Page 24 - Treatise on Salt

All these contradictions, and others the like, and which nevertheless
are the proper names of our stone, so confound those who are ignorant
how they are to be understood, that there are a great many who
absolutely deny the truth of any such thing, though at the same time they
believe themselves to have the best turned genii of the world. They
choose rather to refer themselves to one single Aristotle, than to an
infinite number of famous authors, who for many ages have confirmed
all these things, as well as by the trials they have made thereof, as by the
writings they have left us; protesting that all the words they have
advanced, carried truth in them, or else they would be obliged to be
answerable for the same at the great Day of Judgement. But
notwithstanding all, this is no way regarded, they who are in possession
of the science, are always despised; which does not happen without the
just judgement of God, who by how much the better he has placed this
precious gift in any vessel, by so much the more does he permit it to be
considered as a mere folly, to the end that they who are unworthy of it,
may despise and reject it to their own unspeakable loss, and peculiar
damage. But the sons of the science guard with fear and trembling this
secret depositum of providence, considering that the parables, as well of
the sacred writ, as of all the sages, signify very different things from
what the literal sense bears: wherefore, pursuant to the command of the
psalmist, they meditate day and night on their matter, and seek this
precious stone with solicitude and pains, till such time as they find it by
their prayers and their labours. For if God (as it can not be doubted of)
does not make known this admirable stone (though only a terrestrial one)
to the men of a depraved will, because it is a small sketch of the holy and
celestial angular stone, what sentiments ought we to have of that
authentic and inestimable stone which all the angels and archangels
adore? Though at the same time there is not any man but may be sure of
acquiring it without much labour, provided he be regenerated, and makes
profession of the faith, that he publishes it with his mouth, that he
conceives no doubt thereof, and forms no contestation thereupon, he will
enter the straight gate of Paradise, with all the holy personages of the Old
and New Testament.

As for our own part, we know for certain that all theology and
philosophy are vanities without this incombustible oil. For as the five
imperfect metals die in the trial of the fire, if they are not tinged, and
brought to their perfection by the mean of this incombustible oil (which
the philosophers call their stone,) in like manner the five foolish virgins,

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