Sal, lumen, & spiritus mundi philosophici, or, The dawning of the day discovered by the beams of light shewing the true salt and secret of the philosophers, the first and universal spirit of the world / written originally in French, afterwards turned into Latin by the illustrious doctor, Lodovicus Combachius ... and now transplanted into Albyons Garden by R.T. ...

CHAP. 4. How the Sun is by Hermes cal∣led, The Father of the Mun∣dane Spirit; and of the Universal Matter.

BUt some may here say, If all things proceed from one and the same matter, how can the Sun be called the Parent of this matter, when it self is procreated or produced out of this matter? For answer whereunto, we must consider, That if we speak of the primaeve prejacent matter of all things, it is altogether invisible, and cannot be comprehended but by strong imagi∣nation; out of whose vital light and natural heat, this Celestial Sun was produced, with equal light and fiery vigour: which afterwards, strengthening this internal and essential heat, with natural, displayed the beams of his Fire over the whole Universe, illuminating

the Stars above him, and vivifying the things below him. But because the Earth is, as it were, the common Mo∣ther of all things, the Sun acts most vigorously upon her, she being the com∣mon Receptacle of all Influences, in whose bowels the seeds of all things are absconded; which being agitated and moved by the Suns heat, come to light: and for this cause, in Winter, when the Sun is furthest absent from us, the Earth being destituted of that vi∣gorous heat which his perpendicular Rayes brought with them, she is we see barren, and produces nothing: Where∣as in the Spring, when the Sun again re∣views our Climate, then she rises from her sleep or death, and receives Life and vigour. The cause of which mutation, must needs be the Universal Spirit full of Life, inhabiting the Earth principally; which, before it can generate any thing, must take up its Inn in some Body, as in the Earth, which is the Body of Bo∣dies: and because all things are nourish∣ed and sustained by that which produces them, there must be great affinity and harmony betwixt this Spirit and the

Sun. And for this cause ancient Phi∣losophers say, That the Sun in the Spring-time, calefies and enlivens his Parent loaden with old age, and almost killed with Winter-cold. Seeing then she is by the Sun fortified, enlivened and impregnated, Hermes had reason to say, That the Sun was the Father of this mat∣ter: for being otherwise barren, and without off-spring, she now conceives, generates and multiplies her spirituous matter, leading it from incorporality to corporality.

The Philosopher Hortulanus com∣menting on Hermes his Table, leaves and omits the radical principles of Na∣ture; and taking his rise by the princi∣ples of Chymistry by the Sun, under∣stands the Philosophers Gold, which he truely calls the Parent of the Philoso∣phers Stone. For all that are conversant in this Art, learn from Experience and all good Authors, That the true matter and subject of this Stone, hath Gold and Silver in potency, and Quicksilver naturally: which Gold and Silver are much better then those men commonly see and handle, because these are alive,

and can encrease; the other are dead: and if this could not be effected, the matter would never be brought to its perfection, which this Art promises; which is indeed so efficacious, as to perfect imperfect Metals. But this same invisible Gold or Silver, which by this Magistery is exalted to so sublime a degree, cannot communicate its per∣fection to imperfect Metals, without the help and service of vulgar Gold and Silver. Wherefore Alchymists alway adjoyn the one or the other, and so make Gold the Father of the Elixir.

But such as would be further informed in this verity, should diligently evolve good Authors: for it is not my purpose to speak more of it: For it is enough for me, to shew, that divine Hermes, with one and the same finger, touches both strings, or under one and the same sentence locks a twofold meaning; which himself declares, when he asserts, That he was called Hermes Trismegistus, because he possessed three parts of the Worlds knowledge: for having given the Anatomy of this Universal Spirit, (which is the material Author and

principle of all the three chief kindes, comprehending the whole of the world) he had attained so much of knowledge and wisdom, that nothing could lie hid from his eyes: and this principle he makes one. So that all things are produced from one, by mediation of one, and adaptation to one. This One then of which he speaks, is that general Spirit whereof I treat: and that One, by which he sayes, Miracles may be wrought, is the true Mineral matter of the Stone, whereof we spoke even now, which is produced from the first general matter, or universal Spirit, in the Earth, by Nature; which Spirit potentially containing all Celestial vertues in it self, communicates so much to this Mineral matter, as is requisite for the obtaining of its perfection.

But omitting Chymical Doctrines as much as we may in this Treatise, we say, That this general Spirit is a Stone or Elixir composed by Nature; by mediation whereof, she works all her Miracles: which is much more ad∣mirable then the Alchymists Stone, which is onely a grant of this universal

Spirit, that it may act and perfect things like it self: for being truely Me∣tallical, purified and compleated by Art, it purifies and digests Metals left in their impurity for want of digestion. But this Physical or natural Stone per∣petually restores such things as are pro∣duced by Nature, and hourly pro∣creates new things, as well in the kindes of Animals, as of Vegetables and Mi∣nerals; which yet it could not do, with∣out the help and influence of the heavenly Bodies, especially of the Sun, which is the origine and principle of all faculties and generations. It hath then the Sun for its Father, and contains in it self spiritual Gold and Silver, because it is the first matter of Gold and Silver corporal. And because Air is the medi∣um through which it receives these su∣periour influences, Hermes saith, That the winde carries it in its belly: for which cause Raymundus Lullius calls it Aereal Mercury: but the Earth, like an universal Parent, nourishes it in her fruit∣ful womb: which appears by the pro∣duction of all things proceeding from the Earth: for if this Spirit were not in∣cluded

therein, she would have no power nor vertue in generation and pro∣duction; seeing she is properly no more then the common vessel or matrix of these many and different generations: for the general matter or Mercury of them, being, as Philosophers denote, invisible, and almost incorporeal, cannot be made visible and corporeal, but by some subtile artifice; which matter, if it can be extracted out of the Arms of its Nurse, and purged from all accidental superfluities, may (notwithstanding any Reason I can see to the contrary) in the things whereto it is applied, separate things corruptive and heterogeneous, and conserve and multiply things homo∣geneous and conformable to it.

It is without doubt, That Authors are misunderstood, when they seem to assert, that Metals onely should be usurped to the production of Metals, saying, That the Seeds of Gold are in Gold: for besides that which we have spoken of common Metals, and of those which Philosophers assume to the con∣fection of their Magistery, we dare yet affirm, That without this general Spirit,

(which is in all things the sole cause of vegetation) the faculty innate in all Metals, of becoming Gold and Silver, can never be deduced to vegetation, or from potency to act, because Nature produces not it self, but in every ope∣ration there must be some agent, and some matter subjacent to the action.

And this doubless is that fire which Pontanus speaks of, which all Phi∣losophers have concealed and kept under Lock and Key, as the sole Stearn of their actions: for want of which Fire, Pontanus (as himself confesses) erred two hundred times in his practise, though he had to do with the right matter.

This threefold Mercury then, or sum total, is the first Seed of all Metals, as also of the other two kindes or Ge∣nus's; which is by little and little co∣agulated, and by the continual action of heat lying in the Myne, hardened and tincted, when it is perfectly pure: but it makes up several species, and acquires divers forms and colours, according to the variety of the place, and adjacent matter, producing Metals, Minerals and

Stones, in the bowels; Trees and Plants in the surface of the Earth; as she is animated by the Solar Rayes, without which she would be barren: for Nature at first established this for a Law, That the Sun should perpetually nourish and calefie the matter, alwayes moving its threefold faculty, Animal, Vegetable, and Mineral to its effect.

And this is the Cause why Hermes wrote the Sun its Father.