphire, Salnitre, and other inflamative matters. So that these combustible substances, whereof there are infinite varieties, may endure very long, but it is true that it will be but a gentle and weak flame. And of the like, but more subtle without comparison, the Celestial bodies are nourished and fed, that need but little nourishment, as approaching from spirituality. I can tell you, being at any other time brought, to make the fashion of a shining Sun, in the dark, 
P. 73. Lamp.  (it was a fire of a Lamp) so glittering, that a whole great Hall might be therewith rather dazzled, then lightened; for this did more effect than two or three dozen of great Torches, and yet in 24 hours used no more oil than I gave it, with matches corresponding thereunto, which held no more than a nut shell, for this was a Lamp of Glass, plunged or dipped within a Globe of Crystal as great as a bead filled with vinegar, distilled three or four times; for there is nothing more transparent, nor more splendent. Sea water is also good thereto, and much better than fresh water, how pure soever it may be; It is the Salt mingled among that gives it this luminous brightness.  
But to return to our discourse, some have thought that sigh the Stars receive nourishment, they should also vanish in certain periods of time, and others come in their stead; which were no other thing then a separation of their clearness and light, with their Globe of substance more gross and material, by which they come to dissipate themselves, and to vanish within the heaven; as vital spirits within the air: whilst they are absented from some animated body, and leave it void of life. So that by this means, their Globe from this time forward would remain dark as a Lamp, whereby light, which before gave it light, should be quenched for lack of nourishment, or other accident. This light or luminous fire is in the Stars, as the blood is in animals, or juice in vegetables, whereto Homer seems willing to grant in the 5. of his Iliads, where he puts, that for as much as the Gods do not live by bread and wine, as mortals, but by Ambrosia and Nectar, so they have no blood, but in lieu thereof, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  a substance which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as it were a subtle saltish waterishness: hindering corruption in animals, and all other composed Elements; but we must here a little better clear this, for the great affinity that the Sun and Fire have together: We must then understand, that the Sun arising by its attraction elevates the spirits of the earth, which are of two natures, (a moist vapour including, and a dry vapour included) are together exalted, (saith the Philosopher in the 5. of his Meteors) the one hot and moist, as is the Air and Water, potentially; this which is properly called Vapour; the other hot and dry, of the nature and power of fire, called Exhalation. The first resolves into water, as reins, snows, hails, mists, fogs, and other such moist impressions as are form of this vapour, in the middle Region of the Air, for being gross and heavy, they cannot mount higher, but afterwards being thickened, and congealed by the cold that resides there, they fall bacl here below, more material than those which were not mounted from thence, and at last, all do resolve into water. The second, called Exhalation, is subdivided into three kinds; the first, more viscous, gross, and heavy, is that whereof your fires are form, which are called Castor and Pollux, otherwise Saint Herme; the fool fires, and the like, which cannot mount higher than the low Region of the Air: the second is a little lighter, more subtle, and depured, penetrating even to the middle Region, where thunders and lightnings are form, the wand'ring stars, bars of fire, chevrons, and other such inflammations. 
P. 75.  The third, is yet more dry and light, and more free from unctuosity, almost of the nature of that Quintessence, which we observe in Aqua vitae sovereignly depured: therefore it may mount not only to the highest Region of the Air, and that of Fire contiguous; but escape yet whole and safe higher than the Heaven, with which, for its greatest subtlety and depuration which it hath gotten in this long way, it hath a great conformity: For being come to the Globe of the Sun, it is there perfected to concoct and to digest into a pure and clear light; for the nourishment, as well of itself, as of other stars; the same that Pliny toucheth in the 8 and 9 chapters of his second book: So that the Stars receive all their light and nourishment from the Sun, after that it hath been there concocted and fitted, and not by the form of reflection, as from its rays, which would lessen themselves either in water, or in a looking Glassse; for all that which participates of fire, hath need of nourishment. This is done as in the Animal, where the most pure blood, comes from the Liver to empty itself through the Arteries into the heart which conducts it to its last perfection for the nourishment of Spirits. But this must be understood, if these Exhalations and vapours find issue atwhart the pores and spongiosities of the Earth, 
Tough p. 76. a kind of white Sand, or soft and brittle Stone.  to evaporate upwards. But if peradventure it meet with Tough, or Sand, or the like lets, and hindrances, which do contradict them, or let them, they stay there and wax thick, for procreation of minerals: that is to say, a hot and a dry exhalation, in the nature of Brimstone, and a moist vapour in the nature of Quicksilver; not vulgar, but a substance yet spiritual and full of fume, from the assembling of which two, in a subtle vapour, they come to procreate in themselves afterwards by a long continuance of time, metals, and mean minerals, according to the purity or impurity of their coagulated substances; and the temperature, defect, or excess of the heat that recocts them in the entrails of the earth. Without going from my intention of the foresaid exhalations, I thought fit to touch a little upon an experiment whereunto I arrived by my industry, which I think will not be disagreeable. Take good old Wine, and put therein a certain quantity of Salnitre, and Camphire, in a Platter upon a fire pan, within a Closet well firmed, that air cannot enter, and make it evaporate therein, and that there be no more covering then the thickness of the back of a knife, to give it so much air as it must have, to make it burn. This being done, shut well your little window, that nothing may vapour out after you have withdrawn the dish, or platter, from thence to 10. 20. or 30. years; provided that the air do not enter, and that the wind blow not in; bringing in thither a lighted wax candle, you shall see infinite little fires capering as lightnings in the great heat of Summer, which are not accompanied with thunders and lightnings, nor with storms, winds, and reins, having nothing but an inflammation of Air, by reason of Saltpetre, and Sulphur, which are elevated from the Earth.  
Before we pass from our intention of vapours and exhalations, that no man doubts but do proceed from heat introduced within the earth by the continual motion of the heaven round about, and of the Celestial bodies, whence light is accompanied with some heat that it darts thereinto: Let us come to the experiments next approaching to our sensible knowledge, we see, that the fire leaves two sorts of excrements, the one gross namely, Ashes; remaining in the bottom of its adustion, that containeth Salt and Glass; and the two fixed and solid Elements, Fire and Earth: The other more light, and subtle, which the fume carries upwards; that is, the Soot, wherein are contained the two volatill and liquid Elements, called by the Chemists, Mercury and Sulphur, and by the Naturalists, Vapour, and Exhalation. By Mercury, is designed Water, or Vapour, and by Sulphur, Oil, and Exhalation; Of Salt and of Earth's therein, there are found a very small quantity, yet sufficient, thereby to perceive how the four Elements are found out in the resolution of all the composed Elementaries: Take then the Soot of Chimney, but of that which shall mount highest in a very long Chimney pipe, and in the very top, where it must be most subtle, thereof fill a great Cornue, or an Alembic two parts of three, then apply thereunto a great recipient, which you wrap about with linen wet with fresh water. Give fire by small quantities, the water and the oil will distil together, although the water ought in order to issue out first. After that, all these two liquors shall pass through the Recipient, and when nothing else shall arise, increase your fire with faggot sticks well dried, or other like, continuing it for 8 or 10 hours, so long that the earths which shall rest in the bottom be well calcined: but for that they are in small quantity put to more Soot, and continue it as aforesaid, until you have earth enough which you shall take out of the Alembic, which you shall put into a little earthen pot, of Paris, not smoothed, or in a little hollow pot. The water and oil, which you shall have distilled may be easily separated by a glass fonnell, where the water will swim above the oil: This done you shall rectify your water by Balneum Mariae, by redistilling of it two or three times; for oil doth not mount by this degree of fire but by Sand; keep them asunder upon the earth's, that shall be calcined within the said pot or cruset, put their water thereon a little warm stirring it with a spit, so long till the Salt which shall therein be revealed by the fires action, do totally dissolve itself into this Water; withdraw it by distillation, and the Salt shall be left you in the bottom, of the nature of Salarmoniac, so that by pressing it, it will elevate itself. But of this more plainly hereafter in its own place, when we shall speak of Salt. Of Earth's wee need not take much care, for we must seek for the best in the Ashes, as also fixed Salt. So by the means of Water, extracted out of ashes (we will here a little pass from Soot, a little better to declare the subject of Earth's.)  
In this Element the more gross and material of all, which we call Earth, we must consider three substances; the Hebrews also have better distinguished them then we, by giving them 3 names, Erehs, Adamah, and Jabassah. Erehs is properly dirt or mud, Jabassah sand, and Adamah clay, wash of the common earth with water, and pour it suddenly into another vessel, with the slime that it hath gathered; reiterate it so long, that there remain no more in the bottom but Sand, in the Scripture called Arida: And his hands laid the foundation of the earth, Psal. 94. where he properly useth the word of laying a foundation, because that Sand is the subsistence, and retention of the earth, where it is mingled with slime by a certain providence of nature to strengthen it against the moisture of water, as we see in Mortar, where we adjoine sand with chalk, for fear lest it melt, and dissolve into moisture. It serves also, to give it counterpoise, for that Sand is very heavy, A stone is heavy, and sand burdensome, or weighty, Prov. 27. But the slime is lighter, wherein minerals, vegetables, animals, are procreated, as we see by experience, by putting pure slime to the Erthree; for in less than three weeks, you will find therein small stones, herbs, worms, and snails, and other little beasts, producted therefrom. Of the nourishment remaining that these individuals shall be, as that of Sand, deprived of all humidity; accordng to what we see in Earth's, which having been too much cultivated, and sowed, without bettering of them, are reduced from being fertile, as formerly they were, and become sandy and sterile; for Sand produceth nothing, as we see in Deserts and Sea coasts: whence comes this proverb, (You plough the Sands) for a vain and unprofitable labour: for of the two qualities, whereof each Element participates, there is one that is more proper to it, and the other appropriated: Dryness is the proper quality of the Earth, for that cold is more proper to Water: wherefore is it that the Earth, as aforesaid, is called in Hebrew Jabassah, and in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dry land; and God called the earth dry land. Slime is more waterish; for of the grosseness of the water, earth was made, saith Hermes; as we may see in snow, in hail, in rain, or with water so condensed, there is much slime mingled, of which (as aforesaid) every thing here in the earth below is produced. Man himself according to his body, was form of this slime; and from thence it followeth that all the fertility of the earth comes from Water. God created all the buds of the earth before they grew, and all the herbs of the field before they brought forth seed; for the Lord God had not yet made it to rain upon the earth, but a mist went up therefrom, that watered the whole face thereof. Or as the Chaldaick Paraphrast turneth it, Onkelos, in stead of source and fountain, vapour and clouds, which are engendered from the vapours that the Sun elevates here below to the height in the middle Region of the Air, from thence to water the earth. But neither the slime, nor the sand, nor the clay on the other side, are not each by itself, nor reduced together, are this virgin and pure earth, that is shut up in the Centre of all the composed Elements, that is to say, in the bottom of them, for that produceth nothing, because it is incorruptible: and that which cannot corrupt, cannot produce any thing that should be subject to corruption; as we see in Fire, Salt, and Sand, which are of the nature of Glass, all substances not only incorruptible for their respect, but which preserves from corruption, that wherewith they are mingled; witness herbs, fruits, flesh, fish, and other the like, which being salted or buried in Sand are thereby kept the longer. And in Mummies, of those that remain choked and buried in the Sands passing the Deserts, which are preserved whole many suits of years, even as well, nay better than if they had been enbalmed. So that this earth is form of two incorruptible substances, Salt, and Sand, by means of the water which is thereupon congealed; as we see in this fair Crystalline Glass, made of Salt, of glass wort, amongst which they mingle sand to retain it; otherwise, in the great sharpness of fire that it must endure, to work therewith, it would all vanish into smoke; we depure and refine it afterwards in clear Crystalline, joining thereunto perigort, or sinople made of Lead.  
Their are some that carry their Sand with them, as Foulgere, Charm, or Foutean, firebrakes, charm, or beech, and some others.  
But this comes better to our discourse, of Gold and Glass, and some others upon the 28. of job, where speaking of Sapience, he saith, that nothing can compare with it, nor Gold itself, nor Glass. This Earth then, so excellent, and incorruptible, is not this vile and gross Element, that we trample on, and cultivate to draw there hence our nutritune and sustentation, but that whereof it is spoken in the 21. of the Revel. cl●ar and transparent: I saw a new Heaunn and a new Earth, and the holy City was of pure Gold, like unto pure Glass, and the streets thereof were of shining and resplendent Gold: See how he doth liken more than once Gold and Glass, which is produced by the depurations of Fire: for that is the last action thereof, having therein no power but to refine and depure, as he doth Gold. Which the Sun produceth in long millions of years: To the imitation of that, the speculative understandings are forced by means of fire, to extract out of the corruption of these inferior elements, and their compounds and incorruptible substance, which was to them a model and pattern of that, whereto the whole universe should at last be reduced: from hence we here draw from Soot a representation and image of the works of nature, upon vapours and exhalations, whence Meteors are form, and impressions from the middle Region of the Air, Water holding place of the waterish, and oil of the fiery, and inflammable, which oil is altogether impure, to be adustible and unprofitable to the procreation of this Virgin Earth: called by some the Philosopher's Stone, which so many ignorant avaricious men have sought for, but could not find because they sought it with blind eyes, darkened with a sordid desire of unlawful gain: to make themselves on a sudden richer than another Midas, who at last got nought, but the ears of an Ass, and did not cherish it to praise and admire God in his admirable works following that which is said in the 37. of Job, consider the wondrous works of God, for we cannot do a greater pleasure to a workman, then to mark attentively, to admire and magnify his works; nor a greater reproach then to scorn and slight them: And of such the Apostle in the 4. to the Ephes. speaketh thus, They have their thoughts obscured with darkness, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, in respect of the blindness of their heart: Take then this Oil so extracted from Soot, and repass it three or four times upon Sand; for it is one of those, that lasteth very long. And after the extraction of the Water and Oil, and the Calcination of the earths, that shall remain in the bottom of the vessel, cast your water thereon, and put the matter to putrify ten or twelve days in dung: then draw back the water by distillation calcining at the end thereof the Earth's seven or eight hours by the fires flame. Put again the water upon the Earth's, putrified, distilled, and calcined, reiterating as abovesaid. For by means of water and fire, the Earth's will be calcined, until they have drunk up and retained all their water: or the greatest part: which will be done at the six or seventh reiteration. This done, give it the fire of sublimation, and it will elevate itself a pure earth, clear and Crystalline fastened in the Centre. The water hath great proprieties and virtues, but this Earth hath yet more, whereof I will endeavour to speak more at large. There may be also Salt extracted by the dissolutions of its water and glass, of the Earth's that shall remain after the elevation of the said Virgin Earth. For every private thing by its proper humidity doth perform nothing but vitrificatory fusion, saith Geber. And there are here three: two volatiles, water, and oil, and the third fixed and permanent; which is congealed, namely Salt: which beyond all other moistures expects the conflict of fire, saith the said Geber. For there is nothing more moist, and more unctuous than Salt, nor that better endures fire: Also all metals are nought else but fusible salts; whereunto they are easily resolved: common Salt melteth also, after it hath been recalcined, and dissolved, three or four times, whereof we will speak more plainly in its place.  
I have here a little extended myself upon Soot, as upon a Subject, where rare secrets appear remarkable; & the same upon charcoal, made of stone, and of that vitrification of sky colour, that remains of Iron whereof we see great heaps in furnaces and forges, and being so dry, yet there may be water, and oil drawn therefrom: we will yet say the same concerning Soot: Fire burning wood, or other adustible matter, chaseth away the waterish humidity, therein contained, and feeds itself with oil, or aereal substance. The terrestrial part, which are the ashes, remaining in the bottom calcined, where the Salt resides, which thereby being separated by the washings, and dissolutions of the water, the remainder is nought but slime, which is drawn away by frequent ablutions, and the Sand remains at the last proper to be vitrified; observe in respect of one of the excrements of fire, which is not contented therewith, but by its impetuosity, and heat tending naturally upwards, carries on high with violence a part of the subtiliated substances. Let us adapt this to the Coupelles. 
●oupelles. pag. 6. ●he little ●hen pot, ●herein goldsmith's melt ●nd fine their metals.   
We see that part of the lead, from thence goes away in smoke as in the fire, whence Soot is procreated, a part thereof is burned, namely its sulphurous part, and part grows tough within the coupelles almost in the manner of Glass or varnish. Of the two first volatils, there is no account to be made thereof, for they go and disperse themselves. But bray the Coupelles where this vitrification is as it were baked, wash them well with warm water, to depure them from their grossness and uncleanness, than put them into a descensory with a strong expression of a bellows fire with the Salt of Tartar and Salnitre, and there will fall down through a Metalline: which being recoupled with new lead you will find more fine, without comparison then at first, and ever from that time forward, more and more, by reiteration as abovesaid. So that he, that would take the patience to boil the lead on a regulated and continual fire, that should not exceed its fusion, that is to say, that the lead should therein remain always melted and no more, putting thereto a small portion of quicksilver or sublimate to keep it from Calcination, and to reduce it to powder: at the end of a certain time, you shall find that Lamwell hath not spoken frivolously to say that the six grain is contained in power with lead, (that is to say) gold and silver, would multiply and increase themselves as the fruit upon a tree doth.  
But to return to these oils of long durance, whereof he might make a large volume that would run through not all but a part: Let him draw from the Tartar of wine, of which the best comes from Mompellier, even that which adheres unto the Tun. One which is very important, Tartar is one of the subjects, 
Coupta ruer. pag. 87.  where those who practise in the fire, do find so many blows to cast. Take of this Tartar beaten into small powder and put it in a leaded earthen pot with clear fountain water, upon a Trevet or furnace, making it boil easily and scum the villainies and filthiness off with a feather: the silver Crusts that shall afterwatds arise, gather them with a head of Glass, where these gross moules destang, of mud, so long till they rise no more, renewing the water by measure when it comes to diminish. Turn it by Inclination, and put a part, that which rests in the bottom in the shape of Sand. Put again the Crusts in new water, make them boil gently as before, and gather together the Crusts that shall rise up more clear and lucent than the first, separating their dregs and impurities, if there be any presented, and reiterate this six or seven times, till your Crusts be clear and shining as silver or pearls. Dry them in the Sun, or before the fire upon a linen, and put them in a cornue with an open breech, and a graduate fire reinforcing it by smalls: and through the beak of the Cornue, there will issue as a small rivulet of milk, that will resolve into oil with the Recipient. Pass it once again, or twice upon Sand, or salt of Tartar: which is done by calcining of Tartar, within a pot of Earth of Paris, not leaded in a fire of reverberation, or in Charcoles': afterwards dissolve it, with hot water and filter, and congeal it, and there will remain white Salt which will resolve itself into a liquor called the oil of Tartar; or after it is well calcined let it resolve to itself in moisture. This Liquor is of great efficacy to quench and root out all sorts of wildfires. But of the sands that remain in the bottom, without being unwilling to rise in Crusts: there will be extracted another more exquisite oil and less adustible.  
Tartar may be governed after another fashion.  
We insist therein in this respect, because it shows to have I know not what agreement with Soot: for as Soot is an excrement of fire, so are Tartar and lees, the same of wine, that have great affinity with fire. Take then of Tartar in Powder within a leaded earthen vessel, and cast hot water there on stirring it strongly with a stick; and letting it rest a little, put out the water; with that which it hath gotten from the Tartar: which is after the form of slime within another dish: and put new luke warm water upon the Tartar: reiterating as aforesaid so many times that the water may come forth neat & clear; which will be perfected at the fifth or sixth time. And in the bottom there will remain the foresaid sand, which being dried dissolves itself within the distilled vinegar, and not into common water. Aqua vitae likewise dissolves in a little space, when the one and the other would take no more. Wash that which remains, with common water, then dry it slowly, and having put it into a Cornue with a sufficient good expression of fire graduating it by small pieces, there will be extracted an odoriferous oil, as of aspic. one of Raimond Lullius his secrets: which is one of his principal keys, and entries into Metallick dissolutions. Take the foresaid evacuations, and elevate the Crusts as aforesaid. There are too many things to speak of Tartar, and that which we have now set down is not vulgar, but the rarest of our experiments; Of vinegar, after that the clear shall be distilled, and that the white fumes shall begin to appear, which is his adustible oilynesse, put the dregs that shall remain (for you must have a great quantity) in a cellar or other fresh place, and in five or six days there will be procreated small Crystalline little stones; separate them from their residences, by ablutions of common water, and dry them; and you shall draw thereout an oil of no small importance, so great certainly and admirable are the substances, which the art of Fire extracts from Wine.  
The most part of the oils that we have touched on, heretofore, being adustible, are by consequent of a strong and troublesome odour, as smelling the , when they burn, you must therefore set them in the Sun certain days, that is to say, to dry them in the Sun, and in the Air, to take away from them this fiery smell: for recompense we will here treat of some rare ones and of good agreeable odour. And in the first that of Been, which prefumers use, hath neither colour, odour, nor savour: and therefore it is susceptible of all those which you shall apply thereunto. Being repassed upon Sand to take away the fatness, it would be of long durance, and without an ill sent, but it is too dear. As for oils of Olive, rapes or long turnips, chenevy, sesamum, but is rare in these quarters: and other the like which are drawn by the press, by means of the heat of fire: what repasses soever there may be, yet they never desist to be of a good odour, but so much less, according as they shall be depured and by the same means of longer durance: Oils of Sage, Thyme, Pepper and other the like, drawn by an instrument proper thereunto, such artifices, are so divulged even unto Chamber maids, that I should be ashamed to speak of: That of Benzoine is more rare, and less known, and more laborious to make. Take Benzoin throughly beaten to gross powder, and put it into a Cornue with fine Aqua vitae, which swimmeth there over three or four fingers, and leave them so for two or three days upon a moderate fire of ashes, that the Aqua vitae may not distil, removing them every hour; this done, accommodate the Cornue upon the furnace with an earthen vessel full of Sand. Distil the Aqua vitae, with a gentle fire, afterwards increasing it by degrees, there will appear infinite little aiguilles and filaments, such as in the dissolutions of lead and quicksilver. The which showeth sufficiently that Benzoin participates thereof: It whitens Copper, quickens Gold, and put in decoction of gayal, 
Liguum vitae.  doth admirable effects, as also Tartar, which containeth much quicksilver. When then these veins or little aiguilles shall show themselves, continue this degree of fire, and let them play within the Cornue a certain space, so long that all vanish away. In the interim have in a readiness a little stick which may enter within the neck of the Cornue for these aiguilles will come thither to bring again as in an movelle, and if you take them not away speedily the vessel will break when this Gum or Movelle shall be all past, with a certain form of butter, which will cast itself afterwards within the Recipient, the oil will begin to distil fair and clear, of an hyacinth colour, and fragrant odour: after which reinforcing the fire, there will issue out another more thick and dark, which you must receive apart. This Gum or white marrow, which you shall have drawn out of the neck of the Cornue, wash it with the Aqua vitae which you distilled therefrom, in the beginning, which shall extract therefrom a tincture or Citrine colour, as Saffron, and shall leave the Gum very white, and of a most agreeable smell, fit to make Pater Nosters of scents, of such a colour as you will ●lease to give it: withdraw your Aqua vitae by a bath, and in the bottom there will remain a yellow Tincture of a good sent likewise, which hath great proprieties and virtues. The black oil is, a sovereign balm against all hurts: and of the remaining earths a Salt of great efficacy. Thus you have of Benzoin five or six substances, a white Gomme, with its yellow Tincture, the two oils and Salt.  
Aqua vitae which is its principal manifestation, and without which nothing would be done therein, there is also Storax, Calamint, Laudanum, Myrrh, and the like Gums, out of which oil is extracted by the means of the carriage of Aqua vitae, and therein you must proceed as in Benzoin: But ther● are not so many things to mingle together: Out of Myrrh there is likewise extracted a liquor, very proper to take away all spots and marks remaining of scabs, or pox and other like accidents. Take hard Eggs, and cleave them in the middle, take away the yellow, then fill the hollows with grains of Myrrh, and cover them again with the other half: Leave them three or four days in the clear and in the air, where the Sun comes not: and they will resolve themselves into a liquor like unto honey, or thick dew, frankincense likewise doth the same.  
Out of Sulphur also there may be drawn an adustible oil by opening it, with Aqua vitae, and also by other ways. For Sulphur hath in it two substances, the one inflammative, the other not, but aluminous and vitriolique: whence proceeds this liquor which is called oil of Sulphur: which hath yet greater properties and virtues than the oil of vitriol, which is more caustick and burning: as well against evil inward affections, as in Cankers and ulcers of the mouth, tooth ache, cankers, and other the like, where it works more moderately.  
Take then first a match of Cotten yarn of the bigness of your little finger and two else long, which you shall besmear with molten wax and with Turpentine, as to make wax Lights.  
Take on the other side a pot of Paris earth leaded, wherein you shall put a bed of sulphur enough grossly beaten, and thereupon lay a round of your foresaid matches, until the pot be full▪ on the top whereof, you shall leave a little end of your Ma●ch to light it: (fine musket match is very good also). Put your pot under a chimney and hang thereupon an Alembic Cap, whose mouth should relate ●o that of the pot. But you must first besmear and crust over the clay to the thickness of a thumb: you must not join it just to the pot, but that there may be an inch opening betwixt them. Light the Match, and make the Sulphur burn, which will cast from it a small white fume, which will adhere within the Cap and from thence it will resolve into a liquor of peach colour, that will fall into the Recipient, when you have to such an end, applied it to the beak of the Cap: But this will do better in soft weather with south winds and d'aval, and not in dry weather.  
We have long insisted on these oils, as well for that they are produced for the most part out of the action of fire, of which there is here a question as for that nothing is nearer of kin to fire, then fatty oils, unctuosities, pitch rozin, and black Turpentines, Gums, and other like Inflammative substances, that are the true food, and nourishment thereof: And for that we are so far embarked therein, there will be no hurt, here in one train to prosecute something of the Artifices which are commonly called Grecian fires, whereof there are many sorts, that cannot be quenched with water.  
The foundation of them are Sulphur and Bitumen, black pitch, and rosin, Turpentine, Colophone, sarcocol, oils of Lin, petroll, and Laurel, Salt-Peter, Camphor, Tallow, Grease and other unctuosities facile to conceive flame: Of these Greek fires Plutarch speaks in his Treatise of not lending upon usury: & more lately by Zonaras, in his 3. Tom in the life of Constantine the P●gonate where it is said that in the year of our Lord 678. the Saracens being come to besige Constantinople, an Ingenier by name Callini●us brought an Artifice of certain fire, by means whereof the Saracens Fleet was defeated: But Gunpowder, and the artifices that may be made thereby, hath slubbered them all; whence consisteth the most part of our artificial fires, pots, and fire pikes, circles, granadoes, saucig●s, petards, fuses, and infinite other the like, which we pretend not here to specify in particular.  
Take then a pound of Salt-Peter, 8. ounces of Sulphur, 6. ounces of Gunpowder, incorporate them together for Granades, and fire-pots, which make great noise in the breaking. But to tie fire to wood, and other inflammative matters, mingle a pound of pitch, rosin, a quartern of black pitch, 3. ounces of Colophon, and 5. of Sulphur, bruise the Gums, and cast into the melted Sulphurs, when it is cold beat them again, and moisten them with oil of Bays, or linen. There is another composition much more violent, but more dangerous.  
Melt a pound of Sulphur within a leaded earthen pot, and put therein by little and little, but discreetly, a quartern of powder gross grained, with as much salt Peter, stirring them often with a rod of Iron. Take them off the fire and let them dry. This mingled with the aforesaid Artifices will work wondrous effects. Some mingle also a little beaten glass, which coming to be warmed, rewarms consequently the matter, when it comes to flame: whose heat makes it stronger, and of longer durance. Camphor serves to make it burn in the water, as likewise all other greases do, and above all oil of brimstone, drawn by a bath, than which there is nothing more subtible or inflameable. But it would be too tedious to penetrate into the ruins of mankind, of which there would be no end, if a man should ●unne through them all.  
Therefore let us return to our left purpose, of two fires. That above, designed by Pallas and Minerva, and that below by Vesta. Which although they be so far distant, yet fail not to have such an affinity together, that they easily transmute one into the other: for the Sun beams are enlightened by fire, by reason of a viol filled with water, as Plutarch relate in the life of Numa. Where from a burning looking glass, of which I remember that I saw one so puissant, in the States of Orleans, that in less than nothing, and yet in the month of january, ●t set a fire the staff of a torch, and the fire contrariwise by many conveyances and contrivings from the top to the bottom, and through the sides in many circular revolutions, as in those of a Labyrinth, and in furnaces which they call a Tower, its heat comes to be so moderated, that it passeth into a natural heat, vivifying, and nourishing in stead of burning, baking or consuming: And with such a fire I can say that there were hatched at Rome, at one time more than 100 or 120. Chickens, the Eggs being therein couved and settled as under a Hen.  
The Persians and Vestals fire at Rome reverenced as well by the one, as by the other, as very holy, was very carefully entertained. Touching the Persian, Strabo in his 15. Book writeth that the Magis had a custom to conserve it under ashes, before which they went every day to make their prayers and devotions, which is not without some mystery. The ashes denoting the sensible world and the body of man which it represents: being nothing else but ashes: and the fire therein enclosed and covered, the sparkle of life, wherewith it is animated and vivified. These ashes furthermore, must be of some gummy trees, 
Coals kept in Junipe● for t●● space of a yea  to make it of longer durance: namely, of Juniper, wherein I heretofore have kept living coals, more than a year, heaping up bed upon bed within the ashes, being all locked fast within a little barrel that no air may enter; and this is that which is meant in the 120. Psalm. 4. ver. with Juniper coals, according to the Hebrew, in place of uncomfortable. With these burning coals the Persians came to light the luminaries of their Temples when they came to be extinguished. But the Vestals in case their fire should extinguish, as it sometimes happened, it was not lawful for them to light it again, but must draw it from the Sun beams: And did not only attend that it should quench of itself, or by some casual accident, but they renewed it yearly, the first day of March from that of heaven, as Ovid observes tertio Fastorum. Add that new fire was made in the secret house and the renewed fire took force. Which Macrobius also toucheth in his second of Saturnals, 12. chap. The first day of March the Vestals lighted a new fire on the Altar of the Goddess; that by the renewing of the year, they should renew in themselves their care of keeping it from going out. Saint Augustine in his third Book of the City of God, 18 ch. In what reputation (saith he) this sacred fire was at Rome, men may know by this, that when the City was a fire, the grand Pontifex Metellus, for fear that this strange fire should not mingle with the other, put himself in danger to be consumed by the flames, to make it retire. So that there is nothing more conformable to the tenth of Leviticus. That if these poor blind people, which took the Symbols and Mysteries of Religion but superficially, and from the bark, as do also the Jews, from whom they borrowed all their important Traditions, had known that which was covered and prefigured thereunder, what account is there to believe that they made thereof? Some do allege that this sacred fire of the Vestals, was illuminated by means of fusil, bruising two pieces of wood one against another, or in piercing them with a borrier as Festus would have it, and Simplicius upon the third Book of Heaven, according to Aristotle. Pliny in the 16. Book, 4. chap. Men rub two woods one against another, from whence fire is forced; which is received in by a bait made of dried leaves and put in powder, or in the match of the touchwood of a tree. But there is nothing, which doth better conduce thereunto, then Ivy beaten or bruised with Laurel; the same is of late more practised by the Savages of the West Indies, as Gonzale d'Ovidiedo in his natural History of those quarters, lib. 6. cap. 5. binding (saith he) two dry sticks hard one against another, and putting betwixt their juncture the point of a rod well rounded, which they rub thick and thin betwixt the hands, so long till the fire by rubbing, and the rarefaction of the air that follows them may lighten them. Of this new relightning, to show us, that we must renew and be borne again to a better and more praisable life, not fare different from the Ceremonies of the Christian Church, when on the Eves of Easter, and Whitsuntide, at the Benediction of Springs and Fountains, they make a new great wax Taper, wherewith all the other luminaries are set on fire.  
Touching Moses fire, it was first sent from Heaven, and las●ed to the construction of Solomon's Temple, which was again renewed from Heaven; and maintained to King Mamasses his time, when the Jews were carried captives into Babylon, which the Levites kept in the bottom of a Well, where it was found again at their return 70 years after, in the form of a gluish and white water, as hath been said heretofore. Pausanias' to the Corinthians, sets down, that in the days of Antigonus son of D●metrius, there appeared a fountain of warm water near to the City of Mathana, but from the beginning it appeared not in water, but in great flames of Fire which were resolved into hot and salted water. Saint Ambrose yet discoursing upon this water of the Levites, in the third of his offices, sets down, that this doth sufficiently demonstrate, that this was a perpetual fire which could not be taken from another place, to show that they must not acknowledge any other God, or other religion, and ceremonies than those that were established by the inspiration of the holy Spirit designed by fire; for we may see what the children of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, found in the 10 of Leviticus, being willing to take upon them to offer strange fire unto God. Then all false doctrine, idolatry, heresy, and impiety, may be called strange fire, that devours the soul as a fever doth the body, with the life that maintains it; there where this true fire sent from Heaven, is that of the holy Spirit, which salteth our hearts and consciences, that is to say, preserves them from corruption, according whereunto the Prophet Jeremy spoke in his 20. chapter when he had received it. Then it was made as a burning fire in my heart, and shut up in my bones, and I was weary in forbearing and could not stay. That the Holy Spirit should not be only light, but very fire, Esay doth manifest chap. 10.17. And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his holy one for a flame. For even so as the burn, which are a potential fire, composed of igneal and burning salts, work not upon a dead part, insensible, and deprived of Nature's heat; so the holy Spirit doth not exercise its actions upon cold languishing hearts, that make no account of its tickle, and invitations, but show themselves contumacious and refractory; just so as the heat of the Sun, and of the fire, but more and more hardens earth, and clay, in stead of softening it, and melts it as they do wax, butter, and grease. For the acts of Actives are in the disposition of the Patient, where we see fire does divers effects in disagreeable subjects, but not wholly contrary, and directly opposite; as when it blacks a coal, and white chalk where its virtue is imprinted, but all to the contrary; for fire by custom is extinguished by water, it is it, that in this respect inflames and renews that which was imprinted and hidden in the chalk: whence a fair meditation is presented; that as fire is the symbol of life; water (that is its contrary) and extinguisheth it, must be of consequence the symbol of death; water naturally tending downwards, and fire upwards, wherein consisteth life.  
Strabo to this purpose in his 15. Book, speaking of the brahmin's, sets down, that which we call death, to be renewing of life, and that this temporal is but a conception as it were, and a carriage which comes about the end of its term, to bring forth to death, to pass from thence to eternal life. Which Seneca imitates in the 103 Epistle, The day that we fear so much, as the last of our life, is a renascence of an eternal day; let us then cheerfully leave behind that which serves for nothing but a tedious charge. Why do we so much turn our backs, as if we had not been before this first frail body, in which we remain included and hid? we struggle and temporize therein, to the best of our power, and not without cause, for we have been forced out by a endeavour of our mother in bearing us; and we weep and lament when we arrive to this, which we think to be the last day, but to complain, cry, and weep, are they not marks and tokens of one that is to be borne? And a little more Christianlike, although a little before; I will lay down this body where I have found it, and clothed it, and will render myself above to the immortal Gods, although I am not without them at this present, but whilst I am detained here within this grievous mass of earth, in the low abode of mortality, my sensuality will fight and combat against this other better and longer life. Now as we have been for nine or ten months, shut up within our mother's belly, not to prepare therein for itself, but at last, to come to this place, whither we ought to be sent, when we should be perfectly accomplished and made fit to breath, and remain openly out of this closet, where we were form. In like manner during the space that we have run through from our infancy to old age, we die to go whither another original attends us, and a new state of things. All this doth in nothing derogate from the Traditions of our Church, who celebrated for the nativity of Martyrs the day of their death and martyrdom.  
To conclude then, that which was heretofore said of fire, and of the four worlds; that of the Intelligible is all luminous; of the Celestial, shining, and hot, by reason of its motion; of the Elementary here below, shining, hot, and burning; and of Hell nothing but burning. So these three proprieties of fire, to light, to warm, and to burn, though the effects be divers and strange, and the operations almost infinite, only of the elementary to begin with that which is nearest to our senses. Rabbi Elchana greatly honoured amongst the Hebrews, sets forth, that out of the 10. fingers of the hand, being addressed and conducted, by the understanding, may proceed more different sorts of works then there are stars in Heaven; the most part whereof come from the action of fire, on which almost all labouring instruments do depend. Fire principally served the first men, who had nothing but it for all working instruments. In regard of its motion, we may sufficiently see, that there is nothing more glistering and moving then the fire, which is the very cause of all motion. Take away heat, there will be no motion, saith the Chemical Philosopher Alphidius, and this motion is accompanied with depu●ation, for fire will have none but pure things, according to Raymond Lullius. For it is not only the pure substance of all others, but it purgeth, mundifieth, and cleanseth all that, upon which it can have Action, of that which therein may be corruptible. The Lord will wash away the filth of the children of Israel, by the spirit of burning, Esay. 4.4. wherefore the Greeks call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Purging. So that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 purifying, was not made but by fire, as the solemn annual feast of Candlemas witnesseth. And in all the Eastern Churches, when they would say the Evangel they burn great Tapers, as we do upon the day of Purification, and that for token of joy and rejoicing, whereof fire is a symbol; and according to that, we make two fires upon the feast of Saint John Baptist, conformable to that, in the first of Luk. 14. Many shall rejoice at his birth; and fires of joy, in some happy successes of victories, at the birth of King's children, and the like occasions of alacrity.  
We have alleged heretofore, out of the 31. of Numbers 23 that which is said of fire and water, the two purifying Elements, whereby in our baptisms we are accustomed to put a little piece of wax light or match, which they make the Creature to hold when they hold it over the font, the Church being thereby regulated by the pillar of fire which guarded the Israelites, and the cloud (baptismal water) by day, whereunto suits that of Saint John, in the 3. of Matthew, That in respect of himself he baptised with Water unto repentance, but he that cometh after, shall baptise you with the Holy Ghost, and with Fire, to the remission of sins; for fire is a mark of the Holy Spirit, by which grace is conferred, and descended upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost, in the form of fiery tongues, Act. 2.3. The Stoics, although too superstitious therein, made great account of this Element, which they said, was I know not what living thing, the most wise Fabricator of the whole universe, and of all that which is contained therein; to which purpose, as I alleged before out of the 7. of Wisdom 24. that Wisdom the Artist of all things taught me, that it is more moving than motion, for she passeth through all things by her pureness. Wherein two properties of fire are attributed to Wisdom, Motion, and Purity: And in sum esteemed it to be a God, according to which Saint Augustine in his 8. Book of the City of God, 5. chapter sets down Zohar according to his high elevated contemplations alleging upon Exodus this passage of the 7. of Daniel 9 The Throne of the ancient of days, was flames of fire, and a River of fire running lightly issued from his face, his vestment white as snow; saith, that within this shining river of fire, were washed the vestments of the souls that mounted on high, and repurged themselves there from the old scum of the Serpent without consuming itself, which did but clear itself from the old filth that it had the●e gathered. And this is very properly said because we see by experience, that greases are not cleansed, but by other grease, which carries one the other, as doth Soap and Lees, which consists all of gross and unctuous salts; for if those were not, they would not by't upon unctuosity and fatness; witness simple water, which doth nothing, by reason of the contrarieties of their natures, which do not suffer them to be able to join and unite. And where there is no mixtion, there is also no alteration, because that which doth not enter, doth not change (saith Gebe●:) So that Salts being in the nature of Fires, have from them their proprieties and effects, that is to say, to purify and cleanse all ordures and uncleanness. For as Salt (the same Zohar pursues it) hinders putrefaction, to which every corruptible thing is subject; so the Fire of God's love, and of God's knowledge, which is enlightened in the soul, repurging it from all corporal coinquinations, causeth, that after it hath been duly purged and cleansed, it remains for ever in its purity, for as much as fire devours and consumes the filthy scum thereunto fastened, clothing itself with a new and pure fire, which it could not otherwise do. For if it were not so assisted with this pure fire, the Cherubin which is committed to the keeping of the Gate of the City of Delices', with a fiery sword, to forbid the approach to the tree of Life, would not permit it to enter therein; from whence the curiosity of tasting of the knowledge of good and evil excluded our forefathers, and us with them hereditarily.  
Hitherto Zohar, than which nothing could seem more conformable, nor which carried itself better to our subject. Every man shall be salted with Fire, and every Sacrifice with Salt. For to salt, in this regard, to cleanse, and purify, are but one thing, as also to salt, and to burn, because of their consemblable effects. Burn my reins and my heart; where burning, is put for repurging and cleansing, according to the Hebrew, and the Chaldee; and in the 13 of Zachary 9 I will burn them, as silver is burned. To which suits also that which the Apostle writ in the 1 Cor. 3.12. If any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, or wood, hay, stubble; Every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burnt, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so, as by fire. Saint Augustine, citing this place throughout the whole scope of his works interpreteth it in the 21. of the City of God, 26. chap. for the vanities which men have too narrowly embraced in this age, which we shall not enjoy in another, but they must be abolished and defaced by the repurgation of fire; for that which he had not without provoking love, he shall not lose without burning grief. And at length shall be saved as by fire, because nothing shall be able to remove it from this foundation upon which it shall be built. S. Ambrose to the same purpose, in his third Sermon upon the 118. Psal. As good gold, even the very Church when it is burnt, receives not detriment, but its lustre and resplendency increase more and more. The Persians esteemed that when they voluntarily burned themselves, the soul remained thereby repurged from all iniquities & misdoings, which consumed by the flames as touching the body, which had power to move the Indian Calanus and some others to come from thence, (for God would not that we should advance our days by one moment) who, at the time they receive him, he washeth us, and cleanseth us from all preceding faults. Whereby some abusing themselves thereby, attended to receive it as slowly as they could; and others baptised themselves for those which were already deceased. In Aethiopia one who had conspired against the proper person of their Neguz, or Emperor, by baptising himself thereupon, before he was imprisoned, remained quit.  
So the proprieties of fire, are in the first place to shine and lighten, and that is, by it, common to the Sun, but it is thereby much surmounted. And afterwards to warm, digest and bake, which this luminary doth also primitively, as we may see in that the Earth produceth, but for that the natural heat doth not bring them wholly for our use, to the last and perfect degree of maturity, fire for the most part supplies its wants, and defaults; for the regard of the concocting of what we eat, for we hardly thereby make our profit being raw, there where it is baked in the fire, it becomes of more facile digestion, and less corruptible, as having less of crudities; afterwards the fire separates strange things, and not alike, and after, having taken away the corrupting superfluities, namely the waterish humidity, which it driveth out, and the oily unctuosity, which it burns and consumes with the terrestrieties that remain, at last it doth gather together in a new composure, the pure homogenealities; which composure, then consisteth of soul, body, and spirit, from now forwards inseparable, and incorruptible, which relates to the three worlds, the soul to the intelligible, the spirit to the celestial, and the body to the elementary; but this is not a reasonable soul, or sensitive, nor a vital spirit, such as is in animals; but substances equipollent unto them: which may be seen in glass, which is an image of the Philosophical Stone. Whereupon Raymond Lullius enquiring of the confection of the said Stone, and how men may attain thereunto, made answer, he that knoweth to make glass, because their manner of proceeding are alike; and such aught that precious substance to be, which Hermolaus Barbarus in his Annotations upon Pliny, and Appian, in his disquisition of antiquities, allegeth to have been found in an old Sepulchre, in the Territory of Milan, not above a hundred years since, having this Distique with two others. 
For he shut in with great labour, the digested Elements  
under this small vessel; greatest Olybius.  The Roman Morienes to Calid King of Egypt on his Treatise of Metallick transmutation. Whosoever shall know well how to neatify, and whiten the soul, and make it mount on high, and can well preserve its body, and take therefrom all obscurity and blackness, with the evil smell, she may then replace it in its body and in the hour of their rejunction great marvels will appear: yet Rhases in his Epistle. So every soul doth reconjoin to its first body: which in any other manner cannot be reunited to another, and from thence forwards shall never separate; for then the body shall be glorified, and reduced to incorruption, and to a subtlety and brightness unspeakable. So that it will penetrate all solid things whatsoever they be; bccause its nature shall be such, as of a Spirit: that which he borrowed out of Hermes, it shall penetrate every subtle thing. An admirable thing that these Chemical Philosophers under the veil and curtain of this Art, treating wholly about things so material as are metals, and that which depends thereon, with their transmutations by fire, have comprised the most high secrets of Intelligibles and even of the resurrection, whereunto it seems this would seem to strike, wherein bodies shall be glorified and reduced as into a spiritual Nature, against which no spiritual obstacle can contradict, nor hinder its actions; from this the Apostle in the 15. of the 1. to the Corinthians doth not much vary, It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body: howbeit, that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterwards that which is spiritual. I know moreover, an Artifice whereunto I have obtained in divers subjects, that burning an herb, the salt extracted from these ashes and sowed in the earth, a like herb will grow therefrom. But this burning must be made in a very close vessel, wherein we shall say more hereafter about Salt, and yet we will yet bring further another of our experiments which ought not be disregarded. Of three liquors swimming one above another without either mingling or confounding together, what mingling soever they be; that they may not return into their residence and separated: to represent the four Elements in a little vessel of glass, or a little black enammill grossily beaten will hold place of earth in the bottom, water will do thus, Take calcined Tartar, or gravelled ashes, which is almost the very same thing, and let them go to the moist air taking the dissolution that shall be made thereof, the clearest that you can, and mingle therewith a little blue stone, to give it the colour of Sea water. Note here a maxim, and let this be said by the by, for those that exercise themselves in the Spagirique, that in one of these resolutions into moisture, which are made by themselves, all salts and alums, do depure and subtiliate, more than 12, or 15 dissolutions made with vinegar and other like dissolvants.  
Every thing that dissolveth itself, is of the nature of Salt and Alum, as Geber saith, For air, take fine aqua vitae which you shall turn into a Celestial blue, with a little turnsol; and for fire, the oil of Been, but for that it is more rare, take of Turpentine oil, which is made thus, Distil common Turpentine in Balneo Marie, there will mount up together both water and oil, so white and transparent, the one as the other: but the oil will swim above the water; separate them by a glass fonnell, and die this oil, into a fire colour, with Orchanet and with Saffern. The three liquors will never mingle, what ever trouble you use to them; but will separate themselves distinctly, into less than nothing, by swimming one above another: Of the Turpentine, that remains in the Alembique, you shall extract it by Sand, in a Cornue with a stronger fire, then by the bath, a thick red oil, which is most excellent balm: water and oil extracted by the bath are very serviceable also, in many accidents of Medicine and Chirurgery; only the white oil will make scars quickly fall away without pain, or evil impression. But if with the water of the said Turpentine, you dissolve salt of lead, you shall have yet a more Sovereign balm. But we must a little better clear this: for sigh we treat here of fire, and of its effects, what hinders but that we may extend ourselves at length upon many things which our long labour and experience have acquired? This oil of lead, was one of Raymond Lullius, his great secrets: & of many other excellent personages, who have as it were made conscience to remember it: for this hath been to them an entry of more admirable works. Some, as Riply, & others, have taken the minium of lead, but it is too easy, & of an uneasy resolution, as also ceruse & calcined lead. For my part I have found lethargy, which is nothing else but lead, for a pound of lethargy, you shall extract 14. or 15. ounces of lead: put them into powder, and pour thereon distilled boiling vinegar, stirring it strongly with a staff, and suddenly the vinegar will charge itself, with the dissolution of lethargy: Evacuate the clear, and reiterate with new vinegar, so long till all the lethargy be dissolved: Evaporate the vinegar, which shall be unsavoury as the water, until the salt shall remain congealed in the bottom. Take thereof a good quantity, and put thereof within your Cornue, as much as it will hold half full: and put it on the furnace with an open breech: in the beginning with an easy fire chase away that which therein may appear a remainder of strange humidity: And when the white fumes shall begin to appear apply thereunto a Recipient big enough, and lute it well in the Jointures: after reinforcing your fire by little and little until it become a very great one, and the Cornue buried in the ashes, you shall see issue as a little continued torrent after the fashion of a filet of oil, but white as milk, and could as ice, which will come within the Recipient to resolve into an oil of the colour of an Hyacinth, and odoriferous, as that of Aspio. Continue the fire till there comes no more out of the Cornue, and leave it there to settle, all the night long. So now this secret oil, whereof that which Raimond Lullius never more expressly said was towards the end of his short Epistle, in these very terms. Out of black lead is extracted the Philosopher's oil, of a golden colour, or as it were: and know that there is nothing in the world more secret than it. That which remains in the Cornue, put burning charcoals upon it, and that will take fire as the match of a fusee: whence you may draw a fair secret: for as long as it feels not the air, it will not flame, and it may dissolve again with vinegar, to do as before. But salt of lead dissolved in water, and yet better than Turpentine, oil will resolve to a greater quantity of oil; and thereof may see more ample marvailes. Take this oil, which Raimond Lullius calleth his wine, and put it into a small Alembic of glass; in Balneo Mariae, and distil tkerein aqua vitae, which will come in veins even as that of wine. Draw all out so long till the drops and tears come to appear in the Chap, which is a sign that there is no more phlegm: which being out in the bottom, there will remain a precious oil that dissolves gold and is admirable against wounds, and great accidents, from within, for it holds the same place with potable gold: Led having great affinity with gold, as Geber saith, with which it agrees in Surdity, in weight, and in that it cannot rust: And George Riplay the most learned English Philosopher, in his book of the 12. ports.  
There is extracted oil of golden colour,  
Or like it, out of our subtle red lead:  
When Raimond said, when he was old,  
Was much more precious than gold.  
For when through age he was near death,  
He thereof made, his potable Gold,  
Which revived him; as may be seen.  
This is that oil and vegetable Menstruum, etc.  
In regard of the burning water thereout extracted, more inflameable than the most fine powder of a harquebus, it dissolves silver into subtle Crystalline flakes, which melt at the fire of a lamp, as easily as butter, and are fix as silver in the same proofs of fire: further see that which the said Riplay sets down in his marrow of Alchemy: The body being prepared, put upon this water to the thickness of your thumb which will strait boil above chalks of the body, without other external fire, by dissolving the body, and by elevating it, in the shape of ice, with the drying of the said water: and so let it be reiterated, by removing that which was elevated. But to abridge (for this Aqua vitae is in very small quantity and very uneasy to make) if you pass two parties of water of the the departure, that dissolves the silver upon one party of the salt of lead, this will do the same effect for the transmutation of matals, but not within a man's body, where it must not in any case be applied, except after great sweetening, that is to say, a demi sextier of the dissolution of strong water, to make evaporate three or four pails of water, running down within by a filter to the measure that elevates the strong water with the spirits and malignity of this fire against Nature. Think not that I would stay myself here so precisely, nor restrain to the Text of Saint Mark, nor upon that, which dependeth upon the religion in this regard, although our principal aim tends thitherward, that we would not enlarge by the same means to the works and progress of nature, whose principal key is Alchemy, to mount from thence to the Architype the Creator by means of the Caballe. But we would not likewise here so reveal occasions to abuse this divine Art, to the ill turn of perverse ignorants, who to gain a piece of silver would make no difficulty to deceive the world one way or other, as we could do in revealing unto the means of blanching copper, to the likeness of silver, with Iscicles accompanied with a Metalline of Orpiment, the which, as yellow gilded as it is, and its red elevations as rubies, being notwithstanding bruised in a copper mortar, and sublimed upon burned brass, passeth within the head of the Cornue, white as silver; But if it be well governed, with the foresaid Icicles would make indeed great alterations upon the Copper which men may well misuse, wherefore we will forbear to speak thereof any further. We may too well say, that the preparation of this body, that Riplay intends silver, is to calcine and reduce it into salt, which is done after this manner. But if in the dissolving there be aqua fortis, it sufficeth to calcine it. Take then silver plates of the bigness and thickness of a rial and put them in a Cruset, or a little pot of Paris earth, not leaded, bed upon bed, with prepared Salt, that is to say, dissolved in common water, afterwards filtered, congealed, and decrepited, and leave it 10. or 12. hours with burning coals, (it would be better in an oven of reverberation) draw it from the fire and cast it yet all hot into an earthen vessel, leaded, full of water, salt will dissolve itself therein, and that of the silver which shall be calcined will go to the bottom: Let them reside well; and separate them warily, by inclination: after put again the plates to be recalcined with new salt, and reiterated as before, evaporate the water, or the salt if it be dissolved, and that which remains shall be as good as new, to the third or fourth reiteration, all your plates will find themselves reduced into chalk: which you shall easily dissolve in distilled vinegar, for silver, lead, and iron, are not of ●ard resolution, nor also Copper to take it in Roche of azure: Tin much more, and Gold more than all the rest, for that its calcination, is very uneasy. Which Geber knew very well: the complete calcination of Sol, is most difficult: He renders the causes thereof. But it would be too long to dilaee upon all these things: we will content ourselves, to trace some shadows of that which our perquisition and labour hath enabled us to acquire, by the space of 50. years of one side, and another, and proved more than once, not to speak unadvisedly: All which secrets are revealed as is said; by the Fire. And not by mervails, since it analogically discovers the spiritual: Thou hast tried me with fire, and in me, there is found no iniquity; said the Prophet, Psal. 16. There where you see, how he couples fire with iniquities, as if it were it, that revealed them as well as he did the impurities of metals, where it doth the same operation, and effect, as salt doth, in corruptible things; for although metals, be the permanent substance of all others, by reason of their most strong composition which doth not permit them easily to cast away out of their radical form any alteration which men may make them endure in powder, chalk, salt, water, oil, glass, Icicles, and infinite others: which happeneth not to one of the other elementaries, Minerals, Vegetables, Animals; the which being once changed from their primitive form, they cannot again reintegrate or be put together. By means whereof, to speak of fire without metals, which are its true subject, it would be as to propose to an Artist furnished with necessaries and instruments, but had no stuffs proper to employ them, so that would remain to him unprofitable. In metals then there may be revealed and considered the fairest secrets of nature, by the help of fires action. Which if in some more particularly then in others, she hath showed a will to recreate, yea to put in evidence her greater knowledge. It seems this was in stones and and metals, than which nothing could be presented more fair or agreeable to the sight, nor more profitable and necessary, at least in regard of Iron without which man's life would irksomely pass away, she receiving so many commodity's thereby. But precious stones beyond the simple contentment and pleasure of the eye, have nothing wherewith men may know to draw out profit or succours in any one of our businesses. And if they be once deprived of their natural shining form, they never return thereto again, as metals do, so puissant and indissoluble is the assembling of their elementary parties, and their mixtion one with another. Wherefore we must not marvel if so many good spirits have traveled all their time to meditate upon this subject, and their divers transmutations, having been there unto drawn rather out of those fair considerations which they found therein for their spirits contentation, then for any sordid and greedy desire of gain, which hath made the ignorant so obstinate, who have so cried down this divine Art, sister german to the Caballe: for that which the Caballe is divine and intelligible things, into the profound secrets whereof, she penetrates, Alchemy is in natural and elementary, which she reveals unto us. Geber saith some man cannot know the composition of a thing, that is ignorant of its destruction; which destruction is perfected by the separations caused by fire.  
Nature then taketh great pains, care, and pleasure, to labour in metals; and puts in them a very great length of Time, to bring them to the last degree of perfection, which settles in Gold, the most perfect and incorruptible substance of all others, and the homogeneal and equal in all his parties: whence it is taken for distributive justice, for mingle a party of Gold with 3. or 4. hundreds of silver, or Copper, leaving them melted together to sport never so little within a little Cruset, every portion how small soever it may be, of silver or copper, will suck up its equal part and portion of gold. It is moreover so exactly depured, that it cannot be altered or corrupted by any thing, that is either in the earth, water, air, or fire, nor by any corrosive or poison that you can apply thereunto. It is not corrupted by clay, nor burnt with any burning thing: nor mortified or devoured, by any green colouring, or dividing water, there is nothing in it superfluous or defective: There are (saith Hermes) seven Metallick bodies, of which the most worthy and principal is gold, attributed unto the Sun: from whence it hath its name, for the same that the Sun is to the stars, gold is toward the elementary bodies, what thing soever burning it can be, cannot burn it, the earth cannot corrupt it, nor the water destroy nor alter, because its complexion is tempered in heat, moisture, coldness and dryness, and there is nothing in it superfluous or deficient. By reason whereof, I find that those are fare wide of their account, which to keep themselves from poisoning, would serve themselves with vessels of gold to eat and drink in; for gold respects no more poisons nor venoms, than it would do of capon broth: So do silver, pewter, copper, lead & iron, which would therewith change immediately. Even as a fearful man, and of small resolution, who at the encounter of a Serpent or other venomous beast, would grow suddenly pale, and come to change colour: The care, curiosity, and assiduous travel of infinite, rare, and meditating spirits, by the space of 4 or 5000 years, have found in metals secrets without number, and yet knew not to do so well, but that they have left much more to inquire into, and to search after: although there be but seven in all, comprehending therein running quicksilver.  
Wherein it is wonderful, that Nature so copious and abundant in all her procreations, which are divers, is pleased in this respect with so small a number. Metals then, being such whose regiment depends on fire; which is one of the proper visible symbols to represent the most hidden secrets, and mysteries of Divinity; invisible, and imperceptible to our senses.  
The Prophets also, were willing to serve themselves for the most part of their parables, and similitudes, aenigmaes, allegories and figures; where they have covered and hid that which they would not so openly declare, for they have very seldom expressed themselves, as did Esay in his 5 Chapter, where he interprets that the vision of the Lord of Hosts, whereof he there brought a parable, was the people of Israel, and the men of Judah his delectable plant. And in another passage many waters, are many nations. Moreover Ezekiel, 23. having spoken of the two sister's Aho●ah and Aholibah, he set down that this was Samaria and that Jerusalem. God by the mouth of Moses, in the 28. of Leviticus, and in the 28. of Deuteronomy, threatened the Israelites, said, if they come to mis-know him, and do not keep well his commandments, that he would make the heaven over their head brass, and the earth under them iron, which are the two most terrestrial metals, and most hard and rebellious to melt and to handle, opposing them to the durity of this people, as it is there said. I will bruise the pride of your hardness, and will make heaven over you as iron, and earth as brass, your labour shall consume unprofitably, your earth shall not bring forth its seed, nor the tree yield any fruit. For metals produce nothing, but are barren; the Poets of their side have used many sorts of Metaphors, and figures, as in the 6. of the Aeneid. an iron voice, for a strong and resounding voice, and Hesiod calleth the infernal dog Cerberus, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a voice of brass, because it is the most sounding metal; His voice shall sound as brass, Jer. 16. and Origen upon the 25. of Exod Brass is taken for a strong and thundering voice, because of its resounding. Although I should speak with the tongue of Angels, and have not charity in me, I am as sounding brass, and as a tinkling cymbal. Pindarus hath appropriated to Heaven the Epithet of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Heaven of brass, in the 10. of the Pythians; because of the firm solidity of the firmament, as the word importeth. Homer doth the same in the 3. of his Odes, calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, most brass, as Euripedes and Anaxagoras, make the Sun a fired iron; for the Greek Poets ordinarily do put fire and brass one for another; the same doth Homer in many places, as in the 4. of the Iliads, where Apollo to encourage the Trojans, remonstrates unto them, that the Greeks have not impenetrable bodies, of stone, or of iron, that they should be able to resist blows of cutting brass, without hurting them. These are manners of speech, which are not very strange amongst the Prophets, who have thereby figured out the most part of their solutions, under which some mysteries were shadowed; which if mwn would take altogether raw according to the letter, without allegorising thereupon, they would find themselves fare from their reckoning, as the Martyr Pamphilus said well in the defence of Origen, speaking of those who to shun allegories were constrained to stumble at gross impertinencies. They think it of this sort, said he, for that they would not admit of allegories in the holy writ, by reason whereof, assubjecting themselves to the literal sense, they imagine and invent to themselves fine fables, and fictions. And indeed how could a man take according to the letter that of the 33. of Deut. speaking of Aser? Thy shoes shall be iron and brass, for he would not say that Aser was shod with iron and brass, but he would understand thereby his force and power, denoted as well by the two metals, as by the shoe; I will extend my shoe against Idumaea, strangers are my subjects; These are all allegories and figure, as also in the 60. of Esay, For brass I bring thee gold, and silver in stead of Iron, brass for wood, and fire for stones. Mark well how the Prophet observes the relations opposing brass to gold, and iron to silver; and again, brass to wood, and iron to stones; for as gold excelleth silver, and trees stones, it is the same in the metallique order, brass is more precious than iron. But all tends to denote that the heavenly mystical Jerusalem, which is the Church triumphant, so much more excellent than the Jewish Synagogue, which was but a figure thereof. And certainly he that would look more narrowly thereinto, the Prophets never spoke any thing improperly, even to the least trade or mechanic arts; for in their ravishments they saw things in their real being, within the Zapheret or supercelestial Sun, which is a clear shining lookingglass, a living source of all Ideas, as Ideas are of forms. 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 brass? for iron is easily changed into copper, by means of vitriol, by putting them bed upon bed in a descensory with a strong fire of bellows, so long till the iron grow liquid and melt into copper, having first moistened them with a little vinegar, 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 distil the water in a cornue, that which shall remain calcined in the bottom, 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 vitriol in common water, evaporate the water, and calcine the congelation that shall rest in the bottom; 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 green 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 again in the same vinegar, and therein quench the gads or other iron work, as above said. In brief, that by the means of vitriol, iron is conve●ted into copper, as we may see in penknives steeped in ink 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 practices (you may say) are long and troublesome and rather chargeable then gainful, and profitable. Also our intention here, is not to stretch to gain, this book is not to get burnt, but to penetrate into the secrets of nature: from thence to mount and elevate his spirit to spiritual things, whereto sensible do serve as a stair or as jacob's ladder; and there are no rarer considerations and observances, then in fire, and metallique transmutations: Copper on the other side, is changed into steel; if it be true that some Rabbins quote, upon that passage lately alleged out of the 15. of Jeremiah 12. Iron and Brass, the Prophet (say they) calleth Iron mixed with Brass, Steel, which showeth (for we must disdain nothing of theirs) that Damake Steel was composed of Iron and Copper, that is to say, of Iron half covered in Copper, and softened to restrengthen it the more by means of lead. Whereupon make what Abuhali sets down in a Book of the nature of things.  
Make a little long trench within a bar of iron, and cast thereinto melted lead, then make it evaporate with a strong fire as of a coupelle. Put again therein new lead four or five times, and the iron will grow soft, which you may after wards make hard again quenching it in forge water, to make lancets, and other subtle cutting irons, yea that shall cut other iron, without splinters or gapping. And indeed we have found by experience, that to temper well a harness 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 again. John the Grammarian expounding this place of Hesiod, they wrought in brass, for iron was not yet known, 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. book imitates Hesiod in this kind, 
Ancient arms were hands and nails,  
Stones and fragments of tree boughs,  
And flames and fires, were first known,  
Afterwards the force of Iron and Brass,  
But the use of Brass, before Iron.  Steel furthermore is made of the most pure and subtiliate iron; for that it participates less of the earthiness, than iron. The artifice of it, is sufficiently known, and is common in forges. But to come to that of Damas', you must first resweeten it of its too much bitter tartness, 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 vessel, 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 tin, by means of Sal Armonaick, and of certain incerative powders of Borax, Salt peter, salt of Tartar, Salalchali, and other the like, which are called Atinears. Panthee in his Voarchadumie, oil of glass. Quicksilver also, is changed into lead or tin, according as it is congealed to an imperceptible vapour, either of the one, or of the other, in this manner. Melt lead or tin in a cruset, then let them a little cool, so long that they may be taken, but yet hot, or with a staff of a torch, or the like, make a trench therein, wherein you shall put quicksilver which will be suddenly congealed, but bruiseable into powder. Reiterate that two or three times, and make it afterwards boil in the juice of Mercuriale, and will convert itself into metal according to the odour of that it was congealed▪ there is loss 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 tin, there presents a very fair consideration, very uneasy to comprehend, and doth merit, that the cause thereof should be sought after. We see by experience, that these two metals, each apart, are very soft, and of a tender fusion, yet b●ing mingled they grow hard, and become firm and solid, touching which see what Av●erroes sets down in his Book of Vapours. That which doth consolide, and strengthen tin, is lead; and reciprocally, lead tin; for the glewish viscosity, which binds their partie●, must consist of moisture and dryness, this being done, there is no conglutination of tin with tin, therefore lead is mingled therewith, which is more moist, and with lead, tin, which is more dry: so that those two mingled together, strengthen one another, better than being separated, and of their mingling, comes to procreate a glewing viscosity, which causeth in them a greater durity than they had, and binds them more firmly; just as sand, and chalk in the composition of Mortar, which Albertus also confirms in his fourth and fifth chapters of Minerals. But we will put off all these metallique particularities, and their divers transmutations, to our Treatise of Gold and Glass, upon the 28. of Job, where under gold we will comprehend all that sh●l depend on metals: and under glass, stones, as well natural, as artificial; and all vitrifications, and enamels. Here we will take but that which will conduce to our subject, which is to treat of things intelligible, by the sensible: after the imitation of the Prophets, and chief metals and fire, whose operation is better known in metals, then in the other composed elements. The Prophets than have set down iron and brass for a firm resistance. My strength is not the strength of stones, nor is my flesh brass, Job 6. and in the 18. Psal. Thou hast made my arms as a bow of brass. Furthermore in the 4. of Micah, I will make thy horn iron, and will make thy hoofs brass.  
As touching iron, for a hard and rigorous oppression, according as it is hard and inflexible of its nature, and which doth suppeditate almost all; I will rule them with a rod of iron in the 2. Psalm. and in the 4. of Deut. I have brought thee out of the iron furnace of Egypt; there where iron denotes servitude, wherein they were, for the oppression of their persons, and the furnace of fire, was that of their souls and consciences constituted amidst so many Idolatries and impieties, which must be unto them a servitude, more intolerable than all travails and afflictions; and the most cruel and pitiless usages of their bodies, for as much as the soul excels it, for the zeal which they carry to their God, with the same locution the Ecclesiastic served himself in his 28. speaking of a wicked tongue; happy is he that can save himself from a wicked tongue, for the yoke thereof is as iron, and his band as the band of brass. But for affliction and anguish, all openly in the 105. Psal. v. 18. Iron pierced his soul, speaking of Joseph a prisoner in Egypt, until his word came. To be short, there is not a point of locution figurative, more frequent in the Prophets, than those that are drawn from metals and from fire, which for the reason of its proprieties and effects, as it is one of the most commodious and necessary things of all others, according as it is said before, for it bakes our viands, it warms us, and doth revigour us against the colds; it clears and lightens in the darkness, in lieu of the sun's brightness, and other infinite usages, and chief for the execution of arts and trades: Otherwise we may say that without iron, fire itself would as it were be almost unprofitable for this respect. And Plato doth not exempt one only art from fire, but the pottery of clay, in the 3. of his Laws, where he treats very excellently of the life of the first men; and although iron and copper had brought them commodities to civilize themselves and to polish them to a more humane life. So that not without cause, these poor beastly Savages of the West Indies, did wonder in their gross understanding, how people in these parts, so well advised and industrious, for a little piece of gold or silver, unprofitable to all uses, should offer them so liberally hatchets, scythes, reaphooks, and other iron work, commodious for all usages, and which they ●ould so shorten that which they had with so great pain perfected but to the half with fire, which was to to them for all instruments and tools, with some base pointed flints. But we may here likewise allege to the contrary the hurts and incommodities that iron bringeth, for of it, are forged all offensive arms, wherewith men shorten their days by their reciprocal Massacres: for that, it is Mars his true Minister, and exterminator and ruin of mankind, as Jupiter qualifies it in the 5. of the Iliads, Mars, Mars, the plague and ruin of men, contaminated with murders, overthrower of walls.  
Which he could not do, at the least very uneasily without the means and aid of fire. Also they give it the name of Mars. But let us here a little consider a pleasant allegory covered under the fiction of Venus, Vulcan, and Mars. Venus without doubt is mankind, which is continued by venereal propagation of lineage. It's lawful spouse is Vulcan, which by conjugal love, brings him all or the greatest part of his necessary commodities, by reason of Mars, which is iron. But for that he is his adultererer, he also destroys the greatest part of what she procreates; and the husband maintains iron for a double use, good, and bad; for we must not measure the works of the Creator by their apparent incommodities or commodities. For God saw all that he had made, and they were very good; for this goes according as the Creatures apply it. Is there any thing more fair, more pleasant or more delectable to the sight, than a clear shining flame? any thing that doth more rejoice then light? And on the other side, there is nothing more hurtful, fuller of damage, nor more dangerous than fire, which burneth and consumeth all that comes near it. A Satire the first time he saw it, he rejoiced strangely to see it so fair, so clear, but thinking to approach nearer, to embrace, and to caresse it, when he perceived it so offended, with extreme grief, he was never after able to come near it. We may also say the same of iron, as Pliny calls it the best and the worst instrument of life; for therewith (saith he) we till the earth, graft trees, prune vines, with other infinite commodities and usages, as chief to build houses for our covert and safety. But on the other side, we employ it no less, if not more, in our mutual assassinates and massacres to shorten our life; as if it were troublesome to continue so long. Yet it is so short without the inconveniencies that shorten it and make of iron the most pernicious minister and instrument of all others. To which purpose Isiodorus said very well, From whence a long while ago earth was drawn from thence now blood is shed,  
Which proceeds rather from our malice and depravation, then from the fault of this inanimate insensible substance, which neither moves to good or to bad, but by ourselves.  
And yet, saith the same Pliny, it seems that nature was not willing wholly to excuse it, but to punish it only, rendering it subject so to rust, more than any other of the brother hood, and principally by man's blood, which it is so apt to spill.  
The same nature's benignity, exacting punishment from very iron by rust, from whence humane blood revengeth itself; for being touched therewith it more speedily draweth rust therefrom. And indeed there is nothing which sooner rusteth iron than man's blood. But this rust because we are purposely fall'n upon it, it is not altogether unprofitable, though most wholesome to many good effects, as well within as without the body, beyond that which it doth in tinctures. Wherefore it will do no hurt to touch some thing therein in this place, and therein to reveal that which experience hath manifested unto us to be most rare, and most important, but this is handled divers ways. Take than filings of iron very clean, and besprinkle them with a little distilled vinegar, leaving it so in a cave for two or three days or other fresh and moist place; and that will all convert into rust, which you shall bruise very subtly in an iron or a stone mortar. Put it in a little pot, and put thereon boiling distilled vinegar, stirring it lustily with a staff or rod of iron, and the vinegar will charge itself with the dissolution of the rust: turn it by inclination, and put therein o●her vinegar, reiterating tha● so long, that all the aluminosity and tincture of the iron be dissolved, and that nothing remains but black and dead earths which you must cast away: cause the vinegar to evaporate very sweetly, and there will remain a powder of Canneale colour, which the chemists call saffron of iron; which is made also by putting of small pieces of iron to calcine in Glass makers Ove●● for the space of three weeks or a month; and they will reduce themselves to a small and impalpable powder, as dough, red as blood, but it doth not dissolve itself in strong waters. There is neither Bole-armonaic, or Terra sigillata, which can compare to them, who know well to practise their proprieties and consemblable effects.  
In regard of the former, take of the phlegm of Aqua vitae, and do upon all the same just that which you did with the distilled vinegar upon the rust, it will dissolve more than the half: withdraw your phlegm by a light distillation, and upon the gum that shall rest congealed, cast ●ine Aqua vitae, stirring it strongly with a baston upon warm ashes, but you must not warm it so much as the vinegar and the phlegm, and when the aqua vitae shall be well charged of its dissolution, retire it by a slow distillation in Balneo Marie, in a limbeck; for it will serve you again as before: and if that be very proper for the dysenteries, and fluxes of the belly, with exulcerations and gangrenes with small shot; as also is the second Crocum drawn by the phlegm, of very great efficacy: and the third yet of more, drawn by Aqua vitae, which will remain in yellow powder the true essence of iron, which we have searched even to the Centre. But in all dissolutions take heed to leave them well in repose, and not to receive but the clear, pure, and neat, without any feces or residences; rather put them for an hour in a warm bath to clarify them. The vinegar that remains, and the phlegm, you may filter, but not the aqua vitae, because of its unctuosity: which makes it difficult to separate it, from its residences; we must therefore attend till it be clear.  
Behold these three earths, and the three dissolvants proceeding one and the other from the vegetable, that is to say, wine, the most excellent substance of all the vegetables, which the Philosopher Calisthenes called the blood of the earth. Now for the affinity that is betwixt iron and copper, we will here pursue in one train some experiments proceeding from the said copper. Take (to shorten as much as may be) of the stone of Azure, which is a mineral of copper, which will render you more than twelve ounces neat and liquid for a pound.  
But here we shall be constrained to make a little digression to serve for advertisement. In metallic dissolutions, (and let this be a maxim) we must rather take raw minerals, coming from the earth, and not the accomplished metals, and that for three reasons. The first, for that excuseth you of labour, and length of time, to calcine them, and make them dissoluble. The second, that in the dissolution of the mineral you shall find more of the salt, and shall extract it more easily, then in six of one of their chalx. And the third, for that the spirits of metal, are not yet at first so imprisoned in their corporal mass, as in the superficies within this mineral and in much greater abundance: there when it hath passed the asperity and rigour of the fire, to separate the metal, most part of the spirits disperse themselves and the ●est are drowned and barred fast in the bottom of the body: whence it is a difficulty to draw them; so that afterwards the oil is worse easy to extract from salt, in the dissolution of chalks, then of that which shall be drawn from the minerals. Take then of this Azure stone for the shorter, or if you have it not of aes ustum burned Brass, which we make coupellans of brass, in three parts of lead, (verdigrease is too gummy and unfit) or making meal of the filings of copper, even as we said heretofore of iron, putting thereunto a little aqua fortis, make it clear, which will be green, as an Emeraud, and pursue it, in and through all as you did iron: till the salt or gum remain in the bottom congealed, proper for hollow ulcers, and many other effects of chirurgery; you may yet govern this gum with phlegm and aqua vitae, as you did iron. And of the first very gum extracted by the vinegar, may thence draw an oil, as it was said of lead. In regard of the earth's that remain of the dissolutions of the aqua vitae, without any further dissolving of it, nor leaving any tincture therein, nor to disjoin them which is hard to do, nor to clarify the aqua vitae, but will remain impasted together as milk with dough, for they will be white, after you have dried them well in the Sun, or before a gentle fire. Put them upon a plate of iron, or of warmed copper: and if they fume not, it is a sign they are all deprived of their spirits. Yet put them in a cornue, with a naked bottom among coals, and perfect the drying of them; then at last give a fire of calcination. Cast aqua vitae thereon to dissolve that which you can; and evacuating the dissolution, perfect to dry the moisture which may thereof remain giving again fire of calcination in the end: and again putting aqua vitae thereon to perfect the extraction of all the salt therein remaining, which will be perfected in the third or fourth reiteration. I have put you to an address of great effects, where I do not pretend to lead you by the hand any further, not to injure good and curious spirits, that by long labours and perquisitions have traveled to obtain that which others had better cheap, and also to that which we reserve for our discourse of Gold and Glass, where we will declare that which shall here be left imperfect, not having attained, but by the end of the lip: wherefore we will take but that which is necessary to clear what the Prophets have thereupon touched in their parables and similitudes. In the first place of the two perfect gold & silver, on which they have most insisted on the good part, for the imperfect tin, copper, and iron, they have ordinarily applied to the worst part for vices and depravations, contumacies and durities; and lead for vexations and molestations. Gold for true belief, faith, piety, and religion, and in sum, all that which concerns the honour and service of God; Silver, for good and charitable works of mercy; due in respect of our neighbour. So that these two metals represent the two tables of the Decalogue. And it would not be fare from the purpose to make a trimming of the Altar. The first of gold, containing four precepts, in four azure letters, which signifieth heaven, and the other of silver in green letters, signifying the earth. Origen in the 2. Homil. upon this text of the first of Canticles (We will make thee borders of gold, with studs of silver,) triumpheth to allegorise the shape of gold, this (saith he) holds the figure of the invisible and incorporeal nature, (and this for that it is of a substance so homogeneal and subtle, that nothing can extend itself more fine) and silver, represents the virtue of the Verb, following that which the Lord said in the 2. of Hosea, I have given you gold and silver, and you have therewith made Idols to Baal. But we make the Holy Scripture Idols of gold and silver, when we turn the sense thereof to some perverted interpretation: or that we w●uld Pindarize it by elegances, as if virtue consisted on the vain flowers of Rhetoric, for in doing this we open our mouth, as if we would swallow and suck in heaven, whilst our tongue licketh the earth, like as if the Prophet should say, I have given you sense and reason, whereby you ought to acknowledge me for your God, and reverence me; but you have turned them aside, and therewith have made Idols: By sense are understood the internal cogitations which represents them; and by Reason, which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word, for it signifies the one and the other, as silver denotes, Psal. 12.6. the words of the Lord are pure words, as silver proved in the fire, when they say, or hold, that silver tried in the fire, is the tongue of the just, are not my words as fire? But Cherubins are said to be gold, because they interpret them for the plenitude of divine Science. And the Tabernacle of the alliance is of Gold also, because it carries the type and i● age of the law of nature, where consisted the gold of science; so that Gold is referred to the conception and thought, and silver to the word, according to which the wise man alludeth in the 25. of the Pro●erbe, As Golden apples with silver nets, so is he that speak● words in a fit sea●on. Hitherto Origen. But will we hear what Zohar sets down, from whence Origen hath fished out the greatest part of his rare and profound meditations and allegories, and to the purpose of those apples of gold, enchased within the nets of silver. The gold from above is the gold sagur, enclosed or folded up; that from below is more exeposed to our senses, (nothing should better agree to the M●ssihe which is the true pure gold of Evihah, mentioned Gen. 2. he which is reinclosed within silver,) namely his divinity, and reshut up with the humanity. Zohar pursues it; In the Tabernacle there were mingled gold, and silver, to assemble the divine mystery above in one subject, where sovereign perfection was found. But the Cherubims were all of gold, showing their Angelical nature which doth not participate of any corporeity, without any silver or copper mingled therewith. Gold within silver expresseth mercy, by which the whole universe was built, (the world was built in mercy,) upon which Gods Throne is established, His Royal seat shall be prepared in mercy. But the rigour of judgement is designed by copper, which approacheth to the colour of blood, without the effusion whereof, also there is no remission.  
And therefore it was ordained, that Moses should erect a Serpent in the Wilderness to heal those who were bitten by the vermin and cast th●ir eyes upon it. Then gold, silver, and copper, are the three metals that go together, the Chasma'l, or the electrum of Ezechiel. And there is a fair meditation upon the 3 colours, which are these, white, of silver, that represents water, is mercy, manifested by the particle Jah, assigned to the Father, which the Apostle calls the father of mercies, 1 Cor. 1.3. Copper that in redness imitates fire, is the rigour and the severity of justice, which the Egyptians call Din, attributed to the Holy Spirit, against which if any blaspheme, he shall neither be pardoned in this world here, nor in the other. The third, in the middle of two, is the citrinity of the gold, composed of white and red, as we may see in saffron, blood, vermilion, and other the like, tempered with water, which is white, for from thence is procreated a golden yellow; for Citrinity, saith Geb●r, is nothing else, but a determinate proportion of white and red. And this guilded citrinity is attributed to the Son, who participates of Mercy and Justice: in pursuance of that spoken in the 16. of Eccl. 11. because mercy and wrath are with him. But latten or copper, which in its exterior hath some resemblance with gold, but within all impure and corrupt, denoting hypocrisy, which under a mask of pious zeal, and religion hatcheth its wicked desires, and detestable ambitions, impieties, erroneous opinions, lusts, animosities, revenges, and other unjust and perverse intentions. The whiteness of the silver, on the one side, of which this let on participates, for it is but at 16 Carats being pallied by the redness of copper, that causeth it citrinity. But this redness is but cruelty, and malice, which corrupteth gentle sincerity. If your sins were as red as scarlet, or vermilion, they shall be as white as snow, Esay 1.16.  
In regard of lead, it is put for vexations and molestations, wherewith God doth visit us; by means whereof, he bringeth us unto repentance; for as lead burneth, and exterminateth all the imperfections of metal, which Boetius the Arabian, calleth water of Sulphur; so tribulation divesteth us here below, from many spots, which we thereby have contracted, so that, St. Ambrose calleth it, Heaven's Key, following that which is written, Act. 14.22. Through many temptations we must enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. The Apostle Rom. 5.3. and 4. etc. useth a very fine gradation, Trihulations begets patience tpatience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the holy spirit, that is given unto us. Fire denotes tribulation, whereupon the said Saint Ambrose upon the first psalm, Fire saith he, burneth wax, which melts itself to be purged, and we are proved by fire, for God desiring to convert a sinner chastiseth him, and burneth him, to purge him: for fire is light to Believers, and punishment, to the incredulous. Said Saint Jerome very well upon Ezechiel. That fire illuminates Believers, and blinds Infidels, serving for nothing but smoke which makes them weep, and darkness, as smoak which is noxious to the eyes. With which fume the house of Israel was all filled and darkened; 
Prov. 10 26. Esa. 6.4.  Let the just then rejoice, when they shall find themselves upon this text of the 50. Psal. 3. A fire shall burn in his sight, for they shall be thereby illuminated, and obstinate sinners burnt by the same, having the two properties to illuminate, and burn: for that it illuminates, it must be the holy Spirit, which is the true fire, that is kindled in our hearts, and not foolish and preverse opinions, vain and erroneous, which would quickly draw us to that which the Prophet Esay saith, Chap. 50.11. Behold all ye that kindle a fire, and that compass yourselves about with sparks, walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled, and you shall sleep in sorrow. From thence saith Origen, it seems that sinners kindle themselves a fire, wherewith they must be crucified. O Israel thou hast destroyed thyself, Hos. 13. And in the 28. of Ezek. 18. I will bring forth a fire, from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon Earth. The matter then which entertains it, are our iniquities, and our offences, their iniquity shall burn as fire. And in the 7. of Eccles. 17. The vengeance of the ungodly is fire, and worms, which toucheth upon that in the 9 of St. Mark. 44. alleged out of the 66. of Esaiah 24. Whose worm shall not die, nor their fire be quenched: for the one and the other are endless, namely the fire that burns them, and the worm that gnaws their consciences in this world, and in the other, torments them for ever. There where on the contrary, if God set it on fire, we may say with one of our ancient fathers, O happy flame, but not burning, illuminating, but not consuming: Thou dost transform whom thou dost touch, so that they, even merit to be called Gods. Thou hast warmed thy Apostles, who forsaking all things but thee, have been made God's children: Thou hast warmed the Martyrs, who have spilt their blood: Thou hast warmed the Virgins, who by the fire of Divine Love, have quenched the heat of concupiscence. The Confessors likewise, that have separated themselves from the world, to join and to unite unto thee. So that every creature, by the beneficence of this fire, repurgeth itself, from its coinquinations, and ordures, and there is nothing exempted from its heat, if it would come to enjoy the fellowship of God; for it is this fire, that kindleth in us by the illuminations of the holy Spirit, by means of our corporal tribulations, which brings us sooner to God, than any other thing, of which Lead is one of their symbols, working the same operations in metals, as afflictions do in us. There is so gallant a passage in the 6. of Jer. under the figure of a Coupelle, which I think, that there is not a Goldsmith, Refiner, or a Mettleman, which hath spoken more properly: They are all corrupters, speaking of the Jewish people, than iron or copper. The bellows are burned, the Lead is consumed in the fire, the Founder melteth in vain, for their wickedness●s are not plucked away, Reprobate silver shall men call them, for the Lord hath rejected them. Whereupon Rab. Sol. is a little interveared for that he doth not well understand the Coupelles, being willing to adjoin one of his own. The prophet speaketh here (saith he) of God as of a Goldsmith, who desirous to purge gold puts thereunto lead or tin, that the fire should not consume the gold: for after the lead is consumed, the fire hurts the gold by consuming it. Mark what it is to speak unadvisedly of things we do not understand, for so doing we suffer ourselves to fall easily into gross absurdities: There are are here two faults so apparent, that even apprentices would mock at them: the one to mix Tin at the Coupelle or ashes in stead of lead: for it would not be fit: also the Prophet takes heed therein. See what Geber sets down, in the Chap. of Ashes, Metals that participate least of the substance of quicksilver, and more of Sulphur, separate themselves sooner and more easily from their mixtions. So that lead, because it hath more of the Sulphureall terrestreity, and less quicksilver, it is of more tender and light fusion, than any other: hardens less in the coupple and separates soon: therefore it is more proper to this examination, for that it carries away with less time and pains, the impurities of imperfect metals, mingled with gold and silver. Upon which there is no action, and by consequent b●ings less damage thereunto: the●e where because the substance of tin participates of much quick silver, and of little sulphurous earthiness, so that being more pure and subtle, the more profoundly it mingles itself, and adheres more strongly to gold and silver, from which it is separated more slowly and more unwillingly, with so much of their loss and falling off: the other error is to think, that when the lead in the Coupelle hath exterminated the imperfect metals, and itself is partly gone away in smoke, partly burned, and partly inglued, within the Coupelle as in vitrified litarge, fire cannot in any thing hurt gold, for being fire and pure, it would remain there a thousand years without the loss of one grain: to which nothing of things is wanting, it is even safe in burn, and great fires; the matter remaining said Pliny well, speaking of gold in his 33. Book, chap. 3. as we may see by experience. The prophet said then, and that so properly as nothing more, that even as when there are more impurities mingled with gold and silver, to repurge them we must put thereunto more lead at once. So the Jews iniquities were so great that it was needful to visit them with more afflictions one upon another to make them know their offences and to forsake them: as Physicians who redouble oftentimes their purgations and medicaments in those bodies, where the malady is contumacious and rebellious: for tribulations and adversities, are in us as fire, and as lead, in impure metals: As gold and silver are tried by the fire, so the Lord tries our hearts, Prov. 2. and in the 2. of Eccles. 5. Whatsoever is brought upon thee, take patiently, for gold and silver, are tried by fire, and men by the furnace of tribulation, and anguish: Saint Gregory in his Pastorals upon this passage of the 11. of Ez●kiel, who dilateth and insisteth hard upon this metaphor and similitude. The house of Israel is to me become dross, all they are brass and tin, and iron in the midst of the furnace, and they are the dross of silver, and therefore saith the Lord, I will gather you in the midst of jerusalem, as a mass of silver, brass, tin, and iron, and of lead, into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon them to melt them. So I will gather them in mine anger, and in my fury, yea I will gather them and blow upon them, in the fire of my wrath, and they shall be melted, in the midst thereof. As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall they be melted in the midst thereof, and they shall know, that I the Lord have poured my fury upon them. Saint Gregory, interprets this for the Jews, who in their strong adversities would not leave to go out of the way of their vices, and depravations, and would receive no correction but made themselves worse: Malachy 3.3. useth the same form of speech. The Lord shall fit to melt and purge silver, he shall purify the Sons of Levi, and purge them as gold, and silver, and they shall offer to the Lord an offering of righteousness. See how he there resembleth very well, Gold to Faith, and Religion and Silver to works, for i● the one and not the other be not very clean, in vain would we present them unto God. And all this must be perfected by fire: according ●o which the Psalmist speaketh, Thou h●st proved my heart, and hast visited me in the night, thou hast examined me by fire, and there is no iniquity found in me, Psal. 17.3. for (as St. chrysostom saith) fire according to the will of God, doth divers operations. It did not burn the three children in the furnace, yet burned those that were without: and as the Sea gave way to the Israelites, to pass on dry foot, and drowned Pharaoh, and all his that pursued them. There is a fi●e, saith St. Ambrose, upon the 39 Psal. vers. 3. which with its Ardour devoureth the transgression, and blotteth out the sin: But we most not understand it material fire here below, for there is nothing common here, with spirituality, but by way of analogy, and correspondence; there being a very great disproportion betwixt intelligible and sensible things, as in Jer. 20.9. And there was a burning fire in my bones. In sum that the holy Scripture is stuffed with these manner of speeches drawn from fire and metals. As in Hag. 2.8. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of Hosts. Gold, silver, and all metals, yea generally, all things whatsoever, although they may be said to be of God; as St. Jerome said very well, forasmuch as he created them, and gave them being, subsistence, and maintenance. The earth is the Lord and the fullness thereof: notwithstanding this gold and silver, which God allegeth here more particularly to be his, must be understood mystically. By silver, interpret the law of the mouth, the words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. And by Gold (saith Zohar) the written Law, where there are many brave meditations to be considered; for there i● not a form of a letter, point nor accent, but importeth some mystery, as it is particularly specified in Ghinab Egoz, in the garden of drowning of Rabbi Joseph Castiglia●. On the other side silver is applied to the old Testament, gold to the New. Origen confronts Faith to Gold, and the confession and preaching thereof to silver. That there, to the conceptions of the thought, and this here, to the word and enuntiation made by month which expresseth it, and puts it out. The tongue of the just is chosen silver. Of which two metals, namely of right Faith and purity of conscience, and of verbal confession, the Temple, and Church of God in Christianism, and the glory of him was greater than the Jewish Law, which was but a dark shadow th●reeof. So that gold, designs the heart, that corresponds to the Sun, and to fire: and silver words, with Salt wherewith they must be seasoned: The word is near unto thee even in thy mouth, and in thy heart that thou mayst do it: which the Apostle appropriating, If thou confess the Lord jesus with thy mouth, and dost believe in thy heart, that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved: for we believe with the heart to justification, and confess with the mouth to have Salvation. It is gold and silver which he would that we should build on his foundation: the gold of Havilah, that groweth within the terrestrial Paradise, with the Carbuncle and the Emerald which the Psalmist in the 67. Psalm calleth the Greene's of Gold.  
Behold here the depurements that fire operates where it passeth: and chief upon metals, which are of a most strong and persisting composition, as any other Elementary substance, therefore we have therein a little insisted, because that the Prophets have therein founded the greatest part of their Allegories: where we must note, that they have commonly put the imperfect, lead, tin, iron, and copper, in the bad part, and sometimes gold also: as in Jer. 51.7. Babylon is a golden Cup: and in the 2. of Dan. 32. speaking of Nebuchadnezar, Thou art the Golden head, more in the 31. of Eccles. there are many chances in gold: Zohar calls it Satan's dung, following the Text of the 37. of Job: Gold comes from the North: for the North is always taken by the Cabalists in the evil part, because the Sun never passeth thereby, and it relates to midnight, where the hurtful powers are in their great reputation and vigour: as on the contrary, Noon in good part; We must not then understand, that Job would say that gold came from the Northern parts, for it grows not there by reason of their continual colds: but in some certain place, where it procreates; this is more ordinarily towards the North: against which the Sun, as against a But, darts its beams, being to the Meridion all part, as likewise all good wines. And to this purpose Franciscus Oviedus in his 16. Book, Chap. 1. of his general history of the Indies, speaking of the Isle of Borichen, puts this, Borichen, otherwise called St. John's Island, is very rich in gold, and men draw it, in great quantity, even on the Northern side, as in the opposite part towards the South, it is very fruitful of victuals: the same also is found even in Spain itself. Gold then is sometimes taken in the worse part, as in the golden Calf which the Israelites melted in Moses his absence, from whence one of their Rabbins said, there had never befallen them any calamity and misery, but there was an ounce of that Idol mingled therewith: Silver because of its whiteness, denotes Mercy, is always in the good part, and first in esteem before gold, as it is Hag. the 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 extremely bitter: and bitterness signifies, trouble, anguish, and grief; as Pearls do 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, Brass 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 blood 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 subtlety, where it is said, in the 2. Eccles. I thought to draw my flesh with Wine, to give myself unto Wisdom.  
But to return to our principal 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 humours: fire also doth the same, and analogically spiritual fire, which is nothing but the charitable ardour 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 dross, 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, showeth 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, foe for its vivifying heat, wherewith all sensible things are maintained, as the intelligible by the supper celestial Sun, works the same effect in case of purification, as fire. As we may see by experience, as the places where the Sunbeams come not, are ever musty and mouldy, and to purify them we open windows 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 darkness. Also evil spirits, who have more reputation in the dark, from plague walking in darkness, the Hebrews call this Devil ravaging by night Deber, and from his violence and Meridian Devil, that of the day Catch; the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. There is in the fire, saith Pliny, a certain faculty and medicinal virtue against the Plague. Who for the absence and hiding of the Sun, comes to form itself: wherein we find by lightning it here and there may bring great comfort and secure in many kinds. As Empedocles and Hypocrates do elsewhere sufficiently demonstrate. There was also a Physician 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 counterpoison, cannot be better found then in the fire of contrition that the Holy Spirit kindles therein: My heart was hot within me, 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 press us here, do compel 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 me, 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 vessel: 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 we cannot know better then by proof: and from thence comes dignity and eternal glory, the one and the other acquired by the fire of Examination and of probation; for, as saith St. chrysostom, that which fire is towards gold and silver, the same is tribulation in our souls from which fire cleanseth the impurities and uncleanness, 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 Potter's vessel, and tentation of tribulation, trieth good men. There are many, saith one of the Fathers, who whilst 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. Homily upon the 3. Chap. of Jesus Nave, they that draw near unto me, draw near unto fire: If you be (saith he there) Gold or silver, the nearer you come to the fire, the more you will become resplendent: but if you build with wood, straw, or chaff, 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 lightened and not burnt. According as it is written in the 3. of Mal. The Lord will sanctify thee in burning fire. St. Augustine, upon a verse of the 45. Psalm. We have passed through water, and fire: Fire burneth (saith he) 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 vessel that is well hardened in the fire, fears neither water nor fire. Let us then study to amend ourselves by the fire of tribulation, by bearing it patiently; for if the pottery be not firmly strengthened by fire, the water of temporal vanity will soften it and mingle it as dirt. And therefore we must pass through the fire, to come to the water of Mercy, and Grace, whereof St. John speaketh in the 3. of S. Mat. I Baptise you with water unto repentance, but he that comes after me is stronger than I, and he will Baptise you with the holy Spirit, and with fire. Of which fire we may see in the 16. of Wisdom, 17. for it is wonderful, that in the water that quencheth all things, fire should be most powerful. That which made St. Auguistine himself say; that in the Sacrament of Baptism, which they exercise and Catechise, they first came to fire, and after to the Baptism of water: where the same comes to the temptations of this age, where in the anguish which oppresseth us, the fire first presents itself, but when the fear therein is out, it is to be feared that a wind of vain glory proceeding from temporal felicity, dissolve it not into rain, which will come to quench the fire of heat and Charity, which affliction hath taken within our Souls. To this purpose, from fire to baptismal water, designed by the aforesaid passage, we have passed through water and fire, this b●ats upon the 31. of Numb. of cleansing by fire, and b● water, according as the things may suffer: for visible baptism, is made by visible water, and wherein the water consists in parts which is nothing else but congealed water, by the acuity of fire thrust thereinto: with which salt every Sacrifice must be salted, that is to say, the external man, and the invisible baptism of the internal spiritual man is wrought by the Grace of the holy Spirit represented by fire which of itself is invisible, and unperceivable, except it be attached to some matter, as the soul is in the body: This fire there burneth in us mortal sins, and the water washeth away Venial and Original.  
But some will demand, What is that fire, from whence comes it, that so purifies our souls, and warms them in the Love of God, and illightens them with his knowledge? for we love nothing but what we know: and we cannot know God, nor see his light, but by his light (In thy light we shall see light:) that is to say, by his word and parol who hath vouchsafed to revest us with our flesh. Thy word is a fiery word, and thy servant loveth it. It this fire than which our Saviour saith, he was come to send into the earth: and what will I, if it be already kindled? For as Prometheus brought fire here below, which he had lighted, in one of the wheels of the Sun's Chariot: The word hath rendered, lightened in the Mercavah Chariot or throne of God, which is all of fire; as also in the 17. of Dan. vers. 9 Origen in his 13. Homil. upon the 25. of Exodus. Jacinth, Purple, double Scarlet, and Silk: sets down, that these four represented the four Elements, Silk or Linen, the Earth from whence it came; Purple, Water, because extracted from blood with the shell or cockle of the sea; Jacinth in Hebrew Techeleh, the Air, for it is without heavenly blue; and Scarlet, fire, by reason of its red inflamed colour. But wherefore is it there said, that Moses redoubled the fire; and not one of the rest? Because that fire hath a double propriety, the one to shine, and to be bright, and the other to burn: we must understand corruptible things, for upon the incorruptible, we must look upon for this regard, to refine them and amend more and more. Did not our hearts burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures? Luke 24.32. said the Pilgrims of Emaus. And this is it wherefore it is commanded in the Law to offer double Scarlet▪ to adorn the Tabernacle. But how can this be? Ask Origen, a Doctor instructing people in the Church of God, designed by the Tabernacle, if he did but cry after the vices, blaspheme, and reprove them; without bringing instruction and consolation to the people, explaining to them the Scriptures, and the obscure sense therein concealed, wherein consisteth the internal Doctrine, and the mystical understanding: he well offers Scarlet, but simple and not double, because that this fire doth not but burn and not lighten. But on the other side, if they do but clear and interpret Scripture without reprehension of vice and sin, and to show requisite severity to a declarer of the Word of God, we offer as it were simple Scarlet: for this fire there, doth not but illuminate & doth not inflame persons to repentance of their misdoings, correction and amendment of life: whereunto cooperates the Grace of the Holy Spirit, which is domestic fire, with which we must salt our souls to preserve them from corruption: for there is nothing that doth more symbolise to the nature of the soul than fire: because it is that of all things sensible, which approacheth more to spirituality, as well for its continual and light motion which soars always upwards, as for its light, which Plotin saith must properly be attributed to the intelligible world, heat to the Celestial, and burning, to the Elementary. And for as much as it participates more of light then any of the other Elements: that likewise acquires unto it a precellency above the rest: for the Earth being a body wholly without motion, dark and duskish; is by consequent less in dignity, as the settlement and lees of all others. Water because it is clearer, is more worthy, and the Air yet more: But fire is that which surpasseth all, therefore it is lodged in a higher place, and nearer to the Region of the air: It is that, which Vincent no despicable Author, was pleased to say in his Philosophical Mirror, 2. Book, 33. chap. Every thing for as much as it participates more of light, so much the more it approacheth nearer to the Divine Essence, which is perfect light, by which God began the Creation of the Universe, or the first thing that he ordained to be made, was light: and to show us, that we must always walk in light and not in darkness. And on the contrary, how much more the Elements are distant from light, by so much they approach to their dissemblance and deformity, which is a token of corruption. For as much as the parties of the composed Elements are homogeneal and homomaternall, or like one to another, so much less are they corruptible and separable, as we may see in gold, the most proportionate substance of all, and which approacheth nearest to fire: that which moved Pindarus from the beginning of his first Olympian, to join these three, water, fire and gold together, water is best, gold, and shining fire, etc.  
Do we not see that at every end of a field almost that the Earth doth change nature and quality, and that there are infinite sorts of them? Not so many of Water, Air is most like unto itself: but if there be any changes or alteration therein it is by accident, as if some maladies should fall thereupon: which do more readily adhere thereunto, because of its rarity of substance then to any others. Fire is altogether exempt therefrom, being always one, and in its all like to his parts, which are like to themselves, except the matter to which it doth adhere makes it vary. And this it is in which it comes nearest to the Celestial nature which is all Uniform in itself, 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 Lamps burning in their hands, that their light might come to shine amongst men, that their good works may be seen, to glorify their Father which is in heaven, for he that doth ill hates the light, which Job saith is worse to Malefactors, than the shadow of death. It is the same also that Moses would secretly infer in the 3. of Gen. where he 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 darkness. Let us then take heed, that the light which he hath pleased to put into our soul, be not obfuscate and converted into black obscurity: and that on this solid foundation which he hath granted us of his knowledge, we build not hay, wood, and chaff, all things of themselves obscure and dark, in lieu of gold, silver, precious 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 devours another being the stronger, as we may see in some burning firebrand, or torch, that which proceeds therefrom is of two sorts: the one blue, attached to a black match, which retaineth itself there nourishing itself from corruption. The other flame proceeding from the red inflamed Match is white, and the blue is white in the highest, as to return to the first original: this Homer was not ignorant of, when in the 6. of his Odysseys he attributed to the Olympus a pure and bright splendour.  
Nothing should better represent unto us the four worlds namely the white which is supercelestial, the blue celestial, the match fired, the Elementary, and the burning darkness, Hell: which abundantly shows us the body. Redness, the vital spirit, resident in the blood; the blue, the soul; the white, the intellect, and the divine character imprinted in the soul: and as the blue light doth quickly change into yellow, quickly into white, the soul also can do the same according as it shall incline itself to good or to evil: or whether she 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 do well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou dost not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. The white flame is always the same, without variation or change, as doth the blue: 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 blue. Red in the top of the weik, and the flame white. This which relates also, to the four Elements, black, material, to the Earth: Blue more spiritual 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 nevertheless 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 darkness 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 sudden, You have heard his voice out of darkness: 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 itself therewith, for if it were shining we should in the night see all the air shine as fire. And for that the darkness, which was first named, denoted fire, namely that whereof it is said, that darkness was upon the face of the Abyss: 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 beautiful fire. All this which adheres then to the low black part, is therewith 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 endeavour but to uncover itself here below to transport itself upwards: and not suffer itself to be over mastered by others. And doth not devour nor destroy, nor is not thereby devoured, nor his clear shining splendour altered, as are those of the others: By reason whereof we must adhere and let ourselves be salted with this white fire, and be 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 blue light the soul, adhere to the black, and to the red, which are our sensualities and concupiscences, the strange fire will force itself into us, and will devour and consume us. This knowledge of the Elements, and of their colours, doth not insist only in composed bodies, here below, but thereby we may mount as by jacob's Ladder, the height of this celestial world, where the Elements are also, yet of another sort, more simple and depured: and from thence to pass beyond into the intelligible world, where they are in their true essence; for all consists in the four Elements. Sons of wisdom 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 be 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 Cabal? 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 be: where the little and final 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, do signify the soul: and the Jod is the white unchangeable and permanent flame of the intellect, where all at length comes to terminate, which whiteness is the seat of the true spiritual hidden light, which is not seen nor known, but by itself: for indeed our nature to take it in itself, 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 intellectual light: And there is not a creature whatsoever, which is of itself a substantial 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 mortal eye could suffer, that of which is written in 46. Psal. Light is risen to the just, and gladness to the upright in heart: which corresponds to the intelligible world, and the inward man. The other is a twinkling and flaming light, of a red fiery colour, joined and united to a coal, or a weik, signifying the sensible world, and the outward corporal man. The soul is placed in the middle, namely the blue 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 she applies itself it comes to be 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 rejoicing 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 Theology, that all which we can perceive of goodness 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 whilst they are annexed to the bodies, or separated therefrom, comes from this primordial light, which shineth in them by reflection, as the Sun beams in a basin, a concave looking glass, 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 Sovereign good, carries therewith the same appellation. And Rabbi Eliezer in his chapters sets down, that the heavens were created with the light of the Creator's 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 do the great mysteries consist, from which St. Denys doth not straddle far in the place alleged? for even as this fair great and clear shining Sun, that hath in itself such a manifest representation and image of Sovereign 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 hid itself from the heat thereof. In the same manner this Eternal supercelestial light, illustrates, vivifies, and perfects all that which hath being, and banisheth darknesses and all softening hoariness, that may be brought thereinto, lightning our souls with a desire always 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 Sovereign 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 herself the most worthy and excellent property of fire, with which it hath this in particular and proper, that she makes herself 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 showing us, and revealing us all it is then, when she hides herself most from us, even to blind us and to reduce our brightness into darkness; As is his darkness, so is his light.  
We must then not speak of God without light, because he is the crew light because, O Lord, thou art my Lantern: which doth enlighten us, by thy word, Thy word is a Lantern to my feet, the splendour 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 darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. So that from this light, we have double commodity: the one, that life, by which we live, the other the light by which we see, that which enlightens us. The spiritual man, the true man enjoys the one and the other: the Carnal man, life only: for touching the rest, he is in darkness, because they have been rebels to light, saith Job, because they have not her ways. Even as if one should enclose a to●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 itself abroad for the obstacle that hinders it. And if we want light (saith St. Ambrose) there would be no more comeliness, beauty, 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 Inn, where they made him a fire, he suddenly 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 administered justice to the people; and a fair burning and lighted fire, the comeliness and rejoicing of an house, which renders it so much the more honourable. To see a burning fire in an old h●use. Some attribute them to, Hesiod: Trismegistus amongst the rest calls light the father of all, who hath procreated man like unto i●, 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 splendour and heat, which three are not separated one from another, but remain united together, although they are distinct: in this fire then our souls are warmed in the Love and fear of God, and lightened in his knowledge. Whereupon Pope Innocent the 3. in a Sermon upon the Holy Spirit sets down, that he was sent to the Disciples in shape of fire, to m●ke them shine by wisdom, and to warm them by charity, that which regulates and forms life, and wisdom forms doctrine, and as this fire hath life, and heat by which it purifieth and cleanseth: so the Holy Ghost by its light illuminates the spirit of man by wisdom, and repurgeth it by its ardent charity. This is the fire with which the inner man, should be salted, for to salt, bake, and burn, do communicate their appellations and significations, by their consemblable proprieties and effects: because that Salt boils in the tastes by reason of its acrimony, and fire the sense when it burns, and a thing salted is half boiled, as is before said: as well to make it of more easy digestion, as to conserve it longer, which are the proprieties and effects of fire.  
But to mount from fire here below to the Celestial, which is the Sun, the eye and heart of the sensible world, and the visible Image of the invisible God. Saint Denis calls it an all-apparent and clear Statue of God; and jamblichus the Image of Divine intelligence, the father of life, the Image and portrait of the Prince, and Sovereign Dominator of all the universe, the light of the one, and the other world, the Celestial and Elementary. But may we not here allege at once this brave authority of Plutarch on the interpretation of the word El, where after he had turned it, and returned it about a pot by many discourses, which at last concluding nothing, vanished away in smoke: he concludes that this word, as indeed it is, would say nothing else, but thou art? which hath been drawn from the two first letters of the holy four lettered word JEHOVAH, transposed the one before the other, in the Greek E.L. which showeth that they have all drunk of this Caballine or Mosaical fountain. And at last come to say, We worship God in his essence, by our thoughts, and reverence the Sun, which is its Image, for the virtue which it hath given it, to produce things here below: only representing by its splendour, which he communicates to all, I know not what appearance, or rather shadow of beatitude and mercy, so much as it is possible for a visible Nature to represent an Intelligible, and a moving to that which is  and stable. We see the Sun, as well as fire, but not so near, to be able so exactly to mark it, we shall very well conjecture in our spirit of that which we may well apprehend by sight, that this must be the most admirable piece of work of all visible Creatures. For although it appears unto us little bigger than a dish or platter, in regard of the great distance betwixt us and it, so that I tremble to conceive it, after the very demonstrations Mathematical, which are certain and infallible, yet it is many times greater than the Globe of the Earth and Water joined together, which containeth more than 6000 miles about, an apparent witness of the wisdom and greatness of its Architect. Of which Ecclesiasticus in the 43. chapter makes this fine Epiphonema▪ Who is he that can ever satisfy himself to contemplate the glory of the Creator? the Firmament in its height which comprehends all things under it, so pure and clear? and the form of this vast and immense hollow of Heaven so fair and admirable to the sight? Is not this an apparent vision of his glorious and triumphant Majesty? The Sun at his rising showing the light of the day (an admirable vessel) arrived in the middle of his daily Career, it burns and roasteth the earth, and who is it that can subsist before its extreme heat? It burneth thrice double the mountains, more than the fiery furnaces the pottery which they put to scum off, exhaling from itself flaming vapours, and a splendour which darkens the most strong assured sight. Surely the Lord which hath made and form it of nothing so fair, so great, and admirable, may well say it to be greater than his own work, and which hasteth it so speedily, as to measure this incomprehensible space in 24 hours. With the surplus of this discourse, which refers itself, and is as a Paraphrase upon the 19 Psal. where in few terms, there are touched three principal points of the Sun: Its beauty compared to a spouse coming out of his bed chamber, and he as a Bridegroom coming out of his chamber, his force and impetuosity as a Giant to run his course: nor is there any thing that can hid himself from the heat thereof. And its extreme celerity, his going forth is from the end of the Heaven, and his circuit to the ends of it. So that as Saint Augustine in his third Sermon upon Advent, there are three things in the Sun, its course, its splendour, and its heat; the heat dries, the splendour illuminates, and its course runs through the universe. And as in man, which is the little world, the heart is the chief seat of life, first living, and last dying: So the Sun in the great man, which is the World, is the spring, the light and heat which vivifieth all things which imparteth to the Stars and to the Moon the light by which they shine; even as Christ, which is the Sun of Righteousness, and the light of our Souls, which without it, would remain buried in a blind obscurity. He that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life, which conserveses itself for the good, and extinguisheth itself against the wicked witness, Job 18. The light of the wicked shall be put out. Where light is such, that sometimes the evil Angels transform themselves to deceive us; for in as little as we can blow it bacl behind us, it grows dead and dissipates. But the true and right light doth illighten us without variation as well in the knowledge of God, in this which dependeth on our Salvation, as of things sensible and natural; whereunto the clearness of the Sun and of Fire, and their effects do guide us more than any other thing, to apprehend some sparkle of this sovereign Wisdom, wherewith God built this great All by his Word. For every science to which we may attain by our ratiocination and discourse, proceeds from the knowledge of sensible things, (for there is nothing in the intellect, but was first in the sense) but incertain and variable, to be in continual variation and vicissitude. So that the knowledge that comes from the light of Nature, is very weak, and full of doubts, and incertitudes, if it be not illustrated by Divine Revelation, which makes us see all as it is in its true and real essence, as the light of the Sun doth all things corporal. So that the most part of heathen Philosophers, after they have alembecked their spirit to the perquisition of natural causes, they find themselves so confounded, that they are forced to avow that by the only way of ratiocination you cannot draw truth therefrom. As Aristotle discourseth thereupon well at large, in the 4. of the Metaphysics. Ptolemy also, that we must not ground and rule our conceptions for regard of corporal things above spiritual; for they are fare distant each from other, and there is much disparity and disproportion between them. But yet less between intelligible above sensible; although they serve us herein as a ladder, following that which the Apostle saith, That the invisible things of God are seen by the Creation of the world, by things made, also his eternal power and divinity. We must therefore run back to this spiritual light, which holdeth the highest & sovereign place in the knowledge of the understanding; So that light is more properly of things spiritual, then corporal, and more certain and true are the invisible than the visible; for as much as God only is a true light in his essence from whence he derives into our spirit all the knowledge wherewith it can be illustrated, as the potential light of our eye is from the brightness of the Sun, or of something artificial, traversing the transparence of the air, the place of which eye the soul holds in spiritualty, as the divine Intelligence maketh that of the Sun, which is a representation and image thereof.  
By reason whereof, so long as our understanding shall leave it self to be cleansed by the fire of Divine love, he will ever keep its living and luminous brightness. But if it suffer itself foolishly to go after exterior light, it shall be also obscured and extinguished with the interior which domineers over it, even as a small candle or wax taper with the twinkling beams of a clear shining Summer Sun. Sith then this sensible light, says Saint Thomas upon the 36. of Job, by the absolute Omnipotency of God, who disposeth it as he pleaseth, it is sometimes hid to mortals, sometimes communicated; from whence we may gather that there is another light more perfect and excellent, namely the spiritual, which God reserves for a recompense of good works, following that which Job sets down, God covereth the light in his hands, and ordaineth it that it should return again and manifest itself. He showeth it to those he loveth, that they may well mount unto it. Whereto that of Zoroastres word for word was conformable. You must mount up to the true light and to the bright beams of your father, from whom the soul was sent you, revested with much intellect. Behold the relations of these Suns the sensible and intelligible, and of the two lights that proceed therefrom. For as that of the Sun obtains the first place in corporal things, saith Saint Augustine in his book of freewill, and that by means thereof, the inferior communicate with the superior, the same doth the light of the spiritual Sun in regard of intelligibles.  
There are also things that have heat, and no light, as that of Animals of quick chalk besprinkled with water, horse and pigeon dung, which Galen writes, he hath seen to wax a fire of itself, heaps of oats, and other grains, except Barley, new wines which boil, the lees in the vintage, heaps of Olives, Apples, and Pears, which is a kind of putrefaction, whence also there is engendered some strange heat, as we see in Apostemaes, and in flesh which gins to be corrupted; and on the contrary we see others that have light and no heat; as worms that glister in the night, and of little flies that fly in the dark in summer time; of shells and scales of fish, in rotten wood, in stones, and in the eyes of ravenous beasts. Suidas speaking of the visible and invisible, this said he, cannot well be expressed in words; it is as little flies which fly in the summer, which by displaying their wings, fly into the eyes with small sparkling fires; the worms also that shine in the night, the shells and scales of some fishes, and other the like, which cannot be perceived in the light, but very well in the dark, for the fire which so shineth from them in the dark, is not a colour, whose property is to make it seen at the brightness of the Sun, or other light, because that the air being transparent and deprived of all colours, the sight might very easily pierce it, and pass through to apprehend them.  
But there are four differences of visible things, some cannot see but by day, the others, on the contrary, but by night, others by day and night, and others that have no place in darkness. Colours are not seen but by day, not by night; Of things called resplendent, some by day, others by night, others by day and night; for there are some that are illustrious and clear, others dark and heavy, and others betwixt both; others that have lustre and splendour, dark and waterish, and are not seen but by night, as the foresaid flies, worms, fish scales, rotten wood, and the like, for in the day time their splendour is surmounted by another more powerful which defaceth it; as also there are more stars, so that the darker the night is, the clearer they shine. Those betwixt both, as the Moon and some Stars, by day and by night, as the morning and the evening Stars, called by the Greeks Phosphor, by the Latines Lucifer, this is Venus' Star. Fire also which pierceth the air more than it may, and illustrates it to demonstrate the colours that are therein; for the rest it is content to make it see, without bringing into action the transparence that is in the air, as we may see in the dark, where we see fire a great way off, but not by the colours that are betwixt them. By day it shines also, but not act against the air, for that it is suffocated and extinguished by a stronger light. The clearness of the Moon likewise, for that she is not very dark, she is seen in the day time, but better in the night. Suidas runs through all this; But to the purpose of lights without heat, I have read of nothing more admirable and strange, then that which Gonzalo the Oviedo in the 15. Book 8. chap. of his Natural History of the Indies, allegeth of a certain little flying animal, of the bigness of an Hanneton, very frequent in the Isle of Spain, and in other Islands thereabouts, having two wings above, strong and hard, and two below them, two others more thin and fine. The little beast called Cocuye, hath shining eyes as lighted candles, so that wheresoever he passes he illuminates the air, and gives it such a brightness that a man may see him a great way off, and in a chamber as dark as it may be, even at midnight, men may read and write by the light that comes from them: So that if a man bind two or three together, this would give more light than a Lantern or a Torch, in the field: and amidst the Woods in the night, as dark as may be, they make themselves to be seen more than a mile. This clearness consists not only 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 die, its light extinguisheth also. The Indians had a custom to make a post of them to strike fear in seeing them by night, for that it seemed that they had a visage, being rubbed therewith, as if it were all fire. Pliny 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 fare off, but he allegeth many things by hearsay, as not having seen them.  
But to return to the Sun's 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 appertains 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 principal soul of life, the same is the Sun in the heart of the world; and the primordial spring of all light therein, which he departs to the Stars, as doth Jesus Christ to our souls. And no more nor less than the Sun and the Moon (said Origen upon Genesis) illightens our bodies; likewise our consciences and thoughts are from this splendour of the Father if we be not blind, and that this proceeds not by our faults: Now if we be not all equally illuminated, no more than the Stars are by the Sun, which differ in brightness one from the other but according to our capacity and carriage, and as more or less, we lift up the eyes of our contemplation to receive this light. Return you towards me, and I will return towards you, for he is a God at hand, and not a God a fare off. That which we can have of intelligence (saith Zohar) by our natural ratiocination, is as if our spirit were lightened by the Moon: but the Divine relation holds place of the Sun, whence the light chaseth away and banisheth the Princes of Darkness, where their greatest force and vigour reigns. The Sun is risen, they shall be placed in their chambers, says the 104 Psalm 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 dark, so the good Angels that assist and favour us, receive great reinforcement from the light, not only from the Divine, but from the Celestial and solar, by which the Divine and Supreme shining brightness, imparts her virtue to the heavens, and by them communicates it to all that is under the sphere of the Moon within the elementary world. Wherefore, not without cause, about dead bodies till they be put in the grave, they employ lights to drive fare off this ancient Serpent Zamael, to whom for malediction it is said, thou shalt ●at earth all the days 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 only 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 appear in the day, fearing the light of the Sun; how much more than that of good spirits their adversaries, which receive it from the divine resplendence? for the same, as is the Sun towards it, the fire is in regard of the Sun, who serves us, amongst other things to make us see this so great accomplished work of the universe built by the Sovereign 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, stripped of all corporeity and matter, the Sun itself, the rarest masterpiece of all others could not see itself, 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 clarify, the other to warm, yea to burn the subjacent matters which illuminates the whiteness, and waxeth black with the Sun's heat. The Sun hath coloured me, Cant. 1. Whereupon Origen notes, that there where there is no sin, nor matter of sin, there is scorching or burning following, the 121 Psalm. The Sun shall not burn thee by day, nor the Moon by night; for the Sun illuminates good men, but it burns up sinners; who hating light for the evil they have done; for in many places of Scripture you shall find that the Sun and the Fire, whereof it speak, they are not those that we see, but the spiritual. The spiritual Sun saith Saint Augustine, doth not rise, but upon holy persons, following that which is spoken of the perverse, in the 5. of Wisdom, The light of Justice is not risen upon us, nor the Sun of Intelligence is not come to illighten us. As for its heat, it must rather be kept for witness of Holy Scripture, there is no man can hid him from the heat thereof; not to frivolous imaginations and subtleties of those that maintain it to be neither hot nor cold, grounding themselves upon this argument, All heat in long continuance although that it remain always in the same estate and degree, doth notwithstanding augment itself, so that it would be intolerable.  
If then the Sun 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 Z●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 always in the same estate. And afterwards for that the sun is many times greater than the globe of the Sea, and the Earth, and its Sphere, so fare 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 easy to contradict, but this would turn us aside too fare from our principal Subject. Anaxagoras also said, that it was a gross inflamed stone, or a plate of burning fire. Anaximander, a wheel full of fire, 25. times greater than all the earth. Xenophanes, an heap of little fires. The Stoics, an inflamed body, proceeding from the Sea, wherein they have showed 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 greatness, so immense, whereupon the spirit of man hath fair Galleries to walk, in pursuit of the high fetched meditations of God's mervails; for (as chrysostom said well upon Genesis) we must from the contemplation of the creatures, ascend and come to the Creator. So that those then, are very ignorant and void of understanding, who cannot from the Creatures, attain to the knowledge of the Creator. Those that dwell in the extremities of the West, where it goes as it were to bed, in the waters of the Ocean, see it at his rising of the same grandeur, as those of Catai, where it riseth; which showeth the smallness and disproportion of the earth in comparison thereof. That if the Moon, which is fare inferior in greatness thereunto, showeth itself almost equal, it is by reason of the great distance from the one and the other, for by so much as things are at a distance, by so much the more they lessen themselves to our sight, and this is sufficiently verified by the rules of perspective. Surely these are two chief Masterworks, that of these two great luminaries, which are not of small ornament and commodity, for the life of man, as Saint chrysostom puts it, upon the 135. Psalm, but it doth contribute much thereto, yea almost all, in regard of that which concerns the body; for besides the light wherewith they enlighten us by day and by night, they distinguish times and seasons, help us to make voyages, as well by Sea, as Land, they ripen fruits, without which our corporal life could not be maintained, with other infinite usages which proceed from them. The Sun is put for the whole Heaven, for that it is the greater part thereof, and for fire; and Heaven is the seat and vessel of incorruptible and unalterable bodies. The Moon precedent of moisture, represents water and earth, and salt composed thereof; for there is nothing wherein moisture is more permanent, nor which is more moist than salt, whereof the Sea for the most part doth consist; and there is nothing where the Moon doth more distinctly make her motions to appear, then in the Sea, as we perceive in the ebbing and flowing thereof, and in the brains and marrows of Animals, so that for good cause she is called the Regent of the waters, and of phlegmatic and waterish moisture; which although it seem to be dead and inanimate, (in respect of fire which is living) she is permanent chief in salt, which hath an inexterminable humidity; and is that which keepeth the Sea from drying up, for without Salt it had been long ago drawn out and dried up, there where the fire lives not in it, but in another; for in that it is a material Element, it hath no place proper to it. Of these two, namely, the heat of the Sun, and moisture of the Moon, in which consisteth the life of all things; and without which nothing would grow, increase, nor be maintained, not fire itself, which cannot subsist without air, which is double, one participating of the heat of fire, ascending from the water (out of the bowels of moist nature, a sincere and light fire forthwith flying out, seeks things aloft, saith Trismegistus.) And the other as water descending from fire, so long till it come to congeal. For so there is one moist water which tends upwards, to rarify itself in the air, and another cold coming down to thicken itself in the nature of Earth, until at last it comes to terminate in red fire, which is in gold, for gold is the last substance of all. And Aire is the mediating conciliator betwixt the moisture of passable water, that constitutes matter and the fires heat, on which the Agent and form doth depend: Earth is as the matrix where fire, by the means of air and fire introducing its action, excites, and thrusts out, which is thereby engendered to its determined end. The other five Planets, and the fixed stars come in but collaterally, as assistants and coadjutors of the effects of the two luminaries, where all their influxions are reduced, as do the rivers of the Sea, and from the earth reciprocally comes back their nurture; so that heaven and fire, are as the male, the agent, and water and earth, as the female, patiented; but under heaven, the air is comprised. And as man's seed, enclosed and l●pped within the matrix, is nourished, fomented, and entertained with corrupt blood by the help of natural heat, so fi●e, by the means of air and water, is maintained in the earth for the production of things which engender thereof. So the Heaven, Sun, Fire, and Air, march together, and the earth under, which are comprised in the Elements below, water and dry land, on their side. It is Moses Heaven and Earth, and Hermes his high and low, which relate one to the other; that which is above, is as that which is below; and on the contrary, to perpetuate the miracles of one thing as he saith in his Table of Esmeraulds. Zohar the intelligible and sensible World, by the contemplation whereof we come to the contemplation of spiritual things, which th● Apostle before him had touched in the fi●st to the Romans, The invisible things of him from the creation of the Word, are made known in those things which are scene; for all that is here below in the earth, is of the same manner as in heaven above; for God the Creator made all things annexed one to another, which Homer was not ignorant of, by his golden chain to bind together this inferior and superior World, and that they adhere one to the other, that his glory may stretch through all, above and below. And in imitation thereof, man the image of the great world, and the measure of every thing was thereof made and form of things low and high. And God took dust and thereof form Adam, and breathed into him the breath of life; the very light that shineth in the sensible world, depends upon this superior light that is hid from us; from whence proceed all faculties and virtues, which from thence are expressed to our knowledge, for there is nothing here below that doth not depend from that above, by a particular power, committed unto it, to govern and excite it to all its appetites, and motions, so that all is bound together.  
We hold well for the remainder, that all we have from light in the sensible world, comes from the Sun, for that of the Moon, and of the Stars although innumerable, is a very small thing; yet it proceeds from the Sun; and that of fire, is but artificial to give us light for default of the Sun, But how shall it square with that to be willing to attribute the primitive source of light, and chief that of the producing and vivifying to the sun, for that we see in the beginning of Genesis, that the first thing that was made, was the light on the first day, and the Sun not till the fourth, vegetables being produced from the former? This was (say the Rabbins thereto) most wisely advised by Moses, as all his other writings proceeding from divine inspiration, to take away from men all occasion to Idolise this luminary, when we see that light was procreated before it. But in this respect there presents a very rare mystery, and worthy of observation, that the complete perfection of things falls out always on the fourth day, as of the light. The Sun and Moon were made the fourth day, waters on the second day, produced nought but fishes; the fifth, which is the fourth after, and all animals; the sixth with man, for whom the fruits of the earth were made the third. Which showeth us that the 4 number so much celebrated by Pythagoras, denoteth the perfection that resides in ten, resulting from the four first numbers, 1, 2, 3, 4, make ●en.  
So Plato was willing to inform his Timaeus, where he treats of the procreation of things by these words, one, two, three, but where is the fourth? Zohar upon this particle of the 14. of Leviticus, you shall keep my Sabbaths. See saith Rabbi Eliezer, what is the mystery here contained. In six days was the world created, in each of those is manifested the work that was made therein, and God gave it his particular virtue after he had finished it; but on the fourth he attributed one more express, for those of the third preceding, being secret and hidden, came not in evidence, except that the fourth day happened their faculties would reveal themselves; for water, air, and fire, the three superior elements remained as suspended, and the workmanship of them did not appear till the fourth day manifested them, and then appeared all that was made on each. But if you will allege that this was the third day, that then God said, Let the earth sprout and produce the green herb, producing seed, and the fruit trees bearing fruit after his kind, which hath his seed in itself upon the earth, and it was so; yet this, notwithstanding that this happened on the third day, he suffered not to be annexed with the fourth, without any separation; the which fourth comes to meet with the Sabbath, which is the fourth day, the fourth, and is by itself the perfect fourth, where there appeared all the works of the six preceding days: and it is the fourth foot of the Merchavah, O the divine throne, whereon God sat for his repose all the six days, Thus discourseth Zohar.  
We must not here pass over another mystery, which these two luminaries have, each three names, the Sun is called Chomah wisdom, Scemesch heat, and Cheres dryness Plato in Timaeus, All moisture that the celerity of fire raised, and that which remained arid and dry, we call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 potter's earth. That of Maor Luminary, is common to the one, and to the other. The Moon is called Malchut, reign, or kingdom, Jareha, which the Greek call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, for that she perfects her course in a month, and lebenab white, for as the Sun representeth Jesus Christ, the Moon denotes the Church which is all fair without any blemish, following that which is written in the 6. of Canticles 10. Who is she that looketh forth, as the morning, fair as the Moon, clear as the Sun? Of this light of the Sun of Righteousness, whereof it is said in the fourth of Malachy, But unto you that do fear my name, the Sun of Justice shall arise, 4. 2. Where the Moon the Church is illustrated on a perpetual day without darkness, according to Esay 60. v. 20. The Lord shall be thine everlasting light, who hath planted his Tabernaele, or Church, within the fair clear shining Sun, that illuminates every man that comes into the world; no more nor less than the stars, which are innumerable, and the least as big as the whole earth, receive all their light from the visible sun. Of whom shall it not here be lawful to relate something of his praises of the Song that Orpheus made unto it.  
Hear m●e most blessed  
Sun, World's heart and eye,  
Heavenly brightness shining,  
Living men's pleasing aspect,  
Begetting Aurora in thy right hand,  
And the night on thy left.  
Thou governest the four seasons,  
Who dance in a round,  
At the found of thy golden harp  
Thou runnest through this great vault,  
Upon thy shining Chariot  
Drawn with thy Coursers  
That respire heat and life.  
Ardent, unpolluted measurer  
Of times, that shows thyself to all.  
A Sovereign aid to each,  
Keeping faith, eye of Justice.  
Brightness of shining light.  
Behold that which we here thought to run through concerning these three fires, (as for the three salts which relate thereunto, we will speak thereof hereafter) namely, the Terrestrial and Elementary, the Heavenly and Solary, and the Intelligible, that of the Divine Essence denoting the Father, from whence proceeds the light which is the Sun, and these two the heat of the Holy Spirit, which kindles our hearts with the love and knowledge of God, and with charitable love to our neighbour.  
The same in heaven, the light of the Sun expands itself to illighten all the stars, and here below to the production and vivification of all that which is there begotten, and maintained. And in the Elementary world, fire doth clear us, warm us, and boil our viands, and lends us all other commodities, and usages.  
As for fire in the 66. of Esay 15, 16. which the Evangelist citys here, whose fire shall not extinguish, and whose worm dieth not. It is without doubt destinated to the punishment of reprobates, which shall never be quenched, nor the worm that stingeth the conscience shall never die; To keep that this worm that is engendered of corruption may not procreate, we must salt it with discretion and prudence, that it may do nothing which may offend and scandalise his neighbour, according as the Evangelist specifies it, He that shall scandalise one of these little ones that believe in me. And as for banishing and chase away strange fire, that devours our soul, as a burning fever doth vital heat, this must be done by the mediating intervention of divine fire, which is much more puissant than any other. Let us hear that which to this purpose Saint Ambrose allegeth in the 3. chap. of his Offices, Saint John baptised Jesus Christ with the Holy Ghost and with fire, which is the type and image of the Holy Ghost, who after his ascension, must descend for the remission of sins, so enflaming as a fire doth the soul and heart of the faithful, according as Jeremy saith in 20. & 9 after he had received the Holy Ghost, and it was as a burning fire in my heart, shut up in my bones. What is the meaning then of that in the Maccabees, that the fire was become water, and this water excites the fire, but that the spiritual grace burneth by the fire, and by the water it doth purify and cleanse our sins? for sin washeth and burneth, according to which the Apostle saith, fire will prove what each man's works shall be; for it must necessarily be, that this examination should be perfected in all those that desire to return into Paradise. It was not without cause, nor idly set down in the 3. of Genesis, that after Adam and Eve were banished from thence, he placed at its entrance a brandishing sword of fire, to keep the passage to the tree of life. With this fire than we must all be salted that are in the way of salvation; following that which Origen sets down in his 3. Homil. upon the 36. Psalm, We must all go to the fire of Purgatory, and Peter and Paul, but all shall not pass thereby, after the same sort as they did, whereof it is said in the 43. of Esay 2. When thou shalt pass through the waters, the waves shall not cover thee, for I will be with thee, when thou shalt march through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt. The Israelites passed through the red Sea dryshod, and the Egyptians were drowned therein: The three children in Nebuchadnezars furnace, had no detriment, and those that heated the fire without, were therewith consumed. And in the 19 Hom. upon the 16. of Leviticus, All are not purged by this fire that parts from the Altar, it is the fire of the Lord; for he that is from the Altar, is not of God, but a strange fire, dedicated for the cruciating of sinners, which shall never be quenched, nor the worm that gnaweth shall never die: for after that the soul by a multitude of its wicked comportments hath heaped up within him abundance of sins, this congregation of evils in succession of times, comes to boil and inflame us with a pain and punishment internal, as the body doth of a fever proceeding from the excess of the mouth, or other superfluities, when she shall come to think and relate a history of its delinquencies, which will be a perpetual prickle, wherewith it will be tormented, so that she will make herself as an accuser and witness against herself, according as the Apostle said, Rom. 2.15. Their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts either accusing or excusing one another, in the day when God shall judge the secrets of all men. But Jeremy on the other side, speaking of a drink of the wrath of God, which shall be poured out upon all manner of Nations, whereof whosoever will not drink, shall not be purified; and from that we learn, that the fury of God's vengeance, profiteth for the purgation of souls, as well in general as in particular, and there is nothing more purgative than fire, of which the Prophet Malachy should say in his 3. chap. 3. The Lord will sanctify them in a burning fire, and such is the fire of tribulations and adversity, with which we must be salted and purged; for salt is purgative above any other thing, as we may sufficiently perceive in those that drink Sea water, who all dye of a flux. Of the other fire which is exterminative and strange, of which it is also in the 10. of Leviticus 2. And a fire went out from the Lord, and devoured Nadab and Abihu: God said in the 32. of Deut. v. 22. They shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the Mountains. For the justice of the Almighty, said one of the good Fathers foreseeing that which must come, from the beginning of the world, created this fire of eternal hell, that whereof Esay intends to speak, whose fire is not quenched, to begin to be the punishment of the wicked, without that burning and heat should cease, now for that it is neither wood nor charcoal, nor other matter to maintain it, but shall be eternally tormented therewith in body and soul, because they have offended with the one and the other; for sins are the bait and nourishment of this fire, which by a gathering together of misdeeds, and superabundance of iniquity heaped one upon another, inflame the soul to a perdurable punishment, even as a burning fever, the  body, and render it a joice of ill digestion, by a superfluity of viands, and other disorders, and excess from whence there was drawn a wicked habitude; for the soul then coming to remember her delights, agitated with the living and most rigorous pricks which gall it, she comes to be her own accuser, by certain remorse of conscience that can profit them no more, (because in hell there is no redemption) and to be his witness and judge, as the Apostle sets it down in the 2. of the Romans, Their conscience bearing witness, and their thoughts accusing them, in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men. But there is also a fire in this world, by which we must be salted and purified, for as much deduction of it as we must endure from thence, namely, tribulations, which are to us as a Minorative in Physic, of the complete purgation that we must receive thereby.  
The two foresaid fires furthermore, that of the Altar, and the strange, may be very properly compared, that there to aqua vitae, the other to aqua fortis, which ends and destroys all, where aqua vitae serves for nourishment, for all that we eat or drink participates thereof, and is that which passeth and converts into nutriment. It is true that it is revealed more nearly in some subjects then in other. Wine is that where it manifests itself soon, and with less preparation and pa●ne, afterwards wheat, and so of the rest; for there is nothing wherein nature doth so soon make his profit, as of these two. Aqua vitae is also called burning, because it conceives so easily the flame and burneth, for that it is necessary, that whatsoever doth nourish must suffer under the fires action. Otherwise how is it that natural heat could work thereupon, which is much weaker than that of fire? we know by experience that we could not draw any nourishment from stones, metals, earth, and other substances, whereupon fire cannot by't: and if wolves do sometimes eat clay, wild-ducks, and other birds, small flints, and gravel, it is either to avoid vacuity, or for some medicament to them known by a secret instinct of nature, but not that this doth digest or serve them for maintenance, no more than Iron doth Ostriches; which yet they corrupt by a strong and great heat of their stomach. But you will say, that this assimilation contraries the text of the 10. of Leviticus where Aaron's sons are so burned for offering strange fire.  
That which Rabbi Simeon to Zohar relates in part, that they served at the Altar, being drunk, and overcome with wine, for that which follows after demonstrates it; that God said unto Aaron, Thou nor thy sons shall not drink wine when you enter into the Tabernacle: whereto may be answered, that similitudes cannot in all, or through all agree, otherwise it would be the same thing they represent. Aqua vitae doth not make drunk if men take not so much at a time, that it may alienate people from their spirit. And yet being separate from wine, the remainder should be nothing but phlegm, and residences, which cannot in any sort make drunk, nor being therewith mingled and adjoined by nature, as to stop again the acuity of the aqua vitae. Yet we see by experience, in Germany and other cold Regions, where aqua vitae is in good esteem, as well for the quantity which they take; it doth not for that make men drunk, as wine would do in such a quantity, as that, wherewith it should be quenched; and putting a little Salt in very strong wine, it will make men drunk sooner than to drink it pure. I have often made trial, that often joining together aqua vitae to that which men had drawn, this mingling could not cause drunkenness any more, because the parts once separated of the compounded elements, and then reconjoined, take another nature than it had at the first. Cer●tes it is a great support and comfort that aqua vitae hath for a weak stomach, either through age or other accident, although men think that it burns and offends the noble parts; for though it be inflammable, it is not ●herefore burning. He that would see the great virtues thereof, let him read the Quintess●nces of Raimund Lullius, Rupescissa, Vlstadius his heaven of Philosophers, for we will not stay here as on a thing too trivial and beaten. They call it the quintessence for the conformity it hath with the celestial nature, because that as the heaven, which is as another Air, but more subtle than the Elementary, contains the Stars, whence it receives divers impressions and effects that it doth infuse and communicate unto us, here below, the same Aqua vitae doth easily impregn itself, with the qualities and specifical virtues which are therein put to infusion. To this proposition of heaven and Stars, and of their different impressions, we will not here pass over a fine dispute which here presents itself. The Earl Pica de Mirandula, truly a prodigious spirit accompanied with great Literature, in his 3. Book against Judicial Astrolog●, 25. chap. transported with too hot a curiosity to impugn this Art, Will we (saith he) prove that the virtue of all the Stars is but even one? Let us suppose this Maxim. That the nature of heaven cannot more openly and sucinctly, express, then by saying heaven to be a unity of all bodies, for there is nothing in all the universe that doth not depend upon this certain one, as from his primitive course, with many other premises wherewith he would conclude that of the propriety and virtue of each Star indifferently, depends the faculty and virtue of all the composed Elements, without having there other difference between them, if peradventure, this was not in greatness; as it is apparently seen: nor can men say, that one presides more particularly to one thing here below, then to another: for every Star presides to all; so that if all were ●oined and united together in one only body, this should be as if infinite flames and fires should come to assemble, to make but one, which would be stronger than true, but not of divers propriety and nature, which doth not change itself into homogeneal, and homomaternall substances, by a coacervation, nor which comes to produce other effects than it did, being separated, as one may see in water, and a great torch in respect of a little wax light, which will light infinite others as well as the torch, though more powerful, to heat, boil, and burn, as being in a greater volume.  
But it is a very hard thing to overthrow an opinion already received of long durance, chief if it be supported with authority of holy Scripture; which must be to us as a touchstone, by it to verify our ratiocinations, for the most part uncertain and erroneous, if they be not conducted by divine inspiration: Is is written in the 147. Psal. 5. He knoweth all the Stars, and calleth them all by their names. That if they have all different and particular names, wherefore should it serve but to distinguish them in their effects, proprieties, qualities and virtues? for the name of things, imports the same. Fellow that which is said in the 2. of Gen. as Adam named every thing, such was its true and proper name: which Plato in his Cratylus saith is not only the type and representation of things, but their Essence. And in this case there is a fair consideration to be marked, that God left to Adam the nomination of terrestrial things: but reserved to himself that of Celestial: as he expresseth in the 115. Psal. 16. The Heaven of Heavens are the Lords, but the Earth hath he given to the children of men: which is as much to say, according to Rabbi the Egyptian in the 2. Book of his More, or director, 25. Cham That the Creator knoweth himself alone the certain verity of the heavens, what is their form, substance, and their motions; but upon that under heaven he hath given power to man to know, for Earth is properly man's world, where he produceth, and the place of his conversation, as long as he liveth: as fire and light attached to matter: there where the causes upon which we might found our demonstrations concerning heaven, are out of our knowledge, being so far remote from us. And in this case the Heaven of Heavens, are the Lords, there may be a double exposition, according to the punctuation and reading. That Heaven belongs to the Lord of Heaven, and so the Hebrews take it, but who doubts, but that the Earth also belongs to him, as well as the Heaven? The Earth is the Lords, and the fullness thereof, and in the 23. of Jer. Do not I fill the Heaven and the Earth? And the Heaven of Heavens is reserved for God, and the Earth is left to the children of men, which is a manner of speech usual in the holy Scripture. For if the Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens cannot comprehend thee, saith Solomon to God; for the H●brewes metaphorically call Heaven, things that are far distant from our sight: and we also after their imitation, as when we speak of a Kite, Heron or Gerfalcon, when they fly so high, that we can hardly discern them, that they go to lose themselves in Heaven: so that all which is here under the sphere of the Moon, and generally all that is above us, they call it Heaven: and the Heaven of Heavens, the Aethereal Region from the Moon to the Firmament, as well the Firmament itself, or the Empyrean Heaven. But farther that the Stars should be all of one nature, propriety and effect, to see them so like, besides their greatness and clearness, it follows not that the same appears of the same sort as of fire, yet we commonly call them fires and celestial lights: It is as if the seeds of trees and plants, whereof there are infinite, should all mix together, and the first buds also, that they cast, which differ as nothing, but to the measure whereunto they grow, their differences do manifest them. The Hebrews hold that there is not so little, and poor a herb on the Earth, nor any other thing of the three kinds of the composed Minerals, Vegetables, or animals, that hath not above its 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 express terms is set down in the 1. of Gen. where it is written, that in the third day, the Earth of herself brought forth herbs, and trees, containing in them their seeds: according to their kinds: nevertheless 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 be 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 be for signs, and seasons, for days 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 joins not with it, as doth its phlegm and common water, vinegar, and other liquors: but by artifice itself, of two it makes a thrice sweet liquor, very proper against the fluxes of Catarrhs, and salt rheums, that molest the stomach, and throat, and is thereunto very good and comfortable. Lay in steep a day or two Cinnamon grossly 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. Pour thereon this Aqua vitae and make them a little warm upon ashes, than put fire thereto with a lighted paper, stirring all well with a little spit of clean wood, so long until the Aqua vitae burn no more, & there will remain a liquor most agreeable to the taste, and mervailously comfortable: you may add thereto 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 poison: so that things are done in vain by more, that may be done by fewer, so that it be justly done. Further, every one sufficiently knows how to draw Aqua vitae, filling two parts of the Alimbeck with Glass, or Beuvois Earth, with good old wine, and distilling it with an easy fire through a Bath in a Cauldron full of water, with chaff. Continue the distillation until you see long veins and sprouts appear, in the Chap and in the Recipient. For it is Aqua vitae, which mounts first, and the phlegm comes after in gross 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 be of an opinion, that to take it into the body, it should be more than once. And it is a strange thing that by its own subtlety, for it will mount through five or six doubles of paper brovillas without wetting it. I have seen them cast a full glass thereof in the air, and not one drop to fall to the earth: It is of sovereign force against all burn and chief that of small shot, with which she hinders (as was said before) the Estiomenes and Gangreenes: 
An inflammation arising from purecholer in the skin exulcerating it with pain.  which showeth sufficiently the purity of its fire which may by good right be called Celestial. See here that which Raimund Lullius sets down of his proprieties and virtues. We must not understand (saith he) that neither quintessence nor any other thing here below, can render us immortal. It is ordained for all men once to die: nor can we prolong our days beyond and above the prefixed time, for that is reserved to God. Man's days are short, and the numher of his months are with th●●● thou hast appointed his limits which he cannot pass, there where on the contrary they may well be accidentally shortened: Aqua vitae then, nor all other sorts of quintessences and restoratives, cannot prolong our life for one minute of an hour; 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 be: we must therefore find out some incorruptible substance, proper and familiar to our nature, which conserveses and maintains the radical heat, as oil doth the light of a Lamp. Such is the aqua vitae drawn from wine, the most comfortable and connatural substance of all others, provided it be not abused with excess. 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, he resolves it, and makes it melt and run. Moreover Aqua vitae, preserves strongly from their corruption, as we may see by things vegetable and Animal, which men put there to mingle, which by this means conserveses them in their entire length. It comforts and maintains a man in vigour of youth: which it restoreth from day to day, it rejoiceth and strengtheneth the vital spirits: it digests crudities taken fasting, and reduceth the equality, the excessive superfluities, and the defaults which may be in our bodies; causing divers effects according to the disposition of the subject where she applies herself, as doth the Sun's heat, which melts wax and hardens dirt, and fire doth the same. And there is that celestial spirit residing in Aqua vitae, so susceptible of all qualities, proprieties, and virtues, that she can make her hot, empregning it with hot things, cold with cold things, and so of the rest; being she is natural, conformably to our soul, inclinable to good and evil, for although it consists of the four Elements, they are therein so proportioned, that the one doth not domineer over the other. Wherefore they call it Heaven, whereto we apply such stars as we will, namely of the simple Elements, of which she conceives the proprieties and the effects: herein we may compare celestial fire to the Altar.  
But strong waters, which dissipate and ruin all, are this strange fire, and so Alchemists call them, and fire against nature external 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 infernal fire, the devourer of mankind. The action of strong waters is no less which burn all, being compounded only of two or three substances, that which we commonly call the Separator, Saltpetre, Vitriol, or Alum Ice, and this dissolves Silver, Copper, Quicksilver, and Iron in part. La Regalle which is no other thing then the prec ding rectified upon Salarmoniac, or common Salt, dissolved partly with Iron, Led, Tin, and intameable Gold, with all sorts of fire. It is true, that strong waters do not destroy metals, that they return not to their first form and nature, but draws them to water, and a melting liquor. This was certainly a good Artificial industry in man's spirit, to excogitate so short a way to separate Gold and Silver melted together, and so uniformedly mixed, that an ounce of Gold melted with an hundred marks of Silver, each part thereof will equally attract his portion, as we may see by the refiners practise, which to prove that which it holds of Gold & of Silver, a confused mass of divers metals will take but 30. grains to make their essay in the Coupelle, and from thence will judge that the same proportion that you shall find in this small volume, shall be also in the whole mass; all that which may be therein of impure imperfect metal goes away partly in smoke, and is partly consumed by fire, and partly sticks like Birdlime within the Coupelle, nothing remaining above it but what is fine, namely Silver and Gold, which is there enclosed, with which they separate strong waters called on the occasion the divider, which dissolves Silver into water, and Gold falls to the bottom as sand; the water afterwards evaporated, the Silver retires itself. But here it would be too much to speak of the effects of strong waters, one of the principal and short instruments of Alchemy, and the Art of fire and Salt, infinite fine allegories, which thereby may be appropriated upon Holy Writ.  
Yet these two fires may be compared, namely the strange fire to Leaven, to the Sea water which is salt, and to Vinegar, a corrupted Wine, and other sorts of Leavens Fires against nature. And the Celestial to the Altar to pure and unleavened Past, to sweet water fit to drink, to Aqua vitae, without Vinegar, representing the state of innocence in our first fathers, before their transgression, and the simplicity of their knowledge, infused into them by the Creator. But when they were once tempted afterwards with ambition, to know more than they should, they would by humane discourse become more subtle and sage, in tasting the fruit of knowledge of good and evil; their Past without Leaven began to swell, to be proud with the Leaven themselves introduced, which perverted and spoilt it, appropriating it to corporal and sensible things, for the bread which we eat is leavened, but that which we use in the Church must not be so, and not without cause, for unleavened bread will be kept six months without moulding or corrupting; that leavened bread will not keep so many weeks. It is therefore that the Apostle said, a little Leaven corrupts the whole Mass: Because that one propriety of the Leaven is to convert into their corruption all that is adjoining of their nature, as Vinegar doth Wine, and Leaven pure Past, also Rennet which is in the number of Leavens. And when they have no Leaven, they make some, corrupting the Past with Vinegar, Lees of Beer, Eggs, and like substances, who by their corruption acquire to themselves the property of strange fire which is able to convert into its nature, that where it can by't, as we may see in a Fever against natural heat, so that he turns itself into all things, and all into itself, according to Heraclitus, who set it down for the Principal, yet after Zoroastres, who thought all things were begotten of Fire after it was extinguished, for being living it begets nothing, no more doth Salt, nor the Sea which Homer calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, unfruitful, which doth nothing but consume and destroy: An immense and wicked portion of things (saith Pliny) and wherein it is doubtful whether it consume or bring forth more things. Leaven then is a strange fire, and is indeed caustique or burning, for applied to naked flesh, it engenders therein little cloches, which shows its fierynesse, (also it doth not so without Salt) called for this reason in Latin fermentum, Leaven which increaseth by being warm: and in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Leaven from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to boil. The Chemics call it the interior fire, fire within the vessel, for we see by experience, that bread, if the Past be not leavened, what boiling soever you give it, shall never be but of a hard and uneasy digestion, greatly oppressing the stomach, if the Leaven which they join thereunto make it boil within; whence then it comes that Moses so knowing a man, and so illustrated with the Divine Spirit, so rejecteth a thing so profitable and necessary, and banisheth so expressly the Leaven of the Sacrifices, which is so great an aid and secure in our principal aliment, Bread. You shall burn no Leaven nor Honey in the Lord's Sacrifice, Levit. 2.11. And Exod. 12.15. he condemneth to death those who in the days of unleavened bread should eat leavened bread, or should have ever so little in his house. Is it not because Idolaters use Leaven? but he doth not forbid it in all and throughout all; for in the 23. of Levit. 17. he commands them to offer two leaven loaves. Moreover Idolaters employ also in their Sacrifices Salt and Incense, and many other things that are not forbidden. It must then be that some mystery lies hidden hereunder. Origen in his 5. Homil. upon Levit. interpreteth Leaven for arrogance, that we conceive of a vain worldly doctrine, which blows us up as leaven doth Past, and makes us proud, thinking that we know more than we do. So that we quit the express and direct Word of God, to retain ourselves within our fantastic traditions, as our Saviour reproacheth it to the Pharisees, Mark. 7. Truly Esay prophesied very well of you Hypocrites, when he saith, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is fare from me, howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of men, Mark. 7.6, 7. And therefore admonisheth us to beware of this Leaven. And upon Numbers, it is not to believe said the said Origen, that God would punish with death those who during the solemnity of unleavened bread had eaten leavened bread, or that had leaven found in their houses, but by leaven is understood malignity, envy, rancour, concupiscence, and the like vices that inflame our souls, and make them boil with wicked and pernicious desires, corrupting, altering, and perverting all that which might be good, following what the Apostle said, a little Leaven corrupts the whole mass. Therefore we may not undervalue any little sin, for after the manner of Leaven it will very soon produce others; undervalue not, saith St. Augustine, the machinations and ambushes of a few men; for as a sparkle of fire is a small thing, and which can hardly be discerned if it meet with food and nourishment, it will in a short time set on fire great Towns and Cities, Forests, and whole Countries. Leaven is the same, for how little soever you put in your Past or Doughty, it will alter it in short space and convert it to its own nature. Perverse Doctrine is of the very same, which gaineth Countries by little and little, as a Canker doth in the whole body.  
And in his third Book against Parmenian to glorify himself, not in his sinnes, but in those of others, as the Pharisee said, Luk. 18.11. I give thee thanks O Lord God, that I am not as other men are, Extortioners, , Adulterers, etc. I fast twice in the week etc. comparing his own innocence to the defaults of others, this is but a little leaven, but to boast himself in iniquities, and trespasses, is a great one; Furthermore, Leaven is taken in good part, as well as in bad part, in holy Writ, which relates to the two fires. The first hath been touched heretofore for pride, and naughtiness, that corrupts the soul. Touching the good, in the 7. of Levit. 12, 13. there are loaves of leavened bread, which they offer for peace offerings, with oblation of thanksgiving, and in the 23. 17. of every family two loaves of the first ears of wheat at Pentecost; and in St. Matthew, and the 23 of St. Luke Jesus Christ compared the Kingdom of God to leaven that a woman had put into three measures of dough, till it was all leavened; for there it is taken for the fervent zeal of ardent faith; and it is the fire wherewith we must be salted: for as the fire boyles our meats, and the salt seasons them, also leaven is the cause that the past bakes the better, and prepares thereby to make more wholesome, and of lighter digestion, more savoury, and of better taste. In which case leaven relates to the Evangelicall Law, as Saint Augustine saith, and old leaven to the Mosaical, which the Jews took by the bark, and by the hairs. By reason whereof the Apostle admonisheth us, to cast it fare from us: that is to say, all superstition, and malice; Cast off the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened, for even Christ our Passeover is sacrificed for you. Therefore let us keep the Feast not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, which leaven is without doubt this strange fire, that devours and consumes us within; that is to say, our soul, to swallow us up, and make us go down living into Hell. And the Fire of the Altar, the celestial fire of charity, faith, hope, it is that which we must desire of God to kindle in our hearts, and to season our thoughts and our desires, that no corruption be begotten there; as it doth here below in things corruptible and corporal; the prompt Minister, and executor of that, which the divine goodness will please to give of comforts and commodities in this temporal life. What obligations then do we own thee, thou excellent portion of Nature, without which we should live in so great misery? thou dost lighten in darkness, thou dost make us rejoice in obscurity, bringing us another day. Thou dost chase away from about us, hurtful powers, fears, and nocturnal illusions; thou dost warm us being cold, thou dost redry us being wet; thou bakest our viands; thou art the sovereign Artisan of all arts and manufactures which have been revealed unto us, to serve as a rampard against our natural imbecilities, that make us in regard of our bodies the feeble and infirm animal of all others. All this by reason of thy Divine beneficence, thou dost communicate to all mortals. And thou, O clear luminous Sun, the visible image of the invisible God, the light whereof, doth rebate itself in thee, as within a fair manifold multiplying glass, rendering thyself overflowing with all sorts of happinesses, which afterwards thou communicatest to all thy sensible Creatures, being so fair and so  a liberal benefactor, thou arisest most resplendent, with luminous beams, which thou dost spread abroad into all parts of the world, and by the virtue of thy spirit, and breath, by thy vivifying vigour, thou governest and maintainest this little All. Thou the illustrious Torch of Heaven, thou the light of all things; cause and secondary Author of all that groweth here below, which by the faculty and power, which the Sovereign dispensator of all goodness hath given thee, obligeth all nature to thyself; which with an unwearied course, dost daily run through the four corners of the Universe. Thy beauty, thy light, thou dost lend unto our senses by thy unknown and imperceptible Divinity, and impartest it with a liberal largesse; without any veil or cowerture that come to interpose betwixt them to the Church, thy dear spouse, to break open to us here below, the effects illightning by the same mean of thy inextinguible and inexhaustible Torch, all the celestial fires. Look upon us then with a benign and favourable eye, and by the excellent beauty which shows itself in thee, elevate our understanding to the contemplation of this other more great, that no mortal eye can behold, nor spirit apprehend, but by a profound and pious thought, for as much as it will please him to gratify it.  
But thou Sovereign Father of this intellectual fire and light, what can we bring thee here, but devout supplications and prayers? that it will please thee to burn with the fire of thy Holy Spirit, the wills and courages of us thy most humble Creatures, that we may serve thee with a chaste body, and to agree with thee by a pure and neat conscience: to the honour and glory of thy holy name, and salvation of our souls: through our Lord Jesus Christ, thy dear Son, who liveth and reigneth with thee, God coeternal, for ever and ever, AMEN.   

The second Part of the Lord BLAISE his Treatise touching FIRE and SALT.  
EVery man shall be salted with Fire and every Sacrifice shall be salted with Salt, Mark. 9.49. We have already spoken of Fire, Salt remaineth, of which there is no less to say. But it is strange that the Ceremonies of Paganism, should be found in this respect, and many other in Mosaical Traditions; Fire shall always burn on the Altar; Leu. 6.12, 13, The Priest shall burn wood thereon every morning, etc. And in the 2.13. Thou shalt season with salt all the Oblations of thy Sacrifices; and thou shalt not forget to put the salt of God's Covenant under them; with all thy Offerings thou shalt offer Salt, which Salt Numb. 18.19. is called the everlasting Covenant before God to Aaron and his sons. And Pythagoras in his Symbols, ordains not to speak of God without light, and to apply Salt in all Sacrifices and Oblations. And not only Pythagoras, but also Numa, which most part of men, hold to have been 100 years before Pythagoras, instituted the same according to the Doctrine of the Etrurians. It is not beleeveable that Moses so dear and and well-beloved of God, and so illustrated with his inspirations, whence proceeded all the documents that he left, and so hot a persecutor of Idolatries and Ethnique superstitions, that he would borrow any thing from them. But more likely that the Devils instigations who makes himself always as his Creator's ape, to make himself to idolise, was willing to divert those sacred mysteries to their abusive impieties, according to which Josephus against Appion, and Saint Jerome against Vigilantius, do very well suit: so that as in the Judaical Law they used no Sacrifices and oblations in Paganism, but they used Salt as Pliny witnesseth in 31. Book 7. Chap. Especially in holy things the authority of Salt is understood, when none were made without a Salt Mill. Plato to Timaeus, when in the medley and commixtion of the elements, the composed is destitute of much water, and of the more subtle parts of the earth, water resting therein comes to be half congealed, saltness is there brought in which hardens it the more, and so there is procreated a body of Salt, communicated to the use of our life, for as much toucheth the body and senses, accommodated by the same means according to the tenor of the Law; on that which depends the service of God, as being sacred and agreeable to God, wherefrom he called it a body beloved of God, for which Homer called it Divine, whereof Plutarque in his 5. Book of his Symposiaques 10. question renders many reasons, and among others, for that it symbolizeth with the soul that is of Divine nature, and as long as it resides in the body, keeps it from putrefaction, as Salt doth dead flesh, where it is brought in in stead of a soul that keepeth it from corruption, whence some of the Stoics would say, that Hog's flesh of itself was dead, and that a soul which was sowed therein in a manner of salt to conserve it longer exempt from putrefaction, to which a soul was given for Salt. Our Theologians say that the ceremony of putting Salt into water when they hollow it, came from that which Elisha did, 2 Kings 2.22, 23. to sweeten the waters of Jericho, by casting Salt upon the Spring. And that notes the people (which is designed by water (many waters are many Nations) were sanctified, must teach us by the Word of God, what Salt signifies, with the bitterness and repentance that men should have for offending God, as water also doth the confession as well of faith as of sins. Of the commixtion of these two, salt and water, proceeds a double fruit to separate from ill doing, and convert to good works. And for that repentance for sin ought to precede auricular confession, which repentance is denoted by the bitterness of salt, they bless it also before water: It is also taken for wisdom, You are the salt of the earth, and have salt in yourselves. And because that in all their ancient Sacrifices they used salt, from thence it came that in Baptism they put salt in the mouth of the Creature before it is baptised with water, for that it cannot yet actually have the mystery of salt applied for the present.  
On fire then and on salt depend great and secret mysteries, comprised under two principal colours, red and white, for (as Zohar hath it) all things are white, and red, but there is a great space betwixt the one and the other. God dieth our sins which are red, for concupiscence comes from the blood, and from the sensuality of the flesh besprinkled with blood, and we do die his whiteness in red or rigour of Justice, by the fire which inflameth our carnal desires, and purchaseth their judgement, which is throughout where there is fire, if it be not mortified with saving water. And when the perverse do prevail in the world, as ordinarily they do, redness and judgement extend themselves therein, and all whiteness covers itself, which is rather changed into redness then redness into whiteness; which if it have domination, all on the contrary grows resplendent therewith. To these two colours also the ancient and the Evangelicall Law, the rigour of justice and mercy; the pillar of fire in the night's darkness, and the white cloud by day, wine and bread, blood and fat, which were not lawful to eat. You shall not eat flesh with the blood, Gen. 9.4. And in Levit. 3.16, 17. All the fat is the Lords, it shall be a perpetual Statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that ye eat neither fat nor blood; where it is yet more particularly repeated in the 17. and 14. where the reason is rendered, for that the soul, that is to say, the life of the flesh, is in the blood, which mystically represents that of Messiah, wherein consisted eternal life, so that it was not lawful to use any other before his coming. Of the same fat was reserved for God as well that which the Hebrews call cheleb, that covereth the inwards, and is separated from the flesh, as the other called schumen, which is thereunto annexed; but metaphorically the fat is taken for the most exquisite substance, as in Numb. 18. the tenths the best of the fruits are called the fat of them, which manner of speech we also life when we say, make the portion to be very fat of any thing that there is. And in the 81. Psal. 16. He fed them with the fat of Wheat. It may be also that Moses well knowing that these two substances, blood and fat, are of ill taste and nourishment, and quickly corrupted out of their vessels, he forebad them the use thereof. Or if we would enter into a certain mystery, for that the vital spirits consist in the blood, which are of a fiery nature, and that fat is very susceptible of flame, and proper to make lights, which are a representation of the soul. But Oil is also for Lamps, which was not forbidden to be eaten, and we do not see that in Divine service we use Tallow Candles; yet these two, fire and salt, do signify Wine and Milk, I have drunk Wine with my Milk, Cant. 5.1. By Wine is designed the tree of knowledge of good and evil, namely vain curiosities of worldly things, and by Milk, that of life, whereof Adam was deprived, being desirous to taste of that other, which was humane prudence. Before Adam had transgressed (said Zohar) he was made participant of the sapience of superior light, being not yet separated from the tree of life, but when he would distract himself after the knowledge of base things, this curiosity ceased not till he had wholly cast off life to incorporate himself to death. Jacob and Esau, the two principal Potentates on earth which are descended therefrom, Item the Rose and the Lily, whose water extracted mounts by the fires heat that elevates it and becomes white, although the Roses be red, as is the fume exhaled from blood and fat which they burn to God, to send it on high as a vapour, to imply (saith the same Zohar) that we must offer him nothing but what is clean and candid; for redness represents sin, and punishment that follows it; and the white, sincerity, with mercy and the final recompense that doth accompany it. What is it (saith Zohar) which is designed by the red Roses, and the white Lilies? It is the odour of the oblation proceeding from red blood, and from fat which is white, which God reserveth for his own portion, which fatness relates to the sacrifice, or animal man, who is nourished with this fat, as the vital spirits with blood; wherefore it is said, when we fast to extenuate and macerate the pricks of the flesh and concupiscence, that we offer unto God fatness, who will have from his Creature the soul, which is fire and blood; and the body, namely fat, wherewith it is nourished, but the one and the other incontaminate, pure and neat without corruption, as if they were to pass through the fire and salted; Therefore he would that they should be burned to him, that they may ascend in a white fume and an odour of suavity before him; for fume is more spiritual than matter, which the fire by subtiliation raiseth it, after the manner of Incense. And indeed all this world here, is but an odour that mounts unto God, sometimes good and agreeable, sometimes wicked and hurtful. The form of the thing which consisteth in its colour, and figure, remains incorporeal in the matter, where the eye goes to apprehend it, and associates with it. The taste also, remains attached to it, as the spittle moistens it, and communicates it to the taste: But odor or smell, separates them, and comes from fare by an unperceivable vapour, to the sense of the nose and brain. Wherefore the Scripture doth particularise in the rose and in the lilies, the Red and White; whose smell doth not vanish. And yet though the roses be red, yet the water of them distilled, and the fume if you burn them, are white, as those of incense, whereof it is spoken in Psal. 41.2. Let my prayer he directed as incense, in thy sight: by prayers are understood not only prayers, but all our desires, thoughts and comportmens', and thereupon Rabbi Eliezer, son of Rabbi Simeon, the author of Zohar, making his prayer, doth thus paraphrase. This is well known, and manifest before thee O Lord my God, God of our prayers, that I have offered unto thee my fat, and my blood: I have offered them in an odor of Suavity, with firm faith and belief, macerating, chastising the sensuality of my flesh: That it will please thee then Lord, that the odor of my prayer, proceeding from my mouth, may be presently addressed before thy face, as an odor of a  offering, which they burn unto thee, upon the altar of propitiation, and that thou wilt accept it as agreeable. He said that because that after the coming of our Saviour, & the destruction of the second Temple by the Romans, the Jewish sacrifices were converted into prayers, the bloody sacrifices signified by the red roses, and colour of blood, and those without blood, as the minchad & other the like, of meal, by the white lilies, following that which was said Cant. Chap. 5. & 6. My beloved is white and ruddy, he feedeth among the lilies.  
Under these four colours furthermore, which signify the four Elements, Black the Earth, White the Water, Blew the Air, and Red the fire, are comprised the greatest secrets & mysteries. Otherwise reading in ch. 10. of 35 book Pliny, that Apelles had painted Alexander holding lightning in his hand; fingers seemed to hang out, and lightning to be without the Table; but reading they remembered that all those consisted of four colours. I cannot well specify what those four colours were, which must be principal in nature, till I had learned out of Zohar, to consider them in the light: where, that is to be noted, that there are two fastened to the week, namely black, noting the Earth, and red proceeding there from fire; and two to the flame, Blew in the root, over against the black, and white on the top, opposite to red. But let us see how this doth well suit with Chemical Theory, which constitutes of these four Elements, two solid and fixed, which prepare themselves together, the earth, and the fire, which adhere to the week, and the other two liquid volatills and flitting, water, and air, white and blue, as is the flame which is liquid, and in perpetual motion: And we must not think it strange, that the air, the blue, should be lower than the water, or the white flame which is aloft, because the aereal party which is the oil and fat, separate more hardly, and more difficultly from the composed, then doth the water more opposite to fire. But let us look more mystically thereinto, which the Zohar hath more abundantly run through. The red light, as well in earth as in heaven, is that which destroys all, dissipates all; for it is the bark of the tree of death, as we may see in a lamp, candle, and other light, whose root is in the earth, namely, this corruptible and corrupting blackness which watereth the week; the branches and the boughs are the flames, blue and white. The week with its blackness and redness is the Elementary world, and the flame the Celestial. The red colour commands all that is under it, and devoureth it. And if you say that it domineers also in heaven, not as in the inferior world, we may answer. And although there be virtues and powers above that are destructive, and dissipate all base subjacent things. All these superiors are anchored in this red light, and not the inferiors, for they are thick, gross, and obscure; and this red light which is contiguous to that above, gnaws, and devours them; and there jam nothing in the low world which shall not be destroyed. It penetrates and enters into stones, it pierceth them, and hollows them, that waters may pass over them, and drowns all in the depths and hollows of the earth, where they divide themselves, of the one side, and on the other, till they come to resemble anew in their Abyssus, passing cross the darknesses that are confounded with them; which is the cause that waters rise and fall, (they mount when they come from the sea under earth to their sources, to glide anew above the earth downwards, returning to the place from which they parted.) So that the waters darkness and light mingling themselves pellmell, there is made within another Chaos, which nature comes to unmingle (the heat namely which is therein enclosed) by Ordinance of the Sovereign Dispensator that commands it. And there make lights which men cannot see, because they are dark. Every channel (to be brief) mounts upwards with his voices, whence Abyssus are shaken, and cry to their companion, One depth calleth to another, in the voice of their Cataracts. And who is it that cries? Open thee with thy waters, and I will enter into thee. These are all mysteries uneasy to comprehend, which intent nothing, but to demonstrate the affinity and connexion of the sensible with the intelligible world, and of the Elementary with the Celestial; for, as it is said in another case, the Universal firmament, called the firmament of heaven, containeth things superior and inferior; although after divers manners. This is well seen in a torch, where blackness, that is, the Earth, is the ground of three elements and colours, the red being but an inflammation and heat joined to the blackness, without any flame or light; as are the blue and white, which proceed from one very root, all tend a going to unite with the white flame that is above, and more highly elevated than others. Yet it is not therefore so pure and quit of all filthiness, but that it procreates soot, with black and infected fume, whereof it must be depured by fire, till it hath perfected the consumption of its corruption, and made it a perfect whiteness, which from that time forwards never altars. And this is that which we said before, that fire leaves two sorts of excrements, not sufficiently depured for the first proof. Ashes below, whence by the same fire is extracted an incorruptible substance of salt; and of glass at the last, which the Zohar was not ignorant of, when he said upon Exod. of the lees of any confected a she's, salt and glass is drawn. But now for that it was not so said, it is a thing sufficiently common and manifest to those that deal with fire, which Cinerall excrement comes from the adustion and burning of coals: but the foot which is more spiritual, for that mounts and elevates higher, is born of the flame which hath no leisure or power to perfect its mundification, so that the pure and impure mount together. And assuredly nothing can better agree with our souls after their separation from the body, which carries away with them the imapurities which they have attracted from it, during their residence here below, which they must repass by fire, & be perfected by white throughout. Every man shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. The weik and ashes representing man, the exterior animal, and his body, and the two flames, blue, and white; the blue the Celestial and Ethereal body, and the white, souls stripped of all Corporeity: which in good men shall be burnt with fire that burns always upon the altar, and salted with salt from the Covenant, the promises namely of his Messiah, into which the Prince of this world, hath but seen, as it hath done in the posterity of Adam, which is all filled with ashes whereof it was first built, & with the soot of original sin, whereunto he fastened by his disobedience, prevarication: So that we are the night where Moses began to reckon the day, for that we are according to the flesh, before the Messiah, who being come after, is the enlightened day of this clear sun of Justice, which the Cabballists say is the representation of Jehovah, whose sheath (as they call it) is Adonei, from whence God must be drawn out: for it is he, that mundifies the righteous, and burneth the wicked with dark and obscure fire. To which that also beateth, which is said of the Thrones Animals, there shall descend a Lion inflamed, that shall devour the oblations. There are Angels committed upon every member that sinneth, of whom they constitute themselves the bringers on: for every man that commits any offence, he suddenly delegates to himself an accuser, which will be no more favourable to him then he must be, but will lend him a fire from above, to burn that member that shall have trespassed. But Jehovah intervene● from above, who with his water of mercy, quencheth this fire, after the party Delinquent shall have his spots purged away. And there is but he alone, that is the angel of peace, that make the souls reconciliation with God, to whom she comes by the intercession of this sacred name: there is no other name; all that the Zohar sets down, wh●ch is as Christianlike spoken by a Rabbin which was never baptised.  
That premised for a ground work of what we shall say hereafter, St. Marks Greek text carries it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, every sacrifice shall be seasoned with salt; where the Latin version which the Church holdeth, for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sacrifice, as in truth this Greek word signifies, all sorts of sacrifices, hostias, victimas, and ceremonies: But Porphyrius in his second book of sacrifices, doth particularise it to herbs that men offered to the Gods, for from the beginning they did not present them: this he spoke of Incense, Myrrh, Benjamin, Storax, Aloes, Labdanum and other the like odoriferous gums; but only certain green herbs, as certain first fruits of seeds that the earth produced; and trees were procreated from the Earth before Animals, and the earth was clothed with herbs, before it produced trees. By reason whereof, the gathering certain pieds of herbs all entire with their leaves and roots, and seeds, they burned them, and sacrificed the odour and fume that proceeded therefrom to the Immortal Gods: and of this exhalation they cast, which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suffitus, perfumed, whence comes the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 victima sacrifice. Therefore they do not refer them properly to bloody sacrifices, for the Romans for more than 800 years since, by Numaes' Ordinance, had no Images of Gods, nor other sacrifices, than dough with salt, which were from thence called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is to say, without blood. Hitherto Porphyry.  
It hath been said heretofore that there was nothing more common, nor less well known then fire. And as much we may say of salt: wherefore it is that Moses made so great account of it, as to apply it to all sacrifices. Calling it the perpetual Covenant that God made with his people; of which alliance by the Hebrews called Berith, they found three or four marks in the Scripture; The bow of heaven, Gen. 9.9. Gen. 17.2. Circumcision to Abraham, and the universal paction, Numb. 18.19. Further yet the Paction of the Law received in Horeb, Deut. 5.2, & 3. The Lord our God made a Covenant with us in Horeb; which hath been time out of mind in singular and venerable recommendation towards all sorts of people; you bless your tables by putting on of saltsellers (saith Arnobius to the Gentiles.) But Titus Livius in his 26. that they may have a saltseller & a dish or platter for God's cause. And Fabricius, that thrice valiant Roman Captain, had never gold nor silver but a little drinking cup, whose foot was of horn, to make his offerings to the Gods, & saltseller to serve for sacrifices forbiddding, as Pliny hath it, in his 33. book, 12. ch. to have other Silvery then those two. It was furthermore a mark and symbol of Amity, as was salt: Wherefore the first thing that they served strangers, coming to them, was Salt, to note a firmity of their contracted Amity. And the great Duke of Muscovie, as Sigismond puts it down in his Treatise of the affairs of Muscovie, he could not do greater honour to those that he favoured then to send them of his salt. Archilocus as Origen allegeth against Celsus, among other things, reproacheth Lycambas to have violated a very holy and sacred Mystery, of the amity conceived betwixt them by the salt & the common table. And upon Saint Matthew speaking of Judas, he had not (saith he) any respect either to the remembrance of their common table, or to salt or bread which we did at together. And Lycophron in a poem of Alexander called salt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 purifying and cleansing; alluding to that of Euripides, that the sea washeth away all faults from men, for that the sea which the Pythagoreans because of its bitterness and saltness, call it Saturn's tears, and a fift Element, and is nothing but salt dissolved in water. And certes it is a thing very admirable, the great quantity that there is of salt; sigh that we hold it for an infallible maxim, that God & Nature made nothing in vain. For besides that there is found thereof in the earth, part in liquor which they scum off, part in ye, as at Halle in Saxony, and at Born in Provence, part in hard rocks, as in Teplaga a land of Negroes, where they carry it more than two hundred miles off upon their heads, and transport from hand to hand by relays, even to the Kingdom of Tombur, serving for money that passeth for currant in all those quarters, as it doth also in the Province of Caindu in East Tartary. According to Marc. Pole in his 2 book, 38 chap. and also that if they have it not for all purposes in their mouths, their gums rot, because of the extreme heats that reign there, accompanied with corrupting Moorish moistures; for which reason they must hold thereof continually moistening it with a thing that doth hinder putrefaction.  
I have many times made trial very exactly, that of Sea-water, men make or draw more than half of salt, causing the fresh water that is therein, sweetly to evaporate away; what an enormous quantity than would there remain of salt, if the fresh substance of the Sea were there from extracted? There are no sands or deserts, of what long extenditure soever, that can compare therewith, not by the 2. thousand part; for many men would equal, yea prefer the Sea in quantity and greatness unto the earth. We must not here dwell long on particularities that concern salt. Pliny in his 35. Book Chap. 7. The greatest part depending upon nothing but hearsay, for all tend to no other thing, but in the first place to show that there are two sorts of salt (as 'tis true) Natural, and Artificial. The Natural grows in flakes, or in a rock by itself, within the earth, as is aforesaid: the Artificial is made with sea-water, or with liquor, as a pickle drawn out of salt pits, as they do in Lorraine, and the French County of Burgundy: which they boil and congeal upon the fire. He there showeth many examples, and indeed those which are more difficult to believe: let the faith be on the sayers part, and among others of a certain lake of Tarentin in Poville, not deeper than the height of knees where water in summer time by the Sun's heat is all converted into salt. And in the Province of Babylon, there grows a liquid Bitumem, a little thick, which they use in Lamps in stead of oil. This inflammable substance being stripped therefrom, there remains salt, there under hidden: as indeed we see it by experience that out of every thing that burns there may be salt extracted, but there doth not appear any thing therein but waterishness and inflammable unctuosity which must be taken away by fire, this done salt remains in the ashes. And this salt (saith Geber) in his testament retains always the nature and property of the thing from which it is extracted, if this be done in a close vessel that the spirits may not vapour away, for there would remain that which the Gospel calls sal infatuatum, as we shall say hereafter.  
The best salt than that may be, and the wholesomest, is that which is made with sea-water in Bronage. And after the example thereof, that the trough throughout, where the salt water is made of clay or glue, as potter's earth: and that whereof tiles is made; furthermore you must courry this trough by Artifice that it drink not, nor suck up the water which men draw therefrom, which is done by beating it with a great number of Horses, Asses, and Mullets, tied one to another that they may trample thereon, so long that it be firm and solid, as a certain barns flore to thresh wheat. This done, and having hollowed the channels, to put in the water, than we must have a care that the salt-pans be something lower than the Sea (Pliny in his 2. Book Chap. 106. sets down that salt cannot be made without fresh water) they set in the first place a great receptacle where they draw the water which is called the 
(a) The first receptacle or bond of salt water whereof salt is made.  Jard: and at the end thereof a sluice by which having applied thereunto below a haunch with a stopple called the 
(b) A trunk or pipe of wood through which sea-water passes, one of the last receptacles whereof salt is made.  Amezau, they make the water run from the Jard into Parquets, which they call Couches, & of these Couches giving thereto a requisite hanging, by other stopples, 2. in number, called the gate of the Poelles, which are therein enchased within other Parquets called soldering or planching with board, wind and means to make the water turn, by divers wind and channels almost after the manner of a Labyrinth, which it is doth for a great way before it come to render itself at last, within the Parquets and hollows where the salt must be congealed: always diminishing the quantity of water, that the Sunbeams have therein more action, and that it be better warmed before it enter the floors, where it makes its final congelation. But to come thereunto by certain degrees, and proportionate measures, there are throughout the Palles which they lift up and down as those of a mill. All the earth that remaineth, which men draw by the Parquets and the flores they Arrange about them as a Trench or rampart, 
High grounds or little hills raised by men's hands.  which is called Bassis of the convenient breadth, to pass two horses a front; which serves as well to retain the water, as to put upon the heaps of salt, made and congealed, called Vaches, and to come and go as upon a dike, or causeway from one marish to another, to lad and carry upon the beasts of carriage of the vessels which attend there near to the shore: In the winter they content themselves with bulrushes which they sell afterwards very well for the profit they draw from them: and that for fear of rains and snows, and other aereal moisture, that moisten then anew. And all the rise are so obliqne, and turning, that for a mile travers of right way, we must m●ke 7. or 8. so that being therein once cast a little on, one may lose himself, which knew not the addresses, or had not a good guide, by reason of the turn and bridge-ponts, that men must go to make choice of, to pass from one place to another. And it would be very hard to make thereof a Chart or description, principally in winter, where all is well-nigh covered with water, & yet more to enter in by a strong hand, for conservation of these salt pits every year, after the heats are over, the Sun not being able to make it, but in the Months of May, June, July, and August, the salt makers do use to open certain Bonds, to suffer the sea-water to enter till all the forms and Parquets be covered, otherwise the frosts would destroy them: that if while the salt freezeth or creameth there come any rain, it is so great a retardment (and for fifteen days at the least) we must empty all the water out of the Parquets, that the rain had altered, and therefore in rainy and cold years, they can very hardly make it.  
In this regard, I come to remember an experiment that I have tried more than one's, which gave me to think whether it were Aristotle, I took eight or ten pound of common gross salt, which I made to dissolve in hot water, scumming the froth which may be there, and being left to settle, I put the clear by inclination in a caldron over the fire, where I made all the water evaporate, so that the salt remained in the bottom, white as snow; then I endeavoured to dry it in a pot, giving it at last a goo● estret of fire for four or five hours, when it was cold I parted it into four platters of Beuvais to shorten and gain time, in fair weather at a window where the Sun came not, and did choose a moist time to facilitate the dissolution, recollecting every morning that which was resolved in water, so long that at the end of seven or eight days the salts dissolution was perfected, nothing remaining but I know not what thickness or slime, in a small quantity which I set apart, I put all my dissolutions into Cornues & distilled all the water which could mount, being very fresh, for the saltness did not ascend, but remained fixed in the bottom of the vessel, and gave at last a good estret of fire, with staves of Cotteret, having broken the Cornues: I put the salt that therein remained congealed to dissolve in moisture as before, till there remained nothing but grossness and slime as in the former I distilled that which ascended from the water, and reiterated all those Regiments till all my salt was resolved and distilled into salt water, that which came the seven or eight time. The slime I washed well with water, to extract what might be the Remainder of saltness; and so recalcined and washed them till there rested nothing but slime or pure earth without taste. Of this little salt that I had extracted, I did as I had done with others, so that all my salt, without losing any of its substance, went away in sweet water, and in this insensible slime, which came at last to one or two ounces. What then became of the saltness of this salt? Certes herein I have lost all my Latin, and know not what to say thereof, only it is gone in verity as I say: If any one would untie this knot, would indeed do me a great pleasure: I will leave it to mix with others, to come to the particular praises of salt, without which, saith Pliny, we could not live civilly. All the grace, gentility, ornament, pleasures and delights of humane life, cannot be better expressed then by this word; which extends also to the pleasures of the soul, the sweetness and tranquillity of life, and to a Sovereign rejoicing and repose of all troubles and sorrows. It renews the pricks and amorous desires so beget its like, and hath obtained this honourable quality of Soldiers, and of pleasant and witty words, and joyous meetings, without hurt to any; from whence it should be called the Graces. According to which St. Paul saith in the 4 to the Col. 6. Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt. And in the end it is the seasoning of all our viands, which without it would remain unsavoury and without taste. So that it is said to right sense in the common proverb, there is nothing more profitable than the sun and salt. So Pliny discourseth thereof, in the place alleged, and Plutarch in his book and 4 question of his Sympofiacques, without salt we can eat nothing agreeable to the taste, for bread itself is more savoury if it be mingled therewith: therefore ordinarily in Churches and covering of tables, they couple Neptune with Ceres, for salt things are as it it were an allurement and a spur to excite appetite: So that before any other nouriture we take that which is sharp and salt, whereas, if they begin with others they would incontinently prostrate themselves. That which hath no taste can it be eaten without Salt? Job. 6.6. Salt also renders drink more delicious, and it is of infinite other uses and commodities of life, that holds more of man; whereas the privation thereof, makes it brutal. It is furthermore a mark and symbol of Justice, because it guards and conserveses that to which it is introduced and fastened. Of Amity also, and Gratitude, suitable to that in the first of Esdr●s chap. 4. where the Lieutenants of King Artaxerxes writ to him in this manner. We remember the salt thou gavest us in thy Palace, we would not fail to advertise thee faithfully of what shall come to out knowledge concerning the service of they highness.  
Salt being there put for one of the greatest obligations that can be had, because it is a thing pure, neat, holy and sacred, which men first set on the table. So that Aeschines in his prayer of the ill administered Embassy, makes great account of salt, and a public table, of one City confederate with another. And indeed there is nothing more permanent nor more fixed in the fire, nor more approaching to its nature, because it is mordicant, sharp, tart, cutting, subtle, penetrative, pure and neat, fragrant, incombustible and incorruptible. Yea, that which preserves all things from corruption, & by its preparations makes itself clear, crystalline, and transparent as Air; for glass is nothing else then a most fixed salt that may be extracted from all sorts of ashes, and of some nearer then of others; but it is not so dissoluble into moisture as common salt; nor that which is extracted out of ashes by way of lee, which is liquid with it by strong expressions of fire, which are notwithstanding two contrary resolutions, and resisting one the other: chief afterward from all liquid humidity, unctuous but inconsumptible. It is moreover the first original as well of minerals as of stones, and precious stones, yea of all other minerals. Likewise of vegetables and of Animals, whose blood and urinal humour, and all other substance is salted, to preserve it from putrefaction: and in general, from all mixed and composed Elements; which is herein verified that they resolve themselves into it, so that it is as the other life of all things; and without it saith the Philosopher Morien, nature can no ways work, nor can any other thing be engendered, according to Raimund Lullus in his testament. Whereunto all chemical Philosophers do adhere; that nothing hath been created here below, in the Elementary part better, nor more precious than salt.  
There is salt then, in every thing, and nothing can subsist but for the salt which is therein mixed; which ties the parts together as a chain, otherwise they would all go into small powder, and give them nourishment; for there are two substances in salt, the one viscous, gluish, and unctuous, of the nature of air, which is sweet; and indeed there is nothing that nourisheth but what is sweet; the bitter and the salt do not. The other is a dust, sharp pricking and biting, of the nature of fire, which is laxative. For all salts are laxative, and nothing doth lose the body, that participates not of the nature of salt: Mark then, wherefore is it that those that drink salt water die speedily of dysenteries? the salt which is mingled therewith causing a gnawing in the bowels; for there is nothing corrosive but salt, or of the nature of salt, fiery of itself, saith Pliny, lib. 31. ch. 9 and yet enemy of actual fire, for it leaps up and down, it danceth to and fro, and crackles, corroding also all to which it is fastened; and drying it, although it be the strongest and most permanent humidity of all others, and it is a moisture (saith Geber) that above all other moistures expects an encounter with fire.  
So we see in metals, which are nothing else but congealed and baked salts, by a long and successive decoction, within the earth's entrails, where their humidity is abundantly fixed by the temperate air it meets withal there. And these salts do participate of sulphur and quicksilver, which joined together make a third name Metalline salt, which hath the same fashion and resolution as common salt; which is taken for a symbol of equity and justice; as also are metals, but for another consideration. For melt Gold, Silver, Copper, and other metals together, they will all mingle equally: So that if upon a hundred parts of silver, yea two hundred you melt one of gold, the least part of this silver, in what regard soever you will take it from the total mass, shall in respect of itself, take its just and equal portion of gold and no more nor less, wherefore they are taken for distributive justice. But salt is for that throughout, where it attacheth flesh, fish, vegetables, it keeps them from corruption, and conserveses them in their entire, and makes them durable for many ages. Fire on the contrary, is an evil host, for it stealeth and destroyeth all that lodgeth near it, never ceasing till it hath converted all into ashes, whence salt was extracted, that was before therein contained: So that these two, fire & salt, accord and convene together and also with the ferments in this, that they convert all that whereupon they can exercise their action. Plutarch in his book and 4 question of Symposiaques, extolling salt, sets down, that all flesh and fish that was eat is a dead thing, and proceeds from a dead body; but when the faculty of salt comes to be introduced, it is a soul that revivifies and gives them grace and savour. And in the 5 book 10. quest. renders a reason why Homer calls salt divine; he puts that salt is as a temperament and fortification of the viands within the body: and that it gives it an agreement with the appetite. But it is rather for the virtue that it hath to preserve dead bodies from putrefaction; which is as to resist death, that which appertains to Divinity. Thou shalt (not suffer thy holy one to see corruption,) not permitting that what is deprived of life should perish so suddenly in all kinds: but as the soul, that divine part within us, keeps the body alive (a soul is given to hogs for their safety,) this Pliny sets down after the Stoics. So salt also takes into its safeguard dead flesh to keep it from putrefaction; whence the fire of lightning is reputed for divine; because those that have been touched therewith remain a great while without corruption; as salt doth on its part, which hath this property and virtue; which showeth the great affinity and agreement which they have together. Wherefore Evenus was wont to say, that fire was the best sauce in the world, and the very same is also attributed to salt. All which things here above do confirm the occasion for which Moses, and after him Pythagoras made so great esteem of salt, to cover under his Allegory that which they would give to understand by it; that our souls and consciences signified by man in St. Mark, namely, the internal man, and our body for the sacrifice ought to be offered up unto God, pure and not soiled with corruption; That you offer up your bodies a living sacrifice, holy pleasing unto God, etc. Therein was there (it may be) another reason, that moved Moses to exalt salt so much, that according as Rabbi Moses the Egyptian discourseth at large in his third book of his More, 47▪ ch. where he renders a particular reason for the most part of Mosaical ceremomonies, his principal aim was to overthrow all Idolatries, even rhose of the Egyptians, where they had a greater vogue then in any other part. He seeing that their Priests so greatly detested salt, that they would not use it in any sort, for that of the sea from whence it proceeded; in the bitterness whereof, the sweet substance of Nilus went to lose and salt itself; which they held to be for the radical moisture from whence all things here below do sprout and nourish themselves in despite of them, and contrary to their traditions; he would thereof make a form of alliance & paction from God with the Jewish people, that all their oblations should be accompanied with sait: And in the 2 of Paralip. 13.5 chap. It is said, that God gave to David and his children the Kingdom of Israel by a Covenant of Salt; that is to say, most firm and indissoluble; for that salt hinders corruption. And therefore the Saviour chose his Apostles to be as the salt of men; that is to say, to deliver the pure and incorruptible doctrine of the Gospel; and to confirm them firm persistent faith, as well by words as deeds. The cabalists penetrating further into the mysteries enclosed therewithin, meditate certain subtleties by a rule of Ghematrie, called Ghilcal, which consisteth in equivalencies of Numbers, which the Hebrews assign unto Letters. Those of this word Malach which signifieth salt, mounts in their supputation to 78. for Man valued 40. Lamed 30. and heath 8. or divided in any sort that you will, always there will result a certain number, representing a mystery of Divine names; the half which makes 39 mount to as much as the letters of Chuzu; the scabbard or covering of this great Name for caph. val. 20. vau 6. Z. 7. and the other vau 6, if in 3 parts, each will mount to 26. which is the number tetragrammaton Jehovah, vau making 10. he 5. vau 6. & he 5. In six parts this will be 13. for each, which are equipollent to the number of Piety. In 13. there are 6. which vau is valued at, a letter representing eternal life; besides that six is the first perfect number, because his parts do constitute it, his sixth namely 1. his third 2. and its half 3. which perfection hath not any one of the other numbers, and in six days the structure of the Universe was perfected.  
There are other mysteries in the Scripture; in 26. will be the number of the most holy & sacred Trinity, for three times 26. makes 78. In 39 twice; which Beth stands for a symbol of a word, where the second person, and the house of Ideas of the Archetype, which Plato hath well acknowledged, Aristotle not. And finally 87. denotes as many unities, whereof each represents the unity of the essence of one God alone. The same is in the Lechem bread, which is an anagram of the former, and consisteth of the same letters. It was therefore some cause of the Proverb, To eat salt with thy bread. Rabbi Solomon upon the places aforesaid, of God's alliance with his people, designed by salt, by which is understood the Eternal paction of the great Priesthood of the Messiah, brings us a form of an Allegory, very strange and fantastic. That the waters here below do mutiny, that they are separated from the supercelestial, having the firmament set betwixt them; by means whereof, God to appease them, promised that they should be perpetually in his service, in all offerings, sacrifices, as he did afterwards in the Law, which he gave to the Jews; Whatsoever thou shalt offer to the Lord, thou shalt season it with salt.  
Yet there are divers sorts of salt, that have different properties and virtues, according to the things from which they are extracted; for salt retain a propriety of the thing from whence it came, saith Geber in his Testament, yea as many odours, and sapours as there are, they all do depend upon salt; for where there is no salt, there is no smell nor taste; and yet of all the tastes which Plutarch in his Natural causes doth limit to eight, Pliny lib. 15. cap. 27. extends them to 13. there is not one, that is not salt, because taste (as Plato will have it) comes from water, which creep athwart the stalk of every plant, and keeps the saltness that it cannot pass as it is more gross and terrestrial, as we see in sea-water when it is distilled; where when they pass it through sand, where it leaves its saltness. But it may be said to Plato, that the taste doth not only lie in plants, but also in Animals and minerals, and all other compounded Elements. It is that which he and Aristotle and other rational Philosophers, are only satisfied with, that which their arguments and discourse do imprint in their fantasies: esteeming that it cannot be otherwise, then that which their reasons do demonstrate unto them, for the most part false and erroneous; there were if they would penetrate empirickly by the experiments, they might have been showed by the finger of the eye, the truth of the thing, they might have been better ascertained therein, as the Arabians have since done; and the Chemical Philosophers, who will assure themselves of nothing, but what they have oftentimes tried without variation to the sense. It is a maxim of all Naturalists, received for Infallible, that the transparence comes from this, when the water in the composition and mixtion superabounds, over the earth, and darkness on the contrary, when Terrestreity predominates the water, and it would be accounted an irremissible crime Laesa Ma●estatis to doubt thereof, for who is there that doubteth it, will they say, that it is not so? I will reply that it is I, to whom experience, shows the contrary, at least for that the cause of transparence, and opacity, doth not proceed from that which they allege. Take Crystal and pass it never so little through hot ashes, so long as one would roast a chestnut you will find it all dark, without any more transparence within or without in the superficies, and that without any loss of its substance, or diminution of its weight. And on the contrary in a strong expression of fire blowing upon the lead, than which nothing can be darker, it will convert into a form of a hyacinth so transparent, that one may read a small letter through it: though it were an inch thick, and this hyacinth by the same fire return into lead, and lead into an hyacinth.  
If then these profound Contemplators of nature, and her effects, had been willing to accompany their Imaginary discourses, with experience that reveals infinite secrets by fire, they could never have fallen into such absurdities: and had manifestly seen without any vail or obstacle all full of things whereof they remain in irresolution and doubt not having spoken therein but as blind men and by guess, for we cannot discover the secrets of things to proceed therein directly, nor come to it by entering on it, after manner of speech, by the foregate: for nature goeth in her works rarely and in secret, as by the postern gate: or by setting ladders against the windows: The Greeks call that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, solution: No man can know the composition of a thing, said Geber very well, that was ignorant of its destruction. And this is done by fire, which separates the parts, as hath been said before. There are then two divers substances of salt, therefore it causeth divers effects, the one is sweet, glutinous and inflammable, of the nature of air, nourishing, binding. The other sharp, mordicant and separative that begets nothing. The Poets in their mythologies have called this the Ocean, and the sweet wherewith the pickle of the Sea is moistened made liquid Te●bys as Plutarch hath it in his Osiris which giveth milk to and nourisheth all things. But simple water of itself alone would not be sufficient to nourish, if it were not assisted with things fastened to the earth, the salt therein enclosed and therewith mingled, having a sweet and glutinous unctuosity, for as in the Sea-water there are two substances, sweet and salt, there are subalternately two in salt: But we cannot say that they do nourish or produce any thing. Therefore is it, that they use to raze Traiters-houses, and sow them with salt as reputed unworthy to produce any more. Salt indeed produceth nothing as it is, where its sweet substance is so drowned with the salt, that it cannot express itself in action, so as it is, except it be freed out of prison, for the saltness predominates over it, and covers it. But for replication thereunto which was said before, that fresh water alone, doth neither nourish nor produce any thing: which we see to the contrary, by experience in many waterish herbs that grow in the midst of waters, and in flints that it engenders shells, and fishes, and worms: to be short, that its procreation doth extend to the three composed kinds of Minerals, Vegetables, & Animals: And indeed put little pebbles in a phial, and water thereon, every day, renewing it daily, at the end of certain time, you will find them so great, and so big, that they cannot come out at the neck by which they were put in. But indeed all this proceeds from the slime, which is mingled with the water, as frogs, and other things, which are procreated in the middle Region of the air of the slime which the Sun beams hath thence raised with the water, for all rains, snows, and other such impressions participate much of the slime; from thence it comes that the snow doth smoke and fatten the earth, and the water of rain, is more connatural to trees, herbs, and seeds, chief those which fall by storms and thunders, than those of wells and rivers: whereof Plutarch forceth himself to bring forth many reasons in natural causes, which have no great appearance: There is yet more to say, for that they are better baked and accompanied with more subtle and hot slime, and are of lighter concoction and nourishment than plants; as of meat in the stomach of Animals, some more than others, where the waters here below are more raw and indigested: we insist a little in water, because salt is nothing else, but water mingled and settled with dry and burned earth, of the nature of fire which makes it bitter and salt. So that before we pass from this subject of fresh water, we will here touch upon an experiment of more rare things from whence come many fair & scret considerations. Sweet water is a body so homogeneal, that it would seem to the sight so clear, transparent, and liquid, in all its parts, resembling to itself, that there is in it but one only substance: since that by d stillations she passeth all. But yet there is another found substance, solid, and compact, in the form of earth, mingled with its liquid homogeneity, which it separates by Artifice, and it is that which Aristotle saith in the swarm of Philosophers. The earth is concreat by the grossness of the water. And this may be seen with water agitated and beaten and after redistilled many times, always separating the fift or sixth part which shall pass the first. You must then take a good quantity of well water, or the same of fountain, river or rain water, and let it settle twenty or thirty hours until there be some ordure or slime, it separates itself.  
Take of this water as you may say forty pints, and cause the half to vapour away by very easy fire, that it boil not, put these twenty pints apart, and take new water as above, of which you shall evaporate the moiety; and so long continue it, that you may have well a hundred pints half evaporated; from this one hundred, make to evaporate thirty pints, and of sixty, ten, twenty, of fifty, that shall remain twenty of thirty, ten, and of twenty, ten; and cast away all these slimes that shall reside, for they are nothing worth, and are but immundicity and ordure, unto the seaventh or eighth evaporation or distillation, after which there will appear in your water infinite little atoms and little bodies; which at last by little and little will be congealed into one solid substance, of a grisly colour, soft as dough: Of which I have seen such admirable effects that men would hardly believe it; 
Abundance of fluxes of blood.  in Cankers, Gangrenes, Hemorrhagies, bloody flux, Women newly laid in bed; and at nose, diseases in the stomach, and infinite other such accidents that no terra sigillata nor Bolarmoniac could compare with. You may make your round pills impasting them with the last waters that were extracted, which are also of great virtue, to wash wounds, inveterate Maladies of the stomach, and other the like; wherefore you must keep them well. You may also calcine it for six or seven hours in a small pot well luted, and casting thereon vinegar distilled, boiling, dissolving one part, nourishing the rest; calcine it again, and dissolve it till you have all the salt which will be white and of sweet taste, make it dissolve to oil, you may draw from thence great effects even upon Gold. But sea-water is yet of more efficacy than that of wells and rivers, sweet water (I say) which shall be separated from salt by distillation: which would be easy to do near the Sea, having to that end four or five alembies of leaden earth, and yet more of sweet water which is drawn by distillation of salt resolved in liquor to humidity.  
But there is yet another manner of proceeding, in the separation of the substances of common water: and more spiritual than the precedent. Take very clean water: out of a well, river or fountain, let it settle twenty four hours, and take the pure and the clear, which you shall put in vessels of Beauvois earth: well stopped to putrify in hot dung forty days, renewing it two or three times every week, filter the water, and give only five or six boilings, scumming off the scurfes that arise thereon with a feather, than put it in Cornues of glass, not putting therein but the third part, or the moiety at most, of that which they may contain and distil of two parts three; then change the Recipient, and accomplish to distil all the water, but with an easy fire. Then strengthen the fire, by little and little, till you see small fumes ascend, continue this degree of fire, with increasing until it mount no more. Let the fire quench of itself and recoole the vessel: then gather the salt which shall be so elevated towards the beck of the Cornue, and within the recipient, and keep it in a vessel of earth, very close and sealed in a warm and dry place that it melt not, nor dissolve. Put the Cornue to again with that which remains in the bottom, and strengthen the fire until you see a reddish oil; end your distillation, after cease the fire. Take the black feces, that remain in the bottom, stamp them, and put them in a sublimatory of good earth, of an inch thick, and no more, for s●x hours, first a little fire, then reinforce it for twelve others, till the sublimatory be red, the fire being always in the same degree: let it cool and gather the salt which will be mounted, and keep it as the former. This is the second sal Armoniac volatill, which is extracted from the water: and the one, and the other, have great power to the dissolution of gold, carrying no danger with then as your common sal Armoniac may do; which hath bad qualities in it, there, where this is extracted from a substance so familiar to man's body, which is sweet water. Now take all the feces & residences, which remain in the bottom of the vessel, bruise them, and make them dissolve in the first water, which you shall have distilled, after you have warmed it a little; that it may dissolve the salt that may be there. Let them repose, then evacuate, and put them to distil with half the water: Then change the Recipient, and with a little stronger fire, distil the Surplusage of the water, and keep them each a part, in a cold place. But do not perfect to congeal all the salt in the bottom of the vessel, but leave therein a little moisture, to create flakes of ice. If it be not white enough, let it calcine for three or four hours in a pot of earth not leaded, after dissolve it in the second water, filter and congeal it, and keep it in a dry place, for this is salt fix and fusible. If in drawing the first Salarmoniac, volatill, the foul oil that is nothing worth mounts with it, you must put salt and oil in new water, and depure and putrify it as before, which was to begin again, therefore we must go wisely to work. There is another manner of proceeding therein, which is shorter, for there are more ways to one intent, and to one end, saith Geber. Take rain or fountain water, put it in a Cornue, upon the sand with a slow fire: and distil thereof a fourth part, which is more rare and subtle. Continue afterwards the distillation even to the feces, which you cast away. And see that you have good store of this mean substance, with which, you shall reiterate the distillation seven times, being always the fourth part that will first issue out, which is the phlegm, and the feces are the slime. In the fourth, you shall begin to see the sulphurities of all colours in the form of husks and pieces of gold. The seven distillations being perfected put your mean substance in an alembec, to the fire with a soft bath: and draw that which may ascend, which shall be yet of phlegm, than you shall see created little stones, and pieces of all colours which will go to the bottom: stay your distillation, and let them settle, then evacuate that which remains sweetly with water: and do so, with all your mean substance, and make there little stones to multiply in the bath. When you shall have enough dry them in the Sun, or before an easy fire, and put them in a glasse-bottle well sealed, with the fire of a lamp or the like, for three or four months, and your matter will be congealed and fixed except a certain small portion thereof, which will arise along the sides of the vessel: This here is the mean substance, of the first matter of all things, which is water. But that we be not deceived or abused, all these practices, which are but an image and portrait half rudely hewn out of the manner which we must hold in the extraction of liquors. From whence they resolve of themselves into moisture, all sorts of salt, as well common, as Salalkali, tartar, and other the like; the sweet oleaginous substance swimming above the water with the salt and bitter, which there remaineth dissolved, and after the extraction of the water, remaineth a congealed salt in the bottom; that is to say, to separate the oil from salts: which cannot be done without great artifice: But it is not reasonable to discover it, and divulge all openly; but to reserve something therein, for far of doing wrong to the curious endeavours of some learned men who have taken so much pains and travail, to come to the knowledge of these fine secrets.  
It hath pleased me in some sort to run through the foresaid experiments of water as well for the importance and rarity which they have, as for that it depends upon salt whereof water makes the principal part: and likewise of the sea, from whence separating the sweet substance the salt remains solid congealed; and of this salt resolved by itself, to moisture, they extract by distillation the greatest part of sweet water; by means whereof, without departure from this subject of salt, it will not be amiss, to touch here something of the Sea, whose water is as a body, the salt enclosed not perceivable to the sight, but well to the taste, are the vital spirits, and the oleaginous inflammable substance envelopped within the salt; the soul, and the life of the nature of air, or of wind; remember because wind is my life. There are then two substances in the Sea, and by consequent in salt; the one liquid, and volatile, which ascends upward, and is double, water namely and oil; the one and the other sweet and fresh: And the other fix, and solid, which is bitter and salt; wherefore it was that Homer called the Ocean the father of Gods and of men, for by stretching out of all side crosswise, the Conduits and spongiosities of the earth which he holds encompassed round about: as a dry hanging on to some rock there within by a providence of nature is made a separation of substances of the fresh, namely, and of the salt: for the Marine water, passeth through these Conduits, they unsalt it, even as they should distil it by an Alembic of Cornue, or as one should pass it through sand many times, part whereof should remain baked in the earth for the production and nouriture of vegetables part passeth through springs, wells, and fountains, whence all floods and rivers are form, Eccles. 1.7. All rivers run into the Sea, yet the Sea is not full, unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again. And part elevates itself aloft, by means of the Sun and stars, which draw and suck them, as well for their nouriture, as for the formation of reins, snows, hails, and other aqueous expressions in the air. The salt which is more gross, heavy and terrestrial remains invisqued in the veins, and conduits of the earth, where heat enclosed bakes it, digests, altars, and changes it into another nature for the production of all sorts of Minerals, by means of the portion of fresh water mingled therewith, which dissolves and washeth off these salts, so that finally, having been brought to their last perfection according to nature's intention, she informs that which she hath determined. The Sea than is not so barren and unfruitful as some poets and Philosophers have made it; Plato himself, in his Phaedon, where he saith, that nothing could be there procreated worthy of Jupiter: because all the Animals procreated therein are wild, untameable and indocill, and in which there is neither amity nor sweetness. But what shall we say of the Dolphin that saved Arion, and of many others, alleged by Plutarch in his treaty: What animals are the wisest, those on land, or those in the water? of fishes likewise wherewith the Indians are served, as with a chained Grayhound? But it is very small, to take fish, never letting go what he hath once fastened on. Truly a Brach nor couching spaniel, cannot be more spiritual, or docible than this fish, at least if it be true what is related to have often times been seen by the eye, in the thirteenth book of Gonzalo d'Ovidiedo of his natural history of the Indies. Chap 10. And of Peter Martyr, of another sort of fish called Manati, which being taken at Sea very little, and from thence put into a standing lake, became tame, and privately would come, and take bread from men's hands: and would not fail to come a good way off, when he was called, leaving himself to be handled at their pleasure, and carried them upon his back, as on a bridge cross the lake, from one side to the other: But fresh water fishes, are they more docile than those of the Sea? The Egyptian Priests, above all others abhorred the Sea, calling it the final end, the death, and destruction of all things: because the water thereof, killeth all Animals that drink thereof: and is as the sepulchre of all rivers, that go lose themselves and die therein; and the earth is the same for all bodies, from whence none are spewed out. To this purpose Chiia in the Zohar deploring the death of Rabbi Simeon author thereof, after he had cast himself on the earth and embraced him, used such a language, O earth, earth, dust, dust, how hard and unpitifull art thou? For whatsoever is most  to the sight, thou makest old and deformed, thou breakest in pieces the shining Columns of the world. How dost thou quench the clear resplendent lights which received theirs from the eternal living spring, wherewith the whole world was illustrated! The Princes and Potentates given to the people to govern them, and to administer Justice unto them, by which they are maintained, and subsist, wax old and end in thee: and thou remainest always persistent in thyself, not being able to satisfy or satiate thyself with so many bodies, that return thither: so that the world is therein confounded and lost, and afterwards renews itself of a sudden. But for the regard of the Sea, the Egyptian Priests had it in such detestation, that they could not endure to see the very Mariners, nor the Islanders as people which on all parts were cut off from humane commerce. And the Britain's, (separated from the world by an element which they say is the fifth,) so austere, outrageous, and unpittiable: and for that cause they abstained from salt, because that among other things it provoked to lasciviousness. The occasion also for which they so much rejected the Sea, was something mystical and allegorical: because it doth not wash spots or uncleanness. So that Homer made, and not without reason, that Nausicaa Alcinous daughter, washed her linen and clothes in a fountain of fresh water on the Sea shore, for the truth is that Sea-water doth not wash. That which Aristotle, (as Plutarch puts it) in the first of the Symposiaques 9 question, refer to the pickle wherewith the Sea-water is always filled, so that there being nothing empty therein it could receive no filthiness. And lee, is it not the same; yea more full of salt; yea more unctuous and fat then that of the sea? so that according to Aristotle's testimony, men put sea-water in their lamps, to make them shine clearer, and cast upon the flame, it becomes lighted; in which there may be also mystery contained, concerning fire and salt, and their affinity together.  
Join hereunto that we may see that salt is an enemy to all filthiness and uncleanness; and will not thereto adjoin or associate; no more than fire, which will nothing but pure things, said good Raimund Lullius. Yet to the aforesaid purpose, Plutarch in his natural causes, sets down that the sea-water, doth neither nourish nor feed, trees, or plants: because being gross and heavy it cannot mount into their stalks, which thickness and grossness is seen, for that carrieth greater burdens than the fresh water: and this comes from the salt therein dissolved, and it is earthly and consequently more uneasy to sink. Moreover trees being (according to the opinion of Plato, Democritus, Anaxagoras, and others,) a terrestrial Animal, it cannot give it nourishment; for bitter doth not nourish, but sweet only. But what shall we say of so many fishes that are procreated and nourished in the sea, of herbs also, and of trees? Francisco de Oviedo lib. 2. ch. 5. sets down that in the first discovery of Christopher Columbus, they found as of great green and yellow meadows in the main sea, more than two hundred leagues from land, of certain herbs called Salgazzi, which go floating on the top of the waters, as the winds carry them from one side to another. In the relation of Francis Vlloa, he sets down that the root of the herbs, whereof he gives the description and figure, do not sink more than 12 or 15 fathom in the water, yellow yet, as wax.  
But we sufficiently see trees and bushes growing along the seashore, and even in the very sea: yet Plutarch insisteth that those that grow along the shore of the Red-sea, are there procreated & nourished with the slime which the floods carry thither, and fall therein; which he might have spoken more properly of the greater sea, otherwise called Pontus Euxinus. And Pliny lib. 18. cha. 22. that the herbs which grow within the water are nourished with rains: but it would follow, that if so, they should procreate in all other places where it reins indifferently.  
Aristotle with better reason refers it to the gross and unctuous saltness which is therewith mingled. Salt being fat and unctuous, which is the cause that salt water doth not so easily quench fire, as fresh water. But this saltness is equal throughout all the sea. Pliny himself lib. 19 ch. 11. specifies, Certain herbs which salt waters do much profit. These are secrets of Nature to which man's discourse can hardly arrive. For herbs by a providence thereof may well suck and draw from salt water, a fresh or sweet substance wherewith they are procreated and nourished as the fishes.  
But this is not our principal drift: we have here endeavoured to show that Salt is not unfruitful, but the cause of fertility provoking venereal appetite, whence Venus is said to be begotten of the sea; if men give salt unto animals to heat them the more, and make them eat salt as Plutarch puts it in his 3. question of Natural causes. And we see by experience, that in ships laden with salt, rats and mice, are sooner engendered then in others; this which must so much the more cry down salt in regard of holy things, from whence all mutability and lubricity must be banished; but salt is in the number of things that are applied to the good, and to the bad part. Of the good we have heretofore alleged many places. Of the bad for the sterility, Gen. 14.5. All shall assemble themselves in the wild valley which is now the sea of salt. And in the 19 chap. 26. as also in the 10. of Wisdom, v. 7. of Lot's wife, who for her incredulity and disobeying the Angel's voice, she was turned into a pillar of salt: And Judges 9.45. the habitations of Rebels and Traitors were razed and sowed with salt. And in the 2 of Zephaniah v. 9 Moab shall be as Sodom, a desolation of nettles, and thistles and heaps of salt.  
But we see upon the ebbing and flowing of the salt pits in the Marshes of Zai●tonge, where they empty the dirt, which are as salt as the sea itself, where it produceth the best wheat, that possibly can be, and in great quantity, and very excellent wines also: But there is another consideration in that, as in Marle, and in the dry places of Ardonne, where they burn the cuttings of trees, of 7 or 8 years, as also quick chalk which supplies the place of dung in their grounds: for those ashes would produce nothing of themselves, no more than Marle or salt, but they are the cause of production because they warm and fatten the land. There is yet another reason, that Plutarch allegeth, That throughout where there is Salt nothing can grow thick, or be close together: which constipation would hinder herbs to thrust out: Moreover many medicaments and remedies do come from salt: whereupon I will not here lose time, on that which Pliny, Dioscorides, and others, have set down and treated of cursorily and in haste, with closed eyes one after another, not having made proof thereof; add to this, it is so trivial and beaten as nothing more, but will touch here, in passing the Country, an experiment, whereof I have seen very admirable effects in burning fevers and unquietness, where they could not take rest. It is a frontal made in this manner.  
Take the yolk of a fresh Eglantine, and as much gross salt, beat them together in shape of an ointment, which you shall apply to your forehead, between two folded linen clothes: It doth not cool the brain, nor cause such accidents; as conserve of Roses do, Oxyrhodinon likewise, and brings much more comfort.   
FINIS.