Three Principles of the Divine Essence Chap. 8-16 - meuser

another Image in thy Mind and Speech.
29. Every l Beast has a Mind, m having a Will, and the five
Senses therein, so that it can distinguish therein what is good
or ill for it. But where remain the Senses in the Will [that
come] out of the Gates of the Deep, where the Will discovers
itself [or glimmers] in the first Principle in infinitum, [infinitely,]
g Will or Lust.
h Or parting Limit or Mark.
i Or departs.
k The Wisdom of God.
l Animal or living Creature.
m Of.
out of which the Understanding proceeds, so that Man can see
into all Things into their Essences, how high they are graduated,
whereupon follows the Distinction [or different Articulation]
of the Tongue? For if a Beast had them, then it could
also speak, and distinguish Voices, and speak of the Things that
are in Substance [or Being,] and search into the Originality.
But because it is not out of the Eternal, therefore it has no Understanding
in the Light of Nature, be it never so nimble and
crafty; neither does its Strength and Force avail to the lifting
it up into Understanding; no, it is all in vain.
30. Man only has Understanding, and his Senses reach into
the Essences and Qualities of the Stars and Elements, and search
out the Ground of all Things in the Region of the Stars and
Elements: And this now has its Original in Man, in the eternal
Element, he being created out of the [eternal] Element, and not
out of the Out­Births of the four Elements. And therefore the
Eternity sees into the n beginning Out­Birth in the Corruptibility;
and the Beginning in the Out­Birth cannot see into the
Eternity, for the Beginning takes its Original out of the Eternity,
out of the eternal Mind.
31. But that Man is so very blind and ignorant, or void of
Understanding, is because he lies captive in the Regimen [or
Dominion] of the Stars and Elements, which many Times figure
[or fashion] a wild Beast in the Mind of Man, a Lion, a Wolf,
a Dog, a Fox, a Serpent, and such like; though indeed Man gets
no such Body, yet he has such a Mind; of which Christ spoke
to the Jews, and called some of them Wolves, Foxes, and Serpents.
Also John the Baptist said so of the Pharisees, and we see
apparently, how many Men live wholly like Beasts, according
to their bestial Mind, and yet are so audacious, that they judge
and condemn those that live in the Image of God, and o subdue
their Bodies.
32. But if he speaks or judges any Thing well, he speaks not
from the bestial Image of the Mind, wherein he lives, but he