Three Principles of the Divine Essence
Chapter 10: Of the Creation of Man, and of his Soul, also of God's breathing in. The pleasant Gate.
I HAVE perused many Master- Pieces of Writing, hoping to find the Pearl of the Ground of Man; but I could find nothing of that which my Soul lusted after. I have also found very many contrary Opinions. And partly I have found some who forbid me to search, [or seek,] but I cannot know with what Ground or Understanding, except it be that the Blind grudge at the Eyes of them that see. With all this my Soul is become very disquiet within, and has been as full of [Pain and] Anguish as a Woman at her Travail, and yet nothing was found in it, till I followed the Words of Christ, when he said; You must be born anew, if you will see the Kingdom of God: Which at first stopped up my Heart, and I supposed that such a Thing could not be done in this World, but [that it should first be done] at my Departure out of this World. And then my Soul first was in Anguish to the Birth, and would very willingly have tasted the Pearl; and gave itself up in this Way more vehemently to the Birth, till at last it obtained a Jewel. According to which [received Jewel] I will write, for a Memorial to myself, and for a Light to them that seek. For Christ said; None lights a Candle and puts it under a Bushel, but sets it upon a Table, that all that are in the House may see by the Light of it. And to this End he gives the Pearl to them that seek, that they should impart it to the Poor for their Health, as he has very earnestly commanded.
Indeed Moses writes; That God made Man of the Dust of the Earth. And that is the Opinion of very many: And I should also not have known how that was to be understood, and I should not have learned it out of Moses, nor out of the Glosses which are made upon it; and the Vail would have continued still before my Eyes, yet in great Trouble. But when I found the Pearl, then I looked Moses in the Face, and found that Moses had written very right, and that I had not rightly understood it. The high and deep Wisdom of God.
For after the Fall God said also to Adam and Eve; Earth thou art, and to Earth thou shalt return again: And if I had not considered the nLimbus, (out of which the Earth was,) I should have been so blind still: That [Limbus] showed me the Ground of what Adam was before and after the Fall.
For no such Earth or Flesh as we carry about us can subsist in the Light of God: Therefore also Christ said; None goes to Heaven, but the Son of Man who is come from Heaven, and who is in Heaven. Thus our Flesh before the Fall was heavenly, out of the heavenly Limbus. But when Disobedience came, in the Lust of this World, to generate itself in another Center, then it [the Flesh] became earthly; for by the Biting of the earthly Apple in the Garden of Eden, the earthly Dominion [or Kingdom] took its Beginning: And the Mother of the great World instantly took the little World into its Power [or Virtue,] and made it to be of a bestial P Kind, both in Form and in Substance.
And if the Soul had not been within it, then Adam should have continued to be an unreasonable Beast; but seeing the Soul out of the Limbus had been breathed into Adam by the Holy Ghost, therefore now the Mercifulness (viz. the Heart of God) must do its best again, and bring again the Center out of the heavenly Limbus, and himself become Flesh, and by the Fiat generate the new Man in the Soul, which is hidden in the old. For the old belongs only to the Corruptibility, and goes into its Ether, and the new remains for ever. But how this came to pass, you have the following fundamental Information of it, wherein if you be regenerated from God, you may see the old and new Man into the very Heart, because you have the Pearl; but if not, then you shall scarce see here the old Adam, and you shall not so much as look upon the new.
The Vail of Moses must be done away, and you must look Moses in the Face, if you behold the new Man; and without the Pearl, you shall not be able to take away the Vail, nor know [what] Adam [was] before his Fall. For Adam himself after the Fall did no more know the first Man; and therefore he was ashamed of his monstrous Form [or Shape] and hid himself behind the Trees in the Garden; for he looked on himself, and saw that he had a bestial Form, and thereupon he got instantly bestial Members for Propagation, which the Fiat in the third Principle created on him, through the Spirit of the great World.
Men must not think, that Man before his Fall had bestial Members to propagate with, but heavenly [Members,] nor any as Man has in his Body, does not belong to the Holy Trinity in Paradise, but to the Earth; it must go again into its Ether. But Man was created immortal, and also holy, like the Angels; and seeing he was created out of the Limbus, therefore he was pure. Now in what manner he is, and out of what he was made, it follows further.
Behold, when God had created the third Principle, after the Fall of the Devils, when they fell from their Glory (for they had been Angels, standing in the Place of this World) yet nevertheless he would that his Will and Purpose should stand; and therefore he would give to the Place of this World an angelical he having created the Creatures, whose Shadows after the Changing of the World should continue for ever, yet there was no Creature found that could have any Joy therein [in the Shadows,] neither was there any Creature found that might manage the Beasts in this World; therefore God said, Let us make Man an Image like unto us, which may rule over all the Beasts, and Creatures upon the Earth; and God created Man to be his Image, after the Image of God created he him.
Now the Question is; What is God's Image? Behold, and consider the Deity, and then you will light upon it. For God is not a bestial Man; but Man should be the Image and Similitude of God, wherein God should dwell. Now God is a Spirit, and all the three Principles are in him: And he would make such an Image, as should have all the three Principles in him, and that is rightly a Similitude of God; And he created him, &c. Whereby Moses may be rightly understood, that God created him, and not made him of a Lump of Earth.
But the Limbus out of which he created him is the Matrix of the Earth; and the Earth was generated out of it; yet the Materia [or Matter] out of which he created him was a Massa, became earthly, when Man awakened the earthly Center, and did instantly belong to the Earth and Corruptibility.
But yet this Massa was out of the heavenly Matrix, which is the Root of the Out-Birth, or [the Root] of the Earth. The heavenly Center ought to remain fixed; and the earthly ought not to be awakened, And in this Virtue [and Power] he was Lord and Ruler over the Stars and Elements; and all Creatures should have stood in Awe of him, and he should have been incorruptible; he had the Virtue and Properties of all Manner of Creatures in him, for his Virtue was out of the Virtue [or Power] of the Understanding. Now then he ought to have all the three Principles, if he was to be the Similitude of God, [viz.] the all three, but in one of them only, and that in the paradisical [Property,] in which his Life [quickened,] arose, [or did exist.]
Now that this is demonstratively and certainly thus, [appears] in that it is written; And God breathed into him the a living Breath, whereby Man became a living Soul. All other Creatures which were produced out of the corruptible Limbus by the Fiat, in all those the Will in the Fiat had awakened the Spirit in their Center, and every Creature's Spirit went forth out of the Essence and Property of its own self, and mixed afterwards with the Spirit of the great World, of the Stars and Elements, and that ought not to have been in Man, his Spirit ought not to have mixed itself [or been united] with the Spirit of the Stars and Elements. The two Principles (viz. the Darkness and the Spirit of the Air) ought to have stood still in such a Substance [as should be the Image of God;] and therefore he breathed into him the diving Breath; understand God's Breath, that is, the paradisical Breath or Spirit, [viz.] the Holy Spirit; that should be the Breath of the Soul, in the Center of the Soul. And the Spirit which went forth out of the Limbus, or out of the Quinta Essentia (which is of the a Condition of the Stars) that was to have Power over the fifth Essence of this World. For Man was in one only Essence [or Substance,] and there was also but one only Man that God thus created, and he could have lived for ever. And although God had brought the Stars again into their Ether, and also had withdrawn the Matrix of the Elements, and the Elements also back into nothing, yet Man would have continued still. Besides, he had the paradisical Center in him, and he could have generated again out of himself, out of his Will, and have awakened the Center; and so should have been able in Paradise to generate an angelical Host, without Misery or Anguish, also without tearing [rending or dividing in himself;] and such a Man he ought to have been, if he must continue in Paradise, and be eternal without Decay; for Paradise is holy, and in that Respect Man also ought to have been holy, for the Virtue [and Power] of God and Paradise consists in Holiness. The deep Gate of the Soul.
The Soul of Man, which God has breathed into him, is out of the Eternal Father; yet understand it right; there is a Difference [to be observed, you must] understand, [that it is] out of his unchangeable Will, out of which he generates his Son and Heart from Eternity, out of the divine Center, from whence the Fiat goes forth, which makes Separation, and has in fit all the Essences of the eternal Birth, [or all Manner of Things which are in the eternal Birth.] Only the Birth of the Son of God, that very Center which the Son of God himself is, he has not; for that Center is the End of Nature, and not creaturely. That is the highest Center of the fire-burning Love and Mercy of God, the Perfection [or Fulness.] Out of this Center no Creature comes, but it appears [or shines] in the Creature, viz. in Angels, and in the Souls of holy Men; for the Holy Ghost, and the Omnipotence which frames the eternal Will in the eternal Father, go forth out of this [Center.]
Now therefore the Soul stands in two Gates, and touches the two Principles, viz. the eternal Darkness, and the eternal Light of the Son of God, as God the Father himself does. Now as God the Father holds his unchangeable eternal Will to generate his Heart and Son, so the Angels and Souls keep their unchangeable Will in the Heart of God. Thus it [the Soul] is in Heaven and in Paradise, and enjoys the unutterable Joy of God the Father which he has in the Son, and it hears the inexpressible Words of the Heart of God, and rejoices at the eternal, and also at the created Images, which are not in Essence [or Substance,] but in Figure.
There the Soul eats of all the Words of God; for the same are the Food of its Life; and it sings the paradisical i Songs of Praise concerning the pleasant Fruit in Paradise, which grows in the divine Virtue [or Power] of the divine Limbus, which is the Food of the kBody; for the Body eats of the Limbus, out of which it is, and the Soul eats of God and of his Word, out of which it is.
Can this be no Joy and Rejoicing? And should not that be a pleasant Thing with the many Thousand Sorts of Angels to eat heavenly Bread, and to rejoice in their Communion and Fellowship? What can possibly be named which can be more pleasant? Where there is no Fear, no Anger, no Death: Where every Voice and Speech is Salvation, Power, Strength, and Might, be to our God; and this Voice going forth into the Eternity. Thus with this Sound the divine Virtue of Paradise goes forth; and it is a mere growing in the divine Center of the Fruits in Paradise. And there is the Place where St. Paul heard Words unutterable, that no Man can express. Such a Man was Adam before his Fall. And that you may not doubt, that this is very sure and most truly thus, look upon the Circumstances.
When God had created Adam thus, he was then in Paradise in the Joyfulness; and this clarified [or 1 brightened] Man was wholly beautiful, and full of all Manner of Knowledge; and there God brought all the Beasts to him, (as to the great Lord in this World) that he should look upon them, and give to every one their Name, according to their Essence and Virtue, as the Spirit of every one was figured in them. And Adam knew all what every Creature was, and he gave every one their Name, according to the Quality [or working Property] of their Spirit. As God can see into the Heart of all Things, so could Adam also do, in which his Perfection may very well be observed.
And Adam and all Men should have gone wholly naked, as he then went; his Clothing was the Clarity [or Brightness] in the Virtue [or Power;] no Heat nor Cold touched him; he saw Day and Night [clearly] with open Eyes; in him there was no Sleep, and in his Mind there was no Night, for the divine Virtue [and Power] was in his Eyes; and he was altogether perfect. He had the mLimbus, and also the Matrix in himself; he was no [Male] or Man, nor [Female or] Woman; as we in the Resurrection shall be [neither.] Though indeed the Knowledge of the Marks [of Distinction will] remain in the Figure, but the Limbus and the Matrix not separated, as now [they are.]
Now Man was to dwell upon the Earth as long as it was to stand, and manage [rule and order] the Beasts, and have his Illustrious or shining, Delight and Recreation therein: But he ought not to have eaten any earthly Fruit, wherein the Corruptibility [or Transitoriness] did stick. It is true he should have eaten, but only with the Mouth, and not into the Body; for he had no [Entrails, Stomach, or] Guts, nor any such hard dark Flesh, it was all perfect; for there grew paradisical Fruit for him, which afterwards went away, when he went out of Paradise: And then God cursed the Earth, and the heavenly Limbus was drawn from him, together with that Fruit, and he lost Paradise, God, and the Kingdom of Heaven. For before Sin, when Paradise was upon the Earth, the Earth was not bad [or evil, as now it is.]
If Adam had continued in Innocence, then he should in all Fruits have eaten paradisical Fruit, and his Food should have been heavenly, and his Drink [should have been] out of the Mother of the heavenly Water of the Source [or Fountain] of the eternal Life. The Out-Birth touched him not, the Element of Air he had no Need of in this Manner [as now;] it is true, he drew Breath from the Air, but he took his Breath from the Incorruptibility, for he did not mingle with the Spirit of this World, but his Spirit ruled powerfully over the Spirit of this World, over the Stars, and over the Sun and Moon, and over the Elements.
This must be Adam's Condition; and thus he was a true and right Image and Similitude of God. He had no such hard Bones in his Flesh [as we now have,] but they were Strength, and such [a Kind of] Virtue; also his Blood was not of the Tincture of the aquitrish Matrix, but it was out of the heavenly Matrix. In brief, it was altogether heavenly, as we shall appear [and be] at the Day of the Resurrection. For the Purpose of God standeth, the first Image must return and come again and continue in Paradise; and seeing it could be done in no other Form, [Way, or Manner,] nor [that which was lost] be restored again, therefore God would rather spend his own Heart; his eternal Will is unchangeable, that must stand.
And when God had created Man, then he planted a Garden in Eden towards the East, and placed him therein, and caused to spring up and grow all Manner of Fruit, delightful to behold, and all Sorts of Trees good to eat of; and the Tree of Life in the Midst of the Garden, and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. And when God had placed Man in the Garden, he commanded him, and said; You shall eat of every Tree in the Garden, but of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil thou shalt not eat; for in the Day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the Death. Here the Vail lies upon Moses, and they must be sharp [or piercing] Eyes that can behold the Face of Moses. God has not without Cause let Moses write this so very mystically, [hiddenly and obscurely.]
For what needed God to care so much for the Biting of an Apple, as to destroy so fair a Creature for it? Does he not forgive many greater Sins? And he so exceedingly loved Man, that he spared not his only Son, but let him become Man, and gave him unto Death. And could he not forgive a small Sin? Seeing he was omniscient, [or knew all Things,] therefore why did he let the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil grow?
Reason judges thus, that if God would not have had it so, Adam should not have eaten it, or else he should not have forbidden that Tree only; sure he made it for a Stumbling- stock to him. Thus the Reason of one [Sort] or Party judges. The Reason of the other Party will mend the Matter, which is indeed somewhat the wiser, but not much: They say, God tempted Adam, [to try] whether he would continue in his Obedience or not; and when he became disobedient, then God threw mighty Anger and Wrath upon him, and cursed him to Death; and that his Wrath could not be quenched, except he be reconciled in such a Manner. This Reason of this Party makes God to be a mere Unmercifulness, like an evil Man in this World, who yet will be reconciled, when he has once revenged himself sufficiently; and this Reason has no Knowledge at all of God, nor of Paradise.
O beloved Soul! it is a very heavy Business, at which the very Heavens might well stand amazed. In this Temptation there is a very great Matter hidden in Moses, which the unenlightened Soul understands not: God did not regard a Bit of an Apple or Pear, to punish so fair a Creature for it: The Punishment comes not from his Hand, but from the Spiritus majoris mundi, from the Spirit of the great World, from the third Principle. God intended most mercifully towards Man, and therefore he spared not his own Heart, but let it become Man, that he might deliver Man again. You ought not to have such Thoughts. God is Love, and the Good in him is no angry Thought; and Man's Punishment was not but from himself, as you shall [find or] read in its due Place. The secret Gate of the Temptation of Man.
Since many Questions fall to be in this Place (for the Mind of Man seeks after its native Country again, out of which it is wandered, and would return again Home to the eternal Rest) and since it is permitted to me in my Knowledge, I will therefore set down the deep Ground of the Fall, wherein Men may look upon the Eyes of Moses: If you be born of God, then it may well be apprehended by you, but the unenlightened Mind cannot hit the Mark; for if the Mind desireth to see what is in without seeing it oneself, there is always doubting whether a Thing be as is related. But what the Eye sees, and the Mind knows, that is believed perfectly, for [the Eye and the Mind] apprehends it.
The Mind searches, wherefore Man must be tempted, whereas God had created him perfect; and seeing God is omniscient, [and knows all Things,] the Mind therefore always lays the Blame upon God; and so do the Devils also; for the Mind says, If the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil had not sprung up, then Adam had not fallen.
O beloved Reason! if you understand no more than so, then shut up the Eyes [of your Mind] quite, and search not; continue under Patience in Hope, and let God alone, [he will do well enough,] or else you will fall into the greatest Unquietness, and the Devil will drive you into Despair, who continually [pretends or] gives it forth y, that God did will Evil, [and that] he wills not that all Men should be saved, and therefore he created the Tree of Anger.
Beloved Mind, put such Thoughts away from thee, or else thou wilt make of the kind and loving God, an unmerciful and hostile Will, but leave off such Thoughts of God, and consider thyself what thou art; in thyself thou shall find the Tree of the Temptation, and also the Will to have it, which made it spring up; yea the Source [Lust or Quality] whence it sprung up, stands in thee, and not in God; [this must be understood] that when we will speak of the pure Deity (which manifests itself in the second Principle through the Heart of God) it is thus, and not otherwise.
But when we consider [or mean] the Original of the first Principle, then we find the [Nature, Property, or] Species of the Tree, and also the Will to the Tree. We find there the Abyss of Hell and of Anger [and Wrath;] and moreover we find the Will of all the Devils, we find the envious Will of all the Creatures of this World, why they all are the Enemies one of another, and do hate, bite, worry, kill and devour one another. My beloved Reason, here I will show you the Tree of the Temptation, and you shall look Moses in the Face: Keep your Mind stedfast, that you may apprehend it. 31.1 have often given you to understand in this Book already, what the Essence of all Essences is; but because it is most of all highly necessary in this Place to know the Ground [thereof,] therefore I will a set it you down all at large, and very fundamentally, so that you shall know it in yourself; yea you shall understand it in all Creatures, and in all Things that are, or that you look upon, or at any Time may possibly think on; all these shall be Witnesses. I can bring Heaven and Earth, also the Sun, Stars, and Elements for a Witness, and that not in bare Words and Promises only, but it shall be set before you [very convincingly and] very powerfully in their Virtue and Essence; and you have no Virtue [or Power, or Faculty] in your Body, that shall not [convince you and] witness against you; do but not suffer the lying Spirit, the old Serpent, to darken your Mind, who is the Inventor of a Thousand Tricks.
When he sees that he cannot catch [or overcome] Man, by making him doubtful of the Mercy of God, then he makes him careless, so that he accounts all as nothing. He makes his Mind very drowsy, so that he esteems very lightly of himself, as if all was not worth the Looking after: Let Things be as they will, he will not break his Heart, [or trouble his Head,] with it. Let the dPope look after it, they must answer for it. Thus the Mind carelessly passes it over, like a Whirlwind or Stream of Water; concerning which Christ said, The Devil steals the Word out of their Hearts, that they do not apprehend it, nor believe it, that they might be saved; so that it takes no Root.
Or else if the Pearl should grow, and the Lily bud forth, he should be revealed, and then every one would fly from him, and he should stand in great Shame. This Trade he has driven ever since the Beginning of the World: And though he resists never so vehemently, yet a Lily shall grow in his supposed Kingdom, whose smell reaches into the Paradise of God, in Spite of all his Raging and Tyranny; this the Spirit of God does witness.
Behold, thou Child of Man, if thou wilt easily draw near to this Knowledge, take but thy Mind before thee, and consider it, and therein thou wilt find all. You know, that out of it proceeds Joy and Sorrow, Laughter and Weeping, Hope and Doubting, Wrath and Love, Lust to a Thing, and Hate of the Thing: You find therein Wrath and Malice, also Love, Meekness, and Well-doing.
Now the Question is, May not the Mind stand in one only Will (viz. in mere Love) like God himself? Here sticks the Mark, the Ground, and the Knowledge: Behold, if the Will were in one only Essence, then the Mind would also have but one Quality that could give the Will to be so, and it should be an immoveable Thing, which should always lie still, and should do no more but that one Thing always: In it there would be no Joy, no Knowledge, also no Art or Skill of any Thing at all, and there would be no Wisdom in it: Also if the Quality was not in infinitum, it would be altogether a Nothing, and there would be no Mind nor Will to any Thing at all.
Therefore it cannot be said, that the total God in all the three Principles is in one only Will and Essence; there is a Distinction [or Difference to be observed:] Though indeed the first and the third Principle be not called God, neither are they God, and yet are his Essence [or Substance,] out of which from Eternity the Light and Heart of God is always generated, and it is one Essence [or Being,] as Body and Soul in Man are.
Therefore now if the eternal Mind were not, out of which the eternal Will goes forth, then there would be no God. But now therefore there is an eternal Mind, which generates the eternal Will, and the eternal Will generates the eternal Heart of God, and the Heart generates the Light, and the Light the Virtue, and the Virtue the Spirit, and this is the Almighty God, which is one unchangeable Will. For if the Mind did no more generate the Will, then the Will would also not generate the Heart, and all would be a Nothing. But seeing now that the Mind thus generates the Will, and the Will the Heart, and the Heart the Light, and the Light the Virtue, and the Virtue the Spirit, therefore now the Spirit again generates the Mind; for it has the Virtue, and the Virtue is the Heart; and it is an indissoluble Band. The Depth.
Behold now, the Mind is in the Darkness, and it conceives its Will to the Light, to generate it; or else there would be no Will, nor yet any Birth: This Mind stands in Anguish, and in the Will conceives the Virtue; and the Virtue fulfils, [satisfies or impregnates] the Mind. Thus the Kingdom of God consists in the Virtue [or in Power,] which is God the Father, and the Light makes the Virtue longing to [be] the Will, that is, God the Son, for in the Virtue the Light is continually generated from Eternity, and in the Light, out of the Virtue, goes the Holy Ghost forth, which generates again in the dark Mind the Will of the eternal Essence.
Now behold, dear Soul, that is the Deity, and that comprehends in it the second or the middlemost Principle. Therefore God is only good, the Love, the Light, the Virtue [or Power.] Now consider, if the Mind did not stand in the Darkness, there would no such eternal Wisdom and Skill be; for the Anguish in the Will to generate, standeth therein; and the Anguish is the Quality, and the Quality is the Multiplicity [or Variety.] and makes the Mind, and the Mind again makes the Multiplicity [or Plurality.]
Now, dear Soul, see all over round about you, in yourself, and in all Things: What find you therein? You find nothing else but the Anguish, and in the Anguish the Quality, and in the Quality the Mind, and in the Mind the Will to grow and generate, and in the Will the Virtue [or Power,] and in the Virtue the Light, and in the Light its forth-driving Spirit; which makes again a Will to generate a Twig [Bud or Branch] out of the Tree like itself; and this I call in my Book the Centrum, [the Center,] where the generated Will becomes an Essence [or Substance,] and generates now again such [another] Essence; for thus is the Mother of the Genetrix.
Now the Anguish has the first Principle iin Possession; seeing it stands in the Darkness, it is another Essence than the Essence in the Light is, where there is nothing else but mere Love and Meekness, where no Source [or Torment] is discovered; and the Quality which is generated in the Center of the Light, is now no Quality, but the eternal Skill and Wisdom of whatsoever was in the Anguish before the Light [broke forth:] This Wisdom and Skill now always comes to help the conceived Will in the Anguish, and makes in itself again the Center to the Birth, that so the Sprout may generate itself in the Quality, viz. the Virtue, and out of the Virtue the Fire, and out of the Fire the Spirit, and the Spirit makes in the Fire the Virtue again, that thus there [may] be an indissoluble Band. And out of this Mind which stands in the Darkness, God generated the Angels, which are Flames of Fire, yet shining through and through with the divine Light. For in this Mind a Spirit can and may be generated, and not else; for before it in the Heart and Light of God, there can no Spirit be generated, for the Heart of God is the End of Nature, and it has no Quality; therefore also nothing comes out of it more, but it continues unchangeably in the Eternity, and it shines in the Mind of the Quality of the Darkness, and the Darkness cannot comprehend it.
Now therefore in the anguishing Mind of the Darkness, is the inexpressible [or unutterable] Source, [or rising Property,] from whence the Name Quality exists as from many [Sources, or Wells,] into one Source, and out of these many Sources [running] into one Source, springs forth the Plurality of Skill, so that there is a Multiplicity, [or Variety of it.] And the Spirit of God out of the Light comes to help every Skill, [or Science, or Knowledge,] and in every Skill of the Sources in the Quality (by its kind infecting of the Love) it makes again again, as a Twig out of a Tree, where again there springs forth [or infusing] of Kindness, makes all, every Thought in the Will, and [that] essentially.
For the Will in the Center climbs aloft till it generates the Fire, and in the Fire is the Substance and Essentiality generated. For it is the Spirit thereof, and the End of the Will in the dark Mind, and there can be nothing higher generated in the Anguish than the Fire, for it is the End of Nature, and it generates again the Anguish and the Source, as may be perceived. Now therefore the dark anguishing [aching, or anxious] Mind has not only one Substance, viz. one Being [or Essence] in itself, but many, or else no Quality could be generated; and yet it is truly but one [Being, Essence, or] Substance, and not many.
Thou dear Soul, thus saith the high Spirit to thee; yield Infusion. up thy Mind here, and I will show it thee. Behold, what does comprehend thy Will, or wherein consists thy Life? If thou sayest, in Water and Flesh: No, it consists in the Fire, in the Warmth. If the Warmth was not, then thy Body would be stiff [with Cold,] and the Water would dry away; therefore the Mind and the Life consists in the Fire.
But what is the Fire? First, there is the Darkness, the Hardness, the eternal Cold, and the Dryness, where there is nothing else but an eternal Hunger. Then how comes the Fire to be? Dear Soul, here [in the Fire's coming to be] the Spirit of God (viz. the eternal Light) comes to help the Hunger; for the Hunger exists also from the Light: Because the divine Virtue beholds itself in the Darkness, therefore the Darkness is desirous [and longing] after the Light; and the Desiring is the Will.
Now the Will or the Desiring in the Dryness cannot reach the Light; and therein consists the Anguish in the Will [Longing] after the Light; and the Anguish is attractive, and in the Attracting is the Woe, and the Woe makes the Anguish greater, so that the Anguish in the Harshness attracts much more, and this Attracting in the Woe is the bitter [Sting or] Prickle, or the Bitterness of the Woe; and the Anguish reaches after the [Sting or] Prickle with attracting, and yet cannot comprehend it, because it resists, and the more the Anguish attracts, the more the [Sting or] Prickle raves and rages.
Now therefore the Anguish, Bitterness, and Woe in the [Sting or] Prickle, are like a Brimstone-Spirit, and all Spirits in Nature are Brimstone: They [torment, or] cause the Anguish in one another, till that the Light of God comes to help them; and then there comes to be a Flash, and there is its End, for it can climb no higher in Nature; and this is the Fire, which becomes shining in the Flash, in the Soul, and also in the Mind. For the Soul reaches the Virtue of the Light, which puts it into Meekness; and in this World it is the burning Fire: In Hell it is immaterial, and there it is the eternal Fire, which burns in the P Quality.
Now, thou dear Soul, here you see in a Glass how very near God is to us, and that he himself is the Heart of all Things, and gives to all Virtue, [Power,] and Life. Here Lucifer was very heedless, and became so very proud, that when this Brimstone- Spirit in the Will of the Mind of God was created, then he would fain have flown out above the End of Nature, and would drive the Fire out above the Meekness; he would fain have had all burn in the Fire; he would have ruled [or domineered:] The Sparks of Fire in the Brimstone-Spirit elevated themselves too high; and these Spirits pleased not the Creator, or the Spirit in the Fiat, and [therefore] were not [established] Angels, although in the first Mind (when the Center was opened to the [Creation of the] Spirits) he came to help them, and [beheld] them as well as the other Angels: But they indeed generated a fiery Will, when they should have opened their Center to the Regeneration of their Minds, and so should have generated an angelical Will.
The first Will, out of which they were created, that was God's, and that made them good; and the second Will, which they as obedient [Children] should have generated out of their Center in Meekness, that was evil: And therefore the Father, for generating such a Child, was thrust out from the Virtue of God, and so he spoiled the angelical Kingdom, and remained in the Source of the Fire: And because the evil Child of their Mind did turn away from the Meekness, therefore they attained what they desired. For the Mind is the God and the Creator of the Will; that is free from the eternal Nature, and therefore what it generates to itself, that it has.
Now if you ask; Why came not the Love of God to help them again? No, Friend, their Mind had elevated itself, even to the End of Nature, and it would fain have gone out above the Light of God; their Mind was become a kindled Source of Fire in the fierce Wrath, the Meekness of God cannot enter into it, the Brimstone-Spirit burns eternally: In this Manner he is an Enemy to God, he cannot be helped; for the Center is burning in the Flash: His Will is still, that he would fain go out above the Meekness of God; neither can he get [frame, or create] any other [Will,] for his Source has revealed the End of Nature in the Fire, and he remains an unquenchable Source of Fire; the Heart of God in the Meekness, and the Principle of God, is close shut up from him, and that even to Eternity.
To conclude, God will have no fiery Spirit in Paradise, they must remain in the first Principle, in the eternal Darkness; if they had continued as God had created them (when the Meekness shined [or appeared] to them) and had put the Center of their Minds into the Meekness, then the Light of God should for ever have shined through them, and they should have eaten of the Verbum Domini [the Word of the Lord;] and they should with the Root of their Original have stood in the first Principle, like God the Father himself, and with the Will in the Mind [they should have stood] in the second Principle: Thus they should have had a paradisical Source, [Quality or Property,] and an angelical Will; and they should have been friendly in the Limbus of Heaven, and in the Love of God.