(48) And for this reason hath he been chosen and hidden before Him, Before the creation of the world and for evermore.

(60) in this Body of Nature now was the Kindling made, for out of this Body the Angels also were created; and if they had not elevated and kindled themselves in their Highmindedness, then their Body might have stood eternally in a Stillness, and in an incomprehensible Meekness, as it is in the other Principalities of Angels that are without, distinct from this World, and their Spirit had generated itself eternally in their Body of Meekness, as the holy Trinity does in the Body or Corporiety of God, and their inborn or innate Spirit had been one Heart, one Will, and one Love with or in the holy Trinity: For to that End also they were created in the Body of God, to be a Joy to the Deity.

(2) And as in glass, in amber, or in crystal A sunbeam flashes so, that from its coming To its full being is no interval, So from its Lord did the triform effect Ray forth into its being all together, Without discrimination of beginning. Order was con-created and constructed In substances, and summit of the world Were those wherein the pure act was produced. Pure potentiality held the lowest part; Midway bound potentiality with act Such bond that it shall never be unbound. Jerome has written unto you of angels Created a long lapse of centuries Or ever yet the other world was made; But written is this truth in many places By writers of the Holy Ghost, and thou Shalt see it, if thou lookest well thereat. And even reason seeth it somewhat, For it would not concede that for so long Could be the motors without their perfection. Now dost thou know both where and when these Loves Created were, and how; so that extinct In thy desire already are three fires.

(6) When God Almighty had decreed in his Council, that he would make Angels or Creatures out of himself: then he made them out of his eternal Power and Wisdom, according to the Form and Manner of the Ternary in his Deity, and according to the Qualities in his Divine Being.

(20) Behold! this was God's Purpose, and that must stand, which is, he would re-edify out of the corrupted Nature of the Earth, or build again to himself an angelical Host or Army: Understand a new Body, which should subsist eternally in God.

(46) And this high Mind and Self-will was directly and wholly against the Birth or Geniture of God; for the Body of the Angels should abide and remain in its Seat, and be Nature, and as an humble Mother hold still and be quiet, and should not have the Omniscience, and own self rational Comprehensibility of the Heart, or of the deepest Birth or Geniture of the Holy Trinity; but the seven Spirits should generate themselves in their natural Body, as is done in God. [Holy Trinity]

(135) Seeing then God had incorporated or compacted together out of himself eternal Creatures, they should not qualify or operate in the heavenly Pomp in such a Way and Manner, as to be like God himself. [Now behold!]

(82) For, the Ideas or Figures have in a Manner framed themselves thus from Eternity, and have passed away and altered again through the qualifying or fountain Spirits: For this was the eternal Play, Sport or Scene of God, before the Time of the Creation of the Angels. [x That is, have come and gone perpetually.]

(28) For as the seven Spirits of God had, before the Time of the Wrath, generated themselves infinitely by their Rising up and Efficiencies, whence rose up so many several Varieties of Figures and heavenly Ideas or Vegetations; so also the holy God formed his old Body of this corrupted Nature, into as many and various Powers, as ever stood in the Birth or Geniture in the Holiness. Understand this high Thing rightly.

(4) Therefore seeing in the Resurrection, we shall be like the Angels, the Angels must needs be shaped and figured like us, or else we must assume to us another Image or Shape in the Resurrection, which would be against and contrary to the first Creation.

(4) But I observe that Angels first were initiated in the Divine mystery of the love of Jesus towards man, then, through them, the gift of its knowledge passed to us. Thus, for example, the most divine Gabriel instructed Zachariah, the Hierarch, that the son who was to be born to him, beyond hope, by Divine grace, should be a prophet of the God-incarnate work of the Lord Jesus, to be manifested to the world for its salvation, as becomes the Divine goodness; and he revealed to Mary, how, in her, should be born the supremely Divine mystery of the unutterable God-formation. Yet another Angel instructed Joseph, how, in very truth, should be fulfilled the things Divinely promised to his ancestor David. Another declared glad tidings to the shepherds, as being purified by their separation from the multitude, and their quiet life, and, with him, a multitude of the Heavenly Host announced to those on earth that often-sung doxology. Let us then ascend to the highest manifestations of light contained in the Oracles, for I perceive that even Jesus Himself, the superessential Cause of the super-heavenly Beings, when He had come to our condition, without change, did not overstep the good order which becomes mankind, which Himself arranged and took, but readily subjected Himself to the dispositions of the Father and God, through Angels; and, through their mediation, was announced to Joseph the departure of the Son to Egypt, which had been arranged by the Father, and again the return to Judaea from Egypt. And through Angels we see Him subjecting Himself to the Father's decrees. For I forbear to speak, as addressing one who knows the teaching of our hierarchical tradition, both concerning the Angel who strengthened the Lord Jesus, or that even Jesus Himself, when He had come to manifest the good work of our beneficent salvation, was called Angel of Great Counsel. For, as He Himself says, after the manner of an Angel, "Whatsoever He heard from the Father, He announced to us."

(49) To this End God the Father has created the Angels, that as he is manifold and various in his Qualities, and in his Alteration or Variegation is incomprehensible in his Sport or Scene of Love, so the little Spirits also, or the little Lights of the Angels, which are the Son of God, should play or sport very gently or lovely in the great Light before the Heart of God, that the Joy in the Heart of God might here be increased, and that there might be a holy Sport, Scene, or Play in God. [Alteration] [various]

(2) As Man is created for the Image and Similitude of God, so also are the Angels, for they are the Brethren of Men, and Men in the Resurrection will have no other Form or Image than the Angels have, as our King CHRIST himself testifies. [Matth. xxii]