The answer of the Lord

An Answer to what is written in the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Pages: Satan’s Friend having said, they were cast out of Heaven for being of a cheerful spirit. Answered by the LORD in the following manner:

“Thou lying fool, before thy God appear,
And boldly answer, if I cast thee there
To have a spirit ever like my Son?
For here is the likeness thou dost now condemn.
Proud Lucifer the name of Satan before his fall from heaven, I tell thee it was not so;
And of thy lies I will make thee feel and know:
For no such reason did I cast thee there,
But for thy pride and envy thou showedst here; He had the same pride and mischief in heaven, which is proved by his conduct on earth.

When I familiar with thee did begin,
Then too much freedom instantly was seen;
Above thy MAKER thou didst then appear,
And swelled with pride, thou couldst not conquer there.
The heavenly host, thou soon didst draw away,
And all my angels thou thoughtest to betray:
And so thou thoughtest to sit supreme, a king
Above thy God, and didst condemn my Son,
As one inferior to thy haughty pride:
And to the woman thou hast all belied.
Like Jezebel a biblical queen known for her deceit and inciting others to evil, did all thy ways appear, Forged lies when in heaven, to delude the angels to forsake their God.

Who stole the Seal, the angels to ensnare;
And then my Son thou thoughtest to steal on high,
And make the rebel angels him defy.
Like Naboth's vineyard a plot of land stolen by Jezebel through a deadly conspiracy was thy every claim,
And sons of Belial a biblical term for wicked or worthless people with thee thou didst gain,
To steal my vineyard, and claim all thy own;
And that is the way I did them all unthrone;
And that is the way from heaven thou wast cast,
Because, like Jezebel, thy rage did burst,
That thou couldst not unthrone my only Son,
That, like myself, in Spirit both was one.
But, further on, I will show thee now the way,
How all thy hellish arts in heaven did lie;
And then I will tell thee why I raised thee up,
And now I will tell thee why I will make thee drop.
As nothing but lies in thee did first appear,
And nothing but lies, I say, thou hast spoken here:
And from thy mouth I now condemn thee there.