Índice Geral das Seções   Índice da Seção Atual    Índice da Obra Atual   Anterior: 5 -  Sobre o Pecado e a Morte   Seguinte: 7 - Sobre a Inspiração

(p. 35)

6. SOBRE O “GRANDE TRABALHO” – A REDENÇÃO,

E O PAPEL DE CRISTO JESUS NESSE TRABALHO (1)

            “FOR this cause is Christ manifest, that he may destroy the works of the devil.”

            2. In this text of the holy writings is contained the explanation of the mission of the Christ, and the nature of the Great Work.

            3. Now the devil, or old serpent, the enemy of God, is that which gives pre-eminence to matter.

            4. He is disorder, confusion, distortion, falsification, error. He is not personal, he is not positive, he is not formulated. Whatever God is, that the devil is not.

            5. God is light, truth, order, harmony, reason: and God’s works are

(p. 37)

illumination, knowledge, understanding, love, and sanity.

            6. Therefore the devil is darkness, falsehood, disorder, discord, ignorance; and his works are confusion, folly, division, hatred and delirium.

            7. The devil is therefore the negation of God’s Positive. God is I AM; the devil is NOT. He has no individuality and no existence; for he represents the not-being. Wherever God’s kingdom is not, the devil reigns.

            8. Now the Great Work is the redemption of spirit from matter; that is, the establishment of the kingdom of God.

            9. Jesus being asked when the kingdom of God should come, answered, “When two shall be as One, and that which is Without as that which is Within.” (1)

            10. In saying this he expressed the nature of the Great Work. The

(p. 39)

Two are spirit and matter: the within is the real invisible; the without is the illusory visible.

            11. The kingdom of God shall come when spirit and matter shall be one substance, and the phenomenal shall be absorbed into the real.

            12. His design was therefore to destroy the dominion of matter, and to dissipate the devil and his works.

            13. And this he intended to accomplish by proclaiming the knowledge of the Universal Dissolvent, and giving to men the keys of the kingdom of God.

            14. Now the kingdom of God is within us; that is, it is interior, invisible, mystic, spiritual.

            15. There is a power by means of which the outer may be absorbed into the inner.

            16. There is a power by means of which matter may be ingested into its original substance.

            17. He who possesses this power is Christ, and he has the devil under foot.

(p. 41)

            18. For he reduces chaos to order, and indraws the external to the centre.

            19. He has learnt that matter is illusion, and that spirit alone is real.

            20. He has found his own central point: and all power is given unto him in heaven and on earth.

NOTES

(35:1) Clothed with the Sun. Part II, Nº. 5.

(37:1) Epistle of S. Clement.

Índice Geral das Seções   Índice da Seção Atual    Índice da Obra Atual   Anterior: 5 -  Sobre o Pecado e a Morte   Seguinte: 7 - Sobre a Inspiração