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

[He] does not oppose the Helbigian theory Referring to the ideas of Johann Otto von Helbig, a 17th-century alchemist and physician who argued for the unity of the elements. regarding the unity of the Elements, but rather presupposes it. Saint Peter says in the Second Epistle, Chapter 3, verse 10, "the elements, being on fire, shall be dissolved" original Greek: στοιχεῖα καυσούμενα λυθήσονται (stoicheia kaysoumena luthēsontai); original 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. Furthermore, he places the aforementioned Elements after Heaven itself, as if they were separate from it, in the final dissolution; this is because Heaven itself (the Ethereal realm, to be specific) is not an Element, but an Elementated thing ElementatedIn Latin, elementatum. In Scholastic philosophy and alchemy, an element is a primary building block, while an "elementated" thing is a complex, physical substance composed of those elements. formed by the separation of the Element. By this, he establishes the dissolution of the superior and inferior powers, which they will be forced to undergo at the Last 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 Elements, but truly of Elementated things; for a "burning dissolution" is not characteristic of Elements, but of Elementated things. For whatever is dissolved by heat passes into an altered form, worse than its previous state and destructive, through a preternatural and disordered motion. This motion does not belong to the Element, but is an [action] of the Elementated...