_Of Decoction, and the effect thereof._
Know thou that the Philosophers haue named Decoction in their Bookes,
saying, that they make Decoction in thinges: and that is it that
engendreth them, and changeth them from their substances and colours,
into other substãces and colours. If thou transgresse not, I tell
thee in this booke, thou shalt proceed rightly. Consider brother,
the seed of the earth, wheron men liue, how the heate of the Sunne
worketh in it, till it be ripe, when men and other creatures feede
vpon it, and that afterwarde Nature worketh on it by her heate within
man, conuerting it into his flesh and blood. For like hereto is our
operation of the masterie: the seed whereof (as the learned haue sayde)
is such, that his perfection and proceeding consisteth in the fire,
which is the cause of his life and death, without somwhat comming
betweene, and his spiritualtie, which are not mingled but with the
fire. Thus haue I tolde thee the truth, as I haue seene and done it.