(22) But we say that the fire sanctifies s not flesh, but sinful souls; meaning not the all-devouring vulgar fire but that of wisdom, which pervades the soul passing through the fire.

(47) Now therefore the Anguish, Bitterness, and Woe in the [Sting or] Prickle, are like a Brimstone-Spirit, and all Spirits in Nature are Brimstone: They [torment, or] cause the Anguish in one another, till that the Light of God comes to help them; and then there comes to be a Flash, and there is its End, for it can climb no higher in Nature; and this is the Fire, which becomes shining in the Flash, in the Soul, and also in the Mind. For the Soul reaches the Virtue of the Light, which puts it into Meekness; and in this World it is the burning Fire: In Hell it is immaterial, and there it is the eternal Fire, which burns in the P Quality.

(30) So if it be kindled, then it is a fierce source of wrath, and a beginning of hell, and a torment and woe of the hellish fire, also a quality of darkness; for therein are extinguished the divine love, and also the divine light.

(101) Woe to you, Sinners, on the day of strong anguish, Ye who afflict the righteous and burn them with fire: Ye shall be requited according to your works.

(18) 'He who knows the three Nâkiketa fires, and knowing the three, piles up the Nâkiketa sacrifice, he, having first thrown off the chains of death, rejoices in the world of heaven, beyond the reach of grief.'

(8) 'There is Agni (fire), the all-seeing, hidden in the two fire-sticks, well-guarded like a child (in the womb) by the mother, day after day to be adored by men when they awake and bring oblations. This is that.'

(107) If a man for a hundred years worship Agni (fire) in the forest, and if he but for one moment pay homage to a man whose soul is grounded (in true knowledge), better is that homage than sacrifice for a hundred years.

(54) For the kindled nature burneth still continually until the Last Judgment Day, and this kindled fire, source or quality, is an eternal enmity against God.

(5) On this point, verily, Janaka, [king] of Videha, spoke as follows to Budila Asvatarasvi: f^io! Now if you spoke of yourself thus as a knower of the Gayatri, how then have you come to be an elephant and are carrying? ' ' Because, great king, I did not know its mouth/ said he. Its mouth is fire. Verily, indeed, even if they lay very much 1 RV. 3. 62. 1: On this, of Savitri the god, The choicest glory let us think. Our thoughts may he himself inspire! on a fire, it burns it all. Even so one who knows this, al- though he commits very much evil, consumes it all and becomes clean and puie, ageless and immortal

(151) Then the heat kindleth the sweet source or quality, with an intent to be refreshed, but there is no sap left, the sweet source or quality is now burning and glowing only, even as a hard, dried or burnt stone, and can no more kindle its light. And so the whole body remaineth now a dark valley, in which there is nothing but a fierce hard coldness in the astringent quality, and in the sweet quality a hard glowing fire only, wherein the fierce wrathful heat riseth up in all eternity, and in the bitter quality there is a raving, a raging, a stinging and a burning.

(5) He who acts placing all actions in the eternal Brahman, giving up attachment, is unaffected by sin like the lotus by water.

(70) If thou stirrest or awakest the spirit in the fire, then there riseth up in thee the bitter and harsh anger; for as soon as the fire is kindled, which is done in the hardness and fierceness, then springeth up the bitter fierceness or wrath in the flash.

(132) For when thy light is extinguished, then thou standest in the darkness, and in the darkness the wrath of God is hidden, and so if thou awakenest it, then it burneth in thee.

(4) And we pray likewise for Thy Fire, O Ahura! strong through Righteousness (as it is), most swift, (most) powerful, to the house with joy receiving it, in many wonderful ways our help, but to the hater, O Mazda! it is a steadfast harm as if with weapons hurled from the hands .

(19) 'This, O Nakiketas, is thy fire which leads to heaven, and which thou hast chosen as thy second boon. That fire all men will proclaim. Choose now, O Nakiketas, thy third boon.'

(9) But if from any creature they received in any way whatever the seeds of the Truth, they did not nourish them; but committing them to a barren and reinless soil, they choked them with weeds, as the Pharisees revolted from the Law, by introducing human teachings, - the cause of these being not the Teacher, but those who choose to disobey. But those of them who believed the Lord's advent and the plain teaching of the Scriptures, attain to the knowledge of the law; as also those addicted to philosophy, by the teaching of the Lord, are introduced into the knowledge of the true philosophy: "For the oracles of the Lord are pure oracles, melted in the fire, tried in the earth, purified seven times." Just as silver often purified, so is the just man brought to the test, becoming the Lord's coin and receiving the royal image. Or, since Solomon also calls the "tongue of the righteous man gold that has been subjected to fire," intimating that the doctrine which has been proved, and is wise, is to be praised and received, whenever it is amply tried by the earth: that is, when the gnostic soul is in manifold ways sanctified, through withdrawal from earthy fires. And the body in which it dwells is purified, being appropriated to the pureness of a holy temple. But the first purification which takes place in the body, the soul being first, is abstinence from evil things, which some consider perfection, and is, in truth, the perfection of the common believer - Jew and Greek. But in the case of the Gnostic, after that which is reckoned perfection in others, his righteousness advances to activity in well-doing. And in whomsoever the increased force of righteousness advances to the doing of good, in his case perfection abides in the fixed habit of well-doing after the likeness of God.

(13) Also the Devils tremble at the Kindling of the Wrath, whose Faces appear before the Eyes of the Ungodly; for they see the angelical World before them, and the hellish Fire in them; and they see how every Life burns, and every one in its own Source, in its own Fire. The angelical World burns in Triumph, in Joy, in the Light of the Glory, and it shines as the clear Sun, which neither Devil, nor any of the Wicked dare look upon, and there is Praise [and Hallelujahs] that the Driver is overcome.

(7) "For this cause have I said unto you: 'I am come to cast fire on the earth,'--that is: I am come to purify the sins of the whole world with fire. "And for this cause have I said to the Samaritan woman: 'If thou knewest of the gift of God, and who it is who saith unto thee: Give me to drink,--thou wouldst ask, and he would give thee living water, and there would be in thee a spring which welleth up for everlasting life.' "And for this cause I took also a cup of wine, blessed it and give it unto you and said: 'This is the blood of the covenant which will be poured out for you for the forgiveness of your sins.' "And for this cause they have also thrust the spear into my side, and there came forth water and blood. "And these are the mysteries of the Light which forgive sins; that is to say, these are the namings and the names of the Light."

Those who have gone astray, who are offspring of the spirit, go astray also because of the spirit. Thus from one spirit the fire blazes and the fire is extinguished.

(3) 'From terror of Brahman fire burns, from terror the sun burns, from terror Indra and Vâyu, and Death, as the fifth, run away.'