Dialogues on the Supersensual Life Part 5

Be it unto me as unto the Lord Christ, and unto my body as unto his, which into his hands I have commended, and for the sake of his name do offer up, according to his revealed Will. Nevertheless I am desirous to know what would become of my body in its pressing forth from the anguish of this miserable World into the power of the Heavenly Kingdom.

MASTER

It would get forth from the reproach and contradiction of the World by a conformity to the pa.s.sion of Jesus Christ; and from the sorrows and pains in the flesh, which are only the effects of some sensible impression of things without, by a quiet introversion of the spirit and secret communion with the Deity manifesting itself for that end. It would penetrate into itself; it would sink into the great love of G.o.d; it would be sustained and refreshed by the most sweet name _Jesus_, and it would see and find within itself a new world springing forth, as through the anger of G.o.d, into the joy and love eternal. And then should a man wrap his soul in this, even in the great Love of G.o.d, and clothe himself therewith as with a garment; and should account thence all things alike; because in the Creature he finds nothing that can give him, without G.o.d, the least satisfaction, and because also nothing of harm can touch him more while he remains in this Love. For this Love is indeed stronger than all things, and makes a man invulnerable both from within and without, by taking out the sting and poison of the Creature, and destroying the power of death. And whether the body be in h.e.l.l or on earth, all is alike to him; for whether it be there or here, his mind is still in the greatest Love of G.o.d; which is no less than to say that he is in heaven.

DISCIPLE

But how would a man's body be maintained in the World; or how would he be able to maintain those who are his, if he should by such a conversation incur the displeasure of all the World?

MASTER

Such a man gets greater favours than the world is able to bestow upon him: he hath G.o.d for his friend; he hath all the Angels for his friends.

In all dangers and necessities these protect and relieve him; so that he need fear no manner of evil; no creature can hurt him. G.o.d is his helper, and that is sufficient. Also G.o.d is his blessing in everything.

And though sometimes it may seem as if G.o.d would not bless him, yet is this but for a trial to him, and for the attraction of the Divine Love, to the end he may more fervently pray to G.o.d, and commit all his ways unto him.

DISCIPLE

He loses, however, by this all his good friends, and there will be none to help him in his necessity.

MASTER

Nay, but he gets the hearts of all his good friends into his possession, and loses none but his enemies, who before loved his vanity and wickedness.

DISCIPLE

How is it that he can get his good friends into his possession?

MASTER

He gets the very hearts and souls of all those that belong to our Lord Jesus to be his brethren, and the members of his own very life. For all the children of G.o.d are but ONE in Christ, which one is Christ _in All_.

And therefore he gets them all to be his fellow-members in the Body of Christ, whence they have all the same heavenly goods in common and all live in one and the same Love of G.o.d, as the branches of a tree in one and the same root, and spring all from one and the same source of life in them. So that he can have no want of spiritual friends and relations, who are all rooted with him together in the Love which is from above, who are all of the same blood and kindred in Christ Jesus; and who are cherished all by the same quickening sap and spirit diffusing itself through them universally from the one true Vine, which is the tree of life and love. These are friends worth having; and though here they may be unknown to him, will abide his friends beyond doubt to all eternity.

But neither can he want even outward natural friends, as our Lord Christ, when on earth, did not want such also. For though, indeed, the High-Priests and Potentates of the World could not have a love to him, because they belonged not to him, neither stood in any kind of relation to him, as being not of this world, yet those loved him who were capable of his love, and receptive of his words. So, in like manner, those who love truth and righteousness will love that man, and will a.s.sociate themselves unto him, yea, though they may perhaps be outwardly at some distance or seeming disagreement, from the situation of their worldly affairs, or from other reasons, yet in their hearts they cannot but cleave to him. For though they be not actually incorporated into one body with him, yet they cannot resist being of one mind with him, and being united in affliction, for the great regard they bear to the truth, which s.h.i.+nes forth in his words and in his life. By this they are made either his declared or his secret friends; and he doth so get their hearts that they will be delighted above all things in his company, for the sake thereof, and will court his friends.h.i.+p and will come unto him by stealth, if openly they dare not, for the benefit of his conversation and advice; even as Nicodemus did to Christ, who came to him by night, and in his heart loved Jesus for the truth's sake, though outwardly he feared the World. And thus thou shalt have many friends that are not known to thee; and some known to thee, who may not appear so before the World.

DISCIPLE

Nevertheless it is very grievous to be generally despised of the World, and to be trampled upon by men as the very offscouring thereof.

MASTER

That which now seems so hard and heavy to thee, thou wilt yet hereafter be most in love with.

DISCIPLE

How can it ever be that I should love that which hates me?

MASTER

Though thou lovest the Earthly Wisdom now, yet when thou shalt be clothed upon with the Heavenly Wisdom, then wilt thou see that all the wisdom of the World is folly; and wilt see also that the World hates not so much thee, as thine enemy, which is this mortal life. And when thou thyself shalt come to hate the will thereof, by means of a habitual separation of thy mind from the World, then thou also wilt begin to love that despising of the mortal life, and the reproach of the World for Christ's sake. And so shalt thou be able to stand under every temptation, and to hold out to the end by the means hereof in a course of life above the World and above sense.

In this course thou wilt hate thyself, and thou wilt also love thyself, I say, love thyself, and that even more than thou ever didst yet.

DISCIPLE

But how can these two subsist together, that a person should both _love_ and _hate_ himself?

MASTER

_In loving thyself_, thou lovest not thyself _as thine own_, but thou lovest the divine ground in thee, as given thee from the Love of G.o.d. By which, and in which, thou lovest the Divine Wisdom, the Divine Goodness, the Divine Beauty; thou lovest also by it G.o.d's works of wonders; and in this ground thou lovest also thy brethren. But _in hating thyself_, thou hatest only that which is _thine own_, and wherein the Evil sticks close to thee. And this thou dost, that so thou mayest wholly destroy that which thou callest _thine_, as when thou sayest I or MYSELF do this, or do that. All which is wrong and a downright mistake in thee; for nothing canst thou properly call _thine_ but the evil Self, neither canst thou do anything of thyself that is to be accounted of. This _Self_ therefore thou must labour wholly to destroy in thee, that so thou mayest become a ground wholly divine. There can be no _selfishness_ in love; they are opposite to each other. Love, that is, Divine Love (of which only we are now discoursing), hates all Egoity, hates all that which we call I, or IHOOD, hates all such restrictions and confinements, even all that springs from a contracted spirit, or this evil _Self-hood_, because it is an hateful and deadly thing. And it is impossible that these two should stand together, or subsist in one person; the one driving out the other by a necessity of nature. For _Love_ possesses Heaven, and dwells in itself, which is dwelling in Heaven; but that which is called I, this vile self-hood, possesses the world and worldly things; and dwells also in itself, which is dwelling _in h.e.l.l_, because this is the very root of h.e.l.l itself. And, therefore, as Heaven rules the World, and as Eternity rules Time, even so ought Love to rule the natural temporal Life; for no other method is there, neither can there be of attaining to that Life which is supernatural and eternal, and which thou so much desirest to be led into.

DISCIPLE

Loving Master, I am well content that this Love should rule in me over the natural Life, that so I may attain to that which is supernatural and supersensual; but, pray tell me now, why must Love and Hatred, friend and foe, thus be together? Would not Love alone be better? Wherefore, I say, are Love and Trouble thus joined?

MASTER

If Love dwelt not in Trouble, it could have nothing to love. But its substance which it loves, namely the poor soul, being in trouble and pain, it hath thence cause to love this its own substance and to deliver it from pain, that so itself may by it be again beloved. Neither could any one know what Love is, if there were no Hatred; or what friends.h.i.+p is, if there were no foe to contend with. Or, in one word, if Love had not something which it might love, and manifest the virtue and power of love in working out deliverance to the Beloved from all pain and trouble.

DISCIPLE

Pray what is the virtue, the power, the height, and the greatness of Love?

MASTER

The virtue of Love is NOTHING and ALL, or that _Nothing visible_ out of which All Things proceed. Its power is through All Things; its height is as high as G.o.d; its greatness is as great as G.o.d. Its virtue is the principle of all principles; its power supports the Heavens and upholds the Earth; its height is higher than the highest Heavens, and its greatness is even greater than the very Manifestation of the G.o.dhead in the glorious light of the Divine Essence, as being infinitely capable of greater and greater manifestations in all Eternity. What can I say more? Love is higher than the Highest. Love is greater than the Greatest. Yea, it _is in a certain sense_ greater than G.o.d; while yet, in the highest sense of all, G.o.d is Love, and Love is G.o.d. Love being the highest principle is the virtue of all virtues; from whence they flow forth. Love, being the greatest Majesty, is the Power of all Powers, from whence they severally operate. And it is the Holy Magical Root, a Ghostly Power from whence all the wonders of G.o.d have been wrought by the hands of his elect servants, in all their generations successively, Whosoever finds it, finds _Nothing and All Things_.

DISCIPLE

Dear Master, pray tell me how I may understand this?

MASTER

First, then, in that I said, its _virtue is Nothing, or that Nothing_ which is the beginning of All Things, thou must understand it thus; When thou art gone forth wholly from the Creature, and from that which is visible; and art become Nothing to all that is Nature and Creature, then thou art in that Eternal One, which is G.o.d himself; and then thou shalt perceive and feel within thee the highest virtue of Love. But in that I said, Its power is through All Things, this is that which thou perceivest and findest in thy own soul and body experimentally, whenever this great Love is enkindled within thee; seeing that it will burn more than the fire can do, as it did in the Prophets of old, and afterwards in the Apostles, when G.o.d conversed with them bodily, and when his Spirit descended upon them in the Oratory of Zion. Thou shalt then see also in all the works of G.o.d, how Love hath poured forth itself into all things, and penetrated all things, and is the most inward and most outward ground in all things. Inwardly in the virtue and power of every thing, and outwardly in the figure and form thereof.

And in that I said, _Its height is as high as G.o.d_; thou mayest understand this in thyself: forasmuch as it brings thee to be as high as G.o.d himself is, by being united to G.o.d; as may be seen by our beloved Lord Jesus Christ in our humanity. Which humanity Love hath brought up into the highest throne, above all angelical princ.i.p.alities and powers, into the very Power of the Deity itself.

But in that I also said, _Its greatness is as great as G.o.d_, thou art hereby to understand that there is a certain greatness and lat.i.tude of heart in Love, which is unexpressible, for it enlarges the soul as wide as the whole Creation of G.o.d. And this shall be truly experienced by thee, beyond all words, when the throne of Love shall be set up in thy heart.

Moreover in that I said, _Its virtue is the principle of all principles_; hereby it is given thee to understand that Love is the princ.i.p.al cause of all created beings, both spiritual and corporeal, by virtue whereof the second causes do move and act occasionally, according to certain Eternal Laws, from the beginning implanted in the very const.i.tution of things thus originated. This virtue which is in Love is the very life and energy of all the principles of Nature, superior and inferior. It reaches to all Worlds, and to all manner of beings in them contained, they being the workmans.h.i.+p of Divine Love, and is the _first mover_ and _first moveable_, both in heaven above, and in the earth beneath, and in the water under the earth. And hence there is given to it the name of the _Lucid Aleph_ or _Alpha_; by which is expressed the beginning of the _Alphabet of Nature_, and of the Book of Creation and Providence or the _Divine Archetypal Book_, in which is the Light of Wisdom and the source of all lights and forms.

And in that I said, _Its power supports the Heavens_; by this thou wilt come to understand that as the Heavens, visible and invisible, are originated from this great principle, so are they likewise necessarily sustained by it; and that therefore if this should be but never so little withdrawn, all the lights, glories, beauties and forms of the heavenly worlds would presently sink into darkness and chaos.

And whereas I further said _that it upholds the Earth_; this will appear to thee no less evident than the former, and thou shalt perceive it in thyself by daily and hourly experience; forasmuch as the Earth _without it_, even thy _own earth_ also (that is, thy body) would certainly be without form and void. By the power thereof the Earth hath been thus long upheld, notwithstanding a foreign usurped power introduced by the folly of sin. And should this but once fail or recede there could be no longer either vegetation or animation upon it; yea, the very pillars of it being overthrown quite, and the band of union, which is that of attraction or magnetism, called the centripetal power, being broken and dissolved, all must thence run into the utmost disorder, and falling away as into s.h.i.+vers, would be dispersed as loose dust before the wind.

But in that I said, _Its height is higher than the highest Heavens_; this thou mayest also understand within thyself. For shouldest thou ascend in spirit through all the orders of Angels and heavenly Powers, yet the Power of Love still is undeniably superior to them all. And as the Throne of G.o.d, who sits upon the Heaven of Heavens, is higher than the highest of them, even so must Love also be, which fills them all, and comprehends them all.

And whereas I said of the _Greatness of Love that it is greater than the very Manifestation of G.o.dhead in the light of the Divine Essence_; that is also true. For Love enters even into that where the G.o.dhead is not manifested in this glorious light, and where G.o.d may be said not to dwell. And entering thereinto, Love begins to manifest to the soul the light of the G.o.dhead; and thus is the darkness broken through, and the wonders of the new creation successively manifested.

Thus shalt thou be brought to understand really and fundamentally what is the virtue and the power of Love, and what the height and greatness thereof is; how that is indeed the _virtue of all virtues_, though it be invisible, and as a _Nothing_ in appearance, inasmuch as it is the worker of all things, and a powerful _vital energy_ pa.s.sing through all virtues and powers natural and supernatural, and the _power of all powers_, nothing being able to let or obstruct the _Omnipotence_ of Love, or to resist its invincible penetrating might, which pa.s.ses through the whole Creation of G.o.d, inspecting and governing all things.