Book L Tfcc Temple ^/Wifdome, 169

Sun is the miftrcfs of generation, increafe, or dc- creafe. Hence Alhumafar (:^\t\\^ that by the Sun and Moon life is infufed into all thing?, whicji there- fore Orpfcewcals the enlivening eyes of the Heaven. The Sun giveth light to all things of it felf^ and gives it plentifully to all things, not only in the Heaven, Aircj but Earth and Deep : whatfoever good we have as Jamhlkm faith, we have it from the Sun alone, or from it through other thin gs. HeraclitHS cals theSunthefountani ofCeleftial light, and ma- ny of the Tiatonijis placed the Soul of the World chiefly in f he Sun, as that whiph filling the whole Globe of the Sun doth ftnd forth its raycs on all (ides, as it were a fpirit through all things, diftribu- tlng life, fenfe and piotion to the very Univerfe. Hence the ancient Naturalifts called the Sun the very heart of heaven ; and the Caldeans put it as the middle of Planets.The Egyptians alfo placed it in the middle of the world, z^/;^. betwixt the two fives of tlie world, f, i. above the Sun they place five Planets, and under the Sun, the N3oon and four Elements, for it is amongft the other ftars the image & ftatuc of the gre»t Prmce of both worlds, viz, Tcrreftiall and Celeftial j the true light, and the moft exaft image of Godhimfelf^ whofcEffencerefcmbles the Father, light the Son, heat the Holy Ghoft. So that the Platonifts have nothing to hold forth the divine eflence more manifeftlyb), then this. So great is the confonancy of it to God, that Tlato cals it the confpicuous Son of God, and lamblicusc^lsk the divine image of divince intelligence. ^A nd our Vionyfihs cals it the pcrfpicuous ftatue of God. It lisasKinginthe middle ofother Planets, excelling all in light, greatners,fairnefs, enlightning all, di- ftributing vertue to them to diQpofe inferior bodies,
and
170 T/>e Temple (?/Wifdome. Book I.
and regulating and difpofing of their mocions, Co that from thence their motions are called daily^ or nightly, Southern^or Northern, Oriental, or Occi* dentialjdireft, or retrograde ; and asit doth byits light drive away all the darknefs of the night, fo alfoall powers ofdarkncfs,which we read oi'mjohy aflbon as morning appears, they think of the fhadow of death : And the Pfalmift fpeaking of the Lyons — whelps feeking leave of God to devour ; faith, The
Suiiisrifen, » and they are gathered together, and
"^ *ftiall beplaced in their Dens; which being put to
* * flight, it follows, man jhaU go forth to his labour.
* The Sun therefore as it pofTeffeth the middle Region
* of the world, and as the heart is in Animals to the whole body,-fo the Sun is over the Heaven, and the world, ruling over the whole Univerfe, and thofe things which are in it, the very author of fea-
--"fons, from whence day and year, cold and heat,
and all other qualities of feafons 5 and as faith Ttole-
^ m}) when it comes unto the place of any ftar, it ftirs
* up the power thereofjwhich it hath in the Aire. So
* * as with MarSy ^ heat 5 with Saturn, ^ cold *, and it dif-
* pofetheven the very fpirit and mind of man , from c hence it isfaid by Homer ^ and approved by Arifiotk^
"-*- that there are in the mind fuch like motion?, as the ^ ^ Sun the Prince and moderator of the Planets every
* * day bringeth to us 5 but the Moon, ^ the nigheft to
* Earth, the receptacle of all the heavenly influences, -5- by the fwifcnefs of her courfe is joyned to the Sun, , and the other Planets, Figures and wStars, every
* month,and being made as it were the wife of al ftars
* is the moft fruitful of the Stars, and receiving the
* beams and influences of all other planets and Stars
* as a conception, bringing them forth to the inferior world as being next to it felf j for all the Stars have
influence