For although in the beginning God created the human being above all his other creatures as the noblest and most perfect creature, indeed in his own image, and breathed into him living breath and an immortal soul, he has been turned and changed into a deformed, contrary and damaged image. But so that this noble creature might be restored and helped back to its former form and perfection, Almighty God, out of pure mercy, ordained a means through which this must now take place in the following manner.

Namely, as was stated in the philosophical work, after the stone or tincture has been made more than perfect it still must be further fermented and increased or multiplied, if it is to yield manifold benefit and its power and working are to be fruitful. So too, after his divine-and-human perfection and completeness, Christ, the heavenly, blessed stone, must be further fermented and multiplied with us, his members, who are still imperfect metals. That is, through his rose-coloured, saving tincture we must be united and joined with him and fashioned into a pure, unspotted spiritual body. For, as Saint Paul says in Romans 8, he is the firstborn among many brethren; indeed the firstborn before all creatures, Colossians 1, through whom all things in heaven and upon earth were created and reconciled with God. If, then, we who are naturally unclean, mortal and imperfect are to become clean again, born anew, immortal and perfect, this can happen by no other means than solely through this one heavenly foundation and cornerstone, Christ Jesus, the only holy one, indeed the most holy, Daniel 9, the newly born, risen and glorified heavenly king, who is and remains to eternity God and man in one person.

For just as the philosophers’ stone and chemical king bestows benefit through its tincture and, through its perfected process, possesses in and of itself this power and virtue: that it can tinge other imperfect and base, indeed disregarded metals, and change and make them into pure, solid gold; so too, and much more, this heavenly king, foundation and cornerstone, Jesus Christ, alone purifies and perfects us sinful, frail and imperfect human beings from our inborn Adamic filth and dregs through his blessed tincture—that is, his rose-coloured blood—healing and curing us more than perfectly: 1 John 1. For, as Scripture says of this, there is no other salvation or means in heaven and upon earth by which we could become saved, fixed and perfect, except in the name of Jesus alone: Acts 4.

For although the foolish and blind world, deceived and deluded by the wicked chemist and evil enemy, has sought and still seeks many and various means, ways and methods of attaining salvation and perfection, labouring strenuously in them, there is and remains only one Saviour and mediator, Jesus Christ, in and through whom alone we are righteous and saved before God and cleansed of our spiritual leprosy of sins. Likewise only one earthly saviour and chemical king is found, through whom all imperfect metals attain their perfection and completeness, and all diseases, especially the pernicious bodily leprosy, are healed. All other means and self-chosen human inventions advanced by Turks, Jews, heathens and other heretics and defended as necessary means to this end are rather, properly speaking, a truly spiritless, false and sophistical alchemy. Through them we human beings are not purified but impeded, not made alive but weakened, and finally wholly mortified and killed. In the same manner the falsely named alchemy, which ought rather to be called archimia, has invented many and various tinctures and colours and thereby lied to and deceived people, often depriving them of house and property, indeed of body and life, as daily experience, alas, only too abundantly testifies and demonstrates.

But if we human beings are to be cleansed and washed from our impure filth and dregs—that is, Adamic original sin, through which the whole of human nature was poisoned and corrupted at the beginning as by a harmful poison breathed into our first parents by the evil enemy, and in which we are all conceived and born, Psalm 51; John 15—and made perfect and saved again, this must take place and be accomplished through a new birth and regeneration of the Holy Spirit, through water and spirit. In the same manner the chemical king is also washed through water and spirit and made glorious and perfect. In this new and spiritual rebirth, which must take place from above in holy baptism through water and spirit, we are, as stated, washed and cleansed with Christ’s blood and thus become one body with him; indeed we put him on like a garment, as Saint Paul says in Colossians 3. For just as the philosophers’ stone afterwards joins itself through its tincture with the imperfect metals and with them is made into a perfect, indissoluble body, so Christ, the head of us all, 1 Corinthians 4, is also united with us, his members, through his rose-coloured tincture. We are built and fashioned into one perfect body and edifice, Romans 12; 1 Corinthians 12; Ephesians 5, created according to God in true righteousness and holiness, Ephesians 4.

For this new birth of the human being, accomplished by the Holy Spirit in holy baptism, is properly nothing other than an inward spiritual renewal of fallen humanity with God and Christ. Whereas by our former fleshly birth from father and mother we were and were called enemies of God, indeed children of wrath by nature, Ephesians 2, by this second, spiritual birth in holy baptism we are now made God’s friends and children, indeed his heirs and fellow-partakers with Christ. For this reason Christ died, rose and became alive again, Romans 14: that through his process—that is, his suffering and death, resurrection and ascension—he might enter the holy place not made with hands and make for us the way to the eternal fatherland. Therefore, as his brothers and sisters, Matthew 12 and Psalm 22, we too should and must follow him in his way, Matthew 8, grow and increase in loving humility and all Christian virtues, indeed be made like and conformed to his body. Thus we who have followed him here in regeneration, indeed who have died in him, may also live with him and enter into his glory. Yet this spiritual remembrance and Christian following of the life and conduct of our heavenly king proceeds in no way from our worthiness, merit or our own will—for the natural person, with all his powers, is blind, deaf and dead in spiritual matters—but solely from the power and working of the Holy Spirit, who is powerful and active in us through the saving bath of regeneration and baptism.

In the same way, ores and metals, which are indeed as it were dead and lifeless in themselves and cannot purify or improve themselves, are also purified, renewed, dissolved and perfected through the power and assistance of the spagyric spirit. When, as we have heard, we have thus been born anew through water and spirit—that is, through holy baptism and the red flood, strengthened by Christ’s blood—incorporated into Christ the Lord, our heavenly king, washed and cleansed in his blood from our hereditary sins, and so made capable of and partakers in the purity of the Holy Spirit, we must at first be fed and given drink gradually and gently with pure rational milk, according to Peter’s saying, like newborn infants, indeed young children in Christ. At last, as grown and living stones, we are built into a spiritual house and a high priesthood and made fit to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For a Christian, a person born anew through water and spirit, cannot grasp or comprehend everything at once, but must grow and increase gradually from day to day in knowledge of God and Christ the Lord.

For, again, in the philosophical work, once the conjunction of the two beings has taken place—namely earthly gold and the aqueous matter prepared, as it were, in a heavenly manner, after they have first been mixed in a saline form into what is, as it were, a dry liquor or amalgam, as may be read there—not everything is poured into and added to the compound all at once. Rather, one portion is added after another, gradually and at appointed, distinct times. So too, and still more, must it happen in the theological work. As soon as the conjunction and spiritual union of the human being with Christ has taken place in holy baptism, and we have thus, as already stated, been made one body and cake with him, that person must begin gradually to learn the Christian faith and comprehend one article after another until at last he is fully strengthened and attains complete knowledge.