Lumen de Lumine

When I seriously consider the System, or Fabric of this world, I find it to be a certaine Series, a Link or Chaine, which is extended à non Gradu ad non Gradum, From that which is beneath all Apprehension, to that which is above all Apprehension. That which is Beneath all Degrees of Sense, is a certaine Horrible Inexpressible Darknesse, The Magicians call it Tenebrae Activae, and the Effect of it in Nature is Cold, &c. For Darknesse is vultus Frigoris, the Complexion, Body, and Matrix of Cold, as Light is the Face, Principle, and Fountaine of Heat. That which is above all Degree of Intelligence, is a certaine Infinite Inaccessible Fire or Light. Dionysius cals it Caligo Divina, because it is Invisible, and Incomprehensible. The Jew styles it אין Ein, that is Nihil or Nothing: but in a Relative sense, or as the Schoolmen expresse it, Quo ad nos. In plaine tearmes it is Deitas nuda sine Indumento. The middle Substances, or Chaine between these Two, is That which we Commonly call Nature. This is the Scala of the great Chaldee, which doth reach à Tartaro ad primum Ignem, from the Subternaturall Darknesse to the supernaturall Fire. These Middle Natures came out of a certaine water, which was the Sperm, or First Matter of the Great world, and now we will begin to describe it: Capiat, qui Capere potest.