(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.

(14) Now therefore we say (as the Scripture informs us) that God dwells in Heaven, and it is the Truth. Now mark, Moses writes, that God created the Heaven out of the Midst of the Waters, and the Scripture says, God dwells in Heaven; therefore we may now observe, that the Water has its Original from the Longing of the eternal Nature after the eternal Light of God; but the eternal Nature is made manifest by the Longing after the Light of God, as is mentioned before; and the Light of God is present every where, and yet remains hidden to Nature; for Nature receives only the Virtue of the Light, and the Virtue is the Heaven wherein the Light of God dwells and is hid, and so shines in the Darkness. The Water is the Materia, or Matter that is generated from the Heaven, and therein stands the third, which again generates a Life, and comprehensible Essence, or Substance, out of itself, viz. the Elements and other Creatures.

(29) Thus the starry Heaven rules in all Creatures, as in its proper own; it is the [Husband or] Man; and the Matrix, or the watery Form, is its [Wife or] Woman, which it continually impregnates; and the Matrix is the Genetrix, which brings forth the Child which the Heaven begets; and that is the created Heaven in the third Principle, from whence the Elements are proceeded; viz. the watery Matrix, out of which the visible Water generated itself, and still always does generate itself in the Anguish.

(26) Thus it is plain to our Sight, how the starry Heaven, (or as I may better render it to the enlightened Reader) the Quintessence, (or the fifth Form in the Birth,) is severed from the watery Matrix; or else there would have been no ceasing from the generating of Stones and Earth, if the fiery P Nature had not been severed: But because the eternal Essence (viz. God) would manifest himself in the dark Matrix, and [has desired] to make the Nothing Something, therefore he has severed the kindled Virtue, and made the Matrix clear or pure.

(5) Now the Heaven comes out of the four Matrix, which in the paradisical [Heaven] is the Water-Spirit; and out of that Paradisical [Water-Spirit or Matrix] the Material [Heaven or Matrix] is created; as Moses writes, that the Heaven was created out of the Midst of the Waters; and it is very right. And also in that very Hour the Earth and the Stones, and all Metals (the Matrix of this World being yet dark) were generated out of the Matrix.

(8) For when the Fiat kindled the Element in the Out-Birth, then the kindled Materia [or Matter] became palpable [or comprehensible,] this was not now fit for Paradise, but it was created outward, [or made external.] Yet that the Element with its Out-Birth might no more generate thus, therefore God created the Heaven out of the Element, and [caused or] suffered out of the Element, (which is the heavenly Limbus) the third Principle to spring up; where the Spirit of God again discovered [or revealed] itself in the Virgin, viz. in the eternal Wisdom, and found out, in the Out-Birth, in the corruptible Substance, the Similitude again. And the Discovering stood in the sharp Attraction of the Fiat, and the Fiat created it so, that it became essential [or substantial;] and the same are the Stars, a mere Quinta Essentia, an Extract of the Fiat's, out of the Limbus of God, wherein the hidden Element stands.

(17) For the Heaven is the Matrix, and is called Heaven, because of the Separation, because the fifth Essence of Heaven is separated, and set in the higher Heaven, where the Matrix is more fiery, as it is properly understood in the Language of Nature, and is plain before our Eyes. But here the Quality, Birth and Property of the Heaven ought to be described, because the four Elements sprung out of it, as out of their Mother; and because the Virtue of every Life consists therein, therefore the Original of the four Elements must be described, wherein it will first truly be understood what the Heaven is.

(30) Therefore Moses writes, that God created the Heaven out of the Midst of the Waters: [This you must] understand [to be] out of the eternal watery Matrix, which is but a Spirit, wherein the Paradise is, and the Holy Heaven, viz. the divine Virtue, which the dark Matrix lusted after in its Hunger, out of which the visible Matrix of the four Elements is proceeded; out of which the Essence of all Essences, that now are, were created by the Fiat through the Eternal Spirit of God.

(29) For when the Matrix became dthin again, dead and vanquished from the risen Light, then the material [Matrix] turned to Water, as we may perceive; and in this Kindling before the Light of the Sun (when the Matrix was still in the harsh Fierceness) the Matrix attracted that which was wrought together into the dark Earth, which before the Time of the Creation was but fiery Heaven, in the fifth Form in the Matrix, by the Fiat which the Father spoke through his Heart or Son, by and in the going forth of his Spirit, who there, upon the Matrix in the fifth Form, framed the fiery Heaven, as the highly worthy Moses has clearly written of it. For the Matrix is the Water-Spirit in the Original, in the first Form; and now when it became material in the Place of this World, then the Spirit moved upon the Water in the heavenly Matrix, which is immaterial, (from whence the material Water is generated), and so formed the Creatures.

(8) Thus now if we will speak of the third Principle, viz. of the Beginning and Birth of this World, then we must consider the Root of the Genetrix, seeing every Principle is another Birth, but out of no other Essence; and so we may find, that in the first Principle in the indissoluble Band (which in itself is inanimate, and has no true Life, but the Source of the true Life is born by the moving Spirit of God, which from Eternity has its Original in the first Principle, and goes forth from Eternity in the second Principle, as in the Birth or Heart or Son of God) the Matrix of the Genetrix is set open, which is originally the Harshness; yet in the Light it is the soft Mother of the Water-Spirit. Thus it is seen and found clearly and plainly before our Eyes, that the Spirit of God has wrought there in the Matrix, so that out of the incomprehensible Matrix (which is but a Spirit) the comprehensible and visible Water is proceeded.

(19) You must also mark the Form of the Water-Spirit; when that generates its like, so that it is predominant in its Regeneration or second Birth, and that a Center is awakened in it, (which itself in its own Essence does not awaken, but the other Fountain- Spirits do it therein,) it [the Water-Spirit] is still and quiet as a meek Mother, and suffers the other to sow their Seed into it, and to awaken the Center in it, so that the Fire rises up, from whence the Life is moved. In this [Form] the fire is not a hot burning [scorching] Fire, but cool, mild, soft and sweet; and the Bitterness is no Bitterness, but cool, mild, budding, and flowing forth, from whence the Forming [or Figuring and beauteous Shape] in the heavenly Glory proceeds, and is a most beautiful Substance; for the Sound also in this Birth flows forth most pleasantly and harmoniously, all as it were palpably or feelingly, or in a Similitude, as a Word that comes to be an Essence, or a comprehensible Substance. For in this Regeneration that is brought to pass in the Water-Spirit, (that is, in the true Mother of the Regeneration of all the Fountain-Spirits,) all is as it were comprehensible or substantial; although no Comprehensibility must be understood here, but Spirit.

(12) But to declare this further; when the Matrix stood thus in the Birth, where the Matter of the Earth was generated, then the Matrix with the Kindling became Water; you must understand it right, not wholly in Substance, but it has generated the Earth, Stones, and Metals, and yet the Matrix continues still, so also the Water still continues in the killing and overcoming; Note. whereby the material World took its Beginning, where the Globe of the Earth was drawn together in this Moving, and stands in the Middle of the Circle from above and from beneath as a Point [or Punctum.]

(8) For as the Soul of Man moves and swims between the Virtue of the Stars and Elements, so the created Heaven also moves between Paradise and the Kingdom of Hell, and it swims in the eternal Matrix; its Limit reaches as far as the Ethera [Skies or Receptacle] has yielded itself up to the Creation, so far as the Kingdom of Lucifer did reach, where yet no End is to be found: For the Virtue or Power of God is without End, but our Sense reaches only to the fiery Heaven of the Stars, which are a Propagation in the fifth Form of the eternal Mother, (or third Principle, (or in the Beginning of this World,) the Virtue or Power of the Matrix was separated, where now the Separation is thus moved: And then every Essence in the Propagation, in the manifold Centers of the Stars, have a longing Desire one after the other, and a continual Will to infect, [impregnate, or mix Influences;] and the one Essence, or Virtue, is the oMeat and Drink, as also the Chest [Case, or Receptacle] of the other. Or Outbirth, or Offspring.

(33) For all Things are come to be Something out of Nothing: And every Creature has the Center, or the Circle of the Birth of Life in itself; and as the Elements lie hid in one another in one only Mother, and none of them comprehends the other, though they are Members one of another, so the created Creatures are hidden and invisible to one another. For every Creature looks but into its Mother that is fixed [or predominant] in it. The material Creature sees a material Substance, but an immaterial Substance (as the Spirits in the Fire and in the Air) it sees not; as the Body sees not the Soul, which yet dwells in it; or as the third Principle does not comprehend, nor apprehend the second Principle wherein God is; though indeed itself is in God, yet there is a Birth between: As it is with the Spirit of the Soul of Man, and the elementary Spirit in Man, the one being the Case, [Chest,] or Receptacle of the other; as you shall find, about the Creation of Man.