The Signature of All Things — trans. John Ellistone (1651)
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The translator’s English as printed (John Ellistone). The original-language text is not held; names are romanised as the translator printed them.
60. Sulphur is the Womb whereinto we must enter, if we would be new born. Nicodemus said well; How can one being old enter into his Mother's Womb, and be born again? But Christ said, Except you be converted, and become as Children, you cannot see the Kingdom of Heaven. The Self-Will must enter again into the first Mother which brought it forth, viz. into the Sulphur, by the Will understand Mercury.
61. But now who will persuade it to do so? For it is become a Selfish Thing, and must enter again into the Mother, and become Nothing; this seemed a strange and wonderful Thing to Nicodemus, but the Lord said to him, The Wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the Sound thereof, but thou knowest not from whence it cometh, or whither it goeth; even so is every one that is born of God. Behold, who persuaded the Will of Christ in his Humanity, to enter again with the Will into the Filiation or Adoption, as it were in the Mother's Womb, and eat Nothing forty Days, and would also [eat] Nothing, but remained in full steadfast Resignation in the Mother? Did not the Deity do it, which was entered into the Humanity?
62. Thus likewise it goes in the philosophic Work, therefore let the Artist well observe, and rightly understand us: He must seek the Evil stubborn Child (which is fled from the Mother, and entered into the Centre, and would be a Selfish Thing) in Saturn; for the Wrath of God has shut him up with its Impression in the Chamber of Death.
63. Not that he has made him to Saturn, but he holds him shut up in the Saturnine Death; the same he must again take and bring into the Mother's Womb, and then send the Angel with a Message to Mary, and tell her, She shall bring forth a son, whose Name shall be called Jesus: And if the Mother shall yield her Consent thereunto, and receive the Name Jesus, then the new Humanity shall begin in the Mother, with the new Child in the old Apostate captivated in the Anger of God, and the Name Jesus will first give in itself to the dead Child which lay captivated in Saturn, and eagerly draw the Will of the evil dead Child to itself: This is the fair Bride, which shews her Crown of Pearl to her apostate Bridegroom; he should but again receive her, and she would again give him her Love. Now if the apostate Youth shut up in Death does again receive her, then is the Artist well prepared, and counted worthy by God to finish his Purpose: Now will the Bride Love the Bride-groom, and a Virgin bring forth a Son, at which all the World will Wonder; the Virgin shall embrace the Man; but he is a Man, and not a Woman, and has the Virgin's Heart.
64. Now he must be tempted, whether or no he will live in Virgin-like Chastity, and in full Resignation of his Will to God, for he must be a valiant Champion, and destroy the Devil's Fortress of Prey (which he has in his Mother) in seven Kingdoms; then let the Devil set his Mother's House on Fire with his Wrath, and tempt him, he will now well enough defend himself with Christ against the Devil.
65. This being done, the young Man with his Virgin-like Heart will wholly give himself up to the Mother, when the Tempter comes and assaults him, and the Mother will wholly swallow him up into herself through the Devil's Wrath: He gives himself forth wholly out of his own Will into the Nothing. Now, thinks the Artist with himself, I have lost all; for he thinks that he has lost Heaven; for he seeks Nothing, and does not consider that a Virgin has now brought forth: But let him have Patience; that which is impossible to the Artist, that is possible to Nature; after the Night it is Day; when the Tempter has finished all his Temptations, then comes the Sign [or Appearance] of the Angels; then the Devil which has tempted him must depart.
66. Let the Artist well observe this, and pack away the Devil, and suffer the young Man with his Virgin-like Heart to lie in his Bed, and eat his Former Food, for he is now become a Physician of his Sisters in his Mother's House; he will do great Wonders in all the seven Kingdoms of his Mother (which are the seven Forms of Life) as Christ has done.