1whole similitude of God, and had all three Principles in him like God himself, therefore also his
mind and imagination should merely have looked
into the Heart of God, and should have set his
lust and [desire, or] will thereon ; and as he was
a lord over all, and that his mind was a threefold
spirit, in three Principles in one^only essence, so
his spirit also, and the will in the spirit, should
have stood open [or free] in one only essence, viz.
in the paradisical heavenly [essence]. And his
mind and soul should have eaten of the Heart of
God, and his body [should have eaten] of the
heavenly linibus.
1 Or virtue 12. But seeing the heavenly llimbus was manifested through the earthly, and was in the fruit in
one only essence, and Adam so too, therefore it
behoved Adam (having received a living soul out
of the first Principle, and breathed in from the
Holy Ghost, and enlightened from the light of God
standing in the second Principle) not to reach after
the earthly matrix.
13. Therefore God here also gave him the
command, not to lust after the earthly matrix, nor
after her fruit, which stood in the corruptibility,
2 not in the and transitoriness, but the spirit of man 2 not. He
corruptibility. , . - ,. 1-1
2should eat of the fruit, but no otherwise than of
the paradisical kind and property, [and] not of the
earthly essences. For the paradisical essences had
imprinted themselves in all fruits, therein they
were very good to eat of, after an angelical manner,
Ch. 11] CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE TEMPTATION 183
and also pleasant to behold, or corporeal, as Moses
also saith. Now it may be asked, What then was
properly the tempting in Adam ?
The Gate of Good and Evil.
14. We have a very powerful testimony hereof,
and it is known in nature, and in all her children,
in the stars and elements, in the earth, stones, and
metals; especially in the living creatures, as you
see, how they are evil and good, viz. lovely
creatures, and also venomous evil beasts ; as toads,
adders, and serpents [or worms] ; so also there is
poison and malice in every sort of l life of the l Or living
third Principle : And the [fierceness or] strongness
must be in nature, or else all were a death, and
a nothing.
The Depth in the Centre.
15. As is mentioned before, the eternal mind
standeth thus 2in the darkness, and vexeth itself, a Or unknown,
and longeth after the light, to generate that ; and
3the anguish is the source, and the source hath in
it many forms, till that it reacheth the fire in its
substance, viz. [it hath] bitter, sour, hard, cold,
strong, darting forth, or flashing ; in the root of
itself sticketh the joy and pain alike ; viz. when it
cometh to the root of the fire, and can reach the
light, then out of the wrath [or sternness] cometh
the great joy. For the light putteth the stern
form into great meekness ; on the contrary, that
184 THE THREE PRINCIPLES [Ch. 11
form which cometh only to the root of the fire,
1 Or grimness, that continueth in the l wrath.
fierceness.
16. As we are to know, that when God would
manifest the eternal mind in the darkness, in the
2 Or by. third Principle 2 with this world, then first all forms
in the first Principle till fire were manifested, and
that form now which comprehended the light, that
became angelical and paradisical; but that which
comprehended not the light, that remained to be
wrathful, murderous, sour and evil, every one in
its own form and essence. For every form desired
also to be manifested, for it was the will of the
eternal essence to manifest itself. But now one
form was not able to manifest itself alone in
the eternal birth, for the one is the member
of the other, and the one without the other
would not be.
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.