(21) As we see that here out of the Earth there springs Plants, Herbs, and Fruits, which receive their Virtue from the Sun, and from the Constellation: So the Heaven or the heavenly Limbus is instead of the Earth; and the Light of God instead of the Sun; and the eternal Father instead of the Virtue of the Stars. The Depth of this Substance is without Beginning and End, its Breadth cannot be reached, there are neither Years nor Time, no Cold nor Heat; no moving of the Air; no Sun nor Stars; no Water nor Fire; no Sight of evil Spirits; no Knowledge nor Apprehension of the Affliction of this World; no stony Rock nor Earth; and yet a figured Substance of all the Creatures of this World. For all the Creatures of this World have appeared to this End, that they might be an eternal figured Similitude; not that they continue in this Spirit in their Substance, no not so: All the Creatures return into their a Ether, and the Spirit corrupts [or fades,] but the Figure and the Shadow continue eternally.

(20) For the Spirit of Knowledge intimates this, that there are Fruits and Things that grow in Paradise, as well as in this World, in such a Form or Figure, but not in such a Source [or Property,] and Palpability. For the Matter or Body of it is Power, and it grows in the heavenly yLimbus; its Root stands in the Matrix, wherein there is neither Earth nor Stone; for it is in another Principle. The Fire in that [Principle] is God the Father; and the Light is God the Son; and the Air is God the Holy Ghost; and the Virtue [or Power] out of which all springs is Heaven and Paradise.

(7) Now we must needs clearly [conceive, or] think, that the paradisical Fruit which was good, was not so very earthly, for (as Moses himself says) they were of two Sorts; the one good to eat, and pleasant to behold, and the other had the Death and Corruptibility in it: In the paradisical Fruit, there was no Death nor Corruptibility; for if there had been any Death or Corruptibility therein, then Adam had eaten Death in all the Fruits; but seeing there was no Death therein, therefore the Fruit could not be so altogether earthly; though indeed it sprung out of the Earth, yet the divine Virtue of the second Principle was imprinted therein, and yet they were truly in the third Principle, grown [or sprung] out of the Earth, which God cursed as to the earthly Food, that no paradisical Fruit did grow any more out of the Earth.

(19) For the Tree of Temptation was earthly, as now all the Trees are; all the other were paradisical, from which Adam could eat paradisical Virtue in his Mouth, and had no Need of Stomach and Guts; for they [the Trees] were like his Body, and [like] the Element, and the Tree of Temptation was like the four Elements.

(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.

(5) We must conceive, that there was then a very pleasant Habitation upon the Earth; for all the Fruits did grow [spring and bud] out of the hidden Element, through the Fierceness of the four Elements; and although the four Elements had also their Fruits, yet Man should not (but the Beasts of the Field should) have eaten thereof. But now when the Lord cursed the Earth, then the Element withdrew from the Root of the Fruit, for God's Cursing is nothing else, but this Flying from a Thing; and thus God's Holiness is flown from the Root of the Fruit, and so the Root [of the Fruits] remains in the four Elements, in the Out-Birth; and Adam and Eve were also fallen thereinto. And thus now like came to like; his Body also was become earthly, and must turn to Earth again.

(39) 1 have told you before, out of what Power the Tree is grown; viz. that it grew out of the Earth, and has wholly had Might. the Nature of the Earth in it, as at this Day all earthly Trees are [so,] (and no otherwise, neither better nor worse,) wherein Corruptibility stands, as the Earth is corruptible, and shall pass away in the End, when all shall go into its Ether, and nothing else shall remain of it besides the Figure. Now this was the Tree which stood in the Midst of the Garden in Eden, whereby Adam must be tempted in all Essences; for this Spirit should rule powerfully over all Essences, as the holy Angels, and God himself does.

(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.

(4) For no such Earth or Flesh as we carry about us can subsist in the Light of God: Therefore also Christ said; None goes to Heaven, but the Son of Man who is come from Heaven, and who is in Heaven. Thus our Flesh before the Fall was heavenly, out of the heavenly Limbus. But when Disobedience came, in the Lust of this World, to generate itself in another Center, then it [the Flesh] became earthly; for by the Biting of the earthly Apple in the Garden of Eden, the earthly Dominion [or Kingdom] took its Beginning: And the Mother of the great World instantly took the little World into its Power [or Virtue,] and made it to be of a bestial P Kind, both in Form and in Substance.