that the vulgar Mercury spoken of hath its own seed in it self. The errors, and mistakes of all these men will be made apparent by the following example. It is manifest that men have seed, in which they are multiplyed: the body of man is Mercury; but the seed is hid in the body, and in comparison to the body is but little, and light: he therefore that will beget a man, let him not take Mercury, which is the body, but the seed, which is the congealed Vapour of water. So in the regeneration of Metalls, the vulgar Chymists goe preposterously to work: They dissolve Metallick bodies, whether it be Mercury, or Gold, or Lead, or Silver, and corrode them with sharp waters, and other Heterogeneous things not requisite to the true Art, and afterward joine them together again, not knowing that a man is not generated of a mans body cut to pieces, because by this means the body is marred, and the seed before-hand is destroyed. Every thing is multiplyed in Male and Female, as I have already mentioned in the Treatise of the twofold Matter: The division of the sexes causeth, or produceth nothing, but a due joining of them together, brings forth a new forme: the seeds therefore, or spermes, not bodies are to bee taken. Take therefore a living Male, and a living Female; joine these together, that betwixt them there may be conceived a sperm for the bringing forth of fruit after its kind: There is no man living can beleeve that he can make the first matter: The first matter of Man is earth, and no man can of that make a man; only God knows how to doe this; but of the second matter, which is already made, if it be put into its due place, may easily by the operation of Nature be generated a thing of that species, or kind, which the seed was of. The Artist here need doe nothing, onely to separate the thin from the thick, and to put it into its due vessell. For this is to be considered, that as a thing is begun, so it ends: Of one are made two, of two one, and then you have done. There is one God; of this one God the Son is begotten: One produceth two, two have produced one holy Spirit proceeding from both: so the world is made, and so shall be the end thereof. Consider the four former points most exactly: thou hast in them the Father, the Father and the Son, and lastly the holy Spirit: thou hast the four Elements: thou hast four great Lights, two Celestiall, and two Centrall: This is all that is, hath been, or shall be, that is made plain by this forenamed similitude. If I might lay down all the mysteries that might be raised from hence, they would amount to a great volume. I return to my purpose, and I tell thee true, my son! one is not made of one naturally, for thus to doe is proper to God alone: let it suffice thee that thou art able out of two to make one, which wil be profitable to thee. Know therefore that the sperm doth multiply the second matter, and not the first: for the first matter of all things is not seen, but