(134) Whereby in the heavenly Pomp always such fair beauteous Forms, Ideas, Figures, and Vegetations spring up, as also various Colours and Fruits; and this the qualifying or fountain Spirits of God do in God, as a holy Play, Sport or Scene. Now behold!

(24) But the wonderful Proportion, or Variety of Harmony which appears in the Growths or Vegetations, and Figures and Forms in this Garden, arises from the Qualification or Operation, and from the loving, wrestling, or struggling of the other Spirits.

(26) For as the Deity presents itself infinitely in its Rising up, so there are unsearchable Varieties of Colours and Forms among the Angels: I can show thee no right Similitude of it in this World, but in the blossoming Field of Flowers in May, which yet is but a dead and earthly Type. Of the Angelical Joy. Question. [blossoming]

(4) Whence, "Seek, and ye shall find," holding on by the truly royal road, and not deviating. As we might expect, then, the generative power of the seeds of the doctrines comprehended in this treatise is great in small space, as the "universal herbage of the field," as Scripture saith. Thus the Miscellanies of notes have their proper title, wonderfully like that ancient oblation culled from all sorts of things of which Sophocles writes: "For there was a sheep's fleece, and there was a vine, And a libation, and grapes well stored; And there was mixed with it fruit of all kinds, And the fat of the olive, and the most curious Wax-formed work of the yellow bee."

(23) There spring up also in these Powers and Virtues, all Manner of Blossoms and Flowers, with fair Heavenly Colours and Smells.

(3) In a meadow the flowers blooming variously, and in a park the plantations of fruittrees, are not separated according to their species from those of other kinds. If some, culling varieties, have Composed learned collections, Meadows, and Helicons, and Honeycombs, and Robes; then, with the things which come to recollection by haphazard, and are expurgated neither in order nor expression, but purposely scattered, the form of the Miscellanies is promiscuously variegated like a meadow. And such being the case, my notes shall serve as kindling sparks; and in the case of him, who is fit for knowledge, if he chance to fall in with them, research made with exertion will turn out to his benefit and advantage. For it is fight that labour should precede not only food but also, much more knowledge, in the case of those that are advancing to the eternal and blessed salvation by the "strait and narrow way," which is truly the Lord's.

(47) For in the Divine Pomp likewise go forth all Manner of Sprouting and Vegetation of Trees, Plants, and all Manner of Fruit; and every one bears its own Fruit, yet not in an earthly Quality and Kind, but in a Divine Quality, Form, and Kind.

(47) This Herb, which I mean here, from whose Fragrance my Spirit takes its Refreshing, every Country Ploughman does not know it, nor every Doctor, the one is as ignorant of it as the other; it grows indeed in every Garden, but in many it is quite spoiled and naught: For the Quality of the Soil or Ground is in Fault. And therefore Men do not know it; nay the Children of this Mystery do hardly know it; for this Knowledge has been very rare, dear, and precious, from the Beginning of the World to this Time.

(65) Behold! thou blind Man, I will demonstrate this to thee thus: Go into a Meadow, there thou seest several Sorts of Herbs, and Flowers; thou seest some that are bitter, some tart, sweet, sour, white, yellow, red, blue, green, and many various Sorts.

(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.

(111) Behold now, when the Mercurius or Tone in this Nature-Heaven rises up, there the divine and angelical Joyfulness rises up, for therein rise up Forms, Imaginings, Colours, and angelical Fruits, which blossom curiously, grow, spring, flourish, and stand in Perfection, as to all Manner of Bearing or Fruit Trees, Plants and springing Growths, of a gracious, comely, lovely, amiable, blessed Prospect, Vision or Sight to be looked upon, with a most delicious, lovely, pleasant Smell and Taste.

(26) Thou must not think, that they are there only as it were a Type or Shadow of Things; no; for the Spirit shows plainly, that in the heavenly Pomp, in the heavenly Salitter and Mercurius, grow Divine Trees, Plants, Flowers, and all Sorts of whatever is in this World, but as a Type and Resemblance: And as the Angels are, so are the Vegetation and Fruits, all from the Divine Power.

(59) O dear Man, view thyself for a while in this Looking-Glass; thou wilt find it more largely to be read of concerning the Creation of Man. This I set down here for this very Cause, that thou mightest the better understand the Power of Creation, and that thou mightest the better conceive, and fit thyself for this Spirit, and so learn to understand its Language. The open Gate of the Earth. Now it might be asked: From or out of what Matter or Power and Virtue then did the Grass, Herbs, and Trees spring forth? What manner of Substance or Condition or Constitution has this Kind of Creature? Answer.

(41) view this World diligently, and consider what Manner of Fruit, Sprouts, and Branches, grow out of the Salitter of the Earth, from Trees, Plants, Herbs, Roots, Flowers, Oils, Wine, Corn, and whatever else there is that your Heart can find out; all is a Type of the heavenly Pomp.

(35) The herbs of the fields were sacred to the early pagans, who believed that the gods had made plants for the cure of human ills. When properly prepared and applied, each root and shrub could be used for the alleviation of suffering, or for the development of spiritual, mental, moral, or physical powers. In The Mistletoe and Its Philosophy, P. Davidson pays the following beautiful tribute to the plants: "Books have been written on the language of flowers and herbs, the poet from the earliest ages has held the sweetest and most loving converse with them, kings are even glad to obtain their essences at second hand to perfume themselves; but to the true physician--Nature's High-Priest--they speak in a far higher and more exalted strain. There is not a plant or mineral which has disclosed the last of its properties to the scientists. How can they feel confident that for every one of the discovered properties there may not be many powers concealed in the inner nature of the plant? Well have flowers been called the 'Stars of Earth,' and why should they not be beautiful? Have they not from the time of their birth smiled in the splendor of the sun by day, and slumbered under the brightness of the stars by night? Have they not come from another and more spiritual world to our earth, seeing that God made 'every plant of the field BEFORE it was in the earth, and every herb of the field BEFORE IT GREW'?"

(29) Every Star has a several peculiar Property, which thou mayest perceive by the curious Ornament of the budding blossoming Earth. And the Creator has therefore rebuilt and revived again the old kindled Body into so many and various Powers, that through this old Life, in the Wrath, such a new Life might generate itself therein, through the Closure of Heaven, that that new Life might have all the Powers and Operations that ever the old had before the Times of Wrath, that it might qualify, mix, or unite with the pure Deity distinct from this World, and that it might be one holy God, together with the Deity without, distinct from this World.

(35) Now when the heavenly Music of the Angel rises up, then in the heavenly Pomp, in the Divine Salitter, there rise up all Manner of Vegetations, Springings, or Sprouts, also all Manner of Figures, Shapes, or Ideas, and all Manner of Colours; for the Deity presents, shows, or discovers itself in endless and unsearchable Varieties of Kinds, Colours, Ideas, Forms, and Joys.

(32) And I came to the Garden of Righteousness, and saw beyond those trees many large trees growing there and of goodly fragrance, large, very beautiful and glorious, and the tree of wisdom whereof they eat and know great wisdom.