Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence

1 field, or * soil ; where then the first tincture (in the will) ^o^iife breaketh, and his own 2 tincture springeth forth out of the anxious [or aching] chamber of darkness, and of death, out of the anxious source [or property], and blossometh out of the darkness, in the broken gate of the darkness in it, as a pleasant habitation, and so generateth its light out of the anxious fierceness out of itself ; where then (in the light) there goeth forth again the endless source of the [thoughts or] senses, which make a throne and region of reason, which governeth the whole house, and desireth to enter into the region of the heaven, out of which it proceeded not. And therefore now this is not the original will, which there desireth to enter into the

3 Or recompre- region of the heaven ; but it is the 3 reconceived bunded, or ... /> i ,• i • r a »«••«< retaken will will out of the source of the anxiety, [which will la property. in a desire] to enter through the deep gate of God.

18. Now seeing it was impossible for the human spirit, how much soever it was attempted [tried or sought], therefore God must enter again into the humanity, and help the human spirit to break the

4 Or of death gate of 4 darkness, that so it might be able to enter into the divine [power or] virtue.

19. And thus he dwelleth in two [properties], both which draw him, and desire to have him ; viz. one fierce [property or] source, whose original is the darkness of the abyss ; and the other is the divine [power or] virtue, whose source [or active property] is the light and the divine joy in the broken gate of heaven ; as the word Himmel

Ch. 21] THE CAINISH AND ABELLISH KINGDOMS 565

[heaven] in the language of nature hath its proper / acute * understanding, from the pressing through, > meaning, or and entering in, and then with its root continuing significationto sit in the stock of eternity, wherein the omnipotencyis rightly understood ; which my 2 Master "the learned in Arts will scarce give any credit to, for he hath S^ or™ no knowledge therein ; it belongeth to the lily. raason'

20. Thus man is drawn and held of both ; but the centre standeth in him, and [he] hath the 8 balance between the two wills, viz. between the » balance of original and the reconceived [will] to the kingdom the wtgnts°r of heaven ; and in each scale there is a maker, who formeth what he letteth into his mind; for the mind is the centre of the balance, the senses [or thoughts] are the weights that pass out of one scale into the other ; for the one scale is the kingdom of the fierceness, and of anger ; and the other is the regeneration (in the virtue [or power] of God) in the heaven.

21. Now behold, 0 man, how thou art both earthly and also heavenly, as [it were] mixed in one [only] person, and thou bearest the earthly, and also the heavenly image, in one [only] person ; and thou art also the fierce [wrathful property or] source, and thou bearest the hellish image, which 4springeth in the anger of God, out of the source < Or groweth. of the eternity ; thus is thy mind, and the mind holdeth the balance, and the 6 senses put [weight] • Or thoughts, into the scales.

22. Therefore consider what weight thou puttest

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THE THREE PRINCIPLES

[Ch. 21

1 formeth, lashioneth, or createth an image.

2 Or figured.

in by the senses : Thou hast the kingdom of heaven in thy power, for the word of the divine virtue [or power] in Christ, hath given itself to thee to be thy own ; and so also thou hast the kingdom of hell in a bridle, in the root, and thou hast it for thy own by the right of nature ; and thou hast the kingdom of this world also (according to thy humanity received from Adam) for thy own.