(43) Or dost thou suppose, that I write of the Fall of Man without Light and Understanding? Or that I do not look and see into the Holy Scripture, what that says of it, [when I say] that Man before his Fall was angelical in his Mind and Body? Then hear and see what Christ says of it, tin the Resurrection of the Dead, they will neither marry, nor be given in Marriage, but they are as the Angels of God. And such an Image God created in the Beginning, [according] to his Similitude.

(1) WE know Christ has taught us, that a Judgment shall be kept, not only for the Punishment of the Despisers of God, and for a Reward to the Good, but also for the Sake of the Creature, and of Nature, that they may once be delivered from Vanity; and we know that the Substance of this World, and the Property thereof, must pass away; the Sun and the Stars, and also the four Elements, must pass away as to their Source [or Property,] and all must be restored again; and then the Life will spring forth through Death, and the Figure of every Thing shall stand eternally before God, for which End it was created; also we know that our Souls are immortal, generated out of the eternal Band; and when this World passes away, then also all its Essences pass away, which are generated out of it, and the Tincture remains still in the Spirit.

(43) But what its Putrefaction is, my Soul does not desire to try by participating with them; for it is their abominable Sins, which are kindled in the Anger of God; there must the poor Soul bathe, till it comes into the Rest, through the small Faith; where its Clarification [or Glorification] shall not in Eternity be like the true-born Saints. Although indeed they are redeemed out of Hell, and have Fruition of the heavenly Joy; yet the greatest Joy stands in the earnest Regeneration, wherein there springs up paradisical Virtue [or Power,] and Wonders.

(2) Whoso lamenteth him that here we die That we may live above, has never there Seen the refreshment of the eternal rain. The One and Two and Three who ever liveth, And reigneth ever in Three and Two and One, Not circumscribed and all things circumscribing, Three several times was chanted by each one Among those spirits, with such melody That for all merit it were just reward; And, in the lustre most divine of all The lesser ring, I heard a modest voice, Such as perhaps the Angel's was to Mary, Answer: "As long as the festivity Of Paradise shall be, so long our love Shall radiate round about us such a vesture. Its brightness is proportioned to the ardour, The ardour to the vision; and the vision Equals what grace it has above its worth. When, glorious and sanctified, our flesh Is reassumed, then shall our persons be More pleasing by their being all complete; For will increase whate'er bestows on us Of light gratuitous the Good Supreme, Light which enables us to look on Him;

(7) And now if we will speak of the Glorification of Christ, and of his Body, which he visibly (and in that Form in which he had conversed upon Earth) ascended with, then we must say, that as the Love of the Heart of God has reconciled the Anger of the Father, and holds it as it were captive in it, so also the Holy Ternary has comprehended the hard palpable Body of Christ, viz. the Kingdom of this World, as if it was wholly swallowed up, whereas it is not swallowed up, but the Source of this World is destroyed in Death, and the Holy Ternary has put on the Body of Christ, not as a Garment, but virtually [or powerfully] in the Essences; and he is as it were swallowed up (to our Apprehension and Sight) and yet is really, and shall come again at the last Judgment-Day, and manifest himself in his own Body which he had here, that all may see him, be they good or bad; and he shall also come in the same Form to keep the Judgment of the Separation, for in his divine glorified Form we cannot behold him, before we be glorified, especially the Wicked. But thus all Generations shall see him and know him, and the Unbelieving shall weep and wail, that they went so out of their Flesh and Blood into another Source [or Condition,] when they should and might in their own Essences have put on God, and yet put on the Kingdom of the Fierceness of the Anger of God with the Devils, and let the same into the Essences of their Souls, and caused themselves to perish.

(106) For [there] the Word clothed the Soul, and shut up the Kingdom of Hell, and there it shall wait till the Day of the Restitution, and then it shall get a Body again out of the Element, out of the Body that was here [in this Life,] when the last Day; and not a strange Body, but the same it did bear, in the [one] Element hidden in the four Elements, that same shall go forth and flourish as Adam [had done] in [his] Creation. The Gate of the Redemption.

(3) Therefore the vision must perforce increase, Increase the ardour which from that is kindled, Increase the radiance which from this proceeds. But even as a coal that sends forth flame, And by its vivid whiteness overpowers it So that its own appearance it maintains, Thus the effulgence that surrounds us now Shall be o'erpowered in aspect by the flesh, Which still to-day the earth doth cover up; Nor can so great a splendour weary us, For strong will be the organs of the body To everything which hath the power to please us." So sudden and alert appeared to me Both one and the other choir to say Amen, That well they showed desire for their dead bodies; Nor sole for them perhaps, but for the mothers, The fathers, and the rest who had been dear Or ever they became eternal flames. And lo! all round about of equal brightness Arose a lustre over what was there, Like an horizon that is clearing up. And as at rise of early eve begin Along the welkin new appearances, So that the sight seems real and unreal,

(20) And there then this World shall remain standing in a Figure and Shadow in Paradise, but the Substance of the Wicked perishes in that [Figure of the World,] and remains in the Hell, for the Works of every one follow after them; and there shall be eternal Joy over the Figures of all Things, and over the fair Fruit of Paradise, which we shall enjoy eternally. Matth. 25. Note, Read more of this in the Answer to the thirtieth Question, in the Book of the Forty Questions concerning the Soul. To which help us, O Holy Trinity, God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen. What is wanting here, you may seek for in the other Parts of my Writings, especially concerning Moses and all the Prophets, and concerning the Kingdom of Christ. In the fourth Part of these Writings, being the Forty Questions of the Original of the Soul, and what it is from Eternity to Eternity, this is clearly described. A true Information concerning the confounded Babel. To the Comfort of such as seek; and set here for a Witness against the Mockers and Despisers.

(1) AND if thou say aught touching the ascension of our Lord, for that was done bodily, and for a bodily bemeaning as well as for a ghostly, for both He ascended very God and very man: to this will I answer thee, that He had been dead, and was clad with undeadliness, and so shall we be at the Day of Doom. And then we shall be made so subtle in body and in soul together, that we shall be then as swiftly where us list bodily as we be now in our thought ghostly; whether it be up or down, on one side or on other, behind or before, all I hope shall then be alike good, as clerks say. But now thou mayest not come to heaven bodily, but ghostly. And yet it shall be so ghostly, that it shall not be on bodily manner; neither upwards nor downwards, nor on one side nor on other, behind nor before.

(21) This must be Adam's Condition; and thus he was a true and right Image and Similitude of God. He had no such hard Bones in his Flesh [as we now have,] but they were Strength, and such [a Kind of] Virtue; also his Blood was not of the Tincture of the aquitrish Matrix, but it was out of the heavenly Matrix. In brief, it was altogether heavenly, as we shall appear [and be] at the Day of the Resurrection. For the Purpose of God standeth, the first Image must return and come again and continue in Paradise; and seeing it could be done in no other Form, [Way, or Manner,] nor [that which was lost] be restored again, therefore God would rather spend his own Heart; his eternal Will is unchangeable, that must stand.

(2) Now, amongst the profane, some illogically think to go to a non-existence; others that the bodily blending with their proper souls will be severed once for all, as unsuitable to them in a Divine life and blessed lots, not considering nor being sufficiently instructed in Divine science, that our most Godlike life in Christ has already begun. But others assign to souls union with other bodies, committing, as I think, this injustice to them, that, after (bodies) have laboured together with the godly souls, and have reached the goal of their most Divine course, they relentlessly deprive them of their righteous retributions. And others (I do not know how they have strayed to conceptions of such earthly tendency) say, that the most holy and blessed repose promised to the devout is similar to our life in this world, and unlawfully reject, for those who are equal to the Angels, nourishments appropriate to another kind of life. None of the most religious men, however, will ever fall into such errors as these; but, knowing that their whole selves will receive the Christ-like inheritance, when they have come to the goal of this present life, they see more clearly their road to incorruption already become nearer, and extol the gifts of the Godhead, and are filled with a Divine satisfaction, no longer fearing the fall to a worse condition, but knowing well that they will hold firmly and everlastingly the good things already acquired. Those, however, who are full of blemishes, and unholy stains, even though they have attained to some initiation, yet, of their own accord, have, to their own destruction, rejected this from their mind, and have rashly followed their destructive lusts, to them when they have come to the end of their life here, the Divine regulation of the Oracles will no longer appear as before, a subject of scorn, but, when they have looked with different eyes upon the pleasures of their passions destroyed, and when they have pronounced blessed the holy life from which they thoughtlessly fell away, they are, piteously and against their will, separated from this present life, conducted to no holy hope, by reason of their shameful life.

(48) Behold, dear Soul, herein lies the heavenly Tincture, which we must set down in a Similitude, and we cannot at all express it with Words. Indeed if we had the Tongue of Angels, we could then rightly express what the Mind apprehends; but the Pearl is cloathed [covered or vailed] with a dark [Cloak or] Garment: The Virgin calls stedfastly to the Heart of God, that he would deliver her Companion from the dark Worm; but the divine Answer still is, The Seed of the Woman shall break the Serpent's Head; that is, the Darkness of the Serpent shall be separated from the Bridegroom; the dark Garment wherewith the Serpent cloaths thy Bridegroom, and darkens thy Pearl and beauteous Crown, shall be broken, [corrupted or destroyed,] and turn to Earth; and thou shalt rejoice with thy Bridegroom in me; this was my eternal Will, it must stand.

(46) And then also the holy Bodies went out of the Graves; consider this well; those that had put their Trust in the Messiah, had (in the Promise) got the pure Element for a new Body; and now when the promised Saviour went through Death into Life, and put on that pure Element for a Body, then their Souls in the Saviour (in whom they stood) in Hope got the Upperhand, and put on their new Body (in the Body of Christ) and lived in him, in his [Power and] Virtue; there were the holy Patriarchs and Prophets, who in this World had put on the Treader upon the Serpent in the Word of God, wherein they had prophesied of him, and wrought Miracles, they were now quickened in the Virtue of Christ; for the Virtue of Christ sprung up through Death, and reconciled the Father, who held the Soul captive in the Anger, and they now entered with Christ into Life.

(41) What is it now that thou hast after thy Corrupting, when thou diest? Consider thyself, what is it that thou art [then?] Thou art a Spirit: But what Kind of Source [or Property] is it that thou hast in thee? [Surely thou hast in thee] Anger, Wickedness, Pride, Self-seeking, Wilfulness, (in raising up thyself after temporal Pleasure, but finding none;) [thou hast] a false Mind in the Spirit, full of Lies and Deceit, and murderous, [arising in thee] out of the Essences. As thou wast upon Earth towards Men, just so it is [then] with such a Spirit as is gone forth from thee out of the corruptible Body of the Element. And where shall that [then] remain when this World perishes? Dost thou suppose that it shall [then] be an Angel? Has it an angelical Quality, [Source or Property?] Is its Source [or Quality] in Love, Humility, and Meekness? Is it in the divine Obedience, in the Light of Joy?

(44) But in the new Man (which we attract onto our Souls in the Bosom of the Virgin) we shall spring and flourish again; and therein is no Necessity nor Death, for the Kingdom of this World passes away. Therefore he that has not this Image in the new Birth, shall, in the Restoration of the Spirit of the eternal Nature, have the Image of what his Heart and Confidence has been set upon here [put upon him;] for every Kingdom images [or figures] its Creatures, according to the Essences which were grown here in their Will.

(29) And therefore he sent his Angel hither before him, that he should baptize with the Water of the eternal Life; for so can the eternal Body (into which the Soul must enter, and in its Tincture, in its Blood, be new-born again) be translated into the Body of Christ; to describe which, a great Deal of Room is requisite. But I will finish here briefly, and mention it more in another Book. And now we will handle the Matter of the Use [or Celebration,] for it is very hard to be apprehended by the Simple. And therefore we will deal with him after a childish Manner, to try whether he may come to see, and find the Pearl, for all shall not find what we in the Love of God have found; though indeed we could earnestly wish that all might have it, yet there is a great Matter between it; viz. the swelled puft-up Kingdom of this World and the Devil will set themselves against it, as raging Dogs, but the Smell of the Lily will make him faint; and so now we will speak as a Child.

(88) And we are seriously and highly to know (for it is seen in the Light of Life) that the Marrow in the Bones has the noblest and highest Tincture, wherein the Spirit is sweetest, and the Light clearest; which may be known in the Fire, if you be not blind with your Gain- saying; and it is accurately known, that those Places (where the hard Bones now are) were Wonders and Virtue [or Power,] which have broken the Gates of the Darkness, in which [Power] the angelical Man in the Light stood.

(16) Can this be no Joy and Rejoicing? And should not that be a pleasant Thing with the many Thousand Sorts of Angels to eat heavenly Bread, and to rejoice in their Communion and Fellowship? What can possibly be named which can be more pleasant? Where there is no Fear, no Anger, no Death: Where every Voice and Speech is Salvation, Power, Strength, and Might, be to our God; and this Voice going forth into the Eternity. Thus with this Sound the divine Virtue of Paradise goes forth; and it is a mere growing in the divine Center of the Fruits in Paradise. And there is the Place where St. Paul heard Words unutterable, that no Man can express. Such a Man was Adam before his Fall. And that you may not doubt, that this is very sure and most truly thus, look upon the Circumstances.

(57) But that they have hitherto ascribed such acute Knowledge to the Soul, after the Departure of the Body, that thing is very various, according as the Soul is variously armed. It it here (in this Body) entered into the new Birth, and if itself was entered, with its noble Champion [Jesus Christ,] through the Princely Potentates, Gates of the Deep, to God, so that it has received the Crown of the high Wisdom from the noble Virgin, then indeed it has great Wisdom and Knowledge, even above the Heavens, for it is in the Bosom of the Virgin, through whom the eternal Wonders of God are opened. This [Soul] has also great Joy and Clarity, [Brightness or Luster,] above the Heavens of the Elements; for the Glance of the holy Trinity shines from it, and clarifies, [brightens, or glorifies] it.

(19) And there then in the Saints, the Incorruptible attracts the Corruptible into itself, and the Death and this earthly Flesh is swallowed up; and we all live in the great and holy Element of the Body of Jesus Christ, in God the Father, and the Holy Ghost is our Comfort; and with this World, and with our earthly Body, all Knowledge and Skill of this World perishes; and we live as Children, and eat of the paradisical Fruit, for there is no Terror, Fear, nor Death any more; for the Principle of Hell together with the Devils (in this last Hour) is shut up; and the one [Principle] cannot touch the other any more in Eternity, nor conceive any Thought of the other. The Parents shall no more think of their wicked Children that are in Hell, nor the Children of their Parents; for all shall be in Perfection, and that which is in Part shall cease.