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(70) The agreement of many, which is indicated by the number "three," with whom the Lord is present, might also be the one Church, the one man, and the one race. Or could it mean this? The Lord when he gave the law was with the one, that is the Jew. Later when he inspired the prophets and sent Jeremiah to Babylon and, moreover, called believers from the Gentiles by the teaching of the prophets, he brought the two peoples together. And was not the third the one which is made out of the two into a new man in which he walks and dwells, in the Church itself? And the law, the prophets, and also the gospel were brought together in Christ's name into a single knowledge. Accordingly, those who from hatred do not marry or from desire use the flesh as if it were not a matter of right and wrong,6 are not in the number of the saved with whom the Lord is present.

(39) Thus, O blind Jew, Turk and Heathen, thou seest that there are Three Persons in the Deity, thou canst not deny it, for thou livest and art, or hast thy Being in the Three Persons, and thou hast thy Life from them, and in the Power of these Three Persons thou art to rise from the Dead at the last Day, and live Eternally. Note.

(59) In the three Names and Powers stand Heaven and this World, and all what- soever thy Heart can think upon, and though thou shouldst draw a little Circle, which thou canst hardly look into, or which thou canst hardly discern, even less than the smallest Point thou canst imagine; yet even in that is the whole Divine Power, and the Son of God is generated therein, and the Holy Ghost therein goes forth from the Father and the Son; if not in Love, then in Wrath, as it is written, 'With the Holy thou art holy, and with the Froward thou wilt show thyself froward.' [Psalm 18. 26.]

(7) The Father and the Son have one Will, and that Will is the Holy Ghost, Who gives Himself to the soul so that the Divine Nature permeates the powers of the soul so that it can only do God-like works. Just as a spring, which perpetually flows and waters the roots of the flowers, so that the flowers bloom and receive their colours from the water of the spring, so the Godhead imparts Itself to the capacities of the soul that it may grow in the likeness of God. The more that the soul receives of the Divine Nature, the more it grows like It, and the closer becomes its union with God. It may arrive at such an intimate union that God at last draws it to Himself altogether, so that there is no distinction left, in the soul's consciousness, between itself and God, though God still regards it as a creature. Wherefore let yourselves not be misled by the light of nature. The higher the degree of knowledge which the soul attains to in the light of grace, the darker seems to it the light of nature.

If the soul would know the real truth it must examine itself, whether it has withdrawn from all things, whether it has lost itself, whether it loves God purely with His love and nothing of its own at the same time, so that it may not be separated from Him by anything, and whether God alone dwells in it. If it has lost itself, it is as when the Virgin Mary lost Christ. She sought Him for three days, and yet was sure that she would find Him. All the while Christ was in the highest class in the school of His Father, unconscious of His mother's seeking Him. Thus happens it to the noble soul which goes to God to school, and learns there what God is in His essence, and what He is in the Trinity, and what He is in man, and what is most acceptable to Him. St Augustine saith that the righteousness of God in the Godhead and in the Trinity and in all creatures is the source of the chief joy which is in heaven. God in human nature is a lamp of living light, and "the light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not." The darkness must ever more flee the light, as the night flees day.

Thus the soul learns to know God's will. St Paul saith, "This is God's will, our sanctification." And this is our sanctification, to know what we were before time; what we are in time, and what we shall be after time. Thus the soul loses itself in these three, and recketh naught of the body, till it comes to it in the temple, and obeys it without murmuring. The Father is a revelation of the Godhead, the Son is an image and countenance of the Father, and the Holy Ghost is an effulgence of that countenance, and a mutual love between Them, and these properties They have always possessed in Themselves. The Three Persons have stooped out of pity down to human nature, and the Son became man, and was the most despised man on the earth, and suffered pain at the hands of the creatures whom He Himself created with the Father, through Whose will He became man. Thus was Christ till His death, and when He rose from the dead then was seen the most despised of all men united with the Godhead in the Person of Christ.

(97) Thus you find in Man three Fountains. First, the Power in thy whole Mind, which signifies God the Father. Then secondly, the Light in thy whole Mind, enlightening the whole Mind, which signifies God the Son. Then thirdly, there goes forth out of all thy Powers, and out of thy Light also, a Spirit which has Understanding. [Power, Light, Spirit.]

(103) Yea, God is so near thee, that the Birth or Geniture of the Holy Trinity is done or wrought even in thy Heart, yea all the Three Persons are generated in thy Heart, even God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

(146) These are now the three Princes of God in the Heaven. And when the Flash of Life, that is, the Son of God, rises up in the Middle, or central Circle, in the qualifying or fountain Spirits of God, and shows itself triumphantly, then the Holy Ghost also rises upwards triumphantly: In this Rising up, the Holy Trinity also rises up in the Heart of these three Kings, and each of them triumphs also according to his Kind and Quality.

(46) And this Birth or Geniture now is called GOD the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost: And neither of them is the first, and neither of them is the last; though I make a Distinction, and set the one after the other, yet neither of them is the first or the last, but they have all been from Eternity thus sted in the same Equality of Being.

(103) As the Deity in its Being is Threefold, in that the Exit out of the seven Spirits of God shows and generates itself as Threefold, viz. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, One God; wherein the whole divine Power consists, and whatsoever is therein; and they are the three Persons in the Deity, and yet are not a divided Being, but in one another as one,

(68) But who are the two or three gathered in the name of Christ in whose midst the Lord is? Does he not by the "three" mean husband, wife, and child? For a wife is bound to her husband by God. If, however, a man wishes to be undistracted, and prefers to avoid begetting children because of the business it involves, "let him remain unmarried," says the apostle, "even as I am." They explain that what the Lord meant was this. By the plurality he means the Creator, the God who is the cause of the world's existence; and by the one, the elect, he meant the Saviour who is Son of another God, the good God. But this is not correct. Through his Son, God is with those who are soberly married and have children. By the same mediation the same God is also with the man who exercises continence on rational grounds. According to another view the three may be passion, desire, and thought; another interpretation makes them flesh, soul, and spirit.

(3) then thou wilt see well enough in his Light and Power; even into the holy Trinity, and understand those Things which are written as follow. Of GOD the FATHER.

(2) "Hearken moreover that I may tell you the word in truth, in what type the mystery of baptism forgiveth sins. Now, therefore, if the souls sin when they are still in the world, the retributive servitors indeed come and are witnesses of all the sins which the soul committeth, lest in sooth they should come forth out of the regions of the chaos, in order that they may convict them in the judgments which are outside the chaos. And the counterfeiting spirit becometh witness of all the sins which the soul shall commit, in order that it may convict it in the judgments which are outside the chaos, not only that it may bear witness of them, but--all the sins of the souls--it sealeth the sins and maketh them fast on to the soul, in order that all the rulers of the chastisements of the sinners may recognize it, that it is a sinning soul, and that they may know of the number of sins which it hath committed, by the seals which the counterfeiting spirit hath made fast on to it, so that it shall be chastized according to the number of sins which it hath committed. This do they with all sinning souls. "Now, therefore, he who shall receive the

(46) Now if a Man should say, the Son of God was an Image, circumscriptive or measurable like the Sun, then the Three Persons would only be in that Place where the Son is, and his Splendor or Shining would be without or beyond him, and as gone forth from the Sun, and the Father would be One, only externally, without or besides the Son, and then the Power of the Father, which would be afar off, and wide distant from the Son, would not generate the Son and Holy Ghost, externally, without and beyond the angelical Gates; and so there would be a Being not almighty, externally, without or besides this Place of the Son; and, moreover, the Father would be a circumscribed or measurable Being. [Threefold Life.] [Three Principles.]