some of the Philosophers have by a most high-graduated essence of Wine dissolved the body of Sol have made it Volatile so as to ascend by an Alembick subposing that this is the Volatile true Philosophick matter whereas it is not And although it be no contemptible Arcanum to bring this perfect mettalline body into a Volatile and spiritual Substance yet notwithstanding they err in the Separation of the Elements the which process of those Monks viz. Lully Richard the Englishman Rupescisea and others is erroneous By which process they supposed to separate gold by this way into a subtile spiritual and elementary power each one a part and afterwards by circulation and rectification to couple them again into one but in vain for verily although one Element may after a sort be separated from another yet nevertheless every element after this manner separated may again be sepatated into another element the which parts cannot at all afterwards either by pellicanick circulation or destillation return into one again but they always remain a Certain Volatile matter and Aurum Potabile as they call it The cause why they could never arrive to their intention is this because nature is not in the least willing to be thus distracted or separated by humane disjunctions as by terrene things glasses and instruments She her self alone knows her own operations and the weights of the Elements the separations rectifications and copulations of which she accomplisheth without the help of any Operator or Manual artifice Only the matter is to be contained in the secret fire and in its occult Vessel The Separation therefore of the Elements is impossible to be done by man which separation should it have some appearance yet notwithstanding is not true whatsoever is spoken thereof by Raimund Lully and his English golden noble Work which he is falsly supposed to have framed For Nature it self hath in her self her proper Separater which doth again conjoyn what it separates without the help of man and doth best know all her Trade and the proportion of every element and not man whatever such erroneous Scriblers do in their frivolous and false receipts boast of this their volatile Gold This then is the opinion or mind of the Philosophers that when they have put their matter into the more secret fire it be all about cherished with its own moderate Philosophical heat that so beginning to pass through corruption it may grow black This operation they call putrefaction and the blackness they name the head of the Crow They call the ascension and descension thereof distillation ascension and descension they call the exsiccation coagulation and the dealbation calcination And because it is fluid and soft in the heat they have made mention of Ceration when it hath ceased to ascend and remain liquid in the bottom then they say fixation is present After this manner therefore the Appellations and terms of the Philosophical operations are to be understood and no otherwise CHAP. XVIII Of the Instruments and Philosophical Vessel THE Putatitious Philosophers have rashly understood and imagined the Occult and Secret Philosophical Vessel and Aristotle the Alchymist not that Grecian Academical Philosopher hath conceited it worser in that he saith the matter is to be decocted in a threefold Vessel but he hath worst of all understood it that says viz. that the matter in its first separation and first degree requires a Mettalline Vessel in the second degree of Coagulation and dealbation of its own earth a glass Vessel and in the third degree for fixation an earthen Vessel Nevertheless the Philosophers do understand by this Vessel one Vessel only in all operations even to the perfection of the Red Stone seeing therefore that our matter is our root for the white and the red t is necessary that our Vessel ought to be on this wise that the matter therein may be governed by the Celestial Bodies for the invisible Celestial Influences and impressions of the Stars are exceeding necessary to the Work otherwise 't will be impossible for the invincible Oriental Persian Chaldean and Egyptian Stone to be accomplished by which Stone Anaxagoras knew the vertues of the whole Firmament and foretold of the great Stone that should descend down upon the earth out of Heaven the which also happened after his death Verily our Vessel is most chiefly known to the Cabalists because it ought to be framed according to a truly Geometrical proportion and measure and of or by a Certain and assured Quadrature of a Circle or thus that thee Spirit and soul of our matter may in this Vessel elevate with themselves answerable to the altitude of the heaven the things separated from their own body If the Vessel be narrower or wider higher or lower then is fit and then the ruling and operating Spirit and Soul desires the heat of our Philosophical Secret Fire which is indeed most acute would stir up the matter too violently and urge it to overmuch operation that the Vessel would leap into a thousand pieces to the hazard and danger of the body and life of the Operator whereas contrariwise if it be more wide or capacious then for the heat to operate upon the matter according to proportion the work will also be frustrate and vain And therefore our Philosophical Vessel is to be framed with the greatest diligence But as for the matter of this our Vessel they alone do understand it that in the first Solution of our fixt and perfect matter have adduced or brought this matter into its first Essence and so much for this The Operator must likewise most accurately note what it is that the matter in the first Solution le ts fall and casts out from it self The manner of describing the form of the Vessel is difficult it must be such as nature it self requires t is to be sought for and searcht after out of one and the other that so it may from the altitude of the Philosophick Heaven elevated from the Philosophick Earth be able to operate upon the fruit of its own earthly body Verily it ought to have this Form that a separation and purification of the Elements when the Fire drives the One from the other may be made and that each Element may possess its own place in which it sticks and the Sun and the other Planets may exercise their operations round about the Elemental Earth and the course of them may not be hindred in their circuit or be stir'd up with too swift a motion Now according to all these things here spoken of it must have a just proportion of Roundness and Height But the Instruments for the first mundification of Mineral Bodies are melting Vessels Bellows Tongs Capels Cupels Tests Cementatory Vessels Cineritiums Cucurbits Bocia's for Aq. fort and Aq. regia and also some things as are necessary for projection in the last Work CHAP. XIX Of the secret Fire of the Philosophers THis is the renowned Judgement and Opinion of the Philosophers viz. the Fire
be esteemed by thee as a thing of no price But contrariwise he that endeavours by riches to aspire unto that Art and labours to convert it to the pride and vanity of this world let such a one never perswade himself that he shall ever attain his wished end And therefore let thy mind and consquently all thy cogitations be estranged from all earthly things and be as it were created anew and given up to God alone For you must note this well that these three viz. the body soul and spirit are to be suitable and alike and t is necessary that they operate together for if the heart and mind of man be not so regulated after the like manner as the whole work is to be wrought thou O man wilt also wholly err from the Art So therefore maist thou in all things conform all thy actions suitable thereunto for the Artist hath nothing else here to do but to Sow Plant and Water or Moisten but God alone gives the encrease Therefore if God be against any one to him also nature is an enemy and contrarily if God be a friend then the heavens the earth and also all the elements are even constrained to come to thy help If therefore thou exactly considerest of this and hast ready to thy hands the knowledge of the true first matter which we shall hereafter speak of then mayst thou commodiously set about the manual operation and make a beginning of thy labour wherein likewise t is fitting that thou implore the grace and guidance of the Almighty in all thy purposes and actions And then thy affairs will not only succeed prosperously but will also obtain a true happy fortunate and desired end The 11. of Ecclesiast 18. He that abideth in the fear of the Lord and cleaveth to his word waiting upon his duty nor black nor white moves him He easily shall make silver and gold out of copper and tin And shall by Gods help do many more things But especially if Jehovah favours him he may then well make Gold of Clay and dirt THE Second Part The 28. of Isaiah v. 16. Therefore thus saith the Lord Behold I lay in Sion a foundation stone a tryed stone a precious Corner-stone that is well founded He that hath it shall not be confounded THE Philosophers in their writings could never sufficiently praise this so-often spoken of and most noble Art both afore and after its perfection nor could they by any the highest and most excellent titles worthily enough extoll it Therefore they have generally called it the Stone of the Philosophers the most antient occult unknown natural and incomprehensible Stone yea they have called it the celestial blessed holy and triune universal Stone of the wise men But now the cause why they termed it a stone and why they compared it to a stone is amongst other reasons chiefly this when the matter thereof doth at the beginning come like a mineral out of the earth it is truly a stone and then again because this matter is hard and dry because also t is beaten and ground to dust like a stone but especially the reason is this if it be divided into the three parts which nature her self hath conjoyned then is it necessary that it itself be again digested in all the same parts and made of the nature of a constant wax-like flowing stone But as to the great concernment and necessity of such mens knowing the first otherwise or rather the second matter of this secret Philosophical Stone that endeavour the attainment thereof they viz. the aforementioned Philosophers could not sufficiently inculcate or too too much press them to understand a reason thereof nor enough exhort them thereunto the which matter is notwithstanding one only thing out of which only and alone this stone is necessarily to be prepared without any peregrine addition albeit it be called by a thousand names the quality species and property whereof they have wonderfully described and have happily described it after a compendious way and manner as followeth viz. That at the beginning t is conjoyned of three and yet notwithstanding is but only one likewise it is procreated and made of one two three four and five and is also to be found in one and two and is everywhere They also call it the Catholick or universal Magnesia or Sperm of the world out of which all natural things have their original Likewise that it is of a wonderful and singular birth and species or shape and that it hath an unknown and an unsearchable nature and that therefore t is neither hot nor dry like the earth but is a certain perfect preparation of all the elements that it is also of a certain incorruptible body which cannot be touched by any element and which may as to all its properties and in all respects be compared to the heaven which is above the four elements and the four qualities and as a Q.E. and what cannot be destroyed Likewise they have said that it is as to its external corporality figure form and shape a stone and yet notwithstanding is no stone because it may be compared with the white Gum they also call it the water of the Ocean Aqua vitae yea a most pure and most blessed water but yet notwithstanding it is not the water of the clouds or of any common fountain but a thick permanent saline or saltish water and according to the divers considerations of some a dry water that moistens not the hands or a certain pituitous or phlegmy water which ariseth out of the saltish fatness of the earth likewise they call it a twofold ☿ and Azoth whch is sustained by the supremest or highest and lowest vastness or of the celestia◠and terrestrial Globe the which also i◠not consumed in any fire for it hath in it self the universal and sparkling fire o◠the Light of nature and withall a certai◠celestial Spirit that penetrates all thing with which qualities it was animate by God at the beginning and according to the saying of the antient Philosophers blessed with and is by Avicen called the soul of the world who said viz. Even as the soul is to be found in all the members of mans body and doth there move it self so also is that spirit found to be and to move it self in all elementary creatures the which spirit is likewise the indissoluble conjunction of the body and soul and consequently a most pure and most noble essence wherein even all mysteries lie hidden t is also fully replenished with wonderful efficacy and vertue Moreover they ascribe thereunto an infinite power and divine efficacy and vertue for they say that it is that Spirit of the Lord that filled the earth and swim'd at the top of the waters They call it also the Spirit of truth which is hidden from the world and such as cannot be comprehended or obtained without the inspiration of the holy Spirit or the information of such as know it and yet
it and at last dyed on the Cross and many other afflictions and tribulations did he necessarily undergo in his life and at his death of which you may read more at large in the holy Evangelists And even as the Philosophers write viz. that that boiling and putrefaction in the afore-mentioned terrene work is usually made and perfected within fourtie daies So are there described and laid down to us in the holy Scripture a description of many and divers miracles that God hath done by that afore-mentioned number as for instance that of the people of Israel's when they aboad in the desart for fourty whole years and had the tryal of a very hard exile Psal. 59. Deut. 8. Likewise Moses his being in Mount Sinai Exod. 34. Also Elias in his flight because of Ahab 1 Kings 19. So Christ in the desart fasted forty daies and as many nights Likewise also he preached on the earth for fourty moneths and performed miracles He lay forty hours in the Sepulchre and fourtie daies between his resurrection from the dead and his ascention into heaven did he walk about and visit his Disciples and shewed himself alive unto them Acts 1. Likewise the City of Hierusalem was destroyed by the Romans and razed to the ground the fortieth year after the ascention of our Lord. But you must here principally note that the Philosophers call that putrefaction because of its black colour Cantic 1. I am black the head of the Crow Even so Christ himself Isa. 53. He had no form nor c. was wholly deformed as to his form and beauty the most vile of all full of griefs and sorrows and also was despised in so much that we even hid our faces because of him and esteemed him as a thing of nought Moreover himself doth likewise in Psalm 22. complain of that thing viz. he was a worm and no man the mocking stock of men and contempt of the People In like manner also this may not unfitly be compared with Christ. viz. As that Putrified body of Sol doth lie for a season like to ashes in the bottom of the glass and dead without any efficacy until by the addition of a stronger heat its soul doth again let down it self drop by drop and by little and little and doth again imbibe the sick and as it were dead body doth moisten it give it to drink and preserve it from a total destruction even so happened it to Christ when he was in the Mount of Olives and upon the Cross and was roasted as it were by the fire of the divine wrath Mat. 26. 27. he complained that he was wholly forsaken by his heavenly Father and yet nevertheless was he alwaies refreshed and strengthened Mark 4. Luke 22. and imbued as 't were and moistened and imbibed with the divine Nectar even as 't is wont to be in the terrene body by a daily airing for and refreshment yea also when in his most holy passion and mediating death his power and strength together with his Spirit was wholly withdrawn from him and he plainly or truly arrived or came to the lower and deepest parts of the earth Acts 1. Ephes. 1. 1 Peter 3. he was notwithstanding even yet conserved refreshed and again lifted or raised up by the vertue and power of the eternal Deity and thereby vivified and glorified Rom. 14. and here 't was that his soul and spirit did first of all procure or bring to pass a perfect true and indissolvable union with his dead body in the Sepulchre and by a most joyful and victorious resurrection and ascention to the heavens was it exalted through our Lord Jesus Christ to the right hand of his Father Mat. 28. Mark 16. with the which body he doth now by the efficacy and vertue of the holy Spirit as being a true God and Man in equal power and glory rule and bear command over all things Psal. 8. and by his most efficacious Word preserves and sustains all things Heb. 1. yea he vivifies all things Acts 17. The which wonderful union and also that divine exaltation cannot be well seen and much less considered of by Angels and men in heaven and on earth yea and under the earth Phil. 2. 1 Pet. 1. without fear and trembling Whose efficacy power and rosey-coloured tincture is able to transmute us imperfect men and sinners even now in body and soul to tinge and more then perfectly to cure and heal us concerning which we shall speak more anon Having now therefore briefly and plainly disclosed to you how viz. the Celestial Fundamental Corner-stone Jesus Christ may be compared with the terrene Philosophical stone of the wise men the matter and preparation whereof is as we have heard a notable type and lively counterpoise as 't were and resemblance of the divine assumption of humane flesh in Christ We therefore likewise judge it necessary that we also behold and learn his efficacy virtue and Tincture as also his fermentation and multiplication in us men who are destitute of efficacy and virtue and are as it were Imperfect mettals And albeit that God created man at the beginning above all his other Creatures and made him a most noble and most perfect Creature yea he made him after his own Image and breathed into him a living Spirit and an Immortal Soul Yet nevertheless after his fall was he transmuted into a deformed contrary and pernicions or mortal shape and form But now to restore again such a most noble Creature to his former brightness or lustre and perfection the Omnipotent God did out of his meer mercy ordain such a medium as his viz. mans restitution might be brought to pass by after the manner following viz. as we have afore said that the more then perfect stone or Tincture after this its perfection is to be in the first place yet further fermented augmented or multiplyed if at leastwise you would obtain its manifold profit and have its efficacy and operation beneficial Even so also Christ that heavenly blessed stone must according to his God-man perfection be yet moreover also further fermented and multiplyed as 't were with us as with his members that is we must be purifyed and united with him by his own saving ticture of a Rosey colour and be prepared and conformed to a pure unfermented and celestial body for as Paul testifies in Rom. 8. he is the first begotten among many brethren yea the first begotten before all other Creatures whatsoever Coloss. 1. by whom all things in Heaven and Earth are created and reconciled with God for if we who are naturally impure mortal and imperfect would be again made pure new-born or regenerate immortal and perfect then verily that cannot be done by any other medium Hebr. 13. then by that celestial fundamental corner stone only Jesus Christ who is alone holy yea the most holy Dan. 9. the new-born raised up and glorifyed heavenly King who both is and eternally remains God and man in one person Likewise even as the
stone of the Philosophers and Chymical King doth by its tincture bestow this benefit and doth also comprehend in it self by its perfected process this efficacy and virtue as to be capable of transmuting and tinging the other imperfect simple and disesteemed mettals into pure gold So also yea and much more rather doth that heavenly King that fundamental corner stone Jesus Christ only and alone purify us by his blessed tincture that is by his blood of a Rosey colour and cleanse us sinners and imperfect men from our innate adamical defilements and dregs yea he doth more then perfectly cure and heal us 1 John 1. and as the Scripture speaking thereof doth testify that there is no other salvation nor medium either in the Heaven or the Earth whereby we may obtain everlasting blessedness and perfection but only the name of Jesus Acts 4. For albeit that the blind and mad world hath by the cozenage and deceit of Satan sought after many and various mediums and wayes of obtaining everlasting happiness and perfection and have earnestly busied themselves thereabout yet notwithstanding Christ Jesus is the only and alone Saviour and Mediatour in whom and by whom we are justifyed and blessed before God and are again purified from the Spiritual Leprosy of sin even like unto the one only terrene Saviour and Chymical King by whom all the imperfect mettals do purchase and obtain their perfection and moreover by it are cured all diseases but especially the incureable and corporal Leprosy So therefore all the other mediums and those arts that are studyed and contrived by men themselves viz. such as the Jews Turks Heathens and other hereticks have published and are as yet defended and maintained as necessary mediums are to speak properly thereof much rather void of Spirit are false and Sophisticate Alchimy Col. 2. Beware least any one c. by which we men are not purifyed but are hindred are not vivifyed or enlivened but weakned yea are at length wholy mortifyed like to the falsely so called Alchimy which hath found out many and diverse tinctures and colours by which men are not only deceived but likewise as too toomuch misery it is daily experience doth more then enough testify they are oftentimes cast into the peril and danger of their goods and corporal life But now if we men would be again purifyed from our impure filths and feces viz. from that Adamical Original sin wherewith the whole nature of man was at the beginning corrupted as if it were with some destructive poyson inspired or breathed into our first parents by the devil and in which we are all conceived and born Psal. 51. Job 15. and would be again made perfect and happy John 3. then it must be done by a new regeneration of the holy Spirit yea by water and the spirit even like as the Chymical King also is regenerated by water and the spirit and doth thereby obtain its perfection in which new and spiritual regeneration 1 Pet. 3. the which is accomplished from above in the holy Baptisme by the water and the spirit must we be washed and purifyed by the blood of Christ and so be made one body with him and cloath our selves with him as 't were with a garment as Paul saith in Col. 3. and Ephes. 5. for even as the Philosophers stone doth aftetwards unite it self by its Tincture with the other Mettals and is together with them reduced into a perfect and indissoluble body so also Christ as being the head of us all 1 Cor. 4. doth even unite himself with his members by his rosey coloured tincture and reduceth and perfects it into a perfect body and building Rom. 12. 1 Cor. 12. Ephes. 5. which is created according to God in Joh. 3. right and true Justice and holiness Eph. 4. And verily that regeneration of man which is performed by the holy Spirit in holy Baptism is properly no other thing than a certain inward spiritual renewing of fallen man with God and Christ 1 Cor. 12. In so much that whereas afore we were carnal in relation to the birth made by our father and mother and were by nature enemies to God and sons of wrath Rom. 2. Eph. 2. we are now by means of the second and spiritual birth in holy Baptism made friends and sons yea heirs of God and coheirs with Christ Heb. 3. For for this reason Christ also dyed and rose and revived Rom. 14. that by this his process that is by his Passion Death Resurrection and Ascension we might have an entrance into an holy place or house not made with hands and that he might prepare for us the way to an everlasting Country And therefore also is it necessary that we likewise as his brethren and sisters Math. 12. Ephes. 5. and Psal. 22. do follow him in sufferings Math. 8. and grow up and increase in an acceptable humility Luke 12. and in other virtues and moreover that we be altother conformable and suitable to or for his body that so at last even we also who have followed him here in the regeneration and are dead and mortifyed in him may likewise live with him and enter into his glory The which spiritual exhortation and Christian imitation of our celestial King his life and deeds comes not from our worth merit or proper and peculiar pleasure for the natural man is together with all his faculties blind deaf and dead in spiritual things but meerly and only 1 Jo. 5. by the efficacy and operation of the holy Spirit which is effectual and powerful in us by the blessed washing or bath of regeneration and baptism after the same sort is it with minerals and Mettals which being in themselves dead Hebr. 10. and rusty as it were and cannot possibly purify or amend themselves are even by the help of the spagyrical spirit purified renewed dissolved and perfected If therefore now we are again as we have heard regenerated by the water and the spirit 2 Cor. 5. that is by the blessed baptism and by the red fountain or stream tincted by Christ and incorporated with the Lord Christ our heavenly King 1 Cor. 3. and are washed with his blood from our hereditary sins and are purified and are made partakers of the first fruits of his holy Spirit Then is it expedient that we be fed and that we drink at the beginning a little and a little according to the saying of St. Peter with pure and wholsome milk like new born babes yea like infants in Christ until at length we becoming like living Apoc. 1. and ripe stones are built up to a spiritual house and high Priest-hood and made fitting to offer up spiritual Sacrifices such as are well pleasing and acceptable to God through Jesus Christ for verily a Christian man regenerated by the water and the spirit doth not comprehend all at once nor is able to apprehend all but 't is needful that he grow up and increase day by day and by little and little in the
and sottishly speak thereof a meer empty sound but is Spirit and Life and the saving Power of God John 6. to all such as believe therein Concerning which hearing the Kingly Prophet David doth thus speak Psal. 64. I will hear what the Lord will speak in me Out of the which internal and divine hearing the Word of God as out of a certain spring or fountain a true vivifying faith which is efficacious by or through charity Gal. 5. doth take its original for as Paul saith Rom. 10. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God 2 Pet. 2. So therefore now if the Word of God be pure and clear then may the hearing be also pure and clear Luke 21. and so consequently that faith which as 't were flows out of that hearing will be pure and uncorrupted and is effectual by charity and shews it self as towards God in an humble obedience to his holy Precepts and Will and also in praying in praising and in giving of thanks and as towards ones neighbour in a well-minded loving exhibition or doing of divers good Works insomuch that Charity is not the least but as Paul saith the highest vertue of all others So likewise Christ himself in his long fare-well Sermon at his departure Ioh. 13. doth with much dilgence exhort unto that exercise of Charity and left behind at that time this lesson as a fare-well saying This is my Commaudement that ye love one another even as I also loved you for so shall all men know that ye are my Disciples Likewise in 1 Iohn 2. He that saith he knows God and yet doth not keep his Commandements is a lyar and there is no truth in him But he that keepeth his word in him verily the Charity or Love of God is perfect And besides in 1 Iohn 4. God is Charity or Love he that abides therein abides in God and God abides in him Col. 1. By all this 't is evident how that Charity is the true bond of Perfection by which we are incorporated into Christ himself So that he is in us and we in him 2 Iohn 3. he in his Father and his Father in him and this is his will The which Christ himself doth also testifie in that place aforementioned where he saith If any one keepeth my saying he it is that loves me and I will love him and 〈◊〉 will come unto him and make our abode with him Iohn 5. he saith If ye shall keep my Commandements ye abide in my love concerning the which Charity and how it relates to our neighbour 't is elegantly described in 1 Iohn 4. If any one saith Iohn doth say that he loveth God and yet hateth his Brother he is a lyar for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how shall he love God whom he hath not seen And this command have we from him that he who loveth God do love his brother also But as to the property of that Love what it is Saint Paul expresseth it in the following words 1 Cor. 13. Love saith he is long-suffering and kind envieth not vaunteth not it self neither is it puffed up nor is it weary of doing good to its neighbour T is therefore easie to be seen and understood that viz. there can be no true and right Love or Charity which doth not serve its neighbour with good and charitable works Col. 3. and yet indeed there are many of such as call themselves Christians that do rashly boast thereof Moreover t is evident that good works as are pleasing unto God do not precede faith but is as it is with fruits which follow or succeed the stock and tree the which if it be good doth also bring forth good fruits and for this cause works do not make faith but faith makes works good grateful and acceptable Ierem. 5. Upon this account therefore the which is the chiefest thing here we are justified by faith alone and obtain life eternal thereby If therefore now the regenerate man doth so Christianly and piously behave himself after the aforesaid manner in his life and in all his actions then also will he not in the least want his fruits Such a man now is like unto the composition in the terrene work he is placed by God in the fornace of tribulation and is so long pressed with straights of all kinds and with various calamities and troubles until he becomes dead to the old Adam and flesh Eph. 4. and be like a truly new man which according to God is created in a right and true justice and holiness and is again risen up as Saint Paul in Rom. 6. doth testifie where he saith We together with Christ are buried in death by baptism for even as Christ is risen from the dead so let us also walk in newnesse of life If this now be done and that a man doth daily cease to sin that so by this means sin may bear no more rule over him then doth the solution of the adjoyned body of gold as in the terrene work take its original in him and as we have afore said the putrefaction so that he becomes as 't were wholly dissolved ground destroyed and putrified after a spiritual manner the which solution and putrefaction notwithstanding is wont to be sooner done with one then another but however t is fit that it be done even in this temporal life That is such a man is so well digested boiled and mollified in the fire of tribulation 1 Pet. 4. that he even despairs of all his own power and strength and seeks for his comfort in the alone grace and mercy of God 2 Cor. 4. in the which fornace of the Cross and continual fire the man like the terrene body of the gold obtains the right black head of the Crow that is he is made altogether deformed and as to the world Wisdom 5 Iob 30. is only derided and mocked by it and that not only forty daies and nights or years but oftentimes also for his whole life time insomuch that he necessarily undergoes many a time more grief of heart then comfort and gladness and more sadness then joy in this life-time And here then by this his spiritual death his soul is wholly taken out and is as 't were carried up on high that is he is as yet with his body on the earth but with his Spirit and soul which lives no more now to the world but unto God nor takes delight in earthly things but placeth his highest comfort in spiritual things 2 Cor. 4. he tends upwards to an eternal Life and Countrey and doth so institute and order all his actions that they are not earthly but as far forth as may be done in this time or place are heavenly and now he lives no more according to the flesh but after the Spirit not in the unfruitful works of darkness but as in the day-light in the works that abide the tryal all being done in God The which separation of the
that if you would bring your work to its effectual power and make your tincture to perfect the other simple mettals then 't is expedient that you put to your first matter and unite therewith a certain other metallick highly dignified body of near affinity to the aforesaid Prima materia and such as is most acceptable and grateful thereunto and you must reduce them into one body Even so is it here in the Theological work of the divine nature of the Son of God if we should well enjoy it and be made partakers thereof 't was behoovful that as it were another mettalline body that is flesh and blood the humanity or the humane nature which also is amongst all the highest dignified creatures of God in the earth the one that is nearest akin is also the most acceptable and the most grateful and besides is created after his nature adjoyned and united it self therewith and consequently 't was fitting that both were reduced and united into a certain undissolvable body But even as t is chiefly to be noted and observed in the aforementioned Philosophical work as we then informed you that even as this common or vulgar body of gold is not in the least agreeable or convenient for that work but because of its imperfection and many other various defects that it is subject unto is unprofitable and is to be accounted of as a dead thing and that likewise for that same reason there must be produced such a body as is clear and pure and without mixture and such as was never falsified by any deceit but is free from all impurity and without defect and what was never as yet debilitated in its eternal Sulphur Even so much less can there be or ought there to be any universal humane nature such as is conceived in sin polluted with original transgression and is daily falsified and defiled with real sins and preternatural infirmities under which all men do generally lie accepted of imputed to and incorporated with the divine essence of the Son of God but only the unmixed pure and perfect humanity void of all sin for if the earthly Adam who was but a creature only was afore the fall without sin and was an holy and perfect man how much more then is that celestial Adam which the only begotten Son of God hath in himself And therefore the celestial eternal fundamental and Corner-stone Jesus Christ according to the description of the Philosophick is and ever will be according to both his natures of a most highly admirable birth and rise and consequently of an unsearchable nature and property According or in relation to his divinity he was from eternity of the alone divine essence of his celestial and eternal Father true God yea the Son of God whose out-going as the Scripture testifies thereof was from the beginning and eternal Mich. 5. Psal. 2. Mat. 16. Col. 1. But as in reference to his humanity he was born in the fulness of time without sin and fault Isa. 53. John 8. according as the Scripture testifies a true and a perfect man with a body and also a soul Mat. 26. so that now he is of an indissolvable personal and God-man essence that is a true God and true man in one only person indissoluble to all eternity and must and ought to be so acknowledged and worshipped as God Omnipotent But yet notwithstanding it could be wished that the eyes of the greater part of the imaginary learned men were better opend and their dark spectacles and their sophistical vizards that hang before them were removed and that at length they might yet once recover their lost sight Luke 10. But especially all the Aristotelians and the sophisticate blind-sighted purblind as 't were in divine works amongst whom there have been so many various and divers disputations even to this very day in divine things too too unchristianlike nor is there any end at all of the manifold distinctions divisions and permixtions concerning the highly venerable Article of the union of natures and community as 't were of Idioms in Christ so well founded in the holy Scriptures 2 Tim. 3. But now if they will not believe God or his divine Word they may yet notwithstanding by the conjunction made of the said Chymicall work as afore-mentioned and by the unition of the two waters viz. of ☿ and ☉ know the essence and be able to feel him as it were with their fingers But alas the highest Scholastick art of their Ethnick or heathenish philosophy so little or meanly founded in the holy Scripture or in Christian Theologie and their fundamentals and Aristotelian precepts of no value or moment about substance and accidents and many other more devices do not at all lead them to the attainment thereof little considering that Tertullian that old man hath not in vain written That these Philosophers are the Patriarchs or chief Fathers of the Hereticks But we conceive it no waies worth our while to discourse more largely of this thing And moreover even as in the Philosophick work that said composition the two essences being conjoyned now together must be placed over the fire and be putrified ground or broken and be well boiled in which putrefaction and boyling there do until it be rendred more then perfect in the mean while manifold and various acts or scenes fall in between and divers colours do shew themselves about which you may find more written in the description of the terrene work Even so this God-man and man-God person Jesus Christ so appointed by God his heavenly Father in this world was cast into the firie furnace of tribulation and was therein well boyled as 't were that is he was encompassed with various troubles reproaches the Cross and tribulation and was changed and transmuted as 't were into various shapes that is he suffered hunger Mat. 4. then presently upon his receiving of baptism and after his devoting himself to the ministry of the preaching the holy divine Word he was by the impulse of the holy Spirit in the desart and there tempted by Satan and must there necessarily undergo with him a triple combate for a testimony and witness to all bought and purchased Christians as having entred upon Christianity and professing the faith of Christ are tempted by the Devil and are by various temptations again sollicited and enticed to a falling off from Christ. Likewise he was wearie in John 4. also he cryed and wept lamentably Luke 19. 41. also he trembled and was sore amazed Mark 14. he combated with death and sweated a sweat of blood was likewise taken and was bound Mat. 26. was smitten on the face by the high Priests servant was mocked derided spit on whipt crowned with thorns condemned to death and then fastned to the Cross which himself carried Joh. 19. betwixt two thieves had Gall and Vinegar given him to drink Psalm 69. and cryed out with a loud voice and commended his Spirit into the hands of God his Father expired