Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence
in the beginning or the lite in Adam than the or faculties. beasts, which have their essences but merely from the spirit of this world, and it must also, with the spirit of this world in a corruptible substance, go into its eternal ether : Whereas, on the contrary, the essences of man are proceeded out of the unchangeable eternal mind of God, which cannot in eternity corrupt.
6. For we have a certain ground of this, in that our mind can find and conceive all whatsoever is in the spirit of this world, which no beast can do:
For no creature can 2 conceive [further or] higher 2 think or than [what is] in its own Principle, out of which its l" own essences are proceeded in the beginning : But we (that are men) can certainly 3 conceive [of that 3 meditate, which is] in the Principle of God, and also [of that think of! which is] in the anguishing kingdom of hell, where the worm of our soul in the beginning in Adam originally is, and this no other creature can do.
7. But they think [consider or imagine] only how to fill themselves and multiply, that their life may subsist ; and we also receive * no more from * than the the spirit of the stars and elements. And 6 therefore . !
8 because our also our children are naked and bare, with great a higher be inability, and without understanding ; and now if Dn,g than the spirit of this world had full [perfect and absolute] power over the essences of the child, then he would easily put his rough garment upon it also (viz. a rough hide), but he must let that alone : And hep. 260 must leave the essences in the first and second Principles to man's own choosing, to bind and yield himself to which [Principle] he will ; which man hath (undeniably) in his full power, which I will expound in its own place according to its worth, and deeply demonstrate it, in spite of all the gates of the devil, and this world, which strive much against it.
8. Our life in the mother's body hath its beginning wholly, as is above mentioned, and standeth there now in the quality of the sun and stars, where then, with the kindling of the light, a centre springeth up again, where instantly the noble tincture thus generateth itself (out of the light, out of the joyful essences of the [sour] harsh, bitter, and fiery kind [or quality]) and setteth the spirit of the soul in a great pleasant
1 beings or habitation : And the three * essences (viz. harshness, substances. . . i/>\ • i i ' IT /» i vr bitterness, and fire) are in the kindling 01 the lite so very fast bound one to another, that they cannot (in eternity) be separated one from another, and the tincture is their eternal house, wherein they dwell, which [house] they themselves generate from the beginning unto eternity, which again giveth them life, joy, and lust [or delight].
The strong Gate of the indissoluble Band of the Soul.
9. Behold, the three essences, (viz. [sourness or] harshness, bitterness and fire) are the worm orCh. 14] BIRTH AND PROPAGATION OF MAN 261 spirit [that dieth not]. l Harshness is one essence, J Or sourness. und it is in the Fiat of God, out of God's eternal will ; and the attracting of the [sour] harshness is the sting [or prickle] of the bitterness, which the [sour] harshness cannot endure, but attracteth continually the more forcibly to it, from whence the prickle continually groweth greater, which yet the [sour] harshness holdeth 2 prisoner; and this 2 captive. together is the great anxiety, which was there in the dark mind of God the Father, when the darkness was anxious [or longed] after the light ; from whence in the anxiety (from the glance of the light) it attained the twinkling flash : Out of which the angels were created, which afterward were enlightened from the light of God (3 by their 3 by their imagination into the Heart of God) ; and the other
in the beginning or the lite in Adam than the or faculties. beasts, which have their essences but merely from the spirit of this world, and it must also, with the spirit of this world in a corruptible substance, go into its eternal ether : Whereas, on the contrary, the essences of man are proceeded out of the unchangeable eternal mind of God, which cannot in eternity corrupt.
6. For we have a certain ground of this, in that our mind can find and conceive all whatsoever is in the spirit of this world, which no beast can do:
For no creature can 2 conceive [further or] higher 2 think or than [what is] in its own Principle, out of which its l" own essences are proceeded in the beginning : But we (that are men) can certainly 3 conceive [of that 3 meditate, which is] in the Principle of God, and also [of that think of! which is] in the anguishing kingdom of hell, where the worm of our soul in the beginning in Adam originally is, and this no other creature can do.
7. But they think [consider or imagine] only how to fill themselves and multiply, that their life may subsist ; and we also receive * no more from * than the the spirit of the stars and elements. And 6 therefore . !
8 because our also our children are naked and bare, with great a higher be inability, and without understanding ; and now if Dn,g than the spirit of this world had full [perfect and absolute] power over the essences of the child, then he would easily put his rough garment upon it also (viz. a rough hide), but he must let that alone : And he
260 THE THREE PRINCIPLES [Ch. 14 must leave the essences in the first and second Principles to man's own choosing, to bind and yield himself to which [Principle] he will ; which man has (undeniably) in his full power, which I will expound in its own place according to its worth, and deeply demonstrate it, in spite of all the gates of the devil, and this world, which strive much against it.
8. Our life in the mother's body has its beginning wholly, as is above mentioned, and stands there now in the quality of the sun and stars, where then, with the kindling of the light, a centre springs up again, where instantly the noble tincture thus generats itself (out of the light, out of the joyful essences of the [sour] harsh, bitter, and fiery kind [or quality]) and setts the spirit of the soul in a great pleasant
1 beings or habitation : And the three * essences (viz. harshness, substances. . . i/>\ • i i ' IT /» i vr bitterness, and fire) are in the kindling 01 the lite so very fast bound one to another, that they cannot (in eternity) be separated one from another, and the tincture is their eternal house, wherein they dwell, which [house] they themselves generate from the beginning unto eternity, which again gives them life, joy, and lust [or delight].
The strong Gate of the indissoluble Band of the Soul.
9. Behold, the three essences, (viz. [sourness or] harshness, bitterness and fire) are the worm or
Ch. 14] BIRTH AND PROPAGATION OF MAN 261 spirit [that dies not]. l Harshness is one essence, J Or sourness. und it is in the Fiat of God, out of God's eternal will ; and the attracting of the [sour] harshness is the sting [or prickle] of the bitterness, which the [sour] harshness cannot endure, but attracts continually the more forcibly to it, from whence the prickle continually grows greater, which yet the [sour] harshness holds 2 prisoner; and this 2 captive. together is the great anxiety, which was there in the dark mind of God the Father, when the darkness was anxious [or longed] after the light ; from whence in the anxiety (from the glance of the light) it attained the twinkling flash : Out of which the angels were created, which afterward were enlightened from the light of God (3 by their 3 by their imagination into the Heart of God) ; and the other