CHAPTER III

Of the natural ground. How Nature is a counterstroke
to the divine knowledge, whereby the eternal (one)
will with the unfathomable, supernatural knpw-
ledge makes itself perceptible, visible, effectual,
and desirefuL And what Mysterium magnum
is. How all is from, through, and in God. How
God is so near all things, and fills all.

A highly precious gate, for the reader that loveth
God to well consider.

John i. 1-3 runs thus : In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by him, and
without him was not anything made that was made.

1. The beginning of all beings was the Word as
the breath of God; and God was the eternal One
of eternity, and likewise remains so in eternity.
But the Word is the efflux of the divine will or
of the divine knowledge. As the senses flow from
the soul, and yet the soul is but a one; so it was
with the eternal One in the efflux of the will, that
is to say : In the beginning was the Word. For
the Word as the efflux of the will of God is the
eternal beginning, and remains so eternally. For
it is the revelation of the eternal One, by and

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