(91) When God had driven the corrupted Salitter of earth and stones, (which had generated itself in the outermost birth by the kindling), together on a heap as in a lump, then, for that cause, the third birth or geniture in nature in the deep, above the earth, was not pure and bright, because the wrath of God did yet burn therein.

(50) Thus thou seest and understandest out of what the earth and stones are come to be. But if that kindled Salitter should have continued to be thus in the whole deep of this world, then the whole place thereof would have been a dark valley; for the light was imprisoned, together with and in the third birth or geniture.

(7) Out of the earth sprang up grass, herbs and trees; and in the earth, silver, gold, and all manner of ores came to be; and in the deep above the earth sprang up the wonderful forming of power and virtue.

(48) The seed of man is generated in such a manner as the wonderful proportion, harmony or form of nature in its wrestling and rising up is generated, from eternity.

(2) And the earth beneath did not yet bear a name

(16) So in like manner the earth and stones have their descent; for when the Salitter kindled itself in nature, then all became very rugged, thick and dark, like a thick dark mist or cloud, which the astringent quality dried up hard with its coldness.

(90) Now behold! As in the deep of this world, through the kindling of the stars, a seed is generated out of the body of the dark deep, like the creaturely body, so also in like manner, in man's house of flesh there is generated a seed, according to the eternal birthright of the seven qualifying or fountain spirits.

(120) But it has its life in its seat, and that cannot be taken from it, but death hangeth to it in the outermost birth or geniture, as also the wrath in death; for the wrath is the life of death and of the devil; and in the wrath stands also the corporeal being, or the bodies of the devils, but the dead birth or geniture is their eternal dwelling-house. The Depth in the Circle of the Birth or Geniture. Now one might ask, What manner of substance has it, or what is the condition thereof, that the astral birth of the earth did begin its qualifying, operating and generating one day sooner than the astral in the deep above the earth; seeing the fire in the deep above the earth is much sharper and easier to be kindled, than the fire in the earth; and seeing also that the earth must be kindled by the fire in the deep above the earth, else it can bear no fruit? Answer.

(82) Now when the bitter fire-crack was captivated by the light, then the light in its own power pressed yet higher in the deep, till it reached into the hard and cold seat of nature. And there the power of the first going forth or rising up from the sun could not get higher, but sitting, stayed there corporeally, and took possession of that place for a habitation.

(75) But the light presseth in very gently after, and formeth the birth, which birth, through the terror or crack of the fire-flash, has gotten its [the birth's] compacted body. Of the Growths or Vegetables of the Earth.

(9) The tree of many seeds has grown amid the wide-formed ocean, and in its seed are all plants; some say it is the proper-curing, some the energetic-curing, some the all-curing.

(18) That sprang up first, in the kindling of the sun out of the chamber of death, and was an awakener or rouser of death, and a beginner of life, and climbed up aloft very fiercely, and trembling, till the light of the sun laid hold on it, and affected or possessed it; and there it was caught or captivated by the meekness of the light, and stayed; from which the planet Mars came to be.

(85) But when the lump of the earth was pressed and compacted together, then thereby the water came to be squeezed and pressed forth: But where the water was enclosed and pressed in with the astringent quality by hard rocks, there it is yet in the earth still, and has since that time worn and made some great holes or veins for its passage.

(60) For as, when wood is kindled, the body of the fire generateth itself, in such a manner likewise is the wood generated in and above the earth.

(5) That the disturbance which below is made By exhalations of the land and water, (Which far as may be follow after heat,) Might not upon mankind wage any war, This mount ascended tow'rds the heaven so high, And is exempt, from there where it is locked. Now since the universal atmosphere Turns in a circuit with the primal motion Unless the circle is broken on some side, Upon this height, that all is disengaged In living ether, doth this motion strike And make the forest sound, for it is dense; And so much power the stricken plant possesses That with its virtue it impregns the air, And this, revolving, scatters it around; And yonder earth, according as 'tis worthy In self or in its clime, conceives and bears Of divers qualities the divers trees; It should not seem a marvel then on earth, This being heard, whenever any plant Without seed manifest there taketh root. And thou must know, this holy table-land In which thou art is full of every seed, And fruit has in it never gathered there.

(116) And that must be, because of the outermost comprehensibility or palpability, which must be held and sustained by the astringent fierceness, else nothing would subsist in its body, neither could the compressed, compacted earth and stones subsist, but would be again a broken, thick, muddy and dark Salitter, such as at first moved in the whole deep.

(80) The earth is the fruit of the seventh spirit of God, which is nature or corporeity, wherein the other six spirits generate themselves again, and figure or frame the Salitter of the seventh spirit into infinite sorts of forms or shapes; so that the earth also generateth its seed, which is the fruit of vegetation, as is apparent to the eye.

(46) That which thou hast sown in the ground, that will spring up, be it rye, wheat, barley, tares or thorns; that which is not combustible or capable of the final or last fire, that will not burn at all: But God will not himself corrupt or spoil his good seed, but will husband, till and manure it, that it may bear fruit in the eternal life.

(60) Timaeus: but because there was no void space above them, therefore it pressed against the adjacent air; and it, being heavy, when pressed and poured round the mass of earth, crushed it forcibly and compressed it into the spaces from which the new air was ascending. But when earth is thus compressed by the air so as to be indissoluble by water it forms “stone”; of which the fairer sort is that composed of equal and uniform parts and transparent, and the coarser sort the opposite. That kind from which all the moisture has been carried off by the rapidity of fire, and which is more brittle

(74) Behold the mystery of the earth: as that generateth or bringeth forth, so must thou generate or bring forth. The earth is not that body which grows or sprouteth forth, but it is the mother of that body; as also thy flesh is not the spirit, but the flesh is the mother of the spirit.