The Signature of All Things — trans. John Ellistone (1651)

61. Also let the Magus know, that he need not go about to implant the right Will to Perfection from without into his Purpose; it is already in all Things; only he must introduce a divine desirous Will according to the Thing's Property into that Thing which he takes in Hand, which wrestles with the divine Will as Jacob, and blesses the Will introduced to God's Will, that the divine Will yields itself freely into the Hunger, or inclines itself to the Desire, and makes the imperfect Will (which earnestly presses into his Compassion) perfect, and then it is rightly said, Thou hast wrestled with God, and hast overcome; then thy Purpose obtains a transformed Body, which is heavenly and earthly.

62. Observe it! It is the first Beginning to Baptism, and so you are fit and prepared to the Baptism, and not otherwise, else you baptize only with the Water of the outward World; but the true Magus baptizes with the outward and inward Water: If he has a right divine Desire in him, then God's Will in his Baptism is the first glimmering Tinder in Mercury, so that the Life enkindles Death, viz. the Mercury shut up in Death, and begets divine Desire; even then Mercury begins to Hunger after divine Essence, and does his first Miracle, and turns the Water into Wine, as Christ did after his Baptism: This is the first Tincturation in the dead Corpus in the Power of Baptism, that the Vegitta, or Working energetical Life, obtains another Property, viz. an Hunger of Love, wherewith she embraces her Bridegroom, viz. the Fire-Source, that he is enkindled in her Love, and changes his cold deadly Wrath and Will into a fiery Love-Will: Then the mortal Water turns into Wine (a Sharpness of a Fire and Water-Taste,) out of which at last comes an Oil to another Baptism, after the Manner and Disposition of the Artist, viz. according as he intends and begins; after the Magus has joined the Virgin and young Man together, then Christ, viz. the Bridegroom, is led with his Bride into the Desart, and tempted of the Devil.

63. Here is the Trial whereby the Artist is proved by God what he seeks with his Baptism; for here is the Proof in Paradise to try whether the Bridegroom be not too bad, for the Virgin calls her Love upon him, and invites him, if he receives it with Desire, and gives his Will thereinto, then she gives him her Heart and Will wholly: This is the heavenly Tincture, which gives itself into the enkindled Anger of God (viz. into the Curse of the Earth when God Cursed it) that is, into the Mercury enclosed in Death, which is the Bridegroom, for the Seed of the Woman, viz. the heavenly Tincture, must bruise the Head of the Serpent, viz. the poisonful Mercury, in the Property of Death, and change his Poison into Wine, and then the Virgin receives the Seed of the Bridegroom, and not before.

64. The Desart is the earthly outward Body, where Mercury is tempted; when the Devil appears to Mercury, and Plagues him, and assaults him in his fiery Essence, then must the Virgin come to help him, and give him her Love: Now if the Mercury eats of the Virgin-like Love, that is, of God's Bread, then he may stand before the Devil; and at last the Angels come to him, and serve him; the illuminated Magus will well understand what is meant by the Devil.

65. Hereby let the Magus in the Temptation (seeing the whole Marriage stands in the Devil's Temptation) have a careful Eye upon his Purpose; and if the Angels do not appear in forty Days Space, then is his Purpose in vain, therefore let him look, that he suffer not too fierce a Devil to tempt, and also not too weak, lest Mercury become Light, and desire to continue in his own poisonful Death's Property, and devour the Baptism as a Wolf, and the old one remains.