(24) Now the purpose of God was to make a beautiful, excellent, angelical host or army out of the earth, and [also] all manner of ideas, forms or images. For in and upon that [earth] all should spring and generate themselves anew, as we see in mineral ores, stones, trees, herbs and grass, and in all manner of beasts after a heavenly image or form.

(2) So that what is of heavenly nature, being drawn down into the images by means of heavenly use and practices, may be enabled to endure with joy the nature of mankind, and sojourn with it for long periods of time. Thus is it that man is the maker of the Gods.

(79) IV. They knew likewise very well that they were not the whole room or place, but were therein to increase the joy and wonderful proportion, variety and harmony of that same place, and were to accord, qualify and act friendly with that room or place of the Deity, and in a friendly manner affect the qualities that are without, distinct from their bodies.

(16) He established in his place images of the light which appeared and of those things which are spiritual, though they were of his own essence. For, thus they were honored in every place by him, being pure, from the countenance of the one who appointed them, and they were established: paradises and kingdoms and rests and promises and multitudes of servants of his will, and though they are lords of dominions, they are set beneath the one who is lord, the one who appointed them.

(20) Behold! this was God's purpose, which [purpose] must stand: that 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.

(3) A naked intent I call it. For why, in this work a perfect Prentice asketh neither releasing of pain, nor increasing of meed, nor shortly to say, nought but Himself. Insomuch, that neither he recketh nor looketh after whether that he be in pain or in bliss, else that His will be fulfilled that he loveth. And thus it seemeth that in this work God is perfectly loved for Himself, and that above all creatures. For in this work, a perfect worker may not suffer the memory of the holiest creature that ever God made to commune with him.

(3) And every God by his own proper power brought forth what was appointed him. Thus there arose four-footed beasts, and creeping things, and those that in the water dwell, and things with wings, and everything that beareth seed, and grass, and shoot of every flower, all having in themselves seed of again-becoming. And they selected out the births of men for gnosis of the works of God and attestation of the energy of Nature; the multitude of men for lordship over all beneath the heaven and gnosis of its blessings, that they might increase in increasing and multiply in multitude, and every soul infleshed by revolution of the Cyclic Gods, for observation of the marvels of Heaven and Heaven's Gods' revolution, and of the works of God and energy of Nature, for tokens of its blessings, for gnosis of the power of God, that they might know the fates that follow good and evil [deeds] and learn the cunning work of all good arts.

(63) In those days shall the mighty and the kings who possess the earth implore (Him) to grant them a little respite from His angels of punishment to whom they were delivered, that they might fall down and worship before the Lord of Spirits, and confess their sins before Him.

(30) And so they inscribe as a testimony in his favour on the heavenly tables blessing and righteousness before the God of all :

(77) But behold! it is not I that have made way for this, but thy desire and highly raised lofty lust has moved the Deity to reveal to thee the desire of thy heart, in the highest simplicity in the greatest depth, that it may be a witness against thee, and a denunciation of the earnest severe day of God.

(8) Then he says expressly: "Send light to human souls that fain would know Whence conflicts spring, and what the root of ills, And of the blessed gods to whom due rites Of sacrifice we needs must pay, that so We may from troubles find repose."

(2) Accordingly, in that He was so mighty and so fair, He willed that some one else should have the power to contemplate the One He had made from Himself. And thereon He made man,—the imitator of His Reason and His Love. The Will of God is in itself complete accomplishment; inasmuch as together with His having willed, in one and the same time He hath brought it to full accomplishment. And so, when He perceived that the “essential” [man] could not be lover of all things, unless He clothed him in a cosmic carapace, He shut him in within a house of body,—and ordered it that all [men] should be so,—from either nature making him a single blend and fair-proportioned mixture.

(35) When they would write of God, then they seek for him without, and absent from, this world, above only, in a kind of heaven, as if he were some image that may be likened to somewhat. Indeed they grant that that God ruleth all in this world with a spirit; but his corporeal propriety or habitation they will needs have in a certain heaven aloft, many thousand miles off.

(22) B And he blessed him with all his heart and said : ' The Most High God, the God of all, and Creator of all, who brought me forth from Ur of the Chaldees, that He might give me this land to inherit • it for ever, and that I might establish a holy seed — blessed be the Most High for ever."

(15) Then many will follow him, and they will labor in their birthplaces. They will go about; they will write down his words according to (their) desire.

(16) And he blessed his Creator who had created him in his generation, for He had created him according to His good pleasure ; for He knew and perceived ^ — that from him Avould arise the plant of righteousness * , for the eternal generations, and irom him a holy seed, so that it should become like Him who had made all things. '

(22) Everything, then, which did not hinder a man's choice from being free, He made and rendered auxiliary to virtue, in order that there might be revealed somehow or other, even to those capable of seeing but dimly, the one only almighty, good God - from eternity to eternity saving by His Son.

(13) And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.

(7) Possessed of that faith, he worships that form and from it attains his desires, which are, in reality, granted by Me alone.

(29) For he told them how he had seen everything in a dream, even all that He had spoken unto him thathe should return to his father s house ; and they said : "To every place whither thou goest we will go with thee."