1with lustre in the first Principle, and 4 thoroughly enlightened
all over with the second Principle, truly dwelling
in paradise, and in the divine virtue [or power],
and yet with pride fell from the light of God, and
caught at his own mother, the root of the fire,
thinking to domineer over the meekness of the
Heart of God), then his dwelling continued to be
Ch. 8] OF THE CREATION OF THE CREATURES 107
the first Principle in the fiery dark matrix ; and
God created the out-birth out of the matrix, for a
Principle ; and in the eternal matrix, in the longing will, he opened the centre or birth of life ; and
there (after the manner of the Deity, as the eternal
Deity from eternity hath always generated) arose
[and sprang up] the third Principle, in which the
Deity standeth as it were hidden, yet forming,
imagining, or imprinting itself powerfully in all
things ; which is incomprehensible and unprofitable
for the devil.
4. Yet the third Principle is a similitude of the
paradisical world, which is spiritual, and standeth
hidden therein. And thus God manifesteth himself; and seeing the spiritual world of the angels
in the place of this world continued not, therefore
he gave another Principle to this place, wherein
a light springeth up still, and where there is a
pleasant refreshment ; for the purpose of God must
stand, and the first creatures must continue in
darkness, rather [than that the purpose of God
should fail].
25. So the matter of this world, as also the stars
and elements, must not be looked upon, as if God
were not therein. His eternal wisdom and virtue
[or power] hath formed itself with the Fiat in all
things, and he himself is the master- workman ;
and all things went forth in the Fiat, every thing
in its own essence, virtue and property. For as
every star in the firmament hath a property different
108 THE THREE PRINCIPLES [Ch. 8
from the other; thus is it with the mother also,
out of which the fifth * essence of the stars went
forth. For when the fiery form of the stars was
separated from her, she was not presently severed
from the first eternal birth-right, but she kept her
first eternal virtue. Only the rising power of
the fire is severed from her, so that / she is become
a pleasant refreshment, and a kind mother to her
children.
6. Now when God on the first day had gathered
together the lump of the earth in the great deep of
this world, then the deep became purified, yet [the
deep between the firmament and the earth, though
it was cleansed from dregs, was] dark, and had no
light in the matrix ; but the fifth essence, that is,
the fifth form in the matrix, shone as a fire, wherein
the spirit of God with the Fiat moved upon the
watery matrix ; and the earth was naked, bare,
and void ; neither had it so much as one spire of
grass.
37. Now saith Moses, And God said, Let there
be light, and there was light. This light now was
the fifth form in the matrix. For the fifth essence
was not yet created in the matrix, nor separated
till the fourth day, when God created the sun and
stars out of it, and separated the light from the
darkness ; where then the light got the virtue of
the glance, or splendour, into itself for its own, and
the root of the fire in the centre remained hidden
in the darkness.
Cll. 8] OF THE CREATION OF THE CREATURES 109
8. On the second day, God created the firmament
of the heaven, viz. the strong inclosure [fence, or
stop] to the darkness of the original matrix, that it
might no more kindle itself, and generate earth
and stones. And therefore he made the inclosure or
firmament out of the midst of the waters, which
stayeth the might [force, or power] of the fire, and
became the visible heaven, whence the creatures
are proceeded, from whence now the elements, fire,
air, and water proceed.
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.