[3] John iii. 6.
[4] 1 John iv. 13; John xiii. 34 and xvi. 13; 1 John iv. 4.
[5] They found their authority for this outer sheath of body in the text which says: "The Lord God made for Adam and for his wife coats of skins, and clothed them."—Gen. iii. 21.
[6] Many of these historical reappearances are considered in my Studies in Mystical Religion.
[7] Isaac Penington, "A True and Faithful Relation of my Spiritual Travails," Works (edition of 1761), i. pp. xxxvii.-xxxviii.
[8] Isaac Penington's Works, i. pp. xxxvii.-xxxviii.
[9] The exact and sharply-defined "ladders" of mystic ascent which form a large part of the descriptive material in books on Mystical Religion are far from being universal ladders. Like creeds, or like religious institutions, they powerfully assist certain minds to find the way home, but they seem unreal and artificial to many other persons, and they must be considered only as symbolisms which speak to the condition of a limited number of spiritual pilgrims.
[10] Wordsworth's "Prelude," Bk. ii.
[11] Theologia Germanica, chaps. xxii. and xliii.
[12] Ibid. chap. liii.