Lumen de Lumine

It is a Miracle to Consider, how the Earth, which is a Body of inexpressible weight and Heavinesse, can be supported in the Ayr, a fleeting yeelding substance, and thorough which even froth and Feathers will sink, and make their way. I hope there is no man so mad as to think it is poys’d there by some Geometricall Knack, for that were Artificiall, but the work of God is Vital, and Natural. Certainly if the Animation of the world be denied, there must needs follow a praecipitation of this Element by its own Corpulency and Gravity. We see that our own Bodies are supported by that Essence, by which they are actuated and animated, but when that Essence leaves them, they fall to the ground, till the spirit returns at the Resurrection. I conclude then that the Earth hath in her a Fire-soule, a most powerfull strong spirit, that bears her up, as the spirit of Man bears up man. To this agrees Raymund Lullie in the seventy sixth Chapter of his Theorie. Tota Terra plena est Intelligentia ad operationem Naturae inclinata, quae Intelligentia movetur à natura superiore: Ita quod natura Intellectiva inferior assimilatur naturae Superiori. The whole Earth (saith he) is full of Intelligence, inclined to the Discipline or Operation of Nature, which Intelligence is moved by the Superior Nature: so that the Inferior Intelligence is like to the Superior.