been called by a divine spirit to a divine light who being drawn by true humility search into the wonders of nature and desire to communicate and make them known to their Neighbour who being filled with unfeigned and sincere love in the poverty of their knowledge and that little of the gifts of God granted to them are found faithfull in the least things but rather I exhort them to it and stir them up to go forward servently and in simplicity of heart follow that light which in this darksome way Ikindle in this little Book But they ought throughly to examine themselves without any flattery or self-love whether they are ordained for this Art Whether above all things he love God and his Neighbour as himself and whether he will freely help the poor because a drop of water and one mite seasonably given in ones poverty and from a true love to our Neighbour is as great in the sight of God and will have as great a reward as a large quantity of wine and money given by the rich If their life agrees with this rule they may go on to the full knowledge of nature and obtain their desired end They lose their labour and cost who with great carefulness rise early and sit up late and eat their bread in anxiety For the Lord bestows it on them that love him while they sleep who seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness that is he who patiently endures divine judgments and in all judgments though he be judged and his soul is grieved and even against nature is forced to endure yet always he acknowledges and understands that God is just good and mercifull and does acquiesce in his justice and desires not to enter into the Kingdom but by the fiery trial purification and obedience to the word his reason being made silent the passions of his mind tamed and subdued by a power supernatural to him all other things shall be added But I shall here speak no more of the holy silence nor use many words of the nature of this Mystery but will set upon the thing it self with the help of God And because I am certain that the wise will observe their duty but the foolish shall get nothing I will begin after the finishing of this Prayer O God our Father thou Lord of every good thing thou who wouldst make all things by thy word who hast formed Man by thy wisedom that he should rule over every Creature which thou hast made give me wisedom which is always round about thy throne neither drive us back from thy face for we are thy Servants and the Sons of thine Handmaid weak and infirm and of few days full of errour and unconstant neither are we fit or able without thy help to render unto thee in this our office that talent which of thy bounty thou hast committed to us with that increase we ought All perfection is from thee and thy wisedom but there is no capacity or worth in us send unto us and enlighten us with thy wisedom which cometh from above send her with a ray from thy holy Heaven from the Throne of thy Glory send her that she may be with and labour with us that we may know thy will grant that she may lead us by her glory that the works of our hands may be accepted with thee for nothing can be accepted by thee that is not wrought by her in us and so it will come to pass that we shall see thy truth in thy creatures to be admired O Lord our Cogitations are full of error and doubts and darkness environs our judgment Send thy holy spirit from on high and enlighten us that we may always go in the right way that we may perform thy will to the honour of thy holy Name and prosit of our Neighbour through Jesus Christ Amen WHen that matter wherein Lucifer held his Reign and Center had with him and his Angels or out-going Powers put on the nature of burning and corroding fire by a too great and inordinate motion whereby he desited to exalt his light and render it equal with the Deity and from the nature of light was turned into obscure darkness There was progenerated from the light in the first place Air then from the Air a Mist and last of all from the Mist a Viscous Water And here doubtless this Water through the bitter vehement and stinging cold the light being taken from it and further and further would have departed had suffer'd the force and power of an horrible Coagulation unless God had a-new sent in a ray of his divine light for a new Center and conveyed it through the whole matter for the Devil shall no more be the Center of this World the agonizing matter perceiving the splendor and sweetness of this light began to awake The bitterness of the corrosive greedy and austere power moving thus strongly decreased and the stupified matter as it were in a fright began to conside in the form of a glutinous Water God would not that the whole Heaven Mansion and Kingdom or Matter wherein Lucifer reigned should be utterly destroyed which before the Fall had its word light and motion from him as from the Center For this Matter was not made such by its own will but by constraint in the ardent imagination of the overruling spirit or intelligence For this spirit did with force exercise his rule and magical power in the Matter From thence the sweetness of the light departing to its original left the corrosive darkness to the burning desire of the spirit and the most kind motion of the heat was changed by the horrible attraction and vehement compaction of the Cold. The serene face of Heaven did put on the sorrowfull countenance of the terrestrial Water and Waterish Earth But God willing to bring the Idea of the world which from eternity he had a knowledge of in his mind into figures began to make something new in which he could set forth the manifestation of himself and have complacency in it Therefore he began a new Creation and by his spirit with his word expanded the Matter and divided it into three which working together in one harmony an effluvium from one to one by one thing should be the beginning of all things yet so that one of those three cannot consist without the other two so there is made out of this one Chaos or viscous Water a fixed fluid and volatile Body Spirit and Soul Earth Water and Air. The fluid spirit is too unconstant the volatil soul too subtile the fixed body too gross to receive that infused power of the light to its motion But when from this threefold union a fourth generation ariseth there is the seed of love and the center of vertues and powers a center that cannot properly be named Water for it is a viscous Earth in which is the Water of Nature and yet it is not Earth because it floweth and maketh moist neither is it
true and essential humility to will to be without desire without will without the knowledge of any thing and to cast away himself as an unprofitable piece of wood in the presence of the Lord that he may make of it an Ark or Chest wherein he may work wherein he may not find resistance from Ihood from a strange fire in strange motions which may hinder the purity of the divine motions This is necessary For blessed at length are those dead who cease from their own works and so in God lose their own life and part with all their own delights Thou who stirrest up thy self to begin this work art thou certain this spirit that moves thee is pure certainly if there be the least impetuosity it is not the spirit of God that moves thee for he is far off from any impetuous desire And truly this is the best Examen that such a spirit that compells with force is far off from the spirit of divine truth because we know that God inhabits not in the fire nor in the earthquake but in the still small voice Plainly another in this way ought to be a guide and author to thee That will not presently succeed according to thy desire which thy phantasie suggests unto thee If thou art called to this work he that is to shew thee the way without which it is impossible to attain the end will make himself known to thee by word of mouth and will lay such strict bands upon thee that presently in that very moment thou shalt cease to be Master of thy self or of thy work for why does wretched Man attempt without the spirit of God to intermeddle with this work or does he think he shall effect any thing in this matter without an internal word speaking inwardly or an expert Master Verily he deserves to be counted a Fool who thinks divine treasures are not kept in stronger holds But if any one thinks he will with feigned words deceive God and with an impetuous desire is instigated and will conceive hope where there is none and as the Poet saith flectere si nequeo superos Acharonta movebo let him look well to himself and hearken to this admonition lest he invites such guests from which it is very difficult yea impossible to be free again For God is a pure spirit far distant from all terrestreity Let the tincture be as wholly as may be yet the curse and anger of God is in all terrestreity and corporeity which is a truth we certainly affirm In that accursed part the Devil finds an open entrance through the impetuous desire of Man and in various ways deludes those whom he finds in his Kingdom of which thing it would be very irksome to bring examples But God is a Spirit and will be worshipp'd in spirit and truth and whosoever is one spirit with him will see that his spirit has the rule and dominion in and over all things yea in and over Hell and the Devil and will admire and yet he will not touch the forbidden tree Therefore where there is any covetous desire it were better for them to leave the work For seeing terrene things belong to the Devil the Prince of this World and this work is partly coelestial and partly terrestrial let every one know that is covetous of this Art that the Devil has an entrance in his covetousness for it is his own proper habitation For the corrupt nature of Man and the malignant spirits by Man do easily mix together and what they are not capable to doe of themselves they are made capable of by Man and they teach him the Science to use their power and mingle their malignity together with it But he that is ruled by the Spirit of God will always behave himself in a passive manner and if Heaven were opened to him he would not enter in unless he were sweetly introduced by a divine power holy pure quiet friendly lucid and serene beyond his own will and expectation Nothing can remain in the divine fire which Jesus Christ has not wrought in the Soul in the light of his Conscience by which every one may be saved without an historical faith whether he be Christian Turk Jew or Gentile He that is faithfull to that light in the smallest things shall receive a greater light in greater things The word which was with God from eternity shineth in the darkness as John writeth enkindleth this light in its beginning and more and more enkindles it as man is faithfull as in its own propriety in eternity and what is there wrought is a new birth plainly another thing from the Natural man and it worketh all those things which the Natural man cannot work as the Imitation of Christ in meekness and patience and self-denial and it seeketh and with ardor desireth to perform those things which are written from the Lord Matth. 3. 4 5 6. He that hath built his house on this foundation that in all fights against natural motions he first seeks the renewing of his heart his structure will not easily be overturned by the storms but will stand against the swelling waves of the Sea it will swim above them as in an Ark by the power of a well exercised spirit He will know the Devil and the Dragon sitting on the waters and will overcome him But he that as Solomon by a large effusion of gifts without essential regeneration founded on death and desertion of the spirit of grace thinks he can stand will be much deceived and in the end will see the slippery firmness of his foundation Whoever had greater knowledge than Lucifer who greater riches than he was he not the greatest of all the Angels could all those gifts help him who had not yet sufficiently learned to bridle his own motions therefore there is need of the opposer and slayer of this diabolical poison sown in us What is without us can help us nothing but it must be born wax strong and exercise its power over us our Esauitish birth must be opposed and overcome by the Jacobean birth Jesus Christ in the womb of this principle by the power of love and patience All knowledge and riches cannot save us from the judgments of the Father nothing is admitted to his purity but what is from the spiritual seed of his Son He therefore that in all things acknowledgeth justice and in justice mercy and well understands that where sin is it is his own fault and of those good things which he hath received and doth daily receive judgeth himself unworthy yea unsufficient for any thing who after that he has been according to the flesh and spirit judged he will in humility of heart remain safe from all flatteries and poisoned darts of the enemy But they who like thieves come and arrogate that to themselves which belongs to God and attribute that to God which is their own shall one day hear that voice Friend how camest thou in hither not having on a
of the Head the pores parts and clandestine exits beneath and above Here if thou canst from the inferiour parts of the World draw out the inward Centre or Salt of Nature or from the superior the Heart or Center most of all hidden thou shalt be to me Magnus Apollo But greater yet will I admire thee if thou canst find out the Astral and Central Salt of Nature in abundance and great plenty united in one thing as in Man If thou knowest this I will confess that thou possessest natural wisedom and I promise thee that with this light thou canst unlock the most hidden and recluse mysteries of Nature and make samiliar to thee hidden treasures He that hath the knowledge of the Microcosm cannot long be ignorant of the knowledge of the Macrocosm This is that which the Aegyptian industrious searchers of Nature so often said and loudly proclaimed that every one should know himself This speech their dull Disciples took in a moral sense and out of ignorance assixt it in their Temples But I admonish thee whosoever thou art that desirest to dive into the inmost parts of nature if that which thou seekest thou findest not within thee thou wilt never find it without thee If thou knowest not the excellency of thine own house for what doest thou seek and search after the excellency of other things The universal Orb of the Earth contains not so great mysteries and excellencies as a little Man formed by God to his Image And he that desires the primacy amongst the studiers of Nature will no where find a greater and better reserve to obtain his desire than in himself Therefore I will here follow the example of the Aegyptians and from my whole heart and certain true experience proved by me speak to my Neighbour in the Aegyptians words and with a loud voice now proclaim O Man know thy self in thee is hid the treasure of treasures Thine it is by the external breath in the Air to enjoy that breath of the Firmament which the wonderfull Astrum attracting from the supercoelestial Waters hath breathed into the middle region of the Air where it by the motion of the Air suffers it self in the Air to be coagulated and incorporated with the Air. Thou O Man art he who thro' the Air enjoyest the breath and power of the Water and Earth and in thy self enjoyest both the Elements and maked them one and thy self not knowing what a treasure thou hast hidden in thee from the coagulation and consent of these powers producest an essence called by us the expert the great and miraculous mystery of the World that is the true fiery Water Eschva-mayim Hascha-mayim yea it surmounts in its power the Fire Air Earth and Water for it dissolves and radically incrudates the mature constant and very fixt fire abiding mass and matter of Gold and reduceth it into a fat and black Earth like to thick Spittle wherein we find a Water and the true Salt destitute of all ardor vehemency and corrosive nature of the Fire There is nothing in the whole world to be found which can doe this nothing is shut to it and though it is a precious thing more precious than every thing yet the poor as well as the rich has it in the same and equal plenty The Wise men have sought this thing the Wise men have found it Hermes of this thing composed his twenty and eight Books and these Books I have seen with these Eyes and the Wise men of the new World have them and keep them in their own hands without any mixture of falshood And you my Friends seek this in divers things but perhaps none of you have known its secret recesses where it is hid or have found its ways and can tell what shape it shall be of if at any time he chance to see it But it is I tell you the simple and plain truth the Spiritual Water and Watery Spirit the Water of Life which Adam and Eve brought out of Paradice with them for their consolation and which by their Offspring they left to posterity O noble Water lucid and sweet O despised Water obscure and bitter O Water comforting us till death This is that Corner-stone which the wise builders the great Phylosophers and expert Masters of Alchymie and of Israel from unskilfull ignorance neglecting rejected even to this day Sometimes at length open your Eyes O mortal Men with your whole heart love God and your Neighbour pray in Humility and Meekness that the Lord would be gracious to you and turn the darkness of your Mind into Light In these words I have openly shewed the way and to these I will add over and above this further Explication The World in which the matter of the Sophy is nighest and best to be found is Man the highest Artifice is in him his metalline Mine is to be opened the tenth time the Brass which there is dug is the best and worst in Nature the Water most precious and most vile the Water Earth together and always in themselves joyned with another thing the Son Birth and Seed of the most pure Bodies is born in Man for his profit and necessity its name is Tessa If by your industry you have found your matter seperate the pure from the impure without fire or admixtion of any other thing prepare a Virgin-earth which ought to be without Odour without Tast without Colour seperate from that the Central Salt the Microcosmick Vitriol the Philosophick Venus the Mercury of the Microcosm the Philosophick Luna purifie and produce out of it a Son more noble than his Parents Then thou wilt see the causes and reasons that imprest the Egyptians that they gave the Signature of Luna and Venus to Argent Vive why they put beneath the sign of Copper the character of Luna above The uppermost or Astral Salt is most volatile sweet and shines and glisters like pure Silver and it s nothing else than the Silver of the Sophy and the Mercurial Saline Spirit But the central Salt is a Vitriol of infinite wonderfull and ineffable Virtue which coagulates the Argent Vive and changes it into pure Silver But Venus is inclosed in Saturn's Vestment from which she must be freed that she may appear Naked in her Beauty to the Eyes of the Artist From these two kinds of Salt all the Metals are generated and there is the same reason of the Microcosm as of the Macrocosm So I have shewn you the Metalliue Mine in your own Body and have demonstrated to you how out of it with the addition of no other thing you may prepare Gold Argent Vive Copper Lead c. I shew you the way which I my self have gone for I have seen with a moderate and due fire produced out of this matter the medicine of the 〈◊〉 Minerals and Animals concerning which so many Books have been disperst about Whether the ancient or modern Phylosophers have gone in this way it 's not my business now