Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence

10. Man s image born of a woman, here in tnis life, is in a threefold form, and stands in three Principles [or beginnings] ; viz. the soul, that has its original out of the first Principle, out of the strong and sour might of the eternity ; and it swimms [or moves] between two Principles, begirt with the third [Principle] ; it reaches with its original root into the depth of the eternity, in the source [or quality] where God the Father from eternity enters (through the gates of the breaking through, and opening) in himself, into the light of joy ; and it is in the band, where God calls himself a jealous, angry, and austere God, and is a sparkle out of the almightiness, 2 appearing in the a sparkling great wonders of the wisdom of God, through the discovered.

476 THE THREE PRINCIPLES [Ch. 19 dear virgin of chastity ; and with the form of the first Principle [it stands] in the gate of the sourness of eternity, [mingled, united, or] qualified with the region of the sun and stars, and begirt with the four elements ; and the holy element (viz. the root of the four elements) that is the body of the soul, in the second Principle, in the gate [before or] towards God ; and according to the spirit of this world, the region of the stars is the body of the soul ; and the issue of the four elements is the source-house [conduit-house, or workhouse], or the spirit of this world, which kindls the region, so that it [springs forth or] works.

11. And thus the soul lives in such a threefold source [or working quality], being bound

1 Or reins. with three l cords, and is drawn of all three. The first cord is the band of eternity, generated in the rising up of the anxiety, and reaches the abyss of hell. The second cord is the kingdom of heaven, generated through the gates of the deep in the Father, and regenerated out of the birth of sins, through the humanity of Christ, and there Or becoming the soul also (in the 2 incarnation of Jesus Christ

\ar\ * the Son of God) is tied up, and is drawn by the dear virgin, in the Word of God. The third cord is the kingdom of the stars, qualifying [or mingling] with the soul, and it is hard drawn and held by the four elements, and carried and led by them.

12. But the third kingdom is not also in the eternity, but is generated out of the one elementp. 2 man.

Ch. 19] ENTERING OF THE SOOLS TO GOD 477 in the time of the kindling of the Fiat • that now is corruptible, and has a certain seculum, limit and time [how long it shall last] ; and so this region in the soul (when the light of life kindls itself) th also a certain seculum, and time of its breakg; and that kingdom 'brings man up, aod- *«*««•. gives h,m the source of his manners [conditions "* and dmposition], will and desires to evil and good and setts him in beauty, glory, riches and honour' and makes him an earthly god ; and it opens to him the great wonders 'in him, and runns along M.

h,m inconsiderately to the end of his seculum, term, and end, and then it departs from him • and as ,t helped man to his life, so it helps him to death, and breaks off from the soul. 13. First, the four elements break off from the [one] element, and then the source [or working faculty] of the third Principle ceases ; and that £ most horrible thing [of all], when the four iments break in themselves; and that is the leath, when the brimstone-spirit (which has its original from the gall, and kindls the tincture the heart) is choked ; where then the tincture th the shadow of man's substance goes into the ier, and remains standing with the shadow in the root of the one element; from which [one lement] the four elements were generated and gone forth ; and therein only consists the woe m the breaking, where one source-house is broken ofl from the soul.

p. 478

THE THREE PRINCIPLES [Ch. 19