Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence

13. Thus it may very plainly be understood, that the light of God is a cause of all things, and you may hereby understand all the three Principles : For if the power, virtue, and light of God were not, then there would be also no attractive longing in

94 THE THREE PRINCIPLES [Ch. 7 the dark eternity, and also the sour desire (which is the mother of the eternity) would be nothing at all ; and it may be understood, that the divine virtue shines in everything, and yet it is not the thing itself, but the spirit of God in the second Principle ; and yet the thing is his ray [glance or lustre], which thus proceeds from the longing, or attracting will. But now the Heart of God is in the Father, [in] the first will, and the Father is the first desiring or longing after the Son, and the Son is the virtue and l light of the Father, from whence the eternal nature becomes always longing ; and so from the Heart of God, in the eternal dark matrix, [it] generats the third Principle. For 2 so God is manifest, but otherwise the Deity would remain hidden eternally.

14. Now therefore we say (as the Scripture informs us) that God dwells in heaven, and it is the truth. Now mark, Moses writes, that God created the heaven out of the midst of the waters, and the Scripture says, God dwells in heaven ; therefore we may now observe, that the water has its original from the longing of the eternal nature after the eternal light of God ; but the eternal nature is made manifest by the longing after the light of God, as is mentioned before ; and the light of God is present every where, and yet remains hidden to nature ; for nature receives only the virtue of the light, and the virtue is the heaven wherein the light of God dwells and is hidden,

Ch. 7] THE FOUR ELEMENTS 95

and so shines in the darkness. The water is the matema, or matter that is generated from the heaven, and therein stands the third, which again generats a life and comprehensible essence, or substance, out of itself, viz. the elements and other creatures.

15. Therefore, 0 noble man, let not Antichrist and the devil befool you, who tell you that the Deity is afar off from you, and direct you to a heaven that is situated far above you ; whereas there is nothing nearer to you than the heaven is. You only stand before the door of heaven, and you are gone forth with Adam out of the paradisical heaven into the third Principle ; yet you stand in the gate, do but as the eternal mother does, which by great desiring and * longing after the kingdom l Or seeking, of God, attains the kingdom of heaven, wherein God dwells, wherein paradise springs up ; do you but so, set all your desire 2 upon the Heart of 2 into. God, and so you will pass in by force, as the eternal mother does ; and then it shall be with you as Christ said, The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force : So you shall make to yourself friends in heaven with your unrighteous Mammon, and so you come to be the true similitude and image of God, and his proper own ; for all the three Principles, with the eternity, are in you, and the holy paradise is again generated in you, wherein God dwells. Then where will you seek for God ? Seek him in your soul only

96 THE THREE PRINCIPLES [Cll. 7 that is proceeded out of the eternal nature, wherein the l divine birth stands.