The Forty Questions of the Soul

13. For the body is sulphur, and sticketh in the tincture, and the spirit driveth forth the tincture: now if the first ground, viz. the soul, wholly consenteth to it, then the soul can make another 3 manner of image in the sulphur, but the devil readily mingleth himself therewith, for it is the wonder of the abyss, over which he is lord.

14. You must understand, that the earnest 4 will (which otherwise is called faith) can do great things with the spirit; the will can change the spirit itself into another form, as followeth.

1 kind, or manner of power.

2 1 Cor. xv. 51.

3 form.

4 Note the power of the will.

The Second Power of the Will of the Soul.

15. If the spirit were an angel, the similitude of God, yet the will can make it 1 a proud stubborn devil; and also make a devil 2 an angel, if it sinketh itself into death, into humility under the cross, and casteth itself into the spirit of God, and so submitteth to his government, then it sinketh into the eternity, out of the source into the still nothing, which is yet all; and so it is in the beginning again where God created it, and the Word Fiat, which keepeth the image of God, receiveth it again.

The Third Power of the Spirit, or Will of the Soul.

16. And then also, thirdly, the spirit of the soul hath power to enter into another man, into his marrow and bones, viz. into the sulphur; and to introduce the turba into him if he be 3 false, so far as every one is not armed with the spirit of God, but is found naked in the spirit of this world, as may be seen by 4 witches.

The Fourth Power of the Will of the Soul.

17. And fourthly, it hath such power, if it be the child of God, that it can lead the turba captive, and can pour it out upon the house of the wicked, as Elias did the fire, and Moses before Pharaoh; for it can throw down mountains and break rocks.

18. This you must understand to be, so far as that thing is 5 capable of the turba, by awakening the wrath, then it is possible; but if not, and that the spirit of God be in a thing, then it cannot be, for it would pour water upon the turba of the fire, which would then be as it were dead, and its power would he in derision.

1 a wicked man.

2 a child of God. Book of the Three Principles, chap. xv. ver. 64.

3 Or wicked.

4 Or the bewitching whores, and sorcerers.

5 Or liable to the turba.

19. And therefore heaven is a middle between God and hell, viz. between love and anger, and was created out of the midst of the waters, so that the devil cannot rule with his turba, the water turneth his purpose into derision, * as the false magic and blinding enchantments are l drowned in the water.

The Fifth Power of the Will, or Spirit of the Soul.

20. And fifthly, the spirit of the soul hath such power, that it may and can seek all wonders that are in nature, viz. all arts, languages, building, planting, destruction, f knowledge: It can command the starry heaven, as Joshua, when he commanded the 2 sun, and it stood still; and Moses the sea, and it stood up; also he commanded the darkness, and it came: it can make an earthly life, as Moses made the lice and frogs, also serpents and other wonders.

21. It hath death in its power, so that it can overpower that; if it rideth in the

3 chariot of the bride. It can bridle and overcome the devil, if 4 it be in God: there is nothing can be named that it cannot subdue.

1 or nullified.

2 Josh. x. 12.

3 the will of the Holy Ghost.

4 Viz. the will or spirit of the soul.

* "as the false magic," etc., lit., "as the false magic is drowned in the water with its blinding [deceptive] enchantment." (Incantation.)

f "knowledge." This word is not in the original.

22. Only understand it aright, the soul hath such a power from its original, and it would still have had ability to l send forth such a spirit out of itself, if it had not let in the great 2 turba into itself, which now giveth the stop.