the tyrant delights when he can torment men,
and spend their sweat in show and luxury, in foolish
strange attire and behaviour, and ape the fool; so
do also the devils in hell. And the luxury of this
world in its strange garb is a true type of the
hellish world.
37. All the curious tassels and tufts which the
proud man devises, and clothes his foolish man
therewith, whereby he would be distinguished
from the true children of God, are types of the
hellish world. All his bedizenment, glittering show
and ostentation, by which he withdraws himself
from humility, is a hellish mirror; for the devil's
pride will be like to none, it keeps itself distinct
in this world. And the blind man understands
not this, how the devil fools and deceives him, and
thus only to mock God prefigures his own proud
mask; so that the poor man does as he does, and
thinks he is thereby fine, and better than other
men, whereas we all arise and proceed from one
body and spirit. But before God and his angels he
is recognized only as a devil's mask, and is in the
sight of heaven an abomination. As a fool in com-
parison with wisdom is but an abomination, so is
also hypocritical pride an abomination before God
and his angels, in presence of the noble image. The
world still cleaves to this abomination, and there-
with marks out the corrupt image of earthliness.
38. He who sees a proud man sees the heavy fall
of Adam, and a type of the hellish world; a half
devil and half man, to whom the devil has con-
tinual access. For he is the deviPs servant in this