(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.

(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.

(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.

(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?

(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.

(16) John was begotten by the World through a woman, Elizabeth; and Christ was begotten by the world through a virgin, Mary. What is (the meaning of) this mystery? John was begotten by means of a womb worn with age, but Christ passed through a virgin's womb. When she had conceived, she gave birth to the Savior. Furthermore, she was found to be a virgin again. Why, then do you (pl.) err and not seek after these mysteries, which were prefigured for our sake?

(37) And the Will of the Heart of God in the Father, is from the Heart entered into the Will of the Wisdom, before the Father, into an eternal Contract; and the same Virgin in the Wisdom of God, in the Word of God, has in the Bosom of the Virgin Mary given itself into her virgin Matrix, and united itself, as a Propriety, not to depart in Eternity; [you must] understand, into the Essences, and into the Tincture of the Element, which is pure and undefiled before God. In that, the Heart of God is become an angelical Man, as Adam was in the Creation; and the going forth out of the Heart of God, with the whole Fulness of the Deity (out of which also the holy Spirit of God, and out of the Spirit the Virgin, goes forth) makest his high angelical Image greater than Adam, or ever any Angel was; for it is the Blessing, and the Might of all Things, which are in the Father eternally.

(85) The Virgin comprehended [or contained him] as a Mother does her Child, she gave him the natural Essences which she inherited from her Parents; those he assumed to the Creature, which was God and Man, the Essences of his Mother (in her Virgin-matrix, out of Flesh and Blood) he assumed to the Limbus of God (out of the [holy] Element) and in these became a living Soul, without blemishing of the [holy] Element; and the Word was in the Midst; the Might [Strength,] Height and Depth of the Soul, reaches even into the Father; and the outward Kingdom of this World hung to the inward, as the four Elements hang to the [one] Element, 1 which in the End shall pass away again, and go through the Fire.

(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.

(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.

(41) And out of this heart JESUS CHRIST, the Son of God, in the womb or body of the Virgin Mary, went into all the three births or genitures, and assumed them really, that he might, through and with his innermost birth or geniture, take the devil, death and hell captive in the outermost birth, and overcome the wrath of God, as a king and victorious prince; and, in the power of his geniture or birth in the flesh, press through all men.

(35) Thus in that fore-mentioned Year, the Angel Gabriel came, being sent of God the Father to Nazareth, to a poor (yet chaste and modest) Virgin, called Mary, (her Name signifies plainly in the Language of Nature, A Redemption out of the Valley of Misery; and though it is plain, that we are not born of the high Nature in our School of Wonders [or Miracles,] fixed, [stedfast, or perfect,] which the a Master of Art, in his Pontificalibus, will not believe,) and he greeted her through God, and brought the eternal Command of the Father out of his Will, and said to her; Hail, full of Grace, the Lord is with thee, thou blessed among Women: And when she looked upon him, she was terrified at his saying, and [considered] in her Thoughts what Manner of Salutation this was. And the Angel said to her, Fear not, Mary, thou hast found Grace with God; behold, thou shalt 6 conceive in the Womb [or Body,] and bear a Son, whose Name thou shalt call Jesus; he shall be great, and be called the Son of the most High, and God the LORD will give unto him the Throne of his Father David, and he shall be King over the House of u Years. dLuke 1,28-35, 38. Jacob eternally, and of his Kingdom there will be no End. Then said Mary to the Angel, How shall that come to pass, since I know not a Man? And the Angel answered her, and said; The Holy Ghost will come upon thee, and the Virtue [or Power] of the most High will overshadow thee, therefore also that Holy One, that shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God. Then said Mary; Behold! I am the Handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me as thou hast said; and the Angel departed from her. Now when this Command [or Message] from God the Father came, then the Nature of the Spirit of the Soul in Mary was astonished, as the Text says; for fit was stirred by a precious Guest, who went into a wonderful Lodging [or Inn.]

(53) And the second Birth of the Soul of Christ stood in the natural Propagation, like [the Souls of] all Men; for he also as well [as other Men] was in the six Months wholly figured [framed or formed] with a natural Body and Soul, with all the Gates of the Mind and Senses; the Soul in the first Principle, and the Body in the third Principle; and then Christ (the true Breaker through) continued standing in the second Principle, in the Kingdom of God, and after nine Months was born a Man, out of the Body [or Womb] of the Virgin Mary, and we saw his Glory as the Glory of the only begotten Son of God the Father.

(50) Now then as the Word of God is in the Father, and goes forth out of the Father into the [pure] Element, and that the same Word was given to Man again in the Fall (from out of the [holy] Element, through the Voice of the Father, with the Promise of the Treader upon the Serpent) out of Grace, in the Center of the Light of Life; so the natural Soul of Christ, with its first Kindling in its Center of the Light of Life (where the Word, with the Consent of the Virgin Mary, had set itself, by the Word in the Father of Eternity) received the Principle of the Father in the Light.

(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.

(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.

(53) And there he spoke clearly of the Son of Man, of his Humanity, and not of his Deity merely; for he says plainly, The Son of Man. But God from Eternity was not the Son of Man, and therefore no Son of Man can proceed from the Trinity; therefore we must look upon it right. If Mary had proceeded out of the Trinity, where should our poor captivated Souls have been? If Christ had brought a strange Soul from Heaven, how should we have been delivered? Had it been possible to redeem Man [without it,] what Occasion was there for God to come into our Form, and be crucified? If it could have been so, then God should instantly have separated or freed Adam from Death, when he fell. Or dost thou suppose that God is so maliciously zealous, as to be so angry without a Cause?

(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.

(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.

(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.