182. God indeed (in former times) permitted
much for the conversion-sake of the heathen ; but
he hath not ordained the Antichrist to be so, in
his covetousness, ordinances [or laws], and babble
in their councils ; where men have stopped the
mouth of the spirit of God, that it should speak
1 Viz. those no more, but that the x spirit of this world should
learned in speak, and build a kingdom of heaven upon earth,
universities, in laws, disputations, and great talkings ; and
therefore that kingdom of heaven, upon earth,
must be bound up with precious oaths or covenants,
(because it stood not in the liberty of the Holy
Ghost), that so it might be fat and lusty, great
and wanton, and never be broken. But it is come
to be a Babel of confusion thereby, and in the
confusion it breaketh [or destroyeth] itself.
83. If now thou wilt behold the Virgin Mary,
with her Son Jesus Christ, then thou shalt find
that she hath been justified and saved through her
Son ; although she is come into great perfection,
2 a holy or as a 2 bright morning-star, above other stars. And
half morning
star, or as a therefore also the angel called her blessed among
l 1 - T O O
half Lucifer . .. _, 7 . . 7 7
before he fell, women, and said, 1 /ie Lord is witfi mee : But she
hath not the divine omnipotence.
84. For the Word (which God promised in the
Garden of Eden) sprang [and budded] in the light
of her life, in the centre of God ; and when the
Ch. 18] PROMISED SEED OF THE WOMAN 463
2angel Gabriel (from the command of the Father)
stirred that [Word of the promise] with the
message, theii it let itself into the chaste virgin
1 in the element ; and not so wholly and altogether J in the
1-1 element
into the soul of the virgin, or into the earthly before God.
body, that she was deified. No; for Christ himself saith, None goeth into heaven but the Son
of man, who is come from heaven, and who is in
heaven; all others must go through him into
heaven ; 2 he is their heaven, and the Father 2 he is in the
Father, and
is his heaven, he was in the heaven ; and also MS members
(in the bosom of the virgin) in ' this world : the
world was made through him, how then could it
comprehend him ?
85. The virgin comprehended [or contained him]
as a mother doth her child, she gave him the
natural essences which she inherited from her
parents ; those he assumed to the creature, which
was God and man, the essences of his mother (in
her virgin-matrix, out of flesh and blood) he assumed
to the limbus of God (out of the [holy] element)
and in these became a living soul, without blemishing of the [holy] element ; and the Word was in
the midst ; the might [strength], height and depth
of the soul, reacheth even into the Father ; and
the outward kingdom of this world hung to the
inward, as the four elements hang to the [one]
element, 3 which in the end shall pass away again, 3 four
and go through the fire.
86. And as the child is another person than the
464
3THE THEEE PRINCIPLES
[Ch. 18
1 it shall be
manifested.
a Or the impregnation.
mother, and as the child's soul is not the soul of
the mother, so also here in this place. For the
outward virgin could not comprehend, that she did
bear the Saviour of the world ; but she committed
that (in her virgin-chastity) to God ; whatsoever
he did with her, she would still be contented
with it.
87. But thou abominable antichristian beast,
that wouldst devour all, this thou shalt know
concerning the holiness of the Virgin Mary ; that
the Virgin Mary is higher, and hath a greater
fulness of the glance [or lustre] than another child,
out of another body. Although thou (evil beast)
art scarce worthy to have this told thee, thou art
such a devourer, yet because the counsel of God
hath concluded so, Mt shall stand for a witness
against thee in thy judgment.
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.