(24) When God in the first Matrix moved himself to create, and created the Angels, he created them in Paradise, in the light holy Matrix, (which is this and no other;) but the Matrix, with its fiery, dark, and harsh bitter Property, remained altogether hidden; for the Light of God from Eternity preserved it, and kept it pleasant, clear, and bright. But when God moved himself to create, then it became manifested; for the Angels were created out of the indissoluble Band, out of the Matrix, and were corporized from the moving Spirit of God.

(24) Now mark, when God would manifest himself by the material World, and the Matrix stood in the anguishing Birth, wherein the Creator moved the first Principle to the creating of Angels, then the Matrix stood undivided in the inward Essence.; for there was then no Comprehensibility, but Spirit only, and the Virtue of the Spirit. The Spirit was God, and the Virtue was Heaven, and the Spirit wrought in the Virtue, so that thereby the Virtue became attracting and longing, for the Spirit beheld itself in the Virtue; and therein the Spirit created the Virtue from whence the Angels came to be. And thus the Virtue became the Dwelling of the Angels, and the Paradise wherein the Spirit wrought; and the Spirit longed after the Light, and the Light shone in the Virtue; so there is a paradisical Joy, and pleasant Sport therein; and thus God is manifested.

(30) Now the Matrix (viz. the created Heaven) in the Fiat, together with the Stars, is the Similitude of all that was from Eternity, though not visible; and the Fiat is in the Similitude; and the Paradise, wherein the Angels dwell, is hidden in the Matrix; and God is shining in the Paradise, and yet incomprehensible; as the Glance [or Luster] of the Sun cannot be comprehended.

(21) But you will not find this Root here, you must look into the all Things, for the Matrix of this World stands in the eternal Matrix, from which Paradise and the Kingdom of Heaven has its Original. Now as the eternal Matrix is a Birth that goes forth, where in the Original there is Harshness, Darkness, Hardness, and Anguish; so you may see, that when the Spirit of God has kindled the inward Matrix, then it becomes stirring, working, and active.

(10) Understand it thus, as the Spirit moved this Matrix, so the Matrix wrought, and in the Kindling from the Spirit of God in the fifth Form of the Matrix, the fiery Heaven of the Constellations did exist, which is a mere Quinta Essentia, or Quintessence, born in the fifth Form of the Matrix, in which Place the Light has its Original; out of which at last the Sun is born [or brought forth,] wherewith the third Principle becomes opened and manifested, which [Sun] now is the Life in the third Principle, and the Opener of the Life of every Life in the Matrix, in this Place, or Locus; as the Heart of God in Paradise, in the immaterial Heaven and Birth, opens the eternal Power of God, wherein the eternal Life continually springs up, and wherein the eternal Wisdom continually shines. Thus also the Light of the Sun (which is sprung up in the inanimate Matrix) by the [flowing, hovering, or] moving Spirit in the Matrix, opens the third Principle of this material World, which is the third and beginning Principle; which as to this Form takes an End, and returns into its Ether in the End of this Enumeration, as the Scripture witnesses. 1 1. And then all in this third Principle remains again in the first Matrix; only that which has been sown in this Principle, and that has its Original out of Paradise, out of Heaven, and out of the second Principle, (viz. Man,) that continues, eternally in the Matrix. And if he has in this [Life's] Time attained the second Principle, so that he is born therein, it is well with him; but if he has not, then he shall remain still eternally in the Matrix, yet not reach the Light of God.

(14) Therefore also the Spirit which goes forth in the soft Matrix is the Holy Ghost; and God dwells in himself, and he calls himself an angry, zealous [or jealous] God, only according to the most original Matrix, which is not manifested in Paradise; and in the Beginning also it was forbidden to Man, to eat of the Fruit [of] Good and Evil, from the most original Matrix. Neither should Man have known this most original Matrix, if he had not imagined [thought or longed] after it, and eaten of the Fruit thereof, whereby the Matrix presently took hold of him, captivated him, [acts or] qualifies in him, nourishes and also drives him, as is plain before our Eyes.

(7) But the Virtue which was in the Matrix, was that which could effect such Things in the Matrix; for a Stone is nothing else but a Water, Mercury, Salt, and Brimstone, wherein an Oil is hidden. Now the Birth of the Matrix has such a Form in its eternal Essence, and Birth of its Life. For first, there is the Harshness [or Sourness] Fierceness [or eager Strength] and Hardness, from whence the Cold proceeds. Now the Sourness [or Harshness] attracts and sharpens the Cold; and in its attracting it makes the bitter Sting [or Prickle] which pricks and rages, and cannot endure the hard Attracting, but vexes like a furious Madness, it rises up and rages, and becomes like a Brimstone- Spirit.

(27) And thus now the Matrix stands incomprehensibly, and longs after the fiery Nature, [or Condition,] and the fiery Nature longs after the Matrix. For the Spirit of God (which is a Spirit of Meekness) beholds itself in the watery Matrix; and the Matrix receives Virtue from thence. Thus there is a constant Will to generate and work, and the whole Nature stands in a great Longing and Anguish, willing continually to generate the divine Virtue, God and Paradise being hidden therein, but it generates after its Kind, according to its Ability.

(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.

(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.

(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.

(13) Hereupon you are to know, that the Matrix in the second Principle (which yet has its Original and eternal Root in the first Principle) is but merely an eternal, unbeginning soft [or meek] Spirit, which has no such fiery intolerable Light, but all there is pleasant and chearful, and the eternal original Matrix is not known there; but the soft Light of the Heart of God makes all courteous and chearful.

(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.]

(16) But when the Matrix (from which the Terror was gone forth) was thus loosed from the Terror of the Anxiety, and became so very sweet, like sweet Water, then the Spirit of the great World figured [or imprinted itself] instantly, in the Matrix, and fills the four Elements also within it, and thinks with itself, now 1 have the sweet Virgin; and the Fiat creates it, and separates the Elements, which also are in Strife: And each of them would have the Virgin, and are in a Wrestling, till they overcome one another, and that the Fire (being the mightiest and strongest) stays above, and the Water sinks down; and the Earth, being a hard gross Thing, must stay below: But the Fire will have a

(6) For when the Matrix was stirred, and that Lord Lucifer would domineer in the Fire, then the dark Matrix attracted all that was wrought in the P Birth together, from whence Earth, Stones, Metals, Brimstone and Salt did proceed: Hereby the Kingdom of Prince Lucifer was shut up, and he remained in the inward Center captivated in the outward.

(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.

(26) Thus the Devil moved the Matrix, and the fiery Form moved the Devil; for a that also would be creaturely, as [well as] all the other Forms in the Matrix, which yet was opposite to the fifth Form in the Matrix, where in the meek and clear Light the pleasant Source of Love springs up, wherein the second Principle stands eternally.

(26) God is invisible, and the Will is also invisible, and the Matrix also is invisible, and yet they are in Substance, and are from Eternity, and continue in Eternity. And the Word is the Virtue of the Will; and the Virtue [or Power] makes the Fiat, and the Fiat makes the Kingdom, and it is all alike eternal in one only Substance: The Will has generated the Word from Eternity; and the Word the Virtue, and the Virtue the Spirit, and in the Spirit is the Light, and in the Light is the Power, Understanding, and Knowledge; otherwise it were altogether nothing.

(10) But the Limbus out of which he created him is the Matrix of the Earth; and the Earth was generated out of it; yet the Materia [or Matter] out of which he created him was a Massa, became earthly, when Man awakened the earthly Center, and did instantly belong to the Earth and Corruptibility.