121. Moses speaketh only of the Tables of God,
2 Or ingraven. which were 2 graven through with the Ten Commandments, so that they could see through them
into the paradise. He hung the veil before his
face (as is to be seen concerning [the people of]
Ch. 17] OF THE FALL OF ADAM AND EVE 377
Israel) because man was become earthly, and
therefore must put off the earthly again, and
then he must with Joshua (or Jesus) enter into
the paradisical Promised Land, and not with Moses
stay in the wilderness of this world, where the
-veil of this world hangeth before him, before
the paradise.
22. Reason must not imagine, that God ever
made any beast out of a lump of earth, as a
potter maketh a pot. But he said, Let there
come forth all sorts of beasts, every one after its
kind ; that is, out of all essences, every one after
the property of its essence ; and so also it was
(by the Fiat) figured according to the property
of its own essence ; and in like manner, all trees,
herbs, and grass, all at once together. How then
should the image of God be made out of the
fragile [or corruptible] essences ? But it [must be
and] was made in the paradise out of the eternal
[essences],
223. The earth is not eternal, and for the sake
of the fragility [or corruptibility], therefore man's
body must break [or perish], because he hath
attracted the corruptibility to him. Thus also the
paradisical knowledge, delight and joy are departed
from him, and he is fallen into the kindled anger,
of the kindled four elements, which (according to
their fierceness) 1 qualify with the eternal anger in J Or mingle.
the abyss ; although the outward 2 region of the 2 Or working,
sun is mitigated, so that it is a pleasant habitation,
378 THE THREE PRINCIPLES [Ch. 17
as is seen before our eyes ; yet if the sun should
vanish away, then thou wouldst well see and feel
the anger of God. Consider it well.
24. Thus it is shewn us in the light of nature,
that when Adam was thus impregnated [or
possessed] from the spirit of this world, then God
1 Or planted. * built [or made] a garden in Eden upon earth,
2 in the divine2 in the paradise, and caused to grow up all sorts
habitation of paradisical fruit, pleasant to behold, and good
to eat, and the Tree of Temptation in the midst
3 Or out-flow- [of the Garden of Eden\, which had its 3 essences
tiaT virtues, from the spirit of this world ; and the other [trees
and fruits] had paradisical essences.
325. In this [garden] now the image of God
stood altogether free. It might embrace [and
take] what it would, only the Tree of Temptation,
that was forbidden. There he was forty days in
the paradisical knowledge, joy, and habitation,
where yet there was neither day nor night to him,
but only the eternity ; he saw with his eyes [from
or] out of the divine power [and virtue]. There
was in him no shutting of his eyes ; he had no
need of the sun at all, yet all things must serve
and be subject to him. The out-birth [or issue]
of the four elements did not touch him ; there was
no sleep in him, nor pain, nor fear. A thousand
years were to him but as a day ; he was such an
image as shall rise at the last day ; there will rise
no other image than that which God created in the
beginning, therefore consider it well.
Ch. 17] OF THE FALL OF ADAM AND EVE 379
26. But that I have said, that he was forty
days in the paradise, the second Adam's (Christ's)
temptation testifieth so much to me ; as also the
temptation of Israel at mount Sinai by Moses
[staying twice] on the mount, both which lasted
forty days, which you may read in Moses ; and
you may read concerning the temptation of Christ ;
and you will find wonders.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.