5. That this is really the case no one can possibly know except from the Lord. It may therefore be stated in advance that of the Lord's Divine mercy it has been granted me now for some years to be constantly and uninterruptedly in company with spirits and angels, hearing them speak and in turn speaking with them. In this way it has been given me to hear and see wonderful things in the other life which have never before come to the knowledge of any man, nor into his idea. I have been instructed in regard to the different kinds of spirits; the state of souls after death; hell, or the lamentable state of the unfaithful; heaven, or the blessed state of the faithful; and especially in regard to the doctrine of faith which is acknowledged in the universal heaven; on which subjects, of the Lord's Divine mercy, more will be said in the following pages.

CHAPTER 1*

1. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2. And the earth was a void and emptiness, and thick darkness was upon the faces of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the faces of the waters.
3. And God said, Let there be light, and there was light.
4. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God distinguished between the light and the darkness.
5. And God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
6. And God said, Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it distinguish between the waters in the waters.
7. And God made the expanse, and made a distinction between the waters which were under the expanse, and the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so.
8. And God called the expanse heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
9. And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together in one place, and let the dry [land] appear; and it was so.
10. And God called the dry [land] earth, and the gathering together of the waters called He seas; and God saw that it was good.
11. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the tender herb, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree bearing fruit after its kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth; and it was so.
12. And the earth brought forth the tender herb, the herb yielding seed after its kind, and the tree bearing fruit, whose seed was in itself, after its kind; and God saw that it was good.
13. And the evening and the morning were the third day.
14. And God said, Let there be luminaries in the expanse of the heavens, to distinguish between the day and the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years.
15. And let them be for luminaries in the expanse of the heavens, to give light upon the earth; and it was so.
16. And God made two great luminaries, the greater luminary to rule by day, and the lesser luminary to rule by night; and the stars.
17. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens, to give light upon the earth;
18. And to rule in the day, and in the night, and to distinguish between the light and the darkness; and God saw that it was good.
19. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
20. And God said, Let the waters cause to creep forth the creeping thing, the living soul; and let fowl fly above the earth upon the faces of the expanse of the heavens.
21. And God created great whales, and every living soul that creepeth, which the waters caused to creep forth after their kinds, and every winged fowl after its kind; and God saw that it was good.
22. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and the fowl shall be multiplied in the earth.
23. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
24. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living soul after its kind; the beast, and the thing moving itself, and the wild animal of the earth, after its kind; and it was so.
25. And God made the wild animal of the earth after its kind, and the beast after its kind, and everything that creepeth on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good.
26. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heavens, and over the beast, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27. And God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.
28. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heavens, and over every living thing that creepeth upon the earth.
29. And God said, Behold, I give you every herb bearing seed which is upon the faces of all the earth, and every tree in which is fruit; the tree yielding seed, to you it shall be for food.
30. And to every wild animal of the earth, and to every fowl of the heavens, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth wherein is a living soul, every green herb for food; and it was so.
31. And God saw everything that He had made, and behold it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
* The Author, writing in Latin, has given his own translation, in that language, of the Hebrew and Greek texts of the Word, in which, for the sake of the spiritual sense, he has rendered the originals almost as literally as possible, and it has been deemed necessary to follow him in the translation of the present work into English, but with the endeavor to avoid any needless departure from the language of the English Bible. [Reviser.]