A Defense of the Introduction to a True and Unheard-of Physics

[The author] does not oppose the Helbigian Referring to the theories of Johann Otto von Helbig, a 17th-century alchemist and physician who promoted the idea of a single primordial element. theory concerning the unity of the Elements, but rather presupposes it. Saint Peter in the Second Epistle, chapter 3, verse 10, says: the elements, being on fire, shall be dissolved original: στοιχεῖα καυσούμενα λυθήσονται (stoicheia kaysoumena lythēsontai); Latin: Elementa æstuantia solventur. By these words, he designates not the number of the Elements, but the nature of the Elements, based on the outcome of their dissolution. He places these mentioned Elements after Heaven itself in the final dissolution, as if Heaven were separate from them; for Heaven itself (namely the Ethereal realm) is not an Element, but an Elementated body Elementated bodyIn alchemy and natural philosophy, an "elementatum" is a composite substance formed from the mixing of the pure, simple elements. The author argues that while pure elements are stable, these composite "elementated" things are subject to decay and destruction. created through the separation of the Element. By this, he establishes the dissolution of the higher and lower powers, which they will be forced to undergo at the Final Judgment of God through a preternatural, disordered, and violent motion leading to a fiery heat and the burning of the entire universe. Now, that dissolution proves that the Apostle is not speaking of the Elements, but of Elementated bodies; for a "fiery dissolution" does not belong to the Elements themselves, but to Elementated things. For whatever is dissolved by fire passes into an altered form, worse than its previous state and even destructive, through a preternatural and disordered motion. This motion does not belong to an Element, but to an Elementated a-