(2) All things being undefined and yet unwrought, the light things were assigned unto the height, the heavy ones had their foundations laid down underneath the moist part of Dry Space, the universal things being bounded off by Fire and hanged in Breath to keep them up. And Heaven was seen in seven circles; its Gods were visible in forms of stars with all their signs; while Nature had her members made articulate together with the Gods in her. And [Heaven's] periphery revolved in cyclic course, borne on by Breath of God.

(68) Consider this Similitude: Out of the Sun and Stars go forth the Elements, and they make in the Salitter of the Earth a living Spirit, and the Stars remain in their Circle or Sphere, and that Spirit likewise gets the Quality of the Stars.

(67) The whole Birth or Geniture, which is the Heaven of all Heavens, as also this World, which is in the Body of the whole, as also the Place of the Earth and of all Creatures, and whatever thou canst think on, all that together is God the Father, who has neither Beginning nor End, and whereforever and whatsoever thou thinkest upon, even in the smallest Circle that can be imagined, is the whole Birth or Geniture of God, perfectly, incessantly, and irresistibly.

(167) Thus also is the Change and Alteration of Heaven, into many several Colours and Forms, but not in such a Manner and Kind as in this World, but all according to the Rising up of the Spirits of God, and the Light of the Son of God shines therein eternally: But the Rising up in the Birth differs in the Degrees more at one Time than another. And therefore the wonderful Wisdom of God is incomprehensible.

(8) Now: given a light of this degree, remaining in the upper sphere at its appointed station, pure light in purest place, what mode of outflow from it can be conceived possible?

Such a Kind is not so constituted as to flow downwards of its own accord; and there exists in those regions no power to force it down. Again, body in contact with soul must always be very different from body left to itself; the bodily substance of the heavens has that contact and will show that difference.

Besides, the corporeal substance nearest to the heavens would be air or fire: air has no destructive quality; fire would be powerless there since it could not enter into effective contact: in its very rush it would change before its attack could be felt; and, apart from that, it is of the lesser order, no match for what it would be opposing in those higher regions.

Again, fire acts by imparting heat: now it cannot be the source of heat to what is already hot by nature; and anything it is to destroy must as a first condition be heated by it, must be brought to a pitch of heat fatal to the nature concerned.

In sum, then, no outside body is necessary to the heavens to ensure their permanence- or to produce their circular movement, for it has never been shown that their natural path would be the straight line; on the contrary the heavens, by their nature, will either be motionless or move by circle; all other movement indicates outside compulsion. We cannot think, therefore, that the heavenly bodies stand in need of replenishment; we must not argue from earthly frames to those of the celestial system whose sustaining soul is not the same, whose space is not the same, whose conditions are not those which make restoration necessary in this realm of composite bodies always in flux: we must recognise that the changes that take place in bodies here represent a slipping-away from the being and take place at the dictate of a Principle not dwelling in the higher regions, one not powerful enough to ensure the permanence of the existences in which it is exhibited, one which in its coming into being and in its generative act is but an imitation of an antecedent Kind, and, as we have shown, cannot at every point possess the unchangeable identity of the Intellectual Realm.

(1) WHEN Man beholds the Deep above the Earth, he sees nothing but Stars and Clouds of Water, and then he thinks, sure there must be another Place, where the Deity presents or shows forth itself, together with the heavenly and angelical Government: He will needs have the Deep together with its Regimen or Dominion separated from the Deity; for there he sees nothing but Stars; and the Regimen or Dominion between, is Fire, Air, and Water.

(26) in the heavenly Pomp, the Sharpness of the Spirit, out of which, and whereby, the creaturely Being is so formed or constituted, that a heavenly Body may be framed, as also all Manner of Colours, Forms and Sprouts, or Vegetation.

(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.

(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.

(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!