(48) You must know, that Christ, while he lived upon the Earth, and all we that are new-born in him, have and carry the heavenly Flesh and Blood in the earthly [Man,] and we carry it also in the new Man, in the Body of Christ. And when we die thus in the old earthly Body, then we live (in the new Body) in the Body of Jesus Christ, and spring up in him out of Death; and our Springing up is our Paradise, where our Essences spring up in God, and the earthly is swallowed up in Death, and we put on our Lord Jesus Christ, not only in the Faith and Spirit, but in the Virtue [and Power] of the Body, in our heavenly Flesh and Blood; and so we live to God the Father in Christ his Son, and the Holy Ghost confirms all our Doings; for all what we shall do, it is God does it in us.

(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.

(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.

(38) You are to know, that as Mary did bear the heavenly Image, viz. a new Man born out of the Mercy of God in the old earthly [Man,] viz. in the Kingdom of this World, which Kingdom she had in her as her own, which yet did not comprehend the new Man; so also the Word of God entered into the Body of the Virgin Mary, into the heavenly Matrix, into the eternal Virgin of God, and that [Word] in that [eternal Virgin of God] became a heavenly Man, out of the paradisical holy pure Element, in the Person of the new regenerated Man of the Virgin Mary, and (with his eternal Deity) was together generated in the Beginning, of the own proper Soul of Mary, and with his Entrance of his Deity has brought the Soul of Mary again into the holy Father; so that the Souls of Men (which were gone out from the Deity) were new-born again in the Soul of Christ, and begotten to the Heart of God.

(17) Now if we will lift up our Minds, and seek after the Heaven wherein God dwells, we cannot say that God dwells only above the Stars, and has inclosed himself with the Firmament which is made out of the Waters, in which none can enter except it be opened (like a Window) for him; with which Thoughts Men are altogether befooled [and bewildered.] Neither can we say (as some suppose) that God the Father and the Son are only with Angels in the uppermost inclosed Heaven, and rule only here in this World by the Holy Ghost, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. All these Thoughts are void of the very Knowledge of God. For then God should be divided and circumscriptive, like the Sun that moves aloft above us, and sends its Light and Virtue to us, whereby the whole Deep becomes light and active all over.

(42) Therefore the Body of Christ is inferior to the Deity; and in these our human Essences he suffered Death, and his Deity of the holy Man in the pure Element entered together also into Death, and bereaved Death of its Power, and separated the natural Soul (which Christ commended to his Father, when he died on the Cross) from the Kingdom of this World, also from Death, from the Devil, and from Hell, in the strong divine Might [or Power,] and opened a Gate for us all, who come to him and Or by. incline ourselves (with Mind and Thoughts) to him; then the Father draws our Soul (which is in him) into the pure Love of Christ; where then it puts its Imagination again through Christ P forward into the holy Trinity, and is fed again from the Verbum Domini [the Word of the Lord,] where then it is an Angel again, quite separated from the Kingdom of the Devil, and of this World, in the Death of Christ.

(28) And it is not hard for the holy Souls, which are departed from the Body, to appear to a strong Faith of one that is living; for the firm Faith of the Living (if it be born of God) reaches also unto the Kingdom of Heaven, into the holy Element, where the separated Souls have their Rest.

(67) Therefore the Soul (when it departs from the Body) needs not to go far; for at that Place where the Body dies, there is Heaven and Hell; and the Man Christ dwells every where. God and the Devil is there, yet each of them in his own Kingdom. The Paradise is also there; and the Soul needs only to enter through the deep Door in the Center. Is the Soul holy? Then it stands in the Gate of Heaven, and the earthly Body has but kept it out of Heaven; and now when the Body comes to be broken, then the Soul is already in the Heaven; it needs no going out or in, Christ has it in his Arms, for where the four Elements break, there the Root of them remains, which is the holy Element, and therein the Body of Christ stands, and also Paradise, which stands in the springing Source of Joy; and that Element is the soft still Habitation.

(17) Therefore must Christ in his Temptation overcome the Kingdom of the Anger, and this external Birth; and by his Entrance into Death, he broke the Head of the Serpent, viz. the Devil, and all Devils, and took them captive. Thou must understand it thus; That the inward Element (which comprises the whole Body of this World) became Christ's eternal Body; for the whole Deity, in the Word and the Heart of God, entered thereinto, and espoused itself to remain therein to all Eternity; and this same Deity became a Creature, even such a Creature as can be everywhere, as the Deity itself; and this same Creature has captivated all Devils in the Kingdom of this World. And all Men who with their Mind draw near to this Christ, and desire him in right Earnest, they are drawn by the Spirit of the Father, (viz. of the clear and pure Deity) into the Humanity of Christ, that is, into the pure Element before the Trinity. And if they continue steadfast, and do not again depart from God into the Desire of the Devil, then the precious Pearl, viz. the Light of God, is sown in their Soul, which [Light] attracts to itself the precious Body of Jesus Christ, with Paradise, and the Kingdom of Heaven. And thus the right new man (Christus) grows on the Soul in the heavenly Virgin of God's Wisdom, in the Holy Ternary, in the Kingdom of Heaven. And thus such a Man is according to the new Man in Heaven in the Body of Jesus Christ, and as to the old earthly Man, which hangs unto the holy [Man,] he is in this World in the House of Sin, and the Deity actuates the new Humanity, and the Spirit of this World the old, until he puts him off in Death; for he is a Man in Heaven, born in the Mercy of God in the Body of Jesus Christ.

(38) For the Word (by its being, given into the Element, into the virgin Matrix) is not separated from the Father; but it continues eternally in the Father, and it is (in the Heaven of the Element) every where present; into which [Element] the same Word] is entered, and is become a new Creature in Man; which new Creature] is called God. And you must here very highly and accurately understand, that this new Creature in the holy Element is not generated of the Flesh and Blood of the Virgin, but of God, out of the Element, in a total Fullness, and Union lof the holy Trinity; which [Creature] continues with total Fullness without ending therein eternally: Which [Creature] everywhere fills all, in all the Gates of the Holiness, whose Depth has no Ground, and is without Number, [Measure,] and Name.

(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.

(25) For Christ has taken this Pledge (viz. our Soul) from us Men in Mary; at which we rejoice in Eternity, that the Soul of Christ is our Brother, and the Body of Christ our Body, in the new Man. And should I not rejoice that my Soul is in the Body of Christ, and that the Soul of Christ is my Brother, and that the Holy Trinity is the Food and Virtue [or Strength] of my Soul? Who can judge me, lay hold of me, and destroy me, when I am (in my true Man) in God? When I am immortal in my new Man, why should I be much afraid in the earthly Man, which belongs to the Earth? Let every Thing take its own, and then my Soul will be P freed from the Driver.

(26) And as the Prophets have written of it, so the new Man, (which is born to us of God) is the Son of the Virgin, not of earthly Flesh and Blood, also not of the Seed of Man, but conceived by the Holy Ghost, and born of a pure divine chaste Virgin, and (in this World) revealed [or manifested] in our Flesh and Blood, and is entered with his holy Body into Death, and has separated the earthly [Body,] together with the Might of the Anger, from the holy Element, and has restored the Soul again, and has opened the Gate to the Light of God again, so that the averted Soul can (with the Essences of the Father in the holy Will) reach the Light of God again.

(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.

(25) But there is a great Difference in Souls, and therefore a the going to Heaven is very unlike; some of them are through true Repentance and Sorrow for their Misdeeds, through their Faith (in the Time of their Bodies) set [or ingrafted] into the Heart of God, [and] new regenerated through the Birth of Jesus Christ; and they instantly (with the Breaking of their Bodies) leave all that is earthly, and instantly also lay off the Region of the Stars; and they comprehend, in their Essences of the first Principle, the Mercy of God the Father in the kind Love of Jesus Christ; and these] also stand, in the Time of their Bodies, according to the Essences of the Soul, (which they receive from the Passion and Death of Christ) in the Gate of the Heaven; and their Departure from the Body is a very pleasant Entering into the Element before God, into a still Rest, expecting their Bodies, without [irksome] Longing; where then the Paradise shall flourish again, which the Soul tastes very well, but effects no Source [or Work] till the first Adam, [as he was] before the Fall, dbe again upon it.

(38) Behold now, the Mind is in the Darkness, and it conceives its Will to the Light, to generate it; or else there would be no Will, nor yet any Birth: This Mind stands in Anguish, and in the Will conceives the Virtue; and the Virtue fulfils, [satisfies or impregnates] the Mind. Thus the Kingdom of God consists in the Virtue [or in Power,] which is God the Father, and the Light makes the Virtue longing to [be] the Will, that is, God the Son, for in the Virtue the Light is continually generated from Eternity, and in the Light, out of the Virtue, goes the Holy Ghost forth, which generates again in the dark Mind the Will of the eternal Essence.

(14) Now therefore the Soul stands in two Gates, and touches the two Principles, viz. the eternal Darkness, and the eternal Light of the Son of God, as God the Father himself does. Now as God the Father holds his unchangeable eternal Will to generate his Heart and Son, so the Angels and Souls keep their unchangeable Will in the Heart of God. Thus it [the Soul] is in Heaven and in Paradise, and enjoys the unutterable Joy of God the Father which he has in the Son, and it hears the inexpressible Words of the Heart of God, and rejoices at the eternal, and also at the created Images, which are not in Essence [or Substance,] but in Figure.

(7) For as this World breaks and passes away, so also all Flesh (which is generated out of the Spirit of this World) must break and pass away. Therefore now when the poor Soul must depart out of this Body, wherein yet it is generated, if then it has not the new Garment of the Regeneration of the Holy Ghost in it, and is not clothed with the Mantle of Christ, with his Incarnation, Suffering, Death, and Resurrection, in him, then there begins great Sorrow and Unquietness, [viz.] in those only which at the Breaking of their Bodies are but in the Gate, and so swim between Heaven and Hell; and there then dis Need of Wrestling and Struggling, as is to be seen by very many when they are dying.

(7) And now if we will speak of the Glorification of Christ, and of his Body, which he visibly (and in that Form in which he had conversed upon Earth) ascended with, then we must say, that as the Love of the Heart of God has reconciled the Anger of the Father, and holds it as it were captive in it, so also the Holy Ternary has comprehended the hard palpable Body of Christ, viz. the Kingdom of this World, as if it was wholly swallowed up, whereas it is not swallowed up, but the Source of this World is destroyed in Death, and the Holy Ternary has put on the Body of Christ, not as a Garment, but virtually [or powerfully] in the Essences; and he is as it were swallowed up (to our Apprehension and Sight) and yet is really, and shall come again at the last Judgment-Day, and manifest himself in his own Body which he had here, that all may see him, be they good or bad; and he shall also come in the same Form to keep the Judgment of the Separation, for in his divine glorified Form we cannot behold him, before we be glorified, especially the Wicked. But thus all Generations shall see him and know him, and the Unbelieving shall weep and wail, that they went so out of their Flesh and Blood into another Source [or Condition,] when they should and might in their own Essences have put on God, and yet put on the Kingdom of the Fierceness of the Anger of God with the Devils, and let the same into the Essences of their Souls, and caused themselves to perish.

(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.