How we cite our quotes: (Section.Paragraph)
Quote #1
As a new heaven is begun, and it is now thirty-three years since its advent, the Eternal Hell revives. And lo! Swedenborg is the angel sitting at the tomb: his writings are the linen clothes folded up. Now is the dominion of Edom, and the return of Adam into Paradise.—See Isaiah xxxiv. and xxxv. chap. (1.23)
Here the speaker frames his argument as the birth of a "new heaven," as well as the revival of an "Eternal Hell." Come again? How can it be both? In essence, Blake is trying to flip the conventions of Christianity on their head. He's not trying to do away with them altogether, though. He's just trying to get us to look at them in a new light. (See "Theme: Good vs. Evil" for more.)
Quote #2
All Bibles or sacred codes have been the cause of the following errors:—
1. That man has two real existing principles, viz., a Body and a Soul.
2. That Energy, called Evil, is alone from the Body; and that Reason, called Good, is alone from the Soul.
3. That God will torment man in Eternity for following his Energies.
But the following contraries to these are true:—
1. Man has no Body distinct from his Soul. For that called Body is a portion of Soul discerned by the five senses, the chief inlets of Soul in this age.
2. Energy is the only life, and is from the Body; and Reason is the bound or outward circumference of Energy.
3. Energy is Eternal Delight. (2.1-2.8)
Religion—all religion according to the speaker—gets three things wrong. The body and soul are not separate. The body is not the source of all evil. And God will not be punishing us for following our impulses. Here Blake directly flips the script. Energy and impulse are actually good things in his view, and religion should not be telling us otherwise.
Quote #3
Prisons are built with stones of law, brothels with bricks of religion. (9-10)
Man, Blake, tell us how you really feel. Here he blames the existence of brothels directly on religion—and in the same breath as he discusses prisons. That's not an accident. This proverb is calling religion out for its confining hypocrisy. Maybe if people weren't so shamed into suppressing their natural urges, goes his argument, then we wouldn't need prostitution in the first place.