(56) But thou must know this, that he sticks in a continual anxious Birth or Geniture, and would fain be rid of the Wrath and Wickedness, and yet cannot. For he is as the whole House of this World, wherein always Love and Wrath wrestle one with another, and the new Body always generates itself in the Midst or Center of the Anguish. For so it must be, if thou wilt be born anew, otherwise no Man can reach the Regeneration.

(117) Which Thing Reason, or the outward Birth or Geniture of Man, without the Experience of this Fight or Battle, cannot comprehend. For the third or outermost Birth or Geniture in Man, which is the carnal or fleshly Birth, and which Man through the first Fall in his Lust has raised and prepared for himself, is the Devil’s Castle, or the Fort of Prey or Robbery, and Dwelling-house, wherein the Devil as in a Bulwark fights with the Soul, and gives it many a hard Thump upon its Breast, which goes to the very Heart.

(29) Now as Man in his outward Being is corrupted, and as to his fleshly Birth or Getiture is in the Wrath of God, and is moreover also an Enemy of God, and yet is but one Man, and not two; and on the other hand, in his spiritual Birth or Geniture he is a Child and Heir of God, who rules and lives with God, and qualifies, mixes, or unites with the innermost Birth or Geniture of God; thus also is the Place of this World come to be.

(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.

(1) WONDERFULLY is a man’s affection varied in ghostly feeling of this nought when it is nowhere wrought. For at the first time that a soul looketh thereupon, it shall find all the special deeds of sin that ever he did since he was born, bodily or ghostly, privily or darkly painted thereupon. And howsoever that he turneth it about, evermore they will appear before his eyes; until the time be, that with much hard travail, many sore sighings, and many bitter weepings, he have in great part washed them away. Sometime in this travail him think that it is to look thereupon as on hell; for him think that he despaireth to win to perfection of ghostly rest out of that pain. Thus far inwards come many, but for greatness of pain that they feel and for lacking of comfort, they go back in beholding of bodily things: seeking fleshly comforts without, for lacking of ghostly they have not yet deserved, as they should if they had abided.

(20) then the Knowledge of the outward Man is gone, and he walks up and down in an afflicted and anxious Birth or Geniture, as a Woman with Child, who is in her Travail, and would always willingly bring forth her Child, but cannot, and is full of Throws.

(126) now seeing the outermost Birth or Geniture in Nature is twofold, that is, both Evil and Good, therefore it is that there is a perpetual Tormenting, Squeezing, Lamenting and Howling; and the Creatures in this Life are subject to Torments and Afflictions, so that this evil World is justly called a murtherous Den of the Devil.