Yet, as was particularly noted and set forth for consideration in the foregoing philosophical work, the common body of gold is not fit for this work. Because of its imperfection and the many defects it has upon and within itself, it is to be regarded as very powerless and, as it were, dead. Therefore a completely pure gold must be obtained, free from every impurity and defect, never adulterated by any fraud, and still unweakened in its inward sulphur and powers. So too, still less could the divine being of God’s Son have taken into itself or fittingly assumed ordinary human nature as it is conceived in sins, permeated with original sin and daily defiled with actual sins and unnatural infirmities, as human beings upon earth commonly are. It had to assume a wholly pure, sinless and perfect humanity.

Therefore this heavenly, eternal foundation and cornerstone, Christ Jesus, like the philosophical stone as it has also been described, is and remains, according to both his natures, of a supremely wondrous and extraordinary birth and origin, and of an unfathomable and unsearchable nature and properties. According to his divinity he is from eternity true God, born from the sole divine being of his heavenly and eternal Father, indeed God’s Son, whose going forth, as Scripture says of him, has been from the beginning and from eternity. According to his humanity, however, in the fullness of time he was born, without any sinful defects or infirmities, Isaiah 53; John 8, as a true, perfect human being with body and soul, Matthew 26, according to Scripture. He is now of an inseparable, personal, divine-and-human being: that is, both true God and true man in one person, indissoluble to all eternity; and he ought and must be recognised and honoured as Almighty God.

Here one might wish that the eyes of the great multitude of supposed learned men would be properly opened, that the dark spectacles they have put on, or the sophistical masks hung before their faces, would be removed, and that they might at last be made to see. This applies especially to all the Aristotelian sophists, purblind in divine matters, among whom such wretched disputations are still conducted today concerning divine and Christian things, with no end, nor any willingness to end, the manifold distinguishing, dividing and confounding of the most holy article well set forth in holy Scripture: the union of the natures and the communication of properties in Christ. Even if they refused to give any credence to God and his Word, they could and might learn from the conjunction and union already described in the chemical work—of the two waters, the mercurial water and the being of the sun—and grasp it, as it were, with their fingers. But their lofty academic art of heathen philosophy, and their Aristotelian foundations and precepts concerning substance and accidents and other matters, unfounded and indeed worthless in holy Scripture or Christian theology, prevent them from attaining it. Nor do they consider that the ancient Tertullian did not write in vain: “The philosophers are the patriarchs of heretics”; that is, the masters of natural heathen wisdom are the forefathers of all heretics. But it is not for me to treat this at greater length.

Further, just as in the philosophical work the compound, after its two beings have been conjoined, is placed and set in the fire, where it must putrefy, be destroyed, ground down and thoroughly cooked, and during this putrefaction and cooking various actions take place within it in the course of time, until it becomes more than perfect, and various colours appear and show themselves—as is to be found at length in the description of the earthly work—so this divine-and-human, human-and-divine person, Christ Jesus, was also appointed to this by God his heavenly Father and placed in the fiery furnace of tribulation in this world. He was thoroughly cooked within it, driven about amid every kind of hardship, disgrace, shame, cross and tribulation, and changed into many forms. Thus he suffered hunger, Matthew 4. Immediately after receiving baptism, when he entered upon his preaching office, he went into the wilderness at the prompting of the Holy Spirit and was therefore tempted and assailed by the evil Devil. There he had to sustain a mighty threefold contest with him, as a testimony to all baptised Christians that, when they enter upon their Christianity and make and openly proclaim their confession of faith in Christ, they too must immediately be tempted by the Devil and driven towards apostasy again through diverse incitements. Likewise he grew weary, John 4; wept bitterly, Luke 19; trembled and was afraid, Luke 14; struggled with death, sweated bloody sweat, and was taken captive and bound, Matthew 26; was struck in the face by the high priest’s servant, mocked and spat upon, scourged and crowned, condemned to death and nailed between two murderers to the cross which he himself had carried, John 19. He was given gall and vinegar to drink, Psalm 69, cried out with a loud voice, yielded up his spirit and died upon the cross. He also suffered and endured all the other anguish and tribulation of this kind during his life and death which may be read more fully and at length in the Evangelists.

And just as the philosophers report that this cooking and putrefaction in the earthly work described above generally takes place and is accomplished within forty days, so too holy Scripture records and describes many and various divine wonders and deeds through this number. Foremost and particular examples are that the children of Israel remained in the wilderness for forty years, Psalm 59, and had to endure their misery, Deuteronomy 8; that Moses upon Mount Sinai, Exodus 34, Elijah in his flight from Ahab, 1 Kings 19, and Christ in the wilderness fasted for forty days and nights; that Christ also preached and performed wonders upon earth for forty months, lay in the grave for forty hours, and walked among his disciples and apostles for forty days between his resurrection and ascension, allowing them to behold him alive, Acts 1; and that the city of Jerusalem was razed and destroyed by the Romans in the fortieth year after the Lord’s ascension.

It should also be particularly noted that the philosophers have called this putrefaction, because of its black colour, the raven’s head. So too Christ was of a wholly disfigured appearance, the most disregarded and unworthy of all, full of sorrows and sicknesses, and so despised that people hid their faces from him and held him of no account. Indeed, as he himself laments in Psalm 22, he was a worm and no man, a mockery to people and the contempt of the nation. The comparison with Christ the Lord is therefore not unfitting: the putrefied body of the sun lies for a time, like ashes, powerless at the bottom of the glass, until, after the fire has been strengthened, its soul gradually descends again in drops, imbibes, moistens and gives drink anew to the exhausted and, as it were, dead body, and thus keeps it preserved from utter destruction.

This also befell Christ. Roasted by the fire of divine wrath upon the Mount of Olives and the cross, Matthew 26 and 27, he lamented that he was wholly abandoned by his heavenly Father. Nevertheless, he was continually refreshed and strengthened, Matthew 4; Luke 22; John 12, just as happens to the earthly body through constant refreshment and revival, and was, as it were, imbued, moistened and given drink with divine nectar. Indeed, when at last, in his most holy passion and death, amid death itself, his power and spirit were entirely drawn out and taken from him, and he came into the lowest and deepest places of the earth, Acts 1; Ephesians 4; 1 Peter 3, he was nevertheless likewise preserved and revived, raised again through the power and might of the eternal Godhead, and made living and glorious, Romans 14. Then soul and spirit were first brought into a truly complete and indissoluble fixation or union with his body that had died in the grave. Through his joyful resurrection and victorious ascension he was exalted as Lord and Christ, Matthew 28, and to the right hand of his Father, Mark 16. With the Father he now rules and reigns over all things in equal power and glory, through the power of the Holy Spirit, as true God and man, Psalm 8; bears and carries all things by his mighty Word, Hebrews 1; indeed gives life to all things, Acts 17. This wondrous union and divine exaltation cannot be beheld, much less contemplated, by angels and human beings in heaven, upon earth and beneath the earth, Philippians 2; 1 Peter 1, without astonishment, fear and awe. Its power, might and rose-coloured tincture can now also change and tinge us imperfect, sinful human beings in body and soul, and cure and heal us more than perfectly, as will shortly be described further.

Having now briefly and simply considered the one heavenly foundation and cornerstone, Christ Jesus, and how he compares and accords with the earthly philosophers’ stone of the wise, whose matter and preparation, as we have heard, are a beautiful type and living likeness of the divine Incarnation in Christ, it will nevertheless also be necessary to consider and learn further concerning his power, virtue and tincture, as well as his fermentation and multiplication within us poor human beings, devoid of power and virtue, as within imperfect metals.