Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence

22. For God generateth nothing else but his Heart and Son, and will never generate any other thing out of himself. Therefore that which is spoken forth before [or from] the will, is a virgin of chastity, which never generateth anything else either; but she discovereth herself in the Holy Ghost in infinitum [infinitely] in the deep of the wonders of the almightiness, and openeth them ; and she hath the strong Fiat of God for an instrument [to work with], whereby she createth, and did create all in the beginning, and she discoverethCh. 18] PROMISED SEED OF THE WOMAN 433 herself in all created things, so that (by her) the wonders of all things are brought to the day-light.

The Strong Gate of the [Incarnation or] becoming Man of Jesus Christ the Son of God.

23. And out of this Heart and Word of God the Father, (with and through the chaste virgin of God, of his wisdom of the omniscience), is proceeded the Treader upon the Serpent, in and with the Word of the promise of God the Father to Adam and Eve and their children, and it hath imaged [or imprinted] itself in Adam's and Eves mind, and espoused itself in eternity [therein]; and opened [for] the soul the gate to the kingdom of heaven ;

and hath with the chaste * virgin set itself in the 1 the wisdom centre of the light of life, in the gate of God, and ° hath given the virgin to the soul for a perpetual companion, from whence man hath his skill and understanding, or else he could not have understanding. She is the gate of the 2 senses, and yet 2,0r thoughts, she 3 leaveth the counsel of the stars, because the 3 Or avoideth. soul liveth in the source [or quality] of the stars, and is too rough [crude, or sour], and therefore she cannot imprint [or unite] herself with the soul, yet she sheweth it the way of God. But if the soul become a hellish worm, then it withdraweth into her gate, and standeth before God, before his Word and Heart.

24. But because the souls of Adam and of Eve,
(and of all the children of men), were too rough,

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wild, and too hard kindled from the first Principle, so that they had the source of hell in them, being inclined to all evil [malice, or mischief], therefore the Word and the Treader upon the Serpent did not so instantly image [or imprint] itself in the soul of Adam, but stood opposite to the kingdom of the devil and of hell, and [against] their poisonous darts, in the mind ; and (in the mind of those men which incline and yield themselves to the Treader upon the Serpent) it breaketh the head of the serpent, the devil.

25. And so it was tried for a long time, whether it were possible that man should be recovered this way, so that he might yield himself wholly to God, that the soul might be born in the Word, and at last stand before God; yet all was in vain, the kindled soul could not stand, but there came to be man-slayers and murderers, also self-willed people, in mere lechery and un chastity of the flesh ; also aspiring in state, pride, and domineering, ac1 rule, or cording to the l regimen of the stars and elements, that driveth the body and the soul of man at all times ; and there were but few that did cleave to the Word of God.

26. Then God sent the deluge [or flood] upon the whole world, and drowned all flesh, except Noah, who did cleave to the Word of God ; he and his sons and their wives were preserved ; and so the world was tried, whether it would be afraid of the horrible judgment, and cleave to the Word,Ch. 18] PROMISED SEED OF THE WOMAN 435 but it was all in vain. Then God chose to himself the generation of Shem, (which did cleave to the Word), that so he might erect a light and office of preaching, that the world might learn from them. But all availed nothing ; the stars ruled men according to their source [or quality], in mere covetousness, unchastity, and pride ; which was indeed so very great, that they purposed to build a tower, whose top should reach to heaven. Such blind people they were as to the kingdom of God.