(11) Christ’s soul must needs descend into hell, before it ascended into heaven. So must also the soul of man. But mark ye in what manner this cometh to pass. When a man truly Perceiveth and considereth himself, who and what he is, and findeth himself utterly vile and wicked, and unworthy of all the comfort and kindness that he hath ever received from God, or from the creatures, he falleth into such a deep abasement and despising of himself, that he thinketh himself unworthy that the earth should bear him, and it seemeth to him reasonable that all creatures in heaven and earth should rise up against him and avenge their Creator on him, and should punish and torment him; and that he were unworthy even of that. And it seemeth to him that he shall be eternally lost and damned, and a footstool to all the devils in hell, and that this is right and just and all too little compared to his sins which he so often and in so many ways hath committed against God his Creator. And therefore also he will not and dare not desire any consolation or release, either from God or from any creature that is in heaven or on earth; but he is willing to be unconsoled and unreleased, and he doth not grieve over his condemnation and sufferings; for they are right and just, and not contrary to God, but according to the will of God. Therefore they are right in his eyes, and he hath nothing to say against them. Nothing grieveth him but his own guilt and wickedness; for that is not right and is contrary to God, and for that cause he is grieved and troubled in spirit. This is what is meant by true repentance for sin. And he who in this Present time entereth into this hell, entereth afterward into the Kingdom of Heaven, and obtaineth a foretaste there of which excelleth all the delight and joy which he ever hath had or could have in this present time from temporal things. But whilst a man is thus in hell, none may console him, neither God nor the creature, as it is written, “In hell there is no redemption.”11 Of this state hath one said, “Let me perish, let me die! I live without hope; from within and from without I am condemned, let no one pray that I may be released.” Now God hath not forsaken a man in this hell, but He is laying His hand upon him, that the man may not desire nor regard anything but the Eternal Good only, and may come to know that that is so noble and passing good, that none can search out or express its bliss, consolation and joy, peace, rest and satisfaction. And then, when the man neither careth for, nor seeketh, nor desireth, anything but the Eternal Good alone, and seeketh not himself, nor his own things, but the honour of God only, he is made a partaker of all manner of joy, bliss, peace, rest and consolation, and so the man is henceforth in the Kingdom of Heaven. This hell and this heaven are two good, safe ways for a man in this present time, and happy is he who truly findeth them. For this hell shall pass away, But Heaven shall endure for aye.

(32) When, in two days, God had brought the body of this world into a right form, and had made the heaven for a partition between the love and the wrath, then, on the third day, the love pressed through the heaven and through the wrath, and instantly the old body in death stirred and moved itself to the birth or geniture.

(42) For till the third day from the time of the kindling of God's wrath in this world, nature, in the anxiety, was a dark valley, and stood in death; but on the third day the life brake through death, and the new birth began.

(11) Also let a man mark, when he is in this hell, nothing may console him; and he cannot believe that he shall ever be released or comforted. But when he is in heaven, nothing can trouble him; he believeth also that none will ever be able to offend or trouble him, albeit it is indeed true, that after this hell he may be comforted and released, and after this heaven he may be troubled and left without consolation. Again: this hell and this heaven come about a man in such sort, that he knoweth not whence they come; and whether they come to him, or depart from him, he can of himself do nothing towards it. Of these things he can neither give nor take away from himself, bring them nor banish them, but as it is written, “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof,” that is to say, at this time present, “but thou knowest not whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth.”12 And when a man is in one of these two states, all is right with him, and he is as safe in hell as in heaven, and so long as a man is on earth, it is possible for him to pass ofttimes from the one into the other; nay even within the space of a day and night, and all without his own doing. But when the man is in neither of these two states he holdeth converse with the creature, and wavereth hither and thither, and knoweth not what manner of man he is. Therefore he shall never forget either of them, but lay up the remembrance of them in his heart.

(615) who had been great criminals: they were just, as they fancied, about to return into the upper world, but the mouth, instead of admitting them, gave a roar, whenever any of these incurable sinners or some one who had not been sufficiently punished tried to ascend; and then wild men of fiery aspect, who were standing by and heard the sound, seized and carried them off; and Ardiaeus and others they bound head and foot and hand, and threw them down and flayed them with scourges, and dragged them along the road at the side, carding them on thorns like wool, and declaring to the passers-by what were their crimes, and that 8 they were being taken away to be cast into hell.’ And of all the many terrors which they had endured, he said that there was none like the terror which each of them felt at that moment, lest they should hear the voice; and when there was silence, one by one they ascended with exceeding joy. These, said Er, were the penalties and retributions, and there were blessings as great. Now when the spirits which were in the meadow had tarried seven days, on the eighth they were obliged to proceed on their journey, and, on the fourth day after, he said that they came to a place where they could see from above a line of light, straight as a column, extending right through the whole heaven and through the earth, in colour resembling the rainbow, only brighter and purer; another day’s journey brought them to the place, and there, in the

(614) and they told him that he was to be the messenger who would carry the report of the other world to men, and they bade him hear and see all that was to be heard and seen in that place. Then he beheld and saw on one side the souls departing at either opening of heaven and earth when sentence had been given on them; and at the two other openings other souls, some ascending out of the earth dusty and worn with travel, some descending out of heaven clean and bright. And arriving ever and anon they seemed to have come from a long journey, and they went forth with gladness into the meadow, where they encamped as at a festival; and those who knew one another embraced and conversed, the souls which came from earth curiously enquiring about the things above, and the souls which came from heaven about the things beneath. And they told one another of what had happened by the way, those from below weeping and sorrowing at the remembrance of the things which they had endured and seen in their journey beneath the earth (now the journey lasted a thousand years), while those from above were describing heavenly delights and visions of inconceivable beauty. The story, Glaucon, would take too long to tell; but the sum was this:— He said that for every wrong which they had done to any one they suffered tenfold; or once in a hundred years—such being reckoned to be the length

(7) And now if we will speak of the Glorification of Christ, and of his Body, which he visibly (and in that Form in which he had conversed upon Earth) ascended with, then we must say, that as the Love of the Heart of God has reconciled the Anger of the Father, and holds it as it were captive in it, so also the Holy Ternary has comprehended the hard palpable Body of Christ, viz. the Kingdom of this World, as if it was wholly swallowed up, whereas it is not swallowed up, but the Source of this World is destroyed in Death, and the Holy Ternary has put on the Body of Christ, not as a Garment, but virtually [or powerfully] in the Essences; and he is as it were swallowed up (to our Apprehension and Sight) and yet is really, and shall come again at the last Judgment-Day, and manifest himself in his own Body which he had here, that all may see him, be they good or bad; and he shall also come in the same Form to keep the Judgment of the Separation, for in his divine glorified Form we cannot behold him, before we be glorified, especially the Wicked. But thus all Generations shall see him and know him, and the Unbelieving shall weep and wail, that they went so out of their Flesh and Blood into another Source [or Condition,] when they should and might in their own Essences have put on God, and yet put on the Kingdom of the Fierceness of the Anger of God with the Devils, and let the same into the Essences of their Souls, and caused themselves to perish.

(73) Thus the Soul of Christ rested in the Grave, in the Father, forty Hours present with its Body; for the heavenly Body was not dead, but the earthly only, the Soul sprung up in the heavenly through Death, and stood forty Hours in Rest; these were the forty Hours in which Adam was asleep, when his wife was taken out of him; and also the forty Days when Moses was on the Mount, [and Israel was tempted to try] whether it was possible to live in the Virtue or Power of the Father in the Kingdom of Heaven. But when it was found to be impossible, then presently the People fell away from the Law of the Father, viz. from the Law of Nature, and worshipped a Calf that they had made, to be instead of God; and Moses broke the Tables of the Law.

(2) Jesus said: "If the time of such an one is completed through the sphere, the receivers of Adōnis come after him, and lead his soul out of the body, and they spend three days circling round with it and instructing it concerning the creatures of the world. "Thereafter they lead it down into the Amente before Ariēl, and he taketh vengeance on it in his chastisements three months, eight days and two hours. "Thereafter they lead it into the chaos before Yaldabaōth and his forty-and-nine demons, and every one of his demons taketh vengeance on it another three months, eight days and two hours. "Thereafter they lead it on to the way of the midst, and every one of the rulers of the way of the midst taketh vengeance on it through his dark smoke and his wicked fire another three months, eight days and two hours. "Thereafter they lead it up unto the Virgin of Light, who judgeth the righteous and the sinners, that she may judge it. And when the sphere turneth itself, she handeth it over to her receivers, that they may cast it into the æons of the sphere. And they lead it forth into a water which is below the sphere; and it becometh a seething fire and eateth into it until it purifieth it utterly. "Thereafter cometh Yaluham, the receiver of Sabaōth, the Adamas, bringeth the cup of forget-fulness and handeth it unto the soul; and it drinketh it and forgetteth all things and all the regions to which it had gone. And they cast it into a lame, halt and blind body. "This is the chastisement of the thief." Andrew answered and said: "An arrogant, overweening man, when he cometh out of the body, what will happen to him?"

(6) From that time the astringent birth stood as it were in an anxious death, till after the third day, when the love of God pressed through the heaven of the partition, and kindled the light of the sun.

(3) Jesus said: "If the time of such an one is completed through the sphere, the receivers of Bainchōōōch, who is one of the triple-powered gods, come after his soul and lead his soul with joy and exultation and spend three days circling round with it and instructing it concerning the creations of the world with joy and exultation. "Thereafter they lead it down into the Amente and instruct it concerning the instruments of chastisement in the Amente; but they will not take vengeance on it therewith. But they will only instruct it concerning them, and the smoke of the flame of the chastisements catcheth it only a little. "Thereafter they carry it up unto the way of the midst and instruct it concerning the chastisements of the ways of the midst, the smoke from the flame catching it a little. "Thereafter they lead it unto the Virgin of Light, and she judgeth it and depositeth it with the little Sabaōth, the Good, him of the Midst, until the sphere turneth itself, and Zeus and Aphrodite come in face of the Virgin of Light, while Kronos and Arēs come behind her. "At that hour she taketh that righteous soul and handeth it over to her receivers, that they may cast it into the peons of the sphere. And the servitors of the sphere lead it forth into a water which is below the sphere; and a seething fire ariseth and eateth into it until it purifieth it utterly. "Thereafter cometh Yaluham, the receiver of Sabaōth, the Adamas, who giveth the cup of forgetfulness unto the souls, and he bringeth the water of forgetfulness and handeth it to the soul; [and it drinketh it] and forgetteth all things and all the regions to which it had gone.

(14) We have seen above that one kind of spiritual hell is the forcible separation from worldly things to which the heart cleaves too fondly. Many carry about within them the germs of such a hell without being aware of it; hereafter they will feel like some king who, after living in luxury, has been dethroned and made a laughing stock. The second kind of spiritual hell is that of shame, when a man wakes up to see the nature of the actions he committed in their naked reality. Thus he who slandered will see himself in the guise of a cannibal eating his dead brother's flesh, and he who envied as one who cast stones against a wall, which stones, rebounding, put out the eyes of his own children.

(25) In this [Garden] now the Image of God stood altogether free. It might embrace [and take] what it would, only the Tree of Temptation, that was forbidden. There he was forty Days in the paradisical Knowledge, Joy, and Habitation, where yet there was neither Day nor Night to him, but only the Eternity; he saw with his Eyes [from or] out of the divine Power [and Virtue.] There was in him no Shutting of his Eyes; he had no Need of the Sun at all, yet all Things must serve and be subject to him. The Out-Birth [or Production] of the four Elements did not touch him; there was no Sleep in him, nor Pain, nor Fear. A thousand Years were to him but as a Day; he was such an Image as shall rise at the last Day; there will rise no other Image than that which God created in the Beginning, therefore consider it well.

(50) And as long as he set his Imagination in the Heart of God, the Paradise was in him, [and he in the Paradise,] and the Band of the Abyss in him (in the Source) was a Paradise of transcendent Joy; and the Kingdom of this World held him from beneath also in the Band, because it goes forth from the Element. But so long as he set his Mind in the Heart of God, it [the Kingdom of the four Elements] could not lay hold on him [or master him,] and it was impotent, as to him, as this World is impotent as to God. 5 1. And thus the Spirit and Soul of Adam stood in the Midst (in the joyful Paradise) forty Days, as one [only] Day, and all inclined to him; one [whereof was] the Kingdom of Hell, of the eternal Originality out of the dark Mind, out of which his Worm of the Soul (in the opened Gate) was gone forth; and secondly, [there inclined to him] the Deity of the Kingdom of Heaven in the opened Gate, in the pleasant Luster; and thirdly, the Spirit of the Stars and Elements [inclined to him] drawing him to their Bands, and heartily desiring him.

(3) For on the third day the body of nature did travail so hard in anxiety till the lovefire had kindled itself in the death, and till the light of life was broken forth through the congealed body of death, and had sprung up out of death; but on the third day it stood only in the fire-crack, from whence mobility existed.

(110) And in such a manner heaven and earth are his; also in such a manner all the devils, together with all wicked men, must be his eternal prisoners; and in the Salitter, which they have corrupted and kindled in their place or space, must endure eternal pain and torment, and moreover eternal shame and reproach.

(16) On the contrary, the Righteous stand there in unspeakable great Joy, and their Joy rises up in the Source [or Well-spring] of the Holy Ghost; all their Sorrow and Heaviness (which they have had here) stands before them in Substance, and it appears how they have suffered wrongfully; their Comfort springs up in the Body of Jesus Christ, who has redeemed them out of so great Misery; all their Sins are washed, and appear as white as Snow; and there then they return Thanks to their Bridegroom, who has redeemed them out of such Necessity and Misery, wherein they laid captive here, and there is mere hearty Joy that the i Driver is destroyed; all their good Works, their Teaching and Well-doing, appear before them; all the Words of their Teaching and Reproving (wherewith they have shown the Ungodly the right Way) stand in the Figure.

(4) Now to know is more than to believe, as to be dignified with the highest honour after being saved is a greater thing than being saved. Accordingly the believer, through great discipline, divesting himself of the passions, passes to the mansion which is better than the former one, viz., to the greatest torment, taking with him the characteristic of repentance from the sins he has committed after baptism. He is tortured then still more - not yet or not quite attaining what he sees others to have acquired. Besides, he is also ashamed of his transgressions. The greatest torments, indeed, are assigned to the believer. For God's righteousness is good, and His goodness is righteous. And though the punishments cease in the course of the completion of the expiation and purification of each one, yet those have very great and permanent grief who are found worthy of the other fold, on account of not being along with those that have been glorified through righteousness.

(72) And so thou must not think that the Soul of Christ was then gone a great Way from his Body. For all the Three Principles were on the Cross, why also not in the Grave? At that very Moment when Christ laid off the Kingdom of this World, the Soul of Christ pressed into Death, and into the Anger of God, and in that very Moment the Anger was reconciled in the Love, in the Light, and became Paradise; and the Devils were captivated in the Anger in themselves, together with all the wicked Souls; and so instantly the Life sprung up through Death, and Death was destroyed, and made a Scorn; yet to the Wicked (which remain in the Anger) it is Death, but in Christ it is a Life.

(3) Jesus said: "If the time of such an one is completed through the sphere, the receivers of Ariēl come after him and lead out his soul [out of the body] and spend three days travelling round in the world [with it] and instructing it concerning the creatures of the world. "Thereafter they lead it down into the Amente before Ariēl; and he taketh vengeance on it with his chastisements twenty months. "Thereafter they lead it into the chaos before Yaldabaōth and his forty-and-nine demons; and he and his demons, one by one, take vengeance on it another twenty months. "Thereafter they carry it on to the way of the midst; and every one of the rulers of the way of the midst taketh vengeance on it another twenty months. "And thereafter they lead it unto the Virgin of Light, that she may judge it. And when the sphere turneth itself, she handeth it over to her receivers, that they may cast it into the æons of the sphere. And the servitors of the sphere lead it into a water which is below the sphere; and it becometh a seething fire and eateth into it until it purifieth it. "And Yaluham, the receiver of Sabaōth, the Adamas, cometh and bringeth the cup with the water of forgetfulness and handeth it to the soul; and it drinketh and forgetteth all things and all the regions to which it had gone. And they cast it up into a lame and deformed body, so that all despise it persistently. "This is the chastisement of the arrogant and overweening man." Thomas said: "A persistent blasphemer, what is his chastisement?"