the Doctrine of the Hetrurians It is not beleeveable that Moses so deare and and welbeloved of God and so illustrated with his inspirations whence proceeded all the documents that he left and so hot a persecutor of Idolatries and Ethnique superstitions that hee would borrow any thing from them But more likely that the Devils instigations who makes himselfe alwayes as his Creators ape to make himselfe to idolize was willing to divert those sacred mysteries to their abusive impieties according to which Josephus against Appion and Saint Jerome against Vigilantius doe very well sute so that as in the Judaicall Law they used no Sacrifices and oblations in Paganisme but they used Salt as Pliny witnesseth in 31. Book 7. Chap. Especially in holy things the authoritie of Salt is understood when none were made without a Salt Mill. Plato to Timaeus when in the medly and commixtion of the elements the composed is destitute of much water and of the more subtill parts of the earth water resting therein comes to bee halfe congealed saltnesse is there brought in which hardens it the more and so there is procreated a body of Salt communicated to the use of our life for as much toucheth the body and senses accommodated by the same meanes according to the tenor of the Law on that which depends the service of God as being sacred and agreeable to God wherefrom hee called it a body beloved of God for which Homer called it Divine whereof Plutarque in his 5. Booke of his Symposiaques 10. question renders many reasons and among others for that it symbolizeth with the soule that is of Divine nature and as long as it resides in the body keepes it from putrefaction as Salt doth dead flesh where it is brought in in stead of a soule that keepeth it from corruption whence some of the Stoicks would say that Hogs flesh of it selfe was dead and that a soule which was sowed therein in a manner of salt to conserve it longer exempt from putrefaction to which a soule was given for Salt Our Theologians say that the ceremony of putting Salt into water when they hallow it came from that which Elisha did 2 Kings 2.22 23. to sweeten the waters of Jericho by casting Salt upon the Spring And that notes the people which is designed by water many waters are many Nations were sanctified must teach us by the Word of God what Salt signifies with the bitternesse and repentance that men should have for offending God as water also doth the confession as well of faith as of sinnes Of the commixtion of these two salt and water proceeds a double fruit to separate from ill doing and convert to good workes And for that repentance for sinne ought to precede auricular confession which repentance is denoted by the bitternesse of salt they blesse it also before water It is also taken for wisedome You are the salt of the earth and have salt in your selves And because that in all their ancient Sacrifices they used salt from thence it came that in Baptisme they put salt in the mouth of the Creature before it is baptized with water for that it cannot yet actually have the mystery of salt applyed for the present 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 life 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
earth the sensible Each of them is subdivided into two in every case I speake not but after Zohar and the ancient Rabbins The intelligible into Paradise and Hell and the sensible to the Celestiall and Elementary world Upon this passage Origen makes a faire discourse at the entry on Genesis that God first made the heaven or the intelligible world following that which is spoken in the 66. of Esay Heaven is my seat and Earth my footstoole Or rather it is God in whom the world dwelleth and not the world which is Gods habitation For in him we live Act. 17.28 move and have our being for the true seat and habitation of God is his proper essence and before the Creation of the World as Rabbi Eliezer sets downe in his Chapteâ—s there was nothing but the essence of God and his name which are but one thing Then after the heaven or the intelligible world Origen pursues God made the Firmament that is to say this sensible world for every body hath I know not what firmnesse and solidity and all solidity is corporal and as that which God proposed to make consisteth of Body and of Spirit for this cause it is written that God first made the Heaven that is to say all spirituall substance upon which as upon a certaine throne hee reposeth himselfe The Firmament for our regard is the body which Zohar calleth the Temple and the Apostle also Yee are Gods Temple 1 Cor. 3.17 And the Heaven which is spirituall is our soule and the inner man the Firmament is the externall that neither seeth nor knoweth God but sensibly So that man is double an animall and spirituall body the one Internall Spirituall Invisible that which Saint Marke in this place designeth for man the other Externall Corporall Animal which he denotes by the Sacrifice which comprehendeth not the things that are of the Spirit of God but the Spirituall discerneth all So that the exteriour man is an animal compared to brute beasts whereout they tooke their offerings for Sacrifices He is compared to foolish Beasts and is made like them for a man hath no more then a Beast we must understand the Carnall and Animall that consists of this visible body that dyeth as well as Beasts are corrupt and returne to Earth Whence Plato said very well that which is seene of man is not man properly And in the first of Alcibiades yet more distinctly that Man is I know not what else then his body namely his soule as it followes afterwards That which Cicero borrowed out of Scipio's dreame But understand it thus that thou art not mortall but this body thou art not that which this forme declares but every mans minde is himselfe not that figure which may be demonstrated by the finger And the Philosopher Anaxarchus while the Tyrant Nicocreon of Cyprus caused him to be brayed in a great Marble Morter cried out with a loud voice Stampe hard bruise the barke of Anaxarchus for it is not him that thou stampest But will it be permitted for me here to bring something of Metubales All that is is either Invisible or Visible Intellectuall or Sensible Agent and Patient Forme and Matter Spirit and Body the Interiour and the Exteriour man Fire and Water that which seeth and that which is seen But that which seeth is much more excellent and more worthy then that which is seen and there is nothing that seeth but the invisible where that which is seene is as a blind thing therefore Water is a proper and serviceable subject over whom the Fire or Spirit may out-stretch his action Also he hath elevated it for his habitation and residence for by introducing it he elevates it on high in the nature of Aire contiguous unto it which invisible Spirit of the Lord was carryed on the waters or rather did sit over tâ—e waters did see the visible moved the immoveable for water hath no motion of it selfe there is none but Aire and Fire that have and speake by the Organs of one that is dumb for as when by our winde and breath filling a pipe or flute we make it sound though never so mute This Body and Spirit water and fire are designed unto us by Cain and Abel the first Creatures of all others engendred of the seed of man and woman and by their Sacrifices whence those of Cain issuing from the fruits of the earth were by consequent corporall dead and inanimate and together destitute of faith which dependeth of the Spirit and are by Fire dissolved into a waterish vapour Pour le nouveau so that to go to finde it in its sphere and habitation for the newes we are to suffer thereunder But those of Abel were spirituall animate full of life that resides in the bloud full of piety and devotion This also Aben Ezra and the author of the Handfull of Myrrh call a fire descending from one above to regather them which happened not to those of Cain which a strange fire devoured and from thence was declared the exteriour man sensuall animall that must bee salted with Salt But Abel the interiour spirituall salted with Fire which is double the materiall and essentiall the actuall and potentiall as it is in burnings All what is sensible and visible is purged by the actuall and the invisible and intelligible by the spiritual and potentiall Saint Ambrose on the Treatise of Isaac and of the Soule What is man the soule of him or the flesh or the assembly of those two for the clothing is one thing and the thing clothed another Indeed there are two men I leave the Messibe apart Adam was made and formed of God in respect of the body of ashes and of earth but afterwards inspired in him the Spirit of Life if he had kept himselfe from misprision he was like unto Angels made participant of eternall beatitude but his transgression dispossessed him The other man is he which comes successively to be borne of man and woman who by his originall offence is made subject to death to paines travails and diseases therefore must hee returne from whence he came But touching the soule that came from God it remains in its free will if it will adhere to God it is capable to bee admitted into the ranke of his children who are borne not of blood nor of the will of the flesh Joh. 1.13 nor of the will of man but of God Such was Adam before his first transgression The soule then which is the inner man spirit and the very true man which liveth properly for the body hath no life of it selfe nor motion and is nothing else but as it were the barke and clothing of the inner man according to Zohar alledging that out of the 10 of Job 11. Thou hast clothed me with skinne and flesh whereunto that in the 6. of S. Matthew seemeth to agree where to shew us how much the soule ought to bee in greater recommendation then the body as more worthy and
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 man 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 he 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 ia 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