(40) Therefore I say, a Beast is better than such a Man, who gives himself up into the hellish Images; for a Beast has no eternal Spirit, its Spirit is from the Spirit of this World, out of the Corruptibility, and passes away with the Body, till [it comes] to the Figure without Spirit, that [Figure] remains standing; seeing that the eternal Mind has by the Virgin of the eternal Wisdom of God discovered itself in the Out-Birth, for the manifesting of the great Wonders of God, therefore those [creaturely Figures,] and also the figured Wonders, must stand before zhim eternally; although no bestial Figure or Shadow suffers or does any Thing, but is as a Shadow or painted Figure, [or limned Picture.]

(45) But that I now write, that the Stars rule in all Beasts, and other Creatures; and that every Creature received the Spirit of the Stars in the Creation, and that all Things still stand in the same Regimen; this the Simple will hardly believe, though the Doctor knows it well, and therefore we direct them to Experience. Behold, a Male and Female beget young Ones, and that often; now they come forth out of one only Body, and yet are not of one Kind, [nor of the same] Colour and Virtue, nor [shape or] Form of Body. All this is caused by the Alteration of the Stars; for when the Seed is sown, the Carver makes an image according to his Pleasure; yet according to the first Essence, he cannot alter that; but he gives the Spirit in the Essence to it according to his Power, [or Ability or Dominion,] as also Manners, and Senses, Colour and Gesture like himself, to be as he is, and as the Constellation is in its Essence at that Time, (when the [Creature] draws Breath) [first in its Mother's body,] whether [the Essence] be in Evil or in Good, [inclined] to Biting, Worrying and Striking, or to Meekness, [or loving Kindness and Gentleness;] all as the Heaven is at that Time, so will also the Spirit and the Beast be.

(35) Now I shall fall into the School of the Master in his uPontificalibus, who will ask out of what the Beasts, Fowls, Fishes, and Worms were made; for he will have it, that all of them were made out of the Earth, and will prove it out of Moses, and he understands as much of Moses as of Paradise, which he will have to be altogether corporeal. Therefore there is a gross Deadness in the Understanding; and though I write plain enough, yet I shall be still dumb to that deadened Soul which is void of Understanding, and yet I cannot help it; for it is said, You must be born anew, if you will see the Kingdom of God. Would you know [out of what the Beasts are made,] then lay aside your Bonnet of Pride that is in your Mind, and walk along into the paradisical Garden of Roses, and there you shall find an Herb; if you eat of it, your Eyes will be opened, so that you shall see and know what Moses has wrote.

(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.

(6) But that God said, Thou shalt turn to Earth from whence thou wast taken, that is also very true; but the Understanding is [hidden] in the Word, and the earthly Vail hangs before it, we must look under the Vail. For Adam was taken out of the Earth, not out of the four Productions of the Elements, [but he was] an Extract out of the Element, which qualified [or mingled] with the Earth. But when he fell into the four Elements, then he became Earth, as also Fire, Air, and Water. And now what should the bestial Man do [with] the heavenly paradisical Fruit? He could not a eat of it; and therefore God does not cast his heavenly Kingdom to Beasts and Swine, but it belongs to Angels.

(2) Therefore none should scorn or despise another, though he leads not the same Course that he does himself; or though he be not of that Way in his Mind and Will which himself is; or that another cannot learn and follow the same stately courtly Manners and Behaviour with himself. For the natural Heaven makes every one, according as its Form (in its Influences) is, at all Times; and so every Creature gets its Condition, Form [or Shape,] Inclination and Will, which cannot wholly be taken away from the outward Man, till the [natural] Heaven breaks its Beast. Therefore we ought to consider the great Strife in us; when we are regenerated out of the Eternal, then the Eternal strives against the Corruptible, against the Malice and Falshood of the Corruptible.

(7) So also it is very clear and manifest, that before the Curse there grew not such venomous [or poisonous] Thorns and Thistles, and poisonous Fruits; and if God had not cursed the Earth (from the [one] Element) then no Beast should have been so fierce and [mischievous or] evil; for God said, Let the Earth be cursed for thy Sake. From whence now is also arisen the Disobedience of the Beasts towards Man, and their Wildness, [or flying in their Face,] as also, that they are so [cruel,] fierce, [mischievous,] and evil, and that Man must hide himself from their fierce Rage and Fury;] whereas God (in the Creation) gave all into his Power, all Beasts of the Field should be in Subjection under him, which now is quite contrary; for Man is become a Wolf to them [in devouring the Beasts,] and they are [like] Lions against him, and there is mere Eternity against one another; he can scarce order the tame Beasts, much less the wild.

(10) God could well have created Creatures which should have managed the Beasts, [so] that Man might well have staid in Paradise in the angelical Form; and besides that, there are already, in all the four Elements, Creatures without a Soul; God would well have laid the Labour [or Charge] of Managing the Beasts upon another Generation, which were also 1 earthly. But he saw well that Man would not stand, therefore instantly the Burthen was laid upon him, as Moses also writes of it. Or of the four Elements. 1 1. But if God would have had bestial Men, then he would have created them so in the Beginning, and given them no Commandment, neither should they have been tempted; as indeed the Beasts have no Law.

(38) For to a Beast, (which is created out of Matter,) no Sin may be imputed, for its Spirit reaches not the first Principle; but it has its Original in the third Principle, in the elementary and syderial Kingdom, in the Corruptibility, and it reaches not the Deity, as the Devil and the Soul of Man do.

(37) If we will be still so very earthly minded, as to think that God made all the Beasts of a Lump of Earth, of what then is their Spirit made? Seeing that Earth is not very Flesh, and the Blood is not mere Water. Besides, the Earth and the Water is not Life; and though the a Air comes in it, yet it still remains such an Essence as springs only in the Fiat, and the Tincture which rises up in the Fire, and from whence the noble Life is stirred is hidden.

(29) Every Beast has a Mind, having a Will, and the five Senses therein, so that it can distinguish therein what is good or ill for it. But where remain the Senses in the Will [that come] out of the Gates of the Deep, where the Will discovers itself [or glimmers] in the first Principle in infinitum, [infinitely,] Animal or living Creature. mOf. out of which the Understanding proceeds, so that Man can see into all Things into their Essences, how high they are graduated, whereupon follows the Distinction [or different Articulation] of the Tongue? For if a Beast had them, then it could also speak, and distinguish Voices, and speak of the Things that are in Substance [or Being,] and search into the Originality. But because it is not out of the Eternal, therefore it has no Understanding in the Light of Nature, be it never so nimble and crafty; neither does its Strength and Force avail to the lifting it up into Understanding; no, it is all in vain.

(63) Then thou has great Honour for thy Shame. And therefore why art thou so sad? Lift up thyself out of thy wild Beast, Hunter, or Persecutor, as a fair Flower springs out of the Earth. O dost thou suppose, thou wild Beast, that my Spirit is mad, that it so little esteemed thee? Thou sayest I am indeed thy Beast, yet thou art born out of me; if I had not grown forth, thou hadst not been neither. Hearken thou my Beast, I am greater than thou; when thou wast to be, there I was thy Master- framer; my Essences are out of the Root of the Eternity, but thou art from this World, and thou breakest [or corruptest,] but I live in my Source [or Quality] eternally; therefore am I much nobler than thou; thou livest in the fierce [wrathful] Source, but I will put strong fierce Property into the Light, into the eternal Joy; my Works stand in Power, and thine remain in the Figure; when I shall once be released from thee, then I shall take thee no more to be my Beast again, but [I will take] my new Body which I brought forth in thee, in thy deepest Root of the holy Element. I will no more have thy rough Productions of the four Elements, Death swallows thee up. But I spring and grow out of thee, with my new Body, as a Flower out of the Root; I will forget thee. For the Glory of God (which cursed thee together with the Earth) has grafted my Root again in his Son, and my Body grows in the holy Element before God. Therefore thou art but my wild Beast, which dost plague me, and make me sick here, upon which the Devil rides, as upon his accursed Horse; and although the World scorn thee, I regard not that, it does that for my Sake; and yet it cannot see me, neither can it know me. And why then is it so mad? It cannot murder me, for I am not in it.

(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?

(4) For as God said to the Matrix of the Earth, Let there come forth all Kinds of Beasts, so the Fiat created Beasts out of all the Essences; and first divided the Matrix, and after that the Essences and Qualities; and then he created them out of the divided Matrix, Male and Female. But because the Creatures were material, therefore every Kind [Species or Generation] must thus propagate itself from every Essence; but with the Angels not so, but [their Propagation was] sudden and swift; as God's Thoughts are, so were they.

(20) Although indeed we can say this with Ground of Truth, that the Constellation images and forms no Man, as to [make him to be] the Similitude and Image of God; but [it forms only] a Beast in the Will, Manners, and Senses; and besides that, it has no Might nor Understanding, to be able to figure [or form] a Similitude of God: Though indeed it elevates itself in the highest [it can,] in the Will after the Similitude of God, yet it generates only a pleasant, subtle, and lusty Beast in Man (as also in other Creatures) and no more. Only the eternal Essences, which are propagated from Adam in all Men, they continue with the hidden Element (wherein the Image consists) standing in Man, but yet altogether hidden, unless the new Birth in the Water, and the Holy Ghost [or Spirit] of God [be attained.]

(39) Now then if the Beast's [or Animal's Nature] was merely out of a Lump of Earth, then they would eat Earth; but feeling fit is proceeded out of the Matrix of the Earth by the Fiat, therefore it desires also such Food as the Matrix affords out of its own Essence; and that is not Earth, but Flesh. Yet this Flesh now is a Mass whence the hBody comes, and the Spirit of the Constellation makes the i Tincture therein; which [Spirit] rules over all as in one Mother, and in every Life it makes the Understanding. For the Spirit of the Constellation rules in all Things, in the Earth, Stones, Metals, Elements and Creatures.

(65) Or what shall my noble Warrior Christ say to it? Have not I [says Christ] broken thy wild Beast? Am I not entered into the Death? I have cut off from thy Soul the four Elements, and the Wickedness [or Malice] of the Devil, and have inoculated thy Soul into my Virtue [or Power,] that thy Body might spring and grow again out of my Body, out of the holy Element before God; and I have bound myself to thee by my Spirit. Have I not made a Covenant with thee, that thou shouldst be mine? Have I not given thee my Body for Food, and my Blood for Drink? Have I not given thee my Spirit for a Conductor, and allotted thee my Kingdom for thy own? Why dost thou despise me, and go away from me? Thou runnest after the Wolves and the Dogs, and howlest with them, and thou seekest only after Anger, and how thou mayest bite [and devour;] thou swallowest nothing but Fierceness [into thee.] What shall I say? I have in my Suffering and Death (by my Regeneration) generated no such Beast, and therefore I will not have it, except it be again born anew in me, to an angelical Image, and then it shall be with me.

(26) And though it be clear that the Stars in the outward Birth [Geniture or Operation] alter the Essences in every one according to their Source [Quality, Influence, or Property,] yet the Element is still there, and they cannot alter that with their Power, except Man himself does it; they have only the outward Region; and besides, the Devil dares not 1 image [or imprint] himself, before the Time of the Understanding, when Man can incline himself to the Evil or to the Good. Yet none must presume upon this [Impotency of the Devil, and four Elements,] for if the Parents be wicked, God can well forsake a wicked Seed. For he willeth not that the Pearl should be cast before Swine; although he is very inclined to help all Men, yet it is [effectual] but for those that turn to him; and although the Child is in Innocence, yet the Seed is not in Innocence; and therefore it has Need of the Treader upon the Serpent [or Saviour.] Therefore, ye Parents, consider what ye do; especially you Knaves and Whores; you have a hard Lesson [to learn] here, consider it well, it is no jesting Matter, it shall be shown you in its Place, that the Heaven thunders, [and passes away with a Noise.] Truly the Time of the Rose brings it forth, and it is high Time to awake, for the Sleep is at an End, there shall a great Rent be before the Lily; therefore let every one take Heed to his Ways.

(28) If thy Maker in thee does not make the Image of God, but the Image of the Serpent, how wilt thou then bring thy Beast into the Kingdom of Heaven? Dost thou suppose that God has Adders and Serpents in the broken Gate of the Regeneration in the pleasant Habitation? Or dost thou suppose that he looks after thy Hypocrisy, that thou buildest great Houses of Stone for him, and therein dost exercise thy Hypocrisy and Pomp? What cares he for thy Songs and roaring Noise, if thy Heart be a Murderer and Devourer? He will have a new-born Man, who yields himself up to him in Righteousness, and in the Fear of God; him, the Treader upon the Serpent takes into his Arms, and makes him an heavenly Image; such a one is a Child of Heaven, and not thy Fox.

(12) Far more excellent, in my opinion, than the seeds of wheat and barley that are sown at appropriate seasons, is man that is sown, for whom all things grow; and those seeds temperate husbandmen ever sow. Every foul and polluting practice must therefore be purged away from marriage; that the intercourse of the irrational animals may not be cast in our teeth, as more accordant with nature than human conjunction in procreation. Some of these, it must be granted, desist at the time in which they are directed, leaving creation to the working of Providence.