a thousand pieces not without danger of the body and life of the Operator On the contrary if the Vessel be too capacious and more large then for the heat to operate upon the matter according to its proportion the work will also be frustrate and in vain Therefore our Philosophical Vessel is to be fabricated with greatest industry and diligence But they onely understand what the matter of this our Vessel is who in the first Solution of our fixed and perfect matter have reduced and brought the same into their first Essence of which we have spoken enough Let the Operator therefore diligently note what he takes and what he refuses in the Solution of the first matter The manner of describing this Vessel is difficult yet it ought to be of such a form as Nature her self requires which is to be sought and investigated from one and another In brief io must be such that from the altitude of the Philosophical Heaven being elevated above the Philosophical Earth it may operate to bring forth the Fruit of its terrene body It ought to have this form That when rhe Fire forces one from the other there may be a separation and purification of the Elements so that every one may occupy his own place wherein he remaineth and that the Sun and the other Planets may exercise their Operations about the terrene Element and that their course be not impedited in their Circuit nor stirred up with too violent a motion According to all these things which have been said it ought to have a proportion of roundness and altitude Those which appertain to the first cleansing and mundification of Mineral bodies are melting Vessels Crucibles lementing Vessels Cucurbites and Glasses for Aqua Fortis which are also necessary for the projection in the last work but as concerning the Vessel useful for this work it is necessary that you have a Glass rightly and duly proportioned for if it be too capacious or more large then its just and due proportion the matter that is the humidity is dilated so that nothing can be produced therefrom And if it be too narrow or little and compressing the matter the growth thereof will be suffocated that it can produce no Fruit. An example thereof may be taken from hence If Corn or any thing else be sown in the shade or under the droppings of an House what Fruit can be expected therefrom Wherefore our greatest care ought to be in the adopting and fitting of the Glass for an error being committed thereby or therein is not easily corrected and amended so that by the impediment thereof the work is not brought to the wished end Wherefore to two Ounces of the matter take two Ounces and a half of Glass or the Philosophical Egge that is a Glass of that weight having regard to the due thickness of the Glass This being observed you shall avoid error in this thing CHAP. VI. Of the Subject or Philosophical Matter in general HAving hitherto sufficiently spoken of the Chymical Instruments now hearken what Matter you are to chuse to begin this Spagyrick Work after that the Vegetables are mortified the concurrences of the two Metals that is Salt and Sulphur they are transmuted into a Mineral Nature so that from thence at length results a perfect Mineral For in the Mineral Caverns of the Earth some Vegetables are found which by a long succession of time and a continual heat have put off the vegetable Nature of Sulphur and put on a Mineral Nature And this most especially happens where the most proper Nutriment of these kinde of Vegetables is taken away that they may be afterwards compelled to receive their Aliment from the Sulphur and Salt of the Earth so long until that which before was Vegetable become a perfect Mineral And from this Mineral condition a certain Metallick perfect Essence doth sometimes arise and that by the progress of one Degree unto another But that we may return to speak of the Philosophers Stone the matter whereof is most difficult to finde out and understand The manner and most certain Rule of this Investigation and of all other things whatsoever is a careful and diligent Examination of the Radix and Sperm thereof whereby is found out the knowledge of the matter Much availing hereunto is a due and necessary consideration of the beginning and original of Metals how and after what manner Nature first bringeth them from imperfection to the end of perfection To which consideration it first of all conduceth the perfect knowledge of the three first Principles whereof Nature createth all things that is Sal Sulphur and Mercury naturally permixed into one body yet so that in some they are volatile and in others fixed For as often as the corporal Sal is permixed with the spiritual Mercury and animate Sulphur then Nature begins to operate in those Subterranean places which she hath in stead of her Vessels by the separating Fire which separates the crass and impure Sulphur from the pure and segregates the Earth from the Sal and the Nubes from the Mercury reserving the first parts which Nature decocteth again together into one constant Geogamical body Which Operation is had from the greater mixture and conjunction by the union of three to wit Body Soul and Spirit This Union being compleated from thence results pure Mercury which if it flow through the Subterranean Pores and Veins and be made obvious to the Sulphur it is coagulated herewith according to the condition of the Sulphur Yet nevertheless it is still Volatile insomuch that it is scarce decocted into Metal in twenty yeers afterwards From thence this vulgar Opinion received its original to wit that Sulphur and Mercury are the Matter of the Metals as is manifest by the Relation of the Diggers of Minerals But neither vulgar Mercury nor common Sulphur are the Matter of the Metals but the Mercury and Sulphur of the Philosophers are incorporate and innate in perfect Metals and in the Forms thereof so that they never fly from the Fire nor are depraved by the force of the corruption of the Metals So that by the Dissolution of that natural mixture our Mercury is tamed and fixed say the Spagyrick Philosophers Therefore under this form of Words our Mercury out of perfect bodies and the vertue of the terrene Planets cometh to be extracted which also Hermes asserts in these words he saith That Sol and Luna are the Roots of this Art The Son of Hannel saith That the Philosophers Stone is a coagulated water to wit in Sol and Luna From whence it plainly appears That the Matter of our Stone is only Sol and Luna which is confirmed by this That every like naturally brings forth and generates his like And as we know there are two Stones the white and the red so there are also two Matters of the Stone Sol and Luna coupled together in their proper Matrimony either natural or artificial And as we see a Man and Woman cannot generate nor
produce their like without the mixture of both their Seeds so in like manner our Male Sol and his Female Luna cannot conceive nor bring forth any Generation without their Seed and Sperm From whence our Philosophers have gathered That there is a third thing necessary to wit the Animate Seed both of the Male and Female of the Chymists without which they judged their whole work vain and ridiculous The Sperm hereof is Mercury which by a natural Conjunction of both bodies of Sol and Luna receiveth and uniteth their Nature into himself Then at length and not before is the matter apt for the congressive Work and Generation by the Masculine and Feminine force and vertue This hath moved our Philosophers to say That this Mercury is composed of Body Soul and Spirit and to assume unto it self the nature and propriety of all Elements Wherefore they have asserted their Stone to be an Animal which also they called their Adam who beareth his occult and invisible Eve in his own body from which moment they are united by the power of the Great Maker of all things For which cause it may worthily be said That the Mercury of the Philosophers is nothing else but an abstruse composed Mercury and not that vulgar Mercury Therefore they have wisely said That there is in Mercury whatsoever the wise men do seek after Almadir the Philosopher saith We extract our Mercury out of one perfect Body with two perfect natural and incorporate conditions This extrinsecally produceth his perfection whereby he resisteth the force of the fire and by this his perfection is extrinsecally and intrinsecally defended from all imperfections By this place of the acute Philosopher the matter of the Stone is understood to be Adamical the Microcosmical Garment the Homogeneous and united matter of the Philosophers These Sayings of the Philosophers which before we have made mention of are meerly Golden and to be had alwayes in great esteem because they contain in them nothing superfluous nothing invalid Briefly therefore The matter of the Philosophers Stone is nothing else but a fiery and perfect Mercury extracted by Nature and Art that is artificially prepared and is the true Hermaphrodite Adam and Microcosme This the wisest of Philosophers Mercurius Trismegistus asserting calleth the Stone an Orphan Therefore our Mercury is he which contains in himself the perfections power and vertue of Sol and runneth through the Houses of all the Planets and in his Regeneration acquireth the vertue of the superiors and inferiors and by the Matrimony thereof he appeareth cloathed in their candor and beauty The Arabians Greeks Persians and Egyptians have kept these Mysteries secret and abstruse denoting them by certain occult Characters and Figures Some have called this The Secret of the Philosophers and Pythagoras The Philosophers Stone Whosoever have attained to the knowledge hereof have adumbrated and shadowed the same with various enigmatical Figures and deceitful Similitues and Comparisons and feigned Words that the Matter thereof might remain occult to Posterity so that little or no Knowledge thereof might be found out But nevertheless some have sufficiently detected this matter and the knowledge thereof with its preparation to the ingenious but notwithstanding in Parables and under Enigmatical Words and Figures that they might expel the unworthy from attaining to such a mystery of Art and Nature Nevertheless some few and such who are apt to apprehend this Art have sought out the perpetual Balsome of Nature and the true Stone but with exceeding great labour and intricate difficulty which every where occurreth in the investigation hereof And hence it appears why the sluggish and slothful mindes never attain to this work CHAP. VII Of the Preparation of the Spagyrick Matter in general NAture first requireth of the Artist that the Philosophical Adam be brought into a Mercurial substance and at length to be regenerated into the Oriental Sol and Lunary Stone Moreover it s to be noted That those common Preparations of Geber Albertus Magnus Thomas Aquinas Rupecissa Polydor and the like are nothing else but particular Solutions Sublimations Calcinations least of all pertaining to our universal Secret which wanteth onely the most secret Fire of the Philosophers The Fire therefore and Azor are sufficient for thee The Philosophers make mention of other Preparations as Putrefaction Distillation Sublimation Ceration Fixation c. which you are to understand onely to be certain universal Operations to compleat Nature in the said matter and not onely a working in the Philosophical Vessel with the like Fire and not with common Fire For the white and the red proceed both from one Radix without any mean it is dissolved in it self and copulated by it self made white and red black yellow by it self it despouseth it self and is conceived in it self it is decocted and infunded ascendeth and descendeth all which Operations are made by the Fire alone Yet some Philosophers have dissolved the Body of Sol by the strong essence of Wine and made it Volatile that it would ascend by an Alembick thinking this to be the true Volatile matter of the Philosophers whereas it is not although it be a secret not to be despised to reduce a perfect Metallick Body into a Volatile and spiritual substance yet they erre in the separation of the Elements for they thought by this way to separate Gold into a subtil spiritual and elemental vertue and after their separation by Circulation and Rectification again to copulate them into one but in vain For although one Metal may be separated from another in some sort nevertheless every Metal thus separated may be separated again into another which parts afterwards by a Pellicanical Circulation or Distillation can in no wise copulate into one but will alwayes remain a certain Volatile Matter and Aurum Potabile as they call it The cause why these can never attain to their intentions is this Because by this way Nature will not be extracted nor separated with humane dis-junctions as by terrene Glasses and Instruments That onely hath known its Operations and the weight of the Elements whose Separations Rectifications and Copulations are executed without the help of any Operator or Manual Artifice whilst the matter is contained in the secret Fire and in the occult Vessel This is the Opinion of the Philosophers That when they have placed this matter into their secret Fire it is cherished round about with this Philosophical hear that beginning to transite into corruption it waxeth black This Operation they call Putrefaction And this Blackness The Head of the Crow They call the ascending and descending of this matter their Distillation Ascension and Descension they call Exsiccation Coagulation and Dealbation Calcination And because by a continual hear the matter is made soft and fluid they make mention of Ceration But when it ceaseth to ascend and remaineth liquid in the bottom they call it Fixation After this manner therefore are the Apellations of the Philosophical Operations to be understood and
and no Stone for they have meant the Elixirs the which the unlearned have not understood and they have named it their salt that is our Salt of Nature that we have spoken of before our Salt of Wisdom that is when it is prepared our Menstruum for with the same our Medicine is nourished as the Child is in the Mothers wombe They call it also A King and that noble Salt and that living Water or Oyl of Grace and the most precious Water of the most secrets and the most coming the which dissolveth Mercury the same is the Mercury of the Philosophers and he dissolveth all Bodies of Metals and it is a Medicine and the first beginning of the Stone and it is living Water and living Sulphur he is the Lord and Master of all Salts and without him the other have no full power to make perfect any thing he doth binde and unbinde he doth joyn the Man with the Wife he doth change one kinde with another and makes of Bodies Spirits and of Spirits Bodies and this must all be compounded and make perfect the Philosophers stone CHAP. IX Teacheth That our Sol and Luna is living and the Sol and Luna of the Mines be dead MY Son you shall understand That our Sol and Luna be living and these that are of the Mines are dead and therefore the Sol of the Earth is not so good as our Sol that is made by this Science for our Sol hath in him three things to say a Soul a Body and a Spirit without the which three things there can no Transmutation be made the which one alone cannot do therefore they must be all three together if any good should be done And understand That no man can do any Transmutation with the corruption of the perfect Bodies that is Sol and Luna for we take the Spirit of the perfect Bodies through our Sperm or our strong Water and this same Spirits is holden in our Water that is our dissolved Salt which is our menstruum for where the Mother hath received the Seed that is the Sperm of the unperfect Bodies with her menstruum into her Body so shall it receive no life before the Soul come into it so do we as Nature doth ask we conjoyn this together till he come to cleer Water without Feces and then we draw out the simple Phlegmate in Balneo or Ashes and after that we put in the Soul or nourish it with Sol or Luna according to the making of your Medicine then be they ready to ingender her like and then we do put them in putrefaction the time afore-written then is the Spirit and the Soul perfectly made and the copulation is done and then when that we shall do projection upon any unperfect Body or Metal so called then this Spirit or Medicine doth take to him a Body and then it is called a Spirit a Soul and a Body which is then living And this Instruction my beloved Son I give to thee that thou maist know that our Sol and Luna is living and those in the Earth or Mines be dead and also that thou maist know that our Elixir white or red are not other then spiritual or a Spirit the which when it is cast upon a dead body with the Soul it is made living that same then is multiplied and augmented in goodness and perfections and in him is fulfilled that through accident which in the Earth it did lack to say that sickness which is got in the earth is taken away through our Medicine or Elixir red or white the which we do in this manner We take in the Name of God our Earth or Metal that is an unperfect Body and melt it with a perfect Body or Corpus the which is our Leaven with the which we do prepare our paste or dough and then we cast upon it our Elixir the which is our Spirit the which then doth make it perfect and a living Body or Metal but the great Stone of the Philosophers the which I will learn thee hereafter to compound it and perfectly to make it the which is of so great strength and power that be he a dead Body or Metal doth not onely make living and perfect but also maketh of the same Metal Medicine to transmute any other unperfect Metal into a perfect and it doth the same in the twinckling of an eye so that he may be called and is The Riches of the whole World Herewithall do we conclude the first Part of this Book to say The Composition of the Elixirs white and red The true COMPOSITION OF The Great Stone OF THE PHILOSOPHERS PART II. CHAP. I. MY beloved Son I here before opened unto thee the Truth without leaving any thing needful to be known of the Composition of the Elixirs the which is the beginning and entrance into the Great Stone of the Philosophers and this Stone doth convert all Metals unperfect into perfect Metals of Sol of twenty four Caracks fine the Metal being melted that you will transform and then cast upon him his Leaven that is Gold when that your Stone is made in the red work and that Gold must be cemented as aforesaid in the other Book and augmented in colour that is if you will melt a hundred ounces of unperfect Metal then cast upon it Ferment or Leaven which is Gold stir it well together and put no more but one ounce of Gold to the Mass of Metal and then being well molten and incorporated together cast no more but the quantity of a Pease or Fitch of the red Stone upon it so shall you see that this Stone shall turn this Mass of Metal or hundred ounces into the finest Gold that may be in the World of twenty four caracts fine and shall pass all the proofs that men can do upon it for better then that that doth come out of the Mines And you shall understand that our Elixirs that we have before mentioned are not come to their full perfection but it is the beginning of the white and red stone of the Philosophers but if you will make it perfect as hereafter I shall learn you the white shall transform all Metals into Silver like as of the red is declared that is to say when you have melten the Metal that you will transform then you must cast into it one ounce of fine Capel Luna that you have made deaf of sound and heavy of weight as it is before declared in the other Book and when you have well mingled them together with a stick then cast in to the greatness of a Pease of your white Stone and you shall finde it transformed into very fine Luna better then any that comes out of the Earth and if in case you did cast one ounce of your white Stone or of your red upon a hundred ounces of unperfect Metals so shall that be transformed into the Elixir or Medicine wherewith you may tranâ—form all unperfect Metals into perfect Luna or Sol
at all The Earth thus prepared must of necessity be returned into a Calx giving not a dissolving but a digesting heat of the fire When this Truth is calcined you shall put it in a fit Vessel of Glass which must be set it temperate heat of the fire the first degree and in it unto the Earth must be poured one ounce of the animated Spirit As for example To one ounce of the Earth you must put one of the Spirit which animated Spirit I taught you heretofore to draw out of the Earth it self by Distillation Then shut the Vessel with a blind Head and suffer it to be digested three dayes or so long till the Earth hath drawn up his Spirit then taking away the blind Head and putting on a Limbeck by Distillation draw out the Phlegmatick and unsavory moisture how little soever be in it Then again the second time give to the same Earth of its own Spirit the seventh part and putting the blind Head upon it set the Vessel on the first degree of heat to be digested three dayes space then taking a way the blue Head and putting on the Alimbeck distil all the insipid moisture Thirdly Add to the same Earth the fixth part of its own animated Water and putting on the blue Head set in digestion for three days and after that time removing of the blind Head and putting on the Alimbeck distil the superfluous humidities Fourthly Add again the fifth part of the animated Spirit to his own Earth digest it and by Distillation evacuate the humidity Fifthly Render the fourth part of the Soul of the Body and digest it and draw out the moisture as I have shewn before and so with the fourth part of it upon the same Earth prosecute the operation by Unvivistives Digestion and Distillations till the Earth have drunk up all his animated Spirit and both be reduced to an Homogeneal Body then take the Earth which is withheld and white and put it in a Vessel of Glass divided into three parts which being luted and carefully shut must be put in a Furnace to the fire of the third degree the space or a natural day and so the pure part of it will be separated from the impure and will be lifted up on high and the impure part of the Body be left in the bottom as unprofitable to be cast away and the pure to be gathered and this is called by Raymund and other Philosophers Mercury sublimate vegetable Sal Armoniack and set of Lunary vegetable wherein are so many and so great vertues that the humane tongue of man cannot express them Furthermore All things being severally prepared to wit the Spirit and the Earth it remaineth here to shew the way to copulate the Spirit of Lunary with the Earth of the same prepared that is with the Salt or Sulphur of Nature vegetable but out of the conjunction of these two one organical Body to wit the vegetable menstruum may be made up and the way to make it is this Take one pound of the Salt or vegetable Sulphur new prepared bray it very small and put it in a Cucurbite of Glass which is strong and thick and upon it of the foresaid Spirit of Philosophical Lunary then shutting the Glass most carefully with a blue Head so that it hath no Air at all put it in the Balneo and let it purifie for the space two dayes then taking off the blind Head and putting on a Limbeck and joyning a great Recipient to it After you have stopped well all the Joynts you shall distil it in the Ashes with a gentle heat and all will go out by the Limbeck Nevertheless if any of the Salt should remain in the bottom you shall again pour of Spirit newly distilled upon it and distil it again from hence And this shall you do so oft till the whole Earth as a cleer Water be brought over the Limbeck being done take yet one pound of Salt put it into the Cucurbite and pour upon it the same Spirit lastly distilled cover the Vessel with a blind Head and set it to purifie and being purified till all the Sulphur pass over the Limbeck with the Spirit and that being distilled take again as before of new Salt vegetable one pound and adding the same Spirit purifie and then distil all Fourthly Take likewise fresh Salt one pound and pour upon it the Spirit lately distilled till all pass by the Limbeck and nothing remain in the Cucurbite and so the vegetable menstruum shall be made and perfectly ended having power to dissolve both the lights and all other Metals with the conservation of the vegetable form but now it is resting to shew how the menstruum must be converted unto a celestial Nature or Quintessence and the way is thus Take the simple menstruum and pour it into a great and strong Glass-Vessel that the fifth part of it onely be full or at the most the fourth and the rest be void then shut the Vessel with a blind Head shutting diligently all the Joynts lest the power of the menstruum vanish being shut put it in the Physical Bath or in the Horse-Belly and let it circulate a whole Month which time expired put on your menstruum into another clean Vessel and do this warily lest the setling in the bottom by the Circulation be poured out together with the menstruum but it must be left in the Circulation so shall you have the menstruum purified circulated and celestial which the Philosophers call The Heaven The Crown of Heaven and The Quintessence whose brightness and transparencie doth exceed the brightness of all Lunary things and the sweet smell of it exceedeth all other sweet savours prepared by Nature This Quintessence is the ground-work of all Spagyrical and Physical Preparation for by the vertue of it all solid Bodies are corrupted from their own Natures and are brought to Liquors Oyls Spirits Elixirs Magisteries Stones and Tinctures Whence it cometh That the Spagyrick can give to the Phisitians the best Medicines Of the manner of dissolving Gold and of separating the Tincture of it from the Body or the form from the matter and also of exuberating or multiplying the same THe manner of composing the vegetable being delivered and also of making it celestial it remaineth that you should be shewed how the matter of the Universal Medicine to wit Gold should be prepared with the heavenly menstrual that it may exercise its vertue upon the Body of Man the manner to prepare it is this Let Gold be cemented with Antimony that every Heterogeneal thing be separated from it then being well purged reduce it to very small Leaves then of the foliated or Leaf-Gold take an ounce and put it into a little Cucurbite of Glass and pour upon it two ounces of the heavenly menstruum or of the vegetable Quintessence This being done put the Cucurbite closed Hermetically into a Fire of the first degree and then of the second so shall the Gold be dissolved
dissimilitude proceedeth not from the first Fire of Creatures but from the various Rule of the Elements by the Planets and not by the Sun For by this disposition the heat is changed in the Elements every moment and also the form of decompounds from the compounds and not from the simples Where there is not so great a mixture of the Elements there is generated Sol where they are a little more mix'd and impure Luna and where they are more imperfect Venus and so of the rest according to the mutation of the mixtures the Mine of every Metal is unlike one another neither do their Spirits agree in all things one with another for if they were generated of simple Fire alone no multiplicity intervening there would be no difference of their properties and forms not only in Metals but in all other Creatures But why there are in use seven Metals and no more six whereof are solid and the seventh fluxible and thin the Reason is given in Philosophy and not in Chymistry which is to be reserved to its proper place that we digress not from our purpose And thus much of the manifold Philosophical Fire deduced from Physical Reasons CHAP. IV. Of the visible and local Instruments and first of the Spagyrick Womb. BEfore we come to speak of the matter it is requisite that we proceed in order to declare what Instruments actual and local are necessary to be used in this Art the first actual is the Fire the first local Instrument is the Furnace which by the Ancients is called by this Chymical Name Athanor this referreth to the Womb in the Spagyrick Generation Hermes Trismegistus although he was not the Inventor of this Art no less then Paracelsus of Spagyrick Medicines yet he deserveth to be called the Restorer thereof He asserteth That this Spagyrick work which is the utmost point of the hand of humane Philosophy taketh its exordium and first beginning from the meditative contemplation of the greater world intimating that the Spagyrick Athanor ought to be built from the imitation of the Foundation of Heaven and Earth But for the exercise of the ingenious I shall not think it amiss a little to examine this comparison whereby I may happily profit the Readers There is no Physitian will deny but that the Sun doth generate a Sun like to its self but every one will not confess That it hath this Generation in its Centre and especially the Disciples of those Philosophers that can give no other Reason of the Aetnean Fires then what Rusticks and Clowns do according to the appearance thereof to their carnal eyes This Terrene or earthly Sun is kindled and bred by the Fire of the superior even so is kindled the Centre of our matter from the Centre of our World or Athanor which is Fire bearing a similitude and resemblance with the natural Sun Who seeth not the form and frame of the universal created World to bear the similitude and likeness of a Furnace or that I may speak more reverently containing the Matrix of a Womb that is to say the Elements wherein the Seeds of the Sun and Moon by their various astral influences are corrupted concocted and digested for the Generation of all things But this is plainly manifest to Children I need not speak it to Philosophers wherefore I shall not need to urge it any further Therefore we proceed to speak of the manner of the construction and building of our Athanor or Furnace First let a Furnace be built six spans high round within and of the bredth and bigness of one span let it be somewhat larger and bigger towards the bottom then at top let it be made smooth within that Coals or such things as are put in do not stick by the way but may fall down close to the Grate To this Furnace you may make one two or three mouths as you shall think fit To every Furnace let a Copper be fitted with Water the other matter is to be inclosed within as the Egge is within the Hen so is a Glass to be in this womb for the industry of the Magistery Then when you will work or operate herewith having all things diligently prepared break you Coals about the bigness of Walnuts and fill up the Turrets to the top and kindle them at the door beneath â—â—d let the top be kept shut lest the Coals being kindled at the top or in the middle deâ—â—â—oy the whole work and they consume and â—â—rn all together Moderate therefore your â—â—re with a just proportion as Nature teacheth in all things The natural heat will excite and stir up the ferment and the matter lying hid in this Egge Wherefore even as the Sun illuminates the â—reat World and giveth Light and Life to all the Stars Elements and Creatures so doth this Spagyrick Fire illustrate and vivifie our Instruments and all the matter of our Furnace as the sitting of a Hen over her Egges animates the young CHAP. V. Of the second Spagyrick Instrument which is the Matrix or Philosophers Egge MAny Philosophers rashly presuming upon their own Judgements have mis-understood the right and true occult and secret Vessel of the Philosophers And worse is that which Aristotle the Chymist not the Greek Academian saith That the matter is to be decocted in a treble Vessel And more amiss is that which another saith That the matter in the first separation and first Degree ought to be included in a Metallick Vessel in the second Degree of its Coagulation and Dealbation of the Earth a Glass-Vessel and in the third Degree which is Fixation a Vessel of Earth Nevertheless by all these they understand onely one Vessel in all Operations to the perfection of the red Stone Since therefore our Matter is our Radix and Foundation both of the white and red our Vessel necessarily ought to be made after this manner that the matter therein may be ruled by the Celestial bodies for the Celestial influences and the invisible impressions of the Stars are chiefly necessary for this work otherwise it is impossible to attain to the excellent Oriental Persian Chaldean and Egyptian Stone by any means by which Anaxagoras knew the vertues and power of the whole Firmament presaged That the great Stone should descend from Heaveâ— upon Earth which also happened after his death He did very much make known our Vessel to the Cabalists and that according to the true Geometrical measure and proportion and how iâ— ought to be built of a certain Quadrature in 〈◊〉 Circle whereby the Spirits and soul of our matter being separated from their body may be elevated in the altitude of their Heaven For if the Vessel be more straight largeâ— high or low then its due measure and proportion and then the ruling and operating Spirits and Soul of the matter do desire the heat of our secret Philosophical Fire which is most acute will too violently excite and provoke the matter to Operation and sometimes the Vessel will flie into
no otherwise Thus having declared the Instruments Matter and Ferment we proceed in order to the Weights without observation whereof our Work is in vain CHAP. VIII Of the Proportion of the Matter and Form of the Spagyrick Stone THe Formal part of our birth is the Mercury of the Philosophers and the Spirit or Tincture of Sol but the living part is another material Therefore the Composition of this sacred Adamick Stone is made after the Adamick Mercury of the wise men with their Female Eve by the Matrimony and union of the one and the other Mercury on the third part Therefore the onely matter of the Philosophers consisteth of spiritual corporal and animal Mercury The corporal Mercury is the subject of Tinctures The spiritual and animal Mercuries exhibit the means of conjoyning them but in their conjunction a due proportion is to be observed For if there be taken more of one then of the other it will be suffocated as Seed sown in the Field so that it cannot live so long until it be united by the Mercury of the Philosophers and perfected in the Fire or on the contrary if it be too little there can be no Solution nor no Fruit. Wherefore see that you take as much of the one as of the other lest by your ignorance in the proportion the work be destroyed Let there be taken therefore one part of the Seed to two parts of Earth or three to four and there will be no error but the work will be brought to its desired end in this behalf so as the rest be moderated accordingly There is a double Reason why the Weight should be observed the one natural the other artificial The natural followeth the effect in the Earth by Nature and Concordancy of which Arnaldus speaks If there shall be added more or less Earth then Nature will suffer it will suffocate the Soul and no fruit nor fixation is perceived The like is to be judged of the Water if there be taken too much or little thereof it brings an inconvenient loss for the superfluity thereof makes the matter too humid and the defect or want thereof renders it too dry and too hard If the Vessel be too little the Tincture is too much pressed if too large a pale body evades if the Fire be made too vehement the matter is burnt if too remiss it hath not power of exsiccating solving and calefying the other Elements In these consists the elemental Weight but the artificial is most occult when as the Ponderations are included in the Magick Art Between the Spirit Soul and Body say the Philosophers consisteth the Weight with Sulphur as it were the Rector of the work for the Soul desireth the Sulphur and necessarily observeth it by Reason of the Weight Which understand after this manner Our matter is united with red mixed Sulphur to which is committed the third part of the Regiment until the last Degree that it maketh on the infinite Operation of the Stone and persisteth therewith together with his Fire and consisteth of an equal Weight with the matter it self in all things and by all things without any variation of any Degree of Transmutation After therefore the matter is prepared and fitted and mixed with its proportionate Weight it ought to be very well concluded and sealed up in the Philosophers Vessel and committed to their secret Fire in which the Philosophical Sun will spring up and arise and illuminate all things which expect his Light or hope can desire But because this cannot rightly be understood without a perfect knowledge in the Metals of perfect Tinctures we proceed now to speak of them CHAP. IX Of the Tinctures and Spirits of Metals and first of the Tincture of the Sun THe Tincture of the Sun obtains the supreme and principal place which is derived of subtil pure and most perfect fire Wherefore this spirit flieth not from the fire but remains therein fixed triumphing and rejoycing it is not consumed nor burnt thereby as others but rather thereby gains more lustre and splendor it is subject to no Corruption neither heat nor cold nor any other quality can bring any detriment thereunto Whereby it comes to pass that the body which it once putteth on it defends and preserves from all accidents Corruption and diseases that it may also endure the fire with him without lesion His body hath not these virtues from himself but from his spirit alone the efficient cause thereof It is certaine that the body of Sol is Mercury which can in no wise indure the fire but immediately flyes therefrom Since therefore being in gold Mercury persists constantly in the fire and flyes not there is no doubt but the fixing thereof by the spirit will impresse the same virtue in its self What gift and office therefore hath it in Mercury but that when it is freed from its own body and taken into a humane body it should work and operate its effects thereupon who will deny but that also it may preserve and keepe it safe from all Corruption diseases and accidents whatsoever and preserve the body to a long and sound life as our first parents of old The virtues and propertyes of all other Metals are not otherwise to be known but by certain and true experience and not by any other reason of a Subtile intellect for this wisdom which is conceived by opinion only is meere foolishness before God and the truth wherefore they that hope and believe therein do erre and are deceived Thus farre of the spirit and Tincture of Sol now let us see what Tincture the Moon hath The spirit of Luna lyeth in this white Tincture as the Red in Sol And it is also borne of a subtil spirit but not so perfect as that of Sol. Nevertheless in purity and constancy it farre excelleth the Tinctures of all the other subsequent Metals For burnt lead consumes it self and all other Metals with it in the fire except Sol and Luna to which it brings no detriment Seeing therefore the spirit of the Moon is of power to preserve the body which it once putteth on to wit Mercury from injury of the fire and all other accidents and render the same fixed and constant it is easily gathered from hence if it effect this in so instable and volatile a body as Mercury how much more efficacious and powerful will it operate being free from its own body and projected into a humane body will not that be also defended from many diseases and Corruptions certainly whatsoever it operates in Mercury the same it will do in a humane body and preserve the same to a long and sound life expelling all diseases which are comprehended under the power thereof according to the degree thereunto prefixed by nature Certainly by how much the more sublime subtile and perfect every Medicine is by so much the more perfectly it cureth in its kinde Wherefore ignorant are those Physitians who found their Art chiefly upon corrupt Medicines as Vegetables
which are not permanent but they go about fixed Cures with unconstant means undertaking that which is impossible for them to perform But what shall I say more unto these they have never yet learned otherwise in their Academies The Spirit of Venus is derived of a permixtion of more crass elements then the former wherefore it is inferiour and subject unto them but it is more perfect then the other Spirits and Tinctures which follow excelling them in fixation and constancie not yeelding to the fire nor so subject to be corrupted as the others subsequent and remaineth more fixed in the fire which vertue Venus hath not in her own body but from a Spirit What operation soever it hath in its Mercury the same it doth also in humane bodies according to the degree of nature for it defendeth wounds and ulcers from accidents and expelleth such diseases as are under its degree and power and disperseth the root thereof If it be mixed with any other Metals it breaketh their perfect bodies that they will not be malleable any more until they be freed from it The like effect it hath in humane bodies especially if it be taken for any Disease not destined unto its degree by nature it bringeth Contractures of the members VVherefore the Physitian ought perfectly to learn the Natures and Tinctures of Metals how they agree with the Nature of Bodies before they venture to give them lest they endanger their Patient The tincture of Mars consists of an adustible and crass permixion of the Elements having a more hard and less tractable substance then the other imperfects hardly fusible but corruptible both with Air and VVater easily subject to be consumed with rust but in hardness and driness it abounds above all other Metals as well perfect as imperfect It torments the body of man if applied to any disease other then becometh its Nature yet it wanteth not power and vertue granted to it by God and Nature in its special propriety The Spirit of Jupiter is created of a white pally substance of Fire by nature intractable with the hammer but not so much as Mars Being mixed with others it discontinueth and mixeth with them especially with Luna that it will hardly be separated herefrom The like operation it hath in all other Metals except in Saturn if it be taken contrary to its Nature to operate upon mans body it afflicts the members with cruel passions and pains and gnaweth them with such burning that they cannot exercise their natural faculties being outwardly applied to Fistula's Cancers Carbuncles and such-like which exceed not the degree of its Nature it is the best remedy expelling every evil The Spirit of Saturn is created of an obscure tenebrose and cold permixture of Elements whereby it comes to pass that it less endures the Fire then any other It mundifies the bodies of Sol and Luna and purgeth them from superfluities it afflicteth the body taken inwardly more then Tin or Iron but because it is coagulated with more cold then the other it operates not so sharply it hath an excellent faculty to heal Fistula's Cancers and such-like ulcers and many other infirmities But having performed its operation unless it depart from the body together with the disease it doth more hurt then good Wherefore let the Physitian that desires to make use hereof first know with what diseases it agrees and how it is naturally ordained for Medicine Lastly the Spirit of Mercury hath no certain determinate form but is subject to all the other as wax to the impression of a seal for it receiveth every Spirit whatsoever unto it self as when the Spirit of Sol is impressed into it it transites into Sol if Luna into Luna and so of the rest he putteth on their nature and embraceth every Metal His body may be compared to the Spirits of other Metals as the Female to the Male not by a corporal mixture but when a Spirit is educed from its Metal and after the preparation projected into Mercury then at length he exhibits his transmutation no otherwise then a dead female of Metal although it be as an untilled Field or Earth if it be macerated or vivified with the Philosophers Plough which female in this work remains fixed and uncorrupt it is united to the said corporal Spirit by the degrees of the fire into his nature and substance this with the dead body of Metal which with the crass Spirit of Mercury cannot be done And although the body of Sol exist of Mercury or Argent vive and is fixed nevertheless common Mercury not fixed or mortified never cometh to its Resurrection For the Resurrection of Metals is an immortal Regeneration and the medium whereby the tinctures are promoted to their generation Wherefore it cannot be united with dead bodies into fixation but only with extracted Spirits of the corporals before spoken of which are subject to Metals as the common Mercury is subject to all Metallick Spirits For the crass Spirit of Mercury doth in no wise generate this tincture in substance no more then a concubine legitimate issue We are to judge in like manner of the crass Spirit of Mercury so long until the metallike and corporal Spirit is made by the medium of the natural matter without this medium it is impossible to attain to any good and perfect work in these kinde of tinctures moreover if the fire be too strong it cannot generate if too remiss the same event happens CHAP. X. Of the plain Manifestation of this Art WHen thou wilt make the Heaven or Sphere of Saturn to run with life upon the Earth impose thereupon all the Planets or which you will but let there not be too much of Luna but add less thereof then of the other Permit them all to run until you see the Heaven of Saturn quite to vanish by this means all the Planets will remain of such a consistency that their ancient and corruptible bodies being dead they have put on a new perfect and incorruptible body This is the Spirit of Heaven by which the said Planets are again made corporal and living as at first Take this new body from the Life and from the Earth and this keep for this is Sol and Luna After this manner thou hast the whole Art made manifest and plain but if thereby thou dost not know or understand the same it is well for so it ought to remain not vulgarly and indifferently laid open to all Finis de Transmutatione Metallorum Of the Genealogy and Generation of Minerals CHAP. I. WHen I had diligently and accurately read the writings of the Ancients concerning the Generation of Minerals I appredended that they understood not the ultimate matter of them and by consequence much less the first Truly if the beginning of any matter may rightly be written certainly the end thereof may very fitly be declared I have therefore in the first place decreed to propose unto you the ultimate matter of all Minerals whereby you may
because the intellect doth so far excel the sense this is a work of a second intention and the beginning upon the vertue of Elements that is a pure bright and cleer Water of Putrefaction for the perfection of every Art properly so called requires a new birth as that which is sowed is not quickned except it die but here death is taken for mutation and not for rotting under the clods Now therefore we must take the Key of Art and consider the secret of every thing is the Life thereof Life is a Vapor and in Vapor is placed the wonder of Art whatsoever hath heat agitating and moving in it self by the internal Transmutation is said to live this Life the Artist seeks to destroy and restore an eternal Life with Glory and Beauty This Vapor is called The vegetable Spirit because it is of degree of heat with the hottest Vegetable and being decocted till it shine like brightest Steel you shall see great and marvelous secrets not by the separation of Elements by themselves but by predomination and victory of that pure Fire which like the Celestial Sun enters not materially but by help of Elemental Fire sends forth his influence and impression of form Here we must observe difference of perfections for although ye have now the Fountain of compleat white yet you are not neer your chief delight which is the Fountain of Life and Centre of the Heart the universal Spirit which lives in the radical humidity and doth naturally vivificate and is the masculine Seed of the Celestial Sun here is that Rule made good Except ye sow in Gold ye do nothing Therefore we must take heed what we understand by Gold whereof there are three sorts Vulgar Chymical and Divine which is therefore so called because it is a special Gift of God The Theosophists are perswaded by exact diet and by certain form of prayers at certain times to obtain the Angel of the Sun to be their Guide and Director The Philosophers advise to take the like matter above Earth that Nature hath made under the Earth Others to search the most precious treasure from a vile thing all which is easily agreed if rightly understood for in the lines following the same Author saith The vile thing is from the Sperm of Gold cast in the matrix of Mercury by a prime conjunction Others affirm Azoch and Ignis to be sufficient for this high perfection the which Azoch among the Germans is Silver with the Macedonians Iron with the Greeks Mercury with the Hebrews Tin with the Tartars Brass with the Arabians Saturn and with the Indians Gold All which being diverse in Nature are potential in one composition and by the duel of Spirits the Celestial Gold obtaineth victory over all the rest and is made though not with hands a body shining like the Sun in glory which is called Ens omnis privationis expers or Thummim This is the Key that made the pure cleer Fountain and of it was made himself the fair Woman so loving the red Man she became one with him and yielded him all glory who by his Regal power and soveraign Quality raigneth over the fourfold Nature eternally but if any shall understand either common or Chymical Gold to be the substance of this sacred body he is much mistaken for a glorious Spirit will not appear save in a body of his own kinde Although pure Manchet be made of the finest Meal yet Wheat is not excluded and so Bread is said to be of the second and neerer causes rather then the remote notwithstanding that which is made by the effect in a successive course is as certain as that which is made with hands After we fell from unity we groan under the burden of division but three makes up the union first temporary and afterwards eternally fixed He that knoweth a thing fully must know what it was is and shall be so to know the several parts of a successive course is not a small thing neither the honor little in the right use of the Creature Air turned into Water by his proper mixture becomes Wood and the same Wood by Water is turned into a Stone A Spring in Italy called Clytinus makes Oxen white that drink it And the River in Hungary turns Iron into Copper VVhat excellency things may attain by habitual vertue or what power when Nature and Art make one perfection who is able to express If you desire by Art to have a thing of admirable sweetness and odor you will take a substance of like quality to exalt into such excellency the proper quality of Fire and Air is sweetness it is but appropriate in Earth and Water what bodies shall we finde where these are most abundant to be wrought upon As the Celestial Bodies give no Tincture yet they are most abundant in Tincture Air is cause of Life Mercury is coacted Air Ethereal and truly Homogeneal which doth after a sort congeal and fix it is called a crude Gold and Gold affixed and mature Mercury And although the crude Quality be cold and dry some hold for the excellency of its temperature That it is all Fire or like to it whereby it is dissolved however it is at large proved those bodies are most abundant in pure Fire and Air whose proper Quality is sweetness Therefore those are the fittest subjects to make the most precious perfume in the world and considering cleerness and brightness is the centre of each thing and those bodies have both centre and superficies cleer and bright whensoever they are purified by Art and the bodies made spiritual and those Spirits corporated again they must necessarily be Bodies of greatest or cleerest Light and Perfection as one compareth a glorified Body to a cleer Lanthorn with a Taper in it saying The more a man excels in vertue the greater or lesser was the Taper But the work cannot be manifest without the destruction of the exterior form and the restitution of a better which is the glorious substances of Urim and Thummim which in their being and Physical use preserves the Temple of Man's Body incorruptible Some observe not just difference between Liquification and Solution but all Corrosives or violent Operations Nature hates because there can be no Generation but of like Natures neither can you have the precious Sperms without Father and Mothers And although one Vessel is sufficient to perfect the Infant in the Wombe yet Nature hath provided several breasts to nourish it and different means to exalt it to the strength of a man How Gold should be burnt which the Fire cannot consume is questionable but every exaltation of this soveraign Spirit adds a tenfold vertue and power then take one part of this Spirit which is become as insensible as dust and upon molten Gold it turns all into powder which being drunk in White-wine openeth the Understanding encreaseth Wisdom and strengtheneth the Memory for here is the Vein of Understanding Fountain of Wisdom and River of Knowledge
The Truth of every thing is said to be his incorrupted Nature for nothing shall rest eternally visible at the last fire but that which is of pure vertue and essential purity Truth and Science is not led by chance or Fortune but the Spirit of God guides by the Hand of Reason And it seems the Prophets esteem of these Stones of Fire some meaning the Stone of Darkness and as it were Fire turned up Others the Stone of Tin and Ezekiel the Stones of Fire attained by Wisdom which he differeth from the natural precious Stones as pure Fire from common Fire Therefore let modesty allow that possible whereof he understands not the termination and degrees neither refuse the Waters of Shiloah because they go slowly for they that wade in deep Waters cannot go fast To obtain the Treasures of Nature you must follow Nature onely Isaiah 8.6 who gives not the like time to every Generation but as the Mare hath ten months the Elephant three or as some say nine yeers and fifty before conjunction Be patient therefore in a work of Nature for thereunto onely is promised Victory and the chief errors in Art are haste and dulness The Regeneration of Man and the Purification of Metals have like degrees of Preparation and Operation to their highest Perfection The first beginnings of Transmutation or Naturation is the smallest measure of pure Sulphur with both Riches and Honor in the left-Hand and length in the right In natural Generations the form prepares the matter yet there are precedent Preparations The beginnings of Transmutation must be distinguished some are begun of Preparation and some are begun of Composition Beginnings of Preparation in the well of Tears doth qualifie the coldness and dulness of the crude disposition and tame and subdue the fearful quality of swift flying and changeth the colour of this eternal Liquour turning the inside outward and adding heat by the internal Sulphur of the Homogeneal Body which is by means of changed Water because Water by Water can onely be extracted yet it is excluded in the conclusion for though it be a necessary preparation to the alteration following yet is but the servile and passive which hath the first operation being preserved unhurt in weight and purity Beginnings of Composition are those inward Operations and Changes that follow after that scalding deluge which by mixing with fixed Sulphur doth dissolve the stubbornness of this Urne and by help of the external heat the internal Sulphur is excited by Operation and purifieth the substance but onely to a pale whiteness more hurtful then profitable to the Body of Man what these are shall afterwards appear Again Sulphur must be distinguished white Sulphur and living or reviving Sulphur white Sulphur is of like Operation and is perfected by restraining and healeth almost all diseases and tingeth to white ad infinitum By knowledge hereof even meer natural men have believed the Resurrection become sober temperate and patient not doubting within the centre of compleat white rests the red Stone of most delight This hath caused men justly to condemn all Cementations Calcinations and Citrinations being enlightned with the glorious object which is as cleer as a Christal Looking-Glass Reviving Sulphur is the secret of secrets and the glory of the whole world and onely proper to such whom the Creator hath apted by way of natural disposition for they do not onely mortifie but purifie a pure body quickning it with the same essential form and are said to make a spiritual Body because there is no corruption to resist the Spirit but the bodily Nature being wholly subject is with the Spirit eternally fixed in a transparent Body shining as the Sun Therefore the conclusion must be understood of the second and not of the first for though a man have never so much white Sulphur if he have not of this reviving Sulphur he is as far from the precious Spirit which hath power over all inferior bodies as any other for onely that which is of the Nature of the Sun shall shine like the Sun in glory A Synod of Philosophers adviseth us in seeking the treasures of Health and Riches we should shew affections to Justice and Prudence like Solomon asking Wisdom Riches were given to him as advantage Let us search therefore celestial Vertue which is the centre of all things so will it be easie to manifest the soveraign Spirit of Health and Riches for the vegetable Sulphur is the first Mover in Nature and onely the Mercurial Nature hath power of Metallical Life and Death Crude Mercury is originally a vapor from cleer Water and Air of most strong composition coacted or Air it self with a Mercurial Spirit by Nature flying Etherial and Homogeneal having the Spirits of heat and cold and by exterior and interior heats doth congeal and fix Also Gold is a fixed Fire or mature Mercury and may be made more volative then Mercury but onely by divers Mercuries made Of Mercury is Nature set on work the fixed Body loosed the vegetable Sulphur created and the universal Spirit fixed For the Authority of the ancient Writers Divine and Natural Reasons assure us this and no other is the true course to manifest those Lights wherein the Creator hath heaped up vertue and power But it 's objected The Philosophers do not agree amongst themselves Answ Instruments of divers strings make sweet harmony if they be well tuned but their Readers do rather seek to over-rule them then by painful industry to finde them consent Object Affirm Contraries Answ The Artist his intention is to agree contraries Object They exclude Gold and Mercury from the creation of the Stone Answ Because their crude matter is from the destruction of the exterior form Object They say The vertue of Elements is their materials Answ Right in respect of their beginnings upon pure bodies Object All their secrets spring from one vile thing common to rich and poor Answ Precious things corrupred are most vile and Science is common to rich and poor and hath much use of Calcination or Dust Object No Metal is required to the making of the Stone Answ As no part of man to the making of man Object One thing one Glass one Furnace is sufficient Answ True when two things of one kinde are apted and conjoyned Object Out of one Root proceeds white and red Answ Even as Male and Female from one Womb. Object The Stone is vegetable animal and mineral Answ Right joynt and several it is said to be vegetable because in the maturation it is multiplied in vertue and quantity it is said to be animal because it encreaseth his own kinde and it 's said to be Mineral because his original is from Metal or their Mineral Here we may remember the Bishop of Otrecht who lost his life for discovering his secret Why should we prevent the highest distribution who hath not made knowledge hereditary but wrapt things in secret that we might difference things in being and in being
and use Nature is even jealous of her supremacy and abhorreth to see the sensible before the intellectual Treasures preferred This shews the beginning and end of Art Lux sata est justo cum rectis animo laetitia Mark what ye sow for such is your harvest Light is sown on pure Earth and some Grain begins to put forth Ears at three joynts some at four but the Ear never buds until the joynts be grown And what vertue this knotting or fixing gives consider for by meditation you may see by seeing you may know by knowing ye delight by delighting ye adhere by adhering ye possess by possessing ye enjoy the Truth that is the incorrupted use made visible Therefore take heed how ye value for Part of these things thy minde may prompt thee to And part thy better part may teach thee how to do The making of Urim and Thummim and the perfection of the Elixir is aptly compared to the fourfold Creation of Mankinde Adam from Earth Eve from Adam Abel from both and Jesus Christ from a Virgin so man called a living stone produceth that eternally stony and fiery conquering Spirit called the Elixir from their proper Earth only their Adam from their Eve from both their Virgo from her only the soveraign and universal Spirit which doth vivifie and preserve all living Creatures and raiseth the Artist from the dust to sit among Princes Life without sin is wisdom manifest in the flesh a Body without shadow is the universal Spirit corporate Urim and Thummim were holy Signs within the brest-plate to enquire of God in the Temple Natural Urim and Thummim is a visible quality in a cleer Body which preserveth the Temple of Man's Body incorruptible Is it not prophetical that all men shall wisely consider the works of God to the end they may know how to value them rightly and to make just difference between corporal and spiritual things Psal 64.9 Psal 111.8 and corporate Spirits for although Spirits possess no place yet they fail not to fill every part by contact of their vertue and in the use alters both quality and quantity the perfect and distinct knowledge whereof doth necessarily manifest the things sought after by the proper and appropriate qualities and from th causes to the effect openeth the internal Beauty of a true and natural Essence as plainly as by seeing that ye see and also sheweth the terminate privative and perfect end of every particular act which is the richest of intellectual Treasures because Science and Essence are one and where the several works and successive are apparent the time need not be limited like the men of Bethulia for onely at Elisha his Prayer his Servants eyes were opened to see invisible things which all that rise to glory shall do It was held of old Nothing deserves the love of an honest man save the internal Beauty Therefore they held Love or natural Affection to be the first cause or motion like as the heat and vertue of the Sun and of the whole Heavens hath power in all things created under Heaven and by their Influence and Radiation all things encrease grow live and are conserved and by their recess they mourn and wither fall and droop yet they do not necessitate any all their force being most in imperfect things for a body of equal temper receives little alteration from the Constellations because the Earth received vertue before the Heavens were adorned with Sun Moon and Stars Therefore that is to be distinguished in Reason so is distant in place and different things in being and in being and use for change of quality brought confusion and a better change Renovation Historians affirm The River Nilus vaporeth not by reason of the long decoction under the Sun yet is the Water most wholesom and Medicinable and the Neighbor earth begins to encrease in weight the seventeenth of June and not before even then when the River begins to rise which sympathy of the distant Water and Earth by the power of Heaven is not against Nature although beyond ordinary reach Therefore for a leading cast let us observe the concord of Metallical Bodies which like the first Male and Female have not several beginnings but are all from a Sulphurous vapor which by help of Influence Instrument Digestion and Masculine and Feminine vertue connexing proper and appropriate qualities they obtain their perfection by the power of God 's Ordinance yet as every Earth yields not like Metal so every Metal yields not like central vertue Therefore according to that creating command every thing should encrease in its proper kinde not in diverse and time makes the number infinite The Ancients reading the great Volume of the Book of Nature finde no abridgement to assimilate the Majesty of Nature save Man and the Stone both which are called Living Stones whose original Mortification Purification and difficult Exaltation are of infinite vertue Then observe also a Celestial and Terrestrial Sun which they parallel with Man which because they onely are capable of true temper which is certainly possible although seldom enjoyed But to gain this precious Treasure of Life and Health we must make sufficient provision like men that do deal with great persons for Gold is Lord of Stones and noblest of Metals and by his proper Regiment doth multiply himself infinitely Therefore Geber in his Book of Deundation saith In Gold are ten parts heat ten parts humidity ten parts siccity which triple perfection makes an absolute unity Body Soul and Spirit being eternally vivified because unity is a generical quality of all that is one and is an effect of the Form which doth produce it for of all kinde of Governments ten is the most perfect and for the natural substance no composition is like to Gold for it is a most perfect temper and equal mixion the miracle of Nature a Celestial Star a Terrestrial Sun the Fountain of Life the Centre of the Heart the secret vertue of all Celestial and Terrestrial Bodies the Masculine and Universal Seed first and most powerful of the Sulphurous Nature the great Secret of the Almighty Creator It hath most Form and Entity so most Vertue and Operation in it the Elements are elementized It is called Sulphur and Sulphur-Fire yea it is said to be all Fire or like to that in which it is dissolved And as Light is the Centre of Heaven and Soul of the World so Brightness is the Centre and Celestial Vertue the Form of Gold whose admired mixion nothing meerly natural can dissolve nor any thing artificial except it agree with it in matter and form and do remain with it in the recongealation This vertual Influence enters potentially and dwells in the radical humidity and no other thing whether from Heaven or Earth doth nourish the Heart yet it is not visible before vertue be matched for there is best concord where it is most abundant but whither shall we mount to match this miracle of Nature The Historians
tell us of an eternal Liquor of most strong Coaction rained down from Heaven here is like descent she is called Hyperiwn or Daughter of the Sun a Body of like weight and vertue with Gold fair cleer quick only coacted and brought from the Empire of humidity to suit the person which in her crude Nature shews strong Affection and turns the noblest of Metals into her own colour Therefore the Artist studies how to disponsate these two And first denudateth the Lady of her frosty Garments that she may have the first activity and liquefie her fettered Lord then are they both in the power of Art to better It is objected This Heaven-born Hermodactylus or Hydromel is of a Nature so obstinate and incorrect she will by no means receive the best impression Consider Her names signifie mixt matter of contrary quality therefore may be separated and although her original obscure condition because it is unknown by the innate affections and subsistance for it is an Airy Body or Air it self with Mercurial Spirit subsisting of internal heat and external cold Others say It is composed of the Spirit of the World corporate in the womb of the Earth and apt to receive the qualities and properties of all natural things as wax impression and being composed of Spirits the weight is of greater wonder Others say It is a crude Sperm not sufficiently decocted yet not to be profaned Others call it an immature Gold which kills it self and the Father and the Mother to bring forth a pure Infant by her they overcome the Fire she is the perfection of the Universal Medicine what Conformity what Similitude what Identity she holds with the Metallical Urne being the original matter and substance thereof and may be coagulated to the equal temper of Gold is as the whiteness in Snow Therefore the Ancients magnifie the most Blessed who created such a substance and gave it such properties as no other thing in Nature doth possess yet we see it is a vitious matter which hath superfluous Humidity proper and appropriate Qualities separable and inseparable Accidents Therefore the separable may be removed to which end she is included in a Well of Tears that the VVatriness may be vapored or through long Decoction by Driness vanquished Then doth it as it were congeal and fix and become more apt for durance and extension for whatsoever is contrary to the natural doth debilitate and like by his like is nourished but heat is contrary to cold and the natural property of scalding heat is to weaken and dry The fresh Water adds power and heat heat augmented becomes Fire and Time turns Strength to Corruption This glutinous substance hath natural heat from which is the Life and Death of the Elements Therefore as common Fire bringeth all things to his own Nature so the external working upon the internal heat it doth necessarily obtain victory Therefore if you can believe that heat and driness shall overcome cold and moisture that lineary and successive course hidden to all the World is open to you Therefore as Nature delights in Concord so the Lovers and Searchers into Natures Work must be of constant mindes and Gideon-like resolve to race the City Meroz not refusing to assist the publick good and then the Marriage for the Princess never unmasks her Virgin-Beauty except to him that hath skill and power to espouse her in a bed of Love which none can do before the despoliation of the exterior form but the Obstacles removed and Nature set on work the external Decree doth necessitate the effect for being now warm and blyth and apt for new Generation and pounded with her Lord grated to Dust his unnatural softness deceives the sense and they passionately condole each others Exile and in their imbraces fall in a sound until their dissolved Bodies shew corruption and the more pure being corrupted are more vile The Artist finding them out of their Indian Paradise corrects their central virtue and raising them from the Earth leads them the thorny path to threefold happiness and by fiery trial purifieth the Quantity and changeth the Quality and so brings them to perfect rest whereby they have power over the bodies of Men and Metals and are crowned in token of their dignity and boundless Territories Now considering the rarity of true Knowledge the Honor and Dignity of things desired what Spirit is so ignoble to think much either of Cost or Time when that which is sought is of all Terrestrial Treasure most excellent FINIS An Appendix of the Vertues and Use of an excellent Essential Water made and approved by Stephen Trigge Student in Physick and Astrology and by him gained and experimented at Amsterdam and also in London IN all manner of Fevers both Pestilential and others Calentures Apoplexies and all Epidemical Diseases it is a perfect and certain Remedy and in Quartain and Quotidian Feavers where the Disease ariseth from Choler It perfectly remedies the Bloody Flux and all other Fluxes either of the Stomack or Belly Vomiting Scowring and Excoriation of the Bowels and where the Stomack is spoiled for want of Appetite this is a sure Fortification for it wonderfully strengthens the Stomack both the vital and animal Spirit and mightily succors the Heart that is oppressed with heat And being taken in Aqua Melissae it doth speedily help the extream beating and panting of the Heart Convulsion-fits and falling Sickness it cureth safely and speedily and all manner of heat breaking out in the Face and any other part of the Body being either caused by the heat of the Sun or by some noisome Food taken into the Body that doth cause putrefaction of the Blood The way to take it is this in a burning Feaver take of it in Planten-Water if there be loosness in the Belly and sweeten it with Syrupe of Clove-Gilly-Flowers and drink it as your constant Drink till the Feaver is abated and the Appetite recovered In the Calenture Drink it in Balm-Water being made far sharper then white-Wine-Vinegar and mixed with Syrupe of Cowslip-Flowers it must be drunk very often till the senses come and the Patient remain cured which will be in few dayes for it penetrateth the Blood makes it thin quencheth the Feaver reviveth the Heart and Brain and quickneth all the digestive Faculties In the Apoplexy take it in Betony-Water and Aqua Vitae with Syrupe of Stoechas take the Dose as in the Calenture or stronger if the Patient be able to bear it and it shall be holpe in forty eight hours or thereabouts If there be any thing in this World that will preserve Man if the Glass of God's determination be not quite run out this will help Though he be lame over all his Body his Senses gone his Speech lost and to the judgement of many as dead yet this precious Liquor will in a wonderful manner restore them speedily and safely In the Scurvy Canker Squinancy and Inflammation of the Uvula this doth excel all ordinary Medicines for it doth
needed not so to have done and then they cry out and blame this Science which is their own fault Lastly there be many men that work daily upon receits that they gather here and there without seeing or making that which they do work whether it be agreeing with the Nature of the Science or from whence the receits do come or spring or who have written them whereby they also consume their substance which is their own fault and not the Science And also God will not have the Science wrought by some men and yet they will work it and thus they lose their goods And therefore gentle Reader if you will keep your self from damage or loss so read this Treatise over not once but many times so shalt thou finde the sweet Kernel or Marrow of the Philosophers and right Science of Transmutation of Metals that be base into most pure Metals of Gold and Silver And therefore think not the reading and studying of this Science or Treatise to be tedious unto thee considering the great profit thou shalt reap by it The Lord grant that thou maist finde it and use it to the honour of God and profit of Christ and his poor afflicted Church Raymund Lully The Contents of the first Part. Chap. 1. TO prepare the Salt for the red and white Elixir Chap. 2. To make the Elixir to the white work Chap. 3. Of the Key of Sciences and Properties of Salt Chap. 4. The Composition of the red Elixir Chap. 5. The projection with the red Elixir Chap. 6. The Composition of the Cement for Gold Chap. 7. To make Silver heavy as Gold Chap. 8. The difference between the Elixirs and Philosophers Stone Chap. 9. The living and dead Sol and Luna The Contents of the second Part. Chap. 1. THe Composition of the Philosophers Stone Chap. 2. The Elixir of Life Chap. 3. To sublime Mercury to the red Elixir Chap. 4. To sublime Mercury to the white Elixir Chap. 5. To prepare the white Stone upon all Bodies Chap. 6. To make the Lutement to all works Chap. 7. To understand moral and natural Philosophy To draw Spirits out of a ponderous Body or Earth by Distillation Tract ult Upon Saturn the Tincture of Gold the Quintessence and Aurum Potabile and the matter of the Universal Medicine Philosophical and Chymical EXPERIMENTS OF The Famous Philosopher RAYMVND LVLLY CHAP. I. Teacheth how to prepare the Salt for the white and red Elixir TAke in the Name of God great Bay-Salt as it is made out of the Sea take a good quantity and stamp very small into a stone-Morter then take Cucurbites of Glass and pour your Salt therein then take fair Well-water and let your Salt resolve into cleer water being all dissolved then distil it by Filter that is to say hang a jag Felt or Woolen-cloath in the Cucurbite and let the other and hang in another Glass beside it set as it were under it that the Water may drop into it that the Felt or Cloath will draw out and that shall be cleer as Silver and when that all the water is dopped over look to it if that it be very cleer if it be not filter it again into another Glass till it be cleer or Christalline and when it is so put it into a Glasen Pan set it upon a Sand-Oven and let the Water vapour away till that it do come above like unto white-Salt then take stone-piss-Pots or Pots made of Cullen-Earth such as the drinking Pots be made of and put the Water and the Salt that remains therein and set upon the said Oven and let it vapour away and while that it doth dry stir it with a stick till that it be very dry otherwayes it will come into a lump or mass and this being well dried beat it in a stone-Morter very fine as you did before and then put it into a melting Cruce and set them into a glowing Oven or Say-Oven which is an Oven that the Gold-smiths do enamel their Rings in the Oven being very hot take the Cruses that be filled with Salt and set them into the Oven and let them stand until they be glowing hot and see that they be no hotter behinde then before if they be then turn them round with a pair of Gold-smiths Tongs put but one Pot in the Oven at a time that you may do them the better and when that Pot is red glowing hot take it out and put in another to be calcined And then when cold put it again into your Morter and break it as small as you can the third time and then set it in the Fire of the Oven to glow as aforesaid Two or three times glowing and breaking of it every time in a stone-Morter until seven times and then put it into Well-water to dissolve till it be all dissolved into cleer water Then distil it by Filter until it be as cleer as Christal then set it again upon your Oven to dry and the Water to vapour until that it be Salt and stir it with a stick as before-said And when that it is dry set it to calcine again as beforesaid in the Sand-Oven and when that all the Pots that have the Salt be all glowing hot then take them out and beat them to Powder as before and again dissolve into Water Then distil it again by Filter as before this shalt thou do so many times to say dissolve into Water and then distil by Filter and then congeal it into dry Salt glowing it by Fire this do without resting until it come to be fat and that it will melt upon a hot glowing Plate of Luna and if it will not melt like Wax you must dissolve distil congeal until that it will come to that point or perfection and you must be careful lest that it should melt in the Calcination for then all your labour is lost Keep this for a great secret and such a preparation doth appertain to the Salt that which is the Riches of this world For otherwise thou shalt never come to the perfect end of any Elixir without such Salt prepared as aforesaid to say to the white Elixir nor yet to the red Therefore my beloved Son he that doth know the Secrets of this Salt to say his Solution his Congealation Distillation and Calcination and can well understand knoweth the whole Secrets of Natural Philosophy and wise men also that is to say how and in what manner he ought to dissolve distil congeal and calcine Therefore let not the labour in preparing of this Salt be grievous unto thee for without great cost you may learn herein to distil by Filter dissolve congeal and calcine and to form all the works that be needful unto thee in this Science So that you come to the principal work you shall not be to seek or to learn Therefore be patient and leave not off to work until thou hast brought thy Salt to that pass as I have taught thee before until it melt upon a
Sol you should be constrained to open the body of Sol for the space of one whole yeer before the said Mercury of a body could be drawn or come out of Leâ—d you may draw out this Mercury in fourteen dayes and it is as good as the other and if you should come to make a work of Sol alwayes you must be two yeers about it to do it well but of Lead you may perfect it in thirty or two and thirty weeks at the most and then be fully ended the one is as good as the other and Lead costs little or nothing and is a shorter work and is less labor and of one goodness and is truth therefore print this in thy heart and serve God The same Lead is called of the Philosophers Sol whereof they had the name until this day and have kept it secret for if the thing were known many would work it and the thing would be common for the work is short and easie and little of value and therefore was it kept secret that the name might be known lest it might have come to the hands of wicked men and so much harm might have come thereby and this holy Science which God hath given to those that love and serve him should to wicked persons be a means of greater wickedness As concerning the Lead of Sol and Luna they have set three Glasses and all is Lead but there is no need to joyne any strange thing but that onely which cometh from him neither is there any man so poor but that he may be able to compass this work for you make of the Salt of Lead with little labour Luna and with a little longer time Sol and then they may proceed to make the Philosophers Lead And this is altogether concluded in Lead as much as is necessary for us for in him is the perfect Mercury and in him are all the colours in the world which shall shew it self openly for in him is the true blackness whiteness and redness he is ponderous and in him is the perfect red and white bodies look and take example of all imperfect things the eye of man cannot abide or bear how little soever though smaller then a mote yet it will trouble a mans eye terribly but if you take Lead clean scraped and made the bigness of a Bean and put it in your eye it will neither pain you or harm you at all and that is because its uttermost is not perfect like Sol or other pretious Stones that come out of Paradise running in the stream and in like manner Sol that in him is you may well perceive by the similitude and many other more That Lead is our Philosophers Mercury our Laton for out of it is drawn in short time our Mercury and our Philosophers Mercury that is our golden Mercury with little labor little cunning and little charge And therefore I charge you and all of you that know his name to keep his name secret for if men knew it much mischief and trouble would be done And therefore you shall know our Lead by its hidden name and you shall know that the water wherein our Lead shall be washed vinegar This is the Philosophers Stone whereof all the Philosophers have written many dark Books but there are divers and many works in the Mineral Lead An Abstract our of Doctor Homodlus M S. De Elixir solis Medicina universali Of the Tincture of Gold separated from its body and turned to a Celestial and Spiritual Nature called a Quintessence within the Aurum Potabile CHAP. I. Of the Matter of the Universal Medicine SInce God hath created all things for mans use and that in all vegetable animal and mineral creatures there is some vertue to be helpful to humane diseases I thought there might be something among these of incorruptible Nature which by it self might cure all Diseases and prolong the life of man to a long age keeping his humours in a most equal temperament and by consequence this thing must be of it self most equally tempered of the four Elements Now seeking this thing in the Vegetables of Animals I found it not because that in all of them there is some one humour predominant over the rest actively or passively Therefore I turned to Minerals or Metal but I found the Calx and Calcanth and other things being reduced to Ashes could not be brought back again to their former bodies And so I conclude There was no perfect natural composition in them And finding the perfect Metals thus reducible again to their own bodies I perceived that in them was some firmer composition then in other things yet are in all alike for all the rest of the Metals except Gold by a strong Combustion will be converted into dross and smoke but Gold is no whit the worse after all Trials then I concluded That it was among all the rest incorruptible and by consequence of a most equal temperament and composition of Elements And when I understood by Marsillis joyning with Metals could generate I concluded That in Gold there was a generative and regenerative vertue but because I found the matter of Metals to be very gross and earthy and that thereby this vertue was oppressed and kept insomuch that it could not work until it was delivered from the hands of its bodily Imprisonment I judged That is was needful to open rarifie and dissolve the body that the vertue might actuate Whence I concluded at last thus That Gold was the remote matter whereof the universal Medicine was to be made up and that the Spirit of Gold and Lune which is also called Lune Quintessence is the matter whereof it is made up CHAP. II. How to make the Menstruum and how to circulate it SInce I have declared heretofore the matter of the Universal Medicine consequently I will open the way how to make the vegetable Menstruum and how to circulate it that it may be reduced into Quintessence by that means of this Menstruum the true preparation is made that is also a Physical preparation to wit Subution Putrefaction Overflowing Exuberation Multiplication and Rectification and that with the Conservative of the former Vegetable and with the Multiplication of the force for this is the Menstruum or Vegetable Water which Raymundus speaketh of in this Codicil Therefore Silver and Gold are dissolved in radical things of their own kinde and in the compound of the Soul of the Art for this is the matter by which all incurable Diseases are cured under the conservation of their own Nature Therefore this is the way to prepare it Gather the Vegetable Lunary of the Philosophers in the time when the height of Goffer doth rule which is the seventh and the first day of the Reign of Corrocay the Ministerial Spirit of the same height in the sixth rank and last three hours before noon and as many afternoon when the day is fair and the sky is cleer then take the Lunary it self pure and