(54) Behold, when Adam entered into this World, Pride wrought in him; he would be as God, as Moses says, the Serpent (the Devil) persuaded him to it. He [Man] would have the Third Principle working and flowing in him, and thereby he lost God, and the Kingdom of Heaven. But that it is true that the Pride acted in Man, look upon Cain, he would be Lord alone, he would not that his Brother should be accepted before God, fearing that he should then get the Dominion, and therefore he slew him.

(49) It hath been said, that there is of nothing so much in hell as of self-will. The which is true, for there is nothing else there than self-will, and if there were no self-will, there would be no Devil and no hell. When it is said that Lucifer fell from Heaven, and turned away from God and the like, it meaneth nothing else than that he would have his own will, and would not be at one with the Eternal Will. So was it likewise with Adam in Paradise. And when we say Self-will, we mean, to will otherwise than as the One and Eternal Will of God willeth.

(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.

(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.

(63) He [the Devil] supposed, [saying;] The Kingdom of this World is thine, thou shalt sport thyself according to thy Power with the Image of Man, which should have possessed thy Throne, his Spirit is in thy Kingdom; and so [the Devil] mocked God in his Mind, [saying.;] Where is now thy noble Image, which thou didst create to rule over my Throne? Am not I Lord of the great Might of the Fire? I will rule over thy Throne, the Might [or Strength] and Virtue is mine: I fly up above the Thrones of Virtue and Strength, and no Might [or Power] can withstand me.

(59) And in this Tincture of the first Principle, the Devil tempted Man; for it is his Source, [Well-spring, or Property,] wherein he also lives. Herein he reaches into the Heart of Man, into his Soul's Essences, and leads him away from God, into the Desire to live in the sharp (viz. in the fiery) Essences, that it might be elevated above the Humility and the Meekness of the Heart of God, and above the Love and Meekness of the Creatures, [on Purpose to seem] to be the only fair and glistering Worm in the Fire-flash, and to domineer over the second Principle. And [thus] he makes the Soul of Man so extremely proud, as not to vouchsafe himself to be in the least like any Meekness, but to be like all whatsoever lives in a Quality [or Property] contrary to it.

(14) The third Temptation was the same into which the Devil also was fallen, with High-mindedness, [or Pride,] when he [Christ] was tempted to have flown from above, from the Pinnacle of the Temple, and should have elevated himself above Humility and Meekness; for the Meekness makes the angry Father, in the Originality, soft and joyful, so that the Deity [thus] becomes a soft and pleasant Essence.

(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.

(23) But it availed not, Pride would erect its Throne, and set it above Christ, the Devil would be God; and they made Glosses, that they might bring it to pass in such a Way, that the simple People might not take Notice of it; there the Keys of Peter must govern the City, and they drew together with the Keys P divine Authority to them, and so could use the divine Power in Deeds Such as apishly teach the Words of holy Men, without the Understanding they had. and Wonders no more; for they desired to be rich and wealthy upon Earth, and not to be poor with Christ, who in this World (as himself witnesses) had not whereon to lay his Head; they would not be such Christians in Power and Wonders; as Adam, who would not live in the Power, but in a great Heap [of Earth,] that he might have something to take hold of. And here may be rightly seen our Misery which Adam brought us into, that our Essences always reach after the Spirit of this World, and desire only to fill themselves with a great Heap, from whence Adam and we all have got such a swelled, gross, untoward Body, full of Sickness, Contrariety, and contentious Desires.

(68) But he saw that he was a Prince, standing in the first Principle, and so despised the Birth of the Heart of God, and the soft and very lovely Qualification thereof, and meant to be a very potent and terrible Lord in the first Principle, and would qualify [or work] in the Strength of the Fire; he despised the Meekness of the Heart of God. He would not set his Imagination therein, [or his Thoughts upon it,] and therefore he could not be fed from the Word of the Lord, and so his Light went out; whereupon presently he became a Loathsomeness in Paradise, and was spewed out of his princely Throne, with all his Legions that stuck to him, [or depended on him.]

(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.

(17) Wilt thou say, the Devil beguiled him? Yes indeed, and he beguiles thee too, so that thou enviest the Comeliness and Beauty of others. Has God made thee a Degree higher? Art thou not a Child of Eve? Pray tell me the Truth, Art thou not the Antichrist, which under a Cloak [of being counted the Minister and Servant of God] ridest upon the Devil's Horse? Methinks I see thee. Hearken! When thou wentest out of Paradise into this World, why didst thou not continue in one [only] Love? Why didst thou not rejoice in thy Neighbour? Why didst thou not love the Members of thy Body? Why dost thou not adorn thy Brother with thy Ornament? Didst thou not see him plainly? Was not the Earth thy own? Thou mightest have made what thou wouldst of it. Who did hinder thee in it? Why didst thou not eat with thy Brother? Thou mightest have had fully enough; there would never have been any Want. If thy Humility towards thy Brother had continued, then his also had continued towards thee. And then what a fine Habitation and Dwelling had there been upon Earth? What need had there been for thee to have coined Silver and Gold, if Unity had continued? Thou mightest have made thy Ornaments of it well enough; if thou hadst adorned thy Brother and Sister, then they would have adorned thee again with their ready serviceable Love. Dost thou think it had been of thy Brother, and to the Honour of the great God?

(23) Therefore the Devil also, in Regard of the Might of the tart [strong fierce Wrath,] was called a Prince of this World in the [angry strong] Fierceness, of which you shall find [more] about the Fall. And therefore God created but one Man; for God would that Man should continue in Paradise, and live eternally; and on the contrary, the Sternness [or strong fierce Wrath] would tempt him, [to try] whether he would put his Imagination and Will wholly into the Heart of God, and into Paradise, wherein he was.

(3) And if it be a thing that pleaseth thee, or hath pleased thee before, there riseth in thee a passing delight for to think on that thing what so it be. Insomuch, that thou restest thee in that thought, and finally fastenest thine heart and thy will thereto, and feedest thy fleshly heart therewith: so that thee think for the time that thou covetest none other wealth, but to live ever in such a peace and rest with that thing that thou thinkest upon. If this thought that thou thus drawest upon thee, or else receivest when it is put unto thee, and that thou restest thee thus in with delight, be worthiness of nature or of knowing, of grace or of degree, of favour or of fairhead, then it is Pride. And if it be any manner of worldly good, riches or chattels, or what that man may have or be lord of, then it is Covetyse. If it be dainty meats and drinks, or any manner of delights that man may taste, then it is Gluttony. And if it be love or plesaunce, or any manner of fleshly dalliance, glosing or flattering of any man or woman living in this life, or of thyself either: then it is Lechery.

(49) The first Will, out of which they were created, that was God's, and that made them good; and the second Will, which they as obedient [Children] should have generated out of their Center in Meekness, that was evil: And therefore the Father, for generating such a Child, was thrust out from the Virtue of God, and so he spoiled the angelical Kingdom, and remained in the Source of the Fire: And because the evil Child of their Mind did turn away from the Meekness, therefore they attained what they desired. For the Mind is the God and the Creator of the Will; that is free from the eternal Nature, and therefore what it generates to itself, that it has.

(30) O no: But the Devil, who is a Cause of the Wrathfulness. Adam was made good out of the pure Element, but the Longing [Desire or Lust] of the Devil deceived him, so that he went into the Spirit of this World. 3 1. And now it cannot be otherwise, the two Kingdoms wrestle one with another in the Children of Men; the one is the Kingdom of Christ, [generated] through the new Birth into Paradise; that (in this World) is miserable and contemned, there are not many that desire it, for it has mere Scorn and Contempt from the Devil and his Followers; it consists in Righteousness and Truth, and that is not valued in this World, and therefore it must lie at the rich Man's Door with poor Lazarus, and at his Feet. If any do but let it appear that they are the Children of God, then the Devil will away with them presently, or else will put them to such Scorn and Disgrace, that they cannot be known; that so the Devil may continue to be the great Prince upon Earth, and that the World may not learn to know him.