SPAGPHARM4.pdf

THE

FOURTH PART

OF THE

SPAGYRICAL PHARMACOPOEA

Treating of the four principal Pillars of Medicine, viz. Sulphur,

Vitriol, Antimony, and Mercury, but chiefly of the great harmony between

the Superiour Elementary Sun and Moon, and the Inferiour and Terrestrial

Gold and Silver, and the magnetick way of attracting the Virtues of SOL

and LUNE by the Air, and of rendering them palpable and visible.

READER,

After that I had intended to publish in the Fourth Part of this my

SPAGYRICAL PHARMACOPOEA, some singular and excellent Medicines, and such

as might much exceed all others, and so must consequently be prepared of

choice and excellent Subjects and matters; I accounted it my task in the

first place to shew you out of what subjects such efficacious Medicines

may be drawn and extracted, viz. out of Gold, Wine, and Antimony, as

likewise out of Vitriol and Mercury, but not the vulgar Mercury.

Now although most Men are blinded with a thick darkness, but

principally those that prosecute the truth with a deadly hatred, and do

prate much, and by reason of their blindness and ignorance do affirm,

that Gold being a thick and compact body is not at all fit to admit of

such a preparation as thereby to display its most efficacious virtues in

Man’s Body: And as for Antimony and Mercury, that they are most present

Poisons, and can’t serve as Medicines without great danger; but as for

Wine, that it is indeed fit to be drank, but is of no validity in

Medicine, not knowing how to imploy it about any Medicinal use, but are

rather ready and skillfull Artists at swallowing it down in full

draughts; however though they thus chat yet these objections are

frivolous, and do proceed from their ignorance which is wrapped about

with most thick Clouds, and which I refute by this brief and strong

Reply. But I do not at all deny, that Gold reduced even to the smallest

Powder, and so made use of (as ‘twas wont of old to be by the Ancient,

yea and latter Galenists, and is even too at this day) by mixing it with

such Medicines as are for the comforting and strengthening the Heart and

Vitals of Men, cannot contribute so much as the least IOTA to the health

and preservation of the body of Man: And so I say of Antimony and

Mercury, that they are not at all salutiferous to Man’s Body, but

contrariwise are deadly and destructive Medicaments, until (by a due

preparation) they are deprived of all their Venenosity, and thereby

rendered fit to be safely made use of. So Wine it self being taken PER

SE as it is, is a restoring and refreshing Drink for Man, provided it be

moderately used: But contrarily is a causer of many Diseases if it be

frequently and, in large quantities swallowed in, and doth operate in

Man’s Body more hurt than good, this daily experience doth sufficiently

testifie, and renders it evident, that being so immoderately taken, it

fills all the Members of the whole Body with Tartar, and makes

obstructions and stirs up intolerable Pains, and principally in the

Bladder, Reins, and other parts of the Body, viz. if coagulated in the

Hands, Knees, and Feet, whereupon it doth not easily suffer it self to

be exterminated, unless by such Artists as well know the properties and

nature of Tartar, but of such Men there is at this day a great scarcity,

and therefore that proverbial Verse still takes place.

Solvere Nodosam Nescit Medicina Podagram.

The Art of Physick can’t root out

(Thy dire Disease) the Knotty Gout.

But he who is so well skilled as to Separate the fiery,

penetrative, wholsome, and true Medicinal Spirit of Wine; Yea its true

Balsom from its Faeces, he will easily expel out of the Body of Man all

tartarous impurities and defilements, and will perform things wonderfull

in the Stone and Gout. But now forasmuch as the educing so wholsome a

Medicine out of gross crude Tartar is known but to a very few, no wonder

that there hath been so little or rather nothing at all performed by

Physicans in such like most grievous tartarous Diseases that have gotten

deep rooting in the Body of Man. But the way how you may be rendered

Possessors of such a Spirit of Wine shall be spoken of afterwards. Yet I

would not that any one should perswade himself that my meaning and

intention in this place is about the common Spirit of Wine, or either

that which is gotten out of Tartar by the usual known way of

Distillation. No, there’s a vast difference betwixt that Spirit which I

here make mention of and the other. For in this Spirit the crude Tartar

is first to be washed by common Water from all its Defilements, and that

without the addition of any other things, so as to shine like Snow, then

to be afterwards made black by putrefaction, and out of that blackness

the said Balsam is to be drawn off, of which we shall hereagter make a

more ample Declaration. This now is that Spirit which doth Anatomically

resolve the compacted Body of Gold, and converteth the venemousness of

Antimony into a wholsome Medicine, and doth perform things wonderfull in

all tartarous Diseases. ‘Tis the true Wine of Health, and the very AQUA

VITAE of the Philosophers, and hath a great familiarity with Gold and

Man, and may be excellently compared with the coagulated Solar beams.

Therefore as it is evidently known to every body, that Gold and

Wine are advanced on to maturity, by the heat of the Sun, and that Men

do notably love and desire both of them. So may any one conjecture what

Gold and Wine would do if a Man could but have them reduced to a

Spiritual essence. Hence now it seems necessary unto me, that before I

pass on to the preparation of the said Medicine, I do in a few words

describe the harmonial love that is between the Superiour and Inferiour

Sun and Man, that so it may appear, what a bond or tie of love and

necessity there is betwixt these three most noble Creatures of God, to

one another.

Chapter I.

Of the Harmony and Agreeableness between the Superiour Elementary, and

Inferiour Earthly Sun, with Wine and Man.

Tis well known even to the blind Bayards and Barbers, that the Sun

in the heavenly Firmament, is the most noble and most eminent Creature

God made. For it is that only light which makes all the Stars partakers

of its Splendour, Light and Brightness. Tis also the only Fountain and

as it were Father of all the Creatures, because if they are deprived of

it, they are in the dark and die: Nay even man himself cannot live

without the help of the Sun, and all things would perish, should the Sun

be but for one moment withdrawn from them. For all things that are do

receive their Life and Augmentation from the Sun; and he was (according

to MOSES his Doctrine) the first and chiefest that did proceed forth by

God’s creating, and will doubtless be the last when all things shall be

dissolved, and pass into a better State at the final Destruction of this

worldly Fabrick. The Sun supplies the place of a heart in the wonderfull

Structure of the Macrocosm: And in like manner the heart it self in

man’s Body is aptly compared to the Sun, as being the first liver, and

last dier in the humane Fabrick; and this is known to every body. And

therefore amongst all the Creatures indued with life and motion, man

doth in nobility and magnificence excel them all, as having gotten hid

body from the earth, his Spirit and Life from the Sun, and his Soul from

God.

But as to the insensible Creatures the highest Degree of Nobleness

is attributed unto Gold, the which is likewise generated by the Sun.

These three admirable Creatures, viz. the Sun, Man, and Gold are coupled

with a bond of wonderfull Necessity and Friendship, and are conjoined by

the instinct of Nature her self. Men do desire the Light of the Sun, as

also the heat in a dark and cold Season, for thencefrom proceeds all

life, and all the encrease of life, because the Suns beams do perform

the office of the universal Spirit, and Life in the Conservation of the

Life of Man. But now as touching Gold, men do partake of that in a

particular way only, and one man is usually stored with a bigger

Portion, another with a lesser, not by the instinct of nature, for she

bestoweth it on us only for our use, but by reason of the abusive

malice, avarice and the unsatible Covetousness of men; but yet this way

is not the right manner of loving Gold, nor genuine, but false and oft

times very hazardous. We should rather love it because of its wonderfull

Virtues which it possesseth, hidden in its body, and may afford a most

notable Comfort to man’s sickness and infirmities. Verily the Ancient

Philosophers were not ignorant of the incredible Virtues which the Gold

hides in it self, it being truely no other thing than a body consisting

and compacted of the coagulated and fixed Beams of the Sun, and this was

well known to those men who were most skillfull in the nature of all

things. Seeing then that the Sun’s beams being as yet unfixed can bestow

on all things life and encrease, why may not the same be accomplished by

them when fixed, and made constant, if so be they be rendered spiritual,

and thereby be capable of displaying their Virtues in a visible and

palpable efficacy, which thing they could not do if they retain their

corporal Coagulation, nor can display their occult Virtues.

Many men have industriously attempted with great Labour,

artficially to open Gold, and to reduce it to a spiritual Nature, and to

render it living and afficacious, but few there have been that have been

Masters of their desires, but such as at length had thereto attained,

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