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(41) And now after that the Stars and Elements (as is mentioned before) have got their Region and the House to dwell in, then begins the mighty Strife in great Anxiety about the King of the Life. For the Chamber of the Building (or Fabrick] stands in very great Anguish, and [here] we must consider the Original of the Essence of all Essences, the eternal Birth and the Root of all Things; as that there is in the House of the Anguish, first one only Essence [or Being,] and that Essence is the Mixing of all P Essences, and it has first a Will to generate the Light, and that Will is attractive, [astringent or sour.] Or Hell, A Dwelling for the Senses and Thoughts,

(17) But we should not here again wholly set down the Ground of the Deity, so far as it is otherwise meet and known by us, we account that needless [here,] for you may find it before the Incarnation of a Child in the Mother's [Womb or] Body. We set down thus much here, to the End that the Region of his World may be understood. And thus we give the Reader exactly to understand and know how the Region of Good and Evil are in one another, and how it is an imperishable Thing [or Substance,] so that one is generated out of the other, and that also the one goes forth out of the other into another Substance [or Being,] which it was not in the Beginning; as you may learn to understand this in Man, who in his Beginning, in the Will of Man and Woman, viz. in the Limbus, and in the Matrix, is conceived in the Tincture, and sown in an earthly Soil; where then the first Tincture A Desiring or Attracting. Dispels. (in the Will) breaks, and his own Tincture springs forth out of the anxious [or aching] Chamber of Darkness, and of Death, out of the anxious Source [or Property,] and blossoms out of the Darkness, in the broken Gate of the Darkness in it, as a pleasant Habitation, and so generates its Light out of the anxious Fierceness out of itself; where then (in the Light) there goes forth again the endless Source of the [Thoughts or] Senses, which make a Throne and Region of Reason, which governs the whole House, and desires to enter into the Region of Heaven, out of which it proceeded not. And therefore now this is not the original Will, which there desires to enter into the Region of the Heaven; but it is the preconceived Will out of the Source of the Anxiety, [which Will is a Desire to] enter through the deep Gate of God.

(41) Now the Anguish has the first Principle iin Possession; seeing it stands in the Darkness, it is another Essence than the Essence in the Light is, where there is nothing else but mere Love and Meekness, where no Source [or Torment] is discovered; and the Quality which is generated in the Center of the Light, is now no Quality, but the eternal Skill and Wisdom of whatsoever was in the Anguish before the Light [broke forth:] This Wisdom and Skill now always comes to help the conceived Will in the Anguish, and makes in itself again the Center to the Birth, that so the Sprout may generate itself in the Quality, viz. the Virtue, and out of the Virtue the Fire, and out of the Fire the Spirit, and the Spirit makes in the Fire the Virtue again, that thus there [may] be an indissoluble Band. And out of this Mind which stands in the Darkness, God generated the Angels, which are Flames of Fire, yet shining through and through with the divine Light. For in this Mind a Spirit can and may be generated, and not else; for before it in the Heart and Light of God, there can no Spirit be generated, for the Heart of God is the End of Nature, and it has no Quality; therefore also nothing comes out of it more, but it continues unchangeably in the Eternity, and it shines in the Mind of the Quality of the Darkness, and the Darkness cannot comprehend it.

(106) And here is apparently seen the Glass of the Abyss of Hell, and [of the] eternal Despair; when the Anger of God rises up in the Source, that the Malice [and Wickedness] is made stirring, and there begins Trembling, Galling, and Crying, and Despair in itself as to God; there the Soul seeks Abstinence in the Kingdom of this World, and finds mnone; and then it leaves the Kingdom of this World also, and runs also into the Originality into the Root of the eternal Birth, and seeks Abstinence, and yet finds nothing; and then casts itself into the abominable Deep, supposing to reach the Original of the Abstinence, or the Gate of the Breaking in; but it mounts only above the Heaven, out (into the most outermost) into the fierce [wrathful, grim] Eternity.

(23) Has it wrought Good here? then it shall eat that Good; for all Sins stand before it in its Tincture: If it thinks inwardly in itself of the Kingdom of Heaven, which yet it neither sees nor knows, then it sees the Causes why it is in such a Source [or Misery;] for itself has made that. And there all the Tears of the Oppressed and Afflicted are in its Tincture, and they are fiery, stinging and burning in a hostile Manner, fretting and gnawing in themselves, and make an eternal Despair in the Essences, and an hostile Will against God; the more it thinks of

(5) For it cannot be said that Fire, Bitterness, or Harshness, is in God, much less that Air, Water, and Earth are in him; only it is plain that all Things have proceeded out of that [Original.] Neither can it be said, that Death, Hell-fire, or Sorrowfulness is in God, but it is known that these Things have come out of that [Original.] For God has made no Devil out of himself, but Angels to live in Joy, to their Comfort and Rejoicing; yet it is seen that Devils came to be, and that they became God's Enemies. Therefore the Source or Fountain of the Cause must be sought, vis. what is the Prima Materia, or first Matter of Evil, and that in the Originality of God as well as in the Creatures; for it is all but one only Thing in the Origin: All is out of God, made out of his Essence, according to the Trinity, as he is one in Essence and threefold in Persons.

(13) And as this Place was now twofold, and P with the eternal Originality threefold, viz. [having] the first Principle in the great Anxiety, and the second Principle in the divine Habitation in Paradise, and then the third Principle in the Light of the Sun, in the Quality of the Stars and Elements, so must Man also be created out of all three, if he must be an Angel in this Place, and receive all Knowledge and Understanding, whereby he might have eternal Joy also with [or in] the Figures and Images, which stand not in the eternal Spirit, but in the eternal Figure, as all Things in this World are [to do.]

(73) Only Man (who is proceeded out of another Principle) has in both those [forementioned] Principles, Woe, Misery, Sorrow, and Distress; for he is not in his native Country; and none of these two Principles can attain his native Country. Therefore the poor Soul must be thus plagued and tormented, that it may attain its native Country again; it must go again through the Gate of the deep Anguish of Death; it must break through two Kingdoms, and it sticks here between the Door and the Hinges, and is continually infected with those Things which keep it back and plague it; it sticks as it were in a Press.

(4) Paradise has another Principle; for it is the divine and angelical Joy, yet not without the Place of this World. Indeed it is without the Virtue and Source, [or active Property] of it; neither can the Spirit of this World comprehend it, much less a Creature; for it stands not in the anguishing a Birth. And although it thus takes its Original, yet it consists in exact Perfection, mere Love, Joy, and Mirth; wherein there is no Fear, neither Misery nor Death: No Devil can touch it, and no Beast can reach it.

(11) And now it may very exactly be understood by the Essences and Property of the Soul, that in this House of Flesh (where it is as it were generated) it is not at Home; and its horrible Fall may be also understood [thereby.] For it has no Light in itself of its own, it must borrow its Light from the Sun; which indeed springs up along with it in its Birth, but that is corruptible, and the Worm of the Soul is not so; and it is seen that when a Man dies it goes out. And if then the divine Light be not again generated in the Center, then the Soul remains in the eternal Darkness, in the eternal anguishing [Source or] Quality of the Birth, where nothing is to be found in the kindled Captive. Fire, but a horrible Flash of Fire, in which [Source, Property, or] Quality, also the Devils dwell; for it is the first Principle.

(5) But this is the Ground; every Quality [or Source,] would be creaturely, and the fiery [Property] elevated itself too mightily, into which Lucifer had brought his Will; and so it went with Adam as to the tempting Tree, as it is written; and God suffered all Sorts of Trees to spring up in the Garden of Eden; and in the Midst of the Garden the Tree of Life, and of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

(48) Now we have shown you the first Principle, out of which all Things take their Beginning; and must so speak of it, as if there was a Place, or a separable Essence, where there is such a Kind of Source; to the End that the first Principle might be understood, so that the Eternity, as also the Anger of God, Sin, eternal Death, the Darkness, (which is so called in Respect of the Extinguishing of the Light,) also Hell-fire, and the Devil, might be known and understood [what they are.]

(9) Behold, the three Essences, (viz. [Sourness or] Harshness, Bitterness and Fire) are the Worm or Spirit [that dies not.] God's eternal Will; and in the Attracting of the [sour] Harshness is the Sting [or Prickle] of the Bitterness, which the [sour] Harshness cannot endure, but attracts continually the more forcibly to it, from whence the Prickle continually grows greater, which yet the [sour] Harshness holds Prisoner; and this together is the great Anxiety, which was there in the dark Mind of God the Father, when the Darkness was anxious [or longed] after the Light; from whence in the Anxiety (from the Glance of the Light) it attained the Twinkling Flash: Out of which the Angels were created, which afterward were enlightened from the Light of God (mby their Imagination into the Heart of God;) and the other (like Lucifer) for their Haughtiness [or Pride's] Sake, remained in the Flash of Fire and Anxiety.

(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.

(3) For he took not one Lump after another, or many Lumps together, and made Beasts of them, that is not likely; and it is much more a bestial than a human Thought. But, as is mentioned before, after that the Devil was fallen with his Legions, (who had his Throne in the Place of this World, standing bodily after the Manner of a Spirit, in the first Principle, and thoroughly enlightened all over with the second Principle, truly dwelling in Paradise, and in the divine Virtue, [or Power,] and yet with Pride fell from the Light of God, and catched at his own Mother, the Root of the Fire, thinking to domineer over the Meekness of the Heart of God) then his Dwelling continued to be the first Principle in the fiery dark Matrix; and God created the Out-Birth of the Matrix, for a Principle; and in the eternal Matrix, in the longing Will, he opened the Center or Birth of Life; and there (after the manner of the Deity, as the Eternal Deity from Eternity has always generated,) arose [and sprung up] the third Principle, in which the Deity stands as it were hid, yet forming, imagining, or imprinting itself powerfully in all Things; which is incomprehensible and unprofitable for the Devil.

(19) And thus he dwells in two [Properties,] both which draw him, and desire to have him; viz. one fierce [Property,] or Source, whose Original is the Darkness of the Abyss; and the other is the divine [Power or] Virtue, whose Source [or active Property] is the Light and the divine Joy in the broken Gate of Heaven; as the Word Himmel [Heaven] in the Language of Nature has its proper acute Understanding, from the Pressing through, and Entering in, and then with its Root continuing to fit in the Stock of Eternity, wherein the Omnipotence is rightly understood; which my Master in Arts will scarce give any Credit to, for he has no Knowledge therein; it belongs to the Lily.

(27) When this Storm was in the Creation (in the first Principle) the Matrix became very big [or much impregnated] and kindled; and every Form in the Matrix wrought, [stirred or acted.] But because the Anger and Wrath had there elevated itself, and that this Place could not thus subsist in Paradise, therefore God moved this Place yet more in the Matrix, which was yet the more kindled, where then is to be the Devil's Bath, [Repository or Dwelling-Place,] and the fourth Form stood in the Flash of the Fire, which reflected back into the Mother, and found the Spirit of God in the Forming [or Creation,] where in a Moment [that fourth Form] lost its wrathful [smart, fierce Property, Authority or] Right, and became in great Joy, white, clear, and light: and in this Place [or Thing consists or] stands the Fiat, by which God created Heaven and Earth. For before the Fiat, the third Principle was not manifested, but there was merely Paradise in the Place of this World.

(95) And now when these two, thus captivated by the Devil and this World, stood before God with Fear and great Horror, and felt the Anger of God, and the severe Judgment; then the Heart of God, which had made them; pitied them, and it looked whether there was any [Remedy or] Counsel that might help poor Man, and redeem [or deliver] him from the Bands of the eternal [Fierceness or] Wrath, and from the mortal Body of this World. But there was nothing found, neither in Heaven, nor in this World, that could make them free; there was no Principality or Throne- Angel, which had the Ability to do it; all was lost, they were in the eternal Judgment of the temporal and eternal Death. For the first Principle had captivated them, in the Spirit of the Soul, and qualified [or mingled] with the Soul; the Kingdom of Heaven in the Light was shut up, [and there was a firm Enclosure] of a whole Principle between, and 1 it could not reach the Kingdom of Heaven again, except it were born of God again; otherwise there was no Council, nor Help, nor Refuge in any Thing at all.

(61) And here now was no Remedy, neither in Heaven, nor in this World, they were captivated in hard Slavery, in Misery and Death; the Abyss of Hell held the Soul, and the Spirit of this World held the Body [captive.] Death and Corruption was in the Body; and there was nothing else in them but Enmity to itself, [proceeding] from the tart Essences of the Stars, wherein one Source [or Quality] strives against the other, and one breaks [or destroys] the other with greater Pain and Torment to the Body, with Trembling and Shrieking; and at last [comes] Corruption and Death, as it is before our Eyes.

(30) O no: But the Devil, who is a Cause of the Wrathfulness. Adam was made good out of the pure Element, but the Longing [Desire or Lust] of the Devil deceived him, so that he went into the Spirit of this World. 3 1. And now it cannot be otherwise, the two Kingdoms wrestle one with another in the Children of Men; the one is the Kingdom of Christ, [generated] through the new Birth into Paradise; that (in this World) is miserable and contemned, there are not many that desire it, for it has mere Scorn and Contempt from the Devil and his Followers; it consists in Righteousness and Truth, and that is not valued in this World, and therefore it must lie at the rich Man's Door with poor Lazarus, and at his Feet. If any do but let it appear that they are the Children of God, then the Devil will away with them presently, or else will put them to such Scorn and Disgrace, that they cannot be known; that so the Devil may continue to be the great Prince upon Earth, and that the World may not learn to know him.