way without expence in an inconsiderable time to the lazy Book-men a play without tedious toil to the unstable rash hasty multiplicity of Distillations But listen to me for truly I will thee teach BUt to thee supposing thy qualifications to be Honesty Secresie Studiousness and Indefatigableness we will shew the Truth yet so that it may be hid from the Vulgar yet plain enough to an industrious attentive Reader Which is this Mercury most profitable PHilosophers have hidden much under the Homonymium of Mercury so that it is no hard matter for those that peruse their Books to mistake them yea as many as God will have excluded from this Art shall certainly mistake For many things are by them named by the name of Mercury which are altogether useless in this Mastery and many Processes have they deciphered which themselves never did I for my part shall not tread in their metaphorical steps but shall herein candidly follow the path of profound Ripley whose Text I annex to my Discourse as I go because it is an elaborate Piece in excellent Method on whom I do not so much comment for I write mine own experimental Knowledge but rather intend this Treatise for a Light to that excellent Light in Alchymy these Labours of mine being intire of themselves Only to help thee to my utmost I have confined my Discourse to his Method which I might as other Philosophers have done have scattered here and there confusedly Being to thee nothing deceiveable AS then I have chosen Ripley's Method to follow so will I imitate his Ingenuity and do solemnly profess not to be deceiveable to thee in any thing though I shall not so unfold the Mysteries that bare reading shall suffice to shew the unveiled Diana Know therefore assuredly that when the Philosophers say That their Matter is every where c. This they speak only for the blinding of all such who taking the Philosophers meaning according to the bare sound of their words do reap Trifles instead of Treasures I shall therefore let you understand that this subject of the Philosophers is considered either in reference to its Matter or formal Vertue in reference to the former it is a concrete of Water as all other Compounds are in respect of the latter it participates of a Celestial Virtue and that in a high degree in both respects It is said to be in every place for the original matter which is Water passeth equally through the whole Family of Concretes and for the celestial Influence it is so universal that nothing is hidden from the heat of it so that indeed in this sence it is said to be every where Moreover the Stone being the System of the great World doth in some way or other represent every thing which is or can be perceived by man I mean in reference to some or other operation colour or quality and therefore the Wise have described it almost by all things imaginable for to every thing in some or other circumstance it hath resemblance It is more near in some things than in some YEt to speak properly for information and not to conceal the Secret we profess that there is but one kind in which our Stone is found and in number two understand me not as the Philosopher finds things in his first laborious Preparation for so one of the two subjects which being of one kind enter the supernatural work of Generation of our fiery Stone I say our crude Sperm flows from a Trinity of Substances in one Essence of which two are extracted out of the Earth of their Nativity by the third and then become a pure milky Virgin like Nature drawn from the Menstruâ—â—â— of our sordid Whore Take heed therefore what I to thee write ANd now I call God to witness that I will shew you a great Mystery our Stone is in one part of a perfect nature which we would exalt into a more then most perfect and for this end we stand in need of our true Fountain which I have elsewhere described and shall not now repeat This Fountain hath three Springs and these are three Witnesses which â—estifie to the Artist of the truth of his proceedings these are the Spirit the Water and the Blood and these three agree in one the Water is a Mercurial Bond which the Sophisters can behold so far as the outward shell reacheth but the wise man can behold his hidden secret Centre the Blood is of our Green Lyon which is indeed the greenest or rawest of the three for it hath no manner of Metalline Sulphur no not a grain and therefore is Totally Volatile and it is more raw than the common Water and yet it is called the Blood for a most secret reason because it is the feat of the Life which is the Spirit as Blood in man is the seat of his Life yea the Spirit by this Soul of our Green Lyon is made manifest and is united to it so that though it be very green or unripe yet that inhabits it which is both pure and ripe and can and will digest it with the Water and make both become life with life Now the Spirit is nothing else but a Chaos the Wonder of the Wonders of God which every man almost hath and knows it not because as it appears to the World it is compact in a vile despised form yet is it so useful that in humane Affairs none can want it to the Philosopher it appears united to the Blood that is of our Green Lyon which truly is not a Lyon till the spirit be joyned with it and then it is made able to devour all Creatures of its kind And these three agree in one they are not absolutely one mark that our Fire is not of the matter and yet it is united with the matter as if it were of one form with it and there is an agreement in one though not a radical union for the spirit which is the Fire is separable from the Water and the Blood and then is our Lyon actually Green but ceaseth then to be our Lyon but is the true matter to multiply Emeraulds more glorious than natural For if to thee Knowledge never come Therefore yet shalt thou me not twite ANd now indeed if any be ignorant let him be ignorant I know not what more to say and not transgress the silence of Pythagoras I have told you that our matter is two-fold crude and fixed the fixed is by Nature perfected to our hands and we need only to have it made more then most perfect which Nature alone could never perform nor is there any thing that can thus exalt Tinctures but our dissolving Water which I told you floweth from three Springs the one is a common Well at which all draw and of which Water many use this Well hath in it a Saturnine drossiness which make the Waters unuseful these frigid superfluities are purged by two other Springs through which the Water of this Well is artificially
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
appropriated unto Man so is there in the Generation of our Stone much that may answer to the Generation of Man for as Anatomists do allow the Woman fifteen veins conducing to the act of Venery and Procreation and the Man from whom comes the Male Sperm but five so our Stone in his first Composition requires three parts of the Water or Feminine Sperm to one of Sulphur or the Male so the Artist decocting and Nature perfecting the Mastery will be accomplished with the blessing of God Remember now that the more thy Water is the more ought to be thy Internal Fire to dry it up so then when thou shalt make the proportion of Water to the Sun three to one remember that thy number of Eagles which is the proportion of thy Mercury ought to be nine or at most ten This is the highest Acuation of the Water which is best for such a proportion as for seven Eagles two to one is a very good proportion so hast thou proportionably three Eagles to every one of the Water which is added to the Body Some are so acute as to say that with four Eagles well cleansed the Work may be performed and then the proportion must be as three of the Water to two of the Body but the decoction must needs be longer I never yet tryed it knowing the forenamed proportions will do far better and nine months time is a sufficient waiting for a Philosopher Any shorter way is and would be acceptable but more tedious are very unacceptable since they shew nothing more than quicker ways but protract the time of Putrefaction for from that time the Fire of Nature is at work and then every pondus hath the same period provided the Fire be accordingly and the Matter in the Glass not much over the other for one ounce or two will be far sooner accomplished than five or six ounces therefore we advise all rather to content themselves with one ounce or two at most if an ounce succeed you can wish no more This Chapter I will conclude right soon therefore Gross Conjunction charging thee to make but one For seldom have Strumpets Children ybore And so shalt thou never come by our Stone Without thou let the Woman lig alone That after she have once conceived by the Man Her Matrix be shut up from all other than I Shall soon draw to an end concerning this subject for I trow that thou understandest it fully take heed then to my Doctrine mix thy Water with thy Body in a due quantity and grind them together diligently and when thou hast mixed them shut them up in thy Glass carefully and there let them stand till compleat perfection And after thou hast mixed them and set them to heat be sure thou stir them not much less open them or add any thing to them or take ought from them whatever any Author do seem to advise For if thou do contrary to this my Doctrine thou dost run an extreme hazard of losing all for as it is with Harlots who lying with many men conceive rarely of any so if thou joyn crude Mercury after thy first Conjunction I will not say that it is impossible but very unlikely that ever thou shalt attain our Mastery And what I say of putting in fresh Mercury is to be understood of the Body also for if thou shalt add fresh of that thou wilt destroy all for after thou settest them to the Fire thou must expect Conception that is that the Mercury by ascending and descending will extract part of the seminal virtue out of the reins of the Sun which when she hath done there then stands a relation between the Sun and that Mercury as between Husband and Wife Now other Mercury or other Sol are not as yet so related and therefore they are as a third person which Love abhors Therefore mix thy Matters so judiciously at first that thou need not afterwards to wish for any new addition and close your Vessel well and decoct it carefully For such as evermore add crude to crude Opening their Vessel letting their Matters keel The Sperm conceived they nourish not but delude Themselves and spill their Work each deal If therefore thou have list to do wee l Close up thy Matrix and nourish thy Seed With heat continual and temperate if thou wilt speed THey who shall do otherwise as they discover themselves to be too impatient so they certainly will destroy their Operations For were it no other damage then this that they cool their Seed it is an irreparable errour but over and besides the crude Air will they nill they will get in and being as it is a great enemy to Generation it destroys the germinative and living virtue Then instead of getting profit they reap certain loss and instead of attaining truth they get a delusion for no man that understands himself would do it but he that would open a womans Womb that is conceived to make her bring forth sooner or crack an Egg he would set under a Hen to make it hatch more speedily Therefore as I advised before so I do now and shall make it the â—piphonema of this discourse mix thy Seeds and elaborate them with what pains thou canst then shut them in a house of Glass that is to say an ounce in a Glass that would â—old about 16 ounces or 20 or two ounces in a Glass that would hold two ounces or thereabouts of Water distilled set thy Glass in thy Nest about a 4 th part of it in Sand which must be sisted from Stones Let the Neck be fastned either with a Wyre or set into a hole which may be in the Cover of thy Nest the Neck about 6 inches long or longer a little Let thy Athanor be so that thou mayst give in it what heat thou pleasest and keep it about a day or 16 or 12 hours at least without renewing and yet no sensible alteration in heat In this Furnace thou shalt give thy Matter such a Fire as may within the first day or two cause it to boyl like to a Pot over the Fire or as the stormy Sea swelleth in a mighty Wind from the surface of which there will exhale a Vapour which we call the Winds which are in the belly or womb in the forming of our Embrio which will condense at the top the Glass being strong and run down in drops and this continually night and day without ceasing Thus is verified the saying of the Philosopher that our Stone retaineth life and is perfected that is divided and united and at last fixt and congealed by continual boyling and subliming Thus are thy Waters divided the uppermost part carry aloft the Soul with them and the lowermost boyl and tear and soften the Body and make it more fit for the returning Spirit and Soul to work on in their continual descending And when thy Vessel hath stood by months five And Clouds and Eclipses passed each one The light appearing increase thy
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
by fire separated The Mercury thus separated is spoiled of its Sulphur when as indeed there needs or is required only a depuration of the Sulphur by separating the impure from the pure but these Salts having separated the Sulphur do leave the Mercury worse that is more estranged from a Metallick nature than it was before for in its Composition that Sulphur of Saturn will not burn for though it be Sublimed Calcined made Sugar or Vitrified yet by Fire and Fluxes it still returns to the same it was in before but its Sulphur being as is aforesaid separated will take fire if joyned with Salt-peter even as common Sulphur doth so that the Salts act on the Sulphur of which they rob the Mercury but on the Mercury they act not for want of Ferment which is not to be found but only amongst Homogeneal things Therefore the Ferment of Bread Leavens not a Stone nor doth the Ferment of any Animal or Vegetable Ferment a Metal or Mineral So then though out of Gold thou mightest obtain a Mercury by the help of the Liquor of the first Ens of Salt yet that Mercury would never accomplish our work whereas on the other side Mercury made out of Gold by our Mercury though there be three parts of our Mercury to one of Gold This Mercury I say will by continual digestion accomplish the whole work marvel not then that our Mercury is more powerful which is prepared by Mercury For certainly the Ferment which cometh between the compound Body and the water causeth a death and a regeneration it doth that which nothing in the world can do Besides it severs from Mercury a terrestreity which burns like a coal and an Hydropical humour melting in common water but the residue is acuated by a Spirit of Life which is our true embryonated Sulphur of our water not visible yet working visibly We conclude then that all operations for our Mercury but by common Mercury and our Body according to our Art are erroneous and will never produce our Mysterie although they be otherwise Mercuries never so wonderfully made For as the Author of the New light saith No Water in any Island of the Philosophers was wholsom but that which was drawn out of the reigns of Sol and Luna Wilt thou know what that means Mercury in its pondus and incombustibility is Gold fugitive our Body in its purity is called the Philosophers Luna being far more pure than the imperfect Metals and its Sulphur also as pure as the Sulphur of Sol not that it is indeed Luna for it abides not in the fire Now in the composition of these three First our common Mercury and the two Principles of our compound there intercedes the Ferment of Luna out of which though it be a Body proceeds yet a speciâ—icated odour yea and oft the Pondus of it is diminished If the Compound be much washt after it is sufficiently clean So then the Ferment of Sol and Luna intercedes in our composition which Ferment begets an off-spring more noble then it self a thousand fold whereas shouldst thou work on our compound body by a violent way of Salts thou shouldst have the Mercury by far less noble then the Body the Sulphur of the Body being separated and not exalted by such a progress STAVE XI In the said Book the Philosopher speaketh also Therein if it please Your Highness for to read Of divers Sulphurs and especially of two And of two Mercuries joyned to them indeed Whereby he doth true understanders lead To the knowledge of the Principles which be only true Both Red Moist Pure and White as I have espied Which be nevertheless found but of very few WE now come to the Third Conclusion which is that among all Metalline and Mineral Sulphurs there are only Two that belong to our Work which Two have their Mercuries essentially united with them This is the truth of our secrets though we to seduce the unwary do seem to aver the contrary for do not think that because we do insinuate two ways therefore we really mean as we say for verily as witnesseth Ripley There is no true Principle but one nor have we but one matter nor but one way of working upon that matter nor but one regimen of heat and one linear way of proceeding These two Sulphurs as they are Principles of our Work they ought to be Homogeneal for it is only Gold Spiritual that we seek First White then Red which Gold is no other then that which the vulgar see but they know not the hidden Spirit that is in it This Principle wants nothing but composition and this composition must be made with our other crude white Sulphur which is nothing but Mercury vulgar by frequent cohobation of it upon our Hermaphroditical body so long till it become a fiery water Know therefore that Mercury hath in it self a Sulphur which being un-active our Art is to multiply in it a living active Sulphur which comes out of the loins of our Hermaphroditieal body whose Father is a Metal and his Mother a Mineral Take then the most beloved Daughter of Saturn whose Arms are a Circle Argent and on it a Sable Cross on a Black Field which is the signal note of the great world espouse her to the most warlike God who dwells in the house of Aries and thou shalt find the Salt of Nature with this Salt acuate thy water as thou best knowest and thou shalt have the Lunary bath in which the Sun will be amended And in all truth I assure thee that although thou hadst our Body Mercurialized without the addition of Mercury or of the Mercury of any of the Metals made per se that is without the addition of Mercury it would not be in the least profitable unto thee for it is our Mercury only which hath a Celestial form and power which it receives not only nor so much from the Compound Body or Principles as from the Fermental virtue which proceeds from the composition of both the Body and the Mercury by which is produced a wonderful Creature So then let all thy care be to marry Sulphur with Sulphur that is our Mercury which is impregnated which Sulphur must be espoused with our Sol then hast thou two Sulphurs married and two Mercuries of one off-spring whose Father is the Sun and Moon the Mother The Fourth Conclusion makes all perfectly plain which hath been said before namely that these two Sulphurs are the one most pure Red Sulphur of Gold and the other of most pure clean White Mercury These are our two Sulphurs the one appears a coagulated Body yet carries its Mercury in its belly the other is in all its proportions true Mercury yet very clean and carries its Sulphur within its self though hidden under the form and fluxibility of Mercury Sophisters are here in a Labyrinth for because they are not acquainted with Metalline love they work in things altogether heterogeneal or if they work upon
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
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
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
side spiritual WHen once thou hast the true mastery of our Dissolution thou needest take no care for Congelation for governing it on with thy Fire thou shalt attain Coagulation without any laying on of hands Therefore saith Ricardus above all things it is wonderful that in our work Calcination Dissolution Sublimation Putrefaction Separation Conjunction Death and Purification should be performed in one Vessel and one linear decoction without laying on of hands for verily the Dissolution of the Body thickens the Spirit as it is in Water in which Gum or such a thing is dissolved for by how much the one is dissolved the other is congealed this proves the naturality of our Work for as a grain of Corn is in the bowels of the Earth softned with the moist Vapour and swelleth thereby this Vapour is also terminated by the fermental odour of the Grain and so both grow up together into Stalks and Ears And we dissolve into Water which wetteth no hand For when the Earth is integratly incinerate Then is the Water congeal'd This understand For our Elements are so together concatenate That when thy Body from its first form is alterate A new form is indued immediately Since nothing being without all form is utterly SO we in our Work dissolve our Body which is Gold in its own Water in which it is softned as a Seed in its proper ground and being softned it relents into Water not diaphanous such as is the Waters of the Clouds or of Fountains but Mineral even Mercury which wetteth no hand nor cleaves to any thing but that which is of its own substance and essence So that then in our Work our two Principals work not according to their single dispositions but as conjunct the one saith the Philosopher dyeth not without its Brother therefore when thou calcinest the Earth thou dost in it and with it calcine the Water and in this the Souls of both are tyed together to the end that they may serve the wise Philosophers Therefore let all thy study be to unite Natures which thou canst never do unless thou separate first their Souls by Sublimation and afterwards unite them in blackness which a continual Circulation of thy Water upon the Earth will produce Now know that when thou seest thy Water and thy Body boil together so as to thicken one another and to congeal one another that then thy science is true and then thy Body which thus thickens is not the same which thou puttest in but a middle coagulate a terra Adamica a Limus and Chaos for one form being taken away a second necessarily follows immediately for as no Body can at any time have more than one form so can it never be void of all form And here a secret I will to thee disclose Which is the ground of our secrets all And it not known thou shalt but lose Thy labour and costs both great and small Take heed therefore in error that thou not fall The more thine Earth and the less thy moisture be The rather and better Solution shalt thou see ANd here take notice by the way that that is no total Dissolution which is before Calcination but only partial the Water resolves as much as it can of the Body so much that it doth sever between its Spirit and Body but by reason of its perfection and strong compaction it finds a great deal of difficulty before a total Resolution and therefore it putrefies what is most gross and thus brings it to Atoms which when it is once subtilized beyond the exigency of its own nature it then is dissolved and relents and then Dissolution is made totally viz. after Putrefaction Then at length it becomes all like a glorious Argent vive and this immediately before the Lunary Coagulation Know then that our first loosing is into a viscous Powder which is brought on by Incrudation or rather Liquefaction for know that till after Putrefaction our Stone and Compound is moist in the Fire but hardens more and more by how much the colder it is and softens more and more by how much hotter it is and the heat slacking the boiling will change into a seeming Vegetation and the Fire going out it is hard rather than soft yet the mingling of the Natures is known by the colours and drawing to Calcination Therefore thy first Operation is to dry up thy superfluous watrish moisture not evaporating it but congealing it on the Body Think not then as some of the envious Sophistically write that the more you put of your Water the sooner you dissolve and congeal the slower No verily your Calcination is but the medium of true Solution which is trust me not total nor proper till after Putrefaction I should never have told thee this Mystery had not the love of my Neighbour compelled me That opening of the Body which is before is but an opening of its pores which lets our Water in and then after death and resurrection the Mercury of Sol is visible to the eye which before was but distinguishable by its effect Behold how Ice to Water doth relent And so it must for Water it was before Right so again our Water to Earth is went And Water thereby congeal'd for evermore For after all Philosophers that ere were bore Each Metal once was Water Mineral Therefore with Water they turn to Water all SO then our Body hath moisture in it self but this moisture is sealed as Water when frozen by the Cold. But when the pores of the Body are by our Water opened and its central Fire set at liberty this internal Fire of Nature makes the Body to become no Body but a very Spirit In this same Operation the Spirit is congealed for the Body hath in it more virtue then its two Sociats that is than the Soul and Spirit This is the action and re-action of our Body and its Water for our Body is in its occulto Mercury and our Mercury is in its occulto Sol therefore they embrace each other because of the nearness of their Natures and so the Body hath its profundity discovered and the Water its altitude and both together are glorified in one Spiritual Body together according to Noble Hermes Vis ejus est integra si versa fuerit in terram But thou canst never have this excellent fixity till the fixed have attained its volatility In which Water of kind occasionate Of qualities been repugnance and diversity Things into things must therefore be Rotate Vntil that Trinity be brought to perfect Vnity THis Water into which our Bodies are first liquefied is not properly Water but modo quodam as we may say in the Fire During the predomination of the Woman all appears in a moist posture and so will do most part of the first 50 days yet this is a gross moisture and by consequence the more fit for Putrefaction in which gross Humidity all the Elements are in a confusion not the Elements of the great World but our Mineral
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
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
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
exactly in the beginning we open our Body for this Fire can do and doth that which no other Fire can do for it destroys and conquers the Body and makes it no Body but a Spirit So that whatever any Sophisters may suggest our Fire is Mineral it is Sulphur and that pure it is united to the Water in one form and yet hinders not its flux nor corrupts its form This is the true Ignis Gehennae for it Eclipseth the light of the Bodies and makes them become black as Pitch which is a symbol of Hell and for its Cimmerian darkness is by many of the Wise men called Hell Fire of Nature is the third Menstrual That Fire is natural in each thing But Fire occasionate we call unnatural As heat of Ashes and Balnes for putrefying Without these Fires thou mayst nought bring To Putrefaction for to be separate Thy Matters together proportionate OUr natural Fire is as I said the true Sulphur of Gold which in the hard and dry Body is imprisoned but by the mediation of our Water it is let loose by rotting the moles of the Body under which it was detained and after separation of Elements it appears visibly in our third Menstrual For though Gold be a compact and dry Earthy Body none may think that it became what it is without the virtue of a Seed which by perfection is not extinct but sealed up only which Seed is a Fiery form of Light which nothing in the World wanteth and therefore it would be a great Anomalum if it should be only defective in Metals the choice of all sublunary Bodies Betwixt these two Fires in the time of their action and passion one upon another and from another there is made a medium which is part of both which because it is not altogether natural nor wholly against nature is called unnatural The duration of this unnatural Fire is from the time that the Body begins to open and colours to change that is in a word all the time of the rule of Saturn and part of the rule of Jupiter the whole Regimen of Putrefaction and so much of Ablution until the Dove begin to prevail over the Crow which Putrefaction as it is the turning of an intire Wheel so part of it is done in sicco when the Body is all a discontinuous Calx or Ashes and part in humido which is called a Bath when the subsident part is liquid and boils and the superiour part vapours aloft and descends Thus you see how many Fires we have and how they are distinguished wherein I have written what I know and as many as understand me will esteem my Writings highly for without boasting let me assure thee thou hast not such another Directory in the whole World I may speak it without offence being unknown to thee and thou to me This I say not to detract from any Philosopher for many were deeply seen in this Mastery but almost all were envious and the most candid would have judged my plainness deserving an Anathema maranatha I have here laid you so plain demonstrations as I go that you cannot miss if God direct you and without the knowledge of the Fires you are far wide whatever whimsies you have in your head for you shall never see the dissolution of the Body nor shall you ever make black and by consequence you cannot divide Elements as you ought to do because you proportioned not your Matters wisely in the beginning of the Work for Dimidium facti qui bene cepit habet he who makes a good beginning hath as good as half done Therefore make Fire thy Glass within Which burneth the Body much more than Fire Elemental if thou wilt win Our secrets according to thy desire Then shall thy Seed both rot and spire By help of Fire occasionate That kindly after they may be separate TAke then my counsel be not so careful of the Fire of the Athanor as of your Internal Fire seek it in the house of Aries and draw it from the depths of Saturn let Mercury be the Internuncio and your signal the Doves of Diana By the River you shall find a Tree in which is the Nest of 10 Eagles take of them 7 9 or all but take them very white which oft plunging in the River will cause with these you may overcome the Lion The heat of their stomachs is far more powerful than any Fire in the World for in it Gold will be destroyed that thou shalt not know what is become of it which yet loseth nothing from it self though exposed to the greatest violence of any flame Thus with patience thou shalt see thy desire fulfilled and thy heart shall rejoyce for a wide door shall be opened by which thou mayst behold the Mysteries of Nature in all her Kingdoms In 40 or 50 days thou shalt behold the highest sign of most perfect corruption of thy perfect Body which of a dead lump is thus become Seed in which though many cannot believe that there is any active virtue yet it is now to the astonishment of Nature made living and by its life it kills that by which it was made alive and both being mingled make one Bath which by continual decoction moving the Earth and Water below and circulating the Air and Fire above make at last one inseparable quintessence the Father of Wonders Now to God only wise the revealâ—â— of these hidden Mysteries be praise from all his Creatures for ever Of Separation the Gate must thus be won THus I have run through this Gate of Separation which might be enough for it is all but because the Wise men have made many Operations for to hide the secret and have scattered their notions here and there in every Gate oâ— Operation sometimes being at the beginning sometimes at the end thereby to puzzle the unwary I must to make this Treatise intire run through the rest with what brevity and plainness I can I Shall now sing a pleasant Elegy What did betwixt two Lovers Fall out seek the reason why This Song discovers A Wife Did lose her life Because she did her Husband revive Whose death did enforce The man to remorse To see her dead who gave him life He was a King yet dead as dead could be His Sister a Queen Who when her Brother she did breathless see The like was never seen She cryes Vntil her eyes With over-weeping were waxed dim So long till her tears Reach'd up to her ears The Queen sunk but the King did swim These Waters with the Fire which prevail'd Did him so perplex That starting up not knowing what him ail'd He sorely did vex He thought That there was wrought Some Treason but full little did know That it was a Queen Him sav'd though unseen And dy'd her self sad white I trow At length her Carcass when her Gall was broke Rose up to the top From which fum'd up so venomous a smoak His breath which did stop He found Which made him sound
The cause of his life his Sister did slay This made him full sad And grief made him mad Thus soon his strength fell to decay His House and Chamber were so charg'd with heat It made him to faint And fainting fell into a grievous sweat His sweat did so taint The Room With foul persume Which did e'en almost suffocate So feeble he grew He could not eschew But dung'd and piss'd there where he sate At length with sorrows many he expires Full glad of the change That death at last should answer his desires But what is most strange When dead That it might be said How dearly he his Sister did love Their Corps did unite That they in despight Of Fire would not asunder move And thus together they contumulate A rotting did lye Passing through dismal Purgatories Gate Wherein they did fry So long Vntil among The Saints for purity they might pass Their sins were no more To be found on score They then were clear as Crystal Glass A Spirit then of life from Heaven came In their Bodies dead Which now united of renowned fame To Heaven were led Where they Abode for aye Enjoying pleasures for evermore To death not subject Were now the object Of wonder for th' had Riches store AN EXPOSITION UPON THE Fourth Gate Which is CONJUNCTION The Fourth Gate Opened Which is CONJUNCTION After the Chapter of Natural Separation By which the Elements of our Stone dissevered be The Chapter here followeth of secret Conjunction Which Natures repugnant joyneth to perfect unity And so them knitteth that none from others may flee When they by the Fire shall be examinate They be together so surely conjungate HAving run through the Chapter of Separation with a plain stile we shall now come to the life of all which is Conjunction for we seek not a thing which may be capable of Separation but which may abide in all tryals the parts being impossible to be separated one from another for so our Tincture ought to be or else it will be wholly unprofitable for our purpose For Separation is but the middle motion by which we pass from the unary simplicity of Gold to the millenary plusquam perfection of our Stone before which can be attained there must be a loosing of the Compages of the Body that so the Spiritual Fire or Tincture may be set loose which being loosed will certainly multiply it self with that by which it was dissolved with which it is necessary that it should Radically be mixed and united so as that both the dissolvent and the dissolved may make one together This then is the benefit of our Water that it doth not only reduce open and mollifie our Body and cause it to send out its Seed but it is actually recongealed with the fermental virtue of this seminal influence of Gold that it becomes together with the Body one new Body perpetually united So that although our Water be volatile when it is first taken yet notwithstanding after it hath first made the Body no Body but a Spirit in which spiritualizing the Virtue or Tincture is augmented after that the Body by Congelation makes this no Spirit but a Body by which the fixity is advanced mightily so that both will endure all Fire For it is not only an apparent union that is made but real so real that the Spirit and the Body pass one into another penetrating each others dimensions the Spirit being one with the Body and the Body being the Spirit the Form swallowing up the Matter in unity so that all becomes really Tincture And therefore Philosophers give this definition Saying this Conjunction is nothing else But of dissevered qualities a Copulation Or of principles a Coequation as others tells But some men with Mercury that Apothecaries sells Meddleth Bodies that cannot divide Their Matter and therefore they slip aside OF this Operation Philosophers make a great Mystery and speak of it very hiddenly in respect to the terminus of it which they call the hour of the Stones Nativity in which they say many marvels will appear for all the colours that can be invented in the World will be then apparent Some say their Conjunction is our reconciliation of Contraries a making friendship between Enemies because in that time the volatile is still ascending and descending upon the fixt this is by them ascribed to Contrariety Others measuring all sublunary things by the rules of Symmetry and Ametry do ascribe this Operation which they for similitude sake compare to a Duel to the over-prevailing of one principles qualities above the qualities of the other and therefore they define Auriety to be the Anaticalness of the four Elements in mixture each in his quality acting proportionable to the resistance of its contrary vice versa But this is but an Entanglement in which the Chymists stumble upon School Academical Principles I had rather embrace their Secret as for Operation but for Philosophy jump with that noble Bruxellian whose promised Treatises when the World shall enjoy I suppose they will be the profoundest piece of Philosophy that ever was revealed to the World which I admire not so much for his Experiments of none of which I am ignorant nor Paracelsus to boot many yea most of which are far harder though sooner wrought than the Elixir and the Alchahest is a hundred times more difficult but what I most honour in that noble Naturalist is that he did search out the Occulta Naturae more accurately then ever any did in the World So that setting aside the skill of this Mastery of which I cannot find any footsteps in what of his is extant I am confident he was without flattery Natures Privy-Counsellor and for Philosophical verity might have commanded this Secret but God doth not reveal all to all men yet who knows what he may live to be Master of in this point too This I speak not to flatter him who besides what is evident to the whole World in his Writings have no other character of him and to him I am like to remain a perpetual Stranger yet could as heartily desire his acquaintance as any mans I know in the World and if the Fates prevent not mine intentions by mine or his death I shall endeavour familiarity with him But this by the way To return whence I digressed our final secret is first to unite the Spirit and Soul of our dissolving Water that by the mediation of the Soul the Spirit and Body may be conjoyned and then after several Sublimations and Precipitations made for that end that the Body may be spiritualized and the Spirit corporalized so fix together the Soul Body and Spirit the flying and the fixt that all the Elements to use Philosophers terms may acquiesce and rest in this Nest of Earth in which all the virtue of the superiours and inferiours is contained both in power and act From what hath been said may appear the strong passive delusion that hath taken many men of our Age and formerly
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
not so thin and yet so soft that it is easily plyable yet so that it may be rouled up in Balls and no quick Mercury run down or sink to the bottom He that can miss in this direction would hardly find the shining Sun at Noon-day Loosing and knitting be principles two Of this hard Science Poles most principal Howbeit that other principles be many moe c. WE have done this Chapter and to conclude assure thee that all our twelve Gates are nothing else but locking and unlocking shutting and opening dissolving and congealing volatizing and fixing making the dry soft and afterwards the soft dry loosing and binding Learn but this and thou shalt be sure of the Keys of this Terrestrial Paradise Yet because I would be more clearly understood I shall pass through the other Gates of the Philosophers that running through their multiplicity I may as I go reduce them all to unity UPon a day as I abroad was walking The pleasant Fields to view A voice I heard in silence softly talking Of Wonders passing new Whereat I starting stood like one amazed Not knowing what to guess But when I round about a while had gazed This terrour it grew less The voice I heard came from a Grove which there At my right hand did grow Which I considering silently drew near The cause of it to know Where I did see a Lady finely dressed Sit sighing by a Spring She uttered words as if with grief oppressed And oft her hands would wring Ah me quoth she how is my joy departed Oh dismal cruel death Could any think the Fiend so flinty hearted So to bereave him breath I then drew near and thought to have asswaged With pleasant words her grief The more I spake the more she was enraged Nay she disdain'd relief Her face was Lilly white with Purple spots Vpon her cheeks and chin Her Rosie lips her feature free from blots T' amaze me did begin Beauty most rare quoth I what dost thou weeping What Wight most vile shall dare To wrong thee whom the Gods have in their keeping Whose face is mortals snare Good Sir quoth she forbear your words of sorrow I live yet living dye I wish my life might end before the morrow Ah death I fear 's not nigh I had a Husband dear of comely feature A King of great renown So lovely and so loving that in Nature There 's none may put him down His Constitution was so strong he scorned To fly from any Foe His Person was with grace so well adorned That none but him did know Great Phoebus he was nam'd whose princely merit 'T is death for to recite So Rich he was the wealth he did inherit Great honour did invite We walking here the pleasant Woods among Found this unhappy Spring Of which to drink for thirst my Lord did long Which draught his end did bring For stooping down the Water with its stream His head did make so light He could not rise but dropt into the stream To everlasting Night He strove to swim but to the bottom sank O dismal sight to see Then swelling with the Water which he drank Himself he could not free But burst and then the Spring began to boil And bubbling colour chang'd 'T is wonder for to see alas the spoil King dead and Spring estrang'd So from its former state that what then shone Like unto glittering Skie Now like a stinking Puddle reaks that none Can it endure yea I Who in it lost a Husband dear do loath The vapours that ascend I hope one Spring will be the end of both 'T would be a happy end So long she spake until the Water seem'd Like Ink so black it grew And eke the savour erst so bad esteem'd Did far surpass the hew The Air with Clouds most dark was fill'd that never Such Fogs and Mists were seen The which a Soul from the dead Corps did sever Whose colour first was green Then yellow mixt with blue the fumes ascended Which bore the Soul on high Which when the Lady saw her tears were ended She fainted by and by Into the same Stream she did swouning drop And never more appear'd She lov'd her Husband so she would not stop Like one of death afear'd And straightway she of vital breath depriv'd Was of a Lady fair A Carcass made thus both in love who liv'd Alike in death did share Their Souls disjoyned from their Bodies hov'ring Vpon the Fountain plaid Expecting if their Carcasses recovering Might have their lives repaid The Sun in Solstice stood whose heat did dry The Waters more and more And eke beneath a Central heat did fry And sent up vapours store Which still return'd so long till they were chang'd The greater part to dust The wandring Souls which long had been estrang'd Were now allur'd with lust Of their own Bodies in whose Atoms lay A strange Magnetick force They also though long banish'd day by day Awaited the dead Coarse For Souls united were Bodies combin'd And both to each ally'd So nearly that no sooner they can find A way but they are ty'd With knot inviolable that no power How strong it may appear Can part them any more even from the hour They thus united were Thus two one Body have of double Sex Which doth no sooner live But is impregnated this doth perplex Their foes who fain would drive This tender off-spring to despair but God Him safely ever keeps From all Invasion nor permits the rod Of them to make him weep And though his Garments and his Skin be foul With blackness and with stink He shall be purged for both Spirit and Soul Are clean whate're men think A River springs amidst a Garden fair With Flowers many deckâ— Whose drops are Crystal like these into Air By Central heat are checkt This Air condenses like Pearl Orient Which on this Body falls Whose lustre on its blackness being spent To brightness it recalls And both together make a Crystal Spring Whose Streams most strangely shine These after are condens'd and with them bring Treasures of Silver fine These Treasures if to rest untoucht a while Vpon the Fire are left The stealing Azure will the white beguile And both will be bereft Of Being by the Vert which long will dure The Citrine will succeed Which will abide full long but then be sure To see the sparkling red Then is the King who formerly was drown'd Become the whole Earths wonder His Wife and he are one and both abound With wealth nor they asunder Will ever more depart now all their Foes Must their dominion know Who will not stoop shall surely feel their blows For all are him below His Brethren all who formerly were held As Slaves in prison fast Are now set free their Enemies which swell'd With pride full low were cast Thus by his death the King hath now obtain'd That Glory which before He never had his former state 's disdain'd His Wife now weeps no more She 's one with him his
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
pass from darkness of Purgatory to light Of Paradise in whiteness Elixir of great might THis is a noble step from Hell to Heaven from the bottom of the Grave to the top of Power and Glory from obscurity in blackness to resplendent whiteness from the height of venenosity to the height of Medicine Oh Nature how dost thou alter things into things casting down the high and mighty and again exalting them being base and lowly Oh Death how art thou vanquished when thy Prisoners are taken from thee and carried to a state and place of Immortality This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes And that thou mayst the rather to Putrefaction Win this example thou take c. The heart of an Oak which hath of Water continual infusion For though it in Water lay an hundred years and more Yet shouldest thou find it sound as ever it was before O Happy Gate of blackness which art the passage to this so glorious a change study therefore whoever applyest thy self to this Art only to know this Secret for know this and know all and contrarywise be ignorant of this and be ignorant of all Therefore if that possible thou mayst attain the depth of this Mystery I shall endeavour to unfold it to thy capacity by similitudes and examples Thou knowest that if a solid piece of Wood lie in water perpetually it will tire the patience of the most patient expecter to see it rot for it will abide many Generations and in the end be as sound as when it was first laid in Yea some contend that in our days Pine-Trees are dug up in their intire proportion which have been buried ever since the Floud being found in such places in which no Histories ever mentioned that such Trees grew and so deep under ground as it is almost incredible which certainly have layn at least many hundred years and yet the Wood as sound as any other Tree of that sort which hath not been cut down above a year or two such is the force of constant Hume-faction to prevent the ordinary corruption of Timber But and thou keep it sometimes wet and sometimes dry As thou mayst see in Timber And so even likewise c. Sometimes our Tree must with the Sun be brent BUt contrarywise Timber which is kept wet sometimes and dry sometimes as usually the foundations of Timber Houses are if not secured by the Masons Art it would tire the Householders patience to see how soon such Timber will rot and molder away and become fit for nothing which is a thing so well known that the experience of every Rustick almost can teach it him So resolve our Stone must be used if thou intend to have it putrefie kindly our Wheel for Putrefaction must go round in a constant Elevation or Extraction of the Water or Humidity from the Body by which Operation our Man the Sun is helped in his acting and this Water must as constantly return to the Earth to moisten it by which the Woman the Moon is helped in her acting And then with Water we must it keel That so to rotting we may bring it wee l BEtween these two various Operations which one and the same Fire produceth our Body is both heated and cooled his sweat is drawn forth and returned upon him again by the which means it is triturated ground softned and made weak even unto death and dying it rots and putrefies changing colours from one into another until at the length it becomes black as Ink or Pitch which is our Toad our Crow our Tomb filled with rottenness our Golgotha or place of dead bones our Terra foliata or Earth of Leaves For now in wet c. To be shall cause it soon to putrefie And so shall thou bring to rotting thy Gold Intreat thy Bodies c. And in thy putrefying with heat be not too swift Lest in the Ashes thou seek after thy thrift OUr Operation then saith Morien is nothing else but extracting Water from the Earth and returning it again upon the Earth so long and so often till the Earth putrefie for by elevation of the moisture the Body is heated and dried and by returning it again it is cooled and moistned by the continuation of which successive Operations it is brought to corrupt and rot to lose its form and for a season to remain as dead This is the true intention and manner of our working and there is no other manner of working that can be invented that can give thee the effect of this our Operation for this is the true way and means by which thy Body of Gold will be destroyed and no other way profitable for our Art Proceed therefore as I have directed thee and swerve not either to the right hand or to the left Take this Body which I have shewed thee and joyn it with the Spirit which is proper to it which the Wise men have called their Venus or Goddess of Love and circulate these two Natures one upon the other until the one have conceived by the other But beware you urge not the Spirit too much but remember that he is a volatile substance and if he be over-provoked he will certainly break the Vessel and fly and leave thee the ruines of thy Glass for a recompence of thy over-speedy rashness which trust me will make thee fetch a deep Philosophical sigh and say when it is too late I would I had been content to wait Natures time Let the Fire then be such in which thy Spirit may be so stirred up as to return to its Body in the Glass and not so irritated as to break the Vessel and return to the Ashes or Sand of the Nest or stick about the sides of the Cover of your Nest or else fly about in the Room wherein the Artist is and lodge in his Head and so make it far more unconstant then it was before by adding to his rash giddiness a Paralytical shaking Therefore the Water out of the Earth thou draw And make the Soul therewith for to ascend Then down again into the Earth it throw That they oft-times so ascend and descend PRoceed therefore not as a Fool but as a Wise man make the Water of thy Compound to arise and circulate so long and often until the Soul that is to say the most subtle virtue of the Body arise with it circulating with the Spirit in manner of a fiery form by which both the Spirit and Body are enforced to change their colour and complexion for it is this Soul of the dissolved Bodies which is the subject of Wonders it is the life and therefore quickens the dead it is the Vegetative Soul and therefore it makes the dead and sealed Bodies which in their own Nature are barren to fructifie exceedingly Therefore if this return unto the Earth from which it first took its flight it will make it for to fructifie and to increase in Tincture and in the Earth it self will multiply
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
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
Now then without any Complement I am yours ad usque aras and whatever you please that will I do Then said she Vnder this Chamber and Closet there is a Stove put Fire into it for this King must sweat to death Ah sweet Lady said I and what will become of you Care not you for that said she do you as I bid you But yet farther to satisfie your curious mind let me tell you That I indure without hurt the most violent Fires which are or can be made for I am in them all and no less in the most frozen places Then I considered and methought my Understanding it was inlarged and I perceived the extent of Nature and of a sudden she appeared not to my sight but where she was I saw a most exquisite Light which took up an incredible small room and methoughts my Head seemed as it were diaphanous And while I considered these things it came into my mind to wonder what was become of my Guide for I miss'd him While these thoughts perplexed me an Answer was given as if from an intelligent Spirit within the Glass saying Let not thoughts fill your mind he whom you seek is with us for so it must be this King is his Lord. This straight made me view the complexion of the Water-bearer and his countenance told me that he was my very Guide Then I viewed his Pitcher well and I found that his Pitcher was clear as pure Silver and what was strange the Bearer and the Pitcher and the Water in it were one and in the midst of the Water as it were in the very centre there was a most radiant twinkling Spark which sent forth its Beams even to the very surface of the Water and appeared as it were a Lamp burning and yet no way distinguishable from the Water The Voice then spake to me a second time Delay not to put Fire under us and govern it as you shall hear the Voice direct you Then I put Fire in at the open door at the top of the high Turret and Coals upon it and caused my doors to be stopt both above and below and on every side only by a secret passage I conveyed my Immortal Fire under the Chamber in which was the Closet and forthwith when all things were heated the Water-bearer took his Pitcher and through a small Pipe he poured out his Water and the Fire came out with the Water without any particular shape only it added a lustre thereto and no sooner was the Water poured forth but the Water-bearer with his Pitcher popt as it were under the streams and I saw them no more And though the clearness of the Water did make it to appear as it were Diaphanous yet I found by a diligent view that it was not so really but only as to apparency and that it was indeed very compact And as I wistfully beheld it I saw as it were a goodly Lady in the midst of it which was no way resembling the former Beauty which I had discoursed withal whose Name was Nature yet indeed very bcautiful even to the parallel of Helena This Lady was naked and of an admirable fair complexioned Skin as bright as the finest Silver at first she appeared very small and waxed bigger and bigger until the Water appeared no more but she her self had transmuted its whole substance into her shape This sight I beheld with pity for she far unlike unto the first Lady was wholly impatient of the heat which I had made and yet was so inclosed in the Closet that she could not get out she sweat therefore even as though she would melt and seemed as though continually fainting Then the King who seemed as it were glad of the heat seeing her knew her to be his Sister his Mother and his Wife and compassionating her estate ran unto her and took her in his Arms and she feeling him did so strongly embrace him that he could not shake her off and with her sweat partly and partly with her tears she did so bestream his Kingly Robes which shone like unto Tagus or Pactolus that they were all suddenly changed into a colour Argent the King loving her exceedingly asked her what she desired She answered That her desire was to have of him Conjugal Fealty for said she I cannot endure this heat but I must die in it and without me your Highness can have no Off-spring The King condescended and granted her Request and so soon as she conceived the Kings Seed she said that she was better able to endure the Fire which did prevail upon her Therefore not contented she had a second a third and fourth Benevolence even to the eleventh time Then said the King I am very faint and weak and trying to go as formerly his Legs and Feet failed him his Flesh and Body wasted as it were to nothing and so continued worse and worse until at length his Body being thus wasted by Venery began to sweat exceedingly so long he sweated till he was as it were wholly consumed and his Wife seeing what fell out wept bitterly and her tears mingling with her Husbands sweat grew into a large stream in which both she and the King were drowned so far I beheld And then when they were both wholly out of sight I mused at the strangeness of the object and while I wondered methought I saw them ascend again but considering it well I found that there swam upon the Water a Carcass which being wholly void of Life did with the heat of the place draw to putrefaction more and more so that it grew livid black blewish and yellowish and sent up most venemous Exhalations and with its odour did so infect the Waters which were before of an Argent Clearness that they did grow very thick and dark and at last black resembling the form of muddy slime which is found in Boggs and at length with the heat of the Sun the moisture was wholly dried up as Moorish low Grounds in the summer time use to be and I sought what was become of my Bodies and I found a horrible venemous tumefied Toad which seemed as it were dying and a Raven almost famished walking there for to look for meat lighted upon the Toad and preyed upon him and with its poison died and made a most filthy squallid Liquor blacker than Ink and thick like to Pitch melted which made me to wonder at the sight And going to depart I heard a Voice which said to me You must not leave us if you do our Persons and Kingdom is lost without recovery Then my Eyes were opened and I saw Nature walking up and down among the Carcases and in her hand her unparallell'd Lamp and taking a more serious view I saw in those rotten Atoms the Idea's of all things natural and supernatural and I found the dead King with his Wife were intombed in a Field Sable and the Tomb as it were of polished Jet or Ebony and as in that place all
though to them their Light seem clear enough yet can they see nothing by it but what is phantastical and mystically or sophistically written by the Envious for the seducing of such fanciful Doters therefore when once the Light of Nature is brought to their station it discovers Cimmerian darkness there where their imaginary Light only shines such as is Fox-fire and Glow-worms Tails that shine only in the dark This Light makes their Eyes so tender that the Lamp of Nature makes them fly Moreover whatever is written according to this Light they cannot see nay they cannot endure the Light of the true Luna of the wise men for any true Light discovers their Darkness and yet their Darkness is uncapable of apprehending the Light Now in that you went in among them without your Candle it was a bold adventure for had you lost your Thread you could never have returned Then I looked into my Tower and did as I was directed and again I went to view those parts of Cimmerian Darkness once more yet with my Candle in mine hand and my Thread at my Girdle when I came the second time at the sight of this Light all fled so that I could not meet with any but I entered into several turnings which I saw and found in them several works curiously erected in which I might guess they aimed at nothing less than the Philosophers Stone With Sulphurs I Found one Furnace most curiously built in which all degrees of heat imaginable by the Art of man might be kept with one fire in which was set a multitude of curious Glasses in which were several Matters some digesting others subliming others distilling others calcining and about the Glasses and the Furnace was written this of Geber Per Deum Sulphur est omne illud illuminans quod est supra terram By this I knew that Sulphur was the subject on which was wrought and indeed with so great cunning that I could not but admire the ingenuity of the men and knowing that what a man prizeth though it be a trifle yet to spoil or destroy that would be an injury I meddled not with any Glass for indeed there were Labourers that fled not because they knew nothing but only wrought as they were directed and when I came they could not perceive that I had any Candle in my hand and wondred their Masters should fly so from a phansie Moreover I found that they could not see any light from the Fox-fire and Glow-worms tails which were there but the place being dark as being under ground they wrought by Candles and Lamps which yet could give their Masters no light but they sought all the world over for those shining subjects Yet I could notwithstanding both discern utter darkness which the Rays of my Candle would not enlighten Then said I to the Workmen What is this that is brought in here Oh said they they are Sol and Luna terrestrial whereby our Masters can see clearly the Natures of all things in the world and to make by their light the great Elixir and though we can see no light in them or very little it is because of our Ignorance in these things therefore we use our Lamps to work by Where are your Masters said I. They ran away said they because when you came they said you were a Devil and brought an ominous light with you and if they did but once see that with a full view their Works would all vanish they did therefore lay a few Charms and ran away Then I looked and the ground under me was full of Crosses and Circles at which I laughed and departed into another Room Or Salts preparate in divers wise Neither with Corrosives nor with Fire alone Neither with Vinegar nor with Waters ardent Nor with the vapour of Lead our Stone Calcined is according to our intent All those to Calcining which are so bent From this hard Science withdraw their hand Till they our Calcining better understand ANd there I found in the like sort rare Furnaces with this Inscription Sal Metallorum est Lapis Philosophorum many processes I beheld which would be tedious to relate On I passed from thence and in another Room I found large Furnaces in which they were labouring about Waters for t others were with strong reverberations calcining Lead Tin Copper Iron and all Metals and Minerals others were drawing Spirit of Vinegar with a great care till it became exquisitely sharp and in this they laboured to calcine several Metalline bodies others were rectifying Spirit of Wine so long till no Body almost or Receiver could hold it it was so subtile and this they said was the true Water of Life that must do the work others were subliming of Lead hoping after it was exquisitely sublimed to have out of it that Menstruum which should effect the Stone without any further laying on of hands This when I had seen I returned to my Furnace and recruited my Fire as I was directed and made a particular relation of what I had seen and desired the verdict of Nature upon them all She told me That they could never by this way expect any thing but loss I asked her if they might not with trying many things at length hit the right She told me No they had not any ground of truth nor could they expect either the great secret or any other particular profitable truth in that way Then said I Noble Lady pray let me know the reason of their error that I may know how to avoid the like For by such Calcination their bodies be shent Which minisheth the moisture of our Stone Therefore when bodies to powder are brent Dry as ashes of Tree or Bone Of such Calxes then will we none For moisture we multiply radical In Calcining minishing none at all THen said she Besides that they work not on the true Matter they work not in a right way which are two most desperate errors for our work is to make a substance fluid penetrating and entring that may have ingress into imperfect Metals for which cause we do preserve humidity without which our Stone cannot be penetrative So then instead of purifying the crude and ripening what is raw by these Calcinations the tender Soul is put to flight and the crudities are the more strongly vitrified so that all hope of fruit is wholly by this means taken away for take this for a rule whatever either by violence of Fire or Corrosives is turned into a dry Powder or Calx it is wholly reprobate in our work for though we Calcine yet it is in such a Fire in which our moisture is not burnt and in such a Vessel so closed that the Spirits are retained and in a word so sweet is our Regimen in reference to our Matter that moisture is advanced and is made more unctuous and by consequent more ingressive And for a sure ground of our true Calcination Work wittily only kind with kind For kind unto kind hath appetitive
in mean Minerals digg'd out of the Mine Yet must that Element be first purified and separate And with Elements of perfect Bodies be desponsate SO then if thou canst as by the Liquor Alcahest thou mayst reduce a Body be it what it will whether Eggs or Hair or Urine or a Spirit ardent or any mean Mineral which is not of a Metalline imposition to Water and after knowest how to impregnate that Water with a specificated seminal influential Light so that that Water may penetrate its dimensions at the least 16 times and become a Mineral Mercurial Juice thou mayst then expect as much profit from that Mercury as from the best Mercury that is sold in the Apothecaries shops and no more for thou mayst so purifie it and separate its faeces and crudities as that it may become fit to joyn with thy perfect Bodies but I doubt this way will be so hard try it when thou wilt I fear the first will puzzle thee all thy life long to turn all Bodies into Water and the next would puzzle all the Devils in Hell to bring this Water to a Metallick seminal viscosity that thou hadst better leave musing on these Impossibilities and take my counsel that is seek it there where Nature hath put it But first of thine Elements make thou Rotation And into Water thine Earth turn first of all Then of thy Water make Air by levigation And Air make Fire then Master I will thee call Of all our Secrets great and small The wheel of Elements then hast thou turn'd about Truly conceiving our Writings without doubt TAke of thy clean Mercury which is animated according to what I have faithfully taught in my little Latine Treatise and mix it with thy Body as there I told you without ambiguity put it in a Glass as I there advised and govern it with a Fire as I in that Treatise ordered and thou shalt see thy Elements circulate first thou shalt have thy Gold dissolved which thou shalt know by thy first sign which is a whiteness which will arise like a skin in boiling upon the Water This Water will be made aërial by subliming in a continual Vapour for by constant and continual Sublimation our Stone is inspired and takes life in the Air and lives and shews the actions of life and a living Water or Dew shall from the top of the Glass descend upon the lower grounds and make them fructifie then shall the Central Fire which was hidden in the Earth and is now in the Water come forth and ascend with the Water and in the form of Air and Vapour shall beautifie thy Vessel with changable colours Citrine pale blewish and blackish This is the Fire of Radical Sulphur which when it is once stirred up is like unto the Fiery Dragon and Ignis Infernalis by this thou mayst know that the Heaven and the Earth the Form and the Matter the Male and the Female are now beginning Conjunction when thou seest this sign rejoyce for know that now thy Bodies are made in greatest part no Bodies and this if thou dost work well will be in 30 or 36 days This done go backwards turning thy wheel again And into Water turn thy Fire anon Air into Earth else labourest thou in vain NOw know that all our three Circulations are so called not without great reason for so indeed they go on as a Wheel put a Nail in a Wheel and turn it and you shall see the Nail will with one half of your turning ascend and the other half descend And then that Circulation is compleat and you then must go on to another Circulation These our Circulations are Solution and Congelation Volatization and Fixation opening and shutting when once thou hast brought thy Body to the height of Subtiliation that the Spirit by decoction can bring it to then the Spirit hath done its work and ceaseth then to be active then begins the dissolved Body to work after its kind and then the Spirit is passive and the Body active thus passive Natures are made active and active passive which is the Key of our Mastery First then advance the Spirit above the Body till the Fire be discovered which is in a yellow colour then advance the Body over the Spirit till the Earth again appear which is in a colour blacker than Pitch which first will begin with blewness and this will decline daily more and more unto blackness This yellow colour remember that it comes with a moisture of the Compound otherwise what you do is all in vain turn it then into Water that is let this yellowness appear in humido till by opposition from the terrene qualities there be engendred a blewness then continue this decoction till all be intirely black for in gross moisture heat working engenders blackness with such like gross colours For so to temperament is brought our Stone And Natures contractions four are made one After they have three times been circulate Also thy Base perfectly consummate THy Air then must be thickned with the Body which is terrene and gross being not yet putrified and by this means the Fire and the Air and the Earth and Water will accord for Air will agree with Water and Earth with Fire The Air being then tempered with Earth doth by this reconcile the Water and the Fire Thus our first decoction confounds the Elements and thus our Stone which was of severed qualities is brought to a temperateness Thus by a natural Circulation the Quadrangle is made a Circle and four qualities make a fifth which is a Neuter from the four and yet partakes of all This first Conjunction natural which is made in the Glass without laying on of hands which we call Triptative is the ground of the last Tetraptive Conjunction which is made in the truning round of the three Wheels which doth perfect the Stone Thus under the moisture of the Moon GOvern then thy Bath first with a moist Fire until the Body be made no Body but a flying Spirit this is the time of the Womans reign and it is attributed to the Moon for our Gold till it be dissolved all the work depends only upon the active virtue of the Water which causeth the slow appearance of our signs And under the temperate heat of the Sun Thy Elements shall be incinerate soon And then hast thou the Mastery won Thank God thy Work was so begun For then hast thou one token true Which first in blackness to thee will shew WHen thou hast by thy first Waters Pontick virtue and firiness so far dissolved thy Body as to set at liberty its internal Sulphur then thy Operations will be speedy for the Sulphur of the Water together with the natural Sulphur of thy Gold by mixture will make an unnatural Fire which will then burn like to the Fire of Hell first making a total end of that dissolution which was but in part made by the Water and after that drying up and congealing its own
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
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
Compound as that in it the Body through the Pontick virtue of the Water may have its Sulphur let loose and so these two Sulphurs mixing together may bring the whole to rotting or Putrefaction By which putridness a Ferment is engendred which as it doth volatize all things naturally so it doth quicken this gross dead Body in so much that it mounts aloft upon the Fire with the Water and riseth a new glorious Body mixed with the Water so that both being become one together the Spirit borrows from the Body permanency and the Body from the Spirit obtaineth penetrativeness so that both make one coelestial and terrestrial Compound named the Regenerate Body and Stone of Paradise incombustible All which is occasioned by the continuance and not failing of heat both inwardly and outwardly by which the moisture is circulated and depurated without which the seminal virtue would be extinct which only vegetates by heat and moisture And if once the seminal virtue were kill'd the remaining Compound would be no better then a dead unprofitable thing which could never be recovered so that if either moisture or heat within or convenient heat without should fail there is nothing to be expected but according to the Poet Cuncta ruent quae non ulla reparaveris Arte Therefore at the beginning our Stone thou take And bury each in other with their Grave Then equal between them a marriage make To lig together six weeks let them have Their Seed conceived kindly nourish and save â—rom the ground of their Grave not rising the while Which secret point doth many one beguile THis then is the process of our Work take at the first our Stone that is the true Material principles thereof which are one in kind and two in number mix these together in a due proportion then shalt thou see as follows First thy Feminine nature will so embrace thy Masculine as to extract from him his Seed that is the most digested virtue so shall the Body dye and the Water shall intomb it The Water by Cohabitation shall contract amity and friendship with the Body for it is nothing else but a Feminine Body of the same Stock which when they are united and joyned this is called the Marriage of Gabritius with Beya Then shall the Vapours cease and all Exhalations shall be withheld from ascending or descending during the space of 40 days or 42 at most in which time though thou see not the former Circulation rejoyce for now the Body begins to retain his Soul in a black colour Now the Queen hath conceived the Kingly Seed which must be nourished with gentle convenient Fire till it wax strong and become a puissant triumphant Champion whom no Earthly force is able to withstand Thou must of necessity then let them have this prefixed time for their solitude and retirement in which time the fixt and the volatile the cold and the moist the hot and the dry do learn to agree each with other being reconciled in this Head of the Crow which is the conversion of Natures into a discontinuous Calx finer then Atoms of the Sun This Operation as it is the Wyld and Labyrinth of all who seek this Art in vain so it is the Capo di Bona Esperanza to as many as attain to the perfect fight hereof for now most of the difficulties are passed which they are like to meet withall in this their Voyage to the Oriental Indies This time of Conception with easie heat abide The blackness appearing shall tell thee when they die For they together like liquid Pitch that tide Shall swell and bubble settle and putrefie Shining colours therein thou shalt espy Like to the Rainbow marvellous to sight The Water then beginneth to dry upright THou must then be very carefull that thy over-heat do not now hinder their Conjunction for now is the main fear of burning thy Flowers which thou mayst easily do and make these Natures become a half Red or Orange colour instead of the true Crows Bill Whereas if thy external heat be so gentle as not to extinguish motion thou shalt find that in this period thy Natures shall both of them die together for one is not killed nor dieth without the other which death in its approach thou shalt discover by the appearing blackness And when once the Crow shall begin to shew it self know that thou shalt see a terrible day for thou must expect to be in the heat of the shore and in the storm of the inraged Sea which now the Winds are abated after a long and strong blowing of them doth arise in waves raging and taking on and raising the filth from the very bottom so that all becomes like to a troubled Glass of Ink or melting boiling Pitch After this blackness which shall endure for a long and tedious time thou shalt see various and glorious colours to succeed such as thou never hast seen for all the colours that the mind of Man possibly can imagine shall then present themselves to view which shall be an evident token to thee that the moist and dark Dominion of the Woman doth now begin to vanish and instead thereof the Man beginneth to rule who first dryeth up the moisture of the Woman with which there will vanish blackness and the changable colours and after all shall be fixed in a sparkling dry white Powder which is the Stone of Paradise For in moist Bodies heat working temperate Engendreth blackness first of all which is Of kindly Conjunction the token assignate And of true putrefying remember this For then perfectly to alter thou canst not miss And thus by the Gate of blackness thou must come in To the light of Paradise in whiteness if thou wilt win IN the beginning therefore of our Work through the Co-operation of heat both internal and external and the moisture of the Matter concurring our Body gives a blackness like unto Pitch which for the most part happens in 40 or at the most in 50 days This colour discovers plainly that the two Natures are united and if they are united they will certainly operate one upon another and alter and change each other from thing to thing and from state to state until all come to one Nature and substance Regenerate which is a new Heavenly Body But before there can be this Renovation the Old man necessarily must be destroyed that is thy first Body must rot and be corrupted and lose its form that it may have it repaid with a new form which is a thousand times more noble So then our Work is not a forced and apparent but a natural and radical Operation in which our Natures are altered perfectly in so much that the one and the other having fully lost what they were before yet without change of kind they become a third thing Homogeneal to both the former Thus they who sow in tears shall reap in joy and he who goeth forth mourning and carrying precious Seed shall return with an abundance
Art we have written that which never heretofore was by any revealed NOw for a close of this most secret Gate Whereat few enter none but they who are By Gods grace favour'd it s not luck ne sate That in disclosing this can claim a share It is a portion which is very rare Bestow'd on those whom the most High shall chuse To such the Truth I freely shall declare Nor ought through Envy to them shall refuse Nor with unwonted Riddles shall their hopes abuse Of uncouth subjects now shall be my Song My mind intends high Wonders to reveal Which have lain hidden heretofore full long Each Artist striving them how to conceal Lest wretched Caitiffs should these Treasures steal Nor Villains should their Villanies maintain By this rare Art which danger they to heal In horrid Metaphors veil'd an Art most plain Lest each Fool knowing it should it when known disdain Remember Man how he produced was How formed from a lump of abject Clay From whence Created he each thing doth pass Which next to Angels ever saw the day For God in him infus'd so bright a Ray Of his own Image which the Body joyn'd To it ennobled so that both pourtray Their Maker as though Heaven with Earth combin'd A little System of the Vniverse to find But yet though he of Soul and Body both Was made and of the two the nobler part The Soul by far which for the most part doth The subject nominate yet that same Art That made so rare a piece doth from the part Less noble name the whole Adam or Dust Wherein a Mystery was couch'd whose heart Of life the Centre to Earth's bowels must Return the Earth it self for Man's sake being curs'd Right so our Stone containeth Natures two One hidden subtle Soul Heavens Progeny The other gross compact terrene also Earth's product must to Earth by destiny Which when resolv'd is made a feculency To sight but the Coelestial part is still Though over-clouded most pure inwardly And shall at last most Pearlie drops distill Which shall the barren Earth with fruit in plenty fill Thus all our Secrets from the Earth do flow 'T is Earth which for our Base at first we take Our Water also unto Earth must go And both together must a Limus make Which we with respite by our Art must bake Till all become a Spirit glorify'd Whose firmness wasting time shall never shake By perfect union th' are so surely ty'd Each Element the other three within it self doth hide Take then that thing which Gold we please to call But 't is not Gold yet Gold it is in truth Metalline 't is yet from a Mineral It flows which Art by Nature holp renew'th And to a Fool an ugly face it sheweth Yet to a Son of Art it lovely seems 'T is Stellar white and tender in his youth And vile appears in many mens esteems Yea the most part of men it for a trifle deems From it is made a subject of great price Shew it the Goldsmith and he 'l swear 't is Gold But look you sell it not if you be wise The Basis 't is of Secrets manifold This for their secret main the Sages hold The like is in Gold digged from the Mine But to procure it is scarce to be told That you may understand though every line Were plainly wrote yet might your practice oft decline For 't is a Labour hardly to be borne So many tricks and turnings in it be And he that tryeth it is surely forlorne Vnless a crafty Master credit me For I have tryed both yet could not see How any in this way can be secure I therefore who have vowed secrecy Have writ this way which we can scarce endure For knowledge-sake to try its ease will none allure Our Kingly road I also hinted have Our way in which a Fool can hardly erre Our secret way which much sad toyl will save Which is so easie that I may averr If thou shouldst see it thou wouldst it preferr To any Earthly pleasure yet beware That you mistake not for I do averr A mingled Doctrine these lines do declare For both ways in this Book of mine do claim a share Learn to distinguish every sentence well And know to what Work it doth appertain This is great skill which few as I can tell By all their reading yet could ere attain And yet of Theory this is the main Also to know accordingly to give Due heat which in one way thou must be fain T' increase ten-fold thou mayst me well believe For what doth one decoct t'other away will drive Also their Operations different Appear the one thou must sublime and boyl O tedious way in which much time is spent And many errours which the Work will spoyl The other silently doth make no toyl Like the still voice which to Eliah came About which Work thou needest not to broyl Nor wantst thou â—iery Vulcan's parching flame A far more gentle heat begins and ends this Game But if thou canst each Work perform apart And knowst them afterward to reconcile Then art thou Master of a Princely Art The very success will thy hopes beguile Thou hast all Natures Works rankt on a File And all her Treasures at command dost keep On thee the Fates shall never dare but smile No Mystery is now for thee too deep Th' art Natures Darling whether thou dost wake or sleep Pardon my plainness if the Art thou knowst 'T was the fruit of my untame desire To profit many and without a boast No man above my â—andour shall aspire My zeal was kindled with Minerva's Fire And thou who to this Art wilt now apply My â—ook in Natures way shall lead thee higher Then ever thou alone mayst hope to fly If only thou shalt favour'd be by Destiny Peruse these lines and being read review And read again and on them meditate Each reading shall fresh Mysteries and new Discover which are scatter'd in each Gate For they so linked are that all relate To each and we our words have woven so That thou mayst soon erre by misleading â—ate Vnless for to distinguish thou do know Remember that 'mongst Briars thick sweet Roses grow AN EXPOSITION UPON THE Sixth Gate Which is CONGELATION The Sixth Gate Opened Which is CONGELATION Congelation c. It is of soft things in duration of colour white c. How to congeal he needeth not much to care for Elements But Congelations be made in divers wise of Spirits c. Of Salts dissolved c. and then congeal'd And some dissolveth congealing manually c. But such congealing is not c. HAving largely run through the first five Gates in which is all the difficulty pre-supposing now that you have passed the shades of the Night and are now come to the approaching of the Day whose dawning is to be seen soon after the darkness of the Night and is discovered by variety of gay Clouds which run before the Sun in its up-rising The first remarkable
of Spirit and Life for compleating of the Marriage between this Royal Pair the Sun the Husband and the Moon the Wife Of this speaks this Author in his Gate of Solution One in Gender they be but in Number not so The Father is the Sun and the Moon the Mother the Mover is Mercury This Compound according to its various Considerations hath many Relations and as many Denominations Sun and Moon Man and Wife Body Soul and Spirit Earth and Water Sister and Brother Mother and Son with many others but its Proper Name is Magnesia Quest What is the Red Man what his White Wife What the Spirit of Life It may be here questioned what this Red Man is what his White Wife and what the Spirit of Life for that is the only knot in understanding the Writings of Philosophers whose various Expressions and seeming Contradictions herein do obscure the Art wonderfully Yet however they seem to differ in their Writings they mean all one thing if well or rightly understood Answer 1 st What the Red Man is The Red Man betokens the perfect Body of the Sun or his Shadow the Moon For Lune the Body which is one of the Seven is a Male and a perfect Body and fixed only wants a little Digestion and therefore the Red is hid under its visible White as White is hid under the visible Red of Sol Therefore our Author in his Work of Albification saith that the Sun appeareth White and Bright And Trevisan saith our King who is cloathed in Garments of pure Gold after he is once in the Bath appears no more till after one hundred and thirty days and then he appears White and wonderfully bright and shining And an old Philosopher saith Honour our King at his return from the East in Glory and admirable bright whiteness Therefore saith Artefius Our Water is of kin to the perfect Bodies to the Sun and to the Moon but more to the Sun then to the Moon Note this well And in all his Books he joyns the Sun and Moon the perfect Bodies Gold and Silver for the work So doth Ripley and so all Philosophers by which it is evident that either of the perfect Metals or Luminaries with oâ—r Aqua Vitae will compleat the work as Arnold expressly saith in his Questions Answers to Boniface and Jodocus Greverus in his Treatise confirms the same in these words If so be saith he thou be so poor that thou canst not take Gold then take so much Silver yet Gold is the better as being nearer of kin to our Water and Mercury Answer 2. What is the White Wife Secondly The White Wife otherwise called the Moon is a Female it is a Coagulated Mercury but not fixt A spiritual Body fluxible in nature of a Body yet Volatile in nature of a Spirit It is called therefore Mercury of the Philosophers Our Green Lyon Our immature or unripe Gold It is Pontanus's Fire Artephius's middle substance clear like pure Silver which ought to receive the Tinctures of the Sun and Moon his sharp Vineger his Antimonial-Saturnine-Mercurial Argent Vive without which â—aton cannot be whitened of which an old Philosopher saith whiten the red Laton by a white tepid and suffocated Water of which testimony Trâ—visanus affirms that nothing could be said better or clearer This is that which is intimated in the Vision of Arislaus who found a People that were Married yet had no Children because they married two Males together Such are they who mix Sol and Lune both Corporal and fixt together whom the Spirit will never revive because there is not conjugal Love Joyn therefore Gabritius to his beloved Sister Beya which is a tender Damsel and straightway Gabritius will die that is will lose what he was and from that place where he appeared to have lost what he was he shall appear what he was not before Answ 3. What is the Spirit of Life Thirdly The Spirit of Life is Mercury The Mover saith this Author is Mercury with which the Stone is to be multiplyed when it is made And it must be true Mineral Mercury without any forreign mixture as Arnold resolves expressly in his Answer to Boniface And so Ripley saith some can multiply Mercury with Saturn and other substances which we defie Distil it therefore till it be clean c. It moreover must have all the proportions of Mercury its ponderosity otherwise it could not be Metalline its Humidity otherwise the Feminine Sperm would be deficient and its siccity not to wet the hand which it can no sooner lose by Corrosives or otherwise but it straight-way loseth its first Mineral Proportion and so is no longer an Ingredient of our true Tincture Position VI. As the West Latitude is the entrance so in the North is the first alteration PRoceed then forth to the North by obscuration c. Loosing them and altering them c. The Materials being found and mixt according to the Proportions taught before is called the West Latitude because in it the Sun sets and afterwards appears no more in his Red Robes till he first be cloathed with a White glittering Robe and be Crowned with a very bright Oriental Diadem Now the progress into the North is a discovery of the Profundity of the Stone and is compared to the Winter which is in the North chiefly long tedious cold and slabbery so will it be in this Work the Signs are Capricorn Pisces and Aquarius In this there is a retrogradation of Sol into its first matter in which alteration the old Form dies the Matter rots and putrifies and is after renewed in the East This Operation saith Flammel is not perfected in less then Five Months and the Colours of the Compound are dark obscure waterish and at length black like Pitch in which blackness the Body is rotted into Atoms which intire blackness and height of corruption lasts but 2 or 3 days and therefore saith Ripley in his Epistle the third day he shall arise the same saith Dastin in his Rosary where he allows four days for Putrefaction The same saith Efferarius the Monk in his intire Treatise published with Dastin However the whole time of blackness in coming continuing and going away is 150 days although the Sun begins to appear in 130 days if you work aright This I have added for the sake of many who expect black of the blackest in 40 or 50 dayes mistaking Flammel herein who saith the colour must be black of the blackest and like to the colour of the Dragons in 40 days which Dragons were blackish blewish and yellowish which colours shew that the Matter begins to rot into Atoms which rottenness is not perfected in less than 150 days so as to let the Sun appear with its Rays First in a small Circle of Heir of a whitish Citrine which increaseth and changeth hue day by day till whiteness be fully compleated Position VII The East denoting Whiteness is the beginning of the Stones Altitude THence by Colours
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
set which being Seal'd up with Hermes Seal the Glass having a neck about 6 fingers high or thereabouts which being thin and narrow is melted together Artificially that no Spirits can get out nor no Air can come in in which respect it is named a secret Den. Also it is called a secret Den because of the secretness of Ashes or Sand in which in a Philosophical Athanor it is set the doores being firmly shut up and a prospect left to look in by a Window either to open a little as much as is convenient sometimes as occasion requires or else with Glass put into it to admit the view of the Artist together with a light at hand to shew the colours His Cave with blasts of fumous Air he all bewhited then WHich Glass Nest and Furnace being thus secretly ordered the Artist must in the first place expect to be in Prison a long time as Bernard Trevisan saith for the Concave of this secret place will be so bewhited with the fumes which ascend that an Artist rules his work more by skill and reason or the eye of the mind then of the Body for the Spirits arising like a smoak or Wind sticketh to the Concave of the Glass which is above the Sand or Ashes and there by degrees there grow drops which run down and moisten the Body below and reduce as much as they can of the fixed and so the Body by the Water and the Water by the Body alter their colours And from the which in space a Golden Humour did ensue IN so much that at length the whole Vessel will seem as though it were all over gilded with Gold for the exhalations will be Yellow which is a sign of true Copulation of our Man Woman together but before this Yellow and with it there will be an obscuring of the White brightness of the Fume with mixture of Colours Dark obscure and Blewish The space is not long for all the several passages are conspicuous before 40 days for in that space from these Colours are demonstrating Signs of Corruption and Generation which is given us by the biting and fiery Nature of our pontick Waters and the resistance of our Bodies in which Fight the Body is over-come and killed and dying yields these Colours which is a Sign that the Eagles now are getting the Mastery and that our Lyon hath also a little infected them with his Carcass which they begin to prey upon This Operation is by Ingenious Artists called Extraction of Natures and Separation for the Tincture begins now to be separated from the Body Also Reduction to the first matter which is Sperm or Seed which by reason of its double Nature is compared to two Dragons I shall not enlarge in this Vision but briefly unfold what is briefly laid down Whose falling drops from high did stain the soyl with ruddy hue THese colours of the Mercury do affect the subsident fixed Body with sutable colours and the Bodies from these exhalations be Tincted with a ruddy colour which Flamel expresseth to this purpose that these two Natures or Dragons do bite one another very cruelly and never leave from the time they have seised one upon another till by their slavering Venom and mortal hurts they be all of a gore bloud and then being stewed in their own Venom are changed into a fifth Essence And when his Corps the force of vital breath began to lack BUt before the renovation of these Natures they must in the first place pass through the Eclipse both of the Sun and Moon and the darkness of Purgatory which is the Gate of Blackness and after that they shall be renovated with the light of Paradise This Allegorically is called Death â—or as a man will resist violence which intrencheth upon his life as long as he can but if his Enemies are many and mighty at length they grow too mighty for him and he begins to fail both in strength and courage and so Paleness the Harbinger of Death doth stand as it were on his lips so our Body or Man the Sun like a strong Champion doth resist long till he be wounded and bleed as it were all over and then dies at whose death blackness doth begin to appear as of old the Ravens were foretellers of Mans death approaching for this Reiteration of Rotation of the Influences of the Heaven of it together with Heat still drying up and soaking in the Moisture as fast as it falls brings it at last naturally to die and corrupt as any other thing doth And then the Corps begin to lack breath that is the Fumes begin to cease for with oft ascending and descending the Spirits are somewhat fixed and turned into Powder or Dust and are now in the bottom of the Vessel drawing fast to Putrefaction Nor do they for a time ascend but remain below Wherefore govern your Fire that your Spirits be not so exalted and climb so high that the Earth want them and they return no more For this Operation is as Morien saith a drawing out of Water from the Earth and again a returning of the same to the Earth so often and so long till the Earth putrefie This dying Toad became forthwith like Coal for colour black THis is the final end of the Combat for herein in this Earth of Leaves all are reconciled and final Peace is made and now one Nature embraceth another in no other form but in the form of a Powder impalpable and in no other colour but black of the blackest From henceforth Natures are united and boil and bubble together like melted Pitch and change their forms one into another Take heed therefore lest instead of Powder Black of the Blackest which is the Crows Bill you have an unprofitable dry half red Precipitate Orange-coloured which is a certain sign of the Combustion of Flowers or Vertue of the Vegetative Seed On this very Rock I have stumbled and do therefore warn you Thus drowned in his proper Veins of poysoned Flood IT appears by all that hath been said and by the undoubted Testimony of all Philosophers who have been Eye-witnesses to this Truth that the work is not so tedious nor so chargeable but that in the simple way of Nature the Mastery is to be attained for when once the true body is Impasted with its true Leven it doth calcine it self and dissolve it self for the dissolution of the Body into a black and changeable coloured Water which is the sign of egression of the Tincture is the Congelation of the Spirits into this lowest Period of Obscurity which is this black Powder like unto Lamp-Black this is the Complement of Eclipsation which Contrition begins soon after the Colours Yellowish Blewish c. For term of Eighty Days and Four he rotting stood THis Calcination begins with these Variations in Colour about the two and fortieth day or fiftieth at the farthest in a good Regimen After which comes putrefying Corruption like to the Scum of boiling bloody Broath