Besides, the Kingdom of Hell, and of [fierce] Wrath, always gape after the Soul, and set their Jaws wide open to devour the captive Soul; which is held fast fettered with two strong Chains; the one of the Kingdom of Hell; the other of the Kingdom of this World; and it is continually led by the heavy, lumpish, bestial, and sickly Body, as a Thief who is often led to the Place of Execution, and still by a Petition reprieved, and laid in Prison again, and the poor Soul must lie thus in Prison the whole Time of the Body; where the Devil on the one Side very suddenly rushes upon it with his devouring Fierceness, Wrath, and Malice, and would carry it into the Abyss. Then instantly [it is beat upon by] the glistering [flattering] World, with Pomp, Bravery, Covetousness, and Voluptuousness of Perdition; presenting [again come upon it] Sickness and Fear, and it is continually trembling and quaking; and when Man goes but in the Dark, how is it amazed, and continually afraid that the Executioner will take it, and tdo Execution upon it! The Gate [or Explanation] of the great Sin, and Contrariety of Will against God, in Man.

Truly it is a narrow and strait passage or entrance, through the gates of hell, for them that will press in to God; they must endure many pangs,...

Only, the spirit here setteth open for thee the gates of hell, that thou may see what is the condition of the devils and of hell, and what is the...

Thus I descended out of the first circle Down to the second, that less space begirds, And so much greater dole, that goads to wailing. There standeth...

In this quality stands hell and eternal perdition, as also the eternal enmity and murderous den, and such a creature the devil is come to be.

But here is no help, their torment increaseth and becometh but the greater; the more they bewail it, the more does the hellish fierceness or wrath kin...

Here thou seest once more how the kingdom of God and the kingdom of hell hang one to the other, as one body, and yet the one cannot comprehend the...

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...

Darkness of hell, and of a night deprived Of every planet under a poor sky, As much as may be tenebrous with cloud, Ne'er made unto my sight so thick...

But, that afterwards the astringent and bitter qualities awaken behind, and coimage afterwards to the framing of the word, signifieth that indeed all ...

For at the very hour when Lucifer elevated himself the Father was moved to wrath in the qualifying or fountain spirits against the legions of Lucifer;...

For the devil has power in the outermost birth or geniture of man, for his seat is there. [This seat is] the murderous den of perdition, and the house...

And then there riseth up the striving or fighting fire in man, just as it rose up in heaven with Michael and Lucifer, and so the poor soul comes to be...

In this hour king Lucifer prepared for himself the hell and eternal perdition, which now stands in the outermost qualifying or fountain spirit of the...

But the animated or soulish spirit, which qualifieth or uniteth with God, that comprehends it well; but the bestial body attains only a glimpse thereo...

But that the astringent and bitter spirit sitteth still in its seat at the hinder gums on the tongue, and thrusteth forth the word at the mouth, and y...

This is the sentence of the vicious soul. And the soul's vice is ignorance. For that the soul who hath no knowledge of the things that are, or knowled...

The birth or geniture of light, munificence and welldoing to be an eternal hellish pain and torment; the food of pleasing relish to be an eternal...

Then thy heart is a dark valley: And if thou dost not labour and work quickly again to the birth of the light, then he kindleth the wrath-fire...

In this devouring abyss will rise up all manner of hellish fruits and forms, all according to the hellish quality and kind; as in heaven there spring...

It is also a fellowship with the Devil, for everything hath fellowship with its like; and sin maketh the soul and Satan resemble each other. It is...