is the man of falsehood and deceit, and hath in him"
his mother the four elements, viz. pride, covetous-
ness, envy and anger.
6. Thus the four elements of the devil rule under
a hypocritical coat, and men strive eagerly for this
coat. Every one will put it on; but he who puts it on,
puts on hell and God's wrath. This coat is honoured
in God's stead, and is the coat which the wrath
of God did put on Adam and Eve, when the devil
deceived them, so that they fell from obedience to
God. And it is the very same coat of which God
from the beginning of the world has warned us,
that we should not put it on; for the devil has
his lodging in it. When we put it on, we take up
our abode with the devil, and must do what he
pleases; for he is host in that house, and rests in
that coat.
7. Because he is a prisoner of God, he puts his
coat on us, and sends us therewith to Babel into
his service, where we cannot but mock God; for
we have on God's coat, and the devil lodged under
it as guest. Thus the tongue gives God good words,
and the heart has the spirit of the four elements
of wrath; and God is therefore mocked by the
devil, that God shall see that he, the devil, is lord
and king over men, and esteems God's dominion
in man only as a shining coat, in which he, the devil,
is man, and has man captive in his arms. He covers
him indeed with the coat, and allows man to call
himself God's child; but in this coat man does only
his will for him, so that all that the devil cannot or
not do in the external kingdom, that man does