Part IX

420
' eternal, bnt not immovable, in form of it felf, and without figure ; but receiving all forms. In bodies ifis divifible, and of the nature of Alteri¬ ty: They call Matter, Placeand Religion. Thefe two principles are contrary. Form hath the na- ture of male and father; Matter, of female and mother ; die Third is their off ipring.Thefe being three, are known three ways ; Idaa, by intelled, according to.fcience; Matter, by fpurious ratioci¬ nation, not being uhdcrftood by dire henfion-, but by analogy ; their Offfpring, by fenfeand opinion. Before Heaven was made, we muft conceive, that there v;aslda:a, and Matter, and God, the maker of the better, [wzs. Idata.] Now forafrnuch as the elder is better than the , younger, and the orderly than the diforderly ; God,beif.:g good, and feeing Matter receive Id^sa* and become totally changed, yet diforderly, faw alfoit was needful to bring it into Order, and from indefinite tranfmutations, tofixitdeterminately, that bodies might have proportionate diftindi- ons, and not receive promifeuous variations.
The Of all this Matter he framed the World, (ma- Woild. king it the bound of the nature of Being, fince it comprehends all ocher things) one only-begot¬ ten, perfed, animate, and rational,(for thefe are better than inanimate and irrational) and a fphe- rical body, chat being more perfed than other fi¬ gures. Defigning therefore to make the beft pro- dudion, he made this God, generate, not cor¬ ruptible by any other caufe, but by the fame God only which' compos’d k, if it fliould pleafe him at any time to diffolve it. But he' who is good, will not be carried on to the deftrudion of the fairelt produdion. Wherefore it is permanent, and being fuch, incorruptible, unperilhable, and bleffed. It is the beft of produdions, being made by the beft caufe, who looked not upon patterns made by hands, btk upon the Idasa, the intelle- dual elTence; after which, this being exadly made, isthe faireftofall, and not to’be demo- liHi’d. It is perfed, as to fenfible things, for the exempfar comprehended in it felf allintelligibk: creatures; left nothing out, it being the perfed bound of Intelllgibles, as the World is of Senfi- bles; vv^ich being folid, tadile, andvifible, is di¬ vided into Earth, Fire, and (betwixt thefe) Air, and \Vater. It confifts of perfed bodies, which exift intirely in it, fo as no part remains beyond it, that the body oftheUniverfe might befelf fuf- ficient,and not liable todiflblution by any exter¬ nal accidents for there are no other things bs- fidesjhere, and what are contained in them, they being, after the moft excellent analogy, conned- edin equal power^^aeither predominating, over the other in any pSrt, nor being predominated, that whereby fome might encreafe, others de- creafsj bufit reftethinan indifTolubTe harmoni¬ ous concord, according to the beft proportion. For there being three bounds, and the intervals ’diftant from each. other ip tlie fame proportion, the fnicfclJe is that tP the firff which the third is tok, afid'fo reciprocal, accordifag to difpofure of pUce arid order. 'Biif to humber thefe without the help’df another thing equal to them, is abfo- Ibtely itii^ffible.It is well ordered both for figure and motion : As to the fif-ft being round, it is eve¬ ry way like it felf, ^nd able to contain all other figur^;’ As toks cirdular motion, it keepeth a perpdmal 'Tenor; fOr, a fphear only, whether in
reft or in motion, is fo adapted to the fame place, as that it never ceafeth nor removes; all its parts being equidiftant from the Center. Nowitsouc-. ward fuperficies being exadly fmooth, it needs not the weak organs, which are bellow’d on other living creatures, for their accommodation.
The Soul of the World God inkindled in the The Soul midft, but diffufed beyond it, covering the Uni- of the verfe with it, and tempering it with a tempera- World, ment of indivifible Form, and divifible Subftance, fo as thefe two make one temperament ; with which he mingled two Powers, principles of the two motions of Identity and Alterity ; which (Souf) being not eafily mifcible, was not with¬ out dilEculty conternperated. 1
All thefe proportions are mixed according to harmonica! numbers, which proportions he cun¬ ningly divided, that it might be known of what, and by what, the Soul confifteth. This Soul God did not ordain ( as we affirm ) after corporeal fub- ftance, (for that which is moft honourabe, is firft both in power and time) but made it before the body, removing one, the firft of four Monads,in- to eight Decads, and three Centuries. Of this, the duple and triple is eafily colledled, the firft being fetled. All thefe, with their complements, and fefquiodaves, will amount to thirty fix. The whofe fum will be one hundred and fourteen thoufand fix hundred ninety five. The divifions are one hundred and fourteen thoufand fix hun¬ dred ninety five. After this manner he divided the foul of the Univerfe.
The Mind only Teeth the Eternal God, the Ru- The Parts ler and Father of all things. That which is gene- of the rated we behold without eyes, this World, and Worid. its parts ; the /Etherial are twofold, fome of the natureofidentity: others, of Alterity. Of thefe, fome extrinfecally carry about all that is within them, from Eaft to Weft, by an univerfal moti¬ on. The reft, being of the motion of Alterity, in¬ ti infecally turn about from the Weft to the Eaft, moved by themfelves. They are carried round by accident, with the motion of Identity, having the greateft force in the World. The motion of Alterity, divided according to harmonical pro¬ portions, is difpofed into feven Circles ; the Moon being neareft the Earth, performeth hercourfe * in a Month ; next her, the Sun perfeds his courle in a year. There are two of equal courfe with tht. Sun, Mercury, and the Star Juno, which many call VeHus,nnA Lucifer. All perfbns not being skil¬ ful in the Rules of facred Aftrononfy, and the obfervations of Rifing and Setting. The fame Star is fometimes Hefper,^ whenitfofolloweththe Sun, .that it is confpicuous to us when the Sun is |
fect*'ibmetimes Eous, when it goeth before th© j
Sun, and rifeth before him. Lucifer therefore, ma- ]
ny times is the Star Venus, when file runs along with the Sun : and likewife is many of the fixed Stars ami Planets; for any Star of vifible magni¬ tude, ulhering the5/«2 above the Horizon, fore¬ tells day. The other three, Mars, Jupier, and Saturn , have peculiar velocities, and unequal i
years: but they compleat.their courfe in certain and comprehenfible regularities, and appearan- j
ces^ and occultations, and Eclipfes, and Rifings, and Settings. They have, befidcs their pbafes,
Rifing and Sqtting in regard of the : whoma- |
keth day in performing his Courfe from 'Eaft to '
Weft; night, by Motion from Weft to' Eaft : j
whilft
Pakt iX.
FTTH AGO K AH.
43 2
vvIiilH: he iscArried about with theMotion oflden- tity^a year, by liisovvn proper Morion. BytheCe cvvo Morions, the performs a double courfe, one, as being carried abouewith the general Mo¬ tion of Heaven, rhe other by an oblique Morion : One diiiinguinicth the times of the day and the i'eafons : The ocher, by which he is carried about after the rapid Motion of the fixed Stars, at every revolution maketh night day. Thefe are parts . of Time called Periods, ord.aincd by God toge¬ ther with the VVo! Id ; for before the World there yerc noStars,and confequently neither year nor I'eafons, by which this generable World is com- inenfurated. This time isthe image of that which is ingcnerare,calkd Eternity ; for asthisUniveile . was formed after die eternal exemplar cf the Idajal World, fo was this Time ordained toge¬ ther with the World' after its pattern, E'cernicy.
The Earth being eitablilhedin the midif, the feat of the godsis the bound of night and day, of riling and fetting, according to the Sedion of Ho- i ifons,as they are circumferibed by the fight, and by Sedion of the Earth. It is the mofi: ancient of all Bodies in the Univerfe: for Water was not produced without Earth, nor Air without humi¬ dity : and Fire cannot fubfift without humidity and matter, which it kindles. So that the Earth is fetled upon its own weight, as the root and ba¬ lls of all things. The principle therefore of gene¬ rated things, as to the fubjed, is Matter ; as to form, Idaea.The produdions of thefe are Bodies; Earth, Water, Air, and Fine, whofe generation is thus: Every body confifts of fuperficies’s; afu- perftcies, of Triangles ; of wliich this isa redan- gied equi-crural femiquadrangle ; the other un- equilateral, having the greater Angle in povyer. Triple to the lefler. The leaf!: Angle in it is one third of a right angle : double to this is the middle Angle, confiding of two thirds, the greareft is a right Angle, feiquialter to the mid¬ dle, Triple to the lead. Now this Triangle is a felcjulquadrangle to an equilateral Triangle, the perpendicular from theTop to the Bottom, be¬ ing divided into two equal parts; there are there¬ fore in each two redangled Tidangles, but in one the two fides which include*the right Angle are equal ; in the otiter, all rhe three fides are unequal. This figure is c.alled SeboUon. This femiquadrangle is the principle of which the 'earth was condituted ; for the quadrangle is compounded of thefe four femiquadrangles. Of the quadrangle is generated the Cube, the dr- med and mod fetled of all bodies, having fix fides, eight angles. For this reafon Earth is the mod heavy body, and unapt for motion, and not tranfmutable into any other, as being in¬ communicable with any kind of Triangle, for the Earth only hath a dable principle, which is the femiquadranple , the element of the other bodies, Fire, Air, and Water: for the feini- quadrangle being fix times compounded, there a'-ifech an equilateral Triangle, of which a Py- ramis , with four bafes, and four equal Angles is compounded , the form of fire mod apt to motion, and of rared parts. Next, thefe Oalaedron, with eight bafes and fix Angles, the element of Air. The Third , Icofiedron, of twenty bafes, and twelve Angles, the element cf Wacer , being fulled of parts, and heavied. Thefe being compounded of the fame Element,
are tranfmutated into one another. The Do- decaedron, he made the image of the Univerfe, as neared to a Globe. Fire by reafon of the rarity of its parts, penetrates all things ; Air, all things but Fire ; Water, Earth. All things therefore are full, and admit no vacuity. They are carried about by the circumvolution of the Univerfe, and by reafon of their folidity,* grate one another, rendring an unintennitted altera-, tion to generation and corruption. Thefe God ufed in framing the World, tadile by reafon of Earth; vifible by re.rron of Fire, the two ex- treams. By Air and Water, he connected it in a mod firm band, proportion capable to con¬ tain both it felf, and the things that are compri- fed in it. If then that which is conneded be a Superficies, one Medium isfufficient ; if a folid, it requires two. To the two Mediums, he a- dapted the two Extreams, Fire to Air, Air to Water, Water to Earth ; and agnin, Fire to Air,
Air to Water, and Water to Earth ; and again, as Earth to Water, Water to Air, and Air to Earth; and reciprocally, as Earth to Air, Water to Fire. And forafmuch as all thefe are equal in power, their proportions are equal likewife.
Thus is the World one, and by a happy connex- ure proportionable. Each of thefe four Bodies have divers fpecies; the Fire, dame, light, fplen- dor, by reafon of the inequality of the Triangles in each of thefe. The Air is partly clear and •dry, partly humid and cloudy. The Water, fiuid and concrete, asSnow, Froft, Hail, and Ige. Of Humid, one fort is fluid, as Honey, Oyl ; another compad, as Pitch, Wax. Of the compad are two kinds. One fufile, as Gold, Silver, Brafs, Tin,
Lead; the other frangible, as Sulphur, Bitumen,
Nitre, Salt, Allom, and Stones of that kind.
After he had made the World, he proceeded Animak. to the produdion of mortal creatures, that it might beperfed and compleatly w/rought accor¬ ding to its pattern. Having conte.mperated and diftributed the Soul of Man , by the fame pro- ' portions and powers, he delivered it ovef to that Nature which had the power of changing. She fucceeding him in the producing mortal tranfito- ry creatures, inftilled their fouls, fomefroni the Moon, fome from the Sun, fome from the other Stars which wander in theRegion of Alterity, ex¬ cepting one foul in the power of Identity, which he mingled in the rational part, an image of wifdom, to thofe who make ufe of good Fate.
For of the human foul, one part is rational and * intelledual, the other irrational and fooliili ; of the irrational, the better is of the nature .of Iden¬ tity ; the worfe, of that of Alterity.. j.Each oi thefe is refident about the Head, that all the o-. ther parts of the foul and body may be fubfervi- ent to it, according to the analogy of the bod^Vj^ of the Univerfe. Of the irrational part, one is irafcible, placed about the Heart; the other dc- fiderative, about the Liver.
As for the Body, the principle and root of Marrow is in the Brain, wherein is the Flegemo- nick of the Soul. From the brain iffties a de¬ fluxion along the fpondyles of the back, from whence it is diftributed into Seed and generative fubftance. The bones are the cafe of the mar¬ row ; the flefii is the tegument of the bones, the joynts heconneded by nerves for motion. Of the inward parts, fome v.^temade for nourillimenr,
otlrers
prr H AG OK AS.