(29) Then God stirred up a Prophet among them, even Moses, who gave them Laws, and sharp Doctrines, as Nature required; and these were given them (through the Spirit of the great World) in Zeal, in the Fire. Yet seeing they would live still in the Roughness, therefore they were tried [or tempted to see,] Rule, or Dominion. whether they would live in the Father; and God gave them Bread from Heaven, and fed them forty Years, to try what Manner of People they would be, and whether they would by any Means be brought to cleave to God: He gave them Ordinances and Customs [to observe,] in Meats and Drinks, and also a priestly Order, with heavy and hard Precepts and Punishments, which he published also to them; but it availed not, they were only wicked, and walked in the Dominion [or Regimen] of the Stars; and yet far worse, [they walked] altogether according to the Wrathfulness of Hell.

(23) Also when the Heathens should hear, that God would send this People, which he had brought out of Egypt with great Wonders [or Miracles,] among them to destroy them, that they should turn to God and depart from Covetousness, and enter into The Stars order their Government, Brotherly Love, therefore he gave them a long Time of Respite; as also to Israel (whom he fed from Heaven) for an Example, that one People should be an Example to the other, that there is and only evil, and seeing they did live in the Father' fierce Anger, therefore the Anger and Severity of God lusted also to devour them, because they continually kindled P it.

(22) Why did God keep Israel forty Years in the Wilderness, and feed them with heavenly Bread? That they should be a People full of Love, such as love one another, and should depend on God in one Love; and therefore he gave their Laws, Brightness [or Clarity,] to see if they could live in the Love of the Father, and then he would have sent them among the Heathens, to turn them with their Wonders; as was done at the Time of the Apostles. And in that he fed them from the Heaven, and that none of them (which gathered much or little) had any Want, thereby they ought to have known, that the Kingdom [the Power and all] is God's, and that they were in him; they ought to have left their Covetousness, and to converse among one another with brotherly Love, none ought to look after Covetousness, because he horribly punished nit.

(101) So now when we consider the great Love and Mercifulness, in that God has turned to Man, we find Cause enough to write and teach these Things; for it concerns our eternal Salvation and Redemption out of the Jaws of Hell; therefore I will set down the Ground of the promised Messiah, that the following Writings may be the better understood, especially Moses in his Book of the Law, where there is need of it. Now he that will see nothing, God help him, he must needs be blind; for the Time of the Visitation of the hardened Jews, Turks, and Heathens, comes now. Whosoever will see, let them see; the Lamps for the Bridegroom are shortly to be kindled. He comes, whosoever desires to be a Guest, let him prepare him a Wedding-Garment.

(27) Thus it became a Custom, that every one was bound to come] to the Temple made of Stones, and the Temple of God in Christ stood and stands very empty; but when they saw the Desolation in the Contention, they called Councils, and made Laws and Canons, that every one must observe upon Pain of Death. Thus the Temple of Christ was turned into Temples made of Stones, and out of the Testimony of the Holy Ghost a worldly Law was made. Then the Holy Ghost spoke no more freely, but he must speak according to their Laws. If he reproved their Errors, then they persecuted him; and so the Temple of Christ in Man's Knowledge became very obscure; if any came that was born of God, and taught by the Holy Ghost, and was not conformable to their Laws, he must be a Heretic.

(4) Hereupon Reason will say, Is not God the Father one [and the same] Essence with the Son? Answer, Yes. [They are] one Essence and Will. By what Means then did he give the Law? Answer, By the Spirit of the great World; because Adam after the Fall, and all Men, lived therein, therefore it must be tried, whether Man could live therein, in Confidence towards God. Therefore he established it with great Wonders [or Miracles,] and gave uit Clarity, [shining Brightness or Glory;] as may be seen in Moses, who had a [glorious bright] shining Face. And when he had chosen to himself this People, he destroyed the Children of Unbelief, and brought them out with Wonders into the Wilderness; and there it was tried whether Men could live in perfect Obedience under this Clarity, [Glory or Brightness.]

(70) And as Jeroboam's Calves were an Abomination to God, which he yet with earnest Zeal set up to serve the true God thereby, only that he might preserve his worldly Kingdom, that the People might not fall from him, when they were to go up to Jerusalem to offer Sacrifice; and God rejected him and his whole House for it; and as Moses came (in Wrath) because of their divine Service before the Calf, and broke the Tables of the divine Law, and took his Sword, and one Brother must slay the other, because of their Abominations and Sins of false Worshipping of God; so also (thou blind World in Babel of Confusion) seeing thou art fallen away from the omnipresent, omniscient, all-seeing, all-hearing, all-smelling, and all-feeling Heart, Jesus Christ, and set upon thy own conceited Ways, and dost not desire to see the gracious Countenance itself of Jesus Christ, and wilt not lay aside thy Shame and Whoredom, thy appearing Show of Holiness of Hypocrisy, thy self-conceited wilful Pride, Might, Authority, Pomp and State, but livest in thy invented Holiness, for thy Pleasure, in Covetousness, Gormandizing, Gluttony, and Drunkenness, and in mere exalting of thyself in Honour; therefore the second Moses (who was promised by the first, and whom Men should hear) has broken the Tables of his Law, whereupon his precious Incarnation, suffering Death, Resurrection, and entering into Heaven stood, and has stopt their Entering into thy Ears; and has sent thee strong Delusions (out of the Spirit of thy own invented Show of Holiness) as St. Paul says; so that thou believest the Spirit of Lying, and livest according to thy fleshly Lust, that so thy own invented Show of Holiness with thy false Key (which does not open the Suffering and Dying of Jesus Christ in his Death) deceives thyself.

(9) The beneficent action of the law, the apostle showed in the passage relating to the Jews, writing thus: "Behold, thou art called a Jew and restest in the law, and makest thy boast in God, and knowest the will of God, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law, and art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, who hast the form of knowledge and of truth in the law." For it is admitted that such is the power of the law, although those whose conduct is not according to the law, make a false pretence, as if they lived in the law.

(28) Rightly, then, to the Jews belonged the Law, and to the Greeks Philosophy, until the Advent; and after that came the universal calling to be a peculiar people of righteousness, through the teaching which flows from faith, brought together by one Lord, the only God of both Greeks and Barbarians, or rather of the whole race of men. We have often called by the name philosophy that portion of truth attained through philosophy, although but partial.

(26) Now if Man awakens Sin, then the fierce Anger [or severity] of God is stirred in himself, viz. in Man, which otherwise (if Man stood in Humility) would rest and be turned into great Joy, as was often mentioned before. But now when he burns [in Wrath,] then one People devours the other, and one Sin destroys another. If Israel had been upright, they had not been put to make War, but they should have entered in with Wonders, and have converted the People; Moses should have led them into the [promised Land] with his [Miracles] or Deeds of Wonder. But because they were wicked, they could not enter in (with the brightness of Moses, with Deeds of Wonder, in the Luster [or Glance] of the Father) to convert the Heathens; but Moses (with his Deeds of Wonder) must stay in the Wilderness, and the whole People was consumed and devoured in the Wrath; and Joshua must war with the Heathens, and destroy them, for one

(5) And the same apostle owns that he bears witness to the Jews, "that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God." For they did not know and do the will of the law; but what they supposed, that they thought the law wished. And they did not believe the law as prophesying, but the bare word; and they followed through fear, not through disposition and faith. "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness," who was prophesied by the law to every one that believeth. Whence it was said to them by Moses, "I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are not a people; and I will anger you by a foolish nation, that is, by one that has become disposed to obedience." And by Isaiah it is said, "I was found of them that sought Me not; I was made manifest to them that inquired not after Me," - manifestly previous to the coming of the Lord; after which to lsrael, the things prophesied, are now appropriately spoken: "I have stretched out My hands all the day long to a disobedient and gainsaying people." Do you see the cause of the calling from among the nations, clearly declared, by the prophet, to be the disobedience and gainsaying of the people? Then the goodness of God is shown also in their case. For the apostle says, "But through their transgression salvation is come to the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy," and to willingness to repent. And the Shepherd, speaking plainly of those who had fallen asleep, recognises certain righteous among Gentiles and Jews, not only before the appearance of Christ, but before the law, in virtue of acceptance before God, - as Abel, as Noah, as any other righteous man. He says accordingly, "that the apostles and teachers, who had preached the name of the Son of God, and had fallen asleep, in power and by faith, preached to those that had fallen asleep before." Then he subjoins: "And they gave them the seal of preaching.

(63) Hitherto the Honour of Invocation [or Worship] has been paid and afforded to the Virgin Mary, and other Saints, [or holy People,] that have been here [in this Life;] whereas yet (in the Ground of the Light of Nature) this Command or Law was not known at all, and it is most highly necessary to be known, that the Ground thereof has been taken in the confused Babel, when Men were weary of the poor Christ, who in this World had not whereon to lay his Head. Then they did as Israel with Moses, who made themselves a Calf to be their God, and said; Behold, Israel, these are thy Gods, which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt; and they made a calvish Worship of God, for their voluptuous Life, and looked no more after Moses, but said; We know not what is become of this Man Moses; and they said to Aaron. Make thou us Gods which may go before us, and he made them the Calf; but when Moses came and saw it, then he was wroth, and took the Tables of God, and broke them, and threw them away, and said; Hearken, you that belong unto the Lord, gird every Man his Sword to his Side, and slay his Brother, the Worshippers of the Calf.

(7) For since God knew in virtue of His prescience that he would not believe, He nevertheless, in order that he might receive his own perfection gave him philosophy, but gave it him previous to faith. And He gave the sun, and the moon, and the stars to be worshipped; "which God," the Law says, made for the nations, that they might not become altogether atheistical, and so utterly perish. But they, also in the instance of this commandment, having become devoid of sense, and addicting themselves to graven images, are judged unless they repent; some of them because, though able, they would not believe God; and others because, though willing, they did not take the necessary pains to become believers. There were also, however, those who, from the worship of the heavenly bodies, did not return to the Maker of them. For this was the sway given to the nations to rise up to God, by means of the worship of the heavenly bodies. But those who would not abide by those heavenly bodies assigned to them, but fell away from them to stocks and stones, "were counted," it is said, "as chaff-dust and as a drop from a jar," beyond salvation, cast away from the body.

(1) But as the proclamation [of the Gospel] has come now at the fit time, so also at the fit time were the Law and the Prophets given to the Barbarians, and Philosophy to the Greeks, to fit their ears for the Gospel. "Therefore," says the Lord who delivered Israel, "in an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee. And I have given thee for a Covenant to the nations; that thou mightest inhabit the earth, and receive the inheritance of the wilderness; saying to those that are in bonds, Come forth; and to those that are in darkness, Show yourselves." For if the "prisoners" are the Jews, of whom the Lord said, "Come forth, ye that will, from your bonds," - meaning the voluntary bound, and who have taken on them "the burdens grievous to be borne" by human injunction - it is plain that "those in darkness" are they who have the ruling faculty of the soul buried in idolatry.

(3) Beloved Reason, look into the Glass of the Actions and Deeds of God. When God appeared to Moses in the burning Bush, he said, Pull off the Shoes; for here is a holy Place: What was that? Answer: God showed [Moses] thereby his earthly Birth. For he would give him a Law, wherein Man should live, (if it were possible,) and attain Salvation: But who was it that gave the Law, and commanded Man to live therein? Answer, It was God the Father, out of his Center, and therefore it was done with Fire and Thunder; for there is no Fire and Thunder in the Heart of God, but kind Love.

(28) Then God (out of the Fierceness of the first Principle) burnt Sodom and Gomorrah, those five Kingdoms, with Fire, for then God promised the chosen Generation, that if they would walk before him, he would bless them as the Stars of Heaven, and make them so great [that they should not be numbered,] and yet there were still among them evil Birds hatched. And then God brought them into a strange Land, and prospered them, to try whether they would acknowledge his Goodness, and depend on him, but they were yet worse.

(82) God indeed (in former Times) permitted much for the Conversion- sake of the Heathen; but he has not ordained the Antichrist to be so, in his Covetousness, Ordinances [or Laws,] and Babble in their Councils; where Men have stopped the Mouth of the Spirit of God, that it should speak no more, but that the Heaven upon Earth, in Laws, Disputations, and great Talking; and therefore that Kingdom of Heaven, upon Earth, must be bound up with precious Oaths or Covenants, because it stood not in the Liberty of the Holy Ghost, that so it might be fat and lusty, great and wanton, and never be broken. But it is come to be a Babel of Confusion thereby, and in the Confusion it breaks [or destroys] itself.

(24) Now when the historical Christendom and the true Christians grew together, the Scepter was always among the Learned, who exalted themselves, and made themselves potent, and great; and the simple [Church] yielded to it as right; and yet there was a Desire after the Kingdom of God found in Men, viz. the noble Word of God (which had imprinted itself in the Promise [in Paradise,] in the Light of Life, and which was made stirring by Christ) that drove them indeed to the Fear of God. And then they built great Houses of Stone, and called every one thither; and they said that the Holy Ghost was powerful there, and they must come thither; besides, they durst be so impudent as to say (when they were found to be so wicked and malicious) that the Holy Ghost was powerfully in the Mouth of the Wicked.

(13) Dear Children, consider, how mightily and powerfully, with Wonders, Miracles, and Works, the Spirit of God went forth in Word and Deed in the Times of the Apostles, and after, till Antichrist and the Spirit of Self-Pride, with his invented Laws and astral Wisdom, broke forth, and set himself up by that worldly and fleshly Arm, [or by the Authority of the worldly Magistrate,] merely for his own Pleasure and Honour's Sake, where the most precious Words of Christ (who gave no Laws to Man, but the Law of Nature and the Law of Love, which is his own Heart,) must be a Cloak for him, vis. for Antichrist, who is a Prince in the third Principle; what he ordains must be as the Voice to Moses out of the Bush: And so the Man of Pride makes as if himself had Divine Power upon Earth, and knows not in his Blindness the Holy Ghost will not be tied, [or bound up to their Canons and human Inventions.]

(36) For thus the righteous of the olden time, who lived according to the law, "were not from a storied oak, or from a rock;" because they wish to philosophize truly, took and devoted themselves entirely to God, and were classified under faith. Zeno said well of the Indians, that he would rather have seen one Indian roasted, than have learned the whole of the arguments about bearing pain. But we have exhibited before our eyes every day abundant sources of martyrs that are burnt, impaled, beheaded. All these the fear inspired by the law, - leading as a paedagogue to Christ, trained so as to manifest their piety by their blood.