Forasmuch therefore, as we gave not life unto our own selves, neither can we defend the same against death without that one onely life coming unto us from above: it is very expedient, that, omitting the stinking dung, we betake our selves to the pure and living fountain of God, as being the Centre of all life; and doe seek for life, from the Sun, as being the great master of all the created Palace [or World.] The way of effecting this, will I reveal unto you in a few words.
If we accurately weigh with the utmost of our discretions this whole business, we clearly see it afore our Eyes, that there is no other life to be any-where found, besides that universal life which God hath implanted in the Sun, and which the Sun sends down unto us by the help of the Air. Let any one make trial, what way soever it likes him, and he shall find this most true.
If you would putrefie an Herb or Animal in a shut glass, so that the Air cannot penetrate [into it,] there will indeed be Magots generated, but they will want life so long, untill the glass being opened, they receive life and motion from the Air. If you put Herbs, or the Flesh of living Creatures chopt or bruised in a glass, and shut it close, and keep the glass for a while in hot Horse dung, or else in warm water, there will Vermine [or Maggots] be indeed generated, but yet void of life, which (the glass being opened) will begin to stir of themselves; and so having gotten life, creep out, and become greater, and will get other forms or shapes. Place likewise in a warm place, some little Barrel half full of Wine and let the bung-hole be open, that it may putrefie and begin to wax sowre; The ascending vapour will gather it self about the said Bung hole into a tenacious matter, which will yield small little vermine [or Mites,] much like those which are engendred in Cheese; and which at length will, by reason of the Air, live and creep forth. If you put a Cover over the hole, all these little Mites will again dye, because they are deprived of the Air from which Life doth proceed. Then the Cover being again taken off, and the Air admitted, they doe agen creep; and following after the Air, endeavour to get out of the Barrel: out of which, if they doe but stay some hours onely, and feel the full Air; They attain to another form, and get wings and fly away, which cannot be done without the Air, seeing that without it they can have no life.
Let such Earth as hath Seeds sown therein be so covered over, as that the Air cannot penetrate into it; which being shut out, nothing will be brought forth: or let it be some Plant, which hath already sprouted up out of the earth; if you doe but take the Air therefrom, it will cease growing and plainly wither and come to nought.
From whence it is clearly evident, that the rise of all Life is to be imputed to the Air, which very Life it self, the Sun hath first wrought in the Air, and Art knows how to extract the same again thereout of, by a certain Magnetical way, and make it visible, palpable, and sensible.
But all the Air is not meer life, but contains this same life dispersed, or dilated in it, like a great deal of water containing in it but little Salt, it self being visible, but the Salt which is therein, invisible. And just so is the life dispersed in the bodies of Men, and other Animals, and, being invisible, hath its habitation in the blood, so that, without it, the whole body would be immovable and remain dead. Now when either a Man, or any other living Creature is conversant in the open Air, he attracteth to himself by his breathing, (by a certain Sympathetical power and property) as much Air as is requisite for the Heart, (which is the Center, Receptacle, or House of the Life) for the nourishment of the spiritual Life, and as for the residue, and unprofitable part, it casts it away by the Antipathetical virtue and property of the out-blowing (breath or) expiration. So that no Man, no Animal, no Herb, no Mineral, can possibly enjoy a living and growing faculty, if this food of Life were withdrawn therefrom. Which seeing it is so, and cannot be otherwise, it doth necessarily follow, that the true universal Medicine cannot be prepared in any shut up (or close) Vessels as is commonly done. Do but look I pray upon the Birth and Generation of Salt-peter, the Body of which is nothing else but the essential Salt of the Vegetables, Animals, or Minerals, which attracteth to it self the Fire out of the Air, as is well known.
Therefore, whereas all Salts are wont to be turned (by the help of the Fire and Air) into burning and live Salt-peter, and that no body can bring the same to pass without Air: we should by good right learn from thence thus much, viz. to endeavour to make our Medicaments too, alive by the Air. For a Medicine that is destitute of life will subdue and destroy a Disease even just as much as common Salt will overturn a Mountain, and throw it out of its place, without being animated as it were by the Air, and transmuted into burning and living Salt-peter. Truly therefore and by experience do I say, that all the faculty of growth, all Transplantation, and every life owes its birth to the Air, and without it do they all become dead and so remain.
The Air receives [its] vital food from the Sun, and the Sun derives its Original from God, the Center and Beginning of every Life. And therefore when we are desirous of extracting that vital food out of the Air by the help of Art, and of reducing it into a visible body, it is behoovefull and expedient, that we expose thereunto a certain Magnet, which may draw the same unto it self, and be by little and little augmented therewithall, and may grow both in quantity and virtue, even as an Herb out of the Earth; or as an Animal gets it self growth and encrease by meat and drink, and adds to it self an augmentation of strength and greatness, and at length associates it self unto [or couples with] its like, and multiplieth its kind.
Man himself doth without intermission attract to himself the Air, by the help of his Lungs; but the Heart retains onely the vital food thereof, and rejecteth all the rest like so much excrement. The Body it self also doth daily assume food and sustenance by the Mouth, but the Stomach transmits the nutriment that is separated thereout of, to the Liver, to be reduced into blood and flesh: but the Excrements, as the Dung, Urine, Sweat, and the like, it banisheth out of the body by the usual passages. Thus like wise stands the case with our Medicament. According as the Magnet is, that we expose to the said Air, so accordingly doth it attract its like out of the said Air, whereby it may get to it self, Life, Virtue, and Power. But it cannot possibly be, that it should extract that virtue and faculty simply pure and clean; No, but it gets to it self also a certain, unprofitable, and watery Essence, which is associated unto that [virtue,] which acqueity doth again go off, as a superfluous Excrement, and must necessarily bestow the Life onely upon the Magnet, that it may be therewithall encreased and strengthened. If I desire to have a Vegetable, then must I sow a Vegetable Seed; or such a Magnet is to be placed there, as may associate or adjoyn unto it self its like out of the Air. If you would have an Animal, then an Animal Seed, or Animal Magnet is to be used. But if that which I seek is to be more pure, and more constant [or lasting:] a purer Magnet must necessarily be exposed; for like doth always seek its like; love, o’ercome, and conserve it: according to the testimony of the Ancient Wise men, Nature rejoyceth with Nature: Nature overcomes Nature: Nature retains Nature.
And therefore seeing our purpose tends to this, namely, to extract the invisible faculty of Life, the power and virtue of the Sun out of the Air; to concentrate it, and make it corporeal, visible, and palpable; It behooves us to provide our selves with a fitting Seed or Magnet, which may earnestly attract, overcome, and hold the same. Now such Magnets are pure Gold, and the most pure Soul of Salt-peter, both of them being the true off-spring of the vivifying Sun.