(58) And though indeed the bestial Body must putrefy and rot, yet its Power and Virtue live, and in the mean while there grow out of its Power, in its Mother, fair beautiful Roses, Blossoms and Flowers. And though it were quite burnt up and consumed in the Fire, yet its Power and Virtue stands in the four Elements in the Word, and the Soul qualifies, mixes, or unites therewith; for the Soul is in Heaven, and the same Heaven is every where, even in the Midst or Center of the Earth.

(11) Nor is it only by reason of knowledge acquired and intuitive that the soul of man holds the first rank among created things, but also by reason of power. Just as angels preside over the elements, so does the soul rule the members of the body. Those souls which attain a special degree of power not only rule their own body but those of others also. If they wish a sick man to recover he recovers, or a person in health to fall ill he becomes ill, or if they will the presence of a person he comes to them. According as the effects produced by these powerful souls are good or bad they are termed miracles or sorceries. These souls differ from common folk in three ways: (1) What others only see in dreams they see in their waking moments. (2) While others' wills only affect their own bodies, these, by will-power, can move bodies extraneous to themselves. (3) The knowledge which others acquire by laborious learning comes to them by intuition.

(137) For the holy Soul is one Spirit with God; though indeed it is a Creature, yet it is like to the Angels: Also the Soul of Man sees much deeper than the Angels; for the Angels see only to the heavenly Pomp, but the Soul sees both the heavenly and the hellish, for it lives between both.

(43) They saw very well, that the animated or soulish Spirit qualified, mixed, or operated with the Heart of God; and thereupon they were resolved, they would elevate and kindle themselves, hoping to be as bright, illustrious, deep, and almighty, as the deepest Ground in the Center of the Heart of God. [deepest Ground]

(2) For some there be that without much and long ghostly exercise may not come thereto, and yet it shall be but full seldom, and in special calling of our Lord that they shall feel the perfection of this work: the which calling is called ravishing. And some there be that be so subtle in grace and in spirit, and so homely with God in this grace of contemplation, that they may have it when they will in the common state of man’s soul: as it is in sitting, going, standing, or kneeling. And yet in this time they have full deliberation of all their wits bodily or ghostly, and may use them if they desire: not without some letting (but without great letting). Ensample of the first we have by Moses, and of this other by Aaron the priest of the Temple: for why, this grace of contemplation is figured by the Ark of the Testament in the old law, and the workers in this grace be figured by them that most meddled them about this Ark, as the story will witness. And well is this grace and this work likened unto that Ark. For right as in that Ark were contained all the jewels and the relics of the Temple, right so in this little love put upon this cloud be contained all the virtues of man’s soul, the which is the ghostly Temple of God.

(40) this is but a Type or Glimpse of the Son of God in Man, whereby Faith is strengthened and preserved: For the Joy cannot be so great in an earthen Vessel as in a heavenly, wherein the perfect Power of God is fully. Now here I must write a Similitude. [See Ch. 4, v. 13.]

(60) in this Body of Nature now was the Kindling made, for out of this Body the Angels also were created; and if they had not elevated and kindled themselves in their Highmindedness, then their Body might have stood eternally in a Stillness, and in an incomprehensible Meekness, as it is in the other Principalities of Angels that are without, distinct from this World, and their Spirit had generated itself eternally in their Body of Meekness, as the holy Trinity does in the Body or Corporiety of God, and their inborn or innate Spirit had been one Heart, one Will, and one Love with or in the holy Trinity: For to that End also they were created in the Body of God, to be a Joy to the Deity.