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 ...

Incombustible and unctuous in his Nature.

THis is our true Incombustible Mer∣cury, for it is totally purged from all its burning faeculency; Gold though it be a pure Metal, in respect of others which are imperfect, yet compared with our Stone it hath also its faeces; but this when it is taken away by Putrefaction and Ablution, then becomes a total sepa∣ration of what is precious from what is vile, and as the Philosopher well saith, In the troubles of this our stormy Sea, all that is pure will ascend, and all that is impure descend, and will abide in the bottom of the Vessel in the form of a combust Earth; then is made the new Heaven and the new Earth, pray to God then that thou mayst see when there shall be no more Sea. Yet I say before thou hast this final Inceration, thou hast this most incombustible Menstruum, and most permanent, in which Nature and Art

have conspired and made a Purification, beyond what Nature alone could ever have brought to pass.

Therefore this Mercury, though it be liquid and in the form of Mercury, it is notwithstanding Unctuous, that is, great with Child, which Child is Sulphur, which Sulphur it will in the end bring forth, and shall then be sealed up in the belly of this Infant, which is when all is fixed, and Mercury is then hidden under the fixity of Sulphur.