Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	air_n	earth_n	element_n	2,483	5	9.5484	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A68054	Nicholas Flammel, his exposition of the hieroglyphicall figures which he caused to bee painted vpon an arch in St. Innocents Church-yard, in Paris. Together with the secret booke of Artephius, and the epistle of Iohn Pontanus: concerning both the theoricke and the practicke of the philosophers stone. Faithfully, and (as the maiesty of the thing requireth) religiously done into English out of the French and Latine copies. By Eirenæus Orandus, qui est, vera veris enodans; Figures hierogliphiques. English	Flamel, Nicolas, d. 1418.; Artephius. Liber secretus artis occultae.; Pontanus, Joannes, d. 1572. Epistola de lapide philosophorum.; Orandus, Eirenaeus.	1624 (1624)	STC 11027; ESTC S102276	53,157	276

to that wee were in our youth as hee hath likewise done in other places as ouer the doore of the Chappell of Saint Iames in the Bouchery neere to my house although that for this last there is a particular cause as also ouer the doore of Saincte Geneuiefue de's Ardans where thou maist see me I ma●e then to bee painted heere two bodies one of a Male and another of a Female to teach thee that in this second operation thou hast truely but yet not perfectly two natures conioyned and married together the Masculine and the Foeminine or rather the foure Elements and that the foure naturall enemies the hote and cold dry and moist begin to approach amiably one towards another and by meanes of the Mediators and Peace-makers lay downe by little and little the ancient enmity of the old Chaos Thou knowest well enough who these Mediators and Peace-makers are betweene the hote and the cold there is moisture for he is kinsman and allyed to them both to hote by his heate and to cold by his moisture And this is the reason why to begin to make this peace thou hast already in the precedent operation conuerted all the confections into water by dissolution And afterward thou hast made to coagulate the water which is turned into this Earth blacke of the blacke most blacke wholly to accomplish this peace for the Earth which is cold and dry finding himself of kindred and allyance with the dry and moist which are enemies will wholly appease and ac●ord them Doest thou not then consider a most perfect mixture of all the foure Elements hauing first turned them into water and now into Earth I will also teach thee heereafter the other conuersions into ayer when it shall be all white and into fire when it shall bee of a most perfect purple Then thou hast heere two natures marri●d together whereof the one hath conceiued by the other and by this conception it is turned into the body of the Male and the Male into that of the Female that is to say they are made one onely body which is the Androgyne or Hermaphrodite of the Ancients which they haue also called otherwise the head of the Crow or natures conuerted In this fashion I paint them heere because thou hast two natures reconciled which if they be gu●ded and gouerned wisely can forme an Embrion in the wombe of the Vessell and afterwards bring foorth a most puissant King inuincible and incorruptible because it will bee an admirable quintessence Thus thou seest the principall and most necessary reason of this representation The second cause which is also well to bee noted was because I must of necessitie paint two bodies because in this operation it behooueth that thou diuide that which hath beene coagulated to giue afterwards nourishment which is milke of life to the little Infant when it is borne which is endued by the liuing God with a vegetable soule This is a secret most admirable and secret which for want of vnderstanding it hath made fooles of all those that haue sought it without finding it and hath made euery man wise that beholds it with the eyes of his body or of his spirit Thou must then make two parts and portions of this Coagulated body the one of which shall serue for Azoth to wash and clense the other which is called Leton which must be whitened He which is washed is the Serpent Python which hauing taken his being from the corruption of the slime of the Earth gathered together by the waters of the deluge when all the confections were water must be killed and ouercome by the arrowes of the God Apollo by the yellow Sunne that is to say by our fire equall to that of the Sunne He which washeth or rather the washings which must be continued with the other moity these are the teeth of that Serpent which the sage workeman the valiant Theseus wil sow in the same Earth from whence there shall spring vp armed Souldiers which shal in the end discomsit themselues suffering themselues by opposition to resolue into the same nature of the Earth and the workman to beare away his deserued conquests It is of this that the Phylosophers haue written so often and so often repeated it It dissolues it selfe it congeales it selfe it makes it selfe blacke it makes it selfe white it kils it selfe and it quickens it selfe I haue made their field be painted azure and blew to shew that I doe but now beginne to get out from the most blacke blacknesse for the azure and blew is one of the first colours that the darke woman lets vs see that is to say moisture giuing place a little to heate and drinesse The man and woman are almost all orange-coloured to shew that our Bodies or our body which the wise men here call Rebis hath not as yet digestion enough and that the moisture from whence comes the blacke blew and azure is but halfe vanquished by the drinesse For when drinesse beares rule all will be white and when it fighteth with or is equall to the moisture all will be in part according to these present colours The enuious haue also called these confections in this operation Nummus Ethelia Arena Boritis Co●sufle Cambar Albar aeris Duenech Randeric Kukul Thabricis Ebisemech Ixir c. which they haue commanded to make white The woman hath a white circle in forme of a rowle round about her body to shew thee that Rebis will beginne to become white in that very fashion beginning first at the extremities round about this white circle Scala Phylosophorū that is the Booke entituled The Phylosophers Ladder saith thus The signe of the first perfect whitenesse is the manifestation of a certaine little circle of haire that is passing ouer the head which will appeare on the sides of the vessels round about the matter in a kind of a cierine or yellowish colour There is written in their Rowles Homo veniet ad iudicium Dei that is Man shall come to the Iudgement of God Verè saith the woman illa dies terribilis erit that is Truly that will be a terrible day These are not passages of holy Scripture but onely sayings which speake according to the Theological sence of the Iudgement to come I haue put them there to serue my selfe of them towards him that beholds onely the grosse outward and most naturall Artifice taking the interpretation th●reof to concerne onely the Resurrection and also it may serue for them that gathering together the Parables of the Science take to them the eyes of Lynceus to pierce deeper then the visible obiects There is then Man shall come to the iudgement of God Certainly that day shall be terrible That is as if I should haue said It behoues that this come to the colour of perfection to be iudged clensed from all his blacknesse and filth and to be spiritualized and whitened Surely that day will be terrible yet certainly as you shall find in the Allegory

by the dew or moisture The Earth therefore buddeth not without watring and moisture It is the water of May-dew that clenseth the Bodies that pierceth them like raine water whiteneth them and maketh one new Body of two Bodies This water of life being rightly ordered with his Body whiteneth it turneth it into his white colour for the water is a white fume and therefore the Body is whitened by it whiten the Body then and burne thy Bookes And between these two that is betweene the Body and the water there is friendship desire and lust as betweene the male and the foemale because of the neerenesse of their like natures for our second liuing water is called Azot washing the Leton that is the Body compounded of the Sunne and Moon by our first water This second water is also called the soule of our dissolued Bodies of which Bodies wee haue already tyed the soules together to the end that they may serue the wise Phylosophers O how perfect and magnificent is this water for without it the worke could neuer bee brought to passe It is also called the vessell of Nature the belly the wombe the receptacle of the tincture the Earth and the Nurse It is the Fountaine in which the King and Queene wash themselues and the Mother which must be put and sealed in the belly of her Infant that is the Sun which proceeded from her and which shee brought forth and therefore they loue one another as a Mother and a Sonne and are easily ioyned together because they came from one the same roote and are of the same substance and nature And because this water is the water of the vegetable life therefore it giueth life and maketh the dead body to vegetate encrease spring forth and to rise from death to life by solution and sublimation and in so doing the Body is turned into a spirit and the spirit into a body and then is made amity peace concord and vnion between the contraries that is betweene the Body and the spirit which reciprocally change their natures which they receiue and communicate to one another by the least parts so that the hot is mixed with the cold the dry with the moist and the hard with the soft and thus is there a mixture made of contrary natures that is of cold with hot and of moist with dry an admirable connexion coniunction of enemies Then our dissolution of bodies which is made in this first water is no other thing then a killing of the moist with the dry because the moist is coagulated with the dry for the moisture is contained terminated and coagulated into a Body or into Earth onely by drinesse Let therefore the hard and dry bodies be put in our first water in a vessell well shut where they may abide vntill they be dissolued and ascend on high and then they may bee called a new Body the white gold of Alchimy the white stone the white Sulphur not burning and the stone of Paradice that is the stone which conuerts imperfect Mettals into fine white siluer Hauing this we haue also the Body Soule and Spirit all together of the which spirit and soule it is said that they cannot be drawn from the perfect Bodies but by the coniunction of our dissoluing water because it is certaine that the thing fixed cannot belifted vp but by the coniunction of the thing volatile The spirit then by the mediation of water and the soule is drawne from the Bodies and the Body is made no Body because at the same instant the spirit with the soule of the Bodies mounteth on high into the vpper part which is the perfection of the stone and is called sublimation This sublimation saith Florentius Catalanus is done by things sharpe spirituall and volatile which are of a sulphurous and viscous nature which dissolue the Bodies and make them to be lifted vp into the Ayre in the spirit And in this sublimation a certaine part and portion of our said first water ascendeth with the Bodies ioyning it selfe to them ascending and subliming into a middle substance which holdeth of the nature of the two that is of the Bodies and of the water and therefore it is called the Corporall spirituall compound Corsufle Cambdr Ethelia Zandarach the good Duenech but properly it is onely called the water permanent because it flyeth not in the fire alwayes adhering to the commixed Bodies that is to the Sunne and Moone and communicating vnto them a liuing tincture incombustible and most firme more noble and precious then the former which these bodies had because from hence-forward this tincture can run as oyle vpon the bodies perforating and piercing with a wonderfull fixion because this Tincture is the spirit and the spirit is the soule and the soule is the body because in this operation the body is made a spirit of a most subtile nature and likewise the spirit is incorporated and is made of the nature of a body with bodies and so our stone contains a body a soule and a spirit O Nature how thou changest the body into a spirit which thou couldst not doe if the spirit were not incorporated with the bodies and the bodies with the spirits made volatile or flying and afterward permanent or abiding Therefore they haue passed into one another and are turned the one into the other by wisdome O wisdome how thou makest Gold to be volatile and fugitiue although by nature it be most fixed It behoueth therefore to dissolue and melt these Bodies by our water and to make them a permanent water a golden water sublimed leauing in the bottom the grosse earthly and superfluous dry And in this sublimation the fire ought to be soft and gentle for if in this sublimation the Bodies bee not purified in a lent or slow fire and the grosser earthly parts note well separated from the vncleannesse of the dead thou shalt be hindred from euer making thy worke perfect for thou needest onely this subtile and light nature of the dissolued Bodies which our water will easily giue thee if thou proceed with a slow fire for it will separate the Heterogeneall or that which is of another kinde from the Homogeneall or that which is all of one kinde Our compound therefore receiueth mundification or clensing by our moist fire that is to say dissoluing and subliming that which is pure and white and casting aside the foeces like a voluntary vomit saith Azinaban For in such a dissolution and naturall sublimation there is made a loosing or an vntying of the Elements a clensing and a separation of the pure from the impure so that the pure and white ascendeth vpward and the impure and earthly fixed remaines in the bottome of the water or the vessell which must be taken a way and remooued because it is of no value taking onely the middle white substance flowing and melting and leauing the foeculent earth which remained below in the bottome which came principally from the

water and is the drosse and the damned earth which is nothing worth nor can euer doe any good as doth the pure cleare white and cleane matter which wee ought onely to take And against this Capharaean rocke the ship and knowledge of the Schollers and students in Philosophy is often as it happened also vnto mee sometimes most improuidently dashed and beaten because the Phylosophers doe very often affirme the contrary namely that nothing must be remooued or taken away but the moysture that is the Blacknesse which notwithstanding they say and write onely to deceiue the vnwise grosse and ignorant which of themselues without a Maister vnwearied reading or Prayer vnto God Almighty would like conquerours carry away this golden fleece Note therefore that this separation diuision and sublimation is without doubt the key of the whole worke After the putrifaction then and dissolution of these Bodies our Bodies doe lift themselues vp to the surface of the dissoluing water in the colour of whitenesse and this whitenesse is life for in this whitenesse the Antimoniall and Mercuriall soule is by the appointment of nature infused with the Spirits of the Sunne Moone which separateth the subtile from the thicke and the pure from the impure lifting vp by little and little the subtile part of the Body from the dregs vntill all the pure be separated and lifted vp And in this is our Philosophicall and naturall sublimation fulfilled And in this whitenesse is the soule infused into the Body that is the mineral vertue which is more subtile than fire being indeed the true quintessence and life which desireth to bee borne and to put off the grosse earthly foeces which it hath taken from the Menstruous and corrupt place of his Originall And in this is our Philosophicall sublimation not in the naughty common Mercury which hath no qualities like vnto them wherewith our Mercury drawne from his vitriolate cauernes is adorned But let vs returne to our sublimation It is therefore most certaine in this Art that this soule drawne from the Bodies cannot be lifted vp but by the putting to of a volatile thing which is of his owne kinde by the which the Bodies are made volatile and spirituall lifting vp subtiliating and subliming themselues against their owne proper nature which is bodily heauy and ponderous and by this meanes they are made no Bodies but incorporeall and a fifth essence of the nature of the Spirit which is called Hermes his Bird and Mercury drawne from the red seruant and so the earthy parts remaine below or rather the grosser parts of the Bodies which cannot by any wit or deuice of man be perfectly dissolued And this white fume this white gold that is this quintessence is also called the compound Magnesia which as a man containes or like a man is compounded of a Body a Soule and a Spirit For the Body is the fixed earth of the Sunne which is more than most fine ponderously lifted vp by the force of our diuine water The soule is the tincture of the Sunne and of the Moone proceeding from the coniunction or communication of these two But the spirit is the minerall vertue of the two Bodies and of the water which carries the soule or the white tincture vpon the Bodies and out of the Bodies as the tincture of Diers is carried by water vpon the cloth And that Mercuriall spirit is the Bond or tyall of the soule of the Sun And the Body of the Sunne is the Body of fiction containing with the Moone the spirit and soule The spirit therefore pierceth the body fixeth the soule coupleth coloureth and whiteneth Of these three vnited together is our Stone made that is of the Sunne and Moone and Mercury Then with our gilded or golden water is extracted a nature surpassing all nature and therefore except the bodies bee by this our water dissolued imbibed ground softened and sparingly and diligently gouerned vntill they leaue their grossenesse and thicknesse and be turned into a thinne and impalpable spirit our labour will alwayes be in vaine for vnlesse the bodies bee changed into no bodies that is into the Philosophers Mercury the rule of Art is not yet found and the reason is because it is impossible to draw out of the bodies that most thinne or subtile soule which hath in it all tincture if the bodies be not first dissolued in our water Dissolue therefore the bodies in the golden water and boyle them vntill by the water all the tincture come out into a white colour or a white oyle and when thou shalt see this whitenesse vpon the water then know that the bodies are dissolued or melted and continue the decoction vntill they bring foorth the cloude which they haue conceiued darke blacke and white Put therefore the perfect bodies in our water in a vessell Hermetically sealed vpon a soft fire and boyle them continually vntill they bee perfectly resolued into a most precious oyle Boyle them saith Adfar with a gentle fire as it were for the hatching of chickens vntill the bodies bee dissolued and their tincture most neerely conioyned marke well be wholly drawne out for it is not drawne out all at once but it commeth forth by little and little euery day and euery houre vntill after a long time this dissolution be complete that which is dissolued do alwaies arise vppermost vpon the water And in this dissolution let the fire bee soft and continuall vntill the bodies bee loosed into a viscous impalpable water and that the whole tincture come forth first in the colour of blackenesse which is a signe of true solution Then continue the decoction vntill it become a white permanent water for gouerning it in its bath it will afterward be cleare and in the end become like common argent viue climing thorow the ayre vpon the first water And therefore when thou seest the bodies dissolued into a viscous water then know that they are turned into a vapour and that thou hast the soules separated from the dead bodies and by sublimation brought into the order and estate of spirits whereupon both of them with a part of our water are made spirits flying and clyming into the ayre and that there the body compounded of the male and female of the Sunne and Moone and of that most subtile nature clensed by sublimation taketh life is inspired by his moysture that is by his water as a man by the Ayre and therefore from hencefoorth it will multiply and increase in his kinde like all other things And therefore in such an eleuation and Philosophical sublimation they are all ioyned one with another and the new body inspired by the Ayre liueth vegetably which is a wonder Wherefore vnlesse the Bodies bee subtilized and made thinne by fire and water vntill they doe arise like spirits and bee made like water and fume or like Mercury there is nothing done in this Arte. But when they ascend they are borne in the ayre and changed in the ayre

consequently by how much more this red is boyled so much the more is it coloured and made a tincture of perfect rednesse Wherefore thou must with a dry fire and a dry calcination without any moysture boyle this compound vntill it bee clothed with a most red colour and then it will be a perfect Elixir If afterwards thou wilt multiply it thou must againe resolue that red in a new dissoluing water and after by decoction whiten and rubifie it by the degrees of fire reiterating the first regiment Dissolue congeale reiterate shutting opening and multiplying in quantitie and qualitie at thine owne pleasure for by a new corruption and generation there is againe brought in a new motion and so we could neuer find an end if we would alwayes worke by reiteration of solution and coagulation by the meanes of our dissoluing water that is to say dissoluing and congealing as is said in the first regiment And so the vertue thereof is increased and multiplied in quantitie and qualitie so that if in the first worke one part of thy Stone will teyne an hundred in the second it will teyne a thousand in the third ten thousand and so by pursuing thy worke thy proiection will come into infinitie teyning truly and perfectly and fixedly euery quantitie how great soeuer it bee and so by a thing of an easie price is added colour and vertue weight Therefore our fire and Azoth are sufficient for thee boyle boyle reiterate dissolue congeale and so continue according to thy will multiplying it as much as thou wilt and vntill thy Medicine bee made fusible as waxe and that it haue the quantitie and vertue which thou desirest Therefore all the accomplishment of the worke or of our second Stone note it well consisteth in this that thou take the perfect Body which thou must put in our water in a house of glasse wel shut and stopped with Cement lest the ayre get in or the moysture inclosed get out and there hold it in the digestion of a gentle heate as if it were of a bathe or the most temperate heate of dung vpon the which with the fire thou shalt continue the perfection of decoction vntill it bee putrified and resolued into blacke and afterwards be lifted vp and sublimed by the water that it may thereby bee cleansed from all blacknesse and darknesse and that it may bee whitened and made subtile vntill it come to the vtmost purity of sublimation and at the last be made volatile and white within and without for the vulture flying in the Ayre without wings cryeth that it might get vpon the Mountaine that is vpon the water vpon the which the white Spirit is carried Then continue a conuenient fire and that Spirit that is the subtile substance of the Body and of Mercury will ascend vpon the water which quintessence is whiter than the snow continue still and in the end strengthen thy fire vntill all which is spirituall mount on high for know well that all that is cleare pure and spirituall ascends on high in the ayre in the forme of a white fume which the Philosophers call the Virgins milke It behooueth therefore that as Sibill said the Sonne of the Virgin bee exalted from the Earth and that the white quintessence after his resurrection bee lifted vp towards the heauens and that the grosse and thicke remaine in the bottome of the vessell and of the water for afterwards when the vessell is colde thou shalt finde in the bottome thereof the foeces blacke burnt and combust separate from the spirit and white quintessence which dregs thou must cast away In these times the Argent viue raineth from our ayre vpon our new earth which is called Argent viue sublimed from the ayre whereof is made a water viscous cleane and white which is the true tincture separated from all blacke foeces and so our brasse or Leton is with our water gouerned purified and adorned with a white colour which white colour is not gotten but by decoction and coagulation of the water Boyle it then continually wash away the blacknesse from the Leton not with thy hand but with the Stone or the fire or our second Mercuriall water which is the true tincture For this separation of the pure from the impure is not done with hands but nature her selfe alone by working it circularly to perfection bringeth it to passe It appeareth then that this composition is not a manuall worke but onely a change of the natures because nature dissolues and conioynes it selfe it sublimes and lifts vp it selfe and hauing separated the foeces it groweth white and in such a sublimation the parts are alwayes ioyned together more subtile more pure and essentiall because that when the fiery nature lifteth vp the subtile parts it lifteth vp alwayes the more pure and by consequent leaueth the grosser in the bottome And therefore it behooueth by an indifferent fire to sublime in a continuall vapour that the Stone may bee inspired in the ayre and liue For the nature of all things takes life of the inspiration of ayre and so also all our Maistery consists in vapour and in the sublimation of water And therefore our brasse or Leton must by degrees of fire bee lifted vp and freely without violence of himselfe ascend on high wherefore vnlesse the Body bee by fire and water dissolued attenuated and subtilized vntill it ascend as a spirit or climbe like Argent viue or as the white soule separated from the Body and carried in the sublimation of the Spirits there is nothing at all done in this Arte But when it ascends on high it is borne in the ayre and changed in the ayre and is made life with life being altogether spirituall and incorruptible And so in such a regiment the Body is made a spirit of a subtile nature and the spirit is incorporated with the Body and is made one with it and in such a sublimation coniunction and eleuation all things are made white And therefore this Phylosophicall and natural sublimation is necessary for that it maketh peace betweene the body and the spirit which is vnpossible otherwise to be done otherwise then by this separation of the parts wherefore it behoueth to sublime them both to the end that in the troubles of this stormy Sea the pure may ascend and the impure and earthly may descend And for this cause it must be boyled continually that it may be brought to a subtile nature and that the body may assume and draw to it selfe the white Mercuriall soule which it naturally retaines and suffereth it not to be separated from it because it is like vnto it in the neerenesse of the first pure and simple nature From hence it appeares that this separation must be made by decoction vntill there remaine no more of the fat of the soule which is not lifted vp and exalted into the vpper part for so they shall be both reduced vnto a simple equality and vnto a simple whitenesse The