Satan, serpent, and false alchemist

Meaning

Satan is the old serpent who wounds the phoenix's young, the evil enemy behind false saving means, and the lying alchemist who attacks the regenerated. Part IV: the spiritual comparison · unit 42 develops the last image through three temptations: distrust under suffering, presumptuous trust beyond the promise, and apostasy for riches. Flesh and the deceitful world are called his accomplices. The English keeps the distinction between deficient trust and excessive presumption; both can be temptations. These are the anonymous treatise's theological personifications of deception and trial, not identities to assign to a historical practitioner. God's permission and the believer's growth through testing also remain explicit.