e principle of all
principles_; hereby it is given thee to understand that Love is the
principal cause of all created beings, both spiritual and corporeal, by
virtue whereof the second causes do move and act occasionally, according
to certain Eternal Laws, from the beginning implanted in the very
constitution of things thus originated. This virtue which is in Love is
the very life and energy of all the principles of Nature, superior and
inferior. It reaches to all Worlds, and to all manner of beings in them
contained, they being the workmanship of Divine Love, and is the _first
mover_ and _first moveable_, both in heaven above, and in the earth
beneath, and in the water under the earth. And hence there is given to
it the name of the _Lucid Aleph_ or _Alpha_; by which is expressed the
beginning of the _Alphabet of Nature_, and of the Book of Creation and
Providence or the _Divine Archetypal Book_, in which is the Light of
Wisdom and the source of all lights and forms.

And in that I said, _Its power supports the Heavens_; by this thou wilt
come to understand that as the Heavens, visible and invisible, are
originated from this great principle, so are they likewise necessarily
sustained by it; and that therefore if this should be but never so
little withdrawn, all the lights, glories, beauties and forms of the
heavenly worlds would presently sink into darkness and chaos.

And whereas I further said _that it upholds the Earth_; this will appear
to thee no less evident than the former, and thou shalt perceive it in
thyself by daily and hourly experience; forasmuch as the Earth _without
it_, even thy _own earth_ also (that is, thy body) would certainly be
without form and void. By the power thereof the Earth hath been thus
long upheld, notwithstanding a foreign usurped power introduced by the
folly of sin. And should this but once fail or recede there could be no
longer either vegetation or animation upon it; yea, the very pillars of
it being overthrown quite, and the band of union, which is that of
attraction or magnetism, called the centripetal power, being broken and
dissolved, all must thence run into the utmost disorder, and falling
away as into shivers, would be dispersed as loose dust before the wind.

But in that I said, _Its height is higher than the highest Heavens_;
this thou mayest also understand within thyself. For shouldest thou
ascend in spirit through all the orders of Angels and heavenly Powers,
yet the Po