in their strong adversities would not leave to go out of the way of their vices, and depravations, and would receive no correction but made themselves worse: _Malachy_ 3. 3. useth the same form of speech. _The Lord shall sit to melt and purge silver, hee shall purifie the Sonnes of_ Levi, _and purge them as gold, and silver, and they shall offer to the Lord an offering of righteousnesse_. See how hee there resembleth very well, Gold to Faith, and Religion and Silver to works, for if the one and not the other be not very clean, in vain would we present them unto God. And all this must bee perfected by fire: according to which the Psalmist speaketh, _Thou hast proved my heart, and hast visited me in the night, thou hast examined mee by fire, and there is no iniquity found in mee_, _Psal._ 17. 3. for (as St. _Chrysostome_ saith) fire according to the will of God, doth divers operations. It did not burn the three children in the furnace, yet burned those that were without: and as the Sea gave way to the _Israelites_, to passe on dry foot, and drowned _Pharaoh_, and all his that pursued them. There is a fire, saith St. _Ambrose_, upon the 39. _Psal._ _vers._ 3. _which with its Ardor devoureth the transgression, and blotteth out the sin_: But wee most not understand it materiall fire here below, for there is nothing common here, with spirituality, but by way of analogy, and correspondence; there being a very great disproportion betwixt intelligible and sensible things, as in _Jer._ 20. 9. _And there was a burning fire in my bones._ In sum that the holy Scripture is stuffed with these manner of speeches drawn from fire and metals. As in _Hag._ 2. 8. _The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of Hosts._ Gold, silver, and all metals, yea generally, all things whatsoever, although they may bee said to bee of God; as St. _Jerome_ said very well, forasmuch as he created them, and gave them being, subsistance, and maintenance. _The earth is the Lord and the fulnesse thereof_: notwithstanding this gold and silver, which God alleadgeth here more particularly to bee his, must bee understood mystically. By silver, interpret the law of the mouth, _The words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times_. And by Gold (saith _Zohar_) the written Law, where there are many brave meditations to be considered; for there is not a form of a letter, point nor accent, but importeth some mystery, as it is particularly specified in _Ghinah Egoz_, in the garden of drowning of _Rabbi Joseph Castiglian_. On the other side silver is applyed to the old Testament, gold to the New. _Origen_ confronts Faith to Gold, and the confession and preaching thereof to silver. That there, to the conceptions of the thought, and this here, to the word and enuntiation made by mouth which expresseth it, and puts it out. The tongue of the just is chosen silver. Of which two metals, namely of right Faith and purity of