the Secre of the Secres Parde Also there was a Disciple of Plato That on a tyme sayd his Master to As his Book Senior wool bere Wytnesse And this was his demaunde in Sothfastnesse Tellme the name of the privy Stone And Plato answered unto him anone Take the Stone that Tytanos Men name Of Titan Magnafia take the cler light The red Gumme that ys so bright c. Theat Chem. Britt pag. 275. Which is that quod he Magnatia is the same Said Plato ye Sir and is it thus This is ignotum per ignotius What is Magnatia good Sir I you pray It is a Water that is made I say Of Elements four quod Plato Tell me the Rock good Sir quod he tho Of that Water if it be your will Nay nay quod Plato certayne that I nyll The Philosophers were y Sworne eâ—hone That they shulde discover it unto none Ne in no Boke it write in no maneâ—e For unto Christ it is so lefe and dere That he wol not that it discovered be But where it liketh to his Deite Man to enspyre and eke for to desende Whan that him lyketh to this is his ende Thus you see how the ancient Philophers were Sworn not to discover their Rock of clear Water and that this Work is the highest piece of Philosophy in Nature This Water is made of the four Elements said Plato so is the joyning of the two first Principles said to be the mixing of the four Elements the one being Hot and Dry the other Cold and Moist This Water is also called Aqua Divina Aqua Benedicta Aqua Coelestis c. with many other Names One Author that shall be nameless speaking of the Conjunction of these two Principles saith it is a Magistery and calleth the first the Divine Instrument and the second he calls Mercury and saith that the Addition of the Instrument that is Quintessence goeth through the Mercury and remaineth with it and seeing that Quintessence belongeth to Life it changeth the Mercury so that now Mercury is nothing else but Life also and this Operation is done very quickly without any elemental Working for as every Workman adorneth his Work and giveth it his Mark by the which the Master-piece is known so also God Marketh this his Creation and giveth it the noblest Sign that is in Heaven c. So now you have his Words you may easily find out the Man He also calls this Matter being purged Luna so soon saith he as Mercury perceiveth the power of God Sol it is no longer Mercury but Luna that this Mercury is wholly changed and turn'd about so that was inward is drawn outward but no part separated from another c. But what needeth many Words you have the thing before so sufficiently described that I may say he that cannot thereby easily name it savoureth nothing at all of Ingenuity This Soul saith my Master as it is drawn from the Saturnia sollid and dry is called our Air or rather the Chamelion which is an Airy Body but indeed it hath a hundred other Names This says he is true Sulphur which is imbibed by the Mercuriality of Saturnia and Notes it with the Regal Signet and being united and revived into a Mineral Water by the mediation of Dianas Doves it is the sharp Spirit which in the Water moves the Body to putrefie c Thus is made a Medicine of the first Order by Calcination Next we will proceed to the third Principle of Earth after we have observed a few of the Names of these two Principles First as they are apart and afterwards as they are joyned besides such as you have heard before First of the Air Female or Water of dissolving Mercury Aeyrenaes in his Opus Tripartitum or Vera Confectio Lapidis Philosophici in the Division De principali proprietate Mercurii dissolventis pag. 21. amongst others sets down these Acetum Aqua aqua prima aqua artis aqua simplex balneum Coelum humiditas Ignis humidus ignis contra naturam liquor vegetabilis Crudus Luna Mater Materia Lunaria mercurius crudus mercurius dissolvens Ministerium primum Quinta Essentia Spiritus crudus Spiritus cocti Sepulchurum Sperma Mercurii Stomachus Struthionis vas Philosophorum Visitatio occultorum argentum vivum crudum à minera simpliciter extractum Pag. 48. after some alteration of it Aqua divina aqua mundi aqua venenosa aqua auri aquila Caput Corvi fimus equinus flos aeris fumus igneus humidum igneum igneum venenum ignis innaturalis Leo viridis Lutum Magisterii Magnesia nigra Nigrum nigrius nigro nummus Oleum Saturni Plumbum nigrum pulvis niger putrefactio res vilis Ros coelestis sigillum hermetis Spiritus foetens sputum Lunae terr a nigra Vapor c. In the Book called Palladium Spagyricum are hundreds of Names yet I approve not his Cunning. Secondly As to the Male or Fire Pag. 57. Adam Anima Aries anrum vivum Corpus rubeum ferrum forma frater gumma rubea Ignis Naturae Lapis rubeus Lytargyrium rubeum Lux Mane Mars Magnesia rubea Oleum Martis oleum incombustibile pater pars una Rex Rubedo Sal rubeum Sericon Sol sulphur rubeum sulphur vivum terra rubea vitriolum rubeum De predictorum duorum conjunctione pag. 22. Aqua secunda arcanum argentum Aqua nostra vivum Chaos corpus confusum Cuprum Aes nostrum Aes philosophorum fumus aquosus ignis alienus Lapis mineralis Lapis unus Lapis in Capitulis notus Laton Materia una massa consusa minera nostra Menstruum secundam Ovum philosophorum Radix una Res una res vilis c. Pag. 38. Aes album argentum vivum animatum Arsenicum Aurum aurum album corpus album Eva Fundamentum Artis Gumma alba Hermophroditus Lac virginis Lapis unus Luna plena Magnesia Materia una metallorum Mercurius occidens Plumbum album Radix artis Sal Alchali sapo sapientum soror sperma metallorum stannum sulphur album Terra fructuosa Vitrum Urina puerorum Vultur with many others and which are sometimes indifferently applied to either Of the Addition of the third Principle or Earth You observed before that it is said the former Matter being united and revived Dianas Doves into a Mineral Water by the mediation of Dianas Doves is the sharp Spirit that in the Water moves the Body to putrefie This is the same with what Aeyrenaeus writes in his Introitus Apertus in several parts thereof Pag. 5. Disce igitur c. Learn therefore who are the Companions of Cadmus and what is that Serpent who devoured them what is that hollow Oak to which Cadmus fastned the Serpent Learn what the Doves of Diana Pag. 9. are which overcome the Lion by asswaging him I say the Green Lion which indeed is the Babylonian Dragon killing all things with his Poyson At length learn to know the Caducean Rod of Mercury with which he worketh
habeo feci et quotidie meâ sub ditione servo c. Page 34. Et scio quae scribo et novit cordium Scrutator Deus quod Scribam vera nec est quod invidiae me accuses quoniam interrito Calamo inaudito Stylo in honorem Dei usum fructum proximi mundique et divitiarum contemptum scribo He that would be further convinced of the Truth and Reason of this wonderful working Powder let him read the Treatise called The Way to Bliss published by Elias Ashmole Esq proving by Philosophy and Reason the possibility of this universal Medicine and that there are many things in Nature far more strange than this natural Work Indeed that Book shews but little of the matter or manner of working it he says in brief Dissolve Gold in a Water of its own kind I care not how but best with his beloved for ease in in working It also appears That in late times there have been many Adeptists who knew and practised this Art though formerly it was very rare to hear of one Norton in his Ordinal page 52. tells us That once three Masters of this Science lay in one Bed near to Leaden-hall which he says was a wonderful Thing whilst it is hard to find one in millions of Men One of them he says was of the Dukedom of Lorain the other two it seems were English Sendivog in his Epilogue hath these words I doubt not but many Men of good Consciences and Affections do enjoy this Gift of God secretly And Aeyrenaeus in his Preface to his Introitus says that he knew many who together with himself enjoyed this Secret and was perswaded that there would be many more with whom he should in a short time have daily familiarity And towards the end of this thirteenth Chapter he says he knew very many who possessed the Art and the true knowledge of it who as it were had Vowed a most secret Silence and that he writ his Book without the knowledge of any one of those he daily conversed with And in so doing he hoped he had improved his Talent well He further adds That he foresaw some Hundreds would happily be enlightned by his Writing therefore he consulted not with Flesh and Blood c. Also in the same Chapter he breaks out in these words Novi novi quod haec mea scripta erunt plurimis instar auri obryzi et aurum Argentumque per haec mea scripta vilescent instar fimi credite Juvenes Tyrones credite Patres quia tempus adest ad fores non ex vano conceptu haec scribo at in spiritu video c. And Joannes Langius in his Preface before this Book says to this purpose viz. Yea if those things which Mary Rant an English Woman by inward Revelation promised concerning the making of Gold that it would become Vulgar or Common in the Year 1661 come to pass and hundred Years after then I doubt not at all but it hath taken some beginning from this Neither did these famous and honest minded Philosophers conceal themselves or the Art out of Envy or Pride but for fear of evil disposed Persons who continually sought to do them Mischief Aeyrenaeus in his fourteenth Chapter says we have professed and do again profess that it is not for the Credit we give to other mens Writings that we have published this we have seen and known adds he those things which we faithfully declare we have made do see and possess the Stone the great Elixir nor truly do we envy thee the knowledge of it but wish thou maist learn it from our Writings c. And in his thirteenth Chapter he says I dare affirm that I do possess more Riches than the whole known World is worth but cannot make use thereof because of the Snares of Knaves Also in his last Chapter he says An Adeptist may so increase the Stone at his Pleasure both in Weight and Vertue so that if a Man would one Man that is an Adeptist might transmute into perfect Gold and Silver all the imperfect Metals that are in the whole World But for a further warning of these Dangers and Snares he speaks of let us examine his thirteenth Chapter a little closer In the beginning of it he tells us he hath delivered many Secrets which before were barren enough to the World because almost all Chymical Books do abound either with obscure Aenigmas or sophistical Operations or with a heap of pitiful contagious Words but that he hath not so done resiḡning his Will in this thing to the Divine Pleasure who says he in this last period of the World seems to me to be about the opening of these Treasures Therefore I do not fear that the Art will be disesteemed far be it from me this cannot be for true Wisdom will defend it self in eternal Honour I could wish says he that Gold and Silver would at length be of as mean in esteem as Dirt that great Idol hitherto adored by the whole World Then we who know these things should not so much contrive to hide our selves c. From this he goes on to make a piteous Complaint because of the Dangers and Perils that attend these Artists through the Wickedness of evil Men and that there is scarce an honest Man to be found that himself was forced to fly by Night to shave his Head and alter his Name and all this because he having done some wonderful Cures by means of the grand Elixir was laid in wait for by wicked Men meerly for suspicion only accompanied with a most greedy thirst after Gold Then he proceeds further to shew the Difficulties that Adeptists meet with and says He hath known some to have been strangled through the Suspicion only of Desperate Men that these other knew the Art tho' they were meer strangers to it That some will Tattle of their Counterfeiting Money others can easily know this Gold and Silver from common because 't is Finer than any other and that a Man runs the hazard of his Head by Allaying or Adulterating it because of the strict Laws of all Nations who have provided That every Deterioration of Gold and Silver altho' according to Standard yet if it be not done by a Professed and Licensed Metalourgist shall be accounted a Capital Crime Then he shews how he and others were forced to leave and lose 600 l. value of Silver c. and concludes in these words We being taught by these Dangers have determined to lye hid and will communicate the Art to thee who dreamest of such things that is who think'st these sorts of fears and dangers ridiculous and that if thou knew'st these things thou wouldst do otherwise that so we may see what Publick Good thou wilt do when adepted c. Then he proceeds to shew and explain the Mysteries of the Art and adds Versly as for my self I do not possess the Stone by Theft but by the Gift of my God c. Afterwards he tells us That Elias
diffusive Goodness to the Poor as many are not c. Sendivogius in his First Treatise Engl. pag. 3. tells us God is the Original and Bounds of Nature and worketh all things by it and without Nature is nothing Pag. 4. That the Searchers of Nature ought to be as Nature her self is True Plain Patient Constant c. and that which is chiefest of all Religious fearing God not injurious to their Neighbour and then shews that every thing must be exalted in its own kind c. 37. That the Art of Alchimy in its kind is true Nature also is true but the Artificer is seldom true 39. He laboureth in vain that putteth forth his Hands to labour without the knowledge of Nature in this Sacred and most True Art c. 41. For without the light and knowledge of Nature it is impossible to attain to this Art unless it come to any by God's special Revelation or some special Friend doth privately shew it 42. If therefore thou dost not understand or believe the Truth do not blame me but thy self and perswade thy self that God was unwilling to reveal this Secret to thee be therefore earnest with him by Prayer c. Do not wonder that I have wrote so many Treatises for I did not make them for my own sake seeing I lack not Books but that I might advertise many that work in fruitless Things that they should not spend their Costs in vain 44. He shews us plainly the whole Art is only an Extraction of our sea-Sea-Water or Metallick radical Moisture c. 47. He says many Men conceited of their Understanding and Wisdom could not savour his meaning tho' he intimated the Art to them from word to word but they could by no means understand him not believing there was any Water in our Sea and yet they would be accounted Philosophers Since therefore says he they could not understand my Words which I delivered by word of Mouth I do not fear as other Philosophers were affraid that any one can easily understand what I have wrote It is the Gift I say of God c. But let me give you this Caution That if you would attain to this Secret know that first of all God is to be prayed to then your Neighbour is to be loved 49. and lastly do not fancy things that are subtil which Nature knew nothing of but abide I say abide in the plain way of Nature c. I will says he reveal to no mortal Man whilst I live more than I have done in this publick Writing 76. That the Art did daily decline into obscurity and as he believed thro' the Writings of envious Philosophers that one Book explains another that Geber had need to be read a thousand times over that were these hard Writers ignorant of and to learn the Art out of such hard Books they would find it out with greater difficulty than Men in these days who search into the Art Pag. 78. That now the Art is not obtained but by the Inspiration of the most high God alone therefore let not him that searcheth diligently and fears God despair if he seeks after it he shall find it because it is more easily obtain'd from God than from Man c. Be of good Courage therefore and he will also not deny this Favour unto thee if thou puttest thy whole Trust in him Worship him and call upon him he will open to thee the Gate of Nature c. 79. Cease not to seek for to him that knocks it shall be opened 102. That the Philosophers esteem'd highly of this Art not so much out of Covetousness for Gold and Silver but for Knowledge sake 119. He adviseth to taciturnity saith that tho' some casually fall upon the matter of our Argent vive yet he ends the Work when he should begin c. Saith that this Art is the Gift of the most High God and unless God reveals it by means of a good Wit or Friend it is hardly known That Lully learnt it of Arnold and Arnold received it from a Friend c. but saith God scarce ever conferred upon any mortal Man so great things as upon himself and acknowledges he deserved them not yet that he always trusted in God 122. Adviseth again to trust in God and to pray to him for if thou be sincere he will by one means or other shew thee a way and assist the in it that thou shalt obtain thy desire pray but yet work saith he and concludes that a good Understanding and Opportunity are the Gifts of God 123. That there is but one true Operation and that it is easier to make the Elixir than any particular to abide a natural Examination and Tryal notwithstanding some Mens Boasting but the Broth will have its Taste from the diversity of the Flesh boyl'd in it Adviseth against Receipts of Mountebanks and all false Sophistications c. 141. He adviseth to essay nothing contrary to Nature c. 143. That every searcher ought to know the four Elements and their Original in which indeed he is very Natural and Ingenuous and to apply all things to the possibility of Nature if they do not agree with Nature they must be let alone and waved 147. Then he ends his Book with this conclusion viz. That this Art is always acquired by the same kind of Wits and Dispositions Which Art says he we after this kind of clear Manifestation of it lay up in the Bosom of God the most high Creator and our Lord and commend our selves together with all honest hearted Readers to his Grace and Infinite Mercy To whom be Praise and Glory for ever and ever The Conclusion AeYrenaeus in his Preface to the Author in Ripley Revived hath these words For my own part I have had experience of misleading Sophistical Writers and have made many toilsome laborious Experiments tho' but young and therefore having at length through the undeserved Mercy of God arriv'd at my Haven of Rest I shall stretch out my hand to such as are behind c. That at length studying to profit the Sòns of Art he resolved to unfold Ripley so that the Tyro might have two Witnesses in one c. And concludes thus These writings peruse for they are not Fancies and so with the help of the most High thou shalt attain thy wish Pag. 19. In his Exposition of Sir G. Rip Preface he says That those who mistake in their Operations and blame the Philosophers are most injurious Pag. 18. That if Wit were capable of the attainment of this Art it would have been common e'er now and that he does very admiringly adore the Wisdom of God herein that an Art so True so Natural so Easie so much desired and sought after should yet be so rarely found that the generality of Men Learned and Unlearned do laugh at it as a Fable It is therefore most certainly the gift of God who is and ever will be the Dispenser of it according to his good
and their fond followers no otherwise than meer Foolosophers catch'd in a Mouse-trap This by way of removing the Rubbish next we proceed to lay a sure Foundation for the Ingenious to Build on This Art I say and doubt not to The Foundation of this Art make clearly appear consists in the true knowledge of a Metalline Sulphur and Mercury which are to be Compounded of four Metalline Principles or Elements viz. Metalline Fire Air Earth and Water all to be reduced into a quick running clear and splendid Mercury In which Mercury is contain'd the Grand Secret of the Philosophers viz. their Sol and Luna for then they say Est in Mercurio quicquid quaerunt Sapientes All is in Mercury that the Wise men seek Because this prepared Mercury may easily be digested into Silver and Gold and then also and not till then is this saying verified Esttamen unum c. That there is in the Metalick Kingdom one thing of a miraculous Original in which our Sol is nearer than in Common Sol and Luna if you seek it in the hour of its Nativity c. Introit apert pag. 51. Which will melt in our Mercury as will Ice in warm Water and yet it hath resemblance with Gold The same thing may be found by digestion in our Mercury for the spaee of an hundred and fifty days c. See Secrets Reveal'd pag. 75. For this Mercury so digested into Sol and Luna will again easily be dissolved in that Mercury from whence it was form'd Whereas to dissolve Common Gold by prepared Mercury is a Work of great difficulty and ought not to be attempted by any unless he be an experienced Master in this Art and yet he that so operates shall labour for the worst and not the better unless he knows how to carry on both works a part and afterwards in a due measure to Reconjoyn them This I say is the Scope and Intention of all the Philosophers and now it remains that I clear my Position The Composition of these four Principles or Elements is perfected by three Three Works Works or Operations 1. The first is the joyning of the Fire and Air. 2. The second by adding the Earth to the other two 3. The third by joyning thereto the Liquor or Element of Water Which are also by Prince Geber Called Medicines of the first second and third Order These three Conjunctions are also called 1. Conjunction Diptative 2. Conjunction Triptative 3. Conjunction Tetraptive Of which more hereafter The Philosophical Maxims are Man from Man Beast from Beast and Metal from Metal c. Dastin's Dream Theat Chem. Britt pag. 259. A Man of Nature Ingendreth but a Man And every Beast Ingendreth his Semblable And as Philosophers rehearse well can Diana and Venus in Marriage be not able A Horse with a Swine joyns not in a Stable For where is made unlikely Geniture What followeth but things Abominable Which is to say Monstrum in Nature Pearce the Black Monk upon the Elixir Theat Chem. Britt pag. 271. All Salts and Sulphers far and nere I. interdite hem alle in Fere Alle corosive Waters Blood and Hayre Pyss Hornes Wormes and Saudiver Alume Atriment also I suspende Rasalger and Arsnick I defende Calx Vive and Calx Mort hys Brother I suspend them both one and other For of all things I will no moe But Foure Elements in general I say so Sun and Moon Earth and Water Four Elements And here y's all that Men of clatter Nothing is oftener said by the Philosophers than that their Stone is made of the four Elements And Ripley in his Epistle to King Edward the IV. Theat Chem. Britt pag. 111. saith thus viz. In the said Boke the Philosopher speaketh also Therein if it Please your Highnes for to Reade Of divers Sulphurs but especially of two And of two Mercuryes joyned to them indeed Whereby he doth true understanders leade To the knowledge of the Principles which be true Both Red most pure and White as I have spede Which be nevertheless founden but of right few c. This I know also hath another Exposition of which hereafter Theat Chem. Britt 152. Numb 19 Ripleys Compound Speaks thus And be thou wise in chesing of thy Water Medyll with no Salt Sulphure nor mene Minerall For whatsoever any water to thee do clatter Our Sulphure and Mercury be only in Mettal Which Oylys and Waters som men call Fowlys and Byrds with other names many one Because that Folys should never know our Stone Sandivog pag. 5. If thou dost purpose to make a Metall out of Herbs thou shalt labour in pain as also thou shalt not bring forth wood out of a Dog or any other Beast Aeyr Phil. de Metall Metamor pag. 46. Qui vero ex Herbis istjusmodi rebus Mercurium educere tentant sunt Minervae crassissimae atque ingenij nequissimi Aeyr Phil. in his Ripley revived pag. 160. 161. c. Some will say of my Book that I have writ very Enviously and Misteriously he calls the matter Gold and Mercury but that is but Allusively but he meant Egg-shells calcined or Vitriol or Mans Blood or Dew or Rain Water or Salt Peter or Nitre or Tartar or this or that thing c. Gross Sotts thus to think that what I without any Equivocation call Gold and Mercury they should make to allude to such trifles O Fools and Blind think you to gather Grapes of Thorns or Figgs of Thisles Page 162. If Gold and Silver be your intention to produce in what would you find them in Eggs or Blood in Salts or such things what a madness is this c. But enough of these Cautions tho' much more may be said from many other Authors And if any raise an Objection or put the Question why this great Universal Medicine is only to be prepared from Metalls they shall find it answered in another place Sandivog pag. 79. If thou wilt imitate Nature let me perswade thee to abide in the Simple way of nature and thou shalt sind all good things Simplicitas veritatis sigillum The Composition of the four Elements How the Elements are Compounded or Principles Now to our purpose Aeyrenaeus Philalethes natu Anglus Cosmopolita A true Adeptist and the last and best Interpreter of all the Ancient Philosophers in his little Book called Introitus Apertus c. Shewing that this Work tends Chap. 1. pag. 2. 3. to digest Gold to the highest Purity and subtle Fixity to which by Nature and Art it may be brought says their Gold is twofold viz. Ripe Gold and Crude Gold Male and Female Sulphur and Mercury That the whole Secret consists in the Mercury without which the work of Alchimy would be in vain And in Chap. 2. Concerning the Principles of which this Mercury is Compounded he saith Sciant itaque aquam Pag. 4. nostram componi ex multis c. Let the Operators therefore know that our Water is Compounded of many things
the true Key of our Work without which the Fire of the Lamp could not be by any art Kindled It is the Minera of Gold a Spirit very pure beyond others It is an Infernal Fire Secret in its kind very Volatile the wonder of the World a System of the Superior Vertues in the Page 6. Inferiors and therefore the Omnipotent hath mark'd it with that notable Sign whose Nativity is declared in the East Cujus Nativitas per Orientem in Horizonte Hemisphiaerij sui Philosophicum annuntiatur pag. 7. Cursum dirigat per aspectum Astri Septentrionalis quod Aspect Astri faciet tibi apparere magnes noster pag. 21. Quare activum Sulphur ulterius quaerentes c. Wherefore seeking further for an active Sulphur the Magi sought most throughly and at length found it hidden in the House of Aries This Sulphur Aries is most greedily received by the Of-spring of Saturn which Metallick matter is most pure most tender and most near to the first Metallick ens void of all actual Sulphur but yet in a power to receive a Sulphur wherefore it doth draw this to it self like a Magnet and swallows it up and hides it in its own Belly and the Omnipotent that he might highly adorn this Work hath Imprinted his Royal Seal thereon Sendivog pag. 36. Recipe ergo marum vivum c. Take therefore a Living Male and a Living Female joyn these together that betwixt them there may be Conceived a Sperm for the bringing forth of Fruit after its kind Pag. 44. Propterea unum datur Metallum c. Moreover there is granted to us one Metal which hath a Power to consume the rest for it is almost as their Water and Mother yet there is one thing and that alone the radical Moisture viz. Of the Sun and Moon that withstands it and is bettered by it but that I may discover it to you it is called Chalybs Pag. 45. Est alius Chalybs c. There is also another Chalybs which is like to this created by it self of Nature Qui scit ex radiis solis c. Which knows how by a wonderful Power and Vertue to draw forth from the Beams of the Sun that which so many Men have sought after and is the beginning of our Work Here he singly names them The begining of our Work both Chalybs yet sometimes both joyned together are called Calybs as before Pag. 47. Naturalis ejusmodi est c. The natural Dissolution is this That the Pores of the body be open'd in our Water whereby the Seed that is digested may be sent sorth and put into it's Matrix but our Water is Heavenly Water not wetting the Hands not vulgar but almost Rain Water 48. The Body is Gold which yeilds Seed It is our Luna not common Silver which receives the Seed of the Gold c. This also alludes to the Great Work Pag. 55. Faâ—â—igitur c. Cause therefore that there be such an operation in our Earth that the central heat may change the Water into Air that it may go forth into the Plains of the World and may scatter the residue as I said thro' the pores of the Earth and then on the contrary the Air will be turn'd into Water far more subtil than the Water was and this is done thus If thou wil'st give our old Man Gold and Silver to swallow that he may consume pag 56. them and that he at length dying may be Burnt Let his Ashes be scattered into Water Boyl it until it be enough and thou shalt have a Medicine to cure the Leprosy Pa. 63. Res est vilis pretiosissima c. It is a thing of little account yet most pretious which being divers times described I do now again repeat Take X. parts of Air of Living Gold or Living Air. Silver I. part put all these into thy Vessel boyl this Air first until it be Water and then no Water If thou art Ignorant of this and know'st not how to Boyl Air without all doubt thou shalt Err seeing this is the matter of the ancient Philosophers for thou must take that The Water of our dew which is and is not seen until it be the Artificers pleasure It is the Water of our Due out of which is Extracted the Salt-peter of the Philosophers by which Sal petrae Philoso all things Grow and are Nourished Matrix ejus est centrum solis vel Lunae The Matrix of it is the center of the Sun or Moon as well Celestial as Terestial and that I may tell more plainly it is our Magnet which before I Our Magnet or Chalybs said was Chalybs The Air generates the Magnet and the Magnet generates or causes our Air to appear Sanctè tibi veritatem hic manifestavi c. This is the Sal Akali which the Philosophers have Sal Akali named Salt Armoniack and Vegetable hid in the Belly of Magnesia Operatio ejus Magnesia talis est The operation of it is this That thou Dissolve the Congealed Air in which thou shalt Dissolve the tenth part of Gold Seale this up and work with our Fire until the Air be turn'd into Powders and there appear the Salt of the World being had divers colours c. And a little after pag. 64. Propterea satis mihi fuit c. It therefore sufficed me to treat only of the first and second matter which is done clearly c. In his Eleventh Chapter concerning the Practice pag. 48. he say Take of our Earth through xi degrees xi grains of our Gold and not of the vulgar i. grain of our Luna and not of the vulgar ii grains but be thou well advised that thou take not common Gold and Silver for these are dead take ours which are Living then put them into our Fire and let there be made of them a dry Liquor first the Earth will be resolved into Water which is called the Mercury of Philosophers and that Water shall resolve those Bodies of Gold and Silver and shall consume them so that there shall remain but Radical moisture the tenth part with one part and this shall be the Metallick radical moisture c. And pag. 65. Perpende diligenter weigh diligently what I have said before viz. How the four Elements distil into into the center of the Earth a radical Moisture and how the central Sun of the Earth by its motion bringeth it forth and Sublimes it to the Superficies of the Earth c. The same Author in his Philosophical Riddle tells you That Neptune shew'd him two Mines the one of Gold the other of Chalybs Page 77. That Saturn drew the Water and put into it of the Tree of the Sun wherein it resolved like Ice in warm Water and this Water is Aqua Vitae That that Water is the best which is drawn by vertue of our Chalybs which is found in the Belly of Aries c. In the
English Book of Hermetick Secrets called Arcanum Or The Grand Secret Numb 11. you have these words As for that clear Water saught for by many found out by few yet obvious and profitable unto all which is the Base of the Philosophers Work A Noble Polonian not more Famous for his Learning than Subtilty of Wit not named whose name notwithstanding a double Anagram hath betrayed In his Novum lumen Chymicum parabola Aenigma as also in his tract of Sulphur hath spoken freely and largely enough Yea he hath exprest all things of it so plainly that nothing can be satisfactory to him that desireth more Numb 19. He says that most Philophers have affirm'd that their Kingly work is wholly composed of the Sun and Moon Others have thought good to add Mercury to the Sun Some have Divers sayings of the Philosophers chosen Sulphur and Mercury others have attributed no small part in so great a work to Salt mingled with the other two The very same Men have professed That this clear Stone is made of one thing only sometimes of two other whiles of three at othertimes of four and of five and thus tho' Writing so variously upon the same Subject doe nevertheless aḡree in sense and meaning c. He also adds Numb 20. That he holds that this intire work is perfected by two Bodies only to witt the Sun and the Moon rightly prepared Numb 46. The Philosophers Mercury hath divers names sometimes it is called Earth sometimes Water in a divers respect because it naturally ariseth from them both the Earth is subtle white Sulphureous in which the Elements are fix'd and the Philosophical Gold is sown the Water is water of Life Burning Permanent most clear called the Water of Gold and Silver c. Last of all the most precious substance is Venus the Ancients Hermaphrodite glorious in Venus Hermaphradite each Sex Numb 47. Seperate therefore the clean from the unclean the Substance from the Accidents and make that which is hid Manifest by the course of Nature otherwise make no further progress for this is the Foundation of the whole Work and Nature Numb 48. That dry and most precious Radical moisture Liquor doth constitute the Radical Moisture of Metalls wherefore of some of the Ancients it is called Glasse for Glasse is extracted out of the Radical Moisture closely lurken in Ashes which In Ashes will not give place unless it be to the Hottest Flame notwithstanding our inmost or central Mercury discovers it self by the most gentle and kindly though a little more tedious Fire of Nature But to come to our own English Authors Ripley in the Preface to his Medulla tells the Arch-Bishop of York that if he would Of Phoebus vertue have knowledging Then Saturns Child must Issue bring Theat Chem. Brit. Pag. 391. Numb 14. Bloomfeild in his Blossoms Numb 32. adviseth thus Old Ancient Writers believe which are ture Theat Chem. Britt pag. 312. And they shall thee learn to pass it to bring Beware therefore of too many and hold thee to one thing This one thing is nothing else but the Numb 33. Lyon Greene Which some Fools imagine to be Vitriol Romane It is not of that thing which Philosophers meane For nothing to us any corrosive doth pertaine Understand therefore or else thy hand refraine From this hard Scyence least thou do worke amiss For I will tell thee truly now marke what it is Green of colour our Lyon is not truly But Vernant and Green ever-more enduring 34. In most bitterness of Death he is Lively In the Fire burning he is evermore Springing Therefore the Salamander by the Fire living Some men do him call and some na other name The Mettaline Menstrual it is ever the same Some call it also a Substance Exuberate Some call it Mercury of Metalline Essence 35. Some Limus deserti from his Body Evacuate Some the Eagle flying from the North with Violence Some call it a Toad for his great Vehemence But few or none at all do name it in its kind It is a privy Quintesscence keep it well in mind This is not in sight but resteth invisible 36. Till it be forced out of Chaos darke Where he remaineth ever Indivisible And yet in him is the foundation of our warke In our Lead it is so that thou it mark Drive it out of him so out of all other I can tell the no better if thou we'rt my Brother Then Imediately after in his second Book he begins Saturne in all to this Art hath most respect pag. 313. Numb 1 Of whom we draw a Quintessence most Excellent c. Mars that is Martial in City and Towne 3 Feirce in Battail full of debate and strife A Noble Warriour and famous of Renowne With Fire and Sword defendeth his own Life He staineth with Blood and slayeth with a Knife All Spirits and Bodies his Arts be so bold The hearts of all others he wyns to him with Gold In the Hermet's Tale. The Cyclops having offended Mars are represented to say Let 's find the Angry God and pardon crave Lett 's give him Venus our poor selves to save Theat Chem. Brit. pag. 415. They sought in Heaven Mars knew his Fact so bad Pag. 416. He came out there then one began to tell Saturne turn'd from his Throne a place had Not far from thence hard by this Chrystall Well Thither they wen and found two Gods alone Sitting within a darke but glittering Throne Downe fell Old Vulcan on his crooked knee And said forgive O mighty God of Warr. My servants and my self once God as ye Then use thy will with Venus my fair Starr Saturne quoth Mars and I must not yet part Though Shee for whom tha' rt pard'ned hath my Heart In the Hunting of the Green Lyon Theat Chem. Britt Pag. 279. But our Lyon wanting Maturity Is called green for unripeness trust me And yet full quickly can he run And soon can overtake the Sun And suddain'ly can him devoure If they be both shutt in one Towre And him Eclipse that was so Bright And make this redde to turne to whyte By vertue of hys crudytie And unripe humors whych in hym be And yet within he hath such heate That whan he hath the Sun upeate He bringeth him to more perfection Than ever he had by Natures direction c. In the Verses belonging to Sir George Ripleys Scrowl Theat Chem. Britt Pag. 377. Take thou Phaebus that is so Bright That sitteth so high in Majesty c. Maynteyner of Life to Crop and roote And causeth Nature for to spring With his wife being soote And Omogeny is my Name And Magnesia is my Dame c. Devide thou Phaebus in many a part c. This Phaebus hath full many a Name Which that it is full hard for to know And but that thou take the very same The Philosophers Stone thou shalt not know c. Pearce the Black Monke upon the
becomes a pure clear Transparent Water and the first Mercurial Root of the Minerals and Metals That it is that Celestial water whereof very Pag. 45. much hath been written for by this Spirit of Mercury all Metals may if need require be broken opened and resolved into their first matter without Corrosive That this is the Master Key of his second Key c. And pag. 59. That this Spirit of Mercury is the only true Key and that without it you can never make Corporal Gold potable nor the Philosophers Stone This also may suffice to shew that all the Philosophers are upon one and the same Foundation and do mean one and the same thing and process The Purifying and Joyning of these two first Principles is contain'd in the gross or foul work as appears by Norton in his Ordinal Chap. 4. Theat Chem. Britt pag. 45. Where he tells us of two kinds in the grounded Matter Their Names he says are before viz. Magnetia Litharge Litharge Magnesia These two Principles he also calls two Stones In Chap. 3. Pag. 41. Speaking to Tonsile he saith Many things helpeth to apt our Stone But two be materials yet our Stone is one Then he says they are as Mother and Child as Male and Femal Sister and Brother as in Pag. 43. And afterwards thus in Pag 41. One of thes kindes a Stone ye shall finde For it abideth Fire as Stones doe by kinde But it is no Stone in touching ne in sight But a subtill Earth Brown roddy and not Bright And when it is seperate and brought to his appearage Then we name it our grounde Litharge First it is Browne Roddy and after some deale White And then it is called our chosen Markasite One ounce thereof is better then fifty pounde It is not to be Sould in all Christian Grounde But he that would have it he shall be faine To doe it make or take himselfe the paine But one great grace in that labour is saine Make it once well and never more againe Old Fathers call'd it thing of Vile price For it is nought worth by way of Marchandise No Man that findeth it woll beare it awaie No more then thei would an ounce of Claye Men will not beleive that it is of High Price No Man knoweth it therefore but he be wise Here I have disclosed a greate Secret Wonder Which never was Writ by them which been Earth under Another Stone Tonsile you must have withall Pag. 42. Or else you fawte your cheefe Material Which is a Stone Gloriouse Faier and Bright In bandling a Stone and a Stone in sight Being of Wonderfull Diaphanitie The price of an ounce conveniently Is Twenty Shillings or well neere thereby Her name is Magnetia few people her knowe She is fownde in high places as well as in lowe Plato knew her Property and called her by her name And Chaucer rehearseth how Titanos is the same In the Channons Yeomans Taile saying what is thus But Quid ignotum per Magis ignotius c. Now here you may know what is Magnetia Res aeris inqua latet scientia divinaque mira These two Stones Tonsile ye must take For your Materials Elixir if you make Albeit the first tyme Materials be no more First time Yet many things helpeth as I said before This Secrete was never before this daye So trewly discovered take it for your praye I pray God that this turne not me to Charge For I dread sore my Penn goeth too large c. Here you see how cautious he is of discovering too much and yet he must be well read in this Art that can by his Words know these two Principles but he tells us he was taught by a Master and I suppose received his Secret under an Oath for in pag. 11. he hints as much in these Words and the Figure there representing the same Secreta Sc toe Alkymiae secrete servabo One says Accipe donum Dei sub sigillo secreto The other says In Pag. 47. He speaks to this effect That the foulest Work is to clarifie our means Mineral that Extremities may not well be wrought without many means wisely sought and that every Mediums mean must be made Pure that the gross Work is soul and full of Perils and that the Clerk as well as Lay-man may fail in it And as for Magnetia he says thus viz. Nemo primo fronte reperitur discretus And once I heard a wise Man say How in Catilonia at this day Magnetia with Mineral means all Be made to sale if ye for them call Whereby the hands of a cleanly Clerke Shall not be filed about so foule a Werke And here you may observe that as the first is purified by the second he calls it Litharge and as the second is purified by the first he calls it Magnesia The Conjunction of both is called Rebis resuna Aes Philosophorum Arsenicum Air Chaos Hermaphrodite with many other Names of which hereafter This Magnetia it seems was to be had ready prepared in Catalonia and truly it may be now had ready prepared in England though the Preparors make it not for this purpose and not always after the true Metalline way 't is best the Artist prepare it himself Again the preparing of it is something dangerous to the Work-man Norton speaking of the Fires to be used in this Work pag. 104. says For Magnetia is Fier of Effusion Full of Perills and full of Illusion Not onely perill which to the Warke maie fall But such alsoe which the Master hurte shall Against which once received is no boote Ordaine therefore to fetch breath from your Foote 'T is true the Scent in preparing it is not Pleasing Smelling Sulphureous and like late-made Graves newly open'd like dead Mens Bones as saith Basil Valentine yet not so dangerous as represented But to return to Chaucer who calls it Titanos in his Tale of the Chanons Teoman Theat Chim Britt page 254. he writes thus Lo thus saith Arnolde of the new Toune As his Rosayre maketh mencioune He sayth right thus withouten any lye There may no Man Mercury mortifie But if it be with his Brothers knowledging Lo how that he which firste sayd this thyng Of Phylosophers Father was Hermes He sayth how that the Dragon doutlesse Ne dyeth not but if he be stayne With his Brother And this is for to sayne By the Dragon Mercurye and none other He understood that Brimstone was his Brother That out of Sol and Luna were ydrawe And therefore say'd he take heed to my Sawe Let no Man besye him this Arte for to Seche But he that the entention and Speche Of Phylosophers understonde can And if he do he is a leud Man For this Science and this Connyng quod he * Aeyrenaeus upon Sir G. Ripley 's first Gate pag. 159. We do seriously profess to any that shall attempt this Work that he attempts the highest piece of Philosophy that is in Nature Is of
c. I doubt me whether W. C. Esq knew the Philosophical Venus and Diana for they are both one as is plain by what follows And yet O strange a Wonder to relate The learned Sophies Feast At this same Spring naked Diana sat c. Aeyrenaeus in his Treatise called Vade Mecum Philosophicum annext to his Opus Tripartitum pag. 218. says That signum Corpus imperfectum Corporis imperfecti praeparati est Candor egregius instar argenti purissimi c. Pag. 219. Qua propter opus hoc regium Rex summus signavit vilis tamen res est etiam pretiosissima c. Mille ei nomina ab Antiquis pariter ac Modernis Sophis imposita leguntur c. Leo. viridis medium aqua maris acetum acerrimum ignis secretus Saturnia herba in monte Luna solis nxor femina Luna Beyaque appellatur Saturni Deastrorum Senioris proles est unde Venus à Venns quibusdam nominatur c. Nemus porro sibi dicatum habet ideoque venatricis Dianae Diana nomen accipit c. Pag. 213. Dico tibi bona fide quod sola nostra Luna quae solis uxor est in opere nomine mutato nos deludat c. Pag. 215. Luna nostra quae faemellae vices habet proles est Saturnia quae cum bellicoso Deo affinitatem conjugii contraxit ideoque Veneris nomine ab invidis Venus vocatur Arsenicum vero dicitur partim quia uti cuprum ab Arsenico dealbatur Arsenicum ita c. Pag. 221. Corpus tamen revera Hermaphroditicum auri respectu argentive mercurins vivus est aqua fugitiva Mercurii vero mineralis collatione terra vera apparet terra tamen Adamica b. e. Chaos sive limbus nominari meretur c. Chaos Well then W.C. knew not the Doves of Diana nor why so called Hermetick Secrets in English p. 172. And though their Writings abound with ambiguous and equivocal Words yet about none do they more contend than in hiding their golden Branch Quem teget omnis Aen. 6. Lucus obscuris claudunt convallibus umbrae Which all the Groves with Shadows overcast and gloomy Vallies hide Nor yieldeth it to any Force but readily and willingly will follow him who Maternas agnoscit aves Et geminae cui forte columbae Ipsa sub ora viri coelo venere volantes Knows Dame Venus Birds And him to whom of Doves a lucky paire Sent from above shall hover 'bout his Eare c. The knowledge of Dianas Doves otherwise Dame Venus Birds is the main Knot then How shall we do to find them There is an ingenious Book Entitled Disceptatio de Lapide Physico that in pag. 88. endeavouring to expound Aeyrenaeus has these words Juvenis alatus est Mercurius Chaos seu Infans Hermophroditus est Regulus Stellatus Canis Corascenus rabidus est sulfur Arsenicale Columbae Dianae sunt salia Aquila evolans est Mercurius purissimus homogenitate unus substanttâ Essentiali duplicatus propter sulphur secum ascendens animatus cum quo c. Columbae Dianae sunt salia c. Well then the Doves of Diana are Salts it seems Salts says he What Salts Nay who can tell He might as well have said nothing of them What shall we do now then Why e'en go to Aeyrenaeus himself and hear what he says of them Ripley Revived pag. 24. In this our Work our Diana is our Body when it is mixed with the Water for then all is called the Moon for Laton is whitened and the Woman bears Rule Our Diana hath a Wood for in the first days of the Stone our Body after it is whitened grows vegetably In this Wood are at the last found two Doves for about the end of three weeks the Soul of the Mercury ascends with the Soul of the dissolved Gold These are infolded in the everlasting Arms of Venus for in this Season the Confections are all tincted with a pure green Colour These Doves are circulated seven times for in seven is Perfection and they are left dead for they then rise and move no more our Body is then Black like to a Crows Bill for in this Operation all is turned to Powder blacker than the blackest Such passages as these c. Gentlemen How do you like this is it not very plain I hope you are now throughly Satisfied but stay methinks you look soomewhat angerier than before all is not well I doubt let us read on then pag. 25. Such passages as these we do oftentimes use when we speak of the preparation of our Mercury and this we do to deceive the Simple and and it is also for no other end that we confound our Operations speaking of one when we ought to speak of another for if this Art were but plainly set down our Operations would be Contemptable even to the Foolish c. Ho ho my Master you intend then to deceive us simple ones do you But hold we will not let you go so because your Work is truly Natural You therefore take the Liberty to Pag. 25. confound the Philosophers Work with that which is purely Natures Work that so ye might keep the simple in Ignorance concerning your true Vinegar which being unknown our labour is wholly lost c. This is very fine indeed To what purpose have I and many more taken so much pains and laid out so much Money to buy your Books and spent so much time in Reading them nay moreover run the hazard of cracking my Brain with thinking upon it and some say I have done it already and if it be so I 'le lay the whole blame upon you and Master Sendivogius c. Nay I will not excuse Prince Geber himself that is so subtile in his Sum of Perfection Aeyren. Be not so Angry young Man nor yet so hasty Have you considered well what the Philosophers write are you so fitly qualified as Sendivogius and the others direct and have you duely observed their Directions Hort. Sir I Humbly beg your Pardon I did not perceive you was so nigh at hand I readily acknowledge that this Art cannot be Fathom'd much less enjoy'd by all men I confess my self not to be so Prepared and Qualified as the matter requires and am altogether unworthy of so great a Gift and therefore I fear must now bid both it and you a long farewel Good Sir Farewel Aeyren. But hold stay a little Did not you say e'en now that I should be unto you as a Master Are you not advised to abide in the simple way of Nature to persist in the Text and to wait with patience c I am not willing you should thus loose your labour as you call it tho' what you have taken therein amounts not to the tenth part which some others far more deserving than your self have done and yet never made such large Exclamations If J. be your Master Let me hear you now repeat the Principles
Pondus but the Coelestial Vertue out of the Compound which Vertue being Fermental begets in the common Mercury an Off-spring more Noble than it self which is our true Hermaphrodite which will congeal it self and dissolve the Bodies c. Of this Coelestial Vertue he also speaks thus But beyond the Example or Similitude given of a Grain of Corn it may be observed that the hidden and spiritual Vertue of this our Body doth purge and putrefie its Matrix of Water Purged in which it is sown that is it makes it cast forth a great quantity of filthy Earth and a great deal of hydropical saline Moisture c. For says he this Operation of ours is made between Male and Female within By a Fermental Vertue their own kind between which there is a Ferment which affecteth that which no other thing in the World could do For fermental Vertue is the wonder of the World and it is by it that Water becomes Herbs c. Then Sir you close all in these words viz. We conclude then That all Operations for our Mercury and our Body according to our Art are erroneous and will never produce our Mystery although they be otherwise Mercuries never so wonderfully made c. Aeyren. What Conjunction do you call this Hort. I call this Conjunction Tetraptive yet I perceive that at the first Addition it rather goes under the Denomination of Triptative or Conjunction of three Substances by virtue of a Medium because the Medium remains not intirely with the other and that the Terrapâ—ive Conjunction is not properly consummate till perfect Digestion This therefore may be properly called the making of a Quadrangle and that of perfect Digestion a reducing the Quadrangle to a Circle as you have it in the Exposition upon Sir G. Ripley's fourth Gate pag 292. tho' I also perceive you allude to the same Conjunctions and other Operations in the great Work You also Sir further teach that by virtue of the Medium or Doves of Diana all these four Principles or Elements will joyn and purge together which then must be purified into a bright clear Water by several Sublimations or Eagles which may be done several ways as your Writings sufficiently direct Also that these several Sublimations are but so many Cohobations of the subliming Mercury upon the Body of the Composition yet that there requires a due knowledge of the true Number which may also be clearly learnt from your Directions and therefore for brevities sake I shall not hear repeat them This is that hidden Moisture or Humidity wherein Gold will dissolve as Ice doth melt in warm Water and is a Mother unto Gold as saith Sendivog Eng. pag. 49. I am also in the next place further to shew that this purified Mercury or Water is not unlike to common The property of Mercury Phils Mercury yet more splendid and clear but not diaphanous or limped as many have supposed And that upon this prepared Mercury alone is founded the grand Secret of the Philosophers Stone alias Gold-making Powder alias transmuting Elixir which with your leave I will prove as follows First that it is not diaphanous or limpid Tract de Metal Metamor pag. 46. Quidam Diaphanum hoc nâ—enstruum volunt limpidumque c. et frustra Ripley Revived pag. 238. The main matter is our Water which Water as saith Artephius is the Vinegar of the Mountains and it is the only Instrument for our Work This I say that it must first be Cohobated in a very wonderful way for Cohobation it is such a Cohobation that hath not its like in the World and for several times to a determinate Number and after it may and ought to be Distilled Distillation per se with out addition again and again that thou mayst have the Water clear from any exotical Mixture Pag. 34. Because some Atoms of the Body may be in it which were insensibly left in the Preparation Pag. 241. For this saith the Philosopher is thy first Work to make clean thy Mercury and then into clean Mercury to put clean Bodies for who can expect a pure Generation from that which is uncle an The next Property of thy VVater is that it must be thin even as thin as Thinness any other Mercury for if the external Proportion be Corrupted it is an evident Sign that the inward Nature is Confused It must also be of a very bright Colour Brightness even like to fine burnished Silver as saith Artephius Hence saith a certain Philosopher To sight it is like to a Coelestial Body Our VVater must not be reduced into Not limpid or diaphanous any limpid diaphanous Liquor as some fondly imagine and as I my self in my time of Errors did conceit but it must keep its Mercurial from pure and incorrupted It is also very ponderous so ponderous that it is somewhat more weighty than any other Mercury in the VVorld By way of Digression give me leave ☜ to tell you It is no small matter to be firmly grounded in your Principles I have met with a Book published by Dr. Bolnest 1665. who contends much for this common Mercury prepared pag. 104 105 c. and thinks himself no small Master therein But pag. 104. he thinks that mentioned by Count Trevisan was only a particular and that the said Doctor drives at another Method though to the same purpose I have says he already declared my Thoughts that the common Mercury prepared and afterwards dissolved into a clear milky crystalline and silvery Liquor or VVater is the true Menstrual or Metalline dissolving Mercury of Philosophers And pag. 116. he adds that we may undoubtedly conclude that that most famous and necessary Menstrual or Metalline dissolving Mercury of Philosophers for says he I mean not their congealing Mercury is to be prepared out of the common Mercury or Quicksilver And in pag. 122. he says R. Lully directs to another more excellent and philosophical Menstruum c. without which the common or vulgar is not easily to be prepared and made philosophick But soon afterwards he runs into the old Error that there are several Mercuries besides the universal as Mineral Vegetable and Animal Mercury sometimes both joyned in one I mean says he the Mineral and Vegetable which produced that potent Dissolvent or G. Vegetable of Raymund Lully which few yet have well understood or perceived c. But of these last Mercuries says he or Menstruums I intend not at present to inlarge they being the Gate into the greatest of Chymical Secrets And at this Fountain he leaves the ingenous to draw and refresh himself with the healing and physical Waters c. Now I should think this Doctor an envious Adeptist but that he afterwards requests us not to interpret him to speak of the Great Elixir And pag. 126. he would not have any to imagine him to know more than he hath delivered and so attempt in vain by subtilty of Discourse a farther discovery
from him And concludes thus Let none therefore expect that from me that I own not my self Master of he that doth and fails of his Expectations let him not hereafter blame me but himself c. Thus our Expectation ends in a hush and comes to nothing and thus we see how a Building may soon fall for want of a true Foundation and how greatly many have been deluded by that Subject of common Mercury sometimes wholly approving other times altogether rejecting the same and sometimes allowing it only in part I have seen a little Book called Chymical Medecinal and Chyrurgical Addresses made to Samuel Hartlib Esq 1655. And in it a Treatise named A Caveat for Alchymists the Table of the Book says it is Gabriel Platt's Caveat This Man sets out some of the Cheats of sophistical Multipliers and Imposters And in his first Chap. tells us that he was shortly to demonstrate before the High and Honourable Court of Parliament in England that there is such a thing seasible as the Philosophers Stone or to speak more properly an Art in the Transmutation of Metals c. But in the Discovery of the fourth Cheat he makes a Condition if says he I may have a Laboratory like to that in the City of Venice where they are sure of Secrecy and to be provided for c. And towards the Conclusion he cries out What should I say more Oh if any Man either in England or beyond the Seas shall trouble himself to write to me he shall be sure to have an Answer if he come to me he shall be sure to lose his Labour if he think to win me by Rewards tho never so Great he shall be sure to get nothing but a Jeer c. And professes that he had not only found out the Philosophers Stone but also a true and infallible way to make England Happy by it This Man I say for all his great Boasting and some true philosophical Caveats is mistaken in common Mercury for although he allows that without it this Art could never have been found He notwithstanding adds Not that it can be made the philosophical Dissolvent by any preparation whatsoever but without it the first Dissolvent for there are three cannot be gotten for it only hath the Power to separate this mineral Spirit from a crude Mineral taken from the Mine which the Fire hath not touched and no other thing under Heaven can do it else no more than any Creature besides a Bee can extract Hony out of a Flower By this I easily perceive he spoke only by ghuess and I am affraid England is not one bit the Happier for all his great Cunning. But to return to Aeyrenaeus his Mercury of which he further tells us that this is the only Mercury and there is none in the whole World besides it which can do our Work With this says he Hermes did moisten his Body and made it to rot and putrefie By means of this Water the Body shall be brought to have a vegetative Soul for it will shoot forth as with Sprigs and Leaves and Branches and after it will resolve into Powder like Atoms c. And pag. 240. That it is the Mother of Metals and therefore hath Power to reduce them by dividing their Principles of Sulphur and Mercury he further adds but we count it a loss to imploy our Mercury to such sordid Uses for we spoil the goodness of it thereby Gold only is drown'd in it c. 242. This Water is by the Philosophers Mercury called Venom called their Venom and indeed it is a very strong Poyson to wit to the Body of Sol to which it is mixed But what it is to the Body of Man I never The highest of all Medicines in the World tried my self nor gave it to any other nor do I believe did any of they But as concerning the Medicine that is made by it and out of it it is certain that of all Medicines in the World it is the highest for it is the true Arbor Vitae which doth Answer the universal Desires of them who have it in this kind for besides it's Vertue Curative which it hath in a wonderful miraculous way it can penetrate even to our constitutive Principles which no other mineral Medicine can do c. Of which more hereafter I observed before That this Water is the only Base of the Grand Arcanum of the Philosophers because out of it by digestion they obtain a Sulphur or Gold far more Excellent than any common Gold for their great Work In Sendivog Engl pag. 144. Concerning Sulphur I find these Words viz. For the House of Gold is Mercury and the House of Mercury is Water but Sulphur is that which coagulates Mercury which Sulphur indeed is most difficultly prepared but more difficultly found out For in the Sulphur of the Philosophers this Secret consists which also is contained in the inward Rooms of Mercury of whose Preparation without which it is improfitable we shall Discourse hereafter in the third Principle of Salt seeing here we treat of the Vertue and Original not Praxis of Sulphur c. ☞ I know not what to Answer for this Passage the Translator says he hath done it faithfully from the Latin into the English-Tongue but I find nothing to this purpose in the Latin Printed Genevae MDC XXXVIII However in pag. 161. I find these words Considerando quod c. By considering that the Mercury of the Philosophers hath in it self its own good Sulphur more or less depurated and decocted by Nature thou mayst perfect all things out of Mercury but if thou All out of Mercury shalt know to add thy Weights to the Weights of Nature to double Mercury and triple Sulphur it will quickly be terminated in good than in better until into best of all c. 163. Common Mercury by how much the more it is decocted the more fluxible it is Our Argent Vive by how much more it is decocted the more it is thickned by these Circumstances therefore thou maist consider how the common Mercury differs from the Mercury of the Philosophers If thou dost not yet understand do not expect it no mortal Man will give you clearer things than we have here spoken of But now of the Vertues of it Our Argent Vive is of such Vertue Mercury sufficient of self that it is of its self sufficient for thee and for it self without any addition of any extraneous thing it is dissolved and congealed by a natural Decoction only but Philosophers for But c. brevities sake add to it its own Sulphur well digested and ripened and so they work c. ☞ But not to build upon the Authority of one Philosopher In Theat Chem. Britt 380. I read thus In four Elements is comprehended things three Animalls Vegetabills Mineralls must be Of this our Principle that we make our Stone Quality and quantity is unknown to many one c. Out of one Principle four
boast No Man above my Candour shall aspire My Zeal was kindled with Minerva 's Fire And thou who to this Art wilt now apply My Book in Natures way shall lead thee higher Than ever thou alone mayst hope to fly If only thou shalt favour'd be by destiny Peruse these lines and being read review 378. And read again and on them meditate Each reading shall fresh Mysteries and new Discover which are scattered in each Gate For they so linked are that all relate To each and we our Words have woven so That thou mayst soon err by misleading Fate Unless for to distinguish thou dost know Remember that ' mongst Briars thick sweet Roses grow The Author to the Reader ☞ And now Reader I hope I have made good my Position and described every particular Principle or Element in order even to the Great Work and that so plainly that none need hereafter be to seek in any of them I confess all might have been said in few words but I have for a reason particular chosen to make the Philosophers themselves discover the true Principles in their own Language which also may give great Satisfaction to the diligent Inquirer and yet I have not dwelt longer upon them than I thought was convenient Next we will view some short Philosopical Tracts relating to the Art which if it will not further confirm you in what is gon before may notwithstanding serve you for Diversion In the third Volume of Theatrum Chemicum the Author de Magni Lapidis compositione tells us that the principle Matter of all Metals in their Mines is a dry Water which they call Aqua viva or Argentum vivum and Spiritus faetens otherwise called Sulphur c. Agens patiens pater mater from whence is generated a certain smoaky Substance and that the Mineral Vertue coming upon that Matter congeals and unites it c. And from hence it appears that in Metals there are four Elements naturally and that they are homogeneal In pag. 5. he says That in the Operation of this Science we stand in need of more things than Nature doth and that in those we want are also four Elements and so our Principles are alike to those of Nature Pag. 8. That there are four Kinds or Species and not more or less required to compound the White Elixir viz. Argentum vivum Sulphur citrinum fugiens Sulphur viride fixum habens ventrem nigrum intellectu quamvis clarum in visu videatur Sulphur album fixum c. and that they are not of great price Pag 9. That the Argentum vivum being compounded cum sulphuro vivo citrino become one Mass which they call Terra rubea and in this respect there needs not any more than three Species or Kinds in the Art That because this Terra rubea is found to be sold ready compounded therefore he cares not to labour about its Composition c. That the other two Kinds are not compounded until they are put into the Work of this Art c. Then he proceeds to practice but very subtlely and hard to be understood Theat Chem. Britt pag. 436. Let the old Man drink Wine till he pisse The meanes to the blest Stone is And in that menstrous Water drowne The radiant brightnesse of the Moone Then cast the Sun into her lapp That both may perish at a clapp So shall you have your full desire When you revive them both by Fire I ask'd Philosophy how I should Pag. 435. Have of her the thing I would She answered me when I was able To make the Water malliable Or else the way if I could finde To measure out a yard of Winde Then shalt thou have thyne owne desire When thou canst weigh an Ounce of Fire Unlesse that thou canst do these three Content thy self thou get'st not me I am she which wise Men seek Pag. 356. Mercury which i◠〈◊〉 of might Hot and moist light and weake Of the Elements I am full right Water Earth Aire and Fire Quality and quantity you can never have your desire Without concoction perfectly Great Riches in us be Who hath Grace for us to know By vertue of her humidity In the Fire our Stone doth grow c. Of Titan Magnesia take the cler light Pag. 275. The rede Gumme that ys so bryght Of Philosofris the Sulfer vife I called Gold wythouten stryfe Of hem drawe out a Tincture And make a Matrymony pure Betweene the Husband and the Wyfe Espoused wyth the Water of lyfe And so that none dyvysion Be there in the conjunction Of the Moone and of the Sonne After the Marriage is begonne And that Mercury the Planete In loef make hem so to mete That eyder wyth oder be joyned even As a Stone engendered sent down fro Heven Of hem make Water clere rennynge As any Chrystall bryght Schynynge c. In Arsenick sublymed there ys a way streight Pag. 272. Wyth Mercury calcyned nyne tymes hys weight And grownde together with the Water of myght That bereth ingression lyfe and lyght And anon as they togyther byne Alle runnyth to Water bryght and shene Upon this Fyre they grow togethyer Tyll they be fast and flee no whyther c. A Man of Nature ingendereth but a Man Pag. 259. And every Beast ingendereth his semblable And as Philosophers rehearse well can Diana and Venus in Marriage be notable c. And to comfort hys Brethren that were full dull Pag. 265. The Sun hath chosen without Warr or strife The bright Moone when she was at the full To be his Mother first and after hys wedded Wife In tyme of Ver the Season vegetative In Aries when Titan doth appeare Inspired by Grace with the Spirit of lyfe This Marriage hallowed at midday Spheare c. I shall add but one or two more which are most to the purpose because from a true Adeptist Aeyrenaeus in his Vade Mecum Philo. pag. 208. says Tres tantum modo Species c. In his Book De vera Confectione lapidis Philosophici pag. 25. he says to this purpose that the Elixir ought to be made from one thing Hoc tamen unum quod Argentum vivum dicitur non est unum in numero sed in genere That if any err from this one in the beginning he labours in vain Pag. 34. He begins with Materia una from which the superfluities are to be removed 36. That after they are removed he says it is of a White Colour called by Hermes Album nigri Citrinum albi rubeum Citrini by Alphidius Radix artis Argentum vivum albi coloris Mercurius ille tingens c. Rosarius says Hic est Mercurius noster noblissimus Deus enim nunquam creavit rem meliorem sub Coelo praeter animam rationalem Plato calls it Secretum nostrum by Maria it is called Pag. 73. Aqua albificans Indicum Laâ—â—â—em by Hermes Argentum vivum de Corde Saturni by Solomon Unica filia
accompanied with a rawness and inconstancy in the Fire the Impure carrying away the Pure Pag. 44. That the matter of Sol and Our work is to advance the Light in the matter Luna is Earthly but our Work is to advance the Light in the matter to a millenary Vertue that it may seem to be swallowed up of the Form And pag. 164. I grant and know that all things Originally owe all their principle Material unto Water and all their formal unto Light c. So then the matter resides in Water the informing in Light and the determination of the Form which is as I may say the forms Formality is in the Will of the Creator first impressed or sealed in the word fiat and ratified in his Command producat unumquodque juxta speciem suam c. That mixture cannot be made but in the same Genus or Species and sometime disproportion hinders mixture Pag. 260. The most noble Fire is To multiply the natural Fire Natural which is that which we seek to have multiplied and that is the Sulphur of Gold or rather its very Tincture It is that which we seek for and we use Mercury for Sol his sake c. Pag. 264. The Seed of Gold is a fiery Form of Light which nothing in the World wanteth and therefore it would be a great Anomalum if it should be only definite in Metals the choice of all sublimary Bodies Pag. 26 27. Upon the Exposition of Sir G. R. Epistle speaking of the internal Fire he tells us all our Work then is only to multiply this Fire so long until the Vertue of the Sulphur be augmented Again this Fire is an invisible Spirit and that God only governs this way of internal Fire Man being ignorant of the Progress thereof only by Reason beholding its Operations c. From all which it plainly appears that this Art tends to the multiplication of the Fire of Nature which is a fiery Form of Light an invisible Spirit c. Now it is granted on all hands that this multiplication is made by reiteration of the Work whereby both quality and quantity may be greatly augmented for the Vertue of it at the first is nothing in respect to what it may be advanced to This Art of multiplication c. is now taught by many Books tho' the ancient Philosophers would scarcely discover it to a Brother as it is somewhere said of Count Trevisan as I remember that one who knew both the matter and working of the Stone followed him about ten Years to request him to teach him the manner of multiplying which he would not grant because the other had the same Book as himself had Yet there are different ways of it both by Cibation Fermentation and Projection of which Sir George Ripley has treated in his last six Gates which the famous Aeyrenaeus also Expounded and doubtless there was a great Love and good Will manifested by him for the sake of the ingenious but we are not like to be any better for his good Intent Malice or Self-conceitedness having deprived us of them for there is an Advertisement in the Book of Ripley Revived after pag 44. which tells us that it was Aeyrenaeus his own Desire to benefit the World by his Labours and that he gave his Consent to Mr. Starkey for the Mr. Starkeys Deed. Printing his Pieces as appears in his Preface to the Marrow of Alchymy And that great pity it was that Mr. Starkey did separate this Author's Commentary upon Sir George Ripley's Twelve Gates which he did says the Book as I was informed by one unto whm he gave the very Book from which he confessed he had cut the least Six Gates The Person demanding the Reason whereof he cut them asunder He Answered that the World was unworthy of them which nevertheless he promised to give that Person a Transcript of but did not which is the Reason that they cannot yet be found the Loss of which is very much lamented c. Well since it can no better be let us see what Mr. Starkey has left the World to requite us for this great Loss I find George Starkey's Natures Explication and Helmont's Vindication c. 8. Lond. 1658. His Marrow of Chymical Physick Of the Liquor Alkahest or making Chymical Medicines 12. Lond 1661. His Pyrotechny Asserted and Illustrated lately Reprinted 1696. It was Dedicated to Robert Boyle Esquire The two first I have not read the latter I have by me wherein he would have us understand he knew the Nature of the Liquor Alchahest which can divide the Principles of all things In pa. 18. He promises amongst other to discover its matter and manner of making which says he I presume to a Son of Art will be accounted a rich Legacy In Chap. XIII Pag. 35. he comes to the matter and manner but I think very few will understand either of them from his words He tells us that it takes its Original from a loathsome Subject from a matter in all the World most Corruptible Impure and Mutual that it is from a Body of two distinct Natures and that the means of its Production is by reiterated Solution and an intervening Coagulation and thus is the Subject brought to the most subtle Atoms of which in Nature it is capable This is the sum of his Discovery But we have another Book of the Liquor Alchahest by J. A. Pyrophilus 1675. Dedicated to R. Boyle Esq which he says he partly Published in justness to the Dead who he says was abold Champion of Pyrotechny but died in 1666. and that this Tract was Posthume It thereby also appears to be Mr. Starkey's Tract wherein he says the matter is vile and costs nothing every man hath it the Poor as well as the Rich that Adam carried it with him out of Paradise and about pag. 20. gives some Receipt of it and that 't is the product of man's Urine This indeed is ingenuous and profitable to the World for this Liquor Alchahest as is said can reduce all things to its first Principles and separate the good from the bad yet mixing intirely with none always to be intirely separated from them in Vertue and Quantity whereby excellent Medicines may be prepared The Knowledge of this Liquor he saith he gathered from Helmont and Paracelsus Pag. 2 and 3. The Knowledge and Preparation of it he says is the work of most abstruse Philosophy the Hope and Crown of the Adepti And in his Pyrotechny Asserted pag. 26 27. he says it is the noblest and most eminent of all Keys more universal in its Operation than the particular Mercury of the Philosophers which is but a particular thing applicable to its own kind and that in reference to a generative multiplication of Species whereas this Liquor acts universally and without limitation on all Subjects in the whole World which it destroys as to their Vita ultima and perfectly reduceth their first Matter in which their eminent
Athanor or true digesting Furnace Besides I am allotted to serve others and in Publishing this I hope I shall serve and satisfy all Ingenuous Men after which I may endeavour to serve my self yet remembring that tho' many are called a few only may be chosen He that shall attain this gift will take care enough to keep it Secret Furthermore you may take Notice that this is only an Essay I have told you before I will not swear to make you give Credence neither will I further perswade any man about the Work Let every man use his own discretion Capiat qui capere vult et potest but to return again to the pains attending this Art But if your mind be verteously sett Mr. Norton p. 30. Then the Devil will labour you to lett And that in three manners viz. with Haste Despair and Deceipt against which he sets down some Remedies Afterwards he adviseth to consider the Vertues of the Teacher and for what Reasons he Pretends to teach you c. I presume he means such who voluntarily for reward sake offer their service to instruct others and by the way he shews the Deceits of some of these pretenders as that of the Deceitful Monk of Normandy who proposed to build fifteen Abbies on Salisbury Plain and thereupon applies himself to Norton Norton examines his Cunning and rejects his Proposals soon after the Monk's Craft was clean overcast after which having cheated many he goes into France c. Another Story he tells of Saunce Peere the Parson who had a conceit by means of this Art to make a Bridge over the Thames and to deck it with Carbuncles to shine by Night but that his Work also came nothing Ripley also cautions you against Deluders and Cheating Multipliers pretending to this Art Pag. 154. Theat Chym. To se theyr howsys it ys a noble sport What Fornaces what Glassys there be of divers shape What Salts what Powders what Oyles and Waters for t How Eloquently de Materia prima they clape And yet to fynde the trewth they have no hap Of our Mercury they meddle and our Sulphur Vive Wherein they dote and more and more Unthryve Then he shews their great boastings and how they in those days haunted about Westminster-Abby borrowed Money almost of every one and for a Peny promised to pay them a Pound but Shame and the Prison was their last Portion Pag. 158. He adviseth to meddle with nothing of great Cost and lays it down for a Rule that like must bring forth like c. And concludes thus pag. 159. Spend not thy Mony away in waste Geve not to every Speche credence But first examyn grope and taste And as thou provyst so put thy confidence And ever beware of great expence But yf thy Phylosopher lyve vertuosely Trust the better to his Phylosophy Prove hym fyrst and hym oppose Of all the Secretts of our Stone Whych yf he know not thou nedyth not to lose Medyll thou not ferther but let hym gone Make he never so pytyose a mone For then the Fox can fagg and fayne When he wold faynest hys Prey attayne If he can answer as ought a Clarke How behyt he hath not provyd indede And yf thou wylt helpe hym to hys Warke If he be Vertuose I hold hyt mede For he wyll the quyte yf ever he Spede And thou shalt weete by a lytyll anon If he have knowledge of our Stone One thyng One Glasse One Furnace and no mo Behold thys pryncypyll yf he take And yf he do not then lat hym go For he shall never thee rych man make Trewly yt ys better thou hym forsake Then after wyth losse and varyaunce And other manner of Dysplesounce c. We will next consider some of the chief qualifications which are altogether convenient for a Studient and Workman in this Art as they are recommended to us by the Adepts and so conclude Mr. Norton in the Preface to his Ordinal tells us That upon Inquiry many People were found to Address themselves to Alchimy only for Lucre sake and for Covetousness of Riches as Popes Cardinals Archbishops Abbots Priors with Fryars Hermets pag. 6. Priests c. And Merchants also with common Workmen Goldsmiths Weavers pag. 7. Free Masons Tanners Parish Clerks Taylers Glasiers and Tinkers he says have desired and endeavoured for this Noble Craft and that with great Presumption though he allows that some colour there was for all such Men as give Tincture to Glass but he says it had been better for many Artificers to have left oft in time before they wasted their Estates It had byne good for them to have left off In season for nought they founde but a Scoff For trewly he that is not a great Clerke Is nice and lewde to medle with this warke c. For it is most profound Philosophie The subtill Science of Holy Alkimy c. Then he shews how all Masters of pag. 8. this solemn Work writ very darkly c. as Hermes Rasis Geler Avicen Merlin Hortolan Democrit Morien Bacon Raimond and Aristotle Anaxagoras he says wrote the plainest and was therefore rebuked by Aristotle thro' Envy He proceeds to shew the Malice of a Monk who writ a Thousand false Receipts for despight He cautions to avoid Receipts and Deceipts pag. 9. and not to attempt to Work any thing unless you know how and wherefore for nothing is wrought but by its proper Cause That truth is to be followed Falshood and Counterfeits to be eschew'd That Grace is necessary also Riches sufficient and says he had this Art by Grace from Heaven yet he was taught it by a Master Pag. 11. Adviseth to read his Book often and also other Books Pag. 13. He tells us Holy Alchimy is not found out by Labour nor sold for Money but given by Grace and Answers some Mens Allegations that this Art is not Holy 14. That it was taught only to the Vertuous c. by a Master with an Oath of Secrecy to teach it to one man that is Vertuous without any regard to Blood or Kindred For this Science must ever Secret be The Cause whereof is this as ye may see If one evil Man had hereof all his Will All Christian Pease he might hastilie spill And with his Pride he might pull downe Rightful Kings and Princes of renowne Wherefore the Sentence of Perill and Jeopardy Upon the Teacher resteth dreadfully Pag. 15. He again tells us that 't is found only by Grace and is Donum Dei not to be unadvisedly cast away that it is granted only to few for great Doctors have not been able to find it p. 16. who through despair have denied the Art but the Wise know it to be true tho' it is not for blind Men to paint or to pretend to take down St. Paul's Steeple lest it might hap to break their Crown c. And pag. 17. concludes That true Searchers must know the Principles of Philosophy and patiently trust