Chapter IV - Creation
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of Life and Intelligence in matter, of which Truth said,
of Life and Intelligence in matter, of which Truth said,
partake not, lest ye die; but error replied, Truth is at
fault, if you acquire knowledge, "your eyes shall be
opened and ye shall be as Gods, knowing good from
evil," i.e., men shall be intelligences, Gods! and these
Gods, matter, called men, to distinguish them from
another personal God. Is not this Idolatry, and walk-
ing over the spiritual law, "Thou shalt have no other
Gods before me? "Spirit in matter and Soul in sense,
makes "lords many and Gods many"; theology, ma-
teria medica, mesmerism, and every other 'ology and
'ism under the sun, originated in this very error.
Intelligence and Life are God, omnipotent and eternal,
and God never in matter, but producing spiritual, har-
monious, and immortal man. There is but one God,
one Life and Intelligence, one Principle of being, and
this heals the sick, gives sight to the blind, destroys
error instead of creating it, preaches the gospel to the
poor, and is measurably explained in this science of
being; the followers of Christ, Truth, were not the
Rabbis, for it came to its own and was not received.
Knowledge never enabled man to judge between good
and evil, therefore it was a falsehood from the begin-
ning, as Jesus said, "You were a liar from the begin-
ning, and Truth, Life, abode not in you," for Truth
was never in matter, and mortal man is matter, and
knowledge was his projenitor; mortal man is a belief
of Life and death, of pain and pleasure, sickness and
health, good and evil, mixed in one mass, called intel-
ligent matter or personal sense. Adam impersonated
this error, and Adam illustrated simply a belief, which
we have endeavored to explain in its nothingness,
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together with the reality it would falsely make of the
together with the reality it would falsely make of the
impossibility of Life and Intelligence in matter. This
error, or belief, shrinks from the voice of Truth calling
to man, "where, or what, art thou, Soul or personal
sense? art thou Spirit or matter?" and belief replied,
"I heard thy voice and was afraid." Fear was the
first manifestation of the belief of Life in matter, for
"the wicked flee when no man pursueth"; fear founded
sickness and death. Error was naked, but it could not
hide from the eye of Wisdom; and Truth replied, who
told thee thou art naked? and error fell back on per-
sonality, saying, "She gave me of the fruit of knowl-
edge," (a medical work, perhaps.) Woman, that was
taken from my rib, (as if man was less the origin of her
fault because she was not back again under that rib);
told me I was in my body, and that Life and sensation
are in matter. But when Truth questioned woman
regarding the "knowledge" that said matter is intelli-
gent, and personal sense is man, she replied, "The
serpent beguiled me, and I did eat." Woman was the
first to see out of the difficulty, owning this knowledge
a serpent; as she is the first to lay down the belief
that Life originates materially. A serpent hung on the
"tree of knowledge," metaphorically, to show its sub-
tilty, and the Master bade his students be wise as the
serpent, i.e., never allow the belief of Life and sensa-
tion in matter to put to silence the opposite, science of
being. Woman was a higher idea of God than man, in-
somuch as she was the final one in the scale of being;
but because our beliefs reverse every position of Truth,
we name supreme being masculine, instead of femi-
nine. Woman first perceived reason was beguiled by