Part II.

that thofe product ions that are made in and upon the earth are partly attri- buted to the very water the fame fcripture teftifies, where it faith, that the plants and the herbs did not grow, becaufe God had not caufed it to rain upon the earth. Such is the efficacy of this element of water, that fpiritual rege- neration cannot be done without it, as Chrift himfelf teftified to Nicodemus. Very great, alfo, is the virtue of it in the religious worfhip of God, in ex- piations and purifications ; indeed the neceffity of it is no lefs than that of fire. Infinite are the benefits, and divers are the ufes, thereof ; as being that, by virtue of which all things fubfift, are generated, nouriffied, and in- creafed. Hence it was that Thales of Miletus, and Hefiod, concluded that water was the beginning of all things ; and faid it was the firft of all the elements, and the moft potent ; and that^ becaufe it hath the mattery over all the reft. For, as Pliny faith— u Waters fwallow up the earth — extinguiffi flames — afcend on high — and, by the ftretching forth of the clouds, challenge the heavens for their own ; the fame, falling down, becomes the caufe of all things that grow in the earth.” Very many are the wonders that are done by waters, according to the writings of Pliny, Solinus, and many other hif- torians.
Jofephus alfo makes relation of the wonderful nature of a certain river be- twixt Arcea and Raphanea, cities of Syria, which runs with a full channel all the Sabbath-day, and then on a fudden flops, as if the fprings were flopped, and all the fix days you may pafs over it dry-ffiod ; but again, on the feventh day, no man knowing the reafon of it, the waters return again in abundance as before ! wherefore the inhabitants thereabout called it the Sab- bath-day River, becaufe of the feventh day, which was holy to the Jews. — The Gofpel, alfo, teftifies of a ffieep-pool, into which whofoever ftepped firft, after the water was troubled by the Angel, was made whole of whatfoever difeafe he had. The fame virtue and efficacy, we read, was in a fpring of the Ionian Nymphs, which was in the territories belonging to the town of Elis, at a village called Heradea, near the river Citheron, which whofoever ftepped into, being difeafed, came forth whole, and cured of all his difeafes. Pau- fanias alfo reports, that in Lyceus, a mountain of Arcadia, there was a
fpring
I
Chap. III. TALISMANIC MAGIC. ,79
fpring called Agria, to which, as often as the drynefs of the region threatened the defirudtion of fruits, Jupiter, Prieft of Lyceus, went ; and, after the offer- ing of facrifices, devoutly praying to the waters of the fpring, holding a bough of an oak in his hand, put it down to the bottom of the hallowed
fpring ; then, the waters being troubled, a vapour afcending from thence into
the air, was blown into clouds, which being joined' together, the whole hea- ven was overfpread ; which being, a little after, diffolved into rain, watered all the country molt wholefomely. — Moreover, Ruffus, a phyfician of Ephefus, befides many other authors, wrote flrange things concerning the wonders of waters, which, for aught I know, are found in no other author.
It remains, that I fpeak of the air. — This is a vital fpirit paffing through all beings — giving life and fubfiflence to all things — moving and filling all things. Plence it is that the Hebrew doctors reckon it not amongfl; the ele- ments ; but count it as a medium, or glue, joining things together ; and as
the refounding fpirit of the world’s inflrument. It immediately receives into itfelf the influence of all celeflial bodies, and then communicates them to the’ other elements, as alfo to all mixed bodies. Alfo, it receives into itfelf, as if it were a divine looking-glafs, the fpecies of all things, as well natural as artificial ; as alfo of all manner of fpeeches, and retains them ; and carrying them with it, and entering into the bodies of men, and other animals, through their pores, makes an -impreffion upon them, as well when they are afleep as when they are awake, and affords matter for divers flrange dreams and divina- tions.— Hence, they fay, it is that a man, paffing by a place where a man was flain, or the carcafs newly hid, is moved with fear and dread ; becaufe the air, in that place, being full of the dreadful fpecies of man-flaughter, doth, being breathed in, move and trouble the fpirit of the man with the like fpecies ; whence it is that he becomes afraid. For every thing that makes a fudden impreffion aflonifhes Nature. Whence it is that many philofophers were of opinion, that air is the caufe of dreams, and of many other impref- fions of the mind, through the prolonging of images, or fimilitudes, or fpe- cies (which proceed from things and fpeeches, multiplied in the very air), until they come to the fenfes, and then to the phantafy and foul of him that receives
them ;
TAUSMANIC MAGIC.
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