obtains whence by the Meâ—â—ation of the Spirit it forms so many â—ecies in the matter When therefore â—falls out that any one of these speâ—es degenerate it may by the Soul â—ithin it and the mediation of the â—â—iversal Spirit be reformed and reâ—â—ced to its former state for the Spirit alwayes at hand and ready for all â—otions In the mean while we must â—â—t imagine that the intellectual Idea attracted but rather that the Soul indued with such a vertue and allured by the material forms whiâ—â— cannot seem absurd to any one for prepares every one his meat and nutâ—ment because it is transmutable into 〈◊〉 things by which it is sollicited and wâ—lingly remains and resides therein Zâ—roaster calls the Agreement and Hâ—â—mony of the Forms with the Soul of thâ— World Allurements Whence it aâ—pears That all things and kindes draâ— their powers and faculties from thâ— Soul of the World not all totally bâ— such as respect the seed or propagâ—tion and the like whereby they germâ—nate or encrease An example here we have in Man who feeding onely 〈◊〉 Man's meat acquires not the Nature 〈◊〉 Birds Fishes or the like which 〈◊〉 cats Many other Animals also feâ— upon the same victuals and yet eveâ— one attracts that which is proper to hâ— species so that it is worthy our admiration that out of the same Meat Mâ— can attract what is proper to Man anâ— a Bird what is proper to a Bird. Anâ— this is not because there are many anâ— diverse Aliments in one and the samâ— dish but because of the species nourishâ—d which attracts and changes the nuâ—iment proper to and convenient for 〈◊〉 self by mediation whereof it geneâ—tes its like by vertue of this Soul â—nd seed which is in it according to its â—ality But we muâ—â— not think That in the â—achine of the Worid the Spirit Soul â—nd Body are things separated for â—â—ese three are alwayes united and â—â—njoyned as is apparent and by this â—â—ion the whole Spirit and corporal â—bstance become vital The universal Soul then feigns and â—â—agines divers forms which the Spiâ—â—t receiving into the bowels of the â—ements makes corporeal and proâ—ces Hence Animals generate onely â—nimals Plants Plants and Mineâ—â—ls Minerals though not all alike 〈◊〉 Minerals as I said before generate â—ot their like after the same manner 〈◊〉 Plants because their Spirit is coâ—â—ited by too gross matter which â—â—irit if it could be conveniently exâ—cted and conjoyned with Mineral â—atterâ— would generate its like beâ—â—use by its exquisite penetration into imperfect Bodies through the subtiliâ—ation of Art and artificious Graduation of Fire it brings with it proper and Mineral seeds onely not animal because repugnanâ—â—o its Natureâ— yet I will not say 〈◊〉 it wants thâ— action of other faculties but that 〈◊〉 doth not demonstrate them but aâ—cording to the species whereto it 〈◊〉 accommodated for else every thiâ— would produce its unlike a Tree wouâ—â— generate a Man a Plant a Bull a Mâ—â—tal an Herb which I speak onely 〈◊〉 respect of the diverse specifications 〈◊〉 things For if we consider the most genâ—ral Genus it produces in all thinâ— its like because being Mercurâ— it assumes the Nature of all thinâ—â— wherewith it is mixed But humaâ—â— Art cannot effect that that is soleâ— granted to Nature which alone 〈◊〉 procreate a species Art may dilâ—â— and multiply it if it begin its opeâ—â—tion at the root of the species â—â—prudent Philosophers do who exâ—â—cting the Spirit from Minerals specâ—cated decently purified and reduced 〈◊〉 perfection render it apt to perfect imperfect things And an expert and industrious Artist perpending these things aright may easily institute admirable Adaptations Finis Libri primi A TREATISE OF The Philosophers truâ— Salt and Secret And Of the universal Soul or Spirit of the World BOOK II. CHAP. 1. That the Spirit of the World assumes Body and how it is incorporated WE have I hope sufficiently eâ—plicated in the former Booâ—â—hat all things were not oâ—ly produced but also made corporâ— by the universal Spirit We now come to declare what kinde of Body this Spirit assumes and how it self both is and makes all things corporeal for that must needs be corporeal which makes all other things such seeing nothing can give what it self hath not Let us therefore see with what and how it is vested with a Body not that we will here dispute of the incorporation of celestial and supernatural beings but onely of Physical and Sublunary Generations and of the body of the Earth which is the sole vessel and true matrix where the prime and most general Incorporator of things is it self incorporated I say then That no body can be made without a precedent Mover that may diduce potency to act that which exists not in save potency may be produced into light and according to Natures intent reach its final term which is to make that a body which it would produce Now this mover can be no other then fire or heat which moves it self first in the Air for all Generations begin there because fire is the most active Element and consequently moâ— subtile and light whence it is morâ— prompt for motion Fire therefore whose propriety iâ— through its levity to ascend and makâ— unknown things visible doth requâ—sitely receive the beginning of its motâ—on and action from inferiour Bodies that is from the centre of the Earth where as we said before the olâ— Demogorgon and Progenitor of alâ— things inhabits sitting there in hiâ— Throne and midst of his Empire thaâ— thence he may govern command preserve and divide the essence of Life tâ— all the parts of that great Spherical Body expanded about him and that hâ— may more easily and from equal distance receive from every Member whaâ— he wants The root of Fire is implanted in the fruitful bowels of thiâ— old Parent which thence emits a vaporous breath which Hermes calls thâ— humid Nature for vapour is the primâ— and next action of fire with which it is so conjoyned that it cannot be imagineâ— without it But some may say If vapour come from fire how can it be moist seeing fire is hot and dry whence acquires it this contrary quality And here we finde nothing absurd if we do but consider That fire cannot live and subsist without moisture which is its aliment support and subject without which fire cannot be conceived for being by Nature active and its action indefatigable it must needs have something to act upon and never be destitute of this thing Fire then and co-essential moisture are like Male and Female in all Generations and are the first Parents of corporification of the Spirit of the World as hereafter we shall make appear But Fire is the first Operator because action precedes passion though the Patient be inseparably co-existent with the Agent as the old Stoick Zenon asserts who thought that the substance of Fire was by Air turned into Water and there conserved as the general Sperm and first universal matter
Stars direct All that the Earth and Universe contains My nod expect When all a Chaos was I spread my rayes Of light about And then divided that which in few dayes The world brought out Seeing then this Matter by its proper Nature and Appetite tends to incorporation who can rationally say That whilst it assumes a Body it is deprived or swerves from Nature that by its own vertue causes corporation and seeing when it takes a Body it is first turned into Earth who can deny but this Earth is indued with the same vertue for though through commixtion and concurse it partake of some elementary impurities yet in its Centre it is alwayes pure so that after its purification Fire which is otherwise the most active and potent Element hath no power to destroy it because it exceeds this Fire in perfection and subtilty And hence it so suddenly penetrates Bodies enlivening them and augmenting their vertues by restoring and preserving what is natural in them to wit their radical moisture which by its fiery subtily it purges and separates from its Excrements that suffocate it And that I may in a word absolve all this that most excellent Medicine which Siracides saith is extracted out of the Earth and which no wise Man will despise It is moreover that precious Salt whereto the Doctor of Doctors compared his Apostles as to a most exquisite Treasure produced by the Heavens for he might as well have said You are Adamants Rubies Pearls Gold or Silver of the Earth but that he knew That all these things though admirable contained nothing in them comparable to this general Salt whereunto all the rest owe the homage of their perfections This Medicine operates like Fire in consuming the impure which as heterogeneous it disgregates from the homogeneous parts of the pure substance and seeing the Heaven generated this Virgin in the bowels of the Earth why should she not retain her Parents vertues and like an Infant that naturally participates of both Paternal and Maternal Seeds hold both Paternal and Maternal Humours for which cause the Ancients called this progeny Androgynos which is a name common to both Sexes the Poets an Hermaphrodite as being properly neither Male nor Female but both and no less properly may this Virgin be called Uranogaea or Heaven made into Earth for being Earth she hath the Celestial Vertues tied and annexed to her indissolubly whose admirable faculties she manifests in her operations whereof I have given sufficient declaration in the precedent Chapters to all such as armed with any noble spark of ingenuity will endeavor to adventure to break through the thick woods of darkness and ignorance or to such as Virgil saith to whom Heaven has granted access or ingress into the obscure Chaos of the Earth CHAP. 3. Of the Separation of Fire from Water subtile from thick and with what industry it should be effected NAture the most sagacious Agent shews us by her proper operations that in all things we must first consider the end for which we undertake any matter and then finde out means to attain the end A prudent Searcher of Natures secrets then should have perfect knowledge of the principles progress and qualities of matter both internal and external lest in his search he confound his end with his means and forsaking the high-way which Nature hath trodden from the Foundation of the World turn into by-paths and phantastical unknown and unfrequented tracts Hermes knew the right way well for he was indued with the perfect knowledge of the Worlds constitution who desirous by Art to follow the footsteps of Nature prudently imagined That the Earth was the principle of all things and the first Creature that was by Separation created in the belly of the Chaos and thence he made such ingress into the Treasury of Natures Secrets by the Terrification of this first Matter which I said before was nourished in the Matrix of the Earth But as it is not enough for a Builder to have Materials wherewithal to erect an Edifice unless he know the manner of performing and fitting his Materials to the work so Hermes was not content to finde out convenient matter but made diligent search for the manner whereby he might prosecute his work in imitation of the chief Operator in the Creation of the Universe and so form a little World wherein all the vertues of the greater World were included Considering therefore That the thing he purposed to make must be most and that he must begin with gross and inferiour things to obtain this perfection he first begun to divide the contrary Natures by separation of the superfluous and useless parts to avoid the ruine of his work where according to the Adage it may be truely said He took the Bird by its Feet and so going through the right Gate entred into the Closet of Natures Secret without turning for Separation is the beginning of all things and the first operation of the Universal Body segregating the confused Members by the division of the confused Mass or Chaos the order and form of Elements first appeared and took their places for without Separation Day and Night Sun and Moon Winter and Summer had yet been one Metals and Minerals though never so different would have been contained in one Body and all Vegetables would have been but one Seed It was therefore necessary That Nature for the attainment of that Order and Distinction wherewith we see the Universe condecorated should begin with Separation But that we may descend to particulars let us see how this sagacious Agent begins all her operations but for Separation Generation would neither have beginning nor end by separation Aliments augment and conserve every Body And if I should deduce the proof of this Argument thorow every species I should without doubt confound my self in the intricacy of this Chaos and never finde exiture for the infinity of examples I will therefore lay down this for a Foundation That Nature begins all her Actions from Separation But because the knowledge of this is not sufficient unless withal we know what things she separates and whence this separative faculty proceeds we must discuss this matter more exactly that our discourse may proceed regularly and before I meddle with any disposition I think it best to propose some definition of Separation and declare of how many kindes this Separation is Separation then in general is nothing but the division and distinction of things dissimilar from one another as of the Heaven from the Earth Sun from Moon and the like as also of the pure from the impure heat from cold dry from moist and the contrary And from this Definition we may draw two sorts of Separation The one of things differing onely simply and not of contraries as of the parts of the World which were separated at first from the Chaos or that we may descend to particulars as of the Wood from the Bark of Leaves from Fruits and Roots from Boughs and this
found the way to extract this first matter and to corporate it in imitation of Nature which whatever purity cleanness and clarity it seems to have yet is it always loaden with a great quantity of Terrestrial Dregs which cannot be taken away without great industry I think then that I have by most valid Arguments demonstrated That every massy Body is not nourished and preserved by the visible Earth but by spirituous matter onely whereby we see that they very much abound with Excrements and that their whole Mass is nothing else but an Excrement wherein this spirituous Matter that 's apt for corporation lurks invisibly for though we eat and drink yet all that ingredes our stomacks goes out alomst in the same quantity that we assumed it in We do not therefore extract our vital Oyl out of its Mass but that pure essence and substance that lies within it Briefly That excrementitious part is nothing else but the house of this pure substance and the vehicle that carries this nutritive Spirit to the place of distribution there to compleat its digestion and requisite Separation Are not Trees and Plants incorporated with this mass of Excrements and is not this Mass the Conduit of their enlivening and vegetative Spirit and as it were a fulciment that makes them grow I do not say That all that is in a Tree or other individual is wholly an Excrement for in every thing there inhabits some particle of this substance which I cannot justly call a Body but onely a thing apt for corporation which Nature cannot work of it self for though what we see and touch is progenerated of matter apt for corporation yet this Body is not substantial and nothing but Excrement is seen So that Nature suffers nothing of that to appear that is the vital essence substance or matter of the thing but Art which by industry superates the simple power of Nature can do it well enough for an ingenious Naturalist considers this That though the spirimous matter and substance of things be nowhere pure in natural Creation yet being mixed with dregs it may be separated by the digestion of the ventricle which rejects Excrements and retains the substance not as if this Separation were subject to sight but to the understanding by the appearance of the effect whereby we finde the dregs and Excrements rejected as useless for the conservation of the essence of a Body Moreover Augmentation Restauration and Vivification coming to Bodies by this substance ascertain us of this thing though Nature whereby it acts hides the operation the substance then being separable it must be innately pure and homogeneous or similar in all its parts but this purity cannot be manifested by Nature for her operations for the intentional perfection of things is onely simple But an Artist observing that Heat is the onely Medium and Instrument which Nature uses in the attainment of this perfection and Fire the sole Purger and Separator tending to perfect purification and further minding that in the centre of every Body some pure substance is contained which can be naturally separated if not exactly yet according to the extent of its faculties he proposes to himself the same way and the same Instrument that Nature uses to wit Fire which he so administers as to destroy burn or separate the Excrements without the destruction of the pure substance residing in the centre which he continues till it be perfectly pure and the Fire have no further destructive power over it but rather acts for its conservation exaltation and the introduction of a Tincture and Quality like to it and so at length convert this whole pure substance into its own proper Nature An Artist then minding this substance to reside in all things and that all things may be burned so that after combustion Ashes will remain which the Fire cannot devour he prudently concludes That in those Ashes there remains something not subject to the vigour of Fire and Flame And further incumbent on his work he findes a kinde of Salt not produced by Fire but rather the Victor over Fire like the pure Gold of every burnt Body This Salt is the last matter resâ—ing in the Anatomy of Bodies and not Ashes whence this Salt was ultimately extracted and out of which nothing can be further extracted for if by humidity it be turned into Water by heat it will be again congealed into Salt Whence we may conclude That this Water was Mercury whence all Bodies were first created and that this Water hidden in the ashes hinders their total consumption by combustion as the universal Mercury in the Bowelâ— of the Earth before the production of Bodies Wherefore the learned Ronillascus in his Writings calls this The Water of Mercurial Fire because Fire generates nourishes it yea augments its goodness so much more by how much it remains longer in it for the ultimate operation of Fire is to make Salt and Salt is nothing but dry Water which acquires and conserves its siccity by Fire and thence it is of like Nature to it And here I would not have any wonder That in the beginning of this Book I said That Fire is not without Moisture for seeing it is nourished therewith it must also participate thereof because all things take their nourishment from that whereof they are made So that Fire and Moisture are as it were two Correlates the one whereof cannot exist without the other no not in imagination and the Elements have without doubt such affinity and connexion one with another and so participate one of another that any of them may be found in his associate for the Earth contains Air Water and Fire Water Fire Air and Earth Air Earth Water and Fire and Fire Water Air and Earth without which participations there could be no mutual conversion and no sympathy or convenience From the Premises we may collect That nothing is destitute of Excrements and that Excrement and Substance are the two constitutive parts of a Body and that nothing but Excrement as accidental and not affine to the essence or substance should be separated We may likewise gather That Fire onely procures and facilitates this operation But it is time that we proceed and shew how this may be done for it is not enough to say That Separation is the beginning of the works of Nature and Art nor to know what things are separable unless the practise manner of this operation be also rendered intelligible I said before That there were two kindes of Separation one for Distinction and Ornament of which I will say no more because it appertains onely to Nature not to Art the other is made by Decision or Division which I shall now explicate I said before That all things consist of two parts Excrement and Substance Substance is of it self simple and indivisible whether we take it general for the first Universal matter or in particular for any species according to the impression of the Celestial Idea which is
whence all things were first generated Thales Milesius whom the Greeks surnamed the wise perceiving the matter patient said That Water was the first matter which Heraclitus attributed to the Sea and Moses more illuminated then both saith That before the heaven and earth were created the Spirit of the Lord moved on the face of the waters calling Fire because of its noble and pure essence The Spirit of God In saying therefore That Fire is the first principle of beings I transgress not the limits of Reason and Verity for it is without doubt the first Operator and the last Destroyer and Changer of forms whose cause it is even till it hath brought them to their period and first matter beyond which there is no progress but onely a transformation as I shall by and by declare by comparison with visible and familiar beings the first active potency which begins to operate in the production of man is the agitation or motion of heat which imitating the action of fire whose Nature is chiefly separative draws Sperm from the whole Body wherein Man's seed is potentially included and cocts and digests it thereby rendring it apt for expulsion and afterwards for Generation and Augmentation which Generation and Augmentation is alwayes helped by Fire which is the sole Actor so that if it should attain the end of its exaltation being inflamed by the Sulphur of Excrements and impurity of Aliments it would absume the radical Moisture which is the Seat and Preserver of Life which done the fire remits not of its power and action till by resolution and corruption it brings the Body to Ashes which nothing can do but fire But that we may make this more palpable and finde out the first matter by the knowledge of the last let us impose a Body on a common Fire and we shall see that what is inflammable in it will be totally consumed and redacted to a few Ashes which Ashes also will participate of a fiery Nature and for their last subject and matter turn into a certain Salt whose sole Parent and Multiplier Fire must needs be And though these should be further turned yet Salt would alwayes be left in whose internals we may finde Fire which is delighted with its like And by this means Alchymists finde that there is something in Salt that is incombustible or secret Elementary Fire which hath the same actions with primitive Fire upon which account they call it the Balsam of the Body because it contains that that gives life as also that conserves and augments it which is nothing else but a moist vapour accompanied with moderate heat Johannes Fontanus in his Philosophical Narrations En son Romant Philosophique shews That he was not ignorant of this Secret where he brings in Nature speaking thus Aucuns disent que feu n'engendre De son naturel fo rs que cendre Mais leur reverence sauvee Nature est dans le feu autee Et si prover je le vou loye Le sel a Tesmoing je prendoye Some dare t' affirm that fire can generate Nothing but ashes but those seem to relate The truth thereof who say that in fires brest All Natures operations are imprest And if hereof a proof you do require Salt gives you proof enough what is in fire And that it participates of moisture is plain enough from its easie resolution as also its fulness of heat is demonstrable from its ready congelation from which we may observe That Fire acts and is united with Fire as in liquefaction Air acts and is joyned with Air for how in one subject could the dry imbibe the moist if there were no innate heat seeing driness as it proceeds from heat doth naturally imbibe moisture And hence we may easily understand That the Demogorgon or central Fire cannot be destitute of moisture on which it may act and thence elevate a vapour mixed of two qualities which I call The Spirit of the World but many Philosophers Mercury of Merries because all other proceed from this naturally but this elevated vapour is not yet a Body but a mean betwixt a Body and a Spirit participating of both Natures which whilst it remains in that state can generate nothing It is therefore necessary That it either assume or form a Body which it thus doth This subtile vapour proceeding from dry and moist principles when it is elevated penetrates the spungyness of the Earth wherein it is gradually turned into Mercurial Water by the occurse of the ambient Air and of the Earth it self whose surface is far distant from its Centre where the Fire resides whence this heat arises After the like manner as we see in an Alembick where the vapour or Spirit to be distilled runs out But this vapour and its water partaking of two principles heat and moisture it is ingrossed and by moderate and continued coction condensed The principal cause and mean of which action is innate Fire which contains this very vapour and by its continual action stimulates and compels it to imbibe this moisture and to coagulate this Water not in all parts with a like solidity and hardness nor yet altogether but first with a mucilaginous and different solidity Now that which Nature assayes to do in the information of Idea's is to begin their induration and solidity which must necessarily hold on in Natures way which is a progress from one extream to another by intermediate disposition And Nature thus continuing its digestion this Mucilage stays of whose grosser matter Metals are generated in the veins of the Earth or cavities of Rocks which differ not in substance being produced by one and the same seed but onely in accidents which they take from the diversities of the places and matrixes where they are generated But the more subtile part of this vapour ascends to the surface of the Earth where it stays by compulsion and being in continual agitation though it can neither regrede nor ascend higher and finding no solid matter to carry it with it it is compelled to continue Natures intention and therefore serves for the Generation and Corporification of individuals But that what I have said may be better understood let us take some one individual and let us see how it is produced for this will ascertain us that the Spirit of the World assumes a Body and shew us how it is incorporated An Acorn may be long enough set or sown in the Earth and consume without germination unless some Agent be neer it that may deduce its occult potency naturally within it into act And whence can any one imagine this action to proceed unless from the central Fire issuing out of Demogorgon's brest Which Fire attracted and fomented by the Solar Rayes will redouble its force vertue and efficacy Does not then this germination derive its original from Natures Fire which elevating and multiplying its vapour excites the innate heat of the Acorn which is of its own side resolved into a vapour by the mediation
intellects of what Nature it is I shall further add That the Pores of the Earth are full of this Vapour which acquires a dry quality by its innate heat accompanied with some secret moisture by which it is condensed and coagulated into a specifical Body and as this moist Nature now dried up was first Water so it must be reduced into Waters again by Water which is the sole mean whereby to humectate dry things as fire is to siccate moist things which is a work duely observed by Nature in generating Metals for Water flowing through the Pores of the Earth findes there a dissoluble substance wherewith it unites its most simple parts to which union all the Elements concur in due proportion This substance then by its own dissolution is so conjoyned that it of it self condenses through hardness which is natural to it because of its innate siccity and by successive and long decoction acquires a metallical induration But now this substance being dissoluble of what other Nature can it participate but of Salt for nothing is so dissoluble as Salt which by how much it is more burned is by so much easier dissolved unless it be turned into Glass The first matter then is Salt or Salt is the first Body whereby this matter becomes visible or palpable of which Salt Raymundus speaks when in his Testament he saith We have before declared That in the Centre of the Earth there is a certain Virgin-Earth and true Element and that that is Natures work Nature therefore is placed in the Centre of every thing so Salt is this Virgin-Earth which hath yet produced nothing into which the Spirit of the World is converted by vitrification that is by extenuation of its moisture This is that which gives the form to all things and without which nothing could incur into the senses nothing is coagulated without Salt nothing congealed This is that that gives hardness to Gold as also to the Adamant and all Stones both precious and vulgar with a Secret vitrifying Vertue Yea what is more we manifestly see that all Bodies compounded of the four Elements return into Salt for if a Body putrefie what remains but powder and ashes covering most precious Salt and if a Body be destroyed by combustion calcination or incineration what rests in the last extraction but Salt Glass-makers do give manifest testimony hereto whence Arnoldus de villa nova in his new Chymical Light speaking of the permanent Water of Philosophers which Water is dry and wets the Tangents hand no more then common Quicksilver saith Who then can prepare this Water Well he may do it who can make Glass The same Author speaking of the excellency of this dry Water manifests it sufficiently when he saith in his Chymical Treatise which he calls his Philosophical Breviary That an Operator can no more do any thing without Salt then an Archer emit an Arrow without a cord or string And Fons Amantium saith the same Sans sel ne peux metre en effect Utile chose pour ton faict I can effect nothing in your rare Art Unless with Salt I'gin to operate All Bodies then are composed of Salt and as we said before the Principles of Composition and Resolution are equal which concurs with the Philosophers infallible Rule That the first matter of all things is one with the last where they alledge Ice and Snow for example which are by heat resolved into Water out of which they were by cold congealed And if I should here suggest the Testimony of all approved Authors to this Verity my Treatise would end in a Volume but that I may demonstrate That this Salt is pure and true Earth not such as we tread upon which I shall hereafter prove to be nothing but the Dregs and Excrements of the other I must recur to the first Creation which I shall decypher by a familiar example of an Operation made in imitation of Nature and by the same Rule and Model by which this great Universe was framed I said before That Water or the humid Nature as Hermes calls it upon which Moses saith That the Spirit of the Lord moved was the principle of all things And here the Question will be How that great and confused heap of Waters was so divided that this ample and gross Terrestrial Mass proceeded thence and by what medium so different things were procreated of the Earth I shall answer to these Questions onely what experience hath taught me It is therefore naturally probable that in the middle of these Waters by way of separation there was a certain collection of sediments or setlings wherein I follow the Text of Moses who saith That God separated the water from the water for there are two kindes of Waters to wit elevative and congelative Waters the former then elevating it self in a vapour left the other fixed in the botom as those that coct Sea or Fountain-Salt daily experience though perhaps it be be true that the one is made by the attraction of the Suns Rayes the other by the expulsion of Fire And here note That Fire and Heat onely are indued with a separative faculty which they exert either by violent or natural motion This separation then was made by one of these wayes and to what thing could Moses better compare this Fire which cannot be otherwise defined then the origine of Universal Light of Animal heat and vital motion which gives existence to all things and preserves them in their being then to the Spirit of the Lord Let us again consider Natures Salt in its Chaos diffused dissolved and suffocated in its Water under what form will it then appear or with what quality will it affect our gust but that of bitter Water and this form and quality it would retain for ever if it were not separated but as soon as this elevative Water feels the action of Fire it begins to flie from it by vaporation and so the collection is gradually diminished till onely a little heap of Salt be left in the bottom which comes together as the Earth did in the first Chaos of the Universe And thus we see the first operation of Fire which is the production of Driness that is of Earth But as this first Earth remained still coagulated with its Excrements and Dregs by Fire so this Salt which is true Earth retains its Excrements though it seem pure white and full of light for nothing is generated nourished and augmented but it abjects its Recrements of the formation and separation whereof we shall elsewhere speak Now this Salt or dry Earth thus coagulated and setled in the Water drinks up all its humidity and is by the continuation of heats action spontaneously dried preserving all this while its innate moisture by which it is never deserted and from which it hath its dissolutive vertue After the accession of this moist and dry temperament it is apt for production as the action of Fire shall impel it from potency to effect and
infinite This Substance or first Matter in every species of compounded Bodies is one in essence vertue and quality and in one and the same subject one part cannot be of one species and another of another but in Excrements it is otherwise for the better understanding whereof I will lay the following Rule That there are but two means or mediums for the compleating of all Separations to wit Fire and Water and there are but two things separable in Bodies the one whereof is separated by Fire the other by Water In the first place it is indubitable That the Nature of Fire is such as it destroyes and consumes all that is combustible and of Water such as it washes and cleanses all substance from its impurity that commaculates it Fire devours all that 's volatile and of an Airy quality because it is its proper nutriment but Water divides all that 's Terrestrial and gross Betwixt these two extremes then there must be some intermediate disposition which should be kept and conserved containing nothing that 's combustible or impure in it which may be subjected to these two Warriers And it is manifest That Adustion and Dregs are the two Corrupters and Destroyers of all things which Divine Hippocrates was not ignorant of when he said That all Diseases proceed either from the Air or Aliments insinuating that the excess of excrementitious Aliments are apt to receive corruption and Excrements by Fire exceeding natural heat are the inflaming and corrupting causes of each Disease for the Excrements of Aliments fill Bodies with Terrestrial impurities and inflammable Air generates sulphureous and adust matter which easily conceiving hot ardours consumes and dissipates what is radical and vital with it self carrying it away because the greater part of it is volatile the less adustive Dregs then and Adustion are the two Authors of corruption and those that hinder the vigour of substantial actions in all things And if we require any Arguments to prove this the stink of Digestion and Excrements demonstrates it for that same sented in things that are burned speaks little of good to be there The same is also evident in the fumes of Excrements which stinking Bodies emit for those suppose corruption and besides the corruption they generate they also cause these two inconveniences the one is the hindrance of Penetration the other of Fixation which two actions are absolutely necessary for the conservation of life for that which nourishes and supports life must needs be subtile that it may by its subtile parts penetrate Bodies and like a secret Balsam roborate and augment the light of life in the centre of the Body for if it were gross it would rather obstruct suffocate and extinguish then penetrate and pass through such narrow ways and because on the other side it conserves life in its state it should in reason be a stable and no fluxible thing for if it were volatile we might every moment expect death lest it should be introduced by the corruption generated by feculent adustion which continually layes wait for our life Grosness then hinders Ingress and Adustion Stability Hence we may take a good admonition for Medicine to wit that every true Medicament introsumed for the restoring of strength and profligating the cause of instant death should have two properties to wit to pierce to the centre of sanity and preserve the centre by dilating and deducing it through the whole Body which the Ancients with good success revoked to practise and not many yeers ago the too much hated Paracelsus who explained their operations to posterity which were so long kept secret and let him that will affirm the contrary I doubt not to aver That nothing without the operation of Fire can be brought to purity and stability which two parts must be chiefly observed in making Medicaments to which Assertion this valid Reason draws me That no body in its first original and form can be truely Medicinal as immerged in the corruption of its excrementitious Dregs because it cannot attain the place fear of sanity nor yet preserve sanity because it wants subtilty to penetrate and fixedness requisite to the Restauration of what is corrupt and lost and the conservation of what is restored which cannot possibly be attained by the common way of preparation neither in substance nor in infusion the impossibilty hereof in substance appears in that such do not purge without violence which causes rather perilous weakness then salutary Restauration and as to infusions nothing can thereby be extracted out of simples but a little introsity which is innate in all Bodies with a little of their excrementitious Dregs Hence infusion attracts not the internal vertue but onely the external sapour of things which in their centre is quite different from that in their superficial matter for commonly we see all infusions are bitter which we are forced to obdulcorate with Sugar or Honey because most Apothecaries are not so industrious as to extract the natural sweetness wherein the Nature of the things consists from the things they infuse for all bitterness proceeds from Salt which hath sweetness at the bottom which cannot be extracted by simple infusions but by Fire onely and ingenious Artifice this sweetness being the very perfection of the Medicine Hence Arnoldus de villa nova saith That if you know how to dulcorate what is bitter you have the whole mystery Which Brucestus was not ignorant of as appears by his Dialogue entituled Demogorgon But this occult sweetness can never be manifested unless it be quite freed from Terrestrial Excrements and volatile and Aereal Adustion for the earthiness thereof gives it its extraneous sapour arising from the Excrements of Salt from whose variety according to the species and place wherein they are generated the diversity of sapours doth arise for all sapour comes from Salt and by how much there is more Salt by so much is the sapour more intense And on the other side that which is volatile and Aery begets ill and non-natural odours which send out a stinch which we perceive in their burning because of the combustion and inflammation of the unctuous Sulphur and that volatile matter is an Excrement is apparent from the stinking fumes of Bodies that are burning whence smoak proceeds that adhering to the Chimney or other part which afterward retain the odour of the burnt Bodies and the bitterness of the Excrements of Salt And this is yet more manifest by that blackness and obscurity which this fume impresses on all things it touches which greatly hinders the light and splendor of Nature which always desires purity and freedom from darkness as appears by that intense splendor in perfect Bodies a token of their purity seeing others more immerged in impurity are more obscure as Metals perfect and imperfect precious Stones demonstrate But if we would avoid long peregrinations and according to the oracles advice terminate our curious journeys in our selves by seeking out the causes of our Diseases
that is when it assumes a Terrestrial Body God also willed his own Son and our Redeemer in his assumed Humanity be as it were regenerated by and with the Water of Baptism and Fire of the Holy Spirit not that he needed any such purgation but because he was to converse with Men contaminated with corruption that he might in all things yield himself an example of Renovation and Purification giving Men a visible and ample Testimony That according to the Flesh he was of the same Nature with them not contaminated or corrupted but obnoxious to passion and equally mortal as they In like manner our fecund Mother Nature willed her first-born though pure in his Centre That he should be regenerated by Water and Fire that is by Separation of the Terrestrial from the fiery part the spisse from the subtile and the impure from the pure which Hermes also aimed at when he said That the Earth should be separated from Fire for what God hath conjoyned Man should not separate but onely the impure and gross from the subtile and pure by Fire And besides this Sense which first offers it self to our Intellects there is yet another more occult meaning for seeing by the Separation of Earth from Fire he means that that 's gross from that that 's subtile he seems to hint that we should separate the natural qualities of these two Elements by detracting the moist frigidity mixt with heavy Terrestrial things without which that cold cannot subsist and by putting on hot siccity which is of the Nature of Fire and consequently light and spiritual For which cause he adds That it must ascend from Earth to Heaven that is from imperfection to perfection for Paracelsus calls Fire the Firmament and as nothing can attain perfection unless it first depose its imperfect gross and mortal bark wherein this cold quality abounds the cause of all mortification as heat is of life so also prudent Nature observes this Rule That each subject should sustain and pass the obsure blackness of death and expect the cleer and candid renovation of life and immortality that is impassible essence whereon neither Fire nor corruption hath any power And assuredly the acquisition of this life by death is naturally exercised by all Creatures continually for all Sperm or Seed of Animals is mortified in some Matrix and of Vegetables in the Earth before any specification can be made But if this rule takes place in the members by how much may we more exactly observe and directly imitate it in the head and if the life acquired by mortification be of any duration how much more shall that be perpetual which is principal Jesus Christ taught these things by similitude of a Grain which he says cannot fructifie unless it first die signifying the mystery of his Resurrection which his Death should precede for he willed Death that he might rise to a glorious and perpetual Life therein not onely giving example to men but expressing the whole Idea of Nature That divine and learned Ermite Morienus Romanus who is often quoted by modern and natural Philosophers avers the same of the fixed Grain whereto Nature hath given power to perfect Metals for he saith Unless it putrefie and grow black it cannot be perfected and compleated but returns to nought I have taken liberty to say thus much that I may teach the younger sort how the Creator should be acknowledged by simple Creatures and because the vulgarity of Men begs this knowledge from remoter things acting as they do who seek the perfection of Sciences from the Scholars of the lowest Form whereas they should require it from the best Directors and Doctors I would excite them by these natural coneeptions that they would convert the principal endowments of their Souls to the search of the general principle and that in more exquisite things such as impart life and preservation to all mortal Creatures Mortification then necessarily precedes all entrance into life and principally in this Spirit the first-born of Nature when it assumed a Body for else no Man could separate it from Body which hinders its Regeneration to Life and Pacification of its Essence not as though by combustion and destruction it lost its Body in Death nor yet by Putrefaction but so that in Germination the Putrefaction of Seeds annihilates not that which is corporified in them for which cause in the Exaltion of Mercury or the Universal Spirit after the first degree which is made by Separation all that 's corporeal and spiritual becomes volatile because the sublimatory vertue therein overcomes the fixing faculty but the fixed part afterwards retains the volatile with it being helped by the action of heat which augmenting the power of the two nobler Elements destroyes the power of the two weaker which Hermes hints at in a certain Treatise by a plumous Bird detained with a Bird without Feathers And Nicholaus Flumellus by two Dragons one with and another without Wings But that I may not longer fold my self in these Daedalean Labyrinths see we not all Vegetables encrease and elevate themselves upwards by vertue of this volatile Spirit which as I said before would carry them higher towards the place whence it came whereto it hath an appetite but that it is detained by its proper Earth and corporal Mass wherein some fixed matter resides But lest some not sufficiently accustomed to Philosophical terms should think we contradict our selves I will here explicate my self I say then That I mean not by this volatile Spirit that which I before called volatile and separable Sulphur for that is rather the Author of Corruption then Growth but that most simple part of the primaeve vapour which never loses it s subtily whose Nature is to be elevated and tend to perfection for to sublimate is properly and Philosophically no more then to perfect and exalt matters from imperfection to perfection As therefore this Mercury hath an elevable so hath it a stable substance the first is naturally innate in it the second is in its centre or power yet it cannot compass its effect without the help of Art And that I may shew more plainly in what ways Nature proceeds in her operations I think it convenient to add a little about the causes and manner of Fixation Repeating therefore that indubitable Axiome I alledged in the beginning of this Book as perpetually observed in the Worlds Constitution to wit That all that hath life hath also some duration and that nothing is produced under the cope of Heaven which hath not some kinde of life in it I say that this Duration must be wrought by Conservation to Perpetuity for Perpetuation is the scope of Nature seeing it is the endeavour of every good Opificer to preserve the work of his hands till it be corrupted by the injury of time or the light of its life extinguished by the cold ashes of death to whose feet all things necessarily prostrate themselves by this inevitable law That whatsoever hath