(14) Before the Times of the created Heavens, the Stars and the Elements, and before the Creation of angels, there was no such Wrath of God, no Death, no Devil, no Earth nor Stones, neither were there any Stars. But the Deity generated itself very meekly and lovingly, and formed, framed, and figured itself in Ideas, Shapes, and Images, which were incorporated according to the qualifying or fountain Spirits in their generating, wrestling, and rising up, and passed away again also through their Wrestling, and figured or framed themselves into another Form or Condition, all according to the Primacy or Predominance of each qualifying or fountain Spirit, as you may read before.

(48) Thou seest in this World nothing but the Deep, and therein the Stars, and the Birth or Geniture of the Elements: Now wilt thou say, God is not there? Pray then, what was there in that Place before the Time of the World? Wilt thou say, there was nothing? then thou speakest without Reason, for thou must needs say, that God was there, or else nothing would there have come to be.

(80) But if thou sayest, it has but one Kind of Birth or Geniture, thou speakest again also like one that is blind; for the Herbs and Wood, which grow out of it, are not Earth, neither is the Fruit which grows upon a Tree Wood; so also the Power and Virtue of the Fruit is not God neither; but God is in the Center in the innermost Birth in all the three natural Births or Genitures, hiddenly, and is not known, but only in the Spirit of Man; also the outermost Birth in the Fruit does not comprehend, conceive, or contain him, but he contains the outermost Birth of the Fruit, and forms it. Another Question is, [Note, how God is in all Things, yet no Creature is He.] Why then is the Earth so mountainous, hilly, rocky, stony and uneven? Answer.

(6) 'And where could its root be except in water? As water is an offshoot, seek after its root, viz. fire. As fire is an offshoot, seek after its root, viz. the True. Yes, all these creatures, O son, have their root in the True, they dwell in the True, they rest in the True. 'And how these three beings (devatâ), fire, water, earth, O son, when they reach man, become each of them tripartite, has been said before (VI, 4, 7). When a man departs from hence, his speech is merged in his mind, his mind in his breath, his breath in heat (fire), heat in the Highest Being.

(81) In the Earth thou canst not perceive, find, or search out any Thing besides the Herbs, Plants or Vegetables and Metals, more than Astringency, Bitterness, and Water: But the Water now therein is sweet, opposite to the other two Qualities: Also it is thin or transparent, and the other two are hard, rough and sour, and always the one is against the other. Thereupon there is a perpetual Struggling, Fighting, and Wrestling, but in the Struggling of these three, the Life does not yet stand; but they are a dark Valley, and they are three Things which can never endure one another, but there is an eternal Struggling among them. And

(73) Before the Times of the Creation he let in the Saltiter of the Earth, when it was yet thin or transparent, and stood in a heavenly, holy Birth, or Geniture, and was in the whole Kingdom of this World, therein it was neither Earth nor Stones, but a heavenly Seed, which was generated out of the seven qualifying or fountain Spirits of Nature; for therein sprung up heavenly Fruits, Forms and Ideas, which were a pleasant delightful Food of Angels.

(68) Now, where nothing is, there nothing can come to be: All Things must have a Root, else can nothing grow: If the seven Spirits of Nature had not been from Eternity, then there would no Angel, no Heaven, also no Earth have come to be.

(17) But seeing the Light in the outermost Birth was extinguished, the Heat also was captivated in the Comprehensibility or Palpability, and could no more generate its Life. From thence Death came into Nature, so that Nature or the corrupt Earth could no more help it, and thereupon another Creation of Light must needs follow, or else the Earth would have been an eternal indissolvable Death; but now the Earth generates or brings forth Fruit in the Power and Kindling of the created Light. Now one might ask: What is the Condition then of this twofold Birth or Geniture? Is God then extinguished in the Kindling of the Wrath-fire, in the Place of this World, so that nothing is there else but a mere Wrath-fire? Or is the one only God become a twofold God? Answer.