Book 111, The Temple ofmfdome. 1 8^

The firft Objefl you (hall fee , is called Heaven and Light ; and by them you are to underftand the whole coniprehenfion ofhitelledual A?7gelsjfculsofmen2iSthcy wereinthePre-exiftency, and Beafts ^ and tht feminal J(7r;wjof all things.
In this Temple , by the Earth you are to underftand the potentiality and capability of the exiJienceQi the firft Creatiotj j this poffibility being exhibited to o\xr minds, as the refult of the Omnif ounce of God, without whom nothing would be, as is indeed the utmoft fhadow, and dsrkcft projeftion thereof. And that you further may underftand how the power of God is exalted above the courfe of Natural Canfes , God taking of the dnjl of his dry ground , wrought it with his hands into fuch a tem- per, with the Aetherial firji moi^ure , that it was matter fit to make the Body of a man : Which when he firft had framed, was as yet but like a piece of dough, till God coming near unto it, JVith bis mouth he breathed into tht No\hils thereof the breath ofLife^ which Life was lately the Souls of Lapfed Angels, and with his word com- manded the Genius to attend him. This is to be obfer- ved, 7 hat men breath through their Nojirilsy though their mouths bejhut.
When Go^ had formed every Beaflof theFie/J,and every Fon>l of the j4ir , the man named them as the Angels Soul guided him ; and by the fame Genius was pre-advertifed of his H^ife^ and able to pronounce, 7h^ U hone of my bone , andflejh of my flejh , and gave her a name fuitable to her Nature ; and this was commended of God. Read ou r Harmony of the Word, And of the bodies of rebellious Angels , became this Earth, which was nothing but folitude and emptinefs , and as it was 8 deep bottomlefs capacity of being , whatever (jod thought good to make out of it , that implycd no con- tradiaion to be made: and there being a poffibility of
Creating
Ipo TheTewvleof^ifdome. Booklll^
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Creating things after fundry and manifold manners , ho-, thing was determined 5 but this vaft capability of things ter/ But the Sfint oiGod , who was the Vehicle of the Eternal VVifdom^ and of the Giper-efTential goodnefsj by a fwift forecaft of counfel and dr£'ourfe of Reafon truly DiN iie , fuch as at once ftrikes through all things,^ and difcerns what is bell: to be done , having hovered a while over all the capacities of this fluid pollibllity , forthwith fetled upon what was the moft perfe(!l and ex- aft. Wherefore the entire Deity , by an inward wordj which is nothing but VVifdome and Verme^ as I told you in my book of ihe Harmony of the VVorld^ when 1 fpak^ of the power of God edged with A&ual will , and with more cafe done then we can prefent any notion or Idea, to our own minds , exhibited really to their own view the whole creation of fpiritual fubftances , fuch as ^;z- gels are in their inward Natures , the joicls of men , and other Animals, and thQ fe mm al forms of all things : Co that all thefe, as many as ever were to be of them , did really and aftually exift , without any dependency or corporeal matter : of this I have fpoken larg:fly in Jhe Harmony of the world,
God approved and plea fed himfelf in thefe things : but yet though in defigne there was a fettlement of the fluid darkne(s ^ or obfcure poiTibility of the outward Creation; yet it remained as yetbutadark polfibility. And a notorious diftinftion indeed there was betwixt this a&ual ffiritiial Creation , and the dim pofllbility of the material body , and outward world.
Infomuch that this matter was aftuated and agitated by fome miverfal Angel , yet part of the world of life: whence it became very fubtle and Etherial^ fo that thiS was rightly by God called Light and Varkpefi-, and A
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