If metals be dissolved in their appropriated Menstruums, and in the solution (wherein a due proportion of salt nitre must be dissolved) fine linnen rags be dipt and dryed, you have a prepared metal, which may be kindled, and (as it was mentioned above concerning the saw-dust) through the burning away and consuming of their superfluous sulphur, the mercurial substance of the metal is manifested. And after the distillation is ended, you will find a singular purified calx, which by rubbing coloureth other metals, as that of gold doth guild silver, that of silver silvereth over copper, and copper calx maketh iron look like copper, &c. which colouring though it cannot bring any great profit, yet at least for to shew the possibility, I thought it not amiss to describe it; and perchance something more may be hid in it, which is not given to every one to know.
Of Gun-powder.
Of this mischievous composition and diabolical abuse of Gunpowder much might be written: but because this present world taketh only delight in shedding innocent blood, and cannot endure that unrighteous things should be reproved, & good things praised, therefore it is best to be silent, and to let every one answer for himself, when the time cometh that we shall give an account of our stewardship, which perhaps is not far off; and then there will be made a separation of good and bad, by him that tryeth the heart, even as gold is refind in the fire from its dross. And then it will be seen what Christians we have been. We do all bear the name, but do not approve our selves to be such by our works; every one thinketh himself better than others, and for a words sake which one understandeth otherwise, or takes in another sense than the other (and though it be no point, whereon salvation doth depend) one curseth and condemneth another and persecuteth one another unto death, which Christ never taught us to do, but rather did earnestly command us that we should love one another, reward evil with good, and not good with evil, as now a dayes every where they use to do; every one standeth upon his reputation, but the honor of God and his command are in no repute, but are trampled under foot, and Lucifers pride, vain ambition, and Pharisaical hypocrisie or shew of holiness, hath so far got the upper-hand with the learned, that none will leave his contumacy or stubbornness, or recede a little from his opinion, although the whole world should be turned upside down thereby. Are not these fine Christians? By their fruit you shall know them, and not by their words. Woolves are now clothed with sheeps skins, so that none of them almost are to be found, and yet the deeds and works of Woolves are every where extant.
All good manners are turned into bad, women turn men, and men women in their fashion and behaviour, contrary to the institution and ordinance of God and Nature. In brief, the world goeth on crutches. If Heraclitus and Democritus should now behold this present world, they would find exceeding great cause for their lamenting and laughing at it. And therefore it is no marvel, that God sent such a terrible scourge as gun-powder is upon us; and it is credible, that if this do not cause our amendment, that a worse will follow, viz. thunder and lightning falling down from Heaven, whereby the world shall be turned upside down for to make an end of all pride, self-love, ambition, deceit and vanity. For which the whole Creation doth wait, fervently desiring to be delivered from the bondage thereof.
Now this preparation, which is the most hurtful poyson, a terror unto all the living, is nothing else but a fulmen terrestre denouncing unto us the wrath and coming of the Lord. For Christ to judge the world is to come with thundering and lightning: and this earthly thunder perchance is given us for to put us in mind and fear of that which is to come, but this is not so much as thought on by men, who prepare it only for to plague and destroy mankind therewith in a most cruel and abominable manner, as every one knoweth.
For none can deny but that there is no nimbler poyson, than this gunpowder. It is written of the Basiliske, that he killeth man only by his look, which a man may avoid, and there are but few (if any at all) of them found: but this poyson is now prepared and found every where.
How often doth it fall out, that a place wherein this powder is kept is stricken with thunder as with its like, in so much that all things above it are in a moment destroyed, and carryed up into the air? Also in sieges, when an Ordnance is discharged, or Mines blown up, all whom it lays hold on, are suddenly killed, and most miserably destroyed. What nimbler poyson then could there be invented? I believe there is none, who will not acknowledge it to be such.
And seeing that the ancient Philosophers and Chymists were always of opinion, that the greater the poyson is, the better medicine may be made of it, after it is freed from the poyson, which with us their posterity is proved true by many experiences; as we see by Antimony, Arsenick, Mercury, and the like minerals, which without preparation are meer poyson, but by due preparation may be turned into the best and most effectual medicaments, which though not every one can comprehend or believe, yet Chymists know it to be true, and the doing of it is no new thing to them. And because I treat in this second part of medicinal spirits, and other good medicaments, and finding that this which can be made out of gunpowder, is none of the least, I would not omit in some measure, and as far as lawfully may be done, to set down its preparation: which is thus performed.
How to make a spirit of Gunpowder.
Your distilling vessel being made warm, and a great receiver with sweet water in it, being applyed to it without luting, put a dish with gunpowder, containing about 12. or 15. grains a piece, one after another into it; in the same manner as above was taught to do with gold. For if you should put in too much of it at once, it would cause too much wind and break the receiver.