(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.

(37) And as an Herb (by the pleasant Sun-shine) grows out of the Earth, so our new Man in Christ grows out of the old, sour, cold, harsh Man of our earthly Flesh [and Blood.] And that is the true Light of the Pearl, when we apprehend it truly and really (in the Knowledge) in the new Man; and it is the Sword wherewith we can fight against the Devil. Only we must take the Sword of the Death of Christ into our Hand, which cuts so sharply, that the Devil must fly away. Or Evil.

(52) Men's fpraying for, prevails thus far; if a Soul hangs to the Thread of the new Regeneration, and that it is not a total Worm and Beast, and that it presses into God with an earnest Desire, and if there be true Christians [there,] which stand unfeignedly in the new Birth, and that their Spirit of the Soul (in their burning Love towards the poor Soul) does press into God with the Thread of the Band of the poor Soul, then indeed it helps the poor Soul to wrestle, and to break in Pieces the Chains of the Devil, especially if it be done before the poor soul be departed from the body; and especially by Parents, Children, Sisters, and Brothers, or Kindred of the Blood. For their Tinctures qualify [or mingle] therewith, as being generated from one and the same Blood; and the Spirit of their Soul enters much more freely and willingly into this great Combat, and gets Victory much sooner and more powerfully than Strangers, if they stand in the new Birth; but without the new Birth no Victory is gained. There is no Devil that does destroy another [Devil.]

(12) And the Soul here in this World uses the Light of the third Principle, after which the Soul of Adam lusted, and thereupon was captivated by the Spirit of the great World. But if the Soul be regenerated in the Holy Ghost, so that its Center to the Regeneration springs forth o., then it sees with two Lights, and lives in two Principles. And the most inward [Principle] (viz. the first) is shut up fast, and hangs but to it, in which the Soul is tempted and afflicted by the Devil; and on the contrary, the P Virgin (which belongs to [and is in] the Tincture of the Regeneration, and in the Departure of the Body from the Soul, shall dwell [in the same Tincture,]) is in continual Strife and Combat with the Devil, and tramples upon his Head in the Virtue [and Power] of the [Sours] Prince and Champion, (viz. the Son of the Virgin,) when a new Body (out of the Virtue [or Power] of the Soul) shall spring forth in the Tincture of the Soul.

(54) For the old Enemy is subtile and strong, who still assaults the Soul again, to try how he may afflict and deceive it; if he cannot overwhelm it with Sins, then he begins an outward War with it, and stirs up the Children of Malice against it, so that they contemn, mock, deride, vilify it, and do all Manner of Evil to it; and so they lay Wait for its Body and Goods, they jeer, reproach, and scorn it, and account it as the Off-scouring of the World; they upbraid it for its Infirmities; if it does but reprove their Faults and Unrighteousness, then it must be an Hypocrite [with them.]

(54) But concerning the feigned Masses for Souls which the hearty Pressing in to God, that is altogether false, and stands in Babel; it helps the Soul little or nothing; it must be an earnest Fight that must be had with the Devil, thou must be well armed; for thou enterest into the Combat with a [mighty] Prince, look to it thyself (in thy i rough Garment) be not beaten down.

(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.

(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.

(17) Therefore must Christ in his Temptation overcome the Kingdom of the Anger, and this external Birth; and by his Entrance into Death, he broke the Head of the Serpent, viz. the Devil, and all Devils, and took them captive. Thou must understand it thus; That the inward Element (which comprises the whole Body of this World) became Christ's eternal Body; for the whole Deity, in the Word and the Heart of God, entered thereinto, and espoused itself to remain therein to all Eternity; and this same Deity became a Creature, even such a Creature as can be everywhere, as the Deity itself; and this same Creature has captivated all Devils in the Kingdom of this World. And all Men who with their Mind draw near to this Christ, and desire him in right Earnest, they are drawn by the Spirit of the Father, (viz. of the clear and pure Deity) into the Humanity of Christ, that is, into the pure Element before the Trinity. And if they continue steadfast, and do not again depart from God into the Desire of the Devil, then the precious Pearl, viz. the Light of God, is sown in their Soul, which [Light] attracts to itself the precious Body of Jesus Christ, with Paradise, and the Kingdom of Heaven. And thus the right new man (Christus) grows on the Soul in the heavenly Virgin of God's Wisdom, in the Holy Ternary, in the Kingdom of Heaven. And thus such a Man is according to the new Man in Heaven in the Body of Jesus Christ, and as to the old earthly Man, which hangs unto the holy [Man,] he is in this World in the House of Sin, and the Deity actuates the new Humanity, and the Spirit of this World the old, until he puts him off in Death; for he is a Man in Heaven, born in the Mercy of God in the Body of Jesus Christ.