Knowledge reform us to God's Image and are that Knowledge of God which makes our Salvation and constitutes true Wisdom To do Judgement and Justice is to know me saith the Lord Jerem. 22. 15 16. And contrary wise to do evil and forbear to do good Works is not to know God Chap. 9.3 1 Sam. 2 12. Having seen that the Kingdom of God or the Salvation of Man consists in Wisdom and also the Quid or what Wisdom or God's Knowledge is It is time to enquire the Per quid or by what means it comes and is obtained The Scriptures say That Wisdom is God's Gift that he send it and that out of his Mouth comes Knowledge and Vnderstanding Prov. 2.6 Job 32.8 James 1.5 17. For indeed no other thing but the Inspiration or Breath of the Almighty the Spiraculum Vitae which he breathed at first into the first Mans Nostrils Gen. 2.7 and is the Lamp of the Lord Prov. 20. 27. can reform Mankind again to God's Image in Knowledge or give him that Breath of Life which his Fall bereft him of The Text saith Nischmah Chajim that is to say Breath of Lives because when Man is born again of the Holy Ghost he lives of a threefold Life to wit Divine Natural and that which he hath common with the Beasts from the Spirit of the World and from the Stars Now what can that Breath of God be but his Holy Spirit who is the good Gift of God Luke 11.13 with Matth. 7 11. which he bestows on Mankind To guide him into all Truth John 16.13 And to teach him all things Chap. 14.26 both Natural and Divine the word all comprehending Omnia Scibilia and chiefly natural things as being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is standing more open and exposed to our Senses and Contemplation John. 3.12 Rom. 1.20 than the Divine Mysteries For in this Spirit consists the Kingdom of God it self Chap. 14.7 or Salvation or Wisdom and without him Man remains still in his outward Darkness is still a natural Man Job 11.12 Whose Reason cannot fathom either the things of Nature or of the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 2.14 till by being born again of Water he becomes fit for the Birth of this Spirit which makes him again of that brutish Man he was become an Angelical Creature Luke 20.36 or as Wise as the Angels and Adam before he fell Therefore when Christ the express Image of God Heb. 1.3 came to save or to reform Man again he breathed on his Disciples they that learn of him saying Receive ye the Holy Ghost Joh. 20.22 to shew us that he saves Man by Inspiring into him the same former Breath which God breathed into his Nostrils this Inspiration being the only means of Wisdom which he really gives to him and not as the Priests of Rome do when they Baptize Children or rather when they Ape Christ by repeating of his words and acting this part of his History in the Baptism There is a Spirit in Man which is like a smoaking Flax fit to catch at this new Flame and the Inspiration of the Almighty saith one of Job's Friends Job 32.8 is that which gives Man Light or Understanding And because it is God's Gift therefore all the True Christians are said to be Taught of God John 6.45 and to be made by Christ Priests 1 Pet. 2.5 Revel 1.6 that is able to teach themselves For Teaching under the Law was the Office of the Priests Ezek. 44.23 Mal. 2.7 Whence Christ saith Matth. 23.10 That they have but one Master to wit himself Then when they have received this Spirit and not before they are the Anointed ones that is True Christians indeed for it is the true Unction or the true Oyl of Gladness whereof that which Kings and Priests were of old Anointed with was a Sign or Sacrament because Oyl is all Spirit or the most Spiritual part of all Concretes in the World. And are said to know all things 1 John 2.20 and not to need to be taught any thing of any Man verse 27. So that they need not Travel from home into far Countreys nor to the Academies to confer with the learned for God finds Fault with such means Jer. 23.30 Isa 29.13 and shews we must pass from them Cant. 3.4 to find what the Soul loves best its Summum Bonum Wisdom no Doctors though never so Learned being capable to give it or procure it for any besides themselves Because seeing God gives it they have it not in their gift nay because they seek for Fame and Applause John 5.44 and for Riches and Greatness or Preserment instead of Tribulation which the Disciples of christ should look after in the world chap. 16.33 and thus as saith Jeremy 5.5 break the yoke and burst the bonds they have it not for themselves Isa 29.14 Matth. 11.25 and therefore rather abuse the poor Soul smite it wound it take from it its smoking flax Cant. 5.7 than give it any new light it is but in vain for us to hope for any from them and very absurd to look for our Felicity Wisdom from their Predicables Non est qui sustentet qui conducat eam inter omnes filios quos genuit nutrit There is not one capable to feed guide and hold her up in all the Armies of Sons whereof see Luke 21.20 with Matth. 24.15 which she hath bred and brought forth saith the Prophet Isaiah 51.18 20 when he saw in the spirit the state of the present Church And yet they all say we see John 9.41 so much its desolation is become abominable The word of wisdom alone which is nigh in our hearts Luke 17.21 Rom. 10.8 springing up there like the seed left to it self in the ground and growing we know not how Mark 4.27 and which word is Christ himself Joh. 1.1 1 Cor. 1.24 being that which gives knowledge Blando sno susurro by his still small voice in us 1 Kings 19.12 even the Learned themselves of the world being Judges Deut. 32.31 for their own experience may if they please to think on 't abundantly convince them that they never come to know or to have any knowledge whil'st they go to hear others and till passing from that is ceasing from all School Learning and all things without themselves they retire in themselves and meditate by themselves like Isaac Gen. 24.63 and all wise men thus stirring up or making good use of the smoaking flax or spirit which is in them 2 Tim. 1.6 and of which all Mankind hath enough to profit withal 1 Cor. 12.7 Matth. 25 15. Having fully proved that this Spirit must be had of all those who desire to have or obtain Wisdom that is to say Salvation I must here demonstrate to prevent an Objection that all Men may obtain it if they will but improve their Talent or Trade with it what I must do likewise by the means of the Scriptures The Scripture declares that God gives this spirit of wisdom to all
water being the true preparation or ordering of the Soul which in the 15th Page I promis'd to speak of For as good ground is made fit to receive and to retain the influence of Heaven or the Spirit that comes down from Heaven into the Air and the Water and the Earth the Scriptures call it the Dew and the Blessing from above Gen. 27 40-49.15 by its being frequently moistned with Rain or Water so our Souls become fit for the Blessing promised Joel 2.28 by being throughly water'd for the Water being void and empty as the Earth was Gen. 1.2 the Chymists call this nature of the Water and the Earth an Alkalick quality it is the sitter to draw and to impregnate it self with the Spirit from the Stars and so to nourish the Earth which is well watered with it by introducing this same starry Spirit into it So the Soul by reducing it self to water becomes void and empty like water that is void of all the cares and desires of this world and thereby is the sitter to be impregnated with the Spirit or the Seed of heavenly Bridgroom And wo be to them saith Christ Mat. 24.19 that are not so prepared but are already with Child and give suck about the time that the Bridegroom comes to them because they cannot go in with him to the Marriage Room and because the door is shut and can no more be opened chap. 25.10 that is they are so hardned that they become like Lot's Wise or to continue here the foregoing Metaphor become like some sort of ground which for lack of competent moisture turns to Sand and Dust and bears nothing but Bryers whose end is therefore to be burned as St. Paul affirms Hebr. 6.8 dry and bound like clods of earth or hard for want of moisture a desolate Wilderness Joel 2.3 yielding nothing but Bryers and even Dust and Ashes or such lixiviate Salt as is made out of Ashes or by Incineration that is a Salt Alkali So that Water or the Birth or the Baptism of Water is always like the Baptist the Forerunner of the Lord who comes in the cloudy sad mourning dark ignorant Souls by the light of his Spirit to revive and comfort them Whence according to St. John 5.6 he comes by Water and Blood that is Water and Spirit Blood being but a Compound of Water and of Spirit and so do all the Children of Adam when they are born to shew them that they must be born again of those two things I say that the Lord comes by his comforting Spirit because when that Spirit comes it is the coming of Christ promised John 14.18 28-16 22 or the Lord that comes himself Seeing that Jesus himself is he that 's sent saith Peter Acts 3.19 20-2 38 from the presence of the Lord to refresh or comfort Men or to be as St. John saith 14. 16. their Comforter for ever And therefore Christ is the same as the comforting Spirit and so the coming of this viz. of the Holy Spirit is the same as the second coming or coming again or the manifestation of Christ himself promised John 14.18 21. Concerning which see Math. 16.28 with Mark 9.1 and Luke 9 27-24.49 Gal. 1. 15 16. And I say that he comes into the sad cloudy Souls for as the Lightning saith he Math. 24.27 30. appeareth out of tho East and shineth even unto the West so shall the coming of the Son of Man happen in the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory For these two Verses may be applied to the said coming of Christ by the Holy Ghost Christ having respect therein to the Disciples question proposed in the 3d Verse concerning his coming again in his day Luke 17.24 that is when he should be revealed ver 30. or should come in his Kingdom Matth. 16.28 though perhaps they might not then understand it in this sense but took it as Men now do as thô it were meant only of his third and last coming viz. at the end of the world Which Answer of Christ sets forth the manner of his Coming and the qualification of the thing which he comes to to wit the cloudy or sad and dark or ignorant Souls which are the Clouds of Heaven hiding Heaven within them Luke 17.21 from the sight of other People For as the Lightning breaks out of the dark thick gloomy Clouds shining through them for a time then the Cloud closeth again so doth his Coming appear in the dark sorrowful Souls John 16.20 22. like a flash of Lightning or sudden Coruscation breaking out of their darkness 2 Cor. 4.6 and opening as it were the Cloud that envelops them then shuts it self up again and so continueth to do with many Men for sometime till at last dissipating the darkness altogether it comes to shine through and through the Sphere or the whole Body Mat. 6.22 thus shining from East to West all the Hemisphere over as it hapned unto Christ as his Transfiguration and as it is and will be with all the Saints in Glory who are represented therefore with beams about them because they shine like the Stars and dart out like the Sun their beams on every side Dan. 12.3 Matth. 13.43 For a remembrance of which slashing or coruscation and of the manner of it the Bishops wear a Mitre bearing the shape of a Flame or else of those cloven Tongues which were like as of Fire Acts 2.30 to signifie the opening of the dark clouds in man's head and the cleaving as it were of the sutures in the Scull and man's communication through this cleft part with Heaven which Mitre they assum'd first when this flashing or lightning began to cease in the Church lest the remembrance it self of it should be lost also But that it closeth not up as the Crown of a King doth signified that their flashing did not shine through on all sides that it was but beginning or just breaking out in them and that it continued not with them as with crowned Heads and therefore that they ought not to pretend to and ascribe to themselves so much honour in the Church as Kings may do and consequently much less than they in temporal things especially seeing that the Kingdom of Christ witness himself John 18.36 is not of this world And hence it may be gather'd that the Church was yet modest when they begun to wear it But now the Mitre is got higher than the Crown itself and lords it over Princes and Kings both in Church and State. Which is not well done my Sons my incorrigible Sons would old Eli say to them 1 Sam. 2.24 if he were alive again you ought not thus to break Christ's Yoke and to burst his Bonds if you will be his Disciples or his true Church in England and you may chance to pay for it if you hearken not to the voice of your Father ver 25. For he that being often reproved hardneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy Prov. 3
of his will to that of God Matth. 6.39 42. all the while he was sighting and bearing this chastisement Isa 53.5 that is by his becoming like the Child in Isaiah 9.6 Matth. 18.3 He overcame and became the wonderful mighty Prince and Champion in our Battels so we to imitate him in this part of his Passion and of his Resignation must sight like him and go through the Red Sea of our Blood that bearing through this great Gulph of God's vengeance and wrath we may become with him and with Jacob Gen. 33.28 Kings Princes and mighty Champions in God Rev. 1.6 Without blood our High Priest went not into the second or most Holy Tabernacle Hebr. 9.7 8. Without Bloodshed a Virgin cannot be impregnated so likewise a Virgin Soul that is which is not with Child Matth. 24.19 but is become Christ's chaste Dove Cant. 5.2 or as void of any form Imagery or Idols of the heart as the water cannot be impregnated with the spirit from on high without first spilling her blood or which is all one Gen. 9.4 losing her own life which is therein nor enter into the most holy Mansions this Spirit doth make in the Father's house John 14.2 according as he allays and satiates the Father 's Fire in the Souls of Men but by her own blood like Christ Hebr. 9.12 and by offering herself wholly as that Sacrifice which was to be wholly burned or consumed by Fire Levit. 1.9 Judgment saith 1 Pet. 4.17 begins at the House of God that is at the Believers By Fire and by his Sword the Lord will plead with all flesh and the slain of the Lord who are the chosen of God shall not be few but many Isa 66.16 To conclude as in Nature Life begins in the Fire and is fully perfected in the Light as I said all taking the beginning of its Life or of Motion from Heat by Fermentation the Light itself which is Life or the perfection of Life coming out of the Fire and subsisting no where one moment without Fire so in Divine Things also For Deus est ubique semper sibi similis God acts in all things alike Our Divine or New Life must begin at the Fire and we must return unto the Rock from which we were hewed and whence all things take their Birth and Motion and Duration Our Life must take from thence its first Principle of Motion which Motion is to be quell'd again by pouring water abundantly upon it that being kindled anew by some extraordinary spark of Grace which like Leaven added to Meal or Liquors sets them in Fermentation Matth. 13.31 33. it may ferment or be set in a hot burning Fever till it hath purged itself of its filth or of its Dross as doth refined Silver or Gold upon the Cupel and does thereby become pure and capable to abide with the devouring Fire or live for ever with God Isa 33.14 For as a Cordial given to a Patient who labours under some great Infection that hath invaded his Life sets him first in a great heat or hot Fit till Life helped by the strength of the Physick and by some drink given him at that time that comforts him overcomes its Enemy and drives it away by sweat So this Spark setting the Soul on Fire for a good while brings a hot Fit upon it and burns it so that it longs after nothing but Moisture Luke 16.24 which as soon as it is sent to it by the Refresher it draws so vehemently that it falls into that state which in a Chymical sense may be properly called Deliquium animae that is the Soul giving or melting into water or else drinking in the way Psal 110 7. of the same Brook as Christ did Matth. 20.23 that is of an absolute Resignation to God's Will Matth. 26.39 42. and receiving from this Cup some comfort and refreshment it is enabled to swear or to master and expel the strange Fire of those Lusts which by infecting of it had been the occasion of this preternatural Burning or Fermentation and to dip itself at last into a Flood of water whereof the Flood of Noah saith Peter 1 Epist 3.21 was a Figure and thus to be baptized with the same Baptism as Christ was Hence Physicians learn to give your Patients Drink when they are in a hot burning Fever And you Physicians of Souls help to set yours in this Life into a hot burning Fit and for Drink leave them to Christ for you cannot give it them till you have got some your selves The Jews have a Tradition that the Messiah's days will be a time of Weeping Fasting and Tribulation yet like our Lip-Christians who crack of the Law of Grace and understand it no more than the Wife of Zebedee Mat. 20.20 they look for Ease in those days whereas Ease is not the way leading to Eternal Life Matth. 7.13 In this world saith Christ to them who do really learn of him you shall have Tribulation John 16.33 And verily you shall weep and lament saith he ver 20 21 22. to all Mark 13.22 But the world shall rejoice and ye shall be sorrowful as a woman in travail but I 'll see you again and your heart shall rejoice because you are by this Birth deliver'd as a travailing Woman of a new Creature For by much Tribulation we get into God's Kingdom Acts 14.22 the entrance into Life being through this narrow gate which as it is known but to very few but few go through Matth. 7.14 Yet God would have us to be saved by going through it out of the House of Bondage the feverish and oppressive Infection of our Sins as did the old Israel our Type out of Egypt called the Iron Furnace Deut. 4.20 which burns the fiercest of all and passing through the Red Sea and then living as he did in the Desart 40 years that is as having no hope of any thing in the world all the time of our Life 40 Years being the time of most Mens Life in this world and being for 40 days tempted with Moses and Christ in the Desart of this world with Hunger Thirst Want Contempt and Sickness and Misery to answer the 40 days of Plenty Glory Pleasures wherein Adam was tempted in the Garden of Eden For so long he was tempted by the desire he had to have the world at his Will and to dispose of it independently from God and so long he was courted by the world which would have him for its own before he fell For thô he was in the world yet he was not of the world and he lived out of it in quite another principle or state viz. in that Heaven wherein the Son of Man was thô he was come down from thence John 3.33 as yet the love of the world had not captivated him And wo be to him that dies with Adam in those pleasures 1 Tim. 5.6 or in the Wilderness the dry place which Christ speaks of Matth. 12.43 with the People of Israel before the
purified and exalted by frequent Inhumations and Dippings in the water without perceptible heat which in the birth of Water cannot but be offensive For thô the Chymists calcine or burn their things with Fire yet the Wisemen ever did burn or calcine with Water and they cry tere tere imbibe imbibe But when this outward Principle the World shall be totally deliver'd from the Bondage and Curse of its Corruption the density compactness and hardness of its Body into the glorious liberty of God's Children a thin transparent Body and so shall pass from this kind of Being to a new one then it shall again go thrô the fierceness of the Fire then the Elements shall melt with fervent heat saith Peter 2.3 10. and the Earth shall be burnt up and shall be with the waters reduced again into a glorious Quintessence on which the ransomed of the Lord shall stand with songs and with joy upon their heads Rev. 15.2 Isa 35.10 Matth. 5.5 As there are three distinct kinds of Lives as I have said already in the Twelfth Page all created things live of and are as by so many Classes distinguished by and comprehended under as so many Species under their Genus or Kind so there be three several Principles according to some which give all created things their specisick Form of Life and determinate all those which are within their Classis after their own Property And they may well be called Principles so long as all things have their Life in and from them and so long as these three Lives are the Original Being or State things fell in or betook themselves unto from their first Original The first is the Fire Life or the Principle of Fire common to all living things for asmuch as they all take from them the Original and the first Rise of their Life but proper to the Devils and the damned Souls only The second is the Divine Life or Principle of the Light wherein the Angels and Men were perfected and made good Gen. 1.31 but from which both of them fell Jud. ver 6. and is proper only to the confirmed Angels and the Souls of the Faithful The third is this outward Life or the Principle of this World where all things live in the Air of the Spirit which comes down from the Heavens into it and is proper to the Beasts and to the present Body of Man and to all those things which live in it and from it but became accidental to Man by reason that he fell into it as was said And the first is ascribed to God the Father of Life as being but a burning sharp fierce and obscure Fire without the Light of the Son The second to God the Son as being the Light of Life that sweetneth and perfects it and the third and last of them to God the Holy Spirit as being the Conveyer and the Refresher of Life that brings Life and preserves it and that proceeds like the Air from the Fire and the Light of the Father and the Son. For to enlarge upon this when God created the world or to make the word Create somewhat more intelligible did make himself manifest he manifested himself such as he is in himself that is by a Trinity in Unity Fire Light and Spirit in one Being Therefore he make three Spring Heads or Prineiples of all Things three Throne-Angels with their Worlds Michael the mighty strong Prince after the fierce Nature and Property of Fire Lucifer the lovely the bright and most glorious Prince after the pleasant nature and property of the Light and Vriel the Well-doer or the Introducer and Conveyer of the Light or of all the pleasantness and good that comes from the Light after the beneficent Nature of the Holy Ghost each one a distinct Principle and all the three together making up one Unity or total Being like God to wit the invisible and intelligible World and comprehending in them the whole Creation of God and each of them consisting of Fire Light and Spirit For as the end of Nature alias of the Nasciture Manifestation of God was to communicate his Summum Bonum Himself to all created Beings his Will and Purpose was not that the Principle of Fire Evil should predominate and subsist in any thing by itself without the Light but that the Light should take place and the Angels with their Worlds should become such as God is a most joyful Being and a pleasant Paradise Therefore thô God created each in a distinct Principle yet he made each of them that is Michael as well as Vriel and Lucifer to consist of those three things and to pass immediately from the Fire to the Light and to send forth or exhale like the Sun out of himself a Spirit into his Sphere to vivify and to seed and sustent it all over Upon which saith Trismegist Omnia lux fuerunt vel in lumen conversa jucundum suave nimium Spectaculum For God is light and in him there is no darkness at all 1 John 1.5 And all things had for ever continued in this same state if Lucifer who being the most glorious of the three had not admired himself and instead of loving and admiring God for it and of seeking God's Kingdom and Glory more than his own fall'n in love with his own self whence he as a Man in love doth by his longing attract what he loves into himself and his Soul saith the Scripture 2 Sam. 13.39 doth as it were issue out or go forth to join with it drew himself into himself and by the astringency of his Lust or Desire for Lust or Desire is astringent and attractive filling or impregnating and offuscating himself as one that dotes upon that which he loves whether it be Man Woman Gold or Silver cannot receive in his mind any other thing but that his mind runs upon nothing but his beloved treasure and is wholly taken up with it Matth. 6.21 he becomes pensive and as it were overcast with a thick Cloud or dark Mist so he was offuscated and became cloudy and dark and as the more he lusted and drew the more and thicker the Clouds did gather and grow whereby a Heat and Burning was excitated in him and he was reinflamed as it doth happen to those who having kept their Lusts a good while under Hatches break out into the more violent heat and passion and to a wet heap of Hay Fruits Flowers and other things which are apt to ferment and to grow hot of themselves by reason that the Vapor or the Cloud that comes from them during their Fermentation being kept within the heap by the Contiguity and Coherence of its parts which affords no passage or way for Transpiration grows there thicker and thicker And withall he set his Sphere which being a thin Matter was as apt as any Smoke is to take Flame on Fire whereby the Matter thereof which was very thin and subtle was concocted and hardned its loose parts were compacted into
wit of the Life that saves and we must be born again to live and that of Water So that two things a dying and a new birth of Water are necessary to Life and the only way through which we must unavoidably pass to come to Happiness or to the perfect new Birth of the Spirit of Wisdom in which latter Birth chiefly consists our Salvation Which things See Dr. Wallâ—s his Sermons of Regeneration Printed for Mr. Rogers at the Sun near Temple Bar. because very few Divines do know what they are and therefore pass them over and teach with Dr. Wallis That we are not bound to know and to trouble our selves with such nice Enquiries as if we were not to be saved by coming saith Paul 1 Tim. 2.4 to the knowledge of the Truth I think fit to declare and for this end to begin by the new Birth of Water To be born of Water then is not to be Baptized as we are now with Water but to take the beginning of our Life from VVater To do which man must become Water be Water himself if not in his Flesh and Bones as Nicodemus took it however within the Heart that is in the inward Man by making his Heart tender 2 Chron. 34.27 and as humble as resigned and in a word as passive or unactive as Water That is to say as Water hath no motion of it self but stands still or if moved falls downwards continually or flows this way or that way as the Wind agitates it so our Hearts should no more have any will of their own but lay still as a dead thing or as being resolved even to die at God's Feet That as out of the shapeless passive unactive Water all the Concretes in the World are formed and produced 2 Pet. 3 5. by the only working of God's Spirit upon it Gen. 1.2 Psal 33.6 so we may out of that state wherein we have no more any motion desire lust or will of out own but only that to yield all and enter into God's Will receive a new form and shaper or be reformed or born again of the first Spirit that gave Adam a true Life Gen. 2.7 after the Image of God put off the earthly Image we have from Father Adam 1 Cor 15.49 And thus by Humility rise again to that state which he and Eve fell from by Pride And this is what is shewed us by the Water and the Way of using it in Baptism We are saith Paul Rom. 6.4 by Baptism buried with Christ into death that is as they which were Baptized in St. Paul's time being cover'd all over when they were dipt in Water were by this means as it were dead and buried to the World So we by this 〈◊〉 Baptism or birth or state of Water become as dead men buried to all the Lusts of the Flesh and to all Self-will as Pride Covetousness and Envy and to all the reliance and hope we have on this World that as Christ adds he rose up from grave through God's Spirit so we should out of this state rise into a new Creature that hath got a Divine Form which is rising from the Dead and the first Resurrection All is made out of Spirit or as Hippocrates saith in primo de Diaeta out of Fire and Water Spiritus est organum in manu summi Dei quo agitantur omnes in hoc mundo species saith Trismegistus of it Which Spirit coming down first from the Stars into the Air and thence into the Water works on it continually whence an Oil is produced and this Oil by a longer digestion becomes a Salt which Salt is the first Matter and true Body of Concretes This is demonstrable from the juices of Vegetables if they be distilled before their Fermentation but better by distilling some May dew or Rain-water because being thin and light and a transparent Liquor by reason of their being circulated in the Air they are not thought by many to have and contain an Oil yet in their distillation they yield an Oil and a Salt which must have been formed there by the Spirit from the Stars it was impregnated with working upon its Vehicle the said Dew or Rain-water So likewise Man being made of Water and of Spirit must be born again of them to become a new Creature and must first become water make his heart soft and tender break that Rock as Moses did Exod. 17.6 and melt the Ice or hardness of his heart into water or the tears of Repentance that by the Holy Spirit which is the Dew the Manna or the true Bread from Heaven that gives life unto the world John 6.32 33. an Oil first and then a Salt which is the true Flesh and Blood or the true Body of Christ ver 51. and also the new Body the blessed Souls shall rise with or our house from above may be formed produced and perfected within him Therefore Christ exhorts all Men to have some Salt in themselves Mark 9.50 that is to say as the Salt understand essential Salt is the first matter of things and results from the Spirit 's action upon the water so all Men should always have some of that same first substance which the Spirit of God forms in Souls bathed in tears and so should give leave to his Spirit to work it in them and produce by its working a Salt to salt them withal ver 49. or preserve both their Body and Soul to Eternal Life from all sort of Corruption such as Leprosy which makes the whole Body insensible and as that thorow hardness of heart which turns Man into such Salt as Lot's Wife was that is a Salt Alkali which is gone through the Fire and therefore can by no means be further wrought upon for thereby losing its Oyl or its Radical Moisture the Vehicle of the Spirit is no more susceptible as the moist essential Salt or Nitre of the Earth is of any sweet influence of Heaven working on it but becomes a meer dead Coal a Lime-stone an Alkali made by Incineration and that melts no more like Ice and other essential Salts by the warmth of the Spirit but by a strong fierce Fire into a hard stone like Glass which is past for evermore all hope of recovery or of regeneration and so makes Man incapable of such Vegetation as the dry Rod of Aaron by its budding forth again typified the Souls must have Therefore remember Lot's Wife flee from the Land of the North this hard frosty dark lowring dismal or Northerly state saith the Lord by Zachary 2.6 whoever will inhabit or live in Jerusalem ver 4. This birth of Water therefore is what makes Man susceptible of the sweet influence and working of God's Spirit on his Soul to renew it and make it grow green and bud and bear Fruits or be fruitful for thereby we do like John by his Baptism of water prepare the way of the Lord that is for the Lord 's coming by his comforting Spirit this birth of