(21) Therefore none should be so presumptuous, as to mock and despise the Children of God, who are in the Combat against the Devil. But think that it will come to thy Turn also; if thou wilt not go about it when thou art well and in Health, thou must come to it at thy Death; when the poor Soul comes to part from the Body, then it must enter into the Combat, there is no Remedy; for it must depart from the Body out of the Spirit of this World, and then two Gates stand open, viz. Heaven and Hell, it must go in at one of them, there is no other Place out of this World.

(44) Behold! thou pompous, stately, lofty and proud man; the world is even too narrow for thee here, and thou thinkest there is none like thee, or equal to thee: Bethink thyself in this, whether thou hast in thee the manner, quality or condition of an angel, or of a devil. To whom now shall I liken the Angels? Answer.

(90) By this high humility of the angels the spirit admonisheth the children of this world, that they should view and examine themselves, whether they bear such a love one to another. Whether there be such humility among them. What kind of angels do they think they are. And whether they are like to these or no: They have [or possess] the third angelical kingdom within themselves.

(20) I implore you, my sons, love the God of heaven, And cleave ye to all His commandments. And walk not after their idols, and after their uncleannesses,

(123) Nor must thou think that I have climbed up aloft into heaven, and beheld it with my carnal or fleshly eyes. O no; hear me, thou half-dead angel, I am as thou art, and have no greater light in my outward being than thou hast.

(22) And as for thee, my son Jacob, May the Most High God help thee And the God of heaven bless thee And remove thee from their uncleanness and from all their error.

(10) Here thou must know that the angels are not all of one quality, neither are they equal or alike to one another in power and might: Indeed every angel has the power of all the seven qualifying or fountain spirits, but in every one there is somewhat of one quality more predominant and strong than another, and according to that quality is he also glorified.

(22) But thou must know here that they all have a lovewill one to another, none of them grudgeth the other his form and beauty; for as it goeth among the spirits of God, so it goeth among these.

(41) Therefore look to it, and be not too scornful in this place, else thou wilt be found a scorner and mocker before God, and then well may thou fare as king Lucifer did. Now it may be asked: Question. What then do the Angels when they sing not? Answer.

(1) Here there are three things to understand: the first, the modesty of the angel; the second, that he thought himself unworthy to accost the Mother of God; the third, that he not only addressed her, but the great multitude of souls who long after God.

(8) Now if they cover their faces and their feet, and fly by their middle wings only, bear this reverently in mind, that the Order, so far exalted above the highest beings, is circumspect respecting the more lofty and deep of its conceptions, and raises itself, in due proportion, by its middle wings, to the vision of God, by placing its own proper life under the Divine yokes, and by these is reverently directed to the judgment of itself.

(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.

(7) Take me into understanding from grief, and take me from understanding and grief. Receive me into yourselves from other places ugly and destroyed. And steal from the good even in their ugliness. Out of shame take me to yourselves shamelessly. Without shame and with shame, rebuke what is mine in you and come to me, you who know me and you who know my members, and make great ones among small first creatures. Come to childhood and don't despise it, because it is small and tiny. Don't turn away the great in parts from the small, for the small is known from the great. Why do you curse and honor me? You wound me and have mercy. Don't separate me from the first you have known. Don't cast out or turn away, turn away and not know. . . . I know the first ones, and those after them know me. I am perfect mind and rest. . . . I am the knowledge of my search, the finding of those who look for me, the command of those who ask about me, the power of powers in my knowledge of angels sent at my word, and of gods in their seasons sent by my counsel, and of spirits of all who exist with me and of women who live in me.

(3) All angels and all souls, although they be confirmed and adorned with grace and with virtues, for the which they be above thee in cleanness, nevertheless, yet they be but even with thee in nature.

(55) When I have desired to take hold of them by the hand of the angels on the day of tribulation and pain because of this, I will cause My chastisement and My wrath to abide upon them, saith God, the Lord of Spirits.

(23) Thou must not understand this in an earthly manner; for an angel has no guts, neither flesh nor bones, but is constituted or composed by the divine power in the shape, form and manner of a man, and has all members like man, except the members of generation, and the fundament or going out of the draff, neither has an angel need of them.

(51) Seeing all thy children despise thee, whom thou didst bear, and hast given them suck in their childhood, and who will not give thee any attendance, or minister to thee in thy high or old age:

(54) O no! the angels in heaven do not so; but they love one another, and rejoice in the beauty and loveliness of others, and none esteemeth or accounteth himself more excellent than the others; but every one has his joy in the others, and rejoiceth in another s fair beauty, comely form and loveliness, whence then their love one towards another riseth up, so that they lead one another by the hand, and friendly kiss one another. Observe the depth.

(4) Without, then, any merit of their deeds, Stationed are they in different gradations, Differing only in their first acuteness. 'Tis true that in the early centuries, With innocence, to work out their salvation Sufficient was the faith of parents only. After the earlier ages were completed, Behoved it that the males by circumcision Unto their innocent wings should virtue add; But after that the time of grace had come Without the baptism absolute of Christ, Such innocence below there was retained. Look now into the face that unto Christ Hath most resemblance; for its brightness only Is able to prepare thee to see Christ." On her did I behold so great a gladness Rain down, borne onward in the holy minds Created through that altitude to fly, That whatsoever I had seen before Did not suspend me in such admiration, Nor show me such similitude of God. And the same Love that first descended there, "Ave Maria, gratia plena," singing, In front of her his wings expanded wide.

(34) Surely the gate will be locked upon thee, and so thou wilt not enter in any more, but wilt dance with the hellish wolves in the hellish fire; truly thou wilt then forget to mock, and sorrow will gnaw thee. Of the Qualification of an Angel. Question.