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 Messihe 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, Joh. 1. 13. who are borne not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, 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 pretious; our Saviour saith, Take no care then how to cloth your body, is not your body better then raiment? and by consequent, the soule more then the body, since the body is but as it were the vestment of the soule, which is subject to perish, and to use, (all shall wax old as doth a garment.) And the Apostle in the 1 to the Corinthians, The old man falleth away, but the inner man is renewed dayly; for it washeth it selfe (according to Zohar) by the fire, as doth a Salamander, and the outward man by water, with Soaps and Lees that consist of Salts. Of which two manners of repurging, it is thus said in the 31. of Numb. v. 23. All that which shall support the fire, shall be purged thereby, and that which cannot beare it, shall be sanctified by the water of Purification; which was a figure of that which the Fore-runner spake in the 3. of Matthew, It is true that I baptize you with water unto repentance, but he that comes after mee, shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with Fire.

But behold how Zohar speakes more particularly. If it bee so, Adam what is he? it is nought but skin, and flesh, and bones, and nerves, he must not passe so. But to speak truth, man is nothing else, but the immortall soule that is in him; and the skinne, flesh, bloud, bones, and nerves, are the vestments wherein it is wrapped, as a little creature newly borne within the beds and linnen of its Cradle: These are but the utensils, and instruments allotted to womens children, not to man or Adam; for when this Adam so made, was elevated out of this world, he is devested of those instruments, wherewith he had beene clothed and accommodated. This is the skinne wherewith the Son of man is envelopped with flesh, bones, and nerves; and this consisteth in the secret mystery of Sapience, according to that which Moses taught in the Curtains or Vails of the Tabernacle, which are the inward vestment, and the Tabernacle the outward: To this purpose, the Apostle in the fifth of the 2 to the Corinthians, saith, We know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved, we have an Ædifice not built with mans hand, but eternally permanent in the high Heavens. For in this we groane, earnestly desiring to bee clothed upon, with our house which is from heaven, if so be, that being clothed wee shall not bee found naked. So Adam in respect of his body, is a representation of the sensible world; where his skinne corresponds with the Firmament, extending heaven like a Curtaine. For as the heaven covereth and enveloppeth all things, so doth the skin every man; in which, are introduced and fastned its starres and signes, that is to say, the draughts and lineaments in the hands, the forehead, and visage, in which wise men know and reveale, and makes them discerne the inclination of its naturall, imprinted in the inward; And he that doth conjecture from thence, is as he, to whom heaven being covered with Clouds, cannot perceive the constellations that are there, or otherwise darkened from his sight. And although the sagest and most expert in these things can finde out something therein denoted by the draughts and lineaments of the palme of the hand, and fingers, or within them; for by the outside, (it is case a part) and shew nothing, but the nailes which are not a little secret and mystery, because by death they are obfuscate, but have a shining lustre while they live, in the haire, eyes, nose, and lips, and all the rest of his person. For as God hath made the Sunne, Moone, and Stars, thereby to declare to the great World, not only the day, night, and seasons, but the change of times, and many signes that must appeare in the earth. So hath he manifested in the little world Man, certaine draughts and lineaments, holding place of lights and starres, whereby men may attaine to the knowledge of very great secrets, not common, nor knowne of all. Hence is it that the Intelligences of the superiour world do distill and breath as it were, by some channels their influences, whereby the effects come to struggle and accomplish their effects here below, as of things drawn with a rude and strong bow, will plant themselves within a Butt, where they rest themselves.

But to retake the discourse of this double man, and the vestment of him, the Apostle in the 1 Cor. 15. saith, That there are bodies Celestial, and bodies Terrestrial, yet there is a glory both of the one, and of the other. There is a naturall, or animall body, and there is a body spirituall: he will raise up the spirituall body incorruptible; To this relates the Fire, to the corruptible Salt.

From these vestments furthermore the occasion presents it selfe to a larger extension, the better to declare who must be seasoned with Fire, and who with Salt; which is here expressed by the offering, to whom the exteriour doth correspond, according to the Apostle, Rom. 12. I pray you brethren, by the mercy of God, that you offer up your bodies a living Sacrifice, holy, and acceptable unto him, which is your reasonable service: which it could not make it selfe the habitation of the Holy Ghost, if it were not pure, neat, and incontaminate. Know you not that your Body is the Temple of the holy Spirit which is in you? which in Scripture is commonly designed by fire, with which wee must be salted inwardly, that is to say, preserved from corruption; and from what corruption? from sinne that putrifies our soules. Origen in his 7. book against