“Knowest thou not, I was asked, that the law of sin has the mastery as long as it [the body with its selfish tendencies] lives? So that the spirit clearly bore witness and gave me to understand that nothing could make me worthy of this marriage with the Lamb [unio mystica] except an absolute death, since he wedded only the maidenly spirit, to be one flesh with him, [H in H, F against F, etc.] and by so doing changed it into his own pure manhood. [Humanity.] And this is the generation or birth to an actively self-sufficient being, which rises out of the old one. For just as the grain of wheat perishes or dies in the earth and comes into a new life, just so it goes also with the arising and the growing up of the new creation, which in truth is Christ our life, whose appearance will put an end to the sins in us. For, dear one, what has brought on the curse, care, trouble, misery, weaknesses, which press and torture the poor man in this fallen state of his but the departing from God? And as long as he is in this condition, he is a debtor to sin and under its dominion; which subjects him to all affliction and misery, which are wont to follow the footsteps of those who live in the elemental flesh. Now without doubt it is good and joyful tidings to hear of a possibility of drawing out and putting off this body of sins; and in truth the prophet who has arisen in me has prophesied that such a day was at hand. Be dismayed at it, ye that are the wounders and despisers of this grace; which I see is now near being revealed, for the bridal garments are being prepared ... [Cf. the end of the parable.] O Wisdom, the preparation and ordering of the bridal garments is given in charge to you alone, which shall be of divers colors, with which the king’s daughter, [Analogue of the king’s son, the improved son figure of the parable.] who is entrusted to thy teaching and instruction, may be distinguished from all others, and known [as redeemed].” (L. G. B., I, pp. 51 ff., wherewith the magic journey is ended.) Thus there is a confident tone, a hope in that which loses itself in the infinite. But Leade suspects that it is an unattainable ideal and knows what regulative import it has: “Ah, who up to this hour has traveled so far, and what are all our realized gifts until we have reached this goal [union with the Divinity]. Can our plummet even sound it and explore in the deep abyss, the matchless wonder of the immeasurable being? And because the revolving wheel of my spirit has found no rest in all that it has seen, known, possessed and enjoyed, it stretched its errant senses continuously towards what was still held back, and kept, by the strong rock of omnipotence; to struggle towards which with a fresh attack I resolutely determined, and would be sent away with nothing less than the kingdom and the ruling power of the Holy Ghost.” (L. G. B., I, p. 87.)