unclean and evil
births and issues of the Bestial Nature, which yet by thy receiving them
in thy Desire, have gotten an Image and formed themselves in thee. And
that Image is a beast with four heads. First, _Pride_. Secondly,
_Covetousness_. Thirdly, _Envy_. Fourthly, _Anger_. And in these four
properties the Foundation of Hell consisteth, which thou earnest in thee
and about thee. It is imprinted and engraven in thee, and thou art
wholly taken captive thereby. For these properties live in thy Natural
Life; and thereby thou art severed from God, neither canst thou ever
come to him, unless thou so forsake these evil Creatures that they may
die in thee.

But since thou desirest me to tell thee how to forsake thy own, perverse
creaturely Will, that the Creatures might die, and that yet thou
mightest live with them in the World, I must assure thee that there is
but one way to do it, which is _narrow_ and _straight_, and will be very
hard and irksome to thee in the beginning, but afterwards thou wilt walk
in it cheerfully.

Thou must seriously consider that in the course of this worldly life
thou walkest in the Anger of God and in the Foundation of Hell; and that
this is not thy true native country; but that a Christian should and
must live in Christ, and in his walking truly follow him; and that he
cannot be a Christian unless the Spirit and Power of Christ so live in
him that he becometh wholly subject to it. Now seeing the Kingdom of
Christ is not of the world, but in Heaven, therefore thou must be always
in a continual ascension towards Heaven, if thou wilt follow Christ;
though thy body must dwell among the Creatures and use them.

The narrow way to which perpetual ascension into Heaven and imitation of
Christ is this. Thou must despair of all thy own power and strength, for
in and by thy own thou canst not reach the Gates of God, and firmly
purpose and resolve wholly to give thyself up to the Mercy of God, and
to sink down with thy whole mind and reason into the Passion and Death
of our Lord Jesus Christ, always desiring to persevere in the same and
to die from all thy Creatures therein. Also thou must resolve to watch
and guard thy mind, thoughts, and inclinations that they admit no evil
into them, neither must thou suffer thyself to be held fast by temporal
honour or profit. Thou must resolve likewise to put away from thee all
Unrighteousness and whatsoever else may hinder the freedom of thy motion
and progress.