(33) For he has made the House of Light to be a House of Darkness, and the House of Joy to be a House of Mourning, Lamentation, and Sadness; that which was the House of Pleasure, Delight, Vivifying, and Refreshing, he has made to be a House of Thirst and Hunger; the House of Love to be a House of eternal Enmity; and the House of Meekness to be a House of Knocking, Rumbling, Thundering and Lightning; the House of Peace to be a House of Lamenting, and eternal Howling; the House of Laughing to be a House of eternal Trembling and Horror;

(2) Here is a god displeased against me; let wrong be overwhelmed and let it fall upon the hands of the Lord of Law. Remove the impediments which are in me and the evil and the darkness, oh Lord of Law, and let that god be reconciled to me, removing that which detaineth me from thee

(32) Now the Master always works on and without Consideration, what he lights upon that he makes; for the Consideration is in the Work. And therefore it is that the whole Nature stands in Anguish and Longing, to be free from the Vanity; as also the Scripture witnesses. Because it tastes the Paradise in itself, and in the Paradise the Perfection, therefore it groans and lifts up towards the Light of God and Paradise, and so brings forth in its Anguish always something that is fairer, higher, and new; as may sufficiently be found and understood in the Mind of Man; and it is very visible to a small Understanding, that in Works always some special Thing is brought to Light, and if you be not blind, you may see this in Men, Beasts, yea even in Herbs and Grass.

(12) If He desireth, He causeth it to rain, morning and evening ; And if He desireth, He withholdeth it, And all things are. in His hand.'"'

(21) God, who is the eternal Light, he is the eternal Will; he shines in the Darkness, and the Darkness has comprehended the Will: And in that Will (which has comprehended the Darkness) the Anguish rises up, and in the sour [harsh] Anguish the Fire, and in the Fire the Light, and out of the Light [comes] the Virtue [or Power,] and out of the Virtue the Kingdom. So now out of the Fire [came] the Constellations, and moreover the Sun, and out of the Virtue came the Heaven; and the Kingdom is God's. All this was in the first Will in the Creation, one with another; wherein God severed the fiery Will from the mild Will of the Light, and called the fiery [Will] Stars, and the mild [Will] Heaven, in respect of the Virtue of each of them.

(50) What is Paradise? All things that are; for all are goodly and pleasant, and therefore may fitly be called a Paradise. It is said also, that Paradise is an outer court of Heaven. Even so this world is verily an outer court of the Eternal, or of Eternity, and specially whatever in Time, or any temporal things or creatures, manifesteth or remindeth us of God or Eternity; for the creatures are a guide and a path unto God and Eternity. Thus this world is an outer court of Eternity, and therefore it may well be called a Paradise, for it is such in truth. And in this Paradise, all things are lawful, save one tree and the fruits thereof. That is to say: of all things that are, nothing is forbidden and nothing is contrary to God but one thing only: that is, Self-will, or to will otherwise than as the Eternal Will would have it. Remember this. For God saith to Adam, that is, to every man, “Whatever thou art, or doest, or leavest undone, or whatever cometh to pass, is all lawful and not forbidden if it be not done from or according to thy will, but for the sake of and according to My will. But all that is done from thine own Will is contrary to the Eternal Will.” It is not that every work which is thus wrought is in itself contrary to the Eternal Will, but in so far as it is wrought from a different will, or otherwise than from the Eternal and Divine Will.