Here is likewife a Hint of Salt being concerned in the Affair of Washing or Purifying, of which presently. Heb. ix. 13. For if the Afbes of an Heifer fprinkling the Unclean, Sanctifieth to the Purifying of the Flesh; So 1 Cor. x. I. Moreover, Brethren, I would not that ye fhould be ignorant, how that all our Fathers were under the Cloud, and all paffed through the Sea; and were all baptifed unto Mofes (who was Vice-Aleim) in the Cloud and in the Sea. So if you had believed Mofes, ye would have believed me.

Whether the Jews performed any Form of Initiation in their Paffage or not, the last and this refer to a Form of Initiation.

And from the Practice of the Gentiles who went off at Babel, Afh. Sperlingii de baptifmo veterum Ethnicorum, has produced fufficient Evidence to prove that they practised Baptism in all its Branches throughout the World, upon Gods, Men, Temples, Sacrifices, &c.

The

So John Baptift a Prieft of the Jews fays, John i. 33. He that fent me to baptife with Water, but fays nothing that it was new, or that the Form or Subftance of Water was inftituted then; and Chrift put the Question, Mat. xxi, 25. Baptifm of John, whence was it? From Heaven, or of Men? Indeed he preached Repentance, this referred to the Water, which iffued out of Christ's Side to cleanfe. Salt was the inftrument of Purification in Water: Fixed Salt of the Herb-mixed with Oil, called Sope, in Water, clean

fes

fes things moft effectually; fo Salts boiled with Water, called Lixivium, by Friction in Water divide and separate the adherent unclean Parts from the Body or Garment, fo purify.

When any of them became unclean by the Plague of Leprofy, living Water was one of the Ingredients.

The ufe of Water with animal fixed Salt was renewed Numb. viii. 7. before the Institution for the Levites, before they facrificed, fprinkle the Water лon of Purification. * xix. 3. The red Heifer was to be carried without the Camp, and to be killed, and v. 5, 6. her Skin, Flesh, Blood, Dung, and Cedar-wood and Hyffop and Scarlet were to be burnt. v. 9. the Ashes of the Heifer were to be gathered and laid

up,

למי.

for it is for a Water to feparate,נדה חטאת הוא

Sin; the Species of Uncleannefs and manner of ufing it follow. The Ashes were to be put to living Water, and a clean Perfon was to dip Hyffop in it, and sprinkle it upon the unclean Perfon, and he was to wash his Clothes and bath his Body in Water; Neglect was Death.

The Heathens not only used Water in their Purifications, but Sulphur, which is a Mixture of another Species of Oil, and another Species of Salt; how they used it, I remember not: They say the Smoke of it is now used to take out the Foulness which makes white Silk, white

,is Water to wab away Sin מי הטאת is Sin, and חטאת *

expreffed in fhort Sin-Water.

Hair, &c. turn Yellow, and fo reftore the Whiteness; and they fay it will take out the Colour of a Flower, as a red Rose, and make it near white. They take out the ill Scent out of Veffels, and Casks by the Fume of Sulphur. Claffeni Theol. Gent. p. 45. Ovid Lib. 9. Met. "Thrice he purifies the old Man with Flame; thrice with Water; thrice with Sulphur." See Martin. Lex. Sulfur p.46.-" Sprinkling with pious Dew, &c."

47. "But firft Luftration by Water of which Virg. Æneid. 6.—

Then thrice with limpid Water The Affembly from the fertile * Olive Bow Sprinkles

round

With Dewy Moisture purifies his Friends.

Trap.

Though Blood was not made the means of purifying from the Compofition of its Parts, yet the other Types were framed to answer the Original, as far in Substance and in Nature as it was poffible.

Every one knows the matter of Blood is chiefly compofed of Salt, Oil and Water, and that while warm and before their Separation, it effectually cleanfes every thing washed in it; and that the Gall which is separated out of it for --cleanses beyond any thing; that the Urine which is the Excrement of the Blood, which is called

* I should rather understand Felicis Olive here, happymaking Olive, it being fo in the Religious Sense, Cham

Chamber-lye is ufed conftantly by poor People to this Day for that End; and that its (the Blood's) Excrement by the Pores is brackish; and only that which evaporates through the Lungs, and the Spittle of one in Health are pretty free from, especially fixed, Salt.

I think I may venture to affirm that befides. the uses of Salt in the Stomach and Guts, no other Mixture could be circulated and carry fupplies in it for every part of the Body and keep the Arteries, Veins and Paffages and Ureters &c. clean, and fo keep the Creature alive, be the Life of the Creature; fo feparate Nutriment for the Young in the Womb, out of the Breafts &c.

From the Reasons given by Mofes in the Renewal or writing of the Law, that Blood was the Life of the Creature, and that the Blood of fome clean perfect Creatures was inftituted a Type to purify Men, to atone for their Sin &c. We are to obferve in what State Man was, and how and whofe Blood was to effect this. Man had polluted himself in Body, Blood, and Soul, and thereby was disqualified from enjoying the immediate Prefence of the Aleim, (which was the End of his Life here, and in comparison is only called Life) fo his Life was fufpended by Death, till he should be purified in Body, Blood and Soul by his Surety; for if that had not been done, he had been eternally excluded from that Enjoyment which is Life, and doomed to that Exclufion and Torment which is really and truly his Death. As this could not be done by fhed

ding the Blood of the Creature, and fo by giving its Life for the Life of the polluted, of (by) facrificing by Fire (with the Addition of Salt &c.) part of or all its Blood and Body, and so separating and carrying them up in the Air; all but the Salts added, the fixed Salts, and Parts of the Bones, called Afshes : (As the Heathen did their dead Bodies and kept their Ashes in Urns, whatever they meant by it; whether they did fo with the Aflies of the Children they burnt to Moloch) it was to be done, though in a contrary Order (because the Beaft could not undergo the Fire alive) fuitable to it, and to Man now: The Types were Water, Blood, Fire; but to the real Sacrifice, Fire, Water, Blood, Life. (a) So of things taken in War, Num. xxxi. 23. Every thing that may abide the Fire, he shall make it to go through the Fire, and it fhall be clean: Nevertheless it fhall be purified with the Water

(a) As Man was polluted in Body, Blood and Soul, he was difqualified from enjoying the immediate Prefence of the Aleim, till he fhould be purified in all three. But the Types could not do this. Water, Fire and Blood could but cleanse the outward Pollution, thefe could not reach the Soul: So Man's Life was to be fufpended till he should be effectually cleansed; and Memorials were to be continually made of the Perfon who was to cleanfe and of the Manner. But there is a Difference in the Order of applying to the three Cleanfers, Fire, Water and Blood: In the Types, first Water, then Blood, then Fire; this was fuitable to the Beafts who were conftituted Types; becaufe had they (as the original Sacrifice, Chrift did,) endured the Fire first, that would have diffolved their Parts, and the Blood could not have been shed or &c.

of