Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence
prophecy, which is God's ? Look upon Christ's the manifestaApostles, did any other teach them than God, who hidden things was in them, and they in him?
11. 0 dear children of God in Christ, fly away from Antichrist, who hath set up himself over all the coasts of the earth, and who setteth a painted image before you, as the serpent did before our mother Eve, and 2painteth your own image of20rrepre-
. «. « *» ' i sentethtoyou.
bod [as if it were] far on from God : But consider what is written, The Word is near thee, yea in thy heart and lips. And God himself is the Word which is in thy heart and lips.
12. But Antichrist hath never sought anything else but his own pleasure in the third Principle, and to fulfil it in the house of flesh ; and therefore he hath detained people with laws of his own inventing, which are neither grounded in nature, nor in the paradise of God, neither are they to be found in the centre of the birth of life.
13. Dear children, consider, how mightily and powerfully, with wonders, miracles, and works, the spirit of God went forth in word and deed in
p. 36
the times of the Apostles, and after, til] Antichrist and the spirit of self-pride, with his invented laws and astral wisdom, brake forth, and set himself up by that worldly and fleshly arm [or by the authority of the worldly magistrate], merely for his own pleasure and honour's sake, where the most precious words of Christ (who gave no laws to man, but the law of nature and the law of love, which is his own heart) must be a cloak for him, viz. for Antichrist, who is a prince in the third Principle ; what he ordains must be as the voice to Moses out of the bush : And so the man of pride makes as if
1 divine or himself had l divine power upon earth, and knoweth apostolical _ i TT i /^i authority, or not, in his blindness, the Holy Ghost will not be
2 Or blinded ' 2 tied [or bound up to their canons and human
5dt£E!Md inventions].
14. But if any would attain salvation, he must »iuthe be born again, through the water in the 3 centre ground where ., , . /••>•/'' • the grain of of the birth of life, which spnngeth up in the £ wwn an'd centre in the light of God ; for which end God the Father hath by his Son commanded Baptism, that so we might have a law, and a remarkable sign of remembrance, signifying how a child void of understanding receiveth an outward sign, and the inward man the power and the new birth in the centre of the birth of life; and that there ariseth the confirmation, which the light of God brought into A dam, when the light of God the Father, in the centre of the fifth form of the birth of the life of Adam, brake forth or sprang up. Thus it is bothCh. 4] OF THE TRUE ETERNAL NATURE 37 in the baptism of an infant or child, and also in the repenting convert, that in Christ returneth again to the Father.
15. The Last Supper of Christ with his disciples is just such another covenant as the [Psedobaptism or] baptism of infants. That which is done to the infant in baptism, that is done also to the poor sinner which awakeneth from the sleep of Antichrist, and cometh to the Father in and through Christ ; as shall be handled in its place.
prophecy, which is God's ? Look upon Christ's the manifestaApostles, did any other teach them than God, who hidden things was in them, and they in him?
11. 0 dear children of God in Christ, fly away from Antichrist, who has set up himself over all the coasts of the earth, and who setts a painted image before you, as the serpent did before our mother Eve, and 2painteth your own image of20rrepre-
. «. « *» ' i sentethtoyou.
bod [as if it were] far on from God : But consider what is written, The Word is near you, yea in your heart and lips. And God himself is the Word which is in your heart and lips.
12. But Antichrist has never sought anything else but his own pleasure in the third Principle, and to fulfil it in the house of flesh ; and therefore he has detained people with laws of his own inventing, which are neither grounded in nature, nor in the paradise of God, neither are they to be found in the centre of the birth of life.
13. Dear children, consider, how mightily and powerfully, with wonders, miracles, and works, the spirit of God went forth in word and deed in
36 THE THREE PRINCIPLES [Ch. 4 the times of the Apostles, and after, til] Antichrist and the spirit of self-pride, with his invented laws and astral wisdom, brake forth, and set himself up by that worldly and fleshly arm [or by the authority of the worldly magistrate], merely for his own pleasure and honour's sake, where the most precious words of Christ (who gave no laws to man, but the law of nature and the law of love, which is his own heart) must be a cloak for him, viz. for Antichrist, who is a prince in the third Principle ; what he ordains must be as the voice to Moses out of the bush : And so the man of pride makes as if
1 divine or himself had l divine power upon earth, and knows apostolical _ i TT i /^i authority, or not, in his blindness, the Holy Ghost will not be
2 Or blinded ' 2 tied [or bound up to their canons and human
5dt£E!Md inventions].
14. But if any would attain salvation, he must »iuthe be born again, through the water in the 3 centre ground where ., , . /••>•/'' • the grain of of the birth of life, which spnngs up in the £ wwn an'd centre in the light of God ; for which end God the Father has by his Son commanded Baptism, that so we might have a law, and a remarkable sign of remembrance, signifying how a child void of understanding receives an outward sign, and the inward man the power and the new birth in the centre of the birth of life; and that there arises the confirmation, which the light of God brought into A dam, when the light of God the Father, in the centre of the fifth form of the birth of the life of Adam, brake forth or sprang up. Thus it is both
Ch. 4] OF THE TRUE ETERNAL NATURE 37 in the baptism of an infant or child, and also in the repenting convert, that in Christ returns again to the Father.
15. The Last Supper of Christ with his disciples is just such another covenant as the [Psedobaptism or] baptism of infants. That which is done to the infant in baptism, that is done also to the poor sinner which awakens from the sleep of Antichrist, and comes to the Father in and through Christ ; as shall be handled in its place.