(21) For these three Births are [inbred or] generated together with every one in the Mother's [Womb or] Body, and none ought to say, I am not elected; for it is a Lie, [and he] belies the Element, wherein Man also lives; and besides [he] belies the Virgin of Wisdom, which God gives to every one which seeks her with Earnestness and Humility. So [likewise] the Possibility of Seeking is also in every one, and it is inbred [or generated] in him with the all-possible hidden Element, [to which all Things are possible,] and there is no other Cause of Perdition in Man, than [was in or] with Lucifer, whose Will stood free; he must either reach into God in Humility, Chastity, and Meekness, or into the dark Mind, in the Climbing up of Malice and Fierceness [or Grimness,] which yet (cin its Flowing forth) desires not to lift itself up above God, but it inclines itself only above the Meekness, in the Fire-flash, in the stern [or fierce] Regeneration: But the Devils would (as Creatures) be above all, and be Lords wholly [of themselves,] and so it is also with Man here.

(86) And as the Child is another Person than the Mother, and as the Child's Soul is not the Soul of the Mother, so also here in this Place. For the outward Virgin could not comprehend, that she did bear the Saviour of the World; but she committed that (in her Virgin-chastity) to God; whatsoever he did with her, she would still be contented with it.

(47) And here the Virgin turned her to the Heart of God, and said; My Heart and my Beloved, thou art my Virtue, from thee I am clear and bright, from thy Root I am generated from Eternity; deliver me from the Worm of Darkness which infects, [poisons,] and tempts my Bridegroom, and let me not be darkened in the Obscurity; I am thy Ornament, and am come that thou shouldst have Joy in me: Wherefore then shall I stand with my Bridegroom in the Dark? And the divine Answer said; The Seed of the Woman shall break the Head of the Serpent, or Worm.

(46) Thus then the strong re-conceived Will (to fly out from the Darkness and to be in the Light in the Heart) generates itself; and therefore we cannot know [or apprehend] it to be any other than the noble Virgin, the Wisdom of God; which thus springs up in Joy, and in the Beginning marries herself with the Spirit of the Soul, and helps it to the Light, which after the springing up of the Soul (viz. after the Kindling of the Virtue of the Sun in the Essences) puts herself into its paradisical Center, and continually warns the Soul, zof the ungodly Ways, which are held before it by the Stars and Elements, and brought into its Essences. Therefore the Virgin keeps her Throne thus in the Heart, and also in the Head, that she may defend and keep them off from the Soul, all over.

(20) And here it is as clear as the Sun, that it was not intended that Man (in the Beginning) should generate in such a Manner, for it should have been done without a Pain, without bestial Impregnation, without a Wife [or Woman,] and without a Husband [or Man.] And therefore the Treader upon the Serpent was born of a Virgin, without the Seed of Man; although now that [also] must come to be done in such a human Manner, yet that was to this End only, that the Deity might enter into Flesh, and [so might] generate the Soul of Flesh again out of the dark Flesh, out of Death into Life. But otherwise, the Saviour [or Champion] is wholly the Virgin's Son, and a virgin Mind, as the first Adam [was] in the Creation; for you must earnestly and accurately [consider and] understand what Manner of Person he is.

(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.

(52) But it was the Law and Will of the Virgin, that as God rules over all Things, and imprints himself every where, and gives Virtue and Life to all, and yet the Thing comprehends him not, although he be certainly there; so also should the Soul stand still, and the Form of the Virgin should govern in the Soul, and crown it with the divine Light; the Soul should be the comely young Man which was created, and the Virtue [or Power] of God [should be] the fair Virgin; and the Light of God [should be] the fair [orient] Pearl and Crown, wherewith the Virgin would adorn the young Man.

(21) And the Virgin of the Wisdom of God is the Spirit of the pure Element, and is therefore called a Virgin, because it is so chaste [or pure,] and generates nothing; yet as the flaming Spirit in Man's Body generates nothing, but opens all Secrecies, and the Body is that which generates, so also here; the Wisdom, (or the eternal Virgin) of God, opens all the great Wonders in the holy Element, for there are the Essences, wherein the Buds [or Fruits] of Paradise spring up; and if we take the eternal Band (and that together) wherein the Deity generates from Eternity, then it is called the eternal Limbus of God, wherein consists the Essence of all Essences.

(19) Therefore Eve was for certain created out of all Adam's Essences, and so Adam thereupon had a great Rent; and so likewise the Woman might come to her Perfection to [be] the Image of God; and this again shows a great Mystery, whereby the Virgin very preciously witnesses again, that the Son of the Virgin has not only suffered his Side to be pierced through, and shed his Blood out of the Hole of his Side, but he has also suffered his Hands and Feet to be struck through, and a Crown of Thorns to be pressed upon his Head, so that the Blood gushed out from thence; and in his Body he endured to be whipped, so that his Blood run down all over. So very lowly has the Son of the Virgin debased himself, to a help the sick and broken Adam, and his weak and imperfect Eve, to repair them and bring them again into the first Glory,

(23) And out of this Heart and Word of God the Father, with and through the chaste Virgin of God, of his Wisdom of the Omniscience, is proceeded the Treader upon the Serpent, in and with the Word of the Promise of God the Father to Adam and Eve and their Children, and it has imaged [or imprinted] itself in Adam's and Eve's Mind, and espoused itself in Eternity [therein;] and opened [for] the Soul the Gate to the Kingdom of Heaven; and has with the chaste Virgin set itself in the Center of the Light of Life, in the Gate of God, and has given the Virgin to the Soul for a perpetual Companion, from whence Man has his Skill and Understanding, or else he could not have Understanding. She is the Gate of the i Senses, and yet she leaves the Counsel of the Stars, because the Soul lives in the Source [or Quality] of the Stars, and is too rough, [crude, or sour,] and therefore he cannot imprint [or unite] herself with the Soul, yet she shows it the Way of God. But if the Soul becomes a hellish Worm, then it withdraws into her Gate, and stands before God, before his Word and Heart.

(45) Therefore, if you do not understand this Writing, then do 'not as Lucifer did in taking the Spirit of Pride presently, and fall a mocking, and deriding, and ascribe it to the Devil; but seek the humble lowly Heart of God, and that will bring a small Grain of Mustard- seed (from the Tree of Paradise) into your Soul; and if you abide in Patience, then a great Tree will grow out of that [Seed,] as you may well think, that the like has come to pass with this Author. For he is to be esteemed a very simple Person, in Comparison of the great learned Men: But Christ saith; My Power is strong in the Weak: Yea Father, it hath so pleased thee, to hide these Things from the Wise and Prudent, and thou hast revealed them to Babes and Sucklings; and that the Wisdom of this World is Foolishness in thy Sight. And although now the Children of the World are wiser in their Generation than the Children of Light; yet their Wisdom is but a corruptible Substance, [Essence or Thing,] and this Wisdom continues eternally.

(32) If [about] to be born as a male, the feeling of itself being a male dawneth upon the Knower, and a feeling of intense hatred towards the father and of jealousy and attraction towards the mother is begotten. If [about] to be born as a female, the feeling of itself being a female dawneth upon the Knower, and a feeling of intense hatred towards the mother and of intense attraction and fondness towards the father is begotten. Through this secondary cause — [when] entering upon the path of ether, just at the moment when the sperm and the ovum are about to unite — the Knower experienceth the bliss of the simultaneously-born state, during which state it fainteth away into unconsciousness. [Afterwards] it findeth itself encased in oval form, in the embryonic state, and upon emerging from the womb and opening its eyes it may find itself transformed into a young dog. Formerly it had been a human being, but now if it have become a dog it findeth itself undergoing sufferings in a dog's kennel; or [perhaps] as a young pig in a pigsty, or as an ant in an ant-hill, or as an insect, or a grub in a hole, or as a calf, or a kid, or a lamb, from which shape there is no [immediate] returning. Dumbness, stupidity, and miserable intellectual obscurity are suffered, and a variety of sufferings experienced. In like manner, one may wander into hell, or into the world of unhappy ghosts, or throughout the Six Lokas, and endure inconceivable miseries.

(47) Therefore it can only be done here in this Life (while thy Soul sticks in the Will of the Mind) so that thou breakest open the Gate of the Deep, and pressest in to God through a New Birth; for here thou hast the highly worthy noble Virgin of the divine Love for thy Assistance, who leads thee in through the Gate of the noble Bridegroom, who stands in the Center in the parting Mark, between the Kingdom of Heaven, and the Kingdom of Hell, and generates thee in the Water and Life of his Blood and Death, and therein drowns and washes away thy false [or evil] Works, so that they follow thee not [in such a Source and Property,] that thy Soul be not infected therein, but according to the first Image in Man before the Fall, as a new, chaste, and pure noble Virgin's Image, without any Knowledge of thy untowardness [or Vices,] which thou hadst here.

(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?

(39) And now if it enters into the tEvil of this World, and suffers itself to be drawn by the Devil, then it goes away out of the Covenant, and forsakes God and the Kingdom of Heaven; and there then the noble Virgin of God stands in the Center of the Light of Life (which instantly in the Entering of the Light of Life yielded herself into the Center of the Light of Life, as a Conductor and loving Companion to the Soul) and warns the Soul of the ungodly Ways, that it should turn, and step into the Covenant again. But if it does not, and that it continues in the Kingdom of the Devil, then she continues standing in the Center of the holy Paradise; and she is a Virgin of herself, but the Soul has afflicted her, and so they are parted; except the Soul returns again, and then it will be received again by its Virgin with great Honour and Joy.

(93) For she bore the Saviour of all the World, without any earthly Mixture; and she is also a Virgin of Chastity, highly blessed by her Son Jesus Christ, in the divine Light and Clarity, rmore than the Heavens, like the princely Thrones of the Angels. For out of her went forth the Body, which attracts all Members to it, which are the Children of God in Christ. And therefore her Glance [Luster or Brightness] is above the Glance of Heaven; and the Glance of her Soul is in the Holy Trinity, where all other Children of Adam (which are born [or begotten] in Christ) are also Members therein, in that one Christ Jesus.

(9) Reader, understand [and consider] it right; the Deity (viz. the fair Virgin) is not destroyed and come to nothing; that cannot be; only she is remaining in the divine Principle; and the Spirit, or the Soul of Adam, is with its own proper Worm remaining in the third Principle of this World: But the Virgin, viz. the divine Virtue [or Power] stands in Heaven, and in Paradise, and beholds herself in the earthly Quality of the Soul, viz. in the Sun, and not in the Moon; understand in the highest Point of the Spirit of this World, where the Tincture is most noble and clear, from whence the Mind of Man exists.

(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.

(29) Now if we [would] consider his precious Incarnation, then we must rightly open the Eyes of the Spirit, and not be so earthly minded, as at present they are in Babel; and we must rightly consider, how God is become Man, for the Scripture says, He was conceived and born without Sin, of a pure Virgin. Here consider now, beloved Mind, what kind of Virgin that was, for all whatsoever is born of the Flesh and Blood of this World, is impure, and there can no pure Virgin be generated, in this corrupted Flesh and Blood; the Fall of Adam destroyed all; and it is all under Sin, and there is no pure Virgin generated of Man's Seed; and yet this Christ was conceived and born of a pure Virgin.

(42) O thou blind Mind, with thy Might and Stateliness, full of Wickedness and devilish fierce Wrath, [wilt thou know where thou art after that thy Body perishes?] Thou art even with all the Devils, in the Abyss of Hell, if thou dost not turn, and by earnest unfained Sorrow and Repentance for thy Abominations, enter into the angelical Footsteps, that the Saviour and Treader upon the Serpent of fierce Wrath, Wickedness, Lying, and Deceit, may meet thee, and embrace thee in his Arms, and [that thou] mayest be new-born in him, and be yielded up into the Bosom of the chaste Virgin, and become an Angel; or else thou art in the eternal Death, in the eternal Darkness, and canst not in all Eternity reach the Kingdom of God any more.