No one would hide something valuable and precious in a valuable container, but countless sums are commonly kept in a container worth only a cent. So it is with the soul. It is something precious, and it has come to be in a worthless body.

(9) ¶Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

(2) "And all the Limbs which are in it,--according to the word with which I have made comparison,--that is, those which abide on the mystery of the Ineffable, and those which abide in it, and also the three spaces which are after them according to the mysteries,--of all these in truth and verity I am their treasury beside whom there is no other treasury, who hath not his like in the world; but there are still words and mysteries and other regions.

(15) ¶Jesus sat over against the treasury. He beheld people cast money and gifts into the treasury. Many that were rich cast in much. He saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites, which make a farthing. He called his disciples, and saith unto them,

(7) is into the Treasury of the Light, and ye see the glory in which they are, then will the region of those of the Right count for you as the light at mid-day in the world of men, when the sun is not out; and if ye look at the region of those of the Right, it will have for you the condition of a speck of dust because of the great distance the Treasury of the Light is distant from it.

(15) ¶Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.

(26) But if we search what it is in Essence and Property, and how it is generated, then we find a very worthy [precious] noble the Fountain of the Deity, which has imprinted itself in all Things. And therefore it is so secret and hidden, and is imparted to the Knowledge of none of the Ungodly, to find it, or to know it. And although it be there, yet a vain, false, [or evil] Mind is not worthy of it, and therefore it remains hidden to him; And God rules all in all incomprehensibly and imperceptibly to the Creature; the Creature passes away it knows not how; and the Shadow and the Figure of the Tincture continues eternally; for it is generated out of the eternal Will: But the Spirit is given to it by the Fiat, according to the Kind of every Creature; also in the Beginning of the Creation it was implanted and incorporated in Jewels, Stones, and Metals, according to the Kind of every One.

(21) It goes not out at the Mouth like a Bodily Substance; it is raw [or naked] without a Body, and instantly passes (at the Departure of the four Elements) into the Center, into the Gate of the Deep, [in the hidden Eternity;] and that which it is clothed with, that it comprehends, and keeps it: If its Treasure be Voluptuousness, Might, [or Power,] Honour, Riches, Malice, Wrath, Lying, or the Falshood of the World, then the fierce Might of the Essences out of the first Principle comprehends these Things, through the syderial Spirit, and keeps them, and works therewith according to the Region of the Stars; yet the [starry Region] cannot bring the Spirit of the Soul into its own Form, but it practises its juggling therewith, and so there is no Rest in its Worm, and its Worm of the Soul hangs to its Treasure; as Christ said, Where thy Treasure is, there is thy Heart also.

(2) "The first thought hath arisen in me concerning the word which thou hast spoken: 'Now, therefore, the soul giveth the apology and seal unto all the rulers who are in the region of the king, the Adamas, and giveth the apology and the honour and the glory of all their seals and the songs of praise to the region of the Light,'--concerning this word then thou hast spoken unto us aforetime, when they brought thee the piece of money and thou didst see that it was of silver and copper and didst ask: 'Whose is this image?' They said: 'The king's.' And when thou sawest that it was of silver and copper mixed, thou saidst: 'Give therefore the king's unto the king and God's unto God,'--that is: If the soul receiveth mysteries, it giveth the apology to all the rulers and to the region of the king, the Adamas; and the soul giveth the honour and the glory to all those of the region of the Light. And the word: 'It hath glistened, when thou didst see that it is made up of silver and copper,'--it is the type thereof, that in it [ sc. the soul] is the power of the Light, which is the refined silver, and that in it is the counterfeiting spirit, which is the material copper. This, my Lord, is the first thought.

(1) NO Money, nor goods, nor Art, nor Power, can bring you to the eternal Rest of the eternal soft Meekness of Paradise, but only the noble Knowledge; into that you may wrap up your Soul. That is the Pearl which no Moth can eat, nor Thief can steal away; therefore seek after it, and then you will find the noble Treasure.

(2) At the resurrection,a man will find all the hours of his life arranged like a long series of treasure chests. The door of one will be opened, and it will be seen to be full of light: it represents an hour which he spent in doing good. His heart will be filled with such joy that even a fraction of it would make the inhabitants of hell forget the fire. The door of a second will be opened; it is pitch-dark within, and from it issues such an evil odour as will cause everyone to hold his nose: it represents an hour which he spent in ill doing, and he will suffer such terror that a fraction of it would embitter Paradise for the blessed. The door of a third treasure-chest will be opened; it will be seen to be empty and neither light nor dark within: this represents the hour in which he did neither good nor evil. Then he will feel remorse and confusion like that of a man who has been the possessor of a great treasure and wasted it or let it slip from his grasp. Thus the whole series of the hours of his life will be displayed, one by one, to his gaze. Therefore a man should say to his soul every morning, "God has given thee twenty-four treasures; take heed lest thou lose anyone of them, for thou wilt not be able to endure the regret that will follow such loss."

(37) "The earthquake being past, there shall follow afire, that will consume the earthly rubbish, and discover the treasure, but as yet you cannot see it. After all these things and near the daybreak there shall be a great calm, and you shall see the Day-Star arise and the dawning will appear, and you shall perceive a great treasure. The chiefest thing in it, and the most perfect, is a certain exalted tincture, with which the world (if it served God and were worthy of such gifts) might be tinged and turned into most pure gold.

(37) Where cessation from theft is perfected, all treasures present themselves to him who possesses it.

(4) That they exist there only in belief, Upon the which is founded the high hope, And hence it takes the nature of a substance. And it behoveth us from this belief To reason without having other sight, And hence it has the nature of evidence." Then heard I: "If whatever is acquired Below by doctrine were thus understood, No sophist's subtlety would there find place." Thus was breathed forth from that enkindled love; Then added: "Very well has been gone over Already of this coin the alloy and weight; But tell me if thou hast it in thy purse?" And I: "Yes, both so shining and so round That in its stamp there is no peradventure." Thereafter issued from the light profound That there resplendent was: "This precious jewel, Upon the which is every virtue founded, Whence hadst thou it?" And I: "The large outpouring Of Holy Spirit, which has been diffused Upon the ancient parchments and the new, A syllogism is, which proved it to me With such acuteness, that, compared therewith, All demonstration seems to me obtuse."

(80) And herein sticketh now the kernel of the Deity in the centre in its heaven, which stands hidden in the water of life, if thou canst now apprehend or lay hold of it. Of the Metals in the Earth.

(63) And such a house is the whole deep without, within, and above all heavens; which house is called the Eternity. And such a house also is the house of flesh in man, and in all creatures.

(4) And Jesus had not told his disciples the total expansion of the emanations of the Treasury, nor their orders, how they are extended; nor had he told them their saviours, according to the order of every one, how they are; nor had he told them what guard is at every [gate] of the Treasury of the Light; nor had he told them the region of the Twin-saviour, who is the Child of the Child; nor had he told them the regions of the three Amēns, in what regions they are expanded; nor had he told them into what region the five Trees are expanded; nor as to the seven Amēns, that is the seven Voices, what is their region, how they are expanded.

(18) I saw the treasuries of all the winds: I saw how He had furnished with them the whole creation and the firm foundations of the earth.

(121) Therefore heaven must be a firmament between the sparkle which had conceived from the Heart of God in the first glance; that though the body might happen to perish, yet the holy seed might remain, which is the soul, which qualifieth, mixeth or uniteth with the Heart of God, out of which a new body might come to be, when the whole God should kindle again the deep of this world in the light of the Heart of God; and just so it is come to be with the body. The love of God have mercy, and take pity on it!

(23) Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.