hour then take all out that is melted in the Crucible and consider well the weight of it and according to the goodnesse of your Elixir make projection for medicine And thus you have created and compounded spiritual Electrum of the weight of seven ounces consisting of seven metals which metals so converted into medicine will be the Elixir of Electrum and an Universal medicine for you need not after regard upon what body or metall you project it It is also the chiefest medicine for mans body for although three or four of all the Diseases of the Microcosm were united together yet they may be cured with this one medicine If you dissolve part of this in Spirit of VVine and distill away the same spirit in Balneo and the Oyl of the medicine or Elixir remain in the bottome as is taught in the second book you shall have the chiefest medicine of life and most Noble Aurum potabile Note that if your Iron melt not well then dissolve your Electrum in the Oyl or Tincture of Mars dissolving and congeling until it have imbibed a sufficient quantity But if you desire to make corporeal Electrum when your medicine beginneth to fail to convert metals any more into medicine then in like manner project your medicine upon your melted metals or bodies and they will be converted into corporeal Electrum metallick and malleable of the vertue of which as I do endeavour to write nothing so also of its vice or rather of the viciousnesse of those that abuse it I will touch a little sparingly Paracelsus writeth that Virgill Hispanus and Trithemius made a Diabolical Bell of this Artificiall Electrum upon which when they would invocate Spirits which they called by a more decent name of Intelligences they writ the Character of what Spirit they desired and at the third ring of the bell the Spirits obeyed their desires so long as they desired to talk with them and when they would talk no more they hid the Character and by the reverse ringing of the bell the Spirits departed He that will forsake God and require knowledge aid and assistance from the Devil let him share with Arbucell and with him descend to the Infernal Lake But we that are true Magicians or rather Philosophers confiding in God the Father and the holy Trinity approving of Natural and lawful Magick or true Philosophy but accounting the supernatural altogether infamous and unlawful And we require the doctrine and wisdome of divine goodnesse and the holy Spirit to whom be honour and glory for evermore Amen CHAP. IX The eighth Table which explaineth the meaning of the Philosophers when they speak of the tenth Number wherein the Elixir is finished And also sheweth the wonderfull secret of the Animal stone out of George Riply with two other of his workes WE now come to the Last Chapter of this Book wherein is declared what the Philosophers mean when they bid us finish the worke in the tenth number it is to be understood that as out of the Hyle or Chaos four are divided so out of the Hyle or Chaos of metals Because metals or bodies when they are dissolved into liquor then they are contained in the first or one number which is the solution of the body of which by distillation is made two That is to say Heaven and Earth the Menstruum and Salt that which remaineth in the bottome is the Earth or Salt that which is distilled over is the Menstruum and Heaven And so you have One two When the Menstruum is separated it is divided into Three that is to say into Water Air and Fire Yet it is to be noted that the Air which is the first part of the water containing an aery disposition although it be in the form of water yet it is reputed aer by reason of the consimilitude of the quality and after its perfect rectification it is a tinging Mercury and the white Spirit of metals In like manner is to be considered of the Oyl which although it is not in the form of fire but a liquor yet by reason of its Ardent heat it is called fire and the Soul or red tinging Mercury And so there is One Two Three When there is a Conjunction of these three that is to say the air and water with its Salt or Earth in putrefaction these three are united into one quintessence and are made a new body in which three are united in one Sulphur which Sulphur is the true Philosophers Mercury and in making this white Sulphur you have once turned the Philosophers wheel But that the work may be perfected in the tenth Number if you adde the fire which is the fourth Element to these three concluded in the foresaid unity and rubified then if these four in a new Conjunction be putrified in a lent fire of ashes then it is the stone for in this work it changeth colours again and is converted into a red stone and by this means you have joyned four into one that is to say 1.2.3.4 make ten And so the stone is finished in the tenth number because you have turned the Philosophers wheel twice as Ripley witnesseth thus But yet again two times turn about the wheel The stone is to be dissolved again with the fire or Soul or Tincture and dried again until it pierce and flow then it is to be fermented into Elixir with the Oyl of the Luminary and so you have turned the Philosophers wheel again which is then called the medicine of the third order Of the solution of this Ripley hath writ these verses teaching the resolution of the white and red stone before it be transmuting Elixir calling them his Bases saying Do as I bid thee then dissolve these foresaid Bases witty And turn them into perfect Oyls with our true water Ardent By Circulation that must be done according to our Intent These Oyls will fix crude Mercury and convert bodies all Into perfect Sol and Luna when thou shalt make projection That Oylie Substance pure and fixt Raymond Lully did call His Basilisk of which he never made so plain detection By which verses it plainly appeareth his Bases were onely two Sulphurs or two stones which in another place he called his Mineres and these mineres ought to be dissolved by his Ardent water by circulation of the Oyl or soul upon the Sulphur until it become a stone for in this place he takes both the spirit and the soul for the Ardent water willing that the spirit and soul be administred according to their tinging natures for the resolution of the proper Basis And thus have you the words of this Aenigma explained of the tenth number which seeing it is the end of the Art I have reserved it till the end It now remaineth that we reveal one secret of Ripley which was never spoken of by any Philosopher that is to say the manner of making the Sulphur of Nature out of the Minere of the Microcosm which is mans blood of
except that where before we took the blood of the red Lyon and the Glue of the Eagle when they were both destroyed we now joyn them sound and not hurt together that they living may mortifie and dissolve themselves which I have fitly called Corporeal Matrimony or the Union for in this wedlock they dye together that they may be vivified in the Celestial Matrimony therefore it is not to be wondred if this Table differ from the other for this pertaineth to the handling of spirits the other way teacheth the manner of making the Elixir of bodies therefore we now come to demonstrate the foregoing Table Therefore that I may plainly reveal all things unto you take Antimony well ground half a pound and as much Mercury sublimate likewise ground and grind them both togeth upon a marble till you cannot know them one from another then set them in a cold place that the matter dissolving may drop into a Glass set underneath for when the matters are well mixed together then say that they will both shortly be dissolved when the water is perfectly dissolved it will be of a greenish colour and lothsome smell Put this water with the thick part with it into a Glass and let it stand the space of three days in a fixatory under the fire and in short time you shall see your dissolvedness of a brownish black colour and after that is to say in the foresaid time it will be red something higher then red Lead Dissolve this calcined matter in Raymunds calcinative water and when you have dissolved it all into a red liquor or deep yelow then is your matter brought well into its Chaos Put this liquor into a fit body with an Alimbeck and receiver and by distallation separate the red oyl or the red Mercury from the white body which remaineth in the earth and if any matter ascend into the head of the Alimbeck despise it not but trie if it be fixed and if it be not fixed enough sublime it till it be fixed Whereunto joyn equal weight of its soul for the Celestial Matrimony and always leave out the earth in the bottom if you have any sublimate fixed if not take the white earth remaining in the bottom with which proceed as before is said and joyn the white body with the soul when they are thus joyned or married set them to impregnate and revivifie in Bulneo till it pass through all colours and at last be converted into red which then is the stone The manner of Fermentation Augmentation both in quantity and quality and projection is spoken of before in other works And thus Sons Brethren and Reader I have delivered and opened and also have amended many things all the secrets of the Ancient Philosophers whose writings were rather published to conceal the Art then to make it manifest or teach it although it pleased Hermes Trismegistus the first writer of this Art both to say and protest that he had never revealed taught nor prophesied any thing of this Art to any exept fearing the day of Judgement or the damnation of his Soul for shuning the danger thereof even as he received the gift of Faith from the Author of Faith so he left it to the faithful yet when you read his writings either in his Smaragdine Table or in his Apocalips or his twelve Golden Gates and shall find nothing plain or manifest what will you think of such an Author Believe me all the Ancients have concealed the secret of their preparations in the gross work although they writ most famously of the Philosophical operation therefore I have used my endeavour to trye for out of their writings I found that the Elixir might be made of the Planets or Mettals and also of mean Minerals which came more neer to a metallick nature then reading more I found a certain method amongst them all as it were with one consent or voice on this wise First and principally that bodies should be made incorporeal that is to say discorporated or discompounded which then is called the Hyle or Chaos Secondly That out of this Chaodical substance which is one thing three Elements should be separated and purified Thirdly That the separated and purified elements should be joyned the man and the woman the body and the soul heaven and earth with infinite other names so called that the ignorant might think they were diverse which onely were nothing else but water and Salt or the body and spirit or soul that is to say white Mercury and red which they joyned together that a new and pure body might be created in putrefaction that a Microcosmical infant might be created in imitation of the Creation that is to say Sulphur of Nature Fourthly That it should be fed with Milk that is to say with its own proper Tincture and after nourished by Fermentation that it may grow to its perfect strength Having learned these I begun to practice and in the practice of every body and spirit I found diverse errors but reading more and trying more at last I found the manner and true way of dissolving all bodies separating and conjoyning them finding the composition of their secret of secrets that is to say Lac virginis or Acetum acerrimum and Raymunds calcining water wherewith I dissolved all bodies at pleasure and perfected the gross work wherefore I purposed contrary to the custome of the Philosophers to reveal the whole work lest I being envious should be the Author of error like them therefore I have added their works to my own experiments and inventions which are plainly and truely writ that the Artist need to read no books but mine for herein is almost all things contained which are found plainly writ by the Philosophers and also those things which are found true by my own experience Now you have all things methodically in this Art without error with which by the help of God you may attain to the end Alchymy revealeth and openeth unto us four other secrets The first is the composition of Pearls far greater and fairer then natural ones which cannot be perfectly done without the help of the Elixir The second is the manner of making precious Stones of ignoble ones by the same Art which we taught before in malleable Glass The third is the manner of making artificial Carbunckles in imitation of natural ones which few or none have spoken of The fourth is the manner of making Mineral Amber of which Paracelsus hath onely writ in his book of vexations of Philosophers and in the last Edition of his works in the six of his Archidoxes but because they cannot be made without the help of the Elixirs therefore they deserve a place amongst the Elixirs of the fourth that is to say of the vertue or rather the vice of making Amber I shall handle it coldly I have reserved the explanation of this Aenigma till the last place wherefore it is said that the Elixir is perfected in the Decimal number CHAP. VI.
great it may controul More worlds then one And all your wit can rule March 26 die ♄ â— h 40 P. M 1664. Thomas Tilliâ—n a Philosopher by fire to the Duke of Buckingham To his Loving Ingenious friend Mr. John Heydon upon his Harmony of the World Temple of VVisdome and Holy Guide c. Mr Careless Phrase and words that lye Neglected This vertue have that they 'l not be suspected Others may over praise your Book for vve The best things often over-rated see So what I write will aequidistant lye From polisht wit and servile Flattery Bees from a bruised Ox says Maro breed But you draw honey from a * an envious Almanack Makers his deceitful enimy ♂ in ♉ Tatter'd weed Who borrow'd of you Gold yet doth complain Much of poverty whose empty Brain Measures the slow-part Planets by the glass And when th' Nativity's done its poor alas But now theventricles of your pregnant brain Give birth to a brave man issues without pain Seeing your wit 's so pure your phrase so clean Your sence so weighty that each lines a chain Of Gold 'twixt Jupiter Hismael and the Gods Mercury and Mars that are now at odds Your Book like a young true born Eagle may Behold the sun in publick at noon day Colton May 13 8 h. 30. A. M. Die ♀ Frederick Talbot Esq To his honour'd Friend Mr. John Heydon on his most excellent principles of Philosophy in The Harmony of the World The Temple of Wisdom The Holy Guid Hameguleh Hampaaneah Elhavareuna Ocia Imperialia and the Idea of the Lavv all written near 17 years since and by Gods Providence now printed WOuld you those Pillars see those Reliques have Ruins of time and knowledge Seth did save From the impetuous Sea when waves were all And all were waves within these Pages small You 'l find them in their antient Lustre shine Not counterfeit but rich and masculine Or what Fgyptian Sages sometime set In their Papyrus books Rowls vastly great VVhilst Arts and Letters were no common things But Preists and Poets Princes were and Kings E're Learning a Ludibrium became To the audacious Rout oh hapeless shame E're Sacred Page vulgar Thumbs could soil Thence feeding black Seditions lamp with oile Books Monuments of banish'd winds do live And if from pure Minerva's born survive VVhen titles tryumphs Arches Name become Silent i th' ruins of a ruin'd tombe VVhen Scipio's Pompey's Caesar's Lawrels may By long success of wasting years decay Good Books eternal products of the brain Not onely live but may grow fresh again March 26 1664. â— h 30 A. M. W. Smith Master of Arts of Clare Hall in Cambridge A Catalogue of those things contained in these Bookes First Book 1 The white Elixir of Quicksilver 2 The white Ferment 3 The red Elixir of Mercury alone 4 The red Ferment 5 The Accurtation of the red Elixir 6 The Phisicall and Alchimicall Tincture of thered Lion and the glue of the Eagle Second Book 1 The Elixir of Copper 2 Of Augmentation and projection 3 Of the Blessed stone or Elixir of Life and of its vertues and also of Malleable glass Third Book 1 The Elixir of Saturne white and red and also of Jupiter 2 The Abreviation of the work of Saturn 3 The Elixir of Mars 4 A short work of the Phisicall and Alchimicall Tinsture 5 The Magistry of Pearles 6 The Composition of Carbunkles 7 Of Minerall Electrum 8 The Explanation of the Philosophers words when they speak of the tenth number wherein the stone is perfected and also the wonderfull Secrets of the animiall stone with two other of his works The Rosie Crucian CROWN Set with Angels Planets and Mettals c. The First Book CHAP. I. 1 Of the Gold Mercury or Argent vive 2 Purification 3 Sublimation 4 Calcination 5 Exuberation 6 Solution 7 Separation 8 Conjunction 9 Putrefaction into Sulphur 10 Fermentation 11 Multiplication in vertue 12 Multiplication in quantity HE that can make the Stone of Argent vive or ☿ alone is the greatest searcher out of Art and Nature because there is all that in ☿ which wise men do seek for Quick-silver is the mother and sperm of all Metals and their nearest matter and it is not onely a spirit but a body it is also a middle Nature and also a sulphur it is a lingring ☿ it dieth and riseth again and is fixed with its own proper Elements wherefore it is first necessary that it be purged from its impurities The purgation or purification is on this wise grind it upon a Marble with a muller or a wodden Pestill in a wodden Morter with common salt and a little vinegar springled thereupon till the salt be black then wash it well with vineger and dry it easily at the fire or at the Sun then strain it through a double cloath or a new skin of a sheep till it be dry and the vineger clear taken away and be of a white colour and clear Grind it upon a Marble with a little ☿ sublimate and let it mortifie and in corporate with it then grind it with its equall weight of salt-Peter and green Coperas till it be like a paste Then put all into a subliming glass and in Ashes sublime all the ☿ that it be white and clear as snow in the head of the Limbeck sublime it again three times or oftener and iâ— will be pure ☿ and sublimate Put one pound of this ☿ sublimate into two pound of common Aqua fortis by little and little at once as by two at a time till all bâ— dissolved like sugar in wine then shut the glaâ— and set it in Balneo to dissolve the space of 1â— days then distil away the Aqua fortis in a lentheâ— in Balneo and the ☿ will remain in the bottom like butter of a white colour And calcined bâ— corrosive water Put this calcined ☿ into an Earthen bodâ— with a Limbeck and in ashes sublime the whole dissolved substance three times which will then be very white and then it is called Mercury Exuberate VVhen you have three or four pound of this receive the third part and fix it by often sublimation till it remain in a hard mass and ascend no more but remain fixed VVhich is called the Glue of the Eagle or the prepared body permanent and the volatile made fixed which is to be reserved for the earth of the stone Dissolve the other two parts in Balneo or in a cold Cellar or put it in a blader and hang it over suming hot water till it be all come to water Take this water thus made and digest it in a Circulatory well closed the space of nine days then put it in a body with a head and receiver well luted and in ashes or Balneo distill the water of a white coulour or milkie and is called Lac Virginis dissolving all mettalls and so you have seperated the spirit of the stone which is also called the lingring spirit and the white Tincture of
the white stone of Mercury Take the third part which before you reserved and fixed called the glue of the Eagle as much of it as you please and add thereto equal weight of its spirit or Lac Virginis and close up the glass and so you have joined the Man and the woman ☿ with his own Earth the spirit with the body See the Holy Guid. Set your Lac Virginis thus joyned with his own Each in Balneo to putrine 150 days and there let it stand unmoved after forty days it will be black and it is then called the head of the Crow then it will be of a green colour after that the Peacocks tail and many false colours for between this and white it will appear red but at last you shall see it white and then encrease your fire and it will stick to the sides of the glasse like fishes eyes Then have you each in the nature of Sulpher Read the Holy Guid. Take of this Sulphur as much as you please and weigh it and add thereto two parts of the white Tincture or Lac Virginis and set it in Balneo to dissolve the space of six days then distill away the Lac Virginis or Tincture and the Sulphur will remain in the form of Liquor for it is the Liquor of the white sulphur of ☿ which is to be joined with the Liquor of the sulphur of Luna or siver The Sulphur of the white Luminary or silver or Luna is made as the other whereof we shall speak more in the next Branch This Liquor of the sulphur is the soul which is joined with the spirit and body which quickeneth the whole stone The other conjunction before was onely the union of the spirit and the body but this is a threefold copulation viz. The uniting of the soul spirit and body Adde equal weight of these two Liquors of sulphur that is to say the liquor of the sulphur of Mercury and of silver and Luna and close well the glasse and set it in Ashes till it be white for it will be of all coulours again and at last white And then is it the perfect stone converting all Mettalls into silver This stone or Elixir is thus multiplied in vertue dissolve it in your Lac Virginis and distill it away and dry it and dissolve it again c. And let it be so often dissolved and dryed till it will drie no more but remain in an incombustible oyl And is then Elixer of the third Order Take one part of this Elixir and project it upon 100 or 1000 parts of melted silver according to the goodness and vertue thereof and it will turn the silver into a brittle Mass or substance which beat to powder in an Iron or brasse Morter or upon a Marble and project one part of this powder upon 100 parts of ☿ purged made hot and it will be perfect medicine whereof one part turneth 100 or 1000 parts of other bodies into good silver And this way is your Medicine multiplyed in quantity A Corollary IT remaineth now that we speak of the Medicine or the Elixir of Life which is called potable silver But although the Liquor of silver may be made potable silver if it be corroberated before by digestion in Balneo 7 days with the spirit of wine and then distill away the said spirit of wine that the oyl of the silver may remain in the bottome which may easily be given for medicine Yet the Philosophers would have us do otherwise for they teach us to bring the mettalls first into their quintessence before they be taken inwardly and that their is no other quintessences but those that are of a second nature according to the old saying Elixir de te est res secunda De quo sunt facta corpora munda That is to say the 4 Elements are destroyed and by putrifaction a new body created and made into a stone which is the quintessence as Ripley would have it But I do boldly and constantly affirm that there is no true silver or potable silver nor Qintessence unless it be first Elixir and that is done in a quarter of an hour by projection of the Elixir upon silver or pure gold molten according as the Elixir was red or white If therefore you desire after the first composition of the Elixir to make the Arcanum of Argentum or Aurum potabile project the Elixir or Medicine according to his quality or property upon pure silver or gold molten and then it is made brittle and frangible and grind it to powder and take thereof so much as you please and dissolve it in distilled vinegar or rather in spirit of wine the space of nine days then distill away the vineger or spirit of wine that which remaineth in the bottome is the true Medicine Quintessence Elixir of life Ferment of ferments and incombustible oyl converting mettalls and Mans body into perfect health from all diseases of mans body which proceed from Mercury and Luna And thus is the true potable silver made cureing the Vertigo Sincope Spilepsy Madness Phrency Leprosie c. And this is the right way of making the stone of Mercury alone but the Elixir cannot be made without the Addition of silver to the white and of gold to the red CHAP. II. 1 Luna 2 pure Silver 3 Calcination 4 Solution 5 Putrefaction 6 The Sulphur 7 The Liquor of the Sulphur 8 White Ferment HERMES saith The Elixir is nothing else but Mercury Sol and Luna by Mercury nothing is understood but the sulphur of nature which is called the true ☿ of the Phylosophers and that sulphur gotten by putrifaction by the conjunction of the spirit and of the body of imperfect bodyes or mettals By Sol is meant gold by Luna silver both of them are to be joyned to imperfect bodies that is to say white sulphurs and red whence the same Hermes in his treatise of Sol saith there happeneth a conjunction of two bodies and it is necessary in our Maistry And if one of these bodies onely were not in our stone it would never by any means give any Tincture Upon which Morienus saith For the Ferment prepareth the imperfect body and converteth it to its own nature and there is no Ferment but Sol and Luna that is gold and silver Of which Rosinus Sol and Luna prepared that is â—o say their sulphurs are the ferments of mettles in colour See the Holy Guid. But this is made more evident by Raymund in his Apertory where he saith there is no ferment except Sol and Luna for the Ferment of the stone to white is silver and to the red gold as the Phylosophers do demonstrate because without ferment there doth proceed neither gold nor silver nor any thing else that is of its kind or nature therefore join the Ferment with its sulphur that it may beget its like because the Ferment draweth the sulphur to its own colour and nature also and weight and sound because every like begetteth its like Because the
Ferment even as Sol tingeth and changeth his sulphur into a permanent and piercing Medicine Therefore the Philosopher saith he that knoweth how to tinge sulphur and Mercury with Sol and Luna shall attain to the greatest secret And for this reason it is necessary that Sol and Luna be the Tincture and Ferment thereof You may read in the Holy Guide And so also Arnoldus in his Rosary There is no body more noble or pure then Sol or his shaddow that is to say silver without which no tingeing Mercury is generated He that endeavoureth to give colour without this gold or silver goeth blindly to work like an Asse to a Harp for gold giveth a golden and silver an argentive colour therefore he that knoweth how to tinge ☿ with Sol and Luna cometh or reacheh to the secret which is called white sulphur the best to silver which when it is made red will be red sulphur to gold the best Take pure Luna that is to say silver that is best which is beaten into leaves and bring it into calx with ☿ And it is then called water silver then is the Luna well prepared for Calcination See the Holy Guide When you have your silver thus prepared take 4 or 6 ounces thereof and put it in double proportions of Lac Virginis mixed with equall quantity of corrasive water to dissolve in an egge glasse After it hath dissolved so much as it can in the cold set in Balneo and there let it stand 9 dayes till the whole substance of the silver be dissolved into a green water then let the Balneo cool and take it out and put the dissolution into the body and set thereon a head and distill of the water from the matter remaining which is the oyl of the silver Calcined not into a calx but a Liquor because this Lac Virginis if it be mixed or joined with common Aqua fortis or alone without it as it pleaseth the Operator is so strong that the very Diamond cannot resist it but is dissolved Therefore this water is called the water of Hell and is the onely miracle of miracles of the World because it containeth such a fiery nature in it self and propriety of burning of all bodies into Liquor whereas the Elementall fire prevaileth no further then to reduce mettalls into calx or ashes But to return from whence we digressed I now come to the third operation To the end therefore that this liquor or oyl of silver may be more perfectly dissolved and that all the imperfection of adustion may be taken away which by the Antients is called the corroberating of the lest humidity Put this Oyl or liquor into another egge glasse like the former power thereupon so much spirit of wine above it 4 fingers then close well the glasse and set it in balneo to digest 7 or 10 dayes and you shall find the oyl or liquor turned into a thin or rare water oyl put this water into a still and in balneo draw away the spirit of wine till none of the spirit of wine remain with the silver dissolved And thus have you your silver prepared for putrifaction This Liquor of silver is potable but not the Quintessence put this water into a fit putrifying glasse and seal it up and set it to putrifie in balneo till the time of putrifaction be past which is about 150 days and when you see the first sign of putrifaction which is called the head of the Crow encrease your fire a little till all colours begin to appear and you see it begin to be white When you see it white encrease your fire yet more and it will rise up and stick to the sides of the glasse most transparent like the eyes of fishes which is Sulphur of Nature or salt or the putrified body of the white Luminary viz. Luna which yet is not so hard as a body nor so soft as a spirit but of a mean hardness between a spirit and a body and is called the Phylosophers Mercury and the Kay and mean of joining Tinctures But to come to the liquor of the white Luminary this body being brought into Quintessence is prepared for dissolution like the sulphur of the imperfect body but whereas that is done by the vertue of the white tincture or Lac Virginis I rather do it by vertue of the fire naturall which is the spirit of wine and after the drawing away thereof it remaineth in a Liquor Now this liquor of Luna dissolved is the Quintessence which then is the liquor of the white Luminary and the sole as Exinadius saith quickening the whole stone without which it is dead and will neither give form nor colour Therefore the fourth part of this liquor of the white Luminary is to be joined to three parts of the former liquor of the sulphur of ☿ and after to be kept in a lent fire of Ashes Well closed till it passe through all colours and at last come to its former colour of whiteness and so the stone is fermented and turned into the white Elixir The Residue of the foresaid dissolved sulphur keep diligently and therewith ferment the white sulpher of other imperfect bodies or stones into Elixirs which when they are thrice dissolved and again congealed and remain in a liquid substance then they are called incombustible oyles and Elixirs of the third order And thus the stone is made of ☿ alone A Corrollary HAving spoken of the white stone it now resteth that we speak of the making of the red Elixir vvhereof there is two processes the first whereof is from the Radix i. e. the long way the other an accurtation that is much shorter and more excellent And this way the Elixir may be made in 80 days and excells all other accurtations neither is there found therein any diminution of the vertue but is a plentifull and perfect fulness of power and vertue having all the properties which the Elixir ought to have The process whereof these three following Chapters will plainly shew CHAP. III. 1 Vivum 2 Sublimation 3 Calcination 4 Precipitation 5 Solution 6 Fixed oyl 7 Inceration 8 Desiccation 9 Contrition 10 Fermentation 11 The Red Elixir 12 The third Table IT is not necessary to speak in this place of the urgation of ☿ because we spoke thereof before The sublimation is to be done otherwise then in the former worke for that which is called sublimation here is not done with vitrioll and salt peter but is only the distillation of the ☿ in an earthen body with a limbeck and that by it self without any addilament When the ☿ is once sublimed in ashes wholly into the head of the limbeck having a retainer joined thereto take off the head and with a feather gather the sublimed matter and you shall find your ☿ of a black colour having lost his fairness and like a dust or powder sticking to his body Put it again into the body and sublime it as before and reiterate this work
twelve pound thereof Now give careful attention for we now come to the point and period of Ripleys error for if you put four pound of this Sericon to distill in a Limbeck and from thence would draw a Menstruum as Ripley teacheth perhaps you would have scarce one ounce of this Oyl and some part of a black earth will remain in the bottom and most part of the Gum melted again into Lead by which you may know that the Sericon is not well dissolved nor as yet sufficiently prepared that a Chaos may be made thereof fit for distillation because it is not yet well dissolved therefore in Isaacus there is found a way of resolving this Gum with distilled Vinegar acuated with calcined Tartar and Salt-armoniack Wherefore saith he if thou be wise resolve thy Gum but I like not this acuation of the Vinegar as I may call it I rather choose to resolve the Sericon in Raymund's calcinative water which is a compounded water of the Vegetable Mercury or fire natural with the fire against nature as Ripley testifieth and it is more verified by Raymund in his Book of Mercuriis where he teacheth how to dissolve bodies with his calcinative water I will reveal unto you this water which is almost unknown Note therefore that the Vegetable Mercury is the spirit of Wine instead of which we may sometimes use distilled Vinegar and that the fire against Nature is a corrosive water made of Vitriol and Salt-Peter Therefore take which you will either spirit of Wine rectified or Aqua Vitae or distilled Vinegar four pound and two pound of corrosive water and mix them together In this watet thus compounded resolve half a pound of Gum of Sericon in a circulatory and set it in Balneo four or five days and the Gum will be totally dissolved into the form of water or Oyl of a duskish red colour Then distill away the water in Balneo and there will remain an Oyl in the bottom which is then the Chaos out of which you may draw a Menstruum containing two elements and this is the true resolution of the Gum of Sericon in this water you may resolve so much Gum as you please by reiteration Take two pound of this Chahodical substance and prepare it for distillation in naked fire or sand and lift up the clear red Oyl wherein both the spirit and soul doth secretly lie hid which Isaacus calleth the water of Paradise which when you have you may rejoyce for you have gone through all the gross work and come to the Philosophical work Therefore now proceed to conjunction and joyn the white heart of Saturne with the red Oyl as it is found in the Rosary Candida succincto jacet uxor nupta marito That is to say the red Mercury to the Salt if you proceed to the red work Therefore take four ounces of the Salt or heart of Saturne and as much of the red Oyl or water of Paradice and seal them up in a Philosophers Egg and so soon as they shall feel the heat of the Balneum the Salt will dissolve and be made all one with the Oyl so as you shall not know which was the Salt which was the Oyl Set your glass in Balneo and there let it stand in an equal degree of fire till all your matter be turned white and stick to the sides of the glass and shine like fishes eyes and then it is white Sulphure of Nature but if you proceed to the red work then divide your white Sulphure into equal parts reserving one part for the white work and go on with the other part and in a new glass well sealed up set it in Ashes till it be turned into a red colour When your Sulphure is thus converted imbibe it again with equal weight of its soul dissolving and congealing till it remain in an Oyl and it will congeal no more but remain fixed and flowing This then is to be fermented with the fourth part of the Oyl of Gold as is often mentioned before We have set down already before of the augmentation in quantity and quality therefore it is not necessary to repeat it here We will now return to the white Sulphure before reserved that we may set down the manner of the white work When you have your red Oyl or Soul if you desire to make the white Elixir set part of the said Oyle in a glass in Balneo to digest then take it out and put it into a body and in a lent fire distill away the spirit or white Mercury which you must try that you may know whether it arise pure without water or not as you do when you try the spirit of Wine for if it burn all up it is well if it do not rectifie it so often till it be without any wateriness at all then have you rectified your spirit wherewith dissolve your white Sulphure till it remain fixed and flowing as you did before in the red work then ferment it and augment it with the fourth part of the Oyl of the white Luminary or Luna as you did the red and it will be the white Elixir converting imperfect bodies into perfect Silver A Corollary Ripley divided the scope of this work into four operations whereof the first is the dissolution of the body the second the extraction of the Menstruum and the separation of the Elements the third is not necessary in our work because we cast away the earth after every distillation instead of which we use our Salt or heart of Saturne the fourth is that there be a conjunction of our Salt as is before described Hereafter followeth the Accurtation of the work of Saturn The way of extracting Quick-silver out of Saturne is found in Isaacus of which I know how to make a special accurtation with his water of Paradice which I gathered partly from the foresaid Author and others Ripley made his accurtation with Quick-silver precipitated with Gold and the imbibition with Corrosive water which I like not because the Elixir so made will be the greatest poison as himself confesseth that it were better for a man to eat the eyes of a Basilisk then taste that Elixir But because I desire to set down this accurtation of Lead alone and his Elements that no strange body may be added to our Elixir and also that it may be made a Medicine for all uses I have found out the way of making alone with the Mercury of Saturne and his own proper Tincture for I make a body of one thing which is a spirit and make that Medicine with its own proper spirit Read all the Philosophers and you shall never find a word of this process nor none of the Ancients will teach thee how to make the Mercury of Saturne which that it may be briefly done this following work will shew at large in our Holy Guide CHAP. II. The Medicine Elixir Fermentation Imbibition Precipitation Quick-Silver Saturne Lead The Toad MY great Grandfather
is rather a Spirit then a body Also thus Ob. 2. The minere of every body or metal is â—onverted into metal by fusion but the minere â—f Electrum in melting always remaineth therefore it is no metal Otherwise thus Ob. 3. There is nothing generated in the â—â—rth but stones spirits metals or mean mineâ—â—ls but Electrum is none of these therefore it â—ems to be no mineral 1. To the first objection it is thus answered We say that it is not apparent out of the books 〈◊〉 any of the antient Philosophers that they eâ—â—r dreamed of this natural and mineral Electrum â—â—t more to the purpose those are called Spiâ—â—â—s which flie from the fire but the Electrum â—â—eth not from the fire therefore it is no Spirit 〈◊〉 Quicksilver and the rest and also mean mineâ—â—â—s 2. We now come to the next We grant â—â—t the minere of every metal is converted inâ—â— metal by the fire which consists of Mercury â—â—d Sulphure This Axiome is evident in those â—â—tals which are imperfect and flie from the fire â—â—her in their minere or in themselves after they 〈◊〉 reduced into metall and also the Gold miâ—â—â—e although before melting it flie from the 〈◊〉 before the Gold be molten and converted into metal yet because Gold never flieth after it be molten but is found fixed in all probation therefore it is accounted the worthiest of all metals which consist of Sulphur and Mercury 3. Now to the third I say that I think it rather is of a stony and metallick nature joyned together by which mixture it differs from a stone and also from metal but because it consisteth of Mercury Earthly Salt and Sulphur mixed therefore it gets unto it a mixt nature of them so that it is half stone half metal Wherefore it is to be judged that it consisteth of three natures mixed together that is to say mineral metallick and stony and is the best oâ— all those which grow in the Archeas of the Earth for it exceeds mean minerals in fixation and constancy because they passe away in fume by long melting and vanish to nothing or else they meâ—â— easily in moysture as salts c. But this Electrum or Amber remaineth fixed and constant as well iâ— the fire as water It exceeds metals in digestion colour and dignity In digestion because it is endewed with the signe of greater and more perfect digestionâ— for as Gold is more yellow by reason of his greater heat and more perfect digestion So this Electrum because it hath a higher colour then Goâ— hath therefore it is more digested in colour 〈◊〉 as Gold exceeds other metals in colour so Electrum exceeds Gold for Gold is yellow but Electrum red which is a higher colour then yellow And as Silver is the Luna of white metals 〈◊〉 Gold is the Sol of red metals So Electrum is 〈◊〉 Gold as the heaven is to Sol in dignity or valâ—â— for by how much Gold is more noble then Silver so much this Electrum is more noble then Gold Lastly it excels stones in shining and vertue In shining because they shine by reason of their hardnesse so this Electrum sheweth many sparkes not by reason of its hardness but by reason of his compleatnesse And as the heaven is aâ—orned with Stars so this Electrum with sparking because it hath the clearness and brightnesse of all metals And as the Heaven containeth all â—he Stars and Planets so this Electrum which is â—he Heaven of metals containeth the Sun and Moon and the rest of the Planets in it self Gold â—nd Silver as it were the greater Luminaries the other bodies or metals as the rest of the Planets â—ean minerals as Stars in vertue For although â—any stones have singular properties and vertues 〈◊〉 that some help the sight others the Spleen some the Heart some stop blood some hinder â—â—ortivenesse some hasten childbirth some resist â—oyson yet there is no one found which takes â—way all infirmities as Electrum doth more then â—â—l mean minerals metals or stones according to â—â—â—s threefold conjunction that is to say Mineral â—etallick and Lapidifick Therefore whatsoever others please to think of â—â—is Natural Electrum this seemeth most probable 〈◊〉 me that it is not simply a metal but of a nature exceeding metal for whereas stones mean â—â—nerals and metals are generated of Salt Sulphur and Mercury this Electrum takes his original from Stones Minerals and Metals from â—â—nes it takes Salt from Minerals Mercury â—â—m Metals Sulphur These three being brought into one by the Archeas of natute are its Elements from a greater vertue and power of nature which Elements have formed a higher degree of perfection then in any other stone mineral or metal as it were by the Commandment of God Nature should ascribe a Crown of vertue and dignity above all minerals But however it be it is taken two manner of ways amongst the later Magitians and Alchymists that is to say that which is made naturally and artificially naturally is that which groweth in the natural Archeas of the Earth the Artificial iâ— that which is made by Art above the Earth iâ— imitation of Nature Whence Paracelsus a worthy Master in Mâ—gick seeing fully the nature of it and the utility of Alchymy commanding to make the Elixir thereof when as its natural body cannot be haâ— in his booke of the Vexations of Philosophers and the sixth of his Magical Archidoxes teacheth tâ— compound an Artificial Electrum that the Elixir must be made thereof as appears more 〈◊〉 large in the said Bookes which I like not at all He teacheth how to make the Elixir out of Electrum I contrarily the Electrum out of the Elixir he would make the Elixir of the vertue of the Electrum and I the Electrum of the vertue of the Elixir I leave his way to his own foâ—lowers but I desire mine not to weary and 〈◊〉 themselves in such a weak but a more stronâ— principle I make two kindes of Electrum one way tâ— first whereof is Spiritual the other Corporeâ— First of the former after you have made your 〈◊〉 Corporeal Elixir by projection in the same Crucible melt one ounce of Lead and likewise another of Tyn and when they are hot take the Crucible from the fire and pour therein one ounce of Silver melted in another Crucible and when these three white metals begin to be cold take two ounces of Mercury well purged and put those two ounces of Quicksilver upon the molten metall by drops then increase the fire gently that too much of the Mercury do not fume away then in three other several Crucibles melt Iron Copper and Gold of each one ounce which you must have in readiness molten And first put your molten Gold into the Crucible where your four white metals stand molten and pour it upon them then your Copper and last of all your Iron stirring the whole masse with a stick that it may mix together and let it stand in a melting heat the space of an