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 ...

Then Oyl and Water with Water shall distill, And through her help receive moving: Keep well these two, that thou not spill Thy Work for want of due closing, And make thy Stopple of Glass melting, The top of thy Vessel together with it, Then Philosopher lick it is up shit:

IN this second Circulation, which is after Conjunction, there shall be no more the Body below and the Spirit above, but all shall be one, and the Body which is the Sulphur, shall always follow the Spirit on the Fire wherever it flys.

The occasional cause of all this, is our first Water, which though vile, is there∣fore to be much valued, for it is very pre∣cious; through the virtue of which it comes to pass, that our Earth yields a Water, and causeth it to fly with the Spirit aloft, and is the Soul of our Sol, which at length doth allure the said Spi∣rit and Body to union, which else would never be: and then the Body beyond its own nature is lifted up, moving un∣cessantly with the Spirit and Soul upon the Fire, for all now are made one inse∣parably; and this is called the sealing the Mother in the belly of the Infant which she bore, that is, the Earth below is so united to the Water that arose from it, that in this Operation after this true Conjunction, they are never more di∣vided, but are together sublimed, and descend continually, moving and alter∣ing continually until perfect Comple∣ment.

Now for as much as all the Mastery consists in Vapour, which are called the great Winds, which are in the Vessel at the forming of this our Embrio, there∣fore

great care must be had lest the Spi∣rits exhale. Which they will do, with∣out the Glass have a strong guard; for first, they are subtle; nor that only, but ascend with a great impetus, by reason of our Fire, which must cause the inferio∣ra ebullire & moveri continuò, & infe∣riora circulari, quolibet momento; and thirdly, in Putrefaction the Body and Spirits have a most subtle odour, which also must be retained.

For preventing of all, thou shalt have thy Stopple as firm as any part of thy Glass, which let it be strong, as is said, and the neck long and strong, and let the neck be melted up with a Lamp, or with Coals, and closed well without much wringing, which makes the Glass brit∣tle; but being nipt up, and after that staying in the same heat, turning it to and fro in the clear heat, the Glass will come to as exactly close and smooth a su∣perficies, as in any other place.

This is the true and sure way which Philosophers have secured their Glasses by. Let it cool by degrees, and be very wary that it get no crack in cooling,

which if it do, though never so little, you must not connive at it, lest the winds within cause it there to burst, as being a weak defective place.