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(75) But I find, that the most cunning Devil is set against me; he will raise Scorners and Mockers, who will say, that I intend by mine own Conceit to grope, dig deeper, and then out the Deity. Yes, Mr. Scorner, thou art an obedient Son to the Devil, thou hast great Cause to mock God's Children, as if I was able in mine own Power to fathom the Depth of the Deity: No! but the Deity searches the Ground in me: Or, dost thou think, that I am strong enough to stand against it?

(90) Dost not thou seek after deeper Subtilty than we? Thou wilt needs climb into the most hidden Secrets of God, which is not fit for any Man to undertake. We seek only after human Prudence and Subtilty, but thou would’st be equal with God, and know all; how God is in every Thing, both in Heaven, and in Hell, in Devils, Angels and Men. Therefore surely it is not unlawful to seek for a cunning sharp Wit, and after crafty Designs, which bring Honour, Power or Authority, and Riches. A Reply.

(2) Many unordained and unseemly practices follow on this error, whoso might perceive all. Nevertheless some there be that be so curious that they can refrain them in great part when they come before men. But might these men be seen in place where they be homely, then I trow they should not be hid. And nevertheless yet I trow that whoso would straitly gainsay their opinion, that they should soon see them burst out in some point; and yet them think that all that ever they do, it is for the love of God and for to maintain the truth. Now truly I hope that unless God shew His merciful miracle to make them soon leave off, they shall love God so long on this manner, that they shall go staring mad to the devil. I say not that the devil hath so perfect a servant in this life, that is deceived and infect with all these fantasies that I set here: and nevertheless yet it may be that one, yea, and many one, be infect with them all. But I say that he hath no perfect hypocrite nor heretic in earth that he is not guilty in some that I have said, or peradventure shall say if God vouchsafeth.

(54) If a man may attain thereunto, to be unto God as his hand is to a man, let him be therewith content, and not seek farther. This is my faithful counsel, and here I take my stand. That is to say, let him strive and wrestle with all his might to obey God and His commandments so thoroughly at all times and in all things, that in him there be nothing, spiritual or natural, which opposeth God; and that his whole soul and body with all their members may stand ready and willing for that to which God hath created them; as ready and willing as his hand is to a man, which is so wholly in his power, that in the twinkling of an eye, he moveth and turneth it whither he will. And when we find it otherwise with us, we must give our whole diligence to amend our state; and this from love and not from fear, and in all things whatsoever, seek and intend the glory and praise of God alone. We must not seek our own, either in things spiritual or in things natural. It must needs be thus, if it is to stand well with us. And every creature oweth this of right and truth unto God, and especially man, to whom, by the ordinance of God, all creatures are made subject, and are servants, that he may be subject to and serve God only. Further, when a man hath come so far, and climbed so high, that he thinketh and weeneth he standeth sure, let him beware lest the Devil strew ashes and his own bad seed on his heart, and nature seek and take her own comfort, rest, peace, and delight in the prosperity of his soul, and he fall into a foolish, lawless freedom and licentiousness, which is altogether alien to, and at war with, a true life in God.

(1) SOME men the fiend will deceive on this manner. Full wonderfully he will enflame their brains to maintain God’s law, and to destroy sin in all other men. He will never tempt them with a thing that is openly evil; he maketh them like busy prelates watching over all the degrees of Christian men’s living, as an abbot over his monks. ALL men will they reprove of their defaults, right as they had cure of their souls: and yet they think that they do not else for God, unless they tell them their defaults that they see. And they say that they be stirred thereto by the fire of charity, and of God’s love in their hearts: and truly they lie, for it is with the fire of hell, welling in their brains and in their imagination.

(4) You please yourselves with this, that the Devil is in Subjection to you, and you suppose that you are Gods: Here I will describe the Original and Ground of Necromancy, for I am become also a Searcher into Nature, 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 follows upon Knowledge.

(36) For he hides the noble Grain of Mustard-seed, so that Man does not know himself. And then the World supposes, that he is thus plagued and smitten of God, whereby the Devil's Kingdom remains always hidden and undiscovered.

(35) The Learned have had many Disputations, Questions, Conceits and Opinions concerning the fierce Malignity and Evil that is in all the Creatures, even in the very Sun and Stars in this World; 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 also willed the Evil, 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.

(33) "It is expedient that every man should labor for this treasure by the assistance of God, and his own particular search and industry. But the perverse intentions of these fellows we understand out of their own writings, by the singular grace and revelation of God. We do stop our ears, and wrap ourselves as it were in clouds, to avoid the bellowings and howlings of those men, who in vain cry out for gold. And hence indeed it comes to pass that they brand us with infinite calumnies and slanders, which notwithstanding we do not resent but God in His good time will judge them for it. But after that we had well known (though unknown to you) and perceived also by your writing how diligently you are to peruse the Holy Scripture, and seek the true knowledge of God: we have also above many thousands, thought you worthy of some answer, and we signify this much to you by the will of God and the admonition of the Holy Ghost.

(143) For they are divine Mysteries, which no Man can search into by his own Reason, and I also esteem myself most unworthy of such a Gift, and besides I shall have many Scorners and Mockers against me; for the corrupted Nature is horribly ashamed before the Light.

(2) The Learned have produced many and various Monsters concerning the Beginning of Sin, and Original of the Devil, and scuffled one with another about it; every one of them thought he had the Ax by the Handle, yet it continued hidden from them all till this very Time.

(8) But if the Devil should raise Mockers and Despisers, who would say, it does not become me to climb so high into the Deity, and to dive so deeply thereinto.

(43) On the other hand, the life of the natural man, where he hath a lively, subtle, cunning nature, is so manifold and complex, and seeketh and inventeth so many turnings and windings and falsehoods for its own ends, and that so continually, that this also is neither to be uttered nor set forth. Now, since all falsehood is deceived, and all deception beginneth in self-deception, so is it also with this false Light and Life, for he who deceiveth is also deceived, as we have said before. And in this false Light and Life is found everything that belongeth to the Evil Spirit and is his, insomuch that they cannot be discerned apart; for the false Light is the Evil Spirit, and the Evil Spirit is this false Light. Hereby we may know this. For even as the Evil Spirit thinketh himself to be God, or would fain be God, or be thought to be God, and in all this is so utterly deceived that he doth not think himself to be deceived, so is it also with this false Light, and the Love and Life that is thereof. And as the Devil would fain deceive all men, and draw them to himself and his works, and make them like himself, and useth much art and cunning to this end, so is it also with this false Light; and as no one may turn the Evil Spirit from his own way, so no one can turn this deceived and deceitful Light from its errors. And the cause thereof is, that both these two, the Devil and Nature, vainly think that they are not deceived, and that it standeth quite well with them. And this is the very worst and most mischievous delusion. Thus the Devil and Nature are one, and where nature is conquered the Devil is also conquered, and, in like manner, where nature is not conquered the Devil is not conquered. Whether as touching the outward life in the world, or the inward life of the spirit, this false Light continueth in its state of blindness and falsehood, so that it is both deceived itself and deceiveth others with it, wheresoever it may. From what hath here been said, ye may understand and perceive more than hath been expressly set forth. For whenever we speak of the Adam, and disobedience, and of the old man, of self-seeking, self-will, and self-serving, of the I, the Me, and the Mine, nature, falsehood, the Devil, sin; it is all one and the same thing. These are all contrary to God, and remain without God.