(10) And she would fain return again into her Place to her Bridegroom, if the earthly Flesh, with the earthly Mind and Senses [or Thoughts did not hinder, or] were not in the Way, for the Virgin does not go into them, she will not be bound [-to, or] in the earthly Center; she finishes the whole Time (while the Woman lives in her Stead) of her Speculation with Longing and much Calling, Admonishing and hearty Seeking: But [to] the Regenerate she appears in a high triumphing Manner, in the Center of the Mind; [she] also often dives into the Tincture of the Blood of the Heart, whereby the Body with the Mind and Senses comes to tremble and triumph so highly, as if it were in Paradise; it also presently gets a paradisical Will.

(3) And now when we consider our Mind, in the Light of Nature, and what that is, which makes us zealous [or earnest,] which burns there [in] as a Light, and is desirous [thirsty or covetous] like Fire, which desires to receive from that Place where it has not sown, and would reap in that Country where the Body is not at Home [or dwells not,] then the precious Virgin of the Wisdom of God meets us, in the middlemost Seat in the Center of the Light of Life, and says; The Light is mine, and the [Power or] Virtue and Glory is mine, also the Gate of Knowledge is mine, I live in the Light of Nature, and without me you can neither see, know, nor understand any Thing of my Virtue, [or Power.] I am thy Bridegroom in the Light; and thy Desire [or Longing] after my Virtue [or Power] is my Attracting in myself; I sit in my Throne, but thou knowest me not; I am in thee, and thy Body is not in me. I distinguish [or separate,] and thou seest it not. I am the Light of the Senses, and the Root of the Senses is not in me, but near me. I am the Bridegroom of the Root, but she has put on a rough Coat. I [will] not lay myself in her Arms till she puts that off, and then I will rest eternally in her Arms, and adorn the Root with my Virtue [and Power,] and give her my beautiful Form, and will espouse myself to her with my Pearl.

(41) And the chaste Virgin said; Thou art indeed my Bridegroom and my Companion, but thou hast not my Ornament; my Pearl is more a precious than thou, my Virtue [or Power] is incorruptible, and my mind is constant [or stedfast;] thou hast an unconstant Mind, and thy Virtue is corruptible [or brittle.] Dwell in my Court, and I will entertain thee friendly, and do thee much good: I will adorn thee with my ornaments, and I will put my Garment on thee; but I will not give thee my Pearl, for thou art dark, and that is shining and bright.

(11) And there the noble Grain of Mustard-Seed is sown, of which Christ says; That it is at first small, and afterwards groweth to be like a great Tree; so far [or so long] as the Mind perseveres in the Will. But the noble Virgin stays not continually, for her Birth is [of a] higher [Descent;] and therefore she dwells not in earthly Vessels; but she sometimes visits her Bridegroom at a Time when he is desirous of her: Although she always with Observance prevents and calls him, before he [calls] her, which is only understood in the Lily. This the Spirit speaks in a high and worthy Seriousness, therefore observe it, ye Children of God, the Angel of the great Council comes in the Valley of Jehosaphat with a golden Charter, which he sells for Oil without Money; W7hosoever comes shall have it.

(2) Secretly her bridegroom fetched it. He presented it to her mouth to make her eat it like food, and he applied the word to her eyes as a medicine to make her see with her mind and perceive her kinsmen and learn about her root, in order that she might cling to her branch from which she had first come forth, in order that she might receive what is hers and renounce matter.

(31) For none knows what it is, but he that has found it by Experience. It is a most precious Guest; when it enters into the Soul, there is a very wonderful Triumph there; the Bridegroom there embraces his beloved Bride, and the Hallelujah of Paradise sounds. O! must not the earthly Body needs tremble and shake at it? and though it knows not what it is, yet all its Members rejoice at it. O what beauteous Knowledge does the Virgin of the divine Wisdom bring with her! She makes learned indeed; and though one were dumb, yet the Soul would be crowned in God's Works of Wonder, and must speak of his Wonders; there is nothing in the Soul but longing to do so; the Devil must be gone, he is quite weary and faint.

(1) Then, by the will of the father, the bridegroom came down to her in the bridal chamber, which had been prepared. And he decorated the chamber.

(4) Then she will begin to rage at herself like a woman in labor, writhing and screaming in the hour of delivery. But since she is female, she is powerless by herself to inseminate a child. So the father sent her from heaven her man, her brother, the firstborn. The bridegroom came down to the bride. She gave up her former whoring and cleansed herself of the pollution of adulterers, and she was renewed to be a bride. She cleansed herself in the bridal chamber. She filled it with perfume and sat there waiting for the true groom. She no longer goes about the marketplace, copulating with whomever she desires, but she waits for him, saying, "When will he come?" And she feared him, not knowing what he looked like. She no longer remembers, since she fell from her father's house long ago.

(51) And in this Joy, in the Water-Spring, [or Source,] the pleasant Source of the bottomless Love rises up, and all that rises up there is the second Principle: For the whole Begetting or Generating falls into a glorious Love; for the Harshness now loves the Light dearly, because it is so refreshing, chearly, and beautiful; for from this pleasant Refreshing it becomes thus sweet, courteous, and humble [or lowly;] and the Bitterness now loves the Harshness, because it is no more dark, nor so strongly [eagerly or fiercely] attractive to itself, but is sweet, mild, pure, and light.

(40) Now the chaste Virgin ought to be bent into the Heart of God, and to have no Imagination to lust after the Beauty of the comely young Man; but yet the young Man was kindled with Love towards the Virgin, and he desired to copulate with her; for he said, thou art my dearest Spouse [or Bride,] my Paradise, and Garland of Roses, let me into thy Paradise: I will be impregnated in thee, that I may get thy Essence, and enjoy thy pleasant Love; how willingly would I taste of the friendly Sweetness of thy Virtue [or Power?] If I might but receive thy glorious Light, how full of Joy should I be?

(23) Therefore, my beloved Soul, be lively, and see what thy noble Bridegroom has left thee in his Testaments for a Legacy; as namely, in the Baptism, the Water of his Covenant, flowing from his holy original Body. Whereas we in this World, viz. in the external Birth of his Body, do acknowledge four Things, namely, Fire, Air, Water, and Earth, wherein our earthly Body consists; so likewise in the heavenly Body there are four such Things. The Fire is the Enkindling of the divine Desire. The Water is that which the Fire desires, whence it becomes meek, and a Light. The Air is the joyful Spirit which blows up the Fire, and makes in the Water the Motion. And the Earth is the true Essence which is born in the three Elements, and is rightly called Ternarius Sanctus [the Sacred Ternary,] in which the Tincture is brought forth in the Light of the Meekness; and therein also is born the holy Blood out of the Water, being an Oil of the Water, in which the Light shines, and the Spirit of Life consists.

(42) There then says the Bridegroom, Come! On the other Hand, says the poor Soul, / cannot yet, my Lamp is not yet trimmed. Nevertheless it holds the Saviour fast by the Thread [of Faith,] and sets its Imagination [or Desire] (through the Thread of Faith and Confidence) further into the Heart of God; where then at last it is ransomed out of the Putrefaction, through the Passion of Christ.

(16) On the contrary, the Righteous stand there in unspeakable great Joy, and their Joy rises up in the Source [or Well-spring] of the Holy Ghost; all their Sorrow and Heaviness (which they have had here) stands before them in Substance, and it appears how they have suffered wrongfully; their Comfort springs up in the Body of Jesus Christ, who has redeemed them out of so great Misery; all their Sins are washed, and appear as white as Snow; and there then they return Thanks to their Bridegroom, who has redeemed them out of such Necessity and Misery, wherein they laid captive here, and there is mere hearty Joy that the i Driver is destroyed; all their good Works, their Teaching and Well-doing, appear before them; all the Words of their Teaching and Reproving (wherewith they have shown the Ungodly the right Way) stand in the Figure.

(12) And here is nothing but the Kiss of Love, and Wooing, and here the Bridegroom embraces his beloved Bride, and is no otherwise than when the pleasing Life is born or generated in the sour, tart, or harsh Death; and the Birth of Life is thus in Bitterness in the Essence of the harsh astringent Tartness of the Water-Spirit, the Birth attains the sixth form, viz. the Sound or Noise of the Motion. And this sixth a Form is rightly called Mercurius; for it takes its Form, Virtue, and Beginning, in the aching or anxious Harshness, by the Raging, of the Bitterness; for the Rising it takes the Virtue of its Mother (that is, the Essence of the sweet Harshness) along with it, and brings it into the Fire-Flash, from whence the Light kindles. And here the Trial [or Experience] begins, one Virtue beholding the other in the Fire-Flash, one [Virtue] feels the other by the Rising up, by the Stirring they one hear another, in the Essence they one taste another, and by the pleasant, lovely [Source, Spring, or] Fountain, they one smell another, from whence the Sweetness of the Light springs up out of the Essence of the sweet and harsh Spirit, which from henceforth is the Water-Spirit. And out of these six Forms, now in the Birth, or Generating, comes a six-fold self-subsisting Essence, which is inseparable; where they one continually generate another, and the one is not without the other, nor can be, and without this Birth or Substance there could be nothing; for the six Forms have each of them now the Essences of all their sixfold Virtue in it, and it is as it were the only one Thing, and no more; only each Form has its own Condition.

(45) Then said the Virgin; Why wilt thou use Violence? Am I not thy Ornament, and thy Crown? I am bright, and thou art dark; behold, if thou coverest me, then thou hast no Glance [or Luster;] and [then] thou art a dark [dusky or black] Worm: And [then] how can I dwell with thee? Let me alone; I [will] not give myself to be thy own: I will give thee my Ornament, and thou shall live in my Joy, thou shalt eat of my Fruit, and taste my Sweetness; but thou canst not qualify with me; for the divine Virtue is my Essence, therein is my fair [or orient] Pearl, and my bright [shining] Light generated; my Fountain is eternal: If thou darkenest my Light, and defilest my Garment, then thou wilt have no Beauty [or Luster,] and canst not subsist, but thy Worm [will corrupt or] destroy thee, and so I shall lose my Companion, which I had chosen for my Bridegroom, with whom I meant to have rejoiced; and then my Pearl and Beauty would have no i Company: Seeing I have given myself to be thy Companion for my Joy's Sake; if thou wilt not enjoy my Beauty, yet pray continue in my Ornament and Excellence, and dwell with me in Joy, I will adorn thee eternally.

(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.

No [one can] know when [a husband] and wife have sex except those two, for marriage in this world is a mystery for those married. If defiled marriage is hidden, how much more is undefiled marriage a true mystery! It is not fleshly but pure. It belongs not to desire but to will. It belongs not to darkness or night but to the day and the light. If marriage is exposed, it has become prostitution, and the bride plays the harlot not only if she is impregnated by another man but even if she slips out of her bedchamber and is seen. Let her show herself only to her father and her mother, the friend of the bridegroom, and the attendants of the bridegroom. They are allowed to enter the bridal chamber every day. But let the others yearn just to hear her voice and enjoy the fragrance of her ointment, and let them feed on the crumbs that fall from the table, like dogs. Bridegrooms and brides belong to the bridal chamber. No one can see a bridegroom or a bride except by becoming one.

(17) The Propagation of the Love is most especially to be observed, for it is the loveliest, pleasantest, and sweetest Fountain of all. When the Love generates again a whole Birth, with all the Fountains of the original Essences out of itself, so that the Love in all the a springing Veins in that new Birth is predominant and chief, so that a Center arises therein, then the first Essence, vis. the Tartness, is wholly desirous or longing, wholly sweet, wholly light, and gives itself forth to be Food to all the Qualities, with a hearty Affection towards them all, as a loving Mother has towards her Children, and here the Bitterness may be rightly called Joy, for it is the Rising or Moving [thereof.] What Joy there is here, there is no other Similitude of it, than when a Man is suddenly and unexpectedly delivered out of the Pain and Torment of Hell, and put into the Light of the Divine Joy.

(1) When the soul had adorned herself again in her beauty, she enjoyed her beloved. He also loved her. And when they made love, she got from him the seed which is the life-giving spirit. By him she has good children and brings them up. Such is the great and perfect marvel of birth. This marriage is made perfect by the will of the father.

(13) And the Sound or Noise in the turning Wheel, is now the Declarer or Pronouncer in all the Fountains, that the beloved Child is born; for it comes with its Sound before all Doors, and in all Essences; so that in its Awakening, all the Virtues or Powers are stirring, and see, feel, have smell, and taste one another in the Light, for the whole Birth nourishes itself in its first Mother, vis. the harsh Essence, being now become so thin [or pure,] meek, sweet, and full of Joy, and so the whole Birth stands in very great Joy, Love, Meekness, and Humility, and is nothing else than a mere pleasing Taste, a delightful Sight, a sweet Smell, a ravishing Sound to the Hearing, a soft Touch, beyond that which any Tongue can utter or express. How should there not be Joy and Love, where, in the very Midst of Death, the eternal Life is generated, and where there is no Fear of any End, nor can be?