Aurora, or the Day-Spring

half­dead angel, I am as thou art, and have no greater light in my outward being than thou hast. 124. Moreover, I am a sinful and mortal man, as well as thou, and I must every day and hour grapple, struggle and fight with the devil who afflicteth me in my corrupted lost nature, in the fierce or wrathful quality, which is in my flesh, as in all men continually. 125. Now I get the better of him, now he is too hard for me; yet for all that he hath not overcome or conquered me, though he often getteth the advantage over me: For our life is as a perpetual warfare with the Devil. [126. " This strife and battle is about that most " high, noble, victorious garland, till the cor­ " rupted, perished Adamical man is killed and " dead, in which the devil hath an access to man. 127. " Of which the sophister will know " nothing; for he is not generated of God, but is " born of flesh and blood: and though indeed the " birth standeth open for and towards him, yet " he will not enter; for the devil withholds him. " God blindeth none."] 128. If he buffeteth me, then I must retire and draw back, but the divine power helpeth me again; then he also getteth a blow, and often loseth the day in the fight. 129. But when he is overcome, then the heavenly gate openeth in my spirit, and then the spirit seeth the divine and heavenly being; not externally without the body, but in the fountain or well­spring of the heart there riseth up the flash in the sensibility or thoughts of the brain, and therein the spirit doth contemplate or meditate.

130. For man is made out of all the powers of God, out of all the seven spirits of God, as the angels also are. But now seeing man is corrupted, therefore the divine birth doth not always spring, qualify or operate in him; no, nor in all men either: And though indeed it springeth in him, yet the high light doth not presently shine in all men; and though indeed it doth shine, yet it is incomprehensible to the corrupted nature. 131. For the Holy Ghost will not be caught, held or retained in the sinful flesh, but riseth up like a flash of lightning, as fire flashes and sparkles out of a stone, when a man strikes fire upon it. 132. But when the flash is caught in the fountain of the heart, then the Holy Ghost riseth up in the seven qualifying or fountain spirits, into the brain, like the daybreak, dawning of the day, or morning redness: Therein sticketh the mark, aim or scope and knowledge. 133. For in that light the one seeth the others, feeleth the others, smelleth the others, tasteth the others, and heareth the others, and it is as if the whole Deity did rise up therein. 134. Herein the spirit seeth into the depth of the Deity; for in God, near and afar off is all one; and that same God, of whom I write in this book, is as well in his Ternary in the body of a holy soul, as in heaven. 135. From this God I take my knowledge, and from no other thing, neither will I know any other thing than that same God, and the same it is which maketh that assurance in my spirit, that I steadfastly believe and trust in him.

136. Though an angel from heaven should tell this [knowledge] to me, yet for all that I could not believe it; much less lay hold on it, for I should always doubt whether it were certainly so or no: But the sun itself ariseth in my spirit, and therefore I am most sure of it, and I myself do see the proceeding and birth of the holy angels, and of all things both in heaven and in this world. 137. For the holy soul is one spirit with God; though indeed it is a creature, yet it is like to the angels: Also the soul of man seeth much deeper than the angels; for the angels see only to * the heavenly pomp, but the soul seeth both the heavenly and the hellish, for it liveth between both. * "see only to" (sehen allein bis in), " see only into," i.e. as far as into. 138. Therefore it must undergo * many hard bangs and pinches, and must every day and hour wrestle and struggle with the devil, that is, with the hellish qualities [Or devilish conditions, inclinations, and passions in us] and so it liveth in great danger in this world; therefore this life is very well called the valley of misery, full of anguish, a perpetual hurliburly, pulling and haling, worrying, warring, fighting, struggling and striving. * " it must undergo," etc. (muss sich wol quetschen lassen), " it must suffer itself to be crushed." See Ch. 19, par. 121. 139. But the cold and half­dead body doth not always understand this fight of the soul: The body doth not know how it is with it, but is heavy and anxious; it goeth from one room or business to another; and from one place to another;