of quick chalk besprinkled with water, horse and pigeon dung, which
_Galen_ writes, he hath seen to wax a fire of it selfe, heapes of
oats, and other graines, except Barly, new wines which boil, the lees
in the vintage, heaps of Olives, Apples, and Peares, which is a kind
of putrefaction, whence also there is engendred some strange heat, as
we see in Apostemaes, and in flesh which begins to bee corrupted; and
on the contrary wee 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 shels 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 wel be expressed in words; it is
as little flyes which flye 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 shels and scales of some fishes, and
other the like, which cannot be perceived in the light, but very well
in the darke, for the fire which so shineth from them in the dark, is
not a colour, whose property is to make it seene at the brightnesse of
the Sunne, or other light, because that the air being transparent and
deprived of all colours, the sight might very easily pierce it, and
passe 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 darknesse. 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 cleare, others darke and heavy, and others
betwixt both; others that have lustre and splendor, dark and waterish,
and are not seene but by night, as the foresaid flyes, worms, fish
scales, rotten wood, and the like, for in the day time their splendor
is surmounted by another more powerfull 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_ Starre. Fire
also which pierceth the air more then 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 darke, where wee 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 clearnesse of the Moone likewise,
for that shee is not very dark, shee 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 de Oviedo_ in the 15. Book 8. chap.
of his _Naturall History of the Indies_, alledgeth of a certain little
flying animal, of the bignesse of an Hanneton, very frequent in the
Isle of _Spaine_, and in other Islands thereabouts, having two wings
above, strong and hard, and two below them, two others more thinne 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 brightnesse 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 binde two
or three together, this would give more light then a Lanthorne or a
Torch, in the field: and amidst the Woods in the night, as darke as may
bee, they make themselves to be seen more then a mile. This clearnesse
consists not onely in the eyes but also in their flanks, when they
open their wings. They are accustomed to serve themselves with them,
as we do with a Lamp or other light, to sup at night, and to do the
affairs of the house. But when he comes to determine and dye, its light
extinguisheth also. The Indians had a custome to make a post of them to
strike feare in seeing them by night, for that it seemed that they had
a visage, being rub’d therewith, as if it were all fire. _Plinie_ in
his 21. Book, chap. 11. speaketh of a shining herb in the night, called
_Nyctegretes_ or _Nyctilops_ for that we may see it shine a farre off,
but he alledgeth many things by heare-say, as not having seen them.
But to returne to the Suns light which is therein more perfect, then
in any other thing sensible with heat, for it is the true heavenly
fire, as _Speusippus_ said, which describeth all that appertaines to
the nourishment of this great man, the Universe; as the Elementary
doth the viands of the animal man. And as the heart in animals is
the principall soul of life, the same is the Sunne in the heart of
the world; and the primordiall spring of all light therein, which he
departs to the Stars, as doth Jesus Christ to our souls. And no more
nor lesse then the Sunne and the Moon (said _Origen_ upon _Genesis_)
illightens our bodies; likewise our consciences and thoughts are from
this splendour of the Father if wee be not blinde, and that this
proceeds not by our faults: Now if we be not all equally illuminated,
no more then the Stars are by the Sunne, which differ in brightnesse
one from the other but according to our capacity and carriage, and as
more or lesse, we lift up the eyes of our contemplation to receive this
light. Returne you towards me, and I will returne towards you, for he
is a God at hand, and not a God a farre off. That which we can have of
intelligence (saith _Zohar_) by our naturall ratiocination, is as if
our spirit were lightned by the Moone: but the Divine relation holds
place of the Sunne, whence the light chaseth away and banisheth the
Princes of Darknesse, where their greatest force and vigour raignes.
The Sunne is risen, they shall be placed in their chambers, sayes the
104 _Psalme_ speaking of Devils and wicked Spirits, under the name of
savage and revenous Beasts. For (as _Zohar_ puts it) these tenebrions
are stronger and more gallant in the darke, so the good Angels that
assist and favour us, receive great reinforcement from the light, not
onely from the Divine, but from the Celestiall and solar, by which the
Divine and Supreame shining brightnesse, imparts her vertue to the
heavens, and by them communicates it to all that is under the sphere
of the Moone within the elementary world. Wherefore, not without
cause, about dead bodies till they bee put in the grave, they imploy
lights to drive farre off this ancient Serpent _Zamael_, to whom for
malediction it is said, thou shalt eat earth all the dayes of thy life;
for our Bodies being deprived thereof, are no more but dust and earth.
So that fire is a great aid and comfort to us, not onely during our
life, but yet after our death against these wicked dark powers which
gnaw in obscurity, as these night birds and savage beasts which dare
not appeare in the day, fearing the light of the Sunne; how much more
then that of good spirits their adversaries, which receive it from the
divine resplendence? for the same, as is the Sunne towards it, the
fire is in regard of the Sunne, who serves us, amongst other things to
make us see this so great accomplished work of the universe built by
the Soveraigne Creator of so excellent Artifice, and that which his
light doth manifest unto us, in this sensible world, it is nothing for
this regard, for the true being doth consist of things intellectuall,
stript of all corporeity and matter, the Sunne it selfe, the rarest
master-piece of all others, could not see it selfe, but by its proper
light, which is presently accompanied with a heat vivifying all things;
for there is a double propriety, one to shine and clarifie, the other
to warme, yea to burne the subjacent matters which illuminates the
whitenesse, and waxeth blacke with the Sunnes heat. The _Sunne hath
coloured mee, Cant. 1._ Whereupon _Origen_ notes, that there where
there is no sinne, nor matter of sinne, there is scorching or burning
following, the 121 _Psalm_. _The Sun shall not burne thee by day, nor
the Moon by night_; for the Sunne illuminates good men, but it burnes
up sinners; who hating light for the evill they have done; for in
many places of Scripture you shall finde that the Sunne and the Fire,
whereof it speaks, they are not those that wee see, but the spirituall.
The spirituall Sunne saith Saint _Augustine_, doth not rise, but upon
holy persons, following that which is spoken of the perverse, in the
5. of _Wisdome, The light of Justice is not risen upon us, nor the
Sunne of Intelligence is not come to illighten us_. As for its heat,
it must rather be kept for witnesse of Holy Scripture, there is no man
can hide him from the heat thereof; not to frivolous imaginations and
subtilities of those that maintaine it to be neither hot nor cold,
grounding themselves upon this argument, All heat in long continuance
although that it remaine alwayes in the same estate and degree, doth
notwithstanding augment it selfe, so that it would bee intolerable.
If then the Sunne be so hot, as it seems, after five or six thousand
years since when it was first created, it would follow that there
would come a conflagration under the torrid _Zone_, from whence he
stirs not; who from thence was extended to all the rest of the earth;
there where we see the contrary, for the whole is alwayes in the same
estate. And afterwards for that the sunne is many times greater then
the globe of the Sea, and the Earth, and its Sphere, so farre esloigned
from it, that it hath no proportion with it, it should follow, that
it was as hot in one time and place, as in another. With semblable
deductions, against which it is easie to contradict, but this would
turne us aside too farre from our principall Subject. _Anaxagoras_
also said, that it was a grosse enflamed stone, or a plate of burning
fire. _Anaximander_, a wheel full of fire, 25 times greater then all
the earth. _Xenophanes_, an heap of little fires. The Stoicks, an
inflamed body, proceeding from the Sea, wherein they have shewed the
affinity of fire and salt together. _Plato_ a body of much fire; and
thus, one after one fashion, one after another, but all tending to
make it of the nature of fire. Moreover, it is a thing too admirable,
of its greatnesse, so immense, whereupon the spirit of man hath fair
Galleries to walke, in pursuit of the high fetched meditations of Gods
mervails; for (as _Chrysostome_ said well upon _Genesis_) we must from
the contemplation of the creatures, ascend and come to the Creatour.
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 sheweth
the smallnesse and disproportion of the earth in comparison thereof.
That if the Moone, which is farre inferior in greatnesse thereunto,
sheweth it selfe almost equall, 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 chiefe Masterworks, that of these two great luminaries, which are
not of small ornament and commodity, for the life of man, as Saint
_Chrysostome_ puts it, upon the 135. _Psalme_, but it doth contribute
much thereto, yea almost all, in regard of that which concernes 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 corporall
life could not be maintained, with other infinite usages which proceed
from them. The Sunne is put for the whole Heaven, for that it is the
greater part thereof, and for fire; and Heaven is the seat and vessell
of incorruptible and unalterable bodies. The Moone president of
moisture, represents water and earth, and salt composed thereof; for
there is nothing wherein moisture is more permanent, nor which is more
moist then salt, whereof the Sea for the most part doth consist; and
there is nothing where the Moone doth more distinctly make her motions
to appeare, then in the Sea, as we perceive in the ebbing and flowing
thereof, and in the braines and marrows of Animals, so that for good
cause she is called the Regent of the waters, and of phlegmatick and
waterish moisture; which although it seem to be dead and inanimate,
(in respect of fire which is living) she is permanent chiefly in salt,
which hath an inexterminable humidity; and is that which keepeth the
Sea from drying up, for without Salt it had been long agone drawn out
and dryed up, there where the fire lives not in it, but in another;
for in that it is a materiall Element, it hath no place proper to
it. Of these two, namely, the heat of the Sun, and moisture of the
Moone, in which consisteth the life of all things; and without which
nothing would grow, increase, nor be maintained, not fire it selfe,
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 rarifie it selfe in the aire, and another
cold comming downe to thicken it selfe in the nature of Earth, untill
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 engendred to its
determined end. The other five Planets, and the fixed starres 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
norriture; so that heaven and fire, are as the male, the agent, and
water and earth, as the female, patient; but under heaven, the air is
comprized. And as mans seed, inclosed and lapped within the matrix, is
nourished, fomented, and entertained with corrupt bloud by the help of
naturall heat, so fire, by the means of air and water, is maintained
in the earth for the production of things which engender thereof.
So the Heaven, Sunne, 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 spirituall things, which the Apostle before
him had touched in the first to the _Romanes_. _The invisible things
of him from the creation of the World, are made knowne by those things
which are seene_; 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 chaine to bind together this inferiour and superiour 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 formed
of things low and high. _And God took dust and thereof formed Adam, and
breathed into him the breath of life_; the very light that shineth in
the sensible world, depends upon this superiour light that is hid from
us; from whence proceed all faculties and vertues, 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 inumerable, is a very small thing; yet it proceeds from
the Sun; and that of fire, is but artificiall to give us light for
default of the Sunne. But how shall it square with that to be willing
to attribute the primitive source of light, and chiefly that of the
producing and vivifying to the sunne, 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 Sunne not till the fourth, vegetables being
produc’t 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 Idolize 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 fals out alwaies on the fourth
day, as of the light. The Sunne and Moone were made the fourth day,
waters on the second day, produced nought but fishes; the fifth, which
is the fourth after, and al animals; the sixth with man, for whom the
fruits of the earth were made the third. Which sheweth 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
ten.
So _Plato_ was willing to informe his _Timeus_, 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 keepe my Sabbaths_. See saith _Rabbi Eliezer_, what is the
mystery here contained. In six dayes was the world created, in each
of those is manifested the worke that was made therein, and God gave
it his particular vertue after he had finished it; but on the fourth
be attributed one more expresse, 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 superiour elements remained as suspended, and the
workmanship of them did not appeare till the fourth day manifested
them, and then appeared all that was made on each. But if you will
alledge 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 kinde, which hath his seed in it selfe 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 it selfe the perfect fourth,
where there appeared all the works of the six preceding dayes: and it
is the fourth foot of the _Merchavah_, of the divine throne, whereon
God sate for his repose all the six dayes, Thus discourseth _Zohar_.
We must not here passe over another mystery, which these two luminaries
have, each three names, the Sunne is called _Chomah_ wisdome,
_Scemesch_ heat, and _Cheres_ drynesse. _Plato_ in _Timæus_, All
moisture that the celerity of fire raised, and that which remained arid
and dry, wee call κεραμὸν potters earth. That of _Maor_ Luminary, is
common to the one, and to the other. The Moone is called _Malchut_,
reigne, or kingdome, _Jareha_, which the Greek call μήνη 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 Moone, clear as the Sun?_ Of this light of the Sunne of
Righteousnesse, whereof it is said in the fourth of _Malachy_, _But
unto you that do feare my name, the Sunne of Justice shall arise_,
4. 2. Where the Moone the Church is illustrated on a perpetuall day
without darknesse, according to _Esay 60. v. 20._ _The Lord shall be
thine everlasting light, who hath planted his Tabernacle, or Church,
within the fair clear shining Sunne, that illuminates every man that
comes into the world_; no more nor lesse then the starres, which are
innumerable, and the least as big as the whole earth, receive all their
light from the visible sunne. Of whom shall it not here bee lawfull to
relate something of his praises of the Song that _Orpheus_ made unto it.
_Hear mee most blessed
Sunne, Worlds heart and eie,
Heavenly brightnesse shining,
Living mens pleasing aspect,
Begetting Aurera in thy right hand,
And the night on thy left.
Thou governest the four seasons,
Who dance in a round,
At the sound of thy golden harpe
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 shewes thy selfe to all.
A Soveraigne aid to each,
Keeping faith, eye of Justice.
Brightnesse of shining light._
Behold that which we here thought to runne through concerning these
three fires, (as for the three salts which relate thereunto, we will
speak thereof hereafter) namely, the Terrestriall 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 Sunne,
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 Sunne expands it selfe to
illighten all the starres, 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.