CHAP. I.
Of the Harmony and Agreeableness between the Superior Elementary, and Inferiour Earthly Sun, with Wine and Man.
’Tis well known even to the blind Bayards and Barbars, that the Sun in the heavenly Firmament, is the most noble and most eminent Creature God made. For it is that onely light which makes all the Stars partakers of its Splendour, Light and Brightness. ’Tis also the onely Fountain and as it were Father of all the Creatures, because if they are deprived of it, they are in the dark and die: Nay even man himself cannot live without the help of the Sun, and all things would perish, should the Sun be but one moment withdrawn from them. For all things that are do receive their Life and Augmentation from the Sun; and he was (according to Moses his Doctrine) the first and chiefest that did proceed forth by God’s creating, and will doubtless be the last when all things shall be dissolved, and pass into a better State at the final Destruction of this worldly Fabrick. The Sun supplies the place of a heart in the wonderfull Structure of the Macrocosm: And in like manner the heart it self in man’s Body is aptly compared to the Sun, as being the first liver, and last dier in the humane Fabrick; and this is known to every body. And therefore amongst all the Creatures indued with life and motion, man doth in nobility and magnificence excel them all, as having gotten his body from the earth, his Spirit and Life from the Sun, and his Soul from God.
But as to the insensible Creatures the highest Degree of Nobleness is attributed unto Gold, the which is likewise generated by the Sun. These three admirable Creatures, viz. the Sun, Man, and Gold are coupled with a bond of wonderfull Necessity and Friendship, and are conjoined by the instinct of Nature her self. Men do desire the Light of the Sun, as also its heat in a dark and cold Season, for thencefrom proceeds all life, and all the encrease of life, because the Suns beams do perform the office of the universal Spirit, and Life in the Conservation of the Life of Man. But now as touching Gold, men do partake of that in a particular way onely, and one man is usually stored with a bigger Portion, another with a lesser, not by the instinct of nature, for she bestoweth it on us onely for our use, but by reason of the abusive malice, avarice and the unsatiable Covetousness of men; but yet this way is not the right manner of loving Gold, nor genuine, but false and oft times very hazardous. We should rather love it because of its wonderfull Vertues which it possesseth, hidden in its body, and may afford a most notable Comfort to man’s sickness and infirmities. Verily the Ancient Philosophers were not ignorant of the incredible Vertues, which the Gold hides in it self, it being truely no other thing than a body consisting and compacted of the coagulated and fixed Beams of the Sun, and this was well known to those men who were most skilfull in the nature of all things. Seeing then that the Sun’s beams being as yet unfixed can bestow on all things life and encrease, why may not the same be accomplished by them when fixed, and made constant, if so be they be rendred spiritual, and thereby be capable of displaying their Vertues in a visible and palpable efficacy, which thing they could not do if they retain their corporal Coagulation, nor can display their occult Vertues.
Many men have industriously attempted with great Labour, artificially to open Gold, and to reduce it to a spiritual Nature, and to render it living and efficacious, but few there have been that have been Masters of their desires, but such as at length had thereto attained, did perform things wonderfull in the sicknesses of mankind, and this is witnessed by many most true Histories, as for instance, by the Turba of the Philosophers, and by the Theatrum Chymicum. The which Books do indeed describe such a notable secret, but so obscurely and intricately, as that no body can therefrom learn its preparation, unless God reveals it to them, or it be manifested by some good friend or other that knows the Art. ’Tis no wonder that amongst many thousands of Searchers, so very few do arrive to the knowledge of the same. For God hath barred up this so great a secret with such firm bolts, that all wicked and malicious men are easily excluded from the knowledge of finding it out. Verily I must needs say (but I boast not of it) that I see by what means those bonds are to be loosed, and that precious Pearl may by removal of those bolts be taken forth. But yet I profess not my self to be a perfect and absolute Master, and such an one as perfectly knows its preparation, and would make it publick by describing it. No! the Crumbs serves my turn, and the Fragments of the Bread, with which hunger may be allayed as well as with the Bread it self.
I have I confess tasted somewhat of the Crumbs of what pertains to so worthy a Medicament, and with what great Vertues they abound. And such things as my experience have administred unto me I have here purposed to reveal them, for the comfort and sake of my Neighbour, as far as the time and occasion will permit; but yet with this Salvo, that I cast not Pearl before Swine, and so incur the Philosophers Curse. To whomsoever the things that I speak shall be more obscure, let him wrestle earnestly by his Prayers to God for light, and refrain from troubling me with multiplicity of entreaties, for I have firmly resolved with my self not to reveal for the time to come more than what I have opened in the present description.