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told you, You may easily perceive the darke and hidden worke of the Phylosophers and by that you may know that
they all runne one way and upon one straine, and that our art is nothing else but what has beene said before, the
dissolution of bodies and changing of their first matter, how it's made earth and how it becomes a light and
spirituous in the aire with distilling it because of the moistnesse which is in it; thus it becomes lusty in vapours, and
the earth remaines below incinerated and is of a fiery nature, thus you have truly the totall changing of things and
the mingling of the Soul with the body and with the Spirit, and it assumes such a Spirituall and powerfull increase
that humane reason cannot fathome it, the highest be praised and blessed for it for evermore.
Now will I in the name of God make manifest the practice and the very sense of the Philosophers how one shall
perfect that Ellixir, that is the augmentation of the true tincture and of Silver and Gold only out of the Mercury of the
Sages, or the minerall Mercury and in all copper bodies which fall short of perfection, insomuch that they become
perfect into a perfect Luna and gold above the naturall, which is not that common Mercury, call'd by the
Philosophers prima materia, waterish hot moist and cold, an element, a constant water, a Spirit, a body, a swimming
smoake, a blessed water, a water of the wise, a vinegar of Philosophers, a dew of Heaven, virgin Milke, a corporeal
Mercury, besides others innumerable names whereby he is called in the Bookes of the Philosophers; allthough these
names sound variously, yet they signifie but one thing, to witt the aforesaid Mercurium Philosophorum, for out of
him, and in him and by him only are sought all the vertues of the whole art of Alchimy, and of the red and white
tincture, Q and R.
Therefore saith Geber, without Mercury the art is not perfected. It is a thing, a Stone, a Medicine in which lyes the
art, unto which no outward thing is to be applyed, only in the preparation the remaining or superfluous part is to bee
taken of. Therefore in that and out of that a man may finde all things, needfull to this art. For it kills it selfe and
revives it self, makes it selfe hard, makes it selfe weake, makes it self black white and red. And the same master in
his discourse sayeth. Wee add no externall thing because of the gold and silver, for these are called not internall
things, which are to bee adjoyned to the Mercury, For they are two Fellow Helpers whereby the whole work of the
art is perfected. And another Philosopher saith, It is a thing, whereby many have beene undone, as a whole multitude
was for one mans sake.
The Mercury is also called a naturall root of a high Tree out of which innumerable branches grow, and its call'd the
knowne stone of the philosophers, and in the Bookes of Philosophers the first operation. To the perfection of the
aforementioned Stone or Elixir belongs a Sublimation or exaltation which must bee brought to purity. And this I
shall hereafter without the least covering make manifest. But you must note that this sublimation is nothing lesse
than a purification, for hereby all remaining drosse that was in the Mercury is purged away, thus this sublimation the
inconstant particles are lifted up from the constant, for the inconstant ascend and the constant remaine below at the
bottome, yet in the operation the inconstant become in part constant and it's particularly to bee noted. Hee that
rightly sublimates our Mercury, hee hath perfected the whole art, For Master Geber saith, The whole perfection is in
the sublimation in the vessel, and in the ordering of the fire, for in the already mentioned sublimation are
comprehended all other particulars, which belong to our art and labour, as sublimating, dissolving, ascending,
descending, cooling, mollifying, purifying, and perpetuating, washing and colouring on red and white. All is done in
a vessel in order in an oven, whereof the Masters of nature have written much that the art was not to bee perfected
constantly, on purpose, that the unwise might reach to it, but to the just and to the godly it becomes profitable both
here and hereafter.
Now make it thus. Take in the name of God the aforementioned Mercury or the naturall Water, the first matter of the
Sages, Take of it as much as you will, and putt it into its vessell which must be pure, cleare, and cleane, and Seale it
well above with the Sigills Hermetis, that the Mercury may not come out above, and sett it in its prepared place, that
it may have a moderate heate every moment for a month. The naturall master saith That it may have its place warme
whereby it works it self up and downe, so long til it ascend no more in the glasse, and begins to bee colle at the
bottome, and becomes dry below in the glasse without the least moistnesse, like a black earth, that is caput Corvi, or
an earthy dry element, for thus the true sublimation or exaltation of the philosophers is perfected as is said before.
And in this sublimation is the true separation of the Elements, as the Masters say.
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