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(12) If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children; how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

(20) Accordingly they spread darkness over the light of intelligence, the spirit attracting the exhalations that arise from lust, and thickening the masses of the passions by persistency in pleasures. Gold is not taken from the earth in the lump, but is purified by smelting; then, when made pure. it is called gold, the earth being purified. For "Ask, and it shall be given you," it is said to those who are able of themselves to choose what is best. And how we say that the powers of the devil, and the unclean spirits, sow into the sinner's soul, requires no more words from me, on adducing as a witness the apostolic Barnabas (and he was one of the seventy? and a fellow-worker of Paul), who speaks in these words: "Before we believed in God, the dwelling-place of our heart was unstable, truly a temple built with hands.

(2) "The first ruler of the way of the midst is called Paraplēx, a ruler with a woman's shape, whose hair reacheth down to her feet, under whose authority stand five-and-twenty archdemons which rule over a multitude of other demons. And it is those demons which enter into men and seduce them, raging and cursing and slandering; and it is they which carry off hence and in ravishment the souls and dispatch them through their dark smoke and their evil chastisements." Mary said: "I shall behave badly to question thee. Be not wroth with me if I question on all things." Jesus said: "Question what thou wilt." Mary said: "My Lord, reveal unto us in what manner they carry off hence the souls in ravishment, that also my brethren may understand it."

(27) To the multitudes Jesus spoke in parables; to His disciples He also spoke in parables, though of a more exalted and philosophic nature. Voltaire said that Plato should have been canonized by the Christian Church, for, being the first propounder of the Christos mystery, he contributed more to its fundamental doctrines than any other single individual. Jesus disclosed to His disciples that the lower world is under the control of a great spiritual being which had fashioned it according to the will of the Eternal Father. The mind of this great angel was both the mind of the world and also the worldly mind. So that men should not die of worldliness the Eternal Father sent unto creation the eldest and most exalted of His powers--the Divine Mind. This Divine Mind offered Itself as a living sacrifice and was broken up and eaten by the world. Having given Its spirit and Its body at a secret and sacred supper to the twelve manners of rational creatures, this Divine Mind became a part of every living thing. Man was thereby enabled to use this power as a bridge across which he might pass and attain immortality. He who lifted up his soul to this Divine Mind and served It was righteous and, having attained righteousness, liberated this Divine Mind, which thereupon returned again in glory to Its own divine source. And because He had brought to them this knowledge, the disciples said one to another: "Lo, He is Himself this Mind personified!"

(1) And the Saviour answered and said unto Mary: "Finely hast thou spoken. The servitors indeed are they who bear witness to all sins; but they abide in the judgments, seizing the souls and convicting all the souls of sinners who have received no mysteries; and they keep them fast in the chaos, chastizing them. And those retributive receivers cannot overstep the chaos to reach to the orders which are above the chaos, and convict the souls which come forth out of those regions. Now then it is not lawful to use force on the souls which receive mysteries, and lead them into the chaos, so that the retributive servitors may convict them. But the retributive servitors convict the souls of the sinners and they keep fast those who have received no mysteries which may lead them out of the chaos. The souls on the other hand which receive mysteries,--they have no power of convicting them, because they do not come forth out of their regions, and also, if they come forth into their regions, they are not able to obstruct them; nay, they cannot lead them into that chaos.

(2) And when the disciples had heard this, they fell down, adored Jesus and said "Blessed are we beyond all men, because thou hast revealed unto us these great wonders." They continued, besought him and said: "We beseech thee, reveal unto us: What are then these ways?" When then Mary said this weeping, Jesus answered in great compassion and said unto them: "Truly, my brethren and beloved, who have abandoned father and mother for my name's sake, unto you will I give all mysteries and all gnoses. "I will give you the mystery of the twelve æons of the rulers and their seals and their ciphers and the manner of invocation for reaching their regions. "I will give you moreover the mystery of the thirteenth æon and the manner of invocation for reaching their regions, and I will give you their ciphers and their seals. "And I will give you the mystery of the baptism of those of the Midst and the manner of invocation for reaching their regions, and I will announce unto you their ciphers and their seals. "And I will give you the baptism of those of the Right, our region, and its ciphers and its seals and the manner of invocation for reaching thither. "And I will give you the great mystery of the Treasury of the Light and the manner of invocation for reaching thither. "I will give you all the mysteries and all the gnoses, in order that ye may be called 'children of the fulness, perfected in all the gnoses and all the mysteries.' Blessed are ye beyond all men on earth, for the children of the Light are come in your time."

(1) She said: "My Lord, will all the men who know the mystery of the magic of all the rulers of all the æons of the Fate and of those of the sphere, in the way in which the angels who transgressed have taught them, if they invoke them in their mysteries, that is in their evil magic, to the hindering of good deeds,--will they accomplish them henceforth from now on or not?" Jesus answered and said unto Mary: "They will not accomplish them as they accomplished them from the beginning, because I have taken away a third of their power; but they will raise a loan from those who know the mysteries of the magic of the thirteenth æon. And if they invoke the mysteries of the magic of those who are in the thirteenth æon, they will accomplish them well and surely, because I have not taken away power from that region, according to the command of the First Mystery."

(1) The Saviour answered and said unto Mary: "When the light of the sun is outside [? above the world], he covereth the darkness of the dragon; but if the sun is below the world, then the darkness of the dragon abideth as veiling of the sun and the breath of the darkness cometh into the world in form of a smoke in the night,--that is, if the sun withdraweth into himself his rays, then indeed the world is not able to endure the darkness of the dragon in its true form; otherwise would it be dissolved and go to ruin withal." When the Saviour had said this, Mary continued again and said unto the Saviour: "My [paragraph continues] Lord, still do I question thee and hide [it] not from me. Now, therefore, my Lord, who compelleth then the man until he sinneth?" The Saviour answered and said unto Mary: "It is the rulers of the Fate who compel the man until he sinneth." Mary answered and said unto the Saviour: "My Lord, surely the rulers do not come down to the world and compel the man until he sinneth?"

(7) Mary continued again and said: "My Lord, doth the dragon of the outer darkness come into this world or doth he not come?" "For this cause, therefore, have I in this manner brought the mysteries into this world which undo all the bonds of the counterfeiting spirit and all the seals which are bound to the soul,--those which make the soul free and free it from its parents the rulers, and make it into refined light and lead it up into the kingdom of its father, the first Issue, the First Mystery, for ever. "For this cause therefore, have I said unto you aforetime: 'He who doth not abandon father and mother and come and follow after me, is not worthy of me.' I have, therefore, said at that time: Ye are to abandon your parents the rulers, that I may make you sons of the First Mystery for ever."

(21) Mary said to Jesus, "Whom are Your disciples like?" He said, "They are like children who have settled in a field which is not theirs. When the owners of the field come, they will say, 'Let us have back our field.' They (will) undress in their presence in order to let them have back their field and give it back to them. Therefore I say to you, if the owner of a house knows that the thief is coming, he will begin his vigil before he comes and will not let him into his house of his domain to carry away his goods. You, then, be on your guard against the world. Arm yourselves with great strength lest the robbers find a way to come to you, for the difficulty which you expect will (surely) materialize. Let there be among you a man of understanding. When the grain ripened, he came quickly with his sickle in his hand and reaped it. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear."

(2) The Saviour answered and said unto Mary: "They do not come down in this manner into the world. But the rulers of the Fate, when an old soul is about to come down through them, then the rulers of that great Fate who [are] in the regions of the head of the æons,--which is that region which is called the region of the kingdom of Adamas, and which is that region which is in face of the Virgin of Light,--then the rulers of the region of that head give the old soul a cup of forgetfulness out of the seed of wickedness, filled with all the different desires and all forgetfulness. And straightway, when that soul shall drink out of the cup, it forgetteth all the regions to which it hath gone, and all the chastisements in which it hath travelled. And Of the counterfeiting spirit. that cup of the water of forgetfulness becometh body outside the soul, and it resembleth the soul in all [its] figures and maketh [itself] like it,--which is what is called the counterfeiting spirit.

(44) If you be born of God, then you [may] thus understand God, Paradise, the Kingdom of Heaven and Hell, and the Entrance in, and End of the Creatures, [and] the Creation of this World; but if not, then the Vail is as well before your Eyes, as it was upon Moses. Therefore saith Christ; Seek, and you shall find, knock, and it shall be opened unto you: No Son asketh his Father for an Egg, that he should give him a Scorpion: Also my Father will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask it.

(2) And Jesus answered and said unto Mary in the midst of the disciples: "They who have received the mystery of the Light, if they come out of the body of the matter of the rulers, then will every one be in his order according to the mystery which he hath received. Those who have received the higher mysteries, will abide in the higher order; those who have received the lower mysteries will be in the lower orders. In a word, up to what region every one hath received mysteries, there will he abide in his order in the Inheritance of the Light. For which cause I have said unto you aforetime: 'Where your heart is, there will your treasure be,'--that is up to what region every one hath received mysteries, there shall he be." It came to pass, when Jesus had finished saying these words unto his disciples, that John came forward and said unto Jesus: "My Lord and my Saviour, give me also commandment that I discourse before thee, and be not wroth with me if I question concerning all with precision and certainty; for thou, my Lord, hast promised me in a promise to make revelation unto us of all concerning which I shall question thee. Now, therefore, my Lord, hide nothing from us at all in the matter on which we shall question thee." And Jesus answered in great compassion and said unto John: "To thee also, blessed John, and beloved, I give commandment to speak the word which pleaseth thee, and I will reveal it unto thee face to face without similitude, and I will say unto thee all on which thou wilt question me with precision and certainty."

(5) Mary then answered and said "My Lord, this is the word which thou hast spoken unto us aforetime, in a similitude, saying: 'Make to yourselves a friend out of the Mamōn of unrighteousness, so that if ye remain behind, he may receive you into I the everlasting tents.' Who then is the Mamōn of unrighteousness, if not the dragon of the outer darkness? This is the word: He who shall understand the mystery of one of the names of the dragon of the outer darkness, if he remaineth behind in the outer darkness or if he hath completed the circuits of the changes, and speaketh the name of the dragon, he will be saved and go up out of the darkness and be received into the Treasury of the Light. This is the word, my Lord."

(6) have told you, then the servitors secretly compel them, even if they are removed at very great distance from one another, so that they concert to be in a concert of the world. And the counterfeiting spirit which is in the man, cometh to the portion which is entrusted to the world in the matter of his body, and lifteth it and casteth it down into the womb of the woman [into the portion] which is entrusted to the seed of wickedness.

(13) This I ask Thee, O Ahura! tell me aright, how shall I banish this Demon-of-the-Lie from us hence to those beneath who are filled with rebellion? The friends of Righteousness (as it lives in Thy saints) gain no light (from their teachings), nor have they loved the questions which Thy Good Mind (asks in the soul )!

(3) When then Jesus had said this, Mary answered and said: "My Lord, if men go to seek and they come upon the doctrines of error, I whence then are they to know whether they belong to thee or not?" The Saviour answered and said unto Mary: "I have said unto you aforetime: 'Be ye as skilful money-changers. Take the good, throw the bad away.' The Saviour answered and said unto Mary: "I say unto you: They will find one in a thousand and two in ten-thousand for the accomplishment of the mystery of the First Mystery. This will I tell unto you when I have explained to you the expansion of the universe. For this cause, therefore, I have rent myself asunder and have brought the mysteries into the world, because all are under sin and all are in need of the gift of the mysteries."