Of The Number Five, And Its Scale

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CHAP. XX.

OF THE NUMBER FIVE, AND ITS SCALE.

THE number Five is of no small force; for it consists of the first even and the first odd; as of a female and male: for an odd number is the male, and the even the female; whence arithmeticians call that the father, and this the mother. Therefore the number five is of no small perfection or virtue, which proceeds from the mixtion of these numbers; it is, also, the just middle of the universal number, viz. ten: for if you divide the number ten, there will be nine and one, or eight and two, and seven and three, or six and four, and every collection makes the number ten, and the exact middle is always the number five, and its equa-distant; and therefore it is called, by the Pythagorians, the number of wedlock, as also of justice, because it divides the number ten in an even scale. There are five senses in man--sight, hearing, smelling, tasting, and feeling; five powers in the soul--vegetative, sensitive, concupiscible, irascible, and rational; five fingers on the hand; five wandering planets in the heavens, according to which there are fivefold terms in every sign. In elements there are five kinds of mixed bodies, viz. stones, metals, plants, plant-animals, animals; and so many kinds of animals--as men, four-footed beasts, creeping, swimming, and flying. And there are five kinds by which all things are made of God, viz. essence, the same, another, sense, and motion. The swallow brings forth but five young, which she feeds with equity, beginning with the eldest, and so the rest according to their age. For in this number the father Noah found favour with God, and was preserved in the flood of waters. In the virtue of this number, Abraham, being an hundred years old, begat a son of Sarah (Sarah being ninety years old, and a barren woman, and past childbearing), and grew up to be a great people. Hence, in time of grace, the name of Divine Omnipotency is called upon in five letters; in time of nature, the name of God was called upon with three letters שדי, Sadai; in time of the law, the ineffable name of God was expressed with four letters יהוה instead of which the Hebrews express אדני Adonai; in time of grace, the ineffable

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name of God was written with five letters יהשוה, Jhesu, which is called upon with no less mystery than that of three letters ישך.

THE SCALE OF THE NUMBER FIVE.