(78) Therefore beware of the Longing [Lust or Desire;] and say not in thyself, I stand in the Dark, the Lord sees me not, [nor] what I think and do. He stands in the Gate of the Mind, where the Soul stands (before the clear Face of God) in the opened Gate; and all thy Abominations are known before God, and thou makest the Element of God blush [or change Colour] with them; thou grievest the chaste Virgin (which dwells in her own Center, and is given to be a Companion to thee in thy Mind) and makest her sad; she warns thee of the Way of the Ungodly; if thou followest [her Counsel,] and turnest, and breakest in unto her, by earnest Repentance, then she crowns thee in thy Mind with Wisdom and Understanding, that thou mayest then very well avoid the Devil; but if they doest not, then thou fallest out of one Sin and Abomination into another, and makest thy Measure full and running over, and then the Devil helps thee into his Kingdom, and thou art very serviceable to him; for thou art a true Scourge to the Children of God, not only with Reproaching, but also in Deeds [or in the Work of thy Hands,] which the Devil dares not do; thou doest him acceptable service. He amuses thee finely with the Name [i of God,] so that thou bringest forth from thy Lips, and teachest it; but thy Heart is a Thief and

(24) Or what thinkest thou, if thy Twig be thus very dry and withered, and that thou must eternally swelter in the Anger of God, where instantly thy human Image will be taken away, and thou wilt be in the a Shape of the most abominable Beasts, Worms, and Serpents, all according to thy Deeds and Practice here, where then all thy Deeds will stand in the Figure in the Tincture eternally before thy Eyes, and will gnaw thee sufficiently, so that thou wilt continually think, if thou hadst not done this or that, thou shouldst have attained the Grace of God? Thy Mocking stands before thy Eyes, and thou art ashamed to let the least good Thought into thy Soul; for Good is as an Angel before thee, and thou darest not (for great Shame) so much as to touch it with thy Mind, much less look upon it. But thou must eternally devour into thyself thy great Scorning, with all thy Vices and Sins, and thou must eternally despair; and though thou thinkest to go forth after Abstinence, yet the Light strikes thee down again, and so thou goest but forth aloft (in thy devouring fretting Worm, in thyself) without the Thrones of God; and it is with thee, as with one who stands upon a high stony Cliff of a Rock, and would cast himself into a bottomless Gulf; and the further he sees, the deeper he falls. Thus thy own Sins, Scornings, Deridings, Cursings in Contempt of God, are thy Hell-fire, which gnaws thee eternally; this I speak in the Word of Life.

(42) O thou blind Mind, with thy Might and Stateliness, full of Wickedness and devilish fierce Wrath, [wilt thou know where thou art after that thy Body perishes?] Thou art even with all the Devils, in the Abyss of Hell, if thou dost not turn, and by earnest unfained Sorrow and Repentance for thy Abominations, enter into the angelical Footsteps, that the Saviour and Treader upon the Serpent of fierce Wrath, Wickedness, Lying, and Deceit, may meet thee, and embrace thee in his Arms, and [that thou] mayest be new-born in him, and be yielded up into the Bosom of the chaste Virgin, and become an Angel; or else thou art in the eternal Death, in the eternal Darkness, and canst not in all Eternity reach the Kingdom of God any more.

(29) Beloved Mind, put such Thoughts away from thee, or else thou wilt make of the kind and loving God, an unmerciful and hostile Will, but leave off such Thoughts of God, and consider thyself what thou art; in thyself thou shall find the Tree of the Temptation, and also the Will to have it, which made it spring up; yea the Source [Lust or Quality] whence it sprung up, stands in thee, and not in God; [this must be understood] that when we will speak of the pure Deity (which manifests itself in the second Principle through the Heart of God) it is thus, and not otherwise.

(75) Thus thou shalt know in what Manner it is Sin before God; thou hast in thyself the [one eternal pure] Element, which is a Joy in the Presence of God; and now if thou ragest and ravest with the Source [Quality or Property] of Hell, then thou touchest [or troublest] the Element; and thou stirrest up the did, when he awakened [or stirred up,] and kindled the Fierce and Stones; thou sinnest [piercing] into the Heaven in the Presence of God, upon which the Prophets complained in many Places, That the Disobedient did grieve their God. Though (in himself) he felt no Pain, yet his Wrath was kindled in the first Principle, in the Gate of the Deep, wherein the Soul stands, and that is a mere Abomination before him.

(28) O beloved Reason! if you understand no more than so, then shut up the Eyes [of your Mind] quite, and search not; continue under Patience in Hope, and let God alone, [he will do well enough,] or else you will fall into the greatest Unquietness, and the Devil will drive you into Despair, who continually [pretends or] gives it forth y, that God did will Evil, [and that] he wills not that all Men should be saved, and therefore he created the Tree of Anger.

(52) Therefore consider thyself, and say not, I stand in the Dark, and exercise Love, none sees it. Thou standest before the clear Countenance of God; also thou standest before the Abyss of Hell, before the Council of all Devils, who mock at thee; and besides, thou hast an evil [false] or unfaithful Love, and it is no other than a [wanton] Lechery; if ait was faithful, thou wouldst not defile thy Brother or Sister; both of you miserably defile the Image of God, and are the worst Enemies one of another; you cast one another into the Devil's murdering Den, and are in the Wrestling; but the Devil amuses you, and strows Sugar, that he may catch you and bind you fast; and then he leads you to Jericho, and scourges, [wounds,] and plagues you sufficiently.

(3) And there will he let thee see the wonderful kindness of God, and if thou hear him, he careth for nought better. For soon after he will let thee see thine old wretched living, and peradventure in seeing and thinking thereof he will bring to thy mind some place that thou hast dwelt in before this time. So that at the last, or ever thou wit, thou shalt be scattered thou wottest not where. The cause of this scattering is, that thou heardest him first wilfully, then answeredest him, receivedest him, and lettest him alone.

(27) There is nothing that is nearer you than Heaven, Paradise, and Hell, unto which of them you are inclined, and to which of them you rend [or walk,] to that in this [Life] Time you are most near: You are between both. And there is a Birth between each of them; you stand in this World between both the Gates, and you have both the Births in you: God beckons to you in the one Gate, and calls you; and the Devil beckons you in the other Gate, and calls you; with whom you go, with him you enter in. The Devil has in his Hand Power, Honour, Pleasure, and [worldly] Joy, and the Root of these is Death and Hell-fire. On the contrary, God has in his Hands, Crosses, Persecution, Misery, Poverty, Ignominy, and Sorrow; and the Root of these is a Fire also, and in the Fire [there is] a Light, and in the Light the Virtue, and in the Virtue [or Power] the Paradise, and in the Paradise [are] the Angels, and among the Angels Joy. The gross Eyes cannot behold it, because they are from the third Principle, and see only by the Splendor of the Sun; but when the Holy Ghost comes into the Soul, then he regenerates it anew in God, and then it becomes a paradisical Child, and gets the Key of Paradise, and that Soul sees into the Midst thereof.

(54) Therefore, O Man, consider what thou sowest here, that thou shalt reap; take an Example in Cain. Or dost thou suppose, that it is an invented Fable, [which I here write?] Do but ask thy own Mind, that will convince thee, except thou art too much captivated by the Devil. Behold the horrible Punishments from the Anger of God, since the Beginning of the World; the Flood [or Deluge] was a Punishment for the Unchastity, [or Uncleanness,] whereby God would drown the Matrix of the burning Lust of Lechery; and therefore he punished the World with Water; for the Water is the Matrix of all Things.

(25) O beloved Soul! it is a very heavy Business, at which the very Heavens might well stand amazed. In this Temptation there is a very great Matter hidden in Moses, which the unenlightened Soul understands not: God did not regard a Bit of an Apple or Pear, to punish so fair a Creature for it: The Punishment comes not from his Hand, but from the Spiritus majoris mundi, from the Spirit of the great World, from the third Principle. God intended most mercifully towards Man, and therefore he spared not his own Heart, but let it become Man, that he might deliver Man again. You ought not to have such Thoughts. God is Love, and the Good in him is no angry Thought; and Man's Punishment was not but from himself, as you shall [find or] read in its due Place. The secret Gate of the Temptation of Man.

(15) winter, yet makest no preparation for the afterlife. Thy state is like that of a man who in mid-winter should say, 'I will wear no warm clothing, but trust to God's mercy to shield me from the cold.' He forgets that God, at the same time that He created cold, showed man the way to make clothing to protect himself from it, and provided the material for that clothing. Remember this also, O soul, that thy punishment hereafter will not be because God is angry with thy disobedience; and say not, 'How can my sin hurt God?' It is thy lusts themselves which will have kindled the flames of a hell within thee; just as, from eating unwholesome food, disease is caused in a man's body, and not because his doctor is vexed with him for disobeying his orders.

(29) Therefore, my beloved Mind, look what thou dost; and judge not so hastily and unadvisedly, and do not turn Beast because of the Multitude of Opinions, to whom belongs only the Chaff of the noble Seed. The Spirit of God shows himself in one that seeks him, yet according to the Manner and Kind of his Essences; and yet the Seed of God is sown along in the Essences; and if the Seeker seeks in a divine Desire, then he finds the Pearl according to his Essences, and so the great Wonders of God are manifested thereby.

(101) So now when we consider the great Love and Mercifulness, in that God has turned to Man, we find Cause enough to write and teach these Things; for it concerns our eternal Salvation and Redemption out of the Jaws of Hell; therefore I will set down the Ground of the promised Messiah, that the following Writings may be the better understood, especially Moses in his Book of the Law, where there is need of it. Now he that will see nothing, God help him, he must needs be blind; for the Time of the Visitation of the hardened Jews, Turks, and Heathens, comes now. Whosoever will see, let them see; the Lamps for the Bridegroom are shortly to be kindled. He comes, whosoever desires to be a Guest, let him prepare him a Wedding-Garment.

(29) For there are but two Kingdoms that stir in thee; the one is the Kingdom of God, wherein Christ is, which desires to have thee; and the other is the Kingdom of Hell, wherein the Devil is, which desires also to have thee. Now there must be striving here in the poor Soul, for it stands in the Midst. Christ offers it the new Garment, and the Devil presents the Garment of Sinfulness to it. And when thou hast but the least Thought or Inclination towards God, [and Goodness,] that thou wouldst fain enter into true Repentance, then truly that Thought is not from thy own self, but the Love of God draws thee, and invites thee; and the noble Virgin of God calls thee thereby, and thou shouldst only come, and not neglect it. And so truly when (in such a Way) thy great Sins come before thee, and hold thee back (so that thy Heart many Times receives no Comfort) this is the Devil' staying of thee, who casts into thy Thought, that God will not hear thee, thou art yet in too great Sins, he will let no Comfort come into thy Soul, he lays the sinful Kingdom of this World over it; but be not discouraged, he is thy Enemy. It is written, If your Sins were as red as Blood, if you turn, they shall be as Wool, white as Snow: Also, As true as I live, I have no Pleasure in the Death of a poor Sinner, but that he should turn and live.

(8) But the Time is coming, when the Aurora or Day Spring will break forth, and then the Beast, that evil Child [or Child of Perdition] shall stand forth naked and in great Shame; for the Judgement of the Whore of the great Beast goes on. Therefore awake and fly away ye Children of God, that you bring not the Mark of the great evil Beast upon your Forehead with you, before the clear Light; or else you will have great Shame and Confusion of Face therewith. It is now high Time to awake from Sleep, for the Bridegroom makes himself ready to fetch home his Bride, and he comes with a clear shining Light: they that shall have Oil in their Lamps, their Lamps shall be kindled, and they shall be Guests; but those that shall have no Oil, their Lamps shall continue dark, and they shall sleep still, and retain the Marks of the Beast till the Sun rise, and then they shall be horribly affrighted, and stand in eternal Shame; for the Judgement shall be executed; the Children of God shall observe it, but those that sleep shall sleep till Day. Further of the Birth.