Aurora, or the Day-Spring

thou art not God's image. If he be any other or strange God, then thou hast no part in him: For thou art created out of this God, and livest in this very God, and this very God continually giveth thee power or virtue, and blessing, also meat and drink, out of himself; also all thy knowledge standeth in this God, and when thou diest, then thou art buried in this God. 5. Now, if there be any other or strange God, without and besides this God, who then shall make thee living again out of this God, in whom thou shalt be when thou art departed and turned to dust? How shall that strange God, out of whom thou art not created, and in whom thou didst never live, bring thy body and spirit together again? 6. Now if thou art of any other matter than God himself, how then canst thou be his child? Or how can the man and king Christ be God's bodily or corporeal Son, whom God hath generated or begotten out of his heart? 7. Now, if his Deity be another being, substance or thing than his body, then there must be a twofold Deity in him; his body would be of or from the god of this world, and his heart would be of or from the unknown God. 8. O, thou child of man! open the eyes of thy spirit, for I will here shew thee the right and real proper gate of the Deity, as indeed that very one only God will have it. 9. Behold! that is the true one only God, out of whom thou art created, and in whom thou livest; and when thou beholdest the deep, and the stars, and the earth, then thou beholdest thy God, and in that same thou livest, and also art, or hast thy being therein; and that same God also governeth or ruleth thee, and also out 2of or from that same God thou hast thy senses, and thou art a creature out of or from him and in him; else thou hadst been nothing, or wouldst never have been. 10. Now perhaps thou wilt say that I write in a heathenish manner. Hearken and behold! observe the distinct understanding, how all this is so; for I write not heathenishly or barbarously, but philosophically; neither am I a Heathen, but I have the deep and true knowledge of the one only great God, who is ALL. 11. When thou beholdest the deep, the stars, the elements, and the earth, then thou comprehendest not with thy eyes the bright and clear Deity, though indeed it is there and in them; but thou seest and comprehendest with thy eyes, first death, and then the wrath of God and the hellish fire. 12. But if thou raisest thy thoughts, and con­ siderest where God is, then thou apprehendest the astral birth or geniture, where love and wrath move one against the other. But when thou drawest up the faith in God, who ruleth in holiness in this government or dominion, then thou breakest through heaven, and apprehendest or layest hold on God at his holy heart. 13. Now when this is done, then thou art as the whole or total God, who himself is heaven, earth, stars, and the elements, and hast also such a regimen or dominion in thee, and art also such a person, as the whole God in the place of this world. Now thou sayest, How shall I understand this? For the kingdom of God and the kingdom of hell and of the devil are distinct one from the other, and cannot be one body. Also the earth and stones are not God; nor the heaven, stars 3and elements; much less can a man be God; for if so, he could not be rejected by God. Here I will, by degrees, tell thee the ground of all, one thing after another; therefore keep the question in mind. Of the astral Birth or Geniture, and of the Birth or Geniture of God. 14. Before the times of the created heavens, the stars, and the elements, and before the creation of angels, there was no such wrath of God, no death, no devil, no earth nor stones, neither were there any stars. But the Deity generated itself very meekly and lovingly, and formed, framed and figured itself in ideas, shapes, and images, which were incorporated according to the qualifying or fountain spirits in their generating, wrestling, and rising up, and passed away again also through their wrestling, and figured or framed themselves into another form or condition, all according to the primacy or predominancy of each qualifying or fountain spirit, as you may read before. 15. But observe here, rightly the earnest and severe birth or geniture, out of which the wrath of God, hell, and death, are come to be, which indeed have been from eternity in God, but not liable to be kindled or to become predominant. 16. For the whole or total God standeth in seven species or kinds, or in a sevenfold form or generating; and if these births or genitures were not, then there would be neither God, nor life, nor angel, nor any creature. 17. And these births or genitures have no beginning, but have so generated themselves