(28) For this flesh cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven, but is only a seed which is sown into the earth, out of which will grow an impalpable or incomprehensible body, such as the first was before the fall. But the spirit is eternal life, which uniteth, qualifieth or mixeth with God, and comprehendeth the internal Deity in nature.

(9) For it is written, you must be born anew through the Water and the Spirit, or else you shall not see the Kingdom of God. This Birth must be done within you: The Heart, or the Son of God must arise in the Birth of your Life; and then the Saviour Christ is your faithful Shepherd, and you are in Him, and He in you, and all that He and his Father have is yours, and none shall pluck you out of his Hands; and as the Son (viz. the Heart of the Father) is one [with the Father,] so also the new Man is one in the Father and the Son, one Virtue or Power, one Light, one Life, one eternal Paradise, one eternal heavenly Birth, one Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and thou his Child.

(67) But those waters shall in those days serve for the kings and the mighty and the exalted, and those who dwell on the earth, for the healing of the body, but for the punishment of the spirit; now their spirit is full of lust, that they may be punished in their body, for they have denied the Lord of Spirits and see their punishment daily, and yet believe not in His name.

(37) Now says Reason, How is the Baptism then? I perceive nothing but Water, and Words. I answer; Hearken beloved Reason, thy outward Body is in this World only, and therefore outward Water is requisite. But as the hidden Man Christ, with his pure Element, holds the Out-Birth of this World (viz. the four Elements, wherein our Body consists) and as all is his, so he holds also the outward Water, and baptizes with the inward Water of his Element, with the Water of eternal Life, [coming] out of his Body. For the Holy Ghost in the Covenant baptizes with the inward Water, and the Minister baptizes with the outward; the outward [Man] receives the earthly elementary Water, and the Soul [receives] the Water of the Washing in the Regeneration.

(1) THOUGH flesh and blood cannot conceive or apprehend the being of God, but the spirit only when enlightened and kindled from God:

(38) "I said, Ye are Gods; and all sons of the Highest." To whom speaks the Lord? To those who reject as far as possible all that is of man. And the apostle says, "For ye are not any longer in the flesh, but in the Spirit." And again he says, "Though in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh." "For flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption." "Lo, ye shall die like men," the Spirit has said, confuting us.

(55) Now as a man is, in the government or order of his nativity, birth or geniture, just so also is the whole body of God in or of this world; but in the water stands the meek life.

(1) "And many who wear erring flesh will go down to the harmful waters through the winds and the demons. And they are bound by the water. And the water will heal with a futile remedy. It will lead astray, and it will bind the world. And those who do the will of nature . . . two times in the day of the water and the forms of nature. And it will not be granted them, when faith disturbs them to take to herself the righteous one.

(3) "O Shem, they are deceived by manifold demons, thinking that through baptism with the uncleanness of water, which is dark, feeble, idle, and disturbing, the water will take away sins. And they do not know that from the water to the water there is bondage, error, unchastity, envy, murder, adultery, false witness, heresies, robberies, lusts, babblings, wrath, bitterness. . . . Therefore, there are many deaths that burden their thoughts. For I foretell it to those who have understanding. They will refrain from the impure baptism. And those who have understanding from the light of the spirit will not have dealings with the impure rubbing. And their heart will not grow faint, nor will they curse, nor will they give honor to the water. Where the curse is, there is the deficiency. And the blindness is where the honor is. For if they mix with the evil ones, they become empty in the dark water. Where the water has been mentioned, there is nature, and the oath, and the lie, and the loss. For only in the unconceived spirit, where the exalted light rested, has the water not been mentioned, nor can it be mentioned.

(58) O no, thou thyself art faulty, the qualifying or fountain spirits in thy body, which thou thyself art, have generated thee such a little son: Thou canst not say that God has kindled the Salitter out of which he made thee, but thy qualifying or fountain spirits have done it; whereas thou wert clearly before a prince and a king of God.

(121) For the spirit, which is generated in the heart, must in its body walk through the midst or centre of the hellish gates, and may very easily be kindled; they are as wood and fire, which will burn, if thou pourest no water in among them.

(24) Understand it thus, that Water is the Water of the eternal Life in the mLimbus of God in the Holy Ternary; and that is the Water which baptizes the Soul, when we keep the Use of his As by an Example. Testament, for the Soul in his Covenant is dipped and washed in that Water, it is rightly the Bath [or Laver] of Regeneration, for by its dipping in the holy Water, it is received and quickened by the holy Water, and comes (in the Covenant of Christ) into the Soul of Christ; indeed not fully into his Soul, but into his Body, and becomes the Brother of the Soul of Christ; for Christ's Soul is a Creature, (as our Souls are,) and is in the Body of the Mercifulness in the Trinity, being surrounded therewith, and has the same in it for Food and Strength [or Refreshment.] So also our Souls in the Covenant, if they be faithful and continue in God, they are the Brethren of Christ's Soul.

(163) Here the spirit went forth, and as he was generated in the heart, so he went forth now at the mouth; but how welcome a guest he was before God, and in God, also before the holy angels of the other kingdoms, I leave to thee to consider of.

(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, [John vi. 63]: It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. [the spirit is the life]

(6) And the Saviour has said to us, "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God," explains the apostle: "for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed, can be. And they that are in the flesh cannot please God." And in further explanation continues, that no one may, like Marcion regard the creature as evil. "But if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness."

(22) Thus also the qualifying or fountain spirits of man do not wholly comprehend the innermost birth or geniture of the Deity, which stands in the light; but every qualifying or fountain spirit reacheth, with its animated or soulish birth or geniture, into the heart of God, and uniteth, qualifieth or mixeth therewith in that place.

(21) Thus saith the spirit, Many Heathen, who have not thy knowledge, and yet strive or fight against the wrath, will enter into the kingdom of heaven before thee.

(56) But now, from the austere and earnest birth or geniture of the qualifying or fountain spirits of the Father, wherein the zeal or jealousy and the wrath stands, the body of nature always cometh to be, wherein the light of the Son, viz. of the Father's heart stands, incomprehensibly as to nature.

(39) But if a man here on earth is enlightened with the Holy Ghost from the fountain of JESUS CHRIST, so that the spirits of nature, which signify the Father, are kindled in him, then there ariseth such a joy in his heart, and it goeth forth into all his veins, so that the whole body trembleth, and the soulish, animal spirit triumpheth, as if it were in the holy Trinity, which is understood only by those who have been guests in that place.

(82) Now if you will be gods, and not devils, then make use of the holy and meek law of God; if not, then you shall for ever eternally generate in the austere and severe birth or geniture of God. Thus saith the spirit, as the word of God, and not of my dead or mortal flesh.