The Signature of All Things — trans. John Ellistone (1651)
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The translator’s English as printed (John Ellistone). The original-language text is not held; names are romanised as the translator printed them.
61. O thou dear and worthy Mother, art thou not only one? Why dost thou suffer the Lions to rend and tear thee in pieces? Christ is thy Husband, all these are Strangers and Hirelings, unless they walk in thy filial Love, and humble themselves towards the Mother, and provide for her as Ministers, else they be all Wolves, Bears, and tearing Lions; though there were many Thousands of them, yet one is not at all better than another, unless he comes forth in the Line of John, and takes care of Christ's Mother, and provides for the Mother with Earnestness in Christ's Spirit: Which if he has not, he is not then called of Christ to be a Guardian or Curate to the Mother; but he is a Mercurialite, a Pharisee, such as Christ called the Seed of Serpents, and Generation of Vipers, who crucify Jesus in his members.
62. And thus the Philosopher must consider of, and well observe Christ's Mother, whom he recommended to John to take care of: He must likewise be a John, and know that his business is about the Mother, and that his Work in this World is not wholly heavenly: He will not so manifest Paradise, that God will appear, and be manifest Face to Face in his Work: No, he remains in the Mother, yet he obtains the Universal in the Mother; for the Mother of Christ obtained it also, for it was said to her, Thou art the blessed among all Women.
63. So likewise the Philosopher reaches to the Blessing in this Valley of Misery, that he is able to bless his corrupt Body, that is, tincture it and free it from Sickness, even to the limit of the highest Constellation according to Saturn; and therefore let him take heed of Covetousness, for so he introduces the Turba.
64. By the Type of John and the Mother of Christ, he is to know, that the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of this World are two in his Work, and that God's Kingdom lies shut up in the Mother, viz. in his Work, of which he must take Care; and be a Minister thereunto, and not a Lord of the Mother, but an Almsgiver, and not a gatherer of Treasure and Wealth, not a covetous Muck-worm; also none shall attain to it, or understand our Meaning, that will not be a Guardian of the Mother: The Most High has laid a Bar before the foolish Understanding, that it is blind, till it be weary with Seeking; I speak in the Ground of Truth.
65. And when Jesus had commended his Mother to John, he again turned his Desire into the Mother of the human Property, and said, I thirst; he thirsted after the members of human Property, and desired the Salvation of Mankind, viz. the Health of his Members, understand of his Children, which should be begotten in him; and the Jews gave his Humanity Gall and Vinegar to drink; and when he tasted it, he would not drink it.
66. Here is again the outward Type, shewing how it went inwardly: The Name Jesus, viz. the Love of God which was entered into the Humanity, and had espoused itself thereunto, did thirst in the Love-Desire after the corrupt Humanity, and would fain Taste the pure Water of the Humanity in itself; but the wrathful Anger of God, which was enkindled in the human Property, gave itself in with the human Property to the thirst of the Love-Desire: And when the Love-Desire tasted of it, it would not drink it, but sunk down into it as wholly resigned, or freely yielded up, and did unite and very essentially incline itself into the Anger of God as a full and perfect Obedience, and as fully and freely given over as a peculiar Propriety thereinto.
67. This was now the Flagrat of the Wrath, that the Love should so come into it; whereupon the Earth trembled, and the Rocks clave asunder; for so the Death was dismayed at the Life: And here the awakened Wrath's Property did separate itself into the Centre, viz. into the first Principle, into the Fire-Root; and now from the Centre there proceeded forth the Hunger to the New-Birth in the human Property; of the Hunger unto Death was made a Hunger to Life; for the Love tinctured the Anger, that the Fire-Desire to the dark Impression became a Desire of Life.
68. Understand it here right; God the Father, who gave his dear Heart into the Humanity to help Mankind, did now thirst after the Humanity, viz. after his Heart or Word of Power; and the Deity in the Humanity, viz. the Heart of the Father, did thirst after the Father; and the Love or the Essence of the Light did thirst after the Fire's Essence: For the Fire's, or Soul's Essence in Adam was departed out of the Love-Essentiality (wherein the Paradise did consist) into a Selfishness, and was become disobedient to God; and thereupon the Essence, Life, and Being of the Light and Love died in its Growing, that is, it withered as to the vegetative Life, or heavenly Growth, Blooming, and Sense of the paradisical Source, and awaked and arose to the earthly World.