(8) Now that WORD, which the Father pronounces or speaks forth, has such Sharpness, that the Tone of the WORD goes swiftly in a Moment through the whole Deep of the Father, and that Sharpness is the Holy Ghost. [Sharpness,]

(12) Prayer is, then, to speak more boldly, converse with God. Though whispering, consequently, and not opening the lips, we speak in silence, yet we cry inwardly. For God hears continually all the inward converse. So also we raise the head and lift the hands to heaven, and set the feet in motion at the closing utterance of the prayer, following the eagerness of the spirit directed towards the intellectual essence; and endeavouring to abstract the body from the earth, along with the discourse, raising the soul aloft, winged with longing for better things, we compel it to advance to the region of holiness, magnanimously despising the chain of the flesh. For we know right well, that the Gnostic willingly passes over the whole world, as the Jews certainly did over Egypt, showing clearly, above all, that he will be as near as possible to God.

(98) For it must be a middle or mild Fire, to keep the Spirit in the Heart from rising, it must be gently Simpering, then it gets a very sweet and meek ringing Sound, and continually rejoices, as if it should now be kindled again in the Light of God.

(10) Here observe, the Shriek or Crack of the Fire is kindled in the Anguish in the Brimstone Spirit, and then the Shriek flies up triumphantly; and the aching, or anxious Harshness, or Brimstone- Spirit, is made thin and sweet by the Light. For as the Light or the Flash becomes clearer or brighter from the Crack of the Fire in the vanquished harsh Tartness, and loses its wrathful fierce Property, so the Tartness loses its Authority by the Infection or Mixture of the Light, and is made thin or transparent, and sweet by the white Light: For in the Original the Harshness or Astringency was altogether dark, and aching with Anguish, by Reason of its hardness and attracting; but now it is wholly light, and thereupon it loses its own Quality or Property, and out of the wrathful Harshness there comes to be an Essence that is sharp, and the Light makes the Sharpness altogether sweet. The Gates of God.

(21) But if voice and expression are given us, for the sake of understanding, how can God not hear the soul itself, and the mind, since assuredly soul hears soul, and mind, mind? Whence God does not walt for loquacious tongues, as interpreters among men, but knows absolutely the thoughts of all; and what the voice intimates to us, that our thought, which even before the creation He knew would come into our mind, speaks to God. Prayer, then, may be uttered without the voice, by concentrating the whole spiritual nature within on expression by the mind, in un-distracted turning towards God.

(80) But that the Spirit lays hold on the Power and Virtue of the Word, and goes another Way through the Nostrils into the Brain before the Throne of the Senses or Thoughts, it signifies, that God will extract the Heart of the Earth from the Wrath of Wickedness; and use it to his eternal royal Praise. Observe.

(78) The Word or Syllable (Er-) signifies the kindled, astringent and bitter Quality, the earnest severe Wrath of God, which trembles at the hinder Part of the Gums, before which the Tongue is as it were afraid, and crouches at the nether Gums, and flies as it were from an Enemy.

(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, trembles, and crouches to the nether Gums, and then the Spirit comes forth from the Heart, and closes the Word, which conceives itself at the hinder Gums in the astringent and bitter Quality, in the Wrath, and goes forth mightily and strongly through the Fierceness, as a King and a Prince, and also opens the Mouth, and rules 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.

(4) 'That which is the subtile portion of fire, when consumed, rises upwards, and becomes speech.

(80) But when the Mouth opened to speak, that is, when the seven Spirits had incorporated or compacted the Word together in their Will, and sent it through the Tone into the Salitter of God, then it was no otherwise, than if there went a fiery Thunder-bolt into God’s Nature; or as a fierce Serpent, which tyrannizes, raves, and rages, as if it would tear and rend Nature all to Pieces.

(108) But when the Word breaks through, then the Mouth within opens wide, and the Word conceives itself once more with its Sound behind the astringent and bitter Qualities, and rouses them up, as if they were lazy Sleepers in the Darkness, and goes forth suddenly out at the Mouth. [See ch. 18. v. 27. Where it is said, The Doctor as well as the Plowman is meant. And sometimes the Peasant or Plow-man exceeds the Doctor in Knowledge, if he adheres to God.] And

(16) And the Fire generates now also a Fire, according to the Property of every Quality; in the tart Spirit it is tart; in the Bitter, bitter; in the Love, it is a very hearty Yearning, Kindling of the Love, a total, fervent, or burning Kindling, and causes very vehement Desires; in the Sound it is a very shrill tanging and where the Sound in all Qualities tells or expresses, as it were with the Lips or Tongue, whatsoever is in all the Fountain-Spirits, what Joy, Virtue, or Power, Essence, Substance, or Property [they have,] and in the Water it is a very drying Fire.

(133) But when thou pronouncest -HERTZ- then the Spirit in the Word -HERTZ- [Heart] goes forth suddenly, like a Flash of Lightning, and gives the Distinction and Understanding of the Word. [Or the distinct Sense or Meaning of the Word.]

(47) Now therefore the Anguish, Bitterness, and Woe in the [Sting or] Prickle, are like a Brimstone-Spirit, and all Spirits in Nature are Brimstone: They [torment, or] cause the Anguish in one another, till that the Light of God comes to help them; and then there comes to be a Flash, and there is its End, for it can climb no higher in Nature; and this is the Fire, which becomes shining in the Flash, in the Soul, and also in the Mind. For the Soul reaches the Virtue of the Light, which puts it into Meekness; and in this World it is the burning Fire: In Hell it is immaterial, and there it is the eternal Fire, which burns in the P Quality.

(119) For the kindled Spirits of God generate themselves thus. I. The Hardness generates a hard, raw, rough, cold, and astringent Quality. II. The Sweetness is grown faint, like a glowing Coal, when there is no more Sap in the Wood, that gasps, and there is no Refreshment for it. III. The Bitterness tears like a hot Plague, and is as bitter as Gall. IV. The Fire burns as a fierce wrathful Sulphur. V. Love is an Enmity here. VI. The Sound is a mere Beating, Rumbling, or Cracking, like the Noise of a Fire breaking forth out of a hollow Place, as if it were great Claps of Thunder. VII. The Circuit, Region, Court, or Residence of the Body is a House of Mourning.