(39) 1 have told you before, out of what Power the Tree is grown; viz. that it grew out of the Earth, and has wholly had Might. the Nature of the Earth in it, as at this Day all earthly Trees are [so,] (and no otherwise, neither better nor worse,) wherein Corruptibility stands, as the Earth is corruptible, and shall pass away in the End, when all shall go into its Ether, and nothing else shall remain of it besides the Figure. Now this was the Tree which stood in the Midst of the Garden in Eden, whereby Adam must be tempted in all Essences; for this Spirit should rule powerfully over all Essences, as the holy Angels, and God himself does.

(24) Thus it is shown us in the Light of Nature, that when Adam was thus impregnated [or possessed] from the Spirit of this World, then God built [or made] a Garden in Eden upon Earth, in the Paradise, and caused to grow up all Sorts of paradisical Fruit, pleasant to behold, and good to eat, and the Tree of Temptation in the Midst [of the Garden of Eden,] which had its Essences from the Spirit of this World; and the other [Trees and Fruits] had paradisical Essences.

(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.

(19) For the Tree of Temptation was earthly, as now all the Trees are; all the other were paradisical, from which Adam could eat paradisical Virtue in his Mouth, and had no Need of Stomach and Guts; for they [the Trees] were like his Body, and [like] the Element, and the Tree of Temptation was like the four Elements.

(21) Now the Tree of the strong [Tartness or Wrath,] (which is in the Midst of Nature,) grew also in the Midst of the Garden of Eden; and was (according to the Ability of its own Form which it has from the eternal Quality in the Originality) the greatest and the mightiest [Tree.] And here it may be seen very clearly, that God would have preserved and had Man to be in Paradise, for he forbade him this Tree, and caused other Fruit enough [besides] to grow in the Forms and Essences. The Gate of the Tempting.

(36) But seeing it could not so be (because of the Spirit of this World) therefore was the outward Temptation first taken in Hand by the Tree of the Fruit of this World. And there Adam became P perfectly a Man of this World, and did eat and drink of the earthly Essences, and infected [or mingled] himself with the Spirit of this World, and became that [Spirit' s] own, as we now see by woeful Experience, how that [Spirit] possesses a Child in the Mother's Body in the Incarnation: For he knows not any where else to seek the Virgin, but in Man, where he first of all espied her.

(57) Thus now Adam with his Wife went (in great Lust and Joy) into the Garden of Eden, where Adam told her of the Commandment concerning the Tree: But Eve (being a Woman of this World) regarded it but little, and turned her from Adam to the Tree, and looked upon it with Lust; and the Lust instantly took hold of her; and the lying Devil (when she was talking with him, whom she knew not, neither had heard of any Devil) persuaded her, and she laid hold on the Tree, and broke off [an Apple,] and did eat of the Fruit of the four Elements and Stars, and gave to Adam; and when Adam saw that Eve died not, then he eat also.

(40) Besides, he was created by the Word, or Heart of God, that he should be his Image and Similitude, very powerfully in all the three Principles, [and be] as great as a Prince or Throne- Angel. But this Tree standing thus in the Garden, and of all the Trees that only did bear Fruit, therefore Adam looked so often upon it, because he knew that it was the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the Virtue of the Tree pressed him to it so very hard (which Virtue was also in him) that the one Lust infected [poisoned or mingled with] the other: And the Spirit of the great World pressed Adam so very hard, that he became infected, and his Virtue [or Power] was overcome. Here the paradisical Man was undone, and then said the Heart of God, It is not good that Man [should] be alone, we will make him a Help [or Consort] to be with him.

(16) For the Fruits were also good, and their Inclination [or that which made them to be desired] proceeded out of the inward Element, out of the Paradise. Now Adam could eat of every Fruit in the Mouth, but not in the Corruptibility, that must not be, for his Body must subsist eternally, and continue in Paradise, and generate a chaste Virgin out of himself, like himself, without rending of his Body; for this could be, seeing his Body was [proceeded] out of the heavenly Element, out of the Virtue of God.

(8) And it is excellently shown, that they had the Light of the Tincture in their Hands, wherein they found [their Inventions,] though it was not wholly known, for Sins were not then in such Multiplicity upon the Earth; and therefore the Mysteries were not so very hard and close hidden to them, but all was found out very easily; especially by Adam, who had the Mysteries yin his Hand, and was [but] entered out of the Wonders of Paradise into the Wonders of this World, who knew not only the Essences, and Metals; he knew also the Ground of the seven liberal Arts [arising] out of the seven Forms of Nature; yet not so altogether out of the Ground [or fundamentally.] But he was the Tree, out of which afterwards all the Roots and Branches grew.

(13) Therefore God here also gave him the Command, not to lust after the earthly Matrix, nor after her Fruit, which stood in the Corruptibility, and Transitoriness, but the Spirit of Man mot. He should eat of the Fruit, but no otherwise than of the paradisical Kind and Property, [and] not of the earthly Essences. For the paradisical Essences had imprinted themselves in all Fruits, therein they were very good to eat of, after an angelical Manner, and also pleasant to behold, or corporeal, as Moses also says. Now it may be asked, What then was properly the Tempting in Adam. The Gate of Good and Evil.

(16) Adam had not eaten of the Fruit before his Sleep, till his Wife was created out of him; only his Essences and Inclination had eaten of it in the Spirit by the Imagination, and not in the Mouth; and thereupon the Spirit of the great World captivated him, and mightily qualified in him [or infected him.] And then instantly the Sun and Stars wrestled with him, and all the four Elements wrestled so mightily and powerfully, that they overcame him; and [so] he sunk down into a Sleep.

(7) Now we must needs clearly [conceive, or] think, that the paradisical Fruit which was good, was not so very earthly, for (as Moses himself says) they were of two Sorts; the one good to eat, and pleasant to behold, and the other had the Death and Corruptibility in it: In the paradisical Fruit, there was no Death nor Corruptibility; for if there had been any Death or Corruptibility therein, then Adam had eaten Death in all the Fruits; but seeing there was no Death therein, therefore the Fruit could not be so altogether earthly; though indeed it sprung out of the Earth, yet the divine Virtue of the second Principle was imprinted therein, and yet they were truly in the third Principle, grown [or sprung] out of the Earth, which God cursed as to the earthly Food, that no paradisical Fruit did grow any more out of the Earth.

(5) We must conceive, that there was then a very pleasant Habitation upon the Earth; for all the Fruits did grow [spring and bud] out of the hidden Element, through the Fierceness of the four Elements; and although the four Elements had also their Fruits, yet Man should not (but the Beasts of the Field should) have eaten thereof. But now when the Lord cursed the Earth, then the Element withdrew from the Root of the Fruit, for God's Cursing is nothing else, but this Flying from a Thing; and thus God's Holiness is flown from the Root of the Fruit, and so the Root [of the Fruits] remains in the four Elements, in the Out-Birth; and Adam and Eve were also fallen thereinto. And thus now like came to like; his Body also was become earthly, and must turn to Earth again.

(80) Now when Adam and his Wife had eaten of the earthly Fruit, then they were ashamed one of another, for they perceived the bestial Members for Propagation; and they broke off God went into the Garden, highly into their Minds, and they hid themselves behind the Trees in the Garden.

(32) And as the fierce [wrathful] Essence of the Anger of God pressed into Adam, whereby he entered into Death, of which God spoke, saying, If thou eatest of the Tree, thou shalt die the Death, understand the Death in the Flesh, even while they were in the earthly Life, so the sharp Nails must pierce through the Hands and Feet of Christ, and so he must enter into Death; and as there is in the human Essences (before the Light of God) a Cross-Birth, so when the Light of God shines therein, all is turned into a pleasant flourishing Blossom, wherein the sharp Essences are not found or perceived.

(49) For as the Tree was, so was the Fruit; and though the Tree was not wholly evil [or false,] yet as to the becoming Man, the Tincture (by the Wrestling of the two Regions) became false [or evil.] And besides, afterwards Eve (his Mother) helped him forward very much, because she sought after an earthly Lord and Treader upon the Serpent, and instructed him, [telling him,] that he was the Warrior [or Soldier to overcome] against the Devil, he must do it; and so the Wrath held him captive, and his Offering [or Sacrifice] was not acceptable to God, because (in Wrath) he built upon himself, and so his Prayer reached not the Gate of Heaven, but the Driver took it up, because it proceeded out of Self-Pride, like the proud Pharisee, out of an [evil or] false Mind.

(18) But that the four Elements, with the Sun and Stars, had such Power to press upon Adam, and to infect him, the Cause of it was, because he was extracted out of them, viz. out of the Element; and had (in the Originality) all the three Kingdoms (all three Principles) in him; and therefore it was that he must be tempted whether he could stand in the Paradise, in the Kingdom of Heaven, and there both heavenly, and also earthly Fruit was set before him.

(8) Besides, if Adam had eaten earthly Fruit, he must then have eaten it into his Body, and have had Guts [or Entrails:] And how could such a Stink [and Dung] (as we now carry in the Body) have been in Paradise in the Holiness of God? Moreover, he should by eating earthly Food, have eaten of the Fruit of the Stars and Elements, which would presently have infected [or qualified] in him, as was done in the Fall; also so his Fear over all the Beasts would have ceased. For the Essences of the Beasts would presently have been like the human Essences in Virtue [and Power,] and one would have domineered more strongly over the other.

The human being Adam was revealed through the bright shadow within. And Adam’s ability to think was greater than that of all the creators. When they looked up, they saw that Adam’s ability to think was greater, and they devised a plan with the whole throng of rulers and angels. They took fire, earth, and water, and combined them with the four fiery winds. They wrought them together and made a great commotion. The rulers brought Adam into the shadow of death so that they might produce a figure again, from earth, water, fire, and the spirit that comes from matter, that is, from the ignorance of darkness, and desire, and their own false spirit. This is the cave for remodeling the body that these criminals put on the human, the fetter of forgetfulness. Adam became a mortal being, the first to descend and the first to become estranged. The enlightened afterthought within Adam, however, would rejuvenate Adam’s mind. They put their tree of life in the middle of paradise. I shall teach you the secret of their life, the plan they devised together, the nature of their spirit: The root of their tree is bitter, its branches are death, its shadow is hatred, a trap is in its leaves, its blossom is bad ointment, its fruit is death, desire is its seed, it blossoms in darkness. The dwelling place of those who taste of it is the underworld, and darkness is their resting place. But the rulers lingered in front of what they call the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which is the enlightened afterthought, so that Adam might not behold its fullness and recognize his shameful nakedness. But I was the one who induced them to eat. I said to the savior, Master, was it not the snake that instructed Adam to eat? The savior laughed and said, The snake instructed them to eat of the wickedness of sexual desire and destruction so that Adam might be of use to the snake. This is the one who knew Adam was disobedient because of the enlightened afterthought within Adam, which made Adam stronger of mind than the first ruler. The first ruler wanted to recover the power that he himself had passed on to Adam. So he brought deep sleep upon Adam. I said to the savior, What is this deep sleep? The savior said, It is not as Moses wrote and you heard. He said in his first book, He put Adam to sleep. Rather, this deep sleep was a loss of sense. Thus the first ruler said through the prophet, I shall make their minds sluggish, that they may neither understand nor discern.