Some said Mary became pregnant by the holy spirit. They are wrong and do not know what they are saying. When did a woman ever get pregnant by a woman? Mary is the virgin whom none of the powers defiled. This is greatly repugnant to the Hebrews, who are the apostles and apostolic persons. This virgin whom none of the powers defiled [wishes that] the powers would defile themselves.

(31) Therefore we set it down here according to our Knowledge, that the pure chaste Virgin, in which God was born [or generated,] is the chaste Virgin [that is] in the Presence of God, and it is an eternal Virgin; before ever Heaven and Earth was created, it was put itself into Mary, in her Incarnation, and her new Man was in the holy Element of God; and therefore she was the blessed among all Women, and the Lord was with her, as the Angel said.

(34) And therefore thus we say of Mary; She has comprehended the holy heavenly eternal Virgin of God, and put on the holy and pure Element, [together] with the Paradise, and yet was truly she was not called a holy pure Virgin according to her earthly Birth; the Flesh which she had from Joachim and Anna was not pure, without Spot; but her Holiness and Purity is according to the heavenly a Virgin. Besides, she brought not the heavenly Virgin to her out of her own Ability; for the Angel said to her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the Power of the most High shall over-shadow thee; therefore the holy [Thing] that shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God.

(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.

(52) You must understand, Mary was to conceive in the Body, viz. in her own Body, not in a strange assumed [Body,] as the Unenlightened (who apprehend not the Kingdom of God) might interpret our Writings to mean. Besides, it is not the Ground neither, which the Ancients and those heretofore have set down (which yet went very high) as if Mary from Eternity had been hidden in Ternario Sancto [the holy Ternary or Trinity,] and that she entered at that Time only in Anna, as into a Case, [or House,] and was not of the Seed of Joachim, and Blood of Anna. They say, she was an eternal Virgin out of the Trinity, of whom Christ was born; because he came not out of the Flesh and Blood of any Man, and as himself witnesses, that he was not of this World, but was come from Heaven. He says, That he came forth from God, and must return again to God; and to Nicodemus he said, No one goes into Heaven, but the Son of Man which is come from Heaven, and who is in Heaven.

(16) John was begotten by the World through a woman, Elizabeth; and Christ was begotten by the world through a virgin, Mary. What is (the meaning of) this mystery? John was begotten by means of a womb worn with age, but Christ passed through a virgin's womb. When she had conceived, she gave birth to the Savior. Furthermore, she was found to be a virgin again. Why, then do you (pl.) err and not seek after these mysteries, which were prefigured for our sake?

(25) Stories like the foregoing represent the incrustations that have attached themselves to the body of Christianity during the centuries. The popular mind itself has been the self-appointed guardian and perpetuator of these legends, bitterly opposing every effort to divest the faith of these questionable accumulations. While popular tradition often contains certain basic elements of truth, these elements are usually distorted out of all proportion. Thus, while the generalities of the story may be fundamentally true, the details are hopelessly erroneous. Of truth as of beauty it may be said that it is most adorned when unadorned. Through the mist of fantastic accounts which obscure the true foundation of the Christian faith is faintly visible to the discerning few a great and noble doctrine communicated to the world by a great and noble soul. Joseph and Mary, two devout and holy-minded souls, consecrated to the service of God and dreaming of the coming of a Messiah to serve Israel, obeyed the injunctions of the high priest of the Essenes to prepare a body for the coming of a great soul. Thus of an immaculate conception Jesus was born. By immaculate is meant clean, rather than supernatural.

(35) Thus in that fore-mentioned Year, the Angel Gabriel came, being sent of God the Father to Nazareth, to a poor (yet chaste and modest) Virgin, called Mary, (her Name signifies plainly in the Language of Nature, A Redemption out of the Valley of Misery; and though it is plain, that we are not born of the high Nature in our School of Wonders [or Miracles,] fixed, [stedfast, or perfect,] which the a Master of Art, in his Pontificalibus, will not believe,) and he greeted her through God, and brought the eternal Command of the Father out of his Will, and said to her; Hail, full of Grace, the Lord is with thee, thou blessed among Women: And when she looked upon him, she was terrified at his saying, and [considered] in her Thoughts what Manner of Salutation this was. And the Angel said to her, Fear not, Mary, thou hast found Grace with God; behold, thou shalt 6 conceive in the Womb [or Body,] and bear a Son, whose Name thou shalt call Jesus; he shall be great, and be called the Son of the most High, and God the LORD will give unto him the Throne of his Father David, and he shall be King over the House of u Years. dLuke 1,28-35, 38. Jacob eternally, and of his Kingdom there will be no End. Then said Mary to the Angel, How shall that come to pass, since I know not a Man? And the Angel answered her, and said; The Holy Ghost will come upon thee, and the Virtue [or Power] of the most High will overshadow thee, therefore also that Holy One, that shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God. Then said Mary; Behold! I am the Handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me as thou hast said; and the Angel departed from her. Now when this Command [or Message] from God the Father came, then the Nature of the Spirit of the Soul in Mary was astonished, as the Text says; for fit was stirred by a precious Guest, who went into a wonderful Lodging [or Inn.]

(86) And as the Child is another Person than the Mother, and as the Child's Soul is not the Soul of the Mother, so also here in this Place. For the outward Virgin could not comprehend, that she did bear the Saviour of the World; but she committed that (in her Virgin-chastity) to God; whatsoever he did with her, she would still be contented with it.

(93) For she bore the Saviour of all the World, without any earthly Mixture; and she is also a Virgin of Chastity, highly blessed by her Son Jesus Christ, in the divine Light and Clarity, rmore than the Heavens, like the princely Thrones of the Angels. For out of her went forth the Body, which attracts all Members to it, which are the Children of God in Christ. And therefore her Glance [Luster or Brightness] is above the Glance of Heaven; and the Glance of her Soul is in the Holy Trinity, where all other Children of Adam (which are born [or begotten] in Christ) are also Members therein, in that one Christ Jesus.

(27) This Virgin mother, giving birth to the Sun God which Christianity has so faithfully preserved, is a reminder of the inscription concerning her Egyptian prototype, Isis, which appeared on the Temple of Sais: "The fruit which I have brought forth is the Sun." While the Virgin was associated with the moon by the early pagans, there is no doubt that they also understood her position as a constellation in the heavens, for nearly all the peoples of antiquity credit her as being the mother of the sun, and they realized that although the moon could not occupy that position, the sign of Virgo could, and did, give birth to the sun out of her side on the 25th day of December. Albertus Magnus states, "We know that the sign of the Celestial Virgin rose over the Horizon at the moment at which we fix the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.

(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.

(36) Therefore we say of Mary, that she has received the heavenly Pledge, which was unknown to Nature, and which she (in her outward Man) knew not at all, viz. the heavenly chaste Virgin of God; and in that [she received] the eternal Word of God the Father, which continues eternally in the Father; out of which the Holy Ghost goes forth eternally, wherein the whole Deity is comprehended.

(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.

(83) If now thou wilt behold the Virgin Mary, with her son Jesus Christ, then thou shalt find that she has been justified and saved through her Son; although she is come into great Perfection, as a bright Morning-Star, above other Stars. And therefore also the Angel called her blessed among Women, and said; The Lord is with thee: But she has not the divine Omnipotence.

(8) So it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. She brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. Dec. B.C. 5.

(38) You are to know, that as Mary did bear the heavenly Image, viz. a new Man born out of the Mercy of God in the old earthly [Man,] viz. in the Kingdom of this World, which Kingdom she had in her as her own, which yet did not comprehend the new Man; so also the Word of God entered into the Body of the Virgin Mary, into the heavenly Matrix, into the eternal Virgin of God, and that [Word] in that [eternal Virgin of God] became a heavenly Man, out of the paradisical holy pure Element, in the Person of the new regenerated Man of the Virgin Mary, and (with his eternal Deity) was together generated in the Beginning, of the own proper Soul of Mary, and with his Entrance of his Deity has brought the Soul of Mary again into the holy Father; so that the Souls of Men (which were gone out from the Deity) were new-born again in the Soul of Christ, and begotten to the Heart of God.

(74) She became not pregnant save after sexual pleasure, Can a garden bloom without the spring? Pregnant women and their teeming wombs So every tree which nurtures its fruits Has been, like Mary, impregnated by the Unseen King. Though fire's heat be hidden in the midst of water, Though the heat of the fire be working unseen, In like manner, the members of those enjoying "union" Become big with child, viz., with forms of "states" and "words." Gazing on the beauty of these forms they stand agape,

(3) It came to pass then, when Jesus had heard these words, that he said: "Well said, Mary, blessed one, who shalt inherit the whole Light-kingdom." Thereon Mary, the mother of Jesus, also came forward and said: "My Lord and my Saviour, give commandment unto me also that I repeat this word." Jesus said: "Whose spirit is understanding, him I do not prevent, but I urge him on still more to speak the thought which hath moved him. Now, therefore, Mary, my mother according to matter, thou in whom I have sojourned, I bid thee that thou also speak the thought of the discourse." it became material body for thee, and hath made proclamation concerning the region of Truth. 'Righteousness' is thy spirit, who hath brought the mysteries out of the height to give them to the race of men. 'Peace' on the other hand is the power which hath sojourned in thy material body according to the world, which hath baptized the race of men, until it should make it stranger unto sin and make it at peace with thy spirit, so that they may be at peace with the emanations of the Light; that is, 'Grace and truth kissed each other.' As it saith: 'Truth sprouted forth out of the earth,'--'truth' is thy material body which sprouted forth out of me according to the world of men, and hath made proclamation concerning the region of Truth. And again as it saith: 'Righteousness [looked down] from heaven'--'righteousness' is the power which looked out of the height, which will give the mysteries of the Light to the race of men, so that they will become righteous and good, and inherit the Light-kingdom." It came to pass then, when Jesus had heard these words which his mother Mary spake, that he said: "Well said, finely, Mary."

(1) It came to pass then, when Mary had finished saying these words, that he said: "Well said, Mary, for thou art blessed before all women on the earth, because thou shalt be the fulness of all fulnesses and the perfection of all perfections." Now when Mary had heard the Saviour speak these words, she exulted greatly, and she came before Jesus, fell down before him, adored his feet and said unto him: "My Lord, hearken unto me, that I may question thee on this word, before that thou discoursest with us about the regions whither thou didst go." Jesus answered and said unto Mary: "Discourse in openness and fear not; all things on which thou questionest, I will reveal unto thee."