1swine ; but for the children of God; which will be
benefited by it, the spirit of God will certainly
teach and instruct them in it.
16. Now when the heaven became clear [or pure],
and cleansed from the earth and the dark mist [or
dust] in the concretion [or driving together], then
in the matrix of the heaven there were the three
elements, fire, air and water, which are three in one
another, in one mother ; and that mother is here
called the heaven ; therefore henceforward in my
writing, I shall use the word heaven instead of the
word matrix.
17. For the heaven is the matrix, and is called
heaven because of the separation, because the fifth
essence of heaven is severed, 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 sprang out of it,
as out of their mother ; and because the virtue of
every life consisteth therein, therefore the original
of the four elements must be described, wherein it
will first truly be understood what the heaven is.
THE SEVENTH CHAPTER
Of the Heaven and its etei-nal Birth and Essence,
and how the four Elements are generated ;
wherein the eternal Band may be the more
and the better understood, by meditating and
considering tJie material World.
The great Depth.
21. IP VERY spirit seeth no further than into its
J — J mother, out of which it hath its original,
and wherein it standeth ; for it is impossible for any
spirit in its own natural power to look into another
Principle, and behold it, except it be regenerated
therein. But the natural man, who in his fall was
captivated by the matrix of this world, whose
natural spirit 1moveth between two Principles, viz. 'wavereth.
between the divine and the hellish, and he standeth
in both the gates, into which Principle he falleth,
there he cometh to be regenerated, whether it be as
to the kingdom of heaven, or the kingdom of hell ;
and yet he is not able in this [life] time to see either
of them both.
2. He is in his own essence and substance a twofold man. For his soul (in its own substance) is
87
88 THE THREE PRINCIPLES [Ch. 7
3out of the first Principle, which from eternity hath
no ground nor beginning ; and in the time of the
creation of man in paradise, or the kingdom of
heaven, the soul was truly l bodified by the Fiat in
a spiritual manner ; but with the first virtue [or
power] which is from eternity, in its own first virtue
or power it hath remained inseparably in its first
root, and was illustrated [or made shining bright]
by the second Principle, viz. by the Heart of God ;
and therewith standing in paradise, was there, by
the moving spirit of God, breathed into the matrix
of the third Principle, into the starry and elementary
man. And now therefore he may understand the
ground of heaven, as also of the elements and of
hell, as far as the light of God shineth in him ; for
if that light be in him, he is born in all the three
Principles ; but yet he is only a spark risen from
thence, and not the great source, or fountain, which
is God himself.
3. And therefore it is that Christ saith : If you
had faith as a grain of mustard-seed, you might
say to the mountain, Cast thyself into the sea, and
it shall be done. And 2in this power men have
raised the dead, and healed the sick, by the word,
and the virtue and power of the spirit, or else
they could not have been able to have done such
things, if they had not stood in the power of all the
three Principles.
4. For the created spirit of man, which is out of
the matrix of this world, that ruleth (by the virtue
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.