Of The Number Ten, And The Scale

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CHAP. XXV.

OF THE NUMBER TEN, AND THE SCALE.

THE number Ten is called every number, or an universal number, complete, signifying the full course of life; for beyond that we cannot number but by replication; and it either implies all numbers within itself, or explains them by itself, and its own, by multiplying them; wherefore it is accounted to be of manifold religion and power, and is applied to the purging of souls. Hence the antients called ceremonies Denary, because they were to be expiated and to offer sacrifices, and were to abstain from some certain things for ten days.

There are ten sanguine parts of man: the menstrues, the sperm, the plasonatic spirit, the mass, the humours, the organical body, the vegetative part, the sensitive part, reason, and the mind. There are, also, ten simple integral parts constituting man: the bone, cartilage, nerve, fibre, ligament, artery, vein, membrane, flesh, and skin. There are, also, ten parts of which a man consists intrinsically: the spirit, the brain, the lungs, the heart, the liver, the gall, the spleen, the kidnies, the testicles, and the matrix. There are ten curtains in the temple, ten strings in the psaltery, ten musical instruments with which the psalms were sung, the names whereof were--neza, on which their odes were sung; nablum, the same as organs; mizmor, on which the Psalms; sir, on which the Canticles; tehila, on which orations; beracha, on which benedictions; halel, on which praises; hodaia, on which thanks; asre, on which the felicity of any one; hallelujah, on which the praises of God only, and contemplations. There were also ten singers of psalms, viz. Adam, Abraham, Melchisedeck, Moses, Asaph, David, Solomon, and the three sons of Chora. There are, also, ten commandments. And then tenth day after the ascension of Christ, the Holy Ghost came down. Lastly, this is the number, in which Jacob, wrestling with the Angel all night, overcame, and, at the rising of the sun, was blessed, and called by the name of Israel. In this number, Joshua overcame thirty-one kings; and David overcame Goliah and the Philistines; and Daniel escaped the danger of the lions. This number is also circular, as unity; because, being heaped together, returns into a unity, from whence it had its beginning; and it is the end and perfection of all numbers, and the

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beginning of tens. As the number ten flows back into a unity, from whence it proceeded, so every thing that is flowing is returned back to that from which it had the beginning of its flux: so water returns to the sea, from whence it had its beginning; the body returns to the earth, from whence it was taken; time returns into eternity, from whence it flowed; the spirit shall return to God, who gave it; and, lastly, every creature returns to nothing, from whence it was created. ¹ Neither is it supported but by the word of God, in whom all things are hid, and all things with the number ten, and by the number ten, make a round, as Proclus says, taking their beginning from God, and ending in him. God, therefore (that first unity, or one thing), before he communicated himself to inferiors, diffused himself first into the first of numbers, viz. the number three; then into the number ten, as into ten ideas and measures of making all numbers and all things, which the Hebrews call ten attributes, and account ten divine names; from which cause there cannot be a further number. Hence all tens have some divine thing in them, and in the law are required as his own, together with the first fruits, as the original of all things and beginning of numbers, and every tenth is as the end given to him, who is the beginning and end of all things.

SCALE OF THE NUMBER TEN.

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THE SCALE OF THE NUMBER TEN.

Footnotes

133:1 At the last, the elements give up what they have ever received; the sea gives up her dead, the fire gives up its fuel; the earth gives up the seminal virtue, &c.; and the air gives up whatever voice, sound, or impression it has received, so that not an oath, lie, or secret blasphemy, but what will appear as clear as noon daylight at the great day of God.