SECRETS REVEAL'D: OR, AN OPEN ENTRANCE TO THE SHUTT PALACE OF THE KING

CHAP. 1

OF THE NECESSITY OF THE SOPHICK ☿ FOR THE WORK OF THE ELIXIR

Whosoever desires to enjoy the secret Golden-Fleece, let him know, That our Gold-making P O W D E R (which we call our Stone) is only Gold digested unto the highest degree of purity and subtile fixity, whereto it may be brought, by Nature and a discreet Artist; which Gold thus essensificated, is called Our Gold (and no more vulgar) and is the period of the perfection of Nature and Art. I could cite all the Philosophers that write of this Thing, but I need no witnesses; because my self being an Adeptist, do write more clearly than any heretofore. Let any one believe me that will, and disprove it that can, carp he that will; this is the reward it shall certainly receive, to be an high Ignorance. I confess the subtile Wits do fancy many whimsies, but he that is diligent shall find the truth in the simple way of Nature. Let Gold therefore be the One True sole Principle of Gold-making; but our Gold is twofold which we require to our work, viz. Mature and Fix, the yellow Latten, whose Heart or Centre is a pure Fire, and therefore it defends the body in the Fire, in which it receives depuration; but nothing of it gives way to its tyranny, or suffers by it. This doth in our Work supply the place of the Male, therefore it is joyned to our white and more crude Gold as Feminine Sperme; into which it sends forth its Sperme, and at length both do couple with an insoluble band; so it becomes our Hermaphrodite, being mighty in both Sexes. Therefore corporal Gold is dead before it be conjoined with his Bride, with whom the coagulating {sulphur}, which in ☉ is outwards, is turned inwards; so the altitude is hid, and the profundity is manifested; so the Fix is, in time, made volatile, that it may afterwards possess (by way of Inheritance) a most noble State, in which it may obtain an excellent powerful fixity. It is evident therefore that the whole Secret consists in ☿, of which, a Philosopher saith, There is in ☿ whatever the Wiseman seeks; concerning which Geber saith, Praised be the Most High, who hath created our ☿ and hath given it a nature overcoming all things. For verily if that were not, the Alchymist's might boast as they will, but their Work of Alchymy would be vain. 'Tis likewise evident it is not the vulgar ☿ but the Sophick; because every vulgar ☿ is a Male that is corporeal, specificate and dead: but ours is spiritual, feminine, living and vivifying. Attend therefore to those things that I shall speak of ☿, for as the Philosopher saith, Our ☿ is the Salt of the Wisemen, without which, whosoever operates, is like an Archer that shoots without a Bow-string, and yet it is no where to be found upon the Earth; but our ☉ is formed by us, not by creation, but by extracting him out of those things in which he is; Nature co-operating in a wonderful manner, by a witty Art.

CHAP. 2

OF THE PRINCIPLES COMPOSING THE ☿ SOPHICAL

The Intention of some Operators in this Art, is this, They purge ☿ diversly; for by the adjoyning of Salts they sublime it, some do vivifie it from various Faeces, others only per se: and so by these repeated Operations they think to make the ☿ of the Philosophers. They erre because they do not operate in Nature, for she amends things only in their own nature. Let them therefore know that our Water is compounded of many things, but yet they are but one thing, made of divers created substances of one essence, that is to say, There is requisite in our Water; first of all Fire; secondly, the Liquor of the Vegetable Saturnia; thirdly, the bond of ☿: The Fire is of a Mineral Sulphur, and yet is not properly Mineral nor Metalline, but a middle betwixt a Mineral and a Metal, and neither of them partaking of both, a Chaos or Spirit; because our Fiery Dragon (who overcomes all things) is notwithstanding penetrated by the odour of the Vegetable Saturnia; whose blood concretes or grows together with the juyce of Saturnia, into one wonderful body; yet it is not a body, because it is all Volatile; nor a Spirit, because in the Fire it resembles a Molten Metal. It is therefore in very deed a Chaos, which is related to all Metals as a Mother; for out of it I know how to extract all things, even ☉ and ☽ without the transmuting Elixir: the which thing whosoever doth also see, may be able to testifie it. This Chaos is called, our Arsenick, our Air, our ☽, our Magnet, our Chalybs or Steel; but yet in divers respects, because our Matter undergoes various states before that the Kingly Diadem be brought or cast forth out of the Menstruum of our Harlot. Therefore learn to know, who the Companions of Cadmus are, and what that Serpent is which devoured them, what the hollow Oak is which Cadmus fastened the Serpent through and through unto; Learn what Diana's Doves are, which do vanquish the Lion by asswaging him: I say the Green Lion, which is in very deed the Babylonian Dragon, killing all things with his Poyson: Then at length learn to know the Caducean Rod of Mercury, with which he worketh Wonders, and what the Nymphs are, which he infects by Incantation, if thou desirest to enjoy thy wish.

CHAP. 3

OF THE CHALYBS OF THE SOPHISTS

The Wise Magi have delivered many things of their Chalybs to Posterity, nor is it a slight thing they have attributed thereto; and therefore the contention amongst vulgar Alchymists is great, as touching what is to be understood by the name of Chalybs. Several men have given several interpretations of this thing. The Author of the New Light hath writ thereof candidly, but obscurely. For my part, that I may not (out of envy) conceal any thing from the Inquirers of this Art, I will sincerely describe it. Our Chalybs is the true Key of our Work, without which the Fire of the Lamp could not be, by any Art, kindled; it is the Minera of Gold, a Spirit, very pure beyond others; it is an infernal Fire, secret in its kind, most highly volatile; the Miracle of the World, a Systeme of the superior virtues in the inferiors; and therefore the Omnipotent hath marked it with that notable Sign, whose Nativity is declared in the East. The Wisemen saw it in the East and were amazed, presently knew that a most Serene King was born into the World. Thou when thou beholdest his Star, follow him even to his Cradle, there shalt thou see a fair Infant by removing the defilements, honour the Kingly Child, open the Treasury, offer the gift of Gold, so at length (after death) he will give thee his Flesh and Blood, the highest Medicine in the three Monarchies of the Earth.

CHAP. 4

OF THE MAGNET OF THE SOPHISTS

Even as Steel is drawn to the Loadstone, and the Magnet doth of its own accord convert it self to the Chalybs, even so the Magnet of the Sophi draweth their Chalybs; therefore I have taught that the Chalybs is the Minera of Gold: In like manner our Magnet is the true Minera of our Chalybs. Furthermore, I declare that our Magnet hath an occult Centre abounding with Salt, which Salt, is the Menstruum in the Sphere of the Moon, which knows how to calcine Sol, this Centre doth convert it self to the Pole with an Archetick Appetite, in which the virtue of the Chalybs is exalted into Degrees. In the Pole is the Heart of ☿, which is a true Fire (in which is the rest and quiet of his Lord) sailing through this great Sea, that it may arrive to both the Indies, and direct its course by the aspect of the North-Sar, which our Magnet will cause to appear to thee. The Wiseman will rejoyce, but the Fool will disesteem these things, nor will he learn Wisdom, even though he behold the Central Pole turned outwards, marked with the notable Sign of the Omnipotent. They are so stiffnecked that though they see even Signs and Miracles, yet will they not lay aside their Sophistications, nor enter into the right Path.

CHAP. 5 

THE CHAOS OF THE SOPHI

Let the Son of the Philosophers hearken to the Sophi unanimously concluding, that this Work is to be likened to the Creation of the Universe. Therefore, In the Beginning God Created the Heaven and the Earth, and the Earth was void and empty, and Darkness were upon the face of the Deep; and the Spirit of the Lord was carried upon the face of the Waters, and God said, Let there be Light, and there was Light. These words are sufficient for a Son of Art, for the Heaven ought to be conjoyned with the Earth upon the bed of Friendship and Love: so shall he honourably Reign all his Life. The Earth is an heavy body, the Matrix of Minerals, because it keeps them occultly in it self, although it brings to light Trees and Animals. It is the Heaven wherein the great Lights together with the Stars are rowled about, and it sendeth down its virtues through the Air, unto inferior things; but in the Beginning all being confounded together, made a Chaos. Behold, I have holily opened to them the truth; for our Chaos is as 'twere a Mineral Earth in respect of its own coagulation; and yet notwithstanding it is indeed volatile Air, whithin which the Heaven of the Philosophers is, in its Centre; which Centre is truly Astral, shining upon the Earth with its Beams, even to the very superficies. And what great one is this that is so wise, as to gather from these things, that a new King is born more powerful than all the rest, a Redeemer of his Brethren from original Defilements? for 'twas expedient that he died to be exalted aloft, that he might give his Flesh and Blood for the Life of the World. Good God! How wonderful are these thy Works? 'Tis thy doing and it seems miraculous in our eyes. Father I thank thee, that thou hast hidden these things from the Wise, and revealed them to Babes.

CHAP. 6

THE AIR OF THE SOPHISTS

The wide Circuit or Firmament, called, in the Holy Writ, Air, is likewise called our Chaos, and yet not without a great Secret; because as the Firmamental Air, is the separator of the Waters, even so is our Air. Our Work is therefore verily a System of the greater World; because as the Waters under the Firmament are to be seen and do appear to us, who live upon the Earth, but the superior Waters do flie our sight, because they are so far distant from us: even so is it in our Microcosm, the Waters are the Minerals, without the Centre these appear; but those that are inclosed within, do shun our sight, and yet really and truly are. These are those Waters, that the Author of the New Light speaks of, viz. Which are, and do not appear, untill the Artist pleaseth. Therefore even as the Air distinguisheth between the Waters, so doth our Air prohibit all manner of ingress of the extracentrical waters unto the waters that are in the Centre; for should they but enter in and be mixed, then would they presently close together with an indissoluble union; therefore I say, that the external vapours and burning {sulphur} doth stiffly adhere to our Chaos, whose tyranny it being not able to resist, the pure flies away from the Fire in the form of a dry powder. If thou knewest how to water this dry earth with a water of its own kind, thou wilt loosen the pores of the earth, and this outward Thief with the workers of Malice will be cast out of doors, and the water will be purged (by the addition of a true Sulphur) from Leprous Defilements, and from superfluous Hydropical Moisture, and thou shalt have in thy power the Fountain of Count Trevisan, whose waters are properly dedicated to Diana the Virgin. This Thief is evil, armed with arsenical Malignitie, whom the winged Youngster doth abhor and flie from; and although the central water be his Bride, yet the Youngster dares not utter his most ardent Love towards her, because of the snares of the Thief, whose tricks are almost inavoidable. In this, let Diana be propitious unto thee, who knows how to tame the wild Beasts, whose two Doves shall temperate the malignity of the Air with their feathers, then the Youth enters easily in, through the pores, presently shaking the waters above, and stirrs up a rude and rubish Cloud; do thou bring in the water over him even to the brightness of the Moon, and so the darkness which was upon the face of the Abyss, will be discussed by the Spirit which moves it self in the waters: thus by the Command of God Light shall appear, separate the Light from the Darkness the seventh time, and then this Sophick Creating of thy ☿ shall be complete, and the seventh day shall be to thee a Sabbath of Rest; from which time, even to a Years Revolution, must you expect the Generation of the Son of the supernatural Sun; who will come into the World at the end of the Ages, that he may free his Brethren from al Defilements.

CHAP. 7

OF THE FIRST OPERATION OF THE PREPARATION OF THE SOPHICK MERCURY, BY THE FLYING EAGLES

Brother, You are to know, that our exact knowledge of the Eagles of the Philosophers, is conceived and judged to be the first degree of perfection; for to know it, there is required a quick ingenuity. For do not believe that this Science comes to any of us by chance or a casual imagination, as the common ignorant people do stupidly believe; but we have sweated much and a long time, we have passed many nights without sleep, we have undergone much labour and sweat, that we might obtain the truth; and therefore, O studious Beginner! Know of certainty, without labour and sweat thou wilt accomplish nothing (viz.) in the first Work, although in the second, Nature alone performs the Work without any imposition of hands, only using a moderate external Fire. Understand therefore (Brother) the sayings of the Sophi, when they write, That their Eagles are to be brought to devour the Lion; the which Eagles, how much the sparinger the number is, so much the greater wrestling and a slow victory, but the work is most excellently perfected in the seventh or ninth number. The ☿ Sophical, namely, is the Bird of Hermes, which is sometimes called a Goose, sometimes a Pheasant; one while this thing, another while that; but wherever the Magi speak of their Eagles, they speak in the plural number, and they assign their number from three to ten: yet they are not to be understood thus as if they would have so many weights or parts of the water to one of the earth, but you must interpret their sayings to be meant of the intrinsecal weight, that is to say, you must take the water so oftentimes acuated or sharpened, as they number Eagles; which acuation is made by sublimation, and therefore every sublimation of the ☿ of Philosophers let be one Eagle, and the seventh will so exalt the ☿, that it will become a most convenient Bath for thy King. Therefore that thou mayest have this knot well unfolded, attend diligently. Let there be taken of our Fiery Dragon, which hides the Magical Chalybs in his own belly, four parts, of our Magnet nine parts, mix them together with a torrid Vulcan or great Fire, in the form of a Mineral water, upon which there will swim a scum, which is to be cast away, remove the shell and take the kernel, purge it the third time with Fire and Salt, which will easily be done if Saturn shall have beheld himself in the Looking-glass of Mars, thence is made the Chamaeleon or our Chaos in which all Arcana's lies hid virtually, but not actually. This is the Hermaphroditical Infant, which even from his very first Infancy hath been infected by the biting of the Corascene Mad Dog, whereby he is besotted and distracted by a perpetual Hydrophoby or fear of the water; yea, though the water be nearer him than any natural thing, yet he abhors it and flies it. O Fates! But yet there are in the Wood of Diana two Doves which can asswage his frantick Madness, if applyed by the Art of the Nymph ♀; then least he should again relapse into a Hydrophoby, drown him in the waters, and let him perish therein; which waters the blackish Mad Dog being impatient of, will ascend (suffocated) to almost the superficies of the waters, then do thou banish him with a shower and stripes, and drive him far away, so the darkness will disappear. The Moon shining in her Full, supply the Feathers, and the Eagle will flie away, and leave the dead Doves of Diana; which except they shall be dead at the first receiving, they cannot be profitable. Repeat this seven times, then, at length, hast thou obtained Rest; unless that thou must make a bare Decoction, which is a most pleasing Rest: A Boys Play, and a Womans Work.

CHAP. 8

OF THE LABOUR AND TEDIOUSNESS OF THE FIRST PREPARATION

Some ignorant Chymists do Dream, That the whole Work from the beginning to the end, is a meer Recreation, full of pleasantness; but the Labour they set aside, without the bounds of this Art. But let them safely enjoy their own Opinion, in a Work which they have imagined to be so easie; certainly they will reap but an empty Harvest, from their idle Operation. For we know, that next the Divine Benediction, and a good Root or Foundation to work on, Labour, Industry and Diligence obtains the chiefest place; nor verily is it a Labour so easie, that it may be called a Play or Refreshment of the Mind, that will give us the thing we so earnestly desire: but rather as Hermes saith, Neither the Life nor Labour is to be spared; else that which the Wiseman fortold in his Parables, will not be verified, viz, That the desire of the slothful will destroy him. Nor is it any wonder, that so many men, dealing with Alchymy, are reduced to poverty; for they shun Labour, and spare Cost: But we, who have known these things, and wrought them, have certainly found, that no Labour is more tedious than our first Preparation. Therefore Morienus doth seriously exhort the King concerning this thing, saying,

Most of the Wisemen complained of the tediousness of this Work; nor would I that you should understand these things figuratively, for as much as I do not now consider of the things as they appear in the beginning of the supernatural Work: but as we at first find them, to render the matter fit for Work,

as saith the Poet, This is the Labour, and this is the Work; and again, One Labour concerns the Golden Fleece, &c. Another is the great burden to be sustained about the rude weight or matter, &c.

Therefore that noble Author of the Hermetick Secrets, names this first Labour Herculean. First, there are in our Principles or first beginning, heterogeneous Superfluities, which can never be reduced unto purity (for our Work) and therefore it is expedient to purge them out throughly, which will be impossible to be done without the Theory of our Secrets, in which we teach the true manner with which the Kingly Diadem is to be separated, or thrust out of the Menstruum of the Harlot — Which manner being known, there is as yet required the greater Labour; yea so great, that, as saith the Philosopher, many have left the Art lame as it were, because of the terrible Evils or Labour: yet I deny not but a Woman may undergo the Labour of the Art, yet so, as that she proposes not Playes amongst her Labours.

But the Mercury once prepared, then is the rest obtained, which is far more desirable than any Labour, as saith the Philosopher.

CHAP. 9

OF THE VERTUE OF OUR MERCURY UPON ALL THE METALS

Our Mercury is that Serpent which devoured the Companions of Cadmus; nor is it a wonder, because it had first devoured Cadmus himself, who was stronger than all the rest: yet at length Cadmus shall pierce this Serpent through, after he hath coagulated him with the vertue of his own Sulphur. Therefore know, that this our ☿ doth bear rule over all Metalline Bodies, and dissolves them into their nearest matter Mercurial, by separating their Sulphurs; and know, that the Mercury of one, two, or three Eagles, commandeth ♄, ♃ and ♀: and it rules over the ☽ from three Eagles to seven, then it rules over the ☉ even to ten Eagles. Furthermore I make known unto you, that our Mercury is nearer to the first Ens of Metals than any other Mercury. Therefore it radically enters the Metalline Bodies, and manifesteth their hidden profundities.

CHAP. 10 

OF THE SULPHUR WHICH IS IN THE SOPHICAL MERCURY

This above all things is a wonder that in our Mercury, there is not only an actual, but also an active {sulphur}, and yet notwithstanding it retaineth all the proportions and the form of Mercury; therefore 'tis necessary, that a form be introduced therein, by our preparation, which form, is a Metalline Sulphur: which Sulphur, is Fire that putrifies the Compositum, or disposed ☉. This sulphureous Fire, is the spiritual Seed which our Virgin (but yet nevertheless she remains undefiled) hath contracted; because an incorrupted Virginity can admit a spiritual Love, according to the Author of the Hermetick Secrets, and according to Experience it self. By reason of this Sulphur it is an Hermaphrodite, because the same ☿ doth apparently include at the same time, and by the same degree of Digestion, as well an active as passive Principle; for if it be joyned with ☉, it softens, melts, and dissolves him by a temperate heat, sutable to the necessity of the Composition, and doth (by the same fire) coagulate himself, and gives in his coagulation ☉, according to the pleasure of the Operator. Hapily this will seem incredible unto thee, but 'tis true (viz.) That ☿ being homogeneal, pure and clean, being by our Artifice impregnated, doth (by the application of a convenient heat only) coaguhimself (after the manner) of Cream of Milk, there being (as it were) a subtile earth swimming upon the waters: but being joyned with ☉, it is not only not coagulated, but the compound shall daily be seen to be softer and softer, even till the Bodies being almost dissolved, the Spirits shall begin to be coagulated in a most black colour, and a most stinking odour. 'Tis therefore manifest, That this spiritual Metalline Sulphur, is the first that turns the wheel, and rolls the Axis into a compass or circuit. This {sulphur} is in truth a volatile ☉, not as yet sufficiently digested, but pure enough; therefore it passeth into ☉ by a bare digestion: but if it be joyned to ☉ already perfect, it is not then coagulated, but it dissolves the corporal Gold, and remains with it (being dissolved) under one form, although before the perfect union, death must necessarily precede, that so they may be united after their death, not simply in a perfect unity, but in a Millenary more than perfect perfection.

CHAP. 11

OF THE INVENTION OF THE PERFECT MAGISTERY

The Wise Men heretofore (as many of them as obtained this Art without the help of Books) were led to the attainment thereof on this wise (by the permission of God) For I cannot perswade my self it came to any of them by immediate Revelation, unless Solomon had it so; which I am rather willing to leave to the Judge, than determine thereof. And yet though he should have had it, what hindreth but he might have got it by search, whereas he requested only wisdom, which God did bestow upon him in such manner that he therwith possess'd all, both Wealth and Peace? And therefore he unript, as it were, and searcht out the nature of the Plants and Herbs, from the Cedar of Lebanon even to the Hyssop on the Wall; and what man that is well in his wits, will deny but that he likewise knew the nature of the Minerals, the knowledge of which being altogether as pleasant or prositable? But to the purpose, We say that it may very likely be believed, That the first Adeptist that injoyed this Magistery (amongst whom was Hermes) who had no plenty of Books in those days) did not at first seek after a more than perfect perfection; but only a simple exaltation of the imperfect Metals to a regal condition: and when they perceived that all Metallick Bodies, were of a Mercurial Original, and that ☿ was both as to its weight and homogeneity most like unto Gold, which is the perfectest of Metals, they therefore endevoured to digest it to the maturity of Gold, but they could not effect it by any fire. Therefore they considered with themselves, that there was requisite, besides the external heat, an internal one, if they will accomplish their intentions. This heat therefore they sought after in most things. First of all, they distilled out of the lesser Minerals most exceeding hot waters, and with them they corroded the ☿; but they could not by any Art accomplish it this way, so as to cause the ☿ to change or alter his intrinsecal proportions: for because all the corrosive waters were only external Agents, after the manner of fire, though somewhat different. But these Menstruums (as they call'd them) did not abide with the dissolved body, being by that same reason confirmed, they rejected all Salts, one Salt only excepted which is the first Ens of Salts, the which dissolves all Metals, and by the same work coagulates ☿: but this is not done but by a violent way, and therefore that kind of Agent is again separated entire, both in weight and vertue, from the things it is put to. Wherefore the Wisemen did at length know and consider that in ☿ the watery crudities, and the earthly faeces, did hinder it from being digested; which being fixed in the roots thereof, cannot be rooted out, but by turning the whole compound in and out. They knew, I say, that ☿ if it could but put off these things, it would presently become Fix; for it hath in it self a fermental Sulphur, of which, even the smallest grain would be sufficient to coagulate the whole Mercurial Body, if only the Faeces and Crudities could be removed. This thing therefore they attempted to bring to pass by various purging it, but in vain; forasmuch as the foresaid Work requires both mortification and regeneration, for which there is need of an Agent. Then at length they knew that ☿ was destinated (in the bowels of the earth) to have been a Metal, to which intent it retained a daily motion, as long as the fitness of the place, and other externality well disposed, did remain; but these being by accident corrupted, this immature Child or Offspring died of its own accord: so that it is beheld as a certain thing deprived of motion and life. But now an immediate regress from privation to habit or form is impossible, that is to say, there is a passive {sulphur} in ☿ which ought to be active; so that it is needful to introduce into it another life of the same nature in the introducing of which it stirs up the hidden life of ☿, so life receives life; then at length it is fundamentally transformed or changed, and the defilements are voluntarily cast away from the Centre, as we have abundantly enough written in the preceding Chapters. This Life is in the Metallick Sulphur alone, which the Wisemen sought for in ♀, and in such like substances, but in vain. Then they took the offspring of Saturn in hand, and they found he was the Stylanx or tyer of Gold; and whereas therefore it hath the power of separating the Faeces from ripe Gold, they thence became confident (by an argument drawn from the lower to the less) that it would do so in ☿: but they proved that this also had its own defilements, and they remembred the old Proverb, Be thou clean that desirest to cleanse another; therefore they endevouring to purge it, found it altogether impossible, because it had no Metalline Sulphur in it, though it abounded with the most purged Salt of Nature. When therefore they observed a little Sulphur in ☿, and that only passive, they found now in this Child of ♄ no actual {sulphur}, but only potential; and therefore it entred in friendship with a burning Arsenical Sulphur, and foolish as it is, it cannot subsist in a coagulated form without this Sulphur; and yet notwithstanding it is so stupid, that it had rather dwell with the Enemy, by whom it is so exceeding streightly imprisoned, and commit Fornication, than renounce him and appear under a Mercurial form. Therefore they sought further for an active {sulphur}, and that most throughly, and at length the said Magi sought it, and found it hidden in the house of Aries. This {sulphur} is most greedily received by the son of ♄; which Metallick matter is most pure, most tender, and most near to the first Metallick Ens, void of all actual Sulphur, but yet in power or capacity to receive a {sulphur}. It doth therefore draw this to it self like a Magnet, and swallows it up in its own belly, and hides it; and the Omnipotent, that he might most highly adorn this Work, hath imprinted his Royal Seal thereon. Then forthwith these Magi rejoyced when they beheld the {sulphur}, not only found, but also prepared: Then they endevoured to purge ☿ therewith, but the success was not answerable; because there was as yet an Arsenical Malignity commixt with this {sulphur} thus swallowed up in the Child of ♄: the which evil though now it was but little, in respect of the abundance which it had in its own Mineral nature, yet it withstood and hindred all entrance. Therefore they assaied to contemperate this malignity of the Air by the Doves of Diana, and then the event was answerable to their desires; then commixed they Life with Life, and moistened the dry by the moist, and acuated the passive by the active, and vivified the Dead by the Living: so the heaven became clouded over for a time, which after large showers became clear again. Thus came out an Hermaphroditical ☿, him therefore they put in the fire, and they coagulated him in time, yet not very long time; and in his coagulation they found most pure ☉ and ☽: Then returning to themselves they considered that this depurated ☿, not as yet coagulated, was not as yet a Metal, but volatile enough; and they saw that in its distillation it left nothing remaining in the bottom, therefore they termed it, their unripe ☉, and their living ☽, they also considered that, being that out of which the true first Ens of Gold was (and being as yet volatil) what should it be but the ground wherein ☉ being sown, would be encreased in his virtue; therefore they put ☉ in the same, and (to their admiration) the fire became therein volatile, the hard soft, the coagulated dissolved, Nature her self being amazed thereat. Therefore they Married these two together, and shut them in a glass, and placed them at the fire, and governed the Work a long time as Nature required; so the vivified became dead, and the dead living, the body putrified, and rose a glorious Spirit: and the soul is at last resolved into a Quintessence, the highest Medicine for Animals, Metals, and Vegetals.

CHAP. 12

OF THE MANNER OF MAKING THE PERFECT MAGISTERY IN GENERAL

We ought to give immortal thanks to God, because he hath shewed these Secrets of Nature to us, which he hath hidden from the eyes of most men. Those things therefore which are freely given to us by that great Giver, we will lay open freely and faithfully to other studious men. Know therefore, That the greatest secret of our Operation, is no other thing than a cohobation of the Natures of one thing above the other, until the most digested virtue be extracted out of the digested (body) by the Crude one. But there is hereto requisite, first, an exact preparation and fitness of the things that enter into the Work; secondly, a good disposing of external things; thirdly, things being thus prepared, there is required a good Regimen; fourthly, a fore-knowledge of the appearances in the Work is required, that your procedure therein be not blindfold; fifthly, Patience, that the Work be not hastened, or head-longly governed. Of all which we will speak in order, as much as one Brother to another.

CHAP. 13

OF THE ƲSE OF A RIPE {SULPHUR}, IN THE WORK OF THE ELIXIR

We have spoken of the necessity of the ☿, and have delivered many secrets of ☿, which (before me) were barren enough to the World; because almost all Chymical Books do abound either with obscure Aenigmas, or sophistical Operations, or with a heap of rough and uncouth words. I have not done so, resigning my will in this thing to the Divine Pleasure, who (in this last period of the World) seems to me to be about the opening of these Treasures: Therefore I do no more fear that the Art will be disesteemed, far be it from me, this cannot be; for true Wisdom will defend it self in external Honour. I could wish, That Gold and Silver would at last be of as mean in esteem as Dirt, which hath been hitherto the great Idol adored by the whole World; then we who know these things should not need so studiously to hide our selves: For we judge our selves to have received (as it were) the Curse it self of Cain, for which we weep and sigh, that is to say, We are driven, as 'twere, from the Face of the Lord, and from the pleasant Society which we heretofore had with our Friends, without fear. But now we are tossed up and down, and as it were beset with Furies; nor can we suppose our selves safe, in any one place long. We oftentimes take up Complaints and the Lamentations of Cain unto the Lord, Behold whosoever shall find me, shall kill me. We Travel through many Nations, just like Vagabonds, and dare not take upon us the Care of a Family, neither do we possess any certain Habitation. And although we possess all things, yet can we use but a few. What therefore are we happy in, excepting speculation only, wherein we meet with great satisfaction of the Mind? Many do believe (that are strangers to the Art) that if they should enjoy it, they would do such and such things; so also even we did formerly believe, but being grown more wary, by the hazard we have run, we have chosen a more secret Method. For whosoever hath once escaped the eminent perils of his Life, he will (believe me) become more wise for the time to come. 'Tis a Proverb, Batchelors Wives and Maids Children are well cloathed or nourished. I have found the World placed in a most wicked posture, so that there is scarce a Man found, whatsoever Face he bears of Honesty, and howsoever he seems to heed publick things, That doth not propound unto himself, some private, base, and unworthy end. Nor is any mortal Man able to effect any thing alone, no not in the works of Mercy, except he would run the hazard of his Head; which my self have of late experienced, in some strange or forreign places, where I have administred the Medicine to some ready to dye, distressed and afflicted with the miseries of the Body: and they having recovered miraculously, there hath presently been a rumour spread of the Elixir of the Wisemen, insomuch that once I have been forced to flie by night, with exceeding great troubles, having changed my garments, shaved my head, put on other hair, and altered my name; else I had fallen into the hands of wicked Men, that lay in wait for me (meerly for suspition only accompanied with the most greedy thirst after Gold.) I could reckon up many such like things, which will seem ridiculous to some; for they'll say, Did I but know these and these things, I would do otherwise than so: But yet let them know, that it is a tedious thing for ingenious Men to have converse with blockish Men. And as for those that are ingenious, they are subtile, crafty, quick-sighted; and some of them have as many eyes as Argus; some are curious, some are Machiavilians, that search into the life, manners, and actions of Men, most throughly, from whom to hide our self is very difficult, especially if there is any familiar knowledge (or converse.) If any one doth think thus of himself, viz. That he would do so and so (were he a Possessor of the Stone) I would willingly say unto him thus (viz.) Thou art perchance a familiar acquaintance of an Adeptist, he would presently consider with himself; and say, This is impossible, for 'tis great chance but I should once see it; and by my familiar converse with him, it could not be but that I should smell it out. Thou that imaginest these things of thy self, Thinkest thou that others do not abound with as much quick-sightedness as thy self, who would be able to discern thee? For 'tis expedient to have converse with some, else thou shalt seem to be another quick Diogenes. But if thou associate thy self with the Vulgar, this is unworthy; but if thou shalt contract familiarity with Wisemen, it behoves thee to be most highly wary, least some of them discern thee, with the same facility as thou believest thy self capable of finding out, as 'twere, another Adeptist (thou being ignorant of the known Secret) If only thou wert able to have a familiar consortship with him, thou wilt not so readily discern That an opinion, being but a conceited one, is without great inconvenience, even a slight conjecture shall be sufficient to procure a lying in wait for thee; for the Iniquity of Men is so great, that we have often known some Men to have been strangled with a Halter, yet notwithstanding were strangers to the Art. 'Twas sufficient that some desperate Men had heard a report of such an Art, the knowledge of which such once bore the name to have. It would be too tedious to reckon up all things, which we our selves have made tryal of, we have seen and heard concerning this thing. Moreover as concerning this present Age of the World, rather more than in any former one, Who is it that pretends not to Alchymy? Insomuch, that thou shalt hardly dare to stir thy foot, except thou desirest to be betraid. If thou dost but do any thing secretly, this wariness of thine, will stir in some a zeal of throughly searching thee out, even to the bottom. They'l tattle of counterfeiting Money, and what not? But then if thou art a little open, and some unwonted things done by thee, whether in Medicine or Alchymy, If thou shouldst have a great weight of Gold or Silver, and wouldst sell it, any one would admire readily, from whence so great a quantity of the finest Gold and purest Silver should be brought; whereas such Gold is scarcely brought from any place, save only Guiny or Barbary, and that in the fashion of most small sand: but now thine being more noble than that, and in a massie form, will not want a most notable rumour. For Buyers are not so stupid, although they should (like Children) play with thee, and say, Our eyes are shut, come we will not see; but if thou dost come, they will even see, even but out of one corner of thy eye, so much as is sufficient to bring upon thee the greatest Misery. For Silver is by our Art produced so fine, that no such is brought from any place, That which is brought out of Spain is the best, it doth somewhat excel in goodness even English sterling, and that in form of plain Money, which is transported by Theft, the Lawes of the Nations prohibiting it. If therefore thou shalt sell a quantity of pure Silver, thou hast even already betrayed thy self: But if thou adulteratest it (being not a Goldsmith) thou runnest the hazard of thy Head, according to the Laws of England, Holland, and almost of all Nations, by which 'tis provided, That every Deterioration or allaying of Gold and Silver (though according to the Goldsmiths Balance) yet if it be not done by a professed and licenced Metallourgist, it will be accounted a Capital Crime. We have known the time that when we would have sold so much pure Silver, as was of six hundred Pound value (in a forreign Country) being cloathed like Merchants (for we durst not adulterate it, because almost all Countries hath its standing Balance of the goodness of Silver and Gold, which the Goldsmiths do easily know in the Mass; that should we pretend it was brought from hence or thence, they would presently distinguish by their Probe or Tryal, and apprehend the seller) they presently said unto us that brought it, This Silver is made by Art. We demanded the reason of their saying so, They replied only thus, The Silver that comes out of England, Spain, &c. we are not now to learn how to know it, but this is not any of these kinds: which when we heard, we privily withdrew, and loft both the Silver and the price of it, never more demandable. Moreover if thou shouldst fain a great quantity of Gold brought from elsewhere, but especially of Silver, this thing cannot be so private, but a rumour will be spread thereof, the Ship-Master will say, Such a quantity of Silver was never brought by me, nor can it come into the Ship, and every body be thereof ignorant; and when others shall hear thereof, that were wont to buy it, they'l laugh and say, What? Is it a likely thing, that this Man can get such a Mass of Gold and Silver, and put it into his Ship, there being such strickt Lawes that forbid it, and so strickt a charge to prevent it? Thus presently 'twill be blazed abroad, not in one Region only, but in the bordering Countries. We being taught by these dangers, have determined to lye hid, and will communicate the Art to thee who dreamest of such things, that so we may see what publick good thou wilt enterprise, when thou shalt have obtained it. We therefore say, as heretofore I taught that ☿ was necessary in the Work, and have delivered such things concerning ☿, which no former Age ever delivered; so also I now on the other hand lay open the Sulphur, which will be desired, without which ☿ will never receive a profitable congelation for the supernatural Work. Sulphur doth (in this Work) supply the place of the Male, and whosoever undertakes the Transmutation Art without it, all his attempts will be in vain; for all the Wisemen affirm, That there can be no Tincture made without its Latten, which Latten is Gold, without any double speaking. Hence the noble Sendiuogius saith, The Fool (believe me) will not find our Stone, no not in Gold; but the Wiseman will find it in the Dung, That is to say, In Gold (which is the ☉ of the Sophi) the tincture of Goldness lies hid. This though it be a most digested body, yet is it incrudated and made raw, in one only thing, viz. Our Mercury, and receiveth from ☿ the multiplication of its own Seed, not so much in weight as in vertue. And although very many of the Sophists do seem sophistically to deny this thing, yet verily so it is as I have said, that is to say, They tell us that common Gold is dead, but that theirs is alive; so in like manner a grain of Wheat is dead, that is, the germinating activity therein lies supprest, and would eternally remain so, should it be kept in a dry ambient Air: but let it be but cast into earth, and it presently receives a fermental life, it swells up, is mollified and buddeth. Even so is the case with our Gold, it is dead, that is, its vivifying vertue is sealed under abodily shell, as 'tis with the Grain, although differently, according to the great difference betwixt a Vegetable Grain and Metallick Gold. But even as a Grain remains perpetually unchanged in a dry Air, is destroyed in the fire, and vivified in the water only, even so Gold, that is uncorruptible in every Element, durable even through every Age, is reducible in our water only, and is then living and ours. Even as Wheat sown in the ground doth change its name, and is called the Husbandman's Seed-corn, either for Bread or other uses, as well as for Seed: even so it is with Gold, as long as it is in the form of a Ring, a Vessel or Mony, 'tis the vulgar Gold, but as concerning its being cast into our water, 'tis Philosophical; In the former respect it is called Dead, because it would remain unchanged even to the Worlds end; in the latter respect it is said to be living, because it is so potentially; which power is capable of being brought into Art in a few daies, but then Gold will be no longer Gold, but the Chaos of the Sophi; therefore well may Philosophers say, That their philosophical Gold differeth from the vulgar Gold, Which difference consisteth in the Composition. For even as that Man is said to be dead, which hath already received the sentence of Death; so is Gold said to be alive when it is mixed in such a Composition, and put upon such a fire in which it will necessarily receive a germinative life, in a short time: yea, 'twill demonstrate the actions of a life beginning, and that within a few daies. Therefore the same Sophi that say their Gold is living, do bid thee (the Searcher of Art) to revive the dead, the which if thou knowest to do, and to prepare the Agent, and rightly to mix the Gold, it will soon become living; in which vivification thy living Menstruum will dye. Therefore the Magi command thee to revive the dead, and to kill the living; They do (at the first entrance call their water living, and say that the death of one principle, with the death of another, hath one and the same period. Thence 'tis evident, That their Gold is to be taken dead and their water living; and by compounding these together, the seed-Gold, will (by a short decoction) vivifie or quicken, and the live ☿ will be killed, that is, the spirit will be coagulated with the dissolved bodie, and both of them putrifie together, in the form of dirt or mud, until all the members of the Composition are rent or dispersed into Atoms; Here therefore is the naturality of our Magistery. The Mistery which we so much hide, is to prepare the ☿, truly so called, the which cannot be found upon the earth ready prepared to our hands; and that for singular reasons known to the Adeptists. In the ☿ we neatly amalgamate pure Gold, purged to the highest degree of purity, and filed or beaten, and being shut in the glass we daily boyl it; the Gold is dissolved by the vertue of our Water, and returneth to its nearest matter, in which the included life of the Gold becomes free, and takes the life of the dissolving ☿, which (in respect of the Gold) is the same as good earth in respect of the Grain of Wheat. In this ☿ therefore, the Gold being dissolved, doth putrifie, and must be necessarily so by the necessity of Nature; therefore after the putrefaction of death, there riseth the new Body, of the same Essence with the former Body, and of a more noble substance, 〈◊〉 takes on it the degrees of virtuality, proportionable to the difference between the four qualities of the Elements. This is the reason of our Work, this is our whole Philosophy. We have said therefore, That there is nothing in our Work secret but ☿ only, the Magistery of which, is rightly to prepare it, and extract the hidden ☉ it contains, and to Marry it in a just proportion with Gold, and to govern it with the fire, as the ☿ requireth, because Gold doth not of it self fear the fire; and as far forth as 'tis united with the ☿, so far doth it render it able to abide the fire. Therefore this is the Labour and Work, to accommodate the regiment of the heat, to the capacity of ☿ his abiding it; but he that hath not rightly prepared his ☿, and should joyn Gold therewith, his Gold is yet the Gold of the Vulgar, because 'tis joyned with such a foolish Agent, in which it remaineth as much unchanged, as if it had been kept in the Chest: nor will it lay off its own bodily nature by any Regiment of the Fire whatsoever, where an Agent is not alive within. Our is then a living and quickning soul, and therefore our Gold is Spermatical; as Wheat sown is Seed-corn, when as the same Wheat would (in the Barn) remain Bread-corn only, and dead; and though it were buried in a pot under the earth (as the West-Indians are wont to hide their Fruit or Corn in pits in the earth, fenced against the access of water) yet, unless it be met withal by the moist vapour of the earth, 'tis dead, and abides without fruit, and is plainly remote from Vegetation. I know there are many which will carp at this Doctrine, and say, That he affirms it Gold of the Vulgar; and running ☿ is the material Subject of the Stone: But we know the contrary. Go to therefore ye Philosophers, examine your Purses, although you know such things, have ye the Stone? Verily, as for my self, I do not possess it by theft, but by the gift of my God. I have it, I have made it, and daily have it in my power, have often form'd it with my own hands, and I write the things I know: But I write not to you. Therefore deal with your Rain-waters, May-waters, your Salts; tattle of your Sperme, that it is more potent than the Devil himself, slander and revile me. Believe ye that this your evil speaking will sadden me? I say that Gold only and ☿ are our Materials, and I know what I write, and the searcher of all hearts knoweth that I write the truth; nor is there any cause to accuse me of envy, because I write with an unterrified Quill, in an unheard-of style, to the honour of God, to the profitable use of my Neighbours, and contempt of the World and its Riches; because Helias the Artist is already born, and now glorious things are declared of the City of God. I dare affirm that I do possess more Riches than the whole known World is worth; but cannot make use thereof, because of snares of Knaves. I disdain, I loath, and deservedly detest this Idolizing of Gold and Silver, by the price whereof the pomp and vanities of the World are celebrated. Ah filthy Evil! Ah vain Nothingness! Believe ye that I conceal these things out of envy? No verily, for I protest to thee I grieve from the very bottom of my Soul, that we are driven as it were like Vagabonds from the Face of the Lord throughout the earth. But what need many words, That thing that we have seen, taught and wrought, which we have, which we possess and know, these do we declare, being moved with meer compassion toward the studious, and with Indignation of Gold and Silver, and of pretious Stones; not as they are Creatures of God, far be it from us, for in that respect we honour them, and think them worthy esteem: But the people of Israel adores them as well as the World; therefore let it be ground to powder, like the Brazen Serpent. I do hope and expect, that within a few years, Money will be like dross; and that prop of the Antichristian Beast will be dasht in pieces. The People are mad, the Nations rave, an unprofitable Wight is set in the place of God. These things will accompany our so long expected and so suddenly approching Redemption, when the New-Jerusalem shall abound with Gold in the streets, and the Gate thereof shall be made of entire Stones, and most pretious ones; and the Tree of Life, in the midst of Paradise, shall give Leaves for the healing of the Nations. I know, I know these my Writings will be to most Men like the purest Gold, and Gold and Silver will (through these my writings) become as vile as dirt. Believe me ye Youngmen, believe me ye Fathers, because the time is at the dore; I do not write these things out of a vain Conception, but I see them in the Spirit. When we Adeptists shall return from the four Corners of the Earth, nor shall we fear any Snares that are laid against our Lives, but we shall give thanks unto the Lord our God. My heart murmureth things unheard-of; my Spirit beats in my breast for the good of all Israel. These things I send before into the world, like a Preacher, that I may not be buried unprofitably in the World: Let my Book therefore be the fore-runner of Elias, which may prepare the Kingly way of the Lord. I would to God that every ingenious Man, in the whole earth, understood this Science; then no body would esteem hereof (Gold, Silver, and Gems being so exceedent abundant) but so far forth only as it conteined knowledge: Then at length Vertue, naked as it is, would be had in great honour, meerly for its own amiable nature. I know many that possess the true knowledge thereof, all of whom have vowed a most secret silence; but as for my self I am of another judgement, because of the hope I have in my God; therefore I wrote this Book, which none of my Adept Brethren (with whom I daily converse) knew of. For God gave rest unto my soul, by a most firm faith; and I do undoubtedly believe, that I shall (by this way) serve the Lord my Creditor, and the World my Neighbour, and chiefly Israel, by this using I say of my Talent. And I know that none can improve his Talent to so great Usury, for I foresee that (haply) some hundreds will be illuminated by these my Writings; therefore I consulted not with flesh and blood, I sought not after the consent of my Brethren in writing hereof. God grant that it be to the glory of his Name, that I may attain the end I expect; Then as many Adeptists that knew me, will rejoyce that I have published these things.

CHAP. 14

OF THE REQUISITE CIRCUMSTANCES IN GENERAL, BELONGING TO THIS WORK

We have sequestred the Chymical Art from all the vulgar errours, and of the vanquished Sophisms, and the curious Dreams of the Imaginarists; and have taught, That the Art is to be made of ☉ and ☿. We have shewed that ☉ is Gold (without all uncertainty and doubtfulness) not Metaphorically, but in a true Philosophical sense to be understood; also our ☿ we have declared to be true Argent Vive or Quick-silver, without any ambiguity of acceptation; The latter we have told you must be made by Art, and be a key to the former. We have added such clear and apparent reasons, that except you be blind at the Sun, you cannot but perceive. We have protested, and do again profess, That we do not declare these things from the faith we give to the Writings of other Men; the things we faithfully declare, are what we have both seen and known.

We have made, and do possess the Stone, the great Elixir; nor verily will we envy thee the knowledge thereof, but we wish that thou mayest learn them from these Writings. We have likewise declared, That the Preparation of the true Philosophical ☿ is difficult, the main knot lying in finding Diana's Doves, which are folded in the everlasting Arms of ♀, which no Eyes but a true Philosopher ever saw. This one skill performs the Mastery of Theory, enobles a Philosopher, and unfolds to the knower of it, all our Secrets. This is the Gourdian Knot, which will be a knot for ever, to a •yro in this Art, except the Finger of God direct, yea so difficult, that there needs the peculiar grace of God, if any one would attain the exact knowledge thereof. For my part, I have delivered such things concerning the making thereof, as none before me ever did; more I cannot do, unless I should give the (very) Receipt, which I have also done, only I have not those things called by their proper names. It now remains that we describe the use and practice, by which thou mayest easily discern the goodness or defect of thy ☿; that being known, thou mayest alter and mend it as thou wilt. Having therefore animated ☿ and Gold, there remains an accidental Purgation as well of the ☿ as the Gold, secondly Dispensation or Marriage, thirdly Rection or Governance.

CHAP. 15

OF THE ACCIDENTAL PURGATION OF GOLD AND MERCURY

Perfect Gold is found in the bowels of the earth, whereupon 'tis sometimes found in little pieces, or in sands; if thou canst have this sincere, it is pure enough, but if not, then purge it with Antimony, or by the Cineritium or Royal Cement, or by boyling with Aqua fortis, the Gold being first granulated. Our Gold is made by Nature perfect to our hands, which I have found and used, but hardly the Hundred thousandth Artist knows it, except he hath exquisite skill in the the Mineral Kingdom; but besides this it is in a substance obvious to all Men, but then it is mixt with many superfluities; we do therefore make it pass through many Tryals and Mixtures till all the feculency be removed, and the pure remain, which is then not without all Heterogeneitie; yet we melt it not, for so the tender soul is lost, and becomes as dead as Gold vulgar, but wash it in the water, in which all but our matter is consumed, then is our body like a Crows bill; afterward melt it with a fire of fusing, and file it, then 'tis Prepared: But ☿ needs an internal and an essential Purgation, which is an addition of a true {sulphur}, orderly and by degrees, according to the number of the Eagles, then is it radically purged. This {sulphur} is no other than our Gold, which if you know to separate without violence, and then to exalt each a part, and after to reconsume them, thou shalt betwixt them have a conception, which will give thee an Infant more noble than any sublunary thing whatsoever. This Work Diana know to perform, if she be first infolded in the inviolable arms of Venus. Pray the high God to reveal this Mystery to thee, which my former Chapters have disclosed to a word; and where that Secret is couched, there is not a word or stop superstuous or desectuous.

But farther, It also requires an accidental Purgation or Mundification to wash off the external defilements that are cast out of the Centre; but this is not so absolutely necessary, but yet this Labour hastens the Work, and therefore is convenient. Take therefore thy ☿, which thou hast prepared by a convenient number of Eagles, and sublime it thrice from common Salt and the Scoria of Mars, grinding them together with Vinegar and a little Sal Armoniac until the ☿ disappear; then dry it and distill it by a glass-Retort, by a fire gradually encreased, even until the whole ☿ ascend. Repeat this three times (or oftner) afterwards boyl the ☿ in the Spirit of Vinegar an hour long, in a Cucurbit, or a glass with a broad bottom and a narrow neck, sometimes strongly shaking it; then decant or pour off the Vinegar, and wash off the sowrishness with Fountain-water, poured on again and again; then dry up the ☿, and thou wilt wonder at its brightness. Thou mayest wash it with Urine, or Vinegar and Salt, and so spare the sublimation, but then distill it at least four times without addition, after thou hast perfected all the Eagles or washings, washing the Chalybeate or Steel, Retort every time with ashes and water, then boyl it in distilled Vineagar for half a day, stirring it strongly sometimes, and pour off the blackish Vineagar, and pour on new; then wash it with warm water (thou mayest free the Spirit of the Vineagar from blackness, by redistilling it, and 'twill be as vertuous as before:) all this is for the removing the external uncleanness, which doth not adhere to the Centre, and yet 'tis little more obstinate in the superficies than you are aware of; which you shall thus perceive: Take this ☿ prepared with his Eagles, viz. seven or nine, and amalgamate it with most purified Gold, let the Amalgama be made in a most clear paper, and thou shalt see that the Amalgama will defile the paper with a duskish blackness, but yet this Faeces or defilement thou mayest prevent by the foresaid distillation, boyling and agitation, or stirring it; which Preparation doth very much promote or hasten the Work.

CHAP. 16

OF THE AMALGAMATION OF THE ☿ AND GOLD, AND OF THE DUE WEIGHT OF BOTH

These being rightly prepared, Take of purged and luminated Gold, or Gold subtily filed, one part, of ☿ two parts, put it in an heated Marble Mortar; that is to say, heated with boyling water (out of which being taken it dryes presently, and holds the heat a long time) grind it with an Ivory Pestle, or Glass, Stone or Iron (but this last is not so good) or Box; but the Stone or Glass pestle is best (I am wont to use a white Coralline pestle) grind it I say strongly, until it be made impalpable; grind it with as much diligence as Painters are wont to grind their Colours, then see the consistence or temperature of it; if it be plyable like butter, then it is not too hot nor yet cold; but yet so that the Amalgama being declined (or bowed of one side) doth not permit the ☿ to run, like an hydropical intercutal water; the consistence thereof is good, but if not, add as much of the water as is sufficient to make it of this consistency. This is the Rule for Mixture, that it be most readily plyable and most soft; and yet can be made up like round pellots, like as Butter may (which though it yields to the easiest touch of the finger, yet may be made up into balls by a Washing-woman.) Observe the alledged Example, as being the most exact Example; because, as Butter, though it be turned of one side, yet it doth not pour out, or let go any thing from it self that is more liquid than the whole Mass is. In like manner is our mixture, because of the intrinsical nature of ☿, Will this sign be given either in a double or in a treble proportion of the ☿ to the Body, or also in the threefold of the Body to to the fourfold of the Spirit, or in a double to treble: and according to the nature of the ☿, or difference, the Amalgama will be softer or harder; yet be alwaies mindful that it come together inpellots, and those pellots too being laid by, do so concreate or hold together, that the ☿ doth not appear more lively in the bottom than in the top. For Note that if it be permitted to rest quiet, the Amalgama hardens of its own accord. The consistency thereof, is to be judged in the agitation or stirring it; and if then it be plyable like Butter, and suffereth it self to be made up into balls, and these pellots being put in clean paper are of an equal liquidity, the proportion is good. This being done, Take the Spirit of Vinegar and dissolve in it a third part of its own weight of Sal Armoniac, and put thereon ☉ and ☿, formerly amalgamated, put it in a glass with a long neck, and let it boyl for a quarter of an hour, with a strong Ebullition; then take the mixture out of the glass, separate the liquor, heat the Mortar, and grind it strongly as above, and very diligently; then wash off all the blackness with warm water, put it in again in the former liquor, and boyl it again in the same glass; then again grind it strongly, and wash it. Repeat this Labour until thou canst not get off any more colour of blackness from the Amalgama, by any Labour; then the Amalgama will be white, like the purest Silver, and most polite, garnish'd with a wonderful brightness. Observe even yet the teperature of it, and beware it be exquisitely right, according to the Rules above-given; if it be not, make it so, and proceed as above. This is a tedious Labour, yet shalt thou see (by the signs appearing in the Work) thy Labour recompensed; then boyl it in a pure water, pouring it off and repeating it, until all the saltness and Acrimony be vanished; then pour out the water and dry the Amalgama, which will soon be done: But that thou mayest be more secure (because too much water will destroy the Work, and break the vessel how big soever it be) stir it or work it upon a clean paper, with the top of a knife, from place to place, untill it be dryed exceeding well, then proceed as I shall teach thee.

CHAP. 17

OF THE PREPARATION, FORM, MATTER, AND CLOSING THE VESSEL

Thou shalt have an oval or round glass, so big as to hold at the most (in its sphere or belly) an Ounce of distilled water, and not less than this if possibly thou canst, but get it as near the measure as possibly thou canst; let the glass have a neck of the height of one palm, or hand-breadth, or span; let it be clear and thick, the thicker the better, so it be clear and clean, to discover the actions which are within it; let it not at all be thicker in one place than in another: The proportion of matter to this glass, let it be half an Ounce of Gold, with an Ounce of ☿, which is two to one, and if thou add three to one of the ☿, yet the whole Compound will be less than two Ounces, and this proportion is exquisite: Moreover, unless the glass be strong it will not hold in the fire; the winds which are in the vessel in the forming of our Embryo, which will easily break a slight vessel. Let the glass be sealed at the top, with so great caution, that there be not the least hole or chinck, else the work would be destroyed. So you see that our Work as to our Principles, is costlier than the price of three Florens, yea in the making of the water, the price of what enters into a pound will hardly exceed a brace of Crowns. There wants I confess some Instruments, but they are not deer; and if you had my distilling Instrument, you may easily excuse the use of brittle glasses: yet there are some Doctors who dreams, That the price of one Imperial or Crown will suffice for the whole Work, to whom I have a ready answer to return, that is, That I by that perceive, that they speak without any Easis of Experiment. For there are in the Work other things that are pretious and require charge. But they will urge out of the Philosophers, That all which may be bought for a great price, will be found a false Principle in our Work. To whom I may answer, And what is our Work? Namely, to make the Stone. That indeed is our finall work, but our main Master-piece is, To find a moisture or humidity, in which the ☉ will melt, as Ice in warm water. This is our Work to find, for this many seek, even to weariness; to attain this ☿ of ☉, others for the ☿ of the ☽: but all in vain. For in this our Work, whatsoever is sold deer will prove deceitful. Verily I say, That of the material Principle of our Water, as much may be bought for the price of one Floren, as will prepare or vivifie two whole pounds of our ☿, it may become true Philosophical ☿ so much sought. Out of this we make a Sol, which by that time it is perfect, is hardly so little chargeable to the Artist, as if he had bought it at the price of the most fine ☉; for it is indeed as good in all other essayes, and far more excellent in our Work. Moreover, we need Glasses, Coals, Earthen-vessels, a Furnace, Ironvessels and Instruments, which are not to be provided for nothing; away then with these Sophisters, their vile pratling, impudent lyes, by which they seduce many. Without our perfect body, our offspring of Venus and Diana (which is pure Gold) there can never be any tincture permanent. So then, it is, in respect of its nativity, very vile on one hand, immature and volatile; on the other hand, perfect, pretious and fixt; which species of the Body and the Spirit is ☉ and ☽, Gold and Argent Vive.

CHAP. 18 

OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL FURNACE OR ATHANOR

Of ☿ we have spoken, its Preparation, Proportion and Vertue; of {sulphur} also, its necessity and use in our Work; which how they are to be Prepared, I have shewed; how to be mixed, I have taught: of the vessel also, in which they are to be sealed, I have discovered much: which are all to be understood with a grain of salt, else if you proceed too literally, you may happen to erre oftentimes; the which the unusual can doe: For we have so mingled our Philosophical subtleties with unusual candor, that unless you smell out many Metaphors in our foregoing Chapters, your Harvest will hardly prove better than loss of Time, Costs and Pains; as for Example: Where we, without any ambiguity, told you that one of our Principles was ☿, the other ☉; one commonly vendible, the other to be made by our Art: If you know not the latter, you know not the subject of our Secrets, and may instead of it, work in Sol vulgar; yet mistake me not, for our ☉ is in all examens good Gold, and therefore it's vendible, that is, it may be (if reduced to a Metal) sold without any scruple: But our Gold is not to be bought for money, though you would give a Crown or Kingdom for it, for it is the gift of God, for our Gold is not to be had made to our hand (at least not commonly.) But before it comes to be our ☉, it stands in need of our Art, yet thou mayest in ☉ and ☽ vulgar also seek our Sol and find it, if thou seek aright. So then our Gold is the next matter to our Stone, and ☉ and ☽ vulgar are near matters, but other Metals are the remote matter, and those things which are not Metalline are most remote, that is alien from it. I my self have sought it in ☉ and ☽ vulgar and found it, yet it is a far easier work out of our Matter to make the Stone, than to abstract our true Matter out of any vulgar Metal; for our Gold is a Chaos, whose soul is not put to flight by the fire; but Gold vulgar is a body, whose soul is retired into a strong hold, that it may there be defended from the violence of the fire; therefore saith the Philosophers, That the Fire of Vulcan is the artificial death of the Metals, and as many as have suffered fusion have in it lost their Life. If thou canst apply it wittily, both to thy imperfect body, and to thy Fiery Dragon, thou needest no other Key to all our Secrets; for if thou wilt seek our ☉ in a middle substance, between perfection and imperfection, thou mayest find it: Also loose the body of common Sol, which is an Herculean Work, and it's called the first Preparation, by which the Incantation is loosed, by which its body was bound from performing the part of a Male. If thou goest in our former way, thou needest a most benign fire from the beginning to the end; but if thou entrest the latter way, thou must imploy the help of Fiery Vulcan, such as we use in multiplication, when corporal ☉ or vulgar ☽ is added to our Elixir for a Ferment. This I fear will prove a Labyrinth to thee, except discretion help thee out of it.

Yet in either, one progress or other, thou art in need of an equal and continual heat, whether thou workest in ☉ vulgar, or in our ☉ only. Know also, That thy ☿ in both Works, although it be one radically, yet it's far different in its Preparation. Also thy Stone with our Gold shall be sooner perfected, by two or three Moneths, than our first Matter shall be made to appear out of either ☉ or ☿ vulgar; and the Elixir of the one will be at the first degree of perfection, of a greater vertue by far than in the other at the third Rotation of the wheel.

Moreover, if thou work with our Sol, thou must make Cibation, Imbibition and Fermentation, by which its force will be made in a manner infinite; but in the other Work thou must first illuminate it, and nicerate it, as the great Rosary teacheth abundantly: Lastly, If thou work in our Gold, thou mayest calcine, putrefie and purifie, with a most benign fire of Nature within, helped from without with a Bath, as if it were of Dung or Dew; but if thou work in ☉ vulgar, thou must first sublime and boyl this Compound till fit to be united with Virgins Milk.

Yet be it as it will, thou canst never do any thing without fire: It was not then in vain, that the Truth-telling Hermes, next to the Father ☉, and Mother ☽, reckons the fire as the third or governour of the whole. But this is to be understood of the truly secret Furnace, which a vulgar eye never saw.

There is also another Furnace, which is called Our common Furnace, which is either of Brick or Potters Loam, or of Iron or Copper plates well luted within; this Furnace we call an Athanor, whose form, that best pleaseth me, is a Tower with a Nest. Let the Tower be about two Foot high or more, and nine Inches broad within the plates, or a common span; about two Inches broad below of each side, and so about seven Inches high, or eight at the most; that where the fire is, may be thicker of Clay than at top, but of a smooth ascent, somewhat tapering; next to the bottom or foundation, let there be an ash-hole three or four fingers high, or a little more, and a grate and stone fitted to it; a little above the grate about an Inch high, let there be two holes which may give vent into a Nest, which must be close joyned at the side, the holes let them be about an Inch diameter, and the Nest capable to receive three or four Egg-glasses, and not too large; let the Nest and the Tower be very free from cracks, and let the Nest have no scope downwards below the dish, but that the fire may come immediately under the platter, and so forth at two, three, or four holes, and let the Nest have a cover with a window in it, where a glass about a Foot high may stand, or else the top of it let out at a hole above; and being thus ordered, set your Furnace in a lightsome place, and the Coals are to be put in at the top, first live ones and then others, and the top to be shut from all Air with a cover, and sifted ashes in the joynts of it. In such a Furnace you may do the Work, from the beginning to the end.

But if you be curious, you may find other, and other waies of administring a due Regimen of Fire. Let then, for a general Rule, such an Athanor be made, in which, without motion of the glass, you may give what degree of heat you will, from a feverish heat to a soft reverbering or dark red, and in its highest degree, let it last at least ten hours or eight, without recruiting with Coals, for less time is toylsom to the Workman; then hast thou the first gate open.

Thou mayest, when thou hast the Stone, make the fore-mentioned Furnace portable (as I my self have) for it is easily portable, and the Operations are not so tedious, but very short, and so need no great Furnace; which would be worse to carry about, and more trouble than the rising a little sooner than ordinary, to recruit a small Furnace with Coals for about a Weekes time, or two or three at the most, in the time of Multiplication.

CHAP. 19

OF THE PROGRESS OF THE WORK IN THE FIRST FORTY DAYES

Having prepared our Sol and our ☿, shut them in our Vessels and govern them with our Fire, and within Forty Dayes thou shalt see thy whole matter turned into a shadow or Atomes, without any visible mover or motion, or without any heat perceptible to the touch, save only that it is hot.

But if you be yet ignorant both of our Sun and of our ☿, meddle not in this our Work, for expence only will be thy lot, and no gain nor profit.

But if only thou want the full discovery of our Sun, having throughly attained the skill of our ☿, and knowest how to fit it to the perfect body, which is a great Mysterie.

Then take of ☉ vulgar well purified one part, and of our ☿ first illuminated three parts, joyn them as was before taught, and set them to the Fire, giving a heat in which it may boyl and sweat; let it be circulated day and night without ceasing, for the space of ninety dayes and nights, and thou shalt see in that space, that thy ☿ will have divided and reconjoyned all the elements of thy Gold; boyl it then other fifty dayes, and thou shalt see in this Operation thy ☉ vulgar turned into our ☉, which is a Medicine of the first order: Thus doth it become our true {sulphur}, but it is not yet a teyning Tincture. Trust me, many Philosophers have wrought this way, and attained the Truth, yet it is a most tedious way, and it's for the Grandees of the Earth. Moreover when thou hast got this {sulphur}, do not think that thou hast the Stone, but only its true Matter; which in an imperfect thing thou mayest seek, and find it in a week, with our easie, but rare way, which God hath reserved for his poor contemned and abject Saints: Of this thing I have now determined to write much, although in the beginning of this Book, I decreed to bury this in silence; for here lies the knot on which the grand Sophism of all the Adepti is built: Some write concerning ☉ and ☽ vulgar, and they write true; and again others deny ☉ and ☽ vulgar, and they also say true. I being now moved with Charity, will now reach forth my hand, and therein I dare appeal to all the Adepti that ever wrote, and tax them all with Envy, yea, and I my self that had resolved to tread in that same path of Envy, but that God did inforce me beyond what I intended, to whom be everlasting Praise. I say then that each way is true, for it is but one way in the end, but not in the beginning; for our whole Secret is in our ☿, and in our ☉; our ☿ is our way, and without it nothing is done; our ☉ also is not ☉ vulgar, yet in ☉ vulgar is our ☉, else how could Metals be homogeneal? If then thou know how to illuminate our ☿ as it ought to be, thou mayest for want of our ☉ joyn with Gold vulgar, but yet know that the acuation of the ☿ ought to be different for the one, and for the other, and in a true Regimen of them, in an hundred and fifty dayes, thou shalt have our ☉, for our ☉ naturally comes out of our ☿: If then ☉ vulgar be by our ☿ divided into its Elements, and afterwards joyned, all the mixture, by the help of the fire, will become our ☉, which then being joyned with that ☿, which we prepared, and call our Virgins Milk, by reiterate decoction it will give all the signs which the Philosophers have described, in such a fire as they have written of in their Books.

But now if you shall in your Decoction of ☉ vulgar (though it be most pure) use that same ☿ which is used in our ☉ (though both flow from one root in general) and apply that Regimen of heat, which the Wisemen in their Books have applyed to our Stone, thou art without all doubt in an erroneous way, and that is the great Labyrinth in which almost all young Practitioners are entangled, for there is scarce one Philosopher who in his Writings doth not touch both wayes; which is indeed but one way fundamentally, only one is more direct to the Mark than the other: They then that do write of ☉ vulgar, as we sometimes in this Treatise, so also Artephius, Flammel and Ripley, with many, others; We are not otherwise to be understood, but that our Philosophical ☉ is to be made out of ☉ vulgar and our ☿, which then by reiterate Liquefaction, will give a {sulphur} and Argent Vive, fixt and incombustible, and whose Tincture will abide all Tryals; also in this sense, our Stone is in every Metal or Mineral, forasmuch as ☉ vulgar may be extracted out of them, and out of that ☉ our ☉ may be made, as being nearer in it than any Metal. So then our Stone is in all Metals, but in our ☉ and ☽ nearer than in any other; Therefore, saith Flammel, some wrought it in ♃, some in ♄; but I wrought it in Sol, and there I found it. Yet there is in the Metallick Kingdom one thing of a miraculous Original, in which our Sol is nearer to be sought than in Sol and ☽ vulgar, if it be sought in the hour of its Nativity; which melts in our ☿ like Ice in warm water, and yet it hath a resemblance with Gold: This is not to be found in the manifestation of Sol vulgar, but by revealing that which is hidden in our ☿, the same thing may be found by Digestion in our ☿ for the space of an hundred and fifty dayes. This is our Gold, sought the farthest way about, which is not yet of so great a vertue as that which Nature hath made and left to our hands; yet turning the wheel thrice, each comes to one end, yet with this difference, what thou findest in the one in seven months, thou must wait for in the latter the space of a year and a half, or it may be two years. I am acquainted with both wayes, and commend the first to all ingenious men, but in my Descriptions I have most touched the hardest way, lest I should draw on my head the Anathema of all Philosophers; know then, that this is the only difficulty, in reading the books of those that are most candid, that all, one as well as the other, do vary the Regimen, and when they write of one Work they set down the Regimen of another, in which snare I was entangled my self at first, and it was long before I could get free out of this Net.

Know then that the Fire in our Work is most agreeable to Nature, if thou understand our Work aright; but if thou work in Sol vulgar, that properly is not our Work, and yet it leads directly into our Work in its determined time; but in it thou needest a strong and long decoction, and a proportionable time; then mayest thou go on the second Operation with our most benign Fire, with our Tower and Athanor, which I chiefly commend.

If then the Work in Sol vulgar be sure to procure the Marriage of Diana, Venus in the beginning of the Espousals of thy ☿, then put them into the Nest, and in a due heat of Fire thou shalt see an emblem of the great Work, to wit, Black, White, Citrine and Red; then reiterate this Work with ☿, which we call our Virgins Milk, and set it in a heat of Balneum Roris at the highest; let it be a heat of ashes mixed with sand; then thou shalt see not only the black but the blackest black, and all blackness; so also both the white and the red complete, and this with a gentle process; for in the fire and the wind God was not, but in the still Voice he spoke unto Elias.

Therefore if thou knowest the art of it, extract our Sol out of our ☿, then shall thy Secrets spring all out of one Image, which, trust me, is more perfect than any worldly perfection, according to the Philosopher; If, saith he, thou know how to make the Work out of ☿ alone, thou shalt be Master of a most pretious Work. In this Work are no superfluities, but the whole (by the Living God) will be turned into purity, because the action is only in one thing.

But if thou shalt proceed in our Work with Sol vulgar, then the action and passion is a twofold substance, and only the middle substance of both is taken, and the Faeces rejected; if you do but meditate well on what I have told, in few words, you have a key to open all the appearing Contradictions which are amongst the Philosophers; therefore Ripley teacheth to turn the wheel round thrice, in his Chapter of Calcination, to which Relations his threefold Doctrine of Proportions agreeth, wherein he is very mystical, and those three different proportions agree to three several Works; one Work is most secret and purely natural, which is with our ☿ and our Sol, to which Work belong all the signs described by the Philosophers. This Work is done neither by fire nor by hands, but only by internal heat, and the external is only expelling cold and overcoming its Symptomes.

The other Work is in Sol vulgar, purged with our ☿; this operation is done with a strong fire, and in a long time, in which both are decocted by the mediation of Venus, so long until the pure substance of each be sublimed, which is the true juyce of Lunaria, this is to be taken, and the faeces are to be rejected; this is not yet our Stone, but our true {sulphur}; which then is to be decocted again with our ☿, which is its own blood, by which decoction it becomes a Stone, penetrative and teigning.

Thirdly and Lastly, There is a mixt Work, where ☉ vulgar is mixt with our ☿ in a due proportion, and a Ferment of our {sulphur} is added as much as is sufficient; then are fulfilled all the Miracles of the World, and the Elixir becomes able to furnish the Possessor both with Riches and Health: Seek then our {sulphur} with all thy might, which, believe me, thou shalt find in our ☿, If Fates thee call.

Otherwise chuse Sol vulgar, and work on it with a due proportion of heat, and out of it (in time) thou shalt prepare our Sol and Luna; but it's a way hedged with infinite briars, and we have made a Vow unto God and Equity, that we would never, in naked words, declare each Regimen; for I can assure you, upon my credit; that I have in other things discovered the truth plainly. Take then that ☿ which I have described, and unite with Sol to which 'tis most friendly, and in seven moneths, in our true Regimen of heat, thou shalt for certain see all which thou desirest, or in nine moneths, or ten at the most; but our ☽ in its full thou shalt see in five moneths: And these are the true periods of this {sulphur}, out of which, by reiterate decoction, thou shalt have our Stone and permanent Tinctures, through the grace of God, to whom be all glory and honour for ever.

CHAP. 20

OF THE APPEARING OF BLACKNESS IN THE WORK OF SOL AND LUNA

If thou shalt work in Sol or ☽ to our {sulphur}, in them consider if you see this matter like to paste, and to boyl like unto water, or rather like to melted pitch; for our Sol and ☿ have an emblematical Type in Sol vulgar, joyned with, and decocted in our ☿: When thou hast kindled thy Furnace, wait for the space of 20 dayes and nights, in which time thou shalt observe divers colours, and about the end of the fourth week, if the fire be continual, thou shalt see a most amiable greenness, which will be seen for about ten dayes, less or more, then rejoyce, for without doubt in a short time thou shalt see it like unto a coal in blackness, and all the members of thy Compound shall be turned into Atomes, for the Operation is no other than a Resolution of the fixt in that which is not fixt, that afterwards both being joyned together, may make one matter, partly spiritual, and partly corporal: Therefore saith the Philosopher, Take Corascene Dog and Bitch of Armenia, joyn them together, and they shall beget thee a Son of the colour of the heaven; for these Natures, in a short decoction, shall be turned into a broth, like unto the foam of the Sea, or like a thick cloud, which shall be tinctured with a livid colour; and once more I may assure thee, that I have not hidden any thing save only the Regimen, and this, if thou art wise, thou shalt easily collect from my Lines: Supposing then that thou wilt learn the Regimen.

Take the Stone which I have told you of before, and govern it as you know how, and there shall follow these notable things; first, as soon as our Stone shall feel the fire, it shall flow (its {sulphur} and its ☿ together) upon the fire like to wax, and the {sulphur} shall be burned, and the colour shall change day by day; but the ☿ is incombustible, only it shall be affected with the colours of the {sulphur} for a time, but it cannot be radically affected, therefore it will wash Letton clean from all its filth; reiterate the heaven upon the earth, so long and so often, until the earth receive a spiritual and heavenly nature: O blessed Nature, which doth that which is impossible for Man to do! Therefore when in thy glass thou shalt see thy Natures to be mingled like unto a coagulated and burnt blood, know that then the Female is embraced by the Male: Therefore after the first stirring up of the Matter, expect that in 17 dayes thy two Natures shall be turned into a bloody or fatted Broth, which shall be turned round together, like unto a thick Cloud, or the scum of the Sea, as is before said; and the colour of it will be exceeding obscure; then be sure that the Kingly Child is Conceived, and from that time thou shalt see vapours, green, blew, black and yellow, in the Air or Fire, and at the sides of the Vessel. These are those Winds, which in the forming of our Embryon are very frequent, which are to be kept warily, lest they fly out, and the Work be destroyed; beware also of the Odour, lest it happen to exhale at any chink; for the vertue of the Stone would thereby get a most notable detriment; therefore the Philosopher commands to keep the Vessel close sealed, and beware that you do not break off abruptly from the Work; neither open nor move the Vessel, nor yet intermit the Operation not an hour, but continue the Decoction till you see the moisture begin to fail, which will be in about thirty dayes; then rejoice, and rest assured that thou art in the right way. Attend the Work vigilantly, for in about two weeks from the time, thou shalt see the whole earth dry and notably black, then is the death of thy Compound at hand, the Winds are ceased, and all arerest and quietness. This is the fatal Ecclipse of the Sun and of the Moon, when no light shall shine upon the Earth, and the Sea shall vanish, then is made our Chaos, out of which, at the command of God, shall proceed all the Miracles of the World in their orders.

CHAP. 21

OF THE BURNING OF THE FLOWERS, AND HOW TO PREVENT IT

The burning of the Flowers is an errour of fatal consequence, yet soon committed before the Natures which are tender and extracted from their profundity, they are oftentimes burnt; this errour is chiefly to be heeded after the three weeks; for in the beginning there is so much moisture, that if the Work be governed by a stronger fire than is convenient, it being brittle will not bear the abundance of winds, but will suddenly fly in pieces, unless the glass be too large, and then sure the vapours will be so out of measure dispersed, that they will hardly return again to their body, at least not so much as is necessary for the refreshment of the Stone. But so soon as the earth shall begin to retain part of its water, then the vapours decreasing, the fire may be strengthened without danger of the Vessel; but the Work will nevertheless be destroyed, and will have a colour of a wild Poppie, and the whole Compound will at length become a dry and unprofitable powder, of a half red colour: Thou shalt conclude from this sign, that thy fire hath been too strong, so strong, to wit, as to hinder true conjunction; for know, that our Work doth require a true change of Natures, which cannot be until an entire union of both Principles be made; but they cannot be united but in the form of water, for bodies may be confounded or blended together, but cannot be united, nor yet can any body with a spirit be united per minima; but spirits with spirits may well be united, therefore our Operations must become Homogeneal Metallick Water; the way to which Solution is our foregoing true Calcination, which therefore is not an exsiccation properly, but a kind grind of water, as earth in Atomes; which when they become more subtle than the exigencies of the earth requires, earth is then actually transmuted into, and doth receive the form of Ferment of water; but if the fire be too vehement, this spiritual Nature being struck as with a fatal stroke, our active will become passive, of spiritual corporal, even a red unprofitable precipitate, for in a due heat the colour will be as black as that of the Crow, which though it be dark yet it's most desirable; yet there is also a blackness which will appear in the beginning of the true Work, and that very remarkable, but this is ever accompanyed with a due proportion of moisture, and sheweth that heaven and earth have been in conjunction, between which the fire of Nature is conceived; by which redness all the concave of the glass will seem as it were gilt over with Gold, but this colour is not durable long, but in a short space will be changed into a greenness, then in a very short time expect blackness; and if thou wilt be patient, thou for certain shalt see thy desire accomplished, at least make slow, but sure progress. Let not thy heat be over strong, and yet strong enough, and between Scilla and Charibdis sail like unto a skilful Pilot, so shalt thou attain the wealth of either India; sometimes thou shalt see as it were little Islands sloating, and shooting out as it were little sprigs and buds, which will be changeable in colours, which soon will be melted and others will arise in the stead of them; for the earth as it were inclining to a Vegetation, is alwaies sending forth some new thing or other; sometimes thy fancy will be that thou seest in thy glass Birds or Beasts, or creeping things, and thou shalt each day behold colours most beautiful to sight, which though they are pleasant to the eye, are not of a long continuance; all is in the keeping of a due heat without any intermission: So shall all these pleasant colours in the space of fifty dayes end in a colour most black, and a powder discontinuous, which if thou seest not, blame either thy ☿ or thy Regimen, or the disposition of the Matter, unless thou either hast moved or medled with the glass, which may either protract or finally destroy the Work.

CHAP. 22

THE REGIMEN OF SATURN, WHAT IT IS, AND WHENCE IT IS DENOMINATED

As many of the Wise men as have wrote of this Master-piece of Philosophy, have all spoken of the Regimen of ♄, which many (understanding wrong) have turned aside unto divers errors, and deceived themselves with their own opinion; some being thus led with a great deal of confidence, although with very little advantage: But know that our ♄ is more noble than any Gold, it's the Limus in which the soul of our Gold is joyned with its ☿, that after they may produce Adam and Eve his wife; therefore that which is the highest shall so humble it self as to become the lowest, then expect that he will redeem all his Brethren by his blood. The sepulchre in which our King is buried is named ♄ in our Work, and its the Key of the Work of Transmutation; O happy is he that may behold this slow Planet! Pray to God, my Brother, that he would vouchsafe to you his blessing; for its not of him that willeth, nor of him runneth, but on the Father of Lights alone, this Blessing dependeth.

CHAP. 23

OF THE VARIOUS REGIMENS OF THIS WORK

Be certainly confident studious Son of Art, whoever thou art, that nothing is hidden in this Work, save only the Regimen, of which, that of the Philosopher may be verified, Whoever is Master of that Science, Princes and Grandees of the Earth shall honour him. I assure you, upon the word of an honest Man, that if this one Secret were but openly discovered, Fools themselves would deride the Art; for that being known, nothing remains, but the Work of Women and the play of Children, and that is Decoction: So that not without cause did the Wise men hide this Secret with all their might. And rest assured that we have done the same, whatever we have seemed to speak concerning the degree of heat; yet because I did promise candor in this Treatise, something at the least is to be done, that I may not deceive the ingenious of their hope and pains: Know then, that our Regimen, from the beginning to the end, is only lineal, and that is to decoct and to digest, and yet this one Regimen in it self comprehends many others, which the envious have concealed, by giving them divers names, and describing as so many several Operations: We, to perform the candor we promised, will make a far more perspicuous manifestation. So that, Reader, whoever thou art (if ingenious) thou shalt find cause to acknowledge our candidness in this to be more than ordinary.

CHAP. 24

OF THE FIRST REGIMEN OF THE WORK, WHICH IS OF MERCURY

And in the first place we shall treat of the Regimen of ☿, which is a secret hitherto not discovered by any Philosophers; for they verily do begin their Work at the second Regimen, and do give a young Practitioner no light in the mastery of the capital signs of blackness; in this point, that good Marquiss of Treveso was silent, noble Bernard, who in his Parables saith, That the King, when he came to the Fountain, leaving all strangers behind him, enters the Bath alone, clothed in golden Robes, which he puts off and gives to ♄ his first Chamberlain, from whom he receiveth a black Velvet Suit. 

But he sheweth not how long the intervail of time is, before he plucks of his golden Garment, and therefore he passeth over in silence the first and most intricate Regimen, which is perhaps forty or fifty dayes ere it be fully complete; in which time the poor Practitioner is left to uncertain Experiments; from the appearing of blackness until the very end of the Work, the sights that do appear are sufficient to refresh the Artist, but in this space to wander without a guide or direction, for the space of fifty dayes, I confess is tedious: I say then, That from the second kindling of the fire, even until blackness, all the interval of time is the Regimen of our ☿, even of our Sophical ☿, which all that time doth work alone, his Companion being dead at first, and so remains a great space; and this Secret before me no man ever yet discovered: Therefore when thy Matters are joyned, which are our ☉ and our ☿, do not think, as some Alchymists vainly imagine, that the rising of the Sun will follow suddenly, no verily, we waited a long and tedious while before a reconciliation was made betwixt the water and the fire; and this the envious have in a short speech mystically comprehended, when they in the first beginning of their Work, called their Matter Rebis, that is, made of two substances, according to the Poet,

RES REBIS EST BINA CONJUNCTA, SED EST TAMEN UNA

SOLVITUR, UT PRIMA SINT AUT SOL AUT SPERMATA LUNA

REBIS ARE TWO THINGS JOYN'D, YET IS BUT ONE

DISSOLV'D, THAT SOL OR LUNE BE SPERM ALONE

For know of an undoubted truth, that though our ☿ devour the ☉, yet it doth not so as Chymical Phantasticks dream, for although the ☉ joyn with our ☿, yet a year after you shall separate each from the other in its own nature, unless you decoct them together in a convenient degree of fire, otherwise they will not be altered; he who will affirm the contrary, is no Philosopher: They who wander in Errours Path, do dream that it is a matter of very light concernment to dissolve the perfect bodies in our ☿, in so much, that according to their imaginations, Gold in this will be devoured in the twinkling of an eye; not well understanding the place of Bernard Trevisan, in his Parable concerning his Golden Book irrecoverably drowned in his Fountain. But how hard a Work it is to dissolve Bodies, they can witness who have taken pains in this dissolution; I my self, who have been oft taught this Lesson by ocular testimony, can be a witness, that it is a most ingenious thing to govern the fire, even after the matter is prepared, such a fire as may dissolve the Bodies as they ought to be dissolved, without burning their tinctures. Attend then to my Doctrin: Take the Body which I have shewed you, and put it into the water of our Sea, and decoct it continually with a due heat of fire, that both Dews and Clouds may ascend, and drops may descend, both night and day, without intermission; and know, that in this Circulation the ☿ doth arise in its former nature, and leaves the body beneath its former nature, so long until after a long time the body begin to retain part of its soul, so by degrees both begin to partake each of other, but because the whole water doth not ascend by sublimation, part of it remains below in the bottom of the vessel, therefore is the body boyled in the water that remains beneath, and by its means it is sifted, and the drops which are continually running down do perforate the masse marvelously, and by continual Circulation the water is made more subtle, and doth sweetly extract the soul of the Sun; so by the mediation of the soul the spirit is reconciled with the body, and an union of both is made at the utmost within fifty dayes; and this Operation is called the Regimen of ☿, because the ☿ is circulated above, and in it the body of the Sun is boyled beneath, and the body is in his work passive, until the colours shall appear, which will be a little about the twentieth day in a good and continual ebullition; which colours are afterwards increased, multiplyed and varied, until all be at last completed in black of the blackest most black, which the fiftieth day will give thee, If Fates thee call.

CHAP. 25

OF THE SECOND REGIMEN OF THE WORK, WHICH IS OF SATURN

Having run through the Regimen of ☿, which is to strip the King of his golden Robes, to assault the Lion with divers conflicts, to weary him, and at length to kill him; the next Regimen that apears is that of ♄, for it is the will of God that the Work, when once it's begun, should be carried on even unto the end, and the law of those Operations is, that the ending of one, is the entrance of another; the period of one, the beginning of another: Nor doth the Regimen of ☿ sooner pass away, but his succesor ♄ comes in, who is the next higher in succession; the Lion dying, the Crow is ingendred: This Regimen lineal in respect of the colour, for there is but one only colour, and that is the blackest black, but neither fumes, nor winds, nor any symbole of Life, only the Compound, will at some seasons appear dry, otherwhiles boyling like to melted Pitch: O sad sight, the Image of eternal Death! But withal a most pleasant Messenger to the Artist, for the blackness is not ordinary intense, so that it shines again for blackness; and when thou seest thy Matter swelling beneath, like unto a Paste, rejoyce, for know, that within this there is shut a quickening spirit, which in its appointed time, will restore Life from the Almighty and these Carkases. Be thou only careful of the fire, which thou must be sure to govern with a sound judgement, and I swear unto thee upon the Faith of an honest Man, that if thou urge thy Fire, so as to make ought to sublime, in the dayes of this Regimen, thou wilt destroy the Work irrecoverably; be content then, with good Trevisan, to be detained in prison forty dayes and nights, and suffer the tender Nature to remain below in the bottom, which is the Nest of their Conception; knowing for certain then, that when the period of time is expired, which the Almighty hath appointed, the spirit will arise glorious, and glorifie its body; it will ascend, I say, and be circulated sweetly, and without violence, and from the Centre it shall ascend unto the Heavens, and again from the Heavens it shall descend to the Centre, and it shall receive the vertue of that which is above, and that which is beneath.

CHAP. 26

OF THE REGIMEN OF JUPITER

After black ♄, ♃ succeeds, who is of divers colours; for after the putrefaction and corruption which is made in the bottom of the vessel, through the command of God thou shalt again see change the colours, and a circulating sublimation. This Regimen is not durable, for it continues not more than three weeks space; in which time, all colours imaginable in the World will be to be seen, of which, no certain account can possibly be rendred. In these dayes the showres shall be multiplyed continually, and at the last, after all these things most beautiful to behold, there shall shew it self a whiteness at the sides of the vessel, like unto rays or hairs, then rejoyce, for now thou art hapily run through the Regimen of ♃. The greatest caution in this Regimen is, lest when the Chickens of the Crow have left their Nest, they return to it again; also, lest you draw out the water too immoderately, so the earth beneath want it, and be left dry and unprofitable in the bottom; lastly, lest thou waterest thy earth so intemperately as to suffocate it, which errour thou shalt help by the good Regimen of external Fire.

CHAP. 27

OF THE REGIMEN OF LUNA

After the finishing of Jupiter's Regimen, about the closing of the fourth moneth, the sign of the Moon Crescent shall appear unto thee; and know, that the whole Regimen of ♃ is imployed about the washing of Letton, the washing Spirit is very white in its nature, but the body which is to be washed is very black, in the passage whereof to white, all the middle colours shall be seen; after which, all will become white, not in a day, but gradually it shall arise from white to the whitest of all; and know, that in this Operation, there shall be a season in which all shall appear like to liquid Argent Vive, and this is called, The sealing of the Mother in the belly of her own Infant which she brought forth; and in this Regimen there shall also appear some beautiful colours, but momentary and soon vanishing, and more of kin to white than unto black, as the colours in the Regimen of ♃ contrariwise participated more of blackness than whiteness; also know, that in three weeks the Regimen of ☽ will be complete, but before its perfection the Compound shall change in a thousand formes; for when the fumes begin to cease, before it be wholly congealed, it will melt and grow hard again an hundred times in a day; sometimes it will appear like to the eyes of a Fish, sometimes like to a pure silver Tree shining with branches and leaves: In a word, about this season the hourly marvels that shall appear, shall overwhelm the sight, and at the last thou shalt have most pure sparkling grains like unto Atomes of the Sun, more glorious than which humane eyes never saw. Let us give immortal thanks to our God, who hath brought the Work to this perfection, for it's the true perfect Tincture to the White, yet only of the first order, and therefore but of small virtue, in comparison of that admirable force which it will attain by reiterate Preparation.

CHAP. 28

 OF THE REGIMEN OF VENUS

Above all things this is most wonderful, that our Stone being now wholly perfect, and able to give a perfect Tincture, should of his own accord again abase himself, and become again volatile without any laying on of hands: But if you take the white stone out of the vessel, the same being put again into a new vessel, after it is once cold, can never be brought into a new Operation; a demonstrative reason of which, neither we nor any of the ancient Philosophers are able to render, only it's done by the will of God; at least here be very wary of your fire, for this is the Law of the Stone when it is perfect, that it must be fusible: Therefore if you give too great a heat, the Matter will be vitrified, and melting will adhere to the sides of the vessel; nor canst thou then go on any farther with the Work. And this is the vitrifying of the Matter so often warned of by the Philosophers, which oft happens to them which are unwary both before and after the White Work is, even ended, to wit, after the middle of the Regimen of ☽, until the seventh or tenth day of the Rule of ♀: Therefore let thy fire be increased but a very little, so that the Compound may not vitrifie, that is, to be melted passively like to glass; but with a bounteous fire, it may of its own accord melt, and swell, and by the command of God it shall be endued with a spirit, that shall flie aloft, and the stone to flie with it: It shall thus give thee new colours, the green at first, which is of ♀, which shall last a long time less or more for the space of twenty dayes; expect after this Cerule and Livid, and about the end of the Rule of ♀ pale and obscure purple, be heedful in this Work that thou do not provoke the spirit too urgently, for being now more corporal than formerly, if it do flie to the top of the vessel, it will hardly return of its own accord; which caution is also to be observed in the Rule of ☽. When once thou seest the spirits to thicken, then handle them sweetly and without violence, lest if thou makest them to ascend to the top, that which is in the bottom be either burnt or vitrified, to the destruction of the Work; when then thou seest greenness, know that in it is the virtue Germinative contained. Beware then that this greenness turn not into a filthy blackness with immoderate heat, but govern thy fire prudently; so after forty dayes thou shalt see this Regimen at an end.

CHAP. 29

OF THE REGIMEN OF MARS

After the Rule of ♀ is ended, whose colour was chiefly Vert or Green, and a little Red of an obscure Purple, and sometimes Livid; in which time the Philosophical Tree did flourish with Boughs and with discoloured Leaves and Branches, next succeeds the Reign of ♂, which shews a little Yellow, mixed with Luteous Brownness; these are the chief colours, but transitory ones of the Rain-Bow and Peacocks-tail, it shews most gloriously, this is a dry state of the Compound, in which the Compound will appear at times in strange Figures; the Hyacinth and high Orange colour in these dayes will be seen frequently. Now the Mother being sealed in her Infants Belly swells and is purified, but because of the present great purity of the Compound, no putridness can have place in this Regimen, but some obscure colours play their part as the chief Actors in this Stone, and some middle colours do pass & come, pleasant to be hold: Now know, that this is the last Tillage of our Virgin Earth, that in it the Fruit of the Sun might be set and maturated; therefore continue a good heat, and thou shalt see for certain about thirty dayes off this Regimen a Citrine colour shall appear, which shall in two weeks offer its first appearing Tincture, all with a true Citrine colour.

CHAP. 30

OF THE REGIMEN OF SOL

Now art thou drawing near to the end of thy Work, and hast almost made an end of this business; now all appears like unto pure Gold and the Virgins Milk, with which thou imbibest this Matter, is now very Citrine: Now to God, the Giver of all Good, you must render immortal Thanks, who hath brought this Work on so far; and beg earnestly of him, that thy Counsel may hereafter be so governed, that thou mayest not endevour to hasten thy Work now it is so near perfection, so as to lose all; Consider that thou hast waited now about seven moneths, and it would be a mad thing to annihilate all in one hour; therefore be thou very wary, yea, so much the more by how much thou art nearer to perfection. But if you do proceed warily in this Regimen, thou shalt meet with these notable things, first, thou shalt observe a certain Citrine sweat to stand upon the Body, and after that Citrine vapours, then shall thy Body below be tinctured of a Violet colour, with an obscure Purple intermixt; after the fourteen or fifteen dayes expectation in this Regimen of the ☉, thou shalt see the greatest part of thy Matter humid, and although it be very ponderous, yet it will ascend in the Belly of the Wind; at length, about the twenty sixth day of this Regimen, it will begin to dry, and then it will liquefie and recongeal, and will grow liquid again an hundred times in a day, until at the last it begin to turn into grains, and sometimes it will will seem as if it were all discontinuous in grain, and then again it will grow into one Mass again, and thus will it put on innumerable forms in one day; and this will continue for the space of about two weeks; at the last, by the will of God, a light shall be sent upon thy Matter, which thou canst not imagine; then expect a sudden end, within three dayes thou shalt see, for thy Matter shall convert it self into grains, and as fine as the Atomes of the ☉, and the colour will be the highest Red imaginable, which for its transcendent redness will shew blackish, like unto the soundest blood when it is congealed, although thou mayest not believe that any such thing can be an exact parallel of our Elixir, for it is a marvellous Creature, not having its compare in the whole Universe, nor any thing exactly like it.

CHAP. 31

THE FERMENTATION OF THE STONE

Remember now that thou hast got our {sulphur} red and incombustible, which can by no fire be promoted further of it self, and be very wary, which I should have told you in the former Chapter had I not forgot it, that in the Regimen of the Citrine Sun, before this supernatural ☉ be born, which is adorned with a true Tirian colour; lest, I say, thou then vitrifie thy Matter with too great fire, for so it would be after insoluble, and by consequence cannot be coagulated into these glorious Atomes, Red of the Reddest. Be wary then that thou destroy not so great a Treasure, and yet do not think that thy Labour here hath an end, but proceed further, that out of this {sulphur}, by reiterate solution and coagulation, thou mayest have our Elixir: Take then of most fine Gold three parts, and of this {sulphur} one part, thou mayest take four parts of ☉ and a fifth part of our {sulphur}, but the aforesaid proportion is better; melt the ☉ in a clean Crucible, and when 'tis melted put thy {sulphur} into it, but very warily, lest you lose it by the smoke of the coals, let them flow together, then put them forth into an Ingot, and thou shalt have a Mass, which may be pulverised, of a most glorious Red colour, but hardly transparent; then take of this Mass exactly pulverised one part, of thy Sophical ☿ two parts, mix them well, put them in a glass, which seal, and govern it as before two moneths, in which time thou shalt see all the foresaid Regimens pass in their order. This is true Fermentation, which thou mayest, if thou wilt, reiterate.

CHAP. 32

THE IMBIBITION OF THE STONE

I Know that many Authors do take Fermentation in this Work for the internal invisible Agent, which they call Ferment, by whose virtue the fugitive and subtile Spirit, without laying on of hands, are of their own accord thickened; and our forementioned way of Fermentation they call Cibation with Bread and Milk, so Ripley; but I (not using to cite other Authors, nor yet to swear to their words in a thing which I my self know as well as they) have followed my own judgement in my Writings. There is then another Operation, by which our Stone is increased in weight more than virtue: Take of thy {sulphur}, white or red, and to three parts of the {sulphur} add a fourth part of the water, and after a little blackness, in six or seven dayes decoction, thy water newly added shall be increased or thickened, like unto thy {sulphur}; then add another fourth part, not in respect of the whole Compound, which is now increased a fourth part by the first Imbibition; but in reference to thy first {sulphur} as thou tookest it at first, which being dryed add another fourth part, and let it be congealed with a convenient fire, then put to it two parts of the water in reference to the three parts of the {sulphur} which thou tookest at first, before the first Imbibition, and in this proportion, imbibe and congeal three other times, at last add five parts of water in the seventh Imbibition, still remembering to reckon the water in reference to the {sulphur} as it was taken at first; seal thy Vessel, and in a fire like to the former make thy Compound pass through all the foresaid Regimens, which will be done in one moneth, and then thou hast the true Stone of the third order; of which one part will fall on a thousand, and teyn perfectly.

CHAP. 33

THE MULTIPLICATION OF THE STONE

To this is required no labour, save only that thou take the Stone, being perfect, and joyn it with three parts, or at the most with four parts of ☿ of our first Work, and govern it with a due fire, in a Vessel well closed, so shall all the Regimens pass with infinite pleasure, and thou shalt have the whole increased a thousand fold beyond what it was before the Multiplication of it; and if thou shalt reiterate this Work again, in three dayes thou shalt run through all the Regimens, and thy Medicine shall be exalted to another millinary virtue of Tincture; and if thou yet shalt reiterate the Work, it will be perfected in a natural day, and all the Regimens and Colours shall pass, which will be done afterwards with another reiteration in one hour, nor shalt thou at last be able to find the extent of the virtue of thy Stone, it shall be so great that it shall pass thy Ingenuity to reckon it, if that thou proceed in the Work of reiterate Multiplication: Now remember to render immortal Thanks to God, for thou now hast the whole Treasure of Nature in thy possession.

CHAP. 34

OF THE MANNER OF PROJECTION

Take of thy Stone perfected as is said, white or red, according to the equality of the Medicine, take of either ☉ or ☽ four parts, melt them in a clean Crucible, then put in of thy Stone, white or red, as the Metal that is melted is in quality, and being well mixed together in fusion, pour them into an Ingot, and thou shalt have a Mass which is brittle; take of this Mass one part, and ☿ well washed ten parts, heat the ☿ till it begin to crack, then throw upon it this Mixture, which in the twinckling of an eye will pierce it; increase thy fire till it be melted, and all will be a Medicine of inferior virtue; take then of this, and cast one part upon any Metal, purged and melted, to wit, as much as it can teyn, and thou shalt have most pure ☉ or ☽, purer than which Nature cannot give. But it is better to make Projection gradually, until Projection cease; for so it will extend farther; for when so little is proiected on so much, unless Projection be made on ☿, there is a notable loss of the Medicine, by reason of the Scorias which do adhere to impure Metals; by how much then the Metals are better purged before Projection, by so much more will the Matter succeed.

CHAP. 35

OF THE MANY ƲSES OF THIS MEDICINE

He who hath once, by the Blessing of God, perfectly attained this Art, I know not what in the World he can wish, but that he may be free from all snares of wicked men, so as to serve God without distraction. But it would be a vain thing, by outward pomp to seek for vulgar applause, such trifles are not esteemed by those who have this Art, nay rather they despise them: He therefore whom God hath blessed with this Talent, hath this field of Content, which far exceeds popular admiration; first, if he should live a thousand Years, and every day provide for a thousand men, he could not want, for he may increase his Stone at his pleasure, both in weight and virtue, so that, if a man would, one man that is an Adeptist, might transmute into perfect Gold and Silver all the imperfect Metals that are in the whole World; secondly, he may by this Art make precious Stones and Gems, such as cannot be paralelled in Nature, for goodness and greatness.

Thirdly and Lastly, he hath a Medicine Universal, both for prolonging Life, and Curing of all Diseases, so that one true Adeptist can easily Cure all the sick People in the World, I mean his Medicine is sufficient.

Now to the King Eternal, Immortal and sole Almighty, be everlasting Praise, for these his unspeakable Gifts, and unvaluable Treasures.

Whosoever enjoyeth this Talent, let him be sure to employ it to the glory of God, and the good of his Neighbours, lest he be found ungrateful to God his Creditor, who hath blessed him with so great a Talent, and so be in the last day found guilty of misproving of it, and so condemned.

This Work was begun in the Year, 1645. and ended by me, who have made and do profess these Secrets, yet desire not applause, but to be helpful to a sincere Searcher of this Secret Art; to whom I subscribe my self a Friend and Brother,

Aeyrenaeus Philaletha, Natu Auglus, Habitatione Cosmopolita.