And yet we must not understand any sorrow to be in the pregnatress ; but the free will doth so form and conceive itself in the desire to the contemplation and manifestation of the wonders; that so the properties might be peculiarly manifested and revealed in each other.
7. For if there were no contra- will then there would be no motion in the properties; but seeing the free will has introduced itself into love and anger, viz. into evil and good, a twofold will is arisen in these properties, viz. a wrathful [will], according to the nature of the fire and of the darkness, and a good love- will, according to the nature and quality of the light; in order that one might dwell in and manifest the other.
8. Not that this birth has received only a temporal beginning: it is [or has been] eternal, and is the manifestation of the divine vision, sensation, and perception. Only, in the creating of the creation this birth introduced itself into a compaction or external comprehensiveness, that it might have a distinct dominion to work in for its own sport and play.
9. Also we are not to conceive that in the creation the evil, proceeding from the darkness and fiery property, was separated from the good, and placed in a peculiar sundry working dominion, but the one is in the other. Yet the light shone through the darkness, and the darkness could not comprehend it. Every life in the creation proceeded forth from the fiery property, and the spirit of the rational understanding did arise from the light's property. In the creation every fiery life was brought forth, in its beginning, to [in or for] the light.
10. Moreover, the Creator of all beings has given the creatures of the outward world, which has a temporal beginning out of the eternal Word, a universal light for visible contemplation; also, every life in the creation has received the light of nature out of the centre in itself; out of which the understanding arises, so that the creature can rule and govern itself.
11. And nothing was created evil, or to the dominion of iniquity; for though on one part it has an ens of the wrath in itself for its life, yet on the other part it has also an ens of the light and good virtue in itself; and it is set in the free will, to conceive [or work] in evil or [in] good; for there is nothing so evil but it has a good in it, whereby it may rule and be predominant over the evil.
12. But man was in equal accord in his properties: no property was manifest above the other, for he was God's image; like as there is no evil manifest in God, unless he would himself manifest the wrath of the eternal nature in a thing: even so also the divine free will was given to man.
13. And withal, the command [was given to him] that he in his free will should not lust after evil and good, viz. after the divided properties; he should continue steadfast in the equal harmony of the properties, and rule with the light over the darkness; and then the properties of the wrath had stood in mere joy, delight and melody in him, and he had been a mirror and form of the divine wisdom, which had seen and beheld itself in him, according to the kingdom of joy.
14. But seeing that he did contemplate with the free will in the dissimility, how evil and good were each of them in its own peculiar self-full property, and brought his lust and longing thereinto, desiring to taste thereofin the essence; whereupon this same property did also take him in his lust, and prevailed in his will, and also in the ens whence the will did arise to its own contemplation and dominion. And thus the first man, who was good in the beginning, became a stock or tree of the taste of the knowledge of evil and good, viz. a contending dominion, in which both wills, viz. the good and the evil, ruled in one another.
And yet we must not understand any sorrow to be in the pregnatress ; but the free will does so form and conceive itself in the desire to the contemplation and manifestation of the wonders; that so the properties might be peculiarly manifested and revealed in each other.
7. For if there were no contra- will then there would be no motion in the properties; but seeing the free will has introduced itself into love and anger, viz. into evil and good, a twofold will is arisen in these properties, viz. a wrathful [will], according to the nature of the fire and of the darkness, and a good love- will, according to the nature and quality of the light; in order that one might dwell in and manifest the other.
8. Not that this birth has received only a temporal beginning: it is [or has been] eternal, and is the manifestation of the divine vision, sensation, and perception. Only, in the creating of the creation this birth introduced itself into a compaction or external comprehensiveness, that it might have a distinct dominion to work in for its own sport and play.
9. Also we are not to conceive that in the creation the evil, proceeding from the darkness and fiery property, was separated from the good, and placed in a peculiar sundry working dominion, but the one is in the other. Yet the light shone through the darkness, and the darkness could not comprehend it. Every life in the creation proceeded forth from the fiery property, and the spirit of the rational understanding did arise from the light's property. In the creation every fiery life was brought forth, in its beginning, to [in or for] the light.
10. Moreover, the Creator of all beings has given the creatures of the outward world, which has a temporal beginning out of the eternal Word, a universal light for visible contemplation; also, every life in the creation has received the light of nature out of the centre in itself; out of which the understanding arises, so that the creature can rule and govern itself.
11. And nothing was created evil, or to the dominion of iniquity; for though on one part it has an ens of the wrath in itself for its life, yet on the other part it has also an ens of the light and good virtue in itself; and it is set in the free will, to conceive [or work] in evil or [in] good; for there is nothing so evil but it has a good in it, whereby it may rule and be predominant over the evil.
12. But man was in equal accord in his properties: no property was manifest above the other, for he was God's image; like as there is no evil manifest in God, unless he would himself manifest the wrath of the eternal nature in a thing: even so also the divine free will was given to man.
13. And withal, the command [was given to him] that he in his free will should not lust after evil and good, viz. after the divided properties; he should continue steadfast in the equal harmony of the properties, and rule with the light over the darkness; and then the properties of the wrath had stood in mere joy, delight and melody in him, and he had been a mirror and form of the divine wisdom, which had seen and beheld itself in him, according to the kingdom of joy.
14. But seeing that he did contemplate with the free will in the dissimility, how evil and good were each of them in its own peculiar self-full property, and brought his lust and longing thereinto, desiring to taste thereofin the essence; whereupon this same property did also take him in his lust, and prevailed in his will, and also in the ens whence the will did arise to its own contemplation and dominion. And thus the first man, who was good in the beginning, became a stock or tree of the taste of the knowledge of evil and good, viz. a contending dominion, in which both wills, viz. the good and the evil, ruled in one another.
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