Basil Valentine: Last Will & Testament (1671)

The Preface.

I thought it my duty in conscience to be reconciled in a Christian way to my fellow members that are alive at the present, and with those who are to succeed in future ages, so that my soul may be at rest, patiently waiting for the Lord's call, to become an inhabitant of that heavenly paradise, to be registered in the book of life, and to stand in readiness day and night to look for my Lord's coming. At the consideration hereof, I call to mind my writings, which I set down to paper, as other ancient philosophers have done before me, publishing all such mysteries of nature, whereby artistsPractitioners of alchemy or chemistry., and those who bear an affection and love unto such mystical truths, may be benefited. The same I lovingly and readily leave to them, as much as the highest SpagyrickAn alchemist who separates and recombines substances to create medicine. and heavenly Physician has granted and revealed unto me. My conscience further has pressed me, in the pursuance of a Christian love and performance of my promise dictated by nature, to make a larger report, because it is a thing meet and necessary to set forth the manualsPractical handbooks or sets of instructions. which are belonging hereunto, and ought to be described circumstantially, to inform the judgment of such men addicted hereunto to the full; namely, how nature's bolts, which she several ways thrusts forward to lock strongly her secrets, are to be thrust back, that the doors of worldly treasures might be unlocked, that the knowledge of transcendent mysteries may be attained, and upon serious continued prayers unto the Creator, men's judgment and understanding might be the more encouraged.

I am not prompted by force or poverty, nor by vain-glory or self-interest, to set down any letter and leave it to posterity; only a mere consideration of the frailty and miserableness of this world, where the children of darkness are almost quite lost in their