(27) But when Adam was infected from the Lust to eat of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and that the Spirit of this World pressed [or swayed] Adam, where also the subtle Devil (which in the Spirit of this World slipt in) shot mightily at Adam, so that Adam became weary, and blind to the Kingdom of God; [then] said God, It is not good for Man to be alone, for he will not now bring forth the paradisical Virgin; because he is infected from the Spirit of this World, so that the Chastity of the Modesty is quite at an End; we will make a Help for him, to be with him, out of whom he may build his Principality, and propagate himself, it cannot be otherwise now; and he let a deep Sleep fall upon Man, and he slept.

(165) By oneself the evil is done, by oneself one suffers; by oneself evil is left undone, by oneself one is purified. Purity and impurity belong to oneself, no one can purify another.

(10) But when in this affliction and trouble I elevated my spirit (for I then understood very little or not at all what it was), I earnestly raised it up into God, as with a great storm or onset, wrapping up my whole heart and mind, as also all my thoughts and whole will and resolution, incessantly to wrestle with the love and mercy of God, and not to give over, until he blessed me, that is, until he enlightened me with his holy spirit, whereby I might understand his will, and be rid of my sadness. And then the spirit did break through.

(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.

(2) "And in order that the demons also might become devoid of the power that they possessed through the impure intercourse, a womb was with the winds resembling water. And an unclean penis was with the demons in accordance with the example of the darkness, and in the way he rubbed with the womb from the beginning. And after the forms of nature had been together, they separated from each other. They cast off the power, being astonished about the deceit that had happened to them. They grieved with an eternal grief. They covered themselves with their power.

(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.

(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.

(36) But yet we do not say, that Sin in the old Man is no Hurt; though indeed it cannot sway the new Man, yet it gives Offence; and we must with the new Man live to God [and serve him,] though it is not possible to be perfect in this World, yet we must continually go on and hold out; and the new Man is in a Field, where the Ground is cold, bitter, sour, and void of Life.

(19) Thus the Soul stood with great Longing and Desire; also was many Times in great Combat with the Hunter, who would still throw it to the Ground. When it set itself in Opposition against him, then he took all the Vices (which stuck in Flesh and Blood) and cast them upon the Soul, that he might intangle it with them, and hinder it from comprehending the Virgin again; he made a great Mountain of the Sins in the Flesh and Blood, and therewith covered and shut close up the Mercy of God, viz. the new Man in Christ, and the Gates of Heaven, which stood open before, were shut up close: Misery and great Trouble were heaped upon the Soul, till at length once again, from the Breath of God (which came into it again) it was moved to break the Devil's Chains in Pieces, and it entered into Combat with him, so that he was quite thrown to the Ground, and its Covering was rent in Pieces, and then the Soul saw its beloved Virgin again. What friendly Welcoming there was then, I had rather the Reader might find by Experience, than that I should write of it.

(16) If, then, in the deluge all sinful flesh perished, punishment having been inflicted on them for correction, we must first believe that the will of God, which is disciplinary and beneficent, saves those who turn to Him. Then, too, the more subtle substance, the soul, could never receive any injury from the grosser element of water, its subtle and simple nature rendering it impalpable, called as it is incorporeal. But whatever is gross, made so in consequence of sin, this is cast away along with the carnal spirit which lusts against the soul.

(64) Now God has no malicious Soul [to be] in the Love, but in the Anger; and he is the Searcher of the Hearts, and knows well what is in Man, and what he will do, even while [Man] is in the Seed, and will not cast the Pearl before Swine; and yet the false [or evil] Seed is not [come] out of his Will and Purpose, else he must also have willed the Devil to be a Devil.

(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.

(76) But when his love was extinguished, then the animated or soulish spirit could no more reach into the heart of God, and so his attempt was in vain; but he raved and raged in nature, that is, in the seventh qualifying or fountain spirit of God.

(38) Poor man did not fall out of a resolved, purposed will, but through the poisonous, vonomous infection of the devil, else there had been no remedy for him.

(75) But while we are thus speaking of the upright Abel, we cannot say, that the Kingdom of Heaven was not assisting in him, and that he merely out of his own Might and Power made himself such an upright [honest] Man; for it was in the wrestling, and overcame the Anger. For Man is weak and ignorant, and can do little by his own Power [or Ability], yet he has the Imagination, and the choosing, or the free yielding [to a thing], where then the Maker is ready beforehand, which makes him [to be] according as his Lust [or Desire] is; as it is to be seen by Adam, for when he longed and lusted in the Spirit of this World, there instantly the Maker was present, and made (of an angelical Image) a Man. The heaven.

(25) And so it was tried for a long Time, whether it were possible that Man should be recovered this Way, so that he might yield himself wholly to God, that the Soul might be born in the Word, and at last stand before God; yet all was in vain, the kindled Soul could not stand, but there came to be Man-slayers and Murderers, also self-willed People, in mere Lechery and Unchastity of the Flesh; also aspiring in State, Pride, and Domineering, according to the Regimen of the Stars and Elements, that drives the Body and the Soul of Man at all Times; and there were but few that did cleave to the Word of God.

(17) Now Man being thus fallen out of the Holy into the Unholy, out of the Image of God into the earthly Corruptibility, therefore his Body stood in the corruptible Death, and his Soul in the eternal Will of the Father, yet turned away from the Heart of God, into the Spirit of this World, captivated by the eternal Darkness; for whatsoever goes out from God, goes into the eternal Darkness, and without the Heart of God there is no Light.

(72) For the Serpent stings many in the outward; but if it gets the inward Man, then the Image of God is gone. The Evil [or Malice] of the Stars drives many [strongly] to murder, steal, lie, and deceive, till they come to the Gallows, and Sword [or Block], and yet have not wholly [captivated] the inward; he is yet in the Gate, and is able (through repentance) to go into another Image, which is not like the outward. Man cannot judge the inward Man so wholly according to the outward, except they see that he despises God, and blasphemes the Holy Ghost; in such a one there is no divine Image. And it is hard [with him]; yet his Judgment is not [in the time of] this Body; the Gate of the merciful- ness stands open towards him, while he is in this Tabernacle.

(78) For the devil could not touch the heart, neither could he touch the innermost birth or geniture of the qualifying or fountain spirits; for his glory of the seven spirits was already mortified in the first flash of kindling, and was presently held captive and imprisoned in the first exit of the animated or soulish spirit.

(3) "Man may rest in the eternal fitness; he may abide in the everlasting; and roam from the beginning to the end of all creation. He may bring his nature to a condition of ONE; he may nourish his strength; he may harmonize his virtue, and so put himself into partnership with God. Then, when his divinity is thus assured, and his spirit closed in on all sides, how can anything find a passage within? "A drunken man who falls out of a cart, though he may suffer, does not die. His bones are the same as other people's; but he meets his accident in a different way. His spirit is in a condition of security. He is not conscious of riding in the cart; neither is he conscious of falling out of it. Ideas of life, death, fear, etc., cannot penetrate his breast; and so he does not suffer from contact with objective existences. And if such security is to be got from wine, how much more is it to be got from God. It is in God that the Sage seeks his refuge, and so he is free from harm. "An avenger does not snap in twain the murderous weapon; neither does the most spiteful man carry his resentment to a tile which may have hit him on the head. And by the extension of this principle, the empire would be at peace; no more confusion of war, no more punishment of death.