Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence

fiery l nature had not been severed : But because J property or the eternal essence (viz. God) would manifest himself in the dark matrix, and [hath desired] to make the nothing something, therefore he hath severed the kindled virtue, and made the matrix clear or pure.

27. And thus now the matrix staudeth incomprehensibly, and longeth after the fiery nature [or condition], and the fiery nature longeth after the matrix. For the spirit of God (which is a spirit of meekness) 2 beholdeth itself in the watery matrix ; - speculated,

T • • mi or miagineth.

and the matrix receiveth virtue from thence. Inus there is a constant will to generate and work, and the whole nature standeth in a great longing and anguish, willing continually to generate the divine virtue, God and paradise being hidden therein, but it generateth after its kind, according to its ability.

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28. Now when God had severed the matrix with [or from] its fiery form, and would manifest himself with this world, then he put the Fiat into the matrix, and spake out of himself, [saying], Let there be herbs, grass, trees, and beasts, every one according to its kind : This Speaking was the Heart, or the virtue [or power] of the eternal Father : But the spirit which had the Fiat, went from the eternal Father (in the virtue of the Heart of God) forth with the will (and the will was the Fiat) and l made the out-birth in the third Principle material, visible, and comprehensible, each according to its essence ; as the virtue was, so was also its body. For there the fiery matrix, or the constellation, gave its virtue to the Fiat ; and the watery matrix, with the elements, received the virtue, and so were impregnated, and each element generated its own creatures out of itself,* as also each form in the fiery and watery nature out of themselves ; and yet it became no separable essence, but only every creature was separated according to its kind, according to the eternal virtue, which arose in the longing by the lust, and became the third Principle, which was not before time [began].

29. Thus the starry heaven ruleth 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 impregnateth ; and the matrix is the genetrix, which bringeth forth the child which the heaven

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1 begetteth ; and that is the created heaven in the l maketh, or third Principle, from whence the elements are proceeded ; viz. the watery matrix, out of which the visible water generated itself, and still always doth generate itself in the anguish.

30. Therefore Moses writeth, 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.

31. For every form in the matrix hath its visible creatures, and such as are invisible to human eyes ; which creatures in part as to us are as it were but mere 2 figured spirits, as the fire hath spirits and 2 shapes, and

. ., . , forms of creatures that are invisible to our material eyes, appearance. and we cannot see them : There are also in the air invisible spirits, which we see not ; for the air being immaterial, so are also the spirits thereof: The water hath material creatures, which are not visible to us ; and because they are not out of the fire nor air, they are of another 3 quality, and are s property, hidden [as] to the fiery and airy [spirits], except they will manifest themselves.