1fierceness in the anger of God, where man must
press in, through the fierce [bitter] death, through
the centre, into the second Principle, into the
paradise of the holy element before God ; where
then the fierce [grim] death cutteth off the earthly
body (viz. the four elements) from the holy [one]
element.
41. And the keeper of the garden is the Cherubim, the cutter off of the source [or quality] of the
stars, which holdeth the four elements for a while,
and then breaketh them, and with its bitter sharpness severeth them from the soul, and passeth
away itself also with its sword. This [keeper] is
here in the way, that we cannot come to the Tree
of the eternal Life ; he is in the midst, and
suffereth us not to come into paradise. The gross
Garden of Eden (which is our earthly flesh) is the
hedge [or fortification] before the garden.
42. Now if anybody would come into the garden,
he must press in through the sword of death ;
though indeed Christ hath broken the sword, so
that now we can much easier enter in with our
souls, yet there is a sword before it still ; but he
that findeth the way aright, him it doth not cut
very much, for it is blunt, and it is bent ; and if
the soul goeth but into the gate into the centre,
then it is presently helped by the noble Champion
Christ ; for he hath gotten the sword into his
1 into MS l hands. He is the slain Lamb of the house of
jurisdiction. Israel, in the Revelation of John, which took the
2Oh. 20] ADAM AND EVE'S GOING OUT OP PARADISE 521
Book of the x first Principle, out of the hand of 1 shut, barred,
or closed.
the Ancient [of Days] who sat upon the throne,
with his four-and-twenty Elders, which [Book]
had seven seals, or seven spirits of the 2 birth
of God, and opened them ; where the Elders
fell down before him, and worshipped the Lamb
that was slain, and gave praise and honour
to him which sat upon the throne, because the
Champion of the house of Israel had overcome.
The seven golden candlesticks are his humanity,
the seven stars are his Deity, as the divine 3 birth s working or
. revelation.
in itself standeth in a sevenfold form, as it is
explained in the beginning of this book, in the
first four chapters.
43. Thus Moses hath a veil before his eyes ; and
if thou wouldst see his face, then thou must only
set Christ thy Champion before thee, that he may
lift up his veil, and then thou shalt see that Moses
hath 4no horns, but that he is a patient lamb, fast4 no harsh
bound to the death of Christ, and that his veil was a
the Book that was shut, so that we could not be
well enough till the Champion came, and brake its
seven seals with his entering into death, and there
the veil [or covering] was done away ; and in that
Book there stood the holy 6 Gospel of the kingdom
of God, which our worthy Conqueror Jesus Christ
hath 6 left US. 'instead of
, the law, or
44. Now when Adam and Eve went out of the read, or de-
3. 1 clared it to us.
garden, they kept together, as now married people
do, and now would make trial of their bestial
522 THE THREE PRINCIPLES [Ch. 20
condition, [to try] what wonders might proceed
from them ; and the spirit of the great world did
well enough teach them, in their reason, what they
were to do. And Adam knew his wife Eve, and
she conceived and bare a son, and called him
Cain; for she said, I have a man from the Lord.
These are sealed words which Moses writeth, that
she said, / have a man from the Lord. [For]
1 the great then said the * major mundus, I have the Lord
world, or .
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.