80. There is not any who does good in selfhood and own will, unless that he forsake in the own (appropriating) will all whatsoever he has, except the infant's shirt; that he must keep for his own and give it to none, for it is the covering of his shame. The other is all common, and he is only a servant and steward of the same, a guardian and distributor to every one in his place.
81. Whosoever suffers the poor and miserable to be in want and distress under his charge, and gathers into his mind temporal goods for his own property, he is no Christian, but a child of the Serpent; for he suffers his under branches to wither, and keeps away his sap and power from them, and will not work forth fruits by his fellowbranches.
82. We do not hereby mean the wicked idle crew which will only suck, and not work and bring forth fruit themselves in the tree, that they should be pampered to exercise pleasure and vanity; but we speak of the twigs which stand in the tree, and co-operate, and would fain grow and bear fruit, from whom the great branches of this world do withdraw the sap, and hold it in themselves, that they, as lean overdript twigs, do wither, by and under their charge. Such are the rich potentates and nobles; with them the spirit of zeal does here speak; so far as they do keep and hold their sap within themselves, and suffer their small branches to dry up and wither, and wholly withdraw the sap from them. They are branches on the tree of the Serpent, which is grown up in the curse of God's anger, and is reserved for the fire of God's anger; says the Spirit of Wonders.
The Twenty-Third Chapter
How God re-called Adam and his Eve when they were entered into Sin and Vanity, and awakened in the Serpent's Ens; and laid upon them the Order of this toilsome laborious world, and ordained the Serpent-Bruiser for a Help (or Saviour) to them
1. Now when Adam and Eve had eaten of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and were become monstrous by the Serpent, Moses writes of it thus: Their eyes were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons (Gen. iii. 7).
Here the soul did even now know the monstrous image, and was ashamed of it; that such a gross beast, with gross flesh and hard bones, should awaken [or show itself] with a bestial worm's carcass of vanity in their tender delicate body;
and they would have covered the same from the eyes of God, and for shame crept behind the trees. So very ashamed were they of the souldeformity of the beast; for the bestial ens had swallowed up the heavenly, and got the upper hand, which before they had not known; now they could not tell for shame what they should do.
2. The Serpent's craft would not here cover the shame, but did lay it only more open, and accused them, as revolting, faithless rebels; for God's anger did awake in them, and arraigned them now before the severe judgement, to devour them into itself; as into the dark world, as happened to Lucifer.
3. And this is the place [state, condition] whereby the earth trembled in the death of Christ, and the rocks clove in sunder: Here God's anger shut up in death the holy ens of the heavenly humanity; which Christ, when he destroyed death on the Cross, did again open; at which the wrath, in the curse of the earth and rocks, shook and trembled.
4. And here was the sore combat before God's anger, in which combat Christ, in the Garden (when he prayed, and was to overcome
80. There is not any who does good in selfhood and own will, unless that he forsake in the own (appropriating) will all whatsoever he has, except the infant's shirt; that he must keep for his own and give it to none, for it is the covering of his shame. The other is all common, and he is only a servant and steward of the same, a guardian and distributor to every one in his place.
81. Whosoever suffers the poor and miserable to be in want and distress under his charge, and gathers into his mind temporal goods for his own property, he is no Christian, but a child of the Serpent; for he suffers his under branches to wither, and keeps away his sap and power from them, and will not work forth fruits by his fellowbranches.
82. We do not hereby mean the wicked idle crew which will only suck, and not work and bring forth fruit themselves in the tree, that they should be pampered to exercise pleasure and vanity; but we speak of the twigs which stand in the tree, and co-operate, and would fain grow and bear fruit, from whom the great branches of this world do withdraw the sap, and hold it in themselves, that they, as lean overdript twigs, do wither, by and under their charge. Such are the rich potentates and nobles; with them the spirit of zeal does here speak; so far as they do keep and hold their sap within themselves, and suffer their small branches to dry up and wither, and wholly withdraw the sap from them. They are branches on the tree of the Serpent, which is grown up in the curse of God's anger, and is reserved for the fire of God's anger; says the Spirit of Wonders.
The Twenty-Third Chapter
How God re-called Adam and his Eve when they were entered into Sin and Vanity, and awakened in the Serpent's Ens; and laid upon them the Order of this toilsome laborious world, and ordained the Serpent-Bruiser for a Help (or Saviour) to them
1. Now when Adam and Eve had eaten of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and were become monstrous by the Serpent, Moses writes of it thus: Their eyes were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons (Gen. iii. 7).
Here the soul did even now know the monstrous image, and was ashamed of it; that such a gross beast, with gross flesh and hard bones, should awaken [or show itself] with a bestial worm's carcass of vanity in their tender delicate body;
and they would have covered the same from the eyes of God, and for shame crept behind the trees. So very ashamed were they of the souldeformity of the beast; for the bestial ens had swallowed up the heavenly, and got the upper hand, which before they had not known; now they could not tell for shame what they should do.
2. The Serpent's craft would not here cover the shame, but did lay it only more open, and accused them, as revolting, faithless rebels; for God's anger did awake in them, and arraigned them now before the severe judgement, to devour them into itself; as into the dark world, as happened to Lucifer.
3. And this is the place [state, condition] whereby the earth trembled in the death of Christ, and the rocks clove in sunder: Here God's anger shut up in death the holy ens of the heavenly humanity; which Christ, when he destroyed death on the Cross, did again open; at which the wrath, in the curse of the earth and rocks, shook and trembled.
4. And here was the sore combat before God's anger, in which combat Christ, in the Garden (when he prayed, and was to overcome
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