(1) IN the Beginning of the last preceding Chapter, it is mentioned, that it is not strange for a Man to write, speak, and teach of the Creation of the World, though he was not present when it was doing, if he has but the Knowledge in the Spirit. For there he sees in the Mother, as in a Glass, the Genetrix of every Thing; for one Thing always lies in another, and the more is sought, the more is found, and there is no need to cast the Mind beyond this World; for all is to be found in this World, yea in every Thing that lives and moves. Whatsoever any looks upon, and searches into, he shall find the Spirit with the Fiat therein; and the divine Virtue [or Power discovers, or] beholds itself in all Things, as it is written, the Word is near thee, even in thy Heart and Lips. For when the Light of God dawns, or breaks forth in the Center of the Spirit of the Soul, then the Spirit of the Soul sees very well the Creation of this World, as in a clear Glass, and nothing is far off.

(2) Therefore now I direct the Reader to the Creatures, that he may search into them, and so he shall find all Things, and that more wonderfully than any Man can write or speak, if we be born of God. We must not a think with our Understanding and Skill, of God's making or creating, as of a Man that makes something, as a Potter makes a Vessel of a Lump of Clay, or a Stone-Cutter or Carver makes an Image after his Pleasure; and if it does not please him, then he breaks it again: No, the Works of God, in the Creation of the World, were altogether fixt and stedfast, good and perfect, as Moses writes: And God saw all that he had made, and behold it was very good.

(40) For in the Beginning of the Creation, at the Time when the Earth became material, all was generated out of one only Substance, and there was no more done but a Separation made of one from another: Therefore in every Separation there must needs be always a vehement Hunger of one 1 after another. An Example whereof you have in Propagation; for the Sake whereof the Separation was so made: For you see that there is a Male and a Female; and that the one continually desires Copulation with the other, that they may generate. This is a great hidden Secret. Observe, when the Creator by the Fiat separated the Matrix from the Aquaster [or watery Mother;] for the first Form is heavenly and incorruptible, as long as the Kingdom of this World stands, and the Root of the first Form holds Paradise. vill set it down more intelligibly [or plainly] for the simplest Reader's Sake.

(22) This I would clearly demonstrate unto thee in the Kingdom of this World, yea in all Things; thou shalt not be able to name any Thing out of which I will not demonstrate it unto thee, if God gives us Leave; but seeing it will here take up too much Room, I will write a Book by itself of it, if the Lord permits.

(22) Some things my treatise will hint; on some it will linger; some it will merely mention. It will try to speak imperceptibly, to exhibit secretly, and to demonstrate silently. The dogmas taught by remarkable sects will be adduced; and to these will be opposed all that ought to be premised in accordance with the profoundest contemplation of the knowledge, which, as we proceed to the renowned and venerable canon of tradition, from the creation of the world, will advance to our view; setting before us what according to natural contemplation necessarily has to be treated of beforehand, and clearing off what stands in the way of this arrangement. So that we may have our ears ready for the reception of the tradition of true knowledge; the soil being previously cleared of the thorns and of every weed by the husbandman, in order to the planting of the vine. For there is a contest, and the prelude to the contest; and them are some mysteries before other mysteries.

(30) But when we consider [or mean] the Original of the first Principle, then we find the [Nature, Property, or] Species of the Tree, and also the Will to the Tree. We find there the Abyss of Hell and of Anger [and Wrath;] and moreover we find the Will of all the Devils, we find the envious Will of all the Creatures of this World, why they all are the Enemies one of another, and do hate, bite, worry, kill and devour one another. My beloved Reason, here I will show you the Tree of the Temptation, and you shall look Moses in the Face: Keep your Mind stedfast, that you may apprehend it. 31.1 have often given you to understand in this Book already, what the Essence of all Essences is; but because it is most of all highly necessary in this Place to know the Ground [thereof,] therefore I will a set it you down all at large, and very fundamentally, so that you shall know it in yourself; yea you shall understand it in all Creatures, and in all Things that are, or that you look upon, or at any Time may possibly think on; all these shall be Witnesses. I can bring Heaven and Earth, also the Sun, Stars, and Elements for a Witness, and that not in bare Words and Promises only, but it shall be set before you [very convincingly and] very powerfully in their Virtue and Essence; and you have no Virtue [or Power, or Faculty] in your Body, that shall not [convince you and] witness against you; do but not suffer the lying Spirit, the old Serpent, to darken your Mind, who is the Inventor of a Thousand Tricks.

(8) Pyruacoras saith:—I affirm that God existed before all things, and with Him was nothing, as He was at first. But know, all ye Philosophers, that I declare this in order that I may fortify your opinion concerning these four elements and arcana, as well as in the sciences thereof, at which no one can arrive save by the will of God. Understand, that when God was alone, He created four things—fre, air, water, and earth, out of which things He afterwards created all others, both the sublime and the inferior, because He predestinated from the beginning that all creatures extracted from water should multiply and increase, that they might dwell in the world and perform His judgments therein. Consequently, before all, He created the four elements, out of which He afterwards created what He willed, that is to say, diverse creatures, some of which were produced from a single element.*

The Turba saith:—Which are these, O Master?

And he:—They are the angels, whom He created out of fire. But the Turspa:—Which, then, are created out of two?

And he:—Out of the elements of fire and air are the sun, moon, and stars composed. Hence the angels are more lucid than the sun, moon, and stars, because they are created from one substance, which is less dense than two, while the sun and the stars are created from a composition of fire and air.

The Turba saith: And what concerning the creation of Heaven?

Then he:—God created the Heaven out of water and air, whence this is also composed of two, namely, the second of the rarer things, which is air, and the second of the denser things, which is water. And they:—Master, continue thy discourse concerning these three, and rejoice our hearts with thy sayings, which are life to the dead. But the

other answereth:—I notify to you that God hath further made creatures out of three and out of four; out of three are created flying things, beasts, and 4 vegetables; some of these are created out of water, air, and earth, some out of fire, air, and earth. But the Turba saith:—Distinguish these divers creatures one from another.

And he:— Beasts are created out of fire, air, and earth; flying things out of fire, air, and water, because flying things, and all among vegetables which have a spirit, are created out of water, while all brute animals are from earth, air, and fire. Yet in vegetables there is no fire, for they are created out of earth, water, and air. Whereat the Turba saith:—Let us assume that a fire, with your reverence’s pardon, does reside in vegetables.

And he:—Ye have spoken the truth, and I affirm that they contain fire. And they:—Whence is that fire?

He answereth:—Out of the heat of the air which is concealed therein; for I have signified that a thin fire is present in the air, but the elementary fire concerning which you were in doubt is not produced, except in things which have spirit and soul. But out of four elements our father Adam and his sons were created,* that is, of fire, air, water, and likewise earth. Understand, all ye that are wise, how everything which God hath created out of one essence dies not until the Day of Judgment. The definition of death is the disjunction of the composite, but there is no disjunction of that which is simple, for it is one. Death» consists in the separation of the soul from the body, because anything formed out of two, three, or four components must disintegrate, and this is death. Understand, further, that no complex substance which lacks fire eats, drinks, or sleeps, because in all things which have a spirit fire is that which eats.*

The Turba answereth:—How is it, Master, that the angels, being created of fire, do not eat, seeing thou assertest that fire is that which eats! And he: Hence ye doubt, each having his opinion, and ye are become opponents, but if ye truly knew the elements, ye would not deny these things. I agree with all whose judgment it is that simple fire eats not, but thick fire. The angels, therefore, are not created out of thick fire, but out of the thinnest of very thin fire; being created, then, of that which is most simple and exceedingly thin, they neither eat, drink, nor sleep.

And the Turba:— Master, our faculties are able to perceive, for by God’s assistance we have exhausted thy sayings, but our faculties of hearing and of sight are unable to carry such great things. May God reward thee for the sake of thy disciples, since it is with the object of instructing future generations that thou hast summoned us together from our countries, the recompense of which thou wilt not fail to receive from the Judge to come!

ArisLEeus saith:— Seeing that thou hast gathered us together for the advantage of posterity, 1 think that no explanations will be more useful than definitions of those four elements which thou hast taught us to attain.

And he:—None of you are, I suppose, ignorant that all the Wise have propounded definitions in God. The

Tureva answereth:—Should your disciples pass over anything, it becomes you, O Master, to avoid omissions for the sake of future generations.

And he:—If it please you, I will begin the disposition here, since envious men in their books have separated that, or otherwise I will put it at the end of the book.* Whereat the

Turba saith:—Place it where you think it will be clearest for future generations.

And he:—I will place it where it will not be recognised by the foolish,+ nor ignored by the Sons of the Doctrine, for it is the key, the perfection and the end.

(15) Now observe, the Heaven is the whole Deep so far as the Ethera, or Skies have given up themselves to the Birth of this World, and that Heaven is the Matrix, out of which Earth, Stones, and the material Water are generated. And there God separated the material Water from the Matrix; and here it is very plainly discerned, that the material Water is as it were dead, or has Death in it; for it could not abide in the moving Mother, but was created [to be] upon the Globe of the Earth, and God called it Sea, [Meer;] in which [Word] is understood in the Language of Nature, as it were a Springing [or Growing] in Death, or a Life in Corruption: Although herein I shall be as one that is dumb to the Reader, yet I know it very well, and I am very well satisfied therewith. But because the bestial Man is not worthy to know it, therefore I will not here cast the Pearl before the Swine; but for the Children of God, which will be benefited by it, the Spirit of God will certainly teach and instruct them in it. Note.

(12) Now I know very well, that I shall not only in Part be as it were dumb or obscure to the desirous Reader, but also tedious, and he will be somewhat troubled at me, in that I have written of the eternal Mother (wherein the divine Essence stands;) and that I now write, that this Matrix is inanimate and void of Understanding, out of which also a Principle void of Understanding is generated; as is plain before our Eyes, that in this World there is no true Understanding, either in the Stars, or in the Elements; and also in all its Creatures there is but an Understanding to qualify [or to operate,] to nourish itself, and to increase, as the Matrix in itself is.

(17) But we should not here again wholly set down the Ground of the Deity, so far as it is otherwise meet and known by us, we account that needless [here,] for you may find it before the Incarnation of a Child in the Mother's [Womb or] Body. We set down thus much here, to the End that the Region of his World may be understood. And thus we give the Reader exactly to understand and know how the Region of Good and Evil are in one another, and how it is an imperishable Thing [or Substance,] so that one is generated out of the other, and that also the one goes forth out of the other into another Substance [or Being,] which it was not in the Beginning; as you may learn to understand this in Man, who in his Beginning, in the Will of Man and Woman, viz. in the Limbus, and in the Matrix, is conceived in the Tincture, and sown in an earthly Soil; where then the first Tincture A Desiring or Attracting. Dispels. (in the Will) breaks, and his own Tincture springs forth out of the anxious [or aching] Chamber of Darkness, and of Death, out of the anxious Source [or Property,] and blossoms out of the Darkness, in the broken Gate of the Darkness in it, as a pleasant Habitation, and so generates its Light out of the anxious Fierceness out of itself; where then (in the Light) there goes forth again the endless Source of the [Thoughts or] Senses, which make a Throne and Region of Reason, which governs the whole House, and desires to enter into the Region of Heaven, out of which it proceeded not. And therefore now this is not the original Will, which there desires to enter into the Region of the Heaven; but it is the preconceived Will out of the Source of the Anxiety, [which Will is a Desire to] enter through the deep Gate of God.

(10) For as all in the Fiat was held and created according to the [Will of the] a Fashioner, which was the sole and total Workmaster in all Things, in the seven Spirits of Nature, which broke nothing when he fashioned it, nor threw one [Part] from the other when he had made it, but every Thing separated itself, and stood in the Source of its own Essences, so there shall not need much Blustering, Thunder and Lightning, and Breaking, as this World in Babel teaches, but every Thing perishes in itself; the Source [or Flowing forth] of the Elements ceases, as a Man when he dies [ceases from working,] and all passes into its Ether [or Receptacle.] 1 1. And at the Time (before this Fabric [of Heaven and Earth] perishes and passes into its Ether) comes the Judge of the Living and the Dead; there all Men must see him in his, and in their Flesh; and all the Dead must rise through his Voice, and stand before him; and there the angelical World shall be manifested. And all the Generations of the Earth (which are not comprehended in the Body of Christ) shall howl, and then they shall be separated into two Flocks; and the Sentence of Christ passes over all, both Good and Bad; and there will be Howling, Trembling, Yelling, Roaring, and cursing themselves, the Children cursing their Parents, and wishing that they had never been born.

(1) MY beloved Reader, we tell thee this, that all Things from the Original of the Essence of all Essences (every Thing from its Originality) has its Driving [or Impulse] in its own Form; and it always makes that very Thing, with which the Spirit is impregnated; the Body must always labour in that wherein the Spirit is kindled. When I consider and think, why I write thus [many Wonders,] and leave them not for other sharper Wits, I find that my Spirit is kindled in this Matter, whereof I write; for there is a living running Fire of these Things in my Spirit, and thereupon (let me purpose what I will) yet this Thing continually moves and swims on the Top, and so I am captivated therewith in my Spirit; and it is laid upon me as a Work which I must exercise. Therefore seeing it is my Work that my Spirit drives, I will write it down for a Memorial, in such a Manner, as I know it in my Spirit, and in such a Manner as I attained to it, and I will set down no strange Thing, which myself have not tried [and known,] that I be not found a liar concerning myself before God.

(1) BECAUSE we have written hitherto of the Originality of the Essence of all Essences, how all [Things] take Beginning, and have showed the eternal enduring [Substance,] and also the transitory; therefore we will now show further, what is most profitable for him to do, and to leave undone; wherein we will show what God by his eternal Word has ever spoken (by his holy Spirit, by Moses, and by the Prophets; as also what the Mouth of Christ and his Apostles have spoken, what God will have us Men to do, and leave undone.