ever to declare further the advantage and præcellency, that the white colour hath above the red, as to the Christian faith, designed by white water, Apoc. 4, & 6. & 15. 2. (In the middle of the Throne there was a Sea of Glasse, like unto Crystall,) far above the Judaicall faith, red, heat with rigour, and severity, designed by a pillar of fire, that in the night season conducted the Israelites through the Wildernesse, and the white cloud by day, Exod. 13. 21. In the secret Hebrew Theology, the red alwayes notes Gheburah, Austerity; and the white Ghedulah, or Mercy; Eliah was transported, and by force carried into heaven, in a fiery Chariot, drawne with the like horses. But in the transfiguration of our Saviour, Mat. 17. 2. His vestments became white as snow; and Apoc. 3. 6. The Elect are ever clothed in white; and in the 6. 11. speaking of the martyred Saints for the faith of their Redeemer, there was given unto every one of them white robes; Having set down a little before, that the Angell which had gotten the victory, and the Crowne, was mounted on a white horse, (as in the 19, and 20. the Throne of God is dressed with white) and hee that was mounted on the red horse, had a great bloudy sword in his hand, that one might massacre another. But yet more expresly in the first of Isaiah, Although your sins were as red as fine Scarlet, they should be as white as Snow. And further, though they were as red as crimson, they will become as white as wooll.

But some may say here are many things, which by little and little do turne us from our principall aime, and are as it were extravagant dresses. But not altogether, yet as to mount some sharpe precipice, wee must turne about to goe at more ease, to shunne cliffes and precipices: So are wee sometimes to make some small by-courses and digressions to facilitate our Theame. Rivers that goe turning are more commodious for Navigation, then those that runne impetuously one way downe.

There shall bee nothing at last (God willing) unprofitable, nor from the purpose. Then all this red and white, is but Fire and Water, the pillar of fire by night, and the white cloud by day; into which, as the Apostle saith, the people of the Jewes were baptized; and in this cloud the divine Wisdome established his Throne; that of the Law of Moses, this of grace; Fire and Salt. Zohar speaking of Moses his two first Tables, broken for the Idolatry of the Golden Calfe, with two pillars, the one of fire, representing naturall heate, by which all things are vivified; the other is water, that is radical moisture, which maintaineth life, (from which, that is not much different in the 15. of the Apoc. where it is said, that he saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire,) which radicall moisture was perverted and changed in the deluge by the universall inundation, so that it was not since so vigorous as before: but shall at last bee brought to extermination on all sides, at the end of time by a finall conflagration. The first mutation shall meet with some mercy, the race of mankinde being at that time not wholly extinct, but the remainder was saved with Noah, and his in the Arke: but the second, shall have none, but all shall perish by the extreame rigour of fire: To the purpose of these two substances, the Assyrians and other people of the East adored Fire, as that which represented to them naturall heat, and the Ægyptians with all those on the South of Nilus, which is radicall moisture which goes to render it selfe into a Sea impregned with salt, to preserve it in the end from corruption: Now for this effect, all humours of animall bodies, bloud, spittle, urine, and the rest, are salted, without which, all would corrupt each other, in an instant: Behold the difference that there is in holy writ, that apply the meditations of things sensible to Sacramentall mysteries; and of ratiocinations of blinde Paganisme, who not turning it but above the barke, penetrate no further, then that which the uncertain and doubtful sense may make them comprehend, without passing further to the relation of divine things; where at last al must refer to spiritualty: resembling therein properly to the Ostrich, who beates sufficiently with the wing as if shee would mount to heaven, but yet her feet for all that, do not forsake the earth.

The Phœnician Theologie, admitted but of one Element, Fire, which is the principall and chief of all, the productor, and destroyer of all things: which doth not much disagree from that in the 118. Psal. is the fiery word by which times were formed. Heraclitus also puts fire, for the first substance that informed all, and from whence they drew all things from power into action, as well superiour, as inferiour, celestiall and terrestriall: For hot and cold, moist and dry, are not substances, but qualities and accidents; from whence naturall Philosophers forged four Elements, whereas according to verity there is but one; which according to the vestments that it receives from the accidentall qualitie, takes divers appellations. If from the heat, it is from the Aire; from moisture, Water; from drynesse, Earth; which three are but one fire, but reclothed with divers and different habits. Even as Fire extending it selfe in all, and through all; so all things come to render unto it, as to the center. So that it may be rightly called an infinite and indetermined vigour of nature, or rather the vivification thereof, for without it nothing could be comprehended, seen, or obtained, above or below; that which illightens is celestiall, that which concocts and digests Aereall, and that which burnes, is terrestriall; which cannot subsist without some grosse matter coming from the Earth, which he reduceth in the end to it selfe; as we may see in things burned, converted to ashes, from whence after the extraction of Salt, rests nothing but pure earth. Salt being a potentiall fire, and waterish, that is to say, terrestriall water, impregned with fire; from whence all sorts of mineralls, come to production, for they are of the nature of Water. The experiment may bee seene in strong Waters, all composed of minerall Salts, Alums, Saltpeters, which burne as Fire: which produceth hot and dry exhalations agitated with winds, easie to take flame, also of flints, of Iron, and of Wood, and of scraped bones, especially those of a Lion, as saith Pliny: whence we may gather that there is potentiall fire in all.

Not without cause then did Pythagoras, after Moses, ordaine not to speake of God, or divine things, without fire: for of all things sensible, there is nothing that symbolizeth, or more corresponds with Divinity then Fire: Aristotle writing to Alexander related unto him, that hee had learned of the Brachmans, that there was a fift Element or Essence, which is fire, wherein the Divinity resides: because it is the noblest, and purest of all the Elements; and that which purgeth all things according to Zoroastes: Plutarch alledgeth that this Divinity is a spirit of a certaine intellectuall fire, that hath no forme, but transformes