(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.

(10) (15) That the soul is of the family of the diviner nature, the eternal, is clear from our demonstration that it is not material: besides it has neither shape or colour nor is it tangible. But there are other proofs.

Assuming that the divine and the authentically existent possesses a life beneficent and wise, we take the next step and begin with working out the nature of our own soul.

Let us consider a soul, not one that has appropriated the unreasoned desires and impulses of the bodily life, or any other such emotion and experience, but one that has cast all this aside, and as far as possible has no commerce with the bodily. Such a soul demonstrates that all evil is accretion, alien, and that in the purged soul the noble things are immanent, wisdom and all else that is good, as its native store.

If this is the soul once it has returned to its self, how deny that it is the nature we have identified with all the divine and eternal? Wisdom and authentic virtue are divine, and could not be found in the chattel mean and mortal: what possesses these must be divine by its very capacity of the divine, the token of kinship and of identical substance.

Hence, too, any one of us that exhibits these qualities will differ but little as far as soul is concerned from the Supernals; he will be less than they only to the extent in which the soul is, in him, associated with body.

This is so true that, if every human being were at that stage, or if a great number lived by a soul of that degree, no one would be so incredulous as to doubt that the soul in man is immortal. It is because we see everywhere the spoiled souls of the great mass that it becomes difficult to recognize their divinity and immortality.

To know the nature of a thing we must observe it in its unalloyed state, since any addition obscures the reality. Clear, then look: or, rather, let a man first purify himself and then observe: he will not doubt his immortality when he sees himself thus entered into the pure, the Intellectual. For, what he sees is an Intellectual-Principle looking on nothing of sense, nothing of this mortality, but by its own eternity having intellection of the eternal: he will see all things in this Intellectual substance, himself having become an Intellectual Kosmos and all lightsome, illuminated by the truth streaming from The Good, which radiates truth upon all that stands within that realm of the divine.

Thus he will often feel the beauty of that word "Farewell: I am to you an immortal God," for he has ascended to the Supreme, and is all one strain to enter into likeness with it.

If the purification puts the human into knowledge of the highest, then, too, the science latent within becomes manifest, the only authentic knowing. For it is not by running hither and thither outside of itself that the soul understands morality and right conduct: it learns them of its own nature, in its contact with itself, in its intellectual grasp of itself, seeing deeply impressed upon it the images of its primal state; what was one mass of rust from long neglect it has restored to purity.

Imagine living gold: it files away all that is earthy about it, all that kept it in self-ignorance preventing it from knowing itself as gold; seen now unalloyed it is at once filled with admiration of its worth and knows that it has no need of any other glory than its own, triumphant if only it be allowed to remain purely to itself.

(112) But because the Essences of the Soul were infected with the Poison of the Devil, and of Hell, so that the Soul could not be helped again, except it were born anew through the Word, out of the Mouth of God, viz. through his beloved Heart, (if ever it should attain the paradisical Joy and Source, [Condition or Quality] again, and qualify or mingle in the paradisical Essences, and if ever its Body should come out of the Element again to the Soul) then the Word (in the Virgin-Chastity) must become Man, and take Man's Flesh and Blood, and become a human Soul, and enter into Death, as also in the first Principle, into the dark Mind of the Eternity, where the Soul has its Original, into the Ground of Hell, and break in Pieces the dark Gate in the Ground of the Soul, and the Chains of the Devil, and generate [or beget] the Soul anew again out of the Ground [thereof,] and present it as a new Child (without Sin and Wrath) before God.

(7) "He knows about desire and what the flesh needs. Does it not desire the soul? The body does not sin apart from the soul just as the soul is not saved apart from the spirit. But if the soul is saved from evil and the spirit too is saved, the body becomes sinless. The spirit animates the soul but the body kills it. The soul kills itself.

(1) I say, when as much as may be, it is known, felt and tasted of the soul. For the lack lieth altogether in us, and not in it. In like manner the sun lighteth the whole world, and is as near to one as another, yet a blind man seeth it not; but the fault thereof lieth in the blind man, not in the sun. And like as the sun may not hide its brightness, but must give light unto the earth (for heaven indeed draweth its light and heat from another fountain), so also God, who is the highest Good, willeth not to hide Himself from any, wheresoever He findeth a devout soul, that is thoroughly purified from all creatures. For in what measure we put off the creature, in the same measure are we able to put on the Creator; neither more nor less. For if mine eye is to see anything, it must be single, or else be purified from all other things; and where heat and light enter in, cold and darkness must needs depart; it cannot be otherwise. But one might say, “Now since the Perfect cannot be known nor apprehended of any creature, but the soul is a creature, how can it be known by the soul?” Answer: This is why we say, “by the soul as a creature.” We mean it is impossible to the creature in virtue of its creature-nature and qualities, that by which it saith “I” and “myself.” For in whatsoever creature the Perfect shall be known, therein creature-nature, qualities, the I, the Self and the like, must all be lost and done away.

(58) This Soul (being cloathed with the pure elementary and paradisical Body) severed its Will, [which came] out of the Father's Will, which tends only to the Conceiving of his Virtue [or Power,] from whence he is impregnated to beget his Heart, [and severed it] from the Father's Will, and entered into the Lust of this World; where now (backward in the Breaking [or Destruction] of this World) there is no Light; and forward there is no Comprehensibility of the Deity; and there was no Counsel [or Remedy,] except the pure Will of the Father enters into it again, and brings it into his own Will again, into its first Seat, that so its Will may be directed again into the Heart and Light of God.

(35) Now behold, thou beloved Soul, who art dearly redeemed by thy Saviour Jesus Christ, with his Entrance into the Humanity, and with his Entrance in the Abyss of Hell, and plucked off from the Kingdom of the Devil, in the Might of the Father, and sealed with his Blood and Death, and covered with his Ensign of Triumph, all thy Works, [both] the evil and the good which thou hast done, follow thee in the Shadow, but not in the Substance, nor in the Source, [or in the working Property.] Yet they will not be any Prejudice in the Heaven to the holy Souls, which have turned into the Regeneration in Christ, but they shall have their highest Joy concerning them, in that they have stuck in such hard Misery and Sins, and have been plucked out of them by their Saviour Christ; and from thence will arise mere Joy and Rejoicing, that they are redeemed from the Driver of their Sins, and from great Misery, and that the Driver is captivated, which tormented them Day and Night in such Sins.

I said to the savior, Master, will all the souls then be led safely into pure light? He answered and said to me, These are great matters that have arisen in your mind, and it is difficult to explain them to anyone except those of the unshakable race. Those upon whom the spirit of life will descend and whom the spirit will empower will be saved and become perfect and be worthy of greatness and be cleansed there of all evil and the anxieties of wickedness, since they are anxious for nothing except the incorruptible alone, and concerned with that from this moment on, without anger, jealousy, envy, desire, or greed for anything. They are affected by nothing but being in the flesh alone, and they wear the flesh as they look forward to a time when they will be met by those who receive them. Such people are worthy of the incorruptible, eternal life and calling. They endure everything and bear everything so as to finish the contest and receive eternal life. I said to him, Master, will the souls of people be rejected who have not done these things, but upon whom the power and the spirit of life have descended? He answered and said to me, If the spirit descends upon them, by all means they will be saved and transformed. Power will descend upon every person, for without it no one could stand. After birth, if the spirit of life grows, and power comes and strengthens that soul, no one will be able to lead it astray with evil actions. But people upon whom the false spirit descends are misled by it and go astray. I said, Master, where will their souls go when they leave their flesh? He laughed and said to me, The soul in which there is more power than the contemptible spirit is strong. She escapes from evil, and through the intervention of the incorruptible one she is saved and is taken up to eternal rest. I said, Master, where will the souls go of people who have not known to whom they belong? He said to me, The contemptible spirit has grown stronger in such people while they were going astray. This spirit lays a heavy burden on the soul, leads her into evil, and hurls her down into forgetfulness. After the soul leaves the body, she is handed over to the authorities who have come into being through the ruler. They bind her with chains and throw her into prison. They go around with her until she awakens from forgetfulness and acquires knowledge. This is how she attains perfection and is saved. I said, Master, how can the soul become younger and return into its mother’s womb, or into the human ? He was glad when I asked him about this, and he said to me, You are truly blessed, for you have understood. This soul will be made to follow another in whom the spirit of life dwells, and she is saved through that one. Then she will not be thrust into flesh again. I said, Master, where will the souls go of people who had knowledge but turned away? He said to me, They will be taken to the place where the angels of misery go, where there is no repentance. They will be kept there until the day when those who have blasphemed against the spirit will be tortured and punished eternally. I said, Master, where did the contemptible spirit come from? He said to me, The mother-father is great in mercy, the holy spirit, who in every way is compassionate, who sympathizes with you, the afterthought of enlightened forethought. This one raised up the offspring of the perfect generation and raised their thought and the eternal light of the human. When the first ruler realized that these people were exalted above him and could think better than he, he wanted to grasp their thought. He did not know that they surpassed him in thought and that he would be unable to grasp them. He devised a plan with his authorities, who are his powers. Together they fornicated with Sophia, and through them was produced bitter fate, the final, fickle bondage. Fate is like this because the powers are fickle. To the present day fate is harder and stronger than what gods, angels, demons, and all the generations have encountered. For from fate have come all iniquity and injustice and blasphemy, the bondage of forgetfulness, and ignorance, and all burdensome orders, weighty sins, and great fears. Thus all of creation has been blinded so that none might know the god that is over them all. Because of the bondage of forgetfulness, their sins have been hidden. They have been bound with dimensions, times, and seasons, and fate is master of all. The first ruler regretted everything that had happened through him. Once again he made a plan, to bring a flood upon the human creation. The enlightened greatness of forethought, however, warned Noah. Noah announced this to all the offspring, the human children, but those who were strangers to him did not listen to him. It did not happen the way Moses said, They hid in an ark. Rather, they hid in a particular place, not only Noah, but also many other people from the unshakable race. They entered that place and hid in a bright cloud. Noah knew about his supremacy. With him was the enlightened one who had enlightened them, since the first ruler had brought darkness upon the whole earth. The first ruler formulated a plan with his powers. He sent his angels to the human daughters so they might take some of them and raise offspring for their pleasure. At first they were unsuccessful. When they had proved unsuccessful, they met again and devised another plan. They created a contemptible spirit similar to the spirit that had descended, in order to adulterate souls through this spirit. The angels changed their appearance to look like the partners of these women and filled the women with the spirit of darkness that they had concocted, and with evil. They brought gold, silver, gifts, copper, iron, metal, and all sorts of things. They brought great anxieties to the people who followed them, leading them astray with many deceptions. These people grew old without experiencing pleasure and died without finding truth or knowing the god of truth. In this way all creation was forever enslaved, from the beginning of the world until the present day. The angels took women, and from the darkness they produced children similar to their spirit. They closed their minds and became stubborn through the stubbornness of the contemptible spirit until the present day.

(4) Now the Scripture witnesses throughout, and the new-born Man finds it so, that when the Soul is new-born in the Light of God, then on the contrary it finds, how very humble, meek, courteous, and cheerful it is; it readily bears all Manner of Crosses and Persecution; it turns the Body from out of the Way of the Wicked; it regards no Reproach, Disgrace, or Scorn, put upon it from the Devil, or Man; it places its Confidence, Refuge, and Love, in the Heart of God; it is very chearful; it is fed by the Word of God, in which there is a paradisical Exulting and Triumph; it cannot be [hurt, or so much as] touched by the Devil. For it is in its own Substance (wherein it stands in the first Principle of the indissoluble Band) enlightened with the Light of God; and the Holy Ghost, who goes forth out of the eternal Birth of the Father in the Heart, and in the Light of the Heart of God, he goes forth in it, and establishes it the Child of God.

(6) Now therefore as we know, that Christ (by his Entrance into the Incarnation) has opened a Door into Heaven, into his holy Body, so that we (through a true Repentance and Confidence) may come to him and put the new white Garment of his Innocence, in his Love, upon our Souls, so we know also that the Soul stands yet fast bound with two Chains. One is the Birth of its own Life, whose most inward Root is Poison and Wrathfulness; and so the Soul being [sprung] out of the eternal Source, and having its Originality out of the Eternity, none can redeem it in its own Root of Eternity, or bring it out of the Anger, except there come one who is the Love in itself, and be born in its own very Birth, that so he may bring it out of the Anger, and set it in the Love in himself, as it was done in Christ.

(38) The Soul is washed in the holy Water, and the Word is presented to it, and the Soul stands in the Covenant. And now it may reach after the Pearl; although the Soul be tied backward in the Kingdom of this World, yet it stands in the Covenant notwithstanding. And if, in the unfeigned Faith of the Parents, of the Priest, and of the Standers by, it be thus washed in the Laver of Regeneration, and so passes into the Covenant, then the Devil may not touch it, till [the Time] that it understands what Evil and Good are, and enters into one of them in a free Will.

(14) Perhaps some one may ask, "Was Christ then also unchangeable, when He said, My soul is troubled even unto death,' or Mary when she stood under the Cross and lamented?" Here, thou shouldest know that in every man are two kinds of men, the outer and the inner man. Every man, who loves God, only uses his outer senses so far as is absolutely necessary; he takes care that they do not drag him down to the level of the beasts, as they do some who might rather he termed beasts than men.

The soul of the spiritual man whom God moves to love Him with all his powers concentrates all its forces on the inner man. Therefore He saith, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart." Now, there are some who waste the powers of the soul for the use of the outer man; these are they who turn all their thoughts and desires towards transitory things, and know nothing of the inner life. But a good man sometimes deprives his outer man of all power that it may have a higher object, while sensualists deprive the inner man of all power to use it for the outer man.

(95) And now when these two, thus captivated by the Devil and this World, stood before God with Fear and great Horror, and felt the Anger of God, and the severe Judgment; then the Heart of God, which had made them; pitied them, and it looked whether there was any [Remedy or] Counsel that might help poor Man, and redeem [or deliver] him from the Bands of the eternal [Fierceness or] Wrath, and from the mortal Body of this World. But there was nothing found, neither in Heaven, nor in this World, that could make them free; there was no Principality or Throne- Angel, which had the Ability to do it; all was lost, they were in the eternal Judgment of the temporal and eternal Death. For the first Principle had captivated them, in the Spirit of the Soul, and qualified [or mingled] with the Soul; the Kingdom of Heaven in the Light was shut up, [and there was a firm Enclosure] of a whole Principle between, and 1 it could not reach the Kingdom of Heaven again, except it were born of God again; otherwise there was no Council, nor Help, nor Refuge in any Thing at all.

(9) But because the Soul stood with its most inward Root in the Abyss of Hell, and according to the Kingdom of this World in the hard [frozen] Death, so that (if the Flesh and Blood, as also the Dominion of the Stars, should leave it) then it would continue inwardly in a Hardness, wherein there is no Source [or active Property,] and itself, in its own Property, would be but in the Fierceness of the Originality, in great Misery; therefore it was necessary, not only for God to come into the Soul, and generate it to the Light, (for there was Danger, that the Soul with its Imagination might go forth out of the Light again,) but also for God to assume a human Soul, from our Soul, and a new heavenly Body, out of the first glorious Body before the Fall, and put it on to the Soul, with the old earthly Body hanging on it, not only as a Garment, but really [united as one] in the Essences; so that it must be a Creature, that is, the whole God, with all the three Principles.

(40) So likewise it professeth to remain unmoved by any of the creature’s works; whether they be good or evil, against God or not, is all alike to it; and it keepeth itself apart from all things, like God in Eternity, and all that belongeth to God and to no creature it taketh unto itself, and vainly dreameth that this belongeth unto it; and deemeth itself well worthy of all this, and that it is just and right that all creatures should serve it, and do it homage. And thus no contradiction, suffering or grief is left unto it; indeed nothing but a mere bodily and carnal perceiving: this must remain until the death of the body, and what suffering may accrue therefrom. Furthermore, this False Light imagineth, and saith, that it has got beyond Christ’s life in the flesh, and that outward things have lost all power to touch it or give it pain, as it was with Christ after His resurrection, together with many other strange and false conceits which arise and grow up from these. And now since this False Light is nature, it possesseth the property of nature, which is to intend and seek itself and its own in all things, and what may be most expedient, easy and pleasant to nature and itself. And because it is deceived, it imagineth and proclaimeth it to be best that each should seek and do what is best for himself. It refuseth also to take knowledge of any Good but its own, that which it vainly fancieth to be Good. And if one speak to it of the One, true, everlasting Good, which is neither this nor that, it knoweth nothing thereof, and thinketh scorn of it. And this is not unreasonable, for nature as nature cannot attain thereunto. Now this False Light is merely nature, and therefore it cannot attain thereunto. Further, this False Light saith that it hath got above conscience and the sense of sin, and that whatever it doeth is right, Yea, it was said by such a false Free Spirit, who was in this error, that if he had killed ten men he should have as little sense of guilt as if he had killed a dog. Briefly: this false and deceived Light fleeth all that is harsh and contrary to nature, for this belongeth to it, seeing that it is nature. And seeing also that it is so utterly deceived as to dream that it is God, it were ready to swear by all that is holy, that it knoweth truly what is best, and that both in belief and practice it hath reached the very summit. For this cause it cannot be converted or guided into the right path, even as it is with the Evil Spirit. Mark further: in so far as this Light imagineth itself to be God and taketh His attributes unto itself, it is Lucifer, the Evil Spirit; but in so far as it setteth at nought the life of Christ, and other things belonging to the True Light, which have been taught and fulfilled by Christ, it is Antichrist, for it teacheth contrary to Christ. And as this Light is deceived by its own cunning and discernment, so all that is not God, or of God, is deceived by it, that is, all men who are not enlightened by the True Light and its love. For all who are enlightened by the True Light can never more be deceived, but whoso hath it not and chooseth to walk by the False Light, he is deceived. This cometh herefrom, that all men in whom the True Light is not, are bent upon themselves, and think much of themselves, and seek and propose their own ends in all things, and whatever is most pleasant and convenient to themselves they hold to be best. And whoso declareth the same to be best, and helpeth and teacheth them to attain it, him they follow after, and maintain to be the best and wisest of teachers.

(59) If the Soul be freed from the Bands of the Devil, then it lives in Meekness, and in great Humility, in the Stillness of the Miracles, [or shows no Work of Wonder,] but humbles itself before God. Yet it is possible for the highly-worthy championlike Souls to do Wonders; for they have great Knowledge, and Power, [or Virtue,] though they all appear (in the humble Love) before the Countenance of God, and there is no Grudging among them. The True Door of the Entrance into Heaven, or into Hell.

(38) And now seeing the Departure of Souls is various, so also their Source [Quality or Condition] after their Departure is various; so that many of the Souls departed rare indeed for a long Time in Purgatory, if the Soul had been defiled with gross Sins, and has not rightly stepped into the true earnest Regeneration, and yet hangs a little to it; as it used to be with those that have been laden with temporal Honour and Might, [or Authority and Power,] where many Times their own Power and Profit prevails over Right, where Wickedness or Malice (and not Wisdom) is the Judge; and here a great Burden is laid upon the poor Soul, and that poor Soul also would fain be saved.

(2) And yet He giveth not this grace, nor worketh not this work, in any soul that is unable thereto. And yet, there is no soul without this grace, able to have this grace: none, whether it be a sinner’s soul or an innocent soul. For neither it is given for innocence, nor withholden for sin. Take good heed, that I say withholden, and not withdrawn. Beware of error here, I pray thee; for ever, the nearer men touch the truth, more wary men behoveth to be of error. I mean but well: if thou canst not conceive it, lay it by thy side till God come and teach thee. Do then so, and hurt thee not.

(5) Now we cannot say, that the Spirit of this World alone consents to, and does that which is evil and wrathful; for the whole Man oftentimes runs with all his Thoughts, and his whole Will after it. And here we find our great Misery, for the poor Soul (which lies yet tied in the Bands of Anger) is often kindled, that is burns like a Fire, and runs after [Evil;] for it is in the Band of Eternity, in the Father, and reaches (in its most inward Root) the Anger of God; and that is even the Birth of its Life, and its Originality; and the noble Grain of Mustard- seed (that was the new Garment of the Soul, which was new put upon it in its Repentance) is many Times destroyed; therefore none should be secure, though he does once attain the Garland of Pearl, he may lose it again; for when the Soul consents to sin, then it goes forth from Christ into Falsehood, and into the Anger of God.

(124) As this has a being or substance, form or condition in angels, so it has also a being, substance, form or condition in man. Therefore bethink and consider yourselves, you that are proud, covetous, thievish, extorting usurers, calumniating, blasphemous, envious, and whorish or lascivious, what manner of little son or spirit you send into God. ["The soul was originally comprehended in the eternal nature with the Word Fiat, which is God's nature according to the first Principle and eternal original of nature; and if it kindleth itself in the original, then it kindleth God's wrath in the eternal nature."] Objection. Thou wilt say, We do not send this into God, but only into our neighbour, or into his work which we like and have a mind to. [or meddle with in our minds.] Answer.