Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence
13. But you must clearly understand [or conceive], that when the Fiat to the creating [of the woman] was in Adam, in his sleep, his body had not then such hard gristles and bones : 0 no ; that came to pass first when mother Eve did bite the apple, and also gave to Adam ; only the infection and the earthly death, with the fainting and mortal sickness, stuck in them ; the bones and ribs were yet strength and virtue, from which the ribs should come to be.
14. But you must highly and worthily understand [and consider] how it was taken out [of his side], not as a spirit, but wholly in substance : Thus it may be said, that Adam did get a rent ; and the woman beareth Adam's spirit, flesh and bones. Yet there is some difference in the spirit ; for the woman beareth the matrix, and Adam the limbus or man ; and they two are one flesh, undivided in nature, for now they two together must generate one man again, which one alone could do before.
A pleasant Gate.
15. We being here in describing the corruptibility of Adam, the spirit frameth in our thoughts a heavenly mystery, concerning Adam's rib, whichCh. 13] OF THE CREATING OF THE WOMAN 231 the Fiat took from him, and made a woman of it ; which [rib] Adam afterwards must want ; for the text in Moses rightly saith, God closed up the place with flesh.
16. But now the x wrath of the serpent hath so J the malice or brought it to pass, that Adam is fallen in the lust, and yet the purpose of God must stand ; for 2 Adam * mankind, must rise again at the day of the resurrection wholly and unbroken in the first image, as he was created. So likewise the serpent and the devil have brought it about, that so terrible a rent is made in him.
17. Wherefore the spirit sheweth us, that as little as the worm or spirit of the soul could be helped, except that the virgin came, and did go into death in the worm in the abyss of the spirit of the soul (which in its own abyss reacheth the gate of hell and the fierce anger of God) and regenerate
8 him anew, and make him a new creature in the 3 Adam. first image, which is done in the Son of the Virgin, in Christ ; so little also could Adam's rib, and his hollow side, where it stood, be helped [healed] or brought to perfection, except that the second Adam (Christ) suffer himself in the virgin to be wounded [pierced or cut] in the same place, that his precious blood might come to help the first Adam, and repair his broken side again ; this, of high and precious worth, we speak according to our knowledge ; which when we shall write of the suffering and death of Christ the Son of the virgin,p. 232 we will so clear it, that them, 0 thirsty soul, shalt find a living fountain, which shall be little beneficial to the devil.
Further concerning the Woman.
18. Reason asketh : Is Eve merely created out of the rib [taken] out of Adam ? Then she should be far inferior to Adam. No, beloved reason, it is not so ; the Fiat (being a sharp attracting) took from Adam of all essences and properties of every virtue, but it took from him no more members in substance ; for the image should be a man, after a masculine kind in the limbus, yet not at all with this deformity. Understand it rightly in the ground, he should be (and he was also) a man, and he had a virgin-like heart, wholly chaste in the matrix.
19. Therefore Eve was for certain created out of all Ada/rris essences, and so Adam thereupon had a great rent, and so likewise the woman might come to her perfection to [be] the image of God ; and this again sheweth a great mystery, whereby the virgin very preciously witnesseth again, that the Son of the Virgin hath not only suffered his side to be pierced through, and shed his blood out of the hole of his side, but he hath also suffered his hands and feet to be struck through, and a crown of thorns to be pressed upon his head, so that the blood gushed out from thence ; and in his body he endured to be whipped, so that his blood ranCh. 13] OF THE CREATING OF THE WOMAN 233 down all over. So very lowly hath the Son of the Virgin debased himself, to l help the sick and l to heal, broken Adam, and his weak and imperfect Eve, to repair them and bring them again into the first glory.
13. But you must clearly understand [or conceive], that when the Fiat to the creating [of the woman] was in Adam, in his sleep, his body had not then such hard gristles and bones : 0 no ; that came to pass first when mother Eve did bite the apple, and also gave to Adam ; only the infection and the earthly death, with the fainting and mortal sickness, stuck in them ; the bones and ribs were yet strength and virtue, from which the ribs should come to be.
14. But you must highly and worthily understand [and consider] how it was taken out [of his side], not as a spirit, but wholly in substance : Thus it may be said, that Adam did get a rent ; and the woman bears Adam's spirit, flesh and bones. Yet there is some difference in the spirit ; for the woman bears the matrix, and Adam the limbus or man ; and they two are one flesh, undivided in nature, for now they two together must generate one man again, which one alone could do before.
A pleasant Gate.
15. We being here in describing the corruptibility of Adam, the spirit frams in our thoughts a heavenly mystery, concerning Adam's rib, which
Ch. 13] OF THE CREATING OF THE WOMAN 231 the Fiat took from him, and made a woman of it ; which [rib] Adam afterwards must want ; for the text in Moses rightly says, God closed up the place with flesh.
16. But now the x wrath of the serpent has so J the malice or brought it to pass, that Adam is fallen in the lust, and yet the purpose of God must stand ; for 2 Adam * mankind, must rise again at the day of the resurrection wholly and unbroken in the first image, as he was created. So likewise the serpent and the devil have brought it about, that so terrible a rent is made in him.
17. Wherefore the spirit shows us, that as little as the worm or spirit of the soul could be helped, except that the virgin came, and did go into death in the worm in the abyss of the spirit of the soul (which in its own abyss reaches the gate of hell and the fierce anger of God) and regenerate
8 him anew, and make him a new creature in the 3 Adam. first image, which is done in the Son of the Virgin, in Christ ; so little also could Adam's rib, and his hollow side, where it stood, be helped [healed] or brought to perfection, except that the second Adam (Christ) suffer himself in the virgin to be wounded [pierced or cut] in the same place, that his precious blood might come to help the first Adam, and repair his broken side again ; this, of high and precious worth, we speak according to our knowledge ; which when we shall write of the suffering and death of Christ the Son of the virgin,
232 THE THREE PRINCIPLES [Ch. 13 we will so clear it, that them, 0 thirsty soul, shall find a living fountain, which shall be little beneficial to the devil.
Further concerning the Woman.
18. Reason asks : Is Eve merely created out of the rib [taken] out of Adam ? Then she should be far inferior to Adam. No, beloved reason, it is not so ; the Fiat (being a sharp attracting) took from Adam of all essences and properties of every virtue, but it took from him no more members in substance ; for the image should be a man, after a masculine kind in the limbus, yet not at all with this deformity. Understand it rightly in the ground, he should be (and he was also) a man, and he had a virgin-like heart, wholly chaste in the matrix.
19. Therefore Eve was for certain created out of all Ada/rris essences, and so Adam thereupon had a great rent, and so likewise the woman might come to her perfection to [be] the image of God ; and this again shows a great mystery, whereby the virgin very preciously witnesses again, that the Son of the Virgin has not only suffered his side to be pierced through, and shed his blood out of the hole of his side, but he has also suffered his hands and feet to be struck through, and a crown of thorns to be pressed upon his head, so that the blood gushed out from thence ; and in his body he endured to be whipped, so that his blood ran
Ch. 13] OF THE CREATING OF THE WOMAN 233 down all over. So very lowly has the Son of the Virgin debased himself, to l help the sick and l to heal, broken Adam, and his weak and imperfect Eve, to repair them and bring them again into the first glory.