Dialogues on the Supersensual Life Part 4

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 G.o.d. This do and nothing shall hurt thee; for thou shalt be at friends.h.i.+p 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 G.o.d. 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 G.o.d 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 partic.i.p.ation 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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d and to the life of G.o.d, 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 G.o.d, and conversest in heaven; being in thy mind redeemed from earth, and separated from creatures, to live the life of G.o.d. 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 G.o.d, and the Spirit of G.o.d 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 appet.i.te. 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 appet.i.te 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

If thou dost once every hour throw thyself by faith beyond all creatures, beyond and above all sensual perception and apprehension, yea, above discourse and reasoning into the abyssal mercy of G.o.d, into the sufferings of our Lord, and into the fellows.h.i.+p of his interceding, and yieldest thyself fully and absolutely thereinto; then thou shalt receive power from above to rule over Death and the Devil and to subdue h.e.l.l and the World unto thee. And then thou mayest subsist in all temptations, and be the brighter for them.

DISCIPLE

Blessed is the man that arriveth to such a state as this. But, alas, poor man that I am, how is this possible as to me? And what, O my Master, would become of me, if I should ever attain with my mind to that where no creature is? Must I not cry out, _I am undone_?

MASTER

Son, why art thou so dispirited? Be of good heart still; for thou mayest certainly yet attain to it. Do but believe, and all things are made possible to thee. If it were that thy Will, O thou of so little courage, could break off itself for an hour, or even but for a half hour, from all creatures, and plunge itself into that where no creature is, or can be; presently it would be penetrated and clothed upon with the supreme splendour of the Divine Glory, would taste in itself the most sweet Love of Jesus, the sweetness whereof no tongue can express, and would find in itself the unspeakable words of our Lord concerning his great mercy. Thy spirit would then feel in itself the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ to be very pleasing to it; and would thereupon love the Cross more than the honours and goods of the World.

DISCIPLE

This for the Soul would be exceeding well indeed. But what would then become of the Body, seeing that it must of necessity live in _Creature_?

MASTER

The body would by this means be put into the imitation of our Lord Jesus Christ and of his body. It would stand in the communion of that most blessed Body, which is the true temple of the Deity, and in the partic.i.p.ation of all its gracious effects, virtues, and influences. It would live in the Creature, not of choice, but only as it is made subject to vanity, and in the World, as it is placed therein by the ordination of the Creator, for its cultivation and higher advancement, and as groaning to be delivered out of it in G.o.d's time and manner, for its perfection and resuscitation in eternal liberty and glory, like unto the glorified body of our Lord and his risen Saints.

DISCIPLE

But the body, being in its present const.i.tution, so made subject to vanity, and living in a vain image and creaturely shadows according to the life of the undergraduated creatures or brutes, whose breath goeth downward to the earth; I am still very much afraid thereof, lest it should continue to depress the mind which is lifted up to G.o.d, by hanging as a dead weight thereto; and go on to abuse and perplex the same, as formerly, with dreams and trifles, by letting in the objects from without, in order to draw me down into the World and the hurry thereof; whereas I would fain maintain by conversation in Heaven even while I am living in the World. What, therefore, must I do with this body, that I may be able to keep up so desirable a conversation, and not to be under subjection to it any longer?

MASTER

There is no other way for thee that I know but to present the body whereof thou complainest (which is the beast to be sacrificed) _a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto G.o.d_. And this shall be thy rational service whereby this thy body will be put, as thou desirest, into the imitation of Jesus Christ, who said his Kingdom was not of this World.

Be not thou then _conformed_ to it, but be _transformed_ by the renewing of thy mind; which renewed mind is to have dominion over the body, that so thou mayest prove, both in body and mind, what is the perfect Will of G.o.d, and accordingly perform the same with and by his grace operating in thee. Whereupon the body, or the _animal life_ would, being thus offered up, begin to die, both from without and from within. From _without_, that is, from the vanity and evil customs and fas.h.i.+ons of the World; it would be an utter change to all the parts thereof, and to all the pageantry, pride, ambition, and haughtiness therein. From _within_ it would die as to all the l.u.s.ts and appet.i.tes of the flesh, and would get a mind and will wholly new for its government and management; being now made subject to the Spirit, which would continually be directed to G.o.d. And thus thy very body is become the temple of G.o.d and of his Spirit, in imitation of thy Lord's Body.

DISCIPLE

But the World would hate it and despise it for so doing, seeing it must hereby contradict the World, and must live and act quite otherwise than the World doth. This is most certain. And how can this be taken?

MASTER

It would not take that as any harm done to it, but would rather rejoice that it is become worthy to be like unto the image of our Lord Jesus Christ, being transformed from that of the World. And it would be most willing to bear that cross after our Lord, merely that our Lord might bestow upon it the influence of his sweet and precious love.

DISCIPLE

I do not doubt but in some this may be even so. Nevertheless, for my own part, I am in a strait between two, not feeling yet enough of that blessed influence upon me. Oh how willingly should my body bear _that_, could _this_ be safely depended upon by me! Wherefore pardon me, loving Sir, in this one thing, if my impatience doth still further demand, "What would become of it, if the anger of G.o.d from within, and the wicked World also from without, should at once a.s.sault it, as the same really happened to our Lord Christ?"

MASTER

Be that unto it, even as unto our Lord Christ, when he was reproached, reviled and crucified by the World, and when the anger of G.o.d so fiercely a.s.saulted him for our sake. Now what did he under this most terrible a.s.sault both from without and within? Why; he commended his soul into the hands of his Father, and so departed from the anguish of this World into the eternal joy. Do thou likewise, and his death shall be thy life.

DISCIPLE