will force them stand before 'um And bring them up in Cavea stultorum But princely Nature from his boundless store Provides a Salve for every dang'rous sore And thus hath made our Authors happy Pen The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of good to unlearn'd men Go on good Friend to other things for we By this thy Book are able to foresee Great Paracelsus Learning Hermes Skill Shall English speak by thy ingenious Quill John Gadbury 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Paracelsus Paracelsus OF The TRANSMUTATION OF METALS CHAP. I. Of the Scale of Transmutation TRansmutation is an alteration or changing of the forms of natural things into other forms as of Metals or Wood into Stones or Glass the changing of Stones into Coles c. It hath been found out That Metals that have been first coyned into Money have been by Nature changed under the Ground into a stony substance and yet have retained the impression of the Image that hath been stamped upon them and That the Roots of Oaks being smitten with Thunder or some other influence of the Stars have been turned into true Stones There do also arise Springs of Rivers in many places that by a certain natural poperty do transform all things whatsoever are cast into them into hard Stones These and such-like works of Nature wise men have contemplated and have thereby learned likewise to do the fame things by Art by observing the same Order which Nature teacheth by her Instruments This we see frequently done in many Mountains That Coles are generated of Stones naturally by a certain Aetnean fire of which Carpenters have frequent use So that this last kinde of Transmutation is done by Fire in the Earth the other before spoken of by Water and Air These are the Instruments of Nature and they are for the Matter the Motion for the Form What therefore if a natural Composition may be made Earth by Fire and that made Water by Air and this made Fire by Fire and that again descending may be made Air by Air and then this be made Water by Water and at last that may be reduced into Earth by Fire what Transmutation I pray do thou think will come thereof if you were expert you would know it The vulgar and ignorant see not these things and that for no other cause but because they do not consider the secrets of Nature Whosoever therefore together with them is ignorant of or denieth these things which Nature hath set before the Eyes of all how learned or wise soever he would seem to be he is not worthy of the Name of a Philosopher nor Physitian Whence hath Physick her first Foundation out of the appearance onely or manifest superficies of natural things Nothing less but out of the most occult and hidden secrets of Nature compared to the most manifest effects Wherefore as Nature her self is undiscernable by every sence no otherwise are all her Operations Who ever saw a Tree to grow or the Sun or Stars move No body But that the Trees have grown and the Sun and Stars have been moved by a space of time who knoweth not Therefore Operations in Physick do more chiefly consist in the Understanding rather then in the Eyes or the other Sences although they in their courses are the Directors unto us that we may make further progress otherwise between the Philosopher and the Clown there would be no further difference But to return to the purpose The Scale or Ladder of Transmutation hath seven Steps or principal Degrees which are Cascination Sublimation Solution Putrefaction Distillation Coagulation and Tincture Under Calcination are contained these his Members Reverberation Cimentation and Incineration wherewith in all Operations all things are turned into Chalk or into Ashes Therefore in the first Degree of Transmutation the elementative natural bodies are converted into Earth with a middle Fire as the Instrument And here first of all is to be noted the difference between material Elements and instrumental of which by the way we shall speak for these are external but the other are internal as when the first Operation is compleated whether it be by Calcination or Reverberation Cimentation or Incineration Sublimation succeedeth out of the order of Preparations which Earth now being calcined is converted either into Water or into Air according to the Nature and property of the thing so to be converted for if it be of dry things then chiefly is to be used the elevation of the Volatile parts from the fixed Wherefore Sublimation is convenient for things of that Nature But if there ought to be made a separation of moist things as of Vegetables or Animals then it is convenient to use Sublimation thereof in the fifth Degree to wit Distillation But because in this place it is chiefly intended to treat of dry things as Metals and Minerals the order congruent to their Natures is likewise to be observed Therefore the Volatile part is to be sublimed as in moist things by Cohobations that is by re-conjoyning of the parts separated and by iterating or separating them over again until they become fixed and remain within with the parts fixed and ascend no more but remain consisting in the substance and form of Oyl of or a Stone for with Solution by the Air they are turned into Oyl and with Coagulation by Fire into a Stone Let Sal Armoniak be an example for every Metal for that in Sublimation successively becomes Stone By this Operation of Sublimations many corrosives are dulcified and mollified and on the contrary with the addition of another substance Also many sharp things are sweetned and many sweet things on the contrary are sharpened somtimes by themselves or with other things prepared after this manner Afterwards happens the third Degree to wit Solution and that is twofold the one of cold the other of heat Salts Corrosives and whatsoever things are calcined are coagulated by Fire and then by the coldness of the Air are resolved into Liquor Water or Oyl in a moist place as a Cellar or in the Air being placed upon a Marble-stone or Glass But fat and sulphureous things are dissolved by the heat of the Fire and that which the Fire dissolveth by heat the same is coagulated by the coldness of the Air On the contrary that which is dissolved by the coldness of the Air is coagulated by the heat of the Fire Note here the Reason wherefore we call the Air cold which seems to oppose and contradict the Opinion of some Philosophers for they will have it to be hot and moist but they consider not whereof the Air consists doth it not consist of Fire and Water for what else is the Air but Water dissolved by Fire Wherefore from one part thereof to wit the Fire it borroweth heat and driness and from the other part the Water coldness and moisture for they are the two chief qualities thereof and the other two are her Ministers for there is nothing hot by Nature which is not also
because the intellect doth so far excel the sense this is a work of a second intention and the beginning upon the vertue of Elements that is a pure bright and cleer Water of Putrefaction for the perfection of every Art properly so called requires a new birth as that which is sowed is not quickned except it die but here death is taken for mutation and not for rotting under the clods Now therefore we must take the Key of Art and consider the secret of every thing is the Life thereof Life is a Vapor and in Vapor is placed the wonder of Art whatsoever hath heat agitating and moving in it self by the internal Transmutation is said to live this Life the Artist seeks to destroy and restore an eternal Life with Glory and Beauty This Vapor is called The vegetable Spirit because it is of degree of heat with the hottest Vegetable and being decocted till it shine like brightest Steel you shall see great and marvelous secrets not by the separation of Elements by themselves but by predomination and victory of that pure Fire which like the Celestial Sun enters not materially but by help of Elemental Fire sends forth his influence and impression of form Here we must observe difference of perfections for although ye have now the Fountain of compleat white yet you are not neer your chief delight which is the Fountain of Life and Centre of the Heart the universal Spirit which lives in the radical humidity and doth naturally vivificate and is the masculine Seed of the Celestial Sun here is that Rule made good Except ye sow in Gold ye do nothing Therefore we must take heed what we understand by Gold whereof there are three sorts Vulgar Chymical and Divine which is therefore so called because it is a special Gift of God The Theosophists are perswaded by exact diet and by certain form of prayers at certain times to obtain the Angel of the Sun to be their Guide and Director The Philosophers advise to take the like matter above Earth that Nature hath made under the Earth Others to search the most precious treasure from a vile thing all which is easily agreed if rightly understood for in the lines following the same Author saith The vile thing is from the Sperm of Gold cast in the matrix of Mercury by a prime conjunction Others affirm Azoch and Ignis to be sufficient for this high perfection the which Azoch among the Germans is Silver with the Macedonians Iron with the Greeks Mercury with the Hebrews Tin with the Tartars Brass with the Arabians Saturn and with the Indians Gold All which being diverse in Nature are potential in one composition and by the duel of Spirits the Celestial Gold obtaineth victory over all the rest and is made though not with hands a body shining like the Sun in glory which is called Ens omnis privationis expers or Thummim This is the Key that made the pure cleer Fountain and of it was made himself the fair Woman so loving the red Man she became one with him and yielded him all glory who by his Regal power and soveraign Quality raigneth over the fourfold Nature eternally but if any shall understand either common or Chymical Gold to be the substance of this sacred body he is much mistaken for a glorious Spirit will not appear save in a body of his own kinde Although pure Manchet be made of the finest Meal yet Wheat is not excluded and so Bread is said to be of the second and neerer causes rather then the remote notwithstanding that which is made by the effect in a successive course is as certain as that which is made with hands After we fell from unity we groan under the burden of division but three makes up the union first temporary and afterwards eternally fixed He that knoweth a thing fully must know what it was is and shall be so to know the several parts of a successive course is not a small thing neither the honor little in the right use of the Creature Air turned into Water by his proper mixture becomes Wood and the same Wood by Water is turned into a Stone A Spring in Italy called Clytinus makes Oxen white that drink it And the River in Hungary turns Iron into Copper VVhat excellency things may attain by habitual vertue or what power when Nature and Art make one perfection who is able to express If you desire by Art to have a thing of admirable sweetness and odor you will take a substance of like quality to exalt into such excellency the proper quality of Fire and Air is sweetness it is but appropriate in Earth and Water what bodies shall we finde where these are most abundant to be wrought upon As the Celestial Bodies give no Tincture yet they are most abundant in Tincture Air is cause of Life Mercury is coacted Air Ethereal and truly Homogeneal which doth after a sort congeal and fix it is called a crude Gold and Gold affixed and mature Mercury And although the crude Quality be cold and dry some hold for the excellency of its temperature That it is all Fire or like to it whereby it is dissolved however it is at large proved those bodies are most abundant in pure Fire and Air whose proper Quality is sweetness Therefore those are the fittest subjects to make the most precious perfume in the world and considering cleerness and brightness is the centre of each thing and those bodies have both centre and superficies cleer and bright whensoever they are purified by Art and the bodies made spiritual and those Spirits corporated again they must necessarily be Bodies of greatest or cleerest Light and Perfection as one compareth a glorified Body to a cleer Lanthorn with a Taper in it saying The more a man excels in vertue the greater or lesser was the Taper But the work cannot be manifest without the destruction of the exterior form and the restitution of a better which is the glorious substances of Urim and Thummim which in their being and Physical use preserves the Temple of Man's Body incorruptible Some observe not just difference between Liquification and Solution but all Corrosives or violent Operations Nature hates because there can be no Generation but of like Natures neither can you have the precious Sperms without Father and Mothers And although one Vessel is sufficient to perfect the Infant in the Wombe yet Nature hath provided several breasts to nourish it and different means to exalt it to the strength of a man How Gold should be burnt which the Fire cannot consume is questionable but every exaltation of this soveraign Spirit adds a tenfold vertue and power then take one part of this Spirit which is become as insensible as dust and upon molten Gold it turns all into powder which being drunk in White-wine openeth the Understanding encreaseth Wisdom and strengtheneth the Memory for here is the Vein of Understanding Fountain of Wisdom and River of Knowledge
necessary and naturally dry neither is there any thing cold which by the same reason is not moist Whatsoever is besides contingent hereunto is not by Nature but by accident It is no otherwise amongst the Elements the Fire and Water have the chief place and the Earth borrows her coldness from her Companion the Water and her driness from the Fire for her self she is never hot moist nor cold nor dry but serveth her two other Princes as the Wax submits to every Seal In like manner we are to judge of the Air for so the Air receiveth heat and driness from his Father the Fire and cold and moisture from his Mother the Water therefore they are generated as from their Parents the Fire and Water the Air Masculine or rather a Hermaphrodite and the Earth a Female And thus far of the natural Instruments and the Matter The fourth Degree is Putrefaction This for its excellency might deserve the first place if it were not repugnant to the true order and a secret in this place hidden to many and manifested to few It ought therefore to remain placed in its due Series even as the links in a Chain wherein if one be wanting the Captive detained therewith escapes and flies away The property therefore of Putrefaction is that consuming the old Nature of things it introduceth a new Nature and sometimes produceth Fruit of another Generation for all living things die with corruption and being dead they putrefie and again acquire life by the Transmutation of their Generation into them And by it corrosive Spirits are dulcified and mollified and all Colours are thereby turned into others and thereby the pure is separated from the unclean Now the Members of Putrefaction are Digestion and Circulation The fifth Degree is Distillation which is nothing else but a Separation of the moist from the dry and the thin from the thick The Members hereof are Ascension Lotion Imbibition Cohobation and Fixation Cohobation which concludeth all the rest is an often effusion or pouring of the distilled Liquor to its feses and often distilling it over As Vitriol with Cohobations is fixed by its own proper Water and then it is called Allumen Saccarinum which being dissolved into Liquor and then putrefied by the space of a Month and distilled yields a most sweet and pleasant Water after the manner of Sugar which is a most excellent Medicinal secret far above others to extinguish the Microcosmical Fire which happeneth to the Diggers of Metals which is largely spoken of in the Book De Morbis Fossorum Mineralium Of the Diseases of the Diggers in Mynes After the same manner also may any other Minerals and Waters as Sal Nitrum be fixed by Cohobations The sixth Degree is Coagulation which also is twofold answering contrary to Solution consisting of heat and driness that is of Air and Fire Again Coagulation is twofold as having two parts cold and as many of hear The first of cold is made of common Air without Fire and the last of the superior Firmament by the Hyâ—â—al Stone which congealeth all Waters into Snow and Ice But the first Coagulation of heat is made by industry in Art observing the gradations of the Fire and is fixed but the other Degrees of cold in Alchymy are not fixed The later Coagulation of heat is made by an Aetnean Fire and Mineral under the Earth and under the Mountains and is gradated by a natural Arch of the Earth Not unlike to this is the Fire which being gradated by the Art of Alchymy is excited and brought to Coagulation Whatsoever is coagulated by this Aetnean Fire remains fixed as is manifest by Metals and Minerals all which consist from the beginning of certain Muscilaginons matter coagulated by the Aetnean Fire and the natural Arch and Artifice of the Earth under the Mountains into Stones Metals Pearls Salts c. The seventh and last Degree of the Scale or Ladder of Transmutation is Tincture the most noble Medicine above all others that are procured by the Chymical Art whereby all Metallick and humane bodies are dipp'd into a far more noble better and excellent substance then before they were naturally of and are thereby reduced to the highest Degree of soundness colour and perfection and to a more strong and excellent Nature Various are the kindes and species of these Tinctures in this place least of all intended to he treated of The Metallick bodies ought first to be removed by Fire from their Coagulation and to be liquefied otherwise they will not receive any active Tincture unless they be opened Also all the Tinctures of Metals ought to be fixed substances easily fusible and of an incombustible Nature that being poured upon a fiery Lamen they may flow forthwith like Wax and soon penetrate the Metal without smoke as Oyl doth Paper or as Water enters into a Sponge so they dye that into a white and red colour remaining in the Fire and enduring every trial Therefore in the first Degree of Calcination to come to these Tinctures the Metals being brought into Alcol they acquire an easie liquefaction in the second Degree to wit of Solution and then by Putrefaction and Distillation their Tinctures may be fixed and made incombustible and the colours unvariable But to restore recover conserve or renew the Health of humane bodies they ought to be drawn from Gold Pearl Antimony Sulphur Vitriol or the like Various also are the Subjects of the Fire and they have several and divers Operations in Chymistry as one Fire made of the flame of Wood and this they call living Fire wherewith is calcined and reverberated the bodies of all Metals and other things another is a continual heat of a Candle or Lamp wherewith they fix Volatiles there is another Fire of Coles wherewith bodies are cemented coloured and purged from their Excrements also Gold and Silver are thereby brought to a higher Degree Venus is refined and all other Metals are renewed the fiery Lamens of Irons have another Operation for thereupon is made the trial of Tinctures Another heat is raised by Fire by the filings of Iron another in Ashes another in Salt another in Balneo Mariae wherewith are made many Distillations Sublimations and coagulations There is also another Operation made by Balneum Roris which sometimes I have elsewhere called Balneum Vaporosum wherewith many Solutions of corporal things are made Then the Venter Equinus hath another Operation in which are made the chief Putrefactions and Digestions also the invisible Fire hath an Operation far beyond all these that is of the Beams of the Sun which plainly appeareth by his Operations as by a Speculum or Chrystal And of this the Ancients have not made mention By this Fire the three Principles of every thing may be separated upon a Table of Wood without any fear of flagration or adustion and all Metals liquefied without any visible Fire and all combustibles consumed into Coals and Ashes But the Transmutation of Metals to bring
the imperfect to perfection cannot be very well done without the Stone or Tincture of which we will hereafter treat in their due places And we will also say something of the Transmutation of imperfects into imperfects bringing them only for the probation of Transmutations But we shall first treat of the Fire whereupon hangs the hinges of all the Art and teach some process of the Stone of Paracelsus CHAP. II. Of the simple Chymical Fire HAving now sufficiently spoken to the wise and ingenious of the Art of Transmutations by the Scale and Degrees thereof that the order before spoken of may be kept it will be necessary in the first initiation to propose and lay down the manner of the Instruments before the matter it self lest that the rude and unskilful should first use the foot in stead of the hand Let them not therefore approach hither whose understanding hath no eyes and whose hands cannot serve them for the feet and the fleshly eye without a sound and uncorrupted understanding is altogether ignorant The chiefest Instrument which ought most diligently to be sought after is the Fire which being living of its own proper Nature is not vivified by any other Fire From hence also it comes to pass that it hath power and vertue to vivifie whatsoever else lies hidden in other things As the Sun in the World is created by God to vivifie stir up and quicken the Fire resting in all other things as of the ☽ ☿ ♀ ♂ ♃ and ♄ and that he might heat the Spheres of all the other Stars by his Fire which otherwise have no heat of their own neither can they give forth any of themselves for they are dead of themselves but being kindled by the Solar heat they live and give forth their Operations according to their several proprieties For the Sun doth not receive the Light Life and Fire which he hath from any other Star but onely from God that created and ruleth him so that he alwayes giveth Heat and Life in himself illuminating every other natural Light Even so is the Fire of the Philosophers secret Furnace to be accounted in the Spagyrick Art which heateth the Furnace and Sphere of the Vessel and the Fire of the matter even as the Sun is seen to operate in the universal World without which nothing can be generated therein In like manner nothing can be effected or brought to pass in this Art without this simple Fire it being the chief part and Operation of the whole Art comprehending all the other parts thereof in it self and is comprehended of nothing for it consisteth of it self not wanting any of the other but all other Operations whatsoever are made stand in need of this simple Fire from which they receive Life together with the matter it self Paracelsus speaking elsewhere of the simple Fire saith thus This saith he is the Opinion of the most excellent Philosophers The Fire and Azor are sufficient for the Fire alone is the whole Work and the compleat Art Some do build their Fire simply of Coals they erre containing the Vessels therein or thereupon others in vain attempt it with a Fire of Horse-dung with the Fire of Coals they sublime the matter without any medium and dissolve it not others have stirred up Heat with Lamps asserting this to be the secret Fire of the Philosophers to make their Stone others have placed it in Balneo and set this in an Emmet's Nest some have placed it in Ashes of Juniper and others have sought this Fire in Calce viva in Tartar Vitriol Nitre and the like others have thought it to be in hot burning Water as Thomas Aquinas falsly speaks of this Fire saying That God and his Angels cannot want it What blasphemy is this is it not a manifest lye cannot God want or be without the elementary Fire of hot VVater and be without all the other Creatures when he pleaseth doth he stand in need of any of them All those Heats that are stirred up by the means and Fires now spoken of are altogether unuseful for this purpose See also that you be not seduced by Arnold de villa nova who writes of the Fire of Coals for in this thing he deceives you Almadis saith That the invisible Sun-beams are sufficient for our Fire He produceth another example That the celestial Heat by his reflexion and continual motion doth chiefly make the perfection and coagulation of Mercury And again he saith Make a vaporous continual digesting separating Fire but not flying or boyling up but altering and penetrating Now I have told and that truly the whole way of stirring up the Heat of this Fire if thou art a true Philosopher thou well understandest this is it Salmanazer saith Our Fire is a corrosive Fire which bringeth an Airy Cloud over our Vessel in which Cloud the Beams of this Fire are hid This due Cahos and humidity of the Cloud being wanting there is error committed Again Almadir saith Unless the Fire heat our Sun by his humour by the excrement of the mountain with a temporate Ascension we shall not be partakers neither of the white nor red Stone All these things do sufficiently demonstrate unto us the occult Fire of the wise men In brief this is the matter of our Fire to wit That it be kindled by the quiet Spirit of a sensible Fire which again expelleth the hot Cahos as from its opposite above our Philosophical matter which Heat waxing above our Vessel temperately urgeth it forwards to the motion of perfect Generation constantly without intermission Thus faith Paracelsus of the simple Fire of the Philosophers CHAP. III. Of the multiplicity of the Philosophers FIRE HAving spoken of the simple Fire we hold it convenient to treat also of the multiplicity of Fire and that more copious and cleerly then of the other before for by this later we may attain to a perfect sight as through a Casement Fire therefore is manifold as well because of the diversity of the Subject in which it floweth as that afterwards it is excited in divers other Subjects it is varied and changed as the Fire of Ashes Sand Balnei Limatures c. have a mediate Heat flowing from an immediate into the Subject-matter of the Instrument and from hence into the matter subjacent to the Art In this manifold Fire there is a difference of place and this is the Reason Because in all things there is nothing in the Nature of things that can be seen in all things and by all things like one to another although they are both of the same Species and their members of the same individuals as one Metal produceth Gold from that which generateth Silver another Saturn Venus Mars and every one of them is varied according to the difference of the place from whence they spring and are created neither are two men or two members of one body nor two Leaves of one and the same Tree found alike to one another and so of other things The
dissimilitude proceedeth not from the first Fire of Creatures but from the various Rule of the Elements by the Planets and not by the Sun For by this disposition the heat is changed in the Elements every moment and also the form of decompounds from the compounds and not from the simples Where there is not so great a mixture of the Elements there is generated Sol where they are a little more mix'd and impure Luna and where they are more imperfect Venus and so of the rest according to the mutation of the mixtures the Mine of every Metal is unlike one another neither do their Spirits agree in all things one with another for if they were generated of simple Fire alone no multiplicity intervening there would be no difference of their properties and forms not only in Metals but in all other Creatures But why there are in use seven Metals and no more six whereof are solid and the seventh fluxible and thin the Reason is given in Philosophy and not in Chymistry which is to be reserved to its proper place that we digress not from our purpose And thus much of the manifold Philosophical Fire deduced from Physical Reasons CHAP. IV. Of the visible and local Instruments and first of the Spagyrick Womb. BEfore we come to speak of the matter it is requisite that we proceed in order to declare what Instruments actual and local are necessary to be used in this Art the first actual is the Fire the first local Instrument is the Furnace which by the Ancients is called by this Chymical Name Athanor this referreth to the Womb in the Spagyrick Generation Hermes Trismegistus although he was not the Inventor of this Art no less then Paracelsus of Spagyrick Medicines yet he deserveth to be called the Restorer thereof He asserteth That this Spagyrick work which is the utmost point of the hand of humane Philosophy taketh its exordium and first beginning from the meditative contemplation of the greater world intimating that the Spagyrick Athanor ought to be built from the imitation of the Foundation of Heaven and Earth But for the exercise of the ingenious I shall not think it amiss a little to examine this comparison whereby I may happily profit the Readers There is no Physitian will deny but that the Sun doth generate a Sun like to its self but every one will not confess That it hath this Generation in its Centre and especially the Disciples of those Philosophers that can give no other Reason of the Aetnean Fires then what Rusticks and Clowns do according to the appearance thereof to their carnal eyes This Terrene or earthly Sun is kindled and bred by the Fire of the superior even so is kindled the Centre of our matter from the Centre of our World or Athanor which is Fire bearing a similitude and resemblance with the natural Sun Who seeth not the form and frame of the universal created World to bear the similitude and likeness of a Furnace or that I may speak more reverently containing the Matrix of a Womb that is to say the Elements wherein the Seeds of the Sun and Moon by their various astral influences are corrupted concocted and digested for the Generation of all things But this is plainly manifest to Children I need not speak it to Philosophers wherefore I shall not need to urge it any further Therefore we proceed to speak of the manner of the construction and building of our Athanor or Furnace First let a Furnace be built six spans high round within and of the bredth and bigness of one span let it be somewhat larger and bigger towards the bottom then at top let it be made smooth within that Coals or such things as are put in do not stick by the way but may fall down close to the Grate To this Furnace you may make one two or three mouths as you shall think fit To every Furnace let a Copper be fitted with Water the other matter is to be inclosed within as the Egge is within the Hen so is a Glass to be in this womb for the industry of the Magistery Then when you will work or operate herewith having all things diligently prepared break you Coals about the bigness of Walnuts and fill up the Turrets to the top and kindle them at the door beneath â—â—d let the top be kept shut lest the Coals being kindled at the top or in the middle deâ—â—â—oy the whole work and they consume and â—â—rn all together Moderate therefore your â—â—re with a just proportion as Nature teacheth in all things The natural heat will excite and stir up the ferment and the matter lying hid in this Egge Wherefore even as the Sun illuminates the â—reat World and giveth Light and Life to all the Stars Elements and Creatures so doth this Spagyrick Fire illustrate and vivifie our Instruments and all the matter of our Furnace as the sitting of a Hen over her Egges animates the young CHAP. V. Of the second Spagyrick Instrument which is the Matrix or Philosophers Egge MAny Philosophers rashly presuming upon their own Judgements have mis-understood the right and true occult and secret Vessel of the Philosophers And worse is that which Aristotle the Chymist not the Greek Academian saith That the matter is to be decocted in a treble Vessel And more amiss is that which another saith That the matter in the first separation and first Degree ought to be included in a Metallick Vessel in the second Degree of its Coagulation and Dealbation of the Earth a Glass-Vessel and in the third Degree which is Fixation a Vessel of Earth Nevertheless by all these they understand onely one Vessel in all Operations to the perfection of the red Stone Since therefore our Matter is our Radix and Foundation both of the white and red our Vessel necessarily ought to be made after this manner that the matter therein may be ruled by the Celestial bodies for the Celestial influences and the invisible impressions of the Stars are chiefly necessary for this work otherwise it is impossible to attain to the excellent Oriental Persian Chaldean and Egyptian Stone by any means by which Anaxagoras knew the vertues and power of the whole Firmament presaged That the great Stone should descend from Heaveâ— upon Earth which also happened after his death He did very much make known our Vessel to the Cabalists and that according to the true Geometrical measure and proportion and how iâ— ought to be built of a certain Quadrature in 〈◊〉 Circle whereby the Spirits and soul of our matter being separated from their body may be elevated in the altitude of their Heaven For if the Vessel be more straight largeâ— high or low then its due measure and proportion and then the ruling and operating Spirits and Soul of the matter do desire the heat of our secret Philosophical Fire which is most acute will too violently excite and provoke the matter to Operation and sometimes the Vessel will flie into
The Truth of every thing is said to be his incorrupted Nature for nothing shall rest eternally visible at the last fire but that which is of pure vertue and essential purity Truth and Science is not led by chance or Fortune but the Spirit of God guides by the Hand of Reason And it seems the Prophets esteem of these Stones of Fire some meaning the Stone of Darkness and as it were Fire turned up Others the Stone of Tin and Ezekiel the Stones of Fire attained by Wisdom which he differeth from the natural precious Stones as pure Fire from common Fire Therefore let modesty allow that possible whereof he understands not the termination and degrees neither refuse the Waters of Shiloah because they go slowly for they that wade in deep Waters cannot go fast To obtain the Treasures of Nature you must follow Nature onely Isaiah 8.6 who gives not the like time to every Generation but as the Mare hath ten months the Elephant three or as some say nine yeers and fifty before conjunction Be patient therefore in a work of Nature for thereunto onely is promised Victory and the chief errors in Art are haste and dulness The Regeneration of Man and the Purification of Metals have like degrees of Preparation and Operation to their highest Perfection The first beginnings of Transmutation or Naturation is the smallest measure of pure Sulphur with both Riches and Honor in the left-Hand and length in the right In natural Generations the form prepares the matter yet there are precedent Preparations The beginnings of Transmutation must be distinguished some are begun of Preparation and some are begun of Composition Beginnings of Preparation in the well of Tears doth qualifie the coldness and dulness of the crude disposition and tame and subdue the fearful quality of swift flying and changeth the colour of this eternal Liquour turning the inside outward and adding heat by the internal Sulphur of the Homogeneal Body which is by means of changed Water because Water by Water can onely be extracted yet it is excluded in the conclusion for though it be a necessary preparation to the alteration following yet is but the servile and passive which hath the first operation being preserved unhurt in weight and purity Beginnings of Composition are those inward Operations and Changes that follow after that scalding deluge which by mixing with fixed Sulphur doth dissolve the stubbornness of this Urne and by help of the external heat the internal Sulphur is excited by Operation and purifieth the substance but onely to a pale whiteness more hurtful then profitable to the Body of Man what these are shall afterwards appear Again Sulphur must be distinguished white Sulphur and living or reviving Sulphur white Sulphur is of like Operation and is perfected by restraining and healeth almost all diseases and tingeth to white ad infinitum By knowledge hereof even meer natural men have believed the Resurrection become sober temperate and patient not doubting within the centre of compleat white rests the red Stone of most delight This hath caused men justly to condemn all Cementations Calcinations and Citrinations being enlightned with the glorious object which is as cleer as a Christal Looking-Glass Reviving Sulphur is the secret of secrets and the glory of the whole world and onely proper to such whom the Creator hath apted by way of natural disposition for they do not onely mortifie but purifie a pure body quickning it with the same essential form and are said to make a spiritual Body because there is no corruption to resist the Spirit but the bodily Nature being wholly subject is with the Spirit eternally fixed in a transparent Body shining as the Sun Therefore the conclusion must be understood of the second and not of the first for though a man have never so much white Sulphur if he have not of this reviving Sulphur he is as far from the precious Spirit which hath power over all inferior bodies as any other for onely that which is of the Nature of the Sun shall shine like the Sun in glory A Synod of Philosophers adviseth us in seeking the treasures of Health and Riches we should shew affections to Justice and Prudence like Solomon asking Wisdom Riches were given to him as advantage Let us search therefore celestial Vertue which is the centre of all things so will it be easie to manifest the soveraign Spirit of Health and Riches for the vegetable Sulphur is the first Mover in Nature and onely the Mercurial Nature hath power of Metallical Life and Death Crude Mercury is originally a vapor from cleer Water and Air of most strong composition coacted or Air it self with a Mercurial Spirit by Nature flying Etherial and Homogeneal having the Spirits of heat and cold and by exterior and interior heats doth congeal and fix Also Gold is a fixed Fire or mature Mercury and may be made more volative then Mercury but onely by divers Mercuries made Of Mercury is Nature set on work the fixed Body loosed the vegetable Sulphur created and the universal Spirit fixed For the Authority of the ancient Writers Divine and Natural Reasons assure us this and no other is the true course to manifest those Lights wherein the Creator hath heaped up vertue and power But it 's objected The Philosophers do not agree amongst themselves Answ Instruments of divers strings make sweet harmony if they be well tuned but their Readers do rather seek to over-rule them then by painful industry to finde them consent Object Affirm Contraries Answ The Artist his intention is to agree contraries Object They exclude Gold and Mercury from the creation of the Stone Answ Because their crude matter is from the destruction of the exterior form Object They say The vertue of Elements is their materials Answ Right in respect of their beginnings upon pure bodies Object All their secrets spring from one vile thing common to rich and poor Answ Precious things corrupred are most vile and Science is common to rich and poor and hath much use of Calcination or Dust Object No Metal is required to the making of the Stone Answ As no part of man to the making of man Object One thing one Glass one Furnace is sufficient Answ True when two things of one kinde are apted and conjoyned Object Out of one Root proceeds white and red Answ Even as Male and Female from one Womb. Object The Stone is vegetable animal and mineral Answ Right joynt and several it is said to be vegetable because in the maturation it is multiplied in vertue and quantity it is said to be animal because it encreaseth his own kinde and it 's said to be Mineral because his original is from Metal or their Mineral Here we may remember the Bishop of Otrecht who lost his life for discovering his secret Why should we prevent the highest distribution who hath not made knowledge hereditary but wrapt things in secret that we might difference things in being and in being
and use Nature is even jealous of her supremacy and abhorreth to see the sensible before the intellectual Treasures preferred This shews the beginning and end of Art Lux sata est justo cum rectis animo laetitia Mark what ye sow for such is your harvest Light is sown on pure Earth and some Grain begins to put forth Ears at three joynts some at four but the Ear never buds until the joynts be grown And what vertue this knotting or fixing gives consider for by meditation you may see by seeing you may know by knowing ye delight by delighting ye adhere by adhering ye possess by possessing ye enjoy the Truth that is the incorrupted use made visible Therefore take heed how ye value for Part of these things thy minde may prompt thee to And part thy better part may teach thee how to do The making of Urim and Thummim and the perfection of the Elixir is aptly compared to the fourfold Creation of Mankinde Adam from Earth Eve from Adam Abel from both and Jesus Christ from a Virgin so man called a living stone produceth that eternally stony and fiery conquering Spirit called the Elixir from their proper Earth only their Adam from their Eve from both their Virgo from her only the soveraign and universal Spirit which doth vivifie and preserve all living Creatures and raiseth the Artist from the dust to sit among Princes Life without sin is wisdom manifest in the flesh a Body without shadow is the universal Spirit corporate Urim and Thummim were holy Signs within the brest-plate to enquire of God in the Temple Natural Urim and Thummim is a visible quality in a cleer Body which preserveth the Temple of Man's Body incorruptible Is it not prophetical that all men shall wisely consider the works of God to the end they may know how to value them rightly and to make just difference between corporal and spiritual things Psal 64.9 Psal 111.8 and corporate Spirits for although Spirits possess no place yet they fail not to fill every part by contact of their vertue and in the use alters both quality and quantity the perfect and distinct knowledge whereof doth necessarily manifest the things sought after by the proper and appropriate qualities and from th causes to the effect openeth the internal Beauty of a true and natural Essence as plainly as by seeing that ye see and also sheweth the terminate privative and perfect end of every particular act which is the richest of intellectual Treasures because Science and Essence are one and where the several works and successive are apparent the time need not be limited like the men of Bethulia for onely at Elisha his Prayer his Servants eyes were opened to see invisible things which all that rise to glory shall do It was held of old Nothing deserves the love of an honest man save the internal Beauty Therefore they held Love or natural Affection to be the first cause or motion like as the heat and vertue of the Sun and of the whole Heavens hath power in all things created under Heaven and by their Influence and Radiation all things encrease grow live and are conserved and by their recess they mourn and wither fall and droop yet they do not necessitate any all their force being most in imperfect things for a body of equal temper receives little alteration from the Constellations because the Earth received vertue before the Heavens were adorned with Sun Moon and Stars Therefore that is to be distinguished in Reason so is distant in place and different things in being and in being and use for change of quality brought confusion and a better change Renovation Historians affirm The River Nilus vaporeth not by reason of the long decoction under the Sun yet is the Water most wholesom and Medicinable and the Neighbor earth begins to encrease in weight the seventeenth of June and not before even then when the River begins to rise which sympathy of the distant Water and Earth by the power of Heaven is not against Nature although beyond ordinary reach Therefore for a leading cast let us observe the concord of Metallical Bodies which like the first Male and Female have not several beginnings but are all from a Sulphurous vapor which by help of Influence Instrument Digestion and Masculine and Feminine vertue connexing proper and appropriate qualities they obtain their perfection by the power of God 's Ordinance yet as every Earth yields not like Metal so every Metal yields not like central vertue Therefore according to that creating command every thing should encrease in its proper kinde not in diverse and time makes the number infinite The Ancients reading the great Volume of the Book of Nature finde no abridgement to assimilate the Majesty of Nature save Man and the Stone both which are called Living Stones whose original Mortification Purification and difficult Exaltation are of infinite vertue Then observe also a Celestial and Terrestrial Sun which they parallel with Man which because they onely are capable of true temper which is certainly possible although seldom enjoyed But to gain this precious Treasure of Life and Health we must make sufficient provision like men that do deal with great persons for Gold is Lord of Stones and noblest of Metals and by his proper Regiment doth multiply himself infinitely Therefore Geber in his Book of Deundation saith In Gold are ten parts heat ten parts humidity ten parts siccity which triple perfection makes an absolute unity Body Soul and Spirit being eternally vivified because unity is a generical quality of all that is one and is an effect of the Form which doth produce it for of all kinde of Governments ten is the most perfect and for the natural substance no composition is like to Gold for it is a most perfect temper and equal mixion the miracle of Nature a Celestial Star a Terrestrial Sun the Fountain of Life the Centre of the Heart the secret vertue of all Celestial and Terrestrial Bodies the Masculine and Universal Seed first and most powerful of the Sulphurous Nature the great Secret of the Almighty Creator It hath most Form and Entity so most Vertue and Operation in it the Elements are elementized It is called Sulphur and sulphur-Sulphur-Fire yea it is said to be all Fire or like to that in which it is dissolved And as Light is the Centre of Heaven and Soul of the World so Brightness is the Centre and Celestial Vertue the Form of Gold whose admired mixion nothing meerly natural can dissolve nor any thing artificial except it agree with it in matter and form and do remain with it in the recongealation This vertual Influence enters potentially and dwells in the radical humidity and no other thing whether from Heaven or Earth doth nourish the Heart yet it is not visible before vertue be matched for there is best concord where it is most abundant but whither shall we mount to match this miracle of Nature The Historians
tell us of an eternal Liquor of most strong Coaction rained down from Heaven here is like descent she is called Hyperiwn or Daughter of the Sun a Body of like weight and vertue with Gold fair cleer quick only coacted and brought from the Empire of humidity to suit the person which in her crude Nature shews strong Affection and turns the noblest of Metals into her own colour Therefore the Artist studies how to disponsate these two And first denudateth the Lady of her frosty Garments that she may have the first activity and liquefie her fettered Lord then are they both in the power of Art to better It is objected This Heaven-born Hermodactylus or Hydromel is of a Nature so obstinate and incorrect she will by no means receive the best impression Consider Her names signifie mixt matter of contrary quality therefore may be separated and although her original obscure condition because it is unknown by the innate affections and subsistance for it is an Airy Body or Air it self with Mercurial Spirit subsisting of internal heat and external cold Others say It is composed of the Spirit of the World corporate in the womb of the Earth and apt to receive the qualities and properties of all natural things as wax impression and being composed of Spirits the weight is of greater wonder Others say It is a crude Sperm not sufficiently decocted yet not to be profaned Others call it an immature Gold which kills it self and the Father and the Mother to bring forth a pure Infant by her they overcome the Fire she is the perfection of the Universal Medicine what Conformity what Similitude what Identity she holds with the Metallical Urne being the original matter and substance thereof and may be coagulated to the equal temper of Gold is as the whiteness in Snow Therefore the Ancients magnifie the most Blessed who created such a substance and gave it such properties as no other thing in Nature doth possess yet we see it is a vitious matter which hath superfluous Humidity proper and appropriate Qualities separable and inseparable Accidents Therefore the separable may be removed to which end she is included in a Well of Tears that the VVatriness may be vapored or through long Decoction by Driness vanquished Then doth it as it were congeal and fix and become more apt for durance and extension for whatsoever is contrary to the natural doth debilitate and like by his like is nourished but heat is contrary to cold and the natural property of scalding heat is to weaken and dry The fresh Water adds power and heat heat augmented becomes Fire and Time turns Strength to Corruption This glutinous substance hath natural heat from which is the Life and Death of the Elements Therefore as common Fire bringeth all things to his own Nature so the external working upon the internal heat it doth necessarily obtain victory Therefore if you can believe that heat and driness shall overcome cold and moisture that lineary and successive course hidden to all the World is open to you Therefore as Nature delights in Concord so the Lovers and Searchers into Natures Work must be of constant mindes and Gideon-like resolve to race the City Meroz not refusing to assist the publick good and then the Marriage for the Princess never unmasks her Virgin-Beauty except to him that hath skill and power to espouse her in a bed of Love which none can do before the despoliation of the exterior form but the Obstacles removed and Nature set on work the external Decree doth necessitate the effect for being now warm and blyth and apt for new Generation and pounded with her Lord grated to Dust his unnatural softness deceives the sense and they passionately condole each others Exile and in their imbraces fall in a sound until their dissolved Bodies shew corruption and the more pure being corrupted are more vile The Artist finding them out of their Indian Paradise corrects their central virtue and raising them from the Earth leads them the thorny path to threefold happiness and by fiery trial purifieth the Quantity and changeth the Quality and so brings them to perfect rest whereby they have power over the bodies of Men and Metals and are crowned in token of their dignity and boundless Territories Now considering the rarity of true Knowledge the Honor and Dignity of things desired what Spirit is so ignoble to think much either of Cost or Time when that which is sought is of all Terrestrial Treasure most excellent FINIS An Appendix of the Vertues and Use of an excellent Essential Water made and approved by Stephen Trigge Student in Physick and Astrology and by him gained and experimented at Amsterdam and also in London IN all manner of Fevers both Pestilential and others Calentures Apoplexies and all Epidemical Diseases it is a perfect and certain Remedy and in Quartain and Quotidian Feavers where the Disease ariseth from Choler It perfectly remedies the Bloody Flux and all other Fluxes either of the Stomack or Belly Vomiting Scowring and Excoriation of the Bowels and where the Stomack is spoiled for want of Appetite this is a sure Fortification for it wonderfully strengthens the Stomack both the vital and animal Spirit and mightily succors the Heart that is oppressed with heat And being taken in Aqua Melissae it doth speedily help the extream beating and panting of the Heart Convulsion-fits and falling Sickness it cureth safely and speedily and all manner of heat breaking out in the Face and any other part of the Body being either caused by the heat of the Sun or by some noisome Food taken into the Body that doth cause putrefaction of the Blood The way to take it is this in a burning Feaver take of it in Planten-Water if there be loosness in the Belly and sweeten it with Syrupe of Clove-Gilly-Flowers and drink it as your constant Drink till the Feaver is abated and the Appetite recovered In the Calenture Drink it in Balm-Water being made far sharper then white-Wine-Vinegar and mixed with Syrupe of Cowslip-Flowers it must be drunk very often till the senses come and the Patient remain cured which will be in few dayes for it penetrateth the Blood makes it thin quencheth the Feaver reviveth the Heart and Brain and quickneth all the digestive Faculties In the Apoplexy take it in Betony-Water and Aqua Vitae with Syrupe of Stoechas take the Dose as in the Calenture or stronger if the Patient be able to bear it and it shall be holpe in forty eight hours or thereabouts If there be any thing in this World that will preserve Man if the Glass of God's determination be not quite run out this will help Though he be lame over all his Body his Senses gone his Speech lost and to the judgement of many as dead yet this precious Liquor will in a wonderful manner restore them speedily and safely In the Scurvy Canker Squinancy and Inflammation of the Uvula this doth excel all ordinary Medicines for it doth
after the beginning of your work for your white doth engender nothing but Luna andyour red nothing but Sol and his projection one upon a thousand that is to say if you will melt a thousand ounces of unperfect Metals you need put to it no more then one ounce of this same last Medicine and it shall set it over into perfect Luna or Sol better then any that comes out of the Earth to pass all proofs and examinations that may be done upon it And herein now following I will learn thee the composition of both these Stones to the red and white and I will first begin with the red and then with the white which is called Lunaris CHAP. II. The Elixir of life THou shalt take my beloved Son the red Elixir here before written and set it in putrefaction the time of forty dayes so that your fire be alwayes of one heat and not hotter one time then another night and day and the same must be done in Balneo Mariae this time being ended you shall finde your Elixir to be dissolved into cleer Water if that you have kept the fire all the time of one heat and your Elixir being dissolved into cleer Water then shall you dissolve therein Mercury that is sublimed as I will learn thee hereafter and dissolve therein as much of the sublimed Mercury as the Elixir doth weigh and see well hereto that the Spirits fly not out as neer as you can then shake it softly between your hands without opening the Glass and take heed that your Glass break not through the force of the Spirits and lute the mouth of the Glass fast with Lutement that is strong that it may endure the warmth of Balneum without opening the which I will learn thee hereafter in a Chapter a part and when the Lutement is very dry then set the Glass in Balneo to putrefie the time of forty dayes as aforesaid holding the fire of one heat continually the time of forty dayes and nights as aforesaid The forty dayes being ended look if all be dissolved if it be not let it stand longer till it be dissolved and being all dissolved let the Balneum cool and in any case see you take it not out hot lest your Glass break then take it our and dry your Glass and set it upon Ashes to congeal and make your Ashes no hotter then you can suffer your finger to thrust it down to the bottom and let it so stand the time of twelve dayes without taking any thing out of it but let it remain alwayes in that Glass wherein it was putrefied and see well to it that the Lutement be not broken in any place if it be lure it well again that the Spirits flie not out and the twelve hours being ended it ought to be congealed if your fire be well governed if it be not let it stand longer till it be congealed and when it is congealed then is the Stone fully made and perfectly ended and it is the riches of the whole world God grant that you may obtain it and give unto Almighty God a good reckning of the health of thy Soul c. My Son thou shalt understand that Mercury is called a Fountain and the first matter of all Metals as in Truth it is and therefore cannot be done any great Transmutation without Mercury be joyned therewith there may be made small Augmentations and Transmutations like as we have spoken before in our Elixir but they cannot do any high projection for they do but one upon seven but when Mercury is put thereto and so perfectly made it doth projection in infinitum as here before is written whereby it doth appear that the Mercury is as aforesaid the beginning off-spring of all Metals And therefore my Son we take the Elixir and mingle therewith our purified Mercury and conjoyn these together with our purified Salt which is our Sperm so be they so fast bound together that now nor never can they be parted asunder for they do claspe and inclose together so friendly as doth the Body and the Soul if so be ye do it as we have written it And when these three to say Sol that is Ferment with the Salt and the Mercury be joyned together then do they make perfect all things they be cast upon not onely it doth take away the sickness of the Metal and doth heal it but it heals all Inconveniencies of mens Bodies as one grain of this Stone being drunk with Wine being made hot and then the party to go to a warm bed and to sweat which shall be incontinent like as though he did lie in Water and in three dayes he shall be made whole of what sickness soever be have Therefore he may think himself happy in this world that hath gotten him this Treasure and well can keep it secret and use it godly to the help of the poor for they be not all Masters that do advance themselves in this Science to do many things for many are called but few are chosen There be many that busie themselves in this Science but very few that do bring it to a right end for it may be that it is not God's will but thou my Son have thou no doubt so long as thou followest these Precepts that I have left thee written in this Treatise and continue thy self alwayes in labour and exercise and thou shalt soon come to a perfect end of it if it please Almighty God for I have written thee in this Science the right Treatise and Truth as I have wrought it with my own hands and brought it to a perfect end as many people do know it in this City of Paris although I have alwayes kept it from thee till now that have I done for certain causes that I will not open Therefore comfort thy self and be patient and think not thy labour long for by diligent labour thou shalt come to the end sooner with studying and reading there can come none of the knowledge of this Science but onely by labour the study doth give a man how to work and how he shall follow Nature in his working for the end and profit of this Science is the handy-work for a Cobler cannot set a piece on his shooe with reading but he must put his hands to it and labour to bring it to a perfect end CHAP. III. Teacheth to sublime Mercury to the red Elixir MY beloved Son take one pound of Mercury one pond of Roman Vitriol and break the Vitriol to powder and then take one pound of common Salt that is two times dissolved and distilled by Filter and vapoured and calcined as aforesaid is learned and then break them to powder in a stone-Morter occupy no Iron or Metal in this work for if you shall it will mar it and when that your Mercury is mingled with the other water with continual stirring that you see the Mercury no more but that he is wholly lost in the other substance then