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Cantic. 4.16. Awake, O North Wind, and come thou South, blow upon my Garden, that the Spices may flow out: let by Beloved come into his Garden, and eat his pleasant Fruits.

Chap.6.2. My Beloved is gone down into his Garden to the Beds of Spices, to feed in the Gardens, and to gather Lillies.

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A Bundle of Revelations Untied

Journal Entries from 1670 through 1676

An Expostulation of Wisdom’s Pilgrim.

WHILE I was in my deep Agony, a Spirit of Prayer came down which sent up mighty cries and unutterable groanings which, as I did most sensibly feel, pierced and broke through the Gate of the Eternal Deep so that my spirit had admittance into the secret of the pure Deity where I had audience and free liberty to pour out my grievances, shew my wounds and who they were that had pierced me. Everyone's hand was against me, shooting their bitter arrows, adding weight and pressures to her that was bleeding upon the Cross already, crying, Crucify, Crucify in Dying, let her Die. Now I seeing that I was to tread the Wine-press alone and to encounter the potent spirits, the Throne-Princes of Darkness.  I cried and was in strong Travail. Yet every pang and throw did open the Birth of Life and gave me entrance into the Holy Place where I heard first the Eternal Sounds.  After that, obtaining the Power to be in a stillness where neither motion or thought did stir, I was in a smooth calm water wherein no dirt or mire did cast up, neither was there the lifting up of any too, or making any noise to drown the Voice that spake to me in this wise:

The Voice of the Bridegroom.

"O thou afflicted, tossed and forsaken One, I will marry thee unto Myself. Thou art mine: be not dismayed. Fear none of those things thou art to suffer; for the Power and Presence of my Omnipotency shall be with thee. Thou must be My tried stone, at which many shall fall and stumble; thou hast been refused and set at naught, but I will magnify my Name in thee and yet make it Honourable. Only this I require, that thou separate thyself and touch no more unclean spirits of this World for I can endure no polluted thing to come before me. Therefore thou must be holy, harmless, separated from Sin and Sinners: then, in the holy Priesthood, thou shalt wait on Me."

The Answer of the Spirit of the Soul.

At which I said, Lord, how can this be? For though I have greatly desired this Office to minister about the holy Things that I might be nigh to Thee, yet the Worldly Spirit maketh a challenge to this outward husk or body and saith that I am not got out of the reach of its dominion. Hunger and thirst, heat and cold do attend the outward Man, which do engage its outward Senses for things which are external so that none can live in that pure Abstraction till redeemed out of all Care for the present Body. This was that which I bewailed, and did plainly ask God if it were not possible for the Eternal Mind and Spirit to supply all wants to that which were corporeal without the help of the Spirit of Reason which is King in that Region where the Curse is.

The Reply of the Bridegroom.

After a little while of suspending my outward senses, this answer I obtained, that this could not be till there were a total death of the Body of Sin; referring to that in the seventh of the Romans, ver.6. That being dead wherein we were held fast, we should serve in the newness of Spirit, as being discharged from the Law of the first Husband, to which we were married after the Law of a Carnal Command. Whence we are now free to be married unto Him that is raised from the dead, and so shall become the Lamb’s Wife, jointured into all the Lands and Possessions that He hath. The Eternal Revenues are belonging to her, whether Invisible or Visible: all Power in Heaven and Earth is committed to her, and all things are given to those that are his: whether it be Gifts of Prophecy or of Revelation or of Manifestation or of Discerning of Spirits or that high Tongue of the Learned which only speaks from Wisdom’s Breath.

The Preparation of the Second Marriage.

At which Opening, my Spirit even failed within me as desponding ever to get rid of my First Husband without which no Marriage with the Lord from Heaven can be. For knowest thou not, (was it said to me) that the Law of Sin hath Dominion so long as he liveth? So from hence the Spirit did testify that nothing less then a thorough death would put me into a capacity of this Marriage with the Lamb. For He will match Himself only to a Virgin spirit, incorporating and thereby changing into His own pure Humanity.  And this is a begetting into a Living Substance which springeth through the death of the old. Which, as the grain that dissolveth in the Earth and generateth a new Body, so in like manner doth the New Creature spring forth which, indeed, is Christ, our Life, Whose appearance will put an end to sin in us.

Now what brought in the curse, the care, the toil, and the impotencies which distress poor Man in this his fallen estate but a deviation from his God? And while in this state, he stands as a debtor to Sin, being under the dominion of it.  This maketh him obnoxious to all the calamities which do attend those that live in bodies elementary. But now to hear of a possibility of a putting off of this Body of Sin, this is good Tidings indeed. And verily the Prophet which is risen in me hath prophesied that such a Day is at hand and  I shall be a witness of Jacob’s Star arising and shall see for my self and not for another. Then shall that saying be fulfilled, Death is swallowed up in Victory; even the death of that First Husband who so long hindered my marriage with the Lamb who, by a New Law from Mount Sion, hath set me free from the Law of Sin and Death.  Be astonished, O ye who are wounders and despisers of this grace which I now see is near to be Revealed.  For the garments of the Bride are making ready and it is granted to me to see in whose hand they be.

O Wisdom, to thee only is committed the ordering of this Wedding Garment which of diverse colours shall be that one known from all others, the King’s Daughter who under thy teaching and discipline is committed.
 
 
 

By JANE LEAD.