Down to the newtonean golde

First calcine & after that putrefy, dissolve destill sublime
descend & fix with aqua vitae oft times. Ripley's Epistle.

We have 3 mercuries which Raymond calls his menstrues
two of which are superficial the 3d essential to sun & moon
With the first we naturally calcine perfect bodies, but not
any uncleane ones except the green Lyon, who is the mean
between the & of joyning tinctures.

With
the 2d, which is a vegetable humidity reviving what was dead the
material & formal principles most be losed. With the 3d
which is a permanent incombustible unctuous humidity, our fire
natural, Hermes tree is burnt to ashes. Ripley Preface.

Solution (which is the 2d Gate) intenuates thick things by
vertue of the first menstrue clear & bright in which our bodies
eclypsed be to sight (viz in the black pouder) & from their
hard & dry compaction relent into their first matter
Ripley Gate 2.

The stone congeled & not yet cold is nourished with its own menstrual
which water only [our 1st fire] did bring out of the earth [our matter] whose colour is green
in the first showing [during the digestion to the 1st putrefaction] & for
that time the Sun is eclipsed & darkned taking his course by
night through the north [...] Afterwards prepare the kings bath with the blood of the innocents (which is the s of                             ) & you shall have the mercury of the sages animated, that is the grand Lunary, our incombustible oyle which congeles in cold like ice & melts in heat like butter, which is Trevisans clear fountain & the great Alkahest

[...]

The work beginns with two Parabolic Rivers mixing secretly in the triangular stone & then the secret fire burns the matter to separate the feces.
Introitus apertus cap 2 saith The work begins with thre things the fire, the liquor of the vegetable saturnia & the venereal bond of described in the 3 next chapters under the names of the Chalybs the magnes & the Chaos of the sophi, which Chaos is composed of heaven & earth & the things therein, & is there called a volatile air.

This chaos he tells you is composed of the fiery Dragon & juice of Saturnia (that is of the fire & liquor of the vegetable saturnia) & flows in the fire like a melted metal, & yet is volatile, & that in respect of its various states tis called our Arsenick (or Orpiment) our Air, our our magnet our Chalybs.

And in the next words teaches how to perfect & proceed on with this Chaos: Learn saith he who the companions of cadmus are [the infants of Abraham the Jew] & what that serpent is which devoured them [the King with a great sword] & what the hollow oak is to which Cadmus fastned the serpent unto.

Learn which Dianas Doves are which do vanquish the Green Lyon by aswaging him, [that is, learn to sublime this oak by the central salt of Venus, (as he elswhere expresses it) to infold Diana in the arms of Venus, by which means the activity & dissolving faculty of the salt is asswaged.] And then learn to turn these Doves into the Caducean rod of with which he worketh wonders & what the nymphs are vizt two serpents about his rod etc which he infects by incantation, & calcines into a black powder For without this golden rod upon which the two doves sit, there is no going down to hell.

The hollow oak the rose tree & the white heavy water, in the 3d Embl. of Abraham the Jew, compose this rod.
Thus also, as saith Mary, fumus complectitur fumum et herba alba crescens super monticulis capit utrumque.

Maier [...] This rod as was said is the fire of the Sophi called above the bond of .

Unless you had rather there understand by that bond, the mountain of & without theother two principles of the fire & the liquor of saturnia .

This rod is also Philaletha's waterbearer who was all one with his water & his silver-coloured pitcher; in which pitcher was conteined fire shining like a lamp from the center on the starry surface.
For the water saith Cosmopolite is extracted out of the rays of the Sun & Moon. This rod was anciently
painted thus with wings (whence this figure ) & therefore

tis volatile Maier Emblem 10..
The two serpents saith Flamel are the two Dragons which in the whole work devour each other the one male without wings the other female & winged & therefore they are the Chalybs & Magnet prepared.

They are the king & Queen with which together with the waterbearer Philaletha begins the work. The
King is there described one of the 7 metals cloathed down to the ground with a roab of Gold & with a crown of gold He is prepared artificially for he called the Son of the waterbearer & of the Queen that is of a substance common to them both whereby he is extracted.

He lies hid in the bottom of the great sea of the world without blood & bone & can stop the high ships of this sea that is retain the spirits of the world. He is the treasure lying hid in the caelestial aqua vitae of our sea & is extracted out of the great sea by our Magnet.

The natural way to take him is to turn him first into water & then into earth (Instructio patris de ore solari.
This is the metallique fixt salt, through the help of which Mercu after he had by his wings brought the King up to his throne, (that is after he became the rod of ) established an everlasting Kingdom.
The carbuncle set in Mars's crown [...] the martial ruby which with the venereal
Emrauld were stuck in Diana's crown &, by the help of which Diana was to bear solary children.

This is the spere of & the living gold of Philosophers, Our Vulcan.