1in heaven, hallowed (or sanctified) be thy name.
And in the first of Genesis it is written, God
created the heaven out of the midst of the water ;
by which is [meant or] understood the heaven of
the third Principle : And yet indeed he hath
created it out of his own heaven wherein he
dwelleth. Thus you may easily find, that the
birth of the holy Deity standeth in the source of
water, and the powerful spirit is moreover the
former, framer, and fashioner [or moulder] therein.
Ch. 4] OF THE TRUE ETERNAL NATURE 57
60. Thus now the heaven in this forming or
framing, and the framing and generating out of it
in infinitum, or endlessly, is the paradise of God,
as the highly worthy Moses writeth : The spirit of
God moved upon the water, in the framing [forming or fashioning] of the world. This is, and
continueth so in its eternity, that the spirit of
God (in the birth of the Son of God) moveth
upon the water ; for he is the virtue, or power,
and the out-flowing in the Father, out of the
kindled l light [a] water, out of the water and * light-water.
light of God.
61. Thus God is one only undivided essence,
and yet threefold in personal distinction, one God,
one will, one Heart, one desire, one pleasure, one
beauty, one almightiness, one fulness of all things,
neither beginning nor ending ; for if I should go
about to seek for the beginning or ending of a
small dot [point, punctum], or of a perfect circle,
I should miss and be confounded.
262. And although I have written here, as if it
took a beginning (writing as it were of the beginning [and first springing] of the second Principle
and the 2 birth of the divine essence), yet you a Or continual
must not understand it as having any beginning ;
for the eternal birth is thus [without beginning
or end], and that in the originalness. But I write
to the end that man might learn to know himself,
what he is, and what God, heaven, angels, devils,
and hell are, as also what the wrath of God and
58 THE THREE PRINCIPLES [Ch. 4
hell-fire are. For I am permitted to write as far
as of the originalness.
63. Therefore, 0 child of man, consider what
thou art in this time ; esteem not so slightly or
poorly of thyself, but consider that you remain in
paradise, and put not out the divine light in you ;
or else you must hereafter remain in the original
of the source of anger or wrath in the valley of
darkness ; and your noble image out of God will
be turned into a serpent and dragon.
64. For you must know, that as soon as the
divine light went out in the devils, they lost their
beauteous form and image, and became like serpents,
dragons, worms, and evil beasts ; as may be seen
by Adam's serpent; and thus it is also with the
damned souls. For this we know in the original
of the first Principle very well. If you ask, How
so ? Read this following :
A description of a Devil, how he is in his own
proper form, and also how he was in the
Angelical form.
365. Behold, 0 child of man ! All the angels were
Or moving, created in the first Principle, and by the * flowing
spirit were formed and bodified in a true angelical
and spiritual manner, and enlightened from the
light of God, that they might increase the paradisical joy, and abide [therein] eternally. But
seeing they were to abide eternally, they must be
figured [or formed] out of the indissoluble band,
Ch. 4] OF THE TRUE ETERNAL NATURE 59
out of the first Principle, which is an indissoluble
band ; and they ought to look upon the Heart of
God, and feed upon the Word of God, and this
food would be their holy preservation, and would
make their image clear and light ; as the Heart of
God, in the beginning of the second Principle
enlighteneth the Father (that is, the first Principle) ; and there the divine power, paradise, and
the kingdom of heaven spring up.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.