AN EXPOSITION UPON Sir GEORGE RIPLEY's PREFACE Written by Aeyrenaeus Philalethes ANGLUS COSMOPOLITA LONDON Printed for William Cooper at the Pellican in Little Britain MDCLXXVII An Exposition UPON THE PREFACE OF Sr GEORGE RIPLEY Canon of Bridlington TO pass over his Prologue which is Adhortatory to the desirously studious of this Art and the beginning of the Preface which is his Address to God who is the only Giver of Wisdom to bestow upon him true Understanding that he might lead his sinful Life to the glory of him being over-swayed from what he was naturally by him who is the Fountain of all Goodness I shall take up his Pattern for a Precedent rather of Imitation than a Subject of Exposition And first as touching those who shall bend themselves to this Science Let them resolve that they undertake a most admirable piece of Work in which though far be it that I should 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 Amen 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
Waters to abide And wash'd him clean and after gave him Wings To fly much like a Dragon whose sharp Springs Of fiery Water th' only way was found To cause Apollo his Harp-strings to sound This is the true Nymphs Bath which we did try And prov'd to be the Wise Mens Mercury IN this Song you have the Lyon Green so described that more I dare not more I cannot unless I should pen you down the Receipt verbatim which God and Reason forbids He is the mean the Sun and Moon between Of joyning Tinctures with perfectness LEarn then to know this Green Lyon and its preparation which is all in all in the Art it is the only knot untie it and you are as good as a Master for whatever then remains is but to know the outward Regimen of Fire for to help on Natures internal Work As Geber thereunto beareth witness MOreover be not various seeking that in many things which is verily but in one thing for in all the world there is not any one subject but this Ripley after the Rehearsal of all his Errors tells you That he never saw true Work but one And Geber Exacte inquit singula sumus experti idque probatis rationibus nihil invenimus praeter solam 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 no 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 inferius 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
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 fine veste Dianam sciens loquor I know I speak true which the Sons of Art do know and can testifie with me Magnesia also THis Stone is by the Philosophers called their Magnesia their Adrop c. with many more names and is indeed their Stone in the first true mixture of the true matter for it is the true seed and will produce with the co-operation of external Fire in a patient expectation of the time of Nature which is not long to him that understands it Of Sulphur and Mercury FOr that which is done by Nature in many years and ages in the bowels of the Earth decocting Mercury alone without addition Art to make the work short first impregnates Mercury with a spiritual seed of Sulphur by which it becomes powerful in the dissolution of Metals and then adds to it mature Sulphur by which the work is shortened and out of these two Parents of one Root is brought forth a Noble Son of a Regal Off-spring that is not simply Gold but our Elixir ten thousand times more precious Proportionate by Nature most perfectly YEt all this Work of the Artist is only to help Nature we can do no more yea we have professed and will profess that we do only administer unto Nature herein for all the Works of God are intire we can but behold them and admire them and therefore we seek our Principals where Nature is and amend Nature in its own Nature Nor do we make the simple believe which is the Trade of Sophisters that we by our Extractions and Manual Operations upon Vegetables Minerals Urines Hair or the like intend to make our so highly prized Elixir but out of such things in which Nature hath put it we by Art do make it appear by revealing what was hidden and hiding what was manifest But many one marvelleth and marvel may and museth on such a marvellous thing WHereas those who work upon other matters than the true do betray their ignorance herein most foully that they do not consider the possibility of Nature but work after their Fancy as though out of combustible substances filthy in their nature and made up of Heterogeneities might be produc'd a pure perfect Metallick Substance by reason of its unseverable Unity invincible and by vertue of its transcendent Excellency cleansing and fixing all leporous and fugitive bodies in the Mineral Kingdom and reducing them to the Anatical proportion of perfectly digested Sol or Luna according to the quality of the Medicine When therefore their Principles are not sound their Conclusion is always deceitful and then they not knowing Nature in her Operation but interpreting the words of the crafty and envious Philosophers according to the Letter do stand admiring at the Unconformity of their Work to the Promises of the Philosophers at least as they understand their Books they admire what this Stone is if it be a Truth or a Conceit and why they as well as any do not attain it if possible Such meditations usually fill the minds of unsuccessful Alchymists who though they be as they esteem themselves very Judicious yet cannot stumble upon this unhappy Stone What is our Stone c. THey marvel at the uncouth difficulty of the thing nor can they almost tell what to judge of what they read forasmuch as all Philosophers say it is a very easie thing For Fowls and Fishes to us do it bring every Man it hath And it is in every place in thee in me c. ANd in very deed the Antient Wise Men have so written and do still write the same as to wit That it is found in a Dunghil according to Morien and for the easiness of the charge they all write plentifully so that in respect of time and cost Artophius and Flammel say it is but the play of Children and work of Women and therefore one Excellent Philosopher writing of this Mastery titles his Treatise Ludus Puerorum that is Childrens Play To this I answer That Mercury it is I wis YEt trust me though the wise men thus write and it be true there is notwithstanding something to be added to their Sentence according as the Author of Novum Lumen well observed as namely That this Art is easie to him that understands it as Artephius plainly expresseth but to him that is ignorant of it there is nothing can appear so hard The Wise Man saith Sendivogius finds it in a Dunghil but the Fool cannot believe that it is in Gold I for my part through the great mercy of God to me an unworthy and unthankful Creature I know the Art to be true and not that only but also very easie and I wonder that men of so great parts have studied for it so long in vain only this I am confident of it is the gift of God nor is it in him that willeth nor in him that runneth but in God that giveth mercy In which respect I am bold to the glory of God to confess that I have the Art and have Natures Operations in these so hidden Secrets before mine eyes at this present writing which I see hourly with admiration of the infinite Glory in the beholding of such a great Glory in the Creatures which trust me will ravish the Beholder to see such a despised Infant as our Mercury is to grow into so strong a Heroe which the World cannot purchase But not the Common called Quick-silver by name YEt the difficulty is not over when once it is known that the whole Secret consisteth in Mercury for what more frequent among the Sophisters than to cry Our Mercury c. and yet in the Work of Nature they are as blind as Moles The cause is for that Nature hath produced a Mineral Juice in the bowels of the Earth which doth answer to most of the Philosophical Descriptions of their Water as namely that it is mineral quick current without humectation ponderous and the like which when the vulgar Alchymists read they apply it to this naughty Mercury which for inward Qualities hath nothing in it like ours Some there are who trusting to
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 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 hat one thing which is the subject of all Wonders In Sol and Luna our Menstrues are not seen WHen thou art come to this then shalt thou no more discern a distinction between the Dissolver and the Dissolved for the Water shall neither ascend nor descend go out nor in alone but the Fire of Nature shall accompany it and the colour of the mature Sulphur which is unseparably joyned shall tincture thy Water It appeareth not but by effect to sight SO that thou shalt never see them severed one from the other but shalt discern them by the effect and by the eye of thy mind more then of thy body Therefore saith the Philosopher Azoth and Fire are sufficient for thee in the middle and end but not in the beginning for then they are not our Mercury that is our universally united Mercury But in the first days of the Stone there appear four Elements of which three are in the Mercury sublimed and one in Sol which is counted all for Earth till it be dissolved and then it fermenteth the Mercury and makes the three qualities of it which it hath drawn from three substances to unite into one Mercury which hath all in it one essential property and that is Solary which first will shew the Moon in the full and is the true one matter of all our Secrets our one Image out of which springs white and red not bare Sol and Luna as will spring out of our Mercury which we prepare with our hands but the white and red Elixirs which shew that this Mercury which Nature hath made in the Glass without our help is far beyond that Mercury which we prepared with a laborious toil This is the Stone of which we mean Who so our Writings conceiveth aright ANd verily he that hath well studied our Books shall understand that this general one Mercury which we call Azoth is indeed our Stone which wanteth only digestion for it is inseparably united not in a Dyptative Conjunction which is barely a mixture of the Sun with our Mercury or Triptative which is a mixture and union of the Body Soul and Spirit which is before Putrefaction but Tetraptive which is the Anatization of qualities which is the first degree of the white Stone which will then grow higher and higher till the Moon come up to the full It is a Soul and Substance bright THis Stone or Virtue multiplicative is not in relation to the matter but the form which doth make the matter to receive and after impress Tinctures for who could believe that Sol in which the virtue is but unary I mean only sufficient for it self should by the addition of our Mercury which in reference to its material parts is below the degree of Sol and needs digestion and that only to maturate it to the height of Sol I say that by the mixture of those two Venerial Tinctures should be multiplied in a manner infinitely Of Sol and Luna a subtile Influence WEre it not that this Tincture which in the Mercury is Sol and Luna were as a Soul that is a spiritual thing it were impossible it is therefore the very Dos faecunditatis which is in Minerals which doth appear in their Lunary and Solary Tinctures which was put and planted on and in them in the first Benediction of Crescite Multiplicamini which increasing is in some things juxta quantitatem This is in quality Whereby the Earth receiveth resplendence SO then the matter of Minerals is a dead passive thing in which there is included a Light which is cloathed vitali Aura aetheria as I may speak this form of Light is it which doth actuate and specificate or determine the matter and this splendor or Light is in all Metals Sol or Luna which are conspicuous more eminently in those two perfect Bodies Gold and Silver but are in other Mineral Bodies more Clouded and Eclipsed with an earthly faeculent interposition between the fulgor and the superfluities which is the Imperfection of such Bodies and is accompanied with a rawness and inconstancy in the Fire the Impure carrying away the Pure For what is Sol and Luna saith Avicen But Earth which is pure White Red SO then Sol and Luna is more formal then material for the matter is a gross Terrene Substance but the form of Light purifying the Substance is a most subtile spiritual thing which doth ennoble the grossness of the matter by a Fire-abiding Tincture Take from it the said Clearness and then That Earth will stand but in little stead BUt if this Tincture could be separated from the pondus of the matter the remainder would be an unprofitable Terrestriety Our work therefore is for to advance this Light by exaltation in the matter which as it in its simplicity is but in unity so it may be brought to a Virtue millenary and gradually so exalted that the matter would seem to be quite swallowed up of the form and yet in this exaltation it is not the moles or pondus that is the Solary or Lunary Virtue but a Light whose multiplication is not in the increase of pondus but in the circulation of Natures till the Heavenly illuminate the Earthly with an immediate Beam all interposition being removed out of the way The whole Compound is called our Lead FOr to attain this admirable multiplication Philosophers have found out a most subtile yet very natural Composition which hath been not a little sought for by many this the wise Antients both to describe the Fountain of these Mysteries as also to hide the Secret from the unworthy have mystically called their Lead The quality of Clearness from Sol and Luna doth come THis Lead so called from the appearing baseness of its original is notwithstanding of an admirable power for it contains the Bath for Sol and Luna that is the Sun and Moon enter into it and send out their Tinctures into it which it receiveth and like to a fertile Soil ennobleth it an hundred and an hundred fold These are our Menstrues both all and some THus have I in general given you a description of our Menstrues which are three Acetum Elixir and Azoth which I shall now
particularly describe Bodies with the first we Calcine naturally perfect THe first Menstrue we call our sharp Vinegar with infinite other names which it will be tedious for to recite and with this is made our Magical Solution of Sol this saith Sendivogius is Menstruum mundi in sphaera Lunae toties rectificatum ut possit calcinare Solem. In this saith the noble Author of the Hermetical Arcanum is made Eclipsis Solis Lunae in Cauda Draconis this is as Artephius saith the only Instrument in the World for our Art for it causeth the Sun to putrefie that is it loseth its hard compaction and makes it to be an impalpable Powder as saith the truth-telling Flammel In this Calcination as all Authors testifie and our own Experience hath taught us Natures are united Colours are mingled and one holds of the other and this is the period of the first Menstruum which ends in this Circulation But none which been unclean THis Blackness many erroneously conceive to be uncleanness but it is not so for it is only the Sepulcher of our King in which though he seem to have lost what he was yet from hence he shall arise what he never was before Except one ANd verily there is nothing of an unclean nature that entreth our Composition except one thing which is the Instrument moving the Gold to putrifie and in regard that it doth naturally incline the Body to putrifie and is as it were the very grave of it it is called by some Philosophers Aqua foetida and by some Mortis Immundities yet indeed it is not in its own nature unclean but made pure as pure as the Art of the Artist can make it with the help of Nature joyning Consanguinty with Consanguinity Which is usually Named by Philosophers their Lyon Green THis hidden Body or rather Chaos the Philosophers have highly extolled and deeply concealed but they usually call it their Green Lyon which many mistaking apply to Venus and some to Vitriol which is all one in a manner Vitriol being only Copper corroded by an embryonated Salt but Fools saith Ripley in his Errors call it the Green Lyon I shall discover this Subject to you so far as I dare in this following Song The Learned SOPHIES FEAST WHoso would lasting and eternal Fame Deserve Learn thou the Lyon Green to tame Put this before you can by Art attain To study him to know thou must be fain Nor is it trust me for a stupid Fool Nor yet for one brought up in vulgar School I shall him therefore lively out pourtray Lest from this Banquet you go lean away This Song I stile the Learned Sophies Feast Prepare your self to come a worthy Guest With Mind attentive to my words give heed Lest you instead of Meat on Fancies feed This horrid Beast which we our Lyon call Hath many other Names that no man shall The truth perceive unless that God direct And on his darkened Mind a Light reflect T is not because this Subject doth consist Of Animal Components he that list May well conceivâ— that we do therefore use The name of Beasts nor is it to abuse The Readers he whoever so doth think With stupid Sots himself doth hereby link But it 's because of the transcendent force It hath and for the rawness of its source Of which the like is no where to be seen That it of them is nam'd the Lyon Green Now listen and I shall to you disclose The Secret which times past hath like a Rose Been hedged so on every side with Briars That few could pluck it at their hearts desires There is a substance of Metalline Race If you the matter view whose louring face A Sophister would at first sight so scare That he it to approach would never dare The form that s visible is very vile And doth Metalline Bodies so defile That none to see it could be brought to think That thence should spring bright Phoebus Pearly Drink And yet O strange a wonder to relate At this same Spring naked Diana sat Who horn'd Acteon for his ventrous peeping This Spring two dreadful Beasts have in their keeping Which drive away rash Searchers to their wo Them to inchant the Art who do not know Yet further for to answer your desire I say this subject never felt the fire Of Sulphur Metalline but is more crude Then any Mineral which doth delude Th' unwary and in Fire fugitive 'T is found th'impure away the pure doth drive And its Components are A Mercury Most pure though tender with a Sulphur dry Incarcerate which doth the flux restrain And as in shackles doth the same detain This Sulphur with malignant qualities Doth so the Mercury infect which with it lies That though they have no fundamental union Yet hereby is debarr'd the sweet communion Which otherwise would surely intercede Between this Virgin-Nymph which we call Lead And her dear Sister which in Silver streams Runs down abundantly then should the beams Of bright Apollo cause the Dews which fall From these commixed Waters from the tall Aspiring Mountains gliding through the Vales Fire to conceive of Nature which avails To warm the Bath for Sol in which he may Descend and wash and with fair Phebe play Till flesh and youth renewing they be able To shine with glory aye multiplicable Know then this Subject which the sure Base Of all our Secrets is and it uncase And chuse what thou shalt find of greatest price Leave Sophisters and follow my advice Be not deluded for the Truth is one 'T is not in many things this is our Stone At first appearing in a Garb defil'd And to deal plainly it is Saturn's Child His price is mean his venom very great His constitution cold devoid of heat Although 't is mixed with a Sulphur yet This Sulphur is combustible to get Another Sulphur Metalline and pure And mix with the Mercurial part be sure This Sulphur in the House of Aries seek There shall you find it and this is the Greek Alcides which with Jason Journey took To Colchos this is it which never Book As yet reveal'd and yet I will proceed And greater Mysteries unfold with speed Our Subject it is no ways malleable It is Metalline and its colour sable With intermixed Argent which in veins The sable Field with glittering Branches stains The pure parts from the impure thou shalt never With Fire or Water for this work dissever Nor with the hardest Iron dig it thence For Steel 'gainst this affordeth no defence So easily as any little Boy A Giant can suppress this can destroy Alcides Brest-plate with his Target stout And put opposing Armies to the rout Of Swords and Spears O wondrous force and yet The Sages this have seen when they did sit In Council how this Fury they might tame Which as unparallel'd they then did name Their Lyon Green they suffered him to prey On Cadmus Sociates and when the fray Was over they with Dian's Charms him ty'd And made him under
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 fi 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 higher 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 Composition 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 Metaline 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 the wise Philosopher noted by Jason so governing his Fire that the Lunary 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 heat of the Sun that it shall afford the Tree no more moisture then shall the Tree it self be calcined by the prevailing heat into a Powder impalpable first black then white then red Therefore is 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 intermission It is our natural Fire most sure THis Mercury drawn out of the Sun is the true natural heat in the acuating 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 pure parts are separated now totally from the uncleanness of the dead it is our Stone though it be as yet volatile yet it hath all in it essential to our Stone and therefore though it fly and sublime for the space of seven times yet his Nurse is the Earth and therefore to it as to its Nest it returns and in seven sublimations what was before all Heaven will now become all Earth And this is the period of all the Rotations and Natures consummation This Stone also tell thee I dare Is the vapour of Metals potential ANd now if any should demand of us what our Stone is we shall answer him that it is Gold digested to its height of purity and perfection through the cooperation of Art and Nature but the means to get this is to learn to turn thy Body into a vapour that is into Mercury which then ascends in form of a vapour How thou shalt get it thou must beware For Invisible truly is this Menstrual Howbeit with the second Water Philosophical By separation of Elements it may appear To sight in form of Water clear BUt the means to attain this is not a light work it requires a profound meditation for this is the Seed of Gold which as the Poet sang reclusa resedit longius it is involved in many links and held Prisoner as it were in a deep Dungeon so that as the noble Sandivow hath it it is the work of a very wise Philosopher to let loose Sulphur he that knows not our two first Menstruals is altogether shut out from attaining to the sight of this third and last Menstrue yet he who knows how to prepare the first Water and to joyn it to the Body in a just pondus to shut it up in its Vessel Philosophically until the Infant be formed and what is the greatest of all to govern his Fire dexterously so as to cherish Internal heat with External and can wait with patience till he see his signs he shall see the first Water will work on the Body till it hath opened the pores and extracted partly the Tincture of Sol which as it comes out gradually so it contests with the first Fire against Nature so long till they be reconciled in an imperfect medium in which they like to weary wounded Combatants lye gasping and panting for breath and at length dye and then appears the second Water of the wise which doth ascend and descend so long till it ruine the dead Carkass and then a Soul comes into it and it vegetates and circulates and changeth colours so long till Blackness vanishing there be made a perfect union and universal temperament of Elemental qualities never more to contend together then the whole Compound for a time appears like to a new glorious Water glittering like Oriental Pearls and Fish-eyes Of this Menstrue by labour exuberate With it may be made Sulphur of Nature THis is it which Raymund calls his Mercury exuberate as much as to say Mercury with Child Artephius calleth it the Salt pregnant for it hath Sulphur actually hidden under the Mercurial quickness therefore it by digestion is easily turned into our Stone which is Sulphur or Fire of Nature If it be well and kindly acuate And circulate into a Spirit pure Then to dissolve thou must be sure Thy base with it in divers wise As thou shalt know by thy practise That point c. THis Mercury thus renovate or new born may by the Philosopher be diversly handled for he may take his work from the Fire and circulate and cohobate this Mercury by a peculiar operation which is partly Mechanical till he have a most admirable pure subtile Spirit in which he may dissolve Pearls and all Gems and multiply them or his Red Stone before it be united with a Metal in projection for the making of Aurum Potabile And in this Mercury thus circulated is doubtless the Mystery of the never-fading Light which I have actually seen but yet not practically made In a word every one who hath this exuberate Mercury hath indeed at command the subject of wonders which he may imploy himself many ways in both admirably and pleasantly And certainly he that hath this needs no information from another himself now standing in the Centre he may easily view the Circumference and then operation will be next to the Spirit of God his best Guide Know then that if thou be a Son of Art when thou art once arrived hither thou art so far from being at the end of thy search unless thou make Gold to be thy final object and so thou shalt never come hither that thou art but now come into the Mystical School of the hidden wonders of God in which thou mayst every day see new Miracles if thou be studious and desirous of knowledge which all Adepti are they prize skill before any earthly thing and therefore refuse Honour and Pomp and retire only to the beholding of God and his Works in this admirable Looking-glass of the most hidden Mysteries of Nature For so together they may be circulate That is the base oyl and vegetable Menstrual So that it be by labour exuberate And made by craft a Stone celestial YEt doth not wisdom come naked but with her she brings riches and length of days for this exuberate Mercury is an Hermaphrodite and may without taking out of the Glass be circulated into a fifth Essence Now the union between the two Principles is the very true cause of this circulation for though in this last Menstruum there is an inseparable oneness yet the Components do give each their most noble quality to exalt the transcendency of our Medicine The extreme Components of this third Menstruum are the Sulphur and Mercuriality of the second as the first Menstrue and Sol our Body were the extremes of the second The base oyl our Sulphur is called for he is the unctuous Dragon or Earth which lyes at bottom without wings and is the Basis as it were of the Work The Mercury is called Vegetable for that it flyes and returns and makes the
all Elements being linked here inviolably to the making up of that great Mysterium magnum which Paracelsus described but knew it not we both know it and have seen it and what we do know and have seen we do faithfully relate And when thou hast made Calcination Increasing not wasting moisture radical Vntil thy base by oft subtilation Will lightly flow as Wax on a Metal Then loose it with thy Vegetable Menstrual Till thou have Oyl thereof in colour bright THerefore labour thou to bring thy Gold to a Calcination not by Corrosives but by Mercury not into a Powder red and dry but into a Calx black and unctuous and multiply moisture by our true Virgins Milk then circulate these Natures together till they will flow like unto Wax upon a Plate of Metal which is the sign of the true Tincture of Luna Continue thy Fire till the fixt again relent of its own accord till the dry become moist again and till a Soul return then shall thy Tincture proceed forward to a new Germination and shall be indowed with a Vegetative Soul Govern thy Bath sweetly until thou have a Tincture of Citrine which is a sign that thy Water is now impregnated with the Oyl immarcessible Then is that Menstruum visible to sight THen shalt thou discover what before was hidden and see what before was invisible and shalt say with the Philosopher O Nature how thou makest Gold volatile that was most fixed Therefore have they passed one into another An Oyl is drawn out in the colour of Gold THis is our Virgins Milk of the Sun which is yellow with this and our perfect Tincture we make our Blessed Oyl which hath not its Peer among all the works of God next to the Immortal Soul of man the Glass of Tri-unity the Sabbath of perfection O happy they that attain to it Or like thereto out of fine red Lead YEt a succedaneum of this noble Medicine is found in the loyns of Saturn in the bowels of our despised Infant which some true and loyal Sons of Nature through the great mercy of God have attained without knowing our great Arcanum which a man would think marvellous This is our red Lead our Mercury essencificate and coagulated into a chaos of Spiritual Gold and after dissolved into a quintessence as red as Bloud which because it is made out of the very Essential Mercury of our Stone which is our first Water I shall leave it undiscovered which otherwise if it might be explained without danger of prostituting the other Secret to unworthy people I would for the good of Mankind proclaim it with Trumpets Which Raymund said when he was old Much more then Gold would stand in stead THis Oyl or Quintessence this Balsam of Health we do therefore prize for its wonderful virtue not so much for that by means of it Poverty that great snare may be avoided but for its wonderful prevailing excellency against all Diseases both of body and mind as witnesseth Lully Trevisan Artephius with that excellent Book intituled Aurea Hora or Consurgens Aurora For when he was for Age near dead He made thereof Aurum Potabile Which him revived as men might see BY vertue of this Quintessence Artephius testifieth that he lived above a thousand years Flammel also recordeth of it that it triumpheth over all the Miseries of the World Johannes de Laznioro is more bold and saith that if in the Agony of death a man should tast but a Grain of it all the mortal Pestilence would depart from him Since then this Knowledge is so wonderfully profitable being the very Looking-glass of Nature the Antidote against Poverty and Sickness and consequently the Cut-throat of Covetousness Pride Ambition and such like sordid Affections who would not bestow a little time in the Inquiry of it In which let me assure thee in the very words of Trevisan the Art is so plain that if it were nakedly described it would be contemptible And yet in vulgar Mechanicks how frequent is it for men to serve seven eight yea ten years Apprentiship to attain them And in some that are a little more ingenious how frequently are considerable sums of Money bestowed to boot Yet in this noble Art so far excelling all Humane Sciences as the Sun doth a Candle who will imploy himself with diligence unless it be some Money-minded Sots who seek only for Riches and yet how soon are even they weary So that few or none persist in their Inquiry save a few Roguish Sophisters who live by Cozening by reason of such the Art is scandalized and ill spoken of Yet trust me for I speak knowingly the Art is both true and easie yea so easie that if you did see the Experiment you could not believe it I made not five wrong Experiments in it before I found the truth although in some particular turnings of the Encheiresis I erred oft yet so as I in my error knew my self a Master and in less then full two years and a half of a vulgar Ignoramus I became a true Adept and have the Secret through the goodness of God And that this is true there are those alive that can bear witness to this my writing which I penn'd for the sake of the Ingenious that they may have Ariadne's thread stretched out to guide them so with the blessing of God they shall by their own Experience see and know that I wrote nothing but what the Light of Experience far beyond all imaginary conjectures hath taught me to be true ANd now my Muse let it not irksome seem To thee of Natures Mysteries to sing Those hidden Mysteries which many deem Nought but delusions with them for to bring This is th' opinion of the Vulgar rude To whom there 's hardly any selcouth thing But seems a Juggling trick that would delude Their fancies with an empty wondering Therefore against it they with thundering words do ring There is a fiery Stone of Paradise So call'd because of its Celestial hew Named of Ancient years by Sages wise Elixir made of Earth and Heaven new Anatically mixt strange to relate Sought for by many but found out by few Above vicissitudes of Nature and by fate Immortal like a Body fixt to shew Whose penetrative vertue proves a Spirit true His property is as the Sages told Metals imperfect which before would burn Six to transmute into most perfect Gold And five into the finest Silver turn Not equalled by Metals of the Mine Which while some seek they madly seem to spurn The pricks which proves in th' end a bad design And gives them cause sadly at length to mourn And to bewail their destiny like men forlorn For why they do not well premeditate The nature of the thing they would attain The only thirst of Gain doth animate These Gold-adoring wretches who maintain Their mad expence with many a cursed lye Nor from false perjury will they refrain Thus they allure fools by flattery To trust their dotage for the hope