salted things which are as it were halfe boiled, and are kept longer uncorrupt then raw, also in potentiall burning irons which burne, and are nothing else but Salt. Will it bee lawfull for us here to bring one entire passage of _Rhases_ in a book of the _Secret Triplicity_? for it is not common to all, and wee will strongly insist on this number by reason of the three Fires and three Salts, whereof wee pretend to Treat. So that there is a Mystery in this number of 3 that must not bee forgotten, for that it represents the operation, whereof Fire is the Operator; for 1, 2, 3, makes 6, the 6 dayes wherein God in the Creation of the world perfected all his workes, and rested the seventh day. There are (saith _Rhases_) three natures, the first whereof cannot bee knowne nor apprehended, but by a deepe elevated Meditation: This is, that all-good God Almighty, Author, and the first Cause of all things. The other is neither visible, nor tangible, although men should _bee all contrary_; that is to say heaven in its rarity. The third is the Elementary World, comprehending all that which is under the Æthereall Region, is perceived and known by our senses. Moreover God which was from all æternity, and with whom before the Creation of the world, there was nothing but his proper name knowne to himselfe, and his Sapience; that which hee created on the first day, was the water wherein hee mingled earth, then came hee to procreate after, that which had a beeing here below. And in these two Elements, thicke and grosse, perceptible to our senses, are comprehended the two other, more subtill and rare, Aire, and Fire. These four bodies being, (if we must call them bodies) bound together with such a minglement, that they could not perfectly separate. Two of them are fixed, namely, Earth and Fire, as being dry and solid; the other two volatile, Water, and Aire, which are moist and liquid: so that each Element is agreeable to the other, two wherewith is bounded and enclosed, and by the same meanes, containes two in it selfe, the one corruptible, the other not, the which participates of the Divine nature: and therefore there are two sorts of Waters, the one pure, simple, and elementary; and the other common, which we use in Lakes, Wels, Springs, and Rivers, raines and other impressions of the Aire. There is likewise a grosse Earth, filthy and infected; and a Virgin Earth, crystalline, cleare, and shining, contained and shut up in the Center of all the composed Elementaries; where it remaines revested, and covered with many foldings one upon another. So that it is not easie to arrive there, but by a cautelous and well graduated preparation by fire. There is also a fire which is maintained almost of it selfe, and as it were of nothing, so small is the nourishment that it needeth; whence it comes to bee more cleare and lucent, and another obscure, darke, and burning, and consuming all that to which it is fixed, and it selfe at last. And Aire on the other side