it selfe back into the Anguish of the foure formes of the Originall and will horribly f Or Worke in continuall generating as the breath goeth in and out continually for the preserving of life 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 g Or Strong fierce wrath of the fire and so they perished and remained Devils 22. Yet if the soule elevate its h Or exercise its thoughts and purposes in resignation 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 i Verbum Domini Word of the Lord and getteth vertue power life and strength in the i Verbum Domini 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 k Laughing for joy rejoycing and the fountaine of the Eternall l Or Halelujahs 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 m Note what is possible to be spoken of and what not 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 n Or Dominion of the anger of God 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 o The whore of the Beast Antichrist till the wrath be executed upon her whoredome and that shee have received her full wages and that the p Or Ornament of her kingdome 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 the other Creatures seeing you can search what is in every thing and consider farther from whence the Elements Fire and Aire take their Originall and how the Fire cometh to be in the Water and generateth it selfe in the Water and how the light of your body generateth it selfe in the Water 25. And then if you be borne of God you attaine to what God and the Eternall Birth is for you see feele and finde that all these must yet have a higher roote from whence they proceed which is not visible but hidden especially if you look upon the starry Heaven which endureth thus unchangably therefore you ought to consider from whence it is proceeded and how it subsisteth thus and is not corrupted nor riseth up above nor falleth downe beneath though indeed there is neither above nor beneath there Now if you consider what preserveth all thus and whence it is then you finde the Eternall Birth that hath no beginning and you finde the Originall of the Eternall Principle viz. the eternall indissoluble Band and then secondly you see the separation in that the materiall world with the Starres and Elements are out of the first Principle which containeth the outward and third Principle in it for you finde in the Elementary Kingdome or Dominion a cause in every thing wherefore it is generateth and moveth as it doth but you finde not the first cause from whence it is so there are therefore q Viz. The first and the third Principle Two severall Principles for you finde in the visible things a corruptibility and perceive that they must have a beginning because they have an end 26. And thirdly you finde in all things a glorious power and vertue which is the life growing and springing of every thing and you finde that therein lyeth its beauty and pleasant welfare from whence it stirreth Now look upon an hearb or plant and consider it what is its life which makes it grow and you shall finde in the Originall harshnesse bitternesse fire and water and if you should separate these foure things one from another and put them together againe yet you shall neither see nor find any growing but if it were severed from its own mother that generated it at the beginning then it remaineth dead much lesse can you bring the pleasant smell nor colours into it 27. Thus you see that there is an Eternall Roote which affordeth this and if you could bring the colours and vegetation or growing into it yet you could not bring the smell and vertue into it and thus you will finde in the Originall of the smell and of the taste there must be another Principle which the stock it selfe is not for that Principle hath its originall from the light of Nature 28. Now look upon the humane life a little further you neither see finde nor apprehend any more by your sight than flesh and bloud wherein you are like other Beasts secondly you finde the Elements of aire and fire which r Or Mingle themselves worke in you and that is but an animall or beastiall life for every beast hath the same in it from whence proceedeth the lust to fill them and to propagate themselves as all plants hearbs and grasse and yet you finde no true understanding to be in all these living creatures for although the Starres or Constellations doe operate in Å¿ Animall or Beastiall man Man and afford him the senses yet they are onely such senses as belong to nourishment and propagation like other Beasts 29. For the Starres themselves are senslesse and have no
figure of all u His or Mans works its works and x Or substance things or businesse matters which he hath wrought at any time 44. But in the New Man which wee attract on to our soules in the bosom of the virgin wee shall spring and flourish againe and therein is no necessity nor Death for the Kingdome of this world passeth away Therefore he that hath not this Image in the new Birth shall in the Restoration of the Spirit of the Eternall Nature have the Image of what his heart and Confidence hath been set upon here put upon him for every Kingdome Imageth or figureth its Creatures according to the Essences which were groyne here in their will 45. And that you may rightly and properly understand us wee meane or understand here no strange Christ who is not our Brother as himselfe said at his resurrection Goe to my Brethren and your Brethren and tyll them I goe to my God and to your God As indeed the body which wee here carry about us is not the Image of God which God created for the Kingdome of this world put its Image upon us when Adam consented to yeeld to it and wee if wee be regenerated are not at home in this world with our New Man as Christ said to his Disciples I have called you out of this world that you should be where I am and Saint Paul saith Our Conversation as to the New Man is in Heaven Thus wee understand also that our Immanuel who is the most holy of all with his true Image of God wherein also our true Image of God doth consist is not of this world but as the Old Mortall Man from the Kingdome of this world hangeth to us so our Mortall Man also hung to the Image of God in Christ which he drew from his Mother Mary as the pure Element draweth the Kingdome of this world to it 46. But now wee must not think that the holy Man in Christ dyed for that dyeth not but the mortall Man from the Kingdome of this world is that which dyeth that was it which cryed on the Crosse My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee and wee see very cleerly the great Might and power of the holy Man in Christ when the mortall which was taken from this world went into Death how the holy Allmighty Man wrestled with Death in so much that the Elements did shake with it and the Sunne which is the Light of the Nature of this world lost its splendor as if it were then to perish and then the living Champion in Christ fought with the Anger and stood in the Hell of the Anger of God and loosed the soule which he commended into his Fathers hands quite off from the Anger of God also from the source or Torment of Hell and that was it which David said Thou wilt not leave my soule in Hell nor permit thy holy one to y Rot consume or corrupt perish 47. The Deity was in the humane soule and here it brake the sword of the Cherubine so that as Adam had brought his soule into the Prison of Anger and so afterwards all soules from Adam are generated such and are all of them as in one Roote imprisoned in the Anger of Death till Christ so the Noble Champion Christ here destroyed Death in the humane soule and brought the soule through Death into his eternall New Humanity and put it into an Eternall z Contract Espousall or Marriage Covenant 48. And as Adam had opened the Gate of the Anger so hath the Deity of Christ opened the Gate of the Eternall Life so that all men can presse in to God in this opened Gate For the third Principle is broken here and Judgement passed upon the Prince of Darknesse which so long held us prisoners in Death 49. But since Man is so slow of apprehension it may be wee shall not sufficiently be understood aod therefore wee will once more set it downe briefly and accurately how these great Mysteries are for wee know what Adversary wee have viz. the Prince of this world he will not sleepe but try what he can to suppresse this Noble Graine of Mustard-seede 50. Behold thou Noble Minde thou who desirest the Kingdome of God to thee wee speake and not to the Antichrist in Babell who desireth nothing else but the Kingdome of this world take notice of it the time of sleepe is past the Bridegroom cometh for the Bride saith Come be in earnest gaze not at the hand that used this Pen it is another Pen that hath written this which neither thou nor I doe know for the Minde if it be faithfull apprehendeth the Deity and doe not so slight thy selfe if thou art borne in God then thou art greater and more than all this world 51. Observe it the Angel said to Mary Thou shalt conceive and beare a Sonne and shalt call his Name Jesus he shall be great and be called a sonne of the most High and God the Lord shall give him the Throne of his Father David and he shall be a King over the house of Jacob Eternally and of his Kingdome there shall be no end 52. You must understand Mary was to conceive in the body viz. in her own body not in a strange assumed body as the unenlightened who apprehend not the Kingdome of God might interpret our Writings to meane Besides it is not the ground neither which the Ancients and those heretofore have set downe which yet went very high as if Mary from Eternity had been hidden in Ternaris sancto the holy Ternary or Trinity and that shee entered at that time onely into Anna as into a Case or house and were not of the seede of Joachim and bloud of Anna. They say shee was an Eternall virgin out of the Trinity of whom Christ was borne because he came not out of the flesh and bloud of any Man and as himselfe witnesseth that he was not of this world bur was come from Heaven he saith That he came forth from God and must returne againe to God and to Nicodemus he said None goeth into Heaven but the Son of Man which is come from Heaven and who is in Heaven 53. And there he spake cleerly of the Son of Man of his humanity and not of his Deity meerly for he saith plainly The Sonne to Man But God from Eternity was not the sonne of Man and therefore no sonne of Man can proceed from the Trinity therefore wee must look upon it aright If Mary had proceeded out of the Trinity where should our poore captivated soules have been If Christ had brought a strange soule from Heaven how should wee have been delivered Had it been possible to redeem Man without it what needed God to come into our forme and be crucified If it could have been so then God should instantly have seperated or freed Adam from Death when he fell or doest thou suppose that God is so maliciously zealous as to be so
Fall he did illustrate or manifest himselfe by the holy Eternall Virgin of his Wisdome in the Eternall Wonders in x Barmhertzigkeit mercy which alwayes floweth out of his heart and did comprehend with his speculation or manifestation the Throne and did further illustrate himselfe in the Throne into many millions without number and established his Covenant with his Oath therein with his precious Promise of the Womans Seed 19. Thus my very precious minde apprehend it aright This same Throne was made in Time when as the Time of his Covenant was revealed an Angelicall Principality in the mercy of God in the holy Pure Element in the Sacred Ternary that is in the holy Earth wherein the Deity is substantially knowne so that the whole Mercy of God which is unmeasurable and every where in the Sacred Ternary which is likewise so great in the holy Element that comprizeth Heaven and this world became a Man that is a substantiall Similitude of the Spirit of the Trinity in which likenesse the Trinity dwelleth with compleat-fulnesse and in this great Angelicall Throne and Principality stood in the beginning and from Eternity the Aspect in the infinite multiplicity proceeding from all the Essences in the Limbus of the Father and became truely illustrate or manifest in the Time of the Promise 20. Thus now even unto this very day all things are yet in the Fiat or creating and the Creation hath no end untill the judgement of God where that which hath growne on the holy Tree shall be separated from the unholy Thistles and Thornes and wee men are these innumerable aspects or idea's in the Fiat of the great Princely Throne and we who are holy shall be created in the body of this Prince in God but we that degenerate or perish shall be cast out as naughty y Fruit. apples unto the swine of the Devill 21. Thus we were foreseen or elected in Christ Jesus before the foundations of the world were laid that we should be his Angels and Servants in his high Princely Throne in the body of his Element in which his Spirit viz. the holy Trinity will dwell 22. This I would clearly demonstrate unto thee z Or upon it as by an Example in the Kingdome of this world yea in all things thou shalt not be able to name any thing out of which I will not demonstrate it unto thee if God gave us leave but seeing it will here take up too much roome I will write a booke by it selfe of it if the Lord permit 23. Therefore my beloved soule be lively and see what thy noble Bridegroom hath left thee in his Testaments for a Legacy as namely in the Baptisme the water of his Covenant flowing from his holy Originall body whereas we in this world viz. in the externe birth of his body do acknowledge foure things namely fire aire water and earth wherein our earthly body consisteth So likewise in the heavenly body there are foure such things The fire is the enkindling of the divine desire The water is that which the fire desireth whence it becomes meeke and a light The aire is the joyfull spirit which bloweth up the fire and maketh in the water the motion And the earth is the true Essence which is borne in the Three Elements and is rightly called Ternarius Sanctus the Sacred Ternary in which the Tincture is brought forth in the light of the meeknesse and therein also is borne the holy bloud out of the water being an oyle of the water in which the light shineth and the spirit of life consisteth 24. Understand it thus that water is the water of the Eternall Life in the a Or seede Limbus of God in the Holy Ternary and that is the water which baptizeth the soule when wee keepe the b Or Celebration use of his Testament for the soule in his Covenant is dipped and washed in that water and it is rightly the Bath or Laver of Regeneration for by its dipping in the Holy Water it is received and quickned by the holy Water and cometh in the Covenant of Christ into the soule of Christ indeed not fully into his soule but into his body and becometh the Brother of the soule of Christ for Christs soule is a Creature as our soules are and is in the body of the Mercifulnesse in the Trinity being surrounded therewith and hath the same in it for food and strength or refreshment So also our soules in the Covenant if they be faithfull and continue in God they are the brethren of Christs soule 25. For Christ hath taken this Pledge viz. our soule from us Men in Mary at which wee rejoyce in Eternity that the soule of Christ is our Brother and the Body of Christ our Body in the Mew Man And should I not rejoyce that my soule is in the body of Christ and that the 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 c Spoyle or hurt mee 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 d Or rid of the Driver freed from the e Or from corruption 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 f Gods 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 t Or seed time 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 h Or be in his employment by his Labour and enjoy his fruit which he hath sowen therefore my hand shall not be weary of l Diving or searching digging this wee speake seriously according to its high worth in the Wonders of God knowne in the Counsell of the k The wisdome of God Noble Virgin Of the l Celebration or Participation 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 m Or beginning of the
never at all be able to reach it 71. For he is alwayes shut up in the first Principle as in the eternall Death and yet he raiseth himselfe up continually thinking to reach the heart of God and to domineere over it for his bitter sting in the birth climeth up thus eternally in the k Or Roote source of the fire and affordeth him a proud will to have all at his pleasure but he attaineth nothing his food is the l Fountaine of poyson source of water viz. the Brimstone-spirit which is the most aking mother from which the indissoluble band is fed and nourished his refreshing is the eternall m Viz. the cold fire fire an eternall freesing in the harsh mother an eternall hunger in the bitternesse an eternall thirst in the source of the fire his climeing up is his fall the more he climeth up in his will the greater is his fall like one that standing upon a high clift would cast himselfe downe into a bottomlesse pit he looketh still further and he falleth in further and further and yet can finde no ground 72. Thus he is an eternall enemy to the heart of God and all the holy Angels and he cannot frame any other will in himselfe His Angels and Devils are of very many severall sorts all according to the Eternall Birth For at the time of his Creation he stood in the kingdome of Heaven in the point Locus or place where the holy Ghost in the birth of the heart of God in Paradise did open infinite and innumerable Centres in the eternall Birth in this seate or place he was n Or Created bodified and hath his beginning in the opening of the o In the opening of the ground as a building from the Earth Centres in the Eternall Nature 73. Therefore as is mentioned before in the third Chapter when the Birth of life sprung up every Essence had againe a Centre in it selfe according to its owne property or quality and figureth a life according to its Essences viz. Harshnesse bitternesse fire and sound and all further according to the ability of the eternall birth which is p Or established confirmed in the kingdome of Heaven 74. Seeing then that they stood in Heaven in the time of their Creation therefore their quality was also manifold and all should have been and continued Angels if the great fountaine Lucifer from whence they proceeded had not destroyed them and so now also every one in his fall continueth in his own Essences onely the second Principle is extinguished in them and so it is also with the soule of man when the light of God goeth out in it but so long as that shineth therein it is in Paradise and eateth of the word of the Lord whereof shall be clearly spoken in its due place CHAP. V. Of the third Principle or creation of the materiall world with the Starres and Elements wherein the first and second Principle is more clearly understood 1. BEcause I may happen not to be understood clearly enough by the desirous Reader and shall be as one that is altogether dumb to the unenlightned for the eternall and indissoluble band wherein the Essence of all Essences standeth is not easily nor in haste to be understood therefore it is necessary that the desirous Reader do the more earnestly consider himself what he is and from whence his Reason and a Inward senses or thoughts Senses do proceed wherein he findeth the similitude of God especially if he consider and meditate what his Soul is which is an eternall uncorruptible Spirit 2. But if the Reader be b Or be in true resignation born of God there is no neerer way for him to come to the knowledge of the third Principle then by considering the new Birth how the soul is new born by the love of God in the light and how it is translated out of the prison or dungeon of darknesse into the light by a second birth And now if you consider that darknesse wherein it must be without the new birth and consider what the Scripture saith and what every one findeth by experience that falleth into the wrath of God and whereof there are terrible examples that the soul must endure irksome torment in it self in the birth of the life of its own self so long as it is in the wrath of God and then that if it be born again exulting great joy ariseth in it and thus you finde very clearly and plainly two Principles as also God Paradise and the kingdome of Heaven 3. For you finde in the root of the originall of the spirit of the soule in it self in the substance of the eternall birth and uncorruptible eternall band of the soul the most exceeding horrible inimicitious irksome c Or torment or working property source wherein the soul without the light of God is like all Devils wherein their eternall source consisteth being an enmity in it self a will striving against God and goodnesse it desireth nothing that is pleasant or good it is a climbing up of pride in the strength of the fire a bitter fierce odious malice or wrathfulnesse against Paradise against God against the kingdome of heaven also against all creatures in the second and third Principle lifting up themselves alone against all this as the bitternesse d In wrath or anger doth in the fire doth 4. Now the Scripture witnesseth throughout and the new-born man findeth it so that when the soul is new born in the light â—f God then on the contrary it findeth how very humble meek courteous and cheerly it is it readily beareth all manner of crosses and persecution it turneth the body from out of the way of the wicked it regardeth no reproach disgrace or scorn put upon it from the Devill or Man it placeth its confidence refuge and love in the heart of God it is very cheerfull it is fed by the word of God in which there is a Paradisicall exulting and triumph it cannot be hurt or so much as touched by the Devill for it is in its own substance wherein it stands in the first Principle of the indissoluble band enlightned with the light of God and the holy Ghost who goeth forth out of the eternall e Generation begetting or working birth of the Father in the heart and in the light of the heart of God he goeth forth in it and establisheth it the childe of God 5. Therefore all that it doth seeing it liveth in the light of God is done in the love of God the Devill cannot see that soul for the second Principle wherein it liveth and in which God and the kingdom of heaven standeth as also the Angels and Paradise is shut up from him and he cannot get to it 6. In this consideration you may finde what I understand by a Principle For a Principle is nothing else but a new birth a new life besides there is no more than one Principle wherein there
Executioner 67. He is Executioner in the kingdome of this world the Starres are the Councell and God is the King of the Land and whosoever departeth from God falleth into the Councell of the Starres which run many upon the sword and make them lay violent hands upon themselves and bring some to a Rope others to the water and there he is very busie and is the Driver or Executioner 68. Into this great misery Man is fallen and he is fallen quite d Into the bosom home to the kingdome of the Starres and Elements as to his body what these doe with him that he is and that standeth in the substance they make one great another small one straight another stooping and crooked they send one fortune and riches and another poverty of one they make a crafty subtill Man according to the counsell and kingdome of this world and of another they make an Ideot they make one a King and they breake and pull downe another one they kill another they bring into the world and continually drive the minde of Man yet into nothing else but into vaine turmoile discontent and vexation 69. Besides the kingdome of Hell and of fierce wrath alwayes gape after the soule and set their jawes wide open to devoure the captive soule which is held fast fettered with two strong chaines the one of the kingdome of Hell the other of the Kingdome of this world and is continually led by the heavy lumpish beastiall and sickly body as a Theefe who is often led to the place of Execution and still by a Petition reprieved and laid in prison againe and the poore soule must lye thus in Prison the whole time of the body where the Devill on the one side very suddenly rusheth upon it with his devouring fiercenesse wrath and malice and would carry it into the Abysse then instantly it is beat upon by the glistering flattering world with pomp bravery covetousnesse and voluptuousnesse oâ— Perdition presently againe cometh upon it sicknesse and feare and it is continually trembling and quaking and when Man goeth but in the dark how is it amazed and continually afraid that the Executioner will take it and e Or Execute Justice doe execution upon it The Gate or Exposition of the great sinne and contrariety of will against God * CoÌ„mitted by or through Man in Man 70. If wee did well consider the abominations and great sinnes of Man before God which our first Parents inherited for us then wee should scarce ever be merry in this world at all if the Spirit of this world did not cast foolish fancies and seeming joyes and pleasures before us in our imprisonment or if the Regeneration did not cause us so highly to rejoyce that wee shall once be delivered out of this Prison for in this life wee finde nothing else but meere abomination sinne misery and death and scarce attaine in this temporary life so much as a glimpse of the Eternall Joy 71. Now the minde asketh What is sinne then How is it sinne Wherefore hath God a loathing against the substance which he hath created Behold thou childe of Man there is no sinne in Heaven in the presence of God onely in thy selfe there is sinne and sinne seperateth us and our God asunder otherwise all things are fix or perfect and good in their own beeing or substance the kingdome of Hell and of wrath is good in it selfe according to its own Region it doth not vex or torment it selfe but its woe paine or smart is its birth and the rising of its source also it desireth nothing else 72. And so also the Kingdome of this world is fix or perfect and good in it selfe neither doth it vex or torment it selfe but the elevating of the Elements viz. the kindling of the heate cold aire and water is its growing and springing neither doth it torment it selfe in it selfe nor hath in any distresse or feare in it selfe 73. Onely Man who is proceeded out of another Principle hath in both those forementioned Principles woe misery sorrow and distresse for he is not in his native Countrey and none of these two Principle can attaine his native Countrey Therefore the poore soule must be thus g Pinched and squeesed plagued and tormented that it may attaine its native Countrey againe it must goe againe through the Gate of the deep anguish of Death it must breake through two kingdomes and it sticketh here h In the chinck craâ—â—y or closing of the doore between the Doore and the hinges and is continually infected with those things which keep it back and plague it it sticketh as it were in a Presse 74. If it straineth to God waâ—â— then the Devill holdeth it on one side with one Band and the world with another Band and they i Or assault it set upon it the Devill handleth it in fiercenesse sternnesse frowardnesse or wrath which is a source or quality and sinne which cannot attaine to the kingdome of God and the world leadeth it into pride covetousnesse and fleshly lust so that the k Or budding substantiall vertues Essences of the soule grow full or impregnated with the fleshly will for the will of the minde draweth these things into the soule and so the soule from that which is attracted becometh wholly uncleane l Mudded swelled and dark and cannot attaine the light of God its Essences that should give up themselves to God cannot for they are too rough and cannot get into the light that kindleth not it selfe in its Essences the Gates of the Deepe must be broken open first and then the Essences of the soule may presse into the liberty m Beyond without the darknesse but if the minde be n Or big with pride covetousnesse envy anger might and pomp filled then it cannot come into the liberty and then begin horrour feare distresse and despaire of the kingdome of God and this maketh meere torment woe paine and smart in the soule 75. Thus thou shalt know in what manner it is sinne before God thou hast in thy selfe the one eternall pure Element which is a joy in the presence of God and now if thou rage and rave with the source quality or property of Hell then thou touchest or troublest the Element and though stirrest up the o Or fierce grimnesse wrath and makest it to goe forth and thou doest as the Devill did when he awakened or stirred up and kindled the fierce o Or fierce grimnesse wrath in the Fiat whereby the o Or fierce grimnesse fiercenesse generated earth and stones thou finnest piercing into the Heaven in the presence of God upon which the Prophets complained in many places That the disobedient did grieve their God though in himselfe he felt no paine yet his wrath was kindled in the first Principle in the Gate of the Deepe wherein the soule standeth and that is a meere abomination before him 76. Behold all whatsoever thou lettest into thy
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 Å¿ The wisdome of God 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 t Or thoughts senses and yet shee u Or avoydeth 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 of 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 x Rule or Dominion 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 of 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 erect a light and office of Preaching that the world might learne from them But all availed nothing the Starreâ— ruled Men according to their source or quality in meere covetousnesse unchastity and pride which was indeed so very great that they purposed to build a Tower whose top should reach to Heaven such blinde people they were as to the kingdome of God 27. And then God confounded their Language that they might yet see that they had onely confounded senses or thoughts and should turne them to God that they also might see that they did not understand the Language of the Saints or holy people of the stock of Sem and that they must be scattered abroad over the whole world so that a holy seede might be preserved and that all might not perish but it availed nor they were wicked 28. Then God out of the fiercenesse of the first Principle burnt Sodom and Gomorrah those five kingdomes with fire for a Terrour but it availed not sinne grew like a greene Branch And then God promised the chosen Generation that if they would walke before him he would blesse them as the Starres of Heaven and make them so great that they should not be numbered and yet there were still among them evill Birds hatched And then God brought them into a strange Land and prospered them to try whether they would acknowledge his goodnesse and depend on him but they were yet worse 29. Then God did stirre up a Prophet among them even Moses who gave them Lawes and sharp Doctrines as Nature y Promoted or thrust forth required and these were given them through the Spirit of the z Macrocosme great world in zeale in the fire Yet seeing they would live still in the roughnesse therefore they were tryed or tempted to see whether they would live in the Father and God gave them Bread from Heaven and fed them forty yeares to try what manner of people they would be and whether they would by any meanes be brought to cleave to God he gave them Ordinances and Customes to observe in meats and drinks and also a Priestly Order with heavy and hard precepts and punishments which he published also to them but it availed not they were onely wicked and walked in the Dominion or Regiment of the Starres and yet far worse they walked altogether according to the wrathfulnesse of Hell 30. And there is a great matter for us to see in the severall Meats which God forbad them especially Swines flesh whose source quality or property will not subsist in the fire but affordeth onely a stinck and so it doth also in the fire of the soule which reacheth or stirreth the Originality of the first Principle from whence the first Principle in the soule stincketh or maketh a stinck which is a Or loathsom contrary to the Word and the noble virgin and it maketh the Gates of the breaking through into the light swelled thick misty fumy and dark for the soule is also a fire which burneth and if it receive such a b Or fuell for its burning source quality or property then that darkeneth it the more and burneth in the vapour like a flash of lightening as may be seene in the fat of swine for which cause God did forbid it them 31. And there was no other cause of their employment about offering sacrifice than because Man was earthly and so the Word standing neere the soule in the Gate of the light of life c God he heard their Prayers through the earthly source quality or property of their smells d Or Offerings of Incense or Incense and so they had a token in the fire that their prayer was acceptable to God as may be seene in many places in Moses which
Faith and that h Or the ungodly did not partake of them not imparted to the ungodly 78. For one Tincture caught hold of the other so that the Saints departed in the Element became longing after the strong faith especially those Saints departed that on Earth had turned many to Righteousnesse for as every ones works of Faith follow after them so also their will to turne more Men still followeth after them and therefore one Faith in the Tincture of the Holy Element caught the other and so Miracles or Works of Wonder were done at the Memorialls of the Saints this God permitted for the Heathens sakes that they might see that the Saints that were slaine or departed were in God and that there was another i So that God is the God of the living and not of the dead life after this that they should turne and be converted and therefore God suffered these works of wonder to be done 79. But in the Ground of the Originality it is not so that one that is departed hath power to help one that is living into the kingdome of Heaven or that they should undertake to bring and report the miseries of the living before God and pray for them for that were a great disrespect to the Heart of God which without intercession or their prayer powreth forth his Mercy over all Men with stretched out Armes and his voyce is never any other than onely thus Come yee all to mee yee hungry and thirsty and I will refresh you Matth. 11. He said Come to mee I will doe it willingly Also It is delight to mee to doe well to the Children of Men. 80. Who is it that will presume to undertake to stand before the source or spring of the Mercifulnesse and make intercession or pray for one that invocateth them As if the Love in the Heart of God were dead and did not desire to helpe those that call to him whereas his Armes continually without end stand stretched out to help all those that turne to him with their whole Heart 81. Thou wicked Antichrist thou sayest that faith alone doth not justifâ—e the soule but thy invented works for thy avarice or covetousnesse these must doe the Deed wherein wilt thou be regenerated in thy Mausim or Belly-God or through the Birth of Jesus Christ Which is neerest of all to the Deity thy works passe away and follow thee in the shadow yet the soule hath no need of any shadow but it must be earnest it must enter in through the Gates of the Deepe and must passe through the Centre of the grimme fiercenesse of Death through the wrath of the Eternall Band to the meeke Incarnation of Jesus Christ and become a member of the body of Christ and receive of his fulnesse and live therein his Death must be thy Death his Essences must flow in thee and thou must live in his source property or vertue thus thou must be regenerated anew in him if thou wilt stand before his Father else nothing will help if there had been any thing in the whole depth of the Deity that could have helped God would have bestowed it upon Adam and would not have let his Heart against the course of Nature to become Man But there was no Counsell or Remedy neither in Heaven nor in this world except God did become Man Therefore be thou in earnest and doe not seeke by-wayes to Babell 82. God indeed in former times permitted much for the conversion-sake of the Heathen but he hath not ordained the Antichrist to be so in his Covetousnesse Ordinances or Lawes and brabble in their Councells where Men have stopped the mouth of the Spirit of God that it should speak no more but that the k Viz. Those that are learned in Reason in the universities Spirit of this world should speake and build a Kingdome of Heaven upon Earth in Lawes Disputations and great talkings and therefore that Kingdome of Heaven upon earth must be bound up with precious Oaths or Covenants because it stood not in the Liberty of the Holy Ghost that so it might be fatt and lusty great and wanton and never be broken But it is come to be a Babell of Confusion thereby and in the Confusion it breaketh or destroyeth it selfe 83. If now thou wilt behold the virgin Mary with her Sonne Jesus Christ then thou shalt finde that shee hath been justified and saved through her Sonne although shee is come into great Perfection as a l A holy or half morning starre or as a halfe Lucifer before he fell Bright Morning Starre above other Starres and therefore also the Angel called her blessed among Women and said The Lord is with thee But shee hath not the Divine Omnipotence 84. For the Word which God promised in the Garden of Eden sprung and budded in the light of her life in the Centre of God and when the Angel Gabriel from the Command of the Father stirred that Word of the promise with the Message then it let it selfe into the chast virgin m In the Element before God in the Element in and not so wholly and altogether into the soule of the virgin or into the earthly body that shee was n Or Godded Deified no for Christ himselfe saith None goeth into Heaven but the Sonne of Man who is come from Heaven and who is in Heaven all others must goe through him into Heaven o He is in the Father and his members are in him he is their Heaven and the Father is his Heaven he was in the Heaven and also in the bosom of the virgin in this world the world was made through him how then could it comprehend him 85. The virgin comprehended or conteined him as a Mother doth her childe shee gave him the naturall Essences which shee inherited from her Parents those he assumed to the Creature which was God and Man the Essences of his Mother in her virgin-Matrix out of flesh and bloud he assumed to the Limbus of God out of the holy Element and in these became a living soule without blemishing of the holy Element and the Word was in the middest the might strength height and depth of the soule reacheth even into the Father and the outward kingdome of this world hung to the inward as the foure Elements hang to the one Element p Foure Elements which in the end shall passe away againe and goe through the fire 86. And as the childe is another person than the Mother and as the childes soule is not the soule of the Mother so also here in this place For the outward virgin could not comprehend that shee did beare the Saviour of the world but shee committed that in her virgin-chastity to God whatsoever he did with her shee would still be contented with it 87. But thou abominable Antichristian Beast that wouldst devour all this thou shalt know concerning the holinesse of the virgin Mary that the virgin Mary is higher and hath
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 h Or beginneth the wrestliâ—â— 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 i Swing 〈◊〉 swimmeâ— 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 k Or understanding of it 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 l Sparkling forth or discovered 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 m Or Reines 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 n Or becoming 〈◊〉 â—an 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 o Or Educateth Man 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 p In the Kingdome of the four Elements 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 q Or issuing substantiall faculties or vertues 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 then the starry Region hath the Mother viz. the foure Elements no more and therefore it consumeth with the time it selfe in the Essences out of the first Principle and so the Essences of the first Principle continue raw or naked without a body 15. And here standeth the r Or Refining fire Purgatory thou blinde world if thou canst doe any thâ—â—â— then help thy soule through the Å¿ Or Strong strait Gate now here if the Treader upon the Serpent hath not hold of the coard then it must indeed continue in the first Principle Here now is the great Life and also the great Death where the soule must enter into the one or the other and that is its Eternall Countrey for afterwards For the
before the Garden to keep and guard the way to the Tree of Life Who could understand it If God did not open our eyes wee should speak simply of a keeper with a sword and Reason seeth nothing else 40. But the Noble virgin sheweth us the Doore and how wee must enter againe into Paradise through the sharpnesse of the sword yet the sword cutteth the Earthly Body cleane away from the Holy Element and then the New Man may enter into Paradise by the way of Life And the sword is nothing else but the Kingdome or Gate of the fâ—ercenesse in the anger of God where Man must presse in through the fâ—erce bitter Death through the Centre into the second Principle into the Paradise of the holy Element before God where then the fierce grimme Death cutteth off the Earthly Body viz. the foure Elements from the holy one Element 41. And the keeper of the Garden is the Cherubine the cutter off of the source or quality of the Starres which holdeth the foure Elements for a while and then breaketh them and with its bitter sharpnesse severeth them from the soule and passeth away it selfe also with its sword this keeper is here in the way that wee cannot come to the Tree of the Eternall Life he is in the middest and suffereth us not to come into Paradise the grosse Garden of Eden which is our Earthly Flesh is the hedge or fortification before the Garden 42. Now if any body would come into the Garden he must presse in through the sword of Death though indeed Christ hath broken the sword so that now wee can much easier enter in with our soules yet there is a sword before it still but he that findeth the way aright him it doth not cut very much for it is blunt and it is bent and if the soule goe but into the Gate into the Centre then it is presently helped by the Noble Champion Christ for he hath gotten the sword into his e Into his power or jurisdiction hands he is the slaine Lambe of the House of Israel in the Revelation of John which took the Book of the f Shut barred or closed first Principle out of the hand of the Ancient of Dayes who sate upon the Throne with his foure and twenty Elders which Book had seven seales or seven Spirits of the g Generation or operation Birth of God and opened them where the Elders fell down before him and worshipped the Lamb that was slaine and gave praise and honour to him which sate upon the Throne because the Champion of the House of Israel had overcome The seven Golden Candlesticks are his Humanity the seven Starres are his Deity as the Divine h Working or revelation Birth in it selfe standeth in a sevenfold forme as it is expounded in the beginning of this Book in the first foure Chapters 43. Thus Moses hath a vayle before his eyes and if thou wouldst see his face then thou must onely set Christ thy Champion before thee that he may lift up his vayle and then thou shalt see that Moses hath i 〈◊〉 Law no Hornes but that he is a patient Lamb fast bound to the Death of Christ and that his vayle was the Book that was shut so that wee could not be well enough till the Champion came and brake its seven seales with his entring into Death and there the vayle or covering was done away and in that Book there stood the holy k Evangelium Gospel of the Kingdome of God which our worthy Conquerour Jesus Christ hath l Instead of the Law or read or declared it to us left us 44. Now when Adam and Eve went out of the Garden they kept together as now married People doe and now would make tryall of their beastiall condition to trie what wonders might proceed from them and the Spirit of the great world did well enough teach them in their Reason what they were to doe And Adam knew his wife Eve and shee conceived and bare a sonne and called him Cain for shee said I have a Man from the Lord These are sealed words which Moses writeth that shee said I have a Man from the Lord for then said the m The great world or Macrocosme Major Mundus I have the Lord of this world Eve spake no otherwise than as the Apostles thought that Christ was to erect a worldly Kingdome so Eve thought that her sonne as a strong Champion should break the Head of the Devill and set up a Glorious Kingdome from whence instantly a twofold understanding or different conditions followed and two sorts of Churches the one built or relying upon the mercy of God and the other upon their own might authority or power and therefore Cain could not endure his brother because Abel pressed hard upon the mercy of God and Cain relyed upon his own power might and authority He thought himselfe to be the Lord of the whole world as his Mother had instructed him and therefore now he would breake the Head of the Serpent in his own might as a Warriour or Souldier and began with his brother Abel for his Faith relyed not on God but on his own power and here the Serpent did sting the Treader upon the Serpent in the Heele the first time The Gate of the Mysteries or the Exposition of the hidden secrets 45. Reason saith how might that come to passe that the first Man borne of a Woman was so evill a malicious Murtherer Behold thou immodest vile whorish world here thou shalt finde a Glasse behold thy selfe and see what thou art Here againe the great secrets meet us in the light of Nature very cleerly and plainly to be understood For Adam and Eve were entred into the Spirit of this world and the Region of the foure Starres with the infection of the Devill had miserably possessed them and although they did somewhat stick to the word of the promise yet the true longing and love towards God was very much extinguished and on the contrary the longing and desire after this world was kindled in them and besides they gat from the Region of the Starres a Beastiall lust or wanton desire towards one another so that their Tincture thus became a fierce beastiall lust or longing for they had no Law but the Light of Nature which they suppressed and kindled themselves in wanton lust to which the Devill helped them 46. And now when Eve n Nor began to be conceived with childe was impregnated her Tincture was wholly murtherous and false for her Spirit in the Love looked not upon God with a totall trust and confidence Also the wisdome of God stood hidden in the Centre of the light of her life Eve did not o Or incline unite or yeeld her selfe to it with love and confidence but much rather to the lust of this world shee must bring it to passe if any thing were to be done and being her Trust was not in God
time will not beare the Exposition of this let every one finde it with their own eyes 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 a Gods Anger 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 hencâ—forward 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 b Or Before from thy Countenance and I must be a fugitive and vagabond upon the Earth and it shall befall mee so that whosoever c Or meeteth 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 d This concerneth Christendome to consider it 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 e Or sheweth 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 B 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 f The wickednesse or fiercenesse 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 g The wonders of the fierce wrath its wonders through him that the Kingdome of the fiercenesse might be also manifested even as it was a great wonder h Or that how the Noble Image in Abel by the fiercenesse of Hell and of this world i Or was could be seperated in the k Dissolution 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 l Schollership Master-piece when the Kingdome of this world m Or was severed parted from Abel when the Cherubine did this first time n With his sword cut off the foure 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 o Or put 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 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 p Or above his power 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 q Seperated 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 r Or be known 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 Å¿ This speech of Moses 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 t Or the strife contention wrangling disputations 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 u In the agreeing love and unity in the One Element which standeth in one alone and not in multiplicity 99. Thou hast been a cleere x Or Example 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 y The Wolfe 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 z Or a great cliffe or gulfe before Paradise 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 a They thâ—t have spoken and written in the Spirit of God they b When they speak and write in this world are most of them in Paradise they speake out of the Roote of the Holy Element through the c Or strife 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 d Defile them with siding divisions 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 e In seâ—fe in the Land of Nod. 101. O Cain look but upon thy Kingdome and consider what befell 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 f Rule or Government 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 thâ—s 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 g Or tooke no pleasure in the Kingdome of this world 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 h The first and the third two Principles wherein he stood and therefore he slew Abel 105. Yet God would not have it so but l Or awakened the gnawing Worme kindled the Anger in Cain which rested before in the swelled Kingdome of the foure Elements and was onely climed up in great and mighty Joy whereas Cain did not know the Anger nor understand any thing of it onely the Essences of the soule knew that they dealt falsly but they knew not the fierce source in the kindling of the fire till that they went forth from the Centre of God into the k Or wickednesse falshood and there they felt the fire of the Anger with great horrour trembling and crying for they were gone out from God and neither saw nor felt the heavenly source any more and therefore they despaired because they found or felt themselves in the source of the wrath and the Body with all its Essences cryed My sinnes are greater than that they can be forgiven 106. And here is apparently seene the Glasse of the Abysse of Hell and of the Eternall despaire when the Anger of God riseth up in the source that the malice and wickednesse is made stirring and there beginneth trembling galling and crying and despaire in it selfe as to God there the soule seeketh abstinence in the Kingdome of this world and findeth l Or no comfort none and then it leaveth the Kingdome of this world also and runneth into the Originality into the Roote of the Eternall Birth and seeketh abstinence and yet findeth nothing and then casteth it selfe into the abominable Deepe supposing to reach the Originall of the Abstinence or the Gate of the breaking in but it mounteth onely above the Heaven
it another dwelling house for thy soule that it may not send thee so naked away from it 117. And then thirdly that he hath brought thy soule out of Heaven into the pleasures of this world and now leaveth it in its misery wholly naked and bare fitting in its filthinesse and goeth away and regardeth no more where the soule is or how it is with it if it c Or should goe into Hell were in the Abysse of Hell it were all one to the spirit of this world this thou hast to expect for thy recompence from the spirit of this world because thou hast so truly served it 118. Therefore O Cain fly away from the Spirit of this world there is a fire out of the Roote of the Originality from the Lord of Heaven in it thy swelled secret Kingdome is kindled that Men may see or know thee in every place thou shalt stand quite open or naked with all thy d Or Mysteries secresies for the Spiritus Majoris Mundi or Spirit of the Greater World hath found the Tincture and its Roses blossome in the Wonders CHAP. XXI Of the Cainish and of the Abellish Kingdome how they are both in one another Also of their Beginning Rise Essence and drift and then of their last Exit Also Of the Cainish Antichristian Church and then of the Abellish true Christian Church how they are both in one another and are very hard to be knowne asunder Also Of the variety of Arts a Conditions and Courses States and Orders of this World Also Of the Office of Rulers or Magistrates and their Subjects how there is a Good and Divine b Or Order Ordinance in them all as also a false Evill and Devillish Where the providence of God is seene in all things and the Devils deceit subtilty and malice is seene also in all things 1. WEE finde by the Divine Providence in all things as also in Arts and c Or Conditions of things States that the things of this world are all good and profitable and that onely the Devills poyson brought into them is evill and so wee finde also all States or conditions high and low come out of one d Or spring onely Tree and one alwayes proceedeth out of the other so that the Divine Providence cometh to help all things and so the Eternall Wonders in ail the three Principles are e Or discovered manifested to which end God brought to light the Creation of all things which from Eternity in themselves stood onely in the flowing budding or f As the thoughts in the minde flow or spring up springing up but by the Creation of this world are put into the Wonders 2. Therefore now wee can speak or write of nothing else but of his Wonders for wee have a great Example of them in Cain when the Kingdome of the fierce wrath after his murther awaked in him and would have g By making him despaire in God devoured him that God came to help him when the Divine Justice in his Conscience sentenced him to Death then the Divine Answer spake against it saying No Whosoever slayeth Cain it shall be avenged sevenfold by which speech the fierce vengeance of the Abysse of Hell was driven away from him so that Cain did not despaire and though he were gone forth from God yet the Kingdome of Heaven stood towards him he might turne and enter into Repentance God had not yet quite rejected him but his malicious murtherous and his false confidence he accursed and would not h Or consent thereto be therein 3. For God departed not from Cain but Cain went himselfe from God if he had been strong in Faith and Confidence in God then he might have been able to enter into God again even as he thought before the fall into the murther that he would break the head of the Serpent but there it was seene what Mans ability was If he had laid hold on the true Treader upon the Serpent then he might have gone instantly in the vertue of the Treader upon the Serpent into God againe 4. But Cain i Or was had flesh and bloud and understood not the meaning of the Eternall Death yet when he was assured from God that none should slay him he became cheerly againe for the k His faculties that were in doubt were againe assured of Gods grace Essences of his soule were refreshed againe by Gods recalling him for the Doore of Grace stood open towards him he should returne for God would not the Death of a Sinner 5. And here may be seene very exactly who was the accuser of Cain viz. the bloud of Abel which cryed to God from the Earth and awakened the fierce Anger against Cain where the Essences of the soule of Abel through the deep Gate of Anger pressed in to God through the Treader upon the Serpent and so stirred the Roote of the fire in Cain whereby the Anger was awakened Here consider what the sighings of the righteous and their pressing into God in their unequall being oppressed can doe how it kindleth the Anger of God as in Cain whereas then fiery Coales are heaped upon the Drivers or oppressours head 6. But when l The wrath or the gnawing Worme of his Conscience it was allayed againe by the voyce of God then Cain did not know how that came to passe and set his murther at Rest like one who hath a secret gnawing Dogge sitting in the Darke yet he proceeded and built his powerfull Earthly Kingdome and did not wholly put his trust in God for when he saw that he must seeke for his Bread out of the Earth and must take his cloathing from the m The Beasts and that which groweth out of the Earth children of the Earth therefore all his businesse lay in the Art of Seeking how and which way he might finde and how to possesse the treasure of that which was found that he might alwayes have enough because he saw God no more therefore he did like Israel who were brought out of Egypt by Moses and when they saw him not because he was on the Mount then they began their dancing and false worship of God and asked after Moses no more 7. Thus Cain now built his earthly Kingdome and began to search all manner of Arts not onely in n Husbandry plowing or Tilling of the ground Agriculture but also in Mettalls and further all Arts according to the seven Spirits of Nature which in the o In the Name of Cain and the other Circumstances Letter is well to be seene wherein our Schooles or Universities will now be Masters but they are not yet Schollars in the Ground 8. And it is excellently shewen that they had p That is in Cains time they had the Tincture in their power the light of the Tincture in their hands wherein they found their Inventions though it was not wholly knowne for sinnes were not then in such multiplicity
learne with great earnestnesse to know the true way of Entrance into the Eternall Joy that wee may not with the Devils Dogges howle Eternally in the anguishing Inne 4. And now if wee look round about us every where upon Heaven and Earth the Starres and Elements yet wee can see and know no way or passage where wee may goe to our Rest wee see no other than the way of the entrance in of our Life and then of the end of our Life where our body goeth into the Earth and all our Labour also our Arts and Glory is inherited by another who also vexeth himselfe therewith for a while and then followeth after us and that continueth so from the beginning of the world to its end 5. Wee can in our misery never b Understand or comprehend know where our Spirit doth abide when the body breaketh and cometh to be a Carkasse except wee be againe new-borne out of this world that so wee may dwell in this world as to our body and as to our minde in another eternall perfect new life wherein our spirit and minde putteth on a new Man wherein he must and shall live Eternally and then wee first know what wee are and where our home is 6. Seeing then wee clearly see and understand that wee have our beginning altogether Earthly and are sowen in a field as Graine is sowne in the Earth where our life springeth up groweth and at length flourisheth as Corne or graine doth out of the Earth where wee can know in us nothing but an earthly life yet wee see very well that the c Or Starres Constellations and Elements qualifie or work in us and nourish drive governe and guide us also fill us and bring us up and so preserve our life a while and then breake it againe and turne it to dust and ashes like all Beasts Trees Plants and all things that grow but wee see not how it is with us afterwards whether all be ended with it or whether wee goe with our Spirit and Conversation into another life and therefore it is most necessary to learne and to seeke the right way 7. Now that is testified to us by the Writings of those who have been regenerated out of this d Or transitorinesse Earthlinesse and at length are entred into a holy and uncorruptible life who have written and taught of an Eternall joyfull Life and also of an Eternall perishihg and anguishing Life and have taught us how wee should follow after them and how wee should step into a new Birth where wee should be regenerated out of this Earthlinesse into a new Creature and that wee should doe nothing else about it but follow them and then wee should finde e Or really in deed and in truth what they had spoken written and taught yea even in this life wee should see our true Native Countrey in the new Regeneration and f Uunderstand or apprehend know it in the new-borne Man in great Joy whereas then our whole minde would incline to it and in our new knowledge in the new Man true Faith would grow and the hearty desire of the unfeigned love towards the hidden God for which noble knowledge sake many times g Holy people they have yeelded their earthly body and life to the unregenerated gainsayer according to his Devilish malicious revengefulnesse into Death and have taken it with great Joy and have chosen for themselves the Eternall uncorruptible Life 8. Seeing then there is the greatest and highest Love in the new Birth not onely towards God or ones selfe but also towards Men our brothers and sisters and seeing those that were unregenerated have had their desires and love so carried towards Men that they have very earnestly taught men with meeknesse and reproving and that their love to them in their Teaching hath been so great that they have even willingly yeelded their life up to Death and left their earthly goods and all they had in assured hope in their strong and firme knowledge to receive all againe in great honour and glory 9. And therefore wee also have longed to seeke after that Pearle of which wee write at present and though now the unregenerated in the Kingdome of this world will give no credit to us as it hath happened to our forefathers from the children of this world wee cannot help that but it shall stand for a witnesse against them which shall be a woe to them Eternally that they have so foolishly ventured and lost so great an Eternall Glory and holinesse for a little pleasure of the eye and lust of the flesh 10. And wee know in our deep knowledge that h The holy forefathers they have rightly taught and written that there is one onely God which is threefold in Personall Distinction as is before-mentioned And wee also know that he is the Creatour of all things that he hath generated all out of his own i Essence or Beeing substance both light darknesse as also the Thrones and k Or Regiments Dominions of all things Especially wee know as the holy Scripture witnesseth throughout tnat he hath created Man to his own Image and similitude that he should Eternally be and live in the Kingdome of Heaven in him 11. And then wee know also that this world wherein wee now are and live was generated out of the Eternall Originall in time through the pure Element in the Fiat and so created and so l The world of foure Elements it is not the substance of the holy pure Element but an issue or out-birth out of the Eternall Limbus of God wherein the Eternall Element consisteth which is before the cleere Deity wherin consisteth Paradise the Kingdome of Heaven yet the Limbus together with the pure Element is not the pure Deity which is alone holy in it selfe and hath the vertue of the Eternall Light shining in it but hath no Essences in the light of the Clarity in it for the Essences are generated from the vertue m Or of according to the Light as a Desire and the desire attracteth to it from whence the Essences proceede as also the Eternall Darknesse in the source as is before-mentioned 12. Seeing then God is all in all and hath created Man to his Image and similitude to live with him Eternally in his Love Light Joy and Glory therefore wee cannot say that he was meerly created out of the corruptibility of this world for therein is no Eternall perfect Life but Death and perplexity anguish and necessity but as God dwelleth in himselfe and goeth through all his works incomprehensibly to them and is hindred by nothing so was the similitude before him out of the pure Element it was indeed created in this world yet the Kingdome of this world should not comprehend that Image but the similitude Man should mightily and in perfect power or vertue Rule through the Essences with the Essences out of the pure Element of the
and wee can truly say he is a Person in the holy Trinity in Heaven and a true Man in Heaven in this world an eternall King a Lord of Heaven and earth 76. His name Jesus sheweth it more properly in the Language of Nature for the syllable Je is his humbling in-coming out of his Father into the Humanity and the syllable sus is the bringing in of the soule above the Heaven into the Trinity as the syllable sus indeed presseth aloft through all 77. Much more is understood in the Name Christus which comprehendeth not his incarnation but goeth as a Man that is borne through Death for the syllable Chris presseth through the Death and the syllable tus signifieth his strong might in that he thus goeth forth from Death and presseth throught and it is very properly understood in the word how he severed the Kingdome of this world and the Angesicall Man asunder and continueth in God in the Angelicall Man for the syllable tus is pure without Death 78. Though indeed here wee shall be tas one that is dumb to the world yet wee have written it for our selves for wee understand it very well and it is plaine enough to the Tree of the Lilly But that the Person of Christ with his Deeds and Essence might be rightly demonstrated to the Reader that he might apprehend it aright I therefore direct him to the Temptation of Christ in the Wildernesse after his Baptisme whereat thou shouldst open thine eyes and not speake like the Spirit in Babell which sayth wee know not what his Temptation was and lay the fault upon the Devill that he was so impudent to presume to tempt Christ saying moreover wee ought not to dive into it nor be so inquisitive about it wee will let that alone till wee come thither into the other life and then wee shall see what it is Besides they forbid him that hath eyes to see none must search into it if they doe they are called Enthusiasts and are cryed out upon for Novelists such as broach new opinions and pretend new Lights and for Hereticks 79. O yee blinde Wolves of Babell what have we to doe with you wee are not generated from your q The Schooles and universities Kingdome why will you rend and teare our deare Immanuel out of our hearts and eyes and so would make us blinde Is it a r Or heresie sinne for us to enquire after God our salvation and after our true Native Countrey Sure it is much more r Or heresie sinne to hearken after your partaking and blasphemy whereby you make our women and children scoffers so that they learne nothing but scornfull and reproachfull speeches and so persecute and vex one another therewith in Å¿ In the contentious wrangling Babell Can the Kingdome of Christ be found in such things or rather do you not build the scornfull reproachfull Church of Babell where is your Apostolicall heart consisting in Love Is your scorne and derision of others Christs Meeknesse Who said Love one another be yee followers of mee and so it shall be knowne that yee are my Disciples To you it is said the t Or wrath of God Anger burneth in Babell when the flame thereof riseth up then will the Elements shake and tremble and Babell shall be burnt in the fire 80. The Temptation of Christ rightly sheweth us his Person therefore open thy eyes and let not Babell trouble thee it is the price of thy body and soule for that Temptation in the hard Combat of Adam in the Garden of Eden which Adam could not hold out in here the worthy Champion went through with it and hath-obtained victory in his humanity in Heaven and over this world 81. As wee have demonstrated the true Christ who is God and Man in one undivided Person so wee must now shew what kinde of Man he is according to the Kingdome of this world for the great Wonders cannot sufficiently be described they are still greater there is need of an Angelicall Tongue as well as of an Earthly and because wee have but an Earthly therefore wee will write from an Angelicall Minde and speake the great wonders of God with the Earthly Tongue 82. Let us look upon his Baptisme and then upon his Temptation instantly after his Baptisme and so wee shall finde our New Regeneration as also in what Kingdome wee lye imprisoned and wee very highly rejoyce in this knowledge that God is become Man and if now wee would apprehend it wee must first set downe the Baptisme of Christ and then the Temptation in its right Order Of the Baptisme of Christ upon Earth in Jordan 83. It is knowne to us that in Adams Fall wee are fallen into the Anger of God when as the Spirit or soule of Adam turned from the Heart of God into the Spirit of this world where instantly the holy heavenly Image was extinguished and the Anger in the Darknesse held the poore soule captive and where the Devill instantly gat his entrance and habitation in the Anger of the humane soule and if the Treader upon the Serpent had not entered instantly into the mark of seperation in the Centre of the Light of Life then the wrath would have devoured us and wee should have continued Eternally to be Companions of the Devils but when the Treader upon the Serpent thus u As a Mediatour or Arbitratour entred into the middle though not so presently into the Humanity but into the Centre of the Light of Life then the poore imprisoned soules which turned themselves to God againe were in the Centre bound or knit to the Deity againe till the Champion or Saviour came into the Humanity where in his conception and humanity he received the whole Man againe and this wee see cleerly in his Baptisme for there was that one Person which was both God and Man he had the Heavenly and also the Earthly Body 84. But now Baptisme was not instituted in respect of the Earthly corruptible Man which belongeth to the Earth nor for the Heavenly Mans sake which was pure and spotlesse without that but for the poore soules sake Seeing the heavenly Man in Christ our naturall soule in the body of the virgin Mary to his heavenly Man and that also the earthly Man hung to the soule therefore the holy Trinity by the hand of Man tooke the water of the Erernall Life in the pure Element and dipt the soule therein as I may so speake 85. See thou beloved soule thou wert gone out from God but his Love caught bold of thee againe and x tyed or knit fastned thee with the promise to his Threed and then came the fulfilling of the Promise and put another new body on to thee but thou canst not have another soule for thy soule was out of the Eternity however Therefore now as the Holy Ghost Overshadowed and filled or impregnated Mary so the Water out of the heavenly Matrix which hath its beginning
for want of Examining what is in themselves yet they may well perceive that the Ground of what hath ever been lyeth in Man for whatsoever any Man hath been or can be must needs be in that Man that attaineth to it as the Ground of the Most Excellent Flower is in the Roote from whence it groweth and then sure the Ground of all that was in Adam or any since or shall be is in any one of us for whatsoever Ground lay in God the same lyeth in Christ and in him it lyeth in us because he is in us all There is nothing but may be understood if wee doe but consider how every thing that ever was or shall be knowne truly is feelingly understood by and in him that knoweth it as he ought and he that thus knoweth God within him cannot but know the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost Angels Men and all other Creatures even the Devils and may well be able to speak the Word of God infallibly as the Holy Men that Penned the Scriptures and others also and he that can understand these things in himselfe may well know who speaketh by the Spirit of God and who speaketh his own Phansies and Delutions as our Saviour said He that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven shall know of my words whether they be of God but if that will of his Father in Heaven had not been in them from the beginning of their life in their Conception in their Mothers womb how could they to whom he said this have done that will whereby they might know whence his words proceeded and according to this Rule may any discerne the words and writings of All therefore such things as these are necessary to be knowne There are some who have desired his writings might be Epitomised for ease of those that have not leisure to reade so large Treatises truly the spare time they spend in any other outward thing may be spent with more benefit a thousandfold in this and where he hath written at large it would not be understood if it were contracted more in briefe all his Books as large as they are are but a small sparke of the Great Mystery and where he hath written more in briefe it is so obscure to some that they think it impossible to be understood which he wrote both so briefly obscurely as I conceive that none but such as would be diligent in the practise of that which he hath written plainly and at large should be able to understand it It is intended that the Booke of the Threefold Life which with the Three Principles and forty Questions are a Compleate contence of All the Mysteries should be published in English with the soonest conveniency and in the meane time for a Tast of the Spirit of Prophecy which the Authour had there is a little Treatise of some Prophecies concerning these latter times collected out of his writings by a Lover of the Teutonick Philosophy and Entituled Mercurius Teutonicus In turning the German into English I retaine in some places the propriety of the German Language because the Authour should be rendred as neere as might be in his own Expression that those Excellent Notions which he layeth down might not be slipt over as men doe common current English but that the strangenesse of the words may make them a little stay and consider what the meaning may be having some difference from the vulgar English phrase also where it is somwhat hard at first sight to know what some of the words meane I have set the Synonima's in the Margin and sometime the English rendring between two such Semiquadrates In the Preface to the Lovers of Wisdome set before the 40 Questions in English there are some of the many benefits mentioned that would arise from the studying this Authours writings which may be there Read among the Rest there is a hint about reforming the Lawes by Degrees in every Nation and there is no doubt but if those in whose hands it is to make Lawes did but consider that the Spirit of God is and may be stirred up in them they would stirre him up make a Reformation according to that Spirit of Love the Holy Ghost and then they would be Gods true Vicegerents they would be Fathers of their Countrey deale with every Obstinate rebellious Member in the Kingdom as a Father would doe with a disobedient childe first tell him lovingly and shew him his faults if that will not do he will inquire the Reason and study some course to remedy the cause that hindreth his amendment but if he should goe beyond the bounds of reason and be beside himselfe he would take care of his safety livelihood and cure God taketh such care for us all though we be most obstinate enemies against him and we should do so for all our Brethren the sonnes of Adam though they be our Enemies wee should Examine their wants in all things and supply them that necessity may not compell them to be our enemies still and offend God that they may but live If they will not be quiet when they have their wants supplied and their wrongs redressed but will turne Murtherers and so deserve to live no longer in mercy let them be provided for as other more friendly children of the Common-wealth and removed to live by themselves in some remote uninhabited Countrey where they may have no occasion to doe hurt among those whom they would not suffer to live quietly but let them not there want that which may give them honest subsistence as others who are willing to transplant themselves and for those that desire to live quietly and peaceably at home let all their Earthly things be so ordered that they may easily understand what right and wrong is by having most briefe plaine easie Lawes to be Governed by and have their wants considered and supplied then all Hearts will blesse the Hands of such Reformers and Love will cover All the Ends of the Earth and the God of Love will give us his blessing of Peace all the world over and then the King of Glory will dwell with Men and All the Kingdomes of the Earth will be his Who would not desire such a Thing with mee The unworthiest of the Children of Men J. S. The Authors Preface to this BOOKE 1. MAN can undertake nothing from the beginning of his youth nor in the whole course of his Time in this world that is more profitable and necessary for him than to learne to know himselfe What he is out of what from whence and for what he is Created and what his a Duty employment or businesse is Office is In such a serious Consideration he will presently finde that he and all the Creatures that are come all from God he will also finde among all the Creatures that he is the most Noble Creature of them all from whence he will very well perceive how Gods intent is towards him in that
it is most needfull for us to learne to know this Enemy what he is who he is and whence he is how he cometh into us and what in us is his proper own also what right the Devill hath to us and what accesse of entrance into us how he is allyed with our own Enemy that dwelleth in us how they favour and helpe one another how both of them are Gods Enemies and continually lay wait for us to murther us and bring us to perdition 10. Further wee must consider the great Reasons why it is very necessary to learne to know our selves because wee see and know that wee must die and perish for our own Enemies sake which is Gods Enemy and ours which dwelleth in us and is the very halfe of Man and if he grow so strong in us that he get the upperhand and be o The chiefe ruling part predominant then he throweth us into the Abysse to all Devills to dwell there with them Eternally in an Eternall unquenchable paine and torment into an Eternall Darknesse into a loathsome house and into an Eternall forgetting of all Good yea into Gods contending will where our God and all the Creatures are our Enemies for ever 11. Wee have yet greater Reasons to learne to know our selves because wee are in Good and Evill and have the promise of Eternall Life that if wee overcome our own Enemy and the Devill wee shall be the children of God and live in his Kingdome with and in him among his holy Angels in Eternall joy p Clarity brightnesse Glory and welfare in meeknesse and favour with him without any touch of Evill and without any knowledge of it in God Eternally Besides we have the Promise that if wee overcome and burie our Enemy in the Earth wee shall rise againe at the Last Day in a new Body which shall be without evill and paine and live with God in perfect joy lovelinesse and blisse 12. Also wee know and apprehend that wee have in us a Reasonable Soule q Or which God hath a love to which is in Gods Love and is Immortall and that if it be not vanquished by its adversary but fighteth as a spirituall Champion against its Enemy God will assist it with his holy Spirit and will enlighten and make it powerfull and able to overcome all its Enemies he will fight for it and at the Overcoming of the evill will Glorifie it as a faithfull Champion and Crowne it with the r Or fayrest brightest Crowne of Heaven 13. Now seeing Man knoweth that he is such a twofold Man in the Å¿ Or Potentiality of being good or evill Capacity of Good and Evill and that they are both his own and that he himselfe is that Onely Man which is both good and evill and that he shall have the reward of either of them and to which of them he inclineth in this life to that his soule goeth when he dieth and that he shall arise at the Last Day in power in his Labour and Works which he exercised heere and live therein Eternally and also be Glorified therein and that shall be his Eternall foode and t Source or sustenance subsistence therefore it is very necessary for him to learne to know himselfe how it is with him and whence the impulsion to Good and to Evill cometh and what indeed the Good and Evill meerly are in himselfe and whence they are stirred and what properly is the Originall of all the Good and of all the Evill from whence and by what means Evill is come to be in the Devills and in Men and in all Creatures seeing the Devill was a holy Angel and Man also Created Good and that also such u Or Evill disposition untowardnesse is found to be in all Creatures biting tearing worrying and hurting one another and such Enmity strife and hatred in all Creatures and that every x Corpus or body or naturall substance thing is so at oddes with it selfe as wee see it to be not onely in the Living Creatures but also in the Starres Elements Earth Stones Mettalls in Wood Leaves and Grasse there is a Poyson and Malignity in all things and it is found that it must be so or else there would be no life nor mobility nor would there be any colour or vertue neither thicknesse nor thinnesse nor any perceptibility or sensibility but all would be as Nothing 14. In this high Consideration it is found that all is through and from y Viz. through from Gods wrath love God Himselfe and that it is his own substance which is himselfe and he hath created it out of himselfe and that the Evill belongeth to the z Imaging fashioning framing forming and mobility and the Good to the Love and the austere severe or contrary will belongeth to the joy so far as the Creature is in the Light of God so far the wrathfull and contrary will maketh the rising Eternall Joy but if the Light of God be extinguished it maketh the rising painfull Torment and the Hellish Fire 15. That it may be understood how all this is I will describe the Three Divine Principles that therein all may be declared What God is what Nature is what the Creatures are what the Love and Meeknesse of God is what Gods desiring or will is what the wrath of God and the Devill is and in a In briefe or in summe conclusion what joy and sorrow is and how all took a beginning and endureth Eternally with the true difference between the Eternall and transitory Creatures Especially of Man and of his soule what it is and how it is an Eternall Creature and what Heaven is wherein God and the Hâ—ly Angels and holy Men dwell and what Hell is wherein the Devils dwell and how all things originally were created and had their beeing In summe what the b Beeing of all Beeings or substance of all substances not the pure Deity as Aristotle hath supposed but the Eternall Nature Gods love and wrath Essence of all Essences is 16. Seeing the Love of God hath favoured mee with this knowledge I will set it downe in Writing for a Memoriall or remembrance to my selfe because we live in this world in so great danger between Heaven and Hell and must continually wrestle with the c All evill affections or practises of the Devill in the Anger of Goâ— 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
plainly what this trick of theirs is it is the dung and filth wherewith they cover and hide the Devill and cloake the injected malice and wickednesse of the Devill in Man so that neither the Devill nor the anger of God nor the i Or Evill will Evill Beast in Man k But remaine hidden and undiscovered can be discerned 7. And this is the very reason because the Devill smelleth the matter and therefore he hindereth it that his kingdome might not be revealed but that he might continue to be the Great Prince of the world still for otherwise if his kingdome were knowne men might flie from him where is it more needfull for him to oppose than on that part where his Enemy may break in He therefore covereth the hearts minds thoughts and senses of the Divines he leadeth them into covetousnesse pride and wantonnesse so that they stand amazed with feare and horror at the Light of God and therefore they shut it up for they are naked nay they grutch the light to those that see it this is rightly called the service and worship of the Devill 8. But the time is coming when the Aurora or Day-spring will break forth and then the Beast that evill childe or childe of perdition shall stand forth naked and in great shame for the judgement of the Whore of the Great Beast goeth on therefore awake and flie away ye children of God that you bring not the Mark of the Great Evill Beast upon your forehead with you before the cleare Light or else you will have great shame and confusion of face therewith It is now high time to awake from sleepe for the Bridegroom maketh himselfe ready to fetch home his bride and he cometh with a cleere shining Light they that shall have oyle in their Lampe their Lamps shall be kindled and they shall be Guests but those that shall have no oyle their Lamps shall continue dark and they shall sleep still and retaine the marks of the Beast till the Sun rise and then they shall be horribly affrighted and stand in eternall shame for the judgement shall be executed the children of God shall observe it but those that sleep shall sleep till day Further of the Birth 9. The Birth of the Eternall Nature is like the thoughts or senses in Man as when a thought or sense is generated by somewhat and afterwards propagateth it self into infinite many thoughts or as a roote of a Tree generateth a stock and many buds and branches as also many roots buds and branches from one roote and all of them from that one first roote Therefore observe what is mentioned before whereas nature consisteth of six formes or properties so every forme generateth againe a forme out of it selfe of the same quality and condition of it selfe and this forme now hath the quality and condition of all the formes in it selfe 10. But l Or understand and consider it aright observe it well the first of the six formes generateth but one m Or Budding property source like it selfe after the similitude of its own fountaine-Spirit and not like the first Mother the harshnesse but as one twig or branch in a Tree putteth forth another sprout out of it selfe For in every fountaine-Spirit there is but one centre wherein the fire-source or fountaine ariseth and the light ariseth out of the flash of the fire and the first six-fold forme is in the n Or Springing property source or fountaine 11. But mark the depth in a similitude which I set down thus the harsh-spring in the Originall is the Mother out of which the other five Springs are generated viz. Bitternesse fire love sound and water Now these are members of this Birth of their Mother and without them there would be nothing but an anguishing dark vale or vacuum where there could be no mobility nor any light or life But now the life is borne in her by the kindling of the light and then shee rejoyceth in her own property and laboureth in her owne tart soure quality to generate againe and in her own quality there riseth a life againe and a centre openeth it selfe againe and the life cometh to be generated againe out of her in a six-fold forme yet not in any such anguish as at the beginning but in great joy 12. For the Spring of the great anguish which was in the beginning before the light in the tart harshnesse from which the bitter sting or prickle is generated that is now in the sweet fountaine of the love in the light changed from the water-spirit and from bitternesse or pricklinesse is now become the fountaine or spring of the joy in the light Thus now henceforth the fire-flash is the father of the light and the light shineth in him and is now the onely cause of the moving Birth and of the birth of the love that which in the beginning was the o Or Lake of Torment aking source is now SUL or the oyle of the lovely pleasant fountaine which presseth through all the fountaines so that from hence the light is kindled 13. And the sound or noise in the turning wheele is now the declarer or pronouncer in all the fountaines that the beloved childe is borne for it cometh with its sound before all Doores and in all Essences so that in its awakening all the vertues or powers are stirring and see feele have smell and taste one another in the light for the whole Birth nourisheth it selfe in its first mother viz. the p Or Soure tart springing substantiality harsh essence being now become so thin or pure meek sweet and full of joy and so the whole birth standeth in very great joy love meeknesse and humility and is nothing else than a meere pleasing taste a delighting sight a sweet smell a ravishing sound to the hearing a soft touch beyond that which any tongue can utter or expresse how should there not be joy and love where in the very midst of death the Eternall Life is generated and where there is no feare of any end nor can be 14. Thus in the harshnesse there is a new birth againe understand where the tart soure astringency is predominant in the Birth and where the fire is not kindled according to the bitter sting or prickle or from the beginning of the anguish But the rising or exulting Joy is now the Centre and kindling of the light and the tartnesse or astringency hath now q Or for in its own quality the SUL Oyle and Light of the Father Therefore now the Birth out of the Twig or Branch of the first tree is qualified altogether according to the r Or tart soure fountaine harsh fountaine and the fire therein is a tart or soure fire and the bitternesse a tart bitternesse and the sound a tart sound and the love a tart love but all in meere perfection and in a totally glorious love and joy 15. And thus also the first bitter sting or
dark matrix it generateth the third principle For p Or thereby so God is manifest but otherwise the Deity would remain hidden eternally 14 Now therefore we say as the Scripture informeth us that God dwelleth in heaven and it is the truth Now mark Moses writeth that God created the heaven out of the midst of the waters and the Scripture sayth God dwelleth in heaven therefore we may now observe that the water hath its originall from the longing of the eternall Nature after the eternall light of God but the eternall Nature is made manifest by the longing after the light of God as is mentioned before and the light of God is present every where and yet remaineth hidden to Nature for Nature receiveth onely the vertue of the light and the vertue is the Heaven wherein the light of God dwelleth and is hidden and so shineth in the darknesse The water is the Materia or matter that is generated from the heaven and therein standeth the third which again generateth a life and comprehensible essence or substance out of it selfe viz. the elements and other creatures 15 Therefore O noble Man let not Antichrist and the Devill be foole you who tell you that the Deity is afarre off from you and direct you to a heaven that is situated farre above you whereas there is nothing nearer to you than the heaven is you onely stand before the doore of heaven and you are gone forth with Adam out of the Paradisicall heaven into the third Principle yet you stand in the gate doe but as the eternall mother doth which by great desiring and q Or seeking longing after the Kingdome of God attaineth the Kingdome of heaven wherein God dwelleth wherein Paradise springeth up doe you but so set all your desire r Into upon the heart of God and so you will passe in by force as the eternall mother doth and then it shall be with thee as Christ sayd The kingdome of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force so you shall make to your selfe friends in heaven with your unrighteous Mammon and so you come to be the true similitude and Image of God and his proper own for all the three principles with the Eternity are in you and the holy Paradise is again generated in you wherein God dwelleth then where will you seek for God seek him in your soule onely that is proceeded out of the eternall Nature wherein the Å¿ Or divine working Divine Birth standeth 16 O that I had but the pen of man and were able therewith to write down the Spirit of knowledge I can but stammer of the great mysteries like a childe that is beginning to speak so very little can the earthly tongue expresse what the Spirit comprehendeth and understandeth yet I will venture to try whether I may procure some to goe about to seek the pearle whereby also I might t Or work labour in the works of God in my Paradisicall garden of Roses for the longing of the eternall u Mother of Nature matrix driveth me on to write and exercise my selfe in this my knowledge 17 Now if we will lift up our mindes and seek after the heaven wherein God dwelleth we cannot say that God dwelleth onely above the starres and hath inclosed himselfe with the firmament which is made out of the waters into which none can enter except it be opened like a window for him with which thoughts men are altogether befooled and wilderd neither can we say as some suppose that God the Father and the Sonne are onely with the Angels in the uppermost inclosed heaven and rule onely here in this world by the holy Ghost who proceedeth from the Father and the Sonne All these thoughts are voyd of the very knowledge of God for then God should be divided and circumscriptive like the Sunne that moveth aloft above us and sendeth its light and vertue to us whereby the whole deep becometh light and active all over 18 Reason is much befooled with these thoughts and the kingdome of Antichrist is begotten in x Which possess the minds of straying Christians these thoughts and Antichrist hath by these opinions set himselfe in the place of God and meaneth to be God upon earth and ascribeth y Divine authority Jus divinum Divine power to himselfe and stoppeth the mouth of the Spirit of God and will not heare him speak and so strong delusions come upon them that they beleeve the Spirit of lyes which in hypocrisie speaketh strong delusions and seduceth the children of Hope as St Paul witnesseth 19. The trve Heaven wherein God dwelleth is all over in all places or corners even in the middest or Centre of the Earth He comprehendeth the Hell where the Devils dwell and there is nothing without God For wheresoever he was before the Creation of the world there he is still vâ—z in himselfe and is himselfe the Essence of all Essences All is generated from him and is originally from him and he is therefore called God because he alone is the Good the Heart or that which is Best understand he is the light and vertue or power from whence Nature hath its Originall 20. If you will z Think or applauding any thing of God meditate on God take before you the eternall Darknesse which is without God for God dwelleth in himselfe and the Darknesse cannot in its own power comprehend him which Darknesse hath a great desire of longing after the Light caused by the Lights a Speculate as in a glasse beholding it selfe in the Darknesse and shining in it and in this longing or desiring you finde the b Or active property source and the source taketh hold of the power or vertue of the Light and the longing maketh the vertue materiall and the materiall vertue is the enclosure to God or the Heaven for in the vertue standeth the Paradise wherein the Spirit which proceedeth from the Father and the Sonne worketh All this is incomprehensible to the c Creature or naturall man Creation but not impossible to be found in the minde for Paradise standeth open in the minde of a holy soule 21. Thus you may see how God created all things out of nothing but onely out of himselfe and yet the d That which is procreated viz. the foure Elements Out-birth is not from his Essence or substance but it hath its originall from the Darknesse The e Or springing properties source of the Darknesse is the first Principle and the vertue or power of the Light is the second Principle and the Out-birth generated out of the Darknesse by the vertue of the Light is the third Principle and that is not called God God is onely the Light and the vertue of the Light and that which goeth forth out of the Light is the Holy Ghost 22. You have a similitude of this in your selfe your soule which is in you giveth reason to you whereby
pride that is in your minde and walke along into the Paradisicall Garden of Roses and there you shall finde an hearb if you eate of it your eyes will be opened so that you shall see and know what Moses hath written 36 The x And Marginall notes Glosses that are put upon Moses from Reason will not shew you Paradise much lesse the Creator The Prophets and Apostles learned more in the Paradisicall Schoole in one houre than the Doctors in their y The Universities Schooles in thirty years Ones own wisdome availeth nothing God giveth it to him whom he loveth for nothing It cannot be bought for money nor favour as King Solomon will tell you 37 If we will be still so very earthly minded as to think that God made all the beasts of a lump of earth of what then is their Spirit made Seing that earth is not very flesh and the blood is not meere water Besides the earth and the water is not life and though the z Or breath aire come in it yet it still remaineth such an essence as springeth only in the Fiat and the tincture which riseth up in the fire and from whence the noble life is stirred is hidden 38 Moses writeth Let there come forth all manner of a Animals or living creatures beasts every one according to its kinde Now then the question is Out of what should they come forth Answer Out of the Matrix What is the Matrix out of which they should come forth It is the foure Elements which are together in the earth The Fiat brought forth the beasts or living creatures very b Without order indigestedly as they are in the essence not from heaven but out of the Matrix of the earth and the Matrix of the earth is one and the same thing with the Matrix in the deep above the earth and hath one and the same c Rule or governing dominion The constellation ruleth in all things and it is the Limbus or the d Mars Masculine wherein the tincture consists and in the Matrix of the earth is the Aquastrish or watery Spirit they come forth onely out of the Matrix of the earth that they might be of the essence of the earth that so they might eat of the fruits that grow out of the earth For every Spirit lusteth after its mother from whence it came 39 Now then if the Beasts or Animals nature were meerly out of a lump of earth then they would eat earth but seeing e The bestiall nature it is proceeded out of the Matrix of the earth by the Fiat therefore it desireth also such food as the matrix affordeth out of its own essence and that is not earth but flesh yet this flesh now is a f Or Concretion Masse whence the g Corpus body cometh and the spirit of the constellation maketh the h Or penetrating the life and the blood tincture therein which Spirit ruleth over all as in one mother and in every life it maketh the understanding for the spirit of the constellation ruleth in all things in the earth stones metals elements and creatures 40 For in the beginning of the creation at the time when the earth became materiall all was generated out of one onely substance and there was no more done but a separation made of one i Part. from another therefore in every separation there must needs be alwayes a vehement hunger of one k Part. after another An example whereof you have in propagation for the sake whereof the separation was so made For you see that there is a male and a female and that the one continually desireth copulation with the other that they may l Engender generate This is a great hidden secret Observe when the Creator by the Fiat separated the Matrix from the Aquaster or watery Mother for the first form is heavenly and incorruptible as long as the kingdome of this world standeth and the root of the first form m toucheth or reacheth holdeth Paradise I will set it down more intelligibly or plainly for the simplest Readers sake 41 Observe as hath been often mentioned that as in the Fiat in the aking matrix viz. the dark harshnesse or sournesse the fire rose up in the breaking wheele in the kindling and that in the fiery the light of the Sunne and of all the Starres sprung up which is done in the harsh matrix which from the light is become thin lowly and materiall water and the pleasant source of love sprung up so that one form vehemently loverh the other in respect of the kinde meek light which was come into all formes So now the soft meeknesse was become a new childe which was not the dark originalnesse in the anguishingnesse But this childe was the Paradise yet being it stood not in the Materia or matter therefore the matrix of the harshnesse could not comprehend it but n The matrix it yeelded it selfe forth very desirously and longing with great earnestnesse according to the fire and bitternesse to comprehend the pleasant source of love and yet could not comprehend it for o The source of love it was Patadisicall and thus it still stood in great longing and generated water 42 But now God separated the fire viz. the fifth essence or form from the water and out of that made the starres and the Paradise is hid in the matrix Therefore now the mother of the water desireth with great earnestnesse the mother of the fire and seeketh the childe of love and the mother of the fire seeketh it in the mother of the water where it was generated and there is between them a continuall vehement hunger one after another to copulate 43 Now God sayd Let all manner of beasts come forth every one after its kinde and so there came forth out of the essence of every ones kinde a male and a female And thus the Spirit of the Starres or the Spirit in the form of Fire had now by its longing copulated with the watry Spirit and two Sexes sprung out of one essence the one according to the Limbus in the forme of fire and the other according to the Aquaster or spirit of the water in the watry form yet so blended or mixed that they were alik as to the body and so the Male was qualified according to the Limbus or form of fire and the female according to the Aquaâ—â—er in the watry forme 44 And so now there is a vehement desire in the creatures The Spirit of the male seeketh the loving childe in the female and the female in the male for the irrationality of the body in the unreasonable creatures knoweth not what it doth the body would not if it had reason move so eagerly towards propagation neither doth it know any thing of the impregnation or conception onely its spirit doth so burne in desire after the childe of love that it seeketh love which
yet is Paradisicall and it cannot comprehend it but it maketh a p Or sowing of seed semination onely wherein there is again a centre to the birth And thus is the originall of both Sexes and their propagation yet it doth not attain the Paradisicall childe of love but it is a vehement hunger and so the propagation is acted with great earnestnesse 45 But that I now write that the starres doe rule in all Beasts and other creatures and that every creature received the Spirit of the starres in the creation and that all things still stand in the same Regiment this the simple will hardly beleeve though the Doctor knoweth it well and therefore we direct them to Experience Behold a Male and Female beget young ones and that often now they come forth out of one onely body yet are not of one kinde nor of the same colour and vertue nor shape or form of body All this is caused by the alteration of the starres For when the seed is sown the q The fashioner or the Fiat Carver maketh an Image according to his r Or desire pleasure Å¿ As of a Lion a Lion of a sheep a sheep yet according to the first essence he cannot alter that but he giveth the spirit in the essence to it according to his power or ability or dominion as also manners and senses colour and gesture like himselfe to be as he is and as the Constellation is in its essence at that time when the creature draweth breath first in its mothers body whether the essence be in evill or in good inclined to biting worrying and striking or to meeknesse or loving kindnesse and gentlenesse all as the t Or the Matrix heaven is at that time so will also the spirit and the beast be CHAP. IX Of the Paradise and then of the transitorinesse of all creatures how all take their beginning and end and to what end they here appeared The Noble and most pretious Gate or exposition concerning the reasonable Soule 1 NO Money nor Goods nor Art nor Power can bring you to the eternall rest of the eternall soft meeknesse of Paradise but onely the noble Knowledge into that you may wrap up your soule that is the Pearle which no Moath can eat nor Thiefe can steale away therefore seek after it and then you will finde the noble Treasure 2 Our wit skill and understanding is so very hard a Cold frozen or shut up knit up that we have no more any knowledge of Paradise at all and except we be again born anew by water and the holy Ghost the veile of Moses lyeth continually before our eyes when we read his writings and we suppose that was Paradise whereof Moses sayd GOD placed b Adam him in the Garden of Eden which hee had planted that he might till it 3 O beloved Man that is not Paradise neither doth Moses say so but that was the Garden in Eden where they were tempted the exposition whereof you may finde about the fall of Adam The Paradise is the Divine joy and that was in their minde when they were standing in the love of God But when disobedience entred they were driven out and saw that they were naked for at that instant the spirit of the world caught them in which there was meere anguish necessity turmoyle and misery and in the end corruptibility and death Therefore it was of c Needfull necessity that the eternall World did become flesh and bring them into the Paradisicall rest again whereof you shall finde the exposition in its due place about the fall of Adam 4 Paradise hath another Principle for it is the Divine and Angelicall joy yet not without the d Extra locum place of this world Indeed it is without the vertue and source or active property of it neither can the spirit of this world comprehend it much lesse a creature for it standeth not in the anguishing e Operation birth and although it thus taketh its originall yet it consisteth in exact perfection meere love joy and mirth wherein there is no feare neither misery nor death no Devill can touch it nor no beast can f Or attain it reach it 5 But when we will speak of the source or fountain and joy of Paradise and of its highest substance what it is we have no similitude of it in this world we stand in need of Angelicall tongues and knowledge to expresse it and though we had them yet we could not expresse it with this tongue it is well understood in the minde when the soule rideth in the Chariot of the Bride but we cannot expresse it with the tongue yet we will not cast away the g That little which wee can expresse of it A. B. C. but tattle or stammer with the children till another mouth be given us to speak withall 6 When God had created the Beasts he brought them to Adam that he should give them their names every one according to their essence and kinde as they the beasts were qualified or according to the quality and condition they were of Now Adam was in the Garden of Eden in Hebron and also in Paradise at once yet no beast can come into Paradise for it is the Divine h Or habitation or refreshment joy wherein there is no unclean thing also no death or corruptible or transitory life i Therefore the garden of Eden is not Paradise much lesse is there the knowledge of Good and Evill yet Moses writeth of it that in the Garden of Eden there was the tree of temptation which bare the knowledge of Good and evill which indeed was no other Tree than like the Trees we now eate of in the k Or In the transitory body corruptibility neither was it any other Garden than such as wee now have wherein earthly fruit Good and Evill grow as is before our eyes 7. But the Paradise is somewhat else and yet no other place but another Principle where God and the Angels dwell and where there is perfection where there is meere love joy and knowledge where no misery is which Paradise neither death nor the Devils doe touch neither doe they know it and yet it hath no wall of earth or stones about it but there is a great Gulfe or cliffe between Paradise and this world so that they who will passe from hence thither cannot and they who would come from thence to us cannot neither and the Hell and the kingdome of darknesse is between them and none can come therein but by a new Birth which Christ spake of to Nicodemus The soules of the Saints holy and regenerate must enter into it by the death of Darknesse whom the Arch-Shepherd with the Angels bringeth thereinto upon his l Note the Bride-Chariot is the true Resignation into the bosome of the Father Bride-chariot of which you shall finde an exposition in its proper place in order 8. But seeing
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 m Much lesse to spell or reade tell the Letters in this so high a way yet it * My labour 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 n Children going to schoole schollers or learners 10. Therefore let not my Master of Art in his o Or Crowned Hat Hood and Tippet thinke himselfe so cunning in this matter nor powre out his meckings so presumptuously against the children of God for so long as he is a seâ—rner 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 p By holy Orders Divine institution or Divine Right 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 q Or institution 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 r Or Minister 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 Å¿ Or come and resort to me 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 t Acteth or worketh 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 u The adverse party 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 x Into the sweet smelling pleasant peacefulnesse 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 y The holy Paradisicall bringing forth holy Birth 17. O what z Bitter envie 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
indeed somewhat the wiser but not much They say God tempted Adam to try whether he would continue in his obedience or not and when he became disobedient then God threw mighty anger and wrath upon him and cursed him to Death and that his wrath could not be quenched except he be reconciled in such a manner This Reason of this party maketh God to be a meere unmercifulnesse like an evill man of this world who yet will be reconciled when he hath once revenged himselfe sufficiently and this Reason hath no knowledge at all of God nor of Paradise 25. O beloved soule it is a very i For which the Curse came heavy businesse at which the very Heavens might well stand amazed in this Temptation there is a very great matter hidden in Moses which the unenlightened soule understandeth not God did not regard a bit of an Apple or Peare to punish so faire a Creature for it The punishment cometh not from his hand but from the k Or Macrocosme Spiritus majoris mundi from the Spirit of the great World from the third Principle God intended most mercifully towards Man and therefore he spared not his own heart but let it become Man that he might deliver Man againe You ought not to have such thoughts God is love and the Good in him is no angry thought and Mans punishment was not but from himselfe as you shall finde or reade in its due place The secret Gate of the Temptation of Man 26. Since many Questions fall to be in this place for the minde of Man seeketh after its native Countrey againe out of which it is wandered and would returne againe home to the Eternall Rest and since it is permitted to mee in my knowledge I will therefore set downe the deep Ground of the Fall wherein Men may looke upon the eyes of Moses If you be borne of God then it may well be apprehended by you but the unenlightened minde cannot hit the mark for if the minde desireth to see what is in a house it must then be within that house for from heare say without seeing it ones selfe there is alwaies doubting whether a thing be as is related But what the eye seeth and the minde knoweth that is beleeved perfectly for the eye and the minde apprehendeth it 27. The minde searcheth wherefore man must be tempted whereas God had created him perfect and seeing God is omniscient and knoweth all things the minde therefore alwaies layeth the blame upon God and so doe the Devils also for the minde saith If the Tree of knowledge of Good and Evill had not sprung up then Adam had not fallen 28. O beloved Reason If you understand no more than so then shut up the eyes of your minde quite and search not continue under patience in hope and let God alone he will doe well enough or else you will fall into the greatest unquietnesse and the Devill will drive you into despaire who continually pretendeth or giveth it forth l The Devill saith it in the minde that God did will evill and that he willeth not that all men should be saved and therefore he created the Tree of Anger 29. Beloved Minde put such thoughts away from thee or else thou wilt make of the kinde and loving God an unmercifull and hostile will but leave off such thoughts of God and consider thy selfe what thou art in thy selfe thou shalt finde the Tree of the Temptation and also the will to have it which made it spring up yea the source lust or quality whence it sprung up standeth in thee and not in God this must be understood that when we will speak of the pure Deity which manifesteth it selfe in the second Principle through the heart of God it is thus and not otherwise 30. But when wee consider or meane the originall of the first Principle then wee finde the nature propertie or species of the Tree and also the will to the Tree wee finde there the abysse of Hell and of anger and wrath and moreover wee finde the will of all the Devils we finde the envious will of all the Creatures of this world wherefore they all are the enemies one of another and doe hate bite worry kill and devour one another My beloved Reason here I will shew you the Tree of the Temptation and you shall look Moses in the face keep but your minde m Fixt or upon it stedfast that you may apprehend it 31. I have often given you to understand in this book already what the Essence of all Essences is but because it is most of all highly necessary in this place to know the Ground thereof therefore I will n Or explaine set you it downe all at large and very fundamentally so that you shall know it in your selfe yea you shall understand it in all Creatures and in all things that are or that you look upon or at any time may possibly think on all these shall be witnesse I can bring heaven and earth also the Sunne Starres and Elements for a witnesse and that not in bare words and promises onely but it shall be set before you very convincingly and very powerfully in their vertue and essence and you have no vertue or power or faculty in your body that shall not convince you and witnesse against you doe but not suffer the lying Spirit the old Serpent to darken your minde who is the inventor of a thousand o Or sleights shifts fetches arts tricks 32. When he seeth that he cannot catch or overcome Man by making him p Or Despaire doubtfull of the mercy of God then he maketh him carelesse so that he accounteth all as nothing he maketh his minde very drowsie so that he esteemeth very lightly of himselfe as if all were not worth the looking after let things be as they will he will not break his heart or trouble his head with it Let the q Priest Minister or learned who take upon them cura Animarum Pope looke after it they must answer for it Thus the minde carelesly passeth it over like a whirlwinde or streame of water concerning which Christ said The Devill stealeth the Word out of their hearts that they doe not apprehend it nor beleeve it that they might be saved so that it taketh no roote 33. Or else if the Pearle should grow and the Lilly bud forth r The Devill he should be revealed and then every one would flie from him and he should stand in great shame This Trade he hath driven ever since the beginning of the world and though he resist never so vehemently yet a Lilly shall grow in his supposed Kingdome whose smell reacheth into the Paradise of God in spite of all his raging and tyranny this the Spirit of God doth witnesse 34. Behold thou childe of Man if thou wilt easily draw neere to this knowledge take but thy minde before thee and consider it and therein thou wilt finde all You know
Elements and thirdly the Kingdome of Paradise that desired to have him 33. Now these three Kingdomes were in Adam and also q Extra without him and in the r The essentiall vertues or powers that went forth from the three Principles Essences there was a mighty strife all drew as well in Adam as without Adam and would faine have him for he was a Great Lord come out of all the powers or vertues of Nature the heart of God desired to have him in Paradise and would dwell in him for it said it is my image and similitude And the Kingdome of wrath and of the fierce Tartnesse would also have him for it said he is mine and he is proceeded out of my fountaine out of the eternall minde of the Darknesse I will be in him and he shall live in my might for he is generated out of that which is mine I will through him shew great and strong power The Kingdome of this world said he is mine for he beareth my Image and he liveth in that which is mine and I in him he must be obedient to me I will tame him and compell him I have all my members in him and he in mee I am greater than he he must be my Å¿ Or Stewart housholder I will shew my faire wonders and vertues in him he must manifest my wonders and vertues he shall keepe and manage my herds I will cloath him with my faire Glory as now it is to be seene 34. But when the Kingdome of the fiercenesse of the wrath of Death and of Hell saw that it had lost and could not keepe Man then it said I am t Mors. Death and a Worme and my vertue or power is in him and I will grinde him and breake him to pieces and his spirit must live in mee and although thou world supposest that he is thine because he beareth thy Image yet his Spirit is mine generated out of my kingdome therefore take what is thine from him I will keep that which is mine 35. Now what did the vertue in Adam in this strife It flattered with all the three Kingdomes It said to the Heart of God I will stay in Paradise and thou shalt dwell in me I will be thine for thou art my Creator and thou hast thus concreted or extracted mee out of all the three Principles and created mee thy refreshment is pleasant and thou art my Bridegroom I have received of thy fulnesse and therefore I am impregnated or with childe and I will bring forth a virgin that my kingdome may be great and that thou mayest have meere joy in mee I will eate of thy fruit and my spirit shall eate of thy vertue or power and thy Name in mee shall be called IMMANUEL God with us 36. And when the Spirit of this world perceived that then iâ— said Wherefore wilt thou onely eate of that which thou comprehendest not and drinke of that which thou feelest not thou art not yet meerely a Spirit thou hast from me all the kindes of comprehensibility in thee behold the comprehensible fruit is sweet and good and the comprehensible drink is u Powerfull and full of vertue or strength mighty and strong eate and drinke from mee and so thou shalt come to have all my vertue and beauty thou mayest in mee be mighty and powerfull over all the Creatures for the kingdome of this world shall be thy owne and thou shalt be Loâ—d upon Earth 37. And the vertue in Adam said I am upon Earth and dwell in this world and the world is mine I will use it according to my lust will and pleasure then came the Command of God x Enclosed conceived or comprehended which was received in the Centre of God out of the Circle or Circumference of the Eternall life and said In the day that thou eatest of the earthly fruit thou shalt die the Death This Command was comprehended or enclosed and hath its originall in the Eternall Father in the Centre where the Eternall Father continually from Eternity generateth his heart or sonne 38. Now when the Worme of darknesse saw the command of God it thought with it selfe here thou wilt y Or have nothing to doe not prevaile thou art spirit without body and contrariwise Adam is corporeall thou hast but a third part in him and besides the Command is in the way thou wilt even slip or creepe into the Essences and flatter with the Spirit of this world and take a creaturely forme upon thee and send a Legat or Embassadour out of my kingdome cloathed in the forme of a Serpent and wilt perswade him to eate of the earthly fruit and then the command destroyeth his body and the spirit remaineth to be mine Here now the Legat or Embassadour the Devill was very willing and ready at this especially because Adam in Paradise was in his place where he should have been and thought with himselfe now thou hast an opportunity to be revenged thou wilt mingle lyes and truth so together that Adam may not observe or understand it the treachery and so thou wilt tempt him Of the Tree of knowledge of good and evill 39. I have told you before out of what z Might power the Tree is grown viz. that it grew out of the earth and hath wholly had the nature of the earth in it as at this day all earthly Trees are so and no otherwise neither better nor worse wherein corruptibility standeth as the Earth is corruptible and shall passe away in the end when all shall goe into its * Or Receptacle Ether and nothing else shall remaine of it besides the figure Now this was the Tree which stood in the midst of the Garden in Eden whereby Adam must be tempted in all Essences for his Spirit should rule powerfully over all Essences as the holy Angels and God himselfe doth 40. Besides he was created by the Word or heart of God that he should be his image and similitude very powerfully in all the three Principles and be as great as a Prince or Throne-Angel But this Tree standing thus in the Garden and of all the Trees that onely did beare earthly fruit therefore Adam looked so often upon it because he knew that it was the Tree of knowledge of Good and Evill and the vertue of the Tree pressed him to it so very hard which vertue was also in him that the one lust infected poysoned or mingled with the other and the Spirit of the great world pressed Adam so very hard that he became infected and his vertue or power was overcome here the Paradisicall man was undone and then said the heart of God it is not good that man should be alone wee will make him a help or consort to be with him 41. Here God saw his Fall and that he could not stand because Adams imagination and lust was so eager after the Kingdome of this world and after the earthly fruit and that Adam
Gate of affliction and of misery 31. Thus the noble life in the Tincture standeth in great danger and hath hourely to expect the corruption or destruction breaking or dissolution for as soone as the bloud wherein the Spirit liveth floweth out or passeth away the Essence breaketh or dissolveth and the Tincture flieth away like a glance or shadow and then the source or springing up of the fire is out and the body becometh stiffe 32. But alas the life hath many greater and more powerfull enemies especially the foure Elements and the Constellations or starres as soone as any one Element becometh too strong the Tincture flieth from it and then the life hath its end If it be overwhelmed with water it groweth cold and the fire goeth out then the flash flieth away like a glance or shadow if it be overwhelmed with earth viz. with impure matter then the flash groweth darke and flieth away if it be overwhelmed with aire that it be stopt then the Tincture is stifled and the springing Essences and the flash breaketh into a glance and goeth into its Ether But if it be overwhelmed with fire or heate the flash is enflamed and burneth up the Tincture from whence the bloud becometh darke and swearthy or black and the flash goeth out in the meeknesse 33. O how many Enemies hath the life among the Constellations or Starres which qualifie or mingle their influence with the Tincture and Elements when the Planets and the Starres have their conjunctions and where they cast their poysonous rags into the Tincture there ariseth in the life of the meeke Tincture stinging tearing and torturing For the sweet or pleasant Tincture being a sweet and pleasing refreshment cannot endure any impure thing And therefore when such poysonous rags are darted into it then it resisteth and continually cleanseth it selfe but as soone as it is overwhelmed that it be darkned then the flash goeth out the life breaketh and the body falleth away and becometh a Cadaver Carkasse or dead corps for the spirit is the life 34. This I have here shewen very briefly and summarily and not according to all the Circumstances that it might thereby be somewhat understood by the way what the life is in its due place all shall be expounded at large for herein is very much contained and there might be great Volumes written of it but I have set downe onely this that the overcoming and the sleepe might be apprehended The Gate or Exposition of the heavenly Tincture how it was in Adam before the Fall and how it shall be in us after this Life 35. Great and mighty are these Secrets and he that seeketh and findeth them hath surpassing joy therein for they are the true heavenly bread for the soule If we consider and receive the knowledge of the heavenly Tincture then there riseth up the knowledge of the divine kingdome of joy so that wee wish to be loosed from the vanity and to live in this Birth which yet cannot be but wee must finish our dayes-work 36. Reason saith Alas If Adam had not lusted he had not fallen asleepe If I had been as he I would have stood firme and have continued in Paradise Yes beloved Reason you have hit the matter well in thinking so well of thy selfe I will shew thee thy strength and the Gate and doe but thou consider how firme thou shouldst stand if thou didst stand as Adam did before the Tempting Tree 37. Behold I give you a true similitude Suppose that thou wert a young man or young maid or virgin as Adam was both of them in one onely person how doest thou thinke thou shouldst stand Suppose thus set a young man of good complexion beautifull and vertuous and also a faire chaste modest virgin or young maid curiously featured and put them together and let them not onely come to speake together and converse lovingly one with another but so that they may also embrace one another and command them not to fall in love t gether not so much as in the least thought also not to have any inclination to it much lesse any infection in the will and let these two be thus together forty dayes and forty nights and converse with one another in meere ioy and command them further that they keepe their will and minde stedfast and never m Or purpose in thought conceive one thought to desire one another and not to infect themselves with any essence or property at all but that their will and inclination be most stedfast and firme to the command and that the young man shall will and purpose never to copulate with this nor no other maid or virgin and in like manner the maid or virgin be enjoyned to the same Now thou Reason full of misery defects and infirmities how doe you thinke you should possibly stand here would you not promise faire with Adam but you would not be able to performe it 38. Thus my beloved Reason I have set a Glosse before you and thus it was with Adam God had created his worke wisely and good and extracted the one out of the other The first ground was himselfe out of which he created the world and out of the world he created Man to whom he gave his Spirit and intimated to him that without wavering or any other desire he should live in him most perfectly 39. But now man had also the spirit of this world for he was come out of this world and lived in the world And Adam understand the Spirit which was breathed into him from God was the chaste virgin and the Spirit which he had inherited out of Nature from the world was the young man These were now both together and rested in one arme 40. Now the chaste virgin ought to be bent into the heart of God and to have no imagination to lust after the beauty of the comely young man but yet the young man was kindled with love towards the virgin and he desired to copulate with her for he said thou art my dearest Spouse or bride my Paradise and garland of Roses let me into thy Paradise I will be impregnated in thee that I may get thy essence and enjoy thy pleasant love how willingly would I taste of the friendly sweetnesse of thy vertue or power If I might but receive thy glorious light how full of joy should I be 41. And the chaste virgin said Thou art indeed my bridegroome and my Companion but thou hast not my Ornament my Pearle is more n Costly precious than thou my vertue oâ— power is incorruptible or unfadable and my minde is over constant or stedfast thou hast an unconstant minde and thy vertue is corruptible or brittle dwell in my o As in the outward Court of the Temple Court and I will entertaine thee friendly and doe thee much good I will adore thee with my Ornaments and I will put my Garment on thee but I will not give thee my Pearle for thou art
her selfe in the living spirit of Adam 46. Hereupon now the Spirit of the Starres and Elements would continually get againe into the Element for in the Element there is meeknesse and rest and in the r Viz. In the foure Elements kindling thereof there is meere enmity and contrary will and the Devill ruleth also therein and they would faine be released from that abominable and naughty Guest and they seeke with great anxiety after Å¿ The dissoluÌ„tion deliverance as Paul saith All creatures groane together with us to be freed from vanity 47. Then saith the minde Wherefore doth God let it move so long in the Anxiety alas when will it be that I shall see the virgin Hearken thou noble and highly worthy Minde it must all enter in and serve to the glory of God and praise God as it is written All tongues shall praise God let it passe till the number to the praise of God be full according to the eternall minde 48. Thou wilt say How great is that number then Behold tell the Starres in the Firmament tell the Trees the hearbs and every spile of Grasse if thou canst so great is the number that shall enter in to the glory and honour of God For in the end all Starres passe againe into the Element into the Mother and there it shall appeare now much good they have brought forth here by their working for the shadow and the image of every thing or substance shall appeare before God in the Element and stand eternally in the same thou shalt have great joy thou shalt see all thy workes therein also all the afflictions thou hast suffered they shall be altogether changed into great joy and shall refresh thee indeed waite but upon the LORD the Spirit intimateth that when the time of the Lilly is t Or come about expired then this shall be done 49. Therefore it is that God keepeth it hidden so long as to our fight that the number of the glory of his Kingdome may be great but before him it is but as the twinckling of an eye have but patience this world will most certainly be dissolved together with the fiercenesse which must abide in the first Principle therefore doe thou beware of that 50. My beloved Reader I bring in my u Figures or Parables Types of the Essences of the Incarnation in the Mothers body in a Colloquie or Conference of the Spirit with the Essences and Elements x Note I cannot bring it to be understood in any easier way onely you must know that there is no conference but it is done most certainly so in the Essences and in the Spirit Here you will say to mee thou doest not dwell in the Incarnation and see it thou didst once indeed y Wert incarnate in thy mothers womb become man but thou knewest not how nor what was done then neither canst thou goe againe into thy mothers body or womb and see how it came to passe there Such a Doctor was I also and in my own reason I should be able to judge no otherwise if I should stick still in my blindnesse But thanks be to God who hath regenerated mee by water and the Holy Ghost to be a living Creature so that I can in his light see my great in-bred native vices which are in my flesh 51. Thus now I live in the spirit of this world in my flesh and my flesh serveth the spirit of this world and my minde serveth God my flesh is generated in this world and hath its z Kingdome or Dominion Region or Government from the Starres and Elements which dwell in it and are the master of the outward a Or body life and my mind is b Or generated of God regenerated in God and loveth God And although I cannot comprehend and hold the virgin because my minde falleth into sinnes yet the Spirit of this world shall not alwayes hold the minde captive 52. For the virgin hath given mee her promise not to leave mee in any misery shee will come to help me in the sonne of the virgin I must but hold to him againe and he will bring mee well enough againe to her into Paradise I will give the venture and goe through the thistles and thornes as well as I can till I finde my native Countrey againe out of which my soule is wandred where my dearest virgin dwelleth I rely upon her faithfull promise when shee appeared to mee that shee would turne all my mournings into great joy and when I lay upon the mountaine towards the c Or Midnight North so that all the trees fell upon mee and all the stormes and winds beate upon me and Antichrist gaped at mee with his open jawes to devour me then shee came and comforted mee and married her selfe to mee 53. Therefore I am but the more cheerfull and care not for him he ruleth and domineereth over mee no further than over the d Over the transitory house of flesh house of sinne whose Patron he himselfe is he may take that quite away and so I shall come into my native Countrey but yet he is not absolutely Lord over it he is but Gods Ape for as an Ape when its belly is full imitateth all manner of tricks and prancks to make it selfe sport and would faine seeme to be the finest and the nimblest Beast it can so also doth he e Note I desire not to write the exposition of this yet His power hangeth on the Great Tree of this world and a storme of winde can blow it away 54. Now seeing I have shewed the Reader how the true Element sticketh wholly hidden in the outward kindled Elements for a comfort to him that he may know what he himselfe is and that he may not despaire in such an earnest manifestation or Revelation as this is therefore now I will goe on with my Conference between the Elements Sunne and Starres where there is a continuall wrestling and overcoming in which the childe in the Mothers body or womb is figured and I freely give the Reader to know that indeed the true Element lyeth hidden in the outward man which is the chist of the Treasure or cabinet of the precious gemme and jewell of the soule if it be faithfull and yeeld it selfe up f In. to God 55. So now when the heart liver lungs bladder stomack and spirit together with the other parts or members of the childe are figured in the Mothers body by the Constellation and Elements then the Region or Regiment riseth up whâ—ch at length figureth fashioneth or formeth all whatsoever was wanting And now it exceedingly concerneth us to consider of the originality of speech minde and g Or Senses inward senses thoughts wherein Man is an image and similitude of God and wherein the noble knowledge of all the three Principles doth consist 56. For every Beast also standeth in the springing up of the life formerly mentioned in the Mothers
Man is and what Man soweth and what groweth in the seede viz. Three Kingdomes as is above-mentioned and seeing the three Kingdomes are thus sowen so are they in like manner before the Tree of Temptation and there beginneth the strugling and great strife there stand the three Kingdomes in one another the Element in Paradise will keep the pure minde and will which standeth in the love in the Tincture of the seede and the outward Elements viz. that which went forth from the Element will have the Element and mix it selfe therewith and then cometh the outward fiercenesse of the Starres and draweth it together h Or by with the outward Fiat and setteth it selfe in the rule or dominion whereby the inward will in the love together with the Element and the Paradise becometh darkened and the love in the Paradise goeth into its Ether and is extinguished in the Tincture of the seede and the heavenly Centre goeth under for it passeth into its Principle 37. And then cometh the Woman with her stopped or congealed bloud with the Starres and Elements and setteth her selfe in the Dominion And here is the Paradisicall Death where Adam in the living body dyed that is he dyed as to Paradise and the Element and lived to the Sunne Starres and the outward Elements concerning which God said to him That day thou eatest of good and evill thou shalt dye the Death and this is the Gate of the first Death in the Paradise in which now Man liveth in the Elementary Woman of this world in the corruptibility 38. And it highly concerneth us to know and apprehend that when the seede is sowne in the Matrix and that it be drawne together by the Fiat when the Starres and the outward Elements set themselves in the dominion and that the love and meeknesse is extinguished for there cometh to be a fierce substance in the stopping or congealing of the Tincture that before the kindling of the light of life in the childe there is no heavenly Creature and although i The creature it be figured or shaped with all the formes or parts of the body yet for all that the heavenly Image is not therein but the beastiall and if that body perish corrupt or breake before the kindling of the Spirit of the soule in the springing up of the life then nothing of this figure appeareth before God on the day of the Restitution but its shadow and shape for it hath yet had no Spirit 39. This figure doth not as many iudge goe into the k Or Hell Abysse but as the Parents were so is also their figure for this figure is the Parents till the kindling of its life and then it is no more the Parents but it s own The Mother affordeth but a lodge and the nutriment and therefore if shee destroyeth it willingly in her body shee is a murtheresse and the Divine Law judgeth her to the Temporall Death 40. Thus now the Starres and the Elements after the withdrawing of the love in the Tincture take the house into possession and fill it the first l Or Moone Moneth and in the second they sever the Members or parts by the soure Fiat as is mentioned before and in the third the strife beginneth about the Regions of the Starres and Elements where then they separate and every Element maketh its own house and Region for it selfe viz. the Heart Liver Lungs Bladder and Stomack as also the Head to be the m A dwelling for the senses and thoughts house of the Starres where they have their Region or dominion and their Princely Throne as it followeth further 41. And now after that the Starres and Elements as is mentioned before have gotten their Region and the house to dwell in then beginneth the mighty strife in great anxiety about the King of the life for the chamber of the building or fabrick standeth in very great anguish and here wee must consider the Originall of the Essence of all Essences the Eternall Birth and the Roote of all things as that there is in the house of the Anguish first one onely Essence or Beeing and that n Beeing Essence is the mixing of all o Or Beeings Essences and it hath first a will to p Or bring forth generate the light and that will is attractive astringent or soure 42. For the desiring is the attracting of whatsoever the will desireth and that will is first pure neither darknesse nor light for it dwelleth in it selfe and it is even the Gate of the divine vertue that filleth all things And thus the attracting filleth the will with the things which the will desireth and although it be pure and desireth nothing but the light yet there is no light in the dark anxiety that it can attract but it draweth the Spirit of the Essences of the Starres and Elements into it selfe and therewith the will of the divine vertue is filled and the same is all rough and dark And thus the will is set in the darknesse and this is done also in the heart 43. The will now standing thus in the dark anxiety it q Or conceiveth getteth another will to fly out of the anxiety again and to generate the light and this other will is the minde out of which proceed the senses or thoughts not to continue in the anxiety and the will appeareth discovereth it selfe in the Essences of the sourenesse as in the fierce hardnesse of Death and the glimps or glance breaketh through the Essences of the soure hardnesse as a swift or sudden flash and sharpeneth it selfe in the soure hardnesse that it becometh pale white or r Text Blanck glimmering like a flash of fire and in its sudden flight breaketh the soure darknesse and there standeth the hardnesse and the harsh sourenesse of Death like a broken turning wheele which with the flash of the breaking flyeth swiftly as a thought as also then the re-conceived will which is the minde appeareth so very suddenly and seeing it cannot flie forward out of the Essences it must goe into the turning wheele for it cannot get from that place and so it breaketh the darknesse and when the darknesse is thus Å¿ Or dispelled broken then the sharp glance discovereth it selfe in the pleasant joy without or beyond the darknesse in the sharpnesse of the will viz. in the minde and findeth it selfe habitable therein from whence the flash or glance is terrified and flieth up with strong might through the broken essences out of the heart and would out at the mouth and raiseth it selfe farre from the heart and yet is held by the soure or harsh Fiat and yet then maketh it selfe a severall Region viz. the Tongue wherein then standeth the skreeke or the crack of the broken Essences and seeing then it reflecteth or recoileth back againe into the heart as into its first dwelling house and findeth it selfe so very habitable and pleasant because the Gates of the darknesse are broken
with flesh and bloud and it infecteth the will of the minde and the will g Looketh upon it selfe discovereth it selfe in the Spirit of this world in lust and beauty might and power riches and glory pleasure and joy and on the contrary in sorrow and misery cares and poverty paine and sicknesse also in art and wisdome and on the contrary in folly and ignorance 19. All this the glimps or discovery of the senses bringeth into the will of the minde and setteth it before the King before the light of the life and there it is tryed and the King giveth it first to the eyes which must see what good is among all these and what pleaseth them And here now beginneth the wonderfull forme or framing of Man h Or according to the Complexions out of the Complexions where the Constellation hath formed the childe in the Mothers body or womb so variously in its Regions For according to what the Constellation in the time of the i Or the childes becoming Man Incarnation of the childe in the wheele that standeth therein hath its aspect when the dwelling of the foure Elements and the k Or the dwelling of the senses thoughts house of the Starres in the head in the Braines are built by the Fiat according to that is the vertue also in the braines and so in the Heart Gall Lungs and Liver and according to that is the inclination of the Region of the Aire and according to that also a Tincture springeth up to be a dwelling of the life as may be seene in the wonderfull l Different thoughts variety in the senses and formes or shapes of Men. 20. Although indeed wee can say this with ground of Truth that the Constellation Imageth and formeth no man as to make him to be the similitude and Image of God but it formeth onely a Beast in the will manners and senses and besides it hath no might nor understanding to be able to figure or forme a similitude of God though indeed it elevateth it selfe in the highest it can in the will after the similitude of God yet it generateth onely a pleasant subtill and lusty Beast in Man as also in other creatures and no more Onely the eternall Essences which are propagated from Adam in all men they continue with the hidden Element wherein the Image consisteth standing in man but yet altogether hidden without the New-Birth in the water and the Holy Ghost or Spirit of God be attained 21. And thereupon it comes that Man many times in the dwelling of the Braines and of the Heart as also in all the five senses in the Region or Dominion of the Starres is in his minde m Or suddenly often like a Wolfe churlish Dog crafty fierce and greedy and m Or suddenly often like a Lyon sterne cruell sturdy and active and devouring of his prey m Or suddenly often like a Dog snappish envious malicious often like an Adder and Serpent subtle venomous stinging pysonous slanderous in his words and mischievous in his deeds ill conditioned and lying like the quality of the Devill in the shape of a Serpent at the Tree of Temptation n Or suddenly often like a Hare timorous or fearfull starting and running away n Or suddenly often like a Toad whose minde is so very venomous that it poysoneth a tender or weak minde to the temporall Death by its Imagination which many times maketh Witches and Sorcerers for the first Ground serveth enough to it n Or suddenly often like a tame Beast and n Or suddenly often like a merry Beast c. all according as the Constellation stood in o The childes its Incarnation in the wrestling wheele with its vertue of the Quinta Essentia so is the starry minde on p In the minde of the childe its Region figured although the houre of Mans q Or Nativity Birth altereth much and doth r Or over-powereth the first Complexion of the houre of the Incarnation or becoming Man hold-in the first whereof I will write hereafter in its place concerning Mans Birth or 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 Å¿ Or poysoned 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 t Or vertue excellency of earthly things u Or the sick soule is not regarded 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 x Difference or separation distinction according to the kingdome of this world 24. And thus there goeth forth out of the earthly y Or thoughts 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 are and z Or vertue policy of this world a World which is but a
like the proud haughty Devill and he is his servant in obedience and looseth the Image of God and out of the Image cometh a Wolfe Dragon or Serpent to be all according to his Essences as he standeth figured in the minde But if he yeeld up himselfe to another swinish and beastiall condition as to a meere beastiall voluptuous life to gurmandizing gluttony and drunkennesse and lechery stealing robbing murthering lying cosening and cheating deceit then the eternall minde figureth him also in such an Image as is like an unreasonable ugly Beast and Worme And although he beare the Elementary Image in this life yet he hath indeed the Image of an Adder Serpent and Beast hidden therein which will be manifested at the breaking or deceasing of the body and it belongeth not to the Kingdome of God 35. But if he give himselfe up to the Obedience of God and p Or unite yeeld his minde up into God to strive against malice and wickednesse and the lusts and desires of the flesh also against all unrighteousnesse of life and conversation in humility under the Crosse then the Eternall minde figureth him in the Image of an Angel who is pure chast and vertuous and he keepeth this Image in the breaking of the body and hereafter he will be married with the precious virgin the Eternall Wisdome chastity and Paradisicall purity 36. And here in this life he must stick between the doore and the hinges between the kingdome of Hell the kingdome of this world and the noble Image must suffer much wrong or to be wounded for he hath not onely enemies outwardly but also in himselfe he beareth the beastiall and also the hellish Image of wrath in him so long as this house of flesh q Lasteth endureth Therefore that causeth strife and division against himselfe and also without him against the wickednesse of the world which the Devill mightily r Or driveth presseth against him and tempteth him on every side mis-leadeth and wringeth him every where and his own houshold in his body are his worst enemies therefore the Children of God are bearers of the Crosse in this world in this evill earthly Image 37. Now behold thou childe of Man seeing thou art an eternall Spirit thou hast this to expect after the breaking or deceasing of thy body thou wilt be either an Angel of God in Paradise or a hellish ugly Diabolicall Worme Beast or Dragon all according as thou Å¿ Hast behaved thy selfe hast been inclined or given here in this life that Image which thou hast borne here in thy minde with that thou shalt appeare for there can no other Image goe forth out of thy body at the breaking or deceasing of it but even that which thou hast borne here that shall appeare in Eternity 38. Hast thou been a proud vain-glorious selfvishly potent and one that hast for thy pleasure sake oppressed the needy then such a Spirit goeth forth from thee and then so it is in the Eternity where it can neither keep nor get any thing for to feed its covetousnesse neither can it adorne its body with any thing but with that which is there and yet it climeth up eternally in its pride for there is no other t Or working rising property source in it and thus in its rising it reacheth unto nothing else but the sterne might of the fire in its elevation it inclineth its selfe in its will continually in such a purpose as it did in this world as it was wont to doe here so all appeareth in its Tincture therein it climeth up eternally in the Abysie of Hell 39. But hast thou been a base slanderer lyar deceiver false murtherous Man then such a Spirit proceedeth from thee and that desireth in the Eternity nothing else but meere falshood it spitteth out from its fiery jawes fiery Darts full of abomination and reproach it is a continuall stirrer and breaker in the fierce sternnesse devouring in it selfe and consuming nothing all its things beeings essences works or u Or whatsoever he hath ever been substances appeare in its Tincture its Image is figured according as its minde hath been here 40. Therefore I say a Beast is better than such a Man who giveth himselfe up into the hellish Images for a Beast hath no Eternall Spirit its Spirit is from the Spirit of this world out of the x Or fragility corruptibility and passeth away with the body till it come to the figure without Spirit that figure remaineth standing seeing that the Eternall minde hath by the virgin of the Eternall wisdome of God discovered it selfe in the Out-Birth for the manifesting of the Great Wonders of God therefore those creaturely figures and also the figured wonders must stand before y God or the eternall minde him eternally although no beastiall figure or shaddow suffereth or doth any thing but is as a shaddow or painted figure or limmed Picture 41. Therefore in this world all things are given into Mans power because he is an Eternall Spirit and all other creatures are no other than a figure in the Wonders of God and therefore Man ought well to consider himselfe what he speaketh doth and purposeth in this world for all his works follow after him and he hath them eternally before his eyes and liveth in them except it be that he is againe new regenerated out of evill and falshood through the bloud and Death of Christ in the water and the Holy Ghost and then he breaketh forth out of the hellish and earthly Image into an Angelicall Image and cometh into another kingdome into which its untowardnesse or vices cannot follow and that untowardnesse waywardnesse or vice is drowned in the bloud of Christ and the Image of God is renewed out of the earthly and hellish 42. Thus wee are to consider and highly to know in the light of Nature the ground of the Kingdome of Heaven and of Hell as also the ground of the kingdome of this world and how Man in the Mothers body inheriteth three kingdomes and how Man in this life beareth a threefold Image which our first Parents by the first sinne z Or purchased inherited for us therefore wee have need of the Treader upon the Serpent to bring us againe into the Angelicall Image and it is needfull for Man to tame his body and minde or bring them under subjection with great earnestnesse and labour and to submit himselfe under the Crosse and not to hunt so eagarly after pleasure riches and the bravery of this world for therein sticketh perdition 43. Therefore said Christ A rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdome of Heaven because they take such delight in pride haughtinesse and fleshly voluptuousnesse and the noble minde is dead to the kingdome of God and continueth in the Eternall Darknesse For the Image of the spirit of the soule sticketh in the minde and to whatsoever the minde inclineth and giveth up it selfe in that is the Spirit
Treader upon the Serpent must also perish eternally But that wee may set downe a short Summary of the Fall because of our simple cold dull and dark minde for the Readers understanding who it may be doth not yet apprehend our sense and knowledge therefore wee will explaine it briefly and clearly and also readily impart our knowledge and minde to him as indeed f Or in according to the Divine Image wee ought to doe 47. Adam stood forty dayes in an Angelicall Image before his sleepe and there was neither day nor night in him also no time though indeed he was not as an Angel a meere Spirit for his body was out of the g The inward Element Element which is no understanding Spirit but is the attraction concretion or congelation in the will of God or the h Or the eternall Earth Limbus which standeth before god wherein the chast virgin the Divine Wisdome dwelleth which discovered and created the Image out of the Element by the Fiat 48. And out of this Limbus at the time when the Earth was corporised went forth the foure Elements as out of a fountaine and that which was discovered or manifested by the virgin the wisdome of God in the innumerablenesse were the Starres as a vertue power or procreation out of the Limbus and they are the Quintessence l Or before of the foure Elements not severed from the foure Elements but qualifying or mixing vertues one with another k The Starres with their fierce property are extracted out of the foure Elements and yet extracted from the foure issues with their sharp Essences and they are the seeking longing or hunger of the foure Elements or as I may expresse it by a similitude they are the Man and the Elements are the Woman and the heart of these things is the Element in one onely substance and the Essences in that one Element are the vertues or powers of the Wonders of the Wisdome of God and are called Paradise an exulting Joy 49. And the Spirit of the Eternall Essences which hath understanding and knowledge and also the triall and proving of every thing in which the source or active property of quality which is in Man consisteth that was breathed into him by the wisdome of God through the driving will which goeth l Or into Resignation forward out of the Eternall Minde out of the opened Gates of the Deepe through the Word together with the moving Spirit of God and he had the m Or stirring Touch of the Centre of the Abysse viz. the Eternall source n Or as the fire is behinde the light behinde him as a Band and before him the heart and light of God as a Glance of the joy and kindling of Paradise which springeth up in the Essences with the light of the joy and beneath him he had the foure Elements in the budding out of the Limbus which was in him 50. And as long as he set his Imagination in the Heart of God the Paradise was in him and he in the Paradise and the Bâ—â—d of the Abysse in him in the o Or property as the fire is the cause of the light and shining source was a Paradise of transcendent Joy and the Kingdome of this world held him from beneath also in the Band because it goeth forth from the Element but so long as he set his minde in the Heart of God it the kingdome of the foure Elements could not lay hold on him or master him and it was impotent as to him as this world is impotent as to God 51. And thus the Spirit and soule of Adam stood in the midst in the joyfull Paradise forty dayes as one onely day and all p Three had a desire to have him inclined to him one whereof was the kingdome of Hell of the Eternall Originality out of the dark Minde out of which his Worme of the soule in the opened Gate was gone forth and secondly there inclined to him the Deity of the Kingdome of Heaven in the opened Gate in the pleasant Lustre and thirdly the Spirit of the Starres and Elements inclined to him drawing him to their Bands and heartily desiring him 52. And thus Adam stood upright in the Temptation for his angry minde out of the Originality of the first Principle stood in Joy being enlightened from the light of God and the source of the fierce wrath made the rising joy for the light made all meeke and friendly that he might incline himselfe to love and thereby he stood on earth rightly in the Paradise 53. The foure Elements of this world together with the Sunne and Starres they could not qualifie or mix with him he drew no Aire into him but the Spirit of God in the virgin was his breathing and his kindling of the fire in the Spirit 54. But while he thus stood between the kingdome of Hell and the kingdome of this world in the Paradise bound with Bands and yet also wholly free in the might of God he reflected himselfe into or discovered himselfe in the great Deepe of the kingdome of this world in which the great wonders also stand hidden in the Centre as wee see that Man hath by his Eternall Minde discovered it and brought it to q Or the day Light as is seene before our eyes and in his discovering or reflecting he imagined and fell into lust for the Spirit of the world took hold of him and as a Mother maketh a mark upon a childe in the Mothers womb and he became in the lust impregnated from the Spirit of this world and then was blinde as to God and saw neither God nor the virgin any more in his minde And thus the Kingdome of Heaven continued in the opened Gate of the Omnipotence or Almightinesse in the Paradise in its own Principle to it selfe and the virgin in it hidden in the Centre and was in Adam and yet Adam with his minde was not in God but in the Spirit of this world and he became feeble as to the kingdome of Gods and so fell downe and slept 55. And then God by the Spirit of this world through the Fiat built or formed out of r Adam him the Woman of this world by whom he Å¿ Multiplyed or propagated increased his Kingdome The Woman was out of the Matrix which before the infection was a chast virgin which Adam should have t Or generated brought forth out of himselfe but when the modesty of the wisdome and ability or potency departed from him when he passed into the Spirit of this world he could not then bring forth or generate for in his sleepe the Spirit of this world cloathed him with flesh and bloud and figured formed or shaped him into a Beast as wee now see by very wofull experience and know our selves to be blinde and naked as to the kingdome of God being without any vertue or strength in the sleepe of the great misery cloathed
with corruptible fraile and transitory flesh and bloud 56. And now when Adam awaked from sleepe then he was a Man and no Angel he drew breath from the aire and therewith kindled his u Or Astrall Spirit Starry Spirit which had taken possession of him he knew his wife to be a Woman and that shee was x Or generated taken out of him and tooke her to him as all Beasts couple together yet he had then pure eyes for the fiercenesse or grim wrath did not yet stick in them but the infection or longing The Element of fire with its bitternesse which qualifieth or mixeth properties with the Abysse of Hell had not pressed him wholly 57. Thus now Adam with his wife went in great lust and joy into the Garden of Eden where Adam told her of the Commandement concerning the Tree but Eve being a Woman of this world regarded it but little and turned her from Adam to the Tree and looked upon it with lust and the lust instantly took hold of her and the lying Devill when shee was talking with him whom shee knew not neither had heard of any Devill perswaded her and shee laid hold on the Tree and brake off an Apple and did eate of the fruit of the foure Elements and Starres and gave to Adam and when Adam saw that Eve dyed y By eating not then he eate also 58. And then their eyes were opened and they knew that they had flesh and bloud and were quite naked for the Spirit of the great World took them captive with the foure Elements and figured or framed in them Stomack and Gutts though indeed in the sleepe of Adam when the Matrix was severed from the Limbus the same formes were already figured but they knew it not till after the biting of the Apple and then the Spirit of the fiercenesse first gat in and made its Region as may be seene in the Heart Liver Lungs Gall and Bladder as also in the Stomack this Regiment had Adam gotten in his sleepe and with the biting of the Apple the Spirit of the great world hath set it selfe in that Government 59. And then they looked one upon another and were ashamed one before another and they were afraid of the wrath or severity that entered into them for it was the anger of God and thus they were captivated by the first Principle as by the Abysse of Hell and held Adam and Eve captive in their soules in the Eternall part for it sprung up with terrour feare and doubt concerning the kingdome of God and they could have no comfort in that condition for they saw the Paradise no more but the Garden in Eden so also they had lost the Deity they could set no will or desire into it for the wrath and doubt stood in the way 60. Then came the Spirit of this world with its rough Garment with heate and cold and pressed upon them as upon naked people and so struck the Image of God halfe dead with their fiercenesse anguish and doubt with their quality or property of hot and cold and let it lye in paine anguish and doubt And here Man went from Jerusalem out of the Paradise to Jericho into the house of murtheroâ—rs who stript him of his Paradisicall Garment and robbed him and struck him with their poyson torment plague and sicknesse from their infection halfe dead and so left him and went their way as the second Adam said in the Gospel in a similitude or Parable 61. And here now was no remedy neither in Heaven nor in this world they were captivated in hard slavery in misery and death the Abysse of Hell did hold the soule and the Spirit of this world held the body captive Death and corruption was in the body and there was nothing else in them but enmity to it selfe proceeding from the tart Essences of the Starres wherein one source or quality striveth against the other and one breaketh or destroyeth the other with greater paine and torment to the body with trembling and skreeking and at last comes corruption and death as it is before our eyes 62. There the Devill gat the Game for the kingdome of this world to be his againe he gat an entrance into Man and he could reach into the Essences of his soule for they were z Man and the Devill were both in the wrath voyde of grace now both in one kingdome 63. He the Devill supposed saying the kingdome of this world is thine thou shalt sport thy selfe according to thy power with the Image of Man which should have possessed thy Throne his Spirit is in thy kingdome and so the Devill mocked God in his minde saying Where is now thy noble Image which though didst create to Rule over my Throne am not I Lord of the great Might of the fire I will rule over thy Throne the might or strength and vertue is mine I flie up above the Thrones of vertue and strength and no might or power can withstand mee 64. Yes indeed the flieth up above the Thrones but he cannot flie into the Thrones he flieth up in the first eternall source of fire which is sterne foure dark hard cold rough and burning but he cannot get through the open Gate of the Deepe into the Light of God but he flieth up aloft in his Abysse in the Eternity in the wrathfull source or quality of Hell and reacheth nothing else And therefore he is a Prince though in the Abysse of Hell which was well enough knowne to Man after his Miserable Fall 65. And because I may not be well understood by the Reader in that I write that Man dwelleth in the Abysse of Hell with the Devills therefore I will shew him the ground that he may touch and handle it and if he will not feele it yet it is given to him that he may know it and it shall be a witnesse against him 66. It is not without a cause that Christ calleth the Devill a Prince of this world for he is so according to the first Principle according to the kingdome of wrath and continueth so to Eternity but he is not so according to the kingdome of the foure Elements and Starres for if he had full power in that then there would be no vegetative fruit nor living creature upon the Earth he cannot master the a That which proceedeth or issueth exit of the foure Elements for he is in the Originality and there is a whole Principle between onely when the b Or aspects of the Starres Costellations doe awaken the fierce wrath of the fire in the Elements as in a tempestuous storme then he is Master Jugler in mischiefe and rejoyceth himselfe therein though indeed he hath no power there neither except it be permitted to him from the anger of God then he is the Hangman or Executioner and executeth the c The Sentence Judgement or Justice Right as a Servant Minister or Officer but not as a Judge but as an
hast eaten of the Tree whereof I told thee that thou shouldst not eate cursed be the ground for thy sake with care thou shalt maintaine thy life thereon all thy life long Thornes and Thistles shall it bring forth to thee and thou shall eate the hearb of the field till thou become Earth againe from wheâ—â—e thou wert taken for thou art now Earth and to Earth you shall returne againe 4. Here now stand the great secrets which wee cannot see with g Or with the eyes of reason our earthly eyes wholly naked and plaine and there is no vayle before it onely wee are blinde to the kingdome of God for God cursed the Earth and said it should now beare Thornes and Thistles and Man h Or must should eate the fruit of the accursed Earth This indeed is a new thing He allowed them not in Paradise to eate of the earthly hearbs but of the pleasant fruit And if he had eaten of the hearbs of the fields yet that which he had eaten was heavenly and when the Lord cursed the Earth then all became earthly and the holy Element was withdrawne and the fruit did grow in the issuing of the foure Elements in the kindling of the fiercenesse out of which Thornes and Thistles grew 5. Wee must conceive that there i Before the Curse was then a very pleasant habitation upon the Earth for all the fruits did grow spring and bud out of the hidden Element through the fiercenesse of the foure Elements and although the foure Elements had also their fruits yet Man should not but the Beasts of the field should have eaten thereof but now when the Lord cursed the Earth then the Element withdrew from the roote of the Fruit for Gods cursing is nothing else but his flying from a thing and thus Gods holinesse is flien from the roote of the fruit and so the roote of the fruits remaineth in the foure Elements in the out-birth and Adam and Eve were also fallen k Into the four Elements thereinto and thus now like came to like his body also was become earthly and must turne to Earth againe 6. But that God did say Thou shalt turne to Earth from whence thou wert taken that is also very true but the understanding is hidden in the Word and the earthly vayle hangeth before it wee must looke under the vayle For Adam was taken out of the earth not out of the foure issuings of the Elements but he was an Extract out of the Element which qualified or mingled with the Earth But when he fell into the foure Elements then he became Earth as also fire aire and water and now what should the Beastiall Man doe with the heavenly Paradisicall fruit he could not l Or enjoy it eate of it and therefore God doth not cast his heavenly kingdome to beasts and swine but it belongeth to Angels 7. So also it is very cleere and manifest that before the curse there grew such venomous or poysonous Thornes and Thistles and poysonous fruits and if God had not cursed the Earth from the one Element then no Beast should have been so fierce and mischievous or evill for God said Let the Earth be cursed for thy sake From whence now is also arisen the disobedience of the Beasts towards Man and their wildnesse or flying in their face as also that they are so cruell fierce mischievous and evill and that Man must hide himselfe from their fierce rage and fury whereas God in the Creation gave all into his power all Beasts of the field should be in subjection under him which now is clâ—ane contrary for Man is become a Wolfe to them in devouring the Beasts and they are like Lyons against him and there is meere Enmity against one another he can scarce order the tame Beasts much lesse the wilde 8. And wee are to know that there was a great difference in the Beasts before the curse for some viz. the tame ones were very neer a kinne to the Element with whom Man should have had joy and delight on the contrary some viz. the wilde ones which flie from Man were very neere a-kinne to the foure Elements for the m The wonderfull reason why one beast was better than another causes of those wonders stuck wholly in the Essences and they were very well knowne and seene in the light of the life in the knowledge of the n Or Divine Wisdome virgin there is nothing so deepe that Man cannot search into and see it most o Infallibly assuredly if he doe but put away the vayle and look through the Tables p Or transparent Law graven through with q Or Jesus Joshua into the promised Land 9. And God said In the sweat of thy r Or Browes face thou shalt eate thy Bread till thou turne to Earth againe Here now all is cleere and manifest in the light for he had lost the heavenly fruit which grew for him without labour or toyle of his and now he must dig and delve in the earth and sow and plant and so in the foure Elements must get fruit in cares labour toyle and misery for while the Element or the vertue or power out of the Element sprung forth through the Earth there was so long a continuall lasting roote to the fruit but when the Element by the curse withdrew then the Å¿ Or frozen congealed Death frailty and transitory fading was in the roote and they must now continually be t Or transplanted planted againe Thus the turmoyling life of Man took beginning wherein wee must now u Or swelter our selves bath our selves 10. God could well have created creatures which should have managed the Beasts so that Man might well have stayd in Paradise in the Angelicall forme and besides that there are already in all the foure Elements creatures without a soule God would well have laid the labour or charge of managing the Beasts upon another generation which were also x Or of the foure Elements earthly But he saw well that Man would not stand therefore instantly the burthen was laid upon him as Moses also writeth of it 11. But if God y Had desired would have had Beastiall Men then he would have created them so in the beginning and given them no Commandement neither should they have been tempted as indeed the Beasts have no z Or Commandement laid upon them Law 12. Therefore all Objections which fall into Reason are nothing else but the subtle contradictions or fallacies of the Devill who would very faine maintaine that God did will the Fall of Man There are also Men that dare to say that God did will it and say that he fitted the tongue of the Serpent to seduce Eve whose judgement is very justly upon themselves because they offer to confirme the Devils word with lying and goe about to make God a lyar 13. 'T is very true according to the first Principle viz. the Abysse
shall be expounded in its due place 32. And there is a very great matter to be seene in Moses concerning his e Glorious shining brightened face where it was tryed whether it were possible that the soule could be ransomed by the Fathers clarity or brightnesse in the fire if they did live in his Law which was sharp and consuming and a great piercing to the soule but it was in vaine it might not be 33. And there the noble virgin in the Spirit of the Prophets did f Or prophecy of point at the seede of the Woman at his Incarnation or becoming Man his suffering and dying for the poore soule of Man that it might be delivered from the Eternall Death and be regenerated anew in the Sonne of the virgin which was done after three thousand nine hundred and Seventy yeares 3970 yeares and then the Word of the Promise which God promised to Adam and Eve in the Paradise in the Garden of Eden when they fell into sinne and which Imaged or imprinted it selfe in the Centre of the life through which all Men that come to God are justified became Man 34. It continued a long time in the Covenant of Circumcision in the life and light of the Father with the shadows and types of the Incarnation of the Sonne But these could not g Or comprehend the rising againe reach the earnestnesse of the coming againe of the body out of the grave But the Word must become Man if Man must rise againe out of the grave It the Covenant ransomed the soule indeed so that it could stand before the Father in the Gate of the corruptibility in the fire of the sharpnesse but not in the pleasant Joy before the light of the holy Trinity and besides it could not bring the new body forth out of the Element for it was defiled too much with sinne 35. Thus in that fore-mentioned yeare the Angel Gabriel came being sent of God the Father to Nazareth to a poore yet chast and modest virgin called Mary her name signifieth plainly in the Language of Nature A Redemption out of the valley of misery and though it be plaine that wee are not borne of the h Universities or Academies High Schooles with i School-learning or tongues many Languages yet wee have the Language of Nature in our Schoole of Wonders or Miracles fixed stedfast or perfect which the k Or learned Doctor Master of Art in his Pontificalibus will not beleeve and he Greeted her l Or from through God and brought the Eternall m Or message Command of the Father out of his will and said to her n Luk. 10. from vers 28. to the end of ver 35. Haile full of grace the Lord is with thee thou blessed among Women And when shee looked upon him shee was terrified at his saying and considered in her thoughts what manner of salutation this was And the Angel said to her feare not Mary thou hast found Grace with God behold thou shalt o Be impregnated conceive in thy womb or body and beare a sonne whose name thou shalt call Jesus he shall be great and be called the sonne of the most High and God the LORD will give unto him the Throne of his Father David and he shall be King over the house of Jacob Eternally and of his Kingdome there will be no end Then said Mary to the Angel How shall that come to passe since I know not a Man And the Angel answered to her and said the Holy Ghost will come upon thee and the vertue or power of the most High will overshadow thee therefore also that holy One that shall be borne of thee shall be called the Sonne of God Then said Mary Behold I am the Handmaid of the Lord let it be done to mee as thou hast said and the Angel departed from her Now when this Command or Message from God the Father came then the nature of the spirit of the soule in Mary was astonished as the Text saith for p The spirit of the soule it was stirred by a precious Guest who went into a wonderfull Lodging or Inne 36. But the Reader must not here understand it as if the word for this Incarnation at this time did first come down out of the highest Heaven above the Starres hither beneath and became Man as the world teacheth in blindnesse No but the Word which God spake in Paradise to Adam and Eve concerning the Treader upon the Serpent which Imaged or imprinted it selfe in the doore of the light of life q Or beeing standing in the Centre of the Gate of Heaven and waiting perceptably in the mindes of the holy Men even till this time that same Word is become Man and that same Divine Word is againe entred into the virgin of the Divine Wisdome which was given to the soule of Adam r Or joyned to neere the Word to be a light and a Å¿ Or maid-servant or Ministresse hand-maid as to the Word 37. And the will of the Heart of God in the Father is from the Heart entred into the will of the Wisdome before the Father into an Eternall t Or espousall contract and the same virgin of the Wisdome of God in the Word of God hath in the bosom of the virgin Mary given it selfe into her virgin-Matrix and united it selfe as a propriety not to depart in Eternity you must understand into the Essences and into the Tincture of the Element which is pure and undefiled before God in that the Heart of God is become an Angelicall Man as Adam was in the Creation and the going forth out of the Heart of God with the whole fulnesse of the Deity out of which also the holy Ghost or Spirit of God and out of the Spirit the virgin goeth forth maketh this high Angelicall Image greater than Adam or ever any Angel was for it is the blessing and the might of all things which are in the Father Eternally 38. For the Word by its being given into the Element into the virgin-Matrix is not severed from the Father but it continueth eternally in the Father and it is in the Heaven of the Element every where present into which Element the same word is entred and is become a new creature in Man which new creature is called God And you must here very highly and accurately understand that this new creature in the holy Element is not generated of the flesh and bloud of the virgin but of God out of the Element in a totall fullnesse and union u Or with of the holy Trinity which creature continueth with totall fullnesse without x Fading ending therein eternally which creature every where filleth all in all the Gates of the holinesse whose depth hath no ground and is without number measure and Name 39. Yet you must know that the corporeity of the Element of this creature is y Or lesse than the Deity inferiour to
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 n Or Authority 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 o Or in the bravery and glory of this world 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 let 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 be crowned with the p With riches or the best Treasure of this world 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 q Holy Orders Ordination of Ministers Presbyters or Institution of the Spiritualty or Clergy 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 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 r Their gluttony and drunkennesse 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 Å¿ Or concluded 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 t Challenge accuse and affright us 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
body in Christ and thou helpest the necessity or want of thy fellow-member and to bring him into God it is the pleasure and will of God that one help to beare the burthen of another and to be saved in one brotherly Love and in one body 101. Thou blinde Minister to the Kingdome of Antichrist when thou sayest Masse for soules How is it that sometimes thou takest upon thee to ransome a soule which is in Heaven or altogether in the Abysse with the Devill Doest thou not think that the Devill mocketh thee Or how canst thou help them that are in Heaven Thou criest out and sayest they are in paine and torment and thou art a lyar in the presence of God and how then will that holy soule blesse thee and give thee thanks How is it when thou thy selfe art in the Abysse with all Devills that thou standest and wilt ransom others out of Purgatory and that for money which thou afterwards spendest with Whores O fie upon thee thou great Whore or Harlot how hast thou made for thy selfe a heavenly kingdome upon Earth for thy voluptuousnesse and deceivest the poore soule of Man thou must either turne or goe into the Eternall Purgatory 102. And now seeing there is somewhat in Purgatory and that all is not so dead b Or the Wolfe of the Beast giveth it forth as the Wolfe of the Beast feigneth whereby he may devour the Beast and the Woman that sitteth thereon and he is himselfe a Wolfe and there hangeth a Fox behinde him and in the Fox there groweth up an other Antichrist againe never a whit better than the first he goeth flattering with his c Or Foxes Tayle Foxes skin smelling about and the Wolfe sticketh therein till he getteth the kingdome or Dominion if he should come to be old enough how would he devour the poore peoples Hennes in the fierce cruelty therefore the Lilly in the Wonder destroyeth him which groweth towards the North or midnight in the bitter or fierce storme 103. Seeing the world forgeth so much concerning Purgatory therefore I will also set downe the Ground of it in the Light of Nature and see how it will be endured and whether wee can search it out or no for wee must looke upon Life and Death and upon the Gate where the soule entereth through Death into Life and upon all the three Principles because the Roote the Pith or Kernell lyeth therein CHAP. XIX Of the Entring of the soules to God and of the wicked soules Entring into Perdition The Gate of the Bodies breaking off or Parting from the Soule 1. IF wee consider now in the light of Nature of Man the Image of God of his beginning and of his Eternall enduring being or substance and then of the breaking of his body how body and soule part asunder and whither the soules goe when the Spirit of their breath doth breake or dissolve in them and the springing or moving in the Tincture of this world doth cease then wee finde the ground of the unquietnesse of the soule when it is severed from the body being unregenerated from whence lamentation and desiring ariseth from whence then the Babell of Confusion hath arisen so that very many things have therefore been invented to Ransom soules out of Distresse 2. Many of which things have no foundation in the light of Nature nor can be found therein But were rather invented for Covetousnesse and for d For Livings filling of the Belly and for deceit upon which the Antichristian kingdome is founded and thereout is a right Babell of Confusion come to be out of which then also the Grimme fierce cruell enmity and hatred is arisen from whence Babell is broken in her selfe and Enmity is generated out of e Wrangling dissention and warring Babell and it is the fierce wrath of God which appeareth in the breaking or destruction of Babell because shee is generated in the Deceit 3. But now that the wrath devoureth all and wholly darkneth the Mysteria Mysteries or hidden secrets and maketh the source or quality of the Eternall Birth to be a Darknesse onely that it may exalt its wrath and seeth nothing in the Birth of Eternity but bringeth all things that are therein to nothing that is a very great Babell for it not onely devoureth it selfe but maketh it selfe f Or Stock-blinde stark blinde in Nature and it maketh of Mans Image meere evill wolvish Beasts which think that they are gone out from Babell and yet are begotten in Babell and are in the body of the evill devouring Beast and so devour the house of their Mother and manifest it to be a vile stincking Lake and yet themselves will not goe out from it and it is altogether a Kingdome which continually generateth it selfe in its own voluptuousnesse and pride and also continually manifesteth its own shame and devoureth it selfe in the wrath of its own sinnes and is rightly called Babell 4. But if wee goe out from Babell into the New Regeneration and consider our corruption wherein the poore soule lyeth captive and also consider our Regeneration in Christ Jesus how wee are regenerated out of God and then how Man must enter into this new Regeneration and be regenerated in the Birth of Christ then wee shall well finde what the unquietnesse of the soule is after the departure or breaking off of the body 5. For the soule which is out of the first Principle out of the Band of the Eternity was breathed into the Element of the body to be the Image of God out of the strong Might of God and enlightened from the Divine Light so that it hath received an Angelicall source or quality but when it went forth out of the Light of God into the Spirit of this world then there sprung up in it the source of the first Principle and it neither saw nor felt the kingdome of God any more till that the Heart of God set it selfe in the midst againe into that the soule must enter againe and be borne anew 6. And that it might doe this therefore the Heart of God became a humane g One Copie hath humane body soule and slew by his entring into Death the Spirit of this world and brought the fulnesse of the Deity againe into his humane soule so that wee also may altogether in his as in our own humane soule through him presse into the holy Element before God and now there is nothing to hinder us but our own vile sluggish drowsinesse that wee suffer our selves to be so wholly and altogether lead by the Spirit of this world with pride exalting of our selves to honour and esteeme and greedy filling of the Belly with plenty and wee look no further to consider that wee are but Pilgrims and that as soone as the Spirit of this world hath laid hold of us in the Mothers body or womb wee are then Pilgrims and must travaile with our soules into another Countrey where the earthly body is not
as he was before the Fall i Or be its clothing againe be againe upon it 26. These holy soules works also follow them in their Tincture of the Spirit of the soule in the holy Element so that they see and know how much good they have wrought here and their highest delight and desire is still continually in their Love to doe more good although without the Paradisicall body which they shall then first attaine at the Restoration they worke nothing but their source qualitie or property is meere delight and soft k Or Well-doing welfare 27. Yet you are to know that the holy soules are not so voyde of ability or power for their Essences are out of the strong Might of God out of the first Principle although because of their great humility towards God they doe not use that might whereas they continually expect their bodies in that still rest with great humility and yet their love and delight is so very great that at severall times they have wrought great Wonders or Miracles among the faithfull upon Earth which faithfull People so vigorously set their love and desire in them that one holy Tincture took hold of the other and so through the Faith of the Living wonders are thus done for thâ—re is nothing impossible to Faith 28. And it is not hard for the holy soules which are departed from the body to appeare l Or upon to a strong Faith of one that is Living for the firme faith of the living if it be borne of God reacheth also unto the kingdome of Heaven into the holy Element where the seperated soules have their Rest 29. And now if the deceased or seperated soule was here in this world a Candlestick and a declarer of the Name of God and that it hath turned many unto Righteousnesse then it appeareth also to the Living Saints which incline their Faith so strongly to them and it is not a jot harder now than in former times when in the tiâ—es of the Saints great Wonders were done for the Faith of the Living and the Love of the seperated soules towards the Beleeving Saints hath wrought them in the strong Might of God and God hath permitted it for the conversion of People that they might see the great Might of those that were deceased in God and that they are and live in another kingdome that so they might be assured of the Resurrection of the Dead by the great Miracles of the deceased soules All which in generall were put to Death for the witnesse of Jesus that the Heathen and all People might thereby see what manner of Reward the holy â—People had when they laid downe their life for the Testimony of Christ by whose example many People also were converted 30. But now â—hat a Bâ—bell of confusion is come out of this in that it is come so farre that the Saints departed are invocated or worshipped as Intercessours to God and that Divine honour is done them this the holy soules departed are not guilty of neither here they desired any such thing neither doe they present the miseries and necessities of Men before God But the fault lyeth in the forged Superstition of the wicked deceitfull Antichrist who hath founded his m Chaire or Throne Stoole of Pride thereon not as a living Saint which with the holy inclineth himselfe to God but as an earthly God he thereby arrogateth Divine Omnipotence to himselfe and yet hath none but is the greedy covetous proud Anti-christ riding upon the strong n The Arme of the Civill power Beast of this world 31. The soules departed doe not present our wants before God for God is neerer to us than the soules departed are and besides if they should doe so then they must have bodies as also Paradisicall sources or flowing properties springing up and working whereas they are in the still humility and meeke Rest and doe not suffer our soure miseries to enter into them but one holy Tincture taketh hold of another to increase the love and delight But they make not of Christ their Great Prince a Deafe Hearer as if he did neither heare feele nor see any thing himselfe who stretcheth out his armes and himselfe without ceasing calleth with his holy Spirit and inviteth all the children of Men to the wedding he will readily accept all if they would but come 32. How then should a soule come before Christ and pray for a Living Invocatour whereas Christ himselfe doth stand and invite Men and is himselfe the atonement of the anger in the Father For the Father hath given Men to the Sonne as himselfe witnesseth They were thine and thou hast given them to mee and I will that they be with mee and see my Glory which thou hast given mee 33. O thou confounded Babell goe out from Antichrist and come with a penitent heart and minde before thy mercifull Brother and Saviour of all Men he will more readily heare thee than thou come to him Step onely out of this wicked Babell into a new Birth and be not so much in love with the kingdome of this world thou art but a meere Guest and stranger in it what availeth thee thy o Or corruptible transitory honour from men which scarce lasteth one moment Thou shalt indeed get much greater surpassing joy and honour in the new Regeneration where the holy soules in the Heaven and the Angels will rejoyce with thee Consider what joy and gladnesse thou wilt stirre up thereby in the Heart of Jesus Christ where then instantly the precious Talent the Holy Ghost will be given thee and thou wilt get the Keys of the Kingdome of Heaven that thou thy selfe mayst open it or dost thou think it is not true doe but seek and try with an earnest minde and thou wilt finde wonders indeed thou thy selfe shalt know understand and without any doubt at all assuredly see in thy minde out of what Schoole this is written 34. Now the minde thinketh that if all the workes of a soule which it wrought here shall follow it in the figure then how shall it be if a soule here hath for a long time p Or wrought great crimes sinnes and blasphemies committed great abominations then they will be great shame to it if they must stand in the figure before its eyes This is a great stumbling block of the Devills which plagueth the poore soule and usually forceth it thereby into despaire so that it selfe continually presenteth its sinnes before it and despaireth of the Grace of God 35. Now behold thou beloved soule who art dearly redeemed by thy Saviour Jesus Christ with his entrance into the humanity and with his entrance into the Abysse of Hell and plucked off from the Kingdome of the Devill in the Might of the Father and sealed with his bloud and Death and covered with his Ensigne of Triumph all thy works both the evill and the good which thou hast done follow thee in the shadow but
assisteth the soule and if it getteth no victory in him then thy hypocrisie shall not help it Thou takest money and sayest Masse for every one whether they be in Heaven or in Hell thou doest not inquire after that and besides thou art altogether uncertain of it but onely thou mayst be sure that thou appearest before God to be a perpetuall lyar 57. But that they have hitherto ascribed such acute knowledge to the soule after the departure of the body that thing is very various according as the soule is variously armed If it here in this body entred into the new Birth and if it selfe were entred with its Noble Champion Jesus Christ through the Gates of the Deepe to God so that it hath received the Crowne of the high wisdome from the Noble Virgin then indeed it hath great wisdome and knowledge even above the Heavens for it is in the bosom of the virgin through whom the Eternall Wonders of God are opened this soule hath also great joy and clarity brightnesse or lustre above the Heavens of the Elements for the Glance of the Holy Trinity shineth from it and clarifieth brightneth or glorifieth it 58. But that they should ascribe great knowledge to a soule which scarce at the end with great danger is loosed from the Band of the Devill and which in this world did not so much as once care for the wisdome of God but looked after its pleasure onely and which hath not in this world been once crowned with the Holy Ghost that is not so doth not Christ himselfe say The children of this world are wiser in their Generation than the chi dren of Light 59. If the soule be freed from the Bands of the Devill then it liveth in meeknesse and in great humility in the stillnesse of the o Eternall Element or mercy of God Element without the springing up of any works it doth no Miracles or sheweth no works of wonder but humbleth it selfe before God Yet it is possible for the highly-worthy Champion-like soules to doe Wonders for they have great knowledge and power or vertue though they all appeare in humble Love before the Countenance of God and there is no grudging among them The true Doore of the Entrance into Heaven or into Hell 60. Reason alwayes seeketh for Paradise out of which it is gone forth and it sayth Where is the place whither the soules goe to rest in Whither flieth it when it departeth from the body Doth it goe farre or doth it stay here 61. Although wee may be hard to be understood in our high knowledge because a soule that desireth to p Or understand it see it must enter into the New Birth or else it standeth behinde the vayle of Moses and asketh continually Where is the place therefore wee will set it downe for the sake of the Lilly-Rose wheâ—e then the Holy Ghost will open many Doores in the Wonders which men now hold for Impossible q To be opened and in the world none is r Or at home therein but they are Å¿ Or at Babell in Babell 62. Therefore now if wee will speake of our Native Countrey out of which wee are wandred with Adam and will tell of the Resting-place of the soules wee need not to t Or to thinke of some farre distant place cast our mindes a farre off for farre off and neere is all one and the same thing with God the place of the Holy Trinity is u Or Every where all over Heaven and Hell is every where all over in this world and the Man Christ dwelleth all over for he hath laid off the corruptibility and hath swallowed up Death as also that which is fragile or temporall and he liveth in God his body is the substance of the Element which out of the word of the Mercifulnesse is from Eternity generated out of the Gates of the Deep it is the x Or refreshment Habitation where the sharpnesse of God breaketh open the Darknesse where the Eternall vertue or power appeareth in wonders and it is the Tincture of the Deity which is before God out of which the heavenly vertues are generated its Name is wonderfull the Earthly Tongue cannot expresse 63. And Adams body was also created out of it and the whole world was made through the Element out of its issuing forth Now therefore this Gate is every where all over that which is most inward is also the most outward but the middlemost is the Kingdome of God the outward world hangeth to the outermost and yet is not the outermost but the ground of Hell is the outermost and none of them all comprehendeth the other and yet they are in one another and the one is not seene in the other but the y Or property is felt source which is broke forth 64. Wee finde indeede the vertue of the Kingdome of Heaven in all things and also wee finde the vertue or effect of the Kingdome of Hell in all things and yet the thing is not hurt or disturbed by either of them but what is not generated out z Or the one Eternall of one of them alone 65. The soule of Man is generated out of the Gates of the breaking through out of the outward into the inward and is gone forth out of the inward in a The Spirit of this world the out-Birth of the inward into the outward and that soule must enter againe into the inward if it remaine in the outward it is in Hell in the deep great widenesse vacuum or space without end where the source or the rising tormenting quality generateth it selfe according to the inward and in it selfe goeth forth into the outward 66. The source in the breaking forth out of the outward into the inward is the sharpnesse and the Allmightinesse of the Kingdome of the Heavens over the outward the outward is the Eternall Band and the inward is the Eternall vertue and light and cannot perish and thus God is all in all and yet there is nothing that comprehendeth or detaineth him and he is included in nothing 67. Therefore the soule when it departeth from the body needeth not to goe farre for at that place where the body dyeth there is Heaven and Hell and the Man Christ dwelleth every where God and the Devill is there yet each of them in his own Kingdome The Paradise is also there and the soule needeth onely to enter through the deep Doore in the Centre Is the soule Holy then it standeth in the Gate of Heaven and the earthly body hath but kept it out of Heaven and now when the body cometh to be broken then the soule is already in the Heaven it needeth no going out or in Christ hath it in his armes for where the foure Elements breake there the roote of them remaineth which is the holy Element and therein the body of Christ standeth and also the Paradise which standeth in the springing source of Joy and that Element
into Paradise that in this world is miserable amd 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 Glittering 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 Å¿ Lord or Superiour 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 t Or false unrighteous Bread which he thinketh to eate under a soft yoake and u Or plagueth worrieth him to the uttermost and leaveth him no time to escape but sticketh full of impatience under that heavy burthen he grumbleth and â—â—aundereth and seeketh all evill devices to ease his yoake that he might eate his bread in quietnesse and yet it will not be the Driver Hunter cruell Tyrant his â—aster is behinde him and taketh away his bread and feedeth him with sorrow under his yoake 34. And then he studieth cunning and deceit and casteth about to finde which way he may by shifts and tricks fill his belly and live he curseth his Master secretly and though he steale away closely by some slight the bread of another needy Man yet that must be right with him and his Master doth not regard it so he eate not of his cost and so that he continue to be his dogge under his yoake Thus the Master Lord or Superiour is unrighteous and x Evill or false wicked and maketh also that his servant is unrighteous and x Evill or false wicked whereas otherwise if he might eate his bread under an easie yoake he would not be so cursed and cunning in Theevery 35. But what will the Spirit of this Kingdome say Art thou not shining in Bravery Hast thou not taken possession of all Hast thou not the Earth in possession freely as God gave it thee Doest thou not right Doest thou not punish the wicked and lookest to it where the enemy breaketh it Doest thou not defend thy Countrey Are thou not a light to the blinde and appointest Teachers for them which y Or Exhort drive them to patience The Kingdome is thine indeed thou hast purchased it the poore is thy servant indeed that in thy opinion cannot faile but be right 36. But the Divine Answer in the Light of Nature saith to mee Behold out of what art thou growen Have I planted thee art thou not growen in my wilde Garden When Adam went into the wilde Garden there he z Grifted or inoculated planted thee how art thou growen so great who hath given thee vertue or sappe thou wilde Tree My Love never stirred thee up all thy branches are wilde and thy fruit is wilde Doest thou think that my soule lusteth after thy food I will not eate of thy fruit I am strong and the Kingdome is mine he that cometh under my a Or fatnesse wings I will shelter him no storme can touch him moreover the Countrey is mine I have left it to you to be used in unanimous Love and have set you out of one and the same roote that you should be alike and love one another and prevent one another in chast Love 37. Thou wilde Beast how comest thou so great and strong Hast thou not trampled in my Garden of Roses and there made thee a Goutch Where are thy Brothers and Sisters Haw cometh it to passe that they lie at thy feete and that they are so leane and thou onely art strong and lusty Hast thou not devoured my Branches and brought forth young Wolves which devoure thy b Kine Calves Sheep Lambs c. Cattle also and thou art a Beast with thy young ones should I suffer thee in my Garden of Roses Where is the Noble fruit which I did sowe Have you not turned them all into wilde branches And where now shall I seeke for the fruit and profit of my Garden of Roses And my soule would faine eate of the Good fruit but thou hast trampled all underfoote anâ—â—ade it a denne of Murther 38. Besides I heare a great howling and lamentation that all thy servants cry woe over thee because thou plaguest them and moreover thou hast shed my Noble seede and not sowen it but thou hast sowen thy wilde seede for the promoting of thy great devouring and pomp behold I have spewed thee out towards Babell in the Presse of my fierce wrath and there I will presse thee and I will plant my Lilly-Branch in my Garden of Roses which bringeth mee forth fruit after which my soule lusteth of which my sick Adam shall eate that he may be strong and may goe into Paradise Of the Thrusting Adam and Eve out of the Paradise of the Garden in Eden 39. And when God had thus provided Adam and Eve a Beastiall Garment to cover their shame and to defend them against the cold then he let them out of the Garden and set the Cherubine with a naked c Or warning flaming sword two edged sword before it to keep the way to the Tree of Life and he Man must now till the Ground But the understanding of us poore children of Adam and Eve is d Darkened chilled shut up or frozen so hard sunk so much that at our last old age wee scarce reach the understanding of any thing concerning the lamentable Fall of Adam and Eve Seeing wee must seeke very deep for it in the Centre of the Light of Life for it is very wonderfull which Moses saith God sâ—t the Cherubine
that desire r Sincerely or unfeinedly earnestly to come to him and will not foresee Predestinate or elect them that is not so His will is to helpe all Men and Christ himselfe saith Come yee all to mee that are weary and heavy laden here it is those that are laden with sinnes I will refresh you that is certainly foresee or Elect and draw them to mee and there wanteth but to Come 67. What is it now that lyeth in the way of the wicked that he cannot come It is the Angry-Sword of the Angel or Cherubine which he will not breake the faire glistering hypocriticall dainty world in his bosom malice or wickednesse in flesh and bloud pleaseth him too well he will not breake his minde which yet he is able to doe and if he doe breake it then he is drawne of God by Christ to the Father and instantly is chosen to be a childe of God and out of the Image of the Serpent there cometh to be the Image of an Angel 68. For so long as the Image standeth in the Anger it is the Image of the Serpent but if it goe forth from the lust of sinne or desire of evill into the breaking or destroying thereof then a Heavenly Image is figured by the Treader upon the Serpent and Å¿ The Evill is overcome with Good the Serpents Head is broken the two Kingdomes fight or wrestle one with another and that which overcometh figureth the Image 69. Whereby it is seene how great the Anger was in Adam and Eve in that the wrathfull Kingdome sooner overcame than the Kingdome of Heaven and the scorner is sooner generated than the t Honest or Innocent upright But yet the fault of this was in the Parents had they not sinned and let the Anger into them then it had not been so as at this Day 70. Although indeed Nature taketh hold of the childe in the Mothers body or womb and shapeth figureth or Imageth it yet the u Or Dominion Region of the Starres hath no other than the x Or the foure Elementary Image in the Holy Element Image in the foure Elements and not that in the Holy Element And although indeed it Image or frame a Man in the outward Beastiall Minde with a little understanding many times yet that is no matter the outward Man is the Beast of the Starres but the inward in the one Element is the Image of God and the divine framing figuring or Imaging is not performed in the y Foure Elements but in the one holy Element outward but in the inward Element 71. For a Man is many times in the outward so very evill natured or malicious froward conditioned from the Starres that he becometh z Or angry or vexed with and abhorreth himselfe loathsome to himselfe but when he considereth himselfe then he entereth into himselfe into the inward Man and reacheth after Abstinence or forbearance of evill and yet cannot be quite loosed from or rid off the outward wicked malicious Man but must continually with the inward breake the head of the outward the Serpent 72. For the Serpent stingeth many in the outward but if it a Or overcome the inward get the Inward Man then the Image of God is gone The evillnesse or malice of the Starres driveth many strongly to murther steale lye and b Or cheate deceive till they come to the Gallowes and sword or block and yet have not wholly captivated the inward he is yet in the Gate and is able through Repentance to goe into another Image which is not like the outward Man cannot judge the inward Man so wholly according to the outward except they see that he despiseth God and blasphemeth the Holy Ghost in such a one there is c Or no Image of God no Divine Image And it is hard d Or for him to attaine the Image of God 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 e Between Time and Eternitie see more Chap. 19. 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 feigneth or conceiteth for it is well knowne that after the outward life there is an Eternall life and that all sinnes are f Or forgivenes 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 g The Eternall hellish or heavenly life 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 g The Eternall hellish or heavenly life Eternall Life 75. But while wee are thus speaking of the h Innocent 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 i The Heaven it was in the wrestling and overcame the Anger for Man is weake and k Or voyde of understanding ignorant and can doe little by his own Power or ability l Note what Free-will is 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 m Or of 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 n The kindling is not brought into the issuing Essentiall powers 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 o Or Body 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 p The Abellish Church 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 q For all the Devils stirring up or awakening of his Anger 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 r The Devill 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 Å¿ The highest place of Earthly Dominion Region 83. And here the Antichristian Kingdome tooke its beginning where Men t Or speake good words before God 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 u Necessitie or subsistence of the body 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 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 Eâ—os 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 Ragings 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 x Or Macrocosme 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 y Or for the punishment of evill doers 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 z The
body and soule and then what new body shall there grow Shall it stand in the Heaven in the Holy Element or in the Abysse or shall the Pearle be cast before swine 28. If thy Maker in thee doth not make the Image of God but the Image of the Serpent how wilt thou then bring thy Beast into the Kingdome of Heaven Doest thou suppose that God hath Adders and Serpents in the broken Gate of the Regeneration in the Pleasant Habitation or dost thou suppose that he looketh after thy hypocrisie that thou buildest great b Colledges Churches or Monasteries 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 c Or thy subtile cunning seeming holinesse Fox 29. Now it may be asked wherefore thou art called the Antichrist Hearken thou art d Or against Christ 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 e Cannons Ordinances and Orders Lawes and yet thy selfe keepest none and thy e Cannons Ordinances and Orders Law is to as much purpose as the Tower of Babell was which should have reached to Heaven and thy e Cannons Ordinances and Orders 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 f Or Kingdome 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 g Or stirre up 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 h Rest forgivenesse or comfort 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 i Closet Cell or in secret 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 yee 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 k Or Torment of fire 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 of Ruling was most profitable that the wicked l Hunter persecutour or oppressour 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 m Or Throne-Princes 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 n Or hath knowledge of searcheth into the Kingdome of Heâ—ven 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 o Or for by-respects 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 adorneth 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 p Or Image figure and his heart also is but the heart of a greedy Wolfe and he standeth not in the Angelicall p Or Image Figure 47. On the contrary many a one is in great anguish and longeth after q The kingdome of Christ it and generateth very painfully he would faine have q The kingdome of Christ 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 r Forgivenesse comfort or rest forbearance 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 Å¿ Sect. 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 t Or in the striving soure Elements Anger And therefore there is in him a continuall strife and he runneth continually to repentance where yet the hidden Man in the t Or in the striving soure Elements 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
the holy Element and that giveth thy new body food drink and the Spirit of this world in the 4 Elements giveth our old Earthly Body Earthly meate and drink that is Earthly and Elementary 12. Thus understand and know this precious depth as Christ made a Covenant with us in the Garden of Eden that he as above-mentioned would thus become Man so also after he had laid off that which was Earthly he made a Covenant with us and hath appointed his body for food and his bloud for drink and the Water of the Eternall Life in the Originality of the Deity for a holy Baptisme and commanded that wee should use it till he cometh againe 13. Now thou wilt say what did Christ give to his Disciples in his Last Supper when he sat with them at Table Behold the Deity is not comprehensible or circumscriptive and the holy Body of Christ is also not measurable it is creaturely indeed but not measurable he gave them his holy heavenly Body and his holy heavenly bloud for food and for drink as his own words import doest thou say how can that be Then tell mee how it can be that the holy Element hath put on this world and hath another Principle in the body of this world that holy Element is the heavenly body of Christ Thus he gave them outward bread and outward wine in the kingdome of this world and therewith his holy heavenly body in the Second Principle which comprizeth the outward and likewise his heavenly bloud wherein the heavenly Tincture and the holy life consisteth 14. Now saith reason That was another body in another bloud and not his own creaturely body prethee reason tell me how can it be another body indeed it is in another Principle but of no other Creature Did not Christ say I am not of this world and yet he was really according to the outward man of this world or doest thou understand it onely of his Deity What becomes then of his eternall humanity according to which he was a King of the promise upon the Throne of David if the promise had been able to ransome us then the worke need not have followed and Moses likewise had been able to have brought the people of Israel into the true promised Land which verily Joshua who was a type of this Christ could not doe but he brought them only into the Land of the Heathen where there was continually warre and strife and was onely a valley of misery 15. But o Joshua and King this Christ fitteth upon the Throne of David upon the Throne of the Promise like as David was aa outward King and in his spirit a Prophet before God and so sat outwardly as a Champion in the world and inwardly as a p One Cpie hath Prophet Priest before God who prophefied of this Christ that he should come and commanded all doores to be set open and alt Gates to be lift up on high that this King of glory might eater in Thus he speaketh not onely of his Deity from which he prophesied for that was however with him and in the Power and knowledge of the same he spake but he prophesied of his Eternall humanity for that was not a King who onely sat therein the Spirit wee could neither see him nor converse with him but that is a King who sitteth in the humanity 16. Now this Kmg was promised of God that he should possesse the Gates of his Eniemies and should lead his enemies captive and the Devils are these enemies Now how doest thou conceive that when this Creature bound the Devils at Jerusalem and as a confined creature that did reach no further did lead them captive who then did binde them at Rome thou sayst his Deity O no! that was not its office the Devils are however in the Fathers most internall roote in his Anger A Creature must onely do it who was so great as could be every where with the Devils 17. Therefore must Christ in his Temptation overcome the Kingdome of the Anger and this externe birth and by his Entrance into death he brake the head of the Serpent viz. the Devill and all Devils and tooke them captive Thou must understand it thus That the inward Element which comprizeth the whole body of this world became Christs Eternall body for the whole Deity in the Word and Heart of God entred thereinto and q Uniteth or contracteth espoused it selfe to remaine therein to all Erernity and this same Deity became a creature even such a creature as can be every where as the Deity it selfe and this same creature hath captivated all Devils in the Kingdome of this world And all men who with their minde draw neere to this Christ and desire him in right Earnest they are drawne by the Spirit of the Father viz. of the cleare and pure Deity into the humanity of Christ that is into the Pure Element * Wherein the presence of the Trinity is every where manifest before the Trinity And if they continue stedfast and do not againe depart from God into the Desire of the Devill then the precious Pearle viz. the light of God is sowne in their soule which light attracteth to it selfe the precious body of Jesus Christ with Paradise and the Kingdome of Heaven And thus the right new Man Christus groweth on the soul in the heavenly Virgin of Gods Wisdome in the holy Ternary in the Kingdome of Heaven And thus such a man is according to the new Man in Heaven in the body of Jesus Christ and as to the old earthly Man which hangeth unto the holy Man he is in this world in the house of sin and the Deity acteth the new humanity and the Spirit of this world the old untill he puts him off in death for he is a man in Heaven borne in the r Barmhertzigkeit Mercifulnesse mercy of God in the body of Jesus Christ 18. I set you a deep consideration behold how the Angelicall Thrones and Principalities Å¿ Sparkled beheld or appeared were in the beginning beheld apprehended or aspected by the Wisdome of God which Aspect manifestation or idea the Fiat took to Create And in the Angelicall Throne the infinite multiplicity according to the Eternall Wisdome in the Wonders of God All which was so created in the Fiat of God according to all the Essences of the Eternall t Or Extract Limbus of God So that all Angels in every Throne did give their will unto the Angelicall Throne or Arch Angel as it is sufficiently to be knowne by the fall of Lucifer and also may be discerned in the Regions of the Kingly Governments of this world if the Devill did not so destroy the right u Agreement or compact union as is very clearely to be seen Thus likewise understand us I prethee thou very precious and noble minde this second surpassing excellent Creation is in the Fiat When God saw and took notice of our miserable
body Sulphur is first generated wherein the life becometh stirring and the n Beginning of the life 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 much also the o Or Ordinance 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 p Or Messenger Angel hither before him that he should baptize with the water of the Eternall Life for so q Come or began 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 r The vapouring foure-Elementary Life in the Learned swelled puft up Kingdome of this world and the Devill will set themselves against it as raging Dog but the smell of the Lilly will make Å¿ The Devill him faint and so now wee will speake as a childe 30. The t Or servant of Christ 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 he Inâ—â—t 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 u Arbitrium or free-will 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 finfull 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 x Barmhertzigkeit Mercifulnesse 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 y Or into 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 z Or in into the Covenant Thy Faith is its Faith and thy confidence towards God in the Covenant is its confidence It is indeed thy a Or Children are thy Branches 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 pâ—sseth into the Covenant of Christ and though it should die in the Mothers womb ir would be found in the Covenant of Christ For the Deity stanâ—â—eth 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 oâ—mt 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 pâ—sse 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 b Bravery sump uousnesse or solemâ—â—y pomp about it thar doth dishonour the Covenant c Aâ—â— not a shâ—w or sceae to be acted it is an earnest thing 34. Thee 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 Covnant of Christ and doest but stand there in pomp and bravery and understandest very nothing of the Baptisme and doest not put up the least Prayer to God what thinkest thou how doest thou stand in this Covenant before the Holy Trinity even like a swine before a looking Glasse 35. Or shall I be silent I must speake for I see it doe what thou wilt this is the Truth thou carriest a new washed soule from the Baptisme but thou are a filthy swine even in the Kingdome of all the Devils But the d Or Bath Laver of Regeneration if thou are a Beast and farre from the Kingdome of God lieth not in thee but it lieth in the Covenant of Christ 36. But this I say according to my knowledge and not out of any command that if the Parents be wicked and indeed in the Kingdome of the Devill and that they have thus begotten their fruit out of their false or evill Essences in which Parents there is no Faith but onely a false hypocrifie and yet will e Moch Christ and yet be accounted Christians in an Apish mockery see counted Christians and as the Devill oftentimes changeth himselfe into the likenesse of an Angel so they also send their children with the like trimmed false Angels before the Covenant of Christ such doings is very dangerous which also instantly sheweth it selfe in the growing of the Tree indeed the Covenant continueth still but there must be earnestnesse in avoyding of the Devill It may be that very
e Or Park Garden besides thou art so strong that thou hast broken downe the Hedge of their Garden and hast taken possession of their dwelling besides thou hast made their meate as bitter as Gall that they cannot eate it thu hast broken their Throne wich thy Hornes and hast brought a strong f Company or Army hoast into their Garden and thou hast used a strange power to drive them out of their Garden and though they have thee in their Fetters yet thou opposest them as if thou wouldest destroy their kingdome thou breakest their coards in pieces and breakest their Bands and thou art a continuall stormers of their Kingdome thou are their worst Enemy and they thine and if thou wert but gone out of their Garden they would be contented but thou being in it still the strife continueth and hath no end till the Ancient of dayes cometh who will part you asunder 7. Or doest thou suppose that wee are madde that wee write thus if wee did not see aod know it wee should then be silent Or canst thou not once know the thorny Bath wherein thou swimmest Doest thou still say thou art in the Garden of Roses If thou thinkest thou art there see well whether thou art not in the Devils Pasture and art his most beloved Hinde which he fatneth to the slaughter for his food 8. I tell thee for certain and it is in earnest when I was at g In or of the world Jericho there my beloved companion opened my eyes for mee thar I saw and behold a great Generation of Men and multitudes of People and Nations were together one part were like Beasts and one part like Men and there was strife between them and beneath there was the Abysse of Hell and the Beasts saw not that but the Men were afraid and would be gone to which the Devill would not consent because his Garden had no doores open but they b Or stroyed brake open his Garden and so he must watch at the Doore that they doe not run away from him but the Beasts which were Men also they did eare of his food and drank of his drink and he did nothing to them because he fatned them for his slanghter and there was accoutinuall Enmity between the right Men and the Beastiall Men. 9. Or doest thou suppose this is not true which my beloved companion hath shewed mee when he opened my eyes that I saw then come and goe with mee to Jerusalem wee will goe together along the way to Jericho and see it well enough and by the way is this Garden wherein the Devill with this great Generation dwelleth wee will shew thee great Wonders thou shalt see and know all that which wee mentioned above if thou art but a Man and not the Devils fatted Beast 10. Behold wee understand by Jerusalem the Paradise and by the way to Jericho the going forth out of Paradise into this world where then the world captivated us in her Garden where continually the great Sea of misery is wherein our soule swimmeth Also the Devill is therein who hath bound us with the chaines of the Anger of God and he leadeth the poore soule captive in the dark Garden of flesh and bloud into his fierce Garden of Anger where the new-borne soules continually break out of his Garden and break his Hellish kingdome in pieces also they have taken possession of his i Regall or Kingly Royall Throne where he was an Angel and with their Hornes which are the Spirit of God have broken in pieces his hellish Kingdome which he set up also they oppose him with their storme out of Hell into Heaven and assault his Kingdome but he holdeth the poore soule captive with the chaines of the Anger in this evill flesh and bloud and continually setteth on the crew of the wicked that they seduce it and k Or Dip it baptize it in the Anger of God up to the very lips and there the poore soule standeth up to the neck in the Sea of misery ready to be drowned and there the Devill thrusteth it downe with the vices and sinnes of the body and would drowne the poore soule in the Anger of God in the Abysse of Hell 11. All malicious captived Men whom he hath captivated are his hounds which hunt the poore soule with haughtinesse bravery covetousnesse unchastity anger cursing and wrongfull oppression so that the poore soule is infected with these things and is very often set upon the Devils Horse as one of the Devils Captives and then the Devill will ride with it into Hell into the Anger of God O how often doth he rob the poore soule of her faire Garment of the knowledge of God how doth he rend away the Word of God from their eares and hearts as Christ saith cleerely Now if it will not doe as he will and that it break out of his Garden then he casteth his durt and filth upon it and then he stirreth up all his Bloud-hounds they must bawle at it and cast meere disgrace upon It and then it standeth as an Owle among the Birds who one and other will have a fling and a pluck at it and so it is also with the poore soule which steppeth through earnest Repentance out of die Devils net into the New Regeneration 12. On the contrary those others who feed upon the weeds of the Devill in vices and sinnes are in peace for he fastneth them in the Anger of God and they are his Bloud hounds wherewith he hunteth the Hinde the poore soule which would escape and storme his Hellish Kingdome The Devill would be well contented though some soules should escape though he had rather increase than weaken his Kingdome but that his Kingdome would be broken by it which he cannot like 13. For as he goeth a hunting in his Kingdome and catcheth the poore soules which way soever he can and layeth waite for them by his servants with all manner of vice and wickednesse and so continually setteth such looking-glasses before the soule that it should behold it selfe in its own wickednesse and tickleth it also with faire promises of great honour power and Authority he setteth the poore despised sort before the soule and saith Wilt thou onely be the foole of the world come along with mee I will give thee the Kingdome of this world for a possession as he said to Christ so in like manner when the soule hath put on the Kingdome of Heaven and yet sticketh in the dark valley in flesh and bloud and seeth the Devils l Or Massacring murthering of its brethren and sisters then it cometh to be armed of God to fight against the Devill and to discover his m Tâ—an snare or pit-fall burrow for the love to its neighbour constraineth it to doe so because it would help to encrease the Kingdoms of Heaven therefore it teacheth and reproveth thus it warneth against sinne and teacheth the way to the Kingdome of Heaven which
indeed the Beastiall Body doth not understand it goeth away like the rude Asse and thinketh with the Starry and Elementary Minde as followeth 14. O! what mischiefe I doe to my selfe in making my selfe the foole of the world what doe I get by it but scorne and disgace I am not sure of my life thereby I bereave me and mine of our daily bread and livelihood and must alwayes be expecting of death and swelter in the scorne of People O! how suddenly thou committest a fault and then thou art persecuted and art throwne away like a rotten apple and what reward have those thou leavest behinde thee but to suffer the more for thy sake 15. Thus Man in flesh and bloud judgeth and when the Devill understandeth it how soone is he there watching as a Cat watcheth for a Mouse saying O! who can tell whether that be true or no which thou teachest thou hast not seene it neither hath any come from the dead and told it thee there are many dead that have taught just as thou doest and yet doth not the world stand in its old n Or Order course at one time as at another They were counted fooles and so art thou and after thee againe things will be still as they were before to what purpose then is thy care and paines 16. At length o The Devill he cometh with a suttle snare and saith through the Spirit of the great world in the Minde in himselfe O! The Heavens have caused thee to be borne to it that thou doest such foolish tricks and would play jugling feats in thee thy gifts are not from God God hath never spoken with thee and what canst thou know then Leave off let it alone thou mayest be a Christian well enough and be quiet let the Priests teach they have their p Livings Pay or Hire for it wages for it what hast thou to doe with it Beloved Reader with these blowes this Penne was once throwne to the Ground and the Driver would hare broken it but the Breath of God took it up againe therefore it shall write what happened to it to be an Example for all well-willers and it is an exceeding precious one 17. Now when the Devill had thus throwne it downe then it was silent and desired not onely to write no more but the Devill rushed in upon it and beate it along and would have broken it He came forth with his sowre Apples and held them before the soule of this Penne and would have it eate of his dainties also he strewed Sugar upon them as he did for Eve If he had gotten the soule againe into his claimes how would he have been revenged on it as was afterwards knowne in the Storme where his minde was knowne very well Now when it was thus the Lilly faded and lost its fragrant smell the Pearle did hide it selfe and the Virgin of the Pearle stood mourning and the Noble Minde sunke downe in great unquietnesse 18. Indeed the Driver said at the beginning that it should have rest with being quiet but it was a rest onely to flesh and bloud and yet it was no quietnesse neither but a furtherance to the Hunting But when the Minde found it selfe in great unquietnesse of soule it recollected the soule and sought the Pearle which the soule had before and supposed that it lay as a Treasure in the q Or Cabinet case of the soule but it was gone and then the Minde sought that Pearle in body and soule and behold it was not there it could not be found and there was nothing to be seene but the Devils sowre Apples which were strowed before the soule that it should feed oh them But the soule stood in great perplexity and would not eace of its evill fruit it called its virgin but shee sate as if shee were a sleepe 19. Thus the soule stood with great longing and desire also was many times in great Combate with the Hunter who would still throw it to the ground when it set it selfe in opposition against him then he took all the vines which stuck in flesh and bloud and cast them upon the soule that he might intangle it with them and hinder it from comprehending the virgin againe he made a great Mountaine of the sinnes in the flesh and bloud and therewith covered and shut close up the r Barmhertzigkeit Mercifulnesse Mercy of God viz. the New Man in Christ and the Gates of Heaven which stood open before were shut up close misery and great trouble were heaped upon the soule till at length once againe from the Breath of God which came into it againe it was moved to break the Devils chaines in pieces and entered into Combate with him so that he was quite throwne to the ground and its covering was rent in pieces and then the soule saw its beloved virgin againe what Å¿ Note No Penia this world can describe it enough friendly welcoming there was then I had rather the Reader might finde it by experience than that I should wrire of it 20. Thus the soule desired the Pearle againe but it was gone and must be generated anew and be sowne as a Graine of Mustard-seed which is small and little and afterward there groweth a great Tree out of it and thus the Pearle groweth in the Bosom of the t The wisdome of God Virgin in the soule Therefore keep whit thou hast for misery is an ill Guest regard not what Sugar the Devill stroweth though the Kingdome of this world seeme as sweet as Sugar it is nothing else but Gall consider that the poore soule in this world and in the flesh and bloud is not in its true home it must travaile into another Countrey Therefore suffer not the Devill to cover it thus with the untowardnesse of the flesh for great earnestnesse is requisite for the driving away of the Devil though that would not be in our ability and power if the exceeding worthy Champion did not ayde and assist us 21. Therefore none should be so presumptuous as to mock and despise the Children of God who are in the Combate against the Devill but think that it will come to thy turne also if thou wilt not goe about it when thou art well and in health thou must come to it at thy Death when the poore soule cometh to part from the body then it must enter into the Combate there is no remedy for it must depart from the body out of the Spirit of this world and then two Gates stand open viz. Heaven and Hell it must goe in at one of them there is no other place out of this world 22. If now it be hard captivated in sinnes and still goeth on in sinning from day to day so that it is cloathed with the Anger of God and hath loaden it selfe with mocking the children of God and so sticketh over head and eares in the Anger of God and scarce hangeth by a Threed to Christ O! how hard
is the Devils staying of thee who casteth into thy thoughts that God will not heare thee thou art yet in too great sinnes he will let no comfort come into thy soule he layeth the sinfull Kingdome of this world over b Comfort it but be not discouraged he is thy Enemy It is written If your sinnes were as red as Bloud if you turne they shall be as wooll white as snow Also As true as I lâ—ve I have no pleasure in the Death of a poore sinner but that he turne and live 30. Thou must continue stedfast in this resolute purpose and though thou gettest no vertue or strength into thy Heart and though the Devill also should beate downe thy Tongue that thou couldst not pray to God yet then thou shouldst desire and sigh to him and continually hold and goe on in this thought and purpose with the Cananitish Woman the more thou pressest forward the weaker the Devill is thou must take the suffering death and satisfaction of Jesus Christ before thee and must throw thy soule into his Promise where he saith My Father will give the Holy Ghost to them that aske him for it Also Knock and it shall be opened unto you seeke and you shall finde aske and you sâ—all receive and the more earnestly thou pressest forth from the Devill and from thy sinnes the more mightily doth the Kingdome of God presse into thee but have a care that thou doest not depart from this thy will before thou hast received the Jewel and though it hold off from morning till night and still from day to day let not that discourage thee if thy earnestnesse be great then thy Jewel will also be great which thou shalt receive c Or in thy victory at thy over-coming 31. For none knoweth what it is but he that hath found it by experience It is a most pretious Guest when it entreth into the soule there is a very wonderfull Triumph there the Bridegroome there embraceth his beloved Bride and the Hallelujâ—h of Paradise soundeth O! must not the Earthly Body needs tremble and shake at it and though it know not what it is yet all its Members doe rejoyce at it O what beauteous knowledge doth the Virgin of the Divine Wisdome bring with her shee maketh learned indeed and though one were dumb yet the soule would be crowned in Gods works of Wonder and must speake of his Wonders there is nothing in the soule but longing to doe so the Devill must be gone he is quite weary and faint 32. Thus that Noble Jewel and in it the Pearle is sowne But observe it well it is not instantly become a Tree O how often doth the Devill rush upon it and would faine roote up the Graine of Mustard-seed how many hard stormes must the soule undergoe and endure how often is it covered with sinnes for all that is in this world is against it it is as it were left alone and foâ—saken even the children of God themselves rush upon it for the Devill doth plague the poore soule thus to try if he can lead it astray either with flattery and hypocrisie that the soule might flatter it selfe or else with sinnes in the Conscience he never ceaseth and thou must alwayes strive against him for so the Tree of Pearle groweth as Corne doth in the tempestuous stormes and windes but if it grow high and come to blossom then thou wilt enjoy the fruit well enough and understand better what this Penne hath written and where it was borne for it was a long time in this condition many stormes went over its head and therefore this shall be for a lasting Memoriall and continuall remembrance to it seeing wee must sit here in the murthering den of the Devill if wee doe but overcome our great reward will soone follow us 33. Now saith Reason I see no more in thee nor in any such as thou art then in other poore sinners it must needs be but a hypocriticall pretence besides saith Reason I have been also in such a way and yet I stick in my wickednesse still and doe that which I would not doe and I am still moved to anger covetousnesse and malice What is the matter that a Man doth not performe what he purposeth but that he doth even what himselfe reproveth in others and that which he knoweth is not right 34. Here the Tree of Pearle standeth hidden behold my beloved Reason the Tree of Pearle is not sowen into the outward Man he is not worthy of it he belongeth to the Earth and the Man of sinne sticketh in him and the Devill often maketh his seate therein who heapeth together anger and malice therein and bringeth the poore soule often into d Abominable sinnes and wickednesse lusts unto which it doth not consent so that the body medleth with that which the soule is against and now when this is so it is not alwayes the soule that doth it but the Spirit of the Starres and Elements in Man the soule saith it is not right nor well but the outward Body saith wee must have it that wee may live and have enough and so it is one time after another so that a true Christian knoweth not himselfe how then should he be knowne by others also the Devill can cover him sufficiently that he may not be knowne and that is his Master piece when he can bring a true Christian into wickednesse to fall into sinnes so that outwardly nothing is discerned by him but that he reproveth the sinnes of others and yet sinneth outwardly himselfe 35. But now when he doth thus commit sinnes yet he committeth them not in New Man but the old Man in sinne who is subjected under sinne who is in the Anger of God he is driven by the Anger so that he doth not alwayes that which is right and if he doe any thing that is Good yet he doth it not out of his own will and ability but the new Man compelleth him to it that he must doe it for the old Man is corruptible but the soule is uncorruptible and therefore the poore soule is alwayes in strife and sticketh e In the chinck of the Doore between the Doore and the Hinges and must be often pinched and bruised 36. But yet wee do not say that sinne in the old Man is no f Or evill hurt though indeed it cannot sway the new Man yet it giveth g Scandalizeth it offence and wee must with the new Man live to God and serve him though it is not possible to be perfect in this world yet wee must continually goe on and hold out and the new Man is in a field where the ground is cold bitter soure and voyde of life 37. And as an Hearb by the pleasant Sun-shine groweth out of the Earth so our new Man in Christ groweth out of Old soure cold harsh Man of our Earthly flesh and bloud And that is the true Light of the Pearle when wee apprehend it
truly and really in the knowledge in the new Man and it is the sword wherewith wee can fight against the Devill onely wee must take the sword of the Death of Christ into our hand which cutteth so sharply that the Devill must flie away CHAP. XXV Of the Suffering Dying Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ the Sonne of God Also of his Ascension into Heaven and sitting at the right hand of God his Father The Gate of our Misery and also the strong Gate of the Divine Power in his Love 1. IF wee consider our selves in our right Reason and behold the Kingdome of this world in which wee stand with our flesh and bloud also with our Reason and senses then wee finde very well that wee have the substance and stirring of it in us for wee are its very proper own Now all whatsoever wee thinke doe and purpose in the outward Man that the Spirit of this world doth in us Men for the Body is nothing else but the Instrument thereof wherewith it performeth its work and wee finde that as all other Instruments which are generated from the Spirit of this world decay corrupt and turne to dust so also our earthly Body wherein the Spirit of this world worketh and acteth for a while 2. Therefore none should scorne or despise another though he lead not the same course that he doth himselfe or though he be not of that way in his minde and will which himseâ—fe is or that another cannot learne and follow the same stately Courtly manners and behaviour with himselfe for the Naturall heaven maketh every one according as its forme in its Influences is at all times and so every Creature getteth its condition forme or shape inclination and will which cannot wholly be taken away from the outward Man till the Naturall Heaven breaketh its Beast Therefore wee ought to consider the great strife in us when wee are regenerated out of the Eternall then the Eternall striveth against the Corruptible against the malice and falshood of the Corruptible 3. And now each Kingdome a Worketh or performeth effecteth its will the inward goeth right forward and consenteth not to the wickednesse of the outward but it runneth to its b It aimeth at Mark and the outward also goeth forward with its desire and performeth its work according to the Influence of its Constellation 4. But if it happen that the outward doe not what its desire will that proceedeth not from its wisdome but the Heaven hath altered it by another c Or aspect Conjunction but if d The outward Man it be compelled to leave off that which is evill that is not e From the influence or acting by the course of the Heavens but the new Regenerated Man who is in strife with the Earthly doth many times overcome but cannot swallow up the Earthly for the Earthly getteth up againe as wee see by our Anger for if my new Man have the upperhand he will have no Anger nor any evill desire but if this worlds Driver assault him then the fire of Anger riseth up in the old Man and his desire is often kindled to doe what he rejected and reproved a little before 5. Now wee cannot say that the Spirit of this world alone consenteth to and doth that which is evill and wrathfull for the whole Man oftentimes runneth with all his thoughts and his whole will after it And heere wee f Or know finde our great Misery for the poore soule which lieth yet tied in the Bands of Anger is often kindled that it burneth like a fire and runneth after evill for it is in the Band of Eternity in the Father and reacheth in its most inward Roote the Anger of God and that is even the Birth of its Life and its Originality and the Noble Graine of Mustard-seede that was the new Garment of the soule which was new put upon it in its Repentance is many times destroyed therefore none should be secure though he doe once attaine the Garland of Pearle he may loose it againe for when the soule consenteth to sinne then it goeth forth from Christ into falshood and into the Anger of God 6. Now therefore as wee know that Christ by his entrance into the Incarnation hath opened a Doore into Heaven into his holy Body so that wee through a true Repentance and Confidence may come to him and put the new white Garment of his Innocency in his Love upon our soules so wee know also that the soule standeth yet fast bound with two chaines one is the Birth of its own Life whose most inward roote is poyson and wrathfulnesse and so the soule being sprung out of the Eternall source and having its originality out of the Eternity none can redeeme it g Or bring it back in its own roote of Eternity or bring it out of the Anger except there come one who is the Love it selfe and be borne in its own very Birth that so he may bring it out of the Anger and set it in the Love in himselfe as it was done in Christ 7. The other Gate or Chaine is the flesh and bloud with the Region or Dominion of the Starres there the soule is fast bound and swimmeth therein as in a Great Sea which daily so h Infecteth it that it burneth stirreth up the soule that it is kindled 8. Concerning these two chaines wee know in our deepe knowledge and see them in the Ground of the Originality and know very exactly that wee could not be redeemed except the Deity did goe into the soule and i Or Regenerate bring forth the will of the soule againe out of the fiercenesse in it selfe into the Light of the Meeknesse for the Roote of Life must remaine or else the whole Creature must be dissolved 9. But because the soule stood with its most inward Roote in the Abysse of Hell and according to the Kingdome of this world in the hard frozen Death so that if the flesh and bloud as also the Dominion of the Starres should leave it then it would continue inwardly in a k Or stâ—ffnesse hardnesse wherein there is no source or active property and it selfe in its own property would be but in the fiercenesse of the Originality in great Misery and therefore it was necessary not onely for God to come into the soule and generate it to the Light for there was danger that the soule with its Imagination might goe forth out of the Light againe but also for God to assume a humane soule from our soule and a new heavenly body out of the first Glorious Body before the fall and put it on to the soule with the old earthly body hanging on it not onely as a Garment but really united as one in the Essences so that it must be a Creature that is the whole God with all the Three Principles 10. And thus yet the one must be parted from the other viz. the Kingdome of this world
also turne againe and the poore soule must enter into Christ againe through the earthly Death and spring up againe like this Murtherer Theefe or Malefactour on the Crosse who desired the Kingdome of Christ 35. And thus you may well beleeve that all whatsoever happened in the Fall of Adam whereby Adam is fallen the same was the second Adam faine to beare upon his shoulders for b Adam he was fallen into the Anger of God and now if that must be allayed and reconciled then the second Adam must set himselfe therein and yeeld his outward body with an Essences therein and he must goe through Death into Hell into the Anger of the Father and reconcile it with his Love and so himselfe must undergoe that hard condition wherein wee must have been in Eternity 36. And now when this earnest businesse was taken in hand that the Sâ—â—ioâ—â— of the World hung on the Crosse as a curse and wrestled with Earth and Hell he said I thirst O that Great Thirst the fierce wrathfull Kingdome was weary as also the Kingdome of this world they desired strength and the Kingdome of Heaven thirsted after our soules it was a Thirst of all the Three Principles 37. And when he saw John with his Mother under the Crosse he said Behold that is thy Mother and to her he said Behold that is thy Sonne and instantly that Disciple tooke her to him His Mother signifieth his Eternall new Humanity which he had c Assumed received in his Mother viz. in the holy Ternary which wee should take to us and refresh our selves with his Mother and therefore he shewed her to John of which very much might be written but this shall be expounded in another place 38. And this is as cleere as the Sunne that as the poore soule in us hangeth between two Kingdomes which both keepe it altogether imprisoned so must Christ hang between two Malefactours take this into great consideration and weigh it well it is a most serious matter and wee see the whole terrible earnest severity that when the soule of Christ brake off from the Earthly Body when it passed into the Anger of the Father viz. into Hell then the Earth trembled and the stony Rocks cleft in sunder also the Sunne lost its Light and this wee see cleerly and understand it from the mouth of Christ 39. When he now had undergone all the reproach and sufferings he said on the Crosse It is finished while he yet lived in the Earthly Body he said it was finished understand all that should have remained upon us Eternally and should have sprung up in us with all the ignominie in which wee stood before Hell and the Kingdome of Heaven he had all that laid upon him concerning which Esaiah saith Surely he bare our infirmities and tooke upon him our transgressions yet wee held him as one smitten of God tormented and afflicted but he tooke upon him our diseases and all our miseries were laid upon him and through his wounds wee are healed wee all went astray like sheepe every one hath looked upon his own way and yet wee could not help our selves but wee went as miserable halfe slaine sheepe and wee must let the Devill in the Anger of God doe with us what he will for wee beare on us a monstrous Garment and stand in great ignominie before Heaven and Hell 40. Even as God d Or scorned reproached Adam in the Garden of Eden when he had put the outward Garment upon him saying Behold Adam is become as one of us All this reproach and scorne must the Man Christ take upon him also all torment and misery into which Adam was fallen this Champion in the Battle must beare upon him before his heavenly Father and there was the Lambe of God and he hung upon the Crosse as a Patient Lamb in our stead for wee should have been afflicted Eternally in our Crosse-Birth and therefore there hung in great Patience as an Obedient Lamb for the slaughter the Prince of the Eternall Life and set himselfe before his Father as if he himself were e Or Guilty the Transgressour The Gate of the Great f Or hidden Mystery Secret 41. Heare my beloved Reader if thou art borne of God open the eyes of thy Spirit wide that the King of Glory may enter into thee and open thy understanding consider every syllable for they are of great moment they are not g Or Dumb. mute neither are they from a blinde Centre brought forth into the Light Behold here hung on the Crosse God and Man there was the Holy Trinity there were all the Three Principles and the Champion stood in the Battle 42. Now which was the Champion in the Battle Behold when Christ had finished he said Father I commend my Spirit into thy hands and he inclined his head and departed Behold his Father is the Kingdome Power and Glory and in him is All and All is his the Love is his Heart and the Anger is his Eternall Strength the love is his Light and the Anger is the Eternall Darknesse and maketh another Principle wherein the Devils are 43. Now it was the Love that became Man and had put on our humane soule and the soule that was enlightened from the Love and stood with its Roote in the Anger as in the strong Might of the Father and now the New Man in the Love commended the soule to the Father into his Might and h Quitted or left yeelded up the Earthly Life which proceeded from the Constellations and Elements viz. Kingdome of this world and so the soule now stood no more in the Kingdome of this world in the i Or active propertie source of Life but it stood in Death for the Kingdome of this world the blower up of Life the Aire was gone 44. And now there was nothing more on the soule but onely that which it selfe is in its own Eternall Roote in the Father And here wee should have remained in the Anger in the dark Hell but the bright Father in his Glory tooke the soule to him into the Trinity Now the soule was cloathed with the Love in the Word which made the Angry Father in the innermost source of the soule pleasant and reconcilable and so in this Moment in the Essences of the soule the lost Paradise sprung up againe whereupon the Earth trembled viz. the Out-Birth our of the Element and the Sunne the King of the Life of the Third Principle lost its Light for there rose up another Sunne in Death understand in the Anger of the Father the Love was shining like a bright Morning Starre 45. k Note out of what the Sun is proceeded And thus the Body of Christ on the soule was the pure Element before God out of which the Sunne of this world is generated and the same Body included the whole world and then the Nature of this world trembled and the Stony Rocks cleft in sunder for the
be forgiven thee Nay wee should not in Eternity have ever been able to come our of this evill and wickednesse if the z Barmhertzigkeit Mercifulnesse Mercy of God without our knowledge or desert had not helped us out of it 64. O how wholly of meere Mercy and Grace hath God the Father given us his Sonne who hath taken upon him our transgressions and reconciled a The Father him in his Anger All Men are invited to this Grace of what condition soever they are they may all come whether they be Turkes Jewes Heathens or Christians or what name soever they are called by none are excluded all that are weary and heavy laden may come to Christ he will receive them and refresh them all as himselfe saith and whosoever teacheth or saith otherwise or seeketh any other way is the Antichrist and entreth not by the true Doore into the Sheepfold Amen 65. And now if wee consider the scorning despisings and mocking of Christ and that all was done by the instigation of the Great ones and that commonly they were the poore silly people that followed him except some few that were wealthy wee then cleerly finde that which Christ said That a rich man will hardly enter into the Kingdome of Heaven This is not meant concerning their riches but concerning their vaine glorious proud and covetous life whereby they consume the sweat of the needy in Pride and forget God O how hard it is for one that is proud to humble himselfe before God and Man and the Kingdome of Heaven consisteth onely in the vertue and power of Humility 66. Yet it is seene that some wealthy people did draw neere to Christ whereby it may be perceived that the Kingdome of Heaven consisteth not in misery onely but in Joy in the Holy Ghost and none ought to esteeme himselfe happy because he is poore and miserable he is in the Kingdome of the Devill neverthelesse if he be faithlesse and wicked Also none that is rich ought therefore to cast his goods and wealth away or give them to be spent lavishly in hope to be saved in so doing no friend the Kingdome of God consisteth in Truth in Righteousnesse and in Love towards the needy to be rich damneth none that use it aright thou needest not to lay downe thy Scepter and run into a b Or solitary reserved life in a Cloister or Monastery or Private life Corner crying that is but hypocrisie thou mayest doe righteousnesse and better service to the Kingdome of God in holding thy Scepter by helping the oppressed protecting the Innocent and granting Right and Justice not according to thy Covetousnesse but in Love and in the feare of God and then thou art also a Brother to Joseph of Arimathea and shalt shine brighter than others as the Sunne and Moone compared with the Starres It is onely the pride covetousnesse envie falshood and anger that is the Crowne of the Devill therefore conceive it aright Of Christs Rest in the Grave or Sepulchre 67. Wee know that the Body without the Spirit is a thing that lyeth still for though the body of Christ the Holy Element generated in the c Barmhertzigkeit Mercy is from God yet the mobility and life standeth onely in the Deity and in us Men in the Spirit of the soule and in the Spirit of the Great World which are unsevered in this Body upon Earth 68. Therefore now the question is Where the soule of Christ was all the time that the body did Rest in the Grave Beloved Reason doe not like those that are blinde concerning God who say the soule of Christ went away from the Body downe into Hell into the Earth and during that time in the Divine power and vertue assaulted the Devils in Hell and bound them with chaines and destroyed Hell O it is cleane another thing The Saints rising out of the Graves at the houre of the Death of Christ declareth otherwise 69. Reason knoweth nothing at all of God and if it be not possible to attaine further from the Gift of God doe not descend downe into that Deepe but in singlenesse of heart stay d Rest contented with that which the Scripture saith on the Article it will not endanger thy happinesse God looketh onely upon the will of the Heart Thou must not search so deepe into every thing if it be not given thee as it is to this Pen this Pen writeth in the Counsell of God that which the hand knoweth not and scarce understandeth the least spark of it and yet very deeply as thou seest that the things to come are shewen in a very difficult depth which God alone will discover in due time which is e One Copie hath it known to us unknowne to us 70. Thou knowest that God himselfe is all and there are but Three Principles viz. Three Births of distinction in his Essence or else all things would be one thing and all were meerely God and if it were so then all would be in a sweet meeknesse but where would be the Mobility Kingdome Power and Glory Therefore wee have often said the Anger is the Roote of Life and if f The Anger it be without the Light then f The Anger it is not God but Hell fire but if the Light shine therein it becometh Paradise and fulnesse of Joy 71. Therefore wee can say no otherwise of the soule of Christ but that he commended it into his Fathers hands and the Father took it into his Divine power it stood with its Roote therein before but it s own Roote was without the Light of God in the Anger And now the soule of Christ came with the Light of God into the Anger and then the Devils trembled for the Light tooke the Anger captive and the Father understand his Anger in the Kingdom of Heaven was Paradise and in Hell remained to be Anger still For the Light shut up the Principle of Hell so to be understood that no Devill dareth to take one glimpse of light in thither he is blinde before the Light and the Light is his terrour and shame 72. And so thou must not think that the soule of Christ was then gone a great way from his Body for all the Three Principles were on the Crosse why also not in the Grave at that very moment when Christ laid off the Kingdome of this world the soule of Christ pressed into Death and into the Anger of God and in that very moment the Anger was reconciled in the Love in the Light and became Paradise and the Devils were captivated in the Anger in themselves together with all wicked soules and so instantly the life did spring up through Death and Death was destroyed and made a scorne yet to the wicked which remaine in the Anger it is a Death but in Christ it is a Life 73. Thus the soule of Christ rested in the Grave in the Father forty houres present with its body for the Heavenly
in your high puffed up Lust have stirred up the Spirit that you might finde out the thoughts of your hearts let the Resurrection of Christ be powerfull and effectuall to you for his Resurrection is your Resurrection and in him wee shall grow and flourish and live Eternally onely stick to him and then you cannot perish in any distresse for if you have him you have the Holy Trinity of God 85. If you will pray to God then call upon God your Heavenly Father in the Name of his Sonne Jesus Christ desiring that he would forgive you your sinnes for the sake of his sufferings and death and give you what is good for you and may further your salvation Give up and yeeld all whatsoever is earthly to his pleasure and will for wee know not what wee should desire and pray for but the Holy Ghost helpeth us in Christ Jesus before his Heavenly Father Therefore there is no need of many words or Long Prayers But a beleeving Soule which with its whole Earnest resolved purpose yeeldeth it selfe up into the Mercy of God to live in his will in the Body of Jesus Christ and continueth constant then he is sure and safe from the Devill 86. That Phantasie about the Intercession of the Saints is unprofitable it is but a vexation whereby you disquiet the Saints in their Rest Doth not God himselfe call you continually and doth not your Virgin waite for you with a Longing Desire doe but come and shee is 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 sinnes 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 i◠your own soule If thou makest a feast or keepest a solemnity doe it for the benefit and q Or Maintenance 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 r According to the ruling property of the four Elements 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 〈◊〉 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 ſ Or working property of the foure Elementary world 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 int◠the Mouth and not into the Body for the consuming 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 t Barmhertzigkeit Mercifulnesse Mercy is 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
to be beleeved and Christ saith By their works thou shalt know them for a good Tree bringeth forth good fruit and an evill tree bringeth forth evill fruit also he teacheth us plainly that we should not gainsay the Prophesie that is of God but should learne to try them by their fruits 15. Wee speake not of perfect Works done by the body which is captivated in the Spirit of this World but wee speake of their Doctrines that wee must trie them whether they be generated of God For if that Spirit teacheth blasphemies slanders and persecutions then it is not from God but it proceedeth from the covetousnesse and haughtinesse of the Devill For Christ teacheth us meeknesse and to walk in brotherly Love wherewith wee may overcome the enemy and take away the Might of the Devill and destroy his Kingdome 16. But when any fall to fireing killing with the sword to undoe people ruine Townes and Countreys there is no Christ but the Anger of the Father and it is the Devill that bloweth the n Or the Cole fire For the Kingdome of Christ is not found in such a way but in Power as the Examples of the Apostles of Christ declare who taught no revenge but they suffered persecution and prayed to God who gave then signes and great Wonders so that people flocked to them and so the Church of Christ grew mightily so that it overshadowed the Earth Now who is the Destroyer of this Church Open thy eyes wide and behold it is Day-light and it must come to the Light for God would have it so for the sake of the Lilly It is the Pride of the Learned 17. When the Holy Ghost spake in the Saints with power and Miracles and converted people powerfully then they flocked to them they honoured them greatly they respected them and submitted to them as if they had been Gods Now this was well done to the Saints for the honour was given to God and so humility and love grew among them and there was all loving Reverence as becometh the children of God and as it ought to be 18. But when the Saints comprised their Doctrine in Writings that therby in their absence it might be understood what they taught then the World fell upon it and every one desired to be such a Teacher and thought the Art skill and knowledge stuck in the Letter thither they came running old 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 o Might have good maintenance or great Livings for their Beastiall Man might live bravely 20. And so it fell out that every one would get the greatest conflux of people be could that he might be esteemed by most people and these Lip Christians did so multiply that the sincere hearty desire to God was lest 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 p Such as Apishly Teach the words of Holy Men without the understanding they had Mouth-Apes those greedy covetous Men which were no other than q Mock Priests Monsters of Priests or Priests in a Play 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 r The Apostles and their Disciples 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 did lye 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 Å¿ Faire suttle pretences and Expositions of Scripture Glosses that they might bring it to passe in such a way that the simple people might not take
notice oâ— it there the Keys of Peter must govern the Citie and they drew together with the Keys t Jus Divinum Divine Authority to them and so could use the Divine Power in deeds and wonders no more for they desired to be rich and wealthy upon Earth and not to be Poore with Christ who in this world as himselfe witnesseth had not whereon to lay his head they would not be such Christians in power and wonders As Adam who would not live in the Power but in a great Heape of Earth that he might have something to take hold of And heere may be rightly seene our Misery which Adam brought us into that our Essences alwayes reach after the Spirit of this world and desire onely to fill themselves with a great Heape from whence Adam and wee all have gotten such a swelled grosse untoward body full of sicknesses contrariety and contentious desires 24. Now when the Historicall Christendome and the true Christians grew together the Scepter was alwayes among the Learned who exalted themselves and made themselves potent and great and the simple Church yeelded to it as right and yet there was a desire after the Kingdome of God found in Men vâ—z the Noble Word of God which had u Imaged or figured it selfe in the minde imprinted it selfe in the Promise in Paradise in the Light of Life and which was made stirring by Christ that drave them indeed to the feare of God And then they built great x Temples or Churches Houses of Stone and called every one thither and they said that the Holy Ghost was powerfull there and they must come thither y Saying doe as wee say and not as we doe besides they durst be so impudent to say when they were found to be so wicked and malitious that the Holy Ghost was powerfully in the mouth of the wicked 25. But thou Hypocrite thou lyest if thou are ungodly thou canst not raise z The dead in trespasses and sinnes the Dead thou canst convert none that in this world lyeth drowned in sinnes thou mayest stirre the heart of the Beleever indeed through thy voyce which is a work of the Spirit but thou bringest forth none out of Death into life it is an impossible thing For if thou wilt convert a poore sinner which is drowned in sinne and lyeth captive in the Anger then the Holy Ghost must be in thy mouth and thy Essences must take hold of his and then thy Light will shine in him and thou shalt raise him out of the Death of sinnes and with thy Love in thy Tincture catch him and then he will come to thee with a hearty desire longing after the Kingdome of Heaven and then thou art his Confessour and hast the Keys of Peter and if thou art voyde of a The Holy Ghost that thou hast no Keyes 26. As the Confession is so is the Absolution Is the Patient an Historicall Christian so is the Physitian too and in them both there is a Mouth Hypocrisie But hath the Patient any vertue or power then the voyce bloweth that vertue or power up not from the power of the Physician but in the vertue or power of God who with his power even in a Thorne-Bush maketh it to grow which is the power in all things and so also in a voyce which in it selfe hath no ability 27. Thus it became a b Or fashion Custome that every one was bound to come to the Temple made of Stones and the Temple of God in Christ stood and standeth very empty but when they saw the Desolation in the c Disputations and Controversies Contention they called Councels and made Lawes and Cannons that every one must observe upon paine of Death Thus the Temple of Christ was turned into Temples made of stones and out of the Testimony of the Holy Ghost a worldly Law was made then the Holy Ghost spake no more freely but he must speak according to their Lawes If he reproved their Errours then they persecuted him and so the Temple of Christ in Mans knowledge became very obscure if any came that was borne of God and taught by the Holy Ghost and were not conformable to their Lawes he must be a Heretick 28. And so their d False power usurped supposed Jus Divinum Power grew and every one had great respect to it and they strengthened their Laws still more and more with the Power of Saint Peter till they raised themselves so high that they impudently set themselves as Lords over the Doctrine of the Apostles before God and gave forth that the Word of God and the Doctrine of the Saints must receive their value worth and authority from their Councels and what they ordained and instituted that was from God they were Gods dispencers of the Word Men must beleeve their Ordinances for that was the way and means e Meanes of salvation for the poore sinner to be Justified before God 29. But where then is the New Regeneration in Christ through the Holy Ghost Art thou not Babell a Habitation of all Devils in Pride How hast thou adorned thy selfe not for Christ but for thy own Pride for thy f God Maufim the belly God Idoll the bellies sake and thou art a Devouter But thy g Or Idoll Belly is become a stinck and hath gotten a horrible source there is a great fire of h Terrible devouring in that which thou hast made thy God Anguish in thy source for thou art naked and manifest before God thou standest as an impudent whorish woman Why doe you Layety hang and depend on such a Strumpet Her own l Usurped Jus Divinum usurped Authority is her Beast whereon shee rideth behold and consider her in the Revelation of John how the Holy Ghost setteth her forth in her colours 30. Wilt thou be an Apostle of Christ and wilt be but a Minister for the Belly and teach onely according to thy Art from whom doest thou teach from thy Belly that thou mayest fatten thy selfe thereby T is true thou shouldst be fed and thou shouldst have subsistence from Men if thou art Christs Disciple but thy Spirit should not stick in covetousnesse but in Christ thou shouldest not rely onely upon thy Art but shouldst give up thy selfe to God that God may speake from thee and then thou art in the Temple of God and not in the Temple of the institution of Mans Inventions 31. Look upon Saint Peter on the day of Pentecost who converted Three Thousand soules at one Sermon he spake not from the appointment of the Pharisees but out of the Spirit of Moses and the Prophets out of the Temple of the Holy Ghost that pierced through and enlightened the poore sinners But thou teachest Persecution onely consider thereby whence thou didst grow viz. out of that first stock where they fell from the Temple of Christ to humane conceits and Inventions where they sent forth Teachers according
Reader of the The Three Principles Second Booke of our Writings a little more fundamentally that he may not hang so to the bare letter and make a Historicall matter of our Writings but that he may observe the minde and spirit what that Sprit meaneth when it speaketh of the Divine Life and useth not alwayes the same words and names 2. For if wee look into the Creation of God wee finde very wonderfull things which yet in the beginning proceeded out of one onely Fountaine for wee finde evill and good life and death joy and sorrow love and hate weeping and laughing and wee finde that it all sprung out of one onely substance for that may very well be seene in all Creatures especially in Man who is the similitude of God as Moses writeth and the Light of Nature convinceth us Therefore wee ought to consider of the Threefold Life in Man which is found so also in the Gate of God the Father 3. If wee consider of the alteration how the minde is changed as it is how suddenly joy is turned into sorrow and sorrow into joy then wee ought well to consider from whence that taketh its Originall For wee finde it all to be in one and the same minde and if one forme property or quality riseth and getteth above the other there then presently Or a substance or reality something followeth so that the minde collecteth all its thoughts together and sendeth them to the Members of the Body and so the hands the feete the mouth and all goe to worke and doe something according to the desire of the minde and then wee say that forme or property that driveth the work is predominant qualifying and working above other formes wherein yet all other formes of Nature lye yet hidden and are subject to that one forme And yet the minde is such a wonderfull Essence or substance thing that suddenly out of one forme that is now predominant and working more than all other it bringeth forth and raiseth up another and quencheth the forme that was kindled before so that it becometh as it were a nothing as may be seene in joy and sorrow 4. Now therefore when wee consider whence all taketh its Originall wee finde especially three formes in the minde wee speak not heere of the Spirit of this world onely for wee finde that our minde hath also a desire or longing after another minde and that it is anxious for that which the eyes of the body see not and which the mouth tasteth not and the feeling of the earthly body doth not perceive neither doth the earthly eare heare it nor the nose smell it which yet the Noble Minde can see taste feele perceive and heare if the forme of the Divine Kingdome in that minde be predominant or qualifieth more than the other two there then instantly the other two are as it were halfe dead and overcome and the Divine forme riseth up alone and then it is in God 5. And wee see also how instantly the Minde raiseth up another forme and maketh it predominant viz. the Spirit of this world in covetousnesse pride in the oppressing of the needy and lifting up it selfe onely and so drawing all to it whereupon then instantly also the third forme breaketh forth out of the Eternal Indissoluble Band as falshood envy anger and malice so that the Image of God is as it were dead and overcome where then the minde in this manner Or standeth is in the Anger of God in Death in the Jawes of Hell over which Hell in the Anger of God insulteth for hereby its Jawes are set wide open and it becometh predominant but when the Divine forme breaketh forth againe then the Kingdome of Hell is overcome and as it were dead and the Kingdome of Heaven cometh to be predominant and working againe 6. Therefore St Paul saith To whom you yeeld your selves as servants in obedience his servants you are whether of sinne unto Death or of the obedience of God to righteousnesse and that source or property wee have and in that Kingdome wee live and that Kingdome with the property thereof driveth us seeing then heere in this life all is in the sowing and in the growing therefore the harvest also shall one day follow where then the one Kingdome shall be seperated from the other 7. For there are in the minde of Man Three Principles all which Three in the Time of this foure Elementary Life he may open but when the body is broken then he liveth in one Principle onely and then he hath lost the Key and can open no other Principle more he must continue Eternally in that source or quality which he hath kindled heere For wee know that Adam with his going out of Paradise into this world brought us into Death And Hell in the Anger of God groweth from Death and so our soule is capable of going into the Kingdome of Hell and standeth in the Anger of God where the Jawes of Hell then stand wide open against us continually to devoure us and we have made a Covenant with Death and wholly yeelded our selves up to it in the sting of the Anger in the first Principle 8. Wee not onely know this but wee know also that God hath regenerated us in the life of his Sonne Jesus Christ to a living Creature to live in him And as he is entered into Death and againe through Death into Eternall Life so must wee enter into the Death of Christ and in the life of Jesus Christ goe forth out of Death and live in God his Father and then our life and also our flesh is no more earthly but holy in the power of God and wee live rightly in Ternario Sancto in the Holy Trinity of the Deity For then wee beare the holy flesh which is out of the holy Element in the presence of God which our loving Brother and Saviour or Immanuel hath brought into our flesh and he hath brought us in and with himselfe out of Death into God his Father and then the Holy Trinity of the Deity is substantially or really working in us 9. And as the Eternall Word in the Father is become true Man and hath the Eternall Light shining in him and hath humbled and abased himselfe in the Humanity and hath put upon the Image which wee heere beare in this Life the Image which is out of the pure unspotted Element in the presence of God which wee last in Adam which standeth in the Mercy of God as is cleerly mentioned in our second Booke with all the Circumstances of it so must wee also put on to us that Image which is out of the pure Element out of the body of Jesus Christ and live in that bodily substance and in that source condition and vertue wherein he liveth 10. Wee doe not heere meane his Creature that wee must enter into that but wee understand his source for the depth and breadth of his life in his source is unmeasurable and as God his
Father is unmeasurable so also is the Life of Christ so for the pure Element in the source of God the Father in his Barmhertzigkeit Mercifulnesse Mercy is the Body of Christ and as our Earthly Body standeth in the foure Elements so the new Man standeth in a pure Element out of which this world with the foure Elements is generated and the source of the pure Element is the source of the Heaven and of Paradise and so also it is the source of our Body in the New Regeneration 11. Now that Element is in the whole Principle of God every where in all places and so is unmeasurable and infiniâ—e and therein is the Body of Christ and his quality and in that is the Trinity of the Deity so that the Father dwelleth in the Sonne viz. in the Body of Jesus Christ and the Sonne in the Father as one onely God and thus the Holy Ghost goeth forth from the Father in the Sonne and is given to us to regenerate us to a new life in God in the life of Jesus Christ and the Earthly Man in his Image and source or quality and property hangeth but to us in this Life time which is well understood if wee be borne of God with our Minde 12. For as God the Father in his own substance comprehendeth all the Three Principles and is himselfe the substance of all substances wherein both joy and sorrow is comprehended and yet goeth forth in it selfe out of the source of the Anguish and maketh the Kingdome of Joy to himselfe unconceivable to the sorrow and incomprehensible to the source of his Anger in the Anguish and Generateth to himselfe his Heart in the Love wherein the Name of God taketh originall So also the Minde hath in it all the Three Principles and therein the soule is comprized viz. in the Band of Life The soule which must enter againe into its selfe and create a will in the Life of Jesus Christ and endeavour after it desiring it with a strong will and purpose and not stay meerly in the History or in the knowledge of it and being able to speake of it and suppose the words and discourse make a sufficient Christian when the Minde is still in meere doubt in Babell no that is not the Regeneration but it must be an Earnest Resolution the Minde must in it selfe goe forth into the humility towards God and enter into the will of God in Righteousnesse Truth and Love 13. And though indeed the Minde is not able to doe this in its own abilitie because it is captivated with the Spirit of this world yet it hath the Purpose in its power and God is presented with and in the Purpose and receiveth it in his Love and soweth therein the seede of Love in his vertue or power out of which the New Man in the Life of Jesus Christ groweth Therefore all lyeth in the true Earnest Purpose which is called True Repentance for the Receiving of the Word of God in the obedience of Love groweth not in the Earthly Life but in the New-borne in the Life of Jesus Christ 14. Therefore the Kingdome of Heaven is a bestowed Bounty of Grace for all those that earnestly desire it not that it is enough to say to ones selfe I have indeed a will to yeeld my selfe earnestly to God but I have need to have this world for a while and afterwards I will enter into the obedience of God and that continueth from one time to another and from one day to another and in the meane while the Or the childe of perdition evill Man groweth if you deferre it to the end and then desire and think to be a Heavenly fruit or Birth when all the Time of your life you have growne in the anger of God in the Abysse of Hell no that is deceit thou deceivest thy selfe 15. The Priests in Babell have after that no Key to open the Kingdome of Heaven for thee thou must enter in thy selfe and be new-borne or else there is no remedy for thee in this world nor in Heaven thou standest heere in this life time in the Ground and art a Plant but when Death cometh and cutteth downe the stock then thou art no more in the growing but art a fruit and then if thou art not foode for God thou doest not belong to his Table and then God will not dwell in thee 16. For wee know that the Deity onely is the vertue to the New Birth which vertue if thou longest for it and desirest it with earnestnesse soweth it selfe in thy minde and in thy soule out of which the New Man in the Life of Christ groweth so that in this world the Earthly Man doth but hang to it Thus the New Man is in God in the Life of Jesus Christ and the Old Man is in this world of which Saint Paul writeth cleerly in his Or Epistle Letter to the Romans that if wee thus live in the New Birth wee live to God but as to the old Adam wee are in this world where then the source of the Eternall Band in the soule is also changed and the soule entreth in it selfe into the Life of Christ into the Holy and Pure Element which in some places of my Second Booke I call the Ternarius Sanctus 17. Not according to the understanding of the Latine Tongue but according to the understanding of the Divine Nature by which words is excellently expressed the Life of Jesus Christ in God the Father as also the Characters or Letters themselves and the Spirit in the syllables doe signifie wherein the Birth unigeniture or Eternall working of the Deity is excellently understood though indeed it is hidden to the Historicall Man of the Or universities Schoole of this world yet it is wholly comprehensible to those that are enlightened from God who then also understand the source or working property of the Spirit in the Letter which is not at this time fit to be set downe here and yet it shall be brought to the understanding 18. And there is nothing more profitable for Man for his beginning to the New Birth than true earnest sincere Repentance with great earnest Purpose and Resolution for he must presse into the Kingdome of Heaven into the Life of Christ where then his Regeneratour is ready deepe in his Minde in the Light of Life and with desiring and earnestness helpeth to wrestle and so soweth himselfe as a Graine of Mustard seede into the soule of Man as a Roote to a New Creature And if the earnestnesse in the soule of a Man be great then the earnestnesse in his Regeneratour is also great 19. And it is not possible to describe the New Birth in Christ fully for he that cometh into it can finde it onely in himselfe by experience there groweth another Bud in his Minde another Man with other knowledge he is taught of God and he seeth that all the labour in the History without the Spirit of God is but a confused
88 Chapter 18. How the Angel Gabriel was sent to a poore Maid or Virgin Verse 35 Chapter 20. The care and striving the Angels have for Man Verse 78 Chapter 22. Of the Angels great Humility Verse 74 Anna. Chapter 22. Why Anna was so long unfruitfull Verse 69 Antichrist Chapter 18. Of Antichrists visitation Verse 1 Chapter 20. Whence Antichrists Kingdome taketh beginning Verse 83 Chapter 20. Antichrists Kingdome is rejected of God Verse 92 Chapter 21. A Large Description of Antichrist Verse 28. to the 38 Arts. Chapter 20. Why Arts or Trades were discovered Verse 10 Astronomer Chapter 14. The Astronomer knoweth nothing of a Childes Incarnation in the Mothers womb Verse 26 Authour Chapter 1 Why the Authour writeth of God as if he had a Beginning Verse 4 Chapter 2. How the Authour came by his knowledge Verse 6 Chapter 3. The Authour writeth how the Eternall Birth must be understood Verse 3 Chapter 3. Wherefore the Authours wirtings serve Verse 3 Chapter 4. The Authour hath no more Authority or power than another Verse 6 Chapter 4 The Authour warneth the Reader concerning his writings Verse 43 Chapter 12. The Authour writeth no News Verse 15 Chapter 14. The knowledge which the Authours soule hath Verse 39 Chapter 14. All the Author speaketh concerning God Heaven the Element and of Paradise is but as a small drop in comparison of the wisdome of God Verse 89 Chapter 15. For whom the Authour hath written Verse 65 Chapter 16. From whence the Authour hath his knowledge Verse 1 Chapter 16. From what Spirit the Authour writeth Verse 51 Chapter 20. When the Authours writings shall be serviceable Verse 2 Chapter 24. The Authour will write no lye of himselfe Verse 1 Chapter 24. The Authour counselleth us to follow him Verse 2 Chapter 24. The Authours Earnestnesse and excellent discourse Verse 3. to the 10 Chapter 24. The Authours hard Combate Verse 17. to the 20 Chapter 25. The Authour Appealeth to the Last Judgement Verse 36 Chapter 25. The Authour is not zealous out of any desire of his own Praise Verse 53 Chapter 25. The Authour Admonisheth to continue in simplicity Verse 69 Chapter 25. Why the Authour must write so deeply Verse 84 Chapter 25. Why the Authour must write as he doth Verse 107 Chapter 27. What the Authours teaching tendeth to Verse 8 Babell Chapter 18. Why Languages were confounded at Babell Verse 27 Chapter 18. Out of what Babell is sprung Verse 82 Chapter 18. Babell shall be served as the worshippers of the Calfe were Verse 71 Chapter 19. Babell hath invented the Ransoming of soules Verse 2 Chapter 19. Babell breaketh within it selfe Verse 2 Chapter 19. What Babell is Verse 3 Chapter 20. Babell and the Starres have the same Government Verse 18 Chapter 22. Babell blameth the Devill for Tempting of Christ Verse 78 Chapter 22. Babell condemneth them that search after hidden Mysteries Verse 78 Chapter 22. Of Babells punishment Verse 79 Chapter 23. Babell is on Fire and burneth Verse 2 Chapter 23. Babell shall be so talked with by the Anger that the Elements shall tremble Verse 50 Chapter 25. Babell destroyeth and devoureth it selfe Verse 82 Chapter 25. Wee must not rejoyce at her Burning Verse 96 Chapter 25. Babell is hard to be knowne shee is every where all over Verse 97 Chapter 27. Babel will bring in Epicurisme Verse 23 Band. Chapter 20. The Band of Eternity standeth free Verse 65 Baptisme Chapter 4. Why Baptisme is commanded Verse 14 15 Beast Chapter 3. The Beast shall stand naked Verse 8 Chapter 4. The Beast shall be spewed out Verse 23 Chapter 4. Why the Beasts have no sinne imputed to them Verse 38 Chapter 8. Of the Creating of the Beasts Verse 37 to 39 Chapter 11. Whence the venomors Beasts are Verse 20 Chapter 11. How the Beast is inraged Verse 28 Chapter 13. Why the Beastiall Propagation is an Abomination to God Verse 6 Chapter 15. What the Beasts or living Creatures are created for Verse 11 Chapter 16. A Beast is better than Man that dyeth without Repenting Verse 40 Chapter 17. The Beasts are not made of Lumps of Earth Verse 22 Chapter 18. The Beast is greater then the Antichrist Verse 2 Chapter 18. How the Beasts should have been Managed if Adam had continued in Pardise Verse 10 Chapter 18. God desired not that the Beastiall Man should be Verse 10 Chapter 20. The Beast shall stand naked and bare Verse 20 Chapter 20. A Lamentation because the Beast hath made the Garden of Roses a Denne of Murtherers and Theeves Verse 37 38 Chapter 20. The Beast will be squeezed forth by the presse in Babell Verse 38 Bloud Chapter 16. How Bloud cometh to be Verse 11 Chapter 16. The Bloud wherein the soule stirreth is very sweet Verse 11 Chapter 16. Why Bloud is forbidden Verse 11 Body Chapter 4. Of what the Body is Created Verse 19 Chapter 21. The Body cannot be destroyed before the appointed time Verse 62 Chapter 22. Of the Body which wee lost Verse 64 Chapter 23. What is the food of the New Body Verse 45 Chapter 25. The Body of Christ can be withheld by nothing in the Resurrection Verse 79 Chapter 25. How the Body of Christ shineth in the Heaven Verse 79 Chapter 25. The Body of Christ is infinite Verse 79. to the 81 Chapter 25. How the Body of Christ is received Verse 83 Chapter 25. How the Body of Christ is after the Resurrection Verse 90 91 Booke Bookes Chapter 8. A field full of flowers is the most Glorious Booke Verse 11 Chapter 3. The Bookes of Theologists are meere Histories Verse 5 Bridegroom Bride Chapter 3. The coming of the Bridegroom Verse 8 Chapter 17. The Bridegroomes coming Verse 115 Chapter 20. The Bride of the Beast hath three things to expect Verse 115. to 117 Chapter 24. Where the Bridegroom embraceth his Bride Verse 31 Caine. Chapter 20. Why Cains hatred was against Abell Verse 44 Chapter 20. Why Caine became a Murtherer Verse 45 Chapter 20. Caine was not rejected in the womb of his Mother Verse 63 Chapter 20. The Description of the Cainish Church Verse 77. to the 118 Chapter 20. Why Caine grutched his brother any thing Verse 82 Chapter 20. How Caine was stirred up to the Murther Verse 84 Chapter 20. Cains false Faith was manifested Verse 91 Chapter 20. Caines amazement and feare Verse 97 Chapter 20. Caines expulsion beyond Eden into the Land of Nod. Verse 98 Chapter 20. Caine is a Looking Glasse for Mens own Conceits Verse 99 Chapter 20. How Caine was Comforted againe Verse 101 Chapter 20. Whence Caines Anger against Abell proceeded Verse 104 Chapter 21. Caine was not wholly Rejected Verse 2 Chapter 21. Caine was chearly againe Verse 4 Chapter 21. Who was Caines accuser Verse 5 Chapter 21. Caine sought out Arts and depended upon his inventions Verse 6 7 Chapter 21. Caines Church and Christs Church dwell together Verse 45 46 Called Chapter 16. How and when it is that wee are called Verse 50 Centre
Image of God is Verse 13 Chapter 21. The Image of Heaven Earth and Hell in one Person Verse 21 Innes Chapter 22. How there are two Eternall Innes Verse 3 John Josua Israel Chapter 23. Why John was born before Christ Verse 28 Chapter 20. Josua was a Type of Jesus Verse 27 Chapter 20. Wherefore Israel stayed 40 yeares in the Wildernesse Verse 22 23. Judge Judgement Chapter 27. When the Judge of Quick and Dead cometh Verse 11 Chapter 17. The Devill doth not wholly know his Judgement Verse 100 Chapter 27. A description of the Last Judgement from Verse 1 to the 20 Chapter 27. Why a Judgement is appointed Verse 4 Chapter 27. Judgement ought not to be slightly pronounced Verse 29 Key Chapter 4. Where the Key to Wisdome lyeth Verse 30 Chapter 9. The Key to the knowledge of the Paradise Verse 25 26 Chapter 18. The Keys which open the Rich Chest of Gold Verse 99 King Chapter 15. What strife about thes King of Life in a Childe Verse 41 Kingdome Kingdomes Chapter 16. Gods Kingdome goeth not backwards Verse 27 Chapter 20. Two Kingdoms wrestle in Man Verse 31 Chapter 20. The Kingdome of Christ is not desired by many Verse 31 Chapter 20. How the Kingdome of God may have the Victory Verse 48 Chapter 20. The Kingdom of wrath in Adam Eve was very great after the Fall Verse 69 Chapter 21. Three Kingdomes in Man and he is the field or Ground Verse 22. to the 25 Chapter 25. Wherein the Kingdome of Heaven consisteth Verse 65 Chapter 26. VVhat the Kingdome of Heaven is Verse 10 Keeper Chapter 20. Who is the Keeper of the Tree of Life Verse 41 Chapter 20. How the sword of that Keeper is made blunt Knowledge Verse 42 Chapter 3. It was once not Good for us to have the Knowledge of the fiercenesse but now it is highly necessary Verse 2 Lad. Chapter 18. Antichrists Throne will be destroyed by a Lad. Verse 56 Chapter 18. In Hebron there is a roote to Cure Lazarus Verse 57 Learned Learning Chapter 3. Why the Learned forbid us to pry into God Verse 6 7 Chapter 9. How Learning is to be attained Verse 46 Chapter 26. The Pride of the Learned was the destroyer of the first pure Church Verse 16. to the 34 Life Lives Chapter 14. Where the Life is generated in Man Verse 1 Chapter 19. VVhat the Great Life is Verse 15 Chapter 22. There are two Eternall Lives Verse 7 Light Chapter 8. Of the Light of the First Day Verse 6 Chapter 14. Of the Light which Men see by in Paradise Verse 2 Chapter 14. Between Light and Darknesse there is a Gâ—eat Gulfe Verse 76 Chapter 15. How the Light of Life is kindled in the Incarnation of a childe Verse 49 Chapter 16. Light striveth against Darkness Verse 10 Chapter 16. Of the Light of the 3 Principles Verse 12 Chapter 22. The Light hath no Centre Verse 35 Limbus Chapter 22. What the Divine Limbus is Verse 21 Lilly Chapter 10. The Lilly shall grow in the Devils supposed Kingdome Verse 33 Chapter 11. Of the Lilly which shall shortly grow and bring us the true knowledge in the Trinity Verse 28 Chapter 13. The Branch of the Lilly which the Virgin holdeth in her hand Verse 61 Chapter 14. The smell of the Lilly will spoyle the Cornerd Cap. Verse 39 Chapter 15. The Lilly cometh after the Great Shower Verse 26 Chapter 15. All is open in the Time of the Lilly and then the Tincture is the Light of the world Verse 54 Chapter 17. Wherefore wee have need of the Lilly Verse 36 Chapter 17. How the Beast will be destroyed by the Lilly Verse 37 Chapter 17. In the Time of the Lilly much shall be revealed Verse 100 Chapter 19. In the Lilly-Rose the Doores of the Mysteries shall flie open Verse 61 Chapter 20. The description of the Lilly-time Verse 15 Chapter 20. The Branch of the Lilly shall be planted in the Garden of Roses the sick Adam shall eate of it Verse 38 Chapter 25. A secret concerning the Time of the Lilly Verse 50 Chapter 25. The Jewes Turkes and other Nations have no time to expect but the Time of the Lilly the signe whereof is the signe of Elias Verse 95 Chapter 27. Where the Lilly may be found where not Verse 32 Love Chapter 20. In the Breaking of the Anger the Love appeareth Verse 59 Chapter 20. Love is generated out of the Anger Verse 65 Lucifer Chapter 4. Why Lucifer is so called Verse 67. Chapter 5. Whence Lucifer being spewed out proceeded Verse 7 Chapter 5. Which was the Kingdome of Lucifer before his Fall Verse 17 Chapter 5. How Lucifer was thrust out of Heaven Verse 25. to the 30 Chapter 6. How Lucifers Kingdome was shut up Verse 6 Chapter 8. Of the Fall of Lucifer Verse 3 Chapter 10. Whence the Fall of Lucifer and his Angels proceeded Verse 48 Chapter 10. Lucifer his Legions the father thrust out for the childes sake Verse 49 Chapter 10. Why Gods Love came not to help Lucifer Verse 50 Chapter 11. The Ground of Lucifers and Adams Fall Verse 5 Chapter 14. Lucifer was throwne downe for his pride Verse 9 Chapter 15. Where Lucifer stood before his fall Verse 10 Chapter 25. VVhich was Lucifers Throne and whither he fell Verse 103 Lust Chapter 20. Lust is the first beginning to act Verse 76 Chapter 20. Lust and the Minde are two distinct Things Verse 76 Magistrates Chapter 20. Strife between Magistrates and Subjects Verse 33 to the 35 Chapter 20. Subjects or Inferiours cry against their Magistrates or superiours Verse 38 Man Chapter 3. How Man became naked bare Verse 3 Chapter 4. How the New Man is one with the Father and Sonne Verse 9 Chapter 7. Man is a whole spark but not God himselfe Verse 2 Chapter 10. God Created but one Man onely Verse 12 Chapter 11. Why God created but one onely Man Verse 23 Chapter 13. What the Duty of a Man is towards his wife Verse 20 Chapter 13. How Man is in the Mothers womb Verse 54. to the 60 Chapter 14. Mans Glory above the Beasts Verse 5 6 Chapter 14. What Mans Ability is Verse 7 Chapter 14. How far Man Beast are alike Verse 56 Chapter 14 Why Man is so highly graduated Verse 57 Chapter 15. VVherefore and of what Man was Created Verse 12. to the 14 Chapter 15. How Man lost Paradise Verse 19 Chapter 15. How Man may live in Paradise heere in this life Verse 20 Chapter 15. How Man wilfully lets in the Devill Verse 22 Chapter 15. Why Man must be out of that which is Eternall Verse 63 Chapter 16. The prevention of Mans being a living Devill Verse 26 Chapter 16. H w Man is differenced from the Beasts Verse 28. to the 31 Chapter 16. Whence Man speaketh that which is good Verse 32 Chapter 16. Three Men in Man striving against one another Verse 33 34 Chapter 16. How Man was formed an Angel Verse 35 Chapter 16.
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 a Palpable 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 b Soyle or earth 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 c Fathomed 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 fight 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 so All the creatures returne into their d Receptacle Ether and the spirit corrupteth or fadeth but the figure and the shadow continue eternally 22. As also all words both the evill and the good which were here spoken by a humane tongue they continue standing in the shadow and figured similitude and the Good reach Paradise in the Holy Ghost and the false evill and wicked ones reach the abysse of Hell and therefore it is that Christ said Man must give an account of every idle or unprofitable word and when the harvest cometh then all shall be seperated for the Scripture saith also That every ones works shall follow them and all shall be tried by the fire of Nature and all false or evill workes words and deeds shall remaine in the fire of Nature which shall be the Hell at which when the Devils heare it they tremble and quake 23. All shall remaine in the shadow and every thing in its own source or property therefore it will be an eternall shame to the wicked that they shall see in the eternity all their works and words as a menstruous cloath which shall stick full of the wrath of God and shall burne according to their essence and according to their here kindled source or property 24. For this world is like a field wherein good seed is sowne into which the enemy casteth weeds or Tares and goeth his way which grow together untill the time of the harvest when all the fruit shall be gathered and brought into the Barne of which Christ also faith That the Tares or weeds shall be tyed up in bundles and cast into the fire and the wheate shall be brought into the barne The Holy Gate 25 REason which is gone forth with Adam out of Paradise asketh Where is Paradise to be had or found Is it farre off or neere Or when the soules goe into Paradise whither do they goe Is it in this world or without the place of this world above the starres Where is it that God dwelleth with the Angels And where is that desirable Native Countrey where there is no death Being there is no Sunne nor Starres in it therefore it cannot be in this world or else it would have been found long agoe 26 Beloved Reason One cannot lend the Key to another to unlock this withall and if any have a key he cannot open it to another As Antichrist boasteth that he hath the keys of Heaven and Hell It is true he may have the keys of both in this life time but he cannot open with them for any body else every one must unlock it with his own key or else he cannot enter therein for the Holy Ghost is the key when he hath that key then he may goe both in and out 27. There is nothing that is neerer you than Heaven Paradise and Hell unto which of them you are inclined and to which of them you tend or walke to that in this life time you are most neere you are between both and there is a birth between each of them you stand in this world between both the Gates and you have both the births in you God beckneth to you in the one Gate and calleth you and the Devill beckneth you in the other Gate and calleth you with whom you goe with him you enter in The Devill hath in his hand power honour pleasure and worldly joy and the roote of these is death and hell fire On the contrary God hath in his hand crosses persecution misery poverty ignominy and sorrow and the roote of these is a fire also and in the fire there is a light and in the light the vertue and in the vertue or power the Paradise and in the Paradise are the Angels and among the Angels joy The e Or dimme fleshly eyes grosse eyes cannot behold it because they are from the third Principle and see onely by the splendour of the Sunne but when the Holy Ghost cometh into the soule then he regenerateth it anew in