Part 16

On fire then and on salt depend great and secret mysteries, comprized under two principal colours, red and white, for (as _Zohar_ hath it) all things are white, and red, but there is a great space betwixt the one and the other. God dieth our sinnes which are red, for concupiscence comes from the blood, and from the sensualitie of the flesh besprinkled with blood, and we doe die his whitenesse in red or rigour of Justice, by the fire which inflameth our carnall desires, and purchaseth their judgement, which is throughout where there is fire, if it bee not mortified with saving water. And when the perverse doe prevaile in the world, as ordinarily they doe, rednesse and judgement extend themselves therein, and all whitenesse covers it self, which is rather changed into rednesse then rednesse into whitenesse; which if it have domination, all on the contrary growes resplendent therewith. To these two colours also the ancient and the Evangelicall Law, the rigour of justice and mercy; the pillar of fire in the nights darkenesse, and the white cloud by day, wine and bread, blood and fat, which were not lawfull to eate. _You shall not eate flesh with the blood_, _Gen._ 9. 4. And in _Levit._ 3. 16, 17. _All the fat is the Lords, it shall bee a perpetuall Statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that yee eate neither fat nor blood_; where it is yet more particularly repeated in the 17. and 14. where the reason is rendred, for that _the soule_, that is to say, the life of the flesh, is in _the blood_, which mystically represents that of Messiah, wherein consisted eternall life; so that it was not lawfull to use any other before his comming. Of the same fat was reserved for God as well that which the Hebrewes call _cheleb_, that covereth the inwards, and is separated from the flesh, as the other called _schumen_, which is thereunto annexed; but metaphorically the fat is taken for the most exquisite substance, as in _Numb._ 18. the tenths the best of the fruits are called the fat of them, which manner of speech wee also use when wee say, make the portion to be very fat of any thing that there is. And in the 81. _Psal._ 16. _Hee fed them with the fat of Wheate._ It may bee also that _Moses_ well knowing that these two substances, blood and fat, are of ill tast and nourishment, and quickly corrupted out of their vessells, hee forebad them the use thereof. Or if wee would enter into a certaine mystery, for that the vitall spirits consist in the blood, which are of a fiery nature, and that fat is very susceptible of flame, and proper to make lights, which are a representation of the soule. But Oile is also for Lamps, which was not forbidden to bee eaten, and wee doe not see that in Divine service wee use Tallow Candles; yet these two, fire and salt, doe signifie Wine and Milke, _I have drunke Wine with my Milke_, _Cant._ 5. 1. By Wine is designed the tree of knowledge of good and evill, namely vaine curiosities of worldly things, and by Milke, that of life, whereof _Adam_ was deprived, being desirous to tast of that other, which was humane prudence. Before _Adam_ had transgressed (said _Zohar_) hee was made participant of the sapience of superiour light, being not yet separated from the tree of life, but when hee would distract himselfe after the knowledge of base things, this curiositie ceased not till hee had wholly cast off life to incorporate himselfe to death. _Jacob_ and _Esau_, the two principall Potentates on earth which are descended therefrom, Item the Rose and the Lilly, whose water extracted mounts by the fires heat that elevates it and becomes white, although the Roses bee red, as is the fume exhaled from blood and fat which they burne to God, to send it on high as a vapour, to imply (saith the same _Zohar_) that wee must offer him nothing but what is cleane and candid; for rednesse represents sinne, and punishment that followes it, and the white, sinceritie, with mercy and the finall recompence that doth accompany it. What is it (saith _Zohar_) which is designed by the red Roses, and the white Lillies? It is the odour of the oblation proceeding from red blood, and from fat which is white, which God reserveth for his owne portion, which fatnesse relates to the sacrifice, or animall mar, who is nourished with this fat, as the vitall spirits with blood; wherefore it is said, when we fast to extenuate and macerate the pricks of the flesh and concupiscence, that we offer unto God fatnesse, who will have from his Creature the soul, which is fire and bloud; and the body, namely fat, wherewith it is nourished, but the one and the other incontaminate, pure and neat, without corruption, as if they were to passe through the fire and salted; Therefore he would that they should be burned to him, that they may ascend in a white fume and an odour of suavity before him; for fume is more spiritual then matter, which the fire by subtiliation raiseth it, after the manner of Incense. And indeed all this world here, is but an odour that mounts unto God, sometimes good and agreeable, sometimes wicked and hurtfull. The forme of the thing which consisteth in its colour, and figure, remains incorporeall in the matter, where the eye goes to apprehend it, and associates with it. The tast also, remains attached to it, as the spittle moistens it, and communicates it to the tast: But odor or smell, separates them, and comes from farre by an unperceivable vapor, to the sense of the nose and braine. Wherefore the Scripture doth particularize in the rose and in the lillies, the Red and White; whose smell doth not vanish. And yet though the roses be red, yet the water of them distilled, and the fume if you burne them, are white, as those of incense, whereof it is spoken in _Psal._ 41. 2. _Let my prayer be directed as incense, in thy sight_: by prayers are understood not only prayers, but all our desires, thoughts and comportmens, and thereupon _Rabbi Eliezer_, sonne of _Rabbi Simeon_, the author of _Zohar_, making his prayer, doth thus paraphrase. _This is well knowne, and manifest before thee O Lord my God, God of our prayers, that I have offered unto thee my fat, and my blood: I have offered them in an odor of Suavity, with firme faith and beleefe, macerating, chastising the sensuality of my flesh: That it will please thee then Lord, that the odor of my prayer, proceeding from my mouth, may be presently addressed before thy face, as an odor of a burnt offering, which they burne unto thee, upon the altar of propitiation, and that thou wilt accept it as agreeable._ He said that because that after the comming of our Saviour, & the destruction of the second Temple by the _Romans_, the _Jewish_ sacrifices were converted into prayers, the bloudy sacrifices signified by the red roses, and colour of bloud, and those without bloud, as the minchad & other the like, of meal, by the white lillies, following that which was said _Cant. Chap._ 5. & 6. _My beloved is white and ruddy, he feedeth among the lillies._

Under these four colours furthermore, which signifie the four Elements, Black the Earth, White the Water, Blew the Air, and Red the fire, are comprised the greatest secrets & mysteries. Otherwise reading in ch. 10. of 35 book _Plinie_, that _Apelles_ had painted _Alexander_ holding lightning in his hand; fingers seemed to hang out, and lightning to be without the Table; but reading they remembred that all those consisted of four colours. I cannot well specifie what those four colours were, which must be principall in nature, till I had learned out of _Zohar_, to consider them in the light: where, that is to be noted, that there are two fastned to the week, namely black, noting the Earth, and red proceeding there from fire, and two to the flame, Blew in the root, over against the black, and white on the top, opposite to red. But let us see how this doth well suit with Chymicall Theorie, which constitutes of these four Elements, two solid and fix’d, which prepare themselves together, the earth, and the fire, which adhere to the week, and the other two liquid volatills and flitting, water, and air, white and blew, as is the flame which is liquid, and in perpetuall motion: And we must not think it strange, that the air, the blew, should be lower then the water, or the white flame which is aloft, because the aereall party which is the oil and fat, separate more hardly, and more difficultly from the composed, then doth the water more opposite to fire. But let us look more mystically thereinto, which the _Zohar_ hath more abundantly run through. The red light, as well in earth as in heaven, is that which destroyes all, dissipates all; for it is the bark of the tree of death, as we may see in a lamp, candle, and other light, whose root is in the earth, namely, this corruptible and corrupting blacknesse which watereth the week; the branches and the boughes are the flames, blew and white. The week with its blacknesse and rednesse is the Elementary world, and the flame the Celestiall. The red colour commands all that is under it, and devoureth it. And if you say that it domineers also in heaven, not as in the inferiour world, wee may answer. And although there be vertues and powers above that are destructive, and dissipate all base subjacent things. All these superiors are anchored in this red light, and not the inferiors, for they are thick, grosse, and obscure; and this red light which is contiguous to that above, gnawes, and devours them; and there is nothing in the low world which shall not be destroyed. It penetrates and enters into stones, it pierceth them, and hollowes them, that waters may passe over them, and drowns all in the depths and hollowes of the earth, where they divide themselves, of the one side, and on the other, till they come to resemble anew in their _Abyssus_, passing crosse the darknesses that are confounded with them; which is the cause that waters rise and fall, (they mount when they come from the sea under earth to their sources, to glide anew above the earth downwards, returning to the place from which they parted.) So that the waters darknesse and light mingling themselves pellmell, there is made within another _Chaos_, which nature comes to unmingle (the heat namely which is therein inclosed) by Ordinance of the Soveraign Dispensator that commands it. And there make lights which men cannot see, because they are dark. Every channell (to be brief) mounts upwards with his voices, whence _Abyssus_ are shaken, and cry to their companion, One depth calleth to another, in the voice of their Catarracts. And who is it that cries? Open thee with thy waters, and I will enter into thee. These are all mysteries uneasy to comprehend, which intend nothing, but to demonstrate the affinity and connexion of the sensible with the intelligible world, and of the Elementary with the Celestiall; for, as it is said in another case, the Universall firmament, called the firmament of heaven, containeth things superiour and inferiour; although after divers manners. This is wel seen in a torch, where blacknesse, that is, the Earth, is the ground of three elements and colours, the red being but an inflammation and heat joined to the blacknesse, without any flame or light; as are the blew and white, which proceed from one very root, all tend a going to unite with the white flame that is above, and more highly elevated then others. Yet it is not therefore so pure and quit of all filthinesse, but that it procreates soot, with black and infected fume, whereof it must be depured by fire, till it hath perfected the consumption of its corruption, and made it a perfect whitenesse, which from that time forwards never alters. And this is that which we said before, that fire leaves two sorts of excrements, not sufficiently depured for the first proof. Ashes below, whence by the same fire is extracted as incorruptible substance of salt; and of glasse at the last, which the _Zohar_ was not ignorant of, when he said upon _Exod._ of the lees of any confected ashes, salt and glasse is drawn. But now for that it was not so said, it is a thing sufficiently common and manifest to those that deal with fire, which Cinerall excrement comes from the adustion and burning of coals, but the soot which is more spirituall, for that mounts and elevates higher, is born of the flame which hath no leasure or power to perfect its mundification, so that the pure and impure mount together. And assuredly nothing can better agree with our souls after their separation from the body, which carries away with them the imapurities which they have attracted from it, during their residence here below, which they must repass by fire, & be perfected by white throughout. _Every man shal be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt._ The weik and ashes representing man, the exterior animal, and his body, and the two flames, blew, and white; the blew the Celestiall and Ethereall body, and the white, souls stript of all Corporeity: which in good men shall be burnt with fire that burns alwaies upon the altar, and salted with salt from the Covenant, the promises namely of his Messiah, into which the Prince of this world, hath but seen, as it hath done in the posterity of _Adam_, which is al filled with ashes whereof it was first built, & with the soot of originall sin, whereunto he fastned by his disobedience, prevarication; So that we are the night where _Moses_ began to reckon the day, for that we are according to the flesh, before the _Messiah_, who being come after, is the enlightned day of this clear sun of Justice, which the Cabballists say is the representation of _Jehovah_, whose sheath (as they call it) is _Adonei_, from whence God must be drawn out: for it is hee, that mundifies the righteous, and burneth the wicked with dark and obscure fire. To which that also beateth, which is said of the Thrones Animalls, there shall descend a Lion enflamed, that shall devour the oblations. There are Angells committed upon every member that sinneth, of whom they constitute themselves the bringers on: for every man that commits any offence, he suddainly delegates to himself an accuser, which will be no more favourable to him then he must be, but will lend him a fire from above, to burn that member that shall have trespassed. But _Jehovah_ intervenes from above, who with his water of mercy, quencheth this fire, after the party Delinquent shall have his spots purged away. And there is but he alone, that is the angel of peace, that make the souls reconcilation with God, to whom she comes by the intercession of this sacred name: there is no other name; all that the _Zohar_ sets down, which is as Christian-like spoken by a Rabbin which was never baptized.

That premised for a ground work of what we shall say hereafter, St. _Marks_ Greek text carries it, πᾶσα θυσία ἁλὶ ἁλιθήσεται, every sacrifice shall be seasoned with salt; where the _Latin_ version which the Church holdeth, for θυσία a sacrifice, as in truth this Greek word signifies, all sorts of sacrifices, _hostia’s_, _victima’s_, and _ceremonies_: But _Porphyrius_ in his second book of sacrifices, doth particularize it to herbs that men offered to the Gods, for from the beginning they did not present them: this he spake of Incense, Myrrhe, Benjamin, Storax, Aloes, Labdanum and other the like odoriferous gums; but only certain green herbs; as certain first fruits of seeds that the earth produced; and trees were procreated from the Earth before Animalls, and the earth was clothed with herbs, before it produced trees. By reason whereof, the gathering certain _pieds_ of herbs all entire with their leaves and rootes, and seeds, they burned them, and sacrificed the odour and fume that proceeded therefrom to the Immortall Gods: and of this exhalation they cast, which the Greeks call θυμίασις _suffitus_, perfumed, whence comes the word θυσία _victima_ sacrifice. Therefore they do not refer them properly to bloody sacrifices, for the _Romans_ for more then 800 years since, by _Numaes_ Ordinance, had no Images of Gods, nor other sacrifices, then dough with salt, which were from thence called ἀνὰιμακτα, that is to say, without blood. Hitherto _Porphyrie_.

It hath been said heretofore that there was nothing more common, nor lesse well known then fire. And as much we may say of salt: wherefore it is that _Moses_ made so great account of it, as to apply it to all sacrifices. Calling it the perpetual Covenant that God made with his people; of which alliance by the _Hebrews_ called _Berith_, they found three or four marks in the Scripture; The bow of heaven, _Gen._ 9. 9. _Gen._ 17. 2. Circumcision to _Abraham_, and the universall paction, _Numb._ 18. 19. Further yet the Paction of the Law received in _Horeb, Deut._ 5. 2, & 3. The Lord our God made a Covenant with us in _Horeb_; which hath been time out of mind in singular and venerable recommendation towards all sorts of people; you bless your tables by putting on of saltsellers (saith _Arnobius_ to the _Gentiles_.) But _Titus Livius_ in his 26. that they may have a saltseller & a dish or platter for Gods cause. And _Fabricius_, that thrice valiant _Roman_ Captain, had never gold nor silver but a little drinking cup, whose foot was of horn, to make his offerings to the Gods, & saltseller to serve for sacrifices forbidding, as _Plinie_ hath it, in his 33. book, 12. ch. to have other Silvery then those two. It was furthermore a marke and symbole of Amity, as was salt: Wherefore the first thing that they served strangers, comming to them, was Salt, to note a firmity of their contracted Amity. And the great Duke of _Muscovie_, as _Sigismund_ puts it down in his Treatise of the affairs of _Muscovie_, he could not do greater honour to those that he favoured then to send them of his salt. _Archilocus_ as _Origen_ alledgeth against _Celsus_, among other things, reproacheth _Lycambas_ to have violated a very holy and sacred Mystery, of the amity conceived betwixt them by the salt & the common table. And upon Saint _Matthew_ speaking of _Judas_, he had not (saith he) any respect either to the remembrance of their common table, or to salt or bread which we did eat together. And _Lycophron_ in a poem of _Alexander_ called salt ἁγνίτης purifying and cleansing; alluding to that of _Euripides_, that the sea washeth away all faults from men, for that the sea which the _Pythagoreans_ because of its bitternesse and saltnesse, call it _Saturnes_ tears, and a fift Element, and is nothing but salt dissolved in water. And certes it is a thing very admirable, the great quantity that there is of salt; sith that we hold it for an infallible maxime, that God & Nature made nothing in vain. For besides that there is found thereof in the earth, part in liquor which they scum off, part in yce, as at _Halle_ in _Saxony_, and at _Barre_ in _Provence_, part in hard rocks, as in _Teplaga_ a land of Negroes, where they carry it more then two hundred miles off upon their heads, and transport from hand to hand by relayes, even to the Kingdome of _Tombur_, serving for money that passeth for currant in all those quarters, as it doth also in the Province of _Caindu_ in East Tartarie. According to _Marc. Pole_ in his 2 book, 38 chap. and also that if they have it not for all purposes in their mouths, their gums rot, because of the extream heats that raign there, accompanied with corrupting Moorish moistures; for which reason they must hold thereof continually moistening it with a thing that doth hinder putrefaction.

I have many times made triall very exactly, that of Sea-water, men make or draw more then halfe of salt, causing the fresh water that is therein, sweetly to evaporate away; what an enormous quantity then would there remaine of salt, if the fresh substance of the Sea were there from extracted? There are no sands or deserts, of what long extenditure soever, that can compare therewith, not by the 2. thousand part; for many men would equall, yea preferre the Sea in quantity and greatness unto the earth. We must not here dwell long on particularities that concerne salt. _Plinie_ in his 35. Book _Chap._ 7. The greatest part depending upon nothing but hearesay, for all tend to no other thing, but in the first place to shew that there are two sorts of salt (as tis true) Naturall, and Artificiall. The Naturall growes in flakes, or in a rock by it selfe, within the earth, as is aforesaid: the Artificiall is made with sea-water, or with liquor, as a pickle drawne out of salt pits, as they doe in _Lorrain_, and the _French_ County of _Burgundie_: which they boyle and congeale upon the fire. He there sheweth many examples, and indeed those which are more difficult to beleeve: let the faith be on the sayers part, and among others of a certaine lake of _Tarentin_ in _Poville_, not deeper then the height of knees where water in summer time by the Suns heat is all converted into salt. And in the Province of _Babylon_, there growes a liquid _Bitumen_, a little thick, which they use in Lamps in stead of oile. This inflamable substance being stripped therefrom, there remaines salt, there under hidden: as indeed wee see it by experience that out of every thing that burns there may be salt extracted, but there doth not appear any thing therein but waterishnesse and inflamable unctuosity which must be taken away by fire, this done salt remains in the ashes. And this salt (saith _Geber_) in his testament retaines alwayes the nature and property of the thing from which it is extracted, if this be done in a close vessell that the spirits may not vapor away, for there would remaine that which the Gospell cals _sal infatuatum_, as we shall say hereafter.

[Sidenote: (_a_) The first receptacle or bond of salt water whereof salt is made.

(_b_)A trunck or pipe of wood through which sea-water passes, one of the last receptacles whereof salt is made.]

[Sidenote: High grounds or little hils raised by mens hands.]