11. As it yet nowadays so comes to pass, that oftentimes men cry unto God for to give them success and victory against their enemies, that they might murder them; but God gives them not victory therein, but the sword of his anger, which they awaken with their prayers [fierce desires] and will. Were they true men, and children of God, they would need no war, for the holy Spirit doth not wage war, but he only loves and gives. But according to the property of the anger he consumes all ungodliness and wicked doings, and is thereby more blown and stirred up [in indignation] .
12. For the more a man adds wood to the fire, and stirs it, the more it does elevate and inflame itself; until it devours whatsoever it can reach. The like also is to be understood concerning the zeal of God: this enkindled anger- zeal of God was set on fire in Adam; and it did devour his image of the holy world, and passed from Adam upon all men.
13. For they which were in the line of the Covenant had the enkindled zeal, according to the first Principle, viz. according to the soul and body, also in them; the one not better than the other;
the Serpent's ens lay as well in Abraham and his children, according to the enkindled soul, and according to the gross bestial property of the mortal, as in the Gentiles; except the line of Christ in them, which was not the sinful man's selfhood, but it stood in God's power; as the heaven stands in the world, and yet the one is not the other; and as the heaven stands in hell, and hell in heaven, and yet the one does neither confound or comprehend the other; or as the night is in the day, and the day in the night; or as the light of nature dwells and shines in the darkness.
14. Thus we are to understand how the children of the saints have waged war against the crew of wicked men, and drove them out, viz. in the anger's property, which managed its sword by them, to destroy the heathen, and the generation of Ham; for Abraham went out with his whole house and people, against the heathen, who had carried away Lot, his brother's son, captive, and he smote the heathen, and delivered his brother (Gen. xiv. 14-16). This was done in the zeal of God, which thus delivered his children through the might of his anger; for what conduces to the wicked for destruction, the same conduces to the holy men for life and deliverance.
15. But that those who will be called Christians (who ought in and with Christ to be dead to the anger and wrath of God in Christ's death) do wage war, they do it not as Christians, but as heathen. No Christian wars; for if he be a Christian, then he is dead in and with Christ's death to the four elements of God's anger in self; and born a new man in Christ's spirit of love; who lives in righteousness, in love, and patience, and lives not to himself; but to God in Christ.
16. For a true Christian leads his conversation and will in heaven, in the life and spirit of Christ; as St Paul says, our conversation is in heaven. But when the Christians do wage war, they do it from the heathenish property, and not from Christ's property. For a Christian is not of this world; his kingdom is in heaven; and he is dead in Christ to the world, according to the new spiritual man in him. The heathen-man, viz. the half-devilish man (who has his kingdom in this world, who never has room enough upon the earth, but lives in the four elements of God's anger, viz. in pride, covetousness, envy and wrath), the same desires in the Christians to war, fight and slay.
11. As it yet nowadays so comes to pass, that oftentimes men cry unto God for to give them success and victory against their enemies, that they might murder them; but God gives them not victory therein, but the sword of his anger, which they awaken with their prayers [fierce desires] and will. Were they true men, and children of God, they would need no war, for the holy Spirit does not wage war, but he only loves and gives. But according to the property of the anger he consumes all ungodliness and wicked doings, and is thereby more blown and stirred up [in indignation] .
12. For the more a man adds wood to the fire, and stirs it, the more it does elevate and inflame itself; until it devours whatsoever it can reach. The like also is to be understood concerning the zeal of God: this enkindled anger- zeal of God was set on fire in Adam; and it did devour his image of the holy world, and passed from Adam upon all men.
13. For they which were in the line of the Covenant had the enkindled zeal, according to the first Principle, viz. according to the soul and body, also in them; the one not better than the other;
the Serpent's ens lay as well in Abraham and his children, according to the enkindled soul, and according to the gross bestial property of the mortal, as in the Gentiles; except the line of Christ in them, which was not the sinful man's selfhood, but it stood in God's power; as the heaven stands in the world, and yet the one is not the other; and as the heaven stands in hell, and hell in heaven, and yet the one does neither confound or comprehend the other; or as the night is in the day, and the day in the night; or as the light of nature dwells and shines in the darkness.
14. Thus we are to understand how the children of the saints have waged war against the crew of wicked men, and drove them out, viz. in the anger's property, which managed its sword by them, to destroy the heathen, and the generation of Ham; for Abraham went out with his whole house and people, against the heathen, who had carried away Lot, his brother's son, captive, and he smote the heathen, and delivered his brother (Gen. xiv. 14-16). This was done in the zeal of God, which thus delivered his children through the might of his anger; for what conduces to the wicked for destruction, the same conduces to the holy men for life and deliverance.
15. But that those who will be called Christians (who ought in and with Christ to be dead to the anger and wrath of God in Christ's death) do wage war, they do it not as Christians, but as heathen. No Christian wars; for if he be a Christian, then he is dead in and with Christ's death to the four elements of God's anger in self; and born a new man in Christ's spirit of love; who lives in righteousness, in love, and patience, and lives not to himself; but to God in Christ.
16. For a true Christian leads his conversation and will in heaven, in the life and spirit of Christ; as St Paul says, our conversation is in heaven. But when the Christians do wage war, they do it from the heathenish property, and not from Christ's property. For a Christian is not of this world; his kingdom is in heaven; and he is dead in Christ to the world, according to the new spiritual man in him. The heathen-man, viz. the half-devilish man (who has his kingdom in this world, who never has room enough upon the earth, but lives in the four elements of God's anger, viz. in pride, covetousness, envy and wrath), the same desires in the Christians to war, fight and slay.
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