Reader of the The Three Principles Second Booke of our Writings a little more fundamentally that he may not hang so to the bare letter and make a Historicall matter of our Writings but that he may observe the minde and spirit what that Sprit meaneth when it speaketh of the Divine Life and useth not alwayes the same words and names 2. For if wee look into the Creation of God wee finde very wonderfull things which yet in the beginning proceeded out of one onely Fountaine for wee finde evill and good life and death joy and sorrow love and hate weeping and laughing and wee finde that it all sprung out of one onely substance for that may very well be seene in all Creatures especially in Man who is the similitude of God as Moses writeth and the Light of Nature convinceth us Therefore wee ought to consider of the Threefold Life in Man which is found so also in the Gate of God the Father 3. If wee consider of the alteration how the minde is changed as it is how suddenly joy is turned into sorrow and sorrow into joy then wee ought well to consider from whence that taketh its Originall For wee finde it all to be in one and the same minde and if one forme property or quality riseth and getteth above the other there then presently Or a substance or reality something followeth so that the minde collecteth all its thoughts together and sendeth them to the Members of the Body and so the hands the feete the mouth and all goe to worke and doe something according to the desire of the minde and then wee say that forme or property that driveth the work is predominant qualifying and working above other formes wherein yet all other formes of Nature lye yet hidden and are subject to that one forme And yet the minde is such a wonderfull Essence or substance thing that suddenly out of one forme that is now predominant and working more than all other it bringeth forth and raiseth up another and quencheth the forme that was kindled before so that it becometh as it were a nothing as may be seene in joy and sorrow 4. Now therefore when wee consider whence all taketh its Originall wee finde especially three formes in the minde wee speak not heere of the Spirit of this world onely for wee finde that our minde hath also a desire or longing after another minde and that it is anxious for that which the eyes of the body see not and which the mouth tasteth not and the feeling of the earthly body doth not perceive neither doth the earthly eare heare it nor the nose smell it which yet the Noble Minde can see taste feele perceive and heare if the forme of the Divine Kingdome in that minde be predominant or qualifieth more than the other two there then instantly the other two are as it were halfe dead and overcome and the Divine forme riseth up alone and then it is in God 5. And wee see also how instantly the Minde raiseth up another forme and maketh it predominant viz. the Spirit of this world in covetousnesse pride in the oppressing of the needy and lifting up it selfe onely and so drawing all to it whereupon then instantly also the third forme breaketh forth out of the Eternal Indissoluble Band as falshood envy anger and malice so that the Image of God is as it were dead and overcome where then the minde in this manner Or standeth is in the Anger of God in Death in the Jawes of Hell over which Hell in the Anger of God insulteth for hereby its Jawes are set wide open and it becometh predominant but when the Divine forme breaketh forth againe then the Kingdome of Hell is overcome and as it were dead and the Kingdome of Heaven cometh to be predominant and working againe 6. Therefore St Paul saith To whom you yeeld your selves as servants in obedience his servants you are whether of sinne unto Death or of the obedience of God to righteousnesse and that source or property wee have and in that Kingdome wee live and that Kingdome with the property thereof driveth us seeing then heere in this life all is in the sowing and in the growing therefore the harvest also shall one day follow where then the one Kingdome shall be seperated from the other 7. For there are in the minde of Man Three Principles all which Three in the Time of this foure Elementary Life he may open but when the body is broken then he liveth in one Principle onely and then he hath lost the Key and can open no other Principle more he must continue Eternally in that source or quality which he hath kindled heere For wee know that Adam with his going out of Paradise into this world brought us into Death And Hell in the Anger of God groweth from Death and so our soule is capable of going into the Kingdome of Hell and standeth in the Anger of God where the Jawes of Hell then stand wide open against us continually to devoure us and we have made a Covenant with Death and wholly yeelded our selves up to it in the sting of the Anger in the first Principle 8. Wee not onely know this but wee know also that God hath regenerated us in the life of his Sonne Jesus Christ to a living Creature to live in him And as he is entered into Death and againe through Death into Eternall Life so must wee enter into the Death of Christ and in the life of Jesus Christ goe forth out of Death and live in God his Father and then our life and also our flesh is no more earthly but holy in the power of God and wee live rightly in Ternario Sancto in the Holy Trinity of the Deity For then wee beare the holy flesh which is out of the holy Element in the presence of God which our loving Brother and Saviour or Immanuel hath brought into our flesh and he hath brought us in and with himselfe out of Death into God his Father and then the Holy Trinity of the Deity is substantially or really working in us 9. And as the Eternall Word in the Father is become true Man and hath the Eternall Light shining in him and hath humbled and abased himselfe in the Humanity and hath put upon the Image which wee heere beare in this Life the Image which is out of the pure unspotted Element in the presence of God which wee last in Adam which standeth in the Mercy of God as is cleerly mentioned in our second Booke with all the Circumstances of it so must wee also put on to us that Image which is out of the pure Element out of the body of Jesus Christ and live in that bodily substance and in that source condition and vertue wherein he liveth 10. Wee doe not heere meane his Creature that wee must enter into that but wee understand his source for the depth and breadth of his life in his source is unmeasurable and as God his
the râ—â—der might come to understand what that heaven is which God then created consider what Moses writeth of it God made a Firmament between the waters and separated the water beneath the Firmament from the waters above the Firmament and the Firmament he called Heaven which is very right but hitherto it hath been very ill understood 15. Now observe the Heaven is the whole Deep so farre as the Ethera or Skies have u Expanded or spred given up themselves to the birth of this world and that heaven is the matrix out of which earth stones and the materiall water is generated And there God separated the materiall water from the matrix and here it is very plainly discerned that the materiall water is as it were deaded or hath death in it for it could not abide in the x Viz the Aire moving mother but was created to be upon the globe of the earth and God called it Sea Méér in which word is understood in the language of Nature as it were a springing or growing in death or a life in y The corruptibility corruption z That is the reader wil not understand it although herein I shall be as one that is dumb to the Reader yet I †Or understand know it very well and I am very well satisfied therewith but because the bestiall man is not worthy to know it therefore I will not here cast the Pearle before the Swine but for the children of God which will be benefited by it the Spirit of God will certainly teach and instruct them in it 16. Now when the heaven became cleare or pure and cleansed from the earth and the dark mist or dust in the concretion or driving together then in the matrix of the heaven there was the three Elements Fire Aire and Water which are three in one another in one mother and that mother is here called the Heaven therefore henceforward in my writing I shall use the word Heaven in stead of the word Matrix 17. For the Heaven is the Matrix and is called Heaven because of the separation because the fifth essence of Heaven is severed and set in the higher Heaven where the Matrix is more firery as it is properly understood in the language of Nature and is plain before our eyes But here the quality birth and property of the heaven ought to be described because the foure Elements sprung out of it as out of their mother and beeause the vertue of every life consisteth therein therefore the originall of the foure Elements must be described wherein it will first truly be understood what the Heaven is CHAP. VII Of the Heaven and its eternall Birth and Essence and how the foure Elements are generated wherein the eternall band may be the more and the better understood by meditating and considering the materiall world The Great Depth 1. EVery Spirit seeth no further then into its mother out of which it hath its originall and wherein it standeth for it is impossible for any Spirit in its own naturall power to look into another principle and behold it except it be regenerated therein But the Naturall man who in his fall was captivated by the matrix of this world whose naturall spirit a Wavereth moveth between two principles viz. between the Divine and the Hellish and he standeth in both the gates into which principle he falleth there he cometh to be regenerated whether it be as to the Kingdome of Heaven or the Kingdome of Hell and yet he is not able in this life time to see either of them both 2. He is in his own essence and substance a twofold man For his soule in its own substance is our of the first Principle which from eternity hath no ground nor beginning and in the time of the creation of man in Paradise or the kingdome of heaven the soule was truly b Bodily created or corporized bodified by the Fiat in a spirituall manner but with the first vertue or power which is from eternity in its own first vertue or power it hath remained inseparably in its first root and was illustrated or made shining bright by the second principle viz. by the heart of God and therewith standing in Paradise was there by the moving Spirit of God breathed into the matrix of the third Principle into the starry and Elementary man and now therefore he may understand the ground of heaven as also of the elements and of hell as farre as the light of God shineth in him for if that light be in him he is born in all the three Principles but yet he is onely a spark risen from thence and not the great source or fountain which is God himselfe 3. And therefore it is that Christ sayth If you had faith as a grain of Mustard-seed you might say to the mountain Cast thy selfe into the sea and it shall be done And c Note the power by which the holy men raised the dead in this power men have raised the dead and healed the sick by the word and the vertue and power of the Spirit or else they could not have been able to have done such things if they had not stood in the power of all the three Principles 4 For the created Spirit of man which is out of the matrix of this world that ruleth by the vertue of the second principle in the vertue of the light over and in the vertue of the spirit of the starres and elements very mightily as in that which is its proper own But in the fall of Adam we lost this great power when we left Paradise and went into the third Principle into the matrix of this world which presently held us captive in restraint But yet we have the knowledge of that power by a glance or glimmering and we see as through a dim or dark glasse the eternall d Or operative propagation birth 5 And although we move thus weakly or impotently in all the three births and that the gate of Paradise is so often darkned to us and that the Devill doth so often draw us into the hellish gate and that also the elements do cover the e Or the dominion or influences of the stars sydereall gate and wholly cloud them so that we oftentimes move in the whole matrix as if we were deafe dumb or half dead yet if the Paradisicall light shineth to us we may very well see into the mother of all the three principles for nothing can hinder us the threefold spirit of man seeth every form and quality in its mother 6 Therefore though we speak of the creation of the world as if we had been by at present and had seen it none ought to marvell at it nor hold it for impossible For the Spirit that is in us which one man inherits from the other that was breathed out of the eternity into Adam that same spirit hath seen it all and in the light of
that she is become a pleasant refreshment and a kinde mother to her children 6 Now when God on the first day had gathered together the lump of the earth in the great deep of this world then the deep became purified yet the deep between the firmament and the earth though it was cleansed from dregges was dark and had no light in the matrix but the fifth essence that is the fifth form in the matrix shined as a fire wherein the Spirit of God with the Fiat moved upon the watry matrix and the earth was naked bare and void neither had it so much as one spile of grasse 7 Now sayth Moses And GOD sayd Let there be light and there was light This light now was the fifth form in the matrix For the fifth essence was not yet created in the matrix nor separated till the fourth day when God created the Sunne and Starres out of it and separated the light from the darknesse where then the light got the vertue of the glance or splendor into it selfe for its own and the root of the fire in the centre remained hidden in the darknesse 8 On the second day God created the Firmament of the heaven viz. the strong enclosure fence or stop to the darknesse of the originall matrix that it might no more kindle it selfe and generate earth and stones And therefore he made the enclosure or firmament out of the midst of the waters which stayeth the might force or power of the fire and became the visible heaven whence the creatures are proceeded whereout now the Elements Fire Aire and Water proceed 9 The third day God by the Fiat divided the waters upon the earth and created them for several places that there might be a dwelling upon the earth and so the earth became dry Now when this was done then God did seek the creature and the eternall Father sayd that is he wrought through the Sonne who is his heart and glance or lustre in the Fiat in the earth and there budded the life through death and grasse hearbs and all manner of trees and plants sprung up every one according to the eternall i Fountain source as it had been before Thus every essence became visible and God manifested his manifold vertue with the manifold hearbs plants and trees so that every one that doth but look upon them may see the eternall power vertue and wisdome of God therein if he be born of God he may know in every spile of grasse his Creator in whom he liveth Thus in this time sprung up all that grew or was in the earth * This was found written in the manuscript copie apart by it selfe so that it is not known whether it be the Authours or no. If men would not be blinde they might here see the mystery of the Man Christs remaining in death till the third day and his bringing of life out of the earth 10 And the Matrix of the Earth stood still till the third day as it were in death in respect of the great storm But in the Fiat the life sprung up through the death and the eternall vertue or power and wisdome of God which hath formed it self together in the Fiat discovered it selfe on the blossoming earth where the similitude of the Paradisicall world may be clearly seen 11 For although many thousand severall hearbs stand one by another in one and the same Meadow and one of them fairer and more vertuall than another yet one of them doth not grudge at the form of another but there is a pleasant refreshment in one k The earth Mother so also there is a distinct variety in Paradise where every Creature hath its greatest joy in the vertue and beauty of another and the eternall vertue and wisdome of God is without number and end as you found before in the third Chapter concerning the opening of the Centres of the eternall life You shall finde no book wherein the Divine wisdome may be more searched into and found than when you walk in a flowry fresh springing Medow there you shall see smell and taste the wonderfull power and vertue of God though this be but a similitude and the divine vertue in the third Principle is become materiall and God hath manifested himselfe in a similitude But this similitude is a loving Schoolmaster to him that seeketh he shall there finde many of them 12 On the fourth day God took the place of this world rightly at the heart for therein he created the l Or the wise-mens masters or teachers wise master out of his eternall wisdome in the third Principle viz. the Sunne and Starres herein men may first rightly see the Deity and the eternall wisdome of God as in a cleare glasse though indeed the essence or substance that is visible to the eyes is not God himselfe but it is the Goddesse in the third Principle which in the end goeth into her Ether again and taketh her end 13 Though men must not cast the Pearle in the way that the beasts may tread it under foot much lesse must men throw it among the grains or husks to be devoured by the swine for that would not be beneficiall to the wanton world because that seeketh nothing thereby but to misuse it selfe therewith for the Devill whom the world serveth doth teach it that when it learneth the ground of the Heaven and of the Stars to will presently to be a God as Lucifer did yet I will write somewhat of the beginning and vertue or power of the Starres because man and all creatures live in the vertue working and essences of them and that every creature receiveth its property from them for the sake of him that seeketh who would willingly flye from the bestiall man and would fain live in the true man who is the image and similitude of God For to such it is very highly necessary to be known Also for the Lillyes sake which groweth in the tree of the soure wrath towards the m Midnight North in the Matrix 14 Moses writeth God sayd Let there be lights in the Firmament of Heaven which may separate and distinguish day and night and be for signes for times and seasons for dayes and years And to be for lights in the Firmament of heaven to shine upon the earth and it was so And God made two great lights the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night Also he made the Starres And God set them in the Firmament of heaven that they might shine upon the earth and rule the day and the night and separate the light from the darknesse 15 And though Moses hath written very rightly that they should govern the day and the night and should separate the light from the darknesse and make times and seasons yeares and dayes yet is it not plain enough to be understood by the desirous Reader For there is found a very high thing in the vertue and
then it kindleth it selfe so highly in the loving will by reason of the meeknesse and goeth no more like a sterne or fierce flash through all Essences but it goeth trembling with great joy and the might of the joy is now many hundred times stronger than first the flash or glance was which yeelded or discovered it selfe through the soure harsh Essences of the Death and goeth with strong might out of the heart into the head in the will or purpose to possesse the heavenly Region 44. For t The Will it is Paradisicall and it hath its most inward roote therein when Adam in sinne dyed the first Death then said God The seed of the Woman shall u Break with treading upon it breake the Serpents head the same word x Imagined figured or formed it selfe imprinted it selfe in Adam in the centre of the springing up of his life and so forth with the Creation of Eve in the springing up of her life and so forth in all Men so that wee can in our first minde through the word and vertue of God in the Treader upon the Serpent who in the time became man or was incarnate trample upon or breake the Head and will of the Devill and if this might or power were not y Viz. in the place of the springing up of the life in this place then wee were in the eternall Death Thus the minde is its own in the free will and moveth in the vertue or power of God and in his promise in the Free substance or beeing 45. Seeing then that the skreek of joy in the vertue of God which breaketh the doores of the deep Darknesse thus springeth up in the heart and flieth with its glimpse or sparkling into the Head then the vertue of the joy setteth it selfe above as being the strongest and the flash or glance beneath as being the weakest and so when the flash or glance cometh into the Head into its seate then it maketh it selfe two open Gates for it hath broken the doores of the deep Darknesse and therefore it continueth no more in the Darknesse but it must be free as a victorious Prince or Conquerour and will not be held captive and this signifieth to us the resurrection of Christ from the dead who is now free and will not be held therein which in its due place shall be very deeply described And those Gates which the glance holdeth open they are the eyes and the spirit of joy is their roote which spirit springeth up at first in the kindling of the life 46. Thus then the strong re-conceived will to flie out from the Darknesse and to be in the Light in the Heart generateth it selfe and therefore wee cannot know or apprehend it to be any other than the noble virgin the wisdome of God which thus springeth up in joy and in the beginning marrieth her selfe with the spirit of the soule and helpeth it to the light which after the springing up of the soule viz. after the kindling of the vertue of the Sunne in the Essences putteth her selfe into its Paradisicall Centre and continually warneth the soule z Of the waies of the ungodly of the ungodly wayes which are held before it by the Starres and Elements and brought into its Essences Therefore the virgin keepeth her Throne thus in the heart and also in the head that shee may defend and keep them off from the soule all over 47. And wee must further a Think or conceive consider that when the skreek or crack maketh its dwelling house in its strong breaking through out of the Gate of the anxious Darknesse viz. the Tongue that the skreek or crack hath not then yet seene the virgin but when it reflected or shined back again into the heart into the opened darknesse and found her so habitable there then first sprung up its joy habitablenesse and pleasantnesse and it became Paradisicall and desired not to goe into the Tongue againe but into the Head and desired there to have its Region out of the source of the Heart Therefore the Tongue ought not in all or altogether to be beleeved for it fitteth not in the heavenly Region as the friendly pleasant vertue doth but it hath its Region in the crack and flash and the flash is as neere the hellish Region as the crack is for they are both generated in the b Or sterne grim sharpnesse sharpnesse of the Starres in the Essences and the Tongue speaketh both lyes and truth in which of the two the Spirit armeth it selfe according to that it speaketh also it many times speaketh lyes in c Such as have esteeme authority riches or such as are high mended and stout and have the world at will great Men when it is armed from the Essences then it speaketh in the crack like a Rider in his haughty furly vaunting state or high mindednesse The Life of the Soule The Gate 48. Thus now when the vertue of the life and the Spirit of the second Principle d Or was is generated in the first Originality of the first Principle viz. in the Gate of the deep Darknesse which the will of the vertue of the virgin in the fierce earnest flash of the fierce might of God did breake and set it selfe in the pleasant habitation then instantly the Essences of the Starres and Elements in the flash of the springing up of the life pressed in also yet after the building of the pleasant habitation first made 49. For the habitation is the Element and the vertue of the inward Element is the Paradisicall Love which the outward Elements being generated out of the Element will have for their mother and the sharp Fiat bringeth them into the habitation and there the light of the life becometh rightly kindled and all Essences live in the habitation For in the beginning of the life each Principle e Or catcheth taketh its Light 50. The first Principle viz. the Darknesse taketh the fierce and sudden fire-flash and so when the f Re-conceived or re-purposed re-comprehended will in the first will of the first attracted darknesse of the harshnesse discovereth it selfe and breaketh the Darknesse in the flash then the harsh dark fire flash remaineth in the first will and standeth over the heart in the Gall and kindleth the fire in the Essences of the heart 51. And the second Principle retaineth its light for it selfe which is the pleasant g Or joy habitation which shineth there where the darknesse is broken or dispelled wherein the courteous loving vertue and the pleasantnesse ariseth from whence the skreeke or crack in the strong might becometh so very joyfull and h Or alayeth it with trembling for joy turneth its forcible rushing into a joyfull trembling where then the fire-flash of the first Principle sticketh to i The skreek or crack it which causeth its trembling but its source or active property is pleasantnesse and joy that cannot sufficiently be described
happy are they that finde it by experience 52. And the third Principle retaineth its light wholly for it selfe which as soone as the light of life springeth up presseth into the Tincture of the soule to the k The inward one Element Element and teacheth after the Element but it attaineth no more than to the light of the Sunne which is proceeded out of the Quinta Essentia out of the Element and thus the Starres and Elements rule in their light and vertue which is the Sunnes and qualifie with the soule and bring many distempers and also diseases into the Essences from whence come stitches agues swellings and other sicknesses as the Plague c. into those Essences and at last their corruption and death 53. And now when the light of all the three Principles shineth then the Tincture goeth forth from all the three Principles and it is highly worthy to be observed that the middlemost Principle receiveth no light from Nature but as soone as the darknesse is broken up or dispelled it shineth in most joyfull habitablenesse and hath the noble virgin dwelling in the joy viz. in that Tincture and the Deity appeareth so very highly and powerfully in Man that wee cannot finde it so in any other thing let us take what wee will else into our Consideration 54. In the first Principle is the fire-flash and in the Tincture thereof is the l The dazzling light of the Sunne terrible light of the Sunne which hath its originall very sharply out of the eternall Originalnesse out of the first Principle with its roote out of the fift Essence through the Element which may be expounded in another place it would be too long to doe it here And besides it should be hidden he that knoweth it will conceale it as he would also conceale the springing up of the Starres and Planets for the cornered Cap will needs have it under the jurisdiction of his Schoole learning though indeed he apprehendeth little or nothing at all in the light of Nature let it remaine hidden till the time of the Lilly there it standeth all m Free discovered or knowne open and the Tincture is then the light of the world 55. And it is here very exactly seene how the third Principle n Appropriateth or yeeldeth it selfe up to it uniteth it selfe with the first and how they have one onely will for they proceed from one another and if the second Principle were not in the midst between them then they were but one and the same thing But speaking here of the Tincture in the life wee will therefore shew in the light of Nature the true ground of all the three Births 56. The noble Tincture is the dwelling house of the Spirit and hath three formes one is eternall and uncorruptible the other is mutable or transitory and yet with the holy or Saints continueth eternally but with the wicked it is mutable or transitorie and flieth into the Ether the third is corruptible o Or as in death in Death 57. The first Tincture of the first Principle is properly the p Or the refreshment habitation in the fire-flash which is the source life or active property in the Gall which maketh the Brimstone Spirit viz. the indissoluble Worme of the soule which ruleth powerfully in the sharp Essences and moveth and carrieth the body whither soever the minde in the second Centre will to be its dwelling house its Tincture is like the fierce austere or grim and sharp might of God it kindleth the whole body so that it is warme and that it grow not q Numb stiffe or congealeth with cold and upholdeth the wheele in the crack in the Essences out of which the hearing ariseth it is sharp and proveth the smell of every thing in the Essences it maketh the hearing though it selfe is neither the hearing nor smelling but it is the Gate that letteth in good and evill as the tongue and also the eare doth all which cometh from hence because that r The active life of the Gall. its Tincture hath its ground in the first Principle and the kindling of the life hapneth in the sharpnesse in the breaking through the Gate of the eternall Darknesse 58. Therefore are the Essences of the Spirit of the soule so very sharp and fiery and therefore the Essences goe forth out of such a sharp fiery Tincture wherein now stand the five senses viz. seeing hearing smelling tasting and feeling for the fierce sharpnesse of the Tincture of the first Principle proveth in its own Essences in or of the soule or in the Essences of the Worme of the soule in this place rightly so called proveth I say the Starres and Elements viz. the out-birth out of the first Principle and whatsoever uniteth or yeeldeth it selfe to it it taketh that into the Essences of the Worme of the soule viz. all whatsoever is harsh or soure bitter sterne or fierce and fiery all whatsoever generateth it selfe in the fiercenesse and all whatsoever is of the same property with the Essences all that which riseth up along there in the fiery source and elevateth it selfe in the breaking of the Gate of the Darknesse and boyleth springeth or floweth up above the meeknesse and all whatsoever is like the sharp austere Eternity and qualifieth or mixeth with the sharpnesse of the fierce anger of the God of the Eternity wherein he holdeth the Kingdome of the Devils Captive O Man consider thy selfe here it is the sure Ground knowne by the Author in the light of Nature in the will of God 59. And in this Tincture of the first Principle the Devill tempteth Man for it is his source well-spring or property wherein he also liveth Herein he reacheth into the heart of Man into his soules Essences and leadeth him away from God into the desire to live in the sharpe viz. in the fiery Essences that it might be elevated above the humility and the meeknesse of the heart of God and above the love and meeknesse of the Creatures of purpose to seeme to be the onely faire and glistering Worme in the fire-flash and to domineere over the second Principle and thus he maketh the soule of Man so extreame proud as not to vouchsafe himselfe to be in the least like any meeknesse but to be like all whatsoever liveth in a quality or property contrary to it 60. And in the bitter Essences Å¿ The Devill he maketh the Worme of the soule prickly spitefull envious and malicious grudging every thing to any as the bitternesse indeed is friends with nothing but it stingeth and grindeth raveth and rageth like the Abysse of Hell and it is the true house of Death as to the pleasant life 61. And in the soure or harsh Essence of the Tincture of the Worme of the soule he infecteth the soure t Or Astringent substance harsh Essence wherebâ— it becometh sharply attractive and getteth a will to draw all to it selfe and yet is not
learne with great earnestnesse to know the true way of Entrance into the Eternall Joy that wee may not with the Devils Dogges howle Eternally in the anguishing Inne 4. And now if wee look round about us every where upon Heaven and Earth the Starres and Elements yet wee can see and know no way or passage where wee may goe to our Rest wee see no other than the way of the entrance in of our Life and then of the end of our Life where our body goeth into the Earth and all our Labour also our Arts and Glory is inherited by another who also vexeth himselfe therewith for a while and then followeth after us and that continueth so from the beginning of the world to its end 5. Wee can in our misery never b Understand or comprehend know where our Spirit doth abide when the body breaketh and cometh to be a Carkasse except wee be againe new-borne out of this world that so wee may dwell in this world as to our body and as to our minde in another eternall perfect new life wherein our spirit and minde putteth on a new Man wherein he must and shall live Eternally and then wee first know what wee are and where our home is 6. Seeing then wee clearly see and understand that wee have our beginning altogether Earthly and are sowen in a field as Graine is sowne in the Earth where our life springeth up groweth and at length flourisheth as Corne or graine doth out of the Earth where wee can know in us nothing but an earthly life yet wee see very well that the c Or Starres Constellations and Elements qualifie or work in us and nourish drive governe and guide us also fill us and bring us up and so preserve our life a while and then breake it againe and turne it to dust and ashes like all Beasts Trees Plants and all things that grow but wee see not how it is with us afterwards whether all be ended with it or whether wee goe with our Spirit and Conversation into another life and therefore it is most necessary to learne and to seeke the right way 7. Now that is testified to us by the Writings of those who have been regenerated out of this d Or transitorinesse Earthlinesse and at length are entred into a holy and uncorruptible life who have written and taught of an Eternall joyfull Life and also of an Eternall perishihg and anguishing Life and have taught us how wee should follow after them and how wee should step into a new Birth where wee should be regenerated out of this Earthlinesse into a new Creature and that wee should doe nothing else about it but follow them and then wee should finde e Or really in deed and in truth what they had spoken written and taught yea even in this life wee should see our true Native Countrey in the new Regeneration and f Uunderstand or apprehend know it in the new-borne Man in great Joy whereas then our whole minde would incline to it and in our new knowledge in the new Man true Faith would grow and the hearty desire of the unfeigned love towards the hidden God for which noble knowledge sake many times g Holy people they have yeelded their earthly body and life to the unregenerated gainsayer according to his Devilish malicious revengefulnesse into Death and have taken it with great Joy and have chosen for themselves the Eternall uncorruptible Life 8. Seeing then there is the greatest and highest Love in the new Birth not onely towards God or ones selfe but also towards Men our brothers and sisters and seeing those that were unregenerated have had their desires and love so carried towards Men that they have very earnestly taught men with meeknesse and reproving and that their love to them in their Teaching hath been so great that they have even willingly yeelded their life up to Death and left their earthly goods and all they had in assured hope in their strong and firme knowledge to receive all againe in great honour and glory 9. And therefore wee also have longed to seeke after that Pearle of which wee write at present and though now the unregenerated in the Kingdome of this world will give no credit to us as it hath happened to our forefathers from the children of this world wee cannot help that but it shall stand for a witnesse against them which shall be a woe to them Eternally that they have so foolishly ventured and lost so great an Eternall Glory and holinesse for a little pleasure of the eye and lust of the flesh 10. And wee know in our deep knowledge that h The holy forefathers they have rightly taught and written that there is one onely God which is threefold in Personall Distinction as is before-mentioned And wee also know that he is the Creatour of all things that he hath generated all out of his own i Essence or Beeing substance both light darknesse as also the Thrones and k Or Regiments Dominions of all things Especially wee know as the holy Scripture witnesseth throughout tnat he hath created Man to his own Image and similitude that he should Eternally be and live in the Kingdome of Heaven in him 11. And then wee know also that this world wherein wee now are and live was generated out of the Eternall Originall in time through the pure Element in the Fiat and so created and so l The world of foure Elements it is not the substance of the holy pure Element but an issue or out-birth out of the Eternall Limbus of God wherein the Eternall Element consisteth which is before the cleere Deity wherin consisteth Paradise the Kingdome of Heaven yet the Limbus together with the pure Element is not the pure Deity which is alone holy in it selfe and hath the vertue of the Eternall Light shining in it but hath no Essences in the light of the Clarity in it for the Essences are generated from the vertue m Or of according to the Light as a Desire and the desire attracteth to it from whence the Essences proceede as also the Eternall Darknesse in the source as is before-mentioned 12. Seeing then God is all in all and hath created Man to his Image and similitude to live with him Eternally in his Love Light Joy and Glory therefore wee cannot say that he was meerly created out of the corruptibility of this world for therein is no Eternall perfect Life but Death and perplexity anguish and necessity but as God dwelleth in himselfe and goeth through all his works incomprehensibly to them and is hindred by nothing so was the similitude before him out of the pure Element it was indeed created in this world yet the Kingdome of this world should not comprehend that Image but the similitude Man should mightily and in perfect power or vertue Rule through the Essences with the Essences out of the pure Element of the
figure of all u His or Mans works its works and x Or substance things or businesse matters which he hath wrought at any time 44. But in the New Man which wee attract on to our soules in the bosom of the virgin wee shall spring and flourish againe and therein is no necessity nor Death for the Kingdome of this world passeth away Therefore he that hath not this Image in the new Birth shall in the Restoration of the Spirit of the Eternall Nature have the Image of what his heart and Confidence hath been set upon here put upon him for every Kingdome Imageth or figureth its Creatures according to the Essences which were groyne here in their will 45. And that you may rightly and properly understand us wee meane or understand here no strange Christ who is not our Brother as himselfe said at his resurrection Goe to my Brethren and your Brethren and tyll them I goe to my God and to your God As indeed the body which wee here carry about us is not the Image of God which God created for the Kingdome of this world put its Image upon us when Adam consented to yeeld to it and wee if wee be regenerated are not at home in this world with our New Man as Christ said to his Disciples I have called you out of this world that you should be where I am and Saint Paul saith Our Conversation as to the New Man is in Heaven Thus wee understand also that our Immanuel who is the most holy of all with his true Image of God wherein also our true Image of God doth consist is not of this world but as the Old Mortall Man from the Kingdome of this world hangeth to us so our Mortall Man also hung to the Image of God in Christ which he drew from his Mother Mary as the pure Element draweth the Kingdome of this world to it 46. But now wee must not think that the holy Man in Christ dyed for that dyeth not but the mortall Man from the Kingdome of this world is that which dyeth that was it which cryed on the Crosse My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee and wee see very cleerly the great Might and power of the holy Man in Christ when the mortall which was taken from this world went into Death how the holy Allmighty Man wrestled with Death in so much that the Elements did shake with it and the Sunne which is the Light of the Nature of this world lost its splendor as if it were then to perish and then the living Champion in Christ fought with the Anger and stood in the Hell of the Anger of God and loosed the soule which he commended into his Fathers hands quite off from the Anger of God also from the source or Torment of Hell and that was it which David said Thou wilt not leave my soule in Hell nor permit thy holy one to y Rot consume or corrupt perish 47. The Deity was in the humane soule and here it brake the sword of the Cherubine so that as Adam had brought his soule into the Prison of Anger and so afterwards all soules from Adam are generated such and are all of them as in one Roote imprisoned in the Anger of Death till Christ so the Noble Champion Christ here destroyed Death in the humane soule and brought the soule through Death into his eternall New Humanity and put it into an Eternall z Contract Espousall or Marriage Covenant 48. And as Adam had opened the Gate of the Anger so hath the Deity of Christ opened the Gate of the Eternall Life so that all men can presse in to God in this opened Gate For the third Principle is broken here and Judgement passed upon the Prince of Darknesse which so long held us prisoners in Death 49. But since Man is so slow of apprehension it may be wee shall not sufficiently be understood aod therefore wee will once more set it downe briefly and accurately how these great Mysteries are for wee know what Adversary wee have viz. the Prince of this world he will not sleepe but try what he can to suppresse this Noble Graine of Mustard-seede 50. Behold thou Noble Minde thou who desirest the Kingdome of God to thee wee speake and not to the Antichrist in Babell who desireth nothing else but the Kingdome of this world take notice of it the time of sleepe is past the Bridegroom cometh for the Bride saith Come be in earnest gaze not at the hand that used this Pen it is another Pen that hath written this which neither thou nor I doe know for the Minde if it be faithfull apprehendeth the Deity and doe not so slight thy selfe if thou art borne in God then thou art greater and more than all this world 51. Observe it the Angel said to Mary Thou shalt conceive and beare a Sonne and shalt call his Name Jesus he shall be great and be called a sonne of the most High and God the Lord shall give him the Throne of his Father David and he shall be a King over the house of Jacob Eternally and of his Kingdome there shall be no end 52. You must understand Mary was to conceive in the body viz. in her own body not in a strange assumed body as the unenlightened who apprehend not the Kingdome of God might interpret our Writings to meane Besides it is not the ground neither which the Ancients and those heretofore have set downe which yet went very high as if Mary from Eternity had been hidden in Ternaris sancto the holy Ternary or Trinity and that shee entered at that time onely into Anna as into a Case or house and were not of the seede of Joachim and bloud of Anna. They say shee was an Eternall virgin out of the Trinity of whom Christ was borne because he came not out of the flesh and bloud of any Man and as himselfe witnesseth that he was not of this world bur was come from Heaven he saith That he came forth from God and must returne againe to God and to Nicodemus he said None goeth into Heaven but the Son of Man which is come from Heaven and who is in Heaven 53. And there he spake cleerly of the Son of Man of his humanity and not of his Deity meerly for he saith plainly The Sonne to Man But God from Eternity was not the sonne of Man and therefore no sonne of Man can proceed from the Trinity therefore wee must look upon it aright If Mary had proceeded out of the Trinity where should our poore captivated soules have been If Christ had brought a strange soule from Heaven how should wee have been delivered Had it been possible to redeem Man without it what needed God to come into our forme and be crucified If it could have been so then God should instantly have seperated or freed Adam from Death when he fell or doest thou suppose that God is so maliciously zealous as to be so
onely upon the Heart of God and m Or submit to it give it selfe up to that that it might be carried onely in the will of God and become an Angel in humility and not relie onely upon it selfe to flie in its own might or power 95. And here the Devils Master-piece is seene in that he n Alleadgeth Scripture useth the Scripture and saith The Angels will beare thee up whereas here the matter was not about the body but about the soule which he would bring into Pride that it might teare it selfe off from the love of God and relie upon the Angels bearing it up and that it should break it selfe off againe from the new body which can flie well enough with that and leap down in the old Body and relie upon the Angels and so should flie out from God into the Spirit of this world againe 96. But here his valour is seene though he stood with his earthly Body upon the pinnacle of the Temple yet he committed his Earthly Body to God and trusted in him and that he was every where in God and said to the Devill It is written thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God Here the Devils Pride in the Kingdome of wrath was rightly overcome and the humility the strength and the might remained to be our Christs and the soule of Christ is entered into the holy Ternary as into the humble Love and espoused it selfe with the humble chast virgin of the Divine Wisdome 97. Now when the Devill had lost twice then he came at last with his last powerfull Temptation as he did also to Adam he would give him the whole world if he would fall downe and worship him The businesse with Adam also was about this world he would draw this world to him and so be like God with it that as God had drawne this world to him to manifest his great Wonders therewith so the soule in Adam thought with it selfe thou art the similitude of God thou wilt doe so too and so thou shalt be like God but thereby he went forth from God into the Spirit of this world Now therefore the second Adam must hold out the standing of the first Adam whereby it was tempted or tried whether the soule would continue in the new holy heavenly Man and live in the Barmbertzigkeit the o Or Mercy Mercifulnesse of God or in the Spirit of this world 98. And thus stood the soule as a valiant Champion and said to Satan Get thee hence Satan thou shouldst worship the Lord thy God and serve him onely I have no more to doe with thee there the Devill Hell and the Kingdome of this world was commanded to be gone and the valiant Champion hath gotten the victory and the Devill faine to get him gone and the earthly part was overcome And here now the Noble Champion standeth upon the Moon and receiveth all might in Heaven Hell on Earth into his power and ruleth with his soule in the holy Ternary in this outward body over Death and life and here this world is become Christs owne for he had overcome it be could live in God and needed not the earthly food nor drink 99. And the Reader must know that the Combat with the Temptation was held in body and soule and that this Temptation concerneth us al 's ohe hath overcome for us if wee put our whole trust in him then wee have victory in him over sinnes Death Hell and the Devill and also over this world for he held the last victory in his Death when he brake the sword of the Cherubine and destroyed the Hell of the Devill and hath led captivity captive that thereby thou mightst live by the Death of Christ 100. And wee see that all is true as is above-mentioned for when he had overcome in the Temptation and had stood forty dayes then he had wholly overcome till the last victory in Death for so long Adam was in the Temptation in the Garden of Eden and p Viz. after the Temptation there he began his Priestly Kingdome as a King over Heaven and this world with signes and wonders and in his first Miracle turned water into good wine he also healed the sick made the blinde to see the lame to goe and cleansed the Lepers also he raised the dead and shewed himselfe to be the true King over the q Over the living and the dead quick and dead and face upon Davids Throne of Promise and was the true Priest in the Order of Melchisedech All whatsoever Aaron was in the Fathers might in a Type that this high Priest was in vertue and power with deeds and wonders which wee will cleerly describe in the other Book following this if wee live and God shall give us leave to doe it CHAP. XXIII Of the highly precious Testaments of Christ viz. Baptisme and his last Supper which he held in the Evening of Mandy Thursday with his Disciples which be left us for his Last Will as a Farewell for a Remembrance The most Noble Gate of Christianitie 1. IT is apparent how they have hitherto in Babell danced or contended about the Cup of Jesus Christ and about his holy Testaments for which they have caused many warres and bloud-sheddings but what kinde of knowledge concerning those Testaments they in Babell have appeareth by their works of Love among one another which their Councels have brought to passe where Men have stopt the mouth of the Holy Ghost and have made a worldly a Rule or Government Dominion out of the Priesthood of Christ 2. O you high Priests and b Or the learned in the Scripture Scribes what answer will you make to Christ when you shall be found thus at his comming Or doe you suppose you stand in the dark No you stand in the presence of the cleere countenance of Jesus Christ who is Judge of the quick and dead doe but open your eyes and rightly feed the flock of Jesus Christ he cometh and demandeth chem of you You are not all Shepheards or Pastours but intruded covetous Wolves you relie on your Schoole-Art or University Learning and Schollership O that avayleth nothing in the presence of God the Holy Ghost speaketh not from that he will not be bound up if you will be Pastours then you must hold out in the Temptation and put on the Garment of the Lamb in your heart you must not take the wooll of the sheepe onely from them but you must give them the food of the Holy Ghost in true Love and be practisers of it your selves c Note this But how will you give it if you be in the Wildernesse still and have chosen the Kingdome of this world to your selves in the Last Temptation What shall be said of you Is not the Anger broke out and burning carry fuell to it for Babell is on fire the d Humility and Love water is dried up or what have I to doe with thee that I must
which is a Roote or stirre up of the Roote of the fiercenesse and therefore it was necessary that God should passe with the new Body into the Seperation of the Roote and of the Kingdome of this world as into the Death of the fiercenesse and should destroy Death and spring with its own vertue and power through Death as a flower springeth out of the Earth and so hold the inward fiercenesse captive l In the new bodies own vertue or power in his own vertue of the New Body 11. And this wee understand of Christ who is truly entred in such a manner and hath taken the strong Anger and the Devill in it captive and hath sprung with his holy heavenly body through Death and hath destroyed Death so that the Eternall Life springeth forth through Death and thus Death was taken captive by the New Eternall Body and it is an Eternall imprisonment so that an Eternall life is growne in Death and the New Body treadeth upon the Head of Death and of the fiercenesse the property of Death standeth in the Prison of the New Eternall Life 12. And so the Woman in whom the Eternall Life springeth standeth upon the Earthly Moone and despiseth that which is Earthly for that which is Earthly perisheth and then there remaineth of that which is Earthly the hard frozen Death and so now the Word of God as a living m Source or actâ—ve propertie fountaine is entred into Death and hath generated the soule in its selfe and springeth forth out of the soule through Death like a new flower and that flower is the new Body in Christ 13. After this manner you may understand how he destroyed Death by the Springing of the Eternall Life in the Deity through Death and you may understand how the new Body in the Love of God holdeth the Eternall source of the Anger captive for the Love is the prison of the Anger for the source of the Anger cannot enter into the Love but continueâ—h onely by it selfe as it was from Eternity and therein the Devils are imprisoned for the Light of God striketh them downe they neither can nor dare behold that Light in Eternity a Principle is between for the Love springeth forth in the Centre of the soule and therein the Holy Trinity appeareth or shineth 14. Thus wee have gotten a Prince of the Eternall Life and wee need doe no more but to presse in to him with a firme trust and strong Beliefe and then our soule receiveth hiâ— Love and springeth forth with him through death and standeth upon that which is Earthly viz. upon flesh and bloud and is a fruit in the Kingdome of God in the body of Jesus Christ and triumpheth over the fiercenesse for the Love holdeth that captive and that is a reproach to Death as Paul saith O Death where is thy Sting O Hell where is thy Victory Thanks be to God who hath given us victory 15. And because wee cleerly understand and apprehend it in the Spirit therefore wee are indebted to shew the light to those that apprehend it not and doe lie thus captivated in Reason and continually search into the Circumstances why it happened so in the Passion of Christ For Reason saith If it must needs be so that Christ must enter into Death and destroy Death and spring up through Death and so draw us unto him what is the cause then that he must be so despised and n Or whipped scourged and crowned with a Crowne of Thornes and at last be Crucified between Heaven and Earth Could he not dye some other Death and so spring through Death with his Heavenly Body 16. These hard Points cast downe all Jewes Turkes and o Infidels or Heathens Pagans and they keepe them back from the Christian Faith Therefore now wee must write for the sake of the Tree of Pearle and not conceale what appeareth to us in the Great Wonder Behold thou Childe of Man consider what wee set downe here gaze not on the hand of the Penne if you doe you erre and will loose the Jewel which in all Eternity you will be sorry for consider thy selfe onely and thou shalt finde in thy selfe all the causes of the Passion of Christ that are here written downe for there was a Wonderfull Penne in the writing of it and neither thou nor the Hand knoweth him sufficiently that directed it in the writing though indeed the Spirit knoweth him very well yet the naturall Man is blinde in it neither can it be expressed with earthly words Therefore consider thy selfe and if you search into the new-borne-Man then you will finde the Pearle The very horrible wonderfull Gate of Mans Sinnes 17. As wee have in the beginning of this Booke mentioned the Eternall p Or working Birth in the Originality so wee have mentioned the Birth of the Essences and the seven Spirits of the Eternall Nature and therein wee shewed how there is a Crosse-Birth in the Eternall Birth in the fourth forme where the Essences in the turning wheele make a Crosse-Birth because they cannot goe out from themselves but that the Eternall Birth is every where so in all things in the Essence of all Essences 18. And wee give you to understand thus much in very exact knowledge at the instant of this Text that all Essences in all qualities at the time of the over-coming of Death when Christ was to overcome death and destroy hell and captivate the Devill were predominant for so it must be he must release the soule from all Essences 19. Now the Crosse-Birth is the middlemost in the Essences yet before the Fire q The Crosse-Birth it standeth in the Anxious Death in the fiercenesse of the Hell as you may reade before for from the fierce flash in the Brimston Spirit the fire cometh forth and in the flash the Light and the fiercenesse it selfe maketh the Brimstone-Spirit and out of that in the Light cometh water as is before-mentioned Now then the soule of Man is discovered in the flash as a Spirit and held by the Fiat and so is created or generated and was brought in it selfe into the fift forme of the Birth as into the Love where then it was an Angel in the Light of God 20. But this world being created as a Principle in the fourth forme as an out-Birth and the Paradise being between the fourth and the fifth forme and the r The one pure Element Element being in the fift forme and therein the Eternall Light of the Deity having opened another Centre and the soule having reflected back againe into the fourth forme and entered thereinto it made all Essences predominant in it which stood in the fourth forme 21. And now when the body of the soule in the fourth forme was come to be a Masse out of the water with a mixture of the other formes then stuck all Essences out of the fourth forme upon the soule and it was captivated with this body and it had
The Second Booke CONCERNING The Three Principles OF The Divine Essence Of the Eternall Dark Light and Temporary VVorld SHEWING What the Soule the Image and the Spirit of the Soule are as also what Angels Heaven and Paradise are How Adam was before the Fall in the Fall and after the Fall AND What the Wrath of God Sinne Death the Devils and Hell are How all things have been now are and how they shall be at the Last Written in the German Language by Jacob Behmen Aliàs Teutonicus Philosophus LONDON Printed by M. S. for H. Blunden at the Castle in Cornhill 1648. ⧠To the READER SInce the Publishing of this Authours forty Questions in English the Mindes of severall Persons have had divers Thoughts concerning his Writings and yet have been of Searching apprehensions I would they were well acquainted with his Writings and then they would not onely be able to finde out the Truth in their own thoughts but also in the written words of him and others as in the Articles and confessions of Faith or any other Writings and it may be those thoughts they have though they be true if rightly understood yet if they may perhaps be misapprehended they may hinder themselves of inestimable Eternall Benefit Some have complained of the Hardnesse to understand his writings and therefore I have endeavoured the Englishing of this Booke of the Three Principles which the Authour saith is the A. B. C. to all his writings and if they reade it carefully they will finde it though hard at first easie at last and then all his other Bookes easie and full of Deep Understanding A Man cannot conceive the wonderfull knowledge before he hath read this Booke throughly and diligently which he will finde to be conteined in it when he is weighing and deliberating upon the Matter as he readeth and that without hard Study for it will rise in the Minde of it selfe with a ravishing sweetnesse and content and he will finde that the Threefold Life is tenfold deeper than this and the forty Questions to be tenfold deeper than that and that to be as deep as a Spirit is in it selfe as the Authour saith then which there can be no greater Depth for God himselfe is a Spirit And accordingly there appeare some Glimpses of the most Deepe Mysticall Orientall Learning heere and there which is not discovered in any Bookes and therefore some of the Learned Men of Europe think it may be past their Reach but they will finde that Ground in him which will make such things easie to be understood for the time of disclosing those Grounds so plainly was not till now that the Mysteries which have been hid since the wotld began should be revealed Those that had the Spirituall Understanding of the Naturall Mysteries were called Wisemen and they that understood the Divine Mysteries were called * Saints Holy Men and they were Prophets Preachers Apostles Evangelists and Beleevers The Wise Men of All Nations did write darkly of their Mysteries not to be understood but by such as were Lovers of those things and so the very Scriptures themselves which conteine all things in them cannot be understood but by such as love to follow practise and endeavour to doe those things which they finde in them ought to be done and those that led their Lives in such a way came to understand those Mysteries from which they were written and in severall Nations their wisdome hath had severall Names which hath caused our Age to take all the Names of the severall parts of wisdome and sort them into Arts among which the Magia and Cabala are accounted the most Mysticall the Magia consisting in the knowing how things have come to be and the Cabala in knowing how the words and formes of Things expresse the Reality of the Inward Mysterie But he that knoweth the Mysterie knoweth both these and all the Branches of the Tree of Wisdome in all Reall Arts and Sciences and the true Signification of every Idea in every Thought and Thing and Sound and Letter in every Language and therefore this Authour having the true knowledge could well expound the Letters of the Names of God and other words and Syllables the signification of which he saith is well understood in the Language of Nature and as one jot or tittle of the word of God shall not passe away till all be fulfilled so there is no tittle of any * As in the Revelations I am Α and Ω the beginning and the end Letter that is proceeded from that Eternall Essentiall Word as all things are but hath its weighty signification in the deepe understanding in that Word from whence it came even in the voices of All Men and sounds of All other Creatures also the Letters and Syllables of a word of some Language doe expresse something of the Mysterie more exquisitely than of another and therefore I conceive the Authour useth sometime to expound words borrowed from the Hebrew Greek and some Latine words and other words of Art as well as German words and not alwayes words of his own Native Language onely according to their signification in the Language of Nature for that Language doth shew in every ones Mother Tongue the Greatest Mysteries that have ever been in the Nature of any thing in the Letters of that word by which it is expressed therefore let every one esteem those expositions of his according to their high worth for the knowledge of that Language is onely taught by the Spirit of the Letter Some think it is unnecessary to know such Mysteries indeed every ones Nature is not fitted with a Capacity for the highest Depths therefore they need not search so farre nor trouble themselves to looke for the understanding of that they desire not to know but that they may see how necessary his writings are let them reade the Authours own Preface to this Booke and there they shall finde the necessity of * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 knowing themselves for else they can never know God and then they cannot know the way to God though they reade it never so plainly set downe in the Scriptures and besides the way to God is in his writings more easie to be understood by those of our Age than in the Scripture because that hath been so vayled by Doubtfull Interpretations Expositions Inferences and Conclusions and therefore it must needs be highly necessary that such a foundation be laid as may assure us of the true meaning of the Scriptures which teach that which is so Absolutely necessary to salvation Moreover his Grounds will teach us the way to Get such understanding that wee shall know and feele as well as they to whom the Apostle John wrote that wee shall not neede any Man to teach us any thing for we shall know and get that Unction which teacheth all things and leadeth into all Truth though it is thought People cannot have that now by such as know not what is in Man
beneficialnesse welfare of a thing that which is lovely and dearest in it in a creature it is the light by which the creature seeth or perceiveth and therein Reason and the Senses consist and it is the spirit which is generated out of the PHUR The word or syllable PHUR is the prima materia or first matter and containeth in it self in the third Principle the i Or great world Macrocosme from which the Elementary Dominion or Region or Essence is generated But in the first Principle it is the essence of the most inward birth out of which God generateth or begetteth his Sonne from eternity and thereout the holy Ghost proceedeth understand out of the SUL and out of the PHUR And in Man also it is the light which is generated out of the Sydereall spirit in the k Or second ground of the little world second center of the Microcosme but in the Spiraculum and spirit of the soul in the the most inward center it is the light of God which that soul onely hath which is in the love of God for it is onely kindled and blown up from the holy Ghost 8. Observe now the depth of the Divine l Or of the eternall divine working birth there is no Sulphur in God but it is generated from him and there is such a vertue or power in him For the syllable PHUR is or signifieth the most inward vertue or power of the originall source or spring of the anger of the fierce tartnesse or of the mobility as is mentioned in the first chapter and that syllable PHUR hath a fourfold form property or power in it as first harshnesse or astringency and then bitternesse fire and water the harshnesse is attractive and is rough cold and sharp and maketh all hard hungry and full of anguish and that attracting is a bitter sting or prickle very terrible and the first swelling or boyling up existeth in the anguish yet because it cannot rise higher from its seat but is thus continually generated from beneath therefore it falleth into a turning or wheeling as swift as a thought in great anguish and therein it falleth to be a twinkling flash as if a steel and flint or stone were strongly struck together and rubbed one against another 9. For the harshnesse is as hard as a stone or flint and the bitternesse rusheth and rageth like a m As the wheel in a firelock strikes fire by turning round breaking wheel which breaketh the harshnesse and stirreth up the fire so that all falleth to be a terrible n Rumbling or thunder-clap crack of fire and flieth up and the harshnesse or astringency breaketh in pieces whereby the dark tartnesse is terrified and sinketh back and becometh as it were feeble or weak or as if it were killed and dead and runneth out becometh thin and yeeldeth it self to be overcome But when the strong flash of fire o Or reflecteth shineth back a-again upon or into the tartnesse and is mingled therein and findeth the harshnesse so thin and overcome then it is much more terrified for it is as if water were thrown upon the fire which maketh a crack yet when the crack or terror is thus made in the overcome harshnesse thereby it getteth another source condition ot property and a p Or skreek crack or noise of great joy proceedeth out of the wrathfull fiercenesse and riseth up in the fierce strength as a kindled light for the crack in the twinkling of an eye becometh white clear light for thus the kindling of the light cometh in that very moment as soon as the light that is the new crack of the fire is infected or q Or filled impregnated with the harshnesse the tartnesse or astringency kindleth and skreeketh or is affrighted by the great light that cometh into it in the twinkling of an eye as if it did awake from death and becometh soft or r Or lovely meek lively and joyfull it presently loseth its dark rough harsh and cold vertue and leapeth or springeth up for joy and rejoyceth in the light and its sting or prickle which is the bitternesse that triumpheth in the turning wheel for great joy 10. Here observe the shreek or crack of the fire is kindled in the anguish in the brimstone-spirit and then the skreek flieth up triumphantly and the aking or anxious harshnesse or brimstone-spirit is made thin and sweet by the light for as the light or the flash becometh clearer or brighter from the crack of the fire in the vanquished harsh-tartnesse and loseth its wrathful fierce Å¿ Dominion or jurisdiction property so the tartnesse loseth its authority by the infection or mixture of the light and is made thin or transparent and sweet by the white light For in the originall the harshnesse or astringency was altogether dark and aking with anguish by reason of its hardnesse and attracting but now it is wholly light and thereupon it loseth its own quality or property and out of the wrathfull harshnesse there cometh to be an t Or springing substance essence that is sharp and the light maketh the sharpnesse altogether sweet The * The Divine everlasting gates or doors by which we have entrance to the Deity Gates of God 11. Behold now when the bitternesse or the bitter sting or prickle which in the originall was so very bitter raging and tearing when it took its originall in the harshnesse attaineth this clear light and tasteth now the sweetnesse in the harshnesse which is its mother and then it is so joyfull and cannot rise or swell so any more but it trembleth and rejoyceth in its mother that bare it and triumpheth like a joyfull wheel in the birth And in this triumph the birth attaineth the fifth form and then the fifth source springeth up viz. the u Or loving favour friendly love and so when the bitter spirit tasteth the sweet water it rejoyceth in its mother the soure tart harshnesse and so refresheth and strengtheneth it selfe therein and maketh its mother stirring x With or for in great joy where then there springeth up in the Sweet-water-spirit a very sweet pleasant source or fountain for the Fire-spirit which is the root of the light which was a strong fierce rumbling skreek crack or terrour in the beginning that now riseth up very lovely pleasantly and joyfully 12. And here is nothing but the kisse of love and wooing and here the Bridegroome embraceth his beloved Bride and is no otherwise then when the pleasing life is born or generated in the soure tart or harsh death and the birth of life is thus in a creature for from this y Or riggling stirring moving or wheeling of the bitternesse in the essence of the harsh astringent tartnesse of the Water-spirit the birth attaineth the sixth z Property vertue or power form viz. the sound or noise of the motion And this sixth form is rightly called Mercurius for it taketh its
plainly what this trick of theirs is it is the dung and filth wherewith they cover and hide the Devill and cloake the injected malice and wickednesse of the Devill in Man so that neither the Devill nor the anger of God nor the i Or Evill will Evill Beast in Man k But remaine hidden and undiscovered can be discerned 7. And this is the very reason because the Devill smelleth the matter and therefore he hindereth it that his kingdome might not be revealed but that he might continue to be the Great Prince of the world still for otherwise if his kingdome were knowne men might flie from him where is it more needfull for him to oppose than on that part where his Enemy may break in He therefore covereth the hearts minds thoughts and senses of the Divines he leadeth them into covetousnesse pride and wantonnesse so that they stand amazed with feare and horror at the Light of God and therefore they shut it up for they are naked nay they grutch the light to those that see it this is rightly called the service and worship of the Devill 8. But the time is coming when the Aurora or Day-spring will break forth and then the Beast that evill childe or childe of perdition shall stand forth naked and in great shame for the judgement of the Whore of the Great Beast goeth on therefore awake and flie away ye children of God that you bring not the Mark of the Great Evill Beast upon your forehead with you before the cleare Light or else you will have great shame and confusion of face therewith It is now high time to awake from sleepe for the Bridegroom maketh himselfe ready to fetch home his bride and he cometh with a cleere shining Light they that shall have oyle in their Lampe their Lamps shall be kindled and they shall be Guests but those that shall have no oyle their Lamps shall continue dark and they shall sleep still and retaine the marks of the Beast till the Sun rise and then they shall be horribly affrighted and stand in eternall shame for the judgement shall be executed the children of God shall observe it but those that sleep shall sleep till day Further of the Birth 9. The Birth of the Eternall Nature is like the thoughts or senses in Man as when a thought or sense is generated by somewhat and afterwards propagateth it self into infinite many thoughts or as a roote of a Tree generateth a stock and many buds and branches as also many roots buds and branches from one roote and all of them from that one first roote Therefore observe what is mentioned before whereas nature consisteth of six formes or properties so every forme generateth againe a forme out of it selfe of the same quality and condition of it selfe and this forme now hath the quality and condition of all the formes in it selfe 10. But l Or understand and consider it aright observe it well the first of the six formes generateth but one m Or Budding property source like it selfe after the similitude of its own fountaine-Spirit and not like the first Mother the harshnesse but as one twig or branch in a Tree putteth forth another sprout out of it selfe For in every fountaine-Spirit there is but one centre wherein the fire-source or fountaine ariseth and the light ariseth out of the flash of the fire and the first six-fold forme is in the n Or Springing property source or fountaine 11. But mark the depth in a similitude which I set down thus the harsh-spring in the Originall is the Mother out of which the other five Springs are generated viz. Bitternesse fire love sound and water Now these are members of this Birth of their Mother and without them there would be nothing but an anguishing dark vale or vacuum where there could be no mobility nor any light or life But now the life is borne in her by the kindling of the light and then shee rejoyceth in her own property and laboureth in her owne tart soure quality to generate againe and in her own quality there riseth a life againe and a centre openeth it selfe againe and the life cometh to be generated againe out of her in a six-fold forme yet not in any such anguish as at the beginning but in great joy 12. For the Spring of the great anguish which was in the beginning before the light in the tart harshnesse from which the bitter sting or prickle is generated that is now in the sweet fountaine of the love in the light changed from the water-spirit and from bitternesse or pricklinesse is now become the fountaine or spring of the joy in the light Thus now henceforth the fire-flash is the father of the light and the light shineth in him and is now the onely cause of the moving Birth and of the birth of the love that which in the beginning was the o Or Lake of Torment aking source is now SUL or the oyle of the lovely pleasant fountaine which presseth through all the fountaines so that from hence the light is kindled 13. And the sound or noise in the turning wheele is now the declarer or pronouncer in all the fountaines that the beloved childe is borne for it cometh with its sound before all Doores and in all Essences so that in its awakening all the vertues or powers are stirring and see feele have smell and taste one another in the light for the whole Birth nourisheth it selfe in its first mother viz. the p Or Soure tart springing substantiality harsh essence being now become so thin or pure meek sweet and full of joy and so the whole birth standeth in very great joy love meeknesse and humility and is nothing else than a meere pleasing taste a delighting sight a sweet smell a ravishing sound to the hearing a soft touch beyond that which any tongue can utter or expresse how should there not be joy and love where in the very midst of death the Eternall Life is generated and where there is no feare of any end nor can be 14. Thus in the harshnesse there is a new birth againe understand where the tart soure astringency is predominant in the Birth and where the fire is not kindled according to the bitter sting or prickle or from the beginning of the anguish But the rising or exulting Joy is now the Centre and kindling of the light and the tartnesse or astringency hath now q Or for in its own quality the SUL Oyle and Light of the Father Therefore now the Birth out of the Twig or Branch of the first tree is qualified altogether according to the r Or tart soure fountaine harsh fountaine and the fire therein is a tart or soure fire and the bitternesse a tart bitternesse and the sound a tart sound and the love a tart love but all in meere perfection and in a totally glorious love and joy 15. And thus also the first bitter sting or
again to the monstrous birth and delivered man out of that Elementary and Sydereall house of flesh and set him again in Paradise of which I will write at large hereafter 42 If therefore you will speak or think of God you must consider that he is all and you must look further into the three Principles wherein you will finde what God is you will finde what the Wrath the Devill Hell and Sinne are also what the Angels Man and Beasts are and how the separation or variation followed from whence all things have thus proceeded you will finde the creation of the world 43. Onely Reader I admonish you sincerely if you be not in the way of the prodigall or lost sonne returning to his father again that you leave my book and read it not it wil do you harm for the b Satan great Prince will not forbear to deceive you because he standeth naked in this book before the children of God and is exceedingly ashamed as a man that is put to open shame before all people for his misdeeds therefore be warned And if you love and savour the tender delicate flesh still do not read my book but if you will not take warning and a mischief befall you I will be guiltlesse blame no body but your self for I write down what I know at present for a memoriall to my selfe yet God knoweth well what he will do with it which in some measure is hid from me 44. Seeing now that we can finde nothing in all Nature of which we may say This is God or here is God from whence we might conclude that God might be some strange thing and seeing himself witnesseth that his is the kingdome and the power from eternity to eternity and that he calleth himself Father and the Sonne is begotten out of the loyns of his Father therefore we must seek for him in the originall c In principio in the Principle out of which the world was generated and created in the beginning and we can say no otherwise but that the first Principle is God the Father himself 45. Yet there is found in the originall the most horrible and fierce or strong birth viz. the Harshnesse Bitternesse and Fire of which we cannot say that it is God and yet it is the most inward first d Wel-spring or fountain source of all that is in God the Father according to which he calleth himself an Angry Zealous or Jealous God and this source as you finde before in the first three chapters concerning the originall of the eternall Birth is the first Principle and that is God the Father in his originality out of which this world hath its beginning 46. But the Angels and the Devils as also the soul of man are meerly and purely e As before verse 37. out of the same Spirit The Devils and the Angels in the time of f Their being made corporeall continued in the spirituall substance their bodifying continued therein and the soul of man in the time of the creating of the body is breathed in from the Spirit of God in the * Or one Element root of the third Principle and now continueth therein in eternity unseparably and unmoveably in the eternall originall Substance or Essence of GOD and as little as the pure eternall Birth and the indissoluble band of the Father endeth or vanisheth so little also will such a spirit have an end 47. Yet in this Principle there is nothing else but the most horrible begetting the greatest anguish and hostile quickning like a Brimstone-spirit and is ever the gate of Hell and the Abysse wherein Prince Lucifer at the extinguishing of his light continued and wherein viz. in the same abysse of Hell the soul continueth which is separated from the second Principle and whose light which shineth from the heart of God is extinguished and for which cause also at the end of this time there will be a separation or parting asunder of the Saints of light from the damned whose g Or working fountain of their condition as a boyling springing torment source will be without the light of God 48. Now we have here shewed you the first Principle out of which all things take their beginning and must speak so of it as if there were a place or a separable essence where there is such a kinde of source to the end that the first Principle might be understood so that the eternity as also the anger of God sinne eternall death the darknesse which is so called in respect of the extinguishment of the light also hell-fire and the Devill might be known and understood what they are 49. So I will now write of the second Principle of the cleare pure Deity of the h That is the power glory or lustre of the Father heart of God In the first Principle as I have mentioned above is i The attracting astringent soure tart smartnesse Harshnesse Bitternesse and Fire and yet they are not three things but one onely thing and they one generate another Harshnesse is the first Father which is strong fierce or tart very sharp and attracting to it self and that attracting is the sting or prickle or bitternesse which the harshnesse cannot endure and it will not be captivated in death but riseth and flieth up like a strong fierce substance and yet cannot remove from off its place And then there is a horrrible anguish which findeth no rest and the birth is like a turning wheel twitching so very hard and breaking or bruising as it were furiously which the harshnesse cannot endure but attracteth continually more and more harder and harder as when steel and a flint are struck one against another from which the twinkling flash of fire proceedeth and when the harshnesse perceiveth k The flash of fire it †The harshnesse it starteth and sinketh back as it were dead and overcome and so when the flash of fire cometh into its mother the harshnesse and findeth her thus soft and overcome then it is much more terrified than the harshnesse and becometh in the twinkling of an eye white and clear And now when the harsh tartnesse attaineth the white clear light in it self it is so very much terrified that it falleth or sinketh back as if it were dead and overcome and expandeth it self and becometh very thin and pliable or vanquished For it s own source was dark and hard and now is become l As when the the rayes of the sun which turneth the hard cold ice into thin fluid water light and soft therefore now it is first rightly become as it were dead and now is the water-spirit 50. Thus the birth getteth an essence that hath sharpnesse from the harshnesse and sweetnesse thinnesse and expansion from the light and now when the flash of fire cometh into its mother and findeth her so sweet thin and light m Or can work no more then it loseth its own propriety
the Water in the framing forming or fashioning of the world This is and continueth so in its Eternity that the Spirit of God in the birth of the Sonne of God moveth upon the Water for he is the vertue or power and out flowing in the Father out of the kindled c Light water light a water out of the water and light of God 61. Thus God is one onely undivided Essence and yet threefold in personall distinction one God one will one heart one desire one pleasure one beauty one almightinesse one fullnesse of all things neither beginning nor ending for if I should goe about to seeke for the beginning or ending of a small dot point punctum or of a perfect Circle I should misse and be confounded 62. And although I have written here as if it tooke a beginning writing as it were of the beginning and first springing of the second Principle and the d Or continuall operation birth of the divine Essence yet you must not understand it as having any beginning for the eternall birth is thus without beginning or end and that in the Originalnesse but I write to the end that man might learne to know himselfe what he is and what God Heaven Angels Devils and Hell are as also what the wrath of God and Hell-fire is For I am permitted to write as far as of the Originalnesse 63. Therefore O childe of Man consider what thou art in this time esteeme not so sleightly or poorly of thy selfe but consider that you remaine in Paradise and put not out the divine light in you or else you must hereafter remaine in the Originall of the source of anger or wrath in the valley of darknesse and your noble Image out of God will be turned into a Serpent and Dragon 64. For you must know that as soone as the divine light went out in the Devils they lost their beauteous forme and Image and became like Serpents Dragons Wormes and evill Beasts as may be seene by Adams Serpent and thus it is also with the damned soules For this wee know in the Originall of the first Principle very well If you aske how so reade this following A description of a Devill how he is in his own proper forme and also how he was in the Angelicall forme 65. Behold O childe of Man All the Angels were created in the first Principle and by the e Or moving working flowing Spirit were formed and bodified in a true Angelicall and spirituall manner and enlightened from the light of God that they might encrease the Paradisicall joy and abide therein eternally but being they were to abide-eternally they must be figured or formed out of the indissoluble Band out of the first Principle which is an indissoluble Band and they ought to looke upon the heart of God and feed apon the Word of God and this food would be their holy preservation and would make theit Image cleere and light as the heart of God in the beginning of the second Principle enlighteneth the Father that is the first Principle and there the Divine Power Paradise and kingdome of Heaven springeth up 66. Thus it is with those Angels that continued in the kingdome of heaven in the true Paradise they stand in the first Principle in the indissoluble Band and their food is the divine Power and their Imagination or Imagining in their thoughts and minde is the will of the holy Trinity in the Deity the confirmation or establishing of their life will and doings is the power of the Holy Ghost whatsoever that doth in the generating of Paradise the Angels rejoyce at and they sing the f Or Hallelujahs joyfull songs of Paradise concerning the pleasant saving fruit and eternall birth all they doe is an increasing of the heavenly Joy and a delight and pleasure to the heart of God a holy sport in Paradise a satisfying of the desire or will of the eternall Father to this end their God created them that he might be manifested and rejoyce in his Creatures and the Creatures in him so that there might be an eternall sport of love in the centre of the multiplying or eternall Nature in the indissoluble eternall Band. 67. This sport of love was spoiled by Lucifer himselfe who is so called because of the extinguishment of his light and of being cast out of his Throne who was a Prince and King over many Legions but is become a Devill and hath lost his beautifull faire bright and glorious Image For he as well as other Angels was created out of the Eternall Nature out of the eternall indissoluble Band and hath also stood in Paradise also felt and seene the g Or working Birth of the holy Deity the birth of the second Principle of the heart of God and the confirmation of the Holy Ghost his food should have been of the Word of the Lord and therein he should have continued an Angel 68. But he saw that he was a Prince standing in the first Principle and so despised the birth of the heart of God and the soft and very lovely h Working or influence qualification thereof and meant to be a very potent and terrible Lord in the first Principle and would qualifie or work in the strength of the Fire he despised the meeknesse of the heart of God he would not set his imagination therein or his thoughts upon it and therefore he could not be fed from the Word of the Lord and so his light went out whereupon presently he became a loathsomenesse in Paradise and was spewed out of his princely Throne with all his Legions that stuck to him or depended on him 69. And now when the heart of God departed from him the second Principle was shut up to him and so he lost God the kingdome of heaven and all Paradisicall knowledge pleasure and joy he also presently lost the Image of God and the confirmation of the holy Ghost because he despised the second Principle wherein he was an Angel and Image of God thus all things departed from him and he remained in the i Or Valley of Darknesse dark valley and could no more raise his imagination up into God but he continued in the foure Anguishes of the Originalnesse 70. And when he raised up his Imagination then he kindled to himselfe the source or roote of the fire and then when the roote of the fire did seeke for the water viz. the true Mother of the eternall Nature it found the sterne or tart astringent harshnesse and the mother in the aking death and the bitter sting or prickle formed the birth to be a fierce raging Serpent very terrible in it selfe rising up in the indissoluble Band an eternall Enmity a will striving against it selfe an eternall despaire of all-good the bitter sting also formed the minde to be as a breaking striking wheele having its will continually aspiring to the strength of the fire and to destroy the heart of God and yet could
never at all be able to reach it 71. For he is alwayes shut up in the first Principle as in the eternall Death and yet he raiseth himselfe up continually thinking to reach the heart of God and to domineere over it for his bitter sting in the birth climeth up thus eternally in the k Or Roote source of the fire and affordeth him a proud will to have all at his pleasure but he attaineth nothing his food is the l Fountaine of poyson source of water viz. the Brimstone-spirit which is the most aking mother from which the indissoluble band is fed and nourished his refreshing is the eternall m Viz. the cold fire fire an eternall freesing in the harsh mother an eternall hunger in the bitternesse an eternall thirst in the source of the fire his climeing up is his fall the more he climeth up in his will the greater is his fall like one that standing upon a high clift would cast himselfe downe into a bottomlesse pit he looketh still further and he falleth in further and further and yet can finde no ground 72. Thus he is an eternall enemy to the heart of God and all the holy Angels and he cannot frame any other will in himselfe His Angels and Devils are of very many severall sorts all according to the Eternall Birth For at the time of his Creation he stood in the kingdome of Heaven in the point Locus or place where the holy Ghost in the birth of the heart of God in Paradise did open infinite and innumerable Centres in the eternall Birth in this seate or place he was n Or Created bodified and hath his beginning in the opening of the o In the opening of the ground as a building from the Earth Centres in the Eternall Nature 73. Therefore as is mentioned before in the third Chapter when the Birth of life sprung up every Essence had againe a Centre in it selfe according to its owne property or quality and figureth a life according to its Essences viz. Harshnesse bitternesse fire and sound and all further according to the ability of the eternall birth which is p Or established confirmed in the kingdome of Heaven 74. Seeing then that they stood in Heaven in the time of their Creation therefore their quality was also manifold and all should have been and continued Angels if the great fountaine Lucifer from whence they proceeded had not destroyed them and so now also every one in his fall continueth in his own Essences onely the second Principle is extinguished in them and so it is also with the soule of man when the light of God goeth out in it but so long as that shineth therein it is in Paradise and eateth of the word of the Lord whereof shall be clearly spoken in its due place CHAP. V. Of the third Principle or creation of the materiall world with the Starres and Elements wherein the first and second Principle is more clearly understood 1. BEcause I may happen not to be understood clearly enough by the desirous Reader and shall be as one that is altogether dumb to the unenlightned for the eternall and indissoluble band wherein the Essence of all Essences standeth is not easily nor in haste to be understood therefore it is necessary that the desirous Reader do the more earnestly consider himself what he is and from whence his Reason and a Inward senses or thoughts Senses do proceed wherein he findeth the similitude of God especially if he consider and meditate what his Soul is which is an eternall uncorruptible Spirit 2. But if the Reader be b Or be in true resignation born of God there is no neerer way for him to come to the knowledge of the third Principle then by considering the new Birth how the soul is new born by the love of God in the light and how it is translated out of the prison or dungeon of darknesse into the light by a second birth And now if you consider that darknesse wherein it must be without the new birth and consider what the Scripture saith and what every one findeth by experience that falleth into the wrath of God and whereof there are terrible examples that the soul must endure irksome torment in it self in the birth of the life of its own self so long as it is in the wrath of God and then that if it be born again exulting great joy ariseth in it and thus you finde very clearly and plainly two Principles as also God Paradise and the kingdome of Heaven 3. For you finde in the root of the originall of the spirit of the soule in it self in the substance of the eternall birth and uncorruptible eternall band of the soul the most exceeding horrible inimicitious irksome c Or torment or working property source wherein the soul without the light of God is like all Devils wherein their eternall source consisteth being an enmity in it self a will striving against God and goodnesse it desireth nothing that is pleasant or good it is a climbing up of pride in the strength of the fire a bitter fierce odious malice or wrathfulnesse against Paradise against God against the kingdome of heaven also against all creatures in the second and third Principle lifting up themselves alone against all this as the bitternesse d In wrath or anger doth in the fire doth 4. Now the Scripture witnesseth throughout and the new-born man findeth it so that when the soul is new born in the light â—f God then on the contrary it findeth how very humble meek courteous and cheerly it is it readily beareth all manner of crosses and persecution it turneth the body from out of the way of the wicked it regardeth no reproach disgrace or scorn put upon it from the Devill or Man it placeth its confidence refuge and love in the heart of God it is very cheerfull it is fed by the word of God in which there is a Paradisicall exulting and triumph it cannot be hurt or so much as touched by the Devill for it is in its own substance wherein it stands in the first Principle of the indissoluble band enlightned with the light of God and the holy Ghost who goeth forth out of the eternall e Generation begetting or working birth of the Father in the heart and in the light of the heart of God he goeth forth in it and establisheth it the childe of God 5. Therefore all that it doth seeing it liveth in the light of God is done in the love of God the Devill cannot see that soul for the second Principle wherein it liveth and in which God and the kingdom of heaven standeth as also the Angels and Paradise is shut up from him and he cannot get to it 6. In this consideration you may finde what I understand by a Principle For a Principle is nothing else but a new birth a new life besides there is no more than one Principle wherein there
master who is God he keepeth that light and life so that it standeth and continueth in the eternall matrix and yet it is not the eternall wisdome it selfe 3. Now because this birth of the Sun hath a beginning through the will of God and entreth again into its g Or repository Ether therefore it hath not the vertue or power of the wisdome but it continually h Or buildeth worketh according to its kinde it vivifieth and killeth what it doth it doth not regarding whether it be evill crooked lame or good beautifull or potent it causeth to live and to dye it affordeth power and strength and destroyeth the same again and all this without any premeditated wisdome whereby it may be perceived that it is not the divine providence and wisdome it self as the heathens did suppose and did foolishly relye upon the vertue thereof 4. But if we would see the ground thereof we must onely look upon the first mother in her birth and so we shall see and finde it all For as the first mother considering her in the originall without the light is soure or harsh dark hard and cold and yet there is the i Or spirit of the water water-spirit in the bringing forth Thus you may finde when the materiall world sprung up that God then on the first day created the heaven and the earth 5. Now the heaven cometh out of the soure matrix which in the Paradisicall heaven is the water-spirit and out of that Paradisicall water-spirit or matrix the materiall heaven or matrix is created as Moses writeth that the heaven was created out of the midst of the waters and it is very right And also in that very houre the earth and the stones and all metals the matrix of this world being yet dark were generated out of the matrix 6. For when the matrix was stirred and that Lord Lucifer would domineere in the fire then the dark matrix attracted all that was wrought in the k Out-birth birth together from whence earth stones metals brimstone and salt did proceed hereby the kingdome of Prince Lucifer was shut up and he remained in the inward centre captivated in the outward 7. But the vertue which was in the matrix was that which could effect such things in the matrix for a stone is nothing else but a water l The originall Text Mercurius mercury salt and brimstone wherein an oyle is hidden Now the birth of the matrix hath such a form in its eternall Essence and m Or continuall generation and subsistence birth of its life For first there is the harshnesse or sournesse fiercenesse or eager strongnesse and hardnesse from whence the cold proceedeth Now the sournesse or harshnesse attracteth and sharpneth the cold and in its attracting it maketh the bitter sting or prickle which pricketh and rageth and cannot endure the hard attracting but vexeth like a furious madnesse it riseth up and rageth and becometh like a brimstone-spirit 8. And in this form in the wrath or fierce strongnesse in the watry soure mother the soure bitter earth brimstone and salt is generated before the kindling of the Sunne in the matrix that is void of understanding But the separation that is in it is caused from the births standing in great anguish and from its desiring the separation in the birth for the bitternesse agreeth not with the harshnesse or sournesse and yet they are as mother and sonne and as members one n In. of another and it must be so or else nothing could be for it is the eternall band and the originall of life 9. Moreover when the bitternesse rageth riseth up and o Aketh vexeth in the soure harsh mother then it falleth into a glimmering flash most terribly in this form the Mercurius or venome or poyson is generated For when the matrix perceiveth this flash of fire in its dark soure form then it is terrified and becometh dead in her hard soure property And in this place death poyson p Falling away or decaying destruction withering and corruption are generated in the matrix and also the noble life in the Mercurius and in the springing up of the third Principle 10. And further when the horror or crack or skreek of the fire is come into its harsh mother and hath thus overcome its mother then it selfe is much more terrified for there it loseth its fierce or strong property because the mother hath attained another q Or root source and out of the horror of the fire a r Glance or lustre brightnesse is come to be in which in the inanimate matrix the Materia or matter in the midst of the horror or crack is come to be a soft and bright Å¿ Or concrete mixt matter viz. from the crack of the light is prococeeded Gold Silver Copper Tin Lead c. according as every place in the matrix stood in the wrastling centre 11. For the birth in the whole space of this world as farre as Lucifers kingdome did reach was thus Note and therefore there is much different kinde of earth metals and other things in one place than in another And it is plain before our eyes that all metals are mixt which proceedeth from the t Or out-birth bringing forth in infinitum which we well understand and see but cannot utter nor dare we speak it for it troubleth us and it reacheth into the Deity which is without beginning and eternall therefore the creature must let it alone upon pain of the losse both of its reason and sense 12. But to declare this further when the matrix stood thus in the birrh where the matter of the earth was generated then the matrix with the kindling became water you must understand it aright not wholly in substance but it hath generated the earth stones and metals and yet the matrix continueth still so also the water still continueth in the killing and overcoming whereby the materiall world took beginning where the globe of the earth was drawn together in this moving and standeth in the middle of the Circle from above and from beenath as a point or punctum 13. And there in the centre in the Paradisicall matrix Note and in the Paradisicall heaven the Spirit of God stood in his own eternall seat neither did it depart from thence and moved upon the materiall water with the Fiat and there formed the heaven which was created out of the midst of the watry matrix and he separated the root of the darknesse from the light in the matrix in which darknesse the Devils remained and they have not comprehended the matter in the matrix nor the new light which sprung up in the matrix and so with this creation and separation the length of one day was finished and out of beginning and end and morning and evening was the first day as Moses writeth 14. But that we may so speak of the heaven that
yet is Paradisicall and it cannot comprehend it but it maketh a p Or sowing of seed semination onely wherein there is again a centre to the birth And thus is the originall of both Sexes and their propagation yet it doth not attain the Paradisicall childe of love but it is a vehement hunger and so the propagation is acted with great earnestnesse 45 But that I now write that the starres doe rule in all Beasts and other creatures and that every creature received the Spirit of the starres in the creation and that all things still stand in the same Regiment this the simple will hardly beleeve though the Doctor knoweth it well and therefore we direct them to Experience Behold a Male and Female beget young ones and that often now they come forth out of one onely body yet are not of one kinde nor of the same colour and vertue nor shape or form of body All this is caused by the alteration of the starres For when the seed is sown the q The fashioner or the Fiat Carver maketh an Image according to his r Or desire pleasure Å¿ As of a Lion a Lion of a sheep a sheep yet according to the first essence he cannot alter that but he giveth the spirit in the essence to it according to his power or ability or dominion as also manners and senses colour and gesture like himselfe to be as he is and as the Constellation is in its essence at that time when the creature draweth breath first in its mothers body whether the essence be in evill or in good inclined to biting worrying and striking or to meeknesse or loving kindnesse and gentlenesse all as the t Or the Matrix heaven is at that time so will also the spirit and the beast be CHAP. IX Of the Paradise and then of the transitorinesse of all creatures how all take their beginning and end and to what end they here appeared The Noble and most pretious Gate or exposition concerning the reasonable Soule 1 NO Money nor Goods nor Art nor Power can bring you to the eternall rest of the eternall soft meeknesse of Paradise but onely the noble Knowledge into that you may wrap up your soule that is the Pearle which no Moath can eat nor Thiefe can steale away therefore seek after it and then you will finde the noble Treasure 2 Our wit skill and understanding is so very hard a Cold frozen or shut up knit up that we have no more any knowledge of Paradise at all and except we be again born anew by water and the holy Ghost the veile of Moses lyeth continually before our eyes when we read his writings and we suppose that was Paradise whereof Moses sayd GOD placed b Adam him in the Garden of Eden which hee had planted that he might till it 3 O beloved Man that is not Paradise neither doth Moses say so but that was the Garden in Eden where they were tempted the exposition whereof you may finde about the fall of Adam The Paradise is the Divine joy and that was in their minde when they were standing in the love of God But when disobedience entred they were driven out and saw that they were naked for at that instant the spirit of the world caught them in which there was meere anguish necessity turmoyle and misery and in the end corruptibility and death Therefore it was of c Needfull necessity that the eternall World did become flesh and bring them into the Paradisicall rest again whereof you shall finde the exposition in its due place about the fall of Adam 4 Paradise hath another Principle for it is the Divine and Angelicall joy yet not without the d Extra locum place of this world Indeed it is without the vertue and source or active property of it neither can the spirit of this world comprehend it much lesse a creature for it standeth not in the anguishing e Operation birth and although it thus taketh its originall yet it consisteth in exact perfection meere love joy and mirth wherein there is no feare neither misery nor death no Devill can touch it nor no beast can f Or attain it reach it 5 But when we will speak of the source or fountain and joy of Paradise and of its highest substance what it is we have no similitude of it in this world we stand in need of Angelicall tongues and knowledge to expresse it and though we had them yet we could not expresse it with this tongue it is well understood in the minde when the soule rideth in the Chariot of the Bride but we cannot expresse it with the tongue yet we will not cast away the g That little which wee can expresse of it A. B. C. but tattle or stammer with the children till another mouth be given us to speak withall 6 When God had created the Beasts he brought them to Adam that he should give them their names every one according to their essence and kinde as they the beasts were qualified or according to the quality and condition they were of Now Adam was in the Garden of Eden in Hebron and also in Paradise at once yet no beast can come into Paradise for it is the Divine h Or habitation or refreshment joy wherein there is no unclean thing also no death or corruptible or transitory life i Therefore the garden of Eden is not Paradise much lesse is there the knowledge of Good and Evill yet Moses writeth of it that in the Garden of Eden there was the tree of temptation which bare the knowledge of Good and evill which indeed was no other Tree than like the Trees we now eate of in the k Or In the transitory body corruptibility neither was it any other Garden than such as wee now have wherein earthly fruit Good and Evill grow as is before our eyes 7. But the Paradise is somewhat else and yet no other place but another Principle where God and the Angels dwell and where there is perfection where there is meere love joy and knowledge where no misery is which Paradise neither death nor the Devils doe touch neither doe they know it and yet it hath no wall of earth or stones about it but there is a great Gulfe or cliffe between Paradise and this world so that they who will passe from hence thither cannot and they who would come from thence to us cannot neither and the Hell and the kingdome of darknesse is between them and none can come therein but by a new Birth which Christ spake of to Nicodemus The soules of the Saints holy and regenerate must enter into it by the death of Darknesse whom the Arch-Shepherd with the Angels bringeth thereinto upon his l Note the Bride-Chariot is the true Resignation into the bosome of the Father Bride-chariot of which you shall finde an exposition in its proper place in order 8. But seeing
Elements and thirdly the Kingdome of Paradise that desired to have him 33. Now these three Kingdomes were in Adam and also q Extra without him and in the r The essentiall vertues or powers that went forth from the three Principles Essences there was a mighty strife all drew as well in Adam as without Adam and would faine have him for he was a Great Lord come out of all the powers or vertues of Nature the heart of God desired to have him in Paradise and would dwell in him for it said it is my image and similitude And the Kingdome of wrath and of the fierce Tartnesse would also have him for it said he is mine and he is proceeded out of my fountaine out of the eternall minde of the Darknesse I will be in him and he shall live in my might for he is generated out of that which is mine I will through him shew great and strong power The Kingdome of this world said he is mine for he beareth my Image and he liveth in that which is mine and I in him he must be obedient to me I will tame him and compell him I have all my members in him and he in mee I am greater than he he must be my Å¿ Or Stewart housholder I will shew my faire wonders and vertues in him he must manifest my wonders and vertues he shall keepe and manage my herds I will cloath him with my faire Glory as now it is to be seene 34. But when the Kingdome of the fiercenesse of the wrath of Death and of Hell saw that it had lost and could not keepe Man then it said I am t Mors. Death and a Worme and my vertue or power is in him and I will grinde him and breake him to pieces and his spirit must live in mee and although thou world supposest that he is thine because he beareth thy Image yet his Spirit is mine generated out of my kingdome therefore take what is thine from him I will keep that which is mine 35. Now what did the vertue in Adam in this strife It flattered with all the three Kingdomes It said to the Heart of God I will stay in Paradise and thou shalt dwell in me I will be thine for thou art my Creator and thou hast thus concreted or extracted mee out of all the three Principles and created mee thy refreshment is pleasant and thou art my Bridegroom I have received of thy fulnesse and therefore I am impregnated or with childe and I will bring forth a virgin that my kingdome may be great and that thou mayest have meere joy in mee I will eate of thy fruit and my spirit shall eate of thy vertue or power and thy Name in mee shall be called IMMANUEL God with us 36. And when the Spirit of this world perceived that then iâ— said Wherefore wilt thou onely eate of that which thou comprehendest not and drinke of that which thou feelest not thou art not yet meerely a Spirit thou hast from me all the kindes of comprehensibility in thee behold the comprehensible fruit is sweet and good and the comprehensible drink is u Powerfull and full of vertue or strength mighty and strong eate and drinke from mee and so thou shalt come to have all my vertue and beauty thou mayest in mee be mighty and powerfull over all the Creatures for the kingdome of this world shall be thy owne and thou shalt be Loâ—d upon Earth 37. And the vertue in Adam said I am upon Earth and dwell in this world and the world is mine I will use it according to my lust will and pleasure then came the Command of God x Enclosed conceived or comprehended which was received in the Centre of God out of the Circle or Circumference of the Eternall life and said In the day that thou eatest of the earthly fruit thou shalt die the Death This Command was comprehended or enclosed and hath its originall in the Eternall Father in the Centre where the Eternall Father continually from Eternity generateth his heart or sonne 38. Now when the Worme of darknesse saw the command of God it thought with it selfe here thou wilt y Or have nothing to doe not prevaile thou art spirit without body and contrariwise Adam is corporeall thou hast but a third part in him and besides the Command is in the way thou wilt even slip or creepe into the Essences and flatter with the Spirit of this world and take a creaturely forme upon thee and send a Legat or Embassadour out of my kingdome cloathed in the forme of a Serpent and wilt perswade him to eate of the earthly fruit and then the command destroyeth his body and the spirit remaineth to be mine Here now the Legat or Embassadour the Devill was very willing and ready at this especially because Adam in Paradise was in his place where he should have been and thought with himselfe now thou hast an opportunity to be revenged thou wilt mingle lyes and truth so together that Adam may not observe or understand it the treachery and so thou wilt tempt him Of the Tree of knowledge of good and evill 39. I have told you before out of what z Might power the Tree is grown viz. that it grew out of the earth and hath wholly had the nature of the earth in it as at this day all earthly Trees are so and no otherwise neither better nor worse wherein corruptibility standeth as the Earth is corruptible and shall passe away in the end when all shall goe into its * Or Receptacle Ether and nothing else shall remaine of it besides the figure Now this was the Tree which stood in the midst of the Garden in Eden whereby Adam must be tempted in all Essences for his Spirit should rule powerfully over all Essences as the holy Angels and God himselfe doth 40. Besides he was created by the Word or heart of God that he should be his image and similitude very powerfully in all the three Principles and be as great as a Prince or Throne-Angel But this Tree standing thus in the Garden and of all the Trees that onely did beare earthly fruit therefore Adam looked so often upon it because he knew that it was the Tree of knowledge of Good and Evill and the vertue of the Tree pressed him to it so very hard which vertue was also in him that the one lust infected poysoned or mingled with the other and the Spirit of the great world pressed Adam so very hard that he became infected and his vertue or power was overcome here the Paradisicall man was undone and then said the heart of God it is not good that man should be alone wee will make him a help or consort to be with him 41. Here God saw his Fall and that he could not stand because Adams imagination and lust was so eager after the Kingdome of this world and after the earthly fruit and that Adam
nourish and nourture him of which you may reade more about Cain Further in the Incarnation 54. And so when the Fiat thus holdeth the terrour in it selfe so that the Elements fill it then that filling becometh hard bones and there the Fiat figureth the whole Man with his bodily forme all according to the first wrestling of the two Tinctures when they wrestle or strive together in the sport of love when the seede is sowne and that Tincture which there getteth the upperhand whether the masculine or the feminine according to that sex the Man is figured and the figuring or shaping is done very suddenly in the storme of the anguishing terrour where the bloud is stifled or stopt and there the Elementary Man getteth up and the heavenly man goeth downe for in the terrour the bitter z pricking sting is generated which rageth and raveth in the hard terrified sourenesse or harshnesse in the great anxiety of the stifled or stopped bloud 55. Women have sufficient experience of this in the third Moneth when this is done in the fruit and feele how the raging and pricking cometh into their teeth loynes back and the like this cometh upon them from the stifled choaked or stopped Tincture in the fruit and from their stifled or stopped bloud in the Matrix because the evill Tincture qualifieth or mingleth with the good Tincture of their bodies Therefore in the same manner as the Tincture in the Matrix suffereth paine after the same manner also the good Tincture suffereth in the members limmes or parts of the Mother as in the hard bones teeth and ribs as such people know very well 56. So now when the bitter sting or prickle which is generated in the anxious terrour in the stifling or stopping and in the entring in of death doth thus rage and rave and shew forth it selfe in the terrour and flieth upwards then it is catched and withheld by the soure harshnesse so that it cannot get up aloft for the soure harshnesse draweth it continually the more eagarly and vehemently because of a The raging of the prickle its raging and cannot endure it from whence the pricking often becometh more terrible and this is after no other manner than as when a man is dying and soule and body part asunder for in the stifling or stopping of the bloud by the soure harshnesse the bitrer death is also there and therefore b The bitter sting or prickle it is like a furious whiâ—ling wheele or swift horrible thought which worrieth and vexeth it selfe and here is a Brimstone Spirit a venomous poysonous horrible aking substance in the death for it is the Worme to the springing up of the life 57. And now when the Spirit of the Starres and Elements hath mingled or figured it selfe together in the Incarnation then the vertue or power of the Starres and Elements is together wheeled in this raging where then in this anguish the Spirit of the Starres attracteth the vertue of the Sunne to it and c Or discovereth manifesteth it selfe in the vertue of the Sonne from whence there ariseth a twinckling flash in this raging from whence the hard soure harsh anxiety is terrified and sinketh downe and there the terrible Tincture goeth into its d Or Receptacle Ether for the Essence of the soure harshnesse in the Fiat is so mightily terrified at the flash that it becometh faint impotent or feeble and sinketh back e Openeth it selfe outwards expandeth it selfe and groweth thin 58. And the terrour skreeke or flash of fire is done in the bitter prickle and when it reflecteth it selfe back in the dark soure or harsh anxiety in the Mother and findeth her so very soft gentle and overcome then it is much more terrified than the Mother But this terrour happening thus in the soft Mother shee becometh white and cleere in the twinckling of an eye and the flash remaineth in the anguish in the roote of the fire and now therefore it is a skreeke or terrour of great joy and it is as when water is throwne into the fire where the soure harsh f Source or property quality is then quenched and the sourenesse or harshnesse is then so mightily overjoyed with the light and the light with the Mother the sourenesse or harshnesse wherein it is generated that there is no similitude to compare it with for it is the birth and the beginning of the life ☉ Sol All this which followeth is done in the entrance of the fourth Moneth 59. And as soone as the light of life appeareth in the soure harshnesse and soft Mother so that the sourenesse or harshnesse cometh to taste the light of life and findeth that it is so meeke pleasant lovely and full of joy then it exulteth with great delight desire and longing after the light to g Infect mix it selfe therewith and apprehend it so that its lust or longing delight and vertue goeth forth from it after the light which lust or longing delight is the vertue of the light and this out-going h Delight lust in the love is the noble Tincture which is there new generated to be the childe 's own and the Spirit which is generated out of the anguish in the flash of the fire is the true and reall soule which is generated in Man 60. Now here it is especially to be observed where i The soule it dwelleth and whence Heart Lungs and Liver come especially the Bladder and k Or entrailes Gutts and the Braine in the Head also the understanding and senses these I will here set down one after another It cannot well or sufficiently be expressed by a humane tongue especially the order which is l Done or performed observed in the twinckling of an eye in Nature it would require a great Volume to describe it in and as the world accounteth us too m Simple or silly and voyd of understanding and unable weake to be able to describe it so wee account our selves much weaker and more unable and it is with us as Isaiah saith I am found of them that sought me not and knowne of them that were ignorant of mee and of such as inquired not after mee 61. I say n High knowledge this hath not been sought but wee sought the heart of God that wee might hide us therein from the o Storme tempest of the Devill but when we came there then the loving virgin out of Paradise met us and offered us her love shee would be kinde and friendly to us and be betrothed to us for a Companion and shew us the way to Paradise where wee shall be safe from the stormy tempest and shee carried a branch in her hand and said We will plant this and a Lilly shall grow and I will come to thee againe from whence wee gat this longing to write of the amiable virgin which did shew us the way into Paradise where we must goe through the kingdome of this world
and also through the kingdome of Hell and no hurt done us and according to that direction of her's wee write CHAP. XIV Of the Birth and Propagation of Man The very secret Gate 1. IF wee consider now the springing up of the life and in what place of the body it is where the life is generated then we shall rightly finde the whole ground of Man and there is nothing so secret in Man p That may not be found but that it may be found For wee must needs say that the Heart is the place wherein the noble life is generated and the life againe generateth the heart 2. As it is mentioned above so the life in the anguish with the kindling of the light taketh its beginning from the glance of the Sun-shine from the Spirit of the Starres and Elements in the great anguish where death and life wrestle one with the other â—or when man departed from Paradise into another Birth viz. into the Spirit of this world into the quality of the Sunne Starres and Elements then the Paradificall vision or seeing ceased or was extinguished where man seeth from the divine vertue without need of the Son and Starres where the q Or there the life in the Holy Ghost buddeth forth in the place of the foure Elements springing up of the life is in the holy Ghost and the light of God is the glance of the Spirit from whence r Man he seeth which went out for the spirit of the soule went into the Principle of this world 3. You must not so understand it as if it were extinguished in it selfe No but the soule of Adam went out from the Principle of God into the Principle of this world and therein now the Spirit of every soule is thus generated againe by humane propagation as is mentioned before and it cannot be otherwise and therefore if wee would be fit for the kingdome of Heaven wee must be regenerated anew in the Spirit of God or else none can inherite the kingdome of God as Christ taught us faithfully of which I will write hereafter that it may be a fountain for the thirsty and a light to the noble way in the blossome of the Lilly 4. And wee must here know that our life which wee get in our Mothers body or womb standeth meerly and onely in the power of the Sunne Starres and Elements so that they not onely figure or fashion a childe in the Mothers body and give it life but also bring it into this world and nourish it the whole time of its life and bring it up also cause fortune and mis-fortune to it and at last death and corruption and if our Essences out of which our life is generated were not higher in their first degree out of Adam than the Beasts then wee should be wholly like the Beasts 5. But our Å¿ Active essentiall vertues or faculties Essences are generated much higher in the beginning of the life in Adam than the beasts which have their Essences but meerly from the spirit of this world and it must also with the spirit of this world in a corruptible substance goe into its eternall Ether whereas on the contrary the essences of Man are proceeded out of the unchangable eternall mind of God which cannot in eternitie corrupt 6. For wee have a certain ground of this in that our minde can finde and conceive all whatsoever is in the spirit of this world which no beast can do for no creature can t Thinke or imagine conceive further or higher than what is in its own Principle out of which its own Essences are proceeded in the beginning but wee that are Men can certainly u Meditate consider or thinke of conceive of that which is in the Principle of God and also of that which is in the anguishing kingdome of Hell where the Worme of our soule in the beginning in Adam originally is and this no other creature can doe 7. But they thinke consider or imagine onely how to fill themselves and multiply that their life may subsist and wee also receive x Than the beasts doe no more from the Spirit of the Starres and Elements and y Because our Essences have a higher beginning than the beasts therefore also our children are naked and bare with great inability and without understanding and now if the Spirit of this world had full perfect and absolute power over the Essences of the childe then he would easily put his rough garment upon it also viz. a rough hide but he must let that alone and he must leave the Essences in the first and second Principle to Mans own choosing to binde and yeeld himselfe to which Principle he will which man hath undeniably in his full power which I will expound in its own place according to its worth and deeply demonstrate it in spite of all the Gates of the Devill and this world which strive much against it 8. Our life in the Mothers body hath its beginning wholly as is above mentioned and standeth there now in the quality of the Sun and Starres where then with the kindling of the light a Centre springeth up againe where instantly the noble Tincture thus generateth it selfe out of the light out of the joyfull Essences of the soure harsh bitter and fiery kinde or quaâ—â—â—â— and setteth the Spirit of the soule in a great pleasant habitation and the three z Beeings or substances Essences viz. harshnesse bitternesse and fire are in the kindling of the life so very fast bound one to another that they cannot in eternity be separated one from another and the Tincture is their eternall house wherein they dwell which house they themselves generate from the beginning unto eternitie which againe giveth them life joy and lust or delight The strong Gate of the Indissoluble Band of the soule 9. Behold the three Essences viz. sourenesse or harshnesse bitternesse and fire are the Worme or Spirit that dieth not a Or soureness Harshnesse is one Essence and it is in the Fiat of God out of Gods eternall will and the attracting of the soure harshnesse is the sting or prickle of the bitternesse which the soure harshnesse cannot endure but attracteth continually the more forcibly to it from whence the prickle continually groweth greater which yet the soure harshnesse holdeth b Captive prisoner and this together is the great anxiety which was there in the darke minde of God the Father when the darknesse was anxious or longed after the light from whence in the anxiety from the glance of the light it attained the twinckling flash out of which the Angels were created which afterward were enlightened from the light of God c By their longing after or imprinting the heart of God in their thoughts by their Imagination into the heart of God and the other like Lucifer for their haughtinesse or prides sake remained in the flash of fire and anxiety 10. This Birth or
knave in the sight of God yet wrestleth or holdeth fast till it hath prevailed many in the forme of a tame and gentle Beast very cunningly alluring and drawing to it selfe under a b Or colour of good faire pretence many in pride and statelinesse of body in carriage and manners which is a right diabolical Beast who contemneth all that doth not please him and elevateth himselfe above all meeknesse and humility and over the Image of God yea there is so very much of false untowardnesse that I may not mention it every one followeth the Region Rule or Dominion of the Starres even that which serveth most to the voluptuousnesse of the earthly life 25. c In Summa In briefe the Regiment of the Starres or starry Region d Or generateth no holy Man maketh not a holy Man and although men may converse under a holy shew yet they are but hyprocrites and desire to get honour and esteeme thereby their minde sticketh neverthelesse in covetousnesse and pride and in fleshly pleasure in meere base lechery and lust and they are in the sight of God according to the e Will or Lust desire of this world no other than meere knaves proud wilfull selfe conceited theeves robbers and murtherers There is not one who as to the Spirit of this world is righteous wee are altogether children of deceit and falshood and according to this Image which wee have received from the Spirit of this world wee belong to eternall Death but not to Paradise except it be that we become regenerated anew out of the Centre of the precious virgin who with her rayes averteth the minde from the ungodly wayes of sinne and wickednesse 26. And if the love of God which so deerly loved the Image of Man that it selfe is become Man did not stand in the Centre of the minde in the midst or f Or parting limit or mark point of seperation then man had been a living Devill and he is indeed such a one when he despiseth the Regeneration and g Or depart goeth on according to the in-bred nature of the first and third Principle 27. For there remaine no more than two Principles eternally the third Principle wherein he liveth here perisheth and if he desireth not now the second Principle then he must remaine in the first Originall eternally with the Devills for after this time it will be no otherwise there is no source which can come to helpe him hereafter for the kingdome of God goeth not back into the Abysse but it riseth up forward in the light of meeknesse this wee speak seriously and in earnest as it is highly knowne in the light of Nature in the Ray of the h The wisdome of God Noble virgin The Gate of the Difference between Man and Beast 28. My deare and loving Reason bring thy five senses hither and consider thy selfe according to the things above-mentioned what thou art how thou wert created the Image of God and how thou in Adam by the infection of the Devill didst let thy Spirit of this world take possession of thy Paradise which now sitteth in the roome of Paradise Wilt thou say that thou wert created thus as to this world in Adam at the beginning then behold and consider thy selfe and thou shalt finde another Image in thy minde and speech 29. Every i Animall or living creature Beast hath a minde k of having a will and the five senses therein so that it can distinguish therein what is good or ill for it But where remaine the senses in the will that come out of the Gates of the Deepe where the will discovereth it selfe or glimmereth in the first Principle in infinitum infinitely out of which the understanding proceedeth so that Man can see into all things into their Essences how high they are graduated whereupon followeth the distinction or different articulation of the Tongue for if a Beast had them then it could also speake and distinguish voices and speake of the things that are in substance or beeing and search into the Originality But because it is not out of the eternall therefore it hath no understanding in the light of Nature be it never so nimble and crafty neither doth its strength and force availe to the lifting it up into understanding no it is all in vaine 30. Man onely hath understanding and his senses reach into the Essences and qualities of the Starres and Elements and search out the Ground of all things in the Region of the Starres and Elements And this now hath its Originall in Man in the Eternall Element he being created out of the Eternall Element and not out of the Out-Births of the foure Elements and therefore the Eternity seeth into the l Inecptive beginning Out-Birth in the corruptibility and the m Or Inception beginning in the Out-Birth cannot see into the Eternity for the m Or Inception beginning taketh its Originall out of the Eternity out of the Eternall minde 31. But that Man is so very blinde and ignorant or voyde of understanding is because he lyeth captive in the Regiment or Dominion of the Starres and Elements which many times figure or fashion a wilde Beast in the minde of Man a Lyon a Wolfe a Dog a Fox a Serpent and such like though indeed Man getteth no such body yet he hath such a minde of which Christ spake to the Jewes and called some of them Wolves Foxes and Serpents Also John the Baptist said so of the Pharisees and wee see apparently how many men live wholly like Beasts according to their beastiall minde and yet are so audacious that they judge and condemne those that live in the Image of God and n Tame or bring under subjection subdue their bodies 32. But if he speaketh or judgeth any thing well he speaketh not from the beastiall Image of the minde wherein he liveth but he speaketh from the hidden Man which is hidden in the beastiall Man and judgeth against his own beastiall life for the hidden Law of the eternall Nature standeth hidden in the beastiall Man and it is in a hard restraint and judgeth or condemneth the malicious wickednesse of the o Fleshly carnall minde 33. Thus there are three in Man that strive against one another viz. the eternall proud malicious anger proceeding out of the Originality of the minde And secondly the Eternall holy chast humility which is generated out of the Originality And thirdly the corruptible animall wholly beastiallnesse generated from the Starres and Elements which holdeth the whole house in possession 34. And it is here with the Image of Man as Saint Paul said To whom you give your selves as servants in obedience his servant you are whether it be of sinne unto Death or of the Obedience of God unto Righteousnesse that driving or property you have If a Man yeeld his minde up to malice pride selfe power and force to the oppressing of the miserable then he is
Temptation testifieth so much to mee as also the Temptation of Israel at Mount Sinai by Moses stayings on the Mount both which lasted forty dayes which you mâ—y reade in Moses and concerning the Temptation of Christ and you will finde wonders 27. But when Adam was infected from the lust to eate of the knowledge of good and evill and that the Spirit of this world pressed or swayed Adam where also the subtill Devill which in the Spirit of this world slipt in shot mightily at Adam so that Adam became weary and blinde to the Kingdome of God then said God It is not good for man to be alone for he will not now g Generate or beget bring forth the Paradisicall virgin because he is infected from the Spirit of this world so that the chastity of the modesty is quite h Gone at an end wee will make a help for him to be with him out of whom he may build his Principality and propagate himselfe it cannot be otherwise now and he let a deepe sleep fall upon Man and he slept 28. Here it may be very properly and well understood how the virgin in Adam departed into the Ether into her Principle for the Text saith God let a deep sleepe fall upon Adam now where sleepe is there the vertue or power of God is hidden in the Centre for where that vertue of God groweth there is no sleepe for the Keeper of Israel neither slumbreth nor sleepeth as it is written If thou askest How long Adam slept 29. Then consider Christs Rest in the Grave and thou shalt finde the ground for the second Adam must with his resurrection out of the Grave awaken or raise the first out of his Eternall sleepe of the darknesse of Hell out of the Grave of this world againe 30. And so God in Adam his sleepe made the Woman for him out of himselfe by which he must now generate his kingdome for now it could not otherwise be And when he awaked he saw her and tooke her to him and said This is flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone for Adam was in his sleepe become cleane another Image for God had permitted the Spirit of this world in him to make his Tincture weary unto sleepe 31. Adam was in an Angelicall forme before the sleepe but after the sleepe he had flesh and bloud and he was in his flesh a lump of earth and he saw from a threefold spirit with his eyes he apprehended the light of the Sunne and knew the first Image no more although the foure Elements had not yet fallen upon him nor touched him for he was yet in innocency 32. And there the Devill bestirred him and slipt into the Serpent which he himselfe is in his own proper forme and laid himselfe at the Tree and k Or set the sweet light and pleasantnesse forth strewed Sugar upon it for he saw well the Eve was a Woman and that shee was infected with the foure Elements and although shee did strive a little and objected Gods Command against the Devill yet shee suffered her selfe very easily to be perswaded when the lying Spirit said That the fruit would make her wise and that her eyes should be opened and shee be as God knowing Good and Evill yet he told her not that if shee eate thereof shee must dye but he said shee should be wise and faire which disease desire or lust sticketh still in the braines of the Woman that shee would faine be the fayrest Beast 33. So shee pulled off an Apple and did eate and gave to Adam also and he eate of it likewise That was a bit at which the Heavens might well have blushed and the Paradise have trembled as it was indeed really done as is to be seene at the Death of Christ when he entered into Death and wrestled with Hell that the Earth and the Elements trembled and the light of the Sunne was darkened when this bit of the Apple was to be l Or cured healed up The Gate of the great Affliction and Misery of Man 34. Reason sticketh at the vaile of Moses and seeth not through the Tables that were graven-through which God gave him upon Mount Sinai as also Reason cannot take off the vaile from before m The eyes of Moses his eyes and look him in the face for he hath a brightned clarified or shining countenance in the crack of the fire it Reason is afraid of it that countenance and trembleth at it it saith continually to Moses Speake thou with the Lord for wee are afraid and moreover altogether naked and uncleane 35. It presenteth indeed the wrath of God to it selfe and trembleth at its fall but it knoweth not what hath hapned to it it onely presents the disobedience before it selfe and maketh as if God were an angry malicious Devill that cannot be reconciled having indeed put on the Garment of anger in Adam and Eve on to it selfe in body and soule and hath set it selfe against the will of God in the Bath or Lake of anger on which God took such n Or mercy pitty or compassion that he hath not spared his own Heart to send it into the depth of Anger into the Abysse of Hell as also into the Death and breaking of the foure Elements from the eternall holy Element to help fallen Man and to deliver him out of the anger and Death 36. But since the vaile in the Death of Christ was taken away from the face of Moses in the stead whereof the starres with the foure Elements have yet cast a myst and cloud through the infection of the Devill before Man for the o Or the worldly kingdome Region of this world hath generated the Antichrist and set him before the countenance of Moses in a p Or darkness cloud as if he were Christ so that the countenance of Moses cannot be apprehended or beheld therefore wee have need of the Lilly which groweth through the Tables of Moses that were graven through with its strong smell which reacheth into the Paradise of God from whose vertue the People or Nations shall be so vertuous and strong that they shall forsake the Antichrist and shall runne through the darknesse to the smell of the blossome for the breaker-through the Gates hath planted the Lilly and he hath given it into the hand of the Noble virgin and this Lilly groweth in the Element wonderfully against the horrible storme of Hell and against the q Or dominion kingdome of this world where then many r Or Twigges branches will fall to the ground from whence Antichrist becometh blinde and groweth stark madde and raving in the fogge and mist and stirreth the Å¿ The anger and malice in the four Elements foure Elements in the wrath or grimme fiercenesse and then it is needfull for the children of God to awake from the sleepe of the fogge this the Spirit intimateth in the light of Nature seriously and earnestly 37.
Therefore according to our knowledge wee will set downe an Exposition of the fall of Man which is very perfectly manifested and appeareth in the light of the Day and t Over-witnesseth convinceth us and wee have no need of the u Fopperies or foggy expositions fooleries of the Antichrist who with the bloud and death of Christ doth but seeke his own covetousnesse pride and voluptuousnesse and draweth the vaile of Moses before our eyes that wee should not see through the Tables that were graven through through Josua or Jesus into the promised Land of Paradise that he may onely sit and ride upon his horrible and devouring Beast of covetousnesse and pride which Beast is become so very great and strong that it shaddoweth the circuit of the Earth and ruleth so wonderfully over x High and low Mountaines and Valleys with his fiercenesse which Beast yet shall be broken by the Lilly without hands at which the People or Nations shall wonder and say How art thou O terrible and great might and power founded upon so weake and loose a ground 38. Now then if wee consider the miserable fall of Adam and Eve wee need not to runne long after the madde Antichrist to fetch or learne wisdome from him he hath none Let us onely consider our selves and compare the heavenly and earthly Image one with the other and so we shall see the whole y Or drift roote and ground thereof wee have no need of a Doctour nor of any strange language about it it standeth written in our body and soule and when we see it it terrifieth us so much that wee tremble at it as Eve and Adam did in their Fall 39. And if wee do not come to know or have a glimpse of the Treader upon the Serpent in the marke of the partition or limit of seperation in the Gate of the Deepe between the world and the Kingdome of Hell then wee see indeed nothing else but meere misery and Death which might z Perswade us to awake well awaken us from sleepe 40. Doe but behold thy selfe thou blinde Minde and consider thy selfe where is thy Angelicall a Or Image forme in thee Why art thou so angry sterne fierce froward and malicious Wherefore doest thou elevate thy selfe still in thy wickednesse in pride in might or authority and pomp and boastest thy selfe for a brave and potent Beast What is it that thou doest Wherefore hast thou let the Spirit of this world into thee which seduceth thee as it listeth into high mindednesse into proud stoutnesse into b Authoritie and stateliness potency and pomp into covetousnesse and lying into falshood and treachery as also into sicknesse and corruption or frailty 41. What is it now that thou c Keepest or takest with thee hast after thy corrupting when thou dyest Consider thy selfe what is it that thou art then Thou art a Spirit but what kinde of source or property is it that thou hast in thee surely thou hast in thee anger wickednesse pride self-seeking wilfulnesse in raising up thy selfe after temporall pleasure but finding none thou hast a false minde in the Spirit full of lyes and deceit and murtherous arising in thee out of the Essences as thou wert upon Earth towards Men just so it is then with such a Spirit as is gone forth from thee out of the corruptible body of the Elements And where shall that then remaine when this world perisheth Doest thou suppose that it shall then be an Angel hath it an Angelicall quality source or property is its source or quality in love humility and meeknesse is it in the Divine Obedience in the light of Joy 42. O thou blinde Minde with thy might and statelinesse full of wickednesse and devillish fierce wrath wilt thou know where thou art after that thy body perisheth thou art even with all the Devills in the Abysse of Hell if thou doest not turne and by earnest unfained sorrow and repentance for thy abominations enter into the Angelicall footsteps that the Saviour and Treader upon the Serpent of fierce wrath wickednesse lying and deceit may meet thee and embrace thee in his armes and that thou mayest be new-borne in him and be yeelded up into the bosome of the d The wisdome and mercy of God chast virgin and become an Angel or else thou art in the Eternall Death in the Eternall Darknesse and canst in all Eternity not reach the kingdome of God any more 43. Or doest thou suppose that write of the fall of Man without e Or knowledge light and understanding Or that I doe not look and see into the holy Scripture what that saith of it when I say that Man before his fall was Angelicall in his minde and body Then heare and see what Christ saith of it Matth. 13. vers 22. In the resurrection of the Dead they will neither marry nor be given in marriage but they are as the Angels of God and such an Image God created in the beginning according to his similitude 44. For an angry malicious proud self-seeking for honour and dignity mendâ—cious or lying theeving robbing murtherous lascivious lecherous minde is not the similitude of God but an humble chast modest pure courteous minde which inclineth it selfe with a longing desire and love to the Heart of God that is the similitude of God in which the fire flaming Spirit in the joy and the meeknesse goeth forth out of the will and for its brethren the will of its Spirit which goeth forth from it readily inclineth towards them and as the Proverb saith Imparteth the very heart to them which is done in Spirit wherein the heavenly joy in the Eternall Element springeth up and the Wonders of God are manifested in the virgin by a Hymne of praise to the Eternall Minde of God where the minde playeth upon the Harp of David an Hymne to God where then in the eternall holy Minde there springeth up knowledge and colours in the Eternall Element and in the Spirit wonders with works and powers or vertues 45. And this is the Image of God which God created for his glory and joy and no other and let not the madde Antichrist perswade thee concerning any other Image of God for there is no other thy body and soule convinceth thee of it as also Heaven and Earth the Starres and Elements look upon what thou wilt all things convince thee and if thou doest not turne and enter into that Image to which God created thee then in the breaking of thy body when thy minde in the Spirit of the soule shall stand naked without a body thou shalt be ashamed before all creatures this wee speake according to its high worth as it is highly knowne in the will of God 46. Thus it is highly necessary for us to know the miserable Fall of our first Parents wherefore it was so with God that his anger is in us and that wee must dye and if wee apprehend not the
Executioner 67. He is Executioner in the kingdome of this world the Starres are the Councell and God is the King of the Land and whosoever departeth from God falleth into the Councell of the Starres which run many upon the sword and make them lay violent hands upon themselves and bring some to a Rope others to the water and there he is very busie and is the Driver or Executioner 68. Into this great misery Man is fallen and he is fallen quite d Into the bosom home to the kingdome of the Starres and Elements as to his body what these doe with him that he is and that standeth in the substance they make one great another small one straight another stooping and crooked they send one fortune and riches and another poverty of one they make a crafty subtill Man according to the counsell and kingdome of this world and of another they make an Ideot they make one a King and they breake and pull downe another one they kill another they bring into the world and continually drive the minde of Man yet into nothing else but into vaine turmoile discontent and vexation 69. Besides the kingdome of Hell and of fierce wrath alwayes gape after the soule and set their jawes wide open to devoure the captive soule which is held fast fettered with two strong chaines the one of the kingdome of Hell the other of the Kingdome of this world and is continually led by the heavy lumpish beastiall and sickly body as a Theefe who is often led to the place of Execution and still by a Petition reprieved and laid in prison againe and the poore soule must lye thus in Prison the whole time of the body where the Devill on the one side very suddenly rusheth upon it with his devouring fiercenesse wrath and malice and would carry it into the Abysse then instantly it is beat upon by the glistering flattering world with pomp bravery covetousnesse and voluptuousnesse oâ— Perdition presently againe cometh upon it sicknesse and feare and it is continually trembling and quaking and when Man goeth but in the dark how is it amazed and continually afraid that the Executioner will take it and e Or Execute Justice doe execution upon it The Gate or Exposition of the great sinne and contrariety of will against God * CoÌ„mitted by or through Man in Man 70. If wee did well consider the abominations and great sinnes of Man before God which our first Parents inherited for us then wee should scarce ever be merry in this world at all if the Spirit of this world did not cast foolish fancies and seeming joyes and pleasures before us in our imprisonment or if the Regeneration did not cause us so highly to rejoyce that wee shall once be delivered out of this Prison for in this life wee finde nothing else but meere abomination sinne misery and death and scarce attaine in this temporary life so much as a glimpse of the Eternall Joy 71. Now the minde asketh What is sinne then How is it sinne Wherefore hath God a loathing against the substance which he hath created Behold thou childe of Man there is no sinne in Heaven in the presence of God onely in thy selfe there is sinne and sinne seperateth us and our God asunder otherwise all things are fix or perfect and good in their own beeing or substance the kingdome of Hell and of wrath is good in it selfe according to its own Region it doth not vex or torment it selfe but its woe paine or smart is its birth and the rising of its source also it desireth nothing else 72. And so also the Kingdome of this world is fix or perfect and good in it selfe neither doth it vex or torment it selfe but the elevating of the Elements viz. the kindling of the heate cold aire and water is its growing and springing neither doth it torment it selfe in it selfe nor hath in any distresse or feare in it selfe 73. Onely Man who is proceeded out of another Principle hath in both those forementioned Principles woe misery sorrow and distresse for he is not in his native Countrey and none of these two Principle can attaine his native Countrey Therefore the poore soule must be thus g Pinched and squeesed plagued and tormented that it may attaine its native Countrey againe it must goe againe through the Gate of the deep anguish of Death it must breake through two kingdomes and it sticketh here h In the chinck craâ—â—y or closing of the doore between the Doore and the hinges and is continually infected with those things which keep it back and plague it it sticketh as it were in a Presse 74. If it straineth to God waâ—â— then the Devill holdeth it on one side with one Band and the world with another Band and they i Or assault it set upon it the Devill handleth it in fiercenesse sternnesse frowardnesse or wrath which is a source or quality and sinne which cannot attaine to the kingdome of God and the world leadeth it into pride covetousnesse and fleshly lust so that the k Or budding substantiall vertues Essences of the soule grow full or impregnated with the fleshly will for the will of the minde draweth these things into the soule and so the soule from that which is attracted becometh wholly uncleane l Mudded swelled and dark and cannot attaine the light of God its Essences that should give up themselves to God cannot for they are too rough and cannot get into the light that kindleth not it selfe in its Essences the Gates of the Deepe must be broken open first and then the Essences of the soule may presse into the liberty m Beyond without the darknesse but if the minde be n Or big with pride covetousnesse envy anger might and pomp filled then it cannot come into the liberty and then begin horrour feare distresse and despaire of the kingdome of God and this maketh meere torment woe paine and smart in the soule 75. Thus thou shalt know in what manner it is sinne before God thou hast in thy selfe the one eternall pure Element which is a joy in the presence of God and now if thou rage and rave with the source quality or property of Hell then thou touchest or troublest the Element and though stirrest up the o Or fierce grimnesse wrath and makest it to goe forth and thou doest as the Devill did when he awakened or stirred up and kindled the fierce o Or fierce grimnesse wrath in the Fiat whereby the o Or fierce grimnesse fiercenesse generated earth and stones thou finnest piercing into the Heaven in the presence of God upon which the Prophets complained in many places That the disobedient did grieve their God though in himselfe he felt no paine yet his wrath was kindled in the first Principle in the Gate of the Deepe wherein the soule standeth and that is a meere abomination before him 76. Behold all whatsoever thou lettest into thy
minde if thy soule be not inclined or yeelded up to God so that p It stand◠〈…〉 beliefe and confideâ—◠〈…〉 God and â—â—â—dnesse it beleeveth and trusteth in him then all whatsoever thou doest is sinne for thou bringest an earthly Minde into the Gate of the Deepe where the Spirit of God moveth walketh or goeth and thou defilest the Element which is in the presence of God 77. Thou wilt say How God dwelleth in Heaven O! thou blinde Minde full of Darknesse the Heaven where God dwelleth is also in thee as Adam was both upon Earth and also in Paradise at once and give not way to Antichrist to direct thee aloft without the place of this world above the Starres for he telleth thee a lye as the Devill himselfe did God is every where as the Prophet David saith If I fly to the Day-break or into Hell thou art there Also where is the place of my rest am not I be that 〈◊〉 to all things yet I behold the miserable and those that are of a broken Spirit and I will dwell in them Also I will dwell in Jacob and my q Or Tent. Tabernacle shall be in Israel understand it right he will dwell in the contrite and broken Spirit which breaketh the Gate of Darknesse he will presse into that Spirit 78. Therefore beware of the r Infection or hunger longing lust or desire and say not in thy selfe I stand in the dark the Lord seeth mee not nor what I thinke and doe he standeth in the Gate of thy Minde where the soule standeth before the cleere face of God in the opened Gate and all thy abominations are knowne before God and thou makest the Element of God blush or change colour with them thou grievest the chast virgin which dwelleth in her own Centre and is given to be a companion to thee in thy minde and makest her sad shee warneth thee of the way of the ungodly if thou follow her counsell and turnest and breakest in unto her by earnest Repentance then shee crowneth thee in thy minde with wisdome and understanding that thou mayest then very well avoyde the Devill but if thou doest not then thou fallest out of one sinne and abomination into another and makest thy measure full and running over and then the Devill helpeth thee into his kingdome and thou art very serviceable to him for thou art a true Å¿ Rod or Whip scourge to the children of God not onely with reproaching but also in deeds or in the work of thy hands which the Devill dare not doe thou doest him acceptable service He tickleth thee finely with the Name t Of a godly zealous Man professour or godly Divine of God so that thou bringest forth from thy lips and teachest it but thy heart is a Theefe and a Murtherer and thou art wholly dead to the kingdome of Heaven 79. Therefore O thou beloved Minde Examine thy selfe to what thou art inclined whether thou art inclined to righteousnesse love fidelity and truth Also to chastity modesty and mercifulnesse if so it is well for thee but if not then dive into thy bosome and consider thy fleshly heart and try it wrap thy u Or thoughts senses together and put them in prison and storme thy fleshly heart that the Elements in thee may quake and tremble The flattering and lying Devill who hath possessed thy fleshly heart shall feele these x Earnest zeale of Repentance stroakes which he will not like then he must be gone and thou wilt be of another minde This is no y Or invention conceit from a minde not opened it selfe hath tried this and therefore it shall stand for a Memoriall and a continuall Monitour and whosoever pleaseth let him try it and he shall finde wonders indeed 80. Now when Adam and his wife had eaten of the earthly Fruit then they were ashamed one of another for they perceived the beastiall Members for z Bodily Propagation and they broke off a Or branches of leaves boughs and held them before their b Privities shame and the voice of God went into the Garden highly into their Mindes and they hid themselves behinde the Trees in the Garden 81. Here wee see clearly yes we feele that God in the beginning created no such Image with beastiall Members for Propagation for that which God created for Eternity that hath no c Or Privities shame before it Yet also they then first perceived that they were naked the Elements had taken possession of them and yet put no earthly Garment like the Beasts hairy skin upon them for the Spirit of Man was not from the essences and properties of the Elements as the Spirit of the Beasts but Man was out of the Eternall 82. And here in this place there is nothing more palpable than that it is seene and knowne that Adam had no Beastiall forme before his sleepe before his wife was formed for he was neither Man nor Woman but a chast virgin without Beastiall forme he had no c Or Privities shame nor beasts neither had he need of them he should have generated in love and chastity without paine or opening of his Body a virgin as himselfe was and it should have been possible that the whole Hoast of Angelicall Men should have proceeded out of one onely Man as the Angels did out of one fountaine if he had stood in the Temptation even as all those who come to the onely Arch-Shepherd to his Rest were redeemed by one onely Man from the Eternall Death and Torment of Hell 83. Here now wee finde that they heard the voice of God in the Garden for the Element which is before God wherewith Man qualifieth or mixeth that did tremble because of sinne and sinne was manifested in the Element of the Minde first in Adam and Eve and then feare and terrour fell into the Essences of the soule for the first Principle in the fierce sternesse was stirred so that Principle gat as a Man may say fewell for its source of fire And is risen up in the kindling in contrariety of will in the Essences where one forme hath continually opposed the other viz. the soure â—artnesse and the cold with their attracting have awakened the bitter stinging and tormenting in the Essences of the Tincture of the bloud in the Spirit and the bitter â—â—ging and rising hath awakened the fire 84. And so instead of the Paradisicall Joy and refreshment there hath been a meere Brimstone-Spirit which standeth in anguish and trembling of corruption or fragility which kindleth the Tincture of the Bloud wherein tearing stinging and tormenting is wrought and if the fire in the Brimstone Spirit be too much kindled then it burneth the Tincture up and the light of Life goeth out and then the body falleth away to be a dead carkasse and if the tart sourenesse be kindled too much by the hard attracting and holding then also the light of Life goeth out and the
so that Adam lusted 94. But because he beguiled Adam and Eve with his Sugar therefore God hath prepared such a dwelling house for him as Adam lets forth from the Å¿ From the earthly voluptuousnesse and dainty delicacies the Dung. earthly Sugar at the nethermost Exit and that shall be left for him at the corruption of the Earth when it goeth into its Ether and then that pleasant smell of the stinck of sinne and abominations in the kingdome of the fierce wrath shall remaine for him and that Sugar he shall eate Eternally and frame his will continually therein to get other Sugar in the t Or Oven furnace of the fire and then he may make that ready for him as may best sute with his pallat at which he quaketh and trembleth when he heareth the Spirit declare such things and hereby it is also signified to all the ungodly that they shall also eate the same Sugar Eternally which they have continually baked here with their blaspheming cursing covetousnesse scorne backbiting thorny-taunting murthering robbing and taking the sweat of the needy and miserable to maintaine their haughty stately Pride 95. And now when these two thus captivated by the Devill and this world stood before God with feare and great horrour and felt the anger of God and the severe Judgement then the Heart of God which had made them pittied them and it u Appeare or discover it self to see did look whether there were any remedy or counsell that might help poor Man and redeeme or deliver him from the Bands of the Eternall fiercenesse or wrath and from the mortall body of this world but there was nothing found neither in Heaven nor in this world that could make them free there was no Principality or Throne-Angel which had the ability to doe it all was lost they were in the Eternall Judgement of the Temporall and Eternall Death For the first Principle had captivated them in the Spirit of the soule and qualified or mingled with the soule the Kingdome of Heaven in the Light was shut up and there was a firme enclosure of a whole Principle between and x The soule it could not reach the kingdome of Heaven againe except that it were borne of God againe otherwise there was no counsell nor help nor refuge in any thing at all 96. Then the Devill mocked the Image and Hell opened its jawes wide and had the bridle in their Essences and continually drew them therewith towards the hellish fire of the fierce wrath and then there was trembling and horrour in the minde and they could not reach the love of God Heaven was their Enemy no Angel came neere them but the horrible Devills they shewed themselves and hooped crying Ho ho wee have gotten the Game wee are Princes over Men wee will torment them soundly because they would have possessed our Throne wee should have been their footstoole and now wee are their Judges what care wee for God he dwelleth not in our kingdome wherefore hath he thrust us out wee will be sure to wreake our spleene upon his Image The most pleasant and most lovely Gate or Exposition of the promise of the Treader upon the Serpent highly to be considered 97. Now when no counsell or remedy was found and that Man was sunk downe into Hell to the great Triumph of the Devills then said God to the Serpent the Devill Because thou hast done thus be thou cursed and the seede of the Woman shall tread upon or break thy Head and thou shalt bruise or y Or sting wound his Heele at which the Abysse of Hell did quake and tremble but the Devill understood not wholly what that should be onely he saw that the word imagined or represented it selfe in Adam and in Eve in the Centre of Life and that it opposed the fiercenesse of the kingdome of Hell of which he stood in feare and his jollity was lessened for he did nor relish that 98. Moses writeth here as if the Serpent had beguiled Eve because God cursed it and said That it should eate Earth and creepe upon its belly but Moses here putteth the vayle before our eyes that he cannot be looked in the Face for all Prophecies stand in dark words that the Devill may not know nor apprehend them and learne the Times and that he may not strow his false seede before the wonders of God appeare as may be seene in all the Prophets who prophesied of the Treader upon the Serpent 99. Wee know that the Devill slipt into the Serpent and spake out of the Serpent for God did not meane by it that the Treader upon the Serpent should tread upon the head of the beastiall Serpent but that he should destroy the Devill and the Abysse of Hell But that was the Punishment of the Beastiall Serpent that it should remaine a poysonous Worme without feete and eate Earth and have communion with the Devill for so all Evill Spirits in Hell appeare in their owne forme according to their source or quality as Serpents Dragons horrible Wormes and evill Beasts 100. This now the Devill did not understand because God spake of the Serpent and cursed it to be a horrible Worme and he supposed that it did not concerne him neither doth he yet know his own judgement he knoweth onely what he learneth from Men that doe z Or Prophesie declare things in the Spirit of God yet the Spirit of God doth not wholly intimate his Judgement to him but all in the Depth afarre off so that he cannot wholly understand it For to the enlightened Men all Prophesies even concerning the wickednesse of Men are thus given and they dare not set them downe clearer that the Devill may not wholly learne the Counsell of God and strow his Sugar upon it though in this place there are very excellent things that ought not to be revealed to the world for they remaine till the Judgement of God that the Devill may bring no new sects into it and lead men into doubt and therefore they shall be passed over till the time of the Lilly 101. So now when wee consider the great love and mercifulnesse in that he hath turned to Man wee finde cause enough to write and teach these a Matters or wonderous works and deeds things for it concerneth our eternall Salvation and Redemption out of the Jawes of Hell therefore I will set downe the ground of the promised Messiah that the following writings may be the better understood especially Moses in his Booke of the Law where there is need of it now he that will see nothing God help he must needs be blinde for the time of the visitation of the hardned Jewes Turks and Heathens cometh now Whosoever will see let them see the Lamps for the Bridegroome are shortly to be kindled he cometh whosoever desireth to be a Guest let him prepare him a Wedding Garment 102. Now saith Reason how could Adam and Eve know what God meant by the
hast eaten of the Tree whereof I told thee that thou shouldst not eate cursed be the ground for thy sake with care thou shalt maintaine thy life thereon all thy life long Thornes and Thistles shall it bring forth to thee and thou shall eate the hearb of the field till thou become Earth againe from wheâ—â—e thou wert taken for thou art now Earth and to Earth you shall returne againe 4. Here now stand the great secrets which wee cannot see with g Or with the eyes of reason our earthly eyes wholly naked and plaine and there is no vayle before it onely wee are blinde to the kingdome of God for God cursed the Earth and said it should now beare Thornes and Thistles and Man h Or must should eate the fruit of the accursed Earth This indeed is a new thing He allowed them not in Paradise to eate of the earthly hearbs but of the pleasant fruit And if he had eaten of the hearbs of the fields yet that which he had eaten was heavenly and when the Lord cursed the Earth then all became earthly and the holy Element was withdrawne and the fruit did grow in the issuing of the foure Elements in the kindling of the fiercenesse out of which Thornes and Thistles grew 5. Wee must conceive that there i Before the Curse was then a very pleasant habitation upon the Earth for all the fruits did grow spring and bud out of the hidden Element through the fiercenesse of the foure Elements and although the foure Elements had also their fruits yet Man should not but the Beasts of the field should have eaten thereof but now when the Lord cursed the Earth then the Element withdrew from the roote of the Fruit for Gods cursing is nothing else but his flying from a thing and thus Gods holinesse is flien from the roote of the fruit and so the roote of the fruits remaineth in the foure Elements in the out-birth and Adam and Eve were also fallen k Into the four Elements thereinto and thus now like came to like his body also was become earthly and must turne to Earth againe 6. But that God did say Thou shalt turne to Earth from whence thou wert taken that is also very true but the understanding is hidden in the Word and the earthly vayle hangeth before it wee must looke under the vayle For Adam was taken out of the earth not out of the foure issuings of the Elements but he was an Extract out of the Element which qualified or mingled with the Earth But when he fell into the foure Elements then he became Earth as also fire aire and water and now what should the Beastiall Man doe with the heavenly Paradisicall fruit he could not l Or enjoy it eate of it and therefore God doth not cast his heavenly kingdome to beasts and swine but it belongeth to Angels 7. So also it is very cleere and manifest that before the curse there grew such venomous or poysonous Thornes and Thistles and poysonous fruits and if God had not cursed the Earth from the one Element then no Beast should have been so fierce and mischievous or evill for God said Let the Earth be cursed for thy sake From whence now is also arisen the disobedience of the Beasts towards Man and their wildnesse or flying in their face as also that they are so cruell fierce mischievous and evill and that Man must hide himselfe from their fierce rage and fury whereas God in the Creation gave all into his power all Beasts of the field should be in subjection under him which now is clâ—ane contrary for Man is become a Wolfe to them in devouring the Beasts and they are like Lyons against him and there is meere Enmity against one another he can scarce order the tame Beasts much lesse the wilde 8. And wee are to know that there was a great difference in the Beasts before the curse for some viz. the tame ones were very neer a kinne to the Element with whom Man should have had joy and delight on the contrary some viz. the wilde ones which flie from Man were very neere a-kinne to the foure Elements for the m The wonderfull reason why one beast was better than another causes of those wonders stuck wholly in the Essences and they were very well knowne and seene in the light of the life in the knowledge of the n Or Divine Wisdome virgin there is nothing so deepe that Man cannot search into and see it most o Infallibly assuredly if he doe but put away the vayle and look through the Tables p Or transparent Law graven through with q Or Jesus Joshua into the promised Land 9. And God said In the sweat of thy r Or Browes face thou shalt eate thy Bread till thou turne to Earth againe Here now all is cleere and manifest in the light for he had lost the heavenly fruit which grew for him without labour or toyle of his and now he must dig and delve in the earth and sow and plant and so in the foure Elements must get fruit in cares labour toyle and misery for while the Element or the vertue or power out of the Element sprung forth through the Earth there was so long a continuall lasting roote to the fruit but when the Element by the curse withdrew then the Å¿ Or frozen congealed Death frailty and transitory fading was in the roote and they must now continually be t Or transplanted planted againe Thus the turmoyling life of Man took beginning wherein wee must now u Or swelter our selves bath our selves 10. God could well have created creatures which should have managed the Beasts so that Man might well have stayd in Paradise in the Angelicall forme and besides that there are already in all the foure Elements creatures without a soule God would well have laid the labour or charge of managing the Beasts upon another generation which were also x Or of the foure Elements earthly But he saw well that Man would not stand therefore instantly the burthen was laid upon him as Moses also writeth of it 11. But if God y Had desired would have had Beastiall Men then he would have created them so in the beginning and given them no Commandement neither should they have been tempted as indeed the Beasts have no z Or Commandement laid upon them Law 12. Therefore all Objections which fall into Reason are nothing else but the subtle contradictions or fallacies of the Devill who would very faine maintaine that God did will the Fall of Man There are also Men that dare to say that God did will it and say that he fitted the tongue of the Serpent to seduce Eve whose judgement is very justly upon themselves because they offer to confirme the Devils word with lying and goe about to make God a lyar 13. 'T is very true according to the first Principle viz. the Abysse
of Hell he hath willed it but that kingdome is not called God there is yet another Principle and fast inclosure between but in the second Principle where God a Or manifesteth himselfe appeareth he hath not willed it Indeed all is Gods But the first Principle is the Band of Eternity which maketh it selfe from whence God the Father issueth forth from Eternity into the second Principle and therein he generateth his Heart and Sonne from Eternity to Eternity and there the holy Ghost goeth forth from the Father and the Sonne 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 himselfe hath new regenerated him Man out of the Band of the first Principle and delivered him from the harsh or wrathfull Band and each Principle shall stand to it selfe in its own Eternity And yet God alone is Lord and alone Almighty but the Eternall 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 rejoyce when the wicked are recompenced whereas in the second Principle there is no desire of revenge b As the light of the fire doth not consume any thing at all but in the sharpnesse of the breaking through out of the first Principle into the second where the soule straineth through from the torment into the joy there it rejoyceth that the c Hunter or Tormentor Driver who plagued and vexed it is imprisoned and because now it is securely freed from him even as it is the joy of the Kingdome of Heaven that the Devill 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 d At. for this world because there is a Principle generated so that the Devill can make no more use of the fierce wrath which he powred forth and kindled in the time of his Creation but is imprisoned between the e The second and the third two 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 grimnesse and the source or torment of Hell is the f As the fires consuming is the joy of the light Joy of the Heaven for if there were no source or paine there would be g As there would be no light without fire no flowing up or springing but if the light cometh to be in the fierce austere soure source then there is meere Joy and in the Darknesse there is a peculiar enmity in it selfe and therein is the Eternall Worme generated 17. Therefore wee 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 darknesse in the fiercenesse 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 finde nothing more therefore give over your deep searching for it is the end of Nature 18. Although such h Or manifestations Revelations have been hidden or concealed from the beginning of the world yet because i The world it must now goe 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 k Mysterium Mysterie is the break of Day Therefore it is time to awake for the awakening of the dead is neere 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 toyle and misery upon Earth then he pronounced Eves sentence also and established her perfectly to be a Woman of this world and said to her Thou shalt beare Children with much paine and thy wilt shall be in subjection to thy Husband or Man and he shall be thy Lord and I will cause many paines to thee when thou art conceived with childe 20. And here it is as cleere as the Sunne 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 Or Smart paine without Beastiall m Conception or growing big with childe impregnation without a wife or Woman and without a Husband or Man And therefore the Treader upon the Serpent was borne of a virgin without the seede of Man although now that also must be to be done in such a humane manner yet that was to this end onely that the Deity might enter into flesh and so might generate the soule of flesh againe out of the dark flesh out of Death into Life But else the Saviour or Champion is wholly the Virgins Sonne and a virgin-minde 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 Allmightinesse out of the broken Gates of the Sharpnesse or Depths of God in the Joy or habitation where the Father n Or begetteth attracteth the pleasant Joy in his Eternall will whereby the will is impregnated with the attracted vertue of the light out of which impregnation the Father o Or comprehendeth conceiveth the other or second will to generate the vertue and that conception or comprehension is his Word which the Father speaketh out of the will p For or to be the will before the will out of himselfe and this speaking remaineth in the mouth of the Father as q A word comprehended by the secōd will a comprehended word with the second will and the issue out of the spoken word which goeth forth out of the will through the Word is the Spirit and that which is spoken forth r Or for to be the will before the will is the Eternall wisdome of God the virgin of the chastity 22. For God generateth nothing else but his Heart and Sonne and will never generate any other thing out of himselfe Therefore that which is spoken forth before or from the will is a virgin of chastity which never generateth any thing else neither but shee discovereth her selfe in the Holy Ghost in infinitum infinitely in the Deepe of the wonders of the Allmightinesse and openeth them and shee hath the strong Fiat of God for an Instrument to work with whereby shee createth and did create all in
shall be expounded in its due place 32. And there is a very great matter to be seene in Moses concerning his e Glorious shining brightened face where it was tryed whether it were possible that the soule could be ransomed by the Fathers clarity or brightnesse in the fire if they did live in his Law which was sharp and consuming and a great piercing to the soule but it was in vaine it might not be 33. And there the noble virgin in the Spirit of the Prophets did f Or prophecy of point at the seede of the Woman at his Incarnation or becoming Man his suffering and dying for the poore soule of Man that it might be delivered from the Eternall Death and be regenerated anew in the Sonne of the virgin which was done after three thousand nine hundred and Seventy yeares 3970 yeares 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 sinne and which Imaged or imprinted it selfe 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 the Sonne But these could not g Or comprehend the rising againe reach the earnestnesse of the coming againe of the body out of the grave But the Word must become Man if Man must rise againe out of the grave It the Covenant ransomed the soule indeed so that it could stand before the Father in the Gate of the corruptibility in the fire of the sharpnesse 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 sinne 35. Thus in that fore-mentioned yeare the Angel Gabriel came being sent of God the Father to Nazareth to a poore yet chast 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 plaine that wee are not borne of the h Universities or Academies High Schooles with i School-learning or tongues many Languages yet wee have the Language of Nature in our Schoole of Wonders or Miracles fixed stedfast or perfect which the k Or learned Doctor Master of Art in his Pontificalibus will not beleeve and he Greeted her l Or from through God and brought the Eternall m Or message Command of the Father out of his will and said to her n Luk. 10. from vers 28. to the end of ver 35. Haile full of grace the Lord is with thee thou blessed among Women And when shee looked upon him shee was terrified at his saying and considered in her thoughts what manner of salutation this was And the Angel said to her feare not Mary thou hast found Grace with God behold thou shalt o Be impregnated conceive in thy womb or body and beare a sonne whose name thou shalt call Jesus he shall be great and be called the sonne 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 Kingdome there will be no end Then said Mary to the Angel How shall that come to passe since I know not a Man And the Angel answered to her and said the Holy Ghost will come upon thee and the vertue or power of the most High will overshadow thee therefore also that holy One that shall be borne of thee shall be called the Sonne of God Then said Mary Behold I am the Handmaid of the Lord let it be done to mee as thou hast said and the Angel departed from her Now when this Command or Message from God the Father came then the nature of the spirit of the soule in Mary was astonished as the Text saith for p The spirit of the soule it was stirred by a precious Guest who went into a wonderfull Lodging or Inne 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 Starres hither beneath and became Man as the world teacheth in blindnesse No but the Word which God spake in Paradise to Adam and Eve concerning the Treader upon the Serpent which Imaged or imprinted it selfe in the doore of the light of life q Or beeing standing in the Centre of the Gate of Heaven and waiting perceptably in the mindes of the holy Men even till this time that same Word is become Man and that same Divine Word is againe entred into the virgin of the Divine Wisdome which was given to the soule of Adam r Or joyned to neere the Word to be a light and a Å¿ Or maid-servant or Ministresse hand-maid as to the Word 37. And the will of the Heart of God in the Father is from the Heart entred into the will of the Wisdome before the Father into an Eternall t Or espousall contract and the same virgin of the Wisdome of God in the Word of God hath in the bosom of the virgin Mary given it selfe into her virgin-Matrix and united it selfe 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 Angelicall Man as Adam was in the Creation and the going forth out of the Heart of God with the whole fulnesse 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 Angelicall 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 continueth eternally in the Father and it is in the Heaven of the Element every where present into which Element the same word is entred 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 bloud of the virgin but of God out of the Element in a totall fullnesse and union u Or with of the holy Trinity which creature continueth with totall fullnesse without x Fading ending therein eternally which creature every where filleth all in all the Gates of the holinesse 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 y Or lesse than the Deity inferiour to
concerning the Calfe to acknowledge it for a God and to account it for the true God because they knew that the Calfe was Gold and that the true God had made himselfe knowne 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 Calfe-worship where yet the honour must be u Entended by it done to the true God 70. And as Jeroboams Calves were an abomination to God which he yet with earnest zeale set up to serve the true God thereby onely that he might but preserve his worldly Kingdome that the People might not fall from him when they were to goe 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 Calfe and brake the Tables of the Divine Law and took his sword and one brother must slay the other because of their abominations and sinnes of false worshipping of God so also thou blind world in Babell of confusion seeing thou art fallen away from the every where present all knowing all-seeing all hearing all smelling and all-feeling Heart Jesus Christ and set upon thy own conceited wayes and doest not desire to see the gracious countenance it self of Jesus Christ and wilt not lay aside thy shame and whoredome thy appearing shew of holinesse or hypocrisie thy selfe conceited willfull pride might authority pomp and state but livest in thy invented holinesse for thy pleasure in covetousnesse gourmundizing gluttony and drunkennesse and in meere exalting of thy selfe in honour therefore the second Moses which was promised by the first and which Men should heare hath broken the Tables of his Law whereupon his precious x Or becoming Man Incarnation suffering Death Resurrection and entring into Heaven stood and hath stopt their entring into thy eares and he hath sent thee strong delusions out of the spirit of thy own invented shew-holinesse as Saint Paul saith so that thou beleevest the Spirit of lying and livest according to thy fleshly lust that so thy own invented shew-holinesse with thy false Key which doth not open the suffering and dying of Jesus Christ in his Death doth deceive thy selfe 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 doest not instantly turne in the last voyce of Gods call whereas many of you have been much called and goe out from Babell then Moses standeth in wrath and saith Gird every one his sword to his side and slay his brother in Babell and so thou destroyest thy selfe for the Spirit of thy own mouth will destroy thy selfe so that thou shalt be no more called Babell but fiercenesse wrath and sword within thy selfe which will consume thee and not spare for thou murtherest thy selfe thou great wonder of the world 72. O how have all the Prophets written of thee and yet thou knewest not thy selfe thou ridest so upon thy fatt pampereâ—t Beast and that riding pleaseth thee so well that thou wilt rather goe to the Devill into the Abysse of Hell than that thou wilt light off thy Beast What shall become of thee then thou blind Babell doe but yet 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 Babell 73. Did not he walke on foote upon earth He did not ride so He had not whereon to lay his head what kingdome doe you build for him Where is the place of his Rest Doth he not rest in thy Armes Wherefore doest thou not embrace him Is he according to thy Reason too poore in this world yet he is rich in Heaven who wilt thou send to him to be reconciled to thee The Mother of Jesus O no that will not availe he doth not stand behinde thee and absolve thy wickednesse for thy inclination of falshood He knoweth not thy y Thy Embasses and Messages Letters which thou sendest to him by the Saints who are in the still Rest before him in the heavenly Element 74. The Spirit of their soules is in the stillnesse in the still habitation before God it doth not let thy rough sinnes come into it to sleepe upon them but its Imagination and whole will standeth directly bent into the Heart of God and the z The originall property of the Spirit of their soules saith Spirit of the first Principle of its originall source sayth Lord when avengest thou our Bloud And the meeknesse of Jesus Christ saith Rest in the stillnesse till thy Brethren also come to thee who shall be slaine in Babell for the witnesse of Jesus 75. a The holy souls doe not pray for thee They make no intercession for thee neither doth it availe any thing for thou must be Regenerated anew through earnest sorrow and repentance thou must light downe from off thy Beast and must goe on foote with Christ over the Brooke Kidron into his sufferings and Death and through him thou must rise againe out of his Grave thou thy selfe 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 soule must in the Word and in the New Man Christ in the one Eternall Element be borne or brought forth out of the foure Elements into the water of the Element of Eternall Life thy Antichristian fained Fables help thee not for it is said such b Or Faith beliefe as a People have such a God also they have to blesse them 76. But that thy c Fore-fathers Predecessours after their Death have d Or done Miracles appeared in Deeds of Wonder upon which thou buildest that was caused by the Faith of the Living and their e Or Imagination Imaging in or impresse upon their Tincture which is so strong that it can remove Mountaines An evill Faith also if it be strong can in the first Principle stirre up Wonders as may be seene by f Of Witches and Conjurers Incantation and by the wicked shewers of signes before Pharaoh g Or it was done according to their Faith as they beleeved so it was done 77. And while the Faith of the Living at the time of thy forefathers was yet somewhat good and pure as to the kingdome of God still and they did not seek their Bellies and pomp as they doe now therefore their Faith or Beliefe pierced into the Heaven into the pure Element to the Saints or holy soules who thus did also naturally appeare with Works of Wonders or Miracles to the Living Saints in their Element in the strong Faith which Works of Wonder were onely comprehended or taken hold of in the
Faith and that h Or the ungodly did not partake of them not imparted to the ungodly 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 Righteousnesse for as every ones works of Faith follow after them so also their will to turne 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 Memorialls of the Saints this God permitted for the Heathens sakes that they might see that the Saints that were slaine or departed were in God and that there was another i So that God is the God of the living and not of the dead life after this that they should turne and be converted and therefore God suffered these works of wonder to be done 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 kingdome 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 powreth forth his Mercy over all Men with stretched out Armes and his voyce is never any other than onely thus Come yee all to mee yee hungry and thirsty and I will refresh you Matth. 11. He said Come to mee I will doe it willingly Also It is delight to mee to doe well to the Children of Men. 80. Who is it that will presume to undertake to stand before the source or spring of the Mercifulnesse 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 helpe those that call to him whereas his Armes continually without end stand stretched out to help all those that turne to him with their whole Heart 81. Thou wicked Antichrist thou sayest that faith alone doth not justifâ—e the soule but thy invented works for thy avarice or covetousnesse these must doe the Deed wherein wilt thou be regenerated in thy Mausim or Belly-God or through the Birth of Jesus Christ Which is neerest of all to the Deity thy works passe away and follow thee in the shadow yet the soule hath no need of any shadow but it must be earnest it must enter in through the Gates of the Deepe and must passe through the Centre of the grimme fiercenesse of Death through the wrath of the Eternall Band to the meeke Incarnation of Jesus Christ and become a member of the body of Christ and receive of his fulnesse and live therein his Death must be thy Death his Essences must flow in thee and thou must live in his source property or vertue thus thou must be regenerated anew in him if thou wilt stand before his Father else nothing will help if there had been any thing 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 Counsell or Remedy neither in Heaven nor in this world except God did become Man Therefore be thou in earnest and doe not seeke by-wayes to Babell 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 Covetousnesse Ordinances or Lawes and brabble in their Councells where Men have stopped the mouth of the Spirit of God that it should speak no more but that the k Viz. Those that are learned in Reason in the universities Spirit of this world should speake and build a Kingdome of Heaven upon Earth in Lawes Disputations and great talkings and therefore that Kingdome 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 fatt and lusty great and wanton and never be broken But it is come to be a Babell of Confusion thereby and in the Confusion it breaketh or destroyeth it selfe 83. If now thou wilt behold the virgin Mary with her Sonne Jesus Christ then thou shalt finde that shee hath been justified and saved through her Sonne although shee is come into great Perfection as a l A holy or half morning starre or as a halfe Lucifer before he fell Bright Morning Starre above other Starres and therefore also the Angel called her blessed among Women and said The Lord is with thee But shee hath not the Divine Omnipotence 84. For the Word which God promised in the Garden of Eden sprung 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 then it let it selfe into the chast virgin m In the Element before God in the Element in and not so wholly and altogether into the soule of the virgin or into the earthly body that shee was n Or Godded Deified no for Christ himselfe saith None goeth into Heaven but the Sonne of Man who is come from Heaven and who is in Heaven all others must goe through him into Heaven o He is in the Father and his members are in him he is their Heaven and the Father is his Heaven he was in the Heaven and also 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 conteined him as a Mother doth her childe shee gave him the naturall Essences which shee 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 bloud he assumed to the Limbus of God out of the holy Element and in these became a living soule without blemishing of the holy Element and the Word was in the middest the might strength height and depth of the soule reacheth even into the Father and the outward kingdome of this world hung to the inward as the foure Elements hang to the one Element p Foure Elements which in the end shall passe away againe and goe through the fire 86. And as the childe is another person than the Mother and as the childes soule is not the soule of the Mother so also here in this place For the outward virgin could not comprehend that shee did beare the Saviour of the world but shee committed that in her virgin-chastity to God whatsoever he did with her shee would still be contented with it 87. But thou abominable Antichristian Beast that wouldst devour all this thou shalt know concerning the holinesse of the virgin Mary that the virgin Mary is higher and hath
body in Christ and thou helpest the necessity or want of thy fellow-member and to bring him into God it is the pleasure and will of God that one help to beare the burthen of another and to be saved in one brotherly Love and in one body 101. Thou blinde Minister to the Kingdome of Antichrist when thou sayest Masse for soules How is it that sometimes thou takest upon thee to ransome a soule which is in Heaven or altogether in the Abysse with the Devill Doest thou not think that the Devill mocketh thee Or how canst thou help them that are in Heaven Thou criest out and sayest they are in paine and torment and thou art a lyar in the presence of God and how then will that holy soule blesse thee and give thee thanks How is it when thou thy selfe art in the Abysse with all Devills that thou standest and wilt ransom others out of Purgatory and that for money which thou afterwards spendest with Whores O fie upon thee thou great Whore or Harlot how hast thou made for thy selfe a heavenly kingdome upon Earth for thy voluptuousnesse and deceivest the poore soule of Man thou must either turne or goe into the Eternall Purgatory 102. And now seeing there is somewhat in Purgatory and that all is not so dead b Or the Wolfe of the Beast giveth it forth as the Wolfe of the Beast feigneth whereby he may devour the Beast and the Woman that sitteth thereon and he is himselfe a Wolfe and there hangeth a Fox behinde him and in the Fox there groweth up an other Antichrist againe never a whit better than the first he goeth flattering with his c Or Foxes Tayle Foxes skin smelling about and the Wolfe sticketh therein till he getteth the kingdome or Dominion if he should come to be old enough how would he devour the poore peoples Hennes in the fierce cruelty therefore the Lilly in the Wonder destroyeth him which groweth towards the North or midnight in the bitter or fierce storme 103. Seeing the world forgeth so much concerning Purgatory therefore I will also set downe the Ground of it in the Light of Nature and see how it will be endured and whether wee can search it out or no for wee must looke upon Life and Death and upon the Gate where the soule entereth through Death into Life and upon all the three Principles because the Roote the Pith or Kernell lyeth therein CHAP. XIX Of the Entring of the soules to God and of the wicked soules Entring into Perdition The Gate of the Bodies breaking off or Parting from the Soule 1. IF wee consider now in the light of Nature of Man the Image of God of his beginning and of his Eternall enduring being or substance and then of the breaking of his body how body and soule part asunder and whither the soules goe when the Spirit of their breath doth breake or dissolve in them and the springing or moving in the Tincture of this world doth cease then wee finde the ground of the unquietnesse of the soule when it is severed from the body being unregenerated from whence lamentation and desiring ariseth from whence then the Babell of Confusion hath arisen so that very many things have therefore been invented to Ransom soules out of Distresse 2. Many of which things have no foundation in the light of Nature nor can be found therein But were rather invented for Covetousnesse and for d For Livings filling of the Belly and for deceit upon which the Antichristian kingdome is founded and thereout is a right Babell of Confusion come to be out of which then also the Grimme fierce cruell enmity and hatred is arisen from whence Babell is broken in her selfe and Enmity is generated out of e Wrangling dissention and warring Babell and it is the fierce wrath of God which appeareth in the breaking or destruction of Babell because shee is generated in the Deceit 3. But now that the wrath devoureth all and wholly darkneth the Mysteria Mysteries or hidden secrets and maketh the source or quality of the Eternall Birth to be a Darknesse onely 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 Babell for it not onely devoureth it selfe but maketh it selfe f Or Stock-blinde stark blinde in Nature and it maketh of Mans Image meere evill wolvish Beasts which think that they are gone out from Babell and yet are begotten in Babell and are in the body of the evill devouring Beast and so devour the house of their Mother and manifest it to be a vile stincking Lake and yet themselves will not goe out from it and it is altogether a Kingdome which continually generateth it selfe in its own voluptuousnesse and pride and also continually manifesteth its own shame and devoureth it selfe in the wrath of its own sinnes and is rightly called Babell 4. But if wee goe out from Babell into the New Regeneration and consider our corruption wherein the poore soule lyeth captive and also consider our Regeneration in Christ Jesus how wee are regenerated out of God and then how Man must enter into this new Regeneration and be regenerated in the Birth of Christ then wee shall well finde what the unquietnesse of the soule is after the departure or breaking off of the body 5. For the soule 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 Angelicall source or quality but when it went forth out of the Light of God into the Spirit of this world then there sprung up in it the source of the first Principle and it neither saw nor felt the kingdome of God any more till that the Heart of God set it selfe in the midst againe into that the soule must enter againe and be borne anew 6. And that it might doe this therefore the Heart of God became a humane g One Copie hath humane body soule and slew by his entring into Death the Spirit of this world and brought the fulnesse of the Deity againe into his humane soule so that wee also may altogether in his as in our own humane soule through him presse into the holy Element before God and now there is nothing to hinder us but our own vile sluggish drowsinesse that wee suffer our selves to be so wholly and altogether lead by the Spirit of this world with pride exalting of our selves to honour and esteeme and greedy filling of the Belly with plenty and wee look no further to consider that wee are but Pilgrims and that as soone as the Spirit of this world hath laid hold of us in the Mothers body or womb wee are then Pilgrims and must travaile with our soules into another Countrey where the earthly body is not
as he was before the Fall i Or be its clothing againe be againe upon it 26. These holy soules works also follow them in their Tincture of the Spirit of the soule 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 doe more good although without the Paradisicall body which they shall then first attaine at the Restoration they worke nothing but their source qualitie or property is meere delight and soft k Or Well-doing welfare 27. Yet you are to know that the holy soules are not so voyde 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 doe 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 severall times they have wrought great Wonders or Miracles among the faithfull upon Earth which faithfull 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 thâ—re is nothing impossible to Faith 28. And it is not hard for the holy soules which are departed from the body to appeare l Or upon to a strong Faith of one that is Living for the firme faith of the living if it be borne of God reacheth also unto the kingdome of Heaven into the holy Element where the seperated soules have their Rest 29. And now if the deceased or seperated soule was here in this world a Candlestick and a declarer of the Name of God and that it hath turned many unto Righteousnesse 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 tiâ—es of the Saints great Wonders were done for the Faith of the Living and the Love of the seperated soules towards the Beleeving 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 kingdome that so they might be assured of the Resurrection of the Dead by the great Miracles of the deceased soules All which in generall were put to Death for the witnesse of Jesus that the Heathen and all People might thereby see what manner of Reward the holy â—People had when they laid downe their life for the Testimony of Christ by whose example many People also were converted 30. But now â—hat a Bâ—bell of confusion is come out of this in that it is come so farre that the Saints departed are invocated or worshipped as Intercessours to God and that Divine honour is done them this the holy soules departed are not guilty of neither here they desired any such thing neither doe they present the miseries and necessities of Men before God But the fault lyeth in the forged Superstition of the wicked deceitfull Antichrist who hath founded his m Chaire or Throne Stoole of Pride thereon not as a living Saint which with the holy inclineth himselfe to God but as an earthly God he thereby arrogateth Divine Omnipotence to himselfe and yet hath none but is the greedy covetous proud Anti-christ riding upon the strong n The Arme of the Civill power Beast of this world 31. The soules departed doe not present our wants before God for God is neerer to us than the soules departed are and besides if they should doe so then they must have bodies as also Paradisicall sources or flowing properties springing up and working whereas they are in the still humility and meeke Rest and doe not suffer our soure 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 Deafe Hearer as if he did neither heare feele nor see any thing himselfe who stretcheth out his armes and himselfe 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 soule come before Christ and pray for a Living Invocatour whereas Christ himselfe doth stand and invite Men and is himselfe the atonement of the anger in the Father For the Father hath given Men to the Sonne as himselfe witnesseth They were thine and thou hast given them to mee and I will that they be with mee and see my Glory which thou hast given mee 33. O thou confounded Babell goe out from Antichrist and come with a penitent heart and minde before thy mercifull Brother and Saviour of all Men he will more readily heare thee than thou come to him Step onely out of this wicked Babell into a new Birth and be not so much in love with the kingdome of this world thou art but a meere Guest and stranger in it what availeth thee thy o Or corruptible 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 soules in the Heaven and the Angels will rejoyce with thee Consider what joy and gladnesse thou wilt stirre 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 Kingdome of Heaven that thou thy selfe mayst open it or dost thou think it is not true doe but seek and try with an earnest minde and thou wilt finde wonders indeed thou thy selfe shalt know understand and without any doubt at all assuredly see in thy minde out of what Schoole this is written 34. Now the minde thinketh that if all the workes of a soule which it wrought here shall follow it in the figure then how shall it be if a soule here hath for a long time p Or wrought great crimes sinnes and blasphemies committed great abominations then they will be great shame to it if they must stand in the figure before its eyes This is a great stumbling block of the Devills which plagueth the poore soule and usually forceth it thereby into despaire so that it selfe continually presenteth its sinnes before it and despaireth of the Grace of God 35. Now behold thou beloved soule who art dearly redeemed by thy Saviour Jesus Christ with his entrance into the humanity and with his entrance into the Abysse of Hell and plucked off from the Kingdome of the Devill in the Might of the Father and sealed with his bloud and Death and covered with his Ensigne of Triumph all thy works both the evill 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 q Detraction shame or disgrace prejudice in the Heaven to the holy soules which have turned into the Regeneration in Christ but they shall have their highest joy concerning them in that they have stuck in such hard misery and sinnes and have been plucked out of them by their Saviour Christ and from thence will arise meere joy and rejoycing that they are redeemed from the r Hunter or the Devill Driver of their sinnes and from great misery and that the r Hunter or the Devill Driver is captivated which tormented them day and night in such ſ Sinfulnesse sinnes 36. And there all the holy soules and Angells in one Love will highly rejoyce that the poore soule is delivered from such great necessitie or misery and the great Joy then taketh its beginning from thence of which Christ said That there is more joy for one sinner that repenteth than for ninety and nine righteous that need no repentance And the soule will praise God that he hath redeemed it out of these great sinnes and herewith the praise of Christ in his merit passion and dying for the poore soule springeth up in Eternity and it is the right Song of the redeemed Bride which riseth up in the Father where the soules so highly rejoyce that the Driver is captivated and his t Dependents Complices confederates or followers 37. And here is fulfilled that which King David descanteth upon Thou shalt rejoyce to see how the wicked are recompenced how the wicked Driver Hunter or oppressour and u Occasioner or stirrer up of evill Incendiary of malice and wickednesse is tormented in his Prison for the sinnes that are washed away shall not appeare in Heaven as in the Abysse of Hell in the forme of fire but as Isaias said Though thy sinnes were as red as bloud or scarlet if thou turne they shall be like wooll white as snow they shall stand in a heavenly figure for Men to sing of in a Hymne of Praise and a Psalme of Thankesgiving for their deliverance from the Driver 38. And now seeing the departure of soules is various so also their x Or torment source quality or condition after their departure is various so that many of the soules departed y Or have a Purgatory for a tedious while are indeed for a 〈◊〉 time in Purgatory if the soule had been defiled with grosse 〈◊〉 and have not rightly stepped into the true earnest Regeneration and yet doe hang a little to it as it useth to be with those that have been laden with temporall honour and might or authority and power where many times their own power and profit prevaileth over right where wickednesse or malice and not wisdome is the Judge and here a great burthen is laid upon the poore soule and that poore soule also would faine be saved 39. Here cometh Man and prayeth before God for forgivenesse of sinnes and the Fox hangeth behinde his cloake he would be justified and his unrighteousnesse sticketh in the Abysse and that will not suffer him to enter into the New Regeneration his covetousnesse hath taken too much hold of him his wicked Babell of Antichrists opinions will not let him come to the true earnest conversion they barre up the Gate of Love and the Spirit of this world in the lust of the flesh continueth alwayes predominant or chiefe 40. And yet how ever when the point or houre of Death cometh that the Conscience is rouzed and that the poore soule beginneth to tremble for great feare at the Torment or source of Hell then these also would faine be saved though there is very little faith in them onely meere unrighteousnesse falshood and pleasure of the Earthly life the groanings and teares of the poore stand hard before it and the Devill readeth the Book of Conscience to the minde and there standeth also before the minde the pleasure of the world and the party would faine live somewhat longer and promiseth to lead a life in forbearance of evill or abstinence and the minde inclineth a little towards God or Goodnesse but the sinnes beate that inclination downe againe and then there ariseth great doubt in z Or unrighteousnesse unquietnesse yet neverthelesse many of them lay hold on the Saviour by a Threed 41. And now when Death cometh and severeth the body and soule asunder then the poore soule hangeth by a Threed of Faith and will not let goe and yet its a Budded essentiall vertues Essences stick fast in the anger of God the source or paine of the grosse sinnes b Boyle up in it torment it the Threed of Faith in the New Regeneration is very weake and here therefore now they must presse through the Gate of the Deepe through the passion and through the Death of Christ through the kingdome of Hell to God and Hell hath yet a strong Band about the soule the falshood is not yet washed off 42. There then saith the Bridegroome Come on the other side saith the poore soule I cannot yet my Lamp is not yet trimmed neverthelesse it holdeth the Saviour fast by the Threed of Faith and setteth its Imagination or Desire through the Threed 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 soule doth not desire to try by participating with them for it is their abominable sinnes which are kindled in the anger of God there must the poore soule c Or swimme Bath till it come into the Rest through the small faith where its Clarification or Glorification shall not in Eternity be like the true-borne 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 Paradisicall vertue 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 beare here be it the Kingly or Priestly Office if thou desirest to be in Heaven then thou must through thy Saviour be new borne thou must endeavour to bring thy Subjects unto righteousnesse and then thou wilt shine with thy Office as bright as the lustre of Heaven and thy works will follow thee O Man consider thy selfe in this 45. But thou earthly Babell what shall I write much of thee for Indeed I must shew thee the ground that thy hypocrisie may be brought to light and that the Devill may not continue in such a manner to stand in an Angelicall forme and in the voluptuous kingdome of this world in Man be a God which is his highest endeavour 46. Behold thou callest thy selfe a Christian and thou boastest that thou art a childe of God this thou confessest with thy mouth
fierce anger of God is also pleased because they qualifie or mingle one with another and out of one and the same roote 20. Doest thou suppose that all the Prophets have spoken from the pleasant kinde love of God from the Heart of God when they said to the Kings of Israel Enter into Battell thou shalt overcome God shall give you victory Indeed they spake from God but from his fierce wrath against sinnes through the Spirit of the Great World which would devoure againe what it hath made because the Love was extinguished 21. Or doest thou suppose that God sent Moses to slay the Kings of the Heathens in the Promised Land and that he is so well pleased with murtherings No friend look under the vayle of Moses and thou shalt finde it cleane otherwise 22. Why did God keep Israel forty yeares in the Wildernesse and fed them with l With Manna Heavenly Bread 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 Lawes brightnesse or clarity to see if they could live in the Love of the Father and then he would have sent them among the Heathens to turne 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 knowne that the Kingdome the power and all is Gods and that they were in him they ought to have left their covetousnesse and to converse among one another with brotherly Love none ought to look after covetousnesse because he horribly punished m Covetousnes it 23. Also when the Heathens should heare that 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 turne to God and depart from covetousnesse and enter into brotherly love therefore he gave n The Heathens them 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 Allmightie But they being earthly both of them and onely evill and being they did live in the Fathers fierce anger therefore the anger and severity of God lusted also to devoure them because they continually kindled o His wrath it 24. Therefore he said to Joshua Passe 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 did bid him to kill the Heathens as also the Prophets did not all speak from his Love but from his Anger which was awakened by the wickednesse 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 Zeale 25. And should wee therefore say that God is well pleased with anger and strife No the Prophets complained often in the Holy Ghost or Spirit of God that this evill people offended their God when they moved him to anger so that accordingly his severe wrath went forth and devoured them David saith in the fift Psalme Thou art not a God that art pleased with wicked wayes 26. Now if Man awaken sinne then the fierce anger or severity of God is stirred in himselfe viz. in Man which otherwise if Man did stand in humility would rest and be turned into great Joy as was often mentioned before But now when he burneth in wrath then one people devoureth the other and one sinne destroyeth another if Israel had been p Honest vertuous or had feared the Lord. upright they had not been put to make warre but they should have entred in with Wonders and have converted the People Moses should have lead them into the promised Land with his Miracles or Deeds of Wonder but because they were wicked they could not enter in with the brightnesse of Moses with deeds of wonder in the lustre or glance of the Father to convert the Heathens but Moses with his deeds of wonder must stay in the Wlldernesse and the whole People was consumed and devoured in the wrath and Joshua must warre with the Heathens and destroy them for one q Or one sinne wrath devoured the other 27. Whereas Joshua was an Image and similitude that Israel because they could not subsist in the Fathers clarity and love should be led by the second Joshua or Jesus out of the wrath into the Love through the breaking of his body and entring into Death Moses must enter through Death into life and bring his clarity through Death into life even as he appeared with Elias on mount Thabor to the second Joshua or Jesus in the claritie of the Father and shewed him the pleasure of the Father viz. that he the second Joshua should bring Israel through his Death and clarity into the Promised Land of Paradise 28. Yet it could not be how vigorously soever it was sought after that Man in his own power could enter into Paradise and therefore poore captive Man must sit in this world in the Devils murthering Denne where now the Devill hath built his Chappell close by the Christian Church and hath quite destroyed the love of Paradise and hath in the stead thereof set up meere covetous proud selfe-willed or selfe-conceited faithlesse sturdy malicious Blasphemers Theeves and Murtherers which lift themselves up against Heaven and Paradise and have built themselves a Kingdome according to the Dominion of the fierce foure Starres or Constellations wherein they domineere with silver and gold and consume the sweat one of another whosoever is but able oppresseth the other to the ground And though he flie before him yet then he onely putteth forth his Dragons tongue and spitteth fire upon him he terrifieth him with his harsh voyce and plagueth him day and night 29. What can be said of thee O Cain doest thou suppose that God doth not see thee Thou Monstrous Beast thou shalt stand naked as the Spirit in the Wonders doth signifie that thy Ornament may be made knowne How art thou become thus O Eve are not all thy children which thou hast brought forth all come out of thy loynes Was it then the purpose of God that the evill should domineere among the Good and one plague another 30. O no But the Devill who is a cause of the r From the grimme wrath the Devill or Weeds or Tares are sowen among the Wheate wrathfulnesse Adam was made good out of the pure Element but the longing desire or lust of the Devill deceived him so that he went into the Spirit of this world 31. And now it cannot be otherwise the two Kingdomes wrestle one with another in the children of Men the one is the Kingdome of Christ Generated through the New Birth
before the Garden to keep and guard the way to the Tree of Life Who could understand it If God did not open our eyes wee should speak simply of a keeper with a sword and Reason seeth nothing else 40. But the Noble virgin sheweth us the Doore and how wee must enter againe into Paradise through the sharpnesse of the sword yet the sword cutteth the Earthly Body cleane away from the Holy Element and then the New Man may enter into Paradise by the way of Life And the sword is nothing else but the Kingdome or Gate of the fâ—ercenesse in the anger of God where Man must presse in through the fâ—erce bitter Death through the Centre into the second Principle into the Paradise of the holy Element before God where then the fierce grimme Death cutteth off the Earthly Body viz. the foure Elements from the holy one Element 41. And the keeper of the Garden is the Cherubine the cutter off of the source or quality of the Starres which holdeth the foure Elements for a while and then breaketh them and with its bitter sharpnesse severeth them from the soule and passeth away it selfe also with its sword this keeper is here in the way that wee cannot come to the Tree of the Eternall Life he is in the middest and suffereth us not to come into Paradise the grosse Garden of Eden which is our Earthly Flesh is the hedge or fortification before the Garden 42. Now if any body would come into the Garden he must presse in through the sword of Death though indeed Christ hath broken the sword so that now wee can much easier enter in with our soules yet there is a sword before it still but he that findeth the way aright him it doth not cut very much for it is blunt and it is bent and if the soule goe but into the Gate into the Centre then it is presently helped by the Noble Champion Christ for he hath gotten the sword into his e Into his power or jurisdiction hands he is the slaine Lambe of the House of Israel in the Revelation of John which took the Book of the f Shut barred or closed first Principle out of the hand of the Ancient of Dayes who sate upon the Throne with his foure and twenty Elders which Book had seven seales or seven Spirits of the g Generation or operation Birth of God and opened them where the Elders fell down before him and worshipped the Lamb that was slaine and gave praise and honour to him which sate upon the Throne because the Champion of the House of Israel had overcome The seven Golden Candlesticks are his Humanity the seven Starres are his Deity as the Divine h Working or revelation Birth in it selfe standeth in a sevenfold forme as it is expounded in the beginning of this Book in the first foure Chapters 43. Thus Moses hath a vayle before his eyes and if thou wouldst see his face then thou must onely set Christ thy Champion before thee that he may lift up his vayle and then thou shalt see that Moses hath i 〈◊〉 Law no Hornes but that he is a patient Lamb fast bound to the Death of Christ and that his vayle was the Book that was shut so that wee could not be well enough till the Champion came and brake its seven seales with his entring into Death and there the vayle or covering was done away and in that Book there stood the holy k Evangelium Gospel of the Kingdome of God which our worthy Conquerour Jesus Christ hath l Instead of the Law or read or declared it to us left us 44. Now when Adam and Eve went out of the Garden they kept together as now married People doe and now would make tryall of their beastiall condition to trie what wonders might proceed from them and the Spirit of the great world did well enough teach them in their Reason what they were to doe And Adam knew his wife Eve and shee conceived and bare a sonne and called him Cain for shee said I have a Man from the Lord These are sealed words which Moses writeth that shee said I have a Man from the Lord for then said the m The great world or Macrocosme Major Mundus I have the Lord of this world Eve spake no otherwise than as the Apostles thought that Christ was to erect a worldly Kingdome so Eve thought that her sonne as a strong Champion should break the Head of the Devill and set up a Glorious Kingdome from whence instantly a twofold understanding or different conditions followed and two sorts of Churches the one built or relying upon the mercy of God and the other upon their own might authority or power and therefore Cain could not endure his brother because Abel pressed hard upon the mercy of God and Cain relyed upon his own power might and authority He thought himselfe to be the Lord of the whole world as his Mother had instructed him and therefore now he would breake the Head of the Serpent in his own might as a Warriour or Souldier and began with his brother Abel for his Faith relyed not on God but on his own power and here the Serpent did sting the Treader upon the Serpent in the Heele the first time The Gate of the Mysteries or the Exposition of the hidden secrets 45. Reason saith how might that come to passe that the first Man borne of a Woman was so evill a malicious Murtherer Behold thou immodest vile whorish world here thou shalt finde a Glasse behold thy selfe and see what thou art Here againe the great secrets meet us in the light of Nature very cleerly and plainly to be understood For Adam and Eve were entred into the Spirit of this world and the Region of the foure Starres with the infection of the Devill had miserably possessed them and although they did somewhat stick to the word of the promise yet the true longing and love towards God was very much extinguished and on the contrary the longing and desire after this world was kindled in them and besides they gat from the Region of the Starres a Beastiall lust or wanton desire towards one another so that their Tincture thus became a fierce beastiall lust or longing for they had no Law but the Light of Nature which they suppressed and kindled themselves in wanton lust to which the Devill helped them 46. And now when Eve n Nor began to be conceived with childe was impregnated her Tincture was wholly murtherous and false for her Spirit in the Love looked not upon God with a totall trust and confidence Also the wisdome of God stood hidden in the Centre of the light of her life Eve did not o Or incline unite or yeeld her selfe to it with love and confidence but much rather to the lust of this world shee must bring it to passe if any thing were to be done and being her Trust was not in God
it another dwelling house for thy soule that it may not send thee so naked away from it 117. And then thirdly that he hath brought thy soule out of Heaven into the pleasures of this world and now leaveth it in its misery wholly naked and bare fitting in its filthinesse and goeth away and regardeth no more where the soule is or how it is with it if it c Or should goe into Hell were in the Abysse of Hell it were all one to the spirit of this world this thou hast to expect for thy recompence from the spirit of this world because thou hast so truly served it 118. Therefore O Cain fly away from the Spirit of this world there is a fire out of the Roote of the Originality from the Lord of Heaven in it thy swelled secret Kingdome is kindled that Men may see or know thee in every place thou shalt stand quite open or naked with all thy d Or Mysteries secresies for the Spiritus Majoris Mundi or Spirit of the Greater World hath found the Tincture and its Roses blossome in the Wonders CHAP. XXI Of the Cainish and of the Abellish Kingdome how they are both in one another Also of their Beginning Rise Essence and drift and then of their last Exit Also Of the Cainish Antichristian Church and then of the Abellish true Christian Church how they are both in one another and are very hard to be knowne asunder Also Of the variety of Arts a Conditions and Courses States and Orders of this World Also Of the Office of Rulers or Magistrates and their Subjects how there is a Good and Divine b Or Order Ordinance in them all as also a false Evill and Devillish Where the providence of God is seene in all things and the Devils deceit subtilty and malice is seene also in all things 1. WEE finde by the Divine Providence in all things as also in Arts and c Or Conditions of things States that the things of this world are all good and profitable and that onely the Devills poyson brought into them is evill and so wee finde also all States or conditions high and low come out of one d Or spring onely Tree and one alwayes proceedeth out of the other so that the Divine Providence cometh to help all things and so the Eternall Wonders in ail the three Principles are e Or discovered manifested to which end God brought to light the Creation of all things which from Eternity in themselves stood onely in the flowing budding or f As the thoughts in the minde flow or spring up springing up but by the Creation of this world are put into the Wonders 2. Therefore now wee can speak or write of nothing else but of his Wonders for wee have a great Example of them in Cain when the Kingdome of the fierce wrath after his murther awaked in him and would have g By making him despaire in God devoured him that God came to help him when the Divine Justice in his Conscience sentenced him to Death then the Divine Answer spake against it saying No Whosoever slayeth Cain it shall be avenged sevenfold by which speech the fierce vengeance of the Abysse of Hell was driven away from him so that Cain did not despaire and though he were gone forth from God yet the Kingdome of Heaven stood towards him he might turne and enter into Repentance God had not yet quite rejected him but his malicious murtherous and his false confidence he accursed and would not h Or consent thereto be therein 3. For God departed not from Cain but Cain went himselfe from God if he had been strong in Faith and Confidence in God then he might have been able to enter into God again even as he thought before the fall into the murther that he would break the head of the Serpent but there it was seene what Mans ability was If he had laid hold on the true Treader upon the Serpent then he might have gone instantly in the vertue of the Treader upon the Serpent into God againe 4. But Cain i Or was had flesh and bloud and understood not the meaning of the Eternall Death yet when he was assured from God that none should slay him he became cheerly againe for the k His faculties that were in doubt were againe assured of Gods grace Essences of his soule were refreshed againe by Gods recalling him for the Doore of Grace stood open towards him he should returne for God would not the Death of a Sinner 5. And here may be seene very exactly who was the accuser of Cain viz. the bloud of Abel which cryed to God from the Earth and awakened the fierce Anger against Cain where the Essences of the soule of Abel through the deep Gate of Anger pressed in to God through the Treader upon the Serpent and so stirred the Roote of the fire in Cain whereby the Anger was awakened Here consider what the sighings of the righteous and their pressing into God in their unequall being oppressed can doe how it kindleth the Anger of God as in Cain whereas then fiery Coales are heaped upon the Drivers or oppressours head 6. But when l The wrath or the gnawing Worme of his Conscience it was allayed againe by the voyce of God then Cain did not know how that came to passe and set his murther at Rest like one who hath a secret gnawing Dogge sitting in the Darke yet he proceeded and built his powerfull Earthly Kingdome and did not wholly put his trust in God for when he saw that he must seeke for his Bread out of the Earth and must take his cloathing from the m The Beasts and that which groweth out of the Earth children of the Earth therefore all his businesse lay in the Art of Seeking how and which way he might finde and how to possesse the treasure of that which was found that he might alwayes have enough because he saw God no more therefore he did like Israel who were brought out of Egypt by Moses and when they saw him not because he was on the Mount then they began their dancing and false worship of God and asked after Moses no more 7. Thus Cain now built his earthly Kingdome and began to search all manner of Arts not onely in n Husbandry plowing or Tilling of the ground Agriculture but also in Mettalls and further all Arts according to the seven Spirits of Nature which in the o In the Name of Cain and the other Circumstances Letter is well to be seene wherein our Schooles or Universities will now be Masters but they are not yet Schollars in the Ground 8. And it is excellently shewen that they had p That is in Cains time they had the Tincture in their power the light of the Tincture in their hands wherein they found their Inventions though it was not wholly knowne for sinnes were not then in such multiplicity
Truth 62. And although the Driver compasseth thee about and will fetch thee away yet there is a limit set for thy Beast how farre it shall goe the Hunter cannot breake or destroy it sooner than the limited time and then if he doe breake it it is done onely for the manifesting of Gods deeds of wonder and for thy best good all thy stripes in the Thorny Bath shall stand in my Kingdome for a faire ensigne of thy victory and moreover thou shalt have great joy in it before the Angels of God in that thou hast despised the Hunter and art gone out of a wilde Birth into an Angelicall one O how thou wilt rejoyce when thou shalt think upon thy wilde Beast which i Vexed and tormented plagued thee day and night in that thou art k Or Released loosed from it 63. Then thou hast great honour for thy great shame and therefore why art thou so sad lift up thy selfe out of thy wilde Beast as a faire flower springeth out of the Earth or doest thou suppose thou wilde Beast that my Spirit is mad that it so little esteemeth thee Thou sayest I am indeed thy Beast yet thou art borne out of mee if I had not growen forth thou hadst not been neither Hearken thou my Beast I am greater than thou when thou wert to be there I was thy Master-framer my Essences are out of the Roote of the Eternity but thou art from this world and thou breakest or corruptest but I live in my source or quality Eternally therefore am I much nobler than thou thou livest in the fierce wrathfull source but I will put my strong fierce property into the Light into the Eternall Joy my works stand in power and thine remaine in the figure when I shall once be released from thee then I shall take thee no more to be my Beast againe but I will take my new body which I brought forth in thee in thy deepest roote of the holy Element I will no more have thy rough issues of the foure Elements Death swalloweth thee up But I spring and grow out of thee with my new body as a flower out of its roote I will l Or Leave thee forget thee For the glory of God which m Or fled from thee cursed thee together with the Earth hath grafted my roote againe in his Sonne and my body groweth in the holy Element before God Therefore thou art but my wilde Beast which doest plague mee and make mee sick here upon which the Devill rideth as upon his accursed Horse and although the world scorne thee I regard not that it doth that for my sake and yet it cannot see mee neither can it know mee and wherefore then is it so mad It cannot murther mee for I am not in it 64. But thou mad world what shall the Spirit say of thee Art thou not my Brother the Essences of my Spirit stirre thee goe forth out of thy Beast and then I will goe with my Companions into the Garden of Roses into the Lilly of God why keepest thou back and sufferest thy selfe to be held by the Devill Is he not thy enemy he doth but hunt after thy Pearle and if he get it then thy Spirit becometh a Worme and Beast in its figure why sufferest thou thy Angelicall Image to be taken away for temporall pleasure sake Thy pleasure is onely in the corruptible Beast but what doth that avayle the soule If thou doest not goe out from it thou wilt get Eternall woe and sorrow by it 65. Or what shall thy Noble Warriour Christ say to it Have not I saith Christ broken thy wilde Beast am not I entred into Death I have cut off from thy soule the foure Elements and the wickednesse or malice of the Devill and have n Or ingrafted inoculated thy soule into my vertue or power that thy body might spring and grow againe out of my body out of the holy Element before God and I have bound my selfe to thee by my Spirit have I not made a Covenant with thee that thou shouldst be mine Have I not given thee my body for food and my bloud for drink Have I not given thee my Spirit for a o Or leader Conductour and allotted thee my Kingdome for thy own Wherefore doest thou despise mee and goest away from mee Thou runnest after the Wolves and the Dogs and howlest with them and thou seekest onely after anger and how thou mayest bite and devoure thou swallowest nothing but p Wrath malice or sinnes and wickednesse fiercenesse into thee What shall I say I have in my suffering and Death by my regeneration generated no such Beast and therefore I will not have it except it be againe borne anew in mee to an Angelicall Image and then it shall be with mee CHAP. XXII Of the New Regeneration in Christ from out of the Old Adamicall Man The Blossom of the Holy Bud. The Noble Gate of the Right and True Christianitie 1. BEcause wee have written hitherto of the Originality of the Essence of all Essences how all things take beginning and have shewed the Eternall Enduring substance and also the transitory therefore wee will now shew further what is most profitable for a Man him to doe and to leave undone wherein wee will shew what God by his Eternall Word hath ever spoken by his Holy Spirit by Moses and by the Prophets as also what the Mouth of Christ and his Apostles have spoken what God will have us Men to doe and leave undone 2. Seeing wee poore Adamicall Men are with our Father Adam and Mother Eve gone forth out of the incorruptible and unchangeable Inheritance out from our true Native Countrey into a strange Inne where wee are not at home but are meerly Guests and where wee must in so great misery continually expect when our strange Host will thrust us out and bereave us of all our ability and take away from us all wee have so that wee are truly swimming in a deep Sea of misery and swelter in a strange Bath of Thornes and Thistles and wee know for certain and see it also daily before our eyes that wee are no other than Pilgrims in this Inne which must continually expect when the breaker or destroyer will come and take our heart senses and minde also our flesh and bloud and goods therefore it is indeed most necessary for us to learne to know and finde the way to our true Native Countrey that wee may avoyd the great misery and calamity and enter into an Eternall Inne which is our own whence none may drive us out 3. But because there are two of these Innes which are Eternall without end and expulsion and the one standing in Eternall Joy in great brightnesse and perfection in meere love and meeknesse but the other in great perplexity anguish misery distresse hunger and thirst where never any refreshment from the Love of God cometh therefore it is very necessary that wee
say of Mary shee hath comprehended the Holy Heavenly Eternall Virgin of God and put on the Holy and Pure Element together with the Paradise and yet was truly a virgin in this world generated by Joachim and Anna. But shee was not called a holy pure-virgin according to her earthly Birth the flesh which shee had from Joachim and Anna was not pure without spot but her holinesse and purity is according to the Heavenly h The wisdome of God virgin besides shee brought not the heavenly virgin to her out of her own ability for the Angel said to her The Holy Ghost shall came upon thee and the Power of the most High shall over-shadow thee therefore that holy thing that shall be borne of thee shall be called the Sonne of God 35. Here understand and consider it rightly the vertue or power is the heavenly virgin for shee is the i Mercifulnes Mercy of God and the holy thing is the Centre in that vertue or power and that is the eternall Birth of the holy Trinity and the Holy Ghost which goeth forth out of the Centre of God overshadowed the Humanitie of Marie Thou must not think that the corrupted Humanity hath comprehended the holy Deity as its own so that we might as it were say that Mary in her corrupted humanity is like God No the very pure Element together with the Paradise is inferiour to God and though indeed wee are generated out of his power or vertue yet that vertue is substantiall and God is purely Spirit for the Name of God hath its Originall in the Centre of the Spirit and not in the Heaven onely the Light in the Centre is the holy thing and the light ham no Centre for it is the end of k Or of Nature All things 36. Therefore wee say of Mary that shee hath received the heavenly Pledge which was unknowne to Nature and which shee in her outward Man knew not at all viz. the heavenly chast virgin of God and in that shee received the eternall Word of God the Father which continueth eternally in the Father out of which the Holy Ghost goeth forth Eternally wherein the whole Deity is comprehended 37. Wee cannot say that the heavenly virgin of the l Barmhertziegkeit Mercifulnesse Mercy of God viz. that which entred into Mary out of the Counsell of God is become Earthly but wee say that the soule of Mary hath comprehended the heavenly virgin and that the heavenly virgin hath put the heavenly new pure Garment of the holy Element out of the chast virgin of God viz. out of the Barmhertzigkeit Mercifulnesse or Mercy of God on to the soule of Mary as a new Regenerated Man and in that same shee hath conceived the Saviour of all the world and borne him into this world Therefore he said to the Jewes I am from above but you are from beneath and of this world I am not of this world and be said also to Pilate My kingdome is not of this world This ought highly to be Considered 38. You are to know that as Mary did beare the heavenly Image viz. a new Man borne out of the Mercy of God in the old Earthly Man viz. in the kingdome of this world which kingdome shee had in her as her own which yet did not comprehend the New Man so also the Word of God entred into the body of the virgin Mary into the heavenly Matrix into the Eternall virgin of God and that word in that Eternall virgin of God became a heavenly Man out of the Paradisicall holy pure Element in the Person of the new Regenerated Man of the virgin Mary and with his Eternall Deity was together generated in the beginning own soule of Mary and with his entrance of his Deity hath brought the soule of Mary againe into the holy Father so that the soules of Men which were gone out from the Deity were new-borne againe in the soule of Christ and begotten to the Heart of God 39. For Christ brought no strange soule out of Heaven with him into the highly blessed heavenly pure virgin but as all soules are generated so Christ also received his soule in his body though in his undefiled body of holinesse which was become Maries own For wee must say that the pure Element in the m Barmhertzigkeit Mercifulnesse Mercy of God became Maries own wherein her new body n Or belonging to in her Originall soule consisteth The most precious Gate 40. For no o New or strange other soule is generated in any Man but a new body but the soule is renewed p Or by with the pure Deity and Christ with his entrance into Death where he severed his holy Man from the Kingdome of this world severed q The soule it also from the fierceness of the eternall Anger and from the r Or working property source of the Originality 41. And as the pure Element which is in the presence of God and wherein God dwelleth is truly every where in the whole space of this world and hath attracted to it the Kingdome of this world viz. Å¿ The pure one Elements own Out-birth it s own Out-Birth as a body and yet this very body doth not comprehend the Element no more than the body comprehended the soule so Christ also hath truly in the body of the virgin Mary attracted to him or put on our humane Essences and is become our Brother yet these humane Essences cannot comprehend his Eternall Deity onely the new Man borne in God comprehendeth the Deity after the same manner as the body doth the soule and no otherwise 42. Therefore the body of Christ is inferiour to the Deity and in these onr humane Essences he suffered Death and his Deity of the holy Man in the pure Element entered together also into Death and bereaved Death of its power and did seperate the naturall soule which Christ commended to his Father when he dyed on the Crosse from the Kingdome of this world also from Death from the Devill and from Hell in the strong divine Might or power and opened a Gate for us all who come to him and incline our selves with minde and thoughts to him then the Father draweth our soule which is in him into the pure love of Christ where then it putteth its Imagination againe through Christ t Or in true Resignation forward into the holy Trinity and is fed againe from the Verbum Domini the Word of the Lord where then it is an Angel againe cleane seperated from the Kingdome of the Devill and of this world in the Death of Christ 43. And for this cause God became Man that he might in himselfe new generate the soule of Man againe and might redeeme it from the chaines of the fiercenesse of Anger and not at all for the Beastiall bodies sake which must melt againe into the foure Elements and come to nothing of which nothing will remaine but the shadow in the
continued in an Eternall Prison if the Eternall Word had not instantly Å¿ Or put given it selfe into the Centre of the fift forme as was manifested in Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden 22. And now when the time came that the Word became Man then the Deare Life came into the soule againe But when the strife came that the fourth forme should be broken then the outward body of Christ and wee all in the fourth forme were environed with death and then all the formes in Nature did stirre and were all predominant together whereupon the Person of Christ in the Garden did sweat bloud out of his body when he cryed Father if it be possible take this cup from mee Thus the outward Man cried out and the Inward said yet not my will understand my outward will but thy will be done 23. And now because the Devill had so highly triumphed and had Man in the Eternall Prison therefore it was now permitted to the Spirit of this world that they viz. the Pharisees who lived onely according to the Spirit of this world all of them might doe and bring to passe whatsoever the Devill had brought into the Essences in the Garden of Eden and there all was turned into a substance and to an Essentiall work for a terrible Example to shew us that all whatsoever wee suffer to come into the soule and fill the soule full of with a totall will standeth in the figure and must come to light at the Judgement of God 24. For when Adam went out of the Angelicall forme into the fiercenesse of the forme of the Serpent then the Devils mocked him and that mocking must at this time be essentially or actually done upon the outward Man Christ and the Devils fatted swine the high Priests must have their pleasure upon him 25. And so when Adam went out of the Angelicall forme and property into the fourth forme then all the fierce wrathfull Essences fell upon him and t Qualified or mingled in him wrought in him and scourged him exceedingly But the Word of God in the Promise mitigated that againe though indeed wee must still feele it enough if thou hast any Reason consider it And now the outward Man Christ underwent this paine also outwardly when he was scourged for all the Inward formes which the Man Christ must beare inwardly for our sakes which caused him to sweate drops of bloud they stood also outwardly on his body to shew that the outward Man in this outward world stood and dwelt in such a source property or condition 26. And as Adam in Pride desired the Kingdome of this world and would be like God in it and weare the Crowne of this world so must Christ weare a Crowne of Thornes and must endure to be mocked by it as a false King for so the Devils also did to Adam when they had set the Crowne of folly upon him the Kingdome of this world 27. And as Adam after his entrance into the Spirit of this world must have his Essences broken when the Woman was made out of him and a ribbe was broken from his side for a wife so must bloud flow out of all the Essences of Christ in his scourging and his side must be opened with a Speare that therein wee may behold the broken Man within us which the Devill had mocked thus this Christ must beare the reproach 〈◊〉 us in his body 28. And as Adam went out from the Eternall Day into the Eternall darke Night wherein the Anger of God was so this Christ must be bound in a dark Night and be lead before the angry Murtherers who all opened their Jawes and would powre out their fury upon him 29. And as Adam in confidence of himselfe desiring to be high and wise like God himselfe went into the Spirit of the fierce source or property in this world so the second Adam must endure all mocking torment and paine to be inflicted upon him from the wise u Who were learned in the Scriptures Scribes that wee might see that in our greatest Art which wee suppose to have from the Schooles and Universities in this world wee are but fooles and that such wisdome is but folly before God and our own opinions and conceits stick therein as in Adam who thought he could not now faile he was become Lord therein viz. in his selfe-wisdome and he was but a foole Thus also when we fall from God and relie upon our own Reason wee are but fooles 30 How will yee then O Antichristian fooles binde us to your Art that wee should turne away from the Heart of God to behold your invented fables and fopperies Whereas in your wisdome of this world yee are but fooles as Adam also was when he drew away his Spirit from the hâ—â—rt of God The â—â—ame x Shame or reproach â—gnominâ—â— must our deare Lord Christ beare upon his shoulders Or doe yee thinke againe that wee are madde Truly our folly will be set before your eyes at the Last Judgement and thither wee appeale 31. And as Adam must carry the untoward grosse body that the Spirit of this world had put upon him and was scorned of all Devils because he had changed his Angelicall Body into a monstrous Vizard so Christ must carry his heavy woodden Crosse and was for our sakes scorned of all these wicked people 32. And as the fierce wrathfull Essences of the Anger of God pressed into Adam whereby he entered into Death of which God spake saying If thou eatest of the Tree thou shalt dye the Death understand the Death in the flesh even while they were in the earthly life so the sharp Nayles must pierce through the hands and feet of Christ and so he must enter into Death and as there is in the humane Essences before the Light of God a Crosse Birth so when the Light of God shineth therein all is turned into a pleasant flourishing blossome wherein the sharp Essences are not found or perceived 33. And when Adam with his soule entered into the fourth forme into the Spirit of this world then that Crosse Birth was stirred and when his wife was made out of his Essences he was y Parted asunder or broken divided in that Crosse Birth and so the Woman hath the one halfe of the Crosse and the Man the other halfe which you may see z Upon the Brain-pan of a Mans skull and of a Womans skull thus in the skull as also in the Essences and therefore Christ must dye uâ—â—n the Crosse and destroy Death on the Crosse 34. And as the soule of Adam hung between two evill Kingdomes as between the Kingdome of this world and the Kingdome of Hell so Christ hung on the Crosse between two a Or Theeves Murtherers And thus Christ must restore againe all that Adam had lost And as the one Malefactor turned and desired to be with Christ in his Kingdome so the one Kingdome vâ—z the Earthly Man must
also turne againe and the poore soule must enter into Christ againe through the earthly Death and spring up againe like this Murtherer Theefe or Malefactour on the Crosse who desired the Kingdome of Christ 35. And thus you may well beleeve that all whatsoever happened in the Fall of Adam whereby Adam is fallen the same was the second Adam faine to beare upon his shoulders for b Adam he was fallen into the Anger of God and now if that must be allayed and reconciled then the second Adam must set himselfe therein and yeeld his outward body with an Essences therein and he must goe through Death into Hell into the Anger of the Father and reconcile it with his Love and so himselfe must undergoe that hard condition wherein wee must have been in Eternity 36. And now when this earnest businesse was taken in hand that the Sâ—â—ioâ—â— of the World hung on the Crosse as a curse and wrestled with Earth and Hell he said I thirst O that Great Thirst the fierce wrathfull Kingdome was weary as also the Kingdome of this world they desired strength and the Kingdome of Heaven thirsted after our soules it was a Thirst of all the Three Principles 37. And when he saw John with his Mother under the Crosse he said Behold that is thy Mother and to her he said Behold that is thy Sonne and instantly that Disciple tooke her to him His Mother signifieth his Eternall new Humanity which he had c Assumed received in his Mother viz. in the holy Ternary which wee should take to us and refresh our selves with his Mother and therefore he shewed her to John of which very much might be written but this shall be expounded in another place 38. And this is as cleere as the Sunne that as the poore soule in us hangeth between two Kingdomes which both keepe it altogether imprisoned so must Christ hang between two Malefactours take this into great consideration and weigh it well it is a most serious matter and wee see the whole terrible earnest severity that when the soule of Christ brake off from the Earthly Body when it passed into the Anger of the Father viz. into Hell then the Earth trembled and the stony Rocks cleft in sunder also the Sunne lost its Light and this wee see cleerly and understand it from the mouth of Christ 39. When he now had undergone all the reproach and sufferings he said on the Crosse It is finished while he yet lived in the Earthly Body he said it was finished understand all that should have remained upon us Eternally and should have sprung up in us with all the ignominie in which wee stood before Hell and the Kingdome of Heaven he had all that laid upon him concerning which Esaiah saith Surely he bare our infirmities and tooke upon him our transgressions yet wee held him as one smitten of God tormented and afflicted but he tooke upon him our diseases and all our miseries were laid upon him and through his wounds wee are healed wee all went astray like sheepe every one hath looked upon his own way and yet wee could not help our selves but wee went as miserable halfe slaine sheepe and wee must let the Devill in the Anger of God doe with us what he will for wee beare on us a monstrous Garment and stand in great ignominie before Heaven and Hell 40. Even as God d Or scorned reproached Adam in the Garden of Eden when he had put the outward Garment upon him saying Behold Adam is become as one of us All this reproach and scorne must the Man Christ take upon him also all torment and misery into which Adam was fallen this Champion in the Battle must beare upon him before his heavenly Father and there was the Lambe of God and he hung upon the Crosse as a Patient Lamb in our stead for wee should have been afflicted Eternally in our Crosse-Birth and therefore there hung in great Patience as an Obedient Lamb for the slaughter the Prince of the Eternall Life and set himselfe before his Father as if he himself were e Or Guilty the Transgressour The Gate of the Great f Or hidden Mystery Secret 41. Heare my beloved Reader if thou art borne of God open the eyes of thy Spirit wide that the King of Glory may enter into thee and open thy understanding consider every syllable for they are of great moment they are not g Or Dumb. mute neither are they from a blinde Centre brought forth into the Light Behold here hung on the Crosse God and Man there was the Holy Trinity there were all the Three Principles and the Champion stood in the Battle 42. Now which was the Champion in the Battle Behold when Christ had finished he said Father I commend my Spirit into thy hands and he inclined his head and departed Behold his Father is the Kingdome Power and Glory and in him is All and All is his the Love is his Heart and the Anger is his Eternall Strength the love is his Light and the Anger is the Eternall Darknesse and maketh another Principle wherein the Devils are 43. Now it was the Love that became Man and had put on our humane soule and the soule that was enlightened from the Love and stood with its Roote in the Anger as in the strong Might of the Father and now the New Man in the Love commended the soule to the Father into his Might and h Quitted or left yeelded up the Earthly Life which proceeded from the Constellations and Elements viz. Kingdome of this world and so the soule now stood no more in the Kingdome of this world in the i Or active propertie source of Life but it stood in Death for the Kingdome of this world the blower up of Life the Aire was gone 44. And now there was nothing more on the soule but onely that which it selfe is in its own Eternall Roote in the Father And here wee should have remained in the Anger in the dark Hell but the bright Father in his Glory tooke the soule to him into the Trinity Now the soule was cloathed with the Love in the Word which made the Angry Father in the innermost source of the soule pleasant and reconcilable and so in this Moment in the Essences of the soule the lost Paradise sprung up againe whereupon the Earth trembled viz. the Out-Birth our of the Element and the Sunne the King of the Life of the Third Principle lost its Light for there rose up another Sunne in Death understand in the Anger of the Father the Love was shining like a bright Morning Starre 45. k Note out of what the Sun is proceeded And thus the Body of Christ on the soule was the pure Element before God out of which the Sunne of this world is generated and the same Body included the whole world and then the Nature of this world trembled and the Stony Rocks cleft in sunder for the
fierce wrathfull Death had in the Fiat congealed and concreted the Stony Rocks together and now the Holy Life went into the fierce wrathfull Death whereupon the Stones did cleave asunder to shew that the life stood up againe in Death and did spring forth through Death 46. And then also the holy Bodies went out of the Graves consider this well those that had put their trust in the Messiah had in the Promise gotten the pure Element for a new Body and now when the Promised Saviour went through Death into Life and put on that pure Element for a Body then their soules in the Saviour in whom they stood in hope gat the upperhand and put on their new Body in the Body of Christ and lived in him in his power and vertue there were the holy Patriarchs and Prophets who in this world had put on the Treader upon the Serpent in the Word of God wherein they had prophesied of him and wrought Miracles they were no quickened in the vertue of Christ for the vertue of Christ sprung through Death and reconciled the Father who held the soules captive in the Anger and they now enterâ—d with Christ into Life 47. Heere yee beloved Sheepe observe When Christ dyed he did not cast away his Body which he had heere and yeelded it up to the foure Elements to be swallowed up so that he must have wholly a strong Body no but l He hath laid off the source or property of this world which is in the Starres and Elements and the m Corruption put on Incorruption Incorruptible swallowed up the Corruptible so that it is a Body which liveth in the vertue of God in God and not in the Spirit of this foure Elementary world and Paul saith concerning the Last Judgement That the Incorruptible viz. the New Man shall over-cloath the Corruptible and shall swallow up the Corruptible so that Death shall be made a scorne according to that saying O Death where is thy Sting O Hell where is thy Victory 48. You must known that Christ while he lived upon the Earth and all wee that are new-borne in him have and carry the heavenly flesh and bloud in the earthly Man and wee carry it also in the New Mâ—n in the Body of Christ And when wee die thus in the old Earthly Body then wee live in the New Body in the Body of Jesus Christ and spring up in him out of Death and our springing up is our Paradise where our Essences spring up in God and Earthly is swallowed up in Death and wee put on our Lord Jesus Christ not onely in the Faith and Spirit but in the vertue an power of the Body in our Heavenly Flesh and Bloud and so wee live to God the Father in Christ his Sonne and the Holy Ghost confirmeth all our Doings for all what wee shall doe it is God doth it in us 49. And thus there will be A Tabernacle of God with Men and the Body of Christ will be Our Temple wherein wee shall know and see the Great Wonders of God and speake of them with rejoycing And that is the Temple the New Jerusalem of which the Prophet Ezekiel writeth 50. And behold I tell you a Mystery as all whatsoever Adam was guilty of must stand yet and be manifested in this world on the Body of Christ and must be seene in this world so also you shall see this Temple before the time that the Incorruptible shall wholly swallow up the Corruptible in the Lilly in the Wonders where the n Fiercenesse and Tyranny Anger opposeth the Lilly till it be reconciled in Love an till the o Oppressour Driver be put to open shame as was done also in the Death of Christ which the Jewes hope for But their Scepter is broken and the life standeth in the Birth of Christ yet they come from the ends of the world and goe out from Jericho againe into the Holy Jerusalem and eate with the Lamb this is a Wonder but the p Persecutor Suppressour Oppressour or Tyrant Driver is taken captive and therefore wee speake thus wonderfully and at present wee shall not be understood till the p Persecutor Suppressour Oppressour or Tyrant Hunter is destroyed and then our life cometh to us againe and standeth in the q Or Victory valley of Jehosaphat The other Gate of the sufferings of Christ 51. It is cleerly shewed to us wherefore the Man-Christ must thus suffer himselfe to be mocked despised scourged Crowned with Thornes and Crucified also wherefore he must endure to be cryed out upon for one that had a Devill and wherefore he must be so spoken against by the wise and Prudent also wherefore the simple people onely hung to him and but some few of the Honourable and Rich of this world Though indeed wee shall not please every one yet wee speak not our own words but wee speake in our knowledge and driving in the Spirit that which is shewen us of God therefore understand and consider it aright 52. Behold the r Innocent Guiltlesse Man Christ was set instead in the Anger of the Father he must reconcile and satisfie not onely all that which Adam had made himselfe guilty of by his going forth from Paradise into the Kingdome of this world and so fell foulely in the presence of God and was scorned of all the Devils but he must make attonement for all that which was done afterwards and which is still done or will be done by us 53. And this wee set before your eyes in the knowledge of God and in true earnest Sincerity not that wee will despise any Man and exalt our selves wee would rather be banished from this world than that wee should seeke our own Praise in Pride that is but dung and drosse and the Spirit of knowledge would not stay with us this ought well to be considered Therefore wee will write in our knowledge for our selves and leave the event to God 54. Behold when Adam entred into this world Pride wrought in him he would be as God as Moses saith the Serpent the Devill perswaded him to it He Man would have the Third Principle working and flowing in him and thereby he lost God and the Kingdome of Heaven But that it is true that Pride acted in Man looke upon Cain he would be Lord alone he would not that his brother should be accepted before God fearing that he should then get the Dominion and therefore he slew him 55. And so Cain and his Successours have set up a Potent Kingdome from whence Dominion proceedeth whereby one Brother aspireth above another and have made them slaves And thus horrible Tyranny hath been hatched and the Potent have done whatsoever they listed he hath oppressed the needy at his pleasure he hath gotten to him the Kingdome of the Earth and therewith exerciseth Tyranny wickednesse and wrong and yet men must say to him it is right he hath contrived all sorts of Policy and
be forgiven thee Nay wee should not in Eternity have ever been able to come our of this evill and wickednesse if the z Barmhertzigkeit Mercifulnesse Mercy of God without our knowledge or desert had not helped us out of it 64. O how wholly of meere Mercy and Grace hath God the Father given us his Sonne who hath taken upon him our transgressions and reconciled a The Father him in his Anger All Men are invited to this Grace of what condition soever they are they may all come whether they be Turkes Jewes Heathens or Christians or what name soever they are called by none are excluded all that are weary and heavy laden may come to Christ he will receive them and refresh them all as himselfe saith and whosoever teacheth or saith otherwise or seeketh any other way is the Antichrist and entreth not by the true Doore into the Sheepfold Amen 65. And now if wee consider the scorning despisings and mocking of Christ and that all was done by the instigation of the Great ones and that commonly they were the poore silly people that followed him except some few that were wealthy wee then cleerly finde that which Christ said That a rich man will hardly enter into the Kingdome of Heaven This is not meant concerning their riches but concerning their vaine glorious proud and covetous life whereby they consume the sweat of the needy in Pride and forget God O how hard it is for one that is proud to humble himselfe before God and Man and the Kingdome of Heaven consisteth onely in the vertue and power of Humility 66. Yet it is seene that some wealthy people did draw neere to Christ whereby it may be perceived that the Kingdome of Heaven consisteth not in misery onely but in Joy in the Holy Ghost and none ought to esteeme himselfe happy because he is poore and miserable he is in the Kingdome of the Devill neverthelesse if he be faithlesse and wicked Also none that is rich ought therefore to cast his goods and wealth away or give them to be spent lavishly in hope to be saved in so doing no friend the Kingdome of God consisteth in Truth in Righteousnesse and in Love towards the needy to be rich damneth none that use it aright thou needest not to lay downe thy Scepter and run into a b Or solitary reserved life in a Cloister or Monastery or Private life Corner crying that is but hypocrisie thou mayest doe righteousnesse and better service to the Kingdome of God in holding thy Scepter by helping the oppressed protecting the Innocent and granting Right and Justice not according to thy Covetousnesse but in Love and in the feare of God and then thou art also a Brother to Joseph of Arimathea and shalt shine brighter than others as the Sunne and Moone compared with the Starres It is onely the pride covetousnesse envie falshood and anger that is the Crowne of the Devill therefore conceive it aright Of Christs Rest in the Grave or Sepulchre 67. Wee know that the Body without the Spirit is a thing that lyeth still for though the body of Christ the Holy Element generated in the c Barmhertzigkeit Mercy is from God yet the mobility and life standeth onely in the Deity and in us Men in the Spirit of the soule and in the Spirit of the Great World which are unsevered in this Body upon Earth 68. Therefore now the question is Where the soule of Christ was all the time that the body did Rest in the Grave Beloved Reason doe not like those that are blinde concerning God who say the soule of Christ went away from the Body downe into Hell into the Earth and during that time in the Divine power and vertue assaulted the Devils in Hell and bound them with chaines and destroyed Hell O it is cleane another thing The Saints rising out of the Graves at the houre of the Death of Christ declareth otherwise 69. Reason knoweth nothing at all of God and if it be not possible to attaine further from the Gift of God doe not descend downe into that Deepe but in singlenesse of heart stay d Rest contented with that which the Scripture saith on the Article it will not endanger thy happinesse God looketh onely upon the will of the Heart Thou must not search so deepe into every thing if it be not given thee as it is to this Pen this Pen writeth in the Counsell of God that which the hand knoweth not and scarce understandeth the least spark of it and yet very deeply as thou seest that the things to come are shewen in a very difficult depth which God alone will discover in due time which is e One Copie hath it known to us unknowne to us 70. Thou knowest that God himselfe is all and there are but Three Principles viz. Three Births of distinction in his Essence or else all things would be one thing and all were meerely God and if it were so then all would be in a sweet meeknesse but where would be the Mobility Kingdome Power and Glory Therefore wee have often said the Anger is the Roote of Life and if f The Anger it be without the Light then f The Anger it is not God but Hell fire but if the Light shine therein it becometh Paradise and fulnesse of Joy 71. Therefore wee can say no otherwise of the soule of Christ but that he commended it into his Fathers hands and the Father took it into his Divine power it stood with its Roote therein before but it s own Roote was without the Light of God in the Anger And now the soule of Christ came with the Light of God into the Anger and then the Devils trembled for the Light tooke the Anger captive and the Father understand his Anger in the Kingdom of Heaven was Paradise and in Hell remained to be Anger still For the Light shut up the Principle of Hell so to be understood that no Devill dareth to take one glimpse of light in thither he is blinde before the Light and the Light is his terrour and shame 72. And so thou must not think that the soule of Christ was then gone a great way from his Body for all the Three Principles were on the Crosse why also not in the Grave at that very moment when Christ laid off the Kingdome of this world the soule of Christ pressed into Death and into the Anger of God and in that very moment the Anger was reconciled in the Love in the Light and became Paradise and the Devils were captivated in the Anger in themselves together with all wicked soules and so instantly the life did spring up through Death and Death was destroyed and made a scorne yet to the wicked which remaine in the Anger it is a Death but in Christ it is a Life 73. Thus the soule of Christ rested in the Grave in the Father forty houres present with its body for the Heavenly
Body was not dead but the Earthly onely the soule sprung up in the Heavenly through Death and stood forty houres in Rest these were the forty houres in which Adam was asleepe when his wife was taken out of him as also the forty dayes when Moses was on the Mount and Israel was tempted to try whether it were possible to live in the vertue or power of the Father in the Kingdome of Heaven But when it was found to be impossible then presently the people fell away from the Law of the Father viz. from the Law of Nature and worshipped a Calfe that they had made to be instead of God and Moses brake the Tables of the Law 74. And God spake further to Israel in the fire that they should see that it was not possible to enter into the Land of Promise into Paradise till the right Joshua or Jesus came who should bring them through Death into Life consider this further I will set it downe very cleerly in the other Bookes concerning the Tables of Moses search for it and you will finde the whole ground of whatsoever Moses hath spoken and done Of Christs Resurrection out of the Grave 75. As Adam went out of the cleere Light of God into the dark Kingdome of this world and the soule of Adam stood between two dark Principles as between Death and Hell and grew up in the body so also would Christ in his growing body rise up from the dead at midnight and make the night in his holy body to be a cleere Eternall Day whereinto no night ever came but the Light of God the Father and of the Lamb shone therein 76. Thou shouldst not think that the soule of Christ these fortie houres was in any other place than in the Father g As fire goeth out in the Iron by the waters quenching or killing of it and yet remaineth in the Iron in its own Principle and in his body where it sprung up in great meeknesse upon the persecution it had as a Rose or faire flower out of the Earth as also our soules in our Rest in the Body of Jesus Christ at the Last Judgement-day in the destruction of this world shall in the new body breake forth againe out of the Old and in the meane while the soule groweth up in the Holy Element in the body of Christ till h Our appointed time our forty houres also come about and not one houre longer than the appointed time is Thus is the body of Christ in the power or vertue of the Father through the soule risen againe and gone forth and hath in it the Light of the Holy Trinity 77. It was not needfull that the Stone should be rowled away from the Grave but to convince the blinde Jewes that they might see it was but folly in them to goe about to detaine or shut up God also because of the Disciples weake Reason that they might see that he was risen for certain for when the Stone was rowled away they could goe into the Grave and see it themselves 78. Also the Angel appeared to them there and comforted them Thus will Christ comfort his afflicted ones who are afflicted for his sake yea he is present with them as he was with Mary Magdalene and with the two Disciples going to Emaus 79. Thou must know that no Stone or Rock can keepe or retaine his body he pierceth and penetrateth through all things and breaketh nothing he comprehendeth all things and the thing comprehendeth not him he comprehendeth this world and the world comprehendeth not him he is hurt by nothihg the whole fulnesse of the Deity is in him and is not included in any thing i Note he appeareth a Creature in our Humane forme in the same k Circumscription and bignesse dimensions that our bodies have and yet his body hath no end or limit he is the whole Princely Throne of the whole Principle 80. When he was here upon Earth in the earthly Man his outward body was circumscribed and limited as our Bodies are but the Inward body is unlimited for wee also in the Resurrection in the Body of Jesus Christ are unlimited yet visible and palpable or comprehensible in the heavenly flesh and bloud as the Prince of life himselfe is l Note wee can in the heavenly figure or shape be great or little and yet nothing be hurt or wanting in us there is no need of compressing the parts of that body 81. O deare Christians leave off your Contentions about the body of Jesus Christ he is every where in all places m Note yet in the Heaven and the Heaven wherein God dwelleth is also every where God dwelleth in the body of Jesus Christ and in all holy soules of Men even when they depart from this outward body and if they be regenerated then they are in the body of Jesus Christ even while they are in this Earthly body A soule here in our body upon Earth hath not the body of Christ in a palpable substance but in the word of power or vertue which comprehendeth all things in Christ indeed body and power is one thing but wee must not understand this of the foure Elementary Creature which is in this world 82. And the Spirit n Or witnesseth signifieth that if you doe not leave off this Contention you shall have no other signe given you then the o When the fire devoured the unbeleeving Captaines and their fifties signe of Elias in fire in zeale the zeale shall devoure you and your contention must devoure your selves you must consume your selves therefore are you not madd Are yee not all Brethren are yee not all in Christ If you did converse in Love what should you need to strive about your Native Countrey wherein you dwell O leave off your cause is evill in the sight of God and yee are all found to be in Babell be advised the day breaketh how long will yee keepe Company with that adulterous Whore Arise your noble Virgin is adorned in her Orient Garland of Pearle shee weâ—reth a Lilly which is most delightsome be brotherly and shee will adorne you indeed p Note wee have seene her really and in her Name wee write this 83. There is no need of Contention about the Cup of Jesus Christ his body is really received in the Testament by the faithfull as also his Heavenly Bloud and the Baptisme is a Bath or Laver in the water of the Eternall Life hidden in the outward Baptisme with water in the Word of the Body of Christ Therefore all Contention or Disputation is in vaine be in Brotherly Love and forsake the Spirit of Pride and then yee are all in Christ 84. These very deepe and difficult matters are not profitable for you you ought not to looke after them wee must onely set them downe that you may see what the ground is and what the Errour is For wee are not the cause of these Writings but you
notice oâ— it there the Keys of Peter must govern the Citie and they drew together with the Keys t Jus Divinum Divine Authority to them and so could use the Divine Power in deeds and wonders no more for they desired to be rich and wealthy upon Earth and not to be Poore with Christ who in this world as himselfe witnesseth had not whereon to lay his head they would not be such Christians in power and wonders As Adam who would not live in the Power but in a great Heape of Earth that he might have something to take hold of And heere may be rightly seene our Misery which Adam brought us into that our Essences alwayes reach after the Spirit of this world and desire onely to fill themselves with a great Heape from whence Adam and wee all have gotten such a swelled grosse untoward body full of sicknesses contrariety and contentious desires 24. Now when the Historicall Christendome and the true Christians grew together the Scepter was alwayes among the Learned who exalted themselves and made themselves potent and great and the simple Church yeelded to it as right and yet there was a desire after the Kingdome of God found in Men vâ—z the Noble Word of God which had u Imaged or figured it selfe in the minde imprinted it selfe in the Promise in Paradise in the Light of Life and which was made stirring by Christ that drave them indeed to the feare of God And then they built great x Temples or Churches Houses of Stone and called every one thither and they said that the Holy Ghost was powerfull there and they must come thither y Saying doe as wee say and not as we doe besides they durst be so impudent to say when they were found to be so wicked and malitious that the Holy Ghost was powerfully in the mouth of the wicked 25. But thou Hypocrite thou lyest if thou are ungodly thou canst not raise z The dead in trespasses and sinnes the Dead thou canst convert none that in this world lyeth drowned in sinnes thou mayest stirre the heart of the Beleever indeed through thy voyce which is a work of the Spirit but thou bringest forth none out of Death into life it is an impossible thing For if thou wilt convert a poore sinner which is drowned in sinne and lyeth captive in the Anger then the Holy Ghost must be in thy mouth and thy Essences must take hold of his and then thy Light will shine in him and thou shalt raise him out of the Death of sinnes and with thy Love in thy Tincture catch him and then he will come to thee with a hearty desire longing after the Kingdome of Heaven and then thou art his Confessour and hast the Keys of Peter and if thou art voyde of a The Holy Ghost that thou hast no Keyes 26. As the Confession is so is the Absolution Is the Patient an Historicall Christian so is the Physitian too and in them both there is a Mouth Hypocrisie But hath the Patient any vertue or power then the voyce bloweth that vertue or power up not from the power of the Physician but in the vertue or power of God who with his power even in a Thorne-Bush maketh it to grow which is the power in all things and so also in a voyce which in it selfe hath no ability 27. Thus it became a b Or fashion Custome that every one was bound to come to the Temple made of Stones and the Temple of God in Christ stood and standeth very empty but when they saw the Desolation in the c Disputations and Controversies Contention they called Councels and made Lawes and Cannons that every one must observe upon paine of Death Thus the Temple of Christ was turned into Temples made of stones and out of the Testimony of the Holy Ghost a worldly Law was made then the Holy Ghost spake no more freely but he must speak according to their Lawes If he reproved their Errours then they persecuted him and so the Temple of Christ in Mans knowledge became very obscure if any came that was borne of God and taught by the Holy Ghost and were not conformable to their Lawes he must be a Heretick 28. And so their d False power usurped supposed Jus Divinum Power grew and every one had great respect to it and they strengthened their Laws still more and more with the Power of Saint Peter till they raised themselves so high that they impudently set themselves as Lords over the Doctrine of the Apostles before God and gave forth that the Word of God and the Doctrine of the Saints must receive their value worth and authority from their Councels and what they ordained and instituted that was from God they were Gods dispencers of the Word Men must beleeve their Ordinances for that was the way and means e Meanes of salvation for the poore sinner to be Justified before God 29. But where then is the New Regeneration in Christ through the Holy Ghost Art thou not Babell a Habitation of all Devils in Pride How hast thou adorned thy selfe not for Christ but for thy own Pride for thy f God Maufim the belly God Idoll the bellies sake and thou art a Devouter But thy g Or Idoll Belly is become a stinck and hath gotten a horrible source there is a great fire of h Terrible devouring in that which thou hast made thy God Anguish in thy source for thou art naked and manifest before God thou standest as an impudent whorish woman Why doe you Layety hang and depend on such a Strumpet Her own l Usurped Jus Divinum usurped Authority is her Beast whereon shee rideth behold and consider her in the Revelation of John how the Holy Ghost setteth her forth in her colours 30. Wilt thou be an Apostle of Christ and wilt be but a Minister for the Belly and teach onely according to thy Art from whom doest thou teach from thy Belly that thou mayest fatten thy selfe thereby T is true thou shouldst be fed and thou shouldst have subsistence from Men if thou art Christs Disciple but thy Spirit should not stick in covetousnesse but in Christ thou shouldest not rely onely upon thy Art but shouldst give up thy selfe to God that God may speake from thee and then thou art in the Temple of God and not in the Temple of the institution of Mans Inventions 31. Look upon Saint Peter on the day of Pentecost who converted Three Thousand soules at one Sermon he spake not from the appointment of the Pharisees but out of the Spirit of Moses and the Prophets out of the Temple of the Holy Ghost that pierced through and enlightened the poore sinners But thou teachest Persecution onely consider thereby whence thou didst grow viz. out of that first stock where they fell from the Temple of Christ to humane conceits and Inventions where they sent forth Teachers according
Tincture is the fire of the body and so all are seething and therefore when the Suâ—â—e is underneath so that its beames or shining is no more upon a thing then the Tincture is weaker for it hath no kindling from the vertue of the Sunne and although the vertue of the Starres and the quality are kindled from the Sunne yet all is too little and so it becometh feeble or as it were dead and when the Tincture is feeble then the vertue in the bloud which is the Tincture is wholly weake and finketh into a sweet rest as it were dead or overcome 23. But now in the Tincture onely is the understanding which governeth the minde and maketh the thoughts or senses therefore all is as it were dead and the Constellation now onely ruleth in the roote of the first Principle where the Deity like a glance lustre or vertue worketh in all things There the starry Spirit in the glance of the Glasse of the divine vertue in the Element of fire looketh into the Matrix of the water and setteth his jawes open after the Tincture but that is voyde of power and therefore he taketh the vertue of the Tincture viz. the minde and mingleth or qualifieth with it and then the minde sealeth the Elements and worketh therein Dreames and e Representations visions all according to the vertue of the Starres for it f The minde consisteth standeth in the working and quality of the Starres and these are the Dreames and visions of the night in the sleepe The gate of the highest depth of the life of the Tincture 24. Though the Doctor it may be knoweth what the Tincture is yet the simple and unlearned doth not who many times if they had the Art have better gifts and understanding than the Doctor therefore I write for those that seeke though indeed I hold that neither the Doctor nor the Alchimist hath the ground of the Tincture unlesse he be borne againe in the Spirit such a one seeth through all whether he be learned or unlearned with God the Peasant is as acceptable as the Doctor 25. The Tincture is a thing that seperateth and bringeth the pure and cleere from the impure and that bringeth the life of all sorts of Spirits or all sorts of Essences into its highest pitch degree or exaltation Yea it is the cause of the shining or of the lustre it is a cause that all creatures see and live but its forme is not one and the same in every thing it is not in a Beast as in Man so also it is different in stones and hearbs although it is truly in all things yet in some things strong and in some weake 26. But if we search what it is in essence and propertie and how it is generated then wee finde a very worthy precious noble g Being essence or thing substance in its birth for it is come forth from the vertue and the fountaine of the Deity which hath imprinted h The Image of it selfe it selfe in all things and therefore it is so secret and hidden and is imparted to the knowledge of none of the ungodly to finde it or to know it and although it be there yet a vaine false or evill minde is not worthy of it and therefore it remaineth hidden to him And God ruleth all in all incomprehensibly and imperceptibly to the Creature the creature passeth away it knoweth not how and the shadow and the figure of the Tincture continueth eternally for it is generated out of the eternall will but the Spirit is given to it by the Fiat according to the kinde of every creature also in the beginning of the Creation it was implanted and incorporated in jewels stones and metalls according to the kinde of every one 27. It was from Eternity in God and therefore it is eternally in God But when God would create a similitude of his Essence and that it should be generated out of the darknesse then it stood in the flash of fire that went forth in the place where the fift forme of the birth of love generateth it selfe in the similitude for it was generated out of the fountaine of the will out of the heart of God and therefore its shadow continueth in the will of God eternally and for the sake thereof also the shadow of all creatures and of every essence substance or thing which was ever generated in the similitude remaineth eternally for it is the similitude of God which is generated out of the eternall will yet its Spirit continueth not eternally in the third Principle of this world that ceaseth or passeth away with the ceasing of the springing or the ceasing of the life 28. For all whatsoever liveth in the third Principle corrupteth or passeth away and goeth into its Ether and end till it come to the figure of the Tincture and that continueth standing eternally as a shadow or will without spirit or mobility But in the second Principle the Tincture continueth eternally standing in the spirit and in the substance or essence all very powerfully viz. in Angels and Men as also in the beginning or first springing of every substance for their Centre to the Birth is eternally fixt or stedfast Of it s the Tinctures Essences and property The deepe Gate of Life 29. It s Essence is the flash in the Circle or Circumference of the springing of the Life which in the water maketh the glance and shining and its roote is the fire and the stock is the soure harshnesse Now the flash separateth the bitternesse and harshnesse from the water so that the water becometh soft fluid and cleere wherein then the i Or faculty of seeing sight of all creatures doth consist so that the Spirit in the flash in the Matrix of the water doth see and the flash standeth therein like a glance or lustre and k Fulfilleth or satisfieth filleth the Spirit of the Essences from which the Essence draweth vehemently to it selfe for it is the soure harshnesse and the flash continually separateth the darknesse from the light and the impure from the pure and there now standeth the divine vertue or power and the divine glance continually imagineth or imprinteth it selfe in the pure from which the soure strong property is separated out from Nature and the divine Glance maketh the pure sweet for it mingleth it selfe or infecteth there 30. But the sweetnesse is like Oyle or fire wherein the flash continually kindleth it selfe so that it shineth But the Oyle being sweet and mingled with the Matrix of the water therefore the shining light is steady constant and fixt and l Pleasant sweet But being it cannot in the nature of the water continue to be an oyle onely because of the infection of the water therefore it becometh thick and the nature or kinde of the fire coloureth it red and this is the Bloud and the Tincture in a Creature wherein the noble life standeth Of the Death and of the Dying The
Gate of affliction and of misery 31. Thus the noble life in the Tincture standeth in great danger and hath hourely to expect the corruption or destruction breaking or dissolution for as soone as the bloud wherein the Spirit liveth floweth out or passeth away the Essence breaketh or dissolveth and the Tincture flieth away like a glance or shadow and then the source or springing up of the fire is out and the body becometh stiffe 32. But alas the life hath many greater and more powerfull enemies especially the foure Elements and the Constellations or starres as soone as any one Element becometh too strong the Tincture flieth from it and then the life hath its end If it be overwhelmed with water it groweth cold and the fire goeth out then the flash flieth away like a glance or shadow if it be overwhelmed with earth viz. with impure matter then the flash groweth darke and flieth away if it be overwhelmed with aire that it be stopt then the Tincture is stifled and the springing Essences and the flash breaketh into a glance and goeth into its Ether But if it be overwhelmed with fire or heate the flash is enflamed and burneth up the Tincture from whence the bloud becometh darke and swearthy or black and the flash goeth out in the meeknesse 33. O how many Enemies hath the life among the Constellations or Starres which qualifie or mingle their influence with the Tincture and Elements when the Planets and the Starres have their conjunctions and where they cast their poysonous rags into the Tincture there ariseth in the life of the meeke Tincture stinging tearing and torturing For the sweet or pleasant Tincture being a sweet and pleasing refreshment cannot endure any impure thing And therefore when such poysonous rags are darted into it then it resisteth and continually cleanseth it selfe but as soone as it is overwhelmed that it be darkned then the flash goeth out the life breaketh and the body falleth away and becometh a Cadaver Carkasse or dead corps for the spirit is the life 34. This I have here shewen very briefly and summarily and not according to all the Circumstances that it might thereby be somewhat understood by the way what the life is in its due place all shall be expounded at large for herein is very much contained and there might be great Volumes written of it but I have set downe onely this that the overcoming and the sleepe might be apprehended The Gate or Exposition of the heavenly Tincture how it was in Adam before the Fall and how it shall be in us after this Life 35. Great and mighty are these Secrets and he that seeketh and findeth them hath surpassing joy therein for they are the true heavenly bread for the soule If we consider and receive the knowledge of the heavenly Tincture then there riseth up the knowledge of the divine kingdome of joy so that wee wish to be loosed from the vanity and to live in this Birth which yet cannot be but wee must finish our dayes-work 36. Reason saith Alas If Adam had not lusted he had not fallen asleepe If I had been as he I would have stood firme and have continued in Paradise Yes beloved Reason you have hit the matter well in thinking so well of thy selfe I will shew thee thy strength and the Gate and doe but thou consider how firme thou shouldst stand if thou didst stand as Adam did before the Tempting Tree 37. Behold I give you a true similitude Suppose that thou wert a young man or young maid or virgin as Adam was both of them in one onely person how doest thou thinke thou shouldst stand Suppose thus set a young man of good complexion beautifull and vertuous and also a faire chaste modest virgin or young maid curiously featured and put them together and let them not onely come to speake together and converse lovingly one with another but so that they may also embrace one another and command them not to fall in love t gether not so much as in the least thought also not to have any inclination to it much lesse any infection in the will and let these two be thus together forty dayes and forty nights and converse with one another in meere ioy and command them further that they keepe their will and minde stedfast and never m Or purpose in thought conceive one thought to desire one another and not to infect themselves with any essence or property at all but that their will and inclination be most stedfast and firme to the command and that the young man shall will and purpose never to copulate with this nor no other maid or virgin and in like manner the maid or virgin be enjoyned to the same Now thou Reason full of misery defects and infirmities how doe you thinke you should possibly stand here would you not promise faire with Adam but you would not be able to performe it 38. Thus my beloved Reason I have set a Glosse before you and thus it was with Adam God had created his worke wisely and good and extracted the one out of the other The first ground was himselfe out of which he created the world and out of the world he created Man to whom he gave his Spirit and intimated to him that without wavering or any other desire he should live in him most perfectly 39. But now man had also the spirit of this world for he was come out of this world and lived in the world And Adam understand the Spirit which was breathed into him from God was the chaste virgin and the Spirit which he had inherited out of Nature from the world was the young man These were now both together and rested in one arme 40. Now the chaste virgin ought to be bent into the heart of God and to have no imagination to lust after the beauty of the comely young man but yet the young man was kindled with love towards the virgin and he desired to copulate with her for he said thou art my dearest Spouse or bride my Paradise and garland of Roses let me into thy Paradise I will be impregnated in thee that I may get thy essence and enjoy thy pleasant love how willingly would I taste of the friendly sweetnesse of thy vertue or power If I might but receive thy glorious light how full of joy should I be 41. And the chaste virgin said Thou art indeed my bridegroome and my Companion but thou hast not my Ornament my Pearle is more n Costly precious than thou my vertue oâ— power is incorruptible or unfadable and my minde is over constant or stedfast thou hast an unconstant minde and thy vertue is corruptible or brittle dwell in my o As in the outward Court of the Temple Court and I will entertaine thee friendly and doe thee much good I will adore thee with my Ornaments and I will put my Garment on thee but I will not give thee my Pearle for thou art