HEaven therefore is the sensible preserver of all those bodies whose encrease and decrease the Sun and Moon, have as it were power of. But God who is the Creator of all things is the Governour of Heaven, and of its Soul, and of all things in the world. For from all the foresaid things, of all which there is a Governour, there is a frequent influence carried through the world by nature it self, and by the soul of every Genus and Species in it: for the world is prepared of God to be p. 9 a receptacle of every sort of Species or form; and fashioning out nature by the forms, hath brought the world by the four Elements even to Heaven. All the works of God which are pleasing to the eye, and which hang over us are divided into Species, and in that manner I am now about to relate. The Genera, or kinds, of all things follow their Species for that the Genus is the totality, or substance of it, & the Species a part of the Genus: wherefore there is a Genus of good Spirits, and a Genus of bad; as also of men; and likewise of Birds, and of all things which the world hath, it begets Species like to it self: there is another Genus of brute Beasts wanting indeed understanding and reason, but yet not a soul or life, whereby it takes delight in Benefits, & pines and p. 10 mournes away at injuries. I say of all things which live on the Earth by the preservation of Roots, and Plants, whose Species are dispersed throughout the whole Earth, the very Heaven it self is full of the Majesty of God, whose Genus inhabiteth that place where all Species are immortall; for the Species is a part of the Genus, as the Soul a part of man being a point of necessity to follow the quality of it Genus from whence it proceeds, that albeit every Genus or kind be immortall, yet every Species is not immortall; but the Genus of the godhead and the Species are immortall, yet the kinds of other things whose eternity remaines in the Genus, albeit it dyes in the Species is yet preserved by the fruitfulnesse of growing: therefore the p. 11 Species are mortall as man is mortall, his soul immortal; yet with every Genus the Species of every Geuus is mixed, some which before were made, some made of these; but all these which were made are either of God, of Angels, or of men; being all formes most like unto their kindes: for it is impossible for Bodies to be formed without the will of God; Species to be fashioned without the help of Spirits, or brute Beasts to be ordered or disciplined without men. Whatsoever therefore ill Spirits swarving from their kind are joyned into the form of any Species of a divine Genus, are by that Proximity and nearnesse accounted like unto Gods, but the Species of which Spirits, persevering in the quality of their kind, and these loving the wisdom of man are called Spirits: p. 12 there is also the like Species of men, but more large; for the Species of mankind is of many Shapes, and full of variety, and coming from above from the aforesaid fellowship makes a conjunction of necessity almost with all other Species, in which respect it comes nearest to God; who with Divine worship hath joyned himself unto God, even in that holinesse he requires; and they come nearest to ill Spirits, who joyne themselves to them: and those men who are contented with a mediocrity in their Genus, shall be like those Species they resemble and joyne themselves to.
The Commentary.
The Second Chapter for the better understanding of what is and p. 13 shall be said, intimateth that Mercurius doth use the word Animal in a far other signification then we have accustomed, as also the word Anima. For out of the Second Dialogue of Pimander he defineth the Soul by motion; wherefore whatsoever hath a moving faculty by the observance of his speech, hath Animam a Soul, whatsoever hath Soul and Body is Animal. The Heaven therefore is an Animal, so likewise the world, Plants, and the Elements. But it is our custome only to call that an Animal, which is a living Creature, and hath sense; Animà we define not only by motion but by Life, Sense, Voluntary motion, and Understanding. Therefore when we hear of the word Animal let us take it in his sense, and not in our own. But now to the Dialogue; he compareth Heaven and Heavenly bodies to other sensible things p. 14 as a man to other Creatures; but yet man with other Creatures as a reasonable Soul, and Heaven with other sensible things as a sensible preserver. But that God is the Ruler & Governor of all thingst which are in the world, is nothing else, but that God provideth for all things, dispenseth all things in their kinds and Species, of all which the World is the receptacle, and God imparteth to every one as to a fit instrument some gift or propriety; as the Sun and Moon are the Divine Organs for the Springing and growing of things, and for their encrease, and decrease, and disposeth of men by Angels, and of brutes by men. But what he speaks of spirits, that Species cannot be formed without their help, and that certain have cleaved to a divine Genus, and in nearness and conversation have been accounted like unto Gods, and p. 15 certain in the quality of their Genus to have persevered Lovers of the wisdom of men. VVe know, out of the sacred Scriptures, that those Angels which kept not their first State, but left their habitation, were reserved in everlasting chains, under darkness unto the judgment of the great day: for albeit they counterfeit themselves to be Lovers of men, yet they love them not, but draw them to the same damnation which they themselves have had from the Beginning. They counterfeited even to love, when they brought death upon all men, saying, Ye shall not die, but shall be as Gods knowing good and evil: what therefore he here speaketh of Angels or Spirits, can not seeme fitly to be applyed to any divine knowledge, but to imitate the error of the Gentiles; but what he speaks of men are those which cleave unto God and grow p. 16 religious; but those which joyn themselves unto evil Spirits we confesse to be those which shall be received into the Company of Devils, and shall be joyned unto the evil Angels which shall be reserved, (as hath been said) in eternal chaines under darknesse unto the great day; for we know it pronounced out of Gods mouth what he will say to them on the left hand in the day of Iudgment, Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devill, and his angels; and who are those, but those who are joyned unto them, and love the works of darknesse in this life?
Thus much for the Second Chapter.