(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.

(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.

(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.

(34) And therefore thus we say of Mary; She has comprehended the holy heavenly eternal Virgin of God, and put on the holy and pure Element, [together] with the Paradise, and yet was truly she was not called a holy pure Virgin according to her earthly Birth; the Flesh which she had from Joachim and Anna was not pure, without Spot; but her Holiness and Purity is according to the heavenly a Virgin. Besides, she brought not the heavenly Virgin to her out of her own Ability; for the Angel said to her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the Power of the most High shall over-shadow thee; therefore the holy [Thing] that shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God.

(31) Therefore we set it down here according to our Knowledge, that the pure chaste Virgin, in which God was born [or generated,] is the chaste Virgin [that is] in the Presence of God, and it is an eternal Virgin; before ever Heaven and Earth was created, it was put itself into Mary, in her Incarnation, and her new Man was in the holy Element of God; and therefore she was the blessed among all Women, and the Lord was with her, as the Angel said.

(52) You must understand, Mary was to conceive in the Body, viz. in her own Body, not in a strange assumed [Body,] as the Unenlightened (who apprehend not the Kingdom of God) might interpret our Writings to mean. Besides, it is not the Ground neither, which the Ancients and those heretofore have set down (which yet went very high) as if Mary from Eternity had been hidden in Ternario Sancto [the holy Ternary or Trinity,] and that she entered at that Time only in Anna, as into a Case, [or House,] and was not of the Seed of Joachim, and Blood of Anna. They say, she was an eternal Virgin out of the Trinity, of whom Christ was born; because he came not out of the Flesh and Blood of any Man, and as himself witnesses, that he was not of this World, but was come from Heaven. He says, That he came forth from God, and must return again to God; and to Nicodemus he said, No one goes into Heaven, but the Son of Man which is come from Heaven, and who is in Heaven.

(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.

(84) For the Word (which God promised in the Garden of Eden) sprung [and budded] in the Light of her Life, in the Center of God; and when the Angel Gabriel (from the Command of the Father) stirred that [Word of the Promise] with the Message, then it let itself into the chaste Virgin i in the Element; and not so wholly and altogether into the Soul of the Virgin, or into the earthly Body, that she was deified. No; for Christ himself says, None goes into Heaven but the Son of Man, who is come from Heaven, and who is in Heaven; all others must go through him into Heaven; khe is their Heaven, and the Father is his Heaven; he was in the Heaven, and also (in the Bosom of the Virgin) in this World: The World was made through him, how then could it comprehend him?

(10) Behold, God the Father is every where, and his Heart and Light is every where in the Father, for it is always from Eternity begotten every where of the Father, and his Birth has neither Beginning nor End, he is even at this very Day continually generated of the Father; and then also when he was in the Body of Mary, yet he stood in the Father's Birth, and was continually begotten of the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeded continually from Eternity, from the Father through his Heart; for the whole Generation of the Deity is no otherwise, neither can it be otherwise.

(5) If I had not considered the Scripture, which plainly says, Whatsoever is born of Flesh is Flesh; also, Flesh and Blood shall not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven; also, None goeth into Heaven, but the Son of Man, (viz. the pure Virgin) which came from Heaven, and which is in Heaven; which was very helpful to me [to think] that the Child of the Virgin was the Angel, which has restored again all that which was lost in Adam, for God brought again in the Woman (in her virgin-like Body) the virgin Child, which Adam should generate; and now if I had not considered the Text in Moses, (where God says, It is not good that Man should be alone, we will make a Help for him,) I should yet have stuck in the Will of the Woman.

(70) For if the Soul stands in the Fear of God, then the Tincture also (in which the Soul springs up) is purer; although that be not free from the original [or inherited] Sin. Thus Mary is indeed truly generated of Joachim, and Christ has his natural Soul from the Tincture of Mary, yet but half; for the Limbus of God was the Man [or masculine Seed,] and therein was the chaste Virgin of God in the holy Ternary, and in the holy Ternary the Trinity, the whole Fulness of the Deity; and the Holy Ghost was the Work-Master.

(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.

(116) 1. We Christians believe and acknowledge, that the eternal Word of God the Father became a true self-subsisting Man (with Body and Soul) in the Body [or Womb] of the Virgin Mary, without Man's interposing: For we believe, that he was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of the Body of the Virgin, without 1 blemishing of her Virgin [Purity or] Chastity. II. Also we believe, that (in his human Body) he died and was buried. III. Also [we believe,] that he descended into Hell, and has broken the Bands of the Devil (wherewith he held Man captive) in Pieces, and redeemed the Soul of Man. IV. Also we believe, that he willingly died for our Iniquities, and reconciled his Father, and has brought us into Favour with him. V. Also we believe, that he rose again from the Dead on the third Day, and ascended into Heaven, and there sits at the Right-Hand of God. VI. Also we believe, that he shall come again at the last Day, to judge the Living and the Dead, and take his Bride to him, and condemn the Ungodly. Or becoming Man. Or defiling, VII. Also we believe, that he has a Christian Church here upon Earth, which is begotten in his Blood and Death, [and so made] one Body with many Members, which he cherishes, and governs with his Spirit and Word, and unites it continually (by the holy Baptism, of his own appointing, and by the Sacrament of his Body and Blood) to one only Body in himself. VIII. Also we believe, that he protects and defends the same, and keeps it in one Mind. And now we will, in what follows, set down all out of the deep Ground (according to every Thing's own Substance) what our Knowledge is, as far as is now necessary.

(35) Here understand [and consider] it rightly; the Virtue [or Power] is the heavenly Virgin, for she is the Mercy of God; and the holy [Thing] is the Center in that [Virtue or Power,] and that is the eternal Birth of the holy Trinity; and the Holy Ghost (which goes forth out of the Center of God) overshadowed the Humanity of Mary. Thou must not think that the corrupted Humanity has comprehended the holy Deity as its own, so that we might as it were say, that Mary (in her corrupted Humanity) is like God: No; the very pure Element together with the Paradise is inferior to God; and though indeed we are generated out of his [Power or] Virtue, yet that [Virtue] is substantial, and God is purely Spirit; for the Name of God has its Original in the Center of the Spirit, and not in the Heaven; only the Light in the Center is the holy [Thing,] and [the Light] has no Center, for it is the End of fall Things.

(27) Therefore now we know, that we were not created to generate [that which is] earthly, but heavenly, out of the Body of the pure Element, which [Body] Adam had before his Sleep, and [before] his Eve [was,] when he was neither Man nor Woman [Male nor Female,] but one only Image of God, full of Chastity, out of the pure Element. He should have generated an Image again like himself; but because he went into the Spirit of this World, therefore his Body became earthly, and so the heavenly Birth was gone, and God must make the Woman out of him, as is before mentioned. Now if we, the Children of Eve, are to be helped, then there must come a new Virgin, and bear us a Son, who should be God with us, and in us.

(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.

(71) Here we clearly find what Christ said to his Father concerning us Men; Behold the Men were thine, and thou hast given them to me; and I will that they be with me where I am, that they may see my Glory. When the Word (or Heart of God) went into the holy Ternary, there it was the Son of the Father, and also his Servant, as Isaiah says, and as it is in the Psalms; for he had [united or] espoused himself to the Element, and had the Form of a Servant; but the Word which went into the [pure] Element, was his Son; and thus he took our Soul upon him, not only as a Brother, for the Limbus of God (in the heavenly Tincture) was the Man, and that was our Lord; for the whole World stands in the Might thereof, and that Might shall sweep the Threshing-Floor of this World. And thus we are his Servants, and also his Brethren in respect of his Mother; but in respect of his Father we are his Servants; and before the Fall we were the Father's, also till his Humanity [or Incarnation,] though in the Word of the Promise [it was,] in which the faithful entered into God.

(37) We cannot say, that the heavenly Virgin of the Mercy of God (viz. that which entered into Mary out of the Council of God) is become earthly; but we say, that the Soul of Mary has comprehended the heavenly Virgin; and that the heavenly Virgin has put the heavenly new pure Garment of the holy Element out of the chaste Virgin of God, viz. out of the [Barmhertzigkeit, Mercifulness, or] Mercy of God, on to the Soul of Mary, as a new regenerated Man; and in that same she has conceived the Saviour of all the World, and borne him into this World. Therefore he said to the Jews, / am from above, but you are from beneath, and of this World. I am not of this World. And he said also to Pilate, My Kingdom is not of this World. This ought highly to be considered.

(39) For Christ brought no strange Soul out of Heaven with him, into the highly blessed heavenly pure Virgin; but as all Souls are generated, so Christ also received his Soul in his Body, though in his undefiled Body of Holiness, which was become Mary's own. For we must say, that the pure Element in the her original Soul) consists. The most precious Gate.

(13) The Soul of Man, which God has breathed into him, is out of the Eternal Father; yet understand it right; there is a Difference [to be observed, you must] understand, [that it is] out of his unchangeable Will, out of which he generates his Son and Heart from Eternity, out of the divine Center, from whence the Fiat goes forth, which makes Separation, and has in fit all the Essences of the eternal Birth, [or all Manner of Things which are in the eternal Birth.] Only the Birth of the Son of God, that very Center which the Son of God himself is, he has not; for that Center is the End of Nature, and not creaturely. That is the highest Center of the fire-burning Love and Mercy of God, the Perfection [or Fulness.] Out of this Center no Creature comes, but it appears [or shines] in the Creature, viz. in Angels, and in the Souls of holy Men; for the Holy Ghost, and the Omnipotence which frames the eternal Will in the eternal Father, go forth out of this [Center.]