(48) Now, thou dear Soul, here you see in a Glass how very near God is to us, and that he himself is the Heart of all Things, and gives to all Virtue, [Power,] and Life. Here Lucifer was very heedless, and became so very proud, that when this Brimstone- Spirit in the Will of the Mind of God was created, then he would fain have flown out above the End of Nature, and would drive the Fire out above the Meekness; he would fain have had all burn in the Fire; he would have ruled [or domineered:] The Sparks of Fire in the Brimstone-Spirit elevated themselves too high; and these Spirits pleased not the Creator, or the Spirit in the Fiat, and [therefore] were not [established] Angels, although in the first Mind (when the Center was opened to the [Creation of the] Spirits) he came to help them, and [beheld] them as well as the other Angels: But they indeed generated a fiery Will, when they should have opened their Center to the Regeneration of their Minds, and so should have generated an angelical Will.

(25) Now when God had created great potent princely Angels, and that in the Place of the fourth Form in the Matrix, where the Source of Fire has its Original, they stood not, neither did they cast their Imaginations forward into the fifth Form, wherein the sprouting forth of Paradise consists; but they cast their Imaginations back into themselves, and formed [or created] the Light of God and Paradise. For the fiery Matrix (viz. the Abyss of Hell) moved itself in the Creation so hard, that Lucifer (that great Prince) has formed his Will out of it, and is continued therein, supposing that so he should be a great and terrible Lord in his whole Place [of Dominion.]

(22) Yet if the Soul elevates its Imagination forward into the Light, in Meekness and Comeliness or Humility, and does not (as Lucifer did) use the strong Power of its Fire, in its Qualification, [or Breathing,] then it will be fed by the Word of the Lord, and gets Virtue, Power, Life, and Strength, in the Word of the Lord, which is the Heart of God; and its own original strong [fierce wrathful] Source of the Birth of the eternal Life becomes paradisical, exceeding pleasant, friendly, humble, and sweet, wherein the Rejoicing and the Fountain of the eternal Angel and a Child of God, and it beholds the eternal Generating of the indissoluble Band; and thereof it has Ability to speak, (for it is its own Essence or Substance,) but [it is] not [able to speak] of the infinite Generating, for that has neither Beginning nor End.

(25) Now thus the eternal Light, and the Virtue of the Light, or the heavenly Paradise, moves in the eternal Darkness; and the Darkness cannot comprehend the Light; for they are two several Principles; and the Darkness longs after the Light, because that the Spirit beholds itself therein, and because the divine Virtue is manifested in it. But though it has not comprehended the divine Virtue and Light, yet it has continually with great Lust lifted up itself towards it, till it has kindled the Root of the Fire in itself, from the Beams of the Light of God; and there arose the third Principle: And it has its Original out of the first Principle, out of the dark Matrix, by the Speculating of the Virtue for Power] of God. But when the kindled Virtue in this springing up [of the third Principle] in the Darkness became fiery, then God put the Fiat therein, and by the moving Spirit, which goes forth in the Virtue of the Light, created the fiery Source in a bodily Manner, and severed it from the Matrix, and the Spirit called the fiery created Properties Stars, for their Quality.

(41) Behold, thou seeking Mind, that which thou seest before thy Eyes, that it not the Element, neither in the Fire, Air, nor Earth; neither are there four, but one only, and that is fixed and invisible, also imperceptible: For the Fire which burns is no Element, but [it is] the fierce [stern Wrath,] which comes to be such in the Kindling of the Anger, when the Devils fell out of the Element: The Element is neither hot nor cold, but it is the Inclination [to be] in God, for the Heart of God is Barm [that is, Warmth] and its Ascension is attractive and always finding; and then the hertz [that is, the Heart] is the Holding the Thing before itself, and not in itself; and then the ig [the last Syllable of the German Word Barm-hertz-ig, (that is, warm-hearted, or merciful) explained according to the Language of Nature] is the continual Discovering of the Thing, and this is altogether ewig [eternal;] and that is the Ground of the inward Element, which makes the Anger substantial, so. that it was visible and palpable, which [Anger] Lucifer with his Legions did awaken; and thereupon he now remains to be the Prince in the Anger [or Wrath] (in the kindled Element) as Christ (according to this Form) calls him a Prince of this World.

(47) Yet in this Principle there is nothing else but the most horrible Begetting, the greatest Anguish and hostile Quickening, like wherein Prince Lucifer (at the extinguishing of his Light) continued; and wherein (viz. in the same Abyss of Hell) the Soul continues, which is separated from the second Principle, and whose Light ([which shines] from the Heart of God) is extinguished, and for which Cause also, at the End of this Time, there will be a Separation or Parting asunder of the Saints of Light from the Damned, whose i Source will be without the Light of God.

(1) "Then, by the will of the majesty, I took off my garment of light. I put on another garment of fire, which has no form, which is from the mind of the power, which was separated, and which was prepared for me, according to my will, in the middle region. For the middle region covered it with a dark power that I might come and put it on. I went down to chaos to save the whole light from it. For without the power of darkness I could not oppose nature. When I came into nature she was not able to tolerate my power. But I rested myself upon her staring eye, which was a light from the spirit. For it had been prepared for me as a garment and rest by the spirit. Through me, he opened his eyes down to Hades. He granted nature his voice for a time.

(6) For when the Matrix was stirred, and that Lord Lucifer would domineer in the Fire, then the dark Matrix attracted all that was wrought in the P Birth together, from whence Earth, Stones, Metals, Brimstone and Salt did proceed: Hereby the Kingdom of Prince Lucifer was shut up, and he remained in the inward Center captivated in the outward.

(7) Thus now herein is understood, how the divine Essence in the divine Principle has wrought in the Root of the first Principle, which is the Begetter, Matrix, or Genetrix in the eternal Birth in the a Limbus, or in the original Water-Spirit; by which Operation at last, the Earth and Stones come forth. For in the second Principle, (viz. in the holy Birth,) there is only Spirit, Light, and Life; and the eternal Wisdom has wrought in the eternal inanimate Genetrix, which is void of Understanding (viz. in her own Property) before the Original of the Light; out of which came the dark Chaos, which in the Elevation of Lord Lucifer (when the Light of God departed from him, and the Fierceness of the Source of the Fire was kindled) became hard Matter, (viz. Stones and Earth,) whereupon followed the gathering together of the Earth, as also the spewing out of Lucifer from his Throne, and the creating of the third Principle; and thereupon it followed, that he was shut up in the third Principle as a Prisoner, expecting henceforth the [Judgment or] Sentence of God. Now whether it be not a Shame, Disgrace, and Irksomness to him to be so imprisoned between Paradise and this World, and not to be able to comprehend either of them, I propose it to be considered.

(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.

(15) But Lord Lucifer would (in the Creation) have fain been above the Meekness of the Heart of God, above the End of Nature; therefore he would fain also have persuaded the Son of the Virgin to fly without Wings, above the End of Nature, in Pride; of which shall be handled in its due Place at large. I have brought this in thus, but in brief, that my Writing may be the better understood, and how it stands with [or upon] the Ground, [or Foundation] of the Scripture, and is not any new Thing, neither shall there be any Thing new [in them,] but only the true Knowledge, in the Holy Ghost, of the Essence of all Essences. Of Adam 's Sleep.

(1) "O Shem, the disturbance that occurred at my wish happened so that nature might become empty. For the wrath of the darkness subsided. O Shem, the mouth of darkness was shut. No longer does the light that shone for the world appear in it, according to my will. And when nature had said that its wish was fulfilled, then every form was engulfed by the waters in prideful ignorance. Nature turned her dark vagina and cast from her the power of fire, which was in her from the beginning through the rubbing of the darkness. It lifted itself up and shone upon the whole world instead of the righteous one. And all her forms sent forth a power like a flame of fire up to heaven as a help to the corrupted light, which had lifted itself up. For they were members of the chaotic fire. And she did not know that she had harmed herself. When she cast forth the power, the power that she possessed, she cast it forth from the genitals. The demon, who is a deceiver, stirred up the womb in every form.

(2) But to return from this digression: if the presence of the fire of the Gods, and a certain ineffable species of light, externally accede to him who is possessed, and if they wholly fill him, have dominion over and circularly comprehend him on all sides, so that he is not able to exert any one proper energy, what sense, or animadversion, or appropriate projection of intellect, can there be in him who receives a divine fire? What human motion, likewise, can then intervene, or what human reception of passion or ecstasy, or of aberration of the phantasy, or of any thing else of the like kind, such as is apprehended by the multitude, can take place? Let such, therefore, be the divine indications of true inspiration from the Gods, which he who attends to will not wander from a right knowledge concerning it.

(70) And when he raised up his Imagination, then he kindled to himself the Source or Root of the Fire, and then when the Root of the Fire sought for the Water, (viz. the true Mother of the Eternal Nature,) it found the stern [or tart astringent] Harshness, and the Mother in the aching Death; and the bitter Sting [or Prickle] formed the Birth to be a fierce raging Serpent, very terrible in itself, rising up in the indissoluble Band, an eternal Enmity, a Will striving against itself, an eternal Despair of all Good; [the bitter Sting also formed] the Mind to be a breaking striking Wheel, having its Will continually aspiring to the Strength of the Fire, and to destroy the Heart of God, and yet could never at all be able to reach it.

(3) For if the works which take place from the appearance of these powers are such as you say, viz. if they are arrogant and false, yet the operations about fire of true spirits are genuine and true. For, as in all other things, such as are principal primarily begin from themselves, and impart to themselves that which they give to others; as, for instance, in essence, in life, and in motion; thus also the natures which supply all beings with truth, primarily proclaim the truth of themselves, and precedaneously unfold the essence of themselves to the spectators. Hence, likewise, they exhibit to theurgists a fire which is of itself visible. For it is not the province of heat to refrigerate, nor of light to darken or conceal any thing; nor with any other nature which essentially performs a certain thing, is a power present of at the same time effecting the contrary. But things which do not possess a [true] nature, and which are contrary to things that exist essentially; these are able to receive contraries, and are adapted to fall into evil.

(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.

(5) These the Fiat created to a Similitude and Image of God, and overshadowed the same in the Fiat with the overflowing Virtue of God; and the Will of God i set itself [right] against the Image and Similitude, and they now which received the Will, they became Angels, for they set their Imagination, in the Will, in the Heart of God, and they did eat of the Verbum Domini [of the Word of the Lord;] but they that set their Imagination in the dark Mind, as Lucifer [did, that he might] fly out above the Deity and Meekness in the Might of the Fire in the Flash, in the sharp Might of God, and be Lord alone, they became Devils, and they have that Name from their being thrust [or driven] out of the Light; for they were in the Light when the Fiat created them, for the Fiat which created them stood in the Light.

(22) For not in Matter did the Fire which is in the first beyond enclose His active Power, but in Mind; for the framer of the Fiery World is the Mind of Mind.

(6) Thus the Devil is the Fault, and guilty of his own Fall, for he suffered himself to be moved by the Matrix of the Sternness, [Fierceness, Sourness, or Wrath,] whereas he yet had his own Will to take hold of Light or Darkness. And Lucifer was a Throne (that is, a Source [or Fountain] of a great Essence) from whence went forth all his Servants [or Ministers,] and they did like him; and also they were thrust back into the Darkness, for the Light of God goes not into the [Grimness, Wrath or] Fierceness.

(45) But what is the Fire? First, there is the Darkness, the Hardness, the eternal Cold, and the Dryness, where there is nothing else but an eternal Hunger. Then how comes the Fire to be? Dear Soul, here [in the Fire's coming to be] the Spirit of God (viz. the eternal Light) comes to help the Hunger; for the Hunger exists also from the Light: Because the divine Virtue beholds itself in the Darkness, therefore the Darkness is desirous [and longing] after the Light; and the Desiring is the Will.