Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence

13. It is very true, according to the first Principle (viz. the abyss of hell) he hath willed it ; but that kingdom is not called God ; there is yet another Principle and fast enclosure between. But in the second Principle (where God 8 Or manifests 3 appeareth) he hath not willed it. Indeed all is God's. But the first Principle is the band of eternity, which maketh itself; from whence God the Father issueth forth from eternity into the second Principle; and therein he generateth his Heart and Son [from eternity to eternity] ; and there the Holy Ghost goeth forth from the Father and the Son, and not in the first [Principle]; and man is created for the second Principle. 14. And therefore also the Heart of the second Principle (by himself) hath new regenerated him [man] out of the band of the first Principle, and delivered him from the harsh [or wrathful] band ; and each [Principle] shall stand, to itself, in its own eternity : And yet God alone is Lord, and alone almighty ; but the eternal band is indissoluble, or else the Deity also would be dissoluble. But now all must be to his honour, glory, and joy ; and he is alone the Creator of all things ; and all must stand [naked] before him ; as the Scripture saith, Thou shalt see, and rejoice, when the wicked are recompensed; whereas in the second Principle, there is no desire of revenge * at all ; but in the i AS the light

j. , /. , of the fire sharpness of the breaking-through out ot the nrst doth not , , , r consume any- [Principle] into the second, where the soul strametn thing. through from the torment into the joy, there it reioiceth that the 2 driver (who plagued [and vexed] ' hunter or it) is imprisoned, and because now it is securely freed from him ; even as it is the joy of the kingdom of heaven, that the devil (in the first Principle) is imprisoned, so that he cannot molest the heaven any more, and kindle the habitation of the element. 15. Therefore there is also very great joy in heaven, * for this world, because there is a Principle 3 at. generated, so that the devil can make no more use of the fierce wrath, which he poured forth and consuming is the joy of the light. would be no light without fire. kindled in the time of his creation ; but is imprisoned between the ltwo Principles, which are both good. 16. Thus you must understand what it is [or meaneth] when the Scripture speaketh of revenging the ungodly, that there is joy in the saints at it ; for the fierce wrath [or grimness], and the source [or torment] of hell, is the 2joy of the heaven : For if there were no source [or pain], there would be 3 no flowing-up [or springing]. But if the light cometh [to be] in the fierce [austere, sour] source, then there is mere joy ; and in the darkness there is a peculiar enmity in itself, and therein is the eternal worm generated.

17. Therefore we must know, that God, as he is all in all, so where he is not (in the love) in the light, there he is (in the darkness) in the fierceness, and source [or torment] ; for before the time of the creation there was nothing but the source, and over it the Deity, which continueth in eternity. There is no other ground, you [can] find nothing more, therefore give over your deep searching, for it is the end of nature. 18. Although such 4 revelations have been hidden [or concealed] from the beginning of the world, yet because 5 it must now go into its ether, and into the breaking-through, therefore all standeth naked, whatsoever hath been hidden in nature ; and there shall very great things (which have been hidden) be revealed [or manifested] ; and this 6 Mystery is the break of day. Therefore it is time to awake, for the awakening of the dead is near at hand. 19. Now when God had pronounced his sentence upon Adam, and ordained the Treader upon the Serpent for him, for his comfort and assistance in his toil and misery upon earth, then he pronounced Eve's [sentence] also, and established her perfectly to be a woman of this world, and said to her, Thou shalt bear children with much pain, and thy will shall be in subjection to thy husband [or man], and he shall be thy Lord, and I will cause many pains to thee, when thou art conceived with child.

20. And here it is as clear as the sun, that it was not intended that man (in the beginning) should generate in such a manner, for it should all have been done without l pain, without bestial 2 impregnation, l Or smart. without a wife [or woman], and without a husband 2orc™^gn' [or man]. And therefore the Treader upon thebi«withchild- Serpent was born of a virgin, without the seed of man ; although now that [also] must come to be done in such a human manner, yet that was to this end only, that the Deity might enter into flesh, and [so might] generate the soul of flesh again out of dark flesh, out of death into life. But else, the Saviour [or Champion] is wholly the virgin's son, and a virgin mind, as the first Adam [was] in the creation ; for you must earnestly and accurately [consider and] understand what manner of person he is. 21. First, he is God, and is in the Father of eternity, generated out of the Father of eternity from eternity, without beginning and end, out of the depth of the almightiness, out of the broken gates of the sharpness [or depths] of God in the

iQrbegetteth.joy [or habitation], where the Father xattracteth the pleasant joy in his eternal will, whereby the will is impregnated with the attracted virtue of the light, out of which [impregnation] the Father 2 Or compre- 2 conceiveth the other [or second] will to generate hendeth. . . , . r _ the virtue ; and that conception [or comprehension] is his Word, which the Father speaketh (out of the 8 for, or to be will, s before the will) out of himself ; and this speaking remaineth in the mouth of the Father, 4 a Word as 4 a comprehended Word, with the second will ; comprehended -i i • /• •> -i TIT / • by the second and the issue out of the spoken Word (which goetn forth out of the will through the Word) is the 6 Or for to be spirit ; and that which is spoken forth 5 before the will, is the eternal wisdom of God, the virgin of the chastity. 22. For God generateth nothing else but his Heart and Son, and will never generate any other thing out of himself. Therefore that which is spoken forth before [or from] the will, is a virgin of chastity, which never generateth anything else either; but she discovereth herself in the Holy Ghost in infinitum [infinitely] in the deep of the wonders of the almightiness, and openeth them ; and she hath the strong Fiat of God for an instrument [to work with], whereby she createth, and did create all in the beginning, and she discovereth

herself in all created things, so that (by her) the wonders of all things are brought to the day-light. The Strong Gate of the [Incarnation or] becoming Man of Jesus Christ the Son of God. 23. And out of this Heart and Word of God the Father, (with and through the chaste virgin of God, of his wisdom of the omniscience), is proceeded the Treader upon the Serpent, in and with the Word of the promise of God the Father to Adam and Eve and their children, and it hath imaged [or imprinted] itself in Adam's and Eves mind, and espoused itself in eternity [therein]; and opened [for] the soul the gate to the kingdom of heaven ; and hath with the chaste * virgin set itself in the 1 the wisdom centre of the light of life, in the gate of God, and ° hath given the virgin to the soul for a perpetual companion, from whence man hath his skill and understanding, or else he could not have understanding. She is the gate of the 2 senses, and yet 2,0r thoughts, she 3 leaveth the counsel of the stars, because the 3 Or avoideth. soul liveth in the source [or quality] of the stars, and is too rough [crude, or sour], and therefore she cannot imprint [or unite] herself with the soul, yet she sheweth it the way of God. But if the soul become a hellish worm, then it withdraweth into her gate, and standeth before God, before his Word and Heart.

24. But because the souls of Adam and of Eve, (and of all the children of men), were too rough, wild, and too hard kindled from the first Principle, so that they had the source of hell in them, being inclined to all evil [malice, or mischief], therefore the Word and the Treader upon the Serpent did not so instantly image [or imprint] itself in the soul of Adam, but stood opposite to the kingdom of the devil and of hell, and [against] their poisonous darts, in the mind ; and (in the mind of those men which incline and yield themselves to the Treader upon the Serpent) it breaketh the head of the serpent, the devil. 25. And so it was tried for a long time, whether it were possible that man should be recovered this way, so that he might yield himself wholly to God, that the soul might be born in the Word, and at last stand before God; yet all was in vain, the kindled soul could not stand, but there came to be man-slayers and murderers, also self-willed people, in mere lechery and un chastity of the flesh ; also aspiring in state, pride, and domineering, ac-

1 rule, or cording to the l regimen of the stars and elements, that driveth the body and the soul of man at all times ; and there were but few that did cleave to the Word of God. 26. Then God sent the deluge [or flood] upon the whole world, and drowned all flesh, except Noah, who did cleave to the Word of God ; he and his sons and their wives were preserved ; and so the world was tried, whether it would be afraid of the horrible judgment, and cleave to the Word, but it was all in vain. Then God chose to himself the generation of Shem, (which did cleave to the Word), that so he might erect a light and office of preaching, that the world might learn from them. But all availed nothing ; the stars ruled men according to their source [or quality], in mere covetousness, unchastity, and pride ; which was indeed so very great, that they purposed to build a tower, whose top should reach to heaven. Such blind people they were as to the kingdom of God. 27. And then God confounded their language, that they might yet see that they had only confounded senses [or thoughts], and should turn them to God ; that they also might see that they did not understand the language of the saints [or holy people], of the stock of Shem ; and that they must be scattered abroad over the whole world, so that a holy seed might be preserved, and that all might not perish ; but it availed not, they were wicked.

28. Then God (out of the fierceness of the first Principle) burnt Sodom and Gomorrah, those five kingdoms, with fire, for a terror ; but it availed not, sin grew like a green branch. And then God promised the chosen generation, that if they would walk before him, he would bless them as the stars of heaven, and make them so great [that they should not be numbered], and yet there were still among them evil birds hatched. And then God brought them into a strange land, and prospered them, to try whether they would acknowledge his goodness, and depend on him, but they were yet worse. 29. Then God stirred up a Prophet among them, even Moses, who gave them laws, and sharp 1 promoted, or doctrines, as nature x required; and these were thrust forth. . u given them (through the spirit of the 2 great world) in zeal, in the fire. Yet seeing they would live still in the roughness, therefore they were tried [or tempted to see] whether they would live in the Father ; and God gave them bread from heaven, and fed them forty years, to try what manner of people they would be, and whether they would by any means be brought to cleave to God. He gave them ordinances and customs [to observe] in meats and drinks, and also a priestly order, with heavy and hard precepts and punishments, which he published also to them ; but it availed not, they were only wicked, and walked in the dominion [or regimen] of the stars ; and yet far worse, [they walked] altogether according to the wrathfulness of hell.

30. And there is a great matter for us to see in the several meats which God forbad them, especially swine's flesh, whose source [quality or property] will not subsist in the fire, but affordeth only a stink ; and so it doth also in the fire of the soul, which reacheth [or stirreth] the originality of the first Principle ; from whence the first Principle (in the soul) stinketh [or maketh a stink], which is 1 contrary to the Word, and the noble virgin, and it J Or loathmaketh the gates of the breaking-through [into the light] swelled [thick, misty, fumy], and dark : For the soul is also a fire, which burneth ; and if it receiveth such a 2 source, [quality, or property] then 2 Or fuel for that darkeneth it the more, and burneth in the * vapour, like a flash [of lightning], as may be seen in the fat of swine ; for which cause God did forbid it them. 31. And there was no other cause of their employment about offering sacrifice, than because man was earthly ; and so the Word standing near the soul in the gate of the light of life, 8 he heard 8 God.

their prayers, through the earthly source [quality or property] of their smells [4 or incense] ; and so 4 Or offerings they had a token in the fire, that their prayer was acceptable to God ; as may be seen in many places in Moses, which shall be expounded in 32. And there is a very great matter to be seen in Moses, concerning his 5 brightened face; where "glorious it was tried whether it were possible that the soul s could be ransomed by the Father's clarity [or brightness] in the fire, if they did live in his law, which was sharp and consuming, and a great piercing to the soul ; but it was in vain, it might not be. 33. And there the noble virgin (in the spirit of the Prophets) did 6 point at the Seed of the'Orpro- TTT i- • r i n ' of. Woman, at ms incarnation [or becoming man], his suffering and dying for the poor soul of man, that it might be delivered from the eternal death, and be regenerated anew, in the Son of the virgin ; which was done after three thousand nine hundred 1 3970 years, and l seventy years ; and then the Word of the promise, which God promised to Adam and Eve in the paradise in the Garden of Eden, when they fell into sin, and which imaged [or imprinted] itself in the centre of the life, through which all men that come to God are justified, became man.

34. It continued a long time in the covenant of circumcision (in the life and light of the Father) with the shadows and types of the incarnation of 2 Or compre- the Son ; but these could not 2 reach the earnestrising again, ness of the coming again of the body out of the grave ; but the Word must become man, if man must rise again out of the grave. It [the covenant] ransomed the soul indeed, so that it could stand before the Father (in the gate of the corruptibility) in the fire of the sharpness, but not in the pleasant joy, before the light of the holy Trinity ; and besides, it could not bring the new body forth out of the element, for it was defiled too much with sin. 35. Thus in that fore-mentioned year, the angel Gabriel came, being sent of God the Father to Nazareth, to a poor (yet chaste and modest) virgin, called Mary, (her name signifieth plainly, in the language of nature, A redemption out of the valley of misery ; and though it be plain, that we are not born of the high l schools, with 2 many » universities, languages, yet we have the language of nature in our school of wonders [or miracles], fixed [stedfast, i

or perfect], which the 3 Master of Art, in his 3 Or learned Pontificalibus, will not believe), and he greeted her * through God, and brought the eternal B com- 4 Or from. tmand of the Father out of his will, and said to B Or messagem her, 6 Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, thou 6 Luke i. blessed among women : And when she looked upon him, she was terrified at his saying, and [con- sidered] in her thoughts what manner of salutation this was. And the angel said to her, Fear not, Mary, thou hast found grace with God ; behold, thou shalt 7 conceive in the womb [or body] and ? be impreg- bear a Son, whose name thou shalt call Jesus; he n' shall be great, and be called the Son of the Most High, and God the LORD will give unto him the throne of his Father David, and he shall be king over the house of Jacob eternally, and of his kingdom there will be no end. Then said Mary to the angel, How shall that come to pass, since I know not a manf And the angel answered her, and said, The Holy Ghost will come upon

thee, and the virtue [or power] of the Most High will overshadow thee, therefore also that Holy One, that shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God. Then said Mary, Behold! I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me as thou hast said ; and the angel departed from her. Now when this command [or message] from God 1 the spirit, of the soul. the Father came, then the nature of the spirit of the soul in Mary was astonished, as the text saith ; for l it was stirred by a precious Guest, who went into a wonderful lodging [or inn]. 36. But the Reader must not here understand it, as if the Word for this incarnation at this time did first come down, out of the highest heaven above the stars, hither beneath, and became man, as the world teacheth in blindness. No ; but the Word, which God spake in paradise to Adam and Eve, concerning the Treader upon the Serpent, (which imaged [or imprinted] itself in the door of the light of life, 2 standing in the centre of the gate of heaven, and waiting perceptibly in the minds of the holy men, even till this time) that same Word is become man ; and that same divine Word is again entered into the virgin of the divine Wisdom, 8 Or joined to. which was given to the soul of Adam 3 near the Word, to be a light, and a 4 handmaid as to the Word.

37. And the will of the Heart of God in the Father, is from the heart entered into the will of the wisdom, before the Father, into an eternal 5 contract ; and the same virgin of the wisdom of God, in the Word of God, hath, in the bosom of the Virgin Mary, given itself into her virgin matrix, and united itself, as a propriety, not to depart in eternity ; [you must] understand, into the essences, and into the tincture of the element, which is pure and undefiled before God. In that, the Heart of God is become an angelical man, as Adam was in the creation ; and the going forth out of the Heart of God, with the whole fulness of the Deity (out of which also the Holy Ghost [or spirit] of God, and out of the spirit the virgin, goeth forth) maketh this high angelical image greater than Adam, or ever any angel was ; for it is the blessing, and the might of all things, which are in the Father eternally. 38. For the Word (by its being given into the element, into the virgin matrix) is not severed from the Father ; but it continHieth eternally in the Father, and it is (in the heaven of the element) everywhere present ; into which [element] the same [Word] is entered, and is become a new creature in man ; which [new creature] is called God. And you must here very highly and accurately understand, that this new creature in the holy element is not generated of the flesh and blood of the virgin, but of God, out of the element,

in a total fulness, and union l of the holy Trinity ; » or with, which [creature] continueth with total fulness without 2 ending therein eternally : Which [crea- 2 fading, ture] everywhere filleth all, in all the gates of the holiness, whose depth hath no ground, and is without number [measure] and name. 39. Yet you must know, that the corporeity of the element of this creature is 3 inferior to the * Or less than Deity ; for the Deity is spirit, and the element is generated out of the Word from eternity ; and the Lord entered into the servant, at which all the angels in heaven do wonder. And it is the greatest wonder that is done from eternity, for it is against nature ; and that may [indeed rightly] be [called] love. 40. And after that this high princely angelical creature, in the twinkling of an eye, in the Word and Holy Ghost (in the holy element) was figured [fashioned, formed, or made] a self-subsisting creature (with perfect life and light) in the Word ; then also in the same twinkling of an eye the four elements (with the dominion of the sun and stars) in the tincture of the blood, together with the blood and all human essences, which were in the body of the Virgin Mary in her matrix (according

1 assumed. to the counsel of God) in the element, x received the creature, wholly and properly, as one [only] creature, and not two. 41. And the holy [pure] element of the heaven, which encloseth the Deity, that was the Linibus (or the masculine seed) to this creature ; and the Holy Ghost, with the holy Fiat, in the virgin of the divine wisdom, was the master-builder, and the first beginner; and every regimen built its own (in its own centre) therein. 42. The holy spirit of God built the formation in the wisdom of the virgin, in the [holy] element, in its centre of the heaven, even the highly worthy princely and angelical formation ; and the regimen of the stars and elements of this world formed the outward man (wholly, with all essences of our human bodies), with a natural body and soul (wholly like us) in one only person. 43. And yet every form hath its own height, source [or quality] and perception ; and [yet] the divine [source] hath not so mixed, that [thereby] it is the less ; but what it was, that it continueth to be ; and that which it was not, that it is, without severing from the divine substance ; and the Word abode in the Father ; and the natural humanity, in this world, in the bosom of the Virgin Mary.

Of the. three Regions of the [Incarnation, or] becoming Man ; the forming [or imaging'} of the Lord Jesus Christ. 44. The forming of this highly worthy person is severally [done] ; first there is the Word, or the Deity, which hath had its forming from eternity in the Father; and assumed in the becoming man no other forming [or image], but continued in the Father, as it was from eternity, in its seat. 45. The second forming is done naturally, in the same time of the angel Gabriel's greeting, when the virgin said to the angel, Let it be done unto me as thou hast said. In the performance of the same Word, the imaging [or forming] in the 1 element was done, which [image] was like the i inward first Adam before the fall, which then should have e generated such an angelical creature out of himself ; and the whole propagation of the angelical men [should have been] so ; and that he could not do now, because he had entered into the spirit of this world ; and therefore there must be such a virginlike creature born in the earthly virgin, which must bring the earthly virgin (with her brethren and sisters) out of the earthliness again into the [pure] element (before God) through himself. And this forming [or imaging] is done in the twinkling of an eye, wholly and perfectly without any defect ; and nothing at all hath happened to it the more with the length of time.

46. And the third forming was together, in the same twinkling of an eye, with the other formings also at once (out of the [pure] element) produced, just as if an earthly seed were sown, out of which a whole child springeth forth, and took its beginning naturally ; and the new creature (in perfection of the element) was the masculine seed of the earthly man, which the earthly matrix of the virgin conceived in the bosom of the Virgin Mary ; yet the earthliness defiled not the limbus of the new creature in the holy element, for the Word of the Deity (which was the mark of the limit of separation) did hinder that. 47. And the angelical image, as to the limbus of the [holy pure] element, came naturally to be flesh and blood, with the infecting and figuring of all natural regions of human members, as in all the children of men, and attained his natural soul in 1the beginning of the third month, as all other l or in the children of Adam, which hath its ground out of ei the first Principle, and hath raised up its throne and seat into the divine element, into the joy [or habitation] wherein it sat (in the creation) in Adam ; and there it hath attained its princely throne (in the kingdom of heaven, before God) again, out of which it was gone forth with sin in Adam.

48. And thither the second Adam (with his becoming man) brought it in again, and [there] as a loving child it was bound up » with the Word of God, in love and righteousness ; and there the new creature (out of the element) came to be the body of the soul. For in the new creature of the limbus of God, the soul was holy, and the earthly essence (out of flesh and blood) clave to it, in the time of the earthly body ; which [essences] Christ (when his soul with the new creature went into death) left in death, and with the new body in the natural soul he arose from death, and triumphed over death ; as hereafter you shall see the wonders concerning the death and resurrection of Christ. 49. But that the soul of Christ could be generated both in the new, and also in the old earthly creature, is because the gate of the soul in the first Principle .standeth in the source [or quality] of the eternity, and reacheth into the deep gate of the eternity, in the Father's original will, wherewith he breaketh open the gate of the deep, and shineth [or appeareth] in the eternal light.

50. Now then as the Word of God is in the Father, and goeth forth out of the Father into the [pure] element, and that the same Word was given to man again in the fall (from out of the [holy] element, through the voice of the Father, with the promise of the Treader upon the Serpent) out of grace, in the centre of the light of life ; so the natural soul of Christ, with its first kindling in its centre of the light of life (where the Word, with the consent of the Virgin Mary, had set itself, by the Word in the Father of eternity) received the Principle of the Father in the light. Ma this man- 51. Thus Christ (l according to this form) was the natural eternal Son of God the Father; and the soul of Christ (in the Word) was a self-subsisting natural Person in the holy Trinity. 52. And there is in the depth of the Deity no such wonderful Person more, as this Christ is, which the Prophet Isaiah calleth (in the spirit highly known by him) Wonderful, Power [or Virtue, Champion, or] Saviour, Eternal Father, and Prince of Peace ; whose dominion is great, and upon his

2 over the shoulders ; 2 understand [upon] the creatures of the 53. And the second birth of the soul of Christ stood in the natural propagation, like [the souls of] all men ; for he also as well [as other men] was in six months wholly figured [framed or formed], with a natural body and soul, with all the gates of the mind and senses; the soul in the first Principle, and the body in the third Principle; and then Christ (the true breaker-through) continued standing in the second Principle, in the kingdom of God, and after nine months was born a man, out of the body [or womb] of the Virgin Mary, and we saw his glory as the glory of the only begotten Son of God the Father. 54. And here the light shone in the darkness of the natural outward body, as Saint John witnesseth ; he came into [or to] his own, and his own received him not, for they knew him not ; but those which received him, [to them] he gave the mitfht to be the children of God ; they were through him begotten to the kingdom of heaven. For his is the kingdom, the [power or] might, and glory in eternity. Amen.

55. Thus consider here, thou beloved mind, thou shalt here find the * root, whereb)^ men (before the i the founda- v -, . , -, . . . r. tion ; hit the 2 birth of Christ) entered into salvation ; if you mark, or get understand this writing aright (as the same is known by the author in the grace of God) then you understand all whatsoever Moses and the Prophets have written ; as also all whatsoever the mouth of Christ hath taught and spoken ; thou hast no need of any 3mask or spectacles about it. That knowledge needeth not to be 4 confirmed by the antichristian throne [or stool], who saith, The divine ordinances must be established by his see or throne, and whatsoever men must teach 1 that wl"ch and believe, fas if] l he could not err. we call I, or self, in our 56. The light of nature sheweth us now (in the love of God) quite another throne, which God the Father with his Son Jesus Christ hath established ; 2 the throne the same is the eternal 2 throne in for of] grace, in the mercy where our soul may be new regenerated, and not

of God. J , in the anticnristian throne ; that is nothing else but the throne of Babel the confusion, where he may continue to be the ape of Christ upon earth, 3 Or degree with his brave 3 hood ; where of late we saw a Doctor. young lad [disciple, or scholar], who plucked the 4 his might, Pearl from his 4 hatband, and his hatband broke ; authority. and then he became as another earthly man, and none saluted [reverenced or regarded] him. The Difference [or Distinction] between the Virgin Mary, and her Son JESUS CHRIST. The Earnest and true Grate of Christian Religion ; and of the Articles of Belief, earnestly to be considered for the Sake of Man's Salvation, and because of the Inventions and Opinions of Heretics and Schismatics, forged by the confused Babel of Antichrist. The high and deep Gate of Aurora and Day-spring in the Eoot of the Lily. 57. The Mysterium [or IVIystery] which we knew not before, meeteth us, nor did we know the ground of it ; neither did we ever esteem ourselves worthy of such a revelation ; but seeing it appeareth unto us of grace, through the mercy of the gracious Son

of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, therefore we must not be so lazy, but labour in the garden of the lily, in love to our neighbour, and for the sake of the children of hope, especially for the sake of the poor sick Lazarus, who lieth wounded in Babel ; who (after his painful sickness) shall be healed, * in the 1 Or by. smell of the lily ; and when he shall begin to go out from Babel, we will set a root before him in Hebron, which shall afford him strength, to get quite out of 2 Babel for his health. 2 out of the -n r i -T r /N -i-i i -i contentious 58. tor the virgin [the wisdom ot God] hath wrangling graciously bestowed a rose upon us; of which we will °* write in such words as we behold in that wonder ; and we cannot [write] otherwise, but our pen is broken, and the rose taken from us, and then we are as we were before the time [of our knowledge] ; whereas yet the rose standeth in the centre of paradise, in the hand of the virgin, which she reacheth forth to us, in the same place where she came to us in the gate of the deep, and proffered us her love, when we lay on the mountain towards the 8 north, 3 Or mid-

in the strife and storm before Babel, which [virgin] D1 our earthly man hath never seen nor known. 59. Therefore we write out of a school, wherein the earthly body (with its 4 senses) never studied, * Or reason. nor ever learned the A, B, C ; for in the rose of the virgin we learned that A, B, C, which we supposed we could have learned from the 5 thoughts e senses. of the mind ; but that could not be, they were too rough, and too dark, they could not comprehend it. And therefore the earthly body must not learn in this school, and its tongue cannot raise itself up to it ; for the mind of this school stood hidden in the gate of the deep, in the centre. Therefore we ought not to boast of this school at all, for it is riot the proper one of the senses [or thoughts] and mind of the earthly man ; and if we go forth from the centre of the noble virgin, then we know as little from this school as others ; just as it was with Adam when he went out of the paradise of God, into the sleep of being overcome, then at his awaking in this world he knew no more of paradise, 1 The noble and he knew his loving l virgin no more.

Sophia, the . ... . .. eternal wis- 60. Therefore we nave no ability, might, nor understanding (in our earthly will) to teach of the wonders of God, we understand nothing thereof, according to our in-bred nature ; and none ought to reqiure anything from our own will, for we have nothing [in it]. 2deciarethor 61. But the spirit 2 intiruateth, that if you shall go out from Babel into the meekness of Jesus Christ, then the spirit in Hebron will give you teachers with great power, at whose power the 8 Or the secret elements will tremble, and the 3 gates of the deep fly open : And thou shalt go out from Lazarus, his sicknesses [and sores], through the word and wonders of these men, for the time is near, the bridegroom cometh [to fetch home his bride]. 62. And now if we consider in our own reason, and (in the consideration of our high knowledge) look upon what the world at Babel hath introduced in this high article [of prayer], whereof we are about to treat, in that Antichrist hath set himself therein, and shewn his great l power therein, then a Or authoour reason might well keep us back, because of the great sting and danger that might befall us from the fierce wrath of Antichrist. But seeing it appeareth to us without our knowledge, therefore we will rather obey the voice of God, than the earthly fear, in hope to be recompensed. And though it should happen that Antichrist should destroy our earthly body (which yet standeth in the permission of God, which we must not withstand), yet we will more highly esteem that which is to come, than that which is transitory, which [things to come], if we attain them, are our true native country, out of which we (in Adam) are gone forth ; and the spirit inviteth all men's attention before this glass.

63. Hitherto the honour of invocation [or worship] hath been done and afforded to the Virgin Mary, and other saints [or holy people] that have been here [in this life] ; whereas yet (in the ground of the light of nature) this command or law was not known at all, and it is most highly necessary to be known, that the ground thereof hath been taken in the confused JBabel, when men were weary of the poor Christ, who in this world had not whereon to lay his head. Then they did as Israel with Moses, who made themselves a calf to be their god, and said : Behold, Israel, these are thy gods, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt ; and they made a calfish worship of God, for their voluptuous life, and looked no more after Moses, but said, We know not what is become of this man Moses ; and they said to Aaron, Make thou us gods which may go before us, and he made them the calf; but when Moses came and saw it, then he was wroth, and took the Tables of God and brake them, and threw them away, and said; Hearken, ye that belong unto the Lord, gird every man his sword to his side, and slay his brother, the worshippers of the calf.

64. In such a form [or condition] also is the confused Babel (in the kingdom of Christ upon earth) in the blind earnestness of man's own 1 Or in the reason, where men seek Christ in the * kingdom of glory of this this world ; whereby they could not find him, as Israel [could not find] Moses, while he was on the mount. And thereupon they have made other gods to [go before] them, and [have instituted and set up] the divine service [or worship] of God, with the richest [and most costly ornaments] and holy show ; and they continually say [in their mind], We know not what is become of this Jesus, for he is gone from us ; we will erect a divine service for him in our country, and we will make merry at it, and that shall be done according to our own will and pleasure, that we may be rich and fat with it, and refresh ourselves fully with this Jesus. 65. Are we not lords in his kingdom? And being in his ministry [service or worship] we are the most holy and best. Who may compare himself with us ? He is ascended into heaven, and he hath given us his dominion on earth. The keys of Peter, he must be [deputy, viceroy, vicar, or] keeper of the city, and those he hath left us to [open] the kingdom of heaven and of hell.

Who will take them away from us ? We can get into heaven well enough, though we be evil, it matters not, we have the keys that can open it ; we are priests in power [or ministers having authority], we will let those in that make much of us [fatten us], and give much to our kingdom ; and then the Christian Church will be in great honour [glory, and esteem], when they so highly honour her ministers [or servants] ; that will well please our Lord [and Master]. Where is there such a kingdom as we have ? Should not that [kingdom] be crowned with the 1most glorious crown of this 1 with riches, world ? And should not all bend and crouch treasure of

i f '. n this world. 66. Yes indeed, say they, we ourselves confess that we are evil wicked men, but this 2 order2 holy orders, maketh us holy. Our office is holy, we are the ministers, true ministers of Christ in his service ; and although SIJtLtution of we be evil [mere natural wicked carnal] men, yet our office remaineth holy ; and the highest dignity is due to us for our office sake. As Aaron (with his worship of the calf) must be called holy in his office, although they forgat Moses, and rose up 1 their glut- (from 1 eating and drinking) to dance and to play ; drunkenness, and so also Aaron must be highly honoured [and reverenced] for his ministry or service to the calf. 67. But that the kingdom of Christ on earth in Babel might stand in great earnest [zeal], they say, We will ordain a holy divine service [and worship of God], that may be diverse [or separated and set apart] from the world, and procure there, that our laws may be in force [and put in execution by them]. We will impose great fasting days, and holy days of feasting, that the world also may have a looking-glass of holiness, and highly honour and reverence us, and acknowledge that our ministry [or worship], which we perform [when we pray] before God, is holy ; we must be the holy priests of God ; whosoever judge th otherwise, we will condemn them ; and we do right in it, and do God good service by it. For though an angel should come from heaven, and preach any other doctrine than we, he is accursed, as Paul saith.

68. Whatsoever we have 2 ordained at the convention of the chief fathers, [rulers, elders or presbyters], with the whole consent of our concilium [or council], that is holy ; for it is written, Thou shalt not curse the chief [or ruler] of thy people. And when our hearts (before the 3 challenge, light of nature) 3 condemn us, or that we must accuse, and -i-ii II/»/-NT affright us. stand ashamed of ourselves before God, and acknowledge ourselves great sinners, then we will invocate the holy mother of Christ, and his disciples, that they may pray for us, that so our sins may not be known. When we go in pilgrimage (to honour them) and perform divine service, or worship, then she will make intercession, and speak to her Son for us, and pray for us, so that we may thus (in her service) be holy ; and though we stick continually in bestial lechery, self-honour, and voluptuousness, yet that is no matter, we have the keys of Peter, and the mother of Christ for our assistance. 69. [Thus it is with the holy priests], as it was not Israel's meaning (in Moses) concerning the calf, to acknowledge it for a god, and to account it for the true God ; because they knew that [the calf] was gold, and that the true God had made himself known to be otherwise ; and also they had good experience [of the true God] by the wonders [which were wrought] before Pharaoh ; but they would thereby worship and reverence the absent God, and make a remembrance and worship of God for themselves : As king Jeroboam with his calfworship, where yet the honour must be l done to 1 intended the true God.

70. And as Jeroboam's calves were an abomination to God, which he yet with earnest zeal set up to serve the true God thereby, only that he might preserve his worldly kingdom, that the people might not fall from him, when they were to go up to Jerusalem to offer sacrifice ; and God rejected him and his whole house for it ; and as Moses came (in wrath) because of their divine service before the calf, and brake the Tables of the divine law, and took his sword, and one brother must slay the other, because of their abominations and sins of false worshipping of God ; so also (thou blind world in Babel of confusion) seeing thou art fallen away from the everywhere-present, all-knowing, all-seeing, all-hearing, all-smelling, and all-feeling Heart, Jesus Christ, and set upon thy own conceited ways, and dost not desire to see the gracious countenance itself of Jesus Christ, and wilt not lay aside thy shame and whoredom, thy appearing show of holiness or hypocrisy, thy self-conceited wilful pride, might, authority, pomp, and state, but livest in thy invented holiness, for thy pleasure, in covetousness, gormandizing, gluttony, and drunkenness, and in mere exalting of thyself in honour ; therefore the second Moses (who was promised by the first, and whom men should hear) hath broken the Or becoming Tables of his law, whereupon his precious 1incarna-

tion, suffering, death, resurrection, and entering into heaven stood, and hath stopped their entering into thy ears ; and he hath sent thee strong delusions (out of the spirit of thy own invented show of holiness) as St Paul saith ; so that thou believest the spirit of lying, and livest according to thy fleshly lust, that so thy own invented show of holiness with thy false key (which doth not open the suffering and dying of Jesus Christ in his death) doth deceive thyself. 71. For thou art not entered into the Father by the intercession of men, but by the precious incarnation of Jesus Christ ; and if thou dost not instantly turn in the last voice of God's call (whereas many of you have been much called) and go out from Babel, then Moses standeth in wrath, and saith, Gird every one his sword to his side, and slay his brother in Babel, and so thou destroyest thyself. For the spirit of thy own mouth will destroy thyself, so that thou shalt be no more 'called Babel, but fierceness, wrath and sword within thyself, which will consume thee, and not spare ; for thou murderest thyself, thou great wonder of the world.

72. 0 how have all the Prophets written of thee, and yet thou knowest not thyself ; thou ridest so upon thy fat pampered beast, and that riding pleaseth thee so well, that thou wilt rather go to the devil into the abyss of hell, than that thou wilt light off thy beast. What shall become of thee then, thou blind Babel ? Do but light off from thy great ugly beast, [which indeed is] thy might, pomp, state, and pride. Behold ! thy bridegroom cometh, and reacheth forth his hand to thee, and would lead thee out of Babel. 73. Did not he walk on foot upon earth ? He did not ride in that manner. He had not whereon to lay his head. What kingdom do you build for him ? Where is the place of his rest ? Doth he not rest in thy arms? Wherefore dost thou not embrace him ? Is he [according to thy reason] too poor in this world? Yet he is rich in heaven. Who wilt thou send to him to be reconciled to thee ? The mother of Jesus ? 0 no, that will not avail ; he doth not stand behind thee and absolve thy wickedness, for thy inclination of falsehood. He

1 thy em- knoweth not thy l letters which thou sendest to messages. him by the saints, who are in the still rest before him in the heavenly element. 74. The spirit of their souls is in the stillness, in the still habitation before God. It doth not let thy rough sins come into it to sleep upon them, but its imagination and whole will standeth directly 2 the original bent into the Heart of God, and the 2 spirit of the the spirit of first Principle of its original source saith, Lord, when faith. avengest thou our blood ? And the meekness of Jesus Christ saith : Rest in the stillness, till thy brethren also come to thee, who shall be slain in Babel for the witness of Jesus. 8 the holy 75. 3They make no intercession for thee, neither souls do not , , . ., , . „ , , , pray for thee. doth it avail anything ; lor thou must be regenerated anew, through earnest sorrow and repentance ; thou must light down from off thy beast, and must go on foot with Christ over the brook Kedron, into his sufferings and death ; and through him thou must rise again out of his grave ; thou thyself must come to this. Another cannot save thee ; thou must enter into the birth of Jesus Christ, and with him be conceived by the Holy Ghost ; thy soul

must in the Word, and in the new man Christ, in the [one eternal] element, be born [or brought forth] out of the four elements into the water of the element of eternal life ; thy antichristian feigned fables help thee not ; for it is said, Such 1 belief as people have, such a God also they have J Or faith. 76. But that thy 2 predecessors after their death 2 forefathers. have 3 appeared in deeds of wonder (upon which 3 Or done thou buildest), that was caused by the faith of the living, and their 4 imaging in [or impression upon] 4 their tincture, which is so strong that it can remove mountains. An evil faith also (if it be strong) can (in the first Principle) stir up wonders, as may be seen by 5 incantation, and by the wicked showers 6 Of witches of signs before Pharaoh : 6as they believed, SG 77. And while the faith of the living [at the time of thy forefathers] was yet somewhat good and pure, [as] to the kingdom of God still, and they did not seek their bellies and pomp [as they do now], therefore their faith [or belief] pierced into the heaven, into the [pure] element, to the saints [or holy souls] ; who thus did also naturally appear with works of wonders [or miracles], to the living saints (in their element) in the strong faith, which [works of wonders] were only comprehended

[or taken hold of] in the faith, and that 7 not 7 Or the on- j , , godly did not imparted to tne ungodly. partake of 78. For one tincture caught hold of the other, so that the saints [departed], in the element, became longing after the strong faith ; especially those [saints departed] that on earth had turned many to righteousness ; for as all men's works of faith follow after them, so also their will to turn more men, still followeth after them ; and therefore one faith (in the tincture of the holy element) caught the other, and so [miracles or] works of wonder were done at the memorials of the saints ; this God permitted for the heathen's sakes, that they might see, that the saints that were slain [or departed] is the God of-.,, iin -i i n i the living, this, that they should turn and be converted ; and dead. therefore God suffered these works of wonder to 79. But in the ground of the originality it is not so, that one that is departed hath power to help one that is living into the kingdom of heaven ; or that they should undertake to bring and report the miseries of the living before God, and pray for them ; for that were a great disrespect to the Heart of God, which without intercession, or their prayer, poureth forth his mercy over all men with stretched-out arms ; and his voice is never any

2 Matt. xi. other than only thus : 2 Come ye all to me, ye hungry and thirsty, and I will refresh you. He said, Come to me, I will do it willingly. Also, It is delight to me to do well to the children of men. 80. Who is it that will presume to undertake to stand before the source [or spring] of the merciful- ness, and make intercession [or pray] for one that invocateth them ? As if the love in the Heart of God were dead, and did not desire to help those that call to him ; whereas his arms continually without end stand stretched out, to help all those that turn to him with their whole heart. 81. Thou wicked Antichrist, thou sayest, that faith alone doth not justify the soul, but thy invented works, (for thy avarice or covetousness), these must do the deed. Wherein wilt thou be regenerated ? In thy mausim [or belly-god] ? or through the birth of Jesus Christ ? Which is nearest of all to the Deity ? Thy works pass away, and follow thee in the shadow ; yet the soul hath no need of any shadow, but it must be earnest ; it must enter in through the gates of the deep, and must pass through the centre of the [grim] fierceness of death, through the wrath of the eternal band, to the meek incarnation of Jesus Christ, and become a member of the body of Christ, and receive of his fulness, and live therein ;

his death must be thy death ; his essences must flow in thee ; and thou must live in his source, [property or virtue]. Thus thou must be regenerated anew in him, if thou wilt stand before his Father ; else nothing will help ; if there had been anything in the whole depth of the Deity, that could have helped, God would have bestowed it upon Adam, and would not have let his Heart (against the course of nature) to become man. But there was no counsel [or

remedy], neither in heaven, nor in this world, except God did become man. Therefore be thou in earnest, and do not seek by-ways to Babel. 82. God indeed (in former times) permitted much for the conversion-sake of the heathen ; but he hath not ordained the Antichrist to be so, in his covetousness, ordinances [or laws], and babble in their councils ; where men have stopped the mouth of the spirit of God, that it should speak learned in speak, and build a kingdom of heaven upon earth, universities, in laws, disputations, and great talkings ; and therefore that kingdom of heaven, upon earth, must be bound up with precious oaths or covenants, (because it stood not in the liberty of the Holy Ghost), that so it might be fat and lusty, great and wanton, and never be broken. But it is come to be a Babel of confusion thereby, and in the confusion it breaketh [or destroyeth] itself. 83. If now thou wilt behold the Virgin Mary, with her Son Jesus Christ, then thou shalt find that she hath been justified and saved through her Son ; although she is come into great perfection, 2 a holy or as a 2 bright morning-star, above other stars. And

star, or as a therefore also the angel called her blessed among l 1 - T O O half Lucifer . .. _, 7 . . 7 7 before he fell, women, and said, 1 /ie Lord is witfi mee : But she hath not the divine omnipotence. 84. For the Word (which God promised in the Garden of Eden) sprang [and budded] in the light of her life, in the centre of God ; and when the angel Gabriel (from the command of the Father) stirred that [Word of the promise] with the message, theii it let itself into the chaste virgin 1 in the element ; and not so wholly and altogether J in the into the soul of the virgin, or into the earthly before God. body, that she was deified. No; for Christ himself saith, None goeth into heaven but the Son of man, who is come from heaven, and who is in heaven; all others must go through him into heaven ; 2 he is their heaven, and the Father 2 he is in the is his heaven, he was in the heaven ; and also MS members (in the bosom of the virgin) in ' this world : the world was made through him, how then could it comprehend him ?

85. The virgin comprehended [or contained him] as a mother doth her child, she gave him the natural essences which she inherited from her parents ; those he assumed to the creature, which was God and man, the essences of his mother (in her virgin-matrix, out of flesh and blood) he assumed to the limbus of God (out of the [holy] element) and in these became a living soul, without blemishing of the [holy] element ; and the Word was in the midst ; the might [strength], height and depth of the soul, reacheth even into the Father ; and the outward kingdom of this world hung to the inward, as the four elements hang to the [one] element, 3 which in the end shall pass away again, 3 four and go through the fire. 86. And as the child is another person than the 1 it shall be manifested. a Or the impregnation. mother, and as the child's soul is not the soul of the mother, so also here in this place. For the outward virgin could not comprehend, that she did bear the Saviour of the world ; but she committed that (in her virgin-chastity) to God ; whatsoever he did with her, she would still be contented with it.

87. But thou abominable antichristian beast, that wouldst devour all, this thou shalt know concerning the holiness of the Virgin Mary ; that the Virgin Mary is higher, and hath a greater fulness of the glance [or lustre] than another child, out of another body. Although thou (evil beast) art scarce worthy to have this told thee, thou art such a devourer, yet because the counsel of God hath concluded so, Mt shall stand for a witness against thee in thy judgment. 88. Behold, dost thou know how a child cometh to be flesh and blood, and in the end a living soul ? And do you not know that the tincture of the mother is first, when a child shall be conceived ? Which is done in the desire of the will between man and woman ; where then the seed [for the child] is sown, and then the tincture in the matrix assumeth it, with the mixture of the limbus of the man. And though the outward mother doth not desire [to have] 2 the child, but desireth many times only to have her pleasure ; yet the inward [mother] doth desire it, and also first of all impregnateth itself in the tincture, and then

attracteth the l Fiat to it, and holdeth the limbus » Or the Word of the man, and becometh impregnated. formeth and 89. But now that tincture qualifieth [or mixeth] cr with the whole body, and also with the soul ; for if it [the tincture] be faithful, then it reacheth the virgin of God in the element, and it is rightly the habitation of the holy soul, in which God assisteth 2 it. 2 the soul. 90. Now thus the child qualifieth [or mixeth] with the mother, and with all essences, till it kindleth the light of life, and then the child liveth in its [own] spirit, and the mother* is its dwellinghouse. But now seeing the soul of the child is generated out of the limbus, and out of the essences of the mother, therefore 3 it is indeed half 3 the soul of the mother's, though now it is become the proper 91. Thus also in Christ ; the will [to the child] was the mother's, when the angel declared the message to her, and the tincture (which received the limbus of God, and brought it into the will, that she was thus impregnated in the element) that was also the mother's, and thus the Deity was conceived, in the mother's tincture, in her will, like any other natural child.

92. Seeing then that the soul of her child was in the holy Trinity, what dost thou think here ? Seeing it went forth out of the mother's essences, whether might not the holiness of the child (especially his high light) in the mother shine bright and gloriously ? And whether this mother may not rightly stand upon the moon, and despise that which is earthly, as is to be seen in the Kevelation [of St John] ? 93. For she bore the Saviour of all the world, without any earthly mixture ; and she is also a virgin of chastity, highly blessed by her Son 1 Or above Jesus Christ, in the divine light and clarity, 1more the heavens, than the heavens, like the princely thrones of the angels. For out of her went forth the body, which attracteth all members to it, which are the children of God in Christ. And therefore her glance [lustre or brightness] is above the glance of heaven ; and the glance of her soul is in the holy Trinity, where all other children of Adam (which are born [or begotten] in Christ) are also members therein, in that one Christ Jesus. 94. Or dost thou think I make a god of her? No, the invocation doth not belong to her ; for the might [or ability] to help cometh only out of the Father, through the Son ; for in the Father only is the source [or fountain] of the omnipotence, which he in the Son speaketh forth, for the might of the strength is in the first Principle, which is the Father himself, and the Son is his love, and

2 brightness z light ; so now the Virgin Mary dwelleth in the heaven, in the light and in the love of the Father, as also all other saints [do]. 95. But that they feign [or babble] that she was taken up into heaven alive with soul and body, and that she can carry our miseries, and present them before her Son, I would fain know what understanding and knowledge the author of such an invented fable hath had of the kingdom of heaven. Surely he took the kingdom of this world to be heaven. 96. I let it pass, and it is true, that she may be in heaven with body and soul ; but with such a body as Moses and Elias had upon mount Tabor, in the apparition before Christ [at his transfiguration], viz. that new body out of the element ; the transitory [corruptible body] belongeth to the earth, for if we could have subsisted in God, with this [transitory and corruptible] body, God would not have become man, and have died for us. Even as all the Apostles of Christ are dead, and yet live ; and so may it also be, that the body of the virgin was changed into a heavenly, and laid off the earthly. What doth that avail us ? She is no goddess.

97. And the invocation of the saints is wholly against the nature of the first Principle. She is with God indeed, we need not to dispute that ; but we should only look to it, that we also may come to her [where she is] in her Son, and then we shall have eternal joy with her, for that she is (from the grace of God) become the blessed of [all] women, and that we see the green lily twig on her, and that she is the mother of our salvation, out of whom salvation is born, through God. i Or purifying Of l Purgatory. 98. That invented and well-forged purgatory hath some ground in nature, but in such a way (as it is taught) it is a lie ; and the greedy [desire of] filling the insatiable belly of the fierce [ravening] beast sticketh therein ; For it hath founded its kingdom of heaven thereon, and hath taken upon it to have the keys of Peter, (which it never had at all), to [open and shut] purgatory. 99. Yet I grant that it hath the key to open purgatory with ; but the other key which it hath, will not open the kingdom of heaven, but only the rich chest of gold, out of which the [supposed] maids [or virgins] receive their wages, and are sent (with fine passports) "into purgatory ; then the

a the whore, 2 strumpet thinketh she goeth to heaven, to St uifShfui Peter, and thus the false god beguileth the false 100. 0 ! thou blind world, with thy forged masses for souls, such as thy blessing is, such thou art thyself ; thou dost all for money ; if nothing be given thee, thou wilt keep no solemnity or procession. If thou wilt pray for thy neighbour's soul, do so while it is between heaven and hell, in the body of this world, then thou mayest effect somewhat ; and|it is very pleasing [and acceptable] to God, that thou desirest to be one body in Christ ; and thou helpest the necessity [or want] of thy fellow-member, to bring him into God; it is the pleasure and will of God, that one [help] to bear the burthen of another, and to be saved in one brotherly love, and in one body. 101. Thou blind minister to the kingdom of Antichrist, when thou sayest mass for souls, how is it, that sometimes thou takest upon thee to ransom a soul which is in heaven, or altogether in the abyss with the devil ? Dost thou not think that the devil mocketh thee ? Or how canst thou help them that are in heaven ? Thou criest out [and sayest], They are in pain [and torment]. And thou art a liar in the presence of God. And how then will that holy soul bless thee, and give thee thanks ? How is it, when thou thyself art in the abyss with all devils, that thou standest, and wilt ransom others out of purgatory, and that for money, which thou afterwards spendest with whores ? 0 fie upon thee ! thou great whore [or harlot], how hast thou made for thyself a heavenly kingdom upon earth, for thy voluptuousness, and deceivest the poor soul of man ? Thou must either turn, or go into the eternal purgatory.

102. And now seeing there is somewhat in purgatory, and that all is not so dead, *as the a Or the wolf wolf of the beast feigneth, whereby he may devour giveth it forth, the beast, and the woman that sitteth thereon, and he is himself a wolf, and there hangeth a fox behind him, and in the fox there groweth up an [other] Antichrist again, never a whit better than the first ; he goeth flattering with his 2 fox's skin, 2 Or fox's tail. smelling about (and the wolf sticketh therein) till he getteth the kingdom [or dominion]. If he should come to be old enough, how would he devour the poor people's hens, in the fierce [cruelty] : Therefore the lily in the wonder destroy eth him, which groweth towards the north [or midnight], in the [bitter or] fierce storm. 103. Seeing the world forgeth so much concerning purgatory, therefore I will also set down the ground of it in the light of nature, and see how it will be endured, and whether we can search it out or no ; for we must look upon life and death, and upon the gate where the soul entereth through death into life, and [upon] all the three Principles, because the root [the pith or kernel] lieth therein.

Of the Entering of the Souls to God, and of the wicked Souls Entering into Perdition. Of the Gate of the Body's Breaking off [or Parting] from the Soul. ' 1. TF we consider now (in the light of nature) of -L man, the image of God, of his beginning, and of his eternal enduring, being [or substance], and then of the breaking of his body, how body and soul part asunder, and whither the souls go, when the spirit of their breath doth break [or dissolve] in them, and the springing or moving in the tincture of this world doth cease, then we find the ground of the unquietness of the soul, when it is separated from the body, [being] unregenerated ; from whence lamentation and desiring arise ; from whence then the Babel of confusion hath arisen, so that very many things have therefore been invented to ransom souls [out of distress]. 2. Many of which [things] have no foundation in the light of nature, nor can be found [therein], but were rather invented for covetousness, and for 1 for livings. l filling of the belly, and for deceit, upon which the antichristian kingdom is founded. And thereout is a right Babel of confusion come to be, out of which then also the [grim] fierce, cruel enmity and hatred is arisen, from whence Babel is broken in

2 wrangling, herself, and [enmity] is generated out of 2 Babel-, and waning, and it is the fierce wrath of God which appeareth in the breaking [or destruction] of Babel, because she is generated in the deceit. 3. But now that the wrath devoureth all, and wholly darkeneth the Hysteria [Mysteries or hidden secrets], and maketh the source [or quality] of the eternal birth [to be] a darkness, only that it may exalt its wrath, and seeth nothing in the birth of eternity, but bringeth all things that are therein to nothing ; that is a very great Babel, for it not only devoureth itself, but maketh itself 3 Or stock- 3 stark blind in nature ; and it maketh of man's image mere evil wolfish beasts, which think that they are gone out from Babel, and yet are begotten in Babel, and are in the body of the evil devouring beast, and so devour the house of their mother, and manifest it to be a vile stinking lake ; and yet themselves will not go out from it, and it is altogether a kingdom, which continually generateth itself, in its own voluptuousness and pride, and also continually manifesteth its own shame, and devoureth itself in the wrath of its own sins, and is rightly called Babel.

4. But if we go out from Babel into the new regeneration, and consider our corruption, wherein the poor soul lieth captive, and also consider our regeneration in Christ Jesus, how we are regenerated out of God, and then, how man must enter into this new regeneration, and be regenerated in the birth of Christ, then we shall well find what the unquietness of the soul is after the [departure or] breaking off of the body. 5. For the soul which is out of the first Principle (out of the band of the eternity) was breathed into the element of the body, to [be] the image of God, out of the strong might of God, and enlightened from the divine light, so that it hath received an angelical source [or quality] ; but when it went forth out of the light of God into the spirit of this world, then there sprang up in it the source of the first Principle ; and it neither saw nor felt the kingdom of God any more, till that the Heart of God set itself in the midst again ; into that the soul must enter again, and be born anew. 6. And that it might do this, therefore the Heart of God became a human l soul, and slew (by 1 One copy

,. . . i i \ i •• /• i • in hath human nis entering into death) the spirit ot this world, body.* and brought the fulness of the Deity again into his human soul, so that we also may altogether in his (as in our own) human soul, through him, press into the holy element before God. And now there * We believe that John Sparrow translated from MS. copies of the author's work. In the German edition of 1682 Gichtel prints: "Und dass sie seiches konte thun, so ward das Hertze Gottes selber eine menschliche Seele "—without any reference to "body."— [C. J. B.] is nothing to hinder us but our own vile sluggish drowsiness, that we suffer ourselves to be so wholly and altogether led by the spirit of this world, with pride, exalting of ourselves to honour and esteem, and greedy filling of the belly [with plenty] ; and we look no further, [to consider] that we are but pilgrims, and that as soon as the spirit of this world hath laid hold of us in the mother's body [or womb], we are then pilgrims, and must travel with our souls into another country, where the earthly body is not at home.

7. For as this world breaketh and passeth away, so also all flesh (which is generated out of the spirit of this world) must break and pass away. Therefore now when the poor soul must depart out of this body, wherein yet it is generated, if then it hath not the new garment of the regeneration of the Holy Ghost in it, and is not clothed with the mantle of Christ, with his incarnation, suffering, death, and resurrection, in him, then there beginneth great sorrow and unquietness, [viz.~\ in those only which at the breaking of their bodies are but in the gate, and so swim between heaven the wrestling. , . . , , , struggling, as is to be seen by very many when they are dying. 8. There then the poor soul in the first Principle awing, or doth 2 move in the door of the deep, being clothed with the virtue [or power of the dominion, or region] of the stars, appearing in that [shape or] form of the body, which it had here ; and many of them desire this or that, which was their last will, in hope thereby to attain abstinence, and [quietness or] rest ; also many by night (according to the sidereal spirit) shew themselves very disquiet with tumbling and tossing of the body ; which our learned men from the school of this world ascribe to the devil; but they have no knowledge [or understanding] in it.

9. Seeing therefore that this is the weightiest article, and cannot be apprehended in such a way, we will describe the dying of man, and the departure of the soul from the body, and try if it might so be brought to knowledge, that the Reader may comprehend the [true] l meaning of it. l or under- .. . , . standing of it. 10. Man s image born of a woman, here in tnis life, is in a threefold form, and standeth in three Principles [or beginnings] ; viz. the soul, that hath its original out of the first Principle, out of the strong and sour might of the eternity ; and it swimmeth [or moveth] between two Principles, begirt with the third [Principle] ; it reacheth with its original root into the depth of the eternity, in the source [or quality] where God the Father from eternity entereth (through the gates of the breaking through, and opening) in himself, into the light of joy ; and it is in the band, where God calleth himself a jealous, angry, and austere God, and is a sparkle out of the almightiness, 2 appearing in the a sparkling great wonders of the wisdom of God, through the discovered.

dear virgin of chastity ; and with the form of the first Principle [it standeth] in the gate of the sourness of eternity, [mingled, united, or] qualified with the region of the sun and stars, and begirt with the four elements ; and the holy element (viz. the root of the four elements) that is the body of the soul, in the second Principle, in the gate [before or] towards God ; and according to the spirit of this world, the region of the stars is the body of the soul ; and the issue of the four elements is the source-house [conduit-house, or workhouse], or the spirit of this world, which kindleth the region, so that it [springeth forth or] worketh. 11. And thus the soul liveth in such a threefold source [or working quality], being bound 1 Or reins. with three l cords, and is drawn of all three. The first cord is the band of eternity, generated in the rising up of the anxiety, and reacheth the abyss of hell. The second cord is the kingdom of heaven, generated through the gates of the deep in the Father, and regenerated out of the birth of sins, through the humanity of Christ, and there Or becoming the soul also (in the 2 incarnation of Jesus Christ

the Son of God) is tied up, and is drawn by the dear virgin, in the Word of God. The third cord is the kingdom of the stars, qualifying [or mingling] with the soul, and it is hard drawn and held by the four elements, and carried and led by them. 12. But the third kingdom is not also in the eternity, but is generated out of the one element in the time of the kindling of the Fiat • that now is corruptible, and hath a certain seculum, limit and time [how long it shall last] ; and so this region in the soul (when the light of life kindleth itself) th also a certain seculum, and time of its breakg; and that kingdom 'bringeth man up, aod- *«*««•. giveth h,m the source of his manners [conditions "* and dmposition], will and desires to evil and good and setteth him in beauty, glory, riches and honour' and maketh him an earthly god ; and it openeth to him the great wonders 'in him, and runneth along M. h,m inconsiderately to the end of his seculum, term, and end, and then it departeth from him • and as ,t helped man to his life, so it helpeth him

to death, and breaketh off from the soul. 13. First, the four elements break off from the [one] element, and then the source [or working faculty] of the third Principle ceaseth ; and that £ most horrible thing [of all], when the four iments break in themselves; and that is the leath, when the brimstone-spirit (which hath its original from the gall, and kindleth the tincture the heart) is choked ; where then the tincture th the shadow of man's substance goeth into the ier, and remaineth standing with the shadow in the root of the one element; from which [one lement] the four elements were generated and gone forth ; and therein only consisteth the woe m the breaking, where one source-house is broken ofl from the soul. 1 Or issuing 14. But if now the l essences of the first Principle faculties, or of the soul have been so very conversant about [or addicted to] the kingdom of this world, so that the essences of the soul have sought after the pleasures of this world only, in temporary honour, power, and bravery ; then the soul (or the essences out of the first Principle) keepeth the starry region to it still, as its dearest jewel, with a desire to live therein ; but then [the starry region] hath the mother (viz. the four elements) no more, and therefore it consumeth, with the time itself, in the essences out of the first Principle ; and so the essences of the first Principle continue raw [or naked, without a body].

15. And here standeth the 2 purgatory. Thou blind world, if thou canst do anything, then help 8 Or strong, thy soul through the 3 strait gate. Now here, if the Treader upon the Serpent hath not hold of the cord, then it must indeed continue in the first Principle. Here now is the great life, and also the great death, where the soul must enter into the one or the other, and that is its eternal country afterwards. For the third Principle falleth away, and leaveth the soul, and it can use that no more in eternity. * Exit. Of the 4 Going-forth of the Soul. 16. Seeing then that man is so very earthly, therefore he hath none but earthly knowledge, except he be regenerated in the gate of the deep. He always supposeth that the soul (at the deceasing of the body) goeth only out at the mouth ; and he understandeth nothing concerning its x deep1 deep essential virtues or essences above the elements. When he seeth a blue faculties, , f i • which are of a vapour go forth out 01 the mouth ot a dying man higher origi- .... i i i \ n*l than ^e

(which maketh a strong smell all over the chamber) four elements, then he supposeth that is the soul. 17. 0 no, beloved reason, it is not so ; the soul is not seen nor comprehended in the outward elements; but that is the brimstone -spirit, the spirit of the third Principle ; for as when thou puttest out a candle, a filthy smell and stink cometh from it, which was not before when the candle did burn, so here also, when the light of the body breaketh, then the brimstone-spirit is smothered, from whence that vapour and deadly stink proceedeth, with its working [spirit, or infecting] poison. 18. Understand [or consider] it aright; it is the source-spirit [or working spirit] out of the gall which kindleth the heart, whereby the life was stirred, which is choked as soon as the tincture in the blood of the heart is extinguished. The right soul hath no need of such going-forth, it is much more subtle than the brimstone-spirit, though (in the lifetime) it is in one only substance. 19. But when the spirit of the four elements parteth, then the right soul (which was breathed j into Adam) standeth in its Principle ; for it is so subtle that it cannot be comprehended ; it goeth

through flesh and bones, also through wood and 1 breaketh or stone, and l stirreth none of them. 20. It may be comprehended [as lollowetnj : It it 2beenena- hath 2 promised somewhat in the time of the body, not broken off and hath not recalled it, then that word, and the from it. . i i i • / i • i i earnest promise, comprenendetn it, (which we ought to be silent in, here) ; or else there is nothing that comprehendeth it, but only its own Principle wherein it standeth, whether it be the kingdom of hell, or of heaven. 21. It goeth not out at the mouth like a bodily substance ; it is raw [or naked] without a body, and instantly passeth (at the departure of the four elements) into the centre, into the gate of the deep, [in the hidden eternity] ; and that which it is clothed withal, that it comprehendeth, and keepeth it : If its treasure be voluptuousness, might [or power], honour, riches, malice, wrath, lying, or the falsehood of the world, then the fierce might of the essences out of the first Principle comprehendeth these things, through the sidereal 3 buddeth or spirit, and keepeth them, and 3 worketh therewith

according to the region of the stars ; yet [the starry region] cannot bring the spirit of the soul into its own form, but it practiseth its juggling therewith, 4 Or con- and so there is no rest in its * worm, and its worm of the soul hangeth to its treasure ; as Christ said, Where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also. 22. Therefore it happenetb often, that the spirit of a deceased man is seen walking, also many times it is seen riding in the perfect form of fire ; also many times in [some] other manner of disquietude ; all according as the clothing of the soul hath been in the time of the body, just so hath its source [or condition] been ; and such a form, according to its source, it hath (after the departing of the body) in its figure, and so rideth (in such form) in the source [or working] of the stars, till that source also be consumed ; and then it is wholly 1 naked, and is never seen more by any man. But * Or without J , . . a body. the deep abyss without end and number is its eternal dwelling-house, and its works which it hath here wrought, stand in the figure, in its tincture, and follow after it.

23. Hath it wrought good here ? Then it shall eat that good ; for all sins stand before it in its tincture : If it think inwardly in itself of the kingdom of heaven, (which yet it neither seeth nor knoweth), then it seeth the causes wherefore it is in such a source [or misery] ; for itself hath made that. And there all the tears of the oppressed and afflicted are in its tincture, and they are fiery, stinging and burning in a hostile manner, fretting and gnawing in themselves, and make an eternal despair in the essences, and a hostile will against God ; the more it thinketh of 2 abstinence, the more 2Or forbearthe gnawing worm riseth up in itself. 24. For there is no light, either of this world, or of God, but its own fiery kindling in itself, and that is its light, which standeth in the horrible flash of the grimness, which also is an enmity to itself ; yet the source is very unlike, all according to that which the soul hath here burthened itself with. For such a soul there is no [remedy or] counsel, it cannot come into the light of God ; and although St Peter had left many thousand keys upon earth,

1 that soul, yet none of them could open the heaven for *it; for it is separated from the band of Jesus Christ, and there is between it and the Deity, a whole 2 Principle or 2 birth ; and it is as with the 3rich man, where j Luke xvi those that would come from thence to us cannot. And this must be understood of the unrepentant souls, which thus in hypocrisy [or show of holiness] depart from the body, being unregenerated. 25. But there is a great difference in souls, and 4 Or their therefore 4the going to heaven is very unlike; also unlike, some of them are through true repentance and 8 Or evil sorrow for their B misdeeds, through their faith (in the time of their bodies) set [or engrafted] into the Heart of God, [and] new regenerated through the birth of Jesus Christ ; and they instantly (with the breaking of their bodies) leave all that is 6 transitory or 6 earthly, and instantly also lay off the region corruptible. .. , 11- oi the stars ; and they comprehend, in their essences of the first Principle, the mercy of God the Father in the kind love of Jesus Christ ; and [these] also stand, in the time of their bodies, according to the essences of the soul, (which they receive from the passion and death of Christ), in the gate of the heaven ; and their departure from

the body is a very pleasant entering into the element before God, into a still rest, expecting their bodies, without [irksome] longing ; where then the paradise shall flourish again, which the soul tasteth very well, but effecteth no source [or work] till the first Adam, fas he was] before the fall, l be again l Or be its clothing Upon it. again. 26. These holy souls' works also follow them, in their tincture of the spirit of the soul, in the holy element, so that they see and know how much good they have wrought here ; and their highest delight and desire is still continually (in their love) to do more good ; although without the paradisical body (which they [shall then] first attain at the restoration) they work nothing, but their source [quality or property] is mere delight and soft 2 welfare. 2 Or well- 27. Yet you are to know, that the holy souls are not so void of ability [or power] ; for their essences are out of the strong might of God, out of the first Principle ; although (because of their great humility towards God) they do not use that [might], whereas they continually expect their bodies in that still rest with great humility, and yet their love and delight is so very great, that at several times they have wrought great wonders [or miracles], among the faithful upon earth ; which [faithful people] so vigorously set their love and desire in them, that one holy tincture took hold of the other, and so through the faith of the living,

wonders are thus done, for there is nothing impossible to faith. 28. And it is not hard for the holy souls, which Or upon. are departed from the body, to appear l to a strong faith of one that is living ; for the firm faith of the living (if it be born of God) reacheth also unto the kingdom of heaven, into the holy element, where the separated souls have their rest. 29. And now if the deceased (or separated) soul was here in this world a candlestick, and a declarer [of the name] of God, and that it hath turned many unto righteousness, then it appeareth also to the living saints, which incline their faith so strongly to them ; and it is not a jot harder now than in former times, when (in the times of the saints) great wonders were done ; for the faith of the living, and the love of the separated [souls] towards the believing saints, hath wrought them in the strong might of God ; and God hath permitted it for the conversion of people, that they might see the great might of those [that were] deceased in God, and that they are, and live, in another kingdom, that so they might be assured of the resurrection of the dead, by the great miracles of the deceased souls : All which, in general, were put to death for the witness of Jesus ; that the heathen and all people might thereby see what manner of reward the holy [people] had, when they laid down their life for the testimony of Christ ; by whose example many people also were converted.

30. But now that a Babel of confusion is come out of this (in that it is come so far, that the saints departed are invocated [or worshipped], as intercessors to God, and that divine honour is done them) this the holy souls departed are not guilty of, neither here did they desire any such thing, neither do they present the miseries and necessities of men before God. But the fault lieth in the forged superstition of the wicked deceitful Antichrist, who hath founded his x stool of pride 1 chair or thereon ; not as a living saint, which (with the holy) inclineth himself to God ; but as an earthly god, he thereby arrogateth divine omnipotence to himself, and yet hath none, but is the greedy, covetous, proud Antichrist, riding upon the strong 2 beast of this world. 2 the arm 31. The souls departed do not present our wants power, before God ; for God is nearer to us than the souls departed are ; and [besides] if they should do so, then they must have bodies, as also paradisical sources [or flowing properties] springing up and working, whereas they are in the still humility and meek rest, and do not suffer our sour miseries to enter into them, but one holy tincture taketh hold

of another, to [increase] the love and delight. But they make not of Christ (their great Prince) a deaf hearer, as if he did neither hear, feel, nor see anything himself; who stretcheth out his arms, and himself without ceasing calleth with his holy spirit, and inviteth all the children of men to the wedding ; he will readily accept all, if they would but come. 32. How then should a soul come before Christ, and pray for a living invocator, whereas Christ himself doth stand and invite men, and is himself the Atonement of the anger in the Father ? For the Father hath given men to the Son, as himself witnesseth : They were thine, and thou hast given them to me, and I will that they be with me, and see my glory which thou hast given me. 33. 0 thou confounded Babel, go out from Antichrist, and come (with a penitent heart and mind) before thy merciful brother, and Saviour of all men ; he will more readily hear thee, than thou come to him. Step only out of this wicked Babel into a new birth, and be not so much in love with the kingdom of this world; thou art but a mere guest and stranger in it. What availeth thee

1 Or corrupt- thy * transitory honour [from men], which scarce lasteth one moment ? Thou shalt indeed get much greater [surpassing] joy and honour in the new regeneration, where the holy souls in the heaven, and the angels, will rejoice with thee. Consider what joy and gladness thou wilt stir up thereby in the Heart of Jesus Christ, where then instantly the precious talent (the Holy Ghost) will be given thee, and thou wilt get the keys of the kingdom of heaven, that thou thyself mayest open it. Or dost thou think it is not true ? Do but seek and try with an earnest mind, and thou wilt find Cll. 19] ENTERING OF THE SOULS TO GOD 487 wonders indeed ; thou thyself shalt know [understand], and (without any doubt at all) assuredly see in thy mind, out of what school this is written. 34. Now the mind thinketh, that if all the works of a soul (which it wrought here) shall follow it in the figure, then how shall it be, if a soul here hath for a long time l committed great J Or wrought abominations, then that they will be great shame sins, and • . /. blasphemies.

to it, it they must stand in the figure before its eyes ? This is a great stumbling-block of the devil's, which plagueth the poor soul, and usually forceth it thereby into despair, so that itself continually presenteth its sins before it, and despaireth of the grace of God. 35. Now behold, thou beloved soul, who art dearly redeemed by thy Saviour Jesus Christ, (with his entrance into the humanity, and with his entrance in the abyss of hell), and plucked off from the kingdom of the devil, in the might of the Father, and sealed with his blood and death, and covered with his ensign of triumph, all thy works, [both] the evil and the good which thou hast done, follow thee in the shadow, but not in the substance, nor in the source, [or in the working property]. Yet they will not be any 2 prejudice 2 detraction, in the heaven to the holy souls, which have turned disgrace. into the regeneration in Christ, but they shall have their highest joy concerning them, in that they have stuck in such hard misery and sins, and have been plucked out of them by their Saviour Christ ; and from thence will arise mere joy and rejoicing, 1 hunter, or that they are redeemed from the l driver of their

the devil. . / . . sins, and from great misery, and that the driver is captivated, which tormented them day and night 28infulness. in such 2 sins. 36. And there all the holy souls and angels (in one love) will highly rejoice, that the poor soul is delivered from such great necessity [or misery] ; and the great joy then taketh its beginning from thence, of which Christ said, That there is more j°y for one sinner that repenteth, than for ninety and nine righteous that need no repentance. And the soul will praise God, that he hath redeemed it out of these great sins ; and herewith the praise of Christ [in] his merit, passion, and dying for the poor soul, springeth up in eternity, and it is the right song of the redeemed bride, which riseth up in the Father, where the souls so highly rejoice, 1 dependants, that the driver is captivated, and his 3 confederates 37. And here is fulfilled that which king David descanteth upon : Thou shalt rejoice to see how the wicked are recompensed ; how the wicked driver 4occasioner, [hunter or oppressor], and 4 incendiary of malice or stirrer up . . . '

of evil. and wickedness, is tormented in his prison; for the sins that are washed away shall not appear in heaven (as in the abyss of hell) in the form of fire ; but as Isaiah said, Though thy sins were as red as blood [or scarlet], (if thou turn) they shall be like wool} white as snow ; they shall stand in a heavenly figure, for men to sing of in a hymn of praise, and a psalm of thanksgiving, for their deliverance from the driver. 38. And now seeing the departure of souls is various, so also their * source [quality or condition] l Or torment after their departure is various ; so that many of the souls departed 2 are indeed for a long time in 2 Or have a purgatory, if the soul had been defiled with gross a tedious sins, and hath not rightly stepped into the true earnest regeneration, and yet do hang a little to it ; as it useth to be with those that have been laden with temporal honour and might [or authority and power], where many times their own power and profit prevaileth over right, where wickedness or malice (and not wisdom) is the judge ; and here a great burthen is laid upon the poor soul, and that poor soul also would fain be saved.

39. Here cometh man, and prayeth before God for forgiveness of sins, and the fox hangeth behind his cloak ; he would be justified, and his unrighteousness sticketh in the abyss, and that will not suffer him to enter into the new regeneration ; his covetousness hath taken too much hold of him ; his wicked Babel (of Antichrist's opinions) will not let him come to the true earnest conversion ; they bar up the gate of love, [and] the spirit of this world (in the lust of the flesh) continueth always [predominant or] chief. 40. And yet however, when the point [or hour] of death cometh, that the conscience is roused, and that the poor soul beginneth to tremble for great fear at the [torment or] source of hell, then these also would fain be saved, though there is very little faith in them, only mere unrighteousness, falsehood, and pleasure of the earthly life. The groanings and tears of the poor stand hard before it, and the devil readeth the book of conscience to the mind ; and there standeth also before the mind the pleasure of the world, and [the person] would fain live [somewhat] longer, and promiseth to lead a life in [forbearance of evil, or] abstinence ; and the mind inclineth a little towards God [or goodness], but the sins beat that [inclination] down again, and then *0run- there ariseth great doubt in * unquietness ; yet,

nevertheless, many of them lay hold on the Saviour by a thread. 41. And now when death cometh and severeth the body and soul asunder, then the poor soul hangeth by a thread [of faith], and will not let go ; 2 budded and yet its 2 essences stick fast in the anger of virtues. God, the source [or pain] of the gross sins 3 torment 3 boil up in it. ^ tke thread of faith (in the new regeneration) is very weak ; and here therefore now they must press through the gate of the deep, through the passion, and through the death of Christ, [through the kingdom of hell], to God ; and hell hath yet a strong band about the soul, the falsehood is not yet washed off. 42. There then saith the bridegroom, Come ! On the other hand, saith the poor soul, / cannot yet, my lamp is not yet trimmed. Nevertheless it holdeth the Saviour fast by the thread [of faith], and setteth its imagination [or desire] (through the thread of faith and confidence) further into the Heart of God ; where then at last it is ransomed out of the putrefaction, through the passion of Christ.

43. But what its putrefaction is, my soul doth not desire to try by participating with them ; for it is their abominable sins, which are kindled in the anger of God ; there must the poor soul * bathe, l Or swim, till it cometh into the rest, through the small faith ; where its clarification [or glorification] shall not in eternity be like the true-born saints. Although indeed they are redeemed out of hell, and have fruition of the heavenly joy ; yet the greatest joy standeth in the earnest regeneration, wherein there springeth up paradisical virtue [or power] and wonders. 44. And thy worldly bravery, glory, beauty, and riches, will not exalt thee before God, as thou supposest, nor yet thy office which thou didst bear here, be it the kingly or priestly office ; if thou desirest to be in heaven, then thou must (through thy Saviour) be new born ; thou must endeavour to bring thy subjects unto righteousness, and then thou wilt shine (with thy office) as bright as the lustre of heaven, and thy works will follow thee. 0 Man ! consider thyself in this. 45. But thou earthly Babel, what shall I write

much of thee for ? Indeed I must shew thee the ground, that thy hypocrisy may be brought to light, and that the devil may not continue (in such a manner) to stand in an angelical form, and in the voluptuous kingdom of this world (in man) be a god, which is his highest endeavour. 46. Behold, thou callest thyself a Christian, and thou boastest [that] thou art a child of God ; this thou confessest with thy mouth, but thy heart is a thief and a murderer; thou endeavourest after nothing else but honour and riches, and thy conscience regardeth little by what means thou attainest them [whether by hook or by crook]. Thou hast a will, one day, to enter into earnest repentance, but the devil keepeth thee back, that thou canst not ; thou sayest to-morrow, [to-morrow], and that is always so, from time to time ; and thou thinkest with thyself, if I had my chest full, then I would give to him that hath need, [and become another man]. If I had but enough to serve my turn [beforehand], that I may not come to want myself. This is thy purpose till thy end, which the devil persuadeth thee that it is far off from thee.

47. In the meanwhile, thou consumest the sweat and blood of the needy, and thou gatherest all his miseries and necessities on a heap in thy soul ; thou takest his sweat to maintain thy pride therewith, and yet thy doings must be accounted holy ; thou givest scandal to the poor, so that by thy example and doings, he cometh to be vile [and wicked], and to do that which is not right in the presence of God ; he curseth thee, and therewith causeth himself to perish also ; and thus one 1 abomination generateth another, but thou art the 1 one sin first cause thereof. And though thou settest forth forth another, thyself never so wisely and handsomely, yet the driver is still before thee, and thou art the root of all those sins [which thou causest in others by thy hardness or oppression]. 48. And though thou prayest, yet thou keepest thy dark garment on still, which is defiled with mere 2 calumny, with usury, covetousness, high- 2 slander, mindedness, lechery, whoredom, wrath, envy, and robbery, [thy mind] is murderous, envious, and malicious ; thou criest to God that he should hear thee, and thou wilt not pull off this furred coat.

Dost thou think that such a devil shall enter into God, or that God will let such a rough devil into him ? Thy mind standeth in the figure of a serpent, wolf, lion, dragon, or toad ; and when thou 3 carriest thyself so sprucely, thou art scarce 3 dost prank [thought] a subtle fox ; but as the will and the demurely and source [or quality] of thy heart is, so standeth thy figure also [before God], and such a form thy soul hath. And dost thou suppose that thou shalt bring such a pretty beast into the kingdom of God ? 49. Where is thy image of God ? Hast thou not turned it into a horrible worm and beast ? 0 ! thou belongest not to the kingdom of God, except thou be born anew, and that thy soul appear in the image of God, then the mercy of God is upon thee, and the passion of Christ covereth all thy sins. 50. But if thou perse verest in thy bestial form till the end, and dost then stand, and givest God good words, that he should receive thy beast into heaven, whereas there is no faith in thee at all, and thy faith is nothing else but an historical knowledge of God, which [history] the devils also know very well ; then thou art not fastened to the band of Jesus Christ, and thy soul continueth to be a worm and a beast, and it beareth not the image of God ; and when it departeth from the body, it continueth in the eternal fire, and never more reacheth the gate of the breaking-through.

The Earnest Gate of the Purgatory. 51. Then the mind asketh, May not a soul by the intercession of men [or their praying for them], be ransomed out of purgatory ? Antichrist hath played many juggling tricks with this, and hath built his kingdom upon it ; but I shall here shew you the root, which is highly known [by us] in the light of nature. 52. Men's l praying for, prevaileth thus far; if a soul hangeth to the thread of the new regeneration, and that it is not a total worm and beast, and that it presseth into God with an earnest desire, and if there be true Christians [there], which stand unfeignedly in the new birth, and that their spirit of the soul (in their burning love towards the poor soul) doth press into God with the thread of the band of the poor soul, then indeed it helpeth the poor soul to wrestle, and to break in pieces the chains of the devil, especially if it be done before the poor soul be departed from the body ; and especially by parents, children, sisters, and brothers, or kindred of the blood. For their tinctures qualify [or mingle] therewith, as being generated from one and the same blood ; and the spirit of their soul entereth much more freely and willingly into this great combat, and getteth victory much sooner and more powerfully than strangers, if they stand in the new birth ; but without the new birth no victory is gained. There is no devil that doth destroy another [devil].

53. But if the soul of the dying party be quite loosed off from the band of Jesus Christ, and that itself (by its own pressing in) doth not reach the thread [of faith], then the prayers of those that stand by about it help not, but it is with them, as Christ said to his seventy disciples, which he sent abroad, When you enter into a house, salute them [that are in if]. And if there be a child of peace in that house, then your salutation of peace shall rest upon it, but if not, then your salutation shall return to you again. Thus also their hearty wish of love, and their earnest pressing in to God, returneth again to the faithful, who were so heartily inclined to the soul of their friend. 1 pope or ministers. 2 Or is founded. 8 in thy unrepentant garment of sins. * Or between time and eternity. 6 pope or minister. 54. But concerning the feigned masses for souls which the 1 priests say for money, without any true devotion, and without hearty pressing in to God, that is altogether false, and 2 standeth in Babel ; it helpeth the soul little or nothing ; it must be an earnest fight that must be had with the devil, thou must be well armed ; for thou enterest into combat with a [mighty] prince, look to it that thyself (in thy 8 rough garment) be not beaten down.

55. I will not say, that one that is a true believer [or truly faithful] in the new birth, cannot (with earnest combating) help a soul, which moveth in the * door of the deep between heaven and hell ; but he must have sharp weapons, when he hath to do with 6 principalities and powers, or else they will deride and scorn him ; as it is done for certain, when the 6 priest, with his glistering cope [or other fine clothes], cometh between heaven and hell, and will [undertake to] fight with the devil. 56. 0 ! hear thou 6 priest, there belongeth neither gold nor money, nor any self-chosen holiness about it ; there is a very worthy Champion which assisteth the soul ; and if it getteth no victory in him, then thy hypocrisy will not help it. Thou takest money, and sayest mass for every one, whether they be in heaven or in hell, thou dost not inquire after that ; and besides, thou art altogether uncertain of it, but only thou mayest be sure, that thou appearest before God to be a perpetual liar. 57. But that they have hitherto ascribed such acute knowledge to the soul, after the departure of the body, that thing is very various, according as the soul is variously armed. If it here (in this body) entered into the new birth, and if itself was entered, with its noble Champion [Jesus Christ], through the gates of the deep, to God, so that it hath received the crown of the high wisdom from the noble virgin, then indeed it hath great wisdom and knowledge, even above the heavens, for it is in the bosom of the virgin, through whom the eternal wonders of God are opened. This [soul] hath also great joy and clarity [brightness or lustre], above the heavens of the elements ; for the glance of the holy Trinity shineth from it, and clarifieth [brighteneth, or glorifieth] it.

58. But that they should ascribe great knowledge to a soul (which scarce at the end, with great danger, is loosed from the band of the devil, and which in this world did not so much as once care for the wisdom of God, but looked after its pleasure only, and which hath not in this world been once crowned with the Holy Ghost) that is not so. Doth not Christ himself say, The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light ? 59. If the soul be freed from the bands of the devil, then it liveth in meekness, and in great humility, in the stillness of the 1 element, without » eten.ai the springing-up of any works ; it doth no miracles [or sheweth no works of wonder], but humbleth itself before God. Yet it is possible for the highlyworthy champion-like souls to do wonders ; for they have great knowledge, and power [or virtue], though they all appear (in the humble love) before the countenance of God, and there is no grudging among them. The true Door of the Entrance into Heaven , or into Hell. 60. Reason always seeketh for paradise, out of which it is gone forth, and it saith, Where is the place whither the souls go to rest in? Whither flieth it when it departeth from the body ? Doth it go far, or doth it stay here ?

61. Although we may be hard to be understood, in our high knowledge, (because a soul that desireth it standeth behind the veil [of Moses], and asketh continually, Where is the place ?), therefore we will set it down for the sake of the lily-rose, where then the Holy Ghost will open many doors in the 2 to be opened, wonders, which men now hold for 2 impossible; 8 Or at home, and in the world none is 3 therein, but they are 4 Or at Babel. 4 in Babel. 62. Therefore now if we will speak of our native country, out of which we are wandered with Adam ; and will tell of the resting-place of the 6 Or to think souls ; we need not to 6 cast our minds afar off ; for distant place, far off and near is all one and the same thing with God ; the place of the holy Trinity is l all over. 1 Or every- Heaven and hell are [everywhere] all over in this world, and the man (Christ) dwelleth all over, for he hath laid off the corruptibility, and hath swallowed up death, as also that which is [fragile

or] temporal, and he liveth in God ; his body is the substance of the element, which out of the Word of the mercifulness, is from eternity generated out of the gates of the deep ; it is the 2 habitation, where 2 Or refresh- the sharpness of God breaketh open the darkness, where the eternal virtue [or power] appeareth in wonders ; and it is the tincture of the Deity, which is before God, out of which the heavenly virtues are generated ; its name is Wonderful ; the earthly tongue cannot express it. 63. And Adams body was also created out of it ; and the whole world was made through the element out of its issuing forth. Now therefore this gate is [everywhere] all over ; that which is most inward is also the most outward, but the middlemost is the kingdom of God ; the outward world hangeth to the outermost, and yet is not the outermost ; but the ground of hell is the outermost ; and none of them all comprehendeth the other, and yet they are in one another, and the one is not seen in the other, but the 8 source which * Or property is broken forth.

64. We find indeed the virtue of the kingdom of heaven in all things ; and also we find the virtue [or effect] of the kingdom of hell in all things ; and yet the thing is not hurt [or disturbed] by either 65. The soul of man is generated out of the gates of the breaking-through out of the outward into the inward, and is gone forth out of the 2 the spirit inward (in 2the out-birth of the inward) into the of this world. , , , r , -, . outward ; and that [SOU1J must enter again into the inward ; if it remain in the outward, it is in hell, in the deep great wideness [vacuum or space], without end, where the source [or the rising tormenting quality] generateth itself according to the inward, and in itself goeth forth into the outward. 66. The source in the breaking-forth out of the outward into the inward, is the sharpness and the almightiuess of the kingdom of the heavens over the outward ; the outward is the eternal band, and the inward is the eternal virtue and light, and cannot perish. And thus God is all in all, and yet there is nothing that comprehendeth or detaineth him, and he is included in nothing.

67. Therefore the soul (when it departeth from the body) needeth not to go far ; for at that place where the body dieth, there is heaven and hell ; and the man Christ dwelleth everywhere. God and the devil are there, yet each of them in his own kingdom. The paradise is also there; and the soul needeth only to enter through the deep door in the centre. Is the soul holy ? Then it standeth in the gate of heaven, and the earthly body hath but kept it out of heaven ; and now when the body corneth to be broken, then the soul is already in the heaven ; it needeth no going out or in, Christ hath it in his arms, for where the four elements break, there the root of them remaineth, which is the holy element, and therein the body of Christ standetb, and also the paradise, which standeth in the springing source of joy ; and that element is the soft still habitation. 68. So also it is with the damned [soul], when the body breaketh the soul needeth no flying forth, or departing far away ; it remaineth in that which is outermost l without the four elements, in the 1 beyond, darkness, and in the 2 anguishing source ; its source 2 Or aching is [that which cometh] after the light, and its rising [or springing-up] is enmity against itself, and so climbeth continually aloft over the thrones of the Deity, and findeth them not, to eternity ; but it rideth in its pride aloft over the thrones, in their own game, with the strong might of the grimness ; of which you shall find at large, about the description of the Last Judgment.

Of Adam and Eve's going forth out of Paradise, and of their entering into this World. And then of the true Christian Church upon Earth, and also of the Antichristian Cainish Church. 1. "I FERE we shall not be acceptable to the J — L Antichrist, much less to his stout horse [or stately beast]. But seeing it thus appeareth to us (in the wonder), we will describe it for a Memorial to ourselves, and behold how the beginning and end of everything is, that we also (in our combat) 1 Or in the may labour in the 1 gate of the deep ; although it Mysteries. be plain that we have nothing else to expect, in this world, for this revelation [or manifestation], from Antichrist and his beast, but scorn [contempt], disgrace, and danger of our temporal life, yet we comfort ourselves with the eternal conquest in our Saviour Christ, wherein we have to expect our great recompense, the glimpse of which appeareth 2 Or in great to us here, 2 in the great wonder ; for which cause we will proceed, and not look upon this world, but esteem that which is to come greater than all. 2. Our writing also will serve in its due time,

when the 1 lily-rose shall blossom ; for in these l the blossom [writings] there is many a noble rose-bud, which at smelling present (because of the great darkness in Babel) cannot be known ; but there is a time, wherein it shall 2 stand according to its spirit. 2 Or be . , . •• known. 3. Now if we here discover the Antichrist, the devil (8in his beast) will mightily resist us, and3 Or by. cry out upon us, as if we would stir up [sedition] tumults and uproars ; but that is not true. Do but earnestly consider what a Christian is; it belongeth not to him to make uproars, for he is a sheep, in the midst among wolves, .and must be in the form and mind of a sheep, and not of a wolf. 4. Though indeed the spirit of God (in zeal and in the great might of the Father) armeth many in the fierceness [or wrath], as may be seen by Elias ; where sometimes the sword of the wrath of God is given to the angel, for the slaying of Baal's priests in Babel by Elias. Also, where Moses brake the tables, and employed the sword against the sin of the worshippers of the calf ; which neither Moses doth, nor Elias ; but the fire of the wrath of God, by Elias, on the mount.

5. Now when God the Lord had pronounced Adam and Eve's sentence, about their earthly misery, labour, cares, and hard burthen, which they must bear, and [that he had confirmed them] husband and wife, and also bound them in the oath of wedlock, to keep together as one [only] body, and to love and help one another, as the members of one [and the same] body, they were then wholly naked, they stood and were ashamed of their earthly image, and especially of the members of their 1 Or privities. l shame ; also [they were ashamed] of the 2 excre- dung< ment of the earthly food of their bodies, for they saw that they had a bestial condition, according to the outward body with all its substance ; also heat and cold fell upon them, and the chaste image of 8 Or lost. God was 3 extinct; and now they must propagate after a bestial manner. 6. And then God the Lord, through the spirit of this world, made them clothes of the skins of beasts, and put those on them through the spirit of this world, that they might see, that (according to this [outward] world) they were beasts ; and [he] taught them how they should seek the wonders, in the spirit of this world, and manifest them, and clothe themselves out of the wonders.

7. And here it may be seen very perfectly, that man in this world is not at home, but he is come into it as a guest, and hath not brought the clothes of this world with him, (as all other creatures that are at home therein do), but must borrow clothing 4 Or from the from the 4 children of the stars and elements, and the four must cover himself with strange clothing, which he brought not along with him when he entered into the spirit of this world, with which he strutteth like a proud bride, and sheweth himself, supposing that he is very fine and brave in it ; and yet it is but borrowed from the spirit of this world, which in its due time taketh it away again, and lendeth it him but for a while, and then consumeth it again. 8. And this is done to the end (because the spirit of this world continually seeketh the noble virgin of the divine wisdom, and knoweth that she is in man) that man should seek the great wonders that are in l it, and bring them to light : l It still » the spirit of supposeth, that it shall through man bring the noble tincture to light, that the paradise might appear, and that *it might be freed from vanity.

9. For the holy element continually Mongeth "Orlaboureth. [or groaneth] through the four elements, to be released from the vanity of the four elements ; in like manner also the qualifying [or influence] of the grim [constellations or] stars [laboureth] ; and therefore it driveth man to seek such wonderful forms [or ways], that the eternal wonders of God might be 3 manifested, which (in the breaking of'Ordisthe world) shall stand all (in the 4 figure) in the4figureof shadow. the world- 10. Therefore all arts and sciences [or trades] are (through the starry spirit of this world) from God, 6 manifested in man, that they may appear in 5 Or brought wonders ; and to that end God created this world, that his wonders might be made 6 manifest ; and 6 Or known. therefore God permitted that man is entered into the spirit of this world, that he might manifest his wonders through him. Yet he desireth also that 7 he should not misuse this world, but that he7 man. should go again out of this world into him ; he desireth that man should be where he is. And therefore he instantly shewed Adam and Eve their 1 the clothing monstrous form, by the 1 bestial clothing which he

of the skins J . & . of beasts. put on them, per spiritum majoms mundi [by the spirit of the great world]. 11. But now if Adam had continued in paradise, he would have been able to manifest the wonders much better, for they would have been much nearer to the form of angels, and such great sins and abominations had not been brought to effect 2 many arts with 2 many, as is usually done now. and sciences, . . - , . r „ or trades. 12. But the spirit of the gnmness [or fierceness J in the eternal source [or working property] would also be manifested, and open its wonders ; of which much may not be written, for it is a Mysterium [Mystery or hidden secret] that belongeth not to us to open, though indeed we have the knowledge of it ; let it stay till the time of the lily, wherein then the rose will blossom, and then the thorns (in Babel] will not prick us. 3 Or snares of 13. When the 3 chains of the driver are broken, the hunter. , 11-1 and the thorny bush is burnt, then one may go more safely by the thorns of the burner ; and then this Mysterium [or hidden secret] may well stand in the light ; for it is great and wonderful, and reacheth into the gate of the Father.

14. The rose-branch in the wonders will understand us well ; but Babel is not worthy of it. She seeketh nothing but the thorns, and loveth to strike with them ; therefore we will give the l driver no J hunter or cause [to do so], but rather Met these Mysteries o^F" ** -* » v/r r6scrv stand for the children of the lily-rose ; they are ^l?686 . 8 wise, and have the noble tincture * in the light ; the lustre of the driver will be no more so esteemed, for the guests of this world have that [government] knowledg* in hand. 15. Thy proud horse [or beast], thou shameful whore, shall ride no longer alone over the bended knees; in that time it will no more be said, The power [might or authority] sticketh in my chest of money ; that mineral [or metal] becometh a blossom in the light ; and the tincture standeth in the blossom of the lily ; stones are of as much worth [as that metal is] ; 5 the clothing of the virgin is 5 Or the brighter than thy pride. How finely doth the orna- ment of this world stand on modesty and the fear w of God, if the heart be humble? How doth thy silken and golden clothes adorn thee ? Dost thou not appear in God's deeds of wonder ? Who will call thee a false woman, if thou be so very chaste ? Dost thou not stand to the honour of the great God ? Art thou not his work of wonder ? Is there not a friendly 6 laughter before thee ? Who can 6 mirth or

i * i n mi cheerfulness. say that thou art a wrathful woman ? Ihy modest countenance shineth over 7 mountains and valleys. 7 high and Art thou not at the end of the world, and [will not] thy glance [or lustre] be espied in paradise ? Wherefore standeth thy mother in 8 Babel, and is s Or in so very malicious ? 0! thou shameful whore ; get jangling. 1 with wrath, thee out, for Babel is J on fire, or else thou wilt be or with the . 16. Or dost thou suppose that we are mad? If we did not see thee, we would be silent. Thou boastest now (by thy flatterers) of a golden time ; but they are most of them wolves of Babel ; when the day breaketh, then they will be known. Or should I not tell thee this, thou proud whore ? Behold, when thou with Adam and Eve wentest out of paradise into the spirit of this world, then thou wast as a god in the spirit of this world ; thou mightest seek all Mysteries, and use them for thy ornament. If thou hadst always gone clothed in silk and purple [or scarlet], yet thou hadst not [thereby] offended God ; but thou hadst gone [in them] to the honour of the great God in his deeds of wonder. Wherefore hast thou forsaken

1 Or God and the2love, and art become a murderer? Was not goodness. 1 , ,_. covetousness thy sin, in that thou afford est not thy members so much as thyself? Thou desirest to be only fine thyself alone. Thy way only 8 Or must. 8 should be holy. Wherefore was the fratricide between Abel and Cainl The self-honouring pride brought it about, so that Cain envied 4 honesty. A bel's 4 uprightness, for the sake of which he was so much beloved of God. Wherefore was not Cain also humble and pious? 17. Wilt thou say, The devil beguiled him ? Yes indeed, and he beguileth thee too, so that thou enviest the comeliness and beauty of others. Hath God made thee a degree higher ? Art them not a child of Eve ? Prithee tell me the truth, Art thou not the Antichrist, which under a cloak [of being counted the minister and servant of God] ridest upon the devil's horse ? Methinks I see thee. Hearken ! When thou wentest out of paradise into this world, wherefore didst thou not continue in one [only] love? Wherefore didst thou not rejoice in thy neighbour ? Wherefore didst thou not love the members of thy body ? Why dost thou not adorn thy brother with thy ornament? Didst thou not see him plainly ? Was not the earth thy own ? Thou mightest have made what thou wouldst of it.

Who did hinder thee in it? Why didst thou not eat with thy brother ? Thou mightest have had fully enough ; there would never have been any want. If thy humility towards thy brother had continued, then his also had continued towards thee. And then what a fine habitation and dwelling had there been upon earth. What need had there been for thee to have coined silver and gold, if unity had continued? Thou mightest have made thy ornaments of it well enough ; if thou hadst adorned thy brother and sister, then they would have adorned thee again with their ready serviceable love. Dost thou think it had been a sin, if thou hadst gone in pure silk and gold, for the benefit of thy brother, and to the honour of the great God ?

18. 0 thou blind Babel \ I must tell thee, how thou becamest thus mad ; thou hast suffered thyself to be possessed by the region of the stars, and to be led by the abominable devil, and art become a perjured [or forsworn] whore to God, and nevertheless, thou hast built thyself a kingdom upon earth ; 1 the stars as l they lead their region, thou leadest thine ; as they government generate by the elements, and consume it again, so dost thou with thy children also ; thou generatest them and killest them again ; thou makest war, and art a murderer for thy pride and covetousness sake, so that thou hast no room at all upon the earth. 19. Dost thou suppose that God taketh pleasure in it ? Yes, the spirit of the great world is pleased with it ; and through that spirit the fierce anger of God [is also pleased], because they qualify [or mingle] one with another, and out of one and the same root. 20. Dost thou suppose that all the Prophets have spoken from the pleasant kind love of God, from the Heart of God, when they said to the kings of Israel, Enter into battle, thou shalt overcome, God shall give you victory ? Indeed they spake from God, but from his fierce wrath against sins, through the spirit of the great world, which would devour again what it hath made, because the love was extinguished.

21. Or dost thou suppose that God sent Moses to slay the kings of the heathen in the Promised Land, and that he is so well pleased with murder- ings ? No, friend, look under the veil of Moses, and thou shall find it quite otherwise. 22. Why did God keep Israel forty years in the wilderness, and fed them with * heavenly bread ? J manna. That they should be a people full of love, such as love one another, and should depend on God in one love ; and therefore he gave their laws brightness [or clarity], to see if they could live in the love of the Father, and then he would have sent them among the heathen, to turn them with their wonders ; as was done at the time of the Apostles. And in that he fed them from the ^heaven, and that none of them (which gathered much or little) had any want; thereby they ought to have known, that the kingdom [the power and all] is God's, and that they were in him ; they ought to have left their covetousness, and to converse among one another with brotherly love, none ought to look after covetousness, because he horribly punished 2it. > covetous-

23. Also when the heathen should hear, that nes8' God would send this people, which he had brought out of Egypt with great wonders [or miracles], among them to destroy them, that they should turn to God, and depart from covetousness, and enter into brotherly love, therefore he gave 3 them 3 the heathen. a long time of respite ; as also to Israel (whom he fed from heaven) for an example, that one people should be an example to the other, that there is a God that is almighty. But they being earthly, both of them, and only evil, and being they did live in the Father's fierce anger, therefore the anger and severity of God lusted also to devour his wrath, them, because they continually kindled 1it. 24. Therefore he said to Joshua, Pass over Jordan, and destroy that people; and leave none of them among you, that you be not polluted. This (saying of his) proceeded not out of his love, when he bid him kill the heathen ; as also the Prophets did not all speak from his love, but from his anger, which was awakened by the wickedness of man ; so also he speaketh many times through the spirit of the Prophets in the great world (in the Prophets and in Moses) in the fire, or in other terrors, in an angry zeal.