(93) Behold! that is the birth or geniture of nature; and so, if in these three qualities, viz. the astringent, the bitter and the sweet, the wrath-fire were not kindled, then thou wouldst plainly see where God is.

(119) But that the bitter spirit lies still, and neither heareth nor comprehendeth nor apprehendeth the work of the spirit, signifieth that the bitter wrath-fire, which ariseth in the flash of fire at the time of the birth or geniture of the light, is not awakened by the light, neither comprehendeth it, but lies captive, imprisoned in the outermost birth or geniture, and must give leave to the spirit of light to do its work in nature, how it pleaseth, and yet can neither see nor hear nor comprehend the work of the light.

(119) For the kindled spirits of God generate themselves thus: I. The hardness generateth a hard, raw, rough, cold and astringent quality. II. The sweetness is grown faint, and gaspeth, like a glowing coal splits when there is no more sap in the wood, and there is no refreshment for it. III. The bitterness teareth like a hot plague, and is as bitter as gall. IV. The fire burneth as a fierce wrathful Sulphur. V. Love is an enmity here. VI. The sound is a mere beating, rumbling or cracking, like the noise of a fire breaking forth out of a hollow place, as if it were great claps of thunder. VII. The circuit, region, court or residence of the body of the seven is a house of mourning.

(45) In this kindling of the light, in the stars and elements, the birth of nature did not thereupon wholly transmute or change itself into the holy meekness, as it was before the time of the wrath, so that the birth of nature be now altogether holy and pure: No, but it stands in its sharpest, most austere, and most anxious birth, wherein the wrath of God incessantly springeth up like hellish fire.

(39) And so in the sharp and fiery births or generatings there is nothing but a mere longing of love, a tasting, friendly affecting, gracious, amiable and blessed generating; there is nothing but mere love, and all wrath and bitterness in the centre are bolted up as in a strong hold. This generating is a very meek, beneficial welldoing, and the bitter spirit is now the living mobility.

(64) Now when the animated or soulish spirit was generated in this severe and astringent fire's birth, then it pressed very furiously forth from the body into nature, or the Salitter of God, and destroyed the gracious, amiable and blessed love in the Salitter; for it pressed very fiercely, furiously and in a fiery manner through all, as a raging tyrant, and supposed that itself alone was God; itself alone would govern with its sharpness.

(22) IV. The fourth generating is the fire, which existeth from the mobility or rubbing in the astringent spirit, and that is now a sharp burning, and the bitter is a stinging and raging. But when the fire-spirit rubbeth itself thus ragingly in the astringent coldness, then there is an anxious horrible quaking, a trembling, and a sharp, opposite, contentious generating. Observe here the Depth.

(119) When the astringent or harsh quality, as the father, formeth the word or son, or spirit, then it stands captive in the centre of the heart, and is examined or tried by the other spirits, whether it be good or no. Now if it pleaseth the fire, then the fire letteth the flash (in which the bitter spirit stands) go through the sweet water, wherein it conceiveth the love, and goeth therewith into the astringent quality.

(91) When God had driven the corrupted Salitter of earth and stones, (which had generated itself in the outermost birth by the kindling), together on a heap as in a lump, then, for that cause, the third birth or geniture in nature in the deep, above the earth, was not pure and bright, because the wrath of God did yet burn therein.

(29) For from the fiery quality the spirit becometh trembling and hot, and from the astringent it becometh severe, astringent, hard and corporeal, so that it is a spirit which always subsisteth; and from the sweet it becometh meek or mild, and the fierceness changeth it into a gentle bitterness; which stands now in the fountain or wellspring of the seven spirits of God, and helpeth continually to generate the other six spirits. Understand this rightly.

(9) For the spirit of heat whence the light ariseth (and out of the light, through the water, the love and meekness), could not kindle itself; but there was a birth or geniture of an austere, cold and severe fierceness, which is a drier, a spoiler and an enemy of meekness, and which in the creatures generateth the hard bones.

(74) Moreover, the wrath-fire of God does not reach in nature into the innermost kernel of the heart, which is the Son of God, much less into the secret glory or holiness of the spirit, but into the birth or geniture of the six qualifying or fountain spirits, in the place where the seventh is generated.

(63) But now when the Father kindled himself in the body of the sharpness, he did not for all that kindle the holy source, wherein his most loving heart generateth itself, that thereupon his heart should sit in the source of wrath. No! that is impossible; for the sharp birth cannot apprehend the holy and pure birth, but the holy and pure presseth quite through the sharp, and generateth to itself a new body, which stands again in meekness.

(117) But that the astringent and bitter spirit does so grumble and murmur, when the spirit from the heart goeth through its house, and ruleth powerfully, signifieth that the wrath of God, together with the devils, are, in the house of this world, set in opposition to the love, so that both these, all the time of this world, must fight and strive one against the other, as two armies in the field; from whence also wars and fightings among men, and among beasts, and all creatures, have their original.

(15) But observe here, rightly the earnest and severe birth or geniture, out of which the wrath of God, hell, and death, are come to be, which indeed have been from eternity in God, but not liable to be kindled or to become predominant.

(26) So when the third spirit in its rage rubs itself in the astringent, then it kindleth the fire, and then the fierceness in the fire riseth up in the astringent. In that fierceness now the bitter spirit becometh self-subsisting; and in the sweet it becometh meek or mild; and in the hard it becometh corporeal; and so now it subsisteth, and is also the fourth spirit.

(7) But behold! when Lucifer with his host or army stirred or awakened the wrath-fire in the nature of God, so that God was moved to anger in nature in the place of Lucifer, then the outermost birth or geniture in nature gat another quality, which was very fierce, astringent, cold, hot, bitter and sour.

(4) That water extinguishes fire and fire consumes other things should not astonish us. The thing destroyed derived its being from outside itself: this is no case of a self-originating substance being annihilated by an external; it rose on the ruin of something else, and thus in its own ruin it suffers nothing strange; and for every fire quenched, another is kindled.

In the immaterial heaven every member is unchangeably itself for ever; in the heavens of our universe, while the whole has life eternally and so too all the nobler and lordlier components, the Souls pass from body to body entering into varied forms- and, when it may, a Soul will rise outside of the realm of birth and dwell with the one Soul of all. For the embodied lives by virtue of a Form or Idea: individual or partial things exist by virtue of Universals; from these priors they derive their life and maintenance, for life here is a thing of change; only in that prior realm is it unmoving. From that unchangingness, change had to emerge, and from that self-cloistered Life its derivative, this which breathes and stirs, the respiration of the still life of the divine.

The conflict and destruction that reign among living beings are inevitable, since things here are derived, brought into existence because the Divine Reason which contains all of them in the upper Heavens- how could they come here unless they were There?- must outflow over the whole extent of Matter.

Similarly, the very wronging of man by man may be derived from an effort towards the Good; foiled, in their weakness, of their true desire, they turn against each other: still, when they do wrong, they pay the penalty- that of having hurt their Souls by their evil conduct and of degradation to a lower place- for nothing can ever escape what stands decreed in the law of the Universe.

This is not to accept the idea, sometimes urged, that order is an outcome of disorder and law of lawlessness, as if evil were a necessary preliminary to their existence or their manifestation: on the contrary order is the original and enters this sphere as imposed from without: it is because order, law and reason exist that there can be disorder; breach of law and unreason exist because Reason exists- not that these better things are directly the causes of the bad but simply that what ought to absorb the Best is prevented by its own nature, or by some accident, or by foreign interference. An entity which must look outside itself for a law, may be foiled of its purpose by either an internal or an external cause; there will be some flaw in its own nature, or it will be hurt by some alien influence, for often harm follows, unintended, upon the action of others in the pursuit of quite unrelated aims. Such living beings, on the other hand, as have freedom of motion under their own will sometimes take the right turn, sometimes the wrong.

Why the wrong course is followed is scarcely worth enquiring: a slight deviation at the beginning develops with every advance into a continuously wider and graver error- especially since there is the attached body with its inevitable concomitant of desire- and the first step, the hasty movement not previously considered and not immediately corrected, ends by establishing a set habit where there was at first only a fall.

Punishment naturally follows: there is no injustice in a man suffering what belongs to the condition in which he is; nor can we ask to be happy when our actions have not earned us happiness; the good, only, are happy; divine beings are happy only because they are good.

(70) But seeing it runneth counter, quite contrary to the love and meekness of the birth or geniture of God, and is a contrary or opposite will in the love of God, so that he is loath to hurt man, unless pressing necessity driveth him to it, therefore will the spirit have the wrath-bath or lake of nature set apart to be an eternal parching or drying place for jugglers, perverters or changers of God's ordinance or order: And therein they may practise and shew forth their new deity. Of the kindling of the Wrath-fire.

(90) For when God was angry in his outermost birth or geniture in nature, then it was not his purposed determinate will to be kindled, neither has he effected that kindling; but he has drawn the Salitter together, and thereby has prepared an eternal lodging for the devil.