The apostles said to the disciples, “May our entire offering be provided with salt.” For they called [wisdom] salt. Without it an offering is unacceptable. Wisdom is barren, [with no] children, and so she is called [the pillar] of salt.Whenever…the holy spirit…, and she has many children.

(9) Therefore let every one have a Care how he uses his Reason, that he may therewith stand in great Honour in the Wonders of God. We know that this World shall perish in the Fire; it shall be no Fire of Straw or Wood, that would turn no Stones to Ashes, and further to Nothing; neither will there any Fire gather together, into which this World shall be thrown; but the Fire of Nature kindles itself in all Things, and will melt or dissolve the Body of every Thing, or whatsoever is palpable, and turn it to Nothing.

(21) Wherefore we ought to offer to God sacrifices not costly, but such as He loves. And that compounded incense which is mentioned in the Law, is that which consists of many tongues and voices in prayer, or rather of different nations and natures, prepared by the gift vouchsafed in the dispensation for "the unity of the faith," and brought together in praises, with a pure mind, and just and right conduct, from holy works and righteous prayer. For in the elegant language of poetry,- "Who is so great a fool, and among men So very easy of belief, as thinks The gods, with fraud of fleshless bones and bile All burnt, not fit for hungry dogs to eat, Delighted are, and take this as their prize, And favour show to those who treat them thus," though they happen to be tyrants and robbers?

(32) merciful to each other." The Prophet once asked God and said. "O Lord, who are Thy lovers?" and the answer came, "Those who cleave to Me as a child to its mother, take refuge in the remembrance of Me as a bird seeks the shelter of its nest, and are as angry at the sight of sin as an angry lion who fears nothing."

(10) For the saltwater or salt [or saltpetre], which still to this day is found in the earth, has its original and descent from the first kindling of the astringent quality; and so the stones also have their beginning and descent from thence, as also the earth.

(22) But we say that the fire sanctifies s not flesh, but sinful souls; meaning not the all-devouring vulgar fire but that of wisdom, which pervades the soul passing through the fire.

(99) Woe to you, ye obstinate of heart, who work wickedness and eat blood: Whence have ye good things to eat and to drink and to be filled? From all the good things which the Lord the Most High has placed in abundance on the earth; therefore ye shall have no peace.

(176) If thou extendeth the Fiery Mind to the work of piety, thou wilt preserve the fluxible body.

(93) "Do not give what is holy to dogs, lest they throw them on the dung-heap. Do not throw the pearls to swine, lest they grind it [to bits]."

(8) "But the mild shall be inhabitants of the earth, and the innocent shall be left in it. But the transgressors shall be extirpated from it." And Homer seems to me to have said prophetically of the faithful, "Give to thy friend." And an enemy must be aided, that he may not continue an enemy. For by help good feeling is compacted, and enmity dissolved. "But if there be present readiness of mind, according to what a man hath it is acceptable, and not according to what he hath not: for it is not that there be ease to others, but tribulation to you, but of equality at the present time," and so forth. "He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor; his righteousness endureth for ever," the Scripture says. For conformity with the image and likeness is not meant of the body (for it were wrong for what is mortal to be made like what is immortal), but in mind and reason, on which fitly the Lord impresses the seal of likeness, both in respect of doing good and of exercising rule. For governments are directed not by corporeal qualities, but by judgments of the mind. For by the counsels of holy men states are managed well, and the household also.

(63) Let Christ alone enter your world, and let him bring to naught all powers which have come upon you. Let him enter the temple which is within you, so that he may cast out all the merchants. Let him dwell in the temple which is within you, and may you become for him a priest and a Levite, entering in purity.

(72) For when thou lookest upon anything which does not please thee, but is against or contrary to thee, then thou raisest up the fountain of thy heart, as when thou takest a stone, and therewith strikest fire on a steel, and so when the spark catcheth fire in the heart, then the fire kindleth.

(23) And there stand the three Principles in Strife. The first Principle, viz. the Kingdom of Sternness [or wrathful Fierceness] says, Go forth in the Midst of the strong Might of the Fire, it must be [so;] then says the second [Principle] in the Mind, Stay and consider, God is here with the Virgin, fear the Abyss of Hell; and the third [Principle,] viz. the Kingdom of this World says, Here we are at Home, we must have it [so,] that we may adorn and sustain the Body, it must be [so;] and it takes the Region of the Air, viz. its own Spirit, and brings that [Region] out at the Mouth, and keeps the Distinction according to the Kingdom of this World.

(23) And there the holy Tincture is generated out of the Essences, which regards not the Fire, but sets the Essences (viz. the Soul) in its pleasant Joy. Then come the other three Elements out of their Regions, and fill themselves also by Force Or Dominion. therein, each of them would taste of the Virgin, receive her and qualify [or mingle] with her: viz. the Water, that fills itself by Force also therein, and it tastes the sweet Tincture of the Soul. And the Fire says; I would willingly keep the Water, for I can quench my Thirst therewith, and refresh myself therein. And the Air says; I am indeed the Spirit, I will blow up the Heat and Fire, that the Water do not choak thee. And the Fire says to the Air; I will keep thee, for thou upholdest my Quality for me, that I also go not out. And then comes the Element [of] (Earth) and says; What will you three do alone? You will starve and consume one another; for you depend all three on one another and devour yourselves, and when you shall have consumed the Water, then you extinguish; for the Air cannot move, unless it has some Water; for the Water is the Mother of the Air, which generates the Air: Moreover, the Fire becomes much too fierce [violent and eager] if the Water be consumed, and consumes the Body, and then our Region is out, and none of us can subsist.

(21) And eat no blood at all of animals or cattle, or of any bird which flieth in the heaven. y. And if thou dost slay a victim as an acceptable peace-offering, slay ye it, and pour out its blood upon the altar, and all the fat of the offering offer on the altar with fine flour (and the meat-offering) mingled with oil, with its drink- offering — offer them all together on the altar of burnt-offering ; it is a sweet savour before the Lord.

(7) For there are some even of the hearers of the word who are like the fishes of the sea, which, reared from their birth in brine, yet need salt to dress them for food. Accordingly I wholly approve of the tragedy, when it says: "O son, false words can be well spoken, And truth may be vanquished by beauty of words.

(55) But if he that knoweth not the way presseth through the wrath into the love, then is he like the man who pressed through by his knowledge. But those that persevere in the wrath, and wholly kindle it in themselves, they are all alike, one and other, be they Christians, Jews, Turks, or Heathen. Or what dost thou suppose it is, wherewith man can serve God?

(101) To make these, I say, pure and clean, And, to please God, have quenched those fires, So that the fire of lust, that erst breathed flame, Has become a holy garden and a guiding light, Since you have turned the fire of wrath to meekness, And the darkness of ignorance to shining knowledge, Since you have turned the fire of greed into bounty, And the vile thorns of malice into a rose-garden; Since you have quenched all these fires of your own For my sake, so that those poisons are now pure sweets;

(3) "When to the gods you sacrifice, Selecting what our portion is, 'Tis shame to tell, do ye not take, And both the thighs, clean to the groins, The loins quite bare, the backbone, too, Clean scrape as with a file, Them swallow, and the remnant give To us as if to dogs? And then, As if of one another 'shamed, With heaps of salted barley hide."

(7) And suffer not the soul to be eaten with the flesh, that your blood, which is your life, may not be required at the hand of any flesh that sheddeth (it) on the earth.