Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence

69. Yet men cannot say that Mary was born out of a barren womb, although the body of Anna was unfruitful, which was from the counsel of God ; in that they were honest [virtuous] people, fearing God, that their tincture might not be defiled, because they were to generate that which the Lord would highly bless. God knew how to open it in due time, and that in old age, when the wanton lust (of this world from the elements) was extinguished, as in Sarah, Abraham's wife.

70. For if the soul standeth in the fear of God, then the tincture also (in which the soul springeth up) is purer ; although that be not free from the original [or inherited] sin. Thus Mary is indeed truly generated of Joachim, and Christ hath his natural soul from the tincture of Mary, yet but half; for the limbus of God was the man [or masculine seed], and therein was the chaste virgin of God in the holy Ternary, and in the holy Ternary the Trinity, the whole fulness of the Deity ; and the Holy Ghost was the work-master.

71. Here we clearly find what Christ said to his Father concerning us men, Behold the men were

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thine, and thou hast given them to me ; and I will that they be with me where 1 am, that they may see my glory. When the Word (or Heart of God) went into the holy Ternary, there it was the Son

Ch. 22] THE NEW REGENERATION IN CHRIST 617

of the Father, and also his servant, as Isaiah saith, and as it is in the Psalms ; for he had [united or] espoused himself * to the element, and had the l m or into, form of a servant ; but the Word which went into the [pure] element, was his Son ; and thus he took our soul upon him, not only as a brother, for the limbus of God (in the heavenly tincture) was the man, and that was our Lord ; for the whole world standeth in the might thereof, and that might shall sweep the threshing-floor of this world. And thus we are his servants, and also his brethren in respect of his mother ; but in respect of his Father we are his servants ; and before the fall we were the Father's, also till his humanity [or becoming man], though in the Word of the Promise [it was], in which the faithful entered into God.

72. Thus he is a king over the house of David eternally, and his kingdom hath no end, and he hath the throne of his father David, for this world is become his ; he is entered into this world, and hath taken possession of it ; he standeth in the holy Ternary, and in the Trinity, and also in this world ; he hath the 2 casting-shovel in his hand, a Or fan. as John the Baptist saith, the judgment is his, at which the devils do tremble. He hath the throne of David from the counsel of God ; for David was a type of him, and had the promise, and God set him upon the throne, in the promise ; for the sceptre of his kingdom was the sceptre of the faithful, who looked upon God, who was the king ; andp. 618 so also indeed the outward kingdom was his. Thus also Christ was a king in the holy Ternary, and this world also was his own.

Of the dear Name Immanuel.

73. And thus we can truly say, Immanuel, God with us, God in us. In the language of nature it soundeth right; but our tongue [we have] from

1 the outward this world doth but stammer it, and l cannot name tongue cannot . ,. , ,. .