12zrjjUXi

Stone being the System of the great World, doth in some way or otherrepresent everything which is or can be perceived by man; I mean inreference to some or other operation, colour or quality, and therefore theWise have described it almost by all things imaginable, for to everything insome or other circumstance it hath resemblance.It is more near in some things than in some.Yet to speak properly for information, and not to conceal the Secret, weprofess that there is but one kind in which our Stone is found, and innumber two: understand me not as the Philosopher finds things in his firstlaborious preparation, for so one of the two subjects which being of onekind enter the supernatural work of Generation of our fiery Stone, I say ourcrude Sperm flows from a Trinity of Substances in one Essence, of whichtwo are extracted out of the earth of their Nativity by the third, and thenbecome a milky Virgin-like Nature, drawn fro the Menstruum of our sordidWhore.Take heed therefore what I to thee write.And now I call God to witness that I will shew you a great Mystery: ourStone is in some part of a perfect nature, which we would exalt into a morethan most perfect, and for this end we stand in need of our true Fountain,which I have elsewhere described, and shall not now repeat: This Fountainhath three Springs, and these are three Witnesses which testifie to the Artistof the truth of his proceedings; these are the Spirit, the Water, and theBlood, and these three agree in one; the Water is a Mercurial Bond, whichthe Sophisters can behold so far as the outward shell reacheth, but the wiseman can behold his hidden secret Centre: the Blood is of our Green Lyon,which is indeed the greenest or rawest of the three: for it hath no manner ofMetalline Sulphur, no not a grain, and therefore is Totally Volatile, and it ismore raw than common Water, and yet it is called the Blood, for a mostsecret reason, because it is the seat of his Life; yea the Spirit by this Soul ofour Green Lyon, is made manifest, and is united to it, so that though it bevery green or unripe, yet that inhabits it, which is both pure and ripe, andcan and will digest with the Water, and make both become life with life:Now the Spirit is nothing else but a Chaos, the Wonder of the Wonders ofGod, which every man almost hath, and knows it not, because as it appearsto the World it is compact in a vile despised form; yet is it so useful, that inhumane Affairs none can want it: to the Philosopher it appears united to theBlood, that is, of our Green Lyon, which truly is not a Lyon till the spirit bejoined with it, and then it is made able to devour all Creatures of its kind.And these three agree in one, they are not absolutely one, mark that; ourFire is not of the matter, and yet it is united with the matter, as if it were of36