Part V.

i86
C H A P. Xll.
or ibe Gufes^ Generation.^ Elements, and Or- " dcr oj the World.
F Ora (much as of fenfiBle and fingular things there mult of neceflity be fome Exemplars, viz. Idea’s, of which are Sciences and Defini- lionsftbr hefides all particular Men, we con¬ ceive a Man in our Mind, and hefides all par- 1 ticular Horfes a Horfe, and likewife hefides all living Creatures, a living Creature immor¬ tal and unbegotten : As from one Seal are made many prints, and of one Man there may be many Pibhures, of all which , the idea it felf is caufe that there are fueh as it felf is) his necefiary that this Univerfe, the fair- eft Fabrick of God’s making, be fo made by God, that in the making thereof he looked up¬ on an Idea as its exemplar, whilft by a won¬ derful Providence and moll excellent delign God applied himfelf to the building of this Frame, becaufe he was good.
God therefore made it of all matter, which being before the Generation of Heaven, dif orderly fcattered he from a deformed confii- fion reduced to beautiful order, and adorned every way the parts thereof with fit numbers and figures, until at laft he fo diftinguilhed them, as now they are, Fire and Earth to Air and Water, of which there were then only the footfteeps, and a certain aptitude to admit the power of Elerhents, and fo without any reafon or order, they juftled matter, and were juftled again by matter.
Thus God framed the World of»four entire Elements, of whole Fire and Earth, Water, and Air -, omitting no Power or part of a- ny of them. For, he faith, it muft be corpo real and generated, and fubjefl; to touch and fight but without Fire and Earth nothing can be touched or feen *, wherefore juftly he framed it of Eire and Earth, and becaufe it was re- quifite there fhould be fome Chain to unite thefe, there is a Divine Chain, which according to the pfoportion of Reafon maketh one of it felf, and thofe things which are united to it, and the World could not be plain (for then one medium would have lerved ) but Sphcerical, therefore there vvas need of two mediums to the conftitution thereof. Betwixt Fire and F^arth, by the prefeription of this reafon is interpofed Air and Wafer, that as Fire is to Air, fo is Air to Water, and as Air is to Water, fp is Water to Earth ^ and a- gain , as Earth is to Water, fb is Water to Air, and as Water is to Air, fo is Air to Fire. ^
There being nothing remaining beyond the World, God made the W^orld one, con¬ formable to this /(/tvz, which is one. He like- wile made it fuch, as- that is uncapable offick- nefs ir age. For, befides that nothing can befal it whereby it may be corrupted, it is fo fufficient to it felf, that it hath not need of any exteriour thing. He beftowed upon it a ^ Spherical as being thefaireff, the molt
capacious and apteft to motion, and becaufe it needeth not hearing or fight, or the reft
of the Senfes, he gave it not any Organs of Senfes. He denied all kinds of Motion to be competible to it, except the circular, which is proper to the Mind and to Wifdora.
« H A P. XIIL
Of the convenience of Eigiir 'es,mtb the Elernents and World.
\
THe World thus confifteth of two parts, a Soul and a Body-, this vilible and corrup¬ tible, that neither fubjefl to fight nor touch :
The power and conftitution of each is different, the Body confifteth of Fire, Earth, Water, and Air j which four , the maker of the tlni- verle ( there being until then nothing more confuled than the Elements) formed in a Eyramid, a Cube, an Ohlaedron, and an Icofae- dron -, but chiefly in a Dodecaedron. Matter, as far as it put on the Figure of a Pyramid, became Eire, and mounted upward : For, that |
Figure is the moft apt to cut and to divide, as ^
confifting of fewelt Triangles ^ and there- fore is the rareft of all Figures. As far as it is an OAaedron,. it took the quality of Air : Where )
it took that of an Icofaedron, it became Wa- ^ ter The figure of a Cube Earth , as being ^
the moft folid and ftable of all the Elements. !
The figure of a Dodecaedron , he ufed in the i
fabrick of the Univerfe. Superficies come nigher f
the nature of Principles Bran all thefe, for • ^
they are before Solids. Of its Nature, the i
two Parents ( as it were) are two Triangles , ‘
moft fair and rectangular ^ one a Scalenum, the other an Ifofceles a Scalenum is a triangle ■)
having one right angle, the other of two thirds, .i
the laft of one third. A Scalenum therefore is the element of aPyramid,axA aciOQaedron, and an Icofaedron. A Pyramid confifteth of four Triangles, having all fides equal to one another, each whereof is divided as we laid, into fix fcalenous Triangles. Tlie OHaedrons confift of eight like fides, whereof each is divi¬ ded into fix Scalenums. The Icofaeders of twen¬ ty in the lame manner ^ but the Element of a Cube is an Ifofceles Triangle, for four fuch Triangles concurring make a Square, and fix Squares a Cube. God madeufe of a Dodecae¬ dron in the conftruCtion of the Univerfe, whence there are twelve Figures of Living Creatures in- the Zodiack, whereof each is divided into thirty parts. Likewife in a Dodecaedron pfAdCa. confifteth of twelve Pentagons, if each be di¬ vided into five Triangles, there are in every¬ one fix Triangles, fo that in the whole Dode¬ caedron, there will be 360 Triangles, as ma¬ ny as there are degrees in the Zodiack.
When matter was put into thofe Figures by God, firft it was moved rudely with-, out order, until at laft he reduced it to or¬ der, each being conjoyned to one another, and Compolcd in due Proportion .• Nei¬ ther are thefe diftincf in Place, but are in Perpetual Motion, which they give like- wile into Matter. For being ftraitned by ' the Compafs of the World , and agitated by Mutual Juftlings, they are driven, the
rare