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Nature! How dost thou alter things into things, casting down the high andmighty, and again exalting them being base and lowly! Oh Death! How artthou vanquished when thy Prisoners are taken from thee, and carried to astate and place of Immortality! This is the Lords doing, and it is marvelousin our eyes.And that thou mayst the rather to Putrefaction,Win this example, thou take, &c.The heart of an Oak which hath of Water continual infusion;For though it in Water lay an hundred years and more,Yet shouldest thou find it found as ever it was before.O happy Gate of blackness, which art the passage to this so glorious achange! Study therefore, whoever applyest thy self to this Art, only toknow this Secret; for know this, and know all, and contrariwise be ignorantof this, and be ignorant of all.Therefore if that possible thou mayst attain the depth of this Mystery, Ishall endeavor to unfold it to thy capacity by similitudes and examples.Thou knowest that if a solid piece of Wood lie in water perpetually, it willtire the patience of the most patient expecter to see it rot, for it will abidemany Generation, and in the end be as found as when it was first laid in,Yea some contend, that in our days Pine-Trees are dug up in their intireproportion, which have been buried ever since the Floud, being found insuch places in which no Histories ever mentioned that such Trees grew, andso deep under ground as it is almost incredible; which certainly have laynat lest many hundred years, and yet the Wood a found as any other Tree ofthat sort, which hath not been cut down above a year or two: such is theforce of constant Humefaction, to prevent the ordinary corruption ofTimber.But and thou keep it sometimes wet and sometimes dry,As thou mayst see in Timber,And so even likewise, &c.Sometimes our Tree must with the Sun be brent.But contrariwise, Timber which is kept wet sometimes, and dry sometimes,as usually the foundations of Timber Houses are, if not secured by theMasons Art, it would tire the Householders patience to see how soon suchTimber will rot, and molder away, and become fit for nothing; which is athing so well known, that the experience of every Rustick almost can teachit him.165