Art have conspired and made a Purification beyond what Nature alone could ever have brought to pass Therefore this Mercury though it be liquid and in the form of Mercury it is notwithstanding Unctuous that is great with Child which Child is Sulphur which Sulphur it will in the end bring forth and shall then be sealed up in the belly of this Infant which is when all is fixed and Mercury is then hidden under the fixity of Sulphur Hermes Tree unto Ashes is burnt IT doth therefore naturally incline it self unto Inceration for Earth is the Nurse of our Stone and in it is its virtue attained and its perfection intire according to noble Hermes in his Smaragdine Table Vis saith he ejus est integra si versa fuerit in terram By vertue of this third permanent pure incombustible Water thou shalt at last attain a total Inceration for this Water though it be wholly Mercurial to sight yet hath it in its own Bowels its own Sulphur nay it is all Sulphur and that all incombustible This work is called the burning of Hermes Tree to Ashes which is done thrice first into a black unctuous Calx as impalpable as Atoms which are only to be discerned in the Sun-beams secondly into a fine white Calx in which is the Moon in the full the third a red Calx in which the Sun is Orient Now know that the first Calcination is from the vertue of the Sun in which the Sun seeks to rise but by reason of the equal opposition it finds from the water it is beclouded and after through the interposition of the Earth totally Eclipsed This Fire therefore because of the mixture of it with the natural Fire of Sol which is in it dissolved is called unnatural the first Fire of our Water is called Fire against nature and the Fire of the Sulphur of the perfect Body is called Fire of nature In this operation through the power and will of the Almighty the Body which hath been so long dead is by this Water quickned and actually sprouts like to a Vegetable for when the pores of it are opened by the moistning of our Water it straight begins to follow the Spirit upon the Fire the Spirit then doth mount aloft which the Body thus made tender cannot follow but as the Poet saith non passibus aequis as a Son that is little followeth his Father It therefore in a token of its friendship with the Water doth bud forth like to the tender Frost upon the surface of the Earth and retains a quantity of the Water with it self occupying a middle room between the bottom and the top in which respects the Philosophers have called it their Soul which to shew its union to the Body riseth no higher then it can have a root or Basis below and to manifest its love to the Spirit it doth as it were climb after it higheâ— and higher for its season until at length it return from whence it came And verily this Soul is the Magnetical Medium between the Spirit and the Body which doth desire the Spirit as its true drink and therefore as it grows dry it doth attract the greater drops of sweat which falling to the Earth arise in a pleasant fume and do moisten the growing virtue with a pleasant dew by reason of which it grows every day more and more This Tree of ours some have compared to one thing and some to another some to a Cypress or Fir-Tree which indeed may seem to resemble it others to Haw-Thorn Trees as Ripley in his Gate of Cibation others to Shrubs and Bushes others to thick Woods and in these Woods saith Lambsprint there is a Beast all over black I confess there is a similitude between our Germination and all these others because of the Humidity of the Compound which is ever and anon returning by drops have likened it to a moorish low Bog in which Rushes grow and Toads keep others have called it their Coral which is indeed the fittest comparison for in our Tree there are Shoots and Sprigs without any thing that may be properly likened to Leaves as then Coral is an union of a Vegetable and a Stony nature so is it in our Tree for Stones and Minerals are of one Imposition our Tree is Metalline and yet through the power of God it seems to Vegetate 2ly Coral grows under the water where one would think no Vegetable could grow ours also grows in a heat in which no Vegetable but it self can grow 3ly Coral hath many Sprigs and Branches without Leaves so is our Tree 4ly Coral as it is under water hath a most exquisite biting tast which in the Air it quickly loseth so our Stone or Tree Metalline in its place is of a pontique fiery nature but taken out it in a short space loseth the same irrecoverably 5ly There are five sorts of Coral the common Gray the Milk White the Green the Bloud Red and the Black so our Tree is at his periods of all these colours and in this form which Tree by the heat of the Fire is dryed to a Calx which is called the Ashes of Hermes Tree Lastly Coral is more heavy then any other Vegetable and so is our Tree beyond all Vegetables yea and Coral it self in ponderosity It was not therefore a fortuitous comparison that Philosophers named their Mastery the Tree of the Hesperides nor is it in vain that they bring in Jason pouring Broth at the Root of it to attain the Mastery for verily â—he wise Philosopher noted by Jason â—o governing his Fire that the Lunaria or Water of the Moon may return to the Earth in which these Trees grow the Earth will at length be so dryed by the â—eat of the Sun that it shall afford the Tree no more moisture then shall the Tree it self be calcined by the prevailing â—eat into a Powder impalpable first black then white then red Therefore â—s our little Glass by Flammel in his Summary named the Philosophers Garden in which the Sun riseth and setteth and the Philosophers Tree is moistned with the dew of Heaven day and night without â—ntermission It is our natural Fire most sure THis Mercury drawn out of the Sun is the true natural heat in the acuaâ—ing and stirring up of which is the whole secret of the Mastery this is the honoured Salt when this is made to appear thy operations will be so admirable that they will take up thy whole worldly content and with their variety the time will seem so short that thou wilt not take notice of any tediousness in the passing of it Our Mercury our Sulphur our Tincture pure THis is our Mercury which cannot be attained with money which is nothing but Sulphur and Sulphur which is nothing but Tincture in which all Elements are proportioned perfectly Our Soul our Stone born up with wind In the Earth ingendred Bear this in mind THis is our Body which is now become all Soul and all Spirit all the
inclination BUt all this is not enough to declare our Calcination for Operation follows Preparation and he that doth not before he begin to work prepare his Matters and set true Agent and Patient together it is not his Regimen that can or will produce any thing Therefore first you must know that we joyn kind with kind in our work for Nature is mended and retained with its own Nature for this cause is our King wedded to the Water-bearers Daughter of which Water-bearer I told you that his Body his Pitcher and the Water in it are all one and his Daughter was the Queen which arose out of the water in which was seen a Lamp burning Wonder not at it that a Queen should spring out of a Wâ—â—ter-bearers loins for the King is the 〈◊〉 Son and he is greater then both For know that in this place there is nothing so hard to get as Water which cannot be brought but by him that hath the Keys of the whole Kingdom Take this then for a great secret our Water-bearer is Father to the King and Queen the King being at perfect years is at his own dispose and enjoys more Riches then his Father but his Father hath the Key of a Closet in which is Riches enough for all in the Kingdom to make every Subject as rich as the King but the dispose of this wealth the King only is to have yet can he not have it in his possession till he marry his Sister which is in the water of the Pitcher invisible This his Sister is also his Mother and his Father for it is one with the Water-bearer the Water and the Pitcher as is said By reason of his Consanguinity the King embraceth his Sister very desirously and she by his embraces appears as a Queen and then the Water-bearer and his Water and Pitcher vanish and the King and 〈◊〉 remain alone at length both King 〈◊〉 Queen are drowned after the immoderate use of Venery and violent sweating weeping and pissing which sweat tears and urine do make one Sea in which swim two Fishes without flesh and bones which after resolve and make one Broth which is called Water permanent Who knoweth not this in knowledge is blind He may forth wander as mist in the wind Wotting never with profit where to light Because he understands not our words aright THus though I have somewhat Metaphorically deciphered our true principles yet so plainly as that you may with diligence understand the meaning and unless you know this you will proceed blind-fold in your work not knowing the causes of things so that every puff of Sophisters will toss you like as a Feather is tossed in the Air with a blast of wind for our Books are full of obscurity and Philosophers write horrid Metaphors and Riddles to them who are not upon a sure bottom which like to a running Stream will carry them down head-long into despair and errors which they can never escape till they so far understand our writings as to discern the subject Matter of our secrets which being known the rest is not so hard Joyn kind therefore with kind as good reason is For every Burgeon answers his own seed Man getteth Man a Beast a Beast I wis Further to treat of this it is no need But understand this point if you will speed Each thing is first Calcin'd in his own kind This well conceiv'd fruit therein shalt thou find STep therefore not one step further till you have learned this Lesson namely to wed Consanguinity with Consanguinity and consider well what it is you desire to produce and according to that let be your intention Take the last thing in your Intention for the first thing in your Principles this is according to Nature and it is the true ground of all Generation for out of kind nothing doth engender a Man begetteth a Man and not a Lion nor doth a Lion beget a Sheep a Rose doth not produce a Thorn nor a Nettle a Gilliflower and so if need were I could particularly demonstrate it throughout all Vegetable Animal and Mineral Bodies but it is so plain a thing that I need say no more but leave it with you as the Foundation-stone on which you shall build whatever you intend Attempt nothing out of its own nature and kind lest you reap a fancy instead of truth Whatever you intend to increase by way of Multiplication attempt it only in its own kind and so in this work especially in which Calcination is the mingling of Seminal influence which must be done in the same way of homogeneity If you apprehend this in its cause aright and know how to apply this doctrine in your operation as you ought in this you will find great benefit and a door hereby opened to the discovery of greater Mysteries And we make Calx unctuous black white and red ANd now the opportunity of this discourse leads me to handle our Magical Calxes know that we do Calcine three times in our work of which the general principle is that our Calxes are not combust powders but unctuous for in them we innoble the Sulphurs which are the Basis of Radical Humidity which Raymund calls Oyls and Unguents So then our Calxes are one in kind and do only differ in colour and maturity Our first is black of the blackest and is called Saturn our second white of the whitest and is called Luna our third is red of the reddest and is called Sol. Of three degrees or our Base be perfite THese Calxes are the periods of so many Circulations and have so many degrees allowed to each of them our first Circulation confounds the Elements our second renews the Air and the third exalts the Fire and then is our Stone perfect Flexible as Wax else stand they in no stead OUr Calxes thus graduated are distinguishable from all the Calxes in the world first in that they are done without any laying on of hands secondly from their exquisite subtilty of parts for they are finer then Atoms of the Sun joyned with an eminent Humidity by reason of which to the astonishment of the beholders they flow like unto melted Wax the first in the Glass by continuance of heat and so the second as not being come to their period of perfection and the second and third upon a plate of hot Metal or on a melted Metal or on Mercury heated so long till it is ready to fly By right long process as Philosophers do write A year we take or more for our respite For in less space our Calxes will not be made Able to tyne with Tincture that will not fade WHich last Calxes as they are the period of Arts skill and Natures power in this thing so they are a considerable time in perfecting the former in five months viz. the white and the red in nine months and a half which is the true time and a month we allow for the preparing of our Materials and three months for Fermentations and Imbibitions
come to that pass that they will ascend no more but remain at the bottom of the Vessel together which is Conjunction in which Conjunction they swell bubble and boil till they calcine and putrefie The black Earth impalpable like Atoms of the Sun being the highest degree of Putrefaction and this is a secret not so clearly discovered by any before THe Sun is set no wonder darkest Night Doth veil the Crystal Skie The Moon 's eclips'd no marvel that her light Doth from us hidden lie The Sun 's declined to the Northern Pole And O the change that 's made The pearly drops are turned to a Coal All brightness quite doth fade Is this Apollo bright whose glory did A lustre great display Is this fair Phoebe who ere light was hid Did shine as bright as day Is this the King whose glory and renown Through all the World did ring Is this the Queen who far and near was known Oh 't is a wondrous thing Such glory and such beauty thus should fade That what before did shine More bright then Tagus should so soon be made More foul then ere 't was fine The Earth doth melt the Heavens drop down rain The Rocks which do relent They seem like Water then condense again Till all their moisture's spent To Ashes they return for Dust they were This Dust from Water springs Therefore at length they melt to Water clear Which all to Spirits brings The Nest is Earth therefore they will congeal To sparkling pearly dew Shining like tender Pearl on which doth steal A Body dry and new And then the parts like Atoms of the Sun For fineness do appear Rejoyce for now thou half thy course hast run Nor hast thou cause to fear Proceed until thou see the sparkling red Oh happy sight to see By which unto the Royal Palace led Thou shalt aye happy be Happy are they who shall not miss to find The new uprising Sun More happy they who with renewed mind In God find rest alone AN EXPOSITION UPON THE Third Gate Which is SEPARATION The Third Gate Opened Which is SEPARATION Separation doth each part from other divide The subtle from the gross the thick from the thin But manual Separation see thou set aside For that pertains to Fools which little fruit doth win But in our Separation Nature doth not blin Making division of qualities Elemental Into a fifth degree till they be turned all HAving now run through two of the twelve Gates I am come to the third which is Separation which begins so soon as the Matters have been so long circulated as to begin to hold one of another This Operation the Ancient Sages have denominated Division of Elements which afterwards they say must be joyned with a perpetual union This Separation is by others called Extraction of Natures and the parts separated are compared to two Dragons the one winged and the other without wings Artephius who for Age and Candor was next to Hermes the most eminent calls this Separation the Key of the Work which according to him is a Sublimation in a continual Vapour that what is Heavenly and subtile may ascend aloft that is to the upper part of the Vessel and there take the nature of a Body Heavenly or Spirit and what is gross may remain below in the nature of a Body Earthly which is the end of our Mastery to bring the Bodies which are compact and dry to become a Spiritual fume which is only to be done by Sublimation and Division or Separation So then our Separation is not to be understood as many foolish Alchymists do interpret it who have their Elements of which they boast much which are indeed manual done by handy-work the Glass being removed altered or renewed every time Nor are our Separations made by filter or per tritorium as many imagine who know not the nature of our Work and therefore run into such foolish fancies Nature then in our Work doth all in all who as a curious Artificer maketh no confused mixtures but first of all causeth the moisture to ascend which because it cannot get out it doth therefore condense in drops and descends so long till at length it begin to be acuated from the Body which is below for naturally all homogeneal moisture cohobated on a bodily substance with which it hath affinity is acuated by it Gold then is a Body in which the active qualities of heat and driness are more than in the Mercury and the Mercury being cohobated on it begins to be a little more Fiery or hot and then the Exhalations are more Aërial which before were more Watry and by continued Cohobation the Water partakes yet more and more of the Solary nature until at length this heat or Sulphur impregnating the Mercury cause it to congeal into a new Body or quintessence which is after the corruption of the old Body which is called the Earth or Ashes of Hermes's Tree Earth is turned into Water under black and bloe And Water after into Air under very white Then Air into Fire Elements there be no moe Of these is made our Stone of great delight But of this Separation much more I must write And Separation is called by Philosophers definition Of several qualities a Tetraptive dispersion SO then this is the method of our Operation Earth that is Sol is boiled in our Mercury in such a heat in which the Mercury may ascend constantly in a smoak and descend in drops and the Body below stand liquid and boil then shall the Water dry up under which is blackness hidden which when the Water is dryed up shall appear like the Crows Bill Then shall this Powder again relent and after 40 days rotting without fumes shall send up a smoak again which shall ascend and descend so long till the whole be made volatile and Aërial then shall the black colour vanish and the white appear This white Argent vive or Mercury animated which appears after blackness shall then totally congeal and shall be then Fire whose Nurse is the Earth then hast thou the four Elements that is cohobated thy Natures to the highest degree of perfection of the white Stone then canst thou go no further but go back and turn the same Wheel till thou hast attained the red Stone Thus hast thou the true Principles and Operation of our great Elixirs both red and white which if thou once hast thou hast Riches enough and needest no more in this life This if no more were said of this point might be enough to shew thee the truth of our true Separation yet because Philosophers have spoken much of it and indeed it is all the work to cause ascension and descension of our true Water on our true Body so long till by the Water the Body be volatized and after that by the Body the Water fixed and till that be brought to pass there will come and go the four Qualities in their season and will cause change of colours suitable
this true Separation is the cause and without it it cannot be made Then Oyl and Water with Water shall distill And through her help receive moving Keep well these two that thou not spill Thy Work for want of due closing And make thy Stopple of Glass melting The top of thy Vessel together with it Then Philosopher lick it is up shit IN this second Circulation which is after Conjunction there shall be no more the Body below and the Spirit above but all shall be one and the Body which is the Sulphur shall always follow the Spirit on the Fire wherever it flys The occasional cause of all this is our first Water which though vile is therefore to be much valued for it is very precious through the virtue of which it comes to pass that our Earth yields a Water and causeth it to fly with the Spirit aloft and is the Soul of our Sol which at length doth allure the said Spirit and Body to union which else would never be and then the Body beyond its own nature is lifted up moving uncessantly with the Spirit and Soul upon the Fire for all now are made one inseparably and this is called the sealing the Mother in the belly of the Infant which she bore that is the Earth below is so united to the Water that arose from it that in this Operation after this true Conjunction they are never more divided but are together sublimed and descend continually moving and altering continually until perfect Complement Now for as much as all the Mastery consists in Vapour which are called the great Winds which are in the Vessel at the forming of this our Embrio therefore great care must be had lest the Spirits exhale Which they will do without the Glass have a strong guard for first they are subtle nor that only but ascend with a great impetus by reason of our Fire which must cause the inferiora ebullire moveri continuò inferiora circulari quolibet momento and thirdly in Putrefaction the Body and Spirits have a most subtle odour which also must be retained For preventing of all thou shalt have thy Stopple as firm as any part of thy Glass which let it be strong as is said and the neck long and strong and let the neck be melted up with a Lamp or with Coals and closed well without much wringing which makes the Glass brittle but being nipt up and after that staying in the same heat turning it to and fro in the clear heat the Glass will come to as exactly close and smooth a superficies as in any other place This is the true and sure way which Philosophers have secured their Glasses by Let it cool by degrees and be very wary that it get no crack in cooling which if it do though never so little you must not connive at it lest the winds within cause it there to burst as being a weak defective place The Water wherewith thou mayst revive thy Stone Look thou distill before thou work with it Oftentimes by it self alone And by this sight thou shalt wit From feculent faeces when it is quit For some men can with Saturn it multiply And such like substance which we defie THus thou seest how our Work must be ordered in reference to its Regimen but the main matter is our Water Which Water as saith Artephius is the Vinegar of Mountains and it is the only Instrument for our Work its Preparation consists in Cohobation which we will discover In my little Treatise called Introitus Apertus and in my other Tractate called Ars Metallorum Metamorphoseâ—s I speak as much of it as a man can speak without giving a Receipt but to the Ingenious what there is written is far better than any Receipt This I say that it must first be cohobated in a very wonderful way for it is such a Cohobation that hath not its like in the World and for several times to a determinate number and after it may and ought to be distilled per se without addition again and again that thou mayst have the Water clean from any Exotical mixture When it ascends like to the Pearled dew thou mayst then know that it is sufficiently pure which is not till all the filthiness be cast from the centre and wash'd from the superficies Thy Water then hath so excellent a Pontick faculty that it will dissolve Jupiter Saturn or Venus into Mercury and Sulphur for it commands Metals as their true Water Mineral which no Mercury in the World is but our Mercury nor can be for Reasons known to the Adepti which if I should give there would be none almost so stupid but would easily apprehend them for they are most demonstrable This only I at present say of this Mercury that it is the Mother of Metals and therefore hath power to reduce them by dividing their principles of Sulphur and Mercury but we count it a loss to imploy our Mercury to such such sordid uses for we spoil the goodness of it hereby Gold only is drowned in it that is it is reduced without division of parts but though the Sulphur and Mercury be for a time distinct yet they will joyn with the Water and together and so remain perpetually which other Metals in their dissolution will not for their Sulphurs being not perfect are rejected to the superficies and never are received to union again for they are Heterogeneous Distill it therefore till it be clean And thin like Water as it should be Like Heaven in colour bright and sheene Keeping both figure and ponderosity There with did Hermes moisten his Tree In his Glass that he made it to grow upright With Flowers discoloured beautiful to sight SO then to return to what we digressed a little from thy Water must be so long distilled until it be very clean for this saith the Philosopher is thy first work to make clean thy Mercury and then into clean Mercury to put clean Bodies for who can expect a pure Generation from that which is unclean The next property of thy Water is that it must be thin even as thin as any other Mercury for if the external proportion be corrupted it is an evident sign that the inward nature is confused It must also be of a very bright colour even like to fine burnished Silver as saith Artephius Hence saith a certain Philosopher that our Water to sight is like to a Coelestial Body Our Water must not be reduced into any limpid Diaphanous liquor as some fondly imagine and as I my self in my time of errours did conceit but it must keep its Mercurial form pure and incorrupted It is also very ponderous so ponderous that it is somewhat more weighty then any other Mercury in the World This is the only one Mercury and there is none in the whole World besides it which can do our Work with this Hermes did moisten his Body and made it to rot and putrefie By means of this Water
or Fiery part of the Body as Light will mix with Light and then the gross part of the Body and of the Water in the bottom of the Vessel will be brought in absence of the Soul and Spirit to putrefie So then these two Fiery Natures being Homogeneous will readily mix and will sublime together in form of a white Smoak or Vapour as saith noble Artephius and there condensing in the top of the Vessel that is about the fides and in the Concave of the Glass will return again and circulate up and down till it have destroyed the solidity of the Body making it no Body but subliming what is subtle and what is earthly and resisting turning into Ashes or an impalpable Powder by Calcination And after Putrefaction is compleat by Circulation the most fixed part which is called the Body of Fixion the essential and most permanent part of both Body and Water will ponderously be lifted up and carried aloft into the Air. And without this Separation and Division all is nothing for this is the very Key of the Mastery it is the cause of Generation therefore in vain is whatever is attempted without this boiling the gross and subliming what is subtle that in the troubles of the stormy Sea which works up and down as the Sea in the mighty Winds what is pure may ascend and whatever is impure may remain at the bottom and when all that is pure is ascended that which is left is called the Earth that remains So Artephius Now to help thee in at this Gate This last secret I will disclose to thee Thy Water must be seven times sublimate Else shall no kindly Dissolution be Nor Putrefaction shalt thou none see Like liquid Pitch nor colours appearing For lack of heat within thy Glass working NOte then that Sublimation which otherwise is called Separation Division Ascension and Descension is the Key of the Work it is placed for the third Gate and yet it is the last and the first the last it is called by Ripley and I to Eccho to his voice assure thee it is the first and last And as the Key of all our Operations is Separation so the Key to it is our true Mercury truly prepared and proportioned as it ought to be Now the proportion of thy Water is in reference to its internal additional Sulphur which is added by the Philosopher which is done by successive Eagles which are made by our Philosophical Arsnick the number of which ought to be seven The darkness vanishing and the light appearing after many showrs before the flight of each Eagle our Water being thus acuated is by Acuation purged and then it becomes powerful in dissolving the Body which will be done with a fewer number of Eagles or a greater but with 7 or 9 most desiredly This acuated Water is also the Instrument which doth move the Gold to putrefie which no other Agent in the World can do for by this the Body is ground softned and mollified the pores of it are opened and the Sulphur invisible is set at liberty which causeth the Body to rot change colours and at length become black like unto melted Pitch But if thou omit any of the number of Eagles or fail in the goodness of thy Arsnick or erre in the preparation of the Water with thy Arsnick either in Conjunction or Purification or Digestion or any other errour of which experience will warn thee do not then expect that the most exact Regimen of heat of thy external Furnace will do the Work Four Fires there be which thou must understand Natural against Nature unnatural also And the Elemental which doth burn the brand These four Fires use we and no moe Fire against Nature must do thy Body woe This is our Dragon as I thee tell Fiercely burning as the Fire in Hell NOw to give thee a touch concerning our Fire which he that knows may well be accounted a Master of our Secrets We have indeed four Fires which is one more than Artephius numbred which yet he intended to include The most noble Fire is Natural which is that which we seek to have multiplied and that is the Sulphur of Gold or rather its Fiery Tincture it is that which we seek for and we use Mercury for Sol his sake Our next Fire is our Fire against Nature and that is the Fire of our Water which is to be corrupted and by this corruption Multiplication is made The third Fire is Unnatural which is the mixture of these two Fires while they are in their action and passion and neither doth actually predominate Now for to give you a reason of these Fires denomination know that Mineral Fire is Sulphur which is hot and dry and it is the death of the Mineral Tree that is it is the cause of coagulating that is taking away the flux of the Mercury which is cold and moist this in Gold is apparent for it is a coagulated perfect Body fixed and permanent in all tryals this it hath from its Fire or Sulphur and this is Natural But now our Water hath an actual and active Sulphur in it and yet quick and fluid a Fire in Water which yet is not burned this Sulphur is true Gold and yet it is volatile this is a Riddle the Philosophers Mystery and yet true this is contrary to Natures ordinary operation in Mineral Bodies Now Nature will always care and provide for her own Child before a Stranger Gold is her own Son and is according to her own Rules but this Mercury is the Son of the Philosopher to whose nativity though Nature contribute her help yet he is out of her ordinary road and through the co-operation of Art and Nature he is for his qualifications an astonishment to Nature hot and dry internally and that actually for it is impregnated with real Sulphur and yet not coagulated but in one word Ignis aqua Gold truly so called and that most pure yet volatile and crude and no abortive not perfect yet left in the way to perfection and yet its virtue active not extinguished This subject Nature finding mixed with her Son the King even Gold by it she endeavours to mend his Constitution and to multiply his virtue for though living Gold be a thing of admirable force yet being out of the ordinary channel of Natures operations Nature doth not mind its preservation much less its propagation These three forenamed Fires are internal secret and invisible but there is one more which we use which is not ours properly for every Sophister hath it and useth it as well as we and that is Culinary Fire which yet is so necessary that without it we can do nothing nor yet without the true knowledge of its due proportion So then we use no Fires of Dung nor of the Sun or of Baths at some Sophisters perswade themselves and others for these are all the Fires which we use With the secret Sulphur that is in our Water which we proportion
heat then believe Vntil bright and shining in whiteness be thy Stone Then mayst thou open thy Glass anon And feed thy Child which is ybore With Milk and Meat aye more and more THus shalt thou keep them for the space of 150 days in which time thou shalt see a gallant Game played the Earth shall be overflown with Waters the two great Lights eclipsed the Heavens be clouded the Air darkned and all things in disorder and confusion then shall the Earth be turned into a Limus and the Water by decoction continual shall be dryed up and by moderate showrs and dews shall be moistned and by continual washing shall be cleansed then through the good pleasure of God the day-light shall spring forth and what was before dark shall now become clear and what was black of the blackest shall now be made very white This when thou shalt see rejoyce for our King is now coming from the East triumphing he hath conquered death and now is made immortal strengthen then your Fire a little prudently and with discretion continue it till such time as your Stone become white and very clear and bright sparkling like to a Sword new slipped and by driness be reduced into a Powder impalpable Now art thou come to the end of the white and thou hast a Stone perfect though this be but of small virtue yet thou mayst now take it out and use it either by Fermentation or Cibation or Imbibition or Multiplication and make it fit for projection so that if thou hast but an ounce thou mayst soon have a thousand For now both moist and dry is so contemperate That of the Water Earth hath received impression Which never after that asunder may be separate And right so Water to the Earth hath given ingression That both together to dwell have made profession And Water of the Earth hath purchased a retentive They four made one never more to strive NOw thou hast an intimate union between the moist and the dry that one is passed into another and of two there is a third made which is a Neuter from both and yet partakes of both and these two Natures that did seem so opposite are now conspired together to make one substance incorruptible For the Water which is a Spirit hath given such an impression to the Earth that it which was corporal and dry and uncapable of communicating Tincture is by it become penetrative so that it can in the very twinkling of an eye pass to the very Centre upon an imperfect Metal on which it is project as I have oft with an unspeakable content observed For it is not in our union of this Sulphur to its Mercury as it is with the union of Water to Earth though we make such comparisons for though we call our Sulphur Earth and our Mercury Water yet our Mercury will not in the Examen of the Fire flow away as Water will exhale from Loam how exquisitely soever it be contempered with it So then our Body which by our Art is renewed is advanced into the order of Spirits or Bodies glorified which though they have Bodies yet they are not subject to those Laws of gross corporeity which is in Bodies not regenerate therefore our Stone is a System of Wonders ponderous fixt and exquisitely compact and yet as penetrative as hot Oyl is into soaking Paper So that it is not now as it was at first beginning of Operation when the one was above the other below compared to two Dragons or Birds the one winged the other without wings but now both are capable to resist the Fire in its utmost fury Now hath the Water received a fermental impression from the Earth or Sulphur so that it is now made Sulphur with Sulphur as the other is made by the Water life with life This is the highest perfection which any sublunary Body can be brought to by which we know that God is one for God is perfection to which when ever any creature arrives in its kind it rejoyceth in unity in which is no division or alterity but peace and rest without contention Thus in two things all our intents do hing In moist and dry which be contraries two In dry that it the moist to fixing bring In moist that it give Liquefaction to the Earth also WHatever then we seem to say or write to the contrary all our intentional Secret consists only in two things whatever we seem to advise more is but only to intangle the unwary Our first Secret is to know our true Sulphur which many do allegoâ—ize to all the absurdities in the World This is Gold which is to be bought pure almost in any place The next is to know our Mercury which is not common but artificial drawn from three heads by the mediation of one thing which makes the two which are dry and Sulphurous to unite with one which is moist and Mercurial These are different in their qualities which difference our decoction so reconciles as to make of them sweet Harmony For the Sulphur in whose increase of virtue consists our final intent it doth give consistence to the Water yet so as that it doth not part with it from it self but with its Fermentative virtue it doth so infuse it that of a moist Spirit tender and volatile it becomes a fixt dry Fire-abiding substance But first of all the Water doth mollifie the Body and soak into it and search out its profundity for the Sun teyneth not till it teyned be for hard and dry Bodies cannot enter so as to transmute till such time as themselves be first Radically entred and changed from colour to colour till they come to perfection then it is fluid and penetrative for it will enter to the root of the imperfect and cause it to lose its imperfection and become perfect flowing upon it like Wax when it is heated by the Fire Then of them thus a temperament may forth go A temperament not so thick as the Body is Neither so thin as Water withouten miss BEtween the dry Body and the fluid Water we make a temperament which is called Impastation for it is made like unto Paste and Inceration for it brings it to the temper of Wax but most properly Amalgamation or gross Conjunction which is a middle consistence between Mercury and a Metal not so hard as the one for it may with a Knife or ones Finger be spread to and fro easily nor yet is it so currant as Mercury for no Mercury will run out of it though it be inclined one way or other I need say no more for there is hardly any vulgar Chymist who is not acquainted with the notion of an Amalgama and knows what temper that is when it will spread like Butter and yet laid declining will let nothing run from it which is thinner then the whole Compound for in a thin Amalgama the Mercury if it be declined will run to the declining side like Hydropical intercutis Water But ours is
which shall over-go The spotted Panther the Lyon green the Crow's Bill blew as Lead These shall appear before the perfect White and many other moe Colours And after the perfect white gray and false Citrine also And after these then shall appear the bloody red invariable Then hast thou a Medicine of the third order of his own kind multiplicable IX Thou must divide thy white Elixir into parts Two Before thou Rubifie and into Glasses Two let them be done If thou wilt have the Elixirs for Sun and Moon so do With Mercury then them multiply unto great quantity soon And if thou hadst not at the beginning enough to fill a Spoon Yet thou mayst them so multiply both the White and the Red That if thou liv'st a Thousand Years they will stand thee in stead X. Have thou recourse unto thy Wheel therefore I counsel thee And study him well to know in each Chapter truly Meddle with no Fantastical Multiplyers but let them be Which will thee flatter and falsly say they are cunning in Philosophy Do as I bid thee then dissolve those foresaid Bases wittily And turn them into perfect Oyls with our true Water ardent By Circulation that must be done according to our intent XI These Oyls will six crude Mercury and convert Bodies all Into perfect Sol and Lune when thou shalt make Projection That Oyly Substance pure fixt Reymond Lully did call His Basilisk of which he never made so plain detection Pray for me to God that I may be one of his Election And that he will for one of his at Dooms-day me ken And grant me in his Bliss to Reign with him for ever Amen A Breviary of Alchemy OR A COMMENTARY UPON Sir GEORGE RIPLEY'S RECAPITULATION BEING A Paraphrastical Epitome of his XII Gates Stanza I. Position I. That the Art is most certainly true WHich wittily conceiv'd thou mayest not Work in vain Whence observe the Truth and Certainty of the Art so Father Hermes It is true saith he without falshood certain and most true That which is above is like that which is beneath and that which is beneath is like that which is above to bring about the Miracles of one thing So Trevisan Flammel Dionys Zachary and others affirm upon their own Experience And so this our Author in his Epistle to King Edward his Conclusion of the Admonition concerning erroneous Experiments and other places of these his Twelve Gates that I need not enlarge on this Subject Stanza II. Position II. Our Work is made of Three Principles WHere the Red Man and the White Woman are made one c. Thence it is evident that our Operations are made of Three Principles yet of one Essence the Red Man the White Wife and the Spirit of Life By the latter the two former are Espoused or made One. This is that which Trevisan calls his One Root and Two Mercurial Substances crude at their taking and extracted out of their Minera's This our Author else-where calls his Trinity and Vnity the Trinity respecting the Substances as they are severall the Vnity respecting their Essence which is intirely Homogenial Therefore it is added that they live in love and rest without repugnancy which could not be were they not Essentially and Radically the same For likeness of Nature is the Cause of Love and Oneness of Essence the true ground of Union among different Substances can only be expected Confusion if not Destruction Position III. Three Substances make only Two Natures Earth and Water EArth and Water equally proportion'd that is best Here it is evident that these Three Substances make up but Two Natures of Earth and Water The Man and Wife are both Bodies or Earths the one fixed and ripe the other Volatile and unripe and by Mixture make a brittle black Hermaphroditical Body or Earth called the Philosophers Lead as Ripley in his Preface expresseth it The White Woman or Famale is otherwise called the Moon by all Philosophers and by this Author in his Doctrine of Proportions One of the Sun and Two of the Moon till altogether like Pap be done Position IV. From equal Pondus of Earth and Water Three of Water to One of the Earth is good but equal is best THen make the Mercury Four to the Sun Two to the Moon c. as it should be in Figure of the Trinity And so we come to take notice of the Doctrine of Proportion between the Earth and Water equal that is best the same saith our Author in his Chapter of Calcination This is the surest and best proportion speaking of equal Pondus of Earth and Water and gives the Reason because Solution will be sooner made viz. The more thy Earth the less thy Water be The sooner and better Solution shalt thou see And here he affirms the same of Calcination which goes before Solution Yet Three of the Water to One of the Earth will do well lest the Tincture should not have room to be sufficiently dilated in the Water and the Body opened by it and this is the Pondus of Roger Bacon which requires a longer time before the quick be kil'd and by consequence the reviving of the dead must be longer in doing For Calcination is nothing else but a killing the moist with the dry till which be done there is no reviving of the dry by the moist but they have one and the same Operation and Period of time for one dies not but the other revives nor doth the Dragon die but with its Sister Position V. The White Wife in the first Conjunction is to be Three to One of the Red Man THree of the Wife and one of the Man thou take c. From the Pondus between the Earth and Water come we to view the Proportion between the Man and his Wife Here the Pondus is laid down Three to One and so there are Four parts of Earth to Four of Water or more until Twelve that is Three of Water to One of the Earth This also is clear from the Chapter of Conjunction where the Woman is allow'd 15 Veins to 5 of the Man as to the Act of their Foecundity which is interpreted of the first Conjunction by himself that the Man must have but 3 of Water and his Wife 9 which is 12 of Water to 4 of the Earth by which it is evident that the Woman is to exceed her Husband in a three-fold Proportion Or Two to One after Reymund Or Four to One according to Alanus but Three to One is best However in Reymund's Doctrine of Proportions cited by our Author in his Gate of Calcination One of the Sun is joyn'd with Two of the Moon which make Three of the Body and to these are added Four of Mercury which is One more of the Spiritual than of the Corporal part and this the Author compares to Trinity and Vnity both are good Yea and Alanus prescribes Four parts to One which may be done but Three to One is best and equal Pondus
the Liquor by virtue whereof it is fixed coming away intire both in its Pondus and Virtue This Sulphur in Gold and Silver is pure in the other Metalls less pure Therefore in Gold and Silver it is fixed in others it is fugitive in all the Metalls it is coagulated in Mercury or Argent Vive it is coagulable in Gold Silver and Mercury this Sulphur is so strongly united that the Antients did ever judge Sulphur and Mercury to be all one but we by the help of a Liquor the Invention of which in these parts of the world we owe to Paracelsus though among the Moors and Arabians it hath been and is at this day commonly known to the acuter sort of Chymists By this I say we know that the Sulphur which is in Mercury coagulable and in the Metals coagulated is external to the Internal nature of Mercury and may may be separated in the form of a tincted Metallick Oyl the remaining Mercury being then void of all Sulphur save that which may be called its Inward or Central Sulphur and is now incoagulable of it self though by our Elixir it is to be coagulated but of it self it can neither be fixt nor precipitated nor sublimed but remains un-altered in all corrosive waters and in all digestions of heat One way then of Mercury Azating all Metals and Minerals is by the Liquor Alchahest which out of all such Bodies as have Mercury in their Constitution can separate a running Argent Vive from which Argent vive all its Sulphur is then separated save that only which is Internal and Central to the Mercury which Internal Sulphur of Mercury no corrosive can touch Next to this way of universal Reduction there are also some other particular ways by which Saturn Jupiter Antimony yea even Venus and Mars may be reduced into a running Quick-silver by the help of Salts which because being corporeal they pierce not so radically as the fore-named Liquor doth they therefore do not spoil the Mercury of its Sulphur but that as much Sulphur as there in is Common Mercury so much also there in is this Mercury of the Bodies only this Mercury hath specificated qualities according to the nature of the Metal or Mineral from which it was extracted and for that reason as to our work which is to dissolve perfect Species of Metals it hath no more virtue then common Argent Vive There is than but one only humidity which is applicable unto our Work which certainly is neither of Saturn nor Venus nor is drawn from any thing which nature hath formed but from a substance compounded by the Art of the Philosopher So then if a Mercury drawn from the Bodies have not only the same deficiency of heat and superfluity of faeces as Common Mercury hath but also a distinct specificated form it must by reason of this its form be so much the farther remote from our Mercury then common Argent Vive is Our Art therefore is to compound two Principles one in which the Salt and another in which the Sulphur of Nature doth abound which are not yet perfect nor yet totally imperfect and by consequence may therefore by our Art be changed or exalted which that which is totally perfect cannot be and then by Common Mercury to extract not the Pondus but the Coelestial virtue out of the compound which virtue being Fermental begets in the common Mercury an Off-spring more noble then it self which is our true Hermaphrodite which will congeal it self and dissolve the Bodies Observe but a grain of Corn in which scarce a discernable part is Sprout and this Sprout if it were out of the Grain would die in a moment the whole grain is sown yet the Sprout only produceth the Herb So is it in our Body the Fermental Spirit that is in it is scarce a third part of the whole the rest is of no value yet all is joyned in the composition and the faeculent corporeous parts of the Body comes away with the dregs of the Mercury But beyond the example or similitude given of a grain of Corn it may be observed that the hidden and spiritual virtue of this our Body doth purge and purifie its Matrix of water in which it is sown that is it makes it cast forth a great quantity of filthy earth and a great deal of Hydropical Saline moisture For instance make thy washings for a tryal with pure and clean Fountain water weigh first a Pint of the same water and take the exact weight of it then wash thy compound 8 or 10 Eagles or times save all the faeces weigh thy Body and Mercury exactly weigh thy faeces being very dry then Distil or Sublime all that will Sublime a very little quick Mercury will ascend then put the residue of the faeces in a Crucible set them on the Coals and all the faeculency of the Mercury will burn like a Coal yet without fume when that is all consumed weigh the remaining faeces and thou shalt find them to be two thirds of thy Body the other third being in the Mercury weigh the Mercury which thou Sublimest and the Mercury prepared by it self and the weight of both will not recompence thy Mercuries weight by far So then boyl up thy water to a skin in which thou madest thy Lotions for that is a thick water and in a cool place thou shalt have Crystals which is the Salt of Mercury Crude and no way fit for Medicines Yet it is a content for the Artists to see how the Heterogeneities of Mercury are discovered which no Art save the Liquor of Alchahest can do and that in a destructive not a generative way as this is for this operation of ours is made between Male and Female within their own kind between which there is a Ferment which effecteth that which no other thing in the world could do In all truth I tell you that if you should take our imperfect compound Body per se and Mercury per se and Ferment them alone though you might bring out of the one a most pure Sulphur and out of the other Mercury of Mercury which is the Nut of Mercury yet with these thou couldest effect nothing for Fermental virtue is the wonder of the world and it is by it that water becomes Herbs Trees and Plants Fruits Flesh Blood Stones Minerals and every thing seek then for it only and rejoyce in it as in a deservedly invaluable treasure Now know that Fermentation works or ferments not out of kind neither do Salts Ferment Metals Wilt thou then know whence it is that some fixt Alcalies do extract a Mercury out of Minerals and out of the more imperfect Metals Consider then that in all these Bodies the Sulphur is not so radically mixt and united as it is in Silver and Gold Now Sulphur is of kin to divers Alcalies that are extraordinarily dissolved or melted with it and by this means the Mercurial parts are disjoyned and the Argent vive is
neck carefully without flaw or crack or hole for the least vent will let out the subtile Spirit and destroy the work You may know the exact Sealing of your Glass thus when it is cold put the neck where it is sealed into your mouth and suck strongly if there be the least vent you will draw out the Air that is in the Vial into your mouth which when you take the Glass from your mouth is again suckt into the Glass with a hissing so that your ear may perceive the noise this is an undoubted tryal Rule XII You must then provide your self with a Furnace by wise men called an Athanor in which you may accomplish your work nor will any one serve in your first work But such a one in which you may give a heat obscurely red at your pleasure or lesser and that in its highest degree of heat it may endure twelve hours at the least This if you would obtain Observe First that your nest be no bigger then to contain your dish with about an Inch vacancy at the side where the Vent-hole of your Athanor is for the Fire to play Secondly Let your Dish be no bigger then to hold one Glass with about an inch thickness of Ashes between the Glass and side remembring the word of the Philosopher One Glass One Thing One Furnace for such a Dish standing with the bottom level to the vent-hole which in such a Furnace ought to be but one about three Inches Diameter sloping upwards will with the stream of Flame which is always playing to the top of the Vessel and round about the bottom be kept always in a glowing heat Thirdly If your Dish be bigger your Furnace vent must be within a third part or a fourth as big as your Platter is Diameter else it cannot be exactly nor continually heated Fourthly If your Tower be above six Inches square at the Fire-place you are out of proportion and can never do rightly as to the point of heat For if you cause it if above that proportion to stream with flame the heat will be too big And if it stream not it will not be big enough or very hardly Fifthly Let the top of your Furnace be closed to an hole which may but just serve for casting in of Coals about three Inches Diameter or Square which will keep down the heat powerfully Rule XIII These things thus ordered set in your Glass with your matter and give Fire as Nature requires easie not too violent beginning there where Nature left Now know that Nature hath left your Materials in the Mineral Kingdom therefore though we take comparison from Vegetables and Animals Yet you must understand a Parallel in the Kingdom in which the Subject you would handle is placed As for Instance if I should Analogize between the Generation of a Man and the Vegetation of a Vegetable you must not understand as though the heat for one were to be measured by the other for we know that in the ground Vegetables will grow which is not without heat which they in the Earth feel even in the beginning of the Spring yet would not an Egg be hatched in that heat nor could a man feel any warmth but rather to him a numbing cold Since then you know that your work appertains all to the Mineral Kingdom you must know what heat is fit for Mineral Bodies and may be called a gentle heat and what violent First now consider where Nature leaves you not only in the Mineral Kingdom but in it to work on Gold and Mercury which are both incombustible Yet Mercury being tender will break all Vessels if the Fire be over extreme Therefore though it be incombustible and so no Fire can hurt it yet also it must be kept with the Male Sperm in one Glass which if the Fire be too big cannot be and by consequence the work cannot be accomplished So then from the degree of heat that will keep Lead or Tin constantly molten and higher so high as the Glass will endure without danger of breaking is a temperate heat and so you begin your degrees of heat according to the Kingdom in which Nature hath left you As then the highest degree of heat which the root of a Tree feels in the bowels of the Earth is not by far comparable to the lowest degree of heat an Animal hath So the highest degree of heat a Vegetable will endure without burning is too low for the first degree of Mineral heat as to our Work Rule XIV Know that all your progress in this Work is to ascend in Bus Nubi from the Moon up to the Sun that is in Nubibus or in Clouds Therefore I charge thee to sublime in a continual vapour that the Stone may take Air and live Rule XV. Nor is this enough but for to attain our permanent Tincture the water of our Lake must be boyled with the Ashes of Hermes Tree I charge thee then to boyl night and day without ceasing that in the troubles of the stormy Sea the Heavenly Nature may ascend and the Earthly descend For verily if we did not Boyl we would never name our work Decoction but Digestion For where the Spirits only Circulate silently and the Compound below moves not by an Ebullition that is only properly to be named Digestion Rule XVI Be not over hasty expecting Harvest too soon or the end soon after the beginning For if thou be patiently supported in the space of fifty days at the farthest thou shalt see the Crows Bill Many saith the Philosophers do imagine our Solution to be an easie work But how hard it is they can only tell who have tryed and made Experience Seest thou not a Grain of Corn sow it and after three days thou shalt only see it swell'd which being dry'd is the Corn it was before Yet thou canst not say it was not cast into its due Matriâ—x for the Earth is its true place but only it wanted its due time to Vegetate But things of an harder Kernel lie in the ground a far longer time as Nuts and â—lumb stones for each thing hath its season And this is a true sign of a natural Operation that it stays its season and is not Precipitate Dost think then that Gold the most solid Body in the world will change its Form in a short time Nay thou must wait and wait until about the 40 th day utter blackness beâ—â—ns to appear when thou seest that â—â—en conclude thy Body is destroy'd that 〈◊〉 made a living Soul and thy Spirit is â—ead that is Coagulated with the Body â—ut till this sign of Blackness both the â—old and the Mercury retain their Forms â—nd Natures Rule XVII Beware that thy Fire go not out no â—ot for a moment so as to let thy Matâ—er be cold for so Ruine of the Work â—ill certainly follow By what has been said thou mayst gaâ—â—er that all our work is nothing else â—ut an uncessant boyling of thy Comâ—â—ound
think that God bestows upon any of us what we enjoy for our own Merits but of his free Grace yet withal let me exhort any one who shall set his Studies this way to address himself to the Author and Fountain of Goodness for his help that he may have grace to honour God in the use of so great a Talent For I perswade my self that whomever God shall appoint to be Heir of such a Talent that he will give him a heart to improve it aright or else he will add to his Judgment for the abuse of so great a Blessing For whoever shall be wanton and dissolute and live without the fear of God what may he not do with such an Art unless God restrain him as certainly he will hiding this Secret from him or making it to him a snare and trap to betray his Life into the hands of covetous men of the World as many have found it by sad experience Therefore the Lord give both me and thee that grace that he may be continually before our Eyes The Alpha and Omega of our Thoughts Words and Actions Even so Amâ—n In the Beginning when thou madest all of nought a globous matter and dark under confusion by him the beginning c. FIrst then cast thine Eyes upon the Works of God and behold that work of his hands Consider how the glorious work of Creation was begun by him even by Christ for whose sake this very Science is communicated unto the Sons of Men as Bernardus Trevisan witnesseth who in his Epistle to Thomas of Bononia saith of this work That it is done Christi Gratia for Christs sake Consider how out of one Mass the Lord God by his powerful Command made all things to appear that are in Heaven or in Earth the heavenly Bodies with their Influences above and the earthly Matter below which by the Rotation of the Heavens produce all sublunary products through the word of his Mouth Above all which and in all which God is he is the Maker and the Lord of all above all blessed for ever who hath purchased to himself a People and redeemed them and they shall reign with him for ever and ever For as of one Mass was made all things right so in our practice must it be APply all this to the work of this Mastery Analogically and Allegorically for as the Lord made all the works which we see so he did lay them all under his powerful word of Command by which they continue to be what they are and are carried with an uniform motion to that first Pattern or Draught of things All our Secrets of one Image must spring AS then out of one mixed confused Mass all things had an actual existence according to their several kinds so out of one Image all these Secrets must flow Truth doth not consist in Heterogeneity but in Unity for God is one and his works uniform and the more Noble any thing is the nearer to Simplicity As in Philosophers Books whoso list to see TO this the Sentences of the Philosophers concur as many as have truly understood the Secret as Morien often and plentifully witnesseth Geber Trevisan and many others The thing is but one in kind though two in number and though more things are used yet till they be all brought to an oneness of Nature they are not fit to enter into this work Our Stone is called the Lesser World ANd therefore our Stone is resembled to Man who although he have a Wife different from him in Sex yet one with him in kind in which sence it is called the Microcosm or Less World for indeed next to Man who is the Image of God it is the true little System of the Great World I shall not particularize here how for in its place it will fall in seasonably One and Three THis Stone is also called Trine or Trinity in Vnity from the Homogeneity of the Matter as Trevisan saith Our Stone is made of one Root that is of two Mercurial Substances c. This Trinity is discerned in the Components for first there is the Body which is Sol and the Water of Mercury in which besides its Mercuriality there is a spiritual seed of Sulphur which is the secret Fire This is the Trinity these are called the Body the Soul and the Spirit the Body is the dead Earth which increaseth not without the celestial Vertue the Spirit is the Soul of our Air or Chameleon which is also of a two-fold composure yet made one inseparably the Soul is the Bond of Mercury without which our Fire never appears nor can appear for it is naked it inhabits the Fiery-Dragon and it yields his Soul to the true Saturnia and is embraced by it and both become one together bearing the stamp of the most High even the Oriental Lucifer the Son of the Morning This Soul is Chalyb's Magical Volatile and very tender the true Minera of Sol out of which Sol naturally proceeds which I my self know to be true and have spoken of it in my little Latin Treatise called Introitus apertus ad occlusum Regis palatium This is true Sulphur which is imbibed by the Mercuriality of Saturnia and notes it with the Regal Signet and being united and revived into a Mineral Water by the Mediation of Diana's Doves it is the sharp Spirit which in the Water moves the Body to putrefie Thus is the Trinity proportionable to wit three Natures in the first Mixture the Work is carried an end to perfect Complement distinctly according to the Vertue of a Body Soul and Spirit for the Body would be never penetrative were it not for the Spirit nor would the Spirit be permanent in its super-perfect Tincture were it not for the Body nor could these two act one upon another without the Soul for the Spirit is an invisible thing nor doth it ever appear without another Garment which Garment is the Soul In this it exerciseth its vertue this Soul as it is drawn from the Saturnia solid and dry is named our Air or rather the Chameleon which is an airy Body changing its hue according to every Object it beholds so our Air is of an astonishing Nature out of which I know all Metals may be drawn yea even Sol and Luna without the Transmuting Elixir of which in my little Latine Treatise which was the Congest of mine own experience I spake fully This Air being dissolved into Water Mineral hath in it two of our Trinity united so really that in a short digestion the spiritual inhabiting invisible Sulphur will without addition congeal the Mercury in which it is and make a visible congelated substance of Luna and then Sol. Thus this Trinity is indeed Vnity one being Gold mature fixt and digested in act the other Gold volatile white and crude yet in posse to be made most fixt and solid by naked digestion It is not then a delusion that Philosophers speak and write for trust me Viderunt nudam sine
likeness one to another But Mercury without which nothing being is FOr our Mercury is Essential and Radical to our Body and partakes of the nature of it intirely and therefore it is said to be that Mercury without which nothing is for all things are distinguished by Philosophers by three Principles although some Simples have not three but only by Analogy among which the most essential is Mercury for the humidity of all things concrete is called their Mercury which is most intire to all things forasmuch as all things owe their beginning unto Water So then as the proper specifick Mercury of all things is so Essential unto them that nothing is without it so our Mercury is so consubstantial with our Body that it is one in kind with that Mercury of which it was by coagulation concrete which vulgar Mercury is not and therefore the Body is incrudate by this Mercury and sends forth its Seed by mixture with it through the co-operation of requisite temperate external heat All Philosophers record and truly sain the same TRuly this I could confirm by infinite Testimonies of Philosophers since there never wrote any who was indeed a true Artist but he hath affirmed the same Geber Artephius Haly Roâ—â—nus Flammel Sendivogius the Author of the Rosary Trevisan with many others which would be very tedious to name So that indeed this Work of mine I wrote not because enough hath not been written before for I do but eccho to the Voice of all Philosophers who have left upon record such clear Testimonies of the co-operation of Art and Nature herein that if Wit were capable of this attainment the Art would have been common ere now and I do verily admiringly adore the Wisdom of God herein that an Art so true so natural so easie so much desired and sought after should yet â—e so rarely found that the generality of Men Learned and Unlearned do laugh at it as a Fable it is therefore most certainly the Gift of God who is and ever will be the Dispenser of it according to his good pleasure But simple Searchers putteth them in blame saying they hid it MOst injurious are they therefore to the well-deserving Philosophers who because they cannot understand their Writings and through the mis-understanding of the possibility of Nature do commit foul mistakes in their operations and therefore reap a ridiculous Harvest they then blame the falsity of Authors or at least accuse their difficult writing not considering that Philosophers owe them nothing and whatever they write for the information of the studious it is not of debt nor yet of Covetousness for they possess the greatest Treasure in the World nor lastly of Ambition for many suppress their names it is of Love therefore and of desire to be helpful to the Studious which Love to requite with reproaches is a â—â—ken of great ingratitude Moreover it is to be understood that the most wise GOD hath a ruling hand herein and all Sons of Art have their Commission as it were given them they write and teach according to that permission which the Creator of all things hath given them I may speak it experimentally that when my self have had one intent I have been so over-swayed with unpremeditated thoughts in the very writing that I have taken notice of the immediate hand of God therein by which I have been carried beyond what I intended And truly it is not our intent to make the Art common to all kind of men we write to the deserving only intending our Books to be but as Way-marks to such as shall travel in these paths of Nature and we do what we may to shut out the unworthy Yet so plainly we write that as many as God hath appointed to this Mastery shall certainly understand us and have cause to be thankful unto us for our faithfulness herein This we shall receive from the Sons of this Science whatever we have from others therefore our Books are intended for the former we do not write a word to the latter But they be blame-worthy which be no Clerks and meddle with Philosophy MOreover we write not our Books for the information of the illiterate as though any vulgar mechanick Distiller Alchymist or Sophister should readily carry away the Golden Fleece or as though any covetous man who makes Gain his utmost end should readily gather the Apples of the Hesperides nor yet that any though Learned should by once or twice overly and slight reading as the Dogs lap the Water of Nilus straight-way be made a Philosopher Nay verily the majesty of this Science forbids so great impiety it is the gift of God and not of Men Our Books are for those who have been or intend to be conversant about the search of Nature we hint the way prayer to God and patient persisting in the use of means must open these Doors Let therefore profound Meditation accompanied with the Blessing of God Furnaces Coals Glasses and indefatigable pains be thy Interpreters and let them serve for Commentaries upon our Writings So I did so I advise thee and the Blessing of God attend all studious vertuous Searchers in this way But though it Mercury be YEt is not the knot untied nor difficulties overcome when once a man hath learned to sing this thredbare Song in Philosophy Est in Mercurio quicquid quaerunt sapientes for what Sophister who cannot make so great a clatter in these general terms as a son of Art the greatest difficulty is to know what this Mercury is that is so desirable and effectual Yet wisely understand wherein it is and where thou shalt it seek THerefore let me advise every studious Searcher of this hid Science to consider warily with himself what he seeks and would find nor that only but in what he would find it for trust me it is not in this Science as some do imagine that our Arcanum may be made out of any thing nor yet out of any base thing But in the knowing of the true Principle consists the first true step to Perfection according to the Poet Dimidium facti qui bene coepit habet Else I counsel thee take not this work in hand BUt he who knows not this our Ocean in which our Water hath its flux and reflux and our Fountain out of which he may draw this Water for his use let him forbear this as a most dangerous Science for he may only expect loss in it but no profit For Philosophers flatter Fools with fair speech NOr let any expect comfortable Direction in our Books who know not the true Matter nor the true Keys by which our Matter is brought forth from darkness into the light for verily though we write for the inlightning of a son of Art yet also for the fatal blinding of all such Owls and Bats who cannot behold the light of the Sun nor can indure the splendor of our Moon To such we propound rare tricks suiting to their sordid fancy to the covetous an easie
caused to run these Springs make but one Well whose Waters appear dry the humidity being sealed the Well it self is surrounded with an Arsenical Wall the slimy bottom abounds with the First Ens of Mineral Salt and Sulphur which acuate the Water of the first Well whose primary quality is Coldness being thus acuated it becomes so powerful a Menstruum and so pleasant to the Metals that for its peculiar Vertue it is chosen for to be the Bath of the Sun and Moon For I will truely now thee excite to understand well Mercuries three BUt because one Book never is sufficient in this Mastery to discover all that is to be known and other Authors write variously of Mercury Attend further what I have to say to thee concerning this point We have in our work properly three Mercuries of which one is to be by the Philosopher prepared of which I have spoken and this being joynd with the perfect Body and set to digest the Glass is shut and then in this first Composition is the Matter called Rebis that is two things to wit in Number for you may yet separate each from other in its intire nature These two being joyned do operate so within the Vessel till the Compound become a black Powder which is then called the Ashes of the Platter This Powder relenteth into a black Broth which is called Elixir or Water extracted by Elixation which is reiterate Liquefaction This Elixir is divided into a more subtile part which is called Azoth and the grosser part is called Leton which is by Azoth washed and whitened In Rebis the Matters are confused in Elixir they are divided and in Azoth they are conjoyned with an inseparable union The Keys which of this Science be THese Menstruums or Mercuries are the very Keys of this Science The first is the Philosophers Key the other two are Natures Keys Reymund his Menstrues doth them call THey are called by the wise men Menstrues in three respects first for the secresie of them as those Lunary Tributes of Women are hid from common view so these Mercuries from vulgar Searchers Secondly for the Prognosticks of them as those in Women betoken maturity to conceive so these are called Menstrues because they are fit for procreation Thirdly in regard of the office of them as those in Women are accounted nutritive for the Embrion so our Child is nourished by these to perfect age and strength Let me add a fourth reason and that is in respect of the time the Philosophical Preparation will hardly give thee thy first Menstruum fit for thy use in less than a month And after conjunction thy first Menstruum will begin to hold of the nature of the Body in another month and then thou shalt see a show of the second Menstruum but wait till another month and thou shalt see thy second Menstruum compleat then yet wait a third month and thou shalt see a show of the third Menstruum which in the fourth month will perfectly exuberate and then with it thou shalt soon see perfected Sulphur of Nature for it is Fire of Nature and in this first Exaltation is the white Stone perfected Without them truly no Truth is done HE then that knoweth not the Secret of our Menstruals let him forbear the practice of the Work for verily he may expect nothing but a sophistical Delusion instead of the true Work of Nature He is like a man that would enter an inaccessable Castle without a Key or shoot in a Bow without a string But two of them be superficial NOw that you may know our Secrets exactly we shall faithfully discover unto you our Experience as cordially as a Brother may declare to a Brother and shall reveal what I never found yet revealed in any Author There are in our Mercury three Mercurial Substances which may well be called Menstrues the one the more gross part which though it be a Water yet it being the most palpable part and visible may be termed the Body of the Water the last is a Fiery Form which is the Blood of Cadmus this is a real invisible form which is essentially and formally Sol Volatile the second is the mean Soul which Philosophers without Equivocation call Saturn's Child the middle substance of these three are made into one wonderful Mercury which hath not its like in the world Now for the superficiality of the two first Menstrues or Mercuries and the essentiality of the third know and understand for our speech will be very mysterious Know I say what it is to be superficial and what essential Essence you know is invisible and more formal then material which doth actuate the matter and ripens it but that which is superficial is visible and may be seen and is more material and passive Now those two first which are superficial are the Water and the Blood the essential Menstrue is the Spirit which all are in one yet distinguished in number though not in kind The third Essential to Sun and Moon SO then two are material passive substances which are united in our sophical Mercury the third is an active essence which is hid in our Mercury which is essential to Sun and Moon because it is a Fire which is Sol volatile and as the Artist may govern this Mercury it will digest the passive Principles either into Sol or Luna at the Philosophers pleasure Their Properties I will declare right soon I Shall by and by in its place describe to you all the Properties of these three Menstrues when I come to it in the mean time take notice that by this Mercury in which are three Mercuries or Menstrues the perfect Bodies will be calcined and then dissolved into Mercury which is not then so properly called a Menstrue for it is the Fruit it self called Azoth or Virgins Milk which is a digestion beyond the Menstrues And Mercury of Metals essential Is the Principle of our Stone material THe Bodies when they are dissolved do transmute the foresaid Mercuries by their own ferment into their own nature for the Fire of Nature assimilates all that nourisheth it to its own likeness and then our Mercury or Menstrue vanisheth that is it is swallowed up in the Solary Nature and all together make but one universal Mercury by intimate union and this Mercury is the material Principle of the Stone for before our Mercury as it was compounded of three Mercuries had in it two which were superficial and the third essential to Sol and Luna only not to the Stone for Nature would produce these two out of it by artificial decoction but when the perfect Bodies are dissolved they transmute the Mercury that dissolved it and then there is no more repugnancy in it then is there no longer a distinction between superficial and essential but all is become essential And this is that one matter of the Stone â—hat one thing which is the subject of all Wonders In Sol and Luna our Menstrues are not seen WHen
this Circulation But none which been unclean THis Blackness many erroneously conceive to be uncleanness but it is not so for it is only the Sepulcher of our King in which though he seem to have lost what he was yet from hence he shall arise what he never was before Except one ANd verily there is nothing of an unclean nature that entreth our Composition except one thing which is the Instrument moving the Gold to putrifie and in regard that it doth naturally incline the Body to putrifie and is as it were the very grave of it it is called by some Philosophers Aqua foetida and by some Mortis Immundities yet indeed it is not in its own nature unclean but made pure as pure as the Art of the Artist can make it with the help of Nature joyning Consanguinty with Consanguinity Which is usually Named by Philosophers their Lyon Green THis hidden Body or rather Chaos the Philosophers have highly extolled and deeply concealed but they usually call it their Green Lyon which many mistaking apply to Venus and some to Vitriol which is all one in a manner Vitriol being only Copper corroded by an embryonated Salt but Fools saith Ripley in his Errors call it the Green Lyon I shall discover this Subject to you so far as I dare in this following Song The Learned SOPHIES FEAST WHoso would lasting and eternal Fame Deserve Learn thou the Lyon Green to tame But this before you can by Art attain To study him to know thou must be fain Nor is it trust me for a stupid Fool Nor yet for one brought up in vulgar School I shall him therefore lively out pourtray Lest from this Banquet you go lean away This Song I stile the Learned Sophies Feast Prepare your self to come a worthy Guest With Mind attentive to my words give heed Lest you instead of Meat on Fancies feed This horrid Beast which we our Lyon call Hath many other Names that no man shall The truth perceive unless that God direct And on his darkened Mind a Light reflect T is not because this Subject doth consist Of Animal Components he that list May well conceive that we do therefore use The name of Beasts nor is it to abuse The Readers he whoever so doth think With stupid Sots himself doth hereby link But it 's because of the transcendent force It hath and for the rawness of its source Of which the like is no where to be seen That it of them is nam'd the Lyon Green Now listen and I shall to you disclose The Secret which times past hath like a Rose Been hedged so on every side with Briars That few could pluck it at their hearts desires There is a substance of Metalline Race If you the matter view whose louring face A Sophister would at first sight so scare That he it to approach would never dare The form thatâ—s visible is very vile And doth Metalline Bodies so defile That none to see it could be brought to think That thence should spring bright Phoebuâ— Pearly Drink And yet O strange a wonder to relate At this same Spring naked Diana sat Who horn'd Acteon for his ventrous peeping This Spring two dreadful Beasts have in their keeping Which drive away rash Searchers to their wo Them to inchant the Art who do not know Yet further for to answer your desire I say this subject never felt the fire Of Sulphur Metalline but is more crude Then any Mineral which doth delude Th' unwary and in Fire fugitive 'T is found th' impure away the pure doth drive And its Components are A Mercury Most pure though tender with a Sulphur dry Incarcerate which doth the flux restrain And as in shackles doth the same detain This Sulphur with malignant qualities Doth so the Mercury infect which with it lies That though they have no fundamental union Yet hereby is debarr'd the sweet communion Which otherwise would surely intercede Between this Virgin-Nymph which we call Lead And her dear Sister which in Silver streams Runs down abundantly then should the beams Of bright Apollo cause the Dews which fall From these commixed Waters from the tall Aspiring Mountains gliding through the Vales Fire to conceive of Nature which avails To warm the Bath for Sol in which he may Descend and wash and with fair Phebe play Till flesh and youth renewing they be able To shine with glory aye multiplicable Know then this Subject which the sure Base Of all our Secrets is and it uncase And chuse what thou shalt find of greatest price Leave Sophisters and follow my advice Be not deluded for the Truth is one 'T is not in many things this is our Stone At first appearing in a Garb defil'd And to deal plainly it is Saturn's Child His price is mean his venom very great His constitution cold devoid of heat Although 't is mixed with a Sulphur yet This Sulphur is combustible to get Another Sulphur Metalline and pure And mix with the Mercurial part be sure This Sulphur in the House of Aries seek There shall you find it and this is the Greek Alcides which with Jason Journey took To Colchos this is it which never Book As yet reveal'd and yet I will proceed And greater Mysteries unfold with speed Our Subject it is no ways malleable It is Metalline and its colour sable With intermixed Argent which in veins The sable Field with glittering Branches stains The pure parts from the impure thou shalt never With Fire or Water for this work dissever Nor with the hardest Iron dig it thence For Steel 'gainst this affordeth no defence So easily as any little Boy A Giant can suppress this can destroy Alcides Brest-plate with his Target stout And put opposing Armies to the rout Of Swords and Spears O wondrous force and yet The Sages this have seen when they did sit In Council how this Fury they might tame Which as unparallel'd they then did name Their Lyon Green they suffered him to prey On Cadmus Sociates and when the fray Was over they with Dian's Charms him ty'd And made him under Waters to abide And wash'd him clean and after gave him Wings To fly much like a Dragon whose sharp Springs Of fiery Water th' only way was found To cause Apollo his Harp-strings to sound This is the true Nymphs Bath which we did try And prov'd to be the Wise Mens Mercury IN this Song you have the Lyon Green so described that more I dare not more I cannot unless I should pen you down the Receipt verbatim which God and Reason forbids He is the mean the Sun and Moon between Of joyning Tinctures with perfectness LEarn then to know this Green Lyon and its preparation which is all in all in the Art it is the only knot untie it and you are as good as a Master for whatever then remains is but to know the outward Regimen of Fire for to help on Natures internal Work As Geber thereunto beareth witness MOreover be not various
seeking that in many things which is verily but in one thing for in all the world there is not any one subject but this Ripley after the Rehearsal of all his Errors tells you That he never saw true Work but one And Geber Exacte inquit singula sumus experti idque probatis rationibus nihil invenimus praeter solum unctuosam humiditatem penetrantem tingentem c. And Artephius saith There is no other subject in the World for this Art naming it although in a Philosophick manner wonderous subtilly I counsel thee with Ripley to learn to know this one thing which I have faithfully declared and I know what I have declared experimentally to be true He that understands me will have cause to thank God and me for what Light I have given to Ripley He that with me understands Ripley will easily discern With the second which is an humidity Vegetable reviving what earst was dead OUr second Water or Menstruum or Fire is our Elixir which is an Elixation of our Matters or drawing forth the Tincture out of our dissolved Bodies which doth cause our dead Body to rise and to spring forth in Sprigs and Branches like to the tender Grass in the Spring out of the Field and this so long until an intire Triptative Union be made of Body Soul and Spirit In this operation our Body of the Sun hath its dead moles turned into a living quick active Spirit and our Compound after death begins to sprout and to shew its true Vegetative nature it is indowed with a green Colour which is the sign of the growth of all things Both Principles Materials must loosed be HEre your Natures are changed and hold one of another and become one inseparably that is the Solary Nature is not to be divided from the Mercury nor the Fire from the Water but with one the other is always moved and so though there yet be a superius and an â—nferius an ascendens and subsidens yet now quod est superius est sicut id quod est inferius And Formals else they stand in little stead NOw between the two Extreams of Mercury and Sulphur you have a marvellous medium ingendered now the form of Gold is taken quite away and it hath at present an accidental imperfect form which is the mean through which it passeth to its transcendent perfection These Menstrues therefore know I thee reed LAbour with all thy might to attain the skill of these two first Menstruums Theoretically and Practically the first is to be by thee prepared and proportioned in the beginning before thou attempt any thing When thou hast the true Nymphs Bath then joyn this Spouse with her beloved Husband and see if she will make his Body fall to sunder in impalpable Atoms Then let Saturn be thy Chamberlain and let him gather together these dissevered members and of them make one broth in which is blackness compleat after which followeth greenness and then shalt thou know that thy Compound is by the living God endowed with a vegetable Soul Without the which neither true Calcination Done may be nor true Dissolution HE who knoweth not the Mystery of these two Menstrues can never attain either to Calcination or Dissolution of the Philosophers The Mystery of the first consists in the acuating of thy Vinegar with the Blood of our Green Lyon and the Soul of the Fiery Dragon which is by seven Eagles which are seven Cohobations and Depurations of thy feminine Sperm till it conceive a spiritual seed or true natural heat to animate thy young King The Mystery of the second Menstrue consists in the true proportion of thy first Water with its own Body and the administration of true heat external by which the combat between the Eagles and the Lyon may be stirred up thus shall the Duel be ended the Lyon rent in pieces and the Carrion of its Carcass shall kill the Eagles and out of these Atoms shall the second Water be made apparent by Dissolution With the third Humidity most permanent THe third Menstrue is by Artephius called the second Water for our second he doth joyn together with the first although where he doth particularize the three Fires he doth then distinguish three Menstruums The like course many Philosophers have used in the description of their Operations some omitting the first or at least confounding it with the second for the greater obscuring of the Art But we have beyond what any have hitherto performed particularly insisted upon the three in order and have taken more pains in the discovery of the first because the wise Ancients have taken such pains to conceal that most and after that we have made an orderly proceeding to the second which we have in like sort handled and this being performed we do now address our selves to the third This is called by Ripley a most permanent Humidity and note by the way that the first Water is called by Authors a permanent Water likewise but take notice that there is a different reason for each denomination for first of all all Mercury is Water permanent that is the parts have no Heterogeneity they will not leave one another in the examen of the Fire but either all flyes and is unconstant or else all abides and is constant in the tryal of Vulcan and so is our first Menstruum And in this our Mercury and Common Mercury agree besides the identity of matter for it is the form only that distinguisheth them But in the next place our Water is permanent with the Body which Common Mercury is not that is it by digestion doth unite not only adhere to it so that both together do make one Individuum which is done by our secret Conjunction But lastly when the Body is thus by our Water reduced at last it comes that the four Elements are united in this Water After Putrefaction and Purification which is the last most laudable Tetraptive Conjunction and now the Tincture is the Spirit and the Spirit is the Soul and the Soul is the Body and all these are one Incombustible and unctuous in his Nature THis is our true Incombustible Mercury for it is totally purged from all its burning faeculency Gold though it be a pure Metal in respect of others which are imperfect yet compared with our Stone it hath also its faeces but this when it is taken away by Putrefaction and Ablution then becomes a total separation of what is precious from what is vile and as the Philosopher well saith In the troubles of this our stormy Sea all that is pure will ascend and all that is impure descend and will abide in the bottom of the Vessel in the form of a combust Earth then is made the new Heaven and the new Earth pray to God then that thou mayst see when there shall be no more Sea Yet I say before thou hast this final Inceration thou hast this most incombustible Menstruum and most permanent in which Nature and
Metals to Gold and Silver perfite Thus guide thy base both red and white THis Heavenly Earth is true Mineral Fire which is then resembled to the Sun in its Summer Solstice it is called Venom because it penetrates Metals so wonderfully it is called our Basilisk our Cockatrice our Tyrian Poison though indeed it be an excellent Medicine in which respect it is called our incomparable inestimable Elixir But the denomination of Basilisk it retains from its sudden operation upon Mercury for it penetrates it in projection as warm Oyl runs into sinking Paper even to the profundity of it Let thy Mercury therefore be taken as it is crude bought at the Apothecaries and thou shalt set it in a Crucible to the Fire in such a heat as the Mercury may not fume and when it is so hot that it is ready to fly which you shall discern by a spurtling noise throw upon it of your Medicine as much as will teyne it and you shall see that in a moment it will enter it and straightway the Mercury loseth its flux and stands congealed Then it is to be melted by a Fire of fusion and you shall find pure Gold or Silver according to the quality of your Medicine But if you cast your high Elixir in too great a quantity on Mercury you shall find in the Crucible after projection a brittle mass of the quality and colour of the first Medicine only of a lower virtue which then you may project upon any inferiour Metal and it will transmute it into most perfect This operation is not apparent or to sight as is the work of Sophisters but it is both inward and outward for it transmuteth into a perfect species and not only to shew This is the way of projection both of thy white and thy red Quintessences first to cast them upon Sol or Luna according as thy Medicine is and after that to make projection on Mercury again and again till you find the true extent of the virtue of your Stone Aurum Potabile thus is made Of Gold not commonly calcinate ANd now I come to the second reward that Wisdom doth bring with her and that is length of days and here I have transposed some few Verses of Ripleys concerning Aurum Potabile that what he saith in this point may be represented in view together Method inviting me to it Some propound the Medicine of Aurum Potabile to be Extracted out of Sol pure by corroding with Aqua Regia and afterwards levigating it by reiterate Calcinations in the Fire and manual Contritions This Calx so subtilized some attempt to resolve by Menstrues as they call them but in vain there being only one Menstruum that hath the power to resolve both Gold and all sublunary Bodies to their first matter Paracelsus the first Author of this did name this dissolving Water his Alkahest his Jgnis Gehennae his â—orrosivum specificum with many other names This Medicine thus made of Gold by the Alkahest as it is Philosophical and real so it is very excellent and known only to the Adepti Yet this is not our great Medicine for this being but a resolution of Gold in its unary simplicity doth afford to us only the most exquisite Medicine that is in Gold as it is made and left by Nature which partly for its simple vertue and partly for its Metallick determination doth not enter our Constitutive Principles and consequently cannot touch or reach long life But of our Tincture which will not fade Out of our base drawn by our Menstrue circulate BUt when as we have by our Art exalted Gold from an unary to a millenary perfection and advanced it from its gross corpulency to a Spiritual Tincture which is unfading and of all Sublunary things the most durable then out of this so glorious and triumphant in an universal virtue we do make an Oyl so called by us though it be permiscible by mixture in any Liquor which Oyl is the very Tree of Life which prevails and triumphs over all the Miseries in the world For it is not Metallum but transcending all Metalline things This Tincture is extracted out of Gold not as Tinctures are drawn by the Sal Circulatum of Paracelsus but by an universal changing of the Sickness of the Metalline off-spring into a true posture of Health by which means it is able to heal all Metalline Bodies from their Leprosie and being resolved by its own Vegetable Humidity which is our first Menstrue circulated till the Water have a ferment from the Bodies and the Bodies from the Water it will give a Spiritual Tincture sparkling like the flame to tast most sweet to smell most pleasant the most incomparable Treasure of the whole World And for thy first ground principal Vnderstand thy Waters Menstrual NOw I return to that which went before concerning this Medicine which I passed over in that place that I might here bring it in together and indeed he who will know this Mystery he must in the first place learn to know his Menstrual Waters for without this knowledge he can never come to this Mastery for with the third Menstruum counting three according to Ripley or the second Water making the first and second into one with Artephâ—us is this fragrant Balsam made And verily the whole is but Cohobation the first Water being cohobated so long upon the Bodies till it receive from them a quality of natural heat yet so as that the quality of its own Fire which is corruptive and so against Nature be mingled in way of action and passion with the natural Fire This makes a Fire innatural and is the second Water in which colours rise and set frequently and then by cohobating it till Fire of Nature have wholly subdued his Adversary and made a perfect peace and union with it Then all is Fire of Nature then the Clouds are scattered and the Light appears and this is our third Water the subject of wonders which being one alone doth from that time all operations within it self congealing relenting calcining exalting subliming and fixing all Elements being linked here inviolably to the making up of that great Mysterium magnum which Paracelsus described but knew it not we both know it and have seen it and what we do know and have seen we do faithfully relate And when thou hast made Calcination Increasing not wasting moisture radical Vntil thy base by oft subtilation Will lightly flow as Wax on a Metal Then loose it with thy Vegetable Menstrual Till thou have Oyl thereof in colour bright THerefore labour thou to bring thy Gold to a Calcination not by Corrosives but by Mercury not into a Powder red and dry but into a Calx black and unctuous and multiply moisture by our true Virgins Milk then circulate these Natures together till they will flow like unto Wax upon a Plate of Metal which is the sign of the true Tincture of Luna Continue thy Fire till the fixt again relent of its
For is it imaginable that they who are fools in Nature should be wise in our Books which are testimonies unto Nature In Eggs in Vitriol or in Blood What Riches ween they there to find If they Philosophy understood They would not be in working so blind Gold and Silver to seek out of its kind For like as Fire of burning principle is So the principle of gilding is Gold I wis If thou therefore intend for to make Gold or Silver by craft of our Philosophy Thereto neither Eggs nor Blood thou take But Gold aud Silver which naturally Calcined wisely and not manually A new Generation will forth bring Increasing its kind as doth every other thing SOme I know will serve my Book as they have served others out of it they will read their own fantastick processes which I never dreamt of nor yet are they in Nature and whatever I write most plainly they will Allegorize and say it is true for matter of Operation he wrought well but withall very enviously and mysteriously he calls the matter Gold and Mercury but that is but allusively but he meant Egg-shels calcined or Vitriol or Mans Blood or Dew or rain-Rain-water or Salt-peter or Nitre or Tartar or this or that thing according to their sordid fancy and so they will proceed nothing unsettled in their fancies by what I have candidly written Gross Sots thus to think that I in what I without any equivocation call Gold and Mercury they should make to allude to such trifles it is the sign of an Owl to be blinder by how much the Sun shines clearer let me therefore to satisfie the Ingenious profess and protest that without any Allusion or Figure in speaking our Matter is Gold even the purest that is sold or can be bought this is our Masculine Sperm And our other principle is Mercury like to that which is commonly sold in form in flux and colour only it is brighter and some what more ponderous and without any Metaphor we call it Argent vive In the making of this Mercury is all our secret and in the Regimen of the Fire according to its capacity consists the whole Mastery O fools and blind think you to gather Grapes of Thorns or Figs of Thistles wherefore do you thus waste your Goods proceeding in your Work as an Ass to his Crib never considering the nature of the thing you go about If Gold and Silver be your intention to produce in what would you find them in Eggs or Blood in Salts or such things what a madness is this to what end think you these operations will tend what conformity is there between what you seek and that which you take in hand do you not consider the difference of imposition between those Subjects and Metals how do you think that they should give weight to imperfect Bodies when as they themselves are far more light themselves how can you expect from them a specifick perfect Metalline Tincture which have not any thing Metalline in them You see not your own madness It is no light matter to cause a Body which perhaps is 10 or 12 parts at the least in 16 defective of the dimensions of Gold to penetrate its own dimensions so many times to answer your fond desires This which you attempt is to force Nature and to create Sperms both which are vain to undertake and truly impossible Leave then this Sophistry and imbrace true Light To create Sperms is Gods alone property and every thing hath its own Sperm as it hath its own Form there is nothing that hath a seminal virtue applicable to two things every thing hath its own Seed and according to its own Form Gold therefore and Silver being thine intention let the same be thy subject to work upon Gold is thy first Basis for thy white must first come out of thy red and when thy white Stone is perfect then mayst thou use Luna vulgar Now Gold must have its hidden Seed extracted and that is done by Mercury in Calcination for that operation is the Mineral Copulation in which the Seeds are sent forth and mingled together then shall the old Body die and a new Body shall rise again endowed with a multiplicative virtue according to the nature of all things for it savours rankly of absurdity and ignorance to allow all things almost a multiplicative power and to deny it to Gold the most perfect of all sublunary things And if it true were that profit might be In things which are not Metalline I But some will say How will you answer the Philosophers who affirm that their Stone is in all things though in some things nearer and in some things at greater distance yet in all things according to the rule of propinquius remotius To such I answer I grant and know that all things originally owe all their principle material unto Water and their formal unto Light and according to the congress of these two principles through the command of the Architect this Light doth illuminate the material Water in a singular way according to the Ideal species which were before in the Archetype So then the Matter resides in Water the Informing in Light and the determination of the Form which is as I may say the Form's formality is in the will of the Creator first impressed or sealed in the word fiat and ratified in his command producat unumquodque juxta speciem suam Now to apply this to our present purpose in Water and Light all things agree in the determination of Illumination they differ This determinative sentence of the Almighty sealed a great variety in the products of the Matter and Form which are in themselves general and being thus sealed not any thing can pass from its kind to mix with another kind but it will cause a product partaking of either Parent nor can mixture be made but in the same genus or species as an Apple may be graffed on a Crab-tree a Man may though abominably mix with a Beast licentia naturali but out of genus or species nothing can mix There are also many particular exceptions of things in one genus for many Trees I know which the Art of man cannot ingraff one in another so as to grow will yet grow well ingraffed elsewhere so a Dog and a Mouse cannot mix being one so disproportionable to another But this by the by To return to our intention we say that as all things are by the will and power of God specificated so with the destruction of that species the Form as to that individual perishing for no intire species can perish things may both by Nature and Art return to their first stable principle material which is Water of which Nature if it found it in a convenient place might impregnating it with a Metalline Seed produce a Metalline Sperm or viscosity which then might be a Metal by decoction and yield unto our work a profitable subject As in Blood Eggs Hair Vrine or Wine Or
moisture and the moisture of the Water uniting the Sulphur of the Sun and the Sulphur of the Water and the Mercury of the Sun and the Mercury of the Water and the united Sulphur prevailing over the united Humidity rotting it into powder as small as Atoms black of the blackest black thou shalt then see a total mixture of Seeds and death of thy Compound This rotting will begin about the 42 46 or 50 th day and the signs of it are the Fumes will not ascend but the Matter will boil at the bottom of the Glass like to melted Pitch boiling and bubbling swelling and puffing in a black colour every day blacker and blacker shewing changable rotting colours in its boiling This will continue till it be so thick that it boil not but grow hard and swell yet it will vary often and appear sometimes as though dry and sometimes a little moisture will appear with fresh bubbling but no Fumes And this will last about 46 days no Fumes rising at all so that about the 84 th or 90 th day after thy Matters begin to be boiled in a continual decoction Putrefaction will be compleat and then Sublimation or Circulation will begin again which in 46 or 50 days will end in a white Dove This first token of blackness proclaims thee a Master after which thou canst not well miss unless thou wilt This is the astonishment of Art to make Gold volatile which was so fixed be patient then and boyl continually till your Gold begin to dissolve and come upon the Water like a Cream Then continue your decoction till the colour begin to change into an imperfect Citrine with moisture and send up yellowish vapours This Citrine will soon be mixed with a blewish black and yet continue the decoction till the Clouds begin to rise and a dark mist then continue your boyling till breath fail that is the Clouds and Fumes arise no more then the Compound boyl at the bottom without Fumes and will shew dark obscure reddish yellowish blewish gray and blackish colours then continue your decoction till the Body and whole Compound begin to rot into Atoms which the 50 th day will give you a Harbinger or fore-runner of with Pitchy blackness then know that all is thorowly mingled together and will never cease till the damned Earth come the Earth of Leaves which is a dust impalpable The Head of the Crow that token call we And some do call it the Crows Bill Some call it the Ashes of Hermes Tree And thus they name it after their will Our Toad of the Earth which eateth his fill Some call it by what it is mortificate Our Spirit with Venom intoxicate But it hath names I say to thee infinite For after each thing that blackness is to sight Named it is till time it waxeth white Then hath it names of more delight After all things that been full white And the red likewise after the same After all read things doth take the name At the first Gate c. THis token then is called the Crow the Crow's Head and the Crow's Bill for it is a shining blackness like unto Printers Ink or a solid Coal new broken or the most black and compacted broken Pitch Others name it the Ashes of Hermes Tree for it is Ashes out of which grows a Tree afterwards beautiful and glorious with Sprigs and Branches and changable colours And indeed this liberty the Philosophers have taken to call it what they list they call it their Toad which crawleth on the ground and feedeth upon the slime of the Earth because before it is quite black it may â—â—semble the colours of a Toad and its likeness pusfing and swelling and rugged with bunches and blisters and knobs Others call it a Spirit killed with its own deadly poison that is Mercury dissolving Gold in which dissolved Body which then seems a Spirit there is a hidden ferment which may recongeal the same this fermental virtue it is that doth coagulate or thicken the Water that to the wonder of the Beholders what before was thinner and thinner doth after 40 days thicken till it come to a dust or powder like to impalpable Atoms But I shall not insist upon these denominations there being so many given to it by the Envious that there is nothing almost in the World that is black or may be made black by the Fire but they have named it by it Also whatever is filthy or faeculent or unsavoury either to taste or smell they have Allusively called their Stone by in reference to its first putridness or corruption So likewise when by continuance of decoction the colour changeth to white they then call it their Swan their Dove their white Stone of Paradise their white Gold their Alablaster their white Smoak and in a word whatever is white they do call it by And so the Red they name their Vermilion their red Lead their Poppy of the Rock their Tyre their Basilisk their red Lion and in sum it borrows the names of all red things Now thou art entred the first five Gates of the Philosophers Castle for do not believe but that Calcination is verily Putrefaction and is done by Dissolution Separation and Conjunction as if thou hast attended this discourse thou mayst easily conceive only here is the Sophism after this total Calcination there is a relenting again for as I said before our Operation is but turning as it were of a Wheel which runs one half of its circulation directly backwards to its first progress Thou sublimest so long till the Body is made as volatile as it may be this is the activity of the Spirit then thou congealest so long till all appear like Atoms and then is thy bodily virtue active and thy Spirit passive then thy Spirit begins to be active again and thy Compound which was apparently fixed relents again and distils as before till it come to its height again of volatility which is again a Separation then is celebrated again a Conjunction Tetraptive and from that time all ascends and descends together and there is such an union that there doth not then as at first exhale a quick Fume and descend upon the bodily Moles but all ascends like to a glorious Tree with branches and is not sublimed to the top but sprouts up like the tender Forst in a fair morning which falls and rises till all become a Powder impalpable So then after Calcination is again a Solution and that divides between Azoth and Laton and a distilling Separation in which Azoth washeth Laton and after that a Conjunction not of the four Elemental qualities only which was in the first Conjunction but of the Elements themselves the Body Soul and Spirit and then is made another Calcination into a white Calx which by continual decoction relents again and is made volatile again for our Wheel goes round and when it is come thither whence it set forth it begins again Thus is made a third Solution Sublimation
King and Queen contumulate And joyn'd as one together That which before was two by Fate Is ty'd which none can sever The King begets the Queen with Child Conjunction doth allay Their fury who before were wild Conception both doth slay The King is Brother to his Wife And she to him is Mother One Father is to both whose life Depends upon each other The one when dead the other dyes And both are laid in Grave The Coffin's one in which both lyes Each doth the other save Yet each the other doth destroy And yet both are amended One without t' other hath no joy Both are of one descended Twice fourty days do come and go To which twice five are added These do produce a perfect Crow Whose blackness chears hearts sadded Twice fifteen more produce a Dove Whose wings are bright and tender Twice ten more make the Soul above To need no Fire defender For Soul and Body so combine The Spirit interceding Tincture to give of Silver fine The Soul the Body in leading Also such fixity to add Against the Flames prevailing Which may the Chymist make full glad The Sophister still failing Who seeks in fancies for to find Our Art so much concealed Not duly weighing in his mind That 't is a Fountain sealed Which one thing only can unlock This one thing learn to know Lest you the same event should mock That thing these Lines do shew AN EXPOSITION UPON THE Second Gate Which is DISSOLUTION The Second Gate Opened Which is DISSOLUTION Of Dissolution now will I speak a word or two Which sheweth out what erst was hid from fight And maketh intenuate things that were thick also By virtue of our first Menstrue clear and bright In which our Bodies eclipsed been of light And of their hard and dry compaction subtilate Into their own first Matter kindly retrogradate HAving run through the Chapter of Calcination I now come to handle Dissolution which as I said before is the first beginning of the Spirits activity and it is the first half of the Wheel which turns up the Spirit and down the Body the second hath a contrary operation for it makes the Body active and Spirit passive so then Calcination hides the profundity of the Body which Solution discovereth It is then nothing else but a boiling of hard and dry Bodies in our Mercury in a convenient Fire so long till they be dissolved and made thin then the same Fire makes them fly and flying they condense and return in drops on the Body and moisten it This is Solution and Sublimation together for the Water circulating upon the Body doth soften it and by often returning doth at length bring it to its own nature of moisture In this Resolution according to Artephius the Sun loseth its colour and is darkned and the Moon doth not give her light for all things are turned into their confused Chaos or first Matter in which the Elements with their qualities are hurried together One in Gender they be and in Number two Whose Father is the Sun and the Moon the Mother The mover is Mercury These and no more be Our Magnesia our Adrop and none other Things here be but only Sister and Brother That is to mean Agent and Patient Sulphur and Mercury co-essential to our intent THe cause of this is the Homogeneity of the Matter wherein they agree in essence together with the difference which is between them in Sex they being in the Glass as Male and Female and in ripeness of years one being more mature and by consequent more active to wit the Sun who therefore is the Father the other more crude in comparison of the Sun and so more passive viz. the Moon which therefore is the Mother of our Stone This Mother is our Mercury which for its eminent difference from any other Mercury is called the Moon with its internal true Sulphur which is hidden under its Mercurial form doth first move for at first our Body which is Gold is dead and liveth not till it be quickned by our Mercury then it lives it behoveth thee then to put in thy Body and thy Water and let them stand together and add nothing to them This Composition duly made we call our Magnesia and our Adrop and nothing entreth neither Powder nor Liquor save only these two species which species are the perfect Body and Argent vive These two sprung out of one Root for as I told you the Soul of thy animated Mercury is perfect true Gold yet volatile which by Art may be made to appear in a fixed form so then we joyn Consanguinity with Consanguinity Brother with Sister and make them become together Man and Wife These two by continual Fire do act and re-act the Woman first and then the Man several which then are joyned and make one Hermaphrodite acting one half of each Circulation as a Woman or Spirit and the other half as a Man or Body For each of the two principles have a Sulphur and a Mercuriality the Gold or Body hath its Sulphur external and apparent the Mercury the Spirit hath it internally hidden yet both these are co-essential each to other and in that respect they are the only subjects in the World for our Art Between these two in quality contrarious Ingendred is a mean most marvellous Which is our Mercury and Menstrue unctuous Our secret Sulphur working invisibly More fierce then Fire burning the Body Dissolving Metals into Water Mineral Which Night for darkness in the North we do call FOr with their Homogeneity they have withall such a Contrariety in opposite qualities that they do no sooner feel the Fire but they are stirred up to Work and boiling and circulating in a continual Ebullition or Vapour they do mingle their homogeneal qualities together by reason of which there is a strange medium of an unnatural Fire and a putrefying Bath ingendred then the Sulphur or Fire of the Gold which is the Fire of Nature and the Sulphur of the Water do embrace one another and these two make an unnatural Fire in which the Humidity appears and the Sulphur being hidden to the eye appears in its effects only to sight and that is it burns destroys and conquers the Bodies which common Fire never could do making them to be no Bodies but a Fume of Mineral Vapour and in this Operation the Elements are confused and make our Chaos which is void and dark for here the Lights of the World are eclipsed the Sun is darkned and the Moon sheweth not its light which watrishness of the Compositions for its abundance of moisture and privation of light we call Winter and Night and the North Latitude of our Stone But yet I trow thou understandst not utterly The very secret of Philosophers Dissolution Therefore understand me I counsel thee wittily For the truth I will tell thee without delusion Our Solution is caused of our Congelation For Dissolution on the one side corporal Causeth Congelation on the other
to their station pleasant to the Philosopher to behold Of this Separation I find a like figure thus spoken So out of our Stone precious if thou be witty Oyl incombustible and Water thou shalt draw And thereabout thou needest not at the Coles to blow THese Philosophical Operations some have had the fancy to compare with some passages of Scripture but I had rather bound Philosophy within its own Pale and not allegorize the Holy Scripture thereto where Philosophy is not understood there To the thing in hand by continual decoction our Work will shew as in Circulation a real change of the ascending Humidity the first will be white and so continue a long time which is called Water or Phlegm and after it the Water will be coloured and ascend so on the sides of the Vessel which is called Oyl and this Oyl is not combustible for it is the true Sulphur of Gold and therefore as permanent as the Mercury Yet be not mistaken nor do not imagine that because we speak of incombustible Oyl that our Work is to be performed with the Fire of a Wind Oven or of Bellows as some foolishly imagine to burn up what is combustible until the very incombustible Oyl be left for all our volatile subject is turned into incombustible fixity with a moderate decoction in our secret Athanor whose heat in its highest vigoration is but very obscurely red hardly perceptible and in its lowest degree is not full half so strong or half at the most Do this with heat easie and nourishing First with moist Fire and after that with dry The Flegm with patience out-drawing And after that the other Natures wittily Dry up thine Earth until it be thirsty By Calcination else labourest thou in vain And then make it drink up the moisture again THis is a heat which is friendly to the Bodies for it causeth the Spirit to ascend and yet suffers it to return and by reason of its ascending and returning the Matter below stands continually moist and boileth with a perpetual motion and exhalation which ascends and returns day and night every hour and minute without intermission This moist Air or liquid form at bottom with Ebullition and sending forth a spiritual smoak or Vapour in which saith Artephius the whole Mastery consists continues about six weeks or thereabouts and then the boiling will turn to a Pitchy swelling and puffing up like Leavened Dough and from that time the Compound shall grow dryer and dryer coming at length to Pitch-black Atoms or Powder impalpable and the fumes shall cease for six weeks Be patient therefore in decoction and wait with a great deal of confidence until thou seest thy Water which at first ascends white and flegmatick to begin to change colour and the Exhalations to arise discoloured within the Glass Then continue your decoction till the Cloud which is conceived be brought forth for in this Operation be sure that the Seeds begin to mingle and will give you a sign of the beginning of the Conjunction of Natures and that is the gilding of the Glass about the sides within the Concave as if it were overspread with leaves of pure Gold Continue still your decoction till the Earth at the bottom begin to appear and the moisture of the Compound begin to be terminated in Diâ—ess in colour Black which is a sure sign of your right progress and without which you can never attain the Mastery Remember that in this Calcination thou hast a portion of Water in the upper part of thy Vessel which did not descend and in the time of the ceasing of the fumes the Body grows very dry even to Calcination which when it is intirely perfected the Water is as it were by a Magnetical virtue drawn down and then follows a second Liquefaction Separation thus must thou oftentimes make Thy Waters dividing into parts two So that the subtle from the gross thou take Till the Earth remain below in colours bloe That Earth is fixed to abide all woe The other part is spiritual and flying But thou must turn them all into one thing BUt to return to our Work of Sublimation which is as was touched before the Key of the whole Work by which Separation is made uncessantly each day and hour Thus are the Waters divided from the Waters that is the Waters above from them which are below for part of the Water ascends up like a fume and congeals and runs down the sides of the Glass in drops like veins and part remains still below with the Body and with it boils visibly and that uncessantly By this Work thou hast the subtle or thin parts of the Body and the thin parts of the Water ascend and mingle and the gross part of the Body and the gross part of the Water mixt below the one by subliming together and the other by boiling together thus is thy Body below compounded of two even the most fixed parts of Sol with the grosser parts of Lunaria and thy Water of two parts the Soul of Sol and the Spirit of Lunaria which is the true mystical ground of Fixation Thus by subliming in a continual Vapour whatever is Spiritual and Heavenly both in the Water and in the Body lightly ascending and in the upper part of the Glass taking the nature of a Spirit what is more gross earthy and corporeal will in the bottom take the nature of a Body whose colour the Soul being separated will be as Black as Pitch This Body is a middle substance between the Body and the Water a Limus a new Body or Adamica terra a medium between fixed and not fixed it is not so fixed as to be equal to Sol nor yet so volatile as the Mercury but it is sufficiently fixed to endure a Fire requisite for this Work and to suffer all the pain and woe of this our Purgatory in which it abides six weeks without fumes or vapour But as for the Spirit that is a tender thing nor is it able to endure the Fire but flys from it and abides in the uppermost part of the Glass only so long as the fumes arise the ascending do still meet with them which are above till at last making over great drops they fall down and when the fumes cease as much of the Spirit as the Concave of the Glass will hold without running down stays above until intire Calcination be perfected and then they are drawn down by a Magnetical virtue So that here is all the mystery of the proportion of the Glass to the Matter namely that it be so big and no bigger as in its Concave will hold up a competent quantity of Water after Calcination to water the dry pores while the Body below rots into Atoms Then shall you bring back the Water upon the Earth and circulate again so long till there be a total joyning till the Spirit become the Body and the Body become the Spirit and all be made true Fire or Tincture of which Conjunction
enter another Yea and beyond this it may be exalted beyond the nature of man yea and of any tangible Body to become a most radiant perpetual Light which I have seen though not my self actually made All this is done by the Divine virtue of our Water which is to be prepared as is said by Cohobation and Distillation for our Water is a living Water and not corrosive as many do mis-interpret our Books These then are the circumstantial qualities of our Water it is pure clean and very bright it is quick and very fluent without Humectation it is the only profitable subject that we can choose for this Art and whatever can be taken in hand in the World besides this is but fallacious It is a marvellous thing in kind And without it can nothing be done Therefore did Hermes call it his Wind For it is up-flying from Sun and Moon And maketh our Stone to fly with it soon Reviving the dead and giving life To Sun and Moon Husband and Wife IT is of a wonderful Composition yea so wonderful that if thou shouldst know it by relation only thou couldst not believe it Study therefore only to know it for it is the very hinge on which turns all perfection it is that which the Wise men never revealed but only in Figures and Metaphors Some have called it their sharp Vinegar because of its dissolvent quality others have called it a Bird a Goose a Phesant and many such names they have given it But because it ariseth in the form of a Wind or Vapour the Philosophers have called it their Vapour their Smoak and their Wind and for this cause command that the Porter keep diligent watch that it fly not away or exhale for it would spoil the Work This Water then flyeth the more Spiritual part of it and the Corporal part remaineth below in the form of an Humidity which doth bubble and boil continually and the smoak in the Head condenseth and returneth in drops upon the Body and by this means the Body of Sol which is most fixed to the astonishment of Nature is made volatile and sends out in the Exhalation of the Water its subtle fiery Soul Thus the dead Body hath infused into it a Spirit of life and begins to be endowed with a living Soul which moves aloft with the Spirit and returns with the same till the Body be wholly renewed And by this means the Body of the Sun retaining the more Corporeal part of the Water at the bottom they boil together and enter one another and so both by decoction become more and more Corporal and make together one Hermaphroditical Body of which the more fixed parts of the Sun and the grosser parts of the Water are the Component principals So that being thus mixed the more Corporal parts below and the more Spiritual parts in Sublimation the Bodily part is Husband and Wife to it self for all Conception is made at the bottom of the Vessel Which if they were not by craft made quick And their fatness with Water drawn out And so the thin dissevered from the thick Thou shouldest never bring this Work about If thou wilt therefore speed without doubt Raise up the Birds out of their Nest And after bring them again to rest THese Bodies do send forth a thin subtle fume which may be compared to their breath and the returning of it and fuming continually may be likened to the breathing in and out of Air for saith Artephius all things live by Air and so our Stone it is inspired by the Air which Air is the fume which ascends continually which partakes of both Natures as well as the Body below doth Also this makes that below to boil and swell continually which it would not do did not the Earth retain the moisture and the Sublimation carries with it the subtilest part or Soul of the Body which easily appears by its changing of colours for whatever coloureth is of Sulphur which is unctuous and therefore the Sublimation appears pinguous the medium of this Extraction is Water because our Water and the Sulphur are Homogeneal Wherefore in this Circulation there are two things to be considered the bottom and the top the bottom is not only the Body of Sol for so it would not stand liquid and flow and boil and bubble as it doth therefore it is certain that the Body retains part of the Water which is more thick which thickness digestion and mixture hath caused which grosser part of the Water is joyned with the Body but not perfectly united The uppermost part is not only from the Water nor yet the most whole of the Water but a certain subtle portion of your first Vinegar which hath in it the most pure part of your Gold which is sublimed with it which both together make a medium of much Firiness So then by reason of the mixture both the uppermost and the subsident part are reduced to a mean which hold one of another therefore our Body at this time and in this Operation is called the Body both of the Sun and Moon and the Vapour contains both the Soul of the Sun and the Spirit of the Mercury Take this for your prey for I have reveal'd what Philosophers upon penalty of an Anathema would never disclose If you have well attended to what I have said I have said enough and if this do not suffice you I know not what will Remember well what I have said if you ever expect success To sum up all therefore in one word for I have been so long that I fear I have been too prolix Remember what you go about and what you work on You take in hand an Earthly Body which you would bring to a Heavenly Tincture This you would effect by Mercury which is the only way or medium in the World First then sublime till by Mercury thou hast brought thy Body to the height of volatility and thou shalt find that in this dissolved Body there will be such a ferment which will recongeal the Spirit Water with Water accord will and ascend And Spirit with Spirit for they be both of one kind Which when they be exalted make to descend So shalt thou unloose that which Nature erst did bind Mercury essential turning into Wind Without which natural and subtle Separation May never be compleat profitable Generation FOr the Body though in its manifesto it be Sulphur congealed and dry yet in its occulto it is Mercury liquid and moist Now the Water which thou mixest with it hath this vertue to open its pores and then the Water of the Body will as naturally agree and ascend with thy Water of Life which thou didst put to it as one Water will joyn with another Now as Sol hath a hidden Spirit so hath our Mercury which is in it invisible for to sight it appears as other Mercury only a little brighter but in effect they differ wonderfully which Spirit will as naturally unite with the Soul
who with the Chymist in Sendivogius cannot dream of any other Mercury then that Mercury which is to be bought at Druggists which they take and sublime variously to make it clean and then with Hogheland mix it with Gold applying all the words and sayings of Philosophers to this their mixture But when the time comes that they should see the signs specified of the Philosophers there they fail it may be by reason of something external to the Gold which it gets in foliating or the Mercury which it gets in washing and purging which though it be but little yet it is enough in heat to give a light Tincture to the Superficies they may with Hogheland see a discoloured outside which is nothing for our Operation is not so trivial that a man had need of Spectacles and a most clear light to discern it but it is so apparent that a half blind man would be amazed at it for our Body even the perfect Body is divided which common Mercury can never do though a man bless himself never so much in his mock-purgations But when as such Work-men have waited their time out and it may be out again and see not blackness then they run into another extreme and share the fault of their errour which was only in their Mercury or withall in their proportion for pondus and heat of external Fire between both principles and then say with Hogheland our Mercury and our Gold are not vulgar but they are something no man knows what which the Philosophers have called Gold and Mercury which yet are some strange thing which man never heard of or some common thing or some vile thing Thus they vanish into smoak and all for want of knowledge of our true Mercury For until the Soul be separate And cleansed from its original sin With the Water and throughly spiritualizate The true Conjunction mayst thou never begin Therefore the Soul first from the Body twine Then of the corporal part and of the spiritual The Soul shall cause Conjunction perpetual REmember then that thou get such a Mercury which may destroy and conquer thy Body mollifie it soften it and draw out its Seed and sever the Soul from it by virtue of that Spirit which is in thy dissolving Water Spirits naturally uniting with Spirits as one flame will mix with another The Soul being thus severed from the Body it will dry and rot as naturally as any other thing will that hath its Soul separated And as by the Water which extracts the Soul it dies and grows putrid and black so by the same Water it is washed from its filthy blackness then the clean Soul having cleansed the Body is united to it that from that time the Body follows the Soul and is moved always with it upon the Fire flying and descending in the form of a Spirit which is a wonder to behold This is our Secret so much esteemed Conjunction which is celebrated after the loosing putrefying and purifying of our Body This is the true process of our Work according to the true exigency of Nature first the Soul is to be divided from the Body that is grosness may be purged by corruption and rotting and the Spirit which is a form of light and seminal may being let loose multiply it self by the Spirit of the Water and so being allied to the Body from whence it was drawn and to the Water from whose Spirit it receives an increase in virtue and Tincture it may unite both the Spirit and the Body with a perpetual bond He who works thus shall undoubtedly attain unto perfection Of two Conjunctions Philosophers mention make Gross when the Body is with Mercury reincrudate But let this pass and to the second heed take Which is as I said after Separation celebrate In which the parties be left with least to colligate And so promoted unto most perfect temperance That never after may be repugnance BUt when as the Philosophers speak of Conjunction it is warily to be considered of what Conjunction they do mean for as it is a term very often used so is it very doubtfully to be taken One Conjunction which they speak of is gross which is properly Amalgamation it is the first Operation after the preparation of the Mercury But this is not the Conjunction here to be understood but a more secret by far in which man worketh nothing at all but stands by only and beholds Natures Operation And this work is done without any laying on of hands and very quickly when the Matters are prepared and made fit This work is therefore called a Divine Work This Conjunction is far more intimate than the gross for this is an union per minima or intima so that the essence of the one enters the essence of the other so as to make it but one substance This maketh a temper which man by no Art could make for even as Water mixed with Water is inseparable so is it now with these principles Now is concord amity and friendship made for now the hot and the dry will embrace the cold and moist and now patience is made between the Water and the Fire Thus causeth true Separation true Conjunction to be had Of Water and Air with Earth and Fire But that each Element into other may be led And so abide for ever at thy desire Do as do Dawbers with Clay or Mire Temper them thick and make them not too thin This do up-drying the rather thou shalt win THus the Proverb is verified Amantium irae amoris redintegratio est for Love brought them together Love parted them with a seeming discontent and at last Love unites them with a perpetual tye that they can no more part for ever without a new Resolution in this dissolving Water after they are first become perfect Now the same thing is both moist and dry hot and cold according to the qualities of the Elements that I may speak according to the usual voice of Philosophers for now is of two made three and of three made four and of four one the Quadrangle is turned into a Circle to the amazement of Nature For the essence of one Element now penetrateth the essence of another that is the essential properties are so throughly mixed that all four now make but one partaking of all These are those principles which God now hath conjoyned and therefore nothing can separate Rejoyce now O Son of Art for thou hast the Sun for thy Diadem and the Moon Crescent for thy Garland That thou mayst the more certainly easily and speedily attain to this and that thy signs may the better and orderly appear next to thy care of preparing true and purged Mercury and pure Gold first be sure of thy mixture mix them like as a Potter mixeth his Loam Be sure you do not over-glut your Earth with Water nor cloy your Water with Earth but impast them and then grind them together as diligently as a Painter would grind his Colours for
death of the Compound For when they saw the Body with the Water to melt in the Fire to flow and to boyl they called this Magnesia when they saw the Water partly to ascend and partly to descend and partly to remain below so that at once there was both a Sublimation in vapour and a Motion of what was below they said that it was the Spirit of the Water that ascended or more Airy part and the more Fiery part which rejoyceth most to be united to and hidden in Earth remained below for that was more capable of the Fire and did better agree with it as with its like which because it did so uncessantly swell and boyl and rage at the bottom and make the Body begin to change its colour they said it was Fire against Nature Again when they saw the ascending Vapour to change colour they said it was the Soul of the Bodies was mixed with the Spirit which because it was green they said it was a vegetative Soul and Fire of Nature Now when the Body below began to thicken they said this was an Hermaphroditical Body because part of the Water always remained below and made the Body to boyl and bubble and flow and therefore this they called a new Body compounded of two Bodies the Sun and the Moon the Man and the Wife which because it grew to a slimy consistence they named it Limus or Limbus Hyle and a Chaos or Terra Adamica When this Body began to grow very black and to send up foul Exhalations yellowish blewish and black they said this was Death and Corruption which followed the separation of the Soul from the Body Now when they see the Souls to be again united and to remain below together they knew that the Soul and Spirit were Immortal that is the Tincture or Vital Balsam was Incorruptible and because they see them again unite they knew the Soul and Spirit would renew the Bodies and this seeming Corruption was but the natural step to a glorious Regeneration for if the Souls be again united to the Bodies they will surely regenerate them and renew them and make them incorruptible for if the Spirits had not returned to this union they might only have expected the Exhalation of them for Spiritual Tinctures or Essences cannot be destroyed by corruption in many Vegetals much less in the most perfect of Minerals and Metals The union then of the Souls with the Bodies argues evidently a hidden purity under the apparent rottenness which will after Purification be exalted to transcendent Glory Hereupon they said that the Spirit and Soul which were above were the Heavenly Quintessence and the Body below was the Earth and this Circulation of Spirits were but as the Circulation of the Heavens round about the Earth and the falling drops were but as the influential dew which did cause the Earth to fructifie and the blackness and darkness were but the Winter Latitude which with its Clouds and droppings do mellow and fertilize the Earth to shoot forth with the more beautiful varieties in the Springâ—â— And therefore like as I have said before Thine Elements commixt and wisely coequate Thou keep in temperate heat eschewing evermore That they by violent heat be not incinerate To powder dry unprofitably Rubificate But into powder black as the Crows Bill With heat of our Bath or else of our Dunghill FOr this cause they looked upon this as a secret mysterious yet very natural Operation whereby the most solid and perfect Minerals are by Nature so applied one to another and cultivated that the very Earth or Ground should be found in which this noble Tree of the Hesperides may be planted and grow the Matrix or Womb should be prepared in which this noble Off-spring may again enter and be born again Therefore what by long Experience and profound Meditation Philosophers have found out and seen that also they committed and communicated unto us so that we also are made fellow Heirs of this great Treasure and we shall as faithfully communicate our knowledge for thy Instruction First then take thy Body which is Gold and thy Water which is Mercury the one ready made by Nature to thy hand the other thou must Prepare for it is not to be found in the Land of the Living but must be made Nature here is at a non-plus and so is Art taken asunder but both together effect it Mix these together in due proportion so as I have often told thee then set them to the Fire to decoct and give them a convenient heat in which they may boyl ascend and descend perpetually without any intermission night or day But especially and before all things be careful in your Internal heat to wit the proportion of your Water for your Sulphur that you must add and supply to it in the beginning of your Work in its Preparation is that which doth perform all the work within without which your External heat is of no value for it is of it self uneffectual If then thou accend this heat so much as that it predominate it will not then dissolve the Bodies as thou expectest but contrarywise burn the Flowers before they are extracted from the depth of their Marrow this thou mayst easily do either if thy Arsnick be not made as it ought or else the number of Eagles exceeded or the proportion of thy Water to thy Body not agreeing to the number of Eagles or thy Glass not well proportioned to thy Matter it will easily burn if thy Glass be too big for so the moisture will so much be dispersed about the Concave that it will not return before the Earth below be left too dry I have given Rules easily to avoid all these inconveniences And on the other hand be sure that thou do not erre in too little heat let thy Water have Fire enough within it to make a true division and corruption which if either thy Arsnick have not sufficient Fiery virtue or if the union of this and thy Water be not well attended but slightly performed or the Purgation of thy Water be not throughly made each Eagle for so two or three Eagles may not add the virtue of one or if thy number of Eagles be not just or thy proportion of quantity be not duly observed Therefore follow my advice and be careful in both these particulars and then let your External heat be so that your Compound may boyl and sublime which for its similitude is called a Balneum so long till the Vapours cease and are retained within then will the Compound rot which for its great likeness is called our Dunghill Vntil the time that Nights be passed ninety In moist heat keep them for any thing Soon after by blackness thou shalt espy That they draw fast to putrefying FIrst then our Operations begin in humido for in the beginning moisture it prevails and is called the Phlegmatick Constitution of our Embrio and this is called the Reign of the Woman which
according to Flammel seeks to get the Domination for many months that is to say for three months or thereabouts which according to our Author is ninety days and nights to whom many other Authors agree This time may be longer or shorter according to the better or worse preparation of the Matter and the Regimen of the Fire But when thou hast set thy Glass once in the first place be sure that thou give a due yet temperate heat govern it so as that between the Waters above and the Flouds beneath the Earth may liquefie then continue your decoction and the Vessel shall be beclouded and thy Compound shall with constant Circulation become black This colour shall be a sign unto you that you have not run your course in vain this is the first Gate into which and through which you must enter now know for certain that thy Seeds begin to rot and engender In this Putrefaction there is life for this Operation is nothing else but an extracting of Natures from their profundity or root this is that which will make thy fixt Body to become a volatile Spirit for Putrefaction doth loose the bands of all the Elements Which after many colours thou mayst bring To perfect whiteness by patience easily And so the Seed in his nature shall multiply SO soon then as thou shalt have blackness compleat know for certain that in this blackness whiteness is really hidden so really as a living Plant in its Seed But before thou attain to this whiteness thou mayst have patience and pass through many middle changable colours which will be no small chearing to the Work-man who must wait with a great deal of Longanimity until the Earth and Heaven be united Then shall thy Elements perfectly accord and one colour shall cover thy new-married Soul and Body and that will be like to the most pure Lilly or sublimed Salt sparkling like to a new-slipped Sword in the Sun beams In this whiteness is the Multiplicative virtue exalted and made apparent in its first degree by this white Soul thou mayst turn either Mercury or Saturn or Jupiter or Venus or Mars into most pure refined Silver in a short time and that not Sophistically to apparency but in reality inwardly and outwardly to abide all Essays Make each the other to halâ—e and kiss And like as Children play them up and down And when their Shirts are filled with Piss Then let the Woman to wash be bown Which oft for faintness will fall in a swoâ—â— And die at last with her Children all And go to Purgatory to wash their filth Original BUt in thy first Operation as is said before first look for blackness which will appear in the first Regimen by continual decoction which blackness shall be an Indicium to you that your two Natures do begin now to imbrace and kiss one another For so soon as they feel the Fire they flow together within the Vessel and boyl by continuance of decoction visibly and the tender Nature not enduring the heat flyeth aloft and being inclosed so that it cannot get out it congeals in drops in the head of the Vessel and about the sides and again returns to its Body which may well be called Childrens play running round as it were in a Circular motion This play continues so long till the Water begins to leave its thicker parts with the thicker parts of the Body which in the bottom of the Vessel is called Vrina puerorum and the thinner parts of the Water mixed with the thinner parts of the Body which is dissolved in it flies still and circulates until it have made a more full dissolution of the Body which here by the odour of its Sulphur doth penetrate the Spirit and Soul and makes them faint at last and remain as it were breathless in the bottom of the Glass Then shall the Body be destroyed and both the Water and it rot into small Atoms which will lie without motion growing every day more and more black until at length Cimmerian darkness cover the whole Sky This is called the North Latitude of our Stone and it is Winter cold and dirty here are the Elements brought to rest for a time until a Generation be made in the bottom of the Glass when through the will and power of God a clean thing shall be brought out of this uncleanness and black venenosity When they be there by little little increase Their pains with heat aye more and more The Fire from them let never cease And see that thy Furnace be surely apt therefore Which wise men call an Athanor Concerning heat required most temperately By which thy Matter doth kindly putrefie NOw thy Bath will begin to be a little more heated and stirred up to wash this young King which though noble is yet conceived in a Stable for at this time thou hast the Sulphur of thy dissolved Body let loose which mixing with the Sulphur of the Water doth acuate it exceedingly the one being a natural the other a Fire against Nature both together make an unnatural Fire burning like to the Fire of Hell comparable to nothing but the Alcahest Nor must thou think that this increase of Fire consists in the blowing of the Coal no verily it is a more subtle internal Fire that we have and yet that also must be kept constant and in due order For this cause see that thy Furnace be trusty else thou mayst and wilt fail for though the Fire of Coals do not effect any thing yet it excites and the Water though it be of a wonderfull nature yet it acts no farther then it is stirred up and intermission in this Work when it is once begun will in the end prove fatal extinction Therefore the Wise men have named the Furnace in which they work their Secrets an Athanor that is Immortal shewing that from the beginning to the end the Fire must not go out for the extinction of it destroys the Work and as death includes all sicknesses which are steps to it so an Immortal Furnace or Athanor must not only preserve the Fire from going out but also from exorbitancy either on one hand or other for whatever swerves from the temperate mean hinders the kind operation of the Matter which is Putrefaction by which means the Work is notably retarded and weakned and by continuance of any extremity it will be destroyed but with its due heat it doth putrefie kindly Of this principle speaketh sapient Guido And saith by rotting dyeth the Compound corporal And then after Morien and others moe Vp riseth again regenerate simple and spiritual And were not heat and moisture continual Sperm in the Womb might have none abiding And so there should no fruit thereof up spring THis according to the intention of all Philosophers Guido Turba Arnaldus and others but especially noble Trevisan whom I chiefly honour so Flammel Artephius Morien and all Philosophers testifie thus much namely that the heat must be so adequated to the
wash it with Salt and again do heat it and grind it this I repeat to the full cleansing it from all manner of Faeces 9. A threefold tryal of the goodness of the Prepared Mercury TAke thy Mercury prepared with its Arsnick of seven eight nine or ten Eagles put it into a Phial and thou shalt lute it with the Lutum sapientiae place it in a Furnace of Sand and let it stand in an heat of Sublimation so that it may ascend and descend in the Glass until it be coagulated a little thicker than Butter continue it unto a perfect Coagulation until it be as white as Silver 10. Another tryal IF by shaking it in a Glass with the Salt of Urine it be turned into an impalpable white Powder of its own accord so that it doth not appear as Mercury and of its own accord in an hot and dry place it coagulates again into a thin Mercury it is enough but yet better if being agitated in Fountain-water it runs into small heads or particles for if the grain be in the Body it will not be thus converted and separated into small minute parts 11. The third tryal DIstill it in a Glass Alembick from a Glass Cucurbit if it passes over and leaves nothing behind it it is a good Mineral Water 12. The extraction of the Sulphur from the living Mercury by Separation TAke thy mixed corporal and spiritual Compound the Body of which is coagulated of the volatile by digestion and separate the Mercury from its Sulphur by a Glass Still and thou shalt have a white Luna fixed and resisting Aqua fortis and more ponderous than common Silver 13. The Magical Sol out of this Luna OUt of this white Sulphur by Fire thou shalt have a yellow Sulphur by a manual Operation which Sol is the red Lead of the Philosophers 14. Out of this Sulphur Aurum potabile THou mayst turn this yellow Sulphur into an Oyl as red as Blood by circulating it with the Volatile-Mercurial-Philosophical Menstruum so thou shalt have an admirable Panacea or Universal Medicine 15. The gross conjunction of the Menstruum with its Sulphur for the formation of the Off-spring of the Fire TAke of thy purged best prepared and choicest Mercury of seven eight nine or at most ten Eagles mix it with the prepared Laton or its red Sulphur that is to say two parts of the Water or at the most three with one of the pure Sulphur ground and purged N. B. but it is better that thou takest two parts to one 16. The working of the mixture by a manual Operation THis thy mixture thou shalt grind very well upon a Marble then thou shalt wash it with Vinegar and Sal Armoniac until it hath put off all its black Faeces then thou shalt wash off all its saltness and acrimony with clear Fountain-water then shalt thou dry it upon clean white Paper by turning of it from place to place with the point of a Knife even unto an exquisite dryness 17. The putting in of the Foetus into the Philosophical Egg. NOw thy mixture being dryed put it into an Oval Glass of the best and most transparent Glass of the bigness of an Hens Egg in such a Glass let not thy Matter exceed two ounces seal it Hermetically 18. The Government of the Fire THen you must have a Furnace built in which you may keep an immortal Fire in it you shall make an heat of Sand of the first degree in which the dew of our Compound may be elevated and circulated continually day and night without any intermission c. And in such a Fire the Body will die and the Spirit will be renewed and at length the Soul will be glorified and united with a new immortal and incorruptible Body Thus is made a new Heaven FINIS A Breviary of ALCHEMY OR A COMMENTARY UPON Sir GEORGE RIPLEY'S RECAPITULATION BEING A Paraphrastical Epitome of his Twelve GATES Written by Aeyrenaeus Philalethes ANGLUS COSMOPOLITA LONDON Printed for William Cooper at the Pellican in Little Britain MDCLXXVIII Sir George Ripley's RECAPITULATION I. FOr to bring this Treatise to a final end And briefly here to conclude these secrets all Diligently look thou and to thy Figure attend Which doth in it contain these secrets great and small And if thou it conceive both Theorical and Practical By Figures and Colours and by Scripture plain Which wittily conceived thou mayest not work in vain II. Consider first the Latitude of this precious Stone Beginning in the first side noted in the West Where the red Man and white Woman be made one Spoused with the Spirit of life to live in love and rest Earth and water equally proportion'd that is best And one of the Earth is good and of the Spirit Three Which Twelve to Four also of the Earth may be III. Three of the Wife and one of the Man thou must take And the less of the Spirit there is in this Disponsation The rather thy Calcination for certain shalt thou make Then forth into the North proceed by obscuration Of the red man and his white Wife called Eclypsation Loosing them and altering them betwixt Winter and Vere Into Water turning Earth dark and nothing clear IV. From thence by Colours many one into the East ascend Then shall the Moon be full appearing by day-light Then is she passed Purgatory and her course at an end There is the upâ—rising of the Sun appearing white and bright There is Summer after Vere and Day after Night Then Earth and Water which were black be turned into Air And Clouds of darkness â—ver-blown and all appeareth fâ—â—r V. And as in the West was the beginning of thy practice And the North the perfect mean of profound alteration So in the East after them is the beginning of speculation But of this course up in the South the Sun maketh consummation There be the Elements turned into Fire by Circulation Then to win to thy desire thou needst not be in doubt For the Wheel of our Philosophy thou hast turn'd about VI. But yet about again 2 times turn thy wheel In which be comprehended all the secrets of our Philosophy In Chapters Twelve made plain to thee if thou conceive them well And all the secrets by and by of our lower Astronomy How thou shalt Calcine Bodies perfect dissolve divide and putrifie With perfect knowledg of all the Poles which in our Heaven been Shining with Colours inexplicable never were gayer seen VII And this one secret conclusion know withouten fail Our Red Man teyneth not nor his Wife until they teyned be Therefore if thou list thy self by this craft to avail The Altitude of the Bodies hide and shew out their profundity In every of thy Materials destroying the first Quality And secondary Qualities more glorious in them repair anon And in one Glass with one Reg'ment Four Natures turn to One. VIII Pale and black with false Citrine unperfect White and Red The Peacock's Feathers in Colours gay the Rainbow
which is an Impastation of the body with the Water to the temper of Dough or Leaven which the Water readily doth such affinity there is between the Water and the Body as the Philosopher saith this Water is friendly and pleasant to the metals But over and besides the Water soaks Radically into our Body being circulated upon it according as the Philosopher saith When it s own sweat is returned to the Body it perforates it marvellously Thus the Body drinks in the Water or Juice of Grapes not so much then when they are first mingled but most especially when by decoction it pierceth radically to the very profundity of it and makes it to alter its Form This is the Water which teareth the Bodies and makes them no Bodies but flying Spirits like a Smoak Wind or Fume as Artephius speaketh plentifully This operation is performed in a short while in comparison of Subterraneal operations of Nature which are done in a very long time therefore it is that so many Philosophers say that it is done in a very short time and yet it is not without cause that so many of the Philosophers have complained of the length of this decoction Therefore the same Artephius who had said that this fire of the Water of our Mercury doth that in a short time above ground that Nature was in performing a 1000 years doth in another place say that the tincture doth not come out at once but by little and little each day and hour till after along time the decoction be compleat according to the saying of the Philosopher Boyl boyl and again boyl and accompt not tedious our long decoction So fast SO then this expression here that the Toad doth drink in the Juice of Grapes so fast doth not imply but that this work must have the true time of Nature which is indeed a long time and so is every decoction at least so they will seem to the Artist who attends the fire day by day and yet must wait for the fruit with Patience till the Heaven have showred down upon the Earth the former and latter Rain yet be not out of heart but attend until the compleatment for then a large Harvest will abundantly recompence all thy toyl Till over-charged with the Broth his Bowels all to brast IT follows in the Vision that at length the Toad over-charged with the broth did burst asunder This broth is the same which the fair Medea did prepare and pour upon the two Serpents which did keep the Golden Aples which grew in the hidden Garden of the Virgins Hesperides For the Vinegre of the Philosophers being circulated upon the Body doth engender a substance like unto bloudy Broth and makes Colours of the Rainbow to appear in the ascension and descension upon your Lyon until the Eagles have at length devoured the Lyon and all together being killed with the Carion of the Carcasses become a venemous Toad creeping on the Earth and a Crow swimming in the midst of the dead Sea The Juice of Grapes then which is our Mercury drawn from the Chameleon or Air of our Physical Magnesia and Chalybs Magical being circulated upon our true Terra Lemnia after it is grossly mixed with it by Incorporation and set to our fire to digest doth still enter in and upon our Body and searcheth the profoundity of it and makes the occult to become manifest by continual ascension and descension till all together become a Broth which is a mean substance of dissevered qualities between the Water and the Body till at length the Body burst asunder and be reduced into a Powder like to the Atoms of the Sun black of the blackest and of a viscous matter And after that from poysoned bulk he cast his venom fell THis Reduction of the Body thus in this water ingenders so venomous a Nature that truly in the whole World there is not a ranker Poyson or stink according as Philosophers witness And therefore he is said to cast his fell venom from his poysoned bulk in as much as the exhalations are compared to the Invenomed Fume of Dragons as Flamell in his Summary hath such an Allusion But the Philosopher as he adds in his Hieroglyphicks of the two Dragons never feels his stink unless he break his Vessels but only he judgeth it by the colours proceeding from the rottenness of the Confections And indeed it is a wonder to consider which some Sons of Art are eye-witnesses of that the fixed and most digested Body of Gold should so rot and putrifie as if it were a Carcass which is done by the admirable Divine virtue of our dissolving Water which no Money can purchase All these operations which are so enlarged by variety of expressions center in one which is killing the quick and reviving the dead For grief and pain whereof his members all began to swell THis venemous fume of exhalations returning upon the Body cause it to swell all over according to the saying of the Philosopher The Body in this Water puffeth up swelleth and putrifieth as a Grain of Corn taking the nature living and vegetable therefore for this cause this Water is in this sence called by the Philosophers their Leaven for as Leaven causeth Past to swell so this fermenteth the body and causeth it to tumefie and puff up it is also called venom for as venom causeth swelling so this Water by its reiteration uncessantly upon our body This operation is uncessant from the first incitation of the matter even until compleat putrefaction for the Toad doth always send forth his exhalations being rather called the Lyon till he be over-come in part and then when the Body begins a little to put on the Nature of the Water and the Water of the Body then it is compared to two Dragons one winged and the other without wings and lastly when that stinking Earth appears which Hermes calls his Terra Foliata or Earth of Leaves then it is most properly called the Toad of the Earth from the first excitation even to the last of this putrefaction which exhalations are at the beginning for a time White and afterwards become Yellowish Blewish and Blackish from the virulency of the matter which exhalations hourly condensing and ever and anon running down like little veins in drops do enter the Body marvelously and the more it is entred the more it swells and puffs up till at length it be compleatly putrefied With drops of poysoned sweat approaching thus his secret Den. THe following two Verses then are but a more Ample description of this work of volatization which is an ascension and descension or circulation of the confections within the Glass Which Glass here called the secret Den is else-where called by the same Author a little Glassen-tun and is an ovall Vessel of the purest White Glass about the bigness of an ordinary Hen-Egg in the which about the quantity of an ounce of 8 drachms of the confection in all mixed is a convenient proportion to be
former Kingdom he Vnto his Brethren gives The worst of them doth now those Fortunes see That each in plenty lives And what their Brother was before his death That they are now become For he their sickness cures with his breath And makes them live at home No more in bondage bond 's no place can find All liberty enjoy There 's nothing here can hurt for all one mind Have all that would destroy Is banish'd from the Kingly Palace where The Streets with Gold are pav'd The Walls are Silver fine the Gates most clear Intire Gems engrav'd With wondrous Art the Windows glass most pure Which falls nor knocks can break The Drink from fear of venom still is sure Whoso virtue none can speak Whose comes there is at a place arriv'd Where neither want nor death Nor any grief is known a place contriv'd For Saints therein to breath Whom God shall choose and to his Palace bring What need he more desire Then God himself that he may praises sing Kindled with holy fire But he whose hands unclean and heart defil'd These Mysteries forbear For you th' are not cease timely for y' are wild T' have neither wit nor fear AN EXPOSITION UPON THE Fifth Gate Which is PUTREFACTION The Fifth Gate Opened Which is PUTREFACTION Now we begin the Chapter of Putrefaction Without which Pole no Seed can multiply Which must be done only by continual action Of heat in the Body moist not manually For Bodies else may not be altered naturally WE have already run through four Gates the first being opened the rest stand open at will so that thou hast need only to enter The course and method of Philosophers now doth lead us to the Gate of Putrefaction a horrible Gate whose entrance is dark with Cimmerian night dreadful with many windings and turnings And yet it is a Gate so necessary that unless you pass through it you may never expect to reap fruit from your labour for without it can be no Life nor Generation much less desired Multiplication therefore saith the Poet Felices atrum quotquot habere queant The cause of this death or corruption or rottenness proceeds from the action of continual heat not so much of the external Fire of the Athanor as of the Compound within it self in which the Fire of the Water which is against Nature doth open the perfect Body by continual contrition and decoction and so le ts loose its Sulphur that was incarcerate which is Fire of Nature that so between these two in continual action and passion together with the external heat continually acting the whole Compound is brought to corruption being sometimes roasted with external heat which doth sublime the moisture which again of its own accord returns continually and doth moisten the Earth so long until by reason of the heat it have drunk up the moisture wholly and then it dyes And unless thou see this sign of rotting of thy Compound which is done in a black colour a stinking odour and with a discontinuity of parts thy labour will still be in vain for thou mayst never expect what thou desirest to have a new form brought in till the old form be corrupted and put off Sith Christ doth witness without the Grain of Wheat Dye in the Ground increase thou mayst none get And in likewise without the Matter putrefie It may in no wise truly be alterate Neither thy Elements may be divided kindly Nor the Conjunction of them perfectly celebrate That therefore thy labour be not frustrate The privity of our putrefying well understand Or ever thou take this Work in hand THis is so constant to Natures constant proceedings that the painful Husbandman that he may have an increased Harvest commits his precious Seed to the Ground in it to rot and to be corrupted that so a new Life may spring from the old dead Body nor doth he ever expect increase so long as it remains in his Garner Right so we so long as our Material principles continue in their own nature and form they are but of a single value for Gold and Mercury are two such principles that they will for ever delude as many as proceed to work on them in a Sophistical way for whatever the Artist may think they will remain the same unto the end of the World unless pure Sol being mixed with its own pure and appropriated Mercury and set in a due heat of digestion there arise a mutual action and passion between them which without the laying on of the Artists hands will tend to a new Generation For in a convenient Fire in which the Compound may perpetually and uncessantly boyl and the subtle parts may ascend and circulate upon the gross without intermission the most digested Virtue or Soul of the fixed Body which is his basis of Tincture will be extracted by the Water and this will mix it self with the pure Spirit of the Water and with this it will ascend and return until a total separation be made of the pure from the impure and the subtle from the gross Then shall the Body draw down its Soul again and by the power of the most High it shall be united and with it the Spirit of life shall be joyned also so that all three shall become one with an union indissolvable but all this pre-supposeth a Putrefaction or Corruption of one form else cannot there be an Introduction of another Therefore since this mystery of Putrefaction is not more secret then necessary so necessary that without it there is nothing can be done to purpose that is to say with profit I shall be a little plain and full in the prosecution of this mystery For in the knowledge of this consists all that is required to make a Philosopher All the intentions of the Artist must be only so to prepare and order things that he may be sure of this terminus and when he is there come he is as sure a Master as if he had the Stone in his Cabinet By the failing of this sign the Operator is always to turn either backward to seek out some other principles or forward or to the right hand or to the left but when he is Master of this he then can fail in nothing but in the Regimen of the outward heat And Putrefaction may thus defined be After Philosophers definition to be of Bodies the slaying And in our Compound a division of things three The killed Bodies into Corruption forth leading And after unto Regeneration them ableing For things being in the Earth without doubt Be engendred of Rotation of the Heavens about THe definition that the Philosophers give of this Operation is perpetually Allegorical for this Gate they have named by all Metaphors almost in the World especially from death and dead men therefore they allegorize the Vessel in this station to Grave or Tomb and emblematically discover this Operation by the types of Skuls dead Bones and rotten Carcasses according to which Metaphors they call Putrefaction the