and groaneth to have it Banished for the outward devoureth the inward if the inward continue not in strife 2. Yet the three Principles are one in another The Soul is the Jewel the Spirit is the finder of the Jewel the Earthy Spirit is the â—eeker the Earthy Body is the Mystery so three seekers belong to the Soul 3. We undervalue not the outward Life it shews Gods Wonders but let Men go with the inward into the outward for tho' the outward be a Beast yet the Wonders which have discovered themselves in a comprehensible substance belong with their figures not their substance to the inward 4. The inward understanding Spirit is Lord of the outward But if it let the outward be Lord that Man is a Beast and if it let the Fire-spirit viz. the Turba be Lord that Man is a Devil But the outward Life is Water to that Fire else how would many a Man become a Devil if the outward Life did not hinder it as is to be seen in the Gall which is a Fire Poyson but mixed with Water it allays the fierce Pomp of the Fire from going aloft above the Meekness of God as Lucifer did Q. 17. Whence and wherefore is there a contrariety of the Flesh and Spirit A. Water is a death to Fire but the contrariety is not totally such in Man because the Light ever causeth the Fire but rather such as between God and Hell for the Anger Fire sharpeneth the Divine hiddenness of Gods Eternal Majesty for it generateth the high Light in the free Liberty and thus the other or second World cometh to be out of the first The Soul is the Centre of Nature The Spirit is the precious Image tho' not sever'd as Fire and Light are not sever'd the Fire is fierce yet the cause of the Meek Light and in the Light is the Life The contrariety is that the inward Spirit hath Gods Body out of the meek substantiality the outward Spirit hath the great Wonders which lye in the Arcanum of the Souls â—ternness therefore the Love spirit hindereth that the fierce wrath destroyeth not the Soul bâ— inflaming it The contrariety is that the inward Spirit would be Lord and subdue and the outward would be Lord saying it hath the Mystery of which it hath but a Looking-glass Seek not the Mystery in the outward Spirit for there is but a Glimpse but go into the Cross and from the Cross back into the fourth Form there is Sun and Moon one in another Bring it into Anguish into Death Drive on that Magick Body so far till it be again what it was before the Centre in the will and then it is Magical and hungry after Nature it is a seeking in the Eternal seeking and would fain have a Body therefore give him for a Body Sol viz. the Soul and then it will suddenly make it a Body according to the Soul for the will sprouteth in Paradise with very fair Heavenly Fruit without spot or blemish The inward Spirit would have God the outward would have Bread which is also good in its place But beware thou let not the outward Spirit be Lord. Q. 18. How the Soul departs from the Body in the death of a Man A. There is need of the Eyes of all the three Principles to take Death Captive to see this sharp question The beginning which is Magical having found the limit casteth away the seeking the Looking-glass the Earthy Life And lets the Body depart without complaint for there is no woe done to the Soul but the Turba or Fire life the Matter or Earthy Life â—â—â—seth The Soul dwelleth in the will which hath a glance or lustre burning in it and the Fire becometh impotent and a darkness unless the Spirit hath Heavenly Substantiality if so it is swallow'd up in the Magia hath the same meek Body for a Sulphur and Eternally burneth in the Love-fire Thus Sickness unto Death is that the Turba hath kindled it self and destroyeth the introduced Medium The Life's Fire being withdrawn the Body goeth into its Aether when if the Soul's Fire hath not in its Spirit God's Body viz nothing of the Power of Humility to sink down in it self through Death into Life it is a dark Fire in great horror in the first four Forms of Nature The stern Astringency Bitterness Anguish and Fire without flaming The Covetous one hath Frost the Envious one Bitterness the falâ—e Deceitful one Anguish the Wrathful one Fire Hence consider the last Judgment to be such as at which the Devils do tremble Q. 19. How the Soul is Mortal or who it is Immortal A. The Soul is from the Eternal and continueth Eternally it came out of God's Mouth and at Death goeth into God's Mouth again But the wicked Soul hath lost its Image yet Immortal for the Eternal Nature dieth not also if the Anger Fire should die God's Majesty would extinguish which can never be The wicked Soul hath introduced a Substance into the Will thence comes wo it is a Dying yet only a Will of Dying an Anguish ever thinking if I had not done this or that I might have attained God's Salvation which Evil things done make Eternal Despair No Soul Dieth be it in God or in Hell but its Substance or Doings stand Eternally to the Glory of God's Wonders Q. 20. How the Soul comes or returns to God again A. Answer'd in the foregoing Answer Q. 21. Whither the Soul goeth when it Departeth c. be it saved or not saved A. 1. It goeth not out at the Mouth for it came not in at the Mouth but the Turba having broken the Earthy Life goes as a Conqueror unapprehended by Wood or Stone through the Anger of God and Death and then is in God's Body in Christ's Flesh and Blood seeth God's Majesty and the Angels face to face in the unsearchable World without end or limit 't is swift as a Thought is magical its words and deeds done here are â—ts House 2. The Heavenly Body of the Soul is from the pure Element out of which the four are come that gives Flesh the Tincture blood It s external substantiality is Paradise where spring all bright heavenly Fruits which the Soul may eat they are as pure as a Thought yet substantial with colours Power and palpable to be handled by the Soul Juicy full of the Water of Life 3. Only those who are gone out of their own Will into God's in this Life have Christ's Flesh on them but most go so out as by Faith hang by a thread and are in the still rest waiting for the last Judgment Day sunk down in Humility through Death yet a Cliff or Gulph is betwixt them and the Holy Souls in Christ's Flesh and Blood but are in the same Principle yet under the Altar 4. The wicked are in the innermost which is also the outermost Darkness and can appear again in the starry Spirit seeking rest make terrors in Houses
near to the Devil And after this time there is no remedy more for the Souls Fire is naked and cannot be quenched with Gods Meekness but a Gulph or Principle is between them 3. Man is the Image of God and so standeth in a threefold Life the first is the Souls Life existing chiefly in seven Forms according to the Spirit of Nature The second is in the Image generated out of the Eternal Nature out of the Souls Fire standing in the Light The meek pure amiable Spirit The first the Fire is the cause of the second the Light Thus are two Worlds one in another onâ— not comprehending the other But at Death divides into two Principles of Anger and Love 4. As we in Adam went out of the Meek Spirit into the outward Life of fierceness God became Man to lead us through the Anguish Fire through Death into the Light and Love-life 5. The Prince Christ breaking the Bar or Fort of Death and so destroy'd the Devils Kingdom for the Light of God and the Water of Meekness is his Death 6. The third Life is the outward Created Life from the Sun Stars and Elements Man should have used the outward as a Looking-glass to the Eternal and Gods Honour But he did put his Will-spirit into the outward Principle by wicked Lust longing after the Earthy Life and so went out of Paradise which sprouteth through Death into the second Principle and went into Death and destroy'd his Noble Image This we Inherit from Adam but from the second Adam the Regeneration by which we must enter through his Incarnation with him into Death and through Death or Annihilation sprout into the Paradisical World into the Eternal Substantiality of the Liberty of God CHAP. VI. What Lust can do How we are fallen in Adam and helped again in Christ and yet that it is not easie to be a Right Christian. 1. DEstruction came and still cometh out of Lust. The outward Spirit of Man which is a similitude of the inward by Lusting after it infected the inward which not feeling present death gave room to the outward who then became Host of the House and so the fair Image disappeared for it fell among Murtherers the stern Spirits of the Lives original of which Cain was afraid then came the good Samaritan Christ who becâ—me Man 2. As Adam's Soul had opened the Fires Essences and let in the Earthy so Gods Heart opened the Lights Essences and compassed the Soul with Heavenly Flesh wherewith when the Soul became impregnated it went with its will into the Paradise Life Hence came Christs Temptation to try whether he could eat of the Word of the Lord and would enter through Death into Gods Life which was fulfilled on the Cross where Christs Soul went through the Fire of the fierce wrath through the stern source through Death and sprouted forth again into the Holy Paradise We must die unto our Earthy willing and continually become Regenerated into the new World 3. The right will must couragiously Fight against the corrupt will sinking down from Earthy Reason into Christs Death so that it will hazard the Earthy Life upon it And he that thus sinketh down passeth through Gods fierce wrath through all the holding â—ords of the Devil into the Paradise of God into the Life of Christ. And the more the noble Pearl Tree is sought the more strongly it groweth and suffereth it self not to be suppressed tho' it cost the outward Life which must but hang to us as it did to Christ. CHAP. VII To what end this World was Created 1. THE two Eternal Mysteries Mans strife about the Image And where the â—ree of Faith beareth Fruit. 2. The inward World desires a Similitude of it self which the Angelical World standing only in the light could not be This therefore standing in a twofold Genitrix of Love and Anger and Man being in a threefold Life from the Fire Light and Out birth clearly represents Who was Created to manifest the same Mystery and bring the Wonders into Forms according to the Eternal Mystery 3. The Noble Image the true Paradisical Man is strove for 1. By the stern Fire life 2. By the Divine Life 3. By the outward Life and thus being drawn of three There is great need of Fighting Hope Faith Humble Prayer and Patience that the Tree may grow which the outward Man nor Reason knoweth not but is very well known to the Noble Image The Cross Scorn Tribulation and Persecution attend him every hour for he is unknown to his Brethren all suppose his own Folly plagueth him but great will his Harvest be CHAP. VIII In what manner God forgiveth Sins and how Man becometh a Child of God 1. MAN is not to bring his Conscience into the History and hope for pardon in the manner of an Earthy Judicatory and yet remain wicked He must be a Son it is elâ—e as if a Servant should comfort himself that his Lord would give him his Estate not considering he is not his Son Whereas whosoever is Born of God in Christ is a partaker of Christs Sufferings Dying and Resurrection for a continual Battel must be till the Reason and Will of the corrupt Flesh be subjected 2. And if the Earthy Reason be strong it goeth often sadly and there is requir'd not only strict Sobriety but Watching Fasting and Prayer to â—ame it that Gods Spirit may find place to generate some faâ—r little Branches out of the Tree of Faith which under the Cross Anguish and Tribulation may bear Fruit with Patience These three Parts or Books were the Authors fifth Book THE Great Six Points The First POINT CHAP. I. Of the first sprout of Life out of the first Principle whereby we may distinguish the Divine Being from Nature 1. TEXT 1. The first or Abyssal Will without and beyond Nature is like an Eye or Looking-glass yet retains Nature 2. This Will is the cause of the Desiring The Desiring is the cause of the Essences The Essences are the cause of every Life for Life lyeth in them as a hidden Fire which burneth not 3. In the Will all the Forms of Nature from Eternity tho' but as a nothing in respect of Nature yet are truely and entally or really but not essentially in the Will 4. The Eternal Will which comprizeth the Eye wherein standeth the Seeing or Wisdom is the Father 5. The Eternal Wisdom comprizing a Centre out of the Abyss is the Form Heart and Son 6. The entring Eternally into it self to the Centre is the Spirit for it is the finder and then goeth forth manifesting the Wisdom of the Father and Son 2. TEXT 1. Thus the Abyssal being of the Trinity generateth to it self a Centre of Rest viz. the Eternal Word or Heart wherein is understood a threefold Spirit where the one is ever the cause of the other and is not measurable fathomable divisible nor circumscriptive dwelling in it self as a substance equally alike and at once filling
and alteration in the Symbolical Philosophick process to the Suffering c. of Christ even from the almost Triumphant Glory of the Philosophick Virgins Child to his seeming Non-existence and again a measure of restoration to Royalty is not thought fit to be Abridged but its entire Contexture left to farther Contemplation to which the Reader is referred CHAP. XII How the Seventh Kingdom viz. the Sun is reviv'd 1. WHEN Christ died the Natural Death it was for that Adam had brought his Humane and Sensitive Life the out-spoken Word into another Form and Sound than the speaking Word or Fiat had spoken it viz. into a Selfish will by which death of Christ the true Humane Life fell again into the place whence Adam brought it where Gods Ruling Spirit was the alone Life of it in all the three Principles not to be longer to the Astrum of the four Elements but in the pure Divine Element 2. Christ was the Death of Death bringing Life thence into Eternal Liberty And whatsoever Jesus hath done through Christ in his and my Humanity he yet now to day doth in me 3. The Process is the Curse being descended into the seven Forms of which the Life consisteth therefore as Christ was a Death to the Human Self-hood yet the Humanity was not destroyed So the seven must in the Philosophick Work be by Death brought to one Will and Desire in the Eternal Sol from Strife to Love yet remain in seven as heated Iron though shining as Light is yet Iron 4. Let the Artist consider how he may give Death to Death with the pure Life and how to awaken the disappear'd captivated Life which is Heavenly so that it may again receive the fire-Fire-soul and it worketh of it self 5. And seeing it is not possible to bring the Earth to Heaven the Heaven must be brought into the Earth viz. The Soul must be overcome and eat of Heaven will she nil she till she entreth with her Desire into the Heavenly Essence for the dear Love life dismayeth the Murtherer and shineth in the Love-fire So the seven Forms become unanimous proceeding to the Universal the Fundamental Knowledge whereof is apprehended only by such as enter into the Resignation of Christ and to such the way is Facile and Childlike CHAP. XIII Of the Enmity of the Spirit and of the Body and of their Cure 1. THERE is a Vegetative Life consisting in the four Elements a sensitive in the seven Forms of Nature a ratiocinative in the Constellation but the understanding proceeds from God arising out of the Eternal Nature from the Oyl of the one Element the free Lubet in the speaking Mercury 2. The Enmity originateth in the Mercurial Life which consists in Sulphur hungring after Matter which austere hunger impresseth to Coldness or a cold Fire viz. hardness density and darkness wherein it strives for Life and in that Life is the heat inkindled devouring the cold of its Substance begetting Light when also the Fire-spirit dyeth for the Life of the one is the Death of the other So the cold fire continually without intermission by dying becomes Life to the hot fire and the hot fire by its strong hunger draweth devoureth and liveth by its Mother the cold out of the impression whereof it had its Ens which it setteth free into the Lubet of the Nothing Thus the Fire is in the Light of the Lubet a Joy and in the Darkness an akeing Wo yet without the one the other could not be as is demonstrated 3. Man's desire was in the Beginning in the Liberty of God in resignation to his Love-will but by Self-will awaken'd in Nature Heat Cold Astringency Bitterness Anguish Torture 4. The only Cure must be a full and free resigning the Self-will into the first will by dying to the erring will and thereby become that to which God at first created him Then will the pure Body of the Element in which the Love-life of God's Spirit inkindleth in the Soul the resign'd will make the disappear'd Body spring from the same pure Element become the Mansion of the Soul in a Paradisical budding or blooming Renovation 5. The most high gave every Property at first a fixt Perfection but the Curse brought the Turba And now seeing God hath given us Power to become his Children and rule over the World Why not then over the Curse in the Earth so as to open and set free the captivated Paradisical Powers CHAP. XIV How the three Principles interchange generating Good and Evil yet all remain as at first to manifest the Glory of God 1. THE first Eternal Creatures Angels and Man and unfixt Products of Time Vegetables and Animals are all one thing differing according as the Properties impressed on them 2. The Impression is call'd Nature and is the Mother and Manifestation of the Mystery what hath been in the Eternal Will in both Centres according â—o Fire and Light also according to Darkness and Essence in the Motion of the desire to a manifest Mystery out of Eternity into a time which consisted in Sulphur Mercury and Salt 3. These Powers introduce themselves into Evil and Good by the seven especial Properties when they are not in due Weight and Measure but by the prevalency of some the rest are captivated 4. Whatsoever exceeds or departs from the first order to which its Mother brought it â—orth cannot go back and re-enter with its depravity into the first Root and good state unless it die So and so only can stand again there whence first it proceeded before it became Corporeal 5. The lower Hemisphear is the first Principle * Kingdom of Darkness The upper part the Salniter The Cross above the Circle the Kingdom of Glory The Form of Separation between the Living and Dead Essentiality is the fifth Form the Love-desire or Love-flame 6. Sulphur is the Mother of the Creatures arising out of the Darkness Fire and Light on the dark part it is Astringent Bitter Anxious but on the part resembling the Deity 't is Fire Light and Water The Fire divides it self into Death viz. Water and into Life viz. Oyl wherein the true life of all Creatures in the external World consists 7. Mercury is the Wheel of Motion in the Sulphur on the dark part is a sting and seveâ—s in the Fire in its Mother Sulphur into a twofold Water in the Death of Fire into a Living-light Water producing Silver in Brimstone in the seventh Property of Nature but in the Fire its Water is quick-silver and in the dark Anguish 't is rust and smoak in it it is also Poison 8. Salniter is the Compriser of all Properties Mother of all Salts in the Creatures in those which grow in the Love desire 't is potent and pleasant in the Evil it's Eternal horror ever aspiring above the Humility of Love Whence is the Will of Pride and of all Devils It giveth weight in Austereâ—ess Earth Sand and Stones in the Water in Sulphur and Mercury Flesh in
she can do all things And remaining in her self she maketh all things new And in all Ages entring into holy Souls she maketh them Friends of God and Prophets All good things together came to me with her and innumerable Riches in her hands And a greater than Solomon saith Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and all these things shall be added to you This Certainly is not only our Duty but the great Affair most worthy our Enquiry and Industry That Work which Man alone is capacitated for by reason of his noble Extract and that which is alone a suitable reward to render him truely happy It is this Work and Wisdom that the Writings of Jacob Behmen and these following are conversant about laying the Foundation deep firm and solid and thereupon raising a regular and noble Building Here is described at large our Malady and Remedy both with respect to Time and Eternity for the Instruction and Teaching of those he calls his School-fellows and to the perusal of the said Writings we recommend the Candid Reader And shall conclude with a Testimony concerning the Writings of Jacob Behmen from an Ingenious and Learned Hand What soever the thrice great Hermes delivered as Oracles from his Prophetical Tripos or Pythagoras spake by Authority or Socrates debated or Aristotle affirmed yea whatever Divine Plato Prophesied or Plotinus proved this and all this or a far higher and profounder Philosophy is I think contained in the Teutonicks Writings And if there be any friendly Medium which can possibly reconcile those Ancient Differences between the Nobler Wisdom which hath fixt her Palace in Holy Writ and her stubborn Handmaid Natural Reason this happy Marriage of the Spirit and the Soul this wonderful consent of Discords in one Harmony we owe in great measure to Teutonicus his Skill Only let not the Non or Misunderstanding of the most rational Reader if not a little sublimed above the Sphere of common Reason be imputed as a fault to this Elevated Philosopher no more than 't was to the Divine Plotine whose highest Notions many even of his own School after much Study were not able to reach The way to profit in reading these Writings is to be possest with patience our Minds standing in singleness and simplicity and in this frame of Mind to seek diligently pray earnestly and to resign up our Wills intirely to the Guidance and Conduct of the Divine Love Importunity and Industry often prevails to the obtaining the desired End when Sloth and Negligence meets with Disappointments and Shame Let us humble our selves under the sense of our Misery and submit to the mortifying our corrupt Wills and proceed on to Experience a Separation or cleansing from all filthiness of the Flesh and more secret defilements of the Spirit through the Power and Energy of the Heavenly Fire the Divine Life the Breath or Word of God That knowing a Death unto Sin we may also know a Life unto Righteousness which in the true Heavenly Process being offered up to God as an acceptable Sacrifice a permanent fixed and immortal State may be manifest where there shall be no more going forth for ever If these following Sheets contribute in some measure towards the directing and assisting of any especially the honest Industrious Searcher it will greatly rejoice the Persons concerned it being their end and design in the present Publication Farewel Some Words used by Jacob Behmen explained near to his deep Sense AByss is an Infinity peculiar only to each of the Three Principles Amass is a Spirit or Will bringing it self into substance compaction or manifestation Anguish is the third Form of the seven Properties of the Eternal Nature made of the two first Forms and making the Sulphurous Spirit Centrum or Centre is the Flash standing in every Will to make an opening Three Principles Ch. 14. v. 67. Christ by the word Christ is meant the inward new Man in the Spirit of Christ understood inwardly Element call'd the one or holy Element is of or according to the second Principle generated Eternally out of the Eternal Nature or great Mystery which are according to the first but where-ever they generate the holy Element there is Paradise Ens the proper or peculiar Being or Essence Good or be it Evil of a thing Eternal Nature is of the first Principle and is that in which standeth two Kingdoms one the pure Virgin Wisdom of God the one holy Element the cause of the four Elements and Stars The other the severe fierce wrath According to which God calleth himself a consuming Fire It is therefore the great Mystery Expressed word comprizeth all Creatures Visible and Invisible Fiat the Eternal speaking Word or Creating Power proceeding from the Free-will of the Abyss Also the desire of the Soul taking the power of the holy Love Tincture and makes it Essential Flagrat or sudden fright terror shriek flash the severing the two Principles of Light and Darkness resembling that in Thunder and Lightning Gunpowder c. The pregnant Eccho of the sound of Eternity speaking by Magical Fire-breath Love or Anger Life in the Light Death in the Darkness Which is called the Salnitral Flagrat Idea is the Ens which with Man first is and then known But we wrong God unless we say it is because God seeth it 〈…〉 a Divine Sparkle captiv'd so as can only glimmer not shine forth Magia there are two Magia's one of the Unity the other of the Multiplicity or Astral Powers And two Magi in Man the Spirit of God and Reason into the latter the Devil easily insinuates Majesty the Light of the Glorious Son of God the second Principle according to which only God is called God for according to the first viz. the Fathers Property he is not called God but a consuming Fire Lubet a Longing Delight or Beneplacitum In God it is the free pregnant will to Manifestation in Nature and Creature without which all had been an Eternal stilness The Lubet in Man is the moving will to Good or Evil. Mysterium Magnum that out of which all Visible and Invisible Concreates proceeded it is of the first Principle Vide Eternal Nature Out-birth the visible palpable mortal part of this World call'd the Anger-fire Salniter is that which in the Sulphur is awakened by the heat arising into a Flagrat out of the Brimstony Watry and Earthy Properties whereby the Properties are Explicated Sathan is meant the Spirit of Error and not always a Creaturely Devil but the Property of such an Erroneous Spirit Salitter call'd Divine Salitter represented by the Earth but like the pure Heaven in it are moving springing Powers producing all manner of Divine Trees Plants c. with Heavenly Colours Smells Tasts whereof this Worlds Trees Gold Silver precious Stones c. are hard dead dark shadows But this Salitter and Mercurius i. e. Divine Mercurius is the Food of Angels and Holy Souls Sophia the true noble precious Image of Christ
Heathen have all of Them the Gospel more or less obscurely Preached in them For as they without the Written Law do the things contained in the Law so do they without the Written Gospel partake of the Mercy published by the Gospel 13. That is being conscious to themselves of their Faults yet find by the Smiles of the Heavens in the Fruitful Seasons and in the suitable Productions of the Earth that they receive Good for Evil which is the Vertue of the second Principle or Gospel written on the whole Creation Notwithstanding all which if they harden their Hearts they become Sinners against Law and Gospel the Law written in their Hearts and the Gospel shining in the Light of their Understandings so conspicuously that tho' some of Them Laughed at the news of the Resurrection we hear Them serious at the tâ—dings of the Judgment to come having every one of Them a Self-condemning Judge in his bosom 14. Love is strong as Death but This Love is much stronger only Sin and finally Impenitent Men Hell and Devils judge themselves unworthy of it But This hath knockt at the Door of every Sinners Heart and cryes How long ye simple Ones will ye Love Folly and Scorning and Hate your own Mercies 15. Abel and Seth had the Hearing Ear in that Line it most eminently descended by a continued Succession thro' all Generations yet sometimes thro' very dirty Channels for tho' all were such till This Seed took Root in some and bare Paradisical Fruit and made them fit for the Masters Table yet some were much more foul than others 2. He enters into Foul Hearts tho' himself be so High born and Purity it self that passing into Foul places cannot be defiled but as a Refiners Fire not comprehended by the Dross which yet it purgeth away A work only possible to Omnipotence A few Considerations of that which shall be the Wonder of Eternity follow CHAP. XXI Of the Incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. 1. IT ought Attentively to be pondered that when the Fulness of Time or Limit of the Covenant was come Jesus took Man's whole Nature of the Virgin Mary but inasmuch as she was the Daughter of Joachim and Anna and of Eve she could not be totally a Virgin of Purity Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one 2. That Jesus Christ neither came into a Clean Vessel nor took a Pure Nature on Him but made the Vessel Clean and the Polluted Nature to become Pure The misunderstanding of which caused the Colliâ—idiani to render to the Virgin Mary Divine Worship 3. We must know that when our Redeemer took our Nature on him He took it out of all the Virgin Mary's Essences as well those of her Soul given her out of the first Principle and those of her Spirit given her out of the second as those of her Body out of the third Principle All which Soul Body and Spirit were propagated by her immediate Parents Joachim and Anna. 4. We are to know the Lord destroyed not Those Essences for He came not to destroy but took them as they were And by the Divine New Man which He brought with Him and which Himself was Refined and Sanctified them in them to work Their and Our Eternal Salvation 5. We cannot say there was no Evil in the Root of the Essences He took from the Virgin Mary as was mentioned above But his Divine Conception Exempting Him from any the least Impression Stain or Spot did illustrate and clarifie them As Fire doth Iron the Tincture doth Metals or the Sun Transmutes the Harsh Sour and Ill Properties of Fruits 6. We are not to doubt whether the Lord took a Human Soul from the Virgin or no about which many have erred for how else had the Essences of Our poor Captivated Souls been rescued had not the second Adam as truly assumed a Human Soul as that whereof the first Adam consisted It was Our Souls that had Sin and Death and were to be Redeemed so Our Gracious Lord made His Soul which was also a True Human Soul the Offering for Sin 7. Nor need we fear that the Lord took not Our Mortal Flesh and Blood on Him but brought Heavenly Flesh in His Conception and only Heavenly Flesh for He took also Our True Body of Flesh and Blood on Him from the Virgin Mary He took our Weak Infirm Body subjected to Passions of Hunger Sleep c. wherein lay Wrath and the Curse all which He bare with the Sufferings incident thereunto as Temptations Scourgings Reproaches Piercings Crucifying Anguish Death Burial And raised the Self-same Body which gives us assurance of our Resurrection and opens a Door for the Body though now Mortal to partake with the Soul Eternal Life 8. We are to know that our new Bodies will be the same very true real Bodies we now have and not other Bodies though not consisting of Accidents not palpable yet substantial as is manifest by what follows 9. The Mutations in Nature are no destruction of Bodies as a Grain of Wheat being sown passeth several Mutations yet is still the same For whereas at first it dies it is only by the Separator resolved into the divers Kinds of its own Composition that it may be capable of Commixture and Unite assimilated Bodies to it and so Collect encrease of Mâ—ter which it admits in no greater Proportion than to be the Father and Mother of all it self and augment and multiply it self by yet still is Wheat though hath the Increase of Quantity of many Grains of Wheat as an Oak is but an Accorn improved 10. Nature in orderly Motion goes forward and will not return into its Mystery by the Steps it went out till it hath compleated its Circulation You may as well return the Sun Eastward over us as make a Fruit become a Tree but in its orderly Motion first into a Fruit and Seed then is the new one the old renewed rather than another So is the new Body though Glorious not existent but by the dying of the old 11. As Adam's Fall made him not another Man but was still the Self-same in another a Monstrous Image as we also are deformed by that direful Fall So the Lord Jesus raising up his own Dead Body and cloathing it with Glory and Immortality and thereby giving us a Resurrection to be like him doth not make us to be other Men than now we are with loss of our Monstrosity and Access and recovery of the Glory we were created in and is by Him graciously purchased for us 12. We are to know That the Lord Jesus Christ when he assumed Flesh and Blood in the Virgins Womb was then not only there but then also sate and reigned in the whole infinite Abyss of the Father 13. We are also to know That after the Divine Nature or Infinite Godhead of Jesus Christ had assumed the Humane Nature He remained the self-same unmixed
eat and drink unworthily they eat and drink what is common to those that have not Eternal Life and but eat and drink the Elements only or what more is at most but Imagination grounded on and extended no farther than on the History Never the more enabled to enter into the Sufferings Dying and New Life of Christ. CHAP. XXIII Man's mistaken way towards a supposed Happiness 1. THE State of the Children of Adam is the same with Those Bebold I will hedge up thy ways with Thorns and wall a Wall that she shall not find her paths and she shall follow after her Lovers but she shall not overtake them and she shall seek them but shall not find them Then shall she say I will go and return to my first Husband for then it was better with me than now And God proceeds against the Apostate Adulteress to the end of v. 13. but in v. 14. and to the end of the Chapter returns her to him c. 2. Wise men in every Generation have sought in the Treasures of the Creation for Real Happiness and Rest And after they have div'd into the deep ransackt the many Mysteries obvious to Artists collected the scattered parcels of Felicity dispersed in the Earth pierced the Bowels of Nature as well Astral as Elementary Anatomised the Creatures and sum'd up their Totals Yet still could not overtake their Lovers but their way was wall'd up and some of them found theirs heâ—â—ed up perhaps with Thorns Many have sought the Living among the Dead every Creature eath told them it is not in Me. So their quest resulted in Dissatisfaction 3. Wise mens increase of Wisdom hath been the increase of Sorrow in which they lay down in the Grave forgetting and being forgotten their Thoughts perishing they left sad Memento's of the Vanity of every thing Those of them only have been truly Wise whom God hath led beyond their own into his School of the Love of Purity and Holiness as Job's three Friends Hermes and others such seem to be 4. For since the World by Wisdom knew not God those only were Truly Wise and still are who ceasing from things Visible are guided to things Eternal 5. Our Lesson is as to the Wisdom of This World to become Fools and as such to crucifie our Wills to the Lusts of the Eye Lusts of the Flesh and Pride of Life and as little Children who Will nothing but the supply of Necessities and do without Contract Bargain or Regret what the Father bids His Will is their Principle And as a reward of their Resigned Obedience they know no perplexing Cares forecasting Fears crafty Excuses Dissimulation Malice c. but have a calm Serene Face a Peaceable contented Mind a câ—earful Innocent Behaviour while awake and when they lie down fall sweetly aslâ—ep CHAP. XXIV The Lord's way home for Man to follow 1. BUT Man hath travelled with the Prodigal from This White State To him straying will he suffer one that heartily wisheth the good of Souls to say Stand still and consider if a Good End be better than a Bad a Good Way must be better than an Evil for the Evil Way tends to a Bad End 2. And to shew whether his way be not bad let him look narrowly heedfully and impartially into his own Heart and Inclination where he shall find a Body of Self-Love coveting to get All which comes from the first Form the Aâ—tringency 3. Next He shall find an eager Desire to be Exalted and Great above others which Pride cometh from the second Form of Nature the Attraction or Constringency 4. Next He shall perceive a contemning despising and envying of others That he thinks he exceeds in Worth and they him in Fortune or the like which he fretteth at This proceeds from the third Form of Nature the Anguish 5. And then he shall find violent Anger Rage and Fury when crost or curb'd by any one which cometh of the fourth Form of Nature the Fire 6. And under these four Heads Troops of Sins Appendixes to these which well consider'd may make him much rather than blessed Paul cry out Oâ— wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death He may now see how Evil in themselves these Disorders and hellish Principles are and how Evil to him how Dangerous to erect a Government in his private particular Soul opposite to the One entire gracious universal omnipotent Will and Government 7. When thus the Light of Jesus Christ ariseth it both sheweth the Malady and the Cure And this Light is not under a Bushel but as universal yet not seen by the wilfully Blind as the outward Sun to all Mens outward Senses The voice of Wisdom calls at every Mans Heart and where they listen it teacheth 7. To dye to the tyranny of their own Wills and so be like Children for Mens own Wills compass them about with sparks of their own kindling viz. Common Fire not that of the Altar which leads them in the Dark to lye down in Sorrow for as far as Adam did and we still do introduce our Wills into the third Principle we are like sad Eclipses in Hostility against the Heavenly out-goings 8. The true Divine Light of Jesus Christ where it is followed generateth a warm chearing dear â—ove to the New Man growing out of the Old as in a balance the New is lift up in that degree of Swiftness as the Old sinketh down It springeth out of the Old as a fair Flower out of the dark Earth as it were out of the Grave of the Old 9. This Light of Jesus Christ also so winneth on the Soul that it is resigned to the Guidance of true Wisdom being that of the Universal Holy Will For finding their own to be deceiving and deceived they become to it as Fools for Christ's sake not only content but habitually longing to know nor do nor be any thing but what their crucifyed Lord willeth in them 10. This Light having kill'd the perverted Will wrought Divine Love and Resignation doth betroth the Soul to the Virgin of Modesty and Purity again from whom Adam departed whom the Lord from Heaven the second Adam brought with him by him she was re-espoused to the Humane Nature no more to be Divorced For Man having Travelled by Art into Nature by his own Wisdom like a dark Head steered his own Will to the Designs of a Corrupt Heart and laboured all Night catching nothing wherewith being weary learns to Obey and be as a little Child and then finds rest yet in such degree and proportion as his continuance in Child-like Obedience is more or less Universal and Stedfast 11. Adam lost and we lose the Heavenly Virgin of Purity and Modesty by finding and living to the Lust of the third Principle viz. The seeming Wisdom guiding to obtain the mistaken satiety of Pleasure Profit and Honour by the Elementary palpable Transitory and
whom the Christians enjoy the rich and large Country of Georgia and those Christians not leven'd and perverted with Idolatry 3. But Persecution stands rooted in the first Principle in which it is apparent how Brethren in Profession betray Brethren in Truth and in Deed because they all consist of the self-same four Forms and part asunder only in the Fourth for the Children of the day only generate out of their Fire-divine Eternal Light and the other proceed no farther than the Fire generating no other Light than â— false one viz. as may consist with the false Maxims of the third Principle a Serpentine Wisdom 4. Thence is it that from the natural strife of those divided Properties and Rage of the Fire proceeds the cruel Persecutions therefore the High Priests and Teachers of the Law with the unbelieving Jews were the Lord 's bitter Enemies As was Cain the false Sacrificer to Abel for that Abel by enkindling the true Light sacrificed his own Affections Will and Heart which Cain reserved and so his offering was lame and disregarded 5. Nor may iâ— seem strange that the Teachers of the Law should be at Enmity against the Fulfiller of it for they were only Ministers of the Letter and the Letter killeth Thus Antichrist who succeeds the Jewish Priests in killing Christ in his Members would bind the Children whom God hath made free but cannot 6. Thus Ishmael the Son of the Bond woman persecutes Isaac and would have been the Heir These if they can acquire Power in the third Principle destroy the Sons of the free Woman if they cannot they call the Civil or Military Assistants whom they mis-inform as Haman did then stir up such a Fox as Hâ—rod whose jealousie of losing what the Lord would not foul His fingers with prompts him to Cruelty But more particular might I have been here would it not anticipate what will fall under the 154 Question concerning the titular Christian and the 162 Question concerning Antichrist by whomsoever God shall open their Answers which is therefore here forborn Q. 119. Why must Christ suffer and die Was God to do it for such a revenge sake that he might attone and reconcile or appease himself Could he not otherwise forgive Sin A. I have no reason to vary my often mention'd design of declining Repetitions therefore must refer the Solution of this to the 107 Answer Q. 120. What is the figure of the two Murtherers which hanged on a Cross on each â—ide of Christ And why must Christ die on a wooden Cross and not otherwise A. Adam's terrible Fall was accompanied with dividing the Tinctures as is manifest in the 43d Answer which brake and parted him into a Woman as is shew'd in the 65th Answer And as more links of that heavy chain follow'd the extremities of Heat and Cold as appears in the â—0th Answer agreeable to the separate Properties in the Tree of Good and Evil discover'd in the 57th Answer All which is made more obvious in the Birth of Cain and Abel to every of which Answers for laying open the thing sought in the first part of this Question I refer my self 1. Yet farther for Answer we must know that Adam when fallen hung between the enraged Properties of the first Principle and the third Principle as it were leaning on both using the Out-birth to meeken the extorting Provocations of the four Anguishes And having lost the Divine Vision had his doleful abode betwixt Hell and this World which is the thing figur'd by the two Thieves the one whereof was forgiven 2. Thus is it that Publicans and Sinners signified by those of the third Principle enter the Kingdom of Heaven before the Scribes and Pharisees who as in the 118th Question is clear'd do stand in the Zeal and Wrath of the first Principle to persecute and worry them in whose Hearts the Day-Star or second Principle is risen 3. Now that the Lord did die on a wooden Cross and not otherwise was That as the Civil Magistrate is God's Ordinance for Execution of vindictive Justice as being of the third Principle which third is the Instrument or Figure of the first and second as is evidenced in the first part of the 118th Answer So the wood of the Cross was of a Plant of the same Principle by Eating the Good and Evil Fruit whereof Adam fell thereinto 4. Therefore was it proper to be the bitter and Blessed or Evil and Good Instrument framed for the Lord 's suffering Death whereon in him hung all the three Principles who though he was Lord of Glory yet like a patient Lamb for the Slaughter bare this ur expressible Anguish as if himself had been a Transgressor to the pouring out of his Soul to the Death Q. 121. How did Christ slay Death on the Cross How came that to pass A. 1. That Christ the Son of the Blessed God should Die offends the Turks and Pagans That He lived so humbly and died so contemptibly offended the Jews but the Proud lives of us Professors of the Name of Christ we in the mean time believing Him so meek and lowly a Master must needs offend not only Jews and Turks but Christianity it self and above all the Holy God 2. What consideration can tread down Mans loftiness if the looking on our crucified Jesus will not Who can chuse but infinitely rather than Thomas concerning Lazarus say Let us go that we may die with him No less than thus to do can secure us against the second Death for he that is dead is free from Sin Wherefore saith the Apostle speaking of this Death I die daily 3. Christ did slay Death on the Cross with his Dying by laying off the filthy Garments Adam had wove himself into that is carrying the Monstrosity wherewith the Souls Essences were charged clog'd and immured as a Sacrifice into Death and through or out of Death again into the Liberty of Immortality as the burnt Sacrifices precipitating their dark Matter arose into a Radiant lustrous flame 4. Adam made himself and us justly Debtors to Death but the Lord not only discharged but brought Death into his Debt as at large might be shewn He disarm'd it and takes away his Dominion so that he reigneth over it thus hath this Rose of Sharon perfum'd our Graves 5. It is in the Answer said we may as easily return the Sun backward over us as change Nature's regular Motions of proceeding from a Seed to a Root then a Fruit and then a Seed which Seed must first die before it multiply 6. Wherefore it was that faln Man's monstrous Image was necessarily lead into Death and the monstrosity left there before the new Image was raised for the new ariseth by the falling off of the old as saith the Lord a grain of Wheat bringeth not forth much Fruit except it die but abideth alone Thus came Death to be slain by the Death of the Lord of life Q. 122. Why must Christ be nail'd to the Cross
Ghost and the Virgin Mary Therefore was it that when the Lord did shed his Blood for Mankind he is truly said to pour out his Soul that Blood being the Chariot of his Soul Also out of his side pierced by the Spear came Water the Signifier and Chariot of his meek pure Spirit of dear love and purity as the Blood of the Soul united unto the Infinite Spirit of Love 9. When therefore this Water and this Blood fell to the Earth the Divine power being in and with it caused the Earth to tremble the Rocks to rend from their dark Coagulation the Graves as Prisons to open For the captivating power which the Salitter from the Fall of the Angels sustained and was invaded withal causing rocky coagulation and the Curse and Death by the Fall of Man casting the Earth into a deadly sâ—upor and sterility was as it were dismay'd broken enfeebled by the holy powers coming on it 10. This could not be concealed but as Jordan fled from Eliah's Mantle the Graves ceased to be Prisons opening their Doors the joynts and cement of the Rocks were loosed and they clave asunder and the drowsie Earth awakened and trembled 11. For as the wrath had shut up the Divine power in the Creation in Death in an inactivity or obscurity So the Divine Love hath by his Conquest over Death on the Cross with irresistible Might and Puissance opened the Doors broke the Chains and proclaimed the acceptable year leading Captivity Captive Q. 126. What did the Darkness signifie which at that time came over all Nature A. 1. The Root of five of the other seven Planets is the Sun but Saturn hath a distinct Centre Now the Sun is out of the Magical Spiritual Fire and Light World and that Worlds Fountain is the incomprehensible power of the Fathers property and the inaccessible Light of the Sons property And the Spiritual World is figured imaged represented actuated and expressed by the Sun and Saturn Especially by the Sun as it were by a Nature God 2. And therefore as if you stop the Efflux of a Fountain the stream ceaseth or if the Sap be obstructed the Fruit soon feels the defect or if you withdraw the Face from before a Looking glass the Glass retains not but loseth it Thus was it that the Out-birth of the third principle was over-cast ceasing its Lustre at the instant of the Lords Passion 3. The things signified by it were 1. That as Adam departed out of the Eternal day into the temporary Darkness so did temporary Darkness here shoulder out or exclude the day And as Adam Exchang'd a blessed repose exact order perfect peace and sweet rest for a state of Enmity Horror Torment and Death So now did the Lord enter into the Death Enmity c. to pass us through into Life and Rest. Again as Adam went out of the holy first and second principles in to the Bestial separate prophane Out-birth so did the same Out-birth pass now into Death and Impotence discovering it self thereby to be only a shadow their Order and Beauty borrow'd and dependant wholly on the Internal World and that no Creature World or Angel hath a Self-sufficiency so least of all hath this which is but a Picture of Eternal things It also signified the wrath of the first principle invading the second or out-breathed holy Life prevailing to the shutting up the Eye of the third principle Yet that after three hours viz. from the sixth to the ninth viz. after a threefold domination in and over the faln Humanity the Soul the Spirit and the Astral or Elementary Man making the Divine Man â—ry out and plead that it also might not be forsaken straightway upon a second cry and a resignation made viz. the second principles out-breath'd Image entreth Death and â—trook it dead then the Internal Light figur'd by the outward riseth again Q. 127. Why did Christ in his Death commend his Soul into his Fathers Hand What is the Hand of God A. 1. As previous to this Answer it must be enquir'd 1. What may be understood by Souls in general then what by this most holy one 2. What various acceptation we read concerning the Hands of God And come to the direct Answer 1. Souls in general are 1. Sometimes intending the Eternal Soul distinct from Spirit and Body 2. Sometimes it means the Body distinct from both Soul and Spirit 3. Sometimes it 's understood of the Soul and Spirit distinct from the Body 4. Sometimes it extends to the taking in of the whole Man as of the most holy Soul Spirit and Body of the Lord Jesus Christ who yielding up himself wholly unto his Father was as a whole Burnt â—ffering or Lamb without spot Sacrificed as the one alone once for all and for ever intire Sacrifice and Altar also and Incense fully making Atonement and Entring once and thenceforth Eternally into the Holy of â—olies 2. Thus as the true High Priest he entred the most holy place bringing in a new Priesthood of another Tribe viz. not of Levi but of Iudah also another order not of Aaron but of Melchizedeck by change of the Priesthood changing also the Law of direct necessity putting a period to figures as the daily Sacrifice the anniversary entring of the High-Priest into the holy place but rending the Vail c. 3. Of all which the Epistle to the Hebrews as that they were most immediately concerned to know doth copiously inculcate and convince 2. What may be understood by the Hands of the Father here spoken of 1. Sometimes it means his Mighty Power irresistible strength c. 2. Sometimes are signified by it his Infinite Omniscience and Omnipresence 3. Sometimes are intended his most wise and gracious ordering and providence 4. Sometimes it speaketh his most loving merciful careful preservation and shielding of his Children 4. In serious view of all which the Fathers Hands whereinto the Lord Jesus Bequeathed his Soul Spirit and Body may not only be taken in all these Acceptations but an infinitely more vast comprehension than all Creatures Saints or Angels can fathom or enumerate 5. Now to the answer it self be it known that the dear and only Eternal Son of the dear Eternal love of the Father having given his Disciples and all his purchas'd holy ones his peace for their incomparable privilege as the legacy of the Prince of Peace by Testament To the end it might never be frustrated ratified it by the Death of the Testator gives himself up wholly at once entring into death who himself was the Fountain of Life and breathing his last cry and groans into the Bosom or Hands of his Ever-living Infinitely-loving Omnipresent Father and thus through death re introduced life into the Humane Nature 6. And is it ask'd why It is answer'd Who but the whole Father could receive the whole Son Who less than the Infinite first principle could receive the Infinite second principle For tho'
Let me Oh thou God of my Spirit neither begin much less end with the outside washing which is my self washing of my self But let my Soul my Inside my Heart Will Designs Desires and my secret Thoughts be washt by thee for without that I have no part in thee Let this washing last longer than the possibility of my polluting my self can endure and let me be washt from my self which is the foulest sink on this side Hell Then and not till then shall I know what the Water above the Firmament is and can do for such a black Creature who of himself must cry unclean unclean On the 27th Question and Answer Of the Male and Female Kinds Whence is their Desire to each other And of the necessity of it 1. We are taught to pray Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven But seeing that Man hath now by dividing the Tinctures who till then Imaged the Divine Kingdom got such a will as is on Earth among the Brute Beasts losing the Heavenly Image what remains but that the will be taught subjection and long for groan after earnestly desire and accordingly pray to be restored here to be as they are in Heaven where by the reunion of the Tinctures they Image their God Yet tho' the Rent of the Tinctures be irreparable in the bulk of Mankind here and that God of pity to his Creatures hath extracted Good out of Evil bearing by Divine Patience that in Man whereof Nature it self as deprav'd as it is shameth at It nevertheless remains our Souls Work and Duty to learn what his dear disappear'd Virgin Image is studiously and sollicitously to seek that his first Love the Free Woman the Jerusalem from above which withdrew when Adam slept bitterly to bemoâ—n that loss and account the finding that precious Pearl worthy of all pains care and highest diligence and having found it then to sell all to buy it 2. But now my Soul seeing thou art so Beastly in thy Earthy Elementary and Astral part infecting thy noble Eternal part behold with abhorrence thy filthiness by a true impartial Glass Where is the Modesty of a Virgin state which doth the will of God in Heaven That purity which descended from Heaven and when Men became degenerate returned thither Why hast thou suffered the Virgin to wait at thy Door and Window calling as to her Bridegroom Exciting sometimes a Transport of Love other times shame again Joy to Trembling or Grief to Astonishment Finding thy self in so strange a Lodging as was Nebuchadnezzar when a Beasts Heart was given him If thou compare thy self with thy self in some days past perhaps thou maist flatter thy Judgment into Partiality and if thou compare thy self with others seeming more filthy thou maist be apt to pride thy self but if thou reflect on thy pollutions and the pure holy Virgin how great will be thy monstrosity how wretched vile and naked Come therefore daily to this perfect Standard just Balance true Glass and bewail thy defection bear the shame of thy deformity be humbled to the Dust as great Malefactors and miserable Captives whom nothing but Death can set free and redeem are dejected 3. And will nothing till Death intirely free me O my God and that my Soul hath no share of the natural Death which could it taste would only reprieve not deliver Let therefore that Death of Death the Mysterious Death of the Cross which opens the Door to the first Resurrection be powerfully vouchsafed so shall I be saved from this Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth and my Heart and Mouth be fill'd with thy pure praises for ever On the 28th Question and Answer Of the Principles of the Spirit of this World 1. The Psalmist meditating the frame of his Body saith it is fearful and wonderful The Fabrick of the whole Creation must needs be so likewise for 't is a Mirrour shewing evidently and distinctly all Worlds Powers and Properties not as a dead record but in a living Image by an Articulate voice with as many demonstrations and Tongues as here are forms All convincing that Man of great stupidity who sees not God hears not his voice reads not Lectures of his Infinite Wisdom Power and Goodness in this his Theatre The day is the Child of the second Principle the Night derives its Fountain from the first time is not fatherless the Principles of the Spirit of this World being various such must needs the Creatures be 2. It went with Man as with one drunk regardless of the top of the Stairs missing the first falls down all the rest or as one sleeping on the Brow of a Precipice or brink of a River whence if he tumbles it is to the bottom thus he who should have had Dominion over the Astral Powers losing the Reins is not only hurried by them but subjected to the Extremities of the Elements and domineer'd overby the sickly Humours Wants and Excesses of the Bestial Flesh and corrupting uncleanness of this Bag of Worms 3. If thou my Soul delightest in this 't is as a Fool in throwing Darts art thou proud of thy Bodies features as well may an unsound Man of his Ulcers or a Vassal of his Shackles thus to be present in the Body is to be absent from the Lord whose gracious presence removed makes Hell Return then Oh my Soul my Spirit and my Inward Powers into your rest live in the incombustâ—ble Body put on the Humility Modesty and Sacred Flaming Love being the Heavenly Flesh of Jesus Christ then will this Worlds Spirit own Subjection no longer be a Clog or Lord but a Staff and Servant To this O thou Almighty Arm strengthen me O thou Glorious Sun inlighten me O thou Sacred Breath enliven me for without thee what can I do who am faln to be weakness darkness and dead under this outward Worlds Tyranny On the 29th Question and Answer Of the Sperm or Seed of the Generation of all things 1. The Psalmist complains I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my Mother conceive me but the Sperm or Seed of all things is without iniquity standing in the fifth form of Fire being in its Existence a Mirror wherein the Abyssal Will beholdeth it self and in its operation a transition unto or imager of the Multiplicity 2. But how much doth Man who was created Good by seeking out many Inventions run against the order of Nature for out of the dark Earth sprout excellent Vegetatives with various cheering Odours delightful Colours and â—asts and nourishing Vertues out of the Mortal Waters are generated vast numbers and kinds of Fish also Amber Pearl Coral c. all more excellent than the Water their Mother which is corrupt as is the Earth Yet Man tho' proceeding from an Immaculate Sperm or Virgin Seed originally is become vile and filthy moving retrograde and is more and more degenerate earthy sensual and devilish 3. Wert thou O my Soul the Image of thy God how wouldst thou
Astral and is the third Birth in him As an Apple on a Tree is the third Birth which though it be United with the Word of God in its innermost Birth yet the Wrath being in the Mother of its Body it remains palpable must dye and rot but at the last Judgment Day the Power of the Principle out of which the Apple groweth shall spring anew in Paradice and be a Fruit for Men in the other Life 3. And Man's Body hath the same Hope for though the bestial Body must putrifie yet its vertue liveth in the four Elements in the Word and there grows out of it beautiful Roses and if thy Soul standeth in the Love thou canst while thy Body liveth here live and reign with God in Heaven according to the Spirit of the Soul which the Devil seeth not 4. But for that thy Astral Birth standeth one part in the Wrath the Devil seeth into that part viz. of the Wrath into thy Heart where if thou give him any room he teareth that part of the Astral Birth which standeth in the Love out from the Word and then thy Heart is a dark Valley and if thou labour not quickly to kindle the Light again he kindleth the Wrath-fire and then thou art a Devil and into what thou hast sowed thy Seed that is thy Soul and in that part shall thy Body arise The striving of the seven Spirits in the Earth the Depth in the Centre 5. In the strife of the Astringency bitterness and sweet water the Astringency is Predominant which is dry The sweet quality is extensive and yielding yet the bitterness and sweet quality struggle till the Astringency dry and harden them and thence from their unwilling Captivity Anguish riseth up just as in a Dying Man in this anxiety Heat riseth whereby a Sweat exhaleth as in one yielding to the Captivity of Death That Sweat the Astringent and bitter qualities lay hold on as their Son which they had begotten on the sweet quality which they had killed 6. However the Astringent being strong and the Bitter swift from their Joy in their Son do stuff it that it swells and grows full and great And when the Astringent striveth to captivate the Bitter and the Body begins to be too streight or narrow and that the strife there be too great the Bitter must yield but cannot be kill'd but leaps aside and breaks out of the Body into Strings or Threads taking the Son's sap with it And this is Vegetation and growing of a Root in the Earth Q. How can God be in this Vegetation 7. A. That is the Vegetation of Nature and if the wrath Fire were not in the three Qualities viz. Astringent Sweet and Bitter God might plainly be seen but the Wrath makes the Astringent a cold Fire and its Attraction to be too hard and maketh the Sweet too thick and dark and the Bitter too raging and swelling else they might kindle that Fire from whence the Light would exist and from the Light the Love and from the same Fire-flash the Tone and then would be a Heavenly Body wherein the Light of God would and doth shine and then would be a Heavenly Fruit as it springeth up in Heaven and the Light would generate it self in the sweet-water and there would be a bright shining Heavenly Body where God is 8. But being the first three Qualities are benummed in Death they remain a dark Eternal Prison God's Wrath. Death and Hell a source of Torment Not that the three Qualities are reprobated even to the innermost but only the outward palpable Body and therein the outward Hellish 9. Thus is seen how the Kingdom of God and of Hell hang one to another as one Body and yet the one comprehendeth not the other but the Heat Light Love and Souâ—d are a kind of second Birth making the outward moveable and in the inward standeth the sound of God's Word which seeing it riseth up through the Astringent bitter Death and generateth a Body in the half-dead Water that Body is therefore Evil and Good which may thus be demonstrated 10. One taking a Surfeit by any mortiferous Herb Water or unwholsom Flesh let the same kind of Water Herb or Flesh be distilled or burnt whereby the outward Poison which standeth in Death is gone the Astral Vigour remaineth that Dead Body being gone wherewith if good Treacle be mixed which holdeth Captive the Wrath in the Astral Birth and give it the Sick in warm Drink then operateth the innermost Birth which hath diseased the Person and Cureth Whereby is seen that the Power of the Eternal Life wrestleth in the Dead Earth in Anguish but cannot bud till the Death be severed which hangeth to it for the Wrath is the Life of Death and of the Devil wherein standeth their corporeal Bodies or Being for the Dead Birth or Geniture is their Eternal House CHAP. XXII AFter other things in this Chapter are the seven times Refining of Silver and especially Gold till it become Triumphing CHAP. XXIII 1. THE earnest and severe Birth or Geniture out of which the Wrath of God Hell and Death are come to be hath been from Eternity in God but not accensible nor elevable not kindled or domineering without which severe Birth would be neither God Life nor Heaven Angel nor Creature The Gate of the Holy Trinity 2. The whole Birth of the Heaven of all Heavens this World the place of the Earth and of all Creatures and whatever can be thought of all that together is God the Father And in every the least circle imaginable is the whole Birth of God perfectly perpetually and irresistably but if in a Creature or Place the Light be extinguish'd there is the Austere Birth which lyeth hid in the Light in the innermost Kernel 3. The second Person is the Light which is continually generated out of all the Powers and enlighteneth again all the Powers of the Father an instance whereof is in the kindled Fires in this World the innate Son is the meek Joy and Delight of the Father Now the Father and the Son are equally great the one could not be without the other If the Jews Turks and Heathen will convert the Light will rise up in them gloriously 4. The third Person is the moving Spirit of Life Thus there is One God and Three distinct Persons neither of them can comprehend with-hold or fathom the Original of the other 5. If any will be Saints and not Devils let them generate in the meek holy Law of God else they shall Eternally generate in the austere severe Geniture oâ— God's Wrath. But the Deity is a very simple pure meek loving quieâ— unanimous Being through which the sharpness of the innermost Birth can never elevate it self but remains hidden CHAP. XXIV Of the incorporating or Compaction of the Stars 1. GOD moved the whole Body of Nature contained in the Extent of this World on the 4th Day
how to help no Prince or Throne Angel could contrive a Remedy Then said Jehovah Christ Lo I come to do thy Will O God and his own Arm wrought Salvation by becoming Man entring Death with his Humane Soul brake the seven Seals of the Centre of Nature hung the old Adam as a Curse on the Cross kindled again the Divine Fire in the Soul cast away the Earthiness and powerfully through Death introduced Life The highly precious Gate Thus the Regenerate may see that as Christ did cast away from him by Death only the Spirit of this VVorld and raised himself so shall they in his VVord and Heart which is every where present and in his Flesh and Blood not in the corrupt Body be raised for the inward Body Adam had in Paradise is only capable of being clothed upon with the Flesh of Christ In this new Body fixeth the new Regenerate Soul but the old corrupt Flesh only hangeth to the new Body yet comprehends it not The which old Body conceived from the Spirit of this VVorld being at the last day raised therewith only in a figure in which figure all Mans works follow him passeth into its Ether yet remaineth in its figure So likewise the corrupt Bodies of the wicked at the last Judgment shall be presented with their Mother the Spirit of this world and the Souls shall hear the sentence then shall the Bodies pass with their Mother and stand as a Figure and their works in the figure shall follow them into the Abyss CHAP. IX Concerning the Threefold Life Also the Inclination and whole Government of Man in this Life 1. MAN's whole Race is a strife 'twixt the Devil and the Soul and the Spirit of this worâ—d and the Soul for this worlds Spirit hath apprehension tho not Divine planted in its Matrix and this world stood in the Eternal wisdom as an invisible figure before the Creation and by Creation became a proper Principle to the end it might bring all its wonders and works into Existence and appear Eternally in their figure 2. Man only being capable to exhibit this worlds wonders of Arts and the Spirit and Life of Metals precious Stones Earths Celestial Influences c. therefore hath the Spirit of this world longed to draw Man into it That precious Stone of Philosophers may be found in Metals by him who understandeth this Author in the Centre of Natures progress to the Cross of the Trinity and Glance of the Majesty which this worlds Spirit hath a Natural longing to reveal 3. The first Birth of things are not pleasant as in Trees but the Fruit is a second Birth and what is desir'd by Man which points us to our Noble Birth and high Descent which was Divine for when the Kingdom of the Anger did press into the Fruits the Paradisical Principle did almost wholly withdraw Yet though Toads Serpents poysonous Herbs bitter Properties Thistles c. originate in the wrathful Matrix yet as the evil Properties explicate the inward worlds they are as good and concur to the same end with the best but the evil and good eaten by Adam being such as we now eat was his eating of Death because thereby the Spirit of this world captivated him as doth both it and the Devils Kingdom rule in Man still Of the great strife about Man 4. Hell saith my Anger is his Root he is therefore by Nature mine This world pleads possession of Man in its Body and his Community of Nutrition from it God saith I â—ave set my Heart upon Man and Regenerated him he proceeded out of me I have sought and found him again he is mine to reveal my wonders Pursuant to this one of three things winneth him either 1. His desire of Honour Glory and Power which is the Devils Will. 2. His desire of Riches Opulence and Fulness in which he is a Beast of this World 3. He the somewhat sensible Sinner but not the Swine greatly feareth Hell and the Devil and weakly panteth after Heaven but the other two draw so violently that many through desperation engulph themselves into the Abyss Of the Devil changing himself into an Angel of Light 5. When the Sinner begins to be sensible of his evil and danger the Devil willingly permits him to go to the Stone Churches then flatters him that his diligent so doing makes him godly and devout Where often thoughts are sowen in him of Pride Lust c. also of contempt of others especially if the Preacher be a Reviler If the Soul be yet afraid and would repent and pray the Devil clouds the understanding introduceth doubts and promiseth amendment to Morrow he rehearseth words but prayeth not for the Soul cannot reach the Centre of Nature where the Fire should be struck but his words in this Worlds Spirit vanish into Air or Gods Name is taken in vain 6. But Prayer is a great or at least a true going of the Soul to be spoken to of God and brought out of the House of Sin into the House of God Which when the Devil opposeth we are to oppose the more for we have in Christ far greater power than he But if the Devil covers the Heart by heaps of Sin we are not to dispute or despair but to lay them on the Devils Back and lay up in our Hearts Gods most merciful Calls and earnest Will towards us shewn by the Sufferings Wounds Death and dear Love and Pity of Christ to Sinners for there is no other Will in God but to do as the Father to the Prodigal Son therefore to doubt of Gods gracious Intents is to sin greatly The Gates of the deep Ground concerning Man 7. The knowing what Man is in the variety of form feature and different driving Will hath been controverted since the beginning because the Gates thereof were sunk with Adam's Fall but the Spirit of the Soul of the Regenerated Man knoweth himself in all the three Principles to have but one only Rule though in three Principles the prevalence of either denominates the Man We are as a Seed sowen in a Field by the Lust of Man and Woman the Mover whereunto is that the Tincture now divided to the Male giving Life and Soul and the substantiality now peculiar to the Female giving Spirit and Existence were in Eternity one wherein this world stood as a Figure and the Tincture over-shadowed by the Wisdom was received thereinto as the Body doth the Spirit yet could not be brought into substance visible to Angels who are in a substance unless God had moved the Eternity 8. In the moving of the Trinity was moved the Centre of Nature whereby the Tincture became substantial and the substantiality became material yet not divided wherein when the Fiat was awakened forth came all sorts of Beasts c. The Tincture took substance and the Spirit of the substance took on it a Body the first had the Centre of Life the other only an impotent Life which may be demonstrated by a
hath a good Constellation at the time of the Spirits awakening it gives him a Friendly lovely outside whereby such a one can give good flattering words from a false heart for he dwelleth in two Kingdoms in this World is he a History Hypocrite and his Soul in the Anger Kingdom with the Devils 8. But the Grace of God appeared by Christ's becoming Man to bring our Human Souls out of Death and the Abyss of Anger into the Tenth Number the Eternal Tincture to be again the Similitude of God upon the Cross whence the Soul originated And then when the Soul is turned into the Will of God in great Humility having Christ's Body it passeth through Death or from Death to Life in the Death of Christ through the Anger of God into the Ninth Number before the Holy Trinity and is imbraced by the Majesty The great open Gate of Antichrist 9. Antichrist in Men professing Christ is a contrary will to the Divine Will yet a Counterfeit of it but as the Soul becomes born of God more or less in such proportion the renewed Will quits the Principles and Dictates of corrupt Reason and self Desires cover'd by Hypocrisie and by a sincere faithful Love rooted in the Life of Christ a holy Flame of self-evidencing Light ariseth giving a distinct discovery of Antichrist before which it falls and by which it is destroy'd for the going from Antichrist is the going from the Fire into the Light The highly Precious Gate also the Gate of Immanuel 10. Is it askt How can Christ's Body be ours How can we dwell in the Body of Christ It is Answer'd As we have Adam's Flesh Soul and Spirit which Christ becoming Man hath yet remaineth God but receiv'd in the fair Virgin of Wisdom the Eternal Flesh which Adam's was before dividing of the Properties and the Property of our earthy Flesh so Christ's Soul is ours and his Body ours and his Virgin ours whereby we live in Christ when we give up our selves to him wherein also he liveth in us and will at last present us wholly pure with the Heavenly Flesh Blood Tincture and Majesty of Christ. Thus also he liveth in us and we are his Members Temple and Body 11. Where one saith Here is Christ and another There it is because they have lost the Key for the Body and Blood of Christ is in the Eternity and not shut up by space or place but as the Sun shineth from East to West and whose Light fills the World how much more doth Christ fill every part of his Incarnation And when we desire his Flesh and Blood we receive it and are fed by it for as the Father gives Being and upholdeth all so the Son gives Vertue and Light The Congregation of Christ is in every Nation where Men turn from their Sins to God be they Greeks Turks Asians Africans c. God respects not Persons nor Opinions but seeks the Heart those who call on the only true God in plain Simplicity are in Christ but the Tyrannous Proud Covetous Malicious Blood-thirsty Antichrist with their endless Contentions and Disputations offend the Heathens whose Life and Customs are far more Innocent and Pious and when Antichrist's Lyes have stifled him broken his Murthering Sword and laid him in the Pit then shall Christ feed his Lambs and the Turk be of the Fold of the Lambs 12. The whole World is full of God the inward holy Life dwelleth in God and the inward dark Abyss standeth in God's Wrath the strife is which may Image us into it self in this outward Life here God sets Light and Darkness before us and all the teaching here is to warn of the severe Property of the Fire for every thing hath Free-will with an Inclination to its Property therefore we must either embrace the true Good or the certain Evil. Young Children are our School-masters with all our Cunning we are but Fools to them who first play with themselves and after one with another this the Devil grudg'd us and made us fall out at our Play and so we quarrel till we go to sleep and then others Act over again the same quarrels and all is about a defiled Garment which yet is not ours while we should obediently search for a new fair Garment when amongst the Roses Lillies and Flowers we shall in our own Country sing the Song How the Driver who did set us at variance is captivated CHAP. XII Of the true Christian Life and Conversation What Man is to do c. COnsidering well the 34 first Verses of this 12th Chapter it may be comprised mostly in these words He hath shewed thee O Man what is good and what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to do justly to love Mercy and to walk humbly with thy God The Way we must walk through this World into the Kingdom of God We must if we will so walk Crucifie Self Repent Convert from Evil hourly pass out of Death into Life we must not take pleasure in our selves but so humble our selves before the clear Countenance of the Trinity before whom we always stand and look on Jesus who always sitteth on the Rainbow in us I say we are so to converse without Self-pleasing that our ways may please God the heavenly Hoasts and Man The rest of this sweet Chapter is of various and copious Rules and Monitions yet so conspicuous that the perusal is rather to be recommended than the particulars extracted Only this asserteth That a Self-defence against outward Force or War having only a desire of Self-defence is not against God for he whose House is on Fire may quench it CHAP. XIII Of Christ's Precious Testaments the Lord's Supper and Baptism 1. VVHEN Christ's Apostles and Disciples met together after fervent Exhortation of one another They took brake divided amongst them and did eat Bread in commemoration of Christ's giving his Body for us on the Cross as himself had commanded So also took they the Cup in their hand saying one to another Take this Cup and drink the Blood of our Lord which he shed on the Cross for Remission of our Sins to shew forth his Death till he come again to Judgment and bring us into himself This was the true great Paschal Lamb inâ—â—ituted by Christatier they had eaten the Passover 2. He gave them and they did eat and drink his Flesh and Blood not his earthy and mortal Flesh and Blood to be chewed with their earthy Teeth and swallow'd for that Body of his was not divided amongst them but he gave them his immortal holy Body and Blood new and unknown to the earthy Man yet which did hang in or was United to the outward on the Cross this holy Body became as a Body to their Souls making them his Members 3. As the Eternal Virginity Substantiality and Wisdom wherein was the promised Word gave it self into the perished Tincture became a new Man at the Incarnation in the Virgin Mary so the new Body of
Deep one Power and Lustre receiveth the other The Deep with its Lustre is hidden but yet hath the power of the Sun in it 4. So Christ's Substantiality filleth Heaven and Paradise and swalloweth up the Earthiness also where it is received and obeyed 5. Thus Christ brought back what Adam lost and much more for the Word is every where become Man See the Extracts of the latter part of the 18th Chapter of the Three Principles The 2d Part being of Christ's Suffering Dying Death and Resurrection CHAP. I. Q. IS it said Was it not sufficient that God became Man why must he also die Could God no other way save Man What pleasure takes he in Death and Dying If God had by his Sons Death paid a Ransom for us why must we also die CHAP. V. Ver. 54. to the end Ans. 1. MAN had lost the Divine Substantiality and Angelical Property and imagined into the Out-birth viz. into the Earthy part was departed from the Divine Light into the Light of this World and captivated in the fierce Wrath of God which the Devil had kindled viz. the four first Forms according to which God calleth himself a consuming fire 2. The corrupted Out birth also had put a Body on him which it destroyed and swallowed up again in its essential fire 3. But being the Soul was breathed into Man out of the Holy Spirit of God out of the Eternal and so is an Angel 4. Therefore hath the Power of the Holy Light World the Heart of God resumed the same entring into the Human Essence which lay in the Anguish Chamber surrounded with Death and took to himself a Soul out of our Essence and our Mortal Life and introduced the Soul through Death through the earnest severe Fire of God the Father into the holy meek Light-World and so destroyed Death by bringing in Divine Substanâ—iality into the fierce Wrath of the Father the Centre of the Anguish-Chamber the Fire World in the Soul Christ being the right Centre of the Holy Trinity is with the out gone Holy Spirit the flaming Majesty the Light-World 5. And whosoever will possess the Light-World and be an Angel must enter in through the same path bear old Adams Cross go forth through the harâ—â—â— astringent stern and malignant corrupted Adamical Man and slay him and be born anew out of the Anxious Wheel 6. But seeing we were not able to do this Christ gave himself into the Centre of the fierce Wrath in the Soul brake and extinguished it with his Love So that now when we go out of our selves to the death of sin we come into the death of Christ the path he hath prepared for us and leads to his Resurrection whereby we ascend into his Arms the unshut Light-World which is also Abraham's bosom the Paradise wherein we were created our true dear native Country 7. It consisteth not in this that we think it enough to pourtray and represent what Christ hath done and suffered for us and tell of a Faith in that but that we daily and hourly fight and slay the Evil Adam as to his will and doings with resigned and resolved earnestness and then we enter into Christ's Death in our living Bodies put on his Life in us become impregnated with the Kingdom of Heaven Get on us Christ's Thorny Crown and still be accounted one that is not worthy to live on the Earth through all which we must faithfully proceed on knowing we must either be Angels or Devils 8. In this Death nothing dieth to or in us but only the Earthy Evil dead Adam whose will and life we have here continually destroyed This Enemy departeth from us into the Essential Fire into the four Elements and into the Mystery and must at the end be tryed through the Fire of God and then our Bodies and Works must be given us again through that Fire whatever the Earthy Mystery had swallowed up But not such an Evil one for the Fire of God devoureth the Evil but such a one as we here in anxiety have sought a Divine Spiritual Substance like the Wonders and Wisdom of God 9. Hypocritical Reason saith Christ hath done all for us we cannot It is right Christ hath done what we cannot do he hath broken Death and restored a new Life and is in Heaven But 't is not knowing but doing the Devils know but what availeth that we know if we remain without and enter not into Christ in the way and passage he hath made for us doing good for evil in truth and simplicty CHAP. VII Ver. 75. 1. IT is not enough to cry Lord give me a strong Faith in the Merits of thy Son he hath satisfied for my sins But I must enter into Christ's suffering and dying and be born a second time out of his Death become a Member in and with him Constantly crucifie the old Adam Always hang on Christ's Cross Become an obedient Child Tho' I plainly walk this way yet I have so evil a ghest in me that I still work too much evil must therefore continually strive and fight till I vanquish 2. Christ indeed hath in and for us broken Death and made way but what doth that comfort me unless I enter in that very way and path as a Pilgrim or Stranger here CHAP. IX CHrist's Sufferings c. 1. Men content them to participate of in the Lord's Supper v. 29. But his Divine Flesh and Blood is that which the wicked cannot participate of that is Sacramentally 2. They receive the four Elements in the Anger of God because they discern not the Lord's Body which is every where present in Heaven and Earth and is fed upon by the Heavenly Soul not as a sign as others dream not Spirit without Substance but the Substance of the Spirit Christ's Flesh which filleth the Light-World which the Word that became Man brought with it into the Virgin Mary and there became opened in its Flesh and Blood the assumed Human Essence 3. Yet was it at that very time while Christ lay in the Virgins Womb in Heaven in the one Element in all places It came not into Mary from many miles off but the Centre which Adam in God's Anger had shut up in death the Word of the Deity did unlock and bring in the Divine Substantiality not entring in but unshutting ingenerating and in this World exgenerating God and Man one person heavenly Substantiality and Virginity one only Man in Heaven and in this World See the latter part of the 18th Chapter of the three Principles The third part being of the Tree of Christian Faith CHAP. I. WHat Faith is 1. It is not our forcing the mind to belief of Articles which are the work of our Reason 2. But true Faith is one Spirit with God working in and with God is the might of God dwells in the liberty in God's Will inclined to his Love and Mercy is free from the fierce Wrath and Torment in Nature is not comprehended subsisteth in
Eternity as a nothing and yet is all 3. But if it becometh apprehended then it is entred into Reason as into a Prison where it works the wonders in the Fire of Nature but in the Liberty the wonders of God and so is the Companionness or Play-fellow of Sophia the Wisdom of God CHAP. II. WHY Faith and Doubting dwell together 1. Tho' Faith is God's Image viz. the desiring seeing and mind an Eternal Figure yet in the time of the Body it may change it self into the Anguish Fountain 2. For Faith in its original is only a Will which Will is a Seed and that Seed must the Soul being a Fire-spirit sow into the Liberty of God and so will a Tree grow on which the Soul feedeth to allay and meeken its Fire and becometh powerful and giveth still its vertue to the Root of this Tree which groweth in the Spirit of God even into the wonders of the Majesty of God and springeth in the Paradise of God 3. There is a continual vehement strife in Man while he is in the Tabernacle of this Earthy Life unless he so earnestly sink down in himself that he introduce the Lifes-fire into the Liberty of God and then is dead as to reason and liveth to God which is an highly precious Life and rarely found for it is like the first Image that God created The mortal only hangeth to it but this right Life is in another Principle and World and is the first right Paradifical Human Life 4. That Earthy Human Life into which Adam fell originateth in the Mothers Womb moving chiefly in Fire Air Water and Earth or Flesh tinctur'd inform'd and made rational by the constellations to pleasure or displeasure being no more but a Bestial life reason looketh no higher 5. Yet Man's great panting after a higher and Eternal Life is a Magick seeking a Mystery implanted at his Creation it lieth in Reason but Reason nor the Spirit of this World comprehendeth it not It is a secret Spring opening in another Principle hidden in the Anguish held captive by the Spirit of this World which the outward Lifes Reason hath might to suppress so that it is flifled cometh not to the light generateth not abideth hidden and when the Body breaketh the Will hath not wherewith to open the Mystery which Mystery is God's Kingdom but the Fire or Souls Spirit abideth in Eternal Darkness 6. The Mystery being God's Kingdom giveth a longing desire standing hidden in the Soul incomprehensible to Nature and hath its Root in the Souls Fire This Will is no parting or renting from the Soul but becometh one Spirit with God and so is the Soul's Garment and the Soul in that Will and Spirit is become environ'd and hidden in God tho' it dwelleth in the Body 7. This is the right earnest Faith a Child of God and dwelleth in another World It is not an Historical Will Reason knoweth there is in it self a desire after God and yet holdeth that very desire captive from entring into the Life of God in the lusts of the flesh in the Sidereal Magia saying To morrow thou shalt go forth to God introducing Self-ability of finding and is surrounded with Opinion and Conjecture keeping from the Liberty of God 8. But the Will that sinketh it self out from Reason into Obedience and Love to God is an obedient humble Child and accepted for it is pure and God's similitude And seeing God is free in himself from the Evil so must the Will and then tho' God be no accepter of persons nor will let sin into himself yet he will accept the humble free obedient Will for whatcomes to him into his Liberty he will not cast off CHAP. III. Whence comes Good and Evil Joy and Sorrow Love and Anger Life and Death 1. THO' from the Eternal Substance all proceedeth Good and Evil c. yet we cannot say that Evil and Death come from God in God is no Evil nor Death nor in Eternity doth any Evil go into him The Eternity manifesteth it self by similitudes 2. In the Eternal Nature is the Magia of Life where one Form desireth and awakeneth the other whence the Essences of multiplicity exist and out of which the wonders the Created Beings are generated and out of the same Fire of Nature the fierce Wrath proceedeth 3. In God's Will is a desiring which causeth the Magia out of which existeth the multiplicity yet the multiplicity it self is not God's willing which is free from all substance but in the desiring or longing of the Will Nature generateth it self with all Forms viz out of the Eternal Magia 4. What Spirit soever imagineth with the Will into Nature is the Child of Nature and one Life with Nature but whosoever goeth forth from the Reason of Nature with its will and longing into the Free Will of God and therein abideth is one Spirit in and with God and is God's Child and the Nature Spirit is God's wonder or Creature CHAP. IV. How to attain the Liberty of God How God's Image is destroyed The State of the Wicked after the dying of the Body 1. WHere our will and heart is there is also our Treasure Is our will in God's Will then have we the great Mystery out of which this World as a similitude is generated and have both the eternal and corruptible yea we bring the wonders of our corruptible works into the eternal 2. But if we turn our desiring from the Eternal into the Earthy Mystery our will is captivated and hangeth only to the Looking-glass and attaineth not the Liberty of God 3. And when the Body dieth the Soul retaineth the Image of those things in its Will-Spirit wherewith it is become infected be it Pride Covetousness Malice or any other abominations for the wicked Will having captivated and destroyed the Noble Image and lost the Liberty is the Root of its own Image and draweth the Mystery to it self VVhere on the other part the right VVill is regenerated in Christ and entreth into the Liberty for in the VVill through Faith we attain the Noble Virgin Image that Adam lost CHAP. V. Why the Wicked convert not What the most smarting thing in Conversion is c. 1. THE wicked multitude have the Noble Jewel hidden in them in the Divine Principle and can very well go forth with their VVill-Spirit into the VVill of God but the self-honouring life-pleasing them so well that they obstinately let the fierce wrath hold them Gods Spirit desireth the Soul setting its Magia towards it the Soul needs only to open the Door and it goetâ— voluntarily in 2. But the most smarting bitter thing in Conversion is to break the Will-spirit from the Earthy substance and its Treasure the beloved Lusts and Self and from falshood by sincere earnest turning about of the Will into Gods Love which is the Divine Mystery that Gods Spirit may blow up the Divine sparkle And this must be or he is but a Bestial Man a Jugler and
all things but hidden to the things not dwelling in the things for it self hath a substance in it self after the manner of Eternity 2. The first Eternal Principle is Magical and like a hidden Fire is Eternally known in its Colours in the figure in the Wisdom of God as in a Looking-glass The opening of which Mystery openeth the three Principles according to the Trinity 3. The Magical Centre of the first Principle is Fire which as also the second is as a Spirit without palpable substance therefore the longing is to generate the third where the Spirit of the Principles might manifest it self by Similitude In this desiring Powers Colours and Virtues come to be 4. And for as much as every desiring is attractive The first Principle impregnateth it self with Nature and the second with Light And this meek Fire of the Majesty of the second being set opposite to the Fire of the first quenching its wrath puts it into an Essential Substance thereby and the first giveth the second power strength and might being together an Eternal Band that without the one the other could not be 5. What the first Principle is wholly and alone in it self The first Will willeth to be free from the darkness and by desiring cannot attain it for the desiring is a stern attraction So that out of the thin rare liberty where nothing is a darkness comes And the greater the desiring the greater will be the attraction The drawing giveth sting and the attracted giveth hardness from the desiring comes the feeling thence also comes the third form viz. the Anguish which is as it were the Centre where Life and Will originate 6. Hence it is the Will would flee but is withheld by the harshness so that it becomes whirling as a Wheel and the greater the Anguish the greater the whirling and the greater the bitter sting of the Essences and Multiplicity But in the whirling the Essences become a mixed will where lye innumerable multiplicity of Existencies or Beings justly called the Eternal Mind 7. The first will which is called Father and is in it self the Liberty desireth Nature and Nature groaneth after the liberty from the Anguish The conception of which in the Imagination causeth a shriek of joy and when it attaineth the liberty the shriek becomes a flash in the meekness breaking the sting of Death and passeth into the Kingdom of Joy and so into the Love for the meekness draweth the Joy into it and that is the Water of Eternal Life 8. And when the Fire drinketh the Water of Eternal Life it giveth forth the Light of the Majesty where dwell the Father and the Son And the Holy Spirit is the Life of it opening the meek substantiality viz. Colours Wonders and Vertues That is called the Divine Wisdom the House of the Holy Trinity and in its Colours and Vertues the Spirit hath all the Angelical Quires 9. The second substance of the shriek is an Inimicitious Quality exciting a panting to be loosed from the quality of Anguish Whence in the Fathers Will ariseth pity compassion and mercifulness 10. Hence also cometh the Gall into Creatures which tho'it be a Poyson is the cause of Life viz. of Mobility for Death is the Root of Life as may be seen in Christs Death and also in our own 11. The Souls Fire uniteth with the Eternal Nature The right Souls Spirit is one Spirit with God The Images Corporeity is of the Substance wherein the Faithful shall live Eternally CHAP. II. What the Principle is or what they all three are Further of the First Point 1. WHen Life findeth it self where none is that is a Principle Fire is a Property so is Light for tho' it be caused by the Fire it is not the Fires Property and the wrathful Anguish is the cause of both 2. But the Will to the Anguish called Father a Man cannot search out We only fathom how the Anguish gains the highest Perfection in the Holy Trinity and manifesteth it self in the three Principles What Essence is and how it originateth because thence spring the Senses and Thoughts and the Wonder of all Beings 3. The third Principle of the Stars and Elements manifesteth the other two And that which in moving attained the fierce wrath became the Globe of the Earth Thence is it that out of it while the Centre of Nature is in it and it freed from Death the pure Child of the Eternal substance may be extracted as in Gold Tho' by defect of attaining the Eternal Fire Life is not so brought out of Death save only in Man and what is beyond Man belongs to God and we wait the Renovation in the end of time 4. of the Substance and Property of the three Principles The first Principle standing in the Fire of the Will The second in the Will to the Light the one giving its desire into the other yet are not mixt each retaineth its Property yet dwelleth in the other The third hath the Properties of both yet is neither It is an awakener manifester and similitude of the Eternal yet is not the Eternal but is become a substance in the Eternal desire 5. The Creation was an awakening of the Power and Form which was in the Eternal Will and because it was in the beginning comprized in the Eternal therefore must the substance in this World together with the figure go into the Eternal 6. But whatsoever became comprized in the desire out of the beginning recâ—des into its Ether becoming what it was when it was no substance So this Worlds substance being a coagulated Vapour returns into the Magia or Mystery whereof it served a while to be a manifester 7. For nothing attains the liberty of Eternity that subsisteth not in the Willfire of the Eternal in which the Light can bring its lustre and dwell and that it be as subtle as the Lights substantiality 8. Mans Soul may if it will become generated out of the fierce wrath into Renovation by forsaking the Earthy renew what he hath generated out of the Eternal which else remaineth in the quality of Torment For whatever is not like to the Love fire Light and Water cannot subsist in the liberty but remains in an opposite Will in the dark Torment it awakened in it self 9. The right Man out of the new Birth is three Worlds the Eternal Light World shineth through all whatsoever is thin rare or transparent and thereby capable of it which can no more be hinder'd than the Sun can be that it should not shine 10. The Properties of the first Principle sprout making Sulphur Mercurius and Sal. 11. The second Principle sprouteth in it self making Love a Friendly Vertuous Pioâ—s Humble Patient Will to stoop and bear with evil in others ever hidden to the old Man lashing it forward as a lazy Ass denies him the worldly Jollity it lusteth after and makes him a Servant it with standeth the evil Influences of the Stars and the fierce Devil and Malicious Men so
Sins of the Parents and Ancestors come Thistle Children and there lieth the hardening CHAP. VIII v. 115. EVery Child is generated out of the Properties of the Seed of the Parents and like them tho' often the Constellations alter in the Configuration with Authority and Power It is objected How can the Child help it It is answered The Child and the Parents are one Tree When did the Sun alter a branch on a sour Crab-tree so that it became sweet and should God go quite contrary to the predestinate purpose of his out-spoken or expressed word for a Thiâ—tles sake v. 177. The Will to partition existeth in the Ens to the Creature and the Will to the Holy Life existeth out of God in Christ. See chap. 10. v. 110 129 to 135 145 151 153. also chap. 11 130. to the end And chap. 13. per tot especially the 15th v. to the 40th After all which followeth an excellent Appendix of Repentance And lastly the Clavis See more concerning Free Will c. in the Mysterium Magnum Chap. 26. This being the Author's 16th Book was written Anno 1623. BAPTISM AND THE Lord's Supper The first Part being of Baptism CHAP. I. First Book of Baptism 1. THAT Christ's communication of himself to the Soul by his Testaments is not in an Image-like way as the reason of one part of men judgeth nor are the Testaments only Signs and Symbols to keep what he hath done for us in lively remembrance as others dispute 2. But the Inward World being Paradise whence sprung the Outward World Christ filleth and ruleth visibly and the Outward invisibly and penetrateth the faithful Soul as Fire doth Iron or the Sun doth the Plant which it nourisheth and matureth till it becomes wholly solar and the Fruit ripe and tender yet is not the Sun rent or any part broken off but the power of the Sun dwelleth in the Plant. CHAP. II. 1. MAN's Fall was the breaking its desire from the Love and Meekness of God into its own which became a wrathful fiery Soul whence the Eternal Darkness existed so that it wanted for remedy the Spiritual Oyl and Water wherein Divine Love and Meekness might flow into it again and make all a Love-flame 2. To this flowing in again there must be a Medium Subject or Antitype whereby the Human Faith might receive Divine Vertue and kindle the Light which Medium was the Circumcision and Sacrifices Baptism and the Supper for God did set in the Human Heavenly Being perished in Adam his new Grace Covenant 3. So that the holy Sacrificers before the Floud did see the Soul sacrificed in the Fire of God's Wrath and through that in spoken Covenant changed into a Love-fire the false will being burnt and dying and a new-born Child of Meekness in the Light was apparent as Light severeth from Smoke and how the Soul through Christ's death would give up it self and be changed into an Angel But this was not common Fire 4. But when Mens vanity prevailed with the Souls false Fire over the holy Fire the Floud the Type of Baptism and God's Meekness overthrew them to shew what the holy Water of Eternal Life would do And then was renewed the Covenant with Abraham and Isaac by Circumcision on that same Member to shew the unclean bestial Birth should be cut off from the Virginity Adam had and should have stood in CHAP. III. 1. ALL the three Worlds Properties or three Principles in Man needed Baptism viz. The first which is the Eternal Nature whence sprung the true Eternal Soul Secondly The heavenly Ens which was vanished in Adam that holy Lights Power the true Eternal Spirit Thirdly The Outward Worlds substance the Astral Soul with its Body out of the Limus of the Earth standing in the four Elements and therefore the great holy Fire of Love manifested in the Humanity of Christ must baptize this our threefold Humanity that each Principle might be baptized with its like viz. 2. The Fathers holy Fire The Sons holy Light The holy Spirits Life 3. The first is the sound to continual Repentance a concussion and trembling with Fire wherein is seen the bitterness of sin and sufferings and death of Jesus Christ. And when the Self-will is shaken through Repentance then the holy Oyl of Love penetrateth and by the anointing of Love healeth those wounds 4. And the Holy Ghost manageth the Office baptizing with a new Life 5. But Man's third Principle the right Adamical Man out of the four Elements is baptized with the Outward Worlds substance the Water 6. By the aforesaid Adamical Man is meant the Spiritus Mundi viz. the right Astral Soul which at the last day shall come again and be tryed 7. Note Man hath an immortal Soul and a mortal Soul viz. the Astral but it was Christ's heavenly Blood that fell with the other which made the Earth tremble 8. He that is himself baptized with the holy Anointing hath Faith which may enable him to baptize else he effecteth nothing but is as the Font-stone but to the believing Parents Child the work is not wholly powerless for the sake of the unworthy hand for if Parents have put on the Anointing why not their Children whom they generate out of the Property of their Seed The Lord's Supper Part II. CHAP. II. 1. THE Soul is the Fathers Fire The holy Love-fire of the Divine Ens heavenly Flesh and Power in the Light being Christ's substance tinctureth he Soul with the Tincture of supernatural glance and life 2. As sweet Oyl put into common dark Fire ariseth into a Light so is Christ received by the mouth of Faith become the Light of the World by kindling again the vanished heavenly Ens of Adam and shining in the unlocked Paradisical ground which is the City of God where the Holy Ghost dwelleth in Man of which Christ saith Joh. 6. 56. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood continueth in me and I in him which is a real and substantial eating and drinking Christ's heavenly Flesh and Blood 3. The Holy Flesh and Blood is taken into the Soul which cometh freely as the Sun doth into Water which retaineth its heat and light or as Fire penetrateth Iron and gives it heat and light 4. Also 't is the whole Christ as they did eat the whole Paschal Lamb. 5. The Bread and Wine is the Medium in which the Heavenly Humanity of Christ meets the unlocked awakened Word of Promise and Grace Covenant which is hid in Man 6. By the Bread and Wine said here to be the Medium is not meant the gross Elements of Bread and Wine but the Tincture or Quintessence whence cometh or groweth Bread and Wine Chap. 3. ver 24. CHAP. III. How the Disciples of Christ did Eat and Drink Christs Flesh and Blood 1. NOT the palpable Fleshly Humanity but the Spiritual Humanity the Virtue and Power of his Body and Blood his own Mumia in which was the Divine and Humane Power
which is a true Humane Substance of Flesh and Blood a Spiritual Flesh out of which the visible Image groweth not only by Faith in remembrance of his Sufferings Death c. as is ignorantly said but really Christs Paradisical Humanity presseth into their Souls as a sparkle of Fire falleth into Tinder and turneth the whole Tinder into Fire and Light 2. The Divine Flesh and Blood of Christ cannot be receiv'd but by a Mouth fit to receive it 3. The Mortal Flesh comprehendeth it no more than the gross Stone doth the Tincture of fine Gold that is in it 4. A Man cannot say I am Christ because Christ dwelleth and worketh in me no more than the Herb can say I am the Sun because the Sun worketh in it CHAP. IV. What the Wicked partake of and how a Man should prepare that he may be Worthy 1. HE that receives this without Repentance that is turning from Sin receiveth as Judas his own Judgment and Condemnation for his wicked Will desireth not to die in Christs Death but only to arise and live with his Sins in Christs Resurrection yet in the Spirit of Lucifer he treadeth on the Death of Christ and participateth indeed on Christs Anguish Death and going into Hell but in the Spirit of the Devil without rising to newness of Life Better it were he did not touch or meddle with it 2. They talk of Absolution and Pardon of Sin but leave it not and so Sathan as he did to Judas after the Sop entreth These Crucifie Christ. 3. But they that rightly prepare die to Sin resign themselves to God have the Spirit of Christ erecting his Kingly Office and Pallace in their Hearts a living Conqueror over Death and Hell these rightly receive Christs Flesh and Blood CHAP. V. Of the Disputes c. about Christs Testaments 1. ONE Party say the Bread and Wine is substantially changed into Christs Flesh and Blood and so will receive Christ into the Bestial and Mortal Man 2. Another Party say it is only a Sign that the Body of Christ was broken and died for us and deny the substantial participation 3. The third Party say Christ is participated with and under the Bread and Wine that is Christs Flesh and Blood is eaten and drunk with and under the Bread and Wine but yet know nothing of the right Adamical Humanity and deny the substantial Inhabiting of Christ. 4. For they will not know how the participation is wrought but rely barely on the dead Letter hence come such Contentions that are really Spiritual Murther and in the end come to outward Murther Every one for the Idol of his own Opinion but the Kingdom of God is inwardly within thee the outward imputed Grace without the Innate Filial Grace is false 5. Let the Sufferings and Death of Christ be fulfilled in us and we shall be the Children of Christ and not the Children of Images This was the Authors 22d Book Mysterium Magnum PART I. The First Part contains the nine first Chapters of Genesis and thirty fourth Chapter of the Book whence these Extracts are called the Great Mystery Exposition of Genesis CHAP. I. What God manifested is and of the Trinity 1. GOD is the One the Will of the Abyss the Will of the Wisdom The Wisdom is his Delight and Manifestation he begetteth himself from Eternity to Eternity in which Eternal Generation are 1. The Will 2. The Mind of the Will 3. The Egress from the Will and Mind 2. The Will is the Father the Mind is the Wills Heart and Seat the Egress is the Spirit and Power of the Will and Mind The Lubet Motion Life and Eye of the Deity A speaking Word 3. God is no where far from or near unto any thing Infinitely more deep than any thought can reach comprehended only by himself CHAP. II. Of the Word or Heart of God 1. THE Word is in the Will a nothing but with the Conception in the Lubet of the Will is an Eternal Generation This Eternal speaking Word maketh a Mystery call'd the Centre of the Eternal Nature out of the Powers Colours and Virtue whereof as out of a great Eternal Mystery was formed by Coagulation the Spiritual World Which two are as Soul and Body 2. And tho' the speaking Word rule through and over all yet cannot be comprehended by either but in the inward World conceiveth it self into a Spiritual Essence as one only Element wherein the four lye hidden but when the Word moved the one Element the hidden Properties did manifest themselves as there are four Elements CHAP. III. How out of the Eternal Good an Evil is come to be the Original of the Dark World VVE cannot say that Eternal Light or Eternal Darkness is Created for they are not comprehended in time but Concomitant in their Generation But not in the Word of the Deity but Originate in the desire of the speaking Word For the free Lubet wherein is the Wisdom could not have sensible perceivance of its own Vertue Smell Taste and Colours if it brought not it self into a desire like a hunger and so bring it self from Abyss into Byss by over-shadowing Attraction And remains a Property viz. a darkness For where a Property is there is a something yielding obscurity Unless something else viz. a Lustre fill it and then 't is Light yet remaineth a Darkness in the Property And this is the Eternal Original of the Darkness So that we are to understand 1. The free Lubet the wisdom which is no Property but is one with God 2. The desire of the free Lubet which in the hunger or coagulation comprehends the free Lubet and maketh it self out of the free Lubet For the desire is the Fathers Property And the free Lubet the wisdom is the Sons Property Tho' God here until the Manifestation through the Fire in the Light is not called Father or Son but set down thus to shew to what Person in the Deity Nature and to what the Power in Nature is to be ascribed The desire proceeding from the will of the Abyss is the first form and it is the Fiat The free Lubet is God who governeth the Fiat the Centre of Nature And both together are the Eternal Word and in the desire are the seven Properties of Nature The profound distinct Discourse of them taketh up the remainder of this Chapter and the fourth fifth and sixth CHAPTERS CHAP. VII Of the Holy Trinity and Divine Essence THE Eternal and Temporal Nature especially consists in the dark world in the four first Forms Astringent Bitter Anguish and Fire But the Powers in all are understood in the Light or Love-desire or Love-fire 1. For the first ground is the one 2. The free Lubet viz. the Wisdom 3. The Love desire wherein the free Lubet exacuateth it self through Nature into a Kingdom of Joy 4. The Oyly Spirit wherein the Lubet amaffeth it self in the Meekness and coamaffeth the Lustre the Power whereof is
in our Humanity but Christ would have it for a Natural Right 4. By Canaan understand the holy Chrystalline World or Earth which shall be manifest 5. By the two fold Cave or Pit of Machpelah is signified Man hath a two fold Humanity one out of the Divine Ens and Heavenly Essence the other out of time this Worlds substance both which should be put into an Eternal Sepulchre and lye in its original Mother leaving the one will in Death so that God might alone live rule and will in the Soul and Mans Life be only his Instrument For the Soul hath turn'd itself aside from the only Eternal Word into self-hood This Distemper and unlikeness must be buried and put again into a two fold Cave and thence come into the Temperature the Essence whence the Body and Soul did arise CHAP. L. Of Abraham's sending his Servant for a Wife for Isaac 1. ABraham is herein the Figure of God the Father Isaac in that of Christ Abraham's Servant in that of Nature The Canaanites in that of the introduced Serpents Ens the Besâ—ial Man which shall not Inherit Here God makes his Servant Nature by whom he governeth Essentially bind itself that it will not introduce the Serpents Ens the dark Worlds Bestial Canaanitish Property for Gods Childrens Yoke-fellow but Nature must take substance out of Abraham's true Humane Essence in pure Love of the Heavenly Matrix that so the New Birth might be holy in its Virginity as to the inward Man 2. Nature saith How if c. viz. the right Humane Ens will not follow me And God said Beware c. viz. go not according to thy Reason but an Angel shall go before thee viz. the Divine Will for self-will and reason must not Lord it but Nature must be a Servant do as it is commanded and commit it to God to bring on the â—ternal Marriage But iâ— the Humane Will will not follow the Messenger hath discharged his Office The Rain ascends not up again without Fruit Nature must declare that God hath given Christ all his Goods and now desireth Man to be his Wife And the Servant sware c viz. When God put his Holy Word with the formed Wisdom into the Natural Ens of Mary then the Humane Nature sware Obedience 3. And the Servant took ten Camels and went to the City of Nahor in Mesopotamia viz. the ten Forms of the three Principles to the Natural and Supernatural Life viz. seven Forms of the Centre of Nature and three Forms of the three distinctions of the Principles which are they whereby God causeth all things and the Goods of the Lord are the formed Wisdom of the great Wonders and Powers 4. And the Servant caused the Camels to kneel by the Well near the City at Evening At or in the last time or days of the World The will of the Fathers Nature the Mystery of the Nature of the three Principles the Carriers of the formed Word hath laid it self down by the Well-spring of God the Divine Fountain 5. The Silver and Golden Jewels Bracelets and Ear-rings given to Rebekah signifie the Heavenly Humanity of Jesus Christ which is not given wholly into the power of the Fire-soul in this Life lest it become haughty as Lucifer and Adam but Virgin Sophia meant by Rebekah remaineth with her Bridegroom Christ in the second Principle 6. The Spices signifie the Holy Spirit Then they sate down to eat viz. the Marriage Feast the Joy whereof none but the Children of Christ know And when Rebekah saw Isaac c. When the disappear'd Humanity discovers Christ in it self it falleth into deepest Humility and is ashamed vailing its Face before Gods Holiness and Clarity that it hath lain so long Captive in the Bestial Man but Christ taketh it into his Arms and leadeth it into his Mothers Tent into the Heavenly Worlds Essence And then was Isaac comforted for his Mother for the disappeared Matrix which was lost in Adam now re-obtain'd in Virgin-like Chaâ—tity for his Spouse CHAP. LI. Of Abraham's taking Keturah to Wife and of his Six Sons and Death 1. ABraham was old when he had Isaac to shew Christ was to be in the old Age of the World and Sarah was old that so the Divine Ens might have the preheminence over the Humane and she must have but one for so is Christ and all are Branches in the one Tree viz. Christ in all 2. But Abraham by Keturah had six Sons signifying the six Properties of the formed Nature the operation of the six days Isaac viz. Christ is the seventh the Sabbath Of these six sprang six Nations to them he gave gifts of his Goods tho' not the In eritance yet had the free Gift of Grace So every Man hath Christ as the free Gift of Grace in him none predestinated to destruction for by those six are signified all Adam's Children 3. In the right Adamical Man out of which the Earth had its Original is the Covenant of the Free gift but the own-self-made-gross-earthy Adam who by Lust made himself a Beast is not capable of the Gift in the Covenant but the right Man as a Tincture in gross Lead mortifieth the Saturnine will and changeth it into Gold swalloweth up the gross Man viz. the dark Worlds Property 4. The Jews Christians and Heathens have all this Gift and Christ is the only available obedience all Men therefore who give up themselves in obedience to God are received in Christs obedience for Names are not accepted 5. My believing that Christ was Born Died and Rose for me makes me not a Christian but I must put on Christ enter into his Obedience and Sacrifice arise in him and Live in him 6. When Abraham had brought his Lifes Forms into right order he resigned up himself into Mortification tired with the Life of self reâ—â—ed in God CHAP. LII The History of Isaac Birth of Esau and Jacob. 1. AFter Abraham's Death God blessed Isaac and he lived by the Well Labairoi viz. the Well of Living and Seeing his Soul dwelt by the Fountain of Divine Love The desire of the Soul is the Fiat which takes the holy Love Tincture into it self and makes it Essential as the Metalline Ens gives its deâ—ire into the Suns Tincture that out of them both the fair and precious Gold is generated So doth the Deity inhabit in the Soul and co worketh but is not comprehended 2. The Souls Magical Fire by the Divine Love desire is inkindled into a shining Lustre so doth the Souls Magical Fire become the Bridegroom to the precious Sophia but the Mortal Soul from the Stars or four Elements attains it not in this Life but that Soul that cometh from the Centre of the Eternal Nature out of the Divine Lubet through the Word whereby the Divine longing formeth the Wisdom into Substance This Soul is that which is betrothed to Sophia 3. Ishmael had twelve Sons six of the Inward
Aâ—tral World 12. When Man makes these idolatrously the object of his Love Hope Delight and Confidence as the rich Man in the Gospel did which should be used only as a Picture or Glass through which to Contemplate by Divine Skill the Eternal Powers represented by them He catcheth at a Shadow worships the Ass on which he was to Ride 13. It is evident his thus Living to his third Principle was his and is our Dying to and Loss of the second Principle and 't is as clear the Dying to the Third that is only giving it leave to hang to us as an old loose Garment or looking through it as through a Cloud or Medium on the Sun or regarding it as a Letter much blotted for the Esteem we bear to the Hand whence it came or as a much faded imperfect Portraicture of an Absent Friend or as a Perspective-Glass Thus only to use it is rightly to Live to it which is really to Die to it and so to Die to it is really to Live to the second Principle and to reunite to the Eternal Chast Holy Modest pure Virgin which disappeared on Adam's disobedient Lusting for the Lusting awakeneth the Knowledge of Evil and Good which the Virgin abhorreth and left Man should be quite stranged 14. Therefore to Extricate us of this miserable Toil came the Son of the Virgin whose Doctrine teacheth us That it is a greater Blessedness to give than to receive for that the Holy Light World consisting in the Might and Vertue of the second Principle cannot be supported and receive Nourishment from the divided Properties of the third which consisteth of Transitory mutable Powers because what is of Good in those outflown Powers is the free Gift out of the Abyss of the true and greatest Blessedness the second Principle 15. All therefore who Die not to the Lesser cannot Live to the Greater Blessedness if we Die not to all things but Christ we are unworthy of Him Whatever is divided from Him is Dead for He only is Life and God is called God according to His infinite Abyss of Light Love Life Goodness and second Principle for according to the first is a consuming Fire 16. Man living to the Cheating Pleasure of the third Principle is Dead as the Widow is said to be who liveth in Pleasure We startle at being Adulterers Idolaters c. yet so we are while we Live that is till we Die with Christ. Till we pass through Death that is truly and really Die to the Wrath fierâ—eness and Dark Anguish of the first Principle the Root of the Soul as to the Father's Property And until we Die to the Deceitful Volatil Bewitching Pampering Lust of the third Principle whereinto Man's outward Body like those of the Beasts is fallen wherein also lodgeth the Curse till This be we are Dead as to God But being indeed mortified to both these we arâ— in the same degree raised again to live the Life of Jesus Christ a Life of Love Humility Patience chearful Submission and Obedience as our Progress to the Death of both these extends and ascends or amounts unto 17. For the Death to these two Principles as to their Prevalence is such an emptying us of our selves as enables without Reluctance to Pray the Lord to exercise his whole Will in us and on us regarding in nothing its Greatness or Contemptibleness its Sweetness or Bitterness its Gratefulness or grating Temper but only esteeming every thing without Reflection or Sticking ever equally acceptable that the Divine Will shall direct and allot us to do or submit to 18. And this Life of Sacrifice hath a thankful Reverence in it and is as whole as the Burnt ones were without the least reserve This Life is no longer ours for we are first Dead But is the Life of Christ the meek Child like Life taught us by the Cross of Christ the Footsteps of the Lord are plain and conspicuous in this good Path. 19. It is both in Word and in Power but neither is the Word or Power ours but 't is the Holy Word and Power whence Adam departed as the fallen Angels had done before and in which Word and Power the Blessed Angels converse and are Established In which Adam might have lived Gloriously without knowing the Cross as do the Angels 20. But the restored Image grows not but under the Cross Thus did Abel under the Hate of Cain Enoch and Noab under the Pressures of the highly wicked old World Lot under the filthy Sodomites And infinitely above all thus did our Almighty Saviour whom if we will follow it must be in Deepest Humility bearing his Cross which must be also ours divesting our selves of all Self-pleasing and whatsoever fallen Man calls and thinks to be his for this is the Holy Soul's weaning time when as Heirs of the Faith of Abraham they also keep a great Feast as he did at weaning Isaac 21. This Feast is a real feeding on the Heavenly Flesh and Blood of Christ a Drinking of the Water that becomes a Spring of Water in us to Eternal Life It is a Life hid with Christ in God a walking with God and a putting on the Lord Jesus Christ the Marriage Supper and Wedding Garment a Peace passing the understanding of all except the Children who are regenerated and to them only known in such measure ordinarily as they have made Progress in Mortification and so grow in the new pure Image of God restored us by Jesus Christ. 22. For a close let all be warn'd not to contemn if they understand not some things and so judge themselves unworthy of this Childrens Bread The Reason why so few understand the Holy Scriptures which yet many often read is because few give up their Wills to Obey and Regeneration is the Necessary Qualification to attain true Wisdom Hence is it that from a Corrupt Mind though refinedly Penetrating the Writings of the Blessed Jacob Behmen are Seal'd up and as if Dumb from such were the very Sermons of the Lord himself who so spake as never Man spake hidden And none of the wicked shall understand but the wise shall understand Here endeth the Considerations c. The 177 Theosophick Questions of the blessed Jacob Behmen divide themselves into Ten grand Distributions or Kinds being of so many various Aspects viz. THE first four Questions are most immediately concerning God in his Infinite Abyss The ten following concern Angels good and bad from the fifth Inclusive to the fifteenth Exclusive The 23 next succeeding are of the Creation in general ranged into three distinct Eminencies deduced from the 3 Principles making in all 37. viz. 1. That out of the first Principle or dark Abyss in the 15th 16th and 17th Questions 2. That out of the second Principle the Angelical holy World in the 18th and 19th Questions 3. That out of the third Principle the Visible Creation and contrariety in it from the 20th Question inclusive to the 38 exclusive The one and forty
of these Waters on whose Face dwelt the Darkness when first the Spirit of God began to move thereon Q. 27. What is the Ground of the Male and Female Kind in the Essence of this World Whence is the Conjunction and Desire arisen Could not the same be effected in one only Ground without dividing A. The Question having three Branches requires a distinct Answer to each part 1. To the first it must be said The Male and Female Essence of this World have their Root in the very Properties whereof the World it self consisteth And tho' the same Tinctures be an Image of the two Spiritual Worlds and of the Principles yet the dividing of the Tinctures are not in the Divine World for though they are there yet are United and so are not two but one Potent glorious Power 2. Will any say Why differs the Copy from the Original It 's answer'd The four Elements though divided are a Figure of the inward World yet the inward World consisteth in one undivided Element whence the four proceeded 3. Now this is a manifest dividing of the Tincture of the Fire from that of the Light which the Elementary Creatures bear in two distinct Bodies divided each from other for as the four several Properties of the first Principle longed to be Creaturely and attained their Images in the several Transitory Creatures so the two Tinctures longed and obtained their Images in the two distinct Sexes of the Transitory Creatures 4. To the second Part whence the Conjunction and Desire is arisen which is for that they come from one only Root and are there really one only Tincture therefore being divided do they so exceedingly desire one the other as is seen among the many Kinds of Birds and Beasts Also in the Properties of the Minerals for we may see how Mars naturally incorporated and digested with and made tough by Venus and then brought into an Hunger and fed by Sol transmuteth into the desired Metal or Solar Body This Desire Nature sheweth in Mulberry-Trees and that of the Vine and Elm c. And not only in Minerals Vegetatives and Animals 5. But in the Sympathies of the outward Universe is this apparent as in every Element and part of Element who all retire to their several Centres as soon as they get dismist from their Obligations to other different Elements Also in the Union of Will between the Loadstone and Needle more especially in Man the bare Instances whereof would be a Volume one whereof may be 6. We see how exceedingly every Man is affected with the Good or Ill Opinion others have of him drawing a kind of Life or Death from their Affections or Ill Humours shewing the Souls of all Men to have but one only Root Body or Fountain and the Severals to be but Drils or Twigs 7. To the third Part Whether it could not have been otherwise c. 'T is answer'd The Male and Female Tinctures are originally one glorious Power-World in which all Properties are United but when that one Element or Divine Eternal Nature was moved to give out the Astral Heavens and four Elements in their divided Properties Those Beasts Birds and Fishes which were distinguished into Male and Female Sexes and did propagate themselves by Commixture were the most apt Expressions of the Astral Spirit and Powers and plainest Characters of the inward distinct Wills For granting that World whereof this is an Image the longing Desire it had to be Imaged it could not possibly be otherwise For though the Female and Male Properties are shewn obscurely in the Spawn and Melt of Fishes but not so conspicuous as in those greater Kinds of Fishes which bring forth young large full-formed Fishes Also not so plainly in Insects as in more mature Sensitives nor in Immoveables as in Insects yet perceptible it is in every of them 8. But all this relates to Temporary Creatures Extracts of the Stars and Elements having no Original Right but Usurping Dominion over Man's pure holy Humane Body for that being out of the Quintessence was capable of Eternity therefore not out of the Stars which shall fall into their Ether nor out of the four Elements which shall dissolve and be Melted by their Central Fire 9. The dividing of the Tincture into two distinct Sexes in Man was no otherwise needful but as a Chirurgeon impresseth an Incision to save a maimed Limb from a Gangrene To man thus it became also of absolute necessity because he was fallen headlong from his Magistracy over both the Astral and Elementary Powers to be a poor Captive under their Domination Q. 28. What are the Principles of the Spirit of this World of the Superior or Inferior Being A. 1. A Principle is a New Birth or New Life The Eternal Deity is the only One Principle wherein is Eternal Life the Creation of Angels and Men are its manifestation yet is there another Principle rightly call'd the first which is also Eternal but not of Life Eternal but of Death where-ever the Divine Principle is not manifest 2. Into which when Lucifer and his Legions had thrown themselves Man was created to supply that place And lest when he should fall he might become a Devil also the third Principle was created to help him And were it not out of the Question and that perhaps it may fall under another Question to be answered by a more enlighten d hand it should be here shewn how the Man's concern in This Created World was what adequated and priviledged him tho' fallen to a possibility of being recovered which here not without some reluctancy I must be content to omit in this place 3. Now restraining my self to the limits of the Question with all brevity 't is answered That the most or innermost Principle of This Worlds Spirit is the Powers of the Stars in all the Creation The Light of the Sun and the Astral World is out of the second Principle And were not some Wrath in the Sun shewn by the intolerable Heat it might unite with the Light of the Eternal Spiritual World but as it is the Tincture in it is the most noble of all Visibles as a God in Nature not only wholly useless to Evil Angels but a check to many of their works for they like Adulterers love the Twy-light 4. The next Birth or Principle downward in the Spirit of this World inferior to the Astral is the Elementary which is not so remote from the wrathful or first Principle as is the former but are another or second Birth the Stars being reckoned the first Whence it is that Man 's Elementary part since the Fall is transitory gross and sluggish like as the Bodies of Beasts for the Spirit of this World doth in this Birth boil up the half dead Salitter gross Sulphur and infected Mercury So that the Body were a lump did not the Sun's lustre or glance give him Eyes and it with the other powers of the Stars in the Properties of the first Principle
the Scales c. They have also Craft Wrath Love every of the Five Senses Invention Providence Memory c. 2. To call them moving Plants is too low but only that it leadeth the Mind to view the Harmony of all the Creatures how they variously some more clearly others more obscurely Image and Shadow every of the three Principles and the seven Properties of the Eternal World 3. Whence they sprung appears by several Answers of the foregoing Questions particularly in that of the 33th 4. And now among the many Glorious Ends of their Creation the following brief hints are some They are at fourth Degree from the Principles and Properties created 1. To Figure the Dark Abyss 2. The Light World though very obscurely 3. The Out-birth or outward World of the Stars and Elements with the almost infinitely various Tendencies Inclinations and Impulses of them By every of which the Almighty Creator uncovereth his veiled Omnipotence infinite Grace and Wisdom 5. The Contemplation of them is both a pleasant and a perplexing Laboratory or serious Book for Man's Study and as it were a Play-Book for the Angels whose piercing understandings read the Effects by the Causes while declined Man gropeth by the Information of the Senses at a piece-meal guess of the Causes from Experience of the Effects 6. It must be confest that Adam being as to his Body or third Principle in his first and pure state Lord of the Mystery whence they proceeded could more sensibly discover and Epitomize them than the Angels as the Lord Jesus had a feeling of our Infirmities by His gracious humbling Himself to be as one of us But Adam's bright Eyes were darkened by the dismal lapse 7. Men may see themselves in the brute Creatures 1. All Unregenerate Men are figured either by the greedy ones 2. Or by the haughty proud Beasts 3. Or by the envious Reptils where by the way may be observed that Envy is found among the Poorer sort for the venomous Creatures are rather creeping than going 4 Or by the cruel wrathful ones And all these are of the first Principle without proceeding to enkindle the Light of the second Principle and are call'd by the Names of those Creatures in the Sacred Records 8. Other Creatures there are that figure the Light World or second Principle by their Innocence Love Usefulness and Loveliness in which they glorifie the Creator and like a dark Shadow pourtray the same 9. There are other Creatures more especially of the Out-world or World's Spirit as those that have Lunary Bodies produced improved and transacted by her Mutations which extends very far also to the whole Creation 10. My last Consideration restraining my self to brevity is somewhat abstracted which is That their Root is not so Ignoble and Vile but their Forms and Idea's for the sake of their Tincture have a prospect into Perpetuity each into their natural Aethers as is signified by the Apostle that the Creatures Travel in pain groaning under forced and as to them causless Vassalage shall be deliver'd into the glorious Liberty of the Children of God where the Drunkard's Horse shall like Balaam's Ass convince mens Madness and cruel Excess The abused toil of the Laborious Ox the innocent life of the Patient Lambs both employed to nourish filthy Lusts the cruel Delight of Hunting to the heart-breaking of the Deer and Hare c. shall at last be material Witnesses of Man's aggravated Guilt perpetuated Apostacy and lawless Irregularities Q 38. Whence was Man Created as to his Body The Fourth grand Distribution A. 1. Not of the Earth for the brute Animals are more nobly descended not of the four Elements which are the Matrix of the Earth for of that Matter are the Brutes form'd and the Elements are Transient and must melt or resolve into their first Principles Not of the Astral Out-birth for the Stars shall fall that is cease their present Order and pay the Debt of their various Properties to the Aether whence they were separated 2. But because Adam's Body was of Eternal Duration had he not â—inned it could not derive from a fading Root as Eternity is not founded on Mortality which forceth our search to ascend a step higher 3. It shall therefore be to the Divine Salitter which also hath the Water-spirit in it from both which the Stars were breathed And this Divine Salitter as it hath in it all the Powers of the Properties together with the Divine Sulphur and Mercury is call'd the great Mystery Eternal Nature or Quintessence 4. Out of this was Created Adam's Holy pure Paradisical Body capable of Eternal Life This Divine Saliter J. B. calls the Holy Ternary that is a Celestial Paradisical pure Earth whence grows Heavenly holy Fruits and near unto it no Curse ever can enter or approach for thereinto cometh nothing that defileth Of this Dust of this Ground Moses spake that God formed Man But they who suppose it to be our dead Dust wherein is the Wrath and Fierceness do not only err by means of the Veil before Moses's Face but also by reason of the Veil on their own Hearts and Eyes 5. The Apostle saith The first Man is of the Earth earthy The second is the Lord from Heaven 6. That it could not be this nor the Elements nor the Astral Birth is clear but therefore that it must be the Heavenly Earth is of forcible Consequence The Apostle saith not what Adam was or was extracted from but what he is or is come to be but if he had so said yet the Proportion betwixt the second and first admits no Comparison 7. Between a Mote in the Sun and the whole Glorious Sun is some Proportion for the least of Quantities taken from the greatest of Bodies below Infinity hath Proportion to that whence it was for it leaves the other really lessened but all created Worlds bear no Proportion with the Infinite Son of God for all breathed out from an Infinite leaves still an Infinite and the Infinite is not lessened by it 8. The Apostle therefore in this place either doth not speak of Adam's first state or doth not lessen his Extraction but adoreth the Glory of the second Adam as the Work-master excelleth the Work made for when of the Angels it is written And hath made them all ministring Spirits Of the Son it is said Let all the Angels of God worship him Also Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever c. Q. 39. What was the Inspiration or Breathing in whereby Man became a living Soul A. 1. The Inspiration of Man's Soul was out of the first Principle the Father's Property which consisteth of the first four Forms of Nature of this Living Root sprung his Immortal Living Soul 2. Yet so is it that wherever or in whomsoever the second Principle is shut out that Exclusion is truly call'd the Death of the Soul for the Living Soul by that Deprivation enters or remaineth in Death which though
improperly may be called an Immortal Death being a Death to the Glorious second Holy light Principle 3. The Soul is taken sometimes for the two first Principles I saw the Souls of them who had been slain c. for here the third Principle was asleep Sometimes it 's taken for the whole Man If thou wilt make thy Soul an Offering for Sin c. The Lord Jesus offered up all the three Principles meant here by his Soul and as was shadow'd by the whole burnt Sacrifice But in this Question Soul is restrained only to the first Principle because other Questions particularly reach the other two The above brief Answer may here suffice because Jacob Behmen so largely resolveth it in the Answer of the first of the Forty Questions of the Soul Q. 40. What is the Immortal Life in Man viz. the Soul and what is the outward Life in him A. 1. The Principle of Man's Immortal Life is what the Answer of the last foregoing Question renders it that is a Life sprung from the wrestling of the first four Forms of the first Principle They generate a strong stern eager sting prickle poison Life or bitter Root which as doth the Gall in living Bodies strikes up or enkindles Life 2. This being rooted in the Eternal Beginning or from the Eternal Abyss of the Father's Property can never find End or limit of Race But Either is according to the Fountain and Essence of its own Nature dark raging and fierce for ever or in the Holy Principle of Love in the Light World happy for ever 3. It must now be told what the outward Life of this World in Man is and must be sadly acknowledged to be Earthy and Sensual here is the Lust of the Eye the Lust of the Flesh and Pride of Life So that it may be said Shut the â—ive Windows that our House may be truly Light within 4. The Beasts live as Man doth having all the five Senses as he in some of them more sharp also some of them extend the Thread of their time to greater Measure are generally more exempt from Sickness wholly Privileged from careful Perturbations in good Measure without fear of future Events or Sorrow c. 5. So that Mans outward Life or third Principle as now it is from first to last renders him of all Creatures the most Miserable And his restless striving to satiate the Lusts of this Worlds Spirit by Wealth Greatness c. is an additional Sorrow and Vexation which some of the Ancients skilfully mitigated by wise Moderation and Contentation 6. Who sees not how much more grievous this Pilgrimage and Travel is to Man than to any other Creature Because his Creator made him for the Excellent Holy Sweet Paradisical Life Even as Hell is most intolerable to Evil Angels and lost Men who were created to be Inhabitants of Heaven whereas it is no Wo to those horrible Creatures that figure the fierceness of the Properties for that is their Life 7. Yet it is true the poor Brute Animals groan under the Curse Man subjected them to for they should have been harmless Figures of the Astral and Elementary Powers 8. To conclude the Answer of this Question let it be seriously considered That if Man will think to feed his Immortal Principle with Mortal Food viz. his Soul with this third Principle he doth as a cruel Murtheress who to still her unhappy Nurse-Child instead of Food amuses its Eyes with Objects and its Ears with Sounds and answers its hungry Laments with louder Noises till she hath forced it to sleep who so pines and destroys it 9. But the Love of God in Jesus Christ is the true real Food of the Soul it is true not like Shews and Sounds which are delusive also real and substantial not a Shadow which every thing here else is as to the Soul This Love as Food generateth its like in the Soul and strengthensit This Love as Physick Purgeth out all other Love and it reigneth and remaineth for ever Q. 41. What is the Idea or exact express reflex Image of God in Man wherein God worketh and dwelleth A. If a Volume were written to Answer this Question as well might be by reason of the Excellency and Importance of the Subject yet still it would be as under Locks and Seals from the fallen Adam until he enter into the Knowledge at the right Door of that he lost by his Fall 1. The Doctrine of the Resurrection was call'd Babling by the studious Athenians for Man is dead to the Holy Divine Image and in all who so abide the outward Astral Spirit and Elementary Body is the only Bridle of Suspension and Mitigation of the hellish Image or dark Principle 2. But had Man no more he were in no better state than the brute Beasts for in the Astral and Elementary they are in common with Man and in the dark Principle he is one with the Evil Angels 3. Yet so exceeding Great and Adorable was God's Grace Love and Pity that the same Grace was like a Seed inspoken into him at the Fall which in all by whom Obedience is yielded beareth Fruit to Eternal Life but it lyes as Dead in such who bury it under the Dominion of the Astral Spirit or that choak it under the Thorns of the Elementary Body 4. And all Impenitent Rejecters of God's regenerating Grace how subtle and studiously penetrating soever have no part nor lot in this Matter but are absolute Strangers guided by an unreasonable Model of Humane Reason resulting from the Information of the Sences twisted with the Maxims of Serpentine Wisdom 5. Nevertheless the Poor in Spirit that dyeth to its own Will and Lusts hath lively Characters of the Idea of the Divine Image and Birth for such a dying enters the Soul into the first Resurrection 6. God's Image is not in the Earthquakes of the first Principle nor in the Lightning and Thunders of the third Principle but most nearly in the small still voice of the Proclaiming his Gracious Merciful Long suffering Name for that is the second Holy Principle 7. And this speaking Almighty Word cannot be more than stammer'd by words no more than Omnipotence can be comprehended by Concrets With what Eye can a Sinner behold the unexpressible loveliness of That ravishing Face where dwells That Majesty which is the Express Image of the Father and before whom the Angels cover their Faces I must say when a drop of that Ocean of Love and Mercy blesseth my Soul I melt I stammer I am astonished Lord what is Man 8. God's exact Image consisteth of all the three Principles The first and third in perfect Order being thorowly illustrated by the second The mighty longing of the first like a Hunger produceth or begetteth the meek Will and glorious Majestick Principle of Light according to which God is called God And of the longing and will proceedeth the desiring which is a Love-spirit producing Millions and Miriads to Infinity of Variety
humble that Sex who being the divided Tincture were first in the Transgression Q. 106. How was God viz. the Word made Flesh What hath he assumed from Man A. 1. In the 75 81 and 90 Answers and in the 15 particulars of the 21th Chapter of the little Treatise call'd Considerations c. on the Scope of Jacob Behmen much relating to the present Enquiry is opened Yet it seems fit to say farther viz. 1. That because Man's going into the third Principle had subjected him to the Mortal Bestial Flesh in the Wrath and Curse if the Word had not assumed and been made Flesh the Plaister had not been as broad as the Wound The Elementary part viz. that of the four Elements must for ever have remained Captive in Death and passed away with the melting and dissolution of them into their Aether without Recollection or Resurrction 2. At the same instant therefore of the Virgin Mary's Conception the Word in or of the second Principle was by the Vehicle or Medium of the Holy Element Conceived in the Light of her Life taking her's viz. our Eternal Human Soul and Spirit or Light generated out of the Souls Essences and both Soul and Spirit became as one in an Eternal Band with the Word like as the Masculine and Feminine Tinctures unite in ordinary Conceptions 3. In the same moment also by the genuine Right of Nature as the Divine Lubet of the two Principles breath out the third Principle attracting the Powers thereof for their manifestation and by the same immutable Law as by which common Fire attracts Air did This Holy Divine Conception call to it the Astral Powers and Spirit and those for their Associates brought as their house and clothing the four Elements being of the like necessity as the Body of a living Creature follows the Head Thus the Word became Flesh yet as incomprehensible not only to the Flesh but also to the fallen Humane Nature as the Eternal Soul is to the Astral or as the Astral Spirit is to the dead Earth 4 But as truely as the Eternal Humane Soul and Spirit the Tincture the Astral Soul the Animal Spirits and Sences and the Elementary Body or Bulk compose and form one Man so truely did the Word of the Almighty Son of God the Virgin of Gods Wisdom the disappeared Image of the Heavenly Humanity assume and unite with Mans Humane Soul Spirit and Tincture enter also into the Astral Vigor and Powers also enter and assume the Elementary Flesh and consecrat circumcise and hallow them and thus become one perfect compleat person God and Man 5. The decay of the Lungs is hard to be restored because applications thither are obstructed their Porter so curiously guards the entrance as that Air only may have admission wherefore the Wall is sometimes broken by Inscition to send injections to the part impaired tho' with great hazard But our Almighty Restorer hath entred the whole Man every crevice and secret of Soul and Body is all Superficies an open Field at Noon day to the Omniscience of gracious Love 6. When my dull Spirits a little penetrate this incomprehensible condescention my powers yield up themselves prostrate tremble and flame my Soul finds himself as one living among the dead it hath something to say and do which it wants apt Organs to express and prosecute And if my obscure Soul find himself unequally yoaked what a stoop did Infinite Goodness make to bear our griefs and take on him the chastisement of our peace be as a Lamb dumb before the Shearers Yea under the Merciless Murtherers and Tormentors pour out his Soul He hid not his sweet Face from shame and spitting that by his stripes we his cruel Enemies might be healed Q. 107. Wherefore would God became Man could he not forgive Man his Sins without becoming Man A. The Minds of Men have been very apt to err about the Doctrine of forgiving sin thinking it to be like verbal Remissions among Men or at a Bar of Judgment 1. One party pretend possession of the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven by succession to Peter who himself had no promise of them but as he was one of the Apostles which when it was performed was to him and the rest alike Yet still that Party plead prescription and saying a form of words like a Charm great sinners are told they are pardoned yet probably by such who are often greater sinners than themselves 2. Another party less gross in words yet no less remiss in Practice and Conversation expect pardon of an Age of sins by a Death-bed pretended sorrow and words of hope and confidence in the Merit of the Lord Jesus without any conformity all their Life to his Death and Resurrection 3. Had the putting sinful Man into a Blessed state been so easie Would the only begotten Son of God have taken our disorder'd Souls and vile bestial Bodies born the Curse fulfilled all Righteousness encountred and been slain by Death a shameful death passed through a Sea of streights grief and pain exerted a Series of miraculous power No No. 4. Man was estranged from God had lost his noble Image was partly a Devil and partly a Beast it was then absolutely necessary he who alone was mighty to save should do all he did Or Man was past any help and all hope of Restoration and Pardon 5. Therefore did God become Man the Word was made Flesh to appease the wrath of the forms of the first principle by inkindling Divine Light in them therewith also was Mans Spirit which was like a Phantasm or like a foolish Night Fire inflamed with Sacred Love and Mans Astral and Elementary parts were Tinctur'd into a due Subjection to his more noble part as they to the Divine 6. Thus the great Captain entred through Death to break the Gates of it restoring the Virgin Image in our Humanity of himself he saith John 17. 19. And for their sakes sanctifie I my self that they also may be sanctified The pardon of sin produceth a mortifying of self a rising in a new Life a sacrificing every Lust a Love sickness to the Lord a War with the Enemies a Heart broken and melted a new tender one receiv'd this is true Gospel forgiveness Q. 108. How was the uniting of the Deity and Humanity in this becoming Man A. 1. God Created Adam an Image of the whole three principles both first and third fully illustrated by the holy second principle yet was his very third principle of the holy Paradisical Element wherein was the pure modest chaste Virgin of Divine Wisdom vouchsafed to Man as his Bride But neither is the Virgin holy Element nor Paradise God but the Virgin is the Tincture of the Light and the holy Element the Flesh and Blood of Christ whence was Adam and the Angels 2. These things foreknown way is made to answer the Divine secret sought after in this Question and requireth the Eyes of all the three principles as they stand in the
Jews believed it not and too many at this day oppose it because they misunderstand that and other Divine Truths so that may still be the Lamentation My People perish for want of knowledge They that said in the Apostles days the Resurrection is past already were not perhaps aware that they overthrew the Faith of some it being the same as if they had said there was no Resurrection Object Some may say Man having a visible palpable elementary Body and an invisible astral Spirit or Soul Author of the five Senses at least that acts the Organs neither of those parts can share in the Resurrection for the Stars shall fall and the Elements dissolve Let them tell me too our Flesh is Grass Dust we are of the Earth earthy and like the Beast that perisheth If therefore the Syderial Root and four Elements return into their Aether can the Products thence subsist his Body being dependant on a transient Principle whereof 't is compounded With what Body therefore shall he arise A. 1. 8. Christ had a visible palpable Body as ours from the astral World and four Elements though by reason of his being begotten of the Holy Ghost was infinitely Superior and more Noble yet in his Resurrection was his Elementary also raised to Immortality and Glory 9. The Apostle saith If the Dead rise not 1. Then Christ is not raised 2. Your Faith is vain 3. Ye are yet in your Sins 4. Our Preaching is vain 5. We are found false Witnesses 6 Those that sleep in Christ are perished 7. Our hope is vain 8. We of all men are most miserable But therefore that Christ is risen and become the first fruits of them that slept A. 2. If our Body as far degenerate as it is become had no higher Extraction than barely the astral World and four Elements it might have no other Resurrection or Perpetuity but be as the Beast But how then was it to have endured to Eternity had not Sin broken it It had therefore its Root in the Eternal spiritual World whereof the outward World and the Spirit thereof viz. The Spirit of the great World are a figure and Representation A. 3. 11. It is relatively Eternal being United to the Eternal Soul joyned to the Holy Body it obeyeth and beareth suffereth and doth the Holy Will of God as the Souls Instrument and Companion And the wicked Souls direful confederate in all their black Machinations beastly selfish Maxims and fordid Prostitutions and therefore in both must have a Resurrection to receive according to their Works 12. But the Bodies of wicked People are as a ready prepared Engine whose every part is curiously composed by Exquisite symmetry liberally oyl'd to whirl as an Automatae down a steep Mountain whil'st the Bodies of holy Souls are as a Bullock unaccustomed to the Yoak or a lazy Ass to struggle through a narrow deep way with a leaden load up a weary heighth So that look how much of extraordinary Assistance or rather violent Inducement the Evil man's Body is to his Soul so much perplexing Impediment hath the regenerate Child from his Body 13. Infidelity suggests so many Improbabilities as may make one Impossibility of the Resurrection to which is opposed Omnipotence Shall that Infinite Power whose Hand gives Being to every thing and World from the Angelical Tâ—rones to the vile Insect and Minute-parts of every pile of Grass be insufficient to rally Man's dissever'd Limbs number the Hairs and not the Members record all Mens Actions Words Thoughts and forget the whole Bulk and Fabrick 14. As to the last part of the Objection with what Body shall they rise To this the Apostle replies Thou Fool that which thou sowest is not quicken'd except it die and the Body which shall be viz. not the self same Grain but the self-same Kind riseth be it Wheat or any other and the self-same Tincture in the Crop as was in the Seed only our Corruption Dishonour and Weakness is changed into Incorruption Glory and Power 15 The Sons of Wisdom can see the Transmutation of Metals The Naturalist the death dissolution and reforming and vivifying of Craw-fish The curious Observer the Transmigration of the Silk Worm Every one that kindles a fire the triumph of the flame on change of the Accidents of the Fuel The Physitian the consent of Bodies and Parts by sympathy and of Actives and Passives Who sees not the Loadstone single out one filing of Steel from a heap of Sand. The Plowman and Gardener see out of the dark Earth arise Corn Fruits Flowers of other colour odour taste c. than the Earth yet acknowledge they the Earth hath all the Vertues Properties and Powers of them obscurely in it 16. Why then should it seem impossible that He that raised up Jesus Christ from the Dead should be able to quicken our Mortal Bodies though literally mortified when Death shall be swallow'd up of Victory as saith the Prophet Thy dead Men shall live together with my dead Body shall they arise Awake and sing you that dwell in the dust for thy dew shall be as the dew of Herbs c. Q. 135. What manner of Door hath Christ through Death opened in our Humanity in the Anger and Righteousness of God where by we may enter into God How is that done A. 1. As it is not the Wind abroad but that in the Earth that causeth Earthquakes so neither could Man's mortal inward Wound be cured by outward Applications for because Man was become inwardly a Hell to himself and outwardly lock'd up in the Curse of the Out-birth wherein he had secluded and shut up himself from the Divine Light as in the 69th Answer is discoursed 2. It was therefore past all Remedy unless Heaven would mercifully introduce it self into the Soul in the light of his Life Then did the gracious Principle of Love by bringing the Eternal Virgin back into the lockâ— up Humanity become a Saviour Like as the Fiat or speaking Word did in the Beginning by the Light compose Order amongst the Confusions of the Properties of the Chaos So the Lord of the Light-Holy-World came into the averâ—ed Will of the Humanity and there implanted it self as a Tincture being Himself the Omnipotence of the Kingdom of Divine Love into the Anger and severe Righteousness of God in Man 3. Thus came it into Man's enraged first Principle like sweet Oyl or Incense into a dark hungry fire which raiseth it into a Radiant sweet flame and Iustre As when the Humane Intellect returned into Nebuchadnezzar his bestial Image was exalted So when the Divine dear Love embraceth and is enkindled in Man's angry fierceness it potently attracts by assimilation some Divine Breathings and makes impressions of it self As in Esau at his meeting Jacob. 4. The Door by which the Soul goeth into God is opened as Jacob by yielding up himself passed through a Death appeasing Esau for by this the Soul 's bolted and barred-up Door is unshut and set
Name 5. But Lucifer making an harsh jarring Tone and changing his Golden Letters into black of poysonous composition raced himself and his whole Hierarchy out of that fair Record Then did the creating Word speak or incert and interline Man into that part of the Book out of which Lucifer and his Angels had been raced which with the additional skill of Interliners had the Out-principle as an adjunct to him this was the second race of Intellectuals 6. And tho' the skill of the speaking Word were perfect yet as usually it is in Interlinings the obliterated Letters had left some flaws or scratches tho' not in the holy Book yet in the adjunct shadower or cover viz. the Out-birth which being new bound and the lacerated pieces cemented in the cover rested such stains and rents that thereof came the perillous poysonous stinging Animals and Vegetables and Beasts of prey bearing the impressions of the clauses of the dark World 7. Whereinto when Man fell their contagion so affected him that he could not sound a due consonance to the Harmonious Dialect of the Holy Book which as to him became so closed and sealed that he could not read open nor so much as look thereon But as Men Illiterate cannot Spell nor Read so the Language of Nature of the Heavenly Holy World our true Mother Tongue was lost he had no Ears to hear the Angelical Ravishing Voices nor Tongue to utter it till the Fiery Cloven Tongues descended 8. Now come we to the Holy Language it self which if any could speak would not some say this Man is full of new Wine But we may mournfully tell of our Losses easierthan regain them we must say that Language was one and but one For its Nature it is pure for its extent it is comprehensive of all and therefore no wonder all understood it for its power it hath Authoritatively Omnipotence in it actually or executively it hath the Keys of Life and Instruments of Death this Word slew Ananias and Sappâ—ira and freed Tabitha from the Bonds of Death 9. Now as in Mens ordinary Affairs the Reason and Understanding prevail to move the Mind so that after Debate a Will is formed this Will is the Result of all consideration and is the Man the Soul the Spirit the Body the Passions Affections all make one Intire Will and the Magical driving power of all this becomes the Word this Word is the Executive Instrument and not barely the Herauld of the Soul or whole Man It is the Energy and expressed Vigor of all the Powers wherefore it is said By thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned for the word is the work and the worker 10. Thus and no otherwise is the Divine Language which the Holy Ghost opened in the Apostles viz. the Result and Law or Abridgment of all the Powers of the hidden Holy World it was the Opener of all Doors the Epitomy of all Openings the understanding of which is offered by this simile 11. The Intricacies of the perverted perplexed confused Tongues in the multiplicity is compared to the Night season when a Man can only see the House or Room that contains him and that not without the aid of Fire or Candle Light where is much shadow many uncertainties some colours not distinguishable And the explicating opening and voice of the holy one Language is compared to the Noon-day which shews every thing at once without Door and within 12. Thus the Divine Word or Language comprehends all opens all Doors therefore was it that all Nations understood them for the unity contains the multiplicity as every Genus doth every of its own Species or as the Element of Fire doth every Spark of Fire This hath the Life of all openings as the Vowels are the Spirit of the whole Alphabet All the sounds Musical or otherwise are contained in three and in seven both Concords and Discords All Voices or Tones expressing the Passions and Affections in the two Extreams of Joy and Sorrow and the Mean of Equiponderating Solemnity of Humane Creatures or others are comprised in the sixth Fountain Spirit or property of the Eternal Nature and must have its efficacy in every formation Q. 147. What doth this shedding forth of the Holy Ghost out of Christs Resurrection and Ascention to Heaven profit or benefit us How may that be also effected in us A. 1. When the Epâ—esians who had been Baptized by John were ask'd Have ye received the Holy Ghost since you be ieved Answer'd We have not so much as heard whether there be a Holy Ghost they may not be thought wholly ignorant of the Eternal Existence of the Holy Ghost for all the Holy Men from the Creation were guided by him But that these knew not of this glorious and plentiful Effasion of the Holy Ghost on the whole Assembly 2. And now how the pouring forth of the Holy Ghost profits us is not only that records deliver this to us as once done in them but that the same is vouchsafed more or less Eminently as those sacred Visits are more or less welcom'd by joyful Obedience or grieved by stubborn Resistance For as the precious Ointment going down to the Hem of Aaron's Vesture is not said to be spilt on the Rocks or sterile Earth so neither doth the Holy Spirit always strive with Gaâ—sayeâ—s 3. Again the coming of the Holy Ghost out of Christs Death and Resurrection profits us also that whereas it finds us in as many pieces as there are Properties in Nature and drawn by as many contradictory wills as there are subordinate Species in those Properties figâ—â—'d by the confused Languages at Babel this Holy Spirit unites us as Fire unites all sorts of Fuel into a like Flame 4. Thus it found some of them in one form and extream some in another some Busied with Curiosities others Brutishly Ignorant and Remiss some seeking by fraud or otherwise to establish their particular propriety some making Ambitious Designs their Idol c. The sacred Spirit putting out their several false Fires and Gloworm fictitious Light brought them and willeth to bring us into one Kingdom by one Spirit to mind the same things leads us by one will to be imploy'd in one work for our scatter'd Interests extravagant Desires and private selfish Contrivances must as Rubbish be removed before the Lords House be Erected or as Weeds be eradicated before the good Seeds flourish 5. 'T is true our Humane Powers and the Spirit of the great World in us and the Tincture convey'd us thereby may be used by the Almighty Architect as unhew'd Timber rough stone and other Materials whereof to frame a Building like as the Principles and Properties were extracted out of the first Chaos So may our confusions be consecrated and made conducible to the work of the new Creation which is effected in us by dying of our first wilful desires For by giving up the might of our first principle into the Intellectual
what is a Shepherd or Pastor in the Spirit of Christ. It is answer'd Christ is the alone Shepherd of Souls for alluding as before to the outward Sun As the Sun directeth the Creatures to get good and prevent evil by his daily steddy course such is Christs providential guiding us by his working for and sacred Epistles written to us and by assisting us by some loving Brother he substitutes this is his outward Pastoral Office 6. Again as the Sun not only directs the Creatures to the place of their Food but by his vertue makes it to be Food so that they are fed by his secret vertue in the things fed on and the things themselves are but the Medium Thus is the Soul fed by Christ by whom the Medium is caused and the Soul by him also hath a preparedness and capacity thereunto and the good Shepherd thus gives his Life and Vertue for and to the Sheep and they feed on him But Men calling themselves Shepherds are only at best as Ink and Paper wherewith the Lord Jesus writes his good pleasure teaching others to read it So is the Church call'd the Epistle of Jesus Christ. 7. And to the last part of the Question What is a Teacher of the Letter without the Spirit of Christ in his Office It is answer'd he is dead for it is the Spirit only that quickeneth both in respect of himself is sensual not having the sacred Spirit and in respect to his Work the Letter killeth Therefore tho' a regenerated Child may receive some strength from the Teacher of the Letter yet the Divine Principle by him who is himself only in the Anguish of the first Principle viz. the Covetousness Pride Envy and Anger or in the Image or Shadow thereof the third Principle properly call'd the Valley or Shadow of Death the unregenerate Souls are by such misled into the Ditch 8. What is that power then whence the Blind Guides issue and derive Authority From the holy Spirit of Christ it is not for that is pure peaceable gentle easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits If they were founded in the Regeneration they would proceed in the Divine Impulse but being sprung in the Astral Magia which is but the Figure or Shadow of the Eternal World the driving is from without and being so from beneath cannot ascend higher Preachers in that Spirit are only the Apes and Counterfeits of the Divine Living Spirit and the Super-intendents or Ordainers of them are Men neither Authorized by the Law nor Gospel Thus after the choice Youth of Christian people are prepossest with Aristotle's Heathenish and dry Breasts of Philosophy like the Children prostituted to Mâ—lock They are spirited by Men who by a fatal Name are call'd School-Doctors 9. These come abroad with unmortified Luâ—ts imperious Wills imposing Principles in contempt of the humility simplicity and plainness of the Doctrine of Christ and of the Self-denial Charity and Love in the practice of Christianity but will be Teachers of the Multitude yet being ignorant of God of Nature and of themselves being very great strangers to Christ in whom only are all the Treasures of true Wisdom Q. 150. What is the Office of the Keys How may they become rightly used or who is worthy or â—it for this Office or whether is he himself the Office Or whether hath he freely given it to man so that he may without Christ's Spirit forgive Sins or how is it done A. 1. People of the Roman Communion say Their Bishop hath the Keys of Heaven left him by Peter but why they derive from Peter they should shew for Peter was the Apostle to the Circumcision they were Gentiles and Paul was the Apostle of the Gentiles Thus far they are as the Jews that as the Jews Persecuted the Head these do the Members 2. But were it so they derived rightly from Peter which cannot be and Peter only from the Words of the Lord Jesus which were a direct Error as of such who know not the Scriptures to think yet let it be observ'd the Lord said to Peter I will give thee the Keys of the Kingdom c. It is not there said I do give c. Nor seems he then fit being ignorant of and offended at the Notice of Christ's designed Sufferings his Answer on that occasion caus'd the Lord to say after this Promise Get thee behind me Sathan c. But when that Promise was performed it was to the other Apostles equally with Peter for when the Lord Jesus shew'd himself to them he breath'd on them saying receive ye the Holy Ghost whose Sins ye remit c. 3. But we read of the Lawyers who took away the Key of Knowledge as these do for the Pardon of Sin is not like the Remission of Mens Penalties by a Magistrate at a Bar but is a great Work therefore said the Jews VVho can forgive Sins but God alone And Moses interceeding for Israel saith Let the Power of my Lord be great and Pardon c. It was Power that created the World but great Power goes to the forgiving of Sin 4. But Power of Remission and Retention of Sin was given by the Lord Jesus to the Apostles together with a Commission to go and Preach the Gospel wherein more was meant than what was conferred on the rest of the World for it was not only a Power of bare Verbal Declaration which others might do but a Delegation of Commissionary Authority All Sin is against God those against Men are against God as Men stand related to God and as they Transgress the Righteous Law of God Therefore no Sin can be Pardoned but by him against whom Sin is committed And 't is the Infinite can extend Infinite Mercy which only can secure a sinful Creature against Infinite Wrath. 5. Men may as Ambassadors declare their Lord's terms of Reconciliation in general to all and they may ratifie Peace with particular Persons if they are directed by the unerring Spirit of God to discern them from all others but Samuel himseâ—f was mistaken by the goodly Presence of David's elder Brother Such an Error in this Case may both invalidate the Absolution and Shipwrack the Man into a Lethargy Presumptuous Dream Slumber or translate him to Fools Paradise 6. And it may be doubted this discriminating Eye is dimn or shut when the Concomitants disappear for now the glorious Effusion of the Holy Ghost enabling to take up Serpents drink any deadly thing heal the Sick eject Devils Prophesie speak with new Tongues are all controverted as a misunderstood History rather than to be things practicable by the Pretenders to that great work of Pardon 7. Let it not therefore be thought a designed Sacriledge of part of Ecclesiastical Authority to warn all to see they have salt in themselves and not be led by the Eyes of others and those also Eyes confessedly defective But that the Apostles did this was because they
hath a very Dim sight and sees such things only by similitudes which impose mistakes And the Eternal Soul is like jarring untun'd Strings of an Instrument So that the holy new Principle is buried drown'd and out-sounded 3. How may the Heavenly Man be distinguisht from all pretended Christians seeing there is given him a white Stone and a new Name which none can read but he that hath it And how obscure the Characters ingraved in that white Stone are may appear in this that when the Lord said to the Twelve one of you shall betray me they all severally askt Master Is it I So that he only who had not the white Stone was able to know who it was and by consequence who were not Traytors but Faithful And yet notwithstanding all that hath been said the right Christian may be known partly by comparing him with the contrary Characters of the Titulary Christian and partly by something visible in him who is the Christian in Heart 4. The Character of the Titulary Christian is he makes the profit pleasure and pride of things on Earth his great and constant aim and it cannot be otherwise pretend he what he will for this is his home his all his treasure where else can be his Heart 5. His first Principle is uneasie to him unless he hath somewhat to go into for his first four Properties being by his loss of the Divine World in the Fall at perpetual enmity and in respect of his dark Principle separately considered he is a Tormentor or Hell to himself therefore laying hold on the third Principle which is all he can reach his hungry Fire and Rage is mitigated as Men in pain and grief are a little eased by delightful Objects diverting the regret of their Melancholy as Children by Toys do cease crying 6. Thus the prosperity of the Fool shall slay him it made him say Soul take thine ease eat drink and be merry Did I not studiously shun many words much might profitably be said shewing how according to this the Lord Jesus doth Character the Scribes and Pharisees which were Hypocrites and what the whole reprehensions of the Prophets and Apostles in all the holy Records say of this out-cast state who all with one continued cry did in all Ages perswade recal and warn Man from the Image and Shadow to the true Eternal holy substance and condemn his obstinate refusal The Holy Ghost convincing him of his stupid Lust to his Chains and Prison willing him to leave off his grave Cloths 7. But the Faithful Christian is distinct from the Titular Christian in this that his main aim bent of his will stream of his affections bottom of his real designs desires and longings are not after and stay not in the figure but penetrate into the substance lives to groans and thirsts after the Inward Man 8. Nothing he finds can compose true peace but reuniting the Light World to him which is done only by the death of the Enmity not the death of the Enemies for then the Soul were Mortal if the Powers or Properties could be kill'd but the Regenerate Man dies to the Self-will and Lusts to which the Titular Christian is a great resolute stranger And that it is said he dies to the Sensual Man is so true that it cannot be otherwise for the sensual Life is to the Life of the new Man the resigned Inward Man as sickness is to health which by the true Physician is drove away 9. And tho' Men have the Heavenly and Hellish Properties in them that which soever they awaken that Fire burneth and becomes the Life of the Man suppressing the contrary property yet is not the prevailing Property of these two easily distinguishable in the Out-birth but very obscure Even as the Light of the Sun by the interposition of gross palpable Fogs and Exhalations is less visible than the Lustre of a Bright Moon in a serene Air. Q. 161. What is properly a Christian within and without How is he a Temple of the Holy Ghost in which the Kingdom of God is inwardly revealed or manifested How doth he walk and converse in Heaven and upon Earth both at once A. 1. The last preceding Answer distinguisheth a Christian from another Man so that to the first second and third parts of this it may suffice to say that the Christian properly such hath inwardly his first principle consisting of the four Anguishes the Root or Fire and indissoluble Band of the Soul illustrated and regulated by the Love Fire which is the Divine Holy Life out of the second principle In respect whereof he walks and converseth in Heaven as in an Angelical state in great purity and simplicity as such are they dear Children and were not the third Principle annexed to them were in the Holy Eternal Paradise already 2. But were they not invested by the Out-birth or Astral World they could not be the compleat Image of the Trinity which in that respect the Angels themselves are not Therefore according to the Astral Man the regenerate Soul is properly the Temple of the Holy Ghost but the Holy Angels themselves wanting that Principle are not said to be so 3. Thence it is our Apostle dehorting from polluting it by Harlots But that we keep our Bodies pure and chaste tells us they are the Temples of the Holy Ghost which if we defile we destroy Gods Temple and that who doth so him will God destroy for as the whole third Principle is the propriety of the Holy Ghost so peculiarly is Mans Outward Man or Astral Man his Temple 4. In the outward Man of some of Gods Holy Children therefore the inward Power World so manifesteth it self that it giveth vigour of the Eternal Holy World into the Tincture of their Astral Man as in the Prophets and Apostles to enter into their Diseased Brother and bring his weak Faith both into a potent and good order with such Energy as fortifies the Paralitick separates the impurity of the Leper calms the rage of the Calenture revives the drooping stays the departing and sometimes recalls the departed outward Life Gods Spirit awakening the Magical Virtue of his Children all things are possible Q. 162. What is the Antichrist upon Earth under Christianity A. 1. Although the Holy Ghost describes Antichrist his Rise his Character and the method of his destruction adding that there are many Antichrists Yet so mysterious is he that it is proverbial that Antichrist is the Philosophers Stone in Divinity His shelter is the Darkness his defence the Word and Power of Hell and wicked pretended Christians Of this Vizard of Darkness the Divine Light divests him and the Divine strength consumes him the brightness of the Lords coming discovers him and the Spirit of his Mouth destroys him How then can any be deliver'd from the Tyranny of Antichrist who are strangers to Christ or any know Christ who are willingly in servitude to Antichrist 2. The time of Antichrists discovery and destruction is certainly
stretch beyond the sphere of his own activity and what if it be said an Angel can do but so were he to speak it for all Eternal Creatures live either in the holy or prophane Worlds or in both They that live in the Light-World as far as they see the Centre of the Dark-World in themselves may speak and no farther viz not what That Darkness is in others or what the perplexed Hellish Charms Cheats and Intricacies are for the Holy ones live far above them and the Battle managed by Michael and his Angels against the Dragon and his is not with the Dragons Weapons but with the quite contrary As bright Torches â—ight with black Vapours or the starry Region with opposing Exhalations 7. We must come then to consider them who live in both Dark and Light making a third Principle by their mixed production and in them may be found the figure of an Umpire or Interpreter As he who reads two Languages can tell him who knows neither what is written in both if he hath the Tongue also That third person is of Thus was it the first Adam could give names to all Creatures for he had the Properties of them all in himself either according to the Forms of his first Principle or according to the Astral Powers of his third wherein he was infallible having the splendor of the second for his Guide but his departure from his Pure State degraded him of the Judicatory as a man is deprived in the night of the view of what the Sun priviledged him with or as one immured in a dark Cavern sees not what a lofty Mountain gave him prospect of or as Nebuchadnezzar ceased as to Royalty when he had only a Beasts heart 8. And in this State all Adams posterity find themselves as of themselves ignorant of the Creator and therefore also strangers to themselves and rightly knowing nothing Therefore the Son of the Virgin that he might be the Light of the World brought again the Virgin Image into the Humanity openeth the pure Eye and gives such a proportion of discriminating Wisdom as our hunger adapts and capacitates us for in the Regeneration hence it 's written the Spiritual Man judgeth all things but he himself is judged of no man But to which of the Angels hath God said at any time Be thou a Judge Those glorious and mighty Agents are Princes in one only Principle viz. the Holy Divine One not in the first nor third tho some of them are enthroned according to the Holy Impression of Potence in the first and others have the Dominion according to the Infinite Variety of the third Principle but all breath only the Air of the second yet are neither the one Hierarchy or the other Judges of Men or Devils While yet the Lord saith of his Twelve they should sit on twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes and our Apostle saith Know you not that we shall judge Angels viz. Evil Angels 9. Now to say how this Judgment is effected It 's answered 1. The Principles and Properties are all wide open unto the second Adam for out of them He created every World as without Him was not any thing made that was made and this as He is the Son of God before whom all Worlds and Individuals drawing Air and living of in or from either Principle or Property shall stand at That day and ever did as open as a City on a Hill 2. The Principle and Properties are all really in Him as He is the Son of Man and His throughly penetrating them is a consequence of His perfect knowing Himself His own Heavenly Humanity 3. The Principles and Properties will be at That day known to each other as well as each to its self Now is the Dark World much hidden from the Light World and the Light wholly incomprehensible to the Dark Now also the Hellish and Heavenly Principles are under a disguise so that men catch at the Bait of the Dark World and eschew and flie the cross leading to the Holy World The Treasures of Egypt weigh down the Reproach of Christ. But then shall the Principles and the Good and Evil of the Properties be so open to the Holy Children that they may penetrate and contemplate the Wrath Kingdom without being impressed incited or imposed upon by it and they shall view contemn scorn and judge the fixt Enmity of those burning in the Wrath of the Dark Central Fire Then also the Love flame of the Holy Virgin Souls united to their raised glorified Bodies shall be so evident to the Vassals of the inimicitious World as may fully convince them to their eternal anguish and shame what kind of Birth-right Glory Felicity and Blessedness which must endure to perpetuity they profanely desperately and madly sold and exchanged for a Mess of Pottage and Death in the Pot for faded painted imaginary Toys Trifles and Cheats 10. But what need more to convince of the Truth that there must be such a day or to shew the order how it is effected seeing the Holy Scriptures abound with Accounts of This Judgment which is spoken of where it is call'd a fearful looking for of Judgment Again the Judgment was set c. may have boldness in the day of Judgment Heb. 10. 27. Dan. 7. 10. c. 1 Joh. 4. 17. Mat. 11. 22. 2 Pet. 2. 9. Rom. 14. 10. 2 Pet. 2. 3. Also see the Answer of J. B. to the 30th of the 40 Questions concerning the Soul and the 27th Chapter of the three Principles Q. 172. How is the Resurrection of the dead effected What riseth again A. 1. It may justly be complained that reading is opprest with excess of enlarged Writings being therein as unsuccessfully transgressive as the hopes of the Hypocrite to be heard for his much speaking It therefore seems more suitable to the shortness of Mans Life straitness of his leisure discomposure of his Spirits feebleness of his penetrating faculty and weakness of his retention to avoid all vain repetitions and commend the reperusal of things once read as the most ready rather than to new shape many ways that which is but one thing and once done already In order therefore to the clearing of this Answer let it be considered what Adam was before his Fall which is discoursed in the 45 Answer Next what dire Effects that Fall of his had treated of in the 69 Aeswer Again what Man 's Death and Resurrection is as in the 6th verse of the 121 Answer And what Man 's faln State Death Christs Resurrection and raising of Man and what of him riseth are which is the substance of the whole 16 verses of the 134 Answer So that the Answer is made before this Question comes in its Order here to be considered 2. Yet because I dare not dismiss this important Doctrine being so much opposed even at this very day not only by many Hellish Atheists transforming themselves into Brutish Animals but not understood by some pretending
to be risen with Christ and guided by his Light within them Let it be observed by such who wilfully oppose or not regarded at their Peril And for satisfaction of such who are willing to know the truth viz. That Christ had a true Natural Humane Body of Flesh and Blood from Mary Heb. 2. 24. For asmuch then as the Children are partakers of Flesh and Blood he also himself likewise took part of the same that through Death he might destroy him that had the power of Death which is the Devil Q. 3. But is it askt how is this Body and Humane Soul the same of ours It 's answer'd 1. By way of Concession that it was so far other than ours as it had the Holy Ghost instead of Mans Masculine Seed 2. Yet took he as the above Text with many others plainly tell us part of our Flesh and Blood and so was our Brother that is such as the Children had part of were of or are partakers of and this is also ours of what Nation soever we are for it is written Acts â—7 16. God hath made of one Blood all Nations of Men to dwell on the Face of the Earth Q. 4. Is it ask'd what of this was raised again It 's Answer'd all of it for the Women and after that the Disciple whom Jesus loved and Peter saw there was nothing left in the Sepulchre after the Resurrection but the Linnen Cloaths wherein he had been wrapped Q. 5. May it be fully so with other Bodies Answer Matth. 27. 52 53. And the Graves were opened and many Bodies of Saints which slept arose and came out of their Graves after his Resurrection and went into the Holy City and appeared unto many And it must be remembred that it shall be so with ours at the last day it was the Faith of Martha who saith unto him John 11. 24. I know that my Brother shall rise again in the Resurrection at the last day Q. 6. May it not be otherwise with us our Bodies must putrifie and the Incorruptible only rise Answer our Apostle saith 1 Cor. 15. 53. Our Mortal shall put on Immortality and our Corruptible shall put on Incorruption and all this as a consequence of Christs Death and Burial according to the Scriptures also of his rising again and after his rising again was seen of Cephas then of the Twelve after that of above five hundred Brethren at once 1 Cor. 15. 3 4 5 6. Q. 7. Shall it be a Resurrection of all Answer The Lord saith Marvel not at this for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the Graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth they that have done good to the Resurrection of Life and they that have done evil unto the Resurrection of Damnation Let it therefore no longer be charged justly on us as formerly on the Jewish Rabbies That we err not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God 1 Thes. 4. 14 15. If we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so them also which sleep c. Q. 8. How is it effected Answer As Lazarus was raised That voice which gave Being to all call'd him up and that voice shall call all up every one in his own Order May it never be said of us as of the Jews Because they knew not him nor yet the voices of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath day they have fulfilled them in condemning him So may it not be said now Because they consult not frequently nor heedfully regard nor will understand the holy Words and Writings of the Lord his Apostles c. which they may daily read they yet sit down with a confused Notion of this great Doctrine and bury their drowsie Intellect some with dark Heathenish Maxims begetting Atheism in Judgment and Practice a degree worse than Devils 9. Other some there are having a glimpse of a true Light wherewith they think themselves rich and to have need of nothing and there shut it and themselves up without proving it by searching like the Bereans and without improving it by trimming their Lamps But not imploying themselves in the Lords methods do obscure or bury their Talent and so by degrees let their foolish Heart be darkened not only in this but in many other of the plain and precious Truths of the Kingdom of God which great evil and defection is as ever heretofore in all other forms accompanied with sharp Censures of others and peremptory unwarranted Injunctions of their own Reason Whereas the more we approach the Divine Life the more comprehensive is that Soul the more ready to bear and forbear to do and suffer to become all or any thing to all that it may beget of that meek Spirit in others to be swift to hear to have an open naked Breast whereon it begs the Lord Jesus to write his whole Pleasure is so vile in his own absurd Judgment that is easily induced to think highly of others Q. 173. How doth this World pass away or vanish And what doth remain thereof afterward A. 1. To some this Question may seem only curious and to others so occult as if incogniscible to a third sort such as if possible to be resolv'd were needless because it fruitlesly anticipates say they the thing which in its season shall demonstrate it self But on serious mature inspection it is found possible important and greatly necessary to be known and believed 2. It is said that when Cortis with a Brigade of Spanish Horse and Infantry Invaded the West Indies and had charged them of the Republick of Tlaxcallan upon the Fall of any Spaniard either Man or Horse care was taken so to bury them that the Americans might not know it which made them despair of withstanding such whom they thence concluded to be Immortal Thus not to discover the end of this present World which the dark World and the Prince of it would conceal were to insinuate as if it were indissoluble and consequently uncreated and so Brutishly to introduce Atheism and Atheism is that fatal Evil which may be justly accounted the worst of Errors of the worst of Men. 3. But this World had a beginning and shall have an end as it is written Psal. 102. 25 26. Of old thou hast laid the foundation of the Earth and the Heavens are the works of thy hand They shall perish c. They all shall wax old as doth a Garment c. Heb. 1. 10 11 12. And tho' no History scarcely records any who mock'd at the coming of the Lord yet is it Prophesied 2 Pet. 3. 3 4. That in the last days Scoffers shall come even at that which will then be at the Door saying Where is the promise of his coming c. For such Mens Lusts Biass them to abuse Gods long-suffering ver 9. Who is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance Ezek. 18. 31. 32. 2 Pet. 3. 10. And it is told
3. 11. Matth. 5. 22 29. 2 Pet. 2. 17. Isaiah 30. 33. Jude 6. 13. Luk. 10. 24. Rev. 20. 10 14. Rev. 14. 11. Isaiah 33. 14. Much also may be understood by considering the Answer of the blessed J. Behmen to the 34th of the 40 Questions concerning the Soul Something also apt and pertinent may be found by review of the 17 of these Answers from Verse 8th to 19th The 21st Answer throughout and the two first Verses of the 22th Answer 6. The Eternal Pain or Torment of the Wicked may be thus in part apprehended That as the Saints are invested with Eternal Joy by the Uniting of the Tinctures and Harmonizing of the Properties in them by the gracious Immanuel and so the sad Rent in the first Adam abundantly is made up united and restored by the second Adam by introducing and reviving in our Humanity the disappeared Virgin Image which had been as a Lamb slain by dividing of the Tinctures so that Man is again the compleat Image of the Holy Trinity with an intimate real indwelling of the Eternal Son in them 7. Thus the Eternal Torment of the Wicked consisteth in the irreconcileable implacable Enmity of the Properties in them at first divided and disordered by Adam It is observed old Friends once at variance are the more hardly appeased by how much the Bonds of mutual Amity and Endearments have been violated how much more is it here where the old Union is separated into Diametrical Opposition in its self to its own Structure and Existence and the Antipathy of the same Necessity of Nature as are the Properties themselves of Perpetuity 8. That Duel is most vigorous doubtful durable and fatal where the Combatants are of equal Force and Activity thus at the meeting of two steady contrary Currents is a continual Whirlpool and the Strife of contrary Elements is as impetuous as Life and Death the congress of opposite Properties bursteth out Thunder Claps and Air pent stirs up Earthquakes and Gunpowder dissipates by violent Expulsion the Opposition wherewith it stands charg'd 9. What outragious fierceness then like a Torrent must the Enmity of the damned Soul Burn in what Thunders must their Horror vent it self by whose Parts are not barely divided but Discordance it self not Enemies but Enmity For as those Souls had whilst with the Body no Food but that of the third Principle which was no more proportionable to their Hunger than painted Food to sustain the outward Life of Man or Beast or painted Fire to heat us So then the Soul 's extream Hunger incessantly yet necessarily as it were devours it self as Men Famishing to Death are said to gnaw their own Flesh and the damned Souls Flesh or Food is its own Faculties which are filled with the four Anguishes of the first or dark fierce Principle and in this respect is the Associate of all Devils and as the outward Body is encreased and as it were composed of the Vapour of the outward Elementary Food of the third Principle producing it So these Wicked Souls are as it were composed and consist of the Anguishes of the dark World 10. The Spirit of such Souls and their Tincture which is as the Eye or Treasure of the Soul looketh imageth and impresseth in it self the uncontrouled dark Powers viz. all impious blasphemous Lusts and impure proud wrathful Desires this is in the inward Centre of the Soul also in his Spirit and Tincture stands as a Memory or Record as to the out-birth the vile depressed Will of all cruel Bears and Tygers the insatiable desire of the Swine Wolf and Horseleech the Malice of Dogs and Toads the Wrath of Vipers and Dragons for they had imaged in themselves by the Magical degenerate Lusts of the separate private Self-will the Properties of all fierce cruel horrid griping poisonous filthy loathsom hateful Creatures 11. In the Spirit of the Soul remains a Will to Voluptuousness Superiority Revenge c. which may break out into Malediction Blasphemy and Monstrous Malicious Abominations but can proceed no farther than the Will and insatiable consuming Desire for the desire to Good or Evil and in Good and Evil is real and the Genuine Natural Issue of the Soul Actions may be dissembled Words gilded but Desires are entire solemn things thus their restless Desires and furious impetuous Wills are their real all and though the Magical Might and Power of the Will in the Spirit of a Zealous Soul is very puissant in all such who have all the Principles in some Harmony yet in these abandoned vile Wretches where all is depressed into Discord under blackness of darkness the Will is under Chains and Impotence only of Power most abundantly to torture it self 12. All the Horrors here are weak resemblances of the inexpressible Hell of the Damned and above all the Rebels against the Gospel that reject and defile that Garment which the God of Grace hath spun out of his own Bowels and dyed and washed in his own Blood For if all the Dreadful things here as the wasting Sword poisonous venomous Beasts insulting domineering Tyrants cruel voracious Wild Beasts devouring Fire astonishing Thunder and Earthquakes sudden Inundations wretched Famines desolating Contagions general Plagues and other noisom Messengers of Mortality if all these and such other are but Counterfeits Similes Figures or Shadows of the true real substantial everlasting dark Abyss what are the Originals and very Essences themselves which Form that fierce Principle where the Worm dieth not nor is the Fire quenched where Death flyes from them and Omnipotence establisheth a Life to subsist under the infinite Wrath of Omniporence call'd the wrath to come and shall after a Million of this World's Ages be still call'd the wrath to come 13. To the third and last part May there be any Alteration effected To resolve which we should first consult the Sacred Scriptures That the Joy of the Saints shall be Eternal who but the Lord himself must we hear in this thing Matth. 19. 29. John 10. 28. Chap. 3. v. 16. Chap. 4. v. 14. the like amongst many others is found Isaiah 61. 7. Rom. 6. 12. And that the Torment of the Wicked must be Everlasting also is told us by the Judge who is Truth it self Matth. 25. 41. and again v. 46. also it 's found 2 Thess. 1. 9. Isaiah 61. 7. Jude 6. v. 7. Rev. 22. 11. 14. This though it need no Confirmation yet it may be profitable by way of illustration to consider the Answer the last of the Forty Questions made by the blessed Jacob Behmen also somewhat pertinent thereunto in the 175th of these Answers from Verse 5. to the end Again in the 16th of these Answers from the 7th Verse to the 12th Exclusive 15. Now that Truth may appear what it really is how apt soever Man is to flatter himself Let it be considered that there is but one only Infinite Original of all Power Eternally generating his Delight the Son of God in whom is
innermost Geniture of God and presseth in through the Astral and Fleshly Geniture it is clearly in Heaven 3. But the Out-birth of this World was Lucifer's Kingdom to the Stars and so far is the Wrath of God between which outmost Birth of this and the outmost Birth of that is a great gulph and are one to the other as Death is to Life or a Stone to a Man So that as to the Out-birth we cannot see the Angels nor they dwell with us but in the innermost they dwell with us 4. The second Birth or Geniture viz. the Astral standeth in the seven Fountain Spirits of this World in which the Holy Ghost also ruleth and helpeth to generate the third Holy Birth 5. The which third Holy Birth is the clear Holy Heaven which uniteth with the Heart of God and holdeth the Devil Captive in the Out-birth in the Anger Fire 6. Out of this Heart Jesus Christ in the Womb of the Virgin went into all the three Births that he might with his innermost take the Devil Captive in the Out-birth overcome the Wrath of God as a Victorious Prince and in the Power of his Birth in the Flesh press through all Men whereby he is become Lord and King of our Heaven and Earth over Sin Devil Death and Hell in whom we also press through the sinful corrupted Out-dead-birth of the Flesh through Death and the wrath of God into our Heaven in which Heaven now sitteth our King Jesus Christ as an Almighty Son on the Right Hand of God being present in all the three Births in this World in all corners and places bearing up all ruling in the Throne of the once potent and now expelled Lucifer 7. When Stephen saw Heaven opened and the Lord Jesus at the Right Hand of God his Spirit did not swing it self up into the upper Heaven aloft but penetrated into the innermost Birth Concerning the Constitution and Form of the Earth 8. Every thing must have a Root The Earth is come from the corrupted Salitter of the outmost Birth for in Earth and Stones is Death and in it is also a Life else Gold Silver and Vegetables could not grow therein 9. Three Births are in it the outmost is Death the second is Life pressing through it being in the Wrath Fire and that of Love and the third is the Holy Life 10. In the outmost is Gods Wrath else why engendereth it poysonous venemous Worms and creeping Things 11. The Earth hath more than one kind of Life for Herbs and Wood are not Earth nor is Fruit Wood nor is the vertue of the Fruit God for the outmost Birth containeth him not but he containeth the Out-birth Q. Why is the Earth so Mountany c 12. A. Where the sweet Water was chief much earthy palpable Water came to be 13. The corrupted Salitter was more abounding in one place than another Also 14. Where the Astringent Quality was chief in the bitterness in Mercurius much Earth and Stones were compacted 15. Where the Heat in the Light much Silver and Gold and some clear Stones 16. Where the Love in the Light the most precious Stones and finest Gold 17. Where are great Lakes and Seas over that Zenith there being not much Salitter there came to be a Valley for which resting place the thin Water sought resembling the Spirit of meekness not elevating it self as in the Bitter Fires quality the Devils did On the words the Evening and Morning were the first day is said 18. Evening and Morning reacheth only up from the Earth to the Moon taking its Original from the Light of the Sun which maketh the outward day and the outward Night Not that there was then a twofold Creation of Evening and Morning Query Whether by it be not meant by once turning about of the Earth whereby the Evening and Morning came to be that is by one Revolution 19. A. Man having a Threefold Birth tho' with his inward he uniteth with the Light of God cannot bring it perfectly back to his Astral and less to his outward Birth which tho' Moses did in part when his Face shone but could not see God perfectly and live even as an Apple on a Tree cannot bring its Smell and Taste back into the Tree nor Earth CHAP. XX. On the Creation in the Second Day Let there be a Firmament in the midst of the Waters c. 1. THis Firmament divideth the impalpable inward pure Water from the outward palpable corrupted Water Wherein is Death which lyeth Captive below the Moon and is the House of the Devils Death and Hell where the fierce Wrath of God becometh kindled daily by the Devils through the great Sins of Men which mix with the Astral Birth in the Deep 2. But even those pure Waters have some of the Wrath in them and is that meant where 't is said The Heavens are not pure in his sight 3. The innermost holds the outward Water strongly Captive and the outward Earth also else with the Revolution of the Globe the Water would be divided or dissolved and the Earth crumble away Which Firmament is between the clear Deity and corrupt Nature 4. Yet the Deep above the Earth may be said to be a place where Gods Holiness dwelleth for the whole Holy Trinity dwelleth in the Centre under the Firmament of Heaven tho' that cannot comprehend him but dwelleth not there fully bodily and creaturely as the Angels and Souls of Men do 5. The Third Birth is the Almighty Holy Heart of God wherein Christs Natural Body sitteth for his Natural Body is not as John Calvin thought such as reacheth no farther than a little circumscribed place wherein it is 6. For if every Man in his Astral Spirit comprehendeth the whole Body of this World should not the Fountain Spirits in the Natural Body of Christ being out of the Fountain Spirits of Nature and his Heart out of the inward Birth viz. the Heart of God which comprehendeth all Angels and the Heaven of Heavens viz. the whole Father should not it comprehend the whole World and uphold it as the only Head Heart and King of it in his Hands are his Sheep whom none can pluck out CHAP. XXI 1. MAN is made out of the Seed viz. Matrix of the Earth wherein the Eye is Twofold one in God the other in this World out of the three Principles not out of the Wrath but out of the Birth of the Earth in the Astral Birth in the part of Love but Wrath hung to him which he should have put forth from himself as the Fruit putteth forth from it self the bitterness of the Tree but that he did not but reached back from the Love into the Wrath and lusted after his Dead or Mortal Mother to suck her Breasts and so brought his outermost Birth into Mortality and his Astral Birth or Life into the part of the Wrath. 2. Man's Soul or Spirit is generated out of the
possible for a Soul by reaching back into the might of the Fire or first four forms and becoming false to the Virgin the Wisdom of God to shut the Door of the Virgin and lose the good of the third Principle which cannot be obtained again but by a new Birth wrought by the Holy Ghost Such a Regeneration restores true Honour and Joy but without it at the Death of the Body the Soul remains a Serpent or Worm that never dies and the figures only of the other two principles remain to compleat its horrour that he may see what an Angelical Form he hath irrecoverably lost Thus Adam lost the Virgin by his Lust and got the Woman in his Lust. 8. By the above appears what Adam was viz. having the Tincture of the perfect Male and Female Properties 9. The Temptation was the Spirit of the VVorld being the third Principle like a young Man of good Complexion Vertuous and Beautiful having forty days and nights sweet Converse and Embraces of a perfectly Fair curiously Featur'd modest Virgin of Gods Wisdom in meer Joy with command that their Will be most stedfast so as not in the least thought to desire one another but as chastly as if they were each unknown or unseen to the other and so to remain in the Proba forty days and nights 10. The Spirit which God had breathed into Adam was the chast Virgin which Adam's worldly Spirit should have loved with a pure Mind but he desired her with Terrene Lust which was his Fall 11. But by being Born again of Water which is in the Centre and of the Holy Spirit the Soul is cleansed from impure Affections and inflam'd with Divine and Sacred Love CHAP. XIII Of Creating the Woman 1. Adam's Tincture being wearied in the strife of the three Principles his Lust Spirit prevailing he sunk into sleep his Heavenly Body became Flesh and Blood his strength Bones the Virgin withdrew into her Heavenly Ether where she waiteth to see if any will by the new Birth receive her for their Bride 2. Adam's Angelical Kingdom was gone he now must generate a worldly Kingdom by a Female as other Beasts Which that God abominated appears by his making Man at first without a Female and said all was very good also that the first Child was a Murtherer and that God cursed the Earth c. 3. But God that he might help vanquisht Adam of one of his Ribs built a Woman That is The Fiat stood in the Centre and sever'd the Matrix from the Limbus took part of Adam's substance viz. of his Spirit Flesh and Bones which then were not so hard till Eve did bite the Apple So they were two yet undivided in Nature and both must generate one Man which before one should have done 4. A pleasant Gate As little as the Spirit of the Soul could be helped except the Virgin by entring into the Abyss of the Spirit of the Soul which is near the Hell of Gods fierce anger had regenerated by Jesus Christ so little could the rent in Adam's hollow side whence the Rib was taken be made perfect except the second Adam had suffered the Wound in the same place to pour out his precious Blood and so repair the first Adam's breach made in the same place 5. Further of the Woman Eve was not made of the Rib only but of all Adam's Essences yet of no more Members than the Rib which causeth her feebleness and is by Gods command in subjection to the Man and to be friendly to him Also the Man must help her and love her as his own Essences And they being but one Flesh Bone and Heart must have but one will And their Children are neither of the one nor of the other but of both As if only of one which causeth the severe command that they honour and be in subjection to Father and Mother on pain of Temporary and Eternal Punishment 6. The Noble propagation of the Soul The Tincture is generated from all the three Principles yet hath neither for its own but is a bright Habitation in which the Spirit dwelleth It reneweth the Spirit that it becometh clear and visible It s Name is Wonderful known only to them that have it It giveth Vertue to and is the Life and Heart of all things It is the fragrancy of Herbs and Flowers and causeth them as also Silver and Gold to grow though of all the Children of Nature it be a Virgin and generateth nothing out of it self It is the Friend and Play-fellow of God The way to it is very near Whosoever findeth it dare not reveal it nor can he for no Language can express it yet it is not God It may be over-powered and used in Metals if it be pure it can make pure Gold of Iron and Copper and make a little grow to be a great deal It s way is as subtle as the thoughts of a Man for thence rise the thoughts 7. The propagation in the Flesh So great is the subtilty and might of the Tincture as to penetrate the Marrow in the Bones of another which Witches know and practise for their Master Lucifer thought to exalt his false Tincture above Gods 8. The Male and Female Tinctures tho' different yet both long after the Virgin the Tincture of the Male goeth out of the Limbus that of the Female out of the Matrix And in the delicate Complexions where the Tincture is most noble and clear the ardent vigour of each thinketh to find the Virgin in the other tho' it be in neither And from the mixed desire groweth the Body and in the wrestling the Conqueror giveth the marks of distinction The Spirit of the great World thinketh it hath the Virgin which it hath not 9. The secret Gate of Women The Seed is sown in the Lust of the Tinctures and the harsh sour Fiat supposing it to be the Virgin attracteth the Seed to it with great joy desiring the Limbus of God in Paradise but the Spirit of the great World insinuateth and filleth the Tincture with the Elements whence comes a loathing against the fulness for the Virgin Tincture relisheth not such grossness but retires into its Ether Then the Spirit of the Sun Stars and Elements doth by the Fiat attract and foster the Child 10. In the first Month the harsh Fiat in which ruleth the Spirit of the Stars perceiving the Blood of the Mother wherein is the Tincture to be sweeter than its own Essence it longeth to image it self therein and Create Adam In the second Month the Matter is sever'd into Members according to the predominance of such Stars as are then most potent In the third Month the joy the Fiat got in the Tincture of the Blood withdraweth and the harsh Essences in Terror would fain like a flash depart but are withheld and made hard making the Skin inclosing the Child then the Tincture flasheth upward in the Terror taking the power of all the Essences with
against Nature and the greatest Wonder done from Eternity and rightly called LOVE 17. This Divine Creature in the Holy Ghost was in a moment made a perfect self-subsisting Creature in the same moment the four Elements Sun and Stars in the Tincture of the Blood and with the Blood and all the Humane Essences of the Virgin Mary in her Matrix received the Creature wholly as one and not two Creatures The Holy Element was the Limbus or Masculine Seed 18 Every form hath its own source yet the Divine hath not so mixed as to be the less but what it was that it is and that which it was not that it is without severing from the Divine substance and the Word abode in the Father and the Natural Humanity in this World in the Bosom of the Virgin Mary 19. Of the three Regions of the Incarnation First There is the Word which hath its forming from Eternity in the Father and in the Incarnation so continued 20. The second forming is done naturally when the Virgin said to the Angel Let it be done to me as thou hast said in the inward Element like the first Adam before the Fall who should have generated such an Angelical Creature which was done perfectly at once in a moment 21. The third forming was done also at once out of the pure Element and this new Creature in perfection of the Element was the Masculine Seed of the Earthy Man which was conceived in the Earthy Matrix of the Virgin 22. But the Word of the Deity so separated them that the Masculine Limbus of the new Creature was not defiled by the Earthy Matrix of the Virgin 23. Yet this Angelical Image as to the Limbus of it came by commixture of the Earthy Essences of the Virgin which clave to it to be Flesh and Blood and at the end of three Months attained his Natural Soul As all other of Adam's Children and hath resumed the Princely Throne again out of which it departed by Sin in Adam 24. Thus Christ was the Natural Eternal Son of the Father the Soul in the Word was a Self-subsisting Natural Person in the Trinity Christ the true breaker through continued in the second Principle and the new Body in the third Principle and at Nine Months was Born of the Virgin Here the Light shone in the Darkness of the outward Body 25. Thus came he to or into his own and they knew him not nor received him but to as many as receiv'd him gave he power by him to be begotten to the Kingdom of Heaven for his is the Kingdom and Glory for ever Amen 26. Of the distinction between the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ. Tho' God in former times permitted Miracles of seeing the Saints departed for vindication of them and their Doctrine of another Life after this for converting the Heathen Yet Invocation of them hath no ground in the Nature of the first Principle Is vain in it self for they having attained the still rest load not themselves with the Miseries and Sins of the Living It is also a disrespect to the Omniscient Mercy of God which without their Intercession and without ceasing with stretched out Arms inviteth by his Gracious Call all Men to come to him freely 27. The Virgin Mary is fabled to be taken up to Heaven Body and Soul but such take this World to be Heaven for the Earthy Body belongs to the Earth She is in Glory in the new Body of the Holy Element and her Lustre is above the clarity of the Heavens as one of the Princely Angelical Thrones for out of her Essences went forth the Body which was the Saviour of all the World and that attracteth all the Members to it and who now standeth in the Holy Trinity and she as a Virgin of Chastity is highly blessed by her Son Jesus Christ. But Invocation belongs not to her for the ability to help cometh only out of the Father through the Son CHAP. XIX Of Souls entring to God and to Perdition and of the Bodies Breaking 1. THE Soul hath the Eternal Essences of the first Principle Regeneration opens the second Principle The third Principle is the Region of the Stars and four Elements When Man 's first Principle hath been wholly taken up about the third viz. This World and that the Brimstone-Spirit which kindleth the Tincture of the Heart is choaked and the four Elements break off from the one Element then doth the Soul keep the starry Region still as its dearest Jewel in the Power whereof they appear and think to find rest in settling things relating to their Wills and worldly Businesses But when the Stars have compleated their Seculum or Course and that the Treader upon the Serpent hath not hold of the Soul by guiding it through the Sufferings Death and Resurrection of Christ it remains naked without the third Principle which it hath lost for ever 2. Of the going forth of the Soul When the Body breaketh the right Soul which was breathed into Adam is in its Principle and is so subtil as cannot be comprehended by Matter as Flesh Bones Stones c. only by an earnest Promise not recalled in the time of the Body it may be comprehended 3. Those that by true Repentance ingraft themselves into the Heart of God do instantly at breaking of the Body lay off all that is Earthy and comprehend the Mercy of the Father and love of Jesus Christ and enter into the Element before God where â—aradise shall flourish waiting without irksomness for the Restoration 4. But if Souls have beeâ— defiled with gross Sins and not rightly passed into earnest Regeneration yet do hang as by a thread of Faith and will not let go but when the Bridegroom calls answer I cannot trim my Lamp yet Theâ—e Souls may after a long time be ransom'd out of the Putrefaction by the Passion of Christ but the Glorification of such shall not be in Eternity like that of the true born Saints but Antichrist's juggling Masses for Money avail not for these 5. But the earnest strong Prayers of such as are entred into the New Birth especially of Parents Children Brethren Sisters or Kindred of the Blood who have one Tincture with him who have all one Tincture enter the Combat more freely than Strangers and help to wrestle off the Devils Chains especially before departing of the Soul from the Body 6. The true Door of the Entrance into Heaven and Hell The Soul departed from the Body need not go far for in the place where the four Elements break the Root standeth which is the Holy Element the Soul entreth through the Door in the Centre into the Kingdom of Joy and is in the Arms of Christ in Paradise So the Damned needs no flying far away it remaiâ—eth in that which was outermost without the four Elements in the Anguish of Darkness in the strong might of the grimness CHAP. XX. Of Adam's going out of Paradise also of the true Christian and Antichristian
doing what it would is not from its Wisdom but the Heavens Contra conjunctions 4. But if it be restrain'd from Sin that is not by the Aâ—tral Aspects but by the Regeneration whose strife cannot yet swallow up the earthy but the fire is sometimes blown up again 5. So great is our Misery Let none be secure for sometimes the whole Man running to Evil loseth the Pearl 6. The Soul is bound with two Chains the one is the root of its original Poison and Anger remediable only by him who is Love it self the other that of the Flesh and Blood and Region of the Stars therefore God assumed a Human Soul from ours and a new heavenly Body like to our glorious Body before the Fall and not only to cloath the Soul with it but really Unite it in the Essences and so became a Creature in all the three Principles And by separating the third passed thence by Death as a flower out of the Earth captivating Death by treading on the Head of it in the new Body 7. So by kindling the Love in the Soul captivateth the Devil in the Eternal Prison of Anger for in the Light is the Holy Trinity which the Devil neither can nor dare behold so saith Paul O Death where is thy Sting O Hell where is thy Victory 8. The causes why Christ must not only die but in so many sorts suffer are as follow Man's Fall made all the Essences of the first four Forms predominant so that had not the Eternal Word given it self into the Centre of the fifth Form opening another Centre of Love the Soul in this Body had been captive in an Eternal Prison 9. And when in Jesus Christ the fourth Form came to be broken all the Forms stirred and environ'd him and in him us with Death which made the bloody Sweat and the outward Man cry Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me 10. And as Adam by going out of the fifth Form viz. the Angelical into the fourth became the scorn of the Devils so the Pharisees who lived in the Spirit of this World must have their pleasure on Christ for a terrible Example That what we fill our Souls with becomes a substance in the figure and must come under the Judgment of God 11. And as Adam would in his Pride be like God and wear this Worlds Crown Christ must in this World be crown'd with Thorns as a false King of or in it 12. And as after Adam's entring into the Spirit of this World he had a Rib broken from his Side for a Wife so did Blood by scourging flow from Christ's Body and his blessed Side pierced and opened 13. And as Adam departed out of the Eternal Day into the Eternal Night so was Christ bound in the dark Night and carried before the angry Murtherers 14. And as Adam chang'd his Angelical for this gross Body so was Christ loaden with the heavy wooden Cross. 15. And as upon Adam's Disobedience the fierce wrathful Essences pierced him so must Christ be pierced in his Hands Feet by sharp Nails fixing him to his Cross. 16. And as when Adam's Soul entred the fourth Form the Cross-birth was stirred so hath the Man on his Brain the one half of the Cross and the Woman the other 17. And as Adam then hung between the Kingdom of Hell and this World so did Christ between the two Malefactors the one whereof was forgiven entring with Christ into Paradise 18. The great Secret The Love of God or the second Principle became Man taking the Human Soul which was out of the first viz. the Anger and Body out of the third viz. the Our-birth so there hung on the Cross all the three Principles then commending his Spirit to his Father he bowed the head and departed 19. His Father is all the Kingdom Power and Glory So the Love is his Heart and Light His Anger is his strength and darkness the Father took the Soul into the Trinity and in the Soul the loâ—t Paradise sprung up 20. And by the rising of another â—un in Death viz. in the Father's Anger the outward Sun which was generated out of the pure Element the Body of Christ loâ—t its Light 21. And at the Holy Lifes going into Death the Rocks rent And those who had put their trust in the Messiah as Patriarchs Prophets c. when Christ's Mortal had put on Immortality got their new Bodies out of Christ's Holy Body and Vertue 22. Of Christs rest in the Grave That the Soul of Christ leaving his Body in the Grave descended into Hell a great way off and there chaineâ— the Devils is nothing so For all the three Principles hung on the cross why not also reâ—â—ed in the Grave with the Body forty Hours for the Heavenly Body was not Dead but the Earthy only His Soul came with the Light into the Anger causing 〈…〉 radise to revive which made the Devils tremble and captivated them for the Light is their terror and shame 23. Of Christ's Resurrection There was no need of rolling away the Stone save to strengthen the weak Faith of his Disciples for he comprehended all things 24. He appeared a Creature in our Human Dimensions yet the fulness of the Deity was in him and his Body is the whole Princely Throne of the whole Principle without end or limit 25. As our inward Body is unlimited in the Resurrection in the Body of Christ yet visible and palpable in Heavenly Flesh and Blood and so can in the Heavenly Figure be great or little without hurt or want there being no need of compressing the Parts of that Body 26. Vain is the Contention about the Sacrament for Christ's Heavenly Flesh and Blood is really received by the Faithful and it is as great as Heaven 27. The Forty days before his Ascension of the Proba or Tryal was such a life as Adam should have liv'd having all the Principles except the four Elementary ones He shew'd himself without outward Glory did eat yet all Heavenly and Paradisical in the Mouth not into the Body and entred the Doors being shut 28. So should Adam have liv'd in and above the World above the Stars and Elements in Meekness and Divine Love without Death and Frailty 29. To this state we make some approaches when in Obedience to Christ's Laws we do Good for Evil and overcome the World by being Dead to it 30. Of Christ's Ascension Christ ascended in sight of many to shew he is our Brother Will you ask whither ascended he Into his Throne the right Hand of God that is where Love quencheth Anger and generateth Paradise in the whole Father 31. But the place of this World according to the Heavenly Principle is the Throne and Body of Christ also all the third Principle is his 32. And the Devil who dwelleth in the place of this World in the first Principle is our Christ's Captive for the Father is the band of Eternity but his Love
Essences in the Centre of the Eternal Band so in the new Birth may be seen the dark and holy Worlds as that whereout the new Man is Born Even as the Word in the Father and the Spirit which goeth forth from the power is the life of the Deity The Eternal Will is the Creator and the Father is the Being of the Will and the Essences caused by the Will There are two Wills causing two Principles in one Being but the first is not called God but Nature or Essence the second Will is the beginning and end making Nature or Essence manifest 2. The first Will being an Eternal desire to Generate the Word can be called only the desiring in the Will which with a strong eagerness contracteth narrowness to be the manifester of wideness which attraction is thicker than the Will and as its darkness and in the Egress of the desiring are the Essences viz. a sting of sensibility which the desiring cannot endure therefore rageth so much the more into such Enmity as is betwixt Heat and Cold and this Impetuosity causeth Mobility Terror and Anguish moving upwards where being restrained it stirs Circular whence come Multiplicity and tho' without feeling being meer Spirit and Forms of Nature yet so terribly raving that it buildeth and destroyeth as Life and Death and here is the Sulphur Mercury and Salt of high-knowing ancient Philosophers 3. Two Forms sharp cold and bitter stinging make the Wheel of the Essences which two are in terrible Anguishes without the other Forms generated out of them for the sharp sourness is like hard Stones and the sting of the attracting breaketh them which is rightly called Phur which would hold the Will in the Darkness which cannot be captivated being incomprehensible and is the flash of the sting And the bitter sting dissipateth the darkness of the Astringency as the flash ariseth from a stroke on a sharp Flint the bitter sting extreamly sharpeneth it self consuming the darkness even so the Fathers sharpness is a consuming Fire being the liberty which is free from Nature as much as the Mind is above the Sences and when the sourness hath captivated the liberty the fourth form is generated and the crack of the flash is the third Form making the sour Anguish or Brimstone Spirit For if the sourness sharpeneth extremely it is the proper limit of Eternal Death the Brimstone Spirit is the Soul of the four Forms having the Fire in it and would enkindle Nature and fly above it in a horrible power as may be considered in the Devils 4. Sul in Sulphur is the Soul in an Herb it is the Oyl not originating in the Centre as Phur doth but is generated after the flash even as all the four Forms in this third Principle are by the Suns vertue in a great degree moderated and made amiable in like manner doth the second Principle enlighten the Centre of the four Forms in the Holy Angels making them lovely and pleasant Mercurius comprizeth all the four Forms and Sal is the greatest in corporeal things The four Forms are the cause of all things making the Wheel of the Essences and every Essence which are themselves innumerable is again a Centre so that the power of God is unsearchable 5. The Fall of the Devils was their extinguishing in themselves the Light of the Heart of God wherefore they are shut up in the anxious four Forms Man fell from that Light also into that of this World Who if he enters not again into the Light of God when this Body breaketh he is in the first Birth of Life with the Devils yet both would climb up above Heaven but cannot feel or see that Principle like as we Men with our outward Eyes cannot see God who is always present nor the Angels who are very often with us except we put our earnest Will into God then we see and feel him with the Mind So also if we go with our Will inâ—o wickedness we receive the Hellish Principle and the Devil takes fast hold of our Heart Whereof the Soul is so sensible that often in desperation they destroy themselves by the Sword Ropes or Water 6. Tho' the Hellish Creatures have but four Forms manifest to them yet can they turn themselves into all Forms as infinitely as Mens thoughts except the holy Forms The Fire is their right Life and the sour Astringency of the darkness their right Food 7. The first Eternal Will is the Father and Eternally generateth the Word his Son who is the Heart of the first Will having in him the vertue and power of the first Will and a several Centre in it self The Father expresseth all things by the Son and whatever is expressed by the Spirit and Power of the Father in the word is in a Spiritual manner for what is formed out of the Eternal is Spirit and Eternal as Angels and Souls of Men are And tho' the four Forms keep their own Centre yet out of them cometh the Light and in the Light the Love which shineth in the darkness but the darkness comprehendeth it not The Father is in himself the light clear bright Eternity yet without a Name for if the Eternal Liberty did not generate there would be no Father but seeing he doth generate the Band of Nature he manifesteth himself therewith with his fiery sharpness an angry Zealous or Jealous God and Consuming Fire out of which presseth forth the Meekness as a sprout out of Death turning Enmity into Love CHAP. III. Is concerning the Sixth and Seventh Forms 1. THE generating of the Love is in the sixth Form viz. Mercury the sound Tone or Song as also the five Senses The Son of God is rightly the Flame of Love who created the Angelical World out of himself whence goeth out the Virgin of the Eternal Wisdom of God by which God created this World out of the first Principle and that which goeth forth with or out of the Love is the Holy Spirit of the Word this together is the Trinity in Unity But as in the wrath there is a striving contrary Will here is an Embracing 2. The sourness retaineth its strength in the sharpness of Love but it is very soft and the sixth Form makes Voices Tunes and Sounds so that the Essences hear one another and in the Assimilation taste one another in the breaking through of their Power feel one another in the desirous Love smell one another and in the Light see one another The six Forms are the six Seals of God what in the dark Centre is a poysonous Woe and Anguish is in this the exalted Joy and Triumph a satiating of the first Will which is call'd Father for the Son is the Word the Brightness the Power the Love the Life the Wonder of God he is the Essence which manifesteth every Essence Concerning the seventh Form of the Eternal Nature The revealed Gate of the Essence of all Essences 3. The time of this World from the beginning to the end
living Word attracted Maries Essences or Faculties into the Eternal Virginity and so in Nine Months there was a compleat Man in Soul Spirit and Flesh but the Virgin of Eternity never till then did put on Flesh except in Adam before the Fall but â—ow the Word united to the Soul is not though united one and the same with the Soul but the Soul being out of the Centre of Nature remained intirely the same Creature and the Word being out of the Majesty penetrated it like as a dark black piece of â—ron is flaming and shining by the Fire penetrating it but the Iron comprehendeth not but is comprehended by the Light of the Fire So the Deitâ— dwelleth in the Soul yet the Soul remaineth a Soul still but if the flaming Iron fall into Water it is soon as other Iron again as it was with Adam 10. Adam departed and Christ became Man to return us into the Angelical World wherein Man attains the Eternal incomprehensible Flesh of Eternal Substantiality which is hidden in the old earthy Flesh as Gold in the Stone This true most precious Stone of Philosophers tinctureth the old for this is as a Son yet a Thousand times greater than the Father this bright Crown of Pear s is most manifâ—st yet most secret who so finds it hath such Joy as no earthy Tongue or Pen can describe CHAP. VII The Hypocritical and real Christian the Gates of the Firmamental Heaven with Stars c. The Threefold Life of Man and right noble Spiritual Stone 1. MAN's greatest Concern is to seek that which is lost not hypocritically without our selves for all the hearing of Heaven and the new Birth Preached Singing Repetitions Reading all Books having the Bible without Book Talking and Despising the Simple requiring they be guided by Man's Art and Eloquence and resting there is a continuing of Men as in a dark Dungeon and no more than casting a Stone into Water which is taken out again as hard as before And Mens deepest Reason Opinions of the Pope Luther Calvin or Schwenkfield and all Contention Disputation and that accounted high University Study though the Soul fill it self therewith only leaves the Soul in doubt on the shaking Foundation of vain flattering Hopes if still there be an unholy unchang'd Heart 2. But simply with the Publican God be merciful unto me a sinner gather all thy captivating Sins and in great earnestness knock seek consult not thy Earthy Reason sensual Love and self Will and then that Soul entreth into the Temple of Christ instead of Disputing bring earnest Resignation let thy Contention be such only as was Jacob's Wrestling God's Invitation and inviolable Promises are the Ground of that Faith which makes Hell tremble produceth the new Birth giveth the noble Stone and then the little grain of Mustard-seed growing in the Storms of Reproach and Temptation becoming a Tree attaineth the Angelical Garland of Pearl for then may the Soul say Though this World hath my outward Body Captive yet I have the Regenerator in my Soul that will make me free which is as putting a Stone into Fire which makes an effectual change on 't though Water do not as is above mentioned 3. Saith any one seeing the Devil is gone into Enmity Why doth not God annihilate him A. That which is Eternal breaketh or dissolveth not like that which hath a Beginning but though the Devils were not in the Form of a Spirit from Eternity yet their Essences were from Eternity but the putting their Will into the stern Matrix of the Centre of Nature captivated them therein but in their Essences remain as a Looking-glass for Angels and Souls of Men. Say also any If the World be so dangerous for Man Why hath God set and continued him in it A. Should God reduce the third Principle into its Aether before effecting what wonders were foreseen in the Wisdom from Eternity it cannot be but also in time must the Forms of Nature be substantial 4. The Infinite God being Threefold in Persons willed to move himself according to the Property and Nature of each Person As 1. The Father's Property moved to create Angels c. to bear his Image and behold his glorious Power 2. The Son's Property moved once and never more in Eternity to become Man by whom the glorious Majesty of the Trinity is shewn unto Angels and Men in an express Character and living Image 3. The Holy Ghost's Nature will move it self at the Resurrection at returning this World into its Aether and will set the Wonders passed in time into Eternal substantiality He is the Joy and Mover of the Creatures and of Paradise through whom will be seen the Power and Vertue of every thing 5. This World with Stars and Elements shew the Eternal Centre and Being of all Forms whereon Adam who was the Image of the Trinity doated and was capâ—iv'd as Lucifer was by the fierce Matrix He was one not two the Light shone in him and he should have propagated an Angelical Kingdom was Lord over Fire Air Water and Earth could remove Mountains no Death was in him Paradisical Fruit grew for him he was a Virgin after the Form of Eternal Sophia he was pure and was to place his Will on himself for God was in him and he in God But seeing two Divine Forms in himself one Paradisical within himself the other without him he thought to Eat of both viz. the Paradisical and the mixed of Good and Evil till he sunk into a sleep which signifieth Death where the Spirit of this World formed him into such a Man as we now are and Eve into a Woman and when they had eaten the Spirit of this World captivated their Souls their Essences were Earthy their Flesh and Blood Bestial so that they begat Children in two Kingdoms viz. of Wrath and Love the first a Murtherer the second Holy for the word of Grace and Covenant had on their Fall set it self in the Light of their Life 6. This Word was and for ever is the only noble spiritual Philosopher's Stone Christ. This Stone was in all the Holy Men from Adam downward whereby they both were Good and did Good but the Men of lower outside Principles or Rationists have a counterfeit scholastick glistering pleasant Stone which they think is right and they hotly persecute the true precious Stone to advance their own which outside Stone of theirs is only a Stone of the great Building of this World for it initiateth Childhood in wantonness and bravery requiring Covetousness and crafty Guile to support it so they set the Paradisical Garland of Blossoming Youth on the Serpents Head learn to contemn them as simple who have the true Stone because they live as not of the World but Childlike and go through and out of the World weeping yet bearing precious seed 7. From v. 62. to the end is as it were a recital of the often treated of the Eternal Being compar'd to Fire and Light as Anger and Love
Strength and Meekness the Original Forms and Principle of Light to v. 73. The Stars are a Quintessence or fifth Essence distinct from the four Elements as the Fat in a Creature causeth the Fountain of Life to burn they are not only Fire and Water but have all the Properties of hard soft bitter sweet sour dark and whatever the Earth hath and every Star a several prevalent Property according as in the Eternal Centre of Nature they stood open when the Eternity mov'd it self in the Creation 8. The Air mixeth with all sorts of Forms therefore is unconstant sometimes awakening one Form in the Centre anon another The whole Deep is like the Mind of a Man which beholds some things cursorily some other fixedly bringing it to substance setting Hands and Feet to work as the Will hath conceived and framed it so this Spirit of the Deep though without Divine Understanding formeth by the vigor of the Constellations the Spirit of our Adamical Man also of all Beasts Fowls Herbs Plants Trees Metals Precious Stones Fishes c. and is the cause of Wisdom in Arts Polity Governments among fallen Mankind And this is called the third Principle or awakened Life of God not Eternal but that in which the great Wonders are made visible Substances whose Figures remain as a Picture for the Glory of God and Joy of the Angels and Men but their Essences shall be reduced into the Aether as it was before the Creation of the World yet shall all stand in the Eternal Nature with its colours and figures and there will be a springing blossoming and growing yet without feeling any fire or fierceness for the Essences will then be no more a Substance and therefore it affordeth no fire but the fire is an Eternal Darkness and gnawing call'd the Eternal Death CHAP. VIII How by the outward World is opened the Eternal World How a Man may seek and find himself Whence is his Beginning and what his End 1. AS the enlivening Spirit in the deep animates all Creatures as if they were one Body each according to their Kind so the Light of Eternity within this World incomprehensible to this Worlds Spirit having all the Properties also in it yet with no such inkindled Essences is the Life of the blessed Inhabitants thereof Their Fire though mighty is yet without Pain or Consumption burning in the soft delicate desire of dear Love and highest Joy this Fire maketh Majesty springeth and blossometh for ever in such Earth as is call'd Divine Substantiality or Holy Ternary stored with perfect Goodness exempt from all kind of Evil. 2. And as the whole third Principle of Astral and Elementary Bodies are as one Body so the Infinite Holy God Heaven Angels Men Paradise with all Divine Things and Properties are but one Body call'd God Majesty and Eternity wherein the Majesty is the Light the Holy Ghost the Air and Spirit Every Angel and Man is like the total God and the Holy Ghost proceeds forth in him also As in a flaming piece of Iron the Iron resembleth the Creature its flame of Light the Deity its Heat the Creatures Spirit the Air proceeding from it the Holy Ghost but now we live in Anguish Cares Labour Fear Trembling Affliction and cloathed with fallen Adam's Skin yet also in the Hope of Israel 3. And because the Soul stands between two Eternal Principles and the Body meerly in the Spirit of this Worlds Earthy state caring little for the Soul therefore must the Body be kept under its necessities only not its wanton desires answer'd The Soul also must watch and pray not please it self in its own ability but ever humble it self to the Divine Will and Mercy These things are irksom to the Body and cross to the Self will of the Soul but the view of Eternity must sway all for the Body is an unconstant Neighbour and Death a sudden Guest And as the danger so the power God hath graciously given the Soul is very great As it is written to them he gave power in Christ to be the Sons or Children of God 4. Man finds in himself more than is in the Beast for the Beast hath no higher Will than to fill and nourish it self and multiply according to the property of their Centre and every Life desireth the best that is in its Mother or Centre which shews what the best of the Centre or Mother whence they are is but Man sees into the property and vanity of every thing here and therefore a higher Life above the Elementary Transitory Food The Beast hath a Tincture else the Fire of their Life would devour them but their Fire and Tincture is but Elementary and Astral and consequently fragil but Man hath a desire after an Eternal Life and shews it by his desire to perpetuate his Memory here by his Off-spring or otherwise if he could For tho' he enter community with the Beasts in his third Principle yet he hath a Fire-life out of the Eternity wherein the Forms are in Anguish and that not being the right Life hath a Tincture of Divine substantiality of Meekness which is the Light which quencheth the wrath of his Fire-soul wherein is the Intellect satiating the Anguish which tincture Lucifer caused to disappear as a shadow shutting himself up in Death and Fierceness 5. Is it said why did God suffer Lucifer to fall A. He was a Prince and Throne Angel a Son of the first Creation or Morning and cause of the Out-birth in the third Principle therefore Christ called him the Prince of this World He had also a Free-will like us Men and we often do things contrary to God as making Forts Castles and sumptuous Houses for our state So Lucifer would be as a Creator which in it self was no more his Fall than Adam's imagining which caused the Tree of Temptation to grow which therefore was severely forbidden yet which of it self was not Adam's Fall but Lucifer's Fall was when he awakened the Matrix of the Fire over the Meekness of God that Fire became and now is his Hell which God captivated with Heaven or Water and moved himself to the Creation as the pleasant Sun shuts up the Astringent cold turning Ice into Water making Fish c. to live and grow And the cause of the Sea and unfathom'd deeps is that there the Fire was greatly enkindled as when Sodom c. were a Habitation of the Devil who would have dwelt there in his fiery fierceness God allay'd his stoutness bringing Water on that place 6. The Souls dissatisfaction here shews it in a captivity for its true Rest and Heaven was shut up in it having in Adam put its desire into the Principle of this World great is the perplexity that an Eternal Creature should be Immur'd and Married to another Principle have another Mother and Centre which as soon as it breaks as dissolve it doth leaves the Soul in indigence and darkness This pos'd the understanding non-plust the wisdom of all Creatures
Earthy way slept and God took the Rib and half cross in Adam and fram'd a Woman also gave the Woman a Branch out of Adam's Souls Spirit that she might not generate Devils So the Man hath the Fires Tincture and the Woman the Lights Tincture and seeing it could not be otherwise they propagate after the manner of all Beasts the Man soweth Soul the Woman Spirit So then the Soul cometh not into the Body from without but the three Principles are each its own Work-master The one striketh Fire making the Centre of Nature the second Tincture and Fire and the third the great Earthy Mystery All done in the Mixture of the Seed as a Twig or Branch out of a Tree Q. 9. In what manner the Soul uniteth it self with the Body A. It is above explained that all the three Principles are one in another The Soul hath its seat in the Blood of the Heart The outward Water and Blood naturally captivateth the inward but not the Light of the Majesty nor Lights Tincture Save only by the imagination therefore often is a Child more blessed than one that is old Though many are not Born Holy yea though from good Seed because often some potent wrathful Constellation insinuateth it self But God knoweth who are his Q. 10. Whether the Soul be ex traduce by production or every time new breathed in by God It is propagated as a sprout cometh of a Grain set with this difference that the three Principles wrestle which may have it which often introduceth a wonderful Turba while it is yet a Seed And where the Parents are both captivated by the Devil it is rare that of a black Raven should come a white one But the Child can if it convert enter into the Word of the Lord for God casteth away no Soul But O Parents procure good Souls for your Children For where the Parents have Christs Flesh in their Souls of the good Tree cometh good Fruit But the Turba can by their acting according to selfish Reason get entrance into such Children also Q. 11. How and in what place the Souls seat in Man is A. It dwelleth in the three Principles but the Heart is its original it is the inward Fire in the inward Blood and in the Tincture is the Spirit which like a Brimstone light moveth on the concavity of the Heart and distributeth it self into every Member and carrieth its dominion into the Head And if the Soul sink it self down into God the outward must suffer it self to be subdued The outward Death reacheth not the Soul one Principle it seizeth on but not on the substance of that neither no Fire or Sword can touch or kill the Soul but the Imagination that is its Poyson thence it proceeded therein it ever dwelleth Q. 12. How the Souls Enlightning is A. The Soul hath two Eyes with the right it looketh forward into the Eternal Liberty into Gods Light With the other backward into the desiring into the Looking glass and if not restrained imagineth into the glance of the Looking glass into Pride Covetousness and Self This Eye must by the right Eye be drawn backwards let the left Eye draw Wonders to it but not Matter Let it seek Earthy Food but not go into it For from this the right Eye must ever in this Life time account it self and be really dead and then the Soul layeth hold on liberty and becometh enlightened The noble Image which is subtiler and purer than any thing standeth in Heavenly Flesh and Blood in the Fire of the Majesty and in the Heart of that Image sitteth the Holy Spirit who teacheth that my self am Gods Servant my Children my Estate my Work are all his and when he calleth me into my Native Countrey may give my labour to whom he will this is a conversing with God in Love and Humility a going out from self into the Majesty Power and Clarity a giving up of darkness a receiving of Eternal Light and Triumph Q. 13. How the Souls feeding on the World of God is A. The Soul hath a Mouth as well as the Body and groweth by eating It is not only Gods Similitude but Child and when it entreth into the Majestick Light it continually longeth panteth and draweth into its desire the Virtue and Power of God which is his Body Christs Heavenly Flesh the Bread of God John 6. 27. Christs Testaments are nothing else we eat not Spirit without Body for the Soul is Spirit before hand it would have Body And this inward is substance consisting in its own Principle in Power is Magical not as a thought but Essential and Substantial Q. 14. Whether such new Soul be without Sin A. 1. So great was Adam's heavy Fall as let in the Spirit of this World the Turba and a monstrous Image making the Soul a vehement hunger That had not the word instantly set it self in the middle Man had remain'd Eternally broken off from God and if the Soul do not convert its right Eye into the word again and so acquire a new Body Born of God its precious Image must remain hidden and lost However it is half Earthy having the Turba in it How then can a clean Soul be generated It cannot 2. It is sinful in the Mothers Womb thence came Circumcision Yet if the Child die in the Mothers Womb if the Parents be vertuous and in God it is Baptized with the Father and Mothers Spirit the Holy Spirit dwelling in them But the Child of wicked Parents dying in the Womb falleth home to the Turba remaining as a Brimstone Flame or Ignis Fatuus in the Mystery between Heaven and Hell till the Judgment of God gather in its Harvest and give every thing it s own repository but in Eternity it reacheth not to God 3. Babel saith Jews Turks c. not having Baptism are rejected of God But blessedness lyeth not in the outward word only but in the Power and Virtue They may vehemently press into Gods Love by their Teaching Life and Death for God and Christ are every where Q. 15. How Sin cometh into the Soul seeing it is Gods Work and Creature A. Sin maketh not it self but the will maketh it and because Children even of good Parents come not pure and clean as the Soul is drawn of the Word of the Lord so is it mightily of the Turba especially in Youth when the Earthy Tree sâ—icketh full of green sprouting driving Essences and Poyson That which standeth in equal Ballance by putting more weight into one end sinketh down be it to good or evil Q. 16. How the Soul both in the Adamical as also in the new or regenerate Body is held in such Union together A. 1. There is no full Union betwixt the inward and outward for the Turba is in the very Seeds which tho' the Spirit doth subdue the deeds of the Body Yet the Turba so causeth it to imagine that the sincere Soul is ashamed and offended at it
till that be consumed and then their Power lyeth in Darkness waiting the last Judgment when the Holy shall be seen by the Wicked 5. If any conceit a place where they sit one among the other that is quite contrary to the Magia every one is where it will be and where ever it is it is in God or in Darkness but this Deep is our Aether and Kingdom 6. A Soul may if it desire it go into the upper Angelical World where God's Angels will lovingly entertain it and they have pure Works with them they also delight to be with us Q. 22. What every Soul departed doth whether it rejoyceth or no till the Day of the last Judgment A. 1. They all abound with great inward Joy and wait to put on their bright fair holy new Body out of the old their Joy and Hope is different as Labourers Expectations are who at the end of the Week receive every one according to their degrees of Labour and Diligence 2. Those who have put on Christ's Body here are as one who having overcome his Enemies in a Fight represents the Victory before his King who receives him with great Joy and Honour 3. The Expectation of the wicked Soul is as an imprison'd Malefactor still listening when any thing stirs and the Executioner comes all their passed wickednesses stand before them in such different Aggravations as they had here Q. 23. Whether the wicked Souls without difference in so long a time before the Day of Judgment find any Mitigation or Ease A. 1. The Souls of the wicked have no Mitigation their greatest Mitigation is the climbing up of their Minds to do still the wickednesses they did here and the terror of the last Judgment continually seizeth on them 2. In this Life the Soul is in the Angle of the Ballance and may go into Love or Anger but when the Ballance breaketh it is past recovery for who can break Eternity 3. But here God's Spirit in his Prophets teacheth the Cross and the Devil teacheth Pleasures take which you will and be taken in it Eternally the Cross leadeth to Love and Pleasure to the Anger Kingdom Q. 24. Whether mens Wishes profit them any thing or sensibly come where they are or no A. 1. The Prayers of the Righteous pierce into Heaven not into Hell out of Hell is no recalling Prayer for such returns to you again and continueth in its own Principle 2. But where such leave much falshood behind them for which torment is wished them that cometh where they are But let all beware they sow not into Hell that they reap it not 3. Some Souls hang as by a thread 'twixt Faith and Doubting where Fire and Light part whose weak Faith is detained by their Turba some a tedious time yet the Anger cannot devour their little Faith but they sink down at last through Anguish into the meek Kingdom 4. To such may come a total hearty zealous Prayer of a faithful Brother for the Prayer of such can open the Gates of the Deep a whole Principle and take hold of that which is capable of it For the weak Soul layeth hold on its loving Brother's Divine earnest Will and Might and sinks down out of Anguish through Death and attains God's Kingdom But cannot help it to Glorification for that shines out of the Souls own Substance 5. The Popish Juglings for Money by Masses is gross Deceit for the Prayer of the Covetous entreth only into his Chest. But Christ's Holy Congregation where all is done in true earnestness hath great Power Q. 25. What the Hand of God and Bosom of Abraham are A. It is the All-Substantial or All-Being every-where-presence of God in the Messiah Christ viz. in its own Principle as is sufficiently explained before Q. 26. Whether the Souls of the Deceased take Care about Men their Children Friends and Goods and know see like or dislike their Purposes and Undertakings A. There are three distinct sorts of Souls or in three several Conditions 1. Such as have not yet attained Heaven but have Humane Matters on them searching the cause of their detention and many of them appear in Human Form in the Starry spirit take care about Wills c. Sometimes their earthy Business sticks to them taking care of their Children and Friends but when the Starry-spirit is consumed they have no more feeling Knowledge only see it in the Magia for in care is the Turba which they are sunk through But a living Man hath Power to reach into Heaven as King Saul did to Samuel 2. Such as are sunk down farther but are yet in one place of the Principle with the other these meddle with no business wherein the Turba sticketh but rejoyce when living vertuous Souls send their Works to them and are so friendly as to appear to Men magically in their sleep instruct them in good and often reveal Arts which lye deep in the Abyss of the Soul For now the Soul is free and in the Arcanum of God Even so do the Damned Souls magically teach the wicked great Master-Pieces of Evil and Mischief This the Devil doth by Human Souls himself being too rough and terrifying the Magia 3. Such as are in Abraham's Bosom in Christ's heavenly substantiality those none can stir unless they will themselves nor do they but to serve God's Honour nor Pray they for us our Blessedness lyeth in our entring into God who will receive a converting Sinner they rejoyce that God's Kingdom is coming into us But Wonders have been wrought by the Livings Faiths laying hold of the Deceased Saints Faith Q. 27. Whether the Souls in Death know or understand this or that Art or Business in which they were Skilled when they were in the Body A. They know the deepest founded Arts but awaken them not because they are in the Turba But the highly enlighten'd Souls have Skill in heavenly Matters and all that lyeth in the Mystery especially those who have been conversant in the Mystery here and every one in those he hath most delighted here but all in an humble Paradisical simple Childrens life Q. 28. Whether they have any more Skill or Knowledge of Divine Angelical and Earthy things and also of Devillish things and can have more certain Experience of them than they had in the Body A. Of Divine and Angelical Skill they have much more but it is various for the Souls without a Body are under God's Altar till the last Judgment Day and for up no Wonders But the highly enlightened Souls that have God's Body have overflowing â—kill Yet take no care about devilish things it belongs to the Angels 〈…〉 Devil and defend Men. Q. 29. What the Soul 〈…〉 ing and Clarification are A. This is sufficiently Exâ—â—ain'd before Q. 30. What the difference of the Living and Dead resurrection of the Flesh and of the Soul is A. God shall move all the three Principles Fire Light and Looking-glass The Judge Christ shall sit upon the
far as they are holy and capable of it which their possessing the second Principle enables them to be 12. The third Principle hath its sprouting but it is in Warring the cold against the heat and every thing against its contrary The cold gives substance the heat Spirit the Light Meekness And then the Fire consumes all both Evil and Good 13. Seeing therefore Man hath the two inward Principles in strife let him beware which he makes Lord for that will be his Lord Eternally when Death hath broken the Ballance CHAP. III. The Second Point 1. IN the Light World which is Gods Kingdom is rightly known no more but one Principle into which the four Properties give up their Will being chang'd into a desire of Love in Meekness That which in the Light World is well doing triumphing Joy and Pleasant Songs is in the dark a stinging Enmity Horror and Trembling 2. Therefore is the anxious evil the Light worlds Original and all is Gods but the Light only call'd Gods Kingdom the other his fierce Wrath which Kingdom hath the Constellations of the greatest and most severe eager might 3. That which melodiously ringeth in the Light rumbleth and thumpeth in the dark The cause of the ringing in Metals is that in the moving of the Aâ—l subâ—â—antiaâ— God in the Creation the Metalline Tincture became shut up in the â—aâ—â—â—ess 4. In the dark World are many sorts of Spirits or Hellish Worms according to their Constelâ—ations and Properties without uâ—derstanding or woe for iâ— is their Life as in this are unreasonable and hurtful Beasts Toads Serpents c. for all Properties would be Creaturely 5. The Principles are not at strife but in a constant league But Death and Anguish is the cause of Fire and Fire is the cause of all Life To the Abyâ—s it gives sting and fierceness else there would be no Mobility To the Light-world Essence else there would be no production but an Eternal Arcanum To this World it gives Essence and springing so is it the cause of all things 6. The Anguish of the dark World caus'd by Fire panteth after the liberty and the liberty longeth after manifestation thus is the Harmony between the Principles but in the Essences is strife else all things would be nothing 7. God Created Creatures in each Principle therein should they continue but when they introduce into themselves another thaâ— makes he Enmity as did the Devil introduce Pride and the fierce Wrath of the first Principle And Man into this World where he hath necessity and strife to make him go out again which if he with Divine Might doth at any time the Spirit of this World will drive on the Children of this World to hate plague and kill them whereto the Devil helpeth to drive them from among his Slaves 8. Man therefore is highly concerned to know that being in this World as a Prisoner he should not enter into the Earthy Malady but constantly go hence into the Light-world But if he press not thereinto with earnestness he like an Ape only imitates or plays Jugling Tricks for which the Devil derides him for thereby he gives his Body to this World and his Soul to the dark Abyss 9. Thus is seen that the Creatures of each Principle desire not those of the other nor can they see each other there being a Gulph between them CHAP. IV. Of the Original of Contrariety in the springing of Life The Third Point 1. VVHere is one only will there is no strife but where many are is contrariety unless one rule over the rest there then doth multiplicity harmonize for the harsh Anguish and bitter Properties are at Civil Hostility and Fire is the Incendiary setting them all into great Anguish Exasperating the respective Enmities till Light be produced and crowned King There it ruleth lovingly and rewards them with Meekness which appeaseth and well-pleaseth them all Thus is multiplicity reduced to an united will called the mind which by Imagination can create evil and good 2. The Mind inkindling it self inkindleth the whole Body and Spirit be it in Wrath or Love As is the Matter such is the Flame be it Brimstone or sweet Oyl and such is the favour 3. In the Souls Fire stands the Light of Life and in the Light of Life the Noble Image When therefore the Souls Fire in the fierce quality introduceth Earthy Matter into it the Noble Image withdraws The consequence of our hard and heavy Fall bringing on us so great danger and misery 4. Therefore hath Christ taught us Patience Meekness and Love for we are captives in God's fierce Wrath between Anger and Love so that if the Will-Spirit before the dissolution of the Body hath attained God's Love as a sparkle somewhat may be done but not without such irksom tediousness to break the dark fierceness which would extinguish it and that is Purgatory and how great Enmity Terror and Anguish the Life is in before it can in the sparkle sink down into the Liberty of God he well findeth who so nakedly with as it were only a glimmering Twilight departeth this World 5. It is therefore of absolute necessity that we take the Cross by entring into Humility Patience and the Meek Life therewith to break the will of the Dark fierce Centre and this World's Voluptuousness nor by wrong to excite Rage in thy Brother for that hindereth the Kingdom of God but thy meek self denial will further it that by beholding that Spirit in thee thy Brother may be convinced and judge himself seeing thy valuing more God's Love than temporal goods knowing thy self to be only a stranger But if the Evil-doer will not convert his Evil in the Anger of God gnaweth him to cause him to return If yet he hardeneth himself in wickedness he becomes a total Evil Tree devouring his own abominations growing for his dark God Lucifer The above is the Contents of the latter part of the fourth Point but the first part of the fourth Point contains viz. CHAP. V. How the Holy Tree of Eternal Life sprouteth through All the three Principles yet not comprehended 1. THE Divine Power and Light dwelleth in it self every where in Nature yet not toucht by any thing that is not of its Property not comprehended but as the Sun shineth in all the Elements yet not laid hold on by any and what the Sun doth in the third Principle the Light of God doth in the Forms of the Eternal Nature attoneing the Schism and Enmity of them that Light shineth through the Darkness but not comprehended by it 2. The three Principles comprehend not one the other unless the Will by falling into Death give up its Essences into the Light 3. The Devil is the poorest of Creatures The Sun is not profitable to him he cannot stir a leaf nor pile of Grass unless the anger be in it his Will neither goeth no can go into the Lights Property He goeth not readily but hateth every thing that sprouteth in and
potent Joy 19. In Mars's Salt it makes Pangs and Stiches and Woe In Saturn's Salt Swellings Anguish and Death if not oppos'd by Jupiter and Venus for they two oppose and temper Mars and Mercury yet by Mars and Mercury is the Life in Jupiter Venus and Sol where would else be a stilness thus is the worst as profitable as the best 20. And when the Physician hath reconciled Mars and Mercury with Venus and Jupiter that they all obtain one will the Sun of Life will revive and correct the nauseat of the Disease into a pleasant Jupiter This is only applicable to the Vegetative or Sensitive Soul of the Elementary Body 21. The rational Soul hath its Diseases springing from care and distress till it lead to heaviness and Death cured by removing the causes of that care c. 22. So Sin hath poyson'd the Mental Soul by Inflaming his Eternal Mercury which with the sting of his Mars burns in the horrible impression of his Saturn his Venus is Imprison'd his Intellectual Jupiter Infatuated his Sun quenched his Moon dark 23. To Cure this he must with Venus the Love of God and Jupiter the Divine Understanding quench and appease the flaming Mercury and raging Mars So is the Soul Tinctured with Love his Sun then shineth and Jupiter rejoiceth for Divine Love begetteth a Divine Will so Tiâ—ctured as able to die to self-will which Death doth attain the nothing wherein is no Turba to touch or hurt the Soul who now doth neither see know nor live but according to the resignation 24. Here doth Christ break the Serpents Head and God become all in all 25. It is possible to live without sickness but very difficult to bring the inward into the outward as the Sun illustrateth Water because the opposite will hath introduced wrath in the outward Body it must die and putâ—ifie and enter again into the nothing into the beginning of the Creation out of which it departed wâ—th Adam CHAP. X. Of the Inward and Outward Cure of Man 1. TO Cure Man God brought not a strange thing into him nor did cast away the Humanity but with the like of that which was corrupted introduced a Divine Prâ—perty into him In Man was the expressed Word or Eternal Mercury inspoken which was the Soul with the Properties of all the three Worlds Fire Light and Love 2. Adam should have put his desire into the humble meek light and love but he made in himself the hunger after evil and good and so could not Tincture his Fire-world and outward World with Love 3. To restore Mans right Image God introduced the holy Mercury in the fiery Love-starne with such a desire of Divine Essentiality as makes Divine Corporality which reinkindled the Light of the Eternal Sun in the Humane Property so that the Humane Jupiter of Divine Understanding might again appear 4. So is the outward Cure done Mans Mercury was inkindled a Mercury must Cuâ—e it but that must first it self be inkindled in Venus and Jupiter which also gives it the Suns Property Not with dark cold Saturn unless first sweetly appeas'd with Venus and Jupiter so will the Sun shine in Saturn and Death be chang'd into Life 5. The Knowledge how God restores the Universal is learnt by study of the process of Christ from his first Incarnation to his Ascention The Essence of Venus shut up in Death must be Baptiz'd in the Water of the Eternal Essence By which the Imprison'd Incentive as Fire falling into Tinder gloweth Then must the outward Food be withdrawn and the hungry Desire be tempted whether it will go into God and be fed with Manna let the Essence of time by resignation be subject to that of Eternity and so possess the Elected Throne whence Lucifer fell or desire the Earthy Kingdom of Good and Evil for outward Dominion If its will remain in Gods Love-fire the Water is turn'd to Wine so is the outward Cure also done 6. But before the Universal Restoration be manifest all the seven Properties must be Chrystalized each Form by a peculiar process forsaking their will in the wrath and come into the Loves Property wherein is no Turba all which Christ did in the Humanity before the Body was glorified 7. When therefore the Frozen Mouth in Saturn of all the Properties is opened and that Food given to their hunger wherein is no Turba the flagrat of Joy in Love dismayeth the wrath and is as a Transmutation but not fixt the Angelical Properâ—ies appear in view 8. In Christs Temptation the speaking Mercury in the Light was given to the expressed Mercury of the Fires Property because Adam's Fires Property had quenched the Lights Property Christ was tempted to depart out of the Resignation into a desire of selfish Propriety of worldly Avarice and Dominion to the Knowledge and Kingdom of Good and Evil where pain and wrath is manifest but in the Resignation is sacred Love and no Breath of Anger as in the Light of the Fire is no pain of Fire manifest 9. The Mother and Womb of all Beings is Sulphur Mercury is her Life Mars her Sense Venus her Love Jupiter her Understanding Luna her Corporeal Essence Saturn her Husband 10. In the Philosophick work the Artist raiseth in the first Kingdom the dead Apostate Child shut up in Saturn opening by degrees Paradise again by Gods permission In the second Kingdom Luna Corporally feeds where the outward Mercury hath not laboured So Christ fed the 5000. 12. In the third Kingdom Jupiter Christ made Babes wise so the Artist seeth the new Life rise up the four Elements appear with all Colours 13. In the fourth Kingdom of the Mercurial Orb Christ restor'd the Deaf Dumb and Lepers so the Artist sees how Heaven severs it self from the Earth and again sinks into it Coloureth and purifieth the Matter appearing in Antimony 14. In the fifth Kingdom Christ ejected the Devils so the Artist will see how Jupiter in Mercury drives up a black twinkling fiery Vapour out of the Matter sticking like Soot a hunger of the Poyson in Mercury the Devils Property 15. In the sixth Kingdom Christ in Venus loved his and humbly washed his Disciples Feet gave himself up to be mock'd beaten and crucified so the Artist will see as soon as the material Devil the dark fiery steam is gone the Virgin very Glorious which the Artist will be apt to think is the Philosophick Child but in the tryal finds it to be a Woman not the Virgin with the Tincture of Fire and Light for now Saturn Mars and Mercury oppose but Jupiter and Luna hold with Venus but when the Power of wrath cometh Luna changeth her will viz. Colour and cryeth with the common people signified by her Crucifige CHAP. XI The Process of Christs Suffering Death and Resurrection Symbolized in the Philosophick Work THIS whole Chapter consisting of eighty verses being a profound pursuit especially of the sixth Kingdom and the Essence
bloody sweat his being contemned crowned with Thorns his mixt draught of Gall and Vinegar this made the Earth tremble 2. They dreaded now the Lord's voice for the Turba of the Dark World awakened its sad knell In the cool of the day that is when Adam's Eternal day in the Temperature was awakened into cold and heat 3. But in the Lord's voice was the holy Light world Christ the second Principle who in deepest Love espoused it self again to the disappeared heavenly Ens And the holy Word re-entring into the vital Light did reincorporate it self in the Woman's seed which in time did move its self in Mary's seed quickening the disappear'd heavenly Virginity by introducing the holy living Ens. 4. This ingrafted Word was inspoken into Eves Matrix as a limit of a certain Covenant which was all along propagated in Eves seed from Man to Man in the heavenly part as a glimmering incentive of the Divine holy Lights fire until the awakening of it in Mary where the Covenant was fulfilled by the most holy name Jesus signified by the holy Fire in the Jewish Sacrifices kept from prophane strange Fire 5. This bruised or brake the Serpents head that is did infuse inspire recal in-hest the right Virgin Purity with the precious holy name Jesus who introduced the living heavenly Ens into the disappeared captiv'd Ens and mortified the Serpents desire in flesh and blood 6. For the Child of the Man and Woman is a Bastard nor shall inherit but the chaâ—t Virgins Child born out of the death of the brutal and bestial Man and Woman with both Tinctures of peculiar Love He is the Heir who dieth not and at the Resurrection shall take on it the pure Limus of the Earth viz. the third Principle as a Garment CHAP. XXIV The Cause of the Curse and of the Body of Sickness 1. THE Curse was that the holy Element Tincture or Ens which had budded and bare fruit through the Earth holding captive the Property of the four Elements hid withdrew kept it self secret and became a mystery to Man in his awakened vanity who remained with a half Serpentine desire of Earthy hunger half dead between Time and Eternity chain'd till he should return to Earth wâ—ence he was as to one part extracted and be sown into the Earth but as a fixt Metal is not destroyed but the Artist brings thence excellent Gold so the fixt part of the Human Body waits only for the Divine Artist to raise it which because it must be tryed by Fire such as the Ens is such shall be the enkindled Fire 2. All wicked Serpentine works shall as Quick-silver evaporate But if Man's Human Soul hath impressed into the mortal part of the Limus of the Earth by Divine Desire and Faith a Divine Ens it lieth as precious Gold shut up in Lead or Dross as a glimmering â—incentive waiting till the great Artist release it to burn and shine 3. Our gracious God not only gave his holy living Word for cure of all whose minds casting away abominations immerse themselves thereinto but knowing Man would not stand caus'd all Medicinal Herbs for hunger and health to grow for him Thus Man hath his Cure the Devil hath not 4. God created Man naked what ever is in the World is his but it is common but the hunger for Propriety Power and Domination is of the Serpent 5. Therefore must we become as little Children and so rule over the besâ—ial Man So great is the Enmity God hath put between the two seeds in Man who now is according to the outward Man a Beast according to the inward an Angel or Devil CHAP. XXV How God drove Adam out of Paradise and laid the Cherub before the Garden v. 18. 1. LUcifer's Fall tainted the Limus of the Earth before it was brought into compaction Adam's outward Body was taken out of the Limus of the Earth Him God set to be Judge by his Word having the Judicial Sword against the Devil's enkindled wickedness v. 17. 2. Also God seeing Adam's first Body should fall to ruine brought him and Eve into Paradise that afterward they and their Children might by Regeneration re-enter thither in the Spirit of Christ through the Fire-Sword 3. When Man dieth if the Soul be captivated in God's Anger and be not a Virgin Child it cannot pass the Sword v. 5. 4. This Sword is also in Man the Virgin-bud forceth through in the anxiety of true Repentance Then riseth the Morning Star in the occluse or shut up Gate of the true Womans seed v. 13. 5. Yet at death if the Soul hath taken in much of the Serpents craft or lust it stands under God's Anger till the Consumption of the introduced vanity which to many is Purgatory enough 6. For the Fire-Soul must be as pure as the clear refined Gold to be the Husband of the Noble Virgin Sophia the Lights Tincture to speak which needs an Angels Tongue 7. Before the Foundation of the World God chose this Limus out of which he would make Man in Christ Jesus For the Ens thereof had somewhat of false lust by reason of the Devils introduced desire therefore a time of the Judgment of Severation was then founded and a new Limus out of the tainted one CHAP. XXVI Of the Propagation of Man in this World and of Cain the Murtherer of his Brother THIS Chapter treating copiously of Free Will and Predestination the Extract of it is forborn and it 's referr'd to the Extracts of the Book of Election CHAP. XXVII Of Abel's and Cain's Sacrifices 1. THE Souls Free-will originating from the Abyss is thin or subtile and must amass or conceive it self into something wherein to work As Gods Free-will conceived or massed it self with the inward Spiritual World and works through it and that Worlds Free-will amassed the outward World and works through it 2. And because that which the Soul had amassed was distempered with Sin â—acrificing came In the inkindling whereof by Magical and Love-fire not ordinary Fire the Free-will of the Soul and of the Heavenly part of the Body did immass into a substance As a Figure of the New-birth in Christ and by consuming the Bestial Man did press in before the Holiness of God For here the Lubet of God did meet the Inspired Free-will of the Heavenly Humanity Here is the sinful Man consumed by Gods Anger-fire and cut off by the flaming Fire-Sword of the Cherub and the Serpents Head bruised 3. The Souls Free-will which was Inspired wholly pure into Man is in the Covenant in Jesus attoned and again Tinctured by Gods Love-fire as Brass or Iron is tinged and changed to Gold For the Earthy part wherein lay the Curse being consumed the Essence became Spiritual Even so the Soul by Sorrow and Repentance introduceth it self into a Divine desire which is called Faith 4. Also the words of the Prayer of Abel and Israel became amassed into an Incorruptible Essence And this desire of Faith or Essence
Faith and Opinions about Religion being really dumb Idols 4. Therefore as it was necessary that the Natural Magick should be discontinued where the Faith of Christ was manifest so is it now more necessary that the Natural Magick were again restored that Titular Christendoms Idols might through the formed Word in Nature also by new Regeneration be suppressed not to take up Heathen Idols again but to shew by the formed Word in Love and Anger with its re-expression the Essence of all Essences 5. The seven Fat Kine and good Ears of Corn denote the seven Properties of the Eternal Nature in the good and holy Ground the Lean Kine and Blasted Ears the seven Properties in the Wrath. The seven Fat and Well-favoured Kine and full Ears Figure what God made Man at first and the seven Lean and Blasted shew what Man made himself to be And Joseph Figureth Mans Restoration by his Deliverance and Advancement CHAP. LXIX How the Famine driveth Joseph's Brethren to him and how he shew'd himself to them 1. THE 42 of Gen. Figureth excellently the real Christian who by Persecution is in Christs process And how he not only forgiveth but is graciously bountiful to his Persecutors Also how Sin brings Anxiety on them And Gods severity against Sin that the Sinner may dread it and leave it 2. By Benjamin the youngest Brother is signified the Adamical Humanity viz. that Image of the Heavenly Worlds substance which faded in Adam 3. The particular parts of this 42. Chap are so manifest that the inlightened Soul tho' it runs may read its Tendency Figure or Language CHAP. LXX Jacob's Sons went into Egypt the second time and did eat at Joseph's Table yet knew him not 1. THIS 43. Chap. sheweth how the outward Nature bringeth all its Lifes Essences very timorously into Christs Death yet in the end is made willing to enter into the dying of self As Jacob having lost Joseph and Simeon is content to give up Benjamin also and this â—eath it willingly tasts on Divine confidence that it bringeth the will of God with it 2 This Chapter shews how the Forms of Life by reason of an evil Conscience tremble before God as Jacob's Sons before Joseph 3. It shews how God entertains the Soul by feeding him at his Table tho' in a strange Form then lets him go in Peace yet afterwards comes with a terrible Tryal as Joseph did them with his Cup in Benjamin's Sack which Cup signifieth the Lords Testament I reâ—train my Extracts to this brevity because the total of the Excellent Discourse oâ— this Chapter is so evident an Exposition as if written by the Sun-Beams CHAP. LXXI Of Joseph's Cup being put into Benjamin's Sack 1. JOseph's Brethren stand here in the Figure of the truly converted Christian. Joseph of the Wrath of God in Nature The Cup in that of Christ's Sufferings Thus Joseph's Brethren viz. The Christian is by the Wrath of God in the fleshly Evil Nature the Evil World and the Devil accused to have stoln the Silver Cup of Christ's Sufferings who though Innocent do give themselves up to suffer Bonds Servitude Shame and Death Christ saith He came not to send Peace on Earth but Strife c. 2. Those of our own Family in Flesh and Blood must be Enemies as a Tree groweth in heat and Cold and Storms so in Strife groweth the Tree of Pearl 3. The Cup 's being uppermost in the Sack denotes Gods Peoples Sufferings to be uppermost viz. on all viz. continually From the 10th Verse to the 37th is a most profound convincing Discourse of the use of Strife 4. Joseph's Brethren answered the Steward him with whom the Cup is found let him be put to Death and we will be my Lords Servants Shewing 1. How ready the Man who received some Grace is to justifie himself They would not be thought Thieves though they had stoln even Joseph himself 2. How confident they are in their justification He that did it should die and they all would be his Servants 5. The Christian presently thinks he should be exempt from Sufferings and all wrong him But his guilt standeth open before God's Righteousness who requireth Man to be in the imitation and process of Christ in his Sufferings and Death Therefore hath the Christian no Excuse when God causeth him to be laid hold on in Anger by his Steward the Children of this World as a Thief Novellist Enthusiast Heretick which though imputed to them wrongfully from the World yet is he guilty of all Adamical Sins and suffereth in Christ's Process justly what Christ suffered innocently 6. And they hasted and searched every Mans Sack beginning at the Eldest and the Cup was found in Benjamin's Sack and they rent their Cloaths and returned When Adam sinned the Law fetched him back into the City viz. The Earth out of which the Body proceeded there did Righteousness search all the Natural Properties beginning at the first Form of Nature but the Cup of Joseph viz. of Christ was found only in Benjamin's viz. in the youngest Brother's Sack viz. the Youngest the Word of the inspoken or inspired Grace 7. And Judah went with his Brethren and they fell down before Joseph c. The Law having brought Man back cannot answer but yields But God would not have future Israel to be his Servant the first Forms viz. in outward Worship only but Benjamin the inward heavenly Worlds Substance 8. Judah who was Surety for Benjamin his Pleading so hard that he durst not go home without him lest he bring his Fathers grey hairs c. Shews That if the Adamical Man should go into Paradice without Christ's Life and Substance the Life's Nature would not be manifest viz. would not live in the Kingdom of Heaven CHAP. LXXII How Joseph manifested himself before his Brethren 1. BEcause the Law could not bring Man back into Paradise the great Joseph of meer Compassion seeing Mans Misery could no longer withhold but cried Let every one go forth viz. When Jesus would manifest his highest Mercy the Law Ceremonies and Mans Ability and will must depart 2. Then Joseph wept aloud so that the Egyptians Pharaoh's People heard him viz. the Weeping and Compassion of Jesus sounded to the Heathen and Nations and he said I am Joseph your Brother Doth my Father yet live viz. I am Jesus in thee is the Father's Nature viz. a Breath of the Divine Life yet in the Soul And they could not answer him nor can the Soul for the Soul 's own will is terrified to Death there is a gnawing guilt making him Dumb. 3. Then saith Joseph Come near be not careful nor think that I am angry that you sold me for God sent me to preserve you alive viz. I am no more angry that I have been sold into thy Death for it was that I might nourish thee 4. There will yet be five years of Famine viz. the Divine hunger will yet remain in thy five Senses 5. Make
tâ—e Humane Soul as it was deriv'd from Mary was finite yet as he was conceived by the seminal substance of the Holy Ghost it was Infinite being wholly so united to the Infinity 7. Behold and sink down and drown thy self Oh my Soul in the sweet Ocean of this free Master piece of Matchless love see the heighth depth length and breadth Know what passeth knowledge Conception Comprehension Make thy Heart the Footstool of it thy Soul a Sacrifice to it thy Spirit the amazed Witness of it thy Mind and Thoughts the Waiters on it thy Tongue and Pen the Trumpet of it Let Heaven and Earth adore it let Time and Eternity record it let Hell and the Children of Pride tremble at it but let the humble Man and broken Bones Inherit Inhabit and Rejoice in it for ever Q. 128. Why did some convert and turn again when they saw what was done at the dying of Christ And the High-Priests not Why must they be blind and hardened as to this Work A. 1. By the High-Priests are meant him that was such and those Rulers of most Eminence assisting and concurring with him This Question is double viz. Why some did convert And why such as the High Priests c. did not That some did as the Centurion c. Matth. 27. â—4 seeing that which was done feared greatly saying Truely this was the Son of God Luke 2â— 47. 4â— And Luke records That the Centurion and all the people seeing c. Glorified God and all the people smote their Breasts and departed 2. For their dark Centre was terrified the stirred by remorse and compassion with and unto so patient and innocent a Lamb and that stirring moving on by conviction to great grief sorrow and mourning begat love and the love enkindled the holy Light of the second Divine principle of which number it 's said Longinus was who with his Spear pierced the Lords blessed side 3. But in the High-Priests c. The dark Zeal had like Fire drunk up the meek Water of Tenderness and Compassion so that the Light could not enkindle but they remain'd a dark Fire For it is manifest they by their impetuous Lusting proud grasping for Grandeur and Rule and their griping after heaping up abundance of the outward principle had by Covetousness like greedy Dogs or Swine formed their very Souls according to the four Auguishes of the first dark Hellish Impression 4. As Antichrist also whose Forerunners and Antitype these were hath done and still doth Therefore to distinguish a resolv'd hardened Persecutor from the Creaturely Devils is thus to be done that the persecuting Man hath on him the Bestial part of the Out-birth for mitigation which is a Door through which it is possible Grace may enter unless the impardonable sin hath judicially wholly shut him up 5. But the mitigating third principle excepted viz. the worst part of it the Antichristian Spirited-Man having shut out the second principle the Evil Angels and he are in one and the self-same principle 6. It is also certain that the Antichrist sometimes call'd the Whore sometimes Babylon sometimes the Mystery of Iniquity and Man of Sin is as such incureable and irrecoverable for it is an Enmity against Love and Meekness The Art of Physick gives that Disease for Incureable which is grounded on the Constitution the Disease of Antichrist is such and therefore Incureable for he is compos'd of the Enmity of the four forms of the first principle and is Enmity in the Abstract against the Divine Kingdom of Humility Meekness Love Peace and Divine Light and Joy Q. 129. What was Christs going to Hell where he overcame Death and the Devil A. 1. Great is Mans Misery on Earth by reason of wilful blindness When we hear of Christs going to Hell or overcoming Death and the Devil there we blindly grope with our Conceits imagining in our Reason a local motion to a place far off But that it may be plainly told what Christs going to Hell was it must first be orderly said 1. What Hell is and where Which is referr'd to the 17th Answer the 19 20 21 22 23 verses 2. What the Conquering Captain Christ is that Vanquished all the Devils every where It is answered It was Christ as he had made himself a Creature for his Body as a Creature is the whole holy pure Element which comprizeth this whole World The holy Body hath Heavenly Flesh and Blood and Water of Eternal Life which feedeth the Faithful Soul at the Lords Table 2. Anâ— tho' it comprizeth this World Heaven Paradise and the Angelical World yet is a Creature but such a Creature as can be every where in the Deity for unto this Creature of Heavenly substantiality hath the Almighty Son of God espoused himself as a Body to remain in Eternity as in the time the Sun doth unto the Moon as in his own Body In every part of which Body the Trinity is always manifest Objection 3. But this crosseth the received Divinity which assigns ubiquity to be the peculiar distinction of the Creator from the Creature Also an imposing upon the Senses that one Creature is at London and at Quinsay at the same moment of time a thing denied to be in the Sphere of an Angel whose Wings are only illustrations of his almost instantaneous local motion implying he cannot be in two places at once Answer 4. The least divisible Body requires place and space and magnitude is the uniting of two or more divisibles 1. My Foot is not where my Head is but I am where either of them is 2. If my Head only is in the Air my Body only in the Water my Feet only in the Earth under Water yet I am in every of these at once 3. My Hand is at the Heâ—m my Eye on the Star my Heart with my God then am I at once in two Worlds 4. Again my Elementary and Sensual Man is in pain my Siderial Man in care the unmortified properties of my Eternal first Principle or old Man or Root of the Soul in much stubbornness anxiety and frowardness my regenerate new Man or humble meekened Spirit is rejoicing under the Cross in hope of Eternal Blessedness Yet am I but one little poor Creature tho' I am at once in one Visible and three Invisible Worlds 5. Now tho' what the new Man sees or feels hath or hopes for meets with resistance in the unmortified part of the first principle or earthy Vessel yet is it not so in Divine Bodies of Angels or perfected Spirits Who all by prevalence of their consonance and uninterrupted holy will have their Heterogeneous parts swallow'd up by their lustrous Harmony 6. All these things penetrated and pondered shall our straitned Souls confine the Immense Heavenly Humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ For his becoming Man or Incarnation wherein he assumed our darkened Souls uniting them with the Divine Virgin of Wisdom as one Creature in himself did not straâ—ten lessen
wide open So that in the resignation it lives one Life with Christ in God and hath its passage through one Death with Christ to God and is in the Resurrection thus begun in one Spirit by the Eternal Spirit the heavenly Flesh and Blood or Humanity of Christ is its Food it is God's Body or Christ's Body the pure Element and Virgin of Wisdom and Modesty is his Companion 5. For thus his violent griping Astringency is sated by the Lord 's infinite giving yielding Power and Vertue this causeth him instead of violent Attraction to be like a water'd Garden breathing out his sweet Odours His Anger and Rage is foil'd and kill'd by calm serene Meekness Humility Patience and Sweetness His Envy by Love which grows to a kind of Emulation to give if it were possible more than any Saint or Angel yea as much if he could to God and for God as he receives from him 6. This Soul loseth himself for he is not his own but in an excellent sence is besides himself as the Brethren of the dear Jesus said of him and would have laid hands on him This Door thus opened gives such access that the Soul once and ever and once for all gives all without the least reserve and so hath nothing and yet then and for ever receives all and hath all for losing his own poor narrow miserable beggerly all he finds himself rich with Eternal fulness which still he surrenders with deepest Humility 7. But how can words export what the Soul cannot contain or broken Letters express what a broken Heart breaketh and melteth in the Contemplation of How can the shallow brutish outward Man fathom what the New and Spiritual Man is swallowed up with These things are the matter at the time of Sacrifice but what it is always the Hour of Prayer it is always the time of Sacrifice in this Temple Amen Q. 136. What doth the Pilgrimage or Journey of the two Disciples from Jerusalem to Emaus signifie where they complained in Anxiety for their Master and yet Christ walked among them and enquired of them and taught them and yet they knew him not A. 1. This Journey is fitly compared to that of Hagar who by leaving her Mistriss Sarah was in great Anxiety and then comforted and instructed by the Angel and shew'd the Well Lahairoy and that both with respect to Hagar whose hope concerning her only Son was like to the over-whelming sorrow of these two Disciples their only hope being on the Lord's restoring the Kingdom was reduced to a great degree of despair distrust and offence at their fail'd hopes Also with respect to the Angel appearing to Hagar at the needful time of her despair and which is the first recorded to have appeared So is this at as needful a time and on a most important Exigent of Despair and the first day of the Lord's Resurrection 2. And now founding the Discourse by alluding to this Parallel it will be obvious what signification this Historical Occurrence hath viz. That as Hagar figured the state of Bondage as did Mount Sinai which our Apostle teacheth us were an Alâ—egory Only by the way it may be noted had not so good Authority explain'd it thus but that the self same Exposition had been made of it by â— Modern Pen though guided in some measure by the same Spirit our letter Wise men would probably have call'd it Enthusiaâ—m So doth this Journey of the two Disciples from Jerusalem to Emaus sigâ—â—fie the 〈◊〉 of a 〈◊〉 quitting Divine faithful waiting on God in any obscure Dispensation when the Providences are too deep and high for their faint feeble dull disquisition and reach then they depart from Abraham's abounding stedfastness of precious Faith to Hagar's dry Bottle of Reason but like Cleopas in Anguish say we trusted this Man should have redeemed Israel viz. this or that should or should not have been c. implâ—ing their trust is expiring 3. The Bridegroom was taken from them now was the day of fasting and heaviness the Shepherd was smitten now were they scattered This was the hour of the power of Darkness such as God's Children usually meet with esâ—ecially the beginners who having tasted a time of love think presently to have all they hope for Dreaming of the Journeys end at first setting out when conâ—rariwise their Mr. is taken from their head inward or outward Temptations perhaps both like a Torrent sweep them downward 4. Then are they apt and usually do let go the exercise of the Divine Magia where Faith and Love support each other and betake them to the Astraâ— Magia their own Reason where in disconsolate anxiety they shew their Hope is giving up the Ghost 5. The Lord 's joyning himself unto them signifies such a time of recollection as is a day neither dark nor light they are seen and that in mercy but their infidelity with-holds them from seeing It is neither Day nor Night their Understanding outruns their Eyes their Hearts burn but till farther discovery their fire gives little light but in the Evening it shall be light it was so with them viz. when our Reason the Issue and Child of the third Principle doth set as when their Evening was come then the true Eternal Light in Jesus discovers it self breaking the heavenly Bread and the same hour they return to Jerusalem 6. But let all such offended poor Disciples know the Lord may be with them while they are surrounded with Laments let them stay for he will not tarry long but if they wholly depart they may lye down sadly 60 Furlongs from Jerusalem as is too grievously to be seen in the Potent Eastern Nations who are lain down under the Doctrine of Siderial Reason their Regulation of the third Principle As far also as the Western World is with-held by Antichristian Maxims they feed upon Ashes the â—rash and fictitious Formula's of the same third Principle joyn'd with the cruel Properties of the first 7. And lastly It must be noted that by the Lord 's appearing to them in their anxious state is sigâ—ified the natural Production of Divine Power and Glory out of the anxious wheel the struggling of the four mighty Forms of the first Principle as out of its natural Root or Centre More might be said but none will deny that which is said to be according to the Analogy of Faith Q. 137. Why did Christ after his Resurrection first appear to a Woman and not to his Disciples A. 1. More generally 1. To shew his Prime and Particular regard to a Soul excelling in Love to God did he first shew himself to Mary Magdalen to whom much had been forgiven therefore she loved much And 2. it was to proceeâ— in God's usual Method who standeth not in need of the Wisdom Ability and Excellency of Men to work his Designs but doth it for and in Babes and by them to and for others 3. Again to give preference to the Holy Zeal and Fervour which