Liquor Alchahest, OR A DISCOURSE Of that Immortal Dissolvent OF Paracelsus & Helmont.  
It being one of those two Wonders of ART and NATURE, which radically dissolves all Animals, Vegetables and Minerals into their principles, without being in the lest altered, either in weight or activity, after a Thousand Dissolutions, etc.  
Published by J.A. PYROPHILUS.  
Quicunque ergo Medicinae operam datis summo studio id adniti debetis ut Alchaest praeparare discatis propter aversionem multorum morborum qui ab Haepate oriuntur etc.  Paracels. Archidox lib. de viribus membrorum cap. 6. de viribus Hae●atis. 
LONDON, Printed by T. R. & N. T. for W. Cademan at the Popes-Head in the Lower Walk of the New-Exchange, 1675.   

To the truly Honourable ROBERT boil, Esq  
SIR,  
THAT I have made choice of your Honour to Patronise this Posthume Tract, will appear no wonder to such that have been acquainted with your knowledge in this more occult Philosophy of the Adeptists, as well as with your Candour to encourage such who have been but pretenders to Pyrotechny. I know well, you affect not Flattery; and for me to speak much, would but lessen, the World having been (by so many) acquainted with your worth. All the excuse I make your Honour is, That the present Treatise is yours by Right, the Author having in his Pyrotechny Asserted, begun this Discourse, so that I only surrender what's your own. If the Nobleness of the Subject be not sufficient to pled my excuse for this Dedication, I hope your wont Charity to forgive others, will not be straitened to me, since I had no other Ambition in the Publication thereof, than the promoting the public good, by inspiriting others to do the like, and giving this further testimony of myself, that I am  
Your Honours Obliged Humble Servant J. ASTELL.  
From the Golden Globe against Strand-Bridge.   

THE PREFACE.  
AFter a long debate with myself, I found I was obliged to put forth this little Tractate, not only to show my justness to the Dead, but my desires of gratifying the living; for in an Age wherein this kind of Philosophy receives such great encouragement (having acquired many eminent Practitioners as well as Patrons) and by the happy discovery of diligent searchers, hath made so large an improvement: I thought I could do not lesle than communicate this Essay concerning the Immortal Liquor Alchahest, that being the great Key which unlocks Nature's choicest Secrets; and which at present is so diligently sought after. The Author of it was a person so industriously laborious in the searching after nature's choicest mysteries, that he spared not for pains nor costs in the hunting after the true knowledge of the most abstruse Philosophy. That his acquirements were great, is not unknown to the World, especially to those who had any intimate familiarity with him, his Write testify his ability in the Philosophy, or learning of the Schools, as well as in that of Nature, his discoveries having truly entitled him Philosophus per Ignem. It was his misfortune to justify Truth in an Age when Chemistry had few Friends that durst appear to justify her, yet so great an effect had his Write, backed with Truth, that the Eyes of many were opened, and occasioned several to become Proselytes to Pyrotechny. It would not, I believe, lessen the esteem of some eminent Practitioners, should they acknowledge with me, that they had from him those true fundamentals of Art that hath rendered them thus famous. So that this present Age reaps the benefit of his more early Studies. Had he not met with many Crosses and Troubles, doubtless his discoveries had been greater; and had not he been cut of by that raging Pestilence, 1666. When he was just rising out of those Clouds which Eclipsed his worth, it would quickly have appeared to the World, notwithstanding the malice of his Enemies, That he was a true follower of Nature. Pyrotechny hath not had a bolder Champion; and I verily believe, many of his Enemies will now confess, they are convinced of the inefficacy of Vulgar Medicaments; and that there is an absolute necessity for a new method of Physic, as to the Pharmalentick part: for daily such encroachments are made upon this noble faculty, that if not speedily prevented, it will be of little or no esteem. The Common method of Physic being passed into the hands of all kind of unlettered People; and the chief remedy that is left, would be a diligent inquiry after noble Medicines, such that are agreeable to Nature, which the Author of this Tract candidly did not only hint at, but discover as plainly as it was fit, without incurring the same inconveniences as did attend the making public the Common method of Physics which faults are not only to be taken notice of on the galenical part, but likewise those abuses are to be considered which have sprung from Chemistry. It being common in this latter Age, for many to cry up themselves for great Chemists, who (ignorantly decrying all others) have hardly known well the Names, (much lesle the uses of Chemical Vessels) these Men have had the impudence to impose on the World Trifles, for Universal Remedies; many of which undiscreetly administered, have truly cured all Diseases; by giving the unwary Patients their Passports into another World. But I shall pass them over, as being unworthy my time to particularise their Cheats, which I have not patience to think of, nor can any true Son of Art consider without resentment, the abuses that are daily committed by this Farrago of Impostors, that have been, and will ever be, a dishonour to the honest Professors of Pyrotechny. The only expedient in this Case, wherein the good of Mankind is concerned, the Lives of People being more to be valued, than all other worldly consideraoions, is this; for some well experienced Artists, to put to sale to the World, such true Remedies, with their uses, as may be beneficial for the eradicating of Diseases, Medicines that have been known to be successful by reiterated experiments, not those duly made, not conjectural. By this means the honour of that most noble faculty of Physic will be recovered and advanced, and the truth of Chemical Remedies will be manifested, notwithstanding the reproaches of malicious gainsayers. This the noble Helmont did; and by this way will it soon appear, whether or not those refined Chemical Medicaments, are not more safe, more easy, and more effectual for eradicating of Diseases, than the Common galenical apparatus of Medicine. But such Artists, whoever they be that will thus expose any thing for the good of Mankind, I am sure will be more ingenious than those undiscreet pretenders to Chemistry, as to make the World believe, That an universality of healing Diseases, can any way be expected from any one particular Medicine; it being impossible, were they Masters of the Grand Elixir, with that to cure all Diseases. I come now to speak something concerning the Author of this Tract, who was Dr. George Starkey, (my very good Friend) a Man whose Write spoke him more to the World than his Person or Discourse; 
Nature's Explication, & Helmonts Vindication. Pyrotechny Asserted.  whose moral failing I dare not more justify, but he was a Man, and as such, the best of us are subject to err, which consideration should engage our Charity to forget. When employed in Pyrotechnies' School, Nature had not a more diligent Scholar; and who, to my own knowledge (not in vain) wrought for many years upon this Subject he discourses of.  
I must confess, I never could get a sight of the alkahest perfected by him, whether occasioned by the importunities of Patients for Remedies, whose condition would not admit the tarrying for Medicines of so high a preparation, or his want of conveniencies, being hurried from place to place, I know not, yet have I seen and known him, possessor of several Magisteries, and not many Months before his death, I knew him Master of a mercurial Medicine, whose effects were such, That it merited the name of an Arcanum. Had he lived, I know not what greater proofs he might have given of the certainty of such an universal Solvent. His Arguments deduced from those hints the most noble Helmont gives are considerable, if duly weighed; and the true searchers after Truth may receive no small Light from him; for my own part, I have no reason to repent my Labours, and time spent in this Study, Nature being very Grateful to her diligent followers. From this Fountain have I gained a Salt, which dissolved in Rain Water, arsenic being amalgamed with another Metal, this being caused to boil in a Sand Furnace for the space of two hours the Amalgame was dissolved into a Liquor, with as much ease as Sugar dissolves in Water. This I did in the presence of two Friends, no mean Artists. Therefore not to be imposed upon, with which Medicine, my Menstruum being separated from it, and further operated on, I cured deploracle Pox, etc. I shall forbear to discourse any further, what other medioaments I have made by the help of good Dissolvents, resolving, if God spare me life, to put forth Pyrotechny Triumphant, which the Author, had he lived, intended to do, which will be an Explanation of his Pyrotechny Asserted, and Explication of the History of Nature, comprehended in those Subjects.   

Liquor Alchahest, etc.  
I am come now to the discovery of the great Circulate, or immortal disolvent of Paracelsus, and Helmont, not laying here the foundation of its Use and Excellency, which I presume is sufficiently believed in the World already, who had rather now hear tidings how it may be attained, than be tantalised with a large Encomium of its worth and value. I elsewhere taught its Nature, Nativity and Efficacy, although briefly I shall here come to a more large handling of it, yet with caution as well as candour. It is (as I said) a Spiritual Salt, or Saline Spirit, which by reason of its transcendent purity, cannot be corruptively dissipated, and not finding any body so noble (at lest more noble) than itself; disdains to be wedded unto any, nor is it capable of a divers ferment from itself, and so not liable to transmutation: the knowledge and preparation of it, is the work of most abstruse Philosophy, the hope and crown of the adepti. OH immortal Ens or Liquor! which penetrates all bodies, and perfectly reduces them to their first Ens or matter, without any loss of virtue, or pondus, but remains in number, weight, and measure, the same after a 1000 times acting upon bodily concretes; only one conquers and subjugates it, and is in itself destroyed in its destruction. It is vile and yet precious, it costs nothing, every man hath it, the poor as well as the rich; Adam carried it with him out of Paradise, it is most secret in Microcosm, most potent in the Macrocosm; it destroys and conquers all bodies, and subjugates the most rebellious nature. 'Tis the product of Urine, than which nothing more common to come by, nothing more difficult to work on, well therefore said Helmont, that its preparation was most tedious: And most truly wrote he of such as contemn so vile and sordid a thing, and disdain to learn by the fire what its contents are, That true Wisdom doth and will despise them. For the plainer unfolding the mystery of its nativity and preparation, I shall recite my own broileries, how I hunted after it, and how after many years search, and and infinite errors, I at length attained it, if there be any thing deserving imitation in my example, follow it, and perhaps (God blessing your studies, labours & watch) you may at last attain your desires, as I, through the undeserved mercy of God, at last attained mine. I had not been long conversant in the writings of that noble Philosopher; but I soon (from some of his expressions) gathered a strong presumption, that Urine was the subject. Especially from that place in his Trac. de Lith. where he thus speaks, Est in Natura universi, etc. There is in the whole nature of the Universe, but only one fire, (which is our consuming Vulcan) and so likewise there is but one only Liquor which is of power to dissolve all solid bodies into their first matter, without being its self in the lest changed or weakened in its virtue; which those that are adept know and can testify. But in the activity of other Spirits, the dissolvable bodies can never radically mix themselves with the dissolving Liquor; and therefore, though they are corroded, yet is not this to be esteemed an entire dissolution, for every acid Spirit (being corrosive) by corroding another body, is coagulated, and in a manner fixed, and becomes transmuted into the form of a condensed Salt, not that the body, which (without alteration) endured what the pontic Spirit could work upon it, acts any thing towards its coagulation, but itself by its proper corrosive activity, is Coagulated of its own accord. Thus far Helmont in that place, who elsewhere speaking of his examination of all Salts, by way of Analyzing them, found by all trials possible, that their Spirits were still acid, except only Alcalizate Salts, and those of the Essential Sulphurs' of vegetals. The Spirit of Man's Urine, notwithstanding, was neither Acid nor Alcalizate, but merely Saline, also the Spirit of the Urine of Beasts. Hence I concluded, that in one of these two the Immortal Liquor must found its primitive original, having on good reason, excluded all acid Spirits; (and by consequence the Spirits of all other Salts in the World) Nor was the controversy long deciding between Alcalizate and Urinous Salts, considering the words of Helmont: when (saith he) I distinguished between the ☿ ies, and the Salts and 🜍s of Concretes, by an analytical resolution of them, I wondered at the sluggish, inactive nature of the ☿ ial compared to the dignity and excellent activity of the other two principles (to wit Sulphurous and Saline) Moreover I found, saith he, those Salts more dull and languid, which partaked of the nature of 🜍, but of Acalizate Spirits, and those of Essential vegetable Sulphurs, he saith definitively, that their saline Acrimony is fat and Sulphuerous, nor easily or speedily reducible into Salt, unless by a tedious inversion of their whole substance; whence I observed, that Alcalyes were not to be volatized (duly and truly) but by means of essential vegetable Oils or 🜍s. Secondly, That being volatized, they retained their Sulphureous fatness a long time, till by a tedious inversion of the whole substance, the Sulphureous nature was turned into a Saline. Thirdly, Yet (even than) those saline Alcalizate spirits could not give the immortal Liquor, because Meretriciously addicted to wed any subject, and by dissolution thereof, to be reduced into a Coagulative volatile Salt, as Helmont expressly teacheth in his Tract. de Feb. as also in his Tract. de potest Medicam, his words are these, If, saith he, you cannot attain to the Arcanum of our Fire, learn (as a succedaneum thereto) to make Alcalyes volatile, and with their Spirits perform your dissolutions; which, although they leave their dissolved Bodies (when digested in our Stomaches) yet have they by their Dissolution of, and Coagulation upon them, borrowed so much of their virtue, as by it to be able to overcome most Diseases. And in another place he saith, If Spirit of Salt of Tartar dissolve Quicksilver, Silver, Unicorn's Horn, Crabs Eyes, or any other simple; it will cure (not only all Fevers) but most Diseases indifferently. And without making distinction; not that I expect the Quicksilver, Silver, etc. should pass with the Spirit into the Veins; but it is sufficient that the Alcalizate Spirit is by means of these Bodies, reduced into the nature of a Volatile and Coagulable Salt; and in the Stomach being first digested, (as other Meats are) it it passeth into the Mesenterics, being carried thither by the Urine; and in its passage resolveth and loosneth whatever obstructing filth it meets with, by virtue of its Exotic qualities, borrowed in dissolution, from the bodies whereon it was coagulated. And in his Tract. de potest Med. speaking of Alcalyes, I perceived or felt (saith he) that they are utterly voided of all seminal power, or properties, and have only a Saponary, Abstersive, and resolving nature, wherewith they are contented; except they be made volatile, and than I was sensible that they re-assumed Balsamic seminal Virtues, and the radical principles of these concretes (by whose volatile 🜍s they were revived and made volatile.) But adds, I was sensible how easily these volatile Alcalyes are transmuted into new and various forms, since they unite most readily to any Bodies, and wed therewith: acting according to the native disposition of the Bodies, to which they are thus conjunctively associated. By these testimonies of this noble and most acute Philosopher, whom I felt understandingly, having first often read him, and seriously considered his words, I was wholly confirmed in my opinion concerning Urine, as the only subject in which this secret Liquor was to be sought and attained. Which opinion of mine was daily more and more strengthened by several expressions of his concerning this subject, one of which I recited before, namely, That Wisdom did (and for ever will) despise all such who think scorn to learn by the fire what the contents, nature, and properties of Urine are, how sordid and contemptible a thing soever it seem and appear to be. Therefore in his Tract. concerning the six digestions in man, he useth this expression concerning the Salt of Man's Urine, that in the whole system of the Universe it had not its fellow or peer. Neither Sea nor Fountain Salt, Salt Peter or Gem; In a word, not any natural Salt whatsoever, nor yet the Salt of the Urine of Beasts, was comparable to it. The same he affirms in his Tract de Lith. And instances in the Urine of a Horse, which he found far to fall short of the dignity of Man's Urine, not having in it, or by any preparation, yielding that noble Spirit, which in Man's Urine was to be found, which Coagulated Spirit of Urine in an instant, not into a fixed body, but an Aetherical subtle, spiritual Salt, than which nature hath not a more spiritual penetrative Creature; of the Salt of Urine he before said, That he knew not if or no the whole World afforded any thing of a more subtle nature: comparing which with that Paragraph concerning the Immortal dissolvent in his Tract. de Medicam potest: he calls it the highest and most noble of Salts, which hath attained its utmost pitch in nature of subtlety and purity, penetrating all things, and is the only agent in the World, which acting upon Bodies, remains always immutable, and with ease resolves all things, and brings them into ready obedience, liquefying and (at the same time) volatizing them, as Snow is melted in warm water. I observed, I say, in the works of this Philosopher, the Liquor Alchahest, and the Circulated Salt of Paracelsus, otherwise called the greater Circulate, were Synonimous, and indifferently used to signify this fire of Hell, or immutable dissolvent; and where is it to be found but in that subject whose Spirit is even saline, never Acid or Alcalizate? Not without cause therefore (by way of encouragement) he thus allureth the studious searchers of truth; seek (my Brethrens) and as many of you as are sedulous and diligent shall found truth ready to meet you with open arms, to embrace you, and crown your searches with unspeakable joy. First learn to dissolve the Duelech, or Stone of the Bladder or Reinss, or the Gravel of either, in a Glass with a Tepid Liquor, inoffensive to either Stomach or Bladder, rejoice, for you are near the great secret, than learn to dissolve the Ludus, and reduce it into a volatile Salt, etc. Now this Spirit or Liquor which will thus resolve the Duelech, is the second, which is drawn from Urine (putrified by long digestion.) The former Coagulating Spirit (of Aquae Vitae rectified) being some days before taken away by distillation. From the testimonies of this most acute and truly adept Philosopher by the fire, I set my mind to consider the thing itself, and found it a subject of great wonder. My Experience convinced me, that it was an Anomalous Coagulum, which being itself a most subtle Spirit, was yet the Coagulation of other (and none but) Spirits, and those only vinous, for although it seems to Coagulate, it destroys utterly all acid Spirits, and returns them into Water insipid, or rather the acid Spirit, attempting by its Corrosiveness, to destroy this tender Spirit, which is most tightly volatile and flying: It the better to defend itself, assumes the form of a coagulated Body (as Water to withstand the active force of the Cold which would turn it into a Gas, crusts itself by its own action, into an Ice) And so this most fugacious penetrative Spirit, plays under the Mask of a far more fixed (yet totally volatile) Body of Salarmoniack, while the Spirit (to avoid whose tyranny it thus disguised itself) is by its own fretting activity totally destroyed from what it was, and becomes a mere elemental Water: That this Coagulation, and disguised fixation, with a total suspension of the acute Urinary odour and taste, i● from itself, and not the acid Spirit (effectively.) I demonstrate, first in that upon any Acidity, fixed or volatile, it will do the same thing, and become the same Salt, and so the acid Calcinate of Vitriol, as well as its acid volatile Spirit will 'cause the same saline product. But Secondly, were the Urinous Spirit coagulated passively, it would be really and actually transmuted, and become another thing, whereas the same Urinous Spirit (identically and numerically) is (in this action) but veiled under a Larva, or masked under the disguise of a more fixed body (as Water still remaining the same, counterfeits a body of appearing Glass, being indeed but the same water identically, in the disguise of Ice.) And this the affusion of a Lixivium of Salt of Bohemian-tartar, or any other Alcaly, will easily discover, when in the twinkling of an eye, or the space of the same quickest thought, the same Spirit of Urine, in the same pondus & qualities, and with the same formal properties, will distil over as before, reassuming the same subtlety of odour, fieryness of taste, being equally Volatile, coagulating also Spirit of Wine, speedily, powerfully, and solemnly, as if it had never been coagulated. Whereas the acid Spirit is turned into an insipid Water; having spent itself in vain upon this disguised Body of Sal Armoniac. And Thirdly, were the coagulation and semifixation actively from the Corrosive Spirit, which is most fiery, and in its tumultuous action, causeth a sensible insufferable heat to the touch, it could not upon a Spirit most tightly hot and fiery, actually imprint that Lunar Blas, which is apparent in Sal Armoniac: For it being in nature and quality hot, and materially and really (although hiddenly) containing the most fiery Spirit of Urine, of which a drop in an instant will vesitate the Tongue or Lips, as powerfully and speedily as the most fiery potential cautery; and the Spirit by its most acute sharp odour (arguing the most exquisite heat of it when rectified) being so volatile and penetrative, scarce any stopple can keep it confined to the Vessel which contains it; and so piercingly acute, that no human, or other Animals Organs of smelling can long endure its odour, without a threatened Syncope, if not an Apoplexy for the time doth yet so powerfully operate by a Lunar Blas, that if Shall Armoniac be put in an Urinal, or other thick Glass, and water poured on it, straightway it causeth such an extremity of Cold, as will actually frieze Water on the outside of the Urinal, yea although antimony, or 🜍, or ☿, be sublimed with it, which are of a hot fiery Nature; And this Lunar Blas is insperable from it as long as it appears in the form of a more fixed Body of Salt, where observe by the by, that Cold is a real positive Ens or Being, and not a bore privation of heat, as the Schools most coldly teach. (It is I say) a Being which in the twinkling of an eye, can by the irradiating Blas of moistened Sal Armoniac be sent through the impervious sides of a strong Glass, so as in an instant to produce Cold in its glaciating extreme, which was not so the moment before. Therefore Secondly, this cannot be an impression stamped upon the most fiery Corrosive; but is done by the activity of the Urinous Spirit upon itself, which it is so solicited too by the excitation of the Corrosive Spirit, as Water actually crust itself with Ice, by the Irritation of extreme Cold, which otherwise threatens ruin to its present form of Existence. And Thirdly, By a peculiar privilege the Creaator hath given this Spirit, the most Cold Lunar Blas, marries itself to this (naturally hot in quality) subject, which it influentially imprints on whatsoever it toucheth; so soon as moisture (over which the cold Moon by its Light is precedent) is poured on its Body; that the Atoms of Water and Salt do embrace each other. Fourthly, no marvel, since the Lunar influence (having dominion over moisture) is the main instrument of reducing things to their first matter (as is evident in Ink, Broth, Jellies, Flesh, or Fish, once throughly Frozen) that the acid Corrosive Spirits, (which acting their fury upon Bodies, are variously coagulated into fixed coagulated Salts, of times very Corrosive) are in this action, by a retrograde reduction, brought into mere insipid Elemental Water: For let the Corrosive Spirit be of what kind soever, Acetous, Vitriolate, Nitrous of Salt Gem, Sea Salt, or any other acidity, the product of Sal Armoniac is still the same, as also the Lunar Blas inhering in it, if not appearing with the same countenance at first coagulation, yet by sublimation of the coagulated Salt, the identity is soon perceptible; and the same reduction of the Corrosive Spirit to insipid Water, is as well the end of one acidity as another; By which the action of the Spirit upon itself, (not suffering a passive coagulation from the acid Corrosive) is beyond dispute, and out of question.  
So than this is the original and production of Sal Armoniac the most subtle acute penetrative Urinous Spirit, meeting with an acid Corrosive; this s●●eks (by a furious assault, to destroy that; which to prevent, the Urinous Spirit, counterfeits a Body by a spontaneus Coagulation, which (as more permanent) it opposeth to the fury of the Corrosive spiritual Acidity. Into this Body the Lunar Blas concenteates, and joins itself, dwelling in it invisibly, yet acting visibly.  
The acid Spirit, fretting itself in vain upon this wondered body, receiving a determination from its Cold Lunar Blas, ends in the total extinction of its saline seminal virtue, and that which in other actings, receives from various bodies, various coagulations, into divers forms of Salts fixed from this sergeant body (guarded by a Lunar Blas (or influence) receives its final destruction, and becomes insipid) Elemental water; thus that the Spirit through itr own activity is exantlated (by a frustaneous acting on this larvated body) is from itself; But that the end of this fury, and excandescence, should be the total extinction of its saline life, or being, is wholly to be attributed to the Lunar Blas, which is intimately and inseparately wedded to the form of Sal Armoniac; whose coagulation into that disguise of a body, is by its own action, on itself, according to an unerring instinct by which the wise Creator hath enjoined it to act.  
This I have described the more at large, that the studious might lay this true relation of this anomalous Generation, as a sure foundation to work upon in the most secret discovery of what only a true mental man will intellectually apprehended, and intuitively behold, with the clear sight of the Soul or mind. For as there is a Shall Armoniac Vulgar, which scarce any Fool but knows; so is there also a Sal Armoniac of Philosophers, which only true elect Sons of Learning know: In the circulation of which, is the perfection of the hope of all true adept Brothers of Art, so far as concerns this sire of Hell, which is Fire and yet Water, Water, and yet no Water, Air, and yet condensible, not Corrosive, yet the most sharp and perpetual Corrosive: A choice Medicine, cleansing and purifying Nature, yet the destroyer and conqueror of Bodies. But vinous Spirits are actually and actively coagulated by Spirit of Urine, and itself is actually con-coagulated with them, of which coagulation Helmont gives not an unlike Elogium, to that of the Immortal Liquor itself; namely, That it is not made by a bore association of parts, but a marrying of each to other in the bond of indissolveable unity, a production of a new Ens, which is a neutral, most subtle, spiritual body, distinct from either parent. Here is a spiritual body arising from two, yet without any diversity of ferment, for a vinous Spirit is intimate, and centrally one with the Spirit of Man's Urine, by virtue and efficacy of which, it coagulates Spirit of Wine, and is coagulated itself, which cannot hap to any Urinous Spirit, unless by the influential power of a vinous; which is the only coagulable object (primarily) of Spirit of Urine. With which, if it meet with any other volatile Spirit, essentially united, it coagulates itself therewith, so the Oils of Spices, and odoriferous Vegetables, being first intimately associated to a Urinous Spirit, are with it coagulated together into one spiritual body by rectified Spirit of Urine; and truly, upon serious consideration, the universality of the nature and energy of Urine in its Spirit, cannot sufficiently be admired. For (mediately at the lest) there is nothing in the whole universe (except the central heart of ☿, and one thing which alone is its compeer, the one destroying it, the other untouched by its activity) which is not either by it transmuted into its own nature, or else absolutely destroyed, and reduced into clear and elemental water.  
For demonstrating this, it will not be amiss to take an exact survey, at lest briefly of all sublimary Concrete Bodies. In the Mineral Kingdom, the central heart of ☿, (as was abovesaid) excepted, all Sulphurs', mettaline and mineral, yea even of ☉, ☽, and ☿ themselves, are by reiterate cohobations, turned into saline Liquors, or Spirits, and they at last return to insipid elemental Water; so all Stones not calcinable by this sire of Hell, are made into Salts, which by often circulating or cohobating with this Liquor, are volatized, and by addition return a● last into Water. All calcinable stones and shells, yield an Alcaly, which being by essential Oils volatized, unite with rectified Spirit of Wine, and are concoagulated by an Urinous Spirit; which subtle Coagulum, being by a convenient acidity made into a more abiding bodily Salt, and sublimed, whatever will not formally abide therewith, is separated straightway in form of an Heterogeneous Liquor, and by an easy art is robbed of its seminal Crasis, and returns to insipid water. All Animals, their Flesh, Blood, and Bones, besides a Mercurial Liquor (which is soon turned to elementary water) give a fat Sulphur, and an urinary Salt, if not by immediate distillation, yet by a previous maceration by ferment and putrefaction. The Caput Mort becomes by the cohobation of our Circulated Salt, a mere Salt, and at last becomes Water, as all Earth's, Stones, or the like, the Urinary Salts being purified by rectification, and semifixed into a more permanent body by proper Acidities, become a Sal Armoniac; which in sublimation (losing its Heterogeneityes) arises univocally the same with other of the same kind. The fat by distillation is volatized, and by an Alcaly becomes susceptible of union with Spirit of Wine, and consequently of con-coagulation by an Urinous Spirit, and by acidityes proper is made a Sal Armoniac.  
The Urine of all Creatures giving a Spirit, is by an acidity made a tractable body of Salt, and by subliming with other Shall Armoniac; what is not made one identically therewith, is separated as Heterogeneus, and by an easy art totally destroyed. All horns and hoofs, either immediately, or being before buried, yield an Oil, and an Urinous Salt; and may be handled, as I said before, in the like case, of the same products of Flesh, Blood, and Bones. All Trees by burning, give a fixed Alcalid Mercurial Liquor, a volatile Sulphur, and a volatile Salt in the soot, which is plainly and truly Urinous; some Spices, Flowers, Seeds, Barks and Roots of Trees, give an Essential Oil, others expressed Oil: at lest, all expressed Oils by reiterate distillations, being rectified and cohobated with Alcalyes, become capable of union with Spirit of Wine, and consequently of coagulation by, and subjugation too, Urinous Spirits; which with whatever will not hold coagulation and sublimation, is separated as Heterogeneal, and easily reducible to insipid Water. The destruction of all acid Spirits (by urinous) I taught before. In a word, whatever in the World is (beside the cential Nut of arsenic) is either fixed or volatile, the fixed, either saline or not, what is not saline, by art is made so, and both (by art and pains) become volatile; and being volatized, are soon reduced to Elemental Water, robbed of all seminal virtue; fixed Alcalyes are volatized, married with vinous Spirits; and coagulable (together with them) by means of Urinous: Oils become Salts Volatile, and so commiscible with Spirits of Wine, and so transmutable by Urinous: Vinous Spirits are most universal, all Herbs, Roots, Barks, Fruits, Honey, Suggar, Leaves, Grainseeds, Flowers, etc. yielding (by fermentation) a true vinous Spirit, which (by reiterate rectifications) losing the qualities of the (media vita) of its concrete, is not discernible from others, and is (pari jure) coagulable in Spirit of Urine, (tightly deflegmed) which being than reduced to a more fixed Sal Armoniac, if not by itself, yet by subliming (together) with that which is the product of human Urine, becomes one (homogeneally) with it, and whatever (with it) abides the test of sublimation, in that more fixed bodily form, is ever after univocally, homogeneally, and identically the same, hath the same Lunar Blas, and being revived with an (Alcaly, or otherwise) gives the same coagulating Spirit, which will coagulate Spirit of Wine. Behold here the admirable nature of the Spirit of Man's Urine, how it plays its part among all other Concretes, Spirits, Acetous, Oleagenous, Vinous, Alcalizate, and Urinous; As Aaron's Rod did with the Rods of Pharaohs Enchanters, it devoured them all, either assimulating them to itself in matter and form, or destroying and reducing them (at last) to mere insipid Elemental Water. Here you have a body at last of an admirable product (not Vulgar but Philosophical Sal Armoniac) concerning which, I have very much yet to writ, howbeit, my writings will be more knotty than Apollo's Oracles, till you learn to distinguish between Sal Armoniac Vulgar and Philosophical.   

The unheard of Heteroclyte Doctrine of Sal Armoniac, both Vulgar and Philosophical.  
IN my Pyrotechny Asserted and Illustrated, which contains the Second and Third part, accounting my vindication of Helmont, and Explication of Nature for the first part, being originally in Latin wrote together, and making with my other Write but one Volume, I writing of the Immortal Liquor, or Fire, did paraphrastically interpret that place of Helmont. Ars indagando sollicita est Corpori, quod tantae puritatis Symphonia colluderet nobiscum, ut a corrumpente nequirent dissipaeri, ac tandem stupefacta est Religio, reperta lattice, etc. To which place, I shall remit the Reader, for what is there spoken too, not intending here a repetition, but a further illustration of things more briefly or obscurely discoursed of there. I observed it to be a Body, which Art was so inquisitively solicitous to found, but such a one, as might play with us or make us sport (colluderet) by its harmony of so great purity, as not to be capable of dissipation, by means of any corruptive agent or instrument; such play or sport is more pleasant to a true Artist, than the Lords of the Philistines could have expected from Samson, yet this pulls down, and destroys as he did, (not Houses) but the most solid compact bodies; and Champion like maintains its ground, although very few Gallants and Ladies have that happiness to see the prizes played by this Anomalous Combatant. This body I there forbore to discover, except mystically and parabolically; but here I shall plainly enough, to a Son of Art, discover the same, It is as I said, a Body of a Spiritual indestructible Salt, in plain terms, it is the Salt of Human Urine, or Shall Armoniac, not Vulgar (the product of Urine, Soot, and Sea-Salt) but Philosophical, to which the Vulgar is related, as ☿ Vulgar, is to the ☿ of the Philosophers. The question now will be how this Sal Armoniac Philosophical is made, which I think I have sufficiently declared to a Son of Art; but I shall be a little more plainer and candid in my discovery, That most acute subtle penetrative Spirit of Man's Urine, by the help of another medium, not of a divers ferment from itself, but centrally one I say with it, must be united to an Acidum, not Corrosive, sed naturae suae gratissimum. This Acidum must be equally volatile with the Salt of Urine, before it can be Married or United intimately with it. Than by often Circulations it attains that height of purity to be entitled Ens salium, summum salium & falicissimum. After all this, I must conclude with that saying of the most excellent Helmont in another case, Chap. de Feb. speaking there concerning the Aurum Horizontale, Tametsi paucis absolvi secretum quod medicum nobilitat istudque parasse pro primo vice ingentis operis est pendetque directio a manu ejus qui dator est omnium donorum bonorum. So I may well say in this, although I have discovered the matter more plainly than any other, yet when attained, the way of working with it, is not easy, but depends from his teaching who is the giver of every perfect gift; to whose Tutoridge I leave the honest inquirer and searcher after Truth.  
Carbones emunt atque vitra,  
Dii vero suderibus vendunt Artes.  
FINIS.   

 

   

ERRATA.  
PAge 4. r. in the Microcosm, p. 9 r. Sulphureous, idem p. 10. p. 17. for Urine r: Wine, idem for Aetherical r. Aetherial, p. 19 for even r. sver, p. 20. for the r. he, p. 32. for saeks r. seeks, p. 39 for sublimary r. sublunary, p. 43. for Alcalid r. Alcaly.