very man shall be salted with Fire and every Sacrifice shall be salted with Salt, Mark. 9. 49. Wee have already spoken of Fire, Salt remaineth, of which there is no lesse to say. But it is strange that the Ceremonies of Paganisme, should be found in this respect, and many other in Mosaicall Traditions; Fire shall alwayes burne on the Altar; Lev. 6. 12, 13, The Priest shall burne wood thereon every morning, &c. And in the 2. 13. Thou shalt season with salt all the Oblations of thy Sacrifices; and thou shalt not forget to put the salt of Gods Covenant under them; with all thy Offerings thou shalt offer Salt, which Salt Numb. 18 19. called the everlasting Covenant before God to Aaron and his sonnes. And Pythagoras in his Symboles, ordaines not to speak of God without light, and to apply Salt in all Sacrifices and Oblations. And not onely Pythagoras, but also Numa, which most part of men, hold to have been 100 years before Pythagoras, instituted the same according to the Doctrine of the Hetrurians. It is not beleeveable that Moses so deare 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 Timæus, 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 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.
The best salt then that may be, and the wholesomest, is that which is made with sea-water in Brouage. And after the example thereof, that the trough throughout, where the salt water is made of clay or glue, as potters earth: and that whereof tiles is made; furthermore you must courry this trough by Artifice that it drink not, nor suck up the water which men draw therefrom, which is done by beating it with a great number of Horses, Asses, and Mullets, tied one to another that they may trample thereon, so long that it be firme and solid, as a certain barns flore to thresh wheate. This done, and having hollowed the channels, to put in the water, then we must have a care that the salt-pans be something lower then the Sea (Plinie in his 2. Book Chap. 106. (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. sets downe that salt cannot be made without fresh water) they set in the first place a great receptacle where they draw the water which is called the (a) Jard: and at the end thereof a sluce by which having applyed thereunto below a hanch with a stopple called the (b) Amezau, they make the water run from the Jard into Parquets, which they cal Couches, & of these Couches giving thereto a requisite hanging, by other stopples, 2. in number, called the gate of the Poelles, which are therein enchased within other Parquets called soldering or planching with boord, windings and means to make the water turne, by divers windings and channels almost after the manner of a Labyrinth, which it doth for a great way before it come to render it self at last, within the Parquets and hollowes where the salt must be congealed: alwayes diminishing the quantity of water, that the Sun-beames have therein more action, and that it be better warmed before it enter the floores, where it makes its finall congelation. But to come thereunto by certaine degrees, and proportionate measures, there are throughout the Palles which they lift up and downe as those of a mill. All the earth that remaineth, which men draw by the Parquets and the flores they Arrange about them as a Trench or rampart, which is called Bassis of the convenient breadth, to passe two horses a front; High grounds or little hils raised by mens hands. which serves as well to retaine the water, as to put upon the heaps of salt, made and congealed, called Vaches, and to come and goe as upon a dike, or causway from one marish to another, to lade and carry upon the beasts of carriage of the vessels which attend there neer to the shore: In the winter they content themselves with bulrushes which they sell afterwards very well for the profit they draw from them: and that for fear of rains and snows, and other aereall moistures, that moisten then anew. And all the risings are so oblique, and turning, that for a mile travers of right way, wee must make 7. or 8. so that being therein once cast a little on, one may lose himselfe, which knew not the addresses, or had not a good guide, by reason of the turnings and bridge-ponts, that men must goe to make choice of, to passe from one place to another. And it would be very hard to make thereof a Chart or description, principally in winter, where all is well-nigh covered with water, & yet more to enter in by a strong hand, for conservation of these salt pits every year, after the heats are over, the Sun not being able to make it, but in the Months of May, June, July, and August, the salt makers doe use to open certaine Bonds, to suffer the sea-water to enter till all the formes and Parquets be covered, otherwise the frosts would destroy them: that if while the salt freezeth or creameth there come any rain, it is so great a retardment (and for fifteen dayes at the least) we must empty al the water out of the Parquets, that the rain had altered, and therefore in rainy and cold years, they can very hardly make it.
In this regard, I come to remember an experiment that I have tried more then once, which gave me to think whether it were Aristotle, I tooke eight or ten pound of common grosse salt, which I made to dissolve in hot water, scumming the froth which may be there, and being left to settle, I put the clear by inclination in a caldron over the fire, where I made all the water evaporate, so that the salt remained in the bottome, white as snow: then I endeavoured to dry it in a pot, giving it at last a good estret of fire for four or five houres, when it was cold I parted it into four platters of Beuvais to shorten and gain time, in fair weather at a window where the Sunne came not, and did choose a moist time to facilitate the dissolution, recollecting every morning that which was resolved in water, so long, that at the end of seven or eight dayes the salts dissolution was perfected, nothing remaining but I know not what thicknesse or slime, in a small quantity which I set apart, I put all my dissolutions into Cornues & distilled all the water which could mount, being very fresh, for the saltnesse did not ascend, but remained fixt in the bottome of the vessell, and gave at last a good estret of fire, with staves of Cotteret, having broken the Cornues: I put the salt that therein remained congealed to dissolve in moisture as before, till there remained nothing but grossenesse and slime as in the former I distilled that which ascended from the water, and reiterated all those Regiments till all my salt was resolved and distilled into salt water, that which came the seven or eight time. The slime I washed well with water, to extract what might bee the Remainder of saltnesse; and so recalcined and washt them till there rested nothing but slime or pure earth without tast. Of this little salt that I had extracted, I did as I had done with others, so that all my salt, without losing any of its substance, went away in sweet water, and in this insensible slime, which came at last to one or two ounces. What then became of the saltnesse of this salt? Certes herein I have lost all my Latine, and know not what to say thereof, only it is gone in verity as I say: If any one would untie this knot, would indeed do me a great pleasure: I will leave it to mix with others, to come to the particular praises of salt, without which, saith Plinie, we could not live civilly. All the grace, gentility, ornament, pleasures and delights of humane life, cannot bee better expressed then by this word; which extends also to the pleasures of the soul, the sweetnesse and tranquillity of life, and to a Soveraign rejoycing and repose of all troubles and sorrows. It renews the pricks and amorous desires to beget its like, and hath obtained this honorable quality of Souldiers, and of pleasant and witty words, and joyous meetings, without hurt to any; from whence it should be called the Graces. According to which St. Paul saith in the 4 to the Col. 6. Let your speech be alwaies with grace, seasoned with salt. And in the end it is the seasoning of all our viands, which without it would remain unsavoury and without tast. So that it is said to right sense in the common proverb, there is nothing more profitable then the sun and salt. So Plinie discourseth thereof, in the place alledged, and Plutarch in his book and 4 question of his Symposiacques, without salt we can eat nothing agreeable to the tast, for bread it self is more savoury if it be mingled therewith: therefore ordinarily in Churches and covering of tables, they couple Neptune with Ceres, for salt things are as if it were an allurement and a spur to excite appetite: So that before any other nouriture wee take that which is sharp and salt, whereas, if they begin with others they would incontinently prostrate themselves. That which hath no tast can it be eaten without Salt? Job. 6. 6. Salt also renders drink more delicious, and it is of infinite other uses and commodities of life, that holds more of man; whereas the privation thereof, makes it brutall. It is furthermore a mark and symbole of Justice, because it guards and conserves that to which it is introduced and fastened. Of Amity also, and Gratitude, sutable to that in the first of Esdras chap. 4. where the Lieutenants of King Artaxerxes writ to him in this manner. We remember the salt thou gavest us in thy Palace, we would not fail to advertise thee faithfully of what shall come to our knowledg concerning the service of thy highness.
Salt being there put for one of the greatest obligations that can be had, because it is a thing pure, neat, holy and sacred, which men first set on the table. So that Æschines in his prayer of the ill administred Ambassie, makes great account of salt, and a publick table, of one City confederate with another. And indeed there is nothing more permanent nor more fixt in the fire, nor more approaching to its nature, because it is mordicant, sharp, tart, cutting, subtill, penetrative, pure and neat, fragrant, incombustible and incorruptible. Yea, that which preserves all things from corruption, & by its preparations makes it self clear, crystalline, and transparent as Air; for glasse is nothing else then a most fixt salt that may be extracted from all sorts of ashes, and of some nearer then of others; but it is not so dissoluble into moisture as common salt; nor that which is extracted out of ashes by way of lee, which is liquid with it by strong expressions of fire, which are notwithstanding two contrary resolutions, and resisting one the other: chiefly afterward from all liquid humidity, unctuous but inconsumptible. It is moreover the first originall as well of mineralls as of stones, and pretious stones, yea of all other mineralls. Likewise of vegetables and of Animalls, whose blood and urinall humour, and all other substance is salted, to preserve it from putrefaction: and in generall, from all mixed and composed Elements; which is herein verified that they resolve themselves into it, so that it is as the other life of all things; and without it saith the Philosopher Morien, nature can no wayes work, nor can any other thing be ingendred, according to Raimund Lullus in his testament. Whereunto all chymicall Philosophers doe adhere; that nothing hath been created here below, in the Elementary part better, nor more pretious then salt.