(1) Grace is from God, and works in the depth of the soul whose powers it employs. It is a light which issues forth to do service under the guidance of the Spirit. The Divine Light permeates the soul, and lifts it above the turmoil of temporal things to rest in God. The soul cannot progress except with the light which God has given it as a nuptial gift; love works the likeness of God into the soul. The peace, freedom and blessedness of all souls consist in their abiding in God's will. Towards this union with God for which it is created the soul strives perpetually.

Fire converts wood into its own likeness, and the stronger the wind blows, the greater grows the fire. Now by the fire understand love, and by the wind the Holy Spirit. The stronger the influence of the Holy Spirit, the brighter grows the fire of love; but not all at once, rather gradually as the soul grows. Light causes flowers and plants to grow and bear fruit; in animals it produces life, but in men blessedness. This comes from the grace of God, Who uplifts the soul, for if the soul is to grow God-like it must be lifted above itself.

The apostles said to the disciples, “May our entire offering be provided with salt.” For they called [wisdom] salt. Without it an offering is unacceptable. Wisdom is barren, [with no] children, and so she is called [the pillar] of salt.Whenever…the holy spirit…, and she has many children.

(167) Thus also is the change and alteration of heaven into many several colours and forms, but not in such a manner and kind as in this world, but all according to the rising up of the spirits of God, and the light of the Son of God shineth therein eternally: But the rising up in the birth differs in the degrees more at one time than at another. Therefore the wonderful wisdom of God is incomprehensible.

(7) And therefore take heed to this work, and to the marvellous manner of it within in thy soul. For if it be truly conceived, it is but a sudden stirring, and as it were unadvised, speedily springing unto God as a sparkle from the coal. And it is marvellous to number the stirrings that may be in one hour wrought in a soul that is disposed to this work. And yet in one stirring of all these, he may have suddenly and perfectly forgotten all created thing. But fast after each stirring, for corruption of the flesh, it falleth down again to some thought or to some done or undone deed. But what thereof? For fast after, it riseth again as suddenly as it did before.

(23) Here the eyes are the chief thing. The two eyes are the handle of the polar constellation. Just as Heaven turns about the polar star as a centre point, so among.men the right intention must be the master. Therefore the completion of the Life Elixir depends entirely on the harmonizing of the right intention. Then, if it is said that the foundation can be laid in a hundred days, irst of all the degree of industry in work must be taken into account, and the degree of strength in the physical constitution. Whoever is eager in the work, and has a strong constitution, succeeds more quickly in turning back the water wheel of the river. When a person has found the method of making thoughts and power harmonize with one another, he can complete the Elixir within a hundred days. But whoever is weak and lazy will not produce it "even after the hundred days. When the Elixir is completed, spirit and power are pure and clear; the heart is empty, ' the essence manifest, and the light of consciousness transforms itself into the Light of the essence. If the Light of the essence is held permanently, the abysmal and the adhering (fire Li) have intercourse spontaneously. When the abysmal and the fire mix, the holy fruit is borne. The ripening of the holy fruit is the e fect of a great Heavenly cycle. Further elucidation stops with the method of the Heavenly cycle.

(4) More of the mount by us was now encompassed, And far more spent the circuit of the sun, Than had the mind preoccupied imagined, When he, who ever watchful in advance Was going on, began: "Lift up thy head, 'Tis no more time to go thus meditating. Lo there an Angel who is making haste To come towards us; lo, returning is From service of the day the sixth handmaiden. With reverence thine acts and looks adorn, So that he may delight to speed us upward; Think that this day will never dawn again." I was familiar with his admonition Ever to lose no time; so on this theme He could not unto me speak covertly. Towards us came the being beautiful Vested in white, and in his countenance Such as appears the tremulous morning star. His arms he opened, and opened then his wings; "Come," said he, "near at hand here are the steps, And easy from henceforth is the ascent." At this announcement few are they who come! O human creatures, born to soar aloft, Why fall ye thus before a little wind?

(56) "Now in the Name of God, take of this Dew-water as much as thou wilt, put in a clean dissolving glass, then cast a little of your forementioned powdered salt into it to be dissolved, and continue to put it in till your Dew-water will dissolve no more or till the salt lies in it four days without being dissolved, then it has enough, and unto your Dew is given its proper powder. Of this compounded water, take as much as thou wilt, I took about a pound and a half, and put it into a round vial with a short neck, fill it with out water and lute it with a good lute, a cover and stopple that fits it well, that the subtle and living spirit of the dew may not fume away, for if they should the soul of the salt will never be stirred up, nor the work ever brought to a right end. Let the lute dry very well of itself, and set it in the furnace of B. M. to putrefy. Make a slow fire and let it digest for forty days or fifty, and that the fume of the water be continually round about it, and you will see your matter grow black, which is a token of its putrefaction.

(1) THE child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.

(59) THEOPHILUS saith: I propose to speak further concerning those things which Bonites hath narrated. And the Turba: Speak, Brother, for thy brother hath discoursed elegantly. And he: Following in the steps of Bonites I will make perfect his sayings. It should be known that all the Philosophers, while they have concealed this disposition, yet spoke the truth in their treatises when they named water of life, for this reason, that whatsoever* is mixed with the said water first dies, then lives and becomes young. And know, all ye disciples, that iron does not become rusty except by reason of this water, because it tinges the plates; it is then placed in the sun till it liquefies and is imbued, after which it is congealed. In these days it becomes rusty, but silence is better than this illumination.

The Turba answereth: O Theophilus, beware of becoming envious, and complete thy speech! And he: Would that I might repeat the like thing! And they: What is thy will? Then he: Certain fruits, which proceed first from that perfect tree, do flourish in the beginning of the summer, and the more they are multiplied the more are they adorned,t until they are perfected, and being mature become sweet. In the same way that woman,* fleeing from her own children, with whom she lives, although partly angry, yet does not brook being overcome, nor that her husband should possess her beauty, who furiously loves her, and keeps awake contending with her, till he shall have carnal intercourse with her, and God make perfect the foetus, when he multiplies children to himself according to his pleasure. His beauty, therefore, is consumed by fire who does not approach his wife except by reason of lust. For when the term is finished he turns to her. I also make known to you that the dragon never dies, but the Philosophers have put to death the woman who slays her spouses. For the belly of that } woman is full of weapons and venom. Let, therefore, a sepulchre be dug for the dragon, and let that woman be buried with him, who being strongly joined with that woman, the more he clasps her and is entwined with her, the more his body, by the creation of female weapons in the body of the woman, is cut up into parts. For perceiving him mixed with the limbs of a woman he becomes secure from death, and the whole is turned into blood. But the Philosophers, beholding him turned into blood, leave him in the sun for certain days, until the lenitude is consumed, the blood dries up, and they find that venom which now is manifest. Then the wind is hidden.

(2) How much more helpless, then, was his condition when he was a mere drop of water! Thus, as we have seen in the first chapter, he finds in his own being reflected in miniature, so to speak, the power, wisdom, and love of the Creator. If all the sages of the world were assembled, and their lives prolonged for an indefinite time, they could not effect any improvement in the construction of a single part of the body.

(38) So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; and should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.

(49) But the astral birth is in its body very sharp; yet the new birth, which riseth up in the water of life, and presseth through death, mitigateth it. But the new birth cannot alter the kernel of the sharp birth, but is generated out of it, and keeps its own holy new life to itself, and presseth through the angry death, and the angry death comprehendeth it not.

(26) And though it be clear that the Stars in the outward Birth [Geniture or Operation] alter the Essences in every one according to their Source [Quality, Influence, or Property,] yet the Element is still there, and they cannot alter that with their Power, except Man himself does it; they have only the outward Region; and besides, the Devil dares not 1 image [or imprint] himself, before the Time of the Understanding, when Man can incline himself to the Evil or to the Good. Yet none must presume upon this [Impotency of the Devil, and four Elements,] for if the Parents be wicked, God can well forsake a wicked Seed. For he willeth not that the Pearl should be cast before Swine; although he is very inclined to help all Men, yet it is [effectual] but for those that turn to him; and although the Child is in Innocence, yet the Seed is not in Innocence; and therefore it has Need of the Treader upon the Serpent [or Saviour.] Therefore, ye Parents, consider what ye do; especially you Knaves and Whores; you have a hard Lesson [to learn] here, consider it well, it is no jesting Matter, it shall be shown you in its Place, that the Heaven thunders, [and passes away with a Noise.] Truly the Time of the Rose brings it forth, and it is high Time to awake, for the Sleep is at an End, there shall a great Rent be before the Lily; therefore let every one take Heed to his Ways.

(1) You say, therefore, “ that according to many of the Egyptians, that which is in our power depends on the motion of the stars .” What the truth, however, is respecting this, it is necessary to unfold to you from the Hermaic conceptions. For man, as these writings say, has two souls. And one, indeed, is derived from the first intelligible, and participates of the power of the Demiurgus; but the other is imparted from the circulation of the celestial bodies, to which the soul that sees God returns. These things, therefore, thus subsisting, the soul that descends to us from the worlds follows the periods of the worlds; but that which is intelligibly present from the intelligible, transcends the genesiurgic motion, and through this a liberation from fate, and the ascent to the intelligible Gods, are affected. Such theurgy, likewise, as leads to an unbegotten nature is perfected conformably to a life of this kind.

(2) Now the Thrones and princely Angels, are every one of them a great Fountain; as you may perceive the Sun is, in Respect of the Stars,as also in the blossoming Earth. The great Fountain- Vein [or Well-Spring] in the Source, was in the Time of the Fiat in the dark Mind, the Prince or Throne- Angel: There out of each Fountain came forth again a Center in many thousand Thousands; for the Spirit in the Fiat manifested itself in the Nature of the Darkness, after the Manner of the eternal Wisdom. Thus the manifold various Properties that were in the whole Nature, went forth out of one only Fountain, according to the Ability of the eternal Wisdom of God; or as I may best render it to be understood by a Similitude; as if one princely Angel had generated out of himself, at one Time, many Angels; whereas yet the Prince does not generate them, but the Essences; and the Qualities go forth with the Center in every Essence, from the princely Angels, and the Spirit created them a with the Fiat, and they continue standing essentially. Therefore every bHost (which proceeded out of one [and the same] Fountain) got a Will in the same Fountain, which was their Prince, (as you see how the Stars give all their Will into the Virtue [or Power] of the Sun;) of this, much must not be said to my Master in Arts, he holds it impossible to know such Things, and yet in God ail Things are possible, and to him a thousand Years are as one Day.

(91) When God had driven the corrupted Salitter of earth and stones, (which had generated itself in the outermost birth by the kindling), together on a heap as in a lump, then, for that cause, the third birth or geniture in nature in the deep, above the earth, was not pure and bright, because the wrath of God did yet burn therein.

(33) The perfect Savior said: "I praise you (pl.) because you ask about the great aeons, for your roots are in the infinities. Now when those whom I have discussed earlier were revealed, he provided ....

(72) As the Father generateth his Son, that is, his heart or light out of all his powers, and that light which is the Son generateth the life in all the powers of the Father, so that in the same light, in the Father's powers, goeth forth all manner of growing, vegetation, springing, ornaments and joy; so is the kingdom of angels also constituted, all according to the similitude and being of God.

(30) Also the new birth blossomed in the time of the creation, when man had not spoiled or corrupted it; but by him nature was still more corrupted; and so God cursed the ground. But seeing man took hold of the fruit of the old body, thereupon the fruit of the new body was hidden in its heaven, and man must now behold it with the new body, and cannot partake of it with the natural body.