A Discovrse of Fire and Salt / Discovering Many Secret Mysteries as well Philosophicall, as Theologicall

by Blaise de Vigenère

But some wil 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 wee love nothing but what wee know: and wee cannot know God, nor see his light, but by his light (In thy light wee 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 then which our Saviour saith, hee was come to send into the earth: and what will I, if it bee already kindled? For as Prometheus brought fire here below, which hee had lighted, in one of the wheels of the Suns Chariot: The word hath rendred, 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 Linnen, the Earth from whence it came; Purple, Water, because extracted from bloud with the shell or cockle of the sea; Jacinth in Hebrew Techeleh, the Air, for it is without heavenly blew; and Scarlet, fire, by reason of its red enflamed 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 bee bright, and the other to burn: wee must understand corruptible things, for upon the incorruptible, wee 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 hee 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 bee? Aske Origen, a Doctor instructing people in the Church of God, designed by the Tabernacle, if hee did but cry after the vices, blasphem, 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 internall Doctrin, and the mysticall understanding: hee 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 doe but clear and interpret Scripture without reprehension of vice and sin, and to shew requisite severity to a declarer of the Word of God, wee offer as it were simple Scarlet: for this fire there, doth not but illuminate & doth not enflame persons to repentance of their misdoings, correction and amendment of life: whereunto cooperates the Grace of the Holy Spirit, which is domestique fire, with which wee must salt our souls to preserve them from corruption: for there is nothing that doth more symbolize to the nature of the soul then fire: because it is that of al things sensible, which approacheth more to spirituality, as well for its continuall and light motion which soars alwayes upwards, as for its light, which Plotin saith must properly be attributed to the intelligible world, heat to the Celestiall, 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 lesse 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 Philosophicall 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 hee ordained to bee made, was light: and to shew us, that wee must alwayes walk in light and not in darknesse. 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 homogeneall and homomaternall, or like one to another, so much lesse are they corruptible and separable, as wee 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, &c.

Doe wee 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 it self: but if there bee any changes or alteration therein it is by accident, as if some maladies should fall thereupon: which doe more readily adhere thereunto, because of its rarity of substance then to any others. Fire is altogether exempt therefrom, being alwayes one, and in its al 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 Celestiall nature which is all Uniform in it self, and so well regulated, that it hath nothing unlike: which maketh that the fire is repurgative above the rest of his fellow Elements, to clear them and put in evidence. In the 12. of St. Luke our Saviour warneth his Disciples to have their Lampes burning in their hands, that their light might come to shine amongst men, that their good workes may bee seen, to glorifie their Father which is in heaven, for hee that doth ill hates the light, which Job saith is worse to Malefactors, then the shadow of death. It is the same also that Moses would secretly infer in the 3. of Gen. where hee makes God to walk at noon, which is the clearest light of the day. And the Apostle in the 1. of Tim. 6. 16. saith that he dwells in light in accessible, without which all would be confusedly folded up in hideous darknesse. Let us then take heed, that the light which hee hath pleased to put into our soul, be not obfuscate and converted into black obscurity: and that on this solid foundation which hee hath granted us of his knowledge, wee build not hay, wood, and chaffe, all things of themselves obscure and dark: in lieu of gold, silver, pretious stones, so clear, shining and bright. Let us hear again that which Zohar divinely discourseth of, about fire and light, upon the Text of the 4. of Levit. Thy Lord God is a consuming fire. That there is one fire which devoures another being the stronger, as wee may see in some burning firebrand, or torch, that which proceeds therefrom is of two sorts: the one blew, attached to a black match, which retaineth it self there nourishing it self from corruption. The other flame proceeding from the red inflamed Match is white, and the blew is white in the highest, as to return to the first originall: this Homer was not ignorant of, when in the 6. of his Odysses hee attributed to the Olympus a pure and bright splendor.

Nothing should better represent unto us the four worlds namely the white which is supercelestial, the blew celestiall, the match fired, the Elementary, and the burning darknesse, Hell: which abundantly shews us the body. Rednes, the vitall spirits, resident in the bloud; the blew, the soul; the white, the intellect, and the divine character imprinted in the soul: and as the blew light doth quickly change into yellow, quickly into white, the soul also can doe the same according as it shall incline it self to good or to evill: or whether thee follows the provocations of the flesh or the invitations and exhortations of the intellect, following that which is written in the 4. Gen. 7. If thou doe well, shalt thou not bee accepted? and if thou dost not well, sin lieth at the dore. And unto thee shall bee his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. The white flame is alwayes the same, without variation or change, as doth the blew: So the fire in this respect is fourfold. Black in the lower part of its weik, where the flame that is fastened to it, is blew. Red in the top of the weik, and the flame white. This which relates also, to the four Elements, black, materiall, to the Earth: Blew more spirituall to the air, Red to fire, and white to water. For heaven is composed of fire and water, which is above the heavens. Let the waters that are above the heavens praise the Lord. Yet neverthelesse all this is but fire, as Moses the son of Maynon declares very well in the second Book of his Mor. chap. 31. where he saith that under the name of Earth are comprised the four Elements, and by darknesse was understood the first fire: for it is said in the 4. of Deut. You have heard his words out of the midst of fire, and then he adds of a sodain, You have heard his voice out of darknesse: This fire moreover, was called the first fire, because that is not it which is shining and clear, but it is only, so transparent to the sight, as is the Air: and could not comprehend it self therewith, for if it were shining wee should in the night see all the air shine as fire. And for that the darknesse, which was first named, denoted fire, namely that whereof it is said, that darknesse was upon the face of the Abysse: because the fire was under the three Elements; comprised under this word Abyssus. There are other darknesses which follow after: then when the separation of things was made, and the Darknesses he called Night. All this, the foresaid Rabbin put out. To which that would touch, which the Alcoran carries in Azoare. 65. I will send you a clear and beautifull fire. All this which adheres then to the low black part, is therwith consumed & destroyed, and holdeth place of death: after which, cometh true life: the blue flame likewise if it therein degenerate, and lets it predominate; but the white doth not endeavor but to uncover it self here below to transport it self upwards: and not suffer it self to bee over mastered by others. And doth not devoure nor destroy, nor is not thereby devoured, nor his clear shining splendor altered, as are those of the others: By reason whereof wee must adhere and let our selves be salted with this white fire, and bee illuminated with this fair white light that never varies, following that which is said in the 4. of Deu. You which adhere to the Lord your God, you are all living also, as at this day. But if our blew light the soul, adhere to the black, and to the red, which are our sensualities and concupiscences, the strange fire will force it selfe into us, and will devoure and consume us. This knowledge of the Elements, and of their colours, doth not insist only in composed bodies, here below, but thereby wee may mount as by Jacobs Ladder, the height of this celestiall world, where the Elements are also, yet of another sort, more simple and depured: and from thence to passe beyond into the intelligible world, where they are in their true essence; for all consists in the four Elements. Sons of wisdome understand (saith Hermes in his Tract of 7. chapters) not only corporally, but also spiritually, the science of the four Elements, whose secret apparition is in no wise signified, except they bee first compounded, because of the Elements; there is nothing made without their composition and Regiment. Will we dive more deeply into the secrets of this Caball? This Composition and Regiment of the Elements, is no other thing then the Sacrosanct four-lettered ineffable Jehovah: which comprehends all that which is, was, and shall bee: where the little and finall ה notes the body and matter, or other the like, where the Fire cleaveth or fasteneth unto: The ו vou or cloud copulative which assembles the two ה the intelligible and the sensible, are the spirits that join the Soul with the Body: the red inflammation of the coal or weik, with the azure flame, doe signifie the soul: and the Jod is the white unchangeable and permanent flame of the intellect, where all at length comes to terminate, which whitenesse is the seat of the true spirituall hidden light, which is not seen nor known, but by it self: for indeed our nature to take it in it self, is but a dark substance; right resembling the Moon, which hath no light but what it receives from the Sun, which she is apt to receive, as our soul is that of the intellectuall light: And there is not a creature whatsoever, which is of it self a substantiall light; but only a participation of the only true light, which shineth in all, and through all, plainly and sensibly. It is the Chasmall of Ezechiel according to Zohar, whence proceeds fire or light assembled of two, which are yet but one thing: the white light, namely which mounteth and cleareth that, which no mortall eye could suffer, that of which is written in 46. Psal. Light is risen to the just, and gladnesse to the upright in heart: which corresponds to the intelligible world, and the inward man. The other is a twinckling and flaming light, of a red fiery colour, joined and united to a coal, or a weik, signifying the sensible world, and the ontward corporall man. The soul is placed in the middle, namely the blew light, part whereof, is fastened to the weik, and part to the white flame; quickly adhering to one, and quickly to another, whence according as shee applies it self it comes to bee either burned or illuminated, following that which Origen sets down upon the 14. of Jer. That God is a red burning fire, consuming and destroying, as concerning sinners, and to holy and just persons, a white rejoycing and vivifying light: Jamblicus, that doth not soar so high as Zohar, being not assisted but by the light and instinct of nature, said very well, but afterwards the Phœnician Theologie, that al which we can perceive of goodnesse and contentment, in this sensible world, comes from the light which is imparted to us from the Sun, and Stars illustrated with it. And as the Sun imparts his light to the Moon, to the Stars, and to the Heavens: so God (communicates his to the intelligible world:) the lively Fountain of all others, to his blessed Intelligences: So that, all what our souls can have of good, of joy, of beatitude, be it whilest they are annexed to the bodies, or separated therefrom, comes from this primordiall light, which shineth in them by reflexion, as the Sun beams in a basin, a concave looking glasse, or in water, or twhart a looking glass, according as St. Denys sets it down, in his 4 chapter of divine names: which proceeding from the Soveraign good, carries therewith the same appellation. And Rabbi Eliezer in his chapters sets down, that the heavens were created with the light of the Creators vestment, grounding himself upon the Psalmist, 204. 2. Clad with light as with a vestment, and the Earth with snow, which was under the throne of his glory. All Rabinique Allegories, may men say, but where doe the great mysteries consist, from which St. Denys doth not straddle far in the place alledged? for even as this fair great and clear shining Sun, that hath in it self such a manifest representation and image of Soveraign good, extends its light throughout the Univers, and doth communicate it to all that are capable to receive it. So that there is nothing, which doth not participate of his light, and vivifying heat: there is nothing, that can hide it self from the heat thereof. In the same manner this Eternall supercelestiall light, illustrates, vivifies, and perfects all that which hath being, and banisheth darknesses and all softning hoarinesse, that may bee brought thereinto, lightning our souls with a desire alwayes to participate more and more of this light: for when she comes to prove it by little and little, and by degrees that helps it and conducts to the joy and fruition of a Soveraign good, which is the light of the Soul, namely the Intellect that clears it, to be able to apprehend the living spring from whence it came; for light is not seen, but by her self: the most worthy and excellent property of fire, with which it hath this in particular and proper, that shee makes her self to see, as it doth, and by her means manifesteth all that which our sight may apprehend. Yet there is nothing harder to comprehend, then that which is either of the one or of the other, for in shewing us, and revealing us all it is then, when shee hides her self most from us, even to blinde us and to reduce our brightnesse into darknesse; As is his darknesse, so is his light.

Wee must then not speak of God without light, because he is the true light because, O Lord, thou art my Lantern: which doth enlighten us, by thy word, Thy word is a Lantern to my feet, the splendor of the Father, and the living fountain of life: as holy St. Augustine after St. John. In him was life, and the life was the light of men, and light shined in darknesse, and the darknesse comprehended it not. So that from this light, wee have double commodity: the one, that life, by which wee live, the other the light by which wee see, that which enlightens us. The spirituall man, the true man enjoyes the one and the other: the Carnall man, life onely: for touching the rest, hee is in darknesse, because they have been rebells to light, saith Job, because they have not her wayes. Even as if one should inclose a torch within a Lantern of cut-stone, or the like obscure and dark matter, where its light would remain as quenched and buried, without ability to extend it self abroad for the obstacle that hinders it. And if we want light (saith St. Ambrose) there would bee no more comelinesse, 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 Inne, where they made him a fire, hee sodainly made verses containing in substance, that children were the ornament and Crown of the Father; Towers, of walls; horses, of the fields; ships, of the Sea; Magistrates, of the places of the Assembly, where they administred justice to the people; and a fair burning and lighted fire, the comelinesse and rejoicing of an house, which renders it so much the more honorable. To see a burning fire in an old house. Some attribute them to, Hesiod: Trismegistus amongst the rest cals light the father of all, who hath procreated man like unto it, participant of light, and of life depending thereon: and life was the light of men. The Father is as the Sun in his Essence: from whence comes splendor and heat, which three are not separated one from another, but remain united together, 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 hee was sent to the Disciples in shape of fire, to make them shine by wisdome, 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 wisdome, 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, doe 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 burnes, and a thing salted is half boiled, as is before said: as well to make it of more easie digestion, as to conserve it longer, which are the proprieties and effects of fire.

But to mount from fire here below to the Celestiall, which is the Sunne, the eye and heart of the sensible world, and the visible Image of the invisible God. Saint Denis cals it an all-apparent and cleare Statue of God; and Iamblichus the Image of Divine intelligence, the father of life, the Image and portraict of the Prince, and Soveraigne Dominator of all the universe, the light of the one, and the other world, the Celestiall and Elementary. But may we not here alledge 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 smoak: 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 sheweth that they have all drunke of this Caballine or Mosaicall fountaine. 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 vertue which it hath given it, to produce things here below: only representing by its splendor, 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 immoveable and stable. We see the Sunne, as wel as fire, but not so neare, to be able so exactly to marke 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 peece of worke of all visible Creatures. For although it appears unto us little bigger then 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 Mathematicall, which are certaine and infallible, yet it is many times greater then the Globe of the Earth and Water joined together, which containeth more then 6000 miles about, an apparent witnesse of the wisdome and greatnesse of its Architect. Of which Ecclesiasticus in the 43. chapter makes this fine Epiphonema, Who is he that can ever satisfie himself to contemplate the glory of the Creator? the Firmament in its height which comprehends all things under it, so pure and cleare? and the forme of this vast and immense hollow of Heaven so faire and admirable to the sight? Is not this an apparent vision of his glorious and triumphant Majesty? The Sunne at his rising shewing the light of the day (an admirable vessell) arrived in the middle of his dayly Carreer, it burns and rosteth the earth, and who is it that can subsist before its extreame heat? It burneth thrice double the mountains, more then the fiery furnaces the pottery which they put to scum off, exhaling from it selfe flaming vapors, and a splendor which darkens the most strong assured sight. Surely the Lord which hath made and formed it of nothing so fair, so great, and admirable, may well say it to be greater then his owne worke, and which hasteth it so speedily, as to measure this incomprehensible space in 24 hours. With the surplus of this discourse, which refers it selfe, and is as a Paraphrase upon the 19. Psal. where in few termes, there are touched three principall points of the Sunne: Its beauty compared to a spouse comming out of his bed chamber, and he as a Bridegroome comming out of his chamber, his force and impetuosity as a Giant to runne his course: nor is there any thing that can hide himselfe from the heat thereof. And its extream 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 Sunne, its course, its splendor, and its heat; the heat dries, the splendor illuminates, and its course runs through the universe. And as in man, which is the little world, the heart is the chiefe seat of life, first living, and last dying: So the Sunne in the great man, which is the World, is the spring, the light and heat which vivifieth all things which imparteth to the Starres and to the Moone the light by which they shine; even as Christ, which is the Sunne of Righteousnesse, and the light of our Souls, which without it, would remaine buryed in a blinde obscurity. He that followes me shall not walke in darknesse, but shall have the light of life, which conserves it self for the good, and extinguisheth it selfe against the wicked witnesse, Job 18. The light of the wicked shall be put out. Where light is such, that sometimes the evill Angels transform themselves to deceive us; for in as little as we can blow it backe behinde us, it growes 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 naturall; whereunto the clearnesse of the Sunne and of Fire, and their effects do guide us more then any other thing, to apprehend some sparkle of this soveraigne Wisdome, wherewith God built this great All by his Word. For every science to which we may attaine 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 incertaine and variable, to be in continuall variation and vicissitude. So that the knowledge that comes from the light of Nature, is very weake, and full of doubts, and incertitudes, if it bee not illustrated by Divine Revelation, which makes us see all as it is in its true and reall essence, as the light of the Sunne doth all things corporall. So that the most part of heathen Philosophers, after they have alembeck’t their spirit to the perquisition of naturall causes, they finde 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 Metaphysicks. Ptolomie also, that we must not ground and rule our conceptions for regard of corporall things above spirituall; for they are farre distant each from other, and there is much disparity and disproportion between them. But yet lesse 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 eternall power and divinity. We must therefore run back to this spiritual light, which holdeth the highest & soveraign 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 then the visible; for as much as God only is a true light in his essence from whence he derives into our spirit all the knowledg wherewith it can be illustrated, as the potentiall 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 selfe to be cleansed by the fire of Divine love, he will ever keep its living and luminous brightnesse. But if it suffer it selfe foolishly to go after exterior light, it shall be also obscured and extinguished with the interiour which domineers over it, even as a small candle or wax taper with the twinckling beames of a cleare shining Summer Sunne. Sith then this sensible light, saith 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 recompence of good works, following that which Job sets downe, God covereth the light in his hands, and ordaineth it that it should returne againe and manifest it self. He sheweth 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 Sunnes the sensible and intelligible, and of the two lights that proceed therefrom. For as that of the Sunne obtains the first place in corporall things, saith Saint Augustine in his book of freewill, and that by means thereof, the interiour communicate with the superiour, the same doth the light of the spirituall 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 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.