(24) By this you might find and understand the Ground, how the Kingdom of this World is generated, and how one Kingdom is in the other, and how one is the Chest and Receptacle of the other, and where yet there is no captivating at all, but all is free in itself: and Man stands manifested in all three [Principles,] and yet knows neither of them in the Ground, except he be generated out of the Darkness into the Light, and then that a Source knows the fierce Eternity, as also the Out-Birth of the Eternity. But he is not able to search out the Light, for he is environed therewith, and it is his Dwelling-House; whereas yet he is (with this Body) in this World, and with the Originality of the Soul in the Ground of the eternal Source, and with the noble Blossom of the Soul in the Kingdom of Heaven with God, and is thus rightly a Prince in the Heaven, over Hell and Earth; for the fierce Source [or Torment] touches it not; but the Blossom makes out of the fierce Source [or Quality] Paradise, [viz.] the high exulting Joy in the Springing up.

(4) And now if we look round about us every where, upon Heaven and Earth, the Stars and Elements, yet we can see and know no Way [or Passage] where we may go to our Rest; we see no other than the Way of the Entrance in of our Life, and then of the End of our Life, where our Body goes into the Earth, and all our Labour (also our Arts and Glory) is inherited by another, who also vexes himself therewith for a While, and then follows after us; and that continues so from the Beginning of the World to its End.

(33) Now in this pleasant Source, the moving Spirit (which in the Original, in the Kindling, was the bitter aching Spirit) springs forth very joyfully without removing, and it is the Holy Ghost; and the sweet Source [or Fountain,] which is generated in the Center from the Light, is the Word or Heart of God; and in this Joy is the Paradise, and the Birth is the eternal Trinity: In this you must dwell, if you will be in Paradise; and the same must be born [or generated] in you, if you will be the Child of God, and your Soul must be in it, or else you cannot enjoy nor see the Kingdom of God.

(109) For it stands in the Gate in the Center, viz. in the Door [Way,] between Heaven and Hell; and the Word is in the Heaven. And if the Soul gives Way to be drawn away from that Gate, then it loses the Word; but if the Soul reaches forward again, towards the Gate, then it attains that again; and the Virgin (who is the Servant of the Word) goes continually [along] with the Soul, and warns it of the evil Ways. 1 10. But if the Soul be a Dog, an Adder, or Serpent, then the Virgin goes away to the Word into the Heaven, and then the Door is shut. And then there is a whole Birth between the Soul and the Word, whereas else there is but half [a Birth between the Word and the Soul;] and then there is Need of hard Striving, and [such a Soul] will hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; yet it is possible enough.

(25) But there is a great Difference in Souls, and therefore a the going to Heaven is very unlike; some of them are through true Repentance and Sorrow for their Misdeeds, through their Faith (in the Time of their Bodies) set [or ingrafted] into the Heart of God, [and] new regenerated through the Birth of Jesus Christ; and they instantly (with the Breaking of their Bodies) leave all that is earthly, and instantly also lay off the Region of the Stars; and they comprehend, in their Essences of the first Principle, the Mercy of God the Father in the kind Love of Jesus Christ; and these] also stand, in the Time of their Bodies, according to the Essences of the Soul, (which they receive from the Passion and Death of Christ) in the Gate of the Heaven; and their Departure from the Body is a very pleasant Entering into the Element before God, into a still Rest, expecting their Bodies, without [irksome] Longing; where then the Paradise shall flourish again, which the Soul tastes very well, but effects no Source [or Work] till the first Adam, [as he was] before the Fall, dbe again upon it.

(35) Great and mighty are these Secrets, and he that seeks and finds them, has surpassing Joy therein; for they are the true heavenly Bread for the Soul. If we consider and receive the Knowledge of the heavenly Tincture, then there rises up the Knowledge of the divine Kingdom, of Joy, so that we wish to be loosed from the Vanity, and to live in this Birth; which yet cannot be, but we must finish our Day's Work.

(121) For the spirit, which is generated in the heart, must in its body walk through the midst or centre of the hellish gates, and may very easily be kindled; they are as wood and fire, which will burn, if thou pourest no water in among them.

(23) Now if we will search after the Tincture, what it is in its highest Degree, we shall find the a Spirit: For we cannot say, that the Fire is the Tincture, nor the Air neither. For the Fire is wholly contrary to the Tincture; and the Air stifles it; it is a very pleasant Refreshment; its Root, out of which is generated, is indeed the Fire: But if I may rightly mention the Seat where it sits, I cannot say otherwise, but that it is between the three Principles, viz. [between] the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Hell, and the Kingdom of this World, in the Midst, and [it] has none [of the three] for its own, and yet it is generated from all three: And it has as it were a several Principle, which yet is no Principle, but a bright pleasant Habitation. Neither is itself the Spirit, but the Spirit dwells in it, and it so renews the Spirit, that fit becomes clear and visible. Its true Name is Wonderful, and none can name [that Name,] but he to whom it is given, he names it only in himself, and not without [or outwardly,] it has no Place of its Rest in the Substance, and yet rests continually in itself, and gives Virtue and Beauty to all Things, as the in this World; and it is not the Thing itself, though indeed it works in the Thing, and makes the Thing grow and blossom, and yet it is found really [to be] in all Things, and it is the Life and Heart of all Things, but it is not the Spirit which is generated out of the Essences.

(62) Therefore now if we will speak of our native Country, out of which we are wandered with Adam; and will tell of the Resting- Place of the Souls; we need not to scast our Minds far off; for far off and near is all one and the same Thing with God; the Place of the Holy Trinity is all over. Heaven and Hell is [every where] all over in this World, and the Man (Christ) dwells all over, for he has laid off the Corruptibility, and has swallowed up Death, as also that which is [fragile or] temporal, and he lives in God; his Body is the substance of the Element, which out of the Word of the Mercifulness, is from Eternity generated out of the Gates of the Deep; it is the Habitation, where the Sharpness of God breaks open the Darkness, where the eternal Virtue [or Power] appears in Wonders; and it is the Tincture of the Deity, which is before God, out of which the heavenly Virtues are generated; its name is wonderful; the earthly Tongue cannot express it.

(20) For the Spirit of Knowledge intimates this, that there are Fruits and Things that grow in Paradise, as well as in this World, in such a Form or Figure, but not in such a Source [or Property,] and Palpability. For the Matter or Body of it is Power, and it grows in the heavenly yLimbus; its Root stands in the Matrix, wherein there is neither Earth nor Stone; for it is in another Principle. The Fire in that [Principle] is God the Father; and the Light is God the Son; and the Air is God the Holy Ghost; and the Virtue [or Power] out of which all springs is Heaven and Paradise.

(51) But if thou standest with thy astral birth in the wrath, when thou departest from hence as to the body, and thy soul be not comprehended in the word, then thou canst never reach the gates of heaven; but into what part thou hast sown thy seed, that is, thy soul, in that very part will thy body also rise. The Gate of the Power.

(3) But because there are two of these Inns, which are eternal without End and Expulsion; the one standing in eternal Joy (in great Brightness and Perfection) in mere Love and Meekness; but the other in great Perplexity, Anguish, Misery, Distress, Hunger, and Thirst, where never any Refreshment from the Love of God comes; therefore it is very necessary that we learn, with great Earnestness, to know the true Way of Entrance into the eternal Joy, that we may not with the Devil's Dogs howl eternally in the anguishing Inn.

(28) Seeing now we have spoken of the Tincture, as of the House of the Soul, so we will speak also of the Soul, what it is, and how it can be propagated, wherein we can the better bring the Tincture to P Light. The Soul is not so subtle as the Tincture; but it is powerful and has great Might [or Ability.] It can by the Tincture (if it rides upon the Virgin's Bride-chariot in the Tincture) turn Mountains upside-down, as Christ said; which is done in the pure Faith, in the Place where the Tincture is Master, which does it, and the Soul.gives the Thrust, whereas yet no Power can be discerned. Even as the Earth moves upon the heavenly Tincture, whereas there is not more than one only Tincture in the Heaven, and in this World, yet [it is] of many Sorts, according to the Essence of every Thing. In the Beasts it is not as in Men, also not in Fishes as in Beasts; also in Stones and Gems otherwise; also otherwise in Angels, and in the Spirit of this World.

(25) And now as the whole earth was, together with the word, so was the fruit also; but the word remained in the centre of the heaven, which is also in this place hiddenly; and this birth or geniture caused the seven qualifying or fountain spirits, out of or from the outermost, corrupt and dead birth or geniture, to form the body; and itself, viz. the Word or Heart of God, remained in its heavenly seat, sitting on the throne of majesty, and filled the astral and also the mortal birth or geniture, but to them was the holy life altogether incomprehensible.

(1) EVERY Spirit sees no further than into its Mother, out of which it has its Original, and wherein it stands; for it is impossible for any Spirit in its own natural Power to look into another Principle, and behold it, except it be regenerated therein. But the natural Man, who in his Fall was captivated by the Matrix of this World, whose natural Spirit moves between two Principles, viz. between the divine and the hellish, and he stands in both the Gates, into which Principle he falls, there he comes to be regenerated, whether it be as to the Kingdom of Heaven, or the Kingdom of Hell; and yet he is not able in this [life] Time to see either of them both.

(33) Following the path pointed out by the wise, the seeker after truth ultimately attains to the summit of wisdom's mount, and gazing down, beholds the panorama of life spread out before him. The cities of the plains are but tiny specks and the horizon on every hand is obscured by the gray haze of the Unknown. Then the soul realizes that wisdom lies in breadth of vision; that it increases in comparison to the vista. Then as man's thoughts lift him heavenward, streets are lost in cities, cities in nations, nations in continents, continents in the earth, the earth in space, and space in an infinite eternity, until at last but two things remain: the Self and the goodness of God.

(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.

(4) For he can neither see nor comprehend nor apprehend the light and holy generation or production, which stands in the water of the heaven, but he can see the generation or production only which stands in the astringent, bitter, sour and hot quality, from whence existed the outermost birth or geniture, which is his royal fort or castle.

(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!

(17) Now if we will lift up our Minds, and seek after the Heaven wherein God dwells, we cannot say that God dwells only above the Stars, and has inclosed himself with the Firmament which is made out of the Waters, in which none can enter except it be opened (like a Window) for him; with which Thoughts Men are altogether befooled [and bewildered.] Neither can we say (as some suppose) that God the Father and the Son are only with Angels in the uppermost inclosed Heaven, and rule only here in this World by the Holy Ghost, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. All these Thoughts are void of the very Knowledge of God. For then God should be divided and circumscriptive, like the Sun that moves aloft above us, and sends its Light and Virtue to us, whereby the whole Deep becomes light and active all over.