ABSTRACT
When John Bramhall used the Levitical Candle as a metaphor for his relationship with James Ussher 1 he was following a long allegorical tradition. The kabbalah, a mystical medieval Jewish sect, regarded the menorah as symbolising the tree of life, the seven branches represented the seven planets and the seven days of creation. 2 More orthodox interpretations were more intellectual; the stem was symbolic of the Torah [law] and the branches the sciences, all seen as rooted in the law. 3 Bramhall employs the same stem and branch imagery, making clever use of the fact that the candelabrum diverges from one source to several. The symbolism is obvious, he and Ussher may have had theological points of departure, they may have appeared to some (such as Richard Baxter) 4 as ecclesiastically inimical, yet in truth they were rooted and held aloft by the solid base of the one Church.
