25. Also (at the instant of the Creation of the Stars and four Elements) another King was established over him, in this Place in the Elements; which although we could mention, yet at Present it remains in Silence, by Reason of the false Magick; also by Reason of other Superstitions and Idolatries we will not speak any Thing of it here, and yet hint enough to our School-fellows.
The Tenth Chapter
Of the Creation of Heaven and the Outward World
1. It seems strange and wonderful to reason, to consider how God has created the stars, and the four elements; especially when reason does contemplate and consider of the earth, with its hard stones, and very rough, indigested, harsh substance; and sees that there are great stones, rocks and cliffs created, which are in part useless, and very hindersome to the employment of the creatures in this world. Then it thinks, whence may this compaction arise in so many forms and properties; for there are divers sorts of stones, divers metals, and divers kinds of earth whence manifold herbs and trees do grow.
2. Now when it does thus muse and contemplate, it finds nothing, save only that it does acknowledge that there must be a hidden power and might, which is abyssal, and unsearchable, which has created all things so; and there it sticks, and runs to and fro in the creation, as a bird that flies up and down in the air; and looks upon all things, as an ox looks upon a new door of his stall; and never so much as considers what itself is;
and seldom reaches so far as to know that man is an image extracted out of this whole being or essence. It runs up and down, as a beast void of understanding, which desires only to eat and procreate; and when it comes to its highest degree, as to search out and learn something, then it searches in the outward fiction and artifice of the stars; or else in some carved work of outward nature. It will by no means simply and sincerely learn to know its Creator. And when it comes to pass that one attains so far as to teach the knowledge of him, yet then it calls such man a fool, and fantastic; and forbids him the precious understanding of God, and imputes it to him for sin, and reviles him therein.
3. Such mere animals are we, since the fall of Adam, that we do not so much as once consider that we were created in the image of God, and endued with the right, natural and genuine understanding, both of the eternal, and temporal nature; so as to mind and bethink ourselves, by great earnestness, to re-obtain that which we have lost;
whereas we have yet that very first soul wherein the true understanding lies; if we did but seriously labour to have that light which we have lost, to shine again in us; which yet is offered unto us out of grace.
4. Therefore there will be no excuse at the great day of the Lord, when God shall judge the secret and hidden things of mankind, because we would not learn to know him, and obey his voice; which daily has knocked amongst us, and in us; and resign up ourselves unto him; that so our understanding might be opened. And a very severe sentence shall he receive who will undertake to be called Master, and Rabbi; 1) and yet neither knows the way of God, nor walks therein, and that which is yet more heinous forbids 2) those that desire to know, and walk therein.
5. The creation of the outward world is a manifestation of the inward spiritual Mystery, viz. of the centre of the eternal nature, with the holy element: and was brought forth by the eternal-speaking Word through the motion of the inward world as a spiration; which eternal-speaking Word has expressed the essence out of the inward spiritual worlds; and yet there was no such essence in the speaking, but was only as a breath or vaporous exhalation in reference to the internal, breathed forth, both from the property of the dark world, and also of the light world: and therefore the outward essence of this world is good and evil.
25. Also (at the instant of the Creation of the Stars and four Elements) another King was established over him, in this Place in the Elements; which although we could mention, yet at Present it remains in Silence, by Reason of the false Magick; also by Reason of other Superstitions and Idolatries we will not speak any Thing of it here, and yet hint enough to our School-fellows.
The Tenth Chapter
Of the Creation of Heaven and the Outward World
1. It seems strange and wonderful to reason, to consider how God has created the stars, and the four elements; especially when reason does contemplate and consider of the earth, with its hard stones, and very rough, indigested, harsh substance; and sees that there are great stones, rocks and cliffs created, which are in part useless, and very hindersome to the employment of the creatures in this world. Then it thinks, whence may this compaction arise in so many forms and properties; for there are divers sorts of stones, divers metals, and divers kinds of earth whence manifold herbs and trees do grow.
2. Now when it does thus muse and contemplate, it finds nothing, save only that it does acknowledge that there must be a hidden power and might, which is abyssal, and unsearchable, which has created all things so; and there it sticks, and runs to and fro in the creation, as a bird that flies up and down in the air; and looks upon all things, as an ox looks upon a new door of his stall; and never so much as considers what itself is;
and seldom reaches so far as to know that man is an image extracted out of this whole being or essence. It runs up and down, as a beast void of understanding, which desires only to eat and procreate; and when it comes to its highest degree, as to search out and learn something, then it searches in the outward fiction and artifice of the stars; or else in some carved work of outward nature. It will by no means simply and sincerely learn to know its Creator. And when it comes to pass that one attains so far as to teach the knowledge of him, yet then it calls such man a fool, and fantastic; and forbids him the precious understanding of God, and imputes it to him for sin, and reviles him therein.
3. Such mere animals are we, since the fall of Adam, that we do not so much as once consider that we were created in the image of God, and endued with the right, natural and genuine understanding, both of the eternal, and temporal nature; so as to mind and bethink ourselves, by great earnestness, to re-obtain that which we have lost;
whereas we have yet that very first soul wherein the true understanding lies; if we did but seriously labour to have that light which we have lost, to shine again in us; which yet is offered unto us out of grace.
4. Therefore there will be no excuse at the great day of the Lord, when God shall judge the secret and hidden things of mankind, because we would not learn to know him, and obey his voice; which daily has knocked amongst us, and in us; and resign up ourselves unto him; that so our understanding might be opened. And a very severe sentence shall he receive who will undertake to be called Master, and Rabbi; 1) and yet neither knows the way of God, nor walks therein, and that which is yet more heinous forbids 2) those that desire to know, and walk therein.
5. The creation of the outward world is a manifestation of the inward spiritual Mystery, viz. of the centre of the eternal nature, with the holy element: and was brought forth by the eternal-speaking Word through the motion of the inward world as a spiration; which eternal-speaking Word has expressed the essence out of the inward spiritual worlds; and yet there was no such essence in the speaking, but was only as a breath or vaporous exhalation in reference to the internal, breathed forth, both from the property of the dark world, and also of the light world: and therefore the outward essence of this world is good and evil.
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