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

...a violent motion. Meanwhile, no theologian will deny that the word itself, stoicheiaThe Greek word στοιχεῖα, usually translated as "elements" or "rudiments." The author argues that in the Bible, this word refers to the basic components of the visible world rather than the singular, hidden primary matter.—that is, Elements—is, by reason of its etymology and its usage in Holy Scripture itself, for the most part of an improper and metaphorical meaning. Consequently, it proves a plurality [of elements] even less than it rejects their unity, since nowhere in the Sacred Writings is it used for the true Principle of the Creation of the Universe; rather, in every place, it is used to describe the Powers arisen from the first Principle or Element. Therefore, what the Holy Scriptures neither approve nor argue for cannot serve as a glorious foundation for the anonymous author's theory of a plurality of Elements.

I have likewise stated that Holy Scripture presupposes the Unity of the Elements. Regarding this, let the same Apostle Peter be heard in his Second Epistle, chapter 3, verse 5: the earth consisting out of water and through water original Greek: γῆ ἐξ ὕδατος καὶ δι᾽ ὕδατος συνεστῶσα (gē ex hydatos kai di’ hydatos synestōsa). The earth stood out of the water and in the water by the word of God. By these words, the Apostle suggests nothing else than that water is the First Matter original: Materiam primam, or the elementary matter, and thus the unique one (which Mr. Helbig calls Viscous Referring to Helbig's Materia Viscosa, a concept of a thick, primordial "water" or slime from which all things were organized.) out of which, and through which, the earth and other elementated things elementated thingsIn alchemy, these are "elementata"—composite physical substances formed from the pure, singular primordial element. consisted by the word of God. And although grave men and theologians, who do not distinguish the Principles of Nature, [interpret] this water...