Jacob Boehme's Aurora
Chapter 16: Of the Seventh Species, Kind, Form, or Manner of Sin's Beginning in Lucifer and his Angels.
HERE thou shouldst open thy eyes wide, for thou wilt see the hidden secret things which have been kept hidden from all men since the world began. For thou wilt see the murderous den of the devil, and the horrible sin, enmity and perdition.
The devil has taught man sorcery or witchcraft, thereby to strengthen and fortify his kingdom. But if he had revealed to man the right, true, fundamental ground, which lurked behind or under sorcery, many would have let it alone altogether, and not have meddled with it at all.
Come on ye jugglers and sorcerers or witches, you that go a wooing and a whoring after the devil: Come to my school: I will shew you how, with your necromancy or art, you are carried into hell.
You rejoice [maliciously] with this; that the devil is in subjection to you, and ye suppose that ye are gods: Here I will describe the original and ground of necromancy, for I am become also a searcher into nature [natural philosopher], but not after your way and manner, but to discover your shame by a divine revelation, for an advertisement to this last world, and for a sentence of condemnation upon their skill and knowledge; for the judgment followeth upon knowledge.
Seeing the bow of fierceness is already bent, let every one look to himself, lest he be found within the limit of the mark. For the time is at hand to awake from sleep.
Now the seventh form, or the seventh spirit in the divine power, is nature, or the issue or exit from the other six. For the astringent quality attracteth the Salitter together, or the fabric or product of all the six spirits, even as a magnet or loadstone attracteth to itself the Salitter of the iron; and when it is attracted together, then it is a comprehensibility, in which the six spirits of God qualify, act or operate in an incomprehensible way or manner.
This seventh spirit has a colour and condition or kind of its own, as all the other spirits have; for it is the body of all the spirits, wherein they generate themselves as in a body: Also out of this spirit all figures, shapes and forms are imaged or fashioned; moreover, the angels also are created out of it, and all naturality stands therein.
And this spirit is always generated from the six, and subsisteth always continually, and is never missing or wanting, nor does ever pass away, and it again continually generateth the six; for the other six are in this seventh as in a mother, enclosed or encompassed; and they receive their nourishment, power and strength always in their mother's body or womb.
For the seventh spirit is the body, and the other six are the life, and in the middle centre is the heart of light, which the seven spirits continually generate as a light of life; and that light is their son; and the welling out or penetration through all the spirits expandeth itself aloft in the heart, in the exit or rising up of the light.
And this is the spirit of all the seven spirits, that goeth forth out of the heart of God, which there, in the seventh spirit, formeth and frameth all, and wherein the qualifying or fountain spirits, with their lovewrestling, shew themselves endlessly.
For the Deity is like a wheel, which with its fellies and spokes, and with all the naves, turneth about, and is fellied together, as seven wheels, so that it can go any way, forward, backward, downward, upward and crossways, without turning back.
Whereas yet always the form of all the seven wheels, and the one only nave in the centre of all the wheels, is fully in sight, and so it is not understood how the wheel is made; but the wheel always appears more and more wonderful and marvellous, with its rising up, and yet abideth also in its own place.
In such a manner the Deity is continually generated, and never passeth away, or ceaseth or vanisheth out of sight; and in this manner also is the life in angels and men continually generated.
According to the moving of the seven spirits of God the figures and creatures of the transitoriness are formed, but not thus generated; though indeed the birth or geniture of all the seven spirits sheweth itself therein, yet their quality stands only in the seventh nature-spirit, which the other six spirits do form, figure, frame, alter and change, according to their wrestling and rising up.
Therefore also the figures, and transitory forms and creatures, are changed according to the condition of the seventh nature-spirit, in which they rise up.
The angels are not alone imaged or framed out of the seventh nature-spirit, as the transitory creatures are, but when the Deity moved itself to the creating of angels, then in every circle, wherein each angel was incorporated or compacted together, there the Deity, with its whole substance and being, was incorporated or compacted together, ["Understand, the two eternal " Principles, viz. the fire and the light, and yet " not the quality or source of the fire, but the " essence of it,"] and became a body, and yet the Deity continued in its seat, as before. Understand this well:
The angel's body, or the comprehensibility, is from or out of the seventh spirit, and the birth or geniture in that body is the six qualifying or fountain spirits; and the spirit or the heart, which the six spirits generate in the centre of the body, in which the light riseth up, and the animated or soulish spirit out of the light, which also qualifieth, uniteth or operateth with the Deity, without, distinct from the body, that signifieth the heart of God, out of which the Holy Ghost goeth forth.
And it was also from or out of the heart of God, counited or mixed in the body of the angel in their first compacting or incorporating together; therefore the angel's government in the mind generateth itself as the Deity does.
And as in the seventh nature-spirit of God, which existeth out of the other six, there does not stand the whole perfect knowledge of the other six spirits, for it cannot search or dive into their deep birth or geniture, in that they are its father, and generate it out of themselves.
So also the whole, full and perfect knowledge of God does not stand in the angelical body, but in the spirit, which is generated in the heart, which goeth forth from the light, which qualifieth or operateth also with the heart and. spirit of God, wherein the whole, full and perfect knowledge of God stands. But the body cannot apprehend that animated or soulish spirit; as also the seventh nature-spirit comprehendeth not the deepest birth or geniture of God.
For when the seventh nature-spirit is generated, then it is dried by the astringent quality, and is as it were staid and kept by its father, and cannot go back again into the deep, that is, into the centre of the heart, where the son is generated, and from whence the Holy Ghost goeth forth; but must hold still as a generated body, and must give way to the qualifying or fountain veins, that is, to the spirits, to qualify, work and labour therein as they please.
For it is the proper house and habitation of the six spirits, which they continually build according to their pleasure, or as a garden of delight into which the master of it soweth all manner of seeds, according to his pleasure, and then enjoyeth the fruit thereof.
Thus the other six spirits continually erect this garden of delight and pleasure, and sow their fruits thereinto, and feed upon it to strengthen their might and joy; and this is the garden in which the angels dwell, and walk up and down in, and wherein the heavenly fruit grows.
But the wonderful proportion or variety of harmony, which appeareth in the growths or vegetations and figures and forms in this garden, ariseth from the qualification or operation, and from the loving, wrestling or struggling of the other spirits.
For that which is predominant or chief in the striving, imageth or formeth the growth and vegetation according to its kind, and the others always help to promote it; now the one, now the other, now the third, and so on.
Therefore also there arise so many diverse growths, vegetations and figures as are altogether unsearchable and incomprehensible to the bodily reason of the angels; but to the animated or soulish reason of the angels they are wholly, fully and perfectly comprehensible.
This is also wholly hidden as to my body, but not as to my animated or soulish spirit, for so long as my animated or soulish spirit qualifieth or works with and in God it comprehendeth the same; but when it falls into sin, then the door is shut against it, which the devil bolteth up fast, and which must, with great labour and industry of the spirit, be set open again.
I know very well that the wrath of the devil will mock and scoff in the hearts of many wicked men, at this revelation. For he is mightily ashamed because of this revelation; he has also given my soul many a pang and crush for it; but I leave it to the direction of God, who will have it so; I cannot resist him, though my earthly body should go to wrack for it, yet my God will glorify me in my knowledge.
The glorification of this my knowledge I desire, and no other; for I know that when this my spirit in my new body, which I shall get at the day of my resurrection, out of this my now corrupted body, shall arise, that it will appear like the Deity, as also like the holy angels.
For the triumphing joyous light in my spirit sheweth it me sufficiently, in which I have also searched into the depth of the Deity, and described it rightly, according to my gifts and the impulse of the spirit, though in great feebleness and weakness, in that my original and actual sins have often bolted the door against me, and the devil has danced before it, as a whorish woman, and rejoiced at my captivity and anguish; yet that will bring very little profit to his kingdom.
Therefore I must now look for no other than his fierce wrath, but my stay, trust and refuge is the Champion in the Fight, who has often delivered me from his bands, in this Champion I will fight against him, till my departure out of this life. Of the terrible, lamentable and miserable Perdition of Lucifer in the Seventh Nature-Spirit. The sad Mourning House of Death.
If all trees were writers or clerks, and all branches were pens, and all hills were books, and all waters were ink, yet they could not sufficiently describe the lamentable misery which Lucifer, together with his angels, has brought into his place or whole space of that world wherein he was created.
For he has made the house of light to be a house of darkness, and the house of joy to be a house of mourning, lamentation and sadness; that which was the house of pleasure, delight, vivifying and refreshing, he has made to be a house of thirst and hunger; the house of love to be a house of eternal enmity; and the house of meekness to be a house of knocking, rumbling, thundering and lightning; the house of peace to be a house of lamenting and eternal howling; the house of laughing to be a house of eternal trembling and horror:
The birth or geniture of light, munificence and welldoing to be an eternal hellish pain and torment; the food of pleasing relish to be an eternal abomination and stink, a loathing of all fruits; and the house of Lebanon and cedars to be a stony and rocky house of fire; the sweet scent or relish to be a stink, and a house of ruin and desolation, an end of all good; the divine body to be a black, cold, hot, eating, corroding, and yet not consuming devil, who is an enmity against God and his angels: And so he has all the heavenly hosts or armies against him. Now observe:
The learned have had many disputations, questions, conceits and opinions concerning the fierce malignity and evil that is in all the creatures in this world, and even in the very sun and stars; moreover, there are some so very poisonous and venomous beasts, worms and vegetables in this world, that thereupon rational men have justly wondered, and some have concluded peremptorily, That God must needs have willed the evil also, seeing he has created so much that is evil; and some have laid the blame and fault thereof upon the fall of Adam, and some have imputed it to the work and doings of the devil.
But seeing all the creatures and vegetables were created before the time of man, therefore the fault ought not to be laid upon man; for man gat not the bestial body in his creation, but it first came to be so in his fall.
Neither has man brought the malignity, poison and venom into the beasts, birds, worms, and stones, for he had not their body; otherwise if he had brought malignity and fierceness or wrath into all creatures, then he, like the devils, could never obtain God's mercy.
Poor man did not fall out of a resolved, purposed will, but through the poisonous, vonomous infection of the devil, else there had been no remedy for him.
Now this true information thou wilt find, described here following, not from a zeal to vilify anybody thereby, but in love, and as a humble information and instruction from the abyss of my spirit, and for an assured comfort to the poor, sick old Adam, who now lies at the point of his last departure from hence out of this world.
For in Christ we are all one body, therefore also this spirit would heartily fain have it so, that its fellowmembers might be refreshed with a draught of the precious wine of God be/ore their departure from hence, whereby they might encounter and stand in the great fight with the devil, and obtain the victory, that the victory of the devil in this modern drunken world might be disappointed and destroyed, and the great name of the LORD might be sanctified. Now behold!
When king Lucifer, together with his angels, was so gloriously, beautifully and divinely created, as a Cherubim and king in God, then he suffered his bright, beauteous form to befool him, in that he saw how noble, glorious and fair a spirit rose up in him.
Then his seven qualifying or fountain spirits thought they would elevate and kindle themselves, and so they also would be as fair, glorious and mighty as the animated or soulish spirit, and thereby would domineer, by their own power and authority, in the whole court, circumference, dominion or extent as a new god.
They saw very well that the animated or soulish spirit qualified, mixed or operated with the heart of God; and thereupon they were resolved they would elevate and kindle themselves, hoping to be as bright, illustrious, deep and almighty as the deepest ground in the centre of the heart of God.
For they thought to elevate the natural body, (which was compacted together or incorporated out of the nature-spirit of God), up into the hidden birth or geniture of God, that their seven qualifying or fountain spirits might thus be as high, and as all-comprehensible as the animated or soulish spirit.
And the animated or soulish spirit would triumph over the centre of the heart of God, and the heart of God should be subjected under it; and so the seven spirits of God would image, frame and form all, by their animated or soulish spirit.
And this high mind and selfwill was directly and wholly against the birth or geniture of God; for the body of the angels should abide and remain in its seat, and be nature, and, as a humble mother, hold still and be quiet, and should not have the omniscience, and own self rational comprehensibility of the heart, or of the deepest birth or geniture of the Holy Trinity; but the seven spirits should generate themselves in their natural body, as is done in God.
And their comprehensibility should not be in the hidden kernel, or in the innermost birth or geniture of God, but the animated or soulish spirit, which they generate in the centre of their heart, should qualify, mix or operate with the innermost birth or geniture of God, and help to form all figures, shapes and images, according to the pleasure, delight and will of the seven spirits, whereby, in the divine pomp, all might be but one heart and one will.
For the birth or geniture of God also is thus; the seventh nature-spirit does not reach back into its father, which generateth it, but holdeth still and is quiet as a body, and letteth the father's will, which is the other six spirits, to form and image in it how they please.
Neither does any one spirit particularly and severally reach, with its corporeal being, after the heart of God, but includeth, closeth or joineth its will with the others, in the centre, to the birth or geniture of the heart, so that the heart and the seven spirits of God are one will.
For this is the law of the comprehensibility, that it does not elevate itself up into the incomprehensibility; for the power which, in the centre or midst, is compacted together or incorporated out of all the seven spirits is incomprehensible and unsearchable, but not invisible; for it is not the power of one spirit alone, but of all seven.
Therefore one spirit in its own body, besides and distinct from its instanding or innate instant birth or geniture, cannot reach into the whole heart of God, and examine, try and search all; for, besides and distinct from its instanding birth or geniture, it comprehends only its own birth or geniture in the heart of God; but all the seven spirits, jointly together, comprehend the whole heart of God. ["So also in man. But understand it as to the image of God, viz. in the soul's spirit; not in the fiery essence of the soul, but in the essence of the light, wherein the image of God stands."]
But in the instanding or innate birth or geniture of the spirits, where the one still generateth the other, there every spirit generateth all the seven spirits, but yet only in the rising flash of the life.
But the heart, when it is generated, is singular or distinct, viz. a peculiar person, and yet not separated from the spirits; but the spirits cannot transmute or change themselves, in their first birth or geniture, one into another.
Also the second cannot change itself into the third, which is the exit of the spirit; but every birth or geniture abideth in its seat; and yet all the births or genitures together are but the one only God.
But seeing the body of Lucifer, was created out of nature, [which is] the most outward birth or geniture, therefore it was unjustly done that he should elevate himself into the innermost and deepest, which he could not do in the divine right, but must only so elevate and kindle himself that thereby the qualifying or fountain spirits might be set or put into the sharpest penetrating and infecting.
I verily suppose, indeed, that thou, fair Necromancer, has changed thyself to purpose; and may well also teach men thy black art, that they perhaps might also become such potent gods as thou art.
Ye blind and proud necromancers, jugglers and sorcerers, your art consisteth in your changing the elements of your body by your conjurations and instruments of the qualities or qualifying properties, which you make use of to that purpose, and ye think ye have right so to do; but is it not against the birth or geniture of God? If you think not, make that appear.
How can you well suppose that you can change yourselves into another form? Indeed you suffer the devil thus to play the ape with you, and cheat you; and all this while you are but blind in your own skill. Though you have learned your art never so well, yet you do not know the purpose it driveth at; for the pith and heart therein is the changing or altering of the qualifying or fountain spirits, as Lucifer did, when he would needs be God. Now thou askest, How can that be? Answer.
Behold, when the corporeal, qualifying or fountain spirits set their will into sorcery or witchcraft, then the animated or soulish spirit, which they generate, and which in the astral elementary quality ruleth in the hidden and deepest centre, is clearly already a sorcerer or witch, and has changed, transformed or metamorphosed itself into sorcery or witchcraft.
But the bestial body cannot follow so suddenly and nimbly, but must be charmed to it by characters and conjurations, and by some instruments for that purpose, whereby the animated or soulish spirit makes the bestial body invisible, and changeth it into such a form as the will of the qualifying or fountain spirits was in, at the beginning of its purpose to a metamorphosis or transmutation.
The bestial flesh cannot well change itself, or put itself into another birth or geniture, but is brought into a slender and inferior base form, as of a beast, of wood, or such like thing which has its body qualifying or boiling in the elements, as in their fountain.
But the astral spirits can well clothe themselves in another form or shape, but that continueth so long only as the birth or geniture of nature above their pole or zenith permitteth them.
For when it changeth itself with its wheeling and penetrating, so that another qualifying or fountain spirit becomes chief or predominant, then their art lies down upon the ground, and their Deity in the first qualifying or fountain spirit, in which they had begun their art, has an end.
Now if it be to last any longer, then it must be made again afresh according to the qualifying or fountain spirit then ruling at that present, or the devil with his animated or soulish spirit must be in the astral spirits of the body, which instantly and suddenly changeth it, or else his art is here also at an end.
For nature will not suffer itself to be juggled with at all times and hours, as the spirits would have it, but all must be done according to that spirit which then at that present time is lord and chief or predominant.
It is not that spirit of God which is lord and chief in nature, which causes or makes the juggling, but it is made in the fierceness of the Salitter, which lord Lucifer has kindled with his elevation, and which is his eternal kingdom.
But when the power or might of that spirit is allayed, then the kindled fire can be no more useful to the juggler.
For the wrath-fire in nature is not, during this time of the world, the devil's own house of his power; for the love stands hidden in the centre of the wrath-fire, and Lucifer, together with his angels, lies imprisoned in the outward wrath-fire, even until the Judgment of God: Then he will have the wrath-fire separated from the love, for an eternal bath or lake, and he will wash his juggler's head and face withal, doubtless.
This I set thee down here for a warning, that thou may know what manner of ground sorcery or witchcraft has, not in such a way as if I would write any heathenish sorcery or witchcraft, neither have I learned any; but the animated or soulish spirit beholdeth their juggling, which in the body I do not understand.
But seeing it runneth counter, quite contrary to the love and meekness of the birth or geniture of God, and is a contrary or opposite will in the love of God, so that he is loath to hurt man, unless pressing necessity driveth him to it, therefore will the spirit have the wrath-bath or lake of nature set apart to be an eternal parching or drying place for jugglers, perverters or changers of God's ordinance or order: And therein they may practise and shew forth their new deity. Of the kindling of the Wrath-fire.
Now when king Lucifer, together with all his angels, kindled himself, then the wrath-fire rose up instantly in the body, and the gracious amiable and blessed light was extinguished in the animated or soulish spirit, and became a fierce, furious, devilish spirit, all according to the kindling and will of the qualifying or fountain spirits.
Now this animated or soulish spirit was bound or united with the Deity, in nature, and could qualify, mix or operate in and with the same, as if it were one and the same thing; and that now darted forth out of the bodies of the devils into the nature of God, like a thief and a murderer that desired to rob, murder and spoil all, and bring all under its power, and so kindled all the seven spirits in nature. And then there was nothing else but an astringent, bitter, fiery and cracking burning, tearing and raging.
Thou must not think that the devil has thus powerfully and mightily overcome the Deity. No; but he has kindled the wrath of God, which, indeed, had otherwise rested eternally in secret, and so he has made the Salitter of God to be a murderous den; for if fire be cast into a heap of straw, and the straw kindled, it will burn. God has not, on that account become a devil.
Moreover, the wrath-fire of God does not reach in nature into the innermost kernel of the heart, which is the Son of God, much less into the secret glory or holiness of the spirit, but into the birth or geniture of the six qualifying or fountain spirits, in the place where the seventh is generated.
For in that place, or in this birth or geniture, is lord Lucifer become a creature, and his dominion did reach no farther or deeper than so; but if he had continued in the love, then his animated or soulish spirit had reached even to the centre of the heart of God, for love presseth or penetrateth through the whole Deity.
But when his love was extinguished, then the animated or soulish spirit could no more reach into the heart of God, and so his attempt was in vain; but he raved and raged in nature, that is, in the seventh qualifying or fountain spirit of God.
But seeing the power of all the seven spirits stood in this one, therefore also all the seven were kindled in the wrath, but yet only in the outward and comprehensible qualification or constitution.
For the devil could not touch the heart, neither could he touch the innermost birth or geniture of the qualifying or fountain spirits; for his glory of the seven spirits was already mortified in the first flash of kindling, and was presently held captive and imprisoned in the first exit of the animated or soulish spirit.
In this hour king Lucifer prepared for himself the hell and eternal perdition, which now stands in the outermost qualifying or fountain spirit of the nature of God, or in the outermost birth or geniture of this world.
But when nature kindled itself thus horribly, then the house of joy came to be a house of trouble, affliction and misery. For the astringent quality became kindled in its own house, which is a very hard, cold and dark essence, like a cold, hard frosty winter, which only attracted the Salitter together, and dried it up, so that it became rugged, cold and sharp like stones, wherein the heat was captivated, imprisoned, and also attracted together, and so formed or framed into a hard, cold, dark essence.
When this was done the light in nature was extinguished in the outermost birth or geniture also, and all became very dark, perished and spoiled; the water became very cold and thick, and stayed here and there in the clefts. This is the original of the elementary water on earth.
For before the times of the world the water was very thin or rarified, like air, and then the life was generated therein also, which water is now so mortal, corrupted, perished and spoiled, and so rolleth and runneth to and fro.
The gracious, amiable and blessed love which rose up in the flash of the life, became a fierce and bitter venom or poison, a very murderous den, a sting of death: The tone or tune became like the hard knocking or loud rumbling of stones, and a house of lamentation.
Briefly, all was a mere dark and miserable being in the whole circumference, extent or dominion, in the outermost birth or geniture of the kingdom of Lucifer.
But thou must not think that nature was thus corrupted and kindled even to the innermost ground, but only the outermost birth or geniture; but the innermost, in which the seven qualifying or fountain spirits generate themselves, retained its own right to itself, seeing the kindled devil could not reach into it.
But now the inner birth or geniture has the fan or castingshovel in its hand, and will one day purge its floor, and give the chaff or husks to the kingdom of Lucifer for eternal food.
For if the devil could have reached into the innermost birth or geniture, then instantly the whole circumference, court or extent of his kingdom would have been the kindled burning hell.
But now he must lie captivated and imprisoned in the outermost birth or geniture, even till the Last Judgment Day, which is at hand, and very near to be expected.
But Lucifer has kindled his qualifying or fountain spirits even in the innermost birth or geniture, and now his qualifying or fountain spirits generate an animated or soulish devil's spirit, which is an eternal enemy of God.
For when God was angry in his outermost birth or geniture in nature, then it was not his purposed determinate will to be kindled, neither has he effected that kindling; but he has drawn the Salitter together, and thereby has prepared an eternal lodging for the devil.
For the devil cannot be expelled quite out, away, beyond God, into another kingdom of angels; but a place must be reserved to him for a habitation.
Neither would God presently give him the kindled Salitter for an eternal habitation, for the internal birth or geniture of the spirits stood yet hidden therein.
For God intended to do somewhat else with it, and so king Lucifer would be kept a prisoner till another angelical host or army, out of the same Salitter, should come in his stead, which are men.
Now come on, ye advocates [or justifiers] of Lucifer, maintain the cause of your king now, and shew whether he has done right in kindling of the wrath-fire in nature; if not, then he must bum therein eternally, and your lies against the truth must burn with him.
These are the seven kinds, species, forms or manners of sin's beginning, and eternal enmity against God. Now followeth briefly concerning the four new little sons of Lucifer, which he has generated in himself in his corporeal regimen, for which he was expelled from his place, and is become the most horrible devil. Of the First Son, Pride. Now it may be asked, What moved Lucifer to this, that he would needs be above God? Answer.
Here thou must know, that without, distinct from himself, he had no impulse at all to his pride, but his beauty and brightness deceived him. When he saw that he was the fairest and most beautiful prince in heaven, then he despised the friendly qualifying, mixing, operating and generating of the Deity, and thought with himself that he would rule with his princely power in the whole Deity; all must stoop and bow to him.
But when he found that he could not effect it, then he kindled himself, intending to do it some other way; and so then the Son of Light became a Son of Darkness; for he himself consumed the power of his sweet water, and made it to be a sour stink. Of the Second Son, Covetousness. [Avarice]
The second will was covetousness, which grew out of pride, for Lucifer thought with himself that he would reign over all kingdoms, as a sole god; all should bow to him, he would form and frame all with his own power; and besides, also his beauty so deceived him that he thought he would have all in his sole possession.
This modern world would do well to speculate on this pride and covetousness, and to consider how it is an enmity against God; and that thereby they go headlong to the devil, and there must have their jaws and throats open eternally to rob and devour, and yet find nothing but hellish abomination. Of the Third Son, Envy. [Spite]
This son is the very gout [Podagra] of this world; for it taketh its original in the flash of pride and covetousness, and stands on the root of life as pricking and bitter gall.
This spirit also came at first from pride, for pride thought and said to itself, Surely thou art beautiful, and mighty potent; and covetousness thought and said to itself, All must be thine; and envy thought and said to itself, All which is not obedient unto thee thou must kill with thy stinging; and thus it stung at the other gates of angels. But all was in vain, for its power and might reached no farther than the extent of the place out of which it was created. Of the Fourth Son, Wrath. [anger]
This son is the very burning hellish fire, and taketh its original also from pride. For when Lucifer with his antagonistic envy could not fill his pride and covetousness, then he kindled the wrath-fire in himself, and roared therewith into God's nature, as a fierce lion, and from whence then arose the wrath of God and all evil.
Of which much were to be written, but [in the present book] you will find it more apprehensibly at the place concerning the creation: For there are to be found living testimonies enough, so that none need doubt whether the things be so or no.
Thus king Lucifer is the beginning of sin and the sting of death, and the kindling of God's wrath, and the beginning of all evil, a corruption, perdition and destruction of this world; and whatever evil is done, there he is the first author and causer thereof.
Also he is a murderer and father of lies, and a founder of hell, a spoiler and corrupter, and destroyer of all that is good, and an eternal enemy of God, and of all good angels and men; against whom I, and all men that think to be saved, must daily and hourly struggle and fight, as against the worst and arch enemy. The final Condemnation.
But seeing God has accursed him as an eternal enemy, and condemned him unto eternal imprisonment, where God now seeth his hourglass more and more plainly before his eyes; and seeing his hellish kingdom is revealed to me by the spirit of God; so I, together with and among all holy souls of men, curse him also, and renounce and defy him as an eternal enemy, who has often spoiled and torn up my vineyard.
Moreover, I defy also all his lawyers and helpers, and will, with the divine grace, from henceforth fully reveal his kingdom, and demonstratively prove, that God is a God of love and meekness [Psalm v. 4.], who willeth not the evil, and who has no pleasure in the perdition of any, [Ezek. xviii. 23] but willeth that all men should be helped or saved. [1 Tim. ii. 4.] Then I will shew and prove also that all evil cometh from the devil, and taketh its original from him. Of the final Fight and Expulsion of King Lucifer, together with all his Angels.
Now when this horrible Lucifer, as a tyrant and raging spoiler of all that is good, shewed himself thus terribly, as if he would kindle and destroy all, and bring all under his jurisdiction, then all the heavenly hosts and armies were against him, and he also against them all; there now the fight began, for all stood most terribly, one party against another.
And the great prince Michael [Rev. xii.] with his legions fought against him; and the devil with his legions had not the victory, but was driven from his place, as one vanquished. Now it may be asked, What manner of fight was this? How could they fight one with another without weapons? Answer.
The spirit alone understands this hidden secret, which spirit must fight daily and hourly with the devil, the outward flesh cannot comprehend it; also the astral spirits in man cannot understand it, neither is it comprehended by man at all, unless the animated or soulish spirit unite, qualify and operate with the innermost birth or geniture in nature, in the centre, where the light of God is set opposite against the devil's kingdom, that is, in the third birth or geniture, in the nature of this world.
When it uniteth, qualifieth or operateth with God in this seat, then the animated or soulish spirit carrieth it into the astral; for the astral must in this place fight hourly with the devil.
For the devil has power in the outermost birth or geniture of man, for his seat is there. [This seat is] the murderous den of perdition, and the house of misery and woe, wherein the devil whetteth the sting of death, and through his animated or soulish spirit he reacheth in into the heart of man, in man's outermost birth or geniture.
But when the astral spirits are enlightened from the animated or soulish spirit, which in the light uniteth with God, then they grow fervent, and very longing and desirous of the light. On the other hand, the animated or soulish spirit of the devil, which ruleth in the outermost birth or geniture of man, is very terrible and angry, and of a very contrary or opposite will.
And then there riseth up the striving or fighting fire in man, just as it rose up in heaven with Michael and Lucifer, and so the poor soul comes to be miserably crushed, stretched, tormented and put upon the rack.
But if it getteth the victory, then it bringeth with its piercing penetration its light and knowledge into the outermost birth or geniture of man; for it presseth back with force through the seven spirits of nature, which here I call the astral spirits, and governeth in the council [or counsel] of reason.
Then man first knoweth what the devil is, how much an enemy he is to him, and how great his power is; also how he must fight with him very secretly every day, hour and moment.
Which thing reason, or the outward birth or geniture of man, without the experience of this fight or battle, cannot comprehend. For the third or outermost birth or geniture in man, which is the carnal or fleshly birth, and which man through the first fall in his lust has raised and prepared for himself, is the devil's castle or fort of prey or robbery and dwelling-house, wherein the devil, as in a bulwark, fighteth with the soul, and giveth it many a hard knock on the head.
Now this birth of the flesh is not the mansionhouse of the soul, but in its strife the soul goeth in with its light into the divine power, and fighteth against the murder of the devil. ["Fighteth against the murder of the devil"="fighteth against the murder that is being committed by the devil."]
On the other hand, the devil with his poison shooteth and darteth at the seven qualifying or fountain spirits which generate the soul, intending to destroy and to kindle them, that thereby he may get the whole body for his own propriety.
Now if the soul would willingly bring its light and knowledge into the human mind, then it must fight and strive hard and stoutly, and yet has a very narrow passage to enter in at; it will often be knocked down by the devil, but it must stand to it here, like a champion in the battle. And if it now gets the victory, then it has conquered the devil; but if the devil prevails and gets the better, then the soul is captivated.
But seeing the fleshly birth or geniture is not the soul's own proper house, and that it cannot possess it as an inheritance, as the devil does, therefore the fight and the battle lasteth as long as the house of flesh lasteth.
But if the house of flesh be once destroyed, and that the soul is not yet conquered or vanquished in its house, but is free and unimprisoned, then the fight is ended, and the devil must be gone from this spirit eternally.
Therefore this is a very difficult article to be understood; nay, it cannot be understood at all, except by experience in this fight. Though I should write many books thereof, yet thou wouldst understand nothing of it, unless thy spirit stand in such a birth or geniture, and that the knowledge be generated in thyself; otherwise thou canst neither comprehend nor believe it.
But if thou comprehendest this, then also thou understandest the strife or the fight which the angels held with the devils. For the angels have not flesh nor bones, no more have the devils.
For their bodily or corporeal birth stands only in the seven qualifying or fountain spirits, but the animated or soulish birth in the angels uniteth, mixeth or operateth with God; but it is not so in the devils.
Therefore thou must here know, that the angels with their animated or soulish birth, in which they qualify and unite with God, have striven and fought in God's power and spirit against the kindled devils, and turned them out from the light of God, and driven them together into a hole, that is, into a narrow court, quarter or compass, like a prison, which is the place or space in, upon and above the earth, up to the moon, which is a goddess of the earthly birth or geniture.
So far reacheth their extent now, till the last day, and then they will get a house in that place where the earth now is and stands, and this will be called the burning hell. ["That is, in the outermost birth in the darkness, wherein they reach not the second Principle and source or fountain of the light."]
Lord Lucifer, wait for it, and in the meanwhile take this for an assured prophecy concerning it; for thou wilt get the kindled Salitter in the outermost birth or geniture, (which thou thyself hast so prepared and fitted), to be thy eternal house to dwell in.
But not in such a form as [that in which] it now stands, but all will be separated in the kindled wrath-fire; and the dark, hot, cold, rugged, hard, bitter, stinking refuse, will be left thee for an eternal inn and lodging.