Strange fire, is all the ardor of slippery concupiscence, of avarice, hatred, rancour, and envy; And of this fire no man is purged nor expiated, but well burned, which if men offer in the presence of the Lord, celestiall fire will devour, as it did _Nadab_ and _Abihu_; and therefore, he that will purge his sinne, he must cast off from him this strange fire, and let him expiate therefrom; whereof it is said in the 6 of _Esay_ 6. _One of the Seraphims flew to me having a live coale in his hand, which he had taken with the Tongs from off the Altar, and touched my lips, saying, Lo this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sinne purged._ Having said a little before, that all the house was filled with smoake, which is as an excrement and vapour of fire, bee it before it be lighted, or inflamed, or after it be mortified, and extinct; from whence it comes to procreate soot, then which, there is nothing more troublesome and hurtfull to the eies, having carryed away with it a parcell of adustible corruption; which administred to the fire its nourishment and food. This may bee seen in the distillation of soote, where there appeares a notable quantity of inflamable oyle, which causeth it yet to burne; and of this burning there will arise a smoake, which will againe be concreted into a burning smoake, as aforesaid, but not so much. These are the remnants of sinne, whereof remained some staines printed in the soule, untill at the last, by a successive repurgation of fire, it be reduced to a point of compleat purity; whereof it is spoken in the 4. of the _Canticles, Thou art faire my welbeloved, there is no blemish in thee_; which the white flame notifies, which is the highest degree of burning. Those also well know it that maintaine a fire, for when a Fornace begins to bee hot, it waxeth blacke, then enforcing the fire, it becomes red, and at last it waxeth white when it is in the supreame and high degree of heat, where it persisteth in whitenesse more and more. Such are the actions of fire, but there are great mysteries thereunder, ever to declare further the advantage and præcellency, that the white colour hath above the red, as to the Christian faith, designed by white water, _Apoc._ 4, & 6. & 15. 2. (_In the middle of the Throne there was a Sea of Glasse, like unto Crystall_,) far above the Judaicall faith, red, heat with rigour, and severity, designed by a _pillar of fire, that in the night season conducted the Israelites through the Wildernesse, and the white cloud by day, Exod._ 13. 21. In the secret Hebrew Theology, the red alwayes notes _Gheburah_, Austerity; and the white _Ghedulah_, or Mercy; _Eliah_ was transported, and by force carried into heaven, in a fiery Chariot, drawne with the like horses. But in the transfiguration of our Saviour, _Mat._ 17. 2. _His vestments became white as snow_; and _Apoc._ 3. 6. _The Elect are ever clothed in white_; and in the 6. 11.