(2) That this is sooth, it seemeth by this that followeth. The devil is a spirit, and of his own nature he hath no body, more than hath an angel. But yet nevertheless what time that he or an angel shall take any body by leave of God, to make any ministration to any man in this life; according as the work is that he shall minister, thereafter in likeness is the quality of his body in some part. Ensample of this we have in Holy Writ. As oft as any angel was sent in body in the Old Testament and in the New also, evermore it was shewed, either by his name or by some instrument or quality of his body, what his matter or his message was in spirit. On the same manner it fareth of the fiend. For when he appeareth in body, he figureth in some quality of his body what his servants be in spirit. Ensample of this may be seen in one instead of all these other. For as I have conceived by some disciples of necromancy, the which have it in science for to make advocation of wicked spirits, and by some unto whom the fiend hath appeared in bodily likeness; that in what bodily likeness the fiend appeareth, evermore he hath but one nostril, and that is great and wide, and he will gladly cast it up that a man may see in thereat to his brain up in his head. The which brain is nought else but the fire of hell, for the fiend may have none other brain; and if he might make a man look in thereto, he wants no better. For at that looking, he should lose his wits for ever. But a perfect prentice of necromancy knoweth this well enough, and can well ordain therefore, so that he provoke him not.

(50) But if thou fightest and strivest with the devil, and keepest the gate of love in thy astral birth, and so departest from hence as to the body, then thy soul remaineth in the word quite hidden from the devil, and reigneth with God, even unto the day of the restitution of that which was lost.

(97) But here thou must know that the bodies of angels cannot apprehend the birth or geniture of God, neither does their body understand it, their spirit alone understands it, but the body holdeth still, as the nature in God does, and lets the spirit cowork and labour with God, and play lovingly.

(73) And this firmament of heaven is his throne or footstool, and the qualifying or fountain spirits of his natural body rule in the whole body of this world, and all is tied, bound or united with them, all whatsoever that stands in the astral birth in the part of love: The other part of this world is tied, bound and united with the devil.

(124) But if thou comprehendest this, then also thou understandest the strife or the fight which the angels held with the devils. For the angels have not flesh nor bones, no more have the devils.

(14) First, the body is out of all the powers of the Father, and in those powers is the light of God the Son; now the powers of the Father and of the Son, which are in an angel creaturely, generate an understanding spirit, which riseth up in that angel.

(5) Then, in Jerusalem, the holy city, on a pinnacle of the temple, the devil saith unto Jesus, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, to keep thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash they foot against a stone.

(19) The soul in man, however - not every soul, but one that pious is - is a daimonic something and divine. And such a soul when from the body freed, if it have fought the fight of piety - the fight of piety is to know God and to do wrong to no man - such a soul becomes entirely mind. Whereas the impious soul remains in its own essence, chastised by its own self, and seeking for an earthly body where to enter, if only it be human. For that no other body can contain a human soul; nor is it right that any human soul should fall into the body of a thing that doth possess no reason. For that the law of God is this: to guard the human soul from such tremendous outrage.

(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 seeth much deeper than the angels; for the angels see only to the heavenly pomp, but the soul seeth both the heavenly and the hellish, for it liveth between both.

(118) Now this birth of the flesh is not the mansionhouse of the soul, but in its strife the soul goeth in with its light into the divine power, and fighteth against the murder of the devil. ["Fighteth against the murder of the devil"="fighteth against the murder that is being committed by the devil."]

(72) For this body is but a husk, from which the new body grows— ["The new body grows out of the heavenly substantiality in the Word, out of the flesh and blood of Christ, out of the mystery of the old body."] —as it is with a grain of wheat in the earth. The husk or shell will not rise again, no more than it does in the wheat, but will remain for ever in death and in hell.

(48) But seeing thy astral birth stands with the one part in the wrath, and that the flesh through the wrath stands in death, thereupon the devil, in the part of the wrath, seeth continually even into thy heart, and if thou lettest him have any room or place there, then he teareth out from the word that part of the astral birth which stands in the love.

(19) But the animated or soulish spirit, which qualifieth or uniteth with God, that comprehends it well; but the bestial body attains only a glimpse thereof, just as if it lightened: For thus presenteth itself the innermost birth or geniture of the soul, when it teareth through the outermost birth or geniture in the elevation of the Holy Ghost, and so breaketh through the gates of hell; but the outermost birth presently shuts again; for the wrath of God bolteth up the firmament, and holds it captive in its power.

(45) Now, since thou hast thy reason, and art not like the apple on the tree, but art created an angel and the similitude or image of God, instead of the expulsed devils, and knowest how thou canst with thy astral birth, in the part of love, qualify or unite with the word of God, therefore thou canst, in the centre of the word, set or put thy animated or soulish birth into heaven, and thou canst with thy soul, even with thy living body in this dead or mortal palpability, rule with God in heaven.

(6) "Hearken, therefore, that I may discourse with you concerning the soul according as I have said: The five great rulers of the great Fate of the æons and the rulers of the disk of the sun and the rulers of the disk of the moon breathe into that soul, and there cometh out of them a portion of my power, as I have just said. And the portion of that power remaineth within the soul, so that the soul can stand. And they put the counterfeiting spirit outside the soul, watching it and assigned to it; and the rulers bind it to the soul with their seals and their bonds and seal it to it, that it may compel it always, so that it continually doeth its mischiefs and all its iniquities, in order that it may be their slave always and remain under their sway always in the changes of the body; and they seal it to it that it may be in all the sin and all the desires of the world.

(22) For what sin had the Salitter committed against God, that it should stand totally in eternal shame? None: It was only a body, which must remain still, when the devil elevated or swelled himself therein.

(52) Here the spirit answereth, that at the end of the time of this corrupted birth or geniture, after the resurrection from the dead, this place or space where the earth now is will be left to the devil for a propriety or possession and house of wrath, yet not through and in all the three births or genitures, but only in the outermost, in which he now stands: But the innermost will hold him captive in its might and strength, and use him for a footstool, or as the dust under its foot, which innermost birth he will never be able either to comprehend or to touch.

(79) For our bodies also, at the resurrection, will not consist of such hard flesh and bones, but will be like the angels. And though indeed all forms and powers will be therein, and all faculties and members, even to the privy parts, yet these will be in another manner of form, and so also will the entrails and guts; but we shall not have the hard comprehensibility or palpability.

(34) Now then, seeing the devils kindled their own bodies, intending thereby to domineer over the whole Deity, therefore the creator also, in his wrath, kindled this third spirit, or this third birth or geniture in nature, and imprisoned the devil therein, and made an eternal lodging therein for him, that he might not be higher than the whole God. ["Understand, in the outward sources or qualities; for the outermost of all, is also the innermost of all."]

(71) For instead of thy heaven thou hast the wrath-devil sitting there; but if thou breakest through, then he must get him gone, and the Holy Ghost ruleth and reigneth in that seat; and in the other part, viz. the fierceness, the devil tempteth thee, for it is his nest; and the Holy Ghost opposeth him, and the new man lies in his own heaven, hidden under the protection of the Holy Ghost, and the devil knoweth not the new man, for he is not in the devil's house, but in heaven, in the firmament of God.