Discovrse of Fire and Salt

YTHAGORAS who of all Pagans was undoubtedly, by common consent and approbation, held to have made more profound search, and with less incertainty penetrated into the secrets as well of Divinity, as of Nature, having quaffed full draughts from the living source of Mosaicall Traditions, amid'st his darke sentences, where, according to the Letter, he touched one thing, and mystically understood and comprised another; (wherein he imitates the Ægyptians and Chaldæans, or rather, the Hebrewes, from whence all theirs proceeded) he here sets downe these two: Not to speake of God without Light; and to apply Salt in all his Sacrifices and Offerings; which he borrowed word for word from Moses, as we shall hereafter declare. For our intention is here to Treat of Fire and of Salt. And that upon the 9. of Saint Marke, ver. 49. Every man shall[Pg 2] be salted with Fire, and every Sacrifice shall be salted with Salt. Wherein foure things come to be specified, Man, and Sacrifice, Fire, and Salt; which yet are reduced to two, comprehending under them, the other two; Man and Sacrifice, Fire and Salt; in respect of the conformitie they beare each to other.