Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence
after your prating and blasphemy, whereby you make our women and children scoffers, so that they learn nothing bat scornful and reproachful speeches, and so persecute and vex one another therewith in 1 Babel. Can the kingdom of Christ be found in l in the
. M contentious such things ? Or rather do you not build the wrangling.
scornful and reproachful church of Babel ? Where is your apostolical heart, [consisting] in love ? Is your scorn and derision of others, Christ's meekness, who said, Love one another, be ye followers of me, and so it shall be known that ye are my disciples ?
To you it is said; the 2 anger burneth in Babel ; 2 Or wrath
-11 i of God.
when the flame thereof nseth up, then will the elements shake and tremble, and Babel shall be burnt in the fire.
80. The temptation of Christ rightly sheweth \ us his Person ; therefore open thy eyes, and let not Babel trouble thee, it is the price of thy body and soul ; for that [temptation] in the hard combat of Adam in the Garden of Eden, which Adam could not hold out in, here the worthy Champion went through with it, and hath obtained victory, in his humanity in heaven, and over this world.
81. As we have demonstrated the true Christ, who is God and man in one undivided Person, so we must now shew what kind of man he is, according to the kingdom of this world ; for the great wonders cannot sufficiently be described, they are still greater; there is need of an angelical tongue as well as of an earthly, and because wep. 622 have but an earthly, therefore we will write from an angelical mind, and speak the great wonders of God with the earthly tongue.
82. Let us look upon his baptism, and then upon his temptation instantly after his baptism, and so we shall find our new regeneration, as also in what kingdom we lie imprisoned ; and we very highly rejoice (in this knowledge) that God is become man : And if now we would apprehend it, we must first set down the baptism of Christ, and then the temptation in its right order.
Of the Baptism of Christ upon Earth, in Jordan.
83. It is known to us, that (in Adam's fall) we are fallen into the anger of God, when the spirit, or soul of Adam, turned from the Heart of God into the spirit of this world, where instantly the holy heavenly image was extinguished, and the anger in the darkness held the poor soul captive, and where the devil instantly gat his entrance and habitation in the anger of the human soul ; and if the Treader upon the Serpent had not entered instantly into the mark of separation, in the centre of the light of life, then the wrath would have devoured us, and we should have continued eternally to be companions of the devils ; but when the Treader upon the Serpent thus1 entered into the middle (though not so presently into the humanity, but into the centre of the light of life) then the poor imprisoned souls which turned themOh. 22]p. 623
selves to God again, were (in the centre) bound or knit to the Deity again, till the Champion [or Saviour] came -into the humanity, where (in his conception and humanity) he received the whole man again, and this we see clearly in his baptism ; for there was that one Person which was both God and man, he had the heavenly and also the •earthly body.
after your prating and blasphemy, whereby you make our women and children scoffers, so that they learn nothing bat scornful and reproachful speeches, and so persecute and vex one another therewith in 1 Babel. Can the kingdom of Christ be found in l in the
. M contentious such things ? Or rather do you not build the wrangling.
scornful and reproachful church of Babel ? Where is your apostolical heart, [consisting] in love ? Is your scorn and derision of others, Christ's meekness, who said, Love one another, be you followers of me, and so it shall be known that you are my disciples ?
To you it is said; the 2 anger burns in Babel ; 2 Or wrath
-11 i of God.
when the flame thereof nses up, then will the elements shake and tremble, and Babel shall be burnt in the fire.
80. The temptation of Christ rightly shows \ us his Person ; therefore open your eyes, and let not Babel trouble you, it is the price of your body and soul ; for that [temptation] in the hard combat of Adam in the Garden of Eden, which Adam could not hold out in, here the worthy Champion went through with it, and has obtained victory, in his humanity in heaven, and over this world.
81. As we have demonstrated the true Christ, who is God and man in one undivided Person, so we must now show what kind of man he is, according to the kingdom of this world ; for the great wonders cannot sufficiently be described, they are still greater; there is need of an angelical tongue as well as of an earthly, and because we
622 THE THREE PRINCIPLES [Ch. 22 have but an earthly, therefore we will write from an angelical mind, and speak the great wonders of God with the earthly tongue.
82. Let us look upon his baptism, and then upon his temptation instantly after his baptism, and so we shall find our new regeneration, as also in what kingdom we lie imprisoned ; and we very highly rejoice (in this knowledge) that God is become man : And if now we would apprehend it, we must first set down the baptism of Christ, and then the temptation in its right order.
Of the Baptism of Christ upon Earth, in Jordan.
83. It is known to us, that (in Adam's fall) we are fallen into the anger of God, when the spirit, or soul of Adam, turned from the Heart of God into the spirit of this world, where instantly the holy heavenly image was extinguished, and the anger in the darkness held the poor soul captive, and where the devil instantly gat his entrance and habitation in the anger of the human soul ; and if the Treader upon the Serpent had not entered instantly into the mark of separation, in the centre of the light of life, then the wrath would have devoured us, and we should have continued eternally to be companions of the devils ; but when the Treader upon the Serpent thus1 entered into the middle (though not so presently into the humanity, but into the centre of the light of life) then the poor imprisoned souls which turned themOh. 22] THE NEW REGENERATION IN CHRIST 623 selves to God again, were (in the centre) bound or knit to the Deity again, till the Champion [or Saviour] came -into the humanity, where (in his conception and humanity) he received the whole man again, and this we see clearly in his baptism ; for there was that one Person which was both God and man, he had the heavenly and also the •earthly body.