Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence

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him in righteousness, and in the fear of God ; him, the Treader upon the Serpent taketh into his arms, and maketh him an heavenly image ; such a one is a child of heaven, and not thy l fox. 1 Or thy xr -LIT TTTi r i subtle, cun29. JNow it may be asked, Wherefore art thou nmg seeming called the Antichrist ? Hearken, thou art 2 the 2 Or agaiDSt opposer of Christ, and thou hast built thyself achrist seeming [holy] hypocritical kingdom, with a great show ; therein thou exercisest thy hypocrisy, thou earnest the law of God upon thy lips, and thou teachest it, but with thy deeds thou deniest the power thereof, thy heart is only bent upon the spirit of this world, the kingdom of thy hypocrisy tends only to thy own honour [and repute] under a pretended holiness ; all knees must bend before thee, as if thou wast Christ, and thou hast the heart of a greedy wolf.

30. Thou boastest that thou hast the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and yet thyself art in the abyss ; thy heart hangeth on thy keys, and not on the heart of God, thou hast the keys of the chest of gold, and not of the breaking through, by confidence in God ; thou makest many 3 laws, and 3 canons, yet thyself keepest none, and thy 3 law is to as and orders! much purpose as the tower of Babel [was], which should have reached to heaven, and thy 3laws reach to heaven as much as that did.

31. Thou prayest before God, but in thy wolfish beast ; the spirit of this world (and not God) receiveth thy prayers ; for thy heart is a devourer,

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[Ch. 21 and entereth into the devourer ; thou desirest not earnestly to enter into God, but merely with thy historical hypocritical mouth, and thy heart presseth earnestly into the spirit of this world ; thou desirest only much temporal goods, honour, power, and authority in this world, and so thereby

1 Or kingdom, thou drawest the l region of this world to thee.

32. Thou suppressest the miserable and needy under thy feet, and thou constrainest him with necessity, and makest him vain [or carelessly wicked], so that he runneth after thy beast, and gazeth upon thee, and also becometh a servant of the opposer of Christ ; thy beast whereon thou ridest is thy strength and power, which thou usurpest to thyself, thou fattenest thy beast with the fatness of the earth, and thou crammest it with the sweat of the needy ; it is filled up with the tears of the miserable, whose sighs and groans press in through the gate of the deep to God, and

2 Or stir up. (with their pressing in) they 2 awaken the anger of God in thy beast ; as the blood of Abel did the anger in Cain.

33. Thus thou comest galloping with thy prancing horse, and thou ridest before the gate of heaven, and desirest 3 abstinence, and in thy shape thou art a wolf. What shall St Peter say to it ? Dost thou suppose that he will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven ? 0 no ! he hath none for wolves ; he hath but one for himself, he had never any to spare for others.

3 rest, forgiveness, or comfort.

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34. Wouldst thou get into heaven ? Then thou must put off thy wolf, and get into a lamb's skin ;

not with hypocrisy, in a corner f1 chamber], cloister, 1 closet, ceil, or wilderness [and hermitage], but with earnestness in the new birth ; and thy light must shine forth in righteousness and mercifulness, to the overthrow of the kingdom of the devil, and it must destroy his nest, with kind well-doing to the needy.