(48) Now, thou dear Soul, here you see in a Glass how very near God is to us, and that he himself is the Heart of all Things, and gives to all Virtue, [Power,] and Life. Here Lucifer was very heedless, and became so very proud, that when this Brimstone- Spirit in the Will of the Mind of God was created, then he would fain have flown out above the End of Nature, and would drive the Fire out above the Meekness; he would fain have had all burn in the Fire; he would have ruled [or domineered:] The Sparks of Fire in the Brimstone-Spirit elevated themselves too high; and these Spirits pleased not the Creator, or the Spirit in the Fiat, and [therefore] were not [established] Angels, although in the first Mind (when the Center was opened to the [Creation of the] Spirits) he came to help them, and [beheld] them as well as the other Angels: But they indeed generated a fiery Will, when they should have opened their Center to the Regeneration of their Minds, and so should have generated an angelical Will.

(25) Now when God had created great potent princely Angels, and that in the Place of the fourth Form in the Matrix, where the Source of Fire has its Original, they stood not, neither did they cast their Imaginations forward into the fifth Form, wherein the sprouting forth of Paradise consists; but they cast their Imaginations back into themselves, and formed [or created] the Light of God and Paradise. For the fiery Matrix (viz. the Abyss of Hell) moved itself in the Creation so hard, that Lucifer (that great Prince) has formed his Will out of it, and is continued therein, supposing that so he should be a great and terrible Lord in his whole Place [of Dominion.]

(15) But Lord Lucifer would (in the Creation) have fain been above the Meekness of the Heart of God, above the End of Nature; therefore he would fain also have persuaded the Son of the Virgin to fly without Wings, above the End of Nature, in Pride; of which shall be handled in its due Place at large. I have brought this in thus, but in brief, that my Writing may be the better understood, and how it stands with [or upon] the Ground, [or Foundation] of the Scripture, and is not any new Thing, neither shall there be any Thing new [in them,] but only the true Knowledge, in the Holy Ghost, of the Essence of all Essences. Of Adam 's Sleep.

(6) Thus the Devil is the Fault, and guilty of his own Fall, for he suffered himself to be moved by the Matrix of the Sternness, [Fierceness, Sourness, or Wrath,] whereas he yet had his own Will to take hold of Light or Darkness. And Lucifer was a Throne (that is, a Source [or Fountain] of a great Essence) from whence went forth all his Servants [or Ministers,] and they did like him; and also they were thrust back into the Darkness, for the Light of God goes not into the [Grimness, Wrath or] Fierceness.

(10) Seeing then that the eternal Wisdom of God (viz. in the chaste Virgin of the divine Virtue) had discovered itself in the Principle of this World, in which Place the great Prince Lucifer stood in the Heaven, in the second Principle, therefore the same Discovering was eternal, and God desired to shed forth the Similitude out of the Essences, which the Fiat created according to the Kind of every Essence, that they should (after the Breaking [or Dissolution] of the outward Substance) be a Figure and Image in Paradise, and a Shadow of this Substance. 1 1. And that there should go nothing in Vain out of the Substance of God, therefore God created Beasts, Fowls, Fishes, Worms, Trees and Herbs out of all Essences; and besides [created] also figured Spirits out of the Quinta Essentia, in the Elements, that so, after the completing of the Time (when the Out-Birth [shall] go into the Ether) they should appear before him, and that his eternal Wisdom in his Works of Wonder might he known.

(22) Yet if the Soul elevates its Imagination forward into the Light, in Meekness and Comeliness or Humility, and does not (as Lucifer did) use the strong Power of its Fire, in its Qualification, [or Breathing,] then it will be fed by the Word of the Lord, and gets Virtue, Power, Life, and Strength, in the Word of the Lord, which is the Heart of God; and its own original strong [fierce wrathful] Source of the Birth of the eternal Life becomes paradisical, exceeding pleasant, friendly, humble, and sweet, wherein the Rejoicing and the Fountain of the eternal Angel and a Child of God, and it beholds the eternal Generating of the indissoluble Band; and thereof it has Ability to speak, (for it is its own Essence or Substance,) but [it is] not [able to speak] of the infinite Generating, for that has neither Beginning nor End.

(7) Thus now herein is understood, how the divine Essence in the divine Principle has wrought in the Root of the first Principle, which is the Begetter, Matrix, or Genetrix in the eternal Birth in the a Limbus, or in the original Water-Spirit; by which Operation at last, the Earth and Stones come forth. For in the second Principle, (viz. in the holy Birth,) there is only Spirit, Light, and Life; and the eternal Wisdom has wrought in the eternal inanimate Genetrix, which is void of Understanding (viz. in her own Property) before the Original of the Light; out of which came the dark Chaos, which in the Elevation of Lord Lucifer (when the Light of God departed from him, and the Fierceness of the Source of the Fire was kindled) became hard Matter, (viz. Stones and Earth,) whereupon followed the gathering together of the Earth, as also the spewing out of Lucifer from his Throne, and the creating of the third Principle; and thereupon it followed, that he was shut up in the third Principle as a Prisoner, expecting henceforth the [Judgment or] Sentence of God. Now whether it be not a Shame, Disgrace, and Irksomness to him to be so imprisoned between Paradise and this World, and not to be able to comprehend either of them, I propose it to be considered.

(21) For these three Births are [inbred or] generated together with every one in the Mother's [Womb or] Body, and none ought to say, I am not elected; for it is a Lie, [and he] belies the Element, wherein Man also lives; and besides [he] belies the Virgin of Wisdom, which God gives to every one which seeks her with Earnestness and Humility. So [likewise] the Possibility of Seeking is also in every one, and it is inbred [or generated] in him with the all-possible hidden Element, [to which all Things are possible,] and there is no other Cause of Perdition in Man, than [was in or] with Lucifer, whose Will stood free; he must either reach into God in Humility, Chastity, and Meekness, or into the dark Mind, in the Climbing up of Malice and Fierceness [or Grimness,] which yet (cin its Flowing forth) desires not to lift itself up above God, but it inclines itself only above the Meekness, in the Fire-flash, in the stern [or fierce] Regeneration: But the Devils would (as Creatures) be above all, and be Lords wholly [of themselves,] and so it is also with Man here.

(5) These the Fiat created to a Similitude and Image of God, and overshadowed the same in the Fiat with the overflowing Virtue of God; and the Will of God i set itself [right] against the Image and Similitude, and they now which received the Will, they became Angels, for they set their Imagination, in the Will, in the Heart of God, and they did eat of the Verbum Domini [of the Word of the Lord;] but they that set their Imagination in the dark Mind, as Lucifer [did, that he might] fly out above the Deity and Meekness in the Might of the Fire in the Flash, in the sharp Might of God, and be Lord alone, they became Devils, and they have that Name from their being thrust [or driven] out of the Light; for they were in the Light when the Fiat created them, for the Fiat which created them stood in the Light.

(28) Yet it could not be (how vigorously soever it was sought after) that Man (in his own Power) could enter into Paradise. And therefore poor captive Man must sit in this World in the Devil's murdering Den; where now the Devil has built his Chapel close by the Christian Church, and has quite destroyed the Love of Paradise, and has in the Stead of it set up mere covetous, proud, self-willed, [or self-conceited,] faithless, sturdy, malicious Blasphemers, Thieves and Murderers, which lift themselves up against Heaven and Paradise, and have built themselves a Kingdom according to the Dominion of the fierce sour [Stars or] Constellations, wherein they domineer (with Silver and Gold) and consume the Sweat one of another; whosoever is but able, oppresses the other to the Ground. And though he flies before him, yet then he only puts forth his Dragon's Tongue, and spits Fire upon him; he terrifies him with his harsh Voice, and plagues him Day and Night.

(28) But God seeing that the great Prince Lucifer would domineer in the Matrix, in the Strength of the Fire in his Place, therefore he shut up the fifth Form in the Matrix of Paradise from him, for it is shut up both in its inward corporeal Form, and outwardly also.

(6) For when the Matrix was stirred, and that Lord Lucifer would domineer in the Fire, then the dark Matrix attracted all that was wrought in the P Birth together, from whence Earth, Stones, Metals, Brimstone and Salt did proceed: Hereby the Kingdom of Prince Lucifer was shut up, and he remained in the inward Center captivated in the outward.

(47) Yet in this Principle there is nothing else but the most horrible Begetting, the greatest Anguish and hostile Quickening, like wherein Prince Lucifer (at the extinguishing of his Light) continued; and wherein (viz. in the same Abyss of Hell) the Soul continues, which is separated from the second Principle, and whose Light ([which shines] from the Heart of God) is extinguished, and for which Cause also, at the End of this Time, there will be a Separation or Parting asunder of the Saints of Light from the Damned, whose i Source will be without the Light of God.

(86) And so should the angelical Man also set his Will in the broken Gates of the Darkness, through the Will of the Father, wherewith the Soul qualifies [or mingles] in the Meekness of the Heart of God, and then the Source [or Quality] of the Darkness, in the [fierce] Wrathfulness, should not have stirred him, but he should have continued a glorious Prince of Paradise, in Triumph over the Kingdom of Hell and of this World.

(67) This [Sport of Love] was spoiled by Lucifer himself, (who is so called, because of the extinguishing of his Light, and of being cast out of his Throne,) who was a Prince and King over many Legions, but is become a Devil, and has lost his beautiful, [fair, bright,] and glorious Image. For he, as well as other Angels, was created out of the eternal Nature, out of the eternal indissoluble Band, and [has also] stood in Paradise, also felt and seen the i Birth of the Holy Deity, the Birth of the second Principle, of the Heart of God, and the Confirmation of the Holy Ghost; his Food should have been of the Word of the Lord, and therein he should have continued an Angel.

(517) only with an effort; and, when seen, is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right, parent of light and of the lord of light in this visible world, and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual; and that this is the power upon which he who would act rationally either in public or private life must have his eye fixed. I agree, he said, as far as I am able to understand you. Moreover, I said, you must not wonder that those who attain to this beatific vision are unwilling to descend to human affairs; for their souls are ever hastening into the upper world where they desire to dwell; which desire of theirs is very natural, if our allegory may be trusted. Yes, very natural. And is there anything surprising in one who passes from divine contemplations to the evil state of man, misbehaving himself in a ridiculous manner; if, while his eyes are blinking and before he has become accustomed to the surrounding darkness, he is compelled to fight in courts of law, or in other places, about the images or the shadows of images of justice, and is endeavouring to meet the conceptions of those who have never yet seen absolute justice? Anything but surprising, he replied.

(40) Therefore I say, a Beast is better than such a Man, who gives himself up into the hellish Images; for a Beast has no eternal Spirit, its Spirit is from the Spirit of this World, out of the Corruptibility, and passes away with the Body, till [it comes] to the Figure without Spirit, that [Figure] remains standing; seeing that the eternal Mind has by the Virgin of the eternal Wisdom of God discovered itself in the Out-Birth, for the manifesting of the great Wonders of God, therefore those [creaturely Figures,] and also the figured Wonders, must stand before zhim eternally; although no bestial Figure or Shadow suffers or does any Thing, but is as a Shadow or painted Figure, [or limned Picture.]

(66) It is not without a Cause, that Christ calls the Devil a Prince of this World, for he is so, according to the first Principle, according to the Kingdom of Wrath, and continues so to Eternity. But he is not so according to the Kingdom of the four Elements and Stars; for if he had full Power in that, then there would be no vegetative [Fruit] nor living Creature upon the Earth. He cannot master the P Exit of the four Elements; for he is in the Originality, and there is a [whole] Principle between; only when the Constellations awaken the fierce Wrath of the Fire, in the Elements, as in a tempestuous Storm, then he is Master- Juggler [in Mischief,] and rejoices himself [therein.] Though indeed he has no Power there neither, except it be permitted him from the Anger of God, then he is the Hangman [or Executioner,] and executes the Right as a Servant [Minister or Officer;] but not as a Judge, but as an Executioner.

(2) "And by the will of the greatness my equality was revealed, that what is of the power might become apparent. You are the great power that came into being, and I am the perfect light that is above the spirit and the darkness, the one who puts to shame the darkness for the intercourse of impure rubbing. For through the division of nature the majesty wished to be covered with honor up to the height of the thought of the spirit. And the spirit received rest in his power. For the image of the light is inseparable from the unconceived spirit. And the lawgivers did not name him after all the clouds of nature, nor is it possible to name him. For every likeness into which nature had divided is a power of the chaotic fire, which is the material seed. The one who took to himself the power of the darkness imprisoned it in the midst of its members. And by the will of the majesty, in order that the mind and the whole light of the spirit might be protected from every burden and from the toil of nature, a voice came forth from the spirit to the cloud of the hymen. And the light of the astonishment began to rejoice with the voice that was granted to him. And the great spirit of light was in the cloud of the hymen. He honored the infinite light and the universal likeness, who I am, the son of the majesty, saying, 'Anasses Duses, you are the infinite light who was given by the will of the majesty to establish every light of the spirit upon the place, and to separate the mind from the darkness. For it was not right for the light of the spirit to remain in Hades. For at your wish the spirit arose to behold your greatness.'

(4) He laid fast hold upon the shaggy sides; From fell to fell descended downward then Between the thick hair and the frozen crust. When we were come to where the thigh revolves Exactly on the thickness of the haunch, The Guide, with labour and with hard-drawn breath, Turned round his head where he had had his legs, And grappled to the hair, as one who mounts, So that to Hell I thought we were returning. "Keep fast thy hold, for by such stairs as these," The Master said, panting as one fatigued, "Must we perforce depart from so much evil." Then through the opening of a rock he issued, And down upon the margin seated me; Then tow'rds me he outstretched his wary step. I lifted up mine eyes and thought to see Lucifer in the same way I had left him; And I beheld him upward hold his legs. And if I then became disquieted, Let stolid people think who do not see What the point is beyond which I had passed. "Rise up," the Master said, "upon thy feet; The way is long, and difficult the road, And now the sun to middle-tierce returns."