Page 33 - Treatise on Salt

Chapter 8

Of the admirable virtue
of our saline and aqueous stone.

He who shall have received so much grace from the father of lights,
as to obtain in this life the inestimable gift of the philosophers stone, may
not only be assured that he possesses a treasure of so high a price, that
the whole world together, and even all the monarchs that inhabit it
throughout are not able to pay the price thereof, but we ought moreover
to be persuaded, that he has a most manifest token of the love God bears
him, and of the promise the divine wisdom (which bestows such a gift)
has made in his favour, to grant him for ever an eternal habitation with
her, and a perfect union in a celestial marriage, which we wish with all
our heart to all Christians; for that is the centre of all treasures, according
to the testimony of Solomon, in the 7th of Wisdom, where he says; ‘I
have preferred wisdom to a kingdom, and to principality, and I have not
made any account of riches in comparison with her. I have not put in a
parallel with her, any precious stone; for all gold is but a vile gravel in
reference to it, and silver is only dirt. I have loved it above health, and
the beauty of the body, and I have made choice of her for my light, the
rays of which are never darkened. The possession of her has given me all
the good things imaginable, and I have found that the bad in her hand
infinite riches, etc.

As to our philosophical stone; one may conveniently enough observe
therein all these wonders, first the sacred mystery of the most holy
trinity, the work of the creation, of the redemption, of the regeneration,
and the future state of eternal felicity.

Secondly, our stone drives away, and cures all sorts of maladies
whatever, and preserves anyone in good health, to the last term of his
life, which is when the spirit of man going out like a candle, vanishes
away gently, and passes into the hands of God.

Thirdly, it tinges and changes all metals into gold and silver, even

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