Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence

6 Or mingle, my sweetness ; but thou canst not 6 qualify with me ; for the divine virtue is my essence, therein is

3 at my disposal.

4 Or force.

Oh. 12] OPENING OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURE 217

my fair [or orient] pearl, and my bright [shining] light generated ; my fountain is eternal : If thou darkenest my light, and defilest my garment, then thou wilt have no beauty [or lustre], and canst not subsist, but thy worm will [corrupt or] destroy thee, and so I shall lose my companion, which I had chosen for my bridegroom, with whom I meant to have rejoiced ; and then my pearl and beauty would have no l company : Seeing I have given ' recreation myself to be thy companion for my joy's sake ; if thou wilt not enjoy my beauty, yet pray continue in my ornament and excellency, and dwell with me in joy, I will adorn thee eternally.

46. And the young man said, Thy ornament is mine already, I [will] use thee according to my will ; in that thou sayest I shall be broken (corrupted or destroyed), yet my worm is eternal, I will rule with that ; and yet I will dwell in thee, and clothe thee with my garments.

47. And here the virgin turned her to the Heart of God, and said, My heart and my beloved, thou art my virtue, from thee I am clear and bright, from thy root I am generated from eternity ; deliver me from the worm of darkness which infecteth [poisoneth] and tempteth my bridegroom, and let me not be darkened in the obscurity ; I am thy ornament, and am come that thou shouldst have joy in me : Wherefore then shall I stand with my bridegroom in the dark ? And the divine answer said, The seed of the woman shall break

p. 218

p. 12

1 angelical tongues.

2 the Son of
God.

3 standeth.

the head of the serpent, or worm ; and thou shalt, etc.

48. Behold, dear soul, herein lieth the heavenly tincture, which we must set down in a similitude, and we cannot at all express it with words. Indeed, if we had the tongue of angels, we could then rightly express what the mind apprehendeth ; but the pearl is clothed [covered or veiled] with a dark [cloak or] garment : The virgin calleth stedfastly to the 2 Heart of God, that he would deliver her companion from the dark worm ; but the divine answer 3 still is, The seed of the woman shall break the serpent's head ; that is, the darkness of the serpent shall be separated from thy bridegroom ; the dark garment wherewith the serpent clotheth thy bridegroom, and darkeneth thy pearl and beauteous crown, shall be broken [corrupted or destroyed], and turn to earth ; and thou shalt rejoice with thy

4 Or purpose, bridegroom in me ; this was my eternal 4 will, it must stand.

49. Now then when we consider the high mysteries, the spirit openeth to us the understanding, that this [afore-mentioned] is the true ground concerning Adam : For his original spirit (viz. the soul) that was the worm, which was generated out of the eternal will of God the Father, and in the time of the creation was by the Fiat (after the manner of a spirit) created out of that place where the Father from eternity generateth his Heart, between the fourth and the fifth forms in the centre

Ch. 12] OPENING OP THE HOLY SCRIPTURE 219 of God, where the light of God from eternity discovereth itself, and taketh its beginning, and therefore the light of God came thus to help him, as a fair virgin, and took the soul to be her bridegroom, and would adorn the soul with her fair heavenly crown, with the noble virtue of the pearl, and beautify it with her garment.

50. Then the fourth form in the centre of the soul brake forth, there where the spirit of the soul was created, [viz.'] between the fourth and the fifth forms in the centre, * near the Heart of God ; and J next to. so the fourth form was in the glance in the darkness, out of which the world was created, which in its form parteth itself in its centre into five parts in its rising, till [it attain] to the light of the sun.

For the stars also in their centre are generated betwixt the fourth and the fifth forms, and the sun