Introduction to the electronic edition of Mysterium Magnum

It is with great pleasure that I offer this electronic edition of Jacob Boehme's work "Mysterium Magnum, part one". It was his last great book before his death. It contains an explanation of the allegories found in Genesis. From the alphabetical list of topics, names and places, appended to this part, one can see how much ground Jacob Boehme has covered.

Some of his other books, available on www.scribd.com/meuser, and in the internet archive, are: The Aurora , Election of Grace, " The Three Principles of the Divine Essence", and " Threefold Life of Man ". Four Tables of Divine Revelation and Franz Hartmann's study of Jacob Boehme are also available at those places.

There are many themes in common with the theosophical neo-platonic tradition of Ammonius Saccas, Plotinus, Porphyry, Iamblichus and Proclus, as well as with the Kabbalistic tradition. Hierarchies, the emanational generation of Cosmos, angelic kingdoms, trinities, signatura, ideation, duality, transformation can all be found with Boehme, as with the other traditions. Keep in mind that Jacob Boehme uses a very veiled style of writing. He had to do that, in order to survive the narrow-minded world of the fundamentalist Christians, at war with each other at that time. He certainly acknowledged the idea of the potential Christ within the human being (indeed, the New Testament refers to this possibility too), a transformation and realization possible for those oriented to the right way of life.

The main purpose of this edition is to provide a searchable text for the researcher and student of Boehme and enable search-engines to index Boehme's writings, in order to make his texts easily retrievable.

It is a complete text, including the preface of John Sparrow, Jacob Boehme's preface and an extensive alphabetical index of names and places dealt with in this book. The spelling of conjugated verbs has been modernized for easier reading. Italics are from Sparrow's hand.

Boehme's work deserves to be available freely, after about four hundred years. It is still relevant today, because it is process oriented and process philosophy (Whitehead, Peirce, etc.) is getting more attention now, promising some solutions to philosophical problems,

quantum mechanics started to be developed.

Psychologists can also benefit greatly from the insights into human

nature that Boehme offers to the careful reader.

Many more valuable documents (of Boehme and other theosophical-

kabbalistic sources, like my ebook on integrative spirituality and

holistic science) can be found at my main site:

meuser.awardspace.com

An older site, but with a nice search facility and blog: members.tripod.com/m euser

My writers corner can be found at scribd: www.scribd.com/meuser My ebook at scribd is here .

Lastly, I wish you an inspirative study of this great work. Martin Euser

Contents

Chapter 4:

Chapter 5: Chapter 6:

Chapter 7: Chapter 8: Chapter 9: Chapter 10

Author's preface. To the reader.

Chapter 1: What the Manifested God is: and of the Trinity.

Chapter 2: Of the Word, or Heart of God.

Chapter 3: How out of the Eternal Good an Evil is come to be ;

which in the Good had no Beginning to the Evil: And of the Original of the Dark World, or Hell, wherein the Devils dwell.

Of the Two Principles, viz. God's Love, and Anger; of Darkness, and Light; very necessary for the Reader to consider of. Of the Five Senses.

Of the Essence of Corporality. The Seventh form of Nature. Luna (Moon) and Saturnus.

Beginning End.

Of the Holy Trinity, and Divine Essence. Of the Creation of Angels, and their Dominion. Of the Fall of Lucifer, with his Legions. Of the Creation of Heaven and the Outward World. Chapter 11: Of the Mystery of the Creation. Chapter 12: Of the Six Days' Works of the Creation. Chapter 13: Of The Creation of the Fourth Day. Chapter 14: Of the Creation of the Fifth Day. Chapter 15: Of the Sixth Day's Work of the Creation . Chapter 16: Of the Difference of the Heavenly and Earthly Man. Chapter 17: Of Paradise.

Chapter 18: Of the Paradisical State showing how it should have

been if Adam had not fallen. Chapter 19: Of the building (framing) of the Woman;

showing how Man was ordained

to the outward Natural Life. Chapter 20: Of the Lamentable and Miserable Fall

and Corruption of Man. Chapter 21: Of the Impression and Original of the Bestial

Man; and of the Beginning and Ground

of his Sickness and Mortality. Chapter 22: Of the Original of Actual Sin,

and the Awakening of God's Anger

in the Human Property.

Chapter 23:

Chapter 24: Chapter 25: Chapter 26: Chapter 27:

Chapter 28:

Chapter 29:

Chapter 30: Chapter 31: Chapter 32: Chapter 33:

Chapter 34:

How God re-called Adam and his Eve when they were entered into Sin and Vanity, and awakened in the Serpent's Ens; and laid upon them the Order of this toilsome laborious world, and ordained the Serpent-Bruiser for a Help (or Saviour) to them. Of the Cause and Rise of the Curse of the Earth, and of the Body of Sickness.

How God drove Adam out of Paradise, and laid the Cherub before the Garden.

Of the Propagation of Man in this World, and of Cain, the First-born, The Murderer of his Brother. Of Cain's and Abel's offering and of the False and Antichristian Church, and also of the True Holy Church.

Of Cain's Killing of his Brother, viz. of the Proud,

Haughty, Antichristian, hypocritical Church upon the

Earth; and also of the True Christendom

hidden under this Antichristian Church.

Shows how the Adamical Tree has put forth and

opened itself out of its Stock, and introduced itself

into Boughs, Branches, Twigs, and Fruit; out of

which Pullulation or Manifestation the Invention of

all Arts and Governments is Arisen.

Of the Line of the Covenant.

Of Enoch's Wonderful Line.

Of the Covenant between God and Noah.

Of the beginning of the Second monarchy,

and of the Covenant of God with Noah,

and all Creatures .

How Noah cursed his Son Ham,

and of the Mystical Prophecy

Concerning his Three Sons and their Posterity.

Alphabetical index of names, places, etc.

Author's Preface

1. WHEN we consider the visible world with its essence, and consider the life of the creatures, then we find therein the likeness of the invisible spiritual world, which is hidden in the visible world, as the soul in the body; and see thereby that the hidden God is nigh unto all, and through all; and yet wholly hidden to the visible essence.

2. We have an example hereof in the mind of man, which is an invisible fire, that is inclined to light and darkness, viz. to joy and sorrow; and yet in itself is none of these, but only a cause thereto; an invisible, incomprehensive sourcive, fire; and yet as to its own essence is included in nothing, save only in the will of life.

3. The body cannot comprehend the mind; but the mind comprehends the body; and brings it to love, or dislike; 1 this likewise is to be understood of the Word and power of God; which is hidden to the visible sensible elements: and yet dwells through and in the elements; and works through the sensible life and essence, as the mind in the body.

1. Or sufferance and sorrow.

4. For the visible sensible things are an essence of the invisible: from the invisible and incomprehensible the visible and comprehensible is proceeded: the visible essence is come to be from the expression or spiration of the invisible power: the invisible spiritual Word of divine power works with and through the visible essence, as the soul 2 with and through the body.

2 In.

5. The inward spiritual soul of man was breathed into the visible image by the in-speaking, or inspiration, of the invisible Word of the divine power; (for an understanding to the created image) wherein man's science and knowledge of the invisible and visible essence consists.

6. Thus man has now received ability from the invisible Word of

God to the re-expression: that he again expresses the hidden Word of the divine science into formation and severation: in manner and form of the temporal creatures; and forms this spiritual Word according to animals and vegetables;

whereby the invisible wisdom of God is portrayed and modellised into several distinct forms: as we plainly see, that the understanding of man expresses all powers in their property, and gives names unto all things, according to each thing's property, by which the hidden wisdom is known and understood in its power: and the hidden God is made manifest with 1 the visible things, for the delight and play of the divine Power: so that the invisible might play with the visible, and therein introduce itself into the sight and sense of itself.

1 In.

7. As the mind does introduce itself with the body and by the body into senses and thoughts, whereby it works and acts sensibly to itself, so also the invisible world (works) through the visible, and with the visible world: we are not in any wise to think that a man cannot search out what the hidden divine world is, and what its operation and essence is, for on the visible essence of the creation we see a figure of the internal spiritual operation of the powerful world.

8. And we ought not to think otherwise of God, but that he is the most internal ground of all essences; and yet so, as that he cannot be comprehended of any thing by the own-peculiar power of the thing; but as the sun doth introduce itself with its light and power into the sensible living things, and worketh with [or in] all things, and intro-duceth itself also into an essence; the same likewise is to be understood concerning the divine Word with the life of the creatures.

9. Seeing then this visible world is the expressed, formed word, according to God's love and anger, viz. according to the Grand Mystery of the eternal spiritual nature, which spiritual world is hidden in the visible; and yet the human soul is a spark out of the eternal-speaking Word of the divine science and power: and the body an ens of the stars and elements; and also as to the internal ground an ens of heaven, viz. of the hidden world; therefore he has might and ability to speak of the Grand Mystery whence all essences do originally arise.

10. Since then the great Mysteries, the beginning of and original of

all things, do befall us by divine grace; that we are able (as through the ground of the soul) to understand the same in real knowledge, with the inspired word of the divine science, we will write down its ground (so far as it is permitted to us) in this book: for a Memorial to ourself, and for the exercise of divine knowledge to the Reader.

11.

And I. we will signify and declare what the centre and ground of all essences is.

II. What the divine manifestation (through the speaking of

the word of God) is.

III. How evil and good have their original from one only ground, viz. light and darkness; life and death; joy and sorrow; and how it is in its ground; also where-unto every essence and source is profitable and necessary [unavoidable].

IV. How all things have their ground from the Grand Mystery, viz. from the spiration of the eternal One.

V. How the eternal One introduces itself into sensation, perception, and severation, to the science of itself, and the play of the divine power.

VI. How man may attain to the true knowledge of God, and to the knowledge of the eternal and temporal nature.

VII. Also how man may come unto the real contemplation of the Being of all beings.

VIII. Also of the creation of the world and of all creatures.

IX. And then of the original, fall, and restoration of man; what he is according to the first Adamical man in the kingdom of nature: and what he is in the new regeneration in the kingdom ofgrace, and how the new birth comes to pass.

X. Also what the Old and New Testaments are, each in its understanding.

12. And we will enlarge this exposition through all the chapters of the first Book of Moses; and signify how the Old Testament is a figure of the New: what is to be understood by the deeds of the holy patriarchs: wherefore the spirit of God did give them to be set down in Moses: and at what the figures of these written histories do look, and aim; and how the spirit of God in his children before the times of Christ did allude with them in the figure concerning the kingdom of Christ; whereby then God has always represented this mercy-seat [or throne of grace] Christ: by whom he would blot out his anger and

manifest his grace.

13. And how the whole time of this world is portrayed and modellised, as in a watch-work: how afterwards it should go in time: and what the inward spiritual world, and also the outward material world, is: also what the inward spiritual man, and then the external man of the essence of this world, is: how time and eternity are in one another, and how a man may understand all this.

14. Now if it should so fall out that when these our writings are read the Reader might not presently apprehend and understand the same (seeing this ground which yet has its full foundation and pregnant concordance, as well with the Scripture as through the light of nature, has for a long time been very dark, and yet by divine grace is given to plain simplicity) let him not despise and reject the same, according to the course and custom of the wicked world; but look upon the ground of practice which is therein intimated; and give himself up thereunto; and pray God for light and understanding: and at last he will rightly understand our ground, and it will find very great love and acceptance with him.

15. But we have written nothing for the proud and haughty wiselings who know enough already; and yet indeed know nothing at all; whose belly is their God, who only adhere unto the Beast of the

Babylonical Whore, and drink of her poison; and wilfully will be in blindness, and the devil's snare: But we have laid (with the spirit of our knowledge) a strong bolt before the understanding of folly, not to apprehend our meaning; seeing they wilfully and willingly serve Satan, and are not the children of God.

16. But we desire to be clearly and fundamentally understood by the children of God: and do heartily and readily communicate our knowledge given to us of God; seeing the time of such revelation is born: therefore let everyone see, and take heed, what sentence and censure he passes: Everyone shall accordingly receive his reward, and we commend him into the grace of the meek and tender love of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Sept. 11. Anno 1623.

To the Reader

THIS book of the Mysterium Magnum, being an exposition of Genesis, if it be read through and weighed with good attention, will remove those mists from their eyes that have not diligently perused the other writings of the author, Jacob Behm, which hath occasioned their being offended by the stumbling blocks that have lain in their way, from the misreports and relations of others who have but superficially looked upon them, and taken up surmisings at the second or third hand, and so come to be bereaved of the greatest benefit to their understandings which they would infallibly gain, if they would follow the advice in the last paragraph of the last chapter of this book, where the author says: We admonish the reader that when he finds somewhat in any place of our deep sense to be obscure, that he do not condemn it according to the manner of the evil world; but diligently read and pray to God, who will surely open the door of his heart, so that he will apprehend it and be able to make use of it, to the profit and salvation of his soul.

And that I also may be helpful to the furtherance of the reader, I shall descant a little upon that which may draw him with the cords of love, and clear his thoughts from some objections that perhaps hinder his setting upon the perusal of these precious writings.

Let us a little examine, though cursorily, what is done towards the satisfaction of the desire to understand: and we may observe that whosoever will bring anything to pass, must be furnished with skill beforehand, or else have a teacher stand by to direct: wherefore are all writings, but that others at a distance either for time or place may be informed of that which else they could not so easily know; what serve the registry of arts, philosophy, and histories for, but to tell succeeding generations what was in the times of their forefathers, yet that which hath been transmitted from age to age is but a relation of things done outwardly or words spoken, and few or no footsteps mentioned of the most ancient skill, which possessed the thoughts and minds of the wise men, at least, none have expressed the original ground, ways, and proceedings of their understandings, by which they arrived to such attainments: tho' Holy Scripture is the most ancient and exact, yet it everywhere, though about most hidden depths, only makes a bare relation.

For instance, at first it says thus: In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth: and that God said, Let there be Light, and there was Light. But it nowhere expounds what the Beginning, God, the Creation, the Heavens, the Earth, and the Light, are, nor how God did then create, or how spoke and it was done; nor how done with speaking or without; Moses knew it all; and likely some of the people in that age for whom he wrote it, did understand them, or else he would have written more particularly, for he could not intend to express that which they could not fully apprehend; I cannot but think, the same God that taught him so eminently by his spirit, had so fitted the people that they were capable to receive instruction by his words; and why not we also, by the same spirit of God, since they were written for our instruction as well as theirs: how great a gift then must it needs be, that is given to this author, to expound these things fundamentally as he has done.

The best part of man's skill consists in the knowledge of those materials that are the subject of man's working and producing of effects; it is no direct method to go about to teach youths arts and not first sufficiently furnish them with the knowledge of matter enough, to make use of, in the exercise of those arts: in mechanic works we are able to discover that many materials happen to be spoiled in the using, so that afterwards the best use of them cannot be made, as timber, bricks, stone.

The beginnings of things are therefore to be looked into, that amendment may be made of that which is amiss, for one error there will hazard the loss of labour in all that is built upon it, and ignorance in such things does apparently stop the bringing forth any exact work for the use and benefit of the body of man, but the minds, spirits, and souls of men, which are the materials of arts and sciences, called liberal, we scarce offer to look to the husbandry, planting and meliorating of such things; though in divine skill as well as natural, we have a pattern for doing it, in that Paul did plant, and Apollos did water, though God gave the increase.

But we spend our time and thoughts so much about wordly profit and pleasures, that we care for no more knowledge than will serve the turn of the outward man, and though we hear of deeper skill that the wise men had who first invented those most useful things enjoyed and practised by us, for the necessary support of our life; we hardly believe that was ever done which we cannot do, when it is

clear, that if we had their skill we might do as they did: and if the Holy Scriptures did not mention that so great works were done by Moses, the Prophets, Christ, and the Disciples, we would not believe such things had ever been done. For we are commonly so far from thinking the great works of the skilful in Egypt to have been real, that contrary to the express words of the text, theirs are accounted not real serpents, as when Moses did bid Aaron lay down his rod and it became a serpent, and the Egyptians laid down their rods and they became serpents, but Aaron's rod devoured all the rods of the Egyptians: for all this, men will suppose that the Egyptians' rods were not turned into true serpents as Aaron's was, but that they were mere delusions of the devil;

and what makes us backward to believe the truth in this, but because we know not, what the rods were, nor the serpents, nor how they were so changed: which being in Exodus, the author would have explained if he had lived to perform his purpose upon the whole five Books of Moses, as he did begin and perfect this of Genesis. Neither is the transformation of Nebuchadnezzar believed, that his hairs were turned feathers and his nails into claws, as in Dan. iv. 33.

In treatises of magic are histories of strange actions, where the particular way and manner whereby they were effected is omitted: and spiritual magic operations in nature are not at all looked into, being esteemed satisfactory to the question, What are the hidden virtues of minerals, stones, plants, beasts, men? to answer, that they are occult qualities, as the powers and virtues of the loadstone, attractive of iron, and tending to the poles of the earth, are called: and the knowledge of these is so far remote from our reach, that we must first inquire the place where, and the manner how they may be discerned.

To which end we make many outward experiments, and thereby happen to cause nature to produce her wonderful effects: but few examine how the spirit of Nature works therein, she works under a veil or shell, within which, the Spirit produces all its wonders, and so spiritual things are hid from our outward eyes, though visible things are a glass wherein the resemblance and similitude of all spiritual things are represented; yet of all glasses the mind itself is the more clear and undeceiving, to behold the motions of that working Spirit; all things are there, to be seen, intimately; if we will search how things come there to be produced, and what makes so many various thoughts and representations; we shall there perceive a workmaster, the Spirit which created everything in the world, and in the mind,

and he who yields to that Spirit, it will make known to him its own workings within and without; that, it is, which opens our understandings when we apprehend anything; and this is the Mighty God, the creator of all things, who knows when, and where, and how, itself made everything, and wrought in all wisdom, both of angels and men, and to this Spirit we must always have recourse as this author advises us, or we can have no true knowledge at all.

Which way would any go that they may be able to perform an excellent thing, would they not first inquire of friends or others whether they knew of any that had attained the thing, if it were concerning a piece of fine workmanship, suppose a clock or watch, sure we would ask where such a thing may be had, and we should as readily be directed to go to those that sell, but perhaps none of them were to be seen in our native habitation; if so, we would desire some to write to a rare artist abroad beyond sea, in the Indies if it were not elsewhere to be had, entreating him to describe the making of it, in a letter to a friend of his with us, and if he should return an answer concerning the parts of it, the standing, or other defects, when it is foul, or a tooth broken, or string slipt, or any other fault; this would be prized highly from so skilful a man, and we would presently look out for his friend in our own country that understandeth the language to expound this letter, that we may have the right meaning thereof: yet when that is done, we could not thereby be instructed about the materials, how to begin, what tools to have, and many other particulars, requisite to the understanding of the thing;

without still further and further directions, from him: and therefore we are desirous to speak with the party himself who was able to give such directions;

but then if we should hear, that person were dead who made them best and had written that letter: what advice should we next take: we should seek out whether any books or other letters have been written by that artist, and for men most conversant in reading the writings of that nature, by which means competent knowledge what the thing is may be obtained; and the same course must be taken concerning any subject whether natural or divine; this is done with much toil and expense of time and cost;

but if we could have notice where one for a pattern were to be gotten we might begin to look into it, and so imitate though but weakly at first, and by a long tract of experience come to a more exact knowledge than can be attained by all the books in the world, much more than if all the learned men were set together accurately to

expound those books that could be most diligently composed concerning such a thing. This contrivance is in case the party that invented or made the thing be dead, and not to be spoken with himself, for if he were alive, he could soon teach one capable of learning, how to do it as well as himself: and then by exercise that party comes to amend the invention in every particular, and makes it exact at last: and thus are divine attainments also both sought, found and gotten: these are the tedious searches that most men wander in about mechanic things. It is frequent with men, to be apprentices seven years to learn a trade, or as they properly call it a mystery, and because it is their employment by which men get their livelihoods, they are loath to divulge it, lest thereby they come short of what else they might comfortably enjoy for the maintenance of themselves and families; yet so much pains is taken for a poor transitory benefit.

Outward things are not worth the knowing, but in reference to the sustaining our life in which we are to labour in this world to the glory of our Creator; neither is this life worthy to be compared to that which is future and endureth for ever;

yet the whole learning of physic is to procure health, and prevent sickness which causeth death to the present life, but hurts not the soul nor spirit as to eternity: but let health be wanting and all other things bestowed upon men on earth are of no vale, no trading, getting of estates and gain of riches, to the settling and assuring whereof that it may be enjoyed, in which the lawyer's advice is wholly employed, has no delight in it. Some care is requisite to provide for wife, children, kindred and friends, in leaving that they have, free from entanglements, to posterity after them: yet though the exactest course be taken that the learnedst counsel can devise, the casualty of every case is such that desperate expenses happen to the ruin of vast estates; so vain is all that part of learning without health.

And then, the riches and fullest plenty of all earthly things which set the whole world on work; honour and power of dominion, stately palaces, pleasant gardens, groves, walks, meadows, fields, prospects of land, rivers, seas; full tables, dainty fare, delicate attire, great attendance, all usefulness of convenient houses, coaches, horses, beds of down, gorgeous apparel, increase of all cattle for food and clothing, fruits of the earth, all variety of commodities fetched from all parts of the world; as Solomon's navy brought gold, silver, ivory, apes and peacocks (1 Kings x. 22), so we have the same things, and precious stones, pearls, spices ofall sorts, fragrant perfumes, silks, parrots, and fine singing birds, brought in by shipping in abundance.

All recreative pleasures and exercises of body, which require much time, pains and cost to be spent in them, wherein men labour for that which is not bread: yet these have their lawful use, in that men thereby become helpful and beneficial one to another, and so necessity hath brought forth many exquisite mechanic arts. There are also rare endowments of mankind, the exercises of the minds of men, as grammar for languages, logic in discoursings, rhetoric in persuasions for reconciling different affections, to the peace and comfort of human society; delight of pleasant music; arithmetic, that fundamental requisite for accountants in all commerce and traffic, without which nothing of great moment can be managed. Geometry in surveying, architecture, geography, optics or perspective, picture, sculpture, graving. Also astronomy which regulates the order of times in the transaction of civil affairs, and in navigation, husbandry, chronology: And lastly, astrology, whereby is hinted to us the pre-discovery of the change of seasons to dearth or plenty, the inclination of years, countries or persons to sickness or health, to purity or impurity of the air, dryness or moisture. And whatsoever more the arts called liberal do furnish man with, are not esteemed where there is not health of body.

And were it not that the performances, effects and works that are wrought in this mortal life, do follow the soul in the world to come, and are represented distinctly and particularly to the soul as thoughts to the mind; and as the actions of great victors are set forth in shows of triumph: it were in vain to spend our time here in anything but drowsiness and sleep: if the enjoyment of our works were not the fruit of our labours;

as in the Revelation it is said, Blessed are those that die in the Lord, for they rest from their labours, and their works follow them (Rev. xiv. 13): the manner whereof being well understood would cause such circumspection and care in men, that they would endeavour to have only such works as wherein they shall have joy, and not such as shall be burned and the person suffer loss though the soul be saved, as through fire: and this at that day when the thoughts of all hearts shall be laid open;

as if they were plainly limned before us in a picture to the life, and every secret thought shall be brought to judgment: the cabinet councils of the close Cabals, of emperors, kings, princes and states, and the lustful imaginations when the mouth speaks holy things in highest devotions, and the body acting in demurest posture; the cheating intentions in fairest pretences of love

and friendship; the lies and falsehoods in multiplicities of words for self-ends; for if Elisha could tell what was whispered in the secret chamber of the King of Syria (2 Kings vi. 12), shall anything be hidden, when all things shall be made manifest; and then of every idle sword that a man shall speak he shall give an account at the day of judgment; also we shall be judged for all things that were done in the body, whether they be good or evil: This is easily confessed to be truth, because written in the Holy Scriptures; but who knows how and in what sense it shall be really so, and in what manner performed; and lays it seriously to heart.

Such things as these are only mentioned in the Scripture; the knowledge whereof would make the soul delighted whether there be health of body or not; and it is far surpassing all other books: because they set down all things necessary to eternal salvation so plainly that the meanest capacity may learn them, and it will be the greater condemnation that men neglect so great salvation as is there discovered; they were written by those who knew exactly the mysteries of salvation, and do direct us into the paths thereof: how excellent is the understanding of them then, and how acceptable and profitable are those writings that expound them clearly: But we are for the most part willing to let the understanding of them go, or at most desire a literal knowledge only; for, those that mention the mystical exposition of things, are suspected to be deceivers; as if, though men do not so well apprehend divine and natural mysteries as they might do, we shall judge them for offering to search after, and but complaining of the want of such learning, as does teach the understanding of them.

Whereas our Saviour himself taught his disciples the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven. And the Apostle Paul taught the mysteries of the Gospel, of Godliness, of Christ, of Faith, and of the Resurrection.

To them that were without, all things were done in parables (Mark iv. 11), but Christ expounded the meaning of them apart to his disciples. The Scriptures instruct us, not only as to the mere relation of things done, but so that the man of God may be made perfect and ready to every good work: This man of God is the inward man, the child of God, the hidden man of the heart;

Christ in us; whose flesh and blood, except we eat and drink, we have no part in him; these words of spirit and life he spake when he was yet alive upon the earth before his suffering, which made his disciples cry out this is a hard saying who can bear it;

not considering that his heavenly Divine flesh and blood was in their

souls, and that they did there eat and drink thereof; for they had part in him though they knew not how, at that time; yet the mortal flesh and blood shall not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven, being the old man of corruption, which is earth, and to earth shall return. These are great mysteries, and as well after they are made known as before; for they are the hidden secret operations of spiritual things, and the spirit of man only of all earthly creatures is capable to understand them; there are indeed lying wonders, spiritual wickednesses in high places, that make up the mystery of iniquity; these only deceive the soul ofman by their working in the heart in the love of them, to the bringing forth their evil fruits, and not the knowing of them in the mystery, for therein they were well known to the Apostles. If men pretend they know mysteries and are not able to teach them, they are to blame, but not those that seek after them and speak what they find, and stir up others not to rest contented with that which they have, when they may get more rich treasure by searching after it.

The history of Christ, and of all other things mentioned in the Scriptures, are infallibly true, that he was born of the Virgin Mary, that he is the Saviour of the world, was crucified at Jerusalem, rose again from the dead, ascended into heaven;

the relating of this does not fully satisfy a soul; for the devils believe and know it all, and what has been discovered and spoken from God by words since the beginning of the world, and tremble: and so may we if we learn not the mystery, signified in and by the history, and feel that Christ is born in us, in a pure, clean, chaste heart, and understand the knowledge of Christ and him crucified, than which the Apostle Paul desired not to know anything else, among the Corinthians; this was not the bare knowledge of the history, for he said in a certain place, though we once knew Christ according to the flesh: as they did that conversed with him upon earth, yet now know we him so no more; then, how did he know him, but in the spirit, in the mystical knowledge?

Infinite are the mysteries mentioned in the Scriptures concerning God, angels, men, the world, eternity, time, the creation, fall, sin, corruption, the curse, misery, death, judgment, hell, devils, damnation: Christ, redemption, justification, salvation, free grace, free will, resurrection; Paradise: the Holy Ghost, sanctification, restitution, blessedness, eternal life and glory. These all concern the soul which

is the eternal part of man, which no other books do teach the assured knowledge of, but the Scriptures. How should we therefore esteem that which teaches things so satisfactory, and necessary, for the soul to learn, to eschew, or attain, in reference to eternity. Other writers have written from observations made upon experience by the outward senses from external objects, but that skill goes no further than the shell and cover of things, the spirit in nature being invisible to the outward eyes as well as the divine Spirit: they that wrote from the Holy Spirit had inward senses, for it is written, That which we have seen with our eyes, 1 which we have heard with our ears, 1 and which our hands 1 have handled of the word of life, declare we unto you; they also saw with their eyes, things unutterable, such as no eye 2 hath seen, or ear 2 heard, or hath entered into the heart of man 2 to conceive, yet things which God hath undoubtedly prepared for them that love him: some of which that are unutterable, have been declared and left recorded for us by the holy men, and nowhere but in the Scriptures, which hath stirred up the industry of some to collect and transmit those writings to posterity: and in the time of the Apostles men were diligent in reading the Old Testament, which were the only Scriptures then, and our Saviour bids the Jews search them, saying, For in them ye think to have eternal life, and they are they that testify of me (John v. 39).

1 Inward, spiritual. 2 Outward, carnal.

A little after, the Bereans searched the Scriptures daily to see whether what Paul taught were so or no: Now if any other books would have informed them of those things, they would have sought in those also; but we read not that they did so. This also adds to their excellency, that he who was not behind the chiefest Apostles tells Timothy who was also an Evangelist, and had known the Scriptures as a child, that they are able to make him wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus: how precious is that which can make us wise to salvation: this hath been said of the Old Testament: but concerning the epistles of Paul, the Apostle Peter testifies of them, that some do wrest them as they do also the other Scriptures: and the worth of the New Testament further appears, in that it was written by the Apostles, to whom God spake by his Son, and therein have revealed him, of whom all the Prophets of old have testified; and therein also are expressed some of the mysteries that have been hid since the world began, and in this it is paramount to all other books: and this has provoked the industry of the most able learned men for many hundreds of years to translate them into several languages out

of the original Hebrew and Greek, and so by the variety of the idiom of the several speeches, the sense is the more explained, as the literal expositions out of some of those translations into anyone tongue not varying the phrase, being compared with another, will manifest: they have also taken pains to interpret the meaning of the words, some from one ground and reason, some from another, collected, by the understandings of several builders of one sect or other in religion; causing differences of opinion in all churches of dissenting brethren, each party having several reasons for the divers meanings of the same text of Scripture, but the ground of the mistake is from the working of

the faculty of reason upon the subject that is spoken of; the faculty of understanding upon the inward ideas represented in the mind is the same in all men, and if it concludes upon outward observation it is called reason, in Greek, logos, which signifies verbum, sermo, ratio, the word, speech, reason, things meant by these are either expressed by the tongue or letters or imprinted in thoughts either from without by the senses, or from within, from God, by the understanding: the certain meaning of the words of Scripture being the jewel locked up in them, not now attainable from the Apostles by conference with them,since their decease, therefore now we should apply ourselves to the things they spoke of, which are to be inquired after in mind, and the knowledge of them to be received from God by prayer, who will open the understanding, for there is a spirit in man, and the inspiration 1 of the Almighty gives understanding (Job xxxii. 8), and he will then teach us as he did the Apostles: and as he did this author, who by the command of the Holy Spirit wrote his deep knowledge given to him of God, and has therin pointed out the way to us wherein we may understand what in us is divine and what natural, the new man, and the old: which is the aim and scope of the whole Bible: these new things and old are those that the scribe learned in the Kingdom of Heaven, brings out of his treasury, neither can any knowledge be wanting to him who enjoys Christ, for in him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

1 Or, breathing in, as Gen. ii.7.

A man would wonder why Paul should pronounce so great a curse upon those that teach any other gospel, than the Galatians had received, saying, though we [himself or another Apostle] or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel besides that which we have preached upon you, and utters the same, if any preach any other gospel than what you have received, let him be accursed (Gal. i. 8);

now what is this gospel? it is the gospel of Christ which they had received: if we knew Christ we should soon understand his gospel, and how they had received it, and know how justly they are accursed that preach any other: and when we know Christ as fully as his Apostles did, we shall understand from him more than we can find from their writings, though theirs, and the Prophets, all preaching the gospel, direct us to Christ and tell us where he is and what he is. The Apostle John says: The Word was God, and all things were made by it, and in it was life, and the life was the light of men, and that was the true light which lights every man that comes into the world. This Word Moses calls the commandment, which is in our hearts that we may do it. Paul calls it Christ, the word of faith which they preach; near us in our hearts and mouths. James calls it the engrafted word which is able to save our souls, and advises to lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and to receive it with meekness; by this it may be discerned, that the word which enlightens everyone is engrafted even in those that have filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, which is to be all laid apart, or that engrafted word cannot be received though it be able to save our souls, and seeing it is Christ in us, none does question but it will save us, being received: and this is the word by which hearing, obeying, or receiving comes, and by that hearing comes faith (Rom. x. 17), that is, Christ comes to be born in us: thus we see, where Christ is, what he is, and the powerful efficacy of him; and to know this feelingly and so receive this word is receiving the Gospel, the glad tidings of salvation which shall be to all men, that embrace him; and the preaching and declaring this, is that Gospel; that sound which is gone into all the earth (Ps. xix. 4; Rom. x. 18); it is the eternal Gospel: whosoever preaches any other besides it is accursed.

Now what this word has and does effect, and how, in the whole creation and in every creature, in all men, and in ourselves, is the Mysterium Magnum which this author declares exactly upon Genesis, wherein all mysteries are couched, there is not the least jot or tittle of all the rest of the books of Scripture that want a mystery, which may be apprehended, by observing how this author lays them open in this part; and will serve as an introduction to the understanding the whole Book of God, in nature and Scripture; and then we may read how our names are written in the Book of Life, which is the best and most comfortable lesson that any can learn, and then we shall not need that this author or any man teach us, for we shall all be taught of God, as is promised and firmly expected that it will be accomplished.

These things considered, and the author's serious admonitions to walk in the ways of holiness, self-denial, resignation, the new-birth, killing of our outward will and desires which rebel against God, might perhaps satisfy, and allay the stirring thoughts of them that suppose some evil purpose was intended in the disclosing of these deep mysteries, when as it is given to none to understand such things but to disciples of Christ;

neither can so great a revelation as this author has expressed enter into any heart that is not given up to follow Christ, and to forsake his own will, living in continual repentance, and taking up his cross daily, which he has earnestly called upon all to do, in his book of The Way to Christ, and here and there his writings are strewed with such counsel as with sweet smelling flowers, curious both for shapes and colours, why therefore should his books be scandalised as wicked; it cannot but be acknowledged they have appeared to be dictated by the Holy Ghost, to the apprehensions of some that desire to walk in the fear of God and in the narrow path that leads unto life, and have found much furtherance in that way from his writings, the comfort whereof shall never be taken from them: If his writings were thoroughly weighed, men would not need that this testimony should be given of him.

But there are some that in words are so full of reproachings and bitter terms against their brethren, whose words or writings do not please their palate; that they revile one another and return bitterness for bitterness, evil for evil; whereas Michael the Archangel when he strove with the devil about the body of Moses durst not use a railing accusation, but said, the Lord rebuke thee;

yet these speak evil of the things they know not: this ought not so to be, but to return good for evil; and if we know a fault in our brother, we should tell him of it in private, and if he hears us, we have won our brother; and it is far better so than to contemn, despise, scorn and find fault with the slips and failings one of another in any kind; moreover, to be reproached, is that which everyone who would be the disciple of Christ must look for in this world, and not think to be above his master; for if they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call them of his household (Matt. x. 25). Also there were, that said of Christ, he has Beelzebub (Mark iii. 22). But such names cast upon any should deter none from examining the sayings or writings of any man, that they may be discerned whether they be good or evil. It may be supposed that the persons who judge evil of this author, have received

misrepresentations concerning some part of his writings, that speak of magic: as if the knowledge of magic must needs be witchcraft: when if they consider that Daniel said, Destroy not the wise men of Babylon (Dan. ii. 24); and that Daniel, otherwise called Belteshazzar (Dan. iv. 8, 9), was master of the magicians: also what the Magi or wise men of the East that came to Christ were; cannot think but they were excellent men, and had the knowledge of the Magia, in English, magic; not to be rejected, but to be sought after, with all diligence; that we may be able to disclose the secret workings, and oppose the wiles of the devil and Satan, used by his wicked magi or magicians, his instruments in this world: that (2 Kings ix. 22) the witchcrafts of the wicked Jezebel, may be discovered; and together with the mistress of witchcrafts, that sells nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts (Nahum iii. 4), and such as (Gal. iii. I) bewitched the Galatians to whom Paul wrote; may be overthrown, and destroyed utterly.

Let us study seriously to understand the things that are expressed in the words of the Scripture, that we may not be such as speak evil of what we know not.

We ought not to look at the mote that is in our brother's eye, before we have pulled the beam out of our own; much rather, ought we to be sure there is a mote in our brother's eye before we think to go about to pull it out; some censure this author's writings to be full of nonsense, who yet confess they cannot understand them, why do they then judge;

for, all that I apprehend not the sense of; is not nonsense in itself; though I think it so: another great fault is found with his hard words; now, hard words are used in the most excellent Book, and never the worse for being hard: deep things and mysteries cannot be expressed in easy words; some things most excellent (Rom. viii. 26; 2 Cor. xii. 4) cannot be uttered by any words; therefore 'tis happy some other hard things may be uttered though by hard words; better than not at all: the words we account easy in the ordinary sense, are hard in their true sense and meaning: even the hard words of these writings are easier to the chimick philosophers, than CX,(3,Y,§ to one that cannot read Greek: so one that has not been at the School of Mysteries or of Pentecost, it is hard for him to read the Christ-Cross-Row.

This author writes of the mysteries of eternity before they be produced and made perceptible to the creature, that is, before the Creation; also of the creation of angels, before Lucifer fell, and of his

fall, and the creation of the world; as in this book at large: and if any will peruse him carefully they will find he mentions, three Principles of the essence of all essences, in the book of the Three Principles:

But in the abstract of the Mysterium Magnum, at the end of this book, they may perceive, that the Abyss and God is all one: and that the Abyss is God ineffable, not manifested but to himself and to whom he will reveal himself: and that, God is the Unity, in Trinity, the three eternal Principles, manifested by creation to the creature: The knowledge of which three Principles, and of the seven properties of nature, and of the ten forms of fire in the eternity, would make his writings easy and delightful.

If we would walk humbly in the sight of God, we should brotherly exhort one another, and not judge that we be not judged, for the same measure we mete shall be measured to us again: let us judge righteous judgment, and lay open that which is evil, before the sun at noonday, that all may take notice, and beware they fall not into the ditch: God that has shed abroad his love in our hearts, enlighten our understandings that we may see the wonderful things of his law, and then we shall not so readily despise one another, and receive accusations against our brethren and their doings, and so wound some through the sides of others.

If we were released from the virulency of the spirit of the outward man, which figured him in the mother's womb, and constellated him, when he was born, and when he first breathed the outward air as a seminal breath; which is prone to all manner of lusts, and draws men to sin: if this were allayed by a daily temperance, and practice to mortify our members that are on the earth, by bringing down the body daily;

labouring for an humble and contrite heart, a broken spirit, and a mourning soul, repenting from the bottom of our hearts, amending our lives continually, purifying, and communing with our hearts, and not suffer any iniquity or evil to lodge in the desires of our most inward thoughts: we should soon perceive, upon filling our bodies with outward food, the stirring of lust, to swelling pride, raging malice and anger, stinging envy, greedy covetousness, grudging the good of others, pleasing lasciviousness, a wandering eye after the applause, honour, and pleasure of this world; but upon fasting, this spirit is not felt almost, in the body: as we may observe in ourselves every moment: but an inclination to love, meekness, self-denial, patience, forbearance, and all virtues, the Spirit of God,

reviving in us;

and we may thereby somewhat perceive, why the Prophets said: The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, thus says the Lord; whereas the word was in them before, only this spirit of life brought forth the word, from the Lord, in their hearts, into their minds and understandings that they felt it stirring or speaking anew: and further, we shall be able to discern what enemy we have to deal with in our fighting the good fight of faith: the world and the delights thereof is a great enemy, which we must overcome, or we cannot attain to the denial of ourselves, and taking up the cross of Christ, without which we cannot be his disciple; but we are subject to think, that crosses, adversities, and afflictions are our worst enemies, because we live not by faith, but by the outward spirit, which all crosses do kill in us, and by them we die daily, to that, which is the instrument of sin, whereby its desires are brought to effect: and therefore we account that our greatest friend which is our greatest enemy: it brings death, our last enemy, and is the sting thereof but by killing the desires of the flesh we shall live and do thereby daily overcome that last enemy which we must certainly have a combat with, seeing it is appointed for all men once to die, and after death comes judgment.

If we be earnest and watchful in our fight, we shall be victorious over the first death, and on such the second death can have no power, which is the effect of the judgment: But having overcome that; then, when Christ who is our life (in the faith of the Son of God) shall appear, we shall also appear with him in glory.

How excellent a thing is it now, to understand the things expressed in the Holy Scriptures, that they may not be a dead letter having no comfort in them, for none can rejoice to die except he feel the virtue of the life of Christ, killing sin in the mortal flesh; for therefore we must serve the Lord with fear and rejoice in him with trembling, because it it not safe for us to have our outward spirit wherein is the life of sin to rejoice without trembling. How cheerful would men be in soul and conscience, to run the ways of God's commandments, if they had killed sin, that they might rejoice to die; and so were filled with assured hope to enjoy the crown of victory which is laid up for them, and which Christ, through whom we have victory, shall give us.

How does it comfort an afflicted soul to consider, that afflictions, though they be grievous for a time, are not to be compared with the eternal joys that are laid up for us. But if the transcendent sayings of the holy Apostles and Prophets be not understood, they are but dead to us and so are we to them.

To conclude, let the reader know that more than half this book was translated into English by my dear kinsman, Mr John Ellistone, who departed this life at Gestingthorp in the county of Essex, on the 22nd of August 1652, about one of the clock in the morning: and so went into the mystery, where his soul enjoys the fruits of his labours of love, which those shall also do that walk in the same path, and I among the rest may in my appointed time be found in Christ worthy and capable to come to the innumerable company of angels, though now I deserve to be accounted

One of the unworthiest of the children of men,

JOHN SPARROW.

De Mysterio Magno

OF THE

GRAND MYSTERY

THAT IS

Of the Manifestation of the Divine Word through the Three Principles of the Divine Essence

The First Chapter

What the Manifested God is: and of the Trinity

1. IF we would understand what the new birth is, and how it is brought 1 to pass, then we must first know what man is, and how he is the image of God; and what the divine indwelling 2 is; also what the revealed God is; of whom man is an image.

2. When I consider what God is, then I say, He is the One; in reference to the creature, as an eternal Nothing; he has neither foundation, beginning, nor abode; he possesses nothing, save only himself; he is the will of the abyss; he is in himself only one; he needs neither space, nor place; he begets himself in himself; from eternity to eternity; he is neither like nor resembles any thing; and has no peculiar place where he dwells; 3 the eternal wisdom or understanding is his dwelling; he is the will of the wisdom; the wisdom is his manifestation.

3. In this eternal generation we are to understand three things, viz. 1. An eternal will. 2. An eternal mind of the will. 3. The egress 4 from the will and mind, which is a spirit of the will and mind.

4. The will is father; the mind is the conceived 5 of the will, viz. the seat or habitation of the will, or the centre to something; and it is the will's heart; and the egress of the will and mind is the power and spirit.

1 Wrought, or effected.

2 Or how God dwells in man, and fills all things with his presence.

3 Or no sundry habitation above the stars in an empyrean heaven, as reason fancies.

4 Efflux, effluence, the proceeding-forth.

5 Comprehension or receptacle.

5. This threefold 1 spirit is one only essence, and yet it is no essence, but the eternal understanding, an original of the something:

and yet it is the eternal hiddenness 2 (just as the understanding of man is not confined in time and place, but is its own comprehension and seat), and the egress of the spirit is the eternal original contemplation, viz. a lubet of the spirit.

6. The egressed 3 is called the lubet of the Deity, or the eternal wisdom, which is the eternal original of all powers, colours and virtues; by which the threefold spirit comes, in this lubet, to a desiring, namely, of the powers, colours, and virtues; and its desiring is an impressing, a conceiving itself: The will conceives the wisdom in the mind, and the conceived in the understanding is the eternal word of all colours, powers, and virtues; which the eternal will expresses 4 by the spirit from the understanding of the mind.

7. And this speaking is the motion or life of the Deity, an eye of the eternal seeing, where one power, colour and virtue does know each of the others, and does distinguish each from the other; and yet they all stand in equal proportion 5 or analogy, devoid of weight, limit or measure, also undivided one from another. All the powers, colours and virtues lie in one; and it is a distinct, mutual, well-tuned, pregnant harmony; or, as I might say, a speaking word, in which word or speaking all speeches, powers, colours and virtues are contained, and with the pronouncing or speaking they unfold themselves, and bring themselves into sight and ken.

8. This is now the eye of the abyss, the eternal chaos, wherein all (whatsoever eternity and time has) is contained; and it is called Counsel, Power, Wonder and Virtue. Its peculiar and proper name is called GOD, or JEOVA, or JEHOVAH, who is outside of all nature, without all beginnings of any essence, a working in himself; generating, finding, or perceiving himself; without any kind of source from any thing, or by any thing: He has neither beginning nor end,

he is immeasurable, no number can express his largeness, and greatness, he is deeper than any thought can reach; he is nowhere far from any thing, or nigh unto any thing; he is through all, and in all: his birth is everywhere, and without and besides him there is nothing else: he is time and eternity, byss and abyss, and yet nothing comprehends him save the true understanding, which is God himself.

1 Or Tri-Une. 2 Or mystical Mystery.

3 That which is flown forth from the one eternal will.

4 Or speaks forth. 5 Text, property.

The second chapter

Of the Word, or Heart of God.

1. THIS is now what Saint John says, Ch. 1. In the Beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and God was the Word: The same was in the Beginning with God. The Word is the Will of the Abyss: The Beginning is the Conception [or Apprehension] of the Will; where it conceives, and brings itself into an Eternal Beginning ;the (Word) is now the Conceived, which in the Will is a Nothing, and with the Conception there is a Generation : This was in the Beginning with the Will, and in the Will; but with the Lubet of the Will it receives its beginning in the Conception of the Will: Therefore it is called [a] Heart, viz. a Center or Life-Circle, wherein the Original of the Eternal Life is.

2. And John says further: By the same were all Things made, and without it was not any thing made that was made : In it was the Life and the Life was the Light of Men. Here, O Man, take now this Light of Life, which was in the Word, and is Eternal, and behold the Being of all Beings, and especially thy Self, seeing Thou art an Image, Life, and Being of the unsearchable God, and a Likeness as to him : Here consider Time and Eternity, Heaven, Hell, the World, Light and Darkness, Pain and Source, Life and Death, Something and Nothing. Here examine thyself, whether thou hast the Light and Life of the Word in thee, so that thou art able to see, and understand all Things. For thy Life was in the Word, and was made manifest in the Image which God created; it was breathed into it from the Spirit of the Word. Now lift up thy Understanding in the Light of thy Life, and behold the formed Word : Consider its inward Generation, for all is manifest in the Light of Life.

3. Dost thou say I cannot; I am corrupt, and depraved? Hear me! Thou art not as yet born of God, otherwise, if thou hadst again that same Light, then thou couldst. Go to then! We all indeed come far short of the Glory which we ought to have in God: But 1 will shew thee somewhat. Have a Care, and conceive it aright; be not a Mocker, as the confused Babel is. Lo! when we would speak of the Being of all Beings, then we say, that from God, and through God, are all Things: for St. John says also, that without him was not any Thing

made that was made.

4. Now says Reason, whence or how has God made Good and Evil, Pain and Joy, Life and Death ? Is there any such Will in God which makes the Evil ? Here Reason begins to speculate, and will apprehend it; but it goes only about the Outside of the Circle, and cannot enter in; for it is without, and not in the Word of the Life-Circle.

5. Now then behold thyself, and consider what thou art; view what the outward World is with its Dominion, and thou shalt find, that thou with thy outward Spirit and Being art the outward World ; thou art a little World out of the great World; thy outward Light is a Chaos of the Sun and Stars, else thou couldst not see by the Light [Or receive Light from] of the Sun; the Stars give the Essence of Distinction in the intellective Sight. Thy Body is Fire, Air, Water, Earth; therein also lies the metalline Property; for of whatsoever the Sun with the Stars is a Spirit, of that the Earth with the other Elements is a Being [Essence, Substance, Body], a coagulated Power. What the superior [Being] is, that is also the inferior; and all the Creatures of this World are the same.

6. When I take up a Stone, or Clod of Earth, and look upon it, then I see that which is above, and that which is below, yea, the whole World therein; only that in each Thing one Property happeneth to be the chiefest and manifest, according to which it is named. All the other Properties are jointly therein, only in distinct Degrees and Centers, and yet all the Degrees and Centers are but one only Center. There is but one only Root whence all Things proceed; it only separates itself in the Compaction, where it is coagulated: Its Original is as a Smoke or vaporous Breath from the great Mystery of the expressed Word, which stands in all Places in the re-expressing, that is, in the re-breathing (or echoing forth) a Likeness according to itself; an Essence according to the Spirit.

7. But now we cannot say that the outward World is God, or the Speaking Word, which in itself is devoid of such Essence; or likewise that the outward Man is God : But it is all only the expressed Word, which has so coagulated itself in its Re-conception to its own Expression, and does still continually coagulate itself with the four Elements, through the Spirit of the Desire, viz. of the Stars, and brings itself into such a Motion and Life, in the Mode and Manner as the Eternal Speaking Word makes a Mystery, which is spiritual in

itself. Which Mystery I call the Center of the Eternal Nature; where the Eternal Speaking Word brings itself into a Generation, and also makes such a spiritual World in itself, as we have materially in the expressed Word.

8. For I say, The inward World is the Heaven wherein God dwells; and the outward World is expressed out of the inward, and has only another Beginning than the inward, but yet out of the inward; it is expressed from the inward (through the Motion of the Eternal Speaking Word) and closed into a Beginning and End.

9. And the inward World stands in the Eternal Speaking Word, the Eternal Word has spoken it (through the Wisdom) out of its own Powers, Colours, and Virtue, into an Essence, as a great Mystery, from Eternity; which Essence also is only as a Spiration from the Word in the Wisdom, which has its Re-conception to Generation in itself, and with the Conception does likewise coagulate itself, and introduces itself into Forms, after the Manner of the Generation of the Eternal Word; as the Powers, Colours, and Virtue generate themselves in the Word through the Wisdom, or, as I might say, out of the Wisdom in the Word.

10. Therefore there is nothing nigh unto, or far off from God ; one World is in the other, and all are only one: but one is Spiritual, the other Corporeal; as Soul and Body are in each other, and also Time and Eternity are but one Thing, yet in distinct Beginnings. The spiritual World in the internal [Principle] has an eternal Beginning, and the outward a temporal; each has its Birth in itself. But the Eternal Speaking Word rules through and over all, yet it can neither be apprehended or conceived, either by the spiritual or external World, that it should stand still; but it works from Eternity to Eternity, and its Work is conceived; for it is the formed Word; and the working Word is its Life, and incomprehensible, for it is without all Essence, as a bare Understanding only, or a Power that brings itself into Essence [expresses itself in the essence].

11. In the inward spiritual World the Word conceives itself into a spiritual Essence as one only Element, wherein the four lie hid. But when God, viz. the Word, moved this one Element, then the hidden Properties manifested themselves, as there are four Elements.

Note by the compiler

In chapter 3, some new terms are introduced, like the Flagrat (German: Schreck, English: fright, astonishment, dismay) and Lubet (German: Lust, which means a longing desire, but also joy, delight, imagination. In man it manifests as a moving will to good/evil or love/anger). Jacob Boehme's work becomes difficult to understand if you don't know about the original words he used. Also, it is useful to know that the first three properties of nature in Boehme's description can be understood in one aspect as contraction, expansion and rotation/spin respectively. Some useful links and bibliography can be found at my Boehme page . Read more about this terminology question (partly borrowed from Paracelsus) at the following site: About Boehme - terminology

The signs of the planets are so well known that they are omitted after the name of the planets in the text that follows.

The third chapter

How out of the Eternal Good an Evil is come to be ; which in the Good had [has] no Beginning to the Evil: And of the Original of the Dark World, or Hell, wherein the Devils dwell.

1. Now then, seeing Light and Darkness, moreover Pain and Source, are seen in the outward World, and yet all originally proceed from the Eternal Mystery, viz. from the inward spiritual World, and the inward spiritual World proceeds out of the Eternal Generating and Speaking Word, thereupon we are to consider, how out of the Eternal Good an Evil is come to be, which in the Good has no Beginning to the Evil; whence Darkness, Pain, and Source arise; and then from whence a Lustre or Light arises in the Darkness

2. For we cannot say that the Eternal Light, or the Eternal Darkness, is created; otherwise they should be in a Time and a comprehensive Beginning; and of this they are void; for they are concomitant in the Generation; yet not in the Wisdom, or Generation of the Word of the

Deity; but they take their Original in the Desire of the Speaking Word.

3. For in the Eternal Speaking Word (which is void [Beyond or without] of all Nature, or Beginning) is only the Divine Understanding or Sound; there is neither Darkness nor Light; neither thick nor thin; neither Joy nor Sorrow; moreover, no Sensibility, or Perception [Finding or Apprehension]; but it is barely a Power of the Understanding in one Source, Will, and Dominion; there is neither Friend nor Foe to it, for it is the only Good, and nothing else.

4.Seeing then this Eternal Good cannot be an Insensible Essence, (for so it were not manifest to itself) it introduces itself in itself into a Lubet, to behold and see what itself is; in which Lubet is the Wisdom. And then the Lubet thus seeing what itself is, it brings itself into a Desire to find out and feel what itself is ; viz. to a sensible Perception of the Smell and Taste of the Colours, Powers, and Virtue. And yet no Perception could arise in the free spiritual Lubet, if it brought not itself into a Desire, like a Hunger.

5. For the Nothing hungers after the Something, and the Hunger is a Desire, viz. the first Verbum Fiat, or creating Power. For the Desire has nothing that it is able to make or conceive; it conceives itself, and impresses itself; it coagulates itself; it draws itself into itself, and comprehends itself, and brings itself from Abyss into Byss, and overshadows itself with its Magnetical Attraction; so that the Nothing is filled, and yet remains as a Nothing. It is only as a Property, viz. a Darkness. This is the eternal Original of the Darkness; for where there is a Property, there is already Something ; and the Something is not as the Nothing; it yields Obscurity [causes Darkness], unless something else, viz. a Lustre, fills it; and then it is Light, and yet it remains a Darkness in the Property.

6. In this Coagulation, or Impression, or Desire, or Hunger, by any of which I might express it to the Understanding, I say, in this Compaction or comprehensive Complication, we are to understand two Things; 1. The free Lubet, which is the Wisdom, Power, and Virtue of the Colours; and 2. The Desire of the free Lubet in itself: For the free Lubet, viz. the Wisdom, is no Property; but it is free from all Inclination, and is one with God. But the Desire is a Property: Now the Desire arises from the Lubet; therefore the Desire conceives and comprehends the free Lubet all along in the Compaction, in the Impression, and brings it also in feeling and finding.

7. And understand us right, and punctually here: The Desire arises out of the Will to the free Lubet, and makes itself out of the free Lubet, and brings itself into a Desire; for the Desire is the Father's Property; and the free Lubet, viz. the Wisdom, is the Son's Property; although God, seeing he is a [or one] Spirit, is not called Father or Son in this Place, till the Manifestation through the Fire in the Light; and there he is called Father and Son ; but I set it down, by Reason of the Birth of Nature, for a better Understanding of the true Ground, that Man might understand to what Person in the Deity Nature, and to what the Power in Nature is to be ascribed. The Center of the Eternal Nature; how the Will of the Abyss brings itself into Nature and form.

The centre of the eternal nature: How the Will of the Abyss brings itself into nature and form

8. The Desire proceeding from the Will of the Abyss is the first form ; and it is the Fiat, or, as it is expressed, Let there be; and the Power of the free Lubet is God; who governs the Fiat; and both together are named Verbum Fiat, that is, the Eternal Word, which creates where Nothing is, and [is] the Original of Nature and all Beings.

9. Saturn (). The first Property of the Desire is Astringent, harsh, eagerly-impressing, conceiving itself, overshadowing itself; and it makes, first, the great Darkness of the Abyss. Secondly, it makes itself substantial in a spiritual Manner, wholly rough, harsh, hard, and thick, and it is a Cause of Coldness, and all Keenness and Sharpness; also of all whatsoever is called Essence; and it is the Beginning of Perception, wherein the free Lubet finds and perceives itself, and introduces the Contemplation of itself; but the Desire in itself brings itself thereby into Pain and Source: Yet the free Lubet does only so receive finding [or Perception.]

10. Mercury (). The second form or Property is the Constringency of the Desire; that is, a Compunction, Stirring, or Motion; for each Desire is attractive and constringent; and it is the Beginning of Motion, Stirring and Life, and the true Original of the Mercurial Life of the painful [or tormenting] Source. For here arises the first Enmity between the Astringency or Hardness, and the Compunction or Sting of Stirring; for the Desire makes hard, thick, and congeals, as the

Cold stiffens and freezes the Water: Thus the Astringency is a mere raw Coldness; and the Compunction, viz. the Attraction, is yet brought forth with the Impression (or close constringent Desire.]

11. It is even here as Father and Son: The Father would be still, and hard; and the Compunction, viz. his Son, stirs in the Father, and Causes Unquietness; and this the Father, viz. the Astringency, cannot endure; and therefore he attracts the more eagerly and earnestly, in the Desire, to hold, refrain, and keep under the disobedient Son; whereby the Son grows only more strong in the Compunction [Or Sting]. And this is the true Ground and Cause of Sense; which in the free Lubet is the Eternal Beginning of the Motion [or Manifestation] of the powers, Colours, and Virtue, of the Divine Kingdom of Joy: And in the dark Desire it is the Original of Enmity, Pain, and Torment; and the Eternal Original of God's Anger, and all Unquietness and Contrariety, [or Antipathy].

12. Mars (). The third Property is the Anguish [distress], or Source, or rising Spring, which the two first Principles make. When the Compunction, viz. the Stirring, strives and moves with Rage in the Hardness, or Impression, and bruises the Hardness, then in the Contrition [brokenness] of the Hardness the first Sense of Feeling arises, and is the Beginning of the Essences; for first it is the Severation, whereby each Power becomes sensible [Feeling or distinct] and separable in itself in the free Lubet, in the Word of the Powers; it is the Original of Distinction, (or different Variety) whereby the Powers are mutually manifest, each in itself; also the Original of the Thoughts and Mind.

13. For the Eternal Mind is the All-Essential Power of the Deity: But the Senses arise through Nature with the Motion in the Division of the Powers, where each Power perceives, and feels itself in itself; it is also the Original of Taste and Smell: When the Perception of the Powers in the Distinction has mutual Intercourse, and Entrance into each other, then they feel, taste, smell, hear, and see one another; and herein arises the Source of Life, which could not be in the Liberty in the Stillness of the Power of God: Therefore the Divine Understanding brings itself into spiritual Properties, that it might be manifest to itself, and be a Working Life.

14. Now we are to consider of the Anguish in its own Generation and peculiar Property. For like as there is a Mind, viz. an Understanding in the Liberty, in the Word of the Power of God, so likewise the first

Will to the Desire brings itself in the Desire of the Darkness into a Mind, which Mind is the Anguish Source, viz. a Sulphureous Source; and yet here [the] Spirit is only to be understood.

15. The Anguish-Source is thus to be understood. The Astringent Desire conceives itself, and draws [contracts] itself into itself, and makes itself full, hard, and rough; now the Attraction is an Enemy of the Hardness; the Hardness is retentive; the Attraction is fugitive; the one will have it into itself, and the other will out of itself. But seeing they cannot separate, and part asunder one from the other, they remain in each other as a rolling Wheel; the one will ascend, the other descend.

16. For the Hardness Causes Substance and Weight; and the Compunction gives Spirit and the Active Life: These both mutually circulate in themselves and out of themselves and yet cannot go any where [parted]. What the Desire, viz. the Magnet, makes hard, that the Attraction again breaks in Pieces; and it is the greatest Unquietness in itself; like a raging Madness; and it is in itself an horrible Anguish; and yet no right feeling is perceived [to be understood] till the Fire (kindling of the Fire in Nature, which is the fourth Form, wherein the Manifestation of each Life appears). And I leave it to the Consideration of the true understanding Searcher of Nature, what this is, or means; let him search and bethink himself; he shall find it in his own natural, and paternal Knowledge.

17. The Anguish makes the Sulphureous Spirit; and the Compunction makes the Mercury, viz. the Work-Master of Nature, he is the Life of Nature; and the astringent Desire makes the keen Salt-Spirit; and yet all three are only one. But they divide themselves into three forms, which are called Sulphur, Mercurius, and Sal: These three Properties impress the Free Lubet into them, that it also gives a material Essentiality, which is the Oil of these three forms (viz. their Life and joy) which mollifies, meekens, and allays their Wrathfulness; and this no rational Man can deny. There is a Salt, Brimstone and Oil in all Things; and Mercurius, viz. the vital Venom [poison Life], makes the Essence in all Things; and so the Abyss brings itself into Byss and Nature.

18. Sol(). The fourth Form of Nature is the Enkindling of the Fire ; where the sensitive [ Feeling and Understanding] and intellective Life first arise, and the hidden God manifests himself. For without Nature he is hid to all Creatures; but in the Eternal and Temporal Nature he

is perceived and manifest.

19. And this Manifestation is first effected by the Awakening of the Powers, viz. by the three above-mentioned Properties, Sulphur, Mercurius, and Sal, and therein the Oil, in which the Life has its vital Being and Beauty, Life and Lustre [burns and shines]: The true Life is first manifest in the fourth Form, viz. in the Fire and Light; in the Fire the Natural, and in the Light the Oily Spiritual; and in the Power of the Light the divine intellectual [or understanding Life is manifest.]

20. Reader, attend, and mark right; I understand here, with the Description of Nature, the Eternal not the Temporal Nature: I only show thee the temporal Nature thereby, for it is expressed, or spoken forth out of the Eternal, and therefore do not foist in or alledge Calves, Cowes, or Oxen, as it is the course of irrational Reason in Babel to do.

21. First know this; that the Divine Understanding does therefore introduce itself into Fire, that its Eternal Lubet might be majestical and Lustrous [a Light]; for the Divine Understanding receives no Source into itself: It also needs none to its own Being; for the All needs not the Something; the Something is only the Play of the All, wherewith the All does melodize and play; and that the TOTAL or All might be manifest to itself, it introduces its Will into Properties: Thus we as a Creature will write of the Properties, viz. of the manifested God; how the All, viz. the Immense, Abyssal, Eternal Understanding manifests itself.

22. Secondly, the Abyssal and Divine Understanding does therefore introduce itself into an anxious Fire-will, and Life, that its great Love and Joy, which is called God, might be manifest; for if all were only One, then the One would not be manifest to itself; but by the Manifestation the Eternal Good is known, and makes a Kingdom of Joy : Else, if there were no Anguish, then Joy would not be manifest to itself; and there would be but one only Will, which would do continually one and the same Thing. But if it introduces itself into Contrariety, then in the Contest, the Lubet of Joy becomes a Desire, and a Love-play to itself; in that it has to work and act, to speak according to our human Capacity.

23. The Original of the Eternal Spiritual and Natural Fire is effected by an Eternal Conjunction or Copulation, not each seperately, but

both jointly; viz. the Divine Fire, which is a Love-flame; and Natural Fire, which is a Torment, and consuming Source: Understand it thus, as it is.

24. One Part, viz. the Will of the Father, or of the Abyss, introduces itself into the greatest Sharpness of the Astringency, where it is a cold Fire, a cold painful Source, and it is Sharpened by the Astringent Compunctive Anguish; and in this Anguish it comes to desire the Liberty, viz. the free Lubet, or Meekness; and the other Part is the Free Lubet, which desires to be manifest; it longs after the Will of the Father, which has generated it without Nature, and uses it for its Play; this here does again desire the Will, and the Will has here re-conceived itself to go again out of the Anguish into the Liberty; viz. the Lubet.

25. Understand; that it is the re-conceived Will which desires the Free Lubet of God: But now it has taken into itself the horrible, astringent, hard, compunctive Sharpness; and the Free Lubet is a great Meekness, in reference to the wrathful Nature, as a Nothing, and yet it is: Now both these dash together in one another; the sharp Will eagerly and mightily desires the Fire-Lubet, and the Lubet desires the Austere Will, and in that they enter into and feel each other, a great Flagrat is made, like a Flash of Lightning; in manner as the Fire, or celestial Lightning, or etherial Blaze, is enkindled in the Firmament.

26. And in this Flagrat the Fire is enkindled: for the Astringent harsh Darkness, which is cold, is dismayed at the Light and great Meekness of the Free Lubet, and becomes in itself a Flagrat of Death, where the Wrathfulness and cold Property retires back into itself, and closes up itself as a Death; for in the Flagrat the dark Mind becomes essential; it sadly betakes itself into itself; as a great Fear before the Light [as being afraid, or dismayed at the Light]; or as an Enmity of the Light; and this is the true Original of the dark World, viz. of the Abyss, into which the Devils are thrust, which we call Hell.

The fourth Chapter

Of the Two Principles, viz. God's Love, and Anger; of Darkness, and Light; very necessary for the Reader to consider of

In this Flagrat, or Enkindling of the Fire, two Kingdoms sever themselves, and yet are only one; but they divide in the Essence, Source and Will, and are invisible to one another; the one comprehends not the other in its own Source, and yet they proceed from one Original, and are dependant on one another; and the one without the other were a Nothing, and yet both receive their Source from One Original. Understand it thus: When the Blaze or Flagrat arises, then it is in the Punctum, and makes immediately a Triangle, or a Cross:

And this is the true Meaning of the Character First, it is the Keenness of all Things; and God manifested in Trinity: The Triangle betokens the hidden God; viz. the Word or Divine Understanding; which is threefold in its eternal unbeginning Birth, and yet only one in its Manifestation: In the Fire and Light World this Trinity manifests itself in the Birth; not as if there were any Place where such a Figure did stand; no; but the whole Birth is so; wherever the Divine Fire manifests itself in any Thing, it makes in its Inflammation a Triangle, ^X^ which the Children of men ought seriously to observe, and how likewise the Life enkindles itself in a Triangle, which betokens the Holy Trinity. And seeing the Light of Life was in the Word of the Deity, which [Word] was breathed into Man, (as John says in his first Chapter) and yet disappeared in Paradise, in relation to God, therefore it must be born again on the T.

3. The upper Cross betokens the unformed Word in Trinity wholly without Nature, and the Character is thus set A ; and this Character

The Explanation of the foregoing Characters

betokens the formed Word^, viz. the

4. But that the Triangle with the three straight Cusps has changed itself into such a T. on which Death was slain, points out and betokens unto us the great Love of God which has freely given itself

again into our Humanity out of the Triangle, when we were departed from the Triangle in the Light of Life.

5. Therefore the great Angle waves downwards, betokening the great Humility, and also that we have lost the fiery Angle which ascends on High; in which we were the Image and Likeness of God: Therefore the Angle in the Regeneration in the T« has turned itself downward, and ascends not upward any more with its Cusp, betokening now unto us the true Resignation under the T» where we in the Spirit of Christ shall be born again through the great Humility of God in the Light.

6. Now the Will seperates itself in the Fire's Flagrat into two Kingdoms, where each dwells in itself, viz. the Flagrat in the Darkness is God's Anger, and the Flagrat in the Re-conception to the Free Lubet becomes the Highly Triumphant Divine Kingdom of Joy in the Free Lubet: for thus the free Lubet is elevated and brought into a wrestling Love-play, and so it becomes springing and working.

7. Not that we mean that God thus receives a Beginning; but it is the eternal Beginning of God manifested; viz. how the Divine Understanding manifests itself with Power in distinct Variety, and works itself forth into a Kingdom; which is an eternal Generation. We only speak here how the invisible unperceivable God introduces himself into Perception for his own Manifestation.

8. Now we are to understand by the Inflammation of the Fire a twofold Fire, a twofold Spirit, and a twofold Essence; viz. a Love-fire in the Free Lubet, which is made essential with impression or Desire; and in the Fire the Spirit and Essence severize, and yet are mutually in one another, as Soul and Body are one. And now as the Spirit is, so is the Essence; and as there is an holy sweet Essence, and an holy sweet Spirit, in the Impression of the Free Lubet, so likewise in the dark Impression there is an astringent harsh, raw and bitter Essence and Spirit; as the Essence is, so is also the Mind of the Understanding! and Will in the Essence.

9. Although the Eternal [Essence] in reference to the Temporal is Spiritual, yet the true Spirit is much more subtile than that which it makes to a Substance in the Conception. For out of the Substance the true intellective Spirit primely proceeds, which before the Substance is only a Will, and not manifest to itself: for the Will introduces itself into Substance and Essence, that it might be manifest to itself.

10. Now we are to consider of the Severation in the Fire: When the Fire is enkindled, then is the Fire-blaze, or Flagrat Salnitral, where the Powers mutually unfold, and display themselves, and come into Division, where the Eternal only Power of God manifests itself, and in the Distinction does seperate itself into Properties, both spiritually and substantially ; as is to be seen in this World ; whence also the manifold Salts arise; which with the Creation came to be such Matter, which in the Eternity was only a Spiritual Essence, but in the Beginning of Time became gross and hard.

11. Also the manifold Spirits both good and evil originally spring from this Eternal Root; and likewise the manifold Stars, with the four Elements, and all whatsoever lives and moves. But the Seperation in itself is thus to be understood; when the Blaze arises, then out of the Fire proceeds the Seperation; the Fire-flagrat is consuming, it apprehends the conceived Essence, both in the Free Lubet, and in the Austere Impression, and consumes it in the Twinkling of an Eye, for here the Eternal Will, which is an Abyss becomes manifest in the Fire: No Essence can subsist before it; it devours all into its Nothing.

12. And here is the Original of the Eternal Death, or Devouring; and in this Devouring is the highest Arcanum or Secret: For the true essential lively Spirit and Understanding proceeds out of this Devouring, and makes another Beginning; for the first Beginning is God's, who introduces himself from the Abyss into Byss to his own Contemplation : But this Beginning, which proceeds again out of the Devouring, is a Spiritual Beginning, and makes three Worlds; namely, 1. The dark Fire-world in Heat, and Cold; a Rawness wholly austere, void of Essence. 2. The other World is the Spiritual Light, or Angelical World. 3. And the third began with the Beginning of Time; when God moved both the inward Worlds, he thence brought forth and created this outward visible World into a Form of Time.

13. Now the Separation in the Fire of Devouring is thus to be understood: The Powers, which the first Impression made essential, are in the Fire reduced into a Spirituality, viz. 1. From the Free Lubet proceeds forth a Spiritual Mysterium ; which is, as to the Deity, (viz, the Eternal Understanding,) Spiritual; and it is the angelical Light and Life; and also the real humane [Life;] and so of all whatsoever is like unto them; for they are Powers of God : Therefore the Angels bear in them the great Name of God; and like-wise all true Men who have the divine Power.

14. From the Essence of the Free Lubet there proceeds forth in the Fire an oily Power, which is the Body or Essence of the Understanding; therein the Fire burns ; and thence the shining Lustre or Glance arises. Thirdly, from the Understanding and Spiritual Oil there proceeds forth a moving Lubet like an Element; and it is also the Divine Element.

15. Fourthly, out of the Element there proceeds forth a watery Property ; and yet it is only to be understood spiritually : This is the Water of which Christ said he would give us to drink : And whosoever should drink thereof it should spring up in him to a Fountain of Eternal Life: It is the Water above the Firmament of which Moses speaks, that God has seperated from the external Waters under the Firmament: This watery and elemental Property proceeds from the Essence of the Free Lubet, which is consumed in the Fire and the Word of the Understanding (which has now manifested itself in the Fire) does express these Powers from itself, as a living and moving Essence; and herein the Angelical World is understood.

16.1n the Seperation which is from the dark Property, there proceeds forth, through the Speaking Word in the Seperation out of the Fire, viz. out of the astringent harsh Impression, 1. An hellish thirsty wrathful Source, being as another Principle, or Beginning of another Property; which Source is wholly rough like the cold or hard Stones; a Mind which is horrible like to the Fire-blaze. 2. There proceeds forth from this fiery Spirit, from the Darkness, an Oil which is of a poisonful Property: For it is the Evil Mercurius arising from the Compunction in the anxious Astringenc

17. 3. The Anguish likewise makes a moving Mind like the Element; but altogether in an exceeding wrathful very piercing Property; in which the great Fire's Might and Will in the Anger of God, or the Wrath of God, arises, which Lucifer desired to be, and to rule therein and therefore he is a Devil, that is, one spewed out of the Love-fire into the Dark Fire. 4. There proceeds forth also from the wrathful Property, through the Devouring in the Fire, viz. from the first dark Impression, a watery Property : But it is much rather a Poisonful Source, in which the Life of Darkness consists [the dark Life burns].

18. But my writing here of the Oil and Water is thus to be understood : In the Enkindling of the Fire in the Flagrat (both in the Flagrat of Joy in the Ens of the Free Lubet, and in the Flagrat of the Wrathfulness in the Impression of the dark Spiritual Ens) the Essence, which the first Desire has coagulated or amassed, is consumed in the Fire Flagrat; that is, it does as it were die to its self-good, and is taken into the Only Spirit; which here has manifested itself in the Fire of the Wrathfulness, and in the Light-fire of the Kingdom of Joy; which [Spirit] does now re-express it, or breathe it forth again out of itself as two spiritual Worlds.

19. Understand it right. These proceeds forth out of the fiery Property in the Spiration the vital Source, which according to the Free Lubet is holy and joyful, and according to the Darkness painful and wrathful. The Wrathfulness and painful Source is the Root of Joy, and the Joy is the Root of the Enmity of the dark Wrathfulness; so that there is a Contrarium, whereby the good is made manifest, and known that it is good.

20. And the mortified Essence in the Fire (which the first Desire in the Free Lubet has coagulated and made dark) proceeds forth through the Fire's Mortification as a spiritual Oil, which is the Property of the Fire and Light; and from the Mortification proceeds a Water, viz. a mortified senseless Essence, being a House of the Oil; wherein the Fire source or Spirit has its vital Region; which Oil is the Food of the Fire-source, which it draws again into itself and devours, and thereby allays the Fire-source, and introduces it into the greatest Meekness, in which the Life of the great Love arises, viz. the good Taste. So that the Fire source becomes an Humility or Meekness in the Oil through the Mortification in the Water source.

21. For no Fire-spirit can be meek without the Mortification of its own natural Propriety or peculiar Essence; But the Water, which before was an Essence, amassed out of the Free Lubet, and yet mortified in the Fire, that can change the Essence of the Fire into a meek Desire.

The Fifth Chapter

Of the Five Senses Love-fire (Venus)

1. The fifth form or Property is the Love-desire, viz. the holy Life, or the displayed Light-fire; which is awakened or raised up in the wrathful consuming Fire; that is, it receives its Lustre and Shine from the Fire; a Similitude whereof we have in all outward Fires: Where we see that the Light arises in the Fire, but yet has far another Source than the Fire. For the Fire is painful, but the Light is meek-, pleasant, lovely, and yields Essence.

2. The Fire causes Light, and Air; and out of the Air comes the Water by Reason of the Meekness of the Light; for the Lubet to the Fire is mortified in the Fire-blaze; and so that which is mortified in the Fire is a meek Essence, yet it is only a Spirit: But when it proceeds from the Fire in the Light, it coagulates, and is the Death of the Fire; whereby the Fire goes out; But if it be of a spiritual Nature, it is the Food and Refreshment of the Fire: And we see plainly that every burning Fire puts forth an Air, and out of the Air a Water; which Air and watery Spirit the Fire draws again into itself, for its own Life and Lustre. Else, if it cannot have it, it is soon extinct, and goes out; that is, it smothers; for the Air is its Life, and yet it begets the Air.

3. Thus likewise we are to consider of the divine Being; how the eternal Understanding Of the Abyss introduces itself into the Byss and Essence; viz. into an eternal Generation and Devouring, wherein the Manifestation of the Abyss consists, and is an eternal Love-play; that the Abyss so wrestles, sports, and plays with itself in its own conceived [or amassed] Byss; it gives itself into the Something, and again takes the Something into itself, and thence brings or gives forth another Thing. It introduces itself into a Lubet and Desire; moreover into Power, Strength, and Virtue, and mutually produces one Degree from the other, and through the other, that so it might be an eternal Play and Melody in itself.

4. And this we are to consider of in the fifth Form of Nature : When the Powers of the eternal Word or Understanding are made manifest

through the eternal Spiritual Fire, in the eternal Light of the Majesty (that each Power or Property is manifest in itself, and enters into a Feeling, Tasting, Smelling, Hearing, Seeing Essence; which is effected through the Fire, where all Things become spiritful, quick and full of Life) even then one Property enters mutually into another, for they are all proceeded out of one, viz. out of the Free Lubet. Therefore also this Free Lubet is yet in all, and they all jointly desire to enter again into this Free Lubet, viz. into the One; and there, when one tastes, smells, feels, hears, and sees the other in the Essence, they embrace each other in their holy Conjunction; wherein then the real Divine Kingdom of Joy consists; so likewise the growing and flourishing Life of this World, as may be understood by way of Similitude in the Seven Properties, and the Light and Power of the Sun.

5. The divine Kingdom of Joy in the Heaven of God (viz. in God manifested in his expressed or Spirated Essence, as I might speak it to the Understanding) consists in the Love-desire, viz. in the Power which has manifested itself through the Fire in the Light: for the Fire gives to the Meek Free Lubet, Essence and Source, that it is severized, and moved, and becomes a Kingdom of Joy.

6. And thus we are to consider of the Darkness; whatsoever is a desiring Love in the Light, wherein all Things rejoice and melodize in Love, that in the Darkness is an Enmity; for the Fire is cold, and burning hot in the Darkness; moreover, bitter, astringent, compunctive; the Properties are wholly rigorous and full of Enmity and Opposition. They seek not the One, but only the Advancement of their own Might; and the greater their Elevation and Inflammation, the greater is the Joy in the Light [Kingdom of Joy].

7. That which is good and holy in the powerful Light [Light of Power], that in the Darkness is anxious and adverse; the Darkness is the greatest Enmity of the Light, and yet it is the Cause that the Light is manifest: for if there was no Black, then White could not be manifest to itself; and if there was no Sorrow, then Joy also would not be manifest to itself.

8. Thus the Joy triumphs in itself, that it is not as the Sorrow; and the Sorrow triumphs in itself, that it is a Might and Strength of the Fire, and Light. Hence arise Pride, and Self-will; because the Dark Fire's Might gives the Essence and motive Source to the Light; which did so affect and move King Lucifer, that he exalted himself in the Root

of the Fire to rule and domineer over the Fire and Light, and therefore was cast out of the Light into Darkness, and the Light withdrew from him.

9. Therefore understand us well here what Hell and the dark World, or the Anger of God is; of which the holy Scripture speaks plainly, that there is an Hell; that is, a Gulf of Desperation, or Pit void of the Hope of God and all Good. Now we are not to understand it to be any local Place apart, but it is the first Ground to the Eternal Nature; the Place is between the Kingdom of God and this World, and makes a peculiar Principle, dwelling in itself, and has neither Place, nor local Abode; and it is every where, but inhabiting itself only, and yet it gives Essence to the Light and Outward-world; that is, it is the Cause to the Source, viz. the Fire, and is the whole Being of all God's Beings.

10. In the Darkness he is an angry zealous God; and in the Fire Spirit a consuming Fire; and in the Light he is a merciful Loving God; and in the Power of the Light he is especially, above all other Properties, called God. And yet it is all but God manifested; who manifests himself through the Eternal Nature in ingredient Properties. Else, if I would say what God is in his Depth, then I must say that he is wholly without Nature and Properties; being an Understanding, and Original, of all Beings; the Beings are his Manifestation; and thereof we have only Ability to write, and not of the unmanifested God, who also were not known to himself without his Manifestation.

The Original of Life

Jupiter

11. The sixth Property of Nature, and of all Beings, arises also out of all the Rest, and is manifest in the Fire through the Light in the Love-desire; it is Nature's Understanding, Voice, Sound, Speech, and all whatsoever sounds, both in Things with Life and without Life; its true Original is from the astringent Desire or Impression of the first, second, and third Form, whence the Motion and Hardness arise: The Essence of the Coagulation is consumed in the Fire, and from the Devouring proceeds such a Spirit, both according to the Property of the Light, in the Love, and according to the annoying hateful Source, and anxious Property, in the Darkness; and this we are thus to understand.

12. Each Spirit desires Essence after its Likeness. Now there proceeds forth no more but one Spirit from the Fire (which is a spiritual Understanding, that is, the Manifestation of the Understanding of the Abyss or God) which does re-conceive itself in the Love-desire, and forms itself in the Properties of the Powers. And this mutual Intercourse, Consent, and intimate intire Assimulation one with another, is the pleasant Taste of Love.

13. But that which is conceived in the Love-desire, where the Desire does again coagulate the Powers, and introduce them into Forms, viz. into a substantial Spirit, where the Powers are able manifestly to move and act, that (I say) is now the natural and creatural Understanding which was in the Word, as it is said, 'In him was the Life, and that Life was the Light of Men' [John 1].

14. This Harmony of Hearing, Seeing, Feeling, Tasting, and Smelling, is the

true intellective Life; for when one Power enters into another, then they embrace each other in the Sound, and when they penetrate each other, they mutually awaken and know each other; and in this Knowledge consists the true understanding, which is innumerable, immense, and abyssal, according to the Nature of the Eternal Wisdom, viz. of the ONE, which is ALL.

15. Therefore one only Will, if it has divine Light in it, may draw out of this fountain, and behold the Infinity, from which Contemplation this Pen has wrote.

16. Now there belong to the manifest Life or Sound of the Powers, Hardness and Softness, Thickness and Thinness, and a Motion; for without Motion all is still. And yet there can be no clear Sound without the Fire's Essence, for the Fire first makes the Sound in the Hardness and Softness.

17. Also there could be no Sound without a Conception, and therefore all Forms belong to the Sound : 1. The Desire makes Hardness. 2. The Compunction moves. 3. The Anguish does amass it into an Essence, for Distinction. 4. The Fire changes in its devouring the Grossness of the first amassed Essence into a Spirit or Sound. 5. Which the Desire does again receive in its Softness and Meekness, and forms it to a Voice, Tone, or Expression, according to the Powers. 6. And what is conceived or formed is the vital Sound, or distinct Understanding [or the articulate Knowledge of all Sounds, Voices,

Powers, Colours, and Virtues in Nature and Creature.]

18.This is now the manifested Word, which in itself is only One Power, wherein all Powers are contained. But thus it manifests itself through the Eternal and Temporal Nature, and puts forth itself in Forms, for its Expression; for the formed Word has the like Might in it as to reproduce its Likeness, viz. such I Being as the Birth of the Spirit is.

19.1n the Light of God, which is called the Kingdom of Heaven, the Sound is wholly soft, pleasant, lovely, pure, and thin; yea as a Stillness in reference to our outward gross Shrillness in our pronouncing, speaking, sounding, singing, and chanting; as if the Mind did play and melodize in a Kingdom of Joy within itself, and did hear in a most intire inward Manner such a sweet, pleasing Melody and Tune, and yet outwardly did neither hear or understand it: for in the Essence of the Light all is subtile, in Manner as the Thoughts play and make mutual Melody in one another. And yet there is a real, intelligible, distinct Sound and Speech used and heard by the Angels in the Kingdom of Glory; but according to their World's Property. For where the Sound is gross, harsh, and shrill, there it is strong in the dark Impression; and there the Fire is vehement and burning; as we Men after the Fall of Adam have so awakened and enkindled the Fire of the dark World in our Vital Essence, that our vital Sound is gross, and Beast-like, resembling the Abyss. And the like is to be understood of the Sound in the Darkness; for as the Generation of the Word is, in its Manifestation in the Light, in the holy Power, so also in the Darkness, but altogether rigorous, harsh, hard, and gross. That which gives a pleasing Sound, and lovely Tune in the Light, that makes in the Darkness a dull, harsh, hideous Noise, void of any true Sound: And this proceeds from the Essence of the astringent, hard, compunctive, anxious Generation, viz. from the Original of the Coldness, or cold Fire's Source.

The Sixth Chapter.

Of the Essence of Corporality. The Seventh form of Nature. Luna (Moon) and Saturnus. Beginning End.

1. We acknowledge that God in his own Essence, is no Essence, but only the alone Power or the Understanding [or Original] to the Essence, viz. an unsearchable Eternal Will, wherein all Things are couched; and the same is ALL, and yet is only ONE, but yet desires to manifest itself, and introduce itself into a spiritual Essence, which is effected in the Power of the Light, through the Fire in the Love-desire.

2. But yet the true divine Essence (understand Essence, and not the Spirit of God) is nothing else but the Understanding manifested, or the Formation of the Powers; and it consists in the Desire, that is, in the Love-desire, where one Power does experimentally and knowingly taste, smell, feel, see, and hear another, in the Essence and Source of the Property; whence the great ardent longing Desire arises. In these Properties the manifested God is understood, as in a fiery Flame of Love-desire, wherein there is a mere pleasing taste, sweet-breathing Smell, ravishing Melody, lovely and delightful Seeing, smiling and friendly Aspect, a gracious Delight, Pleasure, or Feeling: And yet it is only a spiritual Essence, where the Powers only (which have introduced themselves through the Impression into Property, and manifested themselves through the Fire in the Light) do mutually, as in a Love-play, wrestle with, and in one another, like a pleasant Song, or pregnant Harmony, or Kingdom of Joy. This is now the Spiritual Essence of God manifested; [and] how the powerful All-essential Word does manifest itself in its own peculiar Generation, wherein the melodious Play of the divine Wisdom is understood.

3. But if we would speak of the heavenly or divine Essentiality, wherein the divine Powers introduce themselves again into formations more externally, then we must say, that the Powers of the formed and manifested Word do again, in their Love-desire, introduce themselves into an external Essence, according to the Property of all the Powers; wherein they, as in a Mansion, may act their Love-play, and so have somewhat wherewith and wherein mutually to play and melodize one with another, in their wrestling Sport of Love; and this is thus to be understood.

4. As a Mineral Power lies in the Earth, and is enkindled by the Sun, whereby it begins to stir and spring, and becomes desirous of the Powers of the Sun, and attracts them into it; but in this longing Desire it amasses itself and forms itself to a Body, viz. a Root, or the like; from which Root, there grows forth in this hungry Desire such a Body, or Herb, as the first Power was; thus likewise the manifested Powers of God form themselves into an external Degree; viz. into an Essence, or Corporality; to speak in reference to the Spirit; whereas we must only understand a Spiritual Essence, but yet Corporeal or Essential, in reference to the Spirit of the Powers; as the Water is a thicker Substance than the Air; for the Air penetrates the Water. The like is to be understood concerning the divine Powers and Essence.

5. The Powers stand manifest: in an oily Property; but the oily is manifest in a watery Property; therefore the Essence of the divine Powers consists in a Spiritual Water, viz. in the holy Element, whence this World with the four Elements (as a Degree more external) was brought forth and created into a Substantial form.

6. And in this holy Element, or Spiritual Water, we understand holy Paradise, in which the manifested Powers of God work; which holy Element in the Beginning of this outward World did penetrate, and pullulate through the four Elements; in which Power there grew such Fruit, wherein the Vanity of the Wrath was not manifest; which Man negligently lost; so that the lively Buddings of the holy Element through the four Elements and the Earth ceased : for the Curse of Vanity was manifest, and did effectually work and spring forth out of the Earth.

7. Thus by the seventh form of the Eternal Nature we understand the Eternal Kingdom of Heaven, wherein the Power of God is Essential; which Essence is tinctured by the Lustre and Power of the Fire and Light; for the Lustre of the Spiritual Fire and Light, is the Working-

Life in the Spiritual Water, viz. in the holy Element; for this Water (being the amassed or congealed Essence of the divine Powers) is moving. But yet it is as an Essence void of Understanding in reference to the divine Powers; for it is a Degree more external, as every Substance or Body is inferior to the Spirit. The oily Essence is the Spirit of the Water, viz. of the watery Spirit, and the manifested Powers of God are the Spirit of the Oil or oily Spirit; and the Eternal Understanding of the Word is the Beginning of the manifested Powers; and one Degree goes forth mutually from another; and all Essence [Or Beings] is nothing else but the manifested [revealed or expressed] God.

8. When we consider what Kind of Life, Motion, and Dominion was before the Times

of this outward World, in the Place of this World, and what Eternity is, then we find that it was and is to Eternity, such a Life, Motion and Dominion, as is above-mentioned.

9. The outward World with the four Elements and Stars is a Figure of the internal Powers of the Spiritual World, and was expressed or breathed forth by the Motion of God (when he moved the internal Spiritual World) and amassed by the divine Desire of the inward Powers, and introduced into a creatural Being, both out of the internal spiritual dark World, and also out of the holy Light World.

10. This outward World is as a Smoak, or vaporous Steam of the Fire Spirit and Water Spirit, breathed forth, both out of the holy, and then also out of the dark World; and therefore it is evil and good, and consists in Love and Anger, and is only as a Smoke or misty Exhalation, in reference and respect to the spiritual World; and has again introduced itself, with its Properties, into forms of the Powers, to be a Pregnatress; as is to be seen in the Stars, Elements and Creatures, and likewise in the growing Trees and Herbs. It makes in itself, with its Birth, another Principle or Beginning; for the Pregnatress of Time is a Model or Plat-form of the Eternal Pregnatress; and Time couches in Eternity; and it is nothing else, but that the Eternity, in its wonderful Birth and Manifestation in its Powers and Strength, does thus behold itself in a form or Time.

11. And now as we acknowledge that in the spiritual holy World there is an Essence, viz. a comprehensive Essence, which consists in the Spiritual Sulphur, Mercurius, and Sal in an oily and watery Byss, wherein the divine Powers play, and work; so likewise in the dark

World there is such a Property, but altogether adverse, odious, opposite, spiteful, envious, bitter, and compunctive : It has also Essence according to [or of] its Desire, but altogether of a fell, raw, indigested, watery Nature, wholly sharp and harsh, like to the Property of the rough hard Stones or wild Earth; of a cold and scorching, dark and fiery Property; all which is a Contrariety to Love; that so it might be known what Love or Sorrow is.

12. That the Fullness of Joy might know itself in itself, the keen Tartness of the Source must be a Cause of the Joy, and the Darkness a Manifestation of the Light; that so the Light might be manifestly known, which could not be in the ONE.

13. But to answer the Readers Desire briefly and fully concerning the seven Properties of the Eternal Nature, which make three Principles, or Worlds, I will (out of Love for the Sake of the Simple) once more set down the Forms in brief, as an A, B, C, for his further Consideration and Meditation.

I. Form. Astringent; Desire.

14. Lo! the Desire of the Eternal Word, which is good, is the Beginning of the

Eternal Nature, and is the Congealing of the Eternal Nothing into Something; it is the Cause of Essences; also of Cold and Heat; so likewise of the Water and Air; and the Formation of the Powers; and a Cause of the Taste, a Mother of all Salts.

II. Form. Bitter; Compunctive.

15. The Motion of the Desire, viz. the Attraction, is the other form of Nature, a Cause of all Life and Stirring; so also of the Senses, and Distinction.

III. Form. Anguish; Perception.

16. The Anguish, viz. the Sensibility, is the third form, a Cause of the Mind, wherein the Senses are moved and acted.

IV. Fire; Spirit; Reason; Desire.

17. The Fire is a Cause of the true Spiritual Life, wherein the holy

Powers of the Free Lubet are delivered from the astringent, undigested Roughness; for the Fire in its Essence devours the dark Substance of the Impression, and works it forth out of itself, out of the Light, into Spiritual Powers.

V. Form. Light; Love.

18. The Holy Spiritual Love-desire, where the holy Will of God has exacuated itself in the harsh Impression, and manifested itself through the Fire with the Power of the Omnipotence, that now brings itself forth through the Fire in the Light; and so in the Powers it is introduced into Life and Motion, in the Desire; and herein the Holy Generation, and the Triumphant Kingdom of the great Love of God consist, and are manifest.

VI. Form. Sound; Voice; Word.

19. The Sixth is the Sound of the divine Word proceeding from the divine Powers, which is formed in the Love-desire, and introduced into a manifest Word of all Powers; wherein the Manifestation of the divine Kingdom of Joy, in the Free Lubet of God's Wisdom, consists.

VII. Form. Essence; Being; Action.

20. The Seventh is the formed Essence of the Powers, viz. a Manifestation of the Powers: What the first fix are in the Spirit, that the Seventh is in a comprehensible Essence, as a Mansion and House of all the Rest, or as a Body of the Spirit, wherein the Spirit works, and plays with itself; also it is a Food of the Fire, whence the Fire draws Essence for its Sustenance, wherein it burns; and the Seventh is the Kingdom of the divine Glory; and the Seven are thus named or expressed.

21. The Out-Birth or Manifestation is this:

The Seven Spirits of God, or Powers of Nature as they show and manifest themselves in Love and Anger, both in the Heavenly and Hellish Kingdom, and also in the Kingdom of this World.

This was received from the Author in such a form by Abraham von Somerveldt.

22. Courteous Reader, understand the Sense right and well; the Meaning is not to be understood so, as if the seven Properties were divided, and one were near by another, or sooner manifest than another; all seven are but as one; and none is the first, second, or last; for the last is again the first; as the first introduces itself into a Spiritual Essence, so the last into a Corporeal Essence; the last is the Body of the first: We must speak thus apart, to write it down and describe it to the Consideration of the Reader: They are altogether only the Manifestation of God, according to Love and Anger, Eternity and Time.

23. But this we are to observe, that each Property is also essential; and this Essence is jointly as one Essence in the Kingdom of Heaven, and it is a Mysterium, whence heavenly Plants spring forth out of

each Power's Property; as the Earth is a Mysterium of all Trees and Herbs, so also of the Grass and Worms; and the four Elements are a Mysterium of all Animals; and the Astrum a Mysterium of all Operations in Animals and Vegetables.

24. Each Property is to itself essential, and has also in its Essence the Essence of all the other six forms, and makes the Essence of the other six forms also Essential in its Essence; as we see in the Earth and Stones, especially in Metals, where oftentimes in one Compaction all seven Metals are couched together, and only one Property is principal, which coagulates and captivates all the Rest in itself; and always one is more manifest than the rest, according as each Property has its powerful Predominance in a Thing: The like is also to be understood in Vegetables; where often in an Herb or Piece of Wood there is

an astringent, sour, harsh, bitter, anxious or sulphureous Property; also a fiery, sweet or luscious, flashy or watery Quality.

The Seventh Chapter.

Of the Holy Trinity, and Divine Essence.

1. The Eternal and Temporal Nature are especially understood in the dark and Fire-World, viz. in the four first Forms; as, 1. In the astringent Desire. 2. In the bitter Compunction. 3. In the Anguish, or Sensation. 4. In the Fire; where the Severation proceeds forth in the enkindling [of the Fire] in the Flagrat. But the Powers both in the internal and external World are all understood in the Light, or Love-fire, viz. in the Love-desire.

2. For their first Ground is the Eternal Word, viz. the One, wherein all Things are couched. The second Ground is the Free Lubet of the Word, viz. the Wisdom,

wherein all the Colours of the only Power are manifest in the Will of the Deity. The third Ground is the Love-desire, wherein the Free Lubet, with its Colours and Virtues of the Powers, has exacuated [sharpened] itself through Nature, and introduced itself through the Fire's Inflammation into a spiritual Dominion; which [Lubet] displays itself with the Powers in the Light in an Eternal Kingdom of Joy.

3. The fourth Ground is the oily Spirit; in that the Free Lubet amasses itself in the fiery Love-desire in the Meekness, as in its own peculiar Form, and with it amasses the Lustre and Essence of the Fire and Light, and introduces it into the first Essence; which Power of the Fire and Light in the Meekness of the Free Lubet, in the oily Property, is the true and holy Tincture.

4. The fifth Ground is the watery Spirit, arising from the Mortification in the Fire, where the first Spiritual Essence in the astringent, harsh, dark Desire was consumed in the Fire. Now out of the Devouring of the Fire proceeds forth a Spiritual Essence, which is the oily Ground, and a watery Essence from the Mortification, which deprives the Fire Spirit of its Wrath, so that it is not able to set its wrathful Properties on Fire in the oily Ground; so that the Fire must burn through Death, and be only a Light: Else the oily Ground would be enflamed. Thus the Fire in its Devouring must beget the Water, viz. its Death, and yet must again have it for its Life; else neither the Fire nor the Light could subsist. And thus there is an Eternal Generation, devouring, receiving, and again consuming; and yet also

it is thus an Eternal Giving, and has no Beginning nor End.

5. Thus we now understand what God and his Essence is; We Christians say, that God is threefold, but only one in Essence: But that we generally say and hold that God is threefold in Person, the same is very wrongly apprehended and understood by the Ignorant, yea by a great Part of the Learned: for God is no Person but only in Christ; but he is the eternal begetting Power, and the Kingdom with all Beings; all Things receive their Original from him.

6. But that we say of God, he is Father, Son, and holy Spirit, that is very rightly said, only we must explain it, else the un-illuminated Mind apprehends it not. The Father is first the Will of the Abyss; he is without all Nature or Beginnings; the Will to something, which conceives itself into a Lubet to its own Manifestation.

7. And the Lubet is the conceived Power of the Will, or of the Father; and it is his Son, Heart, and Seat; the first Eternal Beginning in the Will: And he is therefore called a Son, because he receives an Eternal Beginning in the Will, with the Will's own Conception.

8. Now the Will speaks forth itself by the Conception out of itself, as a Spiration, or Manifestation; and this Egress from the Will in the Speaking or Spiration is the Spirit of the Deity, or the third Person, as the Ancients have called it.

9. And that which is spirated, or spoken forth, is the Wisdom, viz. the Power of the Colours, and the Virtue of the Will, which it eternally conceives to a Life's-center, or Heart for its Habitation, and does again eternally speak it forth out of the Conception, as from its own eternal form, and yet eternally conceives [or comprehends] it for his Heart's Center.

10. Thus the Conception of the Will, viz. of the Father, is from Eternity to Eternity, which conceives his Speaking Word from Eternity, and speaks it forth from Eternity to Eternity : The Speaking is the Mouth of the Will's Manifestation : And the Egress from the Speaking or Generation is the Spirit of the formed Word : And that which is spoken forth is the Power, Colours, and Virtue of the Deity, viz. the Wisdom.

11. Here we cannot say with any Ground, that God is three Persons; but he is threefold in his Eternal Generation; he begetteth himself in

Trinity; and yet there is but only one Essence and Generation to be understood in this Eternal Generation, neither Father, Son, nor Spirit, but the only Eternal Life, or Good.

12. The Trinity is first rightly understood in his Eternal Manifestation; where he manifests himself through the Eternal Nature, through the Fire in the Light.

13. Where we understand three Properties in one only Essence, viz. the Father with the Fire-world; and the Son with the Love-desire in the Light, viz. with the Light-world, or with the great Meekness in the Fire; and the holy Spirit with the moving Life in the Tincture, in the oily and watery Life and Dominion; who is manifest in the Fire and Light, viz. according to the Property of the Free Lubet, that is, the Divine Property, he is manifest in a great fiery Flame of Light, and Love; and then, according to the Property of the dark Fire-world, in a wrathful, painful, sourcive Property. And yet he is the only one; in the Light he is the Love-fire Flame; and in the enkindled Fire in Nature he is a consuming Fire, according to which God is called a consuming Fire; and in the dark wrathful Source he is an angry zealous Avenger, in which Property the Spirits of the dark World consist.

14. The Father is only called an holy God in the Son, that is, in the Power of the Light, in the divine Kingdom of Joy, viz. in the great Meekness and Love; for that is his proper Manifestation, wherein he is called God. In the Fire he is called an angry God; but in the Light, or Love-fire, he is called the holy God; and in the dark Nature he is not called God.

15. We must make Distinction; each World has its Principle and Dominion. Indeed All is from one Eternal Original, but it severizes itself into a twofold Source; a Similitude whereof we have in the Fire, and Light; where the Fire is painful and consuming, and the Light meek and giving; and yet the one were a Nothing without the other.

16. The Fire receives its Original in Nature, but the Light has its Original from the Free Lubet, viz. from the Powers of the Deity. The Will of God does therefore introduce itself into a Fire, that he might manifest the Light and the Powers, and introduce them into Essence.

17. Although I have wrote here of the Forms of Nature (understand the Eternal Nature) yet it must not be understood as if the Deity were

circumscribed, or limited. His Wisdom and Power in divine Property are without Limit or Measure, innumerable, infinite, and unspeakable. I write only of the Properties, how God has manifested himself through the internal and external Nature, which are the chiefest Forms of his Manifestation.

18. These seven Properties are to be found in all Things; and he is void of Understanding that denies it. These seven Properties make, in the internal World, the holy Element, viz. the holy natural Life and Motion. But this only Element seperates itself in this external World, into four manifest Properties, viz. into four Elements; and yet it is but one only, but divides itself into four Head-springs, viz. into Fire, Air, Water, and Earth.

19. From the Fire arises the Air; and from the Air the Water; and from the Water the Earth, or a Substance which is earthly. And they are only the Manifestation of the one eternal Element, and are, in respect [ Or before] to the internal, as an enkindled Smoke, or vaporous Steam. So also the whole Astrum [Or Constellations] is nothing else but Powers breathed forth from the inward, fiery, dark, and light World, from the Great Mind of Divine Manifestation, and is only a formed Model or Platform, wherein the Great Mind of Divine Manifestation beholds itself in a Time, and plays with itself.

The Eighth Chapter

Of the Creation of Angels, and their Dominion

1. The Creation of Angels had a Beginning, but the Powers out of which they are created never had any Beginning, but were concomitant in the Birth of the Eternal Beginning; not that they [the Powers] are the holy Trinity, or in the same, but they were conceived of the Desire of divine manifestation out of the eternal, dark, fiery and light Nature; out of the manifested Word, and introduced into creaturely Forms and Shapes.

2. God who is a Spirit has, by and through his Manifestation, introduced himself into distinct Spirits, which are the Voices of his eternal pregnant Harmony in the manifested Word of his great Kingdom of Joy; they are God's Instrument, in which the Spirit of God melodizes in his Kingdom of Joy; they are the Flames of Fire and Light, but in a living, understanding Dominion.

3. For the Powers of the Deity are in them, in like manner as they are in Men, as St. John says [Ch. 1.], The Life of Men was in the Word; so also the Life of the Angels was in the Word from Eternity : for it is written [Matth. 22.30], In the Resurrection they (Men) are as the Angels of God in Heaven.

4. And as we understand principal forms in the divine Manifestation through the

Eternal Nature, so likewise we are to understand Archangels, or Angelical Principalities, with many Legions; but especially in three Hierarchies, according to the Property of the holy Trinity, and also the three Principles, as cannot be denied.

5. As, 1. One Hierarchy is to be understood according to the dark World with the Kingdom of Lucifer, who has plunged himself thereinto; and the other is understood with the light, fiery, and dark World; and the third is understood with the Mystery of the outward World, wherewith the internal has made itself manifest.

6. Each Hierarchy has its princely Dominion and Order, viz. they in the dark World, in God's Wrath; and those in the holy World in God's Love; and they which are in the outward World, in God's great

Wonders, both according to Love and Anger.

7. They which are in the dark World bear the Name (or the Names) of the great Anger of God, according to the Properties of the Eternal Nature in the Wrath; and they which are in the Light bear the Names of the holy God, viz. of the divine Powers; and they which are in the Creation of the Wonders of the outward World, bear the Names of the manifested Powers of the outward World, viz. of the Planets, Stars, and four Elements.

8. They which are in the dark World, domineer in the Nature of the manifested Wrath, viz. in the Properties of God's Anger, and have their princely Dominions therein; and they which are in the holy World rule in the Powers of the triumphant World, viz. in the great holy Kingdom of Joy, in the Wonders of the holy Wisdom; and they which are in the outward World reign over the Powers of the Stars, and four Elements, and have also their princely Dominion over the World, and their Kingdoms and Principalities, for Defence against the Destroyer in the Wrath.

9. Each Country has its princely Angel-Protector, with its Legions; also there are Angels over the four Elements, over the Fire, and over the Air, over the Water, and over the Earth ; and they are altogether only ministering Spirits of the Great God, sent forth for the Service of those which shall obtain Salvation; as it is written, The Angel of the Lord encamps about them that fear him. They are the Officers and Servants of God in his Dominion, who are active and full of Motion.

10. For God never moves himself but only in himself. But seeing his Manifestation of the eternal and external Nature is in Combat; thereupon the Spirits of the dark World are against the Spirits of the holy World, but especially against Man, who is manifest both in Good and Evil. God has set the one against the other, that his Glory might be manifest both in his Love and in his Anger.

11. For as we Men have Dominions upon the Earth; so likewise the superior Hosts under the Astrum [starry Sky] have their Dominions; so also the oily Spirits in the Element Air; the whole Deep between the Stars and the Earth is inhabited, and not void and empty. Each Dominion has its own Principle: Which seems somewhat ridiculous to us Men, because we see them not with our Eyes; not considering that our Eyes are not of their Essence and Property, so that we are

neither able to see nor perceive them; for we live not in their Principle, therefore we cannot see them.

12. As in the Divine Manifestation of the Divine Powers one Degree proceeds in order forth from another, even to the most external Manifestation, the like also is to be understood of the Angels or Spirits: They are not all holy which dwell in the Elements; for as the Wrath of the Eternal Nature is manifest in the dark World, so likewise in the outward World, in its Property.

13. Also the Spirits of the external World are not all eternal, but some are only inchoative [having a beginning and an end, temporal], which take their Original naturally in the Spirit of the external World, and pass away through Nature, and only their Shadow remains, as of all other Beasts upon the

Earth.

14. Whatsoever reaches not the holy Element and the eternal Fire-world, that is void of an eternal Life; for it arises out of Time : And that which proceeds out of Time, is consumed and eaten up of Time; except it has an Eternal [Being, Essence, Property, Life and Principle] in its Temporal; that the Eternal upholds the Temporal.

15. For the Eternal dwells not in Time; and although it be cloathed with the Essence of Time, yet the Eternal dwells in the Eternal in itself, and the Temporal in the Temporal as it is to be understood with the Soul and Body of Man; where the Soul is from the Eternal, and the external Body from Time; and yet there is an Eternal in the Temporal Body, which verily disappeared in Adam as to the Eternal Light, which must be born again through Christ.

16. And we are not to understand, that the holy Angels dwell only above the Stars without the Place of this World, as Reason, which understands nothing of God, fancies; indeed they dwell without the Dominion and Source of this World, but in the Place of this World, although there is no Place in the Eternity; the Place of this World, and also the Place without this World, is all one to them.

17. For the Beginning of the Source, viz. of the four Elements, together with the Astrum [or Planetary Orb], make only one Place; there is no Place in the Internal, but All wholly entire; whatsoever is above the Stars without this World, that is likewise internally without the four Elements in the Place of this World; else God were divided.

18. The Angelical World is in the Place of this World internally; and this same World's Abyss is the great Darkness, where the Devils have their Dominion; which also is not confined or shut up in any Place; for the Eternity is also their Place, where there is no Byss; only the Essence and Property of their World is the Byss of their Habitation; as the four Elements are the Habitation of our external Humanity. They have also in the Darkness an Element, according to the dark World's Property, else God were divided in his Wrath; for wherever I can say, here is God in his Love, even there I can also say, that God is in his Anger, only a Principle severs it.

19. Like as we Men see not the Angels and Devils with our Eyes; and yet they are about us, and among us. The Reason is, because they dwell not in the Source and Dominion of our World; neither have they the Property of the external World on them; but each Spirit is cloathed with his own World's Property wherein it dwells.

20. The Beginning of each World's Source is that Limit which divides one World from the View and Observation of the other; for the Devils are a Nothing in the heavenly Source, for they have not its Source in them; and although they have it, yet it is to them as if it were shut up in Death; like as an Iron that is red hot; so long as the Fire pierces it, it is Fire; and when the Fire goes out, it is a dark Iron : The like is to be understood concerning the Spirits.

21. So likewise the Angels are a Nothing in the Darkness; they are verily in it, but they neither see nor feel it; that which is a Pain to the Devils, that same is a Joy to the Angels in their Source; and so, what is pleasing and delightful to the Devils, that the Angels cannot endure; there is a great Gulf between them, that is, a whole Birth.

22. For what else is able to sever the Light from the Darkness, but only a Birth of Sight, or Light: [ John 1.] The Light dwells in the Darkness, and the Darkness comprehends it not. As the external Sunshine dwells and shines in the Darkness of this World, and the Darkness comprehends it not; but when the Light of the Sun withdraws, then the Darkness is manifest: Here is no other Gulf between them, but only a Birth.

23. Thus we are likewise to conceive of the Eternal Light of God, and the Eternal Darkness of God's Anger. There is but one only Ground of All; and that is the manifested God: But it is severed into divers

Principles and Properties; for the Scripture says, that the Holy is unto God a good Savour to Life; understand to the holy divine Life, viz. in the Power of the Light; and the Wicked is unto God a good Savour to Death, that is, in his Wrath, viz. in the Essence, Source, and Dominion of the dark World.

24. For the God of the holy World, and the God of the dark World, are not two

Gods; there is but one only God. He himself is the whole Being; he is Evil [In his Wrath Plagues, and Hell-Torment] and Good; Heaven and Hell; Light and Darkness; Eternity and Time; Beginning and End: Where his Love is hid in any Thing [Being, Essence or Substance], there his Anger is manifest. In many a Thing Love and Anger are in equal Measure and Weight; as is to be understood in this outward World's Essence.

25. But now he is only called a God, according to his Light in his Love, and not according to the Darkness, also not according to this outward World : Although he himself be ALL, yet we must consider the Degrees, how one Thing mutually proceeds from another: For I can neither say of Heaven, nor of Darkness, or of this outward World, that they are God; none of them are God; but the expressed and formed Word of God; a Mirror of the Spirit which is called God; wherewith the Spirit manifests itself, and plays in its Lubet to itself with this Manifestation as with its own Essence, which it has made; and yet the Essence is not set asunder from the Spirit of God; and yet also the Essence comprehends not the Deity.

26. As Body and Soul are one, and yet the one is not the other; or as the Fire and the Water, or the Air and the Earth, are from one Original, and yet they are particularly distinct, but yet they are mutually bound to each other; and the one were a Nothing without the other; thus we are to conceive and consider likewise of the Divine Essence, and also of the Divine Power.

27. The Power in the Light is God's Love-fire, and the Power in the Darkness is the Fire of God's Anger, and yet it is but one only Fire, but divided into two Principles, that the one might be manifest in the other; for the Flame of Anger is the Manifestation of the great Love, and in the Darkness the Light is made known, else it were not manifest to itself.

28. Thus we are to understand that the Evil and Good Angels dwell

near one another, and yet there is the greatest immense Distance (between them :] for the Heaven is in Hell, and the Hell is in Heaven, and yet the one is not manifest to the other; and although the Devil should go many Millions of Miles, desiring to enter into Heaven, and to see it, yet he would be still in Hell, and not see it; also the Angels see not the Darkness, for their Sight is mere Light of divine Power; and the Devil's Sight is mere Darkness of God's Anger. The like is also to be understood of the Saints, and again of the Wicked : Therefore in that we in Adam have lost the Divine Sight, in which Adam saw by the Divine Power, Christ says, You must be born again, else you cannot see the Kingdom of God.

29. In the Fire-spirit we are to understand the angelical Creation; where the Will of the Abyss introduces itself into Byss, and manifests the Eternal Speaking Word or Life with the fiery Birth, viz. with the first Principle, where the spiritual Dominion is manifest by the Fire-birth. In this spiritual Fire, all Angels take their Original, viz. out of the Forms to the Fire-source; for no Creature can be created out of the Fire, for it is no Essence: But out of the Properties to the Fire a Creature may be apprehended in the Desire, viz. in the Verbum Fiat, and introduced into a creaturely form and Property.

30. And therefore there are many, and divers sorts of Angels; also in many distinct Offices: And as there are three forms to the Fire-source, so there are also three Hierarchies, and therein their Princely Dominions; and likewise three Worlds in one another as one, which make three Principles or Beginnings, for each Property of the Eternal Nature has its Degrees; for they explicate and mutually unfold themselves in the Fire-blaze, and out of those Degrees the different Distinction of Spirits is created.

31. And we are to understand nothing else by the Creation of the Angels, and of all other Spirits, but that the Abyssal God has introduced himself into his manifested Properties, and out of these Properties into living Creatures; by which he possesses the Degrees, and therewith plays in the Properties. They are his Strings in the All-Essential Speaking, and are all of them tuned for the great Harmony of his Eternal Speaking Word; so that in all Degrees and Properties the Voice of the unsearchable God is manifest and made known; they are all created for the praise of God.

32. For all whatsoever has Life, lives in the Speaking Word; the Angels in the Eternal Speaking and the Temporal Spirits in the Re-

expression or Echoing forth of the Formings of Time, out of the Sound, or Breath of Time, and the Angels out of the Sound of Eternity, viz. out of the Voice of the manifested Word of God.

33. And therefore they bear the Names of the several Degrees in the manifested Voice of God; and one Degree is more holy in the Power than another. Therefore the Angels also in their Choirs are differenced in the Power of the Divine Might; and one has a more holy Function to discharge than another; an Example whereof we have by the Priests in the Old Testament in their Ordinances, which were instituted after an angelical Manner.

34. Although it was earthly, yet there was even such an angelical Understanding and Meaning couched therein; which God did represent upon Jesus which was to come into the humane Property, and so alluded with Israel in the Type at the Eternal which was to come, which Jesus out of Jehova Restored, and introduced into the humane Property; which the earthly Reason has neither apprehended, or understood. But seeing the Time is born [or manifest], and the Beginning has again found the End, it shall be manifest, for a Witness unto all Nations, to show the Spirit of Wonders.

The Ninth Chapter

Of the Fall of Lucifer, with his Legions

1. Although Self-reason might here cavil at us, and say we were not by when this was done, yet we say that we in a magical Manner according to the Right of Eternity, were really there, and saw this; but not I, who am I, have seen it; for I was not as yet a Creature; but we have seen it in the Essence of the Soul which God breathed into Adam.

2. Now then, if God dwells in this same Essence, and has from all Eternity dwelt therein, and manifests himself in his own Mirror, and looks back through the Essence of the Soul into the Beginning of all Beings, what then has Reason to do, to taunt and cavil at me about that wherein itself is blind? I must warn Reason, that it would once behold itself in the Looking-glass [mirror] of the Understanding, and consider what itself is, and leave off from the Building of mad Babel; it will be time.

3. The Fall of Lucifer came not to pass from God's Purpose or Appointment; indeed it was known in the Wrath of God, according to the Property of the dark World, how it could or would come to pass; but in God's Holiness, viz. in the Light, there was no such Desire manifest in any such Property; otherwise the holy God must have a devilish or hellish wrathful Desire in his Love; which is nothing so, but in the Center of the Eternal Nature, viz. in the forms to Fire, there is verily such a Property in the dark Impression.

4. Every good Angel has the Center in him, and is manifest in a creaturely Property in one Degree or other in the Center; what Property is greatest [most predominant or manifest] in the Creature, according to that it has its Office and Dominion.

5. Yet the Angels, which were created out of the Degrees of the Center, were created for and to the Light; the Light was manifest in All; and they had Free Will from the manifested Will of God's Will.

6. Lucifer had still been an Angel, if his own Will had not introduced him into the Fire's Might, desiring to domineer in the strong Fiery-might, above and in all Things, as an absolute sole God in Darkness

and Light; had he but continued in the Harmony wherein God had created him; [for what would have cast him out of the Light ?)

7. Now Reason says, He could not. Then tell me, Who compelled him? Was be not the most glorious Prince in Heaven? Had he introduced his Will into the Divine Meekness, then he could [have been able to stand;] but if he [in his own Will,which was from the Eternal Will, was both the Possibility and Ability] would not, then he could not: For his own Desire went into the Center; he would himself be God; he entered with his Will into Self; and in Self is the Center of Nature, viz. those Properties wherein his Will would be Lord and Master in the House.

8. But God created him for his Harmony, to play with his Love-spirit in him, as upon the musical Instrument of his manifested and formed Word; and this the Self-will would not.

9. Now says Reason, How came it, that he would not ? Did not he know the Judgment of God and the Fall ? yes, he knew it well enough; but he had no sensible Perception of the Fall, but only as a bare Knowledge [or notional Theory in the Mystery of his Mind]; the fiery Lubet which was potent in him urged him on; for it would fain be manifest in the Essence of the Wrath, viz. in the Root of Fire; the Darkness also eagerly desired to be creaturely, which drew Lucifer, its Craft's-master, in the great Potency of Fire; indeed it drew him not from without [outwardly], but in the Property and Will of his own fiery and dark Essence : The Original of the Fall was within the Creature, and not without the Creature; and so it was in Adam also : Self-will was the Beginning of Pride.

10. Thou asks, What was that which did Cause it in himself? Answer : His great

Beauty and Glory; because the Will beheld what itself was in the fiery Mirror; this Lustrous Glance moved and affected him, so that he eagerly reached after the Properties of the Center, which immediately began effectually to work. For the astringent, austere Desire, viz. the first form or Property, impressed itself, and awakened the Compunction, and the anxious Desire : Thus this beautiful Star overshadowed its Light, and made its Essence wholly astringent, rigorous and harsh, and its Meekness and true angelical Property was turned into an Essence wholly austere, harsh, rigorous and dark; and then this bright Morning Star was undone; and as he did, so did his Legions: And this was his Fall.

11. He should have been wholly resigned in the holy Power of God, and have heard what the Lord would speak and play by his own Spirit in him; this Self-will would not do; and therefore he must now play in the Dark; yea his Will is yet opposite, although now after the Fall he cannot will [viz. to resign to the divine Will of the Light.] For his Meekness, whence the Love-will arises, is shut up and entered again into a Nothing; viz. it is retired into its own Original.

12. Now the Creature still remains, but wholly out of the Center, viz. out of the Eternal Nature; The Free Lubet of God's Wisdom is departed from him, that is, it has hid itself in itself, and lets the wrathful Fire-will stand; as happened to Adam also, when he imagined after Evil and Good, then the Free Lubet of the holy World's Essence disappeared in his Essence.

13. This was the very Death, of which God told him, that if he did eat of the free of the knowledge of Good and Evil, he should die the very same Day. Thus it was in Lucifer, he died to the holy divine World, and arose to the wrathful World of God's Anger.

14. Thou sayest, Why did not God uphold him, and draw him from the evil Inclination? 1 pray tell me wherewith. Should he have poured in more Love and Meekness into this Fire-source ? Then had his stately Light been more manifest in him, and the Looking-glass of his own Knowledge had been the greater, and his own fiery Self-will the stronger; I pray, was not his high Light and his own Self-knowledge the Cause of his Fall ?

15.Should he then have drawn him with Rebuke? Was it not his Purpose beforehand to rule the magical Ground as an Artist ? His Aim and Endeavour was for the Art, that he would play with the Center of the transmutation of the Properties, and would be and do all whatsoever he alone pleased Had he not known this, he had still remained an Angel in Humility.

16.Therefore the Children of Darkness, and the Children of this World also, are wiser than the Children of the Light, as the Scripture says. Thou askest, why ? They have the magical Root of the Original of Essences manifest in them; and this was even the Desire of Adam. However, the Devil persuaded them that they should be wiser, their Eyes should be opened, and they should be as God himself.

17. This Folly caused King Lucifer to aspire, desiring to be an Artist, and absolute Lord, like the Creator. The Water of Meekness had been good for his Fire-will; but he would have none of that: Hence it is, that the Children of God must be the most plain, sincere, and simple; as Esaias prophesied of Christ, who is so simple as my Servant,

the righteous one, who turneth many unto Righteousness? viz. Upon [or to] the Way of Humility.

18. All Angels live in Humility, and are resigned to the Spirit of God, and are in the Eternal Speaking Word of God, as a well-tuned, pure-sounding Instrument, in the Harmony of the Kingdom of Heaven; of which the Holy Spirit is chief Master and Ruler.

19. But the Devil has forged to himself a strange Fool's-play, where he can act his Deceptions with his several Interludes, and Disguises, and demean himself like an apish Fool, and transform himself into monstrous, strange, and hideous Shapes and Figures, and mock at the Image of angelical Simplicity and Obedience. And this was his Aim and Intent, for which he departed from the Harmony of the angelical Choirs: For the Scripture says, that he was a Murtherer and Lyar from the Beginning; his juggling Feats and Fictions are mere strange Figures and Lies, which God never formed in him, but he brings them to Forms and Shapes in himself; and seeing that they are contrary to his Creation, they are Lies and Abominations.

20. He was an Angel, and has belied his angelical form, and Obedience, and is entered into the Abomination of Fictions, Lies, and Mockeries; he has awakened the envious, hateful forms, and Properties of the dark World in his Center, whence Wrath and Iniquity spring: He sate in heavenly Pomp and Glory, and introduced his hateful Desire, and malicious Will, into the Essence, viz. into the Water-source, and cast forth his Streams of Enmity and Malignity.

21. His Properties were as the venomous Stings of Serpents, which he put forth out of himself: When the Love of God was withdrawn from him, he figured his Image according to the Property of the wrathful Forms, (wherein there are also evil Beasts, and Worms in the serpentine Shape) and infected, or awakened the Sal-niter of the Center of Nature in the expressed Essence, in the Generation of the Eternal Nature; whence the Combat arose, that the great Prince Michael fought with him, and would no longer endure him in Heaven among the Fellowship of the holy Angels.

22. for which Cause the Will of the Abyss, viz. of the Eternal Father,

moved itself, and swallowed him down, as a treacherous perjured Wretch, into the Gulf and Sink of eternal Darkness, viz. into another Principle: The Heaven spewed him out of itself; he fell into the Darkness as Lightning, and he lost the Mansion of God in the Kingdom of Heaven, in the holy Power, and all his Servants with him: There he has the Mother for his enchanting Delusions; there he may play them juggling Feats, and antick Tricks.

23. Moreover, we are to know, that he had his royal Seat in the Place of this World: Therefore Christ calls him a Prince of this World, viz. in the Kingdom of Darkness, in the Wrath, in the Place of this World.

24. His kingly Throne is taken from him, and another has Possession of it in the heavenly World's Property, in the Place of this World: He shall not obtain it again.

25. Also (at the instant of the Creation of the Stars and four Elements) another King was established over him, in this Place in the Elements; which although we could mention, yet at Present it remains in Silence, by Reason of the false Magick; also by Reason of other Superstitions and Idolatries we will not speak any Thing of it here, and yet hint enough to our School-fellows.

The Tenth Chapter

Of the Creation of Heaven and the Outward World

1. It seems strange and wonderful to reason, to consider how God has created the stars, and the four elements; especially when reason does contemplate and consider of the earth, with its hard stones, and very rough, indigested, harsh substance; and sees that there are great stones, rocks and cliffs created, which are in part useless, and very hindersome to the employment of the creatures in this world. Then it thinks, whence may this compaction arise in so many forms and properties; for there are divers sorts of stones, divers metals, and divers kinds of earth whence manifold herbs and trees do grow.

2. Now when it does thus muse and contemplate, it finds nothing, save only that it does acknowledge that there must be a hidden power and might, which is abyssal, and unsearchable, which has created all things so; and there it sticks, and runs to and fro in the creation, as a bird that flies up and down in the air; and looks upon all things, as an ox looks upon a new door of his stall; and never so much as considers what itself is;

and seldom reaches so far as to know that man is an image extracted out of this whole being or essence. It runs up and down, as a beast void of understanding, which desires only to eat and procreate; and when it comes to its highest degree, as to search out and learn something, then it searches in the outward fiction and artifice of the stars; or else in some carved work of outward nature. It will by no means simply and sincerely learn to know its Creator. And when it comes to pass that one attains so far as to teach the knowledge of him, yet then it calls such man a fool, and fantastic; and forbids him the precious understanding of God, and imputes it to him for sin, and reviles him therein.

3. Such mere animals are we, since the fall of Adam, that we do not so much as once consider that we were created in the image of God, and endued with the right, natural and genuine understanding, both of the eternal, and temporal nature; so as to mind and bethink ourselves, by great earnestness, to re-obtain that which we have lost;

whereas we have yet that very first soul wherein the true understanding lies; if we did but seriously labour to have that light which we have lost, to shine again in us; which yet is offered unto us out of grace.

4. Therefore there will be no excuse at the great day of the Lord, when God shall judge the secret and hidden things of mankind, because we would not learn to know him, and obey his voice; which daily has knocked amongst us, and in us; and resign up ourselves unto him; that so our understanding might be opened. And a very severe sentence shall he receive who will undertake to be called Master, and Rabbi; 1) and yet neither knows the way of God, nor walks therein, and that which is yet more heinous forbids 2) those that desire to know, and walk therein.

5. The creation of the outward world is a manifestation of the inward spiritual Mystery, viz. of the centre of the eternal nature, with the holy element: and was brought forth by the eternal-speaking Word through the motion of the inward world as a spiration; which eternal-speaking Word has expressed the essence out of the inward spiritual worlds; and yet there was no such essence in the speaking, but was only as a breath or vaporous exhalation in reference to the internal, breathed forth, both from the property of the dark world, and also of the light world: and therefore the outward essence of this world is good and evil.

6. And we are with very entire and punctual exactness to consider of this motion of the eternal Mystery of the spiritual world. 1. How it came to pass that such a wrathful, rough, gross and very compunc-tive essence and dominion was brought forth and made manifest, as we see in the outward forms of nature, as well in the moving things, as in the stones and earth. 2. Whence such a wrath did arise, which has compacted and introduced the powers of the properties into such a harsh nature [or rude quality] as we see in the earth and stones.

7. For we are not to think that there is the like in heaven, viz. in the spiritual world. In the spiritual world there are only the properties of possibility; but not at all manifest in such a harsh property; but are as it were swallowed up; as the light swallows up the darkness, and yet the darkness does really dwell in the light, but not apprehended.

8. Now we are yet to search out how the desire of the darkness became manifest in the power of the light; that they both came mutu-

ally into the compaction or coagulation. And yet it affords us a far greater and more profound consideration; that when man could not stand in the spiritual mystery of the paradisical property [and estate],

1 Sir. 2 Or hinders.

that God cursed this compaction, viz. the earth; and appointed an earnest judgement to sever the good in this compaction again from the evil; so that the good must thus stand in the curse, that is, in death.

He that does here see nothing is indeed blind. Why would God curse his good essence, if something were not come into it which was opposite to the good? Or is God at odds with himself? as reason would be ready to fancy. For it is written in Moses, that God looked upon all that he had made, and behold it was very good.

9. Now man, for whose sake the earth was accursed, had not introduced anything into the earth, whereby it was now made so evil, as to cause God to curse it, save only the false and faithless imagination of his desire to eat of the evil and good: so as to awaken the vanity, viz. the centre of nature in him, and to know evil and good. From which desire the hunger entered into the earth;

whence the outward body

was extracted as a mass; which set the hunger of its desire again upon its mother; and awakened the root of vanity out of the dark impression of the centre of nature, whence the Tree of Temptation, viz. evil and good, grew manifest to him; and when he did eat thereof the earth was accursed for his sake.

10. Now if man, by his powerful desire, did awaken the wrath in the earth, what then might Lucifer [not] be able to do, who was likewise an enthroned prince, and moreover had many legions? Lucifer had the will of the strong might and power of the centre of all essences in himself as well as Adam [had]. Adam was only one creature, but Lucifer was a king, and had a kingdom in possession, viz. a hierarchy in the spiritual world, viz. in the heavenly Salniter in the generation of the manifested word. He was an enthroned prince in the manifested power of God: therefore Christ calls him a prince of this world: for he sat in the essence (understand, in the spiritual essence) whence this world was breathed forth as a spiration.

11. He it is that by his false desire, which he introduced into the

essence, did awaken the wrath in the internal, as Adam stirred up the curse. He raised the centre of nature with his dark wrathful property in the like wrathful properties; for he had first awakened the wrath of God in himself:

And then this awakened wrath entered into its mother, viz. into the magical generation, out of which Lucifer was created to a creature: whereupon the generation was made proud and aspiring, contrary to the right [or law] of eternity.

12. Also he sat in his angelical form in the good holy essence, as to the generation of the divine meekness; and therein exalted himself to domineer in the will of his wrath above the meekness, as an absolute peculiar god, contrary to the right of eternity.

13. But when the speaking eternal Word in love and anger, for his malicious iniquity's sake, did move itself in the properties, viz. in the essence wherein Lucifer sat, to cast this wicked guest out of his habitation into eternal darkness; then the essence was compacted: for God would not permit or allow that he should any longer have these manifested powers, wherein he was a prince; but created them into a coagulation, and spewed him out of them.

14. And in this impression or conjunction the powers, viz. the watery and oily properties, were compacted; not that Lucifer did compact or create them; but [they were compacted by] the speaking Word of God, which dwelt in the manifested powers and properties: the same took away the disobedient child's patrimony, and cast him out as a perjured wretch, out of his inheritance into an eternal prison, into the house of darkness and anger;

wherein he desired to be master over the essence of God's love, and rule therein as a juggler and enchanter, and mix the holy with unholy, to act his juggling feats and proud pranks thereby.

15. And we see very clearly with quick-sighted eyes, that thus it is: for there is nothing in this world so evil but it has a good in it: the good has its rise originally out of the good or heavenly property, and the evil has its descent from the property of the dark world; for both worlds, viz. light and darkness, are in each other as one.

16. And therefore they also went along together into the compaction or coagulation; and that from the degrees of the eternal nature, viz. from the properties to the fire-life, and also from the properties in the oily and spiritual watery light-essence.

17. For the metals are in themselves nothing else but a water and oil, which are held by the wrathful properties, viz. by the astringent austere desire; that is, by a Saturnine martial fiery property, in the compaction of Sulphur and Mercury, to be one body [or congealed bulk]. But if I wholly destroy this body, and severise {separate} each into its own property, then I clearly find therein the first creation.

I. SATURNUS: SAL

18. As first, according to the astringent desire of the Fiat, viz. of the first form to nature, according to the property of the dark world, I find a hardness and coldness; and further according to this astringent property, secondly a deadly baneful stinking water, from the astringent impression; and thirdly, in this stinking water, a dead earth;

and fourthly, a sharpness like to salt, from the native right and quality of the astringency. This is now the coagulated essence of the first form of nature, according to the dark world; and it is the stony substance (understand the grossness of the stones and of all metals); so likewise of the earth, wherein the mortal part (or the close-binding death) is understood.

II. MERCURIUS

19. Secondly, I find according to the second form and property of the dark nature and world essence, in the compaction of the metals and stones, a bitter compunctive raging essence, viz. a poison; which makes a strong harsh noisome taste in the earth and stinking water; and it is the cause of growth, viz. the stirring life: its property is called Mercurius; and in the first form the astringency is called Sal.

III. SULPHUR

20. Thirdly, I find the third property, viz. the anguish, which is the sulphurous-source, in which consists the various dividing of the properties, viz. of the essence.

IV. SALNITER

21. Fourthly, I find the fire or heat, which does awaken the salniter in the sulphurous-source, which severises the compaction; and that is the flagrat. This is the original raiser of the salniter out of the brimstony, watery and earthy property; for it is the awakener of death, viz. [the awakener] in the mortal property, and the first original of the life in the fire: and even to the fire the property of the dark world reaches, and no farther.

V. OIL

22. Fifthly, we find in the compaction of the metals and stones an oil, which is sweeter than any sugar can be; so far as it may be separated from the other properties. It is the first heavenly holy essence; which has taken its original from the free lubet. It is pure and transparent; but if the fire-source be severed from it (albeit it is impossible wholly to separate it, for the band of the great triumphant joy consists therein) then it is whiter than anything can be in nature: But

by reason of the fire it continues of a rosy-red; 1) which the light changes into yellow, according to the mixture of red and white; by reason of the earthy property, and predominant influence of the sun.

1 Or crimson purple-red.

23. But if the artist can unloose it, and free it from the fire of the wrath, and other properties, then he has the pearl of the whole world, understand the tincture: for Virgin Venus has her cabinet of treasure lying there: It is the Virgin with her fair attire [or crown of pearl].

24. O you earthly man did you have it yet! Here Lucifer and Adam have negligently lost it! O man, did you but know what lay here, how would you seek after it! But it belongs only unto those

whom God has chosen thereto. O precious pearl, how sweet art you in the new birth, how fair, and surpassing excellent is your lustre!

VI. THE LIVING MERCURY; SOUND

25. Sixthly, we find in this oily property a sovereign power from the original of the manifested powerful divine Word, which dwells

in the heavenly property; in which power the sound or tone of metals is distinguished; and therein their growth consists. For here it is the holy Mercurius: that which in the second form of nature in the darkness is compunctive, harsh, rigid, and a poison, that is here, in the free lubet's property (when the fire in the salnitral flagrat has divided love and anger) a pleasant merry Mercury, wherein the joyfulness of the creature consists.

26. And here, ye philosophers, lies the effectual virtue and power-full operation of your Noble Stone: here it is called Tincture. This operation can tincture the disappeared water in Luna; for here your Jupiter is a prince; and Sol a king, and virgin Venus the king's sweetest spouse. But Mars must first lay down his sceptre; also the devil must first go into hell; for Christ must bind him; and tincture simple Luna, which he has defiled, with the oil of his heavenly blood; that the anger may be changed into joy. Thus the artist's art is born: understood here, by the children of the Mystery.

[VII. ESSENCE, BODY]

27. Seventhly, we find in the separation of the compaction of the metals a white crystalline water; that is, the heavenly water, viz.

the water above the firmament of heaven; which is severed from the oil, as a body of the oily property. It gives a white crystalline lustre in the metals; and Venus with her property makes it wholly white; and that is a silver property; and Venus in Sol, a gold; and Mars in Venus, a copper; and again, Venus in Mars, an iron; Jupiter in Venus, a tin; Saturn in Venus, a lead: Mercurius in Venus, quicksilver; and without Venus there is no metal, neither fixed nor mineral.

28. Thus understand by Venus, heavenly essentiality, which consists in an oil and crystalline water, which gives body unto all metals, understand the spiritual beautiful body; its own peculiar essence, without the influences of the other properties, is the great meekness and sweetness. Its real peculiar essence is a sweet pure water; but the power of the manifested Word does separate the holiest through the fire into an oil; for in the oil the fire gives a shine or lustre. When the fire tastes the water in itself; then out of the taste it gives an oil; thus the oil is spiritual, and the water corporeal. The oil is a body 1) of the power; and the water a body 1) of

the properties, which are living in the oil, and do make or use the

water for a mansion. In the water the elemental life consists, and in the oil the spiritual life; 2) and in the power of oil the divine life, viz. the life of the expressed Word, as a manifestation of the Deity.

1 Text Corpus. 2 Or life of the spirit.

29. Now we see here, how, in the compaction of the Verbum Fiat, the holy entered along with the unholy into a coagulation. For in all things there is a deadly and also a living water; and also a mortal poisonful virtue, and a good vital virtue; a gross, and a subtile [power] ; one evil, the other good: all which is according to the nature of God's love and anger.

30. The grossness of the stones, metals and earth proceed from the property of the dark world, all which are in a mortal [property], understand substance and not spirit: the spirit of the grossness is in the poison-life, in which Lucifer is a prince of this world.

31. But the heavenly [part] holds the grossness and poison-source captive; so that the devil is the poorest creature in the essence of this world; and has nothing in this world for his own possession, save what he can cheat from the living creatures which have an eternal being; that they enter with the desire into the wrath of the eternal; viz. into his juggling incantations.

32. If we would rightly consider the creation, then we need no more than a divine light and contemplation: it is very easy unto the illuminated mind, and may very well be searched out. Let a man but consider the degrees of nature, and he sees it very clearly in the sun, stars, and elements. The stars are nothing else but a crystalline water-spirit; yet not a material water, but powers of the salnitral flagrat in the fire.

33. For their orb, wherein they stand, is fiery; that is, a salnitral fire, a property of the matter of the earth, metals, trees, herbs and the three elements, fire, air and water. What the superior is, that also is the inferior; and that which I find in the compaction of the earth, that likewise is in the astrum; 1) and they belong both together as body and soul.

1 Or constellation.

34. The astrum betokens the spirit, and the earth the body; before the creation all was mutually in each other in the eternal generation; but in no coagulation or creature; but as a powerful wrestling love-play, without any such material substance.

35. But it was enkindled in the motion of the Word, viz. the Ver-bum Fiat: and therewith the inflammation in the salnitral flagrat, each property did divide itself in itself; and was amassed by the awakened astringent impression (viz. the first form of nature, which is called the Fiat), and so each became coagulated in its property; the subtile in its property, and the gross in its property; all according to the degrees; as the eternal generation of nature derives itself from the unity into an infinite multiplicity.

36. Good and evil is manifest in the astrum: 1) for the wrathful fiery power of the eternal nature, so also the power of the holy spiritual world, is manifest in the stars, as an essential spiration. Therefore there are many obscure stars, all which we see not, and many light stars, which we see.

37. We have a likeness of this in the matter of the earth, which is so manifold, whence divers sorts of fruit grow, viz. according to the properties of the superior spheres: for so likewise is the earth, being the grossest substance, where the mortal water is coagulated.

38. The earth was coagulated in the seventh form of nature, viz. in the essence; for it is that same essence which the other six properties do make in their desire: it chiefly consists in seven properties, as is above mentioned; but the unfoldment or various explication of the properties is effected in the salnitral fire, where each property does again explicate itself into seven; where the infiniteness and great possibility 2) arises, that of one thing, another can be made, which it was not in the beginning.

1 Or constellation 2 Or potency.

39. The being of all beings is only a magical birth [deriving itself], out of one only, into an infiniteness; the One is God, the infinite is time and eternity, and a manifestation of the One; where each thing may be reduced out of one into many, and again out of many into one.

40. The fire is the workmaster thereunto, which puts forth from a small power a little sprout out of the earth, and displays it into a great tree with many boughs, branches and fruits; and does again consume it, and reduces it again to one thing, viz. to ashes and earth, whence it first proceeded: and so also all things of this world do enter again into the one whence they came.

41. The essence of this world may easily be searched out, but the centre or point of motion will remain dark unto reason, unless there be another light in it: it supposes that it has it in the circle, and can measure it; 1) but it has it not in the understanding.

42. When we consider the hierarchy and the kingly dominion in all the three Principles in the place of this world, so far as the Verbum Fiat reached forth itself to the creation of the outward world, with the stars, and elements, then we have the ground of the punctum 2) of the royal throne, of which the whole creation is but a member.

43. For the stars and four elements, and all whatsoever is bred and engendered out of them, and live therein, does hang [or appertain] unto one punctum; where the divine power has manifested itself from itself in a form: and this punctum stands in three Principles, viz. in three worlds: nothing can live in this world without this punctum, it is the only cause of the life and motion of all the powers; and without it all would be in the stillness 3) without motion.

44. For if there were no light, then the elements would be motionless: all would be an astringent harsh property, wholly raw and cold: the fire would remain hidden in the cold; and the water would be only a keen spirit, like to the property of the stars; and the air would be hidden in the water-source, in the sulphur, and be a still, unmoving essence.

45. We see in very deed, that the light is the only cause of all stirring, motion and life; for every life desires the power of the light, viz. the disclosed punctum: and yet the life is not the punctum, but the form of Nature. And if this punctum did not stand open, then the kingdom of darkness would be manifest in the place of this world;

1 Or mathematically describe and demonstrate it. 2. Central fire or radical heat; the point of motion, the virtue of the light.

3. Or eternal silence.

in which [place of wrath] Lucifer is a prince, and possesses the princely throne in the wrath of the eternal nature, in the place of this world.

46. Therefore, O man, consider with yourself where [now] you are at home, viz on one part 1) in the stars and four elements; and on the other part 2) in the dark world among the devils; and as to the third part 3) in the divine power in heaven. That property which is master in you, its servant you are, pranck and vapour as stately and gloriously in the sun's light as you will; have you not the eternal [light], yet your fountain shall be made manifest to you.

47. By the two words Himmel und Erde (heaven and earth) we understand the whole ground of the creation; for, in the language of nature, the understanding is couched in those two words. For by the word Himmel (heaven) is understood the spiration of the Verbum Fiat, which created that essence (wherein Lucifer was enthroned) with the creative Word out of itself, that is, out of the spiritual holy world, into a time or beginning.

And by the word Erde (earth) is understood the wrath in the essence, that the essence was amassed in the wrath; and reduced out of the properties of the dark Sulphur, Mercury and Salt, viz. out of the powers of the original of nature, and introduced into a compaction or coagulation.

48. This coagulation is the syllable Er, the other syllable, de or den, is the element. For the earth is not the element, but the [element is] the moving, viz. the power, whence it was coagulated; this is that element which is spiritual, and takes its true original in the fire, where the nature, which is a senseless life, dies in the fire;

from which dying or mortification there proceeds forth a living motion; and from that which is mortified [in the fire] a dead matter, viz. earth, and a dead water, and also a deadly fire, and venomous air, which makes a dying source in the earthly bodies.

49. When nature was enkindled, the element did unfold [and display] itself into four properties, which yet in itself is only one. The real element dwells in the essence which is mortified in the fire, otherwise the earth could bring forth no fruit. Those which now are called the four elements, are not elements, but only properties of the true element.

The element is neither hot nor cold, neither dry nor moist; it is the motion or life of the inward heaven, viz. the true angelical life as to the creature. It is the first divine manifestation out of the fire, through nature: when the properties of the eternal nature work therein; it is called Paradise.

1 Viz. as to your body and outward carcase of clay you art a guest for a while in this outward world, travelling in the vanity of time.

2 Viz. as to your soul, in its own self and creatural being, without the divine light or regeneration, in the abyss of hell.

3 As to your divine image, and spirit of love, in the eternal light.

50. By the word Himmel (heaven) is understood how the water, viz. the grossness in the mortal part, was coagulated, and separated from the holy crystalline water, which is spiritual. There, with the material, time began, as an essence expressed [or spirated] out of the spiritual water.

51. The spiritual water is living, and the spirated is dumb and unfeeling, void of understanding, and is dead in reference to the living water; of which Moses says, God has separated it from the water above the firmament.

52. The firmament is another Principle, viz. another beginning [or inchoation] of motion: the water above the firmament is the spiritual water, in which the Spirit of God rules and works: for Moses says also, the Spirit of God moves upon the water, for the spiritual element moves in the four elements; and in the spiritual element the Spirit of God moves on the spiritual water: they are mutually in each other.

53. The heaven wherein God dwells is the holy element; and the firmament or gulf between God and the four elements is the death;

for the inward heaven has another birth (that is, another life) than the external elementary life has. Indeed they are in one another, but the one does not apprehend the other: as tin and silver never mix aright together; for each is from another [or sundry] Principle; albeit they resemble each other, and have very near affinity to each other, yet they are as the inward and outward water to one another;

wherein also they are to be understood. For the inward and outward Venus are step-sisters; they come indeed from one father, but they have two mothers, the one whereof is a Virgin, the other deflowered; and therefore they are separated till the judgement of God, who will purge away her reproach and shame, through the fire.

54. Moses writes, that God created the heaven out of the midst of the waters; [and] it is very right. The astrum 1) is an external water-spirit, viz. powers of the outward water; and the material water is the body wherein the powers work. Now the fiery, airy and also earthly source is in the astrum;

the like is also in the material water. The superior [astrum] is the life and dominion of the inferior; it enkindles the inferior, whereby the inferior does act, move and work. The inferior is the body or wife of the superior; indeed the superior is couched in the inferior, but as weak, and impotent.

1 Understand by the word astrum, the whole starry heaven, with all its powers, properties, influences, and constellations, internal and external.

55. And the superior were likewise as weak and impotent as the inferior, if it were not enkindled by the light of the sun: the same is the heart of all external powers; and it is the open punctum even to the tenth number. If we were not so blind as to contemn all that we see not with our calves' eyes, it were right and requisite to reveal it; but seeing God has hidden the pearl, and also himself from the sight of the wicked, therefore we will let it alone. Yet hint enough to our school-fellows: we will not give our pearl unto beasts.

56. Thus we understand what the outward heaven is, namely the powers or conception of the water. The word or power Fiat, which began with the beginning of the world, is yet still a creating; 1) it yet continually creates the heaven out of the water: and the spirit of God still moves upon the water; and the holy water is yet continually separated from the water under the firmament.

57. This holy water is that of which Christ told us,

that he would give us it to drink; that should spring up in us to a fountain of eternal life.

The holy heavenly corporality does consist therein; it is the body

of Christ which he brought from heaven; and by the same, introduced

heavenly paradisical essentiality into our dead or decayed body; and

quickened ours in his; understand, in the aim 2) of the covenant in the essence of Mary; as shall be mentioned hereafter.

58. In this heavenly essence the Testaments 3) of Christ do consist; and this holy essence of the heavenly holy virginity, with the holy tincture, has destroyed death; and bruised the head of the serpent's might in the wrath of God; for the divine power is the highest life therein.

1 Or creating. 2 Mark or limit. 3 Baptism, and the Supper.

59. Thus we understand how the holy heaven, wherein God dwells, moves in the Fiat or the created [heaven], and that God is really present in all places; and inhabits all things: but he is comprehended of nothing.

He is manifest in power in the inward heaven

of the holy essentiality, viz. in the element. This holy element (in the beginning or inchoation of the four elements) did penetrate through the earth; and sprang [or budded] forth in the holy power's property, and bore fruits, of which man should have eaten in a heavenly manner.

But when it did disappear in man, the curse entered into the earth, and so Paradise was quashed in the four elements; and continued retired in itself in the inward [element]. There it stands yet open unto man, if any will depart from this world's essence and enter into it upon the path which Christ has made open.

60. The punctum of the whole created earth belonged unto the centre of Sol, 1) but [does] not any more, at present: he is fallen, he who was a king: the earth is in the curse, and [has] become a peculiar centre; whereunto all whatsoever is engendered in the vanity, in the four elements, does tend and fall: all things fall unto the earth; for the Fiat 2) is yet in the deep, and creates 3) all earthly essence together unto the judgement of God, for separation.

61. We mean not that the earth came wholly 4) from the place of the sun; but from the whole sphere, out of both the internal spiritual worlds; but it [i.e. our meaning] has another A B C, in that the earth belongs unto the judgement of God for separation; even then it shall be manifest wherefore it is said: it belongs unto the punctum of Sol.

1 Ad centrum Solis, to the centre of the sun.

2 Or creation.

3 Or draws or concretes.

4 Or only.

62. For the worst must be a cause of the best. The eternal joy consists in this: that we are delivered from pain. God has not eternally rejected his holy essence; but only the iniquity which mixed itself therein. But when the crystalline earth shall appear, then will be fulfilled this Saying: it appertains to the punctum of Sol. Here we have hinted enough to the understanding of our school-fellows; further we must here be silent.

The Eleventh Chapter

Of the Mystery of the Creation

1. The reason of the outward man says: How is it that God has not revealed the creation of the world unto man, that Moses

and the children of God have written so little thereof, seeing it is the greatest and most principal work whereon the main depends?

2. Yes, dear reason, smell into your bosom, of what does it savour?

Contemplate your mind, after what does it long? Likely, after the cunning delusions of the devil: Had the devil not known this ground, very like he had been yet an angel; had he not seen the magical birth in his high light, then he had not desired to be a selfish lord and maker in the essence.

3. Wherefore does God hide his children, which now receive the spirit of knowledge with the cross, and cast them into tribulation and mire of vanity? For certain, therefore, that they might play the tune of The Miserere, and continue in humility; and not sport in this life 1) with the light of nature; else, if they should espy and apprehend what the divine magic is, then they might also desire to imitate the devil, [and do] as Lucifer did: for which cause it is hidden from them. And neither Moses nor any other dare write clearer thereof; until the beginning of the creation beholds the end of the world in itself: And then it must stand open.

1 Text, Time.

4. And therefore let none blame us; for the time is come about that Moses puts away his veil from his eyes, which he hung before his face when he spoke with Israel. After the Lord had spoken with him, Moses desired to see it, in that he said, Lord, if I have found grace in your sight, let me see your face. But the Lord would not, and said, You shall see my back part, for none can see my face.

5. Now the eye of God was in Moses, and in the Saints; they have seen and spoken in the spirit of God, and yet had not the intuition of the spiritual birth in them; save at times only, when God would work wonders; as by Moses, when he did the wonders in Egypt: then the

divine magic was open unto him, in manner and wise as in the creation.

6. And this was even the fall of Lucifer: that he would be a god of nature, and live in the transmutation. And this was even the idolatry of the heathen: in that they understood the magical birth they fell from the only God unto the magical birth of nature, and chose unto themselves idols out of the powers of nature.

7. For which cause the creation has remained so obscure; and God has with tribulation covered his children in whom the true light shone, that they have not been manifest unto themselves. Seeing Adam also, according to the same lust, did imagine to know and prove the magic, and would be as God;

so that God permitted him, that he defiled his heavenly image with the vanity of nature, and made it wholly dark and earthly; as Lucifer also did, with the centre of nature, when he of an angel became a devil.

8. Therefore I will seriously warn the Reader that he use the magic aright, viz. in true faith and humility towards God; and not meddle with turba magna in a magical manner: unless it conduces to the honour of God, and to the salvation of mankind.

9. For we can say with truth, that the Verbum Fiat is yet a creating. Albeit it does not create stones and earth; yet it coagulates, forms and works still in the same property. All things are possible to nature as it was possible for it in the beginning to generate stones and earth, also the stars and four elements, and did produce them, or work them forth out of one only ground; so it is, still unto this day. By the strong desire (which is the magical ground) all things may be effected, if man use nature aright, in its order to the work.

10. All essences consist in the seven properties. Now he that knows the essence, he is able, by the same spirit of that essence, whence it is come to be an essence, to change it into another form, and likewise to introduce it into another essence; and so make of a good thing an evil, and of an evil thing a good.

11. The transmutation of all things must be effected by simility, 1) viz. by its own native propriety: for the alienate is its enemy. Like as man must be regenerated again by the divine essentiality in the simility; by the simility in his holiness of the divine essentiality

which he lost.

1 Assimulation or likeness.

12. And as the false Magus wounds man through enchantment with the assimulate, and through the desire introduces evil into his evil, viz. into the assimulate; and as the upright holy faith or divine desire also enters into the assimulate, and forfends man so that

the false desire takes no place.

13. Thus all things consist in the assimulate; every thing may be introduced into its assimulate. And if it comes into its assimulate it rejoices in its property, be it good or evil, and begins effectually to work: as is to be seen both in good and in evil.

14. As for example: let a man take down a little poison: it will presently receive with great desire the poison in the body, which before rested; and therein strengthen itself and begin to work powerfully; and corrupt and destroy the contrary, viz. the good. And that now which the evil is able to do in its property, that likewise the good can do in its property; when it is freed from the wrath it may also introduce its assimulate into the real true joy.

15. The essence of this world consists in evil and good; and the one cannot be without the other. But this is the greatest iniquity of this world; that the evil overpowers the good; that the anger is stronger therein than the love. And this by reason of the sin of the devil, and men; who have disturbed nature by the false desire, that it mightily and effectually works in the wrath, as a poison in the body.

16. Otherwise, if nature in its forms did stand in the property in equal weight, and in equal concord and harmony, then one property were not manifest above the other: heat and cold would be equally poised in the operation and qualification. And then Paradise would be still upon the earth; and though it were not outside man, yet it would be in man;

if his properties were in equal weight [number and

measure, if they did yet stand in the temperature], then he were

incorruptible and immortal.

17. This is the death and misery of man and all creatures: that the properties are divided, and each aspiring in itself; and powerfully working and acting in its own will; whence sickness and pain arises. And all this is hence arisen: when the one element did manifest and

put forth itself into four properties, then each property desired the assimulate, viz. an essence out of and according to itself; which the astringent Fiat did impress and coagulate; so that earth and stones were produced in the properties.

18. But now we are to consider of the greatest Mystery of the outward world between the elements and the astrum. The elemental spirit is severised from the astral spirit, and yet not parted asunder; they dwell in each other as body and soul; but the one is not the other. The astral spirit makes its bodies as well as the elemental, and that in all creatures, in animals and vegetables.

19. All things of this world have a twofold body, viz. an elemental, from the fire, air, water and earth; and a spiritual body from the astrum. And likewise a twofold spirit, viz. one astral, the other elemental.

20. Man only (among all the earthly creatures) has a threefold body and spirit. For he has also the internal spiritual world in him; which is likewise twofold, viz. light and darkness; and [this] also corporally and spiritually. This spirit is the soul; but this body is from the water of the holy element, which died in Adam, that is, disappeared as to his life, when the divine power departed from him, and would not dwell in the awakened vanity.

21. Which holy body must be regenerated, if his spirit will see God; otherwise he cannot see him, except he be again born anew of the water of the holy element in the spirit of God (who has manifested himself in Christ with this same water-source); that man's disappeared body may be made alive in the holy water and spirit; else he has no sense nor sight in the holy life of God.

22. This twofold outward body is now punctually to be pondered and considered ot if we would understand nature; and without this understanding let none call himself a master [or learned]. For in these (bodies) the dominion of all external creatures and essences is couched; they oftentimes are contrary one unto another, whence sickness, corruption and death arises in the body, that one severs from the other.

23. The sidereal body is the highest excepting the divine in man; the elemental body is only its servant or dwellinghouse, as the four elements are only a body or habitation of the dominion of the stars.

24. The elemental spirit and body is inanimate and void of understanding, it has only lust and desire in it, vegetation is its right life; for the air has no understanding without the astrum. The astrum gives the distinct understanding of the knowledge of all essences in the elements.

25. But the inward light, and power of the light, gives in man the right divine understanding; but there is no right divine apprehension in the sidereal spirit; for the astrum has another Principle. The Sidereal body dwells in the elemental, as the light-world in the darkness: it is the true rational life of all creatures.

26. The whole astrum is nothing else but the external expressed Word in the sound; it is the instrument whereby the holy eternal speaking Word speaks and forms externally; it is as a great harmony of unsearchable manifold voices and tunes, of all manner of instruments, which play and melodise before the holy God.

27. For they are mere powers, which enter into and mutually embrace each other, whence arises the sound in the essence; and the desire, viz. the Fiat, receives this sound and makes it substantial. This substance is a spirit of the stars, which the elements receive into themselves, and coagulate it in themselves, and hatch it, as a hen her eggs: therefrom is the true rational life in the elements. And thus also the Sidereal spirit is hatched and coagulated in all creatures.

28. For the male and female do mutually cast a seed into each other; which is only a sulphur of the astrum and four elements; afterwards it is hatched in the matrix, and coagulated to a living spirit.

29. For when the fire is enkindled in the seed which is sown in the matrix, the spirit severs itself again from the body, as a propriate;

just as the light from the fire, according to the right of the eternal nature; and two become manifest in one, viz. a spiritual body from the astrum, and a fleshy body from the four elements.

30. And this sidereal spirit is the soul of the great world, which depends on Punctum Solis, and receives its light and life from it; as all the stars do take light and power from the sun, so likewise [they take] their spirit.

31. The sun is the centre of the astrum, and the earth the centre

of the elements: they are to each other as spirit and body, or as man and wife; albeit the astrum has another wife, where it hatches its essence, viz. the moon, which is the wife of all the stars (but especially of the sun). I mean it in the essence of the operation.

32. Not that we mean that the astrum is wholly arisen from the punctum of Sol, in that I call it the centre of the stars. It is the centre of the powers, the cause that the powers of the stars do act in the essence; it opens their powers, and gives its power into them, as a heart of the powers, and they mutually rejoice in its essence, that they are moved to act or desire in its essence.

33. And even here lies the great Mystery of the creation, viz. that the internal, viz. God, has thus manifested himself with his eternal speaking Word, which he himself is: the external is a type of the internal. God is not alienate: in him all things live and move, each in its Principle and degree.

34. The outward properties dwell in themselves in the external, viz. in the expressed Word, and are wholly external; they cannot in their own strength reach the powers of the holy world; the holy world alone penetrates them: it dwells also in itself: But in the punctum of Sol the eighth number is open, viz. the eternal nature, the eternal magical fire;

and in the fire the eternal tincture, which is the ninth number; and in the tincture the cross, where the Deity manifests itself, which is the tenth number: and beyond this manifestation is the eternal understanding, viz. the ONE, that is, God, JEHOVAH, viz. the ABYSS.

35. Not that God is divided: we speak of his manifestation alone, from what ability and power the sun has its shining lustre, that the same is immutable, so long as time endures; namely, from the lustre of the fiery tincture of the eternal, spiritual, magical fire.

36. For its lustre or shining light has a degree of a more deep original than the external world has manifest in itself. This the wise heathen have observed, and adored it for God, seeing the true God, who dwells outside all nature in himself, was not known unto them.

The Twelfth Chapter

Of the Six Days' Works of the Creation

1. That God has created heaven and earth and all things in six days, as Moses says, is the greatest Mystery, wholly hidden

from the external reason. There is neither night, morning, nor evening in the deep above the moon; but a continual day from the beginning of the outward world even to the end of the same.

2. And albeit the creation was finished in such a time as in the length of six days, yet the days' works have a far more subtle [or abstruse] meaning: for the seven properties are also understood therewith, six whereof belong to the active dominion, to good and evil, and the seventh, viz. the essence, is the rest, wherein the other properties rest, which God has expressed and made visible.

3. We have in the dominion of the planetic orb the figure, how the six properties of the active life (which rest in the seventh) have, in six days, out of the inward spiritual world, introduced and manifested themselves in an external visible world of four elements: for the planetic orb has its rise from the punctum of Sol; for there was

the royal place of the hierarchies, of which the whole circle (between the stars in the internal and external) is a member or Corpus.

4. But seeing the prince of the hierarchies (when he sat in the heavenly essence in the rest) did fall, and aspired to or for the centre of the eternal nature, he was cast into the darkness: and God by his motion created [for] him[-self] another prince out of this place (but without divine understanding) for a ruler of the essence; and that is the sun.

5. From this place proceeded, in the divine motion, the seven properties of nature (understand, the planets) which govern the essential being in good and evil (in which [essence] Lucifer sat, and whence he was cast, and lost his dominion in the essence); and as the seven properties have their dominion in the beginning of each day in the week, even so were the six days' works of the creation.

6. for Lucifer forsook the rest of his hierarchies, and entered into the eternal disquietness. Now, God has created all things of this world in six days, and rested on the seventh day from the creation, which is Saturday, according to the Scripture; that is, from the day of rest, understand from the eternal day of rest, he has moved himself to the creation; and in the first form of nature he began the first day; that is, he has brought it forth out of the impression, and moved himself with his Word: this was the most inward motion according to the speaking Word of power.

7. Then began, in the expressed Word, Sunday, that is, the true paradisical day, where the powers did mutually work in each other in great holiness and glory; for on Sunday the enkindled sulphur and salniter of the earthly property was created out of the great deep of the whole hierarchy, out of the spiritual worlds, into a mass (which is the terrestrial globe), and was put forth out of the austere property of the first form of nature.

8. Even then began the first hour of the first day: and the power of nature did mutually rule in great joy in the expressed Word, out of which power of joy the sun was created on the fourth day in the princely place: so that this power, whereout the sun was created, ruled the first hour of the beginning of the world; and so it began its dominion, which continues even unto the end of the world: and therefore the sun rules the first hour on Sunday; and the day is rightly so called.

9. The words of Moses concerning the creation are exceedingly clear, yet unapprehensive to reason, for he writes thus: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, and it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.

And out of the evening and morning was the first day 1) (Gen. i. 1-5).

10. The whole understanding is couched in these words: for the beginning is the first motion, which came to pass when prince Michael fought with the Dragon, when he was spewed out with the creation of the earth. For even then the enkindled essence, which with the enkindling did coagulate itself into earth and stones, was

cast out of the internal into the external.

11. And he, the Dragon, fell from heaven, viz. out of the holy world, upon the wrath of the earth, as lightning, as it is written: / saw Satan fall from heaven as lightning, says Christ. Moreover, it was wholly dark in the deep above the earth, and the austere endkindled wrath was manifest. For hell was prepared for him, whereinto he fell, viz. into the great darkness of the first Principle, wherein he lives.

1 The evening and morning were the first day.

12. Here now lies the veil before reason, that it cannot look into the eyes of Moses, for he says: And the earth was without form and void.

Yea, without form indeed. Had not the Spirit of God moved upon the internal water (which was amassed with the Fiat in the heaven), and had not God said, Let there he light, the earth would have been yet without form and void.

13. With the Word, when God said, Let there be light, the essence of the ens did powerfully move itself in the light's property, not only in the earth, but also in the whole deep: whence 1) on the fourth day the sun was created, that is, enkindled in its place. And in this word Fiat the earth's mass, and also the very power which is called heaven, amassed itself in the essence; all which before was only a spirit, a spiritual essence.

14. And with the speaking, as God spoke, Let there be light, the holy power, which was amassed in the wrath, moved itself, and became light in the same essence in the power. And with this coming to be light, the devil's might and strength was wholly withdrawn from him in the essence, for here the light shone in the now anew awakened

power, in the darkness; which [light] the prince of wrath could not comprehend; 2) it was also of no benefit to him, for it was the light of nature, which is useless to him.

15. And Moses said, God divided the light from the darkness, which is thus to be understood. The darkness remained in the wrathful property, not only in the earth, but also in the whole deep: but in the

light's essence the light of nature did arise [or spring forth] from heaven, viz. from the quintessence, whence the astrum was created;

which essence is everywhere in the earth, and above the earth.

16. Thus the darkness remained in the wrath's property in the essence of the earth, and also in the whole deep of this world. And the nature-light remained in the light's essence, as a working life, through which the holy element did operate and work; in which operation Paradise budded 3) through the earth, and bore fruit until the curse of God. And then the holy bloomings or growth ceased, and the holy element remained as an inward heaven, steadfast, retired in itself.

And yet it does diffuse its power through the light of nature, but not so powerfully as in the beginning, for the curse is the cause of its withdrawing; indeed there is no total departing, but yet it is nothing now as [compared with what it was] before the sin of the second created prince, Adam.

1 Out of which power or virtue in the light's property.

2 Receive or perceive.

3 Sprang.

17. Thus in the first motion of the Verbum Fiat the heaven (that is, the circle, so far as the Verbum Fiat reached itself forth to the creation) was amassed or enclosed; and the earth was amassed with the Verbum Fiat, and created to the planetic orb. Thus by the separation, viz. of the light and darkness, and by the expelling of prince Lucifer, we are to understand the creation of the first day.

18. Now the first day with the manifested Word did convey itself through the other five days, even into the day of rest; where the beginning enters again into the end, and the end again into the beginning. For the first motion of the Word, where the light of nature

has enkindled itself in the essence, is the joy of the creation or creature; which did open itself with the other days through all the properties of nature, where each property may be called a heaven: for it has and brings also its peculiar operation and efficacy along in itself into the rest, 1) and each day one property did move and manifest itself; wherein a peculiar sundry work was manifested and revealed.

1 Understand, into the rest of the properties or days.

19. The second day we call Monday, and therefore, because the moon rules the first hour of the day: and it is very likely that the ancient wise men have understood somewhat thereof in the light of nature, which they have kept secret and mystical, rather deciphering it by figures than clearly explaining it. And it is to be seen in the names of the seven planets, that they have for certain understood the same;

in that they have given them names according to the seven properties of nature, which do so wholly agree and accord, as well with the creation as [with] nature, that methinks they have in part understood the ground of the creation aright, seeing the names of the planets have their rise and derivation so fully and punctually out of the language of Nature. But the reason why it has not been made clear, plain and manifest is (as before mentioned) because of the false magic, that it might remain hidden unto the artists of juggling and collusion in nature, by reason of the great abuse. Wherefore we also shall still let it so remain, and yet hint enough to the understanding of our school-fellows.

20. Now of the second day Moses writes thus: And God said, Let there be a firmament between the waters, and let it divide between the waters.

Then God made the firmament, and divided the water under the firmament from the water above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament heaven. And out of the evening and morning was the second day (Gen. i. 6-8)

21. Moses said, that out of the evening and morning was the second day, that is, out of the manifestation of the first, the second manifestation proceeded and brake forth; and said further, that on

the second day God created the firmament of heaven, and separated the waters; the water under the firmament from the water above the firmament.

Here now lies the hidden veil, wherein we have hitherto been pointed and directed unto a heaven situate afar off above the stars, without the place of this world. So very blind is reason as to God that it understands nothing of him;

and does not consider that the Scripture says of God: Am not I he which fills all things: and, that time and place cannot divide him. Much less is it understood what the water above the firmament is, which they will flatly hold to be a place afar distant, viz. above the stars, whither also we have been shown into heaven.

22. But seeing that God out of grace does bestow upon us the understanding, therefore we will set it down for our fellow-scholars who are able to apprehend it; and yet herein we shall write nothing for the selfish wiselings of outward reason, for they have it already in the eyes of their reason, and cannot miss it, they can judge all things: what the Spirit of God reveals, that must be a heresy unto them, albeit they do not understand it: so that they remain without, and do not so much as once know God.

23. The firmament is the gulf between time and eternity: but that God calls it heaven and makes a division of the waters, gives us to understand that the heaven is in the world, and the world is not in heaven.

24. The water above the firmament is in heaven, and the water under the firmament is the external material water.

25. Here we must understand the difference between the holy [water] and the outward element-water: the water above the firmament is spiritual in the birth of the holy element; and the water under the firmament is mortal, for it is apprehended in the dark impression; the curse and the awakened vanity is therein, and yet one water is not without the other.

26. When I look upon the external water then I must also say, Here is also the water above the firmament in the water under the firmament. But the firmament is the middle, and the gulf therein between time and eternity; so that they are distinct. And I see with the external eyes of this world only the water under the firmament: but the water above the firmament is that which God has appointed in Christ to the Baptism of Regeneration, after that the Word of the divine power had moved itself therein.

27. Now the outward water is the instrument of the inward; and the inward water is understood [therein]; for the moving Spirit in the Word is he which rules the inward water in the Baptism. Dear Christians, let this be spoken to you; it is the real ground.

28. But that Moses says, God created the firmament, and called it heaven, is the most intimate secret, of which the earthly man is not able to understand anything: the understanding is barely in the power of the water above the firmament, viz. in the heaven, or (as I might set it down) in the Spirit of God. If he be awake {ne}d in man

in the water above the firmament, which disappeared in Adam, as to his life, that [man] sees through all; otherwise there is no understanding here, but all is dumb.

29. The creating of the heaven is understood, first how the speaking Word has amassed 1) the manifested powers of the spiritual world, wherein it is manifest, works, and also rules. Secondly, it is understood of the manifested powers of the external world, which the spirit has amassed into the essence of four elements, and closed into the external firmament, that the devil, viz. the prince of anger, cannot reach them;

by which he would work with the internal water: so that the powers of eternity do work through the powers of time, as the sun illumines the water, and the water comprehends it not, but feels it only; or as a fire does through-heat an iron, and the iron remains iron. So likewise the outward heaven is passive, and the inward works through it, and draws forth an external fruit out of the outward; whereas yet the inward heaven lies hidden therein in the firmament: as God is hidden in the time.

30. And we are to understand with the second day's work the manifestation of the internal heavenly and the external heavenly essence, viz. the manifestation of the water-source, understand, the essence of the seven properties, viz. the corporality, or the laboratory 2) of the other six; wherein the soul or spirit of the outward world works and rules in the external. This working 3) in the most external or inferior heaven next the earth is ascribed unto the moon, for it is the manifestation of the lunar property; not of the star 1) which was first created into the external on the fourth day to be a governor therein, but this same property [is] in the inanimate outward life, viz. in the vegetative life: the vegetative life was opened on the third day.

1 Conceived or formed. 2 Operate or work-house. 3 Or operation.

31. And when God had ordained the water into sundry places upon the earth, then he moved the external expressed word in the vegetative life. Now Moses says, God spoke, Let the earth put forth herbs, and grass yielding seed, and fruitful trees; each bearing fruit according to his kind; and let each have its seed in itself: and when it came to pass, out of the evening and morning was the third day (Gen. i. 11, 12).

Of the third day of the creation

32. In the original of the eternal nature, which is an eternal original, the manifestation of the six days' works is very clearly to be found; how the eternal Word has unfolded them out of the invisible spiritual [property] and brought them into the visible: also the form thereof is to be found in the planetary orb, if any has skill to apprehend it.

33. for in the eternal nature's birth there is an eternal day. Whatsoever God has manifested and made visible in six diversalls, 2) which are called days' works, that stands in the eternal nature in six distinct degrees in the essence, viz. in the seventh property, in which the six degrees of nature work, and yet also do eternally rest from working; they are themselves the working, which they give in to the seventh, as into their own peculiar rest, wherein their perfection and manifestation consists.

1 Star or planet called the moon. 2 Or distinctions.

34. And we are to understand nothing else by the creation, save that the Verbum Fiat has amassed the spiritual birth, and introduced it into a visible external dominion and essence. For we see it very clearly in the writings of Moses (albeit we have a glass besides to see),

that when God the first day had created the gross part into a mass, that he extracted the fine part out of the same first day's work, and severed and amassed the waters, viz. the spiritual essence, and produced it out of the first day, viz. out of the holy power, into a time; that is, out of the eternal day into an inchoative day.

35. Now the third accomplishment of the third day's work is the moving growing life, in which on the first day the light of nature did shine in the essence of the ens, after an external manner: it shone likewise now through the second day, viz. through the water and the heaven. And in this shining light the expressed Word did move itself in the essence, and wrought effectually;

and even then the power of

the expressed Word from the light of the inward nature did pullulate, and spring forth, through the external nature, out of the heaven through the earth. [And so] now the potentate who was a king and

great prince has lost his domination, for the essence of the wrath was captivated in the light of nature, and he with it. And so he lies between time and eternity, imprisoned in the darkness, until the judgement of God.

36. In the third day's work the sulphureous, mercurial, and saltish life out of the centre was opened out of the anguish in the outward world's property; and yet there is no anguish to be understood until the fire, but only a senseless forth-driving life, viz. a growth: for the fire-blaze arises out of the anguish, viz. out of the third form of nature:

and this is the salnitral flagrat, which severises the powers in the properties, which was moved in the third day's work, where the properties opened themselves, and were mutually unfolded in the salnitral flagrat, each out of itself;

which the impression did again receive into itself and made them corporeal in the water. And thence arose and proceeded trees, herbs and grass: each property became excressive 1) in the salniter, and did manifest itself with fruit: as we see

plainly how the property of the dark world did mightily force itself along in the outward power: whereupon some herbs and plants are so venomous and malignant; for the earth proceeded out of both the inward worlds to a compaction.

1 Or putting or budding forth.

37. Now Mars on Tuesday has the first hour of the day in dominion, which day is the third in the creation. And this salnitral fire-flagrat is even the property of Mars: as he is wrathful and fiery, so likewise is this property in the sulphur, where we then do understand the salnitral flagrat for the poisonful Mars; which is the cause of motion and stirring and the compunction in the first impression in the eternal nature, viz. in the dark world.

38. In the third day's work God moved the third property of nature, viz. the sulphurous source, in which the fire enkindled, and in the fire-flagrat is the division of the powers; where each property became manifest in itself: Now when God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, herb and trees, that is nothing else, but that when he moved the expressed Word of the powers in the properties, the properties found and felt the light of nature in them;

whereupon they became

hungry, and were impressed, that is, amassed and compacted or

coagulated. Now when as the light of nature found itself in a per-ceivance, and the nature did feel itself in the sweet light, thereby arose in the coagulation the dominion of joy, viz. the pullulation and growth.

For all growth consists in the light and water; when the light penetrates the Sulphur and water-source, then Mars springs up for great joy in the Sulphur.

39. This opening began on the third day, and continues unto the end of the world. On the first day the earth was without form and void, for the possibility 1) to the growth was not yet opened. Here the earth was moved and the properties opened, and not only the earth, but the whole deep in the centre of the outward nature made itself external, and yet remained also internal.

1 Or ability.

The Thirteenth Chapter

Of The Creation of the Fourth Day

1. The fourth day Mercurius has the first hour of the day, who causes the sensitive life. Here we understand very fully and exactly the ground of the manifestation of the inward nature into the external; for on the fourth day the sun and stars were created, which are the right mercurial life. Here the fire's property opened itself in the sulphurous-source through the water, and the first essence became manifest through the light of nature, which is a Mercurius Salnitri, an incentive Mercurius, a quick perceptive Mercurius.

2. In the third form of nature there is a senseless life in sulphur and Mercurius, but in the fourth there is a feeling life; for the properties are made painful in the fire; and in the oleous [life] they become meek, pleasant and full of joy: therefore now the motion in the oily is feeling from the painfulness.

3. Here we now understand very fundamentally how the separation in the fire of the eternal nature has manifested itself in the essence of the outward world with form and shape; for in the enkindling of the fire in the salnitral flagrat two essences do severise, viz. one watery from the devoration in the fire, where the fire devours the rough harsh source of the impression in itself; then out of the consuming there proceeds a great meekness, which is mortified to the fire, and is insensible, and gives the water-source.

4. Secondly, the fire-source does sever itself [likewise into its Principle], viz. the properties to the fire-source, which now with the enkindling of the fire are full of pain and sense. This fire-source could not subsist, unless it did again devour [or take] the water into itself whereby it does strengthen itself; whence also the salnitral flagrat arises, where the wrath is dismayed at the essence of the water's meekness; whence arises the feeling, so also the lustre, of the fire.

5. For that water which is devoured in the fire is dissolved into a spiritual oil, in which the fire shines; and out of the oil proceeds the air, viz. the moving spirit of the fire which is motive in the fire.

6. The air is nothing else but the moving life, where the speaking Word does diffuse itself in the water-source through nature, through the powers of nature, through the fire, in the oil of the nature of the light. It is the fire's life: but it is mortified to the fire, and yet it is made manifest by the fire; it is the life of nature according to the property of meekness.

7. Thus in 1) the enkindling of the fire in the light of the fire, which is the light of nature, four properties are to be understood, viz. a fiery, an airy, and an oily (wherein the light is manifest), and a watery;

all which do originally spring forth out of the first desire to nature; in that the free lubet introduces itself into a desire and nature; and they all display themselves through the fire into a moving life; and yet there is no intellective life, but only properties to the true life. The intellectual life is the spirited Word, which manifests itself through the properties.

These properties are impressed in the Crea T, that is, in the Verbum Fiat, and brought into an essentiality; wherefrom is come a Sulphur Salnitri, that is, a magical astrum, in manner and mode as the mind of man is; which also has thence its real original.

8. This salnitral and sulphureous property was brought forth out of the third day's work, viz. out of the fire-flagrat; and thence the fourth motion is arisen, viz. the mercurial, which the Fiat has amassed, and impressed it into it, and made it visible, which are the stars; which are nothing else but properties of the powers of nature. Whatsoever nature is in a little spark in itself, that the whole astrum is in its circle; and what nature is in its hiddenness, and secretness, the same the astrum is, in an open working life. Understand it thus:

9. Each star has the property of all stars in it, but hidden in nature, and the star is manifest only in one sole property; else, if the whole nature were manifest in each thing, then all things and essences would be but one thing and essence; and therefore God has, by his sounding Word, moved the Sulphur Salnitri according to the properties, that the distinct severation might be manifest: and this manifestation is a Mercurius; for the eternal-speaking Word, which is called God, has manifested his voice or will through nature.

10. Therefore the whole astrum is a pronounced voice (or breathed tone) of the powers, an expressed Word, which does again give forth

from itself its spiration and speaking out of the properties. It is an echo out of God's love and anger, out of the dark-and-light-world.

11. After the astrum 2) are the four elements, which also have their original out of this fountain; which also have their spiration [or out-breathing] out of themselves; they also speak forth their properties out of themselves, and they are as a body of the stars. For they speak or breathe forth from themselves a corporeal essence; and the stars do breathe forth a spiritual essence out of themselves: and this twofold essence rules mutually in the visible world, as body and soul.

1 Or by, or with. 2 Next the stars.

12. And we give you this rightly to understand: In each element there lies a whole astrum; the fire has a whole astrum in itself; and also the air, water, and earth, but it is not manifest in them. Therefore God has enclosed [or encircled] the place of this world with a manifest astrum, that it might enkindle the other astrum in the four elements, that the manifest astrum might work in the hidden mystery, viz. in the astrum of the four elements, and procreate wonders. For so a wonderful figure and property may be produced out of a thing, which otherwise is impossible for nature to do, in its own [naked] self.

13. Also we are to know, that there is an astrum in the divine magic, which is the fountain of the eternal mind of the abyss, whence nature and all essences are arisen. Likewise there is an astrum in the manifest heavenly world, and also an astrum in the dark hellish world.

And these astrums 1) are but one only astrum, but they are severised into distinct degrees and principles; that which in the outward world is open and manifest in the figure, the same is manifest in power in the spiritual world, and not in forms.

1 Or constellations.

14. And we understand, that the Verbum Fiat on the fourth day moved the fourth property of nature, viz. the fifth essence, and opened it out of the sulphureous property out of the fire-flagrat, viz. out of the third property. And thus an astrum became manifest in the air, which are the visible stars; and an astrum in the fire, which is the rational life of all creatures; and an astrum in the water, which is the vegetative life; and an astrum in the earth, which is the wrathful

earthly life.

15. The fiery [astrum] gives soul; and the airy, spirit; the watery affords the mansion of the soul and the spirit, viz. blood, wherein the tincture of the fire and light dwells; and the earthly gives flesh. And every of the four astrums gives a spirit and body according to its property. Only, God has thus associated one unto another, that the one might be manifest in the other, and be jointly together one body; like as all the four elements are only one element, but they divide themselves into four properties according to the centre of nature.

16. Therefore astrums do procreate out of themselves their officer, viz. the outward nature, that is, the soul of the outward world, as a constantly enduring mind; wherein lies the omnipotency, as a manifest Great Mystery. In this officer God has awakened and raised a king, or as I might set it down by way of similitude, a nature-god, with six councillors, which are his assistants;

that is, the sun, with the other six planetic stars, which were spoken forth out of the seven properties out of the place of Sol; and in the speaking were introduced into a rolling sphere, according to the property of the eternal generation in the centre of nature. And this was opened in seven degrees out of the birth; where the first degree of the motion in the light of nature,

(from the inward spiritual fire-and-light-world), was the sun, which receives its lustre from the tincture of the inward fire-and-light-world: it stands as an opened punctum to the fire-world. See Threefold Life of Man, ch. 4: pars. 16-49.

17. And with the spiration the sixfold life of the six degrees of the days' works and forms of the centre came forth externally and severised itself; after the kind and nature of the eternal birth. As first, Venus which is the water-source out of the meekness out of the mortification in the fire, which is a desire of meekness from 1) the fire, for the fire enkindles the meekness whence it is desirous. This is now the love-desire according to the spirit, and according to its essence it is water; which water in the metals affords the noble corpus solis.

1 By reason of.

18. This Venus, seeing she (as to her own natural right) is mortified to the fire, is submissive, and gives the holy water; under-

stand, as to her own peculiar property; which [water] is holy in the spirit, and yet in the essence it is captivated in the wrath, where it gives the material water according to the deadly property. It gives body unto all the seven metals, and essence to all the six planets: which we see in the metals;

for each planet makes its essence in its property according to itself. As the Sun, in gold; the Moon in silver; Jupiter in tin; Saturn in lead; Mercurius in quicksilver; Mars in iron; and yet it is the essence of the Venus property alone: but they give their power and spirit into it, and hold the body for their own, seeing they rule the same.

19. This Venus property in the place of Sol sank downwards in the first egress; and the fire-source above it is Mars; and out of Venus property beneath, the heavy sound, and that is Mercurius, out of the Sulphur Salnitri through the water; and upwards out of Mars, the power of the fire and light, that is Jupiter; and beneath, from Mercurius, the essence of the desire, where Venus comprehends the essence in her fiery desire, as a body of the powers, that is Luna; and above Jupiter, Saturnus, viz. the expressed or spirated impression of the first form of nature.

20. These properties were spherated in the spiration, in manner as the birth of nature is in the essence, which the Verbum Fiat received and amassed into a body, and ordained it for dominion unto the four astrums, over which he has appointed angelical rulers as a supreme council: which we give only a hint of here, seeing we have spoken thereof at large in another place.

The Fourteenth Chapter

Of the Creation of the Fifth Day

1. Now when God had opened the astrum and four elements as a moving life, wherein the superior astrum gave the distinction

in the moving life, and actuated the four astrums in the four elements, then he educed out of the essence of all the astrums and elements, through the motion of his speaking Word in the Verbum Fiat, the impress or express, as the power of that same life, which was free from

the pain, and amassed it through the Verbum Fiat, and spoke forth that same life, by the holy eternal-speaking Word through the Fiat, into forms and shapes, according to the properties of the astrums in the spiritual corpus, in which the Fiat or the desire attracted the elements according to the outward essence unto itself as a body.

2. And thence were creatures produced in all the four elements; in each astrum according to its property: as birds in the astrum of the air; fishes in the astrum of the water; cattle and four-footed beasts out

of the astrum of the earth, and four elements; likewise spirits in the fire-astrum, which also is in the other elements. And we see very exactly in the difference of the creatures that the degrees of the astrum

[or constellations] are so distinct and various. For the worms of the earth live in the third degree, viz. in the fire-flagrat, in the Sulphur, Mars, and Mercury, in the life devoid of understanding; and whereas they have an understanding [or instinct] by the enkindling of the superior astrum, in which third degree in the property also grass, herbs and trees do stand, and yet they receive assisting influence from the superior [astrum] in the enkindling, by which they are otherwise qualified.

3. And we see, that each kind has a spirit and body according to the degree of its astrum; for we understand, that out of one astrum many kinds of creatures do proceed: the cause whereof is that each astrum has again its degrees in itself. For there is in each astrum whatsoever all the astra have; but yet in sundry distinct degrees in the manifestation; and therefore the properties in each astrum are

manifold: so also divers sorts of creatures are proceeded from each astrum. The spirit of each kind is from the astrum, but all kinds must use the four elements; for they arise out of that fountain whence all the astra do originally proceed.

4. On the fifth day Jupiter has the dominion of the first hour of the day among the planets; and that, because he has his original in the creation of the astrum out of the fifth degree of nature, viz. out of the power of the sulphureous and salnitral oil; and that on the fifth day this Jovial property was opened and educed, out of the fourth day's property, as a pleasant powerful life out of all the constellations;

unto which life God created all creatures, except man, each out of the property of his constellation, out of his degree. So that they might all live in the soul of the outward nature, and be under the government of one officer; which is the outward constellation wherein the sun is chief regent.

5. Each constellation has its compaction of Sulphur and Mercury; the Sulphur gives essence, and Mercurius gives spirit into the essence; and from both these Sal is generated, viz. out of the sharp Fiat according to the property of Sulphur and Mercury. And out of these three properties, viz. out of Sulphur, Mercurius, and Sal, all creatures entered into a life and creatural being. And now such as the Sulphur was on each place in every punctum in the property, as was taken or conceived in the Fiat, in the motion of the fifth property, in all the elements, even such a creature was opened or brought forth. As the compaction was coagulated in each punctum, so each kind had its spirit and seed in itself to generate and bring forth again.

6. The two sexes, viz. the male and its female, arise from the separation of the watery and fiery tincture in Sulphur, for the separation was in the Verbum Fiat, where, out of one sulphur, in one only punctum, two sexes came forth out of one essence, viz. the fiery property in itself to a male, and the light's or water's property to a female, where then both tinctures severed.

7. And as we see that the fire cannot burn without the water, and the water were a nothing without the fire, and they mutually beget one another, and also do again vehemently desire each other; and their right life consists in their conjunction, in that they have produced each other, and afterwards do enter into and mutually

embrace each other as one;

where also they are again changed in the fire into one; and yet do again proceed forth from the fire in one essence, viz. in an oleous property, in which they stand in the bond of the highest love-desire; for their light shines in the oil. And as the fire-world desires the light-world, and the light-world the fire-world, as father and son, the like also is to be understood of the two sexes.

8. The female is from the male, as the tincture of the light and water is from the fire; and they jointly belong together in nature as one. Thus the one may not be without the other, and they have a very ardent longing after each other, for the tincture of the light, viz. Venus's tincture desires the fire's tincture, and the fire the light's, as its pleasing 1) delight.

1 Meekning.

9. For Venus gives essence, and the fire takes the essence to its life, and yields out of the received essence the light; and in the fiery light the oil, and out of the oil again the water and essence. And

hence it is that all creatures do desire copulation, each with its own kind; and so they do generate a third, viz. an assimulate, according to two in one: every ens brings forth a similitude according to itself.

10. And we see very clearly that each kind is created out of a sundry ens, each out of a different degree; and how each kind lives in its mother, whence it has taken its original; and that it cannot live in another degree. As the beasts upon the earth, which are a limus of the earth and air: therein they live; and thence they take their food and nourishment; for the Fiat extracted them out of the earth's property and amassed them in the fifth manifestation of the essence, as a sulphur of the fifth ens, whereon the four depend.

11. The birds were created in the sulphur of the air, therefore they fly in their mother; also the fishes in the sulphur of the water; and the worms in the sulphur of the earth. Thus each thing lives in its mother whence it was taken in the beginning, and the contrary is its death.

12. And the essence and life of this time is nothing else but a contemplation of the inward spiritual world; what the possibility of eternity has in it, and what kind of spiritual play is in the ens of the

inward spiritual world, accordingly it came forth into a creatural being, out of good and evil, into a time; and that, through the divine motion.

13. And hereby the kingdom and dominion of the prince of the place of this world was taken from him, for the ens has introduced itself into another Principle, wherein he cannot be; for he was not made a creature in this Principle, and he has no life therein, save only in the property of the awakened wrath in the vanity.

The Fifteenth Chapter

Of the Sixth Day's Work of the Creation

1. The sixth day in the creation is Friday, on which Venus rules the first hour of the day; which does rightly signify unto us the order of the degrees, how the eternal-speaking Word has manifested itself with nature, through the time; how the spirit has brought forth the six properties of nature into six degrees or days into

a working life, and yet has introduced them all again into the seventh, viz. into the rest, or into the mansion wherein they should work;

denoting that all whatsoever that they should work, manifest and produce out of the wonders of the eternal wisdom should reenter into the one, viz. into the rest; which is the seventh property; viz. a house of the working life, wherein it should stand as a figure to the contemplation of the great glory of God.

2. Now, when God had educed the five days of nature through five properties or degrees, into five constellations, (all which are not indeed constellations, but a fountain of an astral property), viz. into a sundry peculiar heaven, as it might be given and expressed to the understanding, then he did, on the sixth day, educe out of the Jovial property, viz. out of the fifth constellation, the sixth, viz. he produced out of the Jovial power the fiery love-desire; wherewith he rules through all the constellations. Whence it is that each life does long after its likeness; that is, it again desires such a creature as each life has in it.

3. Each life desires, in this Venus-property, to generate again such a creature as it is in itself: Hence arises the strong ardent imagination and fiery desire, that the properties do again desire into one, viz. into the fountain whence they proceeded; for in the same they may generate the assimulate of themselves.

4. Now when God had educed this fiery love-desire out of the centre through all the properties, then nature was now desirous (in this love-property) of the likeness of God, viz. [of] a similitude according to and in the generation of the holy love-desire; that so this holy constellation of the love-desire might also be creaturised and figurised.

5. And seeing this love-desire was educed out of all the properties of nature and the heavens, viz. out of the Verbum Fiat, wherein all the creatures lay from eternity in a Mystery, and [was] introduced into a separation, viz. into a sundry distinct degree, therefore now the property longed to be an image of all degrees and properties, viz. a living, rational and understanding image, according to the manifestation of this manifested property.

6. Now said the speaking Word in the Verbum Fiat, Let us make man: that is, out of the mesh 1) of all essences, out of the property of all powers and constellations, the love-desire desired a limus out of all essences for a living image: An image that may be like and resemble Us: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air; over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every worm (or creeping thing) that creeps upon the earth.

1 Mass or mixture.

7. Understand this thus: The sixth property of nature (viz. the love-desire) was produced, expressed or breathed forth out of all the properties, and was the desirous life in the joy, viz. in the light of nature. This was not itself a limus, but it was the desire to the limus; for the speaking Word which God expressed moved therein, viz. the intellectual life. God was therein manifest.

8. This manifested word of God desired, in this love-desire, a limus out of the earth and all the created essences, out of all the constellations and degrees, for a body unto itself; therefore God said, an image that may rule overfish, fowl, beasts, worms, and over the earth, and all the essences of the constellations. Now, if it must have dominion therein, then it must be thereout; for each spirit rules in its mother whence it is arisen and proceeded; and eats of its mother.

9. But here we must rightly understand this love-desire in the expressed Word. The expressed Word had, in this Venus-desire, the desire of all heavens, that is, of all entities and properties in itself, viz. the properties of the inward spiritual holy heaven, which is the mansion of the power of God; and of the outward created heaven, with the heavens of all constellations and elements; yet not essentially [or in substance], but as a spiritual desire: and these properties desired, in the spiritual desire, to be essential.

10. Now the text in Moses speaks very clearly and fully, where

it says, And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him. By the creating is understood the body, which is twofold, viz. a spiritual body and a corporeal; for the Venus-desire is a spiritual body;

and that which it has attracted unto itself in the Fiat into the desire of the spiritual body, that is a fleshly body. The Verbum Fiat itself did figurise and form it into a spiritual man, out of all the three Principles, viz. according to the inward divine world, both according to the fiery-light-world and the outward world.

11. And the spiritual body is the image of God, which the Fiat clothed with the essence out of all the essences, viz. with the heavenly holy essence, the heavenly holy corporality of the inward holy love-desire. And from the outward love-desire [it was clothed] with the limus of the earth and the other elements, together with the visible constellation of the third Principle.

12. The inward holy man was in the heaven of God, and the outward man was in the outward heaven, a limus of the outward heaven, and the inward man a limus of the holy spiritual heaven. Therefore says Moses very rightly, God created man in his image, to the image of God: for in betokens that he was known by the spirit of God in this essence from eternity in the Mystery of wisdom as a constellation of magical power. Into this knowledge God introduced the essence, and created the essence to the image of the magical image of God.

13. Thus understand by the inward creating the true heavenly image, viz. a holy [spiritual] man out of all the properties of the angelical divine world. Understand the inward body for the one only element, whence the four were expressed; and understand the outward man for the outward world, with the stars and four elements, viz. fire, air, water and earth, and also for the outward tincture, which is linked with the inward in the holy expressed Word, and is only severed by a Principle; where also the inward puts forth an external life out of itself. The inward is holy, and the outward [life or Principle] in the tincture were likewise holy, if the curse were not come into it by reason of the awakened vanity; yet if the vanity be severed by 1) the tincture, then it is holy, and a paradise, which shall open itself at the end of this world.

1 Or from.

14. And Moses says further, God breathed into man the breath of life, and he became a living soul: this signifies the living, speaking, understanding spirit, out of all the three Principles, viz. out of the inward fire-world, which is manifest through the dark world; and out of the holy light-world, and out of the outward aerial-world: this is the soul.

15. The inward fire-breath is the true eternal creatural soul; and the light-breath is the true understanding spirit of the soul, wherein it is an angel; and the outward air-breath is the rational soul in the vegetative bestial life, wherewith man rules over all the creatures of this world. That is one only soul in three Principles, according to the image or likeness of God.

16. As the only understanding of the abyssal unsearchable Deity has manifested itself with three Principles, so likewise he has breathed into the created image the same spirit, viz. the true life out of all the three Principles. The body is a limus of all essences, and the soul is the expressed Word, viz. the power and understanding of all essences, viz. the manifestation of the divine understanding.

17. The spirit of God has inspired or given in itself from the properties of all the three Principles, into the created image, viz. the Father of all essences has breathed or spoken forth the spirit, through his eternal-speaking Word, out of all the three Principles, out of the whole essence of the powers; or, as I might set it down, he has inspoken it, viz. the egressed sound or expressed voice of the understanding which, through the motion of God, did educe and manifest itself through the eternal and temporal nature. The same [spirit] God did again in-speak or, as the text in Moses has it, breathed [itself] into this only image, for a ruler of the body and all other creatures.

18. And the soul, in its real life and understanding, consists in three kingdoms: the first is the eternal nature, viz. the potent might of eternity, the dark and fire-world, according to which God calls himself a strong zealous angry God, and a consuming fire, in which Lucifer has wholly diabolised himself.

19. The second is the holy light-world, where the eternal understanding has displayed itself through the fire's-sharpness, in the light of the great fiery love-desire, and turned the wrathful dark-and-fiery

propery to a kingdom of joy; which is the true manifestation of the Deity; and it is called the holy heaven of the angelical delight and bliss.

20. The third kingdom or world is the outward astral and elemental kingdom, viz. the air, with its domineering constellations, wherein all the five outward constellations rule, viz. the superior, and the inferior of the four elements, out of which the five senses take their original, wherein the vegetable and reasonable life consists. This is the animal soul, which rules in all the creatures of this world, so also in all the outward heavens or constellations, and in all the earth or essences of the outward world.

21. Understand it thus: the fire-breath out of the first Principle rules in its original, viz. in its own mother, whence the spirit of God amassed (or moulded) it, viz. in the centre of the eternal nature, in the might of the dark-and-fire-world. And it is the cause of the light-life; and also of the air-life: if that were not, then none of the others would be.

22. And the light-breath rules in the second Principle, viz. in the holy kingdom of the manifested power of God, which is the mansion of the holy spirit of God, the temple of God, viz. in the heavenly holy essence;

understand, in the holy spiritual body of the holy pure element, which, with its properties, stands in equal weight and measure, as a fit prepared instrument of the spirit; wherein he manifests God's wonders out of the eternal wisdom, and introduces them into the melody of joy, viz. into the holy harmony of the eternal-speaking Word of God, into the divine kingdom of joy, viz. into the manifestation of the divine powers; in which the holy spirit is the true musician.

23. And the air-spirit rules also in its mother, whence it originally stood, viz in the outward world, in the figure and similitude of the inward world, viz. in the outward mystery of time; and manifests its mother, which is brought forth out of eternity into a time, to the contemplation of the wonders of the wisdom of God.

24. And yet there are not three souls, but only one. But the soul stands in three Principles, viz. in the kingdom of God's anger, and

in the kingdom of God's love, and in the kingdom of this world. And if this were not, then it could not be said, the soul went into heaven or

hell, if they 1) were not in it. When the air, viz. the outward kingdom of time does leave the soul, then is the soul manifest either in the dark fire-kingdom of God, or in the holy kingdom of light, in the love-fire of the power of God; whereunto it has given up itself in this life-time, therein it stands when it foregoes the outward life.

1 Heaven and hell.

25. And we are in no wise to think that the soul is God himself; who is neither nature nor creature, also dwells in nothing, save only in himself; and yet dwells through all things, and is neither far off nor nigh unto any thing. But the soul is the expressed Word, the formed Word; it is the spirit and the life of the three Principles of divine manifestation. But if it were God, then it were immovable, and no judgement could pass upon it.

26. But a judgement may pass upon it, if it departs out of that order wherein God introduced it in the beginning; if it goes out of the divine harmony, out of the order of the manifested word of God's power, if it cloth manifest or produce another will in itself, viz. other properties out of the strong might of the eternal nature.

27. The whole man with body and soul is threefold; and yet but one only man. The body is out of a threefold essence; and the soul is out of a threefold property of the spirit. An example thereof you have in the fire, light and air: the fire has another property than the light and air have. The fiery body is the eternal constellation, viz. the magical constellation, the Great Mystery, out of which the outward constellation was produced, and brought into a creatural being or creation.

28. The fiery spirit, viz. the fiery soul, dwells in the fiery spiritual body; and in the light's body (which is from the holy element, viz. from the true heavenly image, which consists in a spiritual Sulphur, Mercurius and Sal) dwells the holy soul, viz. the true spirit of the soul, which is a temple of God; and in the outward body (which is a limus of the earth and the other elements), viz. in the outward constellation of the five senses, the outward soul, viz. the real spirit of the outward world does dwell.

29. Each property of the soul has a corporeal property in itself; which may be called a heaven, viz. a sundry special magical astrum; as the fiery property of the soul has a body from the inward con-

stellation of the dark and fire-world, which is a spiritual body.

30. And the lucid 1) property of the soul has a spiritual, oleous and watery body, wherein the two properties of the highest tincture of the fire and light do open the lustre and beauty of the colours, wonders and virtue of the divine wisdom. This water is the water above the firmament, of which Moses speaks; and this oil is the holy oil of the divine powers; and this was a usual type in the Old Testament, in that the real oily body of the heavenly property did disappear in Adam in the awakened vanity; so God ordained the type of the new Regeneration with an unction of oil, wherein he powerfully wrought through the promised Covenant, as in a

type.

1 Or light.

31. The third outward property of the soul has likewise every way such a body of many constellations in it, as always the inward properties; all which multiplicity of properties may be called heavens.

For each property of the outward body has a magical constellation; as there is a body of the sulphurean constellation of the earth; also a body or constellation of the mercurial, poisonful life; also a body of the salt-powers of bodies; also a body of the soul of the outward world,

viz. of the upper created constellation; all according as the outward powers of the outward soul are. Thus each power has a corporeal property in it: and thus also the inward powers of the spiritual property are to be understood with the inward body.

The Sixteenth Chapter

Of the Difference of the Heavenly and Earthly Man

1. When we consider the image of God which God created in Paradise unto the eternal uncorruptible life, then we can in

no wise say of the gross fleshy image, that the gross property of the earthliness is the image of God, which can possess the holy world: for

it is not of the same essence and ens, whereof also Christ speaks: The spirit is life; the flesh profiteth nothing: also, flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven. And yet verily the true body is couched in this bestial, gross property; as the gold in the ore.

2. All that is earthly on man, that is bestial and corruptible, and not man. Albeit God created man an external body out of the limus of the earth; yet it is not to be considered of us, as now it is. For the true human body, according to the inward world, is a spiritual Sulphur, a spiritual Mercurius, and a spiritual Sal: each property of the soul has a corporeal or essential quality on it.

3. God created such a body as the soul was in its essence, viz. in the spirated Word of the understanding; and breathed the soul thereinto for the understanding; also, the outward sulphurean body is in no wise the gross beast which passes away and returns not again. The true, real body, which is hidden in the grossness, is a spiritual body, in comparison to the grossness: it is created indeed in flesh and blood; but in a fixed, steadfast [uncorruptible flesh and blood].

4. By the lust and imagination of Adam the grossness was manifest; the true outward body is a sulphureous, mercurial and saltish property; a pure essential power, according to the nature of the soul: That which the soul is in the spirit, the same is the true human body in the essence, as a mansion of the soul.

5. All the properties of the inward holy body, together with the outward, were (in the first man) composed in an equal harmony, none lived in self-desire, but they all gave up their desire unto the soul, in which the divine light was manifest, as in the holy heaven. The light shone through all the properties, and made an equal temperature in the properties; all the properties gave their desire into the light, viz.

into the manifested sweetness of God, which penetrated all the properties; in which penetration they were all tinctured with the sweet love; so that there was nothing but mere pleasing relish and love-desire and delight between them.

6. The inward holy corporality from [of] the pure element penetrated through the four elements, and held the limus of the earth (viz. the outward sulphureous body) in itself as it were swallowed up; and it was really there, but in manner as the darkness dwells

in the light, and yet its darkness cannot be manifest for the light; but if the light extinguishes, then the darkness is manifest.

7. Thus the inward man held the outward captive in itself and penetrated it, as a fire through-heats an iron, that it seems as if it were all fire; but when the fire goes out, then the dark, swart iron is manifest.

8. Thus likewise was the first man when he stood in Paradise, in his fixed condition, in manner as time is before God, and God in the time; and they are distinct, but not parted asunder. As the time is a play before God, so also the outward life of man was a play unto [before] the inward holy man, which was the real image of God.

9. The outward spirit and body was unto the inward as a wonder of divine manifestation, according to the fire-dark-and-light world, a mirror of the great omnipotence and omniscience of God: and the inward was given unto it for a ruler and guide.

10. As God plays with the time of this outward world, so likewise the inward divine man should play with the outward in the manifested wonders of God in this world, and open the divine wisdom in all creatures, each according to its property; so likewise in the earth, in stones and metals, in which also there is a twofold essence, viz. one from the original of the dark fire-world, and one from the original of the holy light-world.

11. All this was given him for his play: he had the knowledge of all tinctures: all was subject to him; he ruled in heaven and earth and over all the elements, so also over all the constellations; and that, because the divine power was manifest in him: no heat nor cold did annoy him. As a tincture penetrates a body and preserves it from sickness, and as the warmth of the sun defends the body from cold, so likewise the highest tincture of the fire and light, viz. the holy

power of the inward spiritual body, penetrated the outward body of flesh and blood, and took every outward elemental property, as also the limus of the earth, into its preservation or protection.

12. for as there was a temperature in the body of the inward and outward man, so likewise there was nothing without the body that could either destroy or annoy this temperature. As gold endures in the fire, and as a tincture penetrates all things, and yields or gives way unto nothing, so likewise man was not subject unto any thing, save only and alone to the only God, who dwelt through him, and was manifest in him with the power of the holy essence: and this was an image and likeness of God, in whom the spirit of God inhabited.

13. Reasons will understand us amiss, and say, I speak of a twofold man. But I say no! I speak only of one only man, who is a likeness according to God, viz. according to the manifested God, according to the expressed formed Word of the divine power, of divine understanding.

14. As all things are in God essentially [in essence], and yet he himself is not that very essence; and yet that essence rules every essence according to its property; so likewise the inward spiritual man is an image of the formed Word of divine power, and the outward an image of the inward, viz. an instrument of the inward. As a master must have an instrument wherewith to finish and perform his work, so likewise the outward man from the limus of the earth and four elements, with its outward constellation, is only an instrument of the inward, wherewith the inward frames and makes what the inward spirit of the soul wills.

15. As we see that the will is the master in all purposes and undertakings; and [we] see further, that the inward man has divine will and desire, but the outward [has] only a bestial [will], which is so by reason of the fall. The whole man is but one only man, but his property lies in sundry degrees, according to the inward and outward heavens, viz. according to the divine manifestation through the seven properties of nature.

OF THE CREATION OF THE SEVENTH DAY

16. God created all things in six days out of the seven properties, and introduced the six days' works of the manifestation of his creature

into the seventh, wherein every life should work as in one body; for the seventh day and the first belong mutually to one another as one. For the six properties of the eternal nature are all couched in the seventh, as in a structure [operate or work-house] of the other six; the seventh property is a mystery or essence of all the others; and out of the seventh day the first day has taken its original and beginning.

SEVENTH DAY, SATURNUS

17. For on the seventh day, viz. Saturday, Saturn has the first hour of the day [under] his dominion in the planetic orb; which is a figure of the sevenfold generation of the eternal nature. For like as the

first form of the eternal nature is the astringent desire, viz. the Fiat, which in the desire impresses the free lubet (which is as a thin nothing in the eternal will of God, in the divine understanding) and introduces it into a spiritual essence, in which desire-essence all the properties do arise, as is above mentioned.

18. So likewise Saturn, or the seventh property of the seventh day, is the rest or mansion of the other six days works, wherein they work as a spirit in the body: the seventh property stands still as a senseless life.

19. But that now Moses says, God rested on the seventh day from all his works, and sanctified the seventh day for rest: this has a very peculiar emphatical deep meaning; and yet it were but plain and child-like, if we were in Paradise, and dwelt in the Sabbath. Understand it thus:

20. Out of the Verbum Fiat, viz. out of the divine Word, and out of the divine desire (which is the Fiat in the Word, wherewith the Word forms itself, or introduces itself in the spiritual essence to the dark fire-and-light-world), the six properties of the eternal and

temporal nature proceeded; and each has introduced itself into a sundry degree of a sundry property, which degree may be called a heaven, or a magical spiritual-constellation.

21. For each property is a spirated essence, viz. a heaven: for heaven [Text, Himmel, expounded in the Language of nature] does properly and exactly denote and signify, in the Language of nature, a spiration or formation, where the Fiat forms what the Word speaks or breathes forth; and thus the spiration or speaking was introduced into six degrees or days'-works.

22. Each spiration continued [for] a time, viz. the length of a day and night in the formation and conception, and each property of a day was mutually spoken or breathed forth out of the other, even unto the sixth, in which the formed Word was manifest, which in the fifth form, viz. in the love-desire, did receive its aspect or illustration through the fire from the light; and amassed or formed itself in the sixth form of nature; in which formation the image of God (man) was

created, as an image of the formed Word, which God introduced into the Sabbath, viz. into the seventh day, understand, into the Verbum Fiat, viz. into the first divine desire to nature, wherein Paradise and the eternal day was.

23. For in the seventh property lieth the eternal day, whence the days of time are proceeded; and the ancients have called it Sonnabend

[Sun-evening, or the evening of the sun. In our English, Saturday]; but it is rightly called Sonnaabend [The Evening of reconciliation: or Saving-day] , wherein God's love does appease and atone the anger; as, when the six properties in the operate do enkindle themselves in the impression in the wrath's property, they are atoned and reconciled in the seventh property, viz. in the manifested holy power of God in the love-desire; (which holy power manifests itself in the fifth and sixth property, and does encircle the operate of all the rest as a holy heaven) and so are introduced into one only essence, wherein they rest, as in the Word of the Lord [Text, im Verbo Domini]; which has introduced itself with the seven properties into nature and essence; and thereof Moses speaks rightly, God rested on the seventh day from all his works, and hallowed the seventh day.

24. Understand it here aright: God rested with his formed Word (which he first introduces into darkness and fire, viz. into the first Principle, according to which he is called a consuming fire), in the second Principle, viz. in the formed holy Word, where he educes himself through the fire in the light in the love-desire, viz. in the holy Fiat: and rests eternally with his manifested Word therein. His rest therein is a dominion of joy, where the anguish-source of God's wrath, of the eternal nature, is changed into a divine kingdom of joy.

25. And this rest is the holy heaven in the natural heaven, where time works in itself; and sets forth its operate for the day of rest,

viz. the day of separation, where, at the end of the days of this world, the evil shall be separated from the good, and each thing shall possess its own heaven, viz. the property of its original [or sourcive] spirit, whence it was generated.

26. But in this time God's love and anger must mutually work in one another, and manifest the wonders of God, both according to the fire-[world] and light-world, and the Verbum Domini rests in the seventh manifestation of the properties, and shines with its power and virtue into the operation of the six days, viz. into the six properties; and affords aid and help to every life.

27. In the seventh property all things are brought into their end, viz. into the first day of the beginning of all essences. For the seventh day, viz. the seventh property of the eternal nature, is the transparent glassy sea before the throne of the Ancient, in the Revelation of St. John's,

whence, as out of the Grand Mystery [Ex Mysterio Magno], this world was created into sundry peculiar heavens and forms, and formed in the Verbum Fiat.

The seventh day was from eternity without and beyond all time, for it is the formed Word of the divine understanding; in it the eternal wisdom of God is manifest, viz. the powers and wonders of the divine

understanding, in which the Deity works.

The Seventeenth Chapter

Of Paradise

1. Moses said, that when God had made man, that he planted a garden in Eden, and there he put man, to till and keep the same: and caused all manner of fruits to grow, pleasant for the sight and good for food: and planted the Tree of Life, and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the midst (Gen. ii. 8, 9).

2. Here lies the veil before the face of Moses, in that he had a bright shining countenance, that sinful Israel cannot look him in the face. For the man of vanity is not worthy to know what Paradise is; and albeit it be given us to know it according to the hidden man, yet, by this description, we shall remain as dumb to the beast; but yet be sufficiently understood by our fellow-scholars.

3. The Garden Eden was a place upon the earth, where man was tempted; and the Paradise was in heaven; and yet was in the Garden Eden. For as Adam, before his Eve [was made out of him], before his sleep, was as to his inward man in heaven, and as to the outward upon the earth;

and as the inward holy man penetrated the outward, as a fire through-heats an iron, so also the heavenly power out of the pure element penetrated the four elements, and sprang forth through the earth, and bore fruits, which were heavenly and earthly, and were qualified [sweetly tempered] of the divine power; and the vanity in the fruit was held as it were swallowed up, as the day hides the night, and holds it captive in itself; that it is not known and manifest.

4. Paradise was nothing else but the seventh day's property. The heavenly essentiality of the second Principle is couched or shut up in the earth, the curse of God has hidden it; it budded (in the beginning of the world) through the earthly essentiality, as the eternity is in the time, and the divine power is through all things; and yet is neither comprehended nor understood of any earthly thing in selfhood.

5. But in Paradise the essence of the divine world penetrated the essence of time, as the sun penetrates the fruit upon a tree, and effectually works it into a pleasantness, that it is lovely to look upon and good to eat: the like also we are to understand of the garden in Eden.

6. The word Eden [expounded according to the Language of nature] is nothing else but what Moses says of the earth: that it was void and empty;

that is, it should not manifest its might according to the wrath of vanity, it should be still, as a mother to bring forth. For the internal would rule through the external, as the spiritual world through time, [and] heaven through the earth. The earth was empty without fruit; but the heaven was its husband, which made it fruitful, and bore fruit by it until the curse, where heaven did hide [disappear or withdraw] itself from the earth.

7. The whole world would have been a mere Paradise, if Lucifer had not corrupted it, who was in the beginning of his creation a hierarch in the place of this world. But seeing God knew well that Adam would fall, therefore Paradise sprang forth and budded only in one certain place, to introduce and confirm man therein; whom (albeit God saw that he would again depart thence), he would again introduce thereinto by Christ, and establish him anew in Christ, to eternity in Paradise.

8. For Lucifer poisoned the first Paradise with his false and wicked desire, therefore God promised to regenerate it anew in Christ; for the seventh day, which God appointed for rest, is nothing else but Paradise regenerate anew in the spirit of Christ, in the human property, wherein the poor soul shall rest eternally from the source of the six days'-works, viz. of the six properties of the life.

9. Also it is the seventh time or manifestation of God, in which the Mystery of God's kingdom shall be finished, when it shall be again pure in the place of this world; when heaven shall be again manifest in the world, and the devil driven out with his wickedness: [Text: evil essence ] whereinto no unclean thing shall any more enter; for this world, in which Adam was, before his Eve, must again return, as it was before the curse, in which righteousness shall rule:

but the vanity shall be purged away through the fire of God's anger, and given to the dark world.

10. But that Moses said, the Tree of Life stood in the midst of the Garden, and presently next after sets down, and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Here lies the veil before his eyes, that the earthly sinful man cannot behold him; for he is not worthy of it; for his earthliness in the curse of the bestial vanity shall not inherit Paradise.

11. The precious pearl lies in [the knowledge of] the difference of the two Trees: and yet it is but only one, but manifest in two kingdoms.

For the Tree of Life stands wholly in the midst of the Garden; for it stands in two Principles, in the midst, viz. in the holy world, between the eternal dark world of God's anger, where God is an angry zealous God and a consuming fire, and the outward visible world.

12. The holy power of God in the Tree was the middle-most kingdom, and Paradise was the outermost kingdom; for the middlemost penetrated the outermost, and manifested itself with the outward.

This was the knowledge of the Good, which Adam should have as little known, in its original, as the Evil: he was created for an instrument of God, with whom God would manifest his wonders in figures; he should keep only a child-like mind, and be resigned unto God.

13. Now the Tree of the Knowledge of Evil was the dark world, which also was manifest on this Tree; likewise the vanity, as now [At this day] it is;

all earthly fruit was manifest therein. Therefore Moses distinguishes the Tree, and says, the Tree of Life; thereby he understands the property of the eternal life in the Tree, viz. the second Principle. And by the words, of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, he understands [means] the wrath of the anger of God, which was manifest by the essence of the outward world, in earthliness in this Tree, of which Adam should not eat; for he should have eaten [or eat] with the inward mouth, and not with the earthly desire but with the heavenly;

for he had such fruit growing for him which the inward mouth could enjoy; indeed the outward mouth did also eat thereof; but not into the worm's carcass.

14. For as the light swallows [avalleth] up the darkness, so the celestial swallowed up the terrestrial, and changed it again into that whence it proceeded;

or as the eternity swallows up the time, and in it is as a nothing. So likewise there were two centres in Adam's mouth. For the kingdom of God stands in power; and Adam also, before his Eve, stood in the kingdom of God, for he was male and female, with both divine heavenly tinctures; and neither the fire's nor the light's tincture or desire should be manifest in him, for they should stand in equal weight [in the true temperature] resigned in [or to] God.

15. But in the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil the properties, viz. of God's love and anger, and also the earthliness (as it is at this day in the curse), were peculiarly manifest, each in itself, and did eagerly put themselves forth; that is, they were departed out of the likeness, out of the equal harmonious accord. And all the three Principles were each of them in an especial manner manifest in this Tree, and therefore Moses calls it, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

16. Reason says, Wherefore did God suffer this Tree to grow, seeing man should not eat thereof? Did he not bring it forth for the fall of man? And must it not needs be the cause of man's destruction?

This is that about which the high schools contend, and understand it not; for they go about to seek and apprehend the inward in the outward, and it remains hidden and dead unto them, they understand not what man is.

17. Man, according to body and soul, was created out of all the three Principles; and was placed in the Principles, in the properties of the inward and outward world, in equal number, weight and measure; none of the Principles did exceed the other; there was an agreeing harmony; the divine light tempered all the properties, so that there was a mutual melody and play of unanimous love between them.

18. The fiery dark-world rejoiced in the holy light-world, and the light-world in the outward [world], as in its manifestation. Again, the outward world joyed itself in both the inward worlds; as in its life; and there was a mere pleasing harmonious will, pleasure and sweet delight between them. The Mercury, viz. the sounding, hearing and feeling life, viz. the manifestation of the divine Word in the Fiat, did

mutually penetrate all essences, in a very exceeding joyful property.

19. The property or essence of all the three worlds reached with the desire after the light [or set their desire upon the light];

and in the light the expressed Word was holy. This holy Word gave its power and virtue to the sound of the inward dark fire-world; and also into the sound of the outward elemental world, viz. it gave itself into the inward fiery Word or life, and also into the outward earthly life.

20. Thus the holy divine Word was predominant through all the three Principles of the human property, and there was an equal accord; and no enmity or opposite will was manifest between the Principles, but a mere harmonious affection and inclination of will, pleasing relish, ravishing melody, sweet smell, a friendly smiling, and most pleasant aspect, a meek and kind sense, and mutual fruition of delight.

21. for man was, on the sixth day, taken and created unto a divine likeness and image in the sixth manifestation of the seven properties of the divine harmonious manifestation in the expressed power, which has diffused and manifested itself through the fifth property, viz. through the fiery love-desire. His true life's-centre was the fifth property of the eternal nature, viz. the fiery love-desire; which held the fire and darkness hidden [or shut up] in itself, and used it to its joy and delight.

22. But it is very needful for us to understand aright in this place, whence the desire to fall away from the equal accord did arise, both in the hierarch Lucifer, and also in Adam, the second hierarch or royal prince in the divine image.

23. When the eternal only God once moved himself through the eternal spiritual nature, viz. in the eternal great abyssal Mystery, and comprised [or amassed] this Mystery into a circumference or place, to manifest his great wonders; and introduced the eternal wisdom into a formal visible contemplation, and manifested all the seven properties of the inward eternal spiritual world, and introduced them into a creation of the angels;

then all the properties were moved and affected

and each desired to be in a creatural form, in the place, so far as the

Verbum Fiat had put itself forth [or given itself in] to motion and

manifestation.

24. And the angelical princes also, with their legions, were taken and created out of the properties in the Verbum Fiat, even from the first centre where the eternal lubet betakes itself into a desire, and introduces itself into nature, unto the most external manifestation, each hierarchy in its heaven or property.

25. But seeing Lucifer was, in his creation or formation of the properties, apprehended in the Principle of the property where the enkindling fire arises, where the light is manifest, thereupon he became so aspiring in himself as the most mighty prince; and being in the root of his creatural original he understood the great magical constellation, viz. the Mystery of the ground of all being, but yet in the dark property, which yet was now moved and affected; which magical constellation also desired to be [or would be] manifest and creatural in the dark world, thereupon it set its desire upon this mighty prince and hierarch.

26. And he, Lucifer, turned himself away from the divine light into the fiery Mystery, towards the darkness, whence the fire arises. And so the magical astrum of the Grand Mystery of the dark world apprehended him; for his desire, which the Verbum Fiat had extro-duced through the fire in the light, turned itself back again thereinto, and would be like the creator of all beings, and change himself

and the essence according to his own pleasure.

27. Thus he contemned the meekness in the light, viz. the second Principle, which [arises] through the fire-death, (where the wrath, of the spiritual essentiality of the wrathful dark property, dies in the fire; and out of which death of devoration the second Principle, viz. the holy love-world of great meekness and humility, is generated), and went back into the first Principle, viz. In magiam naturae, into the original of the eternal nature; and would be an omniscient artist: he would rule and domineer in and above the whole creation,

and be a co-former in all properties.

28. Thus the light was extinct to him, for he made his angelical essence, which stood in great meekness and in fiery love-desire, wholly rough, austere, cold, wrathful and fiery, in the dark wrathful property; and the properties of enmity instantly arose in him, for in the light they could not be manifest; but when the light extinguished they were manifest, and he became a devil; and was driven out of the angelical world, out of his own heaven of the second

Principle.

29. Thus we are to know, that the fall befell him from his creature, for he had not turned away his creatural desire from the divine meekness and love, in pride and stubborn will, to rule in the matrix of the pregnatress, which took him as a player, he had remained an angel. Had he continued under God's love-spirit and will, then his anger-spirit and will had not captivated him.

30. But seeing he has freely and willingly broken himself off from God's love-will, he has now God's anger-will in him, wherein he must be a manifestor and worker of the dark world's property, for it also would be creatural. Here it has a right captive,that can artificially act in ape's-sport; and now, as the dark world is in its property in its desire such also is its hierach or creatural prince.

31. And here it is very requisite for us to know aright how man came to fall. Man was created in the stead and place of extruded Lucifer, understand the inward spiritual man. He wa created in the same heaven, according to the inward human soul,

and should possess the hierarchy which Lucifer had lost; and hence the devil's envy against man is arisen.

32. But seeing God did well know that the devil would tempt him, and not beteem him that honour, the deepest love of God (viz. the high name Jesus out of JEHOVAH) has freely given itself herein, to regenerate this hierarchy which Lucifer had defiled;

and to purge it through the fire, and to introduce his highest love thereinto; and to overcome the wrath (which Lucifer had awakened) with love, and change it again into divine joy, viz. into a holy heaven; in which place the Last judgement stands [or unto which end the Last judgement is appointed]. And this is that which Saint Paul says, Man was chosen [or elected] in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world was laid.

33. And for this end God created man out of three Principles in one, that [being] he did not live wholly in the place of Lucifer, that so he might help him. for God saw very well, according to the property of his wrath, that man would fall; but he would bring him again through and in the name Jesus through the corruptible death, into the royal kingdom whence Lucifer was fallen; in whose stead the man Christ, God and man in one person, should sit as a hierarch, high priest, or the great prince of men, in the name and power of Jesus

out of JEHOVAH.

34. Therefore we are here rightly to consider of the fall of man, how he stood in Paradise and was tempted, and what the Paradise was. Man stood in three Principles, which indeed stood in man himself; viz. in body and soul, in equal accord and harmony;

but not [so] without him, for the dark-world has another desire than the light-world; so also the outward world has another desire than the dark-and-light-world. Now the image of God stood between three Principles, all which three did set their desire upon this image, each would be manifest in Adam, and have him in their dominion for a ruler, and manifest their wonders through him.

35. But he, man, should have introduced his desire only into the sixth property of the divine manifestation, wherein he was created to an image of God;

he should be wholly resigned to God; he should live only in the manifested divine Word, obedience to God, and not enter into [his] own will, but introduce his desire into God's will, viz. into the sixth property; that so the manifested Word of God might be his will, knowing, and doing: even as the holy angels do so live and rejoice only in the divine will, and melodise in the Holy Ghost, as he does open and manifest himself in them, according to the divine wisdom; and thus they live, will and act with a child-like mind and will.

36. Paradise, or the garden in Eden, did indeed stand with its properties in equal concord as to man. But the properties were in themselves an awakened hunger, each in itself; which verily the divine light did again introduce into a temperature. But the devil, in his enkindled envy, opposed man, and insinuated his venomous imagination into the human property, and enkindled the human properties in the centre in the first Principle of the soul's property, wherein the soul stands in like essence and being with the angels and devils.

37. Whence Adam's imagination and earnest hunger did arise, that he would eat of the evil and good, and live in [his] own will. That is, his will departed out of the equal concord into the multiplicity of the properties; for he would prove, feel, taste, hear, smell and see them. As the devil did persuade them also in the Serpent, they should be as God, and their eyes should be open in the properties; which also happened unto them in the fall, that they knew,

tasted, saw and felt evil and good: whence arose unto them sickness, disease, pains and corruption [or the dissolution of this carcass].

38. And seeing the divine providence did afore know that the devil would tempt man, and bring him into strange lust; lest he should long after the centre of the dark world, and become a devil, as Lucifer did, God did represent unto him the Tree of Life, and of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, wherein the dissolution of the outward life was manifest.

39. for Adam was guilty therein, seeing he was yet in Paradise when he lusted after vanity, and brought his imagination into the earth, viz. into that essence whence the limus of the outward body was extracted; and desired out of his mother to assay of the enkindled vanity which the devil had inflamed. Thereupon the Fiat drew him forth such a plant out of the matrix of the earth, whence also it had extracted Adam's body, so that Adam, in his hunger, had to eat.

40. For the essence in the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the hunger of the desire in Adam, were alike; what he desired was represented unto him by the Fiat; Adam's imagination was the cause of it.

41. Reason says, wherefore did God suffer it to come to pass? Christ said, If you had faith as a grain of mustard-seed, and should say to this mountain be cast into the sea, it should be done: [I prithee], was not the soul's spirit [sprung forth] out of the great divine omnipotence out of the centre of the eternal spiritual nature, whence all beings were created, and should it not then be potent?

42. He was a fire-spark out of God's might. But when he was formed into a creatural being of the creatures, he withdrew into self-lust, and broke himself off from the universal being, and entered into a self-fullness. And so he wrought his own destruction, and this he had had, if God's love had not redeemed him.

43. The soul's power was so potent before the vanity, that it was not subject to any thing; and so it is still powerful, if the understanding were not taken away from it. It can by magic alter all things whatsoever that are in the outward world's essence, and introduce them into another essence; but the vanity in the outward air's dominion has brought a darkness thereinto, so that the soul does

not know itself. The curse of God has cast the defiled child into the dirt, that it must pray for a laver; and must be in this lifetime its own enemy, that it may learn to be humble, and continue in the divine harmony, and not become a devil.

The Eighteenth Chapter

Of the Paradisical State * showing how it should have been if Adam had not fallen

* Dominion, life or condition

1. I KNOW the sophist will here cavil at me, and cry it down as a thing impossible for me to know, seeing I was not there and saw it myself: To him I say, that I, in the essence of my soul and body, when I was not as yet I, but when I was in Adam's essence, was there, and did myself fool away [negligently lose] my glory in Adam. But seeing Christ has restored it again unto me, I see, in the spirit of Christ, what I was in Paradise; and what I now am in sin; and what I shall be again.

And therefore let none cry it out as a thing unknowable; for although I indeed know it not, yet the spirit of Christ knows it in me; from which knowledge I shall write.

2. Adam was a man and also a woman, and yet none of them [distinct], but a virgin, full of chastity, modesty and purity, viz. the image of God. He had both the tinctures of the fire and the light in him; in the conjunction of which the own love, viz. the virginal centre, stood, viz. the fair Paradisical rose-garden of delight, wherein he loved himself. As we also, in the resurrection of the dead, shall be such; as Christ tells us, that we shall neither marry, nor be given in marriage, but be like the angels of God.

3. Such a man, as Adam was before his Eve, shall arise and again enter into, and eternally possess Paradise; not a man, or a woman, but as the Scripture says, they are virgins, and follow God, and the Lamb, they are like to the angels of God, yet not only pure spirit, as the angels, but in heavenly bodies, in which the spiritual angelical body inhabites.

4. Seeing then Adam was created in Paradise to the life eternal in the image of God; and God himself breathed his life and spirit into him; therefore we can well describe him, how he was in his innocency, and how he fell, and what he is now, and shall again be at last.

5. If God had created him unto [or for] the earthly, corruptible, miserable, naked, sick, bestial, toilsome life, then he had not brought him into Paradise; if God had desired [or willed] the bestial copulation and propagation, then he would instantly, in the beginning, have created man and woman, and both sexes had come forth in the Verbum Fiat, into the division of both tinctures, as it was in the other earthly creatures.

6. Every creature brings its clothing from its mother's body; but man comes miserable, naked and bare, in deepest poverty, and unability; and is able to do nothing; and in his arrival to this world he is the poorest, miserablest, forlornest, and most shiftless creature amongst all kinds, which cannot at all help himself; which does sufficiently show unto us that he was not created of God unto this misery, but in [unto] his perfection, as all other creatures were; which [perfection] the first man fooled away [or lost] by false lust; whereupon God afterwards, in his sleep, did first figurise him in the outward

Fiat to the natural life in man and woman, according to the property of all earthly creatures; and hung upon him the worms'-carcass, with the bestial members for propagation, of which the poor soul is to this day ashamed, that it must bear a bestial form on the body.

7. Two fixed and steadfast essences were in Adam, viz. the spiritual body from [or of] the love-essentiality of the inward heaven, which was God's temple; and the outward body, viz. the limus of the earth, which was the mansion and habitation of the inward spiritual body, which in no wise was manifest according to the vanity of the earth, for

it was a limus, an extract of the good part of the earth; which at the Last judgement shall be severed in the earth from the vanity of the curse, and the corruption of the devil.

8. These two essences, viz. the inward heavenly, and the outward heavenly, were mutually espoused to each other, and formed into one body [text, Corpus], wherein was the most holy tincture of the divine fire and light, viz. the great joyful love-desire, which did inflame the essence, so that both essences did very earnestly and ardently desire each other in the love-desire, and loved one another: the inward loved the outward as its manifestation and sensation, and the outward loved the inward as its greatest sweetness and joyfulness, as its precious pearl and most beloved spouse and consort. And yet they were not two bodies, but only one; but of a twofold essence, viz. one inward,

heavenly, holy; and one from the essence of time; which were espoused and betrothed to each other to an eternal [being] *.

* Or eternally

9. And the magical impregnation [or conception] and birth did stand in this fiery love-desire, for the tincture penetrated through both essences, through the inward and outward, and did awaken (or stir up) the desire;

and the desire was the Fiat, which the love-lubet [or imagination] took [conceived], and brought into a substance. Thus the likeness of the express image was formed in this substance, being a spiritual image according to the first. [Just] as the Fiat had conceived and formed the first image, viz. Adam, so also the likeness was conceived out of the first for propagation; and in this conception the magical birth was also forthwith (effected), where, in the birth, the spiritual body became external.

10. Understand, if it had been that Adam had stood in the trial, then the magical birth had been thus [effected]: not by a sundry peculiar issue from Adam's body, as now, but as the sun through-shines the water, and rends or tears it not. Even so [in like manner] the spiritual body, viz. the birth, had been brought forth, and in its coming forth had become substantial, without pains, care and distress, in a great joyfulness and delight, in a manner as both seeds of man and woman do receive in their conjunction a pleasant aspect. Even so also the magical impregnation and birth, had been a virginlike image, wholly perfect according to the first.

11. Which afterwards, when Venus' s matrix was taken from Adam, and formed into a woman, must be done through anguish, trouble, smart, pangs and distress; as God said to Eve, / will multiply your sorrows when you conceive, you shall now bring forth children with sorrow, and your will shall be subject to your husband. Wherefore? Because it was

sprung forth from the man's will. Eve was half the Adam, viz. the part wherein Adam should have loved and impregnated himself; the same, when as he stood not, was taken from him in his sleep, and formed into a woman: therefore when Adam saw her, he said, She shall be called woman, because she is taken out of man.

12. Man should have walked naked upon the earth, for the heavenly [part] penetrated the outward, and was his clothing. He stood in great beauty, glory, joy and delight, in a child-like mind; he should have eaten and drunk in a magical manner; not into the body, as now, but in the mouth there was the separation; for so likewise was the fruit of Paradise.

13. All things were made for his sport and delight; no sleep was in him; in or to him the night was as the day; for he saw with pure eyes in peculiar light [in his own genuine innate light].

The inward man, viz. the inward eye, saw through the outward; as we in the other world shall need no sun, for we [shall] see in the divine sight, in the light of the peculiar nature. No heat nor cold had touched them; there had also no winter been manifest upon the earth, for in Paradise there was an equal temperature.

14. The tincture of the earth had been their delight and pastime; they had had all metals for their play, until the time that God had changed the outward world: no fear or terror had been in them, also no law from anything or to anything; for all had been free unto them. Adam had been their chief prince; and they had lived in the world and also in heaven, inhabiting in both worlds at once; Paradise had been through the whole world.

15. But seeing the divine providence did well know that Adam would not stand, seeing the earth was corrupted by its former prince; in that the wrath of God had moved itself; and amassed [or took] the essence into an impression; therefore God created all manner of fruits and beasts, also all sorts of medicines [ or sovereign healing] for the future sickness of man; and likewise all kinds of meat, that the man might have food, and raiment also in this world.

16. For he had determined to send another prince, by whom he would redeem man from his sickness and death, and purify and purge the earth through the fire of God, and introduce it into the holy (being), as it was when Lucifer was an angel, before it came into such a creature. [ Or creatural being]

17. And Adam was created only unto [or in] the divine image, which should be eternal; and though it was known in the wrath of God that man would fall, yet the Regenerator [or Restorer] was also known in God's love; to [Text, for] whom this hierarchy should be

given for a royal possession, in Lucifer's stead.

18. But that the fall might not proceed (or come) from the divine appointment *, God made man perfect, and created and ordained him unto Paradise, and forbade him the false lust, which the devil stirred up through the limus of the earth, in Adam's outward body, with

his false imagination and hungry-desire.

* Or might not so much as appear to arise from the divine decree

19. And Adam was, before his Eve, forty days in Paradise in the temptation, before God made the woman out of him; if he had stood steadfast, then God had so confirmed him to eternity.

20. But that I write of forty days, contrary to the custom [and opinion] of other writers, is, that we have certain knowledge and sufficient ground of the same, not only by conjecture, but from another knowledge; of this also we will show you the types. As (first) of Moses upon Mount Sinai, when God gave him the Law; this was done in forty days, and Israel was tried whether they would continue in divine obedience; but seeing they made a calf, and an idol, and fell from God, therefore Moses must break the first Tables of the Law, signifying the first Adam in the divine law, who departed from it: therefore the same was broken from him, and he fell into the breaking [destruction] of his body, as Moses broke the Tables in pieces.

21. And God gave Moses another Scripture or writing upon a table [round ball or globe] of stone; which signifies the Second Adam (Christ), who should restore the first, and again introduce his Law into his table of the heart, viz. into the life, into the humanity, and write it with the living spirit in the sweet name JESU; thus the other law was also written, how God's love would destroy or break in pieces the anger; of which the Covenant in the Law was a type, as shall be hereafter mentioned in Moses.

22. The second figure of Adam in Paradise are the forty years in the wilderness; where Israel was tried in the Law with the heavenly manna, whether or not they would be obedient to God, that the anger might not so much devour them. The third figure is the true, real one, viz. Adam's hard encounter [combat] with Christ in the wilderness, where he stood in Adam's stead before the devil and God's anger, where he did eat forty days magically, viz. of the word

of the Lord [Verbo Domini];

in which Adam also was tempted, whether he would remain wholly resigned unto God's will. Christ was, in Adam's stead, tempted in Adam's temptation, and with all that whatsoever wherein Adam was tempted, as shall be mentioned hereafter.

23. The fourth figure are the forty hours of Christ in the grave, where he awakened Adam out of his first sleep. The fifth figure are the forty days of Christ after his resurrection in the last proba, where the humanity was last of all tried, whether it would now stand, and be wholly resigned in God, being that death was destroyed, and the inward human life was new-born in God.

24. These five figures belong unto the five degrees of nature; from the first form of nature even to the fifth, viz. to the holy centre of the love-birth. If it were not too large we would set it forth very clearly. It shall be shown in its place.

25. These forty days Adam was tried in his innocency

[Or stood in the proba], whether or not he would or could stand, to possess the throne of Lucifer, as a hierarch and prince of God. But seeing God knew that this would not be, he determined to move himself with his deepest love in this Adamical, angelical image of the inward holy man, which did disappear [vanish or withdraw] in Adam, and to regenerate him anew, viz. in the seed of the woman, understand in the love-desire's seed, wherein Adam should have impregnated, generated or brought forth himself in a magical manner. In this seed the mark or bound of the promised Covenant in [or with] Christ was set; who should restore the angel's image, viz. the divine man, as it is effected.

26. These forty days Adam, viz. the soul of Adam in the flesh, was tempted between three Principles; for each Principle drew the soul in the flesh, and would have the upper hand or dominion.

27. This was the right proba [trial] of what the free will of the soul would do; whether it would remain in the divine harmony, or whether it would enter into the selfhood. Here it was tried in soul and body, and drawn by all the three Principles; each would accomplish [or work forth] its wonders in him [with or by him].

28. Not that the three Principles did stand in unequal measure and weight in Adam, they were in equal weight in him, but not outside him; moreover the devil was very busy in God's anger in the first Principle, with his false desire; and introduced continually his imagination into the soul, and into the outward flesh, viz. into the limus of the earth, and insinuated it into the first Principle, viz. into the fiery property of the soul, even into the eternal nature; whereupon the first Principle in the soul was moved to speculate itself in the devil's imagination (or glass of fancy), viz. to contemplate in the magical birth how and what evil and good were, how it would relish and be, in the unlikeness of the essence *: whence the lust did arise in the soul.

* In the dissimilitude or various disparity of the properties which were without itself.

29. Namely, the earthly lust to eat of the manifold properties did arise in the outward part of the soul; and in the inward fiery part of the soul the lust of pride did arise, to know and prove evil and good; desiring to be like God, as the devil also did, when he would be an artist [or craftsmaster] in the magical birth; after which Adam here also lusted.

30. Albeit Adam did not desire to prove the first Principle, as Lucifer has done, for his lust was only bent to taste and prove evil and good, viz. the vanity of the earth. The outward soul was so awakened, that the hunger entered into its mother wherefrom it was drawn, and introduced into another source.

31. And when this hunger entered into the earth to eat of evil and good, then the desire in the Fiat drew forth the Tree of Temptation, and set it before Adam. Then came the severe command from God, and said to Adam, You shall not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, in that day that you eat thereof you shall die the death.

32. And Adam also did not eat thereof in the mouth, only with the imagination or desire did he eat thereof, whereby the heavenly tincture disappeared, which stood in a fiery love; and the earthly one did awake in the outward soul's property, whereby the heavenly image was obscured.

33. Thus the magical birth was spoiled, and it could not then be; although Adam [had] stood in Paradise, yet it had not availed him [or them] ;for in the imagination or hunger after evil and good the outward man did awake in him, and obtained the dominion. Then Adam's fair image fell into a swoon, and drew near to the cessation of its operation [or rest];

for the heavenly tincture was captivated in the earthly desire; for the outward desire impressed into it its essence out of the vanity, whereby the man was darkened, and lost his clear pure steady [ constant, permanent] eyes and sight, which was from the divine essence, from whence before he had his sight [or seeing].

34. Now Moses said, that the Lord God said, it is not good that this man should be alone, we will make an help meet for him. When God had created all creatures, with the whole creatural host, Moses said, and God beheld all things which he had made, and lot it was very good;

and confirmed all to its propagation. But here he said of man, it is not good that he should be alone, for he saw his miserable fall, that he could not magically propagate himself; and said, we will make an help for him.

The Nineteenth Chapter

Of the building (framing) of the Woman; showing how Man was ordained to the outward Natural Life

1. AND Moses says, God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept: and he took one of the ribs of his side, and built a woman thereof, and closed up the place with flesh (Gen. ii. 21). Moses says, the woman was made of a rib out of Adam's side: who will understand this, without divine light? But here lies the veil before the brightness of Moses' face, by reason of the unworthiness of the bestial man.

2. For we find that the woman was taken and formed in the Fiat out of Adam's essence, both in body and soul. But the rib betokens Adam's dissolution or breaking, viz. that this body should, and would, be dissolved; for in the place of this rib Longinus's spear must afterwards, when Christ was crucified, enter into the same, and tincture and heal the breach in the wrath of God with heavenly blood.

3. Now when Adam's hunger was set after the earthliness, it did, by its magnetic power, impress into his fair image the vanity of evil and good; whereupon the heavenly image of the angelical world's essence did disappear; as if a man should insinuate some strange matter into a burning and light-shining candle, whereby it should become dark, and at last wholly extinguish. So it went also with Adam, for he brought his will and desire from God into selfhood and vanity, and broke himself off from God, viz. from the divine harmony.

4. Even then he forthwith sank down into a swoon, into sleep, viz. into an unability, which signifies the death: for the image of God, which is immutable, does not sleep. Whatsoever is eternal has no time in it; but by the sleep the time was manifest in man, for he slept in the angelical world, and awaked to the outward world.

5. His sleep is [signifies] the rest of Christ in the grave, where the new regenerate life in Christ's humanity must enter into Adam's

sleep, and awaken it again to the eternal life, and bring it out of time into the eternal being.

6. But the breaking [or dividing] of Adam's essence, when the woman was taken out of him, is the breaking or bruising of Christ's body on the cross, from the sixth hour unto the ninth; for so long was the Fiat in Adam's sleep in the separating of the man and woman; for in such a space of time the woman was completely finished [or brought forth] out of Adam into a female [person or] image.

7. And when Christ on the cross had again accomplished this redemption of our virgin-like image from the divided sex of male and female, and tinctured it with his heavenly blood in the divine love, he said, It is finished: for before, he stood in Adam's thirst. As Adam did thirst after the vanity, so Christ did now fill or satiate this thirst of vanity with the holy divine love-thirst, and turned about the will of the soul, that it might again introduce its thirst into God. And when this was brought to pass, he said, now, it is finished and converted. Christ turned back Adam in his sleep from the vanity, and from the man and woman, again into the angelical image. Great and wonderful are these Mysteries, which the world cannot apprehend; for it is as blind in them, as a man that is horn blind, is, to behold this world; but he that regards and finds them has great joy therein.

8. Eve is the right magical child, for she is the matrix in which the love-desire stood in Adam, viz. the magical impregnation and birth; she was Adam's paradisical rose-garden in peculiar love, wherein he loved himself; for the amassing [or conceiving] of the magical impregnation, or incarnation, or divine formation of propagation, was [or did stand] in the conjunction of both tinctures.

9. And, after the eating of the apple, God said unto them, The woman's seed shall bruise the Serpent's head.

The ground and corner-stone lies here in this matrix; for the woman's matrix wherein the divine formation stood, was, as to the right life, heavenly, being out of the heavenly essentiality, wherein consisted the right paradise.

10. But Adam with his imagination brought earthliness and vanity thereinto, viz. self-will; and then the holy part, viz. Venus's desire, which was the divine centre in the humanity, viz. the manifested love-word in the image of God, did disappear in this matrix; therefore

Eve, from this strange will introduced into the matrix, brought forth at first a self-willed proud murderer; for Adam, with his false imagination, had introduced this vanity, so also the devil's desire [thereinto].

11. But the divine love-will would not forsake this disappeared angelical matrix; and gave himself by promise thereinto with the dear and precious name of Jesus, who should again awaken it in the holiness's property; and bruise the head of the devil's insinuated desire and false rebellious will; that is, destroy, and take away the might of its life, and introduce it again, through divine love, into the first life. And even in this holy matrix, which the word and power of God did again awaken in the sweet name [of] Jesus in the seed of Mary in the bound of the Covenant, the Serpent's poison in the soul and flesh was destroyed.

12. And this is the seed of the woman: dear brethren, observe it, it is highly known. The aim of the Covenant of Promise was pight [or set] into this matrix: but Eve was not the same child; for the part of the heavenly matrix stood disappeared in her; but [yet it was] in the Covenant of God, as the dry rod of Aaron (which budded forth afresh) did typify unto us.

13. She was indeed the whole matrix of Adam, but the holy part was shut up in her; and [there] lived only the outward part of the outward world with evil and good, viz. the matrix of the third Principle, which had indeed a halfsoul-like property, but [captivated] in the prison of God's anger. The holy Covenant of love rested in the disappeared part, in the midst of the awakened anger; from which Covenant the prophetical spirit in the Old Testament spoke, and prophesied of the future opening (or manifestation) in the Covenant.

14. The greatest Mystery is to be understood in the formation of Eve; for a man must very entirely and intimately understand and apprehend the birth of nature, and the original of man, if he will see the ground; for she is the half Adam; not taken only and wholly out of Adam's flesh, but out of his essence, out of the female part: she is Adam's matrix.

15. The woman received no more from Adam's flesh and bones, save the rib in his side, and the half cross in the head, which was the life's birth-cross, whereon Christ destroyed death. The matrix of the heavenly part was in Adam, magical, that is, moving in the essence;

but the outward part of the outward world was made fleshy; and both were mutually bound [or espoused] to one another; as the time with the eternity. The holy part was in heaven, and [was] the heaven itself; and the outward fleshy part was in the outward world in Matrice Mundi [matrix of the third principle].

16. Thus the female property was, in the Fiat, extracted out of Adam's essence, as his dearest rose-garden, and he kept the limbus, heavenly and earthly [celestial and terrestrial], according to the eternal Father's manifested property, viz. the fire-soul's matrix's property; and the woman [kept] the part of the spirit's soul's property; the woman had the centre of the angelical world in her disappeared part of the soul-like property, viz. the manifested love-word, viz. the fifth property of the eternal nature; and the man had in his limbus the divine fire-world, viz. the centre of the light-world, the centre of all essences.

17. The man's limbus, which he kept when the woman was made out of him, was the Father's property, according to all essences; and the woman out of [or proceed from] the man was the Son's property, according to all essences, understand, the heavenly part [both of the limbus and matrix]. Therefore Christ became man in the woman's part, and brought the man's part again into the holy matrix, so that the limbus and the female matrix were again one image [or person], viz. a manly virgin, above and in all the three Principles, as a creatural-formed God, in whom the eternal unformed God dwelt, with universal fullness, both in the formed, and outside the formed [divine creature or God-man]. for thus was Adam also, before his Eve, and so must we also be in Christ, if we would be the image and temple of God.

18. Now when the pregnant matrix was taken from Adam, the woman was every way formed with such members for propagation as she is at this day; and so Adam also. For before, when Adam was male and female, he needed no such members; for his birth was magical, his conception moving in the matrix [was to be] done through imagination; for the Fiat was manifest in him.

19. And the bestial worm's carcass of the bowels, with the formation of other inward principal members pertaining to the earthly life, was hung upon Adam instead of the female matrix, and the like worm's carcass was also hung upon the woman, instead of the heavenly limbus, that they might stuff in a deal of vanity, and live

20. Reason will object against me, and say: God created Adam in the beginning such a man, and even with all members, as he now is. Which, notwithstanding, it cannot make out or demonstrate, seeing the soul is ashamed of this bestial property. Also I would fain know of this self-full reason, whether or no such an Adam (if he were created so miserable, destitute, naked and bare, unto this bestial life) were created to eternal life, without defect, and also without need, distress, and death? And whether this sink [or fill your carcass of earthly flesh and blood] were the Paradise and temple of God; and how could he have been able to defend himself from hurt and ruin? For such a beast-like man may be drowned in the water, and burnt in the fire, and also crushed to pieces with rocks and stones.

21. But says thou, God did well know that it would be so with Adam, therefore he created him so at the very first? Against this the Scripture declares, saying, God created man in his image, yea, to the image of God created he him; not to the bestial image. What sin would

God have imputed or charged upon man, if he had created him in a bestial image? what then would the new birth avail him [to what end then should he be born again] ? The new birth contains in real sum, this: That the angelical image must be born again, which God created in Adam. God formed Adam in the image of God, and though

he knew that he would not stand, yet he appointed him the Saviour, who would bring him again into the first image, and therein establish him for ever.

22. Now it plainly appears that Adam stood in the divine image, and not in the bestial, for he knew the property of all creatures, and gave names to all creatures, from their essence, form and property. He understood the Language of Nature, viz. the manifested and formed Word in everyone's essence, for thence the name of every creature is arisen.

23. Now, seeing he knew how the word of power was formed in every creature, thereupon we cannot esteem him bestial; he was without doubt angelical; for none other man shall arise, but such a one as Adam was before his Eve. God created him perfect, but he stood not in the proba; whereupon it must now follow, that God suffered him to fall into the outward magic; and ordained him to the

image of this world; and set him into the natural life, viz. into the corruption and the new birth [degeneration and regeneration]. For in heaven there is neither male nor female, but all one kind, in peculiar love, without further propagation, in an eternal confirmation.

24. This therefore does set forth unto us that Adam died in Paradise, as God said unto him, if you eatest of the Tree, thou diest: He died to the holy [heavenly] image, and lived to the awakened bestial image.

For now, when Adam did awake from sleep, he was indeed still in Paradise, for the vanity in the flesh and soul did not yet actually and effectually work, and was yet dumb, still, and senseless, until they did eat of the forbidden fruit; and then the earthly dominion began to rise;

then the vanity awakened, viz. all the forms of the life, each in its selfhood, and forsook severally their mutual harmony, and forthwith heat and cold fell upon them [Adam and Eve]; for the outward [image or being] did assimulate [or ensource] with the inward, and the heavenly image at last quite disappeared; which in Adam's sleep, and also in this awakening, did yet live both in Adam and Eve, but in a very obscure and impotent manner.

25. Adam, in his perfection, while he was man and wife, and had the magical conception in him, did amuse himself on (or imagine after) the beasts, and introduced himself into bestial lust, to eat and generate according as the beasts do: And so, likewise, the Fiat took in the same lust, and formed him in his sleep even as the lust was; and every member was formed in its place to the conjunction of the beast-like copulation;

for each desire has obtained its mouth to

manifestation. Thus the image of God formed itself in the Verbum Fiat into such a beast as we are still to this day; and this same (was done) in itself; viz. man's own Fiat (viz. the first form of nature, which is the desire of God's manifestation), did effect it, and none other maker from without him.

26. We are not to conceive, that there was anything else upon Adam, which made his Eve out of him, or that formed them both to the outward natural life, save only the Verbum Fiat in them, their own very propriate, and not any alienate (or anything strange) from without them. As the first creation of Adam and all kinds of creatures was so brought to pass, the Verbum Fiat coagulated each ens, and the manifested word severed itself in the ens according to its

property, and formed the creature according to its astrum and kind; where also, in every ens, the matrix was separated from the limbus, and formed into a male and female [into a he and she].

27. The picturing of God as a man in making Adam, and afterwards standing over Adam as he sleeps, and making a woman out

of him, is more idolatrous than real; and God has earnestly forbidden, in Moses, to make the likeness of any God. For he is no image, save only in the creatures, according to the expressed formed Word, both according to the creatures of eternity, and of time: he is no [such] maker, but a former of the properties, a creator, and not [such a] maker.

28. The creating is the Fiat which amasses [or forms], and the Word in the power of the amassed [or conceived being] gives the distinction according to the ens. As the ens is, in the generation of the spirit, so a thing is formed;

for the body or substance of all things is nothing else but a signature or mansion according to the spirit. As the birth is in the ens, where the spirit forms itself;

so is likewise the body of all kinds of creatures, both in animals and vegetables. As we plainly see, that the first Creator, who has moved himself and brought himself into a creatural manifestation, has left in all creatures a power to their self-multiplication or increasing, propagation, and procreation; and incorporated the Fiat in them as a maker, for their own propriety [or most innate instinct].

The Twentieth Chapter

Of the Lamentable and Miserable Fall and Corruption of Man

1. Now when Adam did awake from sleep he saw his wife Eve standing before him, and took her unto him, for he knew that she was his own, that she was his matrix; and [he] cast the property of his desire upon her, as he had done before when he loved himself: So

now also the fiery tincture of Adam's soul entered into the spirit's or light's tincture in Eve.

2. But they both stood yet in Paradise, in the garden in Eden, and knew neither evil nor good; for they lived yet in joy and delight, in the kingdom of heaven; and it was Eve's first longing to eat of good and evil: for Adam's desire had introduced and imprinted it into the magical image, while it was yet in Adam's essence; as a child receives

a mark [or impress] in the womb, which the mother imprints on it.

3. Thus also Adam had impressed the false desire into his essence, whence the woman was made; therefore the woman so soon lusted after the vanity; as to this day, mere earthly lust of the flesh is found in most of them. So soon as this sex comes but to any years, the selfish

lust [and will] does predominantly appear in pride and glistering shows of fleshly desires; and they soon long after the forbidden tree, contrary to the virgin-like modesty, chastity and angelical humility.

4. The abomination which Adam introduced into his matrix is so exceeding strong in them, that they are as't were in naked shame before the image of God, which [image] God himself created in Adam.

Therefore they must be subject to the man, in that they are the cause that the vanity was enkindled, to which the devil also was a strong promoter.

5. For when he saw Eve, he then knew his insinuated desire in her, which he had introduced into Adam; the same did show forth and discover itself in Eve's lust. Therefore the devil came now in a strange form, viz. in the Serpent's essence, which was the most subtle beast,

and laid himself on the Tree of Temptation towards Eve, that the introduced concupiscence in Eve, which the devil had also infected, did amuse itself upon the outward Serpent, and so one lust took another; whereupon Eve did strongly imagine and long after the forbidden fruit, which the devil persuaded her to eat; and then her eyes

should be opened, and she be as God, and know evil and good.

6. Which indeed was true: this knowledge did stick in the fruit, for the essences were discordant and unlike therein; but he told her not that the enmity would awaken in the essences of her body, and that heat and cold, moreover sickness and death, would force into her. Herein he was silent, and fairly coloured it over, and drew her in by collusion; as if God had withheld some great thing from them, which she might find as a treasure; so craftily did he deceive Eve.

7. And when she yielded to discourse with the Serpent she was taken in the voice; for the devil infected the same with false delight, until he persuaded her she should be wise if she did eat thereof.

8. For the devil thought that if Eve should bring forth children in Paradise then his design would miscarry: they might then possess his angelical kingdom.

9. Now the question is, Wherefore the devil did deceive Eve by the Serpent only, and not by some other means? Could he not do it in his own form: why did he even speak through the Serpent to Eve? And wherefore did the Serpent address itself to the Tree, to persuade her against God's prohibition?

10. Here the veil lies before Moses his clear eyes, for he sets down the history very right. But how can an unilluminated mind understand it, in that he writes of the Serpent, saying, that the Serpent spoke with Eve, and deceived her, whereas indeed it cannot speak. And also is only a beast, without divine understanding, and in its selfhood cannot know the image of God; much less did the Serpent understand the heavenly powers, or the prohibition.

11. But hear what Moses says: The Serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made: Here the first question is, whence its subtlety came, that even the devil would choose to speak through its subtlety, and deceive Eve? Herein sticks the Mystery.

12. When God moved himself according to his expressed Word in the Verbum Fiat, according to both the inward worlds, viz. according to God's love and anger, according to the eternal nature of the darkness, and according to the eternal nature and power of the light, then all the properties in evil and good did amass [compacted] themselves; for the Fiat was the centre in all those properties, as well as in those wherein the divine power was manifest in holiness.

Now, according as each [central] point was opened, understand, according as the lubet to the manifestation of the Grand Mystery of all essences [was in every punctum], even so the Fiat, viz. the first form to nature did apprehend and bring forth an ens or limus out of the earth, and so also above the earth, in each magical astrum [star or planet], according to the degrees of severation. And so in the same ens there was a spirit according to the same degree or magical astrum, and the Fiat did figure and shape even such a body or corpus as the same spirit was.

13. Now, seeing that prince Lucifer did sit as a hierarch in divine pomp, and would domineer in divine power in the fire's might, above and in all, and contemned God's love and humility, and entered with his false desire into the essence of the expressed Word in the Fiat, as a juggler or wicked impostor, that would also form and make [according to his proud perverse will], thereupon he infected that same essence, according to the dark world's property, which came forth also in the Fiat into a compaction, viz. into an ens, wherein evil and good are mutually linked together. For he, the devil, as an apostate rebellious juggler, did desire the greatest subtlety [proceeding] from the centre of nature, and would domineer in the revealed magic in the Fiat.

14. And out of the like ens, [proceeding] from this infected ens (where evil and good was manifest in great power), the Serpent was created in the Fiat. Therefore Moses says very right, it was more subtle than all the beasts of the field;

for the devil's will, viz. his desire, which he introduced into that ens, whence it was created, was in it; it had the devil's subtlety and will. And as the devil was an angel in the beginning, and was from a good essence, and yet introduced himself into an evil one, so likewise the Serpent's ens was good before the devil's infection, before its creation; but in the devil's desire it was brought into a property of subtlety and craft.

15. For the devil's desire drew forth the compunctive stinging thorny sharp subtlety out of the centre of nature, and introduced it through the enkindling of the fire into the heavenly salniter, viz. into that property wherein he sat and was an angel; and here that very craft came forth along in the same ens into a compaction in the Fiat.

16. For the Serpent's ens was, as to one part, viz. as to the heavenly, a great power; as also there was a great heavenly power in the devil, for he was a prince of God; and so he brought his extracted subtlety and lies into a powerful ens, desiring to play his enchanting feats thereby as a peculiar [uncontrollable] god.

17. This the learned searchers of nature do in like manner understand, viz. that there lies excellent art, and also virtue, in the ens of the Serpent. If the devil's poison be taken from it, the greatest cure doth then lie in it for the healing of all fiery venomous hurts and distempers; also [the best antidote] against poison, and all whatsoever that has the semblance of a fiery poison; for therein the divine power lies in a fiery hunger, but hidden in the curse of the anger of God.

18. As God does dwell hiddenly in the cursed earth, so likewise is it here. Notwithstanding, it is given to the wise godly searcher of the art, and he need not be astonished or afraid of the curse; for he shall rule in divine power in faith over all creatures. If he were not so much captivated in a bestial and proud manner in the Serpent's essence our sense and meaning might be opened unto him, and he might here well find the arcanum [or secret] of the world.

19. This crafty Serpent was now in external show and semblance an exceeding well-favoured, comely, handsome, neat, fine, brave, pretty beastling, accurately dressed, and set forth according to the pride of the devil. Not that we are to conceive that the devil was a creator of the Serpent; but the Fiat was manifest in it according to God's great good power, arid also very potently manifest according to the power of his wrathful anger.

20. This Serpent was a living figure of the Tree of Temptation; like as the Tempting Tree was a dumb power [or lifeless resemblance], so the Serpent was a living power. And therefore the Serpent applied itself to this Tree, as to its likeness, even the likeness of its essence. Which the devil saw, and possessed the Serpent in the part of his infected and introduced poison, and armed its tongue, and

spoke out of its great subtlety to Eve, so that she knew not the horrible enemy, and very hideous ugly guest, the devil.

21. And the devil therefore brought the Serpent to the Tree of Temptation, seeing he saw that Eve was taken much with beholding of the Tree, and fain would eat of its fruit, that so he might make Eve monstrous by the Serpent [Or, form strange imaginations of pride, in seeing the fair Serpent]; and the true eye-mark [to reach the real understanding of the Serpent's deceiving Eve] is this:

22. Eve did now long after the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil; for Adam had introduced this lust into his ens whence Eve was created. But now the command stood against it, and she feared God, and would not do contrary to the prohibition; therefore the devil cunningly insinuated into the Serpent's ens, viz. into the greatest subtlety;

and yet craftily put forth the great power and wit in the Serpent's essence, that Eve might see and know how prudent, wise and subtle the Serpent was; and hung there upon the forbidden tree, and it did it no hurt; and she looked upon the Serpent and set her mind amusing after it, in manner as a woman with child does amuse herself and strangely or monstrously form herself [in her mind] and brings such a figure upon the child. Even so did Eve amuse herself upon the wit and craft of the Serpent, and also upon its nimble agility and art, whereupon she longed to eat of the Tree; for the Serpent persuaded her by the devil's voice and speech, and pretended that it had its craft and art from the Tree.

23. Eve's essence was heavenly, but already somewhat poisoned and infected by Adam's imagination. Now, Eve's good desire of the good essence in her entered into the Serpent's great power and inward virtue, which it had from the heavenly essence, viz. from the good part of the ens of the earth; and the infected property of Eve, which Adam had insinuated and let in by imagination, entered into the Serpent's craft, viz. into the centre of the dark world, into God's anger. And on the other side, the devil's strong desire and imagination entered through the essence of the Serpent into Eve's essence; both by the sound and voice in their intercourse of speech, and also by the conjunction of both desires.

24. And here Eve's desire and the devil's desire were espoused [or united] in this conjunction; for the devil's desire made Eve's lust wholly monstrous, and did so egg or force her on in the lust till he

overcame her; and she gave full consent thereto in her desire; she would fain also eat of the Tree of understanding and wise subtlety; and desired likewise to be, or to be made, so wise, prudent and crafty, as the Serpent.

25. For the devil said the fruit would not hurt, but the eyes of her sharp understanding would be opened; and they should be as God. This, Eve did like very well; that she should be a goddess, and wholly consented thereunto. And in this full consent she fell from the divine harmony, from the resignation in God, and from the divine desire, and entered with her own desire into the craft, distemper and vanity of the Serpent, and the devil.

26. Here, in this juncture [or point of time] the devil's desire took full possession of Eve's will, and introduced it into a serpentine substance; and even here Eve became monstrous in her own essence [according to the essence of the Serpent]; and here the devil built up his fort, rampart and stronghold in the human essence; and here is the death of the heavenly essence, viz. of the heavenly essence or being; here the Holy Spirit of God departed from Eve her essence: thus in this point [of time] the heavenly part of man, viz. the heavenly limus, in the flesh, did disappear; and this is it which God said, in the day that you eatest thereof thou shall die the death (Gen. ii. 17).

27. When Eve had turned her will from the obedience of God, and introduced it into the Serpent's craft, then the power of the heavenly meekness and humility in the heavenly limbus did disappear; not that she fully received the dark world's essence into her essence; no, but as God said to her, you shall die, that is die or disappear, in [as to] the kingdom of heaven. For the kingdom of heaven receives no true death;

only, when the light of the divine Principle extinguisheth, then that essence wherein it did burn, and from whence it shone, is dumb, and as 'twere dead, without feeling and understanding, as a nothing. Like as a candle burning in a dark place makes the whole room light, but if it goes out there is not the print or impression of it to be seen; its power enters into the nothing, in manner as God made all things of nothing.

28. Not that we are to understand that man's heavenly ens became a nothing; it remained in man, but it was as 'twere a nothing to man in its life; for it stood hidden in God; and to man was un-apprehensible, without life. Nothing dies in God; but in the human

29. Now when Eve did reach to the Tree, take the fruit, and pluck it off, [it was] the same she had already done by the earthly limus, and by the will of the soul, which desired the subtlety from the centre of nature; which subtlety [or discretion] she already perceived in her, in the centre, and yet [it] was not manifest in the divine power and in the resigned humility. In this essay the devil's desire reaches along in her monstrous image to the fruit; and when she took the fruit into the mouth, and did eat thereof; that her body's essence received this essence into itself; the human essence took the essence in the Tree.

30. And seeing she did not forthwith fall down and die, she thought it would not hurt her, for the anger-source still rested in her; and she persuaded Adam, that he also did eat thereof; seeing he saw that it hurt not Eve.

31. But now when they had eaten, the wrath of God's anger did awake in the monstrous image, viz. the properties of the dark world, viz. the devil's introduced desire, which now had its seat in the monstrous image, in the Serpent's essence. In this instant all the forms of subtlety and craftiness did awake in the human mystery [hiddenness];

for so long as man stood resigned in God, in the equal accord in the divine harmony, the heavenly part, viz. the life of the heavenly limus, penetrated the earthly limus; and the properties could not be manifest, for they were all in equal measure and weight; as the time is in God and God in the time.

32. But when man's own will began effectually and actually to work, then also the properties of the universal magical astrum began also to work in him, each [astrum or star] in its selfhood;

for the universal magical astrum lay in man, for he was created on the sixth day, in the sixth manifestation of the divine Mystery, as a limus of all beings; a limus or extern [or extracted] birth, whence all the creatures were created; an astrum of the universal astrum; for he should rule above all creatures of this world, and be lord over all creatures, and yet not be ruled or lorded over by any.

33. for he stood in equal essence; but now, every astrum of every essence of all the creatures in man do depart from their mutual accord, and each steps into its selfhood; whence the strife, contrariety

and enmity arose in the essence, that one property does oppose itself against the other. Thus likewise the outward spirit of the outward astrum and four elements did presently domineer in them [Adam and Eve], and heat and cold were also manifest in their body; moreover, the property of all evil and good beasts: all which properties, before, did lie hidden.

34. Here the craft and subtlety of the Serpent was manifest, and the precious image was corrupted, and became, according to the limus of the earth, a beast of all beasts. Whereupon there are now so many and various properties in man, as one a fox, wolf, bear, lion, dog, bull, cat, horse, cock, toad, serpent. And, in brief;

as many kinds of creatures as are upon the earth, so many and various properties likewise there are in the earthly man; each of one or other; all according to the predominant stars [or planets] which make such a property in the seed, in the time of the seeding, by reason of their predomination or [potent influence]. That astrum which is most predominant in the constellation, that has its desire in the seed; and if the seed be sown, such a property is hatched forth in the earthly part of man.

35. Not that the whole man is such [a very brute beast in outward shape], but there is such a figure of the desire in the earthly essence; and the man must bear such a beast in the body, which stirs him up and drives him to the bestial property. Not that he has this form according to the outward [person]; but [he has it] really, in the earthly essence: according to the outward [personal shape] he remains in the first formation [or platform].

36. Yet this beast does somewhat put forth its signature externally in everyone; if one do but heed and well mind the same, he may find it. Hence Christ called the Pharisees a generation of vipers, and the seed of serpents; also others he called wolves, ravening wolves, foxes, dogs and the like; for they were such in the earthly essence. And he taught us, that we must be born anew, and forsake this bestial property, and become as children, or we should notpossess the kingdom of God.

37. For as the essence is, in the body, even so the spirit doth figure and form itself internally, and the poor soul stands in this prison, bound and married to such a beast, unless that a man be born anew: for which ground [and end] God ordained the Circumcision in the Old Testament; and in the New the Baptism in the spirit of Christ.

38. Here we are highly to consider, what horror, lamentation and misery, anguish, fear and distress, did arise and awake in man; and was manifest as a false life and will in man. of which we have a type in the death of Christ, when he, upon the cross, destroyed the death in our human awakened property, and overcame [it] with the great love in his heavenly blood, which he introduced thereinto; that even then the earth, viz. the limus of the earth, whence Adam's outward essence was extracted, did tremble and shake at it. Now, when the great love forced [itself] into the human earth, wherein the anger of God, in the curse, was living and effectually working, [I say] when it now was to die, and to be changed into another source, it did tremble before this great love-fire;

like as the love-fire in Adam and Eve did tremble in the awakening of the anger in them; whereby they were astonished, and crept behind the trees in the garden, and were afraid. For the dread and horror of God's anger was awakened in their essence, and they knew their bestial properties.

The Twenty-First Chapter

Of the Impression and Original of the Bestial Man; and of the Beginning and Ground of his Sickness and Mortality

1. WHEN Adam and Eve were become monstrous, the Holy Spirit,

proceeding from the part of the heavenly limbus, departed;

for the part of the heavenly property disappeared in the

soul, in which [part] the divine light shone, and in which the divine

power of the holy tincture dwelt.

2. Understand, the power of the light departed from him into the centre, in manner as a shining light which flames forth from a candle, extinguisheth, and only the fire-source of the light remains; even so likewise only the magical fire-source of the soul's property remained, viz. the centre of the eternal nature, viz. the fire-world, and darkness.

3. And on the outward part of the soul the air-spirit, with its astrum, remained, wherein the light of the outward nature shone, which now the fire-soul must make use of ; for the Fiat was enraged in the wrath of God, viz. in the fiery property of the soul, and also of the body;

and in a fiery hunger, in the awakened flagrat of God's anger, had entered into and taken possession of the essence in soul and body, and with hard attraction did impress itself in the essence of the substance, in the limbus [limus] of the body; whereupon the flesh became gross, hard, thick and corruptible.

4. For in the flagrat of the wrath all the properties of each astrum, according to the property of all the creatures, did awake in the essence, whence the enmity, antipathy and contrariety did arise in the essence of the body and soul, so that one property is against another, one taste against another's, for all departed out of the temperament; thence arose in them pain, tormenting malady, and sickness.

5. For if an opposite essence enters into another, it makes an enmity, and a hateful overmastering and destroying, each the other. One property annoys, weakens and destroys another, whence the death and dissolution of the body is arisen.

6. For whatsoever stands not in the temperature cannot subsist eternally; but whatsoever stands in the temperature, that has no destroyer; for all properties do [there] mutually love one another: and in the love is the growth and preservation of the life.

7. And we are here fundamentally to understand how the gross properties in the wrath of the Fiat in the essence of the body have obscured and wholly shut up the heavenly essentiality in the Sulphur, so that the heavenly man was no longer known; as lead does hold the gold's-spirit availed in itself; that it is not known [or discerned].

8. For the desire, viz. the first form of nature, which is the Fiat, has swallowed, in the grossness, the heavenly part both in man and metals, as also in all herbs, and all other fruits. All the sovereign power of [or from] the holy world's essence lies shut up in the wrath and curse of God, in the dark world's property in the earth; and springs forth by the strength of the sun, and the light of the outward nature, in the essence, through the curse and wrath;

which budding or pullulation gives a sovereign power and healing virtue for the malignant essence in the living bodies, whence the physician is arisen, who seeks and learns to know the virtue [and temperature thereof], that he may resist and remedy the opposite essence in the body; which, notwithstanding, is only a lukewarm and faint sparkle thereof; if he be not able and skilful first to separate the gross raw wildness (which is from the dark world's property) from his cure.

9. For if the captivated essence of the heavenly world's property may be redeemed from the curse and wrath of nature, then it stands in the temperature; and if it then so comes into a living body it does awaken also the shut-up [or imprisoned] life of the heavenly world's ens [Essence or substance], if that likewise be in the body; and expels the wrath, whereby the sickness is destroyed, and the essence enters into the temperature.

10. That this is certainly thus, we may see by Adam and Eve, when the wrath did awaken in their essence, and the Fiat did impress the bestial properties, and formed (them) in the essence, that when the soul, viz. the image of God, did experimentally know this, it was ashamed of the bestial deformity, and of its being in a bestial vessel, viz. in another Principle.

11. For the outward part of the soul, viz. the air with its astrum, did arise and obtain the upperhand; as we may plainly see that amongst the greatest part of men the outward part of the soul bears the sway and domination over the whole body, in that the bestial man does seek and labour only after the pleasure of this world, viz. after external honours, authority and beauty, and also how to pamper, fill and gluttonise the beast; and so to vapour and proudly prank with the beast, as with a god, and yet it is only a corruptible, evil beast, in which the real true man lies shut up, without life.

12. Also this gross beast shall not possess the kingdom of God; and also it profits not at all (John vi. 63). But [the kingdom of God profits] the hidden man [alone], which lies shut up in this beast, as the gold in the gross ore. Which [hidden inward] man the gross beast scarce regards or gives any respect unto, save only that it does sometimes a little play the hypocrite with it, and comforts it with devout words, but exalts itself in its place, as a proud peacock; and bravely trims, adorns and fattens his beast, that the devil may have a horse to ride upon, and thereby mock God: and he rides thereupon in the vanity [of this world], in the kingdom of God's anger, as upon a false whore which desires to live in its own self-full might and wit.

13. For such a [beast] the Serpent's craft did awaken and stir up in Eve, in her awakened bestial, monstrous property; that now almost every man carries a beast in the body, which does plague, molest and burden the poor captive soul, whereby it does make itself also monstrous, and amuse itselfon the beast, and brings itself into a bestial figure; which, so long as it has this image and figure in it, cannot see or feel the kingdom of God. It must be again transmuted into an angel's form, or else there is no remedy for it; therefore says Christ, Unless you be born anew, you shall not see the kingdom of God.

14. The enclosed body of the heavenly part must be again born anew in the water of the heaven, viz. in the pure element's water, in the matrix of the water, and in the spirit of Christ out of the heavenly essence; that the soul's holy part of the angelical world may be revived and quickened, and live and work in its disappeared, and again new-born, body in the divine heavenly essence; and therein receive its food from the divine power of the second Principle. Otherwise the heavenly image, which God created in Adam, is not capable of the kingdom of God; and without the same also it cannot possess it. No glistering shows of devout hypocrisy, flattery [seeming

holiness, or soothing the mind with an outward application of Christ's merits] or tickling consolations, do avail anything; it must be born [anew] or [be] quite forlorn; for the pearl-tree is withered in Adam and Eve, it must re-obtain divine essence, and die to the beast; or else it cannot spring forth and bear fruit for the soul to eat.

15. Now when Adam and Eve were awakened in the bestial property the beast stood then naked and bare; for before, the heaven's image did wholly penetrate the outward man, and clothed it with divine power; for the beast was not afore manifest. This property lay hidden in the temperature, as likewise it is so, outside the creature; but now, when the image of the heavenly essence did disappear, then the beast, viz. the bestial property, was manifest; so that now the poor soul, which was from the first Principle, stood forth encompassed with this beast, wholly naked and bare.

16. But if the beast had been manifest in the beginning of man, then it had also brought its clothing along with it from its essence, as other beasts did. But the man was not created unto the bestial life; and though God knew that it would so come to pass (for which end he created so many kinds and sorts of beasts for his food and raiment), yet he created man in and unto the true image of God out of the heavenly essence; so that if this image fell he might again bring it, through a new motion and regeneration, into its first state, as it is brought to pass in Christ.

17. The scope and eye-mark of our writing is, to search out the image of God; how it was created, and how it is corrupted, and how it shall come again into its first estate: thereby to understand aright the new birth out of Christ, and to know the inward and outward man, even what the mortal and immortal [man] is, and how he is become mortal; and what he is to do that he may come again into his first estate.

The Twenty-Second Chapter

Of the Original of Actual Sin, and the Awakening of God's Anger in the Human Property

1. THE Scripture says, God has made all things by his Word, and without the same, nothing was made which was made. Out of his expressed Word (which was essential in the Verbum Fiat) all things came forth into formings: first into an ens, or desire of a property, and out of the same property into a compaction of Sulphur, Mercury and Salt, as into a formed nature;

and out of the same ens in the formed nature the Word becomes a creatural life; and brings itself forth out of the compaction of Sulphur, Mercury and Salt out of the body, that is, it manifests itself in a plain, visible being; to which end God has created nature and creature.

2. Thus each creature has a centre to its re-expressing, or breathing forth of the formed Word, in itself both the eternal and the temporal creatures; the unrational, as well as man. For the first ens was spoken forth out of God's breath through the Wisdom, out of the centre, to fire and light, and taken into the Fiat, and brought into a compaction.

3. This same ens is out of the eternity, but the compaction of the four elements is out of time. Thus an eternal [ens] lies hidden in everything in the time, in all things with life or without life, in elements and creatures, in vegetative and un-vegetative. The first ens is in every thing, whence the form of compaction (which is arisen from the time) was spoken forth out of the spiritual world's being, as an eternal ens out of the eternal-speaking Word, through the Wisdom, into a time, viz. into a formed essence according to the spiritual ens; which ens cannot be destroyed by any element or thing whatsoever.

4. And although the elemental compaction, viz. the body (which the ens has attracted to itself; that is, breathed it forth from itself as an external degree) does vanish and come to nothing, (for it has a temporal beginning), yet the first ens cannot perish. As we also see that all things enter again into their mother from whence they are

arisen and come forth, viz. into the four elements.

5. Now in this consideration we find the true ground of sin's original: Seeing that the living, powerful, understanding, speaking Word was breathed forth out of all the three Principles into the ens of man's image, for his understanding, that he should and could rule the properties of the compaction of Sulphur, Mercury and Salt; but he has now introduced this understanding, viz. the speaking, powerful Word again into the compaction of time, viz. into the earthly limus; where also the Fiat of time is awakened in the body, and has taken the understanding, viz. the inspired breath [sound or harmony], captive in itself; and placed itself master over the understanding.

6. So that we do now see, by woeful experience, how it is now with us; that when we would speak (albeit the understanding Word does [idea or] conceive itself in the inward ens, and desires to manifest the truth), yet the awakened vanity in the earthly limus of the body does soon forthwith catch it, and [cunningly blends] and works it forth into its own property [or serpentine subtlety]; so that the word of the human understanding does breathe forth lies, iniquity, malice, falsehood, and such cunning vanity and foppery, in which voice the devil's desire does mix itself, and makes it to a substance of sin, which the kingdom of God's anger does receive.

7. For in what property every word does form and manifest itself in man's speech, when he speaks it forth, let it be either in God's love, viz. in the holy ens, or in the ens of God's anger, of the same it is again received when it is spoken. The false word proceeding from the false ens being infected by the devil, and sealed to destruction, is also taken into the Mystery of the wrath, viz. into the property of the dark world. Every thing enters with its ens into that whence it takes its original.

8. Seeing then the speaking Word is a divine manifestation, wherewith the eternal Word of God has manifested itself; and that this same speaking Word is inspired into man, we are therefore here to consider what man does manifest with this speaking Word. Understand it thus: if the human lubet and desire (which is the Fiat or the creating of the human word) does conceive the form of the word in the holy ens, viz. in the heavenly part of the humanity, then the word sounds [ Or speaks] from a holy power, and the mouth speaks truth.

9. But if it be from the vanity, from the Serpent's craft, which Eve

imprinted into herself; and thereby awakened its subtlety, then the word sounds from the ens of the dark world, viz. it proceeds from the centre to the fire-word; and thereinto also it enters (in its end) [Ens] when it goes forth out of the form, viz. out of the mouth, and wherever it goes it brings forth fruit.

10. If it enters into another man's hearing, in whom the hunger

of craft and vanity stands in open desire, it is soon received as into a fruitful soil, and takes deep spreading root, and brings forth such evil fruit; whence also such sharp words and stinging taunts of the devil are hatched in the devilish essence.

11. But if it proceeds forth empty and bare only, into the false imagination, then it ascends into the will of the mind, and conceives itself in the mind into a substance, for a seat of the devil's desire, even

for his murdering fort which he has in man.

12. But if the false word be uttered against a holy man, in reviling and reproaching him, and the holy man will not let it take place in him, and not stir or move himselfin the evil part of his property with the like evil word, then the wrath of God receives it from without the man, and is thereby mightily enkindled. And not only the inward ens of God's anger according to the spiritual dark-world's property is thereby enraged, but also the outward ens of the wrath in turba magna is inflamed, and hangs over the wicked man's head, and does even encompass him; and he is therewith taken and possessed, as if he sat in the hellish [flames of ] fire.

13. of which Christ said, that when the wicked did curse us we should bless him, that is, echo forth the word of love against his fiery word, and not suffer his malicious word to enter into us, for to take root; and then it goes back again and apprehends the wicked reviler himself; for Paul said, we heap fiery coals upon his head.

14. for every word of man proceeds from an eternal ens; either from the ens of God's love, or from the ens of God's anger; and if now it be brought forth out of the ens, viz. out of its own place or mother, it will have again a place of its rest, wherein it may work.

15. Now if it cannot take rest and work in its likeness, outside the wicked man, (who has awakened and brought it forth out of his ens, and introduced it into a sound, or wordy substance), then it catches or surrounds its expressor [or author] who has brought it into a substance, and enters again with its root into its mother whence it did arise; that is, with the enkindled spirit, and with the substance (of its contrived matter) it does lay hold of and apprehend the inventor's [expressor] body; viz. the outward essence of the outward sulphur.

16. For every word, when it is expressed, is outwardly made and formed; for in the expressing or pronouncing thereof the outward spirit, viz. the outward part of the soul, receives it to its own substance; and afterwards, being enkindled in the wrath, and infected by the devil in its coming forth, in its witty glancing subtlety of the Serpent, does enter again into the soul and body of the monstrous image; and works according to its property, enkindled and infected by the devil, and continually brings forth such evil fruits and words: as we plainly see that out of many a wicked mouth nothing but vanity proceeds.

17. Moreover, we have a very great and weighty point here to consider of, concerning the Serpent's craft: that if the devil has infected the word (when it is born in the heart and formed in its ens, and has taken possession of the will, and made it substantial) this Serpent's craft does then hold and entertain the same in the devil's murdering fort, as a fine adorned pleasant brat;

as the Serpent, lying on the Tree, spoke very pleasingly and takingly with Eve, until it could, by its friendly intercourse, catch her in the desire. Even so likewise the false, crafty, conceived Serpent's-word, which proceeds from the false heart, does hold forth itself as a very lovely eloquent persuasive syren, and calls itself holy, till it can discover man's desire set open for it; there it lays open its very heart, and enters into the desire [of him], and makes itself a place to work [in], and to re-procreate [its like].

18. Therefrom now do come the false close backbiters, talebearers, perverters and wrong interpreters of other men's sayings, secret liars, who are very fair before, and behind are a serpent; revilers, and foul-mouthed slanderers who take away a man's good name from him;

and in this false, smooth, and well-coloured and adorned Serpent's-property, the devil has his Council Chamber, his school,

where he teaches the children of Eve his art, viz. juggling delusions, foppery, pride, covetousness, envy, anger, and all vices and abominations proceeding from the abyss of the dark-world's property.

19. Thus the devil rules man in body and soul by the crafty essence of the Serpent, and works abomination with abomination, iniquity with iniquity, sin with sin. And this is even the first original of actual sin: that Eve and Adam did introduce the Serpent's crafty essence (which the devil had infected) into their [will and] desire; and so made themselves forthwith monstrous in the Serpent; whereupon the dark-world's essence did awake in them, that so soon as this was brought to pass, the will did imagine into this monstrous property, and formed itself into a substantial word.

20. Even thus the word was now also manifest in man in the property of God's anger, viz. in the dark-world's ens; and thus man does now speak lies and truth; for there is a twofold ens in him, viz. one from the dark world, awakened and stirred up by the desire of the Serpent and the devil; and one from the heavenly limus which is now stirring in man, wherein the free will takes the word, that is, whence it does generate a fruit out of the divine expressed and formed word, which is again received of the likeness, either in heaven or hell, that is, in the darkness or light.

21. For the two worlds are in each other as one. The wicked forms and makes [for] God a good word in his wrath unto death, viz. unto the sting of death and hell; and the holy man forms and makes [to] God, out of his good ens, a good word unto the holy life and operation. As the Scripture speaks very clearly, the holy is to God a sweet sapour unto life, and the wicked a sweet sapour unto death, viz. to the ark world.

22. Now every man is a creator [or framer] of his word's powers and doings; that which he makes and frames out of his free will, the same is received, as a work of the manifested word, into each property, in the likeness.

23. For God's Word is also manifest in the dark world; but only according to its property, as the Scripture says, such as the people is, such a god they also have. God's word is manifest in all things, in each thing according to its ens, whence the free will proceeds; the free will is the creator or maker, whereby the creature makes [forms and works] in the manifested Word.

24. There is no herb or thing whatsoever that can be named, wherein there lies not an ens from the manifested Word of God, an ens both according to God's Love and Anger, according to the dark and light-world; for this visible world was breathed forth out of this same Word. Now each ens of the forth-breathed Word has a free will again to breathe forth out of its ens a likeness according to itself.

25. But this is now the greatest evil, that the ens in its centre is departed out of the likeness [and harmony] of the property into an elevation, viz. out of one only ens into many entities, into many properties; of which the devil, being a hierarch of the place of this world, and also the curse of God upon the earth, is [a] cause, which curse man stirred up and awakened.

26. For now, an evil ens, which is from the awakened property, does infuse itself into a good vessel, and corrupts the vessel whence the free will should draw from a good property; but the evil does mix itself into the good, and both come forth again in the formed word, into a substance; as an evil man does oftentimes stir up an evil word work in a good man, which he never before conceived [or purposed] in his will.

27. For the anger is become stirring [or quick] in the human ens, and adheres to the good ens, and the will of the fire-soul is free, it conceives [forms] as soon in the ens of anger as in the ens of love; nay, in many a one the love-ens is wholly impotent and as 'twere dead or extinct. He works only from the craftiness of the Serpent, fruit unto God's anger, and though his mouth does flatter in the Serpent's craft, and make a devout show of the holy Word, and sets forth itself as an angel, yet it is only the ens and form of the crafty Serpent in the light of the earthly nature, and the man deceives himself.

28. Therefore Christ says, unless that you be converted, and become as children, you cannot see the kingdom of God. The free will must wholly go out from the ens of the Serpent, and enter again, in the spirit of Christ, into its heavenly ens, which did disappear in Adam, and again awaken and stir up this ens in the hunger of its desire, that it also may be again awakened and born unto a living ens in the new regenerated Word in the humanity of Christ, and which did arise and powerfully quicken itself in the great love-property, in the man's property in the person of Christ: where also the free will becomes a new innocent child, and neither wills nor lets in the

Serpent's craft, otherwise the free will cannot form and manifest God's holy Word in itself the free will must draw only out of the good ens, if it will work and live in the holy Word.

29. Now understand aright our writing concerning the Serpent's craft, and its adorned art and false virtue, [I say] understand our very profound and high meaning, opened out of the counsel of God, thus: The Serpent's ens and original was a virgin of heavenly pomp, a queen of heaven, and princess of the beings of God, apprehended and formed in the Fiat of the divine desire, through the fire in the light. In like manner the hierarch Lucifer was so, and prince Lucifer sat in heavenly pomp in the Serpent's ens, who had infected the ens out of which the Serpent was created, and therein awakened the dark-world's property, viz. the centre of the eternal nature, whence evil and good do take their original. But when the good did in the fire sever itself into the light, and the evil into the darkness, the Serpent's ens, which was good, was then infected, filled and possessed with the darkness; and from hence comes its craft.

30. For even such a craft the devil desired, which also took him in the eternal-speaking Word, in such a property, and confirmed him therein to eternity. For it is also a wonder in God how an evil could come to be out of a good, in order that the good might be known and manifest; and the creature might learn to fear before God, and hold still to the spirit of God; that he alone might act and work in the eternal-speaking Word, and make and do what he please with and by the creature.

31. And to this end Lucifer was swallowed up in the wrath, seeing his free will went forth from the resignation and departed from God's spirit, into the centre, to be its own self-full maker and creator; that the angels now have an example in this revolted fallen prince

and puissant hierarch; for the kingdom of God, which is [peculiarly and properly] called God's kingdom, stands in the deepest humility and love, and not at all in the wrathful fire's-might, but in the light fire's- might, viz. in power.

32. But the devil's kingdom, after which he longed and laboured, stood in the wrathful fire's-might, but the same was, essentially, taken from him in his place, and he was spewed out into the eternal hunger of the darkness.

33. And that he had infected and possessed the ens of the Serpent, which was so crafty, may be seen in its body, which is only a dry hungry skin, and fills itself with poison in the tail, in which property the great craft arises; and therefore the Serpent carries the poison

in the tail (which may soon be pulled off), in that the same in the beginning was introduced into its virgin-like ens.

34. For the Serpent is therefore called a virgin according to the right of eternity, because it has both tinctures, which is in no kind of earthly creature besides; but it is now in the curse of God. Yet if the artist knew what its pearl was, he would rejoice at it: yet by reason of the world's false desire, which seeks only the false magic, it remains hidden; also [it is not manifest] that the wicked may bear his rebuke.

35. For the pearl of the whole world is trodden under foot; and there is nothing more common than the same, yet it is hidden; in order that the holy ens might not be introduced into an ungodly one, which is not worthy of it; and so God's power and Word in the virginlike essence be thereby brought into a serpentine [ens], as it is to be understood in the Serpent: enough, here, for our school-fellows.

36. Thus we do fundamentally understand the original of sin's birth; how sin was borne and opened in the human word; and how God is provoked to anger in his expressed Word by the human re-expressing. For man bears the Word, which created heaven and earth, in his ens, for the same Word is brought to substance.

37. Now God has inspired into man's ens, viz. into the formed compacted Word, the living soul, viz. the original [Or understanding] out of all the three Principles, as a spirit of the formed Word. This understanding has now power and might to re-conceive, and to generate again, a formal voice in the ens, viz. in the formed compacted Word.

38. But seeing the Serpent's craft, viz. the devil's introduced desire, became manifest in the ens of Adam and Eve, viz. in their compacted and formed word; thereupon the free will does now draw forth from this Serpent's essence mere adder's poison and death, and forms its word therein, unless the holy ens or seed of the woman be again awakened in the new-born love of God in Christ; then the free will may conceive in this same holy ens, and bruise and tread under foot the head of the Serpent's-and-devil's-ens in the anger of God; that is, reject and abhor the evil will, which desires to idea and

imprint itself from the Serpent's ens, in the formation of the words, and bruise it in the will of the thoughts, with the ens of the woman, viz. of Christ, and esteem it as the devil's mire and dirt; which, in the children of God, is a continual combat and strife between the ens of the Serpent in the flesh, and between the regenerate ens of the heavenly part.

39. Also know this: Every thought which is formed in the will, so that a man consents unto lies, or anything else which is false, or if his will has conceived [and contrived] anything that is unjust, and he brings that contrivance into the desire, that he would very willingly do it, or express it in the false evil-formed word, if he could or knew how, and yet must let it alone, either for fear or shame; this same is all sin, for the will hath formed itself in the Serpent's ens.

40. But understand it well: if a good will does conceive [ Or form itself] in a good ens, and yet the evil desire doth adhere to it, and wills to poison the good; if then [I say] the good conceived will overcomes the evil, and casts it out, that the evil cannot also be formed or received into the compaction or substance; it is no sin. And though the evil desire which adheres to the good be sin, yet if the good will does not close with it and bring it into substance, but rejects it out of the good will, as an evil, then the sinful desire cannot come into essence, and the good will has not hereby wrought any evil, if it has not consented to the craft of the Serpent.

41. Every sin is born of the strange ens, if the free will departs from the ens, wherein God has created it. The sin which is conceived in the will in false desire, and brought to essence in the ens of the will, so that man would fain do wickedly or unjustly if he could but bring his intent to pass, is also great in the sight of God; but ifit proceeds so far as to hurt and injure anyone by word or deed, then the sin is double;

for it is formed in its own ens, and forms itself also in that whereinto it introduces the false word, so far as the false word in its speaking finds a place of rest to work [and bring forth its evil fruit].

42. And therefore the holy word shall judge the false; as also at the end of this time the holy word shall cast out from itself all false idol opinions, and all whatsoever that has been formed in the Serpent's ens, and give them to the dark world.

43. All those that take or conceive the word in them, in their devilish and serpentine ens, and use it against God's children, in whom the holy ens is manifest, and do stir up also an offence [or occasion of stumbling] in the children of God, that the free will in them does also conceive itself in the Serpent's ens, viz. in anger and averseness, where always the holy ens does likewise form itself, and the spirit of zeal arises: these false authors, beginners and causers do all sin against the Holy Ghost.

44. For they do extremely despite and defy Him, that He must even proceed forth, through the anger of the children of God, whereby He is stirred up, and of tentimes shows Himself in the turba of the children of God, and falls upon the neck of the wicked. As may be seen by Elias, and Moses, and also by Elisha, who cursed the boys, that the bears came out and tore them to pieces, for thus the sword of God comes forth through the mouth of the saints. If the Holy Spirit be extremely displeased, and set into a fiery zeal, then He awakens turba magna, which draws the sword against a wicked people and devours them.

45. Thus understand it in its full scope and meaning: Man has God's Word in himself; which created him; understand, the Word has imprinted and formed itselfwith the creating, both in its holiness and also in the anger; and that also in [or out of] the outward world, for the limus of the earth, or the earth itself;

was amassed and compacted through the Word, so that the formed Word, which took its beginning in the divine desire, viz. in the Fiat, is an exhalation forth-breathed from the spirit of God out of love and anger: therefore it is evil and good, but the evil was hidden, and as it were wholly swallowed up in the light, as the night in the day.

46. But the sinful desire in Lucifer and Adam has awakened the anger, so that it is become manifest essentially. Now the gates of the formed Word, both in love and anger, do stand open in the earth, and also in the limus of the earth, viz. in man, and also in the free will of man; whatsoever he does now form and amass in his free will, that [same] he has made, be it either evil or good.

47. But now the evil shall, in the judgement of God, be separated from the good; and in what part [either of the evil or the good] the human understanding, viz. the soul, shall be found, thereinto it must enter, with all whatsoever it has done, as into its own made habitation. And therefore Christ says, their works shall follow them, and be

purged (or proved) by the fire. Also at the end, when the books of the essence shall be opened, they shall he judged according to their works. For the work, be it evil or good, does embrace the soul, unless the soul does wholly depart [from the evil] and destroy it again, by reconciliation of his offended and wronged brother, and drown the substance in the blood and death of Christ, else there is no remedy.

48. Therefore a man must well consider what he will speak; for he speaks from the formed ens of God's manifestation; and well bethink and ponder with himself before he intends [or conceives in the will] to do anything; and by no means consent unto any false back-bitings, nor approve by a yea, neither privately nor openly.

49. For all forged tales and sharp taunts proceed from the Serpent's ens; all cursings, and swearings, and stinging girds, proceed from the Serpent's ens; yea, though they be but in jest, yet the Serpent's ens has stuck itself with them to the good, and compacted them with the word. Therefore Christ says, swear not at all: let your speech be, yea, yea; nay, nay; for whatsoever is more than these comes of evil; that is, it is born of the Serpent's ens.

50. All cursers and swearers have introduced their free will, and will introduce the poor soul into the vanity of the Serpent's ens, and form their curses and oaths, with all their lewd wanton talk, which is wrought in the Serpent's ens, and sow into God's anger; and on the contrary, all God's children who are in right earnest do form their words in the holy ens; especially the prayer, when the free will of the soul does amass or conceive itself in the holy ens (which is opened by Christ's humanity), then it forms the true essential word of God in itself, so that it comes to substance.

51. Therefore Saint Paul says, the Spirit of God does mightily intercede for us in the Sight of God, as it pleases Him; for the Spirit of God is formed in the desire of the holy word; He is taken (or apprehended), and this taking or receiving is that which Christ said, He would give us his flesh for food, and his blood for drink.

52. The soul's will takes Christ's ens, and in Christ's ens the Word of Christ became man, which the soul's desire or Fiat does receive or impress into its holy ens [that] disappeared in Adam. And here Adam arises in Christ, and becomes Christ [the second Adam or the Anointed one] according to the heavenly ens and divine Word, and from this ens of Christ proceeds forth divine knowledge, out of

the Word of God.

53. Thus the children of God are the Temple of the Holy Ghost, which dwells in them, and so they speak God's word; and without this there is no true knowing or willing, but mere fable and Babel, a confusion of the crafty Serpent.

54. Therefore Christ called the Pharisees, a seed of serpents, and a generation of vipers, and although they were the High Priests, yet he knew them to be so in their essence, for they had formed their will in the Serpent's ens. They carried the words of Moses in their mouth, and therein they mixed the Serpent's ens; as many still do to this day; where the incarnate devil carries God's word upon his tongue; and yet does only hide the Serpent's ens thereby, and introduces the diabolical ens into the literal word, whence Babel, the mother of all spiritual whoredom, is born, a mere verbal contention and wrangling about words, where the ens of the devil and the Serpent does oppose the divine ens in the formed divine Word.

55. But so it must be, that the formed and conceived word in God's children may be stirred up, whetted and exercised, and the truth come forth to light. Dear brethren: this is the inheritance which we have received from Adam and Eve; and that is the cause that the body must die, and wholly putrify, and enter again into its first ens; for the Serpent's ens must be wholly done away: it cannot inherit the kingdom of God.

56. The first ens in the limus of the earth, which was coagulated in the Verbum Fiat, must be wholly renewed in the spirit of Christ, if it will possess the kingdom of God. But if it remains captivated in the Serpent's ens it shall never be any more manifest: understand the holy ens, which disappeared in Adam, and was captivated in the Serpent's ens, whereby death came into the flesh.

57. Therefore a man must consider what he speaks, thinks and doeth, lest he conceive his thoughts in the Serpent's ens, and frame a will in the mind, in the ens of the Serpent; for else the devil does set himself therein, and hatches a basilisk, viz. a hellish form in the word.

58. For all wrath which is conceived in man for revenge does primarily arise in its centre out of the nature and property of the dark world, viz. in God's anger, and forms itself further in the Serpent's

ens to substance. Let it be what zeal it will, if it brings itself into a wrath to its own revenge it is formed in the ens of the Serpent, and is devilish.

59. And though the same were a prophet and an apostle, and yet would bring himself in the wrath to his own revenge, then this substance is formed from the anger of God in the Serpent's ens, and goes into the wrath of God;

and the anger of God is therein zealous, which oftentimes does so stir up and form itself in the holy children of God, that they must, against their purposed will, bring down the turba upon the house of the wicked, also upon his body and soul. As may be seen by Moses, upon Chorah, Dathan and Abiram, whom the earth swallowed up; so also by Elias in the fire, concerning the two captains over fifties, whom the fire devoured; also by Elisha, and many other prophets.

60. And there are many remarkable examples to be found concerning this in the holy histories, how, oftentimes, the children of God have been forced to carry the sword of the turba in them. A great example whereof we see in Samson, and also in Joshua, with his wars, and likewise in Abraham; how the zeal of God did enkindle itself in them, that they, in their spirit of zeal, have oftentimes awakened the turba magna in the anger of God, and raised great rebukes, judgements and plagues upon whole countries; as Moses in Egypt did, with the plagues upon the Egyptians.

61. But we must here distinguish. If the zeal of God should awaken itself in a holy man without his purposed will, and give him the sword of God's anger, such a one differs much from those who in their own thoughts contrive and plot in the wrath, and introduce the conceived or purposed will into the Serpent's ens, and make it to substance; for that is sin, yea, though the most holy man should do it.

62. Therefore, in the new birth, Christ so emphatically and punctually teaches us love, humility and meekness; and would that a Christian should not at all revenge, also not be angry; for he says, that whosoever is angry with his brother is guilty of the judgement. For the anger is a conception in the Serpent's ens, which must be cut off by the judgement of God from the good being. And whosoever shall say unto his brother, Raca, shall he in danger of the council. For the desire of Raca [Or revenge] arises in the centre of the dark fiery wheel of the eternal nature; therefore in the fire-soul there is a form

of the fire-word, [in manner] of a wheel, like a madness; and the soul's fiery-form stands in the Raca, as a mad furious wheel, which confounds the essence in the body, and destroys or shatters in pieces the understanding; for every Raca desires to destroy God's image. Thus the soul hangs on the wheel of the eternal nature, viz. on the centre of the horrible anxious birth; as is before mentioned concerning the centre of the birth of nature.

63. Moreover, Christ says, Whosoever says to his brother, you fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. This is thus wrought: when the conceived will has formed itself in the furious wrath of God's anger, and introduced it into the Serpent's ens, then it stands in the furious wheel, as mad;

and if it does now purposely go on, and so form the word, and casts or speaks it forth against its brother, and enkindles in him also a hateful enmity in the Serpent's ens, the same burns in his expressed word in the fire of God's anger, and he is guilty of it, for he has enkindled it in his Raca.

64. Therefore said Christ, if you will offer your gift, go first and be reconciled to your offended brother or neighbour, for otherwise he brings his wrath into your offering, and withholds you in your desire towards God, that you canst not reach the holy ens, which else washes away the turba in your enkindled vanity.

65. For the word fool is, in itself, in the essence, nothing else but an enkindled wrathful fiery wheel, an outrageous madness; and he that so calls his neighbour without a cause, he has brought forth a word in the fire-wheel, and in the wrath of God, and is guilty of it; for the forth-produced word is arisen out of the ens of the soul and body.

66. Every word, when it is formed, doth first awaken its own ens, whence it takes its original; then it leads itself forth through the council of the five senses against its brother. Now whosoever uses such a wrathful devouring fire-word against his brother, he sows into the anger of God, and is in danger to reap the fruit which he has so sown, when it springs up and grows.

67. Therefore take heed, and beware, 0 man, what you thinkest, speakest, or desirest to do. Look well always in what zeal you stand, whether it be divine, or only of your own poisonful nature! you father, you mother, you brother, and you sister, which pro-

ceed and come from one blood, from one ens, and mutually assimulate each with other, as a tree in its branches: think and consider what kind of sound [or tune] you introduce into the vital ens of your fellow-twigs and branches, whether it be God's love-word, or his word of anger! If ye do not destroy the introduced evil again with love, and introduce again the love-ens into the anger [to overcome and reconcile it], then the substance must come into the judgement of God, and be separated in the fire of God, like as the devil is severed from the good ens; and so shall you [be], O wicked man, with your wicked formed word [which you have conceived] out of the ens of God's anger.

68. And therefore God has introduced his holy Word out of his deepest love again into the human ens, seeing the same was introduced into Adam and Eve in the anger, that man might conceive [or form his will and doings] again in the introduced love of God in Christ Jesus, and in him destroy the wrathful anger. And therefore Christ teaches us that he is the Gate which leads us into God, that he is the Way and the Light, whereupon we may again enter into God, and in him regenerate [or quicken again to life] the holy ens.

69. And therefore Christ forbids us to be angry, or to conceive our will and word in revenge; but if anyone did curse us, we ought to bless him; and if any did strike us, him we should not resist; lest our turba should be stirred up in the new-born holy ens of Christ, and introduce the Serpent's craft, iniquity, and ens, thereinto.

70. But we should in love be as children, who understand nothing of the Serpent's craft. Therefore we declare, in divine knowledge, as a dear and precious truth, that all contention, covetousness, envy, anger, war, false desire, or whatsoever may be of the like name [and nature] does take its original out of the centre of the revenge of the wrath of God, out of the dark world, and is brought in the Serpent's ens to a substance, wherein the false Serpent's ens will behold and contemplate itself in pride.

71. Whatsoever does strive and contend in this world about selfhood, selfish interest, temporal honour, its own profit for its own advancement, the same is bred and born of the Serpent's ens; be it in either rich or poor, in superior or inferior, no order, rank or condition whatsoever excepted. All men who would be called Christians, or children of divine love, they must be born again in their first ens (which disappeared and corrupted in Adam) out of the divine love in

the holy and heavenly ens, or else none of them can be a child of the love of God. All the greediness and covetousness, of all places and politic powers, under what name or title soever, does wholly proceed from the Serpent's ens.

72.1 speak not of the offices, but of the falsehood of the officers. The office in its place and station is God's ordinance, if it be carried on in holy desire, and arises out of a divine root, for good; if not, but that it rises only out of a root for selfhood and pride, then it is from the Serpent's craft, and goes into destruction.

73. All war, however blanched over and under what pretence soever, takes its original out of God's anger; and he that begins

it, does it from a self-full desire to selfish interest, from the Serpent's ens: unless that war arises from the command and injunction of God, that a nation has brought forth (itself) in his wrath, that he would his anger should devour it, and ordain a holier in the room, as was brought to pass by Israel among the Gentiles, otherwise it is wholly born in the self-full turba in selfhood. It does not belong to any true Christian born of Christ to raise the sword of the turba, unless the zealous spirit of God does stir it up in him, who of ten will rebuke sin.

Whatsoever exalts itself in the wrath about its own honour and pride, and brings itself to revenge [or bloodshed] is from the devil, be it either by nobles or ignobles, none excepted; before God they be all alike.

74. Earthly dominion and government has its original from the fall, in the Serpent's craft; seeing man departed from the love-will, from the obedience of God, therefore he must have a judge to rebuke the false desire in its substance, and destroy the false substance. Therefore magistracy and superiority is ordained of God for a defence of the righteous substance and will, and not for its selfish interest and its own perverse will, to break down and destroy governments at its pleasure, and to oppress the poor and impotent. Whatsoever does that, is arisen from the Serpent's ens, let it glister and colour over itself with what hypocrisy it will; and though it were clothed with gold and pearls, yea, even with the sun, it is bred and born out of the Serpent's ens, and has the Serpent's ens in its government, and tends into destruction, unless it be born anew [in the ens of Christ].

75. Whatsoever is not born out of the ens of love, and bears forth a will of righteousness and truth, to work something that is good upon the earth for the service and profit of his neighbour, the same is idolatrous; for in Adam we all are one tree; we are all sprung from one only root.

76. And God has begotten us in his love, and brought us into Paradise. But the Serpent's craft has set us at variance, so that we are departed out of Paradise, and come into its [the Serpent's] villainous subtle craft, into selfishness; whence we must again depart, and enter into a child's coat.

77. We have nothing in this world for our own propriety but a shirt, whereby we cover our shame before the angels of God, that our abomination may not appear naked; and that is our own, and nothing else; the other is all common: Whosoever has two coats, and sees that his brother has none, the other coat is his brother's, as Christ teaches us.

78. For we come naked into this world, and carry away scarce our shirt with us, which is the covering of our shame; the rest we possess either by necessity of office, or else out of covetousness, out of the Serpent's false desire. Every man should seek the profit and preservation of his neighbour, how he might serve and be helpful to him; as one branch of a tree gives its power, essence and virtue to the other, and they grow and bear fruit in one desire. Even so we are all one tree in Adam.

79. But we are in Adam withered in the Serpent's ens, as to the love-will; and we must all be new-born in Christ's love-ens and will; without that, none is a child of the love of God; and though there may be something of the divine love in many a one, yet it is wholly covered with the Serpent's ens; which devilish ens does continually spring forth above the love, and bears fruit.

80. There is not any who does good in selfhood and own will, unless that he forsake in the own (appropriating) will all whatsoever he has, except the infant's shirt; that he must keep for his own and give it to none, for it is the covering of his shame. The other is all common, and he is only a servant and steward of the same, a guardian and distributor to every one in his place.

81. Whosoever suffers the poor and miserable to be in want and distress under his charge, and gathers into his mind temporal goods for his own property, he is no Christian, but a child of the Serpent; for he suffers his under branches to wither, and keeps away his sap and power from them, and will not work forth fruits by his fellow-branches.

82. We do not hereby mean the wicked idle crew which will only suck, and not work and bring forth fruit themselves in the tree, that they should be pampered to exercise pleasure and vanity; but we speak of the twigs which stand in the tree, and co-operate, and would fain grow and bear fruit, from whom the great branches of this world do withdraw the sap, and hold it in themselves, that they, as lean overdript twigs, do wither, by and under their charge. Such are the rich potentates and nobles; with them the spirit of zeal does here speak; so far as they do keep and hold their sap within themselves, and suffer their small branches to dry up and wither, and wholly withdraw the sap from them. They are branches on the tree of the Serpent, which is grown up in the curse of God's anger, and is reserved for the fire of God's anger; says the Spirit of Wonders.

The Twenty-Third Chapter

How God re-called Adam and his Eve when they were entered into Sin and Vanity, and awakened in the Serpent's Ens; and laid upon them the Order of this toilsome laborious world, and ordained the Serpent-Bruiser for a Help (or Saviour) to them

1. Now when Adam and Eve had eaten of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and were become monstrous by the Serpent, Moses writes of it thus: Their eyes were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons (Gen. iii. 7).

Here the soul did even now know the monstrous image, and was ashamed of it; that such a gross beast, with gross flesh and hard bones, should awaken [or show itself] with a bestial worm's carcass of vanity in their tender delicate body;

and they would have covered the same from the eyes of God, and for shame crept behind the trees. So very ashamed were they of the soul-deformity of the beast; for the bestial ens had swallowed up the heavenly, and got the upper hand, which before they had not known; now they could not tell for shame what they should do.

2. The Serpent's craft would not here cover the shame, but did lay it only more open, and accused them, as revolting, faithless rebels; for God's anger did awake in them, and arraigned them now before the severe judgement, to devour them into itself; as into the dark world, as happened to Lucifer.

3. And this is the place [state, condition] whereby the earth trembled in the death of Christ, and the rocks clove in sunder: Here God's anger shut up in death the holy ens of the heavenly humanity; which Christ, when he destroyed death on the Cross, did again open; at which the wrath, in the curse of the earth and rocks, shook and trembled.

4. And here was the sore combat before God's anger, in which combat Christ, in the Garden (when he prayed, and was to overcome

this anger), did sweat drops of blood, when he said, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; but if it be not possible, but that I must drink it, your will be done.

5. Christ, on the Cross, must drink down this wrathful anger, which was awakened in Adam's essence, into his holy heavenly ens, and change it with great love into divine joy; of which the drink of gall and vinegar, being a mixed draught which the Jews gave him, was a type, signifying what was done inwardly in the humanity of Christ.

6. For the outward image of man should also be redeemed from the anger and death, and again arise out of the earth. Therefore Christ's outward humanity from the kingdom of this world must also drink of this cup, which God the Father had filled to Adam in his anger. The same, Christ must drink of ; and change the anger into love. Therefore said Christ, Is is possible, then let it pass from me: but it was not possible to overcome the anger, unless the sweet name Jesus drink it into itself; and change it into joy: Then said Christ, Father! your will be done, and not the will of my humanity.

7. God's will should also have been fulfilled in Adam; but he exalted his own will by the Serpent's craft: now the humanity of Christ upon the Cross must give this own self-will unto the anger for to devour it. But the holy name Jesus brought it into the death of selfhood, that it must die in the wrathful death, and enter again through death in his resurrection into the true resignation, viz. into the divine harmony.

8. Adam, when he had awakened the anger in him, stood in Paradise in great shame and scorn before God and all holy angels; and the devil did mock and deride him, that this image of God, which should possess his royal throne, was become a monstrous beast. And into this scorn Christ must enter, and suffer himself to be reviled, mocked, spit upon, whipped, crowned with thorns, as a false king; for Adam was a king and hierarch, but become false and rebellious.

9. Here Christ stood in his stead, and was condemned to death; for Adam also should have been judged by God)s anger. Here Adam, that is, Christ in Adam's humanity, stood in his stead. Adam should have been rejected as a curse, even as a scorn before heaven and earth.

And in sum, the whole process of Christ, from his Incarnation unto his Ascension, and sending of the Holy Ghost, is Adam's estate. What Adam had merited as a malefactor, Christ himself must take upon him in Adam's person, and bring again the life out of death.

10. Adam was made by the word of God, but he fell from God's love-word into his anger-word. Thus God, out of mere grace, did again awaken in Adam's wrathful image his love-word, in the deepest humility, love and mercy, and introduced the great love ens into the ens of the awakened anger, and in Christ changed the angry Adam into a holy one.

11. Moses describes it very clearly, but the veil lies before the bestial man, that he does not know him, for he says, And they heard the voice of the Lord God, which walked in the Garden when the day grew cool, and Adam and his wife hid themselves amongst the trees from the presence of the Lord God (Gen. iii. 8).

12. Moses says, they heard the voice of the Lord God, which walked in the Garden. What is now this voice which was [or stirred] in the Garden? for Adam's ears were dead to the divine hearing, and were awakened in the wrath; he could not in his own might hear any more God's holy voice, for he was dead as to the kingdom of heaven, as to the divine holiness; as God told him: in that day that you eat of this Tree, you shall die.

13. The voice was God's anger, which forced in to Adam's essence, when the day became cool; understand, the eternal day in Adam's essence was awakened in cold and heat; therefore now they heard the voice of God, the Lord, in his anger in their essence; for the turba was awakened: the tone or hearing of the dark world did sound [or ring its sad knell].

14. But that which walked in the Garden, and re-called Adam, was another voice, which brake forth out of the anger, and walked [or moved] in the Garden, for the word der im Garten ging is the difference, or note of distinction, and signifies the voice JESUS, proceeding from JEHOVAH; the voice was TETRAGRAMMA. But that which walked in the Garden was TON, viz. the centre of the light world;

and the voice TETRAGRAMMA is the centre to the fire-world, viz. the First Principle, and the TON, the Second Principle. As fire and light are one, but they sever themselves in their coming forth

to manifestation into a twofold source: the like also is to be considered concerning this.

15. The voice of the fire-world entered into the essence of Adam and Eve; the same they heard, therefore they were afraid, and crept among the trees: but the voice of the light-world is this, whereof Moses spoke, Der im Garten ging; the holy voice walked in the Garden of Paradise, for the word Der denotes the Person of Christ, who walked in the spirit, in the Garden, and went forth from the fire's centre, who took possession of Paradise, and would invest Adam again with it.

16. Therefore says Moses now: and the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? (Gen. ill. 9). Wherefore said he not, Adam and Eve where are ye? No, he called to Adam, viz. to the first image which he created in Paradise, and not unto the man and woman;

for he that called was he which walked in the Garden, viz. the Word of the light-world, the voice of the Second Principle, which called back again in [and from] the enkindled anger, and espoused itself again unto the disappeared heavenly ens, that it would arise and stir up itself again therein, in the name JESUS, viz. in the deepest love of the Deity, and unite and manifest itself; in the fullness of time, in the disappeared ens, with the introducement of the holy divine ens of the heavenly world's essence thereinto, and open Paradise again; and in the meantime bruise the head of the Serpent's ens; this Serpent-Bruiser said to Adam, Where art thou?

17. Now says reason, He saw him well enough, wherefore said he then, Where art thou? He did indeed see Adam, but Adam did not see him; for his eyes were departed from Adonai, from the divine world, into time, viz. into the outward world, into the Serpent's ens, [both] evil and good, into the death and corruptibility. Out of these monstrous eyes Adam saw in the property of the fire's tincture;

but the property of the light's tincture, which he had wretchedly lost, said upon him, Where art thou, Adam? Which is as much as if he had said, Seek me, and see me again: I am come to give myself again unto you. And Adam said, I heard your voice in the Garden, and was afraid, for I am naked(Gen.iii. 10).

18. This calling him was nothing else but the voice or sound of the holy word introducing itself again into the vital light, else Adam

could not have heard this voice: therefore he said, I am naked, and afraid.

19. Of what was he afraid? He felt in him the world of God's anger, and feared that it would wholly enkindle itself and devour him, as happened to Lucifer. Therefore he trembled at the call of the holy voice, as the anger trembleth at the love, as may be seen on the Cross of Christ, for even here was the fear and dread of the Serpent; for it knew the voice which called into Adam's ens, and feared before the face of God; for it knew [or perceived] the falsehood which was in it, which it would hide.

20. And God said, Who told you that you art naked? (Gen. iii. 11). That is, the Serpent's ens has told you, that you shouldest imagine after the bestial property, and awaken the same.

21. And we see here very clearly, that Adam knew nothing of this naked bestial property in his innocency; but if it had been manifest in him, surely he had then known it. But now God says to him, Who has told you it; have you eaten of the tree whereof I commanded you that you should not eat? Did not I charge and command you that you should not awaken the property of nakedness in you? Wherefore have you by lust brought yourself into the bestial property? Did not I create you in the angelical property? Wherefore are you then become a beast in my power? Have not I made you in and through my word? Why has your own free will changed my word?

22. And he said, The woman which you did join with me, gave me, and I did eat of the tree. And God said to the woman, wherefore have you done this? And she said, the Serpent beguiled me, and I did eat (Gen. iii. 12, 13). Herein it is plainly and clearly laid open, that the devil, in the ens of the Serpent, did deceive man, as it is before mentioned; and that they both, Adam and his wife, were made monstrous by the Serpent.

23. For God said to the Serpent (by whose property the devil had made himself a seat and habitation in man's image): Because you have done this, be you accursed above all cattle, and above all the beasts of the field; upon your belly shall you go, and dust shall you eat all the days of your life (Gen. iii. 14).

24. But here the veil lies before the face of Moses, who passes by the Serpent, and does not describe what it was. But seeing how God

said unto it, that it should go upon the belly, and eat earth, and no law was given to it in the beginning, thereupon we are here well able to find what it was; seeing it was the most subtle beast among all the beasts, and slew Eve her virgin-like chastity, that she lusted after the bestial copulation. Thereupon we understand in the Serpent's property the desire of [carnal] brutal copulation, and all unchastity, wanton uncleanness, and bestial whoredom of man.

25. for it, viz. the Serpent in its inward limus whereinto the devil introduced his desire, was [Or had been ] a virgin-like ens; understand, in the good part of the heavenly ens, which was taken in the Verbum Fiat, and brought into a creatural image according to each property; as also the devil's ens, before his creature [ship], was a virgin-like ens of angelical property.

26. This Serpent's ens was modelised and engrafted in Adam and Eve, for the desire of Eve took hold of this bestial property, and imprinted it into herself, as a blemish [or foul mark], into the right pure virginity, into the pregnant matrix. Therefore God cursed the image of the outward Serpent, and bid it go upon the belly, and eat earth; and herewith also the mark [or blemish] of the impressed monstrous Serpent [was enstamped] in man.

27. For as now the outward Serpent must go upon the belly and eat earth, which had brought its figure into the matrix in Eve's belly, so must now the belly of Eve eat of the cursed earth, and the matrix goes as a subtle Serpent upon its belly, and beguileth the limbus of the fire's tincture. Thus it longeth after its belly and Serpent-creeping, whereas it is only that this Serpent's matrix might exercise whoredom, and effect a bestial work. As Eve did deceive Adam, so that he did eat of the fruit, and as the outward Serpent was cursed, so also the Serpent's matrix of the bestial property in Eve [was accursed], from whence all her children are corrupted, and are all born of a monstrous matrix, which is a deflowered maid in the sight of God; for Adam had already corrupted it when as he stood in both tinctures; but when Eve was separated from Adam it came with her into act.

28. And God said, I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed; it shall bruise your head, and you shall sting it on the heel (Gen. iii. 15). Now the ground does lie herein; for God did not mean hereby the outward bestial serpent without man, which hides itself in holes and crannies of the rocks,

and inhabites in the rude solitary places [of the earth], but the monstrous bestial Serpent in man, which was figured in the woman's matrix.

29. For when God called Adam when he hid himself among the trees, and was ashamed and feared, then the voice of the holy Word entered again into the vital light. And here, when God said, I will put enmity, the seed of the woman shall bruise the Serpent's head, then the holy voice of God went forth out of JEHOVAH, (which would once more move itself in time, and manifest JESUS) in the woman's matrix, in the disappeared heavenly ens, and incorporated itself anew with the holy Word [therein], as into an aim [bound] of an eternal covenant.

30. And this word, which did promise, inhest and incorporate itself into the woman's seed, was that same word which did move itself in Mary's seed, and opened the name JESUS out of the centre of the deepest love in the word, and quickened the disappeared heavenly ens with the introducing of the holy living ens into the disappeared ens of Mary.

31. Understand, the heavenly chaste virginity was again revived in the name of JESUS in the seed of Mary in the motion of the incorporated Word; and this incorporated [or engrafted or in-spoken] Word stood in Eve her seed in the matrix as an aim of a certain Covenant;

and was all along propagated in Eve's seed, from man to man in the heavenly part, as a sound or incentive of the divine holy light's-fire, wherein the name JESUS was all along propagated in an aim and Covenant, as a glimmering incentive, until the time of the awakening [or manifestation] of it in Mary, where the Covenant was fulfilled, and the doors of the shut chamber were again opened. And this is that holy fire out of which the name JESUS was manifest, which holy fire did burn in the Jewish offerings, which appeased [or atoned] the anger of God, and bruised the head of the monstrous Serpent in man, viz. the monstrous fire-spirit, and will.

32. The bruising of the head is nothing else but to destroy the abomination of the Serpent, to take away its power by a right desire of faith; and by such a strong importunate imagination of faith on the promised Word, to take the same Word and introduce it into the Serpent's ens, and therewith destroy and ruin the devil's theft-fort; and thereby kill the matrix of the whorish desire, and introduce the

matrix with its desire into the virgin-like ens, into the aim of the Covenant.

33. In which Covenant the woman and the man [female and male property] shall and must die; and the chaste virgin must be born out of the death in the Word of the Covenant, with both tinctures of peculiar love; and then the Serpent, in its desire in the anger of God, will sting on the heel the virgin-child of the new-birth in the faith.

34. For all this lifetime the virgin-like child is fast bound by the heel with a strong chain unto the monstrous image; and is not able to get quite rid of the Serpent's chain all this lifetime. This chain is the brutal bestial monstrous man, in whom lieth the monster of the whore and Serpent; a figure whereofwe have in the Revelation of John, where the woman stands, with the crown and twelve stars, upon the moon.

35. The moon signifies the bestial man, and the woman signifies the virgin-like matrix in the aim of the Covenant, out of which the virgin-child is born.

36. When as Adam was man and woman, and yet none of them both, the virginity according to the light's tincture in the holy ens was poisoned and infected in him by false desire, for the fiery property of the soul carried [or directed] its lust into the earthliness; and out of that virginity the woman, by the adjoining of all the three Principles, was made; and the woman made herself monstrous by the Serpent, and corrupted the virgin-like matrix, and by her lust did introduce a bestial monstrous serpentine [matrix] thereinto, infected with the devil's will and desire.

37. Now this holy virgin-like matrix in Eve was captivated by the monstrous property, and the image of the heavenly ens did disappear in her. And in this heavenly ens, (understand, in the right virgin-like seed of chastity, sanctity and purity, which was captived in Eve by the monstrous Serpent and bestial whore's-desire), the Word of God did inhest [infuse] itself with the dear, precious and holy name JESUS; that it would again introduce [a] living heavenly ens into this captived disappeared ens, and bruise the head of the Serpent's ens, viz. the whore's monster, and mortify its desire, and cast away the whore's image [or bastard] and overpower and allay the enkindled anger of God in this virgin-like matrix with the deepest love of God, and wholly kill and null the monster [of the Serpent in flesh and

blood].

And this is that which God said, the seed of the woman shall bruise the Serpent's head.

38. Understand it aright: The virgin-like seed of Eve in the Word of God should do it in the name and sweet power of JESUS : the seed included in the Covenant of God, whereout the virgin-child is born as the dew out of the morning, that (I say) should and must

do it.

39. For the child which is from the blood of the man and woman shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven; but that which is [born] of the virgin-like ens, in the aim of the Covenant, out of the promised Word of God. The child of the man and woman is a monstrum, and must die, and putrify and rot in the earth; but the virgin-like ens which lies hidden in this monstrum is the true seed, of which the children of Christ are born; yea, even in this life-time, for the life of

this child is the true faith and great divine desire.

40. This virgin-like child does live in Christ's children in the spirit and flesh of Christ, in a spiritual body, outwardly covered with the monstrum in the child of the whore and Serpent; there is no man which does not outwardly carry on him the Serpent's child.

41. But the virgin's child, born of the divine virgin-like ens of JESUS, does not live in all: there is indeed in many a one a glimmering incentive thereunto, viz. a weak faith and divine desire; but the true, holy and precious life of the virginity is not born: it stands captivated in the judgement of God.

42. Yet well for those who have but an incentive in them; to those we give this direction: that their soul's desire should in the spirit of Christ dive itself into the divine incentive; and with the fire-desire enkindle that incentive, and also forsake and hate the Serpent's monster and bastard, and introduce their great hunger and thirst into the virgin-like ens, into the Word of God's Covenant, and into the fulfilling of the Covenant, viz. into the humanity of Christ; and ever mortify and trample under foot the whore's monster in the will of the desire, as a venomous stinging evil Serpent, a false bastard, that cannot inherit the kingdom of God, and is only a hinderance to the virgin's child.

43. For the Word of the Promise in the Covenant would not

incorporate itself into the man's tincture, viz. in the soul's fire-ens, but into the woman's, viz. into the light's tincture, into the virginlike centre, which should have brought forth magically in Adam; even into the heavenly matrix of the holy pregnatress; in which light's tincture the fiery soul's ens was weaker than in the man's fire-ens.

44. In this light's ens God would arouse the fire-ens, viz. the true soul, and as it were beget it anew, as may be seen in the person of Christ according to the humanity, who in this virgin-like ens did assume a manly fire-soul from the woman's property, from the female virgin-like seed, wholly contrary to nature's proper and peculiar ability, for the image of God is a man-like virgin, neither woman nor man.

45. And if a man will rightly consider both properties according to the divine property, then let him ascribe the male to God the Father, viz. to the first Principle, where God's Word does manifest itself with the fire-world, which is the first centre of the creature; and the female let him ascribe to God the Son, viz. to the second Principle, where the divine eternal Word does manifest itself in the light of love, and opens another centre in the love-desire, and comes into the fire's centre; in manner as the fire produces a light; and the light [is] a great meekness of an oily, watery and aery property, which property the fire draws in again, whence it receives its shining lustre, and also its life to burn, else it would smother and suffocate.

46. And as these three, viz. the fire, light and air, have one only original, yet they give a very evident distinction in their property. The like also we are here to mind: into this property in the life of man's soul the most sweet name JESUS has incorporated itself in the Word of Promise, as into the likeness which stood in the light's centre of the heavenly matrix, viz. in the right virgin-like ens, inspired out of the light's property into Adam; and has awaked [itself] in the same limus, as a true centre of the second Principle, viz. of the angelical world, a real temple of the spirit of God;

an open, and wide [or stirring] gate of the divine wisdom, in the highest beauty, excellency and love, wherein the holy angelical life consists, and bears therein the name of the great holy God, viz. the holy Word of the Deity.

47. Into this property the Word of God did betroth and espouse

itself in the Covenant; for it was opened out of the holy Word in Adam. God would not forsake his holy manifested Word, which, with the creating of Adam, had introduced itself into an ens, which the devil obscured and darkened in in the Serpent's ens from the anger;

but would again open the same, and thereby bruise the head of the Serpent's ens, and beget the human soul out of this divine ens, to a manlike virgin, viz. to an angel, servant and child of God.

48. We do not mean that this holy ens did receive the Serpent's desire into itself when Adam and Eve became monstrous. No, but it disappeared; yet the soul, according to the first Principle, took it into the fire's property, viz. into the Fiat, and introduced the Serpent's ens, with the desire of the Fiat, into the earthly limus, whereupon out of the one only element four elements were manifest in man.

49. Therefore the virgin-like ens of the one only element must now bruise the head of the introduced Serpent's ens in the four elements; and the man of the four elements must die and putrify, and the first [man] must return at the last day clothed with the virginlike ens in the one only element wherein all things lie in equal weight [or perfect harmony].

50. for this virgin-like ens, new-born in the spirit of Christ, dies not any more, although the four-elements man, viz. the image of this world, dies; but it lives in God's kingdom, and shall in the resurrection of the dead embrace and put on the limus of the earth, viz. the third Principle, as a garment of the wonder-deeds of God. But the Serpent's ens remains in the earth, and shall be burnt away at the last day through the fire, from the pure limus of the earth, where the dark world shall devour it with all its works.

51. Thus we herein understand very clearly, how God out of great love has promised the Serpent-Bruiser to the fallen man, and espoused and betrothed it unto the virgin-like and disappeared centre, and given in itself therewith for a help and companion. For when they were fallen from God, and had made themselves monstrous, then the image out of the limus of the earth became wholly brutal, and lived in opposition, in distemper, in sickness, and also in heat and cold, as all other beasts.

52. Now therefore God told them what their labour, work and employment should be in this world, viz. that they should bring

forth children in sorrow, with painful smart, in trouble and distress, and eat the herb of the field, and now clothe their bestial image in turmoil and cumbring care, in toil and labour, until the four-elements man in the bestial Serpent's image should again be broken and dissolved, and return unto the earth, from whence it was taken and extracted as a limus.

The Twenty-Fourth Chapter

Of the Cause and Rise of the Curse of the Earth, and of the Body of Sickness

1. GOD'S cursing of the ground for man's sins' sake, that it should bring forth thorns and thistles, and commanding man not, till after sin was committed, to eat of the herb of the field, and in the sweat of his face to eat his bread, does plainly and sufficiently show us that this had not been in Paradise. The ground should not have borne thorns and thistles and other evil herbs, which are poisonful; but in the curse all these properties became manifest; for as the body was, after the fall, so likewise its food: the half-serpentine man must now eat such food as his desire required [or coveted].

2. The curse is nothing else but the holy element's hiding of itself viz. the holy ens, which budded forth through the earth and bore fruit, and held the property of the four elements as 'twere captive in itself [did withdraw or closely conceal itself]. The heaven in the earth hid itself from the earth; the holy tincture, from the awakened vanity, viz. the heavenly part, which was from the heavenly ens [did keep itself secret] from the part in the curse, viz. in the ens of the dark world.

3. Thus the heavenly part was a mystery unto man, and so remained in the curse between time and eternity, half dead as to the heavenly part, yet anew embraced with the promise in the aim of the Covenant; and as to the earthly [part] strongly bound to the band of the stars and four elements, infected with the distemper of the Serpent and the devil; very hard tied with three strong chains, from which he cannot get free till the total dissolution of his earthly body; for the curse of the earth and the Serpent forced also into the earthly man, viz. into the limus of the earth.

4. For God's said, you are earth, and unto earth you shall return; for when the desire of the limus of the extract of the earth (viz. of

the outward man) did enter again into the earth, and imagine after the earthly fruit, then the devil infected his desire by the property of the Serpent; and in each desire is the Fiat, which does impress and make

the desire essential [into form]. Thus the earthly hunger became at this instant wholly earthly; therefore God said now unto him: you must turn again to earth, from whence you were taken; for the heavenly disappeared in the earthly, as the gold is disappeared in lead.

5. Thus an earthly body is now sown into the earth, and the earth receives it as its own property. But the ens which is from the eternity (which cannot be destroyed) lies in this earthly-sown body. Nothing is broken or dissolved but the gross beast, viz. the being [or substance] of time. As a fixed metal is not destroyed [or corrupted] in the earth, even so also the fixed part of the human body;

and as the artist brings forth an excellent gold out of the earth, so likewise the human gold lies buried in the earth, and waits only for the artist to raise it up.

6. And as there is a various and manifold diversity of metalline property in the earth, so likewise of the ens of human property. Therefore all things shall be proved through the fire. What kind of property everyone has in this time assumed to himself and impressed on his body (viz. with the desire of the Fiat), that shall be tried in the fire, whether or no he has impressed a fixed steadfast property from the divine ens into himself or a hellish bestial one. All this shall be tried and proved in the fire of God; and as the ens is,

in each body, such a fire also shall be enkindled in the same ens.

7. And as quicksilver does evaporate in the fire, even so shall all the wicked devilish serpentine works, which have been impressed out [brought forth] of the dark world and devil's desire.

8. Now if a man has in this lifetime impressed into himself [a] divine ens, by earnest faith and divine desire, (understand, introduced [this] by the human soul into the mortal part of the limus of the earth), then it lies shut up in the mortal part, yet as a glimmering incentive which longs and labours to burn and shine, or as the precious gold lies shut up in a gross drossy ore, or in lead, and waits only for the artist to come and release it, even so likewise shall be the delivery and releasement of man's body out of the earth.

9. Now also we do herein understand the body of sickness, and also the physician [or curer thereof]; for when the heavenly ens did disappear and was captivated with the earthly, as the gold in the

lead, then the outward astrum awakened in the body. And now as the outward astrum does mutually destroy and ruin one another's ens, and change it into another ens, according to the greatest and most predominant power; so likewise the human mind (which is a magical astrum) is hereby governed and ruled, and the body also; and is thereby brought into strange desire and lust; whereby man does weaken, plague and perplex himself; and one introduced ens does martyr, weaken and annoy another, both through meat, and thoughts, or cumbring molesting care.

10. As we plainly see that man for the most part does rack and plague himself in the astral mind with the desire about that which cannot be his own, which stands not open in his astrum;

and his astrum cannot apprehend, take, or receive it. About this the false introduced desire from the strange astrum does plague, perplex and spend itself day and night, whence the great covetousness does arise, that man does desire and introduce that into his astrum which is a hurtful poison and plague unto him; and yet with such [infoisted] strange matter cannot make any fixed steadfast [thing or being] in him which may subsist in eternity.

11. All whatsoever the own peculiar astrum (viz. the life's right astrum) does impress [or foist] into itselffrom [or of ] a strange astrum, is false, and an adverse will; whence enmity (viz. the great envy in nature) does arise, that the human mind wills to domineer over the strange ens; and if he cannot get it, yet that strange in-foisted, introduced ens burns in him in a spiritual manner, as a poisonful hungry fire of envy, that doth not freely beteem [ Or vouchsafe]

that to any, that it wills to possess itself.

12. And though it comes about that it may, through the Serpent's craft, draw it to itself or possess it, yet it has no fundamental seat [or true root] in its right life's astrum; for it is not capable of it. But the desire does advance and set it up as a king, and vaunt itself therewith as an absolute peculiar god, which has taken upon itself might over others, and sets itselfupon strange authority and domination. Whence the pride of riches and self-assumed honours and domination does arise;

and yet in its ground and original it has taken its rise from the devil (through the Serpent's ens), who also departed with the free will from his own peculiar ens into strange desire. Whereby he has introduced and awakened in himself (by reason of his strange in-foisted ens) the hellish torment, pain and sickness, so that his life's astrum is wholly

departed from its mutual accord and harmony, and entered into an enchanting sorcering property: and so likewise it goes with the fallen man.

13. But now man has his cure, and the devil has not; for when the divine providence knew that he would not stand, he caused all manner of medicine [for hunger and health] to grow out of the earth, to resist and withstand the strange introduced property, both from the astrum and elements. And for the cure of the mind God has given his Holy Word; that the mind should immerse itself into the Word, and through the power of the Word continually cast away the introduced strange abomination.

14. And if it does not this, but continues in the strange introduced ens (which the devil continually introduces through the Serpent's image), then the strange ens becomes substantial, and surrounds the hidden ens of the heavenly world's being or substance; and even then that ens which is from and of the divine property remains disappeared in death and cannot attain the place of God. And hence comes the eternal death;

as is to be seen in Lucifer, in whom also his divine ens is included or shut up into the Nothing, viz. into the greatest hiddenness [or privation], so that he, in his magical astrum in the creatural property, cannot reach or obtain the place of God.

15. Therefore it is very necessary for man wholly to sink and dive himself into the promised incorporated Word of God; and continually and fully reject and cast away the strange introduced ens, which the devil insinuates into his mind (whereby he desires strange things); and only take for his corporal necessity and livelihood that which he may obtain with good truth and real upright honesty which befalls him in his calling [business, affairs];

the same his right life's astrum does bring unto him, and he is capable of it; and it creates him no vexation, trouble, discontent and pain, if he does not let in the Serpent's covetousness, pride, envy and anger thereinto.

16. And it is the greatest folly that man does eagerly and tearingly strive and hale for strange things [heterogene, and hurtful to his soul], and bring that into his desire which does only discontent and disturb him, and at last cast him quite from God; which does shut up his heavenly ens in body and soul. What profit is that unto him, which he sees without him, and does exalt himself in an outside lustre [as in a

specious shadow and resemblance of a looking-glass], and yet is not capable of the same?

And if he does get to be capable of it he turns it to his temporal and eternal vexation and disquietness.

17. God has created man naked, and given him nothing in this world that he can or may call his own, saying this or that is mine. Indeed all is his, but it is common; for God created only one man: to that one only man he gave all whatsoever is in this world. Now all men are proceeded out of this only man, he is the stem or body, the other are all his branches, and do receive power from their stem, and bring forth fruit out of one root, and each twig enjoys the tree's ens, also they do all alike enjoy the four elements and the astrum [stars, planets] alike.

18. What folly [and madness] is it then, that the twig wills to

be an own [selfish] tree; and grows up of itselfas a strange plant, as if its fellow-twig did not stand also in its stem. It is the Serpent's introduced ens which seduces and divides the branches on the life's tree of man from the only life of man, bringing each twig into a peculiar sundry hunger, desiring to be a tree by itself in self-full power and domination.

And therefore it desires the muchness [abundance] of this world for its own property, that it might greatly enlarge itself in the Serpent's ens, and be a great, thick, strong, fat, well-spread tree.

19. O you self-exalting vapourer, of what do you smell and savour? Even of the Serpent's wantonness, lust, concupiscence and poison, and the temporal and eternal death. And this you are in your own self-tree, and not a whit better, and though you were a king, yet that which is under your jurisdiction is only for your office, and not your own.

20. If you will enter again into the life-tree, and be a twig on the only life of man, then you must utterly forsake in your mind and desire all whatsoever that is in this world; and become as a little child; and look only upon that which your own life's astrum doth cast upon you in your estate, calling and place; and therein you must work, and not say, It is mine alone! Albeit you are a steward therein, yet you serve therein the root alone upon which you stand.

You bear fruit to the root in your labour, which you must let stand free, and therewith be diligent and careful in preserving your calling and place, to serve your brother, and help to increase his sap,

that he may grow up with you, and bear fruit.

21. In all self-hood and own-hood [ Selfish interests, minehood, and thine-hood, meum and tuum] there is a false plant; one brother should be the sovereign cure and refreshment to another, and delight or content his mind with the insinuation of his love-will. There were enough and enough in this world, if covetousness drew it not into a selfish property, and would bear good will to his brother as to himself; and let his pride go, which is from the devil.

22. He runs, with great pride and belly-carking, only to the devil in the bottomless pit [Into the abyss]. He will be noble, and better than his brother. But whence will he have it? Did not God give but one life to man, and out of that one comes the life of all men?

23. But that he fancies to himself that he is more noble and genteel therein [than others] and vaunts therewith, that is an apostacy and fall from God and his Word, for in the Word of God was the only life of man, which the Word breathed into the created image;

and this same one only life is from eternity, and never had any beginning. Wherefore does man then bring in a strange life thereinto, that does disquiet and disturb the only life? Now it must come to this pass: that he does either with his will and desire enter again into the only childlike life, and forsake all whatsoever he has introduced, or else remain for ever in disquietness in that, his in-foisted, essence or [life].

24. Now then, seeing I must forsake all whatsoever I have introduced into myself for property, and that the same is only my hurt [loss,damage], wherefore then do not I forsake this false desire, which brings death and hellish vexation and torment into me? Better it is to quash and destroy the desire, then afterward the substance with great anguish and sadness;

as it is a very difficult and painful combat when a man must come to destroy the substance in him, by an earnest conversion into the childlike life.

25. But if the free will does in the beginning break and quell the desire and lust, so that the lust does not become substantial, then the cure is already produced; and afterward there need not be such an earnest purpose and endeavour, as he must have who is to depart from his contrived abominations, and forsake and destroy that

substance [or matter] which he has forged and made in his mind. And yet it must come so about, or else he cannot attain the gates of the eternal only life which God gave to man; and if he reaches it not, then he also reaches not the gates of God [Or enters not into Paradise].

26. For the only eternal life must be introduced into the Nothing, without [or beyond] every creature and being; for it has its eternal original out of the Nothing, viz. out of the divine understanding, and it is in a disquiet source in the Something; unless that its Something be also bent and set with its desire into the Nothing; and then the Something is a joy to the life; that the life of the Nothing in itself may dwell and work in Something.

27. For God, in reference to the creature, is as a Nothing, but if the creature introduces its desire into him, viz. into the Nothing, then the creature is the Something of the Nothing, and the Nothing moves, wills and works in the Something of the creature, and

the creature in the Nothing; and in this working no turba can arise, for it is its own love-play, a mutual loving [of] itself; and it stands at the end of nature with its life.

28. Thus we understand what inheritance Adam has left us,

viz. the curse, and the vain desire; and we consider the outward man in its life as a monster of a true human life: unless that the precious noble mind be born again in the spirit of Christ, else the outward centre in the mind is a serpent.

29. And in this serpent the gross beast which is from the astrum and four elements does sit, and holds possession in the house of the mind. And according to its bestial property produces various desires, one desiring this, another that, and causes manifold figures in the minds of men. One makes in his mind a fixed substance,l another a [shattered] ruinable [matter], that which he makes to-day, that he breaks down to-morrow, and has an inconstant beast in the mind, falls sometimes upon this, sometimes upon that [and of ten changes his mind].

30. But he that brings up a fixed beast, he holds it in him for his treasure, and vaunts therewith as if it were the virgin-child, and gathers up earthly treasures for his bestial pleasure, and yet before God he is only a fool with his beast, for he must leave it to the earth and the judgement of God.

31. But he in whom the virgin's child is born, he treads the beast in the mind under foot. He must indeed suffer it outwardly upon him, to creep and falter as a laden ass that must carry the earthly sack.

But he has enmity with it, as God said to Adam, I wil put enmity between you and the Serpent, and between the woman's seed and the seed of the Serpent, which shall bruise the Serpent's head, viz. the Serpent's beast. This monster of the beast in the earthly mind the true man does bruise the head or its desire and might.

32. Thus a godly man must have enmity in himself; and trample under foot the monster, viz. the Serpent's child, and continually kill it, for if this bestial Serpent's Seed were not [had not been] impressed and wholly incorporated in us, God would not have said, I will put enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the Serpent. The enmity is within man, and not without man with the creeping Serpent; this Serpent's seed in man is the devil's riding horse, his stronghold and fort, where he is able to dwell in man.

33. And therefore because the devil was a prince of this world, and still is so, in the anger, it is his will and aim to possess the image of God, which God created in his stead, and to rule it under his jurisdiction, and bring it into his kingdom; and this the curse of God's anger has brought along with it, which now works mightily unto destruction.

34. And on the contrary the Serpent-Bruiser works unto eternal life, and the human mind stands in the midst of these in the free will; to which the free will does engraft [Inoculate, or incorporate] itself; therein the mind works.

It brings up a beast, and also an angel, or a beast and a devil; according to the outward world a beast, and according to the inward spiritual world an angel or a devil.

35. Here a grain of seed is sown, which stands in three Principles, and is fit or pregnant to bear a creature in and to all three; for the divine possibility from God's manifested Word in love and anger, viz. the Verbum Fiat lies therein. As the free will conceives itself so it begets (or generates) an ens; and in the ens the spirit arises which forms it a creature out of the ens, and the spirit signs

itself in the body what it is: and so stands its figure.

The Twenty-Fifth Chapter

How God drove Adam out of Paradise, and laid the Cherub before the Garden

1. WHEN God had cursed the Serpent, and the earth, then the beast-man was no longer profitable in Paradise, for he could

not any more enjoy the fruits of Paradise; therefore God laid upon him the labour and toil of the world;

and drove him out of the Garden of Eden, and placed the Cherub with the fire-sword of judgement before it, that if the new born virgin-child of the seed of the woman would again return and enter into Paradise, this angel with the fire-sword should cut away the Serpent's beast from it, and not any more suffer it to come into Paradise. [ Understand the beast]

2. The angel with the fire-sword is the right destroying angel, who carries death and life in his sword; he has therein God's love and anger, and when man dies in this world, then he comes before the gates of Paradise, before this angel: and even there the poor soul must pass through this [garden] judgement.

3. Now if it be captivated in the anger of God, then it cannot pass through this judgement; but ifit be a virgin-child, born of the seed of the woman, then it can pass quite through this sword, and then the angel cuts off the beast begotten of the Serpent's ens.

And even then the soul is an angel of God, and serves him in his temple, in Paradise, and expects the Day of judgement, viz. the resurrection of the outward body. When this angel with the fiery sword shall sever the earth from the curse, then the right human body returns again, for it must also pass through this sword, and the sword will cut of fits beast, that he may be only a man, and no more a beast.

4. The speech of Moses concerning this Mystery is wholly hidden to the earthly man; for Moses speaks of an angel and a sword; and albeit the outward figure was even just so (for so was Adam driven out) yet it has far another ABC internally. The natural man without God's light understands nothing thereof.

5. This sword is in man. When man converts and enters

into sorrow for his committed sins, and casts away the vanity, and steps into the infant's shirt, then the Morning-Star arises in the spirit of Christ, in the virgin-like, occluse [shut up] ens, in the true, woman's seed.

6. And in this anxious sorrowful gate of true Repentance, the angel stands with the fire-flaming sword, and the virgin-bud forces quite through this fire-sword into Paradise, viz. into the light, into the life of Christ, and grows forth through this sword.

7. And now the virgin-child stands with its fair rose in the new plant in Paradise, and the poor soul which begets this child stands the whole time of this life under the reach and swing of this fire-sword, and is fast bound with a band to the gross beast in the outward world. Where the virgin-child is sufficiently thrust at and wounded with this fire-sword;

for the fire-soul, which in the fire-sword of God's anger is bound to the Serpent's monster, does daily amuse itself upon the Serpent-monster, and sins. And even then this fire-sword does cut away the sins, and devours them into God's anger, where they are examined and judged.

8. Therefore the poor virgin-child which is born out of the soul must stand under Christ's cross, in Christ's death; and the piercing sword of tribulation and grief passes quite through it. It must suffer itself to be drawn quite through this flaming sword; and the fire burns away the abomination which the soul continually brings into itself from the Serpent's monster [or false image]. And even then it is in a sore strait, when that is cut of ffrom the fire-soul which it fain would have from its monster.

9. Then must the virgin-child supplicate the fire-soul, and tender it the love, that it should only forsake the monster of the Serpent. Here then arises strife and opposition; for the part of the fire-soul has introduced the Serpent's monster into it, and desires also to have its joy therein, and loves the evil beast.

10. Then Sophia, viz. the second Principle, viz. the part of the light-world, does speak against it. And hence comes up the strife betwixt the seed of the woman and the seed of the Serpent; and then man goes up and down in sorrow and sadness, trouble and perplexity; sometimes the virgin-child prevails, and sometimes the Serpent-child.

11. And then the devil stirs up and incenses all monsters against the virgin-child, to strike it, to mock it, scorn it, revile, and laugh it to shame, and make it ridiculous; that it may by no means be known, lest the devil's kingdom should become manifest.

12. Thus the virgin-child must be exercised by this, in the spirit of Christ, and suffer itself to be whipped, persecuted and injuriously reproved, and often called 'one possessed by the devil'; be cursed, and continually accounted an off-scouring of the world, until the outward beast has finished its course in its constellation. And then the Cherub cuts off the gross beast, and lets it fall even unto the judgement of God. And then the part of the fire-soul must forthwith force through the judgement of this sword.

13. Now if the fire-soul has taken in [ Impressed] much vanity into itself, viz. much of the Serpent's craft and lust, then the part of the fire-soul must stand under this sword, until the fire of God's anger consumes this introduced vanity, which to many a one is purgatory

[ Refining fire] enough;

which this present too, too wise world will not believe, and will be only an adopted child from without, and so have an external washing away of sins in grace; but it has another ABC here: God will not let the Serpent's ens, neither in body nor soul, come into Paradise.

14. The fire-soul must subsist in the fire of God, and be so pure as the clear refined gold, for it is the husband of the noble [virgin] Sophia, [which is] from the woman's seed; it is the fire's tincture, and Sophia the light's tincture. If the tincture of the fire be wholly and thoroughly pure, then its Sophia will be given to it;

and so Adam receives again into his arms his most precious and endeared bride, which was taken from him in his sleep, and is not any longer man or woman, but a branch on Christ's pearl-tree, which stands in the Paradise of God.

15. To the description whereof we need an angel's tongue, and yet we are understood well enough by our school-fellows. We have not written this for swine;

for none but those only who have been by and at the marriage of the lamb do understand what kind of entire inward great joy and love-delight is therein; and how dearly the bride receives her bridegroom in his pure, clear and bright fire's-property; and how she gives him her love-kiss: unto others this is dumb.

16. When reason hears one speak of Paradise, then it understands only a certain place apart: and it is even so. There was a certain place which was called the Garden in Eden, where Adam and Eve were tempted, and from which place they were driven, after the fall.

But yet the whole world was such a Paradise before the curse; yet, seeing God knew the fall, the holy Paradise was only opened unto them in one certain place, for to what end should the whole world bring forth paradisical fruit, seeing there was no creature upon the earth that was capable to enjoy the same?

17. But Adam and Eve were, however, brought into Paradise, that, although this first body should fall and come to ruin, yet they and their children might, by the new regeneration in the spirit of Christ, enter in again through this fire-sword. This mystery is exceeding great.

18. For prince Lucifer, before the time of the created earth, sat in the heavenly ens in the angelical world in the place of this world, wherein the ens of the earth was comprehended in the Fiat, and brought into a compaction; his false imagination had tainted the limus before the compaction: it was the place of his hierarchies. Now the outward body of man was taken out of the limus of the earth in the Verbum Fiat, and formed according to the property of the human life, which was in the Word.

The Word formed (by or through the Fiat) the ens or

limus of the earth according to the form of the human soul-life

which was in the Word;

and seeing God had set himself through his Word, to be judged against the false infection and desire of the devil, to judge him and his enkindled [wickedness which he had brought to] substance, the judicial sword was already in the limus of the earth whereof Adam was made.

19. For when God created the earth he founded its time when he would keep the judgement, and sever the evil from the good, and give the evil for a habitation to the apostate prince. But seeing the good

in the occluse earth was without heavenly creatures (seeing its prince was cast out);

God created Adam [as] another hierarch out of this good ens, to be a ruler of this place. And hence came the devil's envy against man and all good creatures of this world.

20. But now we are here to consider of the apostacy of man, with the sword of the Cherub. For Saint Paul says: we are chosen in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world was laid;

and even here this saying of Paul does belong. God knew that this ens, of which Adam was to be created, was already somewhat subject to false lust by reason of the devil's introduced desire. Therefore God chose [foresaw or provided for] this limus in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world, out of which he would make man;

that he would, through the judgement of the flaming sword, bring it through death, and through the fire, and wholly burn away the false infected desire of lust;

and regenerate him anew in Jesus, in his deepest love in his Word in Jehovah, that is opened out of Jehovah, and introduce a new limus into the tainted one; and bring them together, quite through the judgement of the fire-sword, and purge and purify them wholly and thoroughly.

21. And here also is Christ's descension into hell, where the love of God in Christ entered into this fire-sword and changed the wrath into love; and did also destroy the sting of death which was insinuated into the limus of the earth, out of which Adam was created according to the outward humanity; and this fire-sword had its raising and original in the corruption of Lucifer.

22. For albeit Adam was created as to one part out of the heavenly essentiality (that was in the Word of man's life, which was inspired and breathed into his outward and inward limus), yet this fire-sword lay hidden as a glimmering incentive in the earthly limus of the outward body, which also assaulted Adam, so that he lusted against the command of God and the kingdom of heaven. In which incentive the devil also introduced his desire into him, and provoked him to fall;

[for] which [fall], seeing God well knew that the poor man would not stand, God ordained a help and Saviour in Christ, to guide and bring him into that holy ens, whereinto he should be brought, viz. into the true sabbath and eternal rest.

23. Indeed Adam was set wholly perfect, in equal harmony and accord, and brought into Paradise, [to try] if the soul could have overcome the incentive [of vain lust]. And therefore the Tree of Temptation was represented to him, to see if it were possible for the soul to

overpower this contamination of lust, and remain wholly and fully in the likeness [and harmony].

24. But it was not possible: therefore Christ must afterwards come into this place, and be tempted forty days in the wilderness, in Adam's ens, and in his new introduced heavenly ens, to see whether the fire-soul would stand in perfect purity. And seeing it did now stand in Christ, the new introduced heavenly ens did destroy the sword in the death of the outward body of Christ, and brought the outward body which he, in Mary, received from her seed, quite through this sword of the anger of God, into the holy ens.

And in this power the outward body did arise from death, and got victory over death and this fire-sword, and took the fire-sword into its power; wherewith, at the end of the world, he will purge his floor; as a judge over devils and men, as well as of the earth.

25. for the main ambition was about the fire-sword, for king Lucifer had changed it from the pure clear light into fire, wherewith he willed to domineer and rule as a God. But God sent to him another prince and king, who took it from him, and thrust him from this throne, and should turn this sword in the ens of the earth again into the divine property, and cast out and judge the devil with this sword.

26. And there is not such a silly and narrow meaning of the fire-sword as hitherto has been generally understood. Although it has been hidden by the counsel of God, yet we should now open our eyes and deeply consider what this manifestation imports; that it does even foretell and signify the judgement of this sword; that he will come, who carries it in his mouth; and it is also a messenger [declaring] that Babel shall [soon] come to its end by this sword, and be given to this sword to be devoured.

27. Now says reason. Wherefore did not God examine this ens afore, out of which he created the earth, and man out of the same earth, before he created the earth and man? Forsooth, dear reason, here you have hit the matter right;

God's omnipotence and omniscience must serve your turn, whereby you are able to bring all things into God's will, as rational fancy dictates. Hearken, O reason, do you know whence the earth is generated? You say, through the Word, viz. in the Verbum Fiat, I say so too. Now, what was this Word? Here look upon the earth and the whole creation, and you wilt see what the desire of the Word has brought into being or essence out of the spiritual ens. You will

everywhere see good, and evil, and find out God's love and anger.

28. The Word was a full spiration from the spiritual fire- and light-world, according to which God calls himself a strong, jealous, angry God, as to the fire, and a merciful, loving God as to the light.

29. Now if God should have quelled [taken away] the first Principle, viz. the fire-source, in the ens of the earth (out of which it was created), whence should the light have its might? Does not the Father, viz. the fire-world, beget the Son, viz. the light-world?

But now, seeing the Word in the fire-world was vehemently enkindled by God's motion to the creation, as we may see by the coagulation of the stones, (if we were not blocks, and had only calfish understandings), where-with then should this fire, but especially the enkindled ens in the coagulation, be reduced and brought again into the light, into the equal temperature and harmony? God's love alone must then do it.

30. Now, how will [or can] a creature, viz. a fire-soul or angel, come into a creatural being or formation, if the fire-source were not moved and stirred in an especial manner. Like would only then remain in like; and if it be only a mere likeness, then it has its sport with and in itself; as it was from [and in] eternity. And therefore the unchangeable God has moved himself according to the fire and light, and stirred up the fire's property, that he may make him a play and melody, viz. a formed Word out of himself, that there might be a play before and in the unformable Word.

31. Now we do here understand this, that if God should have again introduced the enkindled ens, out of which the earth and man were created, into the unformable Word, viz. wholly and fully into the likeness, into the love, then no creature might have been produced or brought forth; for every soul's spirit, yea the angels, and whatsoever lives, must be a stirring [or working] fire.

32. Now no fire-source can be generated out of the perfect likeness, unless the likeness does move itself. Yet the eternal likeness, viz. God, had before moved himself in his Mystery with the creation of the angelical thrones. Now if he should have changed this motion (which was enkindled, and also poisoned by the hierarch Lucifer with false distemper) into love, before he had created the earth and man, then he must yet once more have moved himself according to the fire's property, if he would have created another hierarch and

angelical prince.

33. But seeing that might not be, he created the earth, and out of the earth, man, out of the first motion; and breathed into man the light- and fire-soul, out of that breath of his manifested and moved Word, viz. out of the first motion. For out of the first motion of the Word another prince should come into the princely created throne of Lucifer, and take in and possess the first motion.

34. And God appointed the judgement to the first motion, and took away Lucifer's domineering fire-sword, and gave it unto Adam; and afterwards introduced the deepest love of God in Christ into Adam, and brought the moved Word again into the likeness, viz. into an eternal confirmation, and gave Adam in Christ the fire-sword over the fallen prince Lucifer.

35. for Adam, viz. the corrupted limus of the earth, should, in Christ its first enjoyed prince, judge with this flaming sword; as Paul has told us, that the saints shall judge the world. Understand, the enkindled ens of man and of the earth should judge the false prince of lies, who had perversely changed the truth in the holy ens into lies, and corrupted it with such [false desire].

36. But seeing the ens of man was corrupted, and could not, God, out of his deepest hiddenness, introduced the most holy ens into the corrupt ens of man, viz. into the heavenly part, and brought the outward [part] also through the sword of the fire and death into

the inward, into an eternal likeness [or temperature]. And thus there is here a looking-glass for reason. If reason be illuminated of God it will then understand us here; but if it be not, then there is not any possibility to understand this.

37. And we faithfully and seriously warn the caviller and carper, not to say it is a blasphemy. Let him first put away his calfish and bestial eyes; and look us here in the face, before he takes upon him to censure and cavil at us; it has far another ABC than reason has.

It must have its birth a degree deeper.

38. Thus we are able very well to understand the casting out of Adam, wherefore he was tempted, and driven out of Paradise. Seeing his ens was somewhat enkindled by the devil's poison he could not possess Paradise; and therefore God drove him out from thence with the sword of judgement into death and corruption.

And yet gave the promised Word of his deepest love to be with and in him in the ens of the heavenly world's being, for a sure and certain Covenant; wherein Adam and his children should trust, and believe that at the end and accomplishment of this time he would in this incorporated Word bring them again, with the introduction of the holy ens, out of death through the fire-sword; and clean cut off the false infection and lust with the sword of judgement, and set them as angels of God in the place of fallen Lucifer: And this is the mystery of the angel and sword of Paradise.

39. The angel did bear the name of the Covenant, out of which God would manifest Jesus, viz. the high and almighty prince. And it was even this angel which afterwards wrought many wonders upon the earth, who was with Abel, Shem, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Moses;

who appeared to Moses in the fire-sword of flame in the bush, and brought Israel out of Egypt, and went before them in a fiery pillar [by night], and in a cloudy pillar by day; who gave them the Law in the fire, and at last brought them by Joshua (being the type of Him who was to be born out of the fire-sword) into the Land [of] Israel.

40. This fire-angel turned its internal light outwards, and manifested itself in Christ's person in the humanity, with whom [or in which] Christ, viz. the holy anointing oil of the deepest hidden love, changed the fire-sword of the angel into a love-sword and holy dominion.

41. And this is the true Cherub which drove the false Adam out of Paradise, and brings him in again by Christ, the virgin's child, new born out of Adam in Christ; and it has no other ground or meaning.

The Twenty-Sixth Chapter

Of the Propagation of Man in this World, and of Cain, the First-born, The Murderer of his Brother

1. WE are here to consider this weighty point in right earnestness; and not to make conclusions with fictions and fables, as hitherto has been done as touching the election of Grace; whereas it has been handled only in a very blind and absurd manner, and no right [fundamental] understanding has been found thereof.

2. Seeing that men have sought only in reason, and have not been able through true repentance to force through the fire-sword, and see with divine eyes, thereupon the fire-sword of God's anger and severe purpose and decree of judgement has remained in the eyes of [their] reason alone; and further they have not seen. Therefore they have made dreadful and dangerous conclusions, without fundamental and plain understanding.

3. But Christendom is hereby faithfully and truly admonished, once throughly to awake, and shake off the conclusions of reason, and to see God's clear countenance, which desires no evil, nor can desire it; but has also set himself to be judge against all wickedness, and will destroy all such conclusions in the sword of his anger, and do away the Cherub.

4. Now it does here offer itself to our consideration, how it came to pass that Adam and Eve at first brought forth an evil child and a murderer. To this, reason says that it was from God's purpose, who has made to himself an Election, and chose one company of men to damnation, and the other unto his love.

5. Forsooth! dear reason: Whence are you born? and from whence do you speak under the cover of the Scripture? Do you not

speak from the ens and words of the Serpent? Who brought the false ens into Eve her matrix, wherein Cain was apprehended? Did not the devil do it through the Serpent, and make the matrix of Eve monstrous?

6. Do you not understand how the Word of Promise did forth-

with incorporate itself into the matrix of Eve in her seed, and that the contest between God's anger and God's love did presently begin; for God's love had incorporated itself [and betrothed itself] to bruise the head of the Serpent's monster in the anger of God; and thereinto the fire-soul, which lay captivated in God's anger, should give its free will.

7. For the fire-soul is a root proceeded from the divine omnipotence, and therefore it has free will, and nothing can deprive it thereof: It may conceive either in the life or in the light.

8. But if you ask why the Serpent-Bruiser did not forthwith bruise the head of the Serpent's ens in the first seed, and not suffer the Serpent's murderous, poisonful will to get the upper hand in the soul's ens, it is just as if I should ask, Wherefore did not God, when he saw that Adam became evil, wholly reject him, or make him to nothing, and create a new Adam? Thus likewise will reason judge of the devils, saying that it has pleased God that there should be devils, that it might be known what an angel is.

9. Hearken reason! I have above already answered you, that if God should once more have moved himself for man's sake, and introduced the first motion in the human and earthly ens into a stillness, then the six days' works of the creation must have retired back; and have been brought into a workless rest. And this, God would not; the whole creation should and must subsist in its first motion; its first formed ens in the Verbum Fiat must stand, be it either in love or in anger, let who will, apprehend either: the anger was open, and so was the love also.

10. Only the love is called God: the anger is called his strength and might. Now what the free will would desire, therein it should be confirmed, either in the love or in the anger.

11. For the free will was born or sprung forth from the love and anger, viz. from the fire- and light-world: and so likewise it might choose itself a place for its working life. If God's love should have drowned the free will in the ens in Eve's seed in the love, (in which [seed] it [the free will] was enkindled in the anger), then the fiery motion in the matrix must have ceased. Now, out of the light's ens only and alone no soul may be brought forth.

12. Also the corrupt ens of the earthly limus must have then been

presently judged through the fire, which could not be; for the motion of the new regeneration, and the opening or full explication of the divine sweetness, and the overcoming of the fire, viz. of the anger of God, did belong only to the name of Jesus.

13. The Word which had incorporated itself had [done this] from without the fire-sword, viz. the Cherub, and from within the Jesus, who should overcome the fire-sword with love. Thus the name Jesu stood hidden in the fire-sword, and was not manifest until the time that God would move himself therein, and manifest the same.

14. Thus the insinuated ens of the Serpent, that Eve had introduced through imagination into lust, must be wholly cast away; for in Cain the murdering image [or the evil corrupt nature and property of the Serpent]was manifest, which cannot inherit the kingdom of God. But on the contrary, the mark of the Covenant in the promised Word was in the free will, and in the heavenly disappeared ens of the soul, into which [Covenant of the promised grace] the soul should enter.

15. And although the Serpent's ens should have been rejected (as it must be, in all the children of Eve), yet the part of the heavenly world's being lay hidden in the Covenant of the Word in the disappeared ens, as a possibility to the new regeneration. Therefore God said to Cain, when the murdering spirit persuaded him, Rule over the sin.

16. If you say, Wherewith? He could not! But wherefore could he not? The Serpent's desire held him, and brought him to kill his brother: Wherefore? The free will had given itself up into the Serpent's ens which held him captive.

17. Now says reason, God would have it so, else he had turned away his will. No. Indeed God's anger-will in the Serpent's ens which had captivated the free will would have it. But yet God's love-will said in him, Rule over sin, that is, over the wrath and anger of the Serpent, and let it not have its power and prevalency.

18. And here we are rightly to know how God's love and anger are in continual contest, understand, in the manifested Word in the

limus of the earth, and in the ens of the human property out of the earth. For the anger-ens is stirred up and driven by the devil, and desires continually to devour the love-ens, and possess this kingdom in the anger-ens.

19. The anger-ens desires to have man; for it has its king in Lucifer. And the love-ens desires also to have him; for it has its king in Christ. And therefore Christ must bring the human love-ens through death and the anger-ens, and open another Principle, viz. another kingdom; and leave prince Lucifer in his own anger, for his free will had chosen it him.

20. Thus also the free will in Cain did choose the false, viz. the devil's will. But you say, Was then the murdering-will wholly rejected? It did reject [abandon] itself; but if the free will had again conceived

in the love-ens it would have been again born anew, yea even after the murder: which we leave unto the judgement of God, whether it were so or no, seeing the text in Moses does give him so bare a name in despair. For the Word, out of which the name Jesus was made manifest, was given to call poor lost sinners to repentance, and not the righteous ones, who were apprehended in the love; as Christ said.

21. Cain was a type of the first corrupt Adam in sin, and Abel was a type of Christ, the second Adam, viz. of the virgin-child; for the tree of evil and good began in Adam. And so likewise the fruit did forthwith appear, viz. Christ's children, and the children of the devil and the Serpent.

22. Now reason says, Was Cain then wholly conceived of the Serpent's ens in the anger of God, and predestinated to damnation? No. He was [conceived] of the ens of Adam's soul and body; and so also of the seed and ens of Eve her body;

but the monster in the matrix of Eve did environ the sown seed; and it was that which did seduce and beguile him; but the mark [and aim] of the Covenant lay hidden in the ens of the soul and body. For the ens of the seed of Adam and Eve was out of the heavenly disappeared [limus], and then also out of the earthly awakened limus; but the will of the Serpent and of the devil took possession of the house, as the like was in the devil, who was an angel; but the will of the dark world took possession of the house in him, and got the upper hand: so also it was here, in Cain.

23. But you ask, How came this so to be? Hear and see, you

fair child in the will of Adam and Eve, what their desire was before and after the fall: They desired the earthly kingdom, as we see that Eve was so wholly and only minded;

for when she brought forth Cain, she said, I have gotten a man [who is to be] a Lord (Gen. iv. I). She thought him to be the bruiser and breaker of the Serpent; he should take in and possess the earthly kingdom, and expel the devil;

she did not consider that she should die to her false earthly fleshly will, and be born anew in a holy will. And such a will she also brought into her seed; and the like did Adam also.

24. And hence now the will in the soul's essence did arise: the tree brought forth a twig out of [or like] itself. For it was Cain's desire only that he might be lord upon the earth; and being he saw that Abel was more acceptable in God's sight than himself; his free bestial will in him did elevate itself to slay Abel;

for Cain's aim and endeavour was alone about the outward world, to domineer and be lord and master therein; but Abel sought God's love.

25. Thus there are yet two such Churches upon the earth; one which seeks only worldly pleasure, might, honour, and the outward god Mammon and Mausim (see Ch. 36, 32), and therein it lodges the Serpent's child. The other, which seeks the virgin-child and God's kingdom, and must suffer itself to be persecuted, reviled, reproached, and killed by the Cainical Church, as Cain did to Abel.

26. For the devil will yet be continually a prince of this world in the Serpent's child; and so it is that if the virgin's child (which bruises the head of the Serpent) be not manifest in the Serpent's child, then the devil is and remains prince and host in the house of the soul: as happened to Cain.

27. And do but understand the ground aright: In the birth of this world two kingdoms lie manifest, viz. God's Love-kingdom in Christ, and the kingdom of God's anger in Lucifer: these two kingdoms are in contest and strife in all creatures, for the original of all spirits is in the contest, and in the combat of the fire the light is made manifest. The fire is a cause of the light: God's anger is a cause that God did yet once move himself in his deepest love in the name Jesus, and thereby vanquish the anger.

28. Now what can the love do, if the free will espouses itself to the anger? Or what can the anger do against it, if the free will conceives in the love, and destroys the anger? Must it not hold still and suffer it to be done; and though it does oppose and rage against it, yet the love pierces quite through it, and changes it into joy. The anger is the root of love, as the fire is the root of the light; but in the free will is the understanding, which makes itself to what it pleases.

29. Do you not see this in the earth, that the free will in the

ens of the Word has made itself stones, metals and earth. The stones and earth are not the free will; but the free will has introduced itself into such an ens, and by its lubet and motion introduced the ens into a compaction or coagulation; there was no other maker there but the free will in the formed and manifested Word: you mayest indeed see wonders enough.

30. Behold the irrational creatures, as worms, toads, spiders and other wild venomous and horrible beasts, and you shall see somewhat in very deed, if you are not dead. But you say, God has created it so. Yea, right! his desire in love and anger has amassed the ens with the motion, and compacted each ens according to the free will into a form. There was no other maker there, but the free will in the Word.

31. The desire in the Word was the Fiat, which introduced the free will into an ens. Thus the same manifested Word is yet in all things, and has the Fiat, viz. the desire in itself: As the free will in every thing introduces itself into a spirit, even so the Fiat forms and signs each thing. Every root brings forth from itself a branch of its own likeness; but when the branch or sprout is to be born and receive its beginning in the ens of the root, the ens does then form itself to such a twig as the root at that time is apprehended in its power and free will, both by the superior and inferior constellation.

32. The like is also to be understood in man. As the will is, in the seed, that is, as the desire of the father and mother are, at the time (together with other influences from the stars and elements), yea, oftentimes from the devil's assaults and insinuations, even such a spirit is formed in the ens of the seed; sometimes an angel, if the parents be in holy desire [or in the true faith of the engrafted Word]; sometimes also a beast, a serpent and image of the devil, both

according to the ens of the soul and of the outward flesh.

33. The power of the manifested Word does give in itself into all things, into everything according to its will, according to the desire in the ens; for the desire in the ens is that which forms the word, viz. the sound of life ;

as it is written, such as the people is, such a God they also have, with the holy you are holy, and with the perverse you are perverse. This is wholly to be understood concerning the expressed Word in the Fiat, viz. in the desire of nature. And therefore God has espoused and betrothed another Word out of the centre of his love to the image of man, that, although he be arisen out of an evil property, yet the free will has power and information to disclaim its selfhood, and die to its self in this holy incorporated Word;

and then the Fiat begets and forms another new creature in the free will out of the ens.

34. The possibility lies in all men, but the making or forming of the child of God belongs now to the holy Fiat in the new introduced Word, for it lies not on any man's self-willing, contriving, running, and toiling, but on God's mercy. He has mercy upon whom he please, viz. upon those alone who with their free will die to their selfhood in his grace, and resign up their selves to him. And he hardens whom he please, viz. those alone who run with selfish Cain, and would themselves take the kingdom of God in their own evil will, and will not die to their own self-full will.

35. Now says the Scripture, has not a potter power to make of one lump of clay what he please; a vessel to honour; or a vessel to dishonour; that is, will the self-full will be angry, if it be evil, that the Fiat in the Word makes it to be a vessel of the anger; or will it therefore be angry, if the holy Fiat (in the holy Word) makes that will, which dives itself into the love and mercy of God, and dies to its selfhood, to be a vessel of honour, has not this Potter power to do with his clay, viz. (with the ens or seed) what he please. Whereunto every seed is good and profitable, thereunto he makes him a vessel, either to the use of his anger or to the use of his love.

36. The holy is unto God a sweet savour to life, and the wicked a sweet savour to the death in his anger; all must enter into his glory,

and praise him; one in the property of his anger, who must call the evil good; the other in the property of his love, who must call the good, good. For so it must be, that the difference of the good and evil, of the light and darkness, of the life and death, may be known; for if there were no death, then the life were not manifest to itself; and if there were no darkness, the light were not manifest to itself.

37. And therefore the eternal free will has introduced itself into darkness, pain, and source; and so also through the darkness into the fire and light, even into a kingdom of joy; that so the Nothing might be known in the Something, and that it might have a sport in its contra-will, that the free will of the abyss might be manifest to itself in the byss, for without evil and good there could not be any byss [ground or foundation].

38. For the evil makes pain and motion, and the good causes essence and power; and yet both essences are only one essence, as fire and light are only one essence, also darkness and light are only one; but it severs itself into two mighty distinctions, and yet there is no sundry separation, for one dwells in the other, and yet does not comprehend the other; the one does deny the other, for the one is not the other.

39. God dwells through all, and that all is not God, also it does not reach him; but whatsoever quits itself free of its free will, that falls into his possession: that he must have, for it is will-less, and falls into the Nothing; and he is in the Nothing. Thus the resigned will may dwell in the Nothing, and there is God's mercy; for he will have Something out of the Nothing, that he may be manifest in the Something, and therefore he has mercy upon the Something which is fallen into his Nothing, and makes it in himself to be his Something; which he himself rules, drives and acts with his merciful spirit.

40. And herein lies the precious pearl, dear brethren who are driven too and fro with contention; if ye did but know it you would leave off from strife and call reason a fool. No searchings of self obtains it, but the will freely resigned into God's mercy, which enters in by the way of earnest repentance, and mortification of its own evil will: that [will] falls into God's mercy, and does apprehend [and obtain the right understanding]. And without this there is mere self-running, walking, and willing; and yet nothing can

he obtained, save only in the will freely resigned into God's

mercy.

41 . We have a very excellent and notable example and type of this in the first birth, which opened the womb, that it was to be sanctified and offered up to,the Lord; and yet the true living offering proceeds from the second, new birth, as we may see in Abel, Isaac and Jacob. Cain, Ishmael and Esau were the first-born, the inheritance belonged to them; but the lot and mercy fell upon Abel, Isaac and Jacob; for the first ens of man was infected and made crazy by the devil. Therefore it must be given to the fire for an offering and food; and out of the offering, viz. out of the fire of God's anger, the love of God was made manifest in mercy;

and the first Adam was the sojourner [servant] of the second in Christ, for the second redeemed the first.

42. The devil's desire and the bestial ens of the Serpent had got the upper hand in the matrix of Eve, and apprehended the first seed in the desire. Now the kingdom of God did yet belong to the first man, but seeing he did lose it by his negligence the first Adam must be offered to the earth, and also its first seed [must be offered] to the anger.

43. And after this first seed Abel came forth in the holy Covenant, and offered his sweet blood, to the anger for the sinful seed, that the anger might let its flame fall, and suffer the first birth to press through in the blood of the second [ through death and the anger into life].

44. The first birth was a murderer, which signifies the devil in man. The second was the offering of [or for] the first, that the anger-devil in the first Adam might be appeased in the offering of the second.

45. Not that we would exalt or take in the wicked into the offering of Christ, so long as he is wicked; the devil devours most of the wicked crew: only, the wicked sinner has an open gate made for him in the offering of the second [Adam], if he did convert and turn himself (from his wickedness).

46. But that some write, there was a twofold seed which did sever itself in Eve, viz. one wholly devilish from the ens of the

Serpent, and the other from the ens of Christ [or the promised seed of the woman] in the Covenant [is nothing so]. These have not at all learned the A B C in this school. They have only a dreaming shadow and fiction of the Mystery, and not the true sight. Thus they build the election of grace upon this; but they are much mistaken; they speak only the Serpent's words, which desired to have it so. Observe it thus:

47. Adam had only one limbus to his seed, and Eve only one matrix for her seed, but they both stood in three Principles. The Principles were in contest, as still they are at this day. The second Principle, viz. the kingdom of God or the angelical world, did disappear in the soul's seed, and God espoused his only, most holy Word again therein, unto the new birth.

48. And this espousal or betrothment stood as well in Cain's ens as in Abel's ens. But in the striving wrestling wheel, in the contest of the three Principles, Cain's ens was apprehended in the anger, and covered with the Serpent's monster. Not so, to an impossibility, as if he were born to condemnation; but even to a possibility of the free will, whether he would lay down the self-full, assumed, and self-appropriated right in Adam, and live in God's will, or whether he would live unto himself: Upon this was the election set.

49. Now God knows whereinto the free will is entered: If it

be entered into iniquity and selfhood, then God's anger establishes or confirms it in its choice to condemnation; but if it be entered into the Word of the Covenant, then God confirms it to be a child of heaven. And here that saying has its proper signification and application, I have mercy on whom I will, and whom I will I harden. God knows his children even in the ens in the mother's womb; to what end should he give his pearl to him whom he yet knows would turn himself away from him? The pearl's ground lies indeed in man, but hidden and shut up; if he brought his will into the pearl it would open itself in him.

50. All men proceed from one only seed; but in one the holy fire glimmers, and in another it lies as 'twere shut up and cannot [glimmer] by reason of the mire of the Serpent.

51. You say, Then is the Serpent's ens more mighty than

God's love? I have already answered you, that love and anger are in

contest. Whereinto the ens does espouse itself; of that it is apprehended and confirmed; yet so, that the will is free to go from the evil into the good, and from the good into the evil; and that while it lives upon the earth both doors stands open unto it: for the free will is not bound: but if it were bound then no judgement could with righteousness pass upon it. It has laws and instructions, which are given it, not unto death but unto life; but if it transgresses these, and continues in the transgression, now the judgement passes upon it; for every judgement [or sentence of condemnation] arises from the transgression of the command.

52. you say he cannot keep them, he is drawn [to transgression]. Yea, very right. Does not the truth rebuke him even to the face, that he is a faithless wretch, that suffers himself to be drawn to evil. The law to do right is in his vital light as a continual looking-glass: he sees and knows it very well, that he is a liar, and

walks upon the way of the devil: it shows him the way of truth, but the free will rejects it;

at present he is predestinated to condemnation, yet so, that the will is free so long as he is in this cottage. But the heavy band of God's anger, in the drawing of the devil's desire, draws many a one to the damnation of death.

53. Reason says, If a man has free will, then God is not omnipotent over him, to do what he please with him. The free will is not from any beginning, also not amassed or taken out of any ground into any thing, or formed by any thing.

It is its own peculiar original out of the Word of the divine power, out of God's love and anger. It forms itself in its own will a centre to its seat; it begets itself in the first Principle to the fire and light; its right and genuine original is in the Nothing, where the Nothing, viz. the /_V [triangle forward slash]

(or as a man might unfold it, A. O. V.) does introduce itself into a lubet to contemplation; and the lubet brings itself into a will, and the will into a desire, and the desire into a substance.

54. Now the Eternal Original, viz. God, is a Judge over the substance; if the lubet (which is departed from him) has introduced itself into an evil being, then he judges that being or substance in its Principle. In what source and property soever, or in what ens soever, the lubet, proceeding from the departed /_V, has introduced itself into a Principle, therein the universal eternal free will, which is the abyss, and cause of all byss, does confirm and settle it.

55. The abyssal judges that which does introduce itself into byss, and severs the good (which has introduced itself into a good ens) into the good, viz. into the divine love; and the evil (which has brought itself into an evil ens, and set and formed itself into a centre to an evil spirit and will) into his wrath and anger.

56. For how can he judge a thing whose own it is not? How would God judge the will of the creature, if it were not sprung [or arisen] from him? Or rather, how can a judgement pass upon a thing which is bound, and not free in its willing and working?

57. The human and angelical will is arisen with the motion of the abyss (when the Deity once moved itself in its contemplation and sensation, and with the motion introduced itself into a beginning of the spirits) [the will of men and angels did spring forth] out of this beginning. Now every beginning goes into its end; and the end is that which was before the beginning; and there is the trial of the beginning, [which shows] whereinto the beginning has introduced itself.

58. Now God is before and without all beginnings, and from him every beginning proceeds; also he is the end of all beginnings. Now the middle of all inchoated things stands between the beginning and the end; for it must with its beginning enter again through the end into that whence it did arise.

59. Seeing then that God is a jealous God, and a consuming fire, and also a merciful God, every free will with its introduced centre has its own judge born in itself; either divine love, or divine anger; for when a thing begins, it goes into a time, but when this time

is apprehended of the end, viz. of the eternity, then it is in its own eternal [beginning and end], whence it has introduced itself into a compaction, so confirmed to eternity.

60. Therefore, the free will has its own judgement, either for the good or [for the] evil, in itself: It has its own judgement in itself: it has God's love and anger in it; what it amasses and desires, that

it forms in itself; and does so form only its own self in its own lubet into a centre.

61. For thus the world has likewise its original, namely, in the free will of the two eternal Principles, both from the dark fire-lubet,

and also from the divine light fire-lubet. The free will introduced itself in the Verbum Fiat into distinct and several entities; and that even according to the possibility of the eternal pregnatress. As the will in the Verbum Fiat conceived itself in each place in the pregnatress, even such an ens was brought forth, and out of the ens arose its spirit according to the ens, viz. from God's spiration or motion [Breathing or stirring up] in the Principles.

62. But seeing the Principles were together as one, no thing was ever amassed or formed in the free will but the same has a good and an evil in it, according to the nature and power of the eternal pregnatress, to light and darkness.

63. But now every spirit arises with its free will first out of the compaction of its centre, and is, after its effected birth, free, and may draw into itself either out of God's love, or anger, and introduce its will as it pleases. But this is the main thing: as the mother (viz. the ens) is, whereof the spirit is born, even such a lubet arises also in the spirit.

64. Now the spirit has understanding, and the ens has none;

also it [ the spirit] has a law, for it knows what is evil and good, what is

right and wrong. Also God has given it laws, that it should break the lust [to evil], and with the understanding of the light rule over the lubet of the darkness.

65. Now if it does not, but departs with the lubet out of the understanding into a self-lubet, then the lubet or lust does amass itself

into a substance, whereof a new, false will is again born. And this same is a bastard before God and the eternal nature; for it arises not out of the law and right of the eternal nature, but out of self. And upon this the judgement of the eternal nature does pass; and at its end (when the centre of the spirit shall step again into the beginning) it will be spewed out from the free will of eternity.

66. Understand us but aright: The first free will, which was breathed into Adam, was good; indeed it was both from God's love

and anger, viz. from the centre of the eternal pregnatress, of the eternal spiritual nature; but it had the understanding in it to rule and govern itself so it might stand and subsist eternally.

67. But the crafty distemper or infection introduced by the devil was in the ens of the earth whence [whereof] Adam's outward body was formed. Into this earthly ens the devil brought his desire by the Serpent, viz. by the Serpent's crafty ens, so that the lubet arose in the ens of the body, whereinto the first free will of the inspired soul entered, and assumed the lubet of the body, and introduced this lubet into a desire to substance.

68. And out of this substance another new self-full will did now arise, viz. a bastard, a false serpent-child; and this bastard, Adam did originally propagate to his Eve, and Eve to her son Cain, and so one man to another. Thus we have now in this earthly flesh this same false will proceeded from the Serpent's substance, whereinto the devil introduces his desire, and tempts us, and continually makes us lust and long after the devilish property [viz. pride, covetousness, envy, and anger], that so his desire, which he insinuates into the false bastard in us, might become substantial and essential; out of which such a whorish and devilish serpentine seed is continually begotten; and out of the same false ens [or seed] a devil's will [is begotten].

69. Thus the devil rides in and upon man, in and upon body and soul. But now the first introduced free will, which God breathed into Adam, lies yet in all men, for it is the true real soul, the centre of the fire and light, a spark of the divine power and omnipotence, but wholly hemmed in and captivated in this wicked introduced bastard.

70. Therefore God has again in-hested [ Imputed, introduced recalled or really promised into the soul] and incorporated the aim of his new Covenant, in the Word of the divine holy power, in the name of Jesus, into the property of the lightful fire (viz. into the disappeared heavenly holy ens, which did disappear in the darkness), that the first free will (which now lies captive in the child of the whore and Serpent) should introduce its desire into this aim of the promised Covenant (which he has fulfilled in Christ's humanity), and with the desire of the soul's free will re-introduce the holy ens of Christ (which he [Christ] in the seed of Mary introduced into our disappeared ens) into its disappeared heavenly ens. And if it does bring it so to pass, then out of this introduced ens of Christ arises Christ's spirit, which destroys the false will of the Serpent's bastard

in the flesh, and tramples upon its head.

71. Now says reason, God gives this holy new ens of Christ to whom he will, and suffers whom he please to harden and remain captive in the Serpent's ens. Yes, very right: He gives none this holy ens into the self-will of his Serpent's child; there belongs far another earnestness thereto; for selfhood cannot now any more take any thing of God.

72. But this is the process which the free will must go, if it will receive the holy ens: it must wind itself out of the Serpent's desire (out of its selfish-self and somethingness), and wind itself into God's mercy;

and become a deadly mortifying enemy to the fleshly desire in itself: It must wholly forsake and depart from the self-full desire of the flesh;

and bring its hunger wholly and only into the mortification of its selfish somethingness, desiring and endeavouring continually and willingly to die to its iniquity and false desire (which sticks in the flesh, in the Serpent's child), and in Christ's ens arise with a new will.

73. This desire, which departs from the Serpent's ens, and hungers after God's mercy, receives Christ's ens into itself, whence a new will is born, which bruises the head of the Serpent in the flesh, for it is the new birth out of God in Christ Jesus.

74. But if you will say, you cannot desire any good, that is not true. [We reply:] you alone suffer the Serpent's will in your right eternal soul's will to hold you; and with the soul's will do play the whore with the Serpent's will in the flesh; from whence arises God's election.

75. God knows the false whorish soul which does only woo and wantonise with the Serpent, (with the idol Babel), and will still live in the lust and will of the flesh and of the Serpent; and yet wills to be an outwardly adopted child: God should forgive it its sins by an outward word-speaking, but it wills still to hang and cleave to the wanton love of the Serpent in its false lust. This, God chooses to judgement.

76. For the free will which was inspired into Adam, and which it [the soul] has inherited from Adam, hangs on Lucifer; and therefore

God confirms it unto the kingdom of darkness with Lucifer; but the gate of grace stands yet open unto it [during] this time of the outward life.

The Twenty-Seventh Chapter

Of Cain's and Abel's offering and of the False and Antichristian Church, and also of the True Holy Church

A LOOKING-GLASS FOR THE WORLD

1. HERE again, the veil lies before the face of Moses, in respect of the offerings of both these brothers; wherefore God willed

to have them offer, whereas the reconciliation and atonement consists only in the earnest will toward God's mercy, in prayer and supplication to God, that a man depart and turn away from his evil will, and repent, and introduce his faith and hope into God's mercy.

2. They must verily needs know wherefore they offered incense; what pleasure and delight God took therein; which Moses has not once so much as mentioned, and that from God's purpose; and yet it has not been hidden to the children of the Saints, and also not to Moses; but he has a veil hanging before his eyes.

3. Israel (seeing for the most part they were evil children, and also idolatrous, as soon appeared by making them a Golden Calf) might not know it by reason of the false magic; and we also shall write only to those that are of our tribe, and yet plain and easy enough to be understood. Observe and mark it, thus:

4. The soul's free will is as thin [subtle] as a nothing; and though it be in its body indeed encompassed with the something, yet its amassed or conceived something is in a false distempered essence, by reason of the original of sin.

5. Now if the free will would approach to God with the desire, then it must depart out of its false something, and if it now does so depart, then it is bare and impotent, for it is again in the first nothing: for if it will come to God, then it must die to its false selfhood, and forsake it; and if it forsakes the same, then it is barely and merely as a nothing, and so it cannot go, work, or move. Ifit will show its might, then it must be in something, wherein it does imaginate and form itself.

6. An example hereof we have in faith. If faith would effectually work, then it must immass [or imaginate] itself into something wherein it may work; God's free will has conceived [or immassed] itself with the inward spiritual world, and works through the same; and the inward world's free will has conceived itself in the outward world, and works through the same. Even so the soul's free will, which also has its original out of the abyss, immasses itself in something, that it might be manifest, and thereby be able to move and act in God's sight.

7. Seeing then Adam's body was out of the limus of the earth, and also out of the limus of the holy heaven, which limus of heaven in Adam was now disappeared, wherein the free will had power to immass [or conceive] itself into a holy form, and act, work, pray and supplicate before God, therefore they made burnt-offerings of the fruits of the earth. As Cain, he brought of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and these they enkindled with fire.

8. But understand a magical fire, as that of Moses, for Moses declares so also. God looked graciously upon the offering of Abel, and not upon Cain's;

that is, they brought offerings before God, and the free will of the soul should earnestly press with its prayer in to God. Therefore it would have a substance [subject or means], when it would go out of the human house of corruption into God, that it might work in something;

therefore the imagination of the will did immass [or imaginate] itself through the offering, and God enkindled the offering of Abel with the holy fire in the aim of the Covenant, which in the fullness of time should again enkindle itself in the soul's fire.

9. In this the will of Abel's soul did enform [idea] itself into a holy substance, and pressed, with the desire of the enformed free soul's will, before and into God's free will, and this the will of the devil and the Serpent could not brook; and even this the will of the Serpent and devil in Cain did well understand; that the aim of the Covenant did open itself in the holy fire in Abel's desire and prayer.

10. And therefore he [the devil] would kill the body of Abel according to his [Abel's] earthly limus; lest such children should be begotten of him, and so he [the devil] might lose his kingdom in man. But God would not enkindle the offering of Cain. Now Moses

makes a veil here before it, and says, God would not look graciously upon Cain's offering.

11. The enkindling of the external offering was a figure of the internal spirit. For the soul's spirit in the free will (as to the centre of the light) was enkindled with God's love-fire; and the imagination of the body (also understand, of the heavenly part) was enkindled in the offering with the fire of the holy part of the earth (which lies hidden in the curse). And therein the free will of the soul, and the free will in the ens of the heavenly part of the body, did immass itself into a substance; and therewith did press in before the holiness of

God.

12. And here the Serpent's head was first bruised, for it was a figure of the new birth out of Christ. Not that Abel had at this time put on Christ in the flesh, but indeed in the spirit of Jehova, in the aim of the Covenant. In which the name of Jesus stood hidden in God (as a regenerator), which would move and manifest itself in the fullness of time in this aim [of the Covenant], and introduce a heavenly holy ens into the disappeared ens of the heavenly part, and quicken it to life again in the opened power of Jesus.

13. If a man would rightly and fundamentally understand the offerings, he must consider that whereof the offering consisted, and what severed itself with the enkindling in the fire, out of the fire, viz. out of the enkindled offering, for in the enkindling nothing is seen or perceived, but 1. The wood to the fire. 2. The matter of offering.

3. The fire and light. 4. The smoke of the fire, which arises from the burning wood and matter of the offering. All this, without the faith and divine desire, is as an abomination, and indeed nothing in God's sight, and attains not the gate of God.

14. But if man brings his faith's-desire thereinto, then he resigns the free will thereinto, and will thereby, as by a means (in which fire the free will of the introduced sinful abomination does burn and consume away), press into God's eternal free will. And now how this is effected and comes to pass, understand as follows :

15. God's imagination or lubet meets the free inspired will of the humanity, and the human free will meets the Deity: here is now the conjunction.

16. But now man's free will is become sinful, and God's free will (from whence the human free will did first take its rise in its inspiration) is holy and pure. As yet the human free will cannot press into God's will, unless it also become pure before God.

17. But seeing God will, out of free grace, receive it into himselffor the delight and harmony of his praise, there is no other way or remedy but that God move himselfin the centre of the eternal nature, according to the fire of the second Principle, viz. according to the holy fire, and devour that enkindled anger and vanity of man's free will;

and annihilate it in the mortification of death, viz. in the anger-fire of God, that the human will might become pure before God's will, and so might enter into God's love-will. And therefore God's love-desire did itself enkindle the offering of Abel and Moses, that so the holy- and-love-fire might devour and swallow up the turba in the human free soul's-will, in the anger-fire of the eternal nature, in the Father's property.

18. But that there must be an earthly offering thereunto is thus to be understood: The body of man as to one part is a limus of the earth, and as to the other part a limus of heaven; and into this body the free will was inspired, and body and soul is only one man.

19. But seeing in the fall the earthliness and false subtlety of the Serpent (by the insinuation of the devil's desire) was awakened in the flesh of man, and so the earthly bestial property got the upper hand in his ens, and devoured the right human will in the bestial property, that is, took it captive, thereupon the earthly will which was from the limus of the earth must also be offered up in the fire.

20. For the limus of the earth shall arise again out of earth; but for to make it an offering it must also be offered in an earthly elemental fire of its likeness; so that a heavenly fire, and an earthly elemental fire, might be in one another; and each will in the offering might respectively find a place for its own comprehension and capacity, viz. the will proceeded from the earthly limus of the earth from the kingdom of this world, and the heavenly will, out of the heavenly limus, viz. out of the ens of the Verbum Domini [of the seminal and central love of the Word of the Lord]; each property of the free will went into the offering, and from the offering into the fire, where the atonement was.

21. For the Covenant of the Promise touching the Serpent-Stroyer did manifest itself by the holy fire, which holy fire enkindled the elemental fire, for the holy fire shall awaken and raise up from death the elemental man out of the limus of the earth; and in the holy fire man (who has taken his original from time) shall be purged and tried in the Resurrection;

who verily must first go through the fire of the anger, but the power and might of the holy fire shall bring him through the anger-fire, and cleanse and purge away his introduced abomination of sin (in the Serpent's and devil's ens [in him]) from the limus of the earth, that the limus of the earth may be no more earthly, but as a fine purified gold, which subsists in the fire.

22. Even thus the earthly man shall be purified in the Resurrection, through the fire, of which the offerings were a type, and yet they did really subsist in their power, as to the spirit. But the body must die, and the true corporality and regeneration must come forth [or begin to spring afresh] in the opened body of Christ, who, with his entrance into and manifestation in the humanity, did again open the heavenly disappeared limus in the human ens, which did disappear [or fade] in Adam and Eve.

23. Thus understand us aright: Abel and Moses offered the fat of beasts, and enkindled that with the holy fire, which fire was first enkindled by God; for the bestial property became manifest in the outward earthly man of the limus of the earth. The human limus of the earth was turned to a beast, and was moreover sinful and evil, full of the Serpent's poison and cunning subtlety.

24. The free will did immass itself in the Serpent's craft and devil's desire; and formed to itself such a figure in the ens of the flesh as the desire was; whereupon the body was more vain in God's sight than a beast.

25. But seeing the heavenly ens lay hidden and shut up in the earthly property, God would not utterly forsake the whole image; which Abel and Moses did understand, in the spirit of God, by their offerings. And therefore they offered the fat, viz. the oil of the beasts,

and other earthly good fruits, that so the desire of the true man, created out of the limus of the earth, who shall arise from death, might, in the enkindling of the offering in the fire, have a substance whereinto it might give itself and imaginate itself; and so in the

property of the holy fire it might be able to enter with its will into the aim of the Covenant, which stood before God in the figure, until [the promise] of the woman's seed was fulfilled and accomplished.

26. In which seed the dear and precious name of Jesus did open itself out of Jehovah, and did again awaken the heavenly life in the disappeared ens in the humanity, and offered up this whole image, in the Person of Christ, to the anger-fire of the Father, and with the holy love-fire regenerated and enkindled in the human life, did bring it quite through the anger, viz. through the fire of the eternal nature of the Father's manifestation, and changed the anger-fire into a love-fire.

And this was just thus pre-figured in the offering; for the love-fire enkindled the offering, and in the offering was yet the curse of the earth, as well as in the human free will; and when the offering was offered, it was a sin-offering, whereby the free will of man's soul was propitiated [reconciled with] before God.

27. Now if sin shall be reconciled and appeased, then it must be brought into the anger, viz. into the judgement of God, into the sword of the Cherub, that it may cut off the same, which [Cherub] is the sword of God's anger: and ifthen the human will be wholly sinful and altogether capable of the fire of anger, then God enkindles the sin-offering (in which the anger-fire lay hidden in the curse), with the holy fire, that the human will, which was apprehended in the anger-fire, might be atoned in the love-fire.

28. For the love-fire of God tinctures the soul's desire in the offering, as a tincture tinges brass and iron and changes them into gold. Even thus the human soul's free will, which was inspired wholly pure and spotless into man, was tinctured and again purified before God, that so it might enter into God's mercy. For the mercy was hidden in the love-fire, viz. in the aim of the Covenant, in the name of Jesus in God;

in which Covenant and name the anger of God was reconciled and atoned in the offering, and laid down its anger-burning flames, and suffered the soul's free will to pass quite through it.

29. But as touching the offering in itself; with the wood, fire, light, and smoke, understand it thus: Abel offered of his flock, without doubt, sheep, or oxen, as Moses did the like, namely, the fat of them; now the offering (viz. the wood and smoke) on the outward part as to

the matter was earthly; and so was man, as to the outward body, earthly; and in the earthliness lay the curse, both in man and in the offering.

30. But when the offering was enkindled it was spiritual, for from the wood proceeded the fire which took the offering and consumed it; and out of the consumptiveness went forth first from the fire the smoke, and afterwards the light. This was the figure whereinto man's and also God's imagination entered, as a compaction or conjunction.

31. In the enkindled consuming fire was the desire of the angry Father, viz. a conjunction of the eternal nature's fire with the temporal fire;

the eternal is magical, and the temporal is the substance and matter of the magical, viz. its reception [Or amassment]. And in the enkindled light was the holy love-fire, which is also magical, as subtle as a will, which did also immass itself in the enkindled light; and in the forth-proceeding smoke, which is an elemental sulphur and mercury, viz. a life of the quality, the smell or taste went forth also, which signifies the human power of the body, and the outward spirit of nature.

32. In this power which proceeded forth from the offering, out of the fire and light, the spirit of God which proceeds forth from the Father and Son did amass itself in the amassment of the human faith's desire, and so took the human faith's desire into itself; and did amass itself into a substance of the fire, light and power proceeding forth from the offering;

and brought it through the gates of God's anger, upon the holy altar, in the aim of the Covenant, upon which the Lamb of God should be offered for the sins of the whole world.

33. For this Lamb of God, viz. Christ, should complete, perfect, and make this introduced offering fully acceptable upon the great altar of the angelical world; that it might be to God an eternal sweet savour of his deepest love, which he represented in mankind in his introduced offering in the Lamb of God, Christ, and mankind in this representative offering.

34. The human offering was the sojourner of the true Lamb and offering of God in Christ. And now where the offering is, there also is the spirit of man; for man's spirit is gone forth and departed from God into time, and in the time it has defiled itself; therefore it must

forsake the pollution, and enter in again through this offering to God.

35. But if it will enter, then it must do it in manner and form as it went out; for it brought itself into false desire and lust. Even so likewise it must introduce itself again by a returning into a sorrow and conversion, and in the sorrow or repentance again [introduce itself] into a divine desire, which is called faith.

36. But that it might apprehend or lay hold on the divine desire, it did bring the faith or the believing desire into an offering; and so amassed or formed the believing desire in the offering into a substance or essence, that the faith also might become essential; and this essentiality of faith received the holy fire of God, which would in the fullness of time open itself in the essentiality of faith, and bring the human substance thereinto;

and also bring it forth in itself through God's anger, and change it in itself into a love-fire; for all the words of prayer in the offering were also received into the substance of faith.

37. For as all things were formed, amassed and introduced by the word of God into a substance, so likewise the words of the prayer of Abel and Israel in the offering were formed and amassed to substance, viz. unto an incorruptible essence. In which essence, Christ, God's Son, in the fullness of time brake forth out of the Covenant, and took upon him this same essence, together with the human essence, and as a potent Champion and mighty Conqueror destroyed the kingdom of death and the devil.

38. And to this faith's essence, in the spirit of Christ in all his children and members, was given the judgement over the world, yea, over the kingdom of the devil and of death; thereby to destroy and bring to naught their works, and possess the royal throne.

39. This was the real offering of Abel, for the spirit of the holy love-fire in the aim of the Covenant had opened itself in him, so that he understood it. And therefore he offered, that so his believing desire might be accepted before God, and be brought into a substance to the new regeneration; for he looked upon the promise of the Serpent-Strayer, and introduced the desire of his faith into him; and desired that his faith, spirit and life might be confirmed in the Serpent-Stroyer who was promised. He would fain be therein accepted before God; as it was granted him, so that the fire of God did enkindle his offering, and received his prayer in the love-fire; and in the sweet

savour of the offering it was brought by the spirit of God in the power of the light into a holy substance, and it is rightly said, His offering was acceptable before God.

40. The offering alone could not have been able to have done it, only the faith which did idea or lay hold on the promised Messiah in the offering, which apprehended the Covenant, and the true, very precious and dear offering, the same did effect it. The offering was only a figure of that which was therein accomplished and performed, as the outward world is only a figure of the inward spiritual world, whereby the spiritual world does introduce itself into a figure and essence,and beholds itself therein, as in a looking-glass.

OF CAIN'S OFFERING

41. By Cain's offering we rightly understand the verbal Christendom, the titular Christians, in the spiritual Babylonical harlotry, the type and image of whom is Cain. And as Cain in his offering sought only the outward world, might and pleasure, and would be an outwardly adopted and received child, God should permit his evil beast to be accepted and offered up;

he desired to be God's acceptable child with the selfhood in the Serpent's ens and falsehood; he was an impenitent proud man, who thought to be a lord of the world, and to domineer over Abel and his posterity. And just thus is the anti-christian Church upon the earth; it also builds churches and altars,

preaches, sings and tinkles, and does likewise offer in the bequeathed Covenant and Testament of Christ, and so covers itself with the offering of Christ, and will be an outwardly accepted and adopted son, notwithstanding that its offering is not accepted in the Covenant and Testament of Christ, nor brought to substance.

42. The cause and ground of it is this: Men depend and rely only barely and nakedly upon the offering, and teach that the offerings take away sin, [and teach that] Christ's Testaments do absolve sin. But as little as the offering of Cain was acceptable before God and took away his sin, and as little as Cain's desire was introduced into the divine substance, so as to have the divine fire to enkindle in his offering and receive his faith's desire into it, even so little also does the verbal [lip-labouring] Christendom enjoy the offering of Christ in his humanity.

It must be an Abel alone that does enjoy it; the titular mouth-Christian attains only the smoke of the true offering. It must be only

a right, hungry, thirsty, converted soul, which desires wholly and fully to depart from the Serpent's ens and all vanity of this world, and strives to mortify the Serpent and all vain will, in the death of Christ, and desires to arise in a new will, totally resigned in all submission in God.

43. This true hungry will offers rightly with Abel, and its offering is received into the holy fire of Christ, and formed [or amassed] in Christ's humanity into a substance. There must be earnestness and power, which earnestness stirs the love-fire of Christ in his Testament, so that it does enkindle itself in the desire; and then the desire becomes a true right faith, for there is no right faith without divine taking [Comprehension, amassment or formation].

44. When man's desire introduces its hunger with earnest sighing and prayer of introversion, resignation, and departing from vanity into the offering of Christ, even then the soul's desire does, in the heavenly essentiality, in the humanity of Christ, upon the high altar of God, form itself into a substance. The hungry desire becomes in the Word of God, in Christ's Testaments, flesh, a heavenly supernatural flesh; and this flesh is the true offering of God, which God takes to his habitation, and not the bestial mortal man.

45. In this holy substance alone is the true faith of Abel, without this there is only an historical painted and feigned faith, a Cain's offering, which does not take away sin: for sin must always be brought into the judgement of God wherein it was born, and the holy love-fire of God must drown and wash it away, else there is no forgiveness.

Neither offering nor Covenant does avail anything without it; also no going to church, neither singing nor devout showing does attain it. Nothing else at all does it but only the hungry, desiring faith through the alone offering in the blood and death of Christ, where the desire does wholly die to its selfhood in the death of Christ, and arise in Christ's resurrection with a true faith and Christianity, not in a specious show of holiness, but in essence, in words and works.

46. For he is yet far from a Christian, who merely calls himself a Christian [or is only so termed], but he is one who is born in the offering of his humanity in him. Neither Covenant nor laws avail anything before God, but a new creature. No cathedral, stone church,

meeting-house or hypocrisy, or whatsoever it be called, can inherit God's kingdom, but only and alone the true living offering of the new regeneration, arising from the Covenant of Promise in Paradise, through the quickening Word in the offering of Christ.

47. It only and alone is the temple of the holy Spirit, where God's word is taught and taken; without that, is Cain, with his glistering stone church, full of pride and stinking ambition, the great building of Babylon, where the language of God's word, viz. of the written word, is confounded and divided into manifold contentions and languages, where there is nothing but wrangling, jangling and snarling about the letters, and no true, real, living, effectual and powerful knowledge.

48. Now where the living knowledge of Christ is, there is the altar of God in all places, where the hungry soul may offer the true acceptable holy offering, in prayer; there it may introduce the prayer in the Word, in its hunger, into a substantial faith.

49. Not that we would hereby wholly abolish and raze down the stone churches; but we teach the Temple of Christ, which ought to be brought along [in the heart] into the stone church, or else the whole business of the stone church is only a hypocritical antichristian whoredom, a Cain's offering, both of the preacher and the hearer: so that one is not a whit better than another, unless he enter through the true door, Christ, in spirit and power in the Temple of Christ, into the stone church, or at least resolve to fix, betake and fasten himself there into such an earnest desire [that he will take and hold fast only that which is good for the amendment of his life]. Else Cain goes to church to offer, and comes out again a killer of his brother.

50. As it of ten appears, that when men in the stone churches have taken and amassed [to their minds a deal of] revilings, reproaches and censures [that have fallen from the false smoky Cain-like fury and pretended zeal of the preachers], then they forthwith come withal and murder Abel, and Christ's members: as this spirit has many hundred times found by experience; and that, only for the sake of the Temple of Christ.

51. Now if we would rightly consider of the offering of Cain, then we must look into the very essence of his will and desire, for he also would offer and be acceptable to God. But he loved only his ownhood and self-full self; his aim and endeavour was not to be or become a

new creature, that God should so take away his sins in the offering from him, but he would still remain the old Cain; and so offer to God, that he might be so accepted with him: the devil came before God in the form of an angel.

52. Cain knew not [ Or did not acknowledge] his evil serpentine property,the poor soul was captivated therewith, and had set itself up in the Serpent's wit and pride, it would needs be an outwardly adopted child and heir of God, the offering must make reconciliation for him; as Babel does, which takes also the mantle of Christ upon her, and says, Christ has undertaken and suffered for all my sins upon the cross, I cannot purchase or do anything for myself, my works avail nothing before God, I need only believe that Christ has done it, and comfort myself therewith, and then I am already justified and acquitted from all my transgressions.

53. Thus she comes before God, and thanks God that he has paid the reckoning and score, in his Son, and offers with Cain and the Pharisee in the Temple, and remains in herself a brother-slayer with Cain: and this is the Babylonical fruit. Like as Cain would take the offering upon him for a cloak and covering, so also his succeeding Church takes on it the offering of Christ for a cloak and covert of its sins and false murder; and covers its murderous spirit, so that men must call it a holy devout Christian.

54. Saint Paul must serve their turn thereto, when he says, / do that I would not, now if I do it, it is not I, but sin that dwells in my flesh;

but that he says, Now then, with my mind I serve God, but with the flesh the law of sin. The same, Cain will not understand, how the mind must, without intermission, rule and reign over the sinful will and desire of the flesh, and mortify the lust.

55. Saint Paul speaks of the heavenly Abel-like desire, how sin must be mortified in the flesh, and not rule over the mind, as it did in Cain, when he saw his brother was accepted before God, and that he himself was not. Then the murdering spirit arose in his mind, which should have been mortified in the offering by true repentance and conversion.

56. Thus also goes Babel under the mantle of Christ, which offers also to God, and thanks him for the offering of Christ; but itself remains in the mind of the Cainical brother-slayer, in pride,

covetousness, envy and anger, in persecution, in war and contention. It fights about the offering, and about the outward covering, lest it should be stripped thereof;

and does [in the meantime] fatten itself under it, with the bestial offerings of the fatness of the earth, and still remains the Cainical beast, and does also continually murder Abel in Christ's members, and comforts itselfwith the death of Christ: the same must be a covert for the false murdering spirit.

57. The heart and mind is far from the new creature. It is only the old Cainical brother-slayer, which bemantles itself with Christ's offering, and offers with Cain; such, and nothing better, remains now of Christianity among all sects, except the children of Christ, who are here and there hidden with Abel.

58. Cain's Church was never more potent and predominant upon the earth than it is even at this time, whereas, notwithstanding, men cry out with full mouth-cry and great ostentation, Come all hither: we have found the offering of Abel in Christ. Yes, forsooth, dear Babel, you have indeed found the mantle of Christ; but behold your Cain-like heart, and you will see whether you offer with Abel from the new creature, or from the false brother-slaying spirit. Where are your fruits? where is love and righteousness? where is truth? where is patience and meekness? Where is the mind that with Paul serves God? Where are you, you fair Christian Church upon the earth? are you not become a murdering den of the devil? Now show your Christian virtues;

are you not full of contention and murder, both in the Church and without the Church? your mouth is only a prater of God's kingdom, like as Cain's mouth prated of the offering, but his heart was a murderer.

59. Thus likewise men do prate in the stone houses of the mantle and offering of Christ, and yet in the meanwhile, in this prate and babble, do murder the children of Christ, condemn and judge them, and make a whole heap and crew of reviling devouring wolves, that do all cry out, snarl and snap; and none knows where the hind is which they hunt, save only that the devil does thus act and drive on his sport by them; so that the true, real offering of Christ may remain covered and hidden, and be only as a mystery in this world.

60. For we poor children of Eve do sojourn here in this cottage in a strange lodging, wherein the devil in God's anger is host. We dwell

upon the cursed earth, where the devil rides over our soul and body, and at all times tempts us: we had need be wary and watchful, and at no time secure: it costs body and soul.

The Twenty-Eighth Chapter

Of Cain's Killing of his Brother, viz. of the Proud, Haughty, Antichristian,

hypocritical Church upon the Earth;

and also of the True Christendom hidden under this Antichristian Church

1. WHEN the devil in God's anger, in the wrath of the eternal nature, had introduced his throne and seat into the human property, and awakened the centre of the wrathful nature in him, there forthwith arose up such a desire out of the awakened anger's property in the human ens or seed, in the propagation; out of which property Babel, viz. the antichristian Church, is begotten and brought forth.

2. And now as God had incorporated and promised the Serpent-Bruiser of this false property (who should bruise the head of the Serpent's ens and will or desire) unto the heavenly ens of man, which disappeared in and to Paradise, which word of promise was a mystery, and a very secret hiddenness to the earthly man;

even so also the false Cainical Church of hypocrisy and seeming holiness, whose heart and desire is only [of] the outward world, has gotten aloft this whole time, and has the outward dominion and name as if it offered to God. But the true, real Christian Church is hidden under it, as a very secret Mystery, and is not known of the Cainical Church.

3. Cain's Church sets forth itself very devoutly, and glisters on all sides with specious ceremonies and pompous ostentation; giving forth that it is holy, righteous, and good;

that it also offers in the Covenant of Christ; but its heart is only a glozing, soothing, bravely attired harlot, full of Cainical murder, reviling and blasphemy, full of censure and self-speculation in pride, in covetousness and high mindedness. But Abel's Church is hidden under it in great plainness, and with no respect and reputation, and is accounted but foolish in reference to the glittering show of Cain; and is continually slain by Cain in its simplicity.

4. Now says reason, What, had God any pleasure herein, that he suffered Cain to kill Abel; and why is it still to this day that the children of God are slain, despised, contemned, reproached, mocked,

scorned, and cried down for false by Cain, viz. by his posterity? One cause hereof is this:

5. Prince Lucifer was a hierarch in the kingdom or place of this world (as Christ even calls him a prince of this world, viz. in the kingdom of darkness in the anger of God), and was cast for his pride's sake out of the light into the darkness.

6. But seeing God then created another prince, viz. Adam, in and for this place, with whom he bound himselfeven with his deepest love before the foundation of the world in the dear and precious name Jesus, that he would break down and destroy the throne and kingdom of proud prince Lucifer in the human property, and overcome and be predominant with love; thence forthwith arose his envy and wrath against man.

7. Secondly, the cause is this: In the fall of man the wrath of the eternal and also of the temporal and inchoative nature obtained the superior sway and dominion in the human property. For the kingdom of heaven did extinguish in Adam and Eve when as they became earthly; and in the room and stead thereof the kingdom of the devil did awake in the Serpent's wit and pride in them; for the human willl had broken itself off from God, and was entered into selfhood, and no longer understood anything of the Mystery of God's kingdom.

8. But seeing that the kingdom of God did again bud and break forth in the aim of the Covenant in Abel and the children of God, the devil's kingdom and will, in the Serpent-monster, could not brook it. Also the love-kingdom is a great enmity against the wrath of the eternal nature according to the dark property, for the human essence was become, according to the dark world's property, as to the soul a half devil, and as to the outward world's vanity a half beast, in which beast the false, subtle, crafty, wicked, lustful, proud, covetous, envious and angry Serpent's worm did sit, infected with the devil's will.

9. This wrathful, vile, malicious, monstrous beast would live in its own self property; therefore the angelical virgin-child, which should destroy and possess the kingdom of this evil beast, did appear against him in Abel. This was now a great enmity, for the anger of God had captivated man, and would work and rule in him; therefore God's love broke forth out of the anger, as a light out of the fire, and would kill the anger, and change it into love, and help again poor

man's image, and redeem it from the eternal anger and death.

10. But seeing the anger had got the upper hand and sway in man; and yet the virgin-child of the angelical world's essence should spring forth and grow out of the Covenant of God, out of the disappeared ens, through the anger, as a clear delightful light shines forth out of the candle, through the wrathful fire, which deprives the darkness of its power and prevalency;

therefore the outward body in [Abel, and] the children of God must suffer itself to be slain and persecuted by the wrath of God; for it was a strange figure [the outward body] on the virgin-child.

11. For Abel in his outward flesh had the awakened vanity lying in him, as well as Cain; he was also sinful as to the outward man, but internally the angelical world and image of Paradise did spring and bud forth again in the Covenant. This was now a great enmity against each other; the inward man bruised the Serpent-monster upon the head of its false desire, and the Serpent-monster stung him on the heel of his angelical will, and openly mocked the angelical image; as it is so still to this day. So soon as the virgin-child is born in the spirit of Christ, the outward earthly body, together with the virgin-child, is, by the children of Cain, persecuted, contemned, reviled, and accounted as a strange child of the world.

12. For the Serpent's monster is as a fool before God, and seeing the noble and precious virgin-child must bear such a monster on it in the outward flesh, to which the devil has yet continual access, therefore this body is strongly assaulted and struck at by the devil in the anger of God and its children; they would continually slay it, for the virgin-child works through the outward man, as a light through

the fire, and manifests itself. It teaches and reproves the wicked sort; and this the devil cannot endure, for it is against his kingdom, as the offering of Abel was against Cain's.

13. For Cain offered in the proud Serpent's desire as a hypocrite, and would be an honest, demure, devout and godly child in his Serpent's desire; but Abel humbled himself before God, and set his desire into God's mercy. God's love-fire took his offering, and penetrated through the earthly offering and fire; and the like also is to be understood in the body of Abel; as the incorruptible [being] shall swallow up the corruptible, so also the heavenly took the earthly captive in itself.

14. But that Cain slew the outward body of Abel has this type [signification] and figure: that the outward body shall be slain [or mortified] in the anger of God.

The anger must devour and mortify the outward image which is grown up in the anger; and out of death springs forth the eternal life.

15. Abel was a figure of Christ; the children of God's anger must execute the right of God's anger upon the outward earthly and also [upon the] bestial image of the children of the holy one. Even as the Pharisees (who before God were only false serpent-children, as Christ called them) must persecute and kill the humanity of Christ; so likewise was Cain a type of these serpentine wolfish Pharisees, and also of the verbal titular Christendom.

16. As the false Serpent's child is a monster and fool before the angelical world, so likewise the children of darkness do account and esteem the children of the light for fools; for there must be a contrary, that the one might be manifest in the other. If the anger had not taken hold of the humanity, and devoured it into itself then the deepest love of God would not have been manifest in man.

17. But thus the love takes cause, by the anger, to overpower and prevail over the same with its motion and manifestation; as the same may be known in Christ. The true Son of God gave himself into our image, which was awakened in the anger, that so he might be made manifest with his love in the anger, and change the same into joy.

18. Christ gave our human image to the anger of his Father to be devoured in death, and brought his life into death, and yet manifested his love in the life which death had devoured, and brought forth the life in love through the death. As a grain of corn which is sown into the earth, the same must die in the earth, but out of that mortified grain grows a fair new body; even so the corrupt body of Adam shall and must be offered to death and the anger; and out of the death and anger the body of the divine love shall be manifest.

19. It was exactly typified and prefigured in Cain and Abel how it would be in the succeeding and future generations. Seeing Abel out-

wardly did bear the earthly image, and yet in the spirit he was an image of heaven, his outward body in the corruption was only a visard [Larva or strange disguised person] before the outward world; for there was another spirit hidden therein, which was not of the outward world's essence and property;

therefore because he was not wholly a right child of the earthly world, it would not suffer him (being as a strange child) in it; for the devil was prince in the wrathful essence in this world, who would not that a child of the light should spring forth through the wrathful essence [and be in his garden].

20. Thus the image or person of Cain and Abel is a true figure of the false, and then also of the holy and true, children of God; of the outward sinful corrupt and mortal man, and of the inward new regenerate holy man. When Christ with his love-kingdom arises from death out of the disappeared ens, then Adam's earthly image must die in Christ's death; and if it now be that the outward body must yet live, it is only a scorn and fool before the heaven's image, and so also before the natural life of this world.

21. For so soon as Christ is born, the sinful life is condemned to death; and stands in scorn and open shame before all the false children in the anger of God, as a whore in Bridewell

[At the house of correction or whipped through the streets], whom other whores likewise help to deride and scoff at; and yet they do but only judge and condemn themselves thereby. For if Christ be born, then the judgement passes upon the false bestial life, and that man must stand in the judgement of God as a malefactor, and be termed a fool, a heretic; and be jeered, scoffed and reviled, yea, even utterly defied and slain, that the monster may be judged before God's anger.

But those that do it are the children of the lusty, pampered, and well-fattened anger of God, whom the wrath of God uses for its instrument; for God is a spirit, therefore he accomplishes his judgement by a material image. [ By some outward substantial means or persons]

22. For so soon as Abel did, in his offering, put on or attract the love of God in the Covenant anew into his human desire, and comprehended [or amassed] the same into his essence, then forthwith the judgement passed upon the external mortal man; and God's sword of anger took him, which Cain executed, and slew the outward body of Abel. And at this time also the judgement passed upon the false

image of the anger in Cain, for he stood there, and cried, My sins are greater than can be forgiven me.

23. This does now hint and point at the figure of Christ, how the anger of the Father must devour [or swallow up] the life of Christ in death, and when as the anger had devoured the life in death, then the holy life of the deepest love of God moved itself in the death and the anger, and devoured the death and anger into itself; whereat the earth trembled, and the rocks clove asunder, and the graves of the saints opened.

24. And so likewise the love-fire and the anger-fire

[ Good and evil now mixed and in contest one with the other] in the place of this world (which wrathful fire was enkindled in the creation when The Apostate [Lucifer] fell) shall at the Last Day be again changed into the divine joyfulness, and be availed or swallowed up in the love. Understand, it shall be thus in the third Principle, where love and anger do strive [during] this time one with another: but he [Lucifer] remains in the darkness in the first Principle.

25. The true cause wherefore Cain murdered Abel was by reason of their offerings and worship of God, viz. religion; as this contention continues still to this day; the Cainical Church is not yet one with the Abelical.

26. Now says reason, I see it well enough, that all contention and strife arises from religion, but what is the ground and most undoubted cause and reason thereof. Behold! this is the cause: set before you the false Serpent's child, which is evil and good, and then set before you the virgin's child, born of Christ, and then you hast the fundamental cause, exactly drawn to the life, before thine eyes.

27. The Cainical Church drives a subtle trade with external ceremonies, and will appease God with some external thing or other; it will be outwardly an accepted and adopted child, it must down right be called honest, godly, holy and heavenly, it adorns and trims up itself very finely, and stands mightily upon its calling, which it has itself ordained and instituted; it makes a very specious and renowned show in the white sheep's clothing; and therein lodges the high priest of selfhood, without Christ's spirit, and rules and masters the work of the outward letters; and whosoever learns to transpose and compose the same boldly and bravely [according to their form of forged opinions] he is a high priest in their office and

order; he puts Christ's garment of innocency on him for his cloak and covert.

28. The other party of the confused Cainical Church cries out, and holds forth the goodly glistering child to sale for money [Makes good merchandise of its religious ceremonies]; and

has bound the kingdom of heaven to its ceremonies, and will sell it for money; so that the man may but fat himself in this world under the white garment [of its hypocrisy].

29. The third party gives forth that they have so holy an order that it doth even sanctify and save them, and they, above all others, will be esteemed holy.

30. The fourth party [or sect] will obtain the kingdom of God by their lip-labour, with muchness of speaking, reading, singing, preaching and hearing, and it rebukes, censures and reviles all that will not approve of ; praise, and give diligent attention to its lip-labour [and fine conceited long prating].

31. This party has clothed itself with the white garment, and set itselfupon the letter [or writings] of God's children, and therewith it does so lustily bestir and lay about it, as a beggar that casts stones

at the dogs; and sometimes hits a churlish [evil] one, sometimes a quiet [good] one. And he that is hit at makes him hear of it, and then others fall on, pell-mell, and bite and worry him; and there is a continual biting, tearing, confounding, reviling, reproaching, cavilling and jangling about the letter, a mere external work, whereby men [blindly zealous] suppose to serve God, and obtain grace: a very Cainical offering.

32. The Cainical Church is in the outward world, evil and good; it builds, and breaks down; and is only a figure of [or according to] God's love and anger. What one party builds and calls holy, that, another pulls down and reviles. With one mouth it builds, and with another it tears down. What one hypocrite praises, that, another dispraises.

And thus there is only a confused [shattered] Babylon, evil and good; a wonder of nature and time.

33. All these run on in their self-contrived and devised orders, and rely upon their received orders. And so they offer the letter of the word, and the work of their own hands, before God;

and will needs be outwardly adopted and accepted children before God. God must have respect unto their offering, and forgive them their sins by a word-speaking; as a lord out of favour and clemency freely gives a malefactor his life. Such an unmeasurable matchless heap of grace they have brought into their literal offerings, and into the works of their hands;

so that their teaching, and the hearing of them, is accounted for the most holy way wherein salvation is to be had. And whoseoever does not worship and honour this their way with exceeding diligence, and subject himself thereunto, him they reproach, persecute and kill, or else hold him for a heretic.

34. But Abel's children in Christ have far another worship and service of God. They dwell indeed among Cain's children, and do also appear in their orders and offerings; [but] they offer to God a broken and bruised heart, and a humble, contrite mind, in true sorrow for, and conversion from, their committed sins; and with their spiritual will do go out from and forsake all their creatureself-fullness and selfish interests and arrogation, and die to their selfhood in the death of Christ; and become as children, who neither know (nor will) anything, but only their mother which has brought them forth;

they cast themselves into her bosom, and they take in patience whatsoever she pleases to do with them.

35. For their internal will is quite mortified to the outward world, with all its glozing show and alluring glory; they account themselves very unworthy before the great grace of God, and their vanity, which the flesh desires, is always in their sight; and to this the inward spiritual will is a deadly opposite enemy, and yet it cannot be wholly separated from it in this lifetime. Their whole course through this world is a mere work of repentance, for their sins and impurity do appear continually in their sight.

36. There is a continual and constant combat in them, of the flesh in the earthly desire against the divine desire, and of the divine desire against the lust of the earthly flesh;

for the divine desire does amass [betake] itself into God's grace and mercy, and brings itself into a centre of a working life, and penetrates through the earthly false lustful life, and strikes the false lust [and imagination] down; and then the false imagination falls into great sadness, when as it contemplates and beholds the voluptuous,

pompous, stately, brave, glistering course of this world, and finds itselfso mean and foolish that it must forsake and forego that wherein it might have its chief joy, pleasure and delight.

37. Also the devil he comes forthwith with his temptation, and brings his desire into the false imagination; and shows him the fair kingdom of the world, and rebukes his intent as a false fancy and mere conjecture;

stirs up the crew of the wicked against him, who scorn, jeer, reproach and contemn him; and then sometimes the sprackling glimpse, and divine desire, does even lose itself; for Christ, viz. the virgin's child in the spirit of Christ, is lead into the wilderness, and is tempted of the devil and of the anger of God, and also of the carnal world's spirit, and of tentimes the spirit of Christ does hide itself; as if the virgin's child were quite gone, and past hopes, also the devil makes his address thereto, and brings him into doubt as if the virgin's child were not born.

38. For the virgin's child is hidden in the desert, and then the poor captivated soul is in great sorrow and lamentation, sighs and cries to God; also it cannot love, nor away with, the bestial image, but it does stir up itself as a great assaulting storm in the body, and seeks the gates of the deep in its original;

and forces with might [or holy violence] into that Word which has formed it to be a creature, and dives itself thereinto, as an impotent, will-less child, and desires its first mother, whence the first soul was born, for its nurse; and makes itselfwholly will-less in this mother, and lies only at her breasts, and sucks her love and grace into it; the mother may do with it what she please. This is the true meaning, and the right manner, of dying to selfhood and self-full imagination and lust in oneself, and becoming, as to the will of the soul, as a child in oneself; as Christ says, Unless ye he converted, and become as children, ye can in no wise see the kingdom of God; self; and self-full reason in the lust of the flesh, can neither taste nor see it.

39. From this mortification of the self-full will, and earnest resignation into God's mercy, the virgin's child does again spring forth out of the desert, with its fair and glorious pearl-blooming tree, with very excellent and new fruit; for so it must be tried in the fire of God's anger, that the abomination of the introduced earthly will may die in it.

40. For the fire-soul, viz. the first Principle, hangs upon the band of the outward world, and continually and eagerly introduces something of vanity into it, whereby the virgin-child of the angelical world's essence, viz. of Christ's essentiality, is defiled, obscured and darkened, therefore it must be so refined, purified and purged again; and many a cold, piercing, rautish wind of tribulation, anguish and great perplexity blows upon this child. It must be continually as an off-scouring of the world, for its kingdom is not of this world; as Christ said, My kingdom is not of this world.

41. But the effect is this: when the fair Morning-Star does dawn and arise in the virgin-child, then the outward life is even illuminated in this time [or while it lives here]; and it gives itself up

unto the obedience of the internal [life], as an instrument and servant of the internal.

42. And then the holy spirit of God shines forth through the virgin-child, and preaches Christ crucified, and reproves the world for its sins and wicked malicious doings, and shows them their false hypocritical erroneous way, that they will needs be the children of God in the outward kingdom, in their self-contrived and devised ways, and will seek an external forgiveness of sin in their own conceited and received ways;

and yet will still remain in the vanity, and in the pleasure of their flesh. And desire only to make devout shows before God, and give good words in a soothing glozing gloss of fine hypocrisy, as if they served God in their contrived conjectures and opinions; but still they will continue in selfhood, in the outward show and ostentation.

43. These the Holy Ghost does rebuke and reprove by the virgin-child in Christ's spirit, and calls them hypocrites, and wolves in sheeps' clothing, and crafty foxes born of the Serpent's ens, in whom there is the very property of toads, dogs and wild beasts; and shows them, that they draw near to God with their lips, but their heart is full of murder, gall and serpent-desire, and has no true upright love-desire in it;

also it shows them that they are but mere flatterers and dissemblers in their office, who only seek pleasure and temporal honour and respect thereby, that so they might be able to domineer and lord it over men's bodies and souls, goods and estates, and thus they serve God only from without, with hypocritical mouths: Their heart hangs to the whoredom of Babylon, full of devilish murder and poison against him that does but touch their conscience.

44. Such children in the Serpent's craft, who are best able as cunning craft masters in sophistry to turn this subtlety most takingly and artificially, the children of the world do set up unto themselves for teachers, and will learn the way of God from them.

45. These teachers do assume unto themselves [and presume upon] the writings of the saints, and proclaim with open mouth that they teach God's word, [and that] the Holy Spirit is poured forth by their teaching and preaching;

and though their conscience does even convince them that they are not capable of the office of the ministry, and that they are in no wise the temples of the Holy Spirit who should teach in and by them, yet they care not for that: it brings them money and honour. Christ is gone up to heaven, and has placed and ordained them to be stewards and vicars in his office;

they must compose and contrive their doctrine out of the writings of the saints, and out of their reason, upon the letter of the Scripture. Their heaping together and composing of the words [in the form of their subtle reason] must be the voice of the Holy Spirit; they say the Holy Spirit is thereby poured forth into the hearts of men.

46. And though they themselves be only Cain, and in their literal and bookish rhapsody [or composing of the texts, or bare letter of Scripture]in their sermons do cast forth a great deal of light, lewd, Cainical scorn and brother-slaughter, and oftentimes mix lies and truth together;

yet the Holy Spirit must have taught, and the congregation must thank God for such holy, [sound, orthodox, evangelical] doctrine, as they call it. And after their killing of their brother there, they must also help, with boldness, courage and zeal, to murder and slay Abel, and the little child Jesus, in his members, with words and deeds.

47. Such teachers the world sets up, to learn the kingdom of God from: and whosoever can but lustily cavil, censure and condemn others in their gifts, and propose it with fine distinctions and subtle arguments, and clothe them with the mantle of reason, and hide the wolf (which thereby murders and devours Christ's flock) under the purple mantle of Christ, to him they give diligent attention; for the fleshly Serpent's heart does therewith sooth up and flatter itself in its evil property; it has even such an artificial nature and constitution.

48. Such seed these teachers, chosen of men, do sow, who only desire the calling for temporal honour and pleasure, but are not called of God, and are also without divine knowledge [and understand not what true divinity is]. They enter not by the door of Christ;

but they come into place by the election and favour of men, through the means of their own willing, walking and running: these can no way be acknowledged for the shepherds of Christ, for they are not born of Christ, and [are not] chosen to this function and divine calling.

49. They are only the great master-builders of Babylon, where the languages are confounded, and men thereby set at odds and variance, and they set up war and contention upon the earth, for they wrangle and jangle about the mere husk, viz. about the written word and letter; and they have not the living word of God dwelling in them, from which they ought to teach. The Spirit of Christ itself must be the teacher in the word, with the living voice [or expression];

the spirit of man [The human spirit] must know and feelingly find Christ in it, otherwise none teaches the words of Christ, [but] only dumb [senseless] words, without power and spirit.

50. Now the Spirit of Christ in his children does reprove these, and shows them the true way how we must die wholly in Christ's death to the selfhood and the false self-full desire of temporal pleasure and honour;

and be born again of Christ's Spirit, with another new will and desire out of Christ's love, in peculiar real knowledge, and preach and teach Christ from our [own peculiar and singular knowledge of him in our] selves.

51. This, Babel in Cain cannot endure, that one should teach: that Christ himself must be the teacher in the human spirit. They plead their cause from the forewritten Apostolical word, and say, if they teach the same then the Spirit of God is poured forth. Yes, forsooth! very right, I say so too: If the same be taught in Christ's spirit and power, then 'tis so, indeed.

52. But the Spirit of Christ in his children is not bound to any

certain form, that it need not [or ought not] to speak anything which stands not in the Apostolical letter; as the spirit in the Apostles was free, and they spoke not all one and the same words, but from one spirit and ground they did all speak, everyone as the spirit gave him utterance. Even thus likewise the spirit speaks yet out of its children, it needs no form aforehand composed and gathered together out of the literal word. It indeed does put man's spirit in mind of what is comprehended and contained in the letter; for Christ said, The Holy Ghost shall take of mine, and declare it unto you.

53. Christ is alone the Word of God that teaches the way of truth through his children and members. The literal word is only a manu-duction and manifestation of Christ; that we should have the same before us, as a testimony and witness of Christ, [showing] what he is, and what he has done for us, that we should conceive, let and fasten our faith therein; and yet with the desire enter into the living Word, Christ; and be ourselves born to life therein.

54. None is a shepherd of Christ but he that has Christ's Spirit, and teaches from him. No art nor university makes one a shepherd of Christ, unless he be capable of the office in Christ's Spirit. If he has not that, living and working in him, then man has only chosen him to be a carver and builder of the great Babylon; a letter-changer [a verbal jangler and wrangler], without divine understanding and knowledge; for the Scripture says, The natural man perceives nothing of the Spirit of God. How then will he teach the way of God, who himself understands nothing thereof.

55. And Christ says, He that enters not into the sheepfold by him, viz. by the door of his spirit, but climbs up some other way, as by art [cunning?] and reason, or by the favour of man, into the same: whosoever sets up himself not being called of God's Spirit, to be a shepherd of Christ, for human and temporal repute and revenue's sakes, he is a thief and murderer, and the sheep hear not his voice, for he has not Christ's voice, and comes only that he may rob and steal.

56. But they say, the written word is Christ's voice. Yea, it is indeed the cabinet thereof, viz. a form of the word: but the voice must be living which opens the same, and likewise acts it in due motion as a watch-work. The letter is as an instrument thereunto, as a trumpet; but there must be a true and right breath and air which agrees with the air or tune in the letter.

57. The word of the letter is a prepared instrument [or work]: what kind of trumpeter takes it in hand to play thereon, even such a sound it gives. Is not, I pray, the great Babel built out of this work? Every one has sounded the trumpet of the letter as his own air and tone has been in him; and so it has been approved and received by each trumpeter, and brought into a substance; and this same substance is the great Babylon, where evil and good are built into a building.

58. But if men had not introduced any exposition upon the Apostolical word, and [had not] brought or contrived the same into other forms, then the instrument had remained pure. But the un-illuminated mind has set itself up to be a master therein, and bowed the same according to its own imagination and well-liking;

for the human pleasure has thereon set itself and formed and expounded the same according to the [rule of ] fat [benefices for the] belly ['s sake] and worldly pleasures. And thus the spirit is extinct; and 'tis turned to an antichristian order and custom. Men have taken and formed the word as an organ, and so they have brought it into a fashion and custom, that a man must play thereon, and others must hear the sound and tune which he makes;

and thus for the most part such organists are only used who strike the organ from without, and make a fine contrived and composed piece, which they willingly and readily hear. But the organ sounds only as the master strikes it [plays on it].

59. But to this Christ says, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. Also, Whosoever is of God,

he hears God's word. Christ said, The Son of man speaks nothing out what he hears the Father speak in him. So likewise must a teacher of Christ hear the Father's Spirit in Christ speak in him; he must hear God's word in the Spirit of Christ in him; as David says, / will hear what the Lord speaks in me. He must be a temple of God, in whom God dwells, and from whom he speaks, being only an instrument thereto. For Christ said, We will come to you, and make our abode in you.

Also, / will put my Word into your mouth, says the prophet. Also, The Lord is nigh you, namely in your mouth, and heart. Here the Spirit of God speaks of the living Word; and not of a bell without a clapper.

60. This, the Spirit of Christ in his children does teach, and reproves the wooden clapper in the right bell, which has hung itself

up to be a clapper in the bell of the divine word, and yet has no power to make the bell sound. This, Cain, in his offering, can by no means brook, that one should tell him his offering doth not please God.

61. He sets forth himself with very fair glozing and glistering outside shows, and has made himself such a brave glorious form; moreover, he is chosen of the high schools and worldly might thereto.

And if a mean layman, without human calling, should come thereinto (as Christ, who was accounted for a carpenter's son), and offer to reprove such a high priest in such great dignity, honour and respect, the same the world believes not that it is from God that he is sent.

62. The great bear thinks presently, This is only a sheep, which I will take into my mouth and devour him. What, shall a sheep reprove me, who am a bear? Will a disesteemed sheep nullify my reputation and esteem among men, and dare to quetch at me? I will soon rid him out of the way, and so defile him that he shall not be known that he is a sincere and single-hearted lamb of Christ, and speaks from Christ's Spirit. I will so wallow and mire him in the dirt, disgrace, and scorn, that he shall be held for a filthy beast, or a very defiled swine.

63. In the meantime I live in my delicious days of pleasure, and remain lord over soul and body. But if the sheepling shall offer to stir, and show more than a sheepling of Christ, then I will help the butcher drive it to the slaughter-house.

64. Thus it goes with the simple, single-hearted children of Christ, whom the Spirit of Christ drives, and out of whom he teaches here in this world, etc. They are only as sheep among wolves; as Christ said, / send you as sheep among wolves. The earthly man is a serpentine wolf under whom the virgin-child, viz. Christ's lamb, must dwell; and then begins and arises murdering, slaying [or robbing], and killing.

65. But it does not at all hurt the virgin-child; its external wolf is also by this means hitten off by another, for the outward wolf of all men is grown from the anger of God, and arisen with the sin in Adam; therefore it must be given for food to the anger of God, that the virgin-child of the woman's seed may become manifest.

66. For thus they do separate themselves as two enemies, and are continually opposite enemies one against another in the time of this outward life; for the judgement is given to the virgin-child against the introduced Serpent's child of sin. In the resurrection the virgin-child shall condemn the serpent-child into the fire of God; there the limus of the earth shall be proved and purged from the Serpent's ens, and again put upon the virgin-child.

67. Now says reason, What pleasure has God in this murdering ofhis children, can he not defend them from the enemy? Thus it must be: that the light may be manifest in the darkness, else the light would stand still in the darkness and bring forth no fruit. Seeing then the light receives into itself essence and perceivancy, also sensation from the darkness, viz. from the source of the fire, therefore one is set against the other, that so one might be manifest in the other: the joy against grief and grief against joy; that it may be known what evil or good is.

68. For if there were no grief then the joy were not manifest to itself; but yet all is in the free will: as every thing does introduce itself into evil or good, so it runs on its course, and the one is but the manifestation of the other; for if there were no night or darkness then we should know nothing of the light or day. Thus the great God has introduced himself into severation, to his own contemplation and sport of joy.

69. The like also is to be understood in the various diversity and severalty of men, touching evil and good. The evil must be a cause that the good be made manifest to itself; and the good must be a cause to manifest the evil in its wicked malicious subtlety and iniquity;

that all things may come into their contemplation [and visible ken], and every thing might manifest its judgement in itself unto the great separation-day of the LORD of all beings, where every thing shall give in itself into its barn, for its usefulness and profit, that, in the eternity, the great God may be known in a creatural and formal manner, according to light and darkness.

70. for all things were created by the Word, and brought into a form. Seeing then God is an angry jealous God and a consuming fire, and also a merciful loving meek God of light and giving [or free grace], in whom there cannot be any evil at all, therefore he has introduced fire and light, evil and good, one with another in the

Verbum Fiat, into a free will, whereby the will may form [or work] either in the evil or [in the] good;

and yet he has created all things good, and to the light, and set them into the free will, to multiply themselves in the free will, to conceive in evil or good; and yet has associated to each thing its likeness, viz. to a male its female, that so nothing has cause to degenerate [or fall from its place and order into destruction];

and to man he has given commands what to do, and [what to] leave undone.

71. Thus all things stand to the judgement of the great God, and in this time they must be in contest, that one may be manifest in the other. But then in the great harvest every thing shall have its own seat in itself; when strife shall be taken up and cease, and all things must stand to the honour and admiration of the wonderful works of the great God, who alone knows whereunto every thing shall be good, and for what he will use it.

The Twenty-Ninth Chapter

Shows how the Adamical Tree has put forth and opened itself out of its Stock, and introduced itself into Boughs, Branches, Twigs, and Fruit; out of which Pullulation or Manifestation the Invention of all Arts and Governments is Arisen

The Deep Gates out of the Centre of the Eternal and also the Temporal Nature, showing how the Eternal Wisdom has introduced itself into a formal [Visible and Ideal] Contemplation.

1. THE eternal divine understanding is a free will, not arisen either from any thing or by any thing; it is its own peculiar seat, and dwells only and alone in itself; un-apprehended of any thing; for beyond and without it is nothing, and that same NOTHING is only ONE; and yet it is also as a nothing to itself. It is one only will of the abyss, and it is neither near nor far off; neither high nor low; but it is ALL, and yet as a Nothing. For there is in itself no contemplation, sensation or perceivancy whereby it might find a likeness in itself.

2. Its finding is its own forth-proceeding, so that it beholds itself in the egress, for that which is proceeded forth is its eternal lubet [imagination, desire, or magia], sensation, and perceivancy;

and it is called the divine wisdom.

Which wisdom the unsearchable abyssal will apprehends in itself to its centre of lubet,[ imagination, desire, or magia] viz. to an eternal mind of the understanding; which understanding the free will forms in itself to its own likeness, [or express image] viz. to an eternal-speaking, living [working] word, which the free will does speak or breathe forth out of the formed wisdom of the lubet.

3. And the forth-breathing [or spiration] is the spirit or mouth of the understanding in the formed will of the wisdom, which does distinguish [or variously severise] the speaking Word, so that the mind, and the understanding of the mind, becomes manifest and revealed; in which manifestation the free lubet or wisdom is, in the speaking or forthbreathing, formed of the free will, by the spirit, into diversity and variety.

4. In which formation the powers of the divine properties do

arise; so that it is truly said and declared concerning God, that he is the eternal will, understanding, mind, counsel, power, and wonder; in [or with] which wonders of powers he has moved and formed himself from eternity. In which formation consists the invisible spiritual world, wherein the Spirit of God has melodised and sported with itself from everlasting, which also has neither ground, limit, bounds nor original.

5. For it is the divine vision of the formed wisdom. Its centre is the formed will, viz. the Word, forth-speaking out of all powers; and its life is the spirit which proceeds in the speaking or breathing, which distinguishes and forms the lubet of the wisdom. So that the formed wisdom plays before the life of the Deity, as little children play before their parents, who have begotten them out of their essence for their joy, and in them the parents take their delight and pastime.

6. Thus likewise are we to understand the being or essence of eternity; which being or essence the eternal free will has, in the forth-breathing Word, introduced into a desire, viz. to an external comprehensiveness, in which comprehensibility the beginning of the corporeal being is arisen, viz. the centre of the formed nature; wherein the desire has amassed, formed and introduced itself into properties, viz. into darkness and light, into pain and source, into joy and sorrow.

And yet we must not understand any sorrow to be in the pregnatress ; but the free will doth so form and conceive itself in the desire to the contemplation and manifestation of the wonders; that so the properties might be peculiarly manifested and revealed in each other.

7. For if there were no contra-will then there would be no motion in the properties; but seeing the free will has introduced itself into love and anger, viz. into evil and good, a twofold will is arisen in these properties, viz. a wrathful [will], according to the nature of the fire and of the darkness, and a good love-will, according to the nature and quality of the light; in order that one might dwell in and manifest the other.

8. Not that this birth has received only a temporal beginning: it

is [or has been] eternal, and is the manifestation of the divine vision, sensation, and perception. Only, in the creating of the creation this birth introduced itself into a compaction or external comprehensiveness, that it might have a distinct dominion to work in

for its own sport and play.

9. Also we are not to conceive that in the creation the evil, proceeding from the darkness and fiery property, was separated from the good, and placed in a peculiar sundry working dominion, but the one is in the other. Yet the light shone through the darkness, and the darkness could not comprehend it. Every life in the creation proceeded forth from the fiery property, and the spirit of the rational understanding did arise from the light's property. In the creation every fiery life was brought forth, in its beginning, to [in or for] the light.

10. Moreover, the Creator of all beings has given the creatures of the outward world, which has a temporal beginning out of the eternal Word, a universal light for visible contemplation; also, every life in the creation has received the light of nature out of the centre in itself; out of which the understanding arises, so that the creature can rule and govern itself.

11. And nothing was created evil, or to the dominion of iniquity; for though on one part it has an ens of the wrath in itself for its life, yet on the other part it has also an ens of the light and good virtue in itself; and it is set in the free will, to conceive [or work] in evil or [in] good; for there is nothing so evil but it has a good in it, whereby it may rule and be predominant over the evil.

12. But man was in equal accord in his properties: no property was manifest above the other, for he was God's image; like as there is no evil manifest in God, unless he would himself manifest the wrath of the eternal nature in a thing: even so also the divine free will was given to man.

13. And withal, the command [was given to him] that he in his free will should not lust after evil and good, viz. after the divided properties; he should continue steadfast in the equal harmony of the properties, and rule with the light over the darkness; and then

the properties of the wrath had stood in mere joy, delight and melody in him, and he had been a mirror and form of the divine wisdom, which had seen and beheld itself in him, according to the kingdom of

joy.

14. But seeing that he did contemplate with the free will in the

dissimility, how evil and good were each of them in its own peculiar self-full property, and brought his lust and longing thereinto, desiring to taste thereofin the essence; whereupon this same property did also take him in his lust, and prevailed in his will, and also in the ens whence the will did arise to its own contemplation and dominion. And thus the first man, who was good in the beginning, became a stock or tree of the taste of the knowledge of evil and good, viz. a contending dominion, in which both wills, viz. the good and the evil, ruled in one another.

15. But seeing the fiery wrathful will so overcame the good which was from the light's essence, that the light's ens was taken captive in the wrathful ens, this image fell under the power and command of the outward dominion, which was evil and good; and also under the wrath of the inward nature, viz. of the fiery darkness;

upon which image God had compassion, and did re-inhest [in-promise] the Covenant of Grace into the captivated, disappeared and (as to the divine wisdom) blind ens of the holy world's being, and did incorporate the same as a Covenant of a new regeneration of a new holy will and life.

16. Thus now we are to consider aright of the stock of the human tree, how it has spread forth and displayed itself in the properties, and introduced itself as a tree (evil and good) into boughs and branches; and from whence his [man's] temporal government of distinct and sundry offices and callings is arisen, which he did awaken in him when he lusted after evil and good, and thereby brought himself in subjection to nature, seeing he fell under its dominion.

17. And we see very clearly that Moses has described and set down in his first book [Genesis] how the human tree has opened itself in evil and good, and introduced itself into boughs and branches for its fruit.

Also we see how the fiery wrathful property has always gone before, and first of all brought forth its fruit: we have a clear and plain understanding hereofin the names of those which the Spirit of God has put by Moses in the lines of propagation. [Genealogy]

18. For first he sets Cain, whereby is understood, in the Lan-

guage of Nature, a source out of the centre of the fiery desire, a self-full will of the fiery might of the soul, viz. a sprout or twig out of the first Principle, in which branch or sprig the first Principle did, in an especial manner, prevail, and would sever itself into a self-fullness, and break itself off from the love-ens. Yet not as a dark source, but as a source of self-full lust, and also [of] fiery strength and might.

19. For out of the ens of Cain (as the same was in the centre of the begetting nature in the wrestling wheel of life) arose his will; and out of the will, the desire;

and out of the desire, the substance; in which substance the false mind is understood, wherein the dominion of the outward did form and fasten itself; whereinto the devil also, in the wrath of nature, crept in with his desire, and desired the lordship and domination of this world in selfhood. As the fallen devil does always desire domination in the place of this world, in the inward eternal, and [in the] outward temporal nature.

20. But seeing the word of divine power and holiness had incorporated itself 1 with a Covenant of regeneration, into the woman's seed, viz. into the disappeared ens of the spiritual world's essence, that it would deprive the fiery wrathful will, proceeding from the centre of the dark world, of its fiery might of selfhood; thereupon after Cain there sprang forth out of the human tree a sprout out of the aim of the Covenant, viz. Abel, whose name, in the Language of Nature, signifies an out-breathed angel, which, in the first will of the essence whence the soul arises, had formed and fixed itself in the centre of light, in the love-desire, and penetrated quite through the fire's centre. Whereupon the fiery desire did desire to cut off the earthly life, which has its original out of the fiery desire as its property; for which cause Abel and all his posterity became martyrs.

21. For this is the door of Christ, who must give himself into this death of the wrath, and penetrate the human centre (of the soul's original according to the fire-world), with the love-ens, viz. with the deepest love of the Deity, and change the fiery wrathful desire of the dark world's essence into love.

22. Adam was the stock of the universal human tree. But when Eve was made out of him then the tree was divided according to two Principles, not wholly in the essence, but according to the nature and quality of the centres of fire and light; for the centre of the light,

viz. the ground of the love-desire, did stand in Eve's matrix; but in her fall it disappeared as to the creature; therefore the divine Word did reinhest [ espouse, betroth or promise] itself therein to a centre of regeneration.

23. Now Cain and Abel were the two twigs which grew out of this tree from the property of both Principles, viz. of the fire, and of the light; and they were a type of the whole tree, with its fruit which it would bring forth. But seeing Abel was a type of Christ (who was to be conceived without the help of man, only and barely of the incorporated Word in the seed of the woman, who should suffer death for man), therefore Abel must pass through without branches and fruit. For the fruit which Christ should bring forth was to generate anew the human tree;

and not produce other twigs out of his loins. Therefore Abel also, being the type of him, should not generate any twig out of his loins. For the line of the Abelical seed remained in the Covenant, and pointed at Christ, who should spring forth out of the Abelical line, and again manifest the spiritual world's essence.

24. Therefore Adam must bring forth another branch by his Eve out of the vital tree; which was to be like Adam in his image; viz. Seth. Which name doth signify, in the Language of Nature, a forth-running, or leap, where a glance or aspect of a love-will arises out of the fiery will; which, notwithstanding, is withheld and hindered by the outward world's being, essence and substance, viz. by the corrupt house of flesh.

25. Now Christ must come to help this captivated, forestalled and obscured will, which, notwithstanding, has its first ground out of God's love, and free it from the band of wrath wherewith the divine ens was captivated, for this was Christ's office: not that he should beget, but give himself into the generation of Seth, and redeem Seth and his branches from the wrath, and regenerate him anew in himself: He was not to beget children to this world, but to bring forth Seth out of this world, and bring him in himself into the spiritual world.

26. Now in Seth the line of the Covenant went forth, in which Christ would manifest himself according to the human tree. But in Cain the line of the wonders, viz. of nature and its government went forth; for Moses says, that unto Cain was born Enoch, and he built a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch (Gen. iv. 17). Now Cain was the first man born of woman, and Abel

the second, whom he slew.

27. Now Moses says that Cain built a city, whereas, indeed, if we would go merely upon reason, there were not men who might be able to build a city, and inhabit it; for the spirit in Moses doth here make a veil before the understanding, which lies in the word city; for he says, Cain's son was called Enoch, and also the city. Now this is verily true;

but the spirit in Moses looks upon the root of Cain and Adam; how the tree, evil and good, has opened and displayed itself into its boughs and branches; for by the name of Enoch the spirit looks upon the property of the branch, viz. of Cain's son, intimating what kind of people would arise from thence, viz. a city [or commonwealth] and dominion of the outward world in selfhood; for in the Language of Nature it is to be understood in the name.

28. Enoch signifies a forth-breathing of life, and a reassuming to a selfish contemplation; a child of self; which in nature does introduce itself into a self-full dominion and will, so that it does imagine and frame in its mind a dominion or region, country or city, desiring and aspiring in its will to be a tree or prince of men. For when the human life departed from the Spirit of God into selfhood, then it would be a peculiar selfish lord, which will's son was Enoch, viz. a city or amassed substance to a self-full domination and government.

29. From which government and dominion the branches or children were born, concerning which the holy spirit complained in Noah, that they would not suffer his spirit to reprove them any more (Gen. vi. 3), for they were a tree or branch sprung forth from the tree ofself-fullness;

from which the worldly principalities and superiorities have taken their rise and original. For when the human life fell unto the stars, and the spirit of the outward world, then the same brought the human life into its [the outward world's] own dominion, from the angelical into the astral and outward elementary dominion, according to its figure. This, the city of Cain, viz. Enoch, does signify unto us, viz. the dominion upon the earth.

30. But now Enoch cannot be the ruler, but the city is he, that is, the branch or the country of the children of pride, who departed from God in their own selfish power and authority. Now the multiplicity of wills must have a judge, seeing they would not suffer

the Spirit of God to rule them (I Same viii. 7). Therefore the spirit in Moses says, and Enoch begat Irad (Gen. iv. 18). This is now the governor who, out of their own essence, set himself up to be judge and lord over them, viz. a potentate and tyrant.

31. For the name is very pregnant in the Language of Nature, and signifies a forth-breathing of life, where the life doth soon form itself in the centre of the fiery property and strong might; viz. in the anger of God, which was become ruler over the life; the same took Irad, as

a lord and tamer of the life, and set him over Enoch.

32. From this root the rulers of the world are arisen; for seeing that man would not have God for a ruler of his life and will, God gave them the ruler in nature from among themselves; that they might lord it over and rule one another.

33. For God has not given mankind any law or government among themselves, but made man to be lord only over all creatures, so that he should rule over all things. But God himself would rule with his spirit over man, and govern the human life. But seeing that self-hood would not, then Irad (that is, the fire's strength and might) sprang forth forcibly out of the human tree, and set itself over the city, Enoch, upon the earth.

34. But now Irad must have something wherein and wherewithal to set up himself to rule and reign, for the fire's wrath and fury would not have suffered them; and also the government must be somewhat profitable and advantageous. Therefore Moses writes now very right and exceeding wonderfully, and says, Irad begat Mahujael, which intimates very emphatically, in the Language of Nature, an assum-ingl of the outward and inward centre of nature, viz. of the outward and inward world;

a self-conceived, bold, courageous, vainglorious, arrogant mind, which would possess the riches of the outward world in its domination and superiority, viz. all manner of creatures and fruits. And especially it denotes a splendour of the inward assuming, viz. an earthly god, which externally sets itself in God's office. Out of this name, Babel, viz. the Beast with the Whore, was afterwards brought forth.

35. And Moses says further: Mahujael hegat Methusael. This is now the right wonderful name, wherein is signified how the life doth arrogate divine power to itself: for Methusael would intimate in the

Language of Nature thus much, that is to say, Mine is the divine might: I am an angel, set therein by God, or, I am the ordinance of God. Which indeed is true, but [only] according to the first Principle, by the outward nature, viz. a natural power and ordinance.

36. Moreover, in this name there is hidden, under the angel, the praise of the children who should be subject to this might, and live under the same, as under the divine ordinance. But this angel's name in divine power does first form itself in the fleshly selfhood;

for the syllable Me-, which begins the word of the name, does first form [or conceive] itself in the outward world's birth, in the mine-hood; and shows that this ordinance doth not arise out of the kingdom of heaven in God's holiness, but out of the first Principle, which forms itself in the third Principle, viz. in the outward world's nature, into such an order; and therefore it shall and must be abolished, and proved through the judgement of God.

37. And Moses goes on to write, and says, Methusael hegat Lantech. Now in this name the hidden mystery of the divine ordinance by the angelical counsel is contained; and it signifies in the Language of Nature in this place as much as a sending of the angel over the dominion of the humanity, viz. over the regions of the world, over the fleshly life, which should be subject to the supreme governing prince in nature.

38. For here the wound which Adam received is sought: in that two superior princes do reign over the human life, viz. the ordained good angel, and the incorporated evil angel in the flesh. Also hereby is understood the powerful assault of the evil angel from without and from within;

for the inward spirit in the name goes forth out of the Covenant of God, and passes into the outward world. Which denotes how man would become lewd and profane, and also vilify the Covenant of God, and yet with the assuming goes again into selfhood, and forms itself in the forth-proceeding angel's name. Which denotes a hypocritical whoredom in an angel's form, which enters again into the external, and at last casts away the Covenant, together with the angel's name, quite from itself.

39. Further, Moses writes, Lantech took two wives: the one was called Adah, and the other Zillah (Gen. iv. 19). Hereby is understood in the generation of the life's tree thus much, viz. that the human life knew the wound which was arisen in its stock [stem or body];

and thenceforward took two wives, that is) a twofold essence and will, viz. Adah signifies how the soul goes with the will through the mind, and forms itselfwith the desire in the first stock of Adam, and would fain be honest again. But the life had also taken to itself Zillah for wife of the pregnatress, viz. fleshly joy and pleasure.

40. The wife or will, Adah, would exercise a good dominion, and rule and maintain itself upon the earth according to God's command; and she bare Jabal: Jabal betokens the simple, plain man, such as are countrymen, and the like; for Moses says, that from him proceeded such as dwell in tents and such as keep cattle (Gen. iv. 20).

41. But the other brother, says Moses, was named Jubal, who was the father of all those that handle the harp and organ (Gen. iv. 21); for the other will proceeded from the spirit of the outward world into temporal pleasure and joy; and devised all kinds of joyful sport and pastime for the recreation of its life. And this signifies Jubal, viz. an external jocund angel, with whom the inward spirit sported before itself in a likeness.

42. And Zillah, says Moses, she also bare Tubal-cain, a master in all brass and ironwork (Gen. iv. 22). That is, Zillah is the fiery desire which forms itself in the human property into a substance of Sulphur and Mercury, and brings itself forth with its spirit out of the substance into a contemplation and visible ken, in which understanding man has found out the arts of metals.

43. For the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah. Here lies the precious pearl, dear masters. Naamah is heavenly in her property, clothed with the external vesture, so that you do not know her, for the earthly man is not worthy of it; for her essence is virginal, a virgin of purity. It points in one part at the inward new man, viz. the sister of the sulphurean man; and on the other part it signifies the gross metal of the earth, and also the precious metal, viz. gold and silver.

44. For Tubal-cain is the brother of Naamah, they lie in one womb; but Tubal-cain is of this world, and Naamah is a virgin hidden under her brother; and herein the twofold earth is understood, viz. in a two-fold property; one heavenly and the other gross earthly, viz. an essence out of the dark world's property and an essence out of the light world's property. And thus also it is to be understood in man; for by the property of God's anger, viz. by the dying of the earthly man Naamah becomes manifest.

45. Wherefore doth Moses add the name Naamah, and yet speaks nothing either of any that she brought forth, or that she married? Answer: because that in the regeneration the natural generation ceases. The new virginity in the spirit of Christ doth not produce any creature more, but they must all proceed out of the first centre and stock, so that they may be all one tree; and by the fire the metal, viz. the virgin, which is Tubal-cain's sister, is made manifest.

46. The name Tubal-cain has an excellent understanding in it, for it shows how the sulphurous mercurial wheel does open itself in the birth and generation of metals, and also in the original of life, for God subjected all things to man, and gave him all things for his delight and play; therefore Tubal-cain must open and discover himselfin the human tree, that so they might understand it. Hereby we have signified enough to those that are our schoolfellows.

47. And Lantech said to his wives Adah and Zillah: Hear my voice, ye wives of Lantech, and mark what I say: I have slain a man to my wound, and a young man to my hurt. If Cain shall he avenged, sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy-and-sevenfold (Gen. iv. 23, 24). This is a wonderful, strange and marvellous saying. Who would understand what the spirit signifies here, without its own peculiar exposition? I do seriously admonish the mocker to leave our work here uncensured, for he understands not our spirit and sense.

48. Lamech says that he slew a man to his wound, and a young man to his hurt. This man is Abel, according to the outward humanity of the kingdom of this world; and the young man is the image of Christ, proceeding from the virginlike line out of the seed of the woman in him: the man he slew to his rebuke, viz. to an incurable wound, and the precious young man in the man to a hurt, which would gall and trouble him as an evil hurt, bruise or boil in the conscience of sin.

For the wrath of God wrought in this boil, and the wound being a great and woeful hurt might not be healed; for the curse of the Lord went forth out of this boil into the wound, in which the earth was cursed, so that the human dominion became a valley of misery.

49. For Lamech saw the sore wound, and returned; and thereupon took two wives, that is, a twofold will into his mind for his government, whereby he would rule upon the earth, viz. one went forth from Adah into the grazing and keeping of cattle, and the hard labour of

the hands for a temporal livelihood, wherein he found the curse and wound. And the other went forth out of the branch of Zillah into the earth after the metals, to make useful tools and instruments for the tillage and husbandry of the ground, and for other necessaries; and so he found in the metals the rusty boil and sore in their metalline nature; for the precious tincture or the fair blossom of the earth was hidden in the curse, viz. environed and beset with an evil boil and sore.

50. Now Lamech knew the woeful hurt, and said, Hearken, ye wives of Lamech, and mark what I say. He would fain express the hurt and damage; he saw back again into the tree of man, and considered the revenge of God, which had laid hold of man's life, and said, Cain shall he avenged sevenfold, and Lamech seven-and-seventyfold. For God said also to Cain, when he stood and cried, you drivest me out this day from the face of the earth [from the land and country]; and it will come to pass that whosoever finds me will slay me.

[But the Lord said to him], Whosoever slays Cain, vengeance shall he taken on him sevenfold. And be set a mark on Cain, that none should kill him (Gen. iv. 14, 15).

51. These are most wonderful and hidden sayings: Cain shall be revenged sevenfold and Lamech seventy-and-sevenfoldl Wherefore shall Lamech be avenged seventy-and-sevenfold, and Cain sevenfold? Who has done anything to Lamech? Here the spirit points out of the centre of the human life upon the time which was to come, intimating, how it would afterwards go with man, in this wound, when, as men should multiply and increase, and make unto themselves kings and princes, dominions and governments, that the wrath of God would also forcibly exercise itself in man's will, and even in the human life and dominion open and display itself.

52. Now, if a man would understand what Lamech says concerning the revenge, then he must look upon the centre, for the life of all creatures consists in seven degrees or properties, as it is above clearly mentioned. Now Adam was the stock, for Adam and Eve are one tree, from the parting and division of which evil and good did arise. And Cain was the first twig which sprang forth from this tree, wherein the seven properties of life did put themselves forth out of the right divine order and harmony in the life, and destroyed the image of God; which was long of the devil, who egged him on also in the divided properties to the brother-slaughter, so that he slew Abel. Now

God said, Cain shall he avenged sevenfold, if anyone slay him. And he set a mark on Cain, that none should kill him.

53. The devil had folded up himself in the wrath of God, and cunningly insinuated himself into the seven properties of life, seeing they were departed from their mutual harmonious accord; and he would be lord in the place of the spirit of God in the life of man, and would wholly murder and slay the life, as to the kingdom of God. Therefore God set a mark, with the promise of the Covenant therein, so that none could slay it.

54. For Cain did not cry out only for fear of the outward life, but he feared that his right eternal life might be slain, that his life should be wholly blotted out from the face of God; for he cried also, and said,

Lot you drive me out this day from off the earth; and I must hide myself from your face; and I must be a fugitive, and a vagabond in the earth; and it will now come to pass that whosoever finds me will slay me. He cried out for fear of being killed, and was sore afraid. And yet there was no man besides him upon the earth, save only his father, Adam, and without doubt his sister, whom he took to wife.

55. Cain feared the spirits who had moved him to slay his brother, that they would also kill him; for he says, / must be hid from your face.

Now this was not in any external manner, but in an internal, for God dwells not in the view of the outward eyes, but in the inward spiritual [vision]. Therefore God said, Whosoever kills Cain's internal life, vengeance shall he taken on him sevenfold. And he set the mark of the Covenant on his life, so that no spirit in the wrath could murder it; for he was a twig out of the tree of life.

56. Although the seven properties of nature in him were departed from their mutual accord in each other, yet he was not the sole cause of it, for he had so received his life from father and mother in the divided property. And therefore the grace passed as well upon him as upon Abel;

except only that Abel proceeded out of the other line. But the centre of the soul was alike to them both. But the motion in the seed was unlike; for they were the two types of the world; viz. Cain the type of the selfhood in the wrath, and Abel the type of the resignation of life, where, from the resignation, another world springs forth through death out of the centre.

57. Not that Cain was born to destruction, but that evil awakened property in the dissimility, viz. the soul of the outward world, brake forth forcibly in the seed; and took the [centre of ] life into its power, and therein God set a mark, viz. his Covenant, that the murderers should not slay the soul's life.

58. But if it should so come to pass that the own peculiar will would give itself to the murderers, then the life of Cain should be avenged sevenfold, that is, through all the seven properties;

and the free will which did slay the life of God (which was in the Word) should be rebuked and punished sevenfold through all the seven forms of nature, both temporally and eternally. And this is the meaning: whosoever kills the life, [that is] what free will soever murders its life, vengeance shall be taken on it eternally in the seven properties of the dark world.

59. And in this place we are further to consider aright of the great mysteries; for the seven properties of the human tree, producing and manifesting the life of the wonders of God, had now spread forth themselves even unto Lamech. The dominion of the world was now wholly brought forth with Lamech in nature; for Lamech was the seventh man in the root of the wonders arising from the first stock. That is, Adam was the first; Abel belongs not unto the line of the wonders, but unto the regeneration; Cain was the second in the line of the wonders; Enoch the third, Irad the fourth, Mahujael the fifth, Methusael the sixth, and Lamech the seventh.

60. Now Lamech did spring forth from Cain's root out of this line of the wonders of God; and he was an honest upright man; but was environed [taken or beset] with the spirit of the wonders. And he looked back upon the wound, and also upon the sign [or seal] of grace in the Covenant, and knew for certain that even now the spirit of the wonders should be fully brought forth and manifested in the human life; whereby all arts of the world should be found out.

61. And he saw also forwards, how it would fall out in these wonders of the world; how his children would introduce his life, which they should receive from him by propagation, into a Babylon of folly, and corrupt the same. And hereby also he looked especially upon the Word whence the human life was sprung; and how the life in the spirit of the wonders of the world would introduce itself into a seven- and-seventy fold word of languages and nations, as came to

pass at Babel;

and how the free will of nature would go astray from the only God, and be corrupt, and that it should be avenged seven-and-seventyfold. That is, every tongue and speech should be avenged in the anger of God, and therefore, because they would corrupt Lamech's life, which they received of him by propagation; and this the wrath of God would avenge in the free will of his children, divided into several speeches.

62. For the spirit saw forwards, how the free will would give up and addict itself to selfhood, and apostatise from the only God, and how the anger of God would seize upon and confound the natural spirit of the wonders in man, viz. the soul of the outward world, from whence the great Babylon of contention about God's being and will would arise; and this, the spirit said, should be avenged seven-and. seventyfold in Lamech.

63. For this was a seven-and-seventyfold Racha [or avengement] upon the word of the understanding in the human life; that out of one only tongue, out of only one speaking Word and vital Spirit, a seventy- and-sevenfold tongue (viz. a confusion of the understanding) should be made. Before, the understanding lay in one sound [voice or harmony], but now the Racha came into it, and confounded and shattered it into seventy-and-seven parts.

64. For the human wheel of the sound or understanding was turned round, and the ten forms of fire, wherein time and eternity does consist, did open themselves in every form of nature; which was seven times ten, which makes seventy; whereto also belongs the centre, with its seven unchangeable forms of the eternal nature; which is altogether seventy-and-seven parts.

65. And herein lies the Grand Mystery [ Mysterium Magnum]. Dear brethren, if ye were not clothed with the garment of the contentious languages, then we would be bold to declare something more in this place unto you;

but ye are yet all captivated in Babel, and are contenders about the spirit [or meaning] of the letter; and yet have no understanding of the same.

Ye will also be doctors and learned masters [forsooth], but yet ye understand not your own mother-tongue: ye bite and devour one another about the husk of the word, wherein the living Word does form and amass itself and ye neither desire nor understand the living

Word. Ye speak only out of seven and out of seventy-and-seven, and yet ye have the Word in one number, wherein the whole understanding is contained: ye have it moving upon your tongues, yet ye cannot comprehend it.

66. And the reason is, that you will speak only out of seven, and out of seventy-and-seven, viz. out of the wrath which has divided the tongues; and doth avenge the life of Lamech seventy-and-seven times in your tongues and speeches. But if ye would go unto the centre and open your eyes then you would see how the Babylonical whore leads you captive by her string, and how she has set herself over the life of man, with seventy-and-seven numbers; and has wholly hidden our sister Naamah with the numbers; that the beast of the numbers might reign and rule in the wrath of God over the life of our sister Naamah.

67. But we have heard a watchman say: Away! the beast, with the whore, which stood upon the earth in Naamah's stead, is quite fallen, and given to the press of the sevenfold Racha [Vengeance] in the seventy-and-seven, &c. The Racha arises up in Lamech, and goes through the seventy-and-seven; and this none can hinder. Amen.

68. For Naamah shall be manifested to all nations, tongues and speeches; and even then, out of the seventy-and-seven, there shall be but one word of understanding. For the life of man proceeded from ONE only Word of God, and has formed and divided itself in selfhood, in the spirit of the wonders of the world, into seventy-and-seven properties of the only Word. Now comes the time that the life's beginning shall again enter with the spirit of the wonders and speeches into the end, viz. into the beginning. And therefore the child of the wonders, which has given itself forth in [or before] the sight of God, must be made manifest in the unity.

69. And seeing that the free will has given itself into the vanity of the speeches and the multiplicity of the powers, and defiled and slain the life of the only Word, the Racha proceeds forth from the murdering spirit through seventy-and-seven; until the beast, together with the harlot, be consumed and devoured with the fire of God's anger.

70. And then Tubal-cain finds his sister Naamah in golden attire, and Adah rejoices in her son Jabal, who is a herdsman; For

Lamech has again found his children which he left in the Racha. And the pride of self and also the craft, deceit and subtlety of the Serpent ceases. Then every beast shall eat its own pasture. The time is near: Hallelujah!

The Thirtieth Chapter

Of the Line of the Covenant

1. THE line of the Covenant is not so to be understood as if the Covenant fell only upon this line. No, the Covenant befalls

the only life, which was in the Word before the times of the humanity.

The line of Seth passes only upon the manifestation in the flesh, in which line the Word in the Covenant would externally manifest itself in the flesh. But the spirit proceeding from the centre in the Covenant falls as well upon Cain's line as upon Abel's; yet in Cain's [line] in the spirit, and in Seth's in the external mouth [or manifestation], viz. in the formed and conceived word, that is, in the office and ministry of teaching and preaching, for Seth was sprung forth according to the spirit, out of the Covenant, where the spirit moved itself in the incorporated Word in the Covenant; and Cain was comprehended under the spirit of nature.

2. For by Cain's line the arts were brought forth to light, which were a wonder of the divine wisdom, contemplation and formation, viz. of the formed Word through and in nature.

And in Seth the Word was brought into a formal life, viz. into a spiritual contemplation, wherein the Word of God did behold itself with the wisdom in a spiritual image [form or figure]; and in Cain's line it beheld itself in a natural formed word; and both serve to set forth the wonderful deeds of God.

3. Not as Babel judges, that God, out of his purpose and determinate counsel, has thus predestinated and chosen one part of men in his anger to condemnation, and the other part to life: they that so judge are yet under the number seventy-and-seven in the multiplication of the word;

for the Promise was given to Adam before Cain was conceived. The Covenant touching grace rested in Adam and Eve; but the spirit of sanctification and regeneration by Christ, passed only upon the seed of the woman, viz. upon the seed of the kingdom of heaven which was shut up; that is, upon the light's tincture, upon the matrix of Venus, wherein Adam, when he was man and woman, should have propagated himself in peculiar desire and love; which, seeing it could

not be [by reason of Adam's strong earthly imagination], was taken from Adam and made into a woman.

4. But when the woman became earthly, the heavenly part of this matrix [which was to the producement] of the heavenly birth was shut up in death. Into which matrix the Word of God did again incorporate itself with the Covenant, to open and manifest himself in this matrix with a living and heavenly seed, and to destroy the power of death.

5. For the Word would not open itself in the formed word of nature, viz. in Cain's generation, but in the disappeared heavenly ens; and by the same revived and requickened heavenly ens, that is, by the woman's seed of the heavenly part bruise the Serpent's head, viz. the devil's introduced desire in the wrath of nature; that is, overcome the wrath [and curse of God] in the generation of Cain and Seth.

6. The Word in the Covenant did open itself in Seth and Abel, [it being] as a voice of the teacher, and Cain's generation should in its life receive this voice, and impress it into its life, so that it might produce the new regeneration. But that many of them have continued in death, and contemned this voice, is (see ch. 29, 52) long of the free will, which suffered itself to be held by the devil in the anger of God, and still to this day does suffer itselfto be held, in that the Cainical will does love nature and self too much.

7. For if the free will of the soul will apprehend the word in the Covenant, then it must die to its natural selfhood and self-full will, and be wholly resigned to the own will in the Covenant, that it may, with its desire, follow the word and spirit in the Covenant, as the same doth lead, guide and move it.

8. And this Cain is very loath and unwilling to do; he will be a selfish lord, and with the desire doth figure and shape a monster and an evil beast in his free will, which does not resemble the first image of the formed life in the word of God. Now against this beast the words of Christ are directed, when he says, Unless ye be converted, and become as children (that is, unless you do depart from and utterly disclaim the will of the self-generated beast, and enter again into the form of the first life) ye cannot else see the kingdom of God. Also, ye must be born again of the water of the heavenly world's essence, and of the same holy spirit proceeding from the Covenant, otherwise ye cannot see and behold God.

9. This evil beast of the Godless form is predestinated to condemnation; but the Covenant is in the life. If the free will resigns itself up to the Covenant, then Christ arises in his humanity, out of the Covenant, in the life; and even then the strange beast dies in Christ's death, and the will forms itself again into the first image, according as God created it. And this is not annexed only unto Seth, but unto Adam's life, viz. unto the only life of man which was in the Word of God, and passes from one upon all; as all branches in one tree do receive sap from the only root of the stock.

10. But the properties of nature, viz. of the natural life, have brought themselves out of Adam's stock into sundry boughs and branches, whence the multiplicity of nations, tongues and speeches is arisen.

But the life is only one, and the Covenant in the life sprang forth from the root of life, viz. from the Word of God, out of which the life came upon all, even as the sin, viz. the fall and apostasy passed upon all, none excepted. For the children of Seth were concluded under sin as well as Cain's; but the Covenant, with its manifestation, passed upon Seth; for his name signifies, in the Language of Nature, a forth-breathing spring out of the life through the first centre of the soul, wherein the Word of God would open itself through the life.

11. And Moses says, Seth begat Enos, and then began men to preach of the Name of the Lord (Gen. iv. 26): for the name Enos signifies, in the Language of Nature, a divine lubet through the life, wherein the formed Word would behold itself in the sound and voice of the life.

Therefore the spirit of God began to teach out of the Covenant through the life of man, concerning God and his being and will. This was the beginning of the divine contemplation through the formed wisdom in the Word, where the Word did behold itself through the wisdom of the formed human voice.

12. And as the life did form itself by Cain's line through the wonders of the formed wisdom in nature, with all manner of arts and works, and also dominions, governments and orders, and introduced them all for the setting forth of God's wondrous deeds and acts, viz. to a contemplation of evil and good, light and darkness; so likewise the spirit of God did bring forth, out of the line of the Covenant in the manifested Word, the wonders of divine

holiness, truth, righteousness, love and patience; and by the preaching of the formed Word did declare what the holy and spiritual kingdom of God is.

13. In Cain the kingdom of nature was represented, and in Abel and Seth the supernatural divine kingdom. Both these arose together and went all along one in another to the remonstrance or contemplation of the divine lubet in the formed wisdom; and each put itself forth in an especial manner into its visible ken as a wonder.

14. for from Adam even unto Lamech, in the line of the wonders, there are seven generations; and in the other line, viz. in the line of the Covenant, from Adam unto Enoch are also seven generations. Enoch is the eighth, viz. a beginning of the prophetical spirit; for in the first seven generations the form of the spiritual kingdom proceeding from the life's tree was set forth.

15. Adam was the stock, for his life takes its original out of the Word. But seeing the life of nature in him did predominate over the life in the formed Word, and would have the supreme dominion, and obscured the life proceeding from the Word, the Word itself freely gave itself with a Covenant to be a life therein; and set forth its figure in Abel, how the natural life should and must be broken, and the Word of the divine power again spring forth afresh out of the first life.

16. Thus Abel was the figure of the Second Adam, Christ, and therefore he must be slain for the Covenant's sake; for Christ should kill the exalted haughty natural will, and bring forth a new one. And therefore Abel also should not beget any natural child, else it had been strange to nature; for they should all proceed forth out of one stock;

and the Word would spring forth anew through the only tree in the Covenant, that so the children of grace might be brought forth out of the tree of nature, as the dew out of the day-break.

17. For thus also the figure of the new birth was represented out of the stem; namely, the line went forth out of Adam. He was the first, Abel the second, Seth the third, Enos the fourth, where men began to teach of the spiritual kingdom; Kenan [or Cainan] the fifth, which signifies in the Language of nature, a forth-going, re-conceived [re-apprehended] lubet or desire of the divine contemplation, in which the taught word did form itself;

viz. in prayer, and in the will's desire and also in their offerings.

18. Mahalaleel was the sixth, and signifies in the Language of Nature an angelical form of an angelical kingdom, where the spirit did typify and portray the kingdom of Christ in this name.

19. Jared was the seventh. By this name is understood, in the Language of nature, a priest or prince of the spiritual kingdom. For as Irad should be the regent or ruler in the kingdom of nature, so Jared should be the regent in the spiritual kingdom; for out of Jared came the office of Moses; and out of Irad proceeded the kingdom of worldly principalities, and framed governments and dominions.

20. But the Language of Nature shows very clearly that Jared is only a type of a spiritual kingdom; for the name carries forth the Cherub along with it through the word; for the spiritual kingdom upon the earth was all along captivated in the wrath of God, until Christ, who destroyed the anger.

21. The office of this Jared is twofold, viz. externally it is the figure of the spiritual kingdom, bound with the wrath of God; and internally it is the true holy kingdom, which the penitent man receives or takes possession of : outwardly it is Moses; and inwardly Christ.

22. From this outward kingdom the great mother of the Baby-lonical whoredom is arisen in the kingdom of Moses among the Pharisees; and in the kingdom of Christ among the verbal and titular Christians;

[literalists] who do all only boast, and gloriously set up themselves in the figure as an idol, and appear as if they were the holy spiritual kingdom. But the Cherub carries forth the sound through their word, as a consonant of the wrathful anger of God.

23. And therefore they must contend about the kingdom of God's will; for they have not the spirit of the inward spiritual heavenly kingdom;

but only the voice out of the figure, where evil and good are in contest. They have and use the letter, but as an empty, unprofitable instrument, as a figure of the spiritual form, for thus also the spirit did represent it by the name Jared, as a mixed kingdom upon the

earth, whereby the inward spiritual new born children should be exercised and proved.

24. And by this form it did signify and foretell how that the greatest part in this spiritual office would be taken in the sword of the Cherub, and that their office would be cut off by the Cherub from God's holiness, and given to the spiritual eternal kingdom of the anger.

25. For as Lamech in Cain's line took two wives, viz. two wills, and confirmed his kingdom therein, and at last brought forth [or pronounced] the seventy-and-sevenfold Racha proceeding from the centre of nature (even from the seven properties) upon the murder of the free will, which would murder and slay his life in many: even so likewise Jared carries two wills in his nature's name, viz. one into God's love and mercy in the Covenant, and the other into the figure in which the anger of God arises up and carries the abominable idol (the belly-god) along with it; which is here deciphered and painted forth to the life.

26. And Moses says further, Jared begat Enoch. Here the great and wonderful gate does open; for out of Jared, viz. out of the kingdom of the wonders, the prophet must arise: for the prophet is the mouth of the kingdom. He shows what the kingdom is, and how it is taken and apprehended in the evil and good, and what the issue and end of all things will be; also he declares and points out the means, how

the turba has apprehended the life; and denounces severe and earnest threatenings concerning God's anger; how the sword of the Cherub will cut off the false [man or prophet].

27. Enoch signifies in its own speech as much as a forth-breathed breath of the divine good pleasure, [lubet] which has in the time thus beheld itself with the out-breathing in a form; which power of the forth-breathing doth again draw the formed breath into itself, and does only give forth its sound, as a voice of the divine will. And first it does point at a twig, springing from the line of the Covenant, viz. out of the internal priestly office, out of the holy divine lubet of the wisdom of God, out of Jehovah. The spirit would comprehend the deepest love in Jehovah in one name and word, which is called Jesus. But in the meantime it did thereby play, in the time of the figure, in the holy wisdom, in the line of the Covenant, as with an internal hidden holy kingdom, which he would manifest in the fullness of time.

28. Secondly, it signifies the power of the formed word, viz. the person or the body out of the limus of the earth, [viz.] of the heavenly part of the earth;

intimating that this body should be taken into the holy word, and translated from this earthliness. As the light does withdraw and swallow up the darkness, even so likewise the good part of the true humanity in Adam's first image shall be translated [extracted or drawn forth] by the word out of the earthliness, and arise out of the earth: which Enoch's translation from this world does point out and signify.

29. Thirdly, it signifies and points at the prophet, viz. the voice of the divine lubet, which did declare and set forth the kingdom of Christ, and also the kingdom of the wonders in their future transactions and junctures of time;

for the prophetical voice did manifest itself again out of the translation. And did foretell and signify out of the essence of the spirit, viz. out of the most spiritual kingdom, that is, out of the human angelical kingdom, through the soul's spirit; and then also from the whole body of the kingdom, viz. from the nature of the wonders, from the limus of the earth and of the stars, [I say, it did set forth both from the spiritual and from the corporal kingdom], how the outward kingdom of man should afterwards arise in this world's being, and what would happen and come to pass therein.

This the inward holy omniscient spirit does signify throughl the outward, viz. through the wonders of the pregnatress [or mother] of the outward beings, viz. through the spirit of the outward world, for the inward spirit did view itself through the formed wisdom of God, and did contemplate and behold itself in the formed spirit of the wonders: this the name Enoch signifies unto us.

30. Now the spirit in Moses does further demonstrate, and says, Enoch was sixty-five years old, and he begat Methuselah, and after that he begat him he continued in a divine life three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: so that the whole age of Enoch was three hundred sixty and five years. And seeing he led a divine life God took him away, and he was no more seen (Gen. v. 21-24). Here the veil hangs right before the face of Moses, by reason of the unworthiness of man; and the spirit signifies very clearly in Moses (if we had but the eyes of our understanding open), when these mysteries should be manifested [or fulfilled].

31. But seeing the Most High has freely granted us by his counsel to understand this, we will, so far as we dare, somewhat unfold these mysteries to our schoolfellows, and show the precious pearl unto the children; and yet withal suffer a bolt to lie before our description, that the false heart shall not enter into it: but we shall be sufficiently and fundamentally intelligible unto those that are ours.

32. Moses points in each degree in the lines, only upon one person, which he also sets into the line through which the spirit of wonders goes. Afterwards says Moses, and he yet lived such a time, and begat sons and daughters; of which he says nothing any further. Thereby he would intimate and signify unto us the spirit of the manifestation of the wonders of God in each line. Their age, which the spirit sets down, denotes the times how long each dominion and government, both the worldly and the spiritual [or ecclesiastical kingdom] should stand in its form and structure. That is to say, how long each prevailing monarchy of the secular and worldly power and domination should continue; and so likewise of the spiritual monarchy.

33. And these monarchies [Or monarchs] of the wonders are forthwith represented out of the first twigs, springing from the beginning of the human tree. That is, they are set forth in each line in seven numbers, from Adam through Cain even unto Lamech;

and in the other line from Adam unto Jared. By which numbers and names the spirit points in each line especially at seven of the forth-proceeding properties of the tree and powers of the wonders; intimating how the powers of the wonders should afterwards bring themselves into governments, and how one figure should arise out of the other, and how one should destroy and break down the other, and set forth out of the destruction another form, as it has been brought to pass in the spiritual and worldly governments [Ecclesiastical and temporal ].

For always the worldly government is to be understood with the spiritual; for the outward formed Word in the dominion and regiment of nature does evermore set forth its form by, with, and in the spiritual [or ecclesiastical] form [or manner of discipline]. Therefore observe and mark here, with precise exactness.

34. There are seven times appointed to proceed from the tree of life in the word of power. The first proceeds from the pure life of Adam; for before the creature the life was in the Word, whence it was brought pure into the image; this continued until the fall. From this pure life there springs forth a twig in the inward [kingdom], this same was Abel; but seeing the fall hung on him externally, this same pure life was carried through death into the holy world. This signifies and points at the kingdom of Christ, who should bring us through death into the pure life.

35. The second time begins with Seth. For Moses says, that Adam war a hundred and thirty years old, and begat a son in his own likeness, and called him Seth. Understand, he was such an image as Adam was after the fall, and was set in the spiritual line of the wonders; and Cain also with him, in a worldly natural line of the wonders, for both kingdoms [Secular, and ecclesiastical] go together. Seth's time continues till the deluge, and bears the supremacy, even to the deluge, or Noah's flood.

36. The third time begins with Enos, under Seth's time, and carries forth itself all along as a spiritual ministry, or knowledge of God, under Seth's time,as a hidden kingdom; and continued till Abraham, to whom the Covenant of Christ was established in the flesh.

37. The fourth time begins with Cainan, which is the spiritual form in prayers and spiritual offerings, wherein the Word formed itself in the wisdom, and carried itself forth all along, under Seth's and Enos's time, and manifested itself with Moses. Like as Enos's time was first truly manifested with Abraham, with the promise in the Covenant, this time of Cainan continued in its manifestation and dominion under Moses, till Christ in the flesh.

38. The fifth time begins with Mahalaleel, and 'tis the reception or formation of the angelical form, viz. of the new regeneration out of the Covenant;

and goes secretly all along under the ministry of Enos, under Seth and Cainan, in the Word of the Promise, through all the three times; and did manifest itself with the fulfilling of the Covenant in the humanity of Christ, where the true Mahalaleel and angelical image, which did disappear in Adam, was again manifest in the humanity of Christ.

39. The sixth time begins with Jared, which is the spiritual priesthood under the external, where outwardly Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel were in their times in their orders [or outward forms], as the ministry and preaching of Enos concerning God and his being and will;

so likewise the preaching of Abraham concerning the Covenant and circumcision; also Moses with the Book of the Law. Under all these the inward priest Jared went along hiddenly. Inwardly this spiritual priesthood is Christ in the new man; and outwardly in the selt-elected priests it is Babel.

40. This sixth time began in the kingdom of Christ after the death of the Apostles, when as men chose themselves teachers out of favour and outward respects.

That is, it did even then first open itself out of the hiddenness [veil] of the shadow, and put itself forth in the churches of stone, where the church stood in stead of the holy temple of Christ: then indeed the holy Jared, viz. Christ's voice, ruled in Christ's children internally;

but externally the Cherub with the sword [did alone bear rule]. For the outward authority which these self-elected priests do manage is the sword of the Cherub; which is signified in the name Jared; which powerfully forces itself forth all along in the word, in the Language of nature.

[That is, in the word Jared the Language of Nature does emphatically express, that the sword of the Cherub should domineer the whole time of the sixth Seal among the priests, who should have taught the love of Jesus: but by this sword they fall. Amen. ]

41. This sixth time is hidden and manifest; it is known, and also not known: for Christ said, My kingdom is not of this world. So that this time has been fain to pass away, as it were, in a mystery under Anti-christ, where inwardly, in the children of God, Christ's kingdom has been manifest. But in the rest (who have also lived under this time, and have been called Christians) only Babel and the Antichrist has been manifest, both in the priests, and [in] their hearers, for they which have been born of God have heard the true Jared, viz. Christ's voice in them; but the others have heard only the outward voice in Babel, viz. disputation and contention about Christ's kingdom.

42. For all war which the Christians manage, is only the sword of the Cherub proceeding from Babel. True Christians wage no war; for they have broken the sword of the Cherub in the death of Christ, and are dead with Christ, and risen again in him, and they live no longer to the external might and dominion; for their kingdom is manifest in Christ, and is not of this world.

43. This sixth kingdom [or seal] begins after the death of the Apostles, and continues with its outward government even to Mount Zion, till translated Enoch doth again appear in spirit and power. For Enoch is the prophetical root, and holds in his dominion [Or regiment] Noah, Moses, and the sword of Elias. At the end of this sixth time the outward Jared falls, and with him that same outward building, viz. the city, Babel.

44. The sign of the end is deciphered [ Or stands with such a figure]

with such a figure:

[Received by Abr. von Somervelt, as delineated in the author's manuscript]

And denotes the time when the triple cross does open and declare itself in the voice of Enoch, as a manifestation of the holy Trinity, to make known the same in the figure and similitude in all visible things. Moreover, it denotes the conquest of the sword of the Cherub in Babel, when the force and violence of the city, Babel, turns its sword with the point downwards. Thirdly, it denotes the great rod and punishment upon Babel, which rod does mightily advance its power on high. Fourthly, it denotes the wrathful enkindled fire of God's anger, which shall devour the sword and rod. This will be the end of the sixth time. The threefold cross does betoken the time when this shall come to pass [or be fulfilled]. When the kingdom of Christ shall attain such a number, then is the sixth time wholly past.

45. The seventh time begins with Enoch, [Read the 35th question of the Forty Questions of the Soul] viz. with the prophetical mouth, who declares the secret wonders of God under all the six times;

laying open what should be [and have been] done, and brings itself all along quite from under the veil of Noah, Abraham, and Moses, even into the kingdom of Christ, where this same prophetical spirit is translated in Christ's spirit, till the end of the sixth time; then he manifests himself in the number of the triple cross. When the triple cross does manifest itself then stands the right triple crown upon the cross. And even then the Enochian prophet's mouth does express and speak forth the great wonders of the triple cross; that is, he speaks no more magically [viz. in types and parables], but shows the holy Trinity in the figure, viz. the formed word of God in all visible things, and reveals all mysteries, within and without.

46. And even then is the time when Enoch, and the children under his voice, do lead a divine life, of which the first life of Enoch was a type. And then there is a blessed and golden year, till Enoch's last translation comes. And then the turba is born, which, when it shall enkindle its fire, the floor shall be purged, for it is the end of all time.

47. Enoch begat Methuselah, who was the man of the longest age, and was translated three hundred years after. This intimates and declares, that the spirit which in Enoch did bring forth a twig, viz. Methuselah, who attained the highest age, shall rule in the last and highest age [of the world], and in the meanwhile hide itself before that time, and remain as it were translated; as Enoch was translated, and was no more seen.

48. His translation was not a dying, or a putting off of nature and creature, but he went into the Mystery, between the spiritual and the outward world, viz. into Paradise; and is the prophetical root, out of the stem of Adam, in the line of the Covenant, out of which spirit the prophetical mouth afterwards spoke.

49. This spirit was translated in Christ's living voice, when it spoke in the flesh, and must be silent till the voice of Jared is finished;

then he proceeds forth again from his first root, through all voices, viz. through the voice of Noah, who denounces the deluge of anger to come upon Babel, and through the stock of Noah, and the whole forth-spreading propagation of his tree through all the lines, viz.

through the Heathenish [Ham's], Japhetical, and Sem's line, and through Abraham's, and Nimrod's children in Babel, through Moses, and the prophets; and lastly through the voice of the manifested Word in the spirit of Christ; and reveals the whole mystery of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

50. For through his voice all the aforementioned voices of the wonderful lines, whence the kingdoms of this world have had their rise, shall be changed into one voice and knowledge, and transplanted into one kingdom, viz. into the first tree of Adam, which is no longer called Adam, but Christ in Adam. All nations, tongues and speeches hear this voice; for it is the first word, whence the life of mankind proceeded;

for all wonders do join again together in the word into one body, and that body is the formed divine Word, which at first with Adam did introduce itself into one only stem; and through him into a tree of manifold boughs, branches and fruits, to the contemplation of the divine wisdom, in the wonders of the powers, colours and virtues, according to evil and good.

51. This high tree does disclose and clearly open itself, what it has been in time, and what it shall be eternally; and in its manifestation [disclosure], Moses puts away his veil, and Christ his parables in his doctrine.

And then the prophetical mouth of this tree of wonders does express in divine power all the voices of the powers of the tree, whereby Babel takes her end: and this is a wonder. And in this same wonder all numbers and names are made manifest, and this no man can hinder.

52. for that which is lost in the spirits of the letters shall be again found, and the spirit of the letter shall be found again in the formed word of the creation;

and in the creation shall be found and known the Being of all Beings; and in the Being of all Beings the eternal understanding of the holy Trinity. Even then the contentions about the knowledge of God, his being and will, do cease. When the branches shall know that they stand in the tree they will never say that they are peculiar and singular trees; but they will rejoice in their stem, and they will see that they are altogether boughs and branches of one tree, and that they do all receive power and life from one only stem.

53. And here Moses shall keep sheep, and every sheep eats his own pasture. Therefore observe: when this approaches near to be fulfilled, then Noah denounces the deluge, and Elias brings the flaming sword upon the false Israel; and the turba in the fire of the wrath devours the wild tree, with its fruits and branches. Let this be told you, Babel.

54. For as concerning Enoch's divine time, our speech is taken from us, seeing Babel is not worthy of it, and also shall not see it. And likewise we must be silent concerning the discovery of the times of The Ancient, whose number shall stand open in the rose of the lily.

The Thirty-First Chapter

Of Enoch's Wonderful Line

1. MOSES writes, Enoch begat Methusalah (Gen. v. 21). This name signifies, in the Language of Nature, as much as a forth-proceeding [outgoing] voice, which intimates and denotes the spirit of Enoch;

which voice doth form itself into a body, viz. into nature, and goes forth in strong might through the word; and when the conceived or formed word is proceeded forth, it does then contemplate itself: for the syllable -SA- is a fiery glimpse of light; and the syllable -LAH- is the forth-proceeded word, which beholds the property, of what kind of ens it is, wherein the word has formed (or comprehended) itself: The divine sound beholds itself in the human ens and word, contemplating how the free will, proceeding from the human ens, has introduced the divine voice or breath into a form of the spirit.

2. Now says Moses, And Methusalah begat Lantech. The spirit did now put itself forth by Methusalah, even out of the ens into another twig;

and called it Lamech, viz. a contemplation and beholding of the great affliction and wound, that the human ens was corrupted. For like as Lamech in Cain's line did express the wound of corruption [and misery that was broke in upon mankind], and spoke of a seventy-and- sevenfold Racha upon the free will which did corrupt the life, even so here the divine spirit said: the human ens is Lamech ; that is, the wound is too great, it prevails. Although the strong and mighty breath of God in Methusalah proceeded forth out of the prophetical voice, yet the ens, in propagation, did form itself in the corrupted nature in Lamech; that is, in two wills, as Moses says, The first Lamech in Cain's line took two wives, viz. Adah and Zillah. Even so here likewise it would not be otherwise.

3. Now Moses says, And Lamech begat Noah (Gen. v. 28). With this name the spirit goes forth out of the wound of Lamech into the end of time, and brings the end into the beginning; for NOAH signifies in the Language of Nature, End and Beginning. Now the spirit finds in the end the holy word, which had espoused and

incorporated itself in the Covenant, and says, This same shall comfort us in our labour and toil upon the earth which the Lord has cursed (Gen. v. 29).

4. For the comfort of man must come out of the beginning and end; for in the beginning is, and was, the Word of God, which is the beginning of all things;

and in the end is also the Word of God, which is the comfort of all things; that the creature shall be delivered from the vanity. Whereunto the spirit looked, and said, this same (where he meant the Word which would manifest itself in the humanity) shall comfort us in our labour upon the earth which the Lord has cursed; for Noah could not comfort men, for he preached to them the rebuke, punishment and perdition. But he that was in the beginning and end, he comforted mankind in their labour and toil upon the earth, which they had in the curse and anger of God.

5. In this name, Noah, the spirit in Lamech looks forwards into the end, and backwards into the beginning; and conceives itself in the beginning and end into a form, and calls the same, Noah, that is, an ark of the wonders which were in the beginning and end, and [in] the whole time;

and displays or puts forth this same spirit of the whole form through Noah into three branches, which went forth out of the tree of wonders, viz. out of the prophetical ens of Enoch in the human property. And thereof Moses says, And Noah begat Sem, Ham, and Japhet. These were the three twigs of the second monarchy, under which most excellent mysteries are given us to be understood.

6. Sem signifies an out-breathing divine lubet [or desire] out of the line of the Covenant, out of the life of man, and a comprehension of the lubet, viz. a type of that which secretly passed forth afterwards under the lubet. It points at the humanity of Christ in the flesh, the type of which was Sem, viz. a representation [or express form] in the same lubet; in which lubet also the Covenant was made with Abraham, concerning the seed of the woman, wherein the blessing should appear.

7. The other branch or twig the spirit called Ham, which signifies a strong breathing out of the centre of nature, and a gross amassment or compaction into a flesh. Which denotes the earthly, natural, fleshly man, which holds Sem captive in itself; [understand by Sem] the inward man, which shall arise from death

out of the earth. 1

Understand, the man proceeded from the limus of the good part of the earth, which was in Sem formed according to the divine lubet. 2

1 Note.-Concerning the Resurrection.

2 Or taken into the divine lubet.

8. We do not hereby understand the totally spiritual man, which is only as a spirit, but that [man] which is from the limus of the good part of the earth, which lies captive in Ham, that is, in the gross bestial flesh, and is as dead without the divine lubet, which the spiritual Christus, viz. the totally spiritual man, shall put on at the end of the days in Noah [that is, out of the beginning and end]. This inward hidden man, his gross earthly brother Ham, viz. the gross earthly flesh (which is nothing worth) (John vi. 63), does devour and swallow up.

9. And from the lubet of Sem springs forth the third branch out of the centre of nature, where the divine lubet does behold itself through nature;

and this the spirit called Japhet, which is, in the Language of Nature, an appendix of Sem, a birth out of Cain's line of wonders, where the divine lubet does bring itself through nature into a form of the wonders of the divine wisdom.

With Sem it introduces itself into a contemplation of the spiritual wonders in the holiness of God, and in Japhet into a natural wonder, viz. into the septenary of the eternal and [the] temporal nature; understand, into a form of the sevenfold wheel, 1 or life's forms, in which vital sphere 2 the Spirit of God appears as a glorious glee, or gleam of the wonders.

1 Orb, or sphere. 2 Or, life's wheel.

10. Sem is a type of the light-world, and Japhet is a type of the fire-world, where the light does through-shine. Japhet a type [or image] of the Father; and Sem a type of the Son; but Ham is an image

and type of the outward world.

11. For the type and figure of the three Principles stood in the three brethren, and clearly points out the second monarchy, even to the end of the world; and withal shows what kind of men would thenceforward possess the world, viz. a spiritual world, and a natural

world of wonders, and a bestial world of folly.

These are the three sorts of men, viz. out of the stock and fanlily of

Sem came Israel, and out of Japhet's the Gentiles, who governed

themselves in the light of nature, but Sem's [generation were

disciplined] in the Covenant and word of God;

but Ham [both in Sem and Japhet] he ruled himself in the bestial

brutish property, against whom the curse of God was pronounced

through the spirit in his father, Noah; for Paul said, that flesh and

blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

12. And Moses speaks now further, thus: But when men began to multiply upon the earth, and daughters were born unto them; that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair, and took unto them wives as they pleased. Then said the Lord, Men will not suffer my spirit any more to reprove them, for they are flesh; yet I will make their days an hundred and twenty years 1 (Gen. vi. 1-3).

Here Moses has again the veil before his eyes;

for he says that the children of God looked upon the beauty of the

daughters of men, and took unto them wives according as they listed,

and should not suffer the Spirit of God to reprope and admonish

them.

1 I will yet give them 120 years' respite.

13. The meaning of it is this: The children of God, in whom the Spirit of God did manifest itself looked, in the lust of the flesh after fleshly women, although they were of the generation and lineage of Ham, without God's Spirit; yet if they were but fair and beautiful for their lust of the flesh, they introduced the seed of the holy ens into such bestial vessels, and afterwards brought forth such tyrants,2 and fleshly-minded men, who would not suffer the Spirit of God to rebuke them, for they were only flesh, without divine spirit and will.

2 Giants.

14. They should not have mixed themselves with the bestial daughters, but looked after those in whom the Spirit of God was, even those who feared and loved God;

but they looked only at the lust of their eyes and flesh, and corrupted the holy ens in the Covenant, in which God had espoused 3 and betrothed himself: Against these the spirit here complains, that they would not be instructed and reformed, but follow the lust of the

flesh.

3 Incorporated.

15. We see this very emphatically set forth unto us in Sem, Ham, and Japhet: that it is so, that the spirit would not that the children of God should mix themselves with the very carnal or bestial people; for after the deluge the spirit divides the three brethren into three families, and would that each family should remain apart by itself.

16. for therefore came the deluge upon the earth, and destroyed these mixed people, and afterwards made a separation amongst them, according to the nature of the three Principles; that each property might possess its choir and line in the nature of the wonders; but yet it would not do. So that at last the spirit divides them with the confusion of the languages at Babel, that so they might come into a several division; for the properties of the tree did there divide and spread forth themselves into seventy-and-seven, viz. into the wonder of the nature of the formed word.

17. Now says Moses, And the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth, and that all their thoughts and imaginations in their hearts were only evil continually. Then it repented God that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his very heart. And he said, I will destroy man which I have created from off the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and creeping thing, and all the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them (Gen. vi. 5-7).

These are marvellous and wonderful sayings, that the spirit says it repented God that he had made man, and the creatures. Who would understand this without divine knowledge;

that anything should grieve the unchangeable God! Reason would be ready to say, has he not known aforehand what would be? How can his will, which is himself, grieve and repent?

18. Here we must go into the centre. In God there is no grieving or repentance; nothing can grieve or trouble him. But there is a grieving in his expressed formed Word; for it repents the formed Word in the devils that the ens of light is turned into an ens of darkness. It grieves the devil that he did not continue an angel.

Also it repents the wicked man eternally that he stood not in the divine ens in the formed Word, and has turned the power of the Word into malice and iniquity. Also there is a grieving in the formed

Word in nature, over all kinds of creatures, that the property of the wrath in the curse of the anger does rule and domineer in the formed expressed Word. It grieves the love-ens of the Word, that the devil and wrath domineers in it, and corrupts and destroys many.

19. Now when God says it repents him, it is to be understood according to the creation of the formed Word, not according to the eternal-speaking Word, which is unchangeable, but according to the good property in the creation, that it must be laden with evil against its will.

For the spirit says in Moses, And it grieved him in his heart. Yes! it did truly grieve or trouble him in his HEART. The good ens of the earth, which went also along with it into a compaction, which is from the spiritual world's property, from the holy word, the same was in the sin [or fall of man] captivated in death, and shut up in the curse in the earth. Now the formed Word grieved at it, and troubled or affected the eternal-speaking Word, viz. God's heart.

20. For our soul cries unto God's heart, viz. unto the eternal-speaking Word, and moves, troubles or affects the same, that it should move itself in us according to its love. Now the human word works in the divine; and stirs the divine; so that the divine [word] enters into our sorrow for sin, and helps us to repent of

our sins. For the spirit in Moses said, when Lamech had begotten Noah, This same shall comfort us in our labour.

21. This was now the spirit of the beginning and end of all things; it repented through nature of the iniquity of man, and [grieved] at the captivity of the vanity of the creatures; and wrought repentance into the holy eternal-speaking Word. The spirit in the formed Word of the whole creation of this world said, It grieves me, that I have brought me into such an evil property in the creatures: And wrought repentance into the living eternal-speaking Word, from whence the out-breathed formed Word has flown forth and proceeded.

22. For that this is so, let us take an example on our repentance: We cannot work any repentance, unless our inward human soul does repent that it has made, formed or brought forth the beast of vanity in itself.

But if it will repent, then its formed word must enter or make its earnest approach into the heart of God, and press the same with an incessant importunity, and move in it. And now, when this comes to pass, then presently the deluge comes upon the evil man of the

vain will, which must forthwith be drowned in its sorrow in the word of death. Here, then, God repents in man; that the evil beast, full of sinful desire, is born; and in this same divine sorrow it must be drowned in God's love, and die unto the wrathful evil life and will.

23. Now understand aright God's sorrow or repentance in the creature of the creatures. The spirit in the whole creation, even in every life which moves in the fire and air, said, It grieves me, that I have figured this image of vanity on me;

and this sorrow of the formed spirit in the expressed Word grieved, that is, moved the eternal-speaking Word in it. Then said the eternal Word, / will yet give them an hundred and twenty years respite (for even so long the time in the dominion or government of Seth's spirit did continue), and then the turba in all flesh shall perish or be thrown down, for this sorrow was nothing else but that the Word in the Covenant did grieve at the misery and vanity of man, and would comfort mankind by the Covenant through Noah, which comfort did first open itself in Abraham, viz. in Enos, his manifestation.

24. For the comfort went forth in the love of the Covenant, and opened itself with its branch at its right limit or juncture of time; for God has confined all things into a certain limit, when everything shall come to pass. And from the comfort of the moving Word in the Covenant proceeded forth the judgement, that the old Adamical man, with all his desires, concupiscences and lusts, should, in the Covenant (when the same should open itself in the flesh) be drowned and mortified in the same new humanity of Christ; and out of the comfort of the Covenant a new human spirit and will should arise, which should live in righteousness and purity; of which the deluge was a type.

25. For the grief or repentance came out of the Covenant upon the formed Word in the life; and therefore, seeing the same Word repented of the vanity, thereupon the vanity of the creature must be drowned; for the will in the Covenant went forth from the vanity, and grieved the life of God, and moved the matrix of nature in the water's birth, and drowned the fiery wrath in the fire's nature.

26. But the spirit in Noah does especially complain here against man, for their Sodomitical, bestial concupiscence and filthy lusts of the flesh, viz. against unchastity, and unclean lascivious wantonness; and also against the high oppressors and tyrants, who put forth and

advanced themselves in their own lust, and would rule and domineer, and no longer suffer the Spirit of God to rule in them, and reprove them that they had intruded themselves, to compel and tyrannise over one another without command. All this was an abomination before God; and it grieved the spirit in the formed Word that it had brought forth such evil beasts, and would no longer endure them.

27. Even this same prophetical spirit, whose root did open and display itself in Enoch, which also by Enoch did propagate and put forth its line with its branches; which also by Noah did grieve at the wickedness and iniquity of mankind, and drowned them with the deluge, even this is he which now also does grieve at the great sins and vanity of men: for his mouth is at present opened;

he has been translated in the Spirit of Christ. Now this Word which became man does repent at the vanity and wickedness of men; that its children of the new Covenant will not give willing obedience to the Spirit of Christ. 1

Therefore this prophetical mouth does now disclose and put forth itself for it is the time of its manifestation, and proclaims the great deluge of God's anger, and the flaming sword of Elias, who also was translated into the Mystery; for he must draw forth his sword in the turba.

1 Suffer the Spirit of Christ to draw them.

28. Let this be told you, Babel: he complains mightily against your bestial unchastity and tyranny; against your own usurped power, force and violence wherewith you art proud and wanton, and hast thereby set up yourself in God's government. He will drown you with your tyranny and bestial wantonness in the fire of anger. Seeing you wilt not repent you of your vanity, therefore he repents through you, with the turba; and will drown your turba, that so his repenting may be made manifest in his children, and also his refreshing comfort and consolation might be manifested out of his repentance.

29. for without God's repenting there is in us no true sorrow or repentance for the vanity; for the natural spirit desires not to repent, yea, if it could be more wrathful, malicious, evil and vain, it would please, love and delight itself therein; for it is nature's spirit, strength and might. But the Word of God, which in the creation did impress and give itself into the human ens for a sovereign powerful [and holy] life, the same [incorporated engrafted Word of life], if it be stirred and

moved, doth repent and grieve that it has such an evil beast in nature on it; that says, It repents me that I have created the evil beast in nature.

30. But this sorrow is not a sorrow to annihilation, as if he would have no more to do with the creature, but it is a sorrow which sads and moves God's heart, viz. the holy divine Word, and sets the natural spirit a time for to repent, that so it might enter into divine sorrow; but ifit does not, then he will drown the natural spirit in its evil will and ways, as came to pass in the deluge.

31. God said, The earth is corrupt, and full of perverseness; and the end of all flesh is come before me, I will destroy them. Here again is a great mystery, in that God said, the earth was corrupt before him; that all flesh had corrupted its way; and that the earth was filled with perverseness through them [and lo: he would destroy them].

The earth was afore with Cain accursed according to the vanity's property; but now he says also in this place, all flesh has corrupted its way, the end of all flesh is come before me. This is not so mean and slight a thing as one would look on it to be; for the spirit complains against all flesh, that all things were become vain in his sight, and full of perveseness.

32. Now says reason, a beast does not sin, it does according to its nature's property; how can any perverseness be attributed to it?

So far does reason go, and further it knows not; also it understands nothing of the divine Mystery.

It understands nothing of the formed Word that has formed itself through the nature of time. It says only, God has created and made: and considers not that all things are created in the Word, that the Word has introduced and compacted itself into an ens. Also it will know nothing of the eternal spiritual nature of divine manifestation; it understands nothing of the ground or original of the outward visible world, with its creatures;

when it says, God has made all things out of nothing, then it means that he has so spoken it forth, and yet it is wholly blind and senseless in it. It looks only upon the outward colour, and knows not from whence it takes its original; thus it is only learned in the external colour, and prats of the painted work of the outside and shell; and concerning the ens whence the colour arises, it is dumb and senseless.

33. The spirit complains against all flesh upon the face of the earth, even whatsoever has breath and sense. 1 The outward nature had corrupted itself in every kind of life, and brought the formed, expressed Word into an ens of vanity; this was the perverseness and violent self-willedness of the natural life. The spirit of nature, which takes its original in the fire, had exalted itself in its fiery property, and introduced itself into a wrathful life, and driven itself even to the utmost end of meekness.

1 Text, lives in the air and fire.

34. For the devil was an insinuating predominant prince in the wrath's property, which had incited and stirred up the centre of the outward nature in the fire's matrix, and had not only corrupted

the natural life of man, but also the creatures; for he moved and acted man in God's anger, who used the creatures for their service and food, so that the curse and the vanity was also manifest in every life, that man in his conversation stood in the curse and vanity, and so came, in the vanity in the curse, even into the abyss, viz. into the end of this world. Therefore said the spirit, the end of all flesh, in its perverseness and violence, is come before me. Every life had, through the vanity of man, brought itself unto the end of the outward nature; and the throat of wrath was open in nature, and would devour and swallow up all things in the wrath.

35. For the kingdom of God's anger, viz. the dark world, had gotten the upper hand in its property, and brought the good part of nature even unto the end. Therefore the formed, expressed Word did move, or repent through every life of this vanity, that it should bear the abomination on it; and said, that it would destroy with water

the womb or pregnatress of vanity proceeding from the fire's mother, and break its power and force.

36. For before the flood the fire's root was more strong and potent than the water's root, and that, from the original of the fiery motion; that is, the Fiat stood in the fiery property, and compacted the earth and stones. So that there was then a great wrath poured forth in nature, and that, by reason of the casting out or ejection of the hierarch Lucifer into the darkness.

37. And here, by the flood or deluge, the force and violence was taken from the wrathful fire root in the centre of nature, for the repenting or grieving of the formed Word was nothing else but a type of Christ, where the eternal living divine Word in the human property did repent and grieve in the formed creatural word, at our sins and vanity, and mortified the same vanity in his death in the creature; 1 and drowned the formed creatural word in the human property with the divine water of love and meekness in the holy heavenly blood.

1 Died from the vanity.

38. So also in this place, the formed Word grieved at the vanity of the creatures, in that they were laden therewith, and brought the life of all the creatures into death; and in its sorrow moved the meekness of the water-source in nature, so that all the fountains of the deep did open themselves, as Moses says, and devoured the fire-source in the water. This signifies unto man the Baptism of Christ, where the fire-source of the soul in God's anger was, in the Word of Christ's Covenant, baptised with the regenerated water of the spirit (understand the spiritual water), which shall quench the fire of God's anger.

As it was above mentioned concerning the seven times, that each time of the seven degrees of nature has brought itself unto its end; and in the end there was a sorrow for the abomination; and in the repentance and sorrow the turba was broken and destroyed.

39. Now behold here aright: by Noah, with the flood, the second time, viz. Seth's time, was at the end; and with Adam, in the fall, when he lusted to eat of the vanity, the first time was at the end.

40. In Adam the Word repented, and gave itself with a Covenant into the life, to help comfort and restore the life. And by Noah the Word repented, and moved all the fountains of the deep in nature, and drowned the wrath, and opened the Covenant of grace.

41. And when the time of Enos was at the end, in the days of the children of Nimrod, the Word grieved at the vanity of man, that they would not know God, and drowned the understanding of the one only tongue, and divided it, and gave by 2 its repentance the certain understanding in the Covenant with Abraham.

2 Or, out of

42. And when the time of Cainan was at the end, that the children of Abraham's Covenant were compelled in the vanity of servitude, the Word grieved at the vanity, and destroyed Pharaoh; and afterwards all the men of the children of Israel in the wilderness, save Joshua and Caleb, and gave them, out of its sorrow and repentance, the Law of his Covenant: a true type of Christ, who should drown the abomination in his blood.

43. Thus also when Mahalaleel's time was come to the end, the Word grieved in the deepest repentance, and brought the life of God in Christ Jesus into the formed creatural Word in the human ens, and drowned the turba in the human ens, with God's love and mercy, and gave them the spirit of comfort, and the Gospel.

44. Thus even now also, where the time of Jared is at the end, which has been covered with Babel, even now, at this present, the Word doth repent and grieve at our great vanity, and will destroy the abomination with the devouring jaws of wrath: with sword, hunger, fire, and death; and gives, out of its sorrow, grief and repentance, a lily out of Enoch's mouth, in God's sweetness.

45. And when Enoch's line shall be at the end, that the vanity does again grow in the turba, then comes the greatest grief and sorrow of all, upon the nature of the wonders; that it is at the end, and there is no more any remedy for it. Even then comes the last motion with 1 the turba in the first Principle of the eternal nature, and swallows up the outward nature in the fire. Even then the formed Word shall be wholly freed from vanity, and gives, by 2 its last repentance, the holy spiritual world. Amen.

1 Or, of. 2 From, or out of.

The Thirty-Second Chapter

Of the Covenant between God and Noah

1. GOD said to Noah, / will establish a covenant with you, and you shall go into the ark with your and your son's wives with you (Gen. vi. 18).

A great, pregnant and remarkable example we have here in Noah and his children. The Covenant was made with Noah; for his spirit was a discovery or beaming forth of the formed Word in him, in the beginning and end of time; and the beginning and end was the eternal Word, which had espoused itself in the Covenant. In which Covenant the soul of Noah, viz. the formed Word of the eternal nature, found grace, and obtained the confirmation of the Covenant of grace.

2. As his name does properly and peculiarly signify, in the Language of Nature, a beholding of the beginning and end. In this same beginning and end, viz. in the eternal-speaking Word of the Father, which would manifest and open itself again in the human life, grace was opened and presented to Noah, so that God did establish and confirm the Covenant with him.

3. And here we have a very excellent, and an emphatical example, which is exceedingly worth the mentioning, in the three sons of Noah, which in their properties were sprung forth from the stock of Adam in a threefold line. For we see that three nations [several sorts of people] did arise from them, and that God did include them all three, with their wives, in the Covenant of grace, and commanded them also to go into the ark, into the second monarchy, and did not exclude the fleshly Ham.

4. This is first highly to be considered: that a gate of grace stands open to all men, and that God has not set any election or predestination in nature; but the election or choice doth arise out of the free will, when it turns itself from the good into the evil.

5. Secondly, it is a type of the three Principles, viz. Sem is a type of the spiritual light-world in the Covenant; and Japhet of the fire-world, which should be a sojourner of the light-world, and a mirror

of the great joy in the light-world; and Ham is a figure of the limus of the earth, to which the curse and the anger of God does hang. All these three, God took into the Covenant with Noah, and brought them into the ark.

6. For every man has these three worlds upon him, and in him; and the Covenant in the Word was therefore given, that the whole man should be redeemed.

7. For Japhet signifies the fire-soul; and Sem the image of God out of the light-world, viz. the spirit out of the holy Word; and Ham betokens the limus of the earth, with the outward dominion or region of the air, and of the magical ethereal constellations, together with the body, which shall be freed by the Covenant from the curse, and arise again out of the earth. The three brothers were a type of these three Principles.

8. Not that one did wholly arise out of one Principle alone, No! Sem and Japhet had likewise Ham's property in them, as did plainly manifest itself afterwards in the Jews, who became so wicked and vile

a people. Only, we speak here of the superior dominion or predominant property, of which Principle the creature has had in the outward life in its figure.

9. Ham has the outward earthly elemental kingdom in the figure, which stood in the curse. Therefore his image [or person] was also cursed of his father, in the spirit;

for the earthly image shall not inherit the kingdom of God; but he also had a soul from Adam, which stood in the Covenant; but the free will does very seldom work any good thing in such a lodging, and very easily attains the curse upon the soul. As we see that the curse did afterwards come upon this generation; that Israel must destroy [them] by their entrance into the Land of Promise; albeit they did not wholly destroy [them] all, yet the curse was come upon them.

10. There is a very great mystery in the ark of Noah, which the Lord commanded him to build after that manner, and showed him how high, how long, and how broad it should be, and directed also that it should have three several stories; also concerning the creatures which he commanded him to bring thereinto;

which is such a mystery, that the wicked malicious man is not worthy to know it.

And we also shall not mention it in the ground [or depth of its meaning]. For it has its time, wherein it shall be opened, viz. in the lily-time, when Babel has its end. But yet to set down somewhat for a furtherance and direction to our fellow-branches, to whom in its due time it shall break forth and grow out of our ens of this lily (which also shall be a rose in the lily-time), we will set it down in a hidden exposition.

11. The mystery of the holy Trinity: also the three Principles: also the three sons of Noah: also the three men that appeared to Abraham in the plain of Mamre: also the vision of the great temple in Ezekiel: and the whole Revelation of John belongs unto this figure: also the temple of Jerusalem.

12. Set before you the figure of the ark, with its three stories, with its height, length, and breadth, and place it in the three Principles. And in the three Principles open the mysteries of the hierarchy 1 of Christ in the three distinctions of heavens, which yet are only one; but in three properties, as fire, light, and air are three, and yet but one. Place in these distinctions [or several differences] the three sons of Noah ;

and go out of their properties into their monarchy in the world, which continues to the end of days. Also set before you the formed Word according to all the three Principles; and so you will find the ground of all. Especially set before you, Moses, Elias, and Christ, in their appearance and transfiguration upon the mount: the ark of Noah is the first type of all these figures; and the hierarchy of Christ is the fulfilling of them at the end of days. Enough to ours.

13. And the Lord said, Come you and your whole house into the ark, for you have I seen righteous before me at this time 2 (Gen. vii. I). The Scripture says elsewhere, Before you none living is righteous, if you will impute sin.

But here God says, / have seen you righteous before me at this time. The creature was not the righteous one, without evil; but HE, who at this time did in Noah open and manifest himselfout of the Covenant, who grieved at the evil of this time, and introduced his sorrow into God's love and mercy, and so brought the righteousness of the mercy into the sorrow, and manifested the grieving mournful spirit in the ens of the Covenant in the creature. Thus Noah was righteous before God at this time, when the Covenant did move itself in him.

14. This time is [or signifies] the motion of the Covenant, which made Noah righteous. For this was the time when Noah received life in the womb. The spirit looked with his first glimpse of life out of the divine ens of the formed Word into the beginning whence the life was come, and into the end which was the kingdom of Christ. In this aspect [or divine glimpse] the life of Noah receives the righteousness in the mark of the Covenant at this time, for that was the time in him wherein he was found righteous.

15. God brought eight persons into the ark, and of the clean beasts seven and seven, 3 the male and its female. The seven persons point at the seven properties of the natural life, that God will have children out of all the properties into his eternal ark. The eighth person was Noah, and in Noah was the Righteous One, that was the Covenant, out of which the kingdom of Christ should come; therein stood the ark of Noah. But the ark has three stories, which are the three Principles in one only divine manifestation, for each property of the three has its own peculiar heaven and certain choir in itself.

1 Or, hierarchies. 2 Or, generation. 3 Or, seven pair.

16. The seven pair of clean beasts are even the very same mystery, for the centre has seven properties; and yet they are but one in the divine power. But according to the eternal nature there are seven of them as to the divine manifestation.

Which signifies unto us, that the creatures were brought forth into life out of this sevenfold ens, where each degree has again seven in it, to its manifestation, whence the infiniteness, viz. the form of God's wisdom, does appear and shine forth, and that in the formed wisdom, whose image and figure shall not vanish or perish. Although their life, and the creature, which has a temporal beginning, does pass away; but the form shall remain in the divine wisdom, viz. in the ens of the formed Word in the figure, to the praise of God's wondrous deeds. Indeed, not to a restoration of their creature, but for a visible mirror or looking-glass in the formed wisdom of God.

17. But of the unclean beasts God commanded Noah to take only one pair of each kind with him into the ark. Understand it thus: The unclean beasts have, on one part, their original out of the limus of the earth, according to the grossness, viz. according to the dark world's property. Although their spirit takes its rise out of nature, yet we are to consider the difference in nature in respect of that which

came forth, in the Verbum Fiat, out of the source of the dark world's property, into a compaction;

whence such an ens does adhere unto many an unclean creature. And it signifies unto us, in the right understanding, that the dark world, viz. the unclean world, shall appear before the wisdom of God only in one manifest form, viz. in the darkness. But the properties shall be manifest only in the creatures themselves, each in its own peculiar self and nature.

18. For the formed wisdom as to the darkness is the heaven of them all, which is manifest only according to the darkness, wherein the property lies hidden, according to which God calls himself

an angry zealous God.

Out of this dark heaven every creature receives its power and virtue according to its property. According as its hunger is, so it sucks with its desire from thence: and it signifies unto us, that the unclean beasts, each kind of them in their form, shall appear only in one form in the wisdom of the darkness, viz. in the figure, as they were created in the beginning, and not in seven properties according to the centre of nature in all properties according to light and darkness, as the rest shall;

for they are in the figure of the first Principle, which in the pure heaven shall be manifest only in one property, viz. according to the burning [property] wherein the light is moved, 1 and the wisdom formed.

1 Movable and formable.

19. But here I will warn the Reader to understand our sense and meaning aright, and not to put me calves, cows and beasts, in their spirit and body, into heaven. I speak only of the eternal formed wisdom, whence evil and good has been brought to manifestation.

20. Moreover, God said to Noah, For yet seven days, will I cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance which I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.

Wherefore did God say, after seven days the flood shall come? why not presently, either sooner or later; why does he set even seven days? In this the seven properties of nature are contained mystically, in which the Verbum Fiat had introduced itself into an ens, viz. into the formed Word; that is, into the creation of the world; in which creation the formed Word repented at the vanity of all creatures, and

moved itself through the generatress of nature in the formed Word, to destroy the turba.

21. Now the first motion and information of the Word in the creation, with the six days' works and the day of rest, being seven days, was brought into a form of time, and it yet stood so, in its form. Now then, when the Word (which said it would drown every life with water) did open, disclose and manifest itself through the seven properties of nature to the water's birth, it came to pass in the form wherein the Word had given in itself with the creation, viz. in the same sevenfold operation, which should open itself in its own peculiar order, and not enkindle or elevate anyone property above the other;

but if all seven would open and manifest themselves according to the water's birth, then the only fountain or head-spring of all the deeps in the centre of nature should break open. And seeing they came in seven days into their outward, formed, working dominion, the speaking Word did also proceed in the opening thereofin seven days unto the limit for its manifestation of that which it desired; as namely, to drown the turba.

22. And let none look upon this as a fiction, or laugh at it, for whosoever does so, does not yet understand our spirit and meaning at all. Nor has [he] any knowledge at all of the formed Word, but has only an external understanding of nature, like [a brute beast or] a bird that flies in the air, and knows not what the essence is.

23. Now says reason, Wherefore did it rain just forty days and forty nights; could not God have drowned the world in one hour?

Answer: In the space of forty days the turba was borne in the human property, viz. Adam before his Eve stood in the image of God forty days and nights, which yet in the image of God were only as one day.

There he wrought forty days in his desire, viz. in the Fiat, and brought forth the turba in himself; in his lust after the grossness of the earth: the good part of the lirous of the earth, which was drawn, in the Verbum Fiat, into a mass, did hunger after the evil, gross part, which was of the dark world's property.

24. And even in forty days the grossness did arise in his imagination in the good ens, viz. a self-full will to the perception or intromission of the gross earthliness, in which evil and good was made manifest. And when this same will's spirit was arisen in the desire, it entered into its own self-full dominion, and in its fiery and earthly might strongly suppressed the holy spiritual ens in the word of power. Even then Adam fell asleep, viz. into an impotency and disability of the angelical spiritual world, and the woman was taken out of him; and both were in this turba formed 1 unto the outward natural life.

1 Text, figured.

25. This turba is that wherein God did also set the curse, which with Noah was first at the end, which God said, The end of all flesh is come up before me. And out of this forty-days-produced turba, the fountains of the deep did arise in the water source, and drowned the turba in the flesh of these sexes.

26. For from the sin of Aclam came the deluge over the world; and this forty-days-produced turba was the sin in the flesh. Otherwise, if the water-fountain had not opened itself the fire-fountain had proceeded forth out of the turba in the wrath of God. Therefore God said, It repented him, that he had made the creatures; and his sorrow went into the turba, and drowned it.

27. And let the Reader be put in mind, that so of ten as he finds the number forty in the holy Scripture, that it altogether, in the beginning, points at the forty-days-produced turba. For instance, the forty days of Moses upon Mount Sinai: the forty years in the wilderness: also the forty hours of Christ in the grave.

Also the forty days after his resurrection, before his ascension, do all belong unto this; and all the numbers forty in the secret and mystical prophetical sayings of the prophets: for out of this turba the prophet is arisen, with his prophecy.

28. But in that I say, that if the water-fountain had not been opened, the fire-fountain would have broken forth: is also true. For the children in the turba would have also burnt Noah in the ark with fire, if the most high had not hindered and prevented them with the water: for the fire's turba was moved in them. This was the world's end, or the end of all flesh: for at the end all shall be purified and purged in the fire's turba; for it will enkindle itself:

29. There is a very great mystery in that which the spirit says in Moses: Noah was five hundred years old when he begat Sent, Ham and Japhet, which otherwise is against the ordinary course of nature, to beget children in such a natural age. Also there is a very great mystery in that God said that he would give the world an hundred and twenty years respite; and yet the deluge came in the six-hundredth year of Noah, viz. in the hundredth year after the warning or notice thereof: And it signifies the abbreviation of time in its natural course, and also the end of the world, how that there shall be an abbreviation or shortening of time in the circle of the conclusion of all beings, of which we will mention something in a Treatise by itself; if the same be permitted us. 1

1 Query: this Treatise by itself.

30. When Noah entered into the ark, Moses said, The Lord shut him in (Gen. vii. 16). The intimate signification of the spirit here is: He shut up the second time or age of the world, which was at the end, seeing the fire would fain have moved itself: Therefore the Lord shut it up with water, and herewith also [he opened] the gate of his entrance to go forth in the third time, and begin the second monarchy in the outward world: for the first time was in Paradise; the second, under Seth's manifestation: in the third, Enos's manifestation should be opened and set forth.

31. And Moses says further, And the waters stood upon the earth one hundred and fifty days. Then God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged. And the fountains of the deep and the windows also of heaven were stopped (Gen. viii. 1-3).

Moses says, God remembered Noah. Now reason thinks, had he then forgotten him? whereas he is present to all things, and is himself through all, and in all things. The spirit in Moses does here hang a veil before the Mystery, that the natural man does not understand it.

32. God's remembrance here is the beginning of the third time, even the beginning of the second monarchy in the four elements with the creatures. For in the Covenant made with Noah the second monarchy was comprehended, which went forth out of the centre of the generatress through the divine wisdom in nature.

33. And Moses speaks further: When the waters were abated the ark set itself down upon the mount Ararat (Gen. viii. 4). This name [Ararat] does plainly hint unto us, in the Language of Nature, a mountain, or a compacting and an amassing of an essence out of the centre of nature, even out of the wrathfulness, seeing the anger of God had then reposed itself there.

The ark stood upon the allayed anger. But the last syllable in this word Ara-RAT, does signify that the wrath of the eternal nature proceeding from the centre has betook or formed itself into an active dominion; and would thence-forward ride through nature, as a warrior, and mightily exercise its power and violence in the human property, whereby they would undertake wars, and advance themselves in pride, pomp and power, and butcher and slay one another, eagerly contending about this mountain of the wrath's might [or severe human authority].

34. This mountain, Ararat, denotes the houses of the great ones or domineering potentates upon the earth, viz. the great castles, forts and bulwarks, the mighty mountains of the power, violence and strength of the rich;

and also the high nobility, sprung up from the mystery of the great world; upon which kingdom the ark of Noah has set down itself: But the Covenant with Noah, viz. the kingdom of Christ, has set itself to be an eternal Lord over this mountain of the warlike might and force of arms sprung up from the anger of God; which dominion and reigning power of Christ shall abolish and take away the kingdom of this mountain, and quite suppress it. And it denotes unto us truly, fundamentally and exactly, that this power and authority upon the earth would take upon it, in its own power, the ark of Noah, viz. the divine Covenant, and carry it; yea, put it on as a garment, and proudly perch up itself therein, as if it had the kingdom of Christ in its own power.

35. [And also it shows and denotes unto us] how that this mountain of the wrathful anger of God in the human property [or in man's nature] would beautify, trim up and adorn itself with the ark of Noah;

and would proclaim it to be the holy ark of Christ; and yet it would be founded only upon the wrathful anger, and be only an anti-christian kingdom. Which indeed would carry the ark, viz. the name of divine holiness in the mouth but its heart would be only this mountain, a vessel and confused heap of God's wrath;

and yet it would make devout shows of holiness, and glory in having the ark upon itself but the aim and intent of the heart would be set upon the strongholds, the preferment, power and riches of the world.

36. Furthermore, it denotes that the potent and mighty of the world would build the ark, viz. the service and worship of God, upon their heart and reason, with great stone houses, and churches, and that these houses thus built up of stone should be their God, whom they would serve in the ark;

and they would wage war for the houses of stone of their own contriving and framing, and for their devices and opinions therein maintained, and contend about the figure of the true ark. And not consider that the ark stands upon their mountain, that God has set it above them, and that they ought to walk under God's dominion, in humility, and suffer the ark to stand upon them; and not usurp unto themselves the power of the Holy Ghost, or take it away, and bind him unto their feigned power and hypocritical forms, and command him to be silent, as they do, in that they cry with full mouth: lo! here is an assembly of divines: here is the true Church of Christ: this you must believe and do: this is the law and ordinance of the Church. No, the ark stands above them, they are under, as the mount Ararat was underneath the ark. Christ is the ark, and not the contrived heaps of stone [or any form of man's devised worship or opinion]. All assemblies, congregations, or synods are under the ark Christ, and not above [it], for the ark of Noah placed itself above the mountain: to signify that the mountain must bear the ark. We must bear the ark of Christ upon us, and have the temple of this ark within us.

37. Furthermore, it denotes how the figure of this ark, viz. the spiritual kingdom upon the earth, 1 would place itself upon the mountain of power, domination, and lordliness, and would rule with the mountain in the ark; and take upon itself to meddle with the worldly dominions and authority; and bring the mountain, viz. the power of the secular arm, above the ark: whereas the ark ought to stand upon the mountain, and Noah, with the Covenant, to remain in the ark,

till the Lord bid him come forth, that is, till Christ deliver the ark to his Father.

1 Ecclesiastical, clergical priesthood.

38. And Moses says further, At the end of forty days, when the ark had set itself down, Noah sent forth a raven, to see whether the water was abated, hut the raven flew to and fro till the waters were dried upfront off the face of the earth (Gen. viii. 6, 7).

The raven denotes the earthly man, and shows how that he would first put forth himself upon the mountain Ararat, that is, advance himself in his selfhood and earthly lust, and build up his kingdom in the second monarchy.

39. And though he came forth out of the ark, yet he would fly to, and again in, the kingdom of his selfhood, and not return into the ark, from whence he departed in Adam, and would be only a covetous muck-worm, and a greedy devourer of fleshly temporal pleasure in his own will;

and remain as the raven, and not return to the ark, desiring to enter into it, but mind only to possess the kingdom of this world in glory and state. Also it betokens that the generation of this raven would have the chief place, pre-eminence and government, in the second monarchy (like the devil in the wrath of God), as histories witness that it so came to pass.

40. Afterwards he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated upon the earth; but when the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, she returned again unto him unto the ark; and he put forth his hand and took her to him into the ark (Gen. viii. 8, 9). This set forth and denotes the figure of God's children; who soon after come also under the government of the raven's property, and are brought into the government of this world;

for they are also with Adam gone forth out of the ark, to behold and prove this evil corrupt world, and live therein. But when their spirit can find no rest in the earthly dominion, then they come again before the ark of Noah, which is set open in Christ, and Noah receives them again in Christ, into the first ark, whence Adam departed.

41. Moreover, the raven betokens the sharp Law of Moses, in the fiery might under God's anger, which binds and slays man, and brings him not into the ark. But the dove betokens the gospel of Christ, which brings us again into the ark, and saves the life. For the mount Ararat does, as an exact type and figure, point out unto us the kingdom of Moses; and the Ark, wherein the life was kept and preserved, signifies the humanity of Christ.

42. And he stayed yet another seven days; and again he sent forth a dove out of the ark; and it came to him about evening, and lo! she had plucked off an olive leaf, and brought it in her mouth. And he stayed yet other seven days;

and let a dove fly forth out of the ark, which returned not to him any more (Gen. viii. 10, 11). The spirit in Moses shows by these three doves, and the raven, which Noah sent forth out of the ark, a great mystery, which albeit he does not clearly unfold, yet for certain is couched therein. The raven does also denote the Law of Moses in nature, which will remain in its selfhood, and will not return in true resignation and self-denial, under the obedience of God, but will enter in to God by its own strength, power, and ways.

43. The first dove signifies the prophetical spirit, which arose under Moses, viz. under the outward Law and offerings, and pointed through the offering into the ark of Noah, and Christ. This prophetical spirit went all along through the office of Moses; it indeed flew under Moses, but it tended again into the ark with its prophecy, as the first dove which Noah sent forth flew indeed into the world, but came again into the ark of Christ.

44. The second dove with the olive branch, which also came again to Noah into the Ark, denotes the Word in the Covenant of Noah, which came forth out of the holy ark of God into this world, viz. into our humanity, and plucked off an olive leaf in the world, and brought it to Noah, that is, it plucked off a branch from our humanity, and took it into the holy Word, viz. the mouth of God, as the dove the olive leaf and brought the branch to holy Noah, that is, to God the Father. But that it was an olive leaf denotes the unction of the holy spirit, that the same should anoint the humanity, and bring it again with this dove into the holy ark.

45. The third dove which Noah let fly, which came not again to the ark, betokens the kingdom of Antichrist upon the earth, which indeed is flown forth with its doctrine out of the ark, but its spirit remains only upon the earth, feeding upon the fat grass [upon the riches, honour, and beauty of this world], and so it stays only in selfhood [and returns not to the ark];

it indeed makes devout shows of holiness to God, and gives good words, but the man, with his senses and reason, will not forsake the world, and return again to the ark. They build themselves stately palaces without the ark, for the pleasure of the flesh, and are very zealous and devout in hypocrisy without the ark; they will be

accounted children by an external imputation of grace and adoption; but they will not enter into the ark, but they say, Christ is in the ark, he has purchased and paid all, we need only to comfort ourselves therewith, he will bring us in well enough.

46. The other party says they have Christ in their works of hypocrisy, they take the ark along with them when they fly out in their fleshly pleasure. All these remain without the ark in this world, and return not to the ark. This the third dove denotes: for the Anti-christian kingdom walks demurely in the shape of a dove, and as a sheep, but it is only a figure [and darksome shadow] of Christ's kingdom, which consists in the spirit in power, and is really in the ark.

The Thirty-Third Chapter

Of the beginning of the Second monarchy, and of the Covenant of God with Noah, and all Creatures

1. AND Moses says, Then God spoke with Noah, and commanded him to go forth, with every living thing, each with its kind. But Noah built an altar unto the Lord, and took every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings upon the altar. And the Lord smelted a sweet savour, and said in his heart, I will not henceforth curse the earth any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; and I will not any more smite every living thing, as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease (Gen. viii. 16 et seq.).

Moses says that God smelled a sweet savour, and said in his heart, he would not again curse the earth, or smite every living creature any more for man's sake. This is a figure or mystical type, as is before mentioned in the offering of Abel.

2. For his heart is the Word in the Covenant, which took the prayer and will-spirit of Noah through the holy fire in the offering, and brought it in the Word to substance; and withal smelled, in the divine power, the humanity of Christ, who was to resign himself in the Covenant into the Word of power;

that is, it desired to have the humanity in his power and virtue, as a pleasant savour; and from this smell [or sweet savour of holy rest in the paradisical property] the spirit of God declared that he would not again destroy man and the creatures any more; so long as the earth should endure, these creatures should also continue.

3. For Noah offered all manner of clean beasts and fowl; and the spirit says that God smelled herein a sweet savour [of rest]. Now [Moses does not mean] that God took pleasure in the smell or savour of the offering, for all beasts are in his power, and are continually before him;

but Moses spoke it in reference to the hidden offering in

the Covenant, which the inward world in the creatures did smell,

which hereafter would deliver them from the abomination of vanity

by its own peculiar offering, 1 and set their figure into the holy wisdom, viz. into the spiritual world.

1 That is, the inward central fire, which shall purge the floor, and crystallise the earth into transparent gold.

4. When Noah offered, then the Lord (that is, God manifested in the offering by the unmanifest holy name JEHOVAH, through JESUS) did smell the holy disappeared humanity in Adam; that is, he did taste in the lubet or good pleasure of his wisdom how the same should be again manifest in the holy name Jesus. And then he blessed Noah and his children, and said, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. And the fear and dread of you be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air; even upon all that creeps upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hands they are all delivered. Every living thing shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. But the flesh with the life thereof, I that is, with the blood thereof, you shall not eat. For I will require the blood of your lives, of every beast will I require the same; and at the hand of every man will I require the life of man, seeing that he is his brother; and whosoever sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed; for God created man in his own image. And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply, and be industrious upon the earth, that you may increase abundantly (Gen. ix. 1-7).

5. When God blessed Noah and his children through the offering proceeding from the Covenant, and bade them be fruitful, he gave them again the whole world, with all its hosts, in possession; all whatsoever that lives and moves should be subservient to them, and be their own.

And he gave it them all in common, he made there no difference between Noah and his children, no lord 2 nor servant, but he made them all alike, none noble or ignoble. But like as many branches and twigs grow out of one tree, and yet all together are but one only tree, so also he established the human tree upon the earth, and gave them all beasts, fishes and fowls in common, with no distinction, restriction or prohibition, save only that they should not eat their life in the blood, lest they should become monstrous in their life with the bestial life. 3

1 Or which yet lives in the blood. 2 Master. 3 Or with the eating the life of the beasts.

6. God commanded them to rule over all the beasts and creatures, but in this place he gave them no peculiar domination or ruling power over one another. For all domination, lordly rule and authority, whereby one man rules over another, does arise out of Ararat, that is, from or through the order of nature, according to its properties, according to the constellations, and outward dominion of the princes under the constellations or astrum.

7. The true image of God has no other dominion in its members than the body has in its members, or the tree in its branches. But the bestial image from the stars and four elements makes itself a dominion and government, according to its mother, whence it takes its rise, and wherein it lives.

8. Also all laws and external ordinances which God has appointed man, do all belong unto the order of nature, viz. unto the expressed formed Word. The same, God has given man for a property, that he should rule therein with the inward spiritual man of understanding, according to the wisdom of God, and make himself

[laws and] order (according to the spirit of wisdom).

9. Over which orders and ordinances of men, which they make unto themselves, he [viz. the Lord] has set himself as judge, and thereupon has appointed the Lastjudgement, to separate wrong from right. And whatsoever proceeds not from truth, righteousness and love, against that the judgement of God is set; for it is generated or hatched through the false spirits of darkness in turba magna, and introduced into the human property as a false lust and subtlety; and is a stranger or bastard wisdom, which shall not inherit the kingdom of God. 1

10. All royal and princely highness and excellency, together with all governments and dominions, do arise froin the order of nature. In the image of God there is no compulsion [nor force, violence or oppression], but a mere free-willing, desirous love-service, as one member in the body, or as one branch of the tree, does freely and readily serve each other, and rejoice in each other.

11. But seeing that man has introduced himself into the outward formed Word, evil and good, viz. into the kingdom of nature; the kingdom of nature has deprived him of the holy dominion; and has placed itselfwith its power over the human property. Therefore,

if he will have the same again, he must be born anew of God, and then he may rule with the new regenerated life in the spirit of God, over the kingdom of nature.

12. Indeed there are orders of princely angels or hierarchies in the spiritual world; but all without compulsion, in one harmonious delightful love-service and will; as one member in the body doth readily serve another.

13. All whatsoever that man in the kingdom of nature doth draw under his power, and abuses it to superfluity and excess, and thereby withdraws from his fellow-members, whereby they are put to want, poverty and distress, and their freely-given right and due is wholly withheld from them; the same is imprinted [or comprehended] in turba magna, as an abomination of nature, and put into the judgement of God, to the day of separation.

14. Nature requires only order, and gives distinction of places and offices; but the turba brings its abomination from the dark world's desire thereinto, viz. pride, covetousness, envy, anger and falsehood.

15. These five vices or iniquities in the kingdom of nature are the whore's brats, and shall not inherit the kingdom of God. God holds the kingdom of nature for his order, and has given the same into the power of man, that he [as God's instrument in this world] should sever the evil from the good, and choose himself a judge to pass righteous judgement upon the iniquity and malice of the false desire and lust [of man].

For he says, Whosoever sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood he shed, viz. by the order and institution of nature. Not that any should revenge himself upon others by his own selfish power [or force of arms], but through the order of nature, through God's law [and appointment]; the same is the true avengeress; for God said, / will avenge your lift's blood, and will avenge it upon every beast.

Here he means, by the order of his law, and its officers who officiate in the right and due execution of the same.

16. Not that a prince or lord has power to shed blood without the law of God; if he does so, then the law of God condemns him also to death. Here there is no peculiar self-full power given over man's blood; let him be king or prince;

for they are only officers over the order of the divine law, and they ought not to go further than the command of God gives leave. Indeed they have the law of nature committed to their charge, as servants of the same; but they must deal therein only according to righteousness and truth, and not do anything through selfish [covetous, proud and envious] desire, for God has created man in his own image. Now the kingdom of nature in its offices has no power over this divine image to kill the same, but the office or commission in God's order passes only upon 1 the outward image of nature.

1 Or has power over.

17. Therefore if an officer of nature [viz. any magistrate] takes away the life of a righteous man, him, nature appoints unto the judgement of God to the day of separation [wherein God will judge all the unrighteous acts of man].

What then will become of the tyrants who turn the truth into lies,

and shamefully abuse and condemn the children of God for their

divine knowledge and profession's sake, and stir up war and

contention, to desolate and destroy country and people?

All these belong unto turba magna, to the judgement of God;

for they manage the sword of the turba in self-full lust and pleasure;

unless the Spirit of God command them, and then they must do it for

their office and charge's sake [and execute the just judgement of God

upon those who have filled up the measure of their iniquity], as

Israel was commanded to do among the heathen.

18. Whosoever sheds blood out of his own pleasure, to advance his authority, without urgent, absolute necessity, or God's command, he is moved, acted and driven by the wrathful fire of God's anger, and falls at last to be a captive in the same kingdom.

19. Every warrior [or soldier] is a rod of God's anger, wherewith he does, through his wrath and indignation, rebuke and devour the iniquity and malice of man. And it does not belong at all unto the order [or ordinance] of nature, but unto the wrathful desire in turba magna, unto the order of the eager, fierce-devouring wrath, whereby God's anger does overturn and lay waste countries and kingdoms.

20. Understand, it is the order of the dark world's property, which, by God's permission, advances its mighty force in the time of man's wickedness. And then it goes as the wrath will have it, until the same be well 'satiated in the blood of man.

21. For this is even the revenge of God's anger, of which he says, that he would take vengeance for [or require] the blood of man; therefore he of ten takes one man, and by him in anger slays another that has deserved death.

22. When the great and potent rulers shed innocent blood, then comes the anger of God, with its officers, and sheds their peoples' blood, and brings the sword of the turba upon them, whence war arises. But this is not from the divine order of the good nature, in which God governs with his wisdom.

23. The wisdom of God desires no war, but the anger of God, according to the dark world's nature, doth eagerly desire it, and effects the same in the vanity and iniquity of man.

24. If we lived as the children of God one among another, we need not have any warring and fighting. But that we wage war, we do thereby testify and declare that we are only children of this world, and fight for a strange inheritance, which yet we must forego, and thereby we serve the God of anger, as obedient servants. For no warrior or soldier shall inherit the kingdom of God, while he is such a one; but [he that is] a child, new-born of the spirit of God, which forsakes this world.

25. And God said further to Noah, and to his sons with him: saying, Lo I, even I, establish my Covenant with you, and with your seed after you, and with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, and of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth that is with you, even of all that came forth out of the ark; that henceforth all flesh shall not any more be cut off by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more come a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, This is the token of the Covenant which I have made between me and you and every living creature that is with you, from henceforth for ever: I have set my bow in the clouds, the same shall he for a token of a Covenant between me and the earth; and it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, the bow shall be seen in the cloud. And then I will remember the Covenant, which is

between me and you (Gen. ix. 8-16).

This Covenant with man is a type of the Three Principles of the divine being, viz. of the Being of all beings.

26. For the rainbow is the sign and token of this Covenant, that God does here mind, and very intimately look upon, that man was created out of three Principles into an image, and that he should live in all three; and beheld now the unability and great peril of mankind; and set the sign of this Covenant before him, as a representation that his wrath should not any more be stirred so to destroy every life.

27. For the rainbow has the colour of all the three Principles, viz. the colour of the first Principle is red, and darkish-brown; which betokens the dark and fire-world, that is, the first Principle, the kingdom of God's anger. The colour of the second Principle is white, and yellow;

this is the majestical colour, signifying, as a type of the holy world, God's love. The third Principle's colour is green, and blue; blue from the chaos, and green from the water or saltpetre; where, in the flagrat or crack of the fire, the Sulphur and Mercury do sever themselves, and produce distinct, various and several colours, which betoken unto us the inward spiritual worlds, 1 which are hidden in the four elements.

1 Or world.

28. This bow is a figure of the Last judgement, showing how the inward spiritual world will again manifest itself and swallow up or avail into itself this outward world of four elements.

29. And this is even the sign or token of the Covenant of grace, which sign in the Covenant betokens the Judge of the world, viz. Christ, who, at the end of days, will appear in all the three Principles, viz. according to the fire-sign as a severe Judge over the turba, and all whatsoever that shall be found therein; he will manifest the fiery judgement, and enkindle the turba, so that the first Principle shall appear in its fiery property, for all things of this world's being must be tried or purified in the fire of the first Principle, viz. in the centre of the eternal nature. And even then the turba of all beings shall be swallowed up in the fire.

30. And according to the light's sign he shall appear as a pleasant visage to all the saints, even in the midst of the fire; and defend his, in his love and meekness, from the flames of the fire.

31. And according to the kingdom of the outward nature of this world, he shall appear in his assumed humanity; and the whole outward mystery of the four elements, according to Sulphur, Mercury and Salt, even according to all the properties of the wonders of the expressed and formed Word, even all shall be made manifest before him according to light and darkness [viz. according to their good and evil].

32. Of this the rainbow is a type and figure, for it is a reflex [antitype] or contra-glance of the sun; showing what kind of property [or virtue] there is in the deep. The sun casts its shining lustre into the four elements towards the chaos, and then the chaos, whence the four elements do proceed, does manifest itself according to the Principles, with its colours;

and it denotes and points out the hidden or mystical ground of the four elements, viz. the hidden world, and also the hiddenness of the humanity. For in this hidden-ness [or secret mystery] of the creation, God did set forth his Covenant, that he would not destroy its image any more with water;

that the fountains of the deep should not be any more opened in the chaos, as came to pass in the Flood, and in the creation of the world.

33. The rainbow is an opening of the chaos in nature; and it may very well, if the sun be in a good aspect in the elements, produce and bring forth a wonderful birth, both in the vegetables and animals. Also there may thereby be a creaturalliving being produced in the deep, even according to the property of the sun's powerful influence; according as it finds in the elements a property from the astrum or constellations, either to evil or good; as oftentimes to worms, flies, grasshoppers, and the like; and also to a good life, according as Saturn and Mercury are enkindled in their desire.

34. For when the chaos does open itself; then the harsh-astringent Saturnine property does attract, as a hunger or desire, unto itself and takes the property of the chaos (wherein the hidden powers are contained) into its desire, and coagulates the same; and forthwith Mercury becomes quick in Sulphur, for the sun enkindles the fiery Mars in its property, whereupon Mercury is stirred up or becomes active. This, Saturn frames [amasses] into a body, viz. into an ens.

Now the saltpetre cannot agree or unite itself with Mars, and therefore there is a severation or motion; and seeing that they cannot get rid of 1 Saturn, viz. the fiat of the outward world; it becomes a flying life [or creature], according to the property of that same constellation.

35. Saturn [has such a power or property in it as that it] may, if the sun be in a good aspect, take in the distilling dew out of the rainbow into itself; (understand, into the Saturnine property), which afterwards falls .upon the water, which some fish do eat down, and coagulate in them, whence precious pearls may arise.

36. For the Paradisical property doth open itself all along in the chaos, if it be not hindered by evil malignant aspects; which Master Wiseling 2 will scarce believe. He can speak of the ground of nature exactly, and has it at his fingers' ends, and yet is blind in the Mystery, and understands not either the inward or outward [part

of nature]. For such I have not written anything, for I need not such animals 3 to the understanding of my writings, but good, clear, quick-sighted, illuminated eyes; unto all others they are dumb and absurd, let them be as wise and learned as they will.

37. The chaos is the root of nature, and yields of itself nothing else but a good property; but if the constellation be evil, the evil malignant desire takes the good property into itself; and changes it into evil; as a good man among evil company does change his good also into an evil.

38. And the rainbow is especially represented [or freely given] unto man for a token of the divine grace; so that he might behold and view himself as in an open and perspicuous glass, what he is. For in the rainbow the sign of good and evil is manifest as a type of the centre of nature, out of which evil and good take their rise; over which the Son of Man was set by God, to be Judge.

39. For the type or form of the ark of Noah is also in the rainbow; if we were not blind it would plainly appear so unto us; also the Trinity of the Deity is therein portrayed: for the red colour betokens the Father, the yellow and white the Son, and the blue the Spirit.

1 Or escape. 2 The false philosopher or sophister. 3 Text, calves.

40. And God has set forth himself in a figure, according to his manifestation in the sign of the Covenant, that we should flee unto his grace, and receive his Covenant, and be always mindful of his revelation to come, where he will again manifest the spiritual world; as he has set it forth unto us by way of similitude in the rainbow; [to the end] that we should see what is in secret [and how his Covenant is] eternally established [with us in secret], and stands ever before him.

The Thirty-Fourth Chapter

How Noah cursed his Son Ham, and of the Mystical Prophecy Concerning his Three Sons and their Posterity

1. And Noah began to be an husbandman, and planted a vineyard: And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and lay uncovered in his tent. And Ham, Canaan's father, saw the nakedness of his father, and told it his two brethren without. And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backwards, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, so that they saw not their father's nakedness. Now when Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him, he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of all servants he shall be amongst his brethren. And he said further, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant. And God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem; and let Canaan he his servant (Gen. ix. 20-27).

This is an exact real type of the human property, according to the three Principles or worlds: for the spirit in Noah speaks from the centre; and the three sons of Noah did now stand before the spirit in a figure; typifying what kind of people should arise from them.

2. By this figure the spirit of Noah prophesied or declared, from the very stock or root of the formed Word of the human property, what the second monarchy should be. Noah was drunk, and lay naked with his shame, at which his son Ham mocked, and also declared it to his brethren, that they also should do the like. Here the spirit intimates and points out whence the curse arose upon Ham, viz. from the shame of his father.

3. For this was even the abomination before God's holiness; out of which root Ham and his generation, viz. the man of vanity, does arise, for in the image of God the shame is an abomination.

4. Therefore God commanded Abraham to be circumcised on this member, to show that this member was not given to Adam in the beginning, and that it should be again cut off from the image of God, and not inherit the kingdom of God; upon which cause and reason

also the soul's spirit is ashamed to uncover it.

5. But seeing that Adam did not stand in the image of God, when his Eve was made out of him, it was hung upon him for to propagate in a bestial nature and kind; thereupon also this bestial tree, viz. the fleshly spirit of vanity, came to be propagated all along from this property, and adheres to man. The figure of this was Ham, and therefore he mocked his own property in his father.

6. The spirit of this property mocked its ens which it had from the centre of nature; it beheld itself in his father's shame, from whence it had its rise, as in a looking-glass of its selfhood. And thus this spirit [of fleshly Ham] forthwith brake forth as a life of vanity, and manifested what itself was, viz. a scorn [disdain or mock-god] of heaven.

7. Which the spirit of God's image in the formed Word of the good ens in Noah did well know, and did awaken in him the fire-centre of the soul in the wrath, and cursed this spirit of vanity, that it should not co-inherit in the kingdom of heaven. The scoff-spirit shall not possess the kingdom of God, but be cut off from the image of God, that is, from the outward image of the formed creature.

8. For the same property from whence the shame arises, is good in itself; but in Adam's imagination after the bestial property it became monstrous, bestial and strange in the image of God; and therefore this strange form and shape shall not remain for ever.

9. From this strange false shape the scorner or scoff-spirit did arise. The devil insinuated into the figure of Ham's strange spirit, and mocked at the heavenly generatress, that it was now even become a monster in the image of God; and therefore the spirit of Noah cursed the false scoff-spirit [in Ham and all his generation].

10. Not that we are to understand that Ham was accursed in his soul and soul's spirit, but according to the figure [he and all his were accursed] in the property of the reviling mocking spirit, which brake forth and manifested itself out of the monster;

but he (that is, the earthly image of the limus of the earth) should be hidden with its own self-will in the image of God, and be only as a servant or instrument of the divine image proceeding from the holy ens; the earthly spirit should not rule, but the heavenly, viz. the soul with its spirit;

the monster, that is, this vile reviling spirit, must not be manifest. But seeing the free will did awaken and stir up the monstrous spirit, which was only a scorner of the Mystery and hiddenness in the Covenant, Noah cursed him, 1 and said, He should be a servant of his brethren.

1 Or it.

11. For he said, blessed be the God of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant: God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem. The God of Shem was he who had espoused or incorporated himself with the Covenant in the seed of the woman; the figure and type of this (in the spirit) was Shem; and Japheth was the figure of the poor soul captivated in the monster; God should let this Japhethical (or soul's) property, dwell in the tents of Shem, and enlarge it in Shem's figure.

12. But Ham's figure (according to the monstrous spirit) should not have any dominion or reign in the life of the new birth, but be only as a servant or as an instrument, without self-will or any peculiar life of selfness, [and] must serve and administer to the use of the spiritual kingdom; in manner as the night is hidden in the day, and yet 'tis really there, and yet so as if it were not; and it is the handmaid to the day's operation and power.

13. Thus in like manner the spirit did express how the three properties of the humanity, viz. the woman's seed, and the creatural soul's seed, and the earthly seed in Ham's figure, should stand in their place order and rule in the regeneration in the spiritual kingdom; and thereby it did declare and point at the kingdoms of the world, intimating that this same figure would all along put forth itself in

the kingdom and dominion of the humanity 1 upon the earth, and thus keep its figure externally, so long as mankind should live in the dominion of the four elements; as it has thus fallen out.

1 Or mankind.

14. For Shem's figure passed in the Covenant upon Abraham and Israel, among whom the Word of the Covenant was manifested and spoken forth; and Japheth's figure went along in nature, viz. through the wisdom of nature in the kingdom of nature; whence the Gentiles arose, who looked upon the light of nature, and Shem's lineage looked upon the light in the Covenant. Thus Japheth, that is, the

poor captive soul which is of the eternal nature, dwelt in Shem's tent, viz. under the Covenant; for the light of nature dwells in the light of grace, and is a tenant or inhabitant of the light of grace, viz. of God's light, it is even as a form of framed substance of the unformed uncomprehended light of God.

15. And Ham's line passed upon the animal bestial man, proceeded from the limus of the earth, in which was the curse; whence the Sodomitical and almost wholly brutish people did arise; who esteemed neither the light of nature, nor the light of grace in the Covenant.

16. This signifies and points out the outward part of the soul from the spirit of this world; which, in the regeneration in the spiritual world, shall be a formed and very fixed will; which may not or desires not to rule in the manner and condition of a selfish peculiar spirit; but shall be as a servant and minister of the creatural soul and God's spirit in the holy light's image; it shall not be manifest in any self-full arrogative understanding of selfhood, but remain hidden, as the night is hidden in the day; and yet it is really there.

17. For the animal soul shall not inherit the kingdom of light; although it shall and will be therein; yet it has no dominion [or predominant virtue of its selfness]. As an instrument is a dead senseless thing in reference to the master, and yet it is the master's tool wherewith he makes what he pleases; the same in like manner we are to understand concerning the animal soul in the regeneration.

18. But in the time of the four elements it will have the upper hand and sway, for it has brought itself into a proper selfhood and imaginative life of selfish propriety; and therefore God has accursed it, and condemned it to death, so that it must die to selfhood.

19. For when Adam in his desire did awaken the earthly properties out of the limus of the earth, so that they went forth out of their just accord and mutual harmony, each of them into its own self-will and lust, to behold and look upon its selfas a peculiar self-life;

the bestial soul was hereby brought to its predominant power and force. And this same is Ham's property, which God has ordained to be servant under the angelical kingdom, and cursed its jeering scorning power, in that it did mock at the heavenly matrix, and set forth its own figure and form.

20. The spirit says in Moses, Shem and Japheth took a garment upon their shoulders, and went backward to their father and covered him; so that their faces were turned backward, and they saw not his shame (Gen. ix. 23).

O you wonderful God! how very mystically and secretly dost you carry your works: who would know and understand your ways, if your spirit did not lead us, and open the understanding!

21. Both these brothers took a garment upon their shoulders and covered the father. Wherefore did not one do it alone? or wherefore did Noah drink himself drunk, and lay so naked with his shame? This, reason looks upon, as if there were nothing more in it [but only a history of such an act]. But seeing that Ham was thereby cursed, and made to be a servant of his brethren, and not only he, but also all his posterity out of him, we see thereby very clearly what the spirit doth hereby signify, viz. that it is a type, character and figure of that which should afterwards come to pass.

22. The earthly spirit, which the devil had made monstrous, was a scorner and jeerer of the heavenly birth; it indeed saw the shame which it must bear upon it as a monster; but he went away as a beast, and mocked the new regeneration of the heavenly matrix. But Japheth, viz. the poor soul, and Shem, that is, the disappeared heaven's image, which was moved, stirred or quickened again in the Covenant, they took a garment upon their shoulders. This garment was the new humanity, which should open itself out of the Covenant, out of the angelical world.

23. And they went backward, and covered the father's shame. This intimates and betokens that the free will of self must and shall wholly turn itself away from the bestial monster of self-fullness and ownhood, wherein the shame stands open, and enter again into the resigned filiation or child-ship; and go no more forwards, but retire again backwards; and must take the garment of the new humanity, viz. Christ's innocency, merit and satisfaction upon it, and therewith cover the shame which our father Adam has, with the monster, passed upon us by inheritance: This was the type which was here set forth.

24. And that Shem did not carry the garment alone, and cover the father, doth figure out unto us, that the soul, viz. Japheth, (that is, the inward kingdom) of the inward eternal nature, must help; for

the soul is of the Father's property, and this, Japheth doth typify. And the soul's spirit, viz. the fair image of God in the light, which did vanish or disappear in Adam, and stood typically 1 in the Covenant, of which Shem was the figure, doth point out unto us the Son's property, who should open the Covenant. Thus also we are to understand that the Father in his will, who freely gave us the Son, took on one part the garment of our sins' covering, and this was typified by Japheth;

and the Son, on the other part, who covered our shame with the Father's will, of this Shem was a figure.

25. For if Christ shall lay the covering garment upon our shame, then the soul must help, that is, it must give up and resign its will wholly thereinto; and go backwards with its will towards the bosom of the Father; and not any longer parley with itself in its own will and knowledge, how it goes or will go; and so it must take the garment, in true repentance, upon its shoulders; and leave the other part upon the shoulders of Shem, viz. unto the true image of Christ, 2 which is the precious noble Sophia.

1 Or in the image. 2 Or God.

26. Both these take the heavenly garment, and go backwards to the Father; and though they cannot see how they go, yet they go in faith, trusting on God's mercy, and turn away their eyes from the shame, vanity and false will. For in this place going backwards and covering the shame signifies nothing else but to convert the selfhood naturally going forwards in its own will and way, and go back again into the ONE, out of which the free will departed and came into the monster, or shame.

27. Noah's drunkenness signifies, that when Adam entered with his lust and desire into this world's property, he became drunk in the bestial property; and therein he uncovered his shame, that is, he disclosed and made bare therein the bestial lust. Now, when this was done, he stood before God in great shame; and then the bestial spirit in this monster of false lust and poisonful concupiscence brake forth, and reviled the precious heavenly image, and made itself master.

28. And thus Christ must, in our soul, and in our disappeared and again revived noble Sophia, cover the shame of our father Adam and his children; for he would therefore not be born of the seed of man; but out of the heavenly, disappeared ens, and brought his living ens

of the holy world thereinto; that so he might cover with his heavenly ens our monstrous shame 1 of the soul's property, which Adam's lust had uncovered.

1 Text, seed.

29. The corrupt nature which had opened itself now in Paradise, went along in all men; and though the image of God was again regenerate in the spirit of the saints, as in a figurative form until the fulfilling of Christ in the flesh, yet the monstrous image was propagated all along in all in the earthly property.

30. But seeing the first earthly world of the human property was drowned in the flood, and there the first monarchies ceased, the same figure did forthwith represent itself again in Noah and his three sons. So that now the spirit does here signify from the very stock and root of the human property, how it should afterwards be, viz. the tree of man would in its properties introduce itself into boughs and branches; that is, spread forth itself into distinct nations and governments; and that they would not all know the only God according to the light of his grace; and how that God would represent unto them the light of grace in the generation of Shem.

31. For Noah says, Blessed be the God of Shem, and let Japheth dwell in Shem's tents. By the God of Shem he means the holy Word in the Covenant, intimating how the same would manifest itself. And then the Japhites or Gentiles, which lived in the light of nature, should come to the light of grace manifested from the generation of Shem ;

and enter into Shem's tents, and dwell therein. This did point at the Gentiles, who before knew only of the light of nature, but when the Word did manifest itself in the person of Christ, with the gracious light of the Gospel, they came into the light of grace.

32. And even here Ham, viz. the fleshly lust-spirit, must be in

its own property and selfhood a servant among the children of light, for the children of God do compel him to servitude and keep him under, and take away his reviling scorning will. For the spirit of Ham, which Noah cursed, does intimate how this Ham's spirit would be great upon the earth, and go on only in its own proud monstrous and bestial knowledge, and scoff at the children of the light, account them fools, because they hope upon something else, which they do not outwardly see.

33. Thus the spirit in Noah points out unto us three sorts of men; first it signifies the children of faith, who nakedly and merely look upon the hidden light of God's grace, and have the same shining in their hearts.

34. The other would look upon the light of nature and reason, and would endeavour to fathom and search out the hidden light by the strength of reason, and that they would therefore contend, dispute, wrangle and jangle, and bring forth many wonderful strange monsters and conceits out of the light of nature, and set them up for gods, or God's light, as it has so come to pass among the Christians and Gentiles.

35. The third sort would be of Ham's nature and generation; and know neither the light of nature nor grace; but walk as the beast, and be only titular verbal praters and literal children, and, moreover, mockers, scoffers, and fleering apes, who would also be called the children of God. But their knowledge would be only of the external stone church; a mere custom, and verbal round of a service of God, 1 where the mouth would use indeed the name of God; but the heart would only bring forth a bestial spirit to earthly pride, lust and pleasure.

1 Or Divine Service as they call it.

36. Thus the spirit of Shem, Ham and Japheth would dwell together in one congregation. Shem's generation in faith hidden among the Japhites, as a poor, disesteemed, contemned, abject people.

But the tribe of Japheth would set forth themselves with great plausible words, with great and huge ostentation of God's service; but yet it would be but as an hypocrisy and seeming holiness, proceeding from the light of nature. But Ham's lineage would be full of gluttony and drunkenness, scoffing, and reviling, and they would mock at both, viz. the children of the Cain-like seeming holiness, and also at the children of the true light; and would live as the wild brute beast; and yet in their swinish life would be children of grace by an outward appropriation or adoption.

37. This Ham has now the dominion in Christendom; he has flattered with Japheth, so that he has set him up by the light of nature an external specious divine worship, as a titular God. This

titular God has covered Ham, in his bestial Sodomitical spirit, with a very fair and glorious covering, under the purple mantle of Christ; and laid under his head great sacks full 1 of the light of grace; and these the bestial mouth-spirit of Ham must take along with it; and when it must indeed die, then it has whole sacks full of the light of grace.

1 Or satchels full.

38. But the light of grace remains only in the sacks, and Ham's spirit remains in itself an evil beast; and cannot truly open the sacks and take out the light of grace. This Ham's spirit is accursed, and shall not inherit God's kingdom; unless it be really born again out of the light of grace; otherwise the sacks and coverings avail him not at all.

39. For a beast goes into the sanctuary [or to holy service of God] , and remains a beast when he comes thence. Your seeming holiness and devotion, your comforting, flattering and soothing up yourself, avails nothing, unless you return again into your first mother, from whence man is originally proceeded, and become as a little, new born child, and let Ham and Japheth go, with all their arts and pratings.

40. For Japheth obtains it not in his specious glistering kingdom; unless he enter into Shem's tent, viz. into the light of grace, so that the same may be born in him. Outward adopted children avail not in God's account; but innate children, born anew of the heavenly ens in Christ spirit; and whosoever has not the same is already judged (John iii. 18).

A TABLE

OF THE CHIEF MATTERS TO BE FOUND IN THIS BOOK OF THE

MYSTERIUM MAGNUM

A

CHAP. Abel VERSE

27. why Abel offered sacrifice 9

29. What the name Abel or Habel signifies in the Language of Nature 20

30. why Abel must be slain 16

Ability

61. How the soul may attain ability to receive grace 39,40 69. How man's ability to receive grace is lost 17,18

Abimelech

46. What the names of Abimelech and Gerar signify 2,3

47. How Abimelech made a covenant with Abraham. What that signifies in the spiritual figure; and what Moses here signifies under the veil thereof 1-27

47. The holy figure of Abimelech and Pichol. 6, et seq.

Above

43. What is called above and beneath in the text 9, 11, 12

Abraham

37. of Abraham and his seed, and of the line of the Covenant in its propagation 1-61

37. why the Spirit called Abraham out of his father's country 21, et seq.

37. How God appeared to Abraham 45-49

39. How God appeared to Abraham 1

38. How the ens of the Serpent as well as the line of Christ lay in Abraham. 13

39. of Abraham's sacrifice 13-25

39. How God established the Covenant with Abraham, and how the faith of Abraham laid hold of the Covenant, which was accounted to him for righteousness, and how God called Abraham to sacrifice 1-32

CHAP. Abraham VERSE

40. What is represented under the history of Abraham, Isaac and

Jacob 1 40. How two lines sprang out of Abraham 2-6 40. From what property of Abraham Isaac and Ishmael were 13 40. How Abraham in his seed had the land for an eternal possession

50-58

42. How the Trinity appeared to Abraham 1 42. What Abraham signifies in the Language of Nature 1

42. What Abraham's washing of their feet that came to him signifies 11

43. What Abraham's praying to the men for Sodom and Gomorrah signifies . 16-21

45. How Abraham's pilgrimage was a type of Christendom 1-13 45. How Abraham, Sarah and Abimelech were a powerful figure of Christendom 15, 16

How God led Abraham so wonderfully, and how he was always in

45. of Abraham's unwillingness to thrust out the maid-servant with trial, and how the Lord preserved him 1-20

46. of Abraham's unwillingness to thrust out the maid-servant with her son 24-28

47. of the richness of the figure of Abraham's actions 1

47. of Abimelech's covenant with Abraham . 2-27

48. How God tried Abraham, and represented the figure of Christ's sacrifice in his sufferings and death 1-34

48. How Abraham saw Christ's sacrifice afar off; even 2000 years before it was done 10

48. How Abraham went up with Isaac to sacrifice. 8-13

48. of Isaac's carrying the wood, and Abraham's carrying the fire and the knife . 14, 15

48. why God said: Abraham, Abraham 25

48. How men should look upon Abraham's figure 37-43

49. How Abraham would not have the field of the children of Heth for nothing 11

50. How Abraham sent his servant to take a wife for Isaac 1-57

51. How Abraham had six sons by another wife, to whom he gave gifts, but all his goods he gave to Isaac; and how he died 1-55

Adam

17. How Adam did eat before the Fall 13, 14

17. Whence Adam's imagination and longing proceeded 37

18. How Adam was before the Fall 2-9

18. of two fixed substances in Adam 7,8 18. How the propagation should have been if Adam had stood 9-14 18. How long Adam stood in Paradise before Eve was made 19-27

18. How Adam before his sleep had eaten of the forbidden fruit 30-33

19. Adam was not created in a bestial image 20-25

CHAP. Adam VERSE

23. At what Adam was afraid 17, et seq.

25. How God drove Adam out of Paradise, and set the Cherubim

before the Garden 1-41 25. How Adam gets his bride again that was taken from him in

his sleep 14, 15

25. why Adam and Eve were brought into Paradise 17

25. What provoked Adam that he lusted against God's command 18

25. why God created Adam 19

25. why the Tree of Temptation was set before Adam 23

25. why Adam was tempted and driven out of Paradise 38

37. of God's Covenant with Adam 3

76. How Adam was, before his Eve was, and became monstrous 11-18

All

3. How a particular is the sport of the universal total All 21 Altar

27. Where the altar of God is 48 Angels

8. of the creation of angels, and their dominion in all their worlds 1-34

8. why we see not the angels . 19

8. Where the angels dwell 16, et seq.

17. How the holy angels live 35

25. What the angel with the sword is . 2

42. for what God created the angels and man 24,25

43. of the two angels that came into Sodom 22-64 43. How the angels did eat with Lot. 38 59. How the angel met Jacob, and what that signifies 24

Antichrist. Antichristian

27. of the wicked Antichristian Church, also of the true holy Church

41-60

28. of Cain's murdering of his brother, viz. of the proud Antichristian seeming Church upon earth, as also of the true

Christianity 1-71

36. What the Antichrist is 17

43. The Antichristian whore does as the Sodomites did. 47-52

51. What Antichrist is both among Jews and Christians. 44

70. How Antichrist has deceived poor Christendom 38, 39

77. When Antichrist will fall

70

Ararat

32. of the name Ararat in the Language of Nature 33-37

CHAP. Ark VERSE

32. There is a very great mystery in the Ark of Noah 10, et seq.

Asher

77. The Testament of Asher, and the figure thereof 29-32 As I live

42. An exposition of these words: As I live 27, et seq.

Author

5. From what sight and vision the Author has written 15

12. The Author had a glass to see even beyond Moses 34 18. From what knowledge the Author has written 1

21. The scope of the Author's writing. 17

B Babel

22. Out of what Babel is generated 54 25. How Babel shall end by the fiery sword 26

27. How Babel enters into the presence of God 52-60

29. How Babel speaks out 7, 65, et seq., and 77

30. of the fall of the city Babel • 43

31. How God will at present drown Babel with the fire of his anger 27 36. How the city Babel and Christ are one by the other 60, 61 36. why so much is written concerning the beast and whore in Babel 68

36. What the city Babel is. 56

43. The time of the judgement upon Babel 52

44. How the figure of the destruction of Sodom is applied to Babel 5, et seq

59. How it is that Babel will have the children of Christ go to God 19, 20 59. How it is that Babel cannot hinder or hurt the children of Christ 21, 22

69. How Babel is a spy as to the grace of God 19

70. The time is born, that Babel shall be spewed out 90

72. How Babel's reproach is set in judgement before the Most High. 23

73. The number of Babel and of the beast 9, 10 73. How Babel at present fills its sack with provision . 16, 17

73. How the deluge and the fire of Sodom falls upon Babel unawares 18 Babylon

41. A warning to Antichristian Babylon 66-71

CHAP. Baptism VERSE

31. How the deluge signifies the baptism of Christ 38 41. of the seals of the Covenant, circumcision of the foreskin and

baptism. 1-41 41. of Christian baptism 10-14 41. How the Jews and the Christians have but one and the same

baptism. 15-17

Beast

31. How abomination may be imputed to a beast. 31-38

36. What the Antichristian Babylonish beast is 18, 19

36. What the beast and whore is 64

36. Where the beast, the whore, and Christ in us, is 49-51

73. What the number of Babel and of the beast is . 9, 10

73. Wherefore the time is at hand that the beast and the whore must break in pieces . 14, et seq.

76. How Simeon and Levi prefigure the beast and the whore 29, 30

Beersheba

47. What the city Beersheba or Bersaba signifies 20, et seq.

Benjamin

77. The Testament of Benjamin, and the signification thereof. 48-58

Benoni

63. What the name Benoni signifies 26, 27

Bestial Man

21. of the bestial man's original, and of his sickness and mortality 1-17 21. of the government of the bestial man 11,12 Bethel

63. What Bethel signifies 19

Bible

74. How the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of hell are portrayed by the histories in the Bible 50, 51

Blessing

41. What in man shall possess the eternal blessing 1 Boasting

2. We come short of that boasting or glory that we ought to have in God ^ 3

CHAP. Bodies. Body VERSE

11. of two outward bodies. 22

11. How all things of this world have a twofold body 19

11. Man has a threefold body . 20

40. The heavenly body of the soul dies not 44,45

Bondage

39. What the figure is of the bondage in Egypt 26, et seq.

Book

43. How a man must understand the first Book of Moses. 57

52. How the first Book of Moses is a figure of the Spirit of God 51 76. How all slanderous books and libels are the murdering swords of Simeon and Levi 29 Breath

15. of a threefold breath in man, which is a threefold soul 14,15

C

Cain

26. of the propagation of man in this world, and of Cain the firstborn and murderer. 1-76

27. What is to be understood by Cain's sacrifice. 41

27. why the will of the Serpent and Devil in Cain would kill the body

of Abel. 9, 10

28. What was the cause that Cain murdered Abel 4-25

29. What the name Cain signifies in the Language of Nature 18 29. How Cain and Abet were the two branches, and the image of the

whole tree 23

29. What mark God had set upon Cain 53

29. of Cain's fears 54

29. Wherefore grace came upon Cain . 56

29. Cain was not born to perdition 57

29. What should be avenged in Cain sevenfold 58

37. What in Cain is cursed • 35

40. Cain, Ham, Ishmael and Esau are an image of the Turks and

heathens

71

Cainan, see Kenan Calf

42. What Abraham's fatted calf signifies 19, et seq.

CHAP. Camels VERSE

50. What the ten camels which Abraham's servant took with him signify 14, et seq.

Canaan

49. What Moses understands by Canaan . 12

Care for the Belly

24. What a man does effect by pride and care for the belly 21, et seq.

Cave

49. What the twofold cave signifies . 13, et seq.

Changed

11. How all things may be changed 11 Chaos

1. What the eternal Chaos is wherein all things lie hid. 7,8 Chariots

72. What the chariots, provision, and sumptuous apparel signify, that Joseph gave to his brethren 24-38

Cherubim

25. of the Cherubim, that drove the evil Adam out of Paradise 38, et seq.

Child of Perdition 46. How the child of perdition shall be revealed, and the beast and whore put to shame . 33, 34

Children of God or Christ 31. How the children of God saw the daughters of men. 12-16

37. How the line of the children of God is as a tree 1, 2

38. How God delivers his children through the might of his anger 14 44. How the children of God do of ten keep back great plagues from

God 19-21 46. How it is that men see no more in the children of God than in others 4-6

55. of the misery and ignorance of the children of God 35, 36 55. why the true children of Christ are persecuted by the children in

the kingdom of nature . 47-50 56. How the children of Christ instantly after the blessing enter upon

Christ's pilgrimage . 1, 2

56. How God so wonderfully leads and preserves his children 3

CHAP. Children of God or Christ VERSE 56. How the Lord stands aloft on Jacob's ladder, calling and

comforting the children of God . 11, 12

64. How the despising of the children of Christ is good for them 12 66. The type and image of the children of God in chaste Joseph 32-40 66. How the children of God have the greatest danger in worldly

honour 53 66. The final and last trial of the children of God. 61-63 and 68

Christ

19. Wherefore Christ became a man on the woman's part 17

23. why Christ sweat drops of blood in the Garden 4

23. why Christ must drink gall and vinegar 5,6

23. why Christ must be scorned, killed, etc 8,9

23. How Christ assumed a masculine fire-soul in the woman's

property 43, et seq.

25. why Christ must be tempted 24

29. What was Christ's office 25

34. why Christ would not be generated of man's, or the masculine, seed 28

37. How Christ should become a God-man, and Adam and Abraham a man-God 28-32

37. of Christ's Person 42 , et seq.

40. How Christ and his subjects must be twofold persons 11, 12

40. How Christ was generated out of the Covenant made with Abraham. 15

40. How the humanity of Christ anoints his branches 14 40. Wherefore Christ came . 48-70

41. What Christ's, viz. God's, corporeity is 19, et seq.

48. How Christ will certainly come to us again 13

50. How Christ is a masculine virgin and God 26

51. How Christ is a grape-gatherer that gleans 53

56. A firm ground and assurance that Christ assumed our Adamical soul and humanity in the body and womb of Mary 14-20

56. From what property Christ became man 20

56. why Christ took his soul from woman and became a man 21, 22

69. Where a man must seek Christ 22

76. How the time is near, that the kingdom of Christ will be manifested to all people

50, et seq.

Christendom

27. How verbal Christendom partakes of the sacrifice of Christ 42

68. How at present Christendom stands in God's presence . 32 -42 68. What the four elements of hunger in Christendom are 35-39

CHAP. Christian VERSE

27. What a Christian is, and how he is a Christian 46

63. What a Christian is, and how he is a Christian 51, et seq. 40. How a Christian must be a Christian 97 51. How a Christian in his faith works in the flesh of Christ 31 51. When any is a Christian 43

64. How a Christian must not account the hate from his brother to be

grievous 26,27

64. What the wish of a Christian to his enemies should be 27 64. How a true Christian should present the misery and sins of the people where he lives, daily before God 37, 38

66. What officer is a Christian, and what no Christian 20

66. How a Christian must be armed, in worldly offices . 65, et seq. 68. The most excellent figure in the whole Bible, of a tried

Christian. 48, et seq.

70. How a man begins to be a Christian 24, 25

70. What the difference is between a Christian and other strange

heathen people. 80, et seq.

Church

63. What the greatest whoredom is in the churches of stone. 39-43 63. How at present men are ready to storm the Church, or house of

whoredom 45 63. How churches were erected out of a good intention. 46 63. What holiness is in the Church 47

63. What a man must do that he may enter into the Church worthily 50

Circumcision

41. why God commanded circumcision to Abraham 2, et seq.

41. why the males must be circumcised on the eighth day 35, et seq-41. What circumcision is 3, et seq.

Clod

2. The whole world lies in one clod of earth 6

Coat

64. What Joseph's particoloured coat which his father made him signifies 39

64. What it signifies that Jacob was deceived by Joseph's coat 49, et seq.

Concubines

63. How Jacob's concubines signify the stone churches 36 Conditions. See forms

CHAP. Configuration VERSE

13. A whole configuration or constellation lies in each element 12

Contention

17. The contention of the high schools or universities about the Tree

of Knowledge 16 28. What the cause of contention about religion is 26-43

35. Whence contention does arise 61, et seq.

36. of the contention at the Tower of the confusion of tongues in Babel 12, 13

40. How contentious preachers embitter the ears of the hearers 98 51. How the false cold love of titulary Christendom contends

about knowledge 46, et seq.

65. What the contentious opinions in Babel are 49, 50

Copulation

41. How the bestial copulation is borne withal under divine patience 2,3

Councils

77. When councils were set in the place of the Holy Ghost

66

Counsel

66. To whom there is no more counsel or remedy to eternity. 47 Covenant

30. of the line of the Covenant 1-54

32. of the Covenant between God and Noah 1

33. of the Covenant of God with Noah, and all creatures 1-40

Covering

22. The covering for our nakedness is ours and no more 77, et seq-Covetousness

24. Whence the great covetousness does arise 10 Cradle

63. What the cradle of the child Jesus is 48 Creation

10. of the creation of heaven and the outward world 1-62

11. of the mysticalness of the creation 1

I

Creature

32. How the image of the creature shall not pass away 16

CHAP. Cup VERSE

17. What Joseph's cup in Benjamin's sack signifies 1-13; 41-57

Curse

10. of the curse of the earth 8 24. of the curse, and of the body of sickness, whence that arises 1-35 24. What the curse is 2

D

Damn. Damned

41. An excellent figure against those that, according to their conclusions in reason by the letter, damn some children from the womb 41

66. What the torment of all the damned is . 67

Dan

77. The Testament of Dan, and the figure thereof. 13-25 77. How it is signified by Dan, Gad and Asher, what kind of people would govern the world 30, et seq.

Darkness

3. or the eternal original of the darkness 5 5. or the enmity in the darkness 6

Day. Days

12. of the six Days' work of the Creation 1-39

12. of the first Day 13, et seq.

12. of the second Day 19, et seq.

12. of the third Day 32, et seq.

13. of the fourth Day 1-20

14. of the fifth Day 1-13

15. of the sixth Day's work of Creation 1-31

16. of the creation of the seventh Day 16-18 16. How the seventh Day has been from eternity 28

Death

4. The original of the eternal death 12 11. What the death and misery of man and all creatures is 17 23. why the rocks clave in sunder at the death of Christ 3 33. why God's anger of ten puts one man to death by another 21, 22

Decrees

61. How the decrees in Scripture point only at two kingdoms 55

CHAP. Deity VERSE

52. How the Deity manifests itself through the soul's nature 7, 8

Delight

3. The delight or longing is the property of the Son 7 Deluge

32. why the Deluge, or Noah's flood, came after seven days. 20, 21, 22 32. Wherefore the fountains of water opened themselves, in the

Deluge 26, et seq.

Desire

3. The desire arises from the longing or delight, and is the Father's property 6,7

3. The desire coagulates itself.

5

Devil. Devils. See Lucifer 8. That which is pain and torment to the devils, is joy to the angels 21 10. How the Devil is the most despicable poor creature of all 31

17. How Lucifer became a devil 28

22. Where the Devil's council-chamber and school is 17, et seq.

37. How the heathen had not their answers from the Devil 12, 13

38. How the Devil is a prince of this world 5,6

38. What those four elements are wherein the Devil and all evil creatures live 7

66. Where the Devil is a frolick guest 54 70. What the Devil's fishhook is 41

74. How the Devil lost his seat and stool in man 17, 18

Dinah

58. The figure of Dinah 39-45 62. How Dinah was deflowered, and Sichem and the city slain and spoiled: the gate of Christians' wars and the Babylonish whoredom, to be well considered of 1-40 62. How Dinah went forth to see the daughters of the land, and,

what is prefigured thereby 3, et seq.

62. How Dinah's whoredom and Simeon and Levi's murder is a

figure of Christendom 9-18

Doctors

35. What understanding the doctors have in their contention about God's habitation and being 66

CHAP. Dominion VERSE

39. Whence dominion arises 32

Dove

32. What Noah's first dove signifies 40 42. What the three doves and the raven signify 42-46

Dragon

76. What the dragon's seven heads are 25, 26

Drank plentifully 70. What that signifies, that Joseph and his brethren drank

plentifully 94

Dreams

67. What it is to expound dreams 1, 2

67. Whence it is that a beast dreams 5

68. of King Pharaoh's dreams 1, et seq.

68. Wherefore the natural Magi could not expound Pharaoh's

dreams 2, 10, 18, 19

Driver. See Hunter Dying

20. of Adam and Eve's dying 26, et seq.

E Earth

10. Whence the grossness of the Earth proceeds 30

10. Out of what the Earth is proceeded 61

12. How the glove of the Earth is extruded 7

22. What the Earth is 45 25. why God created the Earth 29, et seq.

25. When God set the time for the Earth to endure 19

Eden

17. What Eden is 6 Edom

53. What Edom is, and signifies, in the High Tongue 5 64. What Edom is, and signifies, in the High Tongue 3

CHAP. Egyptians VERSE

78. What it signifies that many Egyptians went along when Jacob was buried 2

Elected. Election

25. of that saying of St Paul, We were elected in Christ Jesus ere the foundation of the world was laid 20

48. How God elected not only the natural line of Christ, but also the

line of nature 35, 36

51. An excellent figure, against the wise rationalists, concerning election or predestination 4-24

26. of election or predestination. 1-76 32. A curious example, how God has predestinated no election in

nature 3,4

46. How God's election passes only upon the figure 30 61. of God's election, or predestination, or decree concerning Jacob

and Esau 1-3 and 23

Elements

10. That the four elements are but properties 49 Ember

23. How, in many there is an ember glowing towards the virgin's

child of the new birth 41, 42

Enos. Enoch

30. What Enos signifies in the Language of Nature 11 30. What Enoch is in the Language of Nature 27, et seq.

30. How long Enoch's voice must be silent 49, 50

31. of the line of wonders, issuing from Enoch 1-45

Envy

24. Whence the great envy arises 11 Ephraim

75. The figure of Israel's laying his right hand upon Ephraim's

head 12, et seq.

Esau

52. What Esau signifies in the Language of Nature 36

53. How Esau despised his being first-born, and sold it for a mess of pottage 1-28

54. The figure of Esau's forty years, and of his two wives 18, et seq.

CHAP. Esau VERSE

55. How the figure of Isaac's blessing, and of Esau and Jacob is to be understood 1-5

55. why Esau was blessed with the word of strife 11 55. why Esau was all over rough and hairy 21, 22

55. What that signifies, that Esau attained not the blessing 39

55. What figure Esau is, in his blessing 40, et seq.

56. The figure of Esau's being a grief to his parents 9,10 60. What Esau the first-born signifies 3

60. What Esau's four hundred men signify 6

60. How Esau went to meet Jacob, and how Jacob sent Esau presents 1

61. The figure, of Esau's saying to Jacob: Whose are these with

you 10, et seq.

61. How Esau's curse and malice was turned into love 18, 19, 53

61. A plain exposition of the Scriptures, saying, Esau sought repentance with tears and yet found it not 20, et seq.

64. How Esau stands in the figure of the kingdom of nature 2

Esdras, or Ezra

38. How Esdras, in the knowledge of the Spirit, had the lost Bible dictated to him 24

52. How Ezra has briefly written the figure and history 52

Eve

18. why Eve's will was subject to her husband's 11

20. why Eve so suddenly lusted after vanity 2-8

20. How Eve gazed on the Serpent 22

Evil

10. How the evilest must be the cause of the best 62

11. What the great evil of this world is 15 22. What the greatest evil is 25

28. How the evil causes that the good is manifest to itself 67, et seq.

29. How nothing is created evil, or to the dominion of evil 11

61. Whence evil and good proceed 61, 63, 68

F Faith

27. What that is which is called faith 35 39. What it is rightly, to believe God, with Abraham. Which is the

right ground of our Christian faith 8,9

48. What faith in God's children is able to do 33, 34

S6. How the faithful, or believers, put on Christ 32 , et seq.

CHAP. Fall VERSE

9. of the Fall of Lucifer, and his legions 1-25

11. What the Fall of Lucifer, and the heathen idols, were 6

17. Whence the desire to fall in Lucifer proceeded 22-43

17. of the Fall of Lucifer 25, et seq.

17. How man came to fall 31

17. How God saw the Fall 33

20. of the lamentable and miserable Fall of man 1-38

Famine

73. How the great famine and hunger after heavenly food is near at

hand 12-14 Favour

66. How the children of God must not set their hope in the favour of

man 50-56

67. How the children of God must not set their hope in the favour of man 15, et seq.

Fear

70. What Jacob's fear, that he would not let his son go to Joseph,

signifies 28,29

Fiat

11. How the Verbum Fiat, the Word of Creation, is still creating to this day 9 Figure

52. When the figure shall wholly be manifested in substance 52 54. of the figure of the Old and New Testament 17

Fire

3. of a twofold fire 23, 24

24. Wherefore all things shall be tried in the fire 4-9 27. With what fire the sacrifices of Abel and Moses were kindled 8, 23 27. How man in the Resurrection shall pass

through the fire of anger 21, 22

27. The eternal fire, and also the love-fire is magical 31

37. What fire at the end of the Day shall purge the floor 20

Food

70. What is the food of the eternal Word that became man 60

CHAP. Fool VERSE

22. What the word fool means 65,66

24. What is the greatest foolishness 16-30

Form. Forms or Properties of Nature 28. The Spirit of Christ in his children is bound to no certain form 51-55

3. What the first form, condition, property or Fiat is 8, 9

3. What the second form is 10, 11

3. What the third form is 12, et seq.

3. What the fourth form is 18

5. What the fifth form is 1, et seq.

5. What the sixth form is 11, et seq.

6. What the seventh form is 1-13 6. of the seven forms, conditions or properties of the eternal

nature 14, et seq.

6. of the out-birth or manifestation of the seven forms, conditions or properties 21-24

7. How seven forms or properties are in all things 18

20. of four forms or properties in man 33, et seq.

40. How in the moving of nature two forms or properties divided themselves 7,8 Free Longing

3. The free longing or lubet is no property 6 Fruits

70. What the fruits signify, which Jacob commanded his children to carry along with them 33, et seq.

G Gad

77. The Testament of Gad, and the figure thereof. 26, et seq.

Germany

45. How Germany shall be blinded by a star shining from east to west 12-14 Globe

18. Moses' Tables written on a globe 20, 21

God

1. What God is 2

2. Where God dwells 8

3. Where God is called Father and Son 7

CHAP. God VERSE

5. How God is in the darkness and in the light 10

8. How God wills good and evil 24

19. It is idolatrous to portray God as a man 27

36. why God became man 65, 66 43. How reason thinks that God dwells only above the stars

and firmament 2, 3

43. Where God dwells according to love and anger 4

43. How God sees in the devils and in the wicked soul 5, et seq. 43. How that is understood where it is said, The cry was come

God 6 60. How God is manifested in the thrones of the holy angels, and of

the devils 45, 46

Good

2. of what God made the good and the evil 4, et seq.

3. How out of the eternal Good evil is come to be 1, et seq.

3. By what good is known 22

22. To whom we must do good, to whom not 81, 82

71. How the eternal Good became creaturely 14, et seq.

Goshen

72. What the land of Goshen signifies 18

73. of the figure typified by Goshen 31, et seq.

Government

22. Whence the earthly government arises 74 66. How the governor in the office of Joseph governs in Christendom 12, et seq.

Gulf

8. The gulf between darkness and light, and between the holy

world and the dark world 22, 23

Guts

19. How the guts and entrails were added to Adam and Eve 19

H Hagar

40. of the history and most wonderful prefiguration of the Spirit of God, by Hagar, Sarah's maid-servant, and her son Ishmael, of his casting out from the inheritance, and of Isaac's inheritance 1-100 46. The figure of Hagar's casting out, and the birth of Isaac. 8-15 46. A noble figure concerning forsaken nature, by Hagar and her son

16-23

CHAP. Ham VERSE

31. What Ham is in the Language of Nature 7

32. why Ham's image was cursed by his father 9 34. How Ham's spirit at present has the government in Christendom 37, et seq.

37. What in Ham and Cain is cursed 35 Hanoch

29. What Hanoch signifies in the Language of Nature 28,29

Hardened. Hardening 61. why man continues hardened

61. How the hardening is not from the purpose of God

66, et seq.

Head

23. What it is to tread upon or break the head of the Serpent 32 ,37 Heaven

5. of the fullness of joy in heaven 5 8. Heaven is in hell and hell in heaven 28 10. What we are to understand by the two words, Himmel and Erde, heaven and earth 47, et seq.

Heels

23. What the stinging in the heels is 33, 34

Hell

3. The true original of the dark world or hell, into which the devils are thrust 2

4. Whence hell has its name 16

5. What and where hell and the dark world is 9 8. How heaven is in hell and hell in heaven 28

Herdsmen

73. The figure of this, that Joseph's brethren must say before

Pharaoh that they were herdsmen 35, et seq.

Hirah

65. What Hirah of Odollam is in the figure 21

Honest

66. How all things must serve to the best for those that are honest

or virtuous and fear God 68, et seq.

CHAP. Hunter VERSE

35. of the hunter or driver and his office 36

I

Idols

37. The original of the heathenish idols, and their oracles 7-12 59. of Rachel's idol-gods 9-18

Image. Images

21. How the heavenly image that God created in Adam, is capable

of the kingdom of God 14 68. How the makers of images are threatened by the anger of God 26-31

Infidelity

51. How infidelity is as great in one people as in another 42 ,43

Interpretations. Interpreter

37. By what understanding interpretations are made 10, et seq.

69. What the interpreter, by whom Joseph speaks, signifies 35

Isaac

40. why Isaac was chosen and appointed to the inheritance. 39, 40

46. of Isaac's birth, and Ishmael's casting out with his mother Hagar: what is thereby signified 1 -37

48. Concerning Isaac's saying to his father,

Here is fire and wood, etc. 16, 17

48. why Isaac must not be slain 20

50. The figure of Isaac's meeting Rebecca in the field 54, et seq.

52. How Esau and Jacob were born to Isaac, and what happened to

them 19, et seq.

52. why Isaac loved Esau more than Jacob 44, et seq.

54. How Isaac in the famine went to Abimelech, and how the Lord appeared to him 1-17

Ishmael

40. God did not reject the whole person of Ishmael 19 40. The figure of Ishmael's rejection or casting out 36, et seq.

52. of the twelve princes from Ishmael, and of his falling before his brethren 16, et seq.

Issachar

77. The Testament of Issachar, and the figure thereof 8, et seq.

J

CHAP. Jacob VERSE

52. That Jacob comes after Esau, and holds him by the heel:

what that signifies 37

52. What Jacob is in the Language of Nature 41

53. why God called Jacob Israel 23, et seq. 55. How Jacob was blessed by Isaac unknowingly in the stead of Esau; and what is signified thereby 1-50

55. why Jacob must take upon him the rough hairy beast's skin 23, et seq. 55. The figure of Jacob's being smooth under the skin 29

55. How the figure of Jacob points at Christ 30

56. How Jacob must wander away, and how the Lord appeared to him 1-39

57. How Jacob came to Laban and served him in keeping his sheep fourteen years for his two daughters: what the spiritual figure thereof concerning the bride of Christ signifies 1-34

58. How Jacob served Laban twenty years, and begat twelve sons and one daughter, and how God blessed him, and how Laban

of ten changed his wages 1-53 58. How Jacob's subtlety was a figure of Adam's subtlety

16, 17, 19, 24, et seq. 58. How the twelve children of Jacob signify the line from Adam to Noah and his children 38

59. The figure of the sayings of Laban's children that came to Jacob's ear 1, et seq.

59. The figure that Jacob fled from Laban, and that Laban pursued him 1-25

59. What that signifies, that God said to Jacob: Get you up, and go to Bethel 14, 15

59. How Jacob stole away Laban's heart: what is thereby to be understood 16

60. What it signifies, that Jacob divided his flocks into two parts

because of Esau's wrath 4

60. What it signifies, that Jacob humbled himself before God and his brother Esau 7, 8

60. What the present that Jacob sent to Esau signifies 9-13 60. How Jacob arose in the night and led his wives and eleven children

over the water: what is thereby to be understood 14-16 60. How a man wrestled with Jacob 17-23 60. How Jacob's sinew was displaced: what that signifies 24-27 60. The figure of Jacob's saying: I will not let you go except you

bless me 28-35 60. The inward holy figure of Jacob's saying: What is your name 37-50

61. The wonderful figure, how Jacob and Esau met, and all mischief and evil will was turned into great joy and compassion: what is thereby to be understood 1-22

61. The figure how Jacob divided his wives and children, and went himself before them, and bowed seven times before Esau 4-9

61. The figure, how Jacob would not go along with Esau 69-71 61. The figure, that Jacob pitched his tents before the city of

Shechem 73 63. How Jacob went to Bethel, how Benjamin was born, and Rachel

and Isaac died: what is thereby to be understood 1-53

63. The figure of Jacob's coming to his father before his end 53

64. How Jacob and Esau departed one from the other: what that

signifies 4

69. How Jacob's sons came before Joseph: what is thereby to be

understood 1-35

73. How Jacob sacrificed at Beersheba to the God of his fathers, and spoke with him: what the signification is 1-8

73. The figure of Jacob's going forth out of Canaan into Egypt 11

73. The figure of Jacob's sending Judah before him to Joseph, and his weeping upon Joseph's neck 19, et seq.

74. How Jacob and the five youngest brethren of Joseph were set before Pharaoh, and how Jacob blessed Pharaoh 1, et seq.

74. The very mystical figure, that Jacob would be buried in the land of Canaan 53, et seq.

75. How Jacob before his end blessed the two sons of Joseph 1-30

76. How Jacob called for all his sons, and told them what the state and

condition of everyone of them would be 1, et seq.

76. What Jacob in the Spirit calls his honour 24,25

77. A short figure of the whole world in Jacob's Testament 59-72

78. of Jacob's burial. 1

Japhet

31. What Japhet is in the Language of Nature 9

Jared

30. What Jared is in the Language of Nature 19, 20

30. How Jared's office is twofold 21, et seq.

JEOVA

35. of the name JEOVA 49, et seq.

Jewel as a Present

50. What the jewel and present sent by Abraham's servant signifies 22-47

CHAP.

Jews

VERSE

37. How the time of recalling the Jews is near at hand 36

51. How the time of recalling the Jews is near at hand 42

37. How the Jews are rejected, and shall be grafted in again. 59, et seq.

41. The cause of the Jews' and Christians' blindness 47, et seq.

41. Advice to the Christians, Jews, Turks and heathen 53-71 51. why the Jews did not all turn to Christ when he manifested

himself in the flesh 25, 26

51. What a Jew is 27,28

51. How a Jew in his faith works in Christ's office 28, et seq.

51. How the Jew and Christian come to salvation 44, 45

65. Wherefore the Jews of ten times slew the Prophets 28 70. How to eat Christ's flesh is an abomination to Jews, Turks and

heathens 66 70. How the Jews, Turks and strange nations do eat Christ's flesh 69-77 70. How the Fathers, viz. the Jews, had no more a part in grace than

the strangers had 78

75. A figure, showing that God would bring the Jews into the true Covenant into Christ 1-36

76. How the Jews do in vain look after another Master, Ruler or Messiah 50

Joseph

58. How Joseph signifies Christ 50, et seq.

64. The beginning of the most excellent figure of Joseph 6-61

64. How Joseph was sold and carried into a strange land 53, et seq.

64. How Joseph is taxed for unchastity by Potiphar's wife 56, et seq.

64. How Joseph was sold for twenty pieces of silver, and Christ for thirty pieces of silver 59, 60

66. How Joseph was sold for twenty pieces of silver, and Christ for thirty pieces of silver 1, et seq.

64. What the whole history of Joseph drives at 61 66. of Joseph's chastity and fear of God 1-72

66. How Joseph fled from the whore, and what is signified thereby

45, et seq-

67. How Joseph interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh's butler and his baker, and what is thereby to be understood 1-18

68. The figure of Joseph's putting on other clothes and shaving

himself 22 69. The figure of Joseph's letting his nine brethren out of prison and keeping Simeon prisoner 24-29

69. The lovely figure of Joseph's causing his brethren's sacks to be filled, and their money to be given them again 36, et seq.

CHAP. Joseph VERSE

70. How Jacob's sons go again into Egypt to Joseph, and take Benjamin with them: how Joseph caused them to be brought to his house, and to eat at his table: how Joseph caused his brethren- to be set in their order, and how Joseph was served by himself and his brethren and the Egyptians also by themselves 1-94

71. How Joseph caused his brethren's sacks to be filled, and the

money to be laid in the top of the sack, and his cup in Benjamin's sack, and caused them to be pursued and challenged for thieves 1, 66

72. How Joseph manifested himself before his brethren 1-38

72. How Joseph kissed his brethren 20, et seq.

73. How the countenance of Joseph was manifested to his brethren again, and how they must be ashamed. 15, 16

73. The figure of Joseph's saying: I will tell Pharaoh: My brethren

and all my father's house is come to me 24, et seq.

74. The very potent figure of Joseph's gathering all the money together in the famine 9-15

74. The figure of Joseph's buying all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh

19-21

74. Wherefore Joseph bought not the priests' fields: what is the

signification thereof 22, 27-33

74. The figure of Joseph's law concerning the Egyptians' fields to give the fifth part to Pharaoh 23-35

77. The Testament of Joseph, and the signification thereof 37, et seq.

Judah

65. What the three sons that ]udah begat signify 6, et seq.

65. why the history of Judah and Tamar is put between in the

history of Joseph 64, et seq.

76. of the Testament of Judah 38, et seq.

Judging

70. What the speech of Christ concerning judging signifies: Judge not that ye be not judged 51

K

Kenan, or Cainan 30. What Kenan signifies in the Language of Nature 17

Keturah

51. What Keturah signifies in the Language of Nature 2

CHAP. Kine VERSE

68. What Pharaoh's seven fat kine and seven lean kine signify 11-17

Kingdom

49. How the outward kingdom remains eternally 17, 18

76. How the time is near that the kingdom of Christ will be manifested to all people 50, et seq.

Kings

66. for what kings and princes are served by the nobility 18, 19

Knowledge

45. What knowledge the outward man has of the kingdom of

Christ 17, et seq.

L

Laban

58. The figure of Laban's changingJacob's wages ten times 28, et seq.

59. How Laban chid with Jacob, and what is thereby to be understood 19

Ladder

56. What the ladder of Jacob was, and what the angels descending and ascending signify 4-8

Lamb

37. What the wedding of the Lamb is, at which God and man is

espoused, and Christ born

12, et seq.

Lamech

29. What Lamech is in the Language of nature 37,38 31. What Lamech is in the Language of nature 2 29. of Lamech's two wives and their children 39-46,49 29. What the man and the young man which he slew are 48 29. What as to Lamech shall be avenged seventy-seven times 59-64

Land

75. of the piece of land that Jacob gave to Joseph severally from the rest of his children, and the signification thereof 31, et seq.

Language

35. of the ground of the Head Language, when all people spoke but one language 54-59

35. What language the spirits use 60 37. How long the undivided language continued 4, et seq.

CHAP. Life VERSE

11. Whence the true rational life in the elements is 27

35. The cause of the long life of the patriarchs before the flood 11,

et seq

Light

3. The eternal light, and the eternal darkness, are not created 2-5 10. Without light the elements had been unmoveable 44,45

Logic

77. When the acute logic came up 69

Lord

33. How a lord, prince, or magistrate has no authority to shed

blood 15, et seq.

Lot

43. why the two angels lingered in going in to Lot 34, et seq-

43. What is signified by Lot's wife 37 43. The figure of Lot in that he would give his two daughters to the

Sodomites 53, et seq.

43. why Lot's kinsfolk would not follow him 65,66

44. How Lot went out of Sodom, and of the terrible destruction of that whole country of Ham's generations, and what happened upon

it; also how it was done 1-47 44. why Lot's daughters made their father drunk with wine 3 44. To what end Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt. 28, et seq. 44. Lot's wife is a figure of the present Babylonish Christendom 33, et seq.

44. why Lot's daughters did lie with their father 38-47

Love

71. How God's love comes only to help the weak . 19

Lucifer

12. Wherefore and from what Lucifer was thrust out 12. Where Lucifer lies captive

22. Wherefore Lucifer was swallowed up into the wrath 25. Where Lucifer sat before the creation of the earth 44. How Lucifer desired to see the wrath of nature 60. How the pride of Lucifer by the masters of the letter does up into a peculiar heaven apart

M

Magistrate

22. How the magistrate is good, and how not 74,75

4 35

30,31 18 17

shut God 41,42

CHAP. Magia. Magus VERSE

11. The Reader is admonished not to misuse the Magia or Magic 8

11. How man is hurt by the wicked Magus or Magician . 12, et seq.

68. of the Magi or Magicians, which titulary Christendom is full of 4, et seq.

68. of the Magia or Magic art, among the Egyptians and heathens, till the kingdom of Christ 3 68. How man is a true divine Magus or Magician 23, et seq.

Mahalaleel

30. What Mahalaleel is in the Language of nature 18 Maid-servant

40. What it is that the son of the maid-servant shall not inherit with the son of the free-woman 16-70

Man

15. Man is threefold . 27, et seq.

16. of the distinction between the heavenly and the earthly man 1-15

16. How man was while he stood in Paradise 8, et seq.

18. How man shall be after the Resurrection 3

19. How man was ordained to the outward natural life 1-16

21. why God created man of the heavenly essence 16

22. How man deceived himself 27

23. How the Word in the seed of Eve was propagated from man to man

31

24. How man has a cure, and the Devil not 13, et seq.

24. How a divine man must have enmity in himself 31, 32

27. How man presses into God 14, 15

29. How man was in the beginning, in his properties 12, 13

29. How man is become a striving dominion 14 Mary

37. How Mary is not the mother that has generated God 37, et seq. 56. What is the blessing belonging to Mary 30

Mausim

36. What that god Mausim is 32 Meal

42. What the three measures of fine meal signify 17,18 Melchisedek

38. What Melchisedek was 19, et seq. 38. why Melchisedek blessed Abraham 21

CHAP. Mercifulness VERSE 70. How mercifulness hides its countenance from the repenting soul 3, et

seq.

Mercurius

17. What Mercurius is 18

Metals

10. What the metals are 17

10. of the seven properties in the metals 18-29

16. How in the earth, stones and metals lies a twofold substance 10

Methusael

29. What Methusael is in the Language of nature 35,36 Michael

12. When Michael strove with the dragon 10 Midianites

64. How the Midianites will bring Joseph with them to Pharaoh; the time is near 30, et seq.

Money

70. The figure of the wrong money that Jacob commanded them to take with them again 36, et seq., 48, 49

Moon

23. What the moon and the woman in the Apocalypse signify 34,35 Moses

11. The time is born that Moses casteth away his veil 4 30. When Moses will keep the sheep 53, et seq.

Motion

29. of God's eternal motion, moving and forming 4 Mouth

29. What the mouth of the eternal understanding is 3 Murderer

19. why Eve brought forth a murderer the first time 10 62. The figure of Simeon and Levi's murder 31-40

N

CHAP. Naamah VERSE

29. of Naamah 43, et seq. 29. How Naamah shall be manifested to all people 68

Names

17. What the great names are that God called Abraham by 23, et seq. Naphtali

77. The Testament of Naphtali, and the signification thereof 33, et seq.

Nature

3. The description of the eternal nature 35. How the Language of nature is extinguished

1-26 12, et Seq.

66. How all officers are set in the kingdom of this world 28,29 66. How at present is the time of the coming of the Lord to burn the city of these wicked evil officers with the fire of God's anger 30,31

37. How the first holy oracle after the flood manifested itself 15

P

Paradise

17. of Paradise 1-43

18. of the Paradisical government 1-34 25. How Paradise is one certain place 16

Pastors

74. of all spiritual pastors or shepherds, who sit without Christ in that office 6 Pearl

22. How the pearl of the whole world is trodden underfoot 35

Philistine

47. What Philistine is 23,24

Physician

21. Whence the physician does arise 7-9

plants

12. Whence it is that some plants are poison 36

Potiphar

64. What the figure of Potiphar's wife is 10,11

Pottage

53. What the lentil pottage was 4

CHAP. Prayer VERSE

38. How man with his prayer and will awakeneth the sword of anger 11 Predestinated

30. What is predestinated to condemnation 8,9 40. Ishmael is not predestinated to condemnation 35-54

Present

70. What the present was that Joseph's brethren brought him in their hands 52,53

Pride

24. What men erect with their great pride and care for the belly. 21,et seq.

Prince

33. How a prince or lord has no power to shed blood

15, et seq.

Principles

4. of the two Principles, God's love and anger 1-21 32. How Shem, Ham and Japhet are an image of the three Principles 5, et

seq.

Prosperity

66. Man in temporal prosperity, and in favour and good will of many men, ought not to be secure 50-56

Prophet

67. How the Prophet is the mouth of the kingdom

9, et seq.

Purgatory 25. of the purgatory of souls

Purple Mantle 70. To whom the purple mantle of Christ is available

13, 14 42 ,43

Purpose

61. How in God there is no purpose

60, 61 and 64

Qualities. See forms

R

CHAP. Rachel

58. why Rachel said: Give me children.

58. why Rachel must be barren

VERSE 1,2 47

63. What it signifies that Rachel died and was buried at the city

Bethel 28

63. How Rachel was big with child when Jacob went from Laban 30

63. How Rachel bare Benjamin and died: what the signification of it is 20, et seq.

Rained. Rainbow

32. why it rained forty days and forty nights

33. of the rainbow and its colours

23, et seq. 25-40

Ram

48. How the killing and dying falls not upon the right man, but

upon the ram 28, et seq.

Raven

32. What the raven signifies

38, 39, 41

Reason

41. How reason introduces everything into God's will 53-71

Rebecca

50. Rebecca signifies Sophia 48 50. The figure of the glorious banquet of Abraham's servant with

Rebecca 49,et seq.

52. How in Rebecca two kingdoms strove one with another 20-30

52. Wherefore Rebecca loved Jacob 54

53. Why the strife arose in Rebecca 27 55. Why Rebecca must set Jacob in the place of the blessing 17, et seq. 55. Of Rebecca's subtlety and deceit with Jacob 19,20

Religion

36. Whence the contempt of religion proceeds 14

Remedy

66. To whom there is no more counsel or remedy, to eternity 47 Repentance

31. Of God's repentance, where he says: It repents me 17-45 70. It is a figure of repentance, that Jacob's children must go into Egypt for food twice 15-23

CHAP. Respect VERSE

51. How in God's presence there is no respect of name or person 34-41

Reuben

63. What Reuben signifies 44 63. How Reuben lay with his father's concubine, and what the signification thereof is 31-45 76. The Testament of Reuben, and the figure thereof 4-18

Revenge

22. Whence in man the wrath and vengeance to be revenged arises 58-64

Rib

19. What the rib and dividing of Adam signifies 2, 6

Riches

58. How the riches of the outward man belong to the new man. 21, et seq.

Right

66. How right is God and wrong is the Devil. 60

Rocks

23. why at Christ's death the rocks clave asunder 3

Ring

6S. What the ring, bracelet and staff of Judah signify 32

S

Saba or Sheba

54. What the fountain Saba or Sheba signifies 15, 16

Sacrifice

27. Of Cain's and Abel's sacrifice 1-40 27. Why an earthly sacrifice must be 18, et Seq.

27. Why the sacrifice without faith is loathsome to God • 13

Sarah

40. why God made Sarah unfruitful 27, 28

42. How God asked for Sarah 26, 27

42. What Sarah's laughing and lying signify 30, et seq. 49. of Sarah's death and Abraham's purchased burying place: what is

signified thereby 1-18

51. why Sarah brought forth but one son 3

CHAP. Schools VERSE

51. Of what profit the knowledge of the high schools or universities,

and the Devil's knowledge, is 49, 50

64. Whence the confused languages of the high schools or universities

come 24 69. The spying and prying of the high schools or universities helps

not into the kingdom of God 20, 21

77. When the time of the high schools or universities began 67

Scorner

40. why God must have the scorner also, in this time of life 23, et seq.

Sea

16. What the glassy sea is 27 Serah or Zerah

65. The powerful figure of the birth of Peres and Serah or Zerah 58, et

seq.

Serpent

20. Of the creation and subtlety of the Serpent 9-19

22. Of the creation and subtlety of the Serpent 29

20. In the Serpent lies excellent art 17, 18

22. The Devil has infected the ens of the Serpent 33

22. Why the Serpent is said to be a virgin 34

23. Wherefore God cursed the Serpent 23-29 27. Where the Serpent's head was first trod upon and broken. 11, 12

38. How the Serpent's ens and also the line of Christ lay in Abraham 13

Seth

29. What the name Seth signifies in the Language of nature 24 Shechem

61. What the name Shechem signifies 75

Shekel

49. An exposition of the four hundred shekels of silver that Abraham gave for the field 8, 9

Shem

31. What Shem is in the Language of nature 6 34. How Shem and Japhet took a garment upon their shoulders 20-26

CHAP. Shepherd VERSE

58. How a shepherd is more highly esteemed before God than the highly learned worldly wise man 32, et seq.

60. why God's Spirit has so exactly described the slight actions of mean shepherds 49, 50

Signal Star

70. How the signal star or ascendant appeared 32, et seq.

Simeon

76. The Testament of Simeon and Levi, and the figure thereof. 19-37 Sin. Sinner

22. Of the original of actual sin, and of the awakening of God's anger in the human property . 1-82

22. What sin is, and what is not sin 39, et seq.

22. What the sin against the Holy Ghost is 43, 44

27. What it is that attains the forgiveness of sins 45

48. How far it must go with the repenting sinner 21, et seq.

78. The figure of a converted sinner 5,6

Sinew

60. What it signifies, that the children of Israel eat not that sinew of the ham 51, et seq.

Sleep

19. What Adam's sleep signifies 5

Sodom

42. Of the three men, which appeared to Abraham in the plain of Mamre and went towards Sodom, and burnt the city of the children of Ham with fire from the Lord 1-35

43. Of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah: how God showed it to Abraham before 1-71

43. How Sodom is a looking-glass for the present world 67, et seq.

43. What figure the judgement upon Sodom is 14

44. What fire was rained down upon Sodom 24, et seq.

Sophia

25. Sophia is the tincture of the light 14 25. The fire-soul is the man or husband of the noble Sophia, and it is of the fire's tincture 14 37. How Sophia generateth the true Joseph 14,15 52. What is called Sophia 6 52. When the magic fire of the soul is bridegroom to the noble Sophia.

11-14

CHAP. Soul VERSE

10. True understanding lies in the soul 3

11. What the soul is 20, 25 15. How the soul stands in three kingdoms 15, 18-24 15. There are not three souls but one 24 17. Of the soul's great power 43

22. Whither the soul must go after the judgement 47

23. How the soul of Adam and Eve were ashamed I 25. How the soul may go through the judgement, or how not 2, 3, 26

25. How the virgin child must not flee from the fire-soul 9 34. of the animal soul in the regeneration 17

37. Wherefore God brings the soul into trouble 8,9

52. How the soul may see God 10

56. When God's grace enters into the soul 36

69. The first condition of the poor soul when it turns to Christ 7, et seq.

70. How the soul stands in three Principles 5

Sound

5. How the sound or tune in heaven is 19

5. How the sound or tune in the darkness or hell is 19

Speak

35. Whence it comes originally that man can speak 73

36. From what it is that man can speak and understand 85

Spirit

4. of the original of the multitude of spirits, good and evil 11

8. Of the spirits of the outward world, from time, that pass away 13

29. How the Spirit of God has from eternity sported with itself in the

spiritual world 4 36. From what the false spiritual persons or clergy have spoken. 30, et

seq.

Steward

70. What Joseph's steward signifies 50

Strife

25. Of the strife between the seed of the woman and the seed of the

Serpent 10, et seq.

36. Wherefore men do strive 62, 63

S2. When the strife in man is manifested, and Christ breaks the

Serpent's head 31, et seq.

60. What the strife about the letter is 47,48 62. Wherefore the strife in Christendom must be 19

CHAP. Strife VERSE

62. With what strife a true Christian strives 21, et seq.

64. How all strife comes from the Tower of Babel 28

75. How the time of strife is at an end 29,30

Substance

53. How the divine substance gives itself into Nature 18 Succoth

61. The figure of Jacob's going to Succoth

72

Sun

11. From what power the sun shines 35 13. Whence the sun takes its lustre 16

Supper

70. What that supper is (Revelation iii) . 44-46 Swearing

53. What swearing by God is called 9

Sword

25. of the Cherubim angel's sword 4-13 25. The original of the flaming sword of fire 25

T

Teachers

28. What teachers the children of this world will have 44 36. By what a man shall know whether a teacher come from God or

from the letter 54, et seq.

41. How the unfitted teachers will needs preach the Holy Ghost into the self-will 46

Temple

15. What the temple of God is 28 36. What the temple of God is 16 52. What the temple of God is 8 27. How the temple of Christ must be brought along into the material church of clay 49

Temptation

48. How man without God's grace cannot stand in temptation 2

CHAP. Testament VERSE

46. What a man must do if he would read and understand the Old Testament 29,30

46.Wherefore the figures of the Old Testament have remained silent to this last time and now shall be made manifest 31,32

54. Of the figure of the Old and New Testaments 17

Tetragrammaton

35. Of the name Tetragrammaton 53

Tamar

65. Of Judah and Tamar: A mystical figure of Adam and Christ, wherein the new birth is excellently prefigured 1-65

Time

30. Of the seven appointed times. 34-46

30. When the sixth number of time is 44

31. Of the seven times from Adam to the end of the world 38-45 69. How the time of redemption draws near 23

Timnath

65. What Timnath signifies 22

Torment

71. What it is that has no torment 21,22 Tower

35. Wherefore the children of Noah purposed to build a tower. 64,65 35. How the time is born that we shall be led away from the Tower of Babel 67

35. What the mystery is of the Tower, and of the divided languages 68-75

36. What the Tower of Babel is 15 36. What the figure of Babel's Tower is 5-11 36. What the Babylonish Tower was under Moses and among the

heathen, and now is among Christians, Jews and Turks 33

36. How a man ought to consider of the Tower and city, Babel 58 36. How we must go out from all Babylonish master-builders of that Tower 50, et seq.

66. How worldly judges ought not to rely upon the Tower of Babel 60

Tree. Tree of Life CHAP. VERSE

35. How the human tree has by Noah's children spread itself abroad in its properties, and how at the Tower of Babel they were divided in the properties by the confusion of languages into several and different people and nations 1-75

36. How the Jews, Christians, Turks and heathens are but one only tree 37-40

36. How we may again, one with another, be one people, one tree, one man, with soul and body 43,44 17. why God set the Tree of Life before Adam 38-43 17. The Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil are but one 10, et seq.

Trinity. Threefoldness

1. of the Trinity 3, 4, 5

7. of the Holy Trinity or Threefoldness of the divine essence or substance 1-19

Tubalcain

29. Of Tubalcain 44-46

Turks

40. How the Turks lie under the veil of Christ, and are born in the house 72, et seq.

40. How God hears the Turks in the Son 74, et seq.

40. How the Turks do not blaspheme the Holy Ghost 78, et seq. 40. Wherefore God has taken away the candlesticks from the

Turks 82, et seq.

40. How the holy voice of Christ is not departed from the Turks, to

forget them eternally. 87, et seq.

40. of the difference between the Turks and the Christians 92-100

U

Understanding

3. why the divine understanding brings itself into spiritual properties 13

3. The divine understanding receives no source into itself 21

29. What the eternal divine understanding is . 1,2

Unquietness

66. What the unquietness is 65

V

CHAP. Venus VERSE

10. How the inward and the outward Venus are step-sisters 53

13. Venus is the substance of all metals 18

Verbum Fiat

11. How the Verbum Fiat is still at this day creating 9

Visions

67. What the right visions are

7

Voice

23. of the voice that was in the Garden 11-16 55. The figure of Isaac's saying: The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau 27, 28

W

War. Warrior

22. How war is good, and how not good 73

38. Whence all war and strife has its original. 7-10

33. Whence all war and strife has its original 22, et seq.

38. of the beginning of the heathenish wars: how Abraham delivered

Lot; and of Melchisedek to whom Abraham gave tithes. 1-26 55. How it is not God, but the kingdom of nature in the anger of God that will make war 45, 46

38. How it is not God, but the kingdom of nature in the anger of God that will make war 16, 17

30. What the Christians' wars are 42

38. No Christian warreth 15, 16

62. What the outward war that Christians make is . 24

33. What every warrior or soldier is 19,20

Washing the Feet 42. What Abraham's washing the feet signifies 11

Water

4. of the water of eternal life 15 10. of the water which Christ will give us to drink 57

Wedding

70. Where the assured wedding of the Lamb is 25, et seq.

70. What a man must do, when he will enter into the wedding of

Christ 38

CHAP. Whore VERSE

30. Whence the mother of the Babylonish whoredom is arisen. 22,23

36. What the Babylonish whore and the dragon beast are. 20, et seq., 37 36. of the Antichristian Babylonish whore, of all tongues, nations and languages, and what lieth hid under the languages and Tower of Babel

1-85

36. of the Babylonish whore's child or bastard, which is predestinated to damnation. 23, et seq.

36. What the whore's beast is 41 36. How the whore hopes for a golden temple or time 70, et seq.

36. How the whore must fall 69

36. What is meant by the whoredom committed with the letter. 44, et seq.

37. How the unchastity of the Babylonish whore is come up before the Most High 61

62. What is whoredom in the sight of God 30, et seq.

65. What the whoredom of Judah with Tamar signifies 38, et seq.

65. What David's whoredom with Bathsheba signifies 41

65. What Solomon's whoredom signifies 45, et seq.

66. What the powerful figure of the whorish unchaste world is: which vermin the world is at present full of 41, et seq.

Wicked

60. How God dwells even in the abyss of the wicked soul 44

Wife

41. How a man must leave wife, children, etc. to be a true Christian 54,65 Will. Willing

26. Wherefore the fire-soul has free will 7

27. What the will must do that it may with its desire go to God 4, 5 27. The human free will is become sinful 16 29. Why there is a contrary opposite will 6, 7

61. What the ability of the will is 57, 58 61. The cause why the false wicked or evil will turns not itself

towards grace 59

66. How in this time [of life] all things pass in free will 21

66. How knowing nothing is better than willing for self 66

71. Of the divine willing and of the human willing 25-36

Wisdom

1. What the eternal wisdom is 6

29. How the eternal wisdom has introduced itself into a formed

visibility 1-70

41. A speech to the reason-wise

42, et seq.

CHAP. Woman VERSE

19. of the building or framing of the woman 1-27

41. How the woman is saved through bearing of children 29, et seq.

66. What the woman upon the moon in the Revelation is 34,35

Word

2. Of the Word or Heart of God 1-11

2. Of the outspoken word 7

28. What the literal word is 56,57 36. How man should try himself in the framing of his words 81, et seq. 40. What God's Word assumed 10 56. Why our soul and the Word that became man, are compared

together 23, et seq.

61. What the Word is 43,44 World

2. The whole world lies in a clod of earth 6

2. Of the inward world 9

2. How one world is in another . 10

4. of the three worlds 12 17. That same world, wherein Adam was before his Eve was, must

come again 9

29. What the invisible spiritual world is 4,5 31. How Shem, Ham and Japhet are an image of the three worlds 10, 11

Wrong

71. How man does a twofold wrong 25, et seq.

Z

Zebulun

77. The Testament of Zebulun, and the figure thereof 3-7