Van Helmont's works containing his most excellent philosophy, physick, chirurgery, anatomy : wherein the philosophy of the schools is examined, their errors refuted, and the whole body of physick reformed and rectified : being a new rise and progresse of philosophy and medicine, for the cure of diseases, and lengthening of life / made English by J.C. ...

CHAP. CXIII. The Tabernacle in the Sun. (Book 113)

THe Schools deny the Sun to be fervently hot: For they will that they also should [herein] be believed without demonstration. Because they think that a man is ge∣nerated by a man, and the Sun: And therefore that it becomes Nature, least if the Sun should be of a fervent heat, he should consume himself, his Inn, and all neighbouring things into hot Embers:

For seeing he is of a huge bigness, and also heats afar of, why should he not commit a cruel outrage, if he should be fervently hot in himself? For how should he generate a man and also all sublunary things?

As if first of all, the Sun being exceeding hot, the substance of the Heavens should there∣fore be burnable! And that it should not be more meet to admit the Sun to be hot without nourishment, than to deny all the Senses; to wit, that the effect doth exist, being produ∣ced by no proper Cause! To deny I say, heat indeed, which makes hot with so great a force, and at so great a distance! Chiefly, because according to the proportion whereby we do the more approach unto the direct beams of the Sun, by so much we meet with the greater heat.

I believe this fear of the Schools to be vain, because the Light was made by the Word, which contracted the whole Light into two Globes: That the Sun should be the Light of the Day, and the Moon of the Night.

The lightsome Globe of Sun is said to exceed the Diameter of the Earth and Water 160. times:

Out of which Globe of the Sun, the beams of Light are dispersed, as well above as be∣neath himself, on the whole Universe: And they most thorowly enlighten all traseparent bodies but dark or thick bodies in their superficies onely.

But I have shewn, that the beams of the Sun being united by a Glasse, are true fire shin∣ing in its properties: For whether the beams are united or not, that is to the Sun by accident.

And therefore, if the beams of Light being connexed, are true fire, and do burn, the Sun also, as the very Center of the connexed beams, shall of necessity be most exceeding hot: For the Fire of the Sun persisteth without nourishment, by the command of God. Also seeing the fire in the middle of the crest, wherein the Sun-beams are united, subsisteth without nourishment: Kitchin fire only bears before it a Light subsisting by it self, with∣out the intervening of the Sun: Yet in that thing, being different from the Sun, that it ought to be nourished that it may subsist. But the Sun because he is of a heavenly Nature, wants not food; because he is void of Usuries and appointed of God that he may thus burn.

The Sun therefore, is a most fervent fire, the principal Center in Nature, of created Lights. Peradventure, when at sometimes, dayes shall be at their full, and the harvest of things shall be ripe, the watery vision of the Heavens, the Waters I say, which are above the Heavens, through a divine virtue, shall assume a ferment, and the seed of a comb••••••¦ble matter, and it shall rain fire from Heaven, and the Stars shall fall.

For the Sun by the command of God, breaking open the floodgates and bolts of his Globe, shall burn the Heavens, as well those which are nigh, as those which are very far of, and shall consume the World into hot embers. For the Heavens shall be changed, shall wax old, and shall at sometimes melt like wax: And the Stars shall fall down on the Earth, not indeed whole, (because they are for the most part bigger than the Globe of the Earth) but the parts of the Stars that are burnt, shall make an Abyss of fire upon the Center.

Therefore, the Sun is a fire in himself, and being nigh; but by how much further his beams are dispersed throughout the Universe, they shall give the more apt nourishing

warmths unto the seeds of things; because the Sun doth suggest onely a general and com∣mon Light, which is fit for exciting and promoting the seeds of things, and for this cause it is vital: But not that it conferreth Life, and that which gives Essence to the seeds of things.

In Caire of Aegypt, Eggs are nourished by the fire of a furnace, and Chickens are abun∣dantly bred without the nourishing of any Hen; yet the fire of the furnace neither gives, nor hath a seminal virtue, neither doth it burn the Eggs; nor because it nourisheth, doth it cease to be burningly hot in its Fountain.

So the beams of the Sun being dispersed throughout the Universe, are no longer fire; but a simple Light. Kitchin fire therefore, doth after some sort dispose it self according to an emulation of the Sun: To wit, it enflames, burns, and consumes things that are near it; but from far, it onely heats, and at a very far distance, onely shines. Yea, neither is it reckoned true fire, unless it be hot in the highest degree, unless it centrically stick fast with its connexed beams, in the crest of Light. But it differs in nobleness from the Light of the Sun, that it is not of the first created things, not of an heavenly disposition, not subsist∣ing without fewels, nor therefore is it universal. The Almighty therefore as he hath cre∣ated the Sun a singular thing; so he hath created as it were one only Sun in every species of sensitive Creatures, which should suffice even unto the end of the World, and should propagate them thenceforward, not indeed being hot in the highest degree; but that it subsisting by the poynts of dispersed beams, may not cover to ascend unto further moments of degrees. Therefore in the smallestminutes of specifical Lights, a formal Light of spe∣cies or particular kinds, is restrained by a Divine virtue, which hath tied up every species unto a particular moment of Lights, general indeed in respect of the Sun; yet made indi∣vidual by the co-ordination of my Lord: For the Sun of Species's shall endure for ever no otherwise than as the Species themselves shall. But because it doth not subsist but in individuals; therefore the sun of Species is daily slidable in individuals, even at every Moment, unless it be nourished as it were by a continual fewel.

Therefore the light of Life hath some similitude with the Sun, and a part agreeable unto Kitchin fire: To wit, in this, that our Sun ought to have vital Spirits for an uncessant Fewel, and those capable of an administring to a depending Light that is to follow: ••••ot indeed that the Spirits do in themselves, and of themselves, heat any more than the beams of the Sun; the which the light of the Sun being withdrawn, do presently die from heat and light. Nevertheless they bear a mutual resemblance with the Sun, because they seem to propagate an enflaming, and subsist centrally in the heart. For when the Schools took notice that the heart did voluntarily and of it self, hasten into a cold dead Carcass, and that the Spirits being dissolved or spent, it indeed was presently cold, they thought that those in-blown Spirits, were the beginning Center, and primitive sunny point, and that of heat; not regarding that the Spirits themselves are of themselves cold, and that their heat doth perish in an instant, as soon as they are snatcht away from the beam and aid of the heart. A very great wonder it is, that it hath been hitherto unknown and undetermined, unto what heats the whole Tragedy of things vital and not vital, is ascribed: Whether of the two may prevail over the other in the original and support of heat: For seeing neither the heart nor vital spirit of the same, are from their own nature and substance, originally hot; for this cause, it hath not been so much as once thought, from whence our heat comes, or from what original it is in every one of us: For seeing the knowledge of ones self is the chief of Sciences, as well in Moral as Natural things, the Schools ought never to have been ashamed, to have enquired into the Fountain of Heat and Life in things. How great darkness hath from thence remained in Healing, and in preserving of the Life, God hath known. This controversie therefore, I have discussed with my self, from my youth, after this manner.

First I knew, that fire (even as in the Chapter of Forms) was not an Accident, nor a Substance; and much less, an Element: The which, I have elsewhere demonstrated with a full sail of Phylosophy.

And then that the Sun was hot from a proper endowment, and that the fire of the Kitch∣in was likewise given, although for the workman, and a death subjected to the hands of Artificers: But when as both of them forsake us, that we have a Flint and a Steel, from whence we make a fire: To wit, we strike fire out of two cold or dead things. So also the waters of hot Baths under the earth, are enflamed by Salt and Sulphur, which are volatile things, and that the arterial blood is partly Salt, and partly fat and Sulphurous.

Then in the next place, that there ought to be a smiting of Pulses together; not indeed for a cooling refreshment (as the Schools do otherwise dream) but indeed, that as but∣ter

is made of Milk by charming or shaking of it together: So a vital Sulphur, of the ar∣terial Blood: The which afterwards, by a smiting of the same endeavour, conceives a Light in the volatile Spirit, and a formal or vital Light is propagated, as it were Light being taken from Light: To wit, the salt Spirits, and Sulphur of the arterial Blood, do by the Pulse, rub themselves together in the Sheath of the Heart, and a formal Light toge∣ther with Heat, is kindled in the vital Spirit; from the Light I say, of the most inward, and implanted sunny Spirit, in which is the Tabernacle of the specifical Sun, even unto the Worlds end.

In this Sun of Man, the Aimighty hath placed his Tabernacle, and his delights, his Kingdom, together with all his free gifts. But the Light which is conceived by smiting together, is not indeed, made a new, as from a Flint and Iron; but it is propagated by the obtainment of matter from the sunny, specifical, and humane Light, or is kindled, and enlarged by it.

It is there indeed universal, and vital, consisting in the points of a tempered Light; and it is in Nature indeed specifical in respect of its production, and limited for the Life of Man; but it is every way made individual by him, who hath placed his vital Taberna∣cle in the Sun of the Species: Out of which Tabernacle, he thereby enlightneth every Man that cometh into this World: Because the Lord Jesus is after an incomprehensible manner, the Light, Life, Beginning, Way, Truth, and the All of all Things: For as the Life cannot subsist for a moment, without the lightsome Spirit, by which it is enlightned and soulified in the habitation of the Sun; So neither can the Soul, nor Life in any wise subsist for one only moment, without the Grace of the same eternal Light.

But I have conceived of the quality and intension of Heat resulting from the Light, as a whole humane Body weighing perhaps 200 Pounds, is hot with an actual warmth, and the which, without that Light of Life, should presently be cold, and be a dead Car∣cass.

There is therefore so much Heat in the Heart, as is sufficient for diffusing warmth through so many Pounds of Water, otherwise cold. The Life therefore of Species, as it consisteth in a simple, and ununited Light, containes a mystery of divine providence: For a fiery Light, however (by reason of distance) it be mitigated, and reduced into a nourishing luke-warmth; Yet naturally it cannot stop, as that it cannot conspire for the top of a connexed Light, and so contend for its own ruine or destruction. Therefore the Father and dispenser of Lights hath provided, who sitting in the Tabernacle of the Sun, hath constrained or tied up Lights by Species or particular kindes, and bolts.

Here it is sufficient to have shewn, that they are the Reliques, and plainly the Blas∣phemies of Paganish Errour, to have said; A Man and the Sun doth generate a Man; Seeing Life belongs not to the Sun; but the Fewels, Excitements of sublunary Actions alone, as also the necessary supplies readily serviceable to the Life.