Part 1

A DISCOVRSE OF FIRE and SALT, DISCOVERING Many secret Mysteries, AS WELL PHILOSOPHICALL, AS THEOLOGICALL.

_London_, Printed by _Richard Cotes_, 1649.

To his worthy friend Captaine _Thomas Falconbridge_.

/Sir/,

I Have been informed of your zeal and forwardnesse in advancing Learning and Truth, two commendable vertues, for a man of your merit and profession. And meeting with a subject composed by a _French_ Authour, I present the Translation to your favourable acceptance: It is of forraign birth, though swadled up in an English habit: It hath done much good abroad, and I am confident it will do the like here, if supported with your approbation: It had not seen the Presse here, had I not been assured of the candor and integrity of the Authour. I repose confidence of acceptation, because the Translator hath been of your long acquaintance, and was lately sensible of your propensity and assistance, when he came in your way: If this may find grace with you, you will engage him to make further inquisition into this most sacred and secret mystery, and to rest,

_SIR_, _Your most affectionate friend_ /Edvvard Stephens/.

AN EXCELLENT TREATISE OF FIRE and SALT·

Composed by the Lord _Blaise_ of _VIGENERE_.

_The first part._

_PYTHAGORAS_ who of all Pagans was undoubtedly, by common consent and approbation, held to have made more profound search, and with less incertainty penetrated into the secrets as well of Divinity, as of Nature, having quaffed full draughts from the living source of Mosaicall Traditions, amid’st his darke sentences, where, according to the Letter, he touched one thing, and mystically understood and comprised another; (wherein he imitates the _Ægyptians_ and _Chaldæans_, or rather, the _Hebrewes_, from whence all theirs proceeded) he here sets downe these two: Not to speake of God without Light; and to apply Salt in all his Sacrifices and Offerings; which he borrowed word for word from _Moses_, as we shall hereafter declare. For our intention is here to Treat of _Fire_ and of _Salt_.

And that upon the 9. of Saint _Marke, ver. 49. Every man shall be salted with Fire, and every Sacrifice shall be salted with Salt_. Wherein foure things come to be specified, Man, and Sacrifice, Fire, and Salt; which yet are reduced to two, comprehending under them, the other two; Man and Sacrifice, Fire and Salt; in respect of the conformitie they beare each to other.

_In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth_; this said _Moses_ on the entrance upon _Genesis_. Whereupon the Jew _Aristobulus_, and some Ethniques willing to shew that _Pythagoras_ and _Plato_ had read _Moses_ bookes, and from thence drawne the greatest part of their most secret Philosophy, alledged that which _Moses_ should have said, that the heaven and the earth were first created; _Plato_ in his _Timæus_, after, _Timæus Locrien_ said that God first assembled Fire and Earth, to build an universe thereof; (we will shew it more sensibly of _Zohar_ in the Weik of a Candle lighted, for all consists of light, being the first of all Creatures.) These Philosophers presupposing that the World consisted (as indeed it doth) of the foure Elements, which are as well in heaven, and yet higher, as in the earth, and lower, but in a diverse manner.

The two highest, Aire and Fire, being comprised under the name of Heaven and of the Æthereall Region: for the word ἄιθηρ, comes from the verbe ἄιθω to shine, and to enflame, the two proprieties of these Elements. And under the word Earth, the two lower, Earth and Water, incorporated into one Globe. But although _Moses_ set Heaven before Earth; (and observe here that in all _Genesis_ he toucheth at nothing but things sensible, but not of intelligible things; which is a point apart) for concerning this, there is no good agreement between Jewes and Christians; Saint _Chrysostome_ in his first _Homily_. Observe a little with what dignity the Divine Nature comes to shine in his manner of proceeding to the creation of things; For God contrary to Artists in building his Edifice, stretched out first the heavens round about, afterwards planted the earth below.

Hee wrought first at the head, and afterwards came to the foundation. But it is the Hebrewes custome, that when they speake most of a thing, they ordinarily put the last in order, which they pretend to touch first: And the same is here practised, where Heaven is alledged before Earth, which he comes to discry immediately after.

_In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth, and the Earth was without Forme and void_; Saint _Matthew_ useth the same, upon the entrance to his Gospell, _The Booke of the Generation of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham, Abraham begat Isaac, &c._ For it is well knowne, that _Abraham_ was a long time before _David_: Otherwise it seemes, that _Moses_ would particularly demonstrate, that the Earth was made before the Heaven, by the Creation of man, that is, the Image and pourtrait of the great World, for that in the second of _Genesis_, _God formed man of the slime of the earth_, (that is to say,) his body which it represents; _and afterwards breathed in his face the spirit, or breath of life_: that carrieth him backe to heaven; whereunto suits that which is written in the 1 to the _Cor._ 15. _The first man from the earth is earthly, and the second man from heaven is heavenly: the first man Adam was made a living soule; and the last Adam, a quickning spirit._ Whereto the Generation of the Creature relates, who six weeks after the Conception, is nothing but a masse of informed flesh, till the soule that is infused from above, doth vivifie it.

Moreover the foure Elements (whereof all is made) consists of foure qualities, Hot and Drie, Cold and Moist; two of them are bound up in each of them: _Earth_, that is to say, Cold and Dry, the _Water_, Cold and Moist; the _Aire_, Moist and Hot; the _Fire_, Hot and Dry: whence it comes to joine with the earth; for the Elements are circular, as _Hermes_ would have it; each being engirded with two others, with whom it agreeth in one of their qualities; which is thereunto appropriate: as Earth betwixt Fire and Water, participates with the Fire in drynesse, and with Water in coldnesse; and so of the rest.

Man then which is the Image of the great World, and therefrom is called the Microcosme, or little World, as the World which is made after the resemblance of his Archetype, is called the great man; being composed of foure Elements, shall have also its heaven and its earth: The soule, and understanding, are its heaven, the body and sensuality, its earth: So that to know the heaven and earth of man, is to have true and entire knowledge of all the Universe, and of the Nature of things.

[Sidenote: Act. 17. 28.]

From the knowledge of the sensible World, we come to that of the Creator, and the Intelligible world; by the Creature, the Creator is understood, saith Saint _Augustine_. Fire then gives motion to the body, Aire feeling, Water nourishment, and Earth subsistence. Moreover heaven designes the intelligible world, the earth the sensible: Each of them is subdivided into two, (in every case I speake not but after _Zohar_ and the ancient _Rabbins_.) The intelligible into Paradise and Hell; and the sensible, to the Celestiall and Elementary world: Upon this passage _Origen_ makes a faire discourse at the entry on _Genesis_, that God first made the heaven or the intelligible world, following that which is spoken in the 66. of _Esay_, _Heaven is my seat and Earth my footstoole_; Or rather it is God in whom the world dwelleth, and not the world which is Gods habitation: For in him _we live, move, and have our beeing_; for the true seat and habitation of God, is his proper essence: and before the Creation of the World, as _Rabbi Eliezer_ sets downe, in his Chapters, there was nothing but the essence of God, and his name, which are but one thing: Then after the heaven, or the intelligible world, _Origen_ pursues, _God made the Firmament_, that is to say, this sensible world; for every body hath I know not what firmnesse and solidity, and all solidity is corporal; and as that which God proposed to make, consisteth of Body and of Spirit, for this cause it is written, that God first made the Heaven, that is to say, all spirituall substance, upon which, as upon a certaine throne, hee reposeth himselfe. The Firmament for our regard is the body, which _Zohar_ calleth the Temple, and the Apostle also, _Yee are Gods Temple_, 1 Cor. 3. 17. And the Heaven, which is spirituall, is our soule, and the inner man; the Firmament is the externall, that neither seeth, nor knoweth God but sensibly. So that man is double, an animall, and spirituall body, the one Internall, Spirituall, Invisible; that which Saint _Marke_ in this place designeth for man; the other Externall, Corporall, Animal, which he denotes by the Sacrifice which comprehendeth not the things that are of the Spirit of God, but the Spirituall discerneth all; So that the exteriour man is an animal compared to brute beasts, whereout they tooke their offerings for Sacrifices: He is compared to foolish Beasts, and is made like them; for a man hath no more then a Beast: we must understand the Carnall, and Animall, that consists of this visible body, that dyeth as well as Beasts, are corrupt and returne to Earth: Whence _Plato_ said very well, that which is seene of man, is not man properly. And the first of _Alcibiades_, yet more distinctly, that Man is I know not what else, then his body, namely his soule, as it followes afterwards. That which _Cicero_ borrowed out of _Scipio’s_ dreame; But understand it thus, that thou art not mortall, but this body; thou art not that, which this forme declares, but every mans minde is himselfe, not that figure which may be demonstrated by the finger: And the Philosopher _Anaxarchus_ while the Tyrant _Nicocreon_ of _Cyprus_, caused him to be brayed in a great Marble Morter, cried out with a loud voice, _Stampe hard, bruise the barke of Anaxarchus, for it is not him that thou stampest_.

But will it be permitted for me here, to bring something of _Metubales_? All that is, is either Invisible, or Visible; Intellectuall, or Sensible; Agent, and Patient; Forme, and Matter; Spirit, and Body; the Interiour and the Exteriour man; Fire, and Water; that which seeth, and that which is seen.

But that which seeth is much more excellent and more worthy then that which is seen, and there is nothing that seeth, but the invisible, where that which is seene, is as a blind thing; therefore Water is a proper and serviceable subject, over whom the Fire or Spirit may out-stretch his action.

Also he hath elevated it for his habitation and residence; for by introducing it, he elevates it on high in the nature of Aire contiguous unto it: which invisible Spirit (of the Lord was carryed on the waters, or rather did sit over the waters) did see the visible, moved the immoveable, for water hath no motion of it selfe; there is none but Aire, and Fire, that have, and speake by the Organs of one that is dumb; for as when by our winde and breath, filling a pipe or flute, we make it sound though never so mute.

[Sidenote: _Pour le nouveau._]

[Sidenote: Joh. 1. 13.]

This Body and Spirit, water and fire, are designed unto us by _Cain_ and _Abel_, the first Creatures of all others engendred of the seed of man and woman, and by their Sacrifices, whence those of _Cain_ issuing from the fruits of the earth, were by consequent corporall, dead, and inanimate, and together destitute of faith, which dependeth of the Spirit, and are by Fire dissolved into a waterish vapour, so that to go to finde it in its sphere and habitation, for the newes, we are to suffer thereunder. But those of _Abel_ were spirituall, animate, full of life, that resides in the bloud; full of piety and devotion. This also _Aben Ezra_, and the author of the _Handfull of Myrrh_, call a fire descending from one above to regather them: which happened not to those of _Cain_, which a strange fire devoured; and from thence was declared the exteriour man, sensuall, animall, that must bee salted with Salt; But _Abel_ the interiour, spirituall, salted with Fire; which is double, the materiall and essentiall, the actuall and potentiall, as it is in burnings. All what is sensible, and visible, is purged by the actuall, and the invisible, and intelligible, by the spiritual and potentiall. Saint _Ambrose_, on the Treatise of _Isaac_ and of the Soule. What is man, the soule of him, or the flesh, or the assembly of those two? for the clothing is one thing, and the thing clothed another. Indeed there are two men (I leave the _Messihe_ apart) _Adam_ was made and formed of God; in respect of the body, of ashes, and of earth, but afterwards inspired in him the Spirit of Life; if he had kept himselfe from misprision, he was like unto Angels, made participant of eternall beatitude, but his transgression dispossessed him. The other man is he, which comes successively to be borne of man and woman, who by his originall offence is made subject to death, to paines, travails, and diseases, therefore must hee returne from whence he came. But touching the soule that came from God, it remains in its free will: if it will adhere to God, it is capable to bee admitted into the ranke of his children, _who are borne not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God_. Such was _Adam_ before his first transgression.

The soule then, which is the inner man, spirit, and the very true man which liveth properly, for the body hath no life of it selfe, nor motion; and is nothing else but as it were the barke and clothing of the inner man, according to _Zohar_, alledging that out of the 10 of _Job_ 11. _Thou hast clothed me with skinne and flesh_; whereunto that in the 6. of S. _Matthew_ seemeth to agree, where to shew us how much the soule ought to bee in greater recommendation then the body, as more worthy and pretious; our Saviour saith, _Take no care then how to cloth your body, is not your body better then raiment?_ and by consequent, the soule more then the body, since the body is but as it were the vestment of the soule, which is subject to perish, and to use, (_all shall wax old as doth a garment_.) And the Apostle in the 1 to the _Corinthians_, _The old man falleth away, but the inner man is renewed dayly_; for it washeth it selfe (according to _Zohar_) by the fire, as doth a _Salamander_, and the outward man by water, with Soaps and Lees that consist of Salts. Of which two manners of repurging, it is thus said in the 31. of _Numb. v._ 23. _All that which shall support the fire, shall be purged thereby, and that which cannot beare it, shall be sanctified by the water of Purification_; which was a figure of that which the Fore-runner spake in the 3. of _Matthew_, _It is true that I baptize you with water unto repentance, but he that comes after mee, shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with Fire_.

But behold how _Zohar_ speakes more particularly. If it bee so, _Adam_ what is he? it is nought but skin, and flesh, and bones, and nerves, he must not passe so. But to speak truth, man is nothing else, but the immortall soule that is in him; and the skinne, flesh, bloud, bones, and nerves, are the vestments wherein it is wrapped, as a little creature newly borne within the beds and linnen of its Cradle: These are but the utensils, and instruments allotted to womens children, not to man or _Adam_; for when this _Adam_ so made, was elevated out of this world, he is devested of those instruments, wherewith he had beene clothed and accommodated. This is the skinne wherewith the Son of man is envelopped with flesh, bones, and nerves; and this consisteth in the secret mystery of Sapience, according to that which _Moses_ taught in the Curtains or Vails of the Tabernacle, which are the inward vestment, and the Tabernacle the outward: To this purpose, the Apostle in the fifth of the 2 to the _Corinthians_, saith, _We know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved, we have an Ædifice not built with mans hand, but eternally permanent in the high Heavens. For in this we groane, earnestly desiring to bee clothed upon, with our house which is from heaven, if so be, that being clothed wee shall not bee found naked_. So _Adam_ in respect of his body, is a representation of the sensible world; where his skinne corresponds with the Firmament, extending heaven like a Curtaine. For as the heaven covereth and enveloppeth all things, so doth the skin every man; in which, are introduced and fastned its starres and signes, that is to say, the draughts and lineaments in the hands, the forehead, and visage, in which wise men know and reveale, and makes them discerne the inclination of its naturall, imprinted in the inward; And he that doth conjecture from thence, is as he, to whom heaven being covered with Clouds, cannot perceive the constellations that are there, or otherwise darkened from his sight. And although the sagest and most expert in these things can finde out something therein denoted by the draughts and lineaments of the palme of the hand, and fingers, or within them; for by the outside, (it is case a part) and shew nothing, but the nailes which are not a little secret and mystery, because by death they are obfuscate, but have a shining lustre while they live, in the haire, eyes, nose, and lips, and all the rest of his person. For as God hath made the Sunne, Moone, and Stars, thereby to declare to the great World, not only the day, night, and seasons, but the change of times, and many signes that must appeare in the earth. So hath he manifested in the little world Man, certaine draughts and lineaments, holding place of lights and starres, whereby men may attaine to the knowledge of very great secrets, not common, nor knowne of all. Hence is it that the Intelligences of the superiour world do distill and breath as it were, by some channels their influences, whereby the effects come to struggle and accomplish their effects here below, as of things drawn with a rude and strong bow, will plant themselves within a Butt, where they rest themselves.

But to retake the discourse of this double man, and the vestment of him, the Apostle in the 1 _Cor._ 15. saith, _That there are bodies Celestial, and bodies Terrestrial, yet there is a glory both of the one, and of the other. There is a naturall, or animall body, and there is a body spirituall: he will raise up the spirituall body incorruptible_; To this relates the Fire, to the corruptible Salt.

From these vestments furthermore the occasion presents it selfe to a larger extension, the better to declare who must be seasoned with Fire, and who with Salt; which is here expressed by the offering, to whom the exteriour doth correspond, according to the Apostle, _Rom._ 12. _I pray you brethren, by the mercy of God, that you offer up your bodies a living Sacrifice, holy, and acceptable unto him, which is your reasonable service_: which it could not make it selfe the habitation of the Holy Ghost, if it were not pure, neat, and incontaminate. _Know you not that your Body is the Temple of the holy Spirit which is in you?_ which in Scripture is commonly designed by fire, with which wee must be salted inwardly, that is to say, preserved from corruption; and from what corruption? from sinne that putrifies our soules. _Origen_ in his 7. book against _Celsus_ speaking of its vestments, sets downe, that being of its selfe incorporeall and invisible, in what corporall place soever it findes it selfe, it must have a body convenable to the nature of the place where it resides. As then when it is in this Elementary world, it must have also an elementary body, which it takes when it is incorporated in the belly of a woman, to grow there, and there to live this base life with the body, that it hath taken to the limited terme; which expired, it devests it selfe of this corruptible vestment, although necessary in the earth from whence it came (following that which God said to _Adam_ in the third of _Genesis_, _Thou art dust, and shalt returne to dust_,) to be revested with an incorruptible, whose perpetuall abode is in Heaven. _For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortall must put on immortality._ And so the soul putting off its first Terrestriall vestment, takes another more excellent above in the Æthereall Region, which is of the nature of Fire: hitherto _Origen_, to which nothing could be found more conformable, then that which _Pythagoras_ puts towards the end of his golden verses: Thus forsaking this mortall body, thou passest into the free Æthereall Aire, you shall become an immortall God, incorruptible, and no more subject to death: as if he would say, that after this materiall corruptible body, shall put off the Terrestriall and impure vestment, the perfect portion of it shall shake off these filthinesses and impurities, and shall passe aloft to heaven and adhere to God, which it could not doe, but being pure and neat; nor effect this, but by fire. _Zohar_ speakes to the same purpose, when the Elements destroy themselves, an æthereall body succeeds in their place which doth recloath them; or to speak better, the æthereall body which was reclad with them, devests it selfe; and this is represented to us in the 5 of _Esther_, where it is said, that _on the third day_ shee tooke off her clothes that shee was wont to weare, _and put on her royall apparell to appeare before the King_; which signifies the holy Spirit, and _Esther_ the reasonable soule, whose vestments are the garments of the kingdome of Heaven; of which he that _Daniel_ 3. chap. was said to be like to the Son of God, that crowns the just, and adornes them with royall apparell, to bring them into the presence of the King of Kings, to the Paradise of pleasure, clensed with aire from above, which the holy Spirit breathed into it. _Origen_ in his second Homily upon the 36 _Psalme_. It is the manner of holy Scripture to introduce two sorts of men, that is to say, the interiour and the exteriour, each of which, hath need as much as concernes him, of apparell, as well as nourishment; the external corporal man, maintaines himselfe with meats corruptible, proper and familiar to himselfe, having ever need of Salt, besides their own connaturall; but there is also meat for the inward, whereof it is said in the 8 of _Deuteronomy_, _Man doth not live by bread onely, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God_. And for matter of drinke, the Apostle in the 1 _Cor._ 10. _Our fathers did eat the same spirituall meat, and did drinke the same spirituall drinke; for they did drinke of that spirituall rocke that followed them, and that rocke was Christ_. Who speaking of this drinke in the 4. of Saint _John_, saith, _that hee is the fountaine of living water, and who so drinketh of the water that he shall give them, shall never thirst_. There are also two rayments in regard of the inner man. If he be a sinner, it is said _Psalme_ 109. _He hath put on malediction as a garment_, which must _be to him as his apparell, wherewith he is covered, and as a girdle wherewith he is girt_. And on the contrary the Apostle _Col._ 3. _Lie not one to another, having cast off the old man with his deeds, and put on the new, but be clothed with mercy, benignity, humility, and meeknesse of Spirit_.