that in Christ returneth againe to the Father 15. The last Supper of Christ with his Disciples is just such another Covenant as the Paedobaptisme or Baptisme of Infants That which is done to the Infant in Baptisme that is done also to the poore finner which awakeneth from the sleepe of Antichrist and cometh to the Father in and through Christ as shall be handled in its place 16. I have therefore been desirous to warne you and tell you beforehand that you must not looke upon flesh and bloud in these high things nor upon the worldly wisdome of the Universities or high Schooles but that you should consider that this wisdome is planted and sown by God himselfe in the first and last and in all Men and you need onely to returne with the Prodigall lost Sonne to the Father and then he will cloath you with a new Garment and put a seale-ring upon the hand of your minde and in this Garment onely you have power to speak of the Birth of God 17. But if you have not gotten this Garment on and will prattle and talke much of God then you are a thiefe and a murderer and you enter not into the Sheepfold of Christ by the Doore but you climbe over into the Sheepfold with Antichrist and the Robbers and you will doe nothing but murder and steale seeke your owne reputation esteeme and pleasure and are farre from the kingdome of God your Universitie Learning and Arts will availe you nothing it is your poyson that you are promoted by the favour of Man to fit in great Authority and Place for you fit upon the stoole of Pestilence you are but a meere servant or minister of the Antichrist but if you be new borne and taught by the Holy Ghost then your place or office is very pleasing and acceptable to God and your sheep will heare your voyce and you shall feed them and bring them to the chiefe Shepherd God will require this at your hands therefore take heed what you teach and speak of God without the knowledge of his Spirit that you be not found to be a lyar Now here followeth the Chapter 18. The Eternall Generating is a not-beginning Birth and it hath neither number nor end and its depth is bottomlesse and the band of life uncorruptible The Sydereall and Elementary Spirit cannot discerne it much lesse comprehend it it onely feeleth it and seeth a glimpse of it in the minde which minde is the chariot of the soule upon which it rideth in the first Principle in its own seate in the Fathers Eternall Generating or Begetting for its own substance is altogether crude without a body and yet it hath the forme of the body in its own spirituall forme understand according to the Image which soule if it be regenerated in the light of God it seeth in the light of God the Father which light is his Glance Lustre or Sonne in the Eternall Birth wherein it liveth and remaineth eternally 19. Understand and consider it aright O Man God the Father made Man the beginning of whose body is out of the one Element or Roote of the foure Elements from whence they proceed which one Element is the fift Essence or Quintessence hidden under the foure Elements from whence the dark Chaos mist cloud or dust had its beeing before the times of the Earth whose originall is the spring of Water and out of which this world with the Starles and Elements as also the Heaven of the third Principle was created 20. But the soule was breathed into man meerely out of the originall Birth of the Father by the moving Spirit understand the Holy Ghost which goeth forth from the Father out of the light of the Father Which originall Birth is before the Light of Life which is in the foure Anguishes out of which the light of God is kindled wherein is the originall of the Name of God and therefore the soule is Gods own Essence or substance 21. And if it elevate it selfe back into the Anguish of the foure formes of the Originall and will horribly breath forth out of pride in the Originall of the Fire knowing it selfe shall so become powerfull it so becometh a Devill For the Devils also with their Legions had this Originall and they out of pride would live in the fierce wrath of the fire and so they perished and remained Devils 22. Yet if the soule elevate its Imagination forward into the light in meeknesse and comelinesse or humility and doth not as Lucifer did use the strong power of its fire in its qualification or breathing then it will be fed by the Word of the Lord and getteth vertue power life and strength in the Word of the Lord which is the heart of God and it s owne Originall strong fierce wrathfull source of the Birth of the Eternall life becometh Paradisicall exceeding pleasant friendly humble and sweet wherein the rejoycing and the fountaine of the Eternall Songs of Praise springeth up and in this Imagination it is an Angel and a childe of God and it beholdeth the Eternall Generating of the indissoluble Band and thereof it hath abilitie to speak for it is its own Essence or substance but it is not able to speak of the infinite generating for that hath neither beginning nor end 23. But if it undertaketh to speak of the unmeasurable space or infinite Geniture then it becometh full of lyes and is troubled and confounded for it belyeth the unmeasurable Deity as Antichrist doth which will have the Deity to be onely above the starry Heaven that thereby himselfe may remaine to be God upon Earth riding upon the great Beast which yet must shortly goe into the originall lake of Brimstone into the Kingdome of King Lucifer for the time is come that the Beast shall be revealed and spewed out concerning which wee may be well enough understood here by the Children of Hope but there is a wall and seale before the servants or ministers of Antichrist till the wrath be executed upon her whoredome and that shee have received her full wages and that the Crowne of their Dominion which they have worne be their shame and till the eyes of the blinde be opened and then shee will sit as a scorned whore which every one will adjudge to Damnation The very sublime Gate of the Holy Trinity for the Children of God 24. If you lift up your thoughts and minds and ride upon the Chariot of the soule as is before mentioned and looke upon your selfe and all creatures and consider how the Birth of life in you taketh its Originall and the light of your life whereby you can behold the shining of the Sunne and also looke with your Imagination without the light of the Sunne into a huge vast space to which the eyes of your body cannot reach and then consider what the cause might be that you are more Rationall than
birth of the second Principle of the heart of God and the confirmation of the Holy Ghost his food should have been of the Word of the Lord and therein he should have continued an Angel 68. But he saw that he was a Prince standing in the first Principle and so despised the birth of the heart of God and the soft and very lovely qualification thereof and meant to be a very potent and terrible Lord in the first Principle and would qualifie or work in the strength of the Fire he despised the meeknesse of the heart of God he would not set his imagination therein or his thoughts upon it and therefore he could not be fed from the Word of the Lord and so his light went out whereupon presently he became a loathsomenesse in Paradise and was spewed out of his princely Throne with all his Legions that stuck to him or depended on him 69. And now when the heart of God departed from him the second Principle was shut up to him and so he lost God the kingdome of heaven and all Paradisicall knowledge pleasure and joy he also presently lost the Image of God and the confirmation of the holy Ghost because he despised the second Principle wherein he was an Angel and Image of God thus all things departed from him and he remained in the dark valley and could no more raise his imagination up into God but he continued in the foure Anguishes of the Originalnesse 70. And when he raised up his Imagination then he kindled to himselfe the source or roote of the fire and then when the roote of the fire did seeke for the water viz. the true Mother of the eternall Nature it found the sterne or tart astringent harshnesse and the mother in the aking death and the bitter sting or prickle formed the birth to be a fierce raging Serpent very terrible in it selfe rising up in the indissoluble Band an eternall Eternity a will striving against it selfe an eternall despaine of all good the bitter sting also formed the minde to be as a breaking striking wheele having its will continually aspiring to the strength of the fire and to destroy the heart of God and yet could never at all be able to reach it 71. For he is alwayes shut up in the first Principle as in the eternall Death and yet he raiseth himselfe up continually thinking to reach the heart of God and to domineere over it for his bitter sting in the birth climeth up thus eternally in the source of the fire and affordeth him a proud will to have all at his pleasure but he attaineth nothing his food is the fource of water viz. the Brimstone-spirit which is the most aking mother from which the indissoluble band is fed and nourished his refreshing is the eternall fire an eternall freesing in the harsh mother an eternall hunger in the bitternesse an eternall thirst in the source of the fire his climeing up is his fall the more he climeth up in his will the greater is his fall like one that standing upon a high clift would cast himselfe downe into a bottomlesse pit he looketh still further and he falleth in further and further and yet can finde no ground 72. Thus he is an eternall enemy to the heart of God and all the holy Angels and he cannot frame any other will in himselfe His Angels and Devils are of very many severall sorts all according to the Eternall Firth For at the time of his Creation he stood in the kingdome of Heaven in the point Locus or place where the holy Ghost in the birth of the heart of God in Paradise did open infinite and innumerable Centres in the eternall Birth in this seate or place he was bodified and hath his beginning in the opening of the Centres in the Eternall Nature 73. Therefore as is mentioned before in the third Chapter when the Birth of life sprung up every Essence had againe a Centre in it selfe according to its owne property or quality and figureth a life according to its Essence viz. Harshnesse bitternesse fire and sound and all further according to the ability of the eternall birth which is confirmed in the kingdome of Heaven 74. Seeing then that they stood in Heaven in the time of their Creation therefore their quality was also manifold and all should have been and continued Angels if the great fountaine Lucifer from whence they proceeded had nor destroyed them and so now also every one in his fall continueth in his own Essences onely the second Principle is extinguished in them and so it is also with the soule of man when the light of God goeth out in it but so long as that shineth therein it is in Paradise and eateth of the word of the Lord whereof shall be clearly spoken in its due place CHAP. V. Of the third Principle or creation of the materiall world with the Starres and Elements wherein the first and second Principle is more clearly understood 1. BEcause I may happen not to be understood clearly enough by the desirous Reader and shall be as one that is altogether dumb to the unenlightned for the eternall and indissoluble band wherein the Essence of all Essences standeth is not easily nor in haste to be understood therefore it is necessary that the desirous Reader do the more earnestly consider himself what he is and from whence his Reason and Senses do proceed wherein he findeth the similitude of God especially if he consider and meditate what his Soul is which is an eternall uncorruptible Spirit 2. But if the Reader be born of God there is no neerer way for him to come to the knowledge of the third Principle then by considering the new Birth how the soul is new born by the love of God in the light and how it is translated out of the prison or dungeon of darknesse into the light by a second birth And now if you consider that darknesse wherein it must be without the new birth and consider what the Scripture saith and what every one findeth by experience that falleth into the wrath of God and whereof there are terrible examples that the soul must endure irksome torment in it self in the birth of the life of its own self so long as it is in the wrath of God and then that if it be born again exulting great joy ariseth in it and thus you finde very clearly and plainly two Principles as also God Paradise and the kingdome of Heaven 3. For you finde in the root of the originall of the spirit of the soule in it self in the substance of the eternall birth and uncorruptible eternall band of the soul the most exceeding horrible inimicitious irksome source wherein the soul without the light of God is like all Devils wherein their eternall source consisteth being an enmity in it self a will striving against God and goodnesse it desireth nothing that is pleasant or good
the Devills danced at it and thought now is the Kingdome ours againe whereat Adam and Eve were much amazed and affrighted when they saw that he whom they accounted for a Prince became a murtherer and as the History saith they copulated or knew one another no more in seaventy yeares after 85. Now it being thus therefore they sought for quite another Treader upon the Serpent also now they inclined their heart to God so that seventy yeares after this murther they begat a very upright vertuous holy Sonne that feared God who established againe the pure Church of the feare of God and promised seede of the Woman whose name was Seth who also begat a very upright vertuous Sonne whose name was Enos and then Men began to preach openly or plainly of God and the Christian Church alwayes rose up like a small flock in spite of all the Regings of the Devills 86. But Cain exalted himselfe to be a Lord over his kindred from whence arose the Dominion and Rule or Government of this world all according to the influence of the Starres generated per Spiritum Majoris Mundi by the Spirit of the Great world and is not as Cain supposed so ordained by the cleere Deity 87. It is true indeed when the world became so evill malicious and murtherous then there must needs be Judges and Magistrates that the fierce wrath might be stopped by punishment and feare but if thou haddest continued in Love then thou shouldst have had no Lords but loving Brothers and Sisters O Cain thy potent Kingdome cometh not from God but hath its influence from the starry Heaven in Anger which domineereth over thee and many times giveth thee Tyrants who consume thy sweat in Pride and this thou hast for thy Paradise 88. Saint Paul writeth very well that there is no power authority or Magistracy but of God but he saith it is an avenger of the wicked and beareth not the sword in vaine herein thou hast ground enough that God useth the worldly Government and the sword thereof for the wicked's sake under which thou must now for the sake of sinne beare thy yoake because thou art a continuall devourer and murtherer doe but behold thy selfe together with the avenging sword perhaps thou wilt see thy selfe 89. But if any say that God doth abhorre or loath the Great Tyranny and Oppression when they domineere and take away the sweat of the poore and needy and consume it in pride and statelinesse that Cain cannot endure if the terrible Example of the Floud or Deluge did not stand there then Tyranny would be accounted holinesse but thy Kingdome O Cain is set up in Babell and thy Beast Ruleth in Sodom and Gomorrha there is a fire from the Lord of Heaven in it it is time to goe with Lot out of Sodom sinne is awakened in Cain 90. Now when Cain had murthered his Brother then he went securely as a Lord and thought now thou art sole Prince on Earth but the voice of the fierce anger of God came and said Where is thy Brother Abel and he answered I know not Shall I be my Brothers keeper And He said What hast thou done Behold the voyce of thy Brothers bloud cryeth to mee from the Earth and now thou art accursed upon the Earth which hath opened its mouth to receive thy Brothers bloud from thy hands When thou shalt till the Ground it shall not yeeld its strength to thee henceforward thou shalt be a vagabond and fugitive upon Earth 91. And now when the Anger of God stirred the sinne in Cain then it became awakened and he was perplexed or troubled and then his false Faith was seene for he despaired and said My sinnes are greater than that they can be forgiven mee behold thou drivest mee away from the Lord this day and I must hide my selfe from thy Countenance and I must be a fugitive and vagabond upon the Earth and it shall befall mee so that whosoever findeth mee will slay mee 92. Here there appeareth to us the most terrible Lamentable and miserable Gate of despaire upon the committing of sinnes for when God said Cursed art thou upon the Earth which hath opened its mouth and received thy Brothers bloud from thy Hands then the lofty selfe-potent glistering hypocriticall flattering Kingdome of Antichrist was rejected of God and it hath with it entring into the fierce wrath in the Murther seperated it selfe from God 93. Therefore said God Be thou accursed and the distinction of this cursing or flying out of the fiercenesse is that the Love of God will not dwell in the fiercenesse and that Kingdome must not be called after his Name for God consented not to the Murther but the fiercenesse or wrath of which God warned Cain at his sacrificing saying Be thou upright and thou shalt be accepted if not then sinne and the Kingdome of the fierce wrath lyeth at the Doore he should not let it have any power but should rule over it but when he letteth it have power then it ruleth and vanquisheth him 94. Thus also God withdrew that is Cain went out from God from the Kingdome of God into the Kingdome of the fiercenesse of the Driver therefore also his affaires which he further managed held forth and pretended were not of God but from the Kingdome of the fierce wrath that fiercenesse lead him and generated or awakened its wonders through him that the Kingdome of the fiercenesse might be also manifested even as it was a great wonder how the Noble Image in Abel by the fiercenesse of Hell and of this world could be seperated in the breaking of the body whereas the Kingdome of Hell would faine have found or felt it and therefore the first Death must be hastily or suddenly where then the Treader upon the Serpent shewed his first Master piece when the Kingdome of this world parted from Abel when the Cherubine did this first time cut off the soure Elements from the holy Element 95. And there the Word or the Treader upon the Serpent stood in the new regenerated Element in the soule of Abel in the Centre in the Gate of the Deepe and did breake the Serpents that is the Kingdome of the fiercenesses head of its might for the Head signifieth the strong Might of the fierce Anger And there the Love of God out of the Heart of God let it selfe into the Hell of the Anger and did smother the kindled fire of the poore soule in the Love againe and here the first worke was proved according as was promised from God to Adam and Eve 96. Secondly also the terrible work of the entring into the fiercenesse or Anger was proved in Cain for each Kingdome proved its owne And now when Cain went into the Anger then the Love of God stood in the Centre before him wholly hidden there Cain as a Champion should have broken the Serpents Head which he
yours you need not send any forraine Embassadours it is not heere as at Court Christ would alwayes faine increase his Heaven in his Joy Why stand you so long in doubt because of your finnes Is not the Mercy of God greater than Heaven and Earth what doe you meane There is nothing neerer you than the Mercy of God onely in your sinfull impenitent Life you are with the Devill and not with Christ Say what you will though you sent a Million of Embassadours to him if your selfe be wicked you are but with the Devill still and there is no remedy but you must your selfe rise with Christ and be borne anew in the body of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Ghost in the Father in your own soule If thou makest a feast or keepest a solemnity doe it for the benefit and reliefe of the afflicted and needy whereby God is praised in thy Love and that is well but if it be for the Rich Glutton who onely useth it out of pride and lazinesse thou hast no benefit of that for God is not praised therewith neither doth Paradise grow therein 87. And doe not relie upon the hypocrisie of the Antichrist he is a lyar and covetous and a dissembler he mindeth onely his Idoll the Belly and is a Thiefe in the sight of God he devoureth the Bread that belongeth to the needy he is the Devils Hell-hound learne to know him 88. Speaking then of the true Resurrection of Christ wee will also shew somewhat concerning his conversation those forty Dayes after his Resurrection before his Ascension Because wee know that he is become a reall Lord over Heaven Earth and Hell therefore wee shew you how the Kingdome of this world with all the Essences and qualities thereof hath been subjected to him And although he did not alwayes converse visibly with his Disciples yet many times he shewed himselfe to them visibly palpably and staying with them according to the Kingdome of this world according to his body which he had heere which was swallowed up by the new Body which he must present againe as God would have it to be presented for God is Lord of every thing and every thing must be changed as he pleaseth that he might thus shew his Disciples his reall Body and the Print of the Nayles which stand in the Holy Christ in his holy Body in Eternity as a signe of his victory and shine brighter than the Morning-Starre 89. He thereby confirmed his Disciples weake faith and so shewed that he is Lord also over the Kingdome of this world and that all whatsoever wee sow build plant eate and drinke is fully in his Almighty power and that he can blesse and increase it and therefore he is not severed or parted from us but as a flower groweth out of the Earth so his Word Spirit and power or vertue groweth in every thing and if our minde be sincerely inclined to him then wee are blessed of him in body and soule but if not then the curse and the Anger of God is in all things and wee eate death in all fruits or food And therefore it is that wee pray that God will blesse our meate and drinke also our bodies and soules in Christ and that is right 90. Secondly wee intimate also how Christ conversed upon Earth forty dayes after his Resurrection understand in the Kingdome of this world whereas yet he was in Heaven yet he bare that Image without any outward Glory or Clarity before the eyes of Men and he had the body wholly with every Essence as it hung on the Crosse except the source of the Principle which he had not but else he had all Essences in flesh and bloud and yet the outward flash stood in the might and power of the Heavenly This wee see by his going in to his Disciples the Doore being shut and passed with his body through the wood of the Doore Thus you may understand that the world is as nothing to him and that he hath power over all things 91. And further also wee intimate to you that these forty dayes are the forty dayes of Adams being in Paradise before his sleepe ere the Woman was made out of him where he stood in the Paradisicall Temptation where he was still pure and heavenly And so this Christ must also stand forty dayes in the Paradisicall source or condition in the Temptation to try whether the body would continue Paradisicall before he was Glorified and therefore he did eate and drinke with his Disciples in a Paradisicall manner as Adam should have done into the Mouth and not into the Body for the contuming consisted in the vertue or power 92. Heere it was rightly tempted whether the body would live in divine vertue and power as Adam also should have done while he was in Paradise in this world and though he were there yet he was in this world and yet he lived not in the source of this world but in the Paradisicall property above the world and also above the wrath of the Anger in the Hell he should have lived in the source of Love Humility Meeknesse and Mercy in the friendly will of God and so he should have ruled over the Starres and Elements and there should have been no death nor frailty or corruption in him 93. Therefore yee Turkes and other superstitious People you should observe and understand aright wherefore Christ gave us such Lawes as command us not to be revengefull and that when any strike us on the one cheeke wee should present the other to him and so further that wee should blesse them that curse us and doe well to them that hate us and hurt us understand yee this 94. Behold a true Christian who liveth in the Spirit of Christ must also walke in the conversation of Christ he must not walke in the fierce sterne revenging Spirit of this world but as Christ lived and conversed in this world after his Resurrection and yet not in the source or property of this world And though it is not possible for us while wee live in the source of this world to doe so yet in the new Man in Christ whom the Devill bideth and obseureth wee may if wee live in meeknesse then wee overcome the world in Christ if wee recompence Good soa Evill then we witnesse that the Spirit of Christ is in us and then wee are dead to the Spirit of this world for the sake of the Spirit of Christ which is in us and though wee are in this world yet the world doth but hang to us as it hung to Christ after his Resurrection and yet he lived in the Father in the Heaven even so doe wee also if wee be borne in Christ 95. Therefore let this be told you yee Jewes Turkes and other Nations yee need not looke for any other there is no other Time at hand but the Time of the Lilly and the signe of that time is the
world in so great danger between Heaven and Hell and must continually wrestle with the Devill if perhaps through weaknesse I might fall into the Anger of God and thereby the Light of my knowledge might be withdrawne from mee that it may serve mee to recall it to memory and raise it up againe for God willeth that all Men should be helped and will not the Death of a sinner but that he return come to him live in him Eternally for whose sake he hath suffered his own Heart that is his Sonne to become Man that we might cleave to him and rise againe in him and departing from our sinnes and Enmity or contrary will be new-borne in him 17. Therefore there is nothing more profitable to Man in this world while he dwelleth in this miserable corrupted house of flesh than to learne to know himselfe now when he knoweth himselfe aright he knoweth also his Creator and all the Creatures too also he knoweth how God entendeth towards him and this knowledge is the most acceptable and pleasant to me that ever I found 18. But if it should happen that these Writings should come to be read and perhaps the Sodomitish world the fatted swine thereof may light upon them and roote in my Garden of Pleasure who cannot know or understand any thing but to scorne scandalize reproach and Cavill in a proud haughty way and so doe know neither themselves nor God much lesse his children I entend not my writing for them but I shut and lock up my Book with a strong Boult or Barre from such Ideots and wilde Heifers of the Devill who lye over head and eares in the Devils murthering Denne and know not themselves they doe the same which their Teacher the Devill doth and remaine children of the severe Anger of God But I will heere write plainly and clearly enough for the children of God the world and the Devill may roare and rage till they come into the Abysse for their Houre-Glasse is set up when every one shall reape what he hath sowen and the Hellish Fire will sting many sufficiently for his proud spitefull and despising haughtinesse which he had no beliefe of while he was heere in this life 19. Besides I cannot well neglect to set this downe in writing because God will require an account of every ones Gifts how they have employed them for he will demand the Talent which he hath bestowed with the encrease or use and give it to him that hath gained much but seeing I can doe no more in it I commit it to his will and so goe on to write according to my knowledge 20. As to the Children of God they shall perceive and comprehend this my writing what it is for it hath a very convincing Testimony it may be proved by all the Creatures yea in all things especially in Man who is an Image and Similitude of God but it continueth hidden and obscure to the Children of Malignity or Iniquity and there is a fast Seale before it and though the Devill dis-relish the smell and savour and raise a storme from the East to the North yet there will then in the wrathfull or Crabbed soure Tree grow a Lilly with a roote as broad as the Tree spreadeth with its branches and bring its sent and smell even into Paradise 21. There is a Wonderfull Time coming but because it beginneth in the Night there are many that shall not see it by reason of their sleepe and great drunkennesse yet the Sunne will shine to the Children at Midnight Thus I commit the Reader to the Meeke Love of God Amen The First Chapter Of the First Principle of the Divine Essence BEing we are now to speak of God what he is and where he is we must say that God himselfe is the Essence of all Essences for all is Generated or borne Created and proceeded from him and all things take their first beginning out of God as the Scripture witnesseth saying Through him and in him are all things Also the Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens are not able to contain him also Heaven is my Throne and the Earth is my footstoole and in Our Father is mentioned thine is the Kingdome and the Power understand All Power 2. But that there is yet this difference to be observed that Evill neither is nor is called God this is understood in the first Principle where it is the Earnest fountaine of the Wrathfulnesse according to which God calleth himselfe an Angry Wrathfull and Zealous God for the Originall of Life and of all Mobilitie consisteth in the wrathfulnesse yet if the tartnesse be kindled with the Light of God it is then no more tartnesse but the severe wrathfulnesse is changed into Great Joy 3. Now when God was to Create the world and all things therein he had no other Matter to make it of but his own Beeing out of himselfe But now God is a Spirit that is incomprehensible which hath neither beginning nor end and his Greatnesse and Depth is All yet a Spirit doth nothing but ascend flow move and continually generate it selfe and in it selfe hath chiefly a threefold manner of forme in its Generating or Birth viz. Bitternesse harshnesse and heate and these three manner of forms are neither of them the first second nor third for all these three are but one and each of them Generateth the second and third For between Harshnesse and Bitternesse Fire is Generated and the wrath of the Fire is the bitternesse or sting it selfe and the harshnesse is the stock or father of both these and yet is generated of them both for a Spirit is like a will fence or thought which riseth up and in its rising beholdeth perfecteth and generateth it selfe 4. Now this cannot be expressed or described nor brought to the understanding by the Tongue of Man for God hath no beginning but I will set it down so as if he had a beginning that it might be understood what is in the first Principle whereby the difference between-the first and second Principle may be understood and what God or Spirit is Indeed there is no difference in God onely when it is enquired from whence evill and good proceed it is to be known what is the first and originall fountaine of Anger and also of Love since they both proceed from one the same original out of one mother and are one thing thus we must speak after a creaturely manner as if it took a beginning that it might be brought to be understood 5. For it cannot be said that Fire bitternesse or harshnesse is in God much lesse that aire water or earth are in him onely it is plain that all things have proceeded out of that Originall neither can it be said that Death Hell-fire or sorrowfulnesse is in God but it is known that these things have come out of that Originall For God hath made no
Nativity 22. And now if the glance out of this minde out of this or any other forme not here mentioned glance or dart through the eyes then it catcheth up its own forme out of every thing as its starry kingdome is most potent at all times of the Heaven in the good or in the bad in falshood or in truth And this is brought before the King and there must the five Counsellours try it which yet are unrighteous knaves themselves being infected from the Starres and Elements and so set in their Region or Dominion and now those Counsellours desire nothing more than the Kingdome of this world and to which sort the starry house of the braines and of the heart is most of all inclined for that the five Counsellours also give their advice and will have it be it for pomp pride statelinesse riches beauty or voluptuous life also for art and excellency of earthly things and for poore Lazarus there is no thought there the five Counsellours are very soone agreed for in their own forme they are all unrighteous before God but according to the Region of this world they are very firme Thus they counsell the King and the King giveth it to the Spirit of the soule which gathereth up the Essences and falleth too with hands and mouth But if they be words that are to be expressed then it bringeth them to the roofe of the mouth and there the five Counsellours distinguish or separate them according to the will of the minde and further the Spirit bringeth them upon the Tongue and there the senses divide or distinguish them in the flash Glance or in a Moment 23. And there stand the three Principles in strife The first Principle viz. the kingdome of sternnesse or wrathfull fiercenesse saith goe forth in the midst of the strong might of the fire it must be so then saith the second Principle in the minde stay and consider God is here with the virgin feare the Abysse of Hell and the third Principle viz. the kingdome of this world saith here wee are at home wee must have it so that wee may adorne and sustaine the body it must be so and it taketh the Region of the aire viz. it s own Spirit and bringeth that Region out at the mouth and keepeth the distinction according to the kingdome of this world 24. And thus there goeth forth out of the earthly senses and minde lyes and folly deceit and falshood also meere subtilty with lust and desire to be elevated many to be elevated in the might of the fire as by force and anger and many by humane art and policy of this world which is but a knave in the sight of God yet wrestleth or holdeth fast till it hath prevailed many in the forme of a tame and gentle Beast very cunningly alluring and drawing to it selfe under a faire pretence many in pride and statelinesse of body in carriage and manners which is a right diabolicall Beast who contemneth all that doth not please him and elevateth himselfe above all meeknesse and humility and over the Image of God yea there is so very much of false untowardnesse that I may not mention it every one followeth the Region Rule or Dominion of the Starres even that which serveth most to the voluptuousnesse of the earthly life 25. In briefe the Regiment of the Starres or starry Region maketh not a holy Man and although men may converse under a holy shew yet they are but hypocrites and desire to get honour and esteeme thereby their minde sticketh neverthelesse in covetousnesse and pride and in fleshly pleasure in meere base lechery and lust and they are in the sight of God according to the desire of this world no other than meere knaves proud wilfull selfe conceited theeves robbers and murtherers There is not one who as to the Spirit of this world is righteous wee are altogether children of deceit and falshood and according to this Image which wee have received from the Spirit of this world wee belong to eternall Death but not to Paradise except it be that we become regenerated anew out of the Centre of the precious virgin who with her rayes averteth the minde from the ungodly wayes of sinne and wickednesse 26. And if the love of God which so deerly loved the Image of Man that it selfe is become Man did not stand in the Centre of the minde in the midst or point of seperation then man had been a living Devill and he is indeed such a one when he despiseth the Regeneration and goeth on according to the in-bred nature of the first and third Principle 27. For there remaine no more than two Principles eternally the third Principle wherein he liveth here perisheth and if he desireth not now the second Principle then he must remaine in the first Originall eternally with the Devills for after this time it will be no otherwise there is no source which can come to helpe him hereafter for the kingdome of God goeth not back into the Abysse but it riseth up forward in the light of meeknesse this wee speak seriously and in earnest as it is highly knowne in the light of Nature in the Ray of the Noble virgin The Gate of the Difference between Man and Beast 28. My deare and loving Reason bring thy five senses hither and consider thy selfe according to the things above-mentioned what thou art how thou wert created the Image of God and how thou in Adam by the infection of the Devill didst let thy Spirit of this world take possession of thy Paradise which now sitteth in the roome of Paradise Wilt thou say that thou wert created thus as to this world in Adam at the beginning then behold and consider thy selfe and thou shalt finde another Image in thy minde and speech 29. Every Beast hath a minde having a will and the five senses therein so that it can distinguish therein what is good or ill for it But where remaine the senses in the will that come out of the Gates of the Deepe where the will discovereth it selfe or glimmereth in the first Principle in infinitum infinitely out of which the understanding proceedeth so that Man can see into all things into their Essences how high they are graduated whereupon followeth the distinction or different articulation of the Tongue for if a Beast had them then it could also speake and distinguish voices and speake of the things that are in substance or beeing and search into the Originality But because it is not out of the eternall therefore it hath no understanding in the light of Nature be it never so nimble and crafty neither doth its strength and force availe to the lifting it up into understanding no it is all in vaine 30. Man onely hath understanding and his senses reach into the Essences and qualities of the Starres and Elements and search out the Ground of all things
hath graciously bestowed a Rose upon us of which wee will write in such words as wee behold in that Wonder and wee cannot write otherwayes but our Pen is broken and the Rose taken from us and then wee are as wee were before the time of our knowledge whereas yet the Rose standeth in the Centre of Paradise in the hand of the virgin which shee reacheth forth to us in the same place where shee came to us in the Gate of the Deepe and proffered us her love when wee lay on the Mountaine towards the North in the strife and storme before Babell which virgin our Earthly Man hath never seene nor knowne 59. Therefore wee write out of a Schoole wherein the earthly body with its senses never studied nor never learned the A B C for in the Rose of the virgin wee learned that A B C which we supposed wee could have learned from the thoughts of the Minde but that could not be they were too rough and too dark they could not comprehend it and therefore the earthly body must not learne in this Schoole and its tongue cannot raise it selfe up to it for the minde of this Schoole stood hidden in the Gate of the Deepe in the Centre therefore wee ought not to boast of this Schoole at all for it is not the proper one of the senses or thoughts and minde of the earthly Man and if wee goe forth from the Centre of the noble virgin then wee know as little from this Schoole as others just as it was with Adam when he went out of the Paradise of God into the sleepe of being overcome then at his awaking in this world he knew no more of Paradise and he knew his loving virgin no more 60. Therefore wee have no ability might nor understanding in our earthly Will to teach of the Wonders of God wee understand nothing thereof according to our in-bred nature and none ought to require any thing from our owne will for wee have nothing in it 61. But the Spirit intimateth that if you shall goe out from Babell into the meeknesse of Jesus Christ then the Spirit in Hebron will give you Teachers with great power at whose Power the Elements will tremble and the Gates of the Deep flie open and thou shalt goe out from Lazarus his sicknesses and sores through the word and wonders of these men for the time is neere the Bridegroom cometh to fetch home his Bride 62. And now if wee consider in our own Reason and in the consideration of our high knowledge look upon what the world at Babell hath introduced in this high Article of Prayer whereof wee are about to treate in that Antichrist hath set himselfe therein and shewed his great Power therein then our Reason might well keepe us back because of the great sting and danger that might befall us from the fierce wrath of Antichrist But seeing it appeareth to us without our knowledge therefore wee will rather obey the voice of God than the earthly feare in hope to be recompenced And though it should happen that Antichrist should destroy our earthly body which yet standeth in the permission of God which wee must not withstand yet wee will more highly esteeme that which is to come than that which is transitory which things to come if wee attaine them are our true Native Countrey out of which wee in Adam are gone forth and the Spirit inviteth all mens attention before this Glasse 63. Hitherto the honour of Invocation or worship hath been done and afforded to the virgin Mary and other Saints or holy People that have been here in this life whereas yet in the ground of the light of Nature this Command or Law was not knowne at all and it is most highly necessary to be knowne that the ground thereof hath been taken in the confused Babell when men were weary of the poore Christ who in this world had not whereon to lay his Head then they did as Israel with Moses who made themselves a Calfe to be their God and said Behold Israel these are thy Gods which brought thee out of the land of Egypt and they made a calvish worship of God for their voluptuous life and looked no more after Moses but they said Wee know not what is become of this man Moses and they said to Aaron Make thou us Gods which may goe before us and he made them the Calfe but when Moses came and saw it then he was wrath and took the Tables of God and brake them and threw them away and said Hearken yee that belong unto the Lord Gird every Man his sword to his side and slay his brother the worshippers of the Calfe 64. In such a forme or condition also is the confused Babell in the kingdome of Christ upon Earth in the blind earnestnesse of mans own reason where men seek Christ in the kingdome of this world whereby they could not finde him as Israel could not finde Moses while he was on the Mount And thereupon they have made other Gods to goe before them and have instituted and set up their Divine-service or worship of God with the richest and costliest Ornaments and holy shew and they continually say in their minde Wee know not what is become of this Jesus for he is gone from us wee will erect a Divine-service for him in our Countrey and wee will make merry at it and that shall be done according to our own will and pleasure that wee may be rich and fat with it and refresh our selves fully with this Jesus 65. Are wee not Lords in his Kingdome And being in his Ministry service or worship wee are the most holy and best who may compare himselfe with us He is ascended into Heaven and he hath given us his Dominion on Earth The Keyes of Peter he must be Deputy Viceroy Vicar or Keeper of the City and those he hath left us to open the Kingdome of Heaven and of Hell who will take them away from us we can get into Heaven well enough though wee be evill it matters not wee have the Keys that can open it wee are Priests in Power or Ministers having Authority wee will set those in that make much of us fatten us and give much to our Kingdome and then the Christian Church will be in great honour glory and esteeme when they so highly honour her Ministers or servants that will well please our Lord and Master where is there such a Kingdome as we have should not that Kingdome he crowned with the gloriousest Crowne of this world and should not all bend and croutch before it 66. Yes indeed say they wee our selves confesse that wee are evill wicked Men but this Order maketh us holy our Office is holy wee are the true Ministers of Christ in his service and although wee be evill meere naturall wicked carnall Men yet our Office remaineth holy and the highest dignity is due to us for
They make no intercession for thee neither doth it availe any thing for thou must be Regenerated anew through earnest sorrow and repentance thou must light downe from off thy Beast and must goe on foote with Christ over the Brooke Kidron into his sufferings and Death and through him thou must rise againe out of his Grave thou thy selfe must come to this another cannot save thee thou must enter into the Birth of Jesus Christ and with him be conceived by the Holy Ghost thy soule must in the Word and in the New Man Christ in the one Eternall Element be borne or brought forth out of the foure Elements into the water of the Element of Eternall Life thy Antichristian fained Fables help thee not for it is said such beliefe as a People have such a God also they have to blesse them 76. But that thy Predecessours after their Death have appeared in Deeds of Wonder upon which thou buildest that was caused by the Faith of the Living and their Imaging in or impresse upon their Tincture which is so strong that it can remove Mountaines An evill Faith also if it be strong can in the first Principle stirre up Wonders as may be seene by Incantation and by the wicked shewers of signes before Pharaoh as they beleeved so it was done 77. And while the Faith of the Living at the time of thy forefathers was yet somewhat good and pure as to the kingdome of God still and they did not seek their Bellies and pomp as they doe now therefore their Faith or Beliefe pierced into the Heaven into the pure Element to the Saints or holy soules who thus did also naturally appeare with Works of Wonders or Miracles to the Living Saints in their Element in the strong Faith which Works of Wonder were onely comprehended or taken hold of in the Faith and that not imparted to the ungodly 78. For one Tincture caught hold of the other so that the Saints departed in the Element became longing after the strong faith especially those Saints departed that on Earth had turned many to Righteousnesse for as every ones works of Faith follow after them so also their will to turne more Men still followeth after them and therefore one Faith in the Tincture of the Holy Element caught the other and so Miracles or Works of Wonder were done at the Memorialls of the Saints this God permitted for the Heathens sakes that they might see that the Saints that were slaine or departed were in God and that there was another life after this that they should turne and be converted and therefore God suffered these works of wonder to be done 79. But in the Ground of the Originality it is not so that one that is departed hath power to help one that is living into the kingdome of Heaven or that they should undertake to bring and report the miseries of the living before God and pray for them for that were a great disrespect to the Heart of God which without intercession or their prayer powreth forth his Mercy over all Men with stretched out Armes and his voyce is never any other than onely thus Come yee all to mee yee hungry and thirsty and I will refresh you Matth. 11. He said Come to mee I will doe it willingly Also It is delight to mee to doe well to the Children of Men. 80. Who is it that will presume to undertake to stand before the source or spring of the Mercifulnesse and make intercession or pray for one that invocateth them As if the Love in the Heart of God were dead and did not desire to helpe those that call to him whereas his Armes continually without end stand stretched out to help all those that turne to him with their whole Heart 81. Thou wicked Antichrist thou sayest that faith alone doth not justifie the soule but thy invented works for thy avarice or covetousnesse these must doe the Deed wherein wilt thou be regenerated in thy Mausim or Belly-God or through the Birth of Jesus Christ Which is neerest of all to the Deity thy works passe away and follow thee in the shadow yet the soule hath no need of any shadow but it must be earnest it must enter in through the Gates of the Deepe and must passe through the Centre of the grimme fiercenesse of Death through the wrath of the Eternall Band to the meeke Incarnation of Jesus Christ and become a member of the body of Christ and receive of his fulnesse and live therein his Death must be thy Death his Essences must flow in thee and thou must live in his source property or vertue thus thou must be regenerated anew in him if thou wilt stand before his Father else nothing will help if there had been any thing in the whole depth of the Deity that could have helped God would have bestowed it upon Adam and would not have let his Heart against the course of Nature to become Man But there was no Counsell or Remedy neither in Heaven not in this world except God did become Man Therefore be thou in earnest and doe not seeke by-wayes to Babell 82. God indeed in former times permitted much for the conversion-sake of the Heathen but he hath not ordained the Antichrist to be so in his Covetousnesse Ordinances or Lawes and brabble in their Councells where Men have stopped the mouth of the Spirit of God that it should speak no more but that the Spirit of this world should speake and build a Kingdome of Heaven upon Earth in Lawes Disputations and great talkings and therefore that Kingdome of Heaven upon earth must be bound up with precious Oaths or Covenants because it stood not in the Liberty of the Holy Ghost that so it might be fatt and lusty great and wanton and never be broken But it is come to be a Babell of Confusion thereby and in the Confusion it breaketh or destroyeth it selfe 83. If now thou wilt behold the virgin Mary with her Sonne Jesus Christ then thou shalt finde that shee hath been justified and saved through her Sonne although shee is come into great Perfection as a Bright Morning Starre above other Starres and therefore also the Angel called her blessed among Women and said The Lord is with thee But shee hath not the Divine Omnipotence 84. For the Word which God promised in the Garden of Eden sprung and budded in the light of her life in the Centre of God and when the Angel Gabriel from the Command of the Father stirred that Word of the promise with the Message then it let it selfe into the chast virgin in the Element in and not so wholly and altogether into the soule of the virgin or into the earthly body that shee was Deified no for Christ himselfe saith None goeth into Heaven but the Sonne of Man who is come from Heaven and who is in Heaven all others must goe through him into Heaven he
that he looketh after thy hypocrisie that thou buildest great Houses of stone for him and therein doest exercise thy hypocrisie and pomp What careth he for thy songs and roaring noise if thy Heart be a murtherer and devourer He will have a New-borne Man who yeeldeth himselfe up to him in righteousnesse and in the feare of God him the Treader upon the Serpent taketh into his Armes and maketh him an heavenly Image such a one is a childe of Heaven and not thy Fox 29. Now it may be asked wherefore thou art called the Antichrist Hearken thou art the Opposer of Christ and thou hast built thy selfe a seeming holy hypocriticall Kingdome with a great shew and patience therein thou exercisest thy hypocrisie thou carriest the Law of God upon thy lips and thou teachest it but with thy deeds thou deniest the power thereof thy heart is onely bent upon the spirit of this world the Kingdome of thy hypocrisie tends onely to thy own honour and repute under a pretended holinesse all knees must bend before thee as if thou wert Christ and thou hast the heart of a greedy Wolfe 30. Thou boastest that thou hast the Keys of the Kingdome of Heaven and yet thy selfe is in the Abysse thy heart hangeth on thy Keys and not on the Heart of God thou hast the Keys of the Chist of Gold and not of the breaking through by confidence in God thou makest many Lawes and yet thy selfe keepest none and thy Law is to as much purpose as the Tower of Babell was which should have reached to Heaven and thy Lawes reach to Heaven as much as that did 31. Thou prayest before God but in thy wolvish Beast the Spirit of this world and not God receiveth thy Prayers for thy heart is a devourer and entereth into the devourer thou desirest not earnestly to enter into God but meerly with thy historicall hypocriticall mouth and thy heart presseth earnestly into the spirit of this world thou desirest onely much temporall goods honour power and authoritie in this world and so thereby thou drawest the Region of this world to thee 32. Thou suppressest the miserable and needy under thy feete and thou constrainest him with necessity and makest him vaine or carelesly wicked so that he runneth after thy Beast and gazeth upon thee and also becometh a servant of the Opposer of Christ thy Beast whereon thou ridest is thy strength and power which thou usurpest to thy selfe thou fatnest thy Beast with the fatnesse of the earth and thou crammest it with the sweat of the needy it is filled up with the teares of the miserable whose sighes and groanes presse in through the Gate of the Deepe to God and with their pressing in they awaken the Anger of God in thy Beast as the bloud of Abel did the Anger in Cain 33. Thus thou comest galloping with thy prancing Horse and thou ridest before the Gate of Heaven and desirest abstinence and in thy shape thou art a Wolfe What shall Saint Peter say to it doest thou suppose that he will give thee the Keys of the Kingdome of Heaven O no! he hath none for Wolves he hath but one for himselfe he had never any to spare for others 34. Wouldst thou get into Heaven then thou must put off thy Wolfe and get into a Lambs skin not with hypocrisie in a Corner Chamber Cloister or Wildernesse and Hermitage but with earnestnesse in the New Birth and thy Light must shine forth in Righteousnesse and Mercifulnesse to the overthrow of the Kingdome of the Devill and it must destroy his Nest with kinde well-doing to the needy 35. Hearken thou Antichristian scorner it is not enough for thee to stand and say I have the true ground of the knowledge that leadeth to the Kingdome of Heaven I have found the true Religion and doest condemne every one that hath not thy knowledge or doth not consent to thy opinion thou sayest such a one is a Heretick and of the Devill and thou art a Wolfe and doest nothing else but confound the sheepe with thy fiercenesse and causest them to offend and to calumniate those whom neither thou nor they know as the Ephesians did by Paul Doest thou suppose that thou hast hunted away the Wolfe by this meanes or hast thou not rather generated a heape of young scornfull Wolves which houle and yell and every one would devoure and yet know not where the evill Beast is nor especially that evillist Beast of all which generated them O blinde Babell the Kingdome of Christ doth not consist herein but the abominable Antichrist of Confusion in Babell 36. But what can be said the Devill will have it no otherwise When his Kingdome beginneth to be stormed battered and assaulted at one place then he bloweth up the storme all over as well in one as in another in the children of God the Spirit of Punishment vengeance or reproofe is stirred up and in the worldly Beastiall Man the Devill bloweth up meere scorning and disgracing Mockers for they have the Kingdome of Christ in the History and the Devills Kingdome in themselves as their own possession 37. What doth thy knowledge availe thee thou Opposer of Christ that thou knowest how to speak of the Kingdome of Heaven of the suffering and Death of Christ and of the New-Birth in Christ when thou art without it sticking meerly in the History Shall not thy knowledge be a witnesse against thee which shall judge thee or wilt thou say thou art not the Antichrist of Babell Surely thou art the hypocrite and thou fatenest thy evill Beast yet more and more and thou art the devourer in the Revelation of John thou dwellest not onely at Rome but thou hast possessed the breadth of the Earth I have seene thee in the Spirit and therefore it is that I write of thee thou Wonder of the World of Heaven and of Hell 38. Thus this Kingdome tooke beginning with Cain and it hath its ground from the Devill who is a Mocker of God for the Devill desireth nothing else but strong and mighty exalting in his own power above the Thrones of Heaven but he cannot get in and therefore he is so maliciously enraged and his source or quality standeth in the anguish not towards the Birth but towards the source of fire Of the Kingdome of Christ in this world 39. Seeing now Man is entered into the Spirit of this world and hath all Gates in him viz. the Kingdome of Heaven and the Kingdome of Hell and also the Kingdome of this world and must thus live in the presse or narrow chink between heaven and this world where the Devill stirreth up one Mocker after another who are brought up by the Kingdome of fiercenesse and continually stirreth them up against the Children of God so that the world is full of Tyrants and Beastiall bloudy incestuous persons also murtherers and theeves and because covetousnesse grew up therefore the Office
againe and turne it to dust and ashes like all Beasts Trees Plants and all things that grow but wee see not how it is with us afterwards whether all be ended with it or whether wee goe with our Spirit and Conversation into another life and therefore it is most necessary to learne and to seeke the right way 7. Now that is testified to us by the Writings of those who have been regenerated out of this Earthlinesse and at length are entred into a holy and uncorruptible life who have written and taught of an Eternall joyfull Life and also of an Eternall perishing and anguishing Life and have taught us how wee should follow after them and how wee should step into a new Birth where wee should be regenerated out of this Earthlinesse into a new Creature and that wee should doe nothing else about it but follow them and then wee should finde in deed and in truth what they had spoken written and taught yea even in this life wee should see our true Native Countrey in the new Regeneration and know it in the new-borne Man in great Joy whereas then our whole minde would incline to it and in our new knowledge in the new Man true Faith would grow and the hearty defire of the unfeigned love towards the hidden God for which noble knowledge sake many times they have yeelded their earthly body and life to the unregenerated gainsayer according to his Devillish malicious revengefulnesse into Death and have taken it with great Joy and have chosen for themselves the Eternall uncorruptible Life 8. Seeing then there is the greatest and highest Love in the new Birth not onely towards God or ones selfe but also towards Men our brothers and sisters and seeing those that were unregenerated have had their desires and love so carried towards Men that they have very earnestly taught men with meeknesse and reproving and that their love to them in their Teaching hath been so great that they have even willingly yeelded their life up to Death and left their earthly goods and all they had in assured hope in their strong and firme knowledge to receive all againe in great honour and glory 9. And therefore wee also have longed to seeke after that Pearle of which wee write at present and though now the unregenerated in the Kingdome of this world will give no credit to us as it hath happened to our forefathers from the children of this world wee cannot help that but it shall stand for a witnesse against them which shall be a woe to them Eternally that they have so foolishly ventured and lost so great an Eternall Glory and holinesse for a little pleasure of the eye and lust of the flesh 10. And wee know in our deep knowledge that they have rightly taught and written that there is one onely God which is threefold in Personall Distinction as is before-mentioned And wee also know that he is the Creatour of all things that he hath generated all out of his own substance both light darknesse as also the Thrones and Dominions of all things Especially wee know as the holy Scripture witnesseth throughout that he hath created Man to his own Image and similitude that he should Eternally be and live in the Kingdome of Heaven in him 11. And then wee know also that this world wherein wee now are and live was generated out of the Eternall Originall in time through the pure Element in the Fiat and so created and so it is not the substance of the holy pure Element but an issue or out-birth out of the Eternall Limbus of God wherein the Eternall Element consisteth w ch is before the cleere Deity wherin consisteth Paradise the Kingdome of Heaven yet the Limbus together with the pure Element is not the pure Deity which is alone holy in it selfe and hath the vertue of the Eternall Light shining in it but hath no Essences in the light of the Clarity in it for the Essences are generated from the vertue according to the Light as a Desire and the desire attracteth to it from whence the Essences proceede as also the Eternall Darknesse in the source as is before-mentioned 12. Seeing then God is all in all and hath created Man to his Image and similitude to live with him Eternally in his Love Light Joy and Glory therefore wee cannot say that he was meerly created out of the corruptibility of this world for therein is no Eternall perfect Life but Death and perplexity anguish and necessity but as God dwelleth in himselfe and goeth through all his works incomprehensibly to them and is hindred by nothing so was the similitude before him out of the pure Element it was indeed created in this world yet the Kingdome of this world should not comprehend that Image but the similitude Man should mightily and in perfect power or vertue Rule through the Essences with the Essences out of the pure Element of the Paradisicall holy Limbus through the Dominion of this world 13. Therefore he breathed into him the living soule out of the Eternall will of the Father which will goeth thither onely to generate his Eternall Sonne and out of that will he breathed into Man the same is his Eternall soule which must set it s regenerated will in the Eternall will of the Father meerly in the Heart of God and so it receiveth the vertue of the Heart of God and also his holy Eternall Light wherein Paradise the Kingdome of Heaven and also the Eternall Joy springeth up and in this vertue or power it goeth through all things and breaketh none of them and is mighty over all things as God himselfe is for it liveth in the vertue or power of the Heart of God and eateth of the Word that is generated out of God 14. Thus also wee know that the Soule is a Spirit generated out of God the Father in the Throne and entrance out of the recomprehended or reconceived will out of the Darknesse into the Light to the generating of the Heart of God and that soule is free to Elevate it selfe above it in the will or in the Meeknesse in the will of the Father to comprehend and incline it selfe to the Birth of the Heart of God the Father 15. But its body which is the true Image of God which God created standeth before the cleare Deity and is in and out of the holy pure Element and the Limbus of the Element out of which the Essences generate is the Paradise an Habitation of God the holy Trinity Thus was Man an Image and similitude before God wherein God dwelleth in which through his Eternall Wisdome he would manifest his Wonders 16. And now as wee understand that Man with the similitude wherein God dwelleth is not meerly at home in this world much lesse in the stincking Carkesse so it is manifest in that wee are so very blinde as to Paradise that
Garden of Eden and there he began his Priestly Kingdome as a King over Heaven and this world with signes and wonders and in his first Miracle turned water into good wine he also healed the sick made the blinde to see the lame to goe and cleansed the Lepers also he raised the dead and shewed himselfe to be the true King over the quick and dead and sate upon Davids Throne of Promise and was the true Priest in the Order of Melchisedech All whatsoever Aaron was in the Fathers might in a Type that this high Priest was in vertue and power with deeds and wonders which wee will cleerly describe in the other Book following this if wee live and God shall give us leave to doe it CHAP. XXIII Of the highly precious Testaments of Christ viz. Baptisme and his last Supper which he held in the Evening of Mandy Thursday with his Disciples which he left us for his Last Will as a Farewell for a Remembrance The most Noble Gate of Christianitie 1. IT is apparent how they have hitherto in Babell danced or contended about the Cup of Jesus Christ and about his holy Testaments for which they have caused many warres and bloud-sheddings but what kinde of knowledge concerning those Testaments they in Babell have appeareth by their works of Love among one another which their Councels have brought to passe where Men have stopt the mouth of the Holy Ghost and have made a worldly Dominion out of the Priesthood of Christ 2. O you high Priests and Scribes what answer will you make to Christ when you shall be found thus at his comming Or doe you suppose you stand in the dark No you stand in the presence of the cleere countenance of Jesus Christ who is Judge of the quick and dead doe but open your eyes and rightly feed the flock of Jesus Christ he cometh and demandeth them of you You are not all Shepheards or Pastours but intruded covetous Wolves you relie on your Schoole-Art or University Learning and Schollership O that avayleth nothing in the presence of God the Holy Ghost speaketh not from that he will not be bound up if you will be Pastours then you must hold out in the Temptation and put on the Garment of the Lamb in your heart you must not take the wooll of the sheepe onely from them but you must give them the food of the Holy Ghost in true Love and be practisers of it your selves But how will you give it if you be in the Wildernesse still and have chosen the Kingdome of this world to your selves in the Last Temptation What shall be said of you Is not the Anger broke out and burning carry fuell to it for Babell is on fire the water is dried up or what have I to doe with thee that I must write thus 3. Wee have shewed in few words the Incarnation and Birth of Jesus Christ the Sonne of God and yet wee are so very earthly and cannot apprehend it but are continually asking where is Christ with his body where shall wee seek for him and therefore our soule longeth to write of his Omni-presence and that notwithstanding all the raging and fury of the Devill and of Antichrist 4. Wee having cleerly described how God out of his love and mercifulnesse of Grace hath turned his beloved heart to us againe and how he hath opened the Gate to the Kingdome of Heaven for our soules therefore now wee are further to consider of the Body of Christ for reason saith continually the body of Christ is gone up into Heaven he is farre from us wee must erect a Kingdome that wee may serve him in his absence as Jeroboam did with the Calves and so that Kingdome is rightly called Babell 5. Doest thou boast thy selfe to be a Christian why doest thou not then beleeve his Word when he said He would be with us to the end of the world and said moreover He would give us his body for meate and his bloud for drinke Also his body is meate indeed and his bloud is drink indeed What doe you understand by this an absent Christ O thou poore sick Adam Wherefore art thou gone againe out of Paradise Hath not Christ brought thee in againe wherefore then didst thou not stay there Doest thou not see that the Apostles of Christ and their Successours who dwelt in the Paradise of Christ with their soules and did great Wonders Wherefore art thou againe entered into the Spirit of this World Doest thou suppose that thou shalt finde the Paradise with thy Reason in thy Art Doest thou not think it hath another Principle and that thou shalt not finde it except thou beest borne anew 6. Thou sayest Christ is ascended into Heaven how then can he be in this world and when thou reachest farthest thou thinkest that he is present onely with his holy Spirit here in his Testaments and that the Testaments are onely signes of his Merits What sayest thou then of thy New Man When indeed the soule is fed with the Holy Ghost What food hath thy new Man then for each life feedeth upon its Mother 7. Now if the Soule eateth of the cleere Deity what food hath the body then For thou knowest that the soule and the body are not one and the same thing it is indeed a very body but the soule is a Spirit and must have spirituall food and the body must have bodily food Or wilt thou give the new Man earthly food If thou meanest so thou art yet farre from the Kingdome of God The heavenly body of Christ did eate no earthly food but the outward body onely did eate that Is not Christs body now in the holy Ternary and eateth Paradisicall food Wherefore then shall not our new Man doe so did he not eate heavenly food forty dayes in the Wildernesse and alwayes afterwards and did he not tell his Disciples at Jacobs Well I have meate to eate that yee know not of and further It is my meate to doe the will of my Father which is in Heaven Is the will of God his food why then is it not ours if we live in him Hath not the Deity of Christ put on the Kingdome of Heaven for a Body is not the pure Element wherein the Deity dwelleth his body 8. But reason saith the Body of Christ is but in one place how can he then be every where He is indeed a Creature and a Creature cannot be in all places at once Hearken beloved Reason when the Word became Man in the body of Mary was he not at that time also alost above the Starres When he was at Nazareth was he not then also at Jerusalem and every where in all the Thrones of Heaven Or doest thou suppose when God became Man that he was shut up and consined within the Humanity and was not every where Doest thou suppose that the Deity in Christs becoming Man divided it selfe O no he
signe of Elias Therefore take heed in what Spirit you live that the fire of Anger doe not devoure you and eate you up It is high time to cast Jezabel with her whoredomes out of the house least you receive the wages of the whore and as you revile one another so you devoure one another Truly if the contentious Disputations be not suddenly stayed and these courses mended the fire will burne out aloft over Babel and then there will be no remedy till the Anger eate up and consume all whatsoever is in it 96. Therefore let every one enter into himselfe and not speake of another and hold his way to be false but look that he turne himselfe and have a care that he be not found in Anger of the devourer else if he should hoope and hallow and laughing say looke how Babell burneth then he must be burnt and consumed also for he is fuell for that fire and whosoever feeleth a thought in himselfe that doth but wish for the Anger to devoure that proceedeth from Babell 97. Therefore it is very hard to know Babell every one supposeth that he is not in it and yet the Spirit sheweth mee that Babell encloseth the whole Earth therefore let every one look to his own wayes and not hunt after covetousnesse for the Driver destroyeth it and the Stormer eateth it up and consumeth it the Counsell of the Wise Man will not help then all the Wisdome of this world is folly for that Fire is from the Anger of God your Wisdome will turne to your hurt and scorne Of Christs Ascension into Heaven 98. As wee know when Adam had lived forty dayes in the Paradise then he went into the Spirit of this world whereas he should have gone into the Trinity for he stood in the Time of the Temptation and if he had held out these forty dayes then he had been fully with his soule in the Light of God and his body in Ternarie sancto in the Holy Ternary like this Christ 99. For when he had conversed forty dayes after his Resurrection in the Proba or Triall in this world then he went up into a Mountaine whither he had appointed his Disciples to come and went up aloft visibly with his own body which he had offered up on the Crosse till a cloud came and did hide him from their fight for a sure signe that he was their Brother and that he in this Earthly forme and body would not forsake them as he also said to them Behold I am with you to the end of the world 100. Now then saith Reason whither is he gone is he gone out of this world aloft above the Starres into another Heaven Hearken my beloved Reason incline thy Minde to Christ and behold I will tell it thee for we see it and know it not I for when I say we you must not barely understand it of my Earthly Man for the Spirit that driveth this Pen is spoken of also therefore I write and say wee when I speake of my selfe as of the Author for I should know nothing if the Spirit of knowledge did not stirre it up in mee and there could be nothing sound but in such a way the Spirit would not be in any other way but he did hide and withdraw himselfe and then my soule was very much disquieted in mee with great longing after the Spirit till I did learne how it was 101. Behold that which the Antients have invented and taught is not the Ground They tooke upon them to measure how many hundred thousand miles it is to rhe Heaven whither Christ is gone They did it to this end that they might be Gods upon Earth themselves as their invented Kingdome sheweth and declareth which standeth meerly in Babell Behold when wee speake of the Thrones it is cleane another thing than that they meane and their blindnesse and ignorance is found though there is a Spirit in their knowledge which is not so much rejected but that Spirit is not or cometh not ex Fernario sancto out of the Holy Ternary out of the Body of Jesus Christ but it is out of the High Eternity which flieth up above the Thrones which may be mentioned in another place 102. Wee must continue in this Throne which is ours what are the other Thrones to mee where the Principalities of Angels are they are indeed our friends and faithfull helpers in the service of God wee must look upon our own Throne wherein wee were created and made Creatures and upon our Prince in that Throne upon God The first Purpose of God when he created us and beheld us in the Eternall Band that must stand 103. This was the Throne of Lueifer with his Legions but when he fell he was thrust out into the first Principle and then the Throne in the second Principle was empty in the same Principle God created Man which should continue therein and it was tempted to try whether that were possible and to that end it was that God created the Third Principle in the place of this world that Man also in the fall might not become a Devill but that he might be helped againe Therefore the Enmity of the Devill against Christ is because he sitteth upon his Royall Throne and besides holdeth him captive with his Principle 104. Thus the place of this world according to the Heavenly Principle is the Throne and Body of our Christ and all whatsoever is in this world in the Third Principle is his own also and the Devill who dwelleth in this place in the first Principle is our Christs captive or Prisoner 105. For all Thrones are in God the Father and without him is nothing he is the Band of the Eternity but his Love in the Body of Christ as in his Throne holdeth the Anger in the Band of Eternity together with the Devils captive And you must understand that all is creaturely his Love and also his Anger and as is mentioned before so the difference distinction or division is a Birth and so it cannot be said that the Devils dwell farre from Christ no they are neere and yet in Eternity cannot reach to him for they cannot see the cleere Deity in the Light but are blinded by it and wee shall in Eternity not see nor touch them as at present wee see them not because they are in another Principle and so that Principle remaineth 106. Thus my deare Minde know that the creature of Christ is the Centre of this Throne from whence every life proceedeth viz. whatsoever is heavenly for in that Centre is the Holy Trinity and not alone in this Centre but also in all Angelicall Thrones also in the soules of holy Men onely wee must thus speake that it may be understood Now the Body understand the Creature the Man Christ is set in the midst of this Throne and standeth also in Heaven understand in his Principle sitting in his Throne at the right
springing forth in multiplication where every fountain or source hath another centre in it from the genetrix and a separation or distinction but undivided and not asunder so also this world is generated out of the eternall mother which now is such another genetrix and yet is not separated or sundred from the eternall mother but is come to be in a materiall manner and it hath through the Sun attained another light and life which light and life is not the wise master himselfe but the wise master who is God he keepeth that light and life so that it standeth and continueth in the eternall matrix and yet it is not the eternall wisdome it selfe 3. Now because this birth of the Sun hath a beginning through the will of God and entreth again into its Ether therefore it hath not the vertue or power of the wisdome but it continually worketh according to its kinde it vivifieth and killeth what it doth it doth not regarding whether it be evill crooked lame or good beautifull or potent it causeth to live and to dye it affordeth power and strength and destroyeth the same again and all this without any premeditated wisdome whereby it may be perceived that it is not the divine providence and wisdome it self as the heathens did suppose and did foolishly relye upon the vertue thereof 4. But if we would see the ground thereof we must onely look upon the first mother in her birth and so we shall see and finde it all For as the first mother considering her in the originall without the light is soure or harsh dark hard and cold and yet there is the water-spirit in the bringing forth Thus you may finde when the materiall world sprung up that God then on the first day created the heaven and the earth 5. Now the heaven cometh out of the soure matrix which in the Paradisicall heaven is the water-spirit and out of that Paradisicall water-spirit or matrix the materiall heaven or matrix is created as Moses writeth that the heaven was created out of the midst of the waters and it is very right And also in that very houre the earth and the stones and all metals the matrix of this world being yet dark were generated out of the matrix 6. For when the matrix was stirred and that Lord Lucifer would domineere in the fire then the dark matrix attracted all that was wrought in the birth together from whence earth stones metals brimstone and salt did proceed hereby the kingdome of Prince Lucifer was shut up and he remained in the inward centre captivated in the outward 7. But the vertue which was in the matrix was that which could effect such things in the matrix for a stone is nothing else but a water mercury salt and brimstone wherein an oyle is hidden Now the birth of the matrix hath such a form in its eternall Essence and birth of its life For first there is the harshnesse or sournesse fiercenesse or eager strongnesse and hardnesse from whence the cold proceedeth Now the sournesse or harshnesse attracteth and sharpneth the cold and in its attracting it maketh the bitter sting or prickle which pricketh and rageth and cannot endure the hard attracting but vexeth like a furious madnesse it riseth up and rageth and becometh like a brimstone-spirit 8. And in this form in the wrath or fierce strongnesse in the watry soure mother the soure bitter earth brimstone and salt is generated before the kindling of the Sunne in the matrix that is void of understanding But the separation that is in it is caused from the births standing in great anguish and from its desiring the separation in the birth for the bitternesse agreeth not with the harshnesse or sournesse and yet they are as mother and sonne and as members one of another and it must be so or else nothing could be for it is the eternall band and the originall of life 9. Moreover when the bitternesse rageth riseth up and vexeth in the soure harsh mother then it falleth into a glimmering flash most terribly in this form the Mercurius or venome or poyson is generated For when the matrix perceiveth this flash of fire in its dark soure form then it is terrified and becometh dead in her hard soure property And in this place death poyson withering and corruption are generated in the matrix and also the noble life in the Mercurius and in the springing up of the third Principle 10. And further when the horror or crack or skreek of the fire is come into its harsh mother and hath thus overcome its mother then it selfe is much more terrified for there it loseth its fierce or strong property because the mother hath attained another source and out of the horror of the fire a brightnesse is come to be in which in the inanimate matrix the Materia or matter in the midst of the horror or crack is come to be a soft and bright mixt matter viz. from the crack of the light is prococeeded Gold Silver Copper Tin Lead c. according as every place in the matrix stood in the wrastling centre 11. For the birth in the whole space of this world as farre as Lucifers kingdome did reach was thus and therefore there is much different kinde of earth metals and other things in one place than in another And it is plain before our eyes that all metals are mixt which proceedeth from the bringing forth in infinitum which we well understand and see but cannot utter nor dare we speak it for it troubleth us and it reacheth into the Deity which is without beginning and eternall therefore the creature must let it alone upon pain of the losse both of its reason and sense 12. But to declare this further when the matrix stood thus in the birrh where the matter of the earth was generated then the matrix with the kindling became water you must understand it aright not wholly in substance but it hath generated the earth stones and metals and yet the matrix continueth still so also the water still continueth in the killing and overcoming whereby the materiall world took beginning where the globe of the earth was drawn together in this moving and standeth in the middle of the Circle from above and from beenath as a point or punctum 13. And there in the centte in the Paradisicall matrix and in the Paradisicall heaven the Spirit of God stood in his own eternall seat neither did it depart from thence and moved upon the materiall water with the Fiat and there formed the heaven which was created out of the midst of the watry matrix and he separated the root of the darknesse from the light in the matrix in which darknesse the Devils remained and they have not comprehended the matter in the matrix nor the new light which sprung up in the matrix and so
may wrap up your soule that is the Pearle which no Moath can eat nor Thiefe can steale away therefore seek after it and then you will finde the noble Treasure 2 Our wit skill and understanding is so very hard knit up that we have no more any knowledge of Paradise at all and except we be again born anew by water and the holy Ghost the veile of Moses lyeth continually before our eyes when we read his writings and we suppose that was Paradise whereof Moses sayd GOD placed him in the Garden of Eden which hee had planted that he might till it 3 O beloved Man that is not Paradise neither doth Moses say so but that was the Garden in Eden where they were tempted the exposition whereof you may finde about the fall of Adam The Paradise is the Divine joy and that was in their minde when they were standing in the love of God But when disobedience entred they were driven out and saw that they were naked for at that instant the spirit of the world caught them in which there was meere anguish necessity turmoyle and misery and in the end corruptibility and death Therefore it was of necessity that the eternall World did become flesh and bring them into the Paradisicall rest again whereof you shall finde the exposition in its due place about the fall of Adam 4 Paradise hath another Principle for it is the Divine and Angelicall joy yet not without the place of this world Indeed it is without the vertue and source or active property of it neither can the spirit of this world comprehend it much lesse a creature for it standeth not in the anguishing birth and although it thus taketh its originall yet it consisteth in exact perfection meere love joy and mirth wherein there is no feare neither misery nor death no Devill can touch it nor no beast can reach it 5 But when we will speak of the source or fountain and joy of Paradise and of its highest substance what it is we have no similitude of it in this world we stand in need of Angelicall tongues and knowledge to expresse it and though we had them yet we could not expresse it with this tongue it is well understood in the minde when the soule rideth in the Chariot of the Bride but we cannot expresse it with the tongue yet we will not cast away the A. B. C. but tattle or stammer with the children till another mouth be given us to speak withall 6 When God had created the Beasts he brought them to Adam that he should give them their names every one according to their essence and kinde as they the beasts were qualified or according to the quality and condition they were of Now Adam was in the Garden of Eden in Hebron and also in Paradise at once yet no beast can come into Paradise for it is the Divine joy wherein there is no unclean thing also no death or corruptible or transitory life much lesse is there the knowledge of Good and Evill yet Moses writeth of it that in the Garden of Eden there was the tree of temptation which bare the knowledge of Good and evill which indeed was no other Tree than like the Trees we now eate of in the corruptibility neither was it any other Garden than such as wee now have wherein earthly fruit Good and Evill grow as is before our eyes 7. But the Paradise is somewhat else and yet no other place but another Principle where God and the Angels dwell and where there is perfection where there is meere love joy and knowledge where no misery is which Paradise neither death nor the Devils doe touch neither doe they know it and yet it hath no wall of earth or stones about it but there is a great Gulfe or cliffe between Paradise and this world so that they who will passe from hence thither cannot and they who would come from thence to us cannot neither and the Hell and the kingdome of darknesse is between them and none can come therein but by a new Birth which Christ spake of to Nicodemus The soules of the Saints holy and regenerate must enter into it by the death of Darknesse whom the Arch-Shepherd with the Angels bringeth thereinto upon his Bride-chariot of which you shall finde an exposition in its proper place in order 8. But seeing somewhat is lent mee from the grace of the power or Divine vertue of God that I might know the way to Paradise and seeing it behooveth every one to work the works of God in which he standeth of which God will require an account from every one what he hath done in the labour of his dayes work in this world and will require the work which he gave every one to doe with encrease and will not have them empty or else he will have that unprofitable servant to be bound hand and foot and cast into Darknesse where he must be faine to worke yet in the anguish and in the forgetting of the Day-labour which was given him to doe here or of the Talent which he had received here wherein he was found an unprofitable servant 9. Therefore I will not neglect my Day labour but will labour as much as I can on the way and although I shall scarce be able to tell the Letters in this so high a way yet it shall be so high that many will have enough to learne in it all their life long he that supposeth that he knoweth it very well he hath not yet learnt the first letter of Paradise for no Doctors are to be found on this way in this Schoole but onely schollers or learners 10. Therefore let not my Master of Art in his Hood and Tippet thinke himselfe so cunning in this matter nor powre out his mockings so presumptuously against the children of God for so long as he is a scorner or mocker he knoweth nothing of this he ought not to thinke his cap doth become him so finely nor ought he to boast of his humane calling as if he did sit in his calling by the Ordinance of God whereas he is not set or confirmed therein from God but by the favour of man He ought not so much to prohibit and forbid the way to Paradise which himselfe doth not know He must one day give a heavy account of his Ordination by the favour of man because he boasteth of a Divine calling and yet the Spirit of God is far from him therefore he is a lyar and belyeth the Deity 11. Therefore let every one take care what he doth I say againe that whosoever he be that intrudeth himselfe to be a Pastour or Shepherd without the Divine Calling without the knowledge of God he is a theefe and a murtherer he entreth not through the doore into Paradise but he creepeth in with the dogges and the wolves into the den of theeves and
he doth it but for his bellies sake and his own honour and esteeme he is no Pastour or Shepheard but he dependeth on the great Whore upon Antichrist and yet he supposeth that he is a Pastour or Shepherd but he is not knowne in Paradise 12. Christ teacheth us and warneth us faithfully of the Times that were to come wherein they shall say Loe here is Christ or Loe there he is he is in the wildernesse he is in the chamber goe not forth beleeve it not for as the lightening breaketh forth in the East and shineth to the West so will the coming of the Son of man be 13. Therefore O childe of Man see whether it be not so where the false Pastours or Shepherds without the Divine calling alwayes wrangle strive contend and dispute and every one of them saith Follow me here is Christ there is Christ and they one judge and condemne another and give one another over to the Devill they abandon unity and forsake the love wherein the Spirit of God is generated and cause bitternesse and lead astray the simple plaine people to think that Christ is such a wrangling Shepherd Pastour Priest or Minister and doth so grapple with his Opponents in raising warre and murther as they doe and that the Spirit of God must needs be in such doings which are accounted zeale for God and that this must be the way to Paradise 14. Christ said Love one another thereby shall men know that yee are my Disciples if any smite thee on one cheeke turne to him the other cheeke also if you be persecuted for my Names sake then rejoyce for your reward is great in the Kingdome of Heaven But now there is nothing taught but meere ignominy reproach and revilings they that are dead for many hundred yeares agoe and are in the Judgement of God and some also may be in Paradise these must be judged and condemned and cursed by the wrangling Shepherds or contentious Priests Doth the Holy Ghost speake by them as they cry out and say he doth whereas they are still full of gall and bitternesse and nothing but covetousnesse and vengeance is kindled in them and they are far from the way of Paradise 15. Therefore thou childe of Man take heed let not your eares be tickled When you heare the false Shepherds or Pastours judge and condemne the children of Christ that is not the voice of Christ but of Antichrist the way to Paradise hath cleane another entrance your heart must with all your power and strength be directed to God or Goodnesse and as God desireth that all men should be saved so his will is that we should help to beare one anothers burthen and beare with one another and friendly soberly and modestly meet one another with entreaties in the Holy Ghost and seek with earnestnesse the salvation and welfare of our neighbour in humility and wish heartily that he might be freed from vanity and enter with us into the Garden of Roses 16. The knowledge that is in the infinite God is various and manifold but every one should rejoyce in the gifts and knowledge of another and consider that God will give such superabundant knowledge in the Paradisicall world of which wee have here in the variety and difference of Gifts but a Type Therefore we must not wrangle nor contend about Gifts and knowledge for the Spirit giveth to every one according to his Essence in the wonderfull God to expresse that Gift he hath after his own forme or manner for that forme in the perfection of love in Paradise will be a very inward hearty sport of love where every one shall speake from his knowledge of the great wonders of the holy Birth 17. O what sharp thornes the Devill hath brought into the sport of love that we practise such proud contention in the noble knowledge in so much that men binde up the Holy Ghost with Lawes What are Lawes in the Kingdome of Christ who hath made us free that we should walke in him in the Holy Ghost To what purpose are they invented but for the pleasure of Antichrist who thereby doth strut in might and pomp and is God on Earth O flie from him thou childe of Man the time is come for us to awake from the sleepe of Antichrist Christ cometh with the faire Lilly out of Paradise in the valley of Jehosaphat it is time for them to trim their Lamps that will goe to the Marriage of the Lamb The Gate or the Exposition 18. Paradise consisteth in the power and vertue of God it is not corporeall nor comprehensible but its corporeity or comprehensibility is like the Angels which yet is a bright cleere visible substance as if it were materiall but it is figured meerly from the vertue or power where all is transparent and shining where also the centre of the Birth is in all things and therefore the birth is without measure or end 19. I give you a similitude in the minde of man from which the thoughts are generated which have neither number nor end for every thought hath a centre to generate againe other thoughts and thus is the Paradise from eternity to eternity But being the light of God is eternall and shineth without wavering or hinderance therefore also in the birth there is an unchangeable substance wherein all things spring up in meere perfection in great love 20. For the spirit of knowledge intimateth this that there are fruits and things that grow in Paradise as well as in this world in such a forme or figure but not in such a source or property and palpability For the matter or body of it is power and it groweth in the heavenly Limbus its roote standeth in the Matrix wherein there is neither earth nor stone for it is in another Principle The fire in that Principle is God the Father and the light is God the Sonne and the Aire is God the Holy Ghost and the vertue or power out of which all springeth is Heaven and Paradise 21. As we see that here out of the earth there spring plants hearbs and fruits which receive their vertue from the Sunne and from the Constellation so the Heaven or the heavenly Limbus is in stead of the earth and the light of God in stead of the Sunne and the eternall Father in stead of the vertue of the Starres the depth of this substance is without beginning and end its breadth cannot be reached there is neither yeares nor time no cold nor heate no moving of the Aire no Sunne nor Starres no water nor fire no sight of evill spirits no knowledge nor apprehension of the affliction of this world no stony rock nor earth and yet a figured substance of all the creatures of this world For all the creatures of this world have appeared to this end that they might be an eternall figured similitude not that they continue in this spirit in their substance no not
for ever and although God had brought the Starres againe into their Ether and also had withdrawn the matrix of the Elements and the Elements also back into the nothing yet Man would have continued still Besides he had the Paradisicall Centre in him and he could have generated againe out of himselfe out of his will and have awakened the Centre and so should have been able in Paradise to generate an Angelicall Hoast without misery or anguish also without tearing rending or dividing in himselfe and such a Man he ought to have been if he must continue in Paradise and be eternall without decay for Paradise is holy and in that respect man also ought to have been holy for the vertue and power of God and Paradise consisteth in holinesse The deep Gate of the Soule 13. THe soule of Man which God hath breathed into him is out of the Eternall Father yet understand it aright there is a difference to be observed you must understand that it is out of his unchangeable will out of which he generateth his Sonne and Heart from Eternity out of the divine Centre from whence the Fiat goeth forth which maketh separation and hath in it all the Essences of the Eternall Birth or all manner of things which are in the Eternall Birth onely the Birth of the Sonne of God that very Centre which the Sonne of God himselfe is he hath not for that Centre is the end of Nature and not creaturely That is the highest centre of the Fire burning love and mercy of God the perfection or fulnesse out of this centre no creature cometh but it appeareth or shineth in the Creature viz. in Angels and in the soules of holy Men for the Holy Ghost and the Omnipotence or Almightinesse which frameth the Eternall will in the Eternall Father that goeth forth out of this Centre 14. Now therefore the soule standeth in two Gates and toucheth two Principles viz. the Eternall Darknesse and the Eternall light of the Sonne of God as God the Father himselfe doth Now as God the Father holdeth his unchangeable Eternall will to generate his heart and Sonne so the Angels and soules keepe their unchangeable will in the heart of God Thus it the soule is in Heaven and in Paradise and enjoyeth the inutterable joy of God the Father which he hath in the Sonne and it heareth the inexpressible words of the heart of God and rejoyceth at the Eternall and also at the created Images which are not in essence or substance but in figure 15. There the soule eateth of all the words of God for the same are the food of its life and it singeth the Paradisicall songs of Praise concerning the pleasant fruit in Paradise which groweth in the divine vertue or power of the divine Limbus which is the food of the body for the body eateth of the Limbus out of which it is and the soule eateth of God and of his word out of which it is 16. Can this be no joy and rejoycing and should not that be a pleasant thing with the many thousand sorts of Angels to eate heavenly bread and to rejoyce in their communion and fellowship What can be possibly named which can be more pleasant Where there is no feare no anger no death where every voyce and speech is Salvation power strength and might be to our God and this voyce going forth into the Eternity Thus with this sound the divine vertue of Paradise goeth forth and it is a meere growing in the divine Centre of the fruits in Paradise And there is the place where S t Paul heard words inutterable that no man can expresse Such a man was Adam before his Fall and that you may not doubt that this is very sure and most truly thus look upon the Circumstances 17. When God had created Adam thus he was then in Paradise in the joyfulnesse and this clarified or brightened Man was wholly beautifull and full of all manner of knowledge and there God brought all the Beasts to him as to the Great Lord in this world that he should look upon them and give to every one their Name according to their Essence and vertue as the Spirit of every one was figured in them And Adam knew all what every Creature was and he gave every one their Name according to the quality or working property of their Spirit As God can see into the heart of all things so could Adam also doe in which his perfection may very well be observed 18. And Adam and all men should have gone wholly naked as he then went his clothing was the clarity or brightnesse in the vertue or power no heat nor cold touched him he saw day and night cleerly with open eyes in him there was no sleepe and in his minde there was no night for the divine vertue and power was in his eyes and he was altogether perfect he had the Limbus and also the Matrix in himselfe he was no male or Man nor female or Woman as wee in the Resurrection shall be neither though indeed the knowledge of the marks of distinction will remaine in the figure but the Limbus and the Matrix not severed as now they are 19. Now Man was to dwell upon the Earth as long as it was to stand and manage rule and order the beasts and have his delight and recreation therein but he ought not to have eaten any earthly fruit wherein the corruptibility or transitorinesse did stick it is true he should have eaten but onely with the mouth and not into the body for he had no entrailes stomack or guts nor any such hard dark flesh it was all perfect for there grew Paradisicall fruit for him which afterwards went away when he went out of Paradise and then God cursed the Earth and the heavenly Limbus was withdrawne from him together with that fruit and he lost Paradise God and the kingdome of heaven for before sinne when Paradise was upon the Earth the Earth was not bad or evill as now it is 20. If Adam had continued in innocency then he should in all fruits have eaten Paradisicall fruit and his food should have been heavenly and his drink should have been out of the mother of the heavenly water of the source or fountaine of the Eternall life The Out-birth touched him not the element of aire he had no need of in this manner as now t is true he drew breath from the aire but he took his breath from the incorruptibility for he did not mingle with the spirit of this world but his Spirit ruled powerfully over the spirit of this world over the Starres and over the Sunne and Moone and over the Elements 21. This must be Adams condition and thus he was a true and right Image and similitude of God he had no such hard bones in his flesh as wee now have but they were strength and such a kinde of vertue also his bloud
the Dragon and the Worme would devour and there stood the Virgin upon the earthly Moone and despiseth the earthinesse and treadeth it under feet And so should Adam also have troden the earthinesse underfoot but it overcame him therefore afterwards the childe of the Virgin when it had overcome the tempting Tree must also enter into the first death of the strong fierce wrath in the death and overcome the first Principle 12. For he stood forty dayes in the Temptation in the Wildernes where there was no bread nor drink then came the Tempter and would have brought him from obedience and said He should out of the stones make Bread which was nothing else but that he should leave the heavenly bread which man receiveth in Faith and in a strong confidence in God and put his imagination into the Spirit of this world and live therein 13. But when the childe of the virgin laid the heavenly bread before him and said Man liveth not onely from this world from the earthly eating and drinking then came the second way or kinde of Temptation forth viz. the might power dominion and authority of this world the Prince of the wrath or strong fiercenesse would give him all the power of the Starres and Elements if he would put his imagination into him and pray to or worship him that was the right scourge or whip wherewith Adam was scourged viz. with the might riches and beauty of this world after which at last Adam lusted and was taken But the childe of the Virgin laid before him that the kingdome was not his viz. belonging to the Prince of the fierce strong wrath but it belonged to the word and heart of God he must worship God and serve him onely 14. The third Temptation was the same into which the Devill also was fallen with high mindednesse or pride when he Christ was tempted to have fline from above from the pinnacle of the Temple and should have elevated himselfe above humility and meeknesse for the meeknesse maketh the angry Father in the Originalnesse soft and joyfull so that the Deity thus becometh a soft and pleasant Essence 15. But Lord Lucifer would in the Creation have faine been above the meeknesse of the heart of God above the end of nature therefore he would faine also have perswaded the sonne of the virgin to flie without wings above the end of nature in pride of which shall be handled in its due place at large I have brought this in thus but in briefe that my writing may be the better understood and how it stands with or upon the ground or foundation of the Scripture and is not any new thing neither shall there be any thing new in them but onely the true knowledge in the holy Ghost of the Essence of all Essences Of Adams sleepe 16. Adam had not eaten of the fruit before his sleepe till his wife was created out of him onely his essences and inclination had eate a of it in the spirit by the imagination and not in the mouth and thereupon the spirit of the great world captivated him and mightily qualified in him or infected him and then instantly the Sunne and Starres wrestled with him and all the foure Elements wrestled so mightily and powerfully that they overcame him and so he sunk downe into a sleepe 17. Now to an understanding Man it is very easie to he found and knowne that there neither was nor should be any sleepe in Adam when he was in the Image of God For Adam was such an Image as wee shall be at the resurrection of the Dead where wee shall have no need of the Elements nor of the Sunne nor Starres also of no sleepe but our eyes shall be alwayes open eternally beholding the glory of God from whence will be our meate and drinke and the Centre in the multiplicity or springing up of the Birth affordeth meere delight and joy for God will bring forth out of the earth into the kingdome of Heaven no other kinde of Man than such a one as the first was before the Fall for he was created out of the eternall will of God that will is unchangeable and must stand therefore consider these things deeply 18. O thou deare soule that swimmest in a darke lake incline thy minde to the gate of Heaven and behold what the fall of Adam hath been which God did so greatly loathe that because of it Adam could not continue in Paradise Behold and consider the sleepe and so you shall finde it all Sleepe is nothing else but an overcoming for the Sunne and the Starres are still in a mighty strife and the Element of water viz. the Matrix is too weake for the fire and the Starres for that Element is the being overcome in the Centre of Nature as you finde before in many places 19. And the light of the Sunne is as it were a God in the Nature of this world and by its vertue and influence it continually kindleth the Starres or Constellations whereby the Starres or Constellations which are of a very terrible and anguishing Essence continually exult in triumph very joyfully For it the Sunne is an essence like the light of God which kindleth and enlighteneth the dark minde of the Father from whence by the light there ariseth the divine Joy in the Father 20. And so it the Sunne maketh a triumphing or rising to be in the Matrix of the Water alwayes like a seething for the Starres altogether cast their vertue or influence into the Matrix of the water as being therein in like manner also now the Matrix of the water is continually seething and rising from whence cometh the growing in Trees plants grasse and Beasts for the uppermost Regiment or Dominion of the Sunne and Starres and also of the Elements ruleth in all creatures and it is a blossome or bud from them and without their power there would be in this world in the third Principle no life nor mobility in any manner of thing nothing excepted 21. But the living Creatures as Men Beasts and fowles have the tincture in them for in the beginning they were an Extraction taken from the quality of the Starres and Elements by the Fiat and in the tincture there standeth the continuall kindling fire which continually draweth the vertue or Oleum the Oyle out of the Water from whence cometh the bloud in which the noble life standeth 22. Now the Sunne and the Starres or Constellations continually kindle the Tincture for it is fiery and the Tincture kindleth the body with the Matrix of the water so that they are alwayes boyling rising and seething The Starres or Constellations and the Sun are the fire of the Tincture and the Tincture is the fire of the body and so all are seething and therefore when the Sunne is underneath so that its beames or shining is no more upon a thing then the Tincture
goeth forth out of the eternall Essences and is called Paradise in regard of the sharpnesse of the generating or bringing forth of the pleasant fruit of the Lilly in infinitum or infinitely where then the Essences of the Lilly springing up in wonders in many thousand thousands without number of which you have a similitude in the springing or blossoming earth 89. Beloved Minde behold consider this this now is God and his heavenly Kingdome even the eternall Element and Paradise and it standeth thus in the eternall originall from eternity to eternity Now what joy delight and pleasantnesse is therein I have no Pen that can describe it neither can I expresse it for the earthly tongue is too much insufficient to doe it all that men can say of it is like drosse compared with Gold and much more inferiour yea although the virgin bringeth it into the minde yet all is too dark and too cold in the whole man so that he cannot expresse so much as one spark or glimps thereof sufficiently wee will deferre it till wee come into the bosome of the virgin wee have here onely given a short hint of it that the Author of this Book may be understood for wee are but a very little drop out of the fountaine of the wisdome of God and wee speake as a little sparkle or glimps but high enough for our earthly understanding and for our weake knowledge here upon earth for in this life we have no need of any higher knowledge of the eternall substance being or essence if wee doe but barely and nakedly speake of what hath been from eternity it is enough CHAP. XV. Of the knowledge of the Eternity in the corruptibility of the Essence of all Essences 1. NOw if wee consider of the Eternall will of God and of the Essence of all Essences then wee finde in the Originalnesse but one onely beeing substance or Essence as is mentioned above out of this onely Essence is generated from Eternity the other beeing substance or Essence viz. the divine Essence and wee finde that both the beeings substances or Essences stand in Divine Omnipotence but not in one source neither doe they mix together nor can either of them both be destroyed dissolved corrupted or broken 2. But yet they have two sorts of inclinations or desires each in it selfe for its own Yet because the divine beeing or Essence from Eternity is generated out of it selfe therefore it is inclined to helpe the weake and is rightly called Barmhertzigkeit Mercifulnesse 3. And now seeing the virgin of the eternall wisdome hath discovered her selfe in the Eternall Originall and in the eternall minde in the sharpe Essence of the breaking of the darknesse in the fire-flash hath found the depth of the very Image of God and that the similitude of God is there in the Eternall Originall therefore shee hath longed after the similitude and that longing makes the attracting in the will and the will stood right against the similitude and the Fiat in the attracting of the willing created the will in the similitude out of which came the Angels altogether But now the Eternall Essences were in the similitude and the wisdome discovered or manifested her selfe in the Essences in many thousand thousands that the eternall wonders might be revealed or made manifest and thereupon there went forth according to every essence as out of a fountaine many thousand thousands 4. And from thence came the Names of the Thrones and Principalities as according to the Essences of the first and great source which in the discovering of the Eternall wisdome of God goeth forth againe into many thousand thousands yet there is a certaine number of them and in the Centre of God none or no number but infinitenesse and thus out of the fountaine of every Essence are gone forth first the Thrones and in the Throne many thousand thousands 5. These the Fiat created to a similitude and Image of God and overshaddowed the same in the Fiat with the overflowing vertue of God and the will of God set it selfe right against the Image and similitude and they now which received the will they became Angels for they set their imagination in the will in the heart of God and they did eate of the Verbum Domini of the Word of the Lord but they that set their Imagination in the darke minde as Lucifer did that he might flie out above the Deity and meeknesse in the might of the fire in the flash in the sharpe might of God and be Lord alone they became Devils and they have that name from their being thrust or driven out of the light for they were in the light when the Fiat created them for the Fiat which created them stood in the light 6. Thus the Devill is the fault and guilty of his own fall for he suffered himselfe to be moved by the Matrix of the sternnesse fiercenesse sourenesse or wrath whereas he yet had his own will to take hold of Light or Darknesse And Lucifer was a Throne that is a source or fountaine of a great essence from whence went forth all his servants or Ministers and they did like him and so they were thrust back into the darknesse for the light of God goeth not into the grimnesse wrath or fiercenesse 7. And there the Fiat which created the fierce wrathfull or grim Devils in hope that they would of Devills become Angels who set their imagination therein that thereby they might domineere over God and the Kingdome of Heaven was infected in the figuring of the similitudes and so instantly kindled the Element in the similitude viz. in the out-Birth or procreation in the speculating or beholding so that the Essence hath generated to the highest Essences from whence goe forth the foure Elements of this world of the third Principle and the sharp Fiat of God which stood in the Out-Birth or procreation hath created the out-Birth out of which the earth and stones are proceeded 8. For when the Fiat kindled the Element in the Out-birth then the kindled Materia or matter became palpable or comprehensible this was not now fit for Paradise but it was ex-created or made externall yet that the Element with its out-Birth might no more generate thus therefore God created the Heaven out of the Element and caused or suffered out of the Element which is the heavenly Limbus the third Principle to spring up where the Spirit of God againe discovered or revealed it selfe in the virgin viz. in the Eternall Wisdome and found out in the out-Birth â—n the corruptible substance the similitude againe and the discovering stood in the sharp attraction of the Fiat and the Fiat created it so that it became Essentiall or substantiall and the same are the Starres a meere Quinta essentia an extract of the Fiat's out of the Limbus of God wherein the hidden Element standeth 9. But that the sharp
goe forward in the Centre of the breaking forth out of the darknesse into the light for in the light there is meere meeknesse lowlinesse humility good will and friendly desires that it might with its re-conceived will goe out of it selfe and to open it selfe in its precious Treasury for in the re-conceived will to the Birth of the Light there is no source of anxiety but onely meere friendly desires for the Glimpse riseth up out of the darknesse in it selfe and desireth the light and the desiring draweth the light into it selfe and there the anguish becometh an exulting joy in it selfe an humble cheerfulnesse a pleasant habitation for the re-conceived will in the light is impregnated and its fruit in the body is vertue or power which the will desireth to generate and to live therein and this desiring bringeth the fruit out of the impregnated will and presenteth it before the will and the will discovereth it selfe glimmereth or shineth in the fruit in an infinite pleasant number and there goeth forth in the pleasant number in the discovered or manifested will the high Benediction or Blessing favour loving kindnesse pleasant inclination or yeelding pliablenesse the tast of joy the well doing of meeknesse or affability and further what my Pen cannot expresse The minde would much rather be freed from vanity and live therein without molestation or disturbance 9. Now these two Gates are in one another the nethermost goeth into the Abysse and the uppermost goeth into Paradise and a third Gate cometh to these two out of the Element with its foure issues and presseth in together with the fire aire water and earth and their kingdome is the Sunne and Starres which qualifie with the first will and their desire is to be filled to swell and to be great these draw into them and fill the Chamber of the Deepe viz. the free and naked will in the minde they bring the Glimpse or Glance of the Starres into the Gate of the Minde and qualifie with the sharpnesse of the Glimpse or flash they fill the broken Gates of the Darkness with flesh and wrestle continually with the first will from whence they are gone forth for the Kingdome or Dominion and yeeld themselves up to the first will as to their Father which willingly receiveth their Region or Dominion for he is obscure and darke and they are rough and soure also bitter and cold and their life is a seething source of fire wherewith they governe in the Minde in the Gall Heart Lungs and Liver and in all Members or parts of the whole body and Man is their own the Spirit which standeth in the flash bringeth the Constellation into the Tincture of its property and infecteth the thoughts according to the Dominion of the Starres they take the body and tame it and bring their bitter roughnesse into it 10. Now the Gate of the Light standeth between both these Regions as in one onely Centre inclosed with flesh and it shineth in the Darknesse in it selfe and it moveth towards the might of the Darknesse and fiercenesse and sheddeth forth its rayes even unto the noise of the breaking through from whence the Gates of seeing hearing smelling tasting and feeling goe forth and when these Gates apprehend the sweet loving and pleasant rayes of the Light then they become most highly joyfull and run into their highest Region into the heart as into their right dwelling-house into the Essences of the Spirit of the soule which receiveth it with joy and refresheth it selfe therein and there its Sunne springeth up viz. the pleasant Tincture in the Element of Water and by the sweet joy becometh bloud for all Regions rejoyce therein and suppose that they have gotten the Noble virgin againe whereas it is but her Rayes as the Sunne shineth upon the earth from whence all Essences of the earth rejoyce spring grow and blossom Which is the cause that the Tincture riseth up in all hearbs and Trees 11. And here wee must accurately consider wherein every Region rejoyceth for the Sun and Starres apprehend not the Divine Light as the Essences of the soule doe and yet onely that soule which standeth in the new Birth but they tast the sweetnesse which hath imprinted or Imaged it selfe in the Tincture for the bloud of the heart wherein the soule moveth is so very sweet that there is nothing to be compared to it Therefore hath God by Moses forbidden Man to eate the flesh in its bloud for the life standeth in it For the beastiall life ought not to be in Man that his Spirit be not infected therewith 12. The three Regions receive every one of them their light with the springing up of the Tincture in the bloud and each Region keepeth its Tincture The Region of the Starres keepeth the light of the Sunne and the first Principle keepeth the fire-flash and the Essences of the holy soules receive the most deare and precious light of the virgin yet in this body onely her Rayes wherewith shee fighteth in the minde against the crafty assaults of the Devill as Saint Peter witnesseth and although the Deare light stayeth for a while in many in the New-birth or Regeneration yet it is not steady in the house of the Starres and Elements in the outward Birth but it dwelleth in its own Centre in the Minde The Gate of Speech 13. Seeing now that the Minde standeth in free will therefore the will discovereth it selfe according to that which the Regions have brought into the Essences whether it be evill or good whether it be fitting for the Kingdome of Heaven or for the Kingdome of Hell and that which the glimpse or flash apprehendeth it bringeth that into the will of the minde And in the minde standeth the King and the King is the light of the whole body and he hath five Counsellours which sit altogether in the noise of the Tincture and each of them trieth that which the glimpse with its infection hath brought into the will whether it be good or evill and these Counsellours are the five Senses 14. First the King giveth it to the eyes to see whether it be good or evill and the eyes give it to the eares to heare from whence it cometh whether out of a true or out of a false Region and whether it be a lye or truth and the eares give it to the nose the smell that must smell whether that which is brought in and standeth before the King cometh out of a good or evill Essence and the Nose giveth it to the Tast which must try whether it be pure or impure and therefore the Tast hath the Tongue that it may spit it out againe if it be impure but if it be a thought to be expressed in a word then the lips are the doore-keepers which must keepe it shut and not let the Tongue forth but must bring it into the Region of the aire into the Nostrills and
Councell of the Starres which run many upon the sword and make them lay violent hands upon themselves and bring some to a Rope others to the water and there he is very busie and is the Driver or Executioner 68. Into this great misery Man is fallen and he is fallen quite home to the kingdome of the Starres and Elements as to his body what these doe with him that he is and that standeth in the substance they make one great another small one straight another stooping and crooked they send one fortune and riches and another poverty of one they make a crafty subtill Man according to the counsell and kingdome of this world and of another they make an Ideot they make one a King and they breake and pull downe another one they kill another they bring into the world and continually drive the minde of Man yet into nothing else but into vaine turmoile discontent and vexation 69. Besides the kingdome of Hell and of fierce wrath alwayes gape after the soule and set their jawes wide open to devoure the captive soule which is held fast fettered with two strong chaines the one of the kingdome of Hell the other of the Kingdome of this world and is continually led by the heavy lumpish beastiall and sickly body as a Theefe who is often led to the place of Execution and still by a Petition reprieved and said in prison againe and the poore soule must lye thus in Prison the whole time of the body where the Devill on the one side very suddenly rusheth upon it with his devouring fiercenesse wrath and malice and would carry it into the Abysse then instantly it is beat upon by the glistering flattering world with pomp bravery covetousnesse and voluptuousnesse of Perdition presently againe cometh upon it sicknesse and feare and it is continually trembling and quaking and when Man goeth but in the dark how is it amazed and continually afraid that the Executioner will take it and doe execution upon it The Gate or Exposition of the great sinne and contrariety of will against God in Man 70. If wee did well consider the abominations and great sinnes of Man before God which our first Parents inherited for us then wee should scarce ever be merry in this world at all if the Spirit of this world did not cast foolish fancies and seeming joyes and pleasures before us in our imprisonment or if the Regeneration did not cause us so highly to rejoyce that wee shall once be delivered out of this Prison for in this life wee finde nothing else but meere abomination sinne misery and death and scarce attaine in this temporary life so much as a glimpse of the Eternall Joy 71. Now the minde asketh What is sinne then How is it sinne Wherefore hath God a loathing against the substance which he hath created Behold thou childe of Man there is no sinne in Heaven in the presence of God onely in thy selfe there is sinne and sinne seperateth us and our God asunder otherwise all things are fix or perfect and good in their own beeing or substance the kingdome of Hell and of wrath is good in it selfe according to its own Region it doth not vex or torment it selfe but its woe paine or smart is its birth and the rising of its source also it desireth nothing else 72. And so also the Kingdome of this world is fix or perfect and good in it selfe neither doth it vex or torment it selfe but the elevating of the Elements viz. the kindling of the heate cold aire and water is its growing and springing neither doth it torment it selfe in it selfe nor hath it any distresse or feare in it selfe 73. Onely Man who is proceeded out of another Principle hath in both those forementioned Principles woe misery sorrow and distresse for he is not in his native Countrey and none of these two Principles can attaine his native Countrey Therefore the poore soule must be thus plagued and tormented that it may attaine its native Countrey againe it must goe againe through the Gate of the deep anguish of Death it must breake through two kingdomes and it sticketh here between the Doore and the hinges and is continually infected with those things which keep it back and plague it it sticketh as it were in a Presse 74. If it straineth to God ward then the Devill holdeth it on one side with one Band and the world with another Band and they set upon it the Devill handleth it in fiercenesse sternnesse frowardnesse or wrath which is a source or quality and sinne which cannot attaine to the kingdome of God and the world leadeth it into pride covetousnesse and fleshly lust so that the Essences of the soule grow full or impregnated with the fleshly will for the will of the minde draweth these things into the soule and so the soule from that which is attracted becometh wholly uncleane swelled and dark and cannot attaine the light of God its Essences that should give up themselves to God cannot for they are too rough and cannot get into the light that kindleth not it selfe in its Essences the Gates of the Deepe must be broken open first and then the Essences of the soule may presse into the liberty without the darknesse but if the minde be filled then it cannot come into the liberty and then begin horrour feare distresse and despaire of the kingdome of God and this maketh meere torment woe paine and smart in the soule 75. Thus thou shalt know in what manner it is sinne before God thou hast in thy selfe the one eternall pure Element which is a joy in the presence of God and now if thou rage and rave with the source quality or property of Hell then thou touchest or troublest the Element and thou stirrest up the wrath and makest it to goe forth and thou doest as the Devill did when he awakened or stirred up and kindled the fierce wrath in the Fiat whereby the fiercenesse generated earth and stones thou sinnest piercing into the Heaven in the presence of God upon which the Prophets complained in many places That the disobedient did grieve their God though in himselfe he felt no paine yet his wrath was kindled in the first Principle in the Gate of the Deepe wherein the soule standeth and that is a meere abomination before him 76. Behold all whatsoever thou lettest into thy minde if thy soule be not inclined or yeelded up to God so that it beleeveth and trusteth in him then all whatsoever thou doest is sinne for thou bringest an earthly Minde into the Gate of the Deepe where the Spirit of God moveth walketh or goeth and thou defilest the Element which is in the presence of God 77. Thou wilt say How God dwelleth in Heaven O! thou blinde Minde full of Darknesse the Heaven where God dwelleth is also in thee as Adam was both upon Earth and also in Paradise at once and give
his beloved Heart and Sonne in the vertue of the meeknesse of the will viz. his Eternall Word from Eternity 86. And so should the Angelicall Man also set his will in the broken Gates of the Darknesse through the will of the Father wherewith the soule qualifieth or mingleth in the meeknesse of the Heart of God and then the source or quality of the Darknesse in the fierce wrathfulnesse should not have stirred him but he should have continued a glorious Prince of Paradise in triumph over the kingdome of Hell and of this world 87. But when he set his Imagination in the kingdome of this world then the bright and cleere will of his soule drew the swelled kingdome of the out-Birth to the soule into its will and so the pure Paradisicall soule became darke and the Element of the body did get the Mesch or Massa which the will of the soule of the minde attracted into the Element of the body and then he was a fleshly Man and gat the fiercenesse of the first Principle which the strong breaking through to God in the Gate of the Deepe did make to be hard Grissles and Bones 88. And wee are seriously and highly to know for it is seene in the light of Life that the marrow in the bones hath the noblest and highest Tincture wherein the Spirit is sweetest and the light clearest which may be knowne in the fire if you be not blinde with your gain-saying and it is accurately knowne that those places where the hard bones now are were wonders and vertue or power which have broken the Gates of the Darknesse in which power the Angelicall Man in the Light stood 89. Therefore the Providence of God when Adam fell into longing desire or lust environed that vertue and strength with the might of the first Principle viz. with the might of the Starres and sharpnesse of God that the source or quality of the first and third Principle might not so easily touch it and this was done in Adams sleepe when God built Adam to or for this world from whence Saint Paul also saith That the naturall Man was created in the corruptible life of this world which was done at the Temptation of Adam at that time when God made his naturall wife out of him but he was a holy Image before and he must be the same againe in his Restoration at the Last Day 90. Though the Devill and this world rage and rave against this yet it is neverthelesse the ground of Truth highly knowne in the wonders of God and not from the Fables or Suppositions such as the proud appearing-holy or hypocriticall world now ground their Babble upon about the Cup of Jesus Christ for the advancing of their pomp and haughtinesse their own honour and supposed wisdome for their pleasure and the filling of their Bellies Like the Proud Bride in Babylon who rideth upon the Evill Beast which devoureth the miserable Therefore thus saith the Spirit against Babell in the Confusion I have spewed thee out in the time of the wrath thou shalt drink of the Cup of thy Pride and thy source or Torment shall rise up in Eternity Of the voice of God in the Garden of Eden and the Conference between God and those two about sinne 91. So now when Adam and his Eve after the biting of the Apple beheld themselves then they perceived the monstrous Image and Beastiall Forme and they felt in themselves the wrath of God and the fiercenesse of the Starres and Elements for they took notice of the Stomack and Guttes into which they had stuffed the earthly fruit which began to take effect and they saw their beastiall shame and then they did lift up their mindes towards Paradise but they found it not they ran trembling with feare and crept behinde the Trees for the wrath had stirred their Essences in the Spirit with the earthly fruit and then came the voice of God in the Centre of the Gates of the Deepe and called Adam and said Adam Where art thou And he said Here am I and I am afraid for I am naked And the Lord said Who hath told thee that thou art naked Hast thou eaten of the Tree whereof I said unto thee that thou shouldest not eate thereof And he said the Woman gave to mee and I did eate and he said unto the Woman Why hast thou done so And shee said the Serpent beguiled mee so that I did eate 92. Here it may be seene very plainly that the Devill had lost his Angelicall Image and cometh now in the forme of a Serpent with his murtherous lying and beguileth the Woman because he had not been able to overthrow Adam wholly therfore he setteth upō the Woman and promiseth her wisdome and the riches of this world and that shee should be therein like God the Devill mingled lyes and truth together and said Shee should be as God but he meant according to the Kingdome of this world and according to the first Principle of the fierce wrath and let Paradise out But Eve understood it that shee should continue in the Paradise in the divine and pleasant Joy 93. Therefore it is not good to prattle with the Devill he is a lyar and murtherer from the beginning of his kingdome and a theefe also he cometh onely to murther and to steale as here with Eve and the Devill is the highest cause of the Fall for he strewed Sugar upon Adam so that he imagined or lusted after the kingdome of this world though Adam indeed did not see him yet he slipt into the Essences of the fierce soure sternnesse and did there strow Hells-Paradisicall-Sugar before him so that Adam lusted 94. But because he beguiled Adam and Eve with his Sugar therefore God hath prepared such a dwelling house for him as Adam lets forth from the earthly Sugar at the nethermost Exit and that shall be left for him at the corruption of the Earth when it goeth into its Ether and then that pleasant smell of the stinck of sinne and abominations in the kingdome of the fierce wrath shall remaine for him and that Sugar he shall eate Eternally and frame his will continually therein to get other Sugar in the furnace of the fire and then he may make that ready for him as may best sute with his pallat at which he quaketh and trembleth when he heareth the Spirit declare such things and hereby it is also signified to all the ungodly that they shall also eate the same Sugar Eternally which they have continually baked here with their blaspheming cursing covetousnesse scorne backbiting thorny-taunting murthering robbing and taking the sweat of the needy and miserable to maintaine their haughty stately Pride 95. And now when these two thus captivated by the Devill and this world stood before God with feare and great horrour and felt the anger of God and the severe Judgement then the Heart of God
let them take heed what they doe truly it is high time to awake from sleepe for the Bridegroome cometh 116. I. Wee Christians beleeve and acknowledge that the Eternall Word of God the Father became a true self-subsisting Man with body and soule in the body or womb of the virgin Mary without Mans interposing for wee beleeve that he was conceived by the Holy Ghost and borne of the body of the Virgin without blemishing of her virgin purity or chastity II. Also wee beleeve that in his humane body he dyed and was buried III. Also wee beleeve that he descended into Hell and hath broken the Bands of the Devill wherewith he held Man captive in pieces and redeemed the soule of Man IV. Also wee beleeve that he willingly dyed for our iniquities and reconciled his Father and hath brought us into favour with him V. Also wee beleeve that he rose againe from the dead on the third day and ascended into Heaven and there fitteth at the right hand of God VI. Also wee beleeve that he shall come againe at the last day to judge the living and the dead and take his Bride to him and condemne the ungodly VII Also wee beleeve that he hath a Christian Church here upon Earth which is begotten in his bloud and death and so made one body with many members which he cherisheth and governeth with his Spirit and Word and uniteth it continually by the holy Baptisme of his own appointing and by the Sacrament of his body and bloud to be one onely body in himselfe VIII Also wee beleeve that he protecteth and defendeth the same and keepeth it in one minde And now wee will heere following set downe all out of the Deepe Ground according to every things own substance what our knowledge is as far as is now necessary CHAP. XVIII Of the promised seede of the Woman and Treader upon the Serpent and of Adams and Eves going forth out of Paradise or the Garden in Eden Also Of the Curse of God how he cursed the Earth for the sinne of Man 1. WEE will not concoct the meate in the mouth and play with the mysteries to write one thing and confesse another with the mouth to please the eare as is used now adayes where they cover themselves continually with a strange cloake whereas all is nothing else but meere hypocrisie appearance and jugling or fighting with a shaddow The Spirit of God is not in such a one but he is a Theefe and a Murtherer and he useth his Pen for nothing else but his own Pride if he had power then he would himselfe cast all away though he should under a strange cover acknowledge it but with halfe a mouth He is to speake freely out of the Abysse of his heart and to write without a cover for Christ hath done away his covering or vayle and his loving countenance appeareth to the whole world for a witnesse to all People 2. Therefore let every one looke to it and take heed of the appearing holy hypocrites and flatterers for they are Antichrists and not Christs Ministers or servants for Antichrist hath set his foote upon the breadth of the Earth and rideth upon the abominable devouring Beast which is as Great as himselfe and indeed Greater Therefore it is highly necessary that every one feele or groape in his own bosom and consider his heart how it is inclined that he doe not deceive himselfe and unknowne to himselfe yeeld himselfe to be the servant or Minister of Antichrist and fulfill that Prophesie for he standeth now in the light of the eyes the time of his visitation is at hand he shall be manifested in the light of the life And beware of covetousnesse for thou sha not enjoy it for the wrath of the Beast breaketh the Mountaines and Hills to pieces and thy covetousnesse will partake of the fiercenesse the time is neere 3. Now when poore fallen Man viz. Adam and Eve stood thus in great feare horrour and trembling being fast bound with the bands of the Devill and of Hell in great scorne and shame before the Heaven and Paradise Then God the Father appeared to them with his angry minde of the Abysse into which they were fallen and his most loving heart went forth through the Word of the Father in Adam and Eve and placed it selfe before the wrath highly in the Gate of Mans life and enlightened the poore soule againe yet they could not comprehend it in the Essences of the soule but received the Rayes of the Almighty Power whereby Adam and Eve became glad againe and yet stood trembling by reason of the wrath or fierce horrour or grimnesse that was in them and heard the sentence which God pronounced for God said because thou hast eaten of the Tree whereof I told thee that thou shouldst not eate cursed be the ground for thy sake with care thou shalt maintaine thy life thereon all thy life long Thornes and Thistles shall it bring forth to thee and thou shalt eate the hearb of the field till thou become Earth againe from whence thou wert taken for thou art now Earth and to Earth you shall returne againe 4. Here now stand the great secrets which wee cannot see with our earthly eyes wholly naked and plaine and there is no vayle before it onely wee are blinde to the kingdome of God for God cursed the Earth and said it should now beare Thornes and Thistles and Man should eate the fruit of the accursed Earth This indeed is a new thing He allowed them not in Paradise to eate of the earthly hearbs but of the pleasant fruit And if he had eaten of the hearbs of the fields yet that which he had eaten was heavenly and when the Lord cursed the Earth then all became earthly and the holy Element was withdrawne and the fruit did grow in the issuing of the foure Elements in the kindling of the fiercenesse out of which Thornes and Thistles grew 5. Wee must conceive that there was then a very pleasant habitation upon the Earth for all the fruits did grow spring and bud out of the hidden Element through the fiercenesse of the foure Elements and although the foure Elements had also their fruits yet Man should not but the Beasts of the field should have eaten thereof but now when the Lord cursed the Earth then the Element withdrew from the roote of the Fruit for Gods cursing is nothing else but his flying from a thing and thus Gods holinesse is flien from the roote of the fruit and so the roote of the fruits remaineth in the foure Elements in the out-birth and Adam and Eve were also fallen thereinto and thus now like came to like his body also was become earthly and must turne to Earth againe 6. But that God did say Thou shalt turne to Earth from whence thou wert taken that is also very true but the understanding is hidden in
the Word and the earthly vayle hangeth before it wee must looke under the vayle For Adam was taken out of the earth not out of the foure issuings of the Elements but he was an Extract out of the Element which qualified or mingled with the Earth But when he fell into the foure Elements then he became Earth as also fire aire and water and now what should the Beastiall Man doe with the heavenly Paradisicall fruit he could not eate of it and therefore God doth not cast his heavenly kingdome to beasts and swine but it belongeth to Angels 7. So also it is very cleere and manifest that before the curse there grew such venomous or poysonous Thornes and Thistles and poysonous fruits and if God had not cursed the Earth from the one Element then no Beast should have been so fierce and mischievous or evill for God said Let the Earth be cursed for thy sake From whence now is also arisen the disobedience of the Beasts towards Man and their wildnesse or flying in their face as also that they are so cruell fierce mischievous and evill and that Man must hide himselfe from their fierce rage and fury whereas God in the Creation gave all into his power all Beasts of the field should be in subjection under him which now is cleane contrary for Man is become a Wolfe to them in devouring the Beasts and they are like Lyons against him and there is meere Enmity against one another he can scarce order the tame Beasts much lesse the wilde 8. And wee are to know that there was a great difference in the Beasts before the curse for some viz. the tame ones were very neer a-kinne to the Element with whom Man should have had joy and delight on the contrary some viz. the wilde ones which flie from Man were very neere a-kinne to the foure Elements for the causes of those wonders stuck wholly in the Essences and they were very well knowne and seene in the light of the life in the knowledge of the virgin there is nothing so deepe that Man cannot search into and see it most assuredly if he doe but put away the vayle and look through the Tables graven through with Joshua into the promised Land 9. And God said In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eate thy Bread till thou turne to Earth againe Here now all is cleere and manifest in the light for he had lost the heavenly fruit which grew for him without labour or toyle of his and now he must dig and delve in the earth and sow and plant and so in the foure Elements must get fruit in cares labour toyle and misery for while the Element or the vertue or power out of the Element sprung forth through the Earth there was so long a continuall lasting roote to the fruit but when the Element by the curse withdrew then the congealed Death frailty and transitory fading was in the roote and they must now continually be planted againe Thus the turmoyling life of Man took beginning wherein wee must now bath our selves 10. God could well have created creatures which should have managed the Beasts so that Man might well have stayd in Paradise in the Angelicall forme and besides that there are already in all the foure Elements creatures without a soule God would well have laid the labour or charge of managing the Beasts upon another generation which were also earthly But he saw well that Man would not stand therefore instantly the burthen was laid upon him as Moses also writeth of it 11. But if God would have had Beastiall Men then he would have created them so in the beginning and given them no Commandement neither should they have been tempted as indeed the Beasts have no Law 12. Therefore all Objections which fall into Reason are nothing else but the subtle contradictions or fallacies of the Devill who would very faine maintaine that God did will the Fall of Man There are also Men that dare to say that God did will it and say that he fitted the tongue of the Serpent to seduce Eve whose judgement is very justly upon themselves because they offer to confirme the Devils word with lying and goe about to make God a lyar 13. 'T is very true according to the first Principle viz. the Abysse of Hell he hath willed it but that kingdome is not called God there is yet another Principle and fast inclosure between but in the second Principle where God appeareth he hath not willed it Indeed all is Gods But the first Principle is the Band of Eternity which maketh it selfe from whence God the Father issueth forth from Eternity into the second Principle and therein he generateth his Heart and Sonne from Eternity to Eternity and there the holy Ghost goeth forth from the Father and the Sonne and not in the first Principle and Man is created for the second Principle 14. And therefore also the Heart of the second Principle by himselfe hath new regenerated him Man out of the Band of the first Principle and delivered him from the harsh or wrathfull Band and each Principle shall stand to it selfe in its own Eternity And yet God alone is Lord and alone Almighty but the Eternall Band is Indissoluble or else the Deity also would be dissoluble but now all must be to his honour glory and joy and he is alone the Creator of all things and all must stand naked before him as the Scripture saith Thou shalt see and rejoyce when the wicked are recompenced whereas in the second Principle there is no desire of revenge at all but in the sharpnesse of the breaking through out of the first Principle into the second where the soule straineth through from the torment into the joy there it rejoyceth that the Driver who plagued and vexed it is imprisoned and because now it is securely freed from him even as it is the joy of the Kingdome of Heaven that the Devill in the first Principle is imprisoned so that he cannot molest the Heaven any more and kindle the habitation of the Element 15. Therefore there is also very great Joy in Heaven for this world because there is a Principle generated so that the Devill can make no more use of the fierce wrath which he powred forth and kindled in the time of his Creation but is imprisoned between the two Principles which are both Good 16. Thus you must understand what it is or meaneth when the Scripture speaketh of revenging the ungodly that there is joy in the Saints at it for the fierce wrath or grimnesse and the source or torment of Hell is the Joy of the Heaven for if there were no source or paine there would be no flowing up or springing but if the light cometh to be in the fierce austere soure source then there is meere Joy and in the Darknesse there is a peculiar
enmity in it selfe and therein is the Eternall Worme generated 17. Therefore wee must know that God as he is all in all so where he is not in the love in the light there he is in the darknesse in the fiercenesse and source or torment for before the time of the Creation there was nothing but the source and over it the Deity which continueth in Eternity there is no other ground you can finde nothing more therefore give over your deep searching for it is the end of Nature 18. Although such Revelations have been hidden or concealed from the beginning of the world yet because it must now goe into its Ether and into the breaking-through therefore all standeth naked whatsoever hath been hidden in Nature and there shall very great things which have been hidden be revealed or manifested and this Mysterie is the break of Day Therefore it is time to awake for the awakening of the dead is neere at hand 19. Now when God had pronounced his sentence upon Adam and ordained the Treader upon the Serpent for him for his comfort and assistance in his toyle and misery upon Earth then he pronounced Eves sentence also and established her perfectly to be a Woman of this world and said to her Thou shalt beare Children with much paine and thy will shall be in subjection to thy Husband or Man and he shall be thy Lord and I will cause many paines to thee when thou art conceived with childe 20. And here it is as cleere as the Sunne that it was not intended that Man in the beginning should generate in such a manner for it should all have been done without paine without Beastiall impregnation without a wife or Woman and without a Husband or Man And therefore the Treader upon the Serpent was borne of a virgin without the seede of Man although now that also must be to be done in such a humane manner yet that was to this end onely that the Deity might enter into flesh and so might generate the soule of flesh againe out of the dark flesh out of Death into Life But else the Saviour or Champion is wholly the Virgins Sonne and a virgin-minde as the first Adam was in the Creation for you must earnestly and accurately consider and understand what manner of Person he is 21. First he is God and is in the Father of Eternity generated out of the Father of Eternity from Eternity without beginning and end out of the Depth of the Allmightinesse out of the broken Gates of the Sharpnesse or Depths of God in the Joy or habitation where the Father attracteth the pleasant Joy in his Eternall will whereby the will is impregnated with the attracted vertue of the light out of which impregnation the Father conceiveth the other or second will to generate the vertue and that conception or comprehension is his Word which the Father speaketh out of the will before the will out of himselfe and this speaking remaineth in the mouth of the Father as a comprehended word with the second will and the issue out of the spoken word which goeth forth out of the will through the Word is the Spirit and that which is spoken forth before the will is the Eternall wisdome of God the virgin of the chastity 22. For God generateth nothing else but his Heart and Sonne and will never generate any other thing out of himselfe Therefore that which is spoken forth before or from the will is a virgin of chastity which never generateth any thing else neither but shee discovereth her selfe in the Holy Ghost in infinitum infinitely in the Deepe of the wonders of the Allmightinesse and openeth them and shee hath the strong Fiat of God for an Instrument to work with whereby shee createth and did create all in the beginning and shee discovereth her selfe in all created things so that by her the wonders of all things are brought to the Day-light The strong Gate of the Incarnation or becoming Man of Jesus Christ the Sonne of God 23. And out of this Heart and Word of God the Father with and through the chast virgin of God of his wisdome of the Omniscience is proceeded the Treader upon the Serpent in and with the Word of the Promise of God the Father to Adam and Eve and their children and hath Imaged or imprinted it selfe in Adam's and Eve's minde and espoused it selfe in Eternity therein and opened for the soule the Gate to the Kingdome of Heaven and hath with the chast virgin set it selfe in the Centre of the light of life in the Gate of God and hath given the virgin to the soule for a perpetuall Companion from whence Man hath his skill and understanding or else he could not have understanding shee is the Gate of the senses and yet shee leaveth the Counsell of the Starres because the soule liveth in the source or quality of the Starres and is too rough crude or soure and therefore shee cannot imprint or unite her selfe with the soule yet shee sheweth it the way of God But if the soule become a hellish Worme then it withdraweth into her Gate and standeth before God before his Word and Heart 24. But because the soule of Adam and Eve and of all the children of Men were too rough wilde and too hard kindled from the first Principle so that they had the source of Hell in them being inclined to all evill malice or mischiefe therefore the Word and the Treader upon the Serpent did not so instantly Image or imprint it selfe in the soule of Adam but stood opposite to the Kingdom of the Devill and of Hell and against their poysonous Darts in the minde and in the Minde of those men which incline and yeeld themselves to the Treader upon the Serpent it breaketh the head of the Serpent the Devill 25. And so it was tried for a long time whether it were possible that Man should be recovered this way so that he might yeeld himselfe wholly to God that the soule might be borne in the Word and at last stand before God yet all was in vaine the kindled soule could not stand but there came to be Man-slayers and Murtherers also self-willed people in meere lechery and unchastity of the flesh also aspiring in state pride and domineering according to the Regiment of the Starres and Elements that driveth the body and soule of Man at all times and there were but few that did cleave to the Word of God 26. Then God sent the Deluge or Flood upon the whole world and drowned all flesh except Noah who did cleave to the Word of God he and his sonnes and their wives were preserved and so the world was tryed whether it would be afraid of the horrible judgement and cleave to the Word but it was all in vaine Then God chose to himselfe the Generation of Sem which did cleave to the Word that so he might
our Office sake As Aaron with his worship of the Calfe must be called holy in his Office and although they forgat Moses and rose up from eating and drinking to dance and to play and so also Aaron must be highly honoured and reverenced for his Ministry or service to the Calfe 67. But that the Kingdome of Christ on Earth in Babell might stand in great earnest zeale they say wee will ordaine a holy Divine service and worship of God that may be divers or seperated and set apart from the world and procure there that our Lawes may be in force and put in execution by them wee will impose great fasting Dayes and holy Dayes of feasting that the world also may have a looking Glasse of Holinesse and highly honour and reverence us and acknowledge that our Ministry or worship which wee performe when wee pray before God is holy wee must be the Holy Priests of God whosoever judgeth otherwise wee will condemne them and wee doe right in it and doe God good service by it For though an Angel should come from Heaven and preach any other Doctrine than wee he is accursed as Paul saith 68. Whatsoever wee have ordained at the Convention of the Chiefe Fathers Rulers Elders or Presbyters with the whole consent of our Concilium or Councell that is holy for it is written Thou shalt not curse the chiefe or Ruler of thy People And when our hearts before the light of Nature condemne us or that wee must stand ashamed of our selves before God and acknowledge our selves great sinners then wee will invocate the Holy Mother of Christ and his Disciples that they may pray for us that so our sinnes may not be knowne when wee goe in Pilgrimage to honour them and performe divine service or worship then shee will make intercession and speake to her Sonne for us and pray for us so that wee may thus in her service be holy and although wee stick continually in Beastiall lechery selfe-honour and voluptuousnesse yet that is no matter wee have the Keys of Peter and the Mother of Christ for our Assistance 69. Thus it is with the holy Priests as it was not Israels meaning in Moses concerning the Calfe to acknowledge it for a God and to account it for the true God because they knew that the Calfe was Gold and that the true God had made himselfe knowne to be otherwise and also they had good experience of the true God by the wonders which were wrought before Pharaoh but they would thereby worship and reverence the absent God and make a remembrance and worship of God for themselves As King Jeroboam with his Calfe-worship where yet the honour must be done to the true God 70. And as Jeroboams Calves were an abomination to God which he yet with earnest zeale set up to serve the true God thereby onely that he might but preserve his worldly Kingdome that the People might not fall from him when they were to goe up to Jerusalem to offer sacrifice and God rejected him and his whole house for it and as Moses came in wrath because of their Divine service before the Calfe and brake the Tables of the Divine Law and took his sword and one brother must slay the other because of their abominations and sinnes of false worshipping of God so also thou blind world in Babell of confusion seeing thou art fallen away from the every where present all knowing all-seeing all hearing all smelling and all-feeling Heart Jesus Christ and set upon thy own conceited wayes and doest not desire to see the gracious countenance it self of Jesus Christ and wilt not lay aside thy shame and whoredome thy appearing shew of holinesse or hypocrisie thy selfe conceited willfull pride might authority pomp and state but livest in thy invented holinesse for thy pleasure in covetousnesse gourmundizing gluttony and drunkennesse and in meere exalting of thy selfe in honour therefore the second Moses which was promised by the first and which Men should heare hath broken the Tables of his Law whereupon his precious Incarnation suffering Death Resurrection and entring into Heaven stood and hath stopt their entring into thy eares and he hath sent thee strong delusions out of the spirit of thy own invented shew-holinesse as Saint Paul saith so that thou beleevest the Spirit of lying and livest according to thy fleshly lust that so thy own invented shew-holinesse with thy false Key which doth not open the suffering and dying of Jesus Christ in his Death doth deceive thy selfe 71. For thou art not entered into the Father by the intercession of men but by the precious Incarnation of Jesus Christ and if thou doest not instantly turne in the last voyce of Gods call whereas many of you have been much called and goe out from Babell then Moses standeth in wrath and saith Gird every one his sword to his side and slay his brother in Babell and so thou destroyest thy selfe for the Spirit of thy own mouth will destroy thy selfe so that thou shalt be no more called Babell but fiercenesse wrath and sword within thy selfe which will consume thee and not spare for thou murtherest thy selfe thou great wonder of the world 72. O how have all the Prophets written of thee and yet thou knewest not thy selfe thou ridest so upon thy fatt pamperest Beast and that riding pleaseth thee so well that thou wilt rather goe to the Devill into the Abysse of Hell than that thou wilt light off thy Beast What shall become of thee then thou blind Babell doe but yet light off from thy great ugly Beast which indeed is thy might pomp state and pride behold thy Bridegroom cometh and reacheth forth his hand to thee and would lead thee out of Babell 73. Did not he walke on foote upon earth He did not ride so He had not whereon to lay his head what kingdome doe you build for him Where is the place of his Rest Doth he not rest in thy Armes Wherefore doest thou not embrace him Is he according to thy Reason too poore in this world yet he is rich in Heaven who wilt thou send to him to be reconciled to thee The Mother of Jesus O no that will not availe he doth not stand behinde thee and absolve thy wickednesse for thy inclination of falshood He knoweth not thy Letters which thou sendest to him by the Saints who are in the still Rest before him in the heavenly Element 74. The Spirit of their soules is in the stillnesse in the still habitation before God it doth not let thy rough sinnes come into it to sleepe upon them but its Imagination and whole will standeth directly bent into the Heart of God and the Spirit of the first Principle of its originall source sayth Lord when avengest thou our Bloud And the meeknesse of Jesus Christ saith Rest in the stillnesse till thy Brethren also come to thee who shall be slaine in Babell for the witnesse of Jesus 75.
it selfe in the midst againe into that the soule must enter againe and be borne anew 6. And that it might doe this therefore the Heart of God became a humane soule and slew by his entring into Death the Spirit of this world and brought the fulnesse of the Deity againe into his humane soule so that wee also may altogether in his as in our own humane soule through him presse into the holy Element before God and now there is nothing to hinder us but our own vile sluggish drowsinesse that wee suffer our selves to be so wholly and altogether lead by the Spirit of this world with pride exalting of our selves to honour and esteeme and greedy filling of the Belly with plenty and wee look no further to consider that wee are but Pilgrims and that as soone as the Spirit of this world hath laid hold of us in the Mothers body or womb wee are then Pilgrims and must travaile with our soules into another Countrey where the earthly body is not at home 7. For as this world breaketh and passeth away so also all flesh which is generated out of the Spirit of this world must breake and passe away Therefore now when the poore soule must depart out of this body wherein yet it is generated if then it hath not the new Garment of the Regeneration of the Holy Ghost in it and is not clothed with the Mantle of Christ with his Incarnation suffering Death and Resurrection in him then there beginneth great sorrow and unquietnesse viz. in those onely which at the breaking of their bodies are but in the Gate and so swim between Heaven and Hell and there then is need of wrestling and strugling as is to be seene by very many when they are a dying 8. There then the poore soule in the first Principle doth move in the Doore of the Deepe being clothed with the vertue or power of the Dominion or Region of the Starres appearing in that shape or forme of the body which it had here and many of them desireth this or that which was its last Will in hope thereby to attaine abstinence and quietnesse or Rest also many by night according to the sydereall spirit shew themselves very disquiet with tumbling and tossing of the body which our Learned Men from the Schoole of this world ascribe to the Devill but they have no knowledge or understanding in it 9. Seeing therefore that this is the weightiest Article and cannot be apprehended in such a way wee will describe the dying of Man and the departure of the soule from the body and try if it might so be brought to knowledge that the Reader may comprehend the true meaning of it 10. Mans Image borne of a Woman here in this life is in a threefold forme and standeth in three Principles or beginnings viz. the soule that hath its originall out of the first Principle out of the strong and soure Might of the Eternity and it swimmeth or moveth between two Principles begirt with the third Principle it reacheth with its originall Roote into the Depth of the Eternity in the source or quality where God the Father from Eternity entereth through the Gates of the breaking through and opening in himselfe into the Light of Joy and it is in the Band where God calleth himselfe a Jealous angry and austere God and is a sparkle out of the Allmightinesse appearing in the great Wonders of the wisdome of God through the deare virgin of Chastity and with the forme of the first Principle it standeth in the Gate of the sourenesse of Eternity mingled united or qualified with the Region of the Sunne and Starres and begirt with the foure Elements and the holy Element viz. the Roote of the foure Elements that is the body of the soule in the second Principle in the Gate before or towards God and according to the Spirit of this world the Region of the Starres is the body of the soule and the issue of the foure Elements is the source-house conduit-house or work-house or the Spirit of this world which kindleth the Region so that it springeth forth or worketh 11. And thus the soule liveth in such a threefold source or working quality being bound with three coards and is drawne of all three The first coard is the Band of Eternity generated in the rising up of the Anxiety and reacheth the Abysse of Hell The second coard is the Kingdome of Heaven generated through the Gates of the Deepe in the Father and Regenerated out of the birth of sinnes through the humanity of Christ and there the soule also in the Incarnation of Jesus Christ the Sonne of God is tyed up and is drawne by the deare virgin in the word of God The third coard is the Kingdome of the Starres qualifying or mingling with the soule and it is hard drawne and held by the foure Elements and carried and lead by them 12. But the third Kingdome is not also in the Eternity but is generated out of the one Element in the time of the kindling of the Fiat that now is corruptible and hath a certain seculum limit and time how long it shall last and so this Region in the soule when the light of Life kindleth it selfe hath also a certain seculum and time of its breaking and that kingdome bringeth Man up and giveth him the source of his manners conditions and disposition will and desires to evill and good and setteth him in beauty glory riches and honour and maketh him an earthly God and it openeth to him the great Wonders in him and runneth along with him inconsiderately to the end of his seculum terme and end and then it departeth from him and as it did help Man to his life so it helpeth him also to Death and breaketh off from the soule 13. First the foure Elements break off from the one Element and then the source or working faculty of the third Principle ceaseth and that is the most horrible thing of all when the foure Elements breake in themselves and that is the Death when the Brimstone Spirit which hath its originall from the Gall and kindleth the Tincture of the Heart is choaked where then the Tincture with the shadow of Mans substance goeth into the Ether and remaineth standing with the shadow in the roote of the one Element from which one Element the foure Elements were generated and gone forth and therein onely consisteth the woe in the breaking where one source-house is broken off from the soule 14. But if now the Essences of the first Principle of the soule have been so very conversant about or addicted to the Kingdome of this world so that the Essences of the soule have sought after the pleasures of this world onely in temporary honour power and bravery then the soule or the Essences out of the first Principle keepeth the starry Region to it still as its dearest Jewell with a desire to live therein but
which he had brought out of Egypt with great Wonders or Miracles among them to destroy them that they should turne to God and depart from covetousnesse and enter into brotherly love therefore he gave them a long time of respite as also to Israel whom he fed from Heaven for an Example that one people should be an Example to the other that there is a God that is Allmightie But they being earthly both of them and onely evill and being they did live in the Fathers fierce anger therefore the anger and severity of God lusted also to devoure them because they continually kindled it 24. Therefore he said to Joshua Passe over Jordan and destroy that people and leave none of them among you that you be not polluted This saying of his proceeded not out of his Love when he did bid him to kill the Heathens as also the Prophets did not all speak from his Love but from his Anger which was awakened by the wickednesse of Man so also he speaketh many times through the Spirit of the Prophets in the Great World in the Prophets and in Moses in the fire or in other terrors in an angry Zeale 25. And should wee therefore say that God is well pleased with anger and strife No the Prophets complained often in the Holy Ghost or Spirit of God that this evill people offended their God when they moved him to anger so that accordingly his severe wrath went forth and devoured them David saith in the fift Psalme Thou art not a God that are pleased with wicked wayes 26. Now if Man awaken sinne then the fierce anger or severity of God is stirred in himselfe viz. in Man which otherwise if Man did stand in humility would rest and be turned into great Joy as was often mentioned before But now when he burneth in wrath then one people devoureth the other and one sinne destroyeth another if Israel had been upright they had not been put to make warre but they should have entred in with Wonders and have converted the People Moses should have lead them into the promised Land with his Miracles or Deeds of Wonder but because they were wicked they could not enter in with the brightnesse of Moses with deeds of wonder in the lustre or glance of the Father to convert the Heathens but Moses with his deeds of wonder must stay in the Wildernesse and the whole People was consumed and devoured in the wrath and Joshua must warre with the Heathens and destroy them for one wrath devoured the other 27. Whereas Joshua was an Image and similitude that Israel because they could not subsist in the Fathers clarity and love should be led by the second Joshua or Jesus out of the wrath into the Love through the breaking of his body and entring into Death Moses must enter through Death into life and bring his clarity through Death into life even as he appeared with Elias on mount Thabor to the second Joshua or Jesus in the claritie of the Father and shewed him the pleasure of the Father viz. that he the second Joshua should bring Israel through his Death and clarity into the Promised Land of Paradise 28. Yet it could not be how vigorously soever it was sought after that Man in his own power could enter into Paradise and therefore poore captive Man must sit in this world in the Devils murthering Denne where now the Devill hath built his Chappell close by the Christian Church and hath quite destroyed the love of Paradise and hath in the stead thereof set up meere covetous proud selfe-willed or selfe-conceited faithlesse sturdy malicious Blasphemers Theeves and Murtherers which lift themselves up against Heaven and Paradise and have built themselves a Kingdome according to the Dominion of the fierce soure Starres or Constellations wherein they domineere with silver and gold and consume the sweat one of another whosoever is but able oppresseth the other to the ground And though he flie before him yet then he onely putteth forth his Dragons tongue and spitteth fire upon him he terrifieth him with his harsh voyce and plagueth him day and night 29. What can he said of thee O Cain doest thou suppose that God doth not see thee Thou Monstrous Beast thou shalt stand naked as the Spirit in the Wonders doth signifie that thy Ornament may be made knowne How art thou become thus O Eve are not all thy children which thou hast brought forth all come out of thy loynes Was it then the purpose of God that the evill should domineere among the Good and one plague another 30. O no But the Devill who is a cause of the wrathfulnesse Adam was made good out of the pure Element but the longing desire or lust of the Devill deceived him so that he went into the Spirit of this world 31. And now it cannot be otherwise the two Kingdomes wrestle one with another in the children of Men the one is the Kingdome of Christ Generated through the New Birth into Paradise that in this world is miserable and contemned there are not many that desire it for it hath meere scorne and contempt from the Devill and his followers it consisteth in righteousnesse and truth and that is not valued in this world and therefore it must lie at the Rich Mans doore with poore Lazarus and at his feete if any doe but let it appeare that they are the childe of God then the Devill will away with them presently or else will put them to such scorne and disgrace that they cannot be knowne that so the Devill may continue to be the Great Prince upon Earth and that the world may not learne to know him 32. The other Kingdome is that of Antichrist with a Golden Splendour or Glance Prancing in state Glistering on every side every one saith it is a happy thing for it adorneth it selfe most sumptuously and setteth its seate over the Hills and Mountaines every one saluteth it or doth it reverence it draweth the Tincture of the Earth to it selfe that it may glister alone it bereaveth the Kingdome of Christ of its temporall food livelihood or bread it devoureth the sweat of the needy and saith to him You are mine I am your God I will set you where I please you are the dogge that lieth at my feete If I had a minde to it I could hunt you out of my house you must doe what I will and the needy Worme must say I am your poore servant doe but spare my life and if he squeeze out the sweat of his browes so that it smarteth which his Master consumeth or spendeth then he groweth impatient with his Master and curseth him and seeketh out wayes of lying and deceit and by what way he might make his heavy burthen lighter 33. And then if he finde his Master so unjust he riseth up against him and taketh away his unrighteous Bread which he thinketh to eate under a soft yoake and worrieth him to
wholly according to the outward except they see that he despiseth God and blasphemeth the Holy Ghost in such a one there is no Divine Image And it is hard with him yet his Judgement is not in the time of this body the Gate of the Mercifulnesse standeth open towards him while he is in this Tabernacle 73. But after this life he shall attaine it no more except he hath hold of the Mercifulnesse of God by a Threed for God will not quench the smoaking flax as Isaiah saith though indeed he must bathe swimme or swelter in his sinnes till the Anger through the Death of Christ be overcome on which Threed he must hang and the Putrefaction is his Purgatory in his sinnes and no strange or distinct Heterogene Purgatory of which Antichrist feigneth and prateth but his own selfe Purgatory in his sinnes 74. And it is all vaine and idle which is said concerning Purgatory as the Wolfe of the Whores Beast seigneth or conceiteth for it is well knowne that after the outward life there is an Eternall life and that all sinnes are remitted here but as long as thou art between the Doore and the Hindges and hangest by a small haire thou art yet not wholly in the Eternall Life but if thou be once in the Eternall Life then thou art perfect or fully there whether it be in the Heaven or in the Hell out of that there is no Redemption for it is the Eternall Life 75. But while wee are thus speaking of the upright Abel we cannot say that the Kingdome of Heaven was not assisting in him and that he meerly out of his own might and power made himselfe such an upright honest Man for it was in the wrestling and overcame the Anger for Man is weake and ignorant and can doe little by his own Power or ability yet he hath the Imagination and the choosing or the free yeelding to a thing where then the Maker is ready before hand which maketh him to be according as his lust or desire is as is to be seene by Adam for when he longed and lusted in the Spirit of this world there instantly the Maker was present and made of an Angelicall Image a Man 76. The Lust or longing Desire is the introducing into a thing and out of the Lust cometh the forme or Image of the Lust viz. a Body and the source or active quality of sinnes sticketh therein and you may easier hinder the Lust than breake the Body which is very hard therefore it is good to turne away the eyes and then the Tincture goeth not into the Essences by which the Spirit is impregnated for the lust indeed is not the minde wholly but they are sisters for when the lust impregnateth the minde then it is already a halfe substance and there must necessarily follow a breaking or there cometh to be a whole substance and an Essence of a thing 77. Now Abel is the first Christian Church in Patience which God established that the Cainish Church should be converted by Abel he hath not therefore so rejected the Cainish Church that he would have no member out of it Understand it thus the true Christian Church standeth like a sheepe among Wolves though indeed wee are Men and not Wolves but in Minde and in Figure It teacheth the wicked and if he be converted then it hath gained him and he is figured into an Image of God and thereby Joy is caused among the Angels of God that the Kingdome of Heaven hath the victory 78. Or doest thou suppose that the word in Daniel is nothing Chap. 10. concerning the Angel Gabriel who said that the Prince in Persia withstood him one and twenty dayes and that our Prince Michael came to helpe him Thereby it may be seene how the Princes and Throne-Angells strive against the Kingdome of the fierce wrath and assist Men the cause whereof is this The Devill awakeneth the Anger against Men and the Angels of God viz. the Throne-Princes keepe it back because God yet willeth not Evill 79. Wee are especially to observe in Cain and Abel what their purpose was Cain was a Plowman or Tiller of the Ground and Abel was a Shepheard or keeper of sheepe Abel relyed upon the blessing of God towards his flock to maintaine himselfe by the blessing of God Cain relyed upon his own labour to maintaine himselfe by his own skill and industry Eve tooke part with Cain and Adam with Abel for Eve counted him to be the Prince on Earth to whom the Kingdome did belong and supposed that he as a Champion would chase and hunt away the Devill although shee knew him not 80. But if Men search very Deepe this that followeth they will finde is the very Ground Eve was the Childe in the Matrix of Adam which Adam if he had not been overcome should have generated out of himselfe in great modesty purity and holinesse but because Adams Matrix was impregnated from the Spirit of this world therefore God must frame a fleshly woman out of it which afterwards in her first fruit became lustfull and infected from the Devill as well as the Limbus in Adam 81. And therefore they also generated such a towardly childe as looked onely after covetousnesse as Eve also did who would be like God and surely Adam had some minde that way or else he should not have entred into the spirit of this world 82. And such also now was their Sonne Cain he supposed that he was Lord on Earth and therefore he grutched that his Brother should have any thing especially when he saw that he was accepted before God that vexed him and he thought that Abel should come to be Lord on Earth in his sacrifice he regarded not the feare of God though he as an appearing holy Man or hypocrite sacrificed also but he regarded onely the Region 83. And here the Antichristian Kingdome tooke its beginning where Men give God good words and their heart is possessed with covetousnesse and seek after nothing but power and authority to domineere over the needy and miserable who trust and relie upon God Therefore Antichrist hath his God in his Chist and in the strength of his power and behinde his cloake there hangeth a Fox He prayeth yet he desireth nothing else but the Kingdome of this world his heart doth not leave off to persecute and to hunt poore Abel But Abel prayeth to the Lord and his heart inclineth it selfe to the Love of God in the true Image for he desireth the Kingdome of Heaven and the Blessing of God here for his maintenance 84. Now the Devill cannot endure that a holy Church should grow up in his Dominions he will murther Abel still as he did then because Cain feared not God therefore the Devill gat an accesse to him and stirred up the inbred wrath in Cain against Abel that he slew him Here surely all
before supposed that he was the Man that should doe it and would doe it in his own power and might and here it was rightly tryed whether it were possible in ones own selfe-power through the lustre of the Father in the fire to possesse the Kingdome of God 97. But it was miserable and all in vaine for Cain in his tender humanity cryed woe woe is mee his sinnes were greater than he he could not in his own power presse in to God he trembled and at length stood amazed before the Abysse of Hell which had captivated him and held him in it he severed himselfe now also from the company of Men and said Now whosoever shall finde mee will slay mee for I must flie from thy face 98. And here is seene the seperating of the Christian Church from the Cainish where God expelled Cain that he must dwell in another place and the true understanding of these high hidden secrets sticketh wholly in the Word under the vayle of Moses and was almost never knowne yet but in the time of the Lilly it shall stand in the Wonders and thou Antichristian Church on Earth shouldst know that all whatsoever thou inventest without the Spirit of God for thy trimming and pride also for thy strength and power is gone forth with Cain from Abel out from the Church of Christ beyond Eden into the Land of Nod if thou art so highly learned and doest understand this in the Language of Nature what it is as thy flatterers in their Bonnet or promotion suppose they doe but they apprehend nothing but the foure Elements in the going forth with Cain and not the One Element before God therefore the same is the Babell of Confusion and of various Opinions and not the Ground in the One Element which standeth in one alone and not in multiplicity 99. Thou hast been a cleere Glasse in him of Mens own conceits or opinions what ones own good meaning without the Spirit of God is Cain went not into the Sheepfold at the Doore which God made for Adam and Eve with the Word and Treader upon the Serpent but climed into it another way by his strong Lyonish minde and would be a Lord over the Sheepe and became a theefe and murtherer of the Sheepe and the Sheepe followed him not but they went with Abel through the sword of the Angel or Cherubine out of this fraile and corruptible life with the Treader upon the Serpent into their resting sheepfold where there is not one wolfe for the Cherubine will let none of them in and if any of them doe come then he cutteth their Wolves heart of the fiercenesse of the Kingdome of this world cleane away and then they also become Sheepe and lay themselves patiently among the Sheepe and seek no more after the Wolfe for he is beyond Eden in the Land of Nod but they are gone through the sword of the Cherubine into Paradise where no Wolfe entereth in there is a Wall of a Principle and whole Birth before it 100. And thou Cainish Church with thy Lawes and Pratings thy acute Comments and Expositions of the Writings of the Holy Men or Saints who have spoken in the Spirit of God should look well upon thy selfe and doe not build thy voluptuous and soft Kingdome so much upon those things for they are most of them in Paradise they speake out of the Roote of the Holy Element through the out-Birth of the foure Elements and many times apprehend in the out-Birth the fierce wrath which Men had awakened therefore look to it that thou build no stubble straw or weeds thereupon if thou hast not the Spirit of understanding out of the Holy Element then let them alone doe not daube them with the foure Elements or else those things stand in Babell it is not good to build the foure Elements thereupon for the Cherubine standeth between and he will cut off whatsoever doth not belong to the Sheepfold thou wilt have no benefit of it for thy labour or work stayeth in the Land of Nod. 101. O Cain look but upon thy Kingdome and consider what besell thy Great Grand father Cain who built this Kingdome who cryed out woe is me my sinnes are greater than can be forgiven me when he saw himselfe with his Kingdome to be without God in the Abysse of Hell And if the loving Word of God had not recalled it when it said No whosoever killeth Cain it shall be avenged sevenfold and God made a mark upon him that none that met with him should kill him he had been quite lost Those are wonderfull words Moses face is so very much under the vayle for the vayle is rightly the Cainish Church which covereth the Kingdome of Christ 102. Here is the cleare and plaine ground and roote of the false Cainish Church for Cain had made himselfe a Lord of this world and built or relyed upon himselfe Yet now he had in himselfe nothing for a propriety but the first and the third Principle for as to his soule he was in the first Principle as all Men are and as to the body he was in the third Principle in the Kingdome of this world And now he should with his soule goe out of the Kingdome of this world and presse into the second Principle viz. into the Trust in God into the Word of the Promise to God as Abel did and labour with his hands in this world and Plant and Build but his minde should be directed to God in confidence and should commend the Kingdome of this world to God and carry himselfe therein as a travailing stranger which onely with this strange body is in his propriety as to the body and a stranger onely as to the soule and besides as an ashamed Guest like a Prisoner in it whose onely study should be to get againe into his true Native Countrey out of which he is gone forth with his father Adam but he let the second Principle the Kingdome of Heaven goe and yeelded himselfe wholly with his soule into the Kingdome of this world where he would be Lord and so the Anger took hold on him for he went out from the Word the Promise of Grace 103. And then the Word stood against him in the Centre of the Heaven and he stood in the Roote of the fiercenesse against the Word for his Spirit went out of the Gate of the Centre of Heaven and stood in the source or active property of the Originall of the Creation in the fierce Roote of the fire and desired the Out-Birth out of the Holy Element which also stood in the kindling in the fiercenesse viz. the foure Elements 104. His Anger against Abel came from hence because Abel stood not in this Birth and his Spirit would not endure the Kingdome of Abel in his Kingdome for he would rule as by his own power in the two Principles wherein he stood
of Ruling was most profitable that the wicked Driver might be stopped by power and authority 40. And so it is seene how the Providence of God is come to the help of the Kingdome of this world and hath by the Spirit of this world stirred up Rulers who have inflicted punishment yet the Spirit of God complaineth of them that they are turned Tyrants who suppresse all with their power and the Abellish Church in love consist not therein but the strong might of God for the suppressing of evill Doers 41. It is true indeed the Judges and Kings as also Princes and Rulers or Magistrates are the Officers of God in the house of this foure Elementary world whom God because of sinne hath set to punish secretly that thereby the wicked drivers and oppressours might be stopped 42. And their state condition Jurisdiction or authoritie is founded in the Originality of the Essence of all Essences where God in the beginning created the Thrones according to his Eternall Wisdome where then both in Heaven and also in Hell there are Thrones and Principalities and also a Region or Dominion according to the seven Spirits of the Eternall Nature of which here much ought not to be said for the World holdeth it impossible to know such things whereas yet a Spirit borne in God searcheth into the Kingdome of Heaven 43. But a true Judge who judgeth according to righteousnesse he is Gods Steward viceroy or vicegerent in the Kingdome of this world and that it might not be needfull that God should alwayes powre forth his wrath upon the people and Nations therefore he hath put the sword into their hands to protect and defend the righteous and to punish the Evill and if any doe so in earnest uprightnesse in the feare of God and nothing partially for favour then he is Great in the Kingdome of Heaven for he beareth the sword for righteousnesse and he shineth as the Sunne and Moone exceeding the Starres 44. But if he turne tyrant and doth nothing but devour the bread of his subjects and onely adometh his state and dignity in pride to the oppression of the needy and hunteth after nothing but covetousnesse accounting the needy to be but his dogges and placeth his Office onely in voluptuousnesse and will not heare the oppressed then he is an insulting tormenting Prince and Ruler in the Kingdome of Antichrist and is of the number of the Tyrants and he rideth upon Antichrists Horse 45. And wee are to consider how the true Christian Church is environed with the Cainish Antichristian Church and how they live in one onely Kingdome in this world As the first Principle incloseth all and yet can comprehend or hold nothing but the Kingdome of Heaven is from Eternity brought forth out of the Anger as a faire sweet smelling flower out of the Earth so also the holy Church standeth in the Antichristian where they both together goe to pray before God and one is accepted by God and the other is accepted by the Spirit of this world each Image goeth into its own Region or Kingdome 46. There is nothing more secret in this world than the Kingdome of Christ and also nothing more manifest than the kingdome of Christ And it is often so that he who supposeth he hath it and liveth therein hath it not but hath the Kingdome of Antichrist and he is an hypocrite and scorner and hath the Serpents figure and his heart also is but the heart of a greedy Wolfe and he standeth not in the Angelicall Figure 47. On the contrary many a one is in great anguish and longeth after it and generateth very painfully he would faine have it but then the Devill rusheth upon him and after stirreth up irksomnesse vexation and discontent and also overwhelmeth him with great sinnes so that he knoweth not himselfe and then dejecteth him with impatience and doubting and his heart standeth continually in anguish it would faine get out of Evill and endeavoureth continually for abstinence or for bearance many times with groanes sighing and longing But then the Devill holdeth his sinnes before him and barreth up the doore of the Grace of God that he might despaire 48. Yet he soweth the Pearle in his afflicting anguish and the Devill covereth it in him that he may not know it neither doth he know himselfe he soweth into the Kingdome of God and knoweth not his own seede but the seede of Sinne and of the Hunter And so he consenteth not to the sins which he committeth but the Devill with his followers or associates over powre him so that the Adamicall Man in the Anger doth that which the new borne Man in the holy Element willeth not now though he doth it yet the new Man in the Image doth it not but the old Man in the Anger And therefore there is in him a continuall strife and he runneth continually to repentance where yet the hidden Man in the Anger cannot reach the Lilly but the hidden Man doth it 49. Therefore he standeth often in doubt and impatience and in such a Man there is great strife he knoweth not himselfe he seeth and knoweth nothing else but his wickednesse and yet is borne in God for his Spirit continually breaketh the gate of the Darknesse but then the Anger in him doth hold him back that he cannot enter in but yet sometimes he reacheth a Glimpse from whence the soule is cheared and the Pearle is sowen in a very dark valley 50. And then when he considereth the sweet fore tast of the Pearle which he had then the soule would faine goe through and it seeketh the Pearle but then cometh the Black Spirit and covereth it from him and then the storme and strife about the Pearle beginneth each would have its right the soule would have it and then the Devill covereth it and casteth the wrath and sinne before it that the soule should behold it selfe therein then there falleth to be weaknesse and neglect so that the poore soule becometh weary faint and timorous and so sitteth still and thinketh continually of some other way to Abstinence or Amendment how it might best get the Pearle 51. But the Hunter is a cunning Artist which cometh then with the Region of this world with worldly lusts of the flesh with temporall honour and riches and holdeth them before the poore soule that it might bite at his Swines-Apples thus he leadeth many a one for a long while with his Chaines captive in the Anger of God 52. But if the Noble Graine of Mustard-seede be sowen then the Noble virgin of God preserveth it and maketh the poore soule continually carefull to endeavour for Abstinence and to enter into fight with the Devill O what a wonderfull way is it the Children of God goe in this miserable house of flesh which the Reason of the Hypocrites neither comprehendeth nor can beleeve onely they that have tryed it
permit thy holy one to perish 47. The Deity was in the humane soule and here it brake the sword of the Cherubine so that as Adam had brought his soule into the Prison of Anger and so afterwards all soules from Adam are generated such and are all of them as in one Roote imprisoned in the Anger of Death till Christ so the Noble Champion Christ here destroyed Death in the humane soule and brought the soule through Death into his eternall New Humanity and put it into an Eternall Covenant 48. And as Adam had opened the Gate of the Anger so hath the Deity of Christ opened the Gate of the Eternall Life so that all men can presse in to God in this opened Gate For the third Principle is broken here and Judgement passed upon the Prince of Darknesse which so long held us prisoners in Death 49. But since Man is so slow of apprehension it may be wee shall not sufficiently be understood and therefore wee will once more set it downe briefly and accurately how these great Mysteries are for wee know what Adversary wee have viz. the Prince of this world he will not sleepe but try what he can to suppresse this Noble Graine of Mustard-seede 50. Behold thou Noble Minde thou who desirest the Kingdome of God to thee wee speake and not to the Antichrist in Babell who desireth nothing else but the Kingdome of this world take notice of it the time of sleepe is past the Bridegroom cometh for the Bride saith Come be in earnest gaze not at the hand that used this Pen it is another Pen that hath written this which neither thou nor I doe know for the Minde if it be faithfull apprehendeth the Deity and doe not so slight thy selfe if thou art borne in God then thou art greater and more than all this world 51. Observe it the Angel said to Mary Thou shalt conceive and beare a Sonne and skalt call his Name Jesus he shall be great and be called a sonne of the most High and God the Lord shall give him the Throne of his Father David and he shall be a King over the house of Jacob Eternally and of his Kingdome there shall be no end 52. You must understand Mary was to conceive in the body viz. in her own body not in a strange assumed body as the unenlightened who apprehend not the Kingdome of God might interpret our Writings to meane Besides it is not the ground neither which the Ancients and those heretofore have set downe which yet went very high as if Mary from Eternity had been hidden in Ternario sancto the holy Ternary or Trinity and that shee entered at that time onely into Anna as into a Case or house and were not of the seede of Joachim and bloud of Anna. They say shee was an Eternall virgin out of the Trinity of whom Christ was borne because he came not out of the flesh and bloud of any Man and as himselfe witnesseth that he was not of this world but was come from Heaven he saith That he came forth from God and must returne againe to God and to Nicodemus he said None goeth into Heaven but the Son of Man which is come from Heaven and who is in Heaven 53. And there he spake cleerly of the Son of Man of his humanity and not of his Deity meerly for he saith plainly The Sonne of Man But God from Eternity was not the sonne of Man and therefore no sonne of Man can proceed from the Trinity therefore wee must look upon it aright If Mary had proceeded out of the Trinity where should our poore captivated soules have been If Christ had brought a strange soule from Heaven how should wee have been delivered Had it been possible to redeem Man without it what needed God to come into our forme and be crucified If it could have been so then God should instantly have seperated or freed Adam from Death when he fell or doest thou suppose that God is so maliciously zealous as to be so angry without a Cause 54. Indeed when his wrath was sprung up in Man then he would manifest his wonders but that was not the purpose of God when he created Adam but it was tried which of them should get the victory the Meeknesse or the fiercenesse in the Eternall Roote but the soule in Adam was yet free and there was nothing else that could perish but the own will 55. And so now the soule was the will which was breathed into Adam by the Spirit of God out of the Eternall will of the Father and yet out of that place where the Father viz. God out of the Darknesse in his own re-conceived will entereth into himselfe and in himselfe generateth the meeknesse in his own re-conceived will 56. And so the soule of Man is out of the same Balance in the Angle of the re-comprehended will towards the light and also in the first will in it selfe in its own Centre where behinde it the Darknesse is comprehended and before it is the end of the Eternall Band and in it selfe there would be nothing but an anxious source or property and if any thing else were to be in it then the first will in the eternall Band must conceive another will in it selfe to goe out of the dark source or property into a joyfull habitation without a source 57. If now the first eternall will doe thus conceive another will then it breaketh the source of Darknesse and dwelleth in it selfe in the joyfull habitation and the darknesse remaineth darknesse still and a source or working property in it selfe but toucheth not the re-conceived will for that dwelleth not in the Darknesse but in it selfe thus wee understand the soules own power to be which God breathed into Adam out of the Gate the breaking through in himselfe into the Light of the habitation of joy 58. This soule being cloathed with the pure Elementary and Paradisicall Body severed its will which came out of the Fathers will which tendeth onely to the conceiving of his vertue or power from whence he is impregnated to beget his Heart and severed it from the Fathers will and entred into the lust of this world where now backward in the breaking or destruction of this world there is no light and forward there is no comprehensibility of the Deity and there was no Counsell or remedy except the pure will of the Father enter into it againe and bring it into his own will a gaine into its first seate that so its will may be directed againe into the Heart and Light of God 59. And now if it be to be helped againe then the Heart of God with its Light and not the Father must come into it for it standeth in the Father however yet turned away from the Entrance to the Birth of the Heart of God backward into this world where no Light is to be comprehended either behinde or before it for the substance of the body breaketh
soule of Christ is my brother and that the Holy Trinity is the foode and vertue or strength of my soule Who can judge mee lay hold of mee and destroy mee when I am in my true Man in God When as I am Immortall in my new Man wherefore should I be much afraid in the Earthly Man which belongeth to the Earth Let every thing take its own and then my soule will be freed from the Driver 26. Or what shall I say Must I not in this Body which I here in the Earthlinesse carry about mee through the New Man reveale the Wonders of God that so his Wonders might be manifested I speake not onely concerning my selfe but concerning all Men good and bad every one must manifest the Great Wonders wherein he standeth in his Kingdome whether it be in Love or Anger after the breaking or dissolution of this world it must all stand in the Figure For at present this world standeth in the Creating and in the Sowing and is like a field which beareth fruit 27. Thus wee every one of us labour and finish our dayes-worke every one in his own field and in the Harvest every one shall stand by his Labour and enjoy his fruit which he hath sowen therefore my hand shall not be weary of digging this wee speake seriously according to its high worth in the Wonders of God knowne in the Counsell of the Noble Virgin Of the use of the highly Precious Testaments of Christ the Sonne of God 28. Christ began the use of the Baptisme by John who was his forerunner and John was borne into this world before Christ which hath its signification therefore open thy eyes As the water is in the Originality and a cause and beginning of the life and then in the water by the Tincture the Sulphur is first generated wherein the life becometh stirring and the Tincture generateth againe the Sulphur and the water wherein afterwards the bloud in the Tincture cometh to be And thus now as the beginning of the life is so must also the Order in the Regeneration be that the poore soule first receive the water of Eternall Life and be Baptized therein and then God giveth it the Graine of Mustard-seed of the Pearle that so if it receive the same it may become a new fruit in God 29. And therefore he sent his Angel hither before him that he should baptize with the water of the Eternall Life for so can the Eternall Body into which the soule must enter and in its Tincture in its bloud be new borne againe be translated into the body of Christ to describe which a great space is requisite But I will finish here briefly and mention it more in another Booke and now wee will handle the matter of the use or Celebration for it is very hard to be apprehended by the simple And therefore wee will deale with him after a childish manner to try whether he may come to see and finde the Pearle for all shall not finde what wee in the Love of God have found though indeed wee could earnestly wish that all might have it yet there is a great matter between it viz. the swelled puft up Kingdome of this world and the Devill will set themselves against it as raging Dogs but the smell of the Lilly will make him faint and so now wee will speake as a childe 30. The Minister in a Brotherly Christian office of the Covenant and Testament of Christ taketh water and upon the Commandement of Christ in his Covenant and Testament sprinkleth or powreth it upon the Head of the Infant in the name of the Covenant and in the name of the Holy Trinity of the Father of the Sonne and of the Holy Ghost this was the Command of Christ and therewith he hath set up his Covenant with us and it is a Testament which he afterwards confirmed with his Death and wee must doe it also and not leave it undone it is not in the liberty of a Christians will to doe it or leave it undone but if he will be a Christian he must doe it or else he contemneth his Testament and will not come to him 31. For the Testatour standeth in the Covenant and saith Come and whosoever doth not desire to Come goeth not in to him Therefore it lyeth not in our high knowledge for he standeth in his Covenant and the childe that is newly Borne is as acceptable to him as an old sinfull Man that repenteth and steppeth into his Covenant For it lay not in us that he became Man and received us into his Love but it lay in his Love in his Mercy for wee knew nothing of him nor did we know whether wee could be helped or no but he alone chose us and came to us out of Grace in our Humanity and took pitty on us and so also the Covenant of his Promise was a Covenant of Grace and not out of our foreknowing or merit And therefore whosoever teacheth otherwise is in Babell and confoundeth the Covenant of Christ 32. For Christ said also Let little Children come to mee for to such belongeth the Kingdome of God Say not What doth Baptisme availe a childe which understandeth it not The matter lyeth not in our understanding wee are altogether ignorant concerning the Kingdome of God If the childe be a bud growen in thy Tree and that thou standest in the Covenant wherefore bringest thou not also thy bud into the Covenant Thy Faith is its Faith and thy confidence towards God in the Covenant is its confidence It is indeed thy Essences and generated from thy soule And thou art to know according to its exceeding worth if thou art a true Christian in the Covenant of Jesus Christ that thy childe also in the kindling of its life pisseth into the Covenant of Christ and though it should die in the Mothers womb it would be found in the Covenant of Christ For the Deity standeth in the Centre of the Light of Life and so now if the Tree stand in the Covenant then the Branch may well doe so 33. But thou must not omit Baptisme for all that for when the childe is borne into the world then it is severed from its Tree and is in this world and then it selfe must passe into the Covenant and thou must with thy Faith present it and with thy Prayer give it to God in his Covenant there needeth no pomp about it that doth dishonour the Covenant it is an earnest thing 34. Theâ—e are three Witnesses to this Covenant the one is called God the Father the other God the Sonne and the third is God the Holy Ghost these are the work masters who doe the office they Baptise or Administer Baptisme But if thou filthy trimmed whore now comest thus stately and bringest the poore soule to the Covenant of Christ and doest but stand
the same was the second Adam faine to beare upon his shoulders for he was fallen into the Anger of God and now if that must be allayed and reconciled then the second Adam must set himselfe therein and yeeld his outward body with all Essences therein and he must goe through Death into Hell into the Anger of the Father and reconcile it with his Love and so himselfe must undergoe that hard condition wherein wee must have been in Eternity 36. And now when this earnest businesse was taken in hand that the Saviour of the World hung on the Crosse as a curse and wrestled with Earth and Hell he said I thirst O that Great Thirst the fierce wrathfull Kingdome was weary as also the Kingdome of this world they desired strength and the Kingdome of Heaven thirsted after our soules it was a Thirst of all the Three Principles 37. And when he saw John with his Mother under the Crosse he said Behold that is thy Mother and to her he said Behold that is thy Sonne and instantly that Disciple tooke her to him His Mother signifieth his Eternall new Humanity which he had received in his Mother viz. in the holy Ternary which wee should take to us and refresh our selves with his Mother and therefore he shewed her to John of which very much might be written but this shall be expounded in another place 38. And this is as cleere as the Sunne that as the poore soule in us hangeth between two Kingdomes which both keepe it altogether imprisoned so must Christ hang between two Malefactours take this into great consideration and weigh it well it is a most serious matter and wee see the whole terrible earnest severity that when the soule of Christ brake off from the Earthly Body when it passed into the Anger of the Father viz. into Hell then the Earth trembled and the stony Rocks cleft in sunder also the Sunne lost its Light and this wee see cleerly and understand it from the mouth of Christ 39. When he now had undergone all the reproach and sufferings he said on the Crosse It is finished while he yet lived in the Earthly Body he said it was finished understand all that should have remained upon us Eternally and should have sprung up in us with all the ignominie in which wee stood before Hell and the Kingdome of Heaven he had all that laid upon him concerning which Esaiah saith Surely he bare our infirmities and tooke upon him our transgressions yet wee held him as one smitten of God tormented and afflicted but he tooke upon him our diseases and all our miseries were laid upon him and through his wounds wee are healed wee all went astray like sheepe every one hath looked upon his own way and yet wee could not help our selves but wee went as miserable halfe slaine sheepe and wee must let the Devill in the Anger of God doe with us what he will for wee beare on us a monstrous Garment and stand in great ignominie before Heaven and Hell 40. Even as God reproached Adam in the Garden of Eden when he had put the outward Garment upon him saying Behold Adam is become as one of us All this reproach and scorne must the Man Christ take upon him also all torment and misery into which Adam was fallen this Champion in the Battle must beare upon him before his heavenly Father and there was the Lambe of God and he hung upon the Crosse as a Patient Lamb in our stead for wee should have been afflicted Eternally in our Crosse-Birth and therefore there hung in great Patience as an Obedient Lamb for the slaughter the Prince of the Eternall Life and set himselfe before his Father as if he himselfe were the Transgressour The Gate of the Great Secret 41. Heare my beloved Reader if thou art borne of God open the eyes of thy Spirit wide that the King of Glory may enter into thee and open thy understanding consider every syllable for they are of great moment they are not mute neither are they from a blinde Centre brought forth into the Light Behold here hung on the Crosse God and Man there was the Holy Trinity there were all the Three Principles and the Champion stood in the Battle 42. Now which was the Champion in the Battle Behold when Christ had finished he said Father I commend my Spirit into thy hands and he inclined his head and departed Behold his Father is the Kingdome Power and Glory and in him is All and All is his the Love is his Heart and the Anger is his Eternall Strength the Love is his Light and the Anger is the Eternall Darknesse and maketh another Principle wherein the Devils are 43. Now it was the Love that became Man and had put on our humane soule and the soule that was enlightened from the Love and stood with its Roote in the Anger as in the strong Might of the Father and now the New Man in the Love commended the soule to the Father into his Might and yeelded up the Earthly Life which proceeded from the Constellations and Elements viz. the Kingdome of this world and so the soule now stood no more in the Kingdome of this world in the source of Life but it stood in Death for the Kingdome of this world the blower up of Life the Aire was gone 44. And now there was nothing more on the soule but onely that which it selfe is in its own Eternall Roote in the Father And here wee should have remained in the Anger in the dark Hell but the bright Father in his Glory tooke the soule to him into the Trinity Now the soule was cloathed with the Love in the Word which made the Angry Father in the innermost source of the soule pleasant and reconcilable and so in this Moment in the Essences of the soule the lost Paradise sprung up againe whereupon the Earth trembled viz. the Out-Birth out of the Element and the Sunne the King of the Life of the Third Principle lost its Light for there rose up another Sunne in Death understand in the Anger of the Father the Love was shining like a bright Morning Starre 45. And thus the Body of Christ on the soule was the pure Element before God out of which the Sunne of this world is generated and the same Body included the whole world and then the Nature of this world trembled and the Stony Rocks cleft in sunder for the fierce wrathfull Death had in the Fiat congealed and concreted the Stony Rocks together and now the Holy Life went into the fierce wrathfull Death whereupon the Stones did cleave asunder to shew that the life stood up againe in Death and did spring forth through Death 46. And then also the holy Bodies went out of the Graves consider this well those that had put their trust in the Messiah had in the Promise gotten the pure Element for a new Body and now when the Promised
hand of God the Father 107. The right hand of God is where the Love quencheth the Anger and generateth the Paradise that must needs be the Right hand of God where the Angry Father is called God in the Love and Light of his Heart which is his Sonne and this bodily Throne viz. the whole body of Christ is wholly at the Right hand of God but when it is said at the right hand of God then understand the most inward Roote of the sharpe Might of the Father wherein the Omnipotence consisteth where the Father himselfe goeth forth into the re-conceived will into the meeknesse and openeth the Gate in the dispelling of the Darknesse in himselfe thus Christ is set therein and sitteth thus at the Right hand of the vertue or power and Omnipotence in such a manner as wee cannot more highly expresse it with our Tongue wee understand it well in the Spirit therefore it is not needfull for you to search any further into it but onely looke that you attaine the Body of Christ and then you have God and the Kingdome of Heaven but wee must write thus because of the Errours in the world and for their longings sake that are therein 108. But when you aske Doth Christ sit or stand or lye along then you aske as if an Asse should aske about his sack he carrieth how the Taylor made it yet the Asse must have provender given him that he may carry the burthen the longer Behold Christ fitteth in himselfe and standeth in himselfe he needeth no chaire nor footstoole his power is his stoole there is neither above nor beneath there And as you see in the vision of Esaias that was full of eyes behinde and before above and beneath so the body of Christ the holy Trinity shineth in the whole Body and needeth no Sunne nor day-light CHAP. XXVI Of the Feast of Pentecost Of the sending of the Holy Ghost to his Apostles and the Beleevers The Holy Gate of the Divine Power 1. NOw saith Reason if Christ ascended thus with his body which he offered up on the Crosse when was he Glorified in his body Or how is his body now is it now as his Disciples saw him ascend into Heaven My beloved Reason my Earthly eyes see it not but the spirituall eyes in Christ see it very well The Scripture saith He is Glorified and Lord over all but wee will open to you the Gate of the Great Wonders that you may see what wee see 2. Behold when God the Father had brought Israel into the Wildernesse to Mount Sinai and would give them Lawes in which they should live then he commanded Moses to come up the Mountaine to the Lord and the rest of the Elders must stay a farre off and the people below the Mountaine and Moses went up the Mountaine alone to the Lord and there appeared the brightnesse or Glory of the Lord and on the seventh Day he called Moses and spake with him concerning all the Lawes And the countenance of Moses was Glorified from the Lord so that he could stand before him and speake with him Thus also the Man-Christ in Ternario sancto in the Holy Ternary when he was ascended into his Throne was Glorified on the ninth Day in the Holy Trinity 3. Understand it right his soule in the Creature was not first Glorified but his whole Body or Princely Throne there went forth out of the Centre of the Holy Trinity the Holy Ghost as you see cleerly that those who had put on the Spirit of Christ were highly enlightened for the Holy Ghost went forth from the Centre of the Trinity into the whole holy Element and did flow into the Mercy of God and as he Triumphed in the Body of Jesus Christ so also in his Disciples and in the Beleevers 4. There were opened all the Doores of the Great Wonders and the Apostles spake with the Languages of all Nations and so it may be seene cleerly that the Spirit of God had opened all the Centres of all Essences and spake out of them all for Christ was the Lord and the Heart of all Essences and therefore the Holy Ghost went out of all Essences and filled the Essences of all Men which turned their eares with a desire to it and in that he pressed into all and every one heard out of his own Essences and Language the Spirit of God spake out of the Disciples and the Holy Ghost was borne in the bodies of all their hearers which had but an earnest desire to it and they were all filled for the Spirit of God pierced through into their hearts as he pressed forth out of the Centre of the Trinity into the whole body and Plincely Throne of Jesus Christ and filled all outwardly in the Clarity or Glory 5. Thus all the holy soules were filled so that their whole body in all Essences was made stirring from the exceeding pretious vertue or power which went forth in the Wonders in power and in Deeds that were done there And here is set before us the vertue or power of the Father in the Fire in his severe Omnipotency on Mount Sinai also the Still Loving vertue of the Sonne of God in the Love and Mercy for wee see that wee could not at all live in the Father in the source of the Fire and therefore Moses brake the Tables and the people fell away from God 6. But now when the Meeknesse was in the Father then the Love held the Anger captive and the Love went out of the source of the Father and that was the Holy Ghost in the Wonders There stood the highly worthy heavenly Virgin of the Wisdome of God in her highest Ornament with her Garland of Pearles there stood Mary in Ternario Sancto of which the Spirit in the Antients hath spoken wonderfully And here Adam was brought into Paradise againe 7. And now if wee will speake of the Glorification of Christ and of his body which he visibly and in that forme in which he had conversed upon Earth ascended withall then wee must say that as the Love of the Heart of God hath reconciled the Anger of the Father and holdeth it as it were captive in it so also the Holy Ternary hath comprehended the hard palpable body of Christ viz. the Kingdome of this world as if it were wholly swallowed up whereas it is not swallowed up but the source of this world is destroyed in Death and the holy Ternary hath put on the body of Christ not as a Garment but virtually or powerfully in the Essences and he is as it were swallowed up to our apprehension and sight and yet is really and shall come againe at the Last Judgement-Day and manifest himselfe in his own body which he had here that all may see him be they good or bad and he shall also come in the same forme to keepe the Judgement of the Separation for in his Divine Glorified forme wee
and new who for the most part onely stuck in the Old Man and had no knowledge of God and so taught according to their own conceits from the written words and expounded them according to their own meanings 19. And when they saw that great respect and honour was given to the Teachers they fell to ambition pride and greedinesse of money for the simple people brought them presents or gifts and they thought that the Holy Ghost dwelt in the Teachers whereas the Devill of Pride lodged in them and it came to that passe that every one called himselfe after his Masters name whose Doctrine he prized most one would be of Paul another of Apollo another of Peter and so forth And because the Saints used not the same kinde of words and expressions in their Teaching and Writings though they spake from one and the same Spirit therefore the Naturall Man which being without the Spirit of God knoweth nothing of God began all manner of strife and Disputations and to make Sects and Schismes and they set themselves up for Teachers among all sorts of People not for Gods sake but for temporall honour riches and pleasure sake that they might live brave lives For it was no very hard labour and worke to hang to the bare Letter and such strife and contention arose amongst them that they became the most bitter enemies and haters one of another and none of them were borne of God but their Parents held them close to the Scripture that they might come to be Teachers that so they might be honoured in and for their children and that their children might live bravely 20. And so it fell out that every one would get the greatest conflux of people he could that he might be esteemed by most people and these Lip-Christians did so multiply that the sincere hearty desire to God was left and they onely looked upon the Lip-Priests who did nothing but cause strife and contentions and they all vapoured and boasted of their own Art and skill which they had learned in the Schooles and Universities and cryed loe here is Christ come running hither thus and thus hath Paul written and another saith come hither here is Christ thus and thus hath Peter written he was the Disciple of Christ and had the keyes of the Kingdome of Heaven this cannot be amisse they doe but deceive you follow after mee 21. Thus the poore ignorant people looked upon the Mouth-Apes those greedy covetous Men which were no other than vizard-Priests and so lost their deare Immanuel for Christ in them from whence the Holy Ghost goeth forth which driveth and leadeth Men and who at first had begotten them with power and Miracles must now be nothing but a History and they became but History-Christians yet so long as the Apostles and their true Disciples lived they stopped and reproved such things and shewed them the right way but where they were not there the History Priests mis-led them as may be cleerly seene in the Ephesians 22. And so the Kingdome of Christ grew not in Power onely but for the most part in the History the Saints borne in Christ they confirme that many times with great Wonders or Miracles and the History-Priests of Baal they alwayes built upon those Miracles of the Saints same that which was good for the promoting vertue and good manners many brought forth thistles and thornes that they might make strife and warres many sought onely great honour dignity and glory that it should be conferred upon the Church of Christ and her Ministers as it may be seene in Popery out of what Roote it is growne And it came so farre that they mingled the Jewish Ceremonies in their Doings as if the Justification of a poore sinner didlye in them because they were of Divine appointment for which cause the Apostles held the First Councell at Jerusalem where the Holy Ghost concluded that they should onely cleave to Christ in true Love one to another and that was the onely Justification before God 23. But it availed not Pride would erect its Throne and set it above Christ the Devill would be God and they made Glosses that they might bring it to passe in such a way that the simple people might not take notice of it there the Keys of Peter must govern the Citie and they drew together with the Keys Divine Authority to them and so could use the Divine Power in deeds and wonders no more for they desired to be rich and wealthy upon Earth and not to be Poore with Christ who in this world as himselfe witnesseth had not whereon to lay his head they would not be such Christians in power and wonders As Adam who would not live in the Power but in a great Heape of Earth that he might have something to take hold of And heere may be rightly seene our Misery which Adam brought us into that our Essences alwayes reach after the Spirit of this world and desire onely to fill themselves with a great Heape from whence Adam and wee all have gotten such a swelled grosse untoward body full of sicknesses contrariety and contentious desires 24. Now when the Historicall Christendome and the true Christians grew together the Scepter was alwayes among the Learned who exalted themselves and made themselves potent and great and the simple Church yeelded to it as right and yet there was a desire after the Kingdome of God found in Men v. z. the Noble Word of God which had imprinted it selfe in the Promise in Paradise in the Light of Life and which was made stirring by Christ that drave them indeed to the feare of God And then they built great Houses of Stone and called every one thither and they said that the Holy Ghost was powerfull there and they must come thither besides they durst be so impudent to say when they were found to be so wicked and malitious that the Holy Ghost was powerfully in the mouth of the wicked 25. But thou Hypocrite thou lyest if thou art ungodly thou canst not raise the Dead thou canst convert none that in this world lyeth drowned in finnes thou mayest stirre the heart of the Beleever indeed through thy voyce which is a work of the Spirit but thou bringest forth none out of Death into life it is an impossible thing For if thou wilt convert a poore sinner which is drowned in sinne and lyeth captive in the Anger then the Holy Ghost must be in thy mouth and thy Essences must take hold of his and then thy Light will shine in him and thou shalt raise him out of the Death of sinnes and with thy Love in thy Tincture catch him and then he will come to thee with a hearty desire longing after the Kingdome of Heaven and then thou art his Confessour and hast the Keys of Peter and if thou art voyde of that thou hast no Keyes 26. As the Confession is so is the
in a friendly humble loving Spirit together with good sound Reason this will dispell and drive away the smoak of the Devill and flourish in its time Therefore let none thinke that when strife goeth on and he getteth the upper hand now it is well and right and he that is under and subdued let him not thinke sure I am found to be in the wrong I should now goe to the other opinion or side and help that party to prosecute the other no that is not the way such a one is meerely in Babell 33. But let every one enter into himselfe and labour to be a righteous Man and feare God and doe right and consider that this his worke shall appeare in Heaven before God and that he standeth every moment before the face of God and that all his works shall follow after him and then the Lilly of God springeth and groweth and the world standeth in its Seculum AMEN FINIS AN APPENDIX OR Fundamentall and true Description of the Threefold Life in Man First Of the Life of the Spirit of this world in the qualities and Dominion of the Starres and Elements Secondly Of the Life of the Originality of all Essences which standeth in the Eternall indissoluble Band wherein the Roote of Mans soule standeth Thirdly of the Paradisicall Life in Ternario sancto viz the Life in the New Regeneration which is the Life of the Lord Jesus Christ wherein the Angelicall Life is understood as also the Holy Life of the New Regeneration All searched out very fundamentally in the Light of Nature and set downe for the comfort of the poore sick wounded soule that it might seek the holy life in the new Regeneration wherein it goeth forth out of the earthly and passeth into the life of Jesus Christ the Sonne of God By the same Author 1. BEcause in our foregoing Writings there are some words which the Reader may not perhaps apprehend especially where wee have written that in the Resurrection of the Dead we shall be in the Body of Christ in Ternario Sancto where wee call the sernarius sanctus Holy Earth which must not be understood of Earth but of the holy Body out of the holy vertue or power of the Trinity of God d that b y Ternarius sanctus is properly understood in our writings the Gate of God the Father from whence all things proceed as out of one onely substance Therefore wee will instruct the Reader of the Second Booke of our Writings a little more fundamentally that he may not hang so to the bare letter and make a Historicall matter of our Writings but that he may observe the minde and spirit what that Spirit meaneth when it speaketh of the Divine Life and useth not alwayes the same words and names 2. For if wee look into the Creation of God wee finde very wonderfull things which yet in the beginning proceeded out of one onely Fountaine for wee finde evill and good life and death joy and sorrow love and hate weeping and laughing and wee finde that it all sprung out of one onely substance for that may very well be seene in all Creatures especialiy in Man who is the similitude of God as Moses writeth and the Light of Nature convinceth us Therefore wee ought to consider of the Threefold Life in Man which is found so also in the Gate of God the Father 3. If wee consider of the alteration how the minde is changed as it is how suddenly joy is turned into sorrow and sorrow into joy then wee ought well to consider from whence that taketh its Originall For wee finde it all to be in one and the same minde and if one forme property or quality riseth and getteth above the other there then presently something followeth so that the minde collecteth all its thoughts together and sendeth them to the Members of the Body and so the hands the feete the mouth and all goe to worke and doe something according to the desire of the minde and then wee say that forme or property that driveth the work is predominant qualifying and working above other formes wherein yet all other formes of Naturelye yet hidden and are subject to that one forme And yet the minde is such a wonderfull thing that suddenly out of one forme that is now predominant and working more than all other it bringeth forth and raiseth up another and quencheth the forme that was kindled before so that it becometh as it were a nothing as may be seene in joy and sorrow 4. Now therefore when wee consider whence all taketh its Originall wee finde especially three formes in the minde wee speak not heere of the Spirit of this world onely for wee finde that our minde hath also a desire or longing after another minde and that it is anxious for that which the eyes of the body see not and which the mouth tasteth not and the feeling of the earthly body doth not perceive neither doth the earthly eare heare it nor the nose smell it which yet the Noble Minde can see raste feele perceive and heare if the forme of the Divine Kingdome in that minde he predominant or qualifieth more than the other two there then instantly the other two are as it were haise dead and overcome and the Divine forme riseth up alone and then it is in God 5. And wee see also how instantly the Minde raiseth up another forme and maketh it predominant viz. the Spirit of this world in covetousnesse pride in the oppressing of the needy and lifting up it selfe onely and so drawing all to it whereupon then instantly also the third forme breaketh forth out of the Eternall Indissoluble Band as falshood envy anger and malice so that the Image of God is as it were dead and overcome where then the minde in this manner is in the Anger of God in Death in the Jawes of Hell over which Hell in the Anger of God insulteth for hereby its Jawes are set wide open and it becometh predominant but when the Divine forme breaketh forth againe then the Kingdome of Hell is overcome and as it were dead and the Kingdome of Heaven cometh to be predominant and working againe 6. Therefore S t Paul saith To whom you yeeld your selves as servants in obedience his servants you are whether of sinne unto Death or of the obedience of God to righteousnesse and that source or property wee have and in that Kingdome wee live and that Kingdome with the property thereof driveth us seeing then heere in this life all is in the sowing and in the growing therefore the harvest also shall one day follow where then the one Kingdome shall be seperated from the other 7. For there are in the minde of Man Three Principles all which Three in the Time of this foure Elementary Life he may open but when the body is broken then he liveth in one Principle onely and then he hath lost the Key and can open no other