(61) Is made to revolve by the strokes of the King's hand. O man of double vision, hearken with attention, Many are the holy words that find no entrance Into blind hearts, but they enter hearts full of light. But the deceits of Satan enter crooked hearts, Though you repeat pious expressions again and again, If you are a fool, they affect you not at all; Nay, not though you set them down in writing, And though you proclaim them vauntingly; Wisdom averts its face from you, O man of sin,

(36) Here in this Life he must stick between the Door and the Hinges, between the Kingdom of Hell, and the Kingdom of this World, and the noble Image must suffer much Wrong, [or be wounded,] for he has not only Enemies outwardly, but also in himself; he bears the bestial and also the hellish Image of Wrath in him, so long as this House of Flesh endures. Therefore that causes Strife and Division against himself, and also without him, against the Wickedness of the World, which the Devil mightily presses against him, and tempts him on every Side, misleads, and distorts him every where, and his own Household in his Body are his worst Enemies; therefore the Children of God are Bearers of the Cross in this World, in this evil earthly Image.

(55) 1 will not say, that one that is a true Believer, [or truly faithful] in the new Birth, cannot (with earnest Combating) help and Hell; but he must have sharp Weapons, when he has to do with Principalities and Powers, or else they will deride and scorn him; as it is done for certain, when the Priest, with his glistering Cope [or fine Cloaths,] comes between Heaven and Hell, and will [undertake to] fight with the Devil.

(63) And after that their faces shall be filled with darkness And shame before that Son of Man, And they shall be driven from his presence, And the sword shall abide before his face in their midst.

(12) And in his pride he struck and smote himself with darkness and blindness, and made himself a devil, and that he must be, and abide so eternally. ["In God he knew only the Majesty, and not the Word in the centre, which has the fan or casting shovel: He blinded himself with the astringent darkness; for he would needs in flame himself, and rule in the fire over the light, and over the meekness."]

(2) The learned have produced many and various monsters concerning the beginning of sin, and original of the devil, and scuffled one with another about it; every one of them thought he had the axe by the handle, yet it continued hidden from them all till this very time.

(45) While thou livest in this struggling or striving birth or geniture thou must buckle to, and suffer the devil to ride upon thee; but so hard as he striketh thee, so hard thou must strike him again, if thou wilt defend thyself. For when thou tightest against him, thou stirrest up his wrath-fire, and destroyest his nest, and this is then as a great combustion, and as a great strong battle maintained against him.

(60) Behold, thou wicked Antichrist, thou art the same which thou hast always been; thou art an old, and not a new [Antichrist,] thy cunning Policy is born in the Anger of God; the Devil teaches thee to do what thou dost. Among Princes and Kings (who have their Ground and Foundation in Nature) thou stirrest up to Wars and Dissentions, that thou mightest be advanced by them, through thy Deceit, Hypocrisy, and knavish subtle cunning Policy; this thou dost out of Pride; thou pervertest the Scriptures of the i Saints, to promote thy vapouring Haughtiness, and art a Murderer of Souls; thou causest Mockings among the Ignorant, so that they think (when they many Times persecute a holy Soul) that they do God good Service in it; thou teachest them so, or else they would not think any such Thing; thus thou workest Confusion, and art Babel, a Habitation of Whores, and of all Devils; even so says the Spirit.

(24) And whoever escapeth the sword of the enemy and the Kittim, may the righteous nation root out in judgment from under heaven ; for they will be the enemies and foes of my children throughout their generations upon the earth.

(13) For as he goes a Hunting, in his Kingdom, and catches the poor Souls which Way soever he can, and lays wait for them by his Servants, with all Manner of Vice and Wickedness, and so continually sets such Looking-glasses before the Soul, that it should behold itself in its own Wickedness, and amuses it also with fair Promises of great Honour, Power, and Authority, he sets the poor despised Sort before the Soul, and says, Wilt thou only be the Fool of the World, come along with me, I will give thee the Kingdom of this World for a Possession, as he said to Christ, so in like Manner, when the Soul has put on the Kingdom of Heaven, and yet sticks in the dark Valley in Flesh and Blood, and sees the Devil's P murdering of its Brethren and Sisters, then it comes to be armed of God to fight against the Devil, and to discover his Burrow. For the Love to its Neighbour constrains it to do so, because it would help to increase the Kingdom of Heaven; therefore it teaches and reproves thus, it warns against Sin, and teaches the Way to the Kingdom of Heaven; which indeed the bestial Body does not understand; it goes away, like the rude Ass, and thinks with the starry and elementary Mind, as follows.

(36) But what can be said? The Devil will have it no otherwise. When his Kingdom begins to be stormed [battered and assaulted] at one Place, then he blows up the Storm all over, [as well in one as another,] in the Children of God; the Spirit of Punishment [Vengeance or Reproof] is stirred up; and in the worldly bestial Man, the Devil blows up mere scorning and disgracing Mockers; for they have the Kingdom of Christ in the History, and the Devil's Kingdom in themselves, as their own Possession.

(49) Therefore he stands often in Doubt and Impatience; and in such a Man there is great Strife; he knows not himself. He sees and knows nothing else but his Wickedness, and yet is born in God; for his Spirit continually breaks the Gate of the Darkness, but then the Anger in him holds him back that he cannot enter in, but yet sometimes he reaches a Glimpse, from whence the Soul is cheered, and the Pearl is sown in a very dark Valley.

(29) But in God, Angels, and in the virgin-like Souls (understand pure Souls) it is alike; where yet it is only for God. The Devil has also a Tincture, but a false One (and it stands not in the Fire) wherewith he can gripe that Man in the Heart that lets him in, as a [sly soothing] flattering false Thief, that insinuates himself, desiring to steal, concerning whom Christ warns us, that we should watch.

(8) But the holy angels, and the fierce wrathful devils, are here to be excepted; for these are severed apart: Each of these liveth, qualifieth and ruleth in his own peculiar quality.

(7) Or dost thou suppose, that we are mad, that we write thus? If we did not see and know it, we should then be silent. Or canst thou not once know the thorny Bath, wherein thou swimmest? Dost thou still say, thou art in the Garden of Roses? If thou thinkest thou art there, see well whether thou art not in the Devil's Pasture, and art his most beloved Hind, which he fattens to the Slaughter for his Food.

(50) But if thou fightest and strivest with the devil, and keepest the gate of love in thy astral birth, and so departest from hence as to the body, then thy soul remaineth in the word quite hidden from the devil, and reigneth with God, even unto the day of the restitution of that which was lost.

(6) And if you do these things, O my son, you will be victorious over all your enemies, and they will not be able to wage war against you, neither will they be able to resist, nor will they be able to get in your way. For if you find these, you will despise them as deniers of truth. They will speak to you, cajoling you and enticing (you), not because they are afraid of you, but because they are afraid of those who dwell within you, namely, the guardians of the divinity and the teaching.

(99) And the Reader must know, that the Combat (with the Temptation) was held in Body and Soul; and that this Temptation concerns us also; he has overcome for us. If we put our whole trust in him, then we have Victory in him, over Sins, Death, Hell, and the Devil, and also over this World; for he held the last Victory in his Death, when he broke the Sword of the Cherubim, and destroyed the Hell of the Devil, and has led Captivity captive, that thereby thou mightest live by the Death of Christ.

(98) And thus stood the Soul as a valiant Champion, and said to Satan; Get thee hence, Satan, thou shouldst worship the Lord thy God, and serve him only. I have no more to do with thee. There the Devil, Hell, and the Kingdom of this World, were commanded to be gone, and the valiant Champion got the Victory; and the Devil was fain to get him gone, and the earthly [Part] was overcome. And here now the noble Champion stands upon the Moon, and receives all Might, in Heaven, Hell, and on Earth, into his Power, and rules (with his Soul, in the holy Ternary, in this outward Body) over Death and Life; and here this World is become Christ' own, for he has overcome it; he could live in God, and needed not the earthly Food nor Drink.

(41) On the morrow those disciples, diminished in number, They went to Bayazid, thousands of men and women, Saying, "The two worlds are hidden in thy vesture; If this body of thine were that of a man, It would have perished of sword-wounds, like a man's." The man in his senses fought with him 'beside himself, And thrust the thorn into his own eyes." Ah! you who smite with your sword him beside himself, You smite yourself therewith; Beware! For he that is beside himself is annihilated and safe;