g That is, her imagination leads into her resignation into wisdom.
h Or with the mixing.
i Or his vein.
k Or lovely.

• Note: The soul has power to speak of the unbreakable band, but not of the unfathomable mercy.

[wishing] to live in the fire of severity, was thus corrupted and remained a devil.

22. However, if the soul raises her imagination before her into the light, in meekness and humility, and does not use her strong fire-power to h qualify meaning to operate or manifest as Lucifer did, then she is fed by the Verbo Domini Word of the Lord. She draws her power, life, and strength in the Word of the Lord, which is the i source that is lovely, kind, humble, and k soft, in which the laughter and the fountain of the eternal song of praise arises. In this imagination she is an angel and a child of God, and she sees the eternal mercy from the * unbreakable band. Of that same band she has the power to speak for it is her own being, but not of the infinite bearing, for that has neither beginning nor end.

l Or of the infinite mercy.
m That is, in the dominion of the wrath of God.
n Understand, those who are saved in hope.
o That is, the whore of the Beast.
p Or, that she turns her highest ornament to shame.

23. But if she presumes to speak of the l space or measurability, then she becomes a liar and becomes troubled. For she lies against the unmeasurable deity, just as the Anti-Christ does, who wants to have the deity only above the starred heaven so that he may remain God on earth, riding on the great Beast. Yet this Beast must from now on m shortly go into the original sulfur-pool, n into the kingdom of King Lucifer. For the time of the Revelation and the spewing out [of the Beast] is coming. This may be understood well enough here by the n children of hope; but for the servants of the o Anti-Christ, there is a wall and a seal before it until the wrath is completed over her harlotries and she is paid. She p shames the crown of her kingdom that was hers, and the eyes of the blind are opened. Then she sits as a shameful whore who is judged to damnation by every man.

a Understand, true resignation or the total giving over into the mercy of God.
b Or takes origin.

24. If you raise your senses and mind and travel on the a chariot of the soul as mentioned above, and behold yourself together with all creatures, and think how the birth of your life originated in you, and the light of your life, which you can see by a reflection of the sun; and also, without the luster of the sun, through your imagination into a great distance where the eyes of your body do not reach. Think then what the cause might be that you are more clever

Chapter 4. Of the true eternal nature.

than other creatures, since you can investigate what is in all things. Think further from where the elements, fire and air, take their origin, and how the fire is in the water and bears itself in the water, and how the light of your body bears itself in the water.

c Or continuously continues.
d There is no above nor below.
e Or keeps in constraint.
f Understand the created world.
g Understand, the first and the third principle.
h Or finds.

25. If you are born of God, then you shall come upon what God and the eternal birth are. For you see, feel, and h find that all these things must have a higher root from which they have become so, which is not before the eyes but is hidden. Primarily, if you look at the starred heaven, which c lasts and does not change, you must surely think from where it has come, and how it thus exists and does not break, or sink neither above nor below itself d although there is no above nor below. If you now consider what e holds all that together and what it became from, then you find the eternal birth which has no beginning. You find the origin of the eternal principle, namely, the eternal unbreakable band. Secondly, you see the creation: how out of the first [principle] the material world with the stars and elements has become, which has the outermost or f third principle in it. For you find in the elemental kingdom a cause in all things, why it, or how it can thus bear and drive itself. But you do not find the first cause, only that it has become so. Therefore they are g two distinct principles, for in the visible, you find corruptibility and recognize that it has a beginning, since it takes an end.

i Or moves.

26. Thirdly, you find in all things a glorious power, which is the life, growth, and the climbing up of every thing, and you find therein its beauty and lovely benefit, from which it i moves. Now behold a herb or wood and observe it: what is its life from which it grows? You find in the origin: herbe herb, bitter, fire, and water. Now even if you were to lay these four things together again having separated them from one another, you would still see no growth nor find it. But if it is separated from its own mother who initially bears it herself, it remains dead; much less shall you bring the lovely smell or its colors into it.

k Or bring.

27. Thus you see that there is an eternal root which gives such things. Even if you could bring colors and k growth into it, you still could not k bring the smell and the power into it. You find that in the origin of the smell and the taste there must be another principle, which the stock itself [contains].