(5) The soul is not then sent down from heaven to what is worse. For God works all things up to what is better. But the soul which has chosen the best life -the life that is from God and righteousness - exchanges earth for heaven. With reason therefore, Job, who had attained to knowledge, said, "Now I know that thou canst do all things; and nothing is impossible to Thee. For who tells me of what I know not, great and wonderful things with which I was unacquainted? And I felt myself vile, considering myself to be earth and ashes." For he who, being in a state of ignorance, is sinful, "is earth and ashes; "while he who is in a state of knowledge, being assimilated as far as possible to God, is already spiritual, and so elect. And that Scripture calls the senseless and disobedient "earth," will be made clear by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, in reference to Joachim and his brethren "Earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord; Write this man, as man excommunicated." And another prophet says again, "Hear, O heaven; and give ear, O earth," calling understanding "ear," and the soul of the Gnostic, that of the man who has applied himself to the contemplation of heaven and divine things, and in this way has become an Israelite, "heaven." For again he calls him who has made ignorance and hardness of heart his choice, "earth."And the expression" give ear" he derives from the "organs of hearing, the ears," attributing carnal things to those who cleave to the things of sense.

(7) Now the rational soul in man abounds in marvels, both of knowledge and power. By means of it he masters arts and sciences, can pass in a flash from earth to heaven and back again, can map out the skies and measure the distances between the stars. By it also he can draw the fish from the sea and the birds from the air, and can subdue to his service animals like the elephant, the camel, and the horse. His five senses are like five doors opening on the external world; but, more wonderful than this, his heart has a window which opens on the unseen world of spirits. In the state of sleep, when the avenues of the senses are closed, this window is opened and man receives impressions from the unseen world and sometimes fore-shadowings of the future. His heart is then like a mirror which reflects what is pictured in the Tablet of Fate. But, even in sleep, thoughts of worldly things dull this mirror, so that the impression it receives are not clear. After death, however, such thoughts vanish and things are seen in their naked reality, and the saying

(19) But the animated or soulish Spirit, which qualifies or unites with God, that comprehends it well; but the bestial Body attains only a Glimpse thereof, just as if it lightened: For this is the Posture of the innermost Birth or Geniture of the Soul, when it tears through the outermost Birth or Geniture in the Elevation of the Holy Ghost, and so breaks through the Gates of Hell; but the outermost Birth presently shuts again; for the Wrath of God bolts up the Firmament, and holds it captive in its Power. And

(52) I see not this Knowledge with my fleshly Eyes, but with those Eyes wherein Life generates itself in me; in that Seat the Gates of Heaven and Hell stand open to me, and the new Man speculates into the Midst or Center of the astral Birth or Geniture, and to him the inner and outermost Gate stands open.