The Forgotten Books of Eden

1 I was rescued from my bonds and unto thee, my God, I fled: 2 For thou art the right hand of my Salvation and my helper. 3 Thou hast restrained those that rise up against me, 4 And I shall see him no more: because thy face was with me, which saved me by thy grace. 5 But I was despised and rejected in the eye of many: and I was in their eyes like lead, 6 And strength was mine from thyself and help. 7 Thou didst set me a lamp at my right hand and at my left: and in me there shall be nothing that is not bright: 8 And I was clothed with the covering of thy Spirit, and thou didst remove from me my raiment of skin; 9 For thy right hand lifted me up and removed sickness from me: 10 And I became mighty in: the truth, and holy by thy righteousness; and all my adversaries were afraid of me; 11 And I became admirable by the name of the Lord, and was justified by His gentleness, and His rest is for ever and ever. Hallelujah.

1 I poured out praise to the Lord, for I am His: 2 And I will speak His holy song, for my heart is with Him. 3 For His harp is in my hands, and the Odes of His rest shall not be silent. 4 I will cry unto him from my whole heart: I will praise and exalt Him with all my members. 5 For from the east and even to the west is His praise: 6 And from the south and even to the north is the confession of Him: 7 And from the top of the hills to their utmost bound is His perfection. 8 Who can write the Psalms of the Lord, or who read them? 9 Or who can train his soul for life, that his soul may be saved, 10 Or who can rest on the Most High, so that with His mouth he may speak? 11 Who is able to interpret the wonders of the Lord? 12 For he who could interpret would be dissolved and would become that which is interpreted. 13 For it suffices to know and to rest: for in rest the singers stand, 14 Like a river which has an abundant fountain, and flows to the help of them that seek it. Hallelujah.

1 As the wings of doves over their nestlings; and the mouth of their nestlings towards their mouths. 2 So also are the wings of the Spirit over my heart: 3 My heart is delighted and exults: like the babe who exults in the womb of his mother: 4 I believed; therefore I was at rest; for faithful is He in whom I have believed: 5 He has richly blessed me and my head is with Him: and the sword shall not divide me from Him, nor the scimitar; 6 For I am ready before destruction comes; and I have been set on His immortal pinions: 7 And He showed me His sign: forth and given me to drink, and from that life is the spirit within me, and it cannot die, for it lives. 8 They who saw me marvelled at me, because I was persecuted, and they supposed that I was swallowed up: for I seemed to them as one of the lost; 9 And my oppression became my salvation; and I was their reprobation because there was no zeal in me; 10 Because I did good to every man I was hated, 11 And they came round me like mad dogs, who ignorantly attack their masters, 12 For their thought is corrupt and their understanding perverted. 13 But I was carrying water in my right hand, and their bitterness I endured by my sweetness; 14 And I did not perish, for I was not their brother nor was my birth like theirs. 15 And they sought for my death and did not find it: for I was older than the memorial of them; 16 And vainly did they make attack upon me and those who, without reward, came after me: 17 They sought to destroy the memorial of him who was before them. 18 For the thought of the Most High cannot be anticipated; and His

1 The Lord is my hope: in Him I shall not be confounded. 2 For according to His praise He made me, and according to His goodness even so He gave unto me: 3 And according to His mercies He exalted me: and according to His excellent beauty He set me on high: 4 And brought me up out of the depths of Sheol: and from the mouth of death He drew me: 5 And thou didst lay my enemies low, and He justified me by His grace. 6 For I believed in the Lord’s Messiah: and it appeared to me that He is the Lord; 7 And He showed him His sign: and He led me by His light, and gave me the rod of His power; 8 That I might subdue the imaginations of the peoples; and the power of the men of might to bring them low: 9 To make war by His word, and to take victory by His power. 10 And the Lord overthrew my enemy by His word: andhe became like the stubble which the wind carries away; 11 And I gave praise to the Most High because He exalted me His servant and the son of His handmaid. Hallelujah.

1 Fill ye waters for yourselves from the living fountain of the Lord, for it is opened to you: 2 And come all ye thirsty, and take the draught; and rest by the fountain of the Lord. 3 For fair it is and pure and gives rest to the soul. Much more pleasant are its waters than honey; 4 And the honeycomb of bees is not to be compared with it. 5 For it flows forth from the lips of the Lord and from the heart of the Lord is its name. 6 And it came infinitely and invisibly: and until it was set in the midst they did not know it: 7 Blessed are they who have drunk therefrom and have found rest thereby. Hallelujah.

1 The abysses were dissolved before the Lord: and darkness was destroyed by His appearance: 2 Error went astray and perished at His hand: and folly found no path to walk in, and was submerged by the truth of the Lord. 3 He opened His mouth and spake grace and joy: and He spake a new song of praise to His name: 4 And He lifted up His voice to the Most High, and offered to Him the sons that were with Him. 5 And His face was justified, for thus His holy Father had given to Him. 6 Come forth, ye that have been afflicted and receive joy, and possess your souls by His grace; and take to you immortal life. 7 And they made me a debtor when I rose up, me who had been a debtor: and they divided my spoil, though nothing was due to them. 8 But I endured and held my peace and was silent, as if not, moved by them. 9 But I stood unshaken like a firm rock which is beaten by the waves and endures. 10 And I bore their bitterness for humility’s sake: 11 In order, that I might redeem my people, and inherit it and that I might not make void my promises to the fathers, to whom I promised the salvation of their seed. Hallelujah.

1 To the blessed there is joy from their hearts, and light from Him that dwells in them: 2 And words from the Truth, who was self-originate: for He is strengthened by the holy power of the Most High: and He is unperturbed for ever and ever. Hallelujah.

1 Again Grace ran and forsook corruption, and came down in Him to bring it to nought; 2 And He destroyed perdition from before Him, and devastated all its order; 3 And He stood on a lofty summit and uttered His voice from one end of the earth to the other: 4 And drew to Him all those who obeyed Him; and there did not appear as it were an evil person. 5 But there stood a perfect virgin who was proclaiming and calling and saying, 6 O ye sons of men, return ye, and ye daughters of men, come ye: 7 And forsake the ways of that corruption and draw near unto me, and I will enter into you, and will bring you forth from perdition, 8 And make you wise in the ways of truth: that you be not destroyed nor perish: 9 Hear ye me and be redeemed. For the grace of God I am telling among you: and by my means you shall be redeemed and become blessed. 10 I am your judge; and they who have put me on shall not be injured: but they shall possess the new world that is incorrupt: 11 My chosen ones walk in me, and my ways I will make known to them that seek me, and I will make them trust in my name. Hallelujah.

1 No way is hard where there is a simple heart. 2 Nor is there any wound where the thoughts are upright: 3 Nor is there any storm in the depth of the illuminated thought: 4 Where one is surrounded on every side by beauty, there is nothing that is divided. 5 The likeness of what is below is that which is above; for everything is above: what is below is nothing but the imagination of those that are without knowledge. 6 Grace has been revealed for your salvation. Believe and live and be saved. Hallelujah.

1 The dew of the Lord in quietness He distilled upon me: 2 And the cloud of peace He caused to rise over my head, which guarded me continually; 3 It was to me for salvation: everything was shaken and they were affrighted; 4 And there came forth from them a smoke and a judgment; and I was keeping quiet in the order of the Lord: 5 More than shelter was He to me, and more than foundation. 6 And I was carried like a child by his mother: and He gave me milk, the dew of the Lord: 7 And I grew great by His bounty, and rested in His perfection, 8 And I spread out my hands in the lifting up of my soul: and I was made right with the Most High, and I was redeemed with Him. Hallelujah.

1 I rested in the Spirit of the Lord: and the Spirit raised me on high: 2 And made me stand on my feet in the height of the Lord, before His perfection and His glory, while I was praising Him by the composition of His songs. 3 The Spirit brought me forth before the face of the Lord: and, although a son of man, I was named the Illuminate, the Son of God: 4 While I praised amongst the praising ones, and great was I amongst the mighty ones. 5 For according to the greatness of the Most High, so He made me: and like His own newness He renewed me; and He anointed me from His own perfection: 6 And I became one of His Neighbours; and my mouth was opened, like a cloud of dew, 7 And my heart poured out as it were a gushing stream of righteousness, 8 And my access to Him was in peace; and I was established by the Spirit of His government. Hallelujah.

1 I stretched out my hands to my Lord: and to the Most I High I raised my voice: 2 And I spake with the lips of my heart; and He heard me, when my voice reached I Him: 3 His answer came to me, and gave me the fruits of my labours; 4 And it gave me rest by the grace of the Lord. Hallelujah.