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
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
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
this thing should be Moreover it was my hopes so to have ingratiated my self into your favour as to have been a Servant unto you who I see are otherwise provided of a Lover Then said she My Friend what you admire in this strange Metamorphosis of me know that it is by a Magical Vertue which is alone given to me from GOD my immediate Lord and Ruler and for any Diabolical Art which your Scruple seems to manifest your suspition of it is because of your unexperience in these things and this your Ignorance is no way provoking unto me for in these Affairs though a man yet you are but a Child and this liberty I allow all my Sons while they are Children so to speak so to think and so to act and I love to hear and answer their childish prattle Know then that the Devil is but one of my Servants and in my Kingdom he doth serve GOD his and my Lord And though of all my Servants he is the worst yet he can do nothing of himself either without me or against me or above me He for the most part is a deceitful Jugler and doth make things appear that are not but whatever is actually effected by him is nothing but what is in my Power He only applies Agents to Patients and adds a little of his own villanous qualities as a circumstantial aggravation of the horror of what he thus by my virtue brings to pass and then his villanous mind attributes that to himself which is my Act that so he might arrogate the honour due to my Lord and his Master Now I will tell you a strange thing which yet is very true I am obedient to all my Subjects which are many and they obey me I rule them and they do as it were inforce me for so my Lord hath pleased to ordain it If they call me I am straight at hand yea in my Body which thou seest which is no Body but only representative for I am all Spirit I feel the Sympathies and Antipathies the Actions and Passions of every thing in the World and I must be always present for nothing is or can be well done without I be present I always work according to the subject and its disposition which doth alter the effect wonderfully In a word whatever thou seest that I am and more then thou canst see by far though thou hadst the Eyes of Argus My Rule is not as is the Rule of Princes among Men but I am serviceable to all yea to the least Worm in the World and because I am so serviceable therefore my Master hath appointed that nothing can or may disobey me or offer violence to me the Devil here hath no power though malice enough Therefore my Lord hath given me his own Diploma to make me the more Honourable first An Omnisciency of all things which are done in the World as touching the Being Conservation or Mutation of them and next An Omnipresency by which I am every where present at once and I am seated in the Will of God which is my Centre All my Subjects are put under Man therefore he hath a free power to act any thing within his reach in the World and the Soul of Man is as it were a Magnet unto me and all my Subjects in its Exaltation and Vnion by Faith to my Lord and Master though since Man lost his Dignity he lost also his Knowledge and his Will is liable to the Temptations of the Devil and so as many as by renouncing their Creator do devote themselves to Satan he hath by his confederacy power to exalt their Will and to apply their Power to the effecting of things possible in Nature and impossible for the Devil to perform alone whose pride would scorn to crave help if he could and beyond the knowledge of the inthralled Caytiff who mistaking the effect and not seeing how it was done by himself and not Satan though his power for want of knowledge to employ it without his help were made use of by him and applied according to his own Devilish Design the Wretch is insnared to bind over both his Soul and Body to the Devil as a requital of this Service so crafty a Deceiver is he But this being from my present scope I shall forbear to speak further of it at present lest I should distract not edifie you Now as concerning your jealousie for that you see me naked with this King know that this place and my Kingdom are in the State of Innocency though we are by the Fall of Adam laid subject to Vanity and till the final Restitution of that Fall I am forbidden to work any thing of my own accord beyond the state of fading corruptibility though all things have an incorruptible Spirit which when Heaven and Earth shall be renewed shall cause an Immutable Glory in all these things Know then that this King is my Servant and he hath many Brethren who in their passage to him are taken Prisoners and kept in bondage and there is no way to Redeem them unless he give his Flesh and Blood for their Ransom which cannot be effectual unless he die and arise from the Dead This I cannot perform alone my self nor can any help me herein but Man alone for God hath here limited my power I cannot bring Agents and Patients together though he hath given me power to work on them being composed and to effect what may serve for the Ransom of those poor Captives and he hath given man a free power to act in subordination to him in the World though through the Fall the Wings of this power are not clipt at all but clogged with Ignorance that it is very uneffectual in comparison of its virtue If thou couldest but understand and believe thy very Soul would command all Nature in the whole Fabrick of it for if thou didst but know things as they are thou wouldest withal clearly see the Dignity of thy Soul being the Image of God and this would command Faith and kindle Desire Now Faith and a kindled Desire in the Soul is that extatical Passion which attracts the whole Phaenomena of Nature This is the Dignity of a Mental Man Now then my Friend hearken to me and what I advise that do help me in what I cannot and I will help thee in what thou canst not so shalt thou be to GOD subordinate Lord both of me and mine and the Blood of this King which redeems his Brethren will give thee a Medicine to command all the Imperfections of thy mortal Body and though it be no Antidote against Death the irrevocable Decree being past yet it triumphs over all the Miseries of Life both of Poverty and Sickness and it possesseth a Man of the most incomparable Treasures of this World Then full of Admiration with Tears for very Joy trickling down abundantly I bespake her and said Lady I thank you for your so great favour to me as so familiarly to discourse with me
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
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
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
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