1of this world, and thou hast made the kingdom
of this world thy kingdom of heaven, and thou
trustest only in thyself; thou makest thyself a
lord over BaBel, and thou drawest the kingdom of
this world to thee only by x cunning [subtlety] ; 1 tricks,
and thou makest thyself a patron therein, and deceit8' '
therewith thou goest out from God ; thou supposest
that thou art holy, though thou suppressest the
poor Abel under thy yoke, and vexest him day
and night ; he must here be thy blood-hound,
and thou accountest him thy slave, though thou
hast not right to the least hair of his head as
thine own ; and therefore thou art no other
than his driver [or hunter] in Jericho, thou art
his murderer, who strippest him, beatest, and
killest him.
2109. Dost thou ask, Wherefore? Behold, I will
tell thee, thou art Cain, the lord of the world,
for thou hast made thyself so ; and now Abel is
thy servant, who is entered into this world as a
guest, yet he standeth and desireth to be 2 gone out * regenerated.
of this world into his native country, which thou
canst not endure ; thou pressest him to the ground
two manner of ways, very subtly, and in selfpower. First, with thy hypocritical false doctrine,
[teaching or preaching] Babel, where he shall and
must believe whatsoever thou 3prescribest him, 3 or enjoinest
without the spirit of God, that thereby thou mayest doT" °rth°"
but strengthen thy gorgeous 4 fat kingdom, whereby < or stately
thou drawest him away from God, into the spirit d(
552
THE THREE PRINCIPLES [Ch. 20
1 Or must
esteem your
artificial
teaching as
the means of
salvation.
2 plaguest or
tormentest.
3 kingdom,
vengeance,
or rage.
4 contempt
and scorn.
8 Or spirit.
of this world, so that he must l gape upon thy
prating ; and if he do not so, then thou murderest
him, as Abel [was murdered].
3110. And secondly, thou hast set thyself to
be lord over him, and hast made him thy slave,
and so bravest it over him, as the proud woman
of this world, thou 2vexest him day and night,
and consumest his sweat in high-mindedness,
all according to the 3 fury of the wrath [or fierceness]. And so he sticketh not only in the
4 darkness, but [also] in great misery, cares, and
perplexit)7, and seeketh ways to get out of them,
and how to come to the light again, and escape
the driver.
111. But he findeth nothing in thy gates but the
way of falsehood, bribery, cunning, subtlety, lying,
and deceit, also covetousness, and to wind himself
about so under thy yoke, that he may but live ; and
so himself murdereth his own poor soul, under thy
yoke, and rendeth himself off thus from the kingdom
of God, and giveth himself up to the 6 kingdom of
this world, kneeling and praying before thy beast,
and honoureth thy proud bride that rideth upon
thy beast, as the spirit of God in the Revelation of
John witnesseth.
112. Thus thou continually murderest poor Abel
two manner of ways, and givest him great occasion
of stumbling ; by thy pomp and power thou drawest
him away from God into the spirit of this world,
where he then groweth stark blind, and so he will
Ch. 20] ADAM AND EVfi's GOING OUT OP PARADISE 553
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.