From the Intelligible world then, it runnes downe into the Celestial, and from thence to the Elementary, all that which the spirit of man can attaine from the knowledge of the admirable effects of Nature, which Art intimates, in what shee can, whence by the revelation of these rare secrets, by the action of fire, the most part is magnified, the glory and magnificence of him who is the first motor and author thereof; for mans understanding according to Hermes, is as a Glasse where we come to shave off, and to abate the cleare and luminous rayes of the Divinity, represented to our senses by the Sunne above, and the fire his correspondent here below; which inflame the soule with an ardent desire of the knowledge and veneration of his Creatour, and by consequent of his love, for men love nothing but what they know.
So each of these three worlds, which have their particular sciences, hath also its fire, and its salt apart: both which do informe us namely of Moses his fire in the heaven. And the Salt for its firme consistence and solidity to the earth. What is this Salt? aske one of your Chymicall Philosophers; a scorched and burned earth, and congealed water, by the heat of fire, potentially enclosed therein. Moreover Fire is the operatour here below, in the workes of Art, as the Sunne and Celestiall Fire is in them of that nature; and in the intelligible, the holy Spirit by the Hebrewes called Binah, or Intelligence, which the Scripture designes ordinarily by fire, and this spirituall fire, or igneal spirit, with the Chomah the verbe, where the Sapience attributes to the Sonne, Wisdome, the Artist of all things, taught mee, are the fathers operators. By the word of the Lord were the heavens firmed, and all their beauty by the spirit of his mouth; from whence that maxime of the Peripateticks differs not much. Every worke of Nature is a worke of Intelligence.
Behold the three fires, whereof we pretend to speake, of which there is none more common amongst us then the elementary here below, grosse, composed, and materiall; that is to say, alwayes fastned to matter; nor on the the other part lesse known. That which is of him, from whence he came, and whither hee goes; reducing in an instant all to nothing: assoone as his nourishment failes him; without which he cannot consist a moment, but goes as hee comes, being all in the least of his parts: So that he can in lesse then nothing, multiply to infinity, and in lesse then nothing empty it selfe: for one little waxe light will at pleasure enkindle the greatest fires we can imagine, without any losse or diminution of its substance:
Though they take a thousand, yet nothing perisheth:
And in the third of Saint James, Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth; yea one onely small sparkle of fire, would press in the twinckling of an eye, all the immense hollow of the Universe, if it were filled with Gun-powder or Napthe and presently after will vanish away. So that of all bodies, there is nothing that doth approach nearer to the soule then fire, said Plotin. And Aristotle in his fourth booke of Metaphysickes, sets downe, that even to his time the most part of Philosophers had not well knowne fire, nor yet Aire to bee perceivable to our sight and feeling. But men may say the same, that neither Aristotle, nor other Grecians of his time knew so well the fire and its effects, at least wise not so exactly as did (so long while after) the Arabians, by Alchymie, on which all the knowledge of fire dependeth. The Ægyptians said, that it was a ravishing and insatiable Animal, that devoures that which taketh birth and increase, and at last it selfe; after it is therewith well fedde and gorged: when there is no more to feed or nourish it; for that having heat and motion, he cannot passe from food and aire to breath therein; if for want hereof, it remaines at last extinct, with that wherewith it was fed: All things proper to animate substances, and which have life, for life is ever accompanied with heat and motion, which proceeds from heate, rather then heate from motion; although they be reciprocalls, for one cannot be without the other. But Suidas thereupon formed such a contradiction, that not onely animals, but all that which take nourishment and encrease, tend to a certaine butt, whither being come, it stayes without passing any further, where neither nourishment nor increase of fire are limited nor determined; for the more is administred, so much the more it would have, and grow every day greater: for neither the one nor the other can be limited, as do these animals. Then by consequent it must not be put in their ranke; So that the motion of fire should rather be called generation, then nourishment or growth; for there is but that one element, that nourisheth and increaseth it. In the others, that which superabounds therein is by apposition, as if you would joine water to water, or earth to earth; you shall never do the same to fire, to thinke to make it greater by joining thereunto other fire, but by the apposition of matter, upon which it may bite and exercise its action, as wood and other like things, which perforce must turne into its nature, and so it augments it selfe. The Poeticall fictions relate that Prometheus went into Heaven to steale it to accommodate mortals; for which he was so grievously punished by the Gods, as to remaine 30. yeares bound to a Rocke in Mount Caucasus, where a Vulter dayly eate up his entrails which did grow againe in course. Auror de roolle [p. 61], in course, in order one after another.But it is to bee beleeved that the Gods that are so watchfull, and so affectionate towards mankinde, would not deny this so necessary a portion of Nature, without which the condition of their life were worse then that of beasts, as well for the boyling of their meats, as to warme them, and dry them, and infinite other necessary commodities. Besides of that which soares alwayes upwards, being of one celestial original, whither he aspires to returne, it seemes that this belongs properly to man.
Sith other things lookes downe unto the earth
It gave man a face, to looke up, and see the heavens,
To erect his countenance unto the Stars.
Almost all other animals do shun the fire, whence Lactantius to shew that man was a divine Animal, alledgeth for one of his most pregnant reasons, that hee onely amongst others used fire. And Vitruvius in his second booke, sets downe that the first acquaintances of men, were contracted by comming to meete, to warme themselves at common fires: So that the cause why God sent fire downe to men must bee, that by the meanes thereof, they are come to penetrate into the profound and hidden secrets of Nature: whereof they could not well discover, & know the manner of proceeding, for that shee workes so rarely: but by his counterfoote, which the Greeks call διάλυσις διάλυσις the resolution and separation of the Elementary parts, which are made by fire; whereof proceeds the execution almost of all Artifices, that the spirit of man hath invented; So that if the first had no other instrument, and toole, then the fire, as we may lately see by the discoveries of the West Indies; Homer in the Song of Vulcan sets downe that hee assisted with Minerva, taught men their Arts and brave Workmanship; having formerly beene accustomed to dwel in Caves and hollow Rockes, after the fashion of wilde beasts; willing to inferre by Minerva the Goddesse of Arts, and Sciences, the understanding and industry, and by the fire, Vulcan, that puts them in execution; wherefore the Ægyptians were accustomed to marry these two Deities together, willing thereby to declare nothing else but that from the understanding proceeds the invention of all Arts and Sciences, which fire afterwards effected, and brought from power to action; for the Agent in all this world is nothing else but fire and heat, saith Johannicius, and Homer,
Whom Vulcan and Minerva knew.