By Jacob Boehme
91. . . . If Adam would have continued in God, he should have continued the child of God, and God would have continued in his Will, and so the Majesty would have shined through the Will.
92. But he went out from the Will of God, into this World, and so was captivated by the World, Death, Devils, and Hell, and they dwelt in Adam.
93. Adam was in this World; dwelling in the Elements, and God breathed the Air also into his Nostrils; but he should not have put his Will into it, to eat of Earthly Fruit, which makes Earthly Flesh. That was his Fall, that he did eat Earthly Fruit; and therefore his Essences also became Earthly; and the Soul became captivated by the Earthly Dominion.
94. And there the Word of the Lord said to the Soul, Adam where art thou? and his Body did hide itself; so very much ashamed was the poor Soul: And Adam said, I am naked; the precious heavenly Virgin (which he was clothed withal) was lost, as also, the Light of the Majesty; and Adam was without the Word.
95. O how terrible it is to those that understand it; the Soul trembles at it, and it may well be afraid of this captivity, when the poor Soul must be captivated by the Devil, and must swim in [the Lake of] God's Anger. And this is the Cause why God became Man, that he might bring us again in Ternarium Sanctum, into the Angelical World.
96. And as we are all with Adam, gone out from God, for we have all Adam's Soul and Flesh, so God has regenerated us all in Christ, and in Christ, the divine Kingdom stands open, every one that will may enter in; whosoever puts his Will away from himself, and puts it into Christ, and lets all worldly Reason go, though it has never so fair a Lustre, shall be regenerated in Christ: And his Soul attains the Eternal Flesh again, in which God became Man, an incomprehensible Flesh, of eternal Substantiality.
Extract from Jacob Boehme's "Threefold Life of Man",
From: " The Works of Jacob Behmen, The Teutonic Theosopher."
Reverend William Law's Edition: Volume Two; London, 1764,
Printed for M. Richardson, in Pater-noster Row.
Chapter 6: Paragraphs 91-96.
