The Signature of All Things — trans. John Ellistone (1651)

56. But in the meanwhile, John, as the teacher of Christ in Christ's stead, must provide for the outward Mother according to the outward Man, and feed and teach the lambs of Christ with Christ's Spirit: And it exactly shews us how the outward Man is not God's Mother; for Christ separates himself from his outward Mother, and gives her to John; he has put on the eternal Mother, viz. the Father of the eternal Birth, and therefore they do very ill that Honour and worship the outward Mother of Christ for God's Mother.

57. The whole true Christendom is Christ's Mother, which bears Christ in her: And John, viz. the Servants of Christ are her Nurses, which take care for the Mother of Christ as John did; he presently received the Mother of Christ and provided for her, as her Son, and not as her Lord; for Christ said to him, Behold, she is thy Mother: So should all the Disciples and Teachers of Christ do, and take care of the poor Christendom, as Sons, with great Humility towards the Mother, provide for, and cherish her with Diligence and Circumspection, and serve her with all discreet Modesty, Courtesy, and Humility; feed and comfort her with the Spirit of Christ, not as the Priests in Babel do, who ride over her as wealthy, rich, domineering Masters, and will be Lords over the Mother, and only seek Honours, and to fatten their Bellies in Pleasure, and live in Strife and Contention: These, one with the other, of what Name or Title soever they be, are not all Johannites, but they are the poisonful Mercurial Pharisees, in whom there is Nothing but mere Anguish, Vexation, Pain, and Torment, where one Property does continually torment, Envy, and hate the other, and hold it out for false; and yet they are all only out of one Root, and have all only one Will, except that one Colour does not glister as the other.

58. For Saturn is not as Jupiter; Jupiter is not as Mars; Mars, viz. the Fire-Spirit, is not as the Light of the Sun; and the Sun is not as Venus with her meek Water-Source; and Venus is not as Mercury with his Sound; for she is meek and still, and Mercury Sounds and sets up his Note; and Mercury also is not as Luna, which as a simple Body does give Body to all the rest for Manifestation; one is far otherwise than another, and has not one Property and Will; and yet they are in the Centre of the Essence, viz. in Luna and Saturn, in the Property of the Soul and Body, all of them one and the same Lump. Thus the partial sectarian Mercurialites, and Baal's Servants, are divided in these Properties; they are the Pharisees which judge and condemn Jesus in his Members.

59. They wrangle and contend only about the Church, and yet none will take care of the poor forsaken Mother of Christ: They are mad in their Martial and Mercurial contest, and are not Johannites, they enter not in Christ's Spirit at the Door of Christ into the Sheepfold; they are Wolves, Lions, and Bears, yea Foxes and fearful Hares, who fly from and forsake the Mother; their Rise and Original is out of Babel, where they continually contend, wrangle, grin, and bite one another for the Letter. Every one will be Lord and Master over the Letter, and transpose and Place it as he pleases, only for the Honour, Applause, and Pleasure of this World: They consider not that the Mother is a Widow, and that Christ has left and ordained them that they should be such Curates for her as John.

60. O thou dear Mother of Christendom, let these Wolves, Bears, and Lions go, and shelter themselves where they please, regard no longer these evil Beasts; take thee John, the Disciple of Christ, who teaches the Love and Humility.