(112) Jesus said, "Woe to the flesh that depends on the soul; woe to the soul that depends on the flesh."

(27) But now the Flesh is not the whole Man; for this Flesh cannot comprehend or apprehend the Deity, else the Flesh were not mortal and corruptible, or fading and transitory; for Christ saith, 'It is the Spirit that quickens, the Flesh profiteth nothing.' [b Or the Spirit is the Life.] [a John 6. 63.]

(21) Thus it goes also with the bestial Body, when it has once tasted of the Sweetness of God, then it continually hungers and thirsts after it: But the Devil in the Power of God's Wrath opposes exceedingly, and so a Man in such a Course must continually stand in an anxious Birth or Geniture; and so there is nothing but fighting and warring in his Births or Genitures.

(67) For the judgement shall come upon them, because they believe in the lust of their body and deny the Spirit of the Lord.

(117) But that the astringent and bitter Spirit does so grumble and murmur, when the Spirit from the Heart goes through its House, and rules powerfully, it signifies, that the Wrath of God, together with the Devils, are in the House of this World, set in Opposition to the Love, so that both these, all the Time of this World, must fight and strive one against the other, as two Armies in the Field; from whence also Wars and Fightings among Men, and among Beasts, and all Creatures, have their Original.

(19) First, thou hast the bestial Flesh, which is come to be through the lustful longing Bit of the Apple, for it is the House of Corruption. For when Adam was made out of the corrupted Salitter of the Earth, that is, out of the Seed, or Mass, or Lump, which the Creator extracted out of the corrupted Earth, he was not then at first such Flesh, else his Body had been created mortal, but he had an angelical powerful Body, in which he should have subsisted eternally, and should have eat angelical [Tex. Mist.] Fruit, which grew for him in Paradise before his Fall, before the LORD cursed the Earth.

(12) But despite its fall, the whole earth cannot satisfy the lust of the flesh; who can do its will? To him who longs for the impossible come guilt and bafflement of desire; but he who is utterly without desire has a happiness that ages not. Then give no room for the lust of the flesh to swell; blessed indeed is the thing that is not imagined for the sake of its pleasant- ness. The body is a motionless thing stirred by something without, and ending in ashes, a loathsome frame of foulness; why do I cling to it? What have I to do with this machine, alive or dead? What distinguishes it from such things as clods of earth? Alas, O thought of self, thou wilt not die! Through complicity with the flesh I win sorrow, all to no purpose; it is no better than a thing of wood, and what should avail its hatred or its kindness? It feels no love when I guard it, no hate when vultures devour it; then why do I love it? I am angered when it is treated with scorn, delighted when it is honoured; but if it has no knowledge, to what end is my toil? My friends, forsooth, are they who wish well to this body; but all men wish well to their own flesh, and why are not they also my friends? So I have surrendered my body indifferently for the weal of the world; it is but as an instrument of work that I still bear it, with all its guilt. Enough then of worldly ways! I follow in the path of the Wise, remembering the Discourse upon Heedfulness and putting away sloth. To overcome the power of darkness I concentre my thought, drawing the spirit away from vain paths and fixing it straightly upon its stay.

(64) But if any will be new born again, he must not yield himself to be a Servant to Covetousness, Pride, State and Self-power, to take delight in the Will or Desires of his Flesh, but he must struggle and fight against himself, against the Devil, and against all the Lusts of the Flesh, and he must think and consider that he is but a Servant and Pilgrim on Earth, who must wander through many miserable Seas of Danger into Of the Sun and the other Planets. Now observe,

(35) But now when he does thus commit Sins, yet he commits them not in the new Man; but the old [Man] in Sin, who is subjected under Sin, who is in the Anger of God; he is driven by the Anger, so that he does not always that which is right; and if he does any Thing that is good, yet he does it out of his own Will and Ability, but the new Man compels him to it, that he must do it; for the old [Man] is corruptible, but the Soul is incorruptible; and therefore the poor Soul is always in Strife, and sticks between the Door and the Hinges, and must be often pinched and bruised.

(29) For the human Flesh is very young and tender, and the Devil is rough and hard, also dark, hot, bitter, astringent and cold, and to these two are very ill matched.

(74) If it stretches to God, then the Devil holds it on one Side with one Band, and the World with another Band; and they set upon it; the Devil handles it in Fierceness, [Sternness, Frowardness, or Wrath, which is a Source [or Quality] and Sin, which cannot attain to the Kingdom of God; and the World leads it into Pride, Covetousness, and fleshly Lust, so that the Essences of the Soul grow full [or impregnated] with the fleshly Will; for the Will of the Mind draws these Things into the Soul, and so the Soul (from that which is attracted) becomes wholly unclean, a swelled and dark, and cannot attain the Light of God; its Essences, that should give up themselves to God, cannot: For they are too rough, and cannot get into the Light, that kindles not itself in its Essences. The Gates of the Deep must be broken open first, and then the Essences [of the Soul may] press into the Liberty, without the Darkness; but if the Mind be filled, then it cannot [come into the Liberty,] and then begins Horror, Fear, Distress, and Despair of the Kingdom of God, and this makes mere Torment, [Woe, Pain, and Smart,] in the Soul.

(121) But seeing the fleshly Birth or Geniture is not the Soul’s own proper House, and that it cannot possess it as an Inheritance, as the Devil does, therefore the Fight and Battle lasts as long as the House of Flesh lasts.

(50) * The Flesh signifies, 1. The outward Birth or Geniture, which is the House of Death. 2. The second Birth or Geniture in Man is the astral, in which the Life stands, and wherein Love and Wrath wrestle one with another; and thus far Man himself knows himself; for the astral Birth generates the Life in the outermost, that is, in the dead Flesh. 3. The third Birth is generated between the astral and outermost, and that is called the animated or soulish Birth or Geniture, or the Soul, and is as large as the whole Man. [Note, three sorts of Births or Genitures in Man.]

(43) For the dead or mortal Flesh has encompassed the astral Birth, and Man's Flesh is a dead Carcase, whilst it is yet in the Mother's Body or Womb, and is encompassed with Hell and God's Wrath.

(24) It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

(2) For [the Matter] was about the earthly Eating and Drinking, wherewith the paradisical Man was captivated by the Spirit of this World, which now must qualify [or mix] with all Men. This the Holy Scripture witnesses, and also Reason, that Man is not at Home, in the elementary Kingdom of this World. For Christ said; My Kingdom is not of this World: And to his Apostles he said; / have called you out from this World: Also, Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.

(110) The Spirit alone understands this hidden Secret, which must fight daily and hourly with the Devil, the outward Flesh cannot comprehend it; also the astral Spirits in Man cannot understand it, neither is it comprehended by Man at all, unless the animated or soulish Spirit unites, qualifies, and operates with the innermost Birth or Geniture in Nature, in the Center, where the Light of God is set opposite against the Devil’s Kingdom, that is, in the third Birth or Geniture, in the Nature of this World.