108. In God there is no dominion, but in the Three Principles, in their creatures: There is in God no more but one only spirit, which cometh to succour his whole Being in the water and in the fire, out of which everything existeth; he is no destroyer, but preserver of a thing; and if any thing perisheth, the fault lieth in the dominion [government]
of nature; but that which is out of the eternal cannot perish, but only changeth into another property; for which [cause] we give you warning:
and all the teaching and seeking in this world is only that you may be warned of the severe source or property of the fire; there is indeed a life in it, and no creature can subsist without it have that life: but we that are men are not created for that life, and therefore God would have every creature in that property wherein he created it, that his eternal will may stand stedfast, and not be broken.
109. Every thing hath free-will, and therein its inclination to its property; the whole being of this world, and of the angelical world, also of the hellish world, is merely a wonder in the presence of God: He hath set light and darkness before every one, thou may est embrace which thou wilt; thou wilt not thereby move God in his Being; his spirit goeth forth from him, and meeteth all those that seek him; it is God's seeking, in which God desireth the humanity, for it [the humanity] is his image, which he hath created according to his whole Being, wherein he will see and know himself: yea he dwelleth in man. Why then are we so long a- seeking? Let us but seek to know ourselves; and when we find ourselves, we find all; we need run no whither to seek God, for we can thereby do him no service; if we ourselves did but seek and love one another, then we love God; what we ourselves do to one another, that we do to God; whosoever seeketh and findeth his brother and sister, hath sought and found God:
In him we are all one body, of many members, every one having its own office, government and work; and that is the wonder of God.
110. Before the time of this world we were known in his wisdom, and he created us into a being that there might be a sport in him. Children are our schoolmasters, (in all our wit and cunning we are but fools to them); when they are born, their first lesson is to learn to play by themselves, and when they grow bigger, they play one with another: thus hath God from eternity (in his wisdom, in our hidden childhood) played with us: but when he created us in knowledge and skill, we should then have played one with another, but the devil grudged us that, and made us fall out at our sport; and therefore it is that we are still at variance, in contention; but we have nothing to contend about but our sport; when that is at an end, we lie down to our rest, and go to our own place; and then come others to play, and strive and contend also, till the evening, till they go to sleep into their own country, out of which they are come: for we were in the land of peace, but the devil persuaded us to go into his unpeaceable country.
111. Dear children, what do we mean, that we are so obedient to the devil? Why do we so contend about a tabernacle which we have not made? Nay, this country is not ours; nor this government ours; it is our mother's, and the devil hath defiled it; let us pull it off and go to our mother, that she may put on us a fair, pure garment again, and then we need not contend about the defiled garment: here we contend about a garment, because one brother hath a fairer garment than another; and yet the mother putteth every one's own garment upon him;
And why therefore do we contend with our mother, who hath brought us forth? Are we not all her children? Let us be obedient children, and then she will purchase a new garment for every one of us, and then we shall rejoice, we shall all forget the defiled one.
112. We go into the garden of roses, and there are lilies and flowers enough; we will make a garland for our sister, and then she will rejoice with us; we have a round to dance, and we will all hold hands together; let us be very joyful; there is no more might to hurt us, our mother
108. In God there is no dominion, but in the Three Principles, in their creatures: There is in God no more but one only spirit, which comes to succour his whole Being in the water and in the fire, out of which everything exists; he is no destroyer, but preserver of a thing; and if any thing perishes, the fault lies in the dominion [government]
of nature; but that which is out of the eternal cannot perish, but only changes into another property; for which [cause] we give you warning:
and all the teaching and seeking in this world is only that you may be warned of the severe source or property of the fire; there is indeed a life in it, and no creature can subsist without it have that life: but we that are men are not created for that life, and therefore God would have every creature in that property wherein he created it, that his eternal will may stand stedfast, and not be broken.
109. Every thing has free-will, and therein its inclination to its property; the whole being of this world, and of the angelical world, also of the hellish world, is merely a wonder in the presence of God: He has set light and darkness before every one, you may est embrace which you will; you will not thereby move God in his Being; his spirit goes forth from him, and meets all those that seek him; it is God's seeking, in which God desires the humanity, for it [the humanity] is his image, which he has created according to his whole Being, wherein he will see and know himself: yea he dwells in man. Why then are we so long a- seeking? Let us but seek to know ourselves; and when we find ourselves, we find all; we need run no whither to seek God, for we can thereby do him no service; if we ourselves did but seek and love one another, then we love God; what we ourselves do to one another, that we do to God; whosoever seeks and finds his brother and sister, has sought and found God:
In him we are all one body, of many members, every one having its own office, government and work; and that is the wonder of God.
110. Before the time of this world we were known in his wisdom, and he created us into a being that there might be a sport in him. Children are our schoolmasters, (in all our wit and cunning we are but fools to them); when they are born, their first lesson is to learn to play by themselves, and when they grow bigger, they play one with another: thus has God from eternity (in his wisdom, in our hidden childhood) played with us: but when he created us in knowledge and skill, we should then have played one with another, but the devil grudged us that, and made us fall out at our sport; and therefore it is that we are still at variance, in contention; but we have nothing to contend about but our sport; when that is at an end, we lie down to our rest, and go to our own place; and then come others to play, and strive and contend also, till the evening, till they go to sleep into their own country, out of which they are come: for we were in the land of peace, but the devil persuaded us to go into his unpeaceable country.
111. Dear children, what do we mean, that we are so obedient to the devil? Why do we so contend about a tabernacle which we have not made? Nay, this country is not ours; nor this government ours; it is our mother's, and the devil has defiled it; let us pull it off and go to our mother, that she may put on us a fair, pure garment again, and then we need not contend about the defiled garment: here we contend about a garment, because one brother has a fairer garment than another; and yet the mother putts every one's own garment upon him;
And why therefore do we contend with our mother, who has brought us forth? Are we not all her children? Let us be obedient children, and then she will purchase a new garment for every one of us, and then we shall rejoice, we shall all forget the defiled one.
112. We go into the garden of roses, and there are lilies and flowers enough; we will make a garland for our sister, and then she will rejoice with us; we have a round to dance, and we will all hold hands together; let us be very joyful; there is no more might to hurt us, our mother
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