Section II, Book 2, member 2, chapter 2: The magneticall nature and the loadstone (part 1 of 3)

CHAP. II. In this Chapter, the Author's Opinion touching the originall, intermediate, and immediate Action or Virtue of the Load-stone is enucleated and set down at large.

I Am sure you do remember how in my precedent discourse, I have demonstrated, that God in a generality doth operate all, and in all, and then after what manner the self-same Unity in the Divine essence, is manifested in its property, according unto the multiplicity of his sacred Volunty, which is therefore proved to be manifold, because the particular effects of his actions, which are not put in execution but by his Volunty, are infinite in Variety. And for this cause I shewed unto you, that there are attributed unto one and the same sacred essence, Ten severall denominations or Attributes, whereof some send out emanations of dilatation and extension, by the which the waters were expansed and spread abroad by subtiliation, and shaped into bright, clear, and transparent heavens: and of such kind of influences, are those which are emitted and infused into the world by HOCHMA through JAH, or by the Spirit of Wisdome; and those which spring forth from ELOAH, by the Port of TIPHERETH (which importeth beauty and brightnesse) into the Sun, who by dilatation doth clarifie and subtiliate the spirit of the world, and expelleth darkness; and this action doth proceed from the center to the circumference. And contrariwise, there are other emanations, which pour out beams of attraction or contraction, as doth ELOHIM by the port Binah or Prudentia, into the globe of Saturn. By this therefore, the Spirit of God in his prudency did tie and hang the heavens, as it were lincks in a chain of gold together, and did bear up the elements in their places, and sucked or contracted the grosser part of the waters, from the circumference unto the center, and there did confirm and fix them in a dark and gross manner. So that the fountain of this attractive and contractive property, is in the divine Attribute ELOHIM, which for reasons that I have told you before, is the head of the northern property, namely, of cold, drought, opacity, congelation, incrassation, and rest, which is caused in the center, because it is the terminus ad quem, the point unto the which the contraction or attraction is chiefly made, beyond the which, there can be no further penetration. And for this reason, the centrall vertue which is in the bowells of the earth, doth draw and allu[…]e all weighty things unto this point, which when they attain unto the center, can passe no further; for it is at that centrall butt that the property of ELOHIM doth aime, and the Divinity which dwelleth in the earth's center, is the divine essence under the name and property of ELOHIM, the seat of whose immediate emanation, is the angelicall order of Thrones, which belongeth unto the earth or grosser waters; his magazin or treasure-house in the starry heaven, is the globe of Satu[…]n, whose property for this reason is cold and dry, astrictive, contractive, attractive, and retentive; for his beams contract unto the center, and he is the Lord over the North-winds, which are cold and dry, contractive, attractive, sad, and melancholy; and it is the Planet which doth administer unto the Pole-star, called by the Aegyptians Alruckaba, forasmuch as it hath the nature and property of Saturn and Venus, and therefore it is the principall helper and assistant in performing, not onely the attractive effects of ELOHIM, and for that reason doth endue the nature of Saturn, which abounds in the Northern effects of ELOHIM, but also it participates with the condition of Venus, which is the Planet that commandeth the concupiscible faculty; and for this reason it maketh a naturall coition, namely, it draweth with a voluptuous delight his like, even as feminine matter is eagerly affected, to draw or suck masculine form unto it. This therefore is the reason, that the earth doth attract unto it the formall shapes, which descend down from above, and burieth them within its womb with delight. For heaven is affirmed by all true Philosophers and Cabalists, to be the masculine, and the earth the feminine. Neither can I but consent with Lucas Gauricus, the Astrologians opinion, where he saith, (as is recited before) That the star in the Tail of Ursamajor, or the great Bear, is President of the Load-stone; as also, that Saturn is the Planet which is allotted unto him; and lastly, that it hath an speciall relation unto the Constellation of Virgo, and the rather, because Virgo is that Signe of the Zodiack, which possesseth the very self-same Longitude that the said star doth, and for that it is of an earthly, stiptick, and attractive nature, as also of the condition of Saturn and Venus. All these reasons have been strong motives to perswade me, that these are principall celestiall agents, in the Northern disposition and property of this lower world, and consequently in the attractive motion of the terrestriall northern Pole, and every particular thereof.

I p[…]oceed therefore in this my descent from above to the earth, in this manner: The Planet Saturn doth send down the influences of ELOHIM; as also the Polestar and Virgo, for the better and stronger fortifying of the septentrionall attraction or contraction, doth assist him there in his office; and by them, the spirits of the northern wind wax vigorous, and contract by congelation the catholick element of the aire, insomuch that by sucking together the dispersed element of air, they contract it into the solid and dense mass of snow, frost, hail, & ice. Whereby we may learn, that the earth was a thin water first, but by the breath of ELOHIM it was turned into an earthly substance, by contraction; and therefore as long as it is earth, it hath the property of that spirit, which by congelation made it earth. For by vertue of this ELOHIM Ruach, the dry land did appear out of the waters, as Moses telleth us; and every member of the world, I mean, each heaven, and each element, were tied and fastned together; so that as by the property of IAH, (which argueth the immense benignity of Ehieth, the Father of all things) namely, the emission of beams by the port Hochma, the catholick created spirit of wisdom did illuminate and create the waters in generall; but the division of them, which was also made by the word IAH, were fastned in formall ties by the properties of ELOHIM, or the vivifying Spirit of the Lord. And therefore David said, Verbo Domini firmati sunt coeli, & spiritu ab ore ejus omnis virtus eorum: By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by his Spirit each formall vertue thereof. For this reason, in all the separating creation and formation, not onely of the simple heavens and elements, but also of the creatures composed of them, both in heaven and in earth, evermore ELOHIM, is named by Moses, namely, when the darknesse was sucked and drawn apart from the clear waters, when the grosse or inferiour waters were contracted from the superiour, when the thinner heavens were distinguished by inspissation from the thicker elements, when the dry land was by the colds coagulation gathered together in the center, when the thinner aire was coagulated into starry bodies, (wherefore Aristotle saith rightly, that Stella sit den sior pars sui orbis, The star is the thicker part of his orbe) when the elements were compacted by congelation, into the compound creatures of the sea and land; for all this was the work of ELOHIM, who, after the heaven and the earth were made, did ordain and fashion by incrassation, the erratick

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globe of Saturn, and the fixt constellation of Virgo, whose totall attractive and retentive nature is contracted in the Pole-star, as it were the whole basis of a Pyramis, into the point of the Cone; and therefore by contraction of the dilative privative vertue, the power is the stronger; as we see, that a broad River gathered into a strait betwixt two Rocks, is the more swift and violent; or as the Bugle-maker, by blowing the whole flame into a point, maketh that point of such power, that it is able to melt glass. And these two fixt Constellations are assigned, as principal ministers unto Saturn, being ordained for the distribution of his stiptick influxions, joyned with a concupiscible desire unto the neather world; and therefore the Astronomians have assigned them both all one nature, because they perform all one act, namely, that of Saturn and Venus, as is said. Wherefore as superiora dicuntur regere inferiora, adeo ut sicut fit inferius ita prius factum esset superius: As, I say, the superiour heavenly bodies are reported to govern the inferiours; and that as things are acted here below, in like manner were they first effected above. So of necessity is the Pole of the North in the aire, or sublunary element, pointed at and marked out by the wind Boreas; and that same Pole in the water, whose character is the frozen sea, and that in the earth deciphered and manifested by the Load-stones northern point, are animated from these contractive, or retentive, and cold, and dry celestiall natures, as they again have their power in the earth and waters successivly from the Orders of the Cherubins and Thrones, who receive radically their attractive and retentive power from the Attribute ELOHIM Ruach, which doth coagulate and inspissate, by contracting and drawing of the effects of IEHOVA's dilating property, from a dilated transparent clear form and light, unto a thick, opake, and ponderous nature, as it appeareth and is made manifest in the creation of frost, snow, ice, and hail, by the northern act and property of God, which made the Psalmist say, Emittit nives sicut la[…]am, & pruinas quasi cineres dispergit, dejicit gelu tanquam frusta, coram frigore ejus quis consistat? He sendeth out snow like wool, and disperseth the frost as ashes, he casteth down his ice as gobbets, who is ab[…]e to endure before his cold? Whereby it appeareth, that it is the contractive act of JEHOVA, in his property of ELOHIM, which immediately effecteth these things, by means of his Boreall organs, which are first angelicall, next stellar or starry bodies, being animated by the angelicall; and lastly, windy and elementall, which are animated by the starry influences, the essence whereof is in God, and from God, or JEHOVA, being one God in essence, which is expressed by the name of JEHOVA, but in property distributed into many branches, and accordingly, every branch hath its peculiar illuminating boughes, and each illuminating bough dilateth it self, by a subdivision of formall twigs, or vivifying beams, into an infinity of actions, not varying from the capitall emanation in essence, but in property onely. As for example, The influence falling from ELOHIM by the spirit Binah, descendeth into the sphear of Saturn, under whose dominion are an infinity of creatures, namely, those which participate with the nature of Saturn, as are all things that are of a terrestriall […]ondition, to wit, cold, dry, stiptick, attractive, and contractive. But leaving his Cabalisticall and Astrologicall way of proving, I will descend unto such testimonies, as sacred Philosophy doth afford me.