Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence

14. But that we may so speak of the heaven, that the Header might come to understand what that [heaven] is which God then created, [consider] what Moses writeth of it. God made a firmament between the waters, and separated the waters beneath the firmament from the waters above the firmament, and the firmament he called heaven, which is very right ; but hitherto it hath been very ill understood. 15. Now observe, the heaven is the whole deep, so far as the ethera, or skies, have l given up l expanded, themselves to the birth of this world, and that °r heaven is the matrix, out of which earth, stones, and the material water are generated. And there God separated the material water from the matrix. And here it is very plainly discerned, that the material water is as it were dead, or hath death in it; for it could not abide in the 2 moving mother, • Viz. the air. but was created [to be] upon the globe of the earth, and God called it sea \Meer\ ; in which [word] is understood, in the language of nature, as it were a springing [or growing] in death, or a life

1 the corrupti- in l corruption : 2 Although herein I shall be as one 2 Thai i3> the that is dumb to the Reader, yet I 3 know it very well, and I am very well satisfied therewith. But because the bestial man is not worthy to know it, stuxi. therefore I will not here cast the Pearl before the swine ; but for the children of God; which will be benefited by it, the spirit of God will certainly teach and instruct them in it. 16. Now when the heaven became clear [or pure], and cleansed from the earth and the dark mist [or dust] in the concretion [or driving together], then in the matrix of the heaven there were the three elements, fire, air and water, which are three in one another, in one mother ; and that mother is here called the heaven ; therefore henceforward in my writing, I shall use the word heaven instead of the word matrix. 17. For the heaven is the matrix, and is called heaven because of the separation, because the fifth essence of heaven is severed, and set in the higher heaven, where the matrix is more fiery, as it is properly understood in the language of nature, and is plain before our eyes. But here the quality, birth and property of the heaven ought to be described, because the four elements sprang out of it, as out of their mother ; and because the virtue of every life consisteth therein, therefore the original of the four elements must be described, wherein it will first truly be understood what the heaven is.

Of the Heaven and its etei-nal Birth and Essence, and how the four Elements are generated ; wherein the eternal Band may be the more and the better understood, by meditating and considering tJie material World. The great Depth. 1. IP VERY spirit seeth no further than into its J — J mother, out of which it hath its original, and wherein it standeth ; for it is impossible for any spirit in its own natural power to look into another Principle, and behold it, except it be regenerated therein. But the natural man, who in his fall was captivated by the matrix of this world, whose natural spirit 1moveth between two Principles, viz. 'wavereth. between the divine and the hellish, and he standeth in both the gates, into which Principle he falleth, there he cometh to be regenerated, whether it be as to the kingdom of heaven, or the kingdom of hell ; and yet he is not able in this [life] time to see either of them both. 2. He is in his own essence and substance a twofold man. For his soul (in its own substance) is out of the first Principle, which from eternity hath no ground nor beginning ; and in the time of the creation of man in paradise, or the kingdom of heaven, the soul was truly l bodified by the Fiat in a spiritual manner ; but with the first virtue [or power] which is from eternity, in its own first virtue or power it hath remained inseparably in its first root, and was illustrated [or made shining bright] by the second Principle, viz.

by the Heart of God ; and therewith standing in paradise, was there, by the moving spirit of God, breathed into the matrix of the third Principle, into the starry and elementary man. And now therefore he may understand the ground of heaven, as also of the elements and of hell, as far as the light of God shineth in him ; for if that light be in him, he is born in all the three Principles ; but yet he is only a spark risen from thence, and not the great source, or fountain, which is God himself.

3. And therefore it is that Christ saith : If you had faith as a grain of mustard-seed, you might say to the mountain, Cast thyself into the sea, and it shall be done. And 2in this power men have raised the dead, and healed the sick, by the word, and the virtue and power of the spirit, or else they could not have been able to have done such things, if they had not stood in the power of all the three Principles. 4. For the created spirit of man, which is out of the matrix of this world, that ruleth (by the virtue of the second Principle in the virtue of the light) over and in the virtue of the spirit of the stars and elements very mightily, as in that which is its proper own. But in the fall of Adam we lost this great power, when we left paradise, and went into the third Principle, into the matrix of this world, which presently held us captive in restraint. But yet we have the knowledge [of that power] by a glance [or glimmering], and we see as through a dim or dark glass the eternal 1 birth. » Or operative

5. And although we move thus weakly or im- p' potently in all the three births, and that the gate of paradise is so often darkened to us, and that the devil doth so often draw us into the hellish gate, and that also the elements cover the 2 sidereal gate, 2 or the and wholly cloud them, so that we oftentimes move influences of in the whole matrix, as if we were deaf, dumb, or half dead, yet if the paradisical light shineth to us, we may very well see into the mother of all the three Principles ; for nothing can hinder us, the threefold spirit of man seeth every form and quality in its mother. 6. Therefore though we speak of the creation of the world, as if we had been by at present, and had seen it, none ought to marvel at it. nor hold it for impossible. For the spirit that is in us, which one man inherits from another, that was breathed out of the eternity into Adam, that same spirit hath seen it all, and in the light of God it seeth it still ; and there is nothing that is far off, or unsearchable :

For the eternal birth, which standeth hidden in the centre of man, that doth nothing [that is] new, it knoweth, worketh and doth even the same that ever it did from eternity ; it laboureth for the light and for the darkness, and worketh in great anguish ; but when the light shineth therein, then there is mere joy and knowledge in its working. 7. So that when the heaven, and the birth of the elements are spoken of, it is not a thing afar off, or that is distant from us, that is spoken of; but we speak of things that are done in our body and soul ; and there is nothing nearer us than this birth, for we live and move therein, as in the house of our mother ; and when we speak of heaven, we speak of our native country, which the enlightened soul can well see, though indeed such things are hidden from the body. 8. For as the soul of man moveth and swimmeth between the virtue of the stars and elements, so the created heaven also moveth between paradise and the kingdom of hell, and it swimmeth in the eternal matrix ; its limit reacheth as far as the ethera [skies or receptacle] hath yielded itself up to the creation, so far as the kingdom of Lucifer did reach, where yet no end is to be found : For the virtue or power of God is without end, but our sense reacheth only

Or outbirth, to the fiery heaven of the stars, which are a l propagation in the fifth form of the eternal mother (or a quinta essentia), wherein the separation in the time of the third Principle (or in the beginning of this world), the virtue or power of the matrix was l separated, where now the separation is thus 1 Or divided moved : And then every essence in the propaga- iarie5!r ' °r tion, in the manifold centres of the stars, hath a 2 longing desire, one after another, and a continual 2 attracting. will to infect [impregnate, or mix influences] ; and the one essence, or virtue, is the 3meat and3 food. drink, as also the chest [case, or receptacle] of 9. For as in the paradisical Principle the Holy Ghost in the Trinity of the Deity continually goeth forth, and tioweth very softly, immovably and imperceptibly as to the creature, and yet formeth and fashioneth all in the paradisical matrix, so also doth the third Principle. After that the matrix became visible and material, every virtue in the matrix hath had a great attractive longing towards another, a continual springing, blossoming, and fading again like a bud, or some boiling seething matter, wherein the sourness, coldness, and [eager fierce] strongness, attract without ceasing ; and this attracting, prickle [or sting], stirreth always without ceasing, and striveth [or resisteth], so that the sour matrix (because of the inward, hellish, or most original matrix) standeth continually in anguish, with a great desire of the light, which it espieth in the root of the fire, and is continually affrighted at it, and becometh mild, soft, and material ; whereby the elementary water is continually generated.

10. In this manner you must understand the four elements, which yet are not four divided things, or essences, but one only essence : And yet there are four differences, or distinctions in this birth ; and each element lieth in the other, as in a chest, and it is its receptacle, also it is a member therein. Understand and consider the ground >r astrin- aright, which followeth : The l sourness is the >tofthe matrix, and a cause of all things, which in its own substance is very dark, cold, and as nothing ; but the eternal Deity being there, and speculating or beholding itself in the sourness, therefore the dark sourness is desirous after the divine virtue, and attracteth ; although there is no life or understanding in the sourness, yet it is the ground of the first essence, and the original whence something cometh to be : Here we can search no further into the ground of the Deity, for it troubleth [disturbeth, or confoundeth] us. 11. Now the sourness (in its lust or great longing [or panting] after the light) attracteth continually, and in its own substance it is nothing else but a vehement hunger, very dry, and as [a vacuum or] nothing at all, a desiring will, as the darkness after the light; and its hunger, or attracting, maketh the bitterness, the woe [or lamentation] that it cannot be satiated, or mollified, from whence the anguish ariseth, so that the will,

if "^ike*1 °r Prick*e Lor sting] is rubbed, [or 2 struck] in itself, from the lust of the desiring, and it will not yield itself to the dark nothing, or dead will, but setteth its desire and anguish, and also its [eager or] strong will so very hard towards the hidden light of God, that thereby the will becometh a twinkling flash, like a sparkling or l crackling fire, l AS when you whereby the sourness, that is so very aching, is into the fire. continually filled, and as it were deadened, whereby the sour spirit cometh to be soft, sweet, and material, even water. 12. But the bitterness being so very much affrighted at the flash of fire in the sourness, it catcheth its mother (the sourness) which is become material from the crack, and flieth out, and is clouded or 2 swelled from the material sourness, as2 impregnated. if it also were material, and moveth, and strength- eneth itself continually in the mother ; and that is the element called air in this world, which hath its original in the watery mother, and the water hath ' its original from the air, and the fire hath its original from the longing anguish ; and the earth and stones took their beginning in the strong attraction at the fall of Lucifer, when the sourness was so fierce, strong, rising, and attractive, which attraction is stopped again by the light in the third Principle.

13. Thus it may very plainly be understood, that the light of God is a cause of all things, and you may hereby understand all the three Principles : For if the power, virtue, and light of God were not, then there would be also no attractive longing in the dark eternity, and also the sour desire (which is the mother of the eternity) would be nothing at all ; and it may be understood, that the divine virtue shineth in everything, and yet it is not the thing itself, but the spirit of God in the second Principle ; and yet the thing is his ray [glance or lustre], which thus proceedeth from the longing, or attracting will. But now the Heart of God is in the Father, [in] the first will, and the Father is the first desiring or longing after the Son, and the Son is the virtue and l light of the Father, from whence the eternal nature becometh always longing ; and so from the Heart of God, in the eternal dark matrix, [it] generateth the third Principle. For 2 so God is manifest, but otherwise the Deity would remain hidden eternally. 14. Now therefore we say (as the Scripture informeth us) that God dwelleth in heaven, and it is the truth. Now mark, Moses writeth, that God created the heaven out of the midst of the waters, and the Scripture saith, God dwelleth in heaven ; therefore we may now observe, that the water hath its original from the longing of the eternal nature after the eternal light of God ; but the eternal nature is made manifest by the longing after the light of God, as is mentioned before ; and the light of God is present every where, and yet remaineth hidden to nature ; for nature receiveth only the virtue of the light, and the virtue is the heaven wherein the light of God dwelleth and is hidden,

and so shineth in the darkness. The water is the matema, or matter that is generated from the heaven, and therein standeth the third, which again generateth a life and comprehensible essence, or substance, out of itself, viz. the elements and other creatures. 15. Therefore, 0 noble man, let not Antichrist and the devil befool you, who tell you that the Deity is afar off from you, and direct you to a heaven that is situated far above you ; whereas there is nothing nearer to you than the heaven is. You only stand before the door of heaven, and you are gone forth with Adam out of the paradisical heaven into the third Principle ; yet you stand in the gate, do but as the eternal mother doth, which by great desiring and * longing after the kingdom l Or seeking, of God, attaineth the kingdom of heaven, wherein God dwelleth, wherein paradise springeth up ; do you but so, set all your desire 2 upon the Heart of 2 into. God, and so you will pass in by force, as the eternal mother doth ; and then it shall be with thee as Christ said, The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force : So you shall make to yourself friends in heaven with your unrighteous Mammon, and so you come to be the true similitude and image of God, and his proper own ; for all the three Principles, with the eternity, are in you, and the holy paradise is again generated in you, wherein God dwelleth. Then where will you seek for God ? Seek him in your soul only

that is proceeded out of the eternal nature, wherein the l divine birth standeth. 16. 0 that I had but the pen of man, and were able therewith to write down the spirit of knowledge. I can but stammer of the great mysteries like a child that is beginning to speak ; so very little can the earthly tongue express what the spirit comprehendeth and understandeth ; yet I will venture to try whether I may procure some to go about to seek the Pearl, whereby also I might 2 labour in the works of God, in my paradisical garden of roses ; for the longing of the eternal 3 matrix driveth me on to write and exercise myself in this my knowledge. 17. Now if we will lift up our minds, and seek after the heaven wherein God dwelleth, we cannot say that God dwelleth only above the stars, and hath inclosed himself with the firmament which is made out of the waters, in which none can enter except it be opened (like a window) for him ; with which thoughts men are altogether befooled [and bewildered]. Neither can we say (as some suppose) that God the Father and the Son are only with angels in the uppermost inclosed heaven, and rule only here in this world by the Holy Ghost, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son. All these thoughts are void of the very knowledge of God. For then God would be divided and circumscriptive, like the sun that moveth aloft above us, and sendeth its light and virtue to us,

Cll. 7] THE FOUR ELEMENTS 97 whereby the whole deep becometh light and active all over. 18. Reason is much befooled with these thoughts ; and the kingdom of Antichrist is begotten in l these x which posthoughts, and Antichrist hath by these opinions of straying set himself in the place of God, and meaneth to be God upon earth, and ascribeth 2 divine power to 2 divine authohimself, and stoppeth the mouth of the spirit God, and will not hear him speak ; and so strong delusions come upon them, that they believe the spirit of lies, which in hypocrisy speaketh strong delusions, and seduceth the children of hope, as St Paul witnesseth. 19. The true heaven, wherein God dwelleth, is all over, in all places [or corners], even in the midst [or centre] of the earth. He comprehendeth the hell where the devils dwell, and there is nothing without God. For wheresoever he was before the creation of the world, there he is still, viz. in himself ; and is himself the essence of all essences : All is generated from him, and is originally from him. And he is therefore called God, because he alone is the good, the heart, or [that which is] best ; understand, he is the light and virtue [or power], from whence nature hath its original.

(20. If you will 3 meditate on God, take before 3 think, or you the eternal darkness, which is without God ; anything of for God dwelleth in himself, and the darkness cannot in its own power comprehend him ; which darkness hath a great [desire of] longing after the speculating light, caused by the light's l beholding itself in the darkness, and shining in it. And in this longing Or active or desiring, you find the 2 source, and the source taketh hold of the power or virtue of the light, and the longing maketh the virtue material, and the material virtue is the inclosure to God, or the heaven ; for in the virtue standeth 'the paradise, whereiu the spirit which proceedeth from the Father and the Son worketh. All this is incom- cieature, or prehensible to the 3 creation, but not impossible to be found in the mind ; for paradise standeth open in the mind of a holy soul. 21. Thus you [may] see how God created all things out of nothing, but only out of himself; that which an(i yet the * out-birth is not from his essence for iz. the four substance], but it hath its original from the dark-

Or springing ness- The 6 source of the darkness is the first principie) and the virtue [or power] of the light is the second Principle, and the out-birth, [generated] out of the darkness by the virtue of the light, is the third Principle ; and that is not called God : God is only the light, and the virtue of the light, and that which goeth forth out of the light is the Holy Ghost. 22. You have a similitude [of this] in yourself. Your soul which is in you giveth reason to you, whereby you think [consider, and perceive] ; that representeth God the Father : The light which shineth in your soul, whereby you know the virtue [or power in you], and lead [and direct and order] yourself with ; that representeth God the Son, or the Heart, the eternal power and virtue : And the mind, in which the virtue of the light is, and that which proceedeth from the light wherewith you govern your body ; that representeth the Holy Ghost. 23. The l darkness that is in you, which longeth l Or blindness ITT • i -r* • • i i °f under- after the light, that is the first rrmciple ; the standing, virtue or power of the light which is in you, whereby you can see in your mind without [bodily] eyes, that is the second Principle ; and the longing [power or] virtue, that proceedeth from the mind, and attracteth and filleth [or impregnateth] itself, from whence the material body groweth, that is the third Principle. And you [may] understand very exactly, how there is an inclosure [stop, or knot] between each Principle ; and how God is the beginning and the first virtue [or power] in all things ; and you understand, that in this gross [sluggish, or dull] body, you are not in 2 paradise. For that 2 Or in the [outward body] is but a misty [excrementitious, wherein God

11 . . i , i • i • , i and the angels dusky, opaque procreation, orj out-birth in the dwell. third Principle, wherein the soul lieth captive, as in a dark dungeon : Of which you shall find a very large description, when we come to write about the fall of Adam.\ 24. Now mark, when God would manifest himself by the material world, and the matrix stood in the anguishing birth, wherein the Creator moved the first Principle to the creating of angels, then the matrix stood undivided in the inward l essence ; for there was then no comprehensibility, but spirit only and the virtue of the spirit. The spirit was God, and the virtue was heaven, and the spirit wrought in the virtue, so that thereby the virtue became attracting and longing, for the spirit beheld itself in the virtue ; and therein the spirit created the virtue from whence the angels came to be. And thus the virtue became the dwelling of the angels, and the paradise wherein the spirit wrought ; and the spirit longed after the light, and the light shone in the virtue ; so there is a paradisical joy, and pleasant sport therein ; and thus God is manifested.

25. Now thus the eternal light, and the virtue of the light, or the heavenly paradise, moveth in the eternal darkness ; and the darkness cannot comprehend the light ; for they are two several Principles ; and the darkness longeth after the light, because that the spirit beholdeth itself therein, and because the divine virtue is manifested in it. But though it hath not comprehended the divine virtue and light, yet it hath continually with great lust lifted up itself towards it, till it hath kindled the root of the fire in itself, from the beams of the light of God ; and there arose the third Principle : And it hath its original out of the first Principle, out of the dark matrix, by the 2 speculating of the virtue [or power] of God. But when the kindled virtue in this springing up [of the third Principle] in the darkness became fiery, then God put the Fiat therein, and by the moving spirit, which goeth forth in the virtue of the light, created the fiery source in a bodily manner, and severed it from the matrix, and the spirit called the fiery created properties stars, for their quality.

26. Thus it is plain to our sight how the starry heaven (or as I may better render it to the enlightened Reader), the quintessence (or the fifth form in the birth), is severed from the watery matrix ; or else there would have been no ceasing from the generating of stones and earth, if the fiery l nature had not been severed : But because J property or the eternal essence (viz. God) would manifest himself in the dark matrix, and [hath desired] to make the nothing something, therefore he hath severed the kindled virtue, and made the matrix clear or pure. 27. And thus now the matrix staudeth incomprehensibly, and longeth after the fiery nature [or condition], and the fiery nature longeth after the matrix. For the spirit of God (which is a spirit of meekness) 2 beholdeth itself in the watery matrix ; - speculated, T • • mi or miagineth. and the matrix receiveth virtue from thence. Inus there is a constant will to generate and work, and the whole nature standeth in a great longing and anguish, willing continually to generate the divine virtue, God and paradise being hidden therein, but it generateth after its kind, according to its ability.

28. Now when God had severed the matrix with [or from] its fiery form, and would manifest himself with this world, then he put the Fiat into the matrix, and spake out of himself, [saying], Let there be herbs, grass, trees, and beasts, every one according to its kind : This Speaking was the Heart, or the virtue [or power] of the eternal Father : But the spirit which had the Fiat, went from the eternal Father (in the virtue of the Heart of God) forth with the will (and the will was the Fiat) and l made the out-birth in the third Principle material, visible, and comprehensible, each according to its essence ; as the virtue was, so was also its body. For there the fiery matrix, or the constellation, gave its virtue to the Fiat ; and the watery matrix, with the elements, received the virtue, and so were impregnated, and each element generated its own creatures out of itself,* as also each form in the fiery and watery nature out of themselves ; and yet it became no separable essence, but only every creature was separated according to its kind, according to the eternal virtue, which arose in the longing by the lust, and became the third Principle, which was not before time [began].

29. Thus the starry heaven ruleth in all creatures, as in its proper own ; it is the [husband or] man; and the matrix, or the watery form, is its [wife or] woman, which it continually impregnateth ; and the matrix is the genetrix, which bringeth forth the child which the heaven 1 begetteth ; and that is the created heaven in the l maketh, or third Principle, from whence the elements are proceeded ; viz. the watery matrix, out of which the visible water generated itself, and still always doth generate itself in the anguish. 30. Therefore Moses writeth, that God created the heaven out of the midst of the waters : [This you must] understand [to be] out of the eternal watery matrix, which is but a spirit, wherein the paradise is, and the holy heaven, viz. the divine virtue, which the dark matrix lusted after in its hunger, out of which the visible matrix of the four elements is proceeded ; out of which the essence of all essences, that now are, were created by the Fiat through the eternal spirit of God. 31. For every form in the matrix hath its visible creatures, and such as are invisible to human eyes ; which creatures in part as to us are as it were but

mere 2 figured spirits, as the fire hath spirits and 2 shapes, and . ., . , forms of creatures that are invisible to our material eyes, appearance. and we cannot see them : There are also in the air invisible spirits, which we see not ; for the air being immaterial, so are also the spirits thereof: The water hath material creatures, which are not visible to us ; and because they are not out of the fire nor air, they are of another 3 quality, and are s property, hidden [as] to the fiery and airy [spirits], except they will manifest themselves. 32. As fire, air, water, and earth, lie in one case [or chest], and they four are but one thing, and yet of four distinct differences, and none of them can comprehend, nor retain the other, and some- Or predomi. what of one of the four being l fixed in every creature, that creature cannot bind itself as to that, but is manifested therein, and according to that spirit is comprehensible and perceptible, and yet is incomprehensible to the spirits 'of the other elements. 33. For all things are come to be something out of nothing : And every creature hath the centre, or the circle of the birth of life in itself ; and as the elements lie hidden in one another in one only mother, and none of them comprehendeth the other, though they are members one of another, so the created creatures are hidden and invisible to one another. For every creature looketh but into its mother that is fixed [or predominant] in it. The material creature seeth a material substance, but an immaterial substance (as the spirits in the fire and in the air) it seeth not ; as the body seeth not the soul, which yet dwelleth in it ; or as the third Principle doth not comprehend, nor apprehend the second Principle wherein God is ; though indeed

> Prin- itself is in God, yet there is a 2 birth between : As it is with the spirit of the soul of man, and the elementary spirit in man, the one being the case [chest] or receptacle of the other ; as you shall find about the creation of man.

Of the Creation of the Creatures, and of the Springing up of every l growing Thing ; as a vegetable, or also of the Stars and Elements, and of the Original of the 2 Substance of this World. 2 Or essence. 1. ~T~N the beginning of the last preceding chapter, -L it is mentioned that it is not strange for a man to write, speak, and teach of the creation of the world, though he was not present when it was doing, if he have but the knowledge in the spirit. For there he seeth in the mother, as in a glass, the genetrix of every thing ; for one thing always lieth in another, and the more is sought, the more is found, and there is no need to cast the mind beyond this world ; for all is to be found in this world, yea in every thing that liveth and moveth. Whatsoever any looketh upon, and searcheth into, he shall find the spirit with the Fiat therein ; and the divine virtue [or power discovereth, or] 3 beholdeth itself in all things, as it is written, The word is near thee, even in thy heart and lips. For when the light of God dawneth, or breaketh forth in the centre of the spirit of the soul, then the spirit of

Or creating, the soul seeth very well the l creation of this world, as in a clear glass, and nothing is afar off. 2. Therefore now I direct the Eeader to the creatures, that he may search into them, and so he shall find all things, and that more wonderfully than any man can write or speak, if we be born of Or funda- God. We must not 2 think with our understanding eive* ' and skill, of God's making or creating, as of a man that maketh somewhat, as a potter maketh a vessel of a lump of clay, or a stone-cutter or carver maketh an image after his pleasure ; and if it doth not please him, then he breaketh it again : No, the works of God, in the creation of the world, were altogether fixed and steadfast, good and perfect, as Moses writeth : And God saw all that he had made, and behold it was very good. 3. For he took not one lump after another, or many lumps together, and made beasts of them, that is not likely ; and it is much more a bestial than a human thought. But, as is mentioned before, after that the devil was fallen with his

in loco. legions, (who had his throne 3 in the place of this world, standing bodily after the manner of a spirit, with lustre in the first Principle, and 4 thoroughly enlightened all over with the second Principle, truly dwelling in paradise, and in the divine virtue [or power], and yet with pride fell from the light of God, and caught at his own mother, the root of the fire, thinking to domineer over the meekness of the Heart of God), then his dwelling continued to be the first Principle in the fiery dark matrix ; and God created the out-birth out of the matrix, for a Principle ; and in the eternal matrix, in the longing will, he opened the centre or birth of life ; and there (after the manner of the Deity, as the eternal Deity from eternity hath always generated) arose [and sprang up] the third Principle, in which the Deity standeth as it were hidden, yet forming, imagining, or imprinting itself powerfully in all things ; which is incomprehensible and unprofitable for the devil. 4. Yet the third Principle is a similitude of the paradisical world, which is spiritual, and standeth hidden therein. And thus God manifesteth himself; and seeing the spiritual world of the angels in the place of this world continued not, therefore he gave another Principle to this place, wherein a light springeth up still, and where there is a pleasant refreshment ; for the purpose of God must stand, and the first creatures must continue in darkness, rather [than that the purpose of God should fail].

5. So the matter of this world, as also the stars and elements, must not be looked upon, as if God were not therein. His eternal wisdom and virtue [or power] hath formed itself with the Fiat in all things, and he himself is the master- workman ; and all things went forth in the Fiat, every thing in its own essence, virtue and property. For as every star in the firmament hath a property different from the other; thus is it with the mother also, out of which the fifth * essence of the stars went forth. For when the fiery form of the stars was separated from her, she was not presently severed from the first eternal birth-right, but she kept her first eternal virtue. Only the rising power of the fire is severed from her, so that / she is become a pleasant refreshment, and a kind mother to her children. 6. Now when God on the first day had gathered together the lump of the earth in the great deep of this world, then the deep became purified, yet [the deep between the firmament and the earth, though it was cleansed from dregs, was] dark, and had no light in the matrix ; but the fifth essence, that is, the fifth form in the matrix, shone as a fire, wherein the spirit of God with the Fiat moved upon the watery matrix ; and the earth was naked, bare, and void ; neither had it so much as one spire of grass.

7. Now saith Moses, And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. This light now was the fifth form in the matrix. For the fifth essence was not yet created in the matrix, nor separated till the fourth day, when God created the sun and stars out of it, and separated the light from the darkness ; where then the light got the virtue of the glance, or splendour, into itself for its own, and the root of the fire in the centre remained hidden in the darkness. Cll. 8] OF THE CREATION OF THE CREATURES 109 8. On the second day, God created the firmament of the heaven, viz. the strong inclosure [fence, or stop] to the darkness of the original matrix, that it might no more kindle itself, and generate earth and stones. And therefore he made the inclosure or firmament out of the midst of the waters, which stayeth the might [force, or power] of the fire, and became the visible heaven, whence the creatures are proceeded, from whence now the elements, fire, air, and water proceed. 9. The third day God, by the Fiat, divided the waters upon the earth, and created them for several places, that there might be a dwelling upon the earth, and so the earth became dry. Now when this was done, then God did seek the creature, and the eternal Father spake (that is, he wrought through the Son, who is his Heart and glance) [or lustre] in the Fiat, in the earth ; and there budded the life through death ; and grass, herbs, and all manner of trees and plants sprang up, every one according to the eternal l source, as it had been i fountain. before. Thus every essence became visible, and

God manifested his manifold virtue with the manifold herbs, plants, and trees, so that every one that doth but look upon them, may see the eternal power, virtue, and wisdom of God therein ; if he be born of God he may know in every spire of grass his Creator, in whom he liveth. Thus in this time sprang up all that grew [or was] in the Earth. This was 'ound written n the inanucript copy ipart by itself, \o that it is wt known chether it be he author's, the Mystery of the Man Christ's remaining in Death till the third Day, and his bringing of Life out of the Earth. 10. And the matrix of the earth stood still till the third day, as it were in death/ in respect of the great storm : But in the Fiat the life sprang up through the death, and the eternal virtue [or power] and wisdom of God (which hath formed itself together in the Fiat) discovered itself on the blossoming earth, where the similitude of the paradisical world may be clearly seen. 11. For although many thousand several herbs stand one by another in one and the same meadow, and one of them is fairer and hath more virtue than another, yet one of them doth not grudge at the form of another, but there is a pleasant refreshment in one 2 mother : So also there is a distinct variety in paradise, where every creature hath its greatest joy in the virtue and beauty of another ;

and the eternal virtue and wisdom of God is without number and end ; as you found before in the third chapter concerning the opening of the centres of the eternal life. You shall find no book wherein the divine wisdom may be more searched into, and found, than when you walk in a flowery fresh springing meadow, there you shall see, smell, and taste the wonderful power and virtue of God ; though this be but a similitude, and the divine

virtue in the third Principle is become material ; and God hath manifested himself in a similitude. But [this similitude] is a loving schoolmaster to him that seeketh, he shall there find many of them. 12. On the fourth day, God took the place of this world rightly at the heart : For therein he created the l wise master out of his eternal wisdom l Or the wise in the third Principle, viz. the sun and stars ; or teachers! herein men may first rightly see the Deity, and the eternal wisdom of God, as in a clear glass, though indeed the essence or substance that is visible to the eye is not God himself, but it is the goddess in the third Principle, which in the end goeth into her ether again, and taketh her end. 13. Though men must not cast the Pearl in the way that the beasts may tread it under foot, much less must men throw it among the grains [or husks] to be devoured by the swine ; (for that would not be beneficial to the wanton world, because that seeketh nothing thereby but to misuse itself therewith ; for the devil whom the world serveth, doth teach it, that when it learneth the ground of the heaven, and of the stars, to will presently to be a god, as Lucifer did) : Yet I will write somewhat of the beginning and virtue or power of the stars, (because man and all creatures live in the virtue, working, and essences of them, and that every creature receiveth its property from them), for the sake of him that seeketh, who would willingly fly from the bestial man, and would fain

112 THE THREE PRINCIPLES' [Ch. 8 live in the true man, who is the image and similitude of God ; for to such it is very highly necessary to be known ; also for the lily's sake which groweth in the tree of the sour wrath towards the l north in the matrix. 14. Moses writeth, God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven, which may separate and distinguish day and night, and be for signs, for times and seasons, for days and years ; and to be for lights in the firmament of heaven, to shine upon the earth ; and it ivas so. And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night : Also, he made the stars. And God set them in the firmament of heaven, that they might shine upon the earth, and rule the day and the night, and separate the light from the darkness. 15. And though Moses hath written very rightly, that they should govern the day and the night, and should separate the light from the darkness, and make times and seasons, years and days, yet it is not plain enough to be understood by the desirous Reader. For there is found a very high thing in the virtue and power of the stars ; [which is] that every life, growth, colour, and virtue, thickness and thinness, smallness and greatness, good and evil, is moved and stirred by their power. For this cause the wise heathens did rely upon them, and honoured them as god. Therefore I will write somewhat of their original, as far as is permitted to me at this

Oh. 8] OF THE CREATION OF THE CREATURES 113 time, for their sakes that seek and desire the Pearl. But I have written nothing for the swine, and other bestial men, who trample the Pearl into the dirt, and scorn and contemn the spirit of knowledge ; such as they, may, with the first world, expect a deluge, or flood of fire ; and seeing they will bear no angelical image, therefore they must bear the images of lions, dragons, and other evil beasts, and worms [or creeping things]. And if they will not admit of good counsel that God may help them, then they must look to find by experience whether the Scriptures of prophecy lie to them or no. 16. The Evangelist St John writeth of the orioinalitv of the essence and creatures of this world, so very highly and exactly, as may be read in no other place of Scripture in the Bible : In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and that Word was God : This was in the beginning with God, all things were made by it, and without it was nothing made that was made. In it was the life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shone in the darkness, and the darkness hath not comprehended the light.

17. Mark what John saith : In the beginning of the creation, and before the times of the world, was the Word, and the Word was God, and in the Word was the light, and it shone in the darkness, and the darkness could not compreJiend the light. Wherein may be clearly understood, that the eternal light is God ; and that it hath its eternal original in the eternal virtue or power ; and that it is the eternal Word which shone in the darkness. Seeing then that Word created all things in all places, therefore it also was in all places, for without it was nothing made. 18. Now that Word had no matter out of which it made any thing, but it created all things out of the darkness, and brought them to light, that it might shine forth, appear, and present itself. For in it was the life, and it gave the light to the creature, and the creature is out of its virtue, and the virtue became material, and the light shineth therein, and the material virtue cannot comprehend it, for that is in darkness. But seeing the material virtue cannot comprehend the light, which from eternity shineth in the darkness, therefore God hath given that [material virtue] another light, which proceedeth out of the virtue (viz. the sun), which shineth in the creature, that so the creature is manifested in the light.

19. For as the Deity is the virtue [or power] and light of paradise in the second Principle, so the sun is the virtue [or power] and light of this material world in the third Principle. And as the Deity shineth in the darkness in the first Principle, so the sun shineth in the darkness in the third Principle. And as the Deity is the eternal virtue and the spirit of the eternal life, so the sun is the 1 Or transi- spirit and the virtue in the l corruptible life. 20. So now a spirit is nothing else but a spring- ing will, and in the will there is the anguish to the birth, and in the anguish the fire generateth itself, and in the fire the light, and from the light the will becometh friendly, pleasant, mild and sweet, and in the sweet will the kingdom and the glory generate themselves. Thus the light keepeth the might [or power] ; and if that be put out, then the virtue [or power] and glory cease, and the kingdom also. 21. God, who is the eternal light, he is the eternal will ; he shineth in the darkness, and the darkness hath comprehended the will : And in that will (which hath comprehended the darkness) the anguish riseth up, and in the sour [harsh] anguish the fire, and in the fire the light, and out of the light [cometh] the virtue [or power], and out of the virtue the kingdom. So now out of the fire [came] the constellations, and moreover the sun, and out of the virtue came the heaven ; and the kingdom is God's. All this was in the first will in the creation, one with another ; wherein God severed the fiery will from the mild will of the light, and called the fiery [will] stars, and the mild [will] heaven, in respect of the virtue of each of them.

22. The sun is the l goddess in the third Prin- ' petty god. ciple ; in the created world (understand, in the material virtue) it went forth out of the darkness in the anguish of the will, in the way and manner of the eternal birth. For when God set the Fiat in the darkness, then the darkness received the will of God, and was impregnated 2 for the birth. The * to. will causeth the [sour] harshness, the harshness causeth the attracting, and the stirring of the attracting to mobility causeth the bitterness, which is the woe, and the woe causeth the anguish, and the anguish causeth the moving, breaking, and rising up. Now the sour harshness cannot endure the jerking, and therefore attractetjh the harder to itself; and the bitterness or the attracting will not endure to be stayed, but breaketh and stingeth so very hard in the attracting, that it stirreth up the heat, wherein the flash springeth up, and the dark [sourness or] harshness is affrighted by the flash, and in the shriek the fire kindleth, and in the fire the light. Now there would be no light if the shriek in the harshness had not been, but there would have remained nothing but fire ; yet the shriek in the harshness of the fire killeth the hard harshness, so that it sinketh down as it were to the ground, and becometh as it were dead and soft ; and when the flash perceiveth itself in the harshness, then it is affrighted much more, because it findeth the mother so very mild, and half dead in weakness ; and so in this shriek its fiery property becometh white, soft, and mild, and it is the kindling of the light, wherein the fire is changed into a white clarity [glance, lustre, or brightness].

23. In such a manner as this the sun rose up in the Fiat, and out of the sun (in its first kindling) [arose] the other planets, viz. upwards, out of the raging bitterness, Mars [arose], which the splendour of the sun stayed [or upheld] when it discovered 1 it : And out of the virtue of the sun, which raised l Mars. itself higher [arose] Jupiter, imprisoned in the centre of the Fiat : And out of the chamber of anguish [arose] Saturnus : And downwards, Venus [arose] from the soft mildness, when the harshness was overcome, and was soft, sweet, and sinking down like water. And when the light kindled, then out of the sour harsh wrath came love and humility to be, running downwards : And out of the overcome virtue in the sour harshness [arose Mercurius], wherein standeth the knowledge of what was in the original before the light : But when the light made the virtue in the place of the sun material, as it were in an earthly manner [arose] the moon. 24. This the world comprehendeth not, but scorneth it, therefore I will here no further cast the . Pearl before the swine, for there belongeth another light to this knowledge ; therefore I will pass that by, and go on.

25. Out of the anguish of darkness (when God spake the [Word] Fiat therein) came forth all things : The anguish hath its original in the Fiat, and the Fiat [hath its original] in the will, and the will is eternal without original ; for it is (in God) the matrix of the genetrix. 26. God is invisible, and the will also is invisible, and the matrix also is invisible, and yet they are in substance, and are from eternity, and continue in eternity. And the Word is the virtue of the will ; and the virtue [or power] maketh the Fiat, and the Fiat maketh the kingdom, and it is all alike eternal in one only substance : The will hath generated the Word from eternity ; and the Word the virtue, and the virtue the spirit, and in the spirit is the light, and in the light is the power, understanding, and knowledge ; otherwise it were altogether nothing. 27. That light hath wrought in the knowledge, and in the understanding, and generated a similitude of its substance ; and the substance which wrought was the Fiat, and the Fiat formed the similitude which was generated out of the will, and made it visible ; and the similitude was generated out of the darkness, out of the eternal nothing ; and yet somewhat was there, viz. the originalness of the

\ Or taketh anguish, out of which the eternal will l generateth original. itself from eternity. 28. Now the similitude also hath received such a will out of the Fiat, as the eternal will is ; and it hath generated the virtue [or power], and the virtue is the heaven ; and the light which is become shining in the virtue, is the sun, and that worketh in the virtue, so that there is understanding and knowledge : or else all in this world would be an immovable substance, and all would lie still, and so neither herb nor grass would grow. 29. Therefore in the Fiat is arisen out of the anguish the sim ilitude of the knowledge and under- standing, and that is the constellation ; and it is the fifth form of the birth in the Fiat, and the Fiat hath severed the forms in the birth, so that every essence is several ; as hard, soft, thick, thin, hot, cold, bitter, tart, sour, sweet, and so forth, as we see : And the spirit continued in the matrix of the heaven, which goeth out from thence (viz. the air), and the spirit receiveth the understanding from the constellation ; for it is a member of the other in one only mother.

30. Now the matrix (viz. the created heaven) in the Fiat, together with the stars, is the similitude of all that was from eternity, though not visible ; and the Fiat is in the similitude ; and the paradise, wherein the angels dwell, is hidden in the matrix ; and God is shining in the paradise, and yet incomprehensible ; as the glance [or lustre] of the sun cannot be comprehended. 31. And God is immense [immeasurable], and the similitude is also immeasurable ; he is in the similitude, and the similitude comprehendeth him not ; the similitude is his work, and he is the Master- Workman thereof ; the constellation is his instrument, and the l matrix, with the elements, are i the create r -in /» i • i i heaven. the matena [matter or materials] out of which the 2 Master cutteth and fashioneth his work. 2 the Fiat. 32. Now the master always worketh on and on without consideration, what he lighteth upon that he maketh ; for the consideration is in the work. And therefore it is that the whole nature standeth in anguish and longing, to be freed from the vanity ; as also the Scripture witnesseth. Because it tasteth the paradise in itself, and in the paradise the perfection, therefore it groaneth and lifteth itself up towards the light of God and paradise, and so bringeth forth in its anguish always something that is fairer, higher, and new ; as niay sufficiently be found and understood in the mind of man ; and it is very visible to a small understanding, that in works always some special thing is brought to light, and if you be not blind, you may see this in men, beasts, yea even in herbs and grass.

33. Thus on the fourth day, by the Fiat, out of the virtue, he prepared the similitude of his substance [and fitted it] to be a matrix, which should generate all whatsoever was a similitude of his substance, out of the wisdom which was in him from eternity ; that so all forms might be brought forth and become visible, which were from eternity in the matrix. And the similitude of the unsearchable manifold varieties and virtues are the stars, which altogether give [or send] their virtue into the matrix of the heaven, and the heaven giveth that same spirit to the creatures. This is the course of all creatures after the same essence [or substance], and they are formed after the same spirit, which is their virtue, spirit, and life. 34. When God had finished this on the fourth day, he saw it, and considered it, and it was good, as Moses writeth. Then God desired in his external will, that this kingdom or Principle [of this world] should also be creaturely, like the perfect paradisical kingdom, that there should be living creatures therein. And the will set the virtue (that is, the Word) in the Fiat ; and then the matrix generated all manner of [living] creatures on the fifth day, every one after its kind. You must understand by the word kind, as many various [forms] as the matrix is [of] ; as you may observe it in the constellation.

35. Now I shall fall into the school of the master in his l Pontificalibus, who will ask out of what the J cornered cap beasts, fowls, fishes, and worms were made ; for he of his degree. will have it, that all of them were made out of the earth, and will prove it out of Moses, and he under- standeth as much of Moses as of paradise, which he will have to be altogether corporeal. Therefore there is a gross deadness in the understanding ; and though I write plain enough, yet I shall be still dumb to that deadened soul which is void of understanding, and yet I cannot help it ; for it is said, You must be born anew, if you will see the 2 kingdom of God. Would you fain know [out of 2 the divine ... n -. . ._ region or wnat the beasts are made], then lay aside your government. 8 bonnet of pride that is in your mind, and walk 3 cap or hood i • i T • f 11 ofself-con- along into the paradisical garden of roses, and there ceited wisdom you shall find an herb ; if you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, so that you shall see and know what Moses hath written.

36. The * glosses that are put upon Moses from 4 and margi- reason, will not shew you paradise, much less the Creator. The Prophets and Apostles learned more in the paradisical school in one hour, than the 1 the univer- doctors in their l schools in thirty years. One's own wisdom availeth nothing. God giveth it to him whom he loveth, for nothing. It cannot be bought for money nor favour, as king Solomon will tell you. 37. If we will be still so very earthly minded, as to think that God made all the beasts of a lump of earth, of what then is their spirit made ? seeing that earth is not very flesh, and the blood is not mere water. Besides, the earth and the water is not 2 Or breath, life; and though the 2air cometh in it, yet it still remaineth such an essence as springeth only in the Fiat, and the tincture which riseth up in the fire, and from whence the noble life is stirred, is hidden. 38. Moses writeth, Let there come forth all s animals, or manner of 3 beasts, every one according to its kind. living crea- __ . , • • r\ «• i 1111

turea. JNow then the question is, (Jut ot what should they come forth ? Answer, Out of the matrix. What is the matrix out of which they should come forth ? It is the four elements, which are together in the earth. The Fiat brought forth the beasts [or living 4 without creatures] very 4 indigestedly, as they are in the or(^er' <* i i /> • essence, not from heaven, but out of the matrix of the earth ; and the matrix of the earth is one [and the same] thing with the matrix in the deep above 6 rule or the earth, and [hath] one [and the same] 5 dominion. The constellation ruleth in all [things], and it is 6 Mars. the limbus, or the 6 masculine, wherein the tincture consists, and in the matrix of the earth is the aquastrish [or watery] spirit ; they come forth only out of the matrix of the earth, that they might be of the essence of the earth, that so they might eat of the fruits that grow out of the earth. For every spirit lusteth after its mother from whence it came. 39. Now then if the beasts [or animals' nature] were merely out of a lump of earth, then they

would eat earth, but seeing 1 it is proceeded out of : thr bestial the matrix of the earth by the Fiat, therefore it desireth also such food as the matrix affordeth out of its own essence ; and that is not earth, but flesh. Yet this flesh now is a 2mass whence the 3 body 2 Or coucre- cometh, and the spirit of the constellation maketh 3 corpua. the 4 tincture therein ; which [spirit] ruleth over all 4 Or penetrai ,, , . ,.» ., .., ,, ing the life as m one mother, and in every hie it maketh the and the bioo understanding. For the spirit of the constellation ruleth in all things, in the earth, stones, metals, elements and creatures. 40. For in the beginning of the creation, at the time when the earth became material, all was generated out of one only substance, and there was no more done but a separation made of one 8 from another : therefore in every separation there 5 part. must needs be always a vehement hunger of one 6 after another. An example whereof you have in 6 part propagation ; for the sake whereof the separation was so made : For you see that there is a male and a female ; and that the one continually desireth copulation with the other, that they may 7 generate. 7 engender. This is a great hidden secret. Observe, when the

Creator by the Fiat separated the matrix from the aquaster [or watery mother] ; for the first form is heavenly and incorruptible, as long as the kingdom of this world standeth, and the root of 1 touch*th or the first form * holdeth paradise. / will set it down more intelligibly [or plainly] for the simplest Reader's' sake. 41. Observe, as hath been often mentioned, that as in the Fiat, in the aching matrix (viz. the dark harshness [or sourness]) the fire rose up in the breaking- wheel in the kindling; and that in the fiery, the light of the sun, and of all the stars [sprang up] (which is [done] in the harsh matrix, which from the light is become thin, lowly, and material water), and the pleasant source of love [sprang up], so that one form vehemently loveth the other, in respect of the kind, meek light, which was come into all forms ; so now the soft meekness was become a new child, which was not the dark originality in the anguishing nature. But this child was the paradise, yet being it stood not in the materia [or matter], therefore the matrix of 2 the matrix, the harshness could not comprehend it ; but 8 it

yielded itself forth very desirously, and longing with great earnestness (according to the fire and bitterness) to comprehend the pleasant source of love, and yet could not comprehend it, for 8 it was paradisical ; and thus it still stood in great longing, and generated water. 42. But now God separated the fire (viz. the fifth essence or form) from the water, and out of that made the stars ; and the paradise is hid in the matrix. Therefore now the mother of the water desireth with great earnestness the mother of the fire, and seeketh the child of love ; and the mother of the fire seeketh it in the mother of the water, where it was generated, and there is between them a continual vehement hunger one after another to copulate. 43. Now God said, Let all manner of beasts come forth, every one after its kind ; and so there came forth out of the essence of every one's kind, a male and a female. And thus the spirit of the stars, or the spirit in the form of fire, had now by its longing copulated with the watery [spirit], and two sexes sprang out of one essence ; the one according to the limbus in the form of fire, and the other according to the aquaster [or spirit of the water] in the watery form ; yet so [blended or] mixed, that they were alike as to the body. And so the male was qualified according to the limbus, or form of fire, and the female according to the aquaster in the watery form.

44. And so now there is a vehement desire in the creatures. The spirit of the male seeketh the loving child in the female, and the female in the male ; for the irrationality of the body in the unreasonable creatures knoweth not what it doth ; the body would not, if it had reason, move so eagerly towards propagation ; neither doth it know anything of the impregnation [or conception], only its spirit doth so burn and desire after the child of love, that it seeketh love, (which yet is paradisical), and it cannot comprehend it ; but it maketh a l semination only, wherein there is again a centre to the birth. And thus ^s the original of both sexes, and their propagation ; yet it doth not attain the paradisical child of love, but it is a vehement hunger, and so the propagation is acted with great earnestness. 45. But that I now write, that the stars rule in all beasts, and other creatures ; and that every creature received the spirit of the stars in the creation, and that all things still stand in the same regimen ; this the simple will hardly believe, though the doctor knoweth it well, and therefore we direct them to experience. Behold, a male and female beget young ones, and that often ; now they come forth out of one only body, and yet are not of one kind, [nor of the same] colour and virtue, nor [shape or] form of body.

All this is caused by the alteration of the stars ; for when the seed is sown, the 2 carver maketh an image according to his 3 pleasure ; * yet according to the first essence, he cannot alter that ; but he giveth the spirit in the essence to it according to his power [or ability or dominion], as also manners, and senses, colour and gesture like himself, to be as he is ; and as the constellation is in its essence

at that time (when the [creature] draweth breath) [first in its mother's body], whether [the essence] be in evil or in good, [inclined] to biting, worrying and striking, or to meekness [or loving kindness and gentleness] ; all as the l heaven is at that time, » or the so will also the spirit and the beast be.

Of the Paradise, and then of the Transitoriness of all Creatures; how all take their Beginning and End ; and to what End they here appeared. The Noble and most precious Gate [or Exposition] concerning the reasonable Soul. 1. 1VTO money, nor goods, nor art, nor power, •A-i can bring you to the eternal rest of the eternal soft meekness of paradise, but only the noble knowledge ; into that you may wrap up your soul. That is the Pearl which no moth can eat, nor thief can steal away ; therefore seek after it, and then you will find the noble treasure. 2. Our wit [skill and understanding] is so very 1 cold, frozen, hard 1 knit up, that we have no more any know- ledge of paradise at all. And except we be again born anew by water and the Holy Ghost, the veil of Moses lieth continually before our eyes when we read his writings, and we suppose that was paradise whereof Moses said : GOD placed 2 Adam. 2 him in the Garden of Eden which he had planted, that he might till it. 3. 0 beloved man, that is not paradise, neither doth Moses say so ; but that was the Garden in Eden, where they were tempted; the exposition whereof you may find about the fall of Adam. The paradise is the divine joy ; and that was in their mind, when they were [standing] in the love of God. But when disobedience entered, they were driven out, and saw that they were naked ; for at that instant the spirit of the world caught them, in which there was mere anguish, necessity, turmoil, and misery, and in the end corruptibility

and death. Therefore it was of l necessity that the l needful, eternal Word did become flesh, and bring them into the paradisical rest again ; whereof you shall find [the exposition] in its due place, about the fall of Adam. 4. Paradise hath another Principle ; for it is the divine and angelical joy, yet not without the 2 place 2 «*«* locum. of this world. Indeed it is without the virtue and source [or active property] of it ; neither can the spirit of this world comprehend it, much less a creature ; for it stand eth not in the anguishing 3 birth. And although it thus taketh its original, 8 operation. yet it consisteth in exact perfection, mere love, joy, and mirth ; wherein there is no fear, neither misery nor death : No devil can touch it, and no beast can * reach it. « Or attain it 5. But when we will speak of the source [or fountain] and joy of paradise, and of its highest substance, what it is, we have no similitude of it in this world, we stand in need of angelical tongues and knowledge to express it ; and though we had them, yet we could not express it with this tongue. It is well understood in the mind, when the soul rideth in the chariot of the bride, but we cannot express it with the tongue ; yet we will not cast 1 that little away the * A> B, C, but prattle [or stammer] with

which we can , , ., , ... , ,, '. express of it. the children, till another mouth be given us to speak withal. 6. When God had created the beasts, he brought them to Adam, that he should give them their names, every one according to its essence and kind, as they [the beasts] were qualified [or according to the quality and condition they were of]. Now Adam was in the Garden of Eden in Hebron, and also in paradise at once, yet no beast can come 20rhabita- into paradise ; for it is the divine 2joy, wherein tion, or re- . . ' freshment. there is no unclean thing, also no death or corruptible 3 therefore [or transitory] life ; 3 much less is there the know- the Garden of -I-I-IT-I,*- • i /• • Eden is not ledge ot good and evil. Yet Moses writeth of it, paradise. 1-1^1 /• -n i i im that in the Garden of JLden there was the Tree of Temptation, which bore the knowledge of good and evil ; which indeed was no other tree than like the 4 Or in the trees we now eat of, in the 4 corruptibility ; neither

body. was it any other garden, than such as we now have, wherein earthly fruits (good and evil) grow ; as is before our eyes. 7. But the paradise is somewhat else ; and yet no other place, but another Principle, where God and the angels dwell, and where there is perfection, where there is mere love, joy, and knowledge ; where no misery is : which [paradise] neither death nor the devils touch, neither do they know it : And yet it hath no wall of earth or stones about it, but there is a great gulf [or cliff] between paradise and this world, so that they who would pass from hence thither, cannot ; and they who would come from thence to us, cannot either ; and the hell and the kingdom of darkness is between them. And none can come therein but by a new birth ; which Christ spake of to Nicodemus. The souls of the saints [holy] and regenerate must enter into it (by the death of darkness), whom the ArchShepherd with the angels bringeth thereinto upon his l bride-chariot : Of which you shall find [an » Note, the ..-,.., , . " j bride-chariot

exposition] in its proper place in order. is the true 8. But seeing somewhat is lent me from the intXs bosom grace of the power [or divine virtue] of God, that ° I might know the way to paradise ; and seeing it behoveth every one to work the works of God, in which he standeth ; of which God will require an account from every one, what he hath done in the labour of his day's work in this world ; and will require the work (which he gave every one to do) with increase, and will not have them empty ; or else he will have that unprofitable servant to be bound hand and foot, and cast into darkness ; where he must be fain to work, yet in the anguish, and in the forgetting of the day-labour which was given him to do here [or of the talent which he had received here] wherein he was found an unprofitable servant. 9. Therefore I will not neglect my day-labour, but will labour as much as I can on the way ; and 1 Much less to although I shall scarce be able to * tell the letters, spell or read. ... 1-1 9-1111 1-1

2 my iabour. m tnis so h^h a wav> 7et lt: sna^ be so high, that many will have enough to learn in it all their life long : He that supposeth that he knoweth it very well, he hath not j^et learnt the first letter of paradise, for no doctors are to be found on this 3 children way in this school, but only 3 scholars [or learners]. school. 10. Therefore let not my Master of Arts (in his 4 Or crowned * hood and tippet) think himself so cunning in this matter, nor pour out his mockmgs so presumptuously [against the children of God], for so long as he is a scorner [or mocker] he knoweth nothing of this. He ought not to think his cap becometh him so finely ; nor ought he to boast of his human 5 by holy calling, as if he did sit in his calling 5by the orders, divine <•/* •» i i • institution, or ordinance ot God, whereas he is not set or confirmed therein from God, but by the favour of man. He ought not so much to prohibit [and forbid] the way to paradise, which himself doth not know : He

8 Or institu- must one day give a heavy account of his 6 ordination by the favour of man ; because he boasteth of a divine calling, and yet the spirit of God is far from him, therefore he is a liar, and belieth the Deity. 11. Therefore let every one take care what he doth : I say again, that whosoever he be that 7 Or minister, intrudeth himself to be a pastor [or 7 shepherd] without the divine calling, without the knowledge of God, he is a thief and a murderer ; he entereth not through the door into paradise, but he creepeth in with the dogs and the wolves, into the den of thieves, and he doth it but for his belly's sake, and his own honour [and esteem] ; he is no pastor [or shepherd], but he dependeth on the great whore, upon Antichrist ; and yet he supposeth that he is a pastor [or shepherd] ; but he is not known in paradise. 12. Christ teacheth us and warneth us faithfully of the times that were to come, wherein they shall say, Lo here is Christ, or, Lo there he is ; he is in the wilderness; he is in the chamber; go not forth, believe it not ; for as the lightning breaketh forth in the east, and shineth to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.

13. Therefore, 0 child of man, see whether it be not so ; where the false pastors [or shepherds], without the divine calling, always wrangle [strive, contend, and dispute] ; and every one of them saith, follow me, here is Christ, there is Christ, J Or come and and they judge [and condemn] one another, and ™ give one another over to the devil ; they abandon unity, and forsake the love wherein the spirit of God is 2 generated ; and cause bitterness, and lead - acteth or » • i i . i 1-11 rvi • ''orketh. astray the simple plain people, to think that Christ is such a wrangling shepherd [pastor, priest, or minister], and doth so grapple with 8 his opponents, 3 tho adverse in raising war and murder, as they do ; and that the spirit of God must needs be in such doings [which are accounted zeal for God] ; and that this must be the way to paradise. 14. Christ said, Love one another, thereby shall men know that ye are my disciples ; if any smite thee on one cheek, turn to him the other cheek also ; if you be persecuted for my names sake, then rejoice, for your reward is great in the kingdom of heaven : But now there is nothing taught but mere ignominy [reproach, and revilings] : they that are dead many hundred years ago, and are in the judgment of God, and some also may be in paradise, these must be judged, and condemned, and cursed by the wrangling shepherds [or contentious priests]. Doth the Holy Ghost speak by them, as they cry out and say he doth ? Whereas they are still full of gall and bitterness, and nothing but covetousness and vengeance is kindled in them, and they are far from the way of paradise.

15. Therefore, thou child of man, take heed, let not your ears be tickled : When you hear the false shepherds [or pastors] judge and condemn the children of Christ, that is not the voice of Christ, but of Antichrist ; the way to paradise hath quite another entrance ; your heart must with all your power and strength be directed to God [or goodness] ; and as God desireth that all men should be saved, so his will is that we should help to bear one another's burthen [and bear with one another], and friendly, soberly, and modestly meet one another with entreaties in the Holy Ghost, and seek with earnestness the [salvation and] welfare of our neighbour in humility, and wish heartily that he might be freed from vanity, and enter with us into the l garden of roses. J into the 16. The knowledge that is in the infinite God iug pleasant is various and manifold, but every one should pe rejoice in the gifts and knowledge of another, and consider, that God will give such superabundant knowledge in the paradisical world, of which we have here (in the variety and difference of gifts) but a type : Therefore we must not wrangle nor contend about gifts and knowledge ; for the spirit giveth to every one according to his essence in the wonderful God, to express that [gift he hath] after his own form [or manner] ; for that [form], in the perfection of love in paradise, will be a very inward hearty sport of love, where every one shall speak from his knowledge of the great wonders of the 2 holy birth. 2 the holy

17. 0, what 3 sharp thorns the devil hath bringing* brought into the sport of love, that we practise i°bitter en such proud contention in the noble knowledge, insomuch that men bind up the Holy Ghost with laws! What are laws in the kingdom of Christ, who hath made us free, that we should walk in him in the Holy Ghost? To what purpose are they invented, but for the pleasure of Antichrist, who thereby doth strut in might and pomp, and is God on earth ? 0 fly from him, thou child of man, the time is come for us to awake from the sleep of Antichrist. Christ cometh with the fair lily out of paradise in the valley of Jehosaphat : It is time for them to trim their lamps that will go to the marriage [of the Lamb]. The Gate [or the Exposition]. 18. Paradise consisteth in the power [and virtue] palpable. of God : It is not corporeal, nor l comprehensible ; but its corporeity or comprehensibility is like the angels, which yet is a bright, clear, visible substance, as if it were material ; but it is figured merely from the virtue [or power], where all is transparent and shining, where also the centre of the birth is in all things, and therefore the birth is without measure or end.

19. I give you a similitude in the mind of man, from which the thoughts are generated, which have neither number nor end, (for every thought hath a centre to generate again other thoughts), and thus is the paradise from eternity to eternity. But being the light of God is eternal, and shineth without wavering or hindrance, therefore also in the birth there is an unchangeable substance, wherein all things spring up in mere perfection, in great love. 20. For the spirit of knowledge intimateth this, that there are fruits and things that grow in paradise, as well as in this world, in such a form or figure, but not in such a source [or property] and palpability. For the matter or body of it is power, and it groweth in the heavenly 1 limbus ; * soil or earth, its root standeth in the matrix, wherein there is neither earth nor stone ; for it is in another Principle. The fire in that [Principle] is God the Father ; and the light is God the Son ; and the air is God the Holy Ghost ; and the virtue [or power] out of which all springeth is heaven and paradise.

21. As we see that here out of the earth there spring plants, herbs, and fruits, which receive their virtue from the sun, and from the constellation : so the heaven or the heavenly limbus is instead of the earth ; and the light of God instead of the sun ; and the eternal Father instead of the virtue of the stars. The depth of this substance is without beginning and end, its breadth cannot be 2 reached, 2 fathomed, there are neither years nor time, no cold nor heat ; no moving of the air ; no sun nor stars ; no water nor fire ; no sight of evil spirits ; no knowledge nor apprehension of the affliction of this world ; no stony rock nor earth ; and yet a figured substance of all the creatures of this world. For all the creatures of this world have appeared to this end, that they might be an eternal figured similitude ; not that they continue in this spirit in their substance, no not so : All the creatures return into their 8 ether, and the spirit corrupteth [or fadeth], 8 receptacle. but the figure and the shadow continue eternally.

22. As also all words (both the evil and the good) which were here spoken by a human tongue, they continue standing in the shadow and figured similitude, and the good reach paradise in the Holy Ghost ; and the false [evil] and wicked ones reach the abyss of hell. And therefore it is that Christ said, Man must give an account of every idle [or unprofitable] word ; and when the/ harvest cometh, then all shall be separated. For the Scripture saith also, That every one's works shall follow him, and all shall be tried by the fire of nature ; and all false [or evil] works, words, and deeds, shall remain in the fire of nature (which shall be the hell) ; at which, when the devils hear it, they tremble and quake. 23. All shall remain in the shadow, and every thing in its own source [or property] ; therefore it will be an eternal shame to the wicked, that they shall see in the eternity all their works and words, as a menstruous cloth, which shall stick full of the wrath of God, and shall burn, according to their essence, and according to their here-kindled source [or property].

24. For this world is like a field, wherein good seed is sown, into which the enemy casteth weeds [or tares], and goeth his way, which grow together until the time of the harvest, when all [the fruit] shall be gathered, and brought into the barn ; of which Christ also saith, That the tares [or weeds] shall be tied up in bundles, and cast into the fire, and the wheat shall be brought into the barn. 25. Reason (which is gone forth with Adam out of paradise) asketh, Where is paradise to be had [or found] ? Is it far off, or near ? Or, when the souls go into paradise, whither do they go ? Is it in this world, or without the place of this world above the stars ? Where is it that God dwelleth with the angels 1 And where is that desirable native country where there is no death ? Being there is no sun nor stars in it, therefore it cannot be in this world, or else it would have been found long ago. 26. Beloved reason, one cannot lend the key to another to [unlock] this [withal] ; and if any one have a key, he cannot open it to another, as Antichrist boasteth that he hath the keys of heaven and hell. It is true, he may have the keys of both in this [life] time ; but he cannot open with them for anybody else ; every one must unlock it with his own key, or else he cannot enter therein. For the Holy Ghost is the key ; when he hath that key, then he may go both in and out.

27. There is nothing that is nearer you than heaven, paradise, and hell, unto which of them you are inclined, and to which of them you tend [or walk], to that in this [life] time you are most near : You are between both. And there is a birth between each of them ; you stand in this world between both the gates, and you have both the births in you : God beckoneth to you in the one gate, and calleth you ; and the devil beckoneth to you in the other gate, and calleth you ; with whom you go, with him you enter in. The devil hath in his hand power, honour, pleasure, and [worldly] joy, and the root of these is death and hell-fire. On the contrary, God hath in his hand, crosses, persecution, misery, poverty, ignominy, and sorrow ; and the root of these is a fire also, and in the fire [there is] a light, and in the light the virtue, and in the virtue [or power] the paradise, and in the paradise [are] the angels, and among the angels, joy. The l gross eyes cannot behold it, because they are from the third Principle, and see only by the splendour of the sun ; but when the Holy Ghost cometh into the soul, then he regenerateth it anew in God, and then it becometh a paradisical child, and getteth the key of paradise, and that soul seeth into the midst thereof.

28. But the gross body cannot see into it, because it belongeth not to [paradise], it belongeth to the earth, and must putrify, or rot, and rise in a new virtue [or power] (which is like paradise) in Christ, at the end of days ; and then it also may dwell in paradise, and not before : It must lay off the third Principle, [viz.'] this skin [fleece or covering], which father Adam and mother Eve are gotten into, in which they supposed they should be wise when they should wear all the three Principles manifested in them ; if they had rather worn two hidden in them, and had stayed in the l one, it had been » in the good for us ; of which further about the fall. Hght.lp 29. Thus now in the essence of all essences, there are three several distinct properties, which yet are not parted asunder, with one source [or property] far from the other ; but they are in one another as one only essence, and yet the one doth not comprehend the other. As these three elements, fire, air, water, are all three in one another, and neither of them comprehendeth the other ; and as one element generateth another, and yet is not of the essence nor source [or property] thereof ; so the three Principles are in one another, and one generateth the other, and yet no one of them all comprehendeth the other, and none of them is the essence [or substance] of the other.

The Depth in the Centre [or Ground], 30. As hath been often mentioned, God is the essence of all essences, wherein there are two essences in one, without end, and without original ; viz. the eternal light, that is, God, or the good ; and then the eternal darkness, that is, the 2 source ; and 2 the nature yet there would be no source in it if the light were property. not. The light causeth that the darkness longeth after [or is in anguish for] the light, and this anguish is the source of the wrath of God (or the hellish fire) wherein the devils dwell : From whence God also calleth himself an angry, zealous [or jealous] God. These are the two Principles, the orgna of which we know nothing of, only we 1 Or working know the l birth (therein), the indissoluble band, which is as f olloweth : 31. In the originalness of darkness, there is 2 sourness, 2 harshness and austereness, this harshness causeth sharpness, that it be light ; for harshness is a desirousness, an or attraction, attracting ; and that is the first ground of the willing [or longing] after the light, and yet it is not possible to comprehend it ; and the attracting in the will is the [sting or] prickle, which the desirousness attracteth, and the first stirring [or moving]. Now the prickle cannot endure the attracting in the will, but resisteth, flieth up, and yet cannot get away from thence ;

for it is generated in the attracting. But because it cannot remove from thence, nor endure the attracting, therefore there is a great anguish, a desirousness [or longing] after the light, like a furiousness, and like a breaking whirling wheel ; and the anguish in the bitterness riseth up in the 8 wrath after the light, but cannot get it, being desirous in the anxiety to lift up itself above the light, yet doth not overcome, but is infected [impregnated or mingled] with the light, and attaineth a twinkling flash ; and as soon as the harshness, or the hardness (viz. the darkness) getteth the same into it, it is terrified, and instantly goeth away into its 4 ether : And yet the darkness continueth in the centre. And in this horror [terror or shriek] the hardness or harshness becometh mild, soft [supple], and thin ; and the

flash is made in the bitterness, which flieth up thus in the prickle : Thus the prickle discovereth itself in the mother, which so terrifieth the mother with the flash, that she yieldeth herself to be overcome ; and when the prickle strengthened itself in the mother, and findeth her so mild, then that is much more terrified, and loseth its [fierce, strong] wrathful propriety, and in the twinkling of an eye becometh white, clear, and bright, and flieth up very joyfully, trembling with great delight [lust] and desire ; and the mother of harshness from the light cometh to be sweet, mild, thin, and material, even water. For she loseth not the essence of the harsh condition, and therefore the essence attracteth continually to it out of the mildness, so that out of the nothing, somewhat cometh to be, viz. water. 32. Now as is mentioned before, when the joy riseth up from the mother, as the light cometh into her (which yet she cannot l comprehend) then the » Or take joy (in the ascending will) hath a centre in it again and generateth out of itself again a very soft and pleasant source [or fountain], an humble, amiable source, which is immaterial ; for then there can be generated nothing that is more pleasant and full of joy [and refreshment], therefore here is the end of nature ; and this is the warmth of the Barm, or as 1 may say the Barmhertzigkeit [the mercifulness]. For here nature neither seeketh nor desireth further any 2 birth more : it is the perfection. * Or working.

33. Now in this pleasant source, the moving spirit (which in the original, in the kindling, was the bitter aching spirit) springeth forth very joyfully without removing, and it is the Holy Ghost ; 1 well-spring, and the sweet l source [or fountain] which is generated in the centre from the light, is the Word or Heart of God ; and in this joy is the paradise ; and the birth is the eternal Trinity : In this you must dwell, if you will be in paradise ; and the same must be born [or generated] in you, if you will be the child of God, and your soul must be in it, or else you cannot enjoy nor see the kingdom of God. 3 sure, or 34. Therefore the 2 stedfast faith and confidence thus bringeth us into God again : For it getteth 8 to the. the divine centre 3of regeneration in the Holy Ghost, or else there is nothing that availeth: Other 4 works. matters which men do here, are but 4 essences, which follow him in the shadow, wherein he shall stand ; for as there is the birth in the holy Deity, which in the original standeth in the willing [desiring] and aching property, before the light [breaketh forth], so also must thou, 0 man (that art gone forth out of paradise), in anguish, longing, and in a desirous will, go into the birth again, and so thou shalt attain paradise again, and the light of God.

35. Behold, thou reasonable soul, to thee I speak, and not to the body, thou only apprehendest it : When the birth is thus continually generated, then every form hath a centre to the regeneration ; for the whole divine essence [or substance] standeth in continual and in eternal generating (but unchangeably) like the mind of man, the thoughts being continually generated out of the mind, and the will and desirousness out of the thoughts. Out of the will and desirousness [is] the work [generated] which is made a substance, in the will, and then the mouth and hands go on to perform what was substantial in the will. 36. Thus also is the eternal birth, wherein the virtue [or power] is continually generated from eternity ; and out of the virtue the light ; and the light causeth and maketh the virtue. And the light shineth in the eternal darkness, and maketh in the eternal mind the [desiring] attracting will ; so that the will in the darkness generateth the thoughts, the lust and the desirousness, and the desirousness is the attracting of the virtue, and in the attracting of the virtue is the mouth that expresseth the Fiat, and the Fiat maketh the materia [or matter], and the spirit separateth it, and formeth it according to the thoughts.

37. Thus is the birth (and also the first original) of all the creatures ; and 2 it standeth yet in such « th a 8 birth in the essence ; and after such a manner creatures. it is, out of the eternal thoughts (viz. the wisdom 5 Or working. of God) by the Fiat, brought out of the matrix ; but being come forth out of the darkness, out of 1 Or out of the 1 out-birth, out of the centre, (which yet was substance. generated in the time, in the will), therefore it is not eternal, but corruptible [or transitory], like a thought ; and though it be indeed material, yet 2 Or working every 2 source taketh its own into itself again, and property. . . . . . , „ , maketh it to be nothing again, as it was before the beginning. 38. But now, nothing corrupteth [or is transi- :! Or the toryl but only the spirit in the will, and 3 its body body that , «. T i „ subsisted in the Fiat ; and the figure reinameth eternally Word. m the shadow. And this ngure could not thus have been brought to light and to visibility, that it might subsist eternally, if it had not been in the

4 Or sub- 4 essence; but now it is also incorruptible, for in the figure there is no * essence : The centre in the [receptacle, or air] ; and the figure doth neither good nor evil, but it continueth eternally to the [manifestation of the] deeds of wonder and the glory of God, and for the joy of the angels. 39. For the third Principle of the material world shall pass away, and go into its ether, and then the shadow of all creatures will remain, also of all growing things [vegetables or fruits], and of all that ever came to light ; as also the shadow and figure of all words and works, and that incomprehensibly ; also without understanding or knowledge, like a nothing, or shadow, in respect of the light. 40. This was the unsearchable purpose of God in his will ; and therefore he thus * created all > Brought things; and after this time there will be nothing in but only light and darkness ; where the source [or property] remaineth in each of them (as it hath 8D been from eternity), where the one shall not comprehend the other, as it hath also not been done from eternity.

41. Yet whether God will create anything more after this [world's] time, that my spirit doth not know ; for it apprehendeth no further than [what is] in its centre wherein it liveth, in which the paradise and the kingdom of heaven standeth ; as you may read [afterwards] about the creation of man. 42. And so now the angels and blessed men [will] remain in the birth of the light ; and 2 the 2 the spirits ".. f i • /• T i i that were spirits oi alteration out ot light into the source turned out of [or torment], together with the spirits of the darkness. wicked men, [will remain] in the eternal darkness, where no recalling is to be found ; for the spirits cannot go into the corruptibility [or transitoriness] again. They are created out of the slimbus of 8 divine power God, out of the harsh matrix, out of which the light of God existeth from eternity ; and not like the beasts out of the 4 out-birth, which went forth 4 Or pro- out of the limbus of the conceived purpose of God, which is finite [or taketh an end], and hath been

[or appeared] here, only that it might be an eternal 43. The eternal will is incorruptible [or intran- spirits of the working nature. sitory] and unchangeable [or unalterable] ; for the Heart of God is generated out of it, which is the end of the nature and of the willing. If the Spirits of the source [or torment] had put their imagination and their desiring will 2 forward into *^e %nt °^ meekness, into the end of nature, they would have continued angels ; but- seeing they out of pride would fain be above the meekness, and above the end of nature, and awakened the centre, they found nothing more ; for from eternity there had been nothing more [than the end of nature] ; :! Or ground of and therefore they awakened the 'centre of the properties. source [or torment] in themselves. The same they now have, and they were thrust out of the light into the darkness. 44. If you be born of God, then you [may] thus understand God, paradise, the kingdom of heaven and hell, and the entrance in, and end of, the i creatures, [and] the creation of this world ; but if not, then the veil is as well before your eyes as it was upon Moses. Therefore saith Christ, Seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you : No son asketh his father for an egg, that he should give him a scorpion : Also, My Father will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask it.

45. Therefore, if you do not understand this writing, then do not, as Lucifer did in taking the spirit of pride, presently fall 4a-mocking and deriding, and ascribe it to the devil ; but seek 4 mocking yo? under- bring a small grain of mustard-seed (from the 1 tree of paradise) into your soul ; and if you l Or fruit or abide in patience, then a great tree will grow out of that [seed], as you may well think that the like hath come to pass with this author. For he is to be esteemed as a very simple person, in comparison of the great learned men: But Christ saith, My Power is strong in the weak : Yea Father, it hath so pleased thee to hide these things from the ivise and prudent, and thou hast revealed them to babes and sucklings ; and that the wisdom of this world is foolishness in thy sight. And although now the children of the world are wiser in their generation than the children of light ; yet their wisdom is but a corruptible substance [essence or thing], and this wisdom continueth eternally. 46. Therefore seek for the noble Pearl ; it is much more precious than this [whole] world ; it will never more depart from you : And where the Pearl is, there will your heart be also : You need not here ask any further after paradise, joy, and the heavenly delightfulness ; seek but the Pearl, and when you find that, then you find paradise, and the kingdom of heaven, and you will be so taught, as being without it you cannot believe.

47. It may be, you will turmoil yourself [with nard labour], and seek for it in art, supposing to find 2 it there : 0 no, you need not ; it lieth not » this deep therein. The doctor that is without this way wisdom, knoweth it not. But if he also hath found this then he is a [Ch. 9 person greater for the or Pubiicus. ' public benefit than I ; as St Paul was above the other Apostles, yet in one [and the same] way of gentle meekness, as becometh the children of God. Whatsoever is wanting here that you long after, seek further, and you will find the ground, according to the desire [or longing] of your soul.

Of the Creation of Man, and of his Soul, also of God's l breathing in. The pleasant Gate. ]. ~T~ HAVE perused many master-pieces of -A- writing, hoping to find the 2 Pearl of the * The high Ground of Man ; but I could find nothing of that wisdom of which my soul lusted after. I have also found very many contrary opinions. And partly I have found some who forbid me to search [or seek], but I cannot know with what ground or understanding, except it be that the blind grudge at the eyes of them that see. With all this my soul is become very disquiet within, and hath been as full of [pain and] anguish as a woman at her travail, and yet nothing was found in it, till I followed the words of Christ, when he said, You must be born anew, if you will see the kingdom of God : which at first stopped up my heart, and I supposed that such a thing could not be done in this world, but [that it should first be done] at my departure out of this world. And then my soul first was in anguish to the birth, and would very willingly have tasted

152 THE THREE PRINCIPLKS [Ch. 10 the Pearl ; and gave itself up in this way more vehemently to the birth, till at last it obtained a jewel. According to which [received jewel] I will write, for a Memorial to myself, and for a light to them that seek. For Christ said, None lighteth a candle and putteth it under a bushel, but setteih it upon a table, that all that are in the house may see by the light of it. And to this end he giveth the Pearl to them that seek, that they should impart it to the poor for their health, as he hath very earnestly commanded. 2. Indeed Moses writeth, That God made man of the dust of the earth. And that is the opinion of very many : And I should also not have known how that was to be understood, and I should not have learned it out of Moses, nor out of the 1 expositions, * glosses which are made upon it ; and the veil tions of it. would have continued still before my eyes, yet in great trouble. But when I found the Pearl, then I looked Moses in the face, and found that Moses had written very rightly, and that I had not rightly understood it.

3. For after the fall God said also to Adam and Eve, Earth thou art, and to earth thou shall return again : And if I had not considered the 2 the power, 2 limbus (out of which the earth was), 1 should or the eternal , . ... mi .. n . substantiality. nave been so blind still: inat \_hmous] shewed me the ground of what Adam was before and after the fall. 4. For no such earth or flesh as we carry about Oh. 10] THE CREATION OF MAN, AND HIS SOUL 153 us can subsist in the light of God : Therefore also Christ said, None goeth to heaven, but the Son of Man who is come from heaven, and who is in heaven. Thus our flesh before the fall was heavenly, out of the heavenly limbus. But when disobedience came, in the lust of this world, to generate itself in another centre, then it [the flesh] became earthly ; for by the biting of the earthly apple in the Garden of Eden, the earthly dominion [or kingdom] took its beginning : And the mother of the great world instantly took the 1 little world into its power [or virtue], and made l man.

it to be of a bestial 2kind, both in 3form and 2 Or property. 5. And if the soul had not been * within it, then 4 Or in the Adam would have continued to be an unreasonable centre of it. beast ; but being the soul out of the limbus had been breathed into Adam by the Holy Ghost, therefore now the 5 mercifulness (viz. the Heart of 5 Bannhcrt- n j\ 1-1 • ii« • i zigkcit. broct) must do its nest again, and bring again the centre out of the heavenly limbus, and himself become flesh, and by the Fiat generate the new man in the soul, which is hidden in the old. For the old belongeth only to the corruptibility, and goeth into its ether, and the new remaineth for ever. But how this came to pass, you have the following fundamental information of it, wherein, if you be regenerated from God, you may see the old and new man into the very heart, because you have the Pearl ; but if not, then you shall scarce see here the old Adam, and you shall not so much as look upon the new. 6. The veil of Moses must be done away, and you must look Moses in the face, if you will behold the new man ; and without the Pearl, you shall not be able to take away the veil, nor know [what] Adam [was] before his fall. For Adam himself after the fall did no more know the first man ; and therefore he was ashamed of his monstrous form [or shape], and hid himself behind the trees in the garden ; for he looked on himself, and saw that he had a bestial form, and thereupon he gat instantly bestial members for propagation, which the Fiat in the third Principle created on him, through the spirit of the great world.

7. Men must not think, that man before his fall had bestial members to propagate with, but stink, and [filthy] source [or property], as man hath in his body, doth not belong to the Holy Trinity in paradise, but to the earth ; it must go again into its ether. But man was created immortal, and also holy, like the angels ; and being he was created out of the limbus, therefore he was pure. Now in what manner he is, and out of what he was made, it followeth further : 8. Behold, when God had created the third Principle, after the fall of the devils, when they fell from their glory (for they had been angels, standing in the place of this world) yet nevertheless he would that his will and purpose should stand ; and therefore he would give to the place of this world an angelical 1host again, which should 'Or company. continue to stand for ever. And now he having created the creatures, whose shadows after the changing of the world should continue for ever, yet there was no creature found that could have any joy therein [in the shadows], neither was there any creature found that might manage the beasts in

this world ; therefore God said, Let us make man an image like unto us, which may rule over all the beasts, and creatures upon the earth; and God created man to be his image, after the image of God created he him. 9. Now the question is : What is God's image ? Behold, and consider the Deity, and then you will light upon it. For God is not a bestial man ; but man should be the image and similitude of God, wherein God should dwell. Now God is a spirit, and all the three Principles are in him : And he would make such an image, as should have all the three Principles in him, and that is rightly a similitude of God ; And he created him, etc. Whereby Moses may be rightly understood, that God created him, and not made him of a lump of earth. 10. But the limbus out of which he created him is the matrix of the earth ; and the earth was generated out of it ; yet the materia [or matter] out of which he created him was a massa, a quinta 2 stedfaat, chief, master, or predominant. 6 substantiality, or nature.

essentia, out of the stars and elements ; which instantly became earthly, when man awakened the earthly centre, and did instantly belong to the earth and corruptibility. 11. But yet this massa was out of the heavenly matrix, which is the root of the l out-birth, or [the root] of the earth. The heavenly jcentre ought to remain 2 fixed ; and the earthly ought not to be awakened. And in this virtue [and power] he was lord and ruler over the stars and elements ; and all creatures should have stood in awe of him, and he should have been incorruptible ; he had the virtue and properties of all manner of creatures in him, for his virtue was out of the virtue [or power] of the understanding. Now then he ought to have all the three Principles, if he were to be the similitude of God, \viz.~\ the 3 source of the darkness, and also of the light, and also the 8 source of this world : And yet he should not live and 4 act in all three, but in one of them only, and that in the paradisical [property], in which his life [quickened] arose, [or did exist].

12. Now that this is demonstratively and certainly thus, [appeareth] in that it is written, And God breathed into him, the 6 living breath, whereby man became a living soul. All other creatures which were produced out of the corruptible 6 limbus by the Fiat, in all those the will in the Fiat had awakened the spirit in their centre, and every creature's spirit went forth out of the essence and property of its own self, and mixed afterwards with the spirit of the great world of the stars and elements, and that ought not to have been in man ; his spirit ought not to have mixed itself [or been united] with the spirit of the stars and elements. The two Principles (viz. the darkness and the spirit of the air) ought to have stood still in such a substance [as should be the image of God] ; and therefore he breathed into him the 1 living breath ; understand God's breath, that is, J Or breath of life the paradisical breath or spirit, [vizJ] the Holy Ghost ; that should be the breath of the soul, in the centre of the soul. And the spirit which went forth out of the limbus, or out of the quinta essentia (which is of the 2 condition of the stars) 2 kind, or

r> e- ft- property, or that was to have power over the tilth essence 01 this nature. world. For man was in one only essence [or substance], and there was also but one only man that God thus created, and he could have lived for ever. And although God had brought the stars again into their ether, and also had withdrawn the matrix of the elements, and the elements also, back into nothing, yet man would have continued still. Besides, he had the paradisical centre in him, and he could have generated again out of himself, out of his will, and have awakened the centre ; and so should have been able, in paradise, to generate an angelical 3 host, without misery or anguish, also 3 Or company, without tearing [rending or dividing of himself] ; and such a man he ought to have been, if he must continue in paradise, and be eternal without decay ; for paradise is holy, and in that respect man also ought to have been holy, for the virtue [and power] of God and paradise consisteth in holiness. The deep Gate of the Soul. 13. The soul of man, which Go$ hath breathed into him, is out of the eternal Father ; yet understand it aright ; there is a difference, [to be observed, you must] understand, [that it is] out of his unchangeable will, out of which he generateth his Son and Heart from eternity, out of the divine centre, from whence the Fiat goeth forth, which maketh separation, and hath in 1 it all the essences of the eternal birth [or all manner of things which are in the eternal birth].

Only the birth of the Son of God, that very centre which the Son of God himself is, he hath not ; for that centre is the end of nature, and not creaturely. This is the highest centre of the fire-burning love and mercy of God, the perfection [or fulness]. Out of this centre no creature cometh, but it appeareth [or shineth] in the creature, viz. in angels, and in the souls of holy men ; for the Holy Ghost, and the omnipotence [or almightiness] which frameth the eternal will in the eternal Father, goeth forth out of this [centre].

14. Now therefore the soul standeth in two gates, and toucheth two Principles, viz. the eternal darkness, and the eternal light of the Son of God, as God the Father himself doth. Now as God the Father l holdeth his unchangeable eternal will to J keepeth or generate his Heart and Son, so the angels and souls keep their unchangeable will in the Heart of God. Thus it [the soul] is in heaven and in paradise, and enjoyeth the unutterable joy of God the Father which he hath in the Son, and it heareth the inexpressible words of the Heart of God, and rejoiceth at the eternal, and also at the created images, which are not in essence [or substance], but in figure. 15. There the soul eateth of all the words of God ; for the same are the food of its life ; and it singeth the paradisical 2 songs of praise concerning 2 Hallelujahs, the pleasant fruit in paradise, which groweth in the divine virtue [or power] of the divine limbus, which is the food of the 3 body ; for the body eateth of 3 the heavenly , 7 . T ,.,.,.. i , , and eternal

the Limbus, out ot which it is, and the soul eateth paradisical of God and of his Word, out of which it is. 16. Can this be no joy and rejoicing? And should not that be a pleasant thing, with the many thousand sorts of angels to eat heavenly bread, and to rejoice in their communion and fellowship ? What can possibly be named which can be more pleasant ? Where there is no fear, no anger, no death : where every voice and speech is salvation, power, strength, and might, be to our God ; and this voice going forth into the eternity. Thus with this sound the divine virtue of paradise goeth forth ; and it is a mere growing in the divine centre of the fruits in paradise. And there is the place where St Paul heard words unutterable, that no man can express. Such a man was Adam before his fall. And that you may not doubt, that this is very sure and most truly thus, look upon the circumstances. 17. When God had created Adam thus, he was then in paradise in the joyfulness ; and this clarified 1 illustrious [or l brightened] man was wholly beautiful, and

full of all manner of knowledge ; and there God brought all the beasts to him (as to the great lord in this world), that he should look upon them, and give to every one its name, according to its essence and virtue, as the spirit of every one was figured in it. And Adam knew all what every creature was, and he gave every one its name, according to the quality [or working property] of its spirit. As God can see into the heart of all things, so could Adam also do, in which his perfection may very well be observed. 18. And Adam and all men should have gone wholly naked, as he then went ; his clothing was the clarity [or brightness] in the virtue [or power] ; no heat nor cold touched him ; he saw day and night [clearly] with open eyes ; in him there was no sleep, and in his mind there was no night, for the divine virtue [and power] was in his eyes ; and he was altogether perfect. He had the 2 seed. zlimbus, and also the3 matrix in himself; he was 8 womb- no [male] or man, nor [female or] woman ; as we

in the resurrection shall be [neither]. Though indeed the knowledge of the marks [of distinction will] remain in the figure, but the limbus and the matrix not separated, as now [they are]. 19. Now man was to dwell upon the earth as long as it was to stand, and manage [rule and order] the beasts, and have his delight and recreation therein : But he ought not to have eaten any earthly fruit, wherein the corruptibility [or transitoriuess] did stick. It is true he should have eaten, but only with the mouth, and not into the body ; for he had no [entrails, stomach, or] guts, nor any such hard dark flesh, it was all perfect ; for there grew paradisical fruit for him, which afterwards l went away, 2 when he went out of l Or dis- paradise : And then God cursed the earth, and the a because that heavenly limbus was drawn from him, together he> with that fruit, and he lost paradise, God, and the kingdom of heaven. For before sin, when paradise was upon the earth, the earth was not bad [or evil, as now it is]. 20. If Adam had continued in innocency, then he should in all fruits have eaten paradisical fruit, and his food should have been heavenly, and his drink [should have been] out of the mother of the heavenly water of the source [or fountain] of the eternal life. The 3 out-birth touched him not, the 3 Or the maelement of air he had no need of in this manner [as

now] ; it is true, he drew breath from the air, but he took his breath from the incorruptibility, for he his spirit ruled powerfully over the spirit of this world, over the stars, and over the sun and moon, and over the elements. 21. This must be Adam's condition ; and thus he was a true and right image and similitude of God. He had no such hard bones in his flesh fas we now have], but they were strength, and such [a kind of] virtue ; also his blood was not out of the tincture of the 2 aquastrish matrix, but it was out of the heavenly matrix. In brief, it was altogether heavenly, as we shall appear [and be] at the Day of the Resurrection. For the purpose of God standeth, the first image must return and come again and continue in paradise ; and seeing it could be done in no other form, [way, or manner], nor [that which was lost] be restored again, therefore God would rather spend his own Heart ; his eternal will is unchangeable, that must stand. 22. And when God had created man, then he planted a garden in Eden towards the east, and placed him therein, and caused to spring up and grow all manner of fruit, delightful to behold, and all sorts of trees good to eat of ; and the Tree of Life in the midst of the garden, and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. And when God had placed man in the garden, he commanded him, and said, You sliall eat of every tree in the garden, but of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil thou shalt not eat; for in the day that thou eatest

thereof, thou shalt die the death. Here the veil lieth upon Moses, and they must be sharp [or piercing] eyes that can behold the face of Moses. God hath not without cause let Moses write this so very mystically [hiddenly and obscurely]. 23. For what needed God to care so much for the biting of an apple, as to destroy so fair a creature for it ? Doth he not forgive many greater sins ? And he so exceedingly loved man, that he spared not his only Son, but let him become man, and gave him unto death. And could he not forgive a small sin ? Seeing he was omniscient [or knew all things], therefore why did he let the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil grow ? 24. Reason judgeth thus, that if God would not have had it so, Adam should not have eaten of it, or else he should not have forbidden that tree only ; sure he made it for a stumbling-stock to him. Thus the reason of one [sort or] party judgeth. The reason of the other party will mend the matter, which is indeed somewhat the wiser, but not much : They say, God tempted Adam, [to try] whether he would continue in his obedience or not; and when he became disobedient, then God threw mighty anger and wrath upon him, and cursed him to death ; and that his wrath could not be quenched, except he be reconciled in such a manner. This reason of this party maketh God to be a mere unmercifulness, like an evil man of this world, who yet will be reconciled, when he hath

once revenged himself sufficiently ; and this reason hath no knowledge at all of God, nor of paradise. 25. 0 beloved soul ! it is a very l heavy business, at which the very heavens might well stand amazed. In this temptation there is a very great matter hidden in Moses, which the unenlightened soul understandeth not : God did not regard a bit of an apple or pear, to punish so fair a creature for it : The punishment cometh not from his hand, but from the 2 spiritus majoris mundi, from the spirit of the great world, from the third Principle. God intended most mercifully towards man, and therefore he spared not his own Heart, but let it become man, that he might deliver man again. You ought not to have such thoughts. God is love, and the good in him is no angry thought ; and man's punishment was not but from himself, as you shall [find or] read in its due place. TJie Secret Gate of the Temptation of Man. 26. Since many questions fall to be in this place (for the mind of man seeketh after its native country again, out of which it is wandered, and would return again home to the eternal rest) and since it is permitted to me in my knowledge, I will therefore set down the deep ground of the fall, wherein men may look upon the eyes of Moses : If you be born of God, then it may well be apprehended by you, but the unenlightened mind cannot hit the mark ; for if the mind desire th to see what

is in a house, it must then be within that house ; for from hearsay, without seeing it oneself, there is always doubting whether a thing be as is related. But what the eye seeth, and the mind knoweth, that is believed perfectly, for [the eye and the mind] apprehendeth it. 27. The mind searcheth wherefore man must be tempted, whereas God had created him perfect ; and seeing God is omniscient [and knoweth all things], the mind therefore always layeth the blame upon God ; and so do the devils also ; for the mind saith, If the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil had not sprung up, then Adam had not fallen. 28. 0 beloved reason ! if you understand no more than so, then shut up the eyes [of your mind] quite, and search not ; continue under patience in hope, and let God alone [he will do well enough], or else you will fall into the greatest unquietness, and the devil will drive you into despair, who continually [pretendeth or] giveth it l forth, that God » The devil did will evil, [and that] he willeth not that all men mind, should be saved, and therefore he created the tree

29. Beloved mind, put such thoughts away from thee, or else thou wilt make of the kind and loving God, an unmerciful and hostile will, but leave off such thoughts of God, and consider thyself what thou art ; in thyself thou shalt find the Tree of the Temptation, and also the will to have it, which made it spring up ; yea the source [lust or quality] whence it sprang up standeth in thee, and not in God ; [this must be understood] that when we will speak of the pure Deity (which mariifesteth itself in the second Principle through the Heart of God) it is thus, and not otherwise. 30. But when we consider [or mean] the original of the first Principle, then we find the [nature, property, or] species of the tree, and also the will to the tree. We find there the abyss of hell and of anger [and wrath] ; and moreover we find the will of all the devils, we find the envious will of all the creatures of this world, wherefore they all are the enemies of one another, and do hate, bite, worry, kill and devour one another. My beloved reason, here I will shew you the Tree of the Temptation, and you shall look Moses in the face : Keep your

1 fixed, or mind * stedfast, that you may apprehend it. upon it. TIP- -i 31. 1 nave often giyen you to understand in this book already, what the essence of all essences is ; but because it is most of all highly necessary in this place to know the ground [thereof], there- 2 Or explain, fore I will 2 set it you down all at large, and very fundamentally, so that you shall know it in yourself; yea you shall understand it in all creatures, and in all things that are, or that you look upon, or at any time may possibly think on ; all these shall be witnesses. I can bring heaven and earth, also the sun, stars, and elements for a witness, and that not in bare words and promises only, but it shall be set before you [very convincingly and] very powerfully in their virtue and essence ; and you have no virtue [or power, or faculty] in your body, that shall not [convince you and] witness against you ; do but not suffer the lying spirit, the old serpent, to darken your mind, who is the inventor of a thousand l tricks. » Or sleights,

,,,, , , r shifts, fetches, 32. \\hen lie seeth that he cannot catch [or arts, overcome] man, by making him 2 doubtful of the 2 Or despair, mercy of God, then he maketh him careless, so that he accounteth all as nothing. He maketh his mind very drowsy, so that he esteemeth very lightly of himself, as if all were not worth the looking after : Let things be as they will, he will not break his heart [or trouble his head] with it. Let the 3 Pope 3 priest, look after it, they must answer for it. Thus the learned, who miud carelessly passes it over, like a whirlwind or them euro, f • i • i ^(L • ^ -j animarum. stream of water ; concerning which Christ said, The devil stealeth the word out of their hearts, that they do not apprehend it, nor believe it, that they might be saved ; so that it taketh no root. 33. Or else if the Pearl should grow, and the lily bud forth, 4 he should be revealed, and then 4 the devil. every one would fly from him, and he should stand in great shame. This trade he hath driven ever since the beginning of the world : And though he resisteth never so vehemently, yet a lily shall grow in his supposed kingdom, whose smell reacheth into the paradise of God, in spite of all his raging and tyranny ; this the spirit of God doth witness.

34. Behold, thou child of man, if thou wilt easily draw near to this knowledge, take but thy mind before thee, and consider it, and therein thou wilt find all. You know, that out of it proceedeth joy and sorrow, laughter and weeping, hope and doubting, wrath and love, lust to a thing and hate of the thing : you find therein wrath and malice, also love, meekness, and well-doing. 35. Now the question is, May not the mind stand in one only will (viz. in mere love) like God himself? Here sticketh the mark, the ground, and the knowledge : Behold, if the will were in one only essence, then the mind would also have but one quality that could give the will to be so, and it should be an immovable thing, which should always lie still, and should do no more but that one thing always : in it there would be no joy, no knowledge, also no art or skill of anything at all, and there would be no wisdom in it : also if the quality were not in infinitum, it would be altogether a nothing, and there would be no mind nor will to anything at all.

36. Therefore it cannot be said, that the total God in all the three Principles is in one only will and essence ; there is a distinction [or difference to be observed] : Though indeed the first and the third Principles be not called God, neither are they God, and yet are his essence [or substance], out of which from eternity the light and Heart of God is always generated, and it is one essence [or being], as body and soul in man are. Cll. 10] THE CREATION OF MAN, AND HIS SOUL 169 37. Therefore now if the eternal mind were riot, out of which the eternal will goeth forth, then there would be no God. But now therefore there is an eternal mind, which generateth the eternal will, and the eternal will generateth the eternal Heart of God, and the Heart generateth the light, and the light the virtue, and the virtue the spirit, and this is the Almighty God, which is one unchangeable will. For if the mind did no more generate the will, then the will would also not generate the Heart, and all would be a nothing. But seeing now that the mind thus generateth the will, and the will the Heart, and the Heart the light, and the light the virtue, and the virtue the spirit, therefore now the spirit again generateth the mind ; for it hath the virtue, and the virtue is the Heart ; and it is an indissoluble band.