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

by Blaise de Vigenère

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.

As for fire in the 66. of Esay 15, 16. which the Evangelist cites here, whose fire shall not extinguish, and whose worme dieth not. It is without doubt destinated to the punishment of reprobates, which shall never be quenched, nor the worme that stingeth the conscience shall never dye; To keep that this worm that is engendred of corruption may not procreate, we must salt it with discretion and prudence, that it may do nothing which may offend and scandalize his neighbour, according as the Evangelist specifies it, Hee that shall scandalize one of these little ones that beleeve in mee. And as for banishing and chasing away strange fire, that devours our soul, as a burning feaver doth vitall heat, this must be done by the mediating intervention of divine fire, which is much more puissant then any other. Let us heare that which to this purpose Saint Ambrose alledgeth in the 3. chap. of his Offices, Saint John baptized Jesus Christ with the Holy Ghost and with fire, which is the type and image of the Holy Ghost, who after his ascension, must descend for the remission of sinnes, so enflaming as a fire doth the soul and heart of the faithfull, according as Jeremie saith in 20. & 9. after he had received the Holy Ghost, and it was as a burning fire in my heart, shut up in my bones. What is the meaning then of that in the Maccabees, that the fire was become water, and this water excites the fire, but that the spirituall grace burneth by the fire, and by the water it doth purifie and cleanse our sinnes? for sinne washeth and burneth, according to which the Apostle saith, fire will prove what each mans works shall bee; for it must necessarily be, that this examination should bee perfected in all those that desire to returne into Paradise. It was not without cause, nor idlely set downe in the 3. of Genesis, that after Adam and Eve were banished from thence, he placed at its entrance a brandishing sword of fire, to keep the passage to the tree of life. With this fire then we must all be salted that are in the way of salvation; following that which Origen set downe in his 3. Homil. upon the 36. Psalme, Wee must all goe to the fire of Purgatory, and Peter and Paul, but all shall not passe thereby, after the same sort as they did, whereof it is said in the 43. of Esay 2. When thou shalt passe through the waters, the waves shall not cover thee, for I will be with thee, when thou shalt march through the fire, thou shalt not bee burnt. The Israelites passed through the red Sea dry-shod, and the Ægyptians were drowned therein: The three children in Nebuchadnezzars furnace, had no detriment, and those that heated the fire without, were therewith consumed. And in the 19. Hom. upon the 16. of Leviticus, All are not purged by this fire that parts from the Altar, it is the fire of the Lord; for hee that is from the Altar, is not of God, but a strange fire, dedicated for the cruciating of sinners, which shall never be quenched, nor the worm that gnaweth shall never dye: for after that the soul by a multitude of its wicked comportments hath heaped up within him abundance of sinnes, this congregation of evils in succession of times, comes to boil and enflame us with a paine and punishment internall, as the body doth of a feaver proceeding from the excesse of the mouth, or other superfluities, when she shall come to thinke and relate a history of its delinquencies, which will bee a perpetuall prickle, wherewith it will bee tormented, so that shee will make her selfe as an accuser and witnesse against her selfe, according as the Apostle said, Rom. 2. 15. Their conscience also bearing witnesse, and their thoughts either accusing or excusing one another, in the day when God shall judge the secrets of all men. But Jeremie on the other side, speaking of a drinke of the wrath of God, which shall be poured out upon all manner of Nations, whereof whosoever will not drinke, shall not be purified; and from that we learne, that the fury of Gods vengeance, profiteth for the purgation of souls, as well in generall as in particular, and there is nothing more purgative then fire, of which the Prophet Malachy should say in his 3. chap. 3. The Lord will sanctifie them in a burning fire, and such is the fire of tribulations and adversity, with which we must be salted and purged; for salt is purgative above any other thing, as wee may sufficiently perceive in those that drink Sea water, who all dye of a flux. Of the other fire which is exterminative and strange, of which it is also in the 10. of Leviticus 2. And a fire went out from the Lord, and devoured Nadab and Abihu: God said in the 32. of Deut. v. 22. They shall burne unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her encrease, and set on fire the foundations of the Mountaines. For the justice of the Almighty, said one of the good Fathers foreseeing that which must come, from the beginning of the world, created this fire of eternall hell, that whereof Esay intends to speak, whose fire is not quenched, to beginne to be the punishment of the wicked, without that burning and heat should cease, now for that it is neither wood nor charcoale, nor other matter to maintain it, but shall be eternally tormented therewith in body and soul, because they have offended with the one and the other; for sins are the bait and nourishment of this fire, which by a gathering together of misdeeds, and superabundance of iniquity heaped one upon another, enflame the soul to a perdurable punishment, even as a burning feaver, the repleat body, and render it a joice of ill digestion, by a superfluity of viands, and other disorders, and excesse from whence there was drawne a wicked habitude; for the soul then comming to remember her delights, agitated with the living and most rigorous pricks which gall it, she comes to be her owne accuser, by certaine remorse of conscience that can profit them no more, (because in hell there is no redemption) and to be his witnesse and judge, as the Apostle sets it downe in the 2. of the Romanes, Their conscience bearing witnesse, and their thoughts accusing them, in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men. But there is also a fire in this world, by which we must be salted and purified, for as much deduction of it as we must endure from thence, namely, tribulations, which are to us as a Minorative in Physick, of the compleat purgation that wee must receive thereby.

The two foresaid fires furthermore, that of the Altar, and the strange, may be very properly compared, that there to aqua vitæ, the other to aqua fortis, which ends and destroyes all, where aqua vitæ serves for nourishment, for all that wee eat or drinke participates thereof, and is that which passeth and converts into nutriment. It is true that it is revealed more nearly in some subjects then in other. Wine is that where it manifests it self soonest, and with lesse preparation and paine, afterwards wheat, and so of the rest; for there is nothing wherein nature doth so soone make his profit, as of these two. Aqua vitæ is also called burning, because it conceives so easily the flame and burneth, for that it is necessary, that whatsoever doth nourish must suffer under the fires action. Otherwise how is it that naturall heat could work thereupon, which is much weaker then that of fire? wee know by experience that we could not draw any nourishment from stones, metals, earth, and other substances, whereupon fire cannot bite: and if wolves doe sometimes eat clay, wild-ducks, and other birds, small flints, and gravell, it is either to avoid vacuity, or for some medicament to them knowne by a secret instinct of nature, but not that this doth digest or serve them for maintenance, no more then Iron doth Ostriches; which yet they corrupt by a strong and great heat of their stomach. But you will say, that this assimilation contraries the text of the 10. of Leviticus where Aarons sonnes are so burned for offering strange fire.

That which Rabbi Simeon to Zohar relates in part, that they served at the Altar, being drunk, and overcome with wine, for that which followes after demonstrates it; that God said unto Aaron, Thou nor thy sonnes shall not drink wine when you enter into the Tabernacle: whereto may be answered, that similitudes cannot in all, or through all agree, otherwise it would be the same thing they represent. Aqua vitæ doth not make drunke if men take not so much at a time, that it may alienate people from their spirit. And yet being separate from wine, the remainder should be nothing but phlegme, and residences, which cannot in any sort make drunke, nor being therewith mingled and adjoined by nature, as to stoppe again the acuity of the aqua vitæ. Yet we see by experience, in Germany and other cold Regions, where aqua vitæ is in good esteem, as well for the quantity which they take; it doth not for that make men drunke, as wine would do in such a quantity, as that, wherewith it should be quenched; and putting a little Salt in very strong wine, it will make men drunk sooner then to drinke it pure. I have often made tryall, that often joyning together aqua vitæ to that which men had drawne, this mingling could not cause drunkennesse any more, because the parts once separated of the compounded elements, and then reconjoined, take another nature then it had at the first. Certes it is a great support and comfort that aqua vitæ hath for a weak stomach, either through age or other accident, although men thinke that it burnes and offends the noble parts; for though it be inflamable, it is not therefore burning. He that would see the great vertues thereof, let him read the Quintessences of Raimund Lullius, Rupescissa, Ulstadius his heaven of Philosophers, for wee will not stay here as on a thing too triviall and beaten. They call it the quintessence for the conformity it hath with the celestiall nature, because that as the heaven, which is as another Air, but more subtill then the Elementary, contains the Stars, whence it receives divers impressions and effects that it doth infuse and communicate unto us, here below, the same Aqua vitæ doth easily impregn it self, with the qualities and specificall vertues which are therein put to infusion. To this proposition of heaven and Stars, and of their different impressions, wee will not here passe over a fine dispute which here presents it self. The Earl Pica de Mirandula, truly a prodigious spirit accompanied with great Literature, in his 3. Book against Judiciall Astrology, 25. chap. transported with too hot a curiosity to impugn this Art, Will we (saith he) prove that the vertue of all the Stars is but even one? Let us suppose this Maxime. That the nature of heaven cannot more openly and sucinctly, expresse, then by saying heaven to be a unity of all bodies, for there is nothing in all the universe that doth not depend upon this certain one, as from his primitive course, with many other premises wherewith hee would conclude that of the propriety and vertue of each Star indifferently, depends the facultie and vertue of all the composed Elements, without having there other difference between them, if peradventure, this was not in greatnesse; as it is apparently seen: nor can men say, that one presides more particularly to one thing here below, then to another: for every Star presides to all; so that if all were joined and united together in one onely body, this should be as if infinite flames and fires should come to assemble, to make but one, which would be stronger then true, but not of diverse propriety and nature, which doth not change it self into homogeneall, and homomaternall substances, by a coacervation, nor which comes to produce other effects then it did, being separated, as one may see in water, and a great torch in respect of a little waxe light, which will light infinite others as well as the torch, though more powerfull, to heat, boil, and burn, as being in a greater volume.

But it is a very hard thing to overthrow an opinion already received of long durance, chiefly if it bee supported with authority of holy Scripture; which must bee to us as a touchstone, by it to verifie our ratiocinations, for the most part uncertain and erroneous, if they bee not conducted by divine inspiration: It is written in the 147. Psal. 5. He knoweth all the Stars, and calleth them all by their names. That if they have all different and particular names, wherefore should it serve but to distinguish them in their effects, proprieties, qualities and vertues? for the name of things, imports the same. Follow that which is said in the 2. of Gen. as Adam named every thing, such was its true and proper name: which Plato in his Cratylus saith is not onely the type and representation of things, but their Essence. And in this case there is a fair consideration to bee marked, that God left to Adam the nomination of terrestriall things: but reserved to himselfe that of Celestiall: as hee expresseth in the 115. Psal. 16. The Heaven of Heavens are the Lords, but the Earth hath he given to the children of men: which is as much to say, according to Rabbi the Ægyptian in the 2. Book of his More, or director, 25. Cha. That the Creator knoweth himself alone the certain verity of the heavens, what is their form, substance, and their motions; but upon that under heaven he hath given power to man to know, for Earth is properly mans world, where hee produceth, and the place of his conversation, as long as hee liveth: as fire and light attached to matter: there where the causes upon which we might found our demonstrations concerning heaven, are out of our knowledge, being so far remote from us. And in this case the Heaven of Heavens, are the Lords, there may be a double exposition, according to the punctuation and reading. That Heaven belongs to the Lord of Heaven, and so the Hebrewes take it, but who doubts, but that the Earth also belongs to him, as well as the Heaven? The Earth is the Lords, and the fulnesse thereof, and in the 23. of Jer. Doe not I fill the Heaven and the Earth? And the Heaven of Heavens is reserved for God, and the Earth is left to the children of men, which is a manner of speech usuall in the holy Scripture. For if the Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens cannot comprehend thee, saith Solomon to God; for the Hebrewes metaphorically call Heaven, things that are far distant from our sight: and we also after their imitation, as when wee speak of a Kite, Heron or Gerfalcon, when they fly so high, that wee can hardly discern them, that they goe to loose themselves in Heaven: so that all which is here under the sphere of the Moon, and generally all that is above us, they call it Heaven: and the Heaven of Heavens, the Æthereall Region from the Moon to the Firmament, as well the Firmament it self, or the Empyrean Heaven. But farther that the Stars should bee all of one nature, propriety and effect, to see them so like, besides their greatnesse and clearnesse, it follows not that the same appears of the same sort as of fire, yet wee commonly call them fires and celestiall lights: It is as if the seeds of trees and plants, whereof there are infinite, should all mixe together, and the first buds also, that they cast, which differ as nothing, but to the measure whereunto they grow, their differences doe manifest them. The Hebrewes hold that there is not so little, and poor a herb on the Earth, nor any other thing of the three kinds of the composed Mineralls, Vegetables, or animals, that hath not above its correspondent Star, that assists it, and from which it receives its maintenance and conservation. But how can that agree? will some say to the contrary; because it seems to derogate and contradict that which in expresse terms is set down in the 1. of Gen. where it is written, that in the third day, the Earth of her self brought forth herbs, and trees, containing in them their seeds: according to their kinds: neverthelesse the Sun, nor the Moon, nor the Stars, were created till the day after, the fourth by which is designed its effect and function: Let there bee lights made, in the firmament of the heaven, namely the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars, to separate the night from the day: and let them bee for signes, and seasons, for dayes and years: without attributing any thing of their assistance, upon trees and plants, and other elementary things.

But to return to the particulars of Aqua vitæ, there will be no hurt here to touch upon this experiment thereof made, very gentile and rare, leaving others that are more common, Aqua vitæ hath this particular, that it dissolves not sugar, nor joines not with it, as doth its flegm and common water, vinegar, and other liquors: but by artifice it self, of two it makes a thrice sweet liquor, very proper against the fluxes of Catarrhs, and salt rheumes, that molest the stomach, and throat, and is thereunto very good and comfortable. Lay in steep a day or two Cinnamon grossely beaten; and take off the infusion very neat: take fine sugar within a pottage dish that hath ears, brought into fine small powder, and so perfume it, mingle it with a small portion of Sugar roset. Poure thereon this Aqua vitæ and make them a little warm upon ashes, then put fire thereto with a lighted paper, stirring all well with a little spit of clean wood, so long untill the Aqua vitæ burn no more, & there will remain a liquor most agreeable to the taste, and mervailously comfortable: you may add thereto liquor of pearls, Coral and other the like, which dissolve easily in the juice of Citron or distilled vinegar, which makes it sweet to stream out upon it a quantity of common water or the phlegm of Aqua vitæ: and not by calcining it as Paracelsus and his followers do, with Salt-Peter, which is manifest poyson: so that things are done in vain by more, that may be done by fewer, so that it bee justly done. Further, every one sufficiently knowes how to draw Aqua vitæ, filling two parts of the Alimbeck with Glasse, or Beuvois Earth, with good old wine, and distilling it with an easie fire through a Bath in a Caldron full of water, with chaffe. Continue the distillation untill you see long veines and sprouts appear, in the Chappe and in the Recipient. For it is Aqua vitæ, which mounts first, and the phlegm comes after in grosse drops, as tears; which is a token that there is no more Aqua vitæ. Men may refine it, passing again another time: But I should not bee of an opinion, that to take it into the body, it should bee more then once. And it is a strange thing that by its own subtilty, for it will mount through five or six doubles of paper brovillas without wetting it. I have seen them cast a full glasse thereof in the air, and not one drop to fall to the earth: It is of soveraign force against all burnings and chiefly that of small shot, with which shee hinders (as was said before) the Estiomenes and Gangreenes: An inflamation arising from pure choler in the skin exulcerating it with pain. which sheweth sufficiently the purity of its fire which may by good right be called Celestiall. See here that which Raimund Lullius sets down of his proprieties and vertues. Wee must not understand (saith he) that neither quintessence nor any other thing here below, can render us immortall. It is ordained for all men once to die: nor can we prolong our dayes beyond and above the prefixed time, for that is reserved to God. Mans daies are short, and the number of his moneths are with thee: thou hast appointed his limits which hee cannot passe, there where on the contrary they may well bee accidentally shortned: Aqua vitæ then, nor all other sorts of quintessences and restoratives, cannot prolong our life for one minute of an hower; yet they may conserve and maintain it to the last but, preserving it from putrefaction, which is it, that shortens it most: But to defend putrefaction by corruptible things, that cannot bee; we must therefore find out some incorruptible substance, proper and familiar to our nature, which conserves and maintains the radicall heat, as oil doth the light of a Lampe. Such is the aqua vitæ drawn from wine, the most comfortable and connaturall substance of all others, provided it be not abused with excesse. Plutarch in the 3. Book, the 8. question of his Symposiaques, compares wine to fire, and our body to clay. If you give fire (he sets it down there) which is of a mediocrity to the clay, and earth to the Potter, he will consolidate it in the pots, bricks, tiles, and other the like works, but if it be excessive, hee resolves it, and makes it melt and run. Moreover Aqua vitæ, preserves strongly from their corruption, as wee may see by things vegetable and Animall, which men put there to mingle, which by this means conserves them in their entire length. It comforts and maintains a man in vigor of youth: which it restoreth from day to day, it rejoyceth and strengtheneth the vitall spirits: it digests crudities taken fasting, and reduceth the equality, the excessive superfluities, and the defaults which may bee in our bodies; causing divers effects according to the disposition of the subject where shee applies her selfe, as doth the Sunnes heat, which melts wax and hardens durt, and fire doth the same. And there is that celestiall spirit residing in Aqua vitæ, so susceptible of all qualities, proprieties, and vertues, that she can make her hot, empregning it with hot things, cold with cold things, and so of the rest; being shee is naturall, conformably to our soule, inclinable to good and evill, for although it consists of the foure Elements, they are therein so proportioned, that the one doth not domineer over the other. Wherefore they call it Heaven, whereto wee apply such starres as wee will, namely of the simple Elements, of which she conceives the proprieties and the effects: herein we may compare celestiall fire to the Altar.

But strong waters, which dissipate and ruine all, are this strange fire, and so Alchymists call them, and fire against nature externall fire, and other the like exterminatives. Certes if the effects of Cannon Powder be so admirable, consisting of so few species, and ingredients, which may be well called the true infernall fire, the devourer of mankind. The action of strong waters is no lesse which burne all, being compounded onely of two or three substances, that which wee commonly call the Separator, Salt-peter, Vitriol, or Allum Ice, and this dissolves Silver, Copper, Quicksilver, and Iron in part. La Regalle which is no other thing then the preceding rectified upon Salarmoniac, or common Salt, dissolved partly with Iron, Lead, Tinne, and intameable Gold, with all sorts of fire. It is true, that strong waters doe not destroy metals, that they returne not to their first forme and nature, but drawes them to water, and a melting liquor. This was certainly a good Artificiall industry in mans spirit, to excogitate so short a way to separate Gold and Silver melted together, and so uniformedly mixed, that an ounce of Gold melted with an hundred markes of Silver, each part thereof will equally attract his portion, as wee may see by the refiners practise, which to prove that which it holds of Gold & of Silver, a confused masse of divers metals will take but 30. grains to make their essay in the Coupelle, and from thence will judge that the same proportion that you shall finde in this small volume, shall bee also in the whole masse; all that which may bee therein of impure imperfect metall goes away partly in smoake, and is partly consumed by fire, and partly sticks like Birdlime within the Coupelle, nothing remaining above it but what is fine, namely Silver and Gold, which is there inclosed, with which they separate strong waters called on the occasion the divider, which dissolves Silver into water, and Gold falls to the bottome as sand; the water afterwards evaporated, the Silver retires it selfe. But here it would be too much to speake of the effects of strong waters, one of the principall and short instruments of Alchymie, and the Art of fire and Salt, with infinite fine allegories, which thereby may be appropriated upon Holy Writ.