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is in Gold, as it is made and left by Nature, which partly for its simplevertue, and partly for its Metallick determination, doth not enter ourConstitutive Principles, and consequently cannot touch or reach long life.But of our Tincture which will not fade,Out of our base drawn by our Menstrue circulate.But when as we have by our Art exalted Gold from an unary to a millenaryperfection, and advanced it from its gross corpulency to a SpiritualTincture, which is unfading, and of all Sublunary things the most durable,then out of this so glorious and triumphant in an universal virtue, we domake an Oyl so called by us, (though it be permiscible by mixture in anyLiquor) which Oyl is the very Tree of Life, which prevails and triumphsover all the miseries in the world. For it is not Metallum, but transcendingall metalline things: This Tincture is extracted out of Gold, not as Tincturesare drawn by the Sal Circulatum of Paracelsus, but by an universalchanging of the Sickness of the Metalline off-spring, into a true posture ofHealth; by which means it is able to heal all Metalline Bodies from theirLeprosie, and being resolved by its own Vegetable Humidity, which is ourfirst Menstrue, circulated till the Water have a ferment from the Bodies,and the Bodies from the Water, it will give a Spiritual Tincture, sparklinglike the flame, to taste most sweet, to smell most pleasant, the mostincomparable Treasure of the whole World.And for thy first ground principal,Understand thy Waters menstrual.Now I return to that which went before concerning this Medicine, which Ipassed over in that place, that I might here bring it in together; and indeedhe who will know this Mystery, he must in the first place learn to know hisMenstrual Waters, for without this knowledge he can never come to thisMastery; for without this knowledge he can never come to this Mastery; forwith the third Menstruum, (counting three according to Ripley) or thesecond Water, (making the first and second into one, with Artephius) is thisfragrant Balsam made: And verily the whole is but Cohobation, the firstWater being cohobated so long upon the Bodies, till it receive from them aquality of natural heat; yet so as that the quality of its own Fire, which iscorruptive, and so against Nature, be mingled in way of action and passionwith the natural Fire. This makes a Fire innatural, and is the second Water,in which colours rise and set frequently, and then by cohobating it till Fireof nature have wholly subdued his Adversary, and made a perfect peaceand union with it. Then all is Fire of nature, then the Clouds are featuredand the Light appears; and this is our third Water, the subject of wonders,which being one alone, doth from that time all operations within itself,56