(80) V. They had also all power to dispose of all the ideas, figures and growths or vegetations, as they would; all was a hearty loveplay, sport or scene in God; they had not at all moved God their Creator to any contrary will, though they had broken all the heavenly ideas, figures or vegetations and growths, and had made of them all mere horses to ride on; God had still always caused enough of others to come up instead of them, for it had all been but a play or scene in God.

(3) This, then, is how the good will differ from the bad. Each several one will shine in piety, in sanctity, in prudence, in worship, and in service of [our] God, and see True Reason, as though [he looked at it] with [corporal] eyes; and each will by the confidence of his belief excel all other men, as by its light the Sun the other stars. For that it is not so much by the greatness of his light as by his holiness and his divinity, the Sun himself lights up the other stars. Yea, [my] Asclepius, thou should’st regard him as the second God, ruling all things, and giving light to all things living in the Cosmos, whether ensouled or unensouled. For if the Cosmos is a living thing, and if it has been, and it is, and will be ever-living,—naught in the Cosmos is subject to death. For of an ever-living thing, it is [the same] of every part which is; [that is,] that ’tis [as ever-living] as it is [itself]; and in the World itself [which is] for everyone, and at the self-same time an ever-living thing of life,—in it there is no place for death.

(2) This work asketh no long time or it be once truly done, as some men ween; for it is the shortest work of all that man may imagine. It is never longer, nor shorter, than is an atom: the which atom, by the definition of true philosophers in the science of astronomy, is the least part of time. And it is so little that for the littleness of it, it is indivisible and nearly incomprehensible. This is that time of the which it is written: All time that is given to thee, it shall be asked of thee, how thou hast dispended it. And reasonable thing it is that thou give account of it: for it is neither longer nor shorter, but even according to one only stirring that is within the principal working might of thy soul, the which is thy will. For even so many willings or desirings, and no more nor no fewer, may be and are in one hour in thy will, as are atoms in one hour. And if thou wert reformed by grace to the first state of man’s soul, as it was before sin, then thou shouldest evermore by help of that grace be lord of that stirring or of those stirrings. So that none went forby, but all they should stretch into the sovereign desirable, and into the highest willable thing: the which is God. For He is even meet to our soul by measuring of His Godhead; and our soul even meet unto Him by worthiness of our creation to His image and to His likeness. And He by Himself without more, and none but He, is sufficient to the full and much more to fulfil the will and the desire of our soul. And our soul by virtue of this reforming grace is made sufficient to the full to comprehend all Him by love, the which is incomprehensible to all created knowledgeable powers, as is angel, or man’s soul; I mean, by their knowing, and not by their loving. And therefore I call them in this case knowledgeable powers. But yet all reasonable creatures, angel and man, have in them each one by himself, one principal working power, the which is called a knowledgeable power, and another principal working power, the which is called a loving power. Of the which two powers, to the first, the which is a knowledgeable power, God that is the maker of them is evermore incomprehensible; and to the second, the which is the loving power, in each one diversely He is all comprehensible to the full. Insomuch that a loving soul alone in itself, by virtue of love should comprehend in itself Him that is sufficient to the full—and much more, without comparison—to fill all the souls and angels that ever may be. And this is the endless marvellous miracle of love; the working of which shall never take end, for ever shall He do it, and never shall He cease for to do it. See who by grace see may, for the feeling of this is endless bliss, and the contrary is endless pain.

(24) Then he will come to destroy all of them. And they will be chastised until they become pure. Moreover their period, which was given to them to have power, which was apportioned to them, (is) fourteen hundred and sixty years. When the fire has consumed them all, and when it does not find anything else to burn, then it will perish by its own hand. Then the [...] will be completed [...] the second power [...] the mercy will come [...] through wisdom [...]. Then the firmaments will fall down into the depth. Then the sons of matter will perish; they will not be, henceforth.

(1) This, when it comes, shall be the World’s old age, impiety,—irregularity, and lack of rationality in all good things. And when these things all come to pass, Asclepius,—then He, [our] Lord and Sire, God First in power, and Ruler of the One God [Visible], in check of crime, and calling error back from the corruption of all things unto good manners and to deeds spontaneous with His Will (that is to say God’s Goodness),—ending all ill, by either washing it away with water-flood, or burning it away with fire, or by the means of pestilent diseases, spread throughout all hostile lands,—God will recall the Cosmos to its ancient form ; so that the World itself shall seem meet to be worshipped and admired; and God, the Maker and Restorer of so vast a work, be sung by the humanity who shall be then, with ceaseless heraldings of praise and [hymns of] blessing.

(6) Now a difference existed among the imperishable aeons. Let us, then, consider (it) this way: Everything that came from the perishable will perish, since it came from the perishable. Whatever came from imperishableness will not perish but will become imperishable, since it came from imperishableness. So, many men went astray because they had not known this difference; that is, they died.

(31) But he who is able to renounce them shows that he is from the generation of the Son of Man, (and) has power to accuse them. [...] he restrains [...] part(s) in a [...] in wickedness, and he makes the outer like the inner. He resembles an angel which ... ... (1 line unrecoverable) ... power [...] said them. But the one ... ... (5 lines unrecoverable) And having withdrawn [...], he became silent, having ceased from loquacity and disputations. But he who has found the life-giving word, and he who has come to know the Father of Truth, has come to rest; he has ceased seeking, having found. And when he found, he became silent. But few are the things he used to say to those that [...] with their intellectual mind the [...].

(27) Though indeed they shall be changed at the end of this time, when good and evil shall be separated. So in like manner angels and men, in the [particular] virtue of nature, out of which they had gotten their first beginning, shall subsist in God eternally.

(26) But these who are from the generation of the Son of Man have revealed to the [...] in all of the affairs ... ... (2 lines unrecoverable) ... But it is difficult to [...] to find one [...] and two ... ... (2 lines unrecoverable) ... For the Savior said to his disciples, [...] one in ... ... (lines 19 through end-of-page unrecoverable) ... and he has [...] wisdom, as well as counsel and understanding and intelligence and knowledge and power and truth. And he has some [...] from above [...], the place where the Son of Man ... ... (2 lines unrecoverable) ... power [...] guard against ... ... (lines 14 through end-of-page unrecoverable) ... he knows [...] understands ... ... (1 line unrecoverable) ... worthy of him [...] true [...] alien [...]. But [...], together with [...] evil, in ... ... (2 lines unrecoverable) ... he received baptism [...], and those that ... ... (lines 13 through end-of-page unrecoverable)

(1) But since they will believe neither in what is good justly nor in knowledge unto salvation, we ourselves reckoning what they claim as belonging to us, because all things are God's; and especially since what is good proceeded from us to the Greeks, let us handle those things as they are capable of hearing. For intelligence or rectitude this great crowd estimates not by truth, but by what they are delighted with. And they will be pleased not more with other things than with what is like themselves. For he who is still blind and dumb, not having understanding, or the undazzled and keen vision of the contemplative soul, which the Saviour confers, like the uninitiated at the mysteries, or the unmusical at dances, not being yet pure and worthy of the pure truth, but still discordant and disordered and material, must stand outside of the divine choir.

(103) "Nevertheless they perished and became as though they had not been, and their spirits descended into Sheol in tribulation."

(59) And although the Church in Babel will prattle much here about the Election from the Purpose of God, yet it has as little Knowledge thereof as the Babylonish Tower, whose Top should reach to Heaven, [had] of God. As if it was not possible, that the Love in the Breaking of the Anger does i fully appear, [or shine forth;] and it is for Want of Repentance, that Man suffers himself to be held by the Devil.

(90) If they had but continued in their meek birth or geniture, according to the divine right, then all had been their own, and their will would have been always fulfilled eternally, and nothing had been among them and in them but merely the joy of love; to speak after an earthly manner, as it were an eternal laughing, and a perpetual rejoicing in an eternal hearty delight. For God and the creatures had been one heart and one will. ["The image out of or proceeding from the soul's fire, and the love or the divine centre, are in one essence."]

(7) Among these wretched beings (this their leader ) knows not that those things which are declared as victorious (by his allies) are bound together for the smiting; yea, those things by which he was famed (as victorious) by his (blade of) glittering iron . But the utter destruction of those things Thou, O Ahura Mazda! knowest , most surely !

(10) But He, knowing before He made it what it would be, praised that [which was made, He having potentially made good, from the first by His purpose that had no beginning, what was destined to be good actually. Now that which has future He already said beforehand was good, the phrase concealing the truth by hyperbaton.

(4) ¶Christ's sayings complete, brought into a sequence of times and occasions, but lifted out of contexts alien to the present purpose, may prove to be a glowing story new not only to the non-reader, but new even to the whilom New-Testament readers who have not as yet discerned the "continuities."

(1) Day was departing, and the embrowned air Released the animals that are on earth From their fatigues; and I the only one Made myself ready to sustain the war, Both of the way and likewise of the woe, Which memory that errs not shall retrace. O Muses, O high genius, now assist me! O memory, that didst write down what I saw, Here thy nobility shall be manifest! And I began: "Poet, who guidest me, Regard my manhood, if it be sufficient, Ere to the arduous pass thou dost confide me. Thou sayest, that of Silvius the parent, While yet corruptible, unto the world Immortal went, and was there bodily. But if the adversary of all evil Was courteous, thinking of the high effect That issue would from him, and who, and what, To men of intellect unmeet it seems not; For he was of great Rome, and of her empire In the empyreal heaven as father chosen; The which and what, wishing to speak the truth, Were stablished as the holy place, wherein Sits the successor of the greatest Peter.

(129) 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.

(17) They knew very well that they were not the whole or total God, but were only a piece or part thereof; they also knew very well how far their omnipotence reached or extended; and yet they would no more have their old condition, but would be higher than the whole or total God, and supposed thereby that they would have their place, region, quarters or court above the whole or total Deity, above all kingdoms whatsoever.

(4) But if it happens, that the outward does not what its Desire wills, that proceeds not from its Wisdom, but the Heaven has altered it by another P Conjunction; but if it be compelled to leave off that which is evil, that is not rby the Course of the Heavens, but the new regenerated Man (who is in Strife with the earthly) does many Times overcome, but cannot swallow up the earthly; for the earthly gets up again, as we see by our Anger; for if my new Man has the Upperhand, he will have no Anger, nor any evil Desire; but if this World's Driver assaults him, then the Fire of Anger rises up in the old Man, and his Desire is often kindled to do what he rejected, and reproved a little before.