(56) Thus Falsehood is wrought with Falsehood, and the Inferior is become false also, who has set Lies to Sale for Truth, and so falsly cheated his Superior; from whence is grown Cursing, Swearing, Stealing, and Murdering, so that they have continually held one another for cozening Cheats, Liars, and Unjust; for they are so indeed, and they have exchanged Words for Words, and therewith in Lying and in Truth also they rub one another with the bitter unsavory Salt of Devils in the Anger of God, whereby the Name of God is blasphemed and abused, and the World is found [to be] in the Anger of God, and is become a Den of Thieves and Murders.

(1) Yea, I will speak forth; hear ye; now listen, ye who from near, and ye who from afar have come seeking (the knowledge). Now ponder ye clearly all (that concerns) him . Not for a second time shall the false teacher slay our life (of the mind, or the body). The wicked is hemmed in with his faith and his tongue!

(51) To the wise, whose hearts are enlightened, The mere sound of that voice proves its truth." "When you say to a thirsty man, 'Come quickly; This is water in the cup, take and drink it,' Does the thirsty man say, 'This is a vain pretension; Go, remove yourself from me, O vain pretender, Or proceed to give proofs and evidence That this is generic water, and concrete water thereof'? Or when a mother cries to her sucking babe,

(1) Of language put into other people's mouths, nine tenths will succeed. Of language based upon weighty authority, seven tenths. But language which flows constantly over, as from a full goblet, is in accord with God. When language is put into other people's mouths, outside support is sought. Just as a father does not negotiate his son's marriage; for any praise he could bestow would not have the same value as praise by an outsider. Thus, the fault is not mine, but that of others. To that which agrees with our own opinions we assent; from that which does not we dissent. We regard that which agrees with our own opinion as right. We regard that which differs from our opinion as wrong. Language based on weighty authority is used to bar further argument. The authorities are our superiors, our elders in years. But if they lack the requisite knowledge and experience, being our superiors only in the sense of age, then they are not our superiors. And if men are not the superiors of their fellows, no one troubles about them. And those about whom no one troubles are merely stale. Language which flows constantly over, as from a full goblet, is in accord with God. Because it spreads out on all sides, it endures for all time. Without language, contraries are identical. The identity is not identical with its expression: the expression is not identical with its identity. Therefore it has been said, Language not expressed in language is not language. Constantly spoken, it is as though not spoken. Constantly unspoken, it is not as though not spoken.

(4) And what shall I more say of these venomous deceits? Truly I trow, unless they have grace to leave off such piping hypocrisy, that betwixt that privy pride in their hearts within and such meek words without, the silly soul may full soon sink into sorrow.

(4) And this is what the Son of Man reveals to us: It is fitting for you (pl.) to receive the word of truth, if one will receive it perfectly. But as for one who is in ignorance, it is difficult for him to diminish his works of darkness which he has done. Those who have known Imperishability, however, have been able to struggle against passions [...]. I have said to you, "Do not build nor gather for yourselves in the place where the brigands break open, but bring forth fruit to the Father."

(57) As the tongue breaketh off or divideth the word or syllable, and keeps it half without and half within, so the heart of God would not wholly reject the kindled Salitter, but the malignity, malice and impulse of the devil; and the other part should be reedified or built again after this time.

(41) Saying, "What ye sow will yield only thorns; If ye fly that way, ye will fly astray. Take seed of us to yield you a good harvest, Now ye know not the truth and nature of the 'Truth,' But at the last ye will cry, 'That was the "Truth."' The Truth is yourself, but not your mere bodily self, Your real self is higher than 'you' and 'me.' This visible 'you' which you fancy to be yourself Is limited in place, the real 'you' is not limited. Why, O pearl, linger you trembling in your shell?

(31) But he who is able to renounce them shows that he is from the generation of the Son of Man, (and) has power to accuse them. [...] he restrains [...] part(s) in a [...] in wickedness, and he makes the outer like the inner. He resembles an angel which ... ... (1 line unrecoverable) ... power [...] said them. But the one ... ... (5 lines unrecoverable) And having withdrawn [...], he became silent, having ceased from loquacity and disputations. But he who has found the life-giving word, and he who has come to know the Father of Truth, has come to rest; he has ceased seeking, having found. And when he found, he became silent. But few are the things he used to say to those that [...] with their intellectual mind the [...].

(99) Woe to you who write down lying and godless words; for they write down their lies that men may hear them and act godlessly towards (their) neighbour.

(99) Woe to you who set at nought the words of the righteous; for ye shall have no hope of life.

(3) His cheer and his words should be full of ghostly wisdom, full of fire, and of fruit spoken in sober soothfastness without any falsehood, far from any feigning or piping of hypocrites. For some there be that with all their might, inner and outer, imagineth in their speaking how they may stuff them and underprop them on each side from falling, with many meek piping words and gestures of devotion: more looking after for to seem holy in sight of men, than for to be so in the sight of God and His angels. For why, these folk will more weigh, and more sorrow make for an unordained gesture or unseemly or unfitting word spoken before men, than they will for a thousand vain thoughts and stinking stirrings of sin wilfully drawn upon them, or recklessly used in the sight of God and the saints and the angels in heaven. Ah, Lord God! where there be any pride within, there such meek piping words be so plenteous without. I grant well, that it is fitting and seemly to them that be meek within, for to shew meek and seemly words and gestures without, according to that meekness that is within in the heart. But I say not that they shall then be shewed in broken nor in piping voices, against the plain disposition of their nature that speak them. For why, if they be true, then be they spoken in soothfastness, and in wholeness of voice and of their spirit that speak them. And if he that hath a plain and an open boisterous voice by nature speak them poorly and pipingly—I mean but if he be sick in his body, or else that it be betwixt him and his God or his confessor—then it is a very token of hypocrisy. I mean either young hypocrisy or old.

(4) More will I say, that thou mayst see unmixed The truth that is confounded there below, Equivocating in such like prelections. These substances, since in God's countenance They jocund were, turned not away their sight From that wherefrom not anything is hidden; Hence they have not their vision intercepted By object new, and hence they do not need To recollect, through interrupted thought. So that below, not sleeping, people dream, Believing they speak truth, and not believing; And in the last is greater sin and shame. Below you do not journey by one path Philosophising; so transporteth you Love of appearance and the thought thereof. And even this above here is endured With less disdain, than when is set aside The Holy Writ, or when it is distorted. They think not there how much of blood it costs To sow it in the world, and how he pleases Who in humility keeps close to it. Each striveth for appearance, and doth make His own inventions; and these treated are By preachers, and the Evangel holds its peace.

(6) The light in which was smiling my own treasure Which there I had discovered, flashed at first As in the sunshine doth a golden mirror; Then made reply: "A conscience overcast Or with its own or with another's shame, Will taste forsooth the tartness of thy word; But ne'ertheless, all falsehood laid aside, Make manifest thy vision utterly, And let them scratch wherever is the itch; For if thine utterance shall offensive be At the first taste, a vital nutriment 'Twill leave thereafter, when it is digested. This cry of thine shall do as doth the wind, Which smiteth most the most exalted summits, And that is no slight argument of honour. Therefore are shown to thee within these wheels, Upon the mount and in the dolorous valley, Only the souls that unto fame are known; Because the spirit of the hearer rests not, Nor doth confirm its faith by an example Which has the root of it unknown and hidden, Or other reason that is not apparent."

(2) And so me thinketh that these worldly living men and women of active life should also full well be had excused of their complaining words touched before, although they say rudely that they say; having beholding to their ignorance. For why? Right as Martha wist full little what Mary her sister did when she complained of her to our Lord; right so on the same manner these folk nowadays wot full little, or else nought, what these young disciples of God mean, when they set them from the business of this world, and draw them to be God’s special servants in holiness and rightfulness of spirit. And if they wist truly, I daresay that they would neither do nor say as they say. And therefore me thinketh always that they should be had excused: for why, they know no better living than is that they live in themselves. And also when I think on mine innumerable defaults, the which I have made myself before this time in words and deeds for default of knowing, me thinketh then if I would be had excused of God for mine ignorant defaults, that I should charitably and piteously have other men’s ignorant words and deeds always excused. And surely else, do I not to others as I would they did to me.

(9) Hearken unto me every one of you. Hear, and understand. Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man. There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.

(47) And we must further a consider, that when the Shriek [or Crack] makes its Dwelling-house, in its strong Breaking-through, out of the Gate of the anxious Darkness, viz. the Tongue, that the Shriek [or Crack] has not then yet seen the Virgin; but when it reflected [or shined] back again into the Heart, into the opened Darkness, and found her so habitable, there then first sprung up its Joy, and Pleasantness, and it became paradisical, and desired not [to go] into the Tongue again, but into the Head, and [desired] there to have its Region out of the Source of the Heart. Therefore the Tongue ought not in all [or altogether] to be believed, for it sits not in the heavenly Region, as the friendly pleasant Virtue [does;] but it has its Region in the Crack and Flash, and the Flash is as near the hellish Region, as the Crack is, for they are both generated in the Sharpness of the Stars, in the Essences, and the Tongue speaks both Lyes and Truth; in which of the two the Spirit arms itself, according to that it speaks: Also it many Times speaks Lies in great Men; when it is armed from the Essences, then it speaks in the Crack, like a Rider in his [haughty, surly, vaunting State,] or high Mindedness. The Life of the Soul. The Gate.

(99) There the tongue is terrified, trembleth and croucheth to the nether gums, and then the spirit cometh forth from the heart, and closeth the word, which conceiveth itself at the hinder gums, in the astringent and bitter quality, in the wrath, and goeth forth mightily and strongly through the fierceness, as a king and a prince, and also openeth the mouth, and ruleth with a strong spirit from the heart through the whole mouth within, and also without the mouth, and makes a mighty and long syllable, as a spirit which has broken the wrath.

(14) O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.

(3) And for this reason doth the smallest round Seal with its signet Sodom and Cahors, And who, disdaining God, speaks from the heart. Fraud, wherewithal is every conscience stung, A man may practise upon him who trusts, And him who doth no confidence imburse. This latter mode, it would appear, dissevers Only the bond of love which Nature makes; Wherefore within the second circle nestle Hypocrisy, flattery, and who deals in magic, Falsification, theft, and simony, Panders, and barrators, and the like filth. By the other mode, forgotten is that love Which Nature makes, and what is after added, From which there is a special faith engendered. Hence in the smallest circle, where the point is Of the Universe, upon which Dis is seated, Whoe'er betrays for ever is consumed." And I: "My Master, clear enough proceeds Thy reasoning, and full well distinguishes This cavern and the people who possess it. But tell me, those within the fat lagoon, Whom the wind drives, and whom the rain doth beat, And who encounter with such bitter tongues,