(109) For it stands in the Gate in the Center, viz. in the Door [Way,] between Heaven and Hell; and the Word is in the Heaven. And if the Soul gives Way to be drawn away from that Gate, then it loses the Word; but if the Soul reaches forward again, towards the Gate, then it attains that again; and the Virgin (who is the Servant of the Word) goes continually [along] with the Soul, and warns it of the evil Ways. 1 10. But if the Soul be a Dog, an Adder, or Serpent, then the Virgin goes away to the Word into the Heaven, and then the Door is shut. And then there is a whole Birth between the Soul and the Word, whereas else there is but half [a Birth between the Word and the Soul;] and then there is Need of hard Striving, and [such a Soul] will hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; yet it is possible enough.

(12) But if thou leavest them off, and passest with the Desire of thy Heart into the Mercy of God, then thou goest into Heaven, into God the Father, and thou walkest in the Body of Christ in the pure Element; and the Holy Ghost goes forth out of thy Soul, and leads thee into all Truth; and the old corrupt Man does but hang to thee, which thou shalt destroy in Death, and with thy Love in Christ still overcome, and captivate the Anger of the Father in thy Soul; and thou shalt spring up with thy new Man through Death, and appear in the same at the last Judgment-Day. The Gate to Babel.

(98) And thus stood the Soul as a valiant Champion, and said to Satan; Get thee hence, Satan, thou shouldst worship the Lord thy God, and serve him only. I have no more to do with thee. There the Devil, Hell, and the Kingdom of this World, were commanded to be gone, and the valiant Champion got the Victory; and the Devil was fain to get him gone, and the earthly [Part] was overcome. And here now the noble Champion stands upon the Moon, and receives all Might, in Heaven, Hell, and on Earth, into his Power, and rules (with his Soul, in the holy Ternary, in this outward Body) over Death and Life; and here this World is become Christ' own, for he has overcome it; he could live in God, and needed not the earthly Food nor Drink.

(49) And though indeed thou must walk here with thy Body in the dark Night among Thorns and Thistles, (so that the Devil and also this World does rend and tear thee, and not only buffet, despise, deride, and villify thee outwardly, but also many Times stop thy dear Mind, and lead it captive in the Lust of this World into the Bath [or Lake] of S wines,) yet then the noble Virgin will help thee still, and will call upon thee to desist from thy ungodly mWays.

(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.

(93) And now when the Kingdom of Hell had this mighty Blow, and was thus overcome, then the Devil lost his Right in the Soul; yet he said in himself, Thou hast a Right in the earthly Body, and somewhat was permitted to him; and then he took the Body with the Soul, and set them upon the Pinnacle of the Temple, and said, Cast thyself down (for thou art powerful and canst do all Things) and then the People shall see that thou art God, and hast overcome; this is the right fluttering Spirit, wherewith the Devil would fain always fly above the Thrones over the Deity, and yet goes but in himself into the hellish Fire, and apprehends not the Deity.

(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.

(90) Now the heavenly [Body] must overcome the earthly, that the earthly may be as it were dead and impotent, and that the heavenly may xkeep the Dominion. And now as Adam stood in the Angle (between Love and Wrath) when he was tempted, there stood both Kingdoms against him, and pulled at him; and as God the Father (direct forward in his reconciled Will) is the Kingdom of Heaven, and the clear Deity; and backward (in the eternal Root of Nature) there is his Wrath and Anger, and yet both of them are in the eternal Father; and as in the eternal Nature of the Wrath, the Light or the Kingdom of Heaven is not known, and also in the eternal Light, the Kingdom of Fierceness and Wrath is not known, because each Kingdom is in itself, so is the Soul of Man also; it has Kingdoms in it, in which it a trades, in that it stands. If it trades in the Kingdom of Heaven, then the Kingdom of Hell is dead in it; not that it is ceased, but the Kingdom of Heaven is predominant, and the Kingdom of Fierceness is changed into Joy; so also, if it trades in the Kingdom of Wrath, then that is predominant, and the Kingdom of Heaven is as it were dead; although indeed (in itself it does not vanish) yet the Soul is not in it.

(39) And now if it enters into the tEvil of this World, and suffers itself to be drawn by the Devil, then it goes away out of the Covenant, and forsakes God and the Kingdom of Heaven; and there then the noble Virgin of God stands in the Center of the Light of Life (which instantly in the Entering of the Light of Life yielded herself into the Center of the Light of Life, as a Conductor and loving Companion to the Soul) and warns the Soul of the ungodly Ways, that it should turn, and step into the Covenant again. But if it does not, and that it continues in the Kingdom of the Devil, then she continues standing in the Center of the holy Paradise; and she is a Virgin of herself, but the Soul has afflicted her, and so they are parted; except the Soul returns again, and then it will be received again by its Virgin with great Honour and Joy.

(47) Therefore it can only be done here in this Life (while thy Soul sticks in the Will of the Mind) so that thou breakest open the Gate of the Deep, and pressest in to God through a New Birth; for here thou hast the highly worthy noble Virgin of the divine Love for thy Assistance, who leads thee in through the Gate of the noble Bridegroom, who stands in the Center in the parting Mark, between the Kingdom of Heaven, and the Kingdom of Hell, and generates thee in the Water and Life of his Blood and Death, and therein drowns and washes away thy false [or evil] Works, so that they follow thee not [in such a Source and Property,] that thy Soul be not infected therein, but according to the first Image in Man before the Fall, as a new, chaste, and pure noble Virgin's Image, without any Knowledge of thy untowardness [or Vices,] which thou hadst here.

(19) Thus the Soul stood with great Longing and Desire; also was many Times in great Combat with the Hunter, who would still throw it to the Ground. When it set itself in Opposition against him, then he took all the Vices (which stuck in Flesh and Blood) and cast them upon the Soul, that he might intangle it with them, and hinder it from comprehending the Virgin again; he made a great Mountain of the Sins in the Flesh and Blood, and therewith covered and shut close up the Mercy of God, viz. the new Man in Christ, and the Gates of Heaven, which stood open before, were shut up close: Misery and great Trouble were heaped upon the Soul, till at length once again, from the Breath of God (which came into it again) it was moved to break the Devil's Chains in Pieces, and it entered into Combat with him, so that he was quite thrown to the Ground, and its Covering was rent in Pieces, and then the Soul saw its beloved Virgin again. What friendly Welcoming there was then, I had rather the Reader might find by Experience, than that I should write of it.

(64) But thou mad World, what shall the Spirit say [of thee?] art thou not my Brother? The Essences of my Spirit stir thee, go forth out of thy Beast, and then I go with my Companions into the Garden of Roses, into the Lily of God. Why keepest thou back, and sufferest thyself to be held by the Devil? Is he not thy Enemy, he does but hunt after thy Pearl; and if he gets it, then thy Spirit becomes a Worm and Beast in its Figure. Why sufferest thou thy angelical Image to be taken away, for temporal Pleasure Sake? Thy Pleasure is only in the corruptible Beast. But what does that avail the Soul? If thou dost not go out from it, thou wilt get eternal Woe and Sorrow by it.

(106) For [there] the Word clothed the Soul, and shut up the Kingdom of Hell, and there it shall wait till the Day of the Restitution, and then it shall get a Body again out of the Element, out of the Body that was here [in this Life,] when the last Day; and not a strange Body, but the same it did bear, in the [one] Element hidden in the four Elements, that same shall go forth and flourish as Adam [had done] in [his] Creation. The Gate of the Redemption.

(105) And this Word should enlighten the Soul, and at the Departure of the Body be the Light of the Soul, and bring the Soul through the Gate of the Darkness into Paradise, before the bright Countenance of God, into the second Principle, into Element, where there is no Pain.