(67) We know that the Body without the Spirit is a Thing that lies still; for though the Body of Christ (which the holy Element generated in the P Mercy) is from God, yet the Mobility and Life stands only in the Deity; and in us Men in the Spirit of the Soul, and in the Spirit of the great World, which are unseparated in this Body upon Earth.

(3) Understand it right; his Soul in the Creature was not first glorified, but his whole Body, or princely Throne; there went forth out of the Center of the Holy Trinity the Holy Spirit, as you see clearly, that those (who had put on the Spirit of Christ) were highly enlightened; for the Holy Spirit went forth from the Center of the Trinity into the whole holy Element, and flowed into the Mercy of God; and as he triumphed in the Body of Jesus Christ, so also in his Disciples, and in the Believers.

(4) But the Soul of Man, which is enlightened with the holy Spirit of God, (which in the second Principle proceeds from the Father and the Son in the holy Heaven, that is, in the true divine Nature which is called God;) this Soul sees even into the Light of God, into the same second Principle of the holy divine Birth, into the heavenly Essence: But the syderial Spirit wherewith the Soul is clothed, and also the elementary [Spirit] which i rules the Source, or Springing and Impulsion of the Blood, they see no further than into their Mother, whence they are, and wherein they live.

(20) But the Soul was breathed into Man, merely out of the original Birth of the Father by the moving Spirit, (understand, the Holy Ghost which goes forth from the Father out of the Light of the Father:) Which original Birth is before the Light of Life, which is in the four Anguishes, out of which the Light of God is kindled, wherein is the Original of the Name of God; and therefore the Soul is God's own Essence or Substance.

(58) But the Holy Ghost is not dknown in the Original of the Father before the Light [breaks forth;] but when the soft Fountain springs up in the Light, then he goes forth as a strong Almighty Spirit in great Joy, from the pleasant Source of Water, and [from] the Light, and he is the Power and Virtue of the Source of Water, and of the Light; and he makes now the Forming, [Shaping, Figuring,] and Images, [or Species;] and he is the Center in all Essences; in which [Center] the Light of Life, in the Light of the Sun, or Heart of the Father, takes its Original. And the Holy Ghost is a several Person, because he proceeds (as a living Power and Virtue) from the Father and the Son, and confirms the Birth of the Trinity. forth in the Original of the Fire before the Light is kindled.

(7) The Father and the Son have one Will, and that Will is the Holy Ghost, Who gives Himself to the soul so that the Divine Nature permeates the powers of the soul so that it can only do God-like works. Just as a spring, which perpetually flows and waters the roots of the flowers, so that the flowers bloom and receive their colours from the water of the spring, so the Godhead imparts Itself to the capacities of the soul that it may grow in the likeness of God. The more that the soul receives of the Divine Nature, the more it grows like It, and the closer becomes its union with God. It may arrive at such an intimate union that God at last draws it to Himself altogether, so that there is no distinction left, in the soul's consciousness, between itself and God, though God still regards it as a creature. Wherefore let yourselves not be misled by the light of nature. The higher the degree of knowledge which the soul attains to in the light of grace, the darker seems to it the light of nature.

If the soul would know the real truth it must examine itself, whether it has withdrawn from all things, whether it has lost itself, whether it loves God purely with His love and nothing of its own at the same time, so that it may not be separated from Him by anything, and whether God alone dwells in it. If it has lost itself, it is as when the Virgin Mary lost Christ. She sought Him for three days, and yet was sure that she would find Him. All the while Christ was in the highest class in the school of His Father, unconscious of His mother's seeking Him. Thus happens it to the noble soul which goes to God to school, and learns there what God is in His essence, and what He is in the Trinity, and what He is in man, and what is most acceptable to Him. St Augustine saith that the righteousness of God in the Godhead and in the Trinity and in all creatures is the source of the chief joy which is in heaven. God in human nature is a lamp of living light, and "the light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not." The darkness must ever more flee the light, as the night flees day.

Thus the soul learns to know God's will. St Paul saith, "This is God's will, our sanctification." And this is our sanctification, to know what we were before time; what we are in time, and what we shall be after time. Thus the soul loses itself in these three, and recketh naught of the body, till it comes to it in the temple, and obeys it without murmuring. The Father is a revelation of the Godhead, the Son is an image and countenance of the Father, and the Holy Ghost is an effulgence of that countenance, and a mutual love between Them, and these properties They have always possessed in Themselves. The Three Persons have stooped out of pity down to human nature, and the Son became man, and was the most despised man on the earth, and suffered pain at the hands of the creatures whom He Himself created with the Father, through Whose will He became man. Thus was Christ till His death, and when He rose from the dead then was seen the most despised of all men united with the Godhead in the Person of Christ.

(8) Both God and man have a twofold constitution, of which the superior part is invisible and the inferior visible. In both there is also an intermediary sphere, marking the point where these visible and invisible natures meet. As the spiritual nature of God controls His objective universal form-which is actually a crystallized idea--so the spiritual nature of man is the invisible cause and controlling power of his visible material personality. Thus it is evident that the spirit of man bears the same relationship to his material body that God bears to the objective universe. The Mysteries taught that spirit, or life, was anterior to form and that what is anterior includes all that is posterior to itself. Spirit being anterior to form, form is therefore included within the realm of spirit. It is also a popular statement or belief that man's spirit is within his body. According to the conclusions of philosophy and theology, however, this belief is erroneous, for spirit first circumscribes an area and then manifests within it. Philosophically speaking, form, being a part of spirit, is within spirit; but: spirit is more than the sum of form, As the material nature of man is therefore within the sum of spirit, so the Universal Nature, including the entire sidereal system, is within the all-pervading essence of God--the Universal Spirit.

(3) Thou wottest well this, that God is a Spirit; and whoso should be oned unto Him, it behoveth to be in soothfastness and deepness of spirit, full far from any feigned bodily thing. Sooth it is that all thing is known of God, and nothing may be hid from His witting, neither bodily thing nor ghostly. But more openly is that thing known and shewed unto Him, the which is hid in deepness of spirit, sith it so is that He is a Spirit, than is anything that is mingled with any manner of bodilyness. For all bodily thing is farther from God by the course of nature than any ghostly thing. By this reason it seemeth, that the whiles our desire is mingled with any matter of bodilyness, as it is when we stress and strain us in spirit and in body together, so long it is farther from God than it should be, an it were done more devoutly and more listily in soberness and in purity and in deepness of spirit.

(2) Surely of them that have power, and cure of their souls: either given openly by the statute and the ordinance of Holy Church, or else privily in spirit at the special stirring of the Holy Ghost in perfect charity. Each man beware, that he presume not to take upon him to blame and condemn other men’s defaults, but if he feel verily that he be stirred of the Holy Ghost within in his work; for else may he full lightly err in his dooms. And therefore beware: judge thyself as thee list betwixt thee and thy God or thy ghostly father, and let other men alone.

(4) There were opened all the Doors of the great Wonders, and the Apostles spoke with the Languages of all Nations; and so it may 6e seen clearly, that the Spirit of God had opened all the Centers of all Essences, and spoke out of them all; for Christ was the Lord, and the Heart of all Essences, and therefore the Holy Ghost went out of all Essences, and filled the Essences of all Men who turned their Ears with a Desire to it, and in that he pressed into all; and every one heard (out of his own Essences and Language) the Spirit of God speak out of the Disciples; and the Holy Ghost was born in the Bodies of all their Hearers, who had but an earnest Desire to it, and they were all filled; for the Spirit of God pierced through into their Hearts, as he pressed forth out of the the Center of the Trinity into the whole Body and princely Throne of Jesus Christ, and filled all outwardly in the Clarity [or Glory.]

(20) Thus the pure Element is the Barm [or warm] in the Essences of the Attracting to [be] the Word; the Essences are Paradise, and the Barm [or warm] is the Element. Thus now the Father continually speaks the eternal Word, and so the Holy Ghost goes forth out of the Speaking, and that which is spoken forth is the eternal Wisdom, and it is a Virgin; and the pure Element, viz. the Barm [or warm,] is her Body, wherein the Holy Ghost discovers himself through the out-spoken Wisdom; and so the Flash [or Glance] out of the Light of God in the Holy Ghost, is called hertz [or Heart,] this receives the Element in the Essences of Paradise, that it may be substantial, and then it is called ig [or ed;] and the Strength of the Father, and the great Might of the Fire, goes as a Flash into the Essence, and that is called keit [or ness,] like a Might [or Force] which presses through, as a Sound [or Noise] which severs not the Substance asunder; and this together is called Barm-hertz-ig-keit [Warm-heart-ed-ness,] or ^Mercifulness, and this stands before God; and God (the Holy Trinity) dwells therein.

(32) For the Fire in the Essence comes to be a a soft meek Light, and is nothing else but a zealous [or eager] Kindling of the Tincture, and the harsh Essence causes that the divine Virtue can draw it to itself, and taste it, for in the [sour or] harsh Essence the Taste does consist, in Nature: In like Manner the bitter Essence serves to [make] the moving rising Joy, Fragrancy and Growing; and out of these Forms the Tincture goes forth, and it is the House of the Soul; as the Holy Ghost [goes forth] from the Father and the Son, so also the Tincture goes forth from the Light of the fiery Soul, and then also from its virtuous [or powerful] Essences, and so it resembles the Holy Ghost, but yet the Holy Ghost of God is a Degree higher; for he goes forth from the Center of the Light wholly in the fifth Form, from the Heart of God, at the End of Nature.

(7) Your monstrous Form or Shape indeed is not God, nor of his Essence, or Substance, but the hidden Man, which is the Soul, is the proper Essence of God, for as much as the Love in the Light of God is sprung up in your own Center, out of which the Holy Ghost proceeds, wherein the second Principle of God consists: How then should you not have Power and Authority to speak of God, who is your Father, of whose Essence you are? Behold, is not the World God's, and the Light of God being in you, it must needs be also yours, as it is written, the Father has given all Things to the Son, and the Son has given all to you. The Father is the eternal Power, or Virtue, and the Son is the Heart and Light continuing eternally in the Father, and you continue in the Father and the Son. And now seeing the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son, and that the eternal Power or Virtue of the Father is in you, and that the eternal Light of the Son shines in you, why will you be fooled? Know you not what Paul said? that our Conversation is in Heaven, from whence we expect our Saviour Jesus Christ, who will bring us out of this monstrous Image, or Birth, (in the Corruption of the third Principle of this World,) in the paradisical Birth to eat the Word of the Lord.

(10) And so the Kingdom of Heaven is his own Body, and the whole princely Throne of his Principle is Paradise, wherein the blessed Fruit in the Virtue of God springs up, for the Holy Ghost is the Virtue [and Power] of the Fruit; as the Air in this World is, so the Holy Ghost is the Air and Spirit of the Soul in Christ, and of all his Children; for there is no other Air in Heaven, in the Body of Christ; and God the Father is all in all. Thus we live and are (in Christ) all in the Father, and there is no Soul that searches out to the Depth; but we live all in Singleness of Heart, and in great Humility and Love one towards another, and rejoice one with another, as Children do before their Parents; and to this End God created us.

(13) The Supreme Spirit in the body is said to be the one who is the Witness and the Approver, the Supporter and the Enjoyer, and who is the Sovereign Lord and the Highest Self.

(4) And here mayest thou see somewhat and in part the reason why that I bid thee so childishly cover and hide the stirring of thy desire from God. And yet I bid thee not plainly hide it; for that were the bidding of a fool, for to bid thee plainly do that which on nowise may be done. But I bid thee do that in thee is to hide it. And why bid I thus? Surely because I would that thou cast it into deepness of spirit, far from any rude mingling of any bodilyness, the which would make it less ghostly and farther from God inasmuch: and because I wot well that ever the more that thy spirit hath of ghostliness, the less it hath of bodilyness and the nearer it is to God, and the better it pleaseth Him and the more clearly it may be seen of Him. Not that His sight may be any time or in any thing more clear than in another, for it is evermore unchangeable: but because it is more like unto Him, when it is in purity of spirit, for He is a Spirit.

(7) The Word [or Syllable] S U L, signifies and is the Soul of out of the Syllable P H U R; and it is the Beauty or the Welfare of a Thing, that which is lovely and dearest in it: In a Creature it is the Light by which the Creature sees [or perceives:] and therein Reason and the Senses consist, and it is the Spirit which is generated out of the P H U R. The Word or Syllable P H U R, is the Prima Materia [or first Matter,] and contains in itself in the third Principle the Macrocosm, from which the elementary Dominion, or Region, or Essence is generated: But in the first Principle it is the Essence of the most inward Birth, out of which God generates or begets his Son from Eternity, and from thence the Holy Ghost proceeds; understand out of the S U L and our of the P H U R. And in Man also it is the Light which is generated out of the syderial Spirit, in the second center of the Microcosm; but in the Spiraculum and Spirit of the Soul, in the most inward Center, it is the Light of God, which that Soul only has which is in the Love of God, for it is only kindled and blown up from the Holy Ghost.

(2) But as to Sense and all things similar, I will set forth the whole discourse when [I explain] concerning Spirit. For man is the sole animal that is twofold. One part of him is simple: the [man] “essential,” as say the Greeks, but which we call the “form of the Divine Similitude.” He also is fourfold: that which the Greeks call “hylic,” [but] which we call “cosmic”; of which is made the corporal part, in which is vestured what we just have said is the divine in man, —in which the godhead of the Mind alone, together with its kin, that is the Pure Mind’s senses, findeth home and rest, its self with its own self, as though shut in the body’s walls.

(33) Therefore there is a Difference between the Tincture in Man, and the Holy Ghost; and the bestowed Virgin of the divine Virtue [or Power] dwells in the Tincture of the Soul, [that is] if it be true and faithful; but if [the Soul be] not [faithful] then she departs into her Center, which is not wholly shut up; for there is but half a Birth between, except the Soul passes into the Stock of Harshness and Malice [Evil or Wickedness,] and then there is a whole Birth between. For the Harshness stands in the fourth Form of the Darkness, and the Bitterness in the Fire, between the fourth and fifth Form, as is mentioned before.

(55) And now being to speak of the Holy Trinity, we must first say, that there is one God, and he is called the Father and Creator of all Things, who is Almighty, and All in All, whose are all Things, and in whom and from whom all Things proceed, and in whom they remain eternally. And then we say, that he is Three, and has from Eternity generated his Son out of himself, who is his Heart, Light, and Love; and yet they are not two, but one eternal Essence. And further we say, as the holy Scripture tells us, that there is a Holy Spirit, which proceeds from the Father and the Son, and that there is but one Essence in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, which is rightly spoken.