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 illightned by fire, by reason of a viall filled with water,
as _Plutarch_ relate in the life of _Numa_. Where from a burning
looking glasse, of which I remember that I saw one so puissant, in
the States of _Orleans_, that in lesse then nothing, and yet in the
moneth of _Ianuary_, it set a fire the staffe 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 naturall 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
then 100. or 120. Chickens, the Egs being therein couved and setled as
under a Hen.
[Sidenote: Coals kept in Juniper for the space of a year.]
The _Persians_ and _Vestalls_ 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
_Magi_ had a custome 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
inclosed and covered, the sparkle of life, wherewith it is animated and
vivified. These ashes furthermore, must be of some gummy trees, 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 lock’t fast within a little barrell 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 lawfull for them to light it again, but must draw
it from the Sun beams: And did not only attend that it should quench of
it selfe, or by some casuall accident, but they renewed it yearly, the
first day of _March_ from that of heaven, as _Ovidius_ observes _tertio
Fastorum_.
_Adde 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 Goddesse; 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
himselfe 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 Jewes,
from whom they borrowed all their important Traditions, had known that
which was covered and prefigured thereunder, what accompt is there
to beleeve that they made thereof? Some do alledge 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_. _Plinie_ 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 dryed 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 Laurell;
the same is of late more practiced 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 slicks 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 followes them
may lighten them. Of this new relightning, to shew us, that we must
renew and be borne again to a better and more praisable life, not
farre different from the Ceremonies of the Christian Church, when on
the Eves of Easter, and Whitsontide, 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 lasted to
the construction of _Solomons_ Temple, which was again renewed from
Heaven; and maintained to King _Manasses_ his time, when the Jewes were
carryed captives into _Babylon_, which the Levites kept in the bottome
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 dayes of
_Antigonus_ son of _Demetrius_, 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 salt 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 shew that they must not acknowledge
any other God, or other religion, and ceremonies then 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, heresie, and impiety,
may be called strange fire, that devours the soul as a feaver 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 _Jeremie_ spake 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 burnings, which are
a potentiall fire, composed of igneal and burning salts, work not upon
a dead part, insensible, and deprived of Natures heat; so the holy
Spirit doth not exercise its actions upon cold languishing hearts, that
make no account of its ticklings, and invitations, but shew themselves
contumacious and refractary; 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 vertue is imprinted, but all to the contrary; for fire by custome
is extinguished by water, it is it, that in this respect inflames and
renewes that which was imprinted and hidden in the chalk: whence a fair
meditation is presented; that as fire is the symboll of life; water
(that is its contrary) and extinguisheth it, must be of consequence the
symboll of death; water naturally tending downwards, and fire upwards,
wherein consisteth life.
_Strabo_ to this purpose in his 15. Book, speaking of the _Brachmans_,
sets down, that which we call death, to be renewing of life, and that
this temporall is but a conception as it were, and a _carriage_ which
comes about the end of its term, to bring forth to death, to passe from
thence to eternall 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 eternall day; let us then chearfully 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
complaine, cry, and weep, are they not marks and tokens of one that
is to be borne? And a little more Christian-like, although a little
before; I will lay down this body where I have found it, and clothed
it, and will render my self above to the immortall Gods, although I
am not without them at this present, but whilest I am detained here
within this grievous masse 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
mothers belly, not to prepare therein for it selfe, 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 formed. In like manner during the space that
we have run through from our infancy to old age, we dye to go whither
another originall 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
Celestiall, 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
Hebrewes, 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 glistring and moving
then the fire, which is the very cause of all motion. Take away heat,
there will be no motion, saith the Chymicall Philosopher _Alphidius_,
and this motion is accompanied with depuration, 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
cleaneth 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 ἁγνισικὸς, Purging. So that the Καθαρμὸς or Κάθαρσις purifying,
was not made but by fire, as the solemn annuall feast of Candlemasse
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 symbole;
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
rejoyce at his birth_; and fires of joy, in some happy successes of
victories, at the birth of Kings children, and the like occasions of
alacrity.
We have alledged 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 garded the Israelites, and the cloud (baptismall water) by day,
whereunto sutes that of Saint _John_, in the 3. of _Matthew_, That in
respect of himselfe he baptized with _Water_ unto repentance, but he
that commeth after, shall baptize you with the _Holy Ghost_, and with
_Fire_, to the remission of sinnes; 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 Stoicks, 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 alledged before out of
the 7. of _Wisdome_ 24. that Wisdome the Artist of all things taught
me, that it is more moving then motion, for she passeth through all
things by her purenesse. Wherein two properties of fire are attributed
to Wisdome, Motion, and Purity: And in summe 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 alledging upon _Exodus_ this passage of the 7. of
_Daniel_ 9. The Throne of the ancient of dayes, 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 it
selfe, which did but clear it self from the old filth that it had there
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 grosse
and unctuous salts; for if those were not, they would not bite upon
unctuosity and fatnesse; witnesse simple water, which doth nothing, by
reason of the contrarieties of their natures, which do not suffer them
to be able to joine and unite. And where there is no mixtion, there is
also no alteration, because that which doth not enter, doth not change
(saith _Geber_:) So that Salts being in the nature of Fires, have from
them their proprieties and effects, that is to say, to purifie 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 Gods love, and of Gods knowledge, which is
illightned in the soul, repurging it from all corporall coinquinations,
causeth, that after it hath been duly purged and cleansed, it remaines
for ever in its purity, for as much as fire devours and consumes the
filthy scumme thereunto fastned, cloathing it selfe 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 knowledg of good and evill
excluded our forefathers, and us with them hereditarily.
Hitherto _Zohar_, then which nothing could seem more conformable, nor
which carryed it selfe 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 purifie, are but one thing, as also to salt,
and to burn, because of their consemblable effects. _Burne my reines
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 sutes also that
which the Apostle writ in the 1 _Cor._ 3.12. _If any man build upon
this foundation, gold, silver, pretious stones, or wood, hay, stubble;
Every mans work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it,
because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every mans
work of what sort it is. If any mans work abide, which he hath built
thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any mans work shall be burnt,
he shall suffer losse, 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 encrease 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 dayes 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 baptized themselves for those which were already
deceased. In _Æthiopia_ one who had conspired against the proper person
of their _Neguz_, or Emperour, by baptizing 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 Sunne, 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 naturall heat doth not bring them wholly
for our use, to the last and perfect degree of maturity, fire for the
most part supplyes 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
facil digestion, and lesse corruptible, as having lesse 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 celestiall,
and the body to the elementary; but this is not a reasonable soul, or
sensitive, nor a vitall spirit, such as is in animals; but substances
equipollent unto them: which may be seen in glass, which is an image
of the Philosophicall Stone. Whereupon _Raymond Lullius_ enquiring of
the confection of the said Stone, and how men may attain thereunto,
made answer, hee that knoweth to make glasse, because their manner
of proceeding are alike; and such ought that pretious substance to
be, which _Hermolaus Barbarus_ in his Annotations upon _Plinie_, and
_Appian_, in his disquisition of antiquities, alledgeth to have been
found in an old Sepulchre, in the Territory of _Padua_, 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 _Ægypt_ 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 blacknesse, with the evill
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 subtilty and brightnesse unspeakable. So that it
will penetrate all solid things what soever they be; because its nature
shall be such, as of a Spirit: that which he borrowed out of _Hermes_,
it shall penetrate every subtill thing. An admirable thing that these
Chymicall Philosophers under the vaile and curtain of this Art,
treating wholly about things so materiall as are metals, and that which
depends thereon, with their transmutations by fire, have comprized
the most high secrets of Intelligibles and even of the resurrection,
whereunto it seems this would seem to strike, wherein bodyes shall be
glorified and reduced as into a spirituall Nature, against which no
spirituall 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 naturall body, it is raised a spirituall body.
There is a naturall body, and there is a spirituall body: howbeit,
that was not first which is spirituall, but that which is naturall,
and afterwards that which is spirituall._ 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
bee 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 grossly 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 blew 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 then 12, or 15. dissolutions made
with vineger and other like dissolvants.