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<DATE>2011-11-28</DATE>
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<NAME>Colm MacCrossan</NAME>
<RESP>MURP</RESP>
</RESPSTMT>
<ITEM>Proofed and reviewed.</ITEM>
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<STC T="W">T1037</STC>
<STC T="T">E1911_2</STC>
<BIBNO T="umi">99868827</BIBNO>
<VID>170553</VID>
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<TEXT LANG="eng">
<FRONT>
<DIV1 TYPE="title page">
<PB REF="1" MS="y">
<P><HI>CHEIRAGOGIA HELIANA.</HI> A MANUDUCTION To the Philo&s;opher's MAGICAL GOLD: Out of which Profound, and Subtile Di&s;cour&s;e; Two of the particular Tinctures, That of Saturn and Jupiter Conflate; and of Jupiter Single, are recommended as &s;hort and pro|fitable Works, by the Re&s;torer of It to the Light. To which is added; &Agr;&Ngr;&Tgr;&Rgr;&Ogr;&Ngr; &Mgr;&Igr;&Tgr;&Rgr;&Agr;&Sgr;; ZOROASTER'S CAVE: Or, an Intellectuall Echo, &amp;c. Together with The Famous Catholic Epi&s;tle of <HI>JOHN PONTANUS</HI> upon the Minerall Fire.</P>
<P>By <HI>Geo. Thor.</HI> A&s;tromagus.</P>
<P><HI>London,</HI> Printed for <HI>Humphrey Mo&s;eley</HI> at the <HI>Prince's Armes</HI> in St <HI>Paul's</HI> Church-yard. 1659.</P>
<PB REF="2">
</DIV1>
<DIV1 TYPE="to the reader">
<PB REF="2">
<HEAD>To the Students in Magic, for A&s;trall Secrets:</HEAD>
<P>_FOr to tho&s;e who look upon this Sa|cred Science, (&s;o the wi&s;e <HI>De|mocritus</HI> calls it) as on the Poet's <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 word">- Ari&s;to|phan's <HI>Cuccow-Town in the Clowds,</HI> and name it our Sparta; I have no|thing to &s;ay but only this: That they are &s;uch as are &s;hut up, by a wonderfull, and nece&s;|&s;ary providence of God, under the va&s;t, hea|vie cloud of the vulgar, from which they are never like to e&s;cape: And to the Gyant of Conceipt, him that comes up boldly to lay his hands on this Ve&s;tal, without the Ordinary Dignifications, competent Learning, Wit, &amp; Manners, only, two words&mdash;<GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span">; <HI>utrum homo, an Priapus?</HI> And &s;o, I bid them both Farewell.</P>
<PB REF="3">
<P>It is to you that I &s;end this Golden Ma|nuall; a pretious di&s;cour&s;e on the Magicall Gold: <HI>Aurum enim no&s;trum non e&s;t au|rum vulgi;</HI> and I &s;hall give you an account of my Election of This out of &s;ome hundreds that I have readd, after a &s;hort Introit.</P>
<P>It is not unknown to you, that there is a certaine Tongue, that is the Tongue of My|&s;teries, call'd by <HI>Ficinus, Lingua Magica,</HI> and &s;ometimes <HI>Lingua Angelorum;</HI> and indeed, it is <HI>Lingua Ip&s;ius Ternarii San|cti;</HI> for almo&s;t all the Hagiography is in it; all the Cabali&s;m of the Hebrews; and with|out the ambit of that, nothing that's Admi|rable. This Tongue is not only ab&s;olutely nece&s;&s;ary, and wi&s;ely fitted to vail her Secrets from the unworthy and prophane: but is al&s;o bravely proportion'd to the Olympus, or the Intellectuall Imaginations of Man (to &s;peak the language while I prai&s;e it; and withall interpret the &s;ublime Demon&s;trations) <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span">&mdash;.That Man, who is di&s;cended from God; has in him|&s;elfe a &s;en&s;e of him; and turnes his mind towards him; might, like a generous
<PB REF="3"> Scholler be taught by My&s;tic words.&mdash;And yet it is not every Arti&s;t who has offer'd at this Tongue, that has the right felicity to it; nay indeed, not very many out of the whole <HI>Sacra Corona,</HI> can be &s;hown, who have offe|red &s;o much as a Ro&s;e to the true Venus of the Language, the &s;weet and &s;ecret Cytherea! <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span"> Cytherea! Their words are often barbarous, their clau&s;es and periods rude and har&s;h, their whole compo&s;ure &s;o carele&s;&s;e and loo&s;e; that the common Dignity of a man, who comes to read, is utterly forgot and lo&s;t with the dignity of the Argument it &s;elfe. Then again, their mo&s;t indu&s;trious Involu|tions; their Inver&s;ions of Method; their confu&s;ions of the Works; their perver&s;ions of the &s;en&s;e of one place by another, makes all &s;o dark and intricate, that <HI>Lycophron's Ca&s;|&s;andra,</HI> where &s;he beginns, and holds on, her heavie I ambics over Troy</P>
<P><GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span">. <HI>From the top of</HI> Ate, <HI>whither the Cow wan|dred;</HI> to theirs is meere tran&s;ient, &amp; pervious Reading. But this Anonymus, who&s;oever he was, is &s;o far from &s;uch unskilfulne&s;&s;e, &amp; need|le&s;s envie, that in an endeavour to give us
<PB REF="4"> more frequent, and brighter &s;trictures of the Light, he has runne him&s;elfe almo&s;t out of the Magic Tongue. And is not that &s;omwhat raru? Be&s;ides the Di&s;cour&s;e, a <HI>Charta Lacera</HI> of his &s;ayes it, <HI>Scripta e&s;t igitur horis &s;ubci&s;i|vis Aperta haec Tractatio &agrave; nobis, de Au|ro Philo&s;ophico, nec dum cognito, non Chymicorum Stylo (ut &s;olent) allegori|co, &s;ed plano, ut Intelligatur Tinctura Solis, hactenus occultata, additis alijs, &amp;c.</HI> And yet, you need not fear but that he had a &s;park in him of that <HI>Cu&s;todia Theo|maga</HI> which comes from God, and holds to him; of which the learned Frier <HI>Bachon, Ubi Deus magnam po&s;uit virtutem, ibi etiam magnam po&s;uit Cu&s;todiam; uti patet in Viperis, &amp; Magorum Lapi|de:</HI> for he has writt to the only fixt law of the Tongue<HI>&mdash;Nil apert&egrave;, nil opert&eacute;;</HI> of which more in his Programma to the Book.&mdash;And This I name the fir&s;t, though not the greate&s;t of many Incitements, that made me choo&s;e it for you, and bring it forth out of that Lethe where it has layen un-ob&s;erved.</P>
<P>The &s;econd is, That in an extraordinarie manner, and to &s;ome peculiarity too, it treats
<PB REF="4"> <HI>de Ente primo Univer&s;ali&s;&s;imi Minera|lis;</HI> Or, of the Univer&s;al mo&s;t univer&s;al. <HI>Atque haec e&s;t anceps Sententia!</HI></P>
<P>The Third; That under the Mo&s;t Univer|&s;all, it repre&s;ents and a&s;&s;erts to us, &s;everall Tinctures particular; A thing &s;omewhat doubted by an able Philo&s;opher of my acquain|tance, who is now at the Greater Pyrotechny; and I was de&s;irous to give him my Authori|ties, from The&s;e Great Names, as well as my rea&s;ons, from our Electricall Compo&s;itions.</P>
<P>The Fourth; That there are in it &s;o many and &s;uch open glances at the Keyes of Art and Nature, as are not to be &s;pied, and catcht, in any other that I know.</P>
<P>The Fifth, That two of the particular Tinctures, that of Saturne and Jupiter Con|flate; and of Jupiter Single; are apparent|ly &s;hort, and profitable works: And tho&s;e I would recommend to &s;uch as know the Ini|tiall mother to all Tinctures, and are not yet able to beare the charge (though not much) or wait the time of the great Work.</P>
<P>The Sixt, That it is a little golden Tripos, readie to move it &s;elfe, and give an&s;wers to Enquiries concerning the Mineral &amp; Metal|lic
<PB REF="5"> Tinctures of <HI>I&s;aac Flander, Ba&s;il Va|lentine,</HI> and <HI>Theophra&s;tus Paracel&s;us;</HI> and &s;o may &s;erve as a brief Complex of all, or mo&s;t of their A&s;tral Learning.</P>
<P>The Seventh; That by <HI>Citations,</HI> it touches upon certaine Curious Manu&s;cripts, no where el&s;e to be &s;een in their Sparks, and &s;uch Semantics to what they are. <HI>Cum enim</HI> (&s;ayes his Charta to This) <HI>perlongo Tem|pore hanc Artem &s;ectatus fuerim, nec tantum perpetuis Cogitationibus, &amp; Studio Theoretico, multorumque Ma|nu&s;criptorum In&s;pectione, quorum mentio pa&s;sim &agrave; nobis fit; &s;ed manuali in&s;uper labore, &amp; experientia propri&acirc;, &amp; attentaverim &amp; compererim plurima; li|cebit mihi hujus Rei conditionem, &amp;c.</HI></P>
<P>And the&s;e are the Rea&s;ons why you &s;hould highly Accept of it, as well as they were to me to make the Choice.</P>
<P>The Second Tractate (collected from various reading, and not without &s;ome experience of my own) is an Echo to this, and within it &s;elfe; as on the other hand, to old <HI>Pontan's</HI> Minerall Fire. I call it <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span">, The Cave of <HI>Mitra,</HI> and render it <HI>Zoroa&s;ter's</HI>
<PB REF="5"> Cave; becau&s;e in the Solitarie horror of a huge Cave, the ceremonies of <HI>Mitra,</HI> that is, of the Sun, were anciently erected by that great Chaldean, and tho&s;e no doubt of Magical In|&s;titute: &s;uch as were the Sacra Eleu&s;inia, the Holyes of <HI>Ceres Eleu&s;ina;</HI> concerning which, <HI>E&s;chylus</HI> was thought to have &s;poken too much, and <HI>Sophocles</HI> has his Scintilla|tions.</P>
<Q><P><GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span">.</P>
<P><HI>The Golden Key that locks the the Tongues of the Eumolpidae, the Prie&s;ts of</HI> Ceres.</P></Q>
<P>ANd now upon the view of this litle A&s;tro|magic Trias, &amp; its in auguration to the publick light, I cannot let it pa&s;&s;e without its own <HI>Aucile,</HI> That Scutcheon that it weares from Heaven, that by its Stature it may not be taken for a <HI>Parvus Daemon Minorum Gentium.</HI> For a Genius of a lower order, or of the le&s;&s;er Nations. I &s;ay therefore, It has in it, the Green Salina; The viriditie of Na|ture to Mineral Starrs in Our Mercurie, the &s;pinging Emerald, analogous to the Univer|&s;all
<PB REF="6"> Spirit. And who&s;oever reads this book, though indeed but a &s;mall volum to that Idea that it is ready to make, &s;hall have no rea&s;on to, lament the <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span">- the lo&s;&s;e of tho&s;e bookes- <HI>The Sacred Co~mentaries of the Egyptians,</HI> named to us by the Greeks: For by this, in a &s;hort time, he may not onely become a learned Initiant; but, by the favour of heaven upon his practice, a perfect Hiero|phant to the be&s;t of Secrets.</P>
<P>Other curious Pieces I have in my eye, for tho&s;e who are carious, and of a various rea|ding; tho&s;e I re&s;olve to draw out as I fit at my Athanar this winter, and &s;end them a|broad with the &s;ame &s;ub&s;cription to your &s;er|vice.</P>
<CLOSER><SIGNED><HI>GEO. THOR:</HI> A&s;tromagus.</SIGNED></CLOSER>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 LANG="lat" TYPE="poem">
<PB REF="6">
<HEAD>PROGRAMMA AUTHORIS.</HEAD>
<L>Sunt qui Saep&egrave; legant Chymicos Mult&uacute;m&abque; libellos,</L>
<L>Nec dena atting ant po&s;t quo&abque; Lu&s;tra &s;co|pum:</L>
<L>Nunc huc, nunc illuc incertis pa&s;&s;ibus acti,</L>
<L>Quos Labyrinthaeis flexibus ire patet.</L>
<L>Sunt alij invidi&acirc; tacti, qui cuncta recondunt</L>
<L>Offu&s;is Tenebris, impediunt&abque; bonos.</L>
<L>Scilicet ut Soli&s;apiant, Soli&abque; ptentur</L>
<L>E&s;&s;e Sophi, queis nil quam &s;ua &s;pon&s;a placet.</L>
<L>Aequoris hanc inter Scyllam, va&s;tam&abque; Cha|rybdin</L>
<L>Alchymicam, in medio no&s;tra Carina natat.</L>
<L>Cholcidos Auriferam ut &s;i quando ad littora Lanam,</L>
<L>Technophilus per me forte referre queat,</L>
<L>In&s;cribat Spoliis Anagrammate nominis apto,</L>
<L><HI>Mi Nicolaus</HI> erat dux <HI>Niger Hapelius.</HI></L>
<PB REF="7">
</DIV1>
</FRONT>
<BODY>
<DIV1 TYPE="alchemical treatise">
<PB N="1" REF="7">
<HEAD>CHEIRAGOGIA HELIANA.</HEAD>
<HEAD>A MANUDUCTION to the Philo&s;opher's Magical <HI>GOLD.</HI></HEAD>
<P><HI>_BASILIUS VALENTIN</HI> a Benedictin monk, and, by his country, of the higher <HI>Al&s;atia,</HI> who, in the memory of our neerer ance&s;tors, excell'd in Magick and Chymi&s;try, in his <HI>Triumphal Cha|riot</HI> of Antimony, pag. 242. where he treats of the Stone of Fire made of the Mercury of Antimony, writes directly to this Sen&s;e: <HI>But the Stone of Fire</HI> (&s;ayes he) <HI>does not Tinge Univer&s;ally, as the Philo&s;ophers Stone does, which is prepared out of the E&s;&s;ence of Gold: No a&s;&s;uredly. For it has not alloited to It &s;uch an Efficacy by Its Virtue: but It Tinges particular|ly, to wit,</HI> Luna <HI>into</HI> Sol <HI>be&s;ides</HI> Saturn <HI>and</HI> Jupiter, <HI>omitting</HI> Mars <HI>and</HI> Venus, <HI>&s;ave only,</HI>
<PB N="2" REF="8"> <HI>that a little Gold, after projection upon Them, may be had from them too by way of Separation:</HI> Item; <HI>This Tincture</HI> (&s;ayes he) <HI>by one part of it, cannot Tran&s;mute above five, that remain fixt in</HI> Saturn, <HI>Antimony, quartation, and Ad|urents: when on the other &s;ide, The True, anci|ent, and Great Stone of the Philo&s;ophers, tran&s;|mutes to a kinde of Immen&s;ity. In like manner, The Stone of Fire in Augmentation of It&s;elfe, cannot further be Exalted: But the Gold is pure and fixt.</HI> So a little after, <HI>pag.</HI> 244, <HI>The reader</HI> (he addes) <HI>is to be advertis'd, That there are Stones to be found of more than One kind, that Tinge particularly. For All the fixt powders That Tinge, I call Stones; but One gives Tincture more Efficaciou&s;ly and deeply than Another: as the Philo&s;ophers Stone fir&s;t, That has its right of precedence to All. This, The Tincture of</HI> Sol <HI>&amp;</HI> Luna, <HI>to Red and White, follows in Order: next to That, the Tincture of the Vitriol of</HI> Venus <HI>and</HI> Mars, <HI>both of which have in their own depth, the Tincture of</HI> Sol, <HI>if they be brought to a permanent fixity. The E|lixir of</HI> Jupiter <HI>and</HI> Saturn, <HI>for the Coagula|tion of Common Mercury to Gold, follows That Tincture next. La&s;t, comes the Tincture of Mer|cury It &s;elf. And This is the Difference</HI> (&s;ayes he) <HI>and Multiplicity of Stones, and Tinctures. All the&s;e Tinctures,</HI> (he further adds) <HI>proceed from One and The &s;ame Seed, from One and The</HI>
<PB N="3" REF="8"> <HI>&s;ame Initial mother, from whence the True U|niver&s;al &s;prings. Out of the Compa&s;s of The&s;e</HI> (he addes) <HI>there is no other Metallic Tincture to be found in any Thing, what&s;oever name it's call'd by. The other Nobler and Ignobler Stones, I mind not now; and will have nothing to doe with them here, becau&s;e they are of no force but only to Medicin. In like manaer of Animal, Vegetal, and Min <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="MURP" EXTENT="1 span"> one, I make no mention, as they &s;tand and are ordain'd only to Med'cinal U&s;e, and have not the lea&s;t ability to the lea&s;t Metallic work; the power of All which, is to be found in an Exce&s;&s;e under One Complex of the Philo&s;ophers Great Stone. None of the Salts have any Tingent power: They are only keyes to the preparation of Stones, otherwi&s;e of them|&s;elves they can do nothing; but as for the Salts of mettals and minerals (now I &s;ay &s;omething to thee, if thou can&s;t perceive aright what Diffe|rence of mineral Salts I think upon) They are not to be omitted or rejected from thy works as to A&s;tral Tincture and this becau&s;e we cannot want Them in our Compo&s;itions. For in The&s;e is to be found that excellent Trea&s;ure, whence all &s;ixation with per&s;everance, takes its origi|nal, and has its True and Genuine Ba&s;e.</HI> Thus far <HI>Ba&s;ilius Valentin.</HI></P>
<P>This Sublime and Incomparable Philo&s;o|pher before the Time of <HI>Paracel&s;us,</HI> layes here the Foundation of the whole Univer&s;al
<PB N="4" REF="9"> Mo&s;t Univer&s;al, and of all the Stones and Tinctures in the mineral Kingdome; out of which, metallic Tinctures (in other Things, by Them&s;elves) ought not to be &s;ought, as he atte&s;ts in many places. But in This, he mo&s;t evidently &s;hows, be&s;ides the Original, Great Univer&s;al of the Seed and Initial mo|ther, out of which the other Tinctures pro|ceed (although he names Them not expre&s;|ly), that there are Six di&s;tinct differing Stones and Tinctures, of which one Tinges &s;till more powerfully then Another can. And in the beginning of his Triumphal Cha|riot of Antimony, he de&s;cribes fairly to us The Stone of Fire, or Tincture of Antimony, who&s;e Mercury he teaches to precipitate with Oyle of Vitriol out of <HI>Mars,</HI> and in his own proper Sweet, red Oile, that is ex|tracted from the Sulphur and Salt of Anti|mony by the mean of the Spirit of Wine, and driven by the Retort, to di&s;&s;olve and af|terwards to fixe it into a Tingent, fluent Stone. This indeed is a particular Tincture of Antimony, and yet it is certain <HI>Paracel&s;us</HI> did &s;o Exalt it, and by &s;ubtile preparations, then by reverberations, afterwards by Subli|mations, Dige&s;tions, Separations and Di&s;til|lations; at la&s;t, by various reductions and re|&s;olutions, (as him&s;elfe affirms in the fourth of his Archidoxes) brought it to &s;uch a point
<PB N="5" REF="9"> of high Temper, that all the admirable virtue of it was not to be found by the Wit of man; That by which it pa&s;t through even all metals without diminution of its force, and made them perfect, and yet to it &s;elf was &s;till &s;ufficient to Tinge more and more yet; nor That, by which it was apparently able to propagate humane bodyes Sound and Strong to the Tenth Generation.</P>
<P>To Antimony, Sulphur is not unlike. The mineral (for both of Them are to be referr'd to the vitriolates) of which, <HI>Theo hra&s;tus</HI> &s;ayes thus: That, That is not In It, we may attain by the help of the Other; by, It, mea|ning the magnetick Spirit of the World, which is the Philo&s;ophers True Magne&s;ia. And That (&s;ayes he) will follow the Cap|tain of Art (that is, <HI>Helias</HI> the Arti&s;t) clo&s;e. But after what manner the Stone of Fire out of the Three Intrin&s;ics of Antimony, by in|tervention of Oyle of the vitriol of <HI>Mars</HI> and <HI>Venus,</HI> ought to be prepared, <HI>Ba&s;ilius</HI> tea|ches, not only in his <HI>Triumphal Chariot</HI> here and there, but more collectedly, and in an open method, he &s;eemes to have treated of it in the <HI>manu&s;cript</HI> of his <HI>Manual prac|tice.</HI></P>
<P>After the Stone of Fire, next he mentions the Philo&s;ophers Stone, and gives it the high|e&s;t place, to wit, in re&s;pect of the other Tin|ctures
<PB N="6" REF="10"> Univer&s;al, but not of the <HI>Univer&s;al Mo&s;t Univer&s;al,</HI> as I &s;hall &s;how and prove a|non. But he affirms the Stone is made out of the <HI>E&s;&s;ence</HI> of <HI>Gold,</HI> and Truly indeed; but not as we &s;hall heare, without the Addition of the Salt of Nature both Simple and Com|pound: whence <HI>Alchymia,</HI> the name of the Art, is pointed out; <HI>Halchymia,</HI> that is, a fu|&s;ion of Salt, by the Ingenious <HI>Chry&s;ippus Fannian.</HI></P>
<P>The third is the Tincture of the Sun, or of Gold The mo&s;t Philo&s;ophical, and follows immediately The Philo&s;ophers Stone. This con&s;i&s;ts of Gold Alone or chiefly, and That Philo&s;ophical de&s;cribed by me, for which Cau&s;e it differs from the Stone It&s;elfe, al|though there are various preparations of it. For indeed, the Great Stone is made out of the E&s;&s;ence, and the very a&s;tral Tincture of Gold: But this Tincture of the Sun, in&s;tead of the fu&s;ile Salt of Nature, is content with his own Salt, and comes out of the three principles of Gold Philo&s;ophical re&s;olved, depurated, and conjoyn'd, as we &s;hal tell you towards the End.</P>
<P>The fourth Tincture according to the Sentence of our <HI>Ba&s;il,</HI> is the Tincture of <HI>Mars</HI> and <HI>Venus</HI> Conflate, that is, of the white, and red Spirit of their vitriol, which is the Mercury and Sulphur of both, together
<PB N="7" REF="10"> with their fixt Salt, out of which this Tin|cture is had: although without the vulgar Sol, wherewith it is to be Incorporated, it cannot be perfected; becau&s;e with It, it is fir&s;t to be fixt, as <HI>Ba&s;il</HI> witne&s;&s;es, in his book of Naturals, and Supernaturals, <HI>Ch.</HI> 2. <HI>pag.</HI> 28. in the&s;e very words, <HI>Becau&s;e</HI> (&s;ayes he) <HI>he Tin|cture of the Sun is no where more abundantly found, then in</HI> Mars <HI>and</HI> Venus, <HI>as in male and female,</HI> Their bodyes are de&s;troyed, and their Tingent Spirit is driven forth, to Satiate o|pen'd prepared Gold with Its own blood, and by its proper meat and drink to make it fugitive and volatil. Then anon, This vo|latil Gold thus Satiate with Its own meat and its own drinke, re&s;umes its own blood, and Dryes it up by Its own Internal Heat, by the help of a vaporous fire, whence en&s;ues another victory, which makes it fully fixt, and highly per&s;everant, &s;o that now the Gold is med'cin more then fixt. To the &s;ame Sen&s;e, the &s;ame Author, &s;ome pages after adds; Although the <HI>Mars</HI> and <HI>Venus</HI> (of this Art) doe not &s;tand in need of any ve&s;ture, but are able to give it to the other five; yet I dare con&s;tantly affirme and a&s;&s;ert it, that without Our Lyon, (that is, without Gold re&s;erate and prepar'd as afore&s;aid) they can do ju&s;t nothing at all, becau&s;e we doe not &s;ee, and provide again&s;t the peremptory fixity of
<PB N="8" REF="11"> their Mercury, and the malleability of their Salt, to have gain from them: unle&s;&s;e the Ly|on conquer them again in a great Scuffle, and both be brought not onely to perfect Solution, but final fixation, as he taught a|fore.</P>
<P>But here we meet with a Great and notable Objection, that bids us &s;tand to an&s;wer it. For <HI>Ba&s;il,</HI> in the twenty ninth page of this Chapter, does not only &s;ay plainly, That the Tincture of <HI>Venus</HI> and <HI>Mars</HI> without Gold re&s;olved (as was &s;aid a little before) can doe nothing: but he al&s;o affirmes of the vulgar Gold, who&s;e Tincture is to be joyn'd with the Tincture of <HI>Mars</HI> and <HI>Venus;</HI> That the Lord of all the planets (namely Gold) is not able to impart to his Subjects any thing of his own ve&s;ture: becau&s;e nature has given to it but only One rich Suit; unle&s;&s;e the Ser|vant fir&s;t do further enrich his Lord. And a little after, he adds: The King cannot com|municate with his Servants any of his here|ditary honour, nor give them a la&s;ting Court-gallantry of habit, unle&s;&s;e that fir&s;t he do re|ceive, pen&s;ions and Tributes from his Sub|jects. And now, &s;ince This is &s;o, It may be askt, and that indeed not without an emi|nent cau&s;e, How it &s;hould be, That the Tin|cture of <HI>Sol,</HI> according to its E&s;&s;ential Dif|ference can &s;tand off from the Tincture of
<PB N="9" REF="11"> <HI>Venus</HI> and <HI>Mars,</HI> or any other of the Tin|ctures; namely if the vulgar Gold be not a|ble to Tinge, unle&s;&s;e It&s;elfe be fir&s;t Ting'd by the Spirit of Its Subjects? Some to untie this knot have betaken Them&s;elves to the minera of Gold as yet Green, as al&s;o to the Marca&s;its; and I deny not but They may doe very much, becau&s;e they are not de&s;titute of Spirits. And thence, as they contend, the Tincture of <HI>Sol,</HI> and not from fu&s;ed Gold, is to be prepared and had. Others look for the Tincture of <HI>Sol,</HI> not out of Gold &s;imply re|&s;olved, but &s;uch as is fir&s;t brought into his principles di&s;tinct, and after certain Depu|rations, made up againe, by a hand&s;ome natu|ral coalition. For the Arti&s;ts (&s;uch as they are) that do not add to the Mercury of Gold, the Sulphur of <HI>Sol,</HI> but <HI>Sol</HI> it &s;elfe, doe not properly belong to us here, and therefore without contemning them, we an&s;wer thus; That the Silver and Gold that Nature has put into our hands upon her own Simple provi&s;ion, is not &s;o much required to the Tinging of <HI>Sol,</HI> as is Another more Sublime, and much better, Our Gold, the Philo|&s;ophers Gold, in which there is the Tingent Spirit; of which I &s;hall pre&s;ently di&s;cour&s;e, when fir&s;t I have run over all the Tinctures of <HI>Ba&s;il.</HI></P>
<P>The fifth Tincture <HI>Ba&s;il</HI> propo&s;es in <HI>Jupi|ter</HI>
<PB N="10" REF="12"> and <HI>Saturn,</HI> and that as extending to the Coagulation onely of Common mercury to Silver namely, and to Gold, to wit, by their red and &s;weet Oyle by Art prolected from their Centers, as he, in more then one place intimates to tho&s;e that can read. And to this place al&s;o belongs the Doctrine that <HI>Para|cel&s;us</HI> delivers in his book of <HI>Vexations,</HI> con|cerning the compo&s;ition of <HI>Saturn, Luna,</HI> and <HI>Mercury.</HI> But here, I cannot hold from telling you plainly, that <HI>Ba&s;il</HI> &s;peakes of the vulgar <HI>Saturn,</HI> and vulgar <HI>Jupiter;</HI> both of which, while they &s;till remain in their own minera, are of a higher con&s;ideration, virtue, and force: and to That purpo&s;e, in his Tri|umphal Chariot of Antimony, where he &s;peaks of the fixation of vulgar mercury, he has the&s;e words, <HI>page.</HI> 87. Mercury can be brought to no Coagulation, unle&s;&s;e there be an addition to it of the other metallic Spirits, and that Coagulation is mo&s;t efficaciou&s;ly, and mo&s;t powerfully of all effu&s;ed in the mother of <HI>Saturn,</HI> without which it cannot be done, unle&s;&s;e thou ha&s;t the Philo&s;ophers Stone it&s;elfe. And &s;o again of <HI>Saturn,</HI> in his book of Natural, and Supernatural Things, <HI>cap.</HI> 9. <HI>pag.</HI> 121. Every man is to know, and think upon it, That no Tran&s;mutation of metal can be had out of <HI>Saturn,</HI> becau&s;e of his mo&s;t exce&s;&s;ive Cold, except onely the
<PB N="11" REF="12"> Coagulation of the common mercury: be|cau&s;e the Cold Sulphur of Lead, can &s;top and tame the current, vagrant, hot &s;pirit of Mercury, and take it away, if the proce&s;&s;e be rightly in&s;tituted. And to the&s;e a little after he &s;ubjoynes: Wherefore &s;ee thou do not reject <HI>Saturn,</HI> or look &s;cornfully upon it to fling it behind thee: for indeed his nature and virtue is yet known but to a few; and it is from this <HI>Saturn</HI> that the True and great Stone takes the Initials of its Cele&s;tial, fla|grant colour; it is from this metal, and this alone; and by the Influence of this Planet is given to It a key of per&s;everance through putrefaction: becau&s;e of Citrine no redde can be made, unle&s;&s;e, from the beginning, out of Black, a White be rai&s;ed. The&s;e Things he&mdash;.Which as they are of a higher &s;earch and con&s;ideration, &s;o they &s;eem to belong to a Secreter <HI>Saturn,</HI> namely, the Philo&s;ophical, which does ari&s;e out of the putrefaction of <HI>Sol,</HI> and the Salt of nature, although a certain excellent Doctor of Law labours to evince in his <HI>Ruricola,</HI> That in the very minera of Lead of a certain &s;ort, who&s;e flowers are double, there is a very great force: the &s;ame al&s;o appeares to be proved by the Tincture called the Aromatic of the Philo&s;ophers out of the mercury of Lead; to &s;ay no more of particular Tinctures. Hence <HI>Paracel&s;us,</HI> in his
<PB N="12" REF="13"> book of Vexations, are rather of fixations, cannot &s;ufficiently extol that Interior Spirit of <HI>Saturn,</HI> which is able to kill and &s;lay the o|ther Spirits, or mercuries of the metals: as I my &s;elf have &s;ometimes &s;een bars of per|fect proved Gold out of the mercury of common Lead, as they were &s;hown to me five yeares agoe by a very learned, wi&s;e man.</P>
<P>In the &s;ixth and la&s;t place, <HI>Ba&s;il</HI> makes mention of the Tincture of mercury It &s;elf. But That Tincture is prepared either by the mediation of the Calx of Egge-&s;hels, as <HI>Pa|racel&s;us</HI> has it in the fifth book of Ulcers pa|tent; or is elevated by the vitriol of <HI>Mars</HI> and <HI>Venus,</HI> re&s;olved, di&s;tilled, and coagulated, as you may &s;ee in the &s;ame Author, concern|ing the Death and Metamorpho&s;is of Things and more to That in <HI>Rupeci&s;&s;a,</HI> to whom I re&s;tore that little book of the Tincture of mercury in the Second part of <HI>Gratarolus:</HI> or el&s;e Its Sublimate, by help of the malagma of <HI>Jupiter,</HI> is re&s;olved and di&s;till'd, in which the mercury is calcin'd, and coagulated with metals, the very way that <HI>Ba&s;il</HI> him&s;elfe &s;eems to have taken, in his book of the Two|fold Mercury of <HI>Sol,</HI> pag. 108. in that part of the Repetition of the Great Stone. For, the way of proceeding with mercury is very va|rious and multiform: and yet it is ea&s;ily re|duced
<PB N="13" REF="13"> into a liquor by fire with the help of the powder of beaten coale; which liquor af|terwards by a certain Artifice, is able to Extract the Soul of <HI>Sol.</HI> It is al&s;o preci|pitated by it &s;elf, and fixt with the Tinctures of <HI>Venus, Mars,</HI> and <HI>Sol:</HI> but chiefly it is nou|ri&s;ht with its own milk, to which perchance thou may&s;t Interpret that of <HI>Sybilla Enime|ria,</HI> when She &s;ayes: Sitting upon a plain and well-di&s;po&s;ed Seat, thou give&s;t It of its own broth, that is, milk &s;ent down from heaven; which yet again may be applyed to the Uni|ver&s;al, great &s;tone, &amp;c. in the <HI>Sybillin</HI> fragments of <HI>Philip de Lignamine</HI> the Sicilian Knight. Of This too, take that &s;peech of <HI>Geber</HI> the Arab. when he &s;ayes: If of mercury alone, (mineral he means, though taken from another place) thou can&s;t tell how to make the Stone, thou ha&s;t lookt for and found a mo&s;t excellent na|ture, and pretious skill. Hence <HI>Ba&s;il,</HI> in his Triumphal Chariot, <HI>pag.</HI> 88. For mercury (&s;ayes he) is a pure meer fire and no|thing el&s;e. And thence it is that It is burnt by no fire, and that no kind of fire can captivate it to its final De&s;tructi|on. It either flyes away &s;uddainly, re&s;ol|ving it &s;elfe &s;piritually into an Oyle Incom|bu&s;tible; or remains after its fixation &s;o con|&s;tant, that it is not po&s;&s;ible for any man to take any thing from it: in&s;omuch that what|&s;oever
<PB N="14" REF="14"> can be made out of Gold, the &s;ame may be made out of It by Art. For after the right Coagulation of It, it is in all things like to Gold: becau&s;e it comes from the &s;ame root, the &s;ame Stock, and that &s;ame Unity that Gold does. With the&s;e agree tho&s;e other pretious Sayings of his that he has &s;catter'd up and down when he &s;peaks of the Star of <HI>Sol,</HI> and the &s;tarre of <HI>Mercury,</HI> which Two being joyn'd together in their radious pow|er, opens to us at a certain time the Clo&s;&s;ets of the mo&s;t &s;ecret Wi&s;dome. See his Tri|umphal Chariot, <HI>pag.</HI> 71, and 72. 91, and 92. I &s;hould not need to take much pains in explaining the words of <HI>Ba&s;il,</HI> if That Tractate which he writ upon the A&s;trum of <HI>Sol</HI> and <HI>Mercury,</HI> were not &s;o enviou&s;ly &s;up|pre&s;t by &s;ome. Nor are we ignorant that tho&s;e by &s;ome are applyed to the minera of <HI>Sol,</HI> the proce&s;&s;e whereof by the wet way and the mediation of <HI>Nitre</HI> and <HI>Sal-gemme</HI> is in|&s;tituted &s;o, that fir&s;t Three Principles are &s;e|que&s;tred, and then depurated by Spirit of Wine: and fir&s;t of all a&s;cends the A&s;trum of Mercury White, his Sulphur and Salt remaining downwards, whereof the Salt is extracted from the Sulphur by di&s;till'd rain|water, and when it is purged of all its Ter|re&s;trial faeculence, it congeales into a vitriol under a triangular and quadrangular forme.
<PB N="15" REF="14"> Out of the&s;e Three Depurates, is againe ex|tracted a new intire minera of <HI>Sol,</HI> and the Extract for &s;ome Times cohobated by affu|&s;ion of a New <HI>Aqua Regis,</HI> untill the mouth of the Lyon (as it is call'd) be well opend, which in Dige&s;tion is circulated; and after|wards, the water being drawn away, a&s;cends the bright Mercurial Spirit. In This the Vi|triol prepared afore is fir&s;t Di&s;&s;olved, and Di|ge&s;ted, till it depo&s;es all its feculence. And this oleaginous, clear water, di&s;&s;olves the Sulphur above named and in a double pro|portion of it. To the&s;e Three parts are added four of the Mercurial A&s;trum, and &s;o Dige|&s;ted into a Balny for forty dayes, till all pa&s;s into a Green, vi&s;cous Liquor, and afterwards in a Phy&s;ic furnace be coagulate to a fixt med'cin. Others following the dry way &s;eparate a minera from Gold, and this Gold Impregnant by its own Spirit they di&s;till gently by Retort, and &s;o, that of a pound they have &s;cant a dram of its &s;weet Spirit. An ounce of this for the purpo&s;e prepared, they &s;hut up in a &s;mall Gla&s;&s;e, decocting it care|fully &s;ix months by degrees of fire, till it turn to a fixt redne&s;&s;e, which pa&s;&s;es through the Argent vive mineral collected without fire, and makes it fit and able to turn the bo|dy of Gold into Tincture. Now whether The&s;e, or the other look better for the A&s;trum
<PB N="16" REF="15"> of <HI>Ba&s;il's Sol</HI> and <HI>Mercury,</HI> I leave for others to Judge, becau&s;e I have not yet &s;een That Tractate of <HI>Ba&s;il de A&s;tro Solis.</HI></P>
<P>But that I may &s;peak yet more cleerly of that Mercury that is known among the vul|gar, we mu&s;t compare tho&s;e things that <HI>The|ophra&s;tus</HI> gives us about Congealing the Spirit of mercury into a <HI>Saphir</HI> Stone by the Oyle of Vitriol, in his book of mine|rals, with Tho&s;e that his Scholar <HI>Phaedro</HI> the Great, relates of the Soul of the Hermaphro|dite, and thence it will ea&s;ily appear to them of the Chymical monarchy, from whence exi&s;ts, and how is had, That Sapphiric Flower of the Hermaphrodite, which is the admirable my&s;tery of the Greater world; Of which (&s;aies he) even one dram after its projection upon three thou&s;and drams of melted Gold and tho&s;e ca&s;t upon a thou&s;and of Bra&s;&s;e, turns all into mo&s;t perfect pure Gold. Thus &s;ayes <HI>Phaedro Rodochaeus:</HI> who&s;e proce&s;&s;e in this Secret is not yet known to all of Us.</P>
<P>To The&s;e de&s;ervedly we may add, what the mo&s;t experienced man, and the profounde&s;t &s;earcher of Nature, <HI>John I&s;aac</HI> the Flandrian (for from him all others after him, learnt as from another <HI>Hermes)</HI> has in his Tractate of the Oyle of vitriol; And al&s;o of the Oyles of Mercury, and of Antimony brought to Tincture perfectly fixt. Nor can I involve
<PB N="17" REF="15"> This in &s;ilence, That of many mettals and minerals put together, the &s;ame Author Teaches a Tincture does ari&s;e; and &s;uch a Tincture as is able to fall upon a Thou&s;and parts of Silver, to tran&s;mute and Tinge it to Gold. And not Inferior to This, is that Mer|curial and Solar Tincture of the mo&s;t Illu|&s;trious Duke of <HI>Bavaria,</HI> Lord <HI>George</HI> The Rich, to whom, as our Ance&s;tors have left to us, immen&s;e riches did accrue from this Art. But be&s;ides, That old &s;aying; Make mer|cury by mercury, by water mercurial (to wit, out of Gold) pre&s;ents to us in Truth The &s;ame Things. And does not <HI>Palingenius</HI> in his Capricorn-book, the tenth, allude neer to the &s;ame &s;en&s;e? when he &s;ayes,</P>
<L><HI>Hunc Juvenem Arcadium Infidum, ni|miumque fugacem</HI></L>
<L><HI>Prendite, &amp; immer&s;um &s;tygiis occidite lymphis:</HI> &amp;c.</L>
<L>This young Arcadian faithle&s;&s;e, vagrant knave</L>
<L>Snap up, and drown him in the &s;tygian wave. and That that follows.</L>
<P>But of This enough already. For I do not certainly know, whether that of the Helve|tian
<PB N="18" REF="16"> Doctor, in his book of the Trea&s;ure of Trea&s;ures, writing of minerals, may be re|ferred hither, or not: Nature (&s;ayes he) begets a mineral in the bowels of the Earth, of which there are Two kinds, which are found in many places and Lands of Europe. But the be&s;t, in the figure of the Greater world, is in the ri&s;ing of the A&s;trum of the Sphear of the Sun. The Other, in a meridional A&s;trum, which is in its fir&s;t flower, produced by the A&s;tre of the <HI>Vi&s;cus terrae,</HI> the Glew of the Earth; and in its fir&s;t Coagulation is found redd, in which all the mineral flow|ers and colours lye concluded. Which words literally under&s;tood &s;eem to be &s;poken of the minera of Mercury and Gold, becau&s;e <HI>Theophra&s;tus</HI> (as al&s;o his Schollar <HI>Phaedro Magnus)</HI> attributes all the Colours of mine|rals, in his book of the Generation and Me|tamorpho&s;is of Things, to Argent vive as the mother of metals. Although there are &s;ome, that pertinaciou&s;ly fit This to the Redd Tran&s;lucid minera of Silver, call'd <HI>Rotgul|digertz</HI> by the Germans. But I, in&s;tead of Gold, &s;hould think it rather to agree to A|nother certain minera, which is feracious of Gold, and fertil to It, and yet not Gold It &s;elf. To this is not unlike, what <HI>Ba&s;il</HI> in his books of Supernatural and Naturall Things, <HI>Chap.</HI> 3. pag. 45. &s;ayes of the Spirit
<PB N="19" REF="16"> of mercury in the&s;e words: Here the que&s;ti|on might very well be put to me, How this Spirit of Mercury, is to be got, and had by Us? Upon This Great que&s;tion (he addes) One might very well with a &s;trong de&s;ire expect the An&s;wer; which yet I will not con|ceal from any one, but lay it open faithfully, &s;o far as by the wil of God, it is lawfull to do it, in manner following: Take (&s;ayes he) In the name of God, The Redd minera of Mer|cury, that looks like Cinnabar (factitious.) Take, be&s;ides, The be&s;t Minera of Gold that thou can&s;t get: brui&s;e and powder Them both together in an Equal pondus, before They have come at any fire, <HI>&amp;c&mdash;.</HI>in the &s;ame place.</P>
<P>It is very well known, That of a certain minera fertil to <HI>Sol,</HI> and the liquor of <HI>Mer|cury,</HI> by a monthly Appo&s;ition of It, there grew up to a German Lady, a perpetual har|ve&s;t, or Crop of Gold. The Gold ri&s;ing fir&s;t in its Colour Green as Gra&s;&s;e: afterwards by little and little the Spires pa&s;&s;ing into Gold, ready to be reapt by Cizars. There is, be&s;ides, Another particular Tincture that terminates in the Deep-red Cry&s;tals of <HI>Sol;</HI> when it is &s;ublimed, and has before grown out into &s;prayes, and is almo&s;t con&s;entaneous to the Other.</P>
<P>But we are to take notice, That <HI>Ba&s;il</HI> does
<PB N="20" REF="17"> not &s;peak of the Spirit of Mercury and Sul|phur after One way, but diver&s;ly; &s;ometimes of the Stone, &s;ometimes of the Tincture of <HI>Venus</HI> and <HI>Mars;</HI> &s;ometimes again of the mo&s;t Univer&s;al: whence not much after, Chap. 4^t^h of the Spirit of vitriol out of <HI>Venus</HI> and <HI>Mars:</HI> The Genuine and True Sulphur (&s;ays he) is Incombu&s;tible. For It is a True and a meer Spirit, out of which Incombu&s;tible Oyle is prepared and had: and It is That very Sulphur, out of which the Sulphur of Gold from the &s;ame root proceeds and is made. By which words it is not hard to be conjectu|red, what he would have us &s;ecretly to Un|der&s;tand by his be&s;t Minera of Gold, as he &s;peaks of It in other and other places, accor|ding to the variety of the Subject, of which he treats: Therefore he adds; For this Sul|phur is rightly to be called and baptized, The Sulphur of All the Philo&s;ophers (as <HI>Paracel|&s;us</HI> points It out too in his book of minerals, Chap. 8^t^h. of vitriol; and <HI>Ba&s;il</HI> likewi&s;e in the Chapter of vitriol, <HI>pag.</HI> 133.) becau&s;e in It is all wi&s;dome found even to the Spirit of mercury, which antecedes it&mdash;. But what That Spirit of Mercury is, of which he writes there, whether That expre&s;t in the Tincture in the Manu&s;cript, to wit, the white Spirit of the vitriol of <HI>Venus</HI> from <HI>Mars,</HI> or of the Univer&s;al Mo&s;t Univer&s;al, I leave it
<PB N="21" REF="17"> to the judgment of the learned. For he &s;ayes, That the A&s;trum both of <HI>Sol</HI> and <HI>Mercury,</HI> and the Mercury and Sulphur of the Philo|&s;ophers, proceed from One root, at fir&s;t in|deed a white Spirit, and That he plainly calls the Philo&s;ophers Mercury: for afterwards there follows (&s;ayes he) a red Spirit, that is, the Sulphur of the Philo&s;ophers and their oyle Incombu&s;tible, from both the Tinctures of <HI>Venus</HI> and <HI>Mars</HI> meeting together in one womb. To this purpo&s;e in his Chapter of Vitriol &s;ee more <HI>pag.</HI> 132. and how pro|foundly he playes the Philo&s;opher the A|nalogically <HI>de Spiritu Albo ad Album, &amp; ad Rubeum de Rubeo&mdash;</HI>Of the white Spirit to the white, and to the Red of the Red.</P>
<P>It appeares therefore, That the red minera of <HI>Paracel&s;us</HI> his Cinnabar, and the red mine|ra of <HI>Ba&s;ilius</HI> his Mercury, agree very neer; and that the be&s;t minera of Gold, with both, may be under&s;tood not only of the common Mines which nature gives us, but of others, to wit of Antimony, the minera of <HI>Mars,</HI> and chiefly of the vitriol of <HI>Venus</HI> out of <HI>Mars.</HI> But of the&s;e, as the Greeks &s;peake, <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span">, by the way, to help us to under&s;tand <HI>Ba&s;ilius</HI> &s;peaking &s;o variou&s;ly of the Spirit of Mercury; which is the manner of tho&s;e Chymi&s;ts that have tryed many Things, and draw on one &s;hoo upon many.
<PB N="22" REF="18"> For there are Many wayes that aime particu|larly at One End, not only by One, but by many, and indeed diver&s;e, Things: Again&s;t which Doctrin many have their Opinati|ons.</P>
<P>Therefore &s;ince our <HI>Ba&s;il</HI> reckons up to Us di&s;tinctly the&s;e Six Explicit Tinctures, which we have di&s;cour&s;'d &s;o freely afore: and yet in the 244 page of his Triumphal Chariot, profe&s;&s;es al&s;o openly, That All the Six Stones of metallic Tinctures ari&s;e from One Seed, and are All by One Initial mo|ther in their fir&s;t Generation; So pro&s;emina|ted and bred, that from The &s;ame mother the True Univer&s;al has its lineal profluence; it is cleer as noon-day, that be&s;ides and a|bove the Solific E&s;&s;ence both of the vulgar, and Our Philo&s;ophical Gold, there is yet Another &s;ort of Gold, and That more Secret and hid, from which the Univer&s;al Mo&s;t Uni|ver&s;al i&s;&s;ues forth, as the Seaventh and mo&s;t perfect of All, ri&s;ing from its own proper root, that is, its own Earth and Water, and in That much exceeds the very Philo&s;ophers &s;tone It&s;elfe; becau&s;e out of It alone, both That Stone, and the Other particular Tin|gents, are form'd and flow primordially: and more then that, becau&s;e from It all the other Things of all the world, not onely in the Mineral, but al&s;o in the Vegetal, and A|nimal
<PB N="23" REF="18"> Kingdome derive their life, hold it &s;till, and by the Crearor are &s;o ordain'd to their Increment and multiplication. But now what manner of thing this is, and in what thing placed, although it may in &s;ome &s;ort be conjectured by what was &s;aid afore, (The Green Line ca&s;ting it &s;elf every where, and encompa&s;&s;ing all); yet we &s;hall &s;peak more of it below in its place.</P>
<P>All the que&s;tion now, after we have reckon'd up all the Tinctures, with their Multiplicity and diver&s;ity in the Minerall Kingdome, is to be transferred by us, <HI>Ad Aurum Philo&s;ophorum No&s;trum,</HI> to Our Philo&s;ophers Gold. What it &s;hould be, viz. out of which, the Tincture of Sol is chiefly to be prepared, be&s;ides the Univer&s;al Mo&s;t Univer&s;al, and the other Tinctures named above. We &s;ay therefore; That this Gold of the Philo&s;ophers, (for of the others, as of the Univer&s;al Mo&s;t Univer&s;al, we &s;peak not now), is Gold, that is produced by the Philo&s;ophers out of the Metalls Inferior, and of le&s;&s;er value; and not by &s;eparation alone, but by the benefit of nature working by Art in an Actuall tran&s;mutation. There|fore it is not vulgar Gold, which by nature in her degree is onely &s;imply perfect, and therefore now lyes under rather an Expira|tion, or declination of its Seed; than that it
<PB N="24" REF="19"> &s;hould be vegetous and fruitfull to a proge|neration of other Gold. Concerning this thing the mo&s;t Expecienced Mineralli&s;t and Metall-man <HI>Andreas Solea,</HI> publi&s;hed by the famous <HI>Montanus,</HI> is to be heard, who in his Book of Minerals Metallic, Chap. the 9th. Of expiring Metall, Septurie the &s;e|cond, writes thus: When Nature with the body of Metall is come as high as Gold, then it de&s;cends again, or moves down ward for want of Aliment by its hunger. Again, in the end of the Seventh Chapter, Septurie the fir&s;t, Of the A&s;cent and De&s;cent of Metalls; after he has recounted, how finely nature a&s;cending Calcines the whole body of <HI>Luna,</HI> which Calx is nothing el&s;e but the body of <HI>Sol,</HI> he adds thus: As for De&s;cention, thou may&s;t ea&s;ily perceive and under&s;tand it by A&s;cen&s;ion. For this is the difference, that in the A&s;cent it fir&s;t acquires Tincture, be|fore a body: but in the De&s;cent, &s;ooner loo&s;es that Tincture. And therefore Me|talls that are De&s;cendent are much more imperfect then tho&s;e that are A&s;cendent. Thus he. Therefore &s;howing where the Seed and Tincture is fruitfull or not fruitfull in the Metalls, The A&s;cen&s;ion (&s;ayes he) and De&s;cen&s;ion of Metalls, could not be made, but that they all agree in their &s;eed and are of a Con&s;anguinity. <HI>Item;</HI> In their A&s;cent
<PB N="25" REF="19"> Silver and Gold have the &s;ame &s;eed, which in the A&s;cent tran&s;mutes Silver to Gold: but in the De&s;cent, transferrs it into Cop|per. Then concluding, he &s;ayes mo&s;t openly: The Seed mu&s;t pa&s;&s;e out of its owne body in|to another, or el&s;e it cannot be fruitfull, or fertill. Thus farre <HI>Solea.</HI> And who&s;oever will not give Credit to his various experi|ence, will believe no body at all. The cau&s;e therefore appears, why Tinctures are not made out of Common Gold, unle&s;&s;e that (as <HI>Ba&s;il</HI> &s;ayes) be fir&s;t exalted by the Spirit of Its Subjects. For we mu&s;t look for a more noble, and more perfect Gold, that is in its A&s;cent, in which the Tingent, Green, Vege|tant &s;pirit and fruitfull Seed is; which by <HI>Solea's</HI> intimation and pointing out, is Gold produced from Inferior Metalls. Why el&s;e (&s;ayes <HI>Count Trevi&s;an)</HI> &s;hould we take nine Months time to &s;erve our turn (to &s;pend it, he means, upon the Exaltation of Common Gold by the Tincture of <HI>Venus,</HI> as <HI>Ba&s;il</HI> teaches)? For we might take that body, as na|ture has made it, and laid it ready for our u&s;e. Here you &s;ee that Gold &s;imply given us by nature, cannot of it &s;elf produce Tinctures: but another &s;ort of Gold. Therefore he adds: Our Gold is not the Gold of the Vulgar, as all Philo&s;ophers &s;ay, becau&s;e the common Gold is dead: but ours is impreg|nate
<PB N="26" REF="20"> with Spirit and is a hueing Gold. Hence John <HI>Clopinel de Mehun</HI> in his an&s;wer to the Lamentation of Nature; Gold (&s;ayes he) is known to be the Trea&s;ure of all the Mines: and yet it has neither matter, nor form of &s;o great power, as to exceed its owne perfection. For it has no greater pow|er then to perfect it &s;elf, let the Arti&s;t &s;trive, and do what he can. To de&s;troy it, and to re|duce It, would be a fooli&s;h work, &s;ince out of it no more virtue, nor power can be had, than what it has from its proper nature to compleat it &s;elfe.</P>
<P>No Reduction can be made of tho&s;e things, that Nature perfects into a &s;pecies or Indivi|duall, unle&s;&s;e fir&s;t they be corrupted. And after Corruption no Generation is made like to the &s;pecies, unle&s;&s;e perchance there be a Regre&s;&s;e to the <HI>Genus.</HI> Wherefore the De|&s;truction of Gold makes nothing to the Con|&s;truction, or making of it, becau&s;e by its de|&s;truction nothing can be made. For it be|ing once dead, its Sub&s;tance dyes too, and So that out of It no other Argent vive, or Metal, can be had any more, &amp;c.</P>
<P>That therefore we may expre&s;&s;ely and &s;o|lidly confirm our Sentence and Conclu&s;ion concerning the Philo&s;ophers Gold from the lower Metalls, we will give you evident Te&s;timonies from many eminent Philo&s;o|phers.
<PB N="27" REF="20"> And fir&s;t, <HI>Ba&s;ilius</HI> in his manu&s;cript, Declaration of his manual practice, writing thus of the Tincture of <HI>Sol:</HI> Thou oughte&s;t to know (&s;ayes he) that Our Stone is made of Its own proper E&s;&s;ence, and that it tran&s;|mutes Other metals into Gold. Which Gold (he adds) mu&s;t again be De&s;troyed, and Turn'd into a better Stone. Here very e|vidently (as I think) he &s;hows, That This Gold is fir&s;t to be made, before it can again be de&s;troyed, or Turn'd into a better Stone: whence likewi&s;e in his German poetry, neer the beginning, he delivers the &s;ame Sen&s;e:</P>
<L><HI>O Sol, Regis in hoc qui munere fungeris Orbe:</HI></L>
<L><HI>Luna Genus &s;ervat multiplicatque tuum.</HI></L>
<L>O Sol, Thou doe&s;t the Office of a King in this World:</L>
<L><HI>And,</HI> It is Luna that pre&s;erves and multiplyes thy Kind.</L>
<P>In which he &s;hows that <HI>Luna</HI> is required to the propagation of <HI>Sol,</HI> as in the follow|ing lines, when expre&s;ly he adds;</P>
<L><HI>Summ&egrave;, Luna, precor, ne de&s;erui&s;&s;e velis me,</HI></L>
<L><HI>Quum Venus in bivio jam &s;it, ut illa decus.</HI></L>
<PB N="28" REF="21">
<L><HI>Induviasque tuas ip&s;a induat: ut libet Ambo</HI></L>
<L><HI>Ex illa compti, divitii&s;que Simul</HI></L>
<L><HI>Ditati &s;imus! quod Te memini&s;&s;e &s;ub|inde</HI></L>
<L><HI>Addecet. Hoc etenim nunc Tibi linquo. Vale.</HI></L>
<L>I earne&s;tly pray Thee, Good Luna, for|&s;ake me</L>
<L>not, when Venus now &s;tands doubting between</L>
<L>Two-wayes; that She may put upon her &s;elf</L>
<L>Thy Clothes and beauty: and that Both of Us,</L>
<L>being &s;o made Fine, may al&s;o be made Rich</L>
<L>By her! This thou &s;houlde&s;t Think upon;</L>
<L>This I leave to Thee! And farewell.</L>
<P>So in his following Ver&s;es upon <HI>Venus,</HI> he witne&s;&s;es further, &s;aying thus: <HI>Ejus filium (nempe Antimonium,) &amp;c&mdash;.</HI> That her Son (to wit, Antimony) does warme and heat the body of <HI>Luna,</HI> that &s;he may be made pregnant, and leave behind her a progenie of mighty virtue and va&s;t Encrea&s;e: meaning our Gold Philo&s;ophical. But from <HI>Ba&s;ilius</HI>
<PB N="29" REF="21"> more below: Now let us come to that mo&s;t Excellent Author of Twelve Tractates up|on the Stone, who&s;e Anagram is, <HI>Qui Divi Le&s;ch Genus Amo,</HI> that is, <HI>Michael Sendivo|gius,</HI> That Polander, whom <HI>O&s;wald Crollius</HI> in the preface of his <HI>Ba&s;ilica,</HI> calls <HI>Heliocantha|rus Borealis,</HI> The Northern Beetle, in who&s;e hands he &s;aw with great admiration and a|mazement, the wonderfull Virtue and Ope|ration of that Tincture commonly call'd the Philo&s;ophers Stone. Thus therefore <HI>Sendi|vow</HI> in the proaem to his Tractates. Although there are to be found &s;ome Idle fellows which either out of Envy or malice, or fear of the detection of their Impo&s;tures, cry it abroad, That the Soul of Gold may be ex|tracted from Gold, and &s;o return'd to Ano|ther body with vain and pompous O&s;ten|tation, not without the lo&s;&s;e of Time, La|bour, and Co&s;t: Let the Sons of <HI>Hermes</HI> for certain know, that their Extraction of Souls (as they call it) whether from Gold or Silver, by any vulgar Alchymi&s;tical way, is nothing but a meer per&s;ua&s;ion: which yet is not be|leeved by many, till at length by Experience, the only Sole mi&s;tri&s;&s;e of Truth, its verified to Them to their Lo&s;&s;e. On the other&s;ide, (he goes on) he that in the Philo&s;ophers way can Tinge the lea&s;t piece of metal, with gain, or without gain, really to the Colour of <HI>Sol,</HI>
<PB N="30" REF="22"> or <HI>Luna,</HI> permanent in all the probates re|qui&s;it: he, I dare very well affirm, has Nature's Doors &s;et open to him, to &s;earch out further and higher Secrets, and by the ble&s;&s;ing of God, to be an Adeptus, and attain them. The&s;e words doe not &s;o much referre to the artifice of Extracting a Tingent Anima, by which a way &s;hould be laid open to higher Secrets: as to the very, right Philo&s;ophical Gold produced out of the Inferior metals; by the U&s;e of which Gold (as I &s;hall &s;how out of the Author) a way is made to us of higher Things. But what he di&s;cour&s;es of the Anima of Gold vulgarly Extracted, we mu&s;t know that Anima cannot tran&s;|mute, although It may induce Colour, as <HI>Paracel&s;us</HI> does witne&s;&s;e abundantly to us in his book of Minerals, Chap. the &s;eventh, to the&s;e words; This is altogether True, If the Sulphur of Gold be projected upon Silver, it colours it indeed, but does not fix it. And <HI>Ba&s;il</HI> glances at the &s;ame in his Repe|tition of the Great Stone, <HI>pag.</HI> 113. Right|ly therefore <HI>Sendivogius</HI> in his ninth Tractate of the Commixture of Metals. The Chymi&s;ts (&s;ayes he) know very well how to tran&s;mute Iron to Copper, or <HI>Venus,</HI> without <HI>Sol:</HI> But if they could tell (he further addes) how to admini&s;ter the Nature of <HI>Sol</HI> to the&s;e muta|tions, they &s;hould find the mo&s;t pretious
<PB N="31" REF="22"> Trea&s;ure of all, a Thing more pretious then any is. And what Other Thing I be&s;eech you is This, than, not the Common Gold, but Our Gold Philo&s;ophical; of which the Tin|cture of <HI>Sol,</HI> the mo&s;t pretious Trea&s;ure may afterwards be prepared? wherefore (&s;ayes he) we are not to be Ignorant, what metals are to be put together and conjoyn'd, and what nature corre&s;ponds to what. Then conclu|ding; There is (&s;ayes he) One metal (metal he &s;ayes) that has the power of Con&s;uming others (videlicer, by Corroding): And why? For it is almo&s;t (&s;ayes he) as Their water, and almo&s;t Their mother. Only One Thing, videlicet the Radical humidity of <HI>Sol</HI> and <HI>Luna,</HI> holds out and re&s;i&s;ts, and is meliorated by It. Here he might &s;eem by the letter to &s;peak altogether of the vulgar <HI>Saturn.</HI> But Gold and Silver are not properly made In|trin&s;ically better by vulgar <HI>Saturn,</HI> although they be forin&s;ically purged. Therefore thou mu&s;t take it of another <HI>Saturn,</HI> with which if Gold clo&s;e eleven times, it is brought down to Death, and afterwards put into its own matrix (namely Mercury) it conceives and generates the mo&s;t excellent fruits. But &s;ince no other <HI>Saturn</HI> but the vulgar, or That which is made by Tran&s;mutation out of the Regulus of Antimony <HI>per Coementum,</HI> as al&s;o out of the vulgar Mercury re&s;olved in an
<PB N="32" REF="23"> Aqua fort, is actually metal; the words be|fore, may not unfitly be referred, to the Tincture of the Vitriol of <HI>Venus</HI> and <HI>Mars</HI> (for this is almo&s;t as their water, and almo&s;t their mother, by which the Radical moy&s;ture of <HI>Sol</HI> is indeed meliorated:) for our re&s;erate prepared Gold, is &s;aturated by It, and promo|ted to fixt Tincture, as <HI>Ba&s;il</HI> him&s;elfe wit|ne&s;&s;es: becau&s;e Gold cannot Tinge of It&s;elfe, unle&s;&s;e It&s;elfe be fir&s;t Tinged. Therefore <HI>Sendivogius</HI> adds: <HI>Sed ut detegam,</HI> &amp;c. But that I may di&s;cover it (&s;ays he) It is call'd <HI>Chalybs,</HI> or our Steel; And Truly <HI>Chalybs,</HI> yet not vul|gar, but Such as is Tran&s;muted into <HI>Venus,</HI> to which the Nature of <HI>Sol</HI> is to be intimately mingled, videlicet by the Vitriol of Both, not common Vitriol. And to This &s;en&s;e That rwordr <HI>Apotele&s;ma</HI> belongs: <HI>Vi&s;itans In eriora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occul|tum Lapidem Veram Medicinam;</HI> By its Initi|als making the word <HI>VITRIOLUM.</HI> But That <HI>Send vogius</HI> adds: <HI>Si undecies coit Au|ram cum eo,</HI> If Gold clo&s;e eleven times with It (for it does not come over the helme un|le&s;&s;e it be often joyn'd with Gold) The Gold emits its Seed and is debilitated almo&s;t to death, as we may &s;ee in the manu&s;cript practice of <HI>Ba&s;il's</HI> Tincture; it is to be thus taken, that by putrefaction after the di&s;til|lation of Both, it is at length mortified, that
<PB N="33" REF="23"> thence it may be rai&s;ed again into a New Life: Then (&s;ayes he) The <HI>Chalybs</HI> conceives and breeds a Son more noble than the father (vulgar Gold), that is, It generates for us a <HI>Sol,</HI> or magical Gold, from whence after|wards the Tincture of <HI>Sol,</HI> from <HI>Sol</HI> Philo&s;o|phical exi&s;ts. Hence he adds: <HI>po&s;tea cum Semen jam Nati:</HI> Afterwards when the Seed of that which is now born (that is, the Sulphur of Gold Philo&s;ophical) is put into its own ma|trix (that is, it be admixt to his own Salt and Mercury) it purges the matrix, and makes it a thou&s;and times fitter to bring forth the mo&s;t excellent fruit, that is, it brings forth for us a Tincture from Gold Philo&s;ophical, which after Its fermentation tinges thou|&s;ands, as <HI>Ba&s;il</HI> affirms. But <HI>Sendivogius</HI> tells us more, and that we ought inten&s;ely to mind; There is be&s;ides Another Chalybs, which is like to this, made ready to our hand by Nature, &s;uch as is able by its admi|rable virtue, out of the rayes of <HI>Sol</HI> to Eli|cite that, that &s;omany men have &s;ought, and is the Beginning of our Work: under&s;tand|ing not &s;o much the minera of <HI>Mars,</HI> or <HI>Cha|lybs</HI> native, as a certain kind of mineral Op|po&s;ed to <HI>Mars,</HI> of which in his la&s;t Tractate he &s;ayes: Our Salt is mercury: and then adds Our <HI>Sol</HI> and <HI>Luna</HI> (whence this Stone of the Philo&s;ophers exi&s;ts) is Obducted, or covered
<PB N="34" REF="24"> over with the Sphear of <HI>Saturn:</HI> which min|eral indeed receives into It&s;elf the beams of <HI>Sol</HI> (that is, its quinte&s;&s;ence), and by a very wonderfull power promotes it to a tingent Stone. <HI>Nihil nis magis Opertum, nihil magis etiam Apertum: &s;i mod&oacute; habeamas apertos ocu|los ad ixtelligendum rad ces minerarum &amp; Simplices &amp; Compo&s;itas.</HI></P>
<P>Nothing more hid, nothing more open then the&s;e things; If we but have our Eyes open to &s;ee and under&s;tand the roots of mines both Simple and Compound. To this &s;en&s;e the &s;ame Author, tract, the 10th. Gold (&s;ayes he) can give its fruit and Seed; in which It multiplyes it&s;elf by the Care and Wit of an Arti&s;t, that knows how to promote Nature. But, both in the practice of the eleventh Tractare, and in the Theorie of the third, he &s;trictly caution's that we take not vulgar Gold by It&s;elfe &s;imply to make the tincture of the Sun: And in his practice thus he does it. But be thou admoni&s;ht by me in this, that thou take not Gold and Silver vulgar: for tho&s;e are dead. Take ours (&s;ayes he) for tho&s;e are living. Then in his Theorie: But take along this Caution with thee, that thou &s;eek not that point of na|ture, in vulgar metals, in which It is not: for tho&s;e metals, and e&s;pecially vulgar Gold, are Dead; but Ours are Living, and have Spi|rit,
<PB N="35" REF="24"> and they by all means are to be taken. Thus <HI>Senaivogius:</HI> In which (I confe&s;&s;e) he does not onely di&s;cour&s;e of this our Philo|&s;ophical Gold, but al&s;o of the Great Univer|&s;al. However it is, he does altogether Ex|clude the vulgar Gold Simple, unle&s;&s;e it be fir&s;t driven from the minera's, and Exalted by Art.</P>
<P>But let us con&s;ult <HI>Theophra&s;tus Paracel|&s;us,</HI> and &s;ee what he &s;ayes, or rather demon|&s;trates in his Praxis, of this our Gold Phi|lo&s;ophical. He teaches in his book of mi|nerals, Chapter the &s;eventh, to make the Epa|tica of mineral Sulphur, from whence after|wards the red Oyle is di&s;tilled, where to the&s;e words. Here we mu&s;t ob&s;erve (&s;ayes he) that any Silver that is put into this Oyle, and there remaines its due time, remaines black, and ca&s;ts its Solar Calx to the bot|tome. But before its due time, it leaves a Calx not fixt, but &s;omewhat Volatil and Immature, (note the word Immature for that that follows) but if it attain its terme (he adds) and come to its ju&s;t petiod, then It Fffects All Things that are to be done: It is not good to &s;ay more of this thing. Out of this one place alone, it more then e|vidently appears, what this Gold &s;pringing from Silver can doe, of which (he &s;ayes) it would not conduce to &s;peak more: and yet
<PB N="36" REF="25"> he confe&s;&s;es it does doe all things that are to be done, videlicet, whatever the Arti&s;t de&s;ires, or wants. This is a mo&s;t Con&s;picu|ous place, and by no means to be infirmed, or eluded, that it may not be the palmary of Confirmation to our Sentence, concerning the living magical Gold, and &s;o much (I &s;ay) the more certain One, by how much <HI>Para|cel&s;us</HI> is Greater then All. But this Oyle of Sulphur is nothing el&s;e, but the fir&s;t Ens of Vitriol, which by its Acidity is &s;ufficiently argued; as al&s;o from this, that if you put to This oyle, of the common Sulphur, and twice as much of fountain-water, and after|wards boyle in it Lamels of Steel till a Third remain, pre&s;ently as &s;oon as it is cold, a mo&s;t Green Vitriol is generated there. And This a certain late Writer, taking it from a Di&s;qui&s;ition of mine, and mi&s;taking me, in|&s;erted to his Tyrociny, and brag'd, It was the Sal of <HI>Mars.</HI> But let us return to <HI>Paracel|&s;us.</HI> He writes in his Manual, where he treats of the preparation of the Tincture of <HI>Sol,</HI> as appeares by the End of that di&s;cour&s;e (for there he &s;peaks in plain Termes of Potable Gold, and the liquor of <HI>Sol)</HI> in the&s;e words to our purpo&s;e, <HI>Sume Electri Mineralis Im|maturi, &amp;c.</HI> Take of the Mineral <HI>Elect um Immature</HI> (that is, &s;uch as is between mature and immature). And what is this Electrum
<PB N="37" REF="25"> I pray you? Electrum, with <HI>Paracel&s;us,</HI> is no other Thing but a metal which is made by Art out of another metal; So that the white <HI>Venus</HI> out the Red, is called an Electrum by him, although to Colour only, and not to Things, they &s;tand Di&s;tant from one Ano|ther. Hence in the book of Minerals thus defining; Electrum (&s;ayes he) is a metal from another metal (namely by the benefit of Na|ture, &amp; help of Art). Whence al&s;o, in another place, The Crama of all the metals joyn'd together in Mercury, as a certain thing eli|cit from Seaven, he calls Electrum. It is therefore con&s;equent that he here, by the name Electrum, does not &s;peak of vulgar metals by nature's hand &s;imply given, or as they are con&s;tituted in their mines, or fu&s;ed above; but of tho&s;e that out of other metals are produced by Art, as when <HI>Venus</HI> is made of <HI>Mars,</HI> which indeed is much better, and of greater power (as Experience teaches) than Common <HI>Venus.</HI> And &s;o likewi&s;e, the Gold produced out of <HI>Luna</HI> by the oyle of the Epatica of Sulphur (as he taught above) is much better then the vulgar, becau&s;e it effects even All things (as <HI>Paracel&s;us</HI> &s;ayes) that are to be Effected: and may indeed be &s;o Exalted that it would drive any man to admiration. But why does he cal it Mineral, and Immature? Becau&s;e it is from the Mi|neral,
<PB N="38" REF="26"> and That Immature. For it is made by minerals, as by the Oyle of Sulphur from Luna which is imperfect, but yet in a very neer way to be brought up to maturity. Therefore before it compleats its terme, it is immature, having &s;till Extraneous Super|fluities: wherefore he teaches us to wa&s;h and purge the Electrum from all Superfluity the Chymical way by Stybium, till it attain the Exqui&s;it Degrees of Gold. And what doe you &s;ay, that Gold It&s;elf (although produced from Luna) in compari&s;on of the Stone and Solar Tincture, is a thing yet Imperfect, and &s;o in a manner Immature? as <HI>Paracel&s;us</HI> him&s;elfe in the &s;ame place a little after de|clares: Nature (&s;ayes he) has left it imper|fect in its place, becau&s;e &s;he did not intend to make the Stone, but the Matter of It, which indeed without preparation is but a dimidiate, lame Thing. This place is accu|rately to be perpended, that we may under|&s;tand, what he here calls the work of nature re&s;pectively (as is the natural Tran&s;mutation of Our Argent into Gold by the Oyle of the Epatica of Sulphur) and what the work of Art, videlicet, in preparing the Tincture Philo&s;ophical, becau&s;e where Nature Ends in making our Gold, there Art begins in the preparation of the Tincture of magical Gold: although on both hands the Arti&s;t comes as
<PB N="39" REF="26"> mini&s;ter of Nature, be&s;towing indeed more labour in the work of Art, le&s;&s;e in the work of ready Nature. To <HI>Theophra&s;tus</HI> in a&s;tipu|lation <HI>Bartholomeus Korndorferus</HI> is &s;uccen|turiat, by whom the Gro&s;&s;e, and not yet Cla|rified Gold, is commonly called <HI>Corpus,</HI> and <HI>Corpus Iners,</HI> a Body, and an Inert Body. And now to produce him here as a fit wit|ne&s;&s;e in &s;o great a cau&s;e, in his Tractate of Luna and its Defects, not unlike to that of <HI>Truh<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="MURP" EXTENT="2 letters">ius,</HI> thus he writes: There is a &s;hort way by which Silver may be brought to Such a poynt, that it may be made the be&s;t Gold, and be&s;t of all to be e&s;teemed, becau&s;e to Our Tinctures no better can be u&s;ed. What more expre&s;&s;e then the&s;e words, what I pray you more evident, and with <HI>Theophra&s;tus</HI> more con&s;entient? But he adds &s;omewhat more, by which he wonderfully illu&s;trates <HI>Theophra&s;tus</HI> about the Solution of the Im|mature Electrum. Who&s;oever (&s;ayes he) can maturate Immature Gold (&s;o he calls Our Argent) and turne It into a right liquor, &s;o that it is &s;eperate from its Earth, has got the fountain of Sanity. Hence he extols that Saying of <HI>Paracel&s;us</HI> when in his book of Vexations he affirmes: That true Alchymie onely by one Art teaches us to make Silver and Gold of the five Imperfect metals: And to u&s;e no other Receipts but onely the&s;e,
<PB N="40" REF="27"> <HI>Tantum de metallis, ex metallis, per metalla, &amp; cum metallis, fieri perfecta metalla.</HI> And then explicating that Oracle, and &s;howing how it is to be under&s;tood: <HI>Magna Arcana in me|tallis ab&s;condita, &amp;c.</HI> Many Arcana's are hid (&s;ayes he) in metals, and are to be drawn out by an ea&s;ier way then any one would beleeve, or think to do any good by it. I now &s;ay no|thing (he further adds) how wonders above wonders, are Effected by it, if, in the Philo&s;o|phical way, they be awakened and rai&s;ed up into their Primitive mercury, not into the Current, that which vagrant Impo&s;tors talk &s;o loud about, <HI>&s;erd in Sementem vi&s;cidam,</HI> but into a vi&s;cid, limous Sement, or Seedplot, out of which a living Germen, <HI>Leo Suavi&s;&s;i|mus</HI> the mercury of the Magicians, &s;hows it &s;elf. Hence it appeares what manner of Mercury it is, and into what principles the metals are to be re&s;olved, unle&s;&s;e we would have Tinctures to pa&s;&s;e into a u&s;ele&s;&s;e du&s;t, or powder, that has no Ingre&s;&s;ion into me|tals fu&s;ed, but &s;wims upon them to no pur|po&s;e. From metals, indeed are made Tin|ctures, when out of their Sub&s;tance primor|dials are drawn, which move them&s;elves on (if They be right handled) into a vi&s;cous Se|ment. But Out of metals, when perfect me|tals are compounded with their primordi|als in a form or appearance oleaginous ma|teriallys:
<PB N="41" REF="27"> By metals again Tincture are made, in the projection of Tinctures upon perfect metals namely, that by Them as the meane, They may acquire their due Con&s;i&s;tence. And then la&s;tly with metals fu&s;ed, are per|fect metals made, namely by Tran&s;mutation of Tho&s;e that are Imperfect to perfect by help of med'cins already perfect. In The&s;e we &s;ee <HI>Parace &s;us</HI> ha&s;t mo&s;t Signally and briefly comprehended the Summe of the whole Art. See tho&s;e Things which not only <HI>Guido de monte</HI> delivers to us concerning this kind of preparation (for he is &s;omewhat tedious in his prolix Circulations) but al&s;o what the mo&s;t Experienced <HI>I&s;aac Hollandus</HI> propo&s;es in a Tractate peculiar <HI>de Salibus &amp; Oleis me|tallorum,</HI> of the Salts and Oils of metals (al|though they require That <HI>furnus clau&s;us Re|verberii,</HI> with its little mount within, known but to few, and u&s;ed by <HI>Paracel&s;us</HI> otherwi&s;e they cannot &s;o well be prepared) the other Things are of them&s;elves open e|nough, e&s;pecially if they be joyn'd, and com|pared with what he &s;ayes in his Tractate of the Oyle of Vitriol, and in That of Antimo|ny, and That of Mercury.</P>
<P>Yet in this place I cannot forbear, but I mu&s;t add to Tho&s;e Two Te&s;timonies of <HI>Bar|tholomeus Korndorferus,</HI> and the mo&s;t Excel|lent <HI>Paracel&s;us,</HI> Another too of that mo&s;t
<PB N="42" REF="28"> mon&s;trous <HI>Franci&s;can</HI> monk, who in the year 1419. writt a book in the German Tongue in Open words, to <HI>Burgrave Frederic</HI> Mar|quis of <HI>Brandeburg:</HI> but the book for many cau&s;es was never brought abroad by the Pre&s;&s;e. In It, many Tinctures of metals, gemmes, &amp; pearles, are contain'd; with many other choi&s;e Arcana's. He therefore in that place, where he comes to the Tincture of Venus and Sol, by the help of which he teaches how to convert Luna into Sol, This Sol (&s;ayes he in open words) does more than another Sol: and &s;hows the way that we mu&s;t proceed. <HI>Leonhardus Turni&s;erus</HI> complains very much that he lo&s;t a Compendium of It in the Tower of <HI>Ku&s;&s;enberg</HI> &s;ome years agoe: but there is yet extant in <HI>Schobinger's</HI> Library an older Copy. To the&s;e there is a neer corre&s;pon|dence of tho&s;e five particular Tinctures that goe about in&s;cribed in little books of bark, ri&s;ing almo&s;t from the &s;ame foundation with the former, only in them the pure is not Separate from the Impure Terre&s;trial Sul|phur: otherwi&s;e then with the Monk, who &s;hows how to ca&s;t away the leprous Earth: by which it comes about that his particu|lar Tinctures are &s;o much the better, and tinge deeper, by how much they ex|ceed the other in Subtilty and Penetra|tion.</P>
<PB N="43" REF="28">
<P>But let us now return to Count <HI>Bernhard Trevi&s;an,</HI> who in the &s;econd part of his book writes expre&s;ly in the&s;e words: <HI>Curr, damno tan tem expertus &s;um, qu&ograve;d in metallis, &amp;c.</HI> To my lo&s;&s;e, I found at length by Experience; That it mu&s;t needs be hid in metals, <HI>&amp;c.</HI> Where he alleadges that &s;aying of <HI>Geber,</HI> No thing that is Extraneous, and that is not com|pounded of metals, or born of them, is able to perfect them, or cau&s;e their regeneration, or Tran&s;mutation. But the &s;ame <HI>Bernhard</HI> again &s;ayes: <HI>Corpora perfecta,</HI> &amp;c. Perfect Bo|dyes, which by nature are &s;imply perfect are only perfect in their Simple degree, and un|le&s;&s;e by Art they can be made <HI>(plu&s;quam per|fecta)</HI> more then perfect, they cannot con|tribute to Imperfect bodyes: but if (&s;ayes he) they be handled by Art, and according to Art be perfected in the Philo&s;ophers manner (mark the words) then the way lyes open, and it is ea&s;ily deprehended what they are a|ble to effect. For Our Gold is not vulgar Gold, nor our Silver the Silver of the vulgar: becau&s;e they, &s;o long as they remain in their own Sub&s;tance, are no better then dead; nor have they any Efficient power, as we may &s;ee in the Codex of truth, that is, the <HI>Turba Philo&s;ophorum.</HI> Hence alleadging that Golden Saying from <HI>Geber</HI> the Arab: <HI>Quicunque ignorat Radices Minerarum, &amp;.</HI>
<PB N="44" REF="29"> <HI>Simplices &amp; Compo&s;itas, &amp;c.</HI> Who&s;oever knows not the Roots of Mines both Simple and Compound, he knows not the principles of Nature, and therefore not of Art: and by Con&s;equence is a Sophi&s;ter, not a Chymi&s;t. By Simple roots, under&s;tand, tho&s;e that are in the Univer&s;al mo&s;t Univer&s;al: by com|pounded, tho&s;e that are made up out of Mercury re&s;olved together with a certain mineral homogeneous Earth, into a Vi&s;cous Liquor; in all which the germinant and Tin|gent force of the Univer&s;al mo&s;t Univer&s;al abides &s;piritually, and flowes in the fire like to wax without noi&s;e after a due Rectifica|tion; by which al&s;o (namely &s;uch compound roots) Gold attenuated melts like butter, and grows into the Philo&s;ophers &s;tone. therefore <HI>Bernhard</HI> having inten&s;ely &s;earcht into Nature affirms, that he had alwayes be|fore him that Saying of old <HI>O&s;thanes,</HI> (<GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span">, &amp;c.) <HI>Natura naturam con|tinet: Natura naturam &s;eparat: natura obvi|ans naturae &s;uae laetatur, &amp; in alienas tran&s;mu|tatur naturas,</HI> Nature contains nature, nature &s;eparates nature, nature meeting with its own nature rejoyces in it, and is tran&s;mu|ted into other Natures. Whereof the two fir&s;t, teach that the metals as they are in them&s;elves are not to be taken, but that tho&s;e things are to be Extracted from them
<PB N="45" REF="29"> that are Contain'd in them (for he confe&s;&s;es that he learnt by his lo&s;&s;e, that the thing he &s;ought for &s;hould be hid in metals). And the two la&s;t &s;how the friendly, Conjunction of Gold with the roots of the Mines, and comprehend the Tincture con&s;equent from thence: which things it is &s;ufficient to have pointed at, and &s;hown di&s;tinctly &s;o far. And now, &s;ince I have proved as much as can be de&s;ired, that our Philo&s;ophical Gold, pro|duced out of the Inferior metals by Nature &amp; Art, does yield us a Tincture of Gold Phi|lo&s;ophical Di&s;tinct from the Stone; I &s;hall conclude the whole matter out of <HI>Ba&s;il. Valentin</HI> therefore in his <HI>Occult</HI> Philo&s;ophy towards the End, writes of a Stagge, who&s;e hornes were of pure Gold, and had got ma|ny thou&s;ands of antlets, or branches budding from them, which Stagge ran into a Green wood, and many hunt&s;men to this day range for him, and pur&s;ue him. The meaning of this riddle is not hard to be conjectured from what is &s;aid above: be&s;ides that of <HI>Ba&s;il</HI> him|&s;elfe in the end of his Triumphal Chariot it is &s;ufficiently declared, namely how this Stagg &s;o much &s;ought for, may be taken by lively and Indu&s;trious hunting. For he teaches to pur&s;ue him by the multiplyed Stone of Fire, of which one part falls upon five of Luna, and the other things that follow in the &s;ame
<PB N="46" REF="30"> place. By which it more then abundantly appears what &s;ort of metal our Philo&s;ophi|cal Gold is, and whence it is produced, of Luna namely Tinged into Sol, whence the Golden Stagge exi&s;ts: which Gold indeed (as <HI>Ba&s;il</HI> is witne&s;&s;e) mu&s;t again be brui&s;ed, o|pen'd, and further &s;ubtiliated, before it pa&s;&s;e into a better Stone, that is, the Tincture of the Sun: <HI>Paracel&s;us</HI> likewi&s;e glancing at the &s;ame Thing in his book of minerals writes thus: If the Alchymi&s;ts could find that Sulphur of Gold, as very well it may be found (&s;ayes he) <HI>In Arbore Auri &amp; Ejus Radice,</HI> in the Tree of Gold and the Root of It, (for this is their great Scruple: <HI>Non alte|rum illud,</HI> not That other Gold) they might indeed rejoyce at it, &amp;c. Thus far then of our Magical Gold unknown to mo&s;t men, and hitherto unob&s;erved, &amp; undi&s;tingui&s;ht. Now towards the end of our Manuduction for a Clo&s;e and a Crown, we &s;hall, out of <HI>Ba|&s;il,</HI> annex a &s;hort way of the preparation of the Tincture of Sol, and of the chief &s;tone of the Philo&s;ophers, when in a few words I have premi&s;ed This, That even in common Salt, and in a certaine Other almo&s;t Conge|nerous to it, there are very hidden powers and &s;ecret forces, which are able to doe ma|ny wondrous things for us compounded with Gold, and with the Oiles of Vitriol
<PB N="47" REF="30"> and Antimonie rightly prepared. Mo&s;t &s;ure it is, that common Salt gives us an excellent Potable Gold by the Spirit of wine, if after its due Calcination it be Cry&s;talliz'd, and di&s;till'd by it &s;elfe into a &s;weet Oile. Which proce&s;&s;e, plainly conforme to that of <HI>Ba&s;il,</HI> we owe to a Noble per&s;on, and a dear com|panion of mine, who had it from him; to &s;ay nothing of other Arcana's out of Salt, For indeed it is <HI>Paracel&s;us</HI> his <HI>circulatum minus,</HI> his le&s;&s;er Circulat, which he calls by its peculiar right, the Matrix of all Metalls, e|&s;pecially the Sea-&s;alt, with which the <HI>Majus Circulatum,</HI> his great Circulat from Mercury Sublimate agrees: What &s;hould I &s;ay of the &s;weet Oyle of Antimony, &s;o indu&s;triou&s;ly &s;ought by <HI>Crollius,</HI> and mi&s;t, not &s;o faithfully communicated to me by the &s;ame freind as other things?</P>
<P>Now as for the Tincture of Sol Philo|&s;ophical; if it be truly prepared, it mu&s;t be a done by a ju&s;t and cue Anatomie of Gold: &s;o that fir&s;t his pure&s;t Sulphur, and mo&s;t highly graduat mu&s;t be extracted with|out any Corro&s;ive, and Separate from all its extremities and dregs. Afterwards, the Salt of our Philo&s;ophicall Gold, which will appeare white as milk, mu&s;t not only be extracted, but mu&s;t al&s;o bee brought to a Tran&s;parent Serenity, by which afterwards, it may more
<PB N="48" REF="31"> ea&s;ily melt like butter in the extract of the &s;ulphur of Gold, and together with it come over the helm. And when the&s;e two are thus exalted, then &s;uperfu&s;ed to the re&s;idue of their mercury, pre&s;ently after the Solution made, they will precipitate it to the bottom of the ve&s;&s;ell. Hence all the Three vi&s;cous principles mu&s;t be putrified in the philo&s;o|phers gla&s;&s;e, and going on, from thence be rai&s;ed again to a new life by their owne pro|per body and Salt, till they pa&s;&s;e into a Re|generat a&s;tral fixt and per&s;everant E&s;&s;ence, which by the Initial Cra&s;is of its three prin|ciples may be multiplyed and augmented in the &s;pace of a month, both in its virtue and quantity. Thus much briefly, of the Tincture of Sol.</P>
<P>But as for the Philo&s;ophers Stone, another way is to be taken, for it admitts (again&s;t the common opinion) of a duplicity of pre|preparation, namely, either by Compo&s;ition of its mineral root Simple with Gold Re|&s;olved, the way of <HI>Ba&s;il</HI> in his Twelve keyes, or by Conjunction of Gold with the Com|pounded rootes of the mines, from which line the Stone of fire prepared out of the Mercury of Antimony, and the vitriol of Venus and Mars by their own Sulphur re|ced es little, or nothing at all. But of the nature of this, I have &s;ayd enough before,
<PB N="49" REF="31"> from which likewi&s;e differs not that parabo|licall De&s;cription <HI>de nobili Solis flore,</HI> not long agoe brought out of the <HI>Archivis</HI> of &s;ome eminent Citty of the Empire, which delivers the whole proce&s;&s;e very freely, al|though it dazle the Eyes of many pretending Sophi&s;ters. But out of this compound, vari|ous particular Tinctures may be had, of which I forbear to &s;peak more now. But fol|lowing the mineral root Simple of the Uni|ver&s;all Mo&s;t Univer&s;al, we &s;ay with <HI>Ba&s;il</HI> in the end of his Memorial Table, that here there is no need, as we taught in the tinc|ture of Sol, that Gold &s;hould be &s;omuch de|&s;troyed that it may be Ju&s;tified in its Ele|ments, and &s;o the fir&s;t e&s;&s;ence of its root be &s;ought and brought forth to the light. Nor is it a nece&s;&s;ity, that That in the compounds &s;hould be done: for there are &s;ome who by an E&s;&s;ence Mercuriall, extract the &s;oul of Gold, the Gold It&s;elf remaining almo&s;t in|tire, by which they exalt their work to &s;uch an excellence, that a knife being perpendicular|ly let down into that Tincture of their Stone, and taken up &s;o again, then only wiped with a little papyr, and that papyr ca&s;t upon mol|ten Gold although nothing at all &s;eemed to adhere to the knife yet only by the odor of the Tincture, they have converted a
<PB N="50" REF="32"> whole ounce of Lead into perfect Gold in all probates, as tho&s;e have told me that &s;aw it done, who&s;e mindes when as before they were much aver&s;e from this &s;tudy, became afterwards eager pur&s;uers of the Art.&mdash;But (&s;ayes <HI>Ba&s;il),</HI> It is every mans part that adheres to this Science, and will be in love with &s;o pretious a thing, to &s;earch diligently after the Golden Magnet, (viz. of the Uni|ver&s;al mo&s;t Univer&s;al) to know it very well, which he &s;hall find <HI>in unic&acirc; re unic&egrave;,</HI> in one thing alone and none but that; and its root in one only matter, (wherewith Subti|liated Gold by help of a kindly liquor is to be re&s;olved and with continual fire, and in a furnace Philo&s;ophical, to be excited, cheri&s;ht, &amp; &s;o long decocted, till it pa&s;&s;e into a tran&s;pa|rent Stone like a Ruby) of which, &s;ays <HI>Ba&s;il,</HI> our potable Gold is made more perfect, than it can of Gold It&s;elfe, which ought fir&s;t to be made Spiritual, before potable Gold can be prepared out of it, as he has it <HI>Chap.</HI> the &s;ixt of things Supernatural, &amp; <HI>Chap.</HI> the &s;eventh pag 93. For this Caerule, or Azurine Spirit, which is both in the Saphir and in Luna, is the Sulphur and the &s;oul (&s;ayes he) from whence both Gold and Silver enjoy and ex|cerci&s;e their vegetall life. Hence <HI>Ba&s;ilius</HI> in the Repetition of the Great &s;tone pag. 114
<PB N="51" REF="32"> <HI>Lunae &s;piritum &s;piritui Solis perinde appropriari ait, atque viro faeminam &amp;c,</HI> &s;ayes, The &s;pirit of Luna is appropriated to the &s;pirit of Sol, as a woman to a man, both in the Earth (where metalls are fir&s;t generated) and then upon it where the metalls are made by Art. Then again, the white Tincture (&s;ayes he) is pla|ced in the Magnetic Form of that one onely thing, in which likewi&s;e is found the fir&s;t ens of Gold. And with words to the &s;ame &s;en&s;e, after the rectification of the Lunar Tincture de&s;cribed, together with the preparation of it, he &s;huts up that Chapter: But if thou doe&s;t know (&s;ayes he) the <HI>primum Mobile</HI> of the mall (there needs not &s;omuch of the circu|lations of compo&s;itions) <HI>quandoquidem opus ex uno perficere potes,</HI> becau&s;e thou may&s;t doe thy worke by one. But what this one is, we mu&s;t &s;eeke in the nature of the Mineral king|dom. But yet, that he might not leave it alto|gether untoucht upon, and &s;o de&s;ert his rea|der in the mid'&s;t of his cour&s;e, he everywhere intimates that it is not far from every one of us. For &s;o, in his book of Naturalls chap. the 4th, pag. the 56, he complains that the &s;ons of men doe not ob&s;erve, but rather con|temne that which God has layd before us in nature, in which there is a great &s;ecret. To the &s;ame &s;entence, in the end of his Memorial
<PB N="52" REF="33"> Table: The true root (&s;ayes he) is vile, and even vi&s;ibly expo&s;ed to the eyes of the vul|gar, and yet unknown; and, if not by a various proofe premon&s;trated, it &s;till lyes hid to a man in the Dark. For all the world (as <HI>Bernhard</HI> likewi&s;e bears witne&s;&s;e) looks upon it, &s;ees it, and does not know it. So of the great my&s;tery of the le&s;&s;er world, towards the endpag. 220. The <HI>Materia prima,</HI> The fir&s;t matter (&s;ayes he) is manife&s;t before the eyes of the whole world, and yet known to very few, and in all places to be found, to wit, Mercurius, Sulphur, &amp; Sal, and Mineral wa|ter, or Metallic liquor, <HI>tanquam-centrum</HI> as a center, <HI>&acirc; Form&acirc; &s;u&acirc; &s;eparata,</HI> &s;eperated from its from <HI>(the prima materia</HI> or mineral water under&s;tand &s;eparated) and made up of the&s;e three Incipients. But chiefly, in the end of his la&s;t chapter <HI>de rebus naturalibus, Omnia (inquit) quae po&s;t Antimonium, Vitriolum, Sul|phur, Magnetem, praecipu&egrave; dotata &s;unt praealiis, et affinia its, ex quibus Aurum et Argentum prin|cipium, medium, et finem &s;uum &s;ortiuntar &amp;c.</HI> All tho&s;e things (&s;ayes he) which after Anti|mony, Vitriol, Sulphur, and the Magnet, are in an eminent manner above others endowed with, and nearer a kin to tho&s;e principles, from which Gold and Silver derive their beginning, middle, and end, together with
<PB N="53" REF="33"> true tran&s;mutation and alteration particu|larly; received their virtue, force, and power <HI>ex unare,</HI> from one thing, in which all the&s;e are Secretly and Invi&s;ibly layd up-till their birth, together with all the metalls: To which he adds: <HI>Quae materia manife&s;ta e&s;t coram oculis omnium:</HI> Which matter is manife&s;t before the eyes of all men. But becau&s;e the virtue, force, and power of It, is buryed very deep, and &s;o unknown to mo&s;t, it comes about that this Materia is accounted as nothing, and by Ig|norance thought and reputed utterly in&s;igni|ficant and unfit, to the purpo&s;e of Art.</P>
<P>The name of it (&s;ayes he) is <HI>Hermes,</HI> who carries for his en&s;igne a Serpent volant, and has to his wife, her who is called <HI>Aphrodita;</HI> that knowes the hearts of all mortalls: and yet all the&s;e are but one thing, <HI>Unica Res Unic&egrave; et E&s;&s;entia,</HI> One &s;ingle only Thing or E&s;&s;ence, which (&s;ayes he) is common in all coa&s;ts, known in all places, every one takes it in his hand, and u&s;es it to vile things; the vile he accounts pretious, and rejects the pretious. In &s;um, &s;ayes he. It is nothing el&s;e but Water &amp; Fire, whence Earth with the addi|tament of Ayr is born, and &s;till pre&s;erved. In the&s;e he fully &s;etts before the eyes of all men the matter of the Interior Root.</P>
<P>Therefore here, as at the Goal of the Uni|ver&s;al
<PB N="54" REF="34"> mo&s;t Univer&s;al, we too mu&s;t &s;top and make our &s;tand in the mineral kingdom, af|ter the Recount of Univer&s;als, and almo&s;t all particular Tinctures, of which we have hi|therto had any notice. Only one thing I thought good to add for their &s;akes, who think, There it nothing at all true, or profi|table, <HI>extra Univer&s;ale Univer&s;ali&s;&s;imum,</HI> without, or be&s;ides the Univer&s;al mo&s;t Uni|ver&s;al; and therefore deny that particular Tinctures are to be &s;ought and had, without the compa&s;&s;e of That. To Tho&s;e indeed I can ea&s;ily grant, that, the Univer&s;al matter had, and rightly known, <HI>po&s;&s;e ex ea certiffima pa|rari particularia,</HI> mo&s;t certain particulars may be made out of it. But it is not therefore con&s;equent, that in this and the other bough and branch, growing out of the univer&s;al Materia, although in the &s;pecies differing from it, there &s;hould be no power of tran&s;|mutation, which both experience bears witne&s;&s;e to, and the learned acknowledge, as <HI>Chry&s;ippus Fannian</HI> in his Metamorpho&s;is, &amp; <HI>Aqinas</HI> him&s;elf <HI>de Corporibus Supercela&s;ti|bus et Inferioribus</HI> cap. 4 <HI>et deinceps.</HI> Nor does it follow, Count <HI>Trevi&s;an</HI> in all his life found no particular of any moment, there|fore nobody el&s; can find one, or, that it is fal&s;|ly affirmed by others. For to &s;ay nothing how
<PB N="55" REF="34"> Count <HI>Bernhard</HI> &s;ought for the Univer&s;al (which certainly is to be found in no Parti|cular <HI>extra Univer&s;ale)</HI> both what not only <HI>Ba&s;ilius</HI> had &s;aid of the Stone of fire, and of the di&s;tinct Tinctures of metalls, and what Others, &s;ufficiently refutes him: but al&s;o what <HI>Paracel&s;us</HI> of the Epatica of Sulphur, and Luna converted into Sol by the oile of ir; and That which <HI>Korndorferus</HI> relates <HI>de Lapide Schi&s;to,</HI> of the Stone <HI>Schi&s;tus,</HI> for an ability to the fixing of Luna, although both in the vulgar Sulphur, and in <HI>Korndorfer's</HI> Schi&s;tus, which is a certain very eager &s;harp &s;alt, even <HI>Ba&s;il</HI> him&s;elfe by a mi&s;take denyes any power of tran&s;mutation. So on the other &s;ide there are &s;ome, who, having got &s;ome either univer&s;al, or particular Tincture, forthwith in&s;olently cry it out, That there is no other Univer&s;al, but that of theirs; <HI>Ade&ograve; plaerique nobis Suffaeni &s;umus omnes,</HI> So apt are we all to hugge our&s;elves in our own con|ceits, and ours. But to have pointed at this by the way, is enough for us. May the great and good God grant by his eternall Spirit, in his only begotten Son, con&s;ub&s;tantial to him, our Emanuel, that we fix not our hearts on the&s;e Terre&s;trial goods the Mammon of this world, neglecting the cele&s;tiall, but that we may &s;eriou&s;ly look after a better trea&s;ure
<PB N="56" REF="35"> laid up in heaven, and, apprehending it by Faith, expecting it in certain hope, in a cour&s;e of unwearied piety joyn'd with love, we may a&s;pire to it, and attain it, through and for Je&s;us Chri&s;t: who with the Father, and the Holy Spirit, is the One only Jehovah, ble&s;&s;ed for ever. To whom be the Pray&s;e and Glory to all eternity, Amen.</P>
<TRAILER>Finis Cherragogiae Helianiae,</TRAILER>
<BYLINE>per Adeptum Anonymum.</BYLINE>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 TYPE="alchemical treatise">
<PB N="57" REF="35">
<HEAD>&Agr;&Ngr;&Tgr;&Rgr;&Ogr;&Ngr; &Mgr;&Igr;&Tgr;&Rgr;&Agr;&Sgr;. ZOROASTER'S CAVE. OR, The Philo&s;opher's Intellectuall Echo to One another from their <HI>CELLS.</HI></HEAD>
<DIV2 TYPE="part">
<HEAD>Of Mercurie and Sulphur.</HEAD>
<HEAD>ECHO Prima.</HEAD>
<P>_DRy water from the Philo&s;ophers Clouds! Look for it, and be &s;ure to have it, for it is the key to inacce&s;&s;ibles, and tho&s;e locks that otherwi&s;e would keep thee out. <BIBL><HI>Chorus omnium.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>It is a middle nature between fixt, and not fixt, and partakes of a Sulphur Azurine. <BIBL><HI>I&s;aacus Flander, &amp; Gymno&s;ophi&s;tae apud Phi|lo&s;tratum.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>It is a Raw, Cooling, Feminine fire, and expects its Impregnation from a Ma&s;culine, Solar Sulphur. <HI>Ari&s;tot. Arabs.</HI> It is the only compleat Angell to the Infern, or Bottom
<PB N="58" REF="36"> of the earth, where all the Trea&s;ures are hid. <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span">. <BIBL>Apollo <HI>apud Homerum in Hymno ad Mercurium.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>All that are conver&s;ant in this Art, learn from Experience, and all good Authors, That the true matter and &s;ubject of this &s;tone, has Gold and Silver in potentiality, and Argent vive naturally, or actually: Which Gold and Silver are much better than tho&s;e men com|monly &s;ee and handle, becau&s;e the&s;e are alive and can increa&s;e; the other dead: And if this could not be effected, the matter would never be brought to its perfection, which this art promi&s;es; which is indeed &s;o efficacious as to perfect Imperfect metalls. But this &s;ame invi&s;ible Gold or Silver, which by this Ma|gi&s;tery is exalted to &s;o &s;ublime a degree, cannot communicate its perfection to imper|fect metalls, without the help and &s;ervice of vulgar Gold and Silver. <BIBL><HI>Adeptus Anony|mus apnd Combachium.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>The Sun and the Moon mu&s;t be in Con|junction that they may ab&s;olve perfect gene|ration. <HI>Arnoldus Villanovan in flore florum.</HI> No corruption, that is, no mutation or pa&s;|&s;age of one form into another can be made, without the mediation of Putrefaction, (which is the &s;ole mean and way to Gene|ration) nor any putrefaction be had, without &s;ome Mercury, or Argent vive, which is the
<PB N="59" REF="36"> &s;pecial delator, or conductor of the vegetant faculty, called by Philo&s;ophers, The viridity of Nature.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Anonymi Adepti-Sal, Lunien, et Spiritus Uni+ver&s;i.</HI></BIBL> Minerals have their Roots in the Ayre, their Heads &amp; Tops in the earth. Our Mercury is Aereal; look for it therefore in the Ayre, and in the Earth. <BIBL><HI>Calid Aegyptius.</HI></BIBL> It is the potentiall vapor of metals. <BIBL><HI>Aegidius de Vadis.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>Our Stone is the conjunction of Sol and <HI>Luna,</HI> till Sol has drawne the &s;ub&s;tance of <HI>Luna</HI> to his Nature and colour. <HI>Lullii</HI> Co|dicillus. And this is done by the inward fire, or &s;ulphur of the &s;tone <BIBL><HI>Idem ibidem.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>Minerals made of living Mercury, and li|ving Sulphur, are to be cho&s;en: worke with them &s;weerly, not &s;wiftly with precipitance. <BIBL><HI>Da&s;tinus-pag</HI> 55.</BIBL></P>
<P>The thing that works perfection in metalls is the &s;ub&s;tance of Argent vive and Sulphur proportionally mixt, by long and temperate Decoction in&s;pi&s;&s;ate and fixt in a Wombe of clean earth; with con&s;ervation of his radi|call not corrumpent humidity, wrought up to a &s;olid &s;ub&s;tance, with due ignition fu&s;ible, and under the hammer Exten&s;ible. <BIBL><HI>Geber, de Inve&s;tig: cap.</HI> 2.</BIBL> Tho&s;e that know the Mercury and Sulphur of the Philo&s;o|phers: know that they are made of pure Gold and the fine&s;t <HI>Luna,</HI> and Argent vive, which are dayly &s;een, and lookt upon, from which
<PB N="61" REF="37"> our Argent vive is elicited. <BIBL><HI>Bernardus de Gran|pag.</HI> 1. <HI>Manu&s;er. vetu&s;ti&s;s:</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>Our Stone is the potentiall vapor of Metal; and how to get this, thou mu&s;t be very care|full and wary.</P>
<P><BIBL>Aegidius de Vadis</BIBL></P>
<P>Our Water is a lu&s;tral, or expiaring e&s;sence, and the cau&s;e efficient of the clarity of the whole body, and med cine. Two things it works in the earth: It wa&s;hes it, It tinges it: As it wa&s;hes, it is Water; as it tinges, it is Ayre <HI>Ludus puerorum.</HI> The ancients call'd our Ar|gentvive <HI>Aqua Sicca,</HI> Dry water,</P>
<P><BIBL>Tauladan.</BIBL></P>
<P> It is apparent, what that Argent vive is that <HI>Geber</HI> points at, in his Summa to be taken, namely, the Cleane &s;ub&s;tance of fixt Mercury, &s;hut up in Sol and Luna.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Idem, pag,</HI> 193.</BIBL></P>
<P> Argent vive in its fir&s;t root is compoun|ded of white earth, &s;ubtile, and &s;ulphureous &s;trongly mingled with a bright and clear water, united with &s;uch an union, <HI>per mini|ma,</HI> till the moy&s;t be tempered with the drie, and the drie with the moy&s;t equally into one Intimate &s;ub&s;tance, that will not re&s;t on a plain Surface, nor adhere to the Tangent becau&s;e of its Siccity, which has altered and cohibited the Aqueity in it. But it is homo|geneous
<PB N="61" REF="37"> in its nature: for it either remains all in the fire, and fixt; or el&s;e, all flyes a|way in fume; becau&s;e it is Incombu&s;tible, and Aereal. And this is a &s;igne of perfection. <HI>Richardus Anglicus Philo&s;oph.</HI></P>
<P><BIBL>Vetu&s;tus.</BIBL></P>
<P><HI>Mercurius crudus,</HI> Mercury crude, di&s;|&s;olves bodyes, and reduces them to their Materia prima: but the <HI>Mercurius corporum</HI> the Mercurie of Bodyes cannot do it. <HI>Holcot Anglus.</HI> The Mercury of the Philo&s;ophers is compounded of Mercury Crude and the Mercury of Bodyes, by an Union Intimate and In&s;eperable, as there is in Simple water mixt with Simple water. <BIBL><HI>Libanius Gallus, apud Trithemium</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>By a Lucid Key he opened &s;ecret places, otherwi&s;e inacce&s;&s;ible, and within was great &s;tore of Siver and Gold.
<Q><L><GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span"></L>
<L><GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span"></L>
<BIBL>Mercurius Antiquoruum apud Homerum.</BIBL></Q></P>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 TYPE="part">
<PB N="62" REF="38">
<HEAD>The Names of the Materia to the Magical practice. Echo II.</HEAD>
<P>WHen our materialls are Amalgamated, that Amalgam, to conceale it from the unworthy, is call'd by Philo&s;ophers our Venus, our Gold, The earth of Magne&s;ia, the whole Compound. <HI>Jodocus Greverius pag.</HI> 21. I tell thee that our Semen is the true Salamander, conceived by fire, nur&s;ed by fire, and perfected by fire.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Idem pag.</HI> 36.</BIBL></P>
<P> The matter which we need to our worke, is not the Hyle, or the Chaos, but the <HI>Materia prima propinqua,</HI> The fir&s;t matter in a propin|quity, that is, the &s;econd; which in Ani|mals is Sperm, in vegetals Seed, in minerals Sulphur, and Argent vive. <BIBL><HI>Ripleus Anglus. Sendivogius Polonus.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>Sulphur perfectly clarified and dealbate, Philo&s;ophers call Their foliated Earth. <HI>Vo|gelius manu&s;criptus.</HI> The work yet Crude is call'd our Argent vive, water permanent, Our Lead, Our Saturn, the &s;pittle of Luna, our Ju|piter. When better decocted, then it is Argent, then Magne&s;ia, and white Sulphur. When it is Red, it's call'd Auripigment, Corall, Gold,
<PB N="63" REF="38"> Ferment, a Stone, a Lucid Water of cele&s;tiall colour. <BIBL><HI>Adeptus Anonymus, De&s;iderabile &amp;c.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P><HI>Magne&s;ia</HI> is That whole mixture from whence is drawn our humidity call'd Argent vive. <HI>Ludus puerorum. p:</HI> 136. The Dragon is the Sulphur that is Extracted from the Bodyes by the Magi&s;tery, <BIBL><HI>Nich: Flamellus Annot. in Democritum.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>The liquor of Lunary, the vegetable Mer|cury, the quinte&s;&s;ence, and water Ardent, are all one thing. With our liquor of Lunary, known but to few, is our Solution made, and our potable Gold; but without it, not at all. <BIBL><HI>Ro&s;arium Philo&s;oph: p:</HI> 173.</BIBL></P>
<P>Trouble not your&s;elves about the diver&s;ity of names, and the regiment of the work; for if we would make Sol, we mu&s;t take Sol, if Luna, Luna for our Ferment.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Da&s;tinus pag:</HI> 30.</BIBL></P>
<P> Our Black Materia dealbated is called the Terra Foliata, A&s;hes of A&s;hes, ferment of ferment, and white Sulphur enduring the fire: and yet without Ferment neither Sol nor Luna will come forth, but &s;omwhat that's as good as nothing.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Lib: duorum verborum: p.</HI> 47.</BIBL></P>
<P> Our Stone in the beginning is called water; when the body is di&s;&s;olved, Ayre, or Wind; when it tends to con&s;olidation, then it is
<PB N="64" REF="39"> named Earth, and when it is perfect and fixt, it is called Fire. <BIBL><HI>Dominus Vobi&s;cum. p.</HI> 54.</BIBL></P>
<P>Argent Vive is called Wind, that is, Aereal Argent Vive, the &s;tronge&s;t vinegar, poy&s;on Tingent, Virgins Milk, Burning fire, burning wor&s;e than the fire of Hell.</P>
<P><BIBL>Incertus Author.</BIBL></P>
<P> The Sone is called Adrop, that is Saturnus; becau&s;e, as Saturn is the chiefe&s;t of the Pla|nets; So our mercuriall Saturnine Stone, is the highe&s;t and mo&s;t pretious of Stones.</P>
<P><BIBL>Saturninus.</BIBL></P>
<P> Our compound is called by Philo&s;ophers White Earth when it is white; and Red when it is Red. <HI>Scotus de Bufone:</HI></P>
<P>When our limous earth is whitened, we call it yharit, that is, Silver; and when it is made red we call it Temeinchum, that is, Gold: And it is whitene&s;&s;e that tinges Ve|nus and makes it Yharit, and that redne&s;&s;e that tinges Yharit, and makes it Temein|chum, that is, Gold.</P>
<P><BIBL>Calid Egyptius, Philo&s;ophus nobilis</BIBL></P>
<P> Our matter is call'd the elementall Stone, becau&s;e the four elements are extracted from it: The mineral Stone, becau&s;e it is made only of mineralls: The vegetable Stone, be|cau&s;e it is nouri&s;ht and augmented, which are the properties of the vegetative Soul: The Animal Stone, becau&s;e it is refre&s;ht with
<PB N="65" REF="39"> &s;weet odors, and corrupted with &s;tinking.</P>
<P><BIBL>Scotus de Bufone.</BIBL></P>
<P> Our Stone is called Adrop, that is, Saturn.</P>
<P><BIBL>Speculum Arnaldi.</BIBL> </P>
<P>Our Stone after its putrefaction is called Magne&s;ia, and in the putrefaction it is called Saturnus, <HI>Idem ibidem.</HI> All the metalls when they are prepared by Art, then they are call'd Sol, Luna, Mercurius &amp;c. For before they were onely Gold, Silver, and Quick&s;ilver. <HI>Marcilius Ficinus.</HI> The Incombu&s;tible Grain of metalls, is their radicall humidity; and is as a certain Seed of Sol, and Luna, which nature has in&s;erted to them, that upon op|portunity they may be Excocted to Sol and Luna by Nature in a long, by Art in a very &s;hort, Time. <BIBL><HI>Vogelius.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P><HI>Azot</HI> is a fift E&s;&s;ence, a body of it&s;elf Sub&s;i&s;tent, differing from all the Elements, and all the Elementals both in Matter and Form, Nature and Virtue, having nothing of the Corruptible: and it is cal|led a fift E&s;&s;ence becau&s;e it is Extracted from four, and has in it no Elemental motion, as other Elemental bodyes, Tinging and puri|&s;ying metallic bodyes by its Colour, and Keeping from Corruption all other Bodyes that are joyn'd with it.</P>
<P><BIBL>Incertus Author.</BIBL></P>
<P><HI>Terra Alba,</HI> White Earth, White Sulphur,
<PB N="66" REF="40"> White Fume, Auripigment, Magne&s;ia, and Ethel, &s;ignifie the &s;ame, in this Art. <BIBL><HI>Tertia Synodus Pythagorica Manu&s;cripta.</HI></BIBL></P>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 TYPE="part">
<HEAD>No way but one to the Sulphur of Nature. Echo III.</HEAD>
<P><HI>NEmo habet in Sulphure ni&s;i Unum Iter.</HI> No road but one to find the quick Sul|phur. <BIBL><HI>David Arabs.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>Thou neede&s;t but one thing, namely Water, and one operation, to wit Decoction, to White and Red, in one ve&s;&s;ell, under|&s;tand of one kind.</P>
<P><BIBL>Alphid Arabs.</BIBL></P>
<P> Although the wi&s;e men have varied names, and perplext their &s;ayings, yet they allwayes would have us think but of One Thing, one Di&s;po&s;ition, one Way. The wi&s;emen know this one thing; and, that it is one, they have often proved,</P>
<P><BIBL>Morienus Eremita Hrero&s;olymitanus.</BIBL> </P>
<P>In a multiplicity of things our art is not perfected. For it is one &s;tone, one med'cin, in which con&s;i&s;ts the whole magi&s;tery: to which we add nothing extraneous, nor take away any thing, but only, in our preparation, that that is &s;uperfluous</P>
<P><BIBL>Idem Eremita.</BIBL></P>
<P> White and Red proceed from The &s;ame
<PB N="67" REF="40"> Root without any other Kind intervenient. For it di&s;&s;olves, and conjoyns It &s;elfe, makes it &s;elfe Black and Citrine, white and red, e&s;pou&s;es It&s;elfe, conceives, brings forth, and does all to the perfect end&punc;</P>
<P><BIBL>Rha&s;is Arabs. Et Idem Haly.</BIBL> </P>
<P>If you Govern Our Bra&s;&s;e, Our Venus, with Our Water, then you &s;hall find all that is &s;aid; otherwi&s;e, you doe nothing,</P>
<P><BIBL>Turba Philo&s;oph.</BIBL></P>
<P> There is noway for the Rectifying of Bodies intirely and compleately without our Tincture, which is a Clean Seed, and has upon it the ble&s;&s;ing of multiplication from Heaven,</P>
<P><BIBL>Aurora.</BIBL> </P>
<P>Our water Gilded with Solar Sulphur is the Secret of the <HI>Aegyptians, Chaldeans, Arabians, Per&s;ians,</HI> and <HI>Greeks, Hallelujah per Anonymum.</HI></P>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 TYPE="part">
<HEAD>The Number of the Components of the Magical Stone. ECHO. IV.</HEAD>
<P>OF Sol and Luna thou may&s;t make the perfect med'cin without Separation of the Elements, without labour, without fear without danger; they need a long
<PB N="68" REF="41"> time, but they are &s;afe. <BIBL><HI>I&s;aacus Flander. lib.</HI> 2. <HI>mineral.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>The Ancients labour'd in the Almagama|tion of Sol &amp; Luna, which is indeed the mo&s;t perfect worke, and the Care little. <BIBL><HI>Idem ibidem.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>Mercury alone perfects the works, in it we find all that we need, to it we adde no|thing extraneous. Sol and Luna are not Ex|traneous to one another, becau&s;e they in the beginning of the work are reduced into their fir&s;t Nature (that is, Mercury), therefore from It they took their beginning.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Divus Thom: Aquinas cap</HI> 3.</BIBL></P>
<P>Wherefore I coun&s;ell you my friends, that you work not on any thing but Sol and Luna, reducing them into their fir&s;t matter, that is, Our Sulphur and Argent vive. <BIBL><HI>Lullii Codicillus.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>Of Sol vulgar, &amp; Luna vulgar, both Solute there is a preparation of Mercury vulgar. Of tho&s;e Three without any other Species, the Phy&s;ic-Stone is generated, and of no o|ther can it be made by the Wit of Nature. <BIBL><HI>Incertus. Incipiens. De&s;idrrabile.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>The difference betwixt the Solar and the Lunar Tincture is This: The Solar contains Solar Sulphur; The Lunar, Lunar Sulph|ur, <BIBL><HI>Albertus Magnus.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>The Stone is one: Yet This one, is not one in Number, but in kind.</P>
<PB N="69" REF="41">
<P><BIBL>Scala Philo&s;oph.</BIBL></P>
<P> Rebis is the fir&s;t part of the work; Elixir the Second; Tincture the Third; and Medi|cin the fourth. Therefore it appears, That to Azoth Elixir is required, becau&s;e Elixir in this work precedes Azoth; For from Elixir, Azoth is extracted. But Azoth is that which is extracted by our Mercury from the bodyes di&s;&s;olved; and That is counted the Maturer, <BIBL><HI>De&s;iderabile.</HI> 169.</BIBL></P>
<P>Elixir is no other then the body re&s;olved into Mercurial Water, after which re&s;olu|tion Azoth is extracted out of it, that is, a Spirituous Animated E&s;&s;ence. <BIBL><HI>Idem.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>In one Thing for &s;peices, and Two Indivi|duals It con&s;i&s;ts and is perfected, fir&s;t to White, then to Red, finally by increa&s;ing the the fire.</P>
<P><BIBL>Petrus Valentiae.</BIBL> </P>
<P>In the fir&s;t Regimen, &s;et the Crude and pure Elements upon an Ea&s;ie fire, that they may be mingled and joyn'd together; govern them &s;o that they may be de&s;iccate, or dried, and all be black; from which blackne&s;&s;e an Occult Whitne&s;&s;e is drawn, &amp; afterwards a Redne&s;s by decoction. And when it is in the perfect White, it is in Du&s;t Impalpable.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Zininus. p.</HI> 68.</BIBL></P>
<P> The Generation of Metalls and the Phi|lo&s;ophers &s;tone is to conjoyn proper prin|ciples: videlicet, Man with Woman, Active
<PB N="70" REF="42"> with a P&s;&s;ive, Sulphur with Mercury, that &s;o Generation may en&s;ue Corruption. Ar|gent Vive is the Recipient of the Form, and Gold the very Philo&s;ophers Stone,</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Saturninus. pag</HI> 71.</BIBL></P>
<P>The whole work con&s;i&s;ts in Sol, Luna, and Mercury. <HI>Ter&s;im. pagin:</HI> 103. Gold and Sil|ver are Metalls, out of which the Golden and Silver Elixirs are made.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Tauladan Pag.</HI> 184.</BIBL></P>
<P>Tinge with Gold, and Silver: becau&s;e Gold gives the Golden; and Silver, the Silver Na|ture and Colour.</P>
<P><BIBL>Richardus Anglicus.</BIBL></P>
<P> It is nece&s;&s;ary that the Stone before it be made Elixir, be extracted from the Nature of Two bodyes. <HI>Monachus.</HI> The fire ought to be very &s;oft, till the Spirit be &s;eparated from the Body, a&s;cending into black clouds above the body: By a Spirit Crude, a &s;pirit Dige&s;ted is Extracted from the body di&s;&s;ol|ved.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Idem pag.</HI> 167.</BIBL></P>
<P> Take the Stone Su&s;pended upon the Sea, his name is <HI>Victor;</HI> with him &s;lay the living, and enliven the &s;lain; for in his power are Death, and Life.</P>
<P><BIBL>Incognitus qui incipit Exemplum Scientiae.</BIBL></P>
<P> Our Mercury is drawn from the Calx of Metalls by putrefaction, till the Compound
<PB N="71" REF="42"> put off one nature, and put on another. And &s;o by &s;uch Operations, is made the Mercury of the Philo&s;ophers.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Jacobus de Sancto Saturnino.</HI></BIBL></P>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 TYPE="part">
<HEAD>The Operations of Art in her Mini&s;tery and Attendance to Nature. ECHO. V.</HEAD>
<P>NAture begins all her Actions from Seperation. Mortification is the fir&s;t &s;tep to Separation, and the only way to that End: for, as long as Bodies remain in their old Origin, Separation without putrefaction, or mortification, cannot reach them, <BIBL><HI>Anonymus Adeptus.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>Amalgama, which is the fir&s;t Work, is made with one of Sol, and four of Mercury. And this beginning of the Work the Philo&s;ophers have called by many names, Our <HI>Venus,</HI> Our Gold, The Earth of Magne&s;ia, The whole Compound. <BIBL><HI>Jodocus Greverius.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>In the fir&s;t Decoction, when thou art blacking, there will ri&s;e from the Earth a certain humidity of Argent vive like a Cloud, and will &s;tick to the upper part of thy vacant Oval by its &s;ides, which thou mu&s;t let alone untoucht. <BIBL><HI>Idem.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>Blackne&s;&s;e like that of the blacke&s;t Coal, is the Secret of True Di&s;&s;olution, <BIBL><HI>Raym. Lul|lius in Clavicul&acirc;.</HI></BIBL></P>
<PB N="72" REF="43">
<P>Turne thy clouds into raine to water thy Earth, and make it fruitful. This Reduction of clouds into raine, is called by &s;ome <HI>Cauda Draconis,</HI> The Dragons Taile: and others &s;ay, that new Mercury is to be added. <BIBL><HI>Idem Greverius. pag.</HI> 22.</BIBL></P>
<P>The bodyes are fir&s;t to be Subtiliated by Di&s;&s;olution, which is the fir&s;t Degree of the Work. And this Di&s;&s;olution is nothing el&s;e, but that bodyes be return'd into Mercury and Sulphur from whence they took their Original. But no other body can be re&s;olved into Mercury, but a Metallic, con&s;i&s;ting of Mercury and Sulphur.</P>
<P>The Spirit of Metalls is part of Our Stone; and That we mu&s;t evacuate from the bodys of metalls: namely from the two perfect by putrefaction, divi&s;ion of Elements, and their fixation, <BIBL><HI>Raym. Lullius.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>When the matter A&s;cends by Wind, that is, by fume, the Philo&s;ophers call it Subli|mation: when it is ca&s;t into the bottom of the ve&s;&s;el, and Converted into Water, they call it Solution, or Di&s;tillation: When the Earth is In&s;pi&s;&s;ate, they &s;ay it is Corruption: and when it begins to change from black, they call it Ablution. Extraction of Water from the Earth, and turning it on the Earth again, till the Earth putrefie, and be cleare again, is the Summe of our magi&s;tery. And
<PB N="73" REF="43"> when the Philo&s;ophers &s;aw their Water di|mini&s;hed, and their Earth increa&s;ed, they called it Ceration; Then, when all became Earth, they called their Work Congelation; and when White, Calcination. <BIBL><HI>Monachus. ex manu&s;cripto vetu&s;ti&s;s.</HI></BIBL> Di&s;&s;olution begets blackne&s;&s;e, Reduction Whitene&s;&s;e, Fixion Citrinity, Inceration Redne&s;&s;e. Blackne&s;&s;e is the Earth, Whitene&s;&s;e the Water, Citri|nity the Ayre, Redne&s;&s;e the fire, <BIBL><HI>Anonymus.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>Solution turnes the Stone into its Materia prima, that is, into Water: Ablution into Ayre: Conjunction into fire: Fixion into Earth Spiritual and Tingent. <BIBL><HI>Scala Philo&s;oph.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>Putrefaction is made by a mo&s;t Gentle fire hot and moy&s;t, and no other, &s;o that no|thing A&s;cend. De&s;pon&s;ation and Concepti|on is made by a kind putridne&s;&s;e in the Bot|tom of the ve&s;&s;ell.<BIBL> <HI>Ro&s;arium pag.</HI> 198.</BIBL> Burn with Water, wa&s;h with Fire,</P>
<P><BIBL>Idem ibidem.</BIBL></P>
<P>Labour not to make thy Mercury Diaphan that is, into a cleare, Tran&s;parent Water; for &s;o it is too highly Inflamed, and Irre|&s;trinctible, and will never be fixt, never con|gealed. <BIBL><HI>Aureola.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>When we Di&s;&s;olve, without any Intervall, we Calcine, Sublime, Seperate, &amp; Compound and between Solution, and Compo&s;ition
<PB N="74" REF="44"> of the body and Spirit, there intervenes no &s;pace of Time.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Alphid Arabs.</HI></BIBL></P>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 TYPE="part">
<HEAD>The Watering of Pega&s;us at his own Fountain; and of his Other food out of the Ayre and Earth. ECHO. VI.</HEAD>
<P>WIth the Water of Paradi&s;e bedew the Earth now clarified, and that Water will again A&s;cend to heaven, and De&s;cend a|gaine to the Earth to make it fertil, and bring forth White, Citrine, and Flamye Red flow|ers. <BIBL><HI>I&s;aac Flander.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>Cibation is the Nutrition of our Materia Sicca with milk and meate, both moderately given, till it be brought to the third order. <BIBL><HI>Ripleus Aglus.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>Our Great bu&s;ine&s;&s;e is to make the Body a &s;pirit, and the Spirit a body. But it is True, That if the Summe of the volatil exceed and Subdue the Summe of the fixt, it will finally be turned into a Spiritual body White or Red,</P>
<P><BIBL>Ro&s;arius Minor.</BIBL></P>
<P>The Earth does not Germinate without frequent Irrigation, nor receive Irrigation without De&s;iccation. Therefore at every
<PB N="75" REF="44"> Turn after de&s;iccation powre Water on it temperatly, neither too much, nor too litle. If too much, it will be a Sea of Conturbation. If too little, all is burnt to a light Cindar. <BIBL><HI>Dau&s;tricus, pag.</HI> 25.</BIBL></P>
<P>Our divine Water, the Spume of Silver mingled with Magne&s;ia, rids away the Darke Umbra of the body. <BIBL><HI>Democritus Apud Flamel|lum.</HI></BIBL> The Dragon born in Darkne&s;&s;e, is fed with his owne Mercury, &s;ubmerged in it, and then a little dealbated by it.</P>
<P>Keep a &s;oft fire, till there be patience be|twen Water and Fire, and till the Spirit and Body become one.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Monachus, pag.</HI> 14.</BIBL></P>
<P>See that thou water it temperatly: for if it abound, it will be a Sea; and if there want, a Combu&s;tion will be made.</P>
<P><BIBL>De&s;iderabile.</BIBL></P>
<P>As in this work in its fir&s;t Compo&s;ition, nothing that is extraneous to its Nature en|ters: So neither does any thing Multiply it, that is not of its fir&s;t Di&s;po&s;ition.</P>
<P><BIBL>Trevi&s;anus.</BIBL></P>
<P>The Magi&s;tery of the Philo&s;ophers does not need a Commi&s;tion of any extraneous thing; but out of the proper &s;eed metallic ca&s;t into Philo&s;ophicall earth prepared, it produces a Stone infinitely multiplicable, if it be nouri&s;ht with its owne men&s;trnum, or
<PB N="76" REF="45"> humor Connatural, and be excited by the heat of the Philo&s;ophers Sun from its Po|tentia into Act.</P>
<P><BIBL>Theobaldus Hoghelandus.</BIBL></P>
<P>Take the quantity, know the weight of it, and add to it as much of the humidity as it can drink; of which humidity, we have not the pondus determinate. <HI>Calrd Aegyptius.</HI> The Time of every Imbibition to its Ex&s;icca|tion is Twenty or Thirty Natural dayes.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Clangor Buccinae.</HI></BIBL></P>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 TYPE="part">
<HEAD>IGNIS MAGOR&V;M. The Philo&s;ophers Fire. ECHO VII.</HEAD>
<P>OUr fire is Mineral, Equall, Continuall&punc; it vapors not unle&s;&s;e excited too much, it partakes of Sulphur, it is taken from &s;ome other Thing than the Materia, it breaks down all before it, Di&s;&s;olves, Congeales, and Calcines: That Fire, with a Fire Remi&s;&s;e, perfects the whole work, and makes all the right Sublimations.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Pontanus pag.</HI> 75. <HI>uti et in Epi&s;tola.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>The Fire again&s;t Nature mu&s;t torment the bodyes, That is the Dragon burning violent|ly, like fire of hell, <HI>Ripleus.</HI> All along, the fire mu&s;t be gentle till the Water be congealed in Whitene&s;&s;e. A &s;tronger heat given, the
<PB N="77" REF="45"> Mercury flyes the fire by rea&s;on of its Frigi|ditie. Therefore keep thy fire &s;oft, till thou ha&s;t a white Congelation. <BIBL><HI>Benedictus.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>By a Temperate fire a little quantity of the Drie De&s;iccates ethe moy&s;t, and this by little and little, and not &s;uddainly. And by how much the Stone has more of the Ablu|tion, &s;o much the more Inten&s;e is the white|ne&s;&s;e.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Scotus de Bufone.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>The fire of the fir&s;t Degree, that is of So|lution, and Putrefaction, ought to be &s;o weak, that Nothing A&s;cend of the Nature to be Sublimed, and &s;o a gentle fire gives Mercury Ingre&s;&s;e into the body, when with a &s;trong one all is de&s;troyed.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Saturninus pag.</HI> 71.</BIBL></P>
<P>The heat <HI>Dealbant</HI> mu&s;t not be too much, el&s;e all is gone. But under&s;tand this of the fir&s;t White after Nutrition, <HI>Anonym.</HI> Make thy Contritions with fire, not with thy hands. <HI>Argent vive</HI> is fierie, and burns the bodyes more then fire; whatever Metallic body is joyned to it, it &s;layes it and brings it down to du&s;t.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Synodus Pythagorica.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>Although we alwayes &s;peak of Slow-fire, yet in earne&s;t we think, that in the Go|vernment of the work, by little and little, and at Turnes, the fire to the End, is to be
<PB N="78" REF="46"> Augmented. <BIBL><HI>Bacho. Spec. Alchym. cap.</HI> 4.</BIBL></P>
<P>There are onely Two fires found in the books of the Philo&s;ophers: The one dry, the other moy&s;t: The Dry is the Elemental, The moy&s;t is Mercury. <BIBL><HI>Alanus Niger.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>As oft as occa&s;ion &s;hall require, heat and cool, moy&s;ten and de&s;iccate thy Earth, and there is no Error. So oft as thy ve&s;&s;els are broke, thy matter mu&s;t cool, to be re|po&s;ed in a like ve&s;&s;ell, and put again to the fire. <BIBL><HI>Greverius Sacerdos.</HI></BIBL></P>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 TYPE="part">
<HEAD>The Philo&s;ophers ve&s;&s;el; The Cone, or Oval; The Colours of the Chao's; Tran&s;ienr, and Critical. ECHO. VIII.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="subpart">
<P>THE ve&s;&s;el mu&s;t be Gla&s;&s;e, and Round, with a long Neck, firmly Sealed on the Top, and is to be Enclo&s;ed with another Ve&s;&s;el, that the heat enter not the matter im|mediately, and &s;o the Dige&s;tion is in a Triple ve&s;&s;el. <BIBL><HI>Liber Trium Verborum, pag.</HI> 49.</BIBL></P>
<P>Put thy <HI>Amalgam</HI> carefully into a Gla&s;&s;e-ve&s;&s;el of &s;uch a capacity, that thy Earth that is &s;own and harrowed, may take up on|ly the Third part of it, the other two left vacant. Clo&s;e up the orifice with the wi&s;e&s;t Lute. <BIBL><HI>Jodoc. Grever.</HI></BIBL></P>
<PB N="79" REF="46">
<P>Set one halfe of the round of the Ve&s;&s;el into A&s;hes, the other beare above, that thou may&s;t look at plea&s;ure upon the work.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Alanus.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>The ve&s;&s;els are Gla&s;&s;e, wide below, termi|nating in an Acute, like the figure called a Cone. <BIBL><HI>Vogelius.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>Think not That the Philo&s;ophers lye when they &s;ay, The whole Magi&s;tery is per|fected, in one only ve&s;&s;el: when thou heare&s;t them &s;ay &s;o, think pre&s;ently of the Species of the ve&s;&s;el, not of the Individual, and thou ha&s;t found the Truth. <BIBL><HI>Greverius.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>We need but one Ve&s;&s;el, one Furnace, one Di&s;po&s;ition; which is to be under&s;tood, After the preparation of the fir&s;t Stone.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Flamellus in Democritum.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>Our ve&s;&s;el is a Gla&s;&s;e, firmely &s;hut, round bellied, of a neck &s;trict and long, halfe a foot, or thereabout. This ve&s;&s;el is called an Egge, a Sublimatory, a Sphear, a Sepulcher, a Cucurbit, <HI>&amp;c.</HI></P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Laurentius ventura Italus.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>Put thy matter into a Gla&s;&s;e-ve&s;&s;el Round and &s;trong, the Orifice &s;trait, and &s;ealed that it cannot expire the lea&s;t fume.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Scotus de Bufone.</HI></BIBL></P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="subpart">
<PB N="80" REF="47">
<HEAD>The Colours.</HEAD>
<P>When the matter has &s;tood for the &s;pace of forty dayes in a moderate heat, there will begin to appear above, a blackne&s;&s;e like to pitch, which is the <HI>Caput Corvi</HI> of the Philo|&s;ophers, and the wi&s;e men's Mercury.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Alanus.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>Blackne&s;&s;e once &s;een, thou may&s;t be &s;ure a True Conjunction of the principles is made.</P>
<P>Before the clear Splendent colour comes, all the Colours in the world will appear and di&s;appear: then thou &s;halt &s;ee an admi|rable whitene&s;&s;e, that it will &s;eem to thee the True whitene&s;&s;e, and yet it is not &s;o. Before the True whitene&s;&s;e comes, thou &s;halt &s;ee all about in the margin of the Gla&s;s as it were Oriental pearls, in the matter of the Stone, glittering like the Eyes of fi&s;hes, and when thou &s;ee&s;t the Matter white as Snow, and &s;hining like orientall gemms, The white &s;tone is then perfect. Let it cool of It&s;elf. <BIBL><HI>I&s;aacus Flander.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>The Colours are only Three, the others that come are called the middle Colours, that vani&s;h away: But the Black, White, and Red, are Eminent and la&s;ting Scenes.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Trithemius.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>When in the work blackne&s;&s;e appears,
<PB N="81" REF="47"> know that thou ha&s;t found the right way of working. Then rejoyce, for God has given thee a very Great and pretious Gift.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Phoenix. pag.</HI> 71.</BIBL></P>
<P><HI>In hor&acirc; Conjunctionis mirabilia maxima ap|parent. Nam omnes Colores quotquot Excogrtari po&s;&s;unt,</HI> &amp;c. In the hour of Conjunction wonderfull things pre&s;ent them&s;elves appa|rent to us. For all the Colours that can be Imagined, appear in the work; and the Im|perfect body is colour'd with a firm Colo|ration, by mediation of the Ferment.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Arnaldus in Flore Florum.</HI></BIBL></P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 TYPE="part">
<HEAD>The Time to perfect the phy&s;ick-work. ECHO. IX.</HEAD>
<P>This work cannot be perfected in a little &s;pace of Time; therefore the Arti&s;t mu&s;t be patient. <BIBL><HI>Greverius.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>The &s;horte&s;t Time of the preparation is the Circuit and Revolution of the Greater luminary. For the Stone mu&s;t be kept in the fire, till it cannot any more be changed from one nature to another, from one Colour to another, but become like the Redde&s;t blood running like wax in the fire, and yet dimini|&s;hing nothing at all. <BIBL><HI>Laurentius Ventura, Italus.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>We take a year for our Expectation; for our Calx, in le&s;&s;e Time, cannot be made. <BIBL><HI>Ri|pleus.</HI></BIBL></P>
<PB N="82" REF="48">
<P>The Philo&s;ophers &s;eeing a &s;ort of white|ne&s;&s;e come, after a long Time, of the Colour of A&s;hes, called it Incineration, or Dealba|tion.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Idem cap</HI> 112.</BIBL></P>
<P>In purification there cannot be a deter|minated Time, but in ninety dayes the Red work is completed.</P>
<P>Variation of Times happens from the quantity of the med'cin, and according to the Indu&s;try of the Arti&s;t.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Monach. pag.</HI> 17.</BIBL></P>
<P>After the fir&s;t fifty dayes, the <HI>Caput Corvi</HI> &s;hows it &s;elf; from thence in an hundred and fifty the Dove is made; and in another hun|dred and fifty, the Red is wrought. Till you come up to whitene&s;&s;e, u&s;e a Gentle fire.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Saturninus.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>When it has &s;tood under an Eclip&s;e for five months, and the Darkne&s;&s;e recedes, the light &s;upervening, Encrea&s;e your fire.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Scala philo&s;. Ripleus etiam.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>The Time for perfection of <HI>Elixir</HI> is at lea&s;t one year.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Ro&s;arius. pag.</HI> 179.</BIBL></P>
<P>Be patient in extracting thy Tincture; for ha&s;te is the fir&s;t Error of Art, and burns all.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Anonymus.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>In forty dayes and nights, after the True purification of the Stone, the work to White is compleat: becau&s;e in the purification
<PB N="83" REF="48"> there cannot be a Set time; but in ninety dayes and nights, the work to the Red is per|fected.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Ro&s;arium Vetu&s;tum.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>The fir&s;t Decoction has no certain Time and indeed is &s;omewhat Taedious: yet waite upon it, and Expect it with joy. Many have peri&s;ht with ha&s;te and affected with Tediou&s;|nes given over all.<BIBL> <HI>Phoenix. Liber pretio&s;i&s;&s;imus.</HI></BIBL></P>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 TYPE="part">
<DIV3 TYPE="subpart">
<HEAD>The Fermentation of The Stone. ECHO. X.</HEAD>
<P>FErment is made after the <HI>Ortus,</HI> or Birth of the Infant. And <HI>Ferment</HI> is nothing but meat Di&s;po&s;ed to a Convertibility into the E&s;&s;ence of the Infant, that all may be made of one nature. This fermentation Ci|bal, ought to be <HI>de &s;u&acirc; propri&acirc; natur&acirc;</HI> of the Infant's own nature, and a&s;&s;imilated to it; el&s;e there will be no Incorporation, no conver|&s;ion into Sulphur.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Lullius in Codrcrl.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P><HI>Ferment</HI> mu&s;t not be of this or that, but of Sol or Luna only: For we look for nothing but that the Stone be turned into his like and from them is the whole Temperament: nor is it Ferment before the Bodyes be tur|ned into their fir&s;t matter.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Vogelius pag.</HI> 10.</BIBL></P>
<P>Infermentation &s;ee that the Summe of the
<PB N="84" REF="49"> volatil do not exceed the Summe of the fixt: otherwi&s;e the Spon&s;al Ligament of the body would be put to flight. But if a little of the Sulphur be ca&s;t upon much of the body, &s;o that it has the dominion over it, it &s;oon con|verts it into Du&s;t; the Colour whereof is as the Colour of the body, one ounce of the Du&s;t four of the Body.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Anonymus Incipiens De&s;iderabile.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>Know that there is no Ferment, but Sol &amp; Luna.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Arnaldus in Flore Florum.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>Fermentation is the Animation of the Stone.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Clauger. pag.</HI> 46.</BIBL></P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="subpart">
<HEAD>Of the nature of both, and the mutation of their &s;ub&s;tance.</HEAD>
<P>He that is able to turne the Soul to a Body, and the Body to a Soul, and mingle with it Subtile Spirits, is able to Tinge every Body.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Calid Egyptius.</HI></BIBL></P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 TYPE="part">
<HEAD>The Multiplication, and Projection of the Tincture. ECHO. XI.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="subpart">
<P>IT is impo&s;&s;ible to multiply the central &s;alt without Gold, But the Sons of Art only know the True &s;eed of Metalls.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Novum lumen Chymicum.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>Multiplication is either Virtual; Such as is
<PB N="85" REF="49"> made by Alteration, by Di&s;&s;olving and Con|gealing; or Quantitative, by Appo&s;ition of new Matter.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Scotus de Bufone.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>The Quantitative is Nothing el&s;e but the Augmentation of the Tincture from one pondus ad infinitum: So that the Worke is never again to be begunne, and this Without the Diminution of its force. <BIBL><HI>Incertus.</HI></BIBL></P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="subpart">
<HEAD>Projection upon Metalls,</HEAD>
<P>No Projection of the Red &s;tone but upon Luna,</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>I&s;aac Flander.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>If thou would'&s;t make Projection upon Jupiter, melt it in a Crucibrrr rrd put to one pound of Jupiter one orrce of pure Luna, and melt them together; then ca&s;t on it thy White Tincture, and the Jupiter ani|mation of the Stone. <BIBL><HI>Clang:</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>If Thou put to It but Little of Ferment thou &s;halt have but little Tincture. <BIBL><HI>Da&s;tinus pag.</HI> 30.</BIBL> </P>
<P>When the &s;tone is liquefied by Decoction, it mu&s;t then be Coagulated, But this Coagu|lation is made with Ferment, or with its owne body, which is the &s;ame thing.</P>
<P>When the Anima Candida is perfectly ri|&s;en, the Arti&s;t mu&s;t joyn it, the &s;ame moment, with its body: For the Anima without its body cannot be held. But &s;uch an Union mu&s;t be made by mediation of the Spirit:
<PB N="86" REF="50"> becau&s;e the Anima cannot have life in the body nor per&s;everance in it, but by the Spirit: And &s;uch an Union and Conjunction is the end of the Work. The Soul mu&s;t be joyned with the Fir&s;t body whence it was, and with no other; which if thou do&s;t not, thou &s;halt faile of thy purpo&s;e, as many Ig|norants have done who knew not this Secret</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Margarita Novella.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>Spirits are fugitive, untill &s;uch Time as bodyes are joyned with them, and help them to fight again&s;t the fire: and yet tho&s;e parts agree but little, unle&s;s with good Operation, and Continued labour: becau&s;e the nature of the rwordr Tendent Upwards, where the Centre rr the Anima is. And who is he of tho&s;e that have tryed, that was able to Conjoyne Two Things that are Diver&s;e, who&s;e Centers too are Divers? unle&s;s after the Conver&s;ion &s;hall be tran&s;muted into True Luna, le&s;s or more, according to the Spirituality of the &s;tone? And if thou woul|d'&s;t Work with thy Red Stone, project it upon Luna Molten, and thou &s;halt finde the pure&s;t Sol.</P>
<P>Ca&s;t thy medicin upon thy Ferment, then it is frangible as Gla&s;le. Take that frangible ma&s;&s;e, and ca&s;t it upon metals fir&s;t clear'd, and thou &s;halt have metal of proofe.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Ripleus Anglus,</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>This Secret thou mu&s;t not be Ignorant of,
<PB N="87" REF="50"> That our Red man, and his wife do not Tinge till they are Tinged.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Evoaldus.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>Would any man by the Phy&s;ic Stone turn lead into Gold or Silver? Then he mu&s;t fir&s;t mingle with it the Sub&s;tance of Lead, that both may become one Thing; In the &s;ame way he mu&s;t proceed with Tin, and Copper.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Idem. pagin.</HI> 123.</BIBL></P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 TYPE="part">
<HEAD>The Virtues of the Great Elixir, or A&s;tral medicin. ECHO XII.</HEAD>
<P>THIS Chymic-powder, whether you call it the Philo&s;ophers &s;tone or ful&s;ile Salt; Sulphur, Elixit, or potable Gold, has in it a wonderfull power over the Three Di|vi&s;ions of nature, the Animal, Vegetal, and Mineral Kinds. Thus fir&s;t on the Animal: E|very Animal, brute, or man, it brings to Sani|ty from every di&s;ea&s;e within, or without. All defections from natural Symmetry are reduced by it to Temperament, becau&s;e there is in it a perfect Aequation of Elements &s;eparate from their dreggs, and all Sulphure|ous Adu&s;tions. On the Vegetal; It acts won|derfully by Exciting their Genital power in their &s;ea&s;ons, or out of them, to a mo&s;t flo|rid vegetation. In the mineral; Every Imper|fect metallic body, Lead, Tin, Copper, com|mon Argent vive, it transformes to Silver, or
<PB N="88" REF="51"> Gold better then the natural in every pro|bat. Pretious Stones too.; the Emerald, the Carbuncle, the Anthrax, or Rubie, Chry&s;o|pra&s;e, Adamant, Chry&s;olite, and many others, are made by it, <BIBL><HI>Rob. Vallen&s;is.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>By long Inqui&s;ition, Labour, and certain Experience, we have found one medicin; by which, that which is hard may be made &s;oft, and that which is &s;oft may be made hard, that which is fugitive be fixt, that which is foul and dark, be Illu&s;trated with a wonderfull &s;plendor. <BIBL><HI>Geber Arabs.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>Wrincles of the face, every litura or &s;pot, gray haires, it takes away, and keeps us in perpetual youth, and cheerfulne&s;&s;e. <BIBL><HI>Clangor.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>The Cry&s;tallin Lamen cures the mo&s;t Di&s;ea&s;es; the Red Elixir all; makes a man grow young like the Eagle, and has produced the lives of &s;ome to above five hundred years.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Geber.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P><HI>Arteph</HI> the Jew when he wrote his book, affirmes he had lived a thou&s;and and five and twenty years.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Rogerius Bacho, de Artis mirabili pote&s;tate.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>By its Ethereal, humid, oleous fire, it gives us youth; by its Tincture, it transforms the Imperfect, to the perfect Mines; makes vari|ous &s;orts of pretious &s;tones, with the mo&s;t pretious malleable Gla&s;&s;e.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Charta Sacer dorum. Et Chorus Omnium.</HI></BIBL></P>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 TYPE="part">
<PB N="89" REF="51">
<HEAD>The way to attain to this Sacred Science. ECHO. XIII.</HEAD>
<P>FEar God, you that look after this Sacred Skill: For that which you &s;eek is not a &s;mall Thing, but the Trea&s;ure of Trea&s;ures, the Gift of God, mo&s;t Excellent, and Admi|rable.<BIBL> <HI>Baca&s;er in Synod. Pythag.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>He that is Idle and Negligent in the Rea|ding of books, &s;hall never be prompt in the preparation of Things: for one book opens another, one &s;peech explicates another; and that which in one is Incompleat, in another is compleated. And how can he that refu&s;es the Theorie, apply him&s;elfe to the regular practice?<BIBL> <HI>Arnaldus in Ro&s;ario.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>Follow it with the In&s;tance of labour, but fir&s;t exerci&s;e thy&s;elf in a diuturnity of Inten&s;e Imagination: for &s;o thou may&s;t find the com|pleat Elixit; but without that, never at all.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Idem lib.</HI> 2 <HI>Ro&s;ar.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>Serious Study (our Doctors &s;ay) removes Ignorance, and brings the human Intellect up to the knowledge of Every Thing.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Richardus Anglicus.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>Think not to find out our profound &s;en&s;e by the &s;ound of the letter: for he that takes the &s;ound of the words, and has not the hid|den &s;en&s;e too, &s;hall lo&s;e his Labour, and his Co&s;t.<BIBL> <HI>Aurora.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>If thou can&s;t Re&s;olve even the lea&s;t of our
<PB N="90" REF="52"> Sayings, the Greate&s;t cannot be hid from thee. <BIBL><HI>Aurora Con&s;urgens prolog.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>All wi&s;dome is from God, and was always with him from eternity. Who&s;oever therfore loves wi&s;dome, let him &s;eek it, and begge it from him: for he is the Altitude and profun|dity of all Science, the Trea&s;ure of all wi&s;e|dome; becau&s;e from him, in him, and by him all things are, and without his will nothing can be: To whom be glory for evermore.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Albertus magnus de Alchymia.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>It is impo&s;&s;ible that This &s;hould beknown unle&s;s it be known from God, or from a ma&s;ter. <BIBL><HI>Ro&s;arium Philo&s;oph: pag:</HI> 230</BIBL></P>
<P>The Arti&s;t mu&s;t be prudent, and of a witt naturally &s;ubtile, &amp; profound, and excellent in the Ability to Judge. He mu&s;t be learned likwi&s;e; that what his wit reaches not to, that may be &s;upplied by his learning: For who&s;o|ever a&s;pires to this Science, and is not a phi|lo&s;opher, is a fool. He mu&s;t be Indu&s;trious, Laborious, and of a Con&s;tant mind; not preci|pitant; but very patient: For all ha&s;tine&s;s (&s;aies our <HI>Geber)</HI> is from the Devill. He mu&s;t be at his owne election, and free; not held by other bu&s;ine&s;ses and cares.</P>
<P>He mu&s;t have money enough for his prac|tice, and books enough for his &s;tudy. <BIBL><HI>Theobald Hogheland.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>And above all he mu&s;t be jealous over the Secret, and keep it &s;everely to him&s;elfe. <BIBL><HI>Idem Hogheland,</HI></BIBL></P>
<PB N="91" REF="52">
<P>I adjure thee by the living God, who&s;oever thou art that ha&s;t this book in thy hands, that thou offer it not to any of the Un|worthy; &s;uch as are Fools, Tyrants, Opre&s;|&s;ors, Covetous, Proud per&s;ons, Adulterers, &s;oft Amorato's, or &s;uch who&s;e belly is their God. Place thy hope in the Lord God, work in his feare to the good of man, expecting the ble&s;&s;ing from above.<BIBL> <HI>Jodoc: Grever. initio Lib.</HI></BIBL></P>
<P>Thou who ha&s;t this book, hide it in thy bo|&s;ome, di&s;cover it to none, offer it not to Impious hands: for it fully containes in it, the very <HI>Secretum Secretorum</HI> of the Philo&s;o|phers. Such a pretious Jewel as This, is not to be ca&s;t before Swine. Therefore thou that ha&s;t the book, lay thy hand upon thy mouth, that de&s;ervedly thou may&s;t be &s;aid to be, and be, of the Number of the Ancient Magi.</P>
<P><BIBL><HI>Arnaldus in Ro&s;ario. lib</HI> 2. <HI>cap.</HI> 32.</BIBL></P>
</DIV2>
<TRAILER>FINIS <HI>Antri.</HI></TRAILER>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 TYPE="alchemical treatise">
<PB N="92" REF="53">
<HEAD><HI>JOHN PONTANUS</HI> UPON The mineral Fire; and the Great Elixir, commonly call'd The Philo&s;ophers <HI>STONE.</HI></HEAD>
<P>_I <HI>John Pontan</HI> have travel'd over many Regions, That I might learn &s;omething that was cer|tain concerning the Philo&s;o|phers &s;tone; and, compa&s;&s;ing almo&s;t the whole World, met with none but Impo&s;tors, fal&s;e Deceivers, and no Philo&s;ophers: But &s;tudying alwayes, doubting much, and ca&s;ting every way, at length I found the Truth: But when I knew the matter, I erred two hundred Times be|fore I found the True Matter, which the o|peration, and practice upon it. Fir&s;t, I fell to putrefie the matter nine months toge|ther, and found nothing: I put it in St. <HI>Ma|ries</HI> Bath for a certain Time, and erred in That, as before. Then for Three months I
<PB N="93" REF="53"> put it to a fire of Calcination, and wrought ami&s;&s;e: all manner of Di&s;tillations, and Sub|limations, &s;uch as the Philo&s;ophers, as <HI>Geber, Archelaus,</HI> and almo&s;t all the re&s;t, &s;ay, or &s;eem to &s;ay, &s;hould be u&s;ed, I practi&s;ed; and found nothing &s;till. Then again I tryed to perfect the &s;ubject of the whole Alchymical Art, all the wayes that can be imagined; by baths, by dungs, by A&s;hes, and a multiplicity of o|ther fires, which yet are found in the Philo|&s;ophers books; and yet for all that I found no good. Wherefore, for Three years conti|nued, I &s;tudied in the Philo&s;ophers books, but chiefly the books of <HI>Hermes</HI> alone, who&s;e &s;horter words comprehend the whole Stone; although he &s;peaks ob&s;curely of the Superior, and Inferior, of the Heaven, and of the Earth. The fir&s;t In&s;trument therefore that brings the matter to its E&s;&s;e in the Fir&s;t, Second, and Third work, is not the Fire of the Bath, nor of Dung, nor A&s;hes, nor of the other heats which the Philo&s;o|phers have in their books. What there|fore is That Fire that perfects the whole worke from the Beginning to the End? Certainly the Philo&s;ophers have alwais con|ceal'd it; but I being moved with piety, and kindne&s;&s;e to men, will declare it to you, to|gether with the complement of the whole work. It is then the Philo&s;ophers Stone, but is called by various names, and thou &s;halt find
<PB N="94" REF="54"> it hard to know: For it is Watry, Aery, Fiery and Earthy; Phegmatic Choleric, and Melan|cholic; it is Sulphureous, and is likewi&s;e Ar|gent vive: and has many &s;uperfluities in it: all which, by the Living God, are turned into a True E&s;&s;ence, Our Fire mediating: And he that &s;eperates any thing from the Sub|ject thinking that nece&s;sary, knowes, nothing in Philo&s;ophy; becau&s;e what ever is &s;uperflu|ous, unclean, foul or faeculent, finally the whole Sub&s;tance of the Subject; is perfected to a Spiritual body fixt, by mediation of Our fire. And this the Philo&s;ophers never re|vealed, and therefore few come at the Art, thinking there is, Some &s;uch &s;uperfluous Nature to be removed. And now we are to draw out the properties of Our Fire, and try, whether according to the manner that I have &s;aid, It be &s;o fitted to our matter, that it may be Tran&s;muted by it, &s;ince That Fire burns not the matter, &s;eparates nothing from it, parts not the pure from the Impure (as all philo|&s;ophers &s;ay) but turnes the whole &s;ubject to purity: It does not &s;ublime as <HI>Geber</HI> make his Sublimations &amp; as <HI>Arnaldus,</HI> and other &s;peaking of Subbli-mation and and Di&s;tilla|tions, Such as are perfected in a &s;hort time.</P>
<P>It is Mineral, it is Equal, It is Continual, it vapours not away unle&s;s it be &s;tirr'd up too much; it al&s;o partakes of Sulphur, and is taken from &s;ome where el&s;e than from the matter; it puls down all, di&s;solves and con|geales,
<PB N="95" REF="54"> congeales and Calcines: the Inven|tion of It is Artifical: it is a Compendium without Co&s;t, or with very little; and That Fire is of a moderate Ignition, becau&s;e with a remi&s;s Fire the whole work is perfected, and all the right &s;ublimations made. Who&s;oever &s;hould read <HI>Geber,</HI> and all the re&s;t, if they &s;hould live an hundred thou&s;and yeares, would not be able to comprehend it, becau&s;e that Fire is found only by profound Imagi|nation; and then it may be comprehended in the books, and not before. The Error there|fore of this Art, is, not to find the Fire, which turnes the whole matter into the true Stone of the Philo&s;ophers. Take it then for thy &s;tu|dy; for if I had found this Fire at fir&s;t, I had not erred two hundred Times in my practice up|on the matter: wherefore I wonder not, that &s;o many, and great Wits, have not come at the work. They erre, have erred, and will erre &s;till, becau&s;e the Philo&s;ophers have not &s;et downe the proper Agent; one only ex|cepted, <HI>Artephius</HI> by name, but he &s;peaks for him&s;elfe; and if I had not read <HI>Artephius</HI> and heard him what he &s;aid, I had never at|tain'd the perfect work. But this is the prac|tice. Take it, brui&s;e it, and bring it down diligently by Naturall Contrition, and put it to the Fire, and know the proportion of your Fire, namely that it is to be no &s;tronger then only to Excite the matter, and in a &s;hort
<PB N="96" REF="55"> time even that Fire without any appo&s;ition of hands, will certainly compleat the whole work; for it will putrefy, Corrupt, Generate, and perfect, and make to appear in their times the three Principal Colours, Black, White, and Red. And by mediation of our Fire, the Med'cin will be multiplyed if it be joyn'd with Crude matter, not only in quantity, but al&s;o in virtue. Therefore with all thy power look after thy Fire, and thou may&s;t pro&s;per in thy Work, becau&s;e it does the whole Worke, and is the key of the Philo&s;ophers which they never di&s;cover'd. But thou &s;halt come to know it by a right, profound thinking upon the properties of the Fire &s;et down before, and no otherwayes. This I writt out of piety, and that I may &s;atisfy thee fi|nally; The Fire is not Tran&s;muted with the matter, becau&s;e It is not of the Matter, as I told you before. Thus much I had a mind to &s;ay, and admoni&s;h the prudent, that they &s;pend not their money to no purpo&s;e, but that they &s;hould know what they are to look for, and &s;o they may attaine to the Truth and no Other way.</P>
<TRAILER>FINIS.</TRAILER>
</DIV1>
</BODY>
</TEXT>
</EEBO>
</ETS>
