Part 3

Those men therefore that strive and wrangle about the knowledge and will of God, and despise one another on that account, are more foolish than the birds in the woods, and the wild beasts that have no true understanding. They are more unprofitable in the sight of the holy God than the flowers of the field, which stand still in quiet submission to the Spirit of God, and suffer him to manifest the Divine Wisdom and Power through them.

16

All Christian Religion consisteth wholly on this, to learn _to know ourselves_; whence we came, and what we are; how we are gone forth from the Unity into dissension, wickedness, and unrighteousness; how we have awakened and stirred up these evils in us; and how we may be delivered from them again, and recover our original blessedness.

17

_First_; How we were in the Unity, when we were the Children of God in Adam before he fell. _Secondly_; How we are now in dissension and disunion, in strife and contrariety. _Thirdly_; Whither we go when we pass out of this corruptible condition; whither with the unnatural, and whither with the natural part. And _lastly_; How we came forth from disunion and vanity, and enter into that one Tree, Christ in us, out of which we all sprung in Adam. In these four points all the necessary knowledge of a Christian consisteth.

18

So that we need not strive about any thing; we have no cause of contention with each other. Let every one only exercise himself in learning how he may enter again into the Love of God and his Brother.

19

The written Word is but an instrument whereby the Spirit leadeth us to itself within us. That Word which will teach must be living in the literal Word. The Spirit of God must be in the literal sound, or else none is a Teacher of God, but a mere Teacher of the Letter, a knower of the history, and not of the Spirit of God in Christ.

20

All that men will serve God with must be done in Faith, viz. in the Spirit. It is the Spirit that maketh the work perfect, and acceptable in the sight of God. All that a man undertaketh and doeth in Faith, he doth in the Spirit of God, which Spirit of God doth co-operate in the work, and then it is acceptable to God. For he hath done it himself, and his Power and Virtue is in it. It is holy.

21

Strife and misunderstanding concerning Christ's Person, Office, and Being, or Substance, as also concerning his Testaments which he left behind him, wherein he worketh at present, ariseth from the deflected creaturely Reason, which runneth on only in an Image-like opinion, and reacheth not the ground of this mystery, and yet will be a mistress of all things or beings, and will judge all things. It doth but lose itself in such Image-likeness, and breaketh itself off from its Centre, and disperseth the thoughts, and runneth on in the multiplicity, whereby its ground is confused and the mind is disquieted, and knoweth not itself.

22

No Life can stand in certainty, except it continue in its Centre, out of which it is sprung.

23

When the Soul that is sprung from God's Word and Will is entered into its own desire to will of itself, it will run in mere uncertainty till it return to its Original again.

24

Seeing that human life is an outflowing of the Divine Power, Understanding and Skill, the same ought to continue in its Original, or else it loseth the Divine Knowledge, Power and Skill, and with self-speculation bringeth itself into centres of its own, and strange imaging, wherewith its Original becometh darkened and strange.

Therefore say I, that this is the only cause that men dispute about God, his Word, Essence or Being, and Will, that the understanding of man hath broken itself off from its Original, and now runneth on in mere self-will, thoughts and images in its own lust to selfishness, wherein there is no true knowledge, nor can be, till the Life returneth to its Original, viz. into the Divine Outflowing and Will.

25

If this be done, then God's Will speaketh forth the Divine Power and Wonders again through the human willing. In which Divine Speaking, the Life may know and comprehend God's Will, and frame itself therein. Then there is true Divine Knowledge and Understanding in man's skill, when his skill is continually renewed with Divine Power.

26

As Christ hath taught us when he said, _Unless ye be converted and become as a Child, ye shall not come into the Kingdom of God_. That is, that the Life turn itself again unto God out of whom it is proceeded, and forsake all its own imaging and lust, and so come to the Divine Vision again.

27

All disputation concerning God's Being or Essence or Will is performed in the images of the senses or thoughts without God. For if any liveth in God, and willeth with God, what needeth he dispute about God, who, or what God is? That he disputeth about it is a sign that he hath never felt it at all in his mind or senses, and it is not given to him that God is in him, and willeth in him what he will. It is a certain sign that he exalts his own meaning and image above others, and desireth dominion.

28

Men should friendly confer together, and offer one another their gifts and knowledge in love, and try things one with another, and hold that which is best, and not so stand in their own opinion as if they could not err. It lyeth in no man's person that men should suppose that the Divine Understanding must come only from such and such. For the Scripture says, _Try all things and hold that which is good_, 1 Thess. v. 21.

29

The touchstone to true knowledge is first, the Corner-stone, Christ; that men should see whether a thing enter out of love into love, or whether alone purely the love of God be sought and desired; whether it be done out of humility or pride; Secondly, whether it be according to the Holy Scripture; Thirdly, is it according to the human heart and soul, wherein the Book of the Life of God is incorporated, and may very well be read by the Children of God? Here the true mind hath its touchstone in itself, and can distinguish all things. If it be so that the Holy Ghost dwell in the ground of the mind, that man hath touchstone enough; that will lead him into all truth.

30

All strife concerning Christ's testaments cometh hence that men do not understand that Heaven wherein Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. They understand not that he is in this World, and that the World standeth in Heaven, and Heaven in the World, and are in one another, as Day and Night.

1 COR. ii. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15.

_We speak the hidden mystical wisdom of God; which God ordained before the world into our glory; which none of the Princes of this World knew. For had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. But, as it is written, Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea the deep things of God. Now we have received, not the Spirit of the World, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which men's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the Natural Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth, or discerneth all things._

OF THE SUPERSENSUAL LIFE

IN DIALOGUES

BETWEEN A SCHOLAR OR DISCIPLE AND HIS MASTER

DIALOGUE I

The Disciple said to his Master: Sir, how may I come to the Supersensual Life, so that I may see God, and may hear God speak?

The Master answered and said: Son, when thou canst throw thyself into THAT, where no Creature dwelleth, though it be but for a moment, then thou hearest what God speaketh?

DISCIPLE

Is that where no Creature dwelleth near at hand, or is it afar off?

MASTER

It is _in thee_. And if thou canst, my Son, for a while but cease from all thy thinking and willing, then thou shalt hear the unspeakable words of God.

DISCIPLE

How can I hear him speak, when I stand still from thinking and willing?

MASTER

When thou standest still from the thinking of Self, and the willing of Self. When both thy intellect and will are quiet, and passive to the expressions of the Eternal Word and Spirit; and when thy soul is winged up and above that which is temporal, the outward senses and the imagination being locked up by holy abstraction, then the Eternal Hearing, Seeing and Speaking will be revealed in thee, and so God heareth and seeth through thee, being now the organ of _his_ Spirit, and so God speaketh in _thee_, and whispereth to thy Spirit, and thy Spirit heareth his voice. Blessed art thou therefore if thou canst stand still from self-thinking and self-willing, and canst stop the wheel of thy imagination and senses; forasmuch as hereby thou mayest arrive at length to see the great Salvation of God, being made capable of all manner of divine sensations and heavenly communications. Since it is nought indeed but thine own hearing and willing that do hinder thee, so that thou dost not see and hear God.

DISCIPLE

But wherewith shall I hear and see God, forasmuch as he is above Nature and Creature?

MASTER

Son, when thou art quiet and silent, then art thou as God was before Nature and Creature; thou art that which God then was; thou art that whereof he made thy nature and creature. Then thou hearest and seest even that wherewith God himself saw and heard in thee, before ever thine own willing or thine own seeing began.

DISCIPLE

What now hinders or keeps me back, so that I cannot come to _that_, wherewith God is to be seen and heard?

MASTER

Nothing truly but thine own willing, hearing, and seeing do keep thee back from it, and do hinder thee from coming to this supersensual state. And it is because thou strivest so against that, out of which thou thyself art descended and derived, that thou thus breakest thyself off, with thine own willing, from God's willing, and with thine own seeing from God's seeing. In as much as in thine own seeing thou dost see in thine own willing only, and with thine own understanding thou dost understand but in and according to thine own willing, as the same stands divided from the Divine Will. This thy willing, moreover, stops thy hearing, and maketh thee deaf towards God, through thy own thinking upon terrestrial things, and thy attending to that which is without thee, and so it brings thee to a ground where thou art laid hold on and captivated in Nature. And having brought thee hither, it overshadows thee with that which thou willest, it binds thee with thine own chains, and it keeps thee in thine own dark prison which thou makest for thyself, so that thou canst not go out thence, or come to that state which is Supernatural and Supersensual.

DISCIPLE

But being I am in Nature, and thus bound as with my own chains, and by my own natural will, pray be so kind, Sir, as to tell me, how I may come _through_ Nature into the Supersensual and Supernatural Ground, without the destroying of Nature?

MASTER

Three things are requisite in order to this. The first is, Thou must resign up thy Will to God, and must sink thyself down to the dust in his mercy. The second is, Thou must hate thy own Will, and forbear from doing that to which thy own Will doth drive thee. The third is, Thou must bow thy soul under the Cross, heartily submitting thyself to it, that thou mayst be able to bear the temptations of Nature and Creature. And if thou dost this, know that God will speak unto thee, and will bring thy resigned Will into Himself, in the supernatural ground, and then thou shalt hear, my son, what the Lord speaketh in thee.

DISCIPLE

This is a hard saying, Master, for I must forsake the World and my life too, if I should do thus.

MASTER

Be not discouraged hereat. If thou forsakest the World, then thou comest unto that out of which the World is made, and if thou losest thy life, then thy life is in that for whose sake thou forsakest it. Thy life is in God, from whence it came into the body, and as thou comest to have thine own power faint and weak and dying, the power of God will then work in thee and through thee.

DISCIPLE

Nevertheless, as God hath created man in and for the natural life, to rule over all creatures on earth, and to be a lord over all things in this world, it seems not to be at all unreasonable that God should therefore possess this world and the things therein for his own.

MASTER

If thou rulest over all creatures but outwardly there cannot be much in that. But if thou hast a mind to possess all things, and to be a lord indeed over all things in this world, there is quite another method to be taken by thee.

DISCIPLE

Pray, how is that? And what method must I take, whereby to arrive at this sovereignty?

MASTER

Thou must learn to distinguish between the Thing, and that which is only an image thereof; between that sovereignty which is substantial and in the inward ground of Nature, and that which is imaginary and in outward form of semblance; between that which is properly angelical and that which is no more than bestial. If thou rulest over the creatures externally only and not from the right internal ground of thy inward nature, then thy will and ruling is in a bestial kind or matter, and thine at best is but a sort of imaginary and transitory government, being void of that which is substantial and permanent, that which only thou art to desire and press after. Thus by thy outward lording it over the creatures it is most easy for thee to lose the substance and the reality, whilst thou hast naught remaining but the image and shadow only of thy first and original lordship wherein thou art made capable to be again invested, if thou art but wise, and takest thy investiture from the Supreme Lord in the right course and matter. Whereas by thy willing and ruling them in a bestial manner, thou bringest also thy desire into a bestial essence, by which means thou becomest infected and captivated therein, and gettest therewith a bestial nature and condition of life. But if thou shalt have put off the bestial nature, and left the imaginary life, and quitted the low-imaged condition of it, then art thou come into the super-imaginariness and into the intellectual life, which is a state of living above images, figures and shadows. And so thou rulest over all creatures, being re-united with thy Original, in that very ground or source, out of which they were and are created, and thenceforth nothing on earth can hurt thee. For thou art like All Things, and nothing is unlike thee.

DISCIPLE

O loving Master, pray teach me how I may come the shortest way to be like unto _All Things_.

MASTER

With all my heart. Do but think on the words of our Lord Jesus Christ when he said: "Except ye be converted and become as little children ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." There is no shorter way than this, nor can a better way be found. Verily, Jesus saith unto thee, Unless thou turn and become as a child, hanging upon him for all things, thou shalt not see the Kingdom of God. This do and nothing shall hurt thee; for thou shalt be at friendship with all the things that are, as thou dependest upon the author and fountain of them, and becomest like him, by such dependence, and by the Union of thy Will with his Will. But mark what I have further to say, and be not thou startled at it, though it may seem hard for thee at first to conceive. If thou wilt be like All Things thou must forsake all things; thou must not extend thy will to possess that for thine own, or as thine own, which is _Something_, whatever that Something be. For as soon as ever thou takest _Something_ into thy desire, and receivest it into thee for thine own, or in propriety, then this very Something (of what nature soever it is) is the _same_ with thyself; and this worketh with thee in thy will, and thou art thence bound to protect it, and take care of it, even as of thy own being. But if thou dost receive _no thing_ into thy desire then thou art free from all things, and rulest over all things at once, as a Prince of God. For thou hast received nothing for thine own, and art nothing to all things, and all things are as nothing unto thee. Thou art as a child, which understands not what a thing is; and though thou dost perhaps understand it, yet thou understandest it without mixing with it, and without it sensibly affecting or touching thy perception, even in that matter wherein God doth rule and see all things, he comprehending All, and yet nothing comprehending him.

DISCIPLE

Ah! how shall I arrive at this heavenly understanding, at this pure and naked knowledge, which is abstracted from the senses, at this light above Nature and Creature, and at this participation of the Divine Wisdom which oversees all things, and governs through all intellectual beings? For, alas, I am touched every moment by the things which are about me, and overshadowed by the clouds and perfumes which rise up out of the earth. I desire, therefore, to be taught, if possible, how I may attain such a state and condition as that no creature may be able to touch me to hurt me; and how my mind, being purged from sensible objects and things, may be prepared for the entrance and habitation of the Divine Wisdom in me.

MASTER

Thou desirest that I would teach thee how thou art to attain it; and I will direct thee to our Master, from whom I have been taught it, that thou mayest learn it thyself from him, who alone teacheth the heart. Hear thou him. Wouldst thou arrive at this; wouldst thou remain untouched by sensibles; wouldst thou behold light in the very Light of God, and see all things thereby; then consider the words of Christ, who is the Light and who is the Truth. O consider now his words, who said, _Without me ye can do nothing_ (John xix. 5) and defer not to apply thyself unto him, who is the strength of thy salvation, and the _power_ of thy life; and _with whom thou canst do all things_, by the faith which he waketh in thee. But unless thou wholly givest thyself up to the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, and resignest thy Will wholly to him, and desirest nothing and willest nothing without him, thou shalt never come to such a rest as no creature can disturb. Think what thou pleasest, and be never so much delighted in the activity of thine own reason, thou shalt find that, in thine own power and without such a total surrender to God and to the life of God, thou canst never arrive at such a rest as this, or the true Quiet of the Soul, wherein no creature can molest thee, or even so much as touch thee. Which when thou shalt, with Grace, have attained to, then with thy Body thou art in the World, as in the properties of outward Nature; and, with thy Reason, under the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; but with thy _Will_ thou walkest in heaven, and art at the end from whence all creatures are proceeded forth, and _to_ which they return again. And then thou canst in this End, which is the same with the _Beginning_, behold all things outwardly with _reason_ and liberally with the _mind_; and so mayest thou rule in all things and over all things, with Christ; unto whom all power is given both in heaven and on earth.

DISCIPLE

O, Master, the creatures which live in me do withhold me, so that I cannot so wholly yield and give up myself as I willingly would. What am I to do in this case?

MASTER

Let not this trouble thee. Doth thy Will go forth from the creatures? Then the creatures are forsaken in thee. They are in the world, and thy body, which is in the world, is with the creatures. But spiritually thou walkest with God, and conversest in heaven; being in thy mind redeemed from earth, and separated from creatures, to live the life of God. And if thy Will thus leaveth the creatures, and goeth forth from them, even as the spirit goeth forth from the body at death; then are the creatures dead in it, and do live only in the body in the world. Since if thy Will do not bring itself into them, they cannot bring themselves into it, neither can they by any means touch the soul. And hence St Paul saith, _Our conversation is in heaven; and also, Ye are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you_. So, then, true Christians are the very temples of the Holy Ghost, who dwelleth in them; that is, the Holy Ghost dwelleth in the Will, and the Creature dwelleth in the Body.

DISCIPLE

If now the Holy Spirit doth dwell in the Will of the Mind, how ought I to keep myself so that he depart not from me again.

MASTER

Mark, my son, the words of our Lord Jesus Christ: _If ye abide in my words_, then my words abide in you. If thou abidest with thy Will in the Words of Christ; then his Word and Spirit abideth in thee, and all shall be done for thee that thou canst ask of him. But if thy Will goeth into the creature, then thou hast broken off thyself thereby from him. And then thou canst not any otherwise keep thyself but by abiding continually with that resigned humility, and by entering into a constant course of penitence, wherein thou wilt always be grieved at thine own creaturely Will, and that creatures do still live in thee, that is, in thy bodily appetite. If thou dost thus, thou standest in a daily dying from the creatures, and in a daily ascending into heaven in thy will, which will is also the Will of thy Heavenly Father.

DISCIPLE

O my loving Master, pray teach me how I may come to such a constant course of holy penitence, and to such a daily dying from all creaturely objects, for how can I abide continually in repentance?

MASTER

When thou leavest that which loveth thee, and lovest that which hateth thee; then thou mayest continually abide in repentance.

DISCIPLE

What is it that I must thus leave?

MASTER

All things that love and entertain thee, because thy Will loves and entertains them. All things that please and feed thee, because thy Will feeds and cherishes them. All creatures in flesh and blood; in a word, all visibles and sensibles, by which either the imaginative or sensitive appetite in men are delighted and refreshed. These the Will of thy mind, or thy supreme part, must leave and forsake, and must even account them all its enemies. This is the leaving of what loves thee. And the loving of what hates thee is the embracing the reproach of the World. Thou must learn then to love the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, and for his sake to be pleased with the reproach of the World which hates thee and derides thee; and let this be thy daily exercise of penitence to be crucified to the World, and the World to thee. And so thou shalt have continual cause to hate thyself _in the Creature_, and to seek the eternal rest which is _in Christ_. To which rest thou having thus attained, thy Will may therein safely rest and repose itself, according as thy Lord Christ hath said: In me ye may have rest, but in the World ye shall have anxiety: In me ye may have peace, but in the World ye shall have tribulation.

DISCIPLE

How now shall I be able to subsist in this anxiety and tribulation arising from the World so as not to lose the eternal peace, or not to enter into this rest? And how may I recover myself in such a temptation as this is, by not sinking under the World, but rising above it by a life which is truly heavenly and supersensual?

MASTER