338 SCRIPTURE NATURAL HISTORY. 



For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall 

 be salted with salt.' This sentence connects with the foregoing ; 

 as the particles/or, which is casual, shows. In the preceding verse 

 we read, that offenders shall be cast into the Gehenna of fire; 

 where the fire shall perpetually burn them, and the consciousness, 

 of their crimes shall perpetually torment them. For every one 

 that is, every one who is cast into the Gehenna of fire shall be 

 seasoned, shall be preserved in this fire. This fire shall act upon 

 the wicked, who are thrown into it, as brine acts upon the meat, 

 oter which it is poured. It shall consolidate, not consume them. 

 Unlike all other fires, it shall not destroy life, but prolong it. Such 

 is the state of every incorrigible offender. It remains to be shown, 

 what is the portion reserved for the faithful. Every faithful disci- 

 ple, who is so truly devoted to the Christian cause as to be ready 

 to die in its defence, is here represented under the figure of a sac- 

 rifice, seasoned with salt. Every sacrifice, says Christ, thus prepar- 

 ed for, and devoted to me, shall be considered as seasoned with 

 salt. The Jews were taught to understand that sacrifices, so 

 seasoned, were acceptable to the Lord. Every sincere disciple is 

 here, by anticipation and prolepsis, denominated a sacrifice. By 

 this appellation he was forwarned of an event, which the sword of 

 persecution would not fail to accomplish. With a like view to 

 gacrifices Paul thus rites to the Philippians: If I be poured out; 

 and to Timothy : For I am now ready to be poured out. 



Thus the punishment hereafter to be inflicted on the wicked, and 

 the recompense reserved for the faithful, are expressed in terms 

 fetched from those sacrificial rites with which the Jews were con- 

 versant. Commentators conceiving the sense to be, consumed by 

 fire, have proposed to read instead of shall be salted shall be de- 

 stroyed. But the very reverse of consumed is the sense intended. 

 A learned critic has indeed said, that ' as to salting with fire, no- 

 thing can be made of it.' But much, and much more to the pur- 

 ]K>se may be made of it than can be made of any word which criti- 

 cism, in its ardor to amend, may have undertaken to substitute. 



SOAP. 



THE LXX. render berith, in Jer. ii. 22, the herb ; Jcrom and th 

 Vulgate, the herb borith. In Mai. iii. 2, the LXX. translate berith 

 mtkbesim, by the herb of the washers, and the Vulgate, the herb of 

 fullers. ' With respect to the herb borith,' says Goguet, ' I imagine 

 it is sal-worth (salt-wort). This plant is very common in Judea, 

 Syria, and Arabia. They burn it, and pour water upon the ashes. 

 The water becomes impregnated with a very strong lixivial salt, 

 proper for taking stains or impurities out of wool or cloth.' Micha- 



