Now I know very well, that I shall not only in Part be as it were dumb or obscure to the desirous Reader, but also tedious, and he will be somewhat troubled at me, in that I have written of the eternal Mother (wherein the divine Essence stands;) and that I now write, that this Matrix is inanimate and void of Understanding, out of which also a Principle void of Understanding is generated; as is plain before our Eyes, that in this World there is no true Understanding, either in the Stars, or in the Elements; and also in all its Creatures there is but an Understanding to qualify [or to operate,] to nourish itself, and to increase, as the Matrix in itself is.

Now it may be asked: How then is a comprehensible or palpable Son come to be out of an incomprehensible Mother? Answer.

This indeed is very rightly and properly described, but the true Ground sticks hidden or concealed in the Word, and has never been understood by Man....

Thus the Reader is to understand this Book as concerning three Principles or Births; viz. One is the Original of the eternal Nature, in the eternal...

Neither can I declare it unto thee in any other Manner; for I must write so, as if the Generating, or Geniture of God had or took a Beginning, when...