These are the vestments which _Zohar_ said were the good wor

A

DISCOVRSE

OF

FIRE and SALT,

DISCOVERING

Many secret Mysteries,

AS WELL

PHILOSOPHICALL,

AS

THEOLOGICALL.

[Illustration]

_London_, Printed by _Richard Cotes_, 1649.

[Illustration]

To his worthy friend Captaine

_Thomas Falconbridge_.

/Sir/,

I Have been informed of your zeal and forwardnesse in advancing

Learning and Truth, two commendable vertues, for a man of your merit

and profession. And meeting with a subject composed by a _French_

Authour, I present the Translation to your favourable acceptance: It

is of forraign birth, though swadled 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 Presse here,

had I not been assured of the candor and integrity of the Authour. 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_

/Edvvard Stephens/.

[Illustration]

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

Mosaicall Traditions, amid’st his darke sentences, where, according

to the Letter, he touched one thing, and mystically understood

and comprised another; (wherein he imitates the _Ægyptians_ and

_Chaldæans_, or rather, the _Hebrewes_, from whence all theirs

proceeded) he here sets downe these two: Not to speake 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 _Marke, ver. 49. Every man shall be

salted with Fire, and every Sacrifice shall be salted with Salt_.

Wherein foure 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

conformitie they beare 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 shew that _Pythagoras_ and _Plato_ had read

_Moses_ bookes, and from thence drawne the greatest part of their most

secret Philosophy, alledged that which _Moses_ should have said, that

the heaven and the earth were first created; _Plato_ in his _Timæus_,

after, _Timæus Locrien_ said that God first assembled Fire and Earth,

to build an universe thereof; (we will shew 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 foure Elements, which are as well

in heaven, and yet higher, as in the earth, and lower, but in a diverse

manner.

The two highest, Aire and Fire, being comprised under the name of

Heaven and of the Æthereall Region: for the word ἄιθηρ, comes from

the verbe ἄιθω to shine, and to enflame, 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 Jewes

and Christians; Saint _Chrysostome_ 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.

Hee wrought first at the head, and afterwards came to the foundation.

But it is the Hebrewes custome, that when they speake 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 alledged before

Earth, which he comes to discry immediately after.

_In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth, and the Earth was

without Forme and void_; Saint _Matthew_ useth the same, upon the

entrance to his Gospell, _The Booke of the Generation of Jesus Christ

the son of David, the son of Abraham, Abraham begat Isaac, &c._ For

it is well knowne, that _Abraham_ was a long time before _David_:

Otherwise it seemes, that _Moses_ would particularly demonstrate,

that the Earth was made before the Heaven, by the Creation of man,

that is, the Image and pourtrait of the great World, for that in the

second of _Genesis_, _God formed 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 backe 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 soule; and the

last Adam, a quickning spirit._ Whereto the Generation of the Creature

relates, who six weeks after the Conception, is nothing but a masse of

informed flesh, till the soule that is infused from above, doth vivifie

it.

Moreover the foure Elements (whereof all is made) consists of foure

qualities, Hot and Drie, 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 _Aire_, Moist and Hot; the _Fire_, Hot and Dry: whence

it comes to joine 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

drynesse, and with Water in coldnesse; and so of the rest.

Man then which is the Image of the great World, and therefrom is called

the Microcosme, or little World, as the World which is made after the

resemblance of his Archetype, is called the great man; being composed

of foure Elements, shall have also its heaven and its earth: The soule,

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.

[Sidenote: Act. 17. 28.]

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, Aire feeling, Water nourishment, and Earth subsistence. Moreover

heaven designes the intelligible world, the earth the sensible: Each

of them is subdivided into two, (in every case I speake not but after

_Zohar_ and the ancient _Rabbins_.) The intelligible into Paradise

and Hell; and the sensible, to the Celestiall and Elementary world:

Upon this passage _Origen_ makes a faire discourse at the entry on

_Genesis_, that God first made the heaven or the intelligible world,

following that which is spoken in the 66. of _Esay_, _Heaven is my

seat and Earth my footstoole_; Or rather it is God in whom the world

dwelleth, and not the world which is Gods habitation: For in him _we

live, move, and have our beeing_; for the true seat and habitation of

God, is his proper essence: and before the Creation of the World, as

_Rabbi Eliezer_ sets downe, in his Chapters, there was nothing but the

essence of God, and his name, which are but one thing: Then after the

heaven, or the intelligible world, _Origen_ pursues, _God made the

Firmament_, that is to say, this sensible world; for every body hath I

know not what firmnesse and solidity, and all solidity is corporal; and

as that which God proposed to make, consisteth of Body and of Spirit,

for this cause it is written, that God first made the Heaven, that

is to say, all spirituall substance, upon which, as upon a certaine

throne, hee reposeth himselfe. The Firmament for our regard is the

body, which _Zohar_ calleth the Temple, and the Apostle also, _Yee

are Gods Temple_, 1 Cor. 3. 17. And the Heaven, which is spirituall,

is our soule, and the inner man; the Firmament is the externall, that

neither seeth, nor knoweth God but sensibly. So that man is double, an

animall, and spirituall body, the one Internall, Spirituall, Invisible;

that which Saint _Marke_ in this place designeth for man; the other

Externall, Corporall, Animal, which he denotes by the Sacrifice which

comprehendeth not the things that are of the Spirit of God, but the

Spirituall discerneth all; So that the exteriour man is an animal

compared to brute beasts, whereout they tooke their offerings for

Sacrifices: He is compared to foolish Beasts, and is made like them;

for a man hath no more then a Beast: we must understand the Carnall,

and Animall, that consists of this visible body, that dyeth as well

as Beasts, are corrupt and returne to Earth: Whence _Plato_ said very

well, that which is seene of man, is not man properly. And the first

of _Alcibiades_, yet more distinctly, that Man is I know not what else,

then his body, namely his soule, as it followes afterwards. That which

_Cicero_ borrowed out of _Scipio’s_ dreame; But understand it thus,

that thou art not mortall, but this body; thou art not that, which this

forme declares, but every mans minde is himselfe, not that figure which

may be demonstrated by the finger: And the Philosopher _Anaxarchus_

while the Tyrant _Nicocreon_ of _Cyprus_, caused him to be brayed in a

great Marble Morter, cried out with a loud voice, _Stampe hard, bruise

the barke of Anaxarchus, for it is not him that thou stampest_.

But will it be permitted for me here, to bring something of

_Metubales_? All that is, is either Invisible, or Visible;

Intellectuall, or Sensible; Agent, and Patient; Forme, and Matter;

Spirit, and Body; the Interiour and the Exteriour man; Fire, and Water;

that which seeth, and that which is seen.

But that which seeth is much more excellent and more worthy then that

which is seen, and there is nothing that seeth, but the invisible,

where that which is seene, is as a blind thing; therefore Water is

a proper and serviceable subject, over whom the Fire or Spirit may

out-stretch his action.

Also he hath elevated it for his habitation and residence; for by

introducing it, he elevates it on high in the nature of Aire contiguous

unto it: which invisible Spirit (of the Lord was carryed on the waters,

or rather did sit over the waters) did see the visible, moved the

immoveable, for water hath no motion of it selfe; there is none but

Aire, and Fire, that have, and speake by the Organs of one that is

dumb; for as when by our winde and breath, filling a pipe or flute, we

make it sound though never so mute.

[Sidenote: _Pour le nouveau._]

[Sidenote: Joh. 1. 13.]

This Body and Spirit, water and fire, are designed unto us by _Cain_

and _Abel_, the first Creatures of all others engendred of the seed of

man and woman, and by their Sacrifices, whence those of _Cain_ issuing

from the fruits of the earth, were by consequent corporall, dead, and

inanimate, and together destitute of faith, which dependeth of the

Spirit, and are by Fire dissolved into a waterish vapour, so that to

go to finde it in its sphere and habitation, for the newes, we are to

suffer thereunder. But those of _Abel_ were spirituall, animate, full

of life, that resides in the bloud; full of piety and devotion. This

also _Aben Ezra_, and the author of the _Handfull of Myrrh_, call a

fire descending from one above to regather them: which happened not

to those of _Cain_, which a strange fire devoured; and from thence

was declared the exteriour man, sensuall, animall, that must bee

salted with Salt; But _Abel_ the interiour, spirituall, salted with

Fire; which is double, the materiall and essentiall, the actuall and

potentiall, as it is in burnings. All what is sensible, and visible,

is purged by the actuall, and the invisible, and intelligible, by the

spiritual and potentiall. Saint _Ambrose_, on the Treatise of _Isaac_

and of the Soule. What is man, the soule of him, or the flesh, or the

assembly of those two? for the clothing is one thing, and the thing

clothed another. Indeed there are two men (I leave the _Messihe_ apart)

_Adam_ was made and formed of God; in respect of the body, of ashes,

and of earth, but afterwards inspired in him the Spirit of Life; if

he had kept himselfe from misprision, he was like unto Angels, made

participant of eternall beatitude, but his transgression dispossessed

him. The other man is he, which comes successively to be borne of man

and woman, who by his originall offence is made subject to death, to

paines, travails, and diseases, therefore must hee returne from whence

he came. But touching the soule that came from God, it remains in its

free will: if it will adhere to God, it is capable to bee admitted into

the ranke of his children, _who are borne not of blood, nor of the will

of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God_. Such was _Adam_

before his first transgression.

The soule then, which is the inner man, spirit, and the very true man

which liveth properly, for the body hath no life of it selfe, nor

motion; and is nothing else but as it were the barke and clothing of

the inner man, according to _Zohar_, alledging that out of the 10 of

_Job_ 11. _Thou hast clothed me with skinne and flesh_; whereunto that

in the 6. of S. _Matthew_ seemeth to agree, where to shew us how much

the soule ought to bee in greater recommendation then the body, as more

worthy and pretious; our Saviour saith, _Take no care then how to cloth

your body, is not your body better then raiment?_ and by consequent,

the soule more then the body, since the body is but as it were the

vestment of the soule, 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

dayly_; for it washeth it selfe (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 beare it, shall be

sanctified by the water of Purification_; which was a figure of that

which the Fore-runner spake in the 3. of _Matthew_, _It is true that I

baptize you with water unto repentance, but he that comes after mee,

shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with Fire_.

But behold how _Zohar_ speakes more particularly. If it bee so, _Adam_

what is he? it is nought but skin, and flesh, and bones, and nerves,

he must not passe so. But to speak truth, man is nothing else, but the

immortall soule that is in him; and the skinne, flesh, bloud, bones,

and nerves, are the vestments wherein it is wrapped, as a little

creature newly borne within the beds and linnen of its Cradle: These

are but the utensils, and instruments allotted to womens 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

beene clothed and accommodated. This is the skinne 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 Ædifice not built with mans hand, but eternally permanent in the

high Heavens. For in this we groane, earnestly desiring to bee clothed

upon, with our house which is from heaven, if so be, that being clothed

wee shall not bee found naked_. So _Adam_ in respect of his body, is

a representation of the sensible world; where his skinne corresponds

with the Firmament, extending heaven like a Curtaine. For as the heaven

covereth and enveloppeth all things, so doth the skin every man; in

which, are introduced and fastned its starres and signes, that is

to say, the draughts and lineaments in the hands, the forehead, and

visage, in which wise men know and reveale, and makes them discerne the

inclination of its naturall, 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 finde out something therein denoted by the draughts

and lineaments of the palme of the hand, and fingers, or within them;

for by the outside, (it is case a part) and shew nothing, but the

nailes which are not a little secret and mystery, because by death

they are obfuscate, but have a shining lustre while they live, in the

haire, eyes, nose, and lips, and all the rest of his person. For as God

hath made the Sunne, Moone, and Stars, thereby to declare to the great

World, not only the day, night, and seasons, but the change of times,

and many signes that must appeare in the earth. So hath he manifested

in the little world Man, certaine draughts and lineaments, holding

place of lights and starres, whereby men may attaine to the knowledge

of very great secrets, not common, nor knowne of all. Hence is it that

the Intelligences of the superiour world do distill 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 naturall, or animall body, and

there is a body spirituall: he will raise up the spirituall body

incorruptible_; To this relates the Fire, to the corruptible Salt.

From these vestments furthermore the occasion presents it selfe 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 exteriour 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 it selfe 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 wee must be

salted inwardly, that is to say, preserved from corruption; and from

what corruption? from sinne that putrifies our soules. _Origen_ in his

7. book against _Celsus_ speaking of its vestments, sets downe, that

being of its selfe incorporeall and invisible, in what corporall place

soever it findes it selfe, 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

terme; which expired, it devests it selfe 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 returne to dust_,) to be revested with an incorruptible,

whose perpetuall abode is in Heaven. _For this corruptible must put

on incorruption, and this mortall must put on immortality._ And so

the soul putting off its first Terrestriall vestment, takes another

more excellent above in the Æthereall 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 mortall body, thou passest into the

free Æthereall Aire, you shall become an immortall God, incorruptible,

and no more subject to death: as if he would say, that after this

materiall corruptible body, shall put off the Terrestriall and impure

vestment, the perfect portion of it shall shake off these filthinesses

and impurities, and shall passe aloft to heaven and adhere to God,

which it could not doe, but being pure and neat; nor effect this,

but by fire. _Zohar_ speakes to the same purpose, when the Elements

destroy themselves, an æthereall body succeeds in their place which

doth recloath them; or to speak better, the æthereall body which was

reclad with them, devests it selfe; and this is represented to us in

the 5 of _Esther_, where it is said, that _on the third day_ shee tooke

off her clothes that shee was wont to weare, _and put on her royall

apparell to appeare before the King_; which signifies the holy Spirit,

and _Esther_ the reasonable soule, whose vestments are the garments of

the kingdome of Heaven; of which he that _Daniel_ 3. chap. was said

to be like to the Son of God, that crowns the just, and adornes them

with royall apparell, to bring them into the presence of the King of

Kings, to the Paradise of pleasure, clensed with aire from above,

which the holy Spirit breathed into it. _Origen_ in his second Homily

upon the 36 _Psalme_. It is the manner of holy Scripture to introduce

two sorts of men, that is to say, the interiour and the exteriour, each

of which, hath need as much as concernes him, of apparell, as well

as nourishment; the external corporal man, maintaines himselfe with

meats corruptible, proper and familiar to himselfe, having ever need

of Salt, besides their own connaturall; but there is also meat for the

inward, whereof it is said in the 8 of _Deuteronomy_, _Man doth not

live by bread onely, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth

of God_. And for matter of drinke, the Apostle in the 1 _Cor._ 10.

_Our fathers did eat the same spirituall meat, and did drinke the same

spirituall drinke; for they did drinke of that spirituall rocke that

followed them, and that rocke was Christ_. Who speaking of this drinke

in the 4. of Saint _John_, saith, _that hee is the fountaine of living

water, and who so drinketh of the water that he shall give them, shall

never thirst_. There are also two rayments in regard of the inner man.

If he be a sinner, it is said _Psalme_ 109. _He hath put on malediction

as a garment_, which must _be to him as his apparell, wherewith he is

covered, and as a girdle wherewith he is girt_. And on the contrary

the Apostle _Col._ 3. _Lie not one to another, having cast off the old

man with his deeds, and put on the new, but be clothed with mercy,

benignity, humility, and meeknesse of Spirit_.

These are the vestments which _Zohar_ said were the good works and

the nuptiall accoustrements of the soule, which cannot bee washed or

cleansed but by Fire, _Every mans work shall bee made manifest, for

the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and

the fire shall try every mans worke of what sort it is_, 1 _Cor._

3. 13. wherein they shall persist without impaire, or consumption,

but shall be purified when the soule shall therewith be clothed;

from this uncleane scumme, wherein there may remaine some spots that

the fire goes on to purge, consuming and defacing them. But what is

this fire? It is it which is said in the 4 and 9 of _Deuteronomy_,

_our God is a consuming fire_: which as _Irenæus_ interprets, was to

strike feare and terror into the Israelites; and this afterwards in

the 12 to the _Hebrewes_, 28, 29. _Let us serve God acceptably with

feare and reverence, for our God is a consuming fire_. For they had

sufficiently understood that the world once perished by the universall

deluge, and that it may not incurre the like accident, but suffer

its last extermination by fire. Adde that in the 33. of the Mosaicall

Law, it is called _The Law of fire_, which is in the right hand of

the Almighty, because of its austerity and rigour, all filled with

menaces, with feares, with horrors; as much as the Christian is, with

sweetnesse and mercy: in his right hand, there is a fiery Law: which

the _Chaldean_ Paraphrase interpreteth, for that it was given on _Mount

Horeb_, through the middest of fire; according as it is said in the 4

to the purpose touching this feare. _The Lord speake unto me saying,

Assemble the people there below, that they may heare my words, and

learne to feare me: Then came you neare to the foote that burned even

to heaven, and the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of fire._ And

_Exodus_ 3. _the burning bush wherein God appeared unto Moses, and was

not consumed_. Of this consuming fire, further speaketh _Zohar_ thus

in conformity to that received _Maxime_ in naturall Philosophy, that

a great flame doth devoure and quench a lesse: as wee may sensibly

perceive by a lighted Torch, which is extinguished by the Sunbeams,

and by a kettle set neare a great fire that sucks and drawes all out

to it selfe: Hee saith then upon this Text of the 35. of _Exod._ _You

shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the Sabbath_:

To which purpose, said _Rabbi Simeon_, was that ordained? and why was

it not lawfull to kindle a fire on the seventh day? because that when

men kindle fire, it goeth ever upwards according to its naturall, and

moving above every thing, following that of the 7. of Sapience, where

it is compared to fire. In Wisdome is the spirit of understanding,

holy, one only, manifold, subtill, lively, cleare, undefiled, plaine,

moveable above every thing, and overtops all by reason of its purity.

The Fire hath two properties, to be moving, and pure, not participating

of any uncleannesse; and all motion, is a kinde of action and

operation, forbidden expresly on the Sabbath day. Fire then mounting

aloft, caries with it the impurities designed in the 10. of _Leviticus_

by strange fire, which is there devoured by that which proceeds from

the presence of the Lord. And should bee as much, as thereby to draw

from it selfe a judgement of his offences that must not be renewed in

the sanctification of the Sabbath, for feare that the fire of Gods

wrath do not devour and consume that of our iniquities, and us at once,

if this our fire be not first purged by a stronger fire, that consumeth

and devoureth the lesser and more feeble: _Zohar_ runs through all

that, and upon the passage of the foresaid fourth of _Deut. Thy God is

a consuming fire_; he speakes further,

There is a double fire, the one stronger, that devoures the other.

He that will know it, let him contemplate the flame that parteth and

mounteth from a kindled Fire, or from a Lampe or Torch; for it mounteth

not, except it be incorporated to some visible substance, and united

with the aire, whereupon it feedeth. But in the flame that mounteth

there are two lights, the one white, which shineth and illightneth,

having its root somewhat blew; the other red, fastned to the wood, or

to the weik that it burneth. That which is white, mounteth directly

upwards, and underneath the red remaineth firme, and departs not from

the matter, administring wherewith to flame and shine to the other; but

they come upon the point to joine and unite together, the one burning,

the other burned, till they bee converted into that which predominates

and playes the master, namely the white, alwayes the same without

variation and change, as the other doth; which now growes blacke,

after becomes red, yellow, peach colour, sky colour, azure reinforced

above and below, above with a white flame, below with the blacknesse

of the matter, which furnisheth it wherewithall to burne, and at the

last is therewith consumed. For this azure, red, and yellow flame, the

more grosse and materiall it is, endeavours alwayes to exterminate

and destroy that which nourished and maintained it: as sinnes do the

conscience which harbours them, to the end to make them the perdition

and ruine of all that which adheres to it here below, so long, till at

the last it remaines extinct; there where the light annexed thereunto,

is not eternally extinguished but goes freely upward, and returnes to

its proper place of abode, or residence; having accomplished its action

below, without changing its brightnesse into any other colour then

white. In the like case is it of a tree, whose roots are fastned within

the earth, from whence it takes its nourishment, as the weik takes his

from the tallow, waxe, or oyle, which makes it burne.

The branch that drawes its juice or sap, by the root, is the same as

the weik, where the fire is maintained by the liquor which it drawes

unto it, and the white flame, are the branches and boughes, clad with

leaves, the flowers and fruits, whereunto tends the finall end of a

tree, are the white flame when all comes to bee reduced: wherefore

_Moses_ said that _thy God is a consuming fire_, as it is true; for the

fire consumes and devoures all that which is under it, and upon which

it exerciseth its action. And therefore very proper in the Hebrew text

_Elohenu_, thy God, and not _Anonenu_, thy Lord, because the Prophet

was in this superiour white light, which neither devoureth, nor can be

devoured. And the Israelites were the blew lights, who endeavour to

lift up themselves, and unite to him under the law: for the ordinary of

this blew light, inclining rather to blacknesse, then to whitenesse; it

is true that is constituted as in the midst, and to ruine and destroy

all that it layes hold on, and whereunto it adheres.

But if sinners submit thereunto, then the white light shall bee called

_Adonenu_, our Lord, and not _Elohenu_, our God, for that it domineers

and devours it. And it is this blew flame designed by the little and

last ה _He_ of the sacred venerable foure lettered _Jehovah_, which

assembles and unites with the three first והי _Jehu_ the white light,

which shineth in a most cleare simplicity Trin-one, having under it

the blackish, ruddy, & azure colour of the little ה _He_, which is

the humane nature consisting of the four Elements, for that it is

sometimes represented by 4 ד, the fourth letter of the Alphabet, and

which marketh the number of 4. You will say I have brought you here a

prolixe place of _Zohar_, I do avow it, but it must have a more ample

explication, for there are great mysteries covered thereunder. This

_Rabbi_ superlative to all others, endeavouring in his profound and

abstracted meditations which transcend all to elevate our spirits by

the similitude of a light, to the knowledge of spirituall things, which

differs not from our principall purpose, which is fire and its effects.

Of this white light, and of its collaterals; other _Rabbins_ speake, as

_Kamban_, _Gerundensis_; That by the _Caballe_ it appears unto us, that

the Scripture was an obscure and darke fire, upon the backe of white

fire, and marvailously resplendent.

It is the fire (say they) of the holy Spirit, consuming our iniquities,

denoted by the red inflamed ardor, and the blew and azure flame, which

is the strange fire, as Saint _Ambrose_ very well expounds it in his

fourth Epistle to _Simplician_.

Strange fire, is all the ardor of slippery concupiscence, of avarice,

hatred, rancour, and envy; And of this fire no man is purged nor

expiated, but well burned, which if men offer in the presence of the

Lord, celestiall fire will devour, as it did _Nadab_ and _Abihu_; and

therefore, he that will purge his sinne, he must cast off from him

this strange fire, and let him expiate therefrom; whereof it is said

in the 6 of _Esay_ 6. _One of the Seraphims flew to me having a live

coale in his hand, which he had taken with the Tongs from off the

Altar, and touched my lips, saying, Lo this hath touched thy lips,

and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sinne purged._ Having said

a little before, that all the house was filled with smoake, which is

as an excrement and vapour of fire, bee it before it be lighted, or

inflamed, or after it be mortified, and extinct; from whence it comes

to procreate soot, then which, there is nothing more troublesome

and hurtfull to the eies, having carryed away with it a parcell of

adustible corruption; which administred to the fire its nourishment

and food. This may bee seen in the distillation of soote, where there

appeares a notable quantity of inflamable oyle, which causeth it yet to

burne; and of this burning there will arise a smoake, which will againe

be concreted into a burning smoake, as aforesaid, but not so much.

These are the remnants of sinne, whereof remained some staines printed

in the soule, untill at the last, by a successive repurgation of fire,

it be reduced to a point of compleat purity; whereof it is spoken

in the 4. of the _Canticles, Thou art faire my welbeloved, there is

no blemish in thee_; which the white flame notifies, which is the

highest degree of burning. Those also well know it that maintaine a

fire, for when a Fornace begins to bee hot, it waxeth blacke, then

enforcing the fire, it becomes red, and at last it waxeth white when

it is in the supreame and high degree of heat, where it persisteth

in whitenesse more and more. Such are the actions of fire, but there

are great mysteries thereunder, ever to declare further the advantage

and præcellency, that the white colour hath above the red, as to the

Christian faith, designed by white water, _Apoc._ 4, & 6. & 15. 2.

(_In the middle of the Throne there was a Sea of Glasse, like unto

Crystall_,) far above the Judaicall faith, red, heat with rigour,

and severity, designed by a _pillar of fire, that in the night season

conducted the Israelites through the Wildernesse, and the white cloud

by day, Exod._ 13. 21. In the secret Hebrew Theology, the red alwayes

notes _Gheburah_, Austerity; and the white _Ghedulah_, or Mercy;

_Eliah_ was transported, and by force carried into heaven, in a fiery

Chariot, drawne with the like horses. But in the transfiguration of

our Saviour, _Mat._ 17. 2. _His vestments became white as snow_; 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 Angell which had gotten the victory, and the Crowne,

was mounted on a white horse_, (as in the 19, and 20. _the Throne of

God is dressed with white_) _and hee that was mounted on the red horse,

had a great bloudy sword in his hand, that one might massacre another_.

But yet more expresly 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 wooll_.

But some may say here are many things, which by little and little do

turne us from our principall aime, and are as it were extravagant

dresses. But not altogether, yet as to mount some sharpe precipice, wee

must turne about to goe at more ease, to shunne cliffes and precipices:

So are wee sometimes to make some small by-courses and digressions to

facilitate our Theame. Rivers that goe turning are more commodious for

Navigation, then those that runne impetuously one way downe.

There shall bee 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 Jewes were baptized_; and in

this cloud the divine Wisdome 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 Calfe,

with two pillars, the one of fire, representing naturall heate, 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 radicall moisture

was perverted and changed in the deluge by the universall inundation,

so that it was not since so vigorous as before: but shall at last bee

brought to extermination on all sides, at the end of time by a finall

conflagration. The first mutation shall meet with some mercy, the race

of mankinde being at that time not wholly extinct, but the remainder

was saved with _Noah_, and his in the Arke: but the second, shall have

none, but all shall perish by the extreame 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 naturall heat,

and the Ægyptians with all those on the South of _Nilus_, which is

radicall moisture which goes to render it selfe into a Sea impregned

with salt, to preserve it in the end from corruption: Now for this

effect, all humours of animall bodies, bloud, 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 Sacramentall mysteries; and

of ratiocinations of blinde Paganisme, who not turning it but above

the barke, 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 al must refer to spiritualty:

resembling therein properly to the _Ostrich_, who beates sufficiently

with the wing as if shee would mount to heaven, but yet her feet for

all that, do not forsake the earth.

The _Phœnician_ Theologie, admitted but of one Element, Fire, which

is the principall 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 formed. _Heraclitus_ also puts

fire, for the first substance that informed all, and from whence

they drew all things from power into action, as well superiour, as

inferiour, celestiall and terrestriall: For hot and cold, moist and

dry, are not substances, but qualities and accidents; from whence

naturall Philosophers forged four Elements, whereas according to verity

there is but one; which according to the vestments that it receives

from the accidentall qualitie, takes divers appellations. If from the

heat, it is from the Aire; from moisture, Water; from drynesse, Earth;

which three are but one fire, but reclothed with divers and different

habits. Even as Fire extending it selfe in all, and through all; so

all things come to render unto it, as to the center. 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 celestiall,

that which concocts and digests Aereall, and that which burnes, is

terrestriall; which cannot subsist without some grosse matter coming

from the Earth, which he reduceth in the end to it selfe; 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 potentiall fire,

and waterish, that is to say, terrestriall water, impregned with fire;

from whence all sorts of mineralls, come to production, for they are

of the nature of Water. The experiment may bee seene in strong Waters,

all composed of minerall Salts, Alums, Saltpeters, which burne as Fire:

which produceth hot and dry exhalations agitated with winds, easie 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 potentiall fire in all.

Not without cause then did _Pythagoras_, after _Moses_, ordaine not

to speake of God, or divine things, without fire: for of all things

sensible, there is nothing that symbolizeth, or more corresponds with

Divinity then Fire: _Aristotle_ writing to _Alexander_ related unto

him, that hee had learned of the _Brachmans_, 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 _Zoroastes_: _Plutarch_ alledgeth

that this Divinity is a spirit of a certaine intellectuall fire, that

hath no forme, but transformes to it selfe all that it toucheth, and

transmutes it selfe into all, as _Proteus_ the _Genius_ of Ægypt was

wont to say,

_Omnia transformat sese in miracula rerum_.

And according to _Zoroastes_ all things were engendred of this fire. It

is the light which dwelleth (this saith _Porphyrius_) in an Æthereal

fire, for the elementary dissipates all: But more authentically, Saint

_Denis_, in the 15. of the Celestiall Hierarchy. Fire, forasmuch as

its essence is void of all forme, as well in colour, as in figure,

hath beene 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 Angels Fire,

and doth not onely propose unto us Chariots and wheeles of Fire; but

of igneall animals, of burning brookes and rivers, of coales 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 bee joined and mingled therewith, except it bee of the

matter, to which it is incorporated to burne. It shines, it spreads

it selfe from side to side, and gathering it selfe to its selfe, with

its light it illustrates all that is neare it, nor can it bee seene

without the matter whereto it adheres, and exerciseth its action no

more then 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 selfe, and to its nature.

It renewes and rejoyceth all with vitall heat, it illustrates and

illuminates all, tending alwaies 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 remaines entire in it selfe. It comes suddenly and returneth as

fast, without mans 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 materiall, 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

Saltpeter doth with its contra-opposite the Aire; by reason of the

water that is betweene them, for Saltpeter participates of the nature

of Brimstone, and of Fire, for that it burnes; and of Salt, for that it

resolves into water. For saith _Heber_, it is the property of Salts,

and Alums, to bee dissolved into water, sith they were made thereof.

But of this more to the purpose hereafter in its place.

[Sidenote: Pag. 29. _Encyclides ab_ ἐγκυκλόω round.]

[Sidenote: Eph. 4. 22, 24.]

The meditations of the Covertures, and revestments are of no small

importance, to mount from things sensible, to things intelligible, for

they are all infolded one in another, as an _Encyclie_ or a spirall

Moone. _Zohar_ makes these revestments double, the one _mounting_ and

devesting its selfe, _Put off the old man, and put on the new_; for no

spirituall thing descending downwards, operates without a vestment;

_Sit yee 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 soule, 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 Arke of the Covenant,

which is within the Tabernacle, or Intellect, the Tabernacle within the

Temple, which is our Soule; _Yee 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.