Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence

that you can hear that which stirreth and maketh a noise ? Wilt thou say that it is caused by the noise of that outward thing which giveth the sound ? No ! there must also be somewhat that must receive the sound, and qualify or mix with the sound, and distinguish the sound of what is played or sung ; the outward cannot do that alone, the inward must receive and distinguish the noise. Behold, here you find the beginning of the life, and the tincture wherein the life consisteth ; for the tincture of the crack in the springing up of the life, in the breaking-open of the dark gate, standeth in the sounding, and hath its gate open (next the fire-flash near the eyes) and receiveth the noise of whatsoever soundeth.

68. For the outward sounding qualifieth with the inward, and is severed [or distinguished] by the essences ; and the tincture receiveth all, be it evil or good, and thereby testifieth that itself, with its essences that generate it, is not generated out of the Deity, else the tincture would not let in the evil, and [that which is] false into the essences of the soul.

69. Therefore we must consider, that the noise in the tincture of man is [of a] higher [nature] than [that] in the beasts ; for man searcheth and distinguisheth all things which give a sound, and knoweth from whence it cometh, and how it doth exist, which the beasts cannot do, but stare at it, and know not what it is ; whereby it may be

Ch. 15] KNOWLEDGE OF THE ETERNITY 337

understood, that the original of man is out of the eternal, because he can distinguish all things that in the out-birth came out of the eternal. And hence it is, that the body (being all things out of the eternal nothing are caused to be something which is comprehensible [or palpable], and yet there, that nothing is not a mere nothing, but it is a l source) after the corrupting shall stand in the > Or active eternal figure, and not in the spirit, because it is property> not out of the eternal spirit ; for otherwise, if it were out of the [eternal] spirit, then it should also search out the beginning of every thing, as [well as] man, who in his sound receiveth and distinguisheth all things.

70. Thus now the habitation of man's sound, wherein the understanding is, must be from eternity, although indeed, in the fall of Adam, man hath set himself in the corruptibility, and in great want of understanding, as shall follow here. In like manner also we find concerning the smelling ; for if the spirit did not stand in the sound, then no smell of any thing would press [or pierce] into the essences ; for the spirit would be whole and swelled. But it standing thus in the gate of the 2 broken » disrupted, darkness in the crack and in the sound, therefore all virtues of all things press in into that gate, and try themselves by one another, and what the essences of the spirit love, that it desireth, and draweth the same into the tincture ; and then hands and mouth fall to it, and stuff it into the stomach,

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p. 338

THE THREE PRINCIPLES

[Ch. 15

Or atrium, into the 1 outward court of the four elements, from whence the earthly essences of the stars and elements feed.