body and soul of man is done as is said afore in spiritual dying to sin and not in the corporal dying of the sinfulâ— flesh For even as it is with the solution of the body and soul in the Philosophicalâ— or terrene work where indeed the body and soul are separated as it were the one from the other yet nevertheless have a most streight or close coherency in the glass and abide conjoynedly or together and moreover the soul doth daily refresh the body and preserve it from final destruction and do even to the time appointed by God 2 Cor. 5. remain as yet inseparable Even so also the wither'd and as it were dead body in man 1 Peter 3. is not it this its School of or exercise with the Cross even wholly forsaken by the soul but is daily if the fervency of the tribulation exceeds measure moistened by the Spirit from above with the heavenly dew and divine Nectar is imbibed comforted and preserved thereby thâ— which is a celestial refreshment and recreation of the deadened terrene body in men For our temporal death which is the wages of our sins Rom. 6. is not a right death but a natural solution of body and soul and is much rather a kind of a gentle sleep yea now 't is truly an indissoluble conjunction understand in the godly of the Spirit of God and of the soul and so remains Besides 't is very fitly compared with that wonderful ascending and descending in the terrene work as to its number which happly is wont to be done seven times for there are to be found six thousand years troubles and tribulations viz. as long as the world shall endure In which such men as are void of all comfort are at all times in their crosses calamities and diversities of troubles plentifully erected comforted and strengthened again by the Spirit of God And this praise and glory be to God for it is even yet daily so done and likewise will be so long done until the great universal Sabbath and day of rest of the seven thousandth year shall take its beginning and there then that spiritual refreshing or cooling shall in that change or time only cease and shall obtain its so long-wished for end and in the room thereof when God shall be all in all 2 Tim. 4. shall that eternally abiding joy and rejoycing be begun But during that digestion and coction of the spiritual dead body in man there will also after such a like manner as is to be seen in the terrene work many divers colours and signs that is miseries and troubles and tribulations of all kinds the chiefest of which is that afore mentioned temptation which is done and caused by the devil the world and our flesh shew and represent themselves all which do notwithstanding betoken a good beginning viz. that such a well vexed or digested man will in the end obtain an happy blessed and wisht-for issue whereof the Scripture likewise is a witness in which in 2 Tim. 3. and Acts 4. 't is written viz. that all those as will live happy in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution and that we must necessarily enter into the Kingdom of heaven through many tribulations and streights To which end also Saint Anstine saies thus Do not wonder my Brother if when thou shalt be made a Christian a thousand troubles do beset thee round on every side for Christ is the head of our faith and we are his members and therefore we must not only follow him but also imitate his life Now the life of Christ was encompassed with all kinds of tribulations and extream want be was derided by the Scribes and Pharisees and was finally delivered up to a most shameful death for us miserable sinners Hence maist thou easily conclude that if God vouchsafe thee such a life and chastise thee with such a like persecution he intends to bring thee into the number of his Elect for we cannot possibly come unto God without those persecutions and tribulations For such as endeavour to enter into Paradise must necessarily walk through the fire and water though it be Peter to whom the keyes of heaven are delivered Or Paul a chosen Vessel and Armour of God Or John to whom all the secrets of God are revealed For all must necessarily confess that by various tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of God Thus much Saint Austin saith Moreover this likewise is to be well heeded viz. that the Chymical Philosophers have stamped or signed Antimony with this same Character or Mark by or through which â™ as we have said in the Chymical preparation the following fermentation must be done or pass and that afore it be put to the obtained elixar or chymical King or must undergo the sudatory or stoving bath with the old white or grey-headed Saturn The which may verily be accounted of as a kind of miracle and mysterie and is to be so lookt upon for even that form or figure is to be found also amongst us Christians and is made use of and set down almost in a like concealment or secret hiding for there was a mast or piece of straight wood with a cross piece at the top delivered into the hands of our chiefest Captain and Emperour of the whole Christianity and by it is hinted unto us that he afore he could arrive to a peaceable and quiet Possession must necessarily be well tryed by the Cross miseries and other calamities of this world and be as 't were tossed therewith and be by them exercised and proved the typical prefiguration and signification of which those said Philosophers as lived in those antient times did not perhaps rashly and casually only signifie by such a sign or character and that even in the Chymical work which requires also such a Process All which things may not unfitly be referred to the aforementioned School or Lesson of the Cross and the tribulations and persecutions of Christians viz that they also afore they can enter into that everlasting rejoycing and rest must be constrained to lead and run their race through the burdensom and difficult course of the world or to undergo the School of conflicts or striving and the sweating-Bath with the old inimicitious Saturn that is with the old Adam and Satan Job 26. Now according to those afore mentioned tribulations and calamities there are many and divers signs and miracles and also great changes here and there in the world that are well to be observed and diligently considered of and weighed for there 's mention made of wars and rumours of wars various sects the plague and scarcity of corn all which things are true fore-runners and messengers as it were of our redemption and its being very near at hand Briefly when the universal resurrection of the dead shall be at hand then at first those men that have overcome by the blood of the Lamb for the former new regeneration made in baptism is the beginning only of this second right
some of the Philosophers have by a most high-graduated essence of Wine dissolved the body of Sol have made it Volatile so as to ascend by an Alembick subposing that this is the Volatile true Philosophick matter whereas it is not And although it be no contemptible Arcanum to bring this perfect mettalline body into a Volatile and spiritual Substance yet notwithstanding they err in the Separation of the Elements the which process of those Monks viz. Lully Richard the Englishman Rupescisea and others is erroneous By which process they supposed to separate gold by this way into a subtile spiritual and elementary power each one a part and afterwards by circulation and rectification to couple them again into one but in vain for verily although one Element may after a sort be separated from another yet nevertheless every element after this manner separated may again be sepatated into another element the which parts cannot at all afterwards either by pellicanick circulation or destillation return into one again but they always remain a Certain Volatile matter and Aurum Potabile as they call it The cause why they could never arrive to their intention is this because nature is not in the least willing to be thus distracted or separated by humane disjunctions as by terrene things glasses and instruments She her self alone knows her own operations and the weights of the Elements the separations rectifications and copulations of which she accomplisheth without the help of any Operator or Manual artifice Only the matter is to be contained in the secret fire and in its occult Vessel The Separation therefore of the Elements is impossible to be done by man which separation should it have some appearance yet notwithstanding is not true whatsoever is spoken thereof by Raimund Lully and his English golden noble Work which he is falsly supposed to have framed For Nature it self hath in her self her proper Separater which doth again conjoyn what it separates without the help of man and doth best know all her Trade and the proportion of every element and not man whatever such erroneous Scriblers do in their frivolous and false receipts boast of this their volatile Gold This then is the opinion or mind of the Philosophers that when they have put their matter into the more secret fire it be all about cherished with its own moderate Philosophical heat that so beginning to pass through corruption it may grow black This operation they call putrefaction and the blackness they name the head of the Crow They call the ascension and descension thereof distillation ascension and descension they call the exsiccation coagulation and the dealbation calcination And because it is fluid and soft in the heat they have made mention of Ceration when it hath ceased to ascend and remain liquid in the bottom then they say fixation is present After this manner therefore the Appellations and terms of the Philosophical operations are to be understood and no otherwise CHAP. XVIII Of the Instruments and Philosophical Vessel THE Putatitious Philosophers have rashly understood and imagined the Occult and Secret Philosophical Vessel and Aristotle the Alchymist not that Grecian Academical Philosopher hath conceited it worser in that he saith the matter is to be decocted in a threefold Vessel but he hath worst of all understood it that says viz. that the matter in its first separation and first degree requires a Mettalline Vessel in the second degree of Coagulation and dealbation of its own earth a glass Vessel and in the third degree for fixation an earthen Vessel Nevertheless the Philosophers do understand by this Vessel one Vessel only in all operations even to the perfection of the Red Stone seeing therefore that our matter is our root for the white and the red t is necessary that our Vessel ought to be on this wise that the matter therein may be governed by the Celestial Bodies for the invisible Celestial Influences and impressions of the Stars are exceeding necessary to the Work otherwise 't will be impossible for the invincible Oriental Persian Chaldean and Egyptian Stone to be accomplished by which Stone Anaxagoras knew the vertues of the whole Firmament and foretold of the great Stone that should descend down upon the earth out of Heaven the which also happened after his death Verily our Vessel is most chiefly known to the Cabalists because it ought to be framed according to a truly Geometrical proportion and measure and of or by a Certain and assured Quadrature of a Circle or thus that thee Spirit and soul of our matter may in this Vessel elevate with themselves answerable to the altitude of the heaven the things separated from their own body If the Vessel be narrower or wider higher or lower then is fit and then the ruling and operating Spirit and Soul desires the heat of our Philosophical Secret Fire which is indeed most acute would stir up the matter too violently and urge it to overmuch operation that the Vessel would leap into a thousand pieces to the hazard and danger of the body and life of the Operator whereas contrariwise if it be more wide or capacious then for the heat to operate upon the matter according to proportion the work will also be frustrate and vain And therefore our Philosophical Vessel is to be framed with the greatest diligence But as for the matter of this our Vessel they alone do understand it that in the first Solution of our fixt and perfect matter have adduced or brought this matter into its first Essence and so much for this The Operator must likewise most accurately note what it is that the matter in the first Solution le ts fall and casts out from it self The manner of describing the form of the Vessel is difficult it must be such as nature it self requires t is to be sought for and searcht after out of one and the other that so it may from the altitude of the Philosophick Heaven elevated from the Philosophick Earth be able to operate upon the fruit of its own earthly body Verily it ought to have this Form that a separation and purification of the Elements when the Fire drives the One from the other may be made and that each Element may possess its own place in which it sticks and the Sun and the other Planets may exercise their operations round about the Elemental Earth and the course of them may not be hindred in their circuit or be stir'd up with too swift a motion Now according to all these things here spoken of it must have a just proportion of Roundness and Height But the Instruments for the first mundification of Mineral Bodies are melting Vessels Bellows Tongs Capels Cupels Tests Cementatory Vessels Cineritiums Cucurbits Bocia's for Aq. fort and Aq. regia and also some things as are necessary for projection in the last Work CHAP. XIX Of the secret Fire of the Philosophers THis is the renowned Judgement and Opinion of the Philosophers viz. the Fire
heavy which tingeth into perfect Gold Do not desist from the work which we have now mentioned until thou hast the signs or marks and seest the Lyon and Treasure not to be bought with at the the Treasure of the Tenth Lion or Leo the Tenth the Pope of Rome 'T is well for him that hath found it and knows how to apply it for Tincture This is the true Balsom of the Celestial Astrum◠or Stars the which suffers not any body to go into putrefaction nor doth it leave either Lepry Gout or Dropsie unexpelled by or in the administration of one grain if it shall be fermented with the Sulphur of Sol O thou German Charles Where 's thy Treasure Where be thy Doctors and Physicians Where are thy Boylers of Lignum Guaicum who do purge only and make Laxative What! Is thy Heaven thus provoked thy Stars thus wandred from the right course and thy straight Line declined unto another way What! are thine eyes transmuted into Glass and Carbuncle that they see those things only which pertain to ornament and to a superficial Spectacle disdain and pride Verily if thy Doctors did but know that their Prince whom they call Galen did live with the Infernal Spirits and that he wrote back from thence hither whereby he might make evidently known to the whole world the deserved Condemnation of himself they would out of meer astonishment flap themselves with the Foxes tail Nor is Avicen to be otherwise thought of but that he sits in the Porch of Hell with whom I have had some Disputation and Controversie about his Aurum potabile Philosophers Stone and Triacle O ye troop of Sophisters who plainly counterfeit the Medicinal Art whereas t is born from God and commited to Nature and not to you ye most unworthy men for ye do too too unworthily despise her Look to it O ye Cheaters of Mankinde Ye who love the upper Seats in the earth whereupon ye also sit After my decease shall my Disciples arise who shall lay you open ye Hypocrites and bring you abroad to the Light together with your most unclean Cooks ye miserably deceive your Princes and Christian Potentates and bring them to the grave by your Medicine Wo be unto you at the last Judgement day I hope that my Monarchy will triumph with the honour due unto me not that I extoll my self but Nature her self doth extoll me for 't is from her that I am born a Physitian her I follow she knows me and I her because I have seen the Light that is in her and have approved or made it good in the Figure of the Microcosm and have found it so in her world the which is true But to return to what I began I shall do enough for my Disciples on whom also I bestow my Doctrine do much favour them as long as they seek it in the light of nature so that they do make experience do get the knowledge of the Stars and become Learned in Philosophy the nature of the water and every thing that I have written will make apparent and teach all things unto them Take therefore as much as thou wilt of the Liquor of the Minerals of the Salt of the red earth two parts of the Sulphur of Sol one part let them be put in a Pellican be dissolved and Coagulated and that the third time By this way shalt thou have the tincture of the Alchymists the weight of which is not at all to be described in this place but in the book of transmutations Whosoever hath one ounce of the Astrum of the Sun and shall project it upon some ounce of Gold it shall tinge its own proper body If he hath the Astrum of ☿ he shall likewise tinge the whole body of Common Mercury If the Astrum of ☿ it shall in like manner tinge the whole body of Venus into the best Gold and into the highest and durable perfection The like is to be supposed of the Stars of the other Mettals as ♄ ♃ ♂ c. Out of all which also are the Tinctures to be extracted by the same reason or way and which we shall not at all describe here because they are to be had in the Book of the nature of things and of the Archidoxis In these few words I have abundantly enough declared to the true Alchymist the first Ens of the Mettals and Minerals of the Earth together with the Tincture of the Alchymists Nor is there any Cause why any Operator should be deterred with the space of nine moneths time but let him proceed on without tediousness in a Spagyrical way by which he shall be able in the space of fourty Alchymical days to fix extract exalt putrifie ferment and Coagulate the Stone of the Alchymists to the honour of God and profit of his Neighbour To GOD alone be Praise Honour and Glory for evermore Amen THE WATER-STONE OF THE VVise Men. THere have been ever since the beginning of the World in all Times and Seasons many and several men and most experienced Philosophers highly illuminated by GOD and likewise many Gentiles have been found at all times most learned in worldly wisdom who have most diligently considered of the nature and internal Vertues of the Creatures and have thereupon endeavoured to learn and know them exactly From the consideration of all which they bent their study and made it their task with much earnestness and labour to search out and enquire if any thing could be found in natural things that had a possibility of conserving the terrene or earthy body of man afore destruction and mortality came in in a perpetual life and in a whole or sound and prosperous state Now then by a singular Divine Influence and by the light of Nature they saw and knew that 't was expedient and fitting that this singular secret and wonderfull thing be in this world the which the Almighty God had appointed for the benefit of Mankinde viz. that all such things as throughout the whole universe were imperfect maimed and corrupted might be again renewed by that singular secret Arcanum and be again restored to their perfect fulness and State So then by this most diligent search and inquiry of theirs they at length found and learned that nothing at all was to be found in this world that could free the earthy and corruptible body from death the which was constituted and imposed upon our first Parents Adam and Eve as a punishment and never suffered it self to be separated from their off-spring and children but only this one thing the which being in it self not corruptible Naturally is appointed by God for the benefit of man to take away corruption and to be capable of healing again all imperfect bodies to purifie the old and to prolong the shortness of life as in the time of the Ancient Patriarchs These wonderfull Secrets the honest and skilfull Philosophers did with their greatest study and diligence so long search for and inquire after untill
it and at last dyed on the Cross and many other afflictions and tribulations did he necessarily undergo in his life and at his death of which you may read more at large in the holy Evangelists And even as the Philosophers write viz. that that boiling and putrefaction in the afore-mentioned terrene work is usually made and perfected within fourtie daies So are there described and laid down to us in the holy Scripture a description of many and divers miracles that God hath done by that afore-mentioned number as for instance that of the people of Israel's when they aboad in the desart for fourty whole years and had the tryal of a very hard exile Psal. 59. Deut. 8. Likewise Moses his being in Mount Sinai Exod. 34. Also Elias in his flight because of Ahab 1 Kings 19. So Christ in the desart fasted forty daies and as many nights Likewise also he preached on the earth for fourty moneths and performed miracles He lay forty hours in the Sepulchre and fourtie daies between his resurrection from the dead and his ascention into heaven did he walk about and visit his Disciples and shewed himself alive unto them Acts 1. Likewise the City of Hierusalem was destroyed by the Romans and razed to the ground the fortieth year after the ascention of our Lord. But you must here principally note that the Philosophers call that putrefaction because of its black colour Cantic 1. I am black the head of the Crow Even so Christ himself Isa. 53. He had no form nor c. was wholly deformed as to his form and beauty the most vile of all full of griefs and sorrows and also was despised in so much that we even hid our faces because of him and esteemed him as a thing of nought Moreover himself doth likewise in Psalm 22. complain of that thing viz. he was a worm and no man the mocking stock of men and contempt of the People In like manner also this may not unfitly be compared with Christ. viz. As that Putrified body of Sol doth lie for a season like to ashes in the bottom of the glass and dead without any efficacy until by the addition of a stronger heat its soul doth again let down it self drop by drop and by little and little and doth again imbibe the sick and as it were dead body doth moisten it give it to drink and preserve it from a total destruction even so happened it to Christ when he was in the Mount of Olives and upon the Cross and was roasted as it were by the fire of the divine wrath Mat. 26. 27. he complained that he was wholly forsaken by his heavenly Father and yet nevertheless was he alwaies refreshed and strengthened Mark 4. Luke 22. and imbued as 't were and moistened and imbibed with the divine Nectar even as 't is wont to be in the terrene body by a daily airing for and refreshment yea also when in his most holy passion and mediating death his power and strength together with his Spirit was wholly withdrawn from him and he plainly or truly arrived or came to the lower and deepest parts of the earth Acts 1. Ephes. 1. 1 Peter 3. he was notwithstanding even yet conserved refreshed and again lifted or raised up by the vertue and power of the eternal Deity and thereby vivified and glorified Rom. 14. and here 't was that his soul and spirit did first of all procure or bring to pass a perfect true and indissolvable union with his dead body in the Sepulchre and by a most joyful and victorious resurrection and ascention to the heavens was it exalted through our Lord Jesus Christ to the right hand of his Father Mat. 28. Mark 16. with the which body he doth now by the efficacy and vertue of the holy Spirit as being a true God and Man in equal power and glory rule and bear command over all things Psal. 8. and by his most efficacious Word preserves and sustains all things Heb. 1. yea he vivifies all things Acts 17. The which wonderful union and also that divine exaltation cannot be well seen and much less considered of by Angels and men in heaven and on earth yea and under the earth Phil. 2. 1 Pet. 1. without fear and trembling Whose efficacy power and rosey-coloured tincture is able to transmute us imperfect men and sinners even now in body and soul to tinge and more then perfectly to cure and heal us concerning which we shall speak more anon Having now therefore briefly and plainly disclosed to you how viz. the Celestial Fundamental Corner-stone Jesus Christ may be compared with the terrene Philosophical stone of the wise men the matter and preparation whereof is as we have heard a notable type and lively counterpoise as 't were and resemblance of the divine assumption of humane flesh in Christ We therefore likewise judge it necessary that we also behold and learn his efficacy virtue and Tincture as also his fermentation and multiplication in us men who are destitute of efficacy and virtue and are as it were Imperfect mettals And albeit that God created man at the beginning above all his other Creatures and made him a most noble and most perfect Creature yea he made him after his own Image and breathed into him a living Spirit and an Immortal Soul Yet nevertheless after his fall was he transmuted into a deformed contrary and pernicions or mortal shape and form But now to restore again such a most noble Creature to his former brightness or lustre and perfection the Omnipotent God did out of his meer mercy ordain such a medium as his viz. mans restitution might be brought to pass by after the manner following viz. as we have afore said that the more then perfect stone or Tincture after this its perfection is to be in the first place yet further fermented augmented or multiplyed if at leastwise you would obtain its manifold profit and have its efficacy and operation beneficial Even so also Christ that heavenly blessed stone must according to his God-man perfection be yet moreover also further fermented and multiplyed as 't were with us as with his members that is we must be purifyed and united with him by his own saving ticture of a Rosey colour and be prepared and conformed to a pure unfermented and celestial body for as Paul testifies in Rom. 8. he is the first begotten among many brethren yea the first begotten before all other Creatures whatsoever Coloss. 1. by whom all things in Heaven and Earth are created and reconciled with God for if we who are naturally impure mortal and imperfect would be again made pure new-born or regenerate immortal and perfect then verily that cannot be done by any other medium Hebr. 13. then by that celestial fundamental corner stone only Jesus Christ who is alone holy yea the most holy Dan. 9. the new-born raised up and glorifyed heavenly King who both is and eternally remains God and man in one person Likewise even as the
and sottishly speak thereof a meer empty sound but is Spirit and Life and the saving Power of God John 6. to all such as believe therein Concerning which hearing the Kingly Prophet David doth thus speak Psal. 64. I will hear what the Lord will speak in me Out of the which internal and divine hearing the Word of God as out of a certain spring or fountain a true vivifying faith which is efficacious by or through charity Gal. 5. doth take its original for as Paul saith Rom. 10. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God 2 Pet. 2. So therefore now if the Word of God be pure and clear then may the hearing be also pure and clear Luke 21. and so consequently that faith which as 't were flows out of that hearing will be pure and uncorrupted and is effectual by charity and shews it self as towards God in an humble obedience to his holy Precepts and Will and also in praying in praising and in giving of thanks and as towards ones neighbour in a well-minded loving exhibition or doing of divers good Works insomuch that Charity is not the least but as Paul saith the highest vertue of all others So likewise Christ himself in his long fare-well Sermon at his departure Ioh. 13. doth with much dilgence exhort unto that exercise of Charity and left behind at that time this lesson as a fare-well saying This is my Commaudement that ye love one another even as I also loved you for so shall all men know that ye are my Disciples Likewise in 1 Iohn 2. He that saith he knows God and yet doth not keep his Commandements is a lyar and there is no truth in him But he that keepeth his word in him verily the Charity or Love of God is perfect And besides in 1 Iohn 4. God is Charity or Love he that abides therein abides in God and God abides in him Col. 1. By all this 't is evident how that Charity is the true bond of Perfection by which we are incorporated into Christ himself So that he is in us and we in him 2 Iohn 3. he in his Father and his Father in him and this is his will The which Christ himself doth also testifie in that place aforementioned where he saith If any one keepeth my saying he it is that loves me and I will love him and 〈◊〉 will come unto him and make our abode with him Iohn 5. he saith If ye shall keep my Commandements ye abide in my love concerning the which Charity and how it relates to our neighbour 't is elegantly described in 1 Iohn 4. If any one saith Iohn doth say that he loveth God and yet hateth his Brother he is a lyar for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how shall he love God whom he hath not seen And this command have we from him that he who loveth God do love his brother also But as to the property of that Love what it is Saint Paul expresseth it in the following words 1 Cor. 13. Love saith he is long-suffering and kind envieth not vaunteth not it self neither is it puffed up nor is it weary of doing good to its neighbour T is therefore easie to be seen and understood that viz. there can be no true and right Love or Charity which doth not serve its neighbour with good and charitable works Col. 3. and yet indeed there are many of such as call themselves Christians that do rashly boast thereof Moreover t is evident that good works as are pleasing unto God do not precede faith but is as it is with fruits which follow or succeed the stock and tree the which if it be good doth also bring forth good fruits and for this cause works do not make faith but faith makes works good grateful and acceptable Ierem. 5. Upon this account therefore the which is the chiefest thing here we are justified by faith alone and obtain life eternal thereby If therefore now the regenerate man doth so Christianly and piously behave himself after the aforesaid manner in his life and in all his actions then also will he not in the least want his fruits Such a man now is like unto the composition in the terrene work he is placed by God in the fornace of tribulation and is so long pressed with straights of all kinds and with various calamities and troubles until he becomes dead to the old Adam and flesh Eph. 4. and be like a truly new man which according to God is created in a right and true justice and holiness and is again risen up as Saint Paul in Rom. 6. doth testifie where he saith We together with Christ are buried in death by baptism for even as Christ is risen from the dead so let us also walk in newnesse of life If this now be done and that a man doth daily cease to sin that so by this means sin may bear no more rule over him then doth the solution of the adjoyned body of gold as in the terrene work take its original in him and as we have afore said the putrefaction so that he becomes as 't were wholly dissolved ground destroyed and putrified after a spiritual manner the which solution and putrefaction notwithstanding is wont to be sooner done with one then another but however t is fit that it be done even in this temporal life That is such a man is so well digested boiled and mollified in the fire of tribulation 1 Pet. 4. that he even despairs of all his own power and strength and seeks for his comfort in the alone grace and mercy of God 2 Cor. 4. in the which fornace of the Cross and continual fire the man like the terrene body of the gold obtains the right black head of the Crow that is he is made altogether deformed and as to the world Wisdom 5 Iob 30. is only derided and mocked by it and that not only forty daies and nights or years but oftentimes also for his whole life time insomuch that he necessarily undergoes many a time more grief of heart then comfort and gladness and more sadness then joy in this life-time And here then by this his spiritual death his soul is wholly taken out and is as 't were carried up on high that is he is as yet with his body on the earth but with his Spirit and soul which lives no more now to the world but unto God nor takes delight in earthly things but placeth his highest comfort in spiritual things 2 Cor. 4. he tends upwards to an eternal Life and Countrey and doth so institute and order all his actions that they are not earthly but as far forth as may be done in this time or place are heavenly and now he lives no more according to the flesh but after the Spirit not in the unfruitful works of darkness but as in the day-light in the works that abide the tryal all being done in God The which separation of the