Concerning the Highest Good, etc.

...things consist and are supported; wherefore it was not without reason said by the Wisdom 12 Wise Man, that the incorruptible spirit of God is in every thing, since in it resides the life and essence of each thing. Job 28, Ps. 104 Furthermore, by this cornerstone God fits the weight to the air, and weighs out the waters in measure, and makes a law for the rain, and a way for the lightning of thunder; finally, the works of God are wonderful, for he made all things in Wisdom. Fludd is citing various biblical passages—Wisdom of Solomon 12:1, Job 28:25-26, and Psalm 104:24—to show that God's "Wisdom" is the structural blueprint of the physical world.

From these things it clearly appears who this Macrocosmic Aben Hebrew: "Stone." is, both external and internal, and that its fiery or central spirit is the Catholic In the sense of "universal" or "all-encompassing." and universal rock; for by its presence, as if by a cornerstone, every created thing is sustained and supported. Yet, in truth, it is more present in one thing than in another, according to the doctrine of all the Theosophists Those who study "divine wisdom," seeking direct knowledge of the divine through mystical insight.. For this God-like spirit, strengthening all things and consequently acting as the basis and cornerstone of all things, inhabits the body as its own house. It even gives to its tabernacle the name of a physical stone, as it is animated by a spiritual stone: for just as the heaven is something spiritual, so the vessel fit to receive and contain it is the earth itself, from which every rock is solidified; indeed, the earth itself possesses a stony nature.

At this point, either Mersenne Marin Mersenne (1588–1648), a French mathematician and monk who was a fierce critic of Fludd’s "occult" philosophy. laughs, or falls silent, or plainly—if he considers the matter rightly—is rather struck with amazement, and for this one reason: because he is ignorant of that Aben of the Patriarch, that strongest arrow of mine drawn from the quiver of the Cabalists A metaphor for the secret mystical traditions of Jewish Kabbalah, which Fludd integrated into his Christian philosophy..

I shall say no less boldly than confidently that the material of that mystical rock described by Moses is the purest earth, made spiritual—reduced from all dross and heterogeneity The state of being composed of different, conflicting elements., by divine help, into a divine substance. Was not the body of Christ reduced from an earthly and mortal state into a celestial and immortal body by the power and assistance of the strongest and holiest spirit of wisdom? From a physical state (I say), common to humans, to a spiritual and divine state proper to God?

Hence most correctly the Apostle says: All ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ: 1 Corinthians 10:3–4. Therefore, nothing absurd can arise from this, since I have said that the body of Christ, or the temple of the incarnate Word, was made from that very uncreated earth, according to that saying of Job: Man inhabits a house of clay or mud, etc. But concerning this microcosmic stone, we shall speak in the second part of this clause.

It will not be more absurd to affirm this than that the stone of Jacob, called Aben, was formerly of earth and coarse substance, which was not impossible to be reduced from its earthly and coarse nature into a spiritual essence by the assistance and operation of the Word—that is, the cornerstone or the wisdom dwelling within it. For the stone is the Word's house, no differently than human members are a temple. Whence both the Macrocosmic Aben and the microcosmic Cephas Aramaic: "Stone" or "Rock," the name given to the Apostle Peter. (concerning which more below) can be transmuted from the nature of the earthly city into that of the heavenly, by the divine power and act dwelling in such houses of clay, according to that saying of the Evangelist: If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all things to myself.

John 12 Wherefore the prophet returns to this sentiment: If the earth be opened, it shall bring forth a Savior: Isaiah 45:8. I conclude, therefore, that this Aben or stone of the Patriarch was the house of that spiritual rock, Acts 4 which became the head of the corner; that highest stone, I say—cornered, tested, chosen, and precious, which is placed in Zion—the true foundation upon which the Prophets and Apostles built. But to all who are ignorant and build poorly, it is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense; and this stone is Christ, who became the head of the corner: Christ, I say, the sole truth of all things, filling all things, and—

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