(102) And now seeing there is somewhat in Purgatory, and that all is not so dead, as the Wolf of the Beast feigns, whereby he may devour the Beast, and the Woman that sits thereon, and he is himself a Wolf, and there hangs a Fox behind him, and in the Fox there grows up an [other] Antichrist again, never a whit better than the first; he goes flattering with his Fox's Skin, smelling about (and the Wolf sticks therein) till he gets the Kingdom [or Dominion.] If he should come to be old enough, how would he devour the poor People's Hens, in the fierce [Cruelty!] Therefore the Lily in the Wonder destroys him, which grows towards the North [or Midnight,] in the [bitter or] fierce Storm.

(89) And the wolves began to fear them, and they oppressed them until they destroyed their little ones, and they cast their young into a river of much water: but those sheep began to cry aloud on account of their little ones, and to complain unto their Lord.

(62) And although the Driver compasses thee about, and will fetch thee away, yet there is a limit for thy Beast, how far it shall go, the Hunter cannot break [or destroy] it sooner than the limited Time; and then if he breaks it, or it is done only for [the Manifesting of] God's Deeds of Wonder, and for thy best Good; all thy Stripes in the thorny Bath shall stand in my Kingdom for a fair Ensign of thy Victory; and moreover, thou shalt have great Joy in it, before the Angels of God, in that thou hast despised the Hunter, and art gone out of a wild Birth into an angelical one. O how thou wilt rejoice, when thou shalt think upon thy wild Beast, which plagued thee Day and Night, in that thou art 0 loosed from it.

(89) And when they saw the Lord of the sheep, they turned to flee before His face, but that sea gathered itself together, and became as it had been created, and the water swelled and rose till it covered those wolves.

(89) And I saw the sheep till they departed from amongst the wolves; but the eyes of the wolves were blinded, and those wolves departed in pursuit of the sheep with all their power.

(19) Thus the Soul stood with great Longing and Desire; also was many Times in great Combat with the Hunter, who would still throw it to the Ground. When it set itself in Opposition against him, then he took all the Vices (which stuck in Flesh and Blood) and cast them upon the Soul, that he might intangle it with them, and hinder it from comprehending the Virgin again; he made a great Mountain of the Sins in the Flesh and Blood, and therewith covered and shut close up the Mercy of God, viz. the new Man in Christ, and the Gates of Heaven, which stood open before, were shut up close: Misery and great Trouble were heaped upon the Soul, till at length once again, from the Breath of God (which came into it again) it was moved to break the Devil's Chains in Pieces, and it entered into Combat with him, so that he was quite thrown to the Ground, and its Covering was rent in Pieces, and then the Soul saw its beloved Virgin again. What friendly Welcoming there was then, I had rather the Reader might find by Experience, than that I should write of it.

(51) But the Hunter is a cunning Artist, who comes then with the Region of this World, with worldly Lusts of the Flesh, with temporal Honour and Riches, and holds them before the poor Soul, that it might bite at his Swine's Apples; thus he leads many a one for a long Time, with his Chains, captive in the Anger of God.

(89) And a sheep which had been saved from the wolves fled and escaped to the wild asses; and I saw the sheep how they lamented and cried, and besought their Lord with all their might, till that Lord of the sheep descended at the voice of the sheep from a lofty abode, and came to them and pastured them.

(39) Here comes Man, and prays before God for Forgiveness of Sins, and the Fox hangs behind his Cloak; he would be justified, and his Unrighteousness sticks in the Abyss, and that will not suffer him to enter into the new Regeneration; his Covetousness has taken too much hold of him; his wicked Babel (of Antichrist's Opinions) will not let him come to the true earnest Conversion; they bar up the Gate of Love, [and] the Spirit of this World (in the Lust of the Flesh) continues always [Predominant or] Chief.

(8) And we are to know, that there was a great Difference in the Beasts before the Curse; for some (viz. the tame ones) were very near of Kin to the Element, with whom Man should have had Joy and Delight; on the contrary, some, viz. the wild ones, which fly from Man, [were very near of Kin] to the four Elements; for the Causes of those Wonders stuck wholly in the Essences, and they were very well known and seen in the Light of the Life in the Knowledge of the Virgin. There is nothing so deep that Man cannot search into, and see it most assuredly, if he does but put away the Vail, and look (through the Tables graven through) with Joshua, into the promised Land.

(37) Therefore, according to our Knowledge, we will set down an Explanation of the Fall of Man, which is very perfectly manifested, and appears in the Light of the Day, and i convinces us. And we have no Need of the Fooleries of the Antichrist, who with the Blood and Death of Christ does but seek his own Covetousness, Pride, and Voluptuousness, and draws the Vail of Moses before our Eyes, that we should not see through the Tables that were graven through [through] Joshua or Jesus, into the promised Land of Paradise; that he may only sit and ride upon his horrible and devouring Beast of Covetousness and Pride, which [Beast] is become so very great and strong, that it shadows the Circuit of the Earth, and rules so wonderfully over Mountains and Valleys, with his Fierceness; which [Beast] yet shall be broken by the Lily without Hands. At which the [People or] Nations shall wonder, and say; How art thou, O terrible and great Might [and Power,] founded upon so weak and loose a Ground!

(90) And I saw till a great sword was given to the sheep, and the sheep proceeded against all the beasts of the field to slay them, and all the beasts and the birds of the heaven fled before their face.

(89) And the Lord came to the sheep and they began to smite those wolves: and the wolves began to make lamentation; but the sheep became quiet and forthwith ceased to cry out.

(415) Not in the present generation, he replied; there is no way of accomplishing this; but their sons may be made to believe in the tale, and their sons’ sons, and posterity after them. I see the difficulty, I replied; yet the fostering of such a belief will make them care more for the city and for one another. Enough, however, of the fiction, which may now fly abroad upon the wings of rumour, while we arm our earth-born heroes, and lead them forth under the command of their rulers. Let them look round and select a spot whence they can best suppress insurrection, if any prove refractory within, and also defend themselves against enemies, who like wolves may come down on the fold from without; there let them encamp, and when they have encamped, let them sacrifice to the proper Gods and prepare their dwellings. Just so, he said. And their dwellings must be such as will shield them against the cold of winter and the heat of summer. I suppose that you mean houses, he replied. Yes, I said; but they must be the houses of soldiers, and not of shop-keepers. What is the difference? he said. That I will endeavour to explain, I replied. To keep watch-dogs, who, from want of discipline or hunger, or some evil habit or other, would turn upon the sheep and worry them, and behave not like dogs but wolves, would be a foul and monstrous thing in a shepherd? Truly monstrous, he said.

(6) At best, one goes to Heaven; at the worst, one goes among the fox-spirits (17). Such a fox-spirit might also occupy himself in the famous mountains enjoying the wind and the moon, the flowers and fruits, and taking his pleasure in coral trees and jewelled grass. But after he has been occupied thus for three to five hundred years, or at the most, for a couple of thousand years, his reward is over and he is bom again into the world of turmoil.

(89) And the sheep went to the wolves according to the word of the Lord, and another sheep met it and went with it, and the two went and entered together into the assembly of those wolves, and spake with them and admonished them not to touch the sheep from henceforth.

(5) My dear Mind, thou supposest thou art very sound, but thou art so beaten, that thou feelest thy Disease no more. Art thou not very near unto Death, how then canst thou account thyself to be sound? O my dear Soul, boast not of thy Soundness, thou liest fettered in heavy Bonds, yea in a very dark Dungeon; thou swimmest in a deep Water, which rises up to thy very Lips, and thou must continually expect Death. Besides, the Hunter is behind thee with a great Company of thy worst Enemies, whereby he draws thee continually down by his Chains into the horrible Deep, into the Abyss of Hell, and his Crew thrust thee on behind thee, and run upon thee on all Sides, yelling and hunting, as if they had the Hind they hunt after.

(99) There the tongue is terrified, trembleth and croucheth to the nether gums, and then the spirit cometh forth from the heart, and closeth the word, which conceiveth itself at the hinder gums, in the astringent and bitter quality, in the wrath, and goeth forth mightily and strongly through the fierceness, as a king and a prince, and also openeth the mouth, and ruleth with a strong spirit from the heart through the whole mouth within, and also without the mouth, and makes a mighty and long syllable, as a spirit which has broken the wrath.

(5) "Nature, which had been disturbed, immediately arose from the idle waters. For her ascent was shameful. And nature took to herself the power of fire. She became strong because of the light of the spirit that was in nature. Her likeness appeared in the water in the form of a frightful beast with many faces, which is crooked below. A light went down to chaos filled with mist and dust, in order to harm nature. And the light of astonishment in the middle region came to it after he cast off the burden of the darkness. He rejoiced when the spirit arose. For he looked from the clouds down at the dark waters upon the light that was in the depths of nature.

(13) ¶Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.