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I. IT ought to be therefore (as one of the Sybills said) that the Son of the Virgin be exalted from the Earth, and that the white Quintessence after its rising out of the dead Earth, be raised up towards Heaven; the gross and thick remain∣ing in the bottom of the Vessel and of the Water.
II. Afterwards the Vessel being cooled, you will find in the bottom the black Faeces, scorcht and burnt, which separate from the Spirit and Quintessence of
Whiteness, and cast them away.
III. Then will the Argent vive fall down from our Air or Spirit, upon the new Earth, which is called Ar∣gent vive sublimed by the Air or Spirit, whereof is made a viscous Water, pure and white.
IV. This Water is the true Tincture separated from all its black Faeces, and our Brass or Latten is prepared with our Water, purified, and brought to a white Co∣lour.
V. Which white Colour is not obtained but by de∣coction, and coagulation of the Water: Decoct there∣fore continually, wash away the Blackness from the Lat∣ten, not with your Hands, but with the Stone, or the Fire, or our second Mer∣curial Water, which is the true Tincture.
VI. This separation of the pure from the impure is not done with hands; but Na∣ture her self does it, and
brings it to perfection by a circular Operation.
VII. It appears then, that this Composition is not a work of the Hands, but a change of the Natures; be∣cause Nature dissolves and joyns it self, sublimes and lifts it self up, and grows white, being separate from the Faeces.
VIII. And in such a Subli∣mation, the more subtil, pure, and essential parts are conjoyned; for that with the fiery nature or property lifts up the subtil parts, it separates alwaies the more pure, leaving the grosser at bottom.
IX. Wherefore your Fire ought to be a gentle and a continual Vapour, with which you sublime, that the matter may be filled with Spirit from the Air, and live.
X. For naturally all things take Life from the inbrea∣thing of the Air; and so also our Magistery receives in the Vapour or Spirit, by the
sublimation of the Water.
XI. Our Brass or Laten then, is to be made to a∣scend by the degrees of Fire, but of its own accord, free∣ly, aand without violence; except the body therefore be by the Fire and the Wa∣ter broken, or dissolved, and attenuated, until it a∣scends as a Spirit, or climbs like Argent vive, or rather as the white Soul, separated from the Body, and by su∣blimation delated or brought into a Spirit, nothing is or can be done.
XII. But when it ascends on high, it is born in the Air or Spirit, and is changed into Spirit; and becomes Life with Life, being only Spiritual and Incorruptible.
XIII. And by such an O∣peration it is, that the Body is made Spirit, of a subtil nature, and the Spirit is in∣corporated with the Body, and made one with it; and by such a sublimation, con∣junction, and raising up, the whole, both Body and Spi∣rit are made white.