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(41) Yet I do not say this, as if every Man was holy as he comes from his Mother's Womb, but as the Tree is, so is its Fruit. Yet the Fault is not God's, if a Mother bears or brings forth a Child of the Devil, but the Parent's Wickedness.

(137) Here is cause for the judging World to see, and consider, who condemn Man in his Mother's Body or Womb, whereas they do not know, whither the Wrath-fire of the Parents be fully kindled in the Fruit, or not; and seeing that the Spirit of God moves also in the Darkness which stands yet in quiet Rest, and can easily generate the Darkness to be Light: And moreover the Hour of Man's Birth or Nativity is very helpful and profitable for it; but in many it is very hurtful and obstructive, but not compulsive.

(12) Thus one of the Wicked curses the other, who has caused him to commit such Wickedness; the Inferior his Superior that has given him Offence, [and been a Stumbling-block to him;] the Laity curse the Clergy or Priests, who have given them evil Examples, and seduced them with false Doctrine; the wicked Curser, Swearer, and Blasphemer, bites and gnaws his Tongue, which has so murdered him; the Mind beats the Head against the Stones; and the Ungodly hide themselves in the Caves and Holes of the Earth, before the Terror of the LORD; for there is great Quaking and Stirring in the Essences of the Anger and fierce Wrath of the LORD; and the Anguish breaks the Heart, and yet there is no Dying; for the Anger is stirring, and the Life of the Ungodly flows up in the Anger. There the Ungodly curses the Heaven and the Earth that bore him, as also the Constellation [or Stars] that led him, and the Hour of his Birth; all his Uncleanness stands before his Eyes, and he sees the Cause of his Horror, and condemns himself; he cannot look upon the Righteous for very Shame; all his Works stand in his Mind, and in the Essences cry, Woe to him that did them, they accuse him; the Tears of those he has afflicted and oppressed are like a fiery stinging Serpent; he desires Rest or Ease, but there is no Comfort, Despair rises up in him, for Hell terrifies him.

(63) Cain was not rejected in the Mother's Womb [or Body;] Isaiah 44. 4. though it is plain, that God does not love such a false [or evil] Seed, yet it stands free, it may press into the Love, or into the Anger, the one as well as the other will receive it, as Paul also saith; To whom you yield yourselves Servants in Obedience, his Servants you are whom you obey; whether it be in the Obedience of God to Righteousness, or of Sin unto Death.

(45) Reason saith, how might that come to pass, that the first Man born of a Woman was [so evil] a malicious Murderer? Behold, thou immodest vile whorish World, here thou shalt find the great Secrets meet us in the Light of Nature, very clearly and plainly to be understood. For Adam and Eve were entered into the Spirit of this World, and the Region of the four Stars, with the Infection of the Devil, had miserably possessed them. And although they did somewhat stick to the Word of the Promise, yet the true Longing and Love towards God was very much extinguished; and on the contrary, the Longing and Desire after this World was kindled in them; and besides, they got (from the Region of the Stars) a bestial Lust [or wanton Desire] towards one another, so that their Tincture thus became a fierce bestial [Lust or] Longing; for they had no Law but the Light of Nature, which they suppressed, and kindled themselves in wanton [Lust,] to which the Devil helped them.

(29) Now if we [would] consider his precious Incarnation, then we must rightly open the Eyes of the Spirit, and not be so earthly minded, as at present they are in Babel; and we must rightly consider, how God is become Man, for the Scripture says, He was conceived and born without Sin, of a pure Virgin. Here consider now, beloved Mind, what kind of Virgin that was, for all whatsoever is born of the Flesh and Blood of this World, is impure, and there can no pure Virgin be generated, in this corrupted Flesh and Blood; the Fall of Adam destroyed all; and it is all under Sin, and there is no pure Virgin generated of Man's Seed; and yet this Christ was conceived and born of a pure Virgin.

(126) now seeing the outermost Birth or Geniture in Nature is twofold, that is, both Evil and Good, therefore it is that there is a perpetual Tormenting, Squeezing, Lamenting and Howling; and the Creatures in this Life are subject to Torments and Afflictions, so that this evil World is justly called a murtherous Den of the Devil.

(21) For these three Births are [inbred or] generated together with every one in the Mother's [Womb or] Body, and none ought to say, I am not elected; for it is a Lie, [and he] belies the Element, wherein Man also lives; and besides [he] belies the Virgin of Wisdom, which God gives to every one which seeks her with Earnestness and Humility. So [likewise] the Possibility of Seeking is also in every one, and it is inbred [or generated] in him with the all-possible hidden Element, [to which all Things are possible,] and there is no other Cause of Perdition in Man, than [was in or] with Lucifer, whose Will stood free; he must either reach into God in Humility, Chastity, and Meekness, or into the dark Mind, in the Climbing up of Malice and Fierceness [or Grimness,] which yet (cin its Flowing forth) desires not to lift itself up above God, but it inclines itself only above the Meekness, in the Fire-flash, in the stern [or fierce] Regeneration: But the Devils would (as Creatures) be above all, and be Lords wholly [of themselves,] and so it is also with Man here.

(2) I affirm that had the Virgin not first borne God spiritually He would never have been born from her in bodily fashion. A certain woman said to Christ, "Blessed is the womb that bear Thee." To which Christ answered, "Nay, rather blessed are they that hear the Word of God and keep it." It is more worthy of God that He be born spiritually of every pure and virgin soul, than that He be born of Mary.

Hereby we should understand that humanity is, so to speak, the Son of God born from all eternity. The Father produced all creatures, and me among them, and I issued forth from Him with all creatures, and yet I abide in the Father. Just as the word which I now speak is conceived and spoken forth by me, and you all receive it, yet none the less it abides in me. Thus I and all creatures abide in the Father.

(3) And although I write now, as if there was a Beginning in the eternal Birth, yet it is not so; but the eternal Nature thus begets [or generates] itself without Beginning. My Writings must be understood in a creaturely Manner, as the Birth of Man is, who is a Similitude of God. Although it be just so in the eternal Being, [Essence or Substance,] yet that is both without Beginning and without End; and my Writing is only to this End, that Man might learn to know what he is, what he was in the Beginning, how he was a very glorious eternal holy Man, that should never have known the Gate of the strong [or austere] Birth in the Eternity, if he had not suffered himself to lust after it through the Infection of the Devil, and had not eaten of that naked and vain Man in a bestial Form, and lost the heavenly Garment of the divine Power, and lives now in the Kingdom of the Devil, in the i infected Salnitre, and feeds upon the infected Food. Therefore it is necessary for us to learn to know ourselves, what we are, and how we might be redeemed from the anguishing austere Birth, and be regenerated or born anew, and live in the new Man, (which is like the first Man before the Fall,) in Christ our Regenerator.

(70) If we did well consider the Abominations and great Sins of Man before God, which our first Parents inherited for us, then we should scarce ever be merry in this World at all, if the Spirit of this World did not cast foolish Fancies, and seeming Joys and Pleasures before us, in our Imprisonment; or if the Regeneration did not cause us so highly to rejoice, that we shall once be delivered out of this Prison; for in this Life, we find nothing else but mere Abomination, Sin, Misery, and Death, and scarce attain (in this [temporary] Life) so much as a Glimpse of the eternal Joy.

(120) But it has its Life in its Seat, and that cannot be taken from it, but Death hangs to it in the outermost Birth or Geniture, as also the Wrath in Death; for the Wrath is the Life of Death and of the Devil; and in the Wrath stands also the corporeal Being, or the Bodies of the Devils, but the dead Birth or Geniture is their eternal Dwelling-house. The Depth in the Circle of the Birth or Geniture. Now one might ask, what Manner of Substance has it, or what is the Condition thereof, that the astral Birth of the Earth did begin its qualifying, operating, and generating one Day sooner than the astral in the Deep above the Earth; seeing the Fire in the Deep above the Earth is much sharper and easier to be kindled, than the Fire in the Earth; and seeing also that the Earth must be kindled by the Fire in the Deep above the Earth, else it can bear no Fruit? Answer.

(30) Also the new Birth blossomed in the Time of the Creation, when Man had not spoiled or corrupted it; but by him Nature was full more corrupted, and so God cursed the Ground. But seeing Man took hold of the Fruit of the old Body, thereupon the Fruit of the new Body was hidden in its Heaven, and Man must now behold it with the new Body, and cannot partake of it with the natural Body.

(69) Yet Men cannot say, that Mary was born out of a barren Womb, although the Body of Anna was unfruitful, which was from the Council of God; in that they were honest [virtuous] People, fearing God, that their Tincture might not be defiled, because they were to generate that which the Lord would highly bless. God knew how to open it in due Time, and that in old Age, when the wanton Lust of this World from the Elements was extinguished, as in Sarah, Abraham's Wife.

(2) By not enduring on the power that wills Curb for his good, that man who ne'er was born, Damning himself damned all his progeny; Whereby the human species down below Lay sick for many centuries in great error, Till to descend it pleased the Word of God To where the nature, which from its own Maker Estranged itself, he joined to him in person By the sole act of his eternal love. Now unto what is said direct thy sight; This nature when united to its Maker, Such as created, was sincere and good; But by itself alone was banished forth From Paradise, because it turned aside Out of the way of truth and of its life. Therefore the penalty the cross held out, If measured by the nature thus assumed, None ever yet with so great justice stung, And none was ever of so great injustice, Considering who the Person was that suffered, Within whom such a nature was contracted. From one act therefore issued things diverse; To God and to the Jews one death was pleasing; Earth trembled at it and the Heaven was opened.

(29) What can be said of thee, O Cain? Dost thou suppose that God does not see thee? Thou monstrous Beast, thou shalt stand naked, as the Spirit in the Wonders signifies, that thy Ornament may be made known. How art thou become thus? O Eve! are not all thy Children, which thou hast brought forth, all come out of thy Loins? Was it then the Purpose of God that the Evil should domineer among the Good, and one plague another?

(24) And Isaac on that day cursed the Philistines * and said : M Cursed be the Philistines unto the day of wrath ancj indignation from the midst of all nations ; -may God make them a derision' and a curse„an4, an object of wrath and indignation in the hands of the sinners the Gentiles and in the hands of the Kittim

(10) Cursed art thou, and cursed shalt thou be beyond all the sons of Noah, by the curse * by which we bound ourselves by an oath in the presence of the holy judge, and in the presence of Noah our father."

(4) Verily, this person, by being born and obtaining a body, is joined with evils. When he departs, on dying, he leaves evils behind.