Section II, Book 2, member 1, chapter 5: Mysticall irradiations (part 1 of 2)

CHAP. V.

What Actions in the Spirit or Soul in generall, do produce Sympathy, and what Antipathy: How Sympathy or Compassion proceedeth from a certain dilatation of spirits in two or more particulars, or an emitting of their internall beams of life or essence, positively and benignly, from the Center unto the Circumference, attempting thereby to make a concord or union, betwe[…]wo or more like or homogenial natures; and contrariwise Antipathy, by contracting the said beams from the Circumference unto the Center, moveth after an opposite manner, namely by division or discord; that is, quite contrary unto the beams of the other which are emitted.

I Have signified unto you first, in my precedent discourse, that two properties were Archetypically, or Ideally, and after a complicite manner comprehended in one radicall Unity, or Essence, namely the one effected by its Nolunty, the other by its Volunty Lo here the root and originall foundation, or point, from the which all Antipathy and Sympathy do spring, namely the first from the privative property or its Nolunty; the second from its positive or Volunty. I told you next, that from this one root, or Unity in essence, a two-sold branch or member did spring forth, expressing typically, and explicitly, the effects and conditions of these two contrary properties, or dispositions, which were contained complicitely in the Ideall root, namely darkness, (which is the privative fruit of his Nolunty,) and light, the true character or badge of his Volunty. And then I proved unto you, that these two were the beginnings of all things. Lo here the two Principles of Antipathy and Sympathy, extracted out of one root. Thirdly, I demonstrated unto you, that by the separation of the pure from the impure, from the dark Chaos, (which act was effected by the spagerick vertue of the bright emanation, or word of the eternall Unity) the humid or watry nature of the world was created; that is to say, essentially informed, by the lively presence of the said all-informing Spirit; so that through that union of two contrary natures in one, namely, the informing essence, or naturating nature; and the informed substance, or the nature naturated; the spirit of the world was animated, and afterwards by the wisest Philosophers termed the Anima mundi, which is that angelicall composition of two, called therefore by the Sages Alteritas, as God in his simple nature is called Identitas. Now the passive portion, of which alterity was made, is said to be the humid created nature, o[…] naturated matter of the world, whose active essence is the ever-living emanation from eternity, which (as the Apostle teacheth us) doth vivifie all things, and filleth all things, and is all in all. The union of these two maketh the catholick soul of the world, called in respect of the simple, creating, and vivifying emanation, Mens; in regard onely of the spirit informed, Spiritus; and, as these two are united in one, Anima. Lo here the third degree of the sympatheticall and antipatheticall progression, from the simple root of eternity, namely, the created matter or spirit in the soul of the world, being the child or off-spring of darknesse, or the dark Chaos, which is therefore naturally prone unto the negative or privative effects of darknesse, and consequently apt in its own condition, to receive any discordant and antipatheticall impression, which the angelicall spirits of darknesse shall imprint upon it. For as the sacred light, which animates the humid spirit of the world, and consequently the whole masse of the waters, whereof the heaven and the earth was made, (as St. Peter doth justifie) is the most movable, agill, and active of all things; so on the contrary party, the matter that is informed, and therefore the created body and spirit, is most degenerate from it, in that it is no way enclined of its own nature unto motion or life. For the Philosophers words are, Materia est per se ad motum inefficax, & ab ipsa anima seu luce degenerans. Wherefore of its selfe it endueth its mother Chaos, or Hyles her condition, and is enclined to rest, immobility, darknesse, cold, spissitude, and congelation: For this cause therefore it suffereth the impressions and characters of both oppositions, to wit, sometimes it enclineth unto darknesse, and then it groweth spisse, opak, cold, immobil, thick, and ponderous, and tendeth in that his property downwards to the cold center, or the seat of darknesse, which is its mother; and then it is in rebellion and opposition with light, motion, and heat, and so it is antipatheticall unto the actions of light and life; as we see the airy spirit of the world, which is clear, light, diaphan, thin, movable, and soaring upward, by the operating power of the descending light, becommeth by the Northern cold congealed, opak, spisse, and immobil, or fixed into snow, hail, ice, frost, and such like. So that by this antipatheticall accession of the cold characters of the dark abysse, it is discordant from the loving union, and symphoniacall accesse, which it had unto the region of light. Contrariwise, the bright form of the soul, which is the essence of that eternall emanation, doth give the matter or spirit of the soul's life, action, motion, hear, tenuity, and diaphanity, and that more or lesse, according as it hath power and dominion over it. And we must note, that the more the spirit approacheth unto the nature of light, the firmer are the bonds of its sympatheticall accords. For as sympathy doth consist of things of a like nature, so the nearer the spirit approacheth unto form, the greater is the sympathy and accord, the surer the tie, and the more virtuous the effect; for the more that the created spirit is illuminated, the lesse it remembers that naturall inclination and love, that it had unto its dark originall; insomuch that by such an extream purified exaltation it becommeth as it were deified: And therefore Plato's opinion is, that if the middle spirit, which is between the mentall beam, and the dark bodily substance, doth more adhere unto the divine or mentall beam, than the dark body, then it will become a good Demon or Angel; but if it respect the body more than the divine beam, it will descend unto the nature of a Cacodemon, or spirit of darknesse. Also by Scripture we are taught, that by adhering unto this divine light, namely, unto Christ, we shall be transformed into the same image, to wit, if we forsake this dark world, and the lusts of the obscure body or flesh. But to return unto the soul of the great world. If the airy spirit be given over unto the power of darknesse, it becommeth bodily, and turnes into the same image, namely, frost, snow, hail, &c. but if the hot effect, or the formall act of light, prevail a degree over the stupid cold of darknesse, it leaveth his opake quality, and becommeth diaphan, and returneth from an earthly, fixt, and obscure nature, unto a clear, transparent, and fluxible substance; and by another degree of the divine act, it is made more subtle, more dilated, more invisible and pure, and it is called Aire; by a third it is purified unto fire; by a fourth unto aether, when it loseth all the appetite of mutation, and forgetteth the privative stock from whence it came: by a fifth it becommeth angelicall or emperiall; and so it is exalted more and more in dignity, according as it is more and more obedient unto the actions of the eternall and catholick influence of form, which shineth forth from the fountain of infinity. For we must understand, that the whole inclination of the eternall emanation, is to reduce this child of darknesse unto eternall light, unity, and life; as contrariwise, the endeavours of the potentiall darknesse, which is the stamp of Gods Nolunty, or privative nature, are clean contrary. So that all the end of the creating light's action, is to unite all by the symphoniacall band of love and unity, and consequently of sympathy, namely, by making the catholick child of darknesse like it self, and therefore to make two to compassionate each other. But contrariwise, that of darknesse is evermore enclined to make duality of unity, and to breed discord, by violating the bands of concord, and so to procreate a new antipathy and hatred, thereby to destroy the fruits of love. So that the spirit which light hath redeemed out of the dark Chaos, is the intermediate subject betwixt both the extreams, that is to say, between light and darkness: and therefore is the passive subject ordained by the Creator, to endure the impressions of each opposite extream, whereupon it becommeth sometimes the subject of sympathy, namely, when it is obedient unto union and light; and sometimes of antipathy, to wit, when it rebelleth against that light. Thus do we see the true subject of all passion in the soul of the world, and this was the onely reason, why the Philosopher Heraclitus avowed with such confidence, That all things were composed of strife and friendship; and Empedocles, That the soul was made of amity and enmity. I will now therefore expresse unto you that concordant order, which that eternall love, who shined out from the Father of light and love, hath put and placed in each region of this world, to distinguish the two different natures from one another, by placing between them an intermediate subject, which doth agree with each extream. And first I will speak of the orders in the universall spirit of the world, and lastly, of every particular vivified, and inacted spirit, as well in the intellectuall or emperiall, as vitall or aetheriall, and naturall or elementary heaven, and that in order.

We must place the two opposite principles in this world, in the two extreams of the semidiameter thereof; and first, we imagine the seat of the God of light, or of the divine act, to consist in the convexity of the higher and purer Orbe of the Angells, or Emperiall Heaven, (I speak unto the vulgars understanding) that is in the circumference of the vawted world; and then we deem the throne of darknesse, or the divine puissance, to be in the center thereof, as the furthest place from its opposite in nature, which is light. Here you may see the two principles of concord and discord, of love and hatred, and consequently of sympathy and antipathy, of the effects whereof all the Scripture and each member of Philosophy, is full. The catholick matter which was originally extracted out of darkness, namely, the waters, which was made the materiall substance, (of which the heavens and the earth were framed by the divine word, doth occupy all that space which the world containeth) was by the celestiall Al[…]himy, or spagerick vertue of the divine illuminating emanation, divided according unto the contrary and discordant natures of the said two principles, into the upper waters, and the lower waters: whereof the first or higher waters were good, and obedient unto the bright Divinity, and were converted into a fiery nature, being thereupon tearmed the Emperiall nature, for their obedience unto the bright emanation, & were full of intellectual fire, and angelicall light. And therefore this portion of the waters was ordained for the seat of the good Angells. The lower waters contrariwise, as being fecall, gross, impure, and therefore more rebellious unto light, and obedient by participation unto darknesse, were placed next unto their dark beginning, namely, the earth, and did possess all that space between the starry heaven and the earth, which is called Elementary, and for this cause is subject to all changes of generation and corruption: And this was ordained to be the seat of Satan and his angels, which is for that cause called the Prince of this world, the Prince of the aire; and his prime subjects are called Principalities, Potentates, and Governours of this world. Lo here the two extreams in the created nature! from the upper whereof, a generall sympathy and love, or a Symphoniacall consent of things, is made and effected in this world: by the other, namely the lower, an universall Antipatheticall jar, is by turns effected, and intruded into the Symphoniacall accord of things in the lower world, namely when the severe Attributes of God, do rain down into the starry world, influences of a contrary nature, which afterward by their emissions unto the lower world, give liberty and power unto the bad Angells, to work their destructive and Antipatheticall effects, on certain creatures thereof.

As for example, the attribute ELOHIM, doth send down into the starre, or Planet of Saturn, the fruits of his chill and frozen effects, whereby the spirits of that Sphere are corroborated; the which again do pour down their Boreall or Northern nature, unto the spirits which are their Substitutes in the Elementary world, to wit, those which have power to harm by the Northern winds. Hereupon Archangelus Cabalista: Hoc nomen EL, quod nos Deum habemus interpretatu, omnia fovet, & omnibus succurrit, summa pietate, & clementia, id quod est illi proprium, & ideo illi gratia attribuitur: At per ipsum nomen ELOHIM veniunt severa punitiones & strages, & Angeli ei inservientes dicuntur BEN-ELOHIM i. e. filii ELOHIM: ELOHIM ergo terrorem significat, & pavorem: Hinc locus Aquilonaris ei assignatur, à quo procedit omne malum: This name or attribute EL, which is by interpretation God, doth foster or nourish all things, and assisteth every creature by his piety and clemency, which is appropriated unto him: But by the name or Attribute ELOHIM, come severe punishments and Stra[…]agems, and the Angells which are his Ministers to effect his will are called BEN-ELOHIM, that is to say, the sons of ELOHIM: ELOHIM therefore signifieth terror and fear: And for this cause the Northern quarter of the world, from whence cometh all evill, is assigned unto this property, &c. By this therefore we may discern, how the spirits, which are dispensatours as well of salutary as malevolent and destructive influences, are in the mass of the lower Elementary waters: whereby man and the other creatures of God, may be either preserved or destroyed. To conclude, that middle spirit in the world, called the Firmament, which divideth both the extreamly-differing waters from one another, and is that intermediate spirit of the world, which doth equally participate, and behold each extreme, is the Centrall mansion of that eternall Spirit, which emitteth his beams from his stately Solar, or sunny palace, even unto the Center of darkness, and extendeth his emanation even unto the seat of Light, which is his root: for his brightness is emitted from the attribute ELOAH, by the beautifull or glorious port, or gate TIPHERETH: which importeth, grace, beauty, and pulchritude, by the Angelicall order of the Virtues, into that purified pallace of the Sun: So that by his emanating presence, he penetrateth every where, and filleth all things by his presence, and vivifieth all things by his Virtue, and is the Father of life, vegetation, multiplication, and preservation, and hath made his seat in the Center of the heavens, that by one most perfect Consonant, namely a spirituall Diapason, he might illuminate the Angels above, and the stars round about him, and that by a more material Diapason, he might penetrate into the Center of the elementary world, to communicate his perfection to each creature thereof, that they might be beautified by his bright presence, and vivified by the penetrating beams of his essence, and consequently that the imps or spirits of darkness may be debilitated by the appearance of his Glory; as if one chord were extended betwixt the Fountain of Light and the abysse of darkness, which being struck, made an unison, but being pressed down and divided directly in the middle of it, each part will render, being struck, a double diapason, unto that unison, importing a double perfection, proceeding from the bright catholick Emanation; whereof the one respecteth the adorning of the lower waters, with life and virtue, and the other maketh an accord of friendship among the higher. Now as the body of the Sun, and substance of the Aether is of a middle or mean spirituall matter, or consistence of the waters, it is evident, that it also is subject to be altered by passion, as well Antipatheticall, as Sympatheticall: For else it would not be the immediate receptacle of those opposit and contrary Emanations, which descend from the differing Attributes: But by effect we find the contrar[…] For some starrs are friends, and Sympathise in nature, with some creatures below: Some again, do hate one another deadly, and consequently send down into this lower world, contrary influences, which move contrary passions or impressions, in the vitall spirits, or souls of certain Elementary creatures. Again, we find that the life of the Animal, doth consist of opposit actions, namely of Systole and Diastole; that is, of contraction by the property of matter, and dilatation by the Act of the formall Light; So that the nature of matter, is to draw by contraction from the Circumference unto the Center: but the condition of the formall essence is quite contrary unto it: For it doth dilate or emit his beams from the Center to […]he Circumference. Also the Philosophers testify, that in sleep and rest the spirits are contracted from the Circumference to the Center, after the manner of the dark Chaos, or cold North wind, which bringeth by that contraction, the agill and volatil spirit or aire of the lower world to rest, and fixation by condensation: But contrariwise, in wachfulness, or waking, they conclude, that there is an emission or emanation of spirits from the Center unto the Circumferentce, which is an Argument of two contrary effects, of the firmaments vivifying operation, in the souls or spirits of the creatures below, and yet by reason of the equality of each action and passion, they have a compound-disposition, according and agreeing in the naturall operation of life, which descendeth from above. Thus therefore you see, that even from the starry heaven there descendeth Sympathy and Antipathy.

As for the Elementary world, it aboundeth manifestly with the effects of these two contrarieties, and therefore lest there should follow any continuall unnaturall perturbation, which may deprave this great formall workman of his expectation, which was to put concord and peace in the machine whi[…]h he had ordered and framed; he divided each region in this lower world, that there might be interposed an indifferent friend between two extream enemies, which he effected by weight, number, and measure; So that unto the weightiest portion of the lower waters is imparted the least proportion of form, that by its grossnesse and weight it might fall unto the Center, and remain fixt in it, and it was called earth; then, unto another portion he bestowed a double measure of Light, to make it reside in a higher region; and thereby the matter which was next the earth, became more thin, light, and movable. And therefore this augmentation of Light, melted the frozen waters a little, and did make them fluxible and transparent: So that he partly by reason of the continuity of his matter, with that of the earth, and partly because of its cold nature, it is a temperate friend of the earth, and taketh his place next unto him; So that it is not so cold as the earth, nor so moist as the aire: For it is not enough subtiliated, till the bright Agent of the world bestoweth on the dark watery abysse, above the water, three portions of his Light; So that it converted part of the gross lower waters, into a thinner and more light shape, than was the watery Element; and it was the aire which by reason of the triple proportion of formall light was hotter, and more dilated, then was the water; wherefore as the water was cold, (but not so cold as the earth,) and moist, (but not so moist as the aire;) So the aire is hot, but not so hot as the fire; and moister then the water. By reason therefore of his moisture, this portion of the catholick Element is friendly to the water on the one side, and on the other side unto the fire, because of his heat. Lastly, that in-created Spirit of life did yet multiply a part of those waters, by an other or higher degree, of subtility and purity; So that it became the most subtil and highest portion of the generall Elements, and is consequently hot and dry; wherefore by reason of its drouth, it agreeth on the one side with the earth which in circulation is next unto him, and on the other side with the aire, in respect of his heat; but it is hotter then the aire, and not so dry as the earth. Lo here you see the effect of that Sympathy, which the Peace and Love of God, did put among the discordant enemies of this world: For thereby the water, as a friend to both the aire and earth, becometh a stickler, and mediator of peace between them. The aire, as a friend unto the two enemies fire and water, is made an indifferent judge betwixt them both; So that the one contrary is kept from strugling and tugging with the other, by the super-celestiall and golden tie of peace. Thus you see, that this Spirituall Christ doth (as the Apostle saith) bear and sustain all things by the word of his Virtue. And as Hermes said, the humid nature by the assistance of the world, is ordered and disposed harmoniously into Elements; So that by this Virtue, all Sympatheticall action was effected in the Sublunary world, of which the Wiseman speaketh thus: In se Elementa dum convertebantur, sicut in organo qualita is sonus immutatur, & omnia suum locum custodiunt. But when this harmonicall ranck and Symphoniacall proportion is violated, then the enemies come together and rage against one another, unto the disturbance of the whole Sublunary fabrick: For aire and earth do struggle against one another; as also the water doth cruelly invade the limits of the fire, and all will be out of order, and in a destructive war with one another, were it not for the presence of this Lord of misrule. Thus, as you see, will Dyscracy and Antipathy reigne by their turnes, in the neather region of the world, when the tye of the elements are loose. Thus will friendship be quickly changed into hatred, when JEHOVA is pleased to send forth his altering winds, and to corroborate and animate by his influence from above, the ministers of his wrath here below, against the sublunary creature.