(2) "The kingdom of heaven is like a head of grain that sprouted in a field. And when it was ripe, it scattered its seed, and again it filled the field with heads of grain for another year. So with you, be eager to harvest for yourselves a head of the grain of life that you may be filled with the kingdom.

(20) The disciples said to Jesus, "Tell us what the Kingdom of Heaven is like." He said to them, "It is like a mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds. But when it falls on tilled soil, it produces a great plant and becomes a shelter for birds of the sky."

(24) For this World is like a Field, wherein good Seed is sown, into which the Enemy calls Weeds [or Tares,] and goes his Way, which grow together until the Time of the Harvest, when all the [Fruit] shall be gathered, and brought into the Barn; of which Christ also saith, That the Tares [or Weeds] shall be tied up in Bundles, and cast into the Fire, and the Wheat shall be brought into the Barn. The holy Gate.

(36) Thus I give you accurately to understand what Man is, and what Man sows, and what grows in the Seed, viz. three Kingdoms, as is above-mentioned; and seeing the three Kingdoms are thus sown, so are they in like Manner before the Tree of Temptation; and there begins the Struggling and great Strife; there stands the three Kingdoms in one another. The Element in Paradise will keep the pure Mind and Will, which stands in the Love in the Tincture of the Seed; and the outward Elements, viz. that which went forth from the Element, will have the Element, and mix itself therewith; and then comes the outward Fierceness of the Stars, and draws it together i with the outward Fiat, and sets itself [in the Rule or Dominion,] whereby the inward Will in the Love together with the Element and the Paradise becomes darkened; and the Love in the Paradise goes into its Ether, and is extinguished in the Tincture of the Seed; and the heavenly Center goes under, for it passes into its Principle.

(23) Now consider what thou lettest into thy Mind by thy Senses, for thou hast in each Kingdom a Maker, which there makes [an Image of] whatsoever thou layest into the Scales, by the Senses; for all lies in the Making [or Formation,] and thou art (in this Body) a Field [Ground or Soil;] thy Mind is the Sower, and the three Principles are the Seed; what thy Mind sows, the Body of that grows, and that thou shalt reap to thyself, and so when the earthly Field or Soil breaks, then the new-grown Body stands in [its] Perfection, whether it be grown in the Kingdom of Heaven, or in the Kingdom of Hell.

(57) Jesus said, "The Kingdom of the Father is like a man who had [good] seed. His enemy came by night and sowed weeds among the good seed. The man did not allow them to pull up the weeds; he said to them, 'I am afraid that you will go intending to pull up the weeds and pull up the wheat along with them.' For on the day of the harvest the weeds will be plainly visible, and they will be pulled up and burned."

(23) I pass over in silence at present the parable which says in the Gospel: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who cast a net into the sea and out of the multitude of the fishes caught, makes a selection of the better ones."

(4) Here now stand the great Secrets (which we cannot see with our earthly Eyes) wholly naked and plain, and there is no Vail before it, only we are blind to the Kingdom of God; for God cursed the Earth, and said, it should now bear Thorns and Thistles, and Man should eat the Fruit of the accursed Earth. This indeed is a new Thing. He allowed them not in Paradise to eat of the earthly Herbs, but of the pleasant Fruit. And if he had eaten of the Herbs of the Fields, yet that which he had eaten, was heavenly; and when the Lord cursed the Earth, then all became earthly; and the holy Element was withdrawn, and the Fruit did grow in the Proceeding-forth of the four Elements, in the Kindling of the Fierceness, out of which Thorns and Thistles grew.

(27) But this is Man's Condemnation, that he sows only the earthly and the hellish Seed, and lets the heavenly stay in his Barn; he stays without, before Heaven, and enters not in for the noble Seed; but he gives God good Words, that he may be gracious to him, and receive him into his Kingdom, and sows nothing but the Devil's Weeds in Body and Soul. And then what new Body shall there grow? Shall it stand in the Heaven in the Holy Element, or in the Abyss? Or shall the Pearl be cast before Swine?

(27) These heavenly sprouts and springings thou must not wholly liken to this world: For there are two qualities in this world, a good and an evil; and many things grow through the power of the evil quality, which does not so in heaven.

(27) Thus I must tell you; the Heaven is a Sower, and God gives him Seed, and the Elements are the Ground into which the Seed is sown; now the Heaven has the Constellation, and receives also the Seed of God, and sows all together one among another; now the Essences of the Stars receive the Seed in the Ground, and qualify [or are united] with it, and carry themselves along in the Herb, till a Seed also be in the Herb.

(9) Jesus said, "Now the sower went out, took a handful (of seeds), and scattered them. Some fell on the road; the birds came and gathered them up. Others fell on the rock, did not take root in the soil, and did not produce ears. And others fell on thorns; they choked the seed(s) and worms ate them. And others fell on the good soil and produced good fruit: it bore sixty per measure and a hundred and twenty per measure."

(47) And seeing Adam was gone out of Paradise into the Spirit of this World, therefore now the Strife was already between the two Kingdoms (viz. the Kingdom of Heaven, and the Kingdom of Hell) about the Children of Eve; and here it is seen that the Wrath had the Victory; and the Spirit of God complains, not without Cause, [saying,] I am as a Grape-Gatherer that gleaneth, and yet fain would eat of the best Fruit.

(28) For heaven has but one form or manner: nothing grows there which is not good. Lord Lucifer alone has deformed and dressed this world in that manner: Therefore was mother Eve ashamed, when she had eaten of that which was dressed by the evil quality; in like manner also she was ashamed of her members of generation, which she had caused by the biting of this apple.

(38) Thus this Kingdom took Beginning with Cain, and it has its Ground from the Devil, who is a Mocker of God; for the Devil desires nothing else but strong and mighty Exalting in his own Power above the Thrones of Heaven; but he cannot get in, and therefore he is so maliciously enraged, and his Source [or Quality] stands in the Anguish, not towards the Birth, but towards the Source of Fire. Of the Kingdom of Christ in this World.

(27) And thy seed will be as the dust of the earth, and thou wilt increase to the west and to the east, to the north and the south, and in thee and in thy seed will all the families of the nations be blessed.

(14) And he looked toward heaven, and beheld the stars. And He said unto him : " So shall thy seed be."

(38) Besides, I hear a great Howling and Lamentation, that all thy Servants cry Woe over thee, because thou plaguest them; and moreover, thou hast shed my noble Seed, and not sown it, but [thou hast sown] thy wild [Seed] for [the promoting of] thy great Devouring and Pomp. Behold, I have spewed thee out towards Babel in the Press of my fierce Wrath, and there I will press thee; and I will plant my Lily-Branch in my Garden of Roses, which brings me forth Fruit, after which my Soul lusts, of which my sick Adam shall eat, that he may be strong, and may go into Paradise. Of the Thrusting Adam and Eve out of the Paradise of the Garden in Eden.

(2) Then the seed of Ham and Japheth forms twelve kingdoms, and their other seed enters into the kingdom of other people.

(23) Thus the earth brought forth no strange life, except that which had been in it from eternity: As before the time of the wrath it had brought forth heavenly fruits, which had a holy, pure heavenly body, and were the food of angels, so now it brought forth fruits according to its comprehensible, palpable, hard, evil, wrathful, poisonous, venomous, half-dead kind; for as the mother was, so were her children.