sideration I propos’d, but that I foresee, that what I have delivered will appear liable to two such specious Objections, that I cannot safely proceed any further till I have examin’d them.
And first, one sort of Opposers will be forward to tell me, That they do not pretend by Fire alone to separate out of all compound Bodies their Hypostatical Principles; it being sufficient that the Fire divides them into such, though afterwards they employ other Bodies to collect the similar parts of the Compound; as ’tis known, that though they make use of water to collect the Saline parts of Ashes from the Terrestrial wherewith they are blended, yet it is the Fire only that Incinerates Bodies, and reduces the fix’d part of them into the Salt and Earth, whereof Ashes are made up. This Objection is not, I confess, inconsiderable, and I might in great part allow of it, without granting it to make against me, if I would content my self to answer, that it is not against those that make it that I have been disputing, but against those Vulgar Chymists, who themselves believe, and would fain make others do so, That the Fire is not only
