Ripley reviv'd, or, An exposition upon Sir George Ripley's hermetico-poetical works containing the plainest and most excellent discoveries of the most hidden secrets of the ancient philosophers, that were ever yet published / written by Eirenæus Philalethes ...

And for thy first ground principal, Ʋnderstand thy Waters Menstrual.

NOw I return to that which went be∣fore concerning this Medicine, which I passed over in that place, that I might here bring it in together; and indeed he who will know this Mystery, he must in the first place learn to know his Men∣strual Waters, for without this know∣ledge he can never come to this Mastery; for with the third Menstruum, (count∣ing three according to Ripley) or the second Water, (making the first and se∣cond into one, with Arteph••us) is this fragrant Balsam made: And verily the whole is but Cohobation, the first Water being cohobated so long upon the Bo∣dies, till it receive from them a quality of natural heat; yet so as that the qua∣lity of its own Fire, which is corruptive, and so against Nature, be mingled in way of action and passion with the natural Fire. This makes a Fire innatural, and is the second Water, in which colours rise and set frequently, and then by cohoba∣ting

it till Fire of Nature have wholly subdued his Adversary, and made a per∣fect peace and union with it. Then all is Fire of Nature, then the Clouds are scat∣tered and the Light appears; and this is our third Water, the subject of wonders, which being one alone, doth from that time all operations within it self, con∣gealing, relenting, calcining, exalting, subliming and fixing all Elements, being linked here inviolably to the making up of that great Mysterium magnum, which Paracelsus described, but knew it not; we both know it, and have seen it, and what we do know and have seen, we do faithfully relate.