(6) When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.

(26) When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest: and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and the last state of that man is worse than the first.

(348) Unclean demons do lay claim to a polluted soul; a faithful (and) good soul, evil demons will not be able to hinder in the way of God.

(46) And he shall put down the countenance of the strong, And shall fill them with shame. And darkness shall be their dwelling, And worms shall be their bed, And they shall have no hope of rising from their beds, Because they do not extol the name of the Lord of Spirits.

(39) But hast thou been a base Slanderer, Liar, Deceiver, false murderous Man, then such a Spirit proceeds from thee, and that desires in the Eternity nothing else but mere Falshood; it spits out from its fiery Jaws, fiery Darts full of Abomination and Reproach; it is a continual Stirrer and Breaker in the fierce Sternness, devouring in itself, and consuming nothing; all its [Things, Beings, Essences, Works, or] Substances appear in its Tincture; its Image is figured according as its Mind has been here.

(2) Surely of them that have power, and cure of their souls: either given openly by the statute and the ordinance of Holy Church, or else privily in spirit at the special stirring of the Holy Ghost in perfect charity. Each man beware, that he presume not to take upon him to blame and condemn other men’s defaults, but if he feel verily that he be stirred of the Holy Ghost within in his work; for else may he full lightly err in his dooms. And therefore beware: judge thyself as thee list betwixt thee and thy God or thy ghostly father, and let other men alone.

(3) Therefore it is that I say, and have said, that evermore when the devil taketh any body, he figureth in some quality of his body what his servants be in spirit. For he enflameth so the imagination of his contemplatives with the fire of hell, that suddenly without discretion they shoot out their curious conceits, and without any advisement they will take upon them to blame other men’s defaults over soon: and this is because they have but one nostril ghostly. For that division that is in a man’s nose bodily, and the which departeth the one nostril from the tother, betokeneth that a man should have discretion ghostly; and can dissever the good from the evil, and the evil from the worse, and the good from the better, ere that he gave any full doom of anything that he heard or saw done or spoken about him. And by a man’s brain is ghostly understood imagination; for by nature it dwelleth and worketh in the head.

(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.

(22) It is written that sometimes the Devil and his spirit do so enter into and possess a man, that he knoweth not what he doeth and leaveth undone, and hath no power over himself, but the Evil Spirit hath the mastery over him, and doeth and leaveth undone in, and with, and through, and by the man what he will. It is true in a sense that all the world is subject to and possessed with the Evil Spirit, that is, with lies, falsehood, and other vices and evil ways; this also cometh of the Evil Spirit, but in a different sense. Now, a man who should be in like manner possessed by the Spirit of God, so that he should not know what he doeth or leaveth undone, and have no power over himself, but the will and Spirit of God should have the mastery over him, and work, and do, and leave undone with him and by him, what and as God would; such a man were one of those of whom St. Paul saith: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God,”26 and they “are not under the law, but under grace,”27 and to whom Christ saith: “For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.”28 But I fear that for one who is truly possessed with the Spirit of God, there are a hundred thousand or an innumerable multitude possessed with the Evil Spirit.

(38) Hast thou been a proud vain-glorious, selfishly Potent, and one that has for thy Pleasure Sake oppressed the Needy, then such a Spirit goes forth from thee, and then so it is in the Eternity, where it can neither keep nor get any Thing for [to feed] its Covetousness, neither can it adorn its Body with any Thing, but with that which is there, and yet it climbs up eternally in its Pride, for there is no other Source in it; and thus in its Rising it reaches into nothing else but the stern Might of the Fire in its Elevation; it inclines itself in its Will continually in such a Purpose as it did in this World; as it was wont to do here, so all appears in its Tincture, therein itclimbs up eternally in the Abyss of Hell.

(32) For the Fire in the Essence comes to be a a soft meek Light, and is nothing else but a zealous [or eager] Kindling of the Tincture, and the harsh Essence causes that the divine Virtue can draw it to itself, and taste it, for in the [sour or] harsh Essence the Taste does consist, in Nature: In like Manner the bitter Essence serves to [make] the moving rising Joy, Fragrancy and Growing; and out of these Forms the Tincture goes forth, and it is the House of the Soul; as the Holy Ghost [goes forth] from the Father and the Son, so also the Tincture goes forth from the Light of the fiery Soul, and then also from its virtuous [or powerful] Essences, and so it resembles the Holy Ghost, but yet the Holy Ghost of God is a Degree higher; for he goes forth from the Center of the Light wholly in the fifth Form, from the Heart of God, at the End of Nature.

(33) Therefore there is a Difference between the Tincture in Man, and the Holy Ghost; and the bestowed Virgin of the divine Virtue [or Power] dwells in the Tincture of the Soul, [that is] if it be true and faithful; but if [the Soul be] not [faithful] then she departs into her Center, which is not wholly shut up; for there is but half a Birth between, except the Soul passes into the Stock of Harshness and Malice [Evil or Wickedness,] and then there is a whole Birth between. For the Harshness stands in the fourth Form of the Darkness, and the Bitterness in the Fire, between the fourth and fifth Form, as is mentioned before.

(19) For as the exhalations which arise from the earth, and from marshes, gather into mists and cloudy masses; so the vapours of fleshly lusts bring on the soul an evil condition, scattering about the idols of pleasure before the soul.

(14) And I will show (thee, simple Man) their Venom and Poison; for behold, every one among the Laity looks upon them, and thinks, Sure it must needs be right if our Priest says it; he is a Minister of God; he sits in God's Stead, it is the Holy Ghost that speaks out of him. But Saint John says, Try the spirits; for every one's Teaching is not to be believed; and Christ says, By their Works thou shalt know them; for a good Tree brings forth good Fruit, and an evil Tree brings forth evil Fruit; also he teaches us plainly, that we should not gainsay the Prophecy that is of God, but we should learn to try them by their Fruits.

(2) That this is sooth, it seemeth by this that followeth. The devil is a spirit, and of his own nature he hath no body, more than hath an angel. But yet nevertheless what time that he or an angel shall take any body by leave of God, to make any ministration to any man in this life; according as the work is that he shall minister, thereafter in likeness is the quality of his body in some part. Ensample of this we have in Holy Writ. As oft as any angel was sent in body in the Old Testament and in the New also, evermore it was shewed, either by his name or by some instrument or quality of his body, what his matter or his message was in spirit. On the same manner it fareth of the fiend. For when he appeareth in body, he figureth in some quality of his body what his servants be in spirit. Ensample of this may be seen in one instead of all these other. For as I have conceived by some disciples of necromancy, the which have it in science for to make advocation of wicked spirits, and by some unto whom the fiend hath appeared in bodily likeness; that in what bodily likeness the fiend appeareth, evermore he hath but one nostril, and that is great and wide, and he will gladly cast it up that a man may see in thereat to his brain up in his head. The which brain is nought else but the fire of hell, for the fiend may have none other brain; and if he might make a man look in thereto, he wants no better. For at that looking, he should lose his wits for ever. But a perfect prentice of necromancy knoweth this well enough, and can well ordain therefore, so that he provoke him not.

(12) And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost is in danger of eternal damnation: it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.

(14) Get thee behind me, Satan: thou are an offence unto me: for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.

(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.

(13) But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man: for from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, false witness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemies, pride, foolishness: all these evil things come from within, and these are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.

(24) Now when the historical Christendom and the true Christians grew together, the Scepter was always among the Learned, who exalted themselves, and made themselves potent, and great; and the simple [Church] yielded to it as right; and yet there was a Desire after the Kingdom of God found in Men, viz. the noble Word of God (which had imprinted itself in the Promise [in Paradise,] in the Light of Life, and which was made stirring by Christ) that drove them indeed to the Fear of God. And then they built great Houses of Stone, and called every one thither; and they said that the Holy Ghost was powerful there, and they must come thither; besides, they durst be so impudent as to say (when they were found to be so wicked and malicious) that the Holy Ghost was powerfully in the Mouth of the Wicked.