An Hermetic Work.

Then in a Avarm Cave buried , dissolve Avhat ' s Rotten , From Avhose SyneAvs drops of this our Body ' s gotten . Spirits Avill Pierce , and orderly from shades bring out , This Offspring , clothed Avith Gold and Silver round about Ac length project this on live Coals , and you'l soon see , Another ( Pheenix like ) thereby renev'd to be ;

Which Avith its onely touch , perfects all Bodies here , Past the strict bond , and laAvs of Nature ' s Sphear ; Ancl will change the Species to a higher degree , Whereby ah Grief may cease , ancl Poverty shall flee .

And yet understand me rightly concerning the said work , ancl matter of Philosophers ; that Gold for certain is the principle of Gold-making powder , ( be it in what subject or appearance it AA' 111 ) even as Fire is the principle of Firing : For nothing can g ive Avhat it hath not . In Auro , semina sunt Auri . As Augurelhis and others testifie . fn Gold , is the seed of Gold . And even the same may be said of Lune , when ' tis a Masculine . And their Mercury is the ground of bothand contains all three ; and is

, the Earth , in Avhich it is sown , and from Avhence it takes its original , and is of their own Nature . But this must be living Gold or Silver , and not the common Gold or Silver , which are . Dead ; or the common fowl Quick silver . And indeed these are more universal , cheap , common , ancl easie to be had , then most men , even some Philosophers do think : Avhich caused Ingenious , and Learned Taulodanus to write against the Subject

of that Avorthy old Philosopher Bracescus , though both true Philosophers , and their several Subjects true ; and this made Claveus in his Chrysopeia , and Argyropeia to doubt of some of Lullie ' s processes ; For these Princi ples are to be found in one subject , and in divers having a Golden Nature , as Dunstan , Arnold , Guido , Ripley , Raimund , Glauber , and others do testifie ; and more Avays are to the Wood then one : For out of every or any particular Metallick or Mineral Species bdue Philosophick

-, may y prepa ration , be extracted the subject for the Philosophers Stone ; and every Chymical work called particular may by purification , good preparation & fusible fixation , volatisation , and exaltation , be made a universal work for Multiplication : Nay out of every Element , aud Principle of and in Nature ; and almost every abject thing Avhatsoever , maybe extracted a Sulphurous , Sol , Lune , or Mercury , enlivened for the Philosophers work .

And St . Devogius affirms , that the said first matter of Philosophers , is easier to be touched Avith the hand , then discerned or found by subtilty of Wit , or Sophistick imaginations , and faith , he told it & the Process literally to some , who nevertheless had not confidence therein , for the meanness of the same , and therefore left it Avithout trial . And certainly the Antecedent and Primordial Ens Auri , is in every Element and Princi ple ; the which are never so simplebut out of each the other be extracted and

, may ; AVB may observe a kind of demonstration hereof by our Mother Earth , AVIIO brings forth all things : For take any good and fit Earth , extract all the Stones , Roots , Salt l'eter , and ivhatsoever else is included , and being then left open to the Air for some time in a convenient place , it will not onely of its self be impregnated again with neAV salt Peter , Vegetables , Stones , Mettals and Minerals , but also with Animals , and those wiy Stones , & c . shall hold a Sulphurous Gold ancl Mercury , fit for a Philosopher to

work upon , and to make a fit Medicine for any of the three Kingdoms of Nature , and this being after specificated with a fit Metallick , shall perfect the impure Mettals , to y ol , and Lune ; ancl ' tis strange that salt Peter , a Mineral in the Earth , should have 'ts root and Quarry in the Air . And A-erily every thing brought to such likeness in perfection of Elements , and the three Principles , as to be Quintessential and fixt , are in community of substance with the princiles of Mettalsand in maimer universal

p , are a , and may help to make the Stone for Transmutation of Mettals , as well as for the health ot Men , & c For the community of matter of all things , as in Sal , Sulphur , ancl Merely , and the purity of the four Elements is in pure Water , aud pure Earth , brought to j * Quintessential essence , and so are in community of substance Avith Mettals , and will be of equal nature with their princi ples , namely , in Sal , Sulphur , and Mercury ; For