Eirenaeus Philalethes. Ripley reviv'd: or, an exposition upon Sir George Ripley's Hermetico poetical works. Containing the plainest and most excellent discoveries of the most hidden secrets of the ancient philosophers, that were ever published. Written by Eirenaeus Philalethes an Englishman, stiling himself Citizen of the world. London: Printed by Tho. Ratcliff and Nat. Thompson, for William Cooper at the Pelican in Little-Britain, 1678.

Contents: 1. An exposition upon Sir George Ripley's Epistle to King Edward IV ... 1677. 47p.; 2. An exposition upon Sir George Ripley's Preface ... 1677. pp. 1-94; 3. An exposition upon the first six gates of Sir George Ripley's Compound of Alchymie ... 1677. pp. 95-389; 4. Experiments for the preparation of the Sophick Mercury, by Luna, and the Antimonial Stellate-Regulus of Mars, for the Philosophers Stone ... 10p.; 5. A breviary of alchemy; or a commentary upon Sir George Ripley's Recapitulation: being a paraphrastical epitome of his Twelve Gates ... 1678. 28p.; 6. An exposition upon Sir George Ripley's vision ... 1677. 25p. 5. is reprinted in de Rola (item 2260)

Author's Preface to His Expositions Upon Sir George Ripley's Compound of Alchymy, &c.
An Exposition Upon Sir George Ripley’s Epistle to King Edward IV
An Exposition Upon Sir George Ripley's Preface
The Learned Sophies Feast
The First Gate: Calcination
The Second Gate: Dissolution
The Third Gate: Separation
The Fourth Gate: Conjunction
The Fifth Gate: Putrefaction
The Sixth Gate: Congelation
Experiments for the Preparation of the Sophic Mercury
A Breviary of Alchemy: A Commentary on Sir G. Ripley's Recapitulation
An Exposition upon Sir George Ripley's Vision
Porta Prima --- De Calcinatione Philosophica

The
Author’s Preface
To His
Expositions
Upon
Sir George Ripley’s
Compound of Alchymy, &c.

This Canon of Bridlington flourished in the days of Edward the Fourth, King of England, to whom he wrote an Epistle, as in the beginning of this Book appeareth: a true Artist he was, as every one who hath attained the k knowledge in this Mastery can testifie. He wrote, among other writings, these Twelve Gates of Alchymy, which with the Preface, Recapitulation, Erroneous Experiments by him warned of, his Epistle to the King, Vision, and Wheel, I shall unfold.

For his experience herein he was eminent, yea his Writings indeed are, in my opinion, for the fullness of them, and eminent descriptions of things, to be preferred before any that I have read or seen, yet I have seen many.

I would detract from no candid well-deserving Author, but would ingenuously give them their due; yet Ripley to me seems to carry the Garland.

For mine own part, I have cause to honour Bernard Trevisan, who is very ingenious, as in all his Writings, so especially in that Epistle of his to Thomas of Bononia, in which let me seriously profess, I received the main Light in this hidden Secret. I shall not name the place, but read the Epistle, and read it again and again, for in it is most excellent truth, and Naked truth.

Next to him, or rather before him in some respects, is an author whom I will not name; yet truly all Chymical Writers are therein to be preferred by any man, by how far he gets good by them: one commends Raymond Lully before all, yet I remember not that ever I got good by reading of him: some in good sooth, who are not Professors of this Secret, write more edifyingly to the informing of a Tyro, then those whom skill hath made crafty, especially in such places where they intend nothing less then to discover such Secrets. I learned the Secret of the Philosophers Magnes, from one, of their Magical Chalybs, from another; the use of Diana’s Doves, from a third; the Air, or rather the Camelion of the Philosophers. From another; the gross Preparation of their Menstruum, in another; the number of Eagles, in another: but for the operation on the true Matter, and signs of the true Mercury, I know none like Ripley, though Flammel be eminent. I know what I say, as knowing experimentally the truth, and what is errour.

For mine own part, I have had experience of misleading Sophistical Writers, and have made many toilsome laborious Experiments, though but young; and therefore having at length, through the undeserved mercy of God, arrived at my Haven of Rest, I shall stretch out my hand to such as are behind.

I have wrote several Treatises, some in English, but especially in Latine; one English treatise touching the Stone, very plainly written, but not perfected, unfortunately slipt out of my hand, and perhaps may come abroad into the World; if it do, I should be sorry. Two Latine Tractates, one intituled, Brevis manuductio ad Rubinum Coelestem, another, Fons Chymicae Philosophiae, I wrote, which for especial Reasons to me known I resolve to suppress. Two other Latine Treatises, the one intituled, Ars metallorum Metamorphoseas, the other, Introitus apertus ad occlussum Regis Palatium, I lately wrote which perhaps thou mayst enjoy. Two English Poems I wrote, which are lost. Also an Enchiridion of Experiments, together with a Diurnal of Meditations, in which were many Philosophical Receipts declaring the whole Secret, with an Aenigma annexed; which also fell into such hands, who I conceive will never restore it. This last was written in English, with many other which I wrote for mine own recreation, and afterwards burned.

But now at length studying how to profit the Sons of Art to my utmost, I have rather resolved to unfold Ripley’s Knots, and so thou mayst have two Witnesses in one; for by the unfolding of him thou shalt both see the depth of the Man, and discern that both he and I were truly, and not Sophistically, intrusted with this Divine Science and Art; in which it is not notional, as many men conceive the Art to be, but real Experiments of Nature, taught me by the only God and master of Nature, that was my Guide; having seen and made the Secret Water of the Philosophers, and known the use of it by ocular experience, to the effecting of the admirable Elixir. These writings peruse, for they are not Fancies, and so with the help of the most High, thou shalt attain thy wish.

The Compound of Alchemy which seems to be most made use of in this Book for Quotations, agrees for the most part with the Edition published by Ralph Rabbards, and Printed at London 1591 in quarto, in which Edition the English is not so old as is that Copy which was published by Elias Ashmole Esq.: Yet I humbly conceive that this Expositor hath thought fir to clear the sense of the old English Verse, by the change of some few words, more significant to the present speech, and yet doubtless not differing from the mind of the Author; which change of words, I durst not presume to alter, but that I ought rather in justice to the Author to let them pass; and for this reason likewise, that whomsoever shall desire to see the difference, may easily compare all three together, because they are all published in Print: and in performing this service, I hope to have done my duty faithfully, and wronged no body. I likewise make bold to acquaint the Reader, that in the Exposition upon Sir G. Ripley’s Preface, in the Learned Sophies Feast, pag. 52. line 5. I find this word [greatest] which from what follows line 11. (I humbly conceive, with submission) should be [meanest] as may more manifestly appear from the same Author, in his Secrets Revealed, pag. 62, 63. and in Sir G. Ripley’s 5th Gate, Stave 40. line 6. But because I found it [greatest price] in two copies, I therefore lest it so, and by this Advertisement submit it to the Readers Judgment. I have likewise found, that in the Exposition upon Sir G. Ripley’s Epistle to King Edward the 4 th. Pag. 9. line 2. for Mercury, some copies read Antimony, which is likewise left to the Readers scrutiny, by W.C.B.

1. The Author’s Preface.
2. An Exposition upon the Epistle to K. Edw.
3. --- upon the Preface.
4. --- upon the 6 Gates
5. --- and the Experiments of the Sophic Mercury
6. Breviary of Alchymy.
7. An Exposition upon Sir G. Ripley’s Vision.

London,
Printed for William Cooper,
at the Pellican in Little Britain, 1677

This Epistle as it was immediately written to a King, who was in his Generation, both wise and valiant; so it doth comprise the whole secret, both learnedly described, and yet artificially vailed. Yet as the Author testifieth, that in this Epistle he doth plainly untie the main knot; So I can, and do testifie with him, that there is nothing desirable for the true attaining of this Mystery, both in the Theory and Practick of it, which is not in this short Epistle fully taught. This then I intend as a Key to all my former writings, and assure you on my faithful word, that I shall not speak one word doubtfully or Mystically, as I have in all my other writings, seeming to aver some things, which taken without Figure, are utterly false, which we did only to conceal this Art. This Key therefore we intend not to make common; and shall intreat you to keep it secret to your self, and not to communicate it, except it be to a sure friend, who you are confident will not make it publick: And this request we make upon very good grounds, knowing that all our writings together, are nothing to this, by reason of the contradictions, which we have woven into them, which here is not done in the least measure. I shall therefore in this Epistle take up a new method, and that different from the former, and shall first draw up the substance of the Philosophy couched in this Epistle, into several conclusions, and after elucidate the same.

The first Conclusion is drawn from the ninth Stave of this Epistle, the eight first Staves being only complementall; and that is, That as all things are multiplied in their kind, so may be Metalls, which have in themselves a capacity of being transmuted, the imperfect into perfect.

The second Conclusion in the Tenth Stave is, That the main ground for the possibility of transmutation, is the possibility of reduction of all metals, and such minerals as are of metallick principles, into their first Mercurial matter.

The third Conclusion is in the Eleventh Stave, that among so many Metaline and Mineral Sulphurs, and so many Mercuries there are but two Sulphurs that are related to our work; which Sulphurs have their Mercuries essentially united to them.

The fourth Conclusion from the same Stave is, That he who understands these two Sulphurs & Mercuries aright, shall find that the one is the most pure red Sulphur of Gold, which is Sulphur in manifesto, and Mercurius in occulto, and that other is most pure white Mercury, which in indeed true Quicksilver in manifesto, and Sulphur in occulto, these are our two Principles.

The fifth Conclusion from the Twelfth Stave is, That if a mans Principles be true, and his Operations regular, his event will be certain, which Event is no other than the true Mystery.

These Conclusions are but few in number, but of great weight or concernment; the Amplification, Illustration and Elucidation therefore of them, will make a son of Art truly glad.

STAVE IX. In the edition 1591: but in Esq. Ashmole’s Theatrum it is Stave 8.

But notwithstanding for peril that may befall,
If I dare not here plainly the knot unbind,
Yet in my writing I will not be so mysticall,
But that by study the true Knowledge you may find
How that each thing is multiplied in its kind,
And how the likeness of Bodies Metalline be transmutable,
I will declare, that if you feel me in your mind,
My writing you shall find true, and no fained Fable.

For the First; Forasmuch as it is not for our purpose here to invite any to the Art, only intending to lead and guide the sons of Art; We shall not prove the possibility of Alchymy, by many Arguments, having done it abundantly in another Treatise. He then that will be incredulous, let him be incredulous; he that will cavil, let him cavil; but he whose mind is perswaded of the truth of this Art, and of its Dignity, let him attend to what is in the Illustration of these Five Conclusions discovered, and his heart shall certainly rejoice. We shall therefore briefly Illustrate this 1st Conclusion, and insist there more largely, where the secrets of the Art are most couched.

For this first, which concludes in effect the truth of the Art, and its validity; he that would therein be more satisfied in it, let him read the Testimony of the Philosophers: And he that will not believe the testimony of so many men, being most of them men of renown in their own times, he will cavil also against all other Arguments.

We shall only hold to Ripley’s Testimony in this our Key, who in the Fourth Stave, assures the King that at Lovain he first saw the greatest and most perfect secrets, namely, the two Elixirs; and in his following verses, craved his confident credit, that he himself hath truly found the way of secret Alchymy, and promiseth the discovery of it to the King, only upon the condition of secrecy.

And in the Eighth Stave, though he protests never to write it by Pen, yet proffers the King at his pleasure, to shew him occularly the Red and White Elixir, and the working of them, which he promiseth will be done for easie costs in time. So then, he that will doubt the truth of this Art, must account this famous Author for a most simple mad Sophister. To write and offer such things to his Prince, unless he were able in effect to do what he promised; from which imputation, his Writings, and also the History of him, of his Fame, Gravity, and Worth, will sufficiently clear him.

STAVE X

As the Philosopher in the Book of Meteors doth write,
The likeness of Bodies Metalline be not transmutable,
But after he added these words of more delight,
Without they be reduced to their beginning materiable,
Wherefore such Bodies which in Nature be liquefiable,
Mineral & Metalline may be mercurizate,
Conceive you may this Science is not opinionable,
But very true, by Raymond and others determinate.

We come to the second Conclusion; the substance of which is, that all Metalls, and Bodies of Metalline Principles, may be reduced to their first Mercurial Matter; And this is the main and chief ground for the possibility of Transmutation. On this we must insist largely and fully, for (trust me) this is the very hinge on which our secrets hang.

First, Then know that all Metalls, and several Minerals have Mercury for their next matter, to which (for the most part, nay indeed always) there adheres, and is Con-coagulated an external Sulphur, which is not Metalline, but distinguishable from the internal Kernel of the Mercury.

This Sulphur is not wanting even in common Argent Vive, by the Mediation of which, it may be precipitated into the form of a drie Powder: yea, and by a Liquor well known to us, (though nothing helping the Art of transmutation) it may be so fixed, that it may endure all Fires, the Test and Coppel. And this without the addition of any thing to it, but the Liquor (by virtue whereof it is fixed) coming away intire, both in its Pondus and Virtue. This Sulphur in Gold and Silver is pure; Therefore in Gold and Silver it is fixed, in others it is fugitive; in all the Metalls it is coagulated, in Mercury or Argent Vive, it is coagulable, in Gold, Silver and Mercury; this Sulphur is so strongly united, that the Antients did ever judge Sulphur and Mercury, to be all one; but we by the help of a Liquor, the Invention of which in these parts of the world we owe to Paracelsus (though among the Moors and Arabians, it hath been, and is (at this day) commonly known to the acuter sort of Chymists.) By this I say, we know that the Sulphur which is in Mercury coagulable, and in the Metals coagulated, is external to the Internal nature of Mercury, and may be separated in the form of a tincted Metallick Oyl, the remaining Mercury being then void of all Sulphur, save that which may be called its Inward or Central Sulphur. And is now incoagulable of itself (though by our Elixir it is to be coagulated) but of it self, it can neither be fixt nor precipitated, nor sublimed, but remains unaltered in all corrosive waters, and in all digestions of heat. One way then of Mercury Azating all Metals and Minerals, is by the Liquor Alchahest, which out of such Bodies as have Mercury in their Constitution, can separate a running Argent Vive, from which Argent vive all its Sulphur is then separated, save that only which is Internal and Central to the Mercury, which Internal Sulphur of Mercury no corrosive can touch: Next to this way of universal Reduction, there are also some other particular ways by which Saturn, Jupiter, Antimony, yea even Venus and Mars may be reduced into a running Quick-silver, by the help of Salts, which because (being corporeal) they pierce not so radically as the fore-named Liquor doth; they therefore do not spoil the Mercury of its Sulphur, but that as much Sulphur as there in is Common Mercury; so much also there in is this Mercury of the Bodies, only this Mercury hath specificated qualities according to the nature of the Metal or Mineral, from which it was extracted; and for that reason, (as to our work which is to dissolve perfect Species of Metals,) it hath no more virtue then common Argent Vive. There is than but one only humidity, which is applicable unto our Work, which certainly is neither of Saturn nor Venus, nor is drawn from any thing, which nature hath formed, but from a substance compounded by the Art of the Philosopher. So then, if a Mercury drawn from the Bodies, have not only the same deficiency of heat and superfluity of faeces as Common Mercury hath, but also a distinct specificated form, it must (by reason of this its form) be so much the farther remote from our Mercury, then common Argent Vive is.

Our Art therefore is to compound two Principles, (one in which the Salt, and another in which the Sulphur of nature doth abound,) which are not yet perfect, nor yet totally imperfect, and (by consequence) may therefore (by our Art) be changed or exalted, which that (which is totally perfect) cannot be; and then by Common Mercury to extract not the Pondus, but the Coelestial virtue out of the compound;

Which virtue (being Fermental) begets in the common Mercury an Offspring more noble then it self, which is our true Hermaphrodite, which will congeal it self, and dissolve the Bodies: Observe but a grain of Corn, in which, scarce a discernable part is Sprout, and this Sprout, if it were out of the grain, would die in a moment; the whole grain is sown, yet the Sprout only produceth the herb: So is it in our Body, the fermental Spirit that is in it, is scarce a third part of the whole, the rest is of no value, yet all is joined, (in the composition,) and the faeculent coporeous parts of the Body comes away with the dregs of the Mercury. But beyond the example or similitude given of a grain of Corn, it may be observed that the hidden and spiritual virtue of this our Body, doth purge and purifie its Matrix of water, 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. For instance, make thy washings (for a tryal) with pure and clean Fountain water; weigh first a Pint of the same water, and take the exact weight of it, then wash thy compound 8 or 10 Eagles (or times), save all the faeces, weigh thy Body and Mercury exactly, weigh thy faeces being very dry, then  Distil or Sublime all that will Sublime, a very little quick Mercury will ascend, then put the residue of the faeces in a Crucible, set them on the Coals, and all the faeculency of the Mercury will burn like a Coal, yet without fume; when that is all consumed, weigh the remaining faeces, and thou shalt find them to be two thirds of thy Body, the other third being in the Mercury; weigh the Mercury which thou Sublimest, and the Mercury prepared by it self, and the weight of both will not recompence thy Mercuries weight by far: So then, boyl up thy water to a skin, in which thou madest thy Lotions, for that is a thick water; and in a cool place thou shalt have Crystals, which is the Salt of Mercury Crude, and no way fit for Medicines; yet it is a content for the Artists to see how the Heterogeneities of Mercury are discovered, which no Art save the Liquor of Alcahest can do, and that in a destructive, not a generative way as this is; for this operation of ours is made between male and Female, within their own kind, between which there is a Ferment which effecteth that which no other thing in the world could do. In all truth I tell you, that if you should take our imperfect compound Body, per se and Mercury per se, and Ferment them alone, though you might bring out of the one a most pure Sulphur, and out of the other Mercury of Mercury, which is the Nut of Mercury, yet with these thou couldst effect nothing, for Fermental virtue is the wonder of the world, and it is by it, that water becomes Herbs, Trees and Plants, Fruits, Flesh, Blood, Stones, Minerals, and every thing; seek then for it only, and rejoice in it, as in a deservedly invaluable treasure: Now know, that Fermentation works or ferments not out of kind, neither do Salts Ferment metals. Wilt thou then know whence it is that some fixt Alcalies do extract a Mercury out of Minerals, and out of the more imperfect Metals? Consider then, that in all these Bodies the Sulphur is not so radically mixt and untied, as it is in Silver and Gold. Now Sulphur is of kin to divers Alcalies, that are extraordinarily dissolved or melted with it, and by this means the Mercurial parts are disjoined, and the Argent vive is by fire separated. The Mercury thus separated, is spoiled of its Sulphur, when as indeed there needs, or is required only a depuration of the Sulphur by separating the impure from the pure; but these Salts having separated the Sulphur, do leave the Mercury worse, that is, more estranged from a Metallick nature than it was before; for in its Composition that Sulphur of Saturn will not burn, for though it be Sublimed, Calcined, made Sugar or Vitrified, yet by Fire and Fluxes it still returns to the same it was in before; but its Sulphur being (as is aforesaid,) separated, will take fire if joined with Salt-peter, even as common Sulphur doth, so that the Salts act on the Sulphur of which they rob the Mercury, but on the Mercury they act not for want of Ferment, which is not to be found, but only amongst Homogeneal things. Therefore the Ferment of Bread Leavens not a Stone, nor doth the Ferment of any Animal or Vegetable, Ferment a Metal or Mineral. So then, though out of Gold thou mightest obtain a Mercury by help of the Liquor of the first Ens of Salt, yet that Mercury would never accomplish our work: whereas on the other side Mercury made out of Gold by our Mercury, though there be three parts of our Mercury to one of Gold: This Mercury I say, will (by continual digestion) accomplish the whole work; marvel not then, that our Mercury is more powerful, which is prepared by Mercury: For certainly the Ferment, which cometh between the compound Body and the water, causeth a death and a regeneration; it doth that, which nothing in the world can do: Besides it severs from Mercury a terrestreity which burns like a coal, and an Hydropical humour melting in common water, but the residue is actuated by a Spirit of Life, which is our true embryonated Sulphur of our water, not visible, yet working visibly. We conclude them, that all operations for our Mercury, but by common Mercury, and our Body according to our Art, are erroneous, and will never produce our Mysterie, although they might be otherwise, Mercuries so wonderfully made. For as the Author of the New Light, saith, No Water in any Island of the Philosophers was wholsom, but that which was drawn out of the reigns of Sol and Luna. Wilt thou know what that means, Mercury in its pondus and incombustibility is Gold fugitive, our Body in its purity is called the Philosophers Luna, being far more pure than the imperfect Metals, and its Sulphur also as pure as the Sulphur of Sol, not that it is indeed Luna, for it abides not in the fire. Now in the composition of these three; First our common Mercury, and the two Principles of our compound there intercedes the Ferment of Luna, out of which though it be a Body, proceeds yet a specificated odour: yea, and oft the Pondus of it is diminished: If the Compound be much washt, after it is sufficiently clean. So then, the Ferment of Sol and Luna intercedes in our composition, which Ferment begets an off-spring more noble then it self a thousand fold; whereas shouldst thou work on our compound body by a violent way of Salts, thou shouldst have the Mercury, by far less noble then the Body, the Sulphur of the Body being separated, and not exalted by such a progress.

STAVE XI.

In the said Book the Philosopher speaketh also,
Herein if it please Your Highness for to read,
Of divers Sulphurs, and especially of two,
And of two Mercuries joined to them indeed,
Whereby he doth true understanders lead,
To the knowledge of the Principles which be only true,
Both Red, Moist, Pure, and White, as I have espied,
Which be nevertheless found but of very few.

We now come to the Third Conclusion, which is, that among all Metalline and Mineral Sulphurs there are only Two that belong to our Work; which Two have their Mercuries essentially united with them: This is the truth of our secrets, though we (to seduce the unwary) do seem to aver the contrary; for do no think that (because we do insinuate two ways, therefore) we really mean as we say, for verily (as witnesseth Ripley,) There is no true Principle but one, nor have we but one matter, nor but one way of working upon that matter, nor but one regimen of heat, and one linear way of proceeding.

These two Sulphurs as they are Principles of our Work, they ought to be Homogeneal, for it only Gold Spiritual that we seek; First White, then Red, which Gold is no other then that which the vulgar see, but they know not the hidden Spirit that is in it. This Principle wants nothing but composition, and this composition must be made with our other crude white Sulphur, which is nothing but Mercury vulgar, by frequent cohobation of it upon our Hermaphroditical body, so long till it become a fiery water.

Know therefore, that Mercury hath in itself a Sulphur, which being un-active, our Art is to multiply in it a living active Sulphur, which comes out of the loins of our Hermaphroditical body, whose Father is a Metal, and his Mother a Mineral; Take then the most beloved Daughter of Saturn, whose Arms are a Circle Argent, and on it a Sable Cross on a Black Field, which is the signal note of the great world, espouse her to the most warlike God, who dwells in the house of Aries, and thou shalt find the Salt Nature, with this Salt acuate thy water, as thou best knowest, and thou shalt have the Lunary bath in which the Sun will be amended.

And in all truth I assure thee, that although thou hadst our Body Mercurialized (without the addition of Mercury, or of the Mercury of any of the Metals) made per se, that is, without the addition of Mercury, it would not be in the least profitable unto thee, for it is our Mercury only, which hath a Celestial form and power, which it receives, not only, nor so much from the Compound Body or Principles, as from the Fermental virtue which proceeds from the composition of both the Body and the Mercury, by which is produced a wonderful Creature: So then let all thy care be to marry Sulphur with Sulphur, that is our Mercury which is impregnated, which Sulphur must be espoused with our Sol, then hast thou two Sulphurs married, and two Mercuries of one off-spring, whose Mother is the Sun, and Moon the Mother.

The Fourth Conclusion makes all perfectly plain which hath been said before; namely, that these two Sulphurs are, the one most pure Red Sulphur of Gold, and the other of most pure clean White Mercury.

These are our two Sulphurs; the one appears a coagulated Body, & yet carries its Mercury in its belly: the other is in all it proportions true Mercury, yet very clean, and carries its Sulphur within its self, though hidden under the form and flexibility of Mercury.

Sophisters are (here) in a Labyrinth, for because they are not acquainted with Metalline love, they work in things altogether heterogeneal; or if they work upon Metalline Bodies, they yet either joyn Males with Males, or else Females with Females, or else they work on each alone; or else they make Males which are charged with natural inabilities, and Females whose Matrix is vitiated. Thus by their own inconsideration they frustrate their own hopes, and then cast the blame upon the Art, when as indeed it is only to be imputed to their own folly, in not understanding the Philosophers.

I know many pitiful Sophisters do dote on many Stones, Vegetable, Animal, and Mineral; and some to those add the fiery Angelical, Paradaical Stone, which they call a Wonder-working Essence; and because the mark they aim at is so great, the ways also by which they would attain their scope, they make also agreeable, that is a double way; One way they call Via Humida, the other they call Via Sicca, (to use their languages:) the latter way is the Labyrinthian path, which is fit only for the great ones of the earth to tread in; the other the Daedalean Path, an easie way of small cost for the poor of the world to enterprise.

But this I know, and can testifie, that there is but one way, and but only one Regimen, no more colours than ours; and what we say or write otherwise, is but to deceive the unwary: For if every thing n the world ought to have its proper causes, there cannot be any one end which is produced from two wayes of working on distinct Principles.

Therefore we protest, and must again admonish the Reader, that in our former writings) we have concealed much, by reason of the two ways we have insinuated, which we will briefly touch; There is one Work of ours, which is the Play of Children, and the Work of Women, and that is Decoction by the Fire; and we protest that the lowest degree of this our work, is, that the matter be stirred up, and may hourly circulate without fear of breaking the Vessel, which for this reason ought to be very strong; but our lineal Decoction is an Internal Work, which advances every day and hour, and is distinct from that of outward heat, and therefore is both invisible and insensible. 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 Crow’s Bill, for in this operation all is turned to Powder, blacker than the blackest. 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 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 contemptible even to the foolish. Therefore believe me in this, that because our works are natural, we therefore do take the liberty to confound the Philosophers work with that which purely Natures work, that so we might keep the simple in ignorance concerning our true Vinegre, which being unknown, their labour is wholly lost.

Let me then (for a close) say only thus much; Take our Body which is gold, and our Mercury which is seven times actuated by the marriage of it with our Hermaphroditical body which is a Chaos, and it is the splendor of the Soul of the God Mars, in the Earth and water of Saturn; mix these two in such a Pondus as Nature doth require: in this mixture you have our invisible Fires, for in the Water, or in the Mercury is an active Sulphur or Mineral Fire, and in the Gold a dead, passive, but yet actual Sulphur; Now when that Sulphur of the Gold is stirred up and quickened, there is made between the Fire of Nature which is in the Gold and the Fire against Nature, which is in the Mercury, a Fire partly of the one, and partly of the other, for it partakes of both; and by these two Fires thus united into one, is caused both Corruption (which is Humiliation) and Generation (which is Glorification and Perfection.) Now know that God only governs this way of the Internal Fire, Man being ignorant of the progress thereof, only by his Reason beholding its operations, he is able to discern that it is hot; that is, that it doth perform the actions of heat, which is Decoction. In this Fire there is no Sublimation, for Sublimation is an Exaltation; but this Fire is such an Exaltation, that it is perfection it self, and that beyond it is no progress.

All our Work then is only to multiply this Fire, that is, to circulate the Body, so longs until the Virtue of the Sulphur be augmented. Again, this Fire is an invisible Spirit, and therefore not having Dimensions as neither above nor below, but every where in the Sphere of the activity of our Matter in the Vessel; So that through the material visible substance do sublime and ascend by the action of the elemental heat, yet this Spiritual Virtue is always as well in that which subsides in the bottom, as in that which is in the upper part of the Vessel. For it is as the Soul in the Body of Man, which is every where at the same time, and yet bounded or terminated in none.

This is the Ground of one Sophism of ours, (viz.) when we say, that in this true Philosophical Fire there is no Sublimation; for the Fire is the Life, and the Life is a Soul, which is not at all subject to the dimensions of Bodies: Hence also it is, that the opening of the Glass, or cooling of the same during the time of Working, kills the Life or Fire that is in this secret Sulphur, and yet not one Grain of the matter is lost. The Elemental Fire then is that which any Child knows how to kindle and govern, but it is the Philosopher only that is able to discern the true inward Fire, for it is a wonderful thing which acts in the Body, yet is no part of the Body. Therefore the Fire is a Coelestial Virtue, it is uniformed; that is, it is always the same until the period of its Operation is come; and then being come to perfection, it acts no more, for every Agent, when the end of its action is come, then rests.

Remember then, that when we speak of our Fire which sublimes not, that thou do not mistake, and think that the moisture of the Compound which is within the Glass, ought not to Sublime, for that it must do uncessantly; but the Fire that sublimes not is the Metalline love, which is above, and below, and in all places alike. Now then for a close to all that has been said, learn, and be well advised what matter thou take in hand, for an evil Crow lays an evil Egg, as the proverb hath it; Let thy Seed be pure, and thy Matrix also pure, then shalt thou see a Noble Off-spring: Let the Fire without be such, as in which our Confections may play to and fro uncessantly, and this (in a few days) will produce that which thou most longest for, the Crows Bill. Continue then thy Decoction, and in an hundred and thirty days thou shalt see the White Dove, and in ninety days more the Sparkling Cherubim.

STAVE XII.

And these Two things be best, he addeth anon,
For him that worketh the Alchymy to take:
Our Gold and our Silver therewith to make all one,
Wherefore I say, who will our Pearl and Ruby make,
The said Principles look that he not forsake:
For at the beginning, if the principles be true;
And if so be by craft he can them also take,
In th’ end truly his work he shall not rue.

Thus come we to the last Conclusion, which is, that if a Mans Operations be regular, and his Principles true, his end will be certain, (viz.) the Mastery.

O Fools and Blind that do not consider how each thing in the world hath his proper Cause and Progress in Operation; Think you, if a Seaman should with a gallant Coach, intend to Sail to any place beyond the Sea, he would not find his attempt gallantly furnished, he should Row at Random, he may not sooner stumble on an infortunate Rock, then arrive at the golden Coast: Such fools are they who seek our secret in trivial matters, and yet hope to find the Gold of Ophir.

For the more exact Guiding of your Practice, take notice of these Twenty Rules following.

Rule I.

Whatever any Sophister may suggest unto you, or you may read in any Sophistical Authors; yet let none take you from this ground, (viz.) That as the end you look for is Gold: so let Gold be the subject on which you work, and none other.

Rule II.

Let none deceive you with telling you, that our Gold is not common, but Philosophical; for common Gold is dead, which is true: But as we order it, there is made a quickening of it, as a grain of Corn in the Earth is quickened.

So then in our work, after six Weeks, Gold that was dead, becomes quick, living, and spermatical; and in our composition, it may be called Our Gold, because it is joined with an Agent that will certainly quicken it: So a Condemned Man, is called a Dead man, though at present living.

Rule III.

Besides Gold, which is the Body or male, you must have another Sperm, which is the Spirit and Soul; or Female, and this is Mercury, in Flux and Form like to common Argent Vive, yet more clean and pure.

There are many, who instead of Mercury, will have strange Waters or Liquors, which they stile by the name of Philosophical Mercury; be not deceived by them, for what a Man sows, that he must look to reap: If thou shalt sow thy Body in any Earth, but that which is Metalline and Homogeneal to it, thou shalt instead of a Metalline Elixir, reap an unprofitable Calx, which will be of no value.

Rule IV.

Our Mercury is in substance one with common Argent Vive, but far different in Form; For it hath a Form Coelestial, Fiery, and of excellent Virtue: and this is the Nature which it receives by our Artificial Preparation.

Rule V.

The whole Secret of our Preparation, is, that thou take that Mineral which is next of kin to Gold, and to Mercury; Impregnate this with Volatile Gold, which is found in the reins of mars, with this purifie your Mercury until seven times are past, then it is fitted for the Kings Bath.

Rule VI.

Yet know, that from seven times to ten, the Mercury is made better and better, and is more active, being by each Preparation actuated by our true Sulphur; which if it exceed in number of Preparations, becomes too fiery, which instead of dissolving the Body, will Coagulate it self.

Rule VII.

This Mercury thus actuated, is after to be distilled in a Glass retort twice or thrice; and that for this reason, because some Atoms of the Body may be in it, which were insensibly left in the Preparation of the Mercury, afterwards it is to be cleansed well with Vinegar and Sal-armoniack, then it is fit for the work.

Rule VIII.

Chuse your Gold for this work pure and clean from any mixture: if it be not so when you buy it, make it so by Purgation; then let it me made fine, either by Filing, Malleating, Calcining with Corrosives, or any other way, by which it may be made most subtile.

Rule IX.

Now come to your mixture, in which take of the aforesaid Body so chosen and prepared, one Ounce of Mercury, as is above taught animated, two ounces or three at the most, mix them in a Marble which may be warmed so hot as water will heat it; grind both together till they be well incorporated, then wash the mixture with Vinegar and Salt till it be very pure; And lastly, Dulcifie it with warm water, and dry it carefully.

Rule X.

Know now, that whatever we say out of Envy, our way is none other, and we protest, and will protest, that neither We, nor any of the Antients knew any other way; for it is impossible that our secret can be wrought by any other Principles, or any other disposition than this. Our Sophism lies only in the two kinds of Fire in our work: the Internal secret Fire, which is Gods Instrument, hath no qualities perceptible to man, of that Fire we speak often, and seem yet to speak of the External heat; and hence arise among the unwary many Errours. This is our Fire which is graduated, for the External heat, is almost linear all the work, to the white work, it is one without alteration, save that in the seven first days we keep the heat a little slack for certainty and security sake, which an experienced Philosopher need not do.

But the Internal governing heat is insensibly graduated hourly, and by how much that is daily invigorated by the continuance of Decoction, the Colours are altered, and the Compound maturated: I have unfolded a main knot unto you, take heed of being insnared here again.

Rule XI.

Then you must provide a Glass Tun, in which you may perfect your work, without which you could never do any thing; let it be either Oval or Spherical, so big in reference to your Compound, that it may hold about twelve times the quantity of it within its Sphere, let your Glass be thick and strong, clear, and free of flaws, with a neck about a Span or Foot long; In this Egg put your matter, sealing the neck carefully, without flaw, or crack, or hole, for the least vent will let out the subtile Spirit, and destroy the work.

You may know the exact Sealing of your Glass thus, when it is cold, put the neck where it is sealed, into your mouth, and suck it strongly; if there be the least vent, you will draw out the Air, that is in the Vial, into your mouth, which when you take the Glass from your mouth, is again suckt into the Glass with a hissing, so that your ear may perceive the noise; this is an undoubted tryal.

Rule XII.

You must then provide your self with a Furnace, by wise men called an Athanor, in which you may accomplish your work; nor will any one serve in your first work; But such a one in which you may give a heat obscurely red at your pleasure, or lesser, it may endure twelve hours at the least.

This if you would obtain; Observe, First, that your nest be no bigger then to contain your dish with about an inch vacancy at the side where the Vent-hole of your Athanor, is for the Fire to play.

Secondly, Let your Dish be no bigger then to hold one Glass with about an inch thickness of Ashes between the Glass and side, remembering the word of the Philosopher, One Glass, One Thing, One Furnace; for such a Dish standing with the bottom level to the vent-hole, which in such a Furnace ought to be but one, about three Inches Diameter, sloping upwards, will with the stream of Flame, which is always playing to the top of the Vessel, and round about the bottom, be kept always in a glowing heat.

Thirdly, If your Dish be bigger, your Furnace must be within a third part, or a fourth as big as your Platter is Diameter. Else it cannot be exactly, nor continually heated.

Fourthly, If your Tower be above six Inches square at the Fire-place, you are out of proportion, and can never do rightly as to the point of heat; for if you cause it (if above that proportion) to stream with flame, the heat will be too big: And if it stream not, it will not be big enough, or very hardly.

Fifthly, Let the top of your Furnace be closed to an hole which may but just serve for casting in of Coals about three Inches Diameter or Square, which will keep down the heat powerfully.

Rule XIII.

These things thus ordered, set in your Glass with your matter, and give Fire as Nature requires, easie, not too violent; beginning there where Nature left. Now know, that Nature hath left your Materials in the Mineral Kingdom; therefore though we take comparison from Vegetables and Animals; Yet you must understand a Parallel in the Kingdom, in which the Subject you would handle is placed: As for Instance, if I should Analogize, between the Generation of a Man, and the Vegetation of a Vegetable, you must not understand, as though the heat for one, were to be measured by the other; for as we know, that in the ground Vegetables will grow, which is not without heat, which they in the earth feel, even in the beginning of the Spring; yet would not an Egg be hatched in that heat, nor could a man feel any warmth, but rather to him a numbing cold.

Since then you know that your work appertains all to the mineral Kingdom; you must know what heat is fit for Mineral Bodies, and may be called a gentle heat, and what violent; First, now consider, where Nature leaves you, not only in the Mineral Kingdom, but in it to work on Gold and Mercury, which are both incombustible: Yet Mercury being tender, will break all Vessels, if the Fire be over extreme; Therefore though it be incombustible, and so no Fire can hurt it, yet also it must be kept with the Male Sperm in one Glass, which if the Fire be too big, cannot be, and by consequence the work cannot be accomplished. So then from the degree of heat that will keep Lead or Tin constantly molten, and higher, so high as the Glass will endure without danger of breaking, is a temperate heat; and so you begin your degrees of heat according to the Kingdom in which Nature hath left you.

As then the highest degree of heat which the root of a tree feels in the bowels of the earth; is not by far comparable to the lowest degree of heat an Animal hath; So the highest degree of heat a Vegetable will endure without burning, is too low for the first degree of Mineral heat as to our Work.

Rule XIV.

Know, that all your progress in this Work is to ascend in Bus & Nubi, from the Moon up to the Sun; that is in Nubibus, or in Clouds: Therefore I charge thee to sublime in a continual vapour, that the Stone may take Air, and live.

Rule XV.

Nor is this enough, but for to attain our permanent Tincture, the water of our Lake must be boyled with the Ashes of Hermes Tree; I charge thee then to boyl night and day without ceasing, that in the troubles of the stormy Sea, the Heavenly Nature may ascend, the Earthly descend.

For verily, if we did not Boyl, we would never name our work Decoction, but Digestion; For where the Spirits only Circulate silently, and the Compound below moves not by an Ebullition, that is only properly to be named Digestion.

Rule XVI.

Be not over hasty, expecting Harvest too soon, or the end soon after the beginning: For if thou be patiently supported, in the space of fifty days at the farthest, thou shalt see the Crows Bill.

Many (saith the Philosophers) do imagine our Solution to be an easie work; but how hard it is, they can only tell, who have tried and made Experience: Seest thou not a Grain of Corn, sow it, and after three days thou shalt only see it swell’d; which being dry’d, is the Corn it was before: Yet thou canst not say it was not cast into its due matrix; for the earth is its true place, but only it wanted its due time to Vegetate.

But things of an harder Kernel lie in the ground a far longer time, as Nuts and Plum Stones, for each thing hath its season; And this is a true sign of a natural Operation, that it stays its season, and is not Precipitate: Dost think then, that Gold the most solid body in the world? will change its Form in a short time; Nay, thou must wait and wait until about the 40th day utter blackness begins to appear; when thou seest that, then conclude thy Body is destroy’d, that is, made a living Soul, and thy Spirit is dead, that is Coagulated with the Body; but till this sign of Blackness, both the Gold and the mercury retain their Forms and Natures.

Rule XVII.

Beware that thy Fire go not out, no not for a moment, so as to let thy Matter be cold, for so Ruine of the Work will certainly follow.

By what has bee said, thou mayst gather, that all our work is nothing else but an uncessant boyling of thy Compound in the first degree of liquefying heat, which is found in the Metalline Kingdom, in which the Internal Vapours shall go round about thy matter, in which fume it shall both die, and be revived.

Rule XVIII.

Know, that when the White appears, which will be about the end of Five Months, that then the accomplishment of the white Stone approacheth; Rejoyce then, for now the King hath overcome Death, and is rising in the East with great Glory.

Rule XIX.

Then continue your Fire until the Colours appear again, then at last you shall see the fair Vermillion, the Red Poppy; Glorify God then, and be thankful.

Rule XX.

Lastly, you must boyl this Stone in the same water, in the same proportion, with the same Regimen (only your Fire shall then be a little slacker) and so you shall increase Quantity and Goodness at your pleasure.

Now the only God the Father of light, bring you to see this regeneration of the light, and make to rejoice with him for ever hereafter in light. Amen.

To pass over his Prologue which is Adhoratory to the desirously studious of this Art, and the beginning of the Preface, which is his Address to God who is the only Giver of Wisdom, to bestow upon him true Understanding, that he might lead his sinful Life to the glory of him, being over-swayed from what he was naturally, by him who is the Fountain of all Goodness; I shall take up his pattern for a Precedent rather of Imitation, than a Subject of Exposition.

And first, as touching those who shall bend themselves to this Science; Let them resolve that they undertake a most admirable piece of Work, in which (though far be it that I should thing that God bestows upon any of us what we enjoy for our own Merits, but of his free Grace, yet withal) let me exhort any one who shall set his Studies this way, to address himself to the Author and Fountain of Goodness for his help, that he may have grace to honour God in the use of so great a Talent: For I perswade my self, that whomever God shall appoint to be Heir of such a Talent, that he will give him a heart to improve it aright; or else he will add to his Judgment for the abuse of so great a Blessing.

For whoever shall be wanton and dissolute, and live without the fear of God, what may he not do with such an Art? Unless God restrain him, as certainly he will, hiding this Secret from him or making it to him a snare and trap to betray his Life into the hands of covetous men of the World, as many have found it by sad experience. Therefore the Lord give both me and thee that grace, that he may be continually before our Eyes, the Alpha and Omega of our Thoughts, Words and Actions: Even so Amen.

In the Beginning, when thou madest all of nought, a globous matter, and dark, under confusion, by him the beginning, &c.

First then cast thine Eyes upon the Works of God, and behold that work of his hands: Consider how the glorious work of Creation was begun by him, even by Christ, for whose sake this very Science is communicated unto the Sons of Men, as Bernardus Trevisan witnesseth, who in his epistle to Thomas of Bononia, saith of this work, That it is done (Christi Gratia) for Christs sake.

Consider how out of one Mass the Lord God by his powerful Command made all things to appear that are in heaven or in earth; the heavenly Bodies with their Influences above, and the earthly Matter below; which by the Rotation of the Heavens produce all sublunary products, through the Word of his Mouth.

Above all which and in all which God is, he is the Maker and the Lord of all above all, blessed for ever, who hath purchased to himself a People, and redeemed them, and they shall reign with him for ever and ever.

For as of one Mass was made all things right so in our practice must it be.

Apply all this to the work of this Mastery Analogically and Allegorically: for as the Lord made all the works which we see, so he did lay them all under his powerful word of Command, by which they continue to be what they are, and are carried with an uniform motion to that first Pattern or Draught of things.

All our Secrets of one Image must spring.

As then out of one mixed confused Mass all things had an actual existence according to their several kinds, so out of one Image all these Secrets must out of one Image all these Secrets must flow: Truth doth not consist in Heterogeneity, but in Unity; for God is one, and his works uniform; and the more Noble any thing is, the nearer to Simplicity.

As in Philosophers Books, whoso list to see.

To this the Sentences of the Philosophers concur, as many as have truly understood the Secret, as Morien often and plentifully witnesseth, Geber, Trevisan, and many others: The thing is but one in kind, though two in number; and though more things are used, yet till they be all brought to an oneness of Nature, they are not fit to enter into this work.

Our Stone is called the Lesser World.

And therefore our Stone is resembled to Man, who although he have a Wife different for him in Sex, yet one with him in kind; in which sence it is called the Microcosm, or Less World: for indeed, next to Man, who is the Image of God, it is the true little System of the Great World: I shall not particularize here now, for in its place it will fall in seasonably.

One and Three.

This Stone is also called Trine or Trinity in Unity, from the Homogeneity of the Matter, as Trevisan saith: Our Stone is made of one Root, that is, of two Mercurial Substances, &c. This Trinity is discerned in the Components; for first there is the Body, which is Sol, and the Water of Mercury, in which besides its Mercuriality there is a spiritual seed of Sulphur, which is the secret Fire. This is the Trinity, these are called the Body, the Soul, and the Spirit; the Body is the dead Earth, which increaseth not without the celestial Vertue; the Spirit is the Soul of our Air or Chameleon, which is also of a two-fold composure, yet made one inseparably; the Soul is the Bond of Mercury, without which our Fire never appears, nor can appear, for it is naked, it inhabits the Fiery-Dragon, and it yields his Soul to the true Saturnia, and is embraced by it, and both become one together, bearing the stamp of the most High, even the Oriental Lucifer, the Son of the Morning: This Soul is Chalyb’s Magical Volatile, and very tender, the true Minera of Sol, out of which Sol naturally proceeds, which I my self know to be true, and have spoken of it in my little Latin Treatise, called Introitus apertus ad occlusum Regis palatium: This is the 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 Diana’s Doves, it is the sharp Spirit which in the Water moves the Body to putrefie. Thus is the Trinity proportionable, to wit, three Natures in the first Mixture, the Work is carried an end to perfect Complement distinctly, according to the Vertue of a Body, Soul, and Spirit: for the Body would be never penetrative, were it not for the Spirit, nor would the Spirit be permanent in its super-perfect Tincture, were it not for the Body; nor could these two act one upon another without the Soul, for the Spirit is, an invisible thing, nor doth it ever appear without another Garment, which Garment is the Soul. In this it exerciseth its vertue: this Soul, as it is drawn from the Saturnia, solid and dry, is named our Air, or rather the Chameleon, which is an airy Body, changing its hue according to every Object it beholds, so our Air is of an astonishing Nature, out of which I know all Metals may be drawn, yea even Sol and Luna, without the Transmuting Elixir, of which in my little Latine Treatise (which was the Congest of mine own experience) I spake fully.

This Air being dissolved into Water Mineral, hath in it two of our Trinity united so really that in a short digestion the spiritual inhabiting invisible Sulphur will without addition congeal the Mercury in which it is, and make a visible congelated substance of Luna and then Sol.

Thus this Trinity is indeed Unity, one being Gold mature, fixt, and digested in act, the other Gold volatile, white, and crude, yet  (in posse) to be made most fixt and solid by naked digestion. It is not then a delusion that Philosophers speak and write, for trust me (Viderunt nudam sine veste Dianam, sciens loquor) I know I speak true, which the Sons of Art do know, and can testifie with me.

Magnesia also.

This Stone is by the Philosophers called their Magnesia, their Adrop, &c. with many more names, and is indeed their Stone in the first true mixture of the true matter; for it is the true seed, and will produce, with the co-operation of external Fire, in a patient expectation of the time of nature, which is not long to him that understands it.

Of Sulphur and Mercury.

For that which is done by Nature in many years and ages, in the bowels of the Earth, decocting Mercury alone, without addition; Art, to make the work short, first impregnates Mercury with a spiritual seed of Sulphur, by which it becomes powerful in the dissolution of Metals, and then adds to it mature Sulphur, by which the work is shortened; and out of these two Parents of one Root is brought forth a Noble Son of a Regal Off-spring, that is not simply Gold, but our Elixir, then thousand times more precious.

Proportionate by Nature most perfectly.

Yet all this Work of the Artist is only to help Nature; we can do no more, yea we have professed and will profess, that we do only administer unto Nature herein: for all the Works of God are intire, we can but behold them and admire them; and therefore we seek our Principals where Nature is, and amend Nature in its own Nature. Nor do we make the simple believe, which is the Trade of Sophisters, that we by our Extractions and Manual Operations upon Vegetables, Minerals, urines, Hair, or the like, intend to make our so highly prized Elixir; but out of such things in which Nature hath put it, we by Art do make it appear by revealing what was hidden, and hiding what was manifest.

But many one marvelleth, and marvel may, and museth on such a marvelous thing.

Whereas those who work upon other matters than the true, do betray their ignorance herein most foully, that they do not consider the possibility of Nature, but work after their Fancy; as though out of combustible substances filthy in their nature, and made up of heterogeneities, might be produc’d a pure perfect Metallick Substance, by reason of its unseverable Unity invincible, and by vertue of it transcendent Excellency cleansing and fixing all leporous and fugitive bodies in the Mineral Kingdom, and reducing them to the Anatical proportion of perfectly digested Sol or Luna, according to the quality of the Medicine. When therefore their Principles are not found, their Conclusion is always deceitful, and then they not knowing Nature in her Operation, but interpreting the words of the crafty and envious Philosophers, according to the Letter, do stand admiring at the Unconformity of their Work to the Promises of the Philosophers, at least they understand their Books; they admire what this Stone is, if it be a Truth, or a Conceit; and why they (as well as any) do not attain it if possible: Such meditations usually fill the minds of unsuccessful Alchymists, who though they be (as they esteeme themselves) very Judicious, yet cannot stumble upon this unhappy Stone.

What is our Stone, &c.

They marvel at the uncouth difficulty of the thing, n or can they almost tell what to judge of what they read; forasmuch as all Philosophers say it is a very easie thing.

For Fowls and Fishes to us do it bring, every Man it hath: And it is in every place, in thee, in me, &c.

And in very deed the Antient Wise Men have so written, and do still write the same; as to wit, That it is found in a Dunghill, according to Morien, and for the easiness of the charge, they all write plentifully; so that in respect of time and cost, Artephius and Flammel say it is but the play of Children and work of Women; and therefore one Excellent Philosopher, writing of this Mastery, titles his Treatise, Ludus Puerorum; that is, Childrens Play.

To this I answer, That Mercury it is I wis.

Yet trust me, though the wise men thus write, and it be true, there is notwithstanding something to be added to their Sentence, according as the author of Novum Lumen well observed, as namely, That this Art is easie to him that understands it, as Artephius plainly expresseth; but to him that is ignorant of it, there is nothing can appear so hard; The Wise Man, saith Sendivogius, finds it in a Dunghill, but the Fool cannot believe that it is in Gold. I for my part (through the great mercy of God to me an unworthy and unthankful Creature) I know the Art to be true, but not that only, but also very easie; and I wonder that men of so great parts have studied it so long in vain; only this I am confident of; it is the gift of God; nor is it in him that willeth, nor in him that runneth, but in God that giveth mercy: In which respect I am bold, to the glory of God, to confess that I have the Art, and have Natures Operation in these so hidden Secrets, before mine eyes at this present writing, which I see hourly with admiration of the infinite Glory, in the beholding of such a great Glory in the Creatures, which, trust me, will ravish the Beholder, to see such a despised Infant as our Mercury is, to grow into so strong a Heroe, which the World cannot purchase.

But not the Common, called Quick-silver by name.

Yet the difficulty is not over when once it is known that the whole Secret consisteth  in Mercury; for what more frequent among the Sophisters than to cry, Our Mercury, &c. and yet in the Work of Nature they are as blind as Moles? The cause is, for that Nature hath produced a Mineral Juice in the bowels of the Earth, which doth answer to most of the Philosophical Descriptions of their Water; as namely, that it is mineral, quick, current, without humectation, ponderous, and the like; which when the vulgar Alchymists read, they apply it, to this naughty Mercury, which for inward Qualities hath nothing in it like ours.

Some there are, who trusting to the Sentence of most of the Wise Men who have written concerning this Art, do reject Mercury vulgar in word, when as indeed they dote as much upon it as others, whenas by their mock-purgations they handle Mercuries divers ways by Sublimation, Precipitation, Calcination Manual, even to a black substance, like to Soot or Lamp-black, by distillation from sundry Faeces, after grinding with Vinegar, by Calcination with Waters-fort, by Lotions innumerable, changing Mercury into sundry forms, and after quickening him: By all which Operations they imagine themselves secure of the Secret of our Mercury, whenas all such ways indeed are but Sophisms; and yet Mercury so abused is one and the same vulgar Mercury.

So that upon this Rock more have stumbled than upon any other, & yet will stumble, till they know how to distinguish our Mercury from Common, and our preparations from that of the vulgar Sophisters, which have no likeness one to another.

But Mercury, without which nothing being is.

For our Mercury is Essential and Radical to our Body, and partakes of the nature of it intirely, and therefore it is said to be that Mercury without which nothing is; for all things are distinguished by Philosophers by three Principles (although some Simples have not three, but only by Analogy) among which the most essential is Mercury, for the humidity of all things concrete is called their Mercury, which is most intire to all things, forasmuch as all things owe their beginning unto Water.

So then as the proper specifick Mercury of all things is so Essential unto them that nothing is without it, so our Mercury is so co-substantial with our Body, that it is one in kind with that Mercury of which it was by coagulation concrete, which vulgar Mercury is not, and therefore the Body is incrudate by this Mercury, and sends forth its Seed by mixture with it, through the co-operation of requisite temperate external heat.

All Philosophers record and truly fain the same.

Truly this I could confirm by infinite Testimonies of Philosophers, since there never wrote any who was indeed a true Artist, but he hath affirmed the same: Geber, Artephius, Haly, Rotinus, Flammel, Sendivogius, the Author of the Rosary, Trevisan, with many others, which would be very tedious to name.

So that indeed this Work of mine I wrote not because enough hath not been written before; for I do but echo to the Voice of all Philosophers, who have left upon record such clear Testimonies of the co-operation of Art and Nature herein, that if Wit were capable of this attainment, the Art would have been common ere now; and I do verily 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 pleasure.

But simple Searchers putteth them in blame, saying they hid it.

Most injurious are they therefore to the well-deserving Philosophers, who because they cannot understand their Writings, and through the mis-understanding of the possibility of Nature, do commit foul mistakes in their operations, and therefore reap a ridiculous Harvest, they then blame the falsity of Authors, or at least accuse their difficult writing, not considering that Philosophers owe them nothing, and whatever they write for the information of the studious, is not of debt, nor yet of Covetousness, for they possess the greatest Treasure in the World; nor lastly of Ambition, for many suppress their names: it is of Love, therefore, and of desire to be helpful to the Studious; which Love to requite with reproaches, is a token of great ingratitude.

Moreover, it is to be understood that the most wise GOD hath a ruling hand herein, and all Sons of Art have their Commission as it were given them; they write and teach according to that permission which the Creator of all things hath given them. I may speak it experimentally, that when my self have had one intent, I have been so over-swayed with unpremeditated thoughts I the very writing, that I have taken notice of the immediate hand of God therein, by which I have been carried beyond what I intended.

And truly it is not our intent to make the Art common to all kind of men, we write to the deserving only; intending our Books to be but as Way-marks to such as shall travel in these paths of Nature, and we do what we may to shut out the unworthy: Yet so plainly we write, that as many as God hath appointed to this Mastery shall certainly understand us, and have cause to be thankful unto us for our faithfulness herein. This we shall receive from the Sons of this Science, whatever we have from others: therefore our Books are intended for the former, we do not write a word to the latter.

But they be blame-worthy which be no Clerks, and meddle with Philosophy.

Moreover, we write not our Books for the information of the illiterate, as though any vulgar mechanick Distiller, Alchymist, or Sophister, should readily carry away the Golden Fleece; or as though any covetous man, who makes Gain his utmost end, should readily gather the Apples of the Hesperides; nor yet that any, though learned, should by once or twice overly and slight reading (as the Dogs lap the Water of Nilus) straight-way be made a Philosopher: Nay verily, the majesty of this Science forbids so great impiety; it is the gift of God, and not of Men: Our Books are for those who have been or intend to be conversant about the search of nature; we hint the way; prayer to God and patient persisting in the use of means, must open the Doors. Let therefore profound Meditation, accompanied with the Blessing of God, Furnaces, Coals, Glasses, and indefatigable pains, be thy Interpreters, and let them serve for Commentaries upon our Writings. So I did, so I advise thee; and the Blessing of God attend all studios virtuous Searchers in this way.

But though it Mercury be.

Yet is not the knot untied, nor difficulties overcome, when once a man hath learned to sing this thredbare Song in Philosophy, Est in Mercurio quiequid quaerunt sapientes: for what Sophister who cannot make so great a clatter in these general terms as a son of Art? The greatest difficulty is to know what this Mercury is, that is so desirable and effectual.

Yet wisely understand wherein it is, and where thou shalt it seek.

Therefore let me advise every studious Searcher of this hid Science, to consider warily with himself what he seeks and would find; nor that only, but in what he would find it: for trust me it is not in this Science as some do imagine, that our Arcanum may be made out of anything, nor yet out of any bare thing: But in the knowing of the true Principle, consists the first true step to Perfection, according to the Poet, Dimidium facti qui bene coepit habet.

Else I counsel thee take not this work in hand.

But he who knows not this our Ocean in which our Water hath its flux and reflux, and our Fountain out of which he may draw this Water for his use, let him forbear this, as a most dangerous Science, for he may only expect loss in it, but no profit.

For Philosophers flatter Fools with Faire speech.

Nor let any expect comfortable Direction in our Books, who know not the true Matter, nor the true Keys by which our matter is brought forth from darkness into the light; for verily though we write for the inlightning of a son of Art, yet also for the fatal blinding of all such Owls and Bats who cannot behold the light of the Sun, nor can induce the splendor of our Moon. To such we propound rare tricks, suiting to their sordid fancy: to the covetous, an easie way without expence, in an inconsiderable time; to the lazy Book-men, a play, without tedious toil; to the unstable, rash, hasty multiplicity of Distillations.

But listen to me, for truly I will thee teach.

But to thee, supposing thy qualifications to be Honesty, Secrecie, Studiousness and Indefatigableness, we will shew the Truth; yet so, that it may be hid from the Vulgar, yet plain enough to an industrious attentive Header.

Which is this Mercury most profitable.

Philosophers have hidden much under the Homonymium of Mercury, so that it is no hard matter for those that peruse their Books to mistake them; yea as many as God will have excluded from this Art, shall certainly mistake.

For many things are by them named by the name of Mercury, which are altogether useless in this mastery, and many Processes have they deciphered which themselves never did. I for my part shall not tread in their metaphorical steps, but shall herein candidly follow the path of profound Ripley, whose Text I annex to my Discourse as I go, because it is an elaborate Piece, I excellent method; on whom I do not merely comment, for I write mine own experimental Knowledge, but rather intend this Treatise for a Light to that excellent Light in Alchymy; these Labours of mine being intire of themselves; Only to help thee to my utmost, I have confined my Discourse to his Method, which I might (as other Philosophers have done) have scattered here and there confusedly.

Being to thee nothing deceivable.

 As then I have chosen Ripley’s Method to follow, so will I imitate his Ingenuity, and do solemnly profess not to be deceivable to thee in any thing, though I shall not so unfold the Mysteries, that bare reading shall suffice to shew the unveiled Diana.

Know therefore assuredly, that when the Philosophers say, That their Matter is everywhere, &c. This they speak only fo the blinding of all such who taking the Philosophers meaning according to the bare sound of their words, do reap Trifles instead of Treasures. I shall therefore let you understand that this subject of the Philosophers is considered either in reference to its Matter, or formal Vertue; in reference to the former, it is a concrete of Water, as all other Compounds are; in respect of the latter, it participates of a Celestial Virtue, and that in a high degree in both respects. It is said to be in every place: for the original matter, which is Water, passeth equally through the whole Family of Concretes: and for the celestial Influence, it is so universal that nothing is hidden from the heat of it: so that indeed in this sence it is said to be every where. Moreover, the Stone being the System of the great World, doth in some way or other represent everything which is or can be perceived by man; I mean in reference to some or other operation, colour or quality, and therefore the Wise have described it almost by all things imaginable, for to everything in some or other circumstance it hath resemblance.

It is more near in some things than in some.

Yet to speak properly for information, and not to conceal the Secret, we profess that there is but one kind in which our Stone is found, and in number two: understand me not as the Philosopher finds things in his first laborious preparation, for so one of the two subjects which being of one kind enter the supernatural work of Generation of our fiery Stone, I say our crude Sperm flows from a Trinity of Substances in one Essence, of which two are extracted out of the earth of their Nativity by the third, and then become a milky Virgin-like Nature, drawn fro the Menstruum of our sordid Whore.

Take heed therefore what I to thee write.

And now I call God to witness that I will shew you a great Mystery: our Stone is in some part of a perfect nature, which we would exalt into a more than most perfect, and for this end we stand in need of our true Fountain, which I have elsewhere described, and shall not now repeat: This Fountain hath three Springs, and these are three Witnesses which testifie to the Artist of the truth of his proceedings; these are the Spirit, the Water, and the Blood, and these three agree in one; the Water is a Mercurial Bond, which the Sophisters can behold so far as the outward shell reacheth, but the wise man can behold his hidden secret Centre: the Blood is of our Green Lyon, which is indeed the greenest or rawest of the three: for it hath no manner of Metalline Sulphur, no not a grain, and therefore is Totally Volatile, and it is more raw than common Water, and yet it is called the Blood, for a most secret reason, because it is the seat of his Life; yea the Spirit by this Soul of our Green Lyon, is made manifest, and is united to it, so that though it be very green or unripe, yet that inhabits it, which is both pure and ripe, and can and will digest with the Water, and make both become life with life: Now the Spirit is nothing else but a Chaos, the Wonder of the Wonders of God, which every man almost hath, and knows it not, because as it appears to the World it is compact in a vile despised form; yet is it so useful, that in humane Affairs none can want it: to the Philosopher it appears united to the Blood, that is, of our Green Lyon, which truly is not a Lyon till the spirit be joined with it, and then it is made able to devour all Creatures of its kind.

And these three agree in one, they are not absolutely one, mark that; our Fire is not of the matter, and yet it is united with the matter, as if it were of one form with it; and there is an agreement in one, though not a radical union; for the spirit (which is Fire) is separated from the Water and the Blood; and then is our Lyon actually Green, but ceaseth then to be our Lyon, but is the true matter to multiply Emeraulds more glorious than natural.

For if to thee Knowledge never come,
Therefore yet shalt thou me not twite.

And now indeed if any be ignorant, let him be ignorant; I know not what more to say, and not transgress the silence of Pythagoras. I have told you that our matter is two-fold, crude and fixed; the fixed is by Nature perfected to our hands, and we need only to have it made more then most perfect, which Nature alone could never perform; nor is there any thing that can thus exalt Tinctures, but our dissolving Water, which I told you floweth from three Springs; the one is a common Well at which all draw, and of which Water many use; this Well hath in it a Saturnine drossiness, which make to Waters unuseful; these frigid superfluities are purged by two other Springs, through which the Water of this Well is artificially caused to run: these Springs make but one Well, whose Waters appear dry, the humidity being sealed; the Well it self is surrounded by an Arsenical Wall, the slimy bottom abounds with the First Ens of Mineral Salt and Sulphur, which acuate the Water of the first Well, whose primary quality is Coldness; being thus actuated, it becomes so powerful a Menstruum, and so pleasant to the Metals, that for its peculiar Vertue it is chosen for to be the Bath of the Sun and Moon.

For I will truly now thee excite to understand well Mercuries three.

But because one Book never is sufficient in this Mastery, to discover all that is to be known, and other Authors write variously of Mercury: Attend further what I have to say to thee concerning this point.

We have in our work properly three Mercuries, of which one is to be by the Philosopher prepared, of which I have spoken; and this being joynd with the perfect body, and set to digest, the Glass is shut, and then in this first Composition is the Matter called Rebis. That is, (two things) to wit in Number, for you may yet separate each from other in its intire nature.

These two being joined, do operate so within the Vessel till the Compound become a black Powder, which then called the Ashes of the Platter.

This Powder relenteth into a black Broth, which is called Elixir, or Water extracted by Elixation, which reiterate Liquefaction.

This Elixir is divided into a more subtile part, which is called Azoth, and the grosser part is called Laton, which is by Azoth washed and whitened.

In Rebis the matters are confused, in Elixir they are divided, and in Azoth they are conjoined with an inseparable union.

The Keys which of this Science be.

These Menstruums or Mercuries are the very Keys of this Science: the first is the Philosophers Key, the other two are Natures Keys.

Raymund his Menstrues doth them call.

They are called by the wise men Menstrues, in three respects: first for the secresie of them; as those Lunary Tributes of Women are hid from common view, so these Mercuries from vulgar Searchers. Secondly for the Prognosticks of them; as those in Women betoken maturity to conceive, so these are called Menstrues because they are fit for procreation. Thirdly in regard of the office of them; as those in Women are accounted nutritive for the Embrion, so our Child is nourished by these to perfect age and strength.

Let me add a fourth reason, and that is, in respect of the time; the Philosophical preparation will hardly give thee thy first Menstruum fit for thy use in less than a month. And after conjunction thy first Menstruum will begin to hold of the nature of the Body in another month, and then thou shalt see a show of the second Menstruum; but wait till another month, and thou shalt see thy second Menstruum compleat; then yet wait a third month, and thou shalt see a show of the third Menstruum, which in the fourth month will perfectly exuberate, and then with it thou shalt soon see perfected Sulphur of Nature, for it is Fire of Nature; and in this first Exaltation is the white Stone perfected.

Without them truly no Truth is done.

He then that knoweth not the Secret of our Menstruals, let him forbear the practice of the
Work, for verily he may expect nothing but a sophistical Delusion instead of the true Work of Nature: He is like a man that would enter an inaccessible Castle without a Key, or shoot in a Bow without a string.

But two of them be superficial.

Now that you may know our Secrets exactly, we shall faithfully discover unto you our Experience, as cordially as a Brother may declare to a Brother; and shall reveal what I never found yet revealed in any Author.

Here are in our Mercury three Mercurial Substances, which may well be called Menstrues, the one the more gross part (which though it be a Water, yet it being the most palpable part, and visible, may be termed the Body of the Water: the last is a Fiery Form, which is the Blood of Cadmus; this is a real invisible form, which is essentially and formally Sol Volatile: the second is the mean Soul, which Philosophers without equivocation call Saturn’s Child; the middle substance of these three, are made into one wonderful Mercury, which hath not its like in the world.

Now for the superficiality of the two first Menstrues or Mercuries, and the essentiality of the third, know and understand, for our speech will be very mysterious: Know I say, what it is to be superficial, and what essential: Essence you know is invisible, and more formal then material, which doth actuate the matter, and ripens it; but that which is superficial is visible, and may be seen, and is more material and passive: Now those two first are superficial, are the Water and the Blood, the essential Menstrue is the Spirit, which all are in one; yet distinguished in number, though not in kind.

The third Essenital to Sun and Moon

So then two are material passive substances, which are united in our sophical Mercury; the third is an active essence which is hid in our Mercury, which is essential to Sun and Moon, because it is a Fire, wic is Sol volatile; and as the Artist may govern this Mercury, it will digest the passive Principles either into Sol or Luna, at the Philosophers pleasure.

Their Properties  I will declare right soon.

I shall by and by in its place describe to you all the Properties of these three Menstrues, when I come to it; in the mean time take notice that by this Mercury in which are three Mercuries, or Menstrues, the perfect Bodies will be calcined, and then dissolved into Mercury, which is not then so properly called a Menstrue, for it is the Fruit it self, called Azoth, or Virgins Milk; which is a digestion beyond the Menstrues.

And Mercury of Metals essential,
Is the Principle of our Stone material.

The Bodies when they are dissolved do transmute the foresaid Mercuries by their own ferment, into their own nature, for the Fire of Nature assimilates all that nourisheth it to its own likeness; and then our Mercury or Menstrue vanisheth, that is, it is swallowed up in the Solary Nature, and all together make but one universal mercury, by intimate union, and this Mercury is the material Principle of the Stone; for before our Mercury (as it was compounded of three Mercuries) had in it two which were superficial, and the third essential to Sol and Luna only, not to the Stone: for Nature would produce these two out of it, by artificial decoction: but when the perfect Bodies are dissolved, they transmute the Mercury (that dissolved it) and then there is no more repugnancy in it, then there is no longer a distinction between superficial and essential, but all is become essential; And this is that one matter of the Stone, that one thing which is the subject of all Wonders.

In Sol and Luna our Menstrues are not seen.

When thou art come to this, then shalt thou no more discern a distinction between the Dissolver and the Dissolved; for the Water shall neither ascend nor descend, go out nor in alone, but the Fire of nature shall accompany it, and the colour of the mature Sulphur, which is unseparably joined, shall tincture thy Water.

It appeareth not but by effect to sight.

So that thou shalt never see them severed one from the other, but shalt discern them by the effect, and by the eye of the mind more then of thy body: Therefore saith the Philosopher, Azoth and Fire are sufficient for then in the middle and end, but not in the beginning, for then they are not our Mercury, that is our universally united Mercury. But in the first days of the Stone, there appear four Elements, of which three are in the Mercury sublimed, and one in Sol, which is counted all for Earth till it be dissolved, and then it fermenteth the Mercury, and makes the three qualities of it, which it hath, drawn from three substances to unite into one Mercury which hath all in it one essential property, and that is Solary, which first will shew the Moon in the full and is the true one matter of all our Secrets, our one Image out of which springs white and red, not bare Sol and Luna, as will spring out of our Mercury, which we prepare with our hands, but the white and red Elixirs, which shew that this Mercury which Nature hath made in the Glass, without our help, is far beyond that Mercury which we prepared with a laborious toil.

This is the Stone of which we mean,
Who so our Writing conceiveth aright.

And verily he that hath well studied our Books shall understand that this general one Mercury which we call Azoth, is indeed our Stone, which wanteth only digestion, for it is inseparably united, not in a Dyptative Conjunction, which is barely a mixture of the Sun with our Mercury; or Triptative, which is a mixture and union of the Body, Soul, and Spirit, which is before Putrefaction; but Tetraptive, which is the Anatization of qualities, which is the first degree of the white Stone, which will then grow higher and higher, till the Moon come up to the full.

It is a Soul and Substance bright.

This Stone or Virtue multiplicative is not in relation to the matter, but the form, which doth make the matter to receive and after impress Tinctures: for who could believe that Sol, in which the virtue is but unary, I mean only sufficient for itself, should by the addition of our Mercury, which in reference to its material parts, is below the degree of Sol, and needs digestion, and that only to maturate it to the height of Sol, I say that by the mixture of those two Venerial Tinctures, should be multiplied in a manner infinitely.

Of Sol and Luna a subtile Influence.

Were it not that this Tincture which in the Mercury is Sol and Luna, were as a Soul, that is, a spiritual thing, it were impossible; it is therefore the very Dos faecunditatis which is in Minerals (which doth appear in their Lunary and Solary Tinctures) which was put and planted on and in them, in the first Benediction of (Crescite & Multiplicamni) which increasing is in some things juxta quantitatem: This is in quality.

Whereby the earth receiveth resplendence.

So then the matter of Minerals is a dead passive thing, in which there is included a Light, which is cloathed (vitali Aura aetheria) as I may speak; this form of Light is it which doth actuate and specificate or determine the matter; and this splendor or Light is in all Metals, Sol or Luna, which are conspicuous more eminently in those two perfect Bodies Gold and Silver, but are in other Mineral Bodies more clouded and Eclipsed with an earthly faeculent interposition between the fulgor and the superfluities, which is the Imperfection of such Bodies; and is accompanied with a rawness and inconstancy in the Fire, the Impure carrying away the Pure.

For what is Sol and Luna, saith Avicen,
But earth which is pure White & Red?

So then Sol and Luna is more formal then material; for the mater is a gross Terrene Substance, but the form of Light purifying the Substance, is a most subtile spiritual thing which doth ennoble the grossness of the matter by a Fire-abiding Tincture.

Take from it the Said Clearness, and then
That Earth will stand but in little stead.

But if this Tincture could be separated from the pondus of the matter, the remainder would be an unprofitable Terrestriety: Our work therefore is for to advance this Light by exaltation in the matter; which as it in its simplicity is but in unity, so it may be brought to a Virtue millenary, and gradually is exalted, that the matter would seem to be quite swallowed up of the form; and yet in this exaltation it is not the moles or pondus that is the Solary or Lunary Virtue, but a Light whose multiplication is not in the increase of pondus, but in the circulation of Natures; till the Heavenly illuminate the Earthly with an immediate Beam, all interposition being removed out of the way.

The whole Compound is called our Lead

For to attain this admirable multiplication Philosophers have found out a most subtile yet very natural Cosmposition, which hath been not a little sought for by many: this the wise Antients, both to describe the Fountain of these Mysteries, as also to hide the Secret from the unworthy, have mystically called their Lead.

The quality of Clearness from Sol and Luna doth come.

This Lead, so called from the appearing baseness of its original, is notwithstanding of an admirable power, for it contains the Bath for Sol and Luna; that is, the Sun and Moon enter into it, and send out their Tinctures into it, which it receiveth, and like to a fertile Soil ennobleth it an hundred and an hundred fold.

These are our Menstrues, both all and some.

Thus have I in general given you a description of our Menstrues, which are three, Acetum, Elixir, and Azoth; which I shall now particularly describe.

Bodies with the first we Calcine naturally perfect.

The first Menstrue we call our sharp Vinegar, with infinite other names, which it will be tedious to recite, and with this is made our Magical Solution of Sol; this, saith Sendivogius, is (Menstruum mundi in sphera Lunae toties rectificatum ut posit calcinare Solem.) In this, saith the noble Author of the Hermetical Arcanum, is made Eclipsis Solis & Lunae in Cauda Draconis: this is, as Artephius saith, the only Instrument in the World for our Art: for it causeth the Sun to putrefie; that is, it loseth its hard compaction, and makes it to be an impalpable Powder, as saith the truth-telling Flammel. In this Calcination, as all Authors testifie, and our own Experience hath taught us, Natures are united, Colours are mingled, and one holds of the other, and this is the period of the first Menstruum, which ends in this Circulation.

But none which been unclean.

This Blackness many erroneously conceive to be uncleanness, but it is not so, for it is only the Sepulcher of our King; in which, though he seem to have lost what he was, yet from hence he shall arise what he never was before

Except one.

And verily there is nothing of an unclean nature that entreth our Composition except one thing, which is the Instrument moving the Gold to putrifie; and in regard that it doth naturally incline the Body to putrifie, and is as it were the very grave of it, it is called by some Philosophers Aqua foetida, and by some Mortis Immundities; yet indeed it is not in is own nature unclean, but made pure, as pure as the Art of the Artist can make it with the help of Nature, joining Consanquinity with Consanquinity.

Which is usually
Named by Philosophers their Lyon Green.

This hidden body, or rather Chaos, the Philosophers have highly extolled and deeply concealed, but they usually call it their Green Lyon, which many mistaking apply to Venus, and some to Vitriol, which is all one in manner, Vitriol being only Copper corroded by an embryonated Salt; but Fools, saith Ripley (in his Errors) call it the Green Lyon. I shall discover this Subject to you, so far as I dare, in this following Song.

Whoso would lasting and eternal Fame
Deserve, Learn thou the Lyon Green to tame.
But this before you can by Art attain,
To study him to know thou must be fain;
Nor is it, trust me, for a stupid fool,
Nor yet for one brought up in vulgar School.
I shall him therefore lively out pourtray,
Lest from this banquet you go lean away.
This Song I stile the Learned Sophies Feast,
Prepare your self to come a worthy Guest:
With Mind attentive to my words give heed,
Lest you, instead of Meat, on Fancies feed.
This horrid Beast, which we our Lyon call,
Hath many other Names, that no man shall
The truth perceive, unless that God direct,
And on his darkened Mind a Light reflect.
Tis not because this Subject doth consist
Of Animal Components (he that list
May well conceive) that we do therefore use
The name of Beasts; nor is it to abuse
He Readers; he whoever so doth think,
With stupid Sots himself doth hereby link.
But it’s because of the transcendent force
It hath, and for the rawness of its source,
Of which the like is no where to be seen,
That it of them is nam’d the Lyon Green.
Now listen, and I shall to you disclose
The Secret, which ties past hath like a Rose
Been hedged so on every side with briars,
That few could pluck it at their hears desires.
There is a substance of Metalline Race,
If you the matter view, whose louring face
A Sophister would at first sight so scare,
That he it to approach would never dare;
The form that’s visible is very vile,
And doth Metalline Bodies so defile,
That none to see it could be brought to think
That thence should spring bright Phoebus Pearly Drink:
And yet, O strange! A wonder to relate,
At this same Spring naked Diana sat.
Who horn’d Acteon for his ventrous peeping,
This Spring two dreadful Bests have in their keeping;
Which drive away rash Searchers to their rue,
Them to inchant, the Art who do not know.
Yet further for to answer your desire,
I say this subject never felt the fire
Of Sulphur Metalline, but is more crude
Then any Mineral, which doth delude
Th’ unwary, and in Fire fugitive
‘Tis found th’ impure away the pure doth drive;
 And its Components are, A Mercury
Most pure, though tender, with a Sulphur dry
Incarcerate, which doth the flux detain.
This Sulphur with malignant qualities
Doth so the Mercury infect which with it lies
That though they have no fundamental union,
Yet hereby is debarr’d the sweet communion
Which otherwise would surely intercede
Between the Virgin-Nymph, which we call Lead
And her dear Sister which in Silver streams
Runs down abundantly, then should the beams
Of bright Apollo cause the Dews which fall
From these commixed Waters, from the tall
Aspiring Mountains, gliding through the Vales,
Fire to conceive of nature, which avails
To warm the Bath for Sol, in which he may
Descend and wash, and with fair Phebe play,
Till flesh and youth renewing, they be able
To shine with glory, aye multiplicable.
Know then this Subject, which the sure Base
Of all our Secrets is, and it uncase;
And chuse what thou shalt find of greatest price,
Leave Sophisters, and follow my advice:
Be not deluded, for the truth is one,
‘Tis not in many things, this is our Stone.
At first appearing in a Garb defil’d,
And to deal plainly, it is Saturn’s Child,
His price is mean, his venom very great,
His constitution cold, devoid of heat.
Although ‘tis mixed with a Sulphur, yet
This Sulphur is combustible, to get
Another Sulphur Metalline and pure,
And mix with the Mercurial part be sure.
This Sulphur in the House of Aries seek,
There shall you find it, and this is the Greek
Alcides, which with Jason Journey took
To Colchos, this is it which never Book
As yet reveal’d, and yet I will proceed,
And greater Mysteries unfold with speed.
Our Subject it is no ways malleable,
It is Metalline, and its colour sable,
With intermixed Argent, which in veins
The sable Field with glittering Braches stains.
The pure parts from the impure, thou shalt never
With Fire or Water for this work dissever.
Nor with the hardest iron dig it thence,
For Steel ‘gainst this affordeth no defence.
So easily as any little Boy
A Giant can suppress, this can destroy
Alcides Brest-plate, with his Target stout,
And put opposing Armies to the rout
Of Swords and Spears, O wondrous force, and yet
The Sages this have seen, when they did sit
In Council, how this Fury they might tame,
Which (as unparallel’d) they then did name
Their Lyon Green, they suffered him to prey
On Cadmus Sociates, and when the fray
Was over, they with Dian’s Charms him ty’d
And made him under Waters to abide,
And wash’d him clean, and after gave him Wings
To fly, much like a Dragon, whose sharp Springs
Of fiery Water th’ only way was found
To cause Apollo his harp-strings to sound.
This is the true Nymphs bath, which we did try,
And prov’d to be the Wise Mens Mercury.

In this Song you have the Lyon Green so described, that more I dare not, more I cannot, unless I should pen you down the Receipt verbatim, which God and Reason forbids.

He is the mean the Sun and Moon between,
Of joining Tinctures with perfectness.

Learn then to know this Green Lyon and its preparation, which is all in all in the Art, it is the only know, untie it, and you are as good as a Master; for whatever then remains is but to know the outward Regimen of Fire, for to help on Natures internal Work.

As Geber thereunto beareth witness.

Moreover be not various, seeking that in many things which is verily but in one thing; for in all the world there is not any one subject but this: Ripley, after the Rehearsal of all his Errors, tells you, That he never saw true Work but one: And Geber, Exacte (inquit) singula sumus experti, idque probates rationibus & nihil invenimus praeter solum unctusam huiditatem penetrantem & tingentem, &c. And Artephius saith, There is no other subject in the World for this Art, naming it, although in a Philosophick manner, wonderous subtilly. I counsel the, with Ripley, to learn to know this one thing which I have faithfully declared, and I know what I have declared experimentally to be true: He that understands me will have cause to thank God and me for what Light I have given to Ripley: He that with me understands Ripley will easily discern.

With the second which is an humidity
Vegetable reviving what earst was dead.

Our second Water, or Menstruum, or Fire, is our Elixir, which is an Elixation of our Matters, or drawing forth the Tincture out of our dissolved Bodies; which doth cause out dead Body to rise, and to spring forth in Sprigs and Branches, like to the tender Grass in the Spring out of the Field; and this so long until an intire Triptative Union be made of Body, Soul and Spirit. In this operation our Body of the Sun hath its dead moles turned into a living quick active Spirit, and our Compound after death begins to sprout, and to shew its true Vegetative nature, it is indowed with a green Colour, which is the sign of the growth of all things.

Both Principles Material must loosed be.

Here your Natures are changed, and hold one of another, and become one inseparably; that is, the Solary Nature is not to be divided from the Mercury, nor the Fire from the Water, but with one the other is always moved; and so though there yet be a superius and an inferius, an ascendens and subsidens, yet now quad est superius est ficut id quod est inferius.

And Formals, else they stand in little stead.

Now between the two Extreams of Mercury and Sulphur, you have a marvelous medium ingendered: now the form of Gold is taken quite away, and it hath at present an accidental imperfect form, which is the mean through which it passeth to its transcendent perfection.

These Menstrue therefore know, I thee reed.

Labour with all thy might to attain the skill of these two first Menstruums Theoretically and Practically; the first is to be by thee prepared and proportioned in the beginning, before thou attempt any thing. When thou has the true Nymphs Bath, then joyn this Spouse with her beloved Husband, and see if she will make his Body fall to sunder in impalpable Atoms: Then let Saturn be thy Chamberlain, and let him gather together these dissevered members, and of them make one broth, in which is blackness compleat, after which followeth greenness; and then shalt thou know that thy Compound is by the living God endowed with a vegetable Soul.

Without the which neither true Calcination
Done may be, nor true Dissolution.

He who knoweth not the Mystery of these two Menstrues, can never attain either to Calcination or Dissolution of the Philosophers: The Mystery of the first consists in the actuating of thy Vinegar with the Blood of our Green Lyon, and the Soul of the Fiery Dragon, which is by seven Eagles, which are seven Cohobations and Depurations of thy feminine Sperm, till it conceive a spiritual seed, or true natural heat, to animate thy young King.

The Mystery of the second Menstrue consists in the true proportion of thy first Water, with its own Body, and the administration of true heat external, by which the combat between the Eagles and the Lyon may be stirred up; thus shall the Duel be ended, the Lyon rent in pieces, and the Carrion of its Carcass shall kill the eagles; and out of these Atoms shall the second Water be made apparent by Dissolution.

With the third Humidity most permanent.

The third Menstrue is by Artephius called the second Water, for our second he doth joyn together with the first; although where he doth particularize the three Fires, he doth then distinguish three Menstruums.

The like course many Philosophers have used in the description of their Operations, some omitting the first, or at least confounding it with the second, for the greater obscuring of the Art.

But we have beyond what any have hitherto performed) particularly insisted upon the three in order, and have taken more pains in the discovery of the first, because the wise Antients have taken such pains to conceal that most; and after that we have made an orderly proceeding to the Second, which we have in like sort handled, and this being performed, we do now address our selves to the third.

This is called by Ripley a most permanent Humidity: and note by the way, that the first Water is called by Authors a permanent Water likewise; but take notice that there is a different reason for each denomination; for first of all, all Mercury is Water permanent, that is, the parts have no Heterogeneity, they will not leave one another in the examen of the Fire, but either all flyes and is unconstant, or else all abides and is constant in the tryal of Vulcan: and so is our first Menstruum. And in this our Mercury and Common Mercury agree, besides the identity of matter, for it is the form only that distinguisheth them. But in the next place, our Water is permanent with the Body, which Common Mercury is not; that is, it by digestion doth unite, not only adhere to it, so that both together do make one Individuum, which is done by our secret Conjunction. But lastly, when the Body is thus by our Water reduced, at last it comes that the four Elements are united in this Water. After Putrefaction and Purification, which is the last most laudable Tetraptive Conjunction, and now the Tincture is the Spirit, and the Spirit is the Sol, and the Soul is the Body, and all these are one.

Incombustible and unctuous in his Nature.

This is our true Incombustible Mercury, for it is totally purged from all its burning faeculency; Gold though it be a pure Metal, in respect of others which are imperfect, yet compared with our Stone it hath also its faeces; but this when it is taken away by Putrefaction and Ablution, then becomes a total separation of what is precious from what is vile, and as the Philosopher well saith, In the troubles of this our stormy Sea, all that is pure will ascend, and all that is impure descend, and will abide in the bottom of the Vessel in the form of a combust Earth; then is made the new Heaven and the new Earth, pray to God then that thou mayst see when there shall be no more Sea. Yet I say before thou hast this final Inceration, thou has this most incombustible Menstruum, and most permanent, in which nature and Art have conspired and made a Purification, beyond what Nature alone could ever have brought to pass.

Therefore this Mercury, though it be liquid and in the form of Mercury, it is notwithstanding Unctuous, that is, great with Child, which Child is Sulphur, which Sulphur it will in the end bring forth, and shall then be sealed up in the belly of this Infant, which is when all is fixed, and Mercury is then hidden under the fixity of Sulphur.

Hermes Tree unto Ashes is burnt.

It doth therefore naturally incline it self unto Inceration, for Earth is the Burse of our Stone, and in is its virtue attained, and its perfection intire, according to noble Hermes in his Smaragdine Table; Vis (saith he) ejus est integra si versa fuerit in terram. By vertue of this third permanent pure incombustible Water, thou shalt at last attain a total Inceration; for this Water though it be wholly Mercurial to sight, yet hath in it in its own Bowels its own Sulphur, nay it is all Sulphur, and that all incombustible. This work is called the burning of Hermes Tree to Ashes, which is done thrice; first, into a black unctuous Calx, as impalpable as Atoms, which are only to be discerned in the Sun-beams: secondly, into a fine white Calx, in which is the Moon in the full: the third, a red Calx, in which the Sun is Orient. Now know that the first Calcination is from the vertue of the Sun, in which the Sun seeks to rise, but by reason of the equal opposition it finds from the water, it is beclouded, and after through the interposition of the Earth, totally Eclipsed.

This Fire therefore, because of the mixture of it with the natural Fire of Sol, which is in it dissolved, is called unnatural; the first Fire of our Water is called Fire against nature, and the Fire of the Sulphur of the perfect Body is called Fire of nature. In this operation, through the power and will of the Almighty, the Body which hath been so long dead, is by this Water quickned, and actually sprouts like to a Vegetable; for when the pores of it are opened by the moistening of our Water, it straight begins to follow the Spirit upon the Fire, the Spirit then doth mount aloft; which the Body thus made tender cannot follow, but as the Poet saith, non passibus aequis, as a Son that is little followeth his Father. It therefore in a token of its friendship with the Water, doth bud forth like to the tender Frost upon the surface of the earth, and retains a quantity of the Water with it self, occupying a middle room between the bottom and the top; in which respects the Philosophers have called it their Soul, which to shew its union to the Body, riseth no higher then it can have a root or Basis below; and to manifest its love to the Spirit, it doth as it were climb after it higher and higher for its season, until at length it return from whence it came: And verily this Soul is the Magnetical Medium between the Spirit and the Body, which doth desire the Spirit as its true drink; and therefore as it grows dry, it doth attract the greater drops of sweat, which falling to the earth, arise in a pleasant fume, and do moisten the growing virtue with a pleasant dew, by reason of which it grows every day more and more.

This Tree of ours some have compared to one thing, and some to another; some to a Cypress or Fir-Tree, which indeed may seem to resemble it; others to Haw-Thorn Trees, as Ripley in his Gate of Cibation; others to Shrubs and Bushes, others to thick Woods, and in these Woods, saith Lambsprint, there is a Beast all over black. I confess there is a similitude between our germination, and all these; others, because of the Humidity of the Compound, which is ever and anon returning by drops, have likened it to a Moorish low Bog, in which Rushes grow, and Toads keep; others have called it their Coral, which is indeed the fittest comparison, for in our Tree there are Shoots and Sprigs, without any thing that may be properly likened to Leaves; as then Coral is an union of a Vegetable and a Stony nature, so is it in our tree, (for Stones and Minerals are of one Imposition) our Tree is Metalline, and yet through the power of God it seems to Vegetate. 2ly. Coral grows under the water, where one would think no Vegetable could grow; ours also grows in a heat which no Vegetable but it self can grow. 3ly. Coral hath many Sprigs and Branches without Leaves; so is our tree. 4ly. Coral as it is under water hath a most exquisite biting taste, which in the Air it quickly loseth; so our Stone, or Tree Metalline, in its place is of a pontique fiery nature, but taken out, it in a short space loseth the same irrecoverably. 5ly. There are five sorts of Coral, the common Gray, the Milk White, the green, the Bloud Red, and the Black; so our Tree is at his periods all of these colours, and in this form, which Tree by the heat of the Fire is dryed to a Calx, which is called the Ashes of Hermes Tree. Lastly, Coral is more heavy then any other Vegetable; and so is our tree beyond all Vegetables, yea and Coral it self, in ponderosity. It was not therefore a fortuitous comparison that Philosophers named their Mastery the Tree of the Hesperides, nor is it in vain that they bring in Jason pouring Broth at the Root of it to attain the mastery; for verily the wise Philosopher (noted by Jason) so governing his Fire, that the Lunaria or Water of the Moon may return to the Earth in which these Trees grow, the Earth will at length be so dryed by the heat of the Sun, that it shall afford the Tree no more moisture; then shall the Tree it self be calcined by the prevailing heat, into a Powder impalpable, first black, then white, then red. Therefore is our little Glass by Flammel in his Summary named the Philosophers Garden, in which the Sun riseth and setteth, and the Philosophers Tree is moistned with the dew of Heaven day and night without intermission.

It is our natural Fire most sure.

This Mercury drawn out of the Sun is the true natural heat, in the actuating and stirring up of which is the whole Secret of the Mastery; this is the honoured Salt, when this is made to appear thy operations will be so admirable, that they will take up thy whole worldly content, and with their variety the time will seem so short, that thou wilt not take notice of any tediousness in the passing of it.

Our Mercury, our Sulphur, our Tincture pure.

This is our Mercury, which cannot be attained with money, which is nothing but Sulphur, and Sulphur which is nothing but tincture, in which all Elements are proportioned perfectly.

Our Soul, our Stone born up with wind,
In the Earth ingendred. Bear this in mind.

This is our Body, which is now become all Soul and all Spirit, all the pure parts are separated now totally from the uncleanness of the dead; it is our Stone, though it be as yet volatile, yet it hath all in it essential to our Stone, and therefore though it fly and sublime for the space of seven times, yet his Nurse is the earth, and therefore to it as to its Nest it returns, and in seven sublimations what was before all Heaven, will now become all Earth. And this is the period of all Rotations, and Natures consummation.

This Stone also tell thee I dare,
Is the vapour of Metals potential.

And now if any should demand of us what our Stone is, we shall answer him, that it is Gold digested to its height of purity and perfection, through the co-operation of Art and Nature; but the means to get this, is to learn to turn thy Body into a vapour, that is, into Mercury, which then ascends in form of a vapour.

How thou shalt get it thou must beware,
For Invisible truly is this menstrual.
Howbeit with the second Water Philosophical,
By separation of Elements it may appear
To sight in form of Water clear.

But the means to attain this is not a light work, it requires a profound meditation, for this is the Seed of Gold, (which as the Poet said, recula resedit longius) it is involved in many links, and held Prisoner as it were in a deep Dungeon; so that as the noble Sandivow hath it, it is the work of a very wise Philosopher to let loose Sulphur; he that knows not our two first Menstruals, is altogether shut out from attaining to the sight of this third and last Menstrue; yet he who knows how to prepare the first Water, and to joyn it to the Body in a just pondus, to shut it up in its Vessel Philosophically, until the Infant be formed, and what is the greatest of all, to govern his Fire dexterously, so as to cherish Internal heat with External, and can wait with patience till he see his signs, he shall see the first Water will work on the Body till it hath opened the pores, and extracted partly the Tincture of Sol, which as it comes out gradually, so it contests with the first Fire against Nature, so long till they be reconciled in an imperfect medium; in which they, like to weary wounded Combatants, lye gasping and panting for breath, and at length dye; and then appears the second Water of the wise, which doth ascend and descend so long till it revive the dead Carkass, and then a soul comes into it, and it vegetates and circulates, and changeth colours so long, till Blackness vanishing there be made a perfect union and universal temperament of Elemental qualities, never more to contend together: then the whole Compound for a time appears like to a new glorious Water, glittering like Oriental Pearls, and Fish-eyes.

Of this Menstrue by labour exuberate,
With it may be made Sulphur of Nature.

This is it which Raymund calls his Mercury exuberate, as much as to say, Mercury with Child; Artephius calleth it, the Salt pregnant, for it hath Sulphur actually hidden under the Mercurial quickness; therefore it by digestion is easily turned into our Stone, which is Sulphur, or Fire of Nature.

If it be well and kindly acuate,
And circulate into a Spirit pure,
Then to dissolve thou must be sure
Thy base with it in divers wise,
As thou shalt know by thy practise,
That point, &c.

This Mercury thus renovate or new born, may by the Philosopher be diversly handled; for he may take his work from the Fire, and circulate and cohobate this Mercury by a peculiar operation, which partly Mechanical, till he have a most admirable pure subtile Spirit, in which he may dissolve Pearls and all Gems, and multiply them or his Red Stone, before it be united with a metal in projection for the making of Aurum Potabile. And in this Mercury thus circulated, is doubtless the Mystery of the never-fading Light, which I have actually seen, but yet not practically made. In a word, every one who hath this exuberate Mercury, hath indeed at command the subject of wonders, which he may imploy himself many ways in both admirably and pleasantly. And certainly he that hath this, needs no information from another; himself now standing in the Centre, he may easily view the Circumference, and then operation will be, next to the Spirit of God, his best Guide. Know then, that if thou be a Son of Art, when thou art once arrived hither, thou are so far from being at the end of thy search, (unless thou make Gold to be thy fina