Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence

28. And therefore instantly at the fall, the Word of God the Father (and in the Word the light) through the Holy Ghost, entered into the holy element, and into the chaste virgin of the wisdom of God, and made a precious covenant, to become a creature in this virgin, and to take away the devil's power in the anger, and to destroy his kingdom ; and this Christ would yield himself to be in the perished humanity, and with his entering into death separate the hell of the anger, and the kingdom of this world from us ; and God the Father discovered this Word (of the promised seed of the woman) instantly (after the fall) in the Garden of Eden, where instantly it gave up itself (in the eternal espousal) into the centre of the light of life, and separated all the souls of men, who have inclined themselves, and yielded themselves up to him, in the dying of their bodies, from the auger of God, and from the kingdom of this world, and brought them into him (into the pure element of the paradise) into the joy, and into the chasteCh. 22] THE NEW REGENERATION IN CHRIST 599 virgin of God, there to wait, till God breaketh the kingdom of this world, with the stars and elements, where then instantly the pure element shall be instead of the out-birth ; and there shall spring and grow the new body upon the soul in the holy element before God eternally.

29. Now if we [would] consider his precious incarnation [or becoming man], then we must rightly open the eyes of the spirit, and not be so earthly minded, as at present they are, in Babel ; and we must rightly consider how God is become man ; for the Scripture saith : He ivas conceived and born without sin, of a pure virgin. Here consider now, beloved mind, what kind of virgin that was, for all whatsoever is born of the flesh and blood of this world, is impure, and there can no pure virgin be generated, in this corrupted flesh and blood ; the fall of Adam destroyed all ; and it is all under sin, and there is no pure virgin generated of man's seed ; and yet this Christ was conceived and born of a pure virgin.

30. Here the learned of the schools [or universities] of this world must stand still, and the scholar

(born of God) must here begin to * learn concerning i or teach.

this birth ; for the spirit of this world apprehendeth no more here, this is foolishness to it ; and though he go ' very far, yet he is but in Babel, in his own " in studying the literal reason. wisdom of

31. Therefore we set it down here (according to be our knowledge) that the pure chaste virgin, mth

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which God was born [or generated], is the chaste virgin [that is] in the presence of God, and it is an eternal virgin ; before ever heaven and earth were created, it was a virgin, and that without blemish ; and that pure chaste virgin of God put itself into 1 in Mary's Mary, in her l incarnation, and her new man was becoming to .

be a human in the holy element of God; and therefore she was creature, or her becoming the blessed among all women, and the Lord was with her, as the angel said.

32. Thus now we may know, that God is all in all, and filleth all, as it is written, Am not I he that Jilleth all things ? And therefore we know, that the holy pure element in paradise is his dwelling, which is the second Principle, and is in all things, and yet the thing (as a dead dark out-birth) knoweth it [the second Principle] not, as the pot [knoweth not] its potter, so also that [thing] neither comprehendeth nor apprehendeth that [second Principle]. For I cannot say (when 1 take hold of, or comprehend anything) that I take hold of the holy element, together with the paradise and the Deity, but I comprehend the out-birth, the kingdom of this world, viz. the third Principle and the substance thereof, and I move [or stir] not the Deity therewith. And so we are to know [and understand] that the holy new man [is thus] hidden in the old, and not separated, but in the temporal death.